##VIDEO ID:QjZMZlHXsIw## good evening welcome to the October 7th city council meeting please rise to salute the flag IED Ali 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 okay Ro Club of the members councelor agenzio here here Council janino here here councelor Gino SAA here here councelor H here here councelor Haro here here councelor Kelly here here councel McKenna is absent this is the right one councel noeli here here councelor Sylvester here Council zambo here and council president cogliandro here here corm is present approval of the Journal of the regular meeting of September 23rd so move Mr President point a personal privilege State your point councelor Thank you Mr President Mr President uh one year ago today uh a nasty thing happened this is the anniversary of the Hamas murder of 1200 Israelis and we we mourn everybody's death and also the taking of the all the hostages American hostages Israeli hostages and some Palestinian hostages and we feel very strongly that uh we want to remember all those we don't want to forget this day this is another don't forget and we want to remember all the Palestinians that were put in Jeopardy and that those that passed away and all the bombings that have happened all over and the only group that we have to blame for all this is Hamas you know Israel is protecting themselves and they're very strong about destroying Hamas cuz that's hamas's potential thing about Israel they want to eliminate Israel bottom line it's in the Bible and now Israel is being attacked by Lebanon and Syria and we want to remember all those that have been affected by it and that were killed in it and I ask that we have a moment of silence for everybody involved thank you madam clerk calendar item number three Lauren Buck director of Public Health will appear before the city council to provide an update on the opioid abatement funds the focus groups resident input and how the noock boox program is doing so far good evening everyone uh names and addresses for the record please hi everyone my name is Lauren Buck I'm the director of Public Health for the city of Rivier so 281 Broadway I'm here to present on both of the communication items at this it's one big PowerPoint presentation so um we're talking about the opid settlement funds a review of naram boxes a survey focus groups and the fiscal year 25 um allotment and I'll let my two colleagues um announce themselves as well hi K an salemi program manager 34 Dam Street hi Nicole palmo clinician for the sui office in public health 281 Broadway so we just have a PowerPoint that's going to come up on the screen okay perfect okay so this is what we're presenting on our opio de batement settlement funding and annual report you can go to the next slide okay so I'm going to talk to you uh just to do a quick review of where we are with our opio opioid settlement funding um we're going to talk about the total we've received ceed to date the total we've spent and then what's left and what's still coming so as of September 30th 2024 we have received around $670,000 uh the exact number is $674,900 this is a number that will continue to change we continue to get allotments from each settlement um each defendant in the settlement cases annually and as they are settled next up is the total amount um we've spent incl including the fiscal year 25 allotted funds in fiscal year 24 we spent around $997,000 and we have allocated um thanks to a City Council vote in fiscal year 25 150,000 in total that's around $250,000 what's left and what's still coming so we still currently have around $427,000 um that's sitting with the city and what do we estimate is still coming around 1.5 million is still coming over the the next uh 10ish years uh again this is an estimate because there are still settlements being uh hashed out in the courts and the numbers continu continuously change um but that is an estimate based on our financial um uh Records you can go to the next slide we're going to talk about the noxbox program um which was a program we did with fiscal year 24 money so the update on the noock box program is that we have since rolling this out in May of 2024 total amount of nxone doses that have been taken from these boxes is around 620 now if you see up at the top uh the Shirley AV Dunkin Donuts one that has been the highest utilized box so far following Joe's market over by Northgate and and the Rivier tea stop at the bottom of surely and then if you look down at the bottom Rose Street in Broadway is our lowest number followed by Beachmont um train station so that just goes to show you the amount of doses that have been taken from each box with um in the spring we're going to look at these again to see what boxes are actually being utilized and which ones aren't and we can think about relocation based off the data we get each month and we do do weekly check we do weekly check-ins on the boxes every Monday we go out and we restock them um we haven't had any issues with any Vandal vandalism or theft um and we have two anid doal reports of the in in the moment use of the boxes to reverse an overdose and I gave you those numbers okay thank you uh so fiscal year 25 um next slide so this is our fiscal year 25 allocation um 30 sorry 50% of the allocation at $75,000 will be to a mobile outreach program we're going to explain each of these in the in the next coming slides uh 33% will go to a business outreach program this is Outreach to businesses uh to have staff trainings in ourc Canon overd dose awareness fif that's $50,000 at 33% and finally $25,000 that's 177% of the fiscal year 25 allocation will go to the Chris Alba emergency warming Center we'll talk about each of those uh projects as well go to the next slide please okay so why by a business outreach program and what we'll be asking for approximately 20% of all our overdoses in 2024 have occurred in a business or commercial property so when we are in the process of putting out an RFP for a contractor to come in and to go into these businesses train their staff and manage on how to use Nock Zone and carry it in the establishments um and they will be Target in bars restaurants uh chain restaurants Dunkin Donuts Starbucks and some of the larger condo properties and their managers because we we've had had some overdoses in a lot of these big apartment buildings um so they'd be doing staff training how to recognize and respond um and the goal is to Target 15 businesses per month within a six-month contract next slide thank you um so why a mobile outreach program so mobile Street Outreach is an evidence-based approach um Mass General a couple years ago came out with a study and the article kind of goes through and shows you how this has a positive effect on different communities who are struggling with um opioid Addiction on the streets um for this we'll also be releasing an RFP for a contractor whichever contractor gets the position um will perform mobile Outreach several days a week for several hours a day to kind of offset the current Outreach workers that we have that are only here a few hours a week as well um Outreach workers and the mobile Outreach will provide case management which can include getting people IDs getting birth certificates um laundry services things like that um it'll meet their basic needs so any food water hats gloves blankets Hot Hands testing um supplies and then they'll provide housing support So helping fill out applications um getting paperwork that they need things like that next slide please the Chris Alba emergency warming Center this will be the third year that our warming Center will hopefully be running um so $25,000 of the opioid settlement funding will go towards 437 Rivier Street to convert it convert it to a warming Center for three months from January to March of 2025 this will also allow us to continue to provide our weekly showering program out of the office for the remainder of the fiscal year um y 437 River Street it's a known location to our high-risk and vulnerable unhoused population um it's all on one floor which brings down the overall cost of Staffing um and managing the warming Center there is a bathroom that includes a shower which we have not had the past 2 years um and to be quite honest there is no other location in the city that has been offered or available to us um the challenges of running this warming Center each year are like I said location we get a number of complaints about our unsheltered population in there behind this place and in near my backyard but no one wants to host a warming Center in their neighborhood for three months out of the year um sustained and continued funding is also a struggle to continue running this warming Center we're scraping together from different buckets and trying to find money each year grants each year to continue to run this extremely crucial project um and the stigma obviously that's attached to this vulnerable population um we continue this program because our mission is to help the most vulnerable population and this is helping them get to that next step in Life or to get through the cold winter next slide all right this is a really busy slide I apologize I snipped it from a bunch of different um presentations I wanted to talk about the community survey that we had out in in our community for the last three months our goal was to get 100 surveys we got 101 so I'm going to talk about um two different buckets on the left we're going to talk about the feedback we got from the respondents about existing barriers gaps challenges and then we're going to talk about the responses from our um from the people who fill out the survey about the best way for to utilize the money very small font I apologize but I'll go through it so um for existing barriers and gaps starting from the very top red going down the top red is the most uh respon resp es from the 101 surveys and then the bottom is the least so at the very top 58% of respondents said that stigma or being uncomfortable seeking help was a barrier a Gap a challenge to their recovery to um accessing help uh 57% said it was a lack of stable housing 47% said it was a poor knowledge of resources 41% said employment was the biggest issue 40% said Transportation was an issue 40% said no treatment beds were an issue 30% said treatment cost 177% said child care and 12% said language barrier the bottom is a word cloud so this is from the free text component of the survey where people could type in challenges um related to getting help with opioid use disorder getting uh you know any type of challenge any barrier any gaps that they see the bigger the word the more that it has been uh inputed into the the you know the field uh so you can see the biggest word is housing on both word clouds the biggest word is housing you can see that housing also comes up in a lot of the other smaller answers housing because of stigma housing um housing and detox need for housing staple housing uh you can see some other things in there stigma support um access to treatment all those things stigma case management and so that's just an example of um the barriers gaps challenges that people are facing on the right hand side we have in descending order um the what people answered as the best use for the opiate abatement money moving forward 49% said harm reduction and overdose education 47% said low threshold housing or recovery housing an increase in that in that service 35% said youth mentoring programs 34 prevention efforts in elementary school 31 harm reduction centers I'll go down the list and not mention the numbers um grief support is next for families surviving opioid use disorder then case management um with basic needs getting basic needs met navigating resources Transportation increasing access to outpatient treatment centers recovery events and finally legal services and then again on the bottom is another wordcloud and again this is a free the free text component of the survey that asked respondents to say what kind of programming do you want to see so it was asking about again best uses for the money in a in something that they could um type in you can see housing is also the biggest word there so it was the most it was the biggest um amount of responses you can also see things like harm reduction recovery therapy housing scholarships housing and Recovery all those different um things were answered and finally next slide we're going to talk about focus groups which are UPC coming this month so the next phase of the survey part is going to be the focus groups um we split it up into four different categories so that's going to be based on who responds to the survey so some people were lived experience some people were bereaved family member um some people were community members who live in Rivier and the other fourth group is Workforce um who work kind of front lines with people who have been affected by the opioid epidemic um from these focus groups we hope to get a more in-depth picture and idea of where you know these four groups of members would like to see the money be used where they different ideas that they might have um we'll then take that back to our bigger opioid abatement working group and discuss kind of where to go from there um they'll be starting October 21st we'll have four of them in a row um the participants will receive a gift card and dinner for stopping in and being a part of this focus group to help us get more information on how the community really wants to utilize this money and that's our presentation and again we were um the first two communication items were addressed in this one PowerPoint yeah thank you thank you all very much any counselors have any questions counselor sylvestri thank you Mr President and uh thank you all for coming up tonight I I really appreciate the information shared um I do still have a a concern with the Sur planting piece I really do um so the business Outreach I believe it was a model that we've already conducted for no so Chris and Adrian didn't go around the businesses in 2019 sorry button the button sorry sorry um we just because of your concern we have reached out to the Jon Snow International who runs the um the fund care Mass where you report and all that stuff we talked to our you know auditing department and financial department related to this specific issue because it's come up a couple of times and we've run through kind of the scenarios of what we're spending and we've been given um kind of an answer that says we don't believe how you're spending this money is supplanting but we have been communicating with them each step of the way just to make sure we're doing everything correctly thank you has anyone reached out to um the Attorney General's office or the former suudi director who would be the one that could give you the exact answer whether we're supplanting these issues or not so I did Reach Out and her opinion her opinion was she was going to find out and get back to me on that but we have never conducted a business Outreach formally myself and Chris have you know went to some Dunkin Donuts if we've had an overdose as part of our post overdose door knocks if it happened at a dunks to try to get them to engage we realized that we were running into some barriers around that so this is why we came up with a formal way of engaging businesses okay so um what would what about the the warming Center $25,000 to the warming Center which we've done the warming center for the last three years so so how would that so I I guess what I'm trying to get at here is the EXA exact definition of Sur planting is you cannot reduce funding from a specific area department or an idea that department does so the city can't say we're not going to go out and get x y and for funds because we have opioid abatement funds and it just seems like a few of these things are are ideas that we've already presented and I I know this probably seems like I'm I'm giving a hard time but the reason I am is because there's already been cities in Massachusetts who have to pay back their funds and I don't want to see us walk down that path and that's the only reason I'm bringing attention to this because not only do you have to pay back the the money you spent that was already used you have to give back f future monies so I this is a a very important matter that I think we have to be specific on and I don't know if we should even plan the these finances until you get an explanation from the Attorney General's office thank you thank you counselor counselor Gino sa thank you Mr President I just have a question about 437 revia Street that's my w um when do they start using that as a warming Center I thought they this is the first year that it would be used okay cuz I wasn't informed so um do you are you going to have special hours C how how are you going to let the residents in the neighborhood know as well so our warming Center always runs from about 700 p.m. to about 7 a.m. um it's run like that for the last two years um the kind of beauty of that location is that it is somewhat commercial there is there is housing around there but it's somewhat a commercial area um there's a house right next door that's why I said somewhat so I think you're bringing up one of the issues that we we have had year after year with the warming Center is that it has continued to demonstrate that it is a safe operation a needed operation for our most vulnerable Community but we continue to face um uh resistance potentially in wherever we try to place this warming Center so much so that we had to put this in our own office in City Hall last year and delay moving in for 3 months because we had to find a location for it right I I H I have a problem with this to be honest with you because now you're going to have people waiting outside in front of people's homes at least when it was in City Hall you had a security guide here you going to have Security on Rivier Street yes you are yes okay I want to sit down and talk to you more about this please okay thank you thank you counselor counselor H thank you Mr President hi guys thanks so much for being here I wanted to talk a little bit about the NX boxes and uh when I heard that number 620 it like it floored me for sure um was that something you guys anticipated a number that high or was that kind of was there any prediction on your part we were just hoping for the best that people took it and they got it out there you know stigma is a big factor that comes into play why people don't want to come here and access noock own or say they need it for a family or a friend or themselves so having these boxes gives them a way to do it discreetly so that they still have life-saving medication but they don't have to feel stigmatized I would say with over 600 it's definitely shows that it's being used and it was definitely necessary for the city um and I'm just curious the two hot spots Shirley AV and near Joe's market yep um what follows something like that when you guys see a Hotpot like that I know you talked about Outreach um you talked about the schools elementary schools is there any way to follow up or find out um touch base with residents surrounding that area or any way to reach out and maybe Step Up Outreach efforts in those areas well so ba the reason those boxes are in those locations is based off of our heat map that we have on our web page so the that's where multiple overdoses have taken place where we've done needle syringe pickups um where there was a lot of foot traffic so that we took all those things into play when we decided to place them strategically around the city and I know you guys spoke about mentoring in elementary schools is that something you would work in tandem with the school guidance counselors so you're right that that was one of the um programs that was kind of Highly ranked when people took the survey that said that they wanted uh youth mentoring programs so again all of those answers will be um how we a lot future spending will be decided on the opioid working group based on the data that they're given which that is one of the the points that they'll be given they already have and we've already talked to them about the survey results Great and one last thing if you guys wouldn't mind just talking a little bit about the emergency fund that you got that you just kicked off thank you okay sure um very different topic but we so oh adri yeah okay so Adrien McGuire the emergency preparedness manager the public health department has put together a um our first ever online um auction that would be benefiting our newly created emergency relief public health emergency relief fund obviously you all know we have fires we have emergencies in this city and the biggest need after those situations is typically people need emergent housing people need you know anything that would happen after a fire flood you name it and we've never really had a dedicated fund um to access for to help those victims those families so we put together an online auction it's um uh there's a red banner on our website I can I think we've also all emailed you um this specific link um it's just an online auction it's running now until October 20th the hope that we get we aim to hopefully raise $5,000 for a fund that would be utilized for any future emergency for families to be able to have housing uh after that um and so we're really excited about it we hope that we get bids please all bid on something we put some time into it our families all donated stuff some of the you know department heads donate stuff K Anne is going to do a medium reading all this fun stuff so um yeah uh hopefully we get you know bids and we can raise some money for that specific um uh fund great thank you I just wanted to shine a light on that in case residents weren't aware of it thank you thank you so much thank you for the leway Mr President no problem counselor thank you than you uh councelor no baselski thank you Mr President uh I love the auction uh let you know that I donated Red Sox tickets for next season so uh hopefully somebody will bid on them and be able to get some good money for that but beside that I'm very concerned about the uh the numbers on the boxes down in Shirley f um I wasn't aware it was that high uh I did see I know there was some activity at uh Dunkin Donuts um I know we have a lot of the uh the homeless folks that hang around the train station but and I do see the Box open a lot okay now how do we know that they're being used by the right people so first of all I think having a big number is a good thing remember Noone is a life-saving medication it is the whole purpose of having noock boxes is to decrease the amount of Overdose deaths we have in the city it is a good thing if people are taking out n lock Zone it is a good thing so I just want to start with that um how do we know the right people are using no Noone we it is there for access it is there to be available to anyone who needs it we've presented to the council before we've talked with the state um Bureau of substance use we've confirmed our our previous stance that you know if a child were to accidentally utilize Nar can if someone who was not having an opio overdose were to utilize it they would you know the medication doesn't have side effects in that way that would potentially affect them so the utilization of the Narcan boxes is a good thing it's a good thing I don't know if you have anything else to say and and I understand your feelings on it um and just let you know I've had some negative feedback on them uh from some of the neighbors and some of the businesses saying what's it making shleev look like you know I think that's all about like a drug Zone unfortunately I don't know if you want to talk more you so I just think that we need to understand that stigma is the biggest barrier we have facing in this community today it really is if you have not been personally affected by this issue you really can't understand it that's what we're running up against is that people just do not understand or have the empathy and compassion to look out for their fellow human right not just fellow constituent like a fellow human who is suffering with this disease that's lifelong like it just it doesn't go away you know we have folks here talking about you know marijuana alcohol is way worse than marijuana people I hate to break it to you it damages your body it ruins your spirit weed isn't going to do that and I don't I don't want you to think that you know I'm against what you're doing because I you know think it's a great thing uh it's just I I have some concerns about what my folks down in the Shirley AV area are talking to me about so that that's about it thank you Mr President thank you counselor councelor Zam buo I would like to add quick just back to councilor novas novasi's response um that shely AV might have been the you know the most utilized but the second most utilized was Joe's market and that's over in West Rivier you know so it it doesn't I I don't think the area of where it is is really telling of the people who live around there what it makes that area look like it's just saving lives and the less deaths we have in r related to opioid overdose makes the city look a little bit better thank you Council Zan buo uh thank you Mr President and uh thank you for your presentation um I'm thrilled that we offer this and and the fact that the the second biggest uses is w six I don't think it matters I think uh the purpose of this is is to have people get this and probably people from Shava getting it up in w six and and people from what six are getting it down and surely yeah cuz like you say it's the stigma that's uh that's the deal but uh I guess my only other question is I'm thrilled that we have these locations and we're doing this how many other cities and towns are are this far Advanced and doing this with because I was thrilled when I first saw the locations I was like wow this is unbelievable so one of our very close neighbors Lynn is where we actually kind of um crowdsourced their their um vendors and their and what they learned from their program they've been up and running about 6 months before us um they have fewer locations uh but we are kind of it's a very similar program so Lynn is the closest neighbor that I know of yeah that's great well keep up the good work thank you thank you counselor councelor Kelly thank you um I just want to Echo a little bit of what councelor novas sski said um Joe's market is a extreme busy gas station um so I don't know if we're doing a disservice in assuming that all of the usage from this box is coming from residents at Ward 6 or who people who live in that location considering the fact that this is located at that gas station where you've got an immense amount of traffic of people not only who may not live in Wood 6 but may not even live in the city who become aware of this um you know noock salong knockan box um so I don't know if we can definitively definitively make that assumption um that's all I'm trying to say so thank you thank you counselor uh permission to speak from the chair thank you I just want to say that I carry an N Aran with me in my car and at my my job because I would rather save a life than not um also I wanted to shed light isn't there some Amazon wish list that you have going right now you want to talk about that briefly and then we'll get out of here so we have um an Amazon wish list on our uh Facebook social media page just looking for basic winter supplies for unhoused folks so thank you for that and I just would like to say it doesn't matter if they're w six or Ward 8 or Chelsea or sagus that's the stigma that stigma the Assumption I I thought I was hearing right but you are sounding very stigmatizing right now I don't mean to okay well I'm just bringing you me I don't excuse me excuse me all communication through the chair please I think on that note we will place these on file thank you very much next up is the legislative affairs subcommittee report councel Areno thank you very much uh Mr President the first order of business an ordinance repealing the prohibition of non-medical marijuana establishments the committee voted favorably on this and we're looking for a uh to come before the whole Council and to look favorably on it I call for a roll call the counselor has asked for a roll call uh if I do believe there are people that want to speak if you would withdraw that it's up to you Mr President it's okay with me I would need you to withdraw I'll withdraw the uh thank you very much so with that said I will open it up to Residents to come up and speak if you've already spoken I would greatly appreciate you just giving other people an opportunity to speak so please uh if you're going to speak right now on this uh this is the legislative affairs side this is to repeal the prohibition so anyone who would like to speak uh from the public may do so at this time if you wouldn't mind forming a absolutely uh we're going to have her translate you can come up to the microphone if you would like to um and also I just want can I get a raise a show of hands as well if you could ask of how many people could speak so I have an idea how much time you've already spoken sir and I don't want to hear about your license issues again thank you so much ma'am you already spoke no no I'm just translating okay excellent go right ahead yes so for marijuana is it possible like like last time we were on public speaking instead of having the lines to to speak maybe the people can raise their hand that uh they're against it that's a Su instead of having so many people to speak and you don't have enough time I didn't mean to interrupt you there ma'am I'm sorry but yes if you would rather instead of speak do a show of hands um that would be great so if you are uh for for the passing of this and getting rid of the prohibition raise your hand if they're in favor yes that's what I thought if they are not in favor raise your hand oh only can't do two hands I'm sorry can't vote twice are there any City councilors that would like to say anything before we take this vote okay very good thank you all and I appreciate you all coming here there's 300 uh people who couldn't come and send their names and their address if you want to collect them those are 350 that are not here plus these people I believe that that was handed to the clerk earlier during the subcommittee so we do have it on on record correct do you still want people to come and speak if they're happy with the raise of hands we're happy with it so I think we've heard a lot on bu I am very proud of the city of Rivier because of the order that we follow uh but I think that it is a mistake uh to approve uh marijuana because it's not in offensive uh the most beautiful thing about a city is that we receive progress and if you uh legalize marijuana you're going to stop put a stop to this progress I have firsthand experience with marijuana I had a very difficult childhood and I ask that you please put your hand before your heart and really vote from your heart if this is something that you want to do to allow uh recreational marijuana so I'm sorry I'm going to paraphrase because it's hard to do um a real life translation but what is she saying is that uh marijuana doesn't make us more creative I am a designer and when I was using I was uh almost like paralyzed without ideas okay I'm sorry to clarify she has never used it but she's allergic to marijuana but the fact that people have used around her have has really affected her okay thank thank I do not want to make this any longer I just want to say that I hope our city continues to progress because I love my city thank you and if you wouldn't mind just uh name and address if she could give it for the record Mar uh would you mind uh Translating that for the clerk uh the name and address I'm so sorry 56 sh 56 councelor y is um uh I'll respect so um actually if you could just let me speak on the second half I'll speak then so that was the process translation for everybody and we're just explaining that there's two different votes essentially in the Amendments correct you get it so we all I said was for those who don't speak Spanish is first we're voting for the repeal of the ban and then we're voting for uh the enactment of a marijuana ordinance two things happening I'll let you come I'll let you come up R I just have to let Council Kelly speak okay so so I um thank you Mr President so I think I do need a little clarification on this as well considering that if we are voting on the repeal of the prohibition um I understand that but then where does that leave the Amendments that were in subcommittee that will be remaining in subcommittee at the end of zoning um subcommittee meeting that we just had because my my concern is that I don't want the repal of the ordinance without any vote on the Amendments so councelor the Amendments weren't voted on in subcommittee correct are those remaining in subcommittee though that's my question because I thought we were we were voting on those are are picking up that on the October 21st the chairman but I don't want to vote on the repeal all right everybody one moment we're going to sort this out with the clerk and see what the proper procedure is one moment please it's up to the city council the chairman of the zoning subcommittee left the proposed zoning ordinance relative to marijuana establishments in committee that's what happened in committee there was no the amendments were presented in committee but nothing was reported out only testimony from the public Was Heard heard at that time so as far as the uh councelor Kelly's amendments uh that would be something we would do in zoning or legislative affairs the Amendments presented by councelor Kelly were relative to the zoning ordinance not the repeal of the prohibition of non-medical marijuana which was relative to Title 9 councelor Kelly's amendments were relative to the title 177 that ordinance the Z ordinance understood um all the counselors good so okay um I'll give you a little bit of leeway just very quickly I'm not going to repeat what I already said earlier in the legislative subcommittee I just want to ask um just as a resident that you please take a pause consider everything make sure you're all on the same page I also want to make sure that it is clear that you guys are I know you follow due process I know you put the agenda on the website uh but as I me mention many residents just found out this weekend and I'm hearing people say if I had known I could have multiplied your signatures which We Gather in four days we three of us quickly gather over 330 uh emails I'm sorry signatures with addresses from your constituents from the taxpayers from the people that will be affected by your vote tonight so I ask that you please slow down consider this and cuz I want to make sure that residents don't feel like you guys already came here with your minds made up I want to make sure that people understand that you took their concerns and for those who want to go back and further communicate this to the community who want to tell whether is their Parish who wants to tell their group in order so that they can reach out to you and we can also continue to no I'm seeing counselor oh okay I I'm like what you saying no okay okay so yeah I just want to I just want to urge you all to please slow down and make sure you have heard from the people that just found out this weekend I understand you guys have been talking about this again the Board of Health was never asked to make an opinion about this I know when we did like the urban farming ordinance we had to go through another board and then they got your opinion and then went to the city ccil this was never even brought before the Board of Health for our official opinion I apologize I'm learning from councelor kander that I should not say him so I will not say uh but uh but you know you didn't ask for the Board of Health input official about this you did not allow for time for us to review this so again consideration you to the to to to vivana please State your point counselor uh I'm I'm just curious is is this an opinion that you hold or the entire Board of Health holds no it is my personal opinion because again we were not asked officially that that's what I'm asking so I'm asking is does does the whole board you're you're you're speaking as a member of the Board of Health is what you're saying and but then you're saying it's only my opinion okay then then I'll say m me vivana as a resident will tell you that I am aware that the Board of Health was never asked that is that fair to say that is to okay but I'm not speaking on behalf of the board everything that I say here tonight is my personal opinion so again I don't even know if Kathy knew about this if drw knew about this we weren't even given o the board as I know as a resident was not was not asked what their opinion or to consult to do some research to provide you with uh the latest youth health risk behavior data to officially ask in the proper channels because that data is owned by the schools and unless that the school releases it we're not allowed so we can give you data on you substance abuse the perception of harm and we can give you more stuff but in like from the moment that I found out on Friday till now what I did is what I could as a resident thank you thank you thank you I'm going to close uh public comments and if there's any other counselors that want to make comments you've gotten more than a little consideration excuse me sir first of all we need translation services in this city so please don't insult the counselor for speaking in in Spanish first of of all have a seat sir have a seat sir have a seat or you'll be asked to leave thank Mr councelor agenzio this is your sorry can I just translate the subcommittee Nuance that we didn't translate after we did the thing sorry I know that's okay it's it's necessary yeah I don't care what anyone thinks so um okay thank you very much the thank you for that councelor Gino SAA thank you for the leeway Mr President um I just need to clarify something that councelor Kelly decided to jump down my throat with I contacted the CFO of the city of river and in 2023 the city of Lynn actually made $435,900 the city of Chelsea 632,000 and the City of Salem 886-9244 uh councelor Kelly I'm going to give you an opportunity to rebut and that is it I appreciate that Mr President thank you again um I will provide more clarification because apparently councelor Gino sooya did not understand I was citing a threeyear average not each year I was citing a three-year average of the years 2021 2022 and 2023 for Lynn and Melrose out of the five cities that I was given those are the three cities that are in the closest proximity to rever thank you thank you councelor councelor Areno this is your subcommittee it is your decision thank you Mr President so obviously this is a sensitive situation and I just want to I wasn't going to speak on this but I will marijuana as a lot of us can't accept is legal it's legal here in Massachusetts it's an accepted substance uh there's are studies that show that there are a lot of health benefits to it uh a lot of people I'm 62 in my age category people that are sitting alongside you that use it quite a bit helps them sleep there's a lot of medical uh situation where a lot of people are using this uh we have dispensaries we have dispensaries that are within walking distance of rever so having a dispensary in rever R residents are just going outside the city and purchasing their marijuana and coming back into the city uh people in R are calling up on the phone and getting it delivered to the city so preventing a establishment here or there isn't going to change what I think a lot of residents are talking about effect on Youth and what have you so I have I if the people would want to have a little bit more input I mean that's my opinion and it's probably always going to be my opinion if we want to delay this a little I think a lot of people are interested in the Amendments I think there's a group here that is is just absolutely against marijuana and I think there's a group here that's doesn't want it in neighborhoods uh doesn't want it on their street doesn't want it near schools so I think we have two different groups here and there there is a financial gain for the city um I don't want to make it seem like we have dollar signs in our eyes and all we care about is money um that that is not the case but it is very uh legal for people for in R they're using it they're some are enjoying it uh and it's it's within walking distance of of R so if we want to table this until we get the amendment squared away so maybe more people feel I I think there was disinformation put out I think Flyers were sent into people's mail boxes stating that uh these facilities were going to be right at the end of their Street which which was erroneous and I think that that uh got people agitated so if we want to take a breather I have no problem I know it's a sensitive issue uh my opinion probably won't change but I I I if we want to do that I have no if we want to table this I have no problem wait for wait for for the zoning to finish maybe uh can uh clarification from U Madam clerk can the zoning part of this go forward without us repealing it first well I would have to seek the advice of Paul capy but I'm not sure how the city council could pass an ordinance establishing marijuana establishments without first removing the prohibition okay permission to speak from the chair sure I just want to say again I I spoke to vivana this weekend and you know we have been discussing this for three months however I don't expect all of you to get home from work take care of your children and then say you know what what's going on with the city council tonight I don't expect you to do that um so I am also leaning towards tabling this and this is so that you all can have a little bit more of a voice than you're having and I understand like I said our agenda is not your priority but now that you're just finding out about it so I would be in favor if you decide to table Madame clerk a a motion to table table to the next legislative affairs subcommittee legislative affairs are taing it it's already oning it sorry are we putting this back in committee or were we tbling put it back in committee we can discuss it again on the on the last um council meeting along with the zoning legislative affairs so basically the issue of repealing the ordinance to uh no longer have a Prohibition from marijuana when we table something that's a fancy term just to say we're going to wait till the next another meeting to talk about this so there's going to be another opportunity to come before us and speak about the prohibition side uh of this and I don't yeah and so now we we'll have uh is that good enough uh exp counselor do we know the date of the next legislative affairs subcommittee uh yes it's it's it's the last uh Council uh meeting of the um of October there were other subjects but we can jockey those around sure so it'll be October 28th uh 5:00 P PM uh the time one moment while we so it'll either be at 5 5:30 depending on what type of business we have before us that day but feel free to show up at 5 so the motion has been referred back to the legislative affairs subcommittee e uh quck two minute recess please e e e e e e e e e councilors please take your seats Madame clerk Let's uh move to the next item please okay um this the um the second item uh an ordinance further amending um the r revised ordinance rela to opening meetings we looked on that favorably uh unanimously and I'm asking for a roll call to look on this favorably roll call Madam clerk oh my apologies ordered on a second reading ordered on a third and final reading roll call for engrossment or and ordainment shall the city council approve an ordinance further amending an ordinance relative to open meetings councelor agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councelor greo SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councel Haro voting present councelor Kelly yes voting yes councel McKenna is absent councel noeli yes yes Council sylvestri no voting no coun counc zambuto yes yes and council president Cog Leandro yes yes the ordinance is engrossed and ordained next up is the zoning subcommittee report councilor Zam buo uh thank you Mr President uh we all know the zoning committee met at uh 5:30 this evening uh first item was uh 24- 284 uh heal Club on 220 Broadway that has a favor recommendation I would ask for a roll call or I would ask yeah for a roll call no order yes oh yes I'm sorry the special permit uh for 220 Broadway let's please have a roll call shall the city council Grant the relief requested subject to the conditions as provided by the city planner councelor agenzio yes yes councel janino yes yes councelor greo SAA yes yes councel H yes yes councelor hero yes councel Kelly yes yes councel McKenna is absent councel noeli yes yes councel sylvestri yes yes councel zambuto yes yes and council president C Leandro yes yes the special permit has been granted uh next up was uh unfortunately we ran out of time uh because we left let the audience speak uh was the um a zoning audience uh establ establishing the definitions uses special permits districts boundaries and regulations for marijuana establishments so that was left in committee with the uh item number 24269 was the mechanical parking was also left in committee and there will be another zoning committee meeting on the 21st of October Mr President that's my report councilor sylvestri thank you Mr President I'd like to file a Minority Report with the Amendments of both Council Kelly and may Melo uh that it comes out favor and I'd like the roll call thank you point of uh point of uh parliamentary procedure State your point I don't believe uh and uh I could be corrected but I don't believe you can take a Minority Report on something was left in committee that's something new that I haven't seen in 25 years so I would object to a Minority Report point of information State your point counselor uh be being the senior uh person here and you know knowing the Rules of Order uh because we didn't pass the ban on marijuana in the city City we cannot vote on the zoning amendments because it's still against the law to do the anything in the zoning correct so you we can't accept anything at this point uh I would recommend that you know councilor uh what's your name again um sylvestri uh consider that for the next you know when it comes up in front of the council in two weeks if it comes up in front of the council but we have to if there has to be a Year's vote on the ban first to eliminate the ban that's that's the the other thing of moot points until such time as we vote on that if we vote to keep the be in then it's a moot point we can't do it bottom line so and then we can you at the next meeting we can still talk about all the Amendments that are being brought up by Council Kelly and Council yelo and have a good discussion on that at the meeting of uh in two weeks so I think that's all I can really say to make people understand what the procedure is so okay Council okay so the procedure would be that V correct we we can vote on amendments tonight we can't vote on the ordinance as a whole we can't pass pass the ordinance for the reasons that councilor noas selski stated Mr President and just you know through you I I would make the recommendation that we hold everything off until the committee till we do zoning next week and then talk about of them because there's a lot of information that is being put in and we want to be able to absorb it we have it in writing in front of us and we can absorb it over the next two weeks and bring it up it you know the zoning committee can bring it up then and put everything on the line if they want to come out as a recommendation somehow later councilor Gino SAA Mr President I just have a question um the zoning meeting is set for the 21st but the legislative affairs because that's what m um Council zambuto said the 21st but the legislative affairs is the 27th um 28 28th you said 21st so no I said the 21st but it's the the clerk who dictates this stuff we can't have the zoning commit before the legis Affairs committee that's what I'm saying no but it we can't you can't vot the zoning can a to repeal you're giving a favorable recommendation to the council for an actual vote so you can send a favorable recommendation to the Council of the whole so it doesn't matter the order you know I I my suggestion is just to leave it tabled until the next meeting and and coordinate the meetings that the zoning has to be you know with the ledge Affairs Okay so Minority Report let's let's figure out how we're going to proceed uh Council sylvestri wants to give a Minority Report and take up the Amendments um maybe we should take a roll call to see if we do that but I just want the Amendments taken up that councel Kelly and jelo this way when we get to the next meeting we already have this established I don't think there's a reason to delay this any further I don't think there's a reason to delay this any further we established this tonight we we Chang the zoning to where we agree all we all here have agreed we were all ready to give a vote tonight in in the the chairperson of that committee decided to leave it in committee I'm asking for a Minority Report to be voted on with the Amendments made tonight Mr chairman so we we would be taking a roll call to pull this out of committee to discuss the amendments to put it back into committee correct yes that's okay that's the exact procedure uh if there's objection we can take a roll call on that uh to see if that's I I'll object because what's the point of taking the Amendments up if they can't be voted on we can vote on the Amendments we can't vote on the ordinance but but the to what end if you vote on the Amendments that you can't that they're useless until you vote on the legislation to repeal if we if we secure the Amendments they'll be put in place by the next zoning subcommittee also the public will be alerted to the Amendments okay that in that case I don't have a problem with that okay thank you Council I apologize don't don't it's always good to have conversation absolutely we're all learning Mr President councelor H thank you Mr President I did have one question I know the state uh minimum for the buffer zone was 500 after hearing from all the the residents and parents today I'd like to I don't know if I can make an amendment to push that up to I I already did I found out that the commission was 500 ft to push it higher than if we can can we we can do we can try to do whatever You' like I'm good or can we I don't know if the Cannabis commission will allow us to go higher than the state sure I I think we should look into that okay the seiling as I understand is 500 is that right um councelor Kali we we well the it is 500 but um in response to councelor Sylvester's question I believe I looked at the state statute and it does provide for an opportunity for municipalities to I can read the language to you um it does provide limits so um we can a city a city or town May adopt ordinances and bylaws that impose reasonable safeguards on the operation of marijuana establishments provided that they are not unreasonably impractical impractical and are not in conflict with the in conflict with this chapter or with regulations made pursuant to this chapter so we may do you know it says further um we can limit we can we can do limits we we you know I don't I don't think there's anything in here that says we cannot uh we can ask for a legal opinion from attorney capy but um I think we're entitled to increase that that's just my opinion yeah I'd like to see if we can go a little higher if we can um I would also hate to make a decision that we're not allowed to make right so let's find out let's look into that and see if we can come up then maybe we should not vote on these amendments councilor yo sorry I so of course the statute allows and and you're the attorney councelor Kelly but I just haven't worked in the legislature for for and in around the legislature for a few years so uh of course the legisl the legislature will write in statute a uh a broad definition and dictate to the agency to regulate further which I believe that's what's happening here with the Cannabis Control Commission which is that their allowable regulation is up to 500 ft and no more now we would be in violation of the regulation if we did anything further than that and I'm looking uh if if folks will bear with me or maybe we can do a quick recess I can find the um regulations that's prolongated by the um as promulgated by the uh cannabis Control Commission and I apologize I didn't have it handy I did not expect that we'd be having this conversation right now but I really think we need an opinion from the solicitor before we move forward with this if we're going to be making amendments to the Amendments that have already been amended now it's getting a little out of hand in my opinion sorry so I just I just found it so impassible barrier means for the purpose of determining the 500 ft buffer zone a highway um buffer zone um so Highway a public uh private way an accessible structure a body of water or other obstruction uh that renders any part of the 500t straight line distance between a marijuana establishment and school entrance inaccessible by pest or um automobile so Mr President point of information State your point counselor Mr President I think we're making this more difficult I could not agree I couldn't agree more and I think it just ought to be settled in Committee in two weeks and let it be I think the point that's trying made is they didn't have an opportunity to settle it in committee you I just you know it's it's it's too complicated to be going over everything you know I I understand what councilor sylvestri wants to do so then just let me put my motion on the floor but but it won't it's not it's not effective it won't mean anything it's a mood point it's not mood if we make amendments counselor we're making amendments to a motion an ordinance that we're then going to vote on later we have to have we're having a whole discussion on you know maybe 22 different amendments that have been put in we we agree on that we agree on that it's getting a little out of hand so I would say that uh if if we're going to go over there I'm sorry C I didn't mean to talk over you are we going to take up the Amendments as they're written at 500 feet or are we going to try to do more Amendment more of a distance councelor Kelly considering these are my amendments um and there is some discussion and request from fellow counselors to amend them even further I'm okay with leaving them in committee so that we can have further discussion in committee um considering you know the vote on the repeal of the prohibition is on hold I don't see the harm in keeping these on hold as well okay these are all going to stay in zoning Mr President is that that also true for my amendments yes all amendments are going to go to the next zoning subcommittee that's what they'll be taken up that's not what it was discussed so I understand but it's getting out of hand counselor I've made my decision you have every right disc you have every right to challenge the chair if you don't like my decision let's move to the next order of business please Communications calendar item number 10 communication from the election commissioner requesting approval of the warrant for the state election on November 5th Mr fahe thank you Mr chairman members of the council Paul fahe election commissioner so the item on the agenda tonight is the warrant for the November 5th state election uh in addition to the uh president electors and vice president electors Congress State elected officials County elected officials we also have the regional school committee and five ballot questions I'm happy to take any questions if the council has does anyone have any questions all in favor all opposed so ordered thank you calendar item number 11 communication from the mayor relevant I'm sorry relative to the reappointment of Molly McGee to the Human Rights Commission appointments calendar item number 12 communication from the mayor relative to the reappointment of Mark fany to the library Board of Trustees appointments calendar item number 13 communication from the mayor relative to the reappointment of Pauline perno to the disability commission appointments calendar item number 14 communication from the mayor relative to the reappointment of John dub to the library Board of trust appointments calendar item number 15 communication from the mayor relative to the appointment of Julia cantes as the veterans agent good evening ma'am good evening welcome you so I don't know if you have anything to say or you want to state or um I'm happy to be here good start yeah and I appreciate this opportunity any councelors wishing to speak councelor Gino SAA Julia you do an amazing job keep it up thank you permission to speak from the chair anyone thank you thank you councelor house I appreciate it promise me one thing you will not get rid of the food bank I've already said I won't get rid of the food bank grudgingly but I won't I've been working on it for four and a half years and I would hate to see it go you won't see it go I'll be kicking and screaming about it but you won't see it Go just don't kick me yeah or scream at me I'll set Mr President counselor can we vote on this right now no opposition to that thank you I don't know where half the council is but we sure in all right we this will not go to appointments we're going to vote this out right now Madam clerk please call the rle shall the city council confirm the appointment of Julia svantes as the veterans agent councelor agenzio yes yes councel janino yes yes councelor greo SAA yes yes councelor H yes voting yes councel Haro is absent councelor Kelly absent Council McKenna absent Council noveli yes yes Council sylvestri yes yes council zambuto is absent and council president C Leandro yes yes the appointment has been confirmed Mr President point of personal privilege State your point counselor congratulations Julia do a great job absolutely calendar item number 16 motion presented by councelor Hero that the city council order the following proposed ordinance to a public hearing an ordinance further amending food truck locations be it ordained by the city of Rivier as follows section one section 5.1. 050a areas and hours of operation limitations of the revised ordinances of the city of Rivier is hereby amended by inserting a new location after the Southside Shirley Avenue location as follows parking lot at 108 Beach Street directly abing the Rivier History Museum and facing Sunny Meers Park not to exceed one food truck at this location at any one time section 2 section 5.10.5 A areas in hours of operation limitations of the revised ordinances of the city of Rivier is hereby amended by renumbering each subsection 1 through 7 accordingly councelor Yaro yes more light work right question two is that right no oh this is Food Truck ordinance I believe there might be an amendment on the board which I'm amendable to and uh if so let's take a roll call on that Amendment we can't this has to go oh wonderful sorry let me let me there will be no voting on this tonight it's going to a public hearing oh yeah that's but to the amendment can we do the amendment I didn't I didn't speak yet yeah let's just do the amendment I'll speak on it at the public hearing those do the amendment Madam Madam counselor Mr chair and that through you I got you back counselor counselor Gino sa thank you I would like to amend this motion it is um the location is inconvenient vent for the Immaculate Conception School it is in the parking lot where they Park their vehicles therefore um my Amendment would be to add hours to this that they can go there from 3:30 in the afternoon till whatever it is 7:00 at night but no not before then when the people are picking up their kids at school and they park in that parking lot thank you so we would have to take a roll call on this amendment and then this Sor section one or section two are we amending councel can we add a section three one moment chair while we search does this go into zoning I believe this goes to public hearing and then to zoning or we could put it into zoning first and then to a public hearing but I'd rather not have an extra step if it's not necessary okay so yeah motion to put up public hearing so so let's do a little bit more research on this counselor if that's okay and then once it goes to subcommittee after the public hearing we can uh vote on your Amendment we'll have the the uh verbage done properly let's do it now clerk found it oh sorry counselors it would be under 5. 1.050 B which is the hours of operation um the council could say at the discretion of the commission the hours of operation for the 108 Beach Street location shall be 330 to what okay so on that on that Amendment 3:30 to 7 P.M on the amendment let's take a quick roll call a Voice vote all in favor I'd like a roll call okay the proposed amendment would be as follows offered by councelor greo SAA that there's a new section three added Section 5.1.0 5 o b hours of operation and new subsection 4 at the discretion of the commission the hours of operation for the 108 Beach Street location shall be 3:30 p.m. to 700 p.m. councilor agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councel greo SAA yes yes councelor Hass yes yes councelor hero yes yes councelor Kelly yes yes councel McKenna is absent councel noveli yes yes councel Sylvester yes yes Council zambo yes yes and council president cogliandro yes yes so this will be sent to a public hearing as amended calendar item number 17 motion presented by councilors Haro and Gino SAA and councelor sylvestri that the city council approve a resolution in support of the passage of question two ending Massachusetts use of the mcast test as a graduation prerequisite I'm going to go in order as your names are listed on the ordinance excuse me on the motion councelor yarmo Mr President I am excited to uh stand and support with our Public School teachers who are working really hard to do some education around question two and as we know uh our kids are uh are more valuable than what a test can dis dictate and unfortunately for some 20 years or so we have been telling them that they're not if they fail this test uh a repeal of the mcast graduation requirement um means that teachers can teach real courses without having to teach to how uh and why uh uh how uh you know how to pass an exam that is tied to their graduation and their future prospects it's unfair and it's cruel to tell a child who is plain and simple a bad test taker um that they cannot go to university that they cannot graduate uh when they may be brilliant otherwise uh I think we are throwing away a lot of um a lot of folks in that manner it's also unfair to tell a teacher who is a gifted teacher who has has a lot of skill and does in fact get through to their students uh that because x amount of their kids didn't pass the test that they are uh doing a poor job uh the teachers of the public teachers in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are some of the finest not just in the country but of the entire world whereas in various reports World reports our education system has been ranked in the top 50 not the top 10 uh thanks to the work that these teachers do so we know that um that our teachers are doing a great job and they are committed to maintaining and raising the standards um and I know that to be true and they do that already here in the city of river and so I humbly ask that um after my uh my co-signers um my co-signers speak on this that my colleagues vote in favor of this resolution um and uh join me in joining in voting in favor thank you Mr President for the leeway thank you councelor councelor Gino SAA I I Echo everything that Council jamilio said um the mass Teachers Association they stand um stands with the students and the teachers in maintaining a high level of education and high standards they don't agree with this test taking as well um as a former teach I agree they also say that the graduation requirements they disadvantage children with disabilities those from lwi income backgrounds and whose first language is not English um I also agree with that it's important that we begin teaching our students what is necessary to succeed in life not by an mcast test that is absolutely irrelevant when they graduate school um there's been controversy on this mcast for at least a decade from what I understand um by voting yes on question two we're eliminating the mcast um we're just evalu evaluating and giving everyone an equal opportunity to learn what is needed to become a valuable member of society and I totally agree with this and I would really appreciate everyone's support as well thank you thank you counselor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President and um thank you for my colleagues who uh co-sponsored this uh motion with me um I think time on learning and teaching to the test are have become popular um throwouts just just because of this this testing and and time on learning has cut into kids curricular times extra uh gym recess lunch has made that time shorter teaching to the test has made teaches specifically cram information that is going to be on that test and not get outside that scope so they're actually really trying to make these make our students memorize information instead of actually learning and as we all know each one of us has a different style of learning and not always a test is going to show that how a kid can shine thank you Mr President thank you counselor permission to speak from the chair thank you um I'm not a school teacher but I am a teacher and I just could not imagine giving the same test to each one of my students they all excel in different ways and console sylvestri hit the nail on the head there are so many different types of Learners and I believe my class class of 2000 was the last class that didn't have to take mcass um I can only imagine what teachers are going to be able to do when we take these handcuffs off of them uh I'm very excited and uh you know I remember every one of my teachers names from kindergarten all the way up through senior year so we have amazing teachers in this community um sir name and address for the record please uh thank you Mr President uh Ed Terrell 70 Soul Street I just have some additional information that everybody should probably be aware of the new US News and World Report came out and Rivia high school was ranked sadly 82% of our graduates graduate but only 50% of them are proficient in reading about 38% of them are proficient in math and about 48% of them are Prof proficient in science also about 21% of them are ready for college so you know we're building a $500 million new high school but there are fundamental problems with our high school that need to be addressed that probably go be out and outside the mcast and I really hope that we address them and we start talking about them because the way things are now some kids do very well my nephew has done very well and um but for have to have 50% of our students not be able to read when they graduate we are creating a community of generational poverty and it needs to be addressed as fast as possible thank you Mr President thank you sir good evening state your name and address for the record please hi my name is Katie font I live at s Preston Street Malden I'm the secretary of the Rivera Teachers Association um before I go into my speech I did want to comment on a couple of things that uh uh you mentioned uh the gentleman before me um I do agree that there are lots of things that we do need to fix at rhs and I hope to convince you that none of those things will be improved through the mcast um and in fact that hopefully the elimination of the mcast graduation requirment will help to alleviate uh systemic generational poverty and rever um so I've been working on the yes on two campaign for about 2 and a half months now as a member organizer for the MTA um I've been knocking on doors uh since July um and talked to voters in Malden Medford Melrose Wakefield sagus Cambridge Somerville Belmont and tomorrow will be Riv kickoff for our yes onto canvasing in r at 400m at rhs with uh me and councelor Haro so please join us if you can make it um the vast majority of the folks that I've talked to canvasing as a member organizer have agreed with the stance of the MTA of Senator Elizabeth Warren Representatives aana Presley Jim McGovern Lori Tran and countless state senators and state reps across Commonwealth the mcast is not a reflection of all the important curriculum standards and skills we Educators wish to instill in our children though it can measure some key aspects there are obvious flaws in relying on the mcast as the sole measurement of future career and college readiness now also I want to clarify that question two would not eliminate the mcast this would only eliminate the graduation requirement so the data collected from the mcast we will still be able to use that and hopefully use it as it was originally intended which I'll get to in moment so uh firstly mcast is only given in English math and science so many appoints of question two believe the mcast gives all Learners across the state a bench a baseline a benchmark of subject knowledge but does that mean that those opponents are saying that history art physical education that those are of no value those curriculum standards are of no value I hope that's not what they're trying to say but inevitably is what they're saying by relying so much on the mcast as a measurement uh secondly even within these subjects within the uh English math science tests the skills that are tested are limited only to those that uh skills that can be put into a multiple choice or maybe a short written response right mcast cannot demonstrate important skills that we work on every day in the classroom practicing giving a presentation right making a PowerPoint collaborating on group work researching a topic Drafting and editing an essay right these things are not included on the mcast right there's no way to include those things on a standardized test right if a student's teachers assess their work grade their work right including a variety of Assessments like the ones that I've listed here before right and determine that a student is able to demonstrate Mastery of these critical thinking skills then why should one test negate all the data of the Educators that work with those Learners day in and day out for four years why should one test be able to negate all of that information collected about a learner on top of all of this mcast has been turned upside down from its original intention which was to hold districts accountable I have no issue with districts using mcast data to allocate resources to particular learners but with the grad requirement instead it is punishing our most value our most vulnerable Learners by denying them a diploma our special education Learners English language Learners are the most likely to be denied a diploma due to a lack of reasonable accommodations on the test for these Learners uh a diploma is not only a sign of academic success for the these Learners it is a ticket towards a better life towards vocational work towards meaningful careers in our communities across the Commonwealth for all these reasons and more I urge the committee rever voters and all Massachusetts voters to vote Yes on to on November 5th thank you thank you very much man you really want to follow that yeah name and address for the record Michelle Irvin I'm in ly Massachusetts I am the co-president of the Rivier teach Association but I'm also just kind of coming here as an ESL teacher I teach at the high school um I've been teaching ESL for 25 years 20 years in the Massachusetts Public Schools um just kind of I didn't really plan anything just coming as a teacher to kind of get you to understand what this mcast does um so I I do teach immigrants and I do teach them English um and so I've seen the impact but I've also taught the mainstream students who do speak English um and when I we say teaching to the test like what does that mean I want you to like give you a picture of this um I have quite literally given classes on how to take the test I taught them for years and not in RW but in another in other districts I did after school classes on how to take a test not how to read how to the skills of reading not this the skills you need but just how to answer a multiple choice question because it actually takes a skill to be able to do that I have worked in District in a district that um the entire school day for an entire week everything stopped nobody learned anything except math mcass it was like math mcast week because it was the week before the they took the mcass so they weren't learning English they weren't learning history they weren't learning anything but how to get a good pass on the mcass um the other thing is is that the mcass is quite literally a reading and English test the English mcast is obviously English and you have to know how to read but the math mcast is also a reading and English test in order to do the math you need to be able to read it and comprehend the um word problems in order to do to do it um test anxiety just because you're bad at testing you know it you cannot pass it um just to let my own personal experience I'm from Ohio but we my class was the very first class that had to take uh the mcast equivalent in Ohio and I did not pass the math test um and I had the privilege of having fam my family be able to give me a tutor but if you are not able to have that privilege you're not going to graduate so I could have easily not graduated as an AB student simply because I'm horrible at math and I'm never going to teach math I'm never going to be an engineer I'm never going to do anything with that I got I got consumer math but not being able to graduate because I'm poor a poor probably a poor test taker in math but in general just poor in math um and I just also to let you know that there are only nine states that still have this graduation requirement we're one of them Florida and Texas are also in that list but New York just released the Regents from being a graduation requirement and that is huge so I urge you to let's join the other 40 States in this this country and get rid of the graduation requirement thank you thank you very much councilors uh unless there's anything else all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 18 motion presented by councilors Rino SAA in Areno that the mayor be requested to allocate funding for the purpose of reconnecting the water line that Services the welcome to the point of Pines Shauna Memorial Island at the bus turnaround to the rear of the point of Pines fire station the irrigation system was previously fed from the former fire station but the connection was inadvertently left off plans for the new Fire Station this island not only welcomes residents and visitors to the Pines but serves as a memorial location for Edward chesy Jr for the point of Pines military person who lost their lives in World War II and for a young point of Pine's resident councelor Gino sa this motion um it actually speaks for itself and it's the memorial of my Nextdoor neighbor's son so it's really important to me that this gets passed thank you thank you counselor councelor Areno thank you Mr President uh this also holds a place in my heart cuz uh Ed shaas he was my nephew he passed way in a car accident as a um in the uh malen Catholic as a senior um and after that Memorial was established over 20 years ago and it was through a council order by U Council of powers and and then Council wad three councelor uh Brian vesi uh it's become important to the people of the Pines it's become the welcome to the point of Pines Island there's another Resident there that has Memorial bench that uh that that passed away in the pines and just recently a uh military Stone was put there in honor of World War II veterans that passed away um from the Pines um the water line used to come from the old point of Pines fire station when the plans were done somehow it got left off so it's it's just um to reestablish it I went by it the other day the grass is dead the uh vegetation is dying so I'd like to see it uh refurbished and and have some water um to the Pine to the to that Island thank you thank you counselor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um I'm fully in support of this motion is actually last year the family of of the veteran on the memorial and councelor um called me down while I was still the veteran service officer and we worked with actually councelor renio when he was still on the uh DPW and a few other members of the DPW to have the stone removed from an island that was once in the the plans that was no longer going to be in the plans once so The Rock was moved to the island that they're trying to get the the um irrigation to so I think it's very important that we do so thank you Mr President thank you counselor on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered calar item number 19 motion presented by council president cogliandro that the mayor be requested to investigate the feasibility of having Animal Control available on weekends motion speaks for itself all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 20 motion presented by councelor agenzio that the mayor request the traffic commission to coordinate with 311 311 to send out a robo call to alert residents anytime a public hearing considering a major change to parking or traffic patterns that affect an entire Street or area of the city this would include but not limited to parking restriction Chang or changing a street to one way these calls need only go to the particular area that is affected councelor agenzio thank you Mr President I was uh chairman of the traffic commission for six years and this was the biggest complaint that when major changes were made there was a small little uh blurb in one of the local newspapers and and people didn't know about it things that affect packing the direction of streets um it should be to the residents so they can come up and and speak whether it's in favor or opposed so thank you very much on the motion all in favor all opposed sooted thank you this concludes the city council meeting uh thank you for your participation tonight I hope everyone has a good night meeting is adjourned e --------- ##VIDEO ID:_xU39ud7cMM## good afternoon everyone I'd like to call the legislative affairs subcommittee uh meeting to order please join me in a salute to the flag roll call of the members councel greo SAA here here councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly here here councelor sylvestri here here and chairman Areno here here Quorum is present Madame clerk if we could start with the second uh issue that that'll go quickly uh we're going to be taking up an ordinance further amending section 2.03 point5 of the r revised ordinances relative to open meetings any councilors wish to speak councelor Kelly just for the record just um I did just get clarification but this would only be applicable to the school committee I just want to make that subit subcommittees of the school committee thank you no further discussion uh thank you m thank you Mr chairman um didn't this also include regular school committee meetings to know to to not start any earlier than 5:00 pm or no so it's just to have sub school committee subcommittees be exempt from the the ordinance the proposed amendment was advertised as follows section 2.3.0 5e open meetings of the revised ordinances of the city of river is hereby amended by inserting the words subcommittees of the before the word school so subcommittees of the school committee would be exempt from starting so by default it's it's it's exempt and therefore school school committee meetings would need to take place from 5:00 p.m. on understood thank you for the clarification thank you Mr chairman okay all in favor all opposed favorable recommendation thank you the next item on the agenda is an ordinance repealing the prohibition of non-medical marijuana establishments any council is wishing to speak councelor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr chairman um and I I know this will be going to the full media I just wanted to um address kind of the elephant in the room here um when we move towards these these changes here U there is no set establishment um that has come in the the zoning areas are just buffer zones to where there zones there's no specific location that's been identified there has been no business plan that has been identified so um this is just a regulation of the prohibition to allow companies to come before the council and present their business model to us and then we would allow either allow or deny so tonight's meeting just so everyone knows does not allow any business to open up here in the city it only allows us to discuss this further down the road and and there's no there's no company up there's no there will be buffer zones and and it allows us to the discuss with these people in the future but today's vote does not establish any set business to come into the city of river I just want to make that clear thank you Mr chairman you're welcome councelor Kelly um thank you Mr chairman um I as a followup to that yes I I um thank M Council sylvestri for his clarification but what I would like to do is dive in a little bit deeper here so um first of all there are different types of establishments there are independ dependent testing Labs there are marijuana cultivators and marijuana establishments which um include cultivators independent testing Labs manufacturers retailers Transporters and or any type of licensed non-medical and um marijuana related business okay so those are the things that would possibly be permissible the locations where they would not to interrupt you but that's more the zoning subcommittee I think this is just to repeat the ordinance Banning right but I I just want clarification that it makes it sound as though um you know we we don't have a specific special permit request by any business for uh an establishment at this point because we have to pass this ordinance first so if this ordinance is passed this evening then that would allow businesses to go ahead and request a special permit to operate in certain locations of the city so I just want to make that clear thank you thank you councel Ginos and I'd like to add to what council Kelly just said the council does have say on where these facilities go so I know many people got a notice this weekend and that notice stated that um oh it's going to go on Squire Road it's going to go where the houses are the council's not going to allow it to go where it's going to hurt people I wouldn't want it on my in my backyard and I won't put it in your backyard so the what we really need to realize here is this is a million dooll business this will help every single resident in the city of Rivier because it will not raise our taxes and this is important it's very very important and for people to have the narrow mind saying oh my child it's near a school it's it's not going to be near school and if a child wants to get marijuana they can get it from their friends if somebody wants it they can get it from a friends but if someone goes into a facility they can't go into a facility unless they have the proper IDs they cannot go into a facility if they're taking their child with them because they will not give it to them so I just want everybody in this audience especially to know I wouldn't do anything that would hurt your children I would not agree to anything that would hurt my children as well but this is big money for the city of Rivier thank you Mr coun thank you counselor councelor Kelly thank you Mr chairperson I would like to directly respond to counselor Gina soyer's statement I did receive um information from our CFO that provided with actual uh Revenue that surrounding towns have received over the last 3 years from 2022 20 2021 2022 and 2023 specifically a three-year average for Chelsea is $331,000 for Lynn $333,000 for Melrose $244,000 so to say that we are going to see millions in revenue from this um I I don't agree with that statement I just want to be on record with that thank you thank you thank you counselor any other counselors wishing to speak Council zambuto good evening Mr chairman Anthony Zano 87 High Street um I have to be consistent so the the only marijuana I ever voted for was medical marijuana I was one of the people who V voted against bringing marijuana into Rivia uh I have my own personal reasons I've uh helped a lot of people in recovery for many years I believe it's a uh a gateway drug but that's not my reason my reason is just to be consistent here I did support medical marijuana I still support medical marijuana but uh I'm going to find it very difficult to support uh opening this up to several uh part shops across the city and I think uh councilor Kelly made a good point we're not talking millions of dollars here I think the best hope is two or 300,000 a year in revenue and that's not anything to sneeze at that could save somebody's position and I'm I'm not against that and obviously I'm going to be one of one if not the only vote against this but I have to stay consistent and that's what I'm doing thank you thank you very much councelor you want would you like to speak so just keeping in mind we had a public hearing at the last council meeting and we do have a few minutes so I will allow some people to speak but keep in mind we have a hard stop at 5:30 so not everybody that may want to speak uh will be able to so certainly name an address for the record and if you could limit your comments to two three minutes that would I appreciate it good evening uh council members um thank you so much for allowing us this opport Unity to speak I know this has been this oh vivana katano uh Mountain Aven rier so thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to speak um as you mentioned a lot of people are just finding out about it this weekend and so that's why you see all these people that are here today and have heard that many of you have also received a lot of phone calls regarding this so I just want to present myself I am a resident and also a Board of Health member um just wanted to say that the Board of Health has not been asked to give their opinion on this so I'm not speaking on behalf of the board but I'm stating my opinion as the r Board of Health member regarding this issue my background is that I have worked in public health for the past 14 years with five of those specifically being around preventing substance abuse so we have had a recreational marijuana sales ban in place since 2017 when everyone in the state voted on recreational marijuana in Massachusetts at that time time the majority of Riv residents voted against recreational marijuana this opened up a legal opportunity for us as a city to ban uh recreational marijuana we are one of 109 cities and towns that enjoy the protection from the marijuana industry if we repeal this van which is what you guys are going to vote on to that is my understanding that you as the legislative subcommittee will now vote whether we're going to repeal this protection or not so I want to make sure that's clear that that's what this vote is about if you vote to repeal our protection you are then opening the flood gates okay so if you repeal the van we then have to follow state regulations our number of liquor licenses will dictate how many stores will be allowed so even if we can all agree okay let's just do one our hands will be tied the current ordinance that is listed states that there's only a 300 foot buffer that will be needed from schools playgrounds and places where young people congregate that's not nearly enough 300 ft to put it in perspective is about five school buses so I'm asking that if this does go forward which I hope I hope it doesn't and I hope this is the end that you at least consider a, foot uh buffer from schools and where people congregate the current ordinance also States Shirley Avenue and it's on that language okay and Shirley Avenue is a residential neighborhood where we have the Garfield elementary school and the middle school and we have Parks this is also the location to our beach so if we open a recreational marijuana shop on shirle AV we're increasing access to marijuana and then it increases people's access to go buy purchase marijuana and shely out and then go smoke it at the beach where the rest of us that do not use this product may be enjoying time there with our friends and families and now we're exposed to the secondhand smoke from the marijuana I also have to tell you that public health principles teach that our environment including the retail environments affects our choices let's say you and I work together every single day and I say Michelle hey I brought Donuts no thank you VI I'm trying to be healthy okay Michelle next day I brought you a chocolate donut Michelle do you want a chocolate donut no vivana I'm trying to be healthy Michelle they had a sale on chocolate sprinkles you want it vivana no oh my God Michelle honey glaze honey glaze you want this one okay vivana give me the dut and so that's why our retail environment does matter also prevention science says the more youth are exposed to the sale of addictive substances the more likely they are to have a low perception of harm and they're more likely to use it I sent you all an email this weekend with two uh Journal articles that state this and the Journal of adolescence I have to read this commercialization of cannabis including marijuana concentrates and Edibles may affect adolescent used directly by increasing availability or indirectly by promoting beliefs that its use is safe and normative although legal sales or recreational marijuana are restricted to adults and enforcement compliant checks indicate that between 11 to 23% of recreational Outlets may sell to miners now young people are struggling in our city with anxiety and depression I have been doing focus groups with students since I started working here and I have heard this being a theme that they're dealing with depression and anxiety and many of them turn to marijuana thinking that this is an allnatural product that's going to help them manage their anxiety the issue and my concern here is that their brain still developing the final Connection in our brain does not finish developing until 25 so when you start using an addictive substance before this age you're more likely to develop a serious addiction here's an article a quote from an article that counselor had I understand but since I'm in the Board of Health I hope you can grant me just supposed to be speaking in her capacity as a member of the Board of Health it's a conflict of interest I'll give you another one more minute here's an article from counselor that councelor harij actually shared with me it says research shows chemicals found naturally in cannabis May reduce anxiety inducing effects but it says in recent years selective breeding of cannabis plants have resulted in strains that contain upwards to 20 to 30% of THC compared to the average of 12% a decade ago this may make it more difficult for users to be consistent with the amount of CHC they consume on a given occasion THC interacts with the receptors in the brain to produce feelings of relaxation and Euphoria however research says when a user is exposed to higher than usual doses of THC the drug can also trigger anxiety fear and panic people using cannabis to help reduce anxiety depression and post-traumatic stress disoder but since THC levels vary widely if a person overshoots their tolerance of THC cannabis can induce anxiety rather than reverted I'm going to finish listen we have 48 tobacco retailers here in the city and that is intentional because for many years the tobacco industry has targeted communities of colors and communities with less resources like ours you can look this up yourself do we I know I know you guys are looking at tax revenue but where do we want our tax revenue to come from do we want to get tax revenue from an industry that profits of potentially harming people also you're going to have to you're going to have to okay I just want to leave I want to leave you with 348 signatures from residents this was collected just this weekend these are people that live here in Rivier and they're saying they do not want marijuana stores and all the other people that are here today to tell you we do not want marijuana stores in our city thank you if you want to leave that Mr chairman through you to to um vivana if I could ask you a question I I just had would you mind coming back up here real quick you um thank you for for speaking tonight um I had a great conversation with you I know it was brief on Saturday thank you for your phone call um I just want to uh to ask you when you said the community is protected because that's I'm very big on that how are we protected from marijuana I believe we're protected from marijuana because right now we have in the law in an ordinance saying that retail marijuana is banned so the vote that you are about to take right now is to take that protection away how we gained that protection was that when uh the do you understand how we got that protection because I feel like that was important okay I'm I'm I'm well aware I am um I understand that the city as a whole voted it down in 2016 I understand that my question to you is do you still feel that we're protected having an establishment that's 10t over the Border in Malden yes I do still feel that we are protected because we're still a city of over 55,000 residents and it matters another of the research that I sent you for you to review this weekend talks about the impact of the retail and how the distance had to be so it does matter counselor if it is in our neighborhoods or not it matters if it's in Chelsea or in Rivier so it does matter to me it protects our people and also it reduces access that's why I want you to consider why we have 48 tobacco retailers and how that matters because access matter would you fight against the other establishments just I'm just asking your opinion for the tobacco no I'm talking about the other marijuana facilities that are in the state would you fight to have them closed as well I would not why because uh the issue before us today is our city and what type of build environment we want to create for our residents thank you very much thank you thank you councilor sylvestri thank you Mr chairman um through you to miss uh k Tel please thank you I'll just stay here until you guys tell me to sit down okay no no no it's I I just have a few questions and and they were along the lines of of councelor uh c leandros um so I appreciate you coming up and I appreciate everyone here in this audience tonight I do I can appreciate your concern and I understand you wanted to protect your children no one wants to do that more than this Council so you understand okay but I I do think a little bit of the information you were sharing it is not all true so so the retail you say the retail of marketing in impacts our our um how we buy things correct okay so are you aware that the dispensary in Chelsea has a billboard right over by the doughnut shop in R okay so we do so what I'm trying to say is and I'm I'm not trying to make a case of because they do we aren't but we're missing out on some money right now that it's a regulated space in the data you sent me was data that was related to New Hampshire actually in our nybs right between 11th graders has actually dropped from 2011 to 2019 almost in half 11th grade use substance use among eighth graders through 12th graders has dropped almost by a third in the city of Rivier so we're doing what we need to the regulated space is something something that's going to protect the kids more so today they go out and they're going to have to show up to a store they're going to have to give a license showing their 21 and I'll give you just a short example I was in the store the other day because I wanted to see this for myself and there was a gentleman there and the woman behind the counter was actually addressing him by his first name so what that told me was that she knew who this man was and even knowing who that man was she still wouldn't allow him to purchase anything in that store not because didn't have an ID but the ID he had was expired by 2 days so the gentleman in there was trying to say hey I was just in here Friday and the woman would not let him pass that front door because he had an expired ID so the fight that this is going to open up the floodgates to our youth is something that I have to disagree with and as far as the beach I'm not sure when the last time you went down there and enjoyed the beach but it it every time you go down there you can smell the scent of marijuana it is something something that has been legalized in the city and I'm not trying to downgrade what the importance of it to you is but I'm just trying to say that because we have a Prohibition it does not protect us from the outside elements that are still impacting our city but so what exactly is your question because I want to respond but I also don't want to overuse my time why did you I I just wanted I just wanted to have that dialogue with you because because the information you did send out about the 11th graders and all that stuff that that was data that came from New Hampshire do you know that I didn't bring it with me but I sent you two recent articles okay I just wanted you to be I wanted you to understand because when we feed information to our residents that is data from a different state it's not it's not the truth what we're feeding them so we can tell them it impacts these children in New Hampshire but we're not telling them how it impacts the children of Massachusetts so you don't think something that impacts kids in New Hampshire is likely to happen in another state when they do case studies but we have data that disagrees with what you're saying we actually have data that decreased the the use our data in Massachusetts has decreased the use the data you Shar showed it's still impacting and Rising between 11th and eth graders and that it it be the closer they are to dispensaries the more apt they are to purchase cannabis we have seven dispensaries within a one and a half mile radius to rever okay do you have any further questions from no I don't we're going to have to cut this short we need to take a vote we only have four minutes left here yes okay councelors I just have one question would you prefer someone to buy marijuana off the streets or from a highly regulated store that's my question I don't have formed opinion on that but this is what I'm saying if you you can buy it somewhere else or you can buy it from a a store that is controlled I would rather it be in a store that's controlled well they don't have to buy it at all they don't have to buy it at all okay okay uh Madam clerk if you could move all thank you ahead with the vote sorry we we it's 5:30 we we have a hard startop we have to vote and there's another subcommittee meeting sh the legislative affairs subcommittee offer a favorable recommendation to adopt the ordinance repealing the prohibition of nonmedical marijuana establishments councelor Gino s yes yes councelor hero I've had a lot of sorry I've had a lot of conversations do you want me to vote or not um and I've drafted some amendments that I've shared with of order we're in the middle of a roll call out of order you're we're in the middle of a roll call my vote is yes yes yes sorry Council Heria voting yes councelor Kelly no voting no councelor sylvestri yes voting yes and councelor chairman Areno yes yes the uh proposed ordinance will be forwarded to the full city council with a favorable recommendation for enactment leg just thank you legislative affairs has concluded thank you for e e e e e e e e e e healthier and happier Community here in the area so we're going to have like uh special classes for everyone and I want to engage the community to do more exercise in this area I'm happy to answer any questions thank you um committee members I guess I I I didn't know if there was anybody else in the audience that wanted to speak but you it's just you correct yeah okay Mr President thank you Mr chairman I just want to speak in support of this um this is going to be a great establishment that building really hasn't been used much more than a campaign headquarters and I'm excited to see something that's going to benefit the community going there so I'm fully in favor thank you thank you thank you counselor anyone else on the committee councelor Gino SAA thank you I'm in complete favor of this as well this is great to um promote health for the city of Rivier and its people thank you councelor agenia thank you very much uh Mr chairman uh this business is in Ward 4 I fully support it uh it's i' I've met them a great minority owned business it'll Revitalize that end Broadway uh like counselor uh council president Cog Leandro said that stor has been vacant the last thing you want in the in the business district is boarded up uh stores so uh I'm fully in support of it and hope you look favorably on it thank you thank you councel you all set okay uh chairman there are two conditions uh submitted uh to the city council from Frank stringy city planner as follows the special department is subject to a final construction plan review by the building department code consultant and the plans must be reviewed and approved by the fire department and Board of Health with the conditions roll call shall the zoning subcommittee offer a favorable recommendation to the full city council to Grant the relief requested subject to those conditions Council Gino SAA yes yes councelor Kelly yes yes Council noeli yes yes councilor sylvestri yes yes and chairman zambuto yes yes the special permit is received a favorable recommendation good luck thank you so much next uh item is going to be Council order 24271 is zoning ordinance establishing definitions uses special permit District boundaries and regulations for marijuana establishments Mr chairman I'm sorry to interrupt you would it be possible to take the mechanical parking out of order and do the marijuana last just for time purposes would anyone be opposed to that I was I was afraid that uh we we might hold that in committee because we're going to run out of time on the marijuana so I I I don't think it's a pressing issue to pass the mechanical parking you're call Mr chairman just a thought could I I would like to take that motion I think I don't think we had any real opposition to it and I think it would be fairly quick well I don't know about that um I I think we take the marijuana First if we have time we'll take up the parking Madam Clerk a zoning ordinance establishing definitions uses special permit District boundaries and regulations for marijuana establishments committee members thank you Council Kelly thank you Council zambuto um so I I just think that there is some confusion this this is a confusing and complicated ordinance as written um if nothing else just to the locations that are mapped out um yes it is true that if this ordinance passes any applicant looking to open one of these facilities in the city would be required to apply for a special permit so there is still an opportunity that that special permit may or may not um go through however that being said the list of permissible possible locations is an extensive one my amendments that I am proposing take off some of these locations from being permissible at all specifically locations that would about residential neighborhoods um also my amendments speak to a buffer zone what I would like to do Mr chairman um I have just confirmed with the policy writer for the city actually that my amendment of 450 ft increase in the buffer zone from 300 ft as to what is um reflected in the original ordinance I'm asking to increase that to 450 ft I understand that the state cannabis commission's minimum is 500 feet therefore I would like that uh to amend my Amendment so that at least that 450 ft is reflects 500 ft as a minimum that would also apply to the notification Zone regarding special permits meaning that if an applicant if this ordinance were to pass and an applicant is requesting a special permit they would be required to notify a Butters within a 500 foot radius of where their establishment is go is proposed and that would have to be done by certified man male as well again this is adding Protections in the ordin to make residents aware when someone is proposing to open one of these shops in the community thereby allowing residents the opportunity to go to City Hall and oppose them from opening at all okay so I just want to be clear about that but that being said we do still have an extensive list of where um these things could potentially be located um so I I just want to make the subcommittee aware of that so they will be available um or permissible I should say in general b business districts Highway business districts in all Ted zones um Ted zones are you know suffi Downs the Amazon building on squa road Stop and Shop that whole area um anywhere that we have a designated Ted Zone in the city these would be a potential spot for um one of these facilities to open so I just wanted to give some clarification on my amendments uh thank you Mr chairman thank you Council Kelly any other counselors okay so I'm going to open this up to Residents and uh I I would ask that there's a lot of people here and if everybody's going to speak we'll never have enough time so we're going to have two minutes a piece so get in line and come up give your name and address councilor jeral Mr chairman how are you um I'm well how are you you're okay um for your viewing pleasure uh I have over the weekend heard a number of concerns from residents regarding this ordinance and so I've uh predominantly concerned with the child and youth protection around cannabis uh so for the zoning committee consideration and hopefully uh for the council as a as a whole I'd like to direct you all to uh on these Pages amendments one and amendments three so Amendment one uh essentially uh restricts the Cannabis Provider from um advert izing products with neon with neon colors cartoon characters mascots through social media influencers or celebrities uh it also restricts the Cannabis company from advertising from from providing non-ch childproof packaging and directs them to have packaging that is opaque and plain in design to ensure that uh they're not attracted to these products um the next part of this amendment uh also directs the provider the cannabis shop to um to not resemble its packaging to current products that are accessible to miners like say Oreos or uh Crispy Cream Donuts or whatever it is uh and so uh that's what that does to ensure that they're not it also directs the establishment to not include the words marijuana or weed or any colloquial uh word for the for for the word marijuana in the facade of their buildings it also uh directs The Establishment to ensure that um they're not advertising products on the facade or on the outside or visibly viewable from the outside of the establishment um and directs them to store all of their product in the vaults at the end of the day further Amendment four directs the lensey or the person who is applying for the license to submit a prevention of diversion to minor plan to the board of health or to the Department of Public Health who shall review and approve that plan what that means is a plan through which they will ensure sure that this product does not end up in the hands of young people said plan must include at least the following the prevention of loitering creating a mechanism for verifying proper identification of the customer locking all doors of the marijuana establishment proper waste disposal and prohibition of on premise consumption um there's some other amendments which we'll discuss hopefully um possibly at the General council meeting I appreciate your leeway and your time Mr chair unless have any questions great name and address for the record press the button please good evening my name is Christine Robertson I reside at 187 charer Street good evening the idea of having a cannabis business on the residential side of Squire Road is unacceptable the residential neighborhoods along Squire Road are extremely congested and there are new houses and apartment buildings being constructed every day perhaps you should take a ride around the particular area inward 6 before you even think to approve of this type of business not only do we endure never-ending traffic congestion emissions from vehicles of every shape and size the traffic noise is off the charts we call Squire Road the mini New England Dragway not one vehicle on that road is driving under 40 mes an hour believe me we live there with it every single day 247 with more to come with the building of several more hotels and whatever you choose to approve on the horizon this area has become more and more we have had more than our Fair sh of businesses and perhaps another area of the city should be considered Ward six needs a break the last time thing we need is a cannabis shop has there been a study to see how shops that are in business in other area cities are doing perhaps that should be done before another cannabis business is added to our city there are many families in these nebor neighborhoods with small and school-aged children and these children walk through these neighborhoods to get to school and to other activities there are multiple empty storefronts on the commercial side of Squire Road that should be looked at for this kind of business several are located right at Northgate Shopping Center perhaps you need to consider those that will live with this every day and not just the city's bottom line thank you for listening thank you very much name and address for the record please my name is Vanessa Alvarez I live in Florence of okay thank you I live in Florence of nearby sherley word to and I'm here because as you know I have three kids and for me it's important to protect them for me these retail stores near to my neighborhood or near to R are not are not good for their wellbeing I care because their brain is developing and as far as I know if you have um any um um substance um how can I explain this like um you are exposed to this substance um the marijana is not good for your rent it's not good for your development and I want to protect them I don't want this place any near where I live or near to Rivier uh and I care because I think prevention is the key and as I think prevention is the key I I just want to say that um if you have kids probably you have older kids but if you have younger kids you want to protect them and I don't want this also near to schools or near to a place where kids are sometimes we have to go from places like uh we are near to a playground that is Costa Park we go from there sometimes because somebody's smoking in marijuana or and there is anyone near so I just say that we have to go to from the beach of from places just because of the smell the kids don't like like it I don't like it and it's no good for their development thank you thank you very much name and address for the record please [Applause] hi uh my name is Jane Sova I'm from Hy Street 17 Hasty Street um we just came last minute my neighbor told us about this uh this morning but I feel pretty strongly about it to bring my three kids down here um I just am totally opposed to this we know that Riv already has a drug problem I'm sure everybody here has some experence experience of somebody being affected by drugs in their family or their neighborhood and we know that um marijuana is a gateway drug despite what you may say your data that was up till 2019 may be valid however in 2020 things dramatically changed in schools children don't the the marketing doesn't even matter about these packaging about these cartoons and the orios that were mentioned earlier these kids are marketed too on social media so you have no control over that they are definitely looking for solutions to their anxi iety solutions to their problems and they will definitely find it in marijuana and be led down the wrong path I also think the city can definitely make money in ways that are not selling marijuana to anybody so that's all I have to say thank you for your time name and address for the record please um my name is Angelica Lee and the owner 11 Harington Street I am a teacher for more than 15 years and I had a lot experience with the kids and and teenagers too um I say Viana they please um translate me a little bit because I want the my message was clear really clear um okay um uh as an educator um I do think that marijuana is a drug that is addictive whether you're using it medicinally or not uh if marijuana is medicine why isn't it given out in hospitals why is it given out on the streets ER so the Colombia I'm from bota Colombia I never see this problematic in my family but yes in my country I knew in so I know the marijuana by itself is an inoffensive plant but once they treat it and they put chemicals it does become a dangerous offensive when they process marijuana they put ethanol we're going to have to move this along quickly okay they put ethanol and other chemicals to bring it to other countries [Music] says why do we have to give access to our young people for a drug that uh will be harmful for their brain all right that's it we got to move to the next finish one one second I want to finish we already have a lot of problems with addiction in Massachusetts especially mass and we do not need uh more people uh struggling with addiction in the community thank you thank you next person my name is Anthony cantino and I live at 240 suffk Avenue uh a little while ago a gentleman asked me what I was doing here I asked him if he ever heard the song I Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts you understand I mean these people are all complaining about marijuana I can't even get a license to operate that's it next person God bless you thank you thank you so much for uh my name is Olga takur I live in glendel street I didn't prepare a speech uh as I didn't know I will have this opportunity so I thank you and I'm be very quickly I'm 100% opposing to this initiative I think uh my me my family my friends who are taxpayers homeowners live and work here in Rivier deserve that you include us in this initiatives we didn't know until this last minute we we I found out that the uh public uh Speech or public uh uh opportunity already passed how many proponents do you have seven against this full room of people who are against it I think you're now considering over 10,000 people who said no to Mar Iana in 2016 and now you're not running a survey you're not asking people do you want marijuana your are your place because I would like to see that response since many of you will say and I have listen because I have called some City officials and one said like well uh for undocumented people who have called me and they don't have health insurance and they he who told you that the marijuana is cure illness no for your information so there's many misinformation even among yourselves I have uh hear also from City officials that I haven't look at that ordinance I will take a loose it it's at the beginning it is at the end and that's a concerning thing because it seems like you're voting thank you Michelle for putting that the revenue that apparently that's the reason behind this Initiative for the revenue are you chasing $300,000 for the sake of having uh more drugs I got to stop because we we understand we are against it thank you go ahead name and address hello my name is Isabelle katano from fenos Street um I just want to voice my my opinion on this um I'm very proud to live in this city and uh I feel like I want the kids to also be able to to um I see I don't know how to spress it now like to see what we see around us like if we have another marijuana shop or if we have a tobacco shops or um um alcohol everywhere and in the city we don't have right now any marijuana but the other cities we do and I'm worried about them like it like they see is normal for them to be able to have the asses I know they're they're going to be control and everything but they can get it through their families through their parents maybe they'll take it from their families at the house so that worries me as well um regarding the data that you spoke about the 11th graders between uh 2011 and 2019 I believe it was show lower for re because we were not in school so the School nurses weren't able to do the screenings that they do to to put it up on the state so I think that's also not up to dat and um but I'm also as a school nurse seeing the kids um come to school smelling like marijuana so I I'm very concerned about our youth thank you thank you that's name and address name and address hi I'm Maya Marino and I live on Mountain Avenue um I wanted to bring my student perspective I must admit that I also was not informed of anything around this topic going around until quite recently um and I'm sure we all know that substance abuse and use is a big problem at rhs I just graduated last year and I can tell you firsthand that even without ordinances put into place I I am fully opposed to this I understand that it would create a more controlled environment but any access is bad access people kids are getting it anyways they are finding it from family members they're finding it from Friends the amount of times that I would refuse to go to the bathroom at my school simply because I know if I go in there I'm going to get like there's six kids in one stall hot boxing and it's it's really upsetting and I wish I had known about this you know beforehand I don't really get to I don't really hear any news about this locally there's not a lot of information being passed on to students and I'm sure that there are many youth that would have liked to come but I could not inform or they were not informed formed and I would like for you guys to know that from personal experience we don't need any more of this in fact we need less of this we need to be working so we need to be working against this like I don't I don't know what to say and I feel I feel that I cannot fully come in state my opinion as I'm very little informed um but I would like to give you the testimony of a friend who I was talking to who could not make it here tonight um I apologize for the well I don't think I need to apologize but it's it's yes uh when I used to work at MGH I used to walk by a dispensary and people were always outside of it tweaking out in public and lighting up without regard for anyone else and the smell smell in all capitals I'm so sorry even if you are someone like me who was very lucky and privileged enough to be educated and the fact that substance abuse is nothing but bad for you you understand and you live with the environment that you grow up that is all have a good evening thank [Applause] you name and address please yes Edward Naro 238 Beach Street we're trying to get rid of tobacco being sold in the cities and throughout the Commonwealth here we have another product that's actually H worse on your lungs and health and marijuana and we're going to promote selling it in our city when we trying to get rid of tobacco doesn't make sense but what's say s the dollar bill is our kids' lives that cheap I don't think so I'm definitely against this thank you Pastor Pastor Tim bman first congregation R I'm also winther resident winther pav and I have three kids in this community 2015 2016 somewhere around there we voted this out of our city I could have been not more proud of this city for saying no to this at that time we remember that vote um as a parent still in this community I still oppose this however I understand it's going to go to the council today so two things first of all I would say no to this I do not want this in my community I want this here and we have and many here have made that clear however as the council deliberates this and the restrictions that were offered both by councelor Kelly and councelor hero we need to consider these zoning restrictions very carefully as we deliberate this should not be pushed through quickly it should be thought through and as we think about this zoning uh we want to make sure that we're protecting our families and our neighborhoods uh we really want to to consider that please consider our neighborhoods our kids and our community that's what matters to me and that's what matters to us right so thank you so much councelor appreciate your time thank you thank you Pastor anyone else okay well um we one more all right one more person go ahead uh name and address please my name is Pedro Medina I live in 88 Kerry Avenue I live in in the exit of the high school I'm a coach soccer coach from Rivier my opinion about this right now is 50/50 because I had two keys and uh by the 12 years of coaching I coach many keys and there unfortunately right now I have parents call me Pedro can you call talk to my son because that keys go to the drugs as smoke marijuana because about the relationship they have about they have the access to the marijuana I know J about the stores and R because it's about money right now all the problems around the world is about money so you're talking about money about the education about the problem where are kids is going to be at the end the balance is going to be like this because okay we put the stores okay you receive the revenue for for the stores so before early right here say oh it's a million at the end is not true it's about 200 300,000 right but at the end when that stores in the re maybe the problem is is worse because more people have access to that stores doesn't matter about the regulation you need to CH the you say you I this spire don't s but somebody can vote for that guy and that guy bring that to the the streets to somebody can go to that store so at the end we have more problems because some kids here can move to Chelsea can move to can move to everywhere because we're attaching to we our homes but if we put it that stor we are uh Community thinking about it we have problem I know you have you have kids but I want how but I want if later on your family about this store by somebody else it's more money want all you now you thinking about it all but I think I think with you respect anything we say here is nothing we can do because you take your decision already your decision is already in the table nothing we can do anything all these people speak here is no value because you bot already you want to listen how manyy stores or where they want to put so carefully with that please all right thank thank you very much for your time okay so we're we're out of time we're out of time for the zoning meeting we're going to have another zoning meeting on the uh at 5:00 p.m. on the 21st of October so that that's it for [Applause] tonight e