Minutes of the Regular City Council Meeting held on September 8, 2025.

CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS, CHAIR REGULAR MEETING TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS SEPTEMBER 8, 2025 5:33 PM, SULLIVAN CHAMBER

1 MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: (gavel) A quorum being present, I'll call tonight, September 8th, 2025, regular meeting of the Cambridge City Council to order. The first order of business is a roll call of the members present. Clerk Crane, would you please call the roll? INTERIM CITY CLERK: Councilor Azeem? COUNCILOR BURHAN AZEEM: Yes. Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. Vice Mayor McGovern? Absent. Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. Councilor Siddiqui? COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. Councilor Toner? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. Councilor Zusy? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. Mayor Simmons? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. You have one member recorded as absent and eight recorded as present. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you, Madam Clerk. Please, if you can, rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then we're going to pause briefly for a moment of silence, remembering Mary Leno, Cambridge -- long-time Cambridge resident, former employee of the City of Cambridge who recently passed away. MEETING ATTENDEES: Pledge allegiance 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. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: (gavel) INTERIM CITY CLERK: Vice Mayor McGovern? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Present. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Present. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, adopted by the Massachusetts General Court and approved by the Governor, the City is authorized to use remote participation at meetings of the Cambridge City Council. In addition to having members of the Council participate remotely, we have also set up Zoom teleconference for public comment. You may also view the meeting via the City's open meeting portal or on the City's Cable Channel, Channel 22. To speak during public comment, you must sign up at www.cambridgema.gov\publiccomment. You can also email written comments to the City Clerk for the record at cityclerk@cambridgema.gov. We welcome your participation, and you can sign up for public comment until 6:00 p.m. Please note that the City of Cambridge audio and video records these meetings and makes it available to the public for future viewing. In addition, third parties may also be audio and video recording these meetings. Our first order of business is public comment. Public comment may be made in accordance with the Massachusetts General Laws 30(a), Section 20(g), and the City Council Rules 23(d) and 37. Once you have been called, please come to the microphone. If you're in-person, state your name, your address, and the item that you're speaking to. Please note, public comment can only be made on items on the agenda. Once you finish speaking, the next speaker will be called. Individuals are not permitted to allocate the remainder of their time to other speakers. Given that we have 25 speakers as per our rule, each speaker will be given two minutes. With that, I'm going to turn public comment over to Naomie Stephen. Ms. Stephen, the floor is yours.

2 MS. STEPHEN: Thank you. Our first speaker is Andrea Saltzman, followed by Denise Jillson, then Alice Killian. Andrea? Andrea has not joined us. We will go to Denise Jillson. Denise, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. DENISE JILLSON: Good evening. My name is Denise Jillson. I'm the Executive Director for the Harvard Square Business Association. I am here tonight to speak in favor of Policy Order number 116, which establishes a formal policy that clearly defines the city's role and financial responsibilities in supporting large- scale events hosted by Cambridge-based nonprofits and not-for-profits like the HSBA. This council has long supported appropriate pedestrianization, which requires the curation and programming of city streets, allowing for outside dining, events, celebrations, and festivals. These events require thousands of dollars in funding. Over the years, the responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of the organizers who have been primarily the business associations. We appreciate that the city clearly understands the value of business associations, as proven by the recent $25,000 appropriation by this council to study the feasibility of creating a Porter Square North Cambridge Association, something that Councilor Toner in particular has championed. I am also here to support Policy Order number 117 that offers a new and creative way to fund the events outlined in order number 116. For nearly three decades, the city has funded the Cambridge Office for Tourism, which is a private 506(c) organization, much like the HSBA. Given that the Office for Tourism now has an additional funding source that amounts to nearly $2 million annually through the TDMD program established by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, redirecting taxpayer dollars to assist the business associations, including the new hoped-for Porter Square Association, in creating events that draw foot traffic to our districts throughout the city makes good sense. It is a prudent, effective, and appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. Cambridge is competing with newly established lifestyle centers and re-energized business districts outside the city in ways that we never had to before. It is time to recognize that policies established 30 years ago need to be looked at in new and fresh ways. Policy Order number 116 and 117 exactly do that. These orders sustain each other. Supporting one and not the other will not get the job done. MS. STEPHEN: Your time expired. Please email the remainder of your comments. Thank you. DENISE JILLSON: Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Alice Killian, followed by Carolann Barrett, then Matthew Stewart. Alice, if you can unmute yourself, you have the floor. Two minutes. ALICE KILLIAN: Hello. My name is Alice Killian, and I'm here to speak in reference to Policy Order 108. I'm the junior warden at St. James's Episcopal Church, which is mentioned in the Policy Order. For as long as I have been attending St. James's, we have had people sleeping on our porches, but last summer something changed. Previously, if our unhoused neighbors slept late and we had to ask them to move, a staff person or lay volunteer would ask them. Sometimes the porch would need to be swept afterwards, but not always. Starting last summer, we saw an increase in porch use by groups. There were more personal possessions left behind, and sometimes pieces of large cardboard also from makeshift weather shelters. We also saw evidence of drug use. In response, we assembled a team of volunteers who would take turns every morning to ask any people who were still sleeping on our property to leave. The volunteers would then help the people clean up by bringing garbage bags and brooms and safe sharps disposal boxes. Because the volunteers had day jobs, they didn't always have time to build community with our porch neighbors, didn't have time to talk to them or have conversations or listen. This summer, our church hired a community engagement associate to connect with our unhoused and housed neighbors and also our tenants. Looking forward, I can imagine a situation in which income inequity grows and social problems in our communities become increasingly complex. How are we going to approach these issues? We can build fences. We can hire ambassadors like our community engagement associate. We can support public services such as the care team. We can partner with public organizations such as the Police Department and the city. We can work together as much as possible, and when it is not possible, we can do what we can alone to try to make life better for all of us. And as the Book of

3 Common Prayer says, we can ask God to grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other's toil. MS. STEPHEN: Thank you. Your time has expired. Please email the remainder of your comments. Our next speaker is Carolann Barrett, followed by Matthew Stewart. Carolann, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. CAROLANN BARRETT: My name is Carolann Barrett. I live at 44 Clarendon Avenue. I've been a resident of Cambridge for 43 years, and I'm also a member of St. James's Episcopal Church. I'd like to speak about Policy Order number 108. I'm glad the St. James's porches are available to people and personally do not want to back away from offering periodic respite to people in need. Serving unhoused neighbors is part of St. James's calling and service. Parishioners have been working with resources within Cambridge to address this complex problem. We have longstanding relationships with First Step, the outreach team from Bay Cove, CASPAR. We have a working relationship with the Cambridge Police Department, especially Lieutenant Chris Ponte oversees the team that works specifically with the unhoused. We hope to build a similar partnership with the CARE team. I myself spoke today with Vanessa, the administrator coordinator of the team. Right now, the team provides 51 hours of daytime support for people experiencing mental health and behavioral challenges. That's 51 hours out of 168 weekly hours. I encourage the council and the community safety department to consider additional funding for this 24/7 service. All of these teams are doing great work around the city, and none of them is ignoring our property or activities on it. I hope city experts like the groups I just mentioned can be the ones to determine where resources are most needed, and not only Cambridge residents who request help and think the police should step in. I'm interested in what the city does in response to similar complaints around the city. We've seen firsthand the power and value of building relationships across the city with the condo owners and with our unhoused neighbors. We're doing everything we can in the mornings to do checks, including on city-owned sidewalks and tree wells. We have told unhoused folks on our porches about our expectations and rules. We have also issued no trespass orders against individuals when warranted. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Carolann, thank you. Our next speaker is Matthew Stewart, followed by Jessica Sculley, then Rebekah Bjork. Matthew, two minutes. Please go ahead. MATTHEW STEWART: My name is the Reverend Matthew Stewart, and I'm the priest at St. James Church at 1991 Massachusetts Avenue. I rise to speak in favor of Policy Order 2025, number 108. For starters, the leadership of our church supports this Policy Order as it will be amended. We work with the Cambridge Police Department, and we're happy to do so. They do a great job. And there are concerns that our congregation has had around how things have sort of evolved. For me, what I want to name is concerns about how the word unsafe has been used without interrogation. Many of us progressives a few years back read the book White Fragility; about how white people have very little ability to tolerate discomfort. We and I am one of these folks. Sometimes if I feel uncomfortable, I assume that's wrong, that we have a right to feel comfort at all times. And maybe we say we're feeling unsafe, and that's not really the case. I think as a culture, we're coming to terms with this around issues of race. To some extent, I feel bad for people named Karen these days. But we don't have these same conversations around the unhoused. We don't have these conversations around issues of class in the same way. And so, I hope in this time when the housing crisis has no end in sight, it might get worse before it gets better. And with rising sentiment against the unhoused, I hope we can have a nuanced and measured position as a city that differentiates between situations that are truly unsafe, because there are those. I'm not discounting that. But also, be careful about taking action when more resourced people say they feel unsafe, when actually they're just uncomfortable with the situation they're in. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Jessica Sculley, followed by Rebekah Bjork, then Siobhan M. Jessica, two minutes.

4 JESSICA SCULLEY: Good afternoon, Mayor Simmons and members of the council. I'm Jessica Sculley. I'm the board chair of the Harvard Square Business Association, and my address is for Humboldt Street. On behalf of the HSBA, we're pleased to support Policy Order number 117. Cambridge has invested in visitor engagement for decades, and our community has benefited. In 1993, the city developed a formal tourism function, and by '94 to '95, it had a defined mission, a public board and clear deliverables from serving as a central clearinghouse for information to operating the Harvard Square visitor kiosk. Those early actions reflected a thoughtful municipal approach, pair city support with accountability, and measure outcomes that matter to residents, small businesses, and visitors alike. And today, the landscape has evolved. The Cambridge Office for Tourism now has a stable, significant revenue stream through the TDMD to carry out destination marketing at scale. At the same time, our neighborhood 501c6 organizations, the Central Square BID, the East Cambridge Business Association, the HSBA, and the Kendall Square Association do the day-to-day work that keeps streets welcoming and commerce vibrant. These are the tangible block-by-block services that help businesses stay open, hire locally, and grow. This Policy Order does not diminish the value of citywide destination marketing. It simply realigns municipal dollars to strengthen the on-the-ground partners who deliver neighborhood vitality, while the TDMD resources continue to fund the broad marketing. And practically, this means three things. Equity and impact. We can distribute the city's tourism allocation equally among the four district organizations. Coordination. The four organizations will continue to coordinate with the Cambridge Office for Tourism. And accountability. Require annual operating plans and quarterly reports that the council can measure. On behalf of the HSBA members and neighbors, and in partnership with our peers, I respectfully urge you to adopt this order and direct a timely report back so we can move forward together in this fiscal year. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Thank you. Our next speaker is Rebekah Bjork, followed by Siobhan M., then Susan Miller-Havens. Rebekah, two minutes. REBEKAH BJORK: My name is Rebekah Bjork, and I live at 20 Concord Ave, Unit C. I'm a 27-year resident of Cambridge and member of St. James Episcopal Church. I am here to speak on Policy Order 108. First off, I want to thank you for reviewing our proposed edits and bringing them as amendments this month. I support the PO, and we are very happy to continue working with city staff and resources as we have been doing for years. We do, however, need to be centered in any conversations or decisions about city actions on our private property. Last month, you were told our garden is littered with trash, needles, and feces during the day. This is just not true. In the past, we did have issues with items occasionally being present until someone reported them to us due to limited staffing. For the past year, we have had a proactive practice of daily checks for items by parishioners in addition to staff. People who reported items they found in the garden and elsewhere on our property at the last council meeting neglected to mention that they were reporting items found last year and that we heard their concerns and changed our practices to ensure that this no longer happens. You have also heard that our garden is dangerous and that there are major safety concerns. I, of course, want our space to be safe, and so I have talked to CPD about this issue, and the overwhelming message I have heard from multiple officers is that our property is not an area they consider a problem spot. While we have had some fights between unhoused people, they consider those flukes rather than patterns. People have also claimed that we enable rather than help people. We believe that everyone deserves love and welcome with no strings attached. We offer care and compassion to everyone, even those whom others perceive as not wanting help, people who in reality welcome help and care, but on their own terms and at their own pace. They have agency just like the rest of us. We listen without judgment, and when people talk about wanting to take next steps in recovery, we do what we can to facilitate that.

5 However, the case managers and clinics that are already working with people who sleep on our porches are better resourced to do that work. I see our role as providing compassionate listening. Feeling heard and loved rather than judged is something we all need, no matter what our struggles are. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Siobhan McDonough, followed by Susan Miller-Havens, then Stephen Bardige. SIOBHAN MCDONOUGH: Siobhan McDonough. I live on Walden Street. I'm a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the United Auto Workers. Off the top, I appreciate what we've heard from the Reverend and the parishioners here today, fully support them. But I'm here today to speak about Policy Order 10, to protect our neighbors from the lawless federal government and deceptive surveillance contractors. Every day, we see new signs of our authoritarian federal government. We see raids today on communities across Massachusetts. We've seen how they occupied LA, DC, Chicago, and how they're threatening the same in Boston. All of this is enabled by the military and surveillance contractors who arm them, equip them, and spy on our communities. Flock Safety is one of those surveillance contractors. The Illinois Secretary of State just announced that Flock violated state law by secretly sharing license plate data with federal border patrol agents. This behavior puts everyone in our communities at risk. You may have seen Flock say they're pausing info-sharing programs with the Trump administration, but you must remember, you cannot take these private surveillance contractors at their word. In May, Texas cops used Flock data from across the country to track a woman accused of getting an abortion. Flock responded in June by saying that all surveillance data sharing was a, “Local decision,” and there was, “Not a backdoor into Flock by federal or out-of-state cops.” Now, just a few months later, in response to the Illinois investigation, Flock apologized that they, “Didn't create distinct permissions and protocols in the Flock system to ensure compliance for federal agency users.” The bottom line is this. Private surveillance salesmen will tell you what you want to hear in order to get you to buy their products. They don't care about our communities. They don't care who gets hurt by ICE and DHS abuses. They just want to line their pockets. Please vote yes on Policy Order 10 to protect Cambridge from the Trump administration. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Susan Miller-Havens, followed by Stephen Bardige, then John Reynolds. Susan, if you can unmute yourself, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. SUSAN MILLER-HAVENS: Thank you. I'm Susan Miller-Havens, and I'm here to speak on Order 108. I'm a resident of 7 Beech Street on the second floor overlooking the garden at St. James Church. I'm one of the founders of the psych department at the Cambridge Hospital where we served multiple addictions. I want to thank those councilor members who've spoken to us about the intertwining issues of drugs and the unhoused. And I know this city is not the only one that is affected by this. I also want to thank the Police Commissioner Elow for her support and kindness demonstrated by many police who've answered our calls these last nights. While I'm encouraged by this order and hopeful that mediation will eventually succeed, I ask the council to request the city manager to fund the care team at night. We need them at night to minister to those in need, as well as include in that order the 2010 landmark requirement that there be no trespassing after dusk so that the police can continue to enforce what they have been doing. I and other residents have provided the church with a folder of photos and videos that we've taken at night demonstrating the severity of the drug program between 9:00 and 7:00 a.m. However, I'm dismayed that no one from the church has been willing to come to bear witness at night. I've been out there at 3:00 a.m. with the police. As a psych nurse, I know what I've seen is not overblown. Drug dealers serving the addicts in the garden is unsafe. I ask that you pass this order and include specific nighttime funding along with a latitude for police enforcement. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Stephen Bardige, followed by John Reynolds, then Cheryl Hamlin. Stephen, two minutes. STEPHEN BARDIGE: My name is Stephen Bardige. I live at Unit 316 at 7 Beech Street. I don't want

6 to relitigate whether or not it's safe or how much drugs or how much mess. I think you've heard a lot of our testimony. You've gotten a lot of letters the last time we were here, so I don't want to relitigate that. But I do want to encourage you to pass this Policy Order. We need it. We need integrated services to work with the unhoused. We need public health and public safety services to work with them and to work with the residents. We need to make this particular neighborhood as safe as possible and to provide the kinds of services needed by the various groups that interface with each other. So, I ask you to pass this. I also want to note that the leadership of the church and the leadership of the Condo Association met last Friday all day for a mediation session, and we reached a tentative agreement. It's tentative until the lawyers put the words together and we sign it, which hopefully will be as soon as possible, but they're lawyers so we don't have total control over that. Once that is in place, we believe that we will take together steps to ameliorate the issues to some degree. But that doesn't solve the issues. And we still need the city to help us provide services. And as Susan just said, to the extent we can get some services there at night, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 o'clock in the morning, we think that would be very helpful. So, with that, I thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Thank you. Our next speaker is John Reynolds, followed by Cheryl Hamlin, then Jo Yuen-Brown. John, you have two minutes. JOHN REYNOLDS: Good afternoon. John Reynolds, 7 Beech Street, also a resident of Cambridge for a very long time, since 1975. I'm glad that Reverend Matt feels comfortable in his working environment at the church, where it's safe for him in the daytime. His children are not out walking, stumbling over needles in the morning. Safety is different things for different people. If under your bedroom window at 3:00 in the morning there are very loud drug transactions going down, that might not feel safe to you either. I don't think that Reverend Matt or Rebekah are present to observe those and to listen to the racket. Yes, Rebekah and her team are great about cleaning up the site the best they can, but it's really hard to find needles. And you know, the kids find them better than anybody, because they're down there at that level, right where those needles are. So, safety is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm glad that some of the people feel really safe in that community, but others of us feel much less safe. I certainly subscribe to everything that was said by Susan and by others here. I think it's really important to note, as Stephen just did, that this is a cooperative undertaking between the condominium and the church. I think the Councilors are probably aware that the condominium leadership and the church leadership concur in our plea that the city pass the Order No. 108. This is not a contest between the two of us. This is a cooperative undertaking, and Steve pointed that out relative to the matter of the mediation, which is constrained only to the porches. But we're working with you and the Order 108 to advance the cause relative to the garden, and we really need help, particularly at night. Thank you very much. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Cheryl Hamlin, followed by Jo-Yuen Brown. Cheryl, you have two minutes. CHERYL HAMLIN: Hello, my name is Cheryl Hamlin, and I'm in support of Order 108. I'm a resident of Beech Street, directly overlooking the Garden of Note in this order. It is true that residents have been woken from loud and disruptive behavior during the night with some frequency, and there's good evidence that this is a meeting place for drug users and drug dealers. The rule that predates the condo building and was in place when we chose to make this building our home clearly states that the garden is off-limits to the public between 8:00 p.m. and dusk. Unfortunately, the St. James Church has in the past been unable to enforce this, as no one from the church is ever present during the night. So, this order is asking for more cooperation with the police to allow them to do their job in creating a safe environment at the garden at St. James. From what I've seen, the Police Department, especially the social justice section, are very well trained, they're kind, they offer services. What would be very helpful, as has been mentioned, is more funding for the care team so they can be present at night as well. They're currently unavailable at night.

7 Fortunately, we do have an agreement. We all agree that this order should be passed so that we can move forward, and I very much look forward to continuing to work with the church and the city of Cambridge to help create a safe, livable neighborhood, including the unhoused, and to make services available for all who need them. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Jo Yuen-Brown, followed by Alex Marthews, then Sarah Rhatigan. Jo, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. JO YUEN-BROWN: I'm Jo Yuen-Brown, and my husband, Charles Brown, and I live in Unit 215, St. James Place. I'm speaking for Policy 108. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Could you bring the mic closer to your face? JO YUEN-BROWN: Sure. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you. JO YUEN-BROWN: Every night, my husband and I walk in the neighborhood for health reasons, sometimes as late as 10.30 p.m. Nightly, we see gathering of unhoused in the porches of our neighboring St. James Church. I want to emphasize it's not just a gathering of individuals. Many a time, we encounter a group of cyclists descending on the porches together. Yes, sometimes it feels a little bit scary. The porches are inevitably jammed to visitors. The church intentions is good. I must applaud that. But I must emphasize that their process needs improvement, and they need improvement with the help of the city. I have seen -- despite what's described here, I have seen urination, defecation. I have seen needles beyond the garden, on the pavement of Mass Ave, and also at the crosswalk of Beech Street. Now, all this drives fears. Yes, it says that maybe the word fear is overused, but no, feeling is emotion. And repeatedly, a polls have shown that despite data on crime, many have chosen and voted the way at the presidential election because of fear of crime. And also, the fear for me is that I have heard that at St. James Church -- before St. James was built, that garden was ridden with drug uses and crime. Do we want history to be repeated? Now, my next point may sound a little hyperbole to some of the people here, but let's not forget -- MS. STEPHEN: Jo, unfortunately your time has expired. If you can please either give us that copy or email the remainder of your comments to clerk at cambridgema.gov. JO YUEN-BROWN: Yeah. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Alex Marthews, followed by Sara Rhatigan, then Ilan Levy. Alex, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. ALEX MARTHEWS: Hello, this is Alex Marthews of Digital 4th and 28 Temple Street in Belmont. I am commenting in favor of Policy Order number 10 to pay more attention to the question of deployment of Flock Safety cameras in the light of new information that has emerged since the city council made its decision. The key thing I want to bring to your attention is that it has been very recently reported that Flock is now offering ways to use its network not just to investigate based on suspicion of involvement in an actual crime, but to generate suspicion. What I mean by this is this. There is a camera, for example, that is proposed to go up at the corner of Rindge and Fresh Pond Parkway just by the public housing. There are new features being offered by Flock such as linked vehicles or convoy search or multiple locations search, all of which promise to uncover patterns of movement of vehicles that are based on what an AI algorithm flags as being suspicious. It does not have to be connected to a crime. There is nothing that requires it. And Flock itself as a private company is not accountable to us for the algorithms that it runs. And so, what we are doing here is allowing the deployment of cameras outside public housing that would swing the government's eye of suspicion towards random civilians whose travel patterns just happen to fit what the algorithm detects as being anonymous. MS. STEPHEN: Alex, please email the remainder of your comments. Our next speaker is Sarah Rhatigan, followed by Ilan Levy, then Jacob Brown. Sarah, two minutes. Please go ahead. SARAH RHATIGAN: Good evening. Thank you, Madam Chairman. My name is Sarah Rhatigan from

8 Trilogy Law, LLC, and I'm an attorney representing 4850 Park Avenue, LLC, the owner of the property at 4850 Park Avenue. They have a request for a curb cut approval, and I wanted to just provide a little information for city council members. There's information that was relatively new arriving to the applicant, and we wanted to be sure that you were aware of it. This is an application to actually relocate and extend, broaden a bit the curb cut located at this property. The clients are Billy and David Rothfuchs, who are longtime Cambridge residents, born and raised in Cambridge, and local builders. And this will allow them to create four off-street indoor garage parking spaces in a new two-family dwelling unit to be constructed on the site. There were a number of public outreach efforts, and there are, at this moment, 13 letters of approval that have been received. We realize these are not in the agenda packet, but many of them have arrived since the cutoff on Wednesday, and we wanted to be sure that you are aware of those, but there is quite a bit of support for this, and we thank you and welcome your support. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Thank you. Our next speaker is Ilan Levy, followed by Jacob Brown, then Ruth Ryals. Ilan has not joined. We will go to Jacob Brown, followed by Ruth Ryals, then Patrick Barrett. Jacob, you have two minutes. JACOB BROWN: Hi, my name is Jacob, and I live on Magazine Street here in Cambridge. I'm here to support Policy Order No. 10 to protect our neighbors and community from the illegal actions of the federal government and the data brokers and surveillance contractors that seek to assist them. Cambridge is, to me, a really special place. It fulfills the best of the promise of American cities. Whenever I talk to my neighbors, I see block parties around, I see families that have spent decades here, and I see new residents and communities coming here to put down roots. It's interwoven in a way that acts as a direct counter to the alienation and hatred that are the pillars of the federal government's worldview. One of the most chilling parts of the Trump administration to me has been -- and its embrace of authoritarianism, has been its war against cities. The military occupations of Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Chicago are completely terrifying, and the rhetoric posted by federal officials and agencies makes it clear that Trump is targeting the cities for their shared humanity and their proud communities of color. I love city life, and I think Cambridge exemplifies a lot of the best parts of it. We're a city that proudly upholds these values, so why should Cambridge give the federal government more tools to attack those parts of our community through the contract with Flock Safety? ICE and DHS rely on surveillance data to tear apart our communities and cities using racism and profiling that just today was greenlit by the Supreme Court. Flock is an active collaborator in these schemes, and like many tech companies that rely on collecting our data, they just want to sell this data to the highest bidder without any regard for personal liberties. Flock have attempted to distance themselves from Trump, saying that they're pausing sharing information with the Trump administration, but their actions reveal that they're still supporting the efforts of ICE and CBP. In July, California police violated state law to share Flock data with the federal government, and in August, Illinois cut off Flock's access to their cameras because it came out that Flock had lied to local officials about sharing data with CBP. It is clear that Flock are comfortable selling out our communities to the Trump administration to the point that it will cover up its role in doing so to protect its access to our data. I ask you to please vote yes on Policy Order 10 to keep surveillance tools out of the hands of the Trump administration and to protect Cambridge's ideals as a city for everyone. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Thank you. Our next speaker is Ruth Ryals, followed by Patrick Barrett, then LaQueen Battle. Ruth, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. RUTH RYALS: I've forgotten the numbers I wanted to speak on. It's right there. 116, 117, and 108. And I'm just asking for help in the Porter Square area, in the Porter Square Shopping Center, and up at St. James, and trying to get ahead of some of the drug problems we're having, the homeless issues we're having. And I appreciate the council and the police and the care teams' support in doing the right thing to prevent us becoming some of the problem areas like the problem areas we see in these cities. Thank you very much. MS. STEPHEN: Thank you. Our next speaker is Patrick Barrett, followed by LaQueen Battle, then Michael Monestime. Patrick, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

9 PATRICK BARRETT: Thank you. Can you hear me? MS. STEPHEN: Yes, we can. Please go ahead. PATRICK BARRETT: Thank you. My name is Patrick Barrett, also in the Main Street. I'm here tonight to support Policy Order 117. I am a hotel owner, and the program that's in place by the Office of Tourism came about during the pandemic. We look at it as more of a lifeline, a potential to reach out to a broader audience. To date, I can't say that the Office of Tourism has even set foot in my building, let alone talk to us or explain how the funding is being used. It's a bit curious to me, having gone so long, that I look to organizations like the BID, the Harvard Business Association, the East Cambridge Business Association, to provide us with sort of a guiding light in terms of how we're supposed to activate our community. And retail, I would say, is tourism. And I think the antiquated model that they've been using, their antiquated website that gets a fifth of the traffic that most of our websites get, I think there needs to be someone -- I think we need to look into and reevaluate what the Office of Tourism does. And I think no better place to start than with the agreement that we have right now, which, again, just all it does is really make hotels more expensive for people coming to Cambridge and sends a good portion of that money to Boston. That seems like a really strange outcome to me, and after four years of it, I can't really say what it's done for us. The last thing I want to say is I don't know fully well the issue that's going on with the church, but I go to church on Sunday. My wife drags me there. I try to do the best I can. I have never in my life heard a reverend refer to people who are concerned citizens as a bunch of Karens. That is beyond the pale. I really hope you support those people. They're dealing with the same issues we're dealing with all over the city. They sound compassionate, they sound caring, and they deserve to be heard. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is LaQueen Battle, followed by Michael Monestime, then James Williamson. LaQueen, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. LAQUEEN BATTLE: All right. Hello, my name's LaQueen Battle. I live on 86 Otis Street, and I'm a CHA resident. It's a pleasure and honor to be here tonight. I'll try to be really quick. I'm talking about agenda items two, for funding for our firefighters, and agenda item number 7. I'm currently working as a CNA and a home health aide, and I'm very grateful for the job readiness programs that have provided people like myself as well as migrants here in Cambridge and throughout Massachusetts. These programs provide a strong pathway to stable employment and meaningful community contribution. Once certified, participants have to do -- have the opportunities to grow professionally and work alongside firefighters and EMTs, assisting in emergencies and being the first to help residents and the community in need. Also, on some occasions, like the anniversary of 9/11, these programs do remind us of the importance of uniting to support our community in times of crisis. I am grateful for the opportunity to earn my CNA and my home health aide credentials in Massachusetts and proud that the city of Cambridge does continue to offer free and community-oriented CNA training programs through the Cambridge Learning Community Center, both accessible to English and non-English learning -- excuse me, learners. For participants, these programs provide financial security, career growth, and a sensible learning with Cambridge's diverse community of over 120,000 residents. For the city, they ensure that the quality of elders and families while easing pressure on the growing health care system with our growing elderly population. It is an honor and a privilege to be here today, and I would also please encourage the funding for these programs that do provide people like myself of low-income background, despite what this pandemic economy and the job employment population does ensure for us. Please, please, please continue to encourage funding for these programs and funding for our firefighters. Thank you so much, and God bless you. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is Michael Monestime, followed by James Williamson, then Heather Hoffman. Michael, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. MICHAEL MONESTIME: Good evening, Mayor Simmons, Vice Mayor McGovern, and members of the council. My name's Michael Monestime. I'm the president of the BID. I'm also a proud resident at 4th

10 George Street, and I'm here to support Policy Orders 116 and 117. Policy Order 116 matters because Cambridge thrives on its cultural events; porch fests, block parties, fairs, markets, these aren't extras. They're part of our civic identity and economic life. A clear city policy on roles and financial responsibilities will help nonprofits like ours plan better, budget smarter, and keep delivering events that bring people together. Turning to Policy Order 117, former Councilor Alanna Mallon in her role as chair of the Mayor's Arts Task Force often described tourism, economic development, and the arts as a three-legged stool. Her point was simple. When these areas are aligned, Cambridge thrives. Arts and culture are not extras. They're central to equity, resilience, and civic life. Tourism flourishes when Cambridge's creative energy is visible, and economic development benefits when that energy brings people into our squares, filling storefronts and activating public spaces. Today, the Office of Tourism has stable TDMD funding for citywide marketing. City tourism dollars then should strengthen the neighborhood organizations like Central Harvard, East Cambridge, and Kendall that create the experiences visitors and residents actually encounter. And tourism is not just international travelers. It's also families and neighbors from across Massachusetts who come here to shop, eat, and explore. Investing locally ensures Cambridge stays vibrant square by square. Together, these two orders strengthen public-private partnerships and ensure Cambridge remains warm, resilient, and joyful. They're a reminder that Cambridge works best when we plan ahead, invest locally, and build a city that people are proud to call home. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: Our next speaker is James Williamson, followed by Heather Hoffman. James, you have the floor. If you can unmute yourself, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. JAMES WILLIAMSON: Can you hear me? MS. STEPHEN: Yes, we can. Please go ahead. JAMES WILLIAMSON: Thank you. James Williamson, North Cambridge. By the way, the problems that have been discussed, which are horrifying to me, and I do observe in Porter Square, are bleeding up all along Mass Ave to Arlington. If we don't have rules, we're going to end up with law and order. If we don't have rules, we're going to end up with law and order. I want to speak to the two things that Michael Monestim just spoke to. The first is the idea of having a standard for distributing support, public support, taxpayer dollars, to groups that are doing major public events. I think it's a mistake to put the threshold as high as 1,500. I think that support should go to people who are organizing smaller events. Maybe, say, up to, if you have 300 people at an event, I think you might need some support from city departments, and you deserve to be -- you might well deserve to get support. So, I'd lower the threshold, and I'd also include -- to make it clear that this includes community, or groups, neighborhood organizations, not just nonprofits. And I'm getting on a bus. Excuse me. Thank you. The other thing is, on the other one, I understand that there's money for the Office of Tourism from this joint entity that isn't explained, but should be, between Boston and Cambridge. And I have an issue with the Office of Tourism. The kiosk building, nobody seems to have paid any attention to the way they slapped on that neon sign that says kiosk, as if we needed to know that the kiosk was a kiosk. I'm running out of time. I think the money should go to the people, not the businesses. MS. STEPHEN: Madam Mayor, I'm having a technical issue right now. Give me one second. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: I could see. Maybe not. MS. STEPHEN: Nicole, can you unmute Heather, please? Our next speaker is Heather Hoffman, followed by Charles Franklin. Heather, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. HEATHER HOFFMAN: Hello. Heather Hoffman, 213 Hurley Street. First, I just have a comment about the various items, including the committee report, having to do with civic engagement. Had I been there in-person, you wouldn't have been able to read my t-shirt, but it has a cartoon on it. And the caption is, we want to include you in this decision without letting you affect it. And that is my experience of too much community engagement in Cambridge. You need to change that. People who are not the official people often have something worth hearing. With respect to large family-friendly events, I agree with James that that's probably too large a threshold.

11 And I think that those events matter a ton to making Cambridge a place that lots of us want to keep living in. So, I hope that whatever you decide will encourage those events and make them possible. With respect to accessibility, once again, I will point out that you are talking about only people who have mobility problems, and that's very important. But there are also people who have other accessibility challenges that matter a whole ton for getting around, and that's people with low and no vision. Please include us. And finally, with respect to litigation, I do hope you will get a report on TV City of Cambridge and a discussion of how the city has or has not complied with the temporary restraining order. Thank you. MS. STEPHEN: The next speaker is Charles Franklin. CHARLES FRANKLIN: Good evening, council. Welcome back. 162 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Charles Franklin. I'm going to speak in favor of Policy Order 9, which requests that the city work to inform the community at large about the work of the Micromobility Commission. I would like to thank Councilor Nolan and her co-sponsors in particular for pointing out that micromobility shouldn't just be for the able-bodied. As we continue to reimagine the streetscape, we cannot leave the community of the mobility challenged and disabled behind. They are our neighbors. We should take care of them, just like we would want others to take care of us. As we build and redesign streets going forward, as long as we do these designs considering mobility assistive devices and other forms of micromobility, then I believe that we can have a good, equitable use of our streets. Thank you. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Madam Mayor, that's the final speaker signed in. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you, Madam Clerk. Pleasure of the City Council? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: (no audible response) MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On a motion by the Vice Mayor to close public comment. Discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, Madam Clerk. I'm sorry. I used to say it now. Thank you. Didn't see you walk. All those in favor, say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. And public comment is now closed on the affirmative vote of nine members. We now move to the submission of the record. I'm going to pull number 3, but on number 1, which is the regular meeting minutes of May 19th, 2025. Number 2 is the Council regular meeting, June 9th, 2025. I'm pulling number 3. And number 4 is minutes of the City Council special meeting August 4th, 2025. What is the pleasure of the City Council? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Place on file. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On a motion by -- I'm sorry? On a motion by Councilor Nolan to accept the minutes and place them on file. All those in favor, say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. And the record -- the minutes of the May 19th, June 9th, and August 4th have been accepted and placed on file. On the minutes of June 16th, 2025, I just want to amend those minutes to add public comment. So, I'd like to, if Councilor Wilson would make a motion to add public comment to the minutes of June 16th. Is there any discussion? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: So, moved. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Hearing none. On a motion by Councilor Wilson. All those in favor, say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. And the minutes are amended. To place the minutes on file as amended. On a motion by Councilor Wilson. All those in favor, say aye.

12 MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. And the minutes are amended and placed on file. We now move -- there's no reconsideration. We're going to move to the City Manager's agenda items. What is the pleasure of the City Council? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Madam Mayor? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Number 9. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Number 9. Pleasure of the City Council? Councilor Zusy and then Councilor Nolan. COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Number 8. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Number 1 and number 4. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Any other items? Hearing none. We are going to pull number 1, number 4. Councilor Nolan pulled number 1. Councilor Nolan pulled number 4. We have Councilor Zusy pulling number 8. And Councilor Toner pulling number 9. If there's nothing else, I will entertain a motion. I will do every -- we'll just do a roll call on the balance. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: (Move out 01:11:01). MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On a motion by the Vice Mayor. To take up 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7. Madam Clerk. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Councilor Azeem? COUNCILOR BURHAN AZEEM: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Siddiqui? COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Toner? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Zusy? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Mayor Simmons? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: And the consent agenda items of the City Manager have been adopted by the proformative vote of nine members. We move now to the non-consent agenda. These are the items that members pulled off. The first one was pulled by Councilor Nolan, reads as follows; a Communication Transmitted of Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to a federal update including an update on relevant court cases. Councilor Nolan, floor is yours. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you, Mayor Simmons. Through you, I pulled this so that we could have an update from the City Manager on this range of cases. I will also note that the city, and all of us, I hope, breathed an incredible sigh of relief with Judge Allison Burroughs’ ruling on both the Harvard University case as well as the American Association of University Professors case, which showed very clearly that their contention that civil rights have been broached, that First Amendment rights were broached, that the

13 law had not been followed by the Trump administration in seeking to take away a lot of that funding. We know it's not over. There's always a case for appeal. But it's a hallelujah moment that when you stand up and you do things. And I just want to also express, before we hear from the staff, that just this list alone shows how busy our staff is, and yet that ruling by Judge Burroughs shows how incredibly important it is to actually take on these cases, because it is the way that we can stand up for the rule of law and for ensuring that not only our city but our state and our country and the world understand that it's something that has to move forward in the court cases. But we are really just protecting public safety and democracy. So, with that, I’ll yield for the City -- through you, for the City Manager to go over. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: City Manager, the floor is yours. CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: Thank you so much. Through you, Mayor Simmons, and thank you, Councilor Nolan, for pulling the item and for the quick note on the case regarding Harvard University. I would encourage the Council as well. I know there is so much happening, but to the extent that there are specific issues that you're hearing about from the community or that you're interested in, we're also happy to get that in advance, and we can highlight our updates on that. We do try and provide updates on the major issues, especially as there are big developments. And so, tonight, we would like to update on our approach to federal funding uncertainty as we go into the fall regarding federal funding coming to the city. And then the second is the recent announcements in court decisions on immigration and ICE actions, especially in the region. And then, also happy to turn it over after questions for a broader update if there are questions about other court cases that are currently happening, and especially the ones that the city is involved in. On federal funding, we've been tracking the larger federal grants that we receive from the government, which are at risk based on both the imposition of grant conditions that we may not be willing to accept or potential withdrawal of federal funding in future budgets. The city received from HUD grant awards for the Continuum of Care Homelessness Grant for FY '26 in the amount of $6.3 million. This is one of the larger federal grants that we receive, and as a result of the King County versus Turner lawsuit that we were a plaintiff in, HUD was enjoined at this time from withholding grant funding to the city. As a result, we've entered into grant agreements with the designated non-profit providers who conduct the leasing payments and supportive services for individuals who come out of homelessness under these grants for the July through September period. And so, the discussion that we had prior was that we would advance this funding even though there was some risk that we may not be reimbursed for it. Those sub-awards for the July through September period were about $770,000, and we do expect to be reimbursed for those. In order to ensure that individuals being served are not subject to eviction or disruption of services after September 30th, we are anticipating on extending those grant agreements for this next quarter, October 1st through December 31st. This would obligate an additional $1.4 million, which again may or may not be reimbursed by HUD depending on the outcome of the current litigation. The current litigation essentially has enjoined HUD, where they have to continue to fund us, but if there is a different or negative decision in the case, HUD may be able to take that funding away. The city has also provided funding to approximately 25 nonprofits through the Emergency Solutions Grant and the Public Services CDBG grants while we await the outcomes of lawsuits about grant conditions for those grants. We've entered into grant agreements for July through September again for that first three months of the fiscal year, totaling a $140,000. We are planning to extend those grant agreements as well for an additional three months from October through December. That would be another $140,000. So, to summarize, there's about $1.5 million of additional federal grant funding that we are proposing to continue providing to these critical programs and community partners, recognizing that pending litigation we may not be reimbursed for them. And we would ultimately likely try to address this through the federal funding stabilization fund that the Council approved and that we established. We are planning to provide additional details and a formal appropriation request likely for the September 29th Council meeting, but we wanted to provide a heads-up tonight just on where things are and how we're thinking about approaching that next quarter. I would say that given the federal budget discussions that are likely to happen this fall, we will likely get

14 a better sense of where we are by the end of the year, and then we can have more explicit conversations about how we approach the January through June period in 2026. On immigration and ICE actions, I know that we are all having conversations across our community, and there's tremendous concern and anger over federal actions on immigration enforcement. Recent announcements about an increase in activity in our region is worrisome, and there are reports at this point of dozens of arrests over the weekend. While there are directed ICE actions within Cambridge, we have received notification from federal officials in advance, and we expect this to continue, and we have continually emphasized that notification is important to ensure that our Police Department knows that any detentions that may be happening in our city are federal officials and not unauthorized individuals. And there have been a total of six notifications and interventions by ICE in Cambridge this calendar year. I appreciate the efforts of the City Council to strengthen our Welcoming Cities Ordinance, and we continue to ensure that our local police are here to build community trust and safety and are not supporting civil immigration enforcement. Further, we have not yet seen an uptick in federal actions in Cambridge at this point, though I would say that the overall focus for ICE actions has not been within Cambridge, but has been greater regionally, especially in gateway communities. A bigger concern in the medium to long term is the dramatic increase in ICE funding that was part of the recent federal budget reconciliation bill, which tripled funding for ICE enforcement and deportation operations. It is a tragic reality that we are, at this point, only at the beginning of the ramp-up of deportation efforts, and it's important that we all continue to speak out against these policies that are not actually focused on violent criminals, but deporting peaceful and productive members of our communities and our country. We've spoken out together. I know the Council has spoken out, the City, with other municipal leaders through Metro Mayors with Boston, Lynn, Chelsea, and 10 other cities, argued that ICE actions without notifications targeting people based on what they look like and violently breaking into vehicles are not just making our cities less safe, but these are also unconstitutional. Earlier this summer, a district court in California addressed this in response to what the judge called a mountain of evidence of indiscriminately rounding up individuals without reasonable suspicion. The judge ordered federal agents not to rely on factors like race, ethnicity, language, or performing a particular type of work. The appeals court supported this order and refused to intervene. But today the Supreme Court issued a decision with no rationale provided that lifted that restriction. Broadly, this is incredibly worrisome because it seemingly legitimizes racial profiling and just indiscriminate detentions, but also because it shows the Supreme Court has begun a pattern of overturning the ability of lower courts to issue injunctions and preserve the status quo while these critical decisions, these critical constitutional questions, are being litigated. So, while these cases are still not decided, it indicates this deeper concern, and particularly that the Supreme Court believes that these federal actions are constitutional and will likely continue. This is really a substantive change over the last months that shows an erosion in the ability of our judicial system to pause executive actions for review, and we continue to have a lot of concern over many other decisions that are currently being litigated. On the more positive side, we have seen some court decisions that we support, including the overturning of federal government's actions withholding grants to Harvard University that Councilor Nolan raised, as well as the termination of temporary protected status for individuals from Haiti and Venezuela that was determined over the weekend, that those actions to end that program were not legitimate. But both of these cases are likely to be appealed, but these are at least positive developments for now. So, I think those are the major updates on things that I've been hearing about. Happy to receive questions, and maybe we'll pause there, and then I can also turn it over to the Law Department for any updates on pending litigation. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan, do you want -- or anyone from the floor want to ask any questions to seek? Councilor Siddiqui has her hands up on the City Manager's earlier presentation. Let me just see if Councilor Nolan yields the floor.

15 COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Yes, that's fine. I may have a question later, but I'm happy to yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan, yields. Councilor Siddiqui, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: Thank you, through you. Thank you for this overview of the litigation so far. On the last aspect of the President of your comments around ICE, I think there is a lot of -- there are a lot of questions in the community given various articles that are coming out, you know, everything that we're seeing. And I think the biggest question, and which is a hard one, is, you know, we've already done things to strengthen our Welcoming City Ordinance, but are there other things that we're doing to kind of prepare for what's coming ahead? You know are there more -- it's a broad question, but, you know, whether that's more trainings or something, but is there -- do you have some insight into how we're going to be preparing for some of this unknown around the increased funding, the Supreme Court decision, a potential increase from the six incidences that we've seen? Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: City Manager? CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: Through Mayor Simmons, thanks for the question, Councilor Siddiqui. You know, I think we have taken a lot of actions to prepare, particularly on the City side, for if ICE officials were to show up within City buildings or departments. I think we'll issue this week just a reminder of the guidance. I appreciate the efforts from the Law Department in particular, and we've set up -- we set up essentially an on-call line for departments to be able to call so that they're not making these decisions in real time in front of federal agents, but they can get legal support. I wish there was more that I could say about the broader deportation efforts that are ongoing. One of the biggest challenges is these are enforcement activities that are happening regarding laws that are on the books, and it's a shift in priorities that don't accord with our values. And further, especially with this Supreme Court decision that happened today, we're seeing, you know, some boundaries -- some constitutional boundaries that we really don't agree with being crossed. I think in many ways I feel like, you know, we were going into this year seeing the courts as the primary place where we had an opportunity to call out unconstitutional actions and to challenge them. The worry is that what we're seeing is a reluctance from the judicial system to really preserve some of those injunctions. That's part of what I think I've appreciated. The Law Department has taken on a lot of additional work to look at how the City can participate and be either a plaintiff or an amicus in many of these cases, but it seems like there are really limits to where the courts can make an impact. You know, I think this does end up getting to the ways that we collectively can speak out and I think organize, particularly as we think about next year's midterms. I wish there was more that we could do operationally, but I think there are real challenges to how we ultimately interact with federal agents regarding some of the actions that they're taking. So, we will continue certainly to think about this. I think this is on our minds constantly, and I know in a lot of the conversations I'm having with members of this body. And we continue to be open to new ideas for how we can support our community beyond simply spreading awareness and keeping people updated on what we're doing. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Siddiqui? COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: Thank you. And through you, I think -- yeah, I think the reminders are important. And I do know that we funded this year, expanded our partnership with De Novo. So, I do think if that's a part-time position that the City allocated and, you know, they take on various immigration cases, including deportation defense, but checking in with them, I'm seeing, you know, I'd be curious what they're seeing. Is the part-time position that we have sufficient? Do we -- can we do more if we need to do more? But those are the things that I just wanted to share. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Siddiqui yields the floor. Councilor Wilson, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor, and through you. Thank you for the presentation, the update, Mr. City Manager. And a question that I have, and you mentioned this in regards to notifications, like just somehow being notified that maybe ICE is in the area or, you know, to pick up someone.

16 Can you go a little bit deeper into maybe what does that look like? Like, do they know specifically who they're looking for? Do they know kind of the vicinity in which they will be in? Like, what kind of notification are we receiving? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: City Manager? CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: Through you, Mayor Simmons, I think we do have the Police Commissioner available, but I would maybe just start to say, for the most part, it is more just notification that they are going to be in the city. They usually don't give us any specific information, but I can let Commissioner Elow just provide a little bit more context in terms of the notifications we received. We haven't seen an enormous amount of activity within the city, but I think she can talk through some of the data. POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: All right. Through you, Madam Mayor, to Councilor Wilson. So, our shift commander and our emergency communications received calls from agents from ICE asking about people that we have arrested and information about the arrest. We have, like, six interactions, and I can go into more detail about what they wanted, but basically it was -- there was one where we had somebody in custody. They wanted to know, were they still in custody? And we referred them to our welcoming ordinance. They knew from the fingerprints, through NCIC, that we had them. They ended up coming out to our station and picking them up when they were released. They also went to another apartment where they were looking for an individual, and they had a photograph that they showed to a resident. That resident called us. We went and just took a report. We did not engage with ICE at that time. And other times that they called just asking us for information about people that we had in custody, and we just referred them to our welcoming ordinance. But I can go into detail if you'd like more specific. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor, through you, Ms. Commissioner -- Madam Commissioner. If it's okay to go a little bit deeper, just if it's appropriate to, I would appreciate it. Thank you. POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Sure. Through you, Madam Mayor. On September 6th, our shift commander received a call from an ICE fugitive task force looking for information on a previous arrest that we made. We advised them this was an OUI arrest. We sent them to our welcoming ordinance. They then asked some questions about freedom of information, and if they could do any walk-in requests for public records, and we referred them to the Legal Department. On August 20th, our shift commander received a call to get information on a person in custody. And they actually called ECC. ECC relayed the call to us. We then said to ECC that we cannot. We referred them to our welcoming ordinance and didn’t answer any questions. On June 4th, ICE also called us to inquire about the status of somebody that we had arrested, and they actually wanted to know, did we know why they were under arrest and all that. We said we were aware of the warrants and again referred them to our welcoming ordinance, that we do not answer questions. On May 10th, that was the arrest where we arrested a young woman for shoplifting. I got her fingerprints through the NCIC system, and they waited outside for her to be released and picked her up. On February 23rd, ICE called our shift commander. They were looking for an individual that we had arrested on February 20th for a violent crime, and we again said that we don’t have any information and we cannot share. But they did tell us that they were going to be in the area of Essex Street, where this individual lived, looking for them. And that was it. We didn’t have any more interactions with them. On February 19th, this is when we took a report from New Street where a resident said that ICE knocked on the door, showed a picture, and said, “Would you let us in so we can get this individual?” We didn’t see ICE or interact with ICE, but we took a report. And that’s all for 2025. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you. Thank you so much. Through you, Madam Mayor, to the Commissioner. I appreciate those updates, and I think that that’s really important for us, you know, just kind of know. First off, like they’re seeing people in our custody via the fingerprints or some other closed mechanism like that, and then we have been alerted that there’s ICE in the area. So, I think, just for the

17 community’s sake, just if you -- just as again another friendly reminder, what should we -- what should people do if they notice that ICE is in the area, in the community, maybe just driving around or what have you? What should we -- what should members of our community actually do? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Commissioner? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Through you, Madam Mayor. I would say it’s okay to either call 911 or the non-emergency line. You know let us go out. What we had said through our welcoming ordinance is that we’ll go out, we’ll kick it up to supervisors and, you know, our leadership team to go out and identify and find out what’s going on. They have been calling us when they’re coming in, so I would hope that if they’re going to be here that they let us know first. But if people see them, we want to know. We would like to know where they are and see if we can get any information on what sort of operations they’re engaged in. So, they should call the -- call 911 or the non-emergency number. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I yield. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson yields the floor. Vice Mayor, the floor is yours. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Thank you. Just a quick follow-up. And I appreciate, Madam Commissioner, that you are indeed referring them to our sanctuary city ordinance and standing by that. That’s good. I’m not surprised, but it’s good to know. So, of the -- do we know? So, we know of six calls or notifications from ICE. We know the one where the person who was arrested for shoplifting was coming out of the police station and was taken into custody. Do we know about the other five? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Commissioner? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Specifically, what questions are you asking? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Well, I’m just wondering. You know a notification that ICE is coming in doesn’t necessarily mean that ICE actually took someone into custody, right? So, I'm just -- again, this is where as much information as we can share with people, the better, because there are lots of rumors. You know, I’ve heard people say that, you know, ICE is all over the city. You know, I got a call, actually, from my son, who was concerned that ICE was out in front of his work, he works in a restaurant with a lot of immigrants who work there. And it turned out it was an Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and somebody was renting a large SUV. Right? And so, people are just they see these cars on the road, and everyone is obviously so scared and so anxious, and they make assumptions. So, I guess, I’m just curious as to, one, just making sure we’re getting the information out there, but do we know, even in the specifics, about why ICE was searching for certain people, right? I mean, are they -- are we seeing in Cambridge that they’re abducting students like they did in Somerville or in Framingham with a high school student on his way to a volleyball game? Or are these legitimate warrants? Like, I mean, just so we can understand the level of concern and what we’re seeing in our community. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Commissioner? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Through you, Madam Mayor. I appreciate the question. Every interaction that we’ve had with them it's involved somebody who has been under arrest. And I would say for one, the shoplifting, there was shoplifting and assault and battery, so they were trying to make the connection to a violent crime. So, I want to say everybody that we’ve had contact with has been involved in a crime. And no, we’re not seeing anything of picking children up off streets or anything like that. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Thank you. And through you, Madam Mayor, just the last question. I mean, I have no idea, up until this year, under this new regime, you know, I don’t -- is six ICE notifications more than what we typically see? Is it in line with what we typically see in other years? I mean, is this really an uptick or I mean, I just have no idea because we never really talked about it much before. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Commissioner? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Through you, Madam Mayor. I want to say, and I want to get back to the specifics. I want to say last year we had four ICE interactions. So, if this year, in September, we’ve had six, there’s a slight uptick. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: More and we’re not even through the year yet.

18 MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Mr. Vice Mayor, can I just ask you to pause? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Okay. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: When you say, “This year,” I’m thrown off. Are you talking about Fiscal Year? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: 2025, from January to -- calendar. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: You mean from January to December? Or are you talking about July to July? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: I’m talking calendar year from January 2025 to right now. In like calendar year 2024, I want to say we had four ICE detainers. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Okay. Thanks for the clarity. Vice Mayor? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Yeah, so two more, and we’re nine months in. So, it will be higher and already is higher. Thank you, Madam Mayor. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Vice Mayor yields the floor. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Thanks, Madam Mayor, through you, and thanks to the -- for this update. And as others have said, thank you for providing details on these and for, you know, letting us know that they are referring folks to the welcoming community ordinance and that it is having the, you know, desired effect that has been followed. That’s good to hear. I had a couple of follow-up questions and my other questions were asked by the Vice Mayor and Councilor Wilson. One follow-up question I had was, the talking through the six instances and the details. They were really helpful. One follow-up question, there was reporting around workers at a restaurant in Central Square who were detained by ICE. There's an article in Cambridge Day from July 12th. Just to clarify, because that wasn't listed in one of the events, those folks, they worked at a restaurant in Cambridge, they were not actually picked out by ICE in Cambridge. Is that right? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Commissioner? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Through you, Madam Mayor. I think you're referring to the Phoenix, and the information we have is none of them were picked up in our city. COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Got you. Thanks. That's helpful to have on record. Do we know where they were pick up? Just out of curiosity. POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Through you, Madam Mayor, I do not know where. COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Got you. Thanks. Thank you, that's helpful. And then the other question I had was just clarifying, so these are the six instances where ICE reached out to City of Cambridge, to Cambridge Police, and asked for information or let them know where they're going to show up. Are we aware of any instances where ICE hasn't notified beforehand or they showed up? I'm just thinking of like the case in Somerville of Rumeysa Ozturk, where she was abducted. I don't think Somerville Police or anyone was notified that beforehand, but people knew. Are there any instances like that that we're aware of, of just ICE showing up without notification at a time? And I understand we maybe just don't know even, but just curious if there are any that we know of. POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Through you, Madam Mayor, we do not have any information that we've had ICE come without our knowledge. And I do want to add one thing because I read something. We are going to have all of our officers we've ordered, so that they can all have placards on their back that read they're Cambridge Police. I think Chicago's also doing that. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Great, thank you. And then just the last question is, I have been asked by a few folks, the people we do know who were detained in Cambridge, including the person from the shoplifting arrest who was let out on bail and was picked up. Do we have any idea of where they are now, where they've been transported? Has ICE provided any of that info? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Commissioner? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Through you, Madam Mayor, I do not have any

19 of that information. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Okay. Thank you for this update. This was helpful and I yield back for now. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, yields the floor. Councilor Nolan, then Councilor Azeem. Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you. Yes. This is a follow-up to the beginning of this. I'm grateful for my colleagues for asking many of those questions which are roiling the community as we hear that ICE is ramped up in the state. I want to go back to some of the funding issues, which we will then possibly have, and almost certainly will have, a huge impact on us as we enter the next year. We heard about some of the grants for this quarter and for the next quarter. There's a number of other funding that comes through the state, even if it doesn't come directly to us, CDBG and others. Do we have any sense of future grants, what we're hearing? I know it's been a topic before, and I know we may not know for sure, but I think that's a huge risk for us because while some of the court decisions say that some of the conditions under which we were being asked to sign, which were not in line with our local ordinances as we didn't have to sign, but just as with Harvard, this case is only about grants that had already been awarded. Future grants, which would be in the billions of dollars for Harvard but the millions of dollars for us, are in a very different category because if they haven't been awarded, it would be very easy for an administration who wants to take it out on a city like Cambridge, which is standing up and which is standing firm for the values that we cherish and keep our residents safe. Do we have any sense of how that funding discussion is going, either at the state level? The federal government is now undergoing once again, they have to pass another budget by September 30th, and they're undergoing major negotiations. But we heard anything from our congressional delegation or at the state level, at the state level, about anything that we should be aware of going forward. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Mr. City Manager? CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: Through Mayor Simmons, I think we haven't heard anything at this point. You know, I think it feels like there's -- it's still pretty early in terms of where those discussions are. I expect those will be the really important conversations in terms of the future funding streams and whether entire programs remain in the federal budget or are substantively cut. I know one of the hard parts about predicting a lot of this is that during the first administration, a lot of these programs were not in the president's budget request but ultimately, we're still funded through Congress. And so, the question of whether or not Congress will continue to fund things like CDBG or ESG or these programs that really are affecting cities and states across the country, not just us. These are not sort of blue state programs, they're programs that are really happening in almost every community across the country. I think we don't know to what extent Congress will be pressured to or will accede to the administration to make some of these further cuts. So, I think it's just a little early to say, though I expect we will have much more clarity as we get into the fall. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you. I hope you're right. I do think -- I mean there's wind projects across the country that are on hold, there's 80% completed good jobs in America in Rhode Island that was just put on hold, stranding possibly billions of dollars of investment in something that brought decent jobs to this country. And that eventually could affect us with our moving forward on much of our provision of various clean energy and that's just one area. Then there's also, we know that in 2026 Medicare and Medicaid funding in this state is likely to be cut in half. So, while that's a year out, I think we have to be thinking right now about anticipating something, and this Congress has not shown the guts and the will to actually do something enough to protect the American people, unlike, I think you're right, during the first administration. So, I'm just not to be a downer, but I think we really do have to keep a sharp eye on it. I know you'll keep us informed, but I also want to make sure we keep our eye on that because it's been critically important in

20 so many areas. I only mentioned two of them, but there's many others as well. We've already heard some about housing. Thank you, Mayor Simmons. With that, I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Councilor Azeem? COUNCILOR BURHAN AZEEM: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just had a quick question. Based on all the analytics we have about like the number of times that we think that, you know, ICE has been in the city and what has happened, I was wondering if it was just a public page we could create just to post some of these, if that would be a doable initiative. I also see a lot of these postings all over social media of like, is this what's an ICE truck? Is this happening? How much have people been in Cambridge? And it feels like we have some of those numbers, and if it's possible to post anything publicly, I think it’ll just provide ease of this actually did happen and this didn't happen. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: City Manager? CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: Through you, Mayor Simmons, I think we can look into like, you know, to your -- maybe we can follow up with you just to think about how we would structure this. You know, I think some of the challenge is a public page that’s static just gets out of date very quickly, and I think, maybe to your point, there is a question from the community, and similar to what the Vice Mayor was saying, a lot of people are trying to figure out, like, how do they engage more in real time and say, “Is this something that’s actually happening?” or “I have this question, what’s the answer?” We can think about, you know, how we can create more of that forum or even, you know, if what you’re looking for, what you’re sort of thinking about, is more just, okay, well, like, these are the actual documented interactions. We can also think about whether there’s, like, some regular reporting that we end up doing, and we can post that for sure. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Azeem? COUNCILOR BURHAN AZEEM: Thank you, Madam Mayor. From my opinion, I think a static page would be plenty to start with, right? Even if it’s updated on, like, a weekly basis or something. So, not something super urgent. I just think that that level of, like, “Here is what we know happened,” and everything else, especially if we feel like our data is comprehensive, like there’s not ICE stuff that’s happening in the city that we don’t know about at some point, like, I think that that would be very reaffirming. And then, you know, all the more ambitious things of, like, you know, could it be more frequent, or more detailed, or all those things, like, I think those are bonuses. But I think even a slow static space would do a lot. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Azeem yielding. Further discussion, Councilor Toner? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Actually, just to piggyback on Councilor Azeem, if you’ve given us the stats right now for this year. If we had something that said there’s been six interactions this year, I’m leaving here thinking there’s six interactions. And if you just update it when there’s another interaction, not even a weekly thing or a monthly thing, because, as Councilor Azeem has mentioned, there’s just been stuff all over social media. Every time there’s a black library van that goes by or something, “Oh, ICE is in the neighborhood.” And it would be helpful even if it’s just some sort of simple text from the Public Relations Officers in the department so that we know if something has changed since this report you just gave us. So, we can stay on top of it. Thank you. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: City Manager, do you want to respond at all? CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: No, thank you. Through you, Mayor Simmons, thank you for the thoughts. We’ll definitely take that back, and then I can come back to give you a sense of what we’ll put up. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Okay. Any more discussions relative to Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor, and through you, I just wanted to -- I really appreciate what Councilor Azeem and Toner just mentioned, and really think, like, along the lines of also emphasizing the know your rights and tools and tips for the community could also be shared in that space. But I just also want to kind of center us around, or ground us in, the fact that, you know, just less than a year ago, this was all, like, disbelief, right? Like, we weren’t in that space of thinking something like this would happen or could happen. And now here we are, and we’re talking about the numbers and the people, and, you know, what does it

21 look like for us to have someone detained in our custody, and then we’re releasing them and then, boom, they’re picked up, right? So, just, like, you know, I think it’s -- we’re in some troubling times right now, and this is not going to shift anytime soon, at least not the next three years at the minimum. But it is very important for us as a community to be completely cognizant of what’s happening and what’s going on, and for now, like, right now, seriously, to be community, to be about community, and to really think about, if you see not just the black car driving down the street, but really taking that extra step of, you know, yes, notifying the Police Department and notifying others to say, “Something looks a little funny or suspicious, could we, you know --” And I don’t want you all’s phones to now just be blowing up with everything, but I guess at this point you have to anticipate that, because this is kind of the climate in which we are in. And we want to make sure that members of our community, whether they live here, work here, go to school here, whatever, that they feel safe, right, to go to school, to go to work, to do their day-to-day things. Because Cambridge should be a safe space, but we recognize kind of we’re under the federal government. So, I just wanted to leave us kind of with that, and just hope that we can continue to protect and, you know, while these numbers may seem, and I think to the Vice Mayor’s point, like, are we right in par? Is this, you know, a smaller number, a larger number? Like, kind of where are we? The number could be increasing if we’re not vigilant enough. So, just to be mindful, and to take care and protect your neighbors. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson yields the floor. Mr. City Manager, you want to pivot over to our solicitor for additional information? CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: I think we're probably okay. We've provided -- we continue to give provide an updates on lawsuits that we're either involved in or that are of special interest, given a lot of the topics that we've been focused on and that are affecting our community. So, I welcome any questions, but I'm also happy to move on if we're good on that front, and we’ll continue to provide those updates. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Very good. Thank you. So, motion by Councilor Nolan to place City Manager’s Agenda Item Number 1 on file. All those in favor, say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? Ayes have it, and City Manager’s Agenda Item Number 1 is placed on file. We move now to Number 4. This was pulled by Councilor Nolan. Reads as follows, transmitting communication Yi-An Huang, City Manager relative to the appropriation of 120,000 received from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Jail Diversion Program to the Grant Fund Police Department, other Ordinary Maintenance Account. The 120,000 in grant funds will be used to continue the co-response program with One Coalition through June of 2026. Councilor Nolan, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you, Mayor Simmons. I pulled this just to understand where we're at with the co-response model. And I know there's been discussion on the floor to ensure that the Police Department is working closely with the CARE Department and that the co-response model is not inhibiting any kind of further collaboration and ensuring that we are the City Department which is the Community Safety Department and the Police Department, with the co-response having similar, not completely identical but very similar goals of moving forward a non-armed police response. I know this is co-response, but there are times when, you know, we all want, and we established and spent millions of dollars establishing a Community Safety Department, which we all believe in can help offload some from the Police Department. So, I want to understand how this grant is working in conjunction with the CARE and Community Safety Department. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Mr. City Manager, do you want to lead off, or just Commissioner just going to take it over? CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: Through you, Mayor Simmons, happy to defer to Commissioner Elow just to provide a brief update. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Commissioner Elow? POLICE COMMISSIONER CHRISTINE ELOW: Through you, Madam Mayor, to Councilor Nolan. So, this is a continuation of the grant we had for the co-responder. This is separate from CARE, and we

22 are continuing to collect data. I think we had this for a two-year grant. I also have Dr. Jamie Barrett who's on the line, who might want to say a little more about this. But this is a continuation of the grant that we applied for. We're continuing to collect data on the co-responder model to evaluate it. Can we bring up Dr. Jamie Barrett, though, and see if he has anything he wants to add? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Dr. Barrett, are you there? DR. JAMIE BARRETT: I'm here. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: The floor is yours. DR. JAMIE BARRETT: Through you, Madam Mayor, to answer the question that Councilor Nolan posed. (SHOWN ON SCREEN) DR. JAMIE BARRETT: Co-response works very closely with Community Safety and with CARE. One thing to note is that co-response only goes to police calls. So, if we did not have co-response, it would be patrol answering the calls that co-response is dispatched to. The Family Social Justice section actually works probably, almost daily with Community Safety just to talk about cases that crossover, or to make sure that we’re not replicating efforts, and that we're coordinating our responses. One thing to note is that co-response is an armed police response, so for every co-response call, there is an officer who is armed. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you, through you, Mayor, thank you to the Police Department and Dr. Barrett. Yes, I understand co-response is with armed police. I also know that there was some tension around this when this was set up, and that there wasn't the robust and communication that we might have wanted with all the various City departments when this started in the Council and the Safety Department. I just want to name that and make sure we are now moving forward in a collaborative way. So, that we are drawing on all the resources of the City in the most appropriate way for those incidents. Because there are so many incidents as we know when a co-response model is not what we want to send because we do not want an armed officer, and there are other times when an armed officer is appropriate, and yet you also want a social worker. So, I want to be assured that we are in a better place in terms of both communication and the collaborative work across departments. And with that, I don't have any further questions, Mayor Simmons, so I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Is there any other question or discussion on this item? Hearing none. Councilor Nolan moves the appropriation. This is a roll-call vote. Madam Clerk? INTERIM CITY CLERK: Councilor Azeem? COUNCILOR BURHAN AZEEM: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Siddiqui? COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Toner? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Zusy? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Mayor Simmons? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

23 MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: And the appropriation is approved, and the matter placed on file on the affirmative vote of nine members. You move now to number 8. This was pulled by Councilor Zusy. Reads as follows, a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to the appointment of Sephany Alexis, Sally Benbasset, and Christina Turner and the reappointment of Elizabeth Aguilo, I apologize if I said that wrong, Rowan Murphy, and Michelle Lower as members of the Community Benefits Advisory Committee for the term of three years. Excuse me, Councilor Zusy, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. First, I just had a question about the second group, the people that would be -- oh, so they're both appointed for three years, and a reappointment for three years. So, I have some questions about this because I'm still confused about the role of the committee, and I thought Policy Order number 5 is really important, and it seems like we should define the function of the committee and how we're going to determine development mitigation, and who will be involved in those conversations before we define the committee itself. I know some of these people, and I know they're outstanding people. It seems like it's social service heavy, but we've also talked about development mitigation funds may be spent to build parking, cultural space, open space, and sometimes to fix up the homes of nonprofits. So, wouldn't it be important to define the role of the committee before determining who should be on the committee? Because if this committee is going to be determining how development mitigation funds are spent, then we might want some people with more business expertise. We might want bankers, or businessmen, or lawyers, or investors, or university professors on this committee. The committee might require a different set of skill sets. So, I don't know. I'd love to hear, through you, Madam Mayor, I'd love to hear your response to that query. And also, I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, I don't know how to proceed with this because it seems like we should have a report back on Policy Order number 5 before we elect our committee. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Well, Councilor Zusy, this is information only from the City Manager. It doesn't -- it's not looking for our approval, but you can certainly ask for additional information. So, why don't we start by getting a response from the Assistant City Manager for Human Services, and we can go from there. So, if you will, I'll give the floor over to Ms. Semonoff, Office and City Manager for Human Services. Until January and I don't know why you're leaving, but we'll talk about that later. DEPUTY CITY MANAGER ELLEN SEMONOFF: Through you, Madam Mayor. Thank you. Let me start by saying there is an ordinance that the City Council passed, which actually both defines the membership, the specific members that the City Manager is supposed to appoint, and which defines what it is that the committee is supposed to do. I do understand that there is interest potentially on the part of the council to, first of all, there was a council order requesting some changes to the ordinance to begin with, as well as there's now obviously a new council order talking about both community benefits and mitigation. But at this very moment, there is an ordinance which lays out exactly what the membership should look like. So, when the City Manager made these appointments, he's making them to the current committee under the terms of the ordinance, and I think it's actually quite useful to have a full committee. I think it could make sense for the council to reconsider who it wants, what are the nature of the appointments, but the council is very specific about what the membership of the committee should be. There are four residents, there are three -- there's one business person, there's a university person, there's a philanthropic person, and so if the council were to change -- want to make changes to the ordinance, it might well want to make changes to who are the people who make up the committee. But at least right now, there is an existing ordinance, which -- and there's work for the committee to do. We're hoping to come before, too long, to the Human Services Committee of the council to talk about the report that we presented here back, I think, in May. And I know that the request was for there to be a City Council, wanted a Human Services Committee meeting, which I think will happen, to talk about that report. So, I think as the City Council considers whether it wants to change the ordinance that currently exists, certainly when it does that, looking at what should be the membership would make sense. But right now, you have an ordinance which defines who should be appointed, what are the characteristics, and the City Manager made the

24 appointments based on that. COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: So, if we change the ordinance, then we may end up with -- we already -- I mean, we can't really change the committee, can we? Can we uninvite people from their three-year terms? Again, they seem like qualified people, but these people have -- a lot of them have expertise in like, nonprofit and social service management, which would be great if that is where all of our, you know, development mitigation community benefits money is going to go. But it may be going to other things as well. So, I just -- I’d love to hear from my colleagues as well, but it just seems -- it seems premature to be selecting committee members if we may be changing the ordinance, changing the role of this committee. If it's -- I know historically, I mean, just in the last few years, during COVID, you presented a great report about how you had partnerships with different social service organizations and you delivered amazing programs. But then, we're talking about going forward, that money may be used for other purposes as well. So, I guess I'll stop there, but I'm eager to hear from my colleagues. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Zusy, yields the floor. Councilor Toner? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Madam Mayor, thank you, through you to Councilor Zusy. I appreciate the issue she's raising and the concern she's raising, but until we pass that Policy Order, you know, I hope it passes, and we have a report back. I mean, this is a standing committee that needs replacements, and all we're doing is adding people to it. And I don't think anything about that Policy Order that myself and my fellow counselors have proposed, and again, I hope it passes, changes the need for who's on the committee. Because this -- my understanding, this committee will just be dealing with the community benefits. So, if anything goes into the community benefits pot, they would be involved with that. If money is going to -- I mean, personally, if there's a lot of development on North Mass Ave, Ms. Watkins, I hope it goes to, you know, dealing with this, Alewife Brook Parkway mitigation stuff. But we need hundreds of millions of dollars for that. So, this committee is only going to be dealing with monies that do go into a community benefits segregated fund, if I understand that correctly. I yield, Madam Mayor. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner, yields the floor. Further discussion, Vice Mayor? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Thank you, Madam Mayor, through you. And just to follow up. And, you know, the process, if we're going to be changing the ordinance to expand what the community benefits fund are used for, and I mean, that's not going to happen in one Human Services meeting, right? We're going to have to have a meeting, that we're going to be bringing people together. There's going to -- it has to go through the ordinance process. This is not something that is going to happen quickly. So, I wouldn't want to do anything to hold up appointing people to continue to do the work that they have to do. I mean, this may take several months before we get to any specific changes. And again, Madam Mayor, as you pointed out, we have no authority over this anyway. So, I think we should just take a vote and place it on file. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Vice Mayor yields the floor for the conversation, discussion. Hearing that, Councilor Zusy, do you want to ask any more questions before we vote to place this on file? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: I still have some concerns. So, I think I would just abstain from supporting these appointments, not because these people aren't extraordinary, but because I think it makes more sense to pass Policy Order number 5 and really think about how we're going to be distributing development mitigation funds going forward, including community benefits, before we appoint people to that council. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Zusy, yields the floor. Hearing no further discussion, Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor, through you to Assistant City Manager Semonoff, I just had a quick question in regards to the appointments. Could you just speak to -- do our folks rotate on and off, maybe annually, for a three-year term? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: To the City Manager, Ms. Semonoff? DEPUTY CITY MANAGER ELLEN SEMONOFF: Through you, Madam Mayor. Because of the

25 way in which the appointments were made. It doesn't happen necessarily annually. People are appointed for three-year terms, and so you can see that the cycle of this is, we have three people. One person had to leave the committee recently, and so this appointment is off cycle for that, but the three people, so that we have -- I think we would have had four people rather than six people being appointed right now. But for the two people who won a little bit ago, and one recently who needed to step down, so there is turnover in the committee. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you. That's all for me. Thanks. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Further discussion? I'll entertain a motion to place on file on a motion by Councilor Wilson to place this item on file. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? She's abstaining. So, all this meant opposed. The matter is placed on file on the affirmative vote of eight members; one being recorded as abstaining. We now move to number 9. This is pulled by Councilor Toner. It reads as follows; a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to the amendments to the Cambridge Tobacco Ordinance. This was pulled by Councilor Toner. Councilor Toner, floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. The reason I pulled it is, I think this is where we get ourselves in trouble a lot of times as we start talking about things that the broader community doesn't know about. And at risk of being accused of being pro-tobacco, I’m not. I mean, I started smoking when I was 13 years old and wasn't able to kick the habit till I was 29 years old. And I grew up at a time when your mother could send you up to the store when you were 10 years old to buy a pack of cigarettes, you know. So, it's good that we have placed some restrictions on it. I do get a little uncomfortable with, for instance, the nicotine-free generation policy. I mean, at the age of 21, I believe you should be able to make the decisions yourself. I mean, because, if you're going to start talking about, you can't buy cigarettes after the age of 21. Well, maybe you can't buy fried food or soda, or, you know -- at the same time we're having conversations about why can't I start smoking my marijuana openly in a nightclub? Or there'll probably be another ballot question about having, you know, more potent drugs available. So, I know this is just to refer it to a committee, but I hope that when this gets referred to a committee, we're going to send a letter to every retail shop and liquor store and anybody that sells tobacco products, so that they have an opportunity to weigh in. And forgive me if I'm getting the name wrong, but I think it's not the Andala Coffee Shop around the corner, where you can smoke hookah outside. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: God bless you. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Do they know that we're talking about maybe saying you can't smoke hookah pipes outside, you know? So, I just want to make sure everybody that's impacted by this is involved in the conversation. And, you know, it'd be great if we lived in a world where people didn't do things that, you know, aren't healthy. But there's an awful lot of things that people do that aren't healthy that, you know, we can't restrict. And I do think the age of 21 is an appropriate point where people can make their own decisions. So, I just wanted to raise that point so that when we go forward with this, everybody's involved in the conversation. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner yields the floor. Pleasure to City Council, Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you, Mayor Simmons. I agree. As Councilor Toner said, we should certainly let people know this is to refer to committee. It is the Health and Environment Committee, which I'm chair. I'm happy to hold a meeting at some point. It probably, at this point, won't be till November because we already have four meetings set up, including one starting tomorrow. I also share some of the concerns about a blanket prohibition. I am probably in the distinct minority of, it's bizarre to me that we don't let 19, 20, and 21-year-olds buy anything, when we have other ways in which they can go into the army and do many other things. So, that doesn't mean I'm seeking to change the age back to 18, but many of these are controversial. I don't think it's just the stores that are selling them. I think it's also the entire community of people across the city who would want to know if it is, that particularly if we're considering something like Brookline

26 has, which is the tobacco-free generation. But my understanding is not that people flood into our Health and Environment Committee meetings. But we can certainly let them know once that meeting is set up, to ensure that people can attend. And if it makes sense for us to have a meeting if we're discussing things, particularly prohibiting certain kinds of sales to small businesses across the city, to do it at a time when it is most appropriate for them to be able to come, like later in the day, at four or five timeframe, instead of in the middle of the day when we know it's much more challenging for certain kinds of folks to come. So, again, I'm happy to refer this, because -- and then I think we would need to have a discussion, you know, that the Health Department came here to talk about it. It is a health decision, but it's also a freedom decision of folks being able to choose what it is that they're imbibing. And I say, this is a daughter of two lifetime smokers, both of whom died early from their two-pack-a- day cigarette, and that for every single year. I can remember, my sisters and I gave our parents completely failed gifts that they were supposed to use to try to kick the habit of smoking. So, this is not someone who is not deeply aware of the dangers, having a sister who also died of lung cancer. It is deeply troubling, but there's many things to discuss around this issue. Oh, normally, and what I will say is remind people, this is about tobacco, but tobacco is included in vaping products, which is an increasing public health threat that is quite challenging for. And that's included, I think, as we update this, and that is something that we really have to make sure that we are aware of. It is really, really dangerous. And as all of us who served on the school committee know, it’s right through our schools as well, and we do need to make sure that we can take that really dangerous product away from our youngest residents. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Further discussion? Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor, through you, I would love to hear from the folks who are at the table. Yeah, they can introduce themselves and maybe speak to the ordinance a little bit and share whatever thoughts you have. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Please introduce yourselves and share what thoughts you have. SAM LIPSON: All right. Through you, Madam Mayor. I'm Sam Lipson. I'm the Senior Director of Environmental Health at the Cambridge Public Health Department. I’ve been around long enough to remember when the City Council passed the current form of ordinance back in 2015. I remember a lot of those discussions. There was a very lively conversation about what city parks people could smoke in, and in the end, Cambridge chose to not universally ban smoking in parks, and I think a lot of that was a response to civil liberties concerns that were raised. I thought that was a good and reasonable outcome, that has not been reached in other communities. But what we've seen in the ordinance over time is that, because it runs through City Council and it's not a regulation, a public health regulation, it can be very cumbersome to make small changes. And we are the only community in Massachusetts that does not enforce tobacco and nicotine through the Board of Health. And so, we tend to be much less limber and nimble in keeping up with model code. That's not a mandate from the state, but it is promoted by the state and the tobacco control advocacy community. By having a separate regulation that would govern only the retail sales of nicotine and tobacco, and have that be enforced through the public health regulation, we would be able to make quick changes, changes of definition, terminology, that would allow us to keep up with the obstacles that have been put forward by the tobacco industry to try to get around the way the rules are written. It would allow, however, the City Council to retain control over citywide policies, things like nicotine- free generation, or if we were to have caps on the number of permits that were to be granted, or restrictions on zoning and areas where they should or shouldn't be sold. This feels like an appropriate separation. So, that’s the center of the proposal. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you. I don’t think your mic is on. PAUL KAWAI: I'm Assistant City Solicitor Paul Kawai, and I'm really just here to do whatever the council wants. I can yield the floor to Derrick Neal of the Department of Public Health, they wish, unless you

27 have any other questions. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Paul’s now the most popular person to sit before the council. (laughter) MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: If we could have Chief Neal come forward. Good evening, Chief Neal. Anything you'd like to add about this proposal? CHIEF NEAL: No, we've just been in limbo for a few years on this. And I have -- I’m scheduled to speak to the legislature at the end of this month, and they specifically want Cambridge to, you know, represent the state. We are a member of the 14 largest cities, and I just think this is something that we should get in front of from a policy standpoint. I do totally understand the civil liberties part of it, but a lot of us are dying before our time, particularly those from marginalized communities and people of color who are disproportionately impacted by smoking. So, just those are my only comments. Sam has done a tremendous job, way before my time on this, so I just want to really show a lot of gratitude to Megan for pushing this forward. So, I'm glad that we're here beginning this conversation. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Chief Neal yields the floor. There's a question of Chief Neal before he leaves? No further discussion on this item? Hearing none, this is going to be referred to the Health and Environment Committee. So, we can do this on a voice vote. So, on referral to the Health and Environment Committee, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the matter is referred to the Health and Environment Committee on the affirmative vote of nine members. Thank you. We're now going to move to the Policy Order and resolution list. What is the pleasure of the City Council? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Madam Mayor? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Can I pull 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: 4? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: 5, 7. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: 5, 7. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: 8. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: 8? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: 10. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: And 10. Pleasure of the City Council? Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Number 9. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Pleasure of the City Council, on the balance? To detain a motion by the Vice Mayor to move adoption of 1, 2, 3, and 6. Am I correct, Madam Clerk? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Madam Mayor, I'm sorry, number 3. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: I wasn’t fast enough. So, 1, 2, and 6. On adopting 1, 2, and 6, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and 1, 2, and 6 on the Policy Order list has been adopted. We'll now go back to the items that were pulled. It's going to read them. Make sure I got them all. Councilor Wilson pulled number 3, Councilor Toner pulled number 4, Councilor Toner pulled 5, 7, 8, and 10, and Councilor Nolan pulled number 9. Going back to the non-consent Policy Order list, pulled by Councilor Wilson, reads as follows; number 3. But the City Manager's requested to consult with the appropriate City Departments, including the City Solicitor's Office, to establish a formal policy that clearly defines the city's role and financial responsibilities in supporting large-scale public events hosted by Cambridge-based nonprofit and not-for-profit organizations. Councilor Wilson, floor is yours. COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you. I just pulled it because I would like to be added. Do

28 we have ours? I am a little curious about the -- no, sorry, not for that one. Just wanted to be added. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: All right. And so, on this -- so, we’re going to be amending number 3 to add Councilor Wilson. Is there any discussion? Hearing none on the amendment, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. On the Policy Order as amended, is there any discussion? Hearing none. On the Policy Order as amended, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and Policy Order number 3 is adopted as amended by the affirmative vote of nine members. We now move to number 4. This is pulled by Councilor Toner. It reads as follows; that the City Manager's requested to work with the appropriate City staff to ensure that, effectively immediately, and for each fiscal year in which the Office of Tourism continues to receive -- excuse me, TDMD funding, that the City shall redirect its municipal funding to distribute those funds equally among the Central Square Business Improvement District, the BID, the East Cambridge Business Association, the Harvard Square Business Association, and the Kendall Square Association. Councilor Toner pulled this item. Councilor Toner, floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I didn’t know if you, Vice Mayor, wanted to speak to it first since you were the proponent. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Do you want to speak to the -- I think what you heard on the floor from -- she's not here now, the head of the Central Square -- excuse me, Harvard Square Business Association was pretty clear. But let me just add; this Policy Order is focused on ensuring that our city's fiscal support for promoting Cambridge is aligned with how the work is actually being done today across neighborhoods, across organizations, and across sectors. We have several dynamic, place-based business associations; the Central Square BID, the East Cambridge Business Association, the Harvard Square Business Association, and the Kendall Square Business Association. They are each doing essential work to drive foot traffic, support local businesses, and create events that enhance our civic and cultural life. Their efforts aren't just good for residents. They make Cambridge a more vibrant and attractive destination for visitors as well. At the same time, the Office of Tourism continues to receive over 1.5 million annually from TDMD to carry out its mission, and we recognize the value it brings. This order simply says let's rebalance our municipal dollars to reflect the broader landscape. Let's support all the organizations that are actively contributing to our city's vitality and appeal. This is not about taking away from anyone. It's about lifting up those who have been doing the work by spreading our funds more equitably. We reinforce a more collaborative, neighborhood-driven approach to economic development, and we make sure that every corner of Cambridge has the tools to thrive. I respectfully ask for your support, with the Vice Mayor. With that, I will yield the floor. Councilor Toner, floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. We've received information from other parties on this issue, and I'd like to try to write it at this time for future discussion. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner exercises his Charter Right. Charter Right is exercised. It closes off discussion. Discussion can be taken up at the next regular meeting. We move now to number 5. This is pulled by Councilor Toner. It reads as follows; that the City Manager's requested to work with the Community Development Department, the City Assessment, and all other relevant departments to develop a comprehensive policy for future private development projects in the city. This is pulled by Councilor Toner. Councilor Toner, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I want to thank you and Councilor Azeem, Councilor Nolan, for co-sponsoring this. And I apologize to folks for -- at the summer meeting or whenever, we took our contentious vote for making it sound like a threat that I was going to bring a Policy Order, but I felt like I had to follow through and bring my Policy Order. And I bring it out of a sense of, you know, as somebody who's been on the council now for three and a half years, the Biomed East End House issue was the first time I, as a Councilor, had to deal with the process of someone seeking the ability to do something

29 more under zoning and dealing with community benefits and mitigation dollars. And I think everybody involved, including everybody here on this council, thought we were doing it the right way because apparently that's traditionally how things had occurred, if somebody wants to do a project, they reach out to the neighbors. They reach out to Councilors. They talk about what they want, and then they formulate the process, and we go through with the ordinance. And it got contentious at the end, and a lot of people felt that it wasn't transparent and they didn't know how this happened. So, on and so forth. So, I drafted this Policy Order. I did discuss with the City Manager and Assistant City Manager Peters to see if they were okay with it. They said they thought they could work with this Policy Order and get back to us before the end of the year. Just to clarify because a lot of the pieces are already there, but I don't think they've been concisely stated or put in one place so that all the Councilors and all the members of the public know this is how the process shall work going forward. So, I hope we can all support this and by the end of the year have a report back with recommendations from the City Manager, not just about community benefits, but, you know, as I said, on North Mass Ave., if there's a lot of future development, we have a big price tag to deal with cleaning up Alewife Brook Parkway and the CSO's, the sewer overflows there. So, we need to find the money somewhere, and, you know, maybe that's where it goes and it doesn't go to some nonprofit. And I just also felt that, you know, at least the way the conversation was going, there were a lot of people thinking that, you know, they're going to make the decision about where the money goes and who gets the money and stuff. And it's like no, we really need to be clear up front so we don't have this argument again and figure out how much money is going to infrastructure, or how much is going to go to nonprofits. If it's going to nonprofits, you know, how much goes to the impacted immediate community, and how much goes into a fund for folks all around the city. So, that's the intention of it, and I hope my colleagues will support it. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner yields the floor. Councilor Nolan, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you, Mayor Simmons, and thank you to Councilor Toner for working on this and yourself and Councilor Azeem. Yeah, we all lived through a pretty difficult and challenging time, having had an incredibly contentious process around a development project, which was similar in some ways to another very contentious development process when there was a zoning petition from Cabot, Cabot and Forbes, and Alewife. I mean, that gave me an inkling of how it could become contentious. And yet there's been a couple others that we went through that no one raised any questions about, whether it was 585 Third Street and the entire, incredibly beautiful Constellation, and also the Substation and the building under construction right now. So, it's kind of been all over the map. This brought to the floor lots of people in this community who felt hurt across the board. There were very challenging and divisive conversations going on, and, you know, we couldn't even talk to each other, all of us, because of we were -- because of open meeting laws. So, it became something that all of us were committed, I think, during those meetings say, we have to improve this process. And this Policy Order that lays out is to try to do that. I think part of it is the terminology that we say, well, it's community benefit, but then there's a Community Benefit Advisory Fund. Is that the same thing as a community benefit? There's mitigation funds. When I said to people, this is contract zoning, that's different from community benefits. It's for myself as a Councilor, I think sometimes it's hard for us to understand. There's community benefits. There's contract zoning. There's neighborhood mitigation. But then there's the citywide impact that all of this development in any area affects the whole city. So, what this lays out is we need to understand the process. We need to define it, and we need to have a conversation about ensuring that clarity is in the process so that we can all understand, as we move forward, to have just guidelines to understand if the city staff will be deciding who is the community group that will negotiate, if that should be more transparent than it has been in some of the other issues in the past. So, I was very, very happy to work on this and co-sponsor it, and I hope very much that we can move

30 forward so that we can be in a better place anytime there's future, because -- and we all have to hope that there will be future development in this city eventually, wants to slow down or goes over. So, that's, thank you, Mayor Simmons. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan, yields the floor. Councilor Azeem, did you want to speak to this at all? Any further discussion on this item, Councilor Siddiqui, floors yours. COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: Thank you. Through you, I definitely support the development of a process that kind of answers some key questions around contract zoning. I think there's been a lot of conflation of various issues. You know, I will say I think the Community Benefits Advisory Committee, you know, should play a role in the process regardless of if nonprofits are being funded or not. I think they are a conduit for nonprofits and a piece of engagement on the city side. And, you know, I also think engagement shouldn't solely be a responsibility of the developer. You know, I think, as we've mentioned in this meeting already, we're in the process of amending that, and you know, I think engaging further with that, the community -- that committee, and you know, I think thinking about there they already have methodology -- that there's a report. There's a methodology that they've used in the past. There's a lot of discussions, I think, happening around that, but I agree with just some more clarity and just kind of norms among us, too, on how this actually all comes together and works. I also want to just think about the role of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority. They're not called out in here, but I think they're very relevant to this, as they do -- they get involved in capital projects in our city, they fund our nonprofits. And so, I think there should just be more collective conversations on all these pieces, so you know happy to support this and look forward to putting all the pieces together. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Siddiqui yields the floor. Further discussion, Councilor Zusy? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Thank you, through you, Madam Mayor. I think this is definitely a step in the right direction, and I'd love to be a co-sponsor for this Policy Order. I also, I'm eager -- I hope as part of this discussion, and hopefully this, there'll be some sort of a committee meeting also where we'll discuss these things, but I'm eager for more of the history relating to community benefits. I understand in Cambridgeport, when University Park was proposed on the Simplex site, that Geneva Mellon Font (phonetic) was the leader of the Neighborhood Association and a member of the Planning Board, and she was able to advocate for affordable housing, two parks, and a better street layout. So, it would be really good to understand what has been done in the past. Also, it would be good to have better clarity about how community benefit funds are calculated, because that needs to be transparent, and there needs to be consistency there. There should be an impact analysis on the area in which the project is proposed, and there should be distinctions between capital grants and operating funds allocation. You know, ultimately, we can't rely in the community benefits funds to pay for operating funds, because organizations have to be able to support themselves, but all of these things should be part of that discussion, and maybe part of that discussion should also be more about if the Community Benefits Committee is going to have a broader role to make determinations relating to, again, things like CSO improvements, again open space, parking, cultural space, building repairs. Again, we might think about having people with other different types of expertise on that board. I have heard complaints that there were beneficiaries of community benefits funds on the current Community Benefits Board, and some people felt that was highly, highly inappropriate because members of the board were advocating for their own organizations, so I look forward to hearing more about this and to engaging further in this discussion. Thank you, and please add me to the PO. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Zusy puts a motion on the floor to be added to Policy Order number 5. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, on adding -- as on amending the Policy Order to add Councilor Zusy as a co-sponsor, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the Policy Order is amended. Any discussion on the Policy Order as amended from anyone? Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, if I can just add my thoughts to the --

31 MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Yes. COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you. So, you know, I really want to appreciate my colleagues in this order here. I mean, this really is unprecedented in terms of how we engage in dollars of this size, right, like this never -- like it's been a long time. I think there was maybe some dollars that it came in some time ago, and maybe pre-pandemic or something like that, and this kind of discussion, this level of engagement, was not there. So, there's elements of this whole process that I just want to appreciate, because this has actually allowed us to open our eyes not only to needs of nonprofits, but to what community process and engagement ultimately looks like. And it also allows us, I think, as council members, to really think about when new development is coming into our communities, kind of I think as the city, so to our city leadership, but also to us as Councilors, just where we need to be prioritizing dollars and what communities, and what does this look like. So, how much control or how much say we actually have as a body, but also thinking about how do we ensure that more of the community is able to participate in the conversation. So, I want to again appreciate my colleagues for putting this, bringing this forward. And I will support it. And you know look forward to our Community Benefits Committee meeting to happen soon, just so that we can just talk more through those, you know, mechanisms and really think about like a little trip down memory lane, right, to really understand why it was established and kind of what has it been able to do thus far, and kind of where we are today, and what's the opportunities for the future. Again, especially recognizing that there will be some open opportunities, especially in the North Alewife, North Mass Ave areas. So, with those dollars that are potential, right, to come in, we want to make sure that there's some good setup for success, not only to our nonprofits, but to some of the things that even Councilor Toner mentioned. So, yeah. So, I appreciate, I will support it, and you know I just want to appreciate the complexities around what we experienced through this process, and it wasn't pretty by any means, but what it was is it allowed us the opportunity to dive deeper and to be in this place where we can have more community engagement and really define more of how we do better as we move forward around these community benefit dollars. Thank you. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson yields the floor. Further discussion? Hearing none. Just briefly, thank you for saying how we do -- how do we get there, Councilor Wilson. The idea behind the Community Benefits Program, it had to do about impact mitigation, the impact, the community where the work was happening, you know, how do we offset that. And what was happening, certain neighborhoods were getting more development than others, and everyone was saying, “Well, how will I ever get my turn if I'm not in that particular area?” This is a real watered-down version of it, and we'll talk about it more in the -- when we have the hearings. So, this was an attempt, this community mitigation fund was an attempt to put the funds in one place and then had a process through which those money -- those dollars could be equitably, or fairly, going to be careful which word you use, distributed in the community. I think what might have been a part of this process is we adopted it in good faith, but we never go back and look at it. And so, that it says to me not just about the community mitigation funds, but we have to be a little bit more intentional as a body to look at prior work to make sure -- and I don't know what that is, that I don't mean that's something that comes up in Government Operations or someplace, we do have to establish some process where we take a look back to say, “Is this doing what it needs to do?” So, this is our opportunity to do it. Maybe through that process, we'll learn and establish a system-wide process to evaluate programs and processes and procedures that we adopt. We do the good work, but we have to go back and make sure it's always doing what it was intended to do. So, I certainly will yield the floor. Is there any more discussion on this matter? Hearing none. On a motion by Councilor Toner on the Policy Order as amended, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The Ayes have it, and the Policy Order as amended is adopted by the affirmative vote of nine members. We'll now go to number 7. This was pulled by Councilor

32 Toner, reads as follows; that the City Manager is requested to confer with the Election Commission, the City Solicitor, and the City Clerk, and report back to the City Council no later than September 15, 2025, City Council meeting on the Policy Order regarding the deadline for the charter change. Councilor Toner, this is pulled by you, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I didn't know if you wanted to speak to it first. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: I will. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you to my colleagues. Earlier this year the Council voted to move forward with a proposed change to our charter by placing a question on the ballot this November. Since then, both our city staff, our legislative partners, particularly Representative Decker and Senator Sal DiDomenico, have been working incredibly hard to shepherd this process through the necessary legal and procedural channels, excuse me. But as we sit here tonight, we still don't have the final ballot or language in hand, and as time is quickly running out. The Election Commission has made it clear that there is a hard mid-September deadline to finalize and transmit ballots for printing. That's not a soft target, that's a line we must meet in order to comply with the vote-by-mail laws, to ensure early voting can happen properly, and most importantly to avoid confusing or disenfranchising voters. Councilor Toner and I brought this order in because we need to know, do we have what we need to move forward, what are the legal and logistical consequences if we don't, and is there a viable backup plan, such as a special election, if this slips beyond our control. We owe it to our voters to do this right. That means understanding our deadlines, our options, and the risk of pushing too close to the edge. I urge my colleagues to support this order so that we can get a clear-eyed update by next week's meeting and make the decision based on the facts, not assumptions and not wishful thinking. I yield the floor to my colleague, Councilor Toner, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor, and everything you said I concur with. And I, you know, for me, I remember during our discussions about co-chaired with Councilor Siddiqui, I kept hearing that we needed to like have some answers by June so we could get this up to the printers, and here we are in September. So, I wanted to give the opportunity to the Solicitor, the City Manager, and Director Ford (phonetic) just to update us on where things are at and, you know, what hard things we're up against. And if there is a possibility, if we don't do it on the ballot in November, is there a way that we as a City could take up this vote in a different way separately? Because I have to say my real concern is that if there's some slip-up in the process, we all know we have some litigious folks that live in the City of Cambridge, and I wouldn't want someone challenging that ballot process, because I know we as a Council unanimously recommended going forward with these changes. So, it's not even about them being controversial amongst us, but I would not want us to, you know, in an effort to force it through to get ready for November, find ourselves in a situation where we make some sort of error that people could challenge, you know, the charter of the city going forward. So, if we need more time to take the vote, is there a different way we could take the vote if it can't happen in November? So, with that, I'd love to open it up to the City Manager, the Solicitor, and Director Ford and Elliot to be able to answer some of these questions. Thank you, Madam Mayor. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Madam Mayor, before they do that. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Vice Mayor? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Just before I came into the meeting tonight, I got a call from Representative Decker, who updated me to say that she anticipates that this will be signed and ready to go by the end of this week and shouldn't be a problem to get it on -- shouldn't be a problem to get it to the Election Commission in time. So, I just got that call to five minutes before I came in, so just so folks know that. So, it should be all settled by the end of this week. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Very good. Does anyone want to be heard from before we hear from our Solicitor, Councilor Nolan, Siddiqui, and Wilson? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you. Happy to hear from folks as very glad to hear from Vice Mayor McGovern about that. I had heard that the Senate engrossed this today, so now it's back in the

33 House, and this should be done. I do -- when we hear from the staff, it was really good to know what preparations have already been made since we know this has been in process since last June, and we knew this was going to be done. There was no question whatsoever about the material other than the pro and con argument. So, anything that had -- could have been done earlier, while the timing isn't exact, it would be really good to know if every single step that could have been done in advance was done, including ensuring that reaching out. I know we have -- and I don't know if it makes sense we have to move to bring it forward, but we do have a draft pro argument from the Solicitor that would be appropriate for us to approve tonight. I don't even know what part of the agenda it's on, but it's really important to do that. I will also remind us all of it. I'm very excited about this. This is something we've worked on for two years. I'm glad to hear from Vice Mayor and from Rep. Decker that she has helped move this forward. And I know that Senator Sal DiDomenico has also been involved. And another one of our state senators, Senator Brownsberger, was actually on the dais this morning when it was being engrossed. So, the whole team is working on it. And also in terms of timing, when the last time we had a ballot question, which was also related to the charter, which was for the November 2nd, 2021, election, the deadline that we were told, which Councilor Siddiqui and I worked on the pro argument, was that the deadline to have the copy done was September 20th, and we voted that Policy Order for that to move forward on September 13th, and we had that ballot was printed in time. So, in other words, we're on the same timeline as you were during that. We, of course, want our state rep, state delegation to continue to push it forward and for the governor to sign this and realize how timely it is. But it did want to also assure us that, since this is a very similar timeline, we have two extra days before the election, November 4th, and said November 2nd. I also believe there's a state law that you have to wait up until a certain amount of time to provide an opportunity for people to come forward, maybe to write the con argument. I can't remember what that timing was, but that was part of what we learned in 2021 when we were doing this. So, I hear the trepidation. I understand there's some concern, and there's going to be a scramble, and I really appreciate that the Election Commission is working on this. And I really hope that any steps that could have been taken before this, like telling the printer it's coming whenever that is, that reaching out and having a con argument, you know, be put in place. I hope all that was done a month ago because we've known this has been coming for the last three months. And I'm really excited and hopeful that this will be in plenty of time because I think we owe it to the voters. We've been working on this now for three years. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Councilor Siddiqui? COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: Thank you, through you. I just wanted to add, I know that Rep. Decker and Senator DiDomenico, they've conferred with the Secretary of State as well, and, you know, as long as this kind of what we're being told happens, then there shouldn't be an issue. So, again, we have to see what gets done, but that's what we're being told. And I will say some of the timeline issue that happened here was due to an error, right? And so, I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus. I'm just saying that, factually speaking, the legislature did their job in that they passed -- we were supposed to pass, but then we had to go back and amend the right thing. There’s some process. There are -- things that do happen. So, we are where we are, to Councilor Toner's point. There's things that, you know, I wish things were moving faster, and I understand the position the Election Commission is in around, you know, there's a lot of deadlines, and there's so much to do before an election, but I do think I'd prefer not to wait. Given all the work that has been done. And so, what we're being told -- I'm fine passing this PO, but I do think I am hopeful from the conversations from our delegation that we're very close. So, just want to say that. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Siddiqui, yields the floor. We just say this policy order it's not asking to slow it down. It's to get a definitive answer. Having had some conversation with the Election Commission, they have been doing their due diligence to make sure that the eyes are dotted and the T's are crossed, and they're not just -- the ballot initiatives are one thing. There's still the election itself. So, they're working hard to make sure they meet their timelines.

34 And speaking for myself, but Councilor Toner, if I can, it's just saying we have a direct by Policy Order. This is the way we converse with our staff to say this is something we need for you to make sure you do. So, I'm hoping that people will support it. Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor. If it's appropriate to suspend the rules and just bring in communications and reports from other city officers, 3 -- 2, and 3. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Yes, it is. You can. (crosstalk) COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: So, that we can just have those conversations as well, well, since we're on the topic. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: I think that's very prudent because we have the staff here. So, there's a motion by Councilor Wilson to bring forth -- I think it's communication number 2 and 3. Yes, and 3. So, on a motion by Councilor Wilson to suspend the rules on suspension, all those in favor say aye? MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? Ayes have it. We're in suspension of bringing communications from others -- and reports from other city officers, number 2 and number 3. And a motion by Councilor Wilson, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, in communications 2 and 3 are before us. Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And through you to our Solicitor, if there's anything more that you would like to add, just kind of given the situation and the conversation. I know that we have a favorable argument that's also been shared, that's in communication number 3, but we also have the transmitting the memo regarding the voter guide for the ballot question. So, if you have anything that you would like to speak to, but before we do that, I just want to say that I'm in favor of it and recognize that the challenge that we had before us like, folks were working very diligently, and again, not to throw anyone under the bus, but, you know, I think the office of Rep. Decker and Senator DiDomenico are working really hard to make sure that this gets passed. And I do believe, with my conversation with Rep. Decker also this afternoon, that this will come before us, that'll be completed and signed by the governor by the end of the week. So, through you, Madam Mayor, and to Madam Solicitor. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: To Solicitor Bayer and Palosa, Palosa (phonetic), the floor is yours. CITY SOLICITOR MEGAN BAYER: Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor. So, we had the same update that several of you have received today, that it was engrossed by the Senate, and it looks like it could be signed into law by the governor before the end of the week. The Election Commission staff, along with support from the City Manager's office and my office, have been working to try to get ducks in a row in anticipation of that. So, that relates to the communications from other city officers, 2 and 3. 3 is the request from Tanya Ford on behalf of the Election Commission, looking for that argument in, you know, for -- the proponent argument for the voter guide about the ballot question. And Communication number 2 is we in the Law Department drafted an argument that the Council could adopt as that proponent argument to go in the ballot guide. If that's acceptable to the Council, or if there are any amendments, and if we can do that today, then that can get back to the Election Commission, which is one of the steps that has to happen for all the deadlines that the Election Commission is trying to meet. We also, the Election Commission, and with support from my office, have been working on reaching out to potential residents to write the opposition to the ballot question argument. We made a number of contacts, and we're not able to find anyone who was aligned with that position and interested in writing the opposition. But the Election Commission has a special act, which is what establishes this guide that goes out on ballot questions. And it does say in there that if there isn't someone who is interested in writing the argument in opposition, that the Election Commission can write it themselves. So, the Law Department is going to support the Election Commission just as we have here with the Council, with a possible opposition argument for the Election Commission to review and approve if it chooses to do so. We've also been working with the Election Commission on what the actual text of the ballot question will look like, the text for the question, and then there's a summary of what the question is for, what the ballot,

35 what the charter would do. So, that allows the Election Commission to work with its printer to have a proof of what the ballot will look like, approved, and then eventually to print the ballots. The Election Commission and Director Ford, I believe, is on the Zoom, so she can speak as well. You know, they have a lot of work between now and election day, and then even after election day, and there are a lot of variables, because they have to work with outside vendors who work with printing the ballots, setting up the voting machines, doing all the mailings. Both, we're talking about the ballot guide that gets mailed, but there's also a voter guide with information like where you go to vote, and then there's the early voting information and the mail-in ballots. So, with all of that, you know, they're working very hard to see that this can -- if this is passed this week by the legislature and the governor, that it can make it on the ballot. You know, there will be some variables that the Election Commission can't control along the way, but we are hopeful that if it happens this week on Beacon Hill, that it can be on the ballot for November's election. And I would turn it over to Director Ford if she has anything to add. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Director Ford, are you with us? DIRECTOR FORD: Yes. Yes. I'm here. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: The floor is yours. (SHOWN ON SCREEN) DIRECTOR FORD: Through, you, Madam Mayor. So, in talking with our ballot printing vendor, they need an approved ballot by Friday in order to print Saturday. That's pretty much a hard stop for them because we also have the ballot question mailing, which has been referred to as the voter guide. But there is a voter guide, and there's a ballot question mailing, which are two separate things. The voter guide goes out every election -- just before the election so that we can provide voters with information about the upcoming election and deadlines, things of that nature. The ballot question mailing, as prescribed by our special act, goes out to every household with a voter, with the information, the ballot question information, the pros and cons, and a concise summary from which we have received and been working with the Law Department. And that's something that needs to go out prior to EV ballots being mailed to voters. We had planned on our deadline was October 6th, to begin mailing ballots to early voters. People have already started calling. So, September 29th would have been the date to mail out the ballot question mailing to everyone so that they would have the information before they received their ballot. Because if we recall back in 2021, we scrambled and we mailed out the ballot question due to our special act, the time that we're allowed in there. We mailed out the ballot prior to mailing out the ballot question mailing, so people didn't really know what they were voting for. So, these are concerns at this point if the legislature is able to approve this and have the governor sign early part of Friday. And we can send -- we've been working with the vendor. They have information, but we also have an objection to candidacy for a School Committee, and the vendor also cannot print. He has to print all ballots. He can't print just the ballot question and the School Committee. All three ballots would have to be printed at the same time. So, that also creates a delay. So, this is a situation we're in right now. We don't want voters not to be able to get the ballot question information. It's very important for them to receive that, and it takes 8 to 12 days for the vendor to print and mail, so that would bring us to the beginning of September 22nd, the week of September 22nd. There also has to be ballots mailed to another vendor for testing, for the AutoMARK machine, for those who may be disabled or may need assistance to mark their ballots, and those memory cards have to be tested and returned to us before vote by mail. I mean, before early voting in-person at the end of October. So, these are all of the things that we're kind of concerned about at this moment. We do have the hearing for the objection tomorrow, but I don't know what the end result will be. Hopefully, it'll be finalized tomorrow; if not, I guess we'll have to go from there. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Commissioner Ford yields the floor. Pleasure to City Council. Councilor Wilson, do you have any more follow-up on that, or do you yield the floor for further discussion? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Madam Mayor, thank you. And I just want to thank our city staff

36 for the work that they are doing to complete this and to be very diligent and timely. I recognize that this is a lot of work. I recognize the major steps that go into this process, and I just want to say that I appreciate you all. And I truly believe that we'll have this stuff by the end of the week so that we can actually move forward, so that we can ensure that this is on the ballot, since that was our, this body's intended goal when we voted for that. So, thank you. Thank you so much. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson yields the floor. Further discussion. Councilor Toner? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to clarify. I think the staff has done yeoman's work. And also, I think the legislature has done everything they can to get it through. The intention of this Policy Order is just, like, you know, when is the deadline, deadline, so that we know whether we can move forward or not? And yeah, I hope it goes on the ballot, too. It's just, I am concerned that if there's a slip-up somewhere, then we put ourselves in jeopardy. So, hopefully, they get signed on Friday. And if everybody says that can -- that's the last day we get it done, great. But I don't want anybody to think that in my co-signing this, that I was blaming staff or members of the legislature for their work. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner yields the floor. Further discussion on this item. Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thanks. I'm really appreciative of all the work that's gone into it and all my colleagues who have worked with the legislature. I don't -- again, back to in 2021, we were a week later than we are now. We were kind of at this time, and we had a whole other week to get this in. So, the election was two days earlier than it is this year. So, again, it'll happen by Friday, but is it -- and the timing, I'm hearing it's the eighth now. If it has to be printed by the 22nd, that gives two weeks before October 6th, when ballots go out. So, it seems like there's enough time for this to be done unless I'm missing something because there's a number of weeks in there and we already know. I mean, the entire charter, the Special Act, will be printed as part of the ballot. So, we already know. My understanding is we know everything except, at this point, assuming the Policy Order, and thank you so much for bringing that forward, as Councilor Wilson brought it forward. It's a great argument. I'm happy to for it to pass it unchanged. I think it's a very good summary of all the discussions we've had over the last three years. So then, the only thing left is the con argument, which will be drafted by it. So, we know exactly what needs to be printed. All we need is the act. Am I missing something, through you, Mayor? That’s the only text that we don't know is the con argument, which if we have no one in the community who will be doing this, then the Law Department with the Election Commission is a 100% in charge of it. And once we pass this tonight, you need no Council action whatsoever after this. If the Legislature's -- so you don't need any action from us even next week. So, I just wanted to clarify that we can send so much of this already now to the printer. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan yielding the floor? Councilor Nolan yields the floor. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: I wanted the answer to that question. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: The City Manager is primed to speak. City Manager? CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: I think, through you, Mayor Simmons. I would just note, I think first to Director Ford's note on 2021, I think there was some not ideal process in terms of when the ballot question information went out versus the actual ballots. And I would say I think part of this is just to recognize that there is a lot of complexity in our elections system, and I think the bar for whether we get it right is much, much higher than given the compliance requirements and the level of scrutiny that is on our elections department. We can certainly see some of the challenges that some of our neighboring communities have seen with elections. And so, I think we do take the process very seriously in terms of fully enfranchising everybody who has an opportunity to both understand what they're voting on and to have the opportunity to have their voices heard. I think what we've said is that given the tight timeline, and if this is going to be passed this week, if we can get an approved ballot by Friday this week, we feel like the timeline is very tight but can be doable. I think

37 this also is premised on everything going right. And so, a lot of what we typically have is a little more built-in time. So, if something does happen that's unexpected, or as Director Ford was noting, if we have ballot testing that's happening with a vendor and something comes back funny, we have time to actually go and fix it and address it. I think the concern is, if not everything goes perfectly, then we are going to be in a position, especially with the pressure of early voting, that we may not be able to get everything out timely. And I think that is actually one of the deeper challenges, in terms of, I think Councilor Nolan, you mentioned the deadlines that are set in terms of how many days before the election something has to get approved. I think we're actually still, from an ordinance perspective, working out the different timelines because, you know, I think the actual deadline is like 35 days before the election. But when you actually think about the process of getting early information out, early ballots, and people needing to receive those and have time to bring those back to the Election Commission, some of those timelines don't really work, and we actually have ordinances that are in conflict. And so, I think that's some of why we're here, why I think this is important for us to come back on Monday, and we can provide a full update, presuming that everything has been passed, signed by the governor, and we can say, you know, we got this out to the printer and we feel good, and we're on track again, pending everything going basically perfectly. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you, Mr. City Manager. I just want to sort of support you in that. I concur, you're right. We've done all our pieces, but there's always that one thing that you don't plan on, the mail, there's just some look-up. So, congratulations. So, there's the message up there. We're going to get it done. I think it's important that the Policy Order go forward so that we do get a definitive answer on Monday because you're right, Councilor, we've done all our parts. The Election Commission has to chew gum, walk, and skip. It's just a lot of stuff that has to come together. And I just want to make sure that we are in the right place because it's better to -- I’d rather do it right than do it quick. So, I'm hoping that my colleagues will support this Policy Order. And if there's no further conversation relative to this item, what I would do is I would entertain a motion to adopt the Policy Order, and then we'll do a roll call on Communication number 2, which is what our solicitor has brought forward so that she can continue the work. I don't think you need a roll call on number 3, but you let us know. Very good. So, if we're good with that, I would -- on a motion by Councilor Toner to adopt the Policy Order number 7, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. Policy Order number 7 is adopted by the affirmative vote of nine members on Communication letters -- Communications from other city offices, letter number 2. I would like to detain a motion to adopt the order that's before us. On a motion by Councilor Nolan to adopt the order, we'll do a roll call on that, Madam Clerk, and then we'll place number 3 on file. INTERIM CITY CLERK: 2 is adopt and place. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: 2 and place. I see how we will have it. All right. To adopt and place on file. So, when you're ready, we'll do a roll call on number 2. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Councilor Azeem? COUNCILOR BURHAN AZEEM: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Siddiqui? COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Toner?

38 COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Councilor Zusy? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. Mayor Simmons? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Yes. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Communication from other city offices number 2 is adopted and placed on file by the affirmative vote of nine members. Number 3, I'll entertain a motion to place number 3 on file. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: (no audible response) MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On a motion by Councilor Nolan to place communication number 3 on file, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. And number 3 communication is placed on file by the affirmative vote of nine members. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Mayor Simmons? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Yes, Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Given the urgency of this, I want to move suspension of the rules in order to reconsider the two prior votes related to the communication, as well as the Policy Order on the proponent argument in favor of the city charter, hoping the same will not prevail. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On a motion by Councilor Nolan to move suspension of the rules. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. The rules are suspended. On voting reconsideration, hoping the same will not prevail. Roll call. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Councilor Azeem? COUNCILOR BURHAN AZEEM: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. Vice Mayor McGovern? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. Councilor Siddiqui? COUNCILOR SUMBUL SIDDIQUI: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. Councilor Toner? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. Councilor Zusy? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. Mayor Simmons? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: No. INTERIM CITY CLERK: No. And you have nine members recorded in the negative. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: And reconsideration fails. So, the item will go forward this evening. We can now go to number 8. This is pulled by Councilor Toner. Reads as follows; the City Manager is requested to work with all relevant departments to seek input from the community, as well as direct outreach to condo owners and short-term rental operators, and develop additional recommendations based on the discussion

39 in the ordinance committee. That was pulled by Councilor Toner. Councilor Toner, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to say that I'm supportive of this Policy Order, but I -- again, and I do appreciate the committee meeting that was held where the issue was discussed, and I'm thankful that out of that committee meeting, we are going to have further discussion in the last order to talk about reaching out to all relevant departments in the community. So, I think the number was that there's supposedly about 600 people that do Airbnb, and only 150 are following the rules and registering and stuff. So, I definitely hope that we'll do direct communication to at least the people who've registered and illegally doing Airbnb so that they can have their voices heard. I know a lot of people that have -- you know, this has been very beneficial to them, and they're especially retirees and their income. So, I want to make sure that we don't harm them in any way as we go forward because it sounds like most of the issues are about a few bad actors who don't take care of their property or, you know, noise violations, et cetera. So, I want to avoid us overstepping and harming people. But other than that, I just wanted to make sure that we do the outreach to the people most impacted. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner yields the floor. Further discussion. Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you, Mayor Simmons, and thank you, Councilor Toner. Yes, that is the intent of this, very much, to make sure that we reach out to all the short-term rental operators. What's interesting is only the ones who are actually legal are going to get that because two-thirds of the ones in the city aren't even legal, and those are the ones we understand should not be allowed to even be operating. And the whole intent of this effort is to have to enforce those rules. And this is not an effort to suggest that those who are operating would not be able to continue to, one, question that was raised is whether there should be some limit, particularly going on vacation, for, you know, 180 days seems like you're not really on vacation. But it really is about enforcement, and particularly to call out what we also ask for in the Policy Order is to make sure we reach out to condo owners and not have the burden on them to have to prove that it's not okay to do an Airbnb because if you're in a condo association, the sense is the condo owners did reach out to us and say this is really important that we keep it the way it is. So, certainly, that's what I would support here, and definitely support those operators in the city who are operating legally, and to assure them that we want to have better enforcement and an inability of folks in the city to be able to use it that way. And yet we also understand that for the hundreds that are now operating that aren't really adjacent owner-occupied, they should not be there, and they will then be revert back, hopefully, to long-term rentals in the city, which would be better for everybody. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan, yields the floor. Further discussion. Vice Mayor? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Just real quickly, through you, Madam Mayor, you know, we did have the ordinance committee meeting, as the Policy Order points out, and what was discussed there was the need for this Policy Order to direct the city to come up with language and recommendations about some of the things that we talked about in that meeting. One of the other things that came up is that, Councilor Nolan, correct me if I'm wrong, that if we are going to change or add a day, like a limit, a 90-day limit or a 120-day limit, wherever we land, that we actually have to refile this ordinance because that would be considered a significant change. So, I don't think anything is going to happen really quickly on this. We’re just going to, you know, probably let this expire and then have to refile. But we needed to file this Policy Order to instruct the city to do that, come up with that language, and do that. So, that's why that's another reason why the order is here. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Vice Mayor yields the floor. Councilor Zusy, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Thank you, through you, Madam Mayor. I also support this Policy Order. It seems like we need to require short-term rental operators to only list Cambridge-registered units. Otherwise, I don't see compliance. So, I feel like this is a step in the right direction, and I look forward to hearing back from the city after connecting with more of the community. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Zusy, yields the floor. Further discussion? Hearing none, on a motion by Councilor Nolan to adopt the order, all those in favor say aye.

40 MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? Ayes have it. Policy Order number 8 is adopted by the affirmative vote of nine members. We move now to number 9. This is pulled by Councilor Nolan, reads as follows; that the City Manager is requested to work with relevant departments and multi-member bodies to report back to the City Council and inform the community of the work of when the recommendations coming from the Micro Mobility Commission will be available. Councilor Nolan, floor’s yours. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you, Mayor Simmons. Just quickly, I pulled this to let all of us know. I mean, there's been a commission -- a state commission, on micro mobility. It's been operating for several months. Honestly, I was a little surprised to hear about it, and I know I reached out to several people, both the council and also within the community, who are very active who didn't realize it. And while it is a state-level commission, as we all know, and as we've heard in many meetings over the past, the state actually controls a lot of what we do, that some of what we can and cannot regulate is really based on state law. And there's so many things in that, as was pointed out in public comment and is in the Policy Order. This is about e-bikes and e-scooters and different levels of micromobility. It also affects the mobility of many residents who use different methods of transportation because they are differently abled, and it's really important that for us all to know and understand the city has been involved. They have sent a list of, I think, 10 questions to the state commission and tend to go to the September meeting to ask them. However, many members of the community don't know of the state's and of the city's involvement and also may have additional questions that they want to make sure get addressed at the state level. So, the Policy Order asked both for a report back, but also, I think, crucially important, to inform the community of the work of the commission so that they would have a chance, before the recommendations come out in December, to be able to interact with the commission. And that could be in CityView, that could be in our weekly newsletters, all of us just make sure that people in the community know. This is such a critically important thing. A week doesn't go by when you don't hear about somebody concerned about, can't you control those things, and we can't, because of the state not allowing us to. So, this is put forward in the spirit of thanking the city for being involved and also hoping to broaden the effort so that everyone in the community can understand how critically important this issue is. And it's only going to get more critically important as more people use these devices. So, thank you, Mayor Simmons. I yield. And I thank the co-sponsors, Councilor Azeem, Councilor Toner, and Vice Mayor McGovern, who have also been very involved in this effort. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Councilor Zusy, floor is yours. COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: I'd love to be added to this Policy Order, please. And I also think this is an important Policy Order, and maybe we should have a Transportation Committee meeting about this topic in late November, or earlier, I guess, before the final meeting of the state. So, I'm really grateful to all of you for bringing to my attention, and to others, too that this state has been having these special commission meetings. So, I will try to set up a meeting. Thank you. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Zusy puts a motion on the floor to be added as a co- sponsor on the motion. Is there discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the Policy Order is amended. And any discussion on the amended Policy Order? Hearing none, on a motion by -- COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Madam Mayor? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you. I just wanted to add here, I appreciate my colleagues bringing this forward and also want to recognize, you know, our former colleague Joan Pickett and her work and Councilor Pickett’s work on this as she really started to lead the conversations through her chairing of the Transportation Committee and recognize this as being an issue, being a challenge, being something that we needed to be mindful of and was working towards creating policy and stuff around it. So, just in the spirit of Joan, I just wanted to, you know, just lift her up and bring her into this space with

41 us. And also, you know, as folks are back to school, our college students, everyone, just be safe. You know, I mean, just be safe out there. I'm seeing more and more folks just flying down these streets, and we have so many members of our community with all different abilities. Folks are not wearing helmets. Folks are not, you know, slowing down, being mindful of whether it's cyclists or other pedestrians, people who are walking or going out for a jog, those who may be in a wheelchair or anything else. So, please, just, you know, I think in the spirit, I said this earlier today of just kind of taking care of our neighbors, just being mindful of each other in the spaces that we take up and that we use, and just to slow down. Thank you. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson yields the floor. Further discussion on the amended Policy Order. Hearing none. On a motion by Councilor Wilson to adopt the Policy Order as amended, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. The Policy Order is adopted as amended. We move now to, I think the last one is number 10. This was pulled by Councilor Toner. Reads as follows; the City Manager just requested to consult with relevant departments about the implications of deploying license plate readers and provide recommendations as to whether adjustments and plans for deployment should be made in light of changes since approved in February. This is pulled by Councilor Toner. Councilor Toner, the floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I didn't know if Councilor Nolan or the other makers wanted to speak to it first. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Nolan, do you want to -- or any of the other makers of this Policy Order would like to speak. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Just briefly, I think it lays it out. We, as residents across the city, have been getting notices about Flock being deployed, and just some questions were raised about how it is that we're ensuring, in light of the changes we've made to our own Welcoming City ordinance and also what has since been learned that there has been more coordination and cooperation, or collaboration, potentially with Flock, with federal but also other state agencies we thought it was important to bring this forward. And what the order says, just so people understand, is that the City Manager is requested to consult with relevant departments about the implications of deploying the license plate reader and provide recommendations, basically to take it into mind. We did want to, in speaking with the ACLU, who does support this, we all got a letter earlier today to say they believe it's an important thing for the city to look at how it is that we're moving forward. But we did think it would make sense to add a whereas, which everyone should have on their desk, because it makes the point that Boston conducted a pilot using Flock, which is the same system Cambridge will deploy, and chose not to share data and to prohibit sharing their database out of concern for potential harm. So, there is an amendment to add that whereas, and then I hope this policy can pass and we can have the city come back to us with some either recommendation or report in a timely manner. Thank you. That's it. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Mr. (Sams 03:20:24), do you have the addition, or do people have it all -- does anyone have a copy on their desk? Okay, everyone has a copy. Any questions on the proposed amendment? Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: Thanks. Actually, I wanted to speak both to the amendment. And whereas I think the additional whereas is helpful and calling out that it's not just Cambridge that has concerns about this, other cities that had previously adopted this technology also are raising the same concerns now that it's become clear that this data can be accessed. (SHOWN ON SCREEN) COUNCILOR JIVAN SOBRINHO-WHEELER: And, you know, there are real concerns about sharing with ICE and other organizations, including Boston, which has raised, you know, great concerns about this. Other things that were, you know, pointed out to us by the ACLU and we talked to them this morning is

42 that Flock is different even than some of the other surveillance technology companies out there. They keep ownership of all the cameras and are just leasing them to the cities that use them. These are not owned by the city. These are not controlled, you know, by the city. They are just things that are leased and, in our possession, and that data goes into a national database that is accessible to cities all over the country. And this does raise concerns, if someone from Texas came and got an abortion in Cambridge, it seems like the cities in Texas would be able to access that data here, in places where that is illegal. This is just one example of a case, to my understanding, that is really concerning about this. So, I just wanted to flag that additional info. I'm glad to be a co-sponsor on this. I yield back. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler yields the floor. Further discussion? Hearing none. So, what's before us now is the proposed amendment by Councilor Nolan. So, this is on the amendment. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the Policy Order is now amended. On the amended Policy Order, is there any discussion, Councilor Toner? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Madam, I just wanted to raise some -- just to be clear. This is -- we're not going to forego implementing this. This is to clarify whether we think we need to make any adjustments going forward is the intent of the Policy Order. I just want to make sure that that's clear. And also, I don’t -- City Manager, I didn't want to put you on the spot, or if the commissioners are still available. When we've had these discussions in the past, we were told that we control the data and we're not sharing with anybody. So, I just wanted to -- is there some -- can somebody reassert that, or is there a question as to whether Flock has access to the data? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Mr. City Manager or the Solicitor? I don't think our commissioners are here with us anymore. Is there anyone available to speak to this? Mr. City Manager, the floor is yours. CITY MANAGER YI-AN HUANG: Through you, Mayor Simmons. Thanks for the question, Councilor Toner. I think it continues to be the policy and approach of the Police Department to be really careful at entering into these agreements and to try and secure as much of our data in a segregated way as possible, such that they don't end up in the large pool that is accessible. I think we probably do want to examine the Policy Order and follow up before we give a more detailed response, just because a lot of these pieces of technology ultimately do evolve over time, and we are learning a lot very quickly about what the federal administration is doing and how they're interacting with vendors, with federal agencies. I think, you know, at normal times, I would say I feel really good about our policies and approaches and that we're being very careful. I do think a lot of the rules are being changed in real time on us. And so, I think it is worth us looking at this Policy Order and digging into this a bit more before we come back and say, you know, this is -- we believe this is exactly how it works. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you. And through you, Madam Mayor, I don't mean we need to amend it, but I just would hope that in the end, whatever comes back, there's a clear statement that yes, we do not share the information, or we have full control over the information so that we can give that secure answer to our residents. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Toner, yields the floor. Any further discussion? Hearing none. On the order as amended, is there any discussion? Any more discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor -- okay. Don’t throw me off. All those in favor, say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the Policy Order is adopted as amended. This concludes the Policy Order section of the City Council agenda. We will now move to the calendar. First item on the calendar is a Charter Right. This item, I -- on August 4th, I exercised my Charter Right on this item. I'm going to read it, that the City Manager is requested to coordinate with the Community Safety Department, the Cambridge Police Department, and other relevant parties to ensure that the oversight used at the garden area between St. James Episcopal Church and Beech Street Condos is actively monitored. I had an opportunity to talk to a number of people on both sides of this issue, and at that time I was asked to give both

43 parties an opportunity to discuss it. I exercised my Charter Right. It has come to our attention that they have indeed had an opportunity, as you've heard in testimony earlier this evening, that they've had an opportunity to do arbitration, to have a conversation. They're well on their way. It is their belief to some agreement, and so, within coordination with the parties -- with some of the parties to this. What's going on here? There's an amendment. I think everyone has it to the original Policy Order. And so, what I would like to do is bring this forward as amended. Do we have it on the screen for everyone? So, I'm going to bring a motion forward to amend this Policy Order. I would like people to give it a look. So, on the amendment, please look at it so we can call a vote on it, and then we can have a vote on the Policy Order as amended. So, the amendments are before you. So, I am going to move that we amend this original Policy Order with the highlighted areas in red. Is there any questions or conversation about that? Vice Mayor? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: I mean, just -- I don't think this has to be -- you say -- it says other relevant entities. I don't think this has to be amended further, but just, you know, to the manager who's still here, I hope that that includes the service providers that are working with a lot of these unhoused folks, like the folks from 240 Albany, and maybe some of the other shelter providers, whatnot. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: The City Manager is certainly here. So, he's hearing -- (crosstalk) VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: I don’t think we have to change it. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: I don't think you need to bring that in either. Do you just nod in affirmation? There you go. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: And then, lastly, I also think -- I can say more about this later, but I also think including, you know, having some conversations with the people themselves, the unhoused folks themselves, right? We often talk about folks that we talk about but don’t often -- are not often at the table, and I think that often happens. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Yes, I say that a lot. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: So, talking with those folks as well directly about what they need and including them in the conversations is important. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Well, I can say from what I've observed through conversations that people are very interested in being fully engaged on all levels that the property owners, the condominium owners, and I would expect that of the service providers as well, as the people that are in question would be engaged. So, to my colleagues, Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Just a very quick thank you, Mayor Simmons, for bringing forward these edits, which I intend to support in full. And I also just want to note, I think everybody here has been some challenges. Well, we cannot prevent the insulting in public comment, but I want to raise up that I understand every person involved in the church is trying to do their best to be compassionate, and all of the condo owners are living with a situation that they find very troubling and difficult to deal with. So, let's make sure that we have the grace to understand that this has been a challenging situation for everyone. Not the least of which, as Vice Mayor McGovern said, is for the folks who are in a situation where that's the only place they feel like they can safely go at night. But it ends up being very disruptive for people living there. And yet the church has tried to do what it can to step up. So, I just want to go on record that I know we all appreciate that. It's been a very difficult situation. I'm very glad to hear that the mediation went well enough that this is now going to be able to move forward in a way. And again, the work's not done, but I really appreciate you working with all sides on this, Mayor Simmons, and we'll support this. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you, Councilor Nolan. Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And yes, I also want to just echo the gratitude for the Policy Order, but also for the amendments that are shared here. I also want to give my thanks to those who spoke in public comment on both sides, but also to those who welcomed me, and greeting me, walking around the area, and talking more about , and just physically seeing, whether it's video, photos, or what have you, but being in that space was also eye-opening, and just being able to see kind of from your view, from your vantage point some of the challenges that you all are experiencing.

44 And I too want to appreciate that, through -- it sounds like through this mediation, you all have come to a bit of a meeting of the minds around kind of some next steps. Not to say that that's going to resolve everything 100%, right? We all need to do some more work. So, I think through this Policy Order is a great step forward for us, but also, and I think to Vice Mayor’s point, around just really thinking about what does services look like across the board. And I mean this isn't just for this community, this is like, across our city and making sure that we have services that are beyond the hours of 9:00 to 5:00, right? And that we need to look at overnight support and care, and, you know, just really honing in on that. Our Police Department, they're a great resource, and they do what they can do and what they need to do, but also their view is where they're at, right? And we need other holistic services and supports to be in place as well. So, I look forward to even hosting a Public Safety Committee meeting further on these relevant issues. And again, I fully -- I look forward to supporting the amendments and the Policy Order as a whole. Thank you. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Wilson yields the floor. Vice Mayor, the floor is yours. VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I was going to, after we adopted the amendment -- the amended Policy Order, I was going to make some other comments, but I'll make them now while we're having this conversation. So, I too want to thank you, and I want to thank the folks for engaging in the mediation and getting to a resolution quickly. Most sometimes mediations take some time, so I appreciate that. I also want to thank the church for their ongoing support for folks who are unhoused. One thing I would just as a suggestion, you know, I live in Central Square. I understand that, you know, the challenges. But one thing that I have found, and this gets back to sort of involving the folks who are unhoused in the conversation is that part of building community also includes those folks who are unhoused, right? They are part of the community. They are more than just unhoused people. They're more than just folks who are struggling with substance use or addiction. And, you know, maybe something the church and the condo association can do is actually -- and maybe you've done this, so if I'm speaking out of turn, I apologize, you know, bring these groups together to get to know people, right? I know a lot of the unhoused people by name in Central Square, and if I can ever say to them, “Hey, you need to like, chill out for a minute,” they know who I am, and we can have a conversation where we know each other, where they feel part of the community. And so, you know, if the space is going to be shared moving forward in some capacity, you know, there is some benefit in getting to know each other, right? Because these folks all have stories too. None of them want to be in the situation that they're in. No kid ever says, “I want to be homeless or an addict when I grow up.” You would be amazed at the talents, the education, the stories that folks who are unhoused in our community have. And you realize that it could be anybody that's in that situation. So, I hope, as this moves forward, that the conversations are not just between the church and the condo association, but people get to know each other, because these are -- they're going to be around. Right? And I think there's a big benefit to that. So, I would like to put that out there for folks to consider. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you. Any further discussion? Councilor Zusy? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor. Again, I was just -- thank you all for your testimony and you’ve dealing with there's a -- it's a difficult situation. But I'm just so grateful that the mediation led in one day to you were able to step forward, and I am hoping that, with the support of the police and the care team, that peace prevails at night. It seems it's essential. We all need to be able to sleep well at night. So, I have compassion for the unhoused, but I also have great compassion for the people in the condos that can't sleep at night because of crazy behavior. So, I feel like this is a real step forward, and I'll be looking forward to the report back in October. And I hope things are much better. Thank you. I yield. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Zusy yields the floor. Any further discussion on the amendment? Hearing none. On the amendment, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the Policy Order is amended. On

45 the policy order as amended. Discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the Policy Order is adopted as amended. Thank you. For those of you that stayed for the vote, thank you for staying. We’re going to move now to applications and petitions. Pleasure of the City Council? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Motion to adopt. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Motion by the Vice Mayor to adopt the applications and petitions. I believe there are four. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the applications and petitions are approved. Next item is communications. There are 36. What's the pleasure of the City Council? VICE MAYOR MARC MCGOVERN: Place it on file. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On motion by Vice Mayor Marc McGovern to place all 36 communications on file. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the communications are placed on file. We now move to resolutions. We have -- lost my count. INTERIM CITY CLERK: 12. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you. There are 12 resolutions. What's the pleasure of the City Council? COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: I have number 6. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Number 6? Let me get there. Pleasure of the City Council. Hearing none. On a motion by Councilor Toner to adopt the resolutions, making them unanimous upon adoption. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and all the resolutions, with the exception of number 6, are adopted and made unanimous upon adoption. We move back to number 6, which is pulled by Councilor Toner and says, “Condolences on the death of Elizabeth Camacho.” Councilor Toner, floor is yours. COUNCILOR PAUL TONER: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to add Councilor Nolan to the resolution as a sponsor. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On amending this number 6 Policy Order to add Councilor Nolan. Any discussion? Hearing none on the amendment. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the resolution is amended. On the resolutions -- COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Mayor Simmons? MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Yes. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Just want to note, Councilor Toner, I talked earlier. This is -- we will be adding some details as to this resolution just so the council is aware because they were not available by the time this came out. It’s relatively short so that no one’s surprised. I know it’s not often the practice of that, but I wanted to make that clear, that there will be more details as we get more information from the family regarding this tragic accident that happened to a neighbor in West Cambridge, Lisa Camacho. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you, Councilor Nolan. That’s not necessarily unusual. Something happens very quickly. You want to acknowledge it. You don’t have all the full information. You put something down as a placeholder, so I certainly think that’s going to be fine. So, on the amendment -- on the policy -- on the resolution as amended. We did that too. Great. So, she started talking to me. Threw me off. All right, the next item before are committee reports. What’s the pleasure

46 of the council? Committee reports, pleasure of the council? On a motion by the -- I'm sorry? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: One of them has an order. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: And I think it’s number -- COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: 2. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Number 1? No. Number 2(a). I see that. So, the Vice Mayor makes a motion to accept the committee reports, and place them on file, and to adopt the underlying order. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and committee reports are adopted, and the underlying order adopted by the affirmative vote of nine members. We now move to communications and reports from other city officers. We've already discharged numbers 2 and 3, so only number 1 is remaining. What’s the pleasure of the City Council? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: (no audible response) MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On a motion by -- INTERIM CITY CLERK: Place on file. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: -- Councilor Wilson to place on file. All those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and communication number 1 is placed on file. I think that brings us to -- are there any late resolutions? INTERIM CITY CLERK: There is one late resolution, Madam. There is a resolution submitted by Councilor Nolan, “Congratulations to the Sacramento Community Garden on its 50th anniversary.” MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Now, just I'm sure, do we have to suspend the rules to take up these late resolutions? INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yeah, supposed to. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: So, on suspension of the rules in order to take up late resolutions, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it. Late resolutions are now in front of us on this late resolution offered by Councilor Nolan. Do you want to explain it or talk to it, Councilor Nolan? COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you. I was made aware of this through DPW’s work with the garden that there will be some recognition. As of September 14th, it will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. It was one of the first Community Gardens. It came out as a result of some successful advocacy from the neighborhood to have this space, which had been slated perhaps for some other use, to be used as a Community Garden. And it’s in conjunction with this, if people don’t know that area of town with Sacramento Field is in, this was an aqueduct for an industrial site that ran through in the 1850s and ’60s. And so, we now have Sacramento Field, but then separate from that, there is this Community Garden that has a long history of bringing folks together. And once I was made aware of, that I said it would be appropriate. And to bring it as a late order because September 14th is before our next meeting. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Hearing none. On adoption of the late resolution, making it unanimous upon adoption, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the resolution is adopted making -- and made unanimous upon this adoption. We do not have any late Policy Orders, so we will go right to announcements. Any announcements, Councilor Azeem? You sent a mailing to everybody. You don’t have any announcements? (laughter) (applause) Come on. I don’t want to steal your thunder. INTERIM CITY CLERK: Yeah. He's embarrassed.

47 MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Azeem just recently became engaged, and we just want to congratulate him. (applause) MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: We wish you all the best, and we want to know about all the details, and we’re going to ask you every week. Anything else you want to share with us? No. Okay. Well then, congratulations. Applause for Councilor Azeem. (applause) On his new life change. Okay. Other announcements? INTERIM CITY CLERK: Councilor Zusy. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Councilor Zusy? COUNCILOR CATHERINE ZUSY: Mayor Simmons, I’m pleased to announce, I’m actually thrilled to announce that the latest phase of work has begun at Magazine Beach Park. There was a groundbreaking today. This is something that has been in the works since 2019. Good things take time. And what it will do is, it’ll turn a sunken parking lot into an acre of usable park land between the swimming pool and the river. And there will be a dock added and an outlook to look out on the river, and I think it will really add a lot to the park, so I’m thrilled about that. Also, there was a great article in The Globe, I think it was yesterday, about St. Augustine’s and Black History in action for Cambridgeport, and I was thrilled to see Kris Manjapra and the church, and the community to receive such attention for the restoration of that building. And then, I just wanted to announce that on Saturday, Bread and Puppet will be performing on the Cambridge Common at 4:00. And there’s a Meet Your Neighbor Day at the EMF parking lot from 12:00 to 3:00 on Saturday. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you. And just if I may add, Councilor Zusy, Meet Your Neighbor Day is something that we have sort of done citywide for a number of years. And so, please go to the city’s website. There will be a list, I believe, of all -- not all, some of the Meet Your Neighbor Day activities over this weekend coming up, the 13th and the 14th, and some people even go into the week after. So, I would say look at your updates on the city website about these events. Are there any other? I will mention that Danehy Park Family Day is coming up September 20th. There's flyer about it. What I really enjoyed about this particular flyer is that it’s multilingual. So, you go on to the QR code, you can get the information in the language that you're best and most familiar with. I thought that was extraordinary. And it also has on the back where you can take buses to the park, which is something that I had not noticed before, but I think that is fabulous that we’re doing that. Are there other announcements? Oh, wait. Okay. Yes, please. Councilor. COUNCILOR PATRICIA NOLAN: Thank you. Just a reminder. I’m sure you might all have it on your calendar. It’s actually tomorrow from 2:00 to 4:00. There’s a Health and Environment Committee meeting, a public hearing to discuss the ongoing work to mitigate and reduce the combined sewer overflows within Cambridge and the surrounding areas, and also address extreme weather events. We’ll have a presentation from DPW and also from the Charles River Watershed Association, the Mystic River Watershed Association, and Save the Alewife Brook. Then there’ll be discussion from the council to think about any further action that the council may take or just questions and comments that we may have. I think it’s a pretty important meeting given the interest in this in the city. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you, Councilor Nolan. Are there other, Councilor Wilson? COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: Thank you, Madam Mayor. On that note of committee meetings, I’ll be chairing the Public Safety Committee this Wednesday, September 10th, at 3:00 p.m. here in the chamber. This will be in regards to the Policy Order that was shared by colleagues regarding a review or discussion around the 18-hour standoff that happened with CPD on August 2nd. So, I look forward to that discussion and hosting folks here in the chamber. Thank you. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Thank you, Councilor Wilson. Other announcements? Well, I’ll end with one last announcement. Hopefully, this particular viewer will be watching. I want to say happy birthday to my wife. I didn’t spend any time with her today. Hopefully, she forgives me.

48 (laughter) (applause) MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: So, yeah, please give her a round of applause for having a happy birthday by herself today. Thank you so much. Happy birthday, Ms. Maddie. Are there any other announcements? If otherwise, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: (no audible response) MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: On a motion by Councilor Wilson -- COUNCILOR AYESHA WILSON: (no audible response) MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: I'm sorry? Did you say you want to stay longer? Oh, on a motion by Councilor Wilson to adjourn, all those in favor say aye. MEETING ATTENDEES: Aye. MAYOR E. DENISE SIMMONS: Opposed? The ayes have it, and the meeting is adjourned. (gavel)

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49 C E R T I F I C A T E I, Kanchan Mutreja, a transcriber for Datagain, do hereby certify: That said proceedings were listened to and transcribed by me and were prepared using standard electronic transcription equipment under my direction and supervision; and I hereby certify that the foregoing transcript of the proceedings is a full, true, and accurate transcript to the best of my ability. In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this 31st day of March 2026. Signature of Transcriber In City Council April 13, 2026. Adopted by Affirmative Vote of Eight Members:- Attest:- Paula M. Crane, Interim City Clerk A true copy; ATTEST:- Paula M. Crane Interim City Clerk