By Joe Creason

On Thursday January 28, the Somerville City Council held a regular meeting via teleconference in accordance with Govern Baker’s executive order in regard to the Open Meeting Law.

The City Council meeting began with a series of remembrances for recently deceased residents. After the memorializations, there were several infrastructure items on the agenda to determine the maintenance of roads, including the installation of conduit and manholes at Somerville Avenue, Prospect Street and Medford Street.

The City Councilors then went on to discuss complications around personnel appointments and hiring confirmations. In December 2019, the Somerville Police Department made a request to increase the number of vacancies on the Reserve Police Officer list from 10 to 16 in anticipation of projected SPD retirements as well as withdrawal of candidates from the reserve list. The expansion of the reserve list was approved, and many interviews of the candidates have been conducted.

According to Ward 2 Councilor Jefferson Thomas Scott, the City Council had previously asked that the reserve list be eliminated, noting that under Civil Service the city must state the number of vacancies to be filled but that requirement does not apply to a reserve list. He believes that using a discretionary number can lead to manipulation of the reserve list in order to get to particular individuals on that list.

The Mayor’s Office made a request asking for the allocation of $130,853 from the medical marijuana stabilization fund for the purpose of substance use prevention as well as parent/student education. The money would go towards a substance use prevention counselor for the youth, overdose prevention/narcan training and community education on adult-use marijuana.

A meeting order was brought forward to address the issue of fraudulent websites posing as the online menu for order out restaurants. The websites direct potential customers to a professional looking copy of the restaurants’ online menu. This fraudulent menu belongs to a third party who then takes a cut of the order and charges the restaurant a significant fee. The Council stated that they would get this issue to the appropriate committee for finding solutions to the problem.

Major expansions to the Rodent Control Assistance program will now be implemented moving forward. The program was created to combat the growth in Somerville’s rampant rodent population. Non owner-occupied buildings are now being included as eligible for the program, leaving less places in the city for pests to hide. City Councilors felt it was essential that the Communications Department inform residents as part of a social media and PSA campaign. 

“The rodent and pest problem is at an incredible level, so I appreciate that this expansion is happening, and I want to highlight for everyone at home that this is a matter of public health,” Councilor Scott said.