City council meeting tonight! Woo! Also snowstorm! Double Woo! Let's dive right in. Here's the agenda.

http://somervillecityma.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=3261

1/?

I am noting a distinct lack of either opening prayer or pledge to the flag this evening.

This omission pleases me.

2/?

Oh my. This meeting is a -maze- of out of item orders. Wow. Good luck to the City Clerk.

Lotta money requests from the city that (presumably) need to be approved this evening. It being the last full council meeting of the year.

The mayor will be speaking.

3/?

Only one grant of location request - from Verizon. It seems like Verizon didn't show up to talk about it. That usually means that it does -not- get approved.

@JTforWard2 has looked at it ahead of time and thinks it's probably cool.

Approved.

4/?

Items 18 and 19 are requests for information from the Mayor on the status and schedule for opening various school buildings - including the future of the Brown school.

This meeting is gonna be -sweet-.

If you like nourishing grist from the city mill.

5/?

The original estimates for completion stretched into April, which is basically the whole term. Sounds like we were able to hustle and call in favors to get priority on the air filters we need. That chopped a couple of months off the schedule.

6/?

Increased air handler capacity, better filters, better air quality monitoring, and so on.

This all sound like good ideas. @Ward5Mark asks how we can tell that it's really safe for both students and employees.

7/?

The plan is to test every employee twice a week and test every student once a week. This is -intense-.

I think it's warranted today. It's a pandemic.

I worry that we will grow complacent over time to these rather massive reductions in privacy in favor of public health.

8/?

The city council would like to know exactly the thresholds and formulas that will be applied to make closure decisions. "Who decides, and on what basis?"

There will be an advisory committee? With members from the community?

Yeah, that's a bad idea.

9/?

Ah. Our incident response coordinator (IRC, for those in the know) is saying things about cohorts, pools, and ... um ... sorry there was a lot there.

My guess is that somebody in a back room makes the call and then justifies it to the advisory committee.

10/?

The high school is schedule to receive a certificate of occupancy (COO for those in the know) on JANUARY FOURTH. Amazing hustle.

The hope is that we could get staff in there on the 7th, and students shortly thereafter.

11/?

The goal is to sort according to the needs of the students (high needs, special needs, english language learners, ...) and serve the groups in order according to their needs - not just re-open for high schoolers.

Staff describe themselves as "sweating the details now."

12/?

We've moved to Item 25, which is a bond request for $2.5M for HVAC upgrades. @MattForWard1 asks "didn't we allocate this money at the last meeting? Are we paying twice? Is this different somehow?"

13/?

Woo, gnarly. We had been hoping to use "CARES" funds from the feds. Apparently CARES funds need to be "out the door, benefits in hand" by December 31.

Because of that, we had to change plans and open up a bond instead.

Apparently all cities are screwed in this same way.

14/?

Look, I'm gonna be honest, I'm here for Item 35: "Renewing Fortune Teller License, Sean Tene dba Astrology Studio, 3 Holland St."

15/?

The relevant law falls under section 8-341 of our code:

"Fortunetelling shall mean the telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures, or reading the past, by means of any occult, psychic power, faculty, force, clairvoyance, cartomancy, psychometry, phrenology, ...

16/?

... spirits, tea leaves, tarot cards, scrying, coins, sticks, dice, sand, coffee grounds, crystal gazing or other such reading, or through mediumship, seership, prophecy, augury, astrology, palmistry, necromancy, mindreading, telepathy talisman, charm, potion, ...

17/?

... magnetism,magnetized article or substance, or by any such similar thing or act."

YOU CAN PRACTICE NECROMANCY, BUT YOU GOTTA GET A LICENSE.

18/?

They're still talking about when schools will re-open. The answer is that we just don't know what the future holds, and we're doing our best here.

I mean, in all fairness, 2020 is a garbage fire all around.

19/?

The mayor is sharing the structure of the Incident Command System (ICS, to those in the know). 'Bout damn time we had some transparency on this.

20/?

Here's what the ICS does.

Sounds like we're asking for budget funds - like a legit budget ask - for ICS ongoing activities. This is connected to the re-interpretation of the CARES act such that we have to have spent the money by Dec 31.

21/?

Here's the budget ask. About $5.4M for Jan 1 through March 31, 2021.

Another one that's got to be approved tonight.

What a mess.

22/?

My latest FOIA request for for almost exactly this information. "Who did you hire and what are you paying them?"

Hopefully we'll see those people in a more formal budget document at some point.

But seriously, what a mess.

23/?

Also, we're rolling back our business openings in the city - closing down a bunch of businesses and activities for at least three weeks.

I think that this is a good idea. The pandemic is full-on flat-out, and our state and federal guidance has been 100% lacking.

24/?

The Mayor is visibly irritated and more than a little ranty: "The feds pushed it to the states, and the states said 'each city should figure it out on its own' and that's why this thing is way worse than it had to be."

25/?

Thanks Mike. The budget ask is $1.5M, we're getting $5.4M from CARES. It's hard to track, even with as much attention as I give here.

I know that it's getting approved tonight, that you're doing your best through these awful times.

https://twitter.com/mmastrobuonii/status/1339741249302106112

26/?

Here's what's closed as of yesterday.

Gyms and indoor recreation.

27/?

There's a lot of frustration in the back and forth. I make a practice of not even trying to quote people unless they are eminently, eminently quotable. It never works right, and it's not fair to the speaker.

Lotta frustration.

28/?

The councilors are united that they are not objecting per-se to the closures. They are objecting to the lack of clarity on the reasons and the apparent inconsistency. Indoor hockey is open while outdoor music is forbidden.

It does sounds bogus on the face of it.

29/?

The mayor with the point that it's not the closures that are wrecking businesses and killing people - it's the pandemic.

To say again, what a mess. What a goddamn mess.

30/?

With that, a five minute recess before we talk about the money.

Please enjoy the Biebl Ave Maria, as performed by Chanticleer.



31/?

@DerrickAndADog is tagging in. I'll be here for a bit, but y'all know that I don't usually choose to stay much past the first three hours of these things.

https://twitter.com/DerrickAndADog/status/1339750882871812099

32/?

Here's the financial play-by-play on Covid so far.

I do respect the agility with which our finance department plays high stakes tetris. Like ... there are a -lot- of pieces sliding around here.

33/?