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On Dec. 16, 2024, Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn announced that her office sent an updated draft of a new city charter to the Medford City Council. The Medford Charter Study Committee — established in December 2022 — reviewed and made recommendations for a new city charter in a nearly twoyear process. The charter has not been changed since the 1980s. Proposed changes to the charter include ward representation for the school committee and the city council, the addition of city councilors, term limits for the mayor and an extension of mayoral terms from two years to four years. Residents have been advocating for charter review since 2014. The city council failed to approve a charter study once in 2016 and twice in 2020. Lungo-Koehn was approached by the Medford Charter Review Coalition, which included Milva McDonald, to begin a charter study committee.
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Medford City Council begins reviewing new charter proposals Deputy News Editor
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Wednesday, January 15, 2025
VOLUME LXXXIX, ISSUE 1
Josué Pérez
UNIVERSITY
“When I ran for mayor in 2019, I made it a point of my campaign to say that we definitely need to review and update our charter,” Lungo-Koehn said. “At this point, it’s over 40 years old, and it’s two pages — definitely not adequate for a city of this size.” McDonald, chair of the Medford Charter Review Committee, explained how the committee came up with several of their proposals. “We had a survey we put out to the whole city, and we got back between 600 and 700 responses, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but statistically, it’s pretty good. And we also had listening sessions around the city,” she said. The review committee, the mayor and the city council also partnered with the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston. After Lungo-Koehn’s own review of the Medford Study Committee’s initial draft, the Collins Center provided additional evaluation to remove any discrepancies.
Somerville discusses progress on clean energy initiatives in meeting Anika Parr
Assistant News Editor
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Medford City Hall is pictured on Oct. 19, 2024. “They do this work all over the state. They know what should and should not be in a charter,” Lungo-Koehn said. City Council President Isaac “Zac” Bears explained the process of reviewing the proposed charter in city council, “Once the Governance Committee of the Council is finished with that, they’ll recommend an amended version of the charter draft to the full council. The full council will have a final vote on that, and could amend it further at that point…” he said. “I expect some changes, tweaks and adjustments from the Council.” see CHARTER, page 2
The Somerville Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change held a meeting to discuss progress on school decarbonization, youth climate engagement and advancements in renewable energy accessibility for the community, on Jan. 7. The efforts to transition Somerville schools to clean energy were championed by the Somerville Educators Union as well as other local coalitions including the Green New Deal for Somerville Public Schools, Somerville Carbon Free and Healthy Schools Coalition, 350 Mass, Somerville Mothers Out Front and Climate Resilient Schools Coalition. “The city has provided no concrete plan or timeline for how or when they will reduce carbon emissions from school buildings,” the local educators groups collectively stated in a 2024 presentation to the council.
Christine Blais, director of the Somerville Office of Sustainability and Environment, updated the council on steps the council has taken towards school decarbonization, which were first announced in a June 2024 memo. Somerville is rewriting their Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change’s ordinance, adding a Somerville Public School representative to the commission. “We’re hoping to have a [Somerville Public Schools] member on this commission, so hopefully that will provide more connectivity,” Blais said. The Somerville Office of Sustainability and Environment’s “Climate Forward” community climate action plan provides a roadmap for achieving goals including a 50% reduction in emissions in Somerville municipal and school buildings by 2030. Blais said one of the initiatives is an Office of Sustainability and see CLEAN ENERGY, page 2
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Mayor Ballantyne celebrates work in State of the City address Grayton Goldsmith News Editor
Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne delivered a State of the City address on Jan. 6, reflecting on accomplishments and challenges facing the city in the last year. Ballantyne reviewed Somerville’s work towards mitigating what she called one of the city’s greatest challenges: a lack of affordable housing. Somerville’s affordable housing initiatives include a guaranteed basic income pilot program that provides $750 to 200 qualified families monthly. “We have distributed over $9.5 million in flexible and rental assistance, helping more than 400 households stay housed. Our new Municipal Voucher Program is also breaking new ground. It provides deep rental subsidies and has moved 29 families from uncertainty to safe permanent housing,” she said. Ballantyne also noted Somerville’s goal of using zoning to create over 12,000 affordable housing units by 2030, as outlined in Somerville’s Strategic Plan.
“As we enter 2025, we are on track not just to meet this goal but surpass it. … Our transformative plans for Brickbottom and Assembly Square neighborhoods could add another 1,200 affordable housing units,” Ballantyne said. Ballantyne celebrated the city’s work to add new positions to the public schools in the 2025 fiscal year. She also highlighted the work made to expand after-school programs and expand the summer jobs program. “In our fiscal year 2025 budget, we added over 35 net full-time equivalent positions to Somerville public schools. But investing in youth doesn’t stop at the classroom,” she said. “My administration has invested heavily in expanded after-school programs in new youth opportunities.” When addressing public safety, Ballantyne mentioned Somerville’s ‘holistic’ approach to addressing the root causes of homelessness in Davis Square and East Somerville over the last year and acknowledged the partnership with the Somerville Homeless Coalition. “In 2025, we’ll be taking on senior homelessness with our Older
Adults Bridge Program thanks to a state earmark from Sen. Pat Jehlen. This pilot program allows the Office of Housing Stability to intervene with financial and Social Services to keep low-income seniors from experiencing homelessness while they are waitlisted for subsidized housing,” she announced. Ballantyne celebrated the appointment of Shumeane Benford, Somerville’s new chief of police. “Our shared philosophy is that effective public safety isn’t focused on reacting after the fact — it’s focused on building trust, fostering collaboration and preventing issues before they rise,” she said. Ballantyne also announced that a new fire station will open this spring in Assembly Square, Somerville’s first new station in over one hundred years. She also shared news about upcoming recommendations from municipal working groups. “I am proud to share that this month we will release the recommendations from our public safety [department] for All Civilian Oversight and anti-violence working groups,” Ballantyne announced. “These reflect years of thoughtful collaborative work by task force
members, a mix of dedicated residents, city employees, elected officials and experts in public safety to drive the work forward. We are hosting a community event in February and we’ll be hiring [someone] for All Project Manager to advance the path laid out in these plans.” Ballantyne shared the work that the city has done to improve services for immigrants and non-native English speakers. “Recent U.S. Census Data shows almost 25% of our residents are immigrants, so I have empowered our SomerViva Office of Immigrant Affairs to lead citywide efforts to welcome and support immigrants and non-native English speakers.” She noted that translation services have doubled community meeting participation in some areas and that in 2025, Somerville will launch a citywide public interpretation line for residents to access support services in their native language. “When it comes to our immigrant residents we’re ramping up ‘know your rights’ trainings and legal support access including the grim work of helping parents and guardians create plans for the care
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Somerville City Hall is pictured on Nov. 11, 2024. of their children should they themselves be deported,” she said. Ballantyne acknowledged the results of the 2024 election at the beginning of her address, later offering a more hopeful message about the work done on a local level. “I spoke about the threats from a change in Washington D.C. and about the growing narrative that diversity, equity and inclusion are outdated and that government has no role in making our lives better. Our work proves otherwise. When equity for people guides local action, progress for all follows.”
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