June 30, 2026

Items Recommended for Full Council

Home Rule Petition on Early Leasing – Recommended 5-0 as amended

The committee recommended approval of a home rule petition allowing Somerville to regulate residential leases, brought forward by the Office of Housing Stability (OHS) after Tufts students raised concerns about landlords requiring lease renewal decisions six to ten months before lease end. Director Ellen Schacter explained the petition would: (1) require landlords to notify tenants at least three months before lease end whether the lease will be renewed and at what rent, (2) prohibit requiring a re-leasing decision more than 90 days before lease termination, and (3) prohibit showing units to prospective tenants more than 90 days in advance. Enforcement would include a $300 civil ticket plus a private right of action for tenants under state consumer protection law. Schacter said OHS survey research showed the practice extends beyond the student community, driven partly by national landlord companies. Recent Tufts graduate David Van Riper described signing a lease nine months in advance as a widespread, stressful practice around campus. Councilor Ewen-Campen asked why this should be prioritized among home rule petitions at the State House; Schacter noted similar legislation from Rep. Chan of Quincy has already received a favorable committee recommendation. The committee amended the petition to substitute "premises" for "property" in one section at the law department's suggestion.

Notice of Building Sale Ordinance – Recommended 5-0

The committee recommended approval of an ordinance requiring property owners to notify tenants—individually and via posting in common areas—no later than when a building is listed for sale. The measure stems from the Anti-Displacement Task Force recommendations. Schacter said the goals are to give tenants time to plan and to give OHS, tenant associations, and nonprofits a window to explore purchasing buildings before speculative sale. Unlike the early leasing petition, this can be enacted locally without state approval because the law department deemed it a "de minimis" impact on the landlord-tenant relationship. Enforcement is a $300 civil ticket issued by OHS. Chair Scott questioned why no private right of action was included; City Solicitor Cindy Amara explained municipalities generally cannot create private rights of action without state authorization, and agreed to follow up with a written opinion. The committee opted to pass the ordinance now (it takes effect 90 days after passage) and potentially strengthen it in the fall.

Updated 2025 Surveillance Technology Annual Report – Recommended approval 5-0

The committee recommended approval of the revised annual report (the original March submission was marked work completed). Chair Scott raised an unresolved concern: he had requested training materials for GrayKey, a phone-extraction tool used by police, but the vendor declined to provide them. Scott called this a transparency problem and questioned whether the city should contract with vendors unwilling to share such materials. Councilor Davis noted the report was substantively consistent with previously accepted reports and suggested using the next six months to seek answers before the next report; the committee approved on that basis.

Smart Tree Inventory Surveillance Impact Report – Recommended 5-0

The committee approved the impact report for a one-time, vehicle-mounted LiDAR/GPS/photo scan (conducted in 2024) that created a digital inventory of nearly 16,000 public trees. Senior Urban Forestry Planner Vanessa Boulki explained people may incidentally appear in some of the ~80,000 tree images, which are hosted by the vendor and accessible only to authorized users; the data is not public. Councilors praised the retroactive submission as a model of good-faith compliance with the surveillance ordinance, with Chair Scott calling it more thorough than reports for far more invasive technologies.

Ordinance Prohibiting Taxpayer Funds for Self-Promotion – Recommended 5-0

The committee recommended approval of an ordinance, sponsored by Councilor Davis and then-Councilor (now Mayor) Wilson, barring the use of taxpayer funds to plaster elected officials' names on city materials. Davis noted the administration has already largely ended the practice and that the ordinance codifies it for the future; he stated for the record that inadvertent oversights are expected and should not be treated as "gotchas," and that a more detailed implementation policy will be developed with the communications department. Councilor Strezo asked whether the ordinance raises First Amendment concerns; Solicitor Amara said she saw no issue on first impression but agreed to provide a written opinion before the July 9 council meeting.

Items Referred to Committee

Ethical Procurement Ordinance – Kept in committee

This ordinance, sponsored by Councilor Ewen-Campen with Councilors Wheeler, Mbah, and Link, would bar the city from procuring from or investing (via the OPEB fund) in companies providing material support for illegal occupation, apartheid, genocide, or violations of international humanitarian law, with the mayor directed to develop an implementing policy drawing on findings of international bodies (ICC, ICJ, UN human rights bodies). The chair framed the session as an initial questions-gathering round, with a citizen-petitioned public hearing to follow. See discussion below; the item remains in committee.

Body-Worn Camera Petition and Chief's Memo – Kept in committee

The 89-voter petition requesting a public hearing on body-worn cameras and the Police Chief's informational memo on the related grant remain in committee. Chair Scott said he intends to schedule the public hearing for early September.

CrimeTracer Surveillance Impact Report – Kept in committee

CrimeTracer (formerly CopLink) is a state-funded investigative database into which all Somerville police reports are uploaded nightly, accessible via the Commonwealth Fusion Center. Councilor Ewen-Campen asked whether the city is legally required to use it; Captain Perronne said the only potential mandate is a query run during POST-certification background checks for new officers, and agreed to find out whether the fusion center could run that query if Somerville withdrew. Ewen-Campen and Scott expressed significant surveillance concerns; on Councilor Mbah's motion, the item was kept in committee for further review.

Committee Discussion

Body-Worn Cameras – Discharged without recommendation 3-2

The most contested items were the Surveillance Technology Impact Report (STIR) and technology-specific use policy for body-worn cameras, both discharged to the full council without recommendation (Mbah, Ewen-Campen, Strezo in favor; Davis, Scott opposed). Key threads:

• Policy completeness. Councilor Davis, who worked extensively with Labor Counsel Matt Sirigu on the recently ratified superior officers' contract language, said the use policy before the committee reads as a loose summary of the collective bargaining terms rather than the definitive, precise policy the council was promised, and references a separate "SPD BWC policy" that isn't defined. He called for a redo starting from the carefully negotiated contract language.

• Costs. Councilor Ewen-Campen walked through the STIR's figures—roughly $95K in annual subscription costs, a possible $117K coordinator position, and $105K for the superior officers' negotiated 2% raise—and said he could not support roughly $300K in new annual costs in a year when the city laid off staff. Police Finance Director Emily Wisdom later clarified that with the state grant covering first-year startup costs, the only FY27 cost would be the $105K raise, since the coordinator position was removed from the budget.

• Grant timing. Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Amanda Nagim-Williams said the state grant (~$231K) expires August 30 and has been communicated as not available in future years.

• Union status. Sirigu confirmed only the superior officers' union has ratified the updated BWC policy; patrol officers remain under old contract language, and cameras could not be deployed contrary to an approved STIR.

• Chair's technical questions. Scott submitted seven written questions, including discrepancies between the STIR and contract on officer access to footage, notification requirements ("whenever practical" vs. mandatory), recording of public assemblies based on "reasonable belief a crime may occur," and reliance on the public records law for subjects' access to footage.

• Councilor Strezo, citing support from oversight advocates and the NAACP, argued the committee was "spinning in circles" and moved to send the items to the full council; after procedural discussion she withdrew a motion to approve and instead moved discharge without recommendation, which passed. Davis asked that the report reflect his strong preference the items be sent back to committee.

Ethical Procurement Ordinance

Discussion ran over an hour and was sharply divided:

• Ewen-Campen stressed the ordinance targets conduct—companies knowingly and materially enabling occupation, apartheid, or genocide—not any company doing business with a particular government, and said naming Israel/Palestine reflects the recent Somerville ballot question and the fact that similar ordinances elsewhere were sued regardless of naming. He acknowledged drafting ambiguities and committed to revisions over the summer.

• Strezo opposed the ordinance as discriminatory, questioned its legality, and read constituent opposition. Solicitor Amara confirmed prior law department opinions concluded such a measure would likely be challenged and found unlawful, and that nothing in the current draft changed that conclusion, though no opinion has been issued on this exact language.

• Davis raised drafting concerns: the meaning of "material support," standards for the exceptions, reconciling "international law" with the listed international bodies, and whether the language as drafted could sweep in any company doing business with the U.S. government. Ewen-Campen acknowledged the ambiguity and committed to clarifying that support must be tied to the specific conduct. Davis also questioned the rationale for naming Israel/Palestine specifically. He requested a specific law department opinion on how the ordinance interacts with procurement law.

• Mbah gave an extended statement supporting the ordinance on humanitarian grounds while condemning both antisemitism and anti-Palestinian hatred, and suggested adding databases such as the AFSC and Who Profits lists and a public-posting requirement for exceptions.

• Scott suggested clarifying that support must directly further the violating activities, floated adding UN General Assembly Resolution ES-11/4 (Russia's occupation of Ukraine) to the illustrative list, and requested that the exceptions provisions include a transparency/notification requirement.

• A Strezo motion requesting an economic analysis of the ordinance's impact (including bond rating) initially passed 3-2, but after Mbah moved reconsideration—saying he no longer felt the questioning was in good faith—the motion failed 2-3 on the revote.

What's Next

• To full council (July 9): the early leasing home rule petition (as amended), the notice of building sale ordinance, the updated surveillance annual report, the Smart Tree Inventory STIR, the self-promotion ordinance, and the two body-worn camera items (discharged without recommendation).

• Public hearings: a September public hearing on body-worn cameras; a citizen-petitioned public hearing on the ethical procurement ordinance to be scheduled.

• Remaining in committee: the ethical procurement ordinance, the CrimeTracer STIR, and the BWC petition and chief's memo.

• Follow-ups requested: law department opinions on (1) a private right of action for the building sale ordinance, (2) First Amendment implications of the self-promotion ordinance, and (3) the procurement ordinance's interaction with procurement law; purchasing department input on procurement-ordinance workload and exception notifications; whether the fusion center could run CopLink queries if the city left CrimeTracer; and continued pursuit of GrayKey training materials before the next surveillance report.