City Council Agenda: May 4
The Worcester City Council meets Tuesday at 6:30pm. The agenda is here.
This week: Firefighting stuff.
Firefighters: The Council’s Public Safety Committee wants the full Council to ask the manager to ask the Fire Chief if we can have a “cadet program . . . such as the one in Hartford.” Councilor Colorio would like “any reports by any independent agencies that have investigated the operations of the Worcester Fire Department in the past 10 years.”
Body Cameras: Councilor King would like to know how things are going with police body cameras, and how conversations with stakeholders are going. He’d also like to know if we could get state funding for a body camera program.
Decarbonization: Councilor Rivera would like the Council to go on record as supporting state legislation that would give cities like Worcester the option of adopting a new housing code that would require new buildings to be net-zero energy.
New Construction Design Review: Councilor Rose would like the Manager to create a Design Review Board Commission including “an architect, a landscape architect, and graphics designer” to evaluate new buildings, new signs, new landscaping, and maybe existing buildings as well. (These items are always very short, it can be hard to know what is intended.)
Becker: Councilor Rivera has a few items regarding the soon-to-be-closed Becker College. She’s like to know if the city has met with all the various stakeholders to discuss the closure. She’d like a list of Becker’s buildings. And she’d like to know what it would take to make the neighborhood a historic district.
Minute Confidentiality: Councilor Bergman wants to know how confidential the minutes of Executive Sessions are supposed to be.
City Seal Crackdown: Did you know that the city tries to restrict use of the heart-and-laurels City Seal? The city’s ordinances provide for enforcement via any city employee the City Manager has designated to do so. Councilor Bergman wants to know where we are with all of this.
Al Southwick, RIP: Councilor Bergman wants the city to plant a flowering tree in Elm Park to honor the late Worcester historian Al Southwick.
The COVID Bus: Councilor Colorio wants the WRTA to turn a bus into a mobile COVID vaccination clinic.
Virtual Meeting:
Dial 415-655-0001 (Access Code 157 346 1349)
https://cow.webex.com/cow/onstage/g.php?MTID=e5ab2f7a6e1abd1740eaf66cf71559574