City Council Agenda Preview: April 27
The Worcester City Council meets Tuesday at 6:30pm. The agenda is here.
This week: Police overtime, minority contracts, a COVID memorial, the lawsuit. A packed agenda. I'll write up the very top highlights, and reference the rest.
Also: A mini essay on COVID vaccine enthusiasm at the bottom of this post.
The Lawsuit: You will recall that last meeting, the Council and School Committee held a closed session about a lawsuit alleging that the electoral system for the School Committee "unlawfully and unconstitutionally dilutes the vote" of the Black and Latino communities. The Mayor has announced that the city isn't going to fight this, and is starting the process of changing this system.
Zoning: Cliff "Worcester Railers" Rucker is asking to have the zoning unified (as residential, RG-5) across 113-115 Elm St., 61 Cedar St., 65 Cedar St. and 67 Cedar St. This will be sent to the Planning Board. (These are near Becker but not, I believe, Becker buildings.) The Council will also vote whether or not to approve extension of residential zoning in the vicinity of Goldthwaite Road and Varney Street, manufacturing zoning in the vicinity of 1451 Grafton Street, and business zoning in the vicinity of Green Street, Plymouth Street, Gold Street, and Summit Street.
Boards and Commissions: The City Manager has appointed Steven Taylor to the Historical, Eric Goldstein to the Parks Commission, and reappointed Lauren DeOliveira to the Human Rights Commission. The Council will vote on whether to appoint Miles Goodwin to the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee.
Police Overtime, Etc.: The Council has several items relating to both the latest report from the city's auditor, and to a 2019 "Management Letter" from them. One item in particular relates to a long section of the 2019 report about police overtime that notes there are various problems including poor documentation and the department's policies on overtime not matching how it is handled in practice.
In Summary: They also have items before them about the proposed Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the Belmont Street Pedestrian Bridge, “a comprehensive plan to improve the City's parking management system ,” a financial update, and the Green Worcester Sustainability and Resilience Strategic Plan.
Infrared Patching Machines: Councilor Colorio has an item reiterating a request from a year ago that the Department of Public Works maybe needs to get "a self-contained infrared patching machine for pot hole repairs, which could be used to improve methods of repairs and add years to our current road surfaces."
COVID-19 Memorial: Councilor Colorio has an item asking the Manager to "consider a permanent memorial for Worcester residents who lost their lives from the Coronavirus." Do we have other disease-related memorials in the city?
Police Drones: Councilor Toomey would like a report from the Police Chief about how we can be making use of drones.
Autistic Accessibility: Councilor Rose would like the city "to work with the Magnus Card App, a free app dedicated to making the world a more accessible place for people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities and for the Autism Spectrum Disorder community."
Remote Work: Councilor King has a couple items about remote work for city workers and in Worcester in general.
Auditing Minority Contracts: It has recently been discovered that the construction of the new ballpark has not involved as many businesses owned by women and minorities as promised. Councilor King has an item asking for a report on this, and that we audit other contracts with these provisions.
Virtual Meeting
Dial 415-655-0001 (Access Code 160 973 0619)
https://cow.webex.com/cow/onstage/g.php?MTID=e2b99f1b5504d71d78fac6d242f3235c3
Vaccine Enthusiasm
This CDC data is pretty interesting. Worcester County is the seventh-most vaccine-enthusiastic county nationwide, with only 7.43% of people hesitant (3% strongly hesitant).
MA would take all of the top 10 slots except San Francisco County sneaks in at #8.
Worcester city is 9% hesitant and #178 out of 2351 statistical areas nationwide. Worcester is among the most hesitant parts of the county. This puts the county at the 99th percentile of enthusiasm, and the city at the 92nd percentile.
These come from census bureau survey data, with lots of statistical wizardry applied. Strongly hesitant means people will "definitely not" get vaccinated. Hesitant means those people plus those who will "probably not" get vaccinated.
The most hesitant county is Johnson County WY at 32% (17%), and the most hesitant "public use microdata area" is the Natrona County + Carbon County + Converse County WY area (Casper etc), at 32% (18%). All you subjective idealists will be interested to know Alameda County CA is #34, with 9% (3%). Berkeley city is #34 with 8% (3%). Several parts of the county are more enthusiastic than Berkeley.