The City Council put out a summary of recent meetings in the first Watertown City Council Newsletter. See the piece provided by the City Council below.
January 14, 2025 City Council Meeting & January 21, 2025 Special City Council Meeting
Residents can view the recording of the January 14th meeting here and the January 21st meeting here.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
On behalf of the city and the council, Council President Mark Sideris thanked and congratulated Marsha Osmond upon her retirement after more than two decades of service to Watertown in the manager’s office. He noted that Marsha has been incredibly helpful with events such as inaugurations and other celebrations. Marsha has also been invaluable in assisting residents when they contact the manager’s office. The council and city staff will miss Marsha’s efforts and presence in City Hall.
APPROVAL OF LOAN ORDER FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGERS
The council voted unanimously to approve a $180,000 loan order to pay for installing electric vehicle charging stations at the following locations:
- 2 chargers at the Nichols Ave Lot
- 2 chargers at the Phillips, 3o Common Street Lot
- 2 chargers at the John A. Ryan Skating Rink at 1 Paramount Pl.
- 2 chargers at the Police Headquarters at 552 Main Street
City Manager George Proakis noted that the total cost of the above charges comes to $136,000. With $180,000 approved in the Capital Improvement Plan, the city may be able to add additional chargers at other locations. He also explained that while publicly available chargers are now free the city is in the process of establishing a program to charge users for the electricity.
NEW DPW HOURS MADE PERMANENT
Following a report from the Committee on Personnel and City Organization from Councilor Bays, the council voted unanimously to make permanent the hours for the DPW’s office which had been approved on a temporary basis in December of 2023. Councilor Bays noted that the DPW has found the new hours to be beneficial to their operations as well as to the work-life balance of staff. DPW’s permanent hours are now Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM. The public may stop by the DPW at these hours or call at 617-972-6420. During non-business hours, residents may call the office phone number and will be connected with an answering service representative who can help with emergencies or take a non-emergency message. For additional questions or information, please email dpwdept@watertown-ma.gov.
APPROVAL OF ADJUSTMENT TO CITY MANAGER’S SALARY
The council unanimously voted to increase the city manager’s salary from $226,200 to $235,248. Council President Sideris added that this makes the manager’s salary more competitive with that of other municipalities, some of which have recently hired new managers at similar or higher salaries. He also added that the manager recently received an excellent review from the council.
UPDATE ON CITY GRANT EFFORTS
Assistant City Manager for Finance Ari Sky introduced recently hired Management & Grants Specialist Mark Lang to the council. Mark explained that he has been putting in place a grants inventory which tracks grant applications from city departments. He said that since January 1, 2023 departments have been awarded 74 competetive grant applications totaling over $5 million in revenue. These cover a wide variety of projects such as green infrastructure, tree planting, and events. He added that the city currently has ten outstanding grant applications totaling $3,821,441 in potential new revenue. Departments are planning to apply for more grants in the future and Mark will continue to provide updates to the council. Mark also noted that the city will begin tracking the success rate of grant applications and will include such data in future updates.
UPDATE ON BUILDING EMISISIONS REDUCTION & DISCLOSURE ORDINANCE (BERDO)
City Manager George Proakis submitted a draft Building Emissions Reduction & Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) to the council. The ordinance was based on a draft ordinance from the Watertown Environment and Energy Efficiency Committee (WE3C), a group of volunteer residents appointed by the manager and confirmed by the council. Some changes were made to their draft to align with other city ordinances.
The Resilient Watertown Climate & Energy Plan calls for Watertown to establish an ordinance reducing emissions from buildings. George noted that Watertown is not the first community in Massachusetts to consider or establish a BERDO and that WE3C was able to use lessons learned from other communities to improve the ordinance.
The ordinance was referred to the Rules & Ordinances Committee for further consideration by the council.
WINTER PARKING BAN DISCUSSION
As a result of a citizen’s petition to remove the winter parking ban, the council held a public hearing on the matter on Tuesday, January 21st.
Hundreds of residents made their voices heard on this issue either by emailing the council or speaking at the hearing. Sgt. Sampson of the police department, Chief Nicholson of the fire department, and Steve Magoon of the department of community development & planning also spoke to the council and addressed a number of concerns from the public on the ban. One point conveyed was that individuals with disability placards properly displayed in their vehicles are not subject to the winter parking ban except during snow emergencies. After further guidance from City Manager George Proakis and deliberation amongst the councilors, the council decided to continue consideration of the matter at future meetings.
CONTACT THE CITY COUNCIL
To email the entire city council: citycouncilors@watertown-ma.gov
Council Clerk Brendan McCarthy: bmccarthy@watertown-ma.gov
Municipal Policy Analyst Doug Newton: dnewton@watertown-ma.gov