An Ordinance, referred on August 18, 2021, to provide for legal representation of the Boston Groundwater Trust by the City of Boston Law Department, the committee submitted a report recommending the ordinance ought to pass.
Duncan Number 0900 Ordinance to Provide for legal legal representation of the Boston Groundwater Trust by the City of Boston Law Department. The chair recognizes Councilor Lydia Edwards, chair of the Committee on Governance Operations. Chair Edwards, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. I want to thank my vice chair for taking the lead and helping me in this moment to conduct the final hearings on this. I was counselor forces, the lead sponsor of this matter, pushing for making making sure that our grandmother trust has legal representation, which I currently do not. So I'm going to actually turn over to the vice chair or and or the lead sponsor, whoever is more prepared to speak right now to help. But my ultimate recommendation is that we pass this. I think this was an oversight that we had in our legislation. And this is something, again, Councilor Baucus found that we need to just make sure that we are covering all aspects of city workers and people who are doing good work. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am quite convinced that both the vice chair and the sponsor are well equipped to speak on this and most things. So I'll start with the Vice Chair of the Committee on Governance Operations. And I would like to recognize the lead sponsor for our great work on this. And obviously it's something that is is needed. So through the. Chair Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Chair And I recognize of the District Council from Beacon Hill. Councilor Bach, the floor is yours. Thank you so much. And thank you to the vice chair for chairing and to Councilor Edwards, as ever, for her leadership and also to both of them for being my co-sponsors on this matter, and to Councilor Flynn for being the fourth co-sponsor really on this matter and also attending the hearings. You know, I think between our districts, Councilor Flynn's Councilor Edwards and mine, we have the bulk of the area that the groundwater trust covers. And so one of the things that we all know as district councilors and that Councilor Flaherty knows from long experience, is that the groundwater trust is really part and parcel of city government and of the stewardship of a critical public resource, which is the groundwater level, a public resource, I should say, with enormous impact on private property values, because we have a large number of buildings and across all of our districts that, you know, if the groundwater level lowers and the pilings that the buildings are on start to rot, it becomes a very expensive endeavor indeed to try to save them. And so it's one of those things where everyone needs to be proactive. And I think really Boston's laws around this are a model in terms of requiring groundwater recharge, requiring groundwater trust, sign off on people's plans to make sure that we don't have leaks in the system . The strange thing about all of that is that even though we rely on the trust as such a critical piece of our approvals apparatus, the way that the current city law has been interpreted by corporation council is that they're not actually eligible for legal representation or advice from corporation council because of the way that the entity is technically set up. And, you know, that exposes the volunteer members of the groundwater trust who are really, you know, give of themselves for the sake of the city. And its executive director, Christian Simonelli, who again is a ubiquitous presence at city meetings. And and so this was something that, you know, it's not that the law department doesn't want to represent them. It's just that the way it currently reads the statute, it's not authorized to. And so it's an easy fix, but a really important one. And that's the piece of legislation that we have before you today, is just to make sure that if if the groundwater trust finds itself embroiled in any issue and again, when there's money on the line, as there is in development, we all know that lawsuits follow, that they can count on the city of Boston to have their back legally in the same way that they have our back as a city and and frankly, support all the residents in these communities. So it's a it's in the I said to somebody, this is the category of boring but important, but I would be very grateful to everyone for their support today. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. But could anyone else wish to speak on docket zero 900? Seeing none. The Chair. Councilor Edwards. The Vice Chair. Councilor Flaherty, the lead sponsor, Councilor Bach, and the fourth sponsor, Councilor Flynn, seek acceptance of the committee report and passage of docket 09000. Those in favor please indicate by saying I oppose. Nay, the ayes have it. The docket is passed. Congratulations. Motions, orders and resolutions. Mr. Clerk, would you please read docket 1181. Docket number 1181. Councilor Braden offer the following order for a hearing regarding access to low cost veterinary care.