City Council

CITY OF SALEM JANUARY 3, 2022 INAUGURATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL A Special Meeting of the City Council was held remotely via zoom on Monday, January 3, 2022, at 10:00 A.M. for the purpose of organizing city government for the year 2022. Notice of this meeting was posted on December 30, 2021, at 9:10 A.M. All Councillors were present. Councillor Dibble arrived at 6:25 pm. City Clerk Ilene Simons called the meeting to order, and Councillor Robert K. McCarthy, Senior Member, assumed the Chair. Senior Member McCarthy then called upon Councillor Prosniewski to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Senior Member McCarthy called upon Father Robert Murray for the invocation. Senior Member McCarthy called upon City Clerk Ilene Simons to administer the oath of office to Mayor Kimberley Driscoll. City Clerk Ilene Simons then administered the oath of office to the members of the City Council. #1 - ELECTION OF PRESIDENT Councillor McClain introduced the following Order, which was adopted. Ordered: That the City Council proceed to organize for 2022 by the election of a president. Councillor Riccardi nominated Councillor Morsillo Councillor Dominguez seconded the nomination. Councillor Cohen moved that nominations be closed. It was so voted. Councillor Patricia R. Morsillo was elected President of the City Council for the year 2022 by a roll call vote of 10 yeas, 0 nays, 1 present and 0 absent. Councillors Cohen, Dominguez, Hapworth, McCarthy, McClain, Merkl, Prosniewski, Riccardi, Varela and Watson-Felt were recorded in the affirmative. Councillor Morsillo was recorded as present. Councillor McCarthy made a motion to make the vote unanimous. Councillor Merkl seconded the motion. It was adopted to have the vote reflect a unanimous roll call vote of 11 yeas, 0 nays and 0 absent. Newly elected President Morsillo assumed the chair. President Morsillo thanked the City Council for electing her President. (See speech below)  CITY OF SALEM JANUARY 3, 2022 INAUGURATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL #2 - RULES AND REGULATIONS Councillor Hapworth introduced the following order, which was adopted by a unanimous roll call vote of 11 yeas, 0 nays and 0 absent. ORDERED: That the rules and regulations of the City Council for the year 2021 be adopted as the rules and regulations for the year 2022, and that the same be suspended for this meeting. Following the organizational meeting of the School Committee, the City Council reconvened. #3 - MAYOR ADDRESS COUNCIL Councillor Watson-Felt introduced the following Order, which was adopted. ORDERED: That the Honor the Mayor be invited to address the members of the City Council at this session. (See speech below) President Morsillo then introduced Mayor Driscoll, who gave her Inaugural Address. Following the Mayor's inaugural address, President Morsillo thanked her for her informative address. President Morsillo then called upon the Reverend Deborah Phillips for the Benediction. Following the Benediction, President Morsillo called upon Councillor McCarthy who moved that the meeting be adjourned at 10:53 A.M. It was so voted. ATTEST: ILENE SIMONS CITY CLERK (See Speeches next page)  CITY OF SALEM JANUARY 3, 2022 INAUGURATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL Councilor Patricia Morsillo - City Council President Speech, January 3, 2022 Thank you, Councilor McCarthy, our new City Council Dean. May you continue to provide us with guidance and advice from your years of service on this Council. And during those particularly long City Council meetings, we will eagerly anticipate your motion to adjourn! Thank you to our Sergeant at Arms, Shawn Newton. You were an important player in our City for the past 2 years especially, as the leader of the Race Equity Task Force, and will remain an important voice for all of us. Thank you to my colleagues for trusting me with this leadership role, and for supporting me with your vote. I will work hard to support each of you. And I will continue Council President Madore’s work toward more efficient meetings. This doesn’t mean shorter meetings necessarily, but that the work will be more focused. For example, I plan to start the year with an order to create a standing Committee of the Whole, to allow us to work together to tackle the larger items more efficiently. To our five new Councilors: Congratulations! You all worked very hard to get to this point and you have earned this celebration. I hope you take the time to appreciate the “wins”, whether that is a new sidewalk in your ward, or a new business opening, or seeing a final vote on an ordinance that you helped to write. Our jobs are a mix of working on city-wide ordinances to plan for the future, and constituent advocacy for road paving or snow plowing issues, or traffic calming on neighborhood streets. It’s easy to focus on the problems and complaints we face day to day, it’s harder to take the victory lap. The joy I felt at seeing new sidewalks being installed on Jackson Street, where there were none before was immeasurable. I was over the moon to be able to get this done for the residents, who have been asking the city for years. I never thought I would be so excited about street paving and new sidewalks! This job will change you! This was certainly not the inauguration event that we hoped for, but changing plans and being virtual today should not diminish our hopes for this term. Flexibility and having an open mind are important qualities for City Councilors. We must be able to listen to information, understand data, and then make the best possible decision. By now, we are all aware of how contagious this particular COVID strain is. For the past 3 weeks or so, most of us have been on the roller coaster of “close contact notifications” and positive test results, something parents of school-age children have been living with since September. We really tried our best to hold the inauguration in-person, but the data simply would not support the risk. I want to thank Ilene Simons, our City Clerk, and Ellen Talkowsky, Salem’s own Dynamic Duo, for their flexibility in the planning and re-planning of this event. We are all here because we love living in Salem, and we want to ensure that Salem’s future is healthy and strong. The worst thing that can happen to a city is for its residents to become complacent and resistant to change. “Because that’s the way it has always been done” is not an appropriate answer when it comes to planning for the future. A healthy city is one that continues to respond to the changing times - changes in how people live and work and play. We need to learn from the challenges brought by the past 2 years of COVID: to ensure increased access to city meetings; to invest in our internet infrastructure and online services so that ALL residents are able to take advantage of online programs; and to continue to think creatively, in a focused way, about affordable housing, to support the heroes of the pandemic: the front-line service workers, healthcare workers, and small business owners in our community. Those who work in Salem, and support us every day, even when the health risks are high, should be able to afford to live here. We can’t in one breath sing their praises, and in the next ignore their needs.  CITY OF SALEM JANUARY 3, 2022 INAUGURATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL As leaders in the City, I ask my fellow City Councilors to remember to demonstrate respect regarding the business of the City. We will have many discussions in Council and committee meetings, and we WON’T always agree. Please bring your passion, knowledge, and arguments to the table with an open mind. Work toward consensus, and be ready to compromise. Make the best decision you can based on research, data, discussions with constituents, colleagues, and city staff. And leave any disagreements in the room, whether that room is real or virtual. There will always be those who try to heighten differences between us for their own benefit, but we are all here because our constituents trusted us to do the job. Keep focused on your work as a City Councilor, communicate with your constituents, do your homework before meetings, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. I look forward to working with each of you over the next year. And I look forward to being together in the same room. But remember that it isn’t the room that is important; It’s the work that we are doing. And there is a lot of work to be done to prepare for our future. My hope for each of you is that in 10 years, 20 years, you can look around Salem and be happy in the knowledge that the time you spent on this Council made a difference. That Salem is stronger and healthier because of our work together today. I want to close with the beginning of “A New Year’s Lyric”, a poem by Amanda Gorman, the National Youth Poet Laureate. This particular piece moved me because of how directly it speaks to all leaders across the world about this moment in time. (And apologies in advance to Ms Gorman, who does a much better job than I at reciting her work.) A New Year’s Lyric May this be the day We come together. Mourning, we come to mend, Withered, we come to weather, Torn, we come to tend, Battered, we come to better. Tethered by this year of yearning, We are learning That though we weren’t ready for this, We have been readied by it. We steadily vow that no matter How we are weighed down, We must always pave a way forward. This hope is our door, our portal. Even if we never get back to normal, Someday we can venture beyond it, To leave the known and take the first steps. So let us not return to what was normal, But reach toward what is next. Thank you again. Let’s get to work!  CITY OF SALEM JANUARY 3, 2022 INAUGURATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll’s 2022 State of the City Address, January 3, 2022 Good morning, everyone, in particular to our newly elected City Councillors and School Committee members. In a city as historic as ours with a lot of firsts, I’m saddened that the times demand that this be our ‘first’ virtual inauguration. Like so many, we are pivoting the way we usually operate in the interest of our collective public health. I would like to begin my remarks by acknowledging and honoring that the place where we are meeting (virtually) – like all of Salem – is indigenous land: a place called Naumkeag and home to countless generations of Massachuset men, women, and children. Even as we approach the 400th anniversary of European arrival here in 1626, let us never lose sight of the important legacy of those who were living here in 1625 and for many generations prior. As we begin this new term, bereft of being in each other’s company, let it not dampen our enthusiasm for the incredible honor entrusted to each of us to represent our fellow Salem neighbors, motivated by goodwill and hope, as we strive to undertake deeds for the greater benefit of our community. I know it’s not lost on any of us that as we take our oath of office, we are still in the midst of a pandemic that has taken the lives of 97 Salem residents and impacted every single one of us in some way. Right now, we have weary health care workers, just down the street at an almost full Salem Hospital, doing all they can to care for those who are ill. This morning, our youngest residents returned to school from the holiday break while our public educators and school staff undertake extra efforts to keep our schools safe and open - knowing how important this is to the wellbeing of our kids and families. At present, many of our small business owners are weary from the constant pivoting and uncertainties caused by COVID, but they continue to press forward reinventing new ways to serve Salem and secure their livelihoods. As public servants, today more than ever, we are reminded of the importance of our daily work: to make a safe community for all. The work of recovering from this pandemic should be our testament to the memories of the lives lost and the extra efforts being made by so many – from nurses and doctors to teachers, custodians, and small business owners – let’s not let the past nearly two years of struggle and hardships be for naught. From improving our vaccination levels to protecting our residents from severe illness and death, to rebuilding our economy and our neighborhoods, this work has been and continues to be critical. Throughout this pandemic, our city’s strong fiscal management and efforts to foster regional collaboration have been key in facing public health, economic and educational challenges. Our forward thinking COVID preparations have been looked to by other communities as a model in everything from innovative testing and main street recovery programs to early adoption of public health standards and school safety protocols to regional homeless prevention actions – we have led with an esprit de corps and “can do” spirit. We’ve been a beacon for our Commonwealth. And that reputation is not just limited to our response to this pandemic.  CITY OF SALEM JANUARY 3, 2022 INAUGURATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL It’s true for issues like housing, as well. We have been – and will continue to be – driven by one simple idea: everyone has a right to a roof over their head. And we’ll keep pushing to help everyone realize that. No one should be excluded from safe, affordable, accessible housing. This is part of what we mean by Salem is for everyone. It also means maintaining a commitment to an inclusive, equity focused approach to our work. We’re excited to bring on board Salem’s first ever Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and this work will be supported and deepened through the new Race Equity Commission. As we take on our COVID recovery efforts, front and center will be investing in ways that improve outcomes tied to the social determinants of health – ensuring that all Salem residents share in our recovery efforts is critical to our community’s long-term prosperity. When we ALL do better, we ALL do better. In that same bucket – important yet challenging – we also must redouble our efforts to face the climate crisis: both preparing for the inevitable impacts of a warming planet and also doing our part to reduce our own local contributions to it. Salem will continue our capital investments in resiliency: seawalls, coastal improvements, flood mitigation, lots more trees, converting existing building into energy efficient green structures and installing rooftop solar everywhere we can. We must broaden our efforts to reduce single passenger vehicle use through initiatives like the Salem Skipper, Bluebikes, and more complete streets and off-street path projects. We must adopt regulations that require sensible and sustainable development, including the forthcoming wetlands protection ordinance and the green infrastructure ordinance. And, of course, Salem is a ready partner in the Commonwealth Wind project – a transformational opportunity to take what was once a coal power plant, and is now a natural gas plant, and see to it that, into the future, it’ll become a major offshore wind energy site. Bringing this new offshore wind industry to Salem will create hundreds of green jobs, substantial growth to our commercial tax base, but – most importantly of all – a significant and positive step forward in ending our Commonwealth’s and our country’s reliance on fossil fuels. As we look to that future horizon, our focus also must be upon our students. We should be proud to count Salem’s teachers and school staff as among the best in Massachusetts. Salem has one of the strongest teacher contracts in the state, if not the strongest. And the steps we’ve taken – initiating free pre-K for four-year-olds, a robust early college effort for high school students, as well as our City Connects program which serves as the connective tissue between students, families, schools and community partners in helping to meet health, social and emotional needs – all of these actions are better preparing our students for success. That focus and attention on our schools must grow and be reinforced. From the upcoming school facility master plan, the continued high school redesign work, to broadening our early education and multi-lingual learning programs. Every Salem child deserves the opportunity to succeed academically, personally, and socially - and in a safe and supportive school and classroom. These goals are important – and I know they are achievable. 52 years ago, Mayor Sam Zoll was inaugurated in what was the City’s first “unified” inauguration of Mayor, City Council, and School Committee – as, what Mayor Zoll called, “a symbol of our working together in pursuit of progressive solutions.” Those of us fortunate enough to have known former Mayor and Judge Sam Zoll know what a force he was: passionate, forward-looking, with an unapologetic love for this city.  CITY OF SALEM JANUARY 3, 2022 INAUGURATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL That year, in 1970, as he took office, Mayor Zoll pledged the following: “I shall not retreat from supporting what must be done. I shall use all the resources of my office to achieve these ends. Yet, I shall be amenable to amendment, as long as the final result is still progressive action for our city...Let our labors always be tempered by the achievement of the attainable when perfection is not obtainable…Characterized by an independence of mind and a devotion to progress, we shall tolerate no paralysis. We shall insist on integrity.” To my colleagues in elected office – both those who continue from previous service and those who newly join us today - let us all bring to this role that independence of mind, that integrity, and that devotion to progress of which Mayor Zoll spoke. Let it define Salem City government. Because our community – just like our Commonwealth and our country – is at an inflection point. The climate crisis, pandemic recovery, the changing nature of our economy and work, the cost and availability of housing, the quality of our education system, and the need for more equitable approaches in all our efforts: these are the challenges before us. They are mighty and multi-layered and require action before all of us in public service, at every level and in every corner of our Commonwealth and our nation. This work has never been more important. But, likewise, the opportunity to accomplish meaningful and sustainable good for our neighbors and our neighborhoods has never been more evident. With resources and a collective desire to adhere to Mayor Zoll’s “devotion to progress.” I know that we can do our part to act now to advance a bright future for our nearly 400-year-old city. Congratulations again to all who were sworn in today and thank you to all who put themselves forward to serve our community in every capacity. Salem has been made more livable, more welcoming, and more vibrant – for everyone – because of those who serve our city. I’m grateful to be in such good company and look forward to our work together. Onward in 2022! Thank you.