City Council
No meetings scheduled for this week.
Schools
The Newton School Committee will meet virtually on Monday to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) Units A-E, Newton Educational Secretaries Associations (NESA), and the Custodian Association.
The Negotiations Subcommittee of the Newton School Committee will meet on Tuesday to conduct bargaining session but also grievance hearings required by a collective bargaining agreement.
The Negotiations Subcommittee‘s meeting scheduled for Thursday, November 2 has been canceled (see Cancellation Notice).
The Negotiations Subcommittee will meet virtually on Thursday to conduct a collective bargaining session with the mediator, NTA, and Units A-E.
Boards and Commissions
Newton Cultural Council will meet on Monday:
- Stacey Moriarty, Creative Arts & Sciences Newton Public Schools, Treasurer Report, Adjudication Criteria, and discussion of MCC grant opportunities for our NCC grant applicants.
Elections Commission will conduct Image Cast/ballot machine testing on Tuesday.
Newton Fair Housing Committee will meet on Wednesday:
- Annual Training Program Updates
- Cambridge Resident Experience Study Follow-up
- Fair Housing Subcommittee Lottery Data Integration Discussion
- Affordable Homes Act Discussion
- Subcommittee Updates
- Lottery Results & Lease-ups Sub-Committee
- Membership & Nominating Sub-Committee
- Fair Housing Award Sub-Committee
- Fair Housing Literature Sub-Committee
- Fair Housing Committee Priorities Discussion
Franklin School Building Committee will meet on Thursday to review site design alternatives and evaluation criteria; and potential vote on preferred option.
WestMetro HOME Consortium will meet on Thursday:
- Consolidated Pool & CHDO RFP: Presentations from MetroWest Collaborative Development & Planning Office of Urban Affairs, review of Project Review Committee Funding Recommendations, and vote
- HOME-ARP Draft RFP: Review Draft RFP and vote
- Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing (AI) Update: Fair Housing Testing Program
- Update from Paige Stopperich, Esq. – Suffolk Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP)
- FY21 & FY22 HOME Monitoring: FY21 & FY22 HOME Monitoring Update
- NSPIRE Inspections: Update
- Budget: Update
- FY24 AAP & FY24 Subrecipient Agreements: Update
Other
Councilors wrote to Governor, supporting local option for real-estate transfer fee: City Councilors submitted this letter to Governor Maura Healey in support of local option power to create a real estate transfer fee. The City Council passed a resolution in 2021 requesting the legislature to allow for a local option for municipalities to create a tailored real estate transfer fee that would provide funding to the Newton Affordable Housing Trust.
The Councilors urged the Governor to support a local option for a transfer fee that would include exemptions for low-income and first-time homebuyers, transfers between family members, and deed-restricted affordable units. They asked that caution be exercised as not to create an overly restrictive threshold. The Governor’s proposal is to set a threshold of $1 million or the county median sale price, whichever is greater, and the Councilors said that while it might be appropriate for Newton currently, it would leave out communities in other parts of the state where affordable housing needs are great but where homes do not sell for more than $1 million.
VCOD Schedule: City Council President Susan Albright sent this memo to the City Council explaining the schedule for considering Village Center Overlay District (VCOD) zoning. The Council may start discussion on it at its November 6 meeting, which will likely be a short meeting the day before Election Day. A special meeting of the Council on November 15 will be dedicated to VCOD, and any further discussion will be taken up in the regular November 20 meeting. President Albright indicated that discussion might continue in the Council’s regular meetings on December 4 and 18, but scheduling another special meeting for it would be very difficult.
Northland Liaison Committee Update: Councilors Crossley and Ryan submitted this update on the status of Northland’s Needham Street project.