ORDER-2020-4 : Request for update by city officials on matters related to June 20, 2019 Brazil Street sewer backup

Transcript (~2 h 21 min @ 1:12:00)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 1:11:52 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: agenda we have one order on our agenda that is order number two zero two zero dash four request for update by city officials on matters related to June 20th 2019 Brazil Street sewer backup motion to suspend the rules madam chair

▶ 1:12:06 Shawn M. MacMaster: so that we may hear from the appropriate representatives of the administration

▶ 1:12:14 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: second a motion to suspend the rules made by alderman McMaster seconded by alderman Medeiros all in favor any opposed we're under suspension of rules and we would appreciate those members of the administration are here tonight to

▶ 1:12:38 Gail Infurna: speak just coming forward good evening Gail Inferno mayor Melrose the first thing I want to say to the residents of Brazil Street is that I recognize how devastating the last four weeks have been and I hope you understand that we are doing everything within our control to return you to your homes as quickly as possible at this time I also want to share that I was admitted to the hospital that morning and remained hospitalized until late Monday night had I been in my office that day I would have been on the site as soon as I learned what had happened this was an unusual event it had all the elements of a perfect storm the pitch of the pipe the velocity of the sewage and the fact that the homes were built on slabs all made this an extraordinary case Everything happened so quickly that our DPW crew immediately went into rescue mode. Their first priority was to help you get started with getting your homes decontaminated and to make sure the sewer was completely cleared so there would be no more backups. We recognized that there was a gap in communication within our departments. we are working on revising our protocols to prevent that from happening again in the future and to this Board of Aldermen and to the people of Melrose I would like to reiterate they are we are taking this seriously my staff has reviewed what happened and how we could have approved improved our response our priority is always the well-being of the people of Melrose and if we fall short it's not because of negligence or bad intentions but simply because we are human and sometimes we do not meet our own expectations I would now like to share with you in the public a timeline of what happened on Brazil Street sewer blockages by themselves are not unusual our city is over a hundred years old and like other communities so is much of our infrastructure our DPW director will tell you about our ongoing efforts to upgrade maintain repair and replace our aging system but we can only deal with small portions of it at a time and this is a huge system although sewer blockages occur in other communities what happened on Brazil Street was an extraordinary situation at 9 10 a.m. on Thursday morning June 20th a call came into the DPW engineering office reporting that water was bubbling from a plate on the road in the road at the lower end of Brazil Street a two-man crew was immediately dispatched and arrived on site between 915 and 920 that morning. They saw the ponding water and checked the manholes. First, they checked the sewer manhole at the bottom of Brazil Street, where it connects to Washington Street. That manhole was empty, which indicated that there might be a blockage upstream. When I talk about upstream on Brazil Street, I mean uphill, so this should be pretty easy to visualize sewage like water flows downhill unless something is stopping it the crew then checked the manhole in front of 24 Brazil Street that manhole was full that meant it was highly likely that there was a blockage between those two manholes unfortunately this in fact proved to be the case using Using the city's vac truck, the DPW crew sent a stream of pressurized water from the empty manhole to the blockage to break it up. This is industry standard procedure in these situations, and our outside engineers, Weston and Sampson, who reviewed this incident, agree that their actions were appropriate. When the DPW workers saw sewage flowing in the Washington Street manhole, which had been empty before they turned off the pressure as the blockage cleared the sewage that had been backed up at the top of Brazil Street flowed rapidly downhill so fast that it exceeded the capacity of the sewer pipe and some of it backed up into the residences at numbers 9 12 13 and 18 Brazil Street we have all seen the dramatic video of the sewage going into one of the houses it's pretty awful our crew didn't realize this had happened until the residents started coming out of their houses looking for assistance the DPW workers went into number 9 and number 12 to assist the residents saw the sewer overflow and immediately called the DPW operations manager who arrived within in minutes the DPW workers the DPW workers methodically checked each house on Brazil Street until they found the one that did have a sewer overflow that did not have a sewer overflow so that they knew that only four houses were affected they knocked on the door of number 13 to alert the residents and called and called the police and a locksmith to help them enter two home houses number five and number 18 because the residents weren't home number five Brazil Street was not affected the operations manager spoke to the residents of all four houses gave them the name of vendors who specialize in cleanups of this type and inform them of the city's claims process this is standard procedure with sewer issues and it's how all insurance works whether it's car insurance home insurance or municipal insurance in these cases it is important to immediately address the damage and at the same time submit a claim to the insurance companies both the cities and the residents as quickly as possible having giving the residents the names of several cleaning companies the operations manager and DPW crew focused on finding out what the problem was and restoring sewer service to all the residents of brazil street in the early afternoon an outside vendor came in to make a video of the sewer pipe five dpw workers spent the rest of the day working on the brazil street sewers and assisting the residents at the same time cleanup began at the affected houses again the operations manager told the residents to do what they have to do save the receipts and submit a claim within the city however he could not say the city will reimburse you because he cannot make that guarantee no matter how much he or any other member of my administration may sympathize with the residents we must defer to the judgment and expertise of our insurance company to resolve these claims. It would be fiscally irresponsible to do otherwise. By the end of the workday on Thursday, all the residents had contacted a professional cleaning company to come in, assess the damage, make recommendations for cleanup, and immediately begin work. The sewers on Brazil Street were cleared and worked properly. The operations manager contacted the city's legal department at 2 30 that afternoon and that office immediately notified the city's insurance agent of the potential claims that would be forthcoming shortly thereafter dpw's management team met to review the details of the incident at 5 0 5 p.m the dpw director emailed the mayor's office and the ward 5 alderman to inform them of what had happened and the current status of the situation later that evening the ward 5 alderman spoke directly with the director of Public Works who provided him with a further update on Friday the incident was the sole priority in my office the director of community services and city operations spoke to each affected family individually and by noon had arranged to put up the families in hotels with direct payment from the city so they would not have to use their personal funds she then called the ward 5 alderman and the president of the Board of Aldermen to update them also on Friday morning our health director and building inspector went to Brazil Street and met with the affected residents the emergency management director was briefed on Friday morning the health director and another health inspector visited the four homes and gave the residents written information on what to do about sewage flooding the building inspector spoke to the residents and assured them that the city would waive any permit fees and expedite any permits they needed to restore their homes he also told them that they could start doing repairs immediately and follow up paperwork afterwards DPW arranged for extra trash collections that day and over the weekend and also helped some residents move some of their belongings meanwhile the director of Public Works made the decision to bring in Weston and Sampson to conduct an independent review by Friday morning the DPW director had gathered all the information about the Brazil Street sewer including the plan of the pipes and the condition of the services and by 1 p.m. engineers from Weston and Sampson were in his office at the same time our legal office was getting the insurance claim process started they had contacted the city's insurance agent on Thursday afternoon and at 9 o 1 a.m. on Friday Trident our insurance company acknowledged the claim and in signed the claim number and an adjuster the residents had already been told to contact their own renters or homeowners insurance Trident consolidated all four claims so they could be handled together after visiting at the four homes our health director returned to the office and wrote emergency orders to vacate the four homes in order to help the residents with their claims for their insurance companies by noon on Friday we felt the situation was stabilized the sewer system was operating under normal conditions cleaners were on site and we had arranged for the residents to stay in hotels at the city's expense in retrospect this is something that should have happened immediately on Thursday the one thing we could not do was assure the residents that the city would pay for all the restoration that would be irresponsible because we could not guarantee that our insurance would pay the claims in full the director of community services and operations gave someone from every home her cell phone number in case they needed assistance at any time including over that weekend by Tuesday June 25th the cleaners had finished their preliminary work and our health director had returned to review the work done at three of the houses she checked to see if materials that could absorb the sewage had been removed hard surfaces had been cleaned and sanitized in that the house had a working toilet this minimal standard was used because that is the standard for a home to be habitable we know that full restoration will take some time but the homes will be livable during that time our health director is deeply committed to the safety of all Melrose residents and she will not certify a home as habitable until she is satisfied that it is at the same time our goal was and is to help all the residents return home as soon as possible the health director gave verbal clearance for two of the homes number 9 and 12 to be reoccupied before she put that in writing the resident of number 12 told her that there was sewage in an HVAC pipe under the concrete floor the health director contracted contacted the cleaners who had not previously told her about this and after that discussion discussion she reversed her decision and did not issue a letter clearing that home for occupancy that home still has not be that home still has not been reoccupied and that family is currently staying in a hotel at the city's expense our health director verbally cleared number nine on June 26th and issued a letter confirming that the residents could be reoccupied on July 3rd because of the holiday weekend the city paid for the residents to stay in the hotel until July 9th work at number 13 began on June 20th and is ongoing number 18 was cleaned immediately but has not been cleared pending the installation of a toilet and a re-inspection by the Health Department to date the city has provided a pledged assistance of approximately $40,000 to the residents including about $15,000 in hotel bills and $25,000 in cleanup and remediation costs in addition we provided each family with $200 worth of target gift cards to take care of any immediate needs all of these costs with the exception of the gift cards are paid from the sewer fund the gift cards were provided by the emergency fund and that is the only assistance the emergency fund has provided in this situation we have been working with all the affected residents to move the insurance process along as quickly as possible I understand that even through today our insurance company is having conversations with these individuals in an effort to settle these claims quickly I know this has been an upsetting and disruptive time for these residents and I hope their claims will be settled quickly so that their lives can get back to normal and at this time I'd like to bring forward our director of Public Works John Chenna to make a

▶ 1:28:59 Speaker 5: presentation good evening everyone my name is John Shen I'm the director of

▶ 1:29:06 Speaker 5: Public Works the attached PowerPoint presentation it was our intention to have it in IQ MQ but the file was too large to transmit electronically so we're going to project it with through the clerk of committees I just want to start by you know personally and on behalf of the entire department and all its staff apologizing to the residents of Brazil Street for the circumstances that the issues on the 20th created to and the impact that that's had on their lives but what I'm here for at this point in time is to address some questions that have come forward some concerns and about our infrastructure about our procedures and about how we handle the maintenance and the upgrade mainly of our sewer system investing in our infrastructure is something that we have that we take extremely seriously there were decades of negligence and and and the systems were absolutely totally ignored years ago but over the last 15 plus years we've made a strong and historic commitment to upgrading our infrastructure we've worked at

▶ 1:30:32 Speaker 5: record pace having been here for 22 of the last years i could speak personally to being out in the field to leading projects from from the engineering office the leading projects from the operation managers office and to continuing to lead project as director of this department you can see by that map but this highlights this

▶ 1:30:56 Speaker 5: is just a visual and you don't have to see it up close to see all the color that's on there those are the all of the areas that the city of Melrose is

▶ 1:31:13 Speaker 5: invested in since 2003 next slide some of our milestone projects and sewer include the Upham Street sewer force main years ago sewage would overflow at the Melrose towers sewer would enter the cafeteria of the old middle school sewage would enter the Linfels Parkway when it flooded during heavy rain events and overflow onto the West knoll and the cabbage patch the Upham Street sewer force main was completed which placed a new connection point at Grove Street near Berwick Street replaced sewer mains on Grove Street on Laurel Street on parts of Upham Street but more importantly redirected that flow to a downstream point where this community has this community system has capacity we didn't stop there we worked with the MWRA and leveraged development money

▶ 1:32:14 Speaker 5: from Market Street to upgrade the sewer MWRA sewer that used to pass through the Roosevelt school and once again when it rained and in heavy snow rain events that sewer overflowed into the playground into the fields at the

▶ 1:32:38 Speaker 5: Roosevelt School that no longer happens we upgraded the east side sewer main

▶ 1:32:47 Speaker 5: which is a large pipe which collects sewage from the area behind Walgreens towards the Linfels Parkway and Porter Street that line goes under the length under Melrose High School under the new middle school and under Fred Greenfield upgrades were made to those as well to those to that system as well which led ultimately to the improvements at the middle school and the improvements of Fred Greenfield we've had consistent and ongoing investment in our sewer I&I

▶ 1:33:25 Speaker 5: program we've we've we've used over six million dollars of the MW IRAs program and currently we're working on phase 11 money of that program which is just over

▶ 1:33:42 Speaker 5: a million dollars over the last few years we've done sewer system evaluation surveys sewer manhole rehabilitations we've done lining projects and acts in excess of a million dollars we've completed open-cut sewer projects we have one ongoing on Howard Street right now this minute we have another one on yule street right now this minute and we've also completed cleaning and inspection of other

▶ 1:34:18 Speaker 5: areas as well it results in very good statistics 34 33 33 000 lineal feet of sewer were identified for lining and then were lined through these programs and we took out four over four hundred thousand gallons per day of inflow which impacts capacity and which results in overflows during rain events these are the last four areas where we've

▶ 1:34:46 Speaker 5: completed our work and you can see the areas in red areas with extremely high inflow and infiltration which are the result of deteriorated sewers the next slide the red disappears because of the work we've taken this program into the second phase and this slide shows in red the new four areas that we're working on under this phase we plan to continue this program and all its phases until we've gone throughout the whole community the Brazil Street sewers are

▶ 1:35:34 Speaker 5: part of the the southern areas of our sewer system so this is a this is a snapshot from my GIS many of you have asked tonight many right you've heard from many residents do they know what they have did they know where it is the answer is yes we do we have a GIS system it's a geographic information system which shows where the plans are where the sewers are what size they are and to some extent what material and what depth they're at we know we know the condition of we know the status of our system and we know the sizes and as far as records can tell us what the material is so Brazil Street is a dead-ended system it only collects sewer from Brazil Street as you can see in this in this diagram there it connects into Washington Street and then Washington flows towards stone place stone place flows towards the bottom of that page in that area right before the blue the blues of the open cup it was is the culvert but right before that right above that on that page is the MWRA main so sewer from Brazil Street doesn't have to travel across the city and to intercept us collector means it goes from Brazil Street to Washington Street stone place

▶ 1:37:05 Speaker 5: into the MWRA systems these are the plans for Brazil Street that are on file Brazil Street has 21 service connections connected into it it is a six inch

▶ 1:37:18 Speaker 5: diameter pipe is reported several times the pipe is made of vitrified clay which was the industry standard 100 years ago it's important to notice that the slopes

▶ 1:37:32 Speaker 5: are at or near 11% and there's just over 700 lineal feet of pipe present on

▶ 1:37:42 Speaker 5: Brazil Street this is another record drawing with some edits which shows the area of impact down the bottom and highlights the the segment of sewer which we found in surcharge conditions so our ongoing and maintenance and

▶ 1:38:03 Speaker 5: resources we we we staff and provide resources to our department to handle these type of issues we don't like when they happen but when they do happen the community needs someone to turn to we have equipment this board has been generous enough to vote funding for that equipment which is state-of-the-art we train our employees on that equipment we have manufacturers come and train employees new employees are walked through the equipment by our foreman we

▶ 1:38:43 Speaker 5: respond to sewer blocks and we try to respond with the highest level of professionalism possible we maintain a list of where our sewer blocks are we have reports that form and file at the conclusion they're reviewed by our operations manager many times they're reviewed by our legal office they're always reviewed by our entire management team we maintain a list of where these blockages happened so that we can go back and revisit those sites we maintain a periodical listing of nearly 50 locations in this community that we go back to at least once a month oftentimes twice a month to check and make sure that areas where problems existed or where we found a problem at least once doesn't happen again we can't control where the blockage is happening but what we can do is go back to make sure at least do everything within our power to

▶ 1:39:48 Speaker 5: make sure it doesn't happen again so the plan moving forward is to continue to work with western samson complete the video investigation and cleaning of all of brazil street the initial videos that were done were only in that original area of surcharge there is another about 300 to 400 feet upstream of that which should be very cleaned and then videoed and then it's the design specifications together our engineering office at western samson

▶ 1:40:24 Speaker 5: for the recommended improvements we're going to find the improvements we'll procure it and then we'll construct those improvements with the goal of having all of this all of these tasks completed

▶ 1:40:37 Speaker 5: this calendar year so I believe I'm a inferno deputy mayor Rob VanCampen and I here to answer any questions that you may have regarding the presentation material or anything else in general

▶ 1:40:55 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: general thank you and as the makers of the order call first on Ward 5 alderman

▶ 1:41:01 Speaker 10: Sean McMaster Thank You madam chair you know actually I'm sorry I will just

▶ 1:41:03 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: state for my colleagues as you know we do have our own rules of order and one of them suggests that we take about 10 minutes each and then see the floor to allow our other colleagues to maybe ask questions I recognize that our questions don't necessarily take up a lot of the time the answers do so certainly we'll have some leeway but I just beat many of you have questions and I want to make sure you're all heard and then of course we can go back around the horseshoe again

▶ 1:41:34 Shawn M. MacMaster: thank you Thank You madam chair good evening I don't plan to make any type of an opening statement this evening anyone who has been following this issue knows where I stand in the administration knows where I stand as well I want to focus what time I have this evening on eliciting answers to a series of questions with the goal of presenting something like this from ever happening again by implementing the necessary infrastructural and policy changes so my focus this evening is solely going to be on questions that relate to Brazil Street and I'm going to defer to my colleagues to ask any related questions that present larger citywide implications I do think in the interest of transparency it's also important to notify the public that upon requested the administration pursuant to our Charter the administration requests answers in advance we must provide those answers so speaking for myself I made a good faith effort to provide the administration with advanced questions but reserving my rights to ask any follow-up questions based on the answers that I receive and based on statements that that were made in this case opening statements so based on that request some of the questions at least that I had were answered but there are certainly still more questions that I do have mr. Shana you talked about the sewer line in question as you know Brazil Street connects to Elliott Street in Malden does the does the sewer line begin at the top of Brazil Street where Brazil Street connects to Elliott Street at that first lateral line from that first residence or residential unit coming in

▶ 1:43:36 Speaker 5: to Melrose from Elliott Street the plans that we provide show a break at the top as there is no connection between the Malvin system and the Melrose system it's dead-ended at the top of Brazil Street so it's a complete break there's

▶ 1:43:46 Shawn M. MacMaster: no potential for sewage to enter into the Melrose system from the Malden

▶ 1:43:58 Shawn M. MacMaster: system or any Melrose to enter Malden and you mentioned the number I think you characterized it differently number of private lateral lines can you just

▶ 1:44:06 Speaker 5: remind me of that number please there are 21 connections on Brazil Street so

▶ 1:44:09 Shawn M. MacMaster: 21 connections doesn't necessarily account for the number of residential units uh understanding um that by my count i believe there's 35 actual homes on brazil street um that this is a an old street where there are there are tenement housing uh that were built back in the late 1800s where mill workers from the mills at the bottom of the street lived correct so so it's not just there's 21 families contributing to the 21 service connections right which which means that they're they're additional they're additional units though you would you would say that there's

▶ 1:44:51 Speaker 5: more than 21 families one one service connection can like there are four family homes there okay

▶ 1:44:57 Shawn M. MacMaster: thank you do the new apartments on washington street uh utilize the same sewer line connected into stone place okay so it starts on brazil street connects to brazil street connects to washington street as indicated by the map which then turns into stone place correct over the last several years there have been 482 new housing units added to the neighborhood with the developments at 1 000 to 4 000 stone place otherwise known as jack flats to washington street and 37 to 47 washington street at the time of development there were certain infrastructural projects that occurred in the neighborhood correct correct okay so that involved a new traffic configuration at washington and stone place two new crosswalks bump outs at the bottom of brazil street repaving and striping at the bottom section of brazil street where the backup occurred were there any mitigation funds from the developers that were used to inspect fix or replace the sewer line the either the Brazil Street sewer line and or the Washington line that connects into stone place I believe that the

▶ 1:46:11 Speaker 5: developer upgraded the sewer system on stone place and may have contributed as

▶ 1:46:20 Shawn M. MacMaster: well to the I&I mitigation fund so you confirm that so the output but not the not the main sewer line on on washington street or brazil street is it possible that this particular sewer line is overtaxed and stressed by the increased volume from the 482 new housing units brazil street absolutely not the the main line from which it connects off of brazil street into

▶ 1:46:43 Speaker 5: washington when when projects are that large they trigger planning review they trigger zoning review when they trigger planning and zoning review our department is is brought in we have engineers review it we work with their with their design engineers if needed we bring third-party review engineers in in this regard we looked at the capacity of what they were looking to do in fact some of their work connected into the mwra which triggered mwra review so they did meet the requirements that we set forth prior to starting that development

▶ 1:47:18 Shawn M. MacMaster: did did the city advocate for mitigation funds to improve the larger main sewer line on Washington Street and Brazil Street considering that there were funds that were provided by the developers for those other infrastructural and I funds

▶ 1:47:36 Speaker 5: go into a general fund account and they're not they're not targeted for any

▶ 1:47:50 Shawn M. MacMaster: specific street or segment of the system we have read the the report that was provided by the the consultant and just understanding that perhaps not everybody in this chamber in the gallery or at home had a chance to read it can you just generally talk about the state and condition of the line as determined by

▶ 1:48:13 Speaker 5: the independent review I think it's been accurately stated several times this evening that the line is from 1906 it's over a century old it's six inch vitrified clay which has cracks in it it has severe deposits of grease we're not here finger pointing who put the grease in would just make stating the fact that there was grease in the pipe there are tree roots in a section at the bottom of the street in the pipe tree roots and grease are not a good combination to have together they they attach debris to them and it's the opinion of western samson and of our

▶ 1:48:51 Speaker 5: department that ultimately that's what started this issue with the blockage you know that being said we did work that entire day to clear it but we do want to come back and continue to video clean and inspect to see what else is wrong and see if there are any other structural issues or so this This way we can make some long-term fixes and that neighborhood can rest assured at night that this won't happen again.

▶ 1:49:19 Shawn M. MacMaster: So considering the conglomerate of grease that we've seen in the pictures and the tree roots that we've seen as well from the photos, can you talk a bit about the history of the main line over the last three years, including but not limited to inspections, cleaning and preventative maintenance we have not been there in three years the last three years no so the line hasn't been inspected in three years that's not

▶ 1:49:49 Speaker 5: out of neglect for that Street I mean that's common practice when we're not working in that we're not working a project in that area well we're not doing a road project or a water project those are those are what trigger our sewer group to go in and really investigate the system so a few years

▶ 1:50:07 Shawn M. MacMaster: prior to that when the new developments went up was there an evaluation of brazil street uh and then how about washington street

▶ 1:50:19 Shawn M. MacMaster: uh i'm not certain of that mr shenna can you just talk a little bit about uh the decision to jet the line uh what went into that decision making process uh and who was involved uh in that decision and just so um so i understand and the public understands can you you explain it as if it's as if it's a ladder what's on what's the most minimal i guessed measure that would be applied and where does jetting fall on the ladder going from the least minimal or the least invasive to the most invasive

▶ 1:50:50 Speaker 5: well i think the mayor tried to explain it as elementary as i can put it but i'll repeat it when we showed up to the site there was concern over water ponding it turned out to be water over a gate valve box which was unrelated to the ultimate problem but we always check we always check manholes in this in this regard we went to the manhole on washington street and found it completely empty which isn't it is indicator number one of a problem we then go to the next manhole upstream which in this case is uphill and we found that one

▶ 1:51:30 Speaker 5: totally full um indicator number two they must that's indicator number two manhole was prep was full so there must have been a blockage of some sort between those two manholes and what our protocol is and what our policy is is to begin to jet that line slowly on the low pressure is that

▶ 1:51:47 Shawn M. MacMaster: the first step anytime there's a backup is that you immediately jet the line that's what we do

▶ 1:51:53 Speaker 5: there's no camera that's put in no scope we didn't we don't own a camera um we just funded in june the purchase of a camera so that we could alter that policy a little bit but this happened before

▶ 1:52:05 Shawn M. MacMaster: the camera arrived could you just briefly talk about what's been done to monitor the line since

▶ 1:52:09 Speaker 5: june 20th um we well we continue to work that whole entire day when we brought in the camera immediately to to determine existing conditions we knew right away our gut told us something wasn't right with that with that system the more time we spent out there the more time our crew spoke to the neighborhood about odors of smell and odor of sewer which you know they they attributed back to possibly two weeks so we knew there was an issue we knew that this backup may have started several weeks ago and and continued up the hill so we brought the cameras in right away because we didn't want it to happen again and we were as devastated as these residents that this happened the camera showed the roots the camera showed grease and gave us an opportunity to clean those targeted areas between that first manhole at the bottom of washington street and the manhole that was totally surcharged at 24 brazil street that's what we did after that we monitored it the next you know continuously friday morning saturday and sunday to make sure the flows were consistent and that this backup didn't start to create itself again even though we had video proof that we had cleaned it correctly and to the best of our ability and now we continue to monitor it on a weekly basis and we will moving forward thank you mr shena i'd like to just turn now

▶ 1:53:35 Shawn M. MacMaster: to the nature of the city's response on june 20th on that day we heard that the department of public works obviously responded to brazil street the mayor talked a bit about other departments that that were notified but other than dpw on june 20th when this happened did any other city department respond to brazil street to provide any type of services or assistance

▶ 1:54:07 Speaker 11: I'll take that Alderman McMaster on June 20th there was a lot of work being done by our DPW crew on the ground on Brazil Street once the once the damage was realized that was the only department of the city that was on the ground on Brazil Street that day but I would say my understanding is at some point Servpro was on site or brought on site that afternoon at that point that would have limited the ability of our DPW crews or any other departments to really work in those homes so I'm not sure thank you did the

▶ 1:54:46 Speaker 11: police department respond I do not believe they I'm not sure well actually they did because we had to conduct an unauthorized entry of two homes that day

▶ 1:54:54 Shawn M. MacMaster: okay did the fire department respond no I don't believe so in retrospect

▶ 1:55:00 Shawn M. MacMaster: considering that these homes were infiltrated by vast amounts of raw sewage do you think that the fire department should have been called to assess if the levels of methane gas in the home presented a risk for flammability or explosion and in retrospect I understand decision yeah I

▶ 1:55:20 Speaker 11: mean I think in retrospect we could have done a number of things differently on June 20th and I think the mayor in her opening remarks made that quite clear whether the fire department should have been called to monitor or more measure levels of methane gas in the structures I that's an unusual event and obviously things were moving quite rapidly that day I don't I don't know whether that would or would not be standard protocol in a case like this fair enough in

▶ 1:55:54 Shawn M. MacMaster: retrospect do you think that the fire department should have been called not knowing the condition of the residents inside that perhaps the locksmith might have confronted a disabled resident an elderly resident or somebody experiencing a medical emergency based on the shock of what happened well I

▶ 1:56:10 Speaker 11: think obviously if a medical emergency was occurring inside one of the structures we would have immediately had our emergency medical responders on site

▶ 1:56:24 Shawn M. MacMaster: that wasn't the case here and if I understood what the mayor discussed earlier the health inspector responded not on the first day but the second day is that correct correct okay in the emergency management director was was briefed on on day two correct okay and as you know this board just recently approved the mayor's appointment of a new emergency management director and the job of the emergency management director is to be a resource when an emergency occurs to coordinate services and assistance for residents who have been impacted by an emergency is there any reason why the emergency management director wasn't called to respond on that day to assist with services no

▶ 1:57:04 Speaker 11: there's no reason other than to say that once it was raised to the level of the director of Public Works which would have been some point that afternoon and it was then subsequently raised to my level and to the director of community services later that afternoon and evening the sort of work of the emergency management director was being performed by the director of community services and city operations so he wasn't called in this instance and I would just say that typically the emergency management director wouldn't

▶ 1:57:47 Shawn M. MacMaster: be called in for a sewer backup okay if this if this wasn't a sewer backup if it was 11 residents in four homes for instance that were victimized by by a flood and were displaced or a fire would the emergency management director have

▶ 1:58:01 Speaker 11: been in it was that it totally depends on the nature of the incident just like

▶ 1:58:07 Shawn M. MacMaster: to talk a little bit about the assistance that was provided to the victims beginning on the first day and what type of assistance was provided thereafter based on what I believe the mayor talked about is that referrals were made to clean up services did that assistance or any assistance on that day account for the individual needs in the familial needs of the residents on the street understanding that they're all different individuals I'm not sure I

▶ 1:58:40 Shawn M. MacMaster: understand this question well equity in government means more than just offering the same services to everyone equity means recognizing that people have inherent differences identifying those differences and trying to assist people

▶ 1:58:55 Speaker 11: accordingly well I can't speak to June 20th at this point but I can tell you that on June 21st the city contacted Mystic Valley elder services I believe seeking the assistance of a translator if that's the if that's what you're

▶ 1:59:11 Shawn M. MacMaster: getting at that is an example just a few other questions relative to that did the administration direct the veteran services officer to reach out to the veteran at 9 Brazil Street to offer support and assistance I'm not sure we

▶ 1:59:23 Speaker 11: were even aware that the individual at 9 Brazil Street was a veteran so I'm not sure why we would contact our veterans officer did the administration instruct

▶ 1:59:33 Shawn M. MacMaster: anyone from the council on aging to reach out to the senior citizen at 18 Brazil Street to offer support and assistance again Alderman McMaster in an

▶ 1:59:47 Speaker 11: ideal situation all of your questions are entirely fair but we were moving as quickly as we could given the information that was coming into City Hall so no the answer is that individual department head wasn't called in for

▶ 2:00:02 Shawn M. MacMaster: that purpose understood and just to go back to the the point that I made we

▶ 2:00:06 Speaker 11: were as soon as we found out we were trying to assist residents both with with cleanup issues and with short-term emergency housing issues at the same

▶ 2:00:15 Shawn M. MacMaster: time and just to be clear the the line of questioning is focused on a point that I made earlier which is to ensure that if something like this were to happen again whether it's as serious or less serious that we illuminate what happened and what didn't happen so that we can take the appropriate steps to better assist residents moving forward so based on that similar questions that I have did the administration instruct the health department to reach out to the parents of the four children whose ages range from five to seven years old to align them with trauma-informed care considering that their displacement and the loss of their toys and other tangible items of comfort no doubt disrupted their sense of security and safety and normalcy we were in contact

▶ 2:01:05 Speaker 11: with each of the affected families both on the 20th through our DPW operations team and on the 21st through the director of community services and city operations the health director the building commissioner i believe the dpw operations manager was back on scene on the 21st i believe the mayor actually made phone calls from mulrose wakefield hospital on the 21st to the affected families we were in touch with every single family as quickly as we could be to try to address their needs so being in touch with the families would mean asking the

▶ 2:01:35 Shawn M. MacMaster: types of questions what can we do for you identify their needs the types of needs veterans seniors children correct what can we do for you so despite the city having a contract with interface which is a clinical referral service did that the health director or anybody from the health department offer that as a resource to the the the two different families that have four children

▶ 2:01:59 Speaker 11: i am not aware that it was specifically offered but again i have to reiterate we were having communications with each impacted family asking them what the city could do to assist them at that moment in time did the administration direct the animal

▶ 2:02:17 Shawn M. MacMaster: control officer to conduct outreach at 12 Brazil Street to serve as a resource for the residents who had to find emergency shelter for their three dogs I am not aware of that in my last well just two final questions related to this and then madam chair I do have a couple other questions and I'll wrap up you've

▶ 2:02:38 Speaker 8: been at it we've been at it with you for about 21 minutes now so if you could

▶ 2:02:42 Shawn M. MacMaster: thank you did the administration make any effort to align the residents at 13 Brazil Street with culturally competent services or culturally competent

▶ 2:02:56 Speaker 11: provider from a neighboring community I am NOT I'm not sure which residents reside at 13 Brazil Street okay so I'm I'm not sure what specifically we did not

▶ 2:03:06 Gail Infurna: as we understood that they were going to live with family and when the

▶ 2:03:11 Shawn M. MacMaster: administration decided to not extend hotel stays for the victims did anybody from the city refer them to a housing specialist or perhaps to a local realtor with whom we have a relationship as a city we are continuing to provide

▶ 2:03:21 Speaker 11: housing through hotel accommodations turning to the the health inspection can

▶ 2:03:28 Shawn M. MacMaster: you you reference this briefly but what determinants were cited by the health inspector in determining the house is fit for human occupancy I think she's here I think there were five of them so just in the interest of time if you could just mention the five and then I'll move on sure they she looks to see

▶ 2:03:46 Gail Infurna: if there's walk working water and sewer working electricity that also surfaces that can absorb moisture that had contact with the sewage have been removed and all surfaces that cannot absorb moisture that had contact with the sewage were cleaned and sanitized and that there is a working toilet mayor

▶ 2:04:10 Shawn M. MacMaster: you recall that on Wednesday July 10th we had a conference call at which time a member of the administration in response to concerns that I raised 15 days earlier about the safety of the homes indicated that quote the minimal standard was applied for the health inspection because that was all that was required by state law. Considering the unique circumstances of this particular backup, the extent and severity of it, the fact that raw sewage infiltrated all living spaces in the homes, the serious property damage that was done, and the fact that it took longer than 48 hours to clean up the sewage, and that at least as of this past Sunday, 23 days later, raw sewage remained in one of the homes that may still be there today. why would the city out of an abundance of caution and for the sake of due diligence not go above and beyond the minimal standard to ensure the safety

▶ 2:05:07 Gail Infurna: and health of the 11 residents thank you I think I have Ruth clay here being the professional I think I'm gonna ask her to come up here and she can explain what that standard is and how they do that and so I think there's been a little bit

▶ 2:05:31 Speaker 2: of confusion and the words minimum standards has been used and in fairness

▶ 2:05:38 Shawn M. MacMaster: to you you did not say minimal standard somebody else did but just doesn't matter well it matters because I don't want the suggestion to be that you're the unnamed member of the administration okay so can I just talk about the five

▶ 2:05:58 Speaker 2: standards so I think yeah so I think that I think that term was used and to put it in context the name of the housing code is called minimum standards of fitness for human habitation so that's how what that's the name of the housing code and that's what I reference so I'm going to make an assumption that the phrase minimum standards was used because that's the title of the code so so so let's talk about standards of human

▶ 2:06:38 Speaker 2: habitation I've I've condemned more than one house over many years and every situation is different and because every situation is different the housing code doesn't have a set list that says this is what makes a house uninhabitable it's a judgment call by the health department in each case for example the last house that I declared unfit for human habitation did have working water it had working sewer it had a working electricity however it also had large holes that went straight through to the room beneath with children who lived in the house there was an unvented wood stove so they were fumes and cut potentially carbon monoxide coming into the house the house was in squalid conditions I declared it unfit for human habitation you're not going to see that as a list in the housing code that's why you have a professional health inspector or health director to make that determination on the basis of that particular case so I contacted the state health department who is ultimately the

▶ 2:08:03 Speaker 2: administrator of this code I explained the circumstances raw sewage you know in the house they determined or with me determined that an appropriate criteria to say not that the house was going to be comfortable to live in or that it was ready to be moved in and living but that the health hazards had been remedied so it was okay for workers to start going back in and making placing flooring fixing walls doing the work they needed to do would be based on basically obviously having water sewer and electricity because in some of these cases some of the utilities are turned off so we want to make sure that all the utilities are back on and that the cleanup had been had been completed which I did confirm by talking to Servpro the people at Servpro that were doing it and then again if somebody is going to be staying in the house they need to have somewhere for they need a toilet and a lot of times I think actually in all of these cases bathroom floors were removed and so toilets were were removed also not necessarily taken out of the house but removed so they could get the flooring up so the toilet needed to be put back on understanding that you know when they're doing their remediation work and putting in new walls or new floors they would take the toilet off to put the flooring in and

▶ 2:09:36 Shawn M. MacMaster: you know then put it back on so you contacted the Department of Public Health yep they know what you told them they fair enough fair to say they didn't respond they didn't they didn't talk with the residents they didn't they

▶ 2:09:47 Speaker 2: didn't come in and that's not there they would that's not what they do did you

▶ 2:09:49 Shawn M. MacMaster: consult with the Department of Children and Families and do you think the Department of Children and Families would apply the same standard that we apply to the Department of Public Health conveyed to you I'm not aware that the

▶ 2:10:06 Shawn M. MacMaster: Department of Children well I don't know what they would do and families would be comfortable with two five-year-olds and two seven-year-olds living in the houses that you have been in you've seen the state of the houses you've seen the pictures do you think based on your professional experience as somebody who's worked in the field for over 30 years as somebody who understands the functional and core the functional role of the department of children and families and the core mission of the agency do you think that the department of children and families would deem the the homes fit for human occupancy when you have young children who live in those homes in a particularly vulnerable to respiratory issues and other health related issues as a result of toxins bacteria and pathogens it's

▶ 2:10:54 Speaker 2: yes or no you don't know no it's not a yes or no I'm going to give you an answer so once the house has been cleaned and sanitized presumably there are no toxins or bacteria that's the whole purpose of cleaning and sanitizing

▶ 2:11:10 Speaker 2: habitable we need to talk about the word habitable so habitable in the vernacular is a little different than habitable as far as the housing code goes okay well

▶ 2:11:20 Shawn M. MacMaster: if do you have grandchildren or children would you want them to live in that in any of those homes after this happened would you feel safe and comfortable having your children and grandchildren live in those homes understanding that there was nothing but a visual inspection yes you would okay my final question madam chairs for either the mayor or mr. van Camden on July 9th after the patch reached out to the administration with questions about problems that surfaced after the health inspector deemed two of the homes quote fit for human occupancy I received an email from the mayor in response to concerns I had raised and questions that I asked two weeks earlier about how the health department intended to eventually evaluate the safety of the homes and in that email I asked other instruments used are there tools what do we do this is before two incidents which were reported by the residents surfaced again in the mayor's response madam mayor you indicated that the administration stood by the health directors inspection and did not see the need for a more comprehensive one in my email response to you madam mayor that same day I asked that you reconsider that decision that was nine days ago has the administration reconsidered my request that the city retain an independent environmental specialist can to conduct air quality tests for toxins as well as swabs for bacteria and pathogens and continue covering the costs of the hotels until all four homes are deemed safe with scientific certainty for human

▶ 2:12:58 Gail Infurna: habitation well I'm just gonna say that we did have great conversation and we really relied on Ruth as our health director to talk us through that and I'm gonna have Ruth explain it because she does a very nice simple explanation of

▶ 2:13:10 Shawn M. MacMaster: madam mayor with all due respect that the question is have you reconsidered my ask to have an environmental specialist come in will the city make it with all

▶ 2:13:18 Speaker 11: demand with all due respect can the director of public health answer your question and explain what our what our considerations are I think she explains

▶ 2:13:26 Shawn M. MacMaster: her considerations based on the five factors the question is based on what what has already been explained both by the mayor and the mayor's opening statement based on what miss clay discussed I think we have a pretty good sense of what type of inspection was done so that the question is a very direct question will you reconsider my request to bring in an independent I mean the city brought in what it what it calls an independent inspector for the pipes I'm asking will the city make a commitment to bring in an independent environmental specialist which doesn't just produce a report but that can certify that these homes are safe for habitation especially not just for all the residents but especially the senior citizen and the children who live in those homes so that that's after much discussion I will say no we did not

▶ 2:14:17 Gail Infurna: reconsider it but I really do want Ruth to have the opportunity to explain the conversation that we had and her her guidelines on it I will defer to the

▶ 2:14:31 Shawn M. MacMaster: chair on that my question has been answered madam chair I think it's

▶ 2:14:35 Speaker 8: important I think that's fine this is a public please go ahead and so we did

▶ 2:14:39 Speaker 2: have a discussion about your question so the answer to your question is yes it was reconsidered you may not like the answer but it was reconsidered the answer was that the mayor decided no but that doesn't mean it wasn't reconsidered I did talk to the state health department I asked them about your request and the specifics about air testing and bacterial testing and the answer I got from him was there there is no there is no such testing there isn't there isn't a standard for example when when water is tested for lead and they test and they they see a level they measure that level against what's allowed there aren't those kinds of levels for bacteria or viruses or mold it's why the housing code doesn't have a section on mold saying mold spores have to be below a particular type of mold has to be below a particular level that's why it's not in the code so you can make measurements but you need to

▶ 2:16:00 Speaker 2: have something to measure it against and that those numbers don't exist well

▶ 2:16:02 Shawn M. MacMaster: Servpro for example has environmental specialists that their their role that day was to do the cleanup but they do have environmental specialists who can test for air quality and again considering that that the that it took longer than 48 hours for the sewage to be cleaned up in that at one home at least as of Sunday raw sewage still exists that sewage as I understand it becomes toxic and it becomes friable and it enters the air of the homes and an air quality test conducted by an environmental specialist from a firm whether it's Servpro or somewhere else or swabbing that can be done on the different surfaces in the home can actually certify if those homes are safe for habitation thank you Thank You manager as the other maker of the order

▶ 2:16:57 Monica C. Medeiros: alderman Medeiros thank you thank you very much I first would like to just say to the residents of Brazil Street who are especially those who are affected that I'm sorry that you've gone through such a horrific event and disruption to your your lives your home loss of your belongings and I I know this is must be terrible and I can't imagine and I want you to know too that how many people have reached out and expressed their sympathy and their support for you so please know that there's so much of this community that supports you I also want to thank the administration for coming here tonight to answer our questions I have heard from you have many questions myself and I've heard from many residents in particular you know who are concerned for the residents on Brazil Street and who are also concerned about the system as a whole and have some uncertainties and about how things are being paid for about whether or not this could happen to them so first at first I'd like to touch upon

▶ 2:18:09 Monica C. Medeiros: some of the costs and I I believe Mayor Inferno said tonight that well first of all are we still paying for hotels yes we are we are for those who are

▶ 2:18:28 Speaker 7: still displaced correct and I wish to be in which to be housed in a hotel so if

▶ 2:18:31 Monica C. Medeiros: people choose to stay in with family then that's their choice correct we would provide hotels otherwise now I believe in an email dated to me on June 27th that Mayor Inferno had indicated that it was the cost for Servpro for

▶ 2:18:55 Monica C. Medeiros: initial cleanup would be either paid for or reimbursed by the city out of the sewer fund and that the hotel stays would be reimbursed out of the emergency fund but I think today you said something different yes we are now

▶ 2:19:15 Monica C. Medeiros: taking it out of the sewer fund and we're in the sewer fund does this come

▶ 2:19:18 Speaker 5: from we created a new line in our FY 20 sewer operating budget which would deficit spending on and we were advised to to do this and to create that line and to even put the hotel expenses because there is a chance that the city could be even reimbursed for these and that reimbursement could be deposited right back into that deficit so rather than use an existing line we can track it we know what all the itemized expenditures are regarding this this issue you get favorable a favorable ruling from our insurance we can take that and redeposit it into to counter the deficit okay should we as a board of

▶ 2:20:04 Monica C. Medeiros: aldermen be expecting an authorization for a transfer from any particular line

▶ 2:20:15 Monica C. Medeiros: item not at the moment not at the moment okay and now how about the restoration that's this is a bigger process this is going to be funded by insurance claims or funded by the residents or

▶ 2:20:28 Speaker 11: how does that so um initially the determination was made that the city would initially pay the expense associated with emergency remediation work that is specifically basically floor removal, wall removal, that work to remove the hazard. The actual raw sewage clean out. All of that hazardous material being removed and the emergency demo that had to be done. That the city would initially front the cost of that expense, so that these folks could have the hazard removed. The restoration work, which is typical for every sewer backup or claim and I will just represent that over the last five year period looking at the city's lost run report we have approximately had 24 claims for water and sewer damage filed against the city those are insurance claims some of them obviously go to suit and the city is sued but 24 and that's the number roughly of claims that we've received so so we would typically in the context of restoration work always require the insurance company to conduct an evaluation do an investigation make a determination of liability or not make an offer of compromise with the claimant or not in this case I understand that all of the claimants have been contacted by Trident insurance all of the claimants they are one of them has an attorney who's been contacted one of them has a public adjuster who's been contacted I believe the other residents and owners have all been contacted with offers to try to resolve their claim in order to give them the funding necessary to begin the restoration work as quickly

▶ 2:22:17 Monica C. Medeiros: as possible and is it then up to the the residents or the and or the homeowners

▶ 2:22:28 Speaker 11: to accept these I don't know if you've ever dealt with an insurance claim but typically what happens is the two adjusters will meet if the homeowner has a public adjuster and the city's adjuster in this case would meet and they would look at the damage to the property look at the lost contents the lost furniture the lost clothing whatever may have been lost and they will come up with a figure that essentially they they think is approximately what the loss was and then negotiate whether or not they can compromise that number and come to some kind of a consensus and so after our

▶ 2:23:01 Monica C. Medeiros: last meeting here Monday night we had residents from Waverly Place come forward and they say they've been waiting a year already to receive compensation is is this is this typical and is this what the residents of

▶ 2:23:21 Speaker 11: Brazil Street should expect at least you know I would say the Brazil Street insurance process has been historically fast Trident Insurance has moved with their investigation at a pace that I have never seen in my 12 years in Melrose Waverly Place I understand there were delays both on gathering all the information needed to process those claims from the claimants and then in addition to that from the city gathering information from the city to get it to insurance company so there were delays there but at the same time i believe offers were made back in march to the folks on waverly place and i'm not sure you know where the communication has

▶ 2:24:04 Speaker 4: has stopped there okay we should follow up with that sure um so is there any kind of protocol or

▶ 2:24:10 Monica C. Medeiros: is there any policy in place about how to deal with these incidents as they come up in terms of in anything that we have from a city policy of how we handle a sewage backup from the DPW side or from the response side or how we handle claims do we have

▶ 2:24:33 Speaker 11: anything written I don't think there's a written procedure in place but the claims process itself is is pretty standard claimants file at the city clerk's office they have to do so within 30 days of the date of loss in order to X in order to get the process rolling and then there's that whole information information gathering and fact finding that occurs, and then ultimately the insurance company makes an evaluation. Either determines that the city was liable or not. As far as the larger issue I think that you're getting at, how we responded to Brazil Street will be thoroughly reviewed by every department in the city, including emergency management, including the mayor's office, DPW, police and fire. To Alderman McMaster's point earlier, health department. should be involved in that immediate response and then in the ongoing response and we're acknowledging tonight there were some glitches in our system and are more than apologetic to the residents of Brazil Street for those glitches but you know there we will look at all those systems and try to figure

▶ 2:25:37 Monica C. Medeiros: out how we can be better at it and certainly I think we absolutely should be doing that when I see that there's you know you hear the situation and I i mean you can't prepare for everything but the more that we are prepared the better and we see you know if there's 24 claims in the last five years and i'm sure there was other incidents where perhaps claims weren't made for various reasons that it's very important to have a standard procedure that we are following so that there's something for employees to review and follow and to make sure that we're treating everybody the same way and um and equity you know again no matter what the ethnic or correct which is correct which is precisely the reason

▶ 2:26:15 Speaker 11: why these claims went through our insurance company because every other sewer backup goes through the city's insurance company for ultimately for payment and it's just it's um

▶ 2:26:24 Monica C. Medeiros: you know something that sort of i find myself you know wondering when obviously this is something that went wrong in our system you know whether it's human error or whether it's just something that's a fault in our system when we have this kind of backup into these homes and we are the utility provider and i i kind of wonder how there's any question that we

▶ 2:27:00 Speaker 11: might not be responsible for all of the payment so i mean it's a complicated answer but i'm going to try to give you a very very quick explanation the government has sovereign immunity which means we are shielded from liability if someone is damaged by our property by our employees and in Massachusetts that sovereign immunity was embodied in the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act and that statute is this is the process by which parties who have claims against public employers cities towns would seek redress and in the case of a sewer backup in a municipality under the mass tort Claims Act I'm not going to use the sewer backup because that's a bad example tonight but in the case of a simple pothole which we get many more of than we do sewer backup claims I say thank God but the folks who've suffered pothole damages probably don't think that's a good thing but under the tort claims act because of this this idea of sovereign immunity if there is no evidence of negligence or recklessness

▶ 2:28:11 Speaker 11: or there was no prior notice of a defect then under that statute passed by the legislature which has been in effect for some time the the municipality the public employer is not held responsible so our insurance company just so the folks that are here tonight understanding the folks watching understand our insurance company goes through its analysis with that statute in mind and for a pothole claim as mr. Shana can tell you every time my office gets a pothole claim the first question to mr. Shana is did we get a call on this prior to this particular incident and our insurance company will go through an analysis and make determinations as to whether or not there's liability in the case

▶ 2:28:54 Speaker 11: of a sewer line it its property of the city its subsurface infrastructure in the absence of some affirmative evidence that the city knew about a defect knew about tree roots know about something that was going to cause a blockage or some negligence committed by the city's DPW staff in the absence of those things it's difficult to make out a case of liability which is why the insurance company tries to negotiate with claimants in cases like this because it's hard to prove in a court of law that there was liability or negligence or you know prior notice and there's also it's also hard to disprove so these cases are hard to establish which is why our insurance company in the Brazil Street case is trying to resolve this with these residents and so in some

▶ 2:29:41 Monica C. Medeiros: cases because we're a government we're treated a little bit differently than

▶ 2:29:45 Speaker 11: correct there's a statute specifically intended to protect cities and towns because if we were ultimately responsible for the damage that our pipes caused every time every city in town in Massachusetts or at least in Greater Boston where the lines are the oldest would be bankrupt yeah I know

▶ 2:30:03 Monica C. Medeiros: Melrose has some of the oldest sewer lines in the country not not just in the state but in the country so in that and I think mr. Shana answered some of the questions with there is the GIS map and you we know where our sewer lines are

▶ 2:30:26 Speaker 4: what they're made of the approximate age and in some cases the depth and

▶ 2:30:29 Monica C. Medeiros: condition can you talk a little bit about the different types of pipes that have in the system and how common is it to have a pipe that's 1906 that's out there

▶ 2:30:57 Monica C. Medeiros: we categorize our pipe by size and i know we've had weston and sampson here for various times before the board of aldermen and you know they've said sometimes that the clay pipes sometimes are

▶ 2:31:08 Monica C. Medeiros: in better condition than the than the cast iron i believe if i had that correct but most of our

▶ 2:31:11 Speaker 5: system is clay a large majority of our system is six inch and eight inch at 36 percent of of the pipes in the city right now are six inch and nearly 48 49 are eight inch so that's the size that make up the majority of the community the majority of the community is clay our new standard is either a high density polyethylene pvc or a ribbed pvc pipe for new sewer projects sometimes they'll be reinforced concrete pipe but the majority of our system remains clay although with our ini program we're being very aggressive with lining these clay pipes which provides both structural integrity ease of flow and cleanliness and so back in the i think the end of 2016

▶ 2:32:00 Monica C. Medeiros: This Board of Aldermen authorized a bond for about $500,000 through the MWRA program for I&I work. And that's what I think you referenced in your presentation tonight. And could you talk a little bit about that? Are we looking, when we go into these pipes, I know you're talking about relining. And I know much of the city was done. I know my immediate neighborhood was done last year. um we're looking at these pipes and we're looking at what's inside them are we videoing them at that

▶ 2:32:37 Speaker 5: time the first thing we do is we clean and video that's um that's the cctv piece of it we go out we we identify these areas that have a lot of flow at night those are the areas that have the leakiest pipes and obviously the most deteriorated pipes because of this all this water that exists the middle of the night when no one's using it we go out we clean and we clean and we investigate the failure through video and then at that point engineers take that information back and make recommendations on repair we could line it from manhole to manhole we could do spot repairs which we lately have not been doing a lot of we prefer to go the manhole to manhole route sometimes the manholes themselves are deteriorating um and and so the results of that cleaning and that video is a new project either a lining project a replacement project or some spot repair type of joint projects so we we go out we make those repairs and then we move on to another another

▶ 2:33:40 Monica C. Medeiros: area so in this lining you know are we and cleaning like are we taking out roots and

▶ 2:33:47 Speaker 5: grease and we'll treat for we'll treat for roots we will treat for grease as well if we find that in the system but we are putting the very first thing we do when we go into an area is put eyes on that on the sewer segments in that

▶ 2:34:04 Monica C. Medeiros: area and when we line the pipe that's basically trying to mitigate the roots seeping into the cracks or the in the pipes yeah it's a structural liner it

▶ 2:34:12 Speaker 5: goes on the inside of the pipe. It's typically from one manhole to another, and it reseals the interior surface of that pipe. It, you know, obviously stops cracks and keeps water out of it.

▶ 2:34:27 Monica C. Medeiros: And so how much of the city has been looked at? I think it's about 40 percent. About 40 percent.

▶ 2:34:37 Speaker 5: And so Brazil Street was not part of this? No, Brazil Street is slated in phase four. We're

▶ 2:34:43 Monica C. Medeiros: currently working phase two because they were not a leaky area as far right right

▶ 2:34:46 Speaker 5: right we let the we let the overnight flows dictate where we went to first and how we prioritize the work we don't go by Ward we don't go by condition of the street this program goes strictly by the overnight flows and now in the in the

▶ 2:35:02 Monica C. Medeiros: pipe there was a lot of grease how long does it take for this greaseburg or you know whatever the term is that's called me how long does it take for that to to arrive and is this coming from you know do we think that's coming from one house is it coming from the whole street it just pools in an area is this you know

▶ 2:35:27 Speaker 5: the main collects wastewater from various points sometimes streets collect wastewater from other streets the slope of the pipe the size of the pipe the type of flow that that pipe sees all contribute to the amount of grease collected at the end of the day the grease is always and there's always grease in a system and the collection of that grease has a lot to do with those other factors mainly slope the velocity that that's so we're just passing through and the ability of that grease to come off the flow and stick to the pipe.

▶ 2:36:03 Monica C. Medeiros: About how long would it take to form?

▶ 2:36:05 Speaker 5: Depends. Depends.

▶ 2:36:06 Monica C. Medeiros: And what should residents do with, like, how can we avoid this? I mean, we're going to have some of it, obviously. There's oils from our skin. There's oils in our waste.

▶ 2:36:16 Speaker 5: Continuing to invest in the infrastructure is a must. We have a track record of doing that. We have not neglected our infrastructure over the last 15-plus years. we've worked as aggressively as we can we've balanced our priorities we had neighborhoods that flooded we had neighborhoods that didn't have water to fight a fire and we have this ongoing issue with our sewer infrastructure we've tried to balance balance our priorities in all three of those areas so we have to continue to invest and and you know we don't flood the way we did and water system is significantly better than it was doesn't mean we stopped doing that but what it does mean is for the foreseeable future the emphasis should be on the sewer system that's the first thing is continuing to invest the second thing is we offer you have to always be mindful of what you're putting into the system it's always great to just flush oh it's out it's done but there are implications at times and you know these problems aren't solely that of the residents but that product that's in those pipes that grease you know I I love the commercials with the swifter wipers and just take them and throw the might put them in the trash. Don't put them in Don't flush them down your toilet I mean and be careful of what you introduce into your waste system because in Melrose residents own the sewer service from the home to the main and Sometimes what happens in these sewer mains can happen in that individual run So, you know the minute you flush the minute you throw something down the toilet understand that could come back to her a home or can come back to her at the home when it hurts the system and it's that I think those are the two most important things to realize moving forward so no one should put anything like any baby

▶ 2:38:08 Monica C. Medeiros: wipes any adult wipes any grease if we have food that has grease like bacon or

▶ 2:38:14 Speaker 5: something we should look at look to find alternative means to dispose of that okay

▶ 2:38:18 Gail Infurna: so we keep in mind that some of those um products that you mentioned say right on them flushable

▶ 2:38:30 Monica C. Medeiros: down the toilet you know it's just right now be the best idea okay um now we also passed an

▶ 2:38:38 Monica C. Medeiros: ordinance maybe it was last year uh in order to say to look at um new development as it as it comes on and to look to see whether or not this is increasing the burden on the sewer system and if so that there's a mitigation fee that's supposed to go into a medication

▶ 2:39:03 Monica C. Medeiros: ini mitigation fund uh are we doing this as a regular basis as part of our you know approval for the planning department or for for new building uh additions on homes for you know know some of the larger developments we've seen are we analyzing the new developments to see whether or not they're having an impact on the answers

▶ 2:39:26 Speaker 5: yes to all of the above whether it's whether you're adding a bedroom you're adding a dormer if you're if you're making an addition to a home and going from a four by three two bedroom to a three bedroom we assess the I&I fee if you're looking to take to a single-family house and turn it into a fourth for a family house we we evaluate it and we assess the INIP if you're like looking to do a large-scale development the first thing we do is of is we we review the engineers proposals to see if there's enough capacity in that area for that development if there isn't the onus is on that development to upgrade the facility the infrastructure above and beyond that then we look at the flow that that development is going to add to our system and we request that the I&I mitigation fee be brought forward so that we can take that out someplace else and and rebalance thing it how my developments don't add I&I new developments add flow but it gives us the opportunity to collect funds that we can so that we can continue to remove I&I elsewhere and that fund it's 630

▶ 2:40:33 Monica C. Medeiros: what's the balance in that fund I think right now the balance is about two

▶ 2:40:49 Speaker 5: hundred ninety thousand dollars sorry two hundred and two hundred ninety and two hundred ninety three thousand I think I can provide that before the next

▶ 2:40:57 Monica C. Medeiros: full court meeting that would be greatly appreciated and and so way back going back to the development of Oak Grove Village Pembroke real estate had put an an initial deposit of almost 90 000 into that fund or you know had donated to the city which the board of alderman created the fund and and used to establish that fund has any of those

▶ 2:41:30 Monica C. Medeiros: funds been used to to improve the system in this immediate area of washington street pleasant

▶ 2:41:34 Speaker 5: Street we've used about forty five thousand of those funds to do some additional metering work but we haven't we haven't used any of those funds in

▶ 2:41:46 Monica C. Medeiros: this immediate area and is there any immediate plan to replace this portion

▶ 2:41:52 Speaker 5: of the main I guess I think the immediate plan is to complete the video inspection of Brazil Street possibly even Washington Street with it look at what those videos show and follow the lead of our consultant on how best to rehabilitate that system so that this doesn't happen again okay and when I in

▶ 2:42:13 Monica C. Medeiros: the report the Weston Sampson report it showed that there was quite a lot of material grease and roots and such in front of number five is that is that in city property or is that on the rest of their private service okay have they been officially notified that this they've actually made repairs since this

▶ 2:42:41 Monica C. Medeiros: incident has happened and talk about what was the how were the other residents in the street notified we heard about the the homes where no one was home that had issues but how about moving up the street like was was it knocking did was there any telephone calls made to anybody I mean our focus

▶ 2:43:03 Speaker 5: as soon as this happened was on that lower area the impacted area the area that surcharged as we gathered information and to continue to find the root of the issue in terms of the rest of the neighborhood there's going to be a project there's going to be continued work there may be a project that's the time where we will bring that neighborhood to get together to tell them you know the the entire the issues in the entire infrastructure of that

▶ 2:43:31 Monica C. Medeiros: area were you able to tell that the residents higher up or further upstream had not been affected because of the locations of the manholes or yeah the

▶ 2:43:44 Speaker 5: manhole in front of number 24 was full and from that point up the hill there

▶ 2:43:53 Speaker 5: were no other issues you know and our crew made a valiant effort and to make sure we got into every home including you know bringing in a locksmith with the police department because at that time our concern was okay where you know how far that this outreach I mean how many homes were affected and I believe there was one family that wasn't even home when we got in we realized that there was an issue and we went through a great lens to find them so you know once we once we drew that line our focus was from that line to Washington Street in

▶ 2:44:29 Monica C. Medeiros: is there any and I think we've kind of answered this question but there's is there any regular maintenance of the pipes like where we clean them out on

▶ 2:44:40 Speaker 5: once a year or once every three years or like so I mean if there's a the it is the I and I program works sub area at a time the first thing we do is clean and inspect we also have that list of periodical locations that we go to once a month twice a month it's about 50 of them those were prone to problems and we try to prevent those problems so we do that as well in addition to that if there's a water project if there's a road project that takes us to a particular street or a particular neighborhood we always like to investigate the gravity systems the sewer and drain systems on those street as well before we repave the road if we find problems we try to fix them right away do you

▶ 2:45:21 Monica C. Medeiros: feel for and we talked about how residents are responsible for the line from their home to the street uh is there anything that that they can do we talked about what they shouldn't put into the waste system are any of these um do you what do you feel about backflow preventers uh And sometimes there are things that you can buy at the hardware store that say they're a massive root killer if you've got a tree in your yard. Do these things work?

▶ 2:45:52 Speaker 5: Well, the first thing that any homeowner should do is try to get as much knowledge as they can on their property. Where their sewer service is located, the material of that service, the size of that service, where their interior plumbing is, the knowledge is power. And, you know, people often tend to look at the house and they forget that there's something that connects that house to utilities. So, I mean, that's important to know. And its location is important to know as well. Does it go under a tree? Does it, you know, we don't want to plant the tree on it. Those tree roots will lead to problems in the future. That's the first thing. Secondly, you can video your line at any time. You know, you have to be able to know where you can access it. And, you know, you could bring a company in to video it, they, if they, they may tell you there's issues. You can also line your, you can put liner, a liner on your individual sewer service as well. As far as backflow preventers go, they, they work great when they work, but if they're not maintained correctly, there's also a risk. But, you know, that's a, that's a decision that a homeowner needs to make. If they have finished basement space, or if they have living space, and isn't an area you know god forbid that sewer does back up for it to overflow into maybe that's that's something that they need to pursue but if they pursue it they need to know you know the maintenance that's required and make sure that that backflow stays accessible so that maintenance can happen so you know just educate themselves on their utilities coming into their house not everybody thinks about that you know they like you know often look at the home and what's inside of it but

▶ 2:47:38 Speaker 5: but they should equally be looking at the utilities.

▶ 2:47:41 Speaker 4: Thank you, I think that's very helpful to our residents.

▶ 2:47:43 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Alderman Medeiros, if you could maybe do one or two more questions and then just out of courtesy to the other, your colleagues, thank you.

▶ 2:47:49 Monica C. Medeiros: I think I have just one other question, which is we know that, we know we have issues with I&I, with inflow and infiltration cracks

▶ 2:48:03 Monica C. Medeiros: throughout the whole city, and this means not only sewage, that means not only water and tree roots and other things groundwater coming into the pipes but it also means possibly that sewage might be coming out into the ground is this an environmental concern and is this something that the residents in Brazil Street or in other areas the city should be concerned with no no

▶ 2:48:23 Speaker 5: because water will follow the channel flow at the bottom of a pipe the majority of it in instances when you know water is flowing that's what typically happens I mean cracks and pipes tend to lead water from the outside coming in more than water that's already there coming out I mean there are instances that that happens you know if the cracks are at the bottom or if there's an offset joint now sudden the water is just going under the next segment of pipe but for the most part we don't see that often thank you very much

▶ 2:49:01 Speaker 8: thank you thank you and of course if you would like to ask more questions after

▶ 2:49:07 Michael P. Zwirko: feel free Alderman's work oh thank you madam chair I do just have a brief statement before I go to questions and I just wanted to state and reiterate that we were asked pursuant to section 2.7 of our charter to provide these questions in advance so that answers could be prepared I sent a list of questions many of which have already been asked and answered this evening to the city solicitor mayor Inferno and John Shenna yesterday at about 3 48 p.m. there has been a lot of information that we've learned so far this evening so I will try not to be redundant but I also I may have to address some of the the learnings that have come from this evening I did not have advanced knowledge of the statements that were made in addition this statement I wrote as well prior to hearing anything from administrative officials so I think part of the frustration not just by the homeowners but by this body and the public really comes down to communication or the lack thereof and I understand that given the events that were taking place on Brazil Street at times communication wasn't an option as everyone was in triage mode however this is crisis management 101 and the first 24 to 36 hours of any crisis will likely determine the next two to three weeks and here we are timeliness accountability transparency and authenticity are key communications expectations and we didn't get any of those so as a ward 5 resident and as an alderman at large i was not in a position to help or field questions for most of the duration of these events i can only imagine what it was like for those who were affected your administration has always preached teamwork and being part of a team somewhere during this event that broke down we had fellows members of this board that wanted to help we had neighbors that wanted to help and we had residents from all over the city that wanted to help and yet most of the reports that we were able to glean any information from were news outlets you can see that everyone was starved for information now you might say that while we were doing things and i do believe that things were happening but it's the old phrase that goes if you don't say you're doing it then you aren't doing it and for a long time we didn't know what was happening as elected representatives of residents we not only need access to information but we also need access to your staff we had no centralized outlet and if there were only three there were only three public communications from your office one was 26 hours after the event occurred then eight hours after that then 20 days after the event in all of these communications it states that the focus on the safety and well-being of the residents but none of them until tonight did I read an apology for this accident that's most unfortunate an apology isn't always a declaration of guilt rather it's a compassionate way to say that we are with you we are sorry and we understand how terrible this is so I appreciate the DPW director John Chenna apologized at the very beginning of his statements this evening one of the reasons the community is so focused on this event is because it could have happened to any of us and in the past to some residents it already has so my questioning tonight is going to be around the communications timeline how we can make this right and how we can move forward so we can once again work as a team to make sure that this type of

▶ 2:52:22 Michael P. Zwirko: response never happens again Mayor Inferno you informed us this evening that on Thursday morning you were admitted to the hospital I'm glad to see you before us this evening and I'm glad to see that you are on the mend and we

▶ 2:52:39 Michael P. Zwirko: hope that that continues you further stated that you had staff your staff had physically been on Brazil Street as of Friday I was curious since you've been

▶ 2:52:50 Gail Infurna: released from the hospital have you been on Brazil Street not being able to work full-time and feeling weakness of and so I had to really recover but you still haven't been down there and I have some questions I have to go through but

▶ 2:53:07 Michael P. Zwirko: because some of them have already been asked I just asked for a little bit of latitude so as to the timeline and again much of the timeline came out this evening so if I'm if I'm wrong I just asked for a clarification so it appears

▶ 2:53:31 Michael P. Zwirko: that at on Thursday DPW called their supervisor the supervisor gave cards of remediation firms Wayne's drains came in and at 2 30 that afternoon which is Thursday the 20th of June the legal office was informed of this incident is that correct right then at 5 0 5 p.m. via email the mayor's office and the Ward five aldermen was contacted is that correct you also stated mayor in your

▶ 2:54:03 Michael P. Zwirko: remarks that there was a gap in communication is this the gap you're talking about 2 30 to 505 because the legal office is immediately next to

▶ 2:54:24 Michael P. Zwirko: adjacent the mayor's office I understand that you weren't there but certainly

▶ 2:54:36 Speaker 11: your staff was why the two and a half hour gap i think the gap in communication had to do with the fact that when the when the claim when notice of the of the claim the potential claim came to my office um i think the gap in communication is in the severity of what happened that afternoon i i think at at some point it wasn't until late afternoon that we understood the

▶ 2:55:02 Speaker 11: severity of what had happened at 2 30 I was taking a claim for a sewer backup which was at that point considered relatively routine in my office from an insurance perspective the severity of what happened on Brazil Street because as the mayor said in her opening the perfect storm of conditions here that was not as well known at the highest levels until much later the event

▶ 2:55:35 Michael P. Zwirko: occurred at 930 with we all saw the video correct so if you were notified at

▶ 2:55:44 Speaker 11: 2 30 were you notified via email no I believe I don't even think I was in my office for that I think I was in attending to other matters my assistant took a call from the dpw operations manager about the need for an insurance claim to be to begin

▶ 2:55:58 Michael P. Zwirko: so the description was not clear of the event it was just a sewer correct right the understanding

▶ 2:56:07 Michael P. Zwirko: of the severity was not clear at that point in time understood so at 505 an email was sent to the mayor's office i would imagine at that point whoever sent the email which i don't know um that they were knowledgeable that you may or were in the hospital so who was the recipient of that email and that email was also sent toward the ward 5. i sent the email you sent the email

▶ 2:56:29 Speaker 5: to the ward 5 alderman to direct the community services and to the deputy mayor i sent it after meeting with my staff after reviewing all of the circumstances that day and after realizing that this was an extraordinary issue and an issue that required a little different

▶ 2:56:54 Michael P. Zwirko: response why not a phone call to well you made a phone call or you sent an email at 505 to the mayor's office in the Ward 5 I guess I just don't understand why email was more efficient than a phone call at that point I had to

▶ 2:57:02 Speaker 5: explain the circumstances that were in detail in detail okay and you know we had to start and I realized that there would be a pretty sizable insurance claim in the process we had to start the document and that was the best way to

▶ 2:57:24 Michael P. Zwirko: communicate and document at the same time so Friday morning as the timeline continues the director of community services spoke to everyone and called and again I apologize I might have my notes wrong the director of community services spoke to everyone and called the president of the Board of Aldermen

▶ 2:57:44 Speaker 11: in the Ward 5 Alderman Friday morning correct okay so we so I I had a conversation with the director of community services around 8 o'clock that morning to discuss the need for an immediate response to Brazil Street right given given what had happened the day before and I'll note at this time

▶ 2:58:03 Michael P. Zwirko: now if this is 8 30 at friday in the morning on june 21st there was video that was posted online and social media and a local radio show had carried this story i am not aware of that but

▶ 2:58:19 Speaker 11: i'll take you out of your word okay um see the video at some point that day i just don't know

▶ 2:58:27 Michael P. Zwirko: i believe it was posted at midnight on the 21st typically asleep at that hour yeah um okay so

▶ 2:58:43 Michael P. Zwirko: So, we then, Board of Aldermen, and the first communication that, formal communication that we received came from the city solicitor at 11.06 on Friday, June 21st.

▶ 2:58:54 Speaker 1: That's the first statement.

▶ 2:58:58 Michael P. Zwirko: The second statement, we received at 19.06, eight hours later, same day. and then we didn't receive another one until the mayor's blog was updated on the 12th of July. Is that correct? I want to make sure that there's no

▶ 2:59:17 Speaker 11: communications I'm missing. Okay. How often are you notified of sewer backups?

▶ 2:59:22 Michael P. Zwirko: Unless a resident calls me, I'm not notified of sewer backups. Fair enough. So

▶ 2:59:31 Michael P. Zwirko: I'll go further down my questions. I use this analogy over the past couple of

▶ 2:59:40 Michael P. Zwirko: weeks with homeowners because I think that it's important and Mr. you actually addressed this just a moment ago every year I get my boiler serviced because in January I want the heat to work but I have never checked my pipes and generally folks probably don't until there's road work that's being done because it's a good time where you could ever change over from oil to natural gas etc when the roads open so we know that the city I presume when doing roadwork completes the same type of an inspection correct I wanted to

▶ 3:00:25 Michael P. Zwirko: speak to the comment that was made about typical protocol and you had also intimated earlier that with some of the free cash purchases that we made this past June that we now have scoping mechanisms and tools will those tools be

▶ 3:00:42 Speaker 5: used to update the typical protocol or in the process of purchasing them during the process of purchasing just like all purchases and all resources we have when we have the resource available we try to we try to change our approach if it's

▶ 3:01:06 Michael P. Zwirko: applicable again I apologize for the pause I'm just asking for a little bit of leeway because there's a lot of information that we got for the first

▶ 3:01:21 Michael P. Zwirko: time this evening there was a comment that was made earlier that there was a glitch in the system I don't know if that's the same as a gap in communication but is that you stated that there will be a thorough review on this response from every department will that report be remade public can you

▶ 3:01:45 Michael P. Zwirko: repeat that question yes so I don't know if the glitch in the system is the same as a gap in communication yeah so I'll just take those two phrases and presume that they are one in the same they are one in the same right and so you stated that a thorough review on response will be looked at in light of this incident when that review is complete will that report be made public so so the mayor

▶ 3:02:05 Speaker 11: and i have had conversations about this and when i referred to a glitch in the system earlier the the goal is to convene our entire emergency management apparatus which is our emergency management director police fire dpw information technology school department everyone involved in a critical incident that you can imagine would have some level of involvement and to bring those departments together to do sort of a post-mortem if you will and determine what what best practices can we take from this incident that going forward god forbid something like this happens again we can respond more appropriately more quickly with greater resources you know in real time uh in a way that we weren't able to this time so it really isn't something where we'd have a report uh created it really it's more of an exercise internally with multiple departments to come up with a better approach for dealing with situations like this okay all right well

▶ 3:03:12 Michael P. Zwirko: appreciate the review have any public record requests been made regarding the Brazil Street incident and if so can you kindly provide copies of any and all

▶ 3:03:19 Speaker 11: responses requests of this board yes I believe one was received from a media

▶ 3:03:27 Michael P. Zwirko: outlet a couple of weeks ago and this is one of them I guess my largest concerns and it's I'm sure it's shared by yourself mr. Shana and I'm I fear of the reputational risk that this may cause and what I mean by that is is that I fear that residents may be hesitant to contact the DPW should they see something in their neighborhood or in their street and I really want to caution folks from being hesitant because we're often told if we see something to say something and that's really important because if something is ignored it is likely to get worse and could exacerbate the problem so we know that accidents do happen and we have faith in the integrity of the department but I would just like you to speak to that because I want to make sure that the public has assurances that they should still be calling DPW in the normal course to make sure and have items looked out of that you know piques

▶ 3:04:27 Speaker 5: their curiosity yeah I thank you for the question but I don't share your concern about our reputation I've worked in this department for over two decades and one thing that's consistent as the men and women of this department come to work every day to provide service to this community we rely on input from people if you see something say it call us there's many ways to get in touch with us we're out there doing our own soul searching when it comes to infrastructure maintenance cutting lawns maintaining buildings but it's always to try to provide the highest level of service to this community we need your input you know had we had we been called a week earlier a few days earlier on Brazil Street about a smell maybe this would not have happened to the level that it did so I mean I have ultimate faith in every employee that you know associates themselves with Public Works and I can tell you that one thing although they may be all be very different one thing they share is is is to provide the highest level of service to these people and I know if you're out there listening call us we will respond and we will provide service as high as we can't to

▶ 3:05:49 Michael P. Zwirko: the highest level that we can the I was speaking to reputational risk I was not stating that I had reputational risk that's fine just wanted to clarify that those are all the questions that I had at this time madam chair thank you thank

▶ 3:06:04 Scott M. Forbes: you alderman Forbes thank you I know a lot of my questions have already been asked and answered I appreciate you being here this evening we talked about

▶ 3:06:12 Scott M. Forbes: tonight about the protocols that are involved to deem a home habitable and I think there was a list of five items what I really want to talk about is the the removal of contaminated materials so was Servpro the cleaning and sanitation company that provide that service to all of the homes yes all four

▶ 3:06:34 Speaker 11: was serviced by Servpro two franchises one service three of the properties I believe and the other franchise service the fourth property okay so then hired

▶ 3:06:43 Scott M. Forbes: as a contractor I guess the question I have is who certifies that Servpro's work was actually done and performed to the appropriate standard if we're not having anybody come in as a third party to review this are we accepting the contractors report as fact or is there any other type of protocol or checklists that basically can certify that the contractor did the work Ruth I don't

▶ 3:07:30 Speaker 2: know if you want to so part of what I'm looking at when I go in to do the inspection is to see what's been removed and to see if anything hasn't been removed so but Sir Pro is a very professional contractor who I've seen their work and worked with them in the past on other properties in Melrose both residential and commercial properties that have had fire damage or other issues so I've seen their work and I'm very confident in what they do because I've you know they're there's somebody I've worked with in the past so when I when I ask you know what was done and get report for what was done yeah I

▶ 3:08:18 Scott M. Forbes: believe them so okay so I guess my concern would be if you're doing work in as a contractor there and there's a certain way to do it and they don't follow the certain standard and we don't follow up and just accept it based upon reputation there's a potential that something could fall down the crack and not maybe in this instance but at some point in time down the line and then when you start to rebuild and the perfect example is that you were in a home that you deemed habitable and do a communication thing between you and the contractor you found out that there was actually sewage still in the home which you took the appropriate course of action and changed your mind and deemed the house uninhabitable however if those types of communications happen you know just don't want to run into a situation where we don't have a third party come in and certify these homes or certify the work that the contamination has been removed then you could wall up and finish everything and if there's something still in the home then it's basically Pandora's box and so that that's really the concern that that I have and if we're accepting this is the report is fact and they didn't use the right chemicals they didn't do the right services no one's there to actually watch the work I have a concern with that and so I I think I agree with Alderman McMaster's request to to to reconsider having a third party come in here because if in fact the plan of action does play out and some of these contaminated materials are in this home and you know children families don't I wouldn't want my family to spend a night in that home knowing that it wasn't certified by a third party provider as any anybody else here I mean I think what we need to do is focus on safety

▶ 3:09:56 Speaker 2: I mean Forbes yeah let me just explain something to you and maybe this hasn't been clear there's nothing in those homes when I go in when I have gone in to look at these rooms there are bare walls sometimes the bottom of the wall has been removed if that did have contamination and the flooring is up and gone mm-hmm there's nothing else to see that's it's an empty room with no

▶ 3:10:30 Scott M. Forbes: flooring and bare walls I'm not sure what I would test I can understand that I've been in one of those homes but there's a difference of just taking a shovel and removing everything then actually putting an appropriate chemical down and the walls or the floors would still look the same the floorings gone know unless you have somebody in there that is an expert like I look at it this way I had my portrait done last year if I trusted the contractor dug the holes the whole time did the forms the right way put the columns the right way and just trusted it as fact without having mr. Johnson and the inspectors come in to check and verify that everything was done then I would just assume that the contractor was correct now what if he was not correct he's not going to tell me it's just it's just a layer of accountability and i think that that would be appropriate especially given the the circumstances at this time so and then and if you want to respond you

▶ 3:11:25 Speaker 11: you're more than welcome i'm just going to use the example you use though i mean realize that in that case you're not bringing an independent third party in to check mr johnson's work that's the that's what you're that's what's being suggested here to bring an independent third party and essentially to check mrs clay's work which is reliant on the work of a professional insured fully insured and i'm sure trained cleaning crew that's the that's just the distinction that i want to draw that in this case unlike your example you don't ask for someone to

▶ 3:12:01 Scott M. Forbes: oversee the building commissioner i just look at given the circumstance in these four homes i think it would be an appropriate measure and i i know that we can agree to disagree and i'm okay with

▶ 3:12:09 Speaker 11: that we just think at the end of the day just to realize that an independent evaluation at least based upon what you know the health director has told the mayor and I in her conversation with DPH there's no there's nothing to measure against so how do you how are we able to determine I think for purposes of this discussion we're certainly open if there is a path to do something but it doesn't

▶ 3:12:38 Scott M. Forbes: seem that there is I would just I I operate under the measure twice cut once mentality and if that is an additional cost if it provides peace of mind for these residents that are going back into their homes they didn't plan it for any of this to happen so just like to have them have at least some kind of peace of mind when they go back in especially families everybody that's important my last question would be for the resident that lives on Fairfield Cargill's that spoke here this evening has there been any outreach to to them in terms of any type of action plan or anything like that I believe that probably addressed to mr. Shenna I know we spoke I know what happened Sunday on Memorial Day we had some communications I've had some communications with mr. Cargill I just didn't while we're all here I just figured that it would be best to see if there's any type of any type of conversation that's going on without

▶ 3:13:32 Speaker 5: know without recalling all of the details but I'm very confident our engineering staff and operations staff met with the resident and we intend to go back up there and do some video inspections to determine what's

▶ 3:13:44 Scott M. Forbes: happening okay I appreciate that I hope that will facilitate so I appreciate that's all I have at this time president Lemmerman Thank You madam chair thank

▶ 3:13:50 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: you very much for being here this evening I do want to just clarify for the record because I know that my communication happened with the director of Community Services who's not in the office any longer but as we go forward looking at the timeline for lessons learned that I was not in the morning communication on Friday it was in the afternoon that I heard from the director about what had happened I do want to just take a moment to thank all

▶ 3:14:20 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: of the residents who came this evening and we're still here in a long evening for your your comments your outreach to the alderman and your help through this process as well as my colleagues on the board for their thoughtful consideration of questions going in and then tonight and also to the members of the administration we're being here this evening and answering many hours of our questions and and taking the time to do that the only thing left that I have that I wanted to make sure that we do before the end of this meeting for myself is to make a motion to attach I know we've seen at least two emails from residents on this issue attach those communications attached the Weston and Samson report and attach the maps that were emailed as as attachments to that

▶ 3:15:14 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: report second the motion you have a motion to attach all of our correspondence the maps the Weston and Samson possibly also this PowerPoint if we can maybe condense it to a size that will post he made made by President

▶ 3:15:28 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: and seconded by alderman Mortimer all in favor any opposed thank you thank you as you know alderman Bewtra is unable to be here tonight she previously had planned travel and so I as chair just wanted to have this meeting as soon as possible in light of the concerns understandably from the community and I understand also your administration's desire to come forward and share more information but she did provide some questions they're part of our record already but I thought most of them have been addressed in one form another but out of a courtesy to her I'd ask just a couple that I see that maybe haven't quite been addressed so one I think would go to the director of DPW which is you know that we've heard that the protocol was followed in terms of you you lift up and you look in and you see where there might be a clog and then you put some you applied pressure up to see if you could remove the blockage what it would be the risk or why would the protocol not be to do a video initially

▶ 3:16:30 Speaker 5: many times when we arrive at the situation it's already overflowing at the people's homes or it could be overflowing on the public property so it's a matter of a matter of timing in this case we don't own the camera we don't own it yet and so we'd have to bring someone in and you know that's it's just a response time situation that's the only risk in it the more I I said the more information we have going into trying to solve a problem the better off we are but in this case we don't we don't own the equipment yet ourselves we would have to bring in a vendor our vendor that was working in the city didn't have the right equipment that day so we had to bring in another vendor it would have just delayed it and may have you know may have created that backup just naturally that's the risk and then just as a file for we've

▶ 3:17:16 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: mentioned this a couple times you don't have the equipment yet can you can you

▶ 3:17:23 Speaker 5: share with the public just know this board in June passed a an appropriation from retained earnings and the sewer enterprise fund to for various equipment purchases that was one of the equipment purchases that was voted upon in June

▶ 3:17:40 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: and that equipment is yet to arrive okay I think the other one that I would say maybe hasn't been addressed it would relate to the health directors work and And the question from Alderman Butcher was, were inspections, the health inspections, documented in some way and then provided to the residents or the landlords of the property?

▶ 3:18:10 Speaker 2: The documentation is really the letter that says that it's okay now. And, yes, that was sent to the—

▶ 3:18:22 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: And how substantive, just as a follow-up, what is that letter? is it a sort of just a want a declaration with a signature or does it

▶ 3:18:30 Speaker 2: include any analysis no it's just it's it's it's to basically uncondemn the

▶ 3:18:39 Speaker 8: house essentially if there's such a okay I think I'll stop there with alderman futures questions they are part of our record and I do think most of them in some way have been addressed alderman boys out or vice chair boys out my

▶ 3:18:57 Robert A. Boisselle: apologies I'll have John come up again in the process and the protocol you you mentioned a lot of air pressure or is basically air being pumped into the pipeline water pressure water pressure uh when you have when the camera is used you can identify the type

▶ 3:19:14 Speaker 5: of plug uh sometimes sometimes the the line could be surcharged and you can't see anything okay what

▶ 3:19:21 Robert A. Boisselle: about once you identify the plug can you alter your method of access to that plug instead of hydro jetting could you use an auger type or there is another there is

▶ 3:19:31 Speaker 5: another nozzle it's a call ahead but there is another nozzle you could put on that pressured line it's still hydro still driven by water if you just spin but it does spin and all it's called a cutter and does allow you to cut through yeah sometimes the grease will will cover the root system so you don't know what you're up against yep but yeah we do have different approaches that we could take and that's what we did in the afternoon once we knew what we were up against we could we went back in and made adjustments to the approach so the

▶ 3:20:07 Robert A. Boisselle: correct device was used at that time we cut the roots out good so from what I've

▶ 3:20:15 Robert A. Boisselle: heard tonight we've learned something we're learning from this incident we're getting specialized equipment this camera that's being ordered you said you're updating the protocols and training the staff with the new equipment we're talking about upgrading communications on all sides and also the chain of command we had the the mayor who was out ill at that particular time doing the incident and other individuals who are away for that communication or outreach to the public and I hope the people who are in the chain of command below the top levels are given the same type of treatment in emergency management and responding to incidents and so forth so this discussion here tells us quite a bit that we do have gaps and we're going to try to make that improvement and for the next incident that we have which we hope we don't have we'd be more prepared in this entire project thank you very much thank you

▶ 3:21:19 Speaker 8: madam chair any other motion speak for the first time

▶ 3:21:22 Monica C. Medeiros: alderman Medeiros thank you I know president Lemmerman had moved to add a number of things I don't think included in that was the mayor's statement I which I believe prepared statement and had a lot of the timeline issues so I'd like to move to willing to provide that to please add motion made and duly

▶ 3:21:41 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: seconded to add the mayor's statement to the record all in favor so done okay

▶ 3:21:49 Monica C. Medeiros: that's all and just again thank you and I think we have a lot of information to digest and I think we have to look forward from here thank you

▶ 3:21:59 Shawn M. MacMaster: Alderman McMaster Thank You madam chair like President Lemmerman I just wanted to offer a point of clarity on the timeline the one thing throughout this entire process that I have not done is spoken publicly about what I knew and when I knew and that inadvertently came out and I tried to keep it vague at a neighborhood meeting where a resident on Brazil Street in Alderman's work who was with me at that meeting and that resident is actually here tonight asked me point-blank when I found out about what happened and I was vague and I said at that time I found out that evening and the reason for that is because my focus as I said very early on was on the response and on the victims and I didn't want it to be about me and what I knew and you know what I didn't know at what time but I do think based on what we heard this evening now that it's 28 days later that it's important for me to let the public know what exactly I knew from the administration and when I knew it so a little before 3 p.m. on Thursday June 20th I received a text message with a photo from my wife that photo had two individuals in biohazard suits and my wife said what's happening on Brazil Street and at that time I wasn't even thinking as an alderman I was thinking as a husband I was thinking as a father and I was thinking as a son of two elderly parents who live on Brazil Street so I immediately texted chief Lyle this was a little after 3 p.m. and I asked him what was happening on Brazil Street chief Lyle responded via text immediately and said there's a sewer backup nobody notified you question mark I wrote back and said nobody notified me at that point realizing that some time had gone by I spoke with my wife things seemed to be fine at our house my wife checked in with my parents things were fine at their house I thought that if this was as serious as it's been described tonight that I would have received at the very least a courtesy call from the administration not just as the ward 5 alderman but as a resident of that street and every member of this administration knows that I've lived on that street since 2006 but that didn't happen so since nobody called me and I didn't know the severity of it and my wife allayed the concerns that I had for my family including my elderly parents I waited till after work because I didn't know how serious it was I worked that day from 930 to 530 and then left work I called Chief Lyle he picked up the phone immediately he said Sean there's this there was a sewer backup at that time he thought it was five homes he didn't even know how serious it was but as we heard this evening it doesn't appear as if the police department responded but then later I think mr. van Camden said they may be responded but it wasn't even clear clear to our chief of police the chief law enforcement officer in Melrose about about what happened so at that point again not knowing how severe it was I went to a work event in Waltham at At 8.30 p.m., and actually, I should back up. I should say that after I talked to Chief Lyle, who didn't know exactly what had happened and the severity of it, I tried to reach Mr. Shenna. I went to the work event. Again, this is between 5.30 and 8.30. At 8.30 at night, my phone started blowing up, and I started getting voicemail messages. And then I left the event. I went outside. I picked up the phone and I called the last resident who had called me who was here this evening he's a resident who lives on Washington Street and he started telling me what had happened but prior to that call at that point I tried Ms. Deschena again in fairness to Ms. Deschena and I think it's important to publicly state this who has always been highly responsive to me every time I have needed something from Ms. Deschena in the Department of Public Works He has responded, and in fact, I wouldn't be as effective as I think that I've been as an alderman without his assistance. So I couldn't reach him. He texted back and said, I sent you an email, and he said, and not to disclose where he was, but he provided an adequate explanation about why he was unavailable. he said Mr. Van Camden had the information I immediately called Mr. Van Camden I left a message and I said it's important for me to know what's happening I'm leaving a work event all I know is there's a sewer backup residents are calling me and I'd like to know what happened when I respond so I can explain to residents something because I didn't know anything at that point until Mr. Shenna in that text referenced an email that was sent at 5.04 that evening. So I read that email, but naturally, I can't ask a question of an email. So that's why I wanted to reach somebody. I got back to Brazil Street. I met the resident from Washington Street. We went door to door. There was one resident home at that time. I then, after being on scene for a little

▶ 3:27:38 Shawn M. MacMaster: while I went back to my home and Mr. Shena contacted me probably about 10 or 10 30 that night and we had a substantive conversation and he provided me with what information he could and he offered for us to have a conversation the next day that conversation did not happen in the morning that conversation was scheduled that night tentatively for noon the next morning I received a text message probably between 7 and 7 30 from Mr. Van Camden confirming that we'd have a call at noon. So that is essentially the timeline. The first substantive conversation I had with anyone was after 10 o'clock, probably sometime between 10 and 1030, at which point Ms. Deschena briefed me on the situation. But again, that was after already starting to interact with residents. One on scene, another resident over the phone, another resident from Washington Street who had concerns, who when he called me, by the way, at the work event, said that the residents were congregating in the street because they were concerned and confused and they didn't know what to do and they were given a card to call a clean cleanup agency. So again, it's been 28 days, that hasn't come out because again, I didn't think it was really important at that time, I think it's important now and I think as other aldermen have indicated that hopefully moving forward, we can work on a communication structure um that ensures that at the very least out of courtesy we know what's happening before constituents start calling us in an emergency situation alderman did you call the director

▶ 3:29:15 Shawn M. MacMaster: of community services that night too i don't believe we had a conversation that evening okay

▶ 3:29:20 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: just curious thank you um i think i'll just speak very briefly or ask very brief questions really appreciate everyone who came tonight and shared concerns and perspective as we've discussed this is a really traumatic event for many people who live on Brazil Street maybe elsewhere and I'm appreciative of the steps that the city has discussed tonight in terms of the work that is ongoing the larger big-picture work as well as the plan to evaluate this particular situation and lessons learned I think all of my colleagues answered or asked most of the questions are you all provided the information that was asked by members of the public at the beginning but just a couple that I think came up in public comment that I think would be helpful to address is there somewhere where an individual could go to you have the GIS system that's mapped everything if I wanted to know exactly what the sewage pipe condition was on mystic Avenue could I find that out and we so where the condition of it no but

▶ 3:30:20 Speaker 5: the material and the location to the best of what our records can tell you yes and they can go it right into City Hall basement of City Hall at DPW engineering office has access to the records or you could send us an email we could try to research what we have and then email it back okay why was Weston

▶ 3:30:40 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: and Sampson used for the investigator for this initial report as opposed to a

▶ 3:30:48 Speaker 5: different contractor was Western Samson has worked here for several years I never once not disclosed that Western Samson was available they were working in this community they have an ongoing process project and it was very important to figure out what was happening again on Friday morning I was still in triage mode in the sense of making sure that that that this issue did not repeat itself the next day we needed to get information and I needed to get information quickly and I have faith in Western and Sampson I have faith in their engineers they're certified engineers their work is we always reviewed by other peer reviews within their company of other certified engineers they didn't come in here to say what I wanted them to say they came in here they took the information and they came back and wrote a report um that's what they did that's what they were hired to do that's what they've always done and um i mean they're one of the leaders in the industry and they didn't get to that point by just showing up places and

▶ 3:31:59 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: writing what people want them to write and then one last one the report mentions that the brazil street sewer line it was in fair to poor condition in your estimation how does that compare to the rest of our pipe portfolio in the middle range I mean we

▶ 3:32:20 Speaker 5: have we have pipe that's in poor condition and so you know I'd say that's right in the middle of the range you can come when you're looking at the

▶ 3:32:30 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: structure of our pipes and you mentioned that there are there are a few ways in which we are doing ongoing work and one is that there you know there are known places because of over the course of history you've heard from these places and then you periodically go and check them would those be the types of pipes

▶ 3:32:49 Speaker 5: that might be in poor condition no some of them it's not the condition of the pipe it's the slope of the pipe some of them don't have adequate slope some of them don't see the type of flow to flush things to flush wastewater through the system I mean and some art could be in poor condition or have an issue that we're trying to baby along until we get an extra another project so it's not just the condition of the pipe that lands you on that list it's it's it could also be you know other contributing factors okay thank you very