The City Council spent most of Monday night on snow. Police Sgt. Joe Gaff, city services director Bob Knox and parking director Adriana Indrisano walked the council through a pilot program that would ban parking on one side of 95 side streets from January 1 through February 28, 2027, and the council sent it back to its sponsor without a vote. The decision belongs to the Traffic Commission, which meets Wednesday, November 18, at 6 p.m. “Anybody has any concerns, questions, they can come up and we’ll be voting on that as the Traffic Commission on that meeting after all the input,” Gaff said.
The meeting ran just under two hours. Councilor Stephanie Martins was absent, and because she is a sponsor, the council postponed the data center zoning ordinance to its next meeting after five residents spoke for it. Ten councilors voted 10-0 to give City Solicitor Jaclyn Munson another $50,000 for litigation and outside legal bills. The agenda preview and the 128-page packet are online, and the full meeting is on the city’s YouTube stream.
400 tows, 575 calls to 311
Gaff’s slides compared the last two winters. In the 2025 season the city towed 200 cars during snow emergencies, tagged 794, and took 64 calls to 311 and 21 calls to 911 about snow parking. Last winter the tows doubled to 400, tags were 757, 311 calls rose to 575 and 911 calls to 90. “We’re not talking just 575 calls in over six months,” Gaff said. “We’re talking just within a couple weeks of snow emergency.”
The pilot would require cars on the designated streets to park on the odd-numbered side in 2027, switching sides each year. Main arteries, which Gaff put at ten streets including Broadway, Ferry Street, Hancock Street, High Street, Elm Street, Second Street and Main Street, would keep their current rules and require cars to move only in a declared snow emergency. Warnings would go out for the first few weeks, as with street sweeping, and then tickets and tows. Flyers would go on windshields in December. “So we’re towing 95 streets, now we only have to 10,” Gaff said. Clearing the side streets before a storm now takes eight to nine hours, he said, and the city has towed cars for storms that never arrived. “I already towed 200 cars. You want to see furious people.”
Knox, who came to Everett from Malden last winter, said the problem is the storms that fall short of an emergency. “We’re concerned on the every day when we get a few inches of snow where it’s not enough to be a snow emergency and I can’t get down Andrew Street so the fire apparatus can get to your house to put out a fire,” he said. In Malden, he said, the one-side rule starts with the first plowable storm rather than on a fixed date.
“Musical chairs with cars”
Councilor Michelle Capone pushed back hardest. Everett has a little over 9,000 legal parking spaces, Gaff said, and about 6,000 would remain under the pilot. “So you’re going to take away about 3,000? It’s like playing musical chairs with cars in parking spaces,” Capone said. She said residents have “already been through enough with the increased taxes, the increased water bills, fighting with parking spaces already,” and asked what happens to a senior looking for a space at 7 p.m. Gaff answered that the 400 towed cars are the number he worries about. “All those other people found spots to go park.”
Council President Stephanie Smith said parking happens 24 hours a day, unlike morning street sweeping, and asked for a garage or lot residents could use. Councilor Katy Rogers asked the city to work with large developments that have empty paid spaces and to track fire and police response times during the pilot. Gaff said the numbers could come after every storm. Councilor Michael Marchese suggested 24-hour resident-only parking from January through March. Councilor Guerline Alcy Jabouin said she sent a similar pilot to the public works department in 2024 and asked for notices in several languages at 311 and on ECTV. Councilor Vivian Nguyen said the plan needs support from other departments to head off the angry calls. Councilor John Hanlon asked how residents learn when they may return to a cleared main street. Residents who cannot attend November 18 can email Gaff at joseph.gaff@cityofeverett.org, he said, and the list of 95 streets will be emailed to councilors.
Indrisano said residential stickers fell from about 30,000 to about 20,000 after last year’s changes and that the city will keep tightening in 2027. Stickers are free in January and February and cost $10 from March 1. Nobody is renewed automatically. Residents must register online, be current on excise tax and parking tickets, and will get the sticker in the mail. One commercial sticker per household. The free senior meter sticker continues for residents 65 and older at the collector’s office. A cap on residential stickers is up for discussion for 2028, she said.
Data center ordinance postponed
Five residents used public participation to ask the council to pass the ordinance restricting data centers by size and power draw. Thawanna Pessoa, who said she was speaking as a resident, said more than 1,400 people have signed a petition since February and cited a study finding home values within a mile of a large data center fell about 7 percent. Other speakers said they would prefer a full ban but would take the ordinance. “You can always revisit as technology changes,” one said. Smith moved to postpone so all four sponsors, Martins, Rogers, Nguyen and herself, could speak to it. When a councilor asked whether the city could simply ban data centers, Smith said the council had tried. “We just can’t do it.”
A member of Agape Sober Homes on Broadway told the council that no sober home has received opioid settlement money since April, that $448,630 sat in the account on October 14, and that people in recovery were steered to the city’s federal rental assistance, which closes November 25 and requires a lease. He said he filed a public records request with the health department on August 10 and that the city answered only after the state ordered it. A Ward 4 resident asked the city to register bikes and scooters and hand out the rules of the road with each one.
$50,000 for the solicitor, 10-0
At the 6:30 committee meeting Munson told councilors her office has $24,586.06 in outstanding outside counsel invoices, most of them from cases the prior administration sent out. “KP Law bills $290 an hour,” she said. “I believe my salary is averaged somewhere between $95 and $100 an hour.” The Devens School eminent domain settlement cost about $18,000 in legal fees and will likely pass $20,000 with the final bill, she said. Everett budgets $738,030 for legal staff and $100,000 for outside counsel. Malden spends $120,000 on outside counsel, Revere $340,000 and Somerville about $517,000 plus $45,000 for arbitration, she said. Her office now handles employment and police misconduct cases in-house, and the legal auditor from Hinckley Allen has written to every outside firm back to 2008 for bills and records.
Councilor Peter Pietrantonio asked whether the council could expect more requests. “We’re saying this $100,000 we gave a couple of months ago, this $50,000 we give in possibly tonight, you could come back for more money,” he said. Munson said yes. Chief administrative and financial officer Omar Boukili said the order’s reference to the capital stabilization fund was a typo, and the council amended it to the stabilization fund before passing it. A $14,000 transfer inside the purchasing office from salary to operating expenses passed 9-1, Capone voting no. The chief procurement officer said the money is left over from a procurement analyst position filled in September and will furnish the office’s new space on the lower level of City Hall.
Housing Authority: 670 units, $2.9 million in reserve
Mayor Robert Van Campen, Everett Housing Authority board chairman David Ela and executive director James Holt, who started September 14, appeared on a resolution signed by all eleven councilors. Van Campen said he remade the board and that he and Holt have begun talks with private developers about a public-private partnership for new buildings. “It may not happen in my four years in office,” he said. Holt said the authority has 670 units, nine capital projects totaling about $5 million and a reserve of about $2.9 million, all funded through the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and the authority’s own reserves, with no city money. Pietrantonio raised bed bugs and mice at 381 Ferry Street. “I’ve reviewed those work orders,” Holt said. Alcy Jabouin asked for notices in elevators when the hot water fails on a weekend. Van Campen said Jhenny Saint-Surin, who started Monday as director of multicultural affairs and community engagement, will help organize tenant meetings.
No sick bank exists
Human resources director Ellen Collins told Pietrantonio that the E911, clerical and public works contracts all contain sick bank language but that no sick bank has been set up and no committees exist. “There is not a regularly operating sick bank for unions that I’m aware of,” she said. The contracts allow up to four weeks in a 12-month period, with extensions case by case. “There’s no negotiation to do, is there?” Pietrantonio said. The council referred the matter to Collins to implement the language.
Also Monday night
The council enrolled the ordinance creating a Recreation and Youth Commission 9-0 after a public hearing with one speaker in favor, and ordained the companion ordinance removing the old Youth Commission from Chapter 2, 9-0. The tax title payment agreement ordinance was ordained 10-0. Michael Diorio was appointed to the Historical Commission for one year and Camille DiPerri, Lawrence Arinello and Patricia Ells were reappointed for three, 9-0. The appointment of Matthew Ruggiero to the police department was postponed at the chief’s request. A one-day beer and wine license for a December 12 fundraiser for a hospital in Haiti at the Connolly Center passed 9-0, contingent on the Licensing Commission. Extended hours to 4 a.m. for Passarela Espetinho at 2029 Revere Beach Parkway and Love Dog Hot Dog Buffet at 1865 Revere Beach Parkway passed 8-1, Capone voting no. Four used car dealer licenses on Mystic and Third streets were renewed 9-0. The ARPA small business resolution went back to its sponsors. Pietrantonio’s resolution to eliminate transportation demand management was amended to “restrict” it in certain areas, every councilor was added as a sponsor, and it was referred to chief development officer Monica Lamboy. The Veterans Day ceremony and luncheon is Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Connolly Center.
