Today at the council: the bus and condo items come back, a fifth police age waiver, and resolutions on Charlestown High

The City Council meets today, Wednesday, Nov. 4, at noon in the Iannella Chamber, the day after the state election. The agenda has 51 items. Our Nov. 2 preview covered the new hearing requests and money items. This story focuses on what could be decided today.

Items back from committee

Two items are listed under "Matters Recently Heard – For Possible Action." That heading lets a committee chair report an item back to the full council. On recent agendas, items listed this way have usually stayed in committee.

• School buses (docket 1920). City Councilor Erin Murphy's order on BPS bus performance and the contractor, Transdev, has eight co-sponsors. The Education Committee, chaired by City Councilor Julia Mejia, heard it Monday for about three hours. The city's recording of that hearing was not posted on our meeting page as of Wednesday morning, so we can't yet link timestamped quotes. Until then, our Nov. 3 story reports what was said, based on Boston.com's coverage. It includes the district's figure that morning buses were on time 91% of the time in October.
• Condo conversions (docket 1711). The ordinance from Council President Liz Breadon and City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata would extend condo-conversion protections to tenants in buildings with two or more units. It had its first working session Monday, online and not recorded (our story). It still has not had a public hearing.

A fifth police age waiver

City Councilors Ruthzee Louijeune and Benjamin Weber filed a home rule petition asking the Legislature to waive the maximum age limit so a West Roxbury resident can be considered for appointment as a Boston police officer (docket 2096; petition). The petition says he took the civil service exam last year, attended a department orientation on Oct. 24, and will turn 44 in December. We don't name applicants, who are private residents.

What our records add. This would be the fifth police age-waiver petition this year. The first four passed without a no vote: 10-0 on May 20 (docket 1053), 12-0 on Sept. 16, on Oct. 21, and 13-0 on Oct. 28 (our Oct. 29 story). Petitions like these are usually passed the same day under a suspension of the rules.

Charlestown High

• A hearing order from Coletta Zapata on the proposed closure of Charlestown High School and the future of secondary education in Charlestown (docket 2097). Hearing orders go to committee.
• A resolution from Mejia calling on the School Committee to postpone its Dec. 2 vote on the closure, and any votes on other closures the public hasn't been told about (docket 2106). Resolutions can be adopted today unless a councilor objects. Our Nov. 2 story and Nov. 3 story have the background.

Other resolutions

• Transgender Day of Remembrance, Nov. 20, from Mejia (docket 2111). The text notes the observance began in 1999 in memory of Rita Hester, a Black transgender woman from Massachusetts.
• National Survivors of Homicide Victims Awareness Month, Nov. 20 to Dec. 20, from Mejia (docket 2112).
• Veterans Day, from City Councilor Ed Flynn (docket 2109).
• World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims, Nov. 15, from City Councilor Sharon Durkan (docket 2110; our story).
• More parking enforcement officers, from Durkan (docket 2108), and waiving the residency requirement for the crime lab director, from Flynn (docket 2107).

Smaller money items

The council is asked to accept two in-kind gifts for BCYF community centers: nine office chairs worth $630 from Tufts Medical Center for the Quincy center in Chinatown (docket 2088), and $6,000 in basketball referee services and awards for the Curtis Hall center in Jamaica Plain (docket 2087).

What's next

• Nov. 11: No council meeting, for Veterans Day, according to the council's 2026 schedule.
• Nov. 18: The next regular meeting.
• We will add timestamped links from Monday's bus hearing once the recording is posted. The meeting streams at boston.gov/city-council-tv.