“If we have these public funds, we are not going to invest them in this global effort that disregards and dehumanizes people in so many different ways,” Medford City Council President Isaac Bears said.
Medford City Hall. (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)
August 6, 2025 | 4:28 PM
2 minutes to read
In a three hour-long meeting Tuesday evening, Medford City Council members voted to pass a first-in-the-state ordinance that would divest city funds from companies that supply weapons, derive revenue from prisons or fossil fuels, or companies that “directly, knowingly and over time” contribute to human rights violations, including genocide.
“If we have these public funds, we are not going to invest them in this global effort that disregards and dehumanizes people in so many different ways, whether that’s for political gain or for private profit – or in many cases both – in a never- ending cycle of destruction and violence,” Medford City Council President Isaac Bears said at the Tuesday meeting. Bears sponsored the ordinance.
The “Values-Aligned Local Investments Ordinance” was passed by the councilors with five in favor, one opposed, and one councilor absent.
As a result, Medford became the third municipality in the country – after Dearborn, Michigan and Portland, Maine – and the first in Massachusetts to bar investing public funds in companies that contribute to or are complicit in “severe violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”
“Our community requested this and it is really bold. It would be the first time that a city in Massachusetts did it,” City Councilor Emily Lazzaro said at the meeting. “In this case, to ignore the requests of our community and our own morality, to me, it’s not an acceptable path. I think this is a perfect moment for us to be bold.”
Medford resident Claire Sheridan who attended Tuesday’s meeting said she supports the ordinance and urged the council to “stand up for humanity here and abroad.”
“At 83 years of age, I am sick and tired of my tax money going to these immoral companies and manufacturers who aid and abet not only the killing of innocent citizens in faraway lands, but who compromise the lives of the Medford citizens,” she said.
Benjamin Stein, another Medford resident in attendance, echoed Sheridan’s sentiment, urging the city to invest its tax dollars sustainably.
“I don’t want my money to support investment in fossil fuel companies, weapons manufacturers, prisons, and companies knowingly contributing to human rights violations. It is morally reprehensible,” Stein said.
Opponents of the ordinance, like Medford resident Ilana (she did not provide a last name at the meeting), voiced concern about how the ordinance would impact the city’s “financial flexibility” and investment portfolio.
“It puts politics ahead of fiscal responsibility. Our treasury should be guided by sound returns and security for taxpayers, not activist checklists,” she said.
According to the text of the ordinance, the city’s Treasurer-Collector will use the MSCI ESG Controversies and Global Norms Methodology to determine which investments of public funds to divest.
If the ordinance is enacted, Medford’s Treasurer-Collector will review the city’s investment portfolio and identify any investments that may be deemed to violate the criteria set in the ordinance. Funds must be divested by Dec. 31, 2025, according to the ordinance text. The Treasurer-Collector will review the city’s investments annually, and the City Council will in turn review the MSCI ESG methodology every year to make sure it is still applicable.
After its passage by the City Council, the ordinance will be presented to Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn for approval.
Annie Jonas is a Community writer at Boston.com. She was previously a local editor at Patch and a freelancer at the Financial Times.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.