At a bilingual candidate forum, Ward 3 Councilor David Bartley said the city failed to notify the public about a Land Court action tied to a parcel in Elmwood Forest and urged stronger communication from City Hall.

Bartley described Elmwood Forest as a roughly 22.5-acre wooded area made up of multiple parcels, including an eight-acre trust that he said has not paid taxes since the 1970s. He said the city law department pursued tax-title action in Land Court but that the Law Department did not include that item in a recent public communication. “You know what they left out? Out of the 4 pages they had, they left out the land court action about Elmwood Forest. Can you imagine that?” Bartley said, adding he filed an order to demand the notice be amended.

Anne Thalheimer, a Ward 3 candidate, said preserving Elmwood Forest is a shared priority and urged more in-person community meetings to involve residents. “This is a point where councilor Bartley and I agree on the importance of Elmwood Forest, and we both have always supported preserving that important green space in Ward 3,” Thalheimer said.

Both candidates framed transparency as an element of enabling public participation. Bartley said residents had recently been able to provide public comment and secure commitments from councilors to protect Elmwood Forest, but he said more formal orders and legislation to protect the land were still needed.

No legal outcome was decided at the forum; candidates described ongoing steps and called for clearer public notice and formal council orders to move protections forward.