The Public Facilities Committee spent the meeting debating two energy commission dockets: one proposing a mandatory requirement for small (under 20,000 sq ft) residential buildings to report energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions, and a companion voluntary-reporting ordinance.

Senior Assistant City Solicitor Andrew Lee told the committee that state statutes and Department of Public Utilities regulations protect individually identifiable household energy-use data and that the state law requiring large-building disclosure had carve-outs and privacy protections. "At the local level, the city of Newton is likely preempted by state law from requiring single-family households or any household that is identifiable to disclose their energy use," Lee said, recommending that a mandatory approach would likely require a home-rule petition to the legislature.

Phil Hanser, chair of the Energy Commission, framed the proposal as a renter-focused consumer-protection measure: gathering building-level energy-use intensity (EUI) and carbon intensity and posting those two aggregated metrics on the assessor’s database would help prospective tenants compare likely operating costs. Hanser stressed the commission’s intent was informational, not punitive: "We don't want to penalize anybody at all," he said; the proposed program would publish EUI and carbon intensity, not individual tenant bills.

Councilors and outside participants raised practical complications: tenants with individual utility accounts, absentee landlords, realtor practices, limited participation under a voluntary regime, and questions about whether a mandatory local ordinance could survive state preemption. Several councilors recommended obtaining a written legal opinion and consulting state legislative staff (including Senator staff) about whether a home-rule petition or state action would be required.

After extended discussion the committee voted 'no action necessary' on both the mandatory and voluntary dockets, effectively tabling them pending further legal review and drafting. The committee asked the Energy Commission and the city solicitor to clarify legal citations, consult state legislative staff and return with revised language or a home-rule petition path.