1.23.2024 City Council

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council is kadim here Dion here Hart here Kilby here Pereira here Pony here oo here Samson here president CRA here pursuing to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised such recordings or Transmissions are be made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed

acknowledged and permissible we have one individual has signed up before us today Richard bow subject matter flooding flooding what is the subject matter what did you say the subject matter was flooding flooding flooding good afternoon Council council president I don't know if any of you remember but I've been down here plenty of times complaining about the flooding issues it's not getting better it's

getting worse ever since the electric company went back there and did some work back there along that roadway there used to be a burm that ran along the the Stream area it's gone so now that water is overflowing more and flooding my property even more I shouldn't have to live in fear of my house flooding every single time that it rains out like this I know they're going to say well you

know it was 3 inches of rain it was 3 inches of rain over hours of time not over you know a 2H hour period 3- hour period it was an entire night of rain so now that's where I'm getting more concerned with this it's getting worse and the whole that's up the road up the stream W because nobody really wants to listen to me I know somebody said that they walk the entire stream I'm upor to

I just where is your house um Anderson Street okay now I know somebody said they walk the entire stream it's totally impossible to walk it you can't there's too much bries and brush that you you can't walk it it's impossible all you have to do is go down Lock Street and when that stream or sucker Brook what it's really called once it crosses uh Lock Street on the other side of Lock

Street it just opens up it it there's there's no real channel for that to stay in so if it was channeled right to go completely to bleach rep Pond like it's supposed to I I I doubt very much I'll have a lot of problems with the flooding issue it needs to be channeled like they did with highis street they spent millions of dollars on highis Street to fix the flooding issues over there they

went right across 24 channeled that all the way out all the way to the pond there's no reason why they can't go back there and dig some of that out for that water to go someplace instead of flooding my property every time and me and my family in fear that we're going to lose so much because the house flooding I spent um well $8,000 to raise the driveway to try to push it out because

when they did the street they pitched it and it was all going into my street making a mess into my driveway making a mess all the time I closed off my garage area so less water can get in it was another $4,000 uh let's see um when I built my garage I raised it up an extra 2 feet to try to prevent any damage from there now was it two years ago I believe it was it

flooded uh I had you know some damage in a house I have flood insurance but as anyone knows anything about flood insurance it covers absolutely nothing pretty much nothing so I'm spending all this money for flood insurance I don't need flood insurance because it's not in a flood zone I know they say oh it's in a flood zone it's not in a flood zone the problem isn't the the river I mean the pond

overflowing it's the drainage system now I know that you know when I asked why why am I paying a water run off Fe they say Al to C to maintain the um kovit and swes that thing hasn't been touched in 14 years 14 years nobody's touched that thing like you know this I know they did studies on it but then after a while it just seems like it gets pushed to the

side it's it's just ridiculous the money I you know that I pay in taxes I pay the water run off fees I pay my water bill my sewer bill everything is paid on time you know only thing I'm asking for is them to fix the problem or to alleviate the problem I I uh suggested you know buy the property across the street I know it's been on on the market for I me

he offered it to me for like $30,000 I mean I'd PID a $30,000 if the city wants to dig the whole thing out and all the water can go in there as a big retainer Pond I have no problem with that if that's going to help you know alleviate the problem of my house flooding I rather spend $30,000 and have to spend $40,000 we we doing the entire downstairs again you know what we had to

do last time we bought the house because we bought it right at at the end of the flooding female rejected us they says oh no cuz you didn't live in a house like how I I move in the house I just bought the house and then we closed on and the next day it was flooded how am I supposed to move into it overnight you know after a long battle with that we

won and if I have to come down to every other meeting every single meeting then I'll do it to keep raising my app point to till something gets done about this I shouldn't have to live like this thank you counc C4 counc K I know you had up just couple of questions sir um so are you the only home um that's affected down there I'm the only home that gets affected with it y you're the

only one okay Y and I know you've been here many many many times right so but like I said in in 2010 I don't know if anybody remembers them big storms that house didn't get flooded until the end of all them storms if nobody really wants to listen to me nobody really wants to go with me to see where the problem was we listen i' I've seen the picture I'm saying up the people that

can really actually really do something about it it it broke through so it doesn't stay inside the channel like it should and what's happening now the hole is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and how long you in home uh I'm asking the same question I asked last time you here but they'd be going on 14 years now okay so it's and stal limitations are probably over with regard to going after

the person who built it for remediation so okay well yeah I'd imagine so yeah I mean I don't want lawsuit against anybody I just want the problem fixed I mean if it keeps flooding who am I going to go sue the city for negligence of not fixing the problem that they know is a problem uh what departments have you spoken to outside the council have any well we had meeting any individuals gone

down to visit you or no we had meetings with um the water department and stuff like that you know personally they went to your home well that was oh that was um was a couple no not few years ago they came to the house okay okay after it flooded you know he came down to see what was going on and he could see say oh yeah you know but there's nothing

that he could do at that point it's it's flooded I got no place to put the water well like I said I've know you you've been I won't uh belb this I know you've been there many many times I've seen the pictures that you post and stuff like that it's uh I guess one more attempt for me is if they channel that water I'm sorry just please leave your number once again with

the city clerk and I'll try to follow up as other Council will try to follow up with department heads that's really all we can do is uh insist as a council that something to be done for you we can't we don't have the P strings you know so thank you Mr President thank you coun Mr B I have a question I heard you say that it's not

in a flood zone but they say it is in a flood zone who is there that is saying it's in a flood zone the city engineer who's telling you it's in a flood zone not the insurance company no I got docents so the city from FEA everything saying that it's just out of the flood zone I bought flood insurance only because I bought flood insurance only because they paid for damages to the

house yeah the first time it got flooded so if they're telling you it's in the flood zone maybe we can have a conversation and figure out exactly whether it is or isn't and find out why they think it is and why you show your documentation that would sayate why it's not so that's just curious I'm just wondering who I got the documentation show it's not the insurance coming the mortgage company says dep all right

appreciate that coun to you have a question yeah um Mr Ballo has been at my committee um more than once have we've had the discussions on his property so um with in light of the new information the fact that they remove the burm Etc um I believe it's tabled in the committee at this time that we can schedule another meeting get everybody back at the table again and see what we

can do for you I I know nine of you there's only so much you can do I mean you know but but you know maybe the BM needs to be replaced maybe it needs to be bigger than it was I mean like I agree with you there has to be some remedy somewhere somehow because you're right what You' lived is horrific with that I yield thank you very much Council

C3 Council just one real uh quick Point can I I just got back on the council so I'm not familiar with it with it but if you could could you send me some of those pictures of the flood absolutely your house okay thank you I Y thank you C thank you very much Mr B thank you appreciate it there be no further bus before Finance I'll entertain a motion to aour

to Second all in favor any oppos city council Comm Finance now regular city council will begin at

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hey city council come to order CL will call the rooll I like where I am council is kadim here Dion here har here Kilby here Perera here kti here Roso here Samson here and president C here will everyone in the council chair please rise for a moment of Silent

prayer please remain stand for salute to the flag IED algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that

such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and I de and it deemed acknowledged and permissible Madam clerk Mr President excuse me before we start any new business I'd like to make a motion to lift the bank Street Armory from the table second motion to lift the bank from the table has been made and seconded BR call on lifting the matter from the

table councilor is kadim yes Dion yes har yes Kilby yes Herrera yes Ponte yes Roso yes Samson yes and president CRA

yes the item is now lifted from the table is there a motion I make motion to move forward with the question the question on the S proposal for the sale of the bank Street omry um that has been presented to the council which was tabled back in November motion to authorize sale second motion to authorize sale has been made and seconded Mr President on the motion counc seat six coun py yeah so uh I

appreciate this um but I don't have anything as a new counselor about this is this in our packets tonight is it it's being lifted from the table I know I've watched the meetings there's been extensive debate regarding this I know the council should probably take some action on this but I don't even know what I'm what we're voting on we're voting on to do what sell it we're going

to vote to sell it to who like I have nothing here yeah c i I understand and um I I didn't put it on the agenda because I didn't think some new councils weren't ready for this and had to do some maybe visit of the bank sh Armory or have to do some research so I don't want to put you in that situation or anyone else um for those of us that were

here that last year we probably are prepared to vote on this but you and Council H who were newly elected I didn't think it was fair to put on the agenda but everyone has a right and vote to lift it from the table Mr President I'm fine with that I just would like to take this up a little later on in the evening so that I could maybe have one

of the clerks go get a copy of it and I can see it and read it and feel a little bit more comfortable than doing this at this very second I respect my colleague in SE to's position on this and and getting it and getting it through so we don't have to wait any longer on it but I'd like to see maybe like the packet that these C has been talking about for

six months so the best way to do that Council would be to make a motion to table it no I I I don't want to table it I just want to see it I want to see it I want to see what I'm voting on that's all I'm asking for so if we can make a quick Copy or unless a colleague of mine has a copy that they can give me so I

can read what we're voting on that's all I'm asking for I'm not trying to make it any more complicated no I'm just trying to make it easy if we table it then you can see what you vote on we can bring it back later up in the meeting it's up to you but I mean right now with the motion before us to lift it from the table and

to sell it as it is before us in the CLI Reddit do you yield councelor yes I do Council C4 Council kby yes it uh it was actually my intention to uh to make that motion and um now that Council Dion has made it you know obviously I'm going to support it because full disclosure I think we all know um I'm in favor of the sale and I could go over my points now so but I

don't want to believe or everything Council per and myself uh debated this just isue for for two hours on WS she has a different opinion in me so um I don't I didn't have any conversation with Council Dan uh I did have a conversation with council president today I did have a conversation with the mayor today and he requested two more weeks um so of course I seconded the motion um because I was of the opinion

uh in the past um with the last council with some health issues that going on the council with two new members who who were were coming on um and councelor Pereira um who's very very adamant about her position which I respect a great deal uh made an objection once then it was tabled I asked for a roll call it wasn't Ted so I have absolutely no problem if we want to wait two weeks on

this so councelor Pond can get more information uh but this has uh been debated um a quite deal uh you know and in the um in my opinion the you know just to reiterate my opinion it's clear to me I mean I would love if I had a magic wand to see the bank Street Armory what it was in the turn of the century where it was through the 40s 50s and 60s

and 70s and the 80s we have a lot of fun memories there but the reality is in my opinion um that it's totally uh proper to sell the building to a reputable developer who has a building right next door um he has such a a a stake in seeing this building um for his own portfolio to see the building re renovated and there's historic covenants on the building that are going to ensure that the facade is

going to stay the same it's just a different use in my opinion it's called changing with the times it's called progress look what all everything that's going on in this city that the governor is in favor of this project I know for a fact that she she stated that publicly so um that's my piece but I have actually no problem Council upon um if you need more time to study this issue

but I I my opinion I don't it's it's a no-brainer it really really is because wi winch is here it's going to continue to sit there it's is going to continue to deteriorate continue to deteriorate and um I would guarantee you if a decision was made on the Army to sell it months ago you would see already progress in that building to remediate the issues that are going on there's no commitment

on a part of the administration to take it over the OPA money's encumbered so and do do we want to do we want to trade a new DPW building $15 million for rest restoration of the bank Street Armory for a use that is just so outdated I'm not willing to make that that that vote I want to see the DPW we've been talking about the Department of Public Works building for a long long time a long

time that's where the money's ear marked does this does the city council want to change that and I I I totally understand pulling out the hotstrings I really really do and uh again I I'm just thinking practically here and um I think that's the right vote to make and that's why I'm going to vote along with lifting it from the table to finally make a decision on this tonight I was going to

wait two weeks but if Council Pont wants to uh to wait then we'll wait I I said my piece enough my piece enough and it's motion to move this item to uh after item number 18 on the agenda second motion to move item to item number eight as a made and seconded on the motion C five counc vice president per yeah I don't have a problem if we're going to move it further down on the agenda

that's fine and perhaps one of the clerks can get a copy of the paperwork that we have available to give to council ponts because he's only asking to review it he certainly knows some of the issue on that because he is a stute and has been watching Council meetings and talking to people it's I don't think he's he doesn't know anything about it I mean business he's in he knows about it

so he wants to see what he's voting on and I think he should see it so if somebody could get him that and move it on the we can take recess and do that not a problem would be fine right I'll agree with the that okay motion filed by councelor Kamara I mean kadim you coun Kamara what was I thinking close 20 years apart no do you yeld councelor I do motion on the table

is to revisit the item after item number 18 18 we made motion to lift already yep okay and seconded it was seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries mam cler item number one is the mayor's request for the confirmation of Jeffrey bacon as fire chief motion to confir ADT motion to confirm has been made and seconded second on the motion uh counc for Council Kilby yes just really briefly I want to

congratulate uh we're on the chief issue right Chief bacon yes because I I already spoke enough with regard to the Armory um so congratulations I really really like seeing so many of your now subordinates who are here to support you and um I I think I did my due diligence um we don't really know each other that well I think we met once or twice I said that to council Kadeem but um I I made

calls to uh a lot of your your your members and um they just think that you're going to be do a terrific job and especially you're going to be around for a while that is very very important because of the days of John Carrero and you know uh in my opinion the fire chief police chief the mayor and assum prend the schools are the most important jobs in this city and I'm I'm very happy that

uh hopefully you're going to be confirmed and you're going to be around for a long time so congratulations to you and your family motion as me and seconded roll call on confirmation councilors kadim yes Dion yes Hart yes Kilby yes perrera yes ponti yes Roso yes Samson yes president C yes congratulations congratulations

congratulations

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congratulations clerk Mr President could I just um quickly two things I I do want to uh recognize and congratulate uh Chief bacon I know at some point he'll be swor in it'll be official but um I know I know Jeff for for a while so I think he's going to do a phenomenal job and I told him when he was walking by I'm super proud of him uh it's a guy that

just kind of uh Rose to the rank so congratulations he he deserves that um just on on a separate note just in terms of the uh appointment letter that came down there was a uh annual salary that was associated associated with his appointment can we just because I know there was some concerns back and forth with some collective bargain agreements between police and fire um and just the

equity pays across the board can we just request from the administration that they give us uh a list of all the um supervisory ranks in the fire department and uh the police department just so that we can see what that looks like like to make sure that they're all on par in terms of they ranked with their salaries yep yes we could do that thank you not a problem we'll make sure put

that request in good point councelor mam clerk item two is the mayor's request to appear before the Council on March 12th to deliver the state of the city address to accept motion to adopt as remain in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries have the fiscal year 24 quarter 2 budget report motion or refer to finance second motion refer to committee Finance as made and seconded all in favor any

opposed motion carries we have the mayor presenting The Five-Year Financial forecast motion to refer to finance second second motion to refer to committee on finance as made and second it all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item five is the chair of the board of election Commissioners this these are resubmitted orders which which would authorize the presidential primary election on March 5th 2024 the state

primary election on September 3rd 2024 in the banial state election on November 5th 2024 and will also designate polling places and changes to those polling places for all elections adopt motion to adopt as is there a second second on the motion count seat eight ccos I just have a few questions in followup to this order if we could have Mo should wave the rules second motion to wave the rules so that

he can they can come down yes seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries could you come down please just trying come on

Chief Council propo hi Ryan how are you I'm well well councelor how are you nice to see you very well thank you I always good to see you two questions um so following up to our last conversation in a concern I brought to you was in regards to transportation and I know you had had some preliminary discussions about how we're going to handle that do you have any update for us as far as

what your general plan is to with the change of polling places and how to get some individuals to the polls yes so the good news on that I'm going to be hijacking the bus so to speak from the vso I had a conversation with director Hamilton so I'll be having the bus for all three of the state elections this year um I already have one of the drivers from DPW working for me on

Election Day so I just have to pay the overtime out of my budget which is all set for fy2 24 um so if anyone needs transportation to and from the polling precincts on Election Day they just have to contact my office I'm also going to be having signs posted at the high rises that will be affected by the changes that I am recommending to the city council so just in case if anyone still

insist on voting at the new precincts they can contact my office and we will arrange transportation okay the second question I had is in reference to a call I received regarding the candas fire station and the Ada accessibility to the building and I guess it's been something that's been brought up before um and I figured I'd bring it to your attention I obviously in our discussion that we had

candas is still on the list it is unfortunately okay so can you elaborate on that little if there is one other location besides Methodist Church that I would love to be able to relocate it's the candas fire station just because for two reasons it's just not a comfortable location for two reasons for my polling workers to work on election day as well as for voters to be able to feel

comfortable voting in um there was a site study done by secretary Galvin I believe in 2013 if I'm not mistaken there was a complaint raised by a concerned citizen and it was determined by the secretary to be an acceptable location as a polling Precinct um I did have a conversation with um director MacArthur about relocating the polling Precinct if I decided to relocate the polling

precincts because it's a double location it's precincts 2 C and 5A if I was to relocate um to the Green Elementary School what would that look like in terms of traffic congestion and and other problems and she kind of raised a lot of red flags she told me instead of her uh parking Control Officers running into problems with being assaulted verbally and physically by residents who live there by parents

coming to pick up their children um and it just seemed very concerning the idea of moving that moving the precincts to the green school if my main concern is trying to alleviate the traffic problem as well as the parking accessibility for voters on Election Day I just don't think think the Green School um is an ideal location if it's in terms of trying to make it more accessible for

the General Public public in terms of being able to park their cars yeah which makes sense because especially in election like this we're Notting especially heading into 2024 account yeah we're not expecting public schools to not have school or PD days on those on those multiple days I mean to have one make sense but to have three wouldn't obviously make any sense and it's just not a perfect world so I guess

my followup question is internally has there been any research to see could there be an alternative place other than a school building that it could be a possibility in that section of the city it's very hard because I can't find anything that would really be able to accommodate I think a double Precinct I mean there used to be I mean I used to be at I think it was actually once at

San Elementary School was where the precinct was once located um if only Blessed Trinity Church was a tad bit larger because it's already serving as a double Precinct uh for the Plymouth Avenue Globe Street section of Fall River that would possibly work but it could not accommodate for polling precincts in that section um it seems unfortunately like uh Methodist Church in Highland Avenue we kind of boxed in

to some locations and I've also received questions about possibly moving out of LNO elementary school because it's not as accessible as it used to be when uh we used to use St Williams Church The Mont sior conine Center but there are some locations where it's a little more complicated because of there not being a physical location to accommodate polling precincts on Election Day um I do scour

the city I'm always willing or have the conversation with anyone if they have um a suggestion in mind but it's a little bit more tougher as we're in certain sections of the city okay yeah I mean my I guess my only request is as you continue to work through this if that could be something that you continue to see if there is an alternative and like we've talked about the the the church

particularly as well that you know like you said you're kind of boxed into it but if anything does come up you know do your due diligence as best as you can I was planning on just to I know we talked about this uh back in December I did originally want to relocate Precinct 7A which is the Methodist Church in Highland Avenue down to the Morton Middle School but that is making a bad

situation even worse because the school is located at the intersection of President Avenue in North Main Street and that is just very inaccessible in terms of public parking so unfortunately it just didn't seem like a very feasible idea to present fair enough I appreciate the update of course thank you so much I yield Mr President he you guys cons six C PR one of the uh well two of the polling

places that I think were very good to move was St Anthony of the desert church because they have great parking great facility easy for people uh to go location I'm Amazed by that location i' never seen the size of the parking lot until I did um a site survey there um back at the end of November's election and I'm just amazed by the sheer number of parking spaces available I'd never

seen behind the church Hall before but I'm just amazed at the opportunity that's because you haven't got to a feast there because that's the only place you can park with back there I'm too busy my own a Good Shepherd but um yeah I was just amazed when monor root had walked me through the Parish Hall does a great job he's a wonderful man and um he had walked me through the

Parish Hall and just going to make a great location for a double Precinct in addition to the sheer size of the parking lot it's like Gillette Stadium for that section of the city accessible yes very much SOC C Cooks a mean shush so I've heard shush Kebab during the be um the other one was at Bristol Community College where the parking lot is and where you're going to go to vote

you and I talked about that and I just want to say this so that the public is aware but Bristol Community College will be providing shuttle from the parking lot um where the parking lot is located well the location is Building G it's the Commonwealth Student Center that we're going to utilizing on Election Day um and then there campus secuity is offering I want to call them the golf carts to and from the handicapped

parking spaces to the Student Center just in case of someone requires additional assistance getting to and from their car on Election Day it's not that much of a walk in comparison from people who have to walk from Stanley Street or Chestnut Street into Spencer bard I think it's very easily access for the but just in case it's something that they've offered I had a great conversation with their event director

and they have rolled out the red carpet to my office just in case if there's anything else that we need and they will be putting up signage right from the entrance of Ellsbury Street all the way back to um the parking lot they're reserving an entire parking lot for voters on Election Day now I know that more people tend to be voting by mail than they have in the past yes but

the van that you're getting from the vsso for the you know for the days of these elections is that a handicap accessible van as well yes it is okay I just wanted to I think it's actually the mini bus that she has that we're going to be utilizing on Election just so that people know it is handicap accessible um so that we can make sure that we can get people to the polls and your number from

the office here will be posted um throughout all of the older precincts yes it will be okay but well I think you've made some good changes and I think change for people sometimes is hard um but I think some of the new places the new polling places are good and I know that Schools they're a little concerned with having people in and out of uh school buildings which I agree probably better off if we could have

them somewhere else so but good job Mr Lions thank you so much thank you counselor you counselor I yield C six consenting thank you than you Mr President um you may have answered this uh but what is the educational component to those who are used to going to other precincts what does it look like briefly like what and and by the way I want to commend you for this because this has

been long needed for a long time and you know I know you're relatively new the last year or two to the role and I commend you for making this a priority of your your your you and your team to do this because I think it's necessary I think it needs to be reduced a little bit more if I'm being honest with you um I mean if you go to some cities and

towns you go to a school and everybody's there all day I'm not saying that we do that but you go to Somerset they sit in front of one building all day long and it makes it easier for Staffing and and everything so putting that aside um just if you can highlight to me because I don't know if I've heard you say this the educational component to the switching well if approved by the city

council I am required by law to notify it's going to be about 18,000 registered voters in total in writing to let them know that the polling location has been changed effective for the March 5th presidential primary in addition to that I was actually doing my first radio interview today um in regards to the potential changes that are forthcoming um as I just mentioned to the uh Council

of Vice President Pereira um I will be posting the changes in the locations that will be affected going forward um so in addition to that I will keep the ongoing conversation but I think the direct notices to the general public at least 30 days before the election is of great benefit we're required to do that but I think as long as the voters have that in hand heading into the election

that is a great guide all right so I I guess is it is there's no larger campaign attached at all that would allow you to position um you and your team to make sure that there's proper education because I'll be honest with you people get their mail and they throw it out I mean I look for checks and bills and sometimes I throw it out unless it's city council business now of

course but uh all all kidding aside you know people don't really read their mail um so is there a larger component to this is have we been able to uh partner with maybe Fred TV are we able to partner with the Herald news like is there something that we can do that we can make sure that this is being done and is this something that's going to be consistent going forward with these

locations oh absolutely all throughout at least 2020 for if need be into next year and they can always have the conversations with frgtv and their media consultants to at least help with the free advertising to let the general public know that these changes have been made permanent by the city council in my department heading into 2024 and Beyond because you're right about the direct

notices we're required by law to do that but it's just like the municipal census that is now hitting voters mailboxes tooo many voters just discard their mail that is a concern but I do find that sometimes even with the interviews that I do that sometimes voters are just still not paying attention but I'm just hoping that it's not going to be to the point where they're arriving at the

polls on Election Day to see the sign which I think will help because luckily at least like for the south end for example I mean it's going to be precincts 3A and 3B which is car which is Carlton vas Elementary and Mitchell Apartments which I'm consolidating into Good sheeper Parish luckily it's only down the street so to speak so it's not and thankfully there par lot there so it's much easier for the voters to get

to so if they see the sign and that's their only notification um at least it's much more easy for them to be able to park their car and get in and out sometimes it's harder with communication for them to either say well I didn't get a notification I discarded it they didn't hear my interview about it or sometimes was they weren't paying attention to a press release so I try to

cover all my basis but sometimes it's still hard to make sure that especially with this volume of 18,000 registered voters can be a little bit difficult to make sure yeah and I don't know what kind of campaign anybody would do I don't know what other election chair commission's done in other communities where they've condensed their polling locations to make sure people are aware I'm just worried about people being

aware of this and people getting frustrated the apathy already is clear as you know uh in the most recent elections and I don't think we want to be in a position where we're uh not encouraging people to vote and they be them being confused um if you know so I would urge uh you perhaps um and if you need some support from at least me as one counselor um to urge the mayor to

see if they can get you some kind of a campaign budget a minimal we only need to do this once um and seeing if that's something that you'd be able to utilize uh and do it effectively and if it's not anything you can do effectively that's fine but I mean we you know everywhere we go in Fall River with it's Opera money Opera money Opera money it's a one-time need it's not something that

needs to be budgeted consistently uh and it may be it's something that can be discussed with you know with you and the mayor and and go before the council for that so I'm just worried about the uh the education component certainly so it's always a concern and great suggestion coun okay well for whatever it's worth I yield thank you thank you counc Council see two Council good evening um I'll start off with I'll be

supporting it because the board of election unanimously voted that this is something they want to follow through with um I do have some concerns though certainly so we have four elderly housing units that are going to be affected by this um do we really think and believe that all of these elderly and some uh uh physically challenged people are actually going to leave where they are get in onto some form of

transportation um go to the new polling places um is that something you're going to track to see how the numbers go beyond this to see if we've actually lost voters because it became an eort effort that they didn't want to deal with that's the bigger question heading into 2024 the kind of Tob determined question counselor um one of the reasons why I think I recommended the changes at

least this year post 2022 is thanks to the votes act you know the state legislature has now afforded every registered voter the opportunity to vote by mail I think everyone has started to receive their uh vote by mail applications in the mail from secretary galvin's office so that is now an option afforded to every registered voter and beyond that if someone is physically handicapped or physically not able to

really leave their home those voters quite honestly should be permanently AB should be permanently um voting by absentee those are the first voters that usually contact my office to request um the affidavit for the doctor to sign that way they can permanently receive an absentee ballot for every election so that's something that I try to do to at least to make sure the voters are aware

about that to make it easier for them if it's still difficult for them even though they only have to go down down to the um to the lobby to cast their ballot on Election Day that they're aware that they can become permanent absentee voters but I do think that thanks to the votes act with voting by mail as an option now for every registered voter it makes this change a little bit easier

than it would have been I think pre 2022 but kind of tracking the voter turnout it's always hit or miss depending on the election I mean for 2023 for example in November we only had 11,300 voters in November 2022 it was 177,000 vote reg registered voters turning out to participate and in 2020 it was 33,000 so it's it just depends on the election and what's taking place that particular year

so it's always something that is kind of to be determined to track in terms of the overall voter turnout especially for one um particular address right well and it's always been the local elections versus state and federal elections are apples and oranges very much so unfortunately it disappoints me a great deal but unfortunately and always have been um but where we've been seeing even

with the the the uh mailin voting we've been seeing a drastic decline in voting so I'm I'm just a little concerned if this will affect that because there are people who really don't like the mailin voting they feel like it isn't Anonymous um because obviously their names have to be right there and there are people that don't care for that um so I don't know but it's just something I want to throw

out there moving forward if there was going to be a way to track it and see if we see a curve and whether it would would be a good or a bad um Just for future reference um another question is in terms of the of using the uh vso's vehicle um I could be wrong but I believe that on Tuesdays they transport to the VA hospital that's not going to affect that um based upon the

conversation I had with director Hamilton I think she is getting another vehicle for that day for that purpose I think she's purchasing another city council voted to um use funding to purchase so she's utilizing I think another vehicle for that day for that purpose so that way um we can use the uh the bus for transportation okay um now is that the vehicle that requires a CDL license

because I know she does have one vehicle um yes it is so we've arranged that with um Director D me okay um my last question is I know that the South neighborhood uses good sheeper church for their meetings yes they are required to pay for an insurance policy for liability purposes that if somebody attending a meeting gets hurt there's a policy to take care of that so that the liability doesn't fall on the church are

we going to run into that type of a situation where some of this buing now has been CH switched over to the churches and good Shepherds being one of the churches not that I've Been Told by director Nelson the director of the parish Outreach Center that was not an issue that was raised by her or father frederich or from St Anthony's church as well okay because like I say just the

fact that I know that they're required to do that was became a concern um with that I yield excuse me thank you councilor R I just want to point out I mean to councilor party's point about people not reading the May male I agree with him um when you the notice that you have at the polling place is it going to what's it going to look like it has to

stand out it has to be bigger than any other notice oh because people are going to just walk to the door see that there's no one there think maybe election day is not today and they're going to just not look read what's there have you thought about having an individual at the eight polling places to tell people listen the polling place has changed and this is your new polling place or is that out of the question

completely is signing one of my poll workers to be there oh yes um it's certainly something I can do especially for the first election that's defin would be most effective and now you say just for the first election but a lot of people don't vote in the primary the percentages are way down compared to the final elction I think you're probably have to do it twice but I think it's most effective ways to have one pole

worker at the entrance of all of these new locations old locations telling them exactly where their new location is because to the point if he person shows up there and it's 7 o'clock it's dark and well probably won't be dark then but it might be they're not going to want it if there's no lighting on the door they're not going to be able to read it they're not going to see it and it it

gets complicated you just put a notice on the door but an individuals there they can tell people while they're still in their cards listen it's this is the new location it's been changed and give him a card that gives them the address or tells them where it is some people might not know where St anthy of the desert parish is you know they might not know where these locations are so I

think it has to be more than something just to sign on the door and hope that they see it okay last thing I want is Donald Trump to be knocking on your door saying why' you rig the election right um yeah that's certainly a possibility and I can definitely arrange my poll workers to be there at least for the first couple of Elections for uh 2024 to make people aware of that I know

it's going to cost money but I think it makes a big right I mean it would come out of my P work of budget um I mean it was going to be a large poster posted outside of each location that was going to be um affected by the change but it's like the mail they don't look at it they see they see the place dark there's no lights turn around says maybe today's an

election day right and then I don't want that to be the case of course but um I just want to make sure it's not a concern that one of my poll workers says I don't want to be here for the duration of the day and I mean it's definitely something I can try to arrange by having several people at least try to rotate or in with it certainly Mr President y all

right there being no further questions thank you very much for coming down explaining all that thank you very much thank you so is there a motion to adopt changes motion to adopt second all in favor I any opposed motion carries C have the election results of the November 7th election motion accept second accept me second all in favor I any opposed motion CES whereas budget season is approaching and whereas there

have been continued conversations regarding the parks Division and their lack of staff and whereas continued strain on the parks division could lead to a reduced quality of life for our residents now therefore be it resolved that the committee on finance meet with the board of Park Commissioners to discuss the needs of this division ahead of the next budget season and to Advocate on their behalf motion to

adopt motion to Second all in favor I any opposed motion carries whereas Community organizations such as the Creative Arts Network Viva full River and others have put on many different exciting events in 2023 and whereas many of these events were well attended and enjoyed by all and whereas these efforts should continue to be supported and highlighted now therefore be it resolved that the committee of

Economic Development and Tourism invite these Community organizations to discuss their 2023 year in review share ideas for plans in 2024 and how we can further support their efforts to benefit the residents of the city of Fall River motion to adopt second motion to adopt second on the motion counc C5 Council vice president Pera yeah I I just have uh one thought um on resolution number

10 it appears to be the same kind of um resolution um you know regarding funding and tourism Etc can these be combined somehow I I don't know if there was I'm not the sponsor of either one but um councelor Samson and councilor oosa put in resolutions that appear to be the same you know similar yeah Mo merged together once we get to amend so if we're gonna if we want to amend it do

we could we take item 10 now and talk about that maybe we can amend it it's I mean to you you can you can amend it to saying that we want to incorporate item number 10 with this resolution I think that would that be okay I'll let you speak to a do you yeld councelor I yield Council eight C Samson I don't have a problem with that I mean I honestly I'm

reading yours I just want to know what they're doing how they've spent the money what's been going on so if you know that's I would assume that's what you're looking for share the ideas you you know we could put them together makes sense to have them come down at you know same thing yeah samees sense motion I I yield to my okay thank you CC counc C2 Council C2 J up yes um

could I make a motion wave the rules and have the city administrator come down I want to ask a couple of questions that relate directly to this as long as they relate directly to this that's fine is a motion to wave the rules I'll second it she made the motion yeah all in favor I I any opposed I think between the two resolutions um we're going to have a significant number of people sitting at

this table answering questions trying to give us information I think it's the same person just different questions how you spend the money and when is how you going to plan on spending it for next year so my questions are um any approved projects are tracked correct correct the any approved projects until they complete a project turnning receipts or some form of documentation don't get

funded are we talking about project arer projects in general yeah yes so um I mean they're not all reimbursement but that's Mo mostly how they work yeah okay so I guess what I'm getting at would it make sense to because also the money has to be dedicated by December 31st 24 of this year expended by December 31st 2025 I'm assuming at some point any funding that that is still that hasn't

been used used at some point is going to be called back um I don't want called back isn't the right word but um reallocated perhaps because the the feeling is you won't have time to expend it once you start getting to the end but I guess more what I'm getting at is would it make sense to have the Opera director and yourself come to the table get the questions explain what projects have

been completed what projects haven't what the cost has been how much money Still Remains in those accounts that's what I'm getting at that it might streamline it make this whole process a little bit easier point of clarification I good ccil seven CC just to the to both resolutions one is going to tourism going to finance no no my the one I filed is going to tourism the going to

finance yeah but my my point is going to be that I think the conversation I'm looking to have in the subcommittee of Economic Development tourism is about events we've had and what they're planning to do Council Samson's resolution more talks about the financial piece of the arpa update so I mean I don't think it's appropriate to put them together because then you're either going to have both in tourism

both in finance and I don't think it's appropriate to do that yeah and we won't put them together I yield thank you thank you counc so in terms of uh councilor Samson's I guess since that's the one that would be going Finance would I mean would that be I don't want to call it a better approach but would that make it simpler would that do you think that would result in what she's looking for I

don't so I I I I think what you're proposing makes a lot of sense because I think it would be helpful for any folks watching as well as the council to to know you know how the money is being spent how much of it's been spent where those projects stand specifically uh with regard to any of the reimbursement based projects um you know one where there's a contract and we get invoices

and then we pay on the invoices based upon due diligence making sure they've done what they say they've done that's pretty much um what we're talking about with um uh with Miss rego's organization with Viva um and the tourism piece that they're doing so that's probably a that's probably its own hearing to be honest with you because I think they've done so much and each of those falls

into a category in their proposal and in their contract so I I think that might actually be a pretty involved conversation and folks might want to understand in terms of Communications in terms of web presence in terms of you know you know General marketing and actual events and you know how theyve partnered on other things you know with the city and whether that's been part of the you know

all those questions uh I think you know certainly fair game I think that's probably its own thing and then if attorney hum and I were to come down and do a presentation uh I would love to do that because I I would love for um both the council and the public to know how the arpa money being spent and where it stands okay um and then the one thing

just just so we don't put it out there that we're getting ready to claw back money no I I understand I I think that um because the money has to be committed by December 31st of of this year that commitment uh has to have uh a contract attached to it right uh and then from there uh there is time you know thereafter so I don't know that we're in that realm yet I just don't want people

to start worrying that oh my gosh the city is going to start taking back money uh I think we're a little bit from there yet but we are watching really carefully yeah noted um and yes I was looking more long term with that but so it would essentially be then two separate meetings one with one to address her uh resolution and then one for the two of you to come down yeah yeah I think that

would probably be the the give the most in the clearest information of the council okay thank you with that I yield thank you thank you Seth appreciate it c seat six counc party yeah thank you I'll be real quick um on the resolution item eight that's before us right now um I think one of the biggest weaknesses that we have as a communities we have all these organizations and there's there's

Synergy with them independently there's not Synergy with them collectively absolutely and so I hope that if the economic development Tourism Committee which chair I chair um uh can can come out of this by seeing if there's a plan to be cohesive as as as there's a lot of politics involved right being direct and real with you and my colleagues know that this different groups have different expectations have different

budgets are treated differently Etc so I'm hoping that the the subcommittee would be able to dive deep into this to try to find a way where there could be some cohesion instead of working in these specific silos that they've been working on since they've been created um so you know that's going to be I don't want to amend it because it's going to happen organically I believe with the

resolution but I I just want to make it clear that's a big need that this community has can does great work Viva Fall River does great work all these different organizations do great work but there's no cohesion as a as them all coming together it's a problem um and I think the mayor's made some great efforts in trying to bring them together and I understand there's politics attached to it but I think we need to do

a better job because it's impacting the community when there's this divide between these great organizations who do such good work so I'm I'm going to make sure that that that uh to our colleague and seat um Seven's resolution I think this is a good resolution I like the different component of the finance component and then digging into sharing ideas and trying to find a better way where they could streamline their

processes and and give a better result to our community so I yield thank you Mr President thank you Seth thank you no further questions motion to adopt item number eight has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries whereas the for city council is responsible for the liquidation and sale of real estate assets owned by the city and whereas the city council recognizes

the need to engage professional real estate brokerage services to effectively market and sell these assets and whereas the city council wishes to Leverage The expertise and market knowledge of qualified real estate brokers to ensure a transparent and efficient sales process now therefore be it resolved that the city council hereby requests the issuance of a request for proposals

from qualified and licensed real estate brokerage firms for the the purpose of marketing and selling city-owned real estate assets to be published and circulated in accordance with established procurement procedures and guidelines and be it further resolved that an RFP be issued for each building outlining the scope of services required evaluation criteria terms and conditions for the engagement of real estate

brokerage services and be it further resolved that a selection Committee compris of five members be established with the city administrator acting as chair two members appointed by the city council president and two members appointed by the mayor and be it further resolved that all offers received be presented to the city council committee on real estate for review and recommendation to the full city council

motion to adopt second motion to adop second on the motion Council six Council P thank you um so this is the the purpose of this resolution and I indicated at our last meeting is I understand that the city has an obligation through its municipal government process to follow follow its chapter what is it 30 or whatever it is when it comes to uh liquidating and selling of real estate or assets owned

by the city um I find the process to be archaic I find the process to be um honestly a um a non-transparent process a process that only a select group of individuals may or may not know about um it's concerning to me where we're going to be eventually taking we took a a school back we're going to be taking additional schools back through the reverter Clause that um you know we're

going to put an RFP out and hope some body gets it and we have to pick the best one there's no highest and best process none of that process is happening when it comes to selling assets um I will say this though for the record um I recognizing that I am a real estate broker and I own a real estate company in the city I did file an ethic um a um conflict of interest disclosure

with the clerk's office about this I have zero interest in you know representing the city to do this or anybody in my office has no interest in doing I want to make that clear but we have a process and I understand that there's procurement law and all that other stuff but the process by which we sell Assets in this city is Antiquated and I can bring you back to a time where a prior

Administration wanted to sell trash trucks okay and I don't want to go down memory lane here but we were we were auctioning them off and we were selling them for $5,000 a truck I'm not sure if any of my colleagues remember that but we were trying to get rid of our trash trucks and we ended up rejecting as a body the process by which we were doing that and then we ended up selling them

for a couple of million dollarss because the process was Antiquated old and it didn't make any sense the process by which we liquidate real estate is archaic so I'm hoping even if Corporation Council wants to take a look at this I want to urge my colleagues to try to find a different way for us to dispose of real estate uh dispose of assets that we have as a community I'm

not saying that we have to you know call an Auctioneer to sell old printers or old chairs or anything like that but when it comes to tangible real property we have a real problem in the archaic process that we have as a community to liquidate real estate for example the bank street omry is going to come back before us now how do we know as as a council that that is the highest and

best offer we received well we know that because we went through an RFP process that's Antiquated old and ridiculous and we said all right well we got one offer we got one bid through the RFP process and we have to accept this offer because it's the only thing that we received how do we know if we didn't put this on the market with a commercial real estate broker put it on a loop net or a co-star

website through the RFP process that we hire the real estate broker or commercial broker to do it that we wouldn't have got an offer for $450,000 how do you know back 10 years ago when this Council sold buildings for $2,000 or $1,000 that were literally knocked down and sold for several hundred, for you to go and put build houses on it we as a as a council have a responsibility to the taxpayers

everybody says that we all get elected and we all campaign we all say that but this is a real example of how we can fine-tune the system to do this effectively because we're not doing it I have no idea what the administration's plans are for some of these schools that we may be taking back or may not be taking back there's no process by which we're going to put an RFP out and hope

some guy comes or some lady comes and accepts a bid offer and it's great we're going to accept it because we have to and and it's just in my opinion it's wrong um and um we have to we as a IL have the legislative ability to change the way we do this and I think it needs to be more thorough more open and more transparent and it isn't right now so

that was the purpose of me filing this resolution I know it's there's a lot there um but uh that's the reason I wanted to do it and and let's hope that I can get the support from my colleagues on this resolution I yield thank you Mr President thank you Council Council C1 Council kadim um so just and I applaud my colleague for filing the resolution the only problem is is that we're still

going to be with the antiquated process because even if we go out through an RFP for a real estate agent to come in we still have to follow 30b which is going to require the posting of goods and services and 30-day procurement and you got to have bids so you're still going to have to follow it the only thing that we're probably essentially going to do is have to kick a commissioning portion to uh a real

estate agent um what I what I will say because I don't disagree with them I I think you know municipalities and it's not just the city of for River municipalities across uh the Commonwealth I think they tend to come a little become a little bit complacent in terms of um just going above and beyond in terms of advertising and just focusing on the central register or um hiring an Auctioneer to come in uh but

the process still comes through uh we've got to go through the city council for uh real estate and there's always language in any RFP that the uh municipality reserves the right to reject all proposals so we don't have to accept them you know we just the city council voted to accept those at $25,000 because they felt the value that was going to be added by getting it back onto the tax rows and into a developer's

hands you know outweighed you know $100,000 but or whatever it may be but I think we just need to I I think you can accomplish both right you can sell it for a a higher amount put some restrictions on what that land is going to be used for um or you just sell it and say there's no restrictions and that's probably where you're going to get more money for it you're not having

somebody come in and saying Hey I want to bid for this property because when they when they say they we sell it we we want to know what they're to do with the property right so they've got to put a proposal as to what that development looks like and I think you know when you start doing that it handcuffs people in terms of what they really want to do in case something does change because then

you know you got reverted Clauses we we've seen what happened with some of the schools you know they said they were going to do X Y and Z and then you know we're trying to claw that back to to get that property because they're not living up to the to the end of it but I think the the true issue becomes the 30b process right you still have to go through that that process uh with the

state which is unless that that's changed you can't can't do anything with it so um and that's to purchase and sell property so with that I yield yeah the state doesn't make it easy that's for sure thank you counc con C4 did you have your hand up yes um exact exact comments I was going to make um I understand a spirit of the resolution um I don't think I I'm in

favor of killing it but it's it's definitely worth uh some discussion I mean the resolution doesn't state if it probably should go to ordinance um number one um brokerage firm commissions um 6% I'm assuming right um again I understand the intent there's a lot of corruption I'm not afraid to say it there was a lot of uh shenanigans that went on um under the career Administration and we're paying for it

careful Council there's two career administrations yes well jasel career there was was a lot of uh Shan edans there we know that um so I definitely appreciate the intent and the yeah these major assets may I think this is something to be uh you know to to take a look at but the 3B is definitely it's it's hamstringing you know and so um I again I I maybe this should get referred

to finance we can have legal council down here discuss further and um i' I'd ask that we amend the the resolu solution to um refer this to ordinance thank you than are you making that in form of a motion or not yes yeah is there a second on a motion to refer to finance second F the ordinance F ordinance sorry that's not what I was going to say that's right so motion has

been made refer to the ordinance committee is it second second on a motion Council seat five Council vice president pero no I think it should go to the real estate committee they can have the attorney go to the real estate committee and look if real estate is the one that deals with uh properties and real estate of the city then that would be a good committee for it to go to that

we're not going to go to an ordinance and change an ordinance let's have some discussion first if real estate committee finds with an attorney that maybe we should do XY andz then fine bring it back and we'll send it to ordinance with whatever changes real estate committee feels but I think you should go to Real Estate Committee just point a clarification for myself my comments um I I I think this is going to

I'm sorry Council no that's okay I think this is going to require a new ordinance possibly but to her point you committee I real estate so I'd be really happy to uh to take it and refer to ordinance once we get legal counsel down that's not a problem I know your committee's busy by the way so I'll take it can I just point of information can I just ask the counc you yield yes I thank you

Council C1 counc Kad just point of information through you uh Mr President to my colleague who filed the resolution what was there an intent as to what committee you wanted this to go to or no no than if I can Mr President um I'll just say um if I if I could just for one moment if if if if if 30b would be changed at the state level that would need to be done through a legislative

body through a home rule petition correct correct so if a committee meets whether it's the committee on finance or the real estate committee or the committee on ordinance whoever and it's the will of this Council to recognize that we need to change the process that's Antiquated and old why not lead the process by possibly follow talking to one of our reps and filing a home rule petition to allow local cities and

towns or their local Town administrators or town managers through their select board the ability to liquidate real estate to get the highest amount of return for its taxpayers I mean I'll go to Boston and I'll advocate for that at anyway and and I know my colleague in se1 and Council vice president and I we tried to do that years ago for net School spending and we got shut down but how this doesn't help every single

community in the Commonwealth blows my mind and it should blow all of our minds so to your point uh to my colleague in C1 I'll say that if what comes of this is our C our Council files a home Ru petition to get a a a rep to pick this up and move this forward at the state level that's a win that's not only a win for Fall River but that's a win for All

City all local cities and towns in this state so that's the if that comes of it that's that's a win thank you coun counc see when you still have the floor no yeah I appreciate that I was just trying to figure out which committee if if we're going to send it somewhere I don't care whatever committee that can maybe do a home roll petition start the process okay we'll form a new home R petition committee next

week listen I I sit on I think I sit on the real estate committee I'm not sure but you sit on both I do yeah so either way I'm gonna yeah maybe I want to hang out with Brad for thank you for change um May maybe the discussion is is worth um having in in real estate committee and then you know getting the uh you know the stakeholders at the table to

have a conversation and maybe we can have a maybe a representative come down um and have those conversations with us yeah so yeah motion to refer to real estate second on a motion C C3 do you have your hand up you want to speak did I no counc C3 Council h no I I was going to refer it to realate make a motion yeah look I I honest I think it's a good

resolution and it's a starting point as you said and if we can accomplish anything let's let's begin the process cuz it is a very complicated convoluted uh way of Distributing property motion refer to committee on real estate has remain and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries thank you whereas $670,000 in arpa funding was appropriated to Viva Fall River for local tourism initiatives and whereas

there were various phases to the implementation of this project now therefore be it resolved that the city administrator as well as representatives from the one South Coast Chamber of Commerce and Viva Fall River be invited to a future meeting of the committee on finance to provide an update on the programs brought forward and how the funds were expended motion to refer to finance second motion refer to committee

on finance has a made in second on the motion Council seat 8 Council Samson so I I just um to go back to what we were talking about it is I mean I think your proposal is great and it doesn't make sense that it is um split I just really they were given a lot of money as to council at pones there is so many different H groups so many out there

this group has given a substantial amount of money I just think that we should um know the great work that they've been doing with where they stand with the funds and how they've been spent at this point and so um an in-depth look at that so that's why I filed the resolution so with that I yield thank you councelor motion to refer the committee oh Council seat s Council seat seven Council oppose on

kind of wave with that I you have hand prior to that I did I did sorry yeah you got to put a little bit yeah I'll do I'm usually pretty good airplane directions um so I think this is a good opportunity to expand on Council Samson's resolution that an opportunity where we give the public a little more information about where we stand with both the arpa money of the city and the Bristol County ARA money so

I would I would propose a Amendment to the resolution to include a president from the administration of the current projects of the city ARP money the Bristol County arpa money where those balances stand and then what is remaining and then what is the plans going ahead for the remainder of the money well wouldn't that be what they're going to they asked to do I think just on tourism said he' come down and he'd

love to give a presentation and explain what well but but in terms of the resolution we're only talking about one group I would like to then expand that to say there's a lot more oper money that's encumbered being spent and it's not something that's readly available to the public to understand so I'd like to have give the administration the opportunity and attorney hum the opportunity to come down and make a

presentation to the council to give a full picture of where we stand with all that on every group that's receive money or just do you have any group City AR money and the Bristol County AR money okay I'm not sure the intent was to do that I think she was just focusing on one group in particular and I don't disagree with her but I'm just I'm looking at this and saying okay there's

a also other a bigger picture here with talk about this money that's being spent it's millions and millions of dollars being spent I'm not sure the public fully grasps what has been spent what is being used and what's left okay so that's the form of M is that your motion yes sir okay second motion me a second on the motion CC C2 yeah um I believe that was a conversation that the city

administrator and I just had and that he agreed that he would like to do that and make the presentation to us just you want to put in black and white Council that's all okay that I thought that's what I said it is but could we do it in another resolution could he file one thought I was same at this point not so semantics yeah I I think everybody's saying the

same thing we would like to have that but if they're going to have just one and finance and everybody else that's going to be maybe a finance committee meeting that's on another night because that's going to be a long meeting I think well we'll put together and then he can tell us how long is presentation if it's 10 minutes we'll have one night if it's two hours we'll have another night

you know maybe two separate resolutions I think that uh Council reposa it's a good resolution see where we stand with that maybe file that so other everything else and this one will be just on the tourism aspect don't want it to do you yeld councelor I do s c POS yeah I mean I get I guess to the point that you know like tonight we had a finance meeting that lasted three

minutes so should have follow this last week last month we have the finance Mr I appreciate that I wish you would have been there yeah that's okay but can't anybody else wasn't reality is wasted time is time wasted so it's an opportunity to have a full like discussion about where we stand we listen we talk about the concerns of onetime money and where all the money is spent here's the opportunity to have

that conversation yeah so why not use the time and do it C world no one dis agree but I mean they say wasted time and there was no wasted time today the city ordinance says we have to have a meeting at one time and you have to have the other one at the other time and there was nothing in finance so we have the motion we did it it's semantics

trust me great I know we have the motion absolutely anything else no I you thank you thank you anyone else no do you want to wave the rules have said come down tell us again what he wants to do how long it's going to take him all right on the motion roll call can M CL do you want to read the motion that was amended just to get it clear do you care if it gets

amended I don't I don't care as long as it's going to ask you know answer the questions from South Coast Chambers I don't care how you slice it or dice it so I'm fine it's up to the C point of information I I don't know maybe I'm Maybe I'm Wrong wrong but I feel like it's two separate issues I don't feel like it's an amendment I feel like we're going to move forward with

the resolution and we're going to move forward with a presentation from the city administrator and and attorney H to Enlighten us on where we are in the Opera process I agree I don't I yield Council C counc Samson I I think I I guess I'm just my head spinning now I think that um Council proposal wants a detailed list of every Grant and where it's spent and where they stand that's what you want to

do I mean I I in this uh project in particular I had some concerns about before and where that was and um it being New Bedford Fall River South Coast chamber and uh where they stood before so I wanted some insight but if you know you're going to put together they're going to put together more detail thing I just think that that's going to be a very long meeting there's millions of dollars millions of money different

projects to be out there just kind of wanted to see where they stood but all right listen very simple we can focus on this resolution as it stands without the amendment and if anybody wants to file a resolution asking for more details on everything else we can take that issue up separately call a question Mr President excuse me can we can we we can roll call what the roll call on now

she's the clerk's going to read it as amended right now clerk the amendment was that a review be made of all of the Opera projects and funding and and that a presentation be made of all Opera funding in the finance committee as to where we stand and that would be amended to number 10 yes correct on top of number 10 put that on Finance on on the motion has been made and second vote

call on the amendment council is Kadeem yes Dion yes har sure affirmative yes Herrera yes Pony yes reposo yes Samson president Comm no okay motion carries M clerk whereas a number of high-profile lawsuits have been filed against the city and where as outside council is often hired to represent the Law Department with these matters now therefore be it resolved that the committee on finance meet an executive

session with the city administrator Corporation Council and director of financial services to provide an update regarding the financial impact and timeline of these cases motion to adopt second second motion to adopt as a m second on the motion C you wish to speak I just pretty clear and simple if we have to go into executive session I don't want to know details of a case or where it stands but how many lawsuits do

we have are we taking care of it handling it in-house are we going out house uh to an outside attorney because these are Big lawsuits coming and I would just like to know a little bit about what we are looking at from a financial standpoint motion to adopt second motion to adopt as M second it all in favor I see the president opposed not with the intent counselor I am not a fan of executive session that's

why I oppose it there's a lot of other ways of getting our information I don't think the council should be meeting session I don't ever remember doing it so I only remember executive session once when we built this building and we had problems with the roof and I think Jack madas had asked for executive on one thing after that I've never seen an executive session but I think that this

is a question for the legal department if we should have it in executive session or not because I'm not an attorney maybe my colleague to the right could advise us or Corporation counsel could advis us I don't want to spill the beans on what cases what and who's what and I'm not a fan of session and that was way before my time when Jack mcis I'll take a retainer and I could give

some information we did go to an executive session with K KP La recent couple of years ago and the chief police chief staff and the chief yeah yeah I don't recall but yeah oh well I think that's a decision that can be made at a later date it's been maybe motion carries Madam clerk item number 12 is the police Chief's report adop second motion to adopt as a remain and seconded all in favor I any

opposed motion carries have an application for the renewal of an auto repair shop license for Richard torus at 428 Pleasant Street motion to adopt motion to adopt as remain seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries a number of claims motion refer to Corporation councel motion refer to Corporation counc me second all in favor I any opposed motion cares have a drain layer application on behalf of rmt

excavation motion to approve second motion to approve as made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have minutes of the meeting of the city council and organization of government held on January 2nd motion to approve second motion to approve that made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion cares the communication from the Taunton River Stewardship Council and their annual

report rep in um outlining a the need for a delegate position moot to accept place on file second motion to accept and place on file has remain in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries a communication from City residents regarding the charter recommendations from the special Charter Review Committee motion to accept place on file motion to accept and place on file as a me and seconded all in favor I

any opposed motion carries um next at the request of the council we have the bank Street om proposal motion to wave the rules second motion to wave the rules has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed opposed president opposed motion carries roll call let's get it straight for purpose I have a question I have a couple questions for the city administrator if you guys want

to just vote on it you can vote on it but what's your question C you want to just tell us what the question yeah I got a number of them I have a question about a rever a clause what happens if this doesn't happen What happens if he doesn't get funding what happens uh if he doesn't meet his deadlines yeah that's why we should probably not raise it from the table today because in F of

the councelor he is newly elected has not been briefed on a lot of stuff I mean these these questions Mr President could be answered easily I'm sure the administration can answer them I just have a couple questions not a problem motion to wave the rules has been made and seconded roll call Council kadim yes he has questions ask yes heart yes Kilby yes Pereira yes Pony yes propo yes Samson yes president

yes I don't want to the vote if he has questions that's not

fair Mr President c c Cy thank you uh mistaken and I appreciate the fact if you don't have any of the some of the answers to these questions question number one that I have is this um has the current buyer made any indication to you that he is going to be going for a tiff or a tie if he buys this piece of real estate yes yes yes meaning he is

going to go for a tiff or a tie he has made an indication to me that he's going to go for a tiff or a tie okay you didn't get any into any indication how long that's going to be or anything along those lines no the terms of that have not not been negotiated not is is the purchase subject to him obtain closing him getting a tiff or a tie I

don't believe so no there's no condition that I'm aware there's so there's no contig so no pns has been signed because the order that's before us is going to allow the mayor incorporation councel to prepare a pns to sign to move forward with Mr malcomber on this purchase right that's correct okay so there's a long process that we need to you're going to go through before you sign a pns here

correct all right was an appraisal done on this on this building at all I believe there were several appraisals over years done in this building but for for this specific RFP that was responded to was there an appraisal done I believe there was I don't believe there was I think Mr said I'm sorry the most recent one I believe was done by RDA prior to them transferring ownership to the city when

they bought it from the city four years ago or something was that in 2015 it was more recent than 2015 2015 was the assessment by uh Stark AR okay uh regarding what the cost estimated cost would be in $ 2015 to uh rehabilitate the Armory okay um so we don't know we don't know what the as is appraise value of this property is right now in my understanding that is zero zero that's what I've been told

can't be Zer it has no salable value in its current condition that's what the stock appraisal suggested information that's due to the fact the cost for Rehabilitation versus the current I'm sorry with all due respect I'm sorry this doesn't make any sense to me right how could a building be worth zero if the building is is ready to be knocked down there's still a land value it's

appraisal 101 the cost the cost to knock it down would probably offset the land value that's how it could happens well then that's not how the appraisal Market works the the the appraisal Market works that you have three different costs of value you have an income approach which it doesn't generate you got a market approach and you got a reconciled value approach all these three Market

approaches which is the same thing appraisers uh our appraiser does to determine the tax Factor every single year indicates the property's worth something so if we and I know you've been put on the spot here Mr Aken today and I totally respect that I would much rather know that we don't know what the apprais value is because we're all speaking in hypothetical terms right now it can't be worth zero and if it's worth

zero I want to question the fact that it's worth zero because some of my colleagues have walked through that building I haven't I don't know if newly elected counselor har and seat 3 has but some of these councilors sitting in this room in the prior Council walked through the building and have told me personally that this building isn't as bad as it the pictures in the far of a Herald News

tell you it is so um for it to be worth zero doesn't pass the straight face test to me that just doesn't make any sense to me all right I just I just want to point out the stock appraisal that was done in 2015 what is a stock appraisal St arit an architect determine the appraised value of a property the architect gave the value B gave a value well I'm sorry an estimate of what the

repairs would be and based upon that my understanding is that the offset is comes out to zero knock the thing down I think the removal of whatever the debris was worth more than the land all right but generally speaking just so everybody's aware an architect doesn't determine the Asis value of a piece of real estate I agree with that's not how it works so so if you'd like I can go to my

office and get with the the you know find the uh the supporting documentation if I have it if we could recess for maybe 30 minutes I could probably do that we don't it's up to my colleagues about it but I'm just saying it the building has value to it and if we and if we don't know what the appraise value is that's okay all right if some of us

know it great but I don't know it and I'm not necessarily going to cast my vote on it I'm just asking a follow-up question I think it's valid because if the building's worth 575 and selling it for two even though there's an RFP process we do have the ability to reject the proposal so it just doesn't make any sense to me so I think the fact that um a number of armories similar to this one

have been sold for a dollar or given to uh different Developers for development around the Commonwealth uh sort of supports the idea that there there's no salable value um obviously we're getting more than that yeah well my esteemed colleague sent me over a copy of the appraisal which I'll look at in a minute but I have another question in the uh proposal that was responded to by Mr

mcumber it says that but would be open to mix rate project it says we plan to redevelop the Amory into 37 market rate Apartments but would be open to a mixed rate project with 20% of the units being designated affordable so what kind of guarantee does the city have that 20% of the units will be affordable and what does the word affordable mean so from what I understand Mr mumber

has come well I was here he actually came down before the council prior to the change over uh and represented that Not only was he committed to Affordable he was Al also committed to a veteran's preference obviously not a veteran's guarantee uh and I believe that um his intent with the affordability piece uh is to take advantage of hdp uh in order to do that if he work to make them affordable

um I don't know that what we're talking about is some sort of subjective uh standard on his part I think he's going to go affordable based on a percentage of existing market rate uh housing in the in the area um so obviously affordable I think means something different depending on where you are depending on what the average uh what the average cost of housing is in that area I guess my question is is the city

going to have any kind of protection I think there has to be I mean so if somebody's going to represent to us that they're going to do a percentage of affordable there's got to be accountability for that there's there's oversight I think that would certainly be part of any pns that we sign point of information conty to um there is nothing in writing there is no guarantee on that it was a he would

be open to it secondly he recently went to the historic commission's meeting he gave a lengthy presentation discussing many things and in that presentation the word affordable never was used never came up all the everything was referred to as market rate during that presentation with that I yield thank you6 thank you Mr President um and I'm not trying to make this longer than it needs to be but I I have some concerns

so uh in his proposal it says that he has he's relying on essentially 13.6 million if you don't know the answer it's okay uh $ 13.6 million of different kinds of sources he's putting uh which is pretty much probably the building value the developers Equity of $750,000 and then the rest is on hjp federal money home partnership money Tob determined money uh Bank debt probably going to get a mortgage from a local

bank for $5.1 million if for some reason he is unable to get financing after he closes on it are we right back back to where we are today are you going to draft language in the contract that says if for some reason the buyer is unable to collect get its necessary financing the city reserves the right to get the property back to dispose of it Al other otherwise if we go down this road

so practicing law I've only done real EST estate law for about a dozen years uh and I've never seen a pns that didn't have some financing commitment language in it right I think that would have to be part of it as part of the city's obligation to make sure that he has the ability to um to follow through on on his commitments one of those being the commitment to get the appropriate

financing to do the project if we sell the building to somebody that can't actually see the project through I think that's a really a terrible precedent to set and just bad practice um so in speaking with attorney Thomas uh who has been working on this project uh with us um I think there's uh you know we're going to follow all the the best practices which would include a commitment uh paragraph in that pns to

make sure he has the ability to do the project but if for some reason he doesn't he gets his deposit back and we're right back to where we are today the question is more along the lines ofc closes on it like all these other schools that we have that we're taking back or a couple of them not all of them that we take back and there's there's an issue that he doesn't get a grant is is

this going to be all subject to him getting his grants before he closes I I don't think he could do that right I think he has to be able to close on the property before he gets the some of these grants I would I would guess this is me speculating at this point um so I don't think we can force him to get all the grant money to close on a

property you know to grant money on a property that he doesn't yet own you know as a condition of closing uh I do think that um whatever we draft into the purchas and sale agreement is going to have responsibilities that he's going to have to follow through on including um contract language that survives the pns that's going to require him to to do a certain kind of project okay um I don't know if any of

my I know you all have been here so I don't have you know I just wanted to ask some questions here um I don't even know if it's appropriate uh in the sense of it's probably uncommon probably wrong but I guess my question is should the C it could the council accept this sub subject to to approve the administration go to a purchase and sales agreement subject to the city council reviewing the terms of

the purchase and sales agreement because I was asked I was asked I asked a number of questions and with all due respect to Mr Aken wasn't prepared to answer this tonight and and his his opinion might change or his answers might change on commitment and financing and grants and matching grants and all these other things may change so I guess my question is could the city council agree to sell the property subject to

the city council mutually agreeing with the terms of the purchase and sales agreement just as a separation of poers guy I think that would be significantly beyond the city council's purview but if that's what the city council wants to do I think we would do our best to uh present a purchase and sale agreement that uh is in line with best practices we lose all of our I mean I

don't want to sit here and have like a discussion about Powers the power of the city council is real estate that's one of the only Powers the city council has to dispose of real estate so I I I guess I'm just throwing it out there for the purposes of discussion tonight if the council wants to sell the re the real estate which the city does a terrible job of selling real estate I mean we

sold buildings pnss is just walked out of the building like nobody even like they're gone can't find them like they they just disappeared we can't find them anywhere they they don't exist right so um I I guess I'm just trying to say is do we have that ability and I I'll throw that flare up in the air for the my colleagues to discuss that tonight if that's what we can and can't do if we

can't do it I'm sure our colleague in seat1 will tell us we can't do it but if we can we can if we can't we can't but I I would like I don't want to lose our leverage here as a council when it comes to liquidating this I agree it needs to be sold okay the city has done a terrible job job of managing real estate for hundreds of years the police station is

one I mean we can go sit here and talk about this for decades should have sold that thing 30 years ago but there was politics involved and it never happens now we're sitting on it and there's mushrooms growing out of them but I had sentimental value because I walked I used to walk up those days and play flaw hockey when I was a kid but nobody else sat here and talked about that in 1990

whatever it was so we don't have the ability to manage our own real estate never mind managing this building my current consensus right now and Mr Aken the city doesn't have the ability is what you're saying to maintain preserve and and and and bring this back to the life that it was at before correct so just so I'm clear on the question what you're asking is do we have this do we have the ability to take

it from the condition it's in now rehabilitate it and then maintain it from here on out right no we do not we do not okay I mean you could take all the money out of Leen street right not not doing what does that mean I I heard my colleague say that what does that mean the DCM facility on Le Street yeah what does it we're committing arpa money to rehabilitate that that building that

that facility and part of that is is is going to create some facilities that hopefully will drive down uh the cost of trash allow us to be more efficient in how we process certain things as well as uh store and maintain our vehicles and equipment in a better facility so there's does that have anything to do with the Amory though well that money is committed to lcen Street if you want to

take that money out of Len Street and put it at the into the Armory I suppose there's an argument there but there's really no extra money other than that oh so what you're saying is you're take you're you're budgeting millions of dollars of Opera money to to fix lewison Street and the only other option we will have as a council or you as the Administration has is fix leis Street or

fix the omry what has more priorities is that what you're saying that's pretty much what we're saying okay I understand all right um I yield for now I wanted to throw that up and see what my colleagues have to say about point of information Mr President sure C Seth can you expand on what you think beyond the council perview expand so I mean my understanding is that um appropriation is is the major uh job of

the council I think that once the council begins to weigh in on things that would really be within the life of the legal department uh negotiating pnss or approving pns is I just think it's a it's a creep towards a mixing of responsibilities okay thank you I you thank you counc Council C counc Samson uh so um councel thank you council president Council P brought up some really good points um about

funding although grants when it comes to Grants you're not going to get grants on a building that you could own you can't say can you throw me some money in a building that I don't quite own yet but I might own so depending on the vote so the grants so you have to um own the property get the property and then apply for the grant so I do like your idea

very much so of um putting some language in there that if we could do that but I I have a question and while you're sitting here we got a letter today from the historical commission I got to had it on my desk and they said in the letter um they wrote their opinion on the building and it said that the pro the proposed residential conversion does not meet the requirements of the preservation deed restrictions on this

property so um and I just seen this just now when we came down here does that mean that we by selling this and doing for residential we'd be doing something wrong with the deed I haven't seen the letter uh I haven't watched the the commission meeting yet um so I can't speak to that I'm sorry oh so I don't know if any of my councils L have seen

it but it was I I we literally it just came on our desk today and I just seen that so I guess that's I mean if if it doesn't say specifically what it is about the deed restriction that it doesn't comply with I think it's hard to speculate um but I think I think uh I mean one of the things that that I have on my list of things to do is is to

watch I mean I try to watch the meetings generally of different boards and committees that's one of them um and uh that would help me understand what the possible uh issues are I I I I I have been on the thing that we I are toward that building um and I am no President Joe Kamar who was in these structures all the time and it just it looked

pretty bad to me I mean if you can see the Ro and you can see the floors all the way down it's it's got some beautiful pieces to it but I I I I mean I think if we can sell this and and maintain the Integrity of the building and keep it great I just you know there were some really good points brought up tonight so if we could you know put some

language in there about that that would be pretty pretty smart um and then find out if if we can even convert it this is just the opinion that we got tonight so um with that I'll yield my colleag thank you counc counc C1 counc uh thank you Mr President so I just wanted to you know make a statement that my colleague had mentioned he asked the question as to

whether or not um I guess there was any feasibility to operate the building and things of that nature um my colleague was in the mayor's office for a whole five minutes so I would ask you rhetorically the question when you were sitting there if it was a priority could it get done of course was a rhetorical question thank you for answering it so there is but it just comes at an expense

right so it depends on what your priorities are right so you're going to if you can't necessarily fund it you're going to have to take away from something else so you just got to identify is this a priority for the city I would suggest that you know the building in terms of operational expenses it's been in the budget up until I don't know 20 2014 2015 um was maintained and funded by the

city budget right the operation the expense the electric and and all that the building itself to me when I tored it um I thought it was going to be in worse shape than what it was if if you're not familiar with going into a Bandon property and things of that nature then going into this building and and touring it you would say oh my God it is in bad shape I personally don't I

expected to be in worse shape than than what it was um that being said it is going to cost at least $10 million to renovate the building and get it to where it needs to be now the question comes back to funding we've got CBC funds we've got potentially other grants I know talking to the mayor he say he he's tried to get some grants there's no grants that are currently available um but it comes back

down to you know what does that building have for potential what do we want to see with it do we want to make sure that's it incorporates municiple use you know we talked about all these organizations um you know from my standpoint it should be the Hub of Economic Development and culture things that we have been promoting lately we have been talking about that there is no reason why it can't be a mixed use in

terms of that where we collect rent I know uh one of my colleagues had mentioned the veterans going over there so there are opportunities but with that you got to do a cost benefit analysis and see you know does the benefits outweigh the cost associated with you know what we're going to do away with other um areas of of the city and I've always said that you know the city has

not maintained its buildings um we don't do a good enough job of preventative maintenance um to maintain these buildings we talked about you know DPW we talked about uh the fire comment here tonight we talked about potentially doing something with the Stanley uh fire station you know Central fire station there's some things going on so there's there's a lot going on in terms of that

but uh at the end of the day from my standpoint I I I I don't know that I can support giving it away for more housing you look at the the Tiff boards everything that comes before us is a is a tie it's you know we've got more developments coming in and and now to throw the um the bank Street Army and have that to be used for additional housing I don't know that I support that

I I've said that from from the beginning that that was one of my concerns that I that I had um but I do want to see the building preserved um it is part of our our Skyline and it should be part of our Skyline you go on to the uh City's website you know you've got the uh the video when you first get there it's it's prominent it's one of the uh you know

drone footages that you see is is the bank Street Army I think we need to maintain that so it it comes back down to I think we're all on the same page of making sure that that building preserved now now the discussion is do we want to put it into the hands of a private developer and hope that the developer uh maintains that and um even going forward long term you know once

it's once it's out of our hands it's out of our hands right that that's the concern or will want to keep keep it as part of a municipal asset that we've had and maintain it internally I for one as it currently stands if we're going to take a vote tonight um would be a vote to make sure that the the city continues to own and operate that building that that's that's my take without a yield

thank you counc counc C five C proo I think that any developer is going to get historic tax credits they're going to try to go get his historic tax credits and unfortunately the only way you can get those tax credits or if you have a tiff or a tie other than that you can't get them correct so that puts the city in a difficult situation um but there are other grants as a matter of

fact I believe you're going to be meeting or the mayor is going to be meeting with the historic commission um chair or maybe some members about them getting their certification for National correct commission that will open up the door for them to get more funding they can apply for CPC funding you're not going to get CPC funding for Lewiston Street and they are apples and oranges I

get that there's you know a balancing act that has to be done but let the historic commission put it in there their hands they can get the same kind of funding that they get that anybody else is going to get and it'll be for the city and you can rent those places out look what they did with the Superior Court in Tartan lots of those are rented out to different nonprofits Etc you can

have transitional housing there's so much you could do there and I just think that sometimes we want the easy way out just sell it and we don't have to worry about it that's not fair that's the last historic building that the city of Fall River owns the last one and I personally think it's worth saving for the community and I agree with my colleague in seat number one for cultural things for activities we all

sit here and talk how much the Youth of our city means to us and what do we do for the Youth what have we done for the Youth you know besides well my colleague in C8 is having a fit over there because she did the whole um program for youth which we've done but what else have we done for youth it's like this is a good opportunity it's a good opportunity so

I'm ready to take a vote Mr President with that I yield than you con c 2 there's no one else to speak or anyone else speak after c c 2 has the floor Okay C SE 2 um so Mr McCumber stated that approximately $600,000 would be necessary to secure the roof put in Windows do the pointing put in the eting system once that would be done that building is now secure no more damage is going to

occur now you can start the process of moving forward and creating whatever it is is going to be created he himself said it's going to take him at least five years to complete his project so you know nothing's happening tomorrow but the fact of the matter is the funding is there through the CPC I hope to secure the roof put in new windows put in the heating system do the pointing my

contention is and know I'm not an architect I don't own a construction company or any of those things however I would be hard pressed to believe that if we did those four things you're not going to give that building value and that more people if we fail if we can't move forward at that point in time the building's clean it's secure it has a value now I find I'm hardpressed to think that more

people wouldn't come forward at that point because the groundwork will have been laid and the last thing I would like to say is well not the last thing I I I'll hold off on that one right the second cuz I'm also thinking you know there's tons of rental space in there to put towards the the maintenance you have financial institutions who once that was up and operating again probably would commit

dollars every year that all of that money could go into maintaining the building I think it's a viable building I think it can it can maintain itself with the right people spearheading it and my last comment is a handful of people save the church a community should be able to save the armory and with that I yield thank you counc thank you Seth thank you very much thank you call question c seat six Council py

yeah so um you know I got to be completely honest with you I'm I'm really torn about this um I know I what has asked the question when we're I was running for city council again what I thought about this and I said I think the city does a terrible job of selling real estate we should sell it um and we should get rid of it um but I am

concerned more on what the use is going to be I don't I'm going to take this strong position I don't think the city should be holding on to this and trying to maintain and preserve it because we can't afford it we can't afford to preserve it we can't afford to keep the heat on we can't do it that's what they're saying to us I mean and and for whatever it's worth I want to just

remind us and we'll talk about this when we have one of the next updates I mean this city is so strapped for cash right now you use $7.8 million of money onetime money to balance your current budget that you're in right now I mean like that needs to be a thought in our minds and I'm trying to convince myself why we should keep this building because for for me the economics just don't make

any sense we can sit here and continuously talk about how great it's going to be to have community centers how great it's going to be to bring back WWE wrestling to the building like we can sit here and talk about all the great things that the building can do but how can we afford to pay for it nobody is giving me any concrete answers on how they're going to do it nobody on

this council is going to be able to say we're going to commit a million dollars for the next 10 years in a kind of a any kind of a cost analysis on what we're going to do with this so what I love a building for our veterans of course this city council has been on record for years supporting our veterans with the building that they have across from the park we we have spent millions of

dollars on on those buildings do they need something more of course they do do we need a bigger Community Center absolutely we need a lot of things right we need we need we need more people in the clerk's office we need more people in traffic we need more people in Parks we want all these great things but how are we going to pay for it and I personally don't think putting housing here is the best alternative

alternative either I don't believe that we're going to make this a housing uh housing unit where they're going to get a tiff and collect income and rent for the minute it's occupied and then they don't have to pay taxes I think that's wrong too so like I don't think this the concept is fair I don't think it's Equitable and there's only been one one buyer on this on this on this right now

so the decision that I my my vote on this is going to be um I want actually probably make a motion I'm just thinking this on the flight because I wasn't prepared to talk about this tonight is I I want to if I can reject the current RFP and urge the administration to go back out for another RFP to see if there is other potential buyers in uses because this Council and

the prior council did a heck of a job bringing this to light and the community all came and spoke about it I just don't think housing is the ideal thing here I think a community event is great but I don't think the city should own it so maybe I'm having my cake and eating it too here I don't know but I just don't think it makes logical economic sense for us to move forward with this leaving

it here and and doing what we're planning to do it just doesn't to me doesn't make sense so I I don't know if I can but I'll make a motion uh to reject the current RFP that is before the city council and urge the administration to um put another RFP out to see if there's additional uses or buyers for the property and urge the administration if they can to select um put an RFP out for

a real estate broker or brokerages to see if they could work to liquidate the property and get a better return that's in the form of a motion Mr President do you you I do and that's a form of a motion Mr pres there's a motion on the floor there's no motion on the floor right now I thought there was a made by councelor I made a motion to move the

sale which was a second I seconded it to move to sell the property yeah I made a motion you're going to we're going to vote on it through uh through the president Madam clerk yeah could you clarify we can vote on you want to get this right there's a motion to wave the rules the motion to sell was prior to postponing debate until now so there was a motion on the floor no was that by councelor

Dion from the tables what was the last question that we had was a motion to approve the sale correct was that what was lifted from the table it was lifted from the table at the beginning of the meeting right there was a motion to u to vote to sell the property okay motion to vote but then there was a motion to postpone yes all debate until after item number 18 corre where we're

at so I'll make a motion to sell the property there's a second and we'll have a rollot we already have a motion and I'm waiting to see if this one gets a second motion there be no second current Mr President I don't know if it's uh did appropriate to deal with that motion or this motion I I don't know that question the motion that counil party made did not get a second

okay okay so let's go is there another motion I second before you make another motion the two other indidual two other individuals that would like to speak on this Council C1 counc you had your hand up and Council H is going to speak afterwards thank you I know the argument is that we can't afford the expenses to run the building do we have a number I have never received that number so I

know we're saying that we can't afford it so if we're going to go on that argument that we can't afford to operate the building then please tell me what it is because I don't know what the number is what I will tell you is that I'm looking at the uh fy2 24 budget and under facilities and maintenances for buildings and grounds electricity for I'm assuming for all the buildings at

least government center and at least DBW since it's under there is $250,000 for electric there is no way that electric for Bank Street Armory is going to be close to 250,000 right so okay that's that's that heat natural gas 14 5,000 are we saying that we're 145,000 for the bank Street Army I would say no so even if we did that we're talking about you know $400,000 for two large buildings that are operated essentially

247 versus the bank Street Armory I don't know I mean if we're going on that saying that we can't afford to heat and electric on a building it's going to cost us $10 million to repair it and it's simple maintenance at that point right so if you budget in C Capital items your budgeting preventative maintenance it's not that expensive moving forward we don't pay taxes not quite sure where that argument is coming

in from so it's it's not I'm sure it's not insignificant but it's not a significant dollar amount we're not talking about millions of dollars to operate a Bank Street Army so I think that's got to be right off the table like if that's what we're afraid to take a vote on is because it's going to be too expensive to move forward to maintain it I mean property insurance is

what it is like I it's it's not that significant um point of information I could be incorrect but I believe there's a notation somewhere that I saw that referenced the Armory being included in the facilities budget we can get that information yeah I'm not all I know is is that let's just call it even if we call it $100,000 a year is is is that what we're calling significant expenses to operate a

building of that size in in a $300 million budget I just that argument to me should be thrown out the window I I just don't understand that that's I just want to throw that out there um outside of that my my stance and support on this on this project itself as it currently stands um Remains the Same I I think there is maybe maybe there's not grants available currently but I think we need to have a

a real conversation as to what what's the vision and what's the plan for that that building so you know and if we're committed to that then we can find ways to to be able to fund that that's just it we we need to want to support that Vision right that's all it is it's it's about a vision and executing the vision that's that's my stance on that so with

that I yield there you go it's not going to happen overnight right just as the apartments won't happen overnight either councel C3 Council hot thank you Mr President I believe um Council aony asked Mr a about the expenses of how much that building would cost to renovate he said 15 million and then expenses after that to maintain the building you we don't have it uh the city does not have the finances to do

this um I think this has become in a very highly emotional issue for me it is I it is definitely an emotional issue for me I've been in and out of the that Army for years um going watching basketball playing there uh going to events there it's a it's a it had its day it had its moment it's just we cannot afford it the city cannot afford it right now and I agreement with Mr

Kilby uh to um have uh Mr mumber buy the property and and and at least conserve the uh you know the beauty of the building and and and keep the the restrictions in place um so I I'm I'm ready to vote for it tonight um ready to sell it and I yield thank you C CC1 counc thank you uh M calling and C2 did point out so the the the note is right

at the beginning of the uh facilities of Maintenance that it includes Electric heat for the building so it's already budgeted so if we're going to sit here and we're going to say that we can't afford it okay so here's the situation we're going to have a conversation about financial positions that are going to be $100,000 right so let's be consistent across the board and say that we can't

afford it okay let's stop saying that we can afford this we can afford that we can afford this but we can't afford when it's convenient because we don't want to do something right again it comes back to what our priorities the position that's coming before us is $100,000 can we afford $100,000 yes we can I'm sorry I just heard that we can't afford this building right so again it comes back

down to priorities so stop telling about the affordability it's about a vision and whether or not we want to do it and where the priorities now if you tell us that the bank Street if if the argument is that the bank Street Army is not a priority I will accept that okay because that may be a legitimate opinion from the administration that the bank Street Army is not a priority I can live with that

to say that we can't afford it and that we've got all these other requests coming in that require additional increases to the budget and we we talk about $100,000 for this Finance position there's going to be increases down the road right 3% Coler adjustments okay there's going to be pension associated with it there's potential healthare so add another $155,000 on top of the $100,000 year over year over year right

that so the affordability piece needs to just kind of go out the window it comes back to a priority you can listen C C3 can shake his head he can but all we're saying is is that we can't afford the maintenance when you renovate a house right and then you go in in its basic maintenance it's basic maintenance it's upkeep it's not significant in terms of budgets so I'm going to tell you that

it's going to be less than $100,000 to heat and make sure that the electric and actually it's already in the budget it's even less than that maybe it goes up a little bit because you have a little bit more heat to make sure that it that it's maintained there's Electric in there I walk through it we're paying for it so we're paying for it now so the argument let's just be consistent with what the

argument is with that I yield thank you hold on c c STS so I I I want to revert the attention back to this letter that we have today that we're going to take a vote on um we don't even know and the administration didn't know and no fault of his only didn't know this letter came but that if this property the requirements for the residential conversion um is uh it's not in compliance with the deed

restrictions the preservation deed restrictions on this so I I hesitate to uh take a vote on that tonight if if we don't even have a legal opinion if we can even sell that for residential or not so that's my first statement and I don't know if anybody knows anything about that or I've seen that in the letter but that's a concern for me the second um um I think to my counselor in

seat1 has always been on the standpoint of um not really wanting to sell this building but the Administration has taken a stance I don't think the Administration has taken any other stance with they're not investing in keeping this property they're their priorities are elsewhere and so by not selling the property on the other hand um their priority is not to maintain the property so then do we you know is it

going to sit there because it's not you know there's so many um but then we go on the argument that you you know you st can we not afford we can't afford it well we like opr in free you get a building and you get a job and everybody gets what they want it just we don't have the money for that in the city I mean we got Diamond Coming on board like

we just we're not going to be able to afford everything so something has to give but I I I am really concerned after reading this letter tonight um from the historical commission that they're saying that this the use of the property for residential conversion is against the deed restriction and and we don't I'm not comfortable because we don't have a legal opinion and that just came right before me

so you know for Force to vote on that tonight I you know I don't want to vote on something illegal so with that I yield there you go con three Council hot no I did not I didn't counc C4 Council kby yes I I mean I'm again I'm ready to vote on this um I mean I I I don't like to make predictions that uh are negative but um I'm convinced that a next

Administration is going to deal with this the Pres Administration Council Kadeem always mentions with all due respect that we have our role we're not nine Mayors here okay there it's clear it's very very clear that this Administration has no plans to invest I'm hearing $15 million that $10 million is already five years five years old there is no commitment on the part of this Administration to do anything with that

building I'm trying to be really practical here so it's going to take a new Administration who has a commitment to be able to do something with that building and keep it I don't like making negative predictions but I'm going to drive by there in about two years and it's I'm going to see a same dilapidated even worse a building so that that's that's you know Council gine I me he says it all the time I

don't Cross Lanes we got to know our role and our role is to make these tough decisions and and and the administration does not want want to perform a rehab and a reuse of the building that's it so I I've said I've been talking about this issue for months and months and months now I just have a firm belief that the right thing to do is to sell this building tonight I

really really do so with all the needs we have the nice nine c cuts that we hear potentially happening uh you know Reliance on one-time money and you know upkeep of the building Council gem saying $100,000 I'm heing for administration $500,000 I mean if if if my wife and I are looking at a new home uh and and she says I don't I don't want to buy it Brad I'm

not going to I'm not going to buy it I'm not going to buy the home um we're not going to buy it we're not going to rehab it that's that's a fact and and it's just going to you know I just disagree on the shape of the building as well it's deplorable it's sad to see it's really really sad to see and um I you know I hope if if if I'll be

the first one to say if this vote does not go through to sell a building and I said it many many times Council C president will be done in a minute okay take time C I'll be right there I'll be the first one with you guys to push the administ a to do something with it okay but I I don't know we'll see it's not our decision I thank you I agree Council

our decision is to take the vote tonight take the next ad's point the point that he's trying to make is that this Administration has no interest in right continue to move forward with that building I've said my piece I get it I'm just saying can we move the question Council seat six has a quick follow yeah just just my only thing is I don't agree with the what the current plan of what

the exit strategy of the use of this building is right now that is my opinion I think the building should be either sold or repurposed but I do not think housing is the ideal scenario for it that's my opinion based on the information that I have available to me today I'll vote accordingly we can call the question I just don't have we're all talking in hyperbole nobody knows nothing that's the reality we know that

theill buildings budgeted for $100,000 in electric and all this other stuff we got a crew over here that's sitting here saying oh well maybe it's 15 maybe it's 10 maybe it's eight nobody knows nobody knows I haven't seen anything it's not in this packet that I just received for the very first time today does anybody else here have any idea how much it's going to cost all depends on who you

talk to just like this appraisal that says this is worth zero I mean it's like it's a subjective opinion and it's I don't agree with the use I'm not going to support this based on the fact that I don't agree with with the current intended use of what the exit strategy here is to make 36 Apartments move the question I so I yield thank you okay let's just refresh and bring everybody

back to where we were before Madam clerk would you tell everyone what they're voting on what the motion is and what was seconded I believe it's to sell the building to correct sell the building okay so that so we would be adopting we would be adopting the order authorizing the mayor to execute a purchase and sales agreement for the sale of the bank Street Armory at 72 Bank Street requires 2/3 vote I'm sorry

2/3 vote Yes roll call roll call on the motion to adopt the order council is kadim no Dion no Hart yes Kilby yes Pereira no Ponte no Roso no Samson yes president CRA no motion fails Madam

clerk the next matter before you is a communication from the mayor and uh licensing board considering the adoption of new fees relative to the farmer Brewer Distillery pouring permits motion refer to committee ordinance first committee on or legislation has been made in second it all in favor I any opposed motion carries committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January

22nd voted unanimously to recommend the accompany proposed ordinance accompanied by an emergency Preamble be passed through first reading second reading pass to be enrolled and pass to be ordained motion to adopt emergency Preamble second motion to adopt emergency pram has been made and seconded on emergency Preamble roll call adoption of the Preamble councilor is Kadeem yes Dion yes Hart yes Kilby yes

Pereira yes PTI yes propo yes Samson yes president C yes motion pass pass all readings made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries the committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January 22nd voted unanimously to recommend the accompanying proposed ordinance be passed through first reading this is a miscellaneous traffic ordinance motion pass through first first reading second

motion to pass with first reading has a made seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries the committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January 22nd voted unanimously to recommend the accompanying proposed ordinance be passed through first reading this is all night parking of commercial vehicles motion to pass the first reading motion to pass the first reading who Mee in

second and all in favor I I any opposed motion carries Comm ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January 26 second voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying proposed ordinance be passed through first reading say prohibited parking due to impeding emergency vehicles motion to pass through first reading second motion to pass through first reading as made seconded all in favor I any opposed motion

carries committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January 22nd voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying proposed ordinance be passed through first reading these are amendments to the salary schedules for EMS local 1202 ask me Personnel motion to pass through first reading motion to pass with first reading has remain in seconded all in favor I I any opposed

motion carries the committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January 22nd voted unanimously to recommend that the accompaning proposed ordinance be passed through first reading these are amendments to the salary schedules for contract personnel and EMS and the Law Department motion to pass the first reading motion to pass the first reading has been made and second it all in favor I I any

opposed motion carries the committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January 22nd voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying proposed ordinance be passed through first reading these are panhandling restrictions motion to pass through first reading second motion pass to First reading has remain in seconded on the motion Council C6 Council par you have your hand up yes I do thank you Mr

President I don't really I mean I I respect what the administration is trying to do here but this doesn't even like I don't even understand what this means can help somebody help me understand I think I can try to clarify and overall I think the difference with this is that there's a difference between someone with a sign asking for a donation and there's a difference someone with a sign approaching someone

that's more intimidating to say give me a donation or give me monation May sure I'm sorry to interrupt you yeah this um the constitutionality was researched uh by Corporation Council and they're trying to obviously make some type of ordinance um that will you know stand muster I guess the chairman so it's based on Public Safety it's based on um you know conduct on the part of the panhandler that is uh a nuisance that

breaks laws that um so um it's an attempt but it's definitely a difficult issue everyone's B so I guess my my my my question is we we we created our own version of the definition of the word panhandling in this resolution is what we did and then we which doesn't even make sense and then the second thing is we are now going to authorize our police officers to go then issue

citations uh between uh a after when the Sun sets what is it from Sunset to Sunrise or sunrise to sunset after that they can't approach they can't approach this this doesn't make any sense to me the whole thing doesn't make sense coun sense I I understand that we're trying to have a a safety and I I applaud the administration for one point they're trying to make sure that the residents who are sitting in their cars

at red lights feel safe correct but do we have the police Manpower that we're going to sit in front of a median all day long and we're going to be given $50 fines to people who are panhandling like do we have that Manpower do we have that ability to do it are we going to do an ordinance here that we're going to pass that may or may not be in we're going to enforce it

temporarily it's just like I understand I think this needs a little bit more work if I'm being completely honest with you uh with the ordinance committee than than what is before us but like the definition of panhandling isn't even consistent with what the actual definition of panhandling is so I I just don't I don't understand so maybe the chair or somebody was at the meeting yesterday I

didn't get this par can explain to me what this is I yield thank you you cc3 counc thank you Mr Mr President yeah I um I'm in the ordinance committee and that particular piece Mr Ponte uh was was something that I questioned that it had no bite to it as far as the uh law police officers enforcing it so um that's pretty much the only problem I had with with the ordinance but

everything else I I agree with um but uh it is what it is I as far as I'm concerned I'm going to support it but I am going to more than likely obviously talk to the Chief and see if there's going to be any opportunity to um you know put some bite to it and you know I know you're smiling and laughing but um sense well you know I I

said it didn't make sense either so uh my yield thank you thank you counc counc seat six counc vice president just to uh clarify a little bit I did talk to the chief today on another matter and he asked how this went in ordinance how and I told him you know I just I wish that it was a little bit stronger but because of the constitutionality of it this is

what it could be and he has plans to do something about this with the police department right off the get-go he was interested he says well it's a start for us to be able to have so I think you're going to see action from the police department on this issue I mean my concern is that some of the panhandles are on busy streets I'm so afraid that they walk in the middle of the street

I'm so afraid that someday somebody's going to get hit by a car and I mean we can't tell people not to stand in that particular place but at least we can say you can't approach a car so it's not like you know maybe they'll do some stings around that and let people know they can't do this or people who are coming and then they see them driving to chot into a single family

home and they're holding a sign saying homeless and they're lying that they can do something about it right now they can't do anything about it so it's a start unless you want to do like other places have done and put bricks and stuff all over the place and which I don't think was right either but with that I yield thank you counc C Sam so I was there at the committee last night

and I um I don't agree that it doesn't have bite to it I think that it does I the police chief had said that um they can enforce it I think that the there's a clear difference so when you go to New York City and uh there are people sitting on the ground and you know here change in the cup or whatever that would be legal in this ordinance what you

can't do and get a misdemeanor charge is go up to cars and approach someone and there's the very much difference like if you go in a mass and cast and they're trying to put roses on your car and ask for money or wash a windshield can't do that if you take a look at and anybody can do it in your mind of different uh sections in the city where you have uh

more uh different people that are more vigorous in their panhandling and asking for things maybe more sick with their mental illness um it becomes dangerous they're sick within their addiction they're falling over sometimes they're sick within their mental illness they're knocking on car windows and then you have some sections where the people are Pleasant and they holding a sign but I

think this is a start in the right direction if you make it too rigid and too strict we it'll never pass in the constitution of it it's it it is what it needs to be to start we can um start a movement I think a lot of communities are having this issue Fall River definitely has an issue and an ongoing issue and so we make it more uh tight and more strict it's it's it's never

going to pass and it will never hold up in court so we know that this is what's going to work and so that's the difference so you can sit down and hold a sign and not approach a car and you're safe and the person is safer or you know but you will not be able to approach a car and almost fall in front of that car or scare someone in their car so so

there's your there's your difference I yield thank president thank you anyone else really quick it's a work laws are a work in progress so we've come a long way for putting jaged rocks on medians I mean that we cannot do i y thank you I just want to point thing out long time ago when I was a first newly counselor Chief McDonald was here and someone had asked him if he had

the manpower to take on this new thing that we were doing and he says I don't have the manpower to stop speeding throughout the city to stop the red light violations to stop the stop sign violations but there are laws that we catch them as they come along and we do our best so they'll probably never have the manpower to do anything we ask them to do but they follow the laws and catch

him and try to do their best that was coming from Chief mdon a long long time ago and I'll never forget it count see one I appreciate that but you know at the end of the day we hear concerns about panhandling and I I think when we pass an audience like this we give a fault sense of hope uh to our community that we're going to address panhandling we did not address panhandling with this

ordinance like not even close it's you know panhandling it's not just about people coming to the cars it's where they're standing it's the fact that they're standing there um you know it's it's all of it and I you know couple of people are going to get arrested for the first week two weeks months whatever the case may be you know we know how things go you know the police are going to get

tired of of enforcing this right it's going to be like other ordinances that uh that are going forward with this and at the end of the day you know that you're going to have these folks that are handh handling who are going to realize that okay so I can still continue to do what I need to do as long as I don't approach a car if I don't approach a car and I stay on the corner

and I still stare at you and I swear at you while you're you're Pok you're on the side of me at the red light it's the same exact thing but they never approach the the vehicle right so it doesn't necessarily change because I I've driven by pan handlers quite a bit and I don't know how many I could probably count only once that one of them has actually approached my vehicle they just walking

up and down I mean you got a path on the uh on the sidewalk where they just walk back and forth and some of them look at you some of them swear at you it's just it's not going to address those issues right and then we're saying you can do it you know sunrise to sunset it's just I just want to make sure that we're clear that it's not really addressing

what the issue is and and there are going to be folks that are calling us and saying well what about the ordinance and it's just not addressing the real the real issue I I think we I think we need to be a little bit more creative and I said this before I I think we need to look at an ordinance that prohibits vehicles from handing out money while operating motor vehicle right you and I

have had this conversation the only way to get rid of the pan anals is is eliminate the uh you know the transaction of of money and the only way to do that is say okay that's fine in in the city of far of if operating a motor vehicle you cannot you know have hand out cash while operating a vehicle because that's that's dangerous and then from my standpoint I think that that

addresses it we're not dealing with pan handling there's no ACLU issue this is a motor motorist issue and we go from there and I I don't know if that's legal but i' rather try that and have somebody go to court and say that we've given them a violation for operating a motor vehicle and giving out monetary you know dollar bills or whatever the case may be so that's just yeah distracted driving so that's that's

just my my take I mean I'll support it because it's something but I don't I don't know that it really addresses uh the real issue at at heart so with that I yield counc just curious I watched the meeting did that come up in discussion in the meeting yesterday or not no I listen i' I've said this I know I'm just curious million times just I I don't know everybody seems excited about the

ordinance I just I I I I didn't get it I was I was the only one that was confused by it I was like I don't know I'm not excited about this at all Samson oh I just wanted to um have a maybe a point of information it did address no swearing in that ordinance and you couldn't be swearing and harassing I think it was section H in the pan handling audience ordinance

you couldn't swear passer by was harass them okay you yield c i yield thank you so the motion is to pass through first reading and it was seconding all in favor I any opposed motion carries committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January 22nd voted five to recommend that the accompanying proposed ordinance be passed through first reading as amended contingent upon the receipt of a 10-year

strategic statute plan for the finance department got the 10 year I the position of finance analysis and compliance manager motion to pass through first reading second the pastor first reading has been made and second it on the motion coun C coun Samson so I thought about this long and hard last night um and I do appreciate um the the structure that they gave us and the org CH of present

what they're proposing and then um a wish list um and I definitely appreciate um the city administrator's um definition of what he is proposing for the the um purchase an agent um I do have a question for him so can we we the rules can he can we can make the motion away the rules I make a motion away the rules second second all in favor I you opposed come on down sure you can bring

the team down sure absolutely motion wasn't specific to you she just wants her answers

c c councel Samson you still have the floor yeah thank you um council president Mr Akens I think that your definition and what you're proposing for the purchase an agent is brilliant I actually the what you just explained makes a lot of sense um it's uh safe I think it checks a lot of boxes that needs to happen that probably has not been happening it just makes sense to do that um with that being said

um would you still be able to do that if we didn't create another position if we don't agree on creating this position tonight or maybe they do I don't know but let's just say they don't would you still be able to move forward with your plan of your purchasing your very brilliant um purchasing uh agent idea so first of all I've been called a lot of things since I came to IDE first

time I got brilliant um I'm just going to just put this one in my pocket so thank you that was incredibly kind um that might change before you leave the table no I have no doubt like I'm counting on it um that said I I do think that so just to make it clear to everyone what we're talking about is we're talking about taking the purchasing aging position out of a highlevel department head and moving

that down to more of a clerical and also training people within the different departments including the schools um that would be up to them they would do their own purchasing we would have purchasing within DCM purchasing within uh parks and facilities and water uh people trained uh to be mcpo certified uh which is the the purchasing agent uh procurement certification uh to be able

to do that Grassroots and then have it filter up uh so that there's levels of oversight um because uh the prior purchasing agent I think did had a Herculean task in front of her to try to do that just didn't have enough trained people to support her work um so we're trying to really do this right that said uh for us to do that um I really do believe the ideal situation is to have

that person supervised by a high level Finance person but if you did not approve the position we could probably make it work I just don't I think it would create a significant burden um on uh um CFO almond uh I think it would create a significant burden uh on the other folks down below who are training or trained uh because what you want is is levels of oversight to make sure that

this stuff is absolutely locked in because it's essential okay so I I say that because a CFO alond last night uh said herself that these were two separate issues and she wanted to take the conversation of parason agent out of the equation so I'm looking at them as two separate issues so a I think that's brilliant I think it's a great idea and knowing that it still can be done because I think that's in very important

and vital for the city um that that remains continuing down that progress um I do feel with the creating of this position um it's not sitting right with me for for a number of reasons a I do understand um Miss Alma that you were saying that you need help in that department um that that you were I think that was the first words out of your mouth that you agreed with Mrs Dion uh

counselor Dion that you needed help and we agree that I agree you need help in that department but does that justify creating another position if every Department comes down here and says we need help I'm drowning I need another position that that's a problem when you have positions in that budget that you're not going to fill now I and let me mind you when I came down to this Council maybe 20 months ago um I was

told that Ed I caponi who is up in that office the grand HOA wizard The Man Behind the curtains the he's brilliant man too okay not to take your shine but that he would only be up there for a short amount of time he is just temporarily he's going to be up there very short amount of time he's not going to be here long and we sit um 20 months later and he's still up there and

although we're being told that he doesn't want to be there I don't believe that because he wouldn't be there if he didn't want to be there but um he's doing his job he does a great job but he's training so he's still up there so on top of that we still have that consultant we still have these two other jobs in the budget that we're not taking out and so I've got to believe that

we're not going to be asked in a year to fill those other positions that are not taken out because you're saying your office is saying that they're not they're not we're not going to fill them right now and we got to believe that just like 20 months ago I had to believe that we weren't going to continue pay a consultant long term that we're still comp paying a consultant longterm up in

that office and so I can't say that in a year from now we're not going to be asked to say well we we need help up there it's a lot of work it's an emergency situation we have to fill those things we have a great candidate for it we have to fill if we don't fill it's a dire need and that's I feel that myself and I am one person

that I am under the gun to vote for a position that's an emergency but it's been an emergency I think there's in that department and I feel there hasn't been a complete transparency of the the process thus far are and so I feel it is my responsibility to just look at the facts and say I can't trust it's they're not going to come down and in a year ask to fill those positions and you know

that's not going to be passed and then the taxpayers are going to have to go ahead and fill those positions that said they weren't going to be filled so with those problems that and there's more but these are the ones that I'm willing to discuss here um that I can't justify supporting this position I Do by 100% back what you're doing with a partis I think that's great but creating another

position when leaving these other positions um you know they an ordinance and not removing them because oh it's just too much of a task to bring them on board later on if we want them it just doesn't sit right with me and I I can't support that so with all due respect to your finance department and the work that you have undertaken um I I can't support this vote with that I yield can

I respond to that briefly you can and and I I appreciate your concerns U and I I think that you know in in the in the best moments the the city council is really the Watchdog right to make sure that the resident money is being spent in the most responsible way possible and I appreciate that um and and I hear exactly what you're saying I think one of the things it's really important to

note about this position is that it reflects the changing way in which some departments have to be working right um I think you could you could certainly voice the concern that oh my gosh you know you could go down every department and decide oh we need another position we need another position but those departments aren't changing in the same way Finance is changing dramatically uh

and not just that the ability to get well-trained experienced people in finance is incredibly difficult and the money that people are paying to get these people is incredible so what we're actually looking at here is by not filling the the purchasing position in in the way that it's been filled and by not funding it and by homeg growing clerks and other people with the training and and by only using some

small additional amount of money by having an auditor who is budgeted for much more than he's being paid because he's inexperience he is fantastic but inexperienced all right and learning growing every day and by taking the assistant auditor position out not funding that there's $175,000 in salary that isn't being used yeah not to say we need to go oh let's use it ah you know this is not a

spending spree right but this is um the result of really hard thought work by the CFO who frankly is doing some amazing things I I just got to take a moment and say that when when you look at some of the turnback that have happened under her management of departments and oversight and uh constant meetings with departments about spending and about overtime and about all the different things that can very

easily go unchecked if they are not uh watched very closely and she does it uh and if you look at the way the city's um you know Bond rating is looking and the way they're talking about it like there are improvements here that have literally never happened or that we haven't seen in in 30 years okay um there is remarkable work being done I think in order for her to be able to

respond to the needs of the mayor my needs when I say hey I need some information about this or the needs of this Council and can you look into this what do we know about that kind of research is it's there's no capacity for it right now right everything else is management and training and this person would allow us to do that and it doesn't increase FTE this department is down six FTE since

2015 so they're already smaller than they've ever been we're talking about the assistant auditor as really not a necessary position for the Personnel that we have and the work that we're doing but this assessor this um um I'm sorry this um analyst being a necessary position for the future uh and to to really get us through times that I think are going to require and I think the the

term was used uh most recently by uh uh council rep peler we got to sharpen our pencils this is the person who's going to wield the sharp pencil uh and I would just I would ask you respectfully to reconsider I absolutely understand your position I respect it I appreciate it but this is really important so I can I respond I'm gonna respond to you because you responded to me I was going to shut

up but I'll respond again so um you know I respect that what you're saying um Miss almond I'm sure you're doing a great job up there um but there is some problems that continue to happen down here so um not getting documented it's always like you know we have a young staff we have a you know whatever it is and now we're going to hire a new person

um and and and train them but to go on what you said we're looking at Trends trends of like so I did my due diligence last night because I was up thinking like why is this a big sticking point for me and it really is it's not personal it's a sticking point and I feel like there has not been full transparency here and um you you know New Bedford is not organ you know it's

organizational chart does not mimic Fall Rivers knew what they're trying to do organizational chart right it it doesn't now they did create a new position there which um in this year in their new budget is the uh assistant to the Chief Financial Officer so they did create that it wasn't there before it is there now not quite this but so everybody's not continuing with these TR everyone's

got different trends that they're trying to do I'm just saying I'm not responsible for New Bedford or what Worcester looks like or what anywhere else looks like I'm responsible for my responsibility for our Fall River residents and I don't feel comfortable with saying Hey listen trust me they're not coming back to us next year to fill that position I just don't feel it and to say let me tell you something I'm

just going to go with what you're saying it's really really tough to fill these positions well it sounds like to me you fill this position without even doing an RFP without even the job's not even there the job's not even posted and you've got someone you want in that seat so the argument that it's really really hard to fill does not stick right with me when you already got someone to put

in that seat when you haven't even posted the job so that I'm G to stop talking I respect what you're doing up there but that that's just my opinion and guess good news for you is I'm just one I'm just one person so with that I yield counc thank you Council Council C to council D just want to point out when the dividers went down because they L the

table the div going to come back up no what did he say I like them up what did you say I didn't hear I said the dividers came down when they moved the table but I think we're going to put the dividers back up my C to feel like we just got I think so too all right um that's a tough act to follow let me tell you okay on page one you have assistant

Treasurer page two assistant Treasurer and then when we get to page three it's Deputy Treasurer what's the difference schedu so the on the the the third page of like the wish list correct yeah so that would be splitting going back to a city collector and a city treasurer and then you'd have either a deputy or an assistant Treasurer um just a more formal name has been using Deputy okay

um I missed part of the funding source for this position I know the money from the uh assistant auditor is part of it money from um the purchasing is part of it but not in its entirety correct and also there's funds in the auditor position so when we so we were not looking 20 you know we were actively looking for a city auditor and that was when we did discuss um if we if we did

did get a city auditor with significant experience then we would have even you know Mr I capony would not have been coming in we have not been able to do that we've been actively looking for that position for since they were looking for that shortly before I started when the city auditor um resigned so the funding for this would be the funds that are um budgeted under City auditor the funds that are budgeted

the difference of funds for the city between the city auditor and what we've now promoted the city auditor to the assistant City and the purchasing so I'm not again I'm not asking to um increase the FTE I'm I'm I want to exchange out a position that I feel is needed again we were already um we didn't go out identify somebody and then and then write this what we did was is I

had already written this it was already talking to Administration about this position we had this a particular candidate applied for the city auditor position and discussing that with and we just we identified that this candidate would be great for this position so we didn't go out looking for somebody to to we didn't go out find somebody and then then build a a description for them I just want to

get that very clear again we're looking to not incre I'm not looking to increase the budget to pay for this I'm looking at saying as I've identified the needs over the last you know almost two years we need this is what we need and the Staffing that we have and and we want to elevate so we can provide better information and right now it's it's very difficult so in terms of your

expectations what as their role what would they review what would they track that will put that fine point on the pencil so because it because to me it it it sounds more like an assistant CFO position than what I hear sometimes when you explain it so so I don't agre so I I just kind of want to get on the table here that all of my department heads below me are I mean they we really

assist each other so we work collaboratively this this position would work collaboratively but at your point when we go to do this budget there's only so much capacity I want to dive deeper into the budget I want to dive deeper into each department so that's my initial expectation but we have a lot of we have a lot of things the city's facing that we need to research and we need to look at you know other ways

doing things and how much it's going to cost and we've got trash that is a significant expense that we have to take a really deep dive into so I mean AD Haw research that the mayor or you know the city administrators like let can can we look at it this way can we look at how we're doing and what's this going to and costing things out those are the things

that we need to be doing and in order to provide you better budgeting information we we need to be able to do that and with the staff that I have with the level of expertise that's not where they're at at this point so so again I just want to reiterate that we're not I mean I'm not looking to to budget or fill the assistant auditor for yeah and I don't mean to

interrupt you I am but I don't mean to um it's all right it's on then page two it says eliminate assistant uh auditor position FY 24 budget but it doesn't say anything about the 25 budget no it's that's so that that's that's intended for 24 and 25 the second page M yeah it didn't show there that it carried over to 25 so that was kind of a concern as well I apologize no that's okay we did

we pretty quick we had to put this together right so right um and and and I do agree with the with counselor in C8 that um I'm not comfortable with the fact that we that we don't just completely eliminate positions um in accordance with this because it's true how many times it's happened in the past um so you always have that question in the back of your mind you don't feel

comfortable with it I think if I may councelor I I think the the reason not to eliminate the position is is to eliminate her from ordinance creates several more steps if we look at it several years from now and say you know what it's really the time now to to do an assistant or to do some other thing you know and to do something with that position so if we don't fill the

position and don't fund the position it's not in the budget we're not funding it we're not use there's no money being put towards it um and if we were to do that we' have to ask this council's permission to to read but in essence is that any different than what you're doing now you're added you want a position added to the budget so we're voting on that so if you took that position

out it's it's as simple as coming back and saying well sure Fair we realized we realized we you know it didn't work out the way we thought or whatever the scenario or it worked out great we found out we can eliminate somebody else and bring this person in I mean absolutely Fair um but I think the the the flip side of it is that there are departments throughout the city where you know

there's some positions that you know that are budgeted and don't necessarily get filled right I mean you know police is a great example there's always a few positions because there's retirements you know there's guys coming on but there's that few um you know those are positions that we are paying for they may end up in a turn back at the end of the year um but that money's tied up

it's tied up for the year so right last year the last budget we had 2.6 million and fun and unfunded vacancies right to me I say take some of those vacancies out lower lower your expenses and then you come closer to meeting your your revenues and having a balanced budget but to your point I actually think this position would help us look at that right so to have somebody that can really dive into our FTE

how our work is allocated and whether we're talking about police or whether we're talking about enough Personnel in the Parks whether it's you know do we have the right Personnel in DPW versus The Parks versus cemeteries and trees somebody with this level of expertise and and this position would be able to look into that like another crazy example that I discovered today because

we just you know we find stuff out every day as we're looking for ways to create efficiencies I learned that um every signal light in the city gets its own we get a different an individual electric bill for every signal light right so somebody has to enter those and pay those at you know maybe $25 a month or whatever every street light in the city also has its own electric bill and

that's spread across five or six departments when you actually consider the Manpower that it takes to actually enter those in the mutus and pay them that's something that an analyst could look at and say gez you know how is this inefficiency reflecting on our Manpower needs or our Personnel needs um like there are so many different things things that have just been going on because that's the way we've always done

them that we're we're we're identifying we're finding we're trying to to fix to have a person that could really look at the fiscal impact of all those things we're looking at including those unfunded open extra positions that never get filled that's really the purpose um and it could really I think yield significant benefit for the city if we have a person in position to do that and with that I yield thank you

thank you thank you counc counc C1 Council uh thank you Mr President so I I fully support this um creation of this position and number one I want to thank you for the uh flowchart I think it's exactly what we were looking for and as I mentioned during ordinance I think it's helpful for the council to truly understand what the the you know actual full picture is going to look like um

you know assuming that money was not an issue where we would see and want to see our finance team get to um and not to say and I said it yesterday that you know money not being an issue I know money is an issue with us but just trying to get in a perfect environment what does the perfect Finance team look like for the uh for the city of Fall

River and by having this then we can really kind of hold you a little bit more accountable in terms of positions that you're you're requesting and things of that nature and I know um it's a very fluid situation when it comes to to finance departments things do change and we need to kind of pivot every once in a while but at least we can kind of see uh where your organization um where you're

trying to go with your organization we kind of hold you accountable there uh the reason I I support this is because I think there is more and more Communities going into that direction of trying to get um some type of budget development and account analysis um to really try to figure out how to be more efficient with the use of taxpayer money um and leverage other monies uh that are

required and part of that is also the compliance that's associated with it um you know I I would I would align this uh similar to the support that we gave to the police department with the crime analysts for the civilian position that that we gave them MH you have an individual who's going to the police department that's analyzing crime giving the information back to the police department so that they can manage uh

the crime as that that is moving forward um and I believe because of that position we we will received a $2.3 million Grant um in terms of that so why wouldn't we do that for the finance department which in my mind is probably one of the most important departments in the city of for River and when we go back with the history of for River uh the city has always struggled from a

financial standpoint having a good Financial team so if we're in a situation which I don't disagree that we're saying that if we had the option to have a city auditor or a finance analyst and a compliance manager I would also say that to me the best bank for the buck is going with the financial analyst and a compliance manager and I think when you take a step further and you start looking at what the um

Department looks like in terms of growth when you get there um the organizational flowchart while I may disagree with some some of the uh positions that are being added I I think maybe one uh position I think overall it looks good um I think this is what we need to do to make sure that number one we are again being efficient with our money but we're also not getting hit uh from free Clash

because we're not compliant on either grants or federal requirements health insurance requirements I mean there's so much reporting that goes on um at so many different levels um and that's not even to talk about you know the lack of we you know of the councilors just talked about our process for uh you know selling our property right and trying to change the law the finance team doesn't

even have the opportunity to take a a breath right to take a step back and say Hey listen we need to make some changes you know some of the changes is really trying to talk about you know we we see we've seen some changes come down from the state in terms of being able to use the uh legal list for Investments versus The Prudent list uh for stabilization for trust funds um you know I'd like to

see that for stabilization accounts to give us a little bit more flexibility for for investing our money but that's been a long time coming that without the advocacy of people within municipal government especially the finance uh departments would have never taken place and that just happened in the fy2 24 budget with Governor Healey so you can only imagine that when you have somebody

that's dedicated to identifying things and trying to identify ways to to save money and then to be able to use that and and turn that into an advocacy aspect of it to be able to get to the to state level and say we need to take changes the MMA is looking for people to join the uh fiscal policy committee and that's just to review all of you know FIS the legislation that's coming down

and the changes with with finances right you only get that with people that appreciate it and understand it and actually analyze this so from my standpoint um to me it's it's a no-brainer um it it's at this point seems to be a cost neutral you're saying that you want to be able to instead of fill this position use this position it's a more cost benefit um and the cost benefit analysis from your standpoint

it's it's more beneficial to do it that way and and in the long term is going to be able to provide some additional uh support and compliance with with items I would just hope that and in the expectation from my standpoint is is that we will then start to see more trash analysis more uh ways when we start talking about water and sewer how do we reduce you know the potentially

the budgets because we talked about that with the user rates and and things like that for the ENT R funds um I would I'd like to see a little bit more of that um review and Analysis being done as to giving us options as to direct different directions that we might be able to go um I know we talked about the trash uh you know we got rid of the pays you throw but obviously there's a

significant cost with Recycling and things of that nature so that's going to be something that needs to be reviewed as well um so with that I know I'm a little long with it but I just want to really get it across with my colleagues to truly understand why I'm in support of this because I I do think it's a benefit to the uh to the finance department on it with that I yield thank

you6 thank you Mr President I came in here pretty you know not sure what I was going to do with this and by the way nice to finally meet you Miss Al I think I've ever met you yet um so um I'm hearing from the administration that you're looking at this as a from a standpoint of streamlining efficiencies you're not you keep saying just for the record you keep saying you're not adding

FTE we're not adding FTE I'm exchanging out um two positions Okay so it's semantics maybe but you have the ability to add the FTE if you wanted to you're adding a brand new position so you're essentially adding an FTE just not filling two other positions correct yeah so I'm reducing the funding for two for two other positions okay and I can't seem to find it in our packet unless I

miss it which I could have is there a job description set aside for this yet yes it is and it was with the ordinance committee yes last night okay um so so pretty much you're saying that you're going to be able to streamline if efficiencies you're going to be able to be more effective and you're going to be able to provide more resources to not only the finance department but all

other department heads as well correct correct okay and you've you you made somebody made a comment about that you you're down what eight no seven six six people from seven years ago or something like that 2015 so how thank you very much of course our colleague in seat to would have that um thank you um um and I'm not put putting that aside um I lost my train of thought I am so sorry

um the six positions since 2015 okay thank you so how many people did you have when you started within your department and how many do you have now just out of curiosity within the CFO Department within your that we've replaced no that you had that you when you first came here how many people were in your department that supported you in your efforts on a daily basis so I have

the people that are listed here um they weren't all full we've we have filled some of these positions but these two positions have been vacant for over a year okay so you are short-handed in comparison to your the other person who was in your job yes by the assistant auditor well position we just Pro we promoted so just in all fantas the day I started was also the day that um someone

that was hired to be the auditor and the assistant auditor were also starting on that same day both inexperience so the auditor left um shortly and the assistant auditor we've recently promoted to auditor so I just and also the can you just clarify please you said that both people started the same thing you started they were inexperienced and then one left so we as you might REM recall

we hired an auditor who was here for a short time yeah um it it just it didn't work out um for any number of reasons uh and Cedric was hired as the Cedric was hired as the assistant auditor uh he's been fantastic and was promoted to auditor uh when he finished his MBA because the auditor left and so it was the auditor who left okay um thank you Council py and then so then then the audit

Department we lost one um two of the employees went to the schools right when I was starting um and one actually retired Nick was very fortunate to get so I we've we've completely o re overhauled the entire audit department has less than you know well under two years of experience and you and you feel uh as the person who's preparing the budget going the next year that this is something that can be afforded without

an issue so I'm not yes because I'm using the dollars that we would that we budgeted for the other positions sure but you're also using a lot of one-time money and then next year you're going to use onetime money and one of these days onetime money is going to run out so I want to just be cognizant of that you balance your budget with $7.8 million of onetime money you use free cash you use

arpa you're doing it again in your fiveyear budget forecast that's before us that we accepted and referred to finance today you're looking at another um $3.7 million of onetime money going into the next year so I just want to make sure that I have your worri that this is something that's going to be sustainable absent we don't have all this onetime money coming in I just want to be you know we I just want to be

cognizant of that and I want to make sure that you're going to be able to continue to support this position and we're not going to take two steps forward to take four steps back well I think we need to have this position so that we can be looking at those things and and taking these deep Dives and looking at where we can maximize resources and and grants and and put

things together so again and we um I mean the one time money money we we did address that during last year's budget and I I think one of the reasons why it's so important that we're we're using money that's already budgeted for this position is that we we don't want to just have this sprawl this creep um in budgets without being cognizant of the fact that there's onetime money ending um and uh there are challenges

coming down the road um so to do this without uh increasing the the financial team's budget even though they could certainly benefit from that to do it without uh that I think is a is an essential part of what we're trying to do here so it's safe to say that you're down Personnel in comparison to a year ago two years ago three years ago and you're going to try to take this one

position combine two and make it more efficient and save money is that what you're trying to say so I wouldn't say combining two I I think it's a very different position I think we're acknowledging that we really don't need an assistant auditor position it's it's not it's not the help that we need at this point what we really need is somebody that is has the experience to do the analysis so it's it's really a

different direction uh but we are using the money from that position uh as part of of what we're trying to do so I don't think we're combining positions at all um I think we're we're pivoting uh toward a direction that we think makes um creates more efficiencies allows us to do more in that department uh in a in a deeper way all right um look I'm going to give you the opportunity to you know

I was up in the air I came in here on decided I wanted to listen to the debate you know I want to support this tonight I'm going to give this an opportunity to see if it's successful but I have every anticipation uh going forward to hold you accountable for everything that you've said at the ordinance committee and here tonight that this is going to be vital to your research and your

compliance and your capabilities to be more efficient right so we won't have any more conversations 90 days from now we're in the middle of a budget budget cycle that we can't get an analysis so I I I'm just I'm going to support it I'm going to trust in your abilities to get this done but but I have every anticipation that if you're not able to fulfill what you're saying that you're

going to fulfill that I have every an uh anticipation and I will hold you accountable for what you said here tonight because I'm hoping that the efficiencies improve I hope that you are able to support not just the cfo's department but multiple departments your department the clerk's Department the traffic department all departments and and I really want to see this this this work and be successful um I'm looking at

this more as an opportunity to stream line and be more efficient that's how I'm looking at that that's how I was sold on this and and I'm hoping that that makes us more efficient that makes you more efficient and that makes the the entire way you operate the financial side of government more efficient that's the goal appreciate that and I recognize one thing and I and I know people with

all due respect to some of my colleagues who say you know it it's hard to find people right now I recognize that it's even harder to find people most likely I'm not in municipal government to come do a municipal government job because nobody wants to deal with this right so um uh so so the truth is you're under a spotlight you can make more money less aggravation yeah you don't get Union

help but you know you can go work in the private sector and have less headaches um so again I'm going to support this I'm going to give you an opportunity to prove to me as one counselor only speaking for myself here that this is going to improve the way we conduct business within your department but we will be having a conversation in my from my standpoint if we're we're not effective and you're not efficient

you're not approving efficiencies so thank you I Y thanks thanks I just thank on that point I just have a question are we going to ask are we going to how are we going to hire this person are we just going to hire the individual that you have already interviewed for the other position they came and applied for orto are you going to hire put us out request for proposals to see who else is

available you say you don't want to lose this individual I mean are we stly hire them so as we've been advertising for you know you know Financial positions for the last two plus years um and we've interviewed people we were very lucky to get a candidate that um is a very high caliber and we would be I think it would she this person would be a great asset

to the city um but I mean Nick can speak for how many this happened very organically I mean we were Fielding applicants for the auditor's position uh we did not get much that we wanted to act on um identified this candidate and just had a convers ation realized they were bigger than the auditor's position that this was someone that could really help us that um you know we have a use

and a need for them so that's sort of how this happened um you know uh we can't promise anything if the candidate decided this didn't work out we would still want this position I mean this is this is something that I'm not saying I understand that but I'm mean are you going to advertise this position and hope to get someone to fill this position or you just going to give it to

the individual that applied for the 's position that's my question cuz we we didn't know what I guess her abilities were until or he she I even know who it is is it a female or male I don't know but we didn't know what they were capable of until they interviewed if you advertise this position under the what her job requirements would be you don't know what who else might show up the

table so I think the the appropriate thing to do uh and I apologize for having my back to you Mr President no it's okay the way set up I don't like it either but that's all right the appropriate thing to do in the interest of transparency is to post the position but you have to but as you know um I yes we have to but but that's also just the

it's the right look right as you know anybody who runs a business or hires half the time the best candidates come from somebody that's already in your organization knowing somebody and calling them and saying hey this is post to apply for it um and I don't think it would be very different in this case where we have someone who we think would be great we're going to probably encourage that person and whoever else

anybody in the department and in city government knows to apply for the position and we're going to pick the best person uh that's how we do every um uh hiring and uh you know frankly I think we found some remarkable people uh I have great regard for the people that work for the city of Fall River um and uh you know it's sometimes a thankless job and uh I you know I love the fact

that we get some really great candidates and I think we're going to do the same in this situation all right I just want to see what the thought process was one more thing are we still doing zerob based budgeting when you meet with the department heads you tell them to start from the zero up as we used to do in the past yes so they're there to um I mean obviously you have like some routine

supplies that is obviously pretty standard and they know from historical information but the intent is zerob based and if there's anything new in addition to that they have to submit a narrative to us and obvious we meet with every single department head to go over every single every single budget cuz I heard you say you want to dive deeper into each department would that be a conversation with the department head

and seeing what they budgeting and why it's zero based or not and it's that I mean it's uh I don't know that it's necessarily the conversation about zerob based I think it's more of a conversation about how else can we reimagine to to you utilize what we have in a different and better way and that's what this person are going to be in charge of doing they're they're going to be assisting with you

know again so my finance team we work it's we're not in these silos anymore we meet regularly every week we we um work together so we'd all be working collaboratively because sometimes you know I do imagine the audit Department in this this in this um position working very closely together because there's so much that's involved in you know maintaining the budget as well as um creating a new budget so this person is

that will be their majority of their task is looking at those things as well as what other resources or grants can we maximize in group together to to accomplish things is that what you currently do now that's what we um yes we do we do try to do that but uh with the limited resources and Manpower that I have um I believe I want I want to do it better okay

county2 so we know budget season is up is coming quickly um will you be taking or more or be able to take a more active role in putting the budget together having this new Position will that be their responsibility who will be putting the quarterly reports together so the quarterly report would would stay with the auditor that's going to stay with the auditor yeah and so again this

position I mean the likelihood of being able to bring someone on we're going to be we're already going to be deep into to budget season so just as I did last year I met with every single department head and prepared the budget um mostly you know to myself so because you know we have to go through through several meetings this person we'd be bringing on and I don't know that the Imad the huge

value that they're going to be able to hit the ground running they will hit the ground running but it's not like if we had brought them on before the budget season started so I just want to by the time we are able to approve a a position and then bring bring someone on is going to be so their ability to identify and streamline in this budget is going to be very narrow because they're not going

to have the time enough time in advance well I mean yeah by the time March April bring somebody on we're going to be approving a budget we're already going to be in budget hearings in uh May so I'm just being realistic about the timing of but and again you got to learn Fall River Fall River it has its own unique things absolutely it's it's a unique animal so what is its own unique thing I'm

curious well every department just runs differently I mean it does it's it's she doesn't really want to answer the question I'm serious I mean what's so unique about this no every City's every city is unique every city has its own you know idiosyncrasies or the way they do things and so you have to learn it I think of it as charm it's just own charm smoke not at all smoke and mirr is I think I

just throw out okay so I guess the bottom line to the story is we know it's going to be a difficult budget season um there's going to be a some serious conversations um we have a lot of serious things ahead of us um I would still feel better if the auditor's position was out completely we didn't have to worry about it coming back um the assistant auditor I'm thinking of taking the same

approach as my colleague in seat six um but if it doesn't pan out I'll be coming at you I wouldn't expect anything else all right with that I yield thank you one last question is EDI Capone going to work on this budget as well or what's the deal when you hire this person does he stay out to train that person train the other person that's he's training already is he going to do four hours a

week what can you give us a status on Ed caponi please just curious so Ed Capon has been working like four to you know less than 10 hours a week he is or he's not he has been I mean we want to you know let Ed go home as much but again we need to bring in we need to bring in resources so what does he do just curious in those 10 hours does he work

with you does he work with Department individuals what does he I'm just curious primarily in the AUD he told me 20 years ago he wanted to leave and he's still here yeah we'll see trainy yeah train who's he training uh he's working in the auditor's office so he's working with the entire staff but there's a staff accountant and Cedric who he does a lot of work with who I think are really

developing uh really well um Cedric's phenomenal I can't say enough good things about him and I think i' done a lot of good work with him yeah I do the conversations about subjects about Ed I Capon what's he doing when he gets here I that's what I want to know just you told you said at the meeting last night he doesn't want to be here right but he's here he's gonna work on this

budget I don't intend for Ed to be working on the the fine tuning of the budget or working on the budget he's working with the city auditor and working with the city auditor with the roles and responsibilities that the city auditor H has to do and you know by Statute there requirements so the focus has been on developing our city auditor okay so when he comes in he sit down

with the city art and he works with him yes thank you that's all I need to know thank you so much Council D I just want to do one follow-up question on that so if this position is approved do we have an exit date for Mr a Kone because his rate is $250 an hour I don't know I don't that you said that one time it's not that high

I oh no it's not no it's not I think like $150 so 10 hours is only $1,500 a week um that's only 6,000 on a 40 hour week right well that's why we sooner than later in conjunction with this would be also very helpful to probably try to convince some of us to give you the opportunity no and with bringing on you know filling being able to fill these two positions the intent is for Ed to

you know actually retire and go he's got plenty of other people that want him to go consult let them go position the the two positions that are on here so we we're um we creating a new position yeah not filling an audit this assistant Auditors yes assistant auditor and not filling the pro not filling the purchasing agent in the manner that has been historically filled with a low with a lower position yes

okay that thank thank you any further questions no anyone have the hand up that I didn't see all right thank you very much for coming down thank you Council appreciate it you good luck was there a motion on the floor motions to pass through first reading and it was second in second second uh roll call there already was a motion in the second that's why we had the discussion roll call on The Passage through first

reading council is kadim yes Dion your hand up yes har yes Kilby yes Perera yes Ponty yes propos no Sam no president C no motion carries what was the outcome committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on January 22nd voted unanimously to recommend the accompanying resolution be granted leave to withdraw this related to um the ordinance relating to site plan review

motion Grant to leave withdraw motion to Grant to Le withraw has made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries and the last matter we have Mr President is um an order that will revisit the times of the the scheduled times for the finance and regular meeting motion to adopt the order motion to adopt the order has been made second second cler could you just read the order so that we all know what

it says that the regular meetings of the city council during 2024 shall be held as follows and be it further order that said meetings um the of the count committee on finance shall begin at 6:00 p.m or at the discretion of the council president and the regular meeting of the city council shall begin at 700 p.m. unless otherwise ordered thank you very much no you said 2024 is that beginning in 2024

or is that just only for the year the remainder of 2024 so next year we'll have to the same motion again okay it'll be the same order thank you motion to adopt as been made and seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries to remain second all in favor and oppose c c now good night everyone o hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey

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