11.28.2023 Fall River City Council

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city council public he come to order CL will call the RO Council kadim here Dion here Kilby here Liberty pelier Pereira Roso here Washington here president C here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may translit this meeting to any medium attend these are therefore advised such recordings or Transmissions are being

made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible motion open the public hearing motion open to public hearing has been made in seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item number one massachusett electric company doing business as national grid for an underground conduit location as follows on lindsy Street beginning at a

point approximately 370 ft south of the center line of the intersection of lindsy street and Brightman Street and continuing approximately 130 feet in the Northerly Direction install underground facilities on Lindsay Street and install new primary con conductors to upgrade feeder 106 w46 in accordance with plan number 363767 are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents you want to come down and yes

unless you change the

mind you could sit on this side facing the councilors please yeah and if you could just state your name and address for the record thank you do I have to pess the button no no you're good uh my name is Rea marks from National Grid out of the Hope Dale office um just here to uh pretty much explain what's happening uh there's an existing manhole number five on Lindsay Street and an existing poll number 17 uh

we are proposing to um install approximately 130 ft of 25 in um Concrete in case conduit um to improve the existing feeder 106 w46 thank you thank you very much thank you thank you are there any other proponents seeing none are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents motion to close public hearing entertain motion to close the public hearing has been made and seconded all

in favor I any opposed motion carries this public hearing is now closed thank you thank you have a good

night city council committee on finance will come to order clerk will call the role council is kadim here Dion here Kilby here La Liberty peler Pereira Roso here Washington 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 that

such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether they perceived or UNP perceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible we have item number one of citizens input time there's a couple of individuals who signed up first we have Patrick Higgins um 197 Robison Street subject is illegal meeting come down please have three

minutes good evening Patrick Higgins also known as the open meeting La Enforcer back in 2015 this Comm the city of Fall River adopted the official posting location for your meeting that's Fall River ma.org nobody has updated the Attorney General's office that had changed the minute the agenda for this meeting was posted at Fall River mass.gov this meeting was illegally posted and I strongly suggest you adjourn it and

properly post it at the correct email at the correct domain name or have the mayor as required by the open meeting Lord the chief executive officer has to notify the division of open government that you have changed your domain name this meeting is illegal thank Youk you open Med law complaint has just been emailed to your chairman and your city clerk thank you so much Madam cler

you're all Patrick thank you madam cler I just want to um can you explain where the meeting was posted and is Mr Higgins correct or is he just in the process of updating the website from the old to the new we were posting the notices on both sites so.org and.go so it's on both sites but.org no longer exists if you were to go on to.org um the IT department had

redirected it to the new site as well in the event that someone was going to.org um but.org doesn't exist when when you go to your browser and you plug in fiver ma.org it redirects you to.gov okay all right thank you so much for that clarification so Mr yes Mr President c one so I guess the question would be if that's the official location is the website is the website so if that is the

official location and there is an open Mee and law complaint I guess I would ask well we don't have a City attorney here but um I think any vote that's taken tonight would then have to be retaken if for open government well I don't know how you would post the meeting Council any other way if you don't if the ex website doesn't exist you have no choice but to get redirected to that website so anyone

who's looking to see what the meeting would be would go to the initial website that doesn't exist anymore and it would send you to this website so the information that is out there in the public is available would automa redirects you is what you're saying yes okay so it's not like they we're trying to hide it by not post it we don't it's not so you don't get an error you don't

actually get an error message it just goes directly correct to the website yes okay Point U hold on scy want to the Flor y yeld thank you C point just a quick point I'm sure Mr Higgins was very diligent with these things it will file a complaint it'll get referred to Corporation Council as always and it get adjudicated there already correct excuse me Mr Higgins we already spoke please

don't inter the council meeting thank you so I'm just saying right now you're in violation ofing the council meeting an opinion will be rendered correct follow the opinion from the state correct and then if we need to by any chance take votes over again because if if it comes in that ruling that way then we will do that but I thank you thank you councelor any other questions okay second to speak Cal bges

subject matter Armory property you have a microphone you want to get it we're GNA hand you a microphone okay she's all set hello I'm Carol bores I live at 64 dery Street Fall River the building is across the street from the Armory property it seems it to me that the city does not want to renovate it and use it for some purpose whatever that may be and there is someone I'm aware of that

wishes to purchase the property renovate it and use it which would create taxes for the city cers and I don't see why the city continues to stall allowing the person in question to purchase the property when they are willing to re put the money out themselves renovate it and put it to good good use and any tax money would go into the city cice for whatever it may be such as fire school police or

any other issues that may be needed by the city um in question I think that the person should be allowed to buy the property in question and be allowed to make it be put to good use why should we let it just go to waste I know that if it's made into Apartments a certain number of those would go to Veterans which is good because it is an Armory which is

military which the veterans would have a certain number of Apartments prioritized for them and from there any other tenants that would be in question such as but not necessarily limited to lowincome or house um homeless people I think that would be a better use of the property and to let it deteriorate and not bring any money into the city people are not looking to get rich off the property they are merely

trying to put it to good use and make sure that some taxes are put into the city as a result I think many properties in the city could be used in that nature thank you very much thank you thank you very

much next we move on to item number two discussion regarding proposal Bristol County Opera funding for the amount of $ 17237 2.77 in to Emergency Medical Services for the purchases of medical equipment for home health care services was referred on November 14 2023 you want to come down

please good morning good evening even state your name just State the name please for uh Tim ala uh chief of uh Forest City uh EMS thank you thank you councel C to council DM I have a few sticking points with this um so number one to date your department has received $741,000 Opera funding from City Opera money for various um for various items if you add this 172,000 it brings it to $93,700

um I I think the two things that bother me are number one you are an Enterprise fund um your budget last year was $1.6 Million you certainly should have been able to absorb this into that um moving forward you will increase your budget with increased revenue from this new program I would imagine correct and my main sticking point is on Thursday August 17th there was a meeting of the Opera

committee at that meeting one of the um items was Echo stethoscope and portable ultrasound $ 31,798 which is the exact same dollar amount that you're requesting tonight for the exact same equipment on that day um each medical rescue and both squads should be equipped with an e go core 500 and each one should and then also the um I'm sorry what I just say the Echo and the portable ultrasound today

it's for the Home Health Care same dollar amount same equipment yeah you please explain that yeah so it's not just for the Home Care uh the ventilators uh were recently approved in the new protocols to go on all rescues so it's not just for Home Care it's also for the 911 trucks so basically the ventilators will uh help the paramedics at the 911 side and someone that's not breathing a cardiac arrest they can hook

that ventilator up that will actually do the mechanical ventilation for the paramedic and we have Luc Lucas devices that actually do the mechanical CPR and then that frees up the paramedics to actually give the medications call the hospital uh definitely improved care you get someone that has COPD you know usually long-term smokers you put that on as a BiPAP and it's been proven that

patients have a better outcome by using the ventilators than having a paramedic actually squeeze the bag due to title volumes and quality and quantity of the uh oxygen getting into the patient you can actually preset it um so when that protocol came out that's why we moved to get the ventilators for the 911 side the ventilators for the home care we were definitely getting but we added the 911

trucks because of the fact that it was added to the protocols for any Department in the Commonwealth to start using them on the D1 side and they definitely have a significant use and will benefit the paramedics so my question is um where you received Opa funding for the stethoscopes and the ultrasound aren't you duplicating it no we haven't received any of that I think that I think they just combined it and

sent that down as one I can't answer for the committee but I'm assuming that's what happened but I can tell you that I have not received any stethoscopes or ultrasounds to this at this time nor have we ordered them okay with that I yield thank you Council Council CD Council Washington I just want to um just to be clear for people at home this is how I'm looking

at it as seed money that you need to get this program off the ground right so you need these life-saving medical equipments for this program and this program is essentially to do home visits so people are not going to the hospital can you just explain explain it just shortly so people can get a background from the prior meetings that we have had right so the the home visits are basically what will happen is um the

doctor's office will call us and I can tell you for full transparency during the day visiting nurses will still continue to do the home visits we are going to fill the gaps which is usually after 5:00 P pm. weekends holidays uh in the we hours in the morning because we have staff 24/7 so in those cases at I to prevent er uh returns or hospital readmissions if there's an issue the

doctor's office or the PA will call us give us the address give us the scenario we will go there do a tella health or a FaceTime conference with the PA and the patient assess the situation Vital Signs um their meds have they taken their meds and just assess the whole situation and then the PA will make the determination if the patient's going to go to the hospital or stay home um that's

basically and we get paid a set fee for that down the road um like down south and Out West paramedics actually have taken the place of the visiting nurses um but that is not our intention here we're just filling the gaps where the visiting nurses are not going to be on duty or they're not available that's all it is or an emergency response if they need us we'll call we'll go that's all

it's for and this is um going to be avilable by a third party correct so basically what will happen is I think the doctor's office will build a patient and then we will uh build the doctor's office for our set fee I just think this is an incredible program if anyone's been to the ER lately the doctor's offices they overloaded overburdened so this is just an incredible program that Fall River is

going to be um a part of and so I you know and these are the equipment that you need to get it off the ground and it's going to generate money correct moving forward all right I just wanted to clarify that I know it's been a while since we talked about it so yes no and uh counil Deion also with the ventilators they're going to be on the trucks that actually take patients from

the ICU and the ER out to Rhode Island Hospital out to you know St Elizabeth in Boston we do take a lot of vented patients to these hospitals that are already vented in the in the hospital but we need our own vents to hook them up and get them up to whatever facility they're going usually it's Rhode Island or St Elizabeth's and they will be utilized for that also and that is a reimbursement on

thank you thank you I just want to say my mother's been a visiting nurse for like 40 years so I just know how how no I just know how needed this is out there in the community so thank you with that I yield thank you coun counc T1 hand up thank you Mr President um so you're looking for nine so how many how many rescues do we have nine we have nine so

it's going be one okay so one for each rescue correct all right thank you I yeld two CC follow up yeah my questioning has nothing to do with the validity of the program or the necessity of it I'm well aware of the importance of the equipment and the program Etc um it was the funding mechanism as I say you know with an 11.6 million budget you you do well I I yes we do and I agree

with you uh counselor but we also make a lot of investment within the city too uh whether it's the Primal vent systems at the fire stations the new doors on Troy street uh the new CLA and systems going into all the stations I said I believe except for the globe station we're paying for the candas the Flint the North End all expenses that we did not budget for but we do have the money to

do it so we are getting it done so we do make a lot of investment uh whether it's you know police fire City uh we do make a lot of investment within the city also okay and I appreciate that I just really wanted the clarification thank you very much that I yield thank you counc there being no further c seat 6 VI pres per thank you I just think that the the

questions that people had were answered and I agree I think it's very well needed I know many people that are going to the emergency room and they're there for hours and hours and hours and just to bring somebody from a home uh to a hospital if it's not needed it's more frustrating to sit there I think this is a really good program um so that's why I said I'd put it in under Bristol County

but thank you so much Mr uh ala for the explanations you gave I appreciate it problem and the public you know he has that with I you Mr President thank you councel de no further questions thank you Mr thank you entertain a motion F Council second motion remain second all in favor I any oppos motion carries motour motion adjourn city council committee on finance has been made in second all in favor any opposed motion

carried city council comme Finance is now agend regular city council meeting begin at 7 o' overy hey hey he hey hey

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city council please come to order clerk will call the RO council is kadim here Dion here Kilby here libery Peter Pereira here Roso here Washington here president C here will everyone in the council chair please rise for a moment of Silent prayer and at this moment like everyone to acknowledge the passing of heca happy heck as we all know him a honorable great human being um we all send our

deepest sympathy and condolences to his family uh it's terrible we lost a a phenomenal individual in this

community

please remain standing for salute to the flag i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all pursu 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 not deemed acknowledged and

permissible can I entertain a motion to take items four and five out of order so we can present some citations so moved second second motion has been made to take item five and four and five out of order made and second all in favor I any opposed motion carries this time I'd like to call up Council Pereira and Mr Marshall will you come down please item three too Mr President item three as

well oh make hold on Linda can we can we just go through the call for it um I entertain a motion to adopt items three four and five please so moved second motion to adopt has been made in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries Mone me come down as as everyone knows uh Laura Washington and myself are the liaison from the council to Veterans groups and today in

front of us we have the student Veterans Chapter of America at the Joseph Marshall Veteran Center at Bristol Community College and it is so nice to see our younger veterans getting involved in doing things and these veterans um many of them represented Bristol County at the SVA Leadership Institute in Washington DC I'd like to have Denny Cosmo come up Denny is the director and maybe he can tell us a

little bit about the leadership program in Washington thanks thank you councilor Pera uh thank you city council and thank you to all the citizens of Fall River the Joseph A Marshall Veterans Center and the student Veterans of America chapter at Bristol Community College has been doing amazing work um this past October we sent six Bristol County residents to Washington DC to represent not only Bristol County but

Massachusetts at the premier Leadership Institute for student veterans and of about 78 student veterans from across the country six were selected from Bristol Community College which which is uh a huge achievement for the college for the county for the state and we got a lot of the student veterans here u in attendance and we just want to kind of recognize everything they've been doing

all semester long as far as leadership uh bringing the best out of each other and kind of putting Bristol Community College Fall River Massachusetts Bristol County uh really in the Forefront for student leadership student veteran engagement M and just creating a culture and atmosphere that brings the best out of each other so everything that you guys have been doing and women uh have

been doing in the veteran Center we just want to really recognize the um the Milestones that you have been bringing I didn't really prepare any words but did pretty good you did and I will tell you they also have a food pantry that goes on but you drive by it's amazing to see the number of people that come out um there's two tra two lines of packaging food and you just

bring your vehicle right around and they put the bags right in your car it's beautiful what they do I've been there a couple of times and I was pretty amazed at the number of people that come by I think there was over 160 the last time that I was there so we have some citations for those individuals for the exemplary service and dedication to the student Veterans of America chapter at

Bristol Community College during the fall of 2023 uh representing Bristol and the City of for River at the 2023 SVA Leadership Institute in Washington DC Factor non verba and I looked that up so I'm gonna have Joe Marshall who the center is named after we'll call you up and if you could just line up here because somebody said they wanted to take a picture that's good uh Amanda Scott please if you could Step Up thank

you Amanda

Bartlett and Amanda who oh de Devon Martinez thank you thank you Colin

mcken John Morris John yeah John's also the student trusty at uh BCC Brandon Maran BL Blanchard I'm sorry Bron get attention you get attention that way though uh uh Michael def Philly Michael Austin Scott

please okay got that and Talis Ferris Talis thank you and I know she wanted to take that picture that yeah I I I just would like to add that the Bristol as we all know Bristol is only a two-year college and to accomplish that since 2019 2019 they've been a member of the SBA and now we have seven Representatives so uh it's only going to get better and I appreciate all the

support from the city and thank you guys thank you thank you all very

much

can wa you see the next citation as veterans you're going to love it you're going to love it the next citation we're going to present is Mr Charles

gagnan coming Mr gag just want to read some of the things that Mr gagman um was awarded and I'm going to give you a little History Mr gagman served the United States Army from 1963 to 1966 trained in helicopter repair and advanced to the position of crew chief he participated in 225 assault combat flights 12 16-hour flight shifts 7 days a week for nine months he was told he was awarded the Vietnamese Cross of

gallantry and palm medal in 1965 but never received the award this award is presented to the by the Republic of Vietnamese Vietnam to the foreign and Armed Forces Mr Gagner was awarded this medal in response to his heroic actions on December 27th 1964 1964 for for a decisive victory over the Viet Kong um it's really a marable what this man did and he finally received his medal was given to him by State Rep car

Fiola on Veterans Day just this past Veterans Day we had uh following his Services United States Army he worked as an aircraft repairman at the Newport Naval base and worked on Marine vessels in Portsmith Mr gagman obtained a business degree and is the father of nine children congratulations to today I told you we were going to get the citation for you that we didn't have at that ceremony but it's an official

resolution be it resolved that c the city council hereby extends its commodation to Charles gagnan in recognition of the recipient of the Vietnamese Cross of gallantry and palm medal from the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam in 1965 long overdue be further resolve that the for city council extend best wishes for continued success and that this resolution be entered into records of the city council

adopted today November 28th 2023 proposed by myself Joseph Kar president sign attested to by the clerk Allison bushard thank you very much Mr Cal thank you for your just say thank you

he's a man of very few words is with a lot of action true war hero folks true war hero have you over thereat I won't give you a hug thank

you yeah that's

incredible Madam clerk Mr President we would need a motion to lift item one from the table table from the table motion lift item one from the table has a made it a second have a roll call please second a second roll call on lifting the matter from the table councelor kadim yes Dion yes Kilby no La Li peler Pereira yes Roso no Washington no president CRA yes Council kobby C3 yeah there's a

reason why I I uh voted against a motion to lift from the table um we have two counselors missing that's the first point I want to make um the second point is we have two new councils coming on um just in a you know a month little over a month away uh the intention of tabling in the first place councelor just don't interrupt please I just want to point of

point of point of order go ahead the count the item is not lifted from the table we need five votes therefore I'm just I will make my comments um okay but the item is not lifted from the table failed to lift from the table we need five votes to lift it from the table therefore the item does not count so it's been lifted okay no it's not lifted I appreciate I get called on when the

item coun the item did not get enough sufficient votes to be lifted from the table I I it remains tabled then I I appreciate the clarification yes that's all I'm saying all right thank you do you have anything further to say councel no I just apologize to the council for no it's quite all right I just want to make it clear that the item did not it failed to be lifted from the table Madam

clerk move on to next item please item two is the traffic commission recommending an amendment to the traffic ordinances motion refer to traffic second motion refer to traffic has remain seconded all in favor I any opposed motion comes we have the police department award recipients um citations for for all recipient motion to adopt the citations have been made in second all in favor I any opposed motion

carries item number six is a citation for enes leit the assistant city clerk for being awarded the designation of certified municipal clerk by The International Institute of Municipal CL motion to adopt second motion to adopt as we made and seconded and at this moment just let me say that inz is not here because she's feeling under the weather um also Council liid labau and Council pela both called and said they

could not make it today because they have also feeling under the weather but they did notify the clerk that they would not be able to be here mam clerk item seven is the order granting permission to Mass Electric doing business says national grid for the installation of underground conduit on Lindsay Street motion to adopt second motion to adopt as remain remain second all in favor any opposed motion carries

we have the police chief's report on licenses is there a motion to adopt the chief report onc ad motion to adopt as remain in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have an application on behalf of Wayne Pereira um at 155 Williston Street for the renew of his Auto Body Shop license to to do second all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have the application on behalf of Marco

Vino roas Fernandez at 2291 South Main Street for the renewal of his order repair shop motion to adopt remain second all in favor any opposed motion carries we have a claim motion to refer to Corporation counsel motion refer to Corporation Council Mee second all in favor any opposed OS motion carries we have three applications for um structures on a public way these would be metal signs providing uh the

name of a of a building and their its location there are three separate locations motion to adopt motion to adopt item 12 a b and c has been made is there a second second second all in favor I any oppos motion carries the committee on finance at a meeting held on November 28th voted to recommend that the attached proposal be referred to the full Council for action with councilors li Liberty and pelet

here absent and not voting this is the arpa proposal in the amount of $172,300 77 for Ems for the purchase of medical equipment motion to adopt motion to adopt has been made second and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries and we have an emergency Preamble in order to introduce the next item which is the loan order is there a motion to ad PR motion has been made and

seconded on emergency pre pre roll call on the emergency Preamble councilors kadim yes Dion yes Kilby yes bbery peler Pereira yes Roso yes Washington yes and president CRA yes motion to adopt motion to adopt second motion to authorize be published actually the committee on finance has ad made and seconded is that the motion youan councelor thank you this would be the loan order um for

the Robert M madus Brazilian resiliency Preparatory Academy renovation Council has voted on this previously but there was language that was lacking on the order so that's this is why it is being reintroduced moot authorized to be published on F has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries that's all we have motion to adjourn motion to motion to adjourn seconded all in favor I any opposed

motion carries city council committee meeting is now adjourned

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