12.13.2022 City Council

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pursuant to the open medium 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 or they're perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible this is someone that wants to speak they're having citizens input time for us

first to come before is Melissa Costa subject matter is Library protest you have three minutes

foreign okay um I made a really last minute decision to come by um I know there's only really so much that can be done in the setting but I think it's important based on the aftermath of what I've kind of heard in local media and whatnot um the mayor's response to what happened to the library this weekend when nsc131 a self-proclaimed white supremacist group um showed up to protest the story hour

that was there and there were about 25 of them masked um screaming slurs on mostly homophobic but there there were other um people they targeted as well especially on a person attending who was wearing a yamaka which would you know obviously give you know give them the signal um that she is of Jewish faith which they are against so I just want to give you this is a group I became aware of

around January of this year um so I just want to quickly take the time using this platform to kind of do a public service announcement because it's kind of been said that um oh they came but they're not from here and um I kind of wanted to spell this because I've been on their tail for about a year now just as a layperson watching news watching reading articles what they post on social media

um so I just want to use the limited amount of time to um do a public service announcement like I said for Community safety um we don't call NFC Nazis or white supremacists because we have different political views it's not about that that is what they call themselves loudly aggressively everywhere that they can show it they do in the last year yes while a favorite Target of them has been the drag story hours

um they also have placed white supremacist flyers and stickers throughout mass in the upper nearby Rhode Island there have been stories you know ABC 6 or the globe or the Providence Journal it's been in war and it's been Providence um Pawtucket Portsmouth in East Providence they actually stickered and fired a private school so a couple of them were arrested for trespassing and vandalism and two other members of the

group that were with them had to sign trespassing orders or something I guess it was like a ticket one of them was identified as a follower of a resident I just want to make that clear I have no idea where I've tried to find out um I don't know where but I just this constant thing that it's others that come here to create things is dangerous we need to have our eyes and ears open

there'd be maybe one there might be ten I don't know but to try to kind of gloss over it and assume that these things don't happen everywhere and these people don't get radicalized everywhere is not a safe path in my opinion so I just want to go through the other appearances that I've seen in the past year and how many seconds left okay so um anyway again first time I was that introduce them at

Brigham and Women's Hospital they were out there with a huge Banner against white genocide they were handing out flyers that had the photos of two doctors there that pilot a program that that is working on certain diseases that affect certain minority communities more than they do Caucasian Americans which they saw as anti-white on March at the St Patrick's Day Parade in Boston you

saw them on the news they had took up a whole street with a banner that said please your time is up literally like five more points that's it it's important thank you I appreciate it I don't I don't ever come to sit and surface okay the St Patrick's Day Parade they had a banner all the way down I want to say it was either Arlington or Charles Street keep Boston Irish in September they actually posted pictures

um training they blacked out their faces because they didn't have the masks on but they were in a Fall River Park there were no defining um there was no defining trees or signs or anything in the background again I tried to break it down I zoomed in um but it was tagged as in fall river um in October um in October they went up to the Kingston hotel where some immigrants that had been shipped for

lack of a better word um to Massachusetts had been put in temporarily um because they are also anti-immigrant in November the story hour at the library about six of them showed up and I believe now based on what we saw on Saturday it was a test run and the last thing I just want to close with is they have put out a couple of propaganda videos about Saturday from their own point of view

and in a second one that they posted yesterday just as the pride committee and the mayor's statement had dropped that's why I have a feeling somebody was paying attention to see what the response was to what they did um they didn't even they didn't necessarily zoom in on the people that um why they said they were there which was a drag Story Hour they zoomed in on that one member in attendance that had a

yamaka and they compared she said she looked like a rodent basically which is a Nazi point from World War II is how they tried to dehumanize Jewish people was to compare them to rats and mice and things like that and they zoomed in on her face and I will not share that publicly I privately sent it to the pride committee so they can look out for the safety of their members um I'm not

on the pride committee I'm just an ally I'm a supporter um I have many friends many kids I've worked with over the years that are part of this community so again I'm not throwing it's not to be negative throw blame and whatnot I just want us to be realists and to be safe going forward and not you know just kind of put a nice face on this okay that's all I have to

say and I'm happy to share the information that I've thank you like literally I take screenshots and throw them into an album so I have something to go back to it's um nothing sophisticated I don't have any inside knowledge where regular people that have become more concerned with every appearance by this group whether it's Jamaica Plain Story Hour Boston St Patrick's Day Parade a school in Providence

um Jewish centers I want to make um three wants to say something questions brief comment please I wear a comment yeah um nope just a comment I'm sorry um this is an issue I think that is um going around Nationwide I hope you share all the information that you you shared with us with the police department I'm sure they're on it um it's not only a city issue it's a state issue with the state police and

the federal government so hopefully our law enforcement people are on top of this because we watch the news every single night the local news the state news and the national news and we see a lot of this hatred our very propelled propelled forward so I appreciate our coverage for coming here and uh I hope the administration and the our law enforcement officials are on top of these type of things I yield thank you

item number two we have a discussion the loan order of phase 22 LED service removal Water Systems improvements in the amount of four million six hundred seventy five thousand it was referred on November 22nd 2022.

any question Donald you want to come down no

thank you very much councils I want to give us a brief yep synopsis please yep in front of you you have a loan order uh in the amount of 4 million 675 thousand dollars um this is for uh removal of lead Services uh throughout the city uh this money will be used in conjunction with a win grant that we the city has received uh as well as uh requests for some

Bristol County Opera fund to go towards this project foreign so this dollar amount plus the 3 million from the Opera funding and the 10 million dollar Grant is the totality of it uh how do the numbers all break down so yeah so this will not cover all of the work that needs to be done uh the work that needs to be done uh based on the current numbers that we have of Blood

Services within the city uh is a total of 23 million dollars um that is uh what it has been estimated to remove all LED Services throughout the city um so the uh the project tonight as well as the 10 million dollar um as well as the 10 million dollar win Grant as well as a three million dollar Opera Grant uh will carry us through the next four years of uh this project uh

through uh an ACO we are required to move remove uh in 2023 400 lead Services uh 2024 600 lead Services 25 600 lead services and 27 uh 400 lead services and then 400 lead Services every year thereafter until they're all removed throughout the city so with these three um pots of money so to speak we're looking at we have 17 million six hundred and seventy five thousand dollars correct

so there's still an additional three million that was put aside we we voted for six million to go to Water and Sewer would it be reasonable and make sense to take that 3 million and at and basically you'd have almost the entire amount necessary uh that is something that the council uh potentially could do I was looking at some sewer projects I would would have had liked to spend three

million on water 3 million on sewer we're waiting uh to determine a sewer related project we're waiting on some grants and some earmark funding to come in we don't want to allocate that Opera funding for something where we may be able to get other funding sources for so we're just waiting on those uh to see what comes in um but uh you know so that's what I was doing planning on doing with the six

million dollars that the council allocated towards Water and Sewer projects yeah I certainly would um follow your lead and whatever way you feel is best to um you know use the use the funding is fine um at the last meeting I asked what this Bond represented in terms of the ratepayer and you said it was a dollar and I think 38 cents am I close yeah so it's roughly once uh once The

Debt Service comes on board in 2025 uh it's uh eight cents uh per CCF uh and then based on the 53 CCF give me one second here uh so that's four dollars and 24 cents per year added to the water rate of the average water user um and just one thing about this so this is uh majority of this project 4.15 million dollars uh is applied for through srf funding the state revolving uh loan funding

um the state revolving loan funding uh right now is the one Avenue to access bipartisan infrastructure law funding so essentially we'll be taking the loan through the srf program and then they'll be giving a principal reduction of that loan right so you think so you've given a conservative number of ultimately bonding for give or take three million dollars in in the end result and that's

that and that represents the dollar and change per quarter for the rate payer correct now the reason I bring that up so if so seven times that amount of money would be almost ten dollars a quarter correct roughly they're roaches but yet when I proposed 20 million dollars to be given to you for water and sewer we were told it represented two dollars a quarter for the ratepayer so either somebody's

calculated was broken or it was misrepresented so I can tell you all my calculations um that I do I base it off of the average of 53 CCF per year um I would have to go back into my notes to see whether I did that on a 20-year okay yeah I can yeah um you know again with my calculations yeah it's probably a good thing all right just just um but anyway so in hindsight

so 3 million represents a dollar in change and 20 million only represented two dollars savings for the rate rate payer there's a problem there um that really upsets me because the 20 million you could have completely paid for this and still for other projects that you need completed and with that I yield there you go to concentrate for Council Liberty thank you I just have one question you said it's 23 million total

to remove all the lead service all the lead service from the current numbers that we have of our inventory and then um so all of these three things together is about 17 million will that take care of all the lead services that are going from the street into the home yeah so so the uh the program that we're putting forward there will be no cost for to the homeowner for anything so there's

roughly about 740 or so full-led services so that's from the main all the way into the meter uh we'll be replacing all of those from the main all the way in the into the media anywhere where there has been partial Replacements done in the past meaning uh from the main uh to the curb stop near the property line uh the requirements in the past by the regulations was if you remove that that

was considered a removed wedge service with the change in the regulations with the revised lead and copper rule that is no longer the case you have to remove the full Edge service so we'll be going back to all the homes where we moved up to the curb stop and we'll be removing from that curb stop all the way into the meter so that will come out of the 17 million and every homeowner will be

taken care of you know again uh the from our current numbers the total program would be 23 million dollars but all the 17 million dollars will be going towards that yes yeah with the my colleague in c number two and some of the questions that she had Administration has had like Administration to come down and give us um their opinion on exactly how much this is costing and if we're hearing one

amount for residents and another amount I'd like to get to the bottom of it so if we could also have I don't know if it's um uh Bridget or uh Mr aitkins I'd like to have her questions answered

whoever would like to answer that question for Council Pereira please don't sure so before we get too deep into this um I certainly understand the counselor and c2's concern um had this been raised before the meeting I could have taken a look at uh anything that might have been presented at that meeting several months ago uh and come with some answers as to why there at least appears uh and I don't

I'm I'm not necessarily conceding that there is a discrepancy I I imagine as I always do and maybe I'm naive the mayor always says that I act like I'm from West Virginia um which is too bad because there's some really great people in West Virginia uh that I think it's just um I always sort of expect the best and and hope for the best I imagine that if there is a seeming discrepancy there's a good

explanation for it but I have to say that I'm not prepared to answer the question because um that conversation where the counselor proposed a 20 million dollar expenditure uh which would which as I recall was the entirety of the county arpa money at that time plus additional City Arbor money um that's the extent of what I recall from the conversation I'd be glad to look into it and see what numbers we

presented at that time and where those came from and give the council some answers as to why that number doesn't seem to jive with the number uh that Mr Ferlin is is presenting here today but I will say that before we get into you know sort of a gotcha moment which I don't think anybody wants but that's it could be what it turns into I'm just not prepared to answer the question could you find

sure I'll yield to my colleague in seat number two Council DM so the reason I specifically remember that it was two dollars was there was such a big discussion on and my colleague in C8 made the statement my God I thought this money was going to save far more money this this isn't going to save the money I believed it was going to save and two dollars a quarter is not significant enough for me

to support this resolution I'm paraphrasing but I believe I'm close to what your statement was and it was based on two dollars a quarter I have no reason to to doubt anything you're saying counselor uh respectfully uh it's just that I need to to do the research and and know and you know refresh my memory as to what was actually said uh I'll take a look at the agendas I'll take a look at the meeting

um make sure that I remember everything that was that was talked about and also where those numbers came from um because as you know you know one of the things that is always a challenge when we start talking about arpa money especially with uh regard to an Enterprise fund is because it can't go to salaries it can't go to a lot of those expenses that really do contribute to the cost to the taxpayer it doesn't

do everything we wanted to do to bring those costs down but at this point like I said I I don't think anybody here is prepared to have a meaningful conversation about what was said at that meeting versus what's being presented now but I'm absolutely glad to to wade into it and get you uh as candid and answer as I can and and trust me this is not a gotcha moment not at all at the

last meeting when this was first proposed I was going to bring this up but I was shut down and said this wasn't the time to talk about it it still had to be um it still had to be advertised and it would come back to us so you would have had far advanced notice had I been allowed to complete my line of questioning that evening but I wasn't well I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm

not perfect and you know I'm very passionate about this I've been trying very hard for a long time to help with soaring water to help the rate payers help the taxpayers so this gets me very upset um so with that I'll yield and I will leave it alone yeah let's just make one thing very clear no one was shut down from speaking okay Carter just going to repeat what I

said no one was shut down from speaking what you were told were that this matter was going to come before you in finance where the appropriate people could come down here and answer any question that you have so he's going to answer the question by finding out what happened that night he doesn't have it before him now if you wanted to him to give you that information you could have done

what you could do anytime his call the administration say this is what I'd like to bring down at the next meeting this is the question I have just give me the discrepancy and why a month ago it was said or two months ago we said it was gonna be two dollars and now it's ten dollars or whatever the price would be but no one really shuts anyone down in this Championship I certainly don't what

I said to you is shrimpoo we're not going to have discussion then when it's going to get referred to finance and everyone can be at the table which is now we're not going to have a discussion now that stuff no we are having a conversation we don't need to argue well it wasn't I wasn't on the agenda Council to have this for discussion referred to finance which is now it's referred in

finance and we have the discussion to finance that's all it's very simple there's no need to make a statement like that that you would shut down you never shut down counselor if you wanted to ask questions that would be in finance everyone else was going to get the finance agenda we're gonna have right now today now the fact that he can't answer the question you have he'll get that answer for you

ASAP how long will it take to come back with that answer for accountancy two I will try to do it this week thank you constitute six you can continue sure uh Mr Akins if you could just get that information and send an email to all of us so that we'll know and I feel bad that you weren't given advanced notice to have that information tonight because I think it's a legitimate question it's

an important but I think that if that question had been asked so that you'd have that information for today sometimes we ask questions when we get to the council floor but it's easier to call and say hey this is the concern I had can you get this information so when we discuss that you know you'll have the information but I I am concerned with some of the statements my colleague in

seat number two made so if you could provide us with that information it would be helpful certainly and um Mr Ferlin I did hear you on wsar I thought you did a great job of speaking clearly and explaining to the residents of Fall River where all the money was coming from to do this and I'm happy to see that we're going right to the house and not just to the property line and having the homeowner

pay that's a bit different there are some questions that I want to get to you that I've just gotten calls over the past few days about water meters but this is not the time to be discussing water meters we're discussing this so I'll bring my concern to you at a later date if you hang around and there's a break I can tell you what my concerns are but with that I yield thank you Mr

President concert today Council Washington so uh if I remember correctly yes I do I don't remember the dollar amount but I do remember that statement so but I I do to Mr Ferlin I think that when either that meeting or the meeting thereafter you were also saying that the that pay rate was going to be around that so if there's a discrepancy now what I would ask that um you and the administration kind of

get together to find out what that was because I think it was both of you that said that that pay rate was going to be around that two dollar range so I don't know what happened in that time it is concerning um but if you could do that and just we can always um call the administration right and with questions prior to here am I correct about that any time but I and

I'm always glad to get the call but I I also acknowledge that sometimes things come up in the middle of the meeting and it's not the direction anyone thinks it's going to be in and they're important questions that not only need to be answered here but for the people that are watching so um I'm glad to look into this and try to get you perfect uh if even if it's not a

satisfactory answer it'll be an answer and it'll be an answer based upon um me having had a chance to take a look at it and uh you know even if I don't like what the answer is it'll be the truth yeah that's great thank you I think it's just concerning for people at home and confusing that um the back and forth so I think the more the better information that we can

come here prepared the better and if you guys are on the same page um or not um we know before the meeting so thank you with that I yield council president thank you Council any further questions thank you Mr President um I'm not sure got a green light oh there we go um I've got more of a statement than I guess questions so one I just want to go on reckon and

preface that I support the project um and I guess this comments are not directed to the individuals at the table because I know you're not part of this however um two meetings ago when we were talking about the first quarter update one of the conversations that I had had mentioned was Bedford Street streetscapes and the fact that we had bonded close to 2.3 million dollars even though there's authorization for 2.4

million um so I just want to go on record number one saying that I'm not going to support any further um debt authorization as one counselor until we get an analysis on the Arbitrage regulations and whether or not we're um in violation uh of any of that I know that one in particular I can talk about that okay um yeah if I can just explain I know you folks understand that from my colleagues

who may not understand it so there are the albatross regulations are basically regulations surrounding uh borrowing for municipalities um and it you know like in the 1986 or or in the 80s somewhere along the lines uh they came back out the IRS came back out with regulations saying that you know we keep municipalities cannot borrow to make money right and then in that the part of the regulations were if

you go out for construction uh you have a spend down requirement and um within the first six months you need to spend down 10 of the debt that was borrowed uh 12 months 45 and you have up to about three years to expend 100 so my concern is is that we have um some debt that was at least short term whether or not it was long-term or not

and I'll go back to you in a little bit but without cash flows being submitted in terms of the timeliness of needing to borrow and things of that nature and we've got a project that potentially according to the uh the actuals that are before us have only spent 104 000 so you know part of the the violations uh for this you know the IRS could potentially request require that any interest savings

um be paid to the IRS plus additional penalties um since we are a non-exempt or tax-exempt entity so I just want to make sure with all the borrowing that we have out there the financial advisor just goes through it that we have something like okay I can I'd like to talk yeah absolutely so that was already a concern of mine several months ago I've already been on top of that we've been working

with our bond Council and with Hilltop Securities okay I actually because we're getting ready to go out to borrow for um our for February but as you know we all this process starts much sooner so what it appears is that was a loan authorization back then but they didn't actually take the borrowing out back on that date so we are updating all of that we now have I mean Mr furland does a

really good job with his cash flows unfortunately you know there's been a lot of change over in the city and Al Oliveira is now on board we had another meeting with him today we're actually getting all of these projects together doing a true cash flow and I I mean I have regular meetings over the next two weeks with our bond advisors so we are not in an Arbitrage situation okay so they didn't

contrary to what the report shows because the report which was showing two point just under 2.3 million dollars of short-term borrowing it's it's borrowed but it wasn't borrowed that far back oh it wasn't so you're saying that it's Ben Barr not spent but it's within that three yeah so the some of the issues is the carryover of that book yeah and as we're going over and we're we're

changing we're going to change some of that the picture of the way those are on individual sheets and look at and we're going to be providing more information where it looks like more of like a true cash flow of like you know projected term and how when we actually need the money so we are tightening that all of that up right now so are you concerned concerned moving forward that we still

potentially could be an Arbitrage no because the the the city didn't invest the money it was sitting in money markets at the time so we didn't earn any money the interest rates were so low but you still have to spend down though right so we're not standing down yes and so we've been looking at Bond premiums and making that's all been active conversations with Bond Council and with Hilltop okay to make sure that

we are not in any so I wasn't expecting a full conversation because because obviously I'm just bringing it up now so I guess I'll take it offline but I just want to just moving forward until until I get some confirmation from the administration that that's the case um just so you know that I'm not going to be supporting any further debt just moving forward but so if we can Rectify

that tomorrow then that's fine with me and I appreciate it and again I know you you just got here so I know it's it's not your fault or um you know stuff as well but uh just concerned as a counselor you know when we go out there and actually concerned as the CFO internal controls and making sure that you know the debt that's authorized by the city council obviously we're meeting you know Federal

Regulations that's that's where I was concerned with so without a yield thank you Council any further questions no all right thank you very much for coming down appreciate it thank you item number three discussion regard the overview of the city of Fall River and Bristol County American Rescue plan act Opera funding and it's basically you have the director come down and discuss to us

what's going on with the Opera funds how are you I'm sorry before before we continue number three can I just have a referral make a motion to refer to motion referred full Council secondary forecast proposal Same by Council Washington all in favor aye any opposed the eyes have it thank you now you may proceed him I haven't been here in a while so I wanted to give you an overview welcome back

thank you I want to give you an overview of sort of I know there was a few of you who have been asking where stand with the Bristol County as well as well just before we begin just a couple things that I noticed that I want to clarify um in the letter I sent down on December 8th I I think it's one two three five paragraphs down I State the Bristol County Treasury overview there's a

discrepancy in both of those amounts by 50 000 because I adjusted um I adjusted the Bristol County arfa funds overview chart I'm showing here um on the fitness Court I had made a typo and when I added the 50 000 which is the correct amount I didn't change that amount on the letter that I already drafted so I just wanted to point that out to you as well as councilman Raposa

pointed out to me so thank you that on the city arpa funds overview if you flip two um page four I have under the proposed projects I put the Capital Improvements for information technology that you are actually hearing tonight as a proposal that we are seeking funds through the Bristol County so there's that and then I would just also note um when I drafted this chart um two contracts had not been signed that

are signed now those are the non-profit assistance program that contract has been signed and under the Bristol County overview the Blue Water Project has also been signed so just to start I wanted to sort of go over the terminology that I'm using so no contract signed means that the we're still that the advisory committee for the city money has has been or or the first or that the

city council themselves sorry if it's if it refers to the Bristol County Treasury money um has been um the committee has voted and approved but no contract has been signed and that can be for several reasons really it's just that I haven't drafted it that we're working on um the specifics of it um and getting it right um or that it's if sometimes it might be just sitting on my desk

um and just hasn't got walked down to the right person yet um in progress means that the contract has been signed with the sub-recipient um it means that we they are going through the procurement requirements by the federal and state and also that you know some invoices may have been turned in and paid out some may still exist some some may still be looking to be paid and not provided to

us yet so that would be in progress and then completed is that the contract sign invoices have been provided procurement has had gone through and that all funds have been District attributed to the sub-recipient and it's done the Project's done so I think just to be prudent it probably makes sense just to field questions I have to wait for the president yeah so yeah um I I'd like you to just you know let's

go through that because I said Carlton CD had to handle oh I'm sorry that's right I I'll yield and I'll talk after you can go okay wow um was I next or was there someone else no no you're next okay um just to kind of go through them like rivety recovery they're really desperately in need of this money when do you think that that will be released to them so what happened with that is

that we received um the we're receiving the opioid settlement money and so the administration would like to use half of that 70 000 to come from that um and then 70 000 to come from the arpa fund so we've met with Mr Doyle we're going through the paperwork um the contract is going to be signed we just had to make changes because of the change in where the money's come on so

instead of the 100 140 for mapa he'll get 70 and get 70 from the opioids correct so the sooner we can give him the 70 to get him started the better yes and so that's a contract that's sitting on my desk okay um hopefully that one will move I know that they're hurting up there um the covert health insurance what exactly is that so that was just voted upon at our November meeting and that is

for third party um so like it was payments that the city incurred from the self-insured um Blue Cross Blue Shield in Massachusetts so during covet or covet related um so that contract is not signed because I'm getting all of the paperwork from Blue Cross Blue Shield to be reflected in the contract so that was 602 yes wow that's a lot and those that are completed um the other one is the watapa row project

of the 200 000 are they caught up on payments for rent so no what happened with that um is that that building sits on um I believe it's some it's I think it's state or and federal property um The Rose Center is on city property city property so it is water department and because it's Water Department property um and these are federal funds in order for them to do some of the rehabilitation that they were talking

about doing in that building it actually would require all of the the ADA compliance and it basically made the the price astronomical because they were looking to put in a bathroom a number of other things I know your question and I heard your question I'm not avoiding it as to whether or not they are caught up with their rent I I do believe that that's an ongoing negotiation as to whether or not

um there's a what their future looks like in that facility I can't comment on it I'm not a part of her now but I know it's ongoing um if we do reach a satisfactory tree conclusion there I think the Big Challenge to the rowing Center is that the repairs that they wanted to make to that building are much much more expensive than they anticipated because of the code requirements

okay and and you know I hear you say the word we're going to negotiate that contract has been negotiated there was a balloon payment we're now going to negotiate the balloon payment again is that what I'm hearing from you I don't know the specifics I just know that it's an ongoing conversation I apologize I I can get that information for you I think they're a wonderful program but I would

really hope that students in Fall River at all of the high schools and the colleges the nearby colleges BCC UMass Dartmouth the nearby colleges utilize that because there are many opportunities for scholarships with the Rogue program so I'm not um I'm not against it but I think you don't give people more money when the bills aren't paid you just you don't do that at least not in my world um

and the rest of them the other question I have the holiday parade it says 50 000 I thought we gave them 75. so we gave them 75 000 for 2021 so if you flip to page two um you'll see the 75 000 reflected there they spent um and I I believe they spend 63 000 and so what you're looking at I believe is the 2022 um and so we we were using some of that

balance of the 13 000 and then the 50.

however with the parade being canceled I think they expended only 20 000. so does that money come back so in order to hold that money for next year I think that's what sort of we're discussing right now

the other one was the Strategic tourism plan of six hundred and seventy thousand I'd like to hear more about that so the Strategic tourism plan a lot of the amount that you see there goes towards the real take or taking a real look at the data doing a data analysis and um understand getting a company to come in and figure out where are people traveling from who who was who are these

people what are they why are they coming to the city where are they spending their money how are they spending their money and really digging into that information in order to utilize and figure out what what's going to work from a marketing and advertising standpoint so we're gonna we're gonna pay six hundred and seventy thousand dollars on that no no so it's a a two-year it's a it's a two-year program

where that we review it after the first six months but that also encompasses a um an event like a an almost an events coordinator that's working out of the city hall to help sort of streamline a lot of these processes well if it's an event coordinated that's working out of City Hall the sub-recipient to the Strategic tourism plan is one South Coast foundation so it's not out of the city of Fall River and this whole

Council has adamantly for years stated that we want a tourism director so this I'm sorry I would I would you know urge the administration he may not be in agreement he and I can agree to disagree but you're spending six hundred and seventy thousand dollars to do whatever you're going to do with tourism but we don't even have a tourism director and we're going to let South Coast Foundation do

it which they do a good job but there are other people in this community that do a lot for tourism and event planning Etc I mean Creative Arts Network has done things as well are they are they going to get part of this money or not I think that you know you're going on a slippery slope here and I would just encourage you Mr Akins to tell them yeah we as a council have stated over and

over we want a tourism director so I'm sure out of six hundred and seventy thousand dollars you can get somebody to come in for two years and be a tourism director and see how that flushes out how that works and put that into our budget the rest of it I really don't have any questions on I thank you very much attorney how my ham I know that you've done a great job

doing this I know the premium pay has been out it says here in progress but I believe the premium pay has already so we're just waiting there's a couple um other things with contracts I believe okay but yeah a majority has gone out but I think we're working in the right direction and people that came in through coved every single day certainly deserve their premium pay and the sooner you could do

that the better at least they would get that bump for the holiday season other than that mistakens again tourism director tourism director we need to get people to come into Fall River I'm so tired of hearing we are so located between the cape and Newport and Providence and Boston but you haven't figured out a way how to get these people to come here so a tourism director does that kind of thing and and

comes up with programs I mean I've said it before all the hotels around here put a little video on there of the businesses that we have here uh you know the entertainment that we have here things that Fall River has to offer we live here and sometimes if it's on our nose we don't see it but we travel all over to look at you know South Carolina to look at homes with uh you know with

Widow watches we got the best ones here you know we've got the battleship we've got um the Iwo Jima Monument we have the Vietnam Wall we have a Marine Museum we have narrow center for the Yachts come on we have things here to showcase tourism director that's um my final comment with that I yield Mr President I think we could just hire you counselor well if I wasn't a counselor maybe that would

be a good fit for me because don't forget this weekend last Saturday at Winter Wonderland so come by we do have a lot of wonderful attractions Council C Day Council Washington thank you council president um attorney I am so happy to see you because you can shed some light on the many calls that I'm getting now I know that um we have spoken but I don't explain it as eloquently as you maybe if

they talk to my counselor and see one he could probably explain it in New York terms but um I cannot so I do my best to explain why it's taking so long the hold up and the process that um this is a new process so it was passed unanimously the youth project so many families are contacting me weekly the business is weekly we want to help these young people it was such a moving thing and

people were just ready to jump right in I know I was um but the process is taking a long time and so I think just explaining to the community a little bit why that's taking a long time um in the right way to explain it would be very helpful to the community to understand it's not forgotten it's there but the process is long because it's a new process please absolutely and

um thank you actually for reminding me because it was there was a big bullet here that I was supposed to talk about that I am and I I overlooked it I should have highlighted it um so one thing that is was on my letter was to sort of um give some sort of notice as to what is happening with the four youth initiative and to also sort of ask the council that at the next

meeting I would like to submit a letter asking to rescind the grant agreement for the for youth initiative to give back the 2 million to Bristol County the reason for that is um and I think you said it quite well it has been a very cumbersome process with Bristol County Treasury and um administer the administratively trying to administer a program where it's not just one sub-recipient but a ton of stakeholders

these vendors that will be the gyms and the music places and profits and all of that it's very cumbersome to try to do the paperwork and manage those invoices through Bristol County Treasury and so to streamline the process and make it much more so I think efficient my recommendation would be to use the city money for that and to give you back the 2 million to be used for something else

I you know I can give more detail if you want but I so my sort of projection on this is that if at the December 27th meeting I won't be here but and I don't know if you will be but I can prepare something to ask the council to rescind that Grant agreement if that is something you would support um and then I would present it to during our January advisory committee meeting

and asked for them to approve that 2 million we have all of the paperwork and forms ready to go we would do a press conference to really let people people know that this is happening we already have talked to people to try to you know get get the word out to some of these organizations and businesses and vendors and businesses to um to participate in this program so I just wanna people are

going to be very worried that we're asking to resend the money and the money so with the administration is proposing to take it out of his because it will speed up the process because this is this is new to the Bristol County Opera people this is a cumbersome and people want to get this moving and want to help these young people which my colleagues and see too should be thrilled they'll be two more

not gonna think for lead so um said it very well in a meeting the other day and I'm going to quote you um is that you know the money really is this every all the money is the city money right I mean it's all of our the city of fall River's money and so um looking at it that way it's just from an administrative standpoint it's it's going to be much less cumbersome to go

back and forth with Bristol County on this so I would go on the record in saying that I would definitely do that rescind that and support that in my vote um if that's going to make it quicker as long as we get a guarantee that that 2 million will come from the mayor's side the other side I don't care where the money comes from it's just that it happens and it happens soon there are

just so many young people out there that need this um counselor Washington sorry to interrupt but um I you know in my meeting with Bristol County Treasury on this and like voicing my concerns about their process um I mean Jane Gonzalez did go on and on about um how wonderful this was and she didn't really want to give it up but she understood sort of where I was coming from and sort of the administration of this

um but I did she she did commend um this uh this whole idea and thought it was a wonderful idea yeah so I I want to state that that this it's not it wasn't done wrong it's not something it's just it's a very cumbersome process and to look at it we're looking at maybe in eight months or a year before we can get this off the ground in my eyes and then

um I just want to get it moving um so wherever the money comes from but I wanted people at home to hear that from the administration and from you Miss Hum as the attorney that oversees this that it's just you know people are saying well you said you were going to do this great thing these kids need it is it really going to happen and it is it just may come in a different wrapped

package from the city so um with that I yield thank you Mr President thank you come to C5 Council Chevy hand up because you see four Council thank you um just jumping off what councilman seat eight said will that program take eight months to a year to roll out I thought that was I mean I know that's like my take on it well I think oh I think no I

think we're in a I think we're closer to that like all of the forms that the vendors will receive I've created I've created the forms for the families to fill out we've spoken with somebody to sort of they're ready to hit the ground running and sort of soliciting the getting the word out to these vendors doing the invoicing um I do think I mean I think that my hope would be that

um I think it's a the third week of January is our committee meeting assuming that you all are in favor of rescinding that presenting it to our committee um I did mention it at our last meeting as something we were looking at for support um and um and then I mean I think the press conference would be but I have had people also reaching out to me that and

they're ready to go so I do think it's some I think it's less than eight months I well if we have the money we could like execute it really soon we just and that's the thing is once that once our committee um creates uh votes on it internally within the city then I mean I can draft that I can draft the contract within days the money gets moved into that fund

and the other advantages is that if for some reason this two-year program we don't use all of that money right it can go back into the money to be used for something else so that was my other question um but just backing up a second so it sounds like you already have all the documents ready for the vendors and the families and all of that so once if the other committee approves it which I

would hope that they would and you have a press conference and um we're ready to go so yeah yeah and I I think we were all hoping we would the process I mean the application has been in since whenever you voted on it last which I I don't know if that was September 13th or even back in August I think it was before that yeah I think it was too

um yeah I think it might be the August 16th meeting um so I mean all of this stuff has sort of just been ready to go and we've been waiting for Bristol County Treasury and so the other question I had is if it is getting towards the deadline and the funds aren't used we can reallocate it to something else so yeah so I mean we can make it we can do an amendment so

for instance the small business grant assistance program you see on page two that originally was um the voted by the advisory committee and approved for I believe it was like almost 3.2 million um and we made in them once we realized that there was sort of a standstill in the businesses that were seeking those funds we made an amendment to reduce it by 2 million to the one the 1.1 six

and that number might go down again you know we'll revisit that and we can make an amendment and then the month the funds would then shift back into the sort of General arpa a count to be allocated to a different project okay and on that one on the small business grant I know that there was part of the funds were going towards advertising and letting the businesses know but is there

any other direct Outreach to the small businesses because what I'm hearing is oh if you know oh I didn't know that was happening or I thought that was done you know more towards the beginning of covert there was money for small businesses they didn't know that this was another thing with Opera funds from the city so which one I'm sorry go ahead no so are they is there an Outreach to them to let them know

um so I I mean I can fail that is in charge of this I'm not sure if there was anything else he's been doing but I know we've also talked about um we're creating this new Municipal website um and linking that those kind of things like I'm hoping I'm working right now on like the non-profit assistance program having that sort of identified on the arpa page so that people can and then maybe having the small business

assistance program under that so people can get all of that in information in one spot okay and on the website one what was my other question do we know when that is going to be up and running so um the process we've been going through for the last probably a month and a half has been going back and forth with the website developer around kind of big picture layout structure

um I think we are and I had a conversation with Council Repose about this I think we're weeks away from uh convening uh the website advisory committee which is comprised of members of the community City councils Community groups folks in uh in Government Center to try to start dealing with the the fine points in addition to that the logo contest just finished up we'll be announcing a winner soon so we'll have a

visual identity that's going to be going with this and then we're in the process of interviewing software companies that will do some of the back of the house stuff so one of the things that's that's critically important to this website is that people are able to schedule things apply for things online to include permits to include is to include all the different things that right now require

a visit to government center and if somebody can do everything you need to do in the center in the city without coming to government center that is that's accessibility uh that's inclusive and so that's um that requires technology at the back of the house um we have done Zoom meetings with several cities that use different technology packages to do that I was actually in a zoom meeting with a

company that actually does the actual permitting piece we have another one scheduled for next week so that's what's been happening which means that I think we are it's probably early January when we start to convene the meeting and then March when we are able to to launch uh I would say a 90 website and then it will take a few months after that to get all the rest of the pieces

in place but a website that is going to have a tremendous amount of more functionality and better usability than what we have now is a few months away okay can't come soon enough atrocious um so the other only other question I have is the 1 million 34 for it that would be deducted from the funds available at Bristol County but then possibly there'll be two million put back in exactly okay with that ideal thank you

thank you two questions attorney home um first is is the hydrangea project there the Creative Arts Network what is the status on that so the status is that that would the amount that the committee voted for the 25 000 was not necessarily the entirety of what um the creative arts Network wanted and so that contract was not signed because more money was desired um and so I've been working with the

Creative Arts Network in conjunction um with Chris prano to find another area that we think we have in agreement on like agreement between both parties to um possibly where they have similar interests and um to so so we have to present sent that back in front of I guess the committee to figure out if that's something that can be supported through arpa so do we do we believe that number is going to change

um I think so I I get unclear because I'm not sure if the project would be funded through arpa or wouldn't um I think it could change and I but I think it could be a much more encompassing project it's a possibility the project itself could change all right I guess that's what morph into something exactly yeah different more beneficial for like for the city for everyone as opposed to just one

sub-recipient fair enough um the other question I asked you this yesterday but for my colleagues the question I asked you was as far as a project that remains no contract signed what is your process to facilitate if it kind of just sits there for two three six months what are you doing behind the scenes to get that rolling so what I'm doing is reaching out to those sub-recipients of creating they're

required when they sign the contract to provide monthly updates as to the status of the project and so I'm sort of revisiting those projects that you see no contract signed um that was what you said right you asked okay I was thinking a few sorry yes um so yeah so we're revisiting with some of those um but a lot of them are still sort of we're like we're we're having meetings we're talking about it they're

in the works um so I've been in contact with those people okay thank you because you see two cups again so my first question after listening to the um use initiative is it possible for us to refer this to full Council and take a vote tonight to rescind that money and and I would like so for expediency is that something that we can do where we were all whether it was a unanimous

uh vote uh we could make a motion even to um to reconsider or make a motion to recess yet so we haven't had anything presented towards it towards a motion to rescind the money God's going to take apart it's off to we send money without coming from the administration we'd rather have it come from Administration put on the agenda do it the right way and then we can all vote on it clarification

correct me but there's a process here where we can we vote to confirm with the administration allocates and and also the Bristol County Commissioners might have to say to have a say in this as well maybe no so I had a meeting with Bristol County Treasury about this application um and explain to them that I that my reservations with moving forward with this with this application one thing um like for for instance

um I create they wanted to to see sort of every vendor that was going to be part of this and the amount of scholarships that were going to be allocated to each child and the amount of cost and so I sort of did like a template to kind of but what I explained to them is you're asking for me to provide you with information that we can't solicit until we have the approval

right so like we're we're not going to solicit all of these vendors until you've told us so it's kind of this Catch-22 um in which they agreed with um as well and so I just asked them they asked me what they should do and I said why don't we just put this on hold and I'll report back after I've spoken to the city council and so um what there's been no money

transferred so at any point in the there's three levels of review as I've mentioned before and right now um I think this is sitting in level three and so they're so they're like they want to approve it but for this it might actually be level two I'm sorry um but they want information I can't provide them and so that's where like the sort of cumbersome back and forth um

so I'm so I just said hold off on it let me talk to city council see if they would support rescinding so what the request would be that I would bring at the next meeting is to rescind the grant agreement that was signed pertaining to this project there has been no transfer of actual funds or anything like that that has to be returned to Bristol County um or move out of our you know arpa

account so it doesn't go outside there's the flock so basically it was just a plain simple question for expediency purposes and because people are so anxious to get this online it was just a simple question is it something we can deal with and handle tonight if we can't that's fine but if we could it would be a wonderful thing according to the clerk the answer is no okay I tried thank you I think you were

hoping so I was too I would be saved me a lot of paperwork so then my only other question is um the non-profit assistance program for a million dollars yes can you yeah do you have more questions I mean I want to cut you off um so I so the non-profits this entire time have been able to apply and have fun you know have funding through the city um it's I believe it's been on our

website for almost two years now and we've had a lot of as you can see I tried to break this down to show um under us there's a so there's assistance to nonprofits but a lot of the projects under negative economic impact are non-profits that applied um and as we're approaching December 31st of 2024 like we have a year and we're starting to sort of hone in on projects that the city and

administration and really wants to do we didn't want to cut off non-profits but we also want to sort of try to help more but at a lower rate so um the so but still and still give them opportunities because I think that there's still a lot of we're starting to see a lot of um non-profits coming back that have already received money and we want to really see some new um non-profits that haven't been able to

you know be helped through this arpa fund so the idea was to create this non-profit assistance program um where you know we can do like a maximum of fifty thousand dollars to help non-profits that may have had had Revenue loss during covid yeah because it was much much more difficult to raise money and Etc so and just and just also so you know the process for people listening at home would still be the

same so the application that's online would still be the one that they would fill out it would still come to me I would still review it with the administration and then the committee which you sit on would still get the same vote as they would have previously it would just be for a limited amount of money okay thank you with that I yield thank you Council any other questions there is no this was a deception

that's why you can't take any action on anything tonight it's for discussion purposes only just to inform the public of what's going on with the Opera funds thank you very much for the presentation has made by cultural proposals second by Council Washington all in favor aye any opposed city council finance committee is adjourned regular city council meeting will begin in five minutes

Dion here Kilby mayor well Liberty here Pelletier yeah Herrera here proposal yeah Washington here president Camaro here hello everyone please rise from to the flag I pledge allegiance 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 I have a moment to sign the prayer please

pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting to any medium attendees are therefore advised at such recordings or Transmissions are being made where the perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible Madam Clarke the first item be for you is the mayor's request for the confirmation of the

reappointment of Jason Burns to the Housing Authority motion to approve second motion to approve accountancy two Council Dion seconded by Council seat seven counts proposal all in favor any opposed motion counties item two is the mayor's request for the confirmation of the appointment of Ricky Sahari to the zoning board of appeals motion to approve second motion to approve me by

Continental Washington all in favor aye any opposed motion carries item number three is a communication from the mayor in a confirmatory order of taking for Bicentennial Park motion would be to accept the communication in place and file with Dr Otto second motion has been made second and seconded all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries item four is a communication from the mayor in a proposal for the Bristol

County arpa funding in the amount of one million thirty four thousand six hundred four dollars for Capital Improvements for the Department of Information Technology is there a motion motion would be to accept communication placed on file and approve the proposal is there a motion promotion accept placed on plan and approve the proposal yeah that's a motion is there a second on the motion

on the motion on the motion comes to see two counts of DM yeah my only um objection to this is unfortunately when the budget was sent down all capital Improvement projects were removed from the budget um it's fair to anticipate that it will need upgrades and will need Capital Improvements on an annual basis I get that people say that Opera funding and Bristol County are profunding It's All City money

my issue is because it should have been in the budget a and the difference between the two pots of money are we have we had 16 million dollars to weigh in on and the other pot of money was 70 million dollars that we had no purview my personal opinion is that this money because Capital Improvement plans were taking out of the budget that this should be paid for with the City Opera

funding not the Bristol County Opera funding and with that I yield thank you yes but if I could please uh I don't I don't disagree with the actual project itself I guess my only concern now is the timing of this so this is a question to the administration as far as if we go through the Bristol County method a how long is going to take for this to typically get approved then B what is

the game plan as far as getting these this done because I mean I read this this is my wheelhouse completely and I read a lot of this and this is critical things that need to be done the question is how long is it going to take to be done is my concerned we'll get done I'm sure but one minute I haven't come down if you like us if you want to wave the

rules real briefly I would like to make it a second absolutely motion wages have been made by Council proposal and second by Constantino in favor aye can we just get a brief explanation to these two answers please how long it'll take

the first time it's a pleasure to see you we'll take it easy the questions can you repeat them counselor proposal please very simple two simple questions I always like to keep it simple for president Tamara I'm just curious as far as your timeline of implementation how long do you think this is going to take once fund are approved uh so a lot of these projects are spanned across different areas like

door access the multi-factor authentication server upgrades some of these can happen within a month's time some of these projects specifically for the door access those could take typically a month just to really figure out what exactly we need to get quotes from vendors implementation could take two months three months I'm not exactly sure the time frame on that a lot of that was really just contingent on

whether this gets approved or not okay and it's so as far as these numbers you've presented to us you've already gotten quotes and ideas of roughly what these numbers would look like based on current prices yeah so a lot of the quotes for servers MFA those are quotes that were given to me from vendors the door access was more a general estimate from few quotes that I've researched online

okay so as the Director of I.T how critical are these are these improvements a lot of these are really critical uh specifically the MFA I would say is the most important a lot of the network upgrades I would say aren't necessarily critical but they would improve a lot of the just efficiency across the city to me that they are very critical okay a lot a lot of the security systems that I

do want to implement can't be added with the current infrastructure the current infrastructure is being a little bit strained as they are dated servers the processes in them are from 2014 I believe in computer years that's forever that is a lot of time so I'm really Limited in my ability to add additional security measures to the city without these upgrades okay and I would assume that this kind of plays

into a bigger plan as far as the major Capital Improvements down the road that it kind of needs to go through within City Hall the system itself correct like I said a lot of these systems are already dated as they are a lot of the budget right now sort of phases them to servers this year two servers next year with this it would be all-encompassing getting a whole new infrastructure would set us

on a better path to steadily upgrade systems going forward Fair my other question is to attorney hum as far as going forward with this the approval timeline is my concern now and I know we had this discussion yesterday City versus Bristol County and all that but I guess my good question is now if we go to the Bristol County our method how long is going to take before

he can get what he needs to get done so what I have learned through the process is how to do a much better application to make sure that I include everything that they need from the get-go not the sort of piecemeal like oh can you send me this can you send me this so that has helped I would say that that first batch that took a long time it was we submitted I think was seven

um and there were 16 others from other municipalities at the same time and so in asking those same questions to Bristol County Treasury myself um I mean they it seems to be moving along I've also um they may be removing one of the levels of review as well that was a discussion um that this level two was unnecessary and so I'm thinking that also that could speed up the process but I do think I've

gotten better at creating these applications knowing what they want and what they need and I also think that talking to them about their process I think they've sped it up and they're not um I don't I don't think they're being inundated as much as they were in that first batch for some reason in August okay so best case scenario um I I had a couple that went through

within a couple weeks so I I would say a month um so if I if this was approved I don't know that it is voted on tonight or how that works but um assuming say like the next meeting it was approved I mean that contract would be I'm not a contract I'm sorry the application would be submitted within days and I I would say probably by February are you comfortable with that explain with me

I yield thank you thank you could you please answer this is your first time here could you please just take your name for the record excuse me my name is Tyler and Taya thank you Mr and Teo Council C1 Council kadim thank you Mr President um my main question was was asked by counselor in seat seven but I guess just in terms of what is being put forth I mean from a risk management standpoint

and our insurance for cyber attacks things like that I'm sure that's going to help reduce some of the the cost there but your overall you know counselor in C7 was asking the question um in terms of the bigger picture right so the strategic planning how much are we looking at for you know maybe a five or ten year um uh Capital Improvement plan uh in terms of upgrades for all our I.T stuff would

do you have a rough dollar amount as to what we're looking at so we do have like a number of physical servers that's what I'm really proposing in these arpa funds typically a good Baseline server would cost about fifty thousand um really that's Bare Bones bare minimum I would obviously want like a more higher end if possible but to get by 50 000 per server we have about I believe 12 physical servers replacing

two like I said every every year as a five-year plan to this year to next year is usually how they would be structured before and that's how I would move forward and so the network upgrades is that is that server upgrades is that what that uh it includes server upgrades switch upgrades and storage so you got switches okay and firewalls okay all right uh with that I yield thank you thank you

Council come to C2 comes again yeah basically I was going to ask what which process would be the quicker one because again if it's critical and it's time sensitive which is again I guess we always say the path of least resistance so I mean I think that the com I mean I think the city committee can be quick I mean but I feel like in this one our next meeting isn't

until January anyways and so I actually think in this situation this one would be because if it's approved in the December 27th meeting um I mean we're talking like a few week different like a couple week difference I think and um I what was I had another thought and I just lost um oh my gosh that's right so let me ask just one more question then so I know in the past there have been times where

you've requested electronic votes for expediency purposes is that something that could be done with this that we could actually vote before the next city council meeting and get it online we could um the amount is a lot right it's more than I normally do for an electronic vote but that is something that I certainly could do um yeah I mean I think that the only one thing would be that before I

um I asked whether something can be sent down here I do take a sort of get a get an understanding of from the person um how you know what what is our timeline um so this timeline did work when I spoke with Tyler um last week but I mean whatever the city council decides I mean it it can go either way okay thank you thank you Captain C7 comes from proposal Mr T I'm

just curious as far as your department is concerned are we still subcontracting with somebody else to support your department are you completely running it 100 now correct we do use a managed service provider to do some I.T work for us and is that still in play or is that being phased out in the long term it is still in play right now okay usually it is not ideal to phase out an MSP with

the amount of work that they do behind the scenes a lot of the in-house work we have our I.T staff too but a lot of the backup maintenance Hardware upgrades and software upgrades operating system upgrades usually handling those off to a managed service managed service provider that has the tools and software to support that is typically a a better decision maybe I should re-clarify the gentleman who was

essentially doing your job before you came on still with us do we know that may be a question of Seth

I don't recall the gentleman's name Seth but I'm referring to the gentleman who's kind of the interim running I.T until we had a permanent director you're referring to is Mr Diaz Brian Diaz yes so um there was a an agreement that we had with mtsi foreign as a temporary part-time um CIO and he did that that work is done he is now stepped back to do the work of

any of the Consultants that we do I will say it's in I think it's pretty important to note in support of what Tyler just said about the the wisdom of having a managed service provider as part of your work is that the cities and towns that tend to maybe get hit with with ransomware a lot of times do everything in-house um and it's it's kind of you know it's why I didn't like being a

solo practitioner because the only ideas I ever heard were my own where when you're with a firm and you talk to other lawyer it's the same idea when you're you're using an MSP and they're talking about state-of-the-art stuff your security is better uh and they do a lot of that sort of the upgrade piece is an integral part of our security that's why we still do work with them yeah and I

don't disagree that same I completely 100 agree with that but there is no Shadow CIO no well I was just curious I know that was kind of in transition I wasn't sure if it was still kind of working with Mr antea as far as getting everything where it needs to be that was my point um and then lastly just as far as when this all gets implemented are we having some subcontractic happening to do some

of this upgrade are you are you doing a majority of this uh so a part of the funds that I'm requesting does include contracted work it doesn't have to include our current management service provider we can contract those out to other vendors if necessary but it is part of the funding too excellent thank you sir I yield Debbie no further questions thank you for coming down to the table please thank you

good job for your first time motion has been made in secondary all in favor aye any opposed motion carries okay item number five is a communication from the mayor and City councilor Michelle Dion's proposal for the Bristol County arpa funding in the amount of 56 592.99 for the purchase of speed alert radar message signs and trailer equipment motion to approve second motion to approve please on file with an

accepted communication based on file and proposal Hazard made and seconded in discussion or in favor aye any opposed item number six is the mayor's communication in the allocation of Bristol County arpa funding in the amount of three million dollars to the Department of Community utilities Water Division for lead service removal I want to accept communication and place on file in order to Opera director for

the drafting of the proposal has been made and seconded all in favor I got it any opposed motion carries item seven is a communication from the mayor in orders to accept grants the first in the amount of two million dollars to fund a portion of Route 79 Duval Street Corridor improvements project and this second is in the amount of 10 million dollars for to replace public and private lead

pipes motions are made to accept communication placed on a file and adopt the orders motion submitted motion is amazing and seconded all in favor aye any opposed motion carries item eight is a communication from the mayor in a letter to Robert Beatty the executive director of the Atlantis Charter school regarding public safety concerns in the area of Jefferson and Dickinson streets and The Limited use of

Dickinson Street entrance at the school is there a motion we'll have discussion as soon as there's a motion in a second safety

thank you I did I did receive a call as I'm sure my colleagues have as well from uh the executive director and while I support you know the um concern that you know the police department and potentially the fire department have has had with the uh the gates being closed I just wanted to refer this to to Public Safety because I think there are neighbors in the around the the uh neighborhood there that have concerns

also with the number of traffic sidewalks not being there so I think we need to really kind of talk about the totality of the safety concerns and having those discussions in the Public Safety Committee would would help benefit and allow some of the residents to get there and and hopefully maybe potentially identify ways to address some of or at least ease some of the concerns that they have I know we're not

going to alleviate all the concerns that the residents have in that that neighborhood but if we can find the middle ground between the school and the neighborhood I think that would be beneficial so no I mean I have as my colleague in seat number one has we've received I've received several calls from people on both the Dickinson Street side as well as the Jefferson Street sign and people

are feeling we were given a commitment when the school was built and now people going back on the commitment and I think that this warrants going to Public Safety and having the chief of police they have Spectrum Lighting also the little industrial park that they have people cutting through that there's been some issues where I think it warrants Public Safety intervention I agree do you

Council I yield thank you Council yeah you know it's been a problem ever since the school has been up there and uh we've been getting a lot of calls uh trying to address the situation down there and it uh you go by there when school is letting out it's like a zoo I mean cars all over the place Stafford Road a traffic and and they're gonna try to do something to square this away so

to have a meeting and try to square it away all will look good but I wish him a lot of luck there's a lot of kids a lot of parents go pick up their kids so you know is it going to change I don't know at least we're trying to rectify the situation I yield thank you the cousin C4 because of Liberty thank you when this was before us um prior the last Administration it was

something that the council had voted on and then I think it came before us one other time um with complaints from both sides can you reading the the letter to the school it states that beginning on November 28th the city is not going to raise any objection so I'm assuming that Atlantis is already using Dickinson Street um but my other question is and I'm fine with sending it to Public Safety

um it just says sincerely the city of Fall River Battle clerk do we know who wrote this letter or what department it came from I don't it was included in the package from the mayor's office to my knowledge and we could get that information as well um what person wrote the letter from the city of Fall River with that I yield the country yes uh maybe a Colleen that just took

over that could we make calling a client for me the the pending list this issue is already in the committee correct well I welcome what we can handle too at a future meeting but uh I'm pretty sure looking over the list the last time around this issue is still pending as an item in public safety

yeah okay I stand correct it is well hey welcome thank you Mr President yes okay there being no further questions all kinds of seats agricultural proposal yeah I know the letter it states that it was going to start on on November 28th so do we have an update of how how it's gone for the past two weeks not good I'm good we'll find out Seth do you have any sense if it's improved at all

motion wave the rules motion away rules are made by concerts seven second by Council Deon all in favor aye

fair enough sir welcome back it's good to be here so um I am in uh I wrote The Letter by the way um and uh we um had a lot of conversations about um you know given the number of letters that we received from different constituents and uh stakeholders in this um there was a lot of conversation as to who the weather should come from and whether she go to Every resident or

whether it should go to the school and it's it's a difficult situation because there's folks on both sides that that are looking for Relief um since November 28th I have been in conversation with Mr Beatty just about every other day maybe every three days and at this point it is only kindergarten parents that are being allowed to use Dickinson Street so they have been very conservative and very

cautious with the access to that street there's a resident that raised a concern that the gate was not being locked in the off hours so it's only it's in a two-hour window in the morning in a two-hour window in the afternoon with the agreement or the Assurance to the city that the gate would be locked in between those times there apparently was several days where the van staff just

wasn't able to do that they got busy I've asked to Mr Beatty to make sure that that does happen because if we're going to allow Atlantis to try to you know figure out if this is a potential partial solution to this then it's important that whatever the parameters of that attempt are are maintained and respected because it's a change for the residents of Dickens Street from what I

understand it has alleviated some of the traffic on Jefferson Street to some extent um and um it has increased some parents arriving early especially in the afternoon on Dickens Street where there's no parking so we've asked police patrols to go by there um not with a heavy hand but just to remind people and so it's a it's a little bit of a work in progress and we're just trying to support Atlantis as much as we can

because my sense is that they're looking to try to figure out the best solution to this and I think that by the time we get to Public Safety which which I'm relieved to hear that the council wants to do because I think it's a helpful conversation we'll have more data and we'll have more time to know how this is playing out and I think Mr Beatty would probably be glad to speak to the council

about his observations because he's on site every day and from what I understand he's actually at one of the entrances every morning and every afternoon to make observations as to whether or not this is making a difference and if it's worth doing makes sense thank you thank you Council seat six counts you know the other thing is you also have Holy Trinity School and the journal school

down in that area and when you drive down Jefferson Street there is a row of cars waiting to go in one of the suggestions is that Atlantis has a lot of land there maybe they need to put in a big parking lot so people come in and park on the school grounds and then they just go out one way or another but uh that may be one of the suggestions it probably would cost them

to do that but you know interfering with neighborhoods on both sides and I got calls um Friday I got calls yesterday from Dickerson Street residents that people were parked there and the Gates still weren't locked so that was yesterday so I told him that I knew it was on the agenda who would probably refer it so but that is a problem it's a tough situation a lot of big schools and now

you've got a lot of cars because schools aren't neighborhood and all of the schools around the city there's a problem with traffic patterns Etc and one by one we've tried to alleviate it um and now this is the next one on the Block to try to figure out a way to to handle this with that I yield thank you I do know that somebody in the administration was stopped uh I think

yesterday and thanked for whatever part we had and so it's I mean there's folks on both sides they all have very reasonable and understandable uh perspectives and we're just trying to do the best we can come to C2 concertina yeah um yes true this has been an ongoing issue for years now but I know it that the it's been um discussed numerous times at the Maplewood Association neighborhood meeting um

and it in the beginning it was it got pretty uh volatile uh people are really passionate about it um so I don't know what might be worth um letting the president of that Association know that it's going to go to the Safety Committee because they do have a lot of input because they've had many discussions the Mr Beatty's been at their meetings and uh so that might be helpful without a yield

we're in uh communication with them uh pretty constantly and and they would definitely be a part of whatever we do and they're in support of doing trying to do something to alleviate the traffic on Jefferson Street so I think we're on the right track I think put it for the Committee of Public Safety is the beginning in Indica it's on the right track what comes out of it we'll get to see but I think we're on

the right track thank you thank you very much motion has been made to refer to criminal public safety and secretary all in favor aye any pose motion carries item number nine is a communication from the Opera director providing a detailed summary of the status of the Fall River City of Fall River in Bristol County arpa funding a second most has been made by Council proposal all in favor

aye any opposed motion carries out of ten are the recommendations received from the traffic Commission yeah second legislation has been made and seconded all in favor any opposed whereas hiring and retaining police officers currently is a challenge due to the vilifying of the job and whereas police departments throughout Massachusetts are facing a shortage of new recruits to fill vacancies and

whereas an increasing number of Fall River police officers are retiring or resigning and whereas this is causing officers to work overtime many days in a row to fill those vacant positions now therefore be resolved at the committee on finance convened to discuss this matter which poses a broad Public Safety concern motion refer to Public Safety Committee on finance have you made and seconded on the motion

constitute six counts of prayers part of the resolution the only reason that I I put this resolution forward was because if we are losing police officers why are we losing them are we losing them because of money is it that they want to change career is there something else and if it is because of money then I think the general public needs to know that because sometimes when you want to

increase people's salaries everybody's upset by it and don't think people should be making more money but we're training these offices paying for them to be trained and if they're leaving just because of uh the dollar amount that's something we need to really look at and I think that to have an exit interview would be a good thing I don't think an exit interview with human resources from the police department

would be appropriate if there's something else but maybe this is something that Nick who's our human resource director here maybe they need to work in conjunction to see why people are leaving I know of one officer who put in for a transfer and was denied why because we don't have enough I know another officer in Louisiana who's trying to get back to Fall River that hasn't happened yet why we need people um

and and what can we do to to keep this I know that the police have gone through a lot and there are some officers who maybe shouldn't be offices but we have a lot of really good police officers too and we don't want to burn them out with the excessive overtime that they get and I think post was a good thing and a bad thing I mean we can't use auxiliary

police and this city has all kinds of Feasts in the summertime and different activities where you could utilize auxiliary police now we can't utilize them so what is post going to do to change that um there was a meeting on the seventh but I got in too late uh on the zoom to listen to what they had to say um but I just think it we need to know why they're leaving and the community

needs to know why they're leaving because if it is about money then we need to deal with that with that I yield motion has been made and seconded all in favor all right any opposed motion carries where is a meeting of the city council community on Public Safety was held on June 28 2022 to discuss complaints from residents regarding noise generated at the flow of a coin-operated car wash

located at 1225 dwelly Street and whereas the manager of the car wash agreed to turn off change machines at 8 pm to decrease decrease activities at the car wash in the evening hours and to disconnect the vacuum closest to the residence located at 1227 dwelly Street at 10 pm and whereas excessive noise is still being generated in the evening hours by customers and individuals loitering in the parking lot and playing

loud music and whereas chapter 46 section 7 of the code a Fall River prohibits all noises that manage the health or interrupt or disturb sleep of residents between the hours of 10 pm and 7 A.M on weekdays and 8 A.M on Sundays now therefore be resolved that cooperation Council forward a letter to the owner of the car wash instructing the parking lot be secured in such a manner that no one can

access the car wash or parking lot after 10 pm daily

thank you it's been an ongoing thing uh with dwelly and also uh Duffy Street in Broadway it was always a little problem there but we managed to fix it up and it worked out but the dwelling Street is uncooperative uh they gave him a second chance and he was supposed to rectify everything I'm still getting calls maybe some of my colleagues are still getting calls and it's time that we straighten

this out uh we had something going to the ordinance committee and with all the car wash that we have some close at 8 reasonable some close at night this guy wants to work all night he's not there they do what they want they play Loud Music they congregate who knows what else they're doing and he's not cooperating and I think the whole thing in a nutshell is that we turn around and we pass our

ordinance and we got the noise ordinance from 10 to 7.

that none of the car washes open at that time that's it you get all day to wash cars from seven eight nine you're gonna wash cars after ten no it's no good and and that's a situation I think we should do and and we can care of this whole problem so uh I'm hoping that we can do something and uh this guy here he says he's got a couple years left to go there you just

want to you know rock the boat and that's it you gotta be nice to the people I don't know some of my colleagues got calls but I get calls all the time it's time to put this to bed and uh that's what I like to see you thank you Council no concentrate six counts apparel I just have two questions one was that it would be resolved at the city council

and health um that the city council have the attorney send him a letter yep but do you also as you're saying do you also feel that it should go to the ordinance committee it's uh we have something in the ordinance committee uh pertaining to that is a good thing my colleague in seat number one we will take care of it immediately all right is it is it in there still yeah okay

so we're just voting on sending a letter and councilor Kadeem will take care of the ordinance on the other side yeah this is I don't want Leo ask twice yes Leo asked twice I'm in trouble so you know we can get the cooperation Council to send them a nice letter like you know Merry Christmas to close the doors down but wish you a Merry Christmas time to close down that's it for you we'll send

it from the Grinch motion has been made and seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries whereas numerous complaints have been received regarding the property located at 222 Peckham Street and whereas several junk and inoperable vehicles are stored on this property allowing rodents to breed and multiply and whereas trucks that are used to transport Seafood are frequently cleaned leaving Seafood

debris on the ground that is not removed and whereas residents adjacent to this property are continuously working to control the rodent population and living with the foul odors from rotting seafood and whereas citations have been issued by various departments regarding violations of the code of the city of Fall River now therefore be resolved that the city council committee on health and environmental Affairs

convened to discuss these important public health concerns motion to refer to the committee on health and home environmental Affairs second motion for the community health environmental Affairs which is what the resolution is doing as made and seconded all in favor uh under motion I'm trying council do you want to speak counterpartate spots of resolution thank you you know I hang around and pick and streak of

rides that's right across the street so I got to listen to complaints from the neighborhood which is all right that's my job you got an officer there that's been there uh for 30 years and when you had coffee Sam never had a problem this guy comes in he takes over he's got seven trucks down there they were washing the trucks with the crabs all over his parking lot and it smells it stinks so the neighbors are

complaining but they haven't corrected the situation I was told uh by Mr Hathaway that they gave him a couple of citations they pay it and they go on business as usual that's no good the more to help went down there well what did they do didn't close them down you know so that's got to be taken care of uh I would like to see an inspector from Boston to come down and check the

property out see where they're doing that I don't know what they're doing then Hathaway don't know they're doing that because he never went in the building he comes up looks around oh yeah it looks all right trucks have come in and out well what are they doing they they putting fish in there and not putting fish in there so that's a question that's got to be answered and is that company

in the right place I mean that's the neighborhood he bought it all of a sudden he moved all his trucks in there all of a sudden they washed him the trucks out the fish is on the ground the crabs are on the ground what's he going to do rodents smell and everything else so it's going to be corrected and he's got a boat in there he's he closes Fish Company on South Main Street

and all the stuff went up there you got the bins and everything else it looks like a junkyard so you know it's something that's got to be done but like I said I'd like to get the inspectors from Boston that know about fish and smell and everything else he had an inspect to go up there uh just about you know once twice a month this guy he usually bags of co-ops on

the back it's 80 degrees outside I just left them there before I put them away that's why people get sick but the sentence should be done it has to be done I'd like to see it corrected I'd like to see the guy come down if they can't do them forever the inspectors then we'll get somebody else let the big guys come down from Boston let them do what they want to do let's

really find out what the story is let's really find out what's going on trucks are in and out I would do them fish on that fish that's the whole thing I hope we get a squared away are you thank you I agree because there's something fishy going on there yes absolutely motion has been made and seconded all in favor opposed who carries item 14 is the police Chiefs report the motion to adopt has remaining

seconded all in favor aye

any against Portugues item 15 is the request for the revocation of storage of inflammables the tanks have been removed motion adopt second second motion to adopt has remained and seconded or in favor aye any opposed motion Counties have a request for a light order on Beard Street motion to adopt seconds all in favor aye any opposed motion carries I have a number of claims motion refer

to Corporation Council motion for the Corporation Council hasn't been seconded all in favor aye any opposed motion carries we have minutes of the zoning board of appeals motion to accept and place on files second motion accept and place that file hasn't made and seconded all in favor all right any against motion carries item 19 are responses from the Attorney General's office to complaints filed by Patrick Higgins um

for two Council meetings open meeting welcome excuse me for two open beading law complaint violations opportunity ocean hasn't made and seconded all in favor I I have any opposed motion carries item 20 is parex appropriation for the fy24.

motion has a million seconds all in favor aye is opposed motion carries we have minutes of the public hearing from November 22nd oh minutes have been made and seconded on favor any opposed motion carries we have minutes of the committee on finance from November 22nd motion to approve motion to approve as you mean and seconded all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries and we have minutes of

the regular meeting of the city council from November 22nd motion to approve second motion secondary all in favor aye any opposed carries and lastly the community on finance at a meeting held on December 13th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying loan order be referred to the full Council for Action is the loan order in the amount of four million 675 thousand dollars for the lead

service removals for water service improvements on the motion roll call

and Adoption of the loan order causes kadim no Deon yes Kilby yeah Liberty yes Pelletier yes Herrera yes proposal yes Washington yes the president Camaro yes the motion carries

motion carries good night everyone good night hey Seth can you call