2.27.2024 City Council

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public will come to order clerk will call the rooll councilors kadim here Dion here Hart here Kilby here Pereira here Pony here raposo here Samson here president C here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are

being made made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible motion open public hearing motion open to public hearing has been made and second and all in favor I motion second all motion carries any opposed motion carries item number one massachus Spector company and Verizon New England Inc for one new jointly owned pole location and one jointly owned pole

relocation as follows on Fifth Street one jointly owned pole location and Spring Street one jointly owned pole relocation National Grid is proposing to install one jointly owned pole pole number 8- 1/2 on Fifth Street in line between pole 12 on Rodman Street and pole 8-1 on Fifth Street National Grid is also proposing to relocate pole 9 on Spring Street 10 ft north west of the current

location Paul 9 will move up against the sidewalk Curbing and away from the building located at 55 57 Spring Street in accordance with plan number 3088 0143 are there any proponents to this public heing come on down please state your name and address for the

record good evening Senate council uh my name is Aaron Roy I'm representing National Grid 1250 braing Point Road in Somerset um his job on Fifth Street in uh Spring Street is a load relief job uh that we're proposing um this ultimately will take load off our underground system and move into our overhead system um the new the new poll we're requesting on Fifth Street will allow us to run new

overhead conductor from Rodman Street down Fifth Street um taking the overhead customers that are fed currently underground uh from underground Transformer over to our overhead system uh as for the pole relocation on Spring Street um this pole uh typically uh you see up hes um up against the curbing on the sidewalks this gives us clearance from overhead wires from any um buildings or houses uh that are up

against the sidewalk um this current location of this pole is uh inches away from it's been like this for uh for a while it's it's probably like a foot away from 557 Spring Street uh this will allow us to uh relocate this pole to the the edge of the Curbing and away from the building thank you thank you are there any opponents to this public hearing are there any opponents seeing none we'll move on to

item number two Massachusetts electric company and Verizon New England Inc for one new jointly owned pole location as follows on Pier Street one new jointly owned pole location beginning at a point approximately 185 ft east of the center line of the intersection of June Street and Rock Street install new jointly owned pole number 5-50 and install feeder monitors in accordance PL number 308

38722 are there any proponents to this public heing see anyone come on down

please so for this second uh the second job uh this is a reliability job for uh for National Grid um these fedom monitors what we call feta monitors um allow allow us to detect uh see uh any faults or um voltage loss current loss on our system almost instantaneously um often uh the city doesn't really give us great locations any pole locations for uh new installs um even on P Street um so requesting

this this new pole location allow us to uh install these feeda monitors thank you thank you are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none we move on to item number three it's a curb removal St John's Holy Ghost Association Incorporated 1975 Pleasant Street for the removal of curbing as follows at 1975 Pleasant Street and Field Street existing opening is 15t 6 in curb to to

be removed is 12T 6 in there is no curb to be added combined opening proposed after alteration 28 ft the pastle is currently serviced by a 15t 6 in curb opening SL driveway on fielden Street the applicant proposes to extend that opening by an additional 12T 6 in the total opening for the location will be 28 ft are there any proponents to this public heing any proponents seeing none are there any

opponents to this public hearing Council C2 do you wish to be a propon opponent no I would not want to ask a question after we're done okay are there any opponents seeing none coun too um do we know why they need 28 ft versus the 16 A2 they already have that's the old Coughlin school it's 15 and a half not 16 I'm sorry what's that it's 15 and a

half fet they have right now I 15 and a half now and it's going to be 28 when it's completed correct but the why they need that extra footage is my question do we know why I I don't know why I do you you councelor seat too maybe councel vice president answer that question councel seat five the gentleman that is the running this is in charge of this felt that he

needed it because the one on Fielding Street um there's not a lot of cars that park there and if it was wider you could have people going in and out at the same time um so that when they have different events there it's easier for people to come in and park because the parking is in the back and if it was wider you wouldn't have cars stopping here for one

at a time to come in and out and that's what the architect felt would be a better thing to do with some of the bigger trailers and things that they have in there for storage Etc that's what my understanding was if that clarifies it sounds reasonable the application give a reason why no no clerk said no do you yield councelor I yield thank you does that satisfy your con to you any other

questions yes okay do we we well at yeah that's fine mhm okay motion to close the public hearing motion to close the public hearing has been made there a second second Mo second all in favor I any opposed public hearing is now closed we'll move right into

Finance city council committee on finance will please come to order clerk will call the RO council is kadim here Dion here Hart here Kilby here Herrera here ponti here raposo here Samson here president C here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings

or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible there's no one that's signed up for Citizens input time before Finance but there's one individual that signed up for Citizens put time right after the committee on finance so we'll move on to item number two it's a resolution the committee on finance convey a discussion funding an

affordable housing trust adopted on February 15th and we'll hold discussion you want to come down please

Council and6 Council P part of the resolution thank you Mr President um and just wanted the let the record reflect I had a great meeting with the mayor today and the city administrator um obviously with a purpose behind advocating for this specific initiative um and I'm I'm not sure if the city administrator has done any additional research or has anything addition additional but as a way of

reintroducing the resolution that I filed I want to just kind of bring everybody back since we have at least 45 minutes here before our next uh meeting starts I won't take 45 minutes there is another item on we have as long as we need counselor um but the night is young and so are weh okay so um the the reason this came to my attention was I've been follow I I when when I was

council president for a while Council academ and I we would go to the MMA meetings at a regular basis I I enjoyed going to that going into the different seminars that they had and learning a lot about what other municipalities are doing what other municipalities are doing good and hearing from those leaders and what other people aren't doing so well where they can find areas of improvement for management and

efficiencies so um I've been following the ma through some subscriptions that I have and what caught my attention on this affordable housing trust was how our governor appointed the mayor of Lynn to her housing advisory uh committee um and I kind of tried to dig in as to why she did that and doing some research the city of Lynn was very successful in creating and establishing a housing affordable housing trust

fund um which made me do some more research now I believe Adam chapelain who was the former city administrator here eons ago who is now I think running MMA now I believe or as the executive director there um has been advocating for this at the state level with other municipalities and other cities and towns and I'm hoping my colleagues a as a result of last week's or last meeting had the ability to do some additional

research on this now I know there's a lot of questions and I know when you hear affordable housing Trust it it people really don't understand what it means now I want to just very briefly bullet point go over the reason for this and I recognize that we need some kind of a commitment from the mayor and in full transparency the mayor did mention to me today that in terms of having the

availability of one-time money he just doesn't have the money available to him right now to start this fund that doesn't necessarily mean that's the only funding mechanism for the affordable housing trust fund so in high bullet point Point what this is intended to do is offer an affordable housing opt option and opportunity for folks who need affordable housing we all spoke during the election about a third a

third and a third we have low income we have affordable we have market rate okay I remember when I first campaigned for city council we needed market rate that was the new buzzword we have that now we strongly have an issue when it comes to the affordable affordability of housing within a municipality and Fall River has that problem now this if if the city council can adopt this and we can find a a a funding

source the mechanism is intended to further a uh develop affordable housing in each in the state which trickles down to each City and town um is is the city involved in decision makings by the trust it's bound by public procurement laws open meeting laws conflict of interest CPA eligibility regulations and procedures as a city everybody wants to know who's going to oversee the trust um

it will be uh the mayor in the city council will appoint a Board of Trustees the mayor would be the chairman or his or her design would be the chairman if you're looking at a town the select board would be responsible for allocating and distributing funds um the purpose of the initial funding for affordable housing is the fund is to now everybody's asking me how much money do

we need to put in and I know we had this conversation today in your office Seth but um the fund intended in cities and towns to fund an amount similar to purchasing a lot in town plus funds for holding costs Consultants to prepare rfps and housing needs and assessments um that is the main main intended um amount we don't need what the mayor of Providence did by putting $10 million in

other cities and towns used Opera money2 three4 million to start it some towns use their stabilization account some use it within their municip civil budget with free cash um and everybody's asking well if the mayor isn't going to be able to commit to money and I respect the financial constraints that the finance team has but CPA could be able to be a funding source um arpa funds which more cities

and towns have used T city or town Appropriations private donations I don't know how a city would you know I I'm selling a house right now in Rhode Island that the um the trust everybody passed away the trust actually gave the property to the bank so the bank can then go and sell it and give it to a charity of their choice now I don't know if there's any of that happening but if

the city were to accept a donation of a house to sell we would obviously have to go through the RFP process that this trust would essentially be able to manage it hire a broker hire a property manager or sell it on their own um uh another question people people had and I've done this research for the for the reason is I I'm really I really want to see this get through um is the

housing affordability Housing Trust is responsible for using CPA funds only and is eligible for CPA eligible projects the answer is yes but if the project is not CPA eligible you can't use CPA funds but you could use it to start such trust um Can the trust sell property yes they can dispose they still have to follow public procurement 30b but they can still sell property um they can hold property they can hire

a property manager um 130 cities and towns have done this and I I really want to urge my colleagues to advocate for this with us because if housing isn't one of the biggest issues facing this community and all across the state I with the exception of substance abuse issues and some of the other things that face communities this is right along the lines uh of that um and

I we used a lot of money in Opera and I know some of this stuff needed to happen lots of money lots and lots of money in Opera in Bristol County and I just want to see us as elected officials Advocate to try to put our money where our mouth is we were all asked on the campaign Trail what are you going to do candidate to address housing well none of us can

do anything alone we can't go create inventory but this is going to address that middle section of people that need to move or are getting evicted and and have an affordability issue and it's not going to be something alt together it's not going to happen overnight and I commend the work Mike Dion's office has does has done with with the mayor and Community Development agency but this is

something that this community needs now I asked the mayor and I don't know if Mr Aken has the answer to this but I know the Redevelopment Authority is sitting on millions and millions of dollars uh of funds and I know they've probably been a little hesitant to to work with cities and towns uh or our city rather uh when it comes to uh repurposing some of that money for whatever they can

repurpose it for because I think they're trying to keep their dollars tight for the Waterfront which I understand if they get management of that they probably need the money and the resources to be able to work that project but I almost wonder if if if the administration hasn't changed their position for my private meeting with them today if is if we can have a joint meeting with the Redevelopment authority

to see if the Redevelopment Authority has a little bit of money and do some research on starting to launch something like this so I wanted to I'm sorry about that longwinded uh comment but I was wondering Mr Aken if there's anything that has changed or if you want to highlight any of this additional commentary for the public sure um so just to fill everyone in on the conversation uh Council P was gracious

enough to come in uh first thing this morning uh present the idea um I mean it's an interesting idea there's a the Massachusetts Housing Partnership actually did a little pamphlet it's about 50 pages it's very uh I think well done done I sent it to the city council um clerk uh who can distribute that uh if anyone's interested I think it does summarize the thing pretty well um at this point in terms of one-time money

whether that's money from the stabilization fund or any of the the funds that the city has or arpa money whether it's Bristol County um or City arpa money that money is is essentially spoken for at this point um or just not enough to make a significant dent in what we're talking about um the mayor is certainly open to this idea uh not against it in any way it just becomes a

question of um I think it's been said in this chamber before sharpening our pencils to try to figure out where the money might come from um the Mass Housing Partnership um uh pamphlet actually does uh offer an interesting list of where the money could come from that includes uh CPA funds uh inclusionary zoning payments um negotiated developer fees uh the general fund of course tax title sales payments

from special bylaws or ordinances so you can conceivably put a bylaw or an ordinance in place that might put some sort of Premium on market rate housing that would require the developer to put money into this trust I'm not saying that's what we should do but that's a possibility it's what other towns have done in my research sell Tower lease payments as well as private donations so

there's seven or eight categories right there of of funding we just need to look at all those and try to figure out if there are available funds um obviously subject to to the will of the council and cooperation collaboration of the council if there's available funds to do that um so uh the outcome of the the meeting this morning is not that we necessarily found funding sources but

we're going to look at funding sources um if the council's inclined to to look at the the publication and maybe have any of their own ideas on the funding sources I think the more Minds that are on this the better uh but it's something the mayor is certainly open to we just can't commit to the funds right now and I want to I want to confirm what you said he he didn't shut me down and say

sorry Cliff we can't do it he's open to having a discussion he recognizes the issue he also highlighted some of the success that the Community Development agency has had with rehabbing some buildings and and doing what they needed to do um I don't even know if this is a legal thing it just something that came to the top of my mind you know the council is often tasked with uh ties and Tiff

approvals and I I I'm also wondering if it would be possible that if a a a individual or a group of people who are getting market rate housing and they're getting free you know no no taxes for in installing building market rate housing if there could be a fee structure set up by the council that would require a one-time payment in Li of getting a tiff or a tie that could specifically go to

this housing affordable trust fund as a as a point of continuing to replenish the account I mean the money doesn't necessarily need to come from the city's cof to your point um I think Nantucket did this and what Nantucket did was they have a real estate transfer tax fee so if any out of town investor owns a property in like Cambridge or something and they were to sell the property a

certain percentage of that I think it's 1% or something like that would go towards their land bank where they would use for the purposes of housing or whatever they do um we can also use federal home funds for this um I mean there's so many other options um but I guess the the biggest dollar biggest bank account right now might be the Redevelopment Authority and and and and maybe it's worthy of having a

meeting with them to see if they have an appetite to work with us on this so I don't have any information on the Redevelopment authorities uh appetite it's just it was I just wasn't able to get with them today and and you know have a conversation with people that could actually uh make representations one way or the other um I I mean I can certainly you know try to facilitate that conversation we could

create a a joint meeting uh whatever the the will of the council is uh one thing to know is that the the this particular um statute that was created I think first in 2006 and then uh significantly revamped in 16 um is specifically for 110% of the imediate income in in an area which which here is approximately $997,000 family income um depending on what what chart you use but I think

that's a that's a relatively recent number um so we're not talking about you know low low income housing we're talking about affordable that middle third point of clarification that so your statement was the average medium hous household income in FL river is 97,000 no so it uses the the house the Housing and Urban Development uh standard of a median income in an area so it's not Fall River it's a region um

so they put it at $89,000 it's probably less significantly less I don't know I I the last number I heard was uh was just above like 53,000 but I don't think that's a current number sorry about that yes okay good you still have the floor yeah um um so there how much money do we have left in Bristol County uh money do we know 168,000 and what's the plan to what

are we planning on doing with that any idea well the council okay so the council has the ability to start the the the trust with $160,000 unless that's already allocated to something else do we know I I don't know for sure I just know what the balance is right now just having look at it recently and talk to attorney H about it this isn't directed at the mayor in

any way shape or form but I'm just going to say there's been lots of pet projects that have been done by utilizing Opera in Bristol County money okay lots of Feelgood lots of projects that needed to get done splash pads beautification those kind of things and I'm not saying that didn't need to happen but we have a housing crisis in this community and all across the state and I think we need to

start really thinking about investing into trying to have a short-term impact on this we can't build more housing projects with the Housing Authority that's not something that we have the capability of doing but we have the opportunity to work with this try to establish this try to move this forward and to try to do address a housing problem if we were having a homelessness problem like they do in other cities

like Oregon or Seattle or any of these other places where you're walking down Main Street and walking around tents we would be all sitting here trying to find an issue to address it we have an epidemic on our hands and it's on the city's it's the city's responsibility to uh start working and that's what we've been elected to do work on trying to find funding mechanisms to get this

launched and I have no skin in this game at all whatsoever this isn't for any kind of other reason for me and for real estate or any of that I have no interest don't care about it I want to see that this community puts our money where our mouth is and tries to find ways to put address a a housing issue which is serious and I don't know if there's any

other way that we can start this we don't need $8 million we don't need what providence did at 10 I'd be happy with starting it with something so we could at least get this to the Attorney General's office for approval so that can establish this trust I think the one thing I will say in terms of the mayor's thinking about this and it always comes back to a regional approach rather than

a city approach because at the end of the day we're 25% affordable without question yeah if you look at all the subsidies we're actually closer to 40% affordable every town around us is three and a half to 4% affordable so if there are other towns nearby that have additional skin in the game uh and we can approach this regionally I think that seems to always be where the conversation heads because they you know

Fall River I think certainly does it share um and certainly more than it share and we try very very hard to meet the needs of people who have needs uh and that's that's a priority of the mayor I mean I don't know really any politician I've ever met who's at the homeless camps as frequently as he is who's at First Step as frequently as he is who's trying to deal with with people

who are ordinarily and traditionally underrepresented as much as as this mayor does um but I do think that uh that there's got to be a regional at least a FOC a thought uh regionally and that's something that the mayor has talked about because the the towns around us are are not really um certainly not uh trying to meet the need in the same way that Fall Rivers no I agree and we we are carrying our share

of of that so I'll allow my colleagues to speak thank you than you counc C4 Council Kilby yes thank you um yeah a lot of questions got triggered um Council Pont um you know asked most of them um but I think he's really hit a nail on a head on on this issue I really do so what how much research have you done Mr Atkins in terms of um what would it take the

community I to get this started at least and I I know you said regionalism a regional approach well we're talking about Regional approaches to trash we're talking about Regional approaches to H you know housing now we're talking about Regional approaches to you know a great many things but I mean that doesn't give us as a community much time it doesn't really um address the issue um we talked

about regionalism when uh lngg was here we talked about regionalism when at Lampa was was mayor uh fair share and all that so but I I think um this legislation was passed for a reason so the first question I'm not too sure if C imp Pont um and I think he's on to something here I really do um I haven't researched as much as him on this so what would it take to at least get this

started and what benefits would would the city derive from it and um I mean I'm looking it's a long question I'm sorry long winded question so we have low-income housing in the city then we have right we have affordable housing now we have market rate housing market rate is not affordable obviously I think I think there's three categories here and there is a housing shortage so so I guess the narrow question is what

would it take to get this off the ground if it's important on a part of this Council and I'm going to support this to to get it going um what would it take um that's a really subjective question uh there's actually a number of things that a trust like this could do um and I don't know that I would there's probably five or six different categories whether it's everything from constructing brand new housing to

rehabilitating existing housing to creating access to housing um so I don't know that I would venture to speculate on what it would actually take um without more information and so anticip people smarter than me doing the research okay so an anticipation of this meeting and this has been put on thank you council president for putting it on so quickly um but I don't know how much

research the administration's done on on this and how willing they are to uh look at other you know to look at this program as you said the OPA money's encumbered and I believe we have um a resolution was filed U maybe Council Dion or forgive me if I'm wrong um with regard to a breakdown of how all the OPA money has been spent we didn't have any say in the federal op money we

have SE in Bristol County Opa money but that that thought has crossed my head quite often over the last number of months especially with the debate over the omry um so I'd like I'd like to know exactly what projects were funded I know a great great deal went to Mr fiola's office for business stimulation um most of that came back councelor it came okay yep yeah a lot a

lot of those grants were given but a lot of that money came back yeah and there was so I'm just super um I'm I'm I I I just really am excited about this idea I I did do some reading last night for about an hour on on this um it seems like communities ex size are kind of grabbing on to it go ahead I'm sorry I was just um letting Mr know that I can

you speak into the microphone I was just letting um our city administrator know that I know the uh the finance the CFO in ly so I can call him too to find out that be great and the May point of information if I may Mr President um sorry Council Kilby but um to answer our colleague's question the approval process to make this official is you need the approval of the bylaws and it's

not this isn't long so I'll just read it if I can can if a city or town after the municipal legislative body votes to adopt the trust the clerk must certify the bylaw once certified by bylaw must be submitted to the Attorney General's office in a city the bylaw does not need to be certified before being sent to the AG's office the AG needs to review and then approve and then after that you

establish the Board of Trustees then you declare your trust and then you start raising capital for it um so it needs to go through ordinance as the very next um to answer his question okay thank you so much so I I won't go on much longer because I think this is not going to die here it's going to go on some further debate hope hopefully it's on a quick

path and um if this we have I'm sure we have some seed money to get this started especially if it's going to benefit the community in light of what councilor Pont stated in terms of a crisis of affordable housing every time I hear Governor hilly uh open her mouth and give a speech she that's what she said affordable housing affordable housing affordable housing affordable housing

and it it is a crisis so um go ahead I'm sorry no I'll just I'll I mean I have no problem making a phone call and we can collaborate together okay to get some information okay um I was tempted to call the assessor down but um we at a later date um I think um it that can wait because he's here for another specific reason but I think it'd be nice

to uh the next meeting when we discuss this issue to have him down down so we can get an analysis somewhat and it's probably long overdue of units in the city what's available what's not available what buildings are condemned what building you know it's just it would be nice to get a his office the assessor's office is totally linked obviously with housing in the city and they have the data to be able to provide

this council with um a more educated decision Mr President so I thank you thank you counc counc see one counc K thank you I was going to actually ask similar questions to uh councilor Kilby um so my question is just in terms of the process and Council Ponte kind of articulated it is there any issue from the administration in terms of starting to go with the process of establishing

the trust fund and then figure out the funding mechanism in a at a later Point yeah I I don't think there's any resistance to starting in terms of the trust res you know what you actually put into the trust we just can't commit to that at this time um but uh in terms of laying the groundwork which is going to take a little bit of time I don't think the mayor has any objection to that at

all okay because uh you know I I believe the resolution does have this going to the ordinance committee so I I would say that the first step should be to establish the trust fund send it to the AG's office and we can we can move on from there and then um collectively work on ideas in terms of you know how we want to see this funded um and get the various stakeholders to the table uh in

terms of options for additional funding um you know I I think Council Ponte has has articulated some um creative ideas in terms of trying to fund it so I I just think we need to to look at it and identify what the uh sustainability is of this this trust fund and how we're going to you know kind of reimburse everything coming into it uh so that it's not just a one-time deal but it's

it's trust that's having money coming in um various points throughout the years so uh with that I'll I'll be supporting it and uh and when it goes through ordinance I'm on committees I'll support it there as well with that I yields thank you councel councel TD Council Samson so I think it's um I I read up on this thanks to uh my colleague um Pony for giving me his one and only copy copy

that he had at the time but um you know I I do I have some questions of um who is this benefiting I guess I need this explained to me on like a third grade level because is this benefiting the Builder the developer or is it the buyer and the renter this trust like who is when I was reading it it was it was a lot of um legal uh terms a lot of real estate your

you know stuff that I think the common person like myself that's not engulfed in that world understand so I'm just trying to figure out who does this trust benefit I can understand we you know affordable housing is a key word and um you know I don't know if you consider a pet project um I don't I think there's a lot of projects that went out that weren't pet projects but this is a great

project to look at um but I keep in mind that Fall River our residents we do our part we are the for affordable housing it's recommended that we're at 10% we're at at least 25% and in some cases we're at 40% so I do like the idea of an Regional approach um but can we do better in fora I mean we can always help and do better but I do I need some

questions what does who does this trust benefit is it a trust where a developer can you know go ask money to put down to develop a project or is it I'm a first-time home buyer I need I love that idea I need some funds to help put a down payment on a home and they can go to the trust and ask for it is it someone that needs help with rent is it

what is it I I'm just trying to figure out who is benefit benefiting from this is it a developer the contractor or is it the people that are buying so that's my question here and with that I yield thank you counc counc C2 counc DM yeah I'd just like to um some clarification so when you made the statement we're at 30 or 40% other communities are only at 2 to 3% our 30 to 40% is lowincome

housing so it's not affordable housing low low income so 25% 25% right so the 40% is if you add subsidies and everything else like that so that's when you start getting into affordable um but in terms of low income it's it's 25 26% right so I just don't want anybody to be under the impression that 30% of our housing is affordable housing because it absolutely is not if it were we wouldn't

have people lose uh getting uh moving out of their apartments and living in the streets who can afford to pay rent and I think that's what I'm my interpretation and and counselor in see uh six can um clarify it if I'm wrong that's what this is all about affordable living space for people who can pay rent but they can't pay the $1,500 or $22,000 a month and they don't qualify for the lowincome housing which

is what Fall River has been really good at the people who cannot afford the rent would that be a correct statement so um I just wanted to clarify that cuz I think people get confused it gets lost in the conversation it's it's a big difference we have people who were paying $1,000 or say yeah $1,000 a month rent the landlord came down and say he listen my my property's Waterfront now

it's 1,800 a month where do they go those people are who would benefit by affordable housing because they can pay the $1,000 a month or the 1,200 perhaps um I'm definitely fully in support of this and I hope we can uh get it moving sooner than later um because we have a lot of people we have senior citizens we have families we it it involves many people um not just one group of people and I

think um this would benefit substantially with that I yield thank you counc counc is anyone have any other question before could en joined C five C PR yeah I have a lot of questions about this you're talking about you know a Board of Trustees a broker a manager um construction Personnel are these people going to get paid um the Board of Trustees do they get paid who oversees them is it going to be the city

that oversees them I did have a meeting with the mayor um and actually Mr Dion as well um talking about this program and what else can be done because I know in trying to assist people with housing and affordability I've had to to Mr Dion several times and you know I did get a rundown that there were three other couples that purchased a home and got the 10,000 firsttime buyer from Mr from

Mr Dion's office pekham Street Bradford Avenue um there were three three Deckers there those are now affordable that's through Community Housing Resource Board which is basically doing what I think this trust is going to do um 64 dir Murphy Street we had an investor there's 11 units there and some of that money to develop that property I'm I believe came from the Mass Housing Partnership which

is kind of the same um venue Murray Street Community Resource another three Apartments the preservation Society on 95 June street that was turned over to preservation there's four affordable units there uh Tobin Street there's another seven affordable units there and that's from Community Housing Resource Donley Street uh Whipple Street Linden Street Warren Street Pleasant Street

Hood Street some of those are investors they're three units to eight units to one unit so I think we're trying to do that and I did um I was in the mayor's office and I believe um maybe attorney Akens can help um how many properties have we now gotten cleared through Mr Thomas that are going to be coming back on that we can you know sell to somebody or that can be turned over to a

nonprofit to do affordable how many were there six five six it depends on what time period you're talking about but yeah you're right it was last week so yeah in the last right in the last couple weeks there's been quite a few that have come back on that are coming through and all of those can be given to these Partnerships who these nonprofits that have that whole board to oversee

that not that I don't think Council pot brings an idea to the table but I really need to have more information of course I I know as we all do we need affordable housing but I just wonder you know who are all these people that are going to be involved in this and what a what are they going to do do we pay them do we not pay them you know I are we going to

have another department to oversee this I'm not sure how that's going to work and when I talk to somebody they said if you bought let's say that you bought uh a three family or a six family you bought a six family or a three family you bought a three family for 500,000 you bought another one for 500,000 okay so there's a million dollars now there's three apartments in each those six apartments by the time

you look at what it cost to purchase the property and what it cost to renovate all of the properties they gave me a ballpark figure of $200,000 not a contractor don't know if that's accurate figure or not but if that's the case just point of clarification $200,000 to accomplish what to remodel the to purchase and to renovate bathrooms kitchens whatever to do all Renovations how much is that

going to be per unit for that individual to now rent out so if you're going to take $2 million to put into this how many units is that going to give us I'd like to know the answer to that how many units does that give us how quick does does this move along and it may be something that moves slowly but at least we're moving in the right direction and I do understand the city's

finances and you know where we have to look at what is the best use for whatever money is left in in oper or Bristol County Opa but when that money is not there I think Council P brings up a good point what other resources do we have to keep replenishing it and I think Council kadim said that too I just think there's a whole lot of questions and I would feel comfortable knowing some of these

answers before I even voted on something like this I think it's a great idea I mean we can move it along but before this is adopted or finalized I'd like to know how this works because I'm under the understanding people that I talk to that a lot of these trusts are done more in towns than they are in cities why is that if that is maybe I can point a clarification that really quick that's why there's

bylaws that that get established and secondly that's why it's going to go to Y committee to answer all those questions so and who does the bylaws the Board of Trustees or the council does bylaws because I certainly don't know how to do bylaws for this or does it legal just point I don't care I just wanted to help out with the point of clarification counc c one so bylaws are ordinances for the towns so

when you're in the city it's an ordinance so it's just we've got to put together an ordinance yeah to to stablish this trust fund I just want to clarify that take everything else we do for the first time there's always going to be a lot of questions exactly there's a lot of uncertainties but those are all explained in committee and ordinance we're an attorney presid that will research if he doesn't know the the

facts of the case we research and come back with the answers and establish how to do it correctly the state's going to be involved as well it's a it's a it's a process and you're very well aware that things like this take you're not going to probably do it in one audience meeting probably not going to do it in two audience meetings but it's a good alternative to what we're doing now in

addition to what we're doing now all the things that you mentioned fabulous and great this is a different avenue to do more of what we're doing with different sources and different revenues and have more of an oversight at the local level as I see it but I I could be wrong but that's how I see it but we'll get those I don't have a problem at going to ordinance committee and I think making a

motion for it to go there as a next step is a wonderful thing but to say yes I think this is a good idea let's just do it I'm not at that we can't do it it's part of the process for no one's going to ask you to vote for the today and get it done today has to go and there's a process in place and I'm fine with that

but these are some of the questions that I have and I have tried to you know research and look into it and called other communities to see what they're doing talk to some people um but anyway I I do think we need it I think it's a good thing to bring forward and for us to discuss with that I yield thank you thank you I'm just going to prior to calling some of the council already

spoken I'm going to call the ones that haven't spoken yet Council SE seven counc yeah my my only comment is simply Echo what what Sean said it's it's a great step forward it's a multi-pronged approach dealing with the problem we have um and I'm on the aordance committee myself and I'll support it as well I think it's excellent so does it require a motion to refer at this point no we have other consequence great i y

thank you thank you Council T3 Council hot thank you Mr President and again I'm not to sound redundant but everyone's already mentioned but I congratulate Council Pont for bringing this up um I've got a lot of questions um and I'm I'm certainly going to do it in ordinance so I'll there's a motion to refer to ordinance I will absolutely support it thank you yeah it already is in the ordinance it's already in

ordinance in the regular meeting I'm sorry when it when we have but when we have the parties there and sure great thank you councelor council1 Council uh so I just want to answer the question that councelor C8 had in terms of breaking it down and who's who's getting the money so essentially it's it's a is to subsidize the developers who would obviously be purchasing this property you know developing uh the

housing they obviously want to sell it for a profit so to be able to subsidize it to make it affordable so that when they're selling it they're still making a profit but selling it at a a lower cost to the individuals that are purchasing it so so if you just look at it from a subsidy standpoint that that's essentially what's taking place um and I and I will just say I think from a

conceptional standpoint this is a great idea but to your point you know the devils are in the details and that's what's going to be worked out in ordinance and there's going to be a lot of conversation coming back and forth um because obviously you've got to establish um a Board of Trustees to oversee the trust um you know the trust is you're able to invest the money uh in the trust fund so obviously the uh you

know the treasurer or the finance director needs to be part of that because they're going to be responsible for for any type of investment that goes on um and obviously we want to make sure that we establish that whoever's on this this Board of Trustees that um you know there is some say in terms of who that is is um and that there are some Municipal Employees that are that are

going to be on part part of that to make sure that they're overseeing uh everything from from the the city's standpoint so um from my standpoint it's just another tool in the toolbox and we can we can we can work that all out and then figure out I think the big piece is is where's the money going to come from um and how do we establish this trust fund so you know uh Council Ponte did

mention that it's you know the the suggestion is the initial cost of of a parcel and you know talk about a $100,000 $150,000 for Apostle or $200,000 for Apostle I mean that's I guess what the suggested cost would be uh just for the parcel and then if you have architectural services it's a little more than that but I think essentially you want to get it to to the millions right to build up the trust

fund to have that ability to to provide the you know affordability standpoint and and I'll Echo and I know everybody understands this um and it's not unique to the city of f River but the city of f river is not affordable right and even though it's probably one of the more affordable communities in Massachusetts um when you start looking at Massachusetts as a whole um you know rents in forer are close to $2,000 and

that's that's mortgage payments for for a good majority of people that have bought homes prior to this um you know the uh Market just increasing and you know for for a family of of 90,000 I don't I don't know how you pay $2,000 uh just on on you know a rent and try to go out with all the other distri inflation that we're having for food and groceries and things of that nature um

so we really need to to identify how we do this it's it's not just the FL of a problem it's a it's a uh a state problem if not a a n a Countrywide issue so um if we can if we can get ahead of the curve uh to council ponty's point so that we don't become because we we're starting to get there but we don't want to become the californias or the uh you

know the um Oregons or the or the Washingtons of of the worlds where we're just having all these uh homeless uh individuals on streets and and if you go to Portland Oregon or if you go to Seattle or if you go to San Francisco they are legitimately on the sidewalks um and you've got to walk around them so we we've got to figure something out uh we got to make sure that we're we're

making our city affordable right we we talk about that and uh gentrification is going to be taking place at some point with all the development that's coming forward so we just need to be able to protect some of the individuals that have always calls for of a home and make sure that there is at least an affordable Market Market or aspect to the city of Florida while we are also attracting um you know market rate

housing and and those um families that come with maer housing so we we just got to be cognizant of that and I I don't disagree you know from from a regional standpoint um we've got to get other communities to uh start having those conversations and I think a lot of it's coming coming through the uh MBTA Community uh requirements you know if you're an adjacent Community you have to

have this housing uh but there's a lot of be a lot of push back that's that's going going on there's one community that has already voted not to to uh move in that direction I know this potential discussion of funding being withheld for that Community but there are towns that don't want to partake uh in any discussion about the affordability portion and I know forer and Gateway cities have always been uh the

communities that had to to shoulder that burden so and that continue to be the case uh but we need to start having these conversations and we need to really try to figure out how to incentivize some of these other communities uh you know these towns to to really kind of deal with their share for the low income piece uh but we need to figure out the affordability piece

here in this in the city so with that I yield can I get a point of clarification on that yes what is it so when you have land can in this trust can land so if the city's taken back um property on taxes does land can go into that trust does it have to be a nominal fee like MoneyWise or can it also be propertywise to go into that trust uh so they can you

can hold the trust but the the the intent of the trust is is not for the trust to be long-term land owners right it's just really for the transferral of that so you can hold it until you figure out how to transfer or until it gets developed or whatever the case may be and then find out what the use of the land's going to be right and you could give it to a developer

they could devel sell it at a whatever so they can afford to okay thank you you coun one I do and and I will I will just say that the community that um voted not to be part of that whole MBTA community plan uh was Milton and and Milton right now is is being the governor is saying that they're going to be withholding funding from from Milton so it's a

reality out there so it's a it's a Hot Topic conversation but I I think we need to to be part of the conversation and do something I agree a lot of good points one of the things I want to just clarify we don't need to go to pole and Oregon just go to take a drive to Bor and massav mck this this tents in the sidewalk there it's it's everywhere it's

a mess counc seat six Council party thank you uh just a couple things I I I I want to just urge my colleagues right that want to and I know this is a complicated issue research it like spend some time in research without making it muddy when it doesn't need to be okay a very quick read of the Lynn final ordinance clearly describes what the Board of Trustees did and what they do and who appoints them

and for how many terms and if they get paid right so like we don't need to muddy the water in any way shape or form read it and if we're calling other communities as counselors you could have read the linnn ordinance which dictates exactly what the Board of Trustees does and how they fill vacancies and who chairs the board and who's appointed to the board and all these other things so

you know it frustrates me if if some people just don't want to see it go through and are already starting to muddy the water and I'm not saying everybody here is but spend your time to research the issues that we have M Mr Aken how many schools are we going to be taking back or have we taken back already that were sold to private developers that are going to be back in

the city's hands so there's two right now and you're going to be taking back one more maybe maybe okay so there's there's the possibility others could be coming I won't take you to that so we'll have schools that are sitting vacant right now that we have no I don't know if the city's not going to maybe the city has plans to develop it so I I don't know what the plans for with that

I also spoke with the mayor he gave me the same sheet that my colleague has about all the things the Community Development agency has done and I highlighted their strengths and what they bring to the table and what they do but if if we have a new president that comes in and wants to cut funding from HUD to cities and towns because we're running into a problem all those projects go

away we can't we have to stop being reliant on HUD funds to do that and minor Google search could tell you that the state level is is raining in expenses and if you don't think the federal level is who's been printing money for six years is going to do it they're going to do the same thing as well so I I I want to urge my colleagues to spend some time as my colleague in C8

did because I gave her the 55 page presentation last week and read it and you'll understand it we please don't money the water to the community when it doesn't need to be because and I think some people want to do that whether it's intended for it or doesn't it's a it's a four it's a four sentence read on what the Board of Trustees does if they get I don't know the park board doesn't get

paid the people who sit in uh on the charter commission don't get paid let's let's not muddy the waters and let's let's focus on the initiative here I you thank you thank you councelor debut no further questions C C1 counc apologize real quick so I I know one of my counselors I forgot who's who mentioned it that it was only mostly towns that were doing this city of Boston's doing it uh Chelsea's doing it

Cambridge is doing it Franklin's doing it um I mean there are 128 communities that are starting to do this because they're recognizing it so there's going to be more and more communities doing it but it's not just towns there's large cities out there that are recognizing that something has to be done so with that a you thank you councelor there be no further questions thank you next we move on to item number three

I entertain a motion to lift item number motion to lift item three from the table motion has been made in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item number three is a resolution discussing the real estate taxes and exemptions with the chair of the board of accessors and the city administrator it was tabled on January 24th 23 we'll hold a discussion so the unfortunately the

chair of assessors is under the weather and wasn't able to come tonight oh so it's you got can you guys just move those microphones down so each will have your own microphone there's plenty of microphones on the table no need to be sh Hing thank you just state your name and what what office you're with please so we'll know people at home will know who we are talking to Dan Lane admin assistant to

the board of assessors Thank You Bridget Alman Chief Financial Officer thank you Seth Aken City administrator thank you and just to be clear admin assistant to the board of assessors means that Dan is the assessor just for anyone who's watching it's a strange name and it's not clear to everybody thank appreciate the clarification thank you m Aken you want to start off and just see we had talked about this a year ago

approximately and we were supposed to do some research and look into what we could do for the residents out there who need this exemption you want to give us an update as what we've done so far or what we're planning on doing so um myself the um chair of the board of assessors and um our assessor Dan have spoken um and again we've also spok with Matt Thomas about this so we agree we

we're going to do something it's the how what we're going to do exactly is now with this Mass this empowerment bill that's in there and there's some Provisions within that that would allow us to do things specifically forry I didn't hear that what what's it called the mass the the official name so the massachusett municipal empowerment act um it's actually in the there's a joint committee right now that's been

bifurcated between um uh governmental services and um finance and there's been hearings on it uh today and there'll be hearings on it I believe tomorrow um and it's basically a pretty major Omnibus um act to empower uh communities to do a number of different things uh including extending bonds from 30 to 40 years on school building projects and a whole bunch of other stuff but it has some

pretty robust measures in it with regard specifically to these type um of measures for uh veterans and elderly and that sort of thing So currently right we now if we were to change the exemptions we would have to change them across the board mhm with this empowerment act if you know whatever pieces there's a specific one for that we would be able to just do something for elderly exemption and there's a specific one

that would um a senior means test exemption and then so it allow would allow us to do some specific things versus having to do something across the board which we we would be able to do a little only a little bit for each thing so we want to see where this plans to come back with a plan but we have a plan either way to do something but I feel

that I mean from what I'm hearing from um the council most I feel like it's the elderly that we want to try to this there's been a lot of elderly that have um yes for the most part they yeah so we do really want to we if we we if we jump the gun and do something we'd be jumping the gun instead of waiting to see what we're allowed to do if this and

our pieces of this pass I mind waiting and seeing but how long are we going to wait and see before we decide to do something so there should be action on this pretty soon just so you know that in the municipal how act um the significant change is that it allows the municipality to raise the exemption above the $500 Mark um which right now um that's that's where the limit is I think where are we at

250 we're at 5 we're at 500 okay so we could raise it up uh above the $500 Mark uh there's another important piece in the act that isn't really connected to this but I think could have an impact on it which is postretirement employment um for retirees from the city um so it actually creates opportunities for a different kind of basically Revenue employment um for retirees and elderly people so there's a number of

additional things that may actually alleviate the impact on the overlay uh if we were to actually put these in place so there's a few moving Parts within the municipal empowerment act uh and that's an imminent um if in fact it passes the way it is we'll know in the next several weeks uh and then we'll have a sense of the chance of passing if it doesn't uh I think then we can move

forward with um I don't want to say the status quo but the uh what has been talked about in the assessor's office and the finance team do you think they'll be able to take advantage of those that this year or it going to take over year for next year so in terms of uh putting it in place I think it would have to be next year fy2 right fy2 is when everything would go into place one

way or the other okay c seat what was that excuse me you were looking confused there I was saying it would be the July Bill sorry yeah no c c to C DM um yeah I have the minutes from that meeting on January 24th 2023 and basically it was targeted more at seniors um obviously we know the resol solution is to discuss real estate taxes and exemptions with the chair the board of assesses and City

administrator um in here the uh CFO stated that there is not a database regarding assets and it would be challenging to determine who would then become El eligible if that limit was changed because you were saying there's income and assets that feed into the equation yes um Council Pereira asked that the administration work on creating a list of exemptions that can assist senior

property owners and present that list to the committee on finance for the fiscal year 20124 budget obviously now we're on the 25 budget and then the last thing I want to note in here is um again the CFO offered to come back to the committee with more information regarding income versus assets uh Mr Gonzales at the time recommended that if increases were going to be pursued the first increase should

be on income limits as those are easier to study he stated that after those are raised the asset limits could be increased a few years later allowing time to analyze the estimated liability and and we have and we did we've talked about um raising the income limits by you know today we were even discussing it um you know the increase to Social Security we'd start increasing it would

just be an annual amount whatever social security goes up those income limits would would rise with that same percentage there's also but in this empowerment act there's a senior means tested exemption that would allow us to have a local option to Grant additional property tax exemptions to qualifying seniors and the criteria for the exemption includes owning and living in the subject home having a um durational

residency and qualifying based on certain other income and asset levels so the the it seems that these exemptions are targeting some more um like the elderly population and the senior population so again I don't want to do something across the board and only be able to do a little bit for where the focus seems to be the the council's you know looking to try to do something for for these you know lower income

seniors I don't know how long this I mean I the governor is really pushing this I mean we were at the MMA and and everything I hear is she wants this to go and done and they've already started doing the hearings I mean I expect it to be we'd have we know something um in time for the budget but again we've already started working on this and we we will have something to you either way

um yeah cuz I mean with all due respect a year has already gone by well there was another bill that up dying at the state level that we were waiting on cuz I also know that one of the concerns um assuming I I State this correctly was on the reimbursement um there's a limit to the reimbursement so the concern was well if we raise this too much the reimbursement

won't be there so now it's not an offset anymore now it's a liability on as far as the city's cfers are concerned and it will be so we're not going to get reimbursed for these um so but we have looked at our overlay and we've looked at you know where we've been having to to to make adjustments and we feel that we've got some room in the overlay um

we've cleared out a lot of some of the old things um Dan's done a really good job I forget how many we had there was 44 ATV cases please try to speak it to the microphone thank you there was 44 ATB cases when I started there's three now um so we've so cut that down yeah and so we so clear clearing those out and cutting those down we feel comfortable that we will have some room

in the overlay to be able to fit some of this in okay um I hope we can do this for the 2025 budget I will tell you I have a woman who calls me periodically she's I believe in her upper 80s and every time before she hangs up the phone she says to the last thing she says to me I hope I live long enough to see it so I hope we can get this done sooner

than later okay so uh there is a a whole list on the website of all the exemptions that we offer and instructions it's out there it's been on the website under forums just you know if you have anyone that that doesn't know about them or was looking for them well I think you know her her interest obviously would be in an increase because obviously that at her age that's going to help her her income is never

going to get any larger and you know these people a lot of these people are hanging on by their by their nails and uh yeah it's it's a sad State of Affairs that you had people that dedicated their entire life to the city of Fall River and now they don't even know that they can even there's people have already sold their homes there's more revers mortgages now than there ever were

before because they're just scraping and scrimping and just trying to live trying to get by so with that I yield thank you thank you C to seat five Council vice president per you know I'm a little disappointed that I filed this resolution a year ago and now we're only talking about it um and I have had conversations with Mr Gonzales about this and it really comes down to the assets too because the

assets are too low and just like you know my colleague uh Council Pont is looking at affordable housing for our community well I'm looking to try to keep seniors in their homes because seniors are having a hard time to manage with the price of everything going up and taxes being raised and this would have helped them um you say you know this empowerment Act and the governor's pushing for this maybe if she's pushing

for it now something will happen when are we going to have an answer for this I I'm feeling now when I put in a resolution that I have to put you know by such a date to get a response back because sometimes we file resolutions and they get lost in the resolution Heaven I guess because we don't get answers to it um but when is this going to happen I brought some people in and

Mr L I appreciate that it is on the website and you know we've helped a lot of people with that we also talked about people working for the city and getting money off their taxes that was something that they were going to look into or uh veterans that could qualify um but you know when you're you own your own home and your spouse passes away and now you're alone living in that home and I

guess it's really hard to just get rid of everything and downsize or do whatever that's a heartache for people but now you're only getting that one source of income um when do you think you'll have an answer for this so again we we have we know how much money we can afford we've we've done that analysis and again with with this the significant reduction in ATB cases because that was

a lot of un we didn't know we had a lot of like unknown how much that was going to cost so now that we've reduced so much so many of those down and it's a you know four left um um what I will tell you though is that the population that you really want to Target if if we're able if these come through in the empowerment act that's where we're going

to be able to Target if this doesn't happen then we're going to have to do a broad across the board on all the exemptions which is not going to get to where like the one group that you want to help and we won't have the funds to provide all these exemptions to that many people well we it have to be like so for example we looked at one it would

go up $50 if the exemption that's not going to help right but at this would allow us to do to Target like just you know seniors or you know and and change some of these the income limits the incomes really other communities have changed them and we never have over the years because you have to do them across the board yeah and so there's that that's what lies with the issue so I

don't know I mean how long it's going to take I mean we we can talk to to the the bill the empowerment right idea I mean I all I know is that the goal is for fy2 but I I don't know what that actually looks like like in real life Mr Lang you check on that occasionally while that empowerment bill is flying through yeah we've been talking about it regularly talk with met

Thomas and I just had a an hour and a half session with uh DLS about the empowerment act two weeks ago so something happen email mic please just put it right against there you go yeah thank you yeah if you just keep an eye on it maybe send an email so that we all in the loop on that cuz I I get calls all the time people having it hard

do you have a summary do you have a we can send you the section summary of the empowerment act too sure that would be great the mayor testified before the joy committee today so it seems to be moving for good okay I mean you know people are struggling it's not just forever it's all over um you know and I know that it's all over but I don't worry about

all over or I don't have a control over all over but I do care about this city as we all do here um to get things get things done as quick as we can I hope that passes with that I you Mr President thank you1 Council thank you uh just a couple of questions so I haven't been following the um the act itself but what what level of uh income does it

change it doesn't give you actually there's a local option so it's not specified okay so that's where I need some more clarification on that yeah um but what it does do is it allows the elderly exemption so you could increase that one singly without having to increase all the other ones above the 500 yeah because the income requirements I think that's where a lot of the elderly get disqualified right so it's

just it's so it's such a low threshold and if if you have any money in the bank then you automatically disqualified so that to me becomes the issue so um if the ACT is still going and if there's uh options to change it I think we really need to kind of jump on board with the uh local delegation to make sure that the income requirements to get these exemptions are changed because it's just

it's almost impos like the number of people that elderly that should be getting these exemptions they do not qualify because they have some type they either have a pension coming in or they've got um a bank account that has money in it which is sounds ridiculous but they don't they don't meet the requirement so um I I think that's that's the real issue that we've got to we've got to drive and then I guess

second question is uh in terms of you mentioned the overlay how much overlay are we putting in on a yearly basis from the uh from the taxes a million one a million one okay and you know that we have to there's a fiveyear average that we have to pay attention to yep and then so I I just want to make sure that that was going in so obviously you said 44 Overlake oh I mean batement cases

well that was ATB cases um so this year we had 140 abatement applications come in settle that and then so you only the ATB case are are down to four now you said uh four yeah give a take all right perfect with a yield thank you thank you councelor there be no further question I thank you all for coming down thank you appreciate it very much thank you Mr assessor great

job we have one individual that signed up for motion to ad we have one individual sign off as after Finance speak varas subject matter d like your

Shir very spirited conversation absolutely I do support the resolution as well um you know the dery de exclusion is a Hot Topic and as we know as City councelor asked a question as to why it can't be put on the tax RS when back in 2018 and this this agenda packet here was back on 2018 by Design because the information that is pered into this was taken from this agenda packet at that

time and every single city council received that who was in the council so that's why you know I heard um CTU referred to as 2018 that's why it's because that information came from that particular meeting so as you can see as you move forward um so when it comes to the residential side for the annual tax increase you know it has an average here but you can disregard that number

because as we know with home values they rise every single year so every year the average is not going to be the same however for every single $100,000 in value it was $54 per 100,000 100,000 in value and that's for the residential side as you move forward for the commercial taxpayers commercial and Industrial for every 100,000 it was $115 per 100,000 in value so the administration and this was on 2 26 okay

and as you go it talks about the total cost of The Debt Service so that is the for the property tax side um and as we know last year they gave the five-year budget uh projection and this is for the municipal budget last year they said it was 5.4 then they settled on uh 5. 2 and then for this year for this uh new 5year projection FY 24 they said was

4.8 so he's going down and as you go to the next to the next page as as you can see it said that for the for year eight beginning in year eight the uh num was 3.6 so and I provided the screenshot of what school committee me school Committee Member Kevin agar said and he said it that the voters were told that the total additional tax amount was 3.6 million for 7 years starting in

2023 and back in February 1st 5 years before that meeting I provided the entire breakdown of that of The Debt Service and as you can see the highlighted areas that was the deal and and there you go we're nowhere near 4.8 so my question is and before I get to that you know for added insurance policy for this he sat down here and watched the entire presentation so he knows what

is going on so my my question is this why does he need an extra $1.2 million for this because as far as I'm concerned this line item is not a piggy bank to finance fiscal mismanagement seconds yes sir so my thing is is that when this when this budget gets proposed when you look at that line item if it's 4.8 reduce that because that is not what the people voted for and now that you

have the information hold their feet to the fire because this is what they told us a month before the election for the dery project thank you have a good time thank motion to adjourn Finance second motion to adjourn Finance as made second all in favor I any opposed motion carries Finance is now adjourned you too take a two-minute break you want keep going anybody need a break no okay

city council please come to order quickly call the rooll council is kadim here Dion here Hart here Kilby here Pereira here ponti here Roso here Samson here president CRA here will everyone will everyone in the council chair please rise for a moment of Silent prayer

please remain standing for salute to the flag IED alance 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 pursuant to the open meeting La any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting and may transmit this meeting to any attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are

being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not theed acknowledge and permissible Madam clerk the first item before you is the mayor's request to accept a zoning map Amendment for the Waterfront and Transit oriented development motion refer to fin second motion to refer has been made and seconded on the motion counc five yeah refer to committee on finance sorry

should it go to planning planning motion to refer to planning motion refer to planning second it excuse me it's been there already is it no no motion for f planning is fine motion for f planning is made and seconded all in favor on the motion my apologize Council C5 counc I I just want to add something to this because part of this was that they couldn't build up in excess of six

feet uh six stories or something like that but there is also something that many communities are using because of the housing shortage Etc um it's called far the floor area ratio so if you have a parcel of land that's you know so many square feet or whatever if you build on a smaller portion if you build a garage underneath if you have green space if you have a water feature different

things allow you to go up a little bit higher which is going to bring more investors in and I think if we're looking at housing shortages um we've got to look for for things like that as well um so I guess when this goes to to um planning um it'll come back to us like eventually um that I would like to see what this uh see what other thoughts they have I'm not too concerned

with um with the overlay District but just what are they going to do with it and how are they going to develop it I think our Waterfront is key and I think we need to be very involved with a lot of the development that goes on there with that I I agree con C too yeah I'm a little confused this came from planning um and it states on here that a

public hearing was held on December 13th uh public hearing the zoning board of appeals was held on January 18th of this year and it was unanimously voted to recommend to the city council the accompanying zoning map Amendment so why do we send it to planning if it's already been through that process I have the same question yeah the explain the the process for zoning procedure is that it come they present

it to the council first and the council within 14 days is to send is to refer it back to the planning board for their recommendation so oh so we have to give a recommendation no no we get their recommendation to get their recommendation okay but it it's supposed to be presented to the council excuse me no that's okay all right that was basically the only the only question I had it just

confused me when I saw that they had held the public meetings Etc already thank you with that I yeld thank you counc you all second C okay motion has been made in second all in favor I I any opposed motion refer to planning C where as the for youth initiative was created in August of 2022 to benefit young people with recreational activities funded by Bristol County American Rescue plan act funds and

whereas this program provides young people from low and middle income households opportunities to participate in multiple types of extracurricular programs such as music dance boxing and mixed martial arts and whereas the four youth initiative also benefits the economic growth of small businesses who provide areas for these classes to take place now therefore be resolve that the committee on finance convene with the

administration and the four youth initiative coordinator for updates regarding how the Bristol County arpa funds are currently being utilized within the program and how they will be used in future development of the for youth initiative motion to adopt second motion to do has made and seconded on the motion counc seat a council Samson I just have to amend it because it actually didn't come out of the Bristol

County Opera funds that's what was originally intended for and then we had brought it back and we it came out of the mayor's funding so if we can just just adopt it and then um just strike out Bristol County and just put the Opera motion adopt as amended second motion to adopt as amended has a made and seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries do we need two votes M CL one

for the amendment and one to do as amended or not yeah let's let's do it the proper way so that we don't face another letter and we have to send it back motion to adopt as amended no motion to amend would be appropriate motion to make the amendment has been made and seconded all in favor on motion adopt now motion to adopt as amended second made in second all in favor I I any opposed motion not

carries thank you Council M cler whereas the city of full river is home to a great number of memorials many of which honor veterans and Fallen Soldiers of all branches of the military and whereas a recent event of vandalism of the two EO gima Memorial occurred at Veterans Memorial by Centennial Park and whereas the defacing of these types of monuments is considered exceptionally nefarious

and per Mass General LW part 4 Title 1 chapter 266 section 126a Those who commit these acts on a war Veterans Memorial are required to perform not less than 500 hours of Court approved community service now therefore be it resolved that the city council request that Bristol County district attorney compel the applicable Court to approve community service specifically in relation to the repair maintenance and

overall upkeep of all War veterans memorials within the greater full River area for a person who is found guilty of this event motion to adopt second motion to adopt as M second on the motion Council seat 5 Council Vice yeah I I did try to get a hold of um the district attorney attorney Quinn uh but every time I called he was uh unavailable in court Etc but my colleague um councelor

Hart did see him uh he is aware of the resolution but one of the requests was that um where it says be it resolved that the city council requests the Bristol County district attorney compel to put argue to change the word compel to the word argue um so if there if we could amend that to State argue rather than compel I'll second motion to amend has a made in seconded all in favor I any opposed okay

I'm I'm just so Furious that anyone would have marred the Ilima Monument or any monument in this city and I'm so tired of things in our city being destroyed or ruined and there's never a consequence for people's actions I don't know who was involved in this I did hear that it were juveniles um might have been but they need to learn that you can't do things things like this and if the state

law says you need to do community service then at least that's a consequence maybe they need to go to a veteran's home and see some of our veterans or maybe go to Wednesday's kitchen and talk to different veterans do our youth know what veterans have done for us given them the freedoms that they've given them um but that's the only reason and because councelor Samson and myself areais on to the veterans we

talked about how many calls we received from veterans with such an upset that we wanted to do something so I thank my colleagues for the um support with that I yield thank you council4 counc K yes just to add on to council P of course who cannot support this I mean this is a a very good resolution so I mean hopefully make the community feel better I know I feel better that it was

introduced um and Council Hart um actually before he made his com feel good makes me feel happy I love it I love it yeah so um you get it everybody gets it so uh yeah the compel we can't compel judge to do anything the other thing is request I would um amend it further um councilor hot talked to district attorney Quinn district attorney Quinn is is well well aware of the ramifications that

especially something like this occurs so request I sended a ask C refer uh you know man even further to send a letter to uh to his office um it it's again expression of our intent on the part of the council that um that consequences be be paid to the full fullest extent of the law whether juvenile or an adult um to uh to make the city whole and to teach whe if

it's a juvenile obviously we get to teach that that juvenile lesson um the government has to teach the juvenile judicial system and um if if it's an adult then hey good luck uh I mean that's a whole different animal so a letter yeah C part of the process he does receive a letter telling what the council did with the resolution all intact so he'll be well very well aware we do notify him okay thank you thank

you counc per thank you welcome else motion to adopt as amended motion to adopt as amended has been made in seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries clerk item four is the um order granting permission to Massachusetts electric and Verizon New England for one jointly owned pole location on Fifth Street and a jointly owned pole relocation on Spring Street Mo to adopt motion to adopt has been made and

seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries I item five is the order granting permission to Massachusetts Electric in Verizon New England for one jointly owned pole location on Pierce Street motion to adopt second motion to adopt remain in second all in favor I I any opposed motion cares item six is the order granting permission to St John's Holy Ghost Association for the removal

of kurbing at 1975 and field Pleasant Street and fielden Street motion to motion to adopt has made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries have the police chief's report on licenses motion to adopt seconded motion to adopt Chief report on licenses has been made in seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item eight are the applications for renewal of auto body shop licenses at 170 Jefferson

Street and 325 Omen Street motion to adopt second motion to adopt has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item nine are the applications for renewals of auto repair shop licenses at 170 Jefferson Street 2447 South Main Street and 10:30 dwell Street motion to adopt second motion to adopt as main second all in favor I any oppose motion carries have a number of

claims motion refer to Corporation councel second motion for Corporation Council has a made and seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item 11 is an open meeting law complaint filed um with regard to the city council committee on ordinances and legislation meeting motion refer Corporation Council motion for the Corporation Council has a made and seconded all in favor I I oppos motion countes have the

Department of Public Utilities notice of filing and request for comments for regarding the petition of Weaver's Cove industrial park for an exemption from minimum Bridge clearance requirements motion accept place on file second motion accepted place on file has a made in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries the committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on February 27th voted unanimously

to recommend the accompanying proposed ordinance accompanied by an emergency Preamble be passed through first reading second reading passed to be enrolled and passed to be ordained with councelor Samson absent and not voting PR motion to adopt emergency Preble has been made roll call on the emergency Preamble Council cine yes Dion yes Hart yes Kilby yes Pereira yes Ponty yes Roso yes Samson yes president

yes motion to pass through all readings second motion to pass through all readings of the m and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion cares committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on February 27th voted un unanimously to recommend that the accompaning proposed ordinance be pass through first reading this is the mattress disposal fee Amendment motion to pass through first reading

second Mo pass to First reading has remain in seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries that's all we have motion to adjourn second motion to adjourn is remain seconded on any opposed all in favor

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