3.11.2024 Licensing Board

call the March 11th 2024 meeting of the forover licensing board to order first of all i' like to stop by person to we open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public hearing and may transmit the meeting through any media attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or UNP perceived by those

present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible the city Charter section 9-18 mandates that all multiple member bodies develop and adopt rules or policy for public comment we have adopted such a policy which in short provides for citizen input on licens of board specific matters at the beginning of the meeting there was a signup sheet that is located in the back of the room I assume

no one signed in uh okay so we'll have uh agenda item two lodging house which is a late filing raldi please operations LLC care of foral property management um this affects uh 195 Rodman Street Street 254 Forth Street 276 for Street um I believe the the gentleman here in the front row is here to respond to that could you please um come to the table sure and give your name and address for the board please

sure my name is uh Jose Pon PSN Peter a ho n uh my office address 251 South Main Street Fall River okay this is a late filing for a yes lodging house the same thing uh late filing for a lodging house all three of them correct so you need a lodging license yes sir um I actually think that there are some um 254 4th Street is not a rooming house 276 4th

Street and 274th street so there may be some um discrepancy there okay well I'm just reading the application but the application does uh note that 54 should be considered 270 is that what that little note means yeah yeah he didn't fill those up no he did yeah yeah okay so we can get it right with the assessors it's just tricky with that well what we can do for purpose of this meeting because it's a

late filing is we will take it up to be 195 Rod Street 270 will amend the second license application to reflect 270 Ford Street as well as 276 Ford Street now also I'm sorry to interrupt again 197 my understanding is that's one uh 195 it's supposed to be 197 that's my understanding of it but but are you guys filling these out and they're wrong it's it's the owner of the property that

filled them out that filled out the uh okay well well you have to fill out your applications correctly we're not responsible to have your applications correct I'm just making a comment so all the addresses are wrong except for one yeah it appears all of them are wrong except for one excuse me it may not be wrong wrong these are correct correct they're the ones that are failing to tell the building

department of the changes that have been done looks like so sir the applications are submitted as such okay and you're looking these are you're filing these under like a late filing in other words in terms of right now your position is nothing's changing nothing's changing in the operation of these buildings as of when I I now nothing's changing okay I I'm not I'm not sure why you so you're filing the application no

disect understand I understand you have to tell us why you're here not me not us tell you I understand okay so go ahead what so I'm trying to help you here by saying you're submitting three appli applications the address is may or may not be wrong but am I I'm asking you so whatever's out there relative to these lodging houses nothing's changing in from your perspective no sir okay I

think we have members of the building department here that would like to speak on this issue am I correct yes Mr hathway could you could you come up and please state your name address and title for the board

please good morning name is Glenn hathway Building Commissioner with the city of Four River thank you Mr haway uh do you have some input on these partic particular applications yes I do okay so when you have a lodging house within the city of Four Rivers limits we annually inspect the the location and offer a uh certificate of inspection which I have three copies here address 276 4th Street 270 4th Street 1951 197

Rodman those are all lodging houses they are all inspected annually by the building department uh quarterly by the fire department I believe and issued a certificate of inspection for those units those buildings um they have paid for their certificates and 2023 but they never picked them up and posted them in the building that's I don't know if that's this particular owner or I I think

there's a change of ownership here but somebody is not following protocol um my my understanding also is uh one of the buildings I have uh inspector Hilario behind me um has been converted to more units in the basement area uh without permits uh it seems as though the current owner uh wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it and how he wants to do it uh we had a fire

alarm situation over there this last year um we could not impossible to get a response from the owner uh until I get over there and I offered to vacate the building uh that's when the owner responded um appropriately and fixed the building accordingly and that was uh my guess is that's 274th Street I believe believe it is uh was that particular building uh the owner needs to realize that he's running

a lodging house and has been uh categorized as as a lodging house for a number of years I've been an inspector in the city for almost 11 years and I've been inspecting that property for 11 years up until the last couple of years Frank has done it but the ownership has changed and they don't seem to uh run the same ship that the previous owners run and and we need the

uh we need this uh ship to be sailing correctly vertically and appropriately in order to keep uh the buildings up to date I have a big concern if they have an excess amount of units without getting the proper permits correct I I have I have a problem personally I'm not going to speak for Mr Pereira no I got a question as well I have I have a problem with that I mean if they that's an

illegal operation of a lodging C so therefore I'm not going to unless I hear different from the city mean the building inspector that we should approve that particular location I I'm I'm can I ask a question where are the additional units so so I've caught them doing work already there on those additional units in the in the basement last year and 197 robman the front front building yes sir no no

the front one 274 Street okay 274th Street 74 Street when I went there there were building walls that were covered sprinkler systems that were no longer doing their job mhm nobody's come forward and corrected these problems I go there this year to do my inspection now I find out that those units that were used as single Ro as a dor now have been converted into units single units not even lodging home anymore now

they're Apartments understand okay so and not just that one other on have been from three floors now only one has a Roman uh used as a Roman house and the other two have been now converted into Apartments this has to be all done with permits and and communication with the building department I'm not saying it's you no I understand but somebody's doing something wrong here sure okay I've been

there a couple of times and there was numerous times when I was there Mr chairman that there was work going on there unpermitted they were told uh numerous times to get permits and um be honest with you I think Frank followed up on some of them but uh I did not so it's it's uh under the licensing of this uh this building um they need to uh straighten out

and um who is the owner of these roaming boards well it's raldi py it's Joseph raldi and Noah py so you're not one of the one of those individuals you just mentioned so what is what is your role here actually I run the operations I'm the property manager oh so you're a property manager right okay and uh who who is doing the work like physically doing the work there's contractors or I think the owner have

has some contractors that have done some work there in the last year since 200 sometime 20 on let's see 2022 in July 2022 so there's been some work then since 2022 and continuing to go now uh sir just to let the board know we originally had four shs with with these with these uh uh units the one on the corner of course and Robin Street since it's been eliminated by you guys as no more Roman

house and converted into apartment units now 254 legally uh I mean they they were caught doing the work at the time they told to secure permits for the conversion but I haven't seen anybody until today so they didn't get the permits so they didn't get the permits clearly yeah and and and you're saying some of these other locations aren't roing houses anymore they've been converted to Apartments

there's still roming house there because it used to be all three floors like this one right here I made notes of it when I went and do my inspections so 276 SP Street used to be all three floors Roman house now there only one one floor only one floor being used as a Roman house is that is that legal is that legal Mr hatway to to to bifurcate one building as a room in house and

apartments no it's not they need to come in and and request a change of use for the building or a change of space uh for the building and then we'll make a decision on how how we proceed the house that you're talking that Frank is talking about in the corner um I believe was used mainly by an office for an office with a couple of units in it um by the previous owner these people

brought it over bought the building uh and has continuously done whatever they see fit and how they see fit without no does anybody know if there are residents there now in these extra Apartments people actually residing there and uh 254 4th Street I believe they are yeah and so there were there were other um areas made without permits and people are currently residing in those areas so what are we going to do about

that what I that's probably Mr Hat the way ask answer that question well we need to inspect the property Y and reclassify it for what it is y um if there has been work confirmed like Mr Hario is confirming uh we may have to open up walls M bathrooms okay uh for inspections I'm only going to speak for myself we had the special meetings because I was under the assumption this

was only a late filing that's why I kept asking this gentleman that nothing's changed things have obviously changed I I can honestly say I don't want to put anybody out anywhere but I'm I'm not going to improve any of these not today I'm not not without the city of Fall River and and the proper individuals going out and giving their blessing on this at least that's from my standpoint

yes I agree not all that um Carri can we get a police report on the properties too for the next obviously we're going to visit this again for call volume on all three yes yeah might as well on for call volume that's they're extensive sir I could imagine just I'd like to see them um I've been called by the police to uh look into some of the circumstances that's going around there

uh I I believe they vacated some of the problems already uh because the calls have stopped coming to me through the police department um yeah if we could get an actual number from the police department we'd know concretely what they are I I would imagine but get number cleaned up significantly from you know drug dealers or drug users and whatever it's much better there well I I

guess the time frame would just one year one year you got it you don't have to go back too much further than that the problem lies is we speak we talk we ask and they don't seem to think we're important well well let they don't have a license they're not going to have a I'm not well I'm not going to speak for Mr per but I'm not voting for these licenses today we came here for

to try to accommodate these owners but if they're not going to work with the city of Fort River they're not going to have a license and those people are going to be illegally living there that's it for me I mean I'm we we did this to help you guys you we're here this morning to help you guys so so so why don't you make ask for a motion I won't make

it or or does it get I I I I would to vote on it yeah I would entertain a motion at this time not to renew these licenses oh you're making a motion not to them oh yeah I don't I'm not I mean or or you can withdraw them and come back I think the important thing is like what do we what do we do collectively as what do we do with the people that are

living there well at this time I the last time Frank has inspected the property I feel as though it it must be safe because he allowed them to remain there um what we need to do is is clean up the past practice of doing whatever we want how we want when we want and have the proper permits implemented and change the use of the building if need be or uh reclassify it as a lodging

house with uh maybe more units or however they choose but uh now that we've got their attention you got us I'll tell you Mr PR how about if we do this just my suggestion how about if we uh we table this until our March 20th meeting which will give you the next 10 days to figure out this situation and we'll put it on our regular agenda but you can tell your clients very respectfully if we don't

get the blessing by the the the building department that that um that this is all squared away and above board and done the right way that I can just as a chairman I'm I'm not going to renew these I they can tell I'd also like to see an owner here too not not just a property manager no disrespect for you you you're valuable role in this process but I'd like to see an owner here and U

um I make the motion to table us to the March 20th detailed floor plan of all three properties okay sure okay no motion made to table to the 20th now second any questions on the motion hear none all those in favor I I table to the March 20th meeting thank you for your support there Mr chairman