The Fall River City Council convened on March 22, 2022, holding both a regular meeting and a Committee on Finance meeting. During the initial public hearing, the Council approved Comcast Cable Corporation's request for three new utility pole locations on Hancock Street, despite Councilor Pelletier's concerns about the lack of a current contract with Comcast and resident complaints about rates. Fred Cabral, representing Comcast, clarified the poles were needed to service new residences. The Committee on Finance meeting addressed citizen input regarding the Diamond Regional Vocational Technical High School project and city parks. Nelson Vasquez and C.J. Ferry spoke against the council's previous vote on the Diamond project, advocating for a public vote on the debt exclusion and raising concerns about the city's financial feasibility. The committee then discussed improvements to city parks and baseball fields. City Administrator Seth Aiken and Parks Department Director Nancy Smith presented an update, clarifying that youth leagues no longer pay for field lighting since May 2021. They detailed numerous ongoing park renovation projects, totaling over $2 million, funded through grants, community development funds, and ARPA funds. Councilor Kadeem emphasized the need for a comprehensive master plan for parks, including public input and a joint meeting with the Park Board, which was initially requested in May 2021. The committee voted to withdraw the item regarding youth leagues paying for lights and table the item on the master plan. In the resumed City Council meeting, the Council voted 7-2 to override the Mayor's veto concerning the Diamond Regional Vocational Technical High School construction communication, effectively approving the communication. The Council also unanimously confirmed several mayoral appointments and reappointments, including Apollo Emerald to the Conservation Commission, Lara Jean Washington to the Sewer Commission, Rebecca Collins to the Water Board, and Sharon Quinn to the Library Board of Trustees. Bridget Allman's appointment as Director of Financial Services was confirmed with a 9-0 vote. Additionally, the Council adopted two orders providing real estate tax exemptions for Gold Star Parents and for property held in trust. Several proposed ordinances and budget items were referred to the Finance or Ordinance committees for further review, including the FY23 water and sewer budgets and rates, and proposed city department reorganizations. The Council also adopted a resolution to announce Youth Violence Prevention Week.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Watch the video to verify.
Council
City Officials
Public / Other
city council please come to order i'm clerk counselor is kadeem yeah camara dion kilby lee here pelletier here ferreira here proposal yep and president la liberty liberal here first time into the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being
0:48made whether perceived or perceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible it's a public hearing we have a motion to open the meeting motion so major second motion to open the meeting made by council kidding second by council kelly all those in favor aye opposed for comcast cable corporation for new poll location as follows on hancock street three new poll locations the petitioner
1:17has proposed an extension from the existing utility pole number 615-3 located on hancock street three new wooden poles will be placed along hancock street to extend their aerial hardline plant approximately 350 feet to service two new single family residences and a future house law are there any proponents wishing to speak any proponents seeing none are there any opponents that wish to speak any opponents
1:46there anything written we have a letter in support of the petition is that the one you emailed earlier yes do you want to read it if you would like me
2:04not i'm president yes i'd like to say something counseling seat six thank you uh they're coming in for three new polls and i don't know if we should give them three new polls uh do we have a contract with them is he here uh the city minister i just asked him
2:46sir could you just give your name and address for the record yes fred cabral outside plant project coordinator 440 mile standish boulevard taunton massachusetts okay you know it's uh it's been over a year that was supposed to have a contract and nobody seems to be doing anything the people have been complaining about the rates and everything else and i'm waiting uh to have a movement in fall river
3:13but i i can't see giving you permission to put it up we don't know if you're going to be here more than likely you'll be here but you've got no contract with the city of fall river so i just don't think uh uh we should allow this until the things are squared away counselor i don't know what's that's got to do with providing service to two residents that have got new homes down
3:37in hack street all right well it's just it's just something i think it's got to be cleared up you know uh i'm sure the man knows about it it's just uh nothing's being done but people ask me every once in a while what's going on with cable tv and uh they work any solution out that they could maybe lower the rates or something but nobody's talking to anybody so that's what it is so the people out
4:01there they don't know what's happening and then we get this you want three new polls all well and good but let's get things squared away so we know where we stand and that's nothing against you my friend uh it's just an item i just brought it up and maybe somebody will shake the tail to see what's going on maybe you can get the city a better break you know well i
4:23certainly am trying to shake my tail down there to get service to a couple of residents down in hancock street no problem nothing to do with you okay so you know it's up to my colleagues uh they want to vote for that later whatever they don't want to vote that's all right and then let the company do what they have to do uh with that i yield madame president thank you councillor anything further
4:44from the council nope saying nothing okay thank you thank you thank you is there a motion to close the hearing motion close the hearing second motion i'll close the hearing made by council prayer second if i counsel bozo all those in favor aye aye so voted uh a motion to adjourn second emotional journey made by councillor kelly second by counselor pereira all those in favor all right so voted meeting adjourned
5:23city council committee on finance will now come to order madam clerk councillors gadine here camara here dionne kilby here lee here pelletier yeah pereira yeah proposal here and president libby lebeau here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore to advise that such recordings
5:47or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible first item is citizen's input one person signed up to speak nelson vasquez 210 sunset hill and the subject is diamond three minutes hello everyone um today i'm not i want to make it clear i'm not here to advocate for or against the diamond project i am mainly here advocating for
6:22the taxpayers of fall river the state constitution says very clearly that all elected officials are injurable to the people at all times and accountable and the vote that this council took just recently the previous meeting violated that constitution and anything in excess of five million dollars has to go in front of the people but here's the reality of the situation for this city
6:56we have structural deficits that are going to be knocking on the door very soon uh foretold by the former cfo just last year water and sewer rates are going to be going up the cost of living going up we have the south coast rail that's going to drastically increase the cost of living in our city as we know property owners and renters are already feeling the pinch all of this and including
7:24the the derpy tax payment that's going to be coming due really soon it's just not feasible for the city to undertake this debt payment it's not financially feasible the money is not there and it won't be there because if we continue down this path we are going to see more and more tough decisions that are going to have to be made to a future city council and a future administration which is
7:52irresponsible for a city council to undertake and just a handoff we owe it to the next future leaders of this city future mayor future city council to build upon where they want to bring fall river not be bogged down by today's problems and to end my segment i want to close with a quote and with a brief follow-up truth never damages a cause that is just that that was foretold by gandhi
8:26my position is you let the people speak on this issue because we're talking about a situation where a project of this magnitude that will have severe financial implications on its people if it's passed in this fashion the result is not going to be favorable for this city and then and only then if the people speak we will know the real truth of the people this is a very serious situation i understand we all want
8:59education but we have to do it right we have to live within our meaning and and that's what we need to do because that is that is responsible government at its best thank you thank you madam clark anything great yes ma'am president council president and members of the city council i wish to address two issues that i believe are extremely important first i want to address my support of the city council's decision
9:25to not present a debt exclusion to the voters of fall river i like council of kadeem do not believe that the people of fall river understand exactly what a debt exclusion is when the average voter hears that it is a new school for the children they act with their hearts instead of their heads and then afterwards regret the decision not understanding its ramifications a debt exclusion is nothing more than a
9:49time limited proposition two and a half override it basically means more taxes on an already burdened taxpayer i ask that the city council override the mayor's veto and find a way to meet the needs of the diamond project within the budget whereas several elected officials want this matter sent to the voters all that has to happen is for the city council to refuse the diamond project and it will
10:13be sent to the entire district for consideration this does not by any means show a declination for the diamond project or that you are against diamond it demonstrates that you as a body want to hear the position of the citizens which is what you are required to do for our massachusetts constitution declining the diamond project will not create an end run around on debt exclusion it will ask
10:37the entire district to weigh in on the diamond project which is what i believe the district needs to do i would like the city council to recall when city council pereira fought diligently for a residency requirement be required for employment in the city of fall river mayor paul coogan has stated that he will follow the charter city ordinances and state law and has demonstrated this in two positions
11:00the first was when he slammed the budget through without city council approval or input and when he vetoed the city council vote on the diamond project in debt exclusion you have before you tonight a person who is being proposed as the director of financial services who is from warwick rhode island does miss allman plan on establishing city residency for her employment will we hear that we cannot find anyone for the
11:23position because of money any person hired for a position in the city of fall river who refuses to establish a residency should be denied the position this confirms that the city of fall river is not a place to reside in and creates the appearance that fall river is crime ridden and unsightly and this council will confirm that stereotype when it approves people in positions that they will not establish a residency
11:48for fall river deserves better city ordinance requires city residency and it is time that the florida city council enforce that residency requirement and if a position cannot be filled because of that residency requirement i say keep looking we have existed for some time without several positions it isn't fair that these employees take city tax dollars and do not spend or contribute to the betterment of fall
12:11river the city can do better respectfully cj ferry anything further that's all we have thank you item two the committee on finance convened with the administration to discuss improvements and repairs at city parks and baseball fields this was in front of the council on april 6 21 and may 11 21 if members of the administration would like to come to the table please mrs smith
12:47from the table made by counselor prayer second by counselor pellets here all those in favor
13:01three from the table made by council kilby seconded by council raposo all those in items two and three together made by councillor kilby seconded by councillor pereira all those in favor any opposed m2 was put in by former councillor um peckham and president ponti whereas prior to the 9c cuts of 20 2008 the then administration mandated that the fall river little league fall river youth league and local babe ruth
13:33baseball leagues take over the financial responsibility of paying for and maintaining the likes of the baseball fields and whereas our children parents coaches and volunteers work tremendously hard to give our children the best experience possible during the baseball season and whereas it has always been challenging for these baseball leagues to raise enough funds in order to maintain the lighting as well as their
13:54normal expenses now therefore be a result of the committee on finance convene as soon as possible to discuss this matter and the administration be prepared to present what the cost would be to the city in order to take this burden away from the local non-profit baseball leagues starting this year and the second item we're taking together came from the committee on finance where
14:14city parks are in need of repair whereas baseball leagues are all independent and do fundraising on their own now therefore be it result that the administration prepare a presentation to address the needs of city parks and the needs of leagues and be it further resolved at the administration and park board be invited to a future meeting of the committee on finance to present a plan to improve our city parks and
14:35baseball fields as well as bring forward in conjunction with the baseball leagues any immediate capital needs for our city parks and be it further resolved that bids to be obtained and a cost provided to the city council for a strategic master plan for all parks and that it be researched whether open space and recreational grant funding is available for these improvements
15:02good evening good evening hello councillors it is very nice to be before you this evening i'm here with nancy smith from our parks department i will say with regard to the first of the proposals since it was first made it from my understanding is essentially a moot point at this point the non-profit youth leagues do not pay a fee to finance the cost of lighting there are really two adult leagues that do pay those
15:37adult leagues are at father kelly and then the chew and lafayette leagues are essentially the same league and they pay aside from that none of the youth leagues here in the city from my understanding pay to use the lights and as far as i understand and actually this is a little bit surprising even the aau leagues where there's a significant fee to be part of those leaks do not pay so there is no youth
16:04leagues that are being asked to bear the burden of the cost now as you can see from the resolution back in 2008 2009 the 9c cuts are the thing that triggered this whole issue where there was a proposal to ask these youth leaks to shoulder the burden of paying for the lights on fields and at that time one of the things that was done in order for the leagues to be
16:34able to to do that was they were allowed to fundraise and put banners out in the fields and um from my understanding some of those leagues even made significantly more from the banner sales than it would have cost to fund uh the lights now the lights themselves are no longer cost to the leagues but they're actually still allowed to do the fundraising with the banners and still allowed to to help support
17:00themselves through that so with that uh i would uh defer um to uh director smith and uh of course if there's any questions about what i have to say counselor seating counselor so i just to and nancy i think this is to you because i've been involved with little leagues in the city for a long time you know is it not accurate that the little leagues are paying the light bills when they use them no longer
17:29as of when as of last may when we came before this council immediately following that meeting the meters that were in the youth leagues were brought back to the city of fall river so since that time since we've had that comes over a year pretty much heading into a year we've paid the lighting for all youth leagues prior to that they did as the city administrator said due to the 9c cuts that's when they were
18:00given a choice if they wanted to utilize the lighting then it would have to be put into their name okay and so in the league not mentioning these leagues that are listed here but another organization that comes in for example at father travasso's park the football league there came in was using the field and the lights they were being charged for that well we've also they should they will be sent to bill
18:24prior to this gear using it again because they are an adult lead if they were a youth league and here's where the situation comes in and gets a little cloudy because of the age of our lighting we're not able to utilize new technology some of the new lighting that is installed you can use apps on your phone to control it to turn it on to turn it off we don't have that so the board of
18:52pot commission is now is in the process of trying to establish basically a per night fee for adults or something to that sort but it's it's normally it's youth leagues that use them and if it's a youth league we don't charge right now the city has that travasos park in their name okay as well as brooklyn as well as berlin okay without a yield thank you thank you counselor at c5 council group uh
19:30how much were the costs for uh so you've been paying since may 2021 so how much is that well with this fiscal year pretty much we're a little bit over six thousand dollars like between six and seven thousand dollars but they will start utilizing the lighting now because it does get dark earlier so with them having tryouts and such it's dock at seven so often times they're there after that so we will
19:58we had proposed to the council originally about seven thousand dollars so it may be a little bit more than that that we'll find within our budget for this year and have to make the adjustments when we present next year's budget i appreciate the information you provided about the age of the lighting or the age of the lights themselves are not allowed to be upgraded or updated and if if i'm
20:20thinking correctly if you were if you had that ability it could become more fuel more energy efficient correct right presently through um a cpa grant the maplewood senior division babe ruth we have been granted a um 499 thousand dollars and we are going to be replacing that lighting at that field it's probably the most used one of the most used fields is there a timeline as to how this could
20:49all uh it's in the architect's hands right now so we're hoping to have that the bid documents and all that ready by sometime april or may go out for bid but if it's going to interrupt their season we'll wait till the fall before we do the install and what was the park again one more time maplewood maple thank you very much all right thank you thank you mrs smith did you want to continue or
21:13are you off is everything on that one no i'm good counselor state too council camara thank you um nancy aau they is it a local aau league or is it out of town there are two aau's uh that utilize it one is kind of a spinoff of the dumont league and another one the gentleman who runs the league is from fall river but the participants of his league are all it's one team
21:42they're all out of town kids claudio raposo what age group was the aau 14 14 year old both of those are four teams because they charge significantly more than regular leagues would charge yes the local kids to play yes travel ball is always believe me i know travel ball is also a lot more always a lot more than regularly youth leagues little leagues are usually maybe between depending on age between 60 to 120
22:22a child for the season like with the older kids paying the higher fee but aau is can be anywhere from 600 to 3000 depending on if they travel where they go so there's a significant difference my understanding is when they spoke of durfee getting lighting it was so that the aau people could rent at that facility yeah all right with that are you thank you thank you councilman seat six council pelletier yeah um
23:02is the the budgets are not ready yet but is the mayor willing to put more money in the box is he going to put more money in the box so i have a presentation um just a handout that i prepared to answer that question counselor with regard to what the projects right now are in the parks and there's there's a lot of really great plans is would it be okay if i pass that out i have
23:24extras for the public as well thank you very much
23:44you have the floor counselor thank you would it take the administration to try to straighten out the problems that you have with the parks i don't that's a big question that's a big question how many times like everybody needs money every department needs money we all need money but i think we're we are as you know we are we have more projects ongoing now than we have ever had in the past number of years and
24:23i mean there are projects that are big ticket items most of them you know 500 000 between a complete renovation of kathy assad you know the installation of lights at maplewood all of those are in the 500 000 range so i mean you can only do it one step at a time and um we also have the you know the lower kennedy pickleball slash tennis courts that we're doing kennedy park uh senior division field we're doing
24:53back stops and dugouts so i mean we have a lot going on right now as we as we said um north park we've looked into the skating pond to repair that um i mean there's a lot going on who's gonna determine what goes fist these are all ongoing yeah but how long well you say ongoing you're going to be done in a year kathy assad should be done by the end of june that grant
25:23expires we have to complete that by the end by this june the pickleball courts are in planning right now the planning stage in the in the uh is that agreement and design that's a grant and we cannot stop construction on that until july of 2022 so it has completion date of july of 2023. the maplewood lights as i said the plans and specs are being put together and that's as well with the
25:51kennedy park uh backstop and and dugouts so all of these are ongoing and should be completed within the next year or two so all of them are grants kennedy park is not a grant the that was money that was put in the budget by this council it was for a project how much was that you know one hundred thousand hundred thousand to do backstop and dug out fencing yeah and they'll redo the players benches and
26:22it's similar to what we did at tupac okay all right so thank you very much ail thank you concerned councillor yeah my other my other question was just in terms of the permitting fee is that fee factored in anything to do with the lighting costs or anything like that we have no permitting fees you have no permit okay we have we collect xero but i have to say that many of the leagues do have to
26:50participate they some of them do buy materials we buy materials every year for them clay stone dust we do that but many of them do purchase these things on their own as well and they do do maintenance on their fields because of the manpower situation so if they're going to get a field ready every single night they're the ones that do it so i mean we do have a lot of leagues that
27:13participate in kind of a team effort so to the third to the third item there about the needs of repair are the baseball leagues still responsible for example like third base breaks are they still responsible to fix it at this point normally they the bases yeah they would we supply home plates and pitches mounds because each league wants a different type of basis so normally the league themselves they
27:40take their bases they put them they take them out they're the only ones that use their bases home plates and pitchers mounds are permanent so we provide that okay i yield thank you thank you councilman pereira uh seth i know you gave us this list but i think it would be important to read this so that the public knows how much money has been invested uh within the city with the parks
28:10if you wouldn't mind so that people at home can see some of the uh work that has been done i appreciate that counselor thank you for the opportunity to do that because because there is a lot of exciting work uh and i'll say that the the majority of this is um you know certainly the mayor's priorities in improving the park our local legislative delegation has done a lot of work to try to facilitate this
28:36community development and of course using arpa funds so it's a combination of efforts and and i know carol fiola was instrumental uh with regard to i believe the kathy assad grant and we really appreciate that so we do have a 26 000 plus community development funding at columbus park for the installation of new park benches at the de maris playground there's about 280 000 being spent
29:04for the basketball court and blacktop games as well as fencing and just safety measures around there trimming removal around the area as well as park benches and signage at shoe park 121 thousand to replace the backstop and dugouts as well as the bleachers 291 000 at etna street which is the paul poole's park to replace the basketball court new blacktop games fencing very similar uh to what's being done at the
29:33mayor's playground uh the fall over uh family picnic grove also known as dave's beach there's almost sixteen thousand dollars in community development funds there for picnic tables and signage boneville green 20 000 for landscaping and park benches kennedy park has a 400 000 park grant as well as the 265 thousand dollar community development funds for tennis courts pickleball courts uh
30:00recently saw the design of those that's going to be awesome uh there's parking as part of that splash pads an upgrade to the skating rink as well as walkways and lighting and pavilion painting the kathy assad tatwat there's 342 thousand dollars in the park grant as well as 192 000 of community development funding for playground basketball court splash pad new fencing new walkways as well as landscaping
30:29and then in abbott court north park lafayette park and i believe i thought there was one more um we're replacing the skateboard parks uh there the mayor actually did a walking tour of skateboard parks with a number uh had invited whatever um interested parties folks that use those parks and want to have some input into what's put there um it was very well attended as he went from park to park he
30:55gathered more people uh sort of like the the pied piper of skateboard parks there was more and more skaters with an interest in that got a lot of contact information for people that want to give input and they're the subject matter experts which is which is fantastic jerry lawton green is a refurbishment of the green uh the kukashan river uh trail phase four is just the construction of phase four of that trail
31:19uh within uh days from what i understand we're gonna be starting the 20 mile walking trail uh at the reservation funded by the mass trail grant and then a new backstop at maplewood park and some field renovations at dumont so of those there's only three parks in the city that aren't getting uh some additional work uh and i would suggest that part of that is because there just isn't additional manpower and
31:46resources that do the work there's so many resources being put to all the other parks and i appreciate the opportunity to to read that out loud for the public there's also copies of this it could be available to anybody who wants to contact me i'm s aiken at falloverma.org uh and there's also copies behind me with the clerks thank you i think that there has been a lot and continues to be more i just want
32:12to say that with the picnic robe i was highly involved in that and it was 15 896 versus everything else that over a hundred thousand three hundred thousand four hundred thousand so that says a lot about the volunteerism that came in to helping even getting mulch for free from places getting people to donate getting people to spread mulch uh put picnic tables together et cetera and you know our city workers were great
32:40with putting in the cement pads so when people work together things can be done at a lesser cost so i certainly would reach out and thank veterans were there every day helping out to thank everybody that helped there that you know this proves how much money we save the city in doing an area and it was much appreciated but i think they're doing a great job i'm looking forward to the ice skating rink
33:03that's what i'm looking forward to nancy's going to look out her window and see people ice skating but thank you that's the only questions i have i yield thank you thank you and uh thank you for this um document again i think these are the kind of things we were in in the past asking for you know ahead of time and so we appreciate all this information especially the financial uh part of it um
33:30when you when you gather the information and you actually provided some of it with regard to skate parks but um when you gather information to see because this is a it's a really extensive list of what's being repaired and what's being renewed um and and what's being put in place in general but um when you when you do that do you have i know you must have a team of people that go out
33:49there and look at the parks but you also how much information do you take from the citizens in in the evaluation of what parks need just just curious about that you did give some insight as far as the parks uh skate parks go so so i can only speak to to what i know recently because i've only been in this position for a short time um if director smith has any
34:10feedback on that i think that would be helpful because you certainly have a little more institutional memory than i do i think we most of it comes from cda has outreach meetings and they do send out various correspondence because prior to recently most of our funding did come through cda right so i believe that's where they gather most of the information at those hearings or at those meetings and through the um
34:41administration going into the various neighborhood meetings i think that's where they and because we've had we've had challenges because of the pandemic you know those meetings haven't been as you know frequent so that's why i was asking this question because i think we're starting to slowly get back to you know a more normal pace of having these meetings again and i'm wondering if these vessels are used for
35:04this information gathering process as well because we want to we want to put this information out there but we also want to make sure that people know that it's it's out there for them to use you know i mean when they make um when they if we have complaints or if we have ideas from people uh in the neighborhoods we definitely want to see if we can accommodate some of those things the last thing um mistaken
35:27opera funding is our funding only being is is uh for the skateparks is arpa the only uh funding mechanism right now for the skateparks because it says unknown or it says to be determined right now so so i think part of the the reason we put to be determined is um obviously there's a process for awarding arpa funding we want to make sure that everyone is part of that process has a vote in in
35:53making that decision i understand that that arpa funding is is the goal here uh but i can't speak uh for certain as to what the end result is going to be okay thank you anything further from the council council c1 kazakhstan thank you madam president just in terms of the um i guess the second resolution that was filed so there's mention in the resolution and i recall the resolution being put forth by the
36:20entire finance committee um with regard to a master plan for the park so just curious as to where we stand with the you know the open space and recreational plan for that have we looked at any grants uh to utilize that have we looked at any additional costs to have a consultant come in and actually start working with the city to really kind of identify where our conservation and recreational
36:42needs are and our resources and how we protect that and improve on those as opposed to and i appreciate everything that's being done here but i i think part of the reasoning for the ordinance was really trying to compile a plan so that you know as administrations change at least we have a master plan and as the council change that we can kind of follow and say okay this is the priority
37:02um getting input from the community in terms of what they want to see for a lot of our open space and recreational fields that we have out there so just curious as to where we stand with that um and then the the second piece to that question would be we were looking for a joint meeting with the park board if we if there was any discussion with the park board about coming back before the
37:23city council just so that we can have a joint meeting to talk about you know the planning of of a master plan or discussion around the master plan so i will say that um as you probably many of you probably know there was a proposed plan in 2015 which i don't believe was ever adopted uh so there was there was significant work on that was that was that a master plan or was
37:45that was that an open space and recreational plan i believe it was an open space and recreational plan i haven't here the draft it's a capital improvements plan and in this book there lists each park and someone had gone around like the the blunt um bennett they went around they determined what needed to be done they prioritized these projects with a number of one through five we have been in this particular book as
38:15well pulling out different projects that needed to be done one being the lower wall there at kennedy park that was collapsed on bradford avenue a few of those things so this is what i believe they have been working from i cannot say that they have moved forward with anything new since this was from 2015.
38:38so to the best of my knowledge i have not been involved with any forward movement on a new plan right so i i would just say that that's and i'd appreciate and i'd like to actually take a look at that i think that's something we were talking about in terms of the capital improvement plans that we were looking for but more in in line with the open space and recreational plan uh the la the biggest
38:59component of that is is public hearings and and getting feedback from the public in terms of you know what they're envisioning uh with the use of our parks and and recreation so there's you know we can't really necessarily do it in-house by ourselves we definitely have to get somebody uh consult somebody uh to come in and help us assist with that and and driving some you know workshops
39:19and you know getting the stakeholders at the table to say what do we want to see and then and i'm sure that that would be updated and that would also be included in the actual what i'm calling the master plan so that you know we know what type of direction from a policy standpoint every time we come down you know counselor and c6 asks you know what what does the budget look like right so when we're
39:40coming down you know when we're looking at the budget we can refer to the master plan and say okay this is what we've committed to doing or this is what you know the city would like to see done you know and when i say the city you know the people the residents of the city uh in terms of you know walking trails or improved parks or do they want to see soccer
39:59fields do they want to see you know um you know pickleball um courts is a big thing now but what what is it that folks truly want to see and what's what's a priority based on their um you know their lifestyle currently with their families right because i think as we discussed about this is it's about quality of life and and wanting to live and work in the city of florida and i think that's a big
40:21component is is the recreational and open space of of everything so we can get a plan it just makes your job easier our job easier especially you when you're trying to advocate for for additional funding for you know resources on all these these different parks that we're going to that you can actually turn to a plan that has a lot of input from the community saying this is what we want to
40:42see i think the city's open space plan is good until 2024 and it does have a section of course on parks and recreation but it is not specific too and i think that's what you're right looking for but i would say that the both of those plans the open space plan and this sort of master capital plan neither one at this point has been adjusted for the work that's been able to be done through
41:06either community development or arpa so really at this point the next step would be updating what we have based upon what we're doing but then in terms of bringing on a consultant i think it almost goes back to the conversation that we're having almost too frequently which is what are the city's priorities not to say that parks are not parks very clearly are a priority of the city because
41:31it just creates opportunities for for youth for families for literally everybody every resident in our city um has some opportunity to to be outside to play sports to just be in nature created by a park that said as you have seen with some of the upper commitments that have already been made there are other priorities that right now are are pressing the city and those those include roadways and and drainage
42:00issues and some of the other infrastructure pieces uh that are there so not to say that it's not something we're going to do but i i can't at this point commit that it's it's something that's going to happen in the next 90 days um it is something that the city is going to undertake it's something that once i realized that this was on this agenda for this meeting and i also realized that there's these
42:21plans out there that really haven't been uh brought up to date or kept up to date and we've been pulling from them as much as well as we can and responding as well as we can um the conversation i've had with the mayors that is that we need to really be intentional about what our plan is going forward so i think you'll see more of that and i can appreciate that but what
42:40i would say and maybe partly city council fault is at fault for this too but this is something that was put in place and tabled back on 5 11 21 right so in it it specifically says that bids be obtained and cost provided to the city council for a strategic master plan for all parks and that is research whether open space and recreational grant funding is available for these improvements so what
43:04i would say is i appreciate where the mayor's coming from but if there is a partnership you've got to respect the fact that it's the city council back in 2021 had requested that we go out to bid for a consultant to come out and lay out a master plan for us you know now whether or not that's his priority that's fine then i think we need to as a city
43:22council need to talk about it but we have two items on the agenda one of them is to and in this is to have a joint meeting we we still haven't had a joint meeting with the park board right so again that could be on the city council not laying blame on you know the administration or the city council it's just that when we put these resolutions together they we need to stop submitting feel-good
43:43resolutions things that sound good in the moment right and quite frankly i don't this was very very specific to um really kind of get to a real a resolution that was very targeted right so uh let's bring in a consultant let's get the park board here and let's start having a conversation so we can kind of move in that direction and i think because what we what we see a lot of
44:02times is there's a lot of piecemeal right so we're just really trying to get a plan in place and i appreciate all the the money and and funding that's been you know put aside and i would say that it's probably more than i've seen in a long time and we're all excited about that but i think we need to have a plan in and make a determination as to what truly is a priority right the administration
44:24you know priorities change with administration so a mayor can submit a priority you know one or two years and and if there's a change in the council the priorities could change and at the end of the day it's the city council's responsibility uh to appropriate funding so if if we're not on the same page in terms of where the priority is then don't be upset when the appropriations don't occur
44:46you know so i i think it's just these types of planning helps everybody and gets everybody to the table so that we have the park board here you know we've never really had a conversation with the park but we always hear about the park board but this city council has never you know requested a joint meeting to truly discuss all the issues that we have with our parks and recreation so
45:04let's invite that group that's in charge of the park board let's hear what they have to say and i know we can participate and attend their meetings as well but i think a joint meeting would would allow us to do that but i i think we need to you know kind of fulfill unless and i'm just one counselor you know my other colleagues could disagree with me but we've got a resolution to
45:21meet with the park board and to to kick off a master plan for the parks and open space so i'd like to see that for you miss madam president to to make sure that we get the park board here so i'll give you an update on these two resolutions originally we had another item in finance and the attendees couldn't be here so we switched it on thursday to these two resolutions i did speak with the
45:44mayor and explained what what the resolutions were and what we were requesting however with attorney aiken not being here last year i asked that just these two come to the table give us an update on where we're at put together a presentation which he did and and on very short notice and i appreciate that and let us know where we're at as of now and quite honestly shame on us or the
46:07counselor that was here counselors that were here last year that didn't bring this up again over the last since may right and again i'm not i'm really not trying to lay blame on the administration or the city council i just want to make sure that we address it and i i think obviously it's going to cost this money to put together and hire a consultant to come in and assist us
46:26with the master plan but we need to know what that is how much is that going to cost and i think at some point you know the city council needs to make a determination if we want to appropriate funding for it go out for an rfp things of that nature but i the resolution was was filed as it's one that's being discussed so that's i i still stand by uh the intent of this this resolution
46:46without a yield you think further from the council tony i do want to um just say one thing because i i did say it to the mayor and i'm not sure that it went through tony hawk does have a skateboard skatepark grant so if you could look into that for the skate parks thank you madam president there's a website for it online to apply can you repeat that none of us heard you
47:14tony hawk the skateboarder has a skateboard skatepark grant that he gives out to different cities or areas of need if there are building a new skate park or refurbishing an existing skate park so it could be a funding source if we're going to do three skate parks anything further would it be a motion to equip and table both of these or can we uh i would just make a recommendation that we table item number three
47:53correct and the lights are now on also no longer being paid for so i think that item too since we took them together madam clerk can we vote on them separately item two leave to withdraw so motion for item two leave to withdraw made by kessler pereira seconded by kelsey kadeem all those in favor any opposed you guys have it item three ocean table made by councillor kelby thank you second by councillor all those
48:24in favor aye aye any opposed you guys have it um motion to adjourn finance motion to adjourn or join made by councillor kadeem seconded by council proposal all those in favor all right so voted finance is adjourned followers city council will now come to order madam clerk councilors kadeem here mara
48:56here will everyone in the chamber please rise for a moment of silent prayer i pledge allegiance please remain standing for a salute to the flag of the united states of america into the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all i was ready
49:35first time to open meeting law any person to make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible you have before you the mayor's veto of the city council's vote which was taken
49:57on february 22nd regarding the communication from diamond regional vocational technical high school relating the to the construction of the new diamond high school which was laid on the table in accordance with section 3-7 of the city charter motion from the table second emotional lift from the table made by council kadeem seconded by council for all those in favor all right any opposed let's have it
50:20motion to override the mayor's veto motion override made by council kadeem second seconded by councillor pereira i'm clerk volkov just a very quick comment um i'm not going to be spotting the motion i think i don't want to overstate this but um i think i might be clear in my message in my my belief that the i think the a question of this magnitude um the amount of money this is going to
50:51cost which again i just i've been speaking with carl hutzler on and off over the last couple of weeks i'm in favor of the school i want to help with with any campaign that happens but i just philosophically do not think that nine people should be deciding a project of this magnitude that will affect 90 000 people i think we have an obligation to allow the citizens of fall river who are going to
51:17be footing uh this bill to have a say so with all due respect to everyone involved um i um i wish everyone well and i i wish the uh all the students are diamond well so i yield thank you thank you counselor counselor and counselor and well well i'm not against uh the mayor presenting to the public a request to have a dead exclusion or vote to have the exclusion i don't think
51:42it has to be at the expense of us voting no i i that was that was the opinion of uh corporation council but i still believe we can vote yes and if the mayor wants to do you know make that request to the public that's in his purview but i think we as a body if we support it we say yes and that's it i yield thank you councilman seat six council pilot
52:02the way i look at it they're going to pay one way or the other uh you're going to pay a 111 million or you can pay up to 160 million because you got to fix it up anyway so that's the problem i got if the voters vote uh not to uh to to build it and and they're gonna have to do something up there you've got 1500 students what do you do with them
52:32if if the state close you down uh what do you do then i mean we only got the vmc dirty and and that's the way i see it you know we're still going to get stuck with the bill and i think we're better off if we know what the amount is and try to work it out within the city if we can uh the debt exclusion is uh is there i wouldn't want to use it but
53:07uh we just got to make sure that it doesn't close down and that's it i yield thank you anything further from the council roll call clerk on the motion two override counselors kadeem yes camara yes dion kilby no lee yes here yes pereira yes proposal yes and president-elect yes the ocean paris mr vote just one one and i'm diamond the diamond communication you also need to hold it on there
54:03so before you again is the diamond communication the appropriate move would be to approve that communication again motion to approve promotion to approve made by council khadim seconded by councillor camara all those in favor aye aye any post
54:28item number two is the mayor's request for the confirmation of the approve of the appointment of apollo emerald to the conservation emotionally from the table second emotionally from the table made by councillor seconded by councilman pellets here all those in favor aye opposed item selected once you approve the appointment second motion approved made by kelsey kilby seconded by councillor pereira any discussion
54:57all those in favor aye any opposed so voted item 2b is the miz request for the confirmation of the appointment of lara jean washington to the sewer commission emotional lift from the table second emotional from the table made by councillor pereira seconded by council raposo all those in favor hi hi second motion approved made by councillor kilby second invite councillor pereira any discussion
55:29all those in favor aye any opposed so voted item 2c is the mayor's request for the confirmation of the approval of rebecca collins to the whatever water board motion to approve second motion approved made by councillor for seconded by tell us here any discussion all those in favor and you posed so voted congratulations thank you item three is the mayor's request for the confirmation of the reappointment of
56:04sharon quinn to the library board of trustees second motion approved made by councillor camara second invite kelsey pereira any discussion all those in favor aye opposed so voted item four is the mayor's request for the approval uh confirmation of the appointment of bridget allman as the director of financial services mostly to approve motion approved made by councillor pereira seconded by coaster
56:30killed me any discussions health receipt six council is she here this evening she is where is she oh okay she got my vote
56:48anything further from the council no no call
57:00on confirmation of the appointment counselors kadeem yes camara yes dion hilby lee yes pelosi yes ferreira yes proposal yes and president la la belabo yes congratulations congratulations congratulations okay
57:47thank you
57:55great thank you
58:10item number five is a communication from the mayor in an order accepting the provisions of mass general law chapter 59 section 5 caused 22nd h providing real estate tax exemption for gold star parents refer to audience motion to doubt i think appropriate emotional free to adopt motion to adopt second martial job made by counselor katie seconded by council camaro any discussion councilman seat seven council foreign i
58:42just think that this is a a wonderful thing that's being done this is for gold star parents if you lost a child in the war or an individual in the war or if that person died due to war related illness that you'll get an exemption of fifteen hundred dollars on your taxes for your property if you live in that house i mean i think that's a small thing to give
59:08to parents or a guardian of someone who lost their life i i was very happy to see this one and the next one on uh which talks about um property that's held in trust i thought that that was kudos to the mayor and many of our veterans that i've talked to that have seen this that just delighted to see something like this pass with that i yield thank you anything further from the council
59:34all those in favor all right the opposed guys have it item six is the mayor's communication in an order accepting the provisions of mass general law chapter 59 section 5 clause 22nd g providing real estate tax exemption for property held in trust most to adopt a job made by council proposal second by council ferrer any discussion all those in favor aye aye any opposed you guys have it item seven is the is the mayor's
1:00:09communication proposed fy23 budgets for water and sewer divisions motion referrer to finance second motion to refer to finance made by kelsey kadeem second by councillor pereira any discussion all those in favor aye are you opposed you guys have it item eight is the mayor's communication and proposed ordinances for fy23 water and sewer rates motion referred to ordinance second most referred to
1:00:38ordinance made by councillor kadeem second by council prayer any discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed you guys have it item nine is the mayor's communication and the community development agency's year three annual action plan must second i'm sure referred to finance made by councillor kilby seconded by council kadeem any discussion all those in favor i claim opposed you guys have it
1:01:05item 10 is a mass communication and proposed ordinance regarding the reorganization of city department most referred to second motion referred to ordinance made by councillor camara seconded by councillor pereira any discussion all those in favor of all right what's that i you oppose the next two ten eleven two opposes item ten we're on ten you do ten eleven twelve i'm ten eleven
1:01:33twelve oh yeah we're in ten okay sorry i jumped a gun do you want to oppose item 10 counseling no no ok
1:01:49item 11 is the mayor's communication and proposed ordinance establishing the position of the director of city operations mostly referred to ordinance commissioner for an ordinance made by councillor pereira signed by council raposo any discussion conference seat six yeah i just wanna i mean it's a it's a big move i wanna make sure that i get the right information and do the right thing so
1:02:18it's gonna go to ordinance i'll watch it from there and i just as soon oppose it right now and i see how it comes out and then uh throw my vote out there one way or the other with that idea thank you thank you counselor counselor and cd counselor pozo can we invite um city administration down just to clarify exactly the rationale behind this for the public let's go ahead and motion
1:02:40away the rules motion so made motion we have the rules made by council raposo their second on the motion hold on there's no second hand is there a second motion away of the rules second seconded by council appellate air discussion council commander yeah on the motion this could be referred to the ordinance committee it is correct so we will have this discussion whatever questions you have
1:03:02in your honors committee i don't want to get into that discussion now because i don't think anyone's prepared and looked at it yet so there's going to be a lot of questions to be had at that meeting and i know you probably have what you want to ask yourself but this is not the time for it just so you'll know it's going to get referred to the audience committee we're all invited to attend
1:03:18and we can ask those questions then and then he'll be better prepared to present it with other people as well to answer the questions you might have today just want to let you know without you thank you the motion to wave the rules the maiden seconded all those in favor all right any opposed i'm opposed i'm opposed madam clerk willful not appropriate i withdraw my motion save you the headache motion has been
1:03:44withdrawn thank you council commander listen there's a process for everything and i think it's better for the administration to come down with everyone that's involved and it allows us to get the full information i appreciate it i appreciate it council pelt they'll take the floor for an hour if you're going to bring them down with that ideal thank you we've emotionally referred to ordinance all those in favor aye
1:04:09opposed are you opposing this one you're opposing this yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you caught me as a post item 12 is the mayor's communication and proposed ordinance to correct an omission to the position of director of community services reporter ordinance mostly referred to ordinance made by councillor pereira second seconded by counselor kilby any discussion all those in favor aye opposed any
1:04:43opposed counsel for pilotary's post item 13 is communications from the traffic commission recommending amendments to traffic ordinances motion referred to ordinance most never recorded ordinance made by council prayer seconded by council pelletier any discussion all those in favor all right any post you guys have it have a miscellaneous traffic ordinance for passage through second meeting and enrollment at that
1:05:24second reading enrollment made by counselor kelvin seconded by counselor pelletier any discussion all those in favor aye opposed yes i have it we have a proposed ordinance relating to fines for violation of emergency parking prohibitions for passage through second reading and enrollment motions motion made by council kilby seconded by council raposo any discussion all those in favor aye opposed yes have it
1:05:53where is the committee on human services housing youth in elder affairs convened to discuss at-risk youth and whereas the youth of the city feel isolated and in need of help and resources with nowhere to turn to for guidance and or support and whereas the city needs to become more involved and get partnerships and events together to help these children get out of their comfort zones and
1:06:15whereas we need to be more up to speed and take advantage of using the digital platforms children are using to share events updates and resources to allow them to have all the information at their fingertips now therefore be it resolved at the city council committee on human services housing youth and elder affairs use their platform to announce youth violence prevention week to be held april 25th through 29th 2022.
1:06:48made by councillor kilby seconded by council proposal any discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed you guys have it item 17 is the order granting permission to comcast cable corporation for new poll locations second motion two adopt made by councillor raposo seconded by councillor pereira any discussion counselor in seat six i stayed in my opposition i think the cable contract they should do something
1:07:19with it until then i got a no vote for him totally got the contract with that are you anything brother from the council all those in favor all right any opposed council pelletier the police chiefs report on licenses second promotional adopt made by council kilby seconded by council pereira any discussion all those in favor aye opposed you guys have it have the application of jennifer lessard for auto repair shop at
1:07:501904 bay street motion to approve second motion approved made by pushing a dot made by counselor poses seconded by councillor pereira any discussion all those in favor all right oppose you guys have it have a number of claims motion referral corporation counsel made by councillor pozo seconded by council pelletier any discussion all those in favor opposed you guys have it have the re excuse me the response of
1:08:19the assistant corporation council to an open meeting well complaint promotion accept place on file motion accepting place on file made by council camara second by councillor any discussion all those in favor opposed you guys have it item 22 is also um a resource acceptable is on file motion accept and place on file made by council camara second by council pereira any discussion all those in favor aye
1:08:48opposed the eyes have it item 23 our drain layer licenses i want you to approve motion approve the drain layer licenses made by council pereira is there a second second second by counsel kelby any discussion all those in favor aye opposed you guys have it item 24 is the city engineer's request for street openings less than five years on a number of streets and intersections we have a motion motion to adopt motion
1:09:23to adopt mission approved made by council pereira seconded by councillor camara discussion council in seat seven council prayer i just want to add that uh in a conversation with the engineer dan aguiar i said gee opening all these streets less than five years but he has really gotten with the gas company who's doing these openings on how they're going to repair these streets and completely repair the
1:09:48streets so i think that that's kudos to him because we've constantly been talking about that and he does have a list of all the streets that are going to be going forward which ones are done if we get money with chapter 90 what other ones are going to be done so he's really working hard sometimes i think we we don't compliment the people that are working really hard in this building so
1:10:09a shout out to dan aguiar that's it thank you counselor i agree i have confidence he's going to um get these done correctly anything further from the council russia approved all those in favor aye aye opposed the eyes have it motion to check 25 to 30 seconds motion to take 25 through 30 together made by councillor kilby second by counseling team any discussion all those in favor all right opposed you guys have it
1:10:39clerk 25 through 30 or city council minutes we have a public hearing of march 8th committee on finance of february 22nd and march 8th joint meeting of the city council and school committee of march 8th regular meeting of march 8 and special meeting of the city council of march 3.
1:10:59motion approved made by councillor seconded by council kadeem any discussion all those in favor aye opposed the eyes have it take a recess to sign ordinances
1:11:29so
1:12:38city council's back in session out of park all right we have the miscellaneous traffic for passage through final ordination emotion so made no sense through final ordination ordination by counselor poses second by counsel kadeem any discussion what i um ordinance relating to fines for violation of the emergency parking prohibitions for passage through final ordination motion made by council raposo second by
1:13:21council kadeem any discussion all those in favor all right opposed the eyes have it and lastly we have the roselli clark and associates basic financial statements for the year ended june 30th 2021.
1:13:39the appropriate motion would be to approve so moved poop i'm sorry what
1:14:10the clerk said this needs to be sent to finance so the appropriate motion would be referred to that's why i have my hand up motion referred to finance made by council kadeem seconded by council pereira discussion councilman seat seven the only issue that i have with this um when i was reading through it there's one section i that talked about the redevelopment authority not having their audits in
1:14:35and i know that in 2018 or so it was change where they have to perform an audit a yearly audit before that they didn't have to but i don't think that that belongs with roselli clock and associates because the housing authority doesn't come so there's a question about that so before this comes before us to discuss it maybe we need to have legal look at it and see if the law states
1:14:59that they do or that they don't have to have um audits and it's part of the city order they're feeling that it what i'm hearing is they don't feel that it should be part of the city audit because it's segregated money it's not money from the city so just to clarify it i'd like to get that clarified before they come down do you want to send a uh the charter requires you to meet with this
1:15:25jointly with the city auditor that's why what did you say i'm sorry charter requires the council to meet jointly with the city auditor yes i'm not saying that i don't want to meet with them what i'm saying is in reading in reading the audit one of the questions one of the statements on there was that there wasn't information from the redevelopment authority but that law changed in 2018 that they must conduct
1:15:51audits but not that it's part of the city because the housing authority isn't part of this order i just want to get that clarified so if we could send the letter communication to the property if legal can clarify that so motion incentive finance and to send a communication to legal did you get that madam clerk yes to clarify any further discussion seeing none all those in favor aye opposed the eyes have it
1:16:21motion to adjourn motion to adjourn made by councillor pozo second by counselor kilby all those in favor hi you want to work
1:17:12you