3.28.2023 Fall River City Council

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here Washington here president Camaro here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting May transmit this meeting to any medium attendees are therefore advisor such recordings or Transmissions are made where the perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible motion open the public hearing motion

second and seconded all in favor who carries first we have a joint poor location Massachusetts electric company and Verizon New England Inc for one new jointly owned poll location as follows on River Street install one jointly owned Paul poll on River Street National Grid is to install the new 45-foot class II wooden pole and proposed poll 11-1 will be located approximately 30 feet south of pole 12 in line between

existing poles 11 and 12 on River Street this pole will be used to feed an underground service for MBTA Railroad and according to a plan 30631487 are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents please come on downstairs to name and address for the record

good evening Aaron Roy National Grid 1250 Brayton Point Road Somerset um yeah we are proposing to set a new poll between polls 11 and 12 on River Street for the NBA MBTA um we're looking at proposed locations closer to the railroad tracks but due to the slope between the road and the railroad tracks it looked like a better location to set it in the street and then feed their service on the ground from from the

proposed poll pretty straightforward that's about it simple enough thank you okay are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents second none I had to stand them two clothes made by Council Kilby second by contraposo all in favor aye Mr public hearing is now closed

we'll wait one meeting for that one minute for the finance committee against what's between at six o'clock

city cops coming here finally come to order clerk will call the roll council is Kadeem here Dion here Kilby here the Liberty here Pelletier Ferreira here proposal here Washington here president Camaro here assuming to the open meeting Lord any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting to any medium attendees are therefore advised that

such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible before we begin we have a number of people signed up it says it's input time the child's Chase replacement proposal for house spoilers and Rangers come down please Mr Chase every citizen will have three minutes

we've had a good day today nice to see you all here um when I'm proposing is a request to the council or whoever would speak about this project for um the um the powers that be above us um I heard just a little while ago about a week a week and a half ago that California is going to Outlaw all gas powered vehicles from the road um I also heard that in Washington right

now they're working on a plan this proposal would have it so that it's the United Nations plan that Holmes would have to stop using uh gas or oil heat and um kitchen ranges and there is a time limit on that I forget what they said it was uh um 2024 uh 20 um I'm sorry 30 or 40.

I think that you know people like myself I'm 85 that is a killer for us uh right now I've had to bring my heat down my wife suffers from that too um we're going to have to radically bring it down if this continues with the economy and especially if they force us to get get rid of these and bring in New Heating and new uh cooking stoves um I would formally request that you

consider and pass on to authorities in the state the city and the country whatever to stop something like this it's a killer for the elderly and the military especially those who have been you know injured or are having a hard time in the military they we need those things we need the heat back in the 1940s they were talking about in 10 to 20 years New York was going to be underwater

that Global stuff it's you have 30 seconds let's see um just let's use common sense I gradually get to where we can do away with this and use solar and other types of water power or things like this is consider about whether we're going to be forced thank you Mr Chase thank you thank you next we have CJ Coombs subject matter war department could you please take your address for the record when you sit

down you didn't fill it out on the phone here are you a foreign resident yes if you're not we have to leave the rules CJ Combs 580 Pine Street leaving council members good evening City residents uh today come to speak to you on behalf of the Fall River water department members in regards to the budget which has approved an ordinance last night thank you to councilor Liberty councilor proposal and councilor Kadeem

has a taxpayer I understand the annoyance many feel when they hear the word increase when it comes to your finances but I urge you to open your hearts and your minds to approving this proposed budget I'm here to explain as openly as possible my position and the reason why I ask for your support I'm currently an employee for the water maintenance division in this division our primary responsibility is to ensure

safe delivery of potable water to each resident in the city we maintain hundreds of miles of main pipe and thousands of lengths of pipe from our water main to each individual individual home we have a small well-oiled team of 11 people who do not work just for the money we work for the love and of the job and compassion for the city and its residents with this budget his proposed wage increases

and prior to being a medicinal full employee this is the point where I probably roll my eyes but I implore you to listen to my reasoning I work 40 hours a week at the rate of 16.58 per hour which is currently less than the starting wage at some fast food restaurants along with my 40-hour weeks I'm on call 24 hours seven days a week always carrying a steady cell phone our guys in our division work Christmas

Eve Christmas Day and New Year's Day this year along with many other Sub-Zero nights repairing leaks to keep the water flowing to eat all houses with only the smallest interruption um we love our jobs we love our city we could make more and other jobs but we choose to say because of our love for the city and our residents we're asking each of you to consider that when you're looking for cuts in an

already strained budget allow us to have our small wage increase and we request um I apologize that we are requested to help our cost of living in our own homes um please remember in an emergency we are there rain snow cold hot daytime in the middle of the night we do our jobs as best as we can and right now we're asking for you to help us continue doing it and I thank you all for listening

thank you Ashley ochino subject matter Frac and apple request

good evening the Fall River arts and culture Coalition is appealing to this Council to consider arpa as a resource for implementing an artist recovery program this program is essential to fall River's creative residence livelihood as they've struggled to prevent prepare and respond to the impacts of covid-19 Frack will offer a multi-faceted plan to advance the city's Arts economic

recovery and accelerated growth from the pandemic we've heard directly from Fall River residents through surveys and they're asking for our support to provide working capital funds and technical assistance a broad cross section of fall River's creative workers had previously infused more than one million into the city through dollars spent this annual support of community jobs and dollars paid to Residents has

dramatically suffered across the state we've watched other Gateway cities including New Bedford Pittsfield and Springfield support and invest over 2.3 million in their creative residence frax program will advance over 100 of fall River's creative workers business practices and financial goals by addressing challenges to help them sustain those challenges include lack of access to artist focused Financial counseling

business training creative networks and working capital that are not adequately addressed by the available traditional business support services this artist's program directly supports the city's master plan and achieves our long-term goal of a sustainable infrastructure for arts and culture to accomplish this goal we're requesting Bristol County Arbor resources to advance this creative economies recovery

and to empower the creative Workforce vital to fall River's future on behalf of the Frack I respectfully ask this Council to reconsider this artist recovery program proposal fall River's creative residents need your support and ask that you recognize the long-lasting impacts of their economic prospects and their ability to contribute to the city's success thank you for your time thank you thank you thank you

subject matter vabc director Kent is not a city resident need a motion to waive the rules all right any opposed motion carries you can sit down then

thank you for having me thank you very much for incorporating the letter I sent on March 16th into tonight's agenda and thank you for the opportunity to share further on the matter I want to address the council tonight because it is essential for those in Fall River and Bristol County to be aware that we rely heavily on our donor base for Operational Support the vabc does does indeed get some

funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts via the Department of Veterans Services in the last couple of years we've received one hundred and ten thousand dollars a year two out of the past five years we've also received an additional earmark of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars which we've used for Capital expenses and business improvements those earmarks are by no means certain

they depend on legislative decisions the funds we receive from the DVS account for approximately a third of our operating expenses and the rest are covered by donations from local foundations some smaller grants and the good people of the area we will continue to rely on those donations and we felt it was very important to highlight that tonight if you were to look up on our tax return

you may see much bigger numbers but beware that we receive more than half of our income as in-kind donations that is food clothing and household goods not money we rely on those in-kind donations to provide over 400 food pantries per month to our veterans and their families but we still need funds to cover everything from salaries to telephone lines as a veteran I take great pride in

supporting Velo Fellow veterans every day and I hope you will join me in making sure that the ABC continues to provide services to those who have served their country so Admiral thank you

next we move on to item number two discussion proposal fiscal year 2024 budgets for water and sewer divisions referred March 14 2023. you come down please thank you

good evening councils good evening to give us a brief yep so I'll give you a brief overview of the two budgets I'll start with the sewer division uh sewer division overall budget proposed for fy24 27 million six hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred and seventy seven dollars that's supported by a rates of six dollars and six cents as proposed per CCF and fifty dollars per eru per quarter for the stormwater fee

so the Water Division overall budget for fy24 14 million seven hundred and ninety nine thousand four hundred and fifty Seven dollars that's supported by a water rate of 3.77 so that was a brief overview of just what the two budgets are um questions questions concert seat six Council vice president yeah I'll go with questions stormwater yes um what's the increase on that three dollars three dollars yes okay

now if the sewer how many cents are we going up 20 cents on the surfy I'm sorry 31 and on water 20 20. okay so on sewer if we go up one penny and maybe these are wrong but it was like uh 31 000 for one cent so if you go up roughly that's more it's like 961 000 and water would be for one cent 23 000 which would be four hundred and

sixty thousand you just heard you were here during citizen input time and you heard the gentleman talk about the high cost of gas and how he's struggling and with his wife I've got to tell you Mr frillan I am concerned with that people in this city have had high rents and just like Euro electricity at the water department all of our electricity has gone up as well um I know that with the Enterprise funds

most of the money is gone you only have money in one Enterprise fund a little bit of money how much do you have in that account meaning there's two I mean is retained earnings right yeah so retained earnings uh we'll be using uh one million four hundred and forty seven thousand dollars uh thereabouts in sewer uh as a revenue in the FY 24 budget uh and then in the Water Division we will be using 296

000 thereabouts uh as a revenue Source within the water budget the overall uh leftover within our free cash is uh we're using 100 of certified free cash within the sewer budget that was certified and then we'll have a balance of 103 544 dollars within the water free cash a stabilization funds which essentially is a savings account uh still carry a balance of about seven hundred and

eighteen thousand dollars both for water and sewer and in the FY 23 budget we do have it slated in there to add another hundred thousand dollars to the stabilization funds we can't be using the earnings to supplement a budget to not have an increase in water because that's not going to work for your department you know it I know it uh what's bothersome to me is you got a raise this year

but the guys need a raise and the gals that work for you need a raise and the only way they're going to get that raise is if this Council votes tonight on an increase I know how hot they work I live near the water department I see the trucks go back and forth so for CJ to come here and say he's making 16 something an hour it's crazy to be doing the job that he does

because if he works for any construction company he'd be making a heck of a lot more than that so I do understand that we need to pay people but I've got to tell you some exception that I have and maybe you can help me to understand this I live not far two streets away you built the new building there on the top of Bedford Street that building was built

why are the lights on 24 hours a day So within that building that's still under control of the contractor how we've been working with the power company for the best four or five months now to get a Transformer to power the building we have temporary service to that building so all systems are not up and running yet we have a portion of the lighting system a portion of some other systems

we don't even have full water and heat into that building yet because the power company has been unable to provide us a Transformer I've been working with the mayor we've called we've called National Grid we've called you know other people throughout the state to try to help us get a Transformer where what I was told by National Grid 11th on the list that project was within the queue a year and

a half ago why we don't have one I can't say so you can't switch the lights off there so again it's limited power the senses the outdoor senses on powered right now once the building is under full power the the day night sensors will work in the late exterior will turn off during the day okay I'm going to ask you again can you switch the lights off manually it would be somebody going over there every day

turning the breaker off but you know what I think that as a water department as to any Department in the city customer service is important when you have all of the residents on Stonehaven road if I can see the bright lights so can they and it's disturbing them so if it means that somebody needs to come and shut them off then I would have tell you that that's something that you need to do you shut

them off at night um you know especially during the day who needs lights on during the day so when I see that and you're saying the building is still under the contractor so we're not paying for anything at this point the contract is absorbing all of this payment yep of course but it's still not fair to the residents that live around there and customer service is really important when I see things

like that or I see I called you last week or Seth I believe Mr Aikens called you last week about a rusty water situation the hydrant was opened at 10 30 in the morning the hydrant was shut after seven and it could be that people were out doing other jobs that were more important that had to be done or somebody forgot but either way that ran out so now I get calls or my colleagues get calls

with people complaining that that's been there I this is what I'm going to tell you I really am having a hard time voting for this because I know that the people of this city are suffering with high rents and everything else and even though it's just a little bit of money that little bit of money people need believe it or not um they do and I I'm very sensitive to

that but I'm also sensitive to the men and women that work at the department but what I'm going to tell you is if I vote Yes on this I've got to get a promise from you and um from um maybe maybe you need the help of Corporation Council but you need to do a rate survey and do a five-year plan on what the water rate is going to be

chalk it up to the CPI plus two percent or whatever we've got it figured out for five years because coming here every year and over the years some people don't want to vote on it because you don't want to hurt the taxpayer and I get it I don't want to hurt the taxpay either but the bottom line is if we don't have good water in this city we have nothing that's the most important

thing so I will tell you with great hesitation with great hesitation am I going to vote Yes on this because I really think the customer service needs to be kicked up a notch because I get complaints all the time and I don't like to hear complaints and I'm sure you don't either no so it's with great hesitation and the only reason that I'm willing to vote on this is because of the men and women that

work for you because I know how hard they work I've seen them in the trenches you know when and when it's snowing out and it's ice cold and they're in ice cold water getting Frost back to make sure that our citizens are taken care of you got a lot of oppa money and I did hear well maybe we need to give you more oppa money I'm afraid you're not going

to be able to spend the Apple money you have now because you don't have the manpower to do what you need to do and if you're going to go out and hire contractors that's going to cost you more money than us doing your in-house so maybe this is an opportunity where you can hire more people and that's all I have to say to you Mr Ferlin but it's with hesitation that I

do this but I do this because of the men and women that work for your department and they do deserve a raise nobody can work for under 17 an hour as they have been doing um with that Mr President I yield thank you Council just want to make a point of clarification Mr film do you have uh the safety lights in there and that building has to be on 24 7.

oh yeah there would there would be some security lights throughout that would need to be on so you can't shut the breaker off because the nose lights won't be working and if there's a fire and the fire department tries to get in there those lights won't be on and your car has it gets a code in most most cities buildings of that size and um you can't just shut the power off all

together so let's try to see if we call National Grid again and get that circuit breaker quicker than being a limit on the list would have known about this project for over two years yep without a doubt thank you Council thank you uh Council eight Council Washington Mr Ferlin how are you good and yourself good um so if we're able to pass this um tonight what are we looking at for an increase so salaries are egregious

yeah um so I wouldn't like to get so are you talking about an increase in the average household no I know for these so I and women wouldn't really want to get into the negotiations that's been ongoing because it is still there hasn't been formalized by the union or acceptance yet um taken to this um I've yeah okay Thursday is what I've been hearing a scheduled vote by the union

um so you know we'll see you so um well I'm hoping it's pretty significant if we can pass this um and rightfully so but then my thought is that we have been able to give you millions of dollars I know that my counselor colleague in C2 has proposed millions and millions and then you were able to get a couple million from the feds I believe has that not been able to alleviate any pressure anywhere else to

find money in the budget to um give them a raise because my thought is that even with this raise even with a several dollars an hour raises not enough so is there not any money anywhere to move around to to secure so the tough thing is of the uh the Opera funding that we've got in in the uh other Grant sources that we've uh that we've secured which is uh tens of

millions of dollars those are uh go towards specific projects they can't be used to offset uh anything within the operational budget so those either go towards lead service removal water main replacement with repairing the streets that are affected or specific projects like that projects of those go out to bid to you know design and then go out to bid for a contractor what funding those projects do one-time

projects with one-time money and we've talked about this in the past is take and reduce the amount of debt service that's going to come on within the near future it's not something that we would see last year not something that we'll see you know this year but within the next couple years we will see where you know those tens of millions of dollars that we would have had to go on a

bonding for will not come on the into the operational budget as Debt Service so so I say that because I think a lot of people at home are going to think the same thing we've been able to give them millions of dollars and now they're asking for more money so I think it's imperative that people understand that in order for you to continue to operate with the crew that you have and bring on

more people that this has to happen but do you foresee that there is any way to increasing them within the next couple of years I mean I don't I don't first I don't understand how anybody can continue to to stay like that and with the job that they do I mean I watched a YouTube video uh Facebook video that someone's like putting their life on the line for like a what a main break that

was up in the air I mean that's a tough job I mean so something has to be done about that and I know that I'm preaching to the choir but no without a doubt you know and you know us staff uh is does work unbelievably hard uh us staff is unbelievably uh devoted uh the current staff that we have uh a fair number of them probably could be making uh more money in another

Community or somewhere else so they do have strong ties to the city uh strong ties to the residents and that's why they're here because they like working for the city um and they're good at their job that's not anything that I will take away from them you know I wish that we would pay them top dollar uh higher than any other community around trust me that that is would be my wish but again it's always

balancing out the fiscal responsibilities of rates that support my budget the Enterprise funds are fully supported by the rates that that we charge so again it's always about Hamilton guy you know this year you know I'm not going to say that these are not significant increases but you know the rate increases compared to Prior years uh you know more than we've seen uh for a number of years but again we're

dealing with a a number of things that that you know Pile in on this board um increasing chemicals and commodities as everybody sees within their regular life we're seeing that across the board for all of our expenses you know increase in labor costs again and that's what the side letter uh talked about and that's what's uh proposed within this budget is an increase that we feel that

you know the department can live with uh and through the negotiations that the staff politically thank you thank you thank you Mr President um way to begin um so I I guess the statements that I'm hearing the statements in terms of trying to support the the budget you know the salaries that are being paid to our our staff and not the good folks regardless of their good folks let's take the individuals out of it we are

paying our employees a dollar more than minimum wage and I'm not saying that's all the folks there um but I think I think it's important for councils to understand and we we get into this debate year over year and it just frustrates me because it's the same conversation over and over again right at the end of the day we've got an Enterprise fund that is being supported by Revenue that needs to be raised right

so we've got to raise revenue we do not sell any type of products so we can't increase uh profit and loss the only way that we generate money is through taxes and fees that is the only way okay so if we're talking about being competitive in terms of salaries um whether that's in the general fund or in in an Enterprise fund if we want to look to remove the Enterprise fund that

means the general fund is going to have to take the burden on to support your water and sewer departments right so and even if we give those increases in the general fund we're taking it from taxes and fees and we've got to generate Revenue there's there's limited Revenue that's coming in and this is just the balancing act that we have to deal with just looking at Yeshua yasua budget 92

percent I believe in this is your calculation if I if I'm quoting it wrong please just correct me as 92 percent it's fixed costs and just quickly looking at it before we even get into any discussion 43 of your budget is is the pay debt right so all the programs CSO charges all the capital um borrowing that we've done for your Sewer Department uh 43 of that covers your FY 24 budget

another 6.4 percent is to cover transfers going into the general fund to offset obviously expenses for the treasurer's office um the collector's office the bills things of that nature uh transfers to the stabilization account um to pay the health insurance and the pension so that's another 6.4 percent that's obviously a fixed rate for the most part then we've got only 2.4 percent of your

budget that equates to salaries so if we want to reduce right we're talking about 658 000 that we have limited to reduce so it is very tight and we can go back and forth saying that we need to you know reduce some of the other chemicals and and um you know other Capital items that you may need to to run the plant and things of that nature but there is a limited amount that we

can reduce so any increase that we have right and if we want to give raises if we want to continue to promote the department is going to require rate increases correct you've got 5.2 percent that is being funded through one-time monies right so I believe yesterday when we had a conversation I asked you what does one a one set increase to the rate generate that was 25 000 roughly for the

Seward upon is that correct 31 so was it 50 25 for the water 25 000 no excuse me you are correct 25 000. so if we were trying to be fiscally responsible right and create a budget that did not have a structural deficit right so the use of zero one-time money we would have to increase this the rates the water rates an additional 57 57 cents just to generate the 1.4 million dollars that you're using right

yeah so we we keep we keep having these conversations and we're saying that we want you to pay more uh you know increase the salaries we want to do this we want to do this but we're constantly you know having heartburn with the the rate increases right so I would suggest that everybody wants to make sure that we cap the rates as much as we possibly can but when we're looking from an

operational standpoint and giving you the your department the resources that are needed we need to as as elected officials not during election time saying that we want to support this just because we want to give raises to the people that showed up but because we want to support the function and the service that the the city is providing right because we are a service based provider right we

are providing waste reduction right removal of waste we're providing clean water and there's only one way to do that and that's to make sure that we have an operation that is sustainable right so if we if we stop cutting in areas where we're obviously going to you know receive um you know some some negative impact from the federal government if we're not meeting certain requirements and

mandates so they're coming down right so I just want to keep that put that in in everybody's mind that nobody's looking to increase the rates but we can't sit here and say okay we want to increase salaries we want to see this we want to see that but then next year we're going to complain about the fact that you're coming back before us with a rate increase I am telling you

quite frankly I think number one you know what we have in the stabilization account um for and I said this last night when we had the discussion for the Sewer Department is inadequate God forbid something happens over at the sewer treatment plant we have no money right now to do a fix so that means we've got to come back we've got to borrow and we've got to hit the taxpayers yet again right so we're

not being fiscally sound and this is not something that this Administration has done or the prior Administration this goes back to administrations year over year from a political standpoint because it was politically expedient to say when it was going to limit the increases that we've had and had you know had continual gradual increases to maintain and sustain a budget that is needed so what

we did was we offset that with one-time money and now we're in a situation where we can't adequately fund a budget and then we're having a conversation as to why are we paying sixteen sixteen dollars an hour well Massachusetts minimum wage is 15 right and you can go to a Starbucks you can go to McDonald's you can go anywhere and make close to what these folks are making working 24

hours providing uh an important service to the community um so again it all comes back to taxes and fees and I think when we look at the sewer and water budget compared to any other budget you talk about being lean and the fixed costs associated with uh with the budget where you can't reduce right we still got to pay health care we still gotta we still got to pay off the pension we

still got to pay our debt if not we'll never be able to borrow again if we stop um you know going back on our our debt that we've we've gone out so our bond rating would go through the roof um and quite frankly you know some of our local Aid might be impacted as well so you know I'll support I'm going to support it as I always do because I think these you know these two budgets

in in particular are are very lean um but I will say that you know I I still don't like the fact that um we are not getting to a point where we're minimizing the use of one-time money because I truly think we need to get there we were 1.7 million in sewer last year went down to 1.4 I know we've got a hundred thousand dollars going into the stabilization account I still say that's not enough

so I support it and I know there are residents and people that are on fixed incomes that have difficulty paying for these things and I and I appreciate that and I recognize that but at the end of the day we need to make sure that the services that are being provided because those folks don't truly understand um you know municipal government and the operations and what's needed from my

standpoint these two departments are very very important I mean let's just talk about when there's a water main break how many calls do you get when people when folks are not able to have running water right without a doubt you think you look at what happened in Jacksonville Mississippi this past year in uh you know hundreds hundreds of thousands of people without water for a long period of time and I know the

administration is going to disagree with me but there are there are some colleagues here right from day one with the Apple money we talked about this very particular issue with rates with rates with rates and we talked about trying to really use that Federal money that was coming down to provide some you know number one stability but also some relief in terms of rates with future

projects coming down I know there was a statement made that you know you wouldn't be able to spend it all well I don't know we could throw millions of dollars on at you with Opera money our guys are not doing it it's all going to be contracted out because we just don't have that expertise to do all these projects so no no matter what project it is it's going to be outsourced

um so you know to me that was that was a direct that was a direct relief to the to the ratepayers that I think that we kind of missed the boat on um so we had the ability to to offset that and you know some folks disagreed with it um and I understand we need to kind of you know find the balance in terms of how we're spending that oppa money but I

think we should have used a little bit more to especially for some of those projects that we've been talking about for a while that we probably won't get to because we we will never see that type of money or can afford to to bond that type of money to to fix some of these flooding issues and things of that nature so with that I know I've gone on um I'm going to support it I've said

this last night I'm going to support the water and sewer budget and I appreciate everything that's going down uh the federal mandates that are coming down continue to be increased in driving up the cost that we have in the Years out yes um so I know I know there was conversations when we were looking at the forecasting uh for the general budget that you know why are we forecasting five years out it doesn't

make any any sense to me this is why we do this right we want to forecast we want to see what the financial pitcher looks like and I know we don't have everything but we need to be able to say okay this is where we're going something there's going to be some sacrifices that got to be made and we just need to be able to figure that out and as a council

we need to be on the same page with the administration um so I would agree with counselor in in seat seven who said that you know maybe we do need to look at a forecast for water and sewer in terms of where do we where are we looking at for for expenses where can we possibly reallocate or even maybe Outsource some uh some components of of the budgets to offset some or save

some money and really kind of trend that to see okay this is this is what we're looking for rate increase over the next five to ten years because I think that's an important piece so that we can really have those conversations and be on the same page so we're not constantly you know in the March April time frame going back and forth and arguing about what the rates look like and holding up a budget or

potentially opening up a budget so with that I yield thank you Council I think you're referred to the constant seat service for the conference seat six oh I'm sorry no problem okay constitute six concert I just asked one question uh Mr Krillin I know a couple of years ago I believe um councilor Steve Camara was there and uh representative Fiola or myself at a meeting before you even started building

this new building and they talked about solar pianos because if we had solar panels that would cut down on your cost of electricity um what what's going on with that do we so so the new Water Maintenance building uh the whole entire roof and the structural uh four solar panels is there so the structure was designed to be able to support solar panels the electrical system is designed to accept the

electricity for solar panels once it buildings up online we're planning to do uh to go out you know and get what's best you know uh whether we just leased the roof out or whether we you know partner with the company to do it but it everything all the infrastructure is within that facility to support them now with this increase too um have some raises you also have money in there to do some hiring

as well yeah to fill to fill all the vacant spots uh the budget is included with all increased to the vacant spots okay thank you with that IU Mr President thank you Council

I'm just going to reiterate what I said last night um a sad state of affairs with the Opera funding that's what I've been fighting for all along um if we could have invested more money this is an OP I mean let me start with these people deserve a raise absolutely they deserve a raise do you have to pay for your chemicals absolutely you have to pay for your chemicals there's no argument there

you know I'm somebody who gets stuck on principle and I feel this is principle you know there's these people who sit here and and say 13 million dollars is so much money that we gave the water department no it's not this community has been begging asking for federal dollars for years and years and years and 13 million dollars is a drop in the bucket when you look at something that has that will and has cost this

community hundreds of millions of dollars we received 86 million dollars in federal dollars that will never ever ever get again to invest 30 million and sewer and water infrastructure we still would have left 80 up 56 million dollars for people to do all kinds of projects it would have made it easier to give these people raises it would have offset the rates down the road but if if you vote no you're not

supporting the water department and you're not supporting this and that but if you don't invest Opera funding you're a good person I'm sorry that the argument doesn't work you want the federal dollars but you don't use them when you get them it just it just really bothers me that we could have done so much more for everybody in this community the workers the taxpayers the rate payers

and you yourself and we didn't do it and that upsets me and that's something I can't let go of and with that I yield further questions thank you very much for your time Mr Ferlin thank you thank you councils thank you um item number three discussion with Corporation Council regarding how cable contracts are addressed preferred on March 14 23.

for discussion purposes only

I'm sorry can um can we get a motion to refer to full Council please before we discuss this one the last second motion has been made in second or in favor aye any opposed motion carries the Adam's now referred to full Council um thank you Mr President um the reason that I put this resolution in to discuss the role of how cable contracts work is because the cable contract was signed I believe on

November 17th of 23.

and I had put in a resolution for discussion on the cable contract that never came to the floor to discuss but when I call to inquire what's going on with the cable contract I found out that it was it was signed I didn't know that neither did my colleagues we weren't notified of that but the issue that I have is before a contract like this is signed there is a public input period

and when I call to see I spoke to one of our secretaries to Lauren Valco when is you know when was that done and she researched it it was done in 2018 two days in 2018 and I just feel that the public was left out of that process so I don't know and I know you weren't here in 2018 but that when a contract like this is signed that there needs to be time for

the public to voice their concern I also know and I talked to um Congressman Arkansas about it that they were deregulated so because you can either have cable or you can get dish or you can get DIRECTV um they're not just the Monopoly of just cable here you know just Comcast or Xfinity whatever it is now and they can kind of charge whatever they want and we can't tell them not to judge

um and I know you didn't negotiate the contract KP law did who has some experience with doing that but a 10-year contract is a long time I personally think a five-year contract would have been better I did check with some of my counterparts up in New Bedford they did a five-year contract and they had KP law as well I just wanted to throw that out there because I really think it was unfair that the public

wasn't able um to talk about that and I feel bad I mean I know that Xfinity is in it for making the money but for a lot of the seniors or elderly or people that live alone you know TV is another voice in the house it's a companion for them and the cable reach just astronomical maybe they will come down with Netflix and Hulu where you can pay cheaper and get access to more channels

or Roku I think it is that you can put on your TV and a lot of us seniors don't know how to do that stuff with computers but I just wanted to bring it to your attention uh attorney Rumsey that I don't think it was fair that people only get to talk about this in 2018 and a contract was then signed in 2023. I think I could probably give a little bit of an overview both for

mostly I know we've spoken before but to some of the residents that they understand this was a 10-year contract that I believe expired in 2019 so this is uh before the Coogan Administration before I took over as Corporation and Council and most of these deadlines and guidelines are their federal guidelines so I have a letter in the file from I believe March of 2017 where Comcast was

meeting their obligation to begin the negotiation with the administration obviously they wanted to negotiate the you know extension of the contract before it expired so in 20 in March of 2017 there were already efforts on the behalf of Comcast to have a renewal um in 2018 there was a public input I think it's required to have three and they did have three um so I started in 2020 at this point

Comcast had been essentially waiting for the city you know this negotiations give and take but um it was Comcast opinion and I'm not going to give my opinion but it's Comcast opinion that the city really didn't um respond to their efforts to have a renewal on a timely basis so from Comcast perspective they were not going to have three more public input sessions they had already fulfilled their

obligation so you know it it's still a lengthy negotiation process that we undertook but Comcast wasn't going to redo everything they've already done now as far as fees I don't think most people understand I didn't understand before I looked into it you know what we can charge Comcast is to use the cities right away but there's very very strict guidelines of what that money can be used for

there's there's kind of two piles of money so to speak one is it's the um the annual Peg fee so I mean with a new contract I believe the old contract was approximately uh sixty thousand dollars a year it might have been slightly more maybe 65 000 a year it's now 160 000 a year and that can be used for Capital costs associated with bringing um you know you have Fred TV you have

Fall River government television and you have uh Fall River media so this money is that money can only be used for the capital costs associated with those things and then you have a five percent fee which is the maximum allowed I Believe by federal law five percent of their revenue can come to the city of Fall River and that's done on a quarterly basis that can also very very strict guidelines it's a little more

open it can be used to pay for the salaries of things like that so um you know the benefit to the city of Fall River the residents is you know I'm assuming this is being televised right now on one of these channels that is 100 funded with money that the city receives from Comcast use of the Cities right away and aside from increasing you know from four percent to five percent from

the 65 000 to 160 annually um you know the city Fall River we hope to within two years but is part of the contract will have a high definition channel for these public assets channels so there will be improvements um but you know it's the city also you know you can't gouge Comcast part of the negotiation is showing what it costs for the city to provide these benefits to its residents

so a little bit of negotiation is having you know Fred TV forward media submit their numbers of what it costs to hire the people for the cameras for the studios all of those things so it's a very very complicated process which is a while it took a while but you know um that's that's what goes into it I hope that's a little bit of a broad overview well even though the Federal

requires that they have a public hearing and they had that in 2018 it doesn't prohibit the city when they know that they're in negotiations to hear from our citizens here and have a hearing to hear what what their concerns are so that they can discuss that with whoever whichever Law Firm is doing their negotiation I just felt that citizens were cut out of that um and you know it's I mean if you don't want to pay

the price of Comcast you have to use it other Alternatives because we have no control over what they charge people that's correct well how they bundle their packages um you know if you like to watch uh the Hallmark Channel and then they put that in with sports and you don't really into the sports the only way you can get the Hallmark Channel is to buy the sports package and they do that to make profit

they know what they're doing um and unfortunately there's nothing that we can do we don't uh negotiate you know with with how they bundle or do whatever they do and what they charge I just felt um attorney Rumsey that constituents that I heard from felt that they wanted to be heard and there wasn't a time so if the if Comcast or Xfinity whatever if they're following the federal rule to do that and they were

starting to negotiate in 2017 and did it in 18 but I think maybe the city should put that in that they would be willing to have some sort of public input prior to you know during negotiation so that at least the city hears what some of our residents have to say or explain to them what you've just explained here understand it's a valid concern I did want to address one thing I forgot about

the 10-year nature of the contract there were significant discussions of whether a five year or ten year is more beneficial um a 10 years the city believed to be the better of the two options for two reasons one it provides Fred TV Fall River media uh Fall River government television it gives them they know exactly what their funding is going to be for the next 10 years they can do some Capital planning

um you know the two individuals from those organizations we've been in we're always in close contact with them for this contract and it was their preference to have the tenure but on top of it there is a belief you know who knows but there's a belief that with the more and more cord cutting that the city would get a better 10-year deal than two five-year deals so you know was it the right decision I

don't know but I can tell you it was seriously considered and it was the belief through Council and through our partners with Fred TV that tenure was a better plan for the city well that's good to know turning Ramsey thank you so much I yield Mr President thank you Council Council C1 Constantine thank you Mr President so I just want to elaborate and Echo what Corporation counselor was saying so I think part of

the problem is is that we're not educating you know the residents of what the negotiation really is because it's a little bit misleading right so it's it's a negotiation uh to give them a license we can't hold up their license right so the public hearing I get the public hearing the folks want to have an opportunity to come to the table but I think 99 of the folks that are going to

come to the public hearing I want to want to talk about the rates and the cost of a Comcast right um during your negotiations you've got zero authority to negotiate rates that's outside of the scope um and quite frankly the monies that are coming into you know going to BCC and Fred TV um that is while they're saying it's coming from their profit and it's capped at that five percent it's not profit

sharing we're not taking it from the profit of Comcast it's a pass-through so if anybody is looking at their their bill the more money that we would ask for for BCC and and Fred TV that's going directly to whatever that percentage that dollar amount is divide that by the number of accounts in the city of Fall River and there is a dollar amount that is on your Comcast bill so while they'll

say it's Revenue it's actually a pass-through so when we get more money it's actually getting you know the folks that have Comcast are paying more so less accounts the more that they're paying um and in terms just in terms of a 10-year contract you know there is a movement right now there's some federal uh legislation uh bills that are going through right now that are being entertained to eliminate the ability to

negotiate so uh potentially if you did a five-year deal you might when you're renewing your five five years not even have that Revenue sauce coming coming forward because the federal government is potentially looking at removing it Comcast and other TV networks are looking to transition to internet so with the internet the federal law is very specific to cable and Comcast has been very adamant that internet does not

is not applicable so if you want to have conversations regarding Internet it's they don't need a license for that so they're maintaining that they don't even need a license to operate what they need to operate now so this is all going to come to to an end so I think a 10-year contract was a was a smart move in terms of you know from the city standpoint to make sure that we can lock in that that

Revenue that's coming in but again you know it comes at a cost right we're always paying for it right whether it's the taxpayer or the the individuals that are paying for Comcast unfortunately it's not profit sharing which I think it should be because I I do think the the costs are through the roof and ridiculous but that's at the federal government so there's nothing we can do at the local level other than provide a

license and we're getting some additional monies that are again being passed through so without a yield thank you sorry I just want to highlight the local level and I think attorney Rumsey highlighted the idea of what cord cutting is right technology has changed a lot the past 10 years and we now have I think we had 10 years ago you really didn't have a true alternative you had the cables you have

the Dish Networks and the DirecTV's of the world but now you're seeing a evolution of different networks with own streaming services you have strictly online services all our cell phones have internet now um so I think you know we can talk about the big picture but on the ground we can really discuss how we educate our residents to the other options that do exist you know I have elderly

grandparents in their 80s and yeah they have Comcast because they don't even know what a computer is and how it operates so but I think if we as individuals who are in city government could educate our people and our citizens about the Alternatives it could help them out you know I myself I don't have Comcast cable at home I use internet TV which is great you know Google offers it it's cheaper than Comcast it's great

um it serves my purposes I have internet through Comcast because that's really the only good service that's consistent but I could surely do it right through my cell phone so I think my point as I'm trying to make is that there are so many Alternatives out there and I think people and maybe are not aware of them and if we can try to help the citizens and the residents understand those

Alternatives it could help them you know in their bottom line it could save the money at the end of the day I think that's an important thing to highlight because a lot A lot has changed in the tech industry in the past 10 years and the second point I just want to make is you know some of that money does go toward Fred TV and for government television and FRC media and again just

use Freight TV as an example of the how popular the program is at the high school for kids who want to do you know the TV programs I know there was a program on the other day talking about the projects they're doing and how there's a wait list to get into the program so you have to give kudos where it's deserved because some of that money does help support that and against the

educator in me says it's supporting our kids and it's it's a great program to see if you've ever seen it you should check it out um so I understand it's a give and take but I think our role here could be um to help our residents understand the Alternatives that are available to them there'd be no further questions thank you very much Mr munting thank you motion to adjourn Finance motion to

adjourn Finance has a million seconds all in favor aye any opposed to the council community city council come to order collect from Colorado here Dion Kilby Liberty here Pelletier Pereira here proposal here Washington here president Camaro here and everyone in the council chair please rise for a moment of Silent prayer

please remain standing for slew to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right Madam quick excuse me Mr President can we take the water into our budgets out of order we can but we're going to issue some citations for us we can't but we're going to do some

citations private that's okay thank you thank you pursuit to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public reading you may transmit this meaning to any medium attendees are therefore advise that such recordings or Transmissions are being made where the perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible before the court begins I want to give

out some citations we'll Council Washington and Council prayer come up and pass out the citations

is that on yep there we go so we have some citations tonight from the student Veterans of America the Bristol Community College chapter um for the this dedication of the spring um they do amazing work in the community I don't think a lot of people realize what happens over at BCC it's really veterans serving veterans over there and um these men and women are amazing so we actually have a couple of them in-house

today so I'm going to let counselor Pereira read off who they are and um staff sergeant Jenny Cosmo who is the director is also here tonight so the citations that I have of John Morris if John if you want to come up and also Adam Flores what they do at Bristol Community College in the Joseph Marshall um Veterans Center is a great asset to the veterans of Fall River so to you both

for your this is in recognition for your leadership and dedication to the student Veterans of America chapter of Bristol Community of college and it's a resolution from the entire city council and Adam any other and some of the things they do there are to assist any veteran they will tell you all of the services that are available both of them not only work at the Vets Center there the Joseph

Marshall Center but they also do one-on-one peer counseling so anybody that has an issue that wants to know where to go for services they will let you know and they will hook you up with those service providers whether it's that you need to meet with the DAV they also do a pantry a food pantry on every other Thursday Denny or every Thursday every other Thursday second Thursday of the month

second Thursday of the month is there a number to call so call Laura RI we will have that number but they're also looking to to do a little bit more so other veterans who want food they're available there uh maybe you want to partner up with the Boyd Center on Pine Street because they give food out too so I think you you all need to start working together and knowing all of the services that are

around one thing about Fall River we really care about the veterans that we have and let me let you know that tomorrow is Veterans Memorial day it'll be here at City Hall at 11 o'clock and they'll be a lunch provided afterwards um so everyone is welcome to come and it's to remember our Vietnam veterans Laura will read the names of some of the people that couldn't be here today but that Mr Cosmo

staff sergeant Mr Cosmo is going to be returning them to them staff sergeant Amanda Anderson Lynette guvea Devin Martinez petty officer second class Jonathan Rodriguez Amanda Scott Ashley Sylvia and Master Sergeant John Worthington you guys want to say anything um the only thing I would really like to say is I see a lot of hats out there with campaigns on them if you ever want to stop by during the day we love

hearing your stories we'd like to talk to you we can share experiences and maybe you can we can help you out with something down the road

good work sir thank you thank you very much

okay okay I'll now Entertainer a motion to take the motion to take the water and sewer but it's out of water second motion hasn't made and seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries the committee on ordinances in legislation at a meeting held on March 27 2023 voted three years one day to recommend that the accompanying proposed ordinances be passed through first reading with councilor Michelle Dion

voting in the negative and Council of Laura Jean Washington absent and not voting and these would be both Water and Sewer rates motion to pass through first reading second motion to pass the first reading Hazard made and seconded all in favor or you want to recall all in favor aye aye any opposed see two approached item number one is a communication from the mayor and an amended Grant order in

the amount of three thousand nine hundred dollars from Mass eops for student awareness of fire education and Senior safe Grant what should we accept advanced communication and adopt the order motion submit motion has been made is there a second second second all in favor aye any opposed motion counties Mr President yes ma'am man I would like to make a motion to lift the um Bristol County arpa application for Frac

the artist recovery program off the table it was tabled in full Council on February 14th I'd like to bring that forward motion has been made second from the table and second all in favor aye aye any opposed ocean counties

so we have the request for Opera um funding for the from the Bristol County Treasury submitted by Consular reposo and this would be the amount of 173 thousand dollars

so I'd like to have the opportunity for Ashley to come down and give a little overview of the application itself um I know it's it is pretty detailed but I'd like her to come down and just give an overview of what the program is looking to accomplish through the uh through the application if we could we're in the middle of the city council meeting Council I mean we'd have to wave

the rules I know last couple years Council has been doing that quite a bit but it's not customary that someone will come down and talk about their application that we have it for us and they did speak at citizen for time but you're free to make any motion that you like so so be it motion to leave the rules is there a second second Roku

before we do the roll call how much time are you looking to give um the individual a few minutes I think is all is needed to be honest thank you I'm waving the rules counselors kadim yes Dion yes Kilby yes well Liberty yes it's Pelletier Ferreira yes proposal yes Washington yes president Camaro yes come on down please

Ashley if you could we're just just looking for a brief overview of the program and what it's looking to accomplish I mean again the application is pretty well written and thought out so maybe you can just give the council some some overview of it please yes I'd be happy to and thank you again for this opportunity to speak on this impactful program what Frack is looking to do with this

program is to as I said in during citizen input time provide levels of training and education in professional development to the creative Workforce within the city here what this program entails is education classes that would be open for All Fall River residents to participate at zero cost we would also have a I would say a really a cohort is the best way to describe a cohort where people would be

able to apply and participate that cohort would have re-granting built within it as you saw within the application we would be looking to serve 10 with that that cohort would be required to come out of that training with a two-year solid business plan that would reflect how they would contribute back to the community in with the additional investment that would be made with these funds to their education

this program also includes events that bring Arts to the Forefront in activities that happen throughout the city we're looking to continue to support the great events that happen in the city with public facing art and I say Arts with an S I know we're seeing artists but I want to also just clarify that it's not just Visual Arts we're also talking about music in theater and everything in between we also have a

component of this program since it's four components that includes an ambassador program we are aware that there are artists in the city that have great knowledge and have skill that they can pass on and so that is also included into it so as I said during citizen input this is a multi-faceted approach we realize that artists in the city at are all different levels and we would like to present a program that meets

them where they're at and helps bring them forward thank you thank you Mr President I'll yield to my colleagues thank you Council six Council vice president prayer no some of the I think counselor in C2 had her hand raised you ready to handle here is oh okay I just didn't want to be no I do it by the order you raise your hand so okay the same time you raised it actually this is

the the problem that I see with this we have spent a lot of oppa Dallas 670 000 or 680 000 through um Viva Fall River I think Frack got 199 000 before through APA and I don't know if they got any money from the TDI or what have you but I did call and spoke with Mr Fiola because some of the things that you had on here was for artists to learn how to

um put together a business um you know and those types of things and I asked him because any artist that lost money over the pandemic was able to get that money back part of the problem was that many of them didn't have the documentation to prove the money that they've lost so he said I think he had a few whatever a few is how many artists and what age

group are we looking at have you done a study on how many artists we have in Fall River and the age group of the artists that you're talking about no counselor I was not prepared to answer that that question at this time I'm happy to provide those details for you yeah I would just like to know I mean if I know that you know we're doing honest Lofts and this and that and we do

want to have arts and culture into our community I get that but you know I know that there are groups the Chamber of Commerce for example I used to go to meetings there before they became South Coast one uh they would have um monthly meetings for elected officials and their bored and I would go and a lot of what they do is the financial counseling business training um you know that type of thing they don't do

uh working capital type stuff but if you have children under you know you have children that are not 18 yet and I know that there were two people from Durfee a young boy and a girl I just saw it they both won these great um uh projects that they had submitted and they were like one of the top winners so if it's for somebody like that who wants to further their artistic ability and

learn how to get together a small business or you know how to have funding for that then I think that that would be the program that Council Washington had put forward with the money for uh young for for the Youth so depending on how many youth you had I just don't like to duplicate services and I think you know with all the money that we've given um you know with the money from from the

uh TDI money and the money that was given before and I I had spoken with councilman seat number two how much money of oppa went towards arts and culture and things like that I mean we kind of have to spread it out all over um so that's why I table this to get more information and I have although I know one of my colleagues called uh Miss Hum to see if I had called her for

information that certainly could have called me I didn't call her I called other people that I knew that were artists and what they were looking at the woman I spoke to lives in Tiverton she doesn't get anything from Fall River you would be eligible but those are some of the questions that I have how much money and what is it for you're asking for what 173 000 yes was

what it was so what is the Benchmark on that and where was that 173 000 going if you don't know how many artists we have how much money each of them are going to get what are they going to get for for you know working capital I mean are we going to give them money to produce something I'm just not really clear on it so that's my I would just like to

clarify that this application is is dramatically different than the previous application that the city of Fall River funded through arpa which we do appreciate in that after school program um which you're referring to is the 199 000 received has been extremely successful um I I mentioned it during one of our committee meetings when we met and I'm happy to you know have councils come

visit and and share the results of how that program is going that program is specifically for seventh and 8th graders the program I'm proposing tonight is for 18 plus this is for adults and I would also just like to point out that um Mr Fiola does have a fantastic program that is available for small businesses but who we're looking to serve through this are not prepared to apply for his program yet which is why

it's essential that they have this business training where we can have them come out of the program with two-year business model become a legitimate business have all the right paperwork available so when opportunities for small business grants become available they can then apply because they have not been able to but isn't that something that uh uh Sandy and Dave Dennis do with their program

they do they do offer lots of events and programs within the city but but I mean specifically this to help people um to help people to develop a business plan and that type of thing I can't speak to everything the Creative Arts Network does I can only speak to what Frac is trying to do with with this program I I think that they do that too I wish that people could just all get

together and kind of work on the same thing because we we seem to be duplicating services and spreading money all over rather than pulling together and having a lot of money that could be jointly spent but I mean that's my only thing if there's other people that are doing this work to create another opportunity we're kind of spinning our wheels and you know we're not all together on the

same on the same spoke counselor to your point I do agree that we should be collaborative and one of the things that is part of this program as I mentioned is events so the the events that the artist would create um not create but support creative art Network events that's something exactly where they could fit in in Hope bolster things that are already happening in the city was that ideal Mr President thank you

Ashley thank you thank you Council C3 Council

I usually go by what the experts tell me and um I did have some conversations with Patrick Norton who I have tremendous respect for and we had a couple of conversations on this issue and um the tremendous benefit I think with this in my opinion with this short piece of money is is going to do for our community so um I tend to be brief so thank you for

all the work you do uh thank you Council proposal for uh responding you know initiating this um and I I get with Council of prayer saying in terms of duplicating but I think this issue before us the tourism and especially uh post covid and things of that nature I think it's okay to duplicate some things all right so thank you for all you do and you have my support thank you thank you

cousin C2 comes in DM I only have two questions one is this would be a brand new program correct yes I didn't hear that I'm sorry I asked if I said this would be it was actually this would will be a brand new program she said yes right okay thank you my second question is the sustainability beyond the grant sustainability is key it is absolutely key and it's Within frac's mission to be

sustainable so I'm happy to tell this Council right now that um I am already looking in the future of how to make this program sustainable beyond the timeline that has been proposed who would be served through this program I'd mentioned in the application we have identified 115 that's just this few Generations right I said it's 18 plus so I do Envision this program lasting for for years and years

to come and for this city to be really the example um for others on on how to provide professional development and build their creative Workforce um to really be entrepreneurs that that give back um not just on the stage but in other creative ways throughout the city and I just want you to know every because I'm on the City Opera committee and every person that comes before that's doing a

new program or anything like that that's the one question I ask everybody because if there isn't sustainability it's a waste of money 110 agree it is is incredibly important for it to be sustainable in programs like this once off the ground and we can provide proof to other funders this can be funded at the federal level and through foundations as well okay that's very important thank you very much I yield thank you

Akins Washington hi hi Ashley um is this going to be funded through the chamber like the Viva Fall River money as well so the chamber is frax fiscal sponsor so Frack has no bank account so to answer your question yes however I would like to point out when you look at the budget there is no line item in that budget where any dollar comes to frac or to the chamber so um my problem with

previous dollars go so first the first issue that I have is that Michael O'Sullivan when he came down with to us before in the subcommittee did say that he does this type of work he does train new businesses he does he he said that that that's what they do so it's hard for me to have them be the fiscal conduit for your funding if they're already doing that work so what I would like to see is

um maybe a a different application with why it's different from what um the president of the chamber is saying that basically they're doing this type of work already so to go back to duplicating efforts I I mean that's that's almost a million dollars at this point running through the chamber which I know this is Fall River dollars how are we sure that the artist is there a mechanism in place and I'll ask you

right now to make sure that these are Fall River yes yes 110 people what we would do is we would do an eligibility period where people would be required to provide their their home address um and as this is an arpa program um the application that they would have to go through to participate especially within um those that would be part of the cohort they would be required to provide

financial information that shows that they were impacted by covid okay it's not just the narrative it's it's the full it's the full transparent package because we realize this is federal funding and that it would be required at that level to be reported back so my concern with again going do you have any plans yourself for Frac for your sustainability plan that you say to become sustainable on your own fracket

I'm I love the Arts I think it's a great thing but I do have a problem when those groups are not financially stable themselves with you know and they're having to have a fiscal conduit do you plan on becoming your own LLC or your own non-profit because then we're just going to continue to have to you you know use the chamber which I have problems because 600 and I think what is

it 70 something thousand that we gave them they didn't even meet their six-month requirements that they asked for so I have problems with the money going into the chamber when we've already given them grants to be the official conduit for and nothing's happened and so you know do you Ashley and I know you're very put together and you're a great organization I would hope that you do become your own LLC or your

own non-profit because you do an amazing job and you should you should be responsible for your own funding your own money you're brilliant you have a brilliant mind you have brilliant ideas but when you go under the umbrella of an organization that oversees all of Bristol County who has you know been the fiscal conduit of projects that we for Arts that have not met what they were supposed to do I have a problem with

that and I don't think that's a great reflection on you because you do amazing work so do you have a plan in place to eventually become that since we last spoke I I cannot say that my plan has you know it's been a month since we've since we had that last meeting so no there has not been a plan put in place um but I can say that

I I hear you I I do hear you and I would like to point out that though they are the fiscal sponsor for lots of organizations um any funds that have come through them through fiscal sponsorship that have been managed by frac the issues that you're identifying that is not the case but so I just want to separate the two the two applications in the two organizations because we are very

different than Viva Fall River so your two separate organizations but Michael O Sullivan did come down here and say that there is no Fall River chamber that there is no New Bedford chamber and all of the funds that it serves Bristol County so that to me how is scary to me when we have this funding and new bedford's not putting money into the Chamber of Commerce which is fair chamber but Fall River has given them

quite a bit of money so that's scary to me and I wanna I wanna say to you again I want to drive this home to you you are brilliant you are totally capable of becoming your own non-profit your own LLC and I would recommend that you do that because then you wouldn't run into these barriers of these questions so you answered some of my questions with that you you do great work I do have some

problems with duplicating of efforts with your own fiscal conduit that is saying that he's actually doing this work I yield council president thank you proposal yeah I I just want to highlight I don't want to lose sight of what the application is and how it's going to directly affect people within the city our own residents and also our city as a whole so I mean that that's the terms of

the application that's in front of us that's why I want to focus on that if we could without a yield thank you Council prayer could you come to order please

council president thank you Mr Akins can you come down please do we need emotional way for the rules to have uh discussion okay yeah thank you for coming down I mean my counselors bringing up some very good points and I think the last one that Council Washington just touched upon about the Chamber of controlling the funds and then it's they're not the city of Fall River Chambers the Chamber of Commerce for

surrounding towns as well how do we control the fact I know she wants to make sure that it's four of a residents put in the application but how do we control the fact that the chamber is going to strictly use this money for Fall River residents through her program or any other program would that they've been given so far can is there a way that we can control that and make sure

that or is it just we trust them on this and take their word for it no I think um I think there's a long history that tells us uh as much as we'd like to you can't always trust people and take their word for it um I will say that um even from the beginning uh with the the the biggest agreement the tourism agreement with Viva Fall River uh so there's three agreements as we've already established

there's the the after school program um which has been really successful and really kind of a wonderful program there's this proposal which is not yet an agreement but hopefully we'll be and then of course there's the 600 plus thousand maximum agreement with Viva Fall River um that the city has has actually not paid a dime on yet uh because we haven't received any invoices yet uh so we

haven't received an invoice haven't received an invoice since they applied for the money and it was fun that was granted to them it was granted to them however the contract is actually highly regulated and prescribed with oversight so not only is there a committee uh that uh councilor Kilby is on and there's a number of uh people from the Arts community and business Community as part of the committee as one level of

oversight the second level is that in order for any payment to be made those payments have to be attached to certain measurables that are identified in the contract and only upon verification that those measurables have been met and that those are associated directly with the Fall River program would any payment be made now the contract itself it creates a maximum of six hundred and eighty thousand dollars

but the idea there is that the contract could could be terminated at any time by other side for really for any cause it doesn't even require a high legal standard of cause and most importantly because it requires the measurables and because it requires that oversight of both the committee and from a financial standpoint the city there is constant oversight for everything they do because we're

verifying that in fact what we're paying for is what we're getting and this will be drafted the same way this will be drafted the same way um and even though it's it's less money it doesn't make that money any less important you know this is probably more like the tourism contract in that you know what you're talking about is a number of different deliverables um The Hope is that we can reach a

number of different artists who want to make art their business um I think any of you who know professional artists may know that the business side may not come as naturally as the creative side and you know it's it's really interesting to talk to Congressman auction class and some of the other folks that will say that public art and art in general in a community is such an incredibly

important driver of Economic Development I I agree anything we can do to help audience start their own business create their own business Market their own business I'm all for so I don't want to miss that opportunity but I certainly want to make sure that we're giving money to someone that's going to do the exact same thing that someone else is doing and the money's already there for

it but I don't want to make I want to make sure that and I know a lot of people out there in the audience and all different types of artists that probably aren't the best they're such good artists that they don't know how to Market their business they don't not promote themselves they don't know how to do the important thing to keep their business driving and I want to make sure

if this is going to help do that then I want to support it but if this is going to be a duplication of what everyone else is doing is just give more people the opportunity to do the same type of thing then I don't want to support and if we don't have control over where the money's going I don't want to support either but if you're telling me we do

and I I believe that the young leader I think this is going to do a good job at it we can help people develop their business and I'm a for it so I just want to make sure that you know we're not going to be putting it out there and they can chamber can take control of this and then once we pay it off we don't have we don't know where it's

going or who it's going to go to and what for what reason so I'm glad to know that the money we've given them so far we haven't given them any money we give them a verbal commitment against our contract signed but they haven't provided any documentation to tell us what they've done that's right so we haven't expanded any money part of that was the delay in getting our contract together with UMass Dartmouth the

gentleman who runs the Business Schools is one of the foremost tourism researchers in the country after what do we have two years to do this from now or so they're when he's been about two years to to do this um obviously the research piece is critically important uh with regard to this program um one of the big concerns that I think we had um generally is the duplication of efforts because because as it's already

been stated Mr Fiola does something you know that that at least on paper Bears some similarity the chamber does some stuff that bears some similarity uh but I think what we sort of learned is that those two efforts are almost like next level so those are the businesses that actually have a sense of business have a sense of a product have a sense of a Marketplace um and what these guys are doing is

trying to get artists to that place where they can even enter right again that's what that's why I was intrigued by it because you're right people they don't know how to get to that level and if we can help start them up I'm all for it we're not going to give a dollar unless we have oversight and control and make sure that we're getting what we're paying for good to know thank you very

much thank you sir with that Ideal Company thank you uh Council Washington then councilor Dion while you're there MSC against I I have with all due respect and I mean with all due respect you you said that um there is heavily heavily oversight of those fundings going to the chamber I don't know how heavily oversight when they had six months of deliverables never met now thank goodness that they did not request any

money because I don't know who's who was watching that and say hey did you meet deliverable six months uh yeah one month two months no one no one questioned it and so six months goes by contract's not signed by UMass Dartmouth who I let me just say it's a great idea it's a great you know uh tourism plan but no contract was signed for six months with a six-month deliverable to have all of

these mocks met and nothing was met so again we're saying it was barely heavily oversight of it but really because nothing was done in six months that said it was going to be done so but I really respect Ashley and I really she has a passion for what she's doing and so I love people like that and I know that you care about the city so I'm gonna ask you that there would be uh

there has to be some type of contract that every single dollar spent out of that is in the city of Fall River and who is going to be over who is going to be the oversight from the city not um Ashley but who in the city is going to make sure that all of that money is being spent because I am not as confident that there is heavy have a holy sight because there wasn't there

was six months of big we're not talking about chump change here almost a million dollars that just hey nothing's being done oh it got found out you know what I mean that's how I feel so immediately disagree I know I'm sure you do but that I mean six months went by and nothing was met correct that's not true no well from what I seen it took longer to do so

there was an RFQ to try to figure out the research piece that RFQ had to be reissued uh because what we received was not really what we knew that we needed um so it had to be reissued again um I think just by virtue of the fact that we're even taking the bidding piece of this as seriously as we are it means that we're trying to dot our eyes across our T's now sometimes that takes longer

than anticipated that's what happened in this case before um the research piece is done it's really difficult to suggest that anyone goes forward and does anything else because we don't have the raw data um so yeah there was a delay to get started six months away with it I'm sorry but there was a six-month delay with deliverables in that six months and no one no one told the council no one

told the Opera committee that this wasn't being done and that's so look thank goodness that they didn't ask for any money but um nothing was done I mean it does it take six months to have a contract signed by the people during the tourism director that you know the money's only last I don't know for me I would like to see more heavily oversight of this this money and a guarantee that every single

dollar that's coming out of the city of Fall River is not going to the city of New Bedford or any other Bristol County that it's coming here only out of the own words of the president of the chamber who did say that it's no longer a Fall River chamber it is a Bristol County Chamber everything goes under one umbrella and I will disagree because he didn't say that they are doing next level business planning for these

artists this is what they do but they don't just do it for artists they do it for everybody so this will just be for artists so my thought is that our you know it's these are his words again this is why I struggle when we're having this other fiscal conduit when there is a very capable person at the table that could do it herself and could articulate it way better than her fiscal conduit so

that is why I look and I hope Ashley that you become your own entity because you're more than capable of that with that I yield thank you comfortable are you comfortable with moving forward with your application as is speaking on the timeline that we're talking about right now I would want to revisit my timeline that is proposed in my application not the amount of months that would take to execute it but to

honestly just shift back the start date of it but yes I feel 100 comfortable with this application I would not have proposed anything less that if I wouldn't stand behind it with that I would make a motion to approve second

to approve has it made and seconded on the motion competency forecast for Liberty this had one question um attorney Aiken can you just explain what this six months of billables is I have no idea what that conversation was about so from the time that the original contract with Viva was signed um there was a delay in in really anything happening because the first thing that needed to happen is to get a

research component in place and to find a researcher um I think at the time we didn't realize the Renown of the UMass Dartmouth person uh and that we happen to have somebody 15 miles away who was nationally renowned had done the tourism plan for Louisiana New Orleans and this whole thing um and rather than identify a person we put out an RFQ that request for qualifications yielded

some responses but the responses were more marketing people as opposed to researchers and the marketing piece will probably be important but if we're just proceeding on um you know the the sense that anybody you know either in government or in the city council or in the stands has about what you know Bristol County needs to do what Fall River needs to do whatever everyone has a different perspective

um in a different point of view then we're probably about to make some of the same mistakes that we've made in the past right an outside voice that's basing their stuff on research and data is what this entire project was predicated upon so until we had that in place so there wasn't much we could do unfortunately because we didn't get what we needed in the first RFQ we had to

redraft and then reissue the RFQ all of that in total maybe took about four months so yeah there's legitimately an additional two months in delays that really just come down to you know uh folks on the sixth floor folks in Viva maybe you know not uh being able to get together as quickly and get you know the the committee uh that Viva put together um with local people maybe didn't come

together as quick a lot of little things added up um that said because there were those delays we actually haven't received any bill from viva that would go toward the maximum out of the contract when we do that's going to be vetted pretty closely uh and obviously you know there was some Grace there because we're like geez you haven't you know really met all the marks but we understand the delays and

we talked about them throughout when we get that bill we're going to look at it and say did we get this stuff um and if the answer is yes then you'll be inclined to pay it certainly if the answer is no we're going to have a serious conversation about why we're getting peeled for stuff we didn't get um but there is a lot of conversation between Viva and the city and Viva and

the committee that that is always looking to to make sure that we you know there's oversight about what's going on so that was the six-month conversation but four of those months were for rfqs four of those months that's the process you can't change that process that is correct okay and then the other two months where they just the past two months January and December no it was probably like on the front and back so

the first month was um I mean this is all new to everybody there is a learning curve no doubt about it and and you know it's always embarrassing to admit that there's a learning curve but I mean just even in the the um proposal that counselor and seat eight put out for all of the youth initiatives um people keep asking where is that where is that I know we talked about changing it too from one

Barbara fund to another Arbor fund but I mean I think even that's going to have a big learning curve on figuring out how to get those funds to where they need to be so it's a great example I just had no idea of what was happening with that conversation but with that idea thank you thank you seat six because my trailer yeah the only question I have is you know there's been a motion to

approve but I think that it was brought up clearly by councilman seat number eight relative to who is going to be the point person for this you know my feelings on this my feelings on this we're giving all this money to other people to do our tourism stuff yet there's nobody in City Hall who is a contact person even to create uh an events planner and hire that planner but who are they answerable to

and correct me if I'm wrong um Ashley but didn't Frack go before the Opera committee the City Opera committee and ask for 25 or 50 000 for just this no we did not what was it for we've only gone in front of the city Arbor committee for the after school program which which they did approve and what was that was that the 199 that was 199. so you never went for anything else before any committee no

this this proposal was not brought to the arbor committee okay I mean you know after we had the meeting after I had the meeting and the Tourism Committee here I did get a call from Jerry Donovan who owns the Eagles and that whole store front in front who said we're discussing her application right her request and was spending three quarters of the time talking about Viva Fall River and the tourism director

shouldn't we be directing our attention solely at this individual who's sitting here who has submitted an application and that's what we're going to move on yeah we should I don't have a problem with that but I'm just saying like if she if this group is going to do something and you have other groups doing things that's just my point that people ought together and if nobody's going to answer to us when you

have a business owner in the city who's willing to give a building to have for tourism so that all of these organizations have a place where they can go too whether it's to display artists work there or whether it is to have somebody come in and ask where certain things are in the city but there's not a point person in the city to deal with all of these different organizations that we've given money to

so who's responsible to the city or to the taxpayers who's going to tell us what's going on I mean Council of Liberty you know had questions about what council Washington was saying because there's there's not that communication relative to all of this that's my concern but I agree that if Frack wants to put together on this proposal these are what the stipulations are going to be and this is the point

person here in the city who's going to monitor that these funds are being spent appropriately because we have Bristol County Opera funds do you think Jane Gonzales who's running this program is going to be looking at all this money that's spent and letting us know I don't think she is is that part of her job is that whether a special County of the City attorney hum does all the reporting

does all the application communicates with Gonzales works with the CFO to make sure that the accounting and the reporting is done appropriately so all of this stuff actually follows exactly the same processes that we'd have to follow even for a city initiative that requires bidding that requires a contract that requires oversight that requires budget monitor so you're saying that Mrs hum would be the one that would

monitor all of this money being spent so that if any counselor had a question on how much money has been expended by this program how many artists this and that that Mrs hum would have this information yes ma'am that she will be our Point person yes ma'am okay that's what I want to know thank you Mr Akins thank you motion I do I'm ready for the motion the motion hasn't been consecuted on the motion roll call

forward

and the motion is to approve the Opera request council is Kadeem yes Dion yes Kilby yes the Liberty yes Pelletier yes proposal yes Washington yes president Camaros yes thank you thank you thank you good luck good luck

item number two is a communication from the mayor in a quick claim deed regarding article 97 protection of properties within the watapa reservation motion to the adopt the order approving deal secondary sense Communications

item three is a communication from the mayor regarding the FY 22 Financial audit prepared by roselli Clark and Associates motion did not place on file a second motion will be accepted communication and schedule the joint meeting which we will do as made that's it say it again motion would be to accept communication and schedule a joint meeting has it made until my second second who's

the joint meeting with is it school committee is that the administration the independent auditor IAL thank you councilor motion Hazard meaning second condom Council on the motion comes to see two Council no no sorry I thought you had your hand now motion has remained second all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries can we take number 12 out of order please absolutely

and I'd like to make a motion that it be read into uh the record foreign was the communication from Ken Levesque executive director of the veterans association regarding funding from the Department of Veterans Services motion takes me 12 out of order has remains their second second hi is it all for you wish that you read it yes please I'd like to read and to be and put into the record it isn't to the

records already well for it to be read please we had you know that the meeting um that that resulted from people were told they needed clarification um well this clarifies some points that were made that night that were inaccurate and it also shows justification for us to create a fund so that all veterans agencies any fall river-based veterans agency can apply for funding necessary funding

um and so we support all of our veterans not just I had no problem with supporting the resolution I'm not anti-veteran and I'm not a bully I am a serious person I want to support all veterans uh facilities in this city and put them all on an equal ground because all of them do very similar work necessary work and I thank and respect each and every one of them yes please read it

real quick please later please dear council members I am writing to provide clarification to information shared during the city council meeting held on March 14th regarding the veterans association of Bristol County located on Pine Street city council woman Linda Pereira shared at the vabc receives a million dollars per year to clarify the vabc receives 110 dollars per year from the Department of Veterans Services

that limited budget provides funding for three of five salaries which are far from exorbitant due to the limited funding most of the support staff is our dedicated volunteers our tax returns are a matter of public record and can be viewed on the IRS website with over three quarters of our operating budget Reliant upon donations and fundraising I am concerned about how the inaccuracies shared at this public

forum will impact future donations and or fundraising and sponsorships as such I fully appreciate your support in making the necessary amendments to the meeting minutes the vabc supports more than 400 veterans and their families a month through the food and clothing pantry along with serving lunch daily contrary to last evening the vabc prepares meals on site without the use of an open flame in addition the vabc

offers a female only veterans program entitled Shiro's which has been an enormous success and continues to grow each month I have also implemented a health and wellness program over the course of my first year with definite plans for continued growth should funding be available as a veteran I take great pride in supporting fellow veterans every day I cannot express to you enough the impact and benefit the

vabc programs have on each veteran served I have the great pleasure of interacting with our veteran Community daily and truly understand how necessary the supportive programs are to their livelihood lastly I would like to extend an invitation to each of you to visit the vabc to learn more about the essential and necessary programs offered to the veterans of Fall River as well as to meet some of the veterans

served through the vabc Ken Levesque executive director thank you Mr President we all receive that in the form of an email did you yield the floor I'm sorry did you yeah I will yield sorry okay um we all did get that email and I got that email and I responded Dear Mr Levesque thank you for your email also thank you for pointing out that I misspoke on Tuesday night's meeting please accept my apology for stating an

incorrect figure I do see on your tax return for fiscal year 2021 that your contributions grants and similar amounts total 648 288 which obviously is not one million dollars sincerely Linda Pereira thank you so that will be at our records as well I yield yes I do thank you and seconded to accept the communication and read a letter all in favor motion to adopt and accept and place on fire all in favor aye um next

item number four is the traffic commission recommending amendments ordinance committee traffic second motion has made it through the ordinance committee and seconded all in favor aye any opposed no ocean carries where is Fall River's home to many veterans who have served their country locally and abroad in times of peace and conflict whereas the city council has always been a strong supporter of

resources services and events for veterans and their families and whereas this is there is currently no city council committee that is dedicated to providing a Cornerstone of ideas projects and required accommodations for those who have shown admirable Valor in their services now therefore be resolved that the city council revised the name of the committee on Human Services housing Youth and Elder Affairs to

committee on Human Services housing youth Elder and Veterans Affairs to emphasize support and commitment to the veteran residents of the city

yeah I don't have a problem with it going together with this committee the committee on Human Service housing Youth and Elder Affairs is a committee that I put together many years ago I just think that if veterans are that important to everyone to have a veterans committee Standalone would be a good thing too so I would prefer that it just be alone because you're going to have more issues

with veterans than the other things there I think I had put in uh I had spoken at a meeting about it to leave it up to the president of the council to decide where it would fit or if it would be alone that's just my feelings for my colleagues want to put it all together I'd rather have a motion from the counsel than everyone vote upon it and discuss it

I mean I'd make a motion that we create a subcommittee on Veterans and Veterans Affairs motion hasn't made to create a subcommittee on Veterans Affairs and Veterans and seconded discussion all in favor aye because on the motion comes to see four Council so I'm fine with it creating a another committee I know that on Human Service housing is an elder Affairs um it's not a super busy committee so

rather than everyone having to you know be put on yet another one um I just felt like that's where it belonged but as long as they're being served I just think we're going to be repeating things but whatever it's the will of the council as long as it if you add this to that committee Council you got the members already in place and it's taken I don't care which way you do

it but I think that there will be enough issues coming up with veterans um and different events and things like that that they have that more than the other committees and if we all care so deeply about the veterans than having a committee specifically for veterans would be appropriate yeah I don't know just my thoughts I don't care either way right but I think we all do care about

our veterans people say that if we don't make a separate committee we don't care about veterans it's more focused it's the whole house I think it just gives more Focus to them but I don't care just let it go that way put it on that committee I really don't care there's no sense yeah withdrawax thank you constancy foreign

a question through the chair to to the chair to the chair of the committee do you feel that it is something that's going to get lost do you feel that it makes your committee to too heavy no I think I think it's a good opportunity to to bring this to the Forefront um and I have I have no objection to it um I'm you know I'm willing to do the

time that needs to be had and of the issues that come forward you know obviously and if there's a situation where I'm not sure of where it should go you know I have two colleagues to my left and the right um who you know you are both involved in veterans events and things like that and I can surely reach out to them for assistance so I have to to my colleague

and C2 I have no no problem with this at all it's you know would simply be a matter of you just have to have more meetings some committees have more meetings than others some have many some have few I don't see it as being a problem um and and I agree you know how you set up committees how you how you live your life has no relation to how you feel about veterans my

grandfather was in World War II he was a lifer he served on a Minesweeper it's not like we're not here to speak about our history again we're sticking to your agenda we don't need to give speeches about an hour okay relatives were in the service that's fine let's keep focused on the resolution the point is yes we all care I said that no one or two or a hundred with that we all agree

concert seat seven you had your hands up did you want to speak as well as being asked questions there's a motion on the floor so I just got to voice my frustration too because I think at some point we're just politicizing veterans here it's it's just meeting after meeting it just it's please you know I I just we're all here to help I just feel like there are certain folks that are just pushing pushing the agenda

a little bit more and it just becomes a little too political for my leggings I agree no so without a yield thank you I just want to say this as the President right now if these meetings were encumbersome and they were too much for that committee then we would create a separate committee to deal with that specific whether it's elderly Affairs if there was a lot of issues going on there

but I mean let's just put it in here now I agree with supporting it and if it becomes incompassent and we need to formally commit it just for them we will do that let's not just put the copper formulas and can I just you know if we're going to create a subcommittee and we really want to help veterans I would suggest that that committee stop working with the the state delegation to start

looking at Massachusetts chapter 115 and the benefits and the limitations that half of our veterans are not even able to meet because they're above the criteria right so there's a lot of money that needs to be added in that criteria in terms of how they qualify or get disqualified that threshold needs to be be bumped up and I think if we're going to have a committee I think they should

be pushing to try to move that the uh at least at the state level to so that we can have more uh benefits that are qualifying for the benefits that are coming through you know GL chapter 115 so with that I yield thank you anyone else yes yeah just really quick 15 seconds we've reformed committees in the past we have many many times they need to be Revisited and tweaked and I quite

frankly I've never seen this much discontent over something as simple as this so you know I think moving forward until the end of this year I think we're just going to have a little more tolerance and understanding because this meeting I think has been a little like a little up like the last meeting a little contentious it's starting to grow a little bit special of each other I don't have

simply exactly so I yield thank you thank you I think we've made it this long without the veterans being in any committee or having it separate committee that this will be fine and I know that the mayor's office had put together a a group of people that was going to be taking care of veterans issues I agree with counselor in seat one and I think maybe that's the group that should

should take up that this is for things that come before the council that are veteran specific that I yield I just want to share a little bit of my frustration science constitute one did in my entire tenure serving on his Council I've never met one city council that likes the veterans more than another city council we've all supported them throughout my entiretenia and we'll continue do that we know what they've

done for this country and wouldn't be if it wasn't for them and that's on Beyond behalf of everyone so let's get back to the basics folks we all respect each other let's keep it that way and stick focus on the agenda and we'll have a nice smooth sailing thank you madam court please proceed we did vote for that right no no they made a motion and motion has been seconded all in favor aye aye

any opposed motion carries item number six are citations of America chapter of Bristol County Community College citation has been meaning seconded all in favor aye any opposed motion carries item seven is the order granting permission to Mass Electric in Verizon for one joint full location on River Street similar to that hasn't made and second is it all in favor aye any opposed motion carries item eight is the order

um for the application of renewal for the auto body shop license for Carl Garcia at 1591 Bay Street all in favor aye any opposed motion carries item number nine is the order of the application for the renewal of an auto repair shop license for Joseph Ruggiero at 292 William S canning Boulevard motion two approved motion to adopt has it made and seconded all in favor aye any opposed motion carries of the

police Chiefs report motion to adapt speech report soulmate as we made in a second second all in favor aye any opposed ocean cabinets we have claims motion of Corporations Corporation Council hasn't made and seconded second all in favor aye any opposed ocean counties we have a number of drain layer licenses for Renewal motion to approve motion accept and place on file um I'm sorry motion to approve I

apologize has it made and seconded all in favor aye any opposed motion motion to take 14 to 20 items fourteen to twenty second motion take items 14 through 20 has been made on the motion and seconded on the motion constant seat seven Contin from that motion because there needs to be an amendment to the record um that was incorrectly done okay is that so motion to take items 14

14 15 17 18 19 and 20. correct Hashim is there a second second all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries motion to adopt motion 14 15 17 18. can we have the court reader first remember would be minutes of the public hearing held on February 28th committee on Finance on February 28th The Joint meeting of the city council and school committee on March 14th public hearings on March 14th committee on Finance on

March 14th and the regular meeting of the city council on March 14th motion to adopt hasn't made and seconded on favor aye aye any opposed motion carries now we have item 16 which are minutes of the regular meeting of the city council is there a motion yes um motion I would make a motion to amend oh I State this but um on the second page of the notes it refers that I made a motion to

waive the rules toward the end and that was incorrect it was actually accounts support r that made that motion to waive the rule so I just want that amended to be corrected no I I went back and watched the meeting and follow the notes and that's where the discrepancy came today okay so I contacted uh the the City Council secretary about it and we did confirm that that was the case Okay

second and second in all in favor aye any opposed motion counties motion to approve yeah yeah oh that's done I'm sorry never mind we can only put it once you're good thank you sir you're good item 21 is a communication from the Department of Public Utilities regarding the National Grids 2023 Energy Efficiency reconciling factors to adapt place on fire motion except file hasn't made in second at all in favor

aye any opposed nope who carries the committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on March 27th voted unanimously to recommend the accompanying proposed ordinance accompanied by an emergency Preamble be passed through first reading second reading has to be enrolled and passed to be ordained with Council Laura Washington absent and not voting to adopt the music Preamble has been seconded on immensely

adoption of the Preamble Council skating yes Dion yes Kilby yes La Liberty yes so it's here Herrera yes proposal yes Washington yes and president yes so motion second as a million second all in favor aye any opposed no motion carries command ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on March 27th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying proposed ordinance be passed through first reading with

Council of Washington absent and not voting this is a miscellaneous traffic ordinance most should have passed your first reading motion to pass for first reading has been made is there a second second second all in favor aye any opposed motion carries the committee on ordinances in legislation at a meeting held on March 27th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying proposed ordinance be

passed through first reading with Council or Washington absent and not voting this is also a miscellaneous traffic ordinance uh that relates to Granite Street motion to pass through first reading I wish I pass through first reading has been made is that a second second second all in favor aye any opposed motion carries Committee on Public Works and transportation at a meeting held on March 28th voted unanimously to

recommend that the accompanying order be referred to the full Council for adoption with Council of Pelletier Epson and not voting this was a curb removal at 34 Manton Street motion to adopt motion having made executive all in favor aye any opposed motion codes Committee on Public Works and transportation at a meeting held on March 28th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying order be

referred to the full Council for adoption with Council of Pelletier absent and not voting this is a curb removal at 26 McGowan Street motion to adopt motion to adopt hasn't made is there a second second and seconded all in favor any opposed motion carrots Committee on Public Works and transportation at a meeting held on March 28th voted unanimously to recommend the accompanying order be

referred to the full Council for adoption as amended with Council of Pelletier absent and not voting this is a poll location for Mass Electric at 143 Guild Street and the committee did have a stipulation based upon the city Engineers request most to adopt as amended II stood up as amended with the stipulation having made and seconded all in favor aye any opposed motion carries excuse me actually okay I just have a

question when we took when I asked to take the water in sewer budgets Out of Water we took the proposed ordinance for water and sewer rates correct yes yes but we sent the water and sewer budgets to full council do we have to vote on the budgets as well or just the rates with the vote on both the rates and the budget so we hadn't been voted on the budget next meeting we have to okay

thank you correct Council so motion to adjourn as it made second a second all in favor aye has anyone opposed accounts good night everyone good job