The Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Board convened on April 5, 2022. The meeting began with a roll call, noting the presence of Richie Gonzalez, Linda Pereira, Sean Kadeem, and Paul Coogan, with Frank Marcioni and Pam Liberty absent. The board then unanimously approved the minutes from its December 8th meeting. The primary focus of the meeting was addressing three Open Meeting Law complaints filed by Colin Dyess. The board voted unanimously to take items five, six, and seven, which pertained to these complaints, together for discussion. The City Administrator addressed the complaints, explaining that the first, filed February 1st, alleged Mayor Paul Coogan did not timely complete his Open Meeting Law certificate after being sworn in. This was resolved as the Mayor subsequently complied on January 27th. The other two complaints, stemming from a December 8th request and a July 28th filing, concerned delays in providing meeting minutes to Mr. Dyess due to the board's infrequent meeting schedule. The City Administrator clarified that while there was a delay, the board was not in violation as minutes are approved at the next meeting. The board ultimately voted to comply with the requested resolution by furnishing the minutes. A discussion ensued regarding the challenges of complying with the 10-day rule for minutes when a board does not meet regularly. The meeting concluded with a unanimous vote to adjourn.
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i'd like to call to order the april 5th meeting of the tax increment finance board meeting um i will call the role frank marcioni pam liberty the beau richie gonzalez here linda pereira here sean kadeem here paul coogan here we have a quorum um pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meaning to any medium
0:30attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived are unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible and asked for a motion to approve the december 8th minutes so moved second we'll have a second all in favor all right opposed unanimous we have um item number five is an open meeting law complaint filed february one by colin dyess i'll
1:03ask the city administrator to address that thank you sir um i can address all three of these because they're related if that's acceptable to the board you want a motion to take five six and seven together thank you so much i have a motion in a second all in favor opposed unanimous thank you very much so with regard to the first february 1st 2022 complaint which is item number five um there's an allegation that
1:43after january third the mayor who is the chairperson of the tif board after he was sworn in in january he not timely complete and certify his open meeting law certificate receipt of open meeting law materials within two weeks of qualification of office as required that certificate was then completed i believe on january 27th after two weeks the requested response is just future compliance with the open meeting law
2:16having discussed it with corporation council there's no further action that needs to be taken on that complaint since the mayor is now in compliance with his certification of open meeting law requirements and regulations with regard to the other two complaints these are essentially a continuum of the same complaint there was originally a december 8th request that i believe was originally
2:43addressed on december 19th with mr dyes requesting minutes for the fall river tax increment finance board because this board does not meet monthly or on any other sort of regular basis there was a delay in getting minutes of the board to mr dyas i did explain that to him but by the letter of the law we would still be in violation technically because there's 10 days to comply because there was a delay in compliance
3:15he filed another complaint asking for minutes of the board and that complaint was filed on july 28th with regard to how to respond to these complaints we do have minutes those minutes will be um given to mr dayas i did speak to the attorney attorney general's office regarding both complaints explained to them that it had been or it would be a number of months between the last meeting in this meeting and therefore
3:45the minutes and approval of the minutes would take longer than usual attorney general understood and asked me to comply as soon as possible which is what we'll do subject of course to the approval of minutes
4:12do you need a motion to refer to so at this point i believe because of the amount of time between the last meeting and this meeting it was already informally referred to corporation council and because at the time i was part of the corporation council's office i already addressed it with mr diaz and with the attorney general's office so i think at this point um maybe it would be a just a motion to
4:36comply with the requested resolution because i think furnishing the minutes is is really the essential item he's asking for here i'll make a motion that we can fly with the resolution any further discussion mr gonzalez yes linda yes john yes me yes frank absent and pam absent any new business to come before the committee tonight i just got a question not new business but because the board doesn't meet me i do
5:16the minutes on behalf of the board but because the board doesn't meet regularly so we're going to do the minutes from this meeting in the next week or so we don't know when the next board meeting is going to be does that mean we're going to be continuously subject to an open meeting law complaint if if one's filed and the minutes are not done that we can't provide them with official minutes within 10 days
5:40i believe it's within it's either at the next meeting with its 30 days or the next meeting okay right so it's because because you don't have to have a meeting just to improve minutes okay so we can we can always send draft minutes if necessary but we won't have final approved minutes until the board actually meets and we don't know what that's going to be that's just my understanding of open being you know i
6:06don't play an attorney on tv though yeah yeah if i can address the question uh i should i apologize uh mr well i should have been more clear in my explanation i don't believe that we were in violation okay so that's an essential piece of this okay i believe that we were obligated to comply uh but because the requirement does not obligate us to have a meeting for the sole purpose of approving
6:31minutes okay uh i believe that um because we didn't respond within 10 days that's why he filed the complaint that said uh we were only obligated to comply once the meetings were adopted which they were tonight okay anything further new business old business i'll entertain a motion to move to it second i have a motion to second all in favor aye opposed thank you