5.23.2023 City Council - Ordinances & Legislation

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to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting while May transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledgeable and permissible first item on the agenda is citizen input seeing no citizen citizens I'm assuming

there's no input so item number two is the minutes for March 27 2023 is there a motion to approach motion motion made by Council proposal second by counselor Dion all those in favor aye opposed so voted motion carries item number three is proposed ordinances uh traffic handicap parking was referred to the committee on March 28th and May 16th is there a motion for emergency motion submit motion was made by Council

reposers II second by counselor Washington roll call um emergency Preamble yeah um yes absolutely Liberty yes yes charity yes so the items before us are handicapped parking for 4th Street West Side 292 feet south of Morgan Street uh Barnaby Street West Side 314 feet 314 feet south of Lincoln Lincoln Ave Crawford Street East Side 20 feet um Grove Street North Side 179 feet from Franklin Street Holden

street north side 109 feet east of Eastern Ave Mason Street West Side 275 feet north of Pleasant Street Rock Street East Side 291 feet north of Lincoln Ave South Oxford Street West Side 288 feet south of Brighton have any discussion on these is there a motion to adopt motion to adopt uh some motion to pass through first reading second reading enrollment was made by Council proposal seconded by

councilor Liberty all those in favor aye opposed so voted motion carries unanimously item number four uh proposed ordinance traffic miscellaneous referred to the committee on March 28th and May 16th section one is handicap parking removal Barnaby Street Vogel Street Vogel Street Bradford Ave Harford Street Kilburn Street quickstand Street South Main Street William Street section two before I go to section two

is there any discussion on the removal of handicap oh section two is stop sign intersections designated on Almond Street northbound at the interest section of Ferry Street any discussion on that motion be passed through first reading second motion was made by Council Dion second by Council proposal discussion seeing none all those in favor aye opposed so further motion carries item number five is a proposed ordinance

uh zoning board of appeals and planning board fee schedule amendments this was referred to the committee on April 11th unless the administration come down committee has any questions all right yes Mr Sandy can you just quickly bring us up to speed sure I think so um when I started here just over a year ago in January we started looking at different fee schedules for some of the different boards that fall under under

my preview most notably being there's only board of appeals in the planning board for many many years the fee schedules as they sat and currently do sit have remain stagnant dating back to 2014 and many of those fees for the different types of things that get reviewed and permitted um are well below what the industry standard is so what I took on this was dating back to March as we started the

process dealing with the individual boards and presenting to them what we anticipated a fair fee schedule could be based upon a budding municipality cities and towns like size smaller size uh ones that we felt did a really good job of keeping things up to date and some others that still just fell behind the same way that the city did so after a number of public hearings and discussions we have every planning board

members go out and do their own due diligence their own research and to look at what I had provided to them and in concurrence with what I had provided they all voted unanimously to to adopt the proposed fee schedule that UC submitted to you I do also have with me this evening if you wanted a analysis of some of the Abundant towns that have done a good job like Seekonk Taunton and Raynham

um I don't know if you want to get into each fee and how they all calculate them a lot of the times it's very convoluted it's almost like a menu schedule where they itemize the number of different types of relief that you need we've always just look at it as a lump sum and at the end of the day eight out of 10 times the applicant is is doing really

well dealing with the city when we deal with the lump sum situation so that's the direction that we went into so that clerks aren't being sitting at a counter trying to figure out is your filing fee correct and then you find out at the public here and all we missed this or we missed that so we try to keep it as simple as possible we did have these discussions with the administration and they asked that I

that I come down and discuss these items with you I know there was a draft ordinance put together I do not know the appropriate manner that that ordinance gets created and what section it finds a home and all that kind of stuff so that I can't offer where where they're finding a home for I do know that we have a section uh was it A110 that deals with all fees dating back to

2019 where all fees need to come to you under the individual bodies themselves the zoning board of appeals under their rules and regulations have the right to adopt and maintain fees very similarly to the planning board but where they actually find a home in the city's ordinances I think the uh the council in the clerk's office has done well finding a place for them because currently there

is not so so these will actually show up brand new at the very end in the fees ordinance in general but if you have any specific questions regarding what we're proposing items to be raised to I would be more than glad to answer those Council Deal yeah number seven um after the fact filing would that be applicable in the this in the situation we find ourselves often where somebody wants a crib cut but they've already

they've already completed the curb cut and then they're filing for it after after the fact would that cover that no so that's script Cuts do not get governed that's in the engineering department at that fee schedule we'll be coming in separate for this this is strictly planning board yep and Zoning Board of Appeals so if someone for instance built a garage and we found out afterwards with a garage is too close to

the property line and now they need a variance we will now require them they've always been able to require a filing call after the fact filing it was an attempt to get some additional funds because someone didn't go around about the proper permitting procedure similar to the building inspector where they issue double the exactly a double fee for an after the fact filing like that

yeah and on number 10 the butter note notification cost um number 10 on the planning board fees yeah yep okay is that applicable for the butters lot program as well or does that not fall into that purview either that does not so there again these are items that are governed under subdivision control or things like subdivisions of land uh roadway creation things of that nature anything that the planning board

would act upon so normally as as prices have increased over time for legal advertisements or butter notifications the cities always incurred those costs that's very difficult to maintain on the very little fees that we do collect so this is an attempt to spread the wealth around a little bit and let the applicants pay for these types of items okay thank you Council Washington

they're very reasonable so so what we had submitted to and I apologize that you may or may not have it in your package when we had submitted this to the council office we provided what what the current fees were but we'll hand these out you can pass these down and on this you'll see on the first page is zoning Board of Appeals fees everybody have one yeah anymore I think we're good

okay you're going so on the first page you'll see the First Column Fall River C so that's Fall River current the very far right of this you'll see proposed that's what we're proposing the fee schedule to change to so if we look at uh so many board fees for instance residential dimensional variants currently we charge 400 for that application that dates back to 2014. we would be proposing that to jump to 600.

and on both I've enumerated the majority of the types of things that that we file so there are minimal increases again when we look at the time that that you know typically typical city of Fall River they never want to take the initiative to pass things along but the majority of this is being passed along to developers who are benefiting greatly from developing land in the city I honestly feel that that's a very uh

gracious number it still is but the you know we can't we can't jump too far no you know and again yeah what I did is I included the town of Raynham and I've said this for a long time they're almost extortionists where they probably have the highest fees across the board for doing anything and what happens is you see on a lot of these their fees on top of the fees they pay for an

outside consultant to review a lot of the items and that usually runs into the thousands we don't require that everything gets from Beauty and house either through site plan review the planning board itself I review for the Conservation Commission the planning board uh all of them so they're not paying that additional fee as well for outside consultant so I guess this is why all the developers are coming here

to build all these nice properties because they're very reasonable it has been very reasonable and past administrations when I work outside of the city they had asked me to provide this type of information nothing ever just going to follow through with with getting it done well thank you that was very helpful I yield thank you thank you any other questions was made by counselor proposal second by

Council Dion discussion see none all those in favor thank you all for your time thank you sir item number six is a resolution uh discussion discuss creating an order of an ordinance to address the compensation of future school committee members city council and mayor for it on April 11th 2023 I don't know if the administration wants to come down Mr agyars and the audience if he wants to come down

so this was referred back to the council with the uh recommended uh resolution or ordinance change to come out with the increase so I think this is our responsibility just have some discussion and see what we want to we want we want to do um I don't sag if do you want to say something you want to wait um yeah the only question I had is about when I was bifurcated I would do with

the two things I'm assuming that was done and I did a little research so I have something to pass out whenever that appropriate time is it oh yeah which can you give your name and address to Crestwood Street Fall River Mass representing yourself a school committee yep uh so you want to pass that wait yeah so what I after the last we had talked at the last meeting and I appreciated the

original support what I did was I went back and into the files and we uh I was able to get from the superintendent in FY 2003 budget something that's like a it's like a collect this item but I was able to go through and part of the rationale was just to accentuate for the council to look at to see what the salaries were in 2000 and it was actually 2002 but I had the 2003 budget

so the school committee at the time had 7198 was the salary in 2003. I compared those to the 2023 salaries and you can see the school committee had not received an increase since then but I show you all of the random sampling of all of the positions in the school department what they wear salaries were in 2003 and what they get now for an increase and it's self-explanatory but you know some of the bigger ones the

superintendent in 2003 got 135 000 the school committee at that time received 71.98 today's dollar the superintendent gets 214 000 which is a 79 000 increase and we still get 7198 so all of the positions go down some looked at they're almost doubling in salaries some of these are union positions some of them are non-union but over the years you can see how the salaries would go would go

up and um I'd ask for your support on moving this forward I do think it's uh it's an important piece and any background information that you need I'm happy to try to to get what I think I've provided a lot of information related for this any discussion so I will I will let I guess the committee know where I stand I think everybody knows my feelings so I think number one the school committee should

be on par with the city council um I just had this conversation and I know the mayor disagrees with me however uh the logic behind uh the increase for from my standpoint is number one the school committee is an executive level branch and they have more Authority in jurisdiction than the legislative branches which we are we only do Appropriations um school committee hires the superintendent and several other

positions not all positions in the school department but several positions on the school side they deal with all negotiations city council doesn't deal with any negotiations they handle disciplinary grievances for Union contracts city council does none of that again we set ordinances so law and appropriation that's essentially what what we do so the school committee on the other side handles a lot more

responsibility from my standpoint I think to be on par with the city council I think that to me makes the most sense and when you stop looking at you know 2003 to 2023 salary that they haven't received color adjustments I think the last time we had this conversation when we just look at the coal adjustments that they should have been given prior to the freeze I think that brought them

up to about ten thousand dollars so if we did a benchmark get them to the 10 000 where they should have been based on color adjustments I think we're talking about a six thousand dollar increase for each member again from my standpoint this doesn't increase the city budget this is coming from the school department and the appropriation that it's given it is not school spending eligible so

that that's going to be part of their number so it really is on the schools to put that in there and I think some of the you know some of the increases here I don't know that I necessarily compare it to the superintendent but I think if you stop looking at uh you know coaches uh you know you've got teachers who are who are coaching right that are that are getting uh increases and seeing some significant

increases uh in line so to to get the school committee on par with the city council to me makes the most sense so what I would say is before I recognize members is um stag yet did mention uh splitting up two different motions the first motion uh would be to unfreeze the cost of living adjustment that was done back in 2010 so I would entertain that separately um so that if there are

members that do not want to support the increase at least we have the ability to get the cost of living adjustment that's made and then the second vote would be to set the increase if the committee is willing to set that increase or or any type of increase um that the committee wants to to entertain to get that forward to the full Council what I will say is that the vote will require two-thirds from the council

if it needs to take place before the end of June in order for it to be effectuated at the next election so any increase given would not take place until January and I have to me this makes the most sense to do it at this point where obviously we don't know who the elected officials are going to be so there's no real favoritism in terms of that so we're truly looking at you know

the work that's being done by elected officials on the school committee compared to the elected officials on the city council so because of the only have you hand rice I'm sorry I'm sorry well I just want to say this is very helpful so thank you I I think that um this puts things into perspective that there's just um no increase since 2003 for me um it's you know someone that has

um been pretty vocal about you know increasing the police um salary in the water department salary um and our First Responders and people that are taken care of like our children and our elderly that it would be pretty hypocritical looking at this not to go ahead and then vote for um you know this uh that I would 100 go ahead and support this looking that you guys have not had an increase since 2003

and all of this so I I will go ahead and support that um I will say the basketball coach can you people take a look at that that's pretty pathetic because his little Stipe in there his pretty bad little three thousand dollar increase since 2003.

yeah so uh like just if I if I might this was the 2003 uh 23 so basically in 2021 we gave a big raise to a lot of the coaches yeah so the football coach received I think four or five thousand this fast so that number was even lower so they would woefully it's terrible under so that number 5150 had not changed for like a long time it was very little in the last teacher's contract

that that number changed to several thousand dollars for each coach so it's a little deceiving here yeah and uh the other one about the halftime uh teacher athletic director in the old days back in 2003 the athletic director was at halftime so it looks like there was a hundred thousand dollar increase but he was a teacher and that was a stipend so I wanted to be truth and advertising to

tell you exactly what that meant so well so is that but is the basketball coach only getting eight thousand seven twenty nine is what the head basketball coach gets uh the head football coach gets 11 600 and well that's a nightmare I'm just gonna that's my piece they got a little raise so I just want to give credit to the to the that the change a little more okay okay let's just put up

my thoughts but anyway and you guys deserve one that that's in plain and simple and I and I would just make a recommendation that when bringing this before the entire city council that this paper goes in front of everybody that just puts out that there has not been an increase in since 2003 and like that's just like across of my grocery budget for the month so that seven songs with

all my kids up with that thank you possible so my sentiments from the last time this was in front of us remain my only question is you had mentioned ten thousand dollars was that discussed before this came back to us um no I think it was at the last meeting that we had so we only talked about this one so I had sent out a spreadsheet basically going taking the cost of living adjustments that were I

was the national I might have been the Northeast CPI so just taking that CPI making the adjustment from uh 2003 all the way through so that got that number to just over ten thousand dollars I don't have it in front of me I have I have it here and what that was more of a rationale for at the time when it first got presented it was a lot of well we're

going to get 126 percent raise so correct I think the council's intention was to look at what it would have been so that was sort of an unfair thing to say that it was 126 but um that would be the CPA CPI stopping in 2009 so um and we also talked about other positions needing it an increase as well as some so as well as I'm here to advocate for the schools I am still

saying the same thing I think that we need to look at the fee structure for boards and commissions and things across the whole city because what I presented here is probably very light similar in other places so so I guess um from the last meeting I thought is that it should be the same it should be equal to the city council I think we want people to run for office

I know people say that they don't do it for the money but some people might actually need the pay to be able to do this rather than you know having to take a second job um so do are we sending this to the council with a recommendation on an amount yes okay all right that so I would work I'll let anyone else speak but I would recommend that it's it's equal to the city council without a

yield so just to make sure I'm understand this correctly so we're unfreezing the cola for the purpose of bringing the salary up to the 10 000 that it would be at and then recommending an additional six thousand no so two separate votes so unfreezing the cola so that the city council school committee and the mayor then has an adjustment every single year based on the CPI so that would be the first vote and then

we would second vote would be making an adjustment to the school uh school committee stipend based on whatever the vote would be okay because the reason I ask that is um I've been very vocal about and I know political positions and elected positions are different um but I've been very vocal about the fact that I think the dollar amount should be set it should it should be a set number

um and that there shouldn't be cpis um you know you know I think that's why we're splitting the two votes right so if folks don't want to support the increase they can support the CPI if you don't want to support the CPI you can still support the the increase so it's not all all or nothing right okay so that's why I just wanted that to be clarified

um because I I I don't I I like the set numbers you know you're elected you make this much you you are given a political position you make this much money and people know what you make for that term and then in the future if people if it wants if you want to raise it you raise it with that I yield yeah the discussion is there a motion so with the first one be

with the first motion be a um to unfreeze the CPI if that's the motion you might make it I'll make that motion Council of Liberty made the motion to unfreeze the CPI or cost of living adjustment for the school committee city council and the mayor and that would be staying I'm sorry starting January January yeah second motion was May 2nd any discussion on that seeing none all those in favor

aye opposed Post Council Dion's opposed motion carries and then I would make a motion um to increase the school Community Center city council salary motion was made by Council Elizabeth is there a second one second second by Council proposal so that would be discussion yeah so just just a clarification this still has to go to full Council and require two-thirds vote to happen yeah okay

thank you I would just need to check on the CPI whether the CPI would require two-thirds vote so I think we would just need some legal opening before the next meeting I think that may be that may still require two-thirds back back when they did the freeze did it required two-thirds vote no so China changed oh okay the specific language in there now all right thank you Council Washington Jim hands up do we

have to set the dollar amount here to go to the account yep yep so that was that's the motion on that that was not made Council can the council amend it because I would hate to send this and then have them not get the two-thirds vote if that's what they need and then it's still at seven thousand would it come back to ordinance how can the council amend the amount on the floor

uh they've made amendments before on on okay so the um I think the language I didn't see it from what we were looking for was to just be equal to the city council so the not necessarily setting a number the number is what this Council gets okay so it would just be equal it wouldn't be like the school committee would follow with the council yet so if there was any year where the council

went down by 500 it would just we would automatically go wherever the council goes

so is that is that can you clarify your motion is is the motion to just have language that states that the stipend be equal to this go down it wouldn't but I think the easy the the simplest way in my mind to to do it and look and look at the salaries is to keep it equal so if there was ever a year let's say something happened you know right now we know what

our finances are let's say two years or four years down the road for whatever reason there was a budget crisis and we said that we want all elected officials on the school committee and the city council to make 12 000 instead you would get if the audience says that it's equal it would automatically be different you wouldn't have to be voting to say no we're going to take two thousand off about four thousand

dollar for add two thousand it would just sort of keep us in unison as you were understood um so I would agree with that um but it's in two separate places an ordinance right that's right it is yeah yeah so you okay so I was just asking the uh the clerk if it was specific in the ordinance so it is specifically an ordinance so we would have to make a specific change so Donna

question hello it just um so we wanted this the specific dollar amount that that it says in ordinance for the council foreign yes Council Washington just so I understand the process I'm sorry so if we pass the cola to go in front of the the council if we pass this both of them go in front of the council okay yep except two separate things

another clarifying question so the cola that we're referring to is not is that part of the charter change where we were talking about having the June be a deadline of those two different I don't know but because there's an increase I'm just curious since we're unfreezing the color adjustment I don't know if it would require the two-thirds so that's what I need a suggestion because I think it's

it might be clouding the issue a little bit when we get into the cola the real issue that why I presented this as a citizen was because I think it's the right thing to do we haven't gotten a raise in that amount of time so I would personally like to not even address the cola piece because nobody is really worrying about the increases as much as to try to get it so I think making it

cleaner just having the one vote to say the um equal pay makes it a lot more simple it's not going to Cloud the issue of who's getting raises who's not giving you know it's going to become more of a political issue rather than just a thought I think you're adding clouds and I think also the council was more in favor of that unfreething that then maybe making a giant salary jump and while the school

committee hasn't been increased at all neither has the council and where this almost passed before unfreezing it so no increases but unfreezing it maybe two terms ago but then former counselor Steve Camara at that time also wanted it to be retroactive and then he lost the vote completely so it didn't happen

I don't know what's the council

yes Council Washington yeah I so in all the respect I know that you're coming here as a citizen while you are a school Committee Member so um so it's tough to separate that for me and I for me I think the core makes the most sense that you I don't know why the caller has stopped into City council's coal is stopped like did everybody's calling stop like that's like that's ridiculous you shouldn't that shouldn't

have stopped as a terrible thing to stop for you guys it shouldn't have never stopped and I'm all in favor of putting in goals across the living for that you can deal with you know the school of children are the most important thing in the city I believe and that should be put in there I support that fully um I'd like to have more discussion on on the the salary increase on that so I

wouldn't like to take that off the table completely and that's just my that's just my personal opinion the caller I think um Council La Liberty is correct I think that that may be more a better appetite for some of the other counselors too to talk about the Kohler um with that IU I mean I I don't want to I'm just trying to make it easier knowing how I sit on

the committee too to get it for the full Council so you can actually have a debate a vote and then that's what I was trying to do is just try to simplify the process the only problem is the form that um Mr khadim had brought out last time about the coal is from 2003 to 2010 the committee didn't get a cola so I think that means that we looked at it as well

because that's why they had to divide I would wholeheartedly leave the council needs should have gotten the covert all issues as well so you know just for clarifying purposes so the city council received callers during that time period but it did something absolutely but it stopped in 2009 for the city council and the mayor yeah that was that was a prairie vote of the city council

so uh Council hello buddy do you want to amend your motion to include the number yeah yes so your motion is that we increase the is this is it called stipend or what are they

the compensations for political equipment okay so your motion is to increase the uh salary compensation for the school committee uh from 7197 to 16 091 dollars in six cents yeah is that correct correct so let's do that in the form of an amendment just to so an amendment was made is there a second second second by console proposal so just on the amendment any discussion all those in favor aye opposed so voter

motion carries unanimously um so on the newly amended motion is there any further discussion Council Dion no I'm just going to state that I am uh going to vote Yes because I believe the full council is entitled to a vote on this data yield okay any further discussion see none all those in favor aye aye opposed so vote of motion carries unanimously so we have both motions that will be referred to the full Council

check it in yep Matt yes I'm also wondering I know the discussion that was had of regarding the boards and commissions um I don't know if the city Ministry can address this but has any movement been made on getting a committee together to review those review that so I I can speak if you want to come down um I believe it was Council of Pereira that actually submitted uh some changes I

think we would just need to find out if there was any discussion with ordinance there hasn't been any discussion since I've been here on that and I don't know if there was anything that was been put together by the administration so I think um I mean certainly the preference of the administration would have been for even what we just discussed to be part of the consideration of a larger committee

but where that is at this point um I think that would probably be the next thing we would do is put together a committee to look at the rest of the paint boards there's really only a few right it's probably worth um taking a look at yeah so I think it's probably a two-step process right so paid boards and then identifying some potential boards that might need to be abolished because they haven't met or

there's they're Antiquated I know there was a couple on there so maybe if we can get that on your your radar after the budget sure to stop working on that damn yeah I don't I can't tell you right now exactly what section or what page but it's a requirement in the charter that that be done that committees be reviewed um so get that idea any further discussion motion motion adjourn was made by

Council reposal second by Council Elizabeth motion carries the committee on the ordinance legislations

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