The Fall River City Council meeting began with a public hearing for Jonathan Manchester, dba Manchester Automotive, seeking a license for an auto repair shop at 67 K Street, which was later approved. The Finance Committee then convened, hearing from resident Richard Hamilton about a property line dispute and receiving written input from CJ Ferry advocating for the use of ARPA funds for water and sewer projects. The committee also recognized the top ten graduating students from Diamond and Durfee High Schools. Key financial decisions included the transfer of $97,392.50 to the Law Department's expenses from FY21 surplus revenue, following extensive discussion and an amended motion to review potential capital project funds first. A transfer of $180,000 from FY21 surplus revenue was approved to cover a settlement with the Amarillo Bus Company related to a COVID-era claim. Additionally, $1.3 million from FY21 surplus revenue was transferred to the stabilization fund to protect city finances ahead of a July 15th deadline. During the full City Council meeting, the reappointment of Ricky Sahari to the Board of Appeals was approved. A resolution concerning noise from a coin-operated car wash at 1225 Dwelly Street, initially recommended for withdrawal by the Public Safety Committee, was instead referred to the Ordinance Committee for further action. Finally, a resolution introduced by Vice President Michelle Dion, proposing to obligate $11 million of Bristol County ARPA funds and request $9 million of city ARPA funds for water and sewer infrastructure mandates, was referred to the Finance Committee for discussion with the administration.
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Council
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council public hearing will now come into order madam clerk counselors kadeem yeah camara dion here kilby pelletier yeah torreira yeah proposal yep washington here president here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are
0:42being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible motion open am i going to open the hearing second made by council kelly seconded by councillor pelletier all those in favor first one is an auto repair shop jonathan manchester 398 kennedy street fall river mass dba manchester automotive for a license to operate an auto repair shop at 67 k street on lot b
1:1321-4 on the assessor's plan are there any proponents wishing to speak any purpose if you come down to the table sir give your name and address for the record hello my name is jonathan manchester um i'm looking to open up a repair shop at 67k street i've been a mechanic for 10 years now currently working at henry's tire in fall river and you know looking to further my my life
1:47from my family by opening up my own repair shop so i appreciate your time thank you thank you thank you any other proponents wishing to speak any opponents wishing to speak seeing none motion to close motion to close the hearing made by counselor repository counselor kelly all those in favor aye aye any made by counselor pogo seconded by counselor dion all those in favor all right any post public hearings adjourned
2:26city council committee on finance will now come into order madam clerk
2:49dionne here kilby yeah pelletier yeah herrera here proposal yep washington here and president libby libo here person went to the open meeting law any person would make an audio or video recording of his public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those
3:10present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible for our assignment is citizens input first person signed up to speak is richard hamilton 910 hood street and the subject is land property markers and when you're ready you'll have three minutes sir hi fellow counselors uh my name is rick hamilton i live in uh 910 hood street which is on the corner hood and ray street last time i was before you as i was
3:45before you for variance about 22 24 years ago been a while uh my father-in-law built a new house up on the corner of rayon hood street back in 1957 there was no school there was no water tower yet it was all dirt road couple of houses that was it then they built the skull and the water tower they they put in these big granite markings that go down about three feet and um
4:12when he passed away me and my wife took the house um i get a survey because i had a neighbor that put up a fence and i was wondering about the property line and my father-in-law owned that property too but she subdivided but and in the process of getting it resurveyed they took away three feet of my property line on her side and gave me three feet of the city
4:40property so in the process of trying to get this corrected little did i know um it was done by proline engineering in swansea and it was recorded as such which i found that out down the road so i was trying to get this property line corrected and unable to do so so in the meantime i still have my frontage but i got three feet of city property and i can't seem to get it corrected
5:13meanwhile you built a new school and i've seen numerous engineers up on ray street and in my area surveying for the new school i can't get them to make that one marker official that they put in i don't know back in the 60s or 70s or whatever when they go to school um i'm hoping the city could help me get the street feedback because i want to put up a fence i want to put
5:39up a garage on this property but i can't do that because the property line is a question on the other side where i want to put the garage and it's not like it's not like when the guy made a mistake of three feet felt like he kept the city market there and gave me three feet somewhere else where i could it's a private matter this is now basically our problem instead of my
6:01problem because that's three feet of city property which he gave me he told me he said i said this two gentlemen over there um a young one an older guy i told him that um with that market that the state put in years ago it lines up with all the sidewalks and all the streets and everything makes it nice and square quote this uh city has crooked streets 20 seconds
6:29so i'm hoping that i can get someone to come up here and i'll let me show you exactly what's going on up there with this property line and maybe i can get someone to help me get the street three feet back and get it squared away that's my objective thank you thank you and you you want to take a look at the name and address yes you have your name and address yes yes
6:52it's uh i guess that the clerk's in this thing it's right on the corner of ryan hood street my address is actually um hood street and i'll be honest with you i've had this company um pro-line engineering um do other ex i i've had three properties over the past 35 years what's done but not to engage you but uh well we'll i'll ask the city clerk to get in touch with dean aggie as a city's
7:17engineer okay would you like to have me uh leave your phone number uh for my phone number so you can write it down leave it with the clerk okay all right thank you very much clerk do you have any submitted input yes we do have one written madam president members of the city council i'm writing to enter my support for the resolution that is being presented by the city council vice president michelle dion to allow 11
7:49million dollars of county arpa funds for water and sewer projects with an additional request for nine million dollars of city arpa funds opera funds were awarded to cities and towns for the overall benefit of the city and city residents while the use of arpa funds is restricted for tax savings it is allowed for water and sewer projects and as a matter of fact it is a specific criterion in the arpa program
8:12previously the mayor has stated that he will commit approximately eight million dollars for water and sewer projects this is insufficient for opera money to have an effect on the greatest number of people the use of these funds will allow for reduction in operating costs for the water and sewer departments and may relate to a decrease or at least a stabilization of the water and sewer rates
8:33at a previous city council meeting one questioned why 20 million dollars could not be allocated for water and sewer projects i believe that i heard that it was the administration's position that they would prefer to bond the money such a bond would increase water and sewer costs and we the people can no longer afford increases in taxes and fees further with the instability of the current financial markets and
8:57fluctuating interest rates such a bond could seriously impact the people of fall river such a bond might be considered irresponsible the previous actions of the majority of this city council have been contrary to the benefits of the taxpayer and has imposed more burdens on the people of fall river it is surprising to see some members of the city council vote to increase the burdens on the taxpayer
9:20supporting michelle dion's resolution would be a strong action to show that the city council truly represents the people and not the administration please subs please remember that you represent the people and so far this council has not shown any support for the people and have tailored their actions to the whims of the administration respectfully cj ferry anything further that's all we have
9:43thank you before we go to transfers and appropriations we have a number of citations to give out also pereira you have them all the top 10 students from diamond and durfee you need a motion to take the item out of order it's not in this committee madam clerk it's in full council do we need to do that no just present them
10:17um that it's in recognition of graduating top ten and i'm happy to hear that most of you are going away to college and i will say come back to the city with your education and give us back the best that you can so i will call the names i have diamond here um by the way did anybody hear from diamond go to skills the nationals anybody go to skills
10:49i wanted to know how they made out in atlanta but i'll find out beshoi tell me how to pronounce your last name michael so i did it right and what school you going to now good for you
11:15the next one is russell mccool russell
11:27congratulations russell and what school you had to do good for you electrician we need them mccoy did i say that right she's not here okay do you know her you can give it to her maybe okay maybe you can't charles manifeetko that means magnificent charles you must be thank you thank you so much and congratulations and you can go around to the council jennifer chan
12:22good for you i love your outfit thank you you look smashing you can go around bryce king bryce bryce isn't here jacob futaro oh you messed up
12:56these are did we like sit in different places i want all the high school kids to sit together sophia chen she's not here you're not here okay timothy michael costas
13:31i went to school in boston fun place study hard congratulations thank you maya lee kudo
13:52good for you amherst my daughter went there stay in sylvan it's the studying group julia christine farrier
14:14george washington university george washington university yes washington's crazy town i've been watching it on tv good luck to you and i like that thank you thank you colin yo matt your mother must have done that she's very smart yes very exciting where you headed to brown university wow good for you thank you so much have fun study hard come back to us and christopher james panchley are you going far away clemson
15:02clemson nice congratulations thank you very much congratulations and you know none of these students could do what they did and be successful academically if not for parents family members a support system to make sure they get up they're in school they study be on them and you've done it moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas and family you've really extended it and done it for them
15:29on behalf of the city council we always try to give citations to kids that are doing good things um and thank you all for coming and luckily the president of the council said let's put you in now so you don't have to stay however if you want to stay and watch council meetings please do thank you
16:06we should take a group photo
16:42so nice to see you know congratulations one was already working as an electrician good for him
17:07hi guys
17:16item 2 is transfers and appropriations osama wants to come down attorney aiken is on vacation this week and their items two three and four from priority matters
17:43i don't know if we want to wait for item two but the law department has that has requested to transfer 97 000 to cover some invoices that came in at year end and then we're also requesting to transfer 180 000 from the surplus revenue to cover a item that has now settled and the final request is to move 1.3 million that is remaining of most of the balance of surplus revenue and moving it to the
18:14stabilization fund so i don't know who has questions or if there's any questions for any of these items thank you counselor seat six council prayer we're kind of taking these all together correct the 180 i don't have a problem with in transferring the 1.3 but the 97 000. could we just um attorney ramsey get a breakdown of what uh what that money was for sure i'll be glad to give you an overview um even
18:40though these are the bills submitted uh for the month um two things to keep in mind one is there's accumulation of a number of bills a lot of these bills are not just the month combination of them getting the bills in because they know of our financial schedule in the city and us also requesting certain bills so for example just just one by way of example the last billing date that they had there was a
19:03hearing officer that we used january of 2022 we just got the bill in so i don't want you to think that all these are just just the month of june it's not just the month of june but the reality is what the reason why it's over is because there are three significant cases in this city the past fiscal year uh the first uh would be the purchase in bank street that's the same case that it came
19:24down here for the appropriation to resolve the case the legal fees in that case were very close to a hundred thousand dollars when you include the expert fees which were significant themselves i don't recall offhand exactly what the expert was but i'm pretty confident it was at least fifteen thousand dollars for the expert alone i mean in that case it was just volumes and volumes and
19:44volumes of discovery um it just it got expensive quickly and there was really no way there was nothing done wrong it was something that i attempted to handle on my own initially when i realized it was getting um closer to litigation we hired an expert and even from there the expert was like we need somebody else on this somebody that could put it in the day-to-day hours that i wasn't able to do so that
20:08that's one case that was close to a hundred thousand dollars another one was tony ramsey just to interrupt the bank street and um purchase that's discrete the streetscape project that was done where they found granite on the street and had to do more blasting and said that the city didn't tell them there was granite although granite street runs up the side so correct and so you know all cases
20:33settlements you know nobody wins on settlements so to speak they were looking for over a million dollars it settled for 590 000 i believe the argument was that there was significant ledge underneath there that was hidden that they had no way of knowing until they got into the job so i mean that's a pretty big case that's a pretty big hit to the the legal bills there uh the second case i'd like
20:54to note is the uh macumber uh case that was the lawsuit involved a a where a police officer used a taser about five to ten minutes after the taser was used the the person died in the back of the police car so that was a case that was resolved on the doorsteps at trial it was settled but you know you're talking approximately thirty five thousand dollars in legal fees on that case and the third one um
21:23was the law firm was clifford and kenny um what they've done a number of hr issues this year that were a bit unusual a lot of involving police issues but they also were heavily involved in the union negotiations so as you're aware of the union negotiations they were i think all of them were past the their the time frame they're all three-year contracts it's not something we anticipate in the future at
21:47least for not another three years so those three cases are they're concluded uh they're over we don't expect them the future so i mean those alone are over two hundred thousand dollars if if without you know just knocking out one of those uh attorneys fees one of those cases we wouldn't be before you so yes it is a 97 000 request for an appropriation but these are really the cases that kind of
22:09put us in the hole so to speak as to the actual month the most significant one if the city council recalls we had the the environmental police officer trial that lasted over a week it was a defense verdict so the plaintiff received zero they were asking for over two million dollars but the bill came in you know 26 thousand dollars money well spent um we had a decent sized bill involved in the tupper heights case
22:39i don't know if the city council is aware of this one this one's not getting as much press but it is it's been ongoing dispute for over 20 years it's the housing project that was knocked down and the city has filed and argued i want to say two three weeks ago we argued the motion to dismiss which is if we are successful it gets the city out of the lawsuit entirely but that's a lengthy
23:05process so you're talking about filing a motion filing a response i think we probably also filed the answer to the complaint the plaintiff's attempt to amend the complaint so you know this is something where significant legal fees this past month what what is the whatever heights about is it that if we build affordable housing people in a neighborhood would sue the city because their properties would be
23:31devalued if they built single family then people who want housing uh affordable housing would say that we don't have enough what now it's it's extremely complicated so uh i i won't get into all the details but in a nutshell when that housing project was knocked down there's a state statute that requires that 26 single-family homes get built in its place uh i think all the parties it's not
23:57actually owned by the city of fall river which is one of the reasons we filed a motion to dismiss it it's owned by the housing authority in a nutshell i believe all the parties involved believe that 26 homes is not cost effective in this time maybe it was a good idea 20 years ago but it's not anymore so um the plaintiffs which is the law foundation i forget exactly what it's called but uh conservation law
24:25foundation yeah i think that's it just drawn a blank on the name exactly but they filed to requesting that we put 88 units in that area the city's position with the housing authority on the same side on this is that all the residents there have been duplicated throughout the city in fact there's arguments that well in excess of the 88 have been duplicated in other areas throughout the city so number one it
24:49there's there's no cause of action because they've already been produced throughout the city number two there's a statute limitations defense number three that the city doesn't own the property number four if we're going to do anything state law requires that 26 single family homes are going to be built so that's in a nutshell and some of these other cases have been hanging around for several years and
25:08they're finally coming yeah i mean most of them not just kenny obviously we think for this next fiscal year we're in better shape um we the most significant case for the future is going to be the airport road shooting case um discovery's just getting underway we haven't spent too much on it just yet in that case aside from the complicated nature of it and the you know the damages claim is going to be high
25:35when you deal with 20 plus defendants conflicts arise so sometimes you have to hire more than one lawyer for example if there's a lawyer i'm sorry if there is a police officer who happened to be indicted and may be terminated and as a defending that lawsuit you might have to give that defendant its own his own counsel for conflict reasons so things like that come up and sometimes they make a case more
26:01expensive than it would normally be is it worth hiring another attorney and not do it i mean what what's your thoughts on that well we have i mean it's it's there's no correct answer i mean i i have to say that fall river's legal department is kind of bare bones compared to uh you know say new bedford or brockton but i think it's probably been to fall rivers benefit in the past um
26:31you know if you get hit with big cases and you have to go out and use outside counsel and you know this past year i can't even say it was necessarily a bad scenario some of these cases are so significant you probably have to outsource them in any way but i do see with some of the little things we're getting more and more public records requests we're getting more and more open meeting law
26:54complaints we're getting more claims and i think typically when the economy is down we are going to see more claims so that's why one is we have hired two new assistant corporations council you know if we get a new lawsuit first thing i'm going to do is talk to that attorney you know our part-time attorneys and see if they could handle a week-long trial you know we can work with their schedules where you know
27:17clearly a part-time lawyer if they do a week-long trial two week long trial they're going to get significant time off afterward but if that's something they're willing to do we'll look you know and we think they're competent to handle it we just don't know what's going to be before us in the future but that's one of the reasons we hired the two assistant corporation council we think they will be cost effective
27:34thank you with that iu madam president thank you counselor and seat three councilor dion the um 97 000 the bank street portion of that 97 000 it represents what number zero so i'm saying that's it's it's not a part of the month it's not part of that 97 000 it's just one of the reasons we're 97 000 in the hole for the year in other words but for that case i
28:00wouldn't be before you we'd have all enough money in in our regular budget to pay for this 97.
28:05okay i guess the reason i'm asking that if memory serves me correctly there was a balance left on that capital funding and it was put aside because of the lawsuit and if any funds were left they would be transferred to the columbia street project so i'm just curious if that money was utilized if it was not and if it wasn't why wasn't it applied to the lawsuit my understanding is that that money was transferred out
28:35prior to me even starting this job because it wouldn't have been used for legal fees anyway but it could have been used to pay for the settlement and it was zeroed out definitely before the settlement i think before i even started working for the city i don't know the logistics behind that i looked there for that money it wasn't there yes because it was specifically uh it was specifically actually i can go back
28:58and find it um that that money was set aside for for the pending the results of that lawsuit to pay that contractor so i'd like to know why that was zeroed out and why it wasn't used for that purpose because that's what it was supposed to be used for thank you um on the 1.3 million how much is there in the surplus revenue you said that's basically almost the balance of what's left is about 30
29:25million there's about 30 000 that'll be left in the surplus revenue okay um and it's and it's strictly to build the stabilization fund it's not there's no earmark for that money there's nothing so after july 15th which is friday we can't use that money until we get our new certification from dor which won't happen until the end of october november so essentially moving into the stabilization fund if we do need if
29:48something does arise we would still need to come to you to transfer it out of there anyways so this is really just semantics either way we have to ask your permission correct we're moving it so that we're protecting the city in case we need to utilize any of those funds from now until okay i was just curious if if there was something pending or something that you thought was coming down that that 1.3
30:08million would be necessary for and i can't use it after friday anyways okay thank you with that i yield thank you anything further from the council no no concern c1 just in terms of the 180 000 is that a specific settlement or was that based on the cases as well that you just now that's a specific settlement um this is the one where um when cobit shut everybody down the
30:31claim was initially for an excess of a million dollars there was a forced majority argument that the city had there's also an equitable claim that the bus company had so those companies yeah this is that's all for amarillo bus company and the reason the city's paying it and my understanding is that the transportation funds that were in the school department were transferred back to the city side
30:52knowing that if and when we settled that we'd use that same money gotcha okay yeah and then i guess just in terms of usually we see a lot more uh year-end transfers coming from various departments so it's just the law department this year that we've got so all the other departments are good as of right now i mean what we've looked at is they're all they have enough money to cover their expenses yeah okay so
31:17all right what's that no no i don't know well i i know there's a lot of housekeeping from from appropriations there is yeah and so we just don't know we've been watching it closely and and i think just with a lot of changes happening and vacancies uh a lot of departments were able to yeah okay all right without a yield thank you anything further from the council thank you thank you
31:41that's all we have in finance motion to adjourn finance second motion journey made by council raposo second invite counselor killed me all those in favor finances adjourned full council starts at seven
35:06fall river city council will now come to order madam clerk council is kadeem here camara dion here kilby herrera here proposal here washington here and president-elect here everybody please rise for a moment of silence remain standing for salute to the flag i pledge allegiance to the fire of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and
35:41justice for all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and deemed acknowledged and permissible madam clerk the first item before you is the request
36:03for the reappointment of ricky sahari as an alternate member to the board of appeals to approve second motion adopted by councillor camara second invite council pereira any discussion all those in favor aye any opposed so voted item two is the appropriation order um that the sum of ninety seven thousand three hundred ninety two dollars and 50 cents be in the same as hereby transfer
36:29to the law expenses from fy21 surplus motion to take the money from the columbia street project the 444 thousand dollars to pay the settlement for the bank street purchase street project second if you look at the third quarter uh it shows the 444 000 in columbia street and it states bid for bank street was under protest which delayed contract award contractor has initiated claims
36:59process which may impact the budget for columbia street so prior to paying the settlement the money was transferred from purchase street to columbia street and there's 444 thousand eight hundred and eight thousand dollars in in that um project motion made in seconded discussion on the motion council camara yeah i'm not sure we can tell them where to take the money from we don't this body doesn't dictate where
37:25the money comes from you can vote against appropriation if you don't like where it's coming from but i'm not sure we can tell them to take it from a certain line item with that of you thank you anything further counselor at c4 i'll just gonna echo the same comments since uh council camaro you yield can we just point information what page you're on page 13 under capital projects thank you and you're on third quarter
37:53fy 22 quarter three confidence he won no i was just going to ask the clerk has that ever been done in the past an amendment to an order have we made an amendment to an or not to an appropriation order okay you're all set councilman seat six council para if the money is there i believe that attorney ramsey said he wasn't sure he looked and the money was gone so i would say make a motion to
38:24table give him a chance to look that up to come back with us with the right information if you had it in the third quarter but it got used be you know in the fourth quarter and it's not there then where did that money go we have to know from the treasurer where that money has gone and it will give miss allman a chance to unless she has something to say
38:46then i would wave the rules to ask her to come down and clarify it for us emotionally of the rules made by councillor pereira second second by councilor posa all those in favor
39:04so i don't exactly know like so you're asking to make a transfer from a capital project line and move it inch so what i'm trying to explain and i know this was before you got here so there's no way that you could have had any idea that this existed when that purchase street bank street project was done they had this money in that account or that under that capital project that better way to say it the
39:26money was there and it was um and it and it stated then it was being kept there because they did because of the suit filed by the contractor and um depending on what would be left they would transfer it to the columbia street project so attorney rumsey made the statement that when he went to that account it was zeroed out so again i can look into that but the issue is if you don't transfer this
39:53money we're gonna have a problem because we only have until friday to do this transfer to pay these bills because massachusetts requires all of this to be done by july 15th okay so either way i can still look into that account i mean the money doesn't just disappear right but the the fact of the matter is we have to pay these bills so okay yeah okay do you heal counselor iu counselor
40:19counselor and seat two council camara yeah thank you so that's third quarter of last year's budget we're gonna transfer money does that budget even exist right now we're in a different budget correct we're in fy23 now she's looking at third quarter 22.
40:33so we're trying to close out and again i think and um attorney ramsey also stated that the funds that you i think you were speaking of would go to a settlement part of the agreement and what he's looking at is paying these are just the legal fees for that case so they're kind of two different things but again i can look into all that and we are we're now we're we're reviewing and
40:52closing out and going through the process of closing out that fiscal year but the fact of the matter is is we still have these year-end bills that we have to pay and again there's a process we have to go through and right and otherwise i'm coming back excuse me counselor counselor has the floor thank you so i'm not comfortable going back to funds that were in the budget that we no
41:14longer using last year in third quarter and knowing that we have to do this and time is of the essence um i think we can look into it and see where the money went i'm sure it was absorbed in last year's budget and going into this year's budget um and i'm not comfortable tabling it because it's again it's just going to delay everything so i'm perfectly fine i don't think we'd be
41:34wise to go down that road and we can find out where this money was and putting the stabilization account for this year put that i yield thank you thank you counselor in c1 council kadeem yeah uh just i guess as i was thinking through the process so maybe the motion to transfer wasn't probably appropriate because it's already in a capital item so that that's actually fy 22 is the transfers we're
41:53looking for so it's still the same fiscal year so the yeah right so i think it's just the statement that corporation council made was he was looking for the money so if we reject it the money should still be there because i don't believe there's any work that's been done on bank street um for streetscape so the money should still be there it's 444 000 so you would just i
42:13don't think you would be looking at that point for a request for a transfer you'd just be doing a journal entry to make sure the charge gets charged directly to that project you mean if if we if that money is a refund right if the money's available again i have to i don't know if that money if that something didn't transfer out of that account for another i don't know i have to go back and again
42:30i've only been here now yeah no no i recognize that but i there's been i guess there's been no work on that street i mean bank street and everybody would know that there's work being done on columbia at least here right so there's there's nothing so based on that i would assume that that report is somewhat accurate i just don't know how much because i know the question was asked by counselor and c3 how much it
42:49was and we didn't get a a real response so assuming 444 000 would be enough then i i think you know maybe it's the motion to transfer it um from the capital account into the general fund is not appropriate it should be just a motion to reject and then they have the ability to actually just charge it directly to the capital they don't need an appropriation or authority from us so again
43:15without having that's assuming the money is it's assuming the money's there and i don't i mean we don't know and i i mean again we would then could transfer it back to the stabilization firm once we go analyze that i would feel more comfortable just so is it possible like we've got a phone number that's attached to it could you just go look and see if munis if it's there and we can just
43:31table this before we make that decision because i would agree i don't i support and i agree with the motion that was there the intent of it um and i would continue to support it but if the money's not there then i guess we would just need to obviously take a vote to be able to make sure that the bills get paid do you have counseling i do i'm sorry
43:51counselor but i think i heard a joni ramsey say that the settlement was like 560 000 instead but what miss allman said is accurate the 97 000 the money from that is to pay for the legal fee not for the lawsuit but just for the legal fees and if we have to make a decision by the 15th which is friday then we can't hold it up we can certainly look
44:12into that after but we can't hold up making these payments according to yeah and as you know this is almond we can still review what's left in capital after tonight and make changes and transfers but we can and also anything that's also left just becomes a turn back back for free cash anyways if it doesn't get used i i'd make a motion to adopt do we have emotional do you yield
44:36calcium we do i think i'm not sure if there was a motion if there was a second i'm not the second we're in disguise yep two healed i yield thank you anything further from the call oh hold council can you read the motion madam clerk
45:01not a present just just for the record yep um so i did second the motion i'm actually gonna vote against it just because i don't think it requires a transfer um but i am in support of it coming out of the that account are you can you read so i would modify i would modify the motion to whatever it needs to be but it definitely needs to be traced we need to find out what happened because
45:27obviously it was there for that purpose and i don't know and nobody seems to know what happened why how 444 000 appeared in columbia street and and so yeah i would just feel comfortable if we could at least trace it back and find out what the story is and if the money's available then the city has more money available it would all get transferred back anyways but only if it's followed up
45:59yeah but we have to go through a certain set of semantics to legally do things and this is one of those so we have a motion to transfer can you repeat your motion counseling well i would modify the motion um we have a motion in front of you with a second we have to vote on it so you have to go with that motion all right matt could you read it could
46:19you say repeat it for matt mclaughlin my original motion was transfer the money from the 444 thousand to to cover the leg to cover the settlement expenses out of the columbia street capital project because that was the original intent roll call madam clerk on the motion council is kadeem no camaro no dionne no kilby no pelletier no pereira no proposal no washington no well the president of liberty libeau no
47:03i'd like to make an amendment to the motion that we adopt uh the order request pending the review um of the capital project to see if there's funding available and if there is funding available that that be charged off directly as opposed to utilizing the uh the free cash miss element on item two those are expenses didn't he say that that couldn't be used for expenses but it could be used for item three which was
47:36now we're getting complicated so i think i mean i don't have an issue with going back tomorrow reviewing the exp and if i taking it it's going to come from some place so i can whether i transfer if there is something available in capital i can review that and if you're authorizing that then we would do that if there's not then i'm going to have to take it out of surplus revenues
47:55to pay the bills so i think that's what you're saying right and i don't have a problem looking for it yeah i just i just want to make sure that she has coverage in case that it's not there that she can pay the bills that's all there are second on the amendment second on the amendment any discussion do you need a roll call on the amendment medal clerk yes can we can you repeat the amendment
48:16we have to deal with the we have a motion by council camera second by me we have to do no but we do it yes but it's amended it's an amendment can we read the amendment again what was it yeah so i would uh authorize the order to go through uh transferring the free cash into the general fund um with so prior to the review of the capital project for bank street
48:40and what was it banks freedom bank street and colombia yep is the one that's left bank columbia right so if there's funding left that's where she would charge and then obviously the transfer would still go through but they would just fall through free cash and then obviously that would get certified in october that's all so it would be emotional to adopt pending the review of the funds in the bank street
49:00columbia originally bank street purchase and it's transferred to bank street columbia square it's under bank street columbia square
49:13did you get that madam clerk yes i did need a roll call on the amendment question counselor i don't want to jeopardize the july 15th deadline you can have enough time to review it by then tomorrow's one thing i'm gonna look at a balance sheet and see if it's available and if it's not there then i'm gonna make the decision to transfer from surplus revenue and look further okay into it so you can i think that's
49:40fair right i mean right that works for me you can look at the balance sheet and decide in one day and you can get it done that's fine and if it's if i if this needs further review then i'm just going to take it from surplus revenue yeah look at it further to roll call
50:10amended
50:22we already voted on the amendment no that's what i'm saying
50:33yes dion yes kilby yes pelletier yes pereira yes raposo yes washington yes president yes motion adopters amended motion adopt as an amendment made by council khadim second seconded by counselor dion discussion madam clerk to adopt the um order as amended counselors kadeem yes camara yes dion yes kilby yes pelletier yes pereira yes raposo yes washington yes president law liberty lebeau yes
51:26item three that the sum of 180 thousand dollars be in the same as hereby transferred to the law expenses from fy21 surplus revenue motion to adopt second motion adopt me by council repository council washington any discussion do you need a real comment no all those in favor any opposed so voted item four that the sum of one million three hundred thousand dollars be in the same as here by transfer to
51:55the stabilization fund from the fy 21 surplus revenue motion to adopt second motion adopted by council opposes seconded by councillor pereira any discussion all those in favor all right any opposed it's uploaded the committee on public safety at a meeting held on june 28th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying resolution be granted leave to withdraw this resolution regarded the
52:20um noise generated from the coin-operated car wash at 1225 dwelling street motion surveyed roll call motion grant leave to withdraw made by council raposa is there a second we have councils that would like to speak counseling state sex yeah um i just feel bad to give this leave to withdraw because this gentleman that lives near there has had a heck of a problem with that gas station all the time
52:50and i'd like to know if there were any other suggestions during the meeting of public safety and maybe i applaud council peltier for putting that in um i mean i've called the police several times when the gentleman has called me uh is there nothing that we can do should it go to legal i'm not sure i'd uh yield to councillor peltier who was that public safety to find out exactly what happened counselor camara
53:16yeah i chaired the meeting and i come in the council of putting resolution in as well i would want to suggest it to my colleagues at the meeting to give a leave to withdrawal simply because the manchester's going to take away their vacuum machines and hopefully that would help other than that we can't tell this other individual when his hours of operation are because we don't have any jurisdiction over that
53:36unless we grant them a license and we bring it to the ordinance committee and create one for this car wash and all the others so if i'm not against leaving in the committee but it's it's not at that point i don't think it's a public safety issue i think it needs to go to the ordinance committee that's why i said we believe to withdraw and if the problem persists then we'll refer to another
53:56committee that we can just grant and do what we need to do to put the regulations and restrictions that need to be there if not we're just going to have another meeting there the same people are going to come down with the same complaints nothing gets resolved and i think my colleague pelita to file this resolution he he wants to see it results we all do but i don't know if
54:15public safety is the place to continue these meetings when we're just gonna from that committee we're gonna make a recommendation to another committee to do what needs to be done to really put this to bed that's why i said give your leave to withdraw we we hope that this will work what we're going to do with the owner what the manager of the company said he would do hopefully it'll
54:31work i don't know if he's received any complaints as of then or not but let's see what happens and if it could the problem persists then we need to refer to the ordinance committee and have a license put in place and talk about what else we need what steps we need to go further that was my rationale to give this item leave to withdraw in that committee but if you
54:51want to leave it there and have another public safety meeting and then we can't do nothing else there we're just going to have to send it to another committee to draw up a license with that at you doesn't matter to me counselor c5 thank you you know as far as i'm concerned i didn't think he was trying to help the situation when he says i'm not going to put the quarters in the machines
55:13so they won't use the service that they get and then i says well why don't you get a chain oh i don't want to get a chain really don't want to get a chain it's like it's too much money i even said i'll pay for the polls you close down wants to close at 10 you don't want to put the money the money in the machines for eight o'clock i mean
55:35you know i give these people a break that's the problem that i got he's not cooperating so if he's serious then close at 10. that's all it would stop everything but the chain really got me going i know that that's what's there so i'm not gonna give it leave to withdraw and i yield with that thank you thank you counselor and see three yeah as the conversation ensued that day both the people the the complainants
56:05both said that their issue was a noise issue their issue was the drier the dryer the vacuum closest to the house he agreed that he would shut that vacuum down every day nine o'clock ten ten o'clock at ten o'clock and they nobody would be able to operate that vacuum until the next day they were amicable to that they said that was their biggest issue was the noise that they didn't have an issue
56:34with people going in and putting a car to the car wash that's not what's disturbing them that that what seemed to be their biggest issue they were comfortable with if he would do that and follow through with that and said if there was a problem they would come back and let us know there was a problem it just as it rolled out it just seemed like the the crux of the matter was the
56:55noise issues and as long as they were comfortable with the noise level and that problem didn't exist it gave us the impression that that that would be suitable for everyone does anyone know if he shut it down at 10 o'clock oh i'm sure he didn't if not he told you would he give us his word no we had attorney howie ack here who said basically above and beyond the noise ordinance we had no jurisdiction
57:24the police department was here stated they'd gone by several times they were they hadn't seen any issues um of course people are aware of the fact that the police are paying more attention so that's keeping some of the ones i guess they want the boom boxes and whatever at bay um but as council in c2 stated i mean they were told to any problems immediately bring it back let us know
57:51and we would reopen it so with that i yield any further counselor on c5 yeah just a note i happened to go vacuum my car today at sunny's on the avenue i had about eight cars there and one guy had the music cranked up and cleaning this car it happens all the time yes and that's what they do nice cars boom box the whole thing me i'm just busy running around and listening to the
58:18music trying to get the hell out of there you know but it's going to happen it's going to happen again let them close that night it's too late for noise ideal to close at night though councilor he that wouldn't necessarily be the public safety committee it wouldn't necessarily be the the work of the public safety committee for him to close at a certain time at night well then senator ordnance exactly ordinance
58:41congressman t2 that's my point in getting out of that committee so that when it happens again we can send it to the right committee to make sure now we're going to tell him what to do we asked him if you're cooperating he said he would hopefully he does if he doesn't and if he can't control the noise then we're going to make him do it but that committee is not going to be able to do
58:58it we'll have a meeting only to refer to another committee to force him to do it that's why it said give it leave to withdraw it doesn't belong in that committee anymore the committee did its job did its work we made them come to some type of type of an agreement i don't think it should end either because i agree with you the noise is going to continue until we figure out
59:15how it is we can stop them with some teeth in it then that committee is pretty much you know run its costs as far as i can say unless you think of something we can do with that committee to force them to do something and it's not we need to put a license in place we license it and regulate the hours of operation and everything else you can't do that in the public safety committee
59:32with that are you thank you anything further counselor seat five well i'd like to make the motion to send it to ordnance see if we can squeeze something out of that could you make a motion to send it to ordnance yeah i'll second that abortionist send this refer to the committee on ordinance made by councillor pelletier seconded by councillor pereira any discussion madam president i'll withdraw my
59:53original motion grant leave to withdraw it didn't have a second okay well we didn't even get to that point so uh all those in favor aye aye any opposed so voted
1:00:11you have the top 10 students for a bmc derby high school um can we take six seven eight nine and ten together motion to take items six through ten together second made by councillor prairie secondary counselor vice president dion all this in favor any opposed items six through ten minutes that's fine six is the durfee top ten students we have seven which is the diamond regional vocational technical
1:00:39high school top ten students we have the atlantis charter high school top 10 students first bishop connolly high school top 10 in argosy collegiate charter school top 10 students motion to adopt six through ten motion dot made by council vice president dion seconded by councillor posa any discussion all those in favor any opposed so voted item 11 is the order granting permission
1:01:03to jonathan manchester doing business as manchester automotive at 67 k street it's all moved emotional adopt made by councillor pereira second second by counselor raposo any discussion all those in favor aye aye any opposed so voted have the police chief's report a discussion all those in favor all right any opposed so voted have auto repair shop license renewals promotion dot made by counselor poso second
1:01:38segmented by council washington any discussion all those in favor aye aye any opposed so voted have a claim motion afford corporation council so executioner for the corporation council made by counselor proposal seconded by council vice president dion any discussion all those in favor any opposed so voted have a thank you card from the pelletier family motion accept place on file
1:02:02second motion accepted in place on file made by councillor herrera seconded by council raposo any discussion all those in favor aye any opposed so voted together take items 16 17 and 18 after reading together made by councillor kilby seconded by councillor ferrer any discussion all those in favor aye aye they posed we have minutes of the committee on finance held on june 14th public hearings held on june 28th and
1:02:32the committee on finance held on june 28th motion motion approved maybe i counsel raposo second second invite council prayer any discussion all those in favor aye aye aye any opposed so voted the traffic commission recommending amendments to the ordinances emotionally referred to traffic i mean to ordinance education our front of the committee on audience made by councillor pereira second by council proposal any
1:02:54discussion all those in favor any opposed so voted whereas the city of fall river has been federally mandated to take on numerous projects directly related to the combined sewer overflow project which has and continues to financially burden the taxpayers of this community with virtually no financial relief and whereas many taxpayers are struggling to meet the demands of increased taxes and
1:03:17water and sewer rates a crippling cost of living increase and now for the first time the debt exclusion for the new high school and whereas water and sewer infrastructure is a proper american rescue plan act funding category and has a direct impact on the health and welfare of our residents which is also in opera funding category and whereas opera funds must be obligated by december 31st 2024 and
1:03:45spent by december 31st 2026 and the aforementioned mandates must be completed in 2025 well within the time limit for apple funding and whereas utilizing arpa funding would provide relief to the taxpayers by reducing water and sewer rates in the future now therefore be resolved that the city council vote to obligate 11 million dollars of bristol county arpa funding for water and sewer infrastructure
1:04:09mandates and be a further resolve that the city council send a letter to the administration requesting they obligate nine million dollars in opera funding to water and sewer infrastructure mandates to help ease the financial burden on our taxpayers and continue to ensure our water is always delivered and maintained for the safety of our residents is there a motion motion reform finance motion referred to
1:04:38committee on finance made by council kadeem seconded by councillor raposo any discussion just the one yeah just i'm not opposed to this i mean i've said this a number of times um that i support more money going to water and sewer i think that's the only way truly um to really kind of impact the uh the taxpayers through the you know the rate increases things that nature however i just think that the
1:05:00administration should be here for the discussion i know the city administration administrator is on vacation so i just want to obviously give him the opportunity to be here um and i know mr i'm not sure if mr villain was here for the resolution or what it was but he should be invited as well uh for a lengthy conversation about you know the use of of the arbor monies for water and sewer projects agreed
1:05:22i yield thank you counselor in seat six council pereira i don't have a problem with it going to finance but to be honest with you i called to ask about this what would it be if we were going to spend kind of 20 million dollars what would it be on the water rate and i was told that on the this the water bill that we pay the cso money that we're
1:05:42paying the consignment saw it would be 25 cents savings so for 25 cents and you know i checked on if you're going to do all these projects how long is it going to take to do all these projects and with all these projects with federal money you need to get your bids put out you know your specs get your bids and do all of that are we going to be
1:06:04able to do all these projects with that also i think it would be imperative for mr uh furlin to tell us the grant money that we've received because we've received like three i believe three grants over doing our stuff so i think it's a perfect place to go to finance to really have a discussion about it um nobody likes to pay for the cso i certainly don't and i think that it was
1:06:26shoved down our throats as a mandate and we're stuck with that and you know i think it's with going to finance for discussion with that iu point of clarification counselor c2 yeah was that 25 cent savings weekly monthly for every 100 pounds for your bill for your yeah 25 cents less on the bill yeah 25 cents on the bill that you get i don't know but that's why it's going to
1:06:49finance i think i don't think it's 25 cents on the bill on a monthly bill 25 cents that's it no it was something for 100 000 cubic inches of water what is it right savings wasn't it really wasn't a heck of a lot of savings like i make a motion to wave the rules and have mr ferguson come down because he's gonna finance he'll talk about it there yeah do you yield counsellor i do thank you
1:07:16sir in c3 the sponsor of the resolution yeah um in terms of the federal mandates we have federal mandates that have to be completed by 2025. we don't have an option on saying no sorry don't have time to put out bids sorry we can't we have to do it they're mandated and they have to be completed by 2025.
1:07:40um i don't know personally what the cent or dollar amount is i do know that if we don't bond for 20 million i think the savings is more significant than 25 cents you know why do we want to put another 20 million dollars on the backs of the taxpayers if we don't have to we're always saying oh the federal government needs to help us with our cso the federal government needs to give us
1:08:09money well guess what the federal government gave us money and i think we need to utilize it to the best of our ability and to try to help the residents of the city um i feel bad that mr throne is here and can't contribute to this but i'm sure he will be here the night that it goes to finance with that i yield thank you counselor i did reach out to mayor
1:08:29coogan because this was just put on as an item after the agenda after we got the licenses as well um and i i do agree with it going to finance because it hasn't given anybody a chance to look into it just went on yesterday and he has not made any determinations about that second batch of arbor funds yet that was his uh the conversation that we had today and i do think it'd be
1:08:49better if the administration's here as well as mr furland to explain what the 20 million dollars will pay for what what savings that would be and and that he'd be able to do it in that timeline counselor in seat one counselor no i was just going to make the same statement with regard to 25 cents i think that's significantly low i i thought it was like you know a penny would generate anywhere from like 30 to
1:09:1160 000 in revenue so um just based on that it's gonna be a lot more than 25 cents for the impacts of the ratepayers so i'm comfortable with sending it to finance and just having that discussion thank you you're a yield counselor i do councilman seat two council come here yeah no look i'm perfectly fine tonight the finance i i i'm not against it i think spending it that way is perfectly fine
1:09:33with me the only thing i do want to point out though and my colleague in c3 said that you know the federal government is giving us grants and stuff let me tell you the federal government has abandoned cities like forum when it comes to infrastructure projects like this we did nothing wrong in this community and we have to tackle the cso project because we were caught mandated to do it
1:09:52we've been doing we've been paying for it flint michigan got their entire infrastructure taken care of for free so we could have got to that point we decided not to we decided to do what was right what we had to do and we've been paying for it ever since and if we can relieve the taxpayers of this money i'm all for it because that's what we should do there are other things in this
1:10:10community we could probably use that money for driving driving fighting addiction and other things as well maybe we can use some of it i'm not against it at all using for this purpose but i'm just saying as far as the federal government goes in my opinion they should be coming to the table of the finance meeting to see what it is that they have done and because when bonnie frank was here they started
1:10:30off funding the cso project quite significantly and it's gone down ever since they've abandoned cities and towns like fall river they've walked away from their responsibility and it's great that they give us a grant to do this and give us a grant to that you know why they gave it to us because they know we couldn't afford it if they didn't and it's their responsibility so we'll have that discussion you know
1:10:51maybe we should invite them to the meeting to see what it is that they're looking to do in the future because we can't continue to absorb these rising costs and all the other rising costs that are affecting our taxpayers with that i'll yield and i'm looking forward to the meeting thank you councilman three councillor tian yeah i'd just like to follow up with that um there's 12 million dollars in opera
1:11:11funding left from the first round of money um the city administrator stated that they have approximately with this new round of money 50 million add the bristol county is 61 million i think if we take 20 million and put it put it to for this purpose i believe we can do still do plenty moving forward with an additional 41 million dollars with that idea thank you anything further nope all of those in favor aye
1:11:40aye aye aye any opposed so voted all right so we have here in prison motion to adjourn no there's one more one there's a repair license there apparently
1:12:03i'm sorry it's the auto repair shop license for francis lee grizzard doing business as shea's automotive center this is a renewal for 400 stafford road to a dock second question about made by council camaro second by council reposo any discussion all those in favor all right any opposed so voted motion to adjourn made by second council prayer second by councilor poso all those in favor aye aye
1:12:30opposed council meetings adjourned
1:12:55you