7.15.2025 Fall River City Council

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Heat. Heat.

Pol. Come to order. Cler will call the vote.

Council scadm here.

Dion.

Hart here.

Kilby here.

Carrera here.

Ponti here.

Raposo here.

Tip here.

And President Camaro here. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Motion open the public hearing. Second motion over public hearing has remained in second. All in favor?

Any opposed?

Motion carries. Uh, councelor Dion had notified us that she had a something come up at the last minute. She will be attending tonight's meeting. She's just running a little behind.

First item for is Jason Dart at 329 Draper Street for the removal of curbing as follows. At 110-118 Stow Street, there is no existing opening. Curb to be removed is 14 feet and 14 feet. Curb to be added is none.

Combined opening proposed after alteration is 28 feet. The existing parcel is currently vacant. The applicant proposes to construct a duplex dwelling with two 14t driveway openings.

The total openings for the location will be 28 ft. Are there any proponents to this public hearing? Any proponents?

Seeing none, are there any opponents to this public hearing? Are there any opponents?

Seeing none, we'll move on to item number two. Jason Dwart at 329 Draper Street for the removal of curbing as follows. At 120-122 Stow Street, there is no existing opening. Curb curbing to be removed is 14 ft and 14 ft curb.

There is no curb to be added. The combined opening proposed after alteration is 28 ft. The existing parcel is currently vacant. The applicant proposes to construct the duplex dwelling with two 14 foot driveway openings. The total opening for the location will be 28 ft. Are there any proponents to this public hearing? Any proponents?

Seeing none, are there any opponents to this public hearing? Any opponents?

Seeing none, we'll move on.

Motion to take three through seven together.

Second.

Motion takes item 3 to seven has been made and seconded. All in favor?

Any opposed?

Okay. Items three through seven are intrepid fiber networks to locate a new aerial cabling and strand attached to the existing utility poles and fixtures including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures along and across as follows. Walnut Street beginning at Rock Street and ending at June Street. Locust Street beginning at High Street and ending at Rock Street. Locust Street

beginning at Rock Street and ending at June Street. Chandler Street beginning at Walnut Street and ending at Locust Street, Gford Street beginning at Locust Street and ending at Walnut Street. Are there any proponents to this public hearing? Any proponents? Come on down, please, and state your name and what company with and tell us why you're a proponent please.

Hi, my name is Todd Corkin. I'm with Tilson Technologies. I'm representing uh Intrepid Fiber Networks.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions?

Is that it?

No, I don't have any questions.

All right. Thank you.

Are there any opponents to this public hearing? Any opponents?

Seeing none.

Motion to take 8 through 17 together.

Motion takes items 8 through 17 together has been made. Is there a second?

Is there a second to take?

Second. All in favor? Any opposed?

Motion carries.

8 through 17 intrepid fiber networks to locate new buried cabling conduit and structures including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures along and across as follows. Walnut Street beginning at Gifford Street and ending at June Street. Locust Street beginning at Chandler Street and ending at High Street. Loca Street beginning at North Main Street and ending at June Street.

Cherry Street beginning at High Street and ending at North Main Street. High Street beginning at Pine Street and ending at Cherry Street. Rock Street beginning at Cherry Street and ending at Locust Street. Channel Street beginning at Locust Street and ending at Walnut Street. June Street beginning at Walnut Street and ending at Cherry Street.

Gford Street beginning at Locust Street and ending at Walnut Street. North Main Street beginning at Cherry Street and ending at Locust Street. Are there any proponents to any of these? Come on down please and state your name and record and who you're with for why you're a proponent please.

Todd Corkin with Tilson Technologies uh representing Intrepid Fiber Networks.

And just a proponent because we need to do this.

Yeah. Proponent for bringing fiber to the home.

Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any opponent to the public hearing? Any I just got a quick question for the gentleman.

Okay. Sorry. Can you come down please?

Sure. Council C1. Council.

So I was just curious. So the list that we just heard before us was going to be on aerial poles. So on on telephone poles, this one's going to be underground units. So some of them in the same on the same street. Is there a reason for it? Is that the section of the streets that are going above wires, they're just not conduit already?

Correct. There's some areas where we can't get drops into certain homes. So air underground underground drops will be necessary through through handh halls.

Okay.

All right. I yield. Thank you. Thank you counselor.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Are there any opponents to this public hearing? Any opponents?

Seeing now, I'll entertain a motion to close public hearing.

Second.

Motion's made in second. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Public hearing is now closed.

City Council Committee of Finance will come to order. The clerk will call the role.

Councilors Kadim here.

Dion.

Hart here.

Kilby here.

Pereira here.

Ponty here.

Reposo here.

Tip here.

President Camra here. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting to any medium.

Attendees are therefore advised that such transmissions such recordings and transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible.

We have a a few individuals signed up for citiz.

Chris Peek. I'm 29 Beacon Street. I'm here today to express my concerns for public safety. In March 2009, Forva implemented nine seat cuts, resulting in the layoff of 44 firefighters, 53 police officers, and eight dispatches. Prior to this, the Forva Police Department had 235 police officers serving a population of 91,82.

Currently, the department has only 225 offices for a population that has clearly exceeded 100,000 due to an influx of migrant housing and homeless residents. To provide some historical context, in 1976, for population was approximately 94,36, slightly below today's estimate. At that time, the uniform division had a daily minimum staffing requirement of 45 sector cars.

Today, that number has dropped to 34, which is 11 officers short of the staffing level from 1976.

Comparably, the For Fire Department had 300 firefighters in 1981 and was staffed with 232 before the 2009 layoffs. After laying off 44 firefighters, the number fell to 188 and currently stands at 179.

53 firefighters below pre-le uh pre-layoff levels. In 2014, there were threats of further layoffs due to the expiration of the safer grant, which had been used to rehire some of the firefighters from the layoff in 2009. I fear we may face a similar situation with the next budget um due to OPA funding being used to hire firefighters and balance a budget.

Dispatches also play a critical role in the city's public safety framework. The layoff of eight police and fire dispatches in 2009 further hampered the city's ability to respond to emergencies. Reports indicate that the dispatchers dispatch center today is currently experiencing significant short staffing in a challenging work environment with dispatches often being forced to work on their days off and

going weeks without adequate rest. Since 2009, the city of Fall River has been recklessly compromising public safety.

Staffing shortages have been a persistent issue, not limited to one administration. 20 years ago, Chief Bob Camarra presented the city a 1710 standard. It was a manpower issue to the administration. Former for a fire union president Jason Burns raised concerns about decreased manpower from 2015 to 2020. As a city council and the chairman of the public safety committee, I approached Mayor Kougan in 2020 and 2021

after discussions with Jason Burns and firefighter Michael Organ regarding manpower concerns and the closing of engine 7 in the Flint. Mayor Coogan mentioned uh during this conversation that he was in communication with Mayor Mitchell of New Bedford who unfortunately made the decision to close apparatus resulting in tragic delays in emergency response in his own city. The neglect of public safety staffing and

manpower cannot continue. While this issue is not confined to one administration, it must be addressed by this one. Mayor Kogan is aware of the staffing challenges across public safety agencies and I respectfully urge motion to wave the rules for another three minutes. Second motion to wave the rules for another three minutes as made and seconded. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

Council for three minutes.

Uh challenges across public safety agencies and I respectfully urge the city council and the chair of the public safety committee to convene an emergency meeting with the administration to establish minimum staffing levels for each department to ensure the safety of our residents.

Additionally, previous uh I have previous previously raised concerns about the DCM facility at 110 Lewon Street, specifically regarding the incinerator. I call upon this council to halt all operations of that work.

Um, recent results from a foyer request, a Freedom of Information Act request that I filed myself revealed that the city of Fall River did not test the property for extreme contamination as alleged in a recent report, yet proceeded with a $16 million upgrade to the building.

Moreover, neighboring residential units on Lewon Street were not notified of potential hazards.

This must be addressed promptly to prevent further health issues for DCM employees and nearby residents as well as environmental risks to adjacent rivers and wetlands due to unressed contamination. We have to remember that the first responders in this city, their number one job is to save lives. It's not to save buildings and it's not to save money. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have David, subject matter, public safety.

Good evening, councilors.

Um, obviously I'm here today with a very, very disgusting taste on this city right now. Um, Mayor Coogan ran on a slogan, full-time leadership.

Still have not seen that yet.

Councelor Rapo mentioned on his part of the budget where he was not happy with public safety and the fire department budget itself.

We were concerned about public safety, but yet we passed this budget.

When is the city going to stop passing budgets when we're concerned about a certain thing on on an item?

We wait until something happens to realize that we got to do something about it.

And it's sad that it's come to nine lives that that this city put in jeopardy.

So I am urging council hot to please bring the public safety get these people involved see where these department heads or these chiefs need they need more help we need to give them more help.

We talk about we need to listen to the experts.

Are we really listening to the experts?

So when we base our budget, we based on a foundation of four things. Public safety EMT police, and education.

And I feel that we're being disingenuous with those departments.

So, I'm asking if it's a the same council here, it's next year or if there's some more that are listening that is going to get on on the council.

If this if public safety is not met to the standards of our chiefs, then this budget or the next budget should be an automatic fail.

But with that, that's all I have to say.

But I'm really, like you said, I really hope council hot, you get with the chiefs and we really, really work on this because they need help.

Yeah. Just to uh Dave, I did call uh Chief Bacon today, text messaged him and called him, but he's very busy today, so hopefully he'll get in touch with you tomorrow. So that's already the wheels are already turning with that.

I'm I'm glad to hear that. Uh I like I said I wish I came here with a different my first time in front of you guys. It's but we need to really really seriously be more serious when it comes to public safety.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next subject.

Thank you.

Good evening, counselors. Uh Michael Orian, president of Local 1314 over firefighters. Uh I'm here just to express uh my gratitude. Uh many of you guys know what happened two nights ago uh that it's the largest loss of life uh in fire deaths in 40 years in Massachusetts. And according to U International Association Firefighter President Ed Kelly, one of the largest rescue operations, successful rescue

operations in recent memory.

The job that my guys did was unbelievable.

I saw things and saw people do things you couldn't even imagine.

from EMS to the hospital staff to ordinary citizens who grab ladders on their own to go in and to rescue these people.

What we walked into was something that it was a was a nightmare for every single public safety official.

We couldn't prepare for something like that, but we can staff for it. We're there for unmitigated disasters. We are contingency plan. Things like this will happen regardless of regulations, regardless of economy. Things like this will happen. Be it train, plane, boat, school, it will happen. The job of us is to be able to respond to this effectively, to have the tools, the manpower, and the ability.

I arrived 10 minutes after the first call, heard it on the radio. I was off duty coming in the next morning. When I got there, fire suppression was was taken care of. What we had was those who could evacuate on their own did.

Those who could not because most of them were ambul non-ambulatory uh bedridden wheelchairs amputees were confined to their rooms. The ones that could escape their rooms were some of the ones to succumb to the smoke.

We had operations.

We had guys by themselves going in by themselves, taking people down ladders by themselves. Something that we don't do. It's superhuman strength or just a will to preserve someone else's life.

Had we had more people, the outcome may have been better.

We had we stripped the city of every single firefighter.

Everyone and every single one of those men and those women gave everything they had.

40 minutes.

We were still rescuing people and recovering bodies. 40 minutes.

Recall wasn't enough. Mutual aid wasn't enough. And everybody will sit here and talk about how we're politicizing something. We're not.

The budgets are politics.

That's what budgets are. But these are people's lives.

Never before this this council should there be a choice between funding and lives.

Never. Politics is what cut our budgets.

Politics is what reduced our staffs.

Politics is what cut our companies. And politics is what cost people their lives.

I hope the city council can help us help us refund our regain our staffing, our safe staffing, our apparatus, and the ability for us to handle anything like this that may have ever happen again because it will.

Thank you very much. Jose I I need to respond to this because I think that all of the emergency individuals who are on this you respond. Hold on. You can respond.

We're all set. All right. So again, thank you. You don't have to sit there.

Your three minutes are up. We're just She's going to make a comment.

It's not going to be a give and take dialogue.

Okay. I would just like to say that I believe that all of the um public safety people that were there, other people, they did yman's work. Um they absolutely did.

But I will say that with the tragedy that happened, we need to have a proper investigation, see what's going on. And if we're going to look at staffing and other things like that, I would not say that this go to public safety. I would say that this be a committee set up, nobody from the fire department. I want retired chiefs, deputy chiefs, lieutenant, retired individuals that worked as firefighters that know the

details and come up with a better plan, things that they feel are important, what's more workable, what's more manageable, and have something back to this council in two months. I don't want to put together a task force that's going to be like the trash task force that we met twice in four years. I don't want to see that.

But I certainly think that, you know, that's what I'm proposing to the mayor.

Let's put a team together to do that.

Couple of counselors on it and I want people that know this job and know it well because just to put up a ladder takes three to four individuals to put that ladder up. And I hate to say it, but look at all the mills we have in Fall River that are now housing people, many of them elderly people. Um, we need to be prepared for that. So, I think if

we had more people out, we couldn't have saved nine other people probably. Maybe we could have saved one, but to say if there were more people, nobody would have died. I wish that that were the case. I just don't think it was. And the worst fire we had was up in the Flint area up on Pleasant Street and Chip Camaro I believe was at that fire where we lost 12 lives. 12 lives. I don't

think we should lose any life. And I think what Mr. Organ said was correct.

Fireman's job is to go out, get people out. That's what you're there for, to evacuate people, get people to safety.

The heck with the building. The building can burn. You want everybody out of there. So I agree. But I think let's look at this and say this happened. What do we do to make sure that we can do things better?

That's what we should do on everything we do. How can we make things better? So that would be my proposal and I have informed the mayor of that. But I do want to take the time to thank everybody that came. people at the tomato center, people working with people, firefighters going in to get ashes for remains of a gentleman, his his daughter's remains, another one's mother's remains. I mean,

they didn't have to do that, but they did because that's the kind of people we have in this city. And this city came together, and we will come together on looking at what we can do better. But I am proud of everybody that got out there and did everything they did because they are our heroes. With that, I yield.

Thank you.

Before come.

Yes. All I would like like to say is um thank you so much. I I saw um you at the scene on television and uh it's obvious that uh you were in civilian clothes, I believe, a baseball cap and I mean it's obvious you are you don't have to respond that you you showed up there uh in your unscheduled time and u it's something that you you and your fellow firefighters are going to remember for

the rest of your life. There's no no doubt in my mind and please no no one think that the public does not appreciate what you've done because I've been hearing it for since since it happened. I've been getting comments when I'm out in the public as to the job that you and others other departments performed on that on that night. So, um, that goes in said, and I would urge, if

you haven't yet, I would urge everybody, please watch the press conference, uh, uh, and the the comments by Chief Bacon.

so on point um in terms of basically now what we should be doing paraphrasing and uh is uh saying a great big thank you to our fire department and also it's time to to sit back and mourn uh the people who lost their lives and um and let's wait and see um what report comes back because it's going to be pretty lengthy um obviously and as professionals who have a lot much more experience than us

at the state level and the federal level, I'm assuming, that are going to compile this. And there's a lot of questions also at the state level with regard to whether or not that place was habitable or not. So, take a seat back.

Let's wait. Let's express our gratitude to our professionals and let's mourn the people that lost their lives. It's a tragedy and we're all going to remember it um till the day we we die. There's no doubt in my mind.

Thank you, Council Council C1. Council to see that.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Um I I too I'm proud of the public safety uh departments that we have. I think they did a phenomenal job. Um you know, from police, fire, EMS, EMA, uh dispatch. I think that's an important part. That's a a group that so often gets overlooked in terms of uh you know, their contribution to public safety. But in terms if we're going to start talking

about staffing, I don't know that we need to have death by committees and create more committees and talk about staffing. I we've got two chiefs, the chief of police, chief of fire, both in charge of their various departments. All we need to do is rewind the tape a couple of weeks ago. I asked the question from both chiefs as to what their staffing levels need to be. And we talked about from a fire department. The

chief said 200 200 firefighters. So I don't know why we need to have a a committee to study what the staffing levels are. We were told uh 3 weeks ago, four weeks ago, what however long it was. So just just rewind the tape, it was there. When we talk about the the safer grant, the safer grant was 232, went down to 111. We got the safer grant to bring it up to 153. Uh you know, we

had a a number of conversations working with the the fire union and the federal delegation to get that grant um uh for a second time to be able to keep these uh these firefighters. We had concerns about layoffs moving forward. Uh even during those conversations we we had a committee the committee was put together to talk about what was life after safer going to look like and what was the

recommendation for for uh staffing. That number came out at 200 and that was I want to say 2013 2014. So we've been talking about 200 firefighters since at least 2013 2014. Uh we got to that point at at some time because in FY24 we were at 199.5 and this is all my notes from from our budget conversation. So, we we've had these conversations. So, uh we shouldn't be surprised by the fact that,

you know, staffing is is a concern, but we all heard uh what the chiefs had to say. We knew what was put in from a budget standpoint, and we and we've we adopted a budget, right? So, we we need to have a conversation. We need to talk about how we're going to sustainably staff those two departments. Uh but like I was saying, FY24, 199 uh full-time officers, firefighters. FY25 went down

to 187 uh.5. I don't know with the 0.5 that must be a clerical person. Um and then FY26 we approved 187. So you know we we need to talk about the fact that there's at least 13 additional firefighters that are needed. We've heard that. So I don't I don't know that we need to to create a committee to to reestablish this. I think the the fire union has agreed to with the committee

that was established about 10 years ago that 200 was the number and that's the target number we should be living whether it's utilizing safer grants which I I'm I'm opposed to utilizing grants to supplement staffing if we can't afford uh the staffing levels by you know making sure it's budgeted for in the operational budget then we have to have a different conversations and switch priorities because that's the

real conversation conversation needs to be about priorities is it education public safety a combination So from my standpoint, again, I want to applaud all the public safety departments, but we know what the numbers should be. We heard it from a chief. We heard it from the union. We heard it from these committees. So 200's the number. How do we get there? When do we get there?

That's the conversation. I don't I don't think we need a committee for that.

Thank you, Goa.

I just want to add, and I I know everyone's thanking all three, the EMTs and the police and the fire, but had it not been for the heroic actions, the casualties would have been a lot higher, right? They they did Yman's work and we we're very proud of them. But I agree with you. We we know what the number is.

We were told what the number was. So safer grants are great, but they're not sustainable. Um so we have to find a way to keep it there.

It's just unfortunate.

Mr. President, council counc I just a question through you um to Mr. Reagan. I know one of the conversations we had recently was about apparatus. Did any of the apparatus that went out fail on the response?

To my uh to my knowledge, no for sure.

Thank you.

Okay, we move on to item number two.

It's a resolution committee on finance conveyor discussion with anticipated timeline for the land ownership transfer and planned real estate distribution process with the Route 79 Devall Street corridor improvement project area adopted on May 27, 2025. We'll hold discussion and then table it for further action. Anyone can come down please.

Yes. Thank you.

Just pass that. Thank you.

If everyone at the table could just state their name and which organization they represent. Sure. Appreciate it. And then I'll just uh Kenneth Fiola Jr., executive vice president of Bristol County EDC, Sarah Paige, executive director of the Redevelopment Authority, and Gus Pickford, I'm chief of intergovernmental affairs uh for Massachusetts uh Department of Transportation. Um and my colleague

who's the project manager, Scott Bosworth, is here. I just received a text, so he'll be walking in any moment.

Great. So the reason I filed this resolution and I I don't care who leads off and who gives us a presentation. I'm sure my colleagues might have some questions just to get a glimpse and get an idea of what's going to happen in the future with the land and how it gets distributed and who will get possession of it and how it's going to get transferred and all the all the logistics of how that works. We

understand the infrastructure is taking place now. It's getting moving along according to plan if not better than according to plan. It's doing a great job. just want to get the other aspect of what happens after the infrastructure is all in place and then how the process begins or what the plan is or what might happen or what might not happen. Just want to get some information.

Would anyone like to I'll start.

Okay. Um thank you uh council president.

Maybe I'll just take a couple minutes just to refresh everybody's memory as to what we're trying to accomplish down at the waterfront uh by virtue of the master plan. As you know, uh, the redevelopment authority moved forward and actually, um, developed this master plan that's on the, uh, Fall River Redevelopment Authority website. Um, it's been there for a bunch of months and it's readily available for the view

by the public. In essence, what the master plan calls for is just over two million square overall square feet of development along the Deval Street corridor. Um, 1,28500 um gross square footage of residential use uh which translates into about 1,480 residential units, 61,000 gross square feet of commercial space and 20 uh 2,220 parking spaces. Um zoning down there is a WD. Um so the pro project falls within

the existing zoning uh of the waterfront. Um, within that existing zoning, you have 1.5 parking spaces for units that are 50 uh 50 units or less, 1.25 parking spaces for buildings that have 50 or more units. Um, building heights, you can go six stories or 80 ft. Um, but there is, you know, preference to make it maybe a little bit higher just to conform to new building code regulations and get it maybe 85 ft

as opposed to 80 feet.

How many stories would that be? Seven or eight? That would be essentially seven stories I believe. Yeah. Um and not all the buildings are at at that size. Most of the buildings are in a six sixtory uh range. Um utility connections as was indicated earlier. All the utilities are being stubbed into the each developable parcel and the utility um stubbing consists of water, sewer, internet,

electric and gas. So this master plan itself was based upon a market study that was prepared by Stantech uh and we looked at the residential uh market area as well as the commercial and hotel and restaurant retail.

So if I can you because I know the question is going to come up about housing and h as well as disposition of the property. Um what the what the market study in this report indicates is that each year 30,000 renters in the greater Fall River market area which is approximately a 30 minute drive time around Fall River which includes Providence uh Swansea Bristol Warren Newport Island Befford and as far as far

north as up to Taton you have 30,000 renters looking for market rate housing within that area. Um within that within that area also you there's 44 400,4 446,586 households um that are look representing 229 22.9% increase in households since 2018. So clearly since 2018 to 2025 we're seeing more and more households being developed in the Fall River market area itself.

Fall River, as you know, is predominately a mix of single family um that single family housing as well as two to four uh multifamily units. Um there's substantially fewer units in buildings that are five plus units. The age of existing housing within Fall River is um is is old given the fact that the periods of highest residential construction was was commenced and took place before 1940.

So we have an older subsidized we have an older housing stock and what this project along the waterfront represents is essentially an opportunity to develop something that's very unique for the city of Fall River and transform the entire waterfront so that it becomes a mini community of the city itself based upon what's being represented in the uh market study itself. A lot of time and

effort went into the preparation of the master plan. There were public hearings associated with the master plan and I think for the most part the master plan has been has been um received very warmly throughout the community.

Master plan calls for primarily the development of mockerate housing. Okay.

And that's based upon a couple of facts.

Okay. Right now, Fall River has 21,000 5 uh 21,563 rental units and 14,756 single family condo units. Of the rental units, F River has 6,53 subsidized units, which represents 28% of the overall of the overall rental market. So just to put that in context, 28% of all our rental units are subsidized. That subsidization takes the form of anything from LITC housing to public housing to

uh section 8 vouchers, housing choice vouchers, um project rental assistance both on the on the um dis disability side as well as the non-disabled side.

So there's a very high percentage of affordable housing, subsidized affordable housing in the city. That's the primary reason why we're trying to advocate for more market rate development along the waterfront. If you put that in the context of what the state requires in terms of affordable housing, there's a state mandate of 10%.

So we far exceed the state mandated 10%.

When you look at some of the existing suburbs of budding for river and you look at what they've done for affordable housing, statistics statistics indicate that Freetown has 2.49% of its housing as as affordable housing.

Um Somerset has 3.64 and Westport has 3.87. So clearly forer has certainly undertaken the burden of creating affordable housing and that's okay.

Okay, we've done a good job in creating affordable housing. Now we have an opportunity to maybe help balance the scale and create some mockery units as opposed to having more affordable housing along the waterfront. We anticipate that the overall waterfront development will represent close to a billion dollars in private sector investment and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for the city in new

new growth as it as the project moves forward over probably a 10 to 12 year implementation phase. So that's just a little background on the actual project itself. uh some of the particulars as it pertains to the overall development strategy, some of the data that's associated with the market analysis that was that was undertaken as part of the um the master plan. You know, we also,

you know, had the master plan take a look at the commercial, retail, residential, and hotel feasibility within the um within the um the market, today's current market. And right now we're looking, you know, primarily having the project used for um residential purposes.

All right. Thank you for that information. I know it's all in the master plan. I think the goal of this is to find out going forward how so would you like to add anything to that?

Sure. What I'll do is uh just bring So Scott Bosworth is our chief uh strategic officer at Mass DOT. Um we just heard about the Deval Street master plan and then why don't we talk a little bit about um how we plan to uh work with the land.

Terrific. Terrific. Um thank you very much Mr. President Council for being here.

Um and I apologize for being late.

Thought I gave myself plenty of time two and a half hours but um so thank you very much for having me here. I'm glad to uh to come down and represent with Gus to represent Massdot and the Commonwealth on what is clearly an exciting opportunity for the city Fall River in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And I want to commend the work that's been done um very very um rare for us to get involved in a project

that has come this far. And I just want to commend Mr. Fiola on on the master plan that was done. It was extremely well done. Um, so we're excited to wrap the project up, the highway project, uh, and and and and really get into the redevelopment of this. I I would want to share with you some thoughts that we have shared with the mayor, uh, and, uh, Mr. Fola about the um about the dispens

dispensation of the property. Um, the property is federally supported. Uh, it was the original project was uh, federally funded as was the the the current project. Apostle or just parts of it?

Parts of it.

Okay.

Parts of it. Um but if they're in for a penny, they're in for a pound, I think they say, unfortunately. But um it's not not to worry, but um it is something we need to consider. So, and and certainly there are state dollars involved. So, we have to follow certain laws that that go along with that. and um but at the same time um we want to make it very very clear that we are here

for a partnership uh for a very meaningful partnership as we work together to to meet your needs and and obviously follow the law. So what generally what happens in that is that we work with our host community. Um we establish a joint development process where we uh would together seek market interest in a development like this. Uh we would solicit that through a request for information or request for

qualifications leading to a request for proposals. It is a requirement that we both in the federal and state that we um receive the um highest you know reasonable high highest realistic bid or something. I'll have the exact words here in a moment. Um but it it it's it goes to the highest bidder. Um and state law allows us to be a little bit more flexible with that in in taking into consideration value as well as um

qualifications. Right. So, um, so we would together put together an RFI that would lead to an RFP that would would set out our our collective goals for redevelopment of the site. And as I mentioned earlier, the master plan that's been done um, provides us with that guidance of what we would seek in the marketplace. Uh, what range would you put the marketplace out to? Would it be within the state,

outside the state, open to?

It's a great question. And I think a pro project like this um we would agree this is a n probably attract national interest. Um certainly you know many of our projects lately in in the you know the greater Boston area h have done that early you know had some national interest. Um uh this is clearly a project that will get um a lot of development agencies interested I mean organizations interested. So we do it we

have a very um broad database that we use to get the information out. uh we working with our host community, we we um we we j you know send it out via email and things like that, but we also use national organizations like NAOP, the um Urban Land Institute and other organizations that have databases that go far and wide and uh because as as um Phil mentioned the markets, you know, it's it's a tough

real estate market right now. Uh but you know this is a long-term project. This isn't something that's going to be you know quick hit for people people going to so it's going to attract deep pocketed firms that can absorb you know can can afford to absorb some uh short-term um you know lack of in lack of return on their investment. So um it it's really tr truly a great opportunity

to get things get a a partner on board.

Um and as I mentioned that you know what we would recommend and what you know our our style is this joint development where we don't focus upfront on value we focus on finding the best partner for the city for the commonwealth who has the experience to do this who has the the dry powder investment monies to be able to make a long-term investment here and we go through a process where there

you know obviously money has to be part of There has to be a financial aspect to any proposals for the dispensation of land, but it doesn't have to be the number one upfront. And ultimately, we negotiate with a federal highway uh because they are a federal highway is a participant here to allow us to use the state method and um and ultimately bring that partner on under the joint development rules,

permit the project, and then value the project and then you cut the deal. And what's good about that is if we were to cut a deal today, property values are depressed and it doesn't make any sense to to cut a deal on on a particularly on something.

So when you say cut a deal, I just want to get an explanation. Are you talking about the entire parcel cut a deal for the entire parcel or are you going to do it in phases?

I think that that entirely depends on our partnership and what we decide together. Uh we wouldn't presume to do you know anything without working together. I can I can say right now the the master plan calls for um the selection of uh one development company uh with clawback provisions so that you could consent and this would have to be vetted out in the RFI RFP process but allow for one developer to

come in and assume overall development of the of the property itself over a period of time.

The entire parcel, excuse me, the entire parcel.

The entire Yeah, the entire 14 acres. It's a 22 acres.

22 acres.

Yeah.

Is that within your scheme as well?

Council, please speak into the microphone and just raise our call.

Sayject council. Council, there's other people have raised their hands. So, if you want to ask questions, we'll I didn't realize that, Mr. President, but I thought you I wanted We're going to keep order. Thank you.

Yeah. So, I just I think you know those are the things that we got to work out as part of the joint the joint partnership here with the state. Um we think for many reasons it's important to have what one developer accountable for the overall development of the parcels within a certain period of time. Uh there could be clawback provisions if the developer fails to develop x amount of square footage within a pre

prescribed time frame. Uh we're all also looking um at one developer just for consistency of development approach so that we have um buildings that are complimentary to one another as opposed to having buildings of different types of aesthetic qualities and everything else. Now we can control some of that with some design guidelines. Uh but at this point we're looking to um to have

one development team because overall like I said before this is a billion dollar investment. This is not something that's small. And as has been previously indicated, the first couple years here are going to be the first the most difficult years for any developer because even though we think rents may be high now, but these rents are probably not going to be high enough to offset some of the investment that's

going to be made in the early years, right? So, I think there's a couple different things uh that we have to consider in attracting developers to the table to make sure that they have the ability not only to move forward with the projects and im immediately and initially but also recapture investment over a period of time.

Okay. Do you want to continue what you was going for or you say again?

Are you all done with your opening statement or you I opening questions. I would say um just to the point um about one developer that would be ideal. It certainly would. I mean it just really would be a great thing to have. It's possible however that that doesn't come forward. You know, we've had instances where we thought we would get one and and either they partner uh and put a joint develop I mean a joint um

joint partnership in in place. Um but that's something we'll work out together. It's it's it's a big investment as was mentioned and there's not a lot of people that you know would step up and do that but we'll we'll look far and wide to find them.

And when I say one developer I mean I should be more specific. There's one development team because you're going to have in addition to the residential component, you're going to have the restaurant, the retail, the cafes, potential office space development as well. So, it's going to be a development team. Um, one of the things that, you know, obviously subject to negotiations with the state

is, you know, we're looking to have a number of restaurants be associated along the waterfront as well. Um, we're going to try to shy away from chains. We want to have individual unique restaurants along the waterfront uh to really capitalize upon what this area has to offer and bring in some different types of restaurants to the city uh to complement the great existing Portuguese

restaurant that we have restaurants that we have. We understand through previous market studies that there's a lot of money that leaves the city for dining and entertainment purposes because there's not a a wide variety of restaurants. So people go out of town to eat. There's also a lot of people coming in to for river to eat Portuguese food, right? So, I don't want to say they wash

each other, but I think we could have the best of both worlds. Have the people coming into the city for Portuguese restaurants and other types of restaurants and also having our residents stay here for different types of restaurants instead of going to Boston, Providence, Newport or wherever.

Right? So, those are some of the things that we're looking at here. I also want to say at this point now what we're discussing here is one particular avenue of potential state disposition of the property. There's also a secondary disposition process that's underway within the state right now where it's a legislative approach to actually have the land uh turned over to the redevelopment authority that's been a

legislation filed. As you may recall, um there was a letter signed back on November 12th by seven uh city councilors uh advocating for that disposition uh process as a priority. Uh in addition to the seven city councils that signed that letter, uh there was also probably another I don't know 55 or so uh different business men and women and other people throughout the community that also advocated for that

approach. So right now there's a dual track going on. We're not sure which one is going.

When you say seven city council, Mr. F, you talk about seven current city councils.

Yes.

So, I didn't sign it.

No, you No, you Mr. Tip wasn't on the council.

Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Tip was not previous, right?

So, at six, the former city council signed it.

Okay. Just want because I know we I know you probably not don't remember we had a change of council. So, no, I I remember distinctly. It was just a mistake on my part, Mr. President.

Okay.

Okay. Then I can say the two that didn't. So yourself and Michelle Deion of the existing council at that time did not sign the letter.

Mr. Tit didn't have an opportunity to sign it because he was on council.

Correct.

When will we get any feedback as to whether that petition that Mr. Fo was talking about will take effect in the state? Whether it's going to get that's working its way through the legislative process. Now, there's been uh hearings in Boston uh on this issue.

A number of people testified um for that approach as well as submitted letters uh advocating for the approval of that approach.

I will say that Mascot um is proceeding under federal and state law, current law, uh to procure this under under those guidelines and if somehow the the law is changed and we will, you know, adapt accordingly. Our plan is that it won't um and that we will follow the laws that's in place and frankly it's a terrific process. It's a really um and we administer it in full partnership with our host community.

Okay, good.

You want to add anything yourself or you No, I'm okay.

I'm here for help.

All right. Council C2, Council Dan, you have a question?

Yeah, I have a few questions. Um so I'm understanding if this law does not pass then everything stays as it is. If it passes, that takes you out of the equation.

I believe that's the intent of it.

Okay.

Just getting to know you, too.

So, there is no local state partnership if this passes.

Um okay.

So, one of my questions was going to be who ultimately would have oversight, but that pretty much answers that would be the redevelopment authority, right? If if that is were to pass.

Um, I I just want to address when you spoke about uh lowincome affordable housing.

Low income and affordable housing are two different classes of types of units. Correct.

These are the ones I mentioned before were deed restricted.

Okay. So 28% of the housing stock is affordable deed restricted properties.

But when you say affordable deed restricted, they're all subsidized the ones you spoke of.

Correct.

So that excuse me just point of clarification. That's currently what we have right now. Correct.

Correct. It's probably a little bit that is probably a little bit it's probably a little bit higher than that because hey close enough by talking about going forward.

But my question is isn't there a distinction between affordable and low income? Low income being subsidized.

Affordable not being subsidized.

Affordable could be what the current market dictates as opposed to having subsidized programs. Right.

Right. Yeah.

So, so that's where I have a little difficulty when people speak of of you know, in these terms. Um, because a lot of people say we need more affordable.

Well, if we're talking affordable, not subsidized, forward doesn't have a lot of that. What we have is the subsidized lower income type of property.

We probably have a lot of Well, it depends. Everything is is we have a lot of affordable housing. If you look at the affordability of our rents in comparison to other cities and towns, right? So, Fall River has a lot of low rents as opposed to other other gateway cities and other non-gateway cities. So, that could be considered affordable, right? As opposed to without the public subsidy.

Okay. Um and then how many units did you say are going to be developed down there? I'm sorry.

Right. Now, the plan called for 1,480 um units, resial unit um because you did address single families up to four uh family units that we have in the city, four family existing. Yeah.

But we also in existence have over 456 families.

Yep.

Um which represents 2700 units.

Um so when you start do we really think moving forward the numbers are there to fill everything?

Yeah. So as part of the you see in the master actually there's a reference to it in the master plan but be happy to share the actual housing analysis. The housing analysis identified the need a a need for 5,000 market rate units that for could accommodate.

Um, not to say that we're going to have 5,000, but clearly within the context of the villa, the waterfront, there's there's the demand for that type of U.

Mr. F, is that within these 22 acres or in the surrounding areas that we just zoned?

I'm sorry. The the the market demand is for 5,000 units that could be developed in Fall River, right? So that's within a mile or a mile.

No, anywhere in Fall River.

Anywhere in Fall. Okay. Not just within this 20. No, no, no. That's that's some of you see some of this taking place in some of the rehab of the mills themselves.

Yep.

Right. Some of that demand.

I just want to make sure that we we're clear. We not So, let's let's assume for a moment that the RDA does ultimately have oversight of this project. Um I'm hearing and hopefully it carries over that um for lack of a better expression, we're looking for people with deep pockets for development.

For development.

Correct. Um, I would I'm going to say right here up front, I don't know what the thought process is down the road, but where this is such a a magnificent project that people from nationally might be coming here, I would like to think we are not going to offer tiffs or ties.

Well, we can't offer tiffs because they don't apply apply to residential, right?

So, it probably primarily be ties.

That's something that we'd have to discuss and the council would need to make a determination. The the real issue here, okay, let's just let me take a brief moment to explain this.

The cost of construction, whether it's here or in Boston, is pretty much similar, right? Construct materials, there may be a little difference labor cost, everything else. The cost of land here may be less costly than is in development, but at the end of the day, you know, you have to have the rent support to offset whatever the costs are going to be, right? So, for instance, a one-bedroom in Quinsey right now goes

for 3,100, right? A one-bedroom here in Fall River on average is probably 1,800.

Some of the newer developments that are coming online may be closer to 21 or 2,200.

even at 21 or 2200 that doesn't necessarily get a develop to the point where it's a profitable operation for them.

Okay? Because the revenues are not offsetting their cost of development itself. Developers need to generate x amount of dollars per square foot of development. Um and so they got to get up to that point. So in the initially there may be a need to subsidize some of that development. Now some of that subsidy could come in a form and I'm just speaking now this is all theoretical theoretical right but a way one way to

theoretically address that would be to lower the land cost right so it makes the development a little bit more cost affordable for the developer and the developer may not have to re rely upon a tie from the city or an hip from the state to get it to the point. So, there may be a couple different ways to skin the cat, but I hear you loud and clear that we don't want to be giving up tax

revenue if we don't have to, and that's not the intent.

And part of the reason I bring it up is because a few uh just a few minutes ago, if I understood you correctly, uh you made the statement that you wanted people who were financially sound enough and had deep enough pockets that they could sustain the initial two years without the return on investment immediately to be able to get to that point and move forward.

That's right. It's all a matter of degrees how much they have to sustain and what the sustainability margin is right so rather than doing so that's part so whether we're working with the state or we're working with the redevelopment authority I think we have to give some great thought as to the value of the land right because we couldn't send developers through lower land costs than it would

be through tax increment exemptions right so I think those are a couple things we got to look at and my last question when we speak of commercial properties. Um are there any thoughts or comments in that um study in terms of entertainment venues?

So restaurants and re restaurants we're looking at, you know, um like I said before, hopefully you know one of the criteria may be that we don't get chains, right? We don't want to have national chains. We have unique restaurants. Some of those restaurants may be open air restaurants as well as seating inside. So you'd have outside and indoor seating cafes and there would be small entertainment associated with

those as opposed to an entertainment venue. We think the Narrows Center for the Performing Arts is the city's venue right now for entertainment. It's in close proximity to the waterfront. We don't want to put competing interest in place to offset that. Just like we don't want to put another hotel a hotel on the waterfront to steal from everybody else in the area that's doing hotel business.

We want to have net new growth and so that's why we're shying away from a hotel development at this point. Maybe 5 10 years down the road there could be a need for a hotel. But the market analysis that we did say that Fall River could not support a hotel based upon the hotel occupancy rates of the existing hotels within the abundant communities.

So, I guess my only um comment to that would be so if we if we bring in 4,000 more people to live here, 6,000 more people to live here, I don't think that another entertainment venue would hurt the Narrows because I don't I don't think their capacity can handle that many people coming into the city.

Yeah. And like I said, I'm not sure what the profitability of entertainment venues are, right? So that's something we'd actually have to do a pro former on it to see if how it how it how it works out right whether or not what's the demand uh who we'd be competing against um and what's the marketability of it.

So, one of the other things we're trying to accommodate on the waterfront in addition to the retail and cafes and these would all be ground levels is um also bringing in um for lack of a better term like something like a Trader Joe's where PE and have that situated along the waterfront. So, people wouldn't have to take their cars to go shopping or anything. They could walk to a marketplace, you know, there's other

markets in that area, you know, um and this would complement those markets. So we're essentially creating a whole new community down there that's right across the street from the commuter rail platform, right? So it's it's the possibilities are endless and I think a lot of the the the market will de the market will determine what can and can't work in terms of types of venues down there

because you know when I think of you know Newport or Providence or Boston uh that offer different they all have multiple venues. Yeah. because people like diversity.

Correct.

Um and and it could be something where there's a a venue may not be on a waterfront, but it's two blocks away from the waterfront, right? So, absolutely.

Yeah. So, it could be in close proximity to it, right?

Okay. That's I yield now. Thank you.

Council, thank you, Mr. President. First off, I I would I would just make a comment. um being somebody um whether it's by the process of disclosure or conflict of interest, I'll I'll tell you that I own a a business down in the waterfront. Um and I I I I can tell you that I can speak for many business owners that own a business down in that area right now that the future success of our

waterfront I personally believe is going to be what Mr. Fiola mentioned is to make sure that there's um as much small business growth and opportunity as possible. Now I recognize one thing that um developing 22 acres of commercial real estate with some real with some residential real estate involved in that is going to come with a substantial investment on the development end of it.

And when that project is future done, the cap rates and the income that it's going to generate, I believe, are going to be astronomical for the city, especially from a new growth perspective. With that being said though, um I I want to just say that or more of a question for you. You mentioned the word partner a couple of times. When you say partner, are you meaning the development team or a

developer specifically? Because you mentioned a partner on board. Who when you say the partner who is the partner?

The partner would be the devel the chosen development team.

Okay. And where are we at with that RFQ RFI RFP process? Right now we are just getting going um with the drafting of the RFI and a schedule that we would share with you before it goes anywhere council before it went anywhere. We had a meeting uh in the governor's office where we agreed to start to put that together a few weeks ago and we're well on our way to having

a schedule in place. Can you just tell me who was in that meeting just so I'll know?

Uh the mayor and Mr. Fiola and Lieutenant Governor and and some staff.

So, thank you.

Um and that was the meeting where we we laid out, you know, the way we envisioned it going forward.

So, not that this is your problem. I'm just going to speak just through my experiences as an elected official and the government process of the RFP and the RFQ process. It's quite long. It's quite um tedious and it doesn't necessarily keep a project or any project on track to do anything. Um part of the reason that I signed on to a letter to our our local delegation is because I don't want

the RFP RFQ process to to to kick this down the road for four or five more years as this as it develops. Now, I'm not directing it to your office or you in any way, shape, or form. I'm just saying through 30B and everything that the the city and state needs to follow from state procurement perspective. I don't know if you haven't even started the process yet. I almost feel like from

my standpoint, the legislative process, even though the redevelopment authority is certainly going to have to make sure there's they're being held accountable all across the board and making sure this is done the correct way and it's equal opportunity for everybody all across the board. I will just say that I feel like the process by the legislature will help move this project along at a much quicker pace.

Go ahead, please. Uh, I'm gonna pass it off to Scott after, but uh, just so you know, we actually couldn't start our process until we had finished canvasing the land and the federal process, which we weren't able to do until the end of June.

Okay.

And so that is what put us in the position to move forward with the audience that we did have. And um, I'm not sure how much you're willing to share in the Well, that's that's new new information to me, too. I'm I'm just I just want to make it clear this isn't directed to your office in any way, shape or form. I just get real frustrated on how government officiates things.

Well, this administration is is significantly interested in seeing this move forward quickly and they have been on us to make sure that it moves forward as fast as we can. We had to cross our ties and dot our eyes when it ca comes to the disposition of this property and which property can and can't be part of the process. And so that was the canvasing process that ended at the end of June.

Um, do you want to talk a little bit about Sure.

schedule?

Sure. I Well, before I get there, uh, counselor, I I I do want to I mean, maybe it's not directed at us, but it should be because we have not been great over, you know, 25 years of RFPs, I will tell you for the last three years, we have refined the process of of partnering to a point where we can we turn it around in less than a year,

fully in a year. And the reason being is we're not asking for a full development proposal. We're asking you developers to tell us how are you going to meet our goals? Tell us how and tell us the experience that you have to prove to us that you can meet our goals and we bring the developer on and that developer is at the table with us as we go forward and plan, design and permit

together. The old way of doing business, you ask for a hard bid. It's just one time, you know, moment in time and a hard bid and in a in a good market, you know, you get a good price and everything's great, but then the market goes like that and you're still stuck at that price. You can't go anything lower. A market like today, we get locked in at a low price.

So the the how we've refined it over the last couple years and particularly within this administration, we have now said, listen, we we're not going to make a we do not want a flat price. We want to pick the best development partner that is going to get us the best value and meet the goals of the Commonwealth and the city in this case. So, you know, I know you weren't criticizing, but we

have not been great. We are far better today. We're turning things around quickly. We're recognizing the host community's roles here that we're that were never done before and and want to make sure that that's very clear to you and the citizens of Fall River that we're not down here. Our goals are fully aligned fully aligned here. Um, the only goal that I can say is different is that

the redevelopment authority wants to control the process. We can't frankly give it to them right now. And and even if that legislation passes, that still does not abscond us from the federal process. It does not, which will be done before the legislation passes, which is I'm sorry, which would be done prior to the legislative approval if it happens.

Right.

Because that's got to happen either way.

They're starting that process now, right? You started that in the end of June.

That doesn't have to do with totally different thing. have to do with any of that.

Totally. The federal process, the federal government has responsibilities uh according to law right through till transaction here and proceeds from a transaction here have to be turned back into federal aid programs. There's no there's no state legislation that's going to change that.

Okay. So, I know there's different parallels that you're working on, different roads people are driving down to accomplish one goal of developing the waterfront. in your process that you're going through seeing as June has just you know finished up recently when do you think the process will be completed in your opinion if it goes according to your plan that you articulated that we

will have a partner or a developer to start working on developing parcels or part of these 22 acres but I just to your point council I don't think they can do it till the infrastructure is in place which is 2027 correct no the the infrastructure will be in place primarily for the The construction project is running ahead of schedule and as part of that project all the infrastructure is being stubbed into the

development proc into the development parcels. So from a development perspective you know that could happen sooner as opposed to later.

So you're saying there's more phases of the 22 acres. You'll have phase one through five. Is that what you're saying?

No, I'm saying that all the development parcels will have the necessary infrastructure to support the proposed development. The development of those parcels will take place in accordance with some sort of time frame that's established whether through the state process or through the redevelopment authority process. If you look at how long it's going to con realistically if you're putting up a 100 unit building,

you're talking at least a year and a half, right? So just and you're not going to necessarily have two buildings going up at once, right? You could have you you'd like to see two buildings at once.

Why couldn't you have two buildings?

Well, because it's a matter of market and and money, right? So, I think whoever the first developer is going to come in is making sure that that development is going to take place in terms of, you know, making sure that they they have the ability to lease up those units. Maybe halfway through that development, they'll start a second building. But I think, you know, the time frame just associated with the

construction of these buildings is significant. So, you know, I'd like to see them just simultaneously continue to develop after one is started and another one's you don't have to wait to the completion, but starting the next one and just going right down the line.

So, it's certainly not going to be anything that's um going to be, you know, the 22 acres aren't going to be developed quickly. It's going to be a decade.

Yeah. Probably 10 10 years. That's what So, so let me ask you in terms of a vision like that you've articulated whether it's in the master plan or not.

Is the first call it development going to be mixeduse housing like if it was up if we had it and this is again we would need to work what either way would work with the state or work with the redevelopment authority. I think the first two parcels we'd like to see developed would be the ones right at President Avenue and Deval on both sides. That's really the center of the that would that would set the

tone and tenor for the balance of the development. So it's important that those two developments be developed in accordance with the style and purpose that's going to set the table for the balance of the development. In those developments themselves, we would like to see some restaurant and cafe uses on the ground levels of both of those developments.

So you see res miscuse residential apartments or units upstairs and a and storefronts on the first floor. Correct.

And then you'll be working towards Freetown or towards work either way. Right. What's your ideal What's your ideal hope?

We would I I really that I would leave that to the developer. If it was up to me, I'd probably probably try to put them one on one, put one to the one to the south, one to the north, right? And keep it to being developed that way.

Interesting. Um that that answers a lot of questions. Last thing, um in terms of parking, it's obviously the biggest issue that we have on our downtown right now. Um are we going to start eventually seeing FA phases before we start developing these parcels for park?

Yes. So this is why we think it's important that it go to the redevelopment authority. So whatever money that there so to we'd have to work out some sort of purchase scenario with the state if we went there right or we could work with the state to make sure that we address the pocket needs.

But if it went to the redevelopment authority by law the redevelopment authority has to reinvest that money back into the city. So they could reinvest proceeds from those sales into the construction of a parking garage or two along the waterfront which the master plan calls for as opposed to passing that cost on to a developer.

Okay. So parking is accommodated within the plaster plan itself. You'll see there's two parking garages there. We also had some discussion with the MBTA about deck parking over the pla over the parking area where the MBTA platform is.

Um there's also going to be a public parking area um on the southern corner of Turner and Deval where the Cso project would be located. So underground the CSO chambers would be placed there, but that'd be flat surface parking there open to the public as well. So parking has been identified within the master plan. It's just a matter of how you pay for and the biggest is what what's the

rate of return on parking? That's a real question, but I think the redevelopment authority could in fact move forward with construction of those parking decks based upon sale proceeds from the property if if it moved in that direction. If it goes through the state, that's a discussion we'll have with the state to see if we can use some of that money that's generated from those sales to accommodate those pockets.

Generally, speaking from the state's perspective, what does the state usually do as in if it doesn't go to the redevelopment authority for the repurposes of those funds? Where where would it usually go? Did I hear you say something earlier about that?

Where would proceeds go?

Sure.

Proceeds would go back into the mass um general fund.

I'd ask you and all to consider when the federal government and the state invested in the project, every citizen of the federal government and every citizen of the commonwealth invested in it. So that's the way the law considers it. when the money comes in, it needs to it needs to acknowledge whose money went in. So in our case, the state's case, you know, our our return goes back into

transportation projects. In the federal case, it has to go into federal 23, which is federal highway projects. Yeah, I I hear you, but I guess I'll go off on a tangent and tell you that the billion the billionaire uh the millionaire's tax that um I have a resolution on tonight that has generated a huge surplus at the state level um has defined what the excess money could be used for, which is

only transportation and education. And so I from what I'm hearing um so I I I guess as you speak I'm starting to think more and more about how making sure those tax dollars whether it's locally, federally or not are brought back into the city for future development. I think that's what's important for the city to get funds or funds to be going elsewhere back into the state's general uh

stabilization fund. While the state needs money, the states are finding much more opportunities for for excess monies within their operating budget than the cities do. And we desperately need, which I know you know that we desperately need uh help from the state level when it comes to infrastructure and it especially when it comes to that waterfront. It would it would it would it would really be a disservice to our

community I believe if that goes back into the state coffers and then we can just say a prayer and hope that our delegation who does good work would make sure that money gets back to Fall River.

We hear you loud and clear.

Okay. Um so you answered my questions on on vision and parking. I want to just comment very quickly on what my colleague in seat 2 mentioned when it comes to ties. Um I'll say now that if I'm here and there's an opportunity to vote on tie when it comes to that I just want you to know Mr. file that it's going to be something that I'm going to really need some uh convincing that it's

going to be what's best for um the city when it comes to that. And I say that because as a real estate broker, I can tell you that if I if I had that parcel of 22 acres to sell right now, I know that I could get top dollar for it, right? Um and uh it's waterfront property. It's immense. Um, so for us to um not bring in any tax inc have any tax

increment exemptions, I think it would be a real uh disservice based on what I have in front of me right now. So like I I'm not going to be just saying yes, yes, yes, because we need to get a billing developed. I'm just going to be completely candid with you. It's going to take some I hear you. I hear you on that. And we know we have some ties that have

performed well in the city thus far and hopefully will continue to perform well.

Um they have but they've also been just for all due respect to you Mr. Fiola they've also been in in parts of the city correct that were converted into mills that the value to a tie and you could do a dimminimous tie right it doesn't you could do a maximum of a five-year tie with real small percentage savings the value of a tie opens the door for an H dip

and you can't get an H dip unless you get a tie and that's and that's the challenge why is that is that a legislative thing that can be changed You can you can do a tie without an H dip, right? But for developers to secure HDIP finance uh funding, tax credit funding, you have to have a tie in place, right? So that's some of the reason like in the projects that that have come before you before,

they were all HDIP related. The one that's before you tonight is HDIP related, right? So, but for that we wouldn't probably be doing ties. But on the HD for these smaller projects, they they make a lot of they make a world of difference in getting getting those projects off the ground.

How do we how do we how do we change that? Is it a legislative thing that we have to be legislatively addressed? Yeah.

Yeah. That's kind of silly.

And you know, the state looks at it and says, "Okay, we're going to give you a $4 million H tip. What's the local community doing?" Right. So, and actually our ties are much more conservative than most of the ties in the state.

You know, some of them do 20-year ties.

We're doing 10. So, we could break that down even further if we have to.

Yeah. I I just I just I want you to know that if I'm a counselor and that stuff comes before me, I'm going to need I would love to do it without ties, right?

I'd have to be very very seriously convinced that that's what we should be doing.

It's a matter of economics.

Yeah. No doubt. And it may be to councelor uh Dion's question, it may be just a table setter for one or two in the beginning and then eliminated moving forward once the market establishes itself. Right. So I think we would cross that bridge when we get there.

Yeah, we're not even there yet.

And I would come I would come down and do my best to sell it.

Yeah, I'm sure you I'm sure you will, but you know, it's just where I'm at from from an overall perspective. So I yield. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor. I just want to make a few comments and and maybe ask a couple questions, but I look at this picture that we have here of our waterfront and if this isn't the hottest piece of real estate in all of New England, I don't know what is right now.

I mean, it's you when you talk about the proximity to Newport, Rhode Island by water, I mean, it's just the the cost of doing business here and building here is less expensive than anywhere else in New England. Um, and to hear that, you know, maybe we lower the price of land. This is prime real estate property. I I don't I don't know why we even start to think about lowering the price of land. We're

going to have national developers from everywhere wanting to get a piece of this because it's prime real estate in my opinion.

Yeah.

The infrastructure work all in place.

Are we going to charge them for the infrastructure work that we already did in it? I mean, it should be No, that that all these all That's exactly true. The infrastructure work is all in place.

It's all in place.

The first thing they have to do is put in the infrastructure and it eats up most of their money.

Yeah. The real the real challenge here is the rents. Okay. A developer wants to see a minimum of $3.50 per square foot profit or judge.

Judge what's no $3.50 income revenue generating on the on their on their development.

Okay. If you look at Fall River's rentals right now, there's only a couple that are generating $3.50 a square foot.

Most of them are, you know, 290, some of 220. So the real question is, how does a developer get to that point of development at $3.50 a square foot?

That's the magic number. And so we take all that other all those other things into account that the council president's saying where the developer is not paying for the infrastructure.

He's not paying for the open space. He's not paying for a lot of the amenities, the streetscape. A lot. You look at the lighting, the trees that are down there right now. Those are all on the the state's nickel and the city's nickel.

So, that's a great thing for a developer. But, at the end of the day, a developer is going to have to probably pay 300 to $325,000 per unit. That's what the development cost is. Okay? In order to make that cash flow, you got to get rents that support a $3.50 return per square foot.

That's the That's the basic math of it.

So, no, it's not rocket science. And so, if we had to subsidize that a little in the beginning, that's something to consider. Maybe we won't have to.

Just curious, is that what they're getting in Quinsey with the 3,100?

Oh, yeah. That's why they charge it 3100. That's why they're charging 3100 because some apartments in Quinsey are going for 1,800 as well. One bedroom.

Now, you look at you go on right now, average one bedroom is 3,100.

So the only other thing I'm curious about is Mr. F, I know you're saying that the legislation that's in place right now is trying to see that the revelatory would take ownership of the land. Are you is that going to be given to you or you going to purchase the land or how is that?

So the the way the legislation is written, it would be a cost share with the um the from the sale of the property, the redevelopment authority would would participate in a cost share with the state. So as as poss were being sold off, X amount of dollars would go to the state and X amount of dollars would remain with the redevelopment authority for reinvestment back into the waterfront as well as the city itself.

If you partnered with the state and did it the other way, the way that we're according to say the law states, wouldn't that same scenario take place?

No, because it would go to the general fund. If it went through the state, it wouldn't come to us.

And I listen, if it has to go through the state, we can still work this thing as partners.

This is not a bad either way. I think we got two concurrent ways to go forward, right?

Y if you were to ask me, I prefer the legislation. If that's not feasible, working with the state is going to get us to where we need to get.

Yeah. We just got to be able to work closely with one another to it because who knows the state could give us grants for those parking garages. Correct.

Right.

And as as the gentleman to your right has stated, I can't remember your name.

I apologize.

Gus Gus.

Gus, you said the administration is very very interested in developing this as quick. You're talking about the governor's administration. Correct. I am.

The Healey administration.

The Healey Driscoll administration.

Yeah. And I think the Healey Driscoll administration has been very good to Fall River since they've been here. And I don't think they would turn that back on us now. So they they've been excellent to work with.

Yeah. So I think that it's it's it's a good thing that they've recognized and I'm sure they've seen this plan and excited about it as everyone else is.

So you know I don't see why they would say you know we wouldn't want to be interested and do what's in the best interest of city forever because they have been very good to us. And the only thing is administrations come and go right having worked with so Michael D state and local I know right I remember working with Michael Dakus back in the 80s. Right. How many governors ago was that? So, it's just a

matter of getting things codified so that we can get these things done, right? Gus know Gus is a longtime representative of state government.

Different administrations, different priorities, right? So, getting these things done now is key. And having codified ways in which to get them done is key.

Yeah. But I think a new administration, and you're right, but I think a new administration that would come in would be foolish not to adhere to what was already put in place and what we've been working on. But you never know.

You never know.

It's true. It happens at the local level too. We had an administration change plates. Next thing you know, we're going to buy a casino when the redevelopment has been looking to do something else with that.

You have to you got to bring that up.

Biop park. I'm just saying the administration overnight decided that we don't want to biopark anymore. I want to put I still think listen that's a discussion for another point.

And we got rid of the airport as well.

Administration took place. We got rid of the airport that nobody ever flew out of.

But that's another discussion for another day as well.

Does anyone else have anything to add?

had any of my colleagues have any council to council don just one more question the amenities you were speaking of and the infrastructure and everything so moving forward who would be responsible for maintaining all of that again the way we were looking at it and we could again hopefully work this out with the state is you want to have the developer that's going to be responsible

for the maintenance of the deval street corridor we all know that the city staffs are taxed they don't have the manpower the personnel I mean know the equipment to maintain those things we would like to have the developer responsible for the maintenance of that Florida. That'd be one of their obligations.

Okay, great. Thank you. I yield.

Thank you. Council C5 comes right to my prayer.

I'd prefer that we just take it over and the money come to us because with all these homes and all these other people coming in to the city, you're going to need schools, police, fire, you're going to need to amp that up. So, if the money came into our general fund, that would help us with what we need to do, too. I know that everybody's talking about teaming and I don't know, maybe I'm just

um not good at body language, but I don't see much of a team happening.

Maybe it's just me.

Yeah, let me let me let me uh let me just let me dispel that if I can clearly explain that to me. Are we a team?

The Yes, we are. The Healey Jal administration have been strong supporters of this initiative. They have made it a priority. The two gentlemen that are here tonight are here because it's a priority to the administration and collectively we could work these things out. I'm confident of that. So don't don't misread body language.

I'm like it was really a team I I can't speak highly enough of that administration this thing.

I agree and our de and our delegation you know they've been very supportive of this and the council right it's a teamwork among sign I mean I want right amongst everybody. So, I want it to work out. Yeah, we I also don't like uh parking garages on the first floor. Put stores down there.

Parking garages belong on the second floor.

Yeah, that's I just want to throw that in there.

And I could The other thing we didn't say, and I don't want to belabor this thing, we when we this master plan first came out, we tested the feasibility of this with developers.

The developer interest in this is extremely high. I can't say the name of the developers but they are significant developers that have the financial capacity to do these things. Yeah.

Who did the the um study?

Stantech an engineering.

Who paid for it?

A redevelopment authority paid uh 450,000 for the study.

Okay.

Yep.

With that. Thank you. Nice meeting you gentlemen. I hope I see you again uh with good news. So can you just one of you try how long will we know whether or not we're going to go one route or the other and when the timeline of when we can start to see developers talking to the state and the local delegation as well and I think you know as the state has indicated we're going to start working

with them with the RFI shortly and then the RFP following. I think collectively if everything fell into place with either direction we went into we could see construction maybe in 2027.

I may be a little bit over optimistic depending on the permitting schedule.

There's some legislation filed now that ex you know expedites some of the permitting for housing. So 2027 would I would hope to see the first shovels in the ground.

Good.

If I may yield.

Yes. Go ahead. I just mention um we've been really excited about this. Came to us what just a few weeks ago came into my shop. Um we've got a draft schedule.

We would we would presume presumably come forward with an RFI process starting in like this September.

Good.

Right. This September. Um and then you know our process takes less than a year.

Uh again in full collaboration and transparency with the city and and and the redevelopment authority. It's it is a true partnership and and you know we say it again we share your goals. We are very respectful of the city of Fall River. This is your city, your opportunity. We do have our our you know law and you know responsibilities according to law but we're going to we're going to be with you guys every

step of the way and if the legislature decides to take a different t you know tack with us then we'll be there to you know administer that.

Thank you. And so thank you.

That'd be enough for the questions. I want to thank all of you coming down.

Please give the governor and lieutenant governor our thanks for helping this project and everything else they do for our great city. Thank them for the council and we will table this and if we need you to come back maybe six months from now and get an update. Can we willing to do all of that as well?

We would love to.

Perfect. Totally.

Second.

Thank you so much. Motion to table has made and seconded. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you very much for coming down.

Appreciate it.

Ken, come over here.

We're going to item number.

I want to see that study at some point.

The master plan.

Yeah.

Um, I'll have to read. I'll get an item, but I'll get one.

Thanks, Kenny.

Thanks.

Okay. See you. Thank you very much.

Okay.

Move on to item number three.

In accordance with the provisions of chapter 44 section 32 of the Massachusetts general laws I recommend the following appropriation to the honorable body that the sum of one million500,000 be the same is hereby appropriated to the solid waste expenses from stabilization fund.

Is there a motion?

Oh, we don't need it. Sorry that any questions discussion.

You want you have a question?

Yeah. Okay.

Council C1. Council Gina.

No, I was just looking for an update.

So, if we can get an update and then I'll Can you give us an update, please?

Update.

Yes, sir. Um, good evening. My name is Matthew Thompson. I have an office at Forp Park Place near Bedford, Massachusetts, and I serve as special counsel for the uh city. Um I'm here today with Mr. Olivera. Miss Abki and Attorney Ramsey. Just have a couple of quick comments and then I'm going to turn it over to um Miss Abki. Um so, as you know, the easy contract when we last chatted was amended to provide

additional trucks to service the curbside collection. It it really did four things, three things. It allowed us to get more curbside collection on the routes that were being changed. It allowed for direct direct delivery of the collected single stream recyclables on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to zero waste Rochester facility. And by doing that, it allowed us to get into a contract with the Elhave. We didn't have

one before that. And uh under the contract, uh we were they had wanted to charge us 250 a ton. We were able to negotiate 125 a ton um on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday deliveries. On the Tuesday, Thursday deliveries instead of 225 250 a ton. They went down to 160 a ton for anything that was more than 20% contaminated. Uh we still pay the $500 for hauling by E Harvey twice a day. and

it allowed for the temporary disposal of the curbside collected uh solid waste at Crapo Hill, which allowed the city to um work towards issuing a solicitation for both collection and disposal services to begin in 2027. I have an update on that.

The draft of the RFP is in the process of being reviewed internally. It'll be done for August 31st. And at that point, it's the mayor's intention to call the waste um committee back into or um session. And the idea would be to give you the RFP and give you a month to create uh review on it and have comment.

The goal would be for us to put it out on the street of on September 30th. So, right now, the intention is that you'll be getting it about August 31st. We'll give you about a month. Um and we'll be meeting with you to answer any questions you have, take in your comments, make the necessary amendments, and put it out. At that time, we are also being asked to look at in the new contract uh no longer

collecting nonowner occupied six units.

So, under the ordinance in the city of Fall River, we have to collect up to four units. We don't have to collect beyond four units. So, uh yeah. So the idea would be to look at nonowner occupied sixes initially and we have a listing of what those probably are and those would no longer be collected under the new um the new contract. Miss Abki's got some updated information on tonnage

that she's going to share with you. Um before I turn it over to her, I just want to address a few things from the last time I was here. There were some questions and I want to give you clearer answers and I want to correct one statement that I misspoke to councelor Dion. So, first off, there was a question as to whether it was a valid amendment because the city auditor hadn't certified the funds were available

in the city of Fall River. Uh the city code section 2-941 does not require the city auditor to execute contracts.

There's no state law that requires that.

That's up to the local communities and in Fall River that is not required. Um it's especially so under section 2-891 when an expenditure is the result of an emergency as determined by the mayor.

And I've already explained to you what we thought the emergency was. I understand there have been some representatives of um easy that have said the city was never going to walk. I mean the uh easy was never going to walk. I would respectfully disagree.

those of us at the table were dealing with this and the mayor felt very strongly that he did not want an interruption in trash collection and as we're seeing happen in those communities on the Northshore that are dealing right now with a a trash strike um at the worst possible time those um those interruptions in service are causing public health concerns. So it was a valid contract amendment. Okay. Number

two, could easy have just terminated the contract? Yes, they could have. Those changes, those contracts had changed so much. The conditions had changed so much from the initial contract, which as most of you probably remember was the subject of a lawsuit in the first place. There was a 10 taxpayer lawsuit in 2016 about this that eventually got dismissed. So those things had changed substantially

such that they were claiming force majour. So force majour is a a legal term. Um the last time we really heard it with regard to solid waste was when the China sword thing happened with recycling. But force majur is a change to the contract that allows them to negotiate a new price and that's what they were claiming had happened. I misspoke in response to councelor Dion last time I was here and I want to

apologize for that about the early termination fee. the city would have been required to pay $370,000 if they terminated the contract at that point in time. Um, the higher termination fees that I was referencing were only during the first five years of the contract. Uh, and the contract was signed in 2016. So, at that point in time, this past year, that wouldn't have happened.

I do stand by my statements though that the administration was extremely concerned that um about them ceasing service so much so that we were looking at possibly bringing in temporary people to work. We were looking at leasing trucks and that was all stuff that we were able to avoid by negotiating this amendment. Now, the the downside of this was it created a 1.5 roughly $ 1.5 million deficit, appropriation deficit.

So, tonight we're back before you and Emily has some information that she's going to share with you about the finances and some other things. Allan is here if you have any questions with regard to whether the contract amendment was valid. and Al is going to speak to you if you would like about steps that we've put into place um to make sure that bills are re being received timely and being paid timely. Um about four

years ago, councelor Dion got into a discussion I think with God rest his soul John Perry about June bills being paid in July. There was a whole discussion on trash and it's a timing issue and efforts have been put into place to prevent that from happening because under the contract the bills are due within 10 days of the end of the month. 10 days would get it in before July 15th so that we could come

before you make any last transfers we needed to or pay any last bills before July 15th.

I just want to touch on one last thing.

What happens if you decide not to make the transfer?

That is well within your prerogative. I would respectfully request that you not do that because we do have some funding that we could use to do this. If you don't, the city will be forced to pay these invoices. Now, I know you're thinking 44-31 says you can't. Okay, that's the first thing. You can't overspend lines.

However, there is case law that started here in the city of Fall River in 1914, Clark versus Fall River. It was a trash uh contract where the city wasn't paying the second year of the contract. It played out most recently in the town of Swansea with Browning Ferris where they cited that Clark case. And in both instances, the Supreme Judicial Court stated that trash collection is a

constantly recurring duty. And as such, it's exempted out of the provisions of chapter 44 section 31.

You can pay it, but you will be penalized. And that's the concern. We will have to pay it, and we will be penalized. How does that penalty work?

First off, when the balance sheet is done and submitted to certify free cash in the fall, we will be required to take 1.5 million and put it in reserve. So, we will not have the benefit of that 1.5 million for free cash certification to go to stabilization or whatever purpose you decide.

That's the first penalty. The second penalty that will happen is we'll have to raise it on the recap and so it will adversely affect the tax rate.

I clearly understand that you may feel that we're forcing this on you. We're coming to you at the last minute. We should have come to you earlier. We really should have. We know that. And I we're trying to take steps now to be more transparent about this. And we will. But we're asking you tonight, as much as you may disagree with this, to do the right thing so that we do not get hit twice.

Your concerns have been loudly and clearly heard.

Um, so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Emily to talk about the finance stuff a little bit and some other things.

Um, so I think Attorney Thomas touched on a couple of the things that, you know, we've been talking through and that I wanted to share with you. But um in addition to bringing up the prior year bills being paid in the following fiscal year because of the timing when we have spent now even more hours going through every single invoice that's been paid and figuring out where we're at in

the budget and and why we don't have some of the funds that we thought we would to help cover this. Um, we found that just shy of a million dollars was paid in FY25 with FY25 budgeted money that were for FY24 expenses that should have been either paid for or properly encumbered so that we could have paid the bills when they arrived. Um, and because that wasn't done, we had a

million dollar surplus in FY24 in the solid waste expense line that was turned back over into free cash this year that really shouldn't have been free cash. It should have been allocated to pay those bills. So in part of these changes, you know, we we did make other changes to tonnage and to the rates that we were getting to help reduce the cost um that was changing with the increase of the

contract and it wasn't able to offset the way we thought it would or was going to because of those bills that should not have been paid in this fiscal year.

So the reality of the change that we would have felt was could have been closer to $500,000 rather than the 1.5 million that we're in right now had that million been properly paid in FY24 or encumbered at that point in time. So we've now put processes into place to make sure that that's not going to be um an oversight again and to make sure that things are properly encumbered um and

paid on a timely basis at this point. So that's one part of what we're hoping to correct and commit to not happening again. By making these changes now and by making sure that we can have the money to pay these bills now, we can be better FY26 and moving forward that we won't be in the situation again. We won't have bills in FY27 that are from FY26 and carrying over and we won't have

anything in 26 from any prior years that are going to carry over. So it'll help us financially get into a better spot to stay on time and stay on track with what we're budgeting to spend each month. And to reinforce that point, this was because of the May June bills not coming in in a timely fashion and so they would come in too late and instead of them being encumbered, the funds being

encumbered which were there, the funds were going to surplus and the bills were being paid out of the next year. This has stopped now. And so in 26 there will be 26 bills paid, not fiscal 25 bills.

And by if you do make the transfer, by doing it, you're actually solving a problem that would have been faced next year in June when we came down to the end of the line and there still were invoices to be paid. So, it's an important thing to try to resolve.

Um, the other thing that, you know, I wanted to touch base on was the fact that we we have heard we've had I've had many conversations with the administration about um notifications of financial changes that are happening.

Um, I understand that, you know, I took this position on in March and I I should have immediately figured out a way to get a notification out. I did it in early April, but we understand now and this is, I mean, for me being new in this role, it's a huge lesson learned that as soon as anything changes, whatever the proper channel may be, a notification will go to council, whether

it be an actual order coming down or whether it at least be a notice that something is changing and something's coming that's going to affect the budget as it was approved and understood to begin with. So, you know, I want to make that commitment um not just from myself, but from this administration that we are going to be better about that moving forward and and we will be clear about

what's changing and what's coming down the line. Even if it doesn't come to fruition, at least we can be upfront with it and get ahead of it moving forward. And we have one other thing to just brief you on very briefly right now. Um as you know, there's work going on at Lewon Street um on the project.

Um, currently Tuesday, Thursday, recyclables go there and are sorted on the floor and they are then hauled to New Bedford Waste. Um, that's two halls a day at $500 a hall and we're paying typically about $160 because this is contaminated, not like the Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Um, which has led to a reduction in uh recycling tonnage.

So what is having what will happen over the next three weeks three weeks is that they are doing work on the steel girdters that make the roof that form the roof over the floor that we do this on. There's lead paint up there that is going to have to be remediated and so we can't continue to operate underneath it while that's happening. So for the next three weeks, what will happen is

Tuesday, Thursday sol recyclables are going to be direct hauled to Rochester.

And we've been told by easy that there will be no additional cost to do that.

We won't be paying but we will be paying um $160 a ton for what's going there instead of the 125. So we're saving roughly $1,000 a day in hauling costs.

good portion of it's going to be eaten up by the extra cost because this is more than 20% contaminated. It's purely a temporary thing to allow the work on the gutters to be done quickly and then we'll resume the way we were doing it.

Um Al has checked um and there is some contingency funding from the APA money for the project and if we do run into a cost that we need to cover here it would come out of the project and not out of the general fund.

So you can ask Allan about that, but we wanted to brief you folks on that. This became known this morning actually. So thank you. I'm not sure if everyone at the table identified themselves and what department there with. If you hadn't done it, can you please do it now? Just all know who's there.

Sure. Al Olivera, director of city operations.

I I mentioned special counsel.

Emily Arpi, um in director of finance, Alan Ramsey, corporation council.

Thank you very much. Council seat seven.

Councelor Poso.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Salivera, so you and I have been back and forth about citations. So I I have a very honest question I just need answered.

January 25 to June 25, 731 citations that were issued. As of date, 206 of them have been paid with no no recourse for them not to be paid.

Council, I disagree with that. Let me respond to that because that's not actually Al's issue. That's a tax collection issue.

Okay. Well, whoever wants to answer the question, I'll answer the question. So, what happens is when the bills don't get paid, they have a chance to appeal them to Attorney Ramsey's office. He has streamlined the process on the appeals.

What then happens is if they continue to not be paid, they are put on the tax bills. They'll show up on municipal lean certificates. They'll show up on the tax bills associated with that property. And they'll show up in tax title for those properties. and they'll be collected as part of that and when that happens the revenue will come back and flow back to the uh well to the general fund.

Just a point of clarification, how long the time period when does that take?

Like you don't get to pay for a year, a year and a half years.

To be very frank with you, it could take a year to a year and a half.

Okay, just make sure we know how.

So how many of those have been attached to tax bills at this point? every every single one that is not paid is appearing well every single one that is not paid that has a property parcel ID attached to it and we've been working with the uh with the office all the new ones okay so I think since June since January probably all of them oh before yeah before have been attached to the municipal lean

certificates and they show up under municipal uh under munis general billing for those municipal lean certificates and they're being paid as a matter of fact last week two of them were paid And I only know that because there were properties we were working on doing collections on and it was included in the MLC's. So I agree with you. It takes too long to do it. But unfortunately

that's the process we have to follow if they don't pay.

I understand the process. But Mr.

Oliver, you got the email as much as I did. So unpaid citations are presently not attached to the tax bills.

Who said that?

Yeah.

Came from your department. Okay. From Joe Kennedy.

Okay. So, with all due respect to Mr.

Kennedy, he doesn't work in the collector's office. This is coming from the collector's office and the treasur's office. It if there is a parcel ID, it is appearing on the tax bill.

I'm here to tell you that.

And it's just a line on the tax bill.

It's not like a clearly stated attached copy of the bill that or the ticket that they were sent. It's just a line in there.

Special special assessment. it appears on the MLC automatically if it's on if there's a parcel ID associated with it.

And we've been working to make sure that they all have that. But if it doesn't have a parcel ID, it's going through a different process. It's a little bit harder. But anything with a parcel ID is on a municipal lean certificate and it is being collected by the collector's office. Now, they may not be doing it successfully initially, but there are collection efforts taking place. The same way that a minimum housing

violation is being collected, the same way that a demo or a boardup is being collected, they're all under the same process.

Mr. Romsey, do you have a sense of the 700 and some odd citations, how many of them were successfully appealed? Do you have a sense?

I really have no idea, but I can tell you that I mean the the law department's idea here is to educate and we want compliance with the law. I mean, we don't want this these fines to be a money grab, just uh a way to tax our residents any more than we have to. We prefer compliance. We prefer that people do what they're supposed to. So, there at least when we start revamping um the

number of fines to go out, there is some leniency from my office, at least initially, from first-time offenders who who um are maybe not aware of what the rules are. So, but as to actual numbers, I don't know. Um, I would I would imagine that each month that goes by, uh, more and more of the tickets are upheld and that they're not reduced or or eliminated by my office, especially if it's a repeat offender.

Exactly. Right.

Yeah. I I guess from from the, you know, 10,000 point view here, you have a lot of citations that are sitting there not getting addressed, not getting paid, and we're talking about needing the money to support the program. And and again and maybe we're going to have a further conversation after this about maybe Mr.

Olivera, Mr. Thomas, whoever can provide some justification to that these unpaid citations are actually being addressed.

I mean, I I asked the question very directly.

Oh, no. And I'm trying to answer directly, counselor. It's a fair question. Yeah, it's a fair question because if we're if we're assessing fines and we're giving out tickets for things that are not being done correctly and we're not collecting them, it is just as it's worse than not even giving out the bills.

This is there has been a concerted effort to address this from both Miss Aki, myself, Ian Shaky, the treasur collector, from Al, and from the law department to co and from the city clerk's office. We've actually had meetings trying to coordinate this to make sure that we're addressing it better. It was was it addressed properly in the past? No, it wasn't. But is it being addressed better now? My

understanding is yes. And I think that given this conversation tonight, I'm going to have a conversation with the treasurer collector tomorrow and see what we can do by way of getting you statistics.

We'll get you some data on and proof that it is actually going onto the bills. I will say that we spent time with um the clerk's office as well going back on the the previous tickets that hadn't been um having partial IDs added to them and we took the time to look up all of those still outstanding tickets and add the partial IDs to them I want to say back to at least 2023. So, not

only are we now making sure that we're doing things right moving forward from, you know, this fiscal year and going on, we also took the time to go back a couple fiscal years to make sure that we are, you know, appropriately capturing these funds that the city is owed.

Mr. Alvar, can you confirm that all the unpaid citations have been forwarded to the collector's office at this point?

Absolutely.

They have. And if you historically if you check the data that we've put forth, you will find that what what the um interim treasurer I mean CFO is talking about, we've we've excelled on processing those those documents. So several years ago, we weren't we weren't doing what we're supposed to do. The tickets were getting written. It just wasn't processed efficiently. Now, we're But the question is why? Why would you

write citations and not enforce them?

That's a great question.

It's just like it's like dog licenses, right? Right.

It's the same thing.

So, I I I just don't understand how we get into a position and and I'm going to get on a boat for a minute because I this blows my mind. We give citations to make sure that things are done correctly to avoid the increased tonnage of our trash and recycling and we don't enforce the citations.

None of the folks on this table.

That is mind-blowing to me were part of the the past.

To be clear, I can tell you that many years back part of the problem was not having a mechanism.

Sure. But but at the end of the day, okay, we can blame the past, right? But this is six months of citations, right, that haven't been addressed. Six months is not is the immediate past three years ago, council, we've addressed two years worth of citations. And the problem is this.

The old system I I agree wholeheartedly with you. This has been a crusade that we've been going through. The old system did not have parcel IDs on them.

The old system was not using the munis general billing system that we have which which Emily and I have had a conversation about some of this already.

So by adding that in that now gave us the ability to start to enforce because prior to prior to that there were letters that were going out that were not being dealt with. Mhm.

And so there has been a concerted effort to put into place through general billing the mechanism to address these and that effort is going to get stronger and stronger and stronger as enforcement is out on the street more and more and more because if 95% of the residents of Fall River are following the rules and disposing of their solid waste correctly and their recycling, they should not be

subsidizing the 5% that aren't. We should be going after that 5% through education and through enforcement to get compliance. And that's the goal. And and listen, from an educator, right? We can educate until we're dead. But at some point, we've educated and now you're you're not just following the rules, right? That's what I tell my kids. I mean, here are the rules. You follow the

rules. If you don't follow the rules, there's there's some sort of punishment that has to be happening. I agree with now. Do we to Mr. Rumsy's point, do we want to be understanding? Do we want to work with people, first- time offenders, all that? But we're I would imagine that the 500 some odd citations not paid yet are not just one-off people.

No, there's some frequent flyers.

So, so the frequent flyers here here we are.

And there will be one of the other things too is we've also discussed changes to the ordinance.

Mhm.

Uh um in New Bedford, if you are a multiple um scoff for lack of a better word, they will cease collection. We don't have that ability here yet. But under updated ordinances that'll be coming forward as part of the RFPs and everything, we are going to recommend to the council that if you have a certain number of violations that we're following due process and trying to collect and give an opportunity to try to

collect, but if you are constantly just ignoring the law that we will stop collection, rightfully so. That's that's the ultimate penalty as a last last ditch effort to finally we don't want to do that unless we absolutely have to but you're right you can only educate so long but even with the education it's been in fits and starts and we're trying to do that in a better fashion as well. This

problem did not happen the condition that we're in right now did not happen overnight. It's not going to be solved overnight and I recognize that and I also recognize the fact that all of you here and and the discussions we've had you're making forward progress. Again, Emily and I had a nice conversation last week about some of this stuff and and it's evident to me that we're making progress

forward, but this citation thing is just it's been in my back for a bit and and again, I'm only going by what I'm what I was told when I reach out to Mr. Olivea and Mr. Kennedy, him as well got me this information. So, as far as I stand right now, the 500 some odd citations are not addressed until you show me otherwise.

So, if you can get me that information, then I'll say, "Hey, I'm I'm satisfied with it."

That's fair. But I mean, now I'm getting conflicting.

No, we'll be in touch tomorrow.

We will. I mean, I know it they they leave Mr. Olivera's department, they go to collectors, and then they don't have any more power over after that. It's it's that department now to deal with it. Now, the question is, if it wasn't followed through with, then let's just self admit it and move on, and let's get it taken care of because it's not like the 500 some odd can't be collected.

They can be, correct?

But we need to get on it.

Right. And the process is the regular process. And what I will say in defense of Mr. Shaknne is that is one of the best treasurer collectors offices in the state.

They have best practices.

They collect at a higher rate than almost any other municipality of our size.

I mean, I'm not I'm not speaking ill of him. I'm just making that when you have interdepontent situations like this, it goes from one pot to another. Sometimes things don't happen, right?

Or processes are not in place. I get that. But the fact that if if I'm being told they're not being addressed and you're telling me they're being addressed, give it to me and I'll be satisfied with what I'm looking for.

That's um if I could just one Emily to your to your point, I I think the I asked you on Friday the clarification of the difference of the amounts. So I think you it's pretty much a free cash situation. Is that kind of how we summarize this?

You you mean the difference from the prior orders that have been sent down?

Sorry, I was getting back on track. Um correct. So the the previous um orders that were sent down were sent down before 6:30. So we were able to use the free cash that we had available. Um as soon as 6:30 hits, we are not able to appropriate from that anymore. It immediately just gets closed out and rolled into the next certification. So um we aren't able to appropriate from

that now. And then the other part of it was year-end transfers. Um and so that was part of that order as well. We could have done um urine transfers up until this date, but we um at this point just opted to make it a little bit easier and pull it from the um stabilization to have it be from one pot of money at one time. Um with the intent that we will

absolutely be putting this back into um this amount and then some back into stabilization after um our next free cash is certified.

I appreciate it. I yield, Mr. President.

Thank you. Council seat five.

Couple of things.

when he said disposal was in and said, "If we don't figure this out, we'll stop collecting." Didn't they also say, "We won't charge anything. Put out an RFP and let's get back to the drawing board." Didn't they also say that?

They said to us, and I'm not going to get into the conversations that we had during negotiations, but they had been trying to get us to pay more for three years, right? The first two years we said no because we were not getting any additional services. They were just trying to recoup some of the costs that they had from COVID and some of the costs from what they were paying their

drivers and other issues. And the answer at that was no because at that point we still didn't have somewhat of an understanding of what was going on.

But at some point when they came to the last meeting they proposed something and they were not they did not want us to terminate the contract. They didn't want it they didn't want that to happen. And they didn't want a new RFP. So I don't know who's telling you that they didn't want a new RFP.

No, but they wanted to extend the contract they had. Okay. And so when they wanted to extend the contract they had, and we weren't willing to do that for no additional services, there were conversations happening because of enhanced enforcement on our part that they were starting to talk about this.

This isn't what we signed on for because they were doing additional things.

Well, the contract was written as if it was pay as you throw, right?

And when that when pay as you throw didn't happen, that contract changed radically.

Okay. Now, we owed them money, right?

Yes.

The 1.5 that we owed them in that meeting, you know, cuz you're a lawyer with a law degree in your back pocket and you know that the council needed to be notified.

And there were individuals who thought, "No, we have money in the budget. We don't need to notify the council." And I'm just going to say, Emily, every single one of us sitting here have made a mistake on a vote in life, whatever.

You were at a meeting with all of these people. And when we when you came down and we talked about this two weeks ago, it was like nobody knew anything. And then when I talk to people and find out, well, they thought the money was going to be there, so we weren't going to tell the council. If you make a m, if anybody in the room made a mistake, say, "Hey,

you know what guys, we made a mistake.

We thought that we'd have the money and we wouldn't have to bring it down."

Rather have that than hear things um that are different than what transpired.

We all understand here that department heads and we ourselves make mistakes.

It's okay.

It's okay. We're all human.

I'm not going to get into the conversations we had, but I can't help but believe that when Emily made any statements that she may have made, and I'm not going to say yes or no to anything.

I can't help but believe she did it out of a reasonable belief that it was possible.

Right. Right. I'm saying that fine. As you said, we all have our little issues in life. I think she was trying to do whatever she was trying to do in the best interest of the city. I honestly believe that.

So, I understand that whether that happened or not quite honestly is irrelevant. Now, what you're saying is if it was a mistake, it's a mistake. It's okay.

And I think we've said that we should have come from people to say differently becomes concerning like it's okay. Uh to be clear, I think I've said since this first came down that I I understand that, you know, we we could have and should have sent this down sooner. So, I've never said that. And and the amount that um we were going to be sending down, you know, the conversations that I

was a part of before being in this position was how much how much is how much do we need to ask for? And that was something that I had asked for more time on and figuring out an exact amount that was needed because of those other budget numbers. There was never a question if money was going to be needed to help cover this increase. It was about how much. And those were the only

conversations I was present on.

We knew before when Bridget was here, she said, "I'm gonna ask for a certain amount of money on one issue." Correct.

And I may be coming down and asking for more. Well, we knew that. Correct. So, if you said, "We're coming down for this amount, and now I have to pay this amount extra."

We get it. Correct. We get it.

But I just, you know, people watch this on TV and then I get calls and they'll say, "Well, no, this happened." Then you're like, "What the heck?" If there's a mistake, it's okay. It's absolutely okay. We've all made mistakes. I mean, I'm glad it's here. I'll certainly vote for the 1.5 because I don't want it to pro, you know, to do everything that attorney uh Thomas told us it would harm

us in the long run. We're going to have to pay it anyway. So, I would rather pay it now. But I just and you know and to my colleague uh in C7 honey you don't know how long I've talked about and even with the city clerk about people getting tickets and bills and not paying them and attorney Thomas if you say well we can send down an ordinance to change it so if we have

a frequent flyer that we have them take their own trash send it down. Well, councel, we're trying to propose to you a unified change because the fines have to be changed. There's reference to pay as you throw in there. So, it has to be cleaned up and it's something.

So, you have attorney Rumsy right there.

If you clean it up, bring it down for August and we'll put it in right away.

We'll have it done by September. The ordinance committee meeting will Thank you.

meet right away. I don't like wasting time. Let's go get it done. Get these people out with council. With that being said, you all set? With that I yield.

Thank you. Council C1 council Gin.

Chop chop. That was uh so so I will be supporting the transfer. I did have the conversation with the mayor on on what I I would require to to have it. Number one is just a recognition that it should have come down to the city council and then um at least some guarantee that this won't happen moving forward. So either a simple notification, fund advisory coming down to the city council saying

that we've come to a point where um there's a potential deficit that needs an appropriation um down the line and an at least a dollar amount to notify us that this is what we're looking for so we can be fully anticipating a transfer coming down and not wait till the last minute. Um just to circle back on something you said, Mr. Thomas, I I disagree with you. Um the department of local services put out something in

terms of the uh account town accountants and and city auditors responsibilities.

Um while they do not need to sign the contracts, they do sign the contracts under Massachusetts general law uh 149 for uh projects for projects.

But MGL41 section 58 specifically says that they are required to provide notification when an appropriation has been expended and this is key or appears likely to become overdrawn. they they can do that. I'm not disagreeing with you. That's not the point I made. So, councel, you know that I speak very precisely in what I try to say. That's not the point I made. The point I made is that it wasn't it wasn't that it's a

valid amendment because in Fall River the count the auditor does not need to sign contracts. That's the point I made.

So we we just ignore the No, because then I cited those cases which basically say that because they're recurring duties and this is right out of if you go on to um into DO's um DLS website as well, they will cite this as the recurring use exception.

Well, so I I'd like I'd like to see that because I I think notification that there is a requirement that why why have a city auditor who's not reviewing the books? Well, to some degree, council, this is an academic conversation because this isn't going to happen again.

So, I I that's probably the best response I've ever heard.

And so, because of that, and I'll take I'll take that one and I'll move on and learn. We we need to we need to move on. Uh I I do have one question though with regard to the statement. Um so, we had prior invoices that were paid in FY25.

Apparently, that's what was happening and it was happening for a number of years. Again, councelor Dion raised the issue with Mr. Perry one time when I distinctly remember the conversation about why is this a June invoice that was being paid in July.

Okay. So they weren't billing timely.

So so where's the over so it shouldn't have been paid.

So the the oversight, right? And this is I guess has now changed.

I understand that. But this comes back to to the city council, right? So any prior year bills in order for them to be paid need to come back before the legislative body and it requires a twothirds vote in order for those right? And if it I just heard it wasn't encumbered. So they were paid, right?

Didn't come to the city council. It wasn't by a two-thirds vote to pay for it. And so those invoices should not have been paid. And there is no uh legal responsibility for the city to be able to pay those without the um unless there is there is a way to do it.

And I'm not going to explain why now because I don't want people to vendors to even think about it. But there is a way to actually do it. the but the better action is the one that I think we've taken which is to enforce the timely receipt of the bills and push the timely payment by the clerks at DCM so that it doesn't happen and I don't I don't disagree to all of us

but there there shouldn't be any payments coming from and I guess this is where we start talking about financial procedures and and you know streamlining things it's just important that you know whoever it is right just from on the financial team department heads that they truly understand, you know, just Massachusetts general law and the responsibilities associated with the prior year bills

like if you're not getting the bills in time and it's just it requires and and there's there's no obligation for the for the legislative buy to even vote on that. So, nobody's disagreeing with you. You're 100% right.

So, I just want to highlight that and we're we're very much on that. So, I will say that something I wanted to mention the policies and procedures are well underway. I'm hoping to at least have a draft ready by the next meeting to at least start the discussion with everybody here on, you know, what's included in it, what more we're looking for if this is the direction that, you

know, as a city we're looking to have in place. Um, but the other part of the reason that I think not that it's okay, but that it was kind of tucked away and and uncaught was because it was so consistently off track that we were still only paying 12, say 12 invoices a year, and it was just kind of trailing.

you know, now that we have changed in, you know, the way we're doing a lot of things here and we're getting back on track, it just is catching it more. So, the the $3 million the sorry, the three invoices that were about a million dollars were from three different vendors. And so, that's the unfortunate part of why again it was so easy to kind of hide in the situation that, you know,

we were still only paying the 12 a year and and it just um not that it's okay or excusable, but it it wasn't a a blatant oversight in that sense.

Right. So, and again, I just I I think it's important to make sure that department heads are reminded of the importance of making sure that they get their invoices in a timely manner that, you know, prior invoices cannot be paid in the next fiscal year, especially end of year invoices.

We've changed our end of year messaging actually this year and and we're being a lot more, you know, in communication with our department heads on a lot of finance things these days.

Okay. With that, I yield. Thank you.

Hey, C2, do you have Yeah, just to um get back to that. So, I'm a little confused as to how we could have a million dollar shortfall um when you did we than when we did receive 12 months of bills. So, even though June went to July, which was two different fiscal years, you still had 12 invoices every year. So, theoretically, you should have been paying the bill. It should have been paid in full because

you made 12 payments because we had paid the year before the same way.

Exactly.

So when we tried that was part of that discussion.

So when we tried to stop it, there were actually 13 bills. Okay. Because we were paying the one from the year before, but now we had to pay the one that wasn't paid.

At some point you had to do 13 to So because we were stopping the process so that it didn't keep running into 26.

Emily identified what the issue was. And because we identified that, we stopped it, we would never have known about this until next June, okay, when the contract ended.

So, so the proper explanation is not that the June bill went to July and we ended up a million dollars in the in the areas and paid it in the next fiscal year. It was that you stopped the process and ended up with a double bill.

That's where the problem came in.

Yes. Right. Now, right. So you had still you had the June bill and now you're starting in July the way it should have been done originally.

Correct. So that that that's the crux of the matter.

61. Yeah. It's actually 61 after the other. The the result is a million dollars that was there didn't get spent and went to surplus that we're trying to fix now.

Okay. With that I yield. Thank you.

Thank you councelor. There being no further questions. I want to thank all of you coming down.

Appreciate the input.

Thank you all. It's a pleasure to see you all.

Thank you for coming down.

Thank you.

Thank you, Attorney.

Thank you all.

Entertain a motion to finance to adjurnn fin.

Motion to agend second. All in favor?

Any opposed? City council comm now agend right into the meeting. If can we just roll right in right in is right.

Let's go.

Chop chop.

City council, please come to order. The clerk will call the role. Council Kadine, Dion here, Hart here, Kilby here, Here Ponti here, Raposo here, Tip here, President Kimera here. Will everyone in the council chair please rise for a moment of silent prayer? And at this moment, I'd also like to say that our thoughts and prayers are with the unfortunate horrible accident, the people that dece deceased, all nine

victims and people who are suffering and hurting from the same accident. And I want to thank all the first responders, many of here today, for an outstanding job in making that situation preventing it from being a lot worse. Thank you very, very much.

Please remain standing for salute to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible and justice for all.

Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting to any medium.

Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made where the perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Madam clerk, Mr. President, the first item before the council is the mayor's request for confirmation of the appointment of Beth Blunt as of emergency medical services.

Motion to approve has been made and seconded on the motion. Constit.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm certainly going to be in favor of this uh appointment. I just wanted to just let the record reflect the fact that I've had numerous opportunities to have conversations um with the uh chief of EMS uh on more than one occasion. Your communication style um your ability to understand uh positions that the council has even if we don't agree with you, I think speaks volumes of your leadership.

Um you and I from a personal perspective have had um I would call it heated debates over the years. Um you've you've risen the course through your department and you've done it quite admirably. Um I I do recall the last time the position of chief of EMS came up. I think I asked the question to myself or to my colleagues like why wasn't this the first choice in the first place? Um and

I never really got a clear answer to that. But I believe this is the right choice right now. I think this department um needs your consistent leadership. Um I've had I I was as one counselor so I can remain consistent with other votes that I've taken. Um I I will say that I was satisfied with the conversations that we've had uh privately which could have been done openly. Um I think that you're

advocating for your department well. I think um being able to analyze what you have done as interim chief um with trying to bring money into your enterprise account that the city benefits from on more than one occasion.

Um even just speaking out loud that we have five firefighters that are paid through the EMS enter enterprise account. Um I'm I'm sure that the CFO uh is going to be asking you to pay five more firefighters next year. Um but I'm saying that tongue and cheek. Um but um I'm just saying I I you're you're an admirable person. Uh you've been in this city a very very long time and I'm proud

to um to be an endorsement of your promotion as permanent chief of your department. So with that I yield. Mr.

President, did you say even when you disagree with it? Because I've never disagreed with her.

We have we have respectfully though. I haven't count five council.

Yeah. I just want to say it's not often that you get two chiefs out of the same family. I had the pleasure of working with her dad, Chief McDonald, when he was chief of the police department and now working with Linda Chief F.

Three.

Three chiefs in the same family.

Who?

Her grandfather.

Oh, and your grandfather.

Wow.

You forget working with him, too?

I didn't work with him. I didn't work with him. I didn't work with him, but I worked with her dad. Uh, and yeah, her grandfather. Wow.

So, I guess they raised chiefs in the McDonald household.

Lot of chiefs. No Indians.

Lot of chiefs. Um, but very proud to take this vote.

I yield.

Thank you, council. Let's get out to the vote. She's been waiting all night.

Motion to adopt hasn't made and seconded.

Second.

All in favor?

Any oppose? Motion carries.

Congratulations.

Did you see there's a lot of Indian

She's really good.

Congratulations

Madam clerk, item number two is a communication from the mayor and a resolution for approval of a tai agreement for Cook Pond Realy Trust at 2492 South Main Street.

Motion to approve has made and seconded.

All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Next, we have a communication from the mayor and an order granting um a a g allowing a gift a donation of a pelican style case along with K9 specific first aid supplies from Firehouse Dogs.

Motion to adopt.

Second.

Motion to adopt has remained in second.

All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item four is a communication from the mayor and an order for the sale of the site of the former Sylvia School in Sylvia Annex at 138 Hartwell Street to Thomas Alva Edison Building LLC.

Motion to adopt second.

Motion to adopt has been made and seconded on the motion. Council T6 council party.

Yeah, I thank you, Mr. President. I I want to just comment that I'm in support of this. I I think it's great that this building is being sold. The city isn't in the position to start holding on to real estate. We do a horrible job of it if I'm being completely honest with you.

Um, you know, we we have a police station that's still sitting there down downtown and uh being proactive and and seeing the conversion here of of of of apartments. I think overall the project is good. I think it's needed. I'm a believer that um market rate housing or housing generally speaking is something that uh our community needs, especially in our downtown area. So, I will be

voting in favor of it. And the fact that the let's not minimize the fact that the city has is going to receive $25,000 for this as well. U which I don't even remember when this was under contract before uh under the Jel Carrera administration. I believe it was it was for a dollar or something like that or $5,000. So, u it's a good project. I hope the developer is successful in their process and I'm certainly in

support of it. I yield. Thank you.

Cony one.

Mr. President, just for you, I've got I've got a procedural question. I thought this was going back to real estate committee. I I didn't realize this was on the agenda. I asked the question at real estate whether or not we had a real estate committee. I referred it to the we took a vote to refer it to the review committee.

After we did that, I specifically asked the question whether or not it was coming back to the real estate committee for with a recommendation.

No. So it hasn't even go back watch the minute 18 18 minutes into the into the to the real estate committee. I asked the question.

Yeah.

I don't know. It just I was asked to put on motion to wave the rules. Have Mr.

Tomain.

Sure. Motion to wave the rules.

Well, I wait I don't understand why we motion to wave the rules. Am I not Am I not a counselor on on the real estate committee?

Yeah, I you're a member. I'm the chairman.

So I am a member though, right?

Yeah, I'm a member. So why do I why do I need legal counsel to come tell me whe I was told by the administration that it was coming back to the real estate committee and now it's on on the agenda like I don't even have the opportunity to review it.

No, can I say something?

So we had two members that made a decision to change it.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

No, you rules. You go ahead. You go ahead.

We we've got a procedure. We we there was a procedure that was submitted to us. I asked the question specifically and now it's on on a full council like how it didn't even come out of committee. We we formed a committee. Uh council Kadim, if you recall, I was charged as a chairman to choose one either you or lender to serve on the committee. Um I asked you first. You said you weren't interested. I picked

lender instead. I said I'd want you both to have the opportunity to serve. So we received the evaluations. We return the evaluations within the timeline as prescribed by our uh our attorney and here we are.

And I think the council's question was he was or is he wants to know why he was told it would go back to the committee on real estate and yet now it's not going back to I believe that was explained at my meeting. Um and um I totally anticipated it being on this agenda today. So motion w withdrawals.

Mr. Attorney Thomas, will you come down, please?

No, hold on. It doesn't work that way.

Motion woos has been made. Is there a second?

Yes, it doesn't work that way. There was a second. Council President, there was no second. You told Don't please do not pass.

Council kill. You're telling someone to come down before we take the vote.

Work that way. I know we have to take the vote for us. That's how it works.

You too many times to myself recently council repos.

There's no reason for a comment like that. Council, you are telling someone to come down to the floor when it's not appropriate yet. So, you made a motion to wave the rules. There's a second.

Now, we'll take a vote. All in favor?

I didn't ask him to come down.

President, you sure did. You said, "Can you come down?" Mr. Thomas, you did ask.

Everyone in favor?

I.

Anyone opposed?

Mr. President, before I I've got the recording here before we go, I want to play the recording that basically says I asked the question if it was coming back down. We've got the purchasing agent, the interim purchasing agent. I was told it was coming back to real estate committ. Okay.

I don't know why we need I'm not discouraging you. I I'm just telling you I'm I will not be supporting it if it's not going back to real estate. I don't know how we submit send something to real estate committee.

Real estate committee refers it. We're told that it's coming back to real estate committee and then all of a sudden it's in full counsel as as a member. I agreed to allow two members to be on there for the review committee.

I specifically asked the question, am I getting a recommendation back to the real estate committee for this? It it's 18 minutes and 45 seconds. Push play. Play it back. is very very clear council I don't I don't think anyone's disagreeing with it's just frustrating I I we can't follow can't follow procedures I understand motion has been made and seconded to him to come down please come down

who said it was coming back thank you Matthew Thomas were you at the meeting Mr.

No but Ken for debt for that.

I can explain it can go back to real estate. What happened was the way the RFP was set up.

There is a development review proposal review committee.

We did that should have done the proposal reviewed the proposal.

We did and submitted that.

We did back to real estate. That's how they've done it in the past.

That did not happen.

That couldn't happen because they had already been there. Let me finish please. They had with all due respect, the problem is is that we're just trying to push this forward and move it fast.

I'm not saying I'm I'm not in favor of the proposal. All I'm saying is stop trying to move everything so quickly and not follow the process that is supposed to take place and that I was told was going to take place. I I don't care what the legal opinion is.

Yeah, I agree.

I was told as a member of the real estate committee, it was coming back. We have not had another uh committee on real estate meeting. And if that's the case, then take me off all all the committees. I don't need to show up if it's just going to come to full counsel.

So, Mr. President, if I can. Good.

The idea was to send it back to the council to council or to real estate to the council. So, that we can't send to the real estate committee. They didn't keep it in real estate. It gets referred to the city council. So, we can't send to the real estate committee.

it comes to the council because three items later on this agenda is the referral to the city council to have the review committee do it. You don't have to you don't have to review um refer an administrative function at this point in time. It's back before you. If you want to send it to real estate, you can so that they can have that conversation. If you don't want to send it to real

estate, then you vote. But we were not trying to take real estate out of the picture. There was just no way to get it back there. Okay? Because it was no longer in the real estate committee the way it came. So we had to send it to the council as many things happened for you to refer back to a committee. So that's why this happened. It was not to try to take real estate out of the

picture. It was to bring it back to you so you had a choice as to whether you wanted to approve it in light of the um report or send it back.

Point of order. Mr. President, if I can have an edification on this. What was the vote from the real estate committee at that? What action did the committee take? Did it did was it a referral to full counsel?

No, it was a referral.

Was there a Was there a referral to full counsel? Madam clerk, it's there's a recommendation of the committee to refer the proposal to refer to the proposal review team for the RFP.

Okay. So, it does not say a referral to full counsel.

It's not in the It's not in that committee anymore, councelor. It came on your agenda for you to vote and then it came it's a recommendation for you to vote is to adopt it.

It's not it's not a recommendation from the mayor to refer it back to real what it should have been.

The issue is not with the administration is with me. I rendered this decision this opinion that it was no longer before that committee and that's why it had to come to the council. If I was wrong, I apologize. I was not trying to take real estate out of it. it comes back to you so that you can either decide to do something with it or send it back to real estate with the review proposal.

There was a motion in a second. Roll call.

So, yes. Council, hold on. Council, do you yield?

Yeah.

Sure. Council, correct?

Yes.

Motion to refer to the real estate committee.

We We have a motion on the floor and there was a second to adopt. Let's do a roll call vote. See where it is.

There's a motion to Mr. President, with with all due respect, the council can take a vote. I am just one member who has been appointed to be on the real estate committee. I was asked to be at a real estate committee to review RFPs. I asked a very specific question as to whether or not those recommendations from the review committee was coming back to the real estate committee. I was

told yes. What's before us now is an adoption. If the council wants to adopt it, that is fine. I have not as one member of the real estate committee had the opportunity to sit down with the team before us to listen to what their recommendation is and to ask questions as to why the recommendation. It could be a positive recommendation, could be a two-minute meeting, but I there's a

process. I specifically asked 18 minutes and 45 seconds whether or not it was coming back to real estate committee and I was told yes that that is on the record.

Understand?

I motion to refer to the real estate committee.

Second. Motion for the real estate committee.

There was already a motion on referral take.

Yes, council.

Okay.

Motion for committ real estate hasn't made. Is there a second?

Second on a motion.

On a motion council, I want to just say I'm in favor of this project based on watching and listening to the real estate committee. However, my colleague in seat one is making a procedural procedural discussion and point that the whole purpose of subcommittees is to properly vet the project. I watch the real estate committee. I like the project from the base that I see. However, if the real

estate committee took a respective vote for that item to come back before the real estate committee after the review committee looks at it, which I agree there's a lot of committees, just follow the process correctly that the committee asked for. That's it. I the project is I I think is is a great project and it's going to have support for me when it comes back. But procedurally, do it the

right way. The committee took a vote.

Follow the vote. go back to the real estate committee. We have a meeting in a couple weeks. The real estate committee can have their meeting between now and the next time we meet in August and then we'll be able to properly do this because I recall a time and I'm not saying this is going to happen because it's totally different. But I recall a time where we rush things through and

then you remember we had an easement on our hands with the with the rail trail.

You remember those days? Some of us who are here remember that.

Sometimes we got to take a breath. Let's vet the project. It's a great project.

It's a it's a reputable um developer who's going to do great work by this project. I think it's a wonderful project, but we have to follow procedure. And if we if we stop if we if we don't do this now, we're going to set ourselves up for future issues. And to my colleague's point, if we're not going to have if we're not going to follow the advice and the vote of a subcommittee,

don't have subcommittees. Avoid them.

We'll just all meet as a as a council. I don't think that's something that we want to start either. I yield.

Thank you. Counc.

I I was at that meeting and I remember you know what we voted on was that the chairman and one other member needed to fill out the form for the the review that they had and councelor Kilby did ask councelor Kadim if he wanted to be on that point. We understand we didn't vote for it to go back to real estate.

If somebody said and I believe him that he asked a question and maybe attorney for debt said it'll come back but it didn't. It's on here to come back, right?

But no referral needed. It's on the bottom. I don't think it's going to change. It's a good proposal.

I develop that. So to send it back and wait a month for it to come.

Okay. Motion wait.

Stop council. She has the floor. She has the floor. Council, please.

I understand.

Let's not get out of here. Council, one at a time, please. Let's respect everyone's decision to speak. We What you're saying has already been stated.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I understand what he's saying, but at the meeting about it. Forget that.

the right to review it.

We didn't take the council take a two minute recess, Mr. President. He's he's saying it's child

Heat. Heat.

Oh no.

Motion.

Motion on the floor is to refer the item to real estate. Motion has made and second.

Roll call.

Roll call.

I'm referral to the committee on real estate. Council Kadin, yes.

Dion, yes.

Hart, yes.

Kilby, yes.

Carrera, yes.

Ponty, yes.

Raposa, yes.

Tip, yes.

President Camara, yes.

Motion carries.

and set up the real estate committee meeting before we leave tonight.

Okay. Next clerk.

Next item before you is the fiscal year 2025 quarter 4 budget report.

Motion to refer to the committee on fin seconds.

Motion for committee. Second. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item number six is a communication from the mayor in a an appropriation order that the sum of $1,500,000 be and the same is hereby transferred to solid waste expenses from general fund stabilization.

Roll call.

Motion to adopt has a minute and second.

Roll call on adoption of the order. Council Kadim, yes.

Dion, no.

Hart, yes.

Kilby, yes.

Pereira, yes. Ponty, no.

Reposo, yes.

Tip, yes.

President Kimera, yes.

The motion carries.

Item number seven are um requests from the traffic commission um to amend some ordinances.

Refer to refer to the committee on ordinanc legislation has been made and seconded.

All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. The Committee on Real Estate at a meeting held on July 8th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying bid be referred to the proposal review team for RFP number 25-11.

A motion to refer to real estate.

Accept and place on file.

Second motion to accept and place on file is appropriate.

Mhm.

Going back to real estate.

Motion to accept and place on file and second. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Item nine is a proposed ordinance relating to miscellaneous traffic for passage through second reading and enrollment.

Motion so made.

Second.

Motion to pass second reading and the room has remained and seconded. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Item 10 is a proposed ordinance relating to the amendment of the salary of animal control officer for passage through second reading and enrollment.

Motion so made.

Motion to pass through second and has been made and seconded. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Whereas the city of Fall River currently receives approximately $1.9 million annually in chapter 90 funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for roadway improvements. And whereas according to the city's 2014 pavement management report, an estimated $180 million in roadway repairs and improvements is needed to address conditions on approximately 25% of the city's streets. And whereas relying

solely on annual chapter 90 appropriations is insufficient to meaningfully address the scale of the roadway infrastructure challenges facing Fall River. And whereas in order to meet the $180 million um million dollar need over a 10-year period, the city would need to allocate approximately $18 million annually. And whereas establishing a financial strategy that matches or supplements the

annual chapter 90 allocation would allow the city to accelerate roadway repairs, improve overall street conditions, and reduce long-term maintenance costs. Now therefore, be it resolved that the for city council hereby requests that the committee on finance, the director of engineering and planning, and the city administration meet to develop and present a comprehensive funding strategy

to match or supplement the city's annual chapter 90 allocation with the goal of significantly increasing investment in roadway improvements and addressing the approximately $180 million backlog identified in the pavement management.

Motion to adopt.

Second. Motion to adopt has remained and seconded. All in favor?

I on a motion council C1. Sorry.

No, I just wanted to say I think I mean I apologize to the clerk because my resolutions are pretty lengthy, but um I I think it is self-explanatory. There's there's such a backlog for all our infrastructure projects and to solely rely on Chapter 90, which is averaging about $1.9 million, um is is just not enough and we're not keeping up. I know we've got water projects that also work with uh some of our roadway

improvements, but we need to come up with a plan that um helps to supplement or add additional funding um to the chapter 90 money so that we can actually try to catch up because by the time we catch up on on the ones the roads that need the most repair, we're just back in that cycle of, you know, trying to do it. And I and I I would envision that we

do something similar to water and sewer where we we commit to a certain dollar amount every single year on top of chapter 90 to be able to make sure that we've got roadways that are um that that are being paved and um or reconstructed because I mean we've we've got a number of side streets that have never seen um a repavement and you know that's constantly just you know catching up

with you know the uh primaries and secondaries before you get to the residential neighborhood. So we we've got to figure something out. So I I just want to see that strategy move forward.

Thank you.

Motion made second. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Whereas the city of Full River is home to a dedicated and hardworking police and fire department who work under challenging conditions to serve and protect the residents of our community.

And whereas many of the city's fire stations are severely outdated, some over a century old and are in need of critical capital repairs to roofing, HVAC, structural and safety systems to maintain operational readiness and ensure the safety of our firefighters.

Whereas this fora police department is in need of upgraded technology, equipment, and infrastructure to ensure modern, effective, and community responsive policing. And whereas the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has generated a significant surplus through the fair share amendment commonly known as the millionaire's tax exceeding projections improv providing a unique opportunity to reinvest in municipal

infrastructure needs across the state.

And whereas the surplus funding presents a timely and essential opportunity for investment in cities like Fall River that have been historically underfunded, especially in critical areas like public safety and emergency services. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fall River City Council hereby support supports and endorses the attached letter authored by Councelor Cliff Ponti

and urges the Massachusetts legislature, specifically Senator Michael Rogers and the local Fuller House delegation to allocate a portion of the millionaire's tax surplus revenue for structural and capital repairs to the Full River Police Department's aging stations. Investment in safety, surveillance and communications technology for the Florida Rivera Police Department, replacement of critical vehicles and

life-saving equipment used by both departments. And be it further resolved that the FA City Council respectfully requests notification of any upcoming public hearings or advocacy opportunities so that local officials may be present to represent the city's needs.

Motion to adopt. Second.

Motion to adopt has made second on the motion council. Council Ponte.

Thank you, Mr. President. I sponsored this resolution um post haste after reading um some um articles that there's I some billion dollars or something like that of of excess money in the millionaire's tax uh at the at the state level uh at the legislative side. Um and my you know the council heard um from the fire department about apparatus needs and infrastructure needs and some issues when it comes to our buildings

that house our police and fire. Now just be make it clear this isn't just for the fire department. There's obviously needs that we heard during our budget deliberations for police as well. Um but um I filed this resolution and it was a twofold purpose. The first purpose was to pretty much raise our hand in Fall River and say that we recognize that the million the millionaires tax generated

more money than the state recognized first of all and let's put our hand out to see what we can get for that. Um I did um send this letter just as one counselor to uh Senator Rogers. Uh he did call me immediately and and pretty much tell me that um the idea is wonderful, the idea is great. Um, I certainly he certainly believes that when they're back up for their public

hearings for a a for opportunities to advocate that he will certainly let me know so that I could go up to the state and and advocate and my colleagues are happy to join me which we've done in the past um to pretty much try to see what we can do to advocate for this. Now, he did say that um legislation currently is, which I think is silly, uh only

allows for um the usage of this to be on transportation and education. Now, I didn't know that when I filed this resolution. Um, but if that's the case, then I'd love to advocate to take some money away from transportation, put it towards our fire stations, and get money from the millionaire's tax to pay for our educa for our transportation if that's what we're going to do. Um, so

what I what I think this does is while I recognize that the millionaire's tax is limited, the excess money is limited to MBTA and transportation, but I also recognize that there's opportunity for education. And I think if Fall River raises its hand loudly here and we can have an ability to advocate at the state level when the budget hearings come about and and what they will do to send

that money out that we could talk about this as well as um education needs when it comes to transportation. Um if we could get some money from the millionaires tax when it comes to education uh for transportation needs I think that's a great opportunity for us to to to advocate for that. Now, the premise came from saying, "Wow, well, there's all this money available at the state level." I think they should

certainly open up their their flexibility on what they should do with it and not gear it towards just the MBTA, which has more problems than anybody knows what they know what they're doing. Um, or um have it go towards education. And if it's transportation eligible, then maybe there is an opportunity where we can get apparatus or we can do something for education. I'm not really sure. But I

think this gets us in the door for a meeting for advocacy and we'll see what happens. Um so I would ask my colleagues to support this and we'll see where it goes. I yield. Thank you.

Motion has been second and the motion council.

Um so I agree it's it's a good resolution but if it can't be it can't be. And if it's a matter of advocating down the road, is there some kind of amendment that you could make um to that respect as opposed to putting in something that we can't have?

You see?

Yeah. you know, um, when I filed this resolution and I sent my own letter, um, I I was schooled, um, respectfully by Senator Rogers about what can and can't be done with the millionaire's tax, which I didn't know when I submitted my resolution to the city clerk for the council to advocate for. If that's the case, um, and I hear what you're saying, there's no purpose of doing a ceremonial

resolution. It would be more along the lines of if I I we if you want to withdraw it, I can rewrite it to have it appear more towards education needs and infrastructure needs. If that's the will of my colleagues, that's fine. I guess I was holding on to that specific hope to advocate for upcoming hearings and opportunities so local officials may be able to be present and represent the

city's needs. That was what I was really holding on to after I got my additional information. But if it's the will, out of respect for my colleagues, I'll with I could withdraw this if that's what we decide on tonight. And I'll be happy to rewrite a resolution that fits more into the model that the millionaire's tax would be a we would be able to adequately advocate for.

Might not be a bad idea, Council.

What might not be a bad idea?

Then I'll I'll I'll make a motion to leave to withdraw.

Second.

Motion to second. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Madam Cler, as a point of information, if you if we can work with me to rewrite this resolution in correspondence with this and rewrite the letter, I think would be appropriate.

Okay.

Thank you.

Whereas the Pearl Street and Third Street parking garages are critical public infrastructure assets located in the downtown area of the city of Fall River. And whereas the city assumed ownership and oversight of both garages in 2019, and despite the significant amount of time that has since passed, no substantial repairs have been made, even as concerns continue to grow regarding

the structural safety of the facilities, the ongoing loss of revenue from closed sections, and the city's inability to implement appropriate parking rate increases due to the deteriorating condition of the garages. And whereas the continued delay in addressing the deteriorating condition of these structures is stalling muchneeded development in the downtown area and jeopardizing opportunities for economic

revitalization. And whereas this project is one of the most important capital undertakings currently under the city's direct control and supervision. Yet it has not been treated with urgency with the urgency it deserves and has instead been repeatedly delayed. And whereas it is in the city's best interest fiscally, operationally, and strategically to prioritize the repair and rehabilitation

of these facilities, now therefore, be it resolved that the city council hereby requests the director of city operations and city administration be invited to appear before the committee on finance to present a definitive action plan for the repair of the Pearl Street and Third Street parking garages, which shall include a scope of services, a detailed cost estimate, and a clear project

schedule for the design, procurement, and execution of all necessary repair work.

Motion to adopt.

Motion to adopt. Have and seconded on a motion. Council seat five. Council for They've just finished the review of all of that. I'd suggest that you get a hold of Miss Riva and read it. They closed down a few more spaces as well. Um, but I think it was tabled in finance. Um, I'm not sure, but I think it was tabled.

But I think it's worth bringing it to finance. And if he could, if maybe the clerk could have Mr. Alivera send us all a copy of what they found. But I do know that in speaking to him, there was a few other sections closed down and it is a money maker if we get it fixed the right way.

Do you?

I yield to Thank you, Council C1. Council, thank you. I I filed this resolution just because we we had I think it's tied under the efficiencies from Mr. Reposo's um resolution, but every time we come down, we we get this. we're doing this, it's going to take six months for cost estimates. What I'm looking for is specific tangible project schedule to say this is when we can expect cost estimates. This is when

we go out to bid. This is where we plan to have uh coming down to the city council for an appropriation to to fix this. The fact of the matter is it's it's it is one of the major priorities that we currently have and and I truly don't feel like it's being uh handled as a priority. We we've got the Cherry and Web building that's uh currently looking to be developed that's in need of of

parking. Um we just talked about a potential approval of um the Hot Wheels um property if that goes to to Mr. Gado.

He's adding additional um buildings there and he's got a one for one parking ratio uh with that. So he's in need of some parking. So when you start looking at the downtown and the redevelopment, like parking is a major issue and and here we are sitting on two parking garages that we've had since 2019 and it's just not a priority. I've done a number of building projects. I've I I'm

the purchasing agent um in my full-time job amongst other hats that I wear. It has never taken me four years to move on something. And I've got a couple other resolutions and that's what I'm seeing.

And I just I'm getting frustrated. I want to see some movement on on these projects and I want to see things being done the right way. So I'd like to have the administration down here with with a clear defined project schedule and so we can hold them accountable like this.

This as a council we need to to say this is an important priority and if the mayor isn't saying it then the city council needs to say it. So with that I yield.

There you go. Motion has made and seconded. All in favor? Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Clerk.

Whereas the central fire station is a historic public safety facility that houses first responders and serves as an architectural asset in the heart of the city of Fall River. And whereas in 2022, the city secured and allocated just over $1 million in community preservation act funding to support the historic renovation of the front portion of the central fire station, including facade

restoration, masonry repointing, garage door replacement, and window replacement for the front section of the building.

And whereas an additional $2.5 million in bonding has been authorized for necessary interior renovations of the station to support continued operations of the fire department and improve building functionality. And whereas the remaining portions of the building, including the side and rear elevations, are also in urgent need of window replacement and repointing to protect the long-term structural integrity of

the facility and preserve its historic character. And whereas completing these exterior improvements as part of the current renovation effort is both fiscally responsible and operationally efficient, reducing the need for future mobilization and ensuring consistency in restoration quality. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fall River City Council requests the administration submit an appropriation order to fund

the replacement of all windows and the repointing of the entire central fire station allowing for a comprehensive and coordinated restoration of the building.

And be it further resolved that the director of city operations and the city administration be invited to appear before the committee on finance to present a definitive action plan including a scope of services detailed cost estimate and clear project schedule from the for the design procurement and execution of the necessary repair work.

Motion to adopt.

Motion to made and seconded on the motion council see one council D.

Thank you Mr. President. Again we we had this conversation uh with Mr. Alivera.

I've had the conversation with the mayor and in my original understanding I thought the entire building was being repointed and um I thought we and I've requested a couple times that windows be replaced if we were doing the entire envelope of the building. Um conversations that took place on the council floor. Mr. Alivera stated that the CPA money was solely for the front of the building and and a little bit of

the side of the building but does not include the entire envelope which to me doesn't make any sense. So, we've got $3.5 million um that's being invested into this project, which does not include um you know, key infrastructure improvements for the envelope of the of the building. So, to me, I've I've requested that the administration come down before us. I haven't seen an appropriation order, so this is why the

resolution is before us. Mr. Olivera was before us when I said that this is a waste of money. Um and when I asked him if he would do this on his personal home, his response to me was no. So clearly it doesn't make any sense. So um I want the administration to come back down. Hopefully they they understand what the resolution is and they come down with an appropriation order. Uh

since they are currently going out to bid. I I think again this is another project we've been talking years about years. I I think we're four or five years into this project. Um so with that I yield.

Thank you councelor. Motion to remain second. All in favor.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Whereas the city of Fall River is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of residents and visitors at all public facilities including parks and recreational areas. And whereas automated external defibrillators AEDs are critical life-saving tool in the event of cardiac emergencies where every second counts in increasing survival rates. And whereas the presence of AEDs at at athletic fields, playgrounds, and

other high use recreational spaces has become a recognized best practice in community safety and public health. And whereas the installation of weatherresistant AED enclosures ensures year-round access to emergency equipment even in outdoor settings. And whereas the city council believes all public parks should be evaluated to ensure equitable and strategic AED coverage across the city's recreational

facilities. Now therefore, be it resolved that the city council hereby requests that the city administration in collaboration with the park board and parks department conduct an assessment to identify the number of locations of all weather EED enclosures and AED units needed across all public parks. And be it further resolved that the city council requests the administration submit a funding appropriation order to

support the purchase and installation of AEDs and durable all-w weather enclosures at all city parks thereby improving public safety and emergency readiness throughout our recreational facilities.

Motion to adopt second.

Motion to adopt has made second on the motion council C1.

Just in full transparency I was on vacation and didn't go anywhere for these uh five time. So, uh I just want to highlight that I will be on vacation at the end of the month as well. So, just be prepared.

Um with with all with all seriousness, this one is uh to me is an important one having children that do play recreational sports. Um I was able to secure about uh just under, you know, $150,000 to get these um call boxes AEDs in in the uh recreational facilities in Sec. um which had me thinking more about all our parks and uh recreational facilities that we currently have with with uh young adults and just um

residents who who you know use these facilities that have sudden cardiac arrest. And if you can just bear with me um I think everybody knows that sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death uh to the United States.

Uh the American Heart Association says over 356,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests occurs annually in the US. So that's and they have a 90% fatality rate. Um the AEDs have decreased um or increased the um the survival rate by uh for the first three minutes if you can get an AD it's the increase of the survival rate is over 70%. Uh and if you don't have the AED uh for every minute that passes it's

a 7 to 10% um decrease in the survival rate as it goes forward. So when you start looking at youth in uh adult sports uh present elevated risks one in every 50,000 to 80,000 young athletes experience uh SCA uh annually. So blunt trauma has a significant impact. So, when you start looking at baseball, football, uh blunt trauma to the chest uh can can result in cardiac arrest and

and anybody that follows the NFL back in 2023.

Uh the Buffalo Bills, Dear Hamlin, uh suffered a cardiac arrest after he was hit in the chest and they had to revive him on on the field, which was on national TV. Uh last year, we had a 20-year-old resident who was playing basketball at Kennedy Park who passed away suddenly from a from a cardiac arrest. So, what I'm looking for is is just for the administration uh to come up with a funding mechanism, work with

the uh parks department to get the um modernized AED call boxes, which are climate controlled. Uh they would be hardwired in in order to gain access to it, you actually have to call 911. They give you the code. So, the minute you do that, they're already sending uh dispatching somebody there, but then they they walk you through. And a lot of the AEDs have already um they're automated so that they're telling you

what to do. What we currently have is is that when you start looking at the baseball fields and things of that nature, they're in concession stands.

So, you know, if unless you're have access to the keys or the concession stands, you don't have access to the AEDs. Uh as I mentioned before, just people walking the parks. Um so, I I think from from my standpoint, this is something that would benefit the uh the city, especially when we start looking at open space and and all the activities that are going forward. So, I I just asked my colleagues to to support this

moving forward and and the cost is roughly $2,000, $1,000 to $2,000 per box. So, I'm sure there are grants out there uh to be able to support this uh with the wiring and things of that nature. I yield.

Thank you, Council. Motion has made second. All in favor?

I opposed. Motion carries.

Item 16 are citations for the Diamond Regional Vocational Technical High School baseball team.

Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt citations has been made and second. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Item 17 are a number of citations for members of the fire department for um their work that they performed during a fire on June 7th. Motion to adopt.

Second.

Motion to adopt. Has a minute. Second.

All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Item 18 are citations for the Dery High School class of 2025 top 10 students.

Motion to adopt.

Second.

Motion to adopt has been made and second. All in favor?

Just a point of information. I want to just comment that our corporation council has three of his children in the top 10 at Dery. That is I don't wants to adopt me at any point. They have they must be very very smart. Uh but and one of them is a valid Victorian. And so something needs to be said for the facts to their mother probably. Probably. But, uh, all kidding aside, um, something needs to be said

for the fact that one of our department heads, um, has three kids in the top 10 at at Dery High School in 2025. So, um, it's admirable. I'm sure as a parent, you and your wife are probably pretty proud. Um, so it's it's really nice to see. So, it is remarkable.

It is absolutely remarkable. Y I yield. Yay. Maria.

Motion has made second. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Congratulations, Mr. Ramsey.

Item 19 is an order granting permission to Jason Dart for the removal of 28 ft of curbing at 11018 Sto.

Motion to adopt. Second.

Motion to adopt has been made and second. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Item 20 is an order granting permission to Jason Dart for the removal of 28 ft of curbing at 120 and 122.

Motion to adopt. Second.

Motion to adopt as second. All in favor?

I opposed.

Motion to take items 21 through 25 together.

Carries.

Motion takes item 21 through 25 has been made and seconded. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Is there motion to adopt?

Motion to adopt. Items 21- 25 has been made and second. All in favor?

I I carries.

Motion carries.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hold on. Let the council read them. Sorry, clerk. You can read them.

Thank you. Items 26.

Items 21 through 25 are orders granting permission to um underground intrepid for fiber optic cable installations.

This is above ground, not underground.

Yes.

Okay. Council may cl um the the locations would be Walnut Street, Locust Street um in two locations. One is from High to Rock Street, Locust Street from Rock to June Street, Shalliner Street from Walnut to Locust Street, and Gford Street from Locust to Walnut.

Motion to adopt has a minute. Second and vote was on favor. Motion carried.

Motion to take 26 through 35 together.

Second.

Motion takes items 26 through 35 as seconded. All in favor? I.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Here's that motion.

Read them first. Go ahead.

Read them first. read it first real quick. Um this petition these petitions and orders are also um on behalf of Intrepid um for underground conduits at Walnut Street from Gford to June Street, Locust Street from Shalliner to High Street, Locust Street from North Main to June Street, Cherry Street from High to North Main Street, High Street from Pine to Cherry Street, Rock Street from

Cherry to Locust Street, Shalliner Street from Locust to Walnut Street, June Street from Walnut to Cherry Street, Gford Street from Locust to Walnut Street, and North Main Street from Cherry to Locus.

Motion to adopt.

Motion to adopt as made in second. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Item 36 is the police chief's report on licenses.

Motion to adopt.

Motion to adopt as made in second. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 37 is an order granting permission for the transfer of an auto body shop license at five Laurel Street from Marco and L Mar Marco Monis and Lordino Ves to Brian and Lizetta Vieiraa.

Motion to adopt.

Second.

Motion to adopt as made second. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Have a number of claims.

Motion refer to corporation council.

Motion refer to corporation council made second. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. We have minutes of the zoning board of appeals held on May 15th. Motion to second place had made and seconded. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Motion to take items 40 through 44 together.

Second.

Motion to take item 40 through 44 has made and seconded. All in favor?

I motion to approve. Are you going to read the madam clerk? You can be first.

We have minutes of um the city council meetings. The first would be the public hearings on June 24th. Committee on finance on June 16th. Committee on Finance on June 24th, special meeting on June 17th, and regular meeting on June 24th.

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve has made and seconded.

All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Do we have a brief recess for signing the ordinances?

Should take a brief recess.

reconvene. Madam clerk, the last items before you would be the two proposed ordinances. The first for passage through final ordination is miscellaneous traffic.

Motion so made.

Motion has made and seconded. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. And the last would be the amendment to the salary ordinances with respect to the animal control officer. Um also for passage through final ordinance.

Motion so made.

Second has been made and seconded. All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Motion carries.

Motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn. I want to commend everybody a great meeting tonight.

Great job.

Motion to adjurnn has been made and seconded. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Copy. No agenda.

Over my over

hey.

Hey hey hey.