7.16.2024 Fall River City Council

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public he will come to order clerk will call the RO councilors kadim here Dion here Hart here Kilby here Pereira here ponti here reposo here Samson here president CRA here pursu 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 unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible motion open the public hearing second motion to open the public hearing has been made in second it all in favor I any oppose item number one in a public uh is a joint poll location Massachusetts electric company doing business as National Grid and Verizon New England Inc for three new jointly owned poll

locations as follows on Veil Street one jointly owned pole location and one jointly owned anchor installed one new jointly owned pole and one new jointly owned anchor in the sidewalk in front of 340 Veil Street the proposed new pole poll 8-50 will and the proposed new anchor will be set approximately 105 ft south of the existing pole 53 on Slade Street in order to service 340 Veil stre stre

in accordance with plan number 30977 597 are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents please St your name and address or who you represent for the record please Aaron Roy 1250 Brion Point Road Somerset representing National Grid uh good evening city council and Mr President uh National Grid is proposing to set one jointly owned pole and one jointly owned anchor approximately 105

ft South um of pole 53 Slade Street uh in order to feed 340 uh Veil Street which I believe was originally part of 334 which became independent became its own address um there is no overhead power in this area so proposing to set this poll just for 340 Veil Street um it'll just be just secondaries no primary that'll run from Slade to uh pole 8-50 um Veil Street in order to service the

house uh that is it thank you thank you thank you are there any opponents are there any opponents to this public hearing seeing none we move on to item number two Kyra cadero 363 High Street for the removal of curbing as follows at zero High Street I guess it's an empty lot existing opening is 8 ft curbing to be removed is 16 ft there's no curb to be added combined opening proposed after

alteration is 24 ft the vacant parcel is currently serviced by an 8ot curb opening the African proposes to create new 16t opening to provide for a horse shoe driveway scenario The Proposal is being made as the city is in the process of reconstru hon Street the total opening will be 24 ft are there any proponents to this public heing any proponents seeing none seeing none are there any opponents to this public

hearing any opponents seeing none we move on to item number three Elena Cahill 71 Maran Street for the removal of curbing as follows at 71 Maran Street the there is no ex there is no existing opening curb to be removed is 24 ft there is no curb to be added combined opening proposed after alteration will be 24 ft the parcel currently contains a gravel driveway with no curb opening the

applicant proposes to create a new opening that requires the removal of 24 ft of the curb if granted a site plan review should be required prior to the paving of the existing crushed stone driveway are there any proponents to this public hearing any proponents counc SE to I'm not a proponent I have a question after okay want you want to hold off to we see if anyone comes down any proponents seeing none are there any

opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none Council entertain your question yeah um in regard to the fact that a site plan review is being um suggested why wouldn't that be done first as opposed to after us approving or not approving if the curb gets a night why would they need a site plan review if we don't Grant permission to have the curbing why would they move forward with a site plan

review that's why thank you I Y you're welcome move on to item number four Street acceptance Mohawk Drive from Indiantown Road looping back to Indiantown Road the reason just so people know why we're having this hearing on Mohawk Tri today is cuz when we had the first hearing some abuts did not receive the notice of the letters when they came the first time so we figured we'd play it safe and notify

those people if they want to come down and speak as well um are there any proponents to this public hearing anyone in favor of the public hearing seeing none are there any opponents to this public hearing any opponents seeing none I'll entertain he second motion Clos the public hearing has been made and seconded all in favor any opposed public hearing is now

closed we have a number of individuals who have signed up for Citizens input time first we have CJ Ferry oh sorry

point of order we have't opened yeah we're going to do it right now the paperwork you're absolutely right you're right councel that's why I grabbed the paperwork city council commune finance will come to order CK will call the RO council is kadim here Dion here har here Kilby here Pereira here Pony here Roso here Sam here president CRA 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 they're perceived or UNP perceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible a matter first we have citizens input time to come before us like I said before a number of individuals have signed up you have

three minutes at the microphone first we have CJ Ferry subject matter taxes and fees thank you Council uh council president uh before I get into what I need to say um I'm here tonight specifically to allay some fears that were mentioned at the last meeting the reason why my citizens input or any citizens input can be presented in writing is because of a complaint that was filed with the

Massachusetts commission against discrimination an agreement was entered into with the mcad judge Macy Gary Hoak and myself which allowed citizens to give citizens input in writing for all bodies doesn't matter I can't drive at night so for the most part I don't come out not that I need to explain why I'm here but I found it very offensive that somebody had made the comment and I

appreciate that Sean kadim had said it was an ADA issue and I I appreciate the defense that he came up with coming before you tonight is a question on a Deb exclusion prop to and half override whatever ever they want to call it okay you didn't give us the option of voting on diamond being built you took that away from us now you want us to bail the city out we get enough on

taxes the city has lied to us numerous times we still don't know how much we're paying for the debt exclusion on dery what are we told well we have a formula you can call the assessor's office and get S my job to call the assessor's office to get a formula to figure it out it's the Assessor's job to put on my bill and then for the mayor to go on the radio and say it's

illegal of course I immediately jumped at it I filed complaints with the state auditor and the Department of Revenue Department of of local Services Department of local Services was useless the state auditor has taken it under advisement they are working on it now okay we need to know how much we're paying we don't know and you want us to do it again taxes are high enough in this city

you're all Property Owners you know how much the taxes are and you're asking us to pay again out of our pocket that's unbelievable the rents are already high do you realize that I'm paying my water bill 24% higher than last time and for the money for the water that I got in the last quarter I'm paying the new rate and what was I told that's the way we've always done it doesn't mean it's

right any way to get that dime out of our pocket I'm totally against a debt exclusion I know that Joe K had said when this came before the city council before that he was against the debt exclusion that we had built numerous schools without it it's time that we stop looking at it that way this Council cannot turn around to the people and say yes you need it and for the mayor to

have the audacity to send this back down after the city council had already said no this is a man that will not accept no he's a dictator and that's exactly what's happening I thank you for your time thank you next we have Robert kamaro subject matter oats laws

Duty give me a minute to set up

I know you're puzzled with the title of my citizens input that's because it's about this the city is in a financial disaster I want to remind everybody what their duties are because you took an oath and I have a cavey the oath you uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth the ordinances the city of Fall River and the Lords that has not been done done for nearly 4 and a half

years by any of the bodies that swore that oath and that oath is not optional it is mandatory you affirm that oath I going to remind you about the city we live in CJ just talked about how much this is going to put a strain on people I looked it up this morning I send you these things all the time and I know you ignore them but the per capita income and fall of according to the

United States Census Bureau per capita income is 3,591 that's one of the lowest in the state household income is 52734 I know the general poverty rate is 19.7 the rest of the state the rest of the state has income 19.3% of the rest of the state has incomes over $200,000 the average per capita income in the state of Massachusetts is lock lger than the household income in the city of fall

rber how do you expect people to pay these things and keep coming back when there's no accountability uh for example I'll start with the city ordinances that have been violated which you swore to uphold and stuff when Paul kougan took office we had 78 private companies having their trash picked up now we have nearly 300 who's payment for that for the last four four years so they finally ditched it the

taxpayer you allowed them to do it I know you sent them a resolution but why didn't you stop it that's your job he gave his staff a pay raise in spite of the fact that you denied the ordinance and every subsequent pay raise since then is wrong because that was an illegal pay raise and is compounded with every pay raise and then of course course we've got paying over the ordinance C uh not

paying people who are outside 30 seconds left this is a disaster I've been doing this for 40 years here I've never seen a city in such a mess people can't afford it don't cut fire and police cut the 400 jobs that were created by Paul kogan since to wave the rules second motion has been made to wave the rules okay someone second motion br br and second it all in favor I any

opposed thank you okay um motion car paid in excess for an additional three minutes is that what the motion's for you get three more minutes yeah I can I can kind of wrap it up uh so that was the part about the laws uh like statutorily you violated chapter 150e section 7 which says contracts have to be funded I sat in this chamber and watched you agreed to a contract and you said

that you knew it wasn't funded at the end you're going to have to lay off police that's illegal you can't do that I went to the J andc twice and won I know the books in this city everything everything that's done here for this entire Administration has been circumventing the law manipulating the law also the lawsuits remember what that what the Constitution says in part of the first commment what the

Massachusetts Constitution clearly states in part of the first article 5 you are our substitutes and agents and answerable to us at all times you're going to tell me that I can't find out how much we've paid in lawsuits that's everything in is I've never seen it in 40 Years of doing this you can't this is like North Korea you can't get an answer from anybody and it's our money we've had lawsuits that violated

Federal Ada laws sexual harassment laws workplace environment laws how many millions of dollars have we had in lawsuits that the taxpayers had to pay and nobody is advocating for the taxpayer nobody people in this city can't afford it I have 245 retirees that are living on less than 12,000 a year these people have homes who that have been paid for for 30 years and are now looking at losing their homes because of this

incessant spending a hundred people put on between the with Opera money nobody even discussed revenue streams when that Opera money dried up most of you know what a safer Grant is what happens when you get a safer GR the federal government tells you we're going to pay for these firefighter positions and then they're going to be incrementally reduced and at the end of the we're going to pay zero you are

mandated to find and keep those jobs on the payroll this is outrageous I and if you know I think the people are fed up I think you know we remember 1995 what happened in this Council I know Council Pereira remembers it when the council started sto being receptive and what happened in 2014 so I always close with a quote so let me see if I can find it now okay here it goes if the people

cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists to protect them and to promote their common welfare all else is lost so uh I think the people are reaching uh critical mass right now I think we stop looking at cutting we stop looking at cutting the new jobs we got rather than fire and police and I brought a little prop just to remind you about 2014 just in case you can't

remember I didn't see it what does it say no more recall no more Shenanigans recall no more Shenanigans recall all right thank you Mr Comm next we have D Vasquez subject matter tax taxes

just give me a moment to set up here please you got to take your time it clock will start when you start speaking okay thank

you um the last time I left off I was talking about uh assessments that are very questionable right now uh this one has to do with um 34 St Joseph Street on 11:15 2022 over little over $4.2 million was spent renovating the interior and for some reason for tax year 24 just a little a little over $77,000 is the building value now you must be asking yourselves and I was asking myself too that how can

this be well but it seems that when the city factors in depreciation as they normally do they listed this building the physical condition as poor and the depreciation rate is at 98.04% okay so you do some math you multiply that you end up with this little number so now then I looked at another building that we all familiar with was the one on beer Street the old police station this one is at 100%

depreciation it has no value we know why because you can't even walk inside that building now I'm no expert at this but when you put these when you compare the physical condition for these two buildings you have one that's luxury living has Granite C top stainless steel the whole nine and yet the other one like I said it puts your health at risk the same thing like what's happening on

the damn school department which is a damn disgrace so and we all know how this affects the taxpayer because like I said properties pay what a certain dollar amount per 100,000 for these schools so you can see how this affects the taxpayer but here's what I do know for the past two years and I'm not going to mention their names these are the people who have been voicing their grievances

about the taxes here it goes mine had already gone up 28% over the past two years I'm afraid to open this one next crazy over 2,000 more than last year next from 2400 a year to 3850 a year this is effing crazy and these are people and last but not least one of my favorites and I feel bad for this lady $300 a quarter one family and I'm 84 on Social Security boy I wouldn't she love

a 98.04% appreciation on her house so that she can keep the house that she's paid off her whole life you know this is this is where we're going and now this Council was presented with a question to ask the voters about the school 30 seconds my qu my my resp response is why why should you there's no appetite for this current government to re into spending we're approaching almost half of a billion dollars for a

municipal budget yeah some of some of it goes to the school department but there's no appetite to tighten the belt and raining the spending enough's enough and again you don't have to be a homeowner to stand up for homeowners you know what from the outside looking in the vast majority for sometime up begin hey you know what nson end of that that's it you're over stop it now any that's it it ain't

right closed twice you finally had to do it right you blew it don't come back next we have Jeff Jeffrey J jendro goodro sorry subject matter no on Two and a Half please watch your language hi Jeff hello what day good afternoon thank you counselor uh so two years ago go unfortunately the council's voted to approve the diamond which unfortunately the voters did not be able to vote I would have voted no not because I

don't support education I support Mill you know millions of dollars on something that was not needed but that's then and now it's being built the problem is how we're going to pay for it are the taxpayers going to pay for it are they're going to raise up the rents here in the city in the next few years I don't support it I do support people have the right to vote and if it does

vote tonight then I hope that there will be a pros and cons on these questions positive questions truthful questions why does it need to be paid and is going to affect the city in the residents so I've dealt with a lot of criticisms people on social media saying that it's going to affect if we don't get their way they're going to cut fire police on social media which it's unfortunate I don't see a lot of

people here I don't know why if you're really upset and you're concerned about your taxes going up and your revenue and water increases you should come down here it's that simple I don't own a property but I don't want my place to go rent it up and I can't afford a place anywhere else in the city so I don't want the people in a few years to be struggling under these issues that we just cannot afford

now I can agree that maybe in the future with revenues something can be paid off sure but I will wait and see and I am hoping tonight you say no tonight and if it does go to the ballot I'll still vote no thank you thank you next we have Kelly Buchanon subject matter illegal encampments

good evening I'm just here where we at with the audiance councel seat five Council Vice there was a meeting last night uh and perhaps I should let Andrew he chairs that committee if you'd like to that's fine um and basically we should have gotten a response by now from Corporation councel we didn't so we sent another letter to Corporation councel and uh councelor Dion um put in to send

another letter and I said to amend it and CC it to the mayor too so that the mayor is aware that we haven't received uh information from Corporation councel so we're on it Kelly I know so we're on it we're a year into it and I and I understand there's some on this committee that's been right there with me helping I appreciate that but like I said last time you know you don't have

to live in hell we're living in hell I wrote Rod my bike through the highlands uh last week and I was like wow this is what my part of the city should look like yeah and like these folks are saying we taxes are going up our water he's not kidding we need something we met was it March am I correct March was the day yes I mean I'm no attorney but I don't think it takes

that long to do an ordinance he should have had he and and again I'm not trying to sound like a jerk and I know we're waiting for the Supreme Court guess what I sent it to you guys well a couple years I should say so what are we waiting for like let's or let's move them all out and put them in the highlands we'll see how quick we can get them

out you know I'm being serious I'm I'm fed up I'm fed up we can't playing the Parx there's needles there's drug you know the heroin bags it's it's the nip bottles the alcohol bottles people walking through people's JS coming up it's it's sickening and I come here and I I you know vent to you guys I tell you it's illegal that everything that they're doing but yet we're allowing it why they

talked about ordinances we got stuff on the books do we not follow laws or we only follow laws when it comes to taxpayers every week the pl tax um the trash police is checking my barrels and I don't care because I follow the law I follow the rules check my barrels but you just walk a block and there's so much trash and swill it's but that's okay I'm not sure I'm understanding it we pay

they don't we got to continue to pay and go through hell so I just I'm asking like it shouldn't so let's say March April May June July five months five months for an ordinance how long's does he need me to write it I'm not trying to be smart I'll write it Council seat 7 did you have your hand up you want to speak on this or no no I'll yield to my Council seat Council

seat four you had your hand up before Council kby you had your hand up you want to speak yes I don't Council D want to speak on us as well she just Rose your hand you had your up a while ago okay um but the the the Supreme Court decision that uh some of us mentioned has come down and um that's what we just said I think anyway so I mean you didn't

have to send me a copy because I I've read it and um I didn't send I'm I apolog isue the issue is ready um to for the city to take action we're allowed to now and shape or form in terms following what the what the decision was but um I anticipated tonight councel di was going to file a resolution she did call me and um I didn't see it on the agenda but so

I'll talk to her after to see what her I'm sure she's going to put it in because she's been on top of this I believe Paul she's been with me since pa uh Paul visited with with you I believe so um that's all I wanted to say that decision did come down just recently MH so it did I'm within I mean recently with them is last month a month so well

yeah and we like I said true I was here the night he said he was going to start work on it and he was waiting for the decision fine we're five months five months a year ago I started this and I know Linda had said before that you guys were talking about it yeah so it's not like it's something new and you know some of us like myself citizens but are

quiet um but that we're it's it's it's we're concerned we're concerned about what your PL so I thank you thank you Council Cony to council Dion yeah I just wanted to address um that yes that Council Kilby and I were going to um co-sponsor a resolution I knew that we were having a subcommittee yesterday the agenda items in the minutes there were minutes that Reg that um discussed the homeless encampments so I took the

opportunity last night to say you know the discussions in the minutes there's a letter in here that was requesting an ordinance let's send another letter because you're right now we're Beyond April we're beyond the Supreme Court decision so now yes it's time to take action and it's time for the ordinance to be written and we gave a 14-day uh time limit and there should be no reason why

that does not come back within 14 days if it doesn't our next um city council meeting is until August 20th which gives us plenty of time if we have to now write a resolution and try to keep pushing for the ordinance maybe have the letter and hopefully have yeah and the letter as well you can write your draft if you want so with that I yield thank

you I mean and I get it but I don't want to hear another month I'm tired of hearing we're working on it but you know we want to we want to do this we want to do that listen let's we need action we need action if the mayor's not willing to do it what do we do to go over them I mean he's here to do this is his job

like he's supposed to keep us safe we're not safe you know we're not safe it's not fair we're paying all kinds of taxes how about if we all stopped paying taxes then what would happen would you guys get on it quicker and I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to be a punk about it I'm frustrated you every single meeting I get this is what I hear we're working on and and nothing personal against you

guys I sat here I heard out of his mouth he was going to start the why hasn't he started it why isn't it finished he's an attorney so I don't think it's that hard we have an ordinance different ordinances on the books already so you just take that and you combined it boom I mean how hot is it he's an attorney Mr President counc seat six counc p as a

way to avoid all this um delay after delay after delay could I ask by by through the president to the clerk if we can please get back to her and reach out to the Corporation Council to get a timeline on when this is going to be delivered to the city clerk's office so that we could start reviewing it I mean I know we have a meeting in August but to her point we

shouldn't be waiting months after months after months for something like this so if you can please um you know I'll make a motion now that the counil uh that the city clerk the council authorize the clerk uh to send a uh reach out to cooperation councel find out the timeline and please call her make sure the clerk has your number and call her on that timeline I'll make that in the

form of a motion and I guess at this point this is really all we can do it until until it comes back from Corporation second he has 14 days to give mentioned the committee um at last night's meeting did send a letter to 14 days it was delivered it's 14 days from when though from last night's meeting one at a time please Council seat 6 has the floor someone wants to speak pleas other have their hand

already up if we can make this done a little quicker I know the Corporation Council has been working on this for a long time there's probably a reason for the delay if we could just at least get back to her I agree I think it's the right thing to do so i y thanks thank you counc C1 Council I appreciate the frustration but I I gotta I got to say I'm a little

frustrated because I've I've said this a year ago that we have no authority to do this and then I got to sit here and listen that it's our fault that things are not getting done number one it's the administration that runs the day-to-day operation of the city number two we've stated that we had no legal Authority whatsoever to close the encampments I've stated it time and time again and

everybody just wants to continue continue to say we're going to do something we're going to do something there's nothing we can do now we can do something the Supreme Court has ruled that we're able to close encampments that was a month ago so to sit here and listen to Why haven't we done something five months ago why haven't we done this because we had no legal authority to do it so I don't understand why we're

telling the Corporation Council to draft something an ordinance that we know is illegal because we have zero Authority we now have authority which was a month ago I fully appreciate what what is being said now the expectation from from the legislative body which is what we are is to send a message to the mayor that okay we've got supreme court has made a rule that these homeless

encampments there there's no illegal um action that can be taken in terms of having them removed or closed so let's take those actions moving forward but that that was a month ago we've been talking about this for a year but for a year we've had no Authority so for one I mean it just sounds like from from the speaker that we're just sitting on I hands I I just I take issue with that because

I've said it from day one that we had no legal Authority I said it a year ago I said it 6 months ago I said it 8 months ago we now have the authority to do something so now we'll move forward with an ordinance and we'll work with the administration to make sure that we get it close but to say that we've the speaker been sitting here for a year

yeah I I don't disagree with you because we've had no authority to do anything well you guys have authority because you guys handle the budget correct no no what what what Authority what Authority hold on you have laws and ordinances on on the books correct correct correct this this body is not the executive right I I understand that but you guys can and like I said I I don't know how many

months ago you guys can put the pressure on the mayor I get you might not able press no no what pressure and and you want us to you're suggesting that we draft an ordinance prior to prior to a month ago you wanted an ordinance that was illegal how is it illegal they down because the Supreme Court has ruled that you cannot close these encampments it was up until a year a month ago that

they changed that ruling so prior to that everything was illegal unless if the city went in the city would have to house them we had the conversation about why the state was able to remove some of these encampments on their property because they have closed jails and prisons that they take these homeless and and the immigrants and they ship them off so they're able to house them we have no ability to house these

private property and private property well private property that's a whole that's a whole different conversation I just I just I I understand I understand it personal it's not personal it's frustrating I pay a lot in taxes like these folks are saying my tax I and I not say so do I but I guess what I was saying is is to sit here and hear the characterization that we've been sitting on this for a year

and a half is just a little a little wrong right because we have no Authority just just because we keep telling you something that you don't want to hear it doesn't change anything and I've said it from day one that my colleagues keep making promises that they cannot deliver and this is the problem we're going to sit here and we're going to talk about we're going to have this individual sit

here thinking that in order is going to change her problem it is not and that's why I was trying to say that we need to be honest with what we have going on and we have no authority to do it that that's the only thing I agree with her we now month ago every single person in this room City agrees with her every single resident agrees with her now now

as of a month ago now we have some Authority yes now we can work with the administration and I will fully support you and moving making sure that the administration moves forward and that we have the ordinances in place because now in my opinion it is is legal to go ahead and and close these encampments with that being said there's a larger issue that we need to discuss and I think

we've been discussing the mental illness issues the drug addictions those types of discussions need to be included with these these homeless encampments that that's the only thing I'm I'm saying I understand that and if you're like from and it came right from the May's m to me when I met with him last July that you got not you got I don't mean you guys personally that they're offering them

treatment they're offering them shelter and they're refusing so because they refused you're telling me they can stay there no not now no not now not now but this is the that's been going on you're saying we have to legally we have to house them well they you're offering that and I don't believe in forcing anybody if they don't want to go to treatment they don't want housing I don't believe you have the right to

anybody has the right to be forced however there has to be a consequence it's not like oh you don't want to go okay you can stay here continue doing the things that you're doing that's that's what I'm saying there's got to be accountability I'm not just saying going there and just like I get it if you're offering them it might not be what they want you might have to send them to

Southampton Street and Boston I mean there's a lot of shelters throughout the state of Massachusetts I get that I get that if they don't want to go if they don't want to go it's citizens input time she went be on her three minutes if you want to have fur discussion we'll put in form of resolution and send it to a committee but we're not going to go back and and I and just just closing I I

I don't want my comments to go across that I don't I don't feel for what you're you're going through cuz I do all I was just trying to Simply say was our hands were tied prior to a month ago because we could not legally move them unless we had a location to send them to which we just didn't you know I I've talked to the administration and to some colleagues about potentially doing these

mini houses and storages and trying to find a location uh so that they you know the you know the homeless had a location that was Secure and it was a centralized location that we can monitor you know but unfortunately that that didn't work out um but again and I apologize if I come across I'm not I'm frustrated it's not against you guys personally and I think I've said that I tried to say that

numerous times so it's not personal but it's as a taxpaying citizen right you guys are my first line of defense I've met with the m didn't go anywhere then I've come this is what I do every month I come here and I know you guys are probably tired of hearing and I understand it but we're living it so I'm the voice for my for my community like you know what's going on

I get phone calls I get you know and and I'm dealing with it and I'm just trying I I appreciate I know understand I mean no no what I will tell you is is that as of a month ago now you can hold us accountable because now we legitimately have I'm coming I'm G to be like Sean listen you you can you can say that because now I can I can say that we

legitimately have a legal basis to go on now that the SEC appreciate appreciate againe that was never my the only thing that I want to say is that I agree with what uh councilor Kadeem is saying but the other half of it is that they have seen people like off of Bron Avenue be moved out and that whole area been clean been cleared if you can do that there

why can't you do it here but that was private property so they had the authority and the ordinances that you're talking about that we have on the books is that people can't camp light fires do certain things around waterways but the waterways of the watera the nor because we've looked into all of that and this Council has tried along with the mayor giving funding to make make sure that

we're out there reaching people trying to get them where they need to go and now we got another problem where people are buying houses changing two bedroom apartments into five bedroom apartments and having people from all over coming in and they're renting apartments making grooming houses that's another issue that we're already let's try to stay focused on what she's talking about it's

a whole big thing but it's not that we just sit here and try to do nothing we did try consistent appreciate it thank you you so much item number two um I'll entertain a motion to lift item from the table second motion table as made second all in favor I any oppos motion is lifted from the table it's a resolution committee on finance reconvened with representatives from the master Department of Transportation and

the city administrator and the city engineer for an update on the progress of Route 79 Deval Street Corridor Improvement projects it was tabled on October 24th 202 so if you want just give us an update on what's happening what's changed who brought all the proces down by the Waterfront good evening for the record my name is Dan agar I'm the director of engineering and planning and I'm Valerie

kilduff I am the project manager from mastop for your project so you may recall a few months ago we came in and gave you a general update of where the construction activities uh were in relation to the Route 79 Deval Street project I think you've all visibly seen everything that's been taking place uh majority of the work being underground utility work that constantly change traffic directions and lane closures and

things of such you've seen the elevated uh Bridge section be constructed retaining walls are being completed additional very large uh infrastructure is being installed being the CSO tunnels that convey our combined storm water and sewer overflow um through this Corridor so there are a number of items that are now becoming more visible which you can get to see again much more progress I

think Val can provide you with an update of moving forward and what the construction schedule would look like for the remainder of the summer and then most likely we'd come back in in the fall and potentially give you another update before she starts I just have a question on the CSO project uh are we having any drains that directly flow into the Titan River at all like do in Province where some drains directly flow

into the river without being treated or is it everything being 100% contained by the CSO so being Paul ferland's Department the Department of Community utilities who handles this um I am familiar with a lot of it so if I say something incorrect he'll scold me but I can at least offer that there are a number of existing outfalls into the tton river um that exist along the entire Waterfront as part of this

construction project it was anticipated and included in it the required upgrades that would need to be taking place through this Corridor with or without the Route 79 project going forward so a number of years ago he had gone through the Endeavor of correcting the outfall through Bicentennial Park that new brick building that that sits there now near the tennis courts that was constructed

to handle that outfall there are two other locations one on the south of City Pier and I believe there's another one a little bit further north that those corridors are being reconstructed through this area now so that we don't have to go back and do it once the construction project is completed so will it drain directly into the Titan River yes as they drain now yeah yeah that's fine just want to make sure all

right thank you now you can continue sorry for the interruption give that's okay good um so we are we are 100% designed we're um issue for construction set the only outstanding for the for that is the Landscaping which Dan and I are feverishly trying to work through um um I we should have I'm I'm hoping that that's going to be ironed out by the end of the summer um and that needs to happen because we

need to order the Landscaping um so we can get it in with I think they're looking at next year is what I what I heard was a lot of that Landscaping will be going in next year um this time next year so they do need to get it ordered um so we have it but the design is is 100% done um the construction now will just move forward um what you're seeing is as they

move down the road putting in the um structures and we'll just be coming in behind them um the the bridge that Dan talked about that will be completed we left as you guys know we left that part of the roadway up because it's considered um an evacuation route for you so we needed to be it needed to be above the flood zone so I get that question a lot why did we

leave the bridge that's why we left the bridge because um we need a way for you to get out of here if there happens to be a very bad storm and flood um but other than that the project is moving we're ahead of schedule I think we we're ahead of schedule I want to say three months um we've had no major problems um I I hope that if Dan Dan is very good

about getting in touch with us if something needs to happen and I think we've been very good both mad and the um contractor getting back responding to all of the anything that that needs to be responded to from from him um I and I they don't need prompting typically they handle it with him and I don't need to get involved which is great um that's always good that we don't have to be the

button Pusher for that um as far as far as the landscape goes you're not going to load that place with Trey blossoms are you it is ornamental trees it's a lot of ornamental trees um there's so much Landscaping there is so much Landscaping that has to go in um cherry blossoms make a mess they might look pretty for a couple of months but they make a mess coun C5 C do you have

your hand up when asking questions valie you also take care of signage doot do you do the signage as well yeah that's going to go yeah that will go up as well well because I I've got got to be honest with you I'm not very thrilled coming over the uh Vietnam Memorial Bridge and you're coming into for River and there's not one sign that says Fall River it says New Bedford it says chibin nothing

says Fall River we have Waterfront um you know our Great Park our our Memorial Park there's no signage when you do signage who does that how can I get involved in that to put in my two cents of what I think signage should be because it never says for River it won't it's a location the get places on 24 and 128 there a sign that says Four River it's 35 miles away it's not it doesn't

mention it all the towns in between it's just a a place to get but then you come over the bridge and it doesn't says taunting this way tiot in this way not for River water front nothing you're in Four River so if you're not from around here you don't know where the heck you're coming into you don't have to get the Four River you're already in Four River Council PR I can can answer this a

little bit better um Highway signage for interstate highways right put you on a path for destination where you're going oh I read the whole thing not where you're at so but what I can I can offer is that when the point comes and we're getting to this point where the highway of Route 79 gets extinguished and becomes city streets for de those types of signage are being included in our Redevelopment plans for

that area something like entering Far River you go nice to see our name somewhere there is a sign in the landscaped area directly off of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway a massive Granite block stainless steel letters welcome to Fall River sign that will be the gateway to this caror into the city good because I we even tried to get the train station you know the Vietnam Memorial Station but it was too many

letters so they wouldn't do it because it was too many letters um but I just just wanted to we do have two I want to say there's two there's the one that Dan just described a very big sign that says welcome welcome to fall Riv it's very and it was it was done by a landscape architect it's a very wonderful thing we're using Granite block and it's it's a very

nice per um almost like a statue or you know like one of those it'll be a mon it's a monument style sign but but very big probably at least the size of all but I did a whole thing on Transportation if you go east to west all the routes end in a zero north to south they all than fives I never knew that but I um I learned that too to be

honest my grandson's 13 He told me about it yeah and um he does a lot of work on the computer and figures I knew the I knew the east west and the north south but I didn't know that the the other the carers off are also and and I have faith that Dan will keep us in the loop and if at any time any of you want to look at any of these plans signage like that

the Landscaping right come by the office I've got a and I will then how about how about the the property lineup and the the GU the lines of where the properties will begin to be dispersed and divided and so we had was actually on one of our calls today we were meeting every week um and then maybe two months ago we started going every two weeks because the utilities are starting to get caught

up so we are at the point where we're determining where the lines will be that create the interior parcels and how many Parcels will have I sent in I think there's a total of seven Parcels five of them being developable um again two separate projects the DOT construction project and then the Deval Street Redevelopment project two different things um but we are at the point now where those lines are being drawn so

that will be done and that roadways will be extinguished um again as far as the conveyance of the individual Parcels we are still no further along with that than where we were three years ago okay that has to has not been determined that has to be done and developed with a Keen Eye because that's going to be there for a long time so we really need to have a lot of public

hearings on that get you know people in there that do that kind of development um like the sataki brothers or whatever that do that that have done that in so many places and there are good groups out there that do it do it right yeah because for some reason when we do something in for River after it's done everybody complains so TR now that people have the opportunity even when they had do meetings down in Heritage

State Park and I went there was couple of businesses along Deval Street needed a wider uh driveway that was resolved there but nobody shows up nobody shows up but after something's done they all come out and come well we've had to deal with well get involved get involved open your mouth say something when you can but that's that's our for River frust it becomes frustrating at least for me you counc but I yield Mr

President thank you councilor CD counc Sam uh thank you council president I just want to use this time to thank you for the amazing job you're doing down there I'm so proud that that's my city when I'm coming by the Wall Street going by by Centennial Park and I look how open it is and the job you guys are doing down there and it's it's so professionally done the traffic is not a

nightmare that I thought it was going to be a nightmare it's more than what it was but it's not as bad as it could be it is done so wonderfully it looks so beautiful I'm so excited for the people of Fall River and the progress that is being made down there it's just an exciting thing to see happen and it makes me very happy for our city and I'm

so glad that Dan is join that team he is more than confident and he's doing a very good job so I am uh really happy that that is underway and moving forward so thank you for that thank you um you know it is it's from a mop perspective like we don't do a lot of these kind of jobs and so for me it's kind of fun too because it's nice to see a landscape

change like that you know where we typically do a bridge build a bridge put a rip a bridge down build another one in place it's highway it's Interstate it's that kind of stuff and um this is a really unique job for Mast doot to do and it's it's really I'm glad I was actually put on it it's really fun I I honestly I have never been down here before I've lived in Massachusetts my

whole life just curious just curious what town do you live in I don't know want to say because you know it's just going to be Canton so um we we won't go there but I will say that um sorry I asked I swear to God I had no idea epic with our Fall River accent but um so yeah it is it's a lot of fun to watch this happen because I like I

said I'd never been down here once I got down here I was like wow this kind of nice good thing about Florida is you can come here without a passport from Canton that's right I I just U it actually brings so much pride to me that you love the project too I love the project the people of Fall River deserve this and the fact that you're getting trees and I

love the cherry blossom trees but I'm so excited about it we deserve this in the city and it's finally something so beautiful happening so your passion is shining through in this project and you're doing an amazing job so thank you thank you I will take that back to mot thank you Mr President um this project is supposed to be done when 2026 26 okay so at what point in this process

and you may have said this Mr agar is there going to be a transfer of ownership of this parcel so as to the Redevelopment authority to who and whatnot where are we at with that and when do you think that's coming to be more concrete let me start with a little bit of what's happening city-wise so the reita Development Authority took it upon themselves to hire a planning consultant

to create a master plan for this area at the tune of some $400,000 um and the consultant that they've paid for so we're six months into that process and I'm involved on that team as well with with who's the consultant if you don't mind me asking stantech um so they've they've done an excellent job um we actually just met so the first I won't even call it public Outreach yet but the first stakeholders

discussions that we had were last week last Thursday we had two general presentations um and I've sent an email to them today Redevelopment Authority asking for permission or guidance of when we could give you all the presentation of what we were able to share in a small form um last Thursday so I'm anticipating August or September being able to come back and give you an update of where we're at in that process

process that we should that should be running right along the time of public input and all the different taking stuff in but we would like you to see it before the public does okay so I mean I think it would be appropriate um after our colleagues had done to obviously table this and then to re uh to to have another discussion in September maybe in the fall about where this is um I think

that would be helpful and and to our colleagues point I mean I I do feel that we are in pretty good hands with with you running this and making sure this gets done well I'm not running it well you have a big candidate and you're there every day and you have oversight and you're doing a great job so I yield thank you thank you coun there be no further questions it's

anything else one add go ahead I try and drive through Canton every chance I get drive on Route 24 I don't get off so I don't blame you I drive by it as well motion to table yep motion to table has made second all in favor oppos motion C thank you very much for coming down have a good night appreciate it that was classic item number three is an order resolution drafted

ballot question relative to the new diamond Regional Vocational Technical High School referred on 62524 want to come down please CC president you got it

app good evening Seth Aken City administrator Bridget Alman City director of financial services do you want to just give us a statement or want to talk you want to answer his question just a brief uh intro so some of you remember that back in February of 2022 uh the presentation by the diamond um Architects uh as well as the superintendent um was before you uh the city was uh hoping at that time to have

both a vote uh regarding whether to go forward with the building of diamond as well as the question uh of whether or not to uh take on a debt exclusion uh for the cost of diamond um we go before the voters um Council elected to vote in favor of diamond um and at that point the decision as to how to pay for it wasn't um thoroughly I mean it was certainly thoroughly

considered it just wasn't there was uh no dispositive um conclusion um I will tell you that the administration's position Remains the Same which is that uh this remains a question for the voters and that we're here asking you tonight to let it go to the voters um I would suggest there's two good reasons for that uh the first is that our ordinance 2121 does say that any indebtedness and there's a number of

different words that are used uh in the actual language of the ordinance but just to summarize indebtedness over $5 million where reimbursement is um 51% or less must be subject to a Citywide vote and at the time you'll recall uh February of 2022 the um the number that was given for the cost of diamond was uh was $293 million with an msba uh contribution of

$45.73 towns together would take on the remaining $1 147.300 which leaves us right at that 51% uh and as I'm sure you you've heard the cost of diamond has gone up um I don't know that we know definitively that the contribution itself has gone up uh it is based upon our percentage uh and at the time much was made of the percentage of 79.7 s% um which is only the eligible costs

so if you only look at the eligible cost then we're fine uh msba is is contributing uh 79.7 7% of of of the costs but once you add in uh things like um uh any cost per square foot over $360 uh site costs over 8% of construction uh any abatement of hazardous M materials in the existing structure any temporary facilities necessary to uh be used during construction uh as well as the central

administration offices which were part of the design uh suddenly that number comes down significantly that 79% now becomes uh more in the realm of that 51% um and so where the threshold is more than 51% not 51% or more more than 51% um as long as we're at 51 or lower uh I would argue that our ordinance says that it should go to the voters um but a less legal more human reason um is that

uh uh I would argue respectfully this is a big decision uh we're not asking uh you to put this on the backs of the voters this this financial burden we're just asking you to let them decide um and I would argue respectfully that uh the nine people in this panel the two people at this table um even the folks in the audience really should not be the say on whether or not the voters take on

uh this debt um rather it should be the voters of the city Fall River that make that decision so I'm not here to Advocate one way or the other for uh diamond we all support Diamond it's essential uh it provides an excellent education for uh you know thousands of Fall River kids uh past and present and future um so there's no way to argue at least in my book that this isn't worth

doing uh it's just that letting the voters decide how to do it uh is important um and doing it out of the city budget is going to be challenging I'm not at all going to regail you with threats or horror stories of cuts and all sorts of other things that's that's not how to do this um if we have to pay for it we're going to have to find a way

to pay for it uh out of the city budget if there's reductions as part of that way okay then we'll figure out what those look like if it means we have to generate Revenue some other way well then we'll figure out what that looks like the only way to pay for something that you don't know how to pay for is to either cut costs or increase Revenue uh and we are every day trying to figure

out how to do that even now now uh as you know we already um stopped commercial collection of trash we haven't seen the immediate benefit that we hoped we would have uh but we still believe that that is coming um in the next two weeks you're going to see six families and above uh no longer get uh free trash pickup um you're seeing uh some of the roots on certain recycling

days go direct to uh different locations to preserve the value and reduce the cost of our recycling can I just make a correction yes above six families I said six family and above denight right yeah you're right it's above six tomorrow I'll get calls on you're absolutely right so thank you thank you and if you get calls I'll get calls will yeah let's avoid the calls thank you counselor um yeah above

six families um so there are moves being made right now um but if uh if things stay as they are uh that's going to be a difficult thing to do uh but if the voters tell us that that's what we got to do then we'll do the very best I'm going to turn it over to to CFO almond who actually has some numbers that might be really helpful in understanding what

this looks like going forward for the next 27 to 30 Years thank you for your done so I um sent down a letter and I also sent down the revised ammonization schedule that's been provided to us by UniBank which is working with diamond um I went back and watched the February 22nd meeting a few times and I also included some screenshots from their present ation showing that at back

two years ago they were using a 3 and a half% bond rate and they were projecting our share would be about 6 and a half million a year and they were still saying um 51% back then I think it was a little like you know they were talking about the 79% but then they then said 51% in another slide but I just want you all to look at the and again this is just a

draft based on their cash flows they prepared this provided it to us and I mean we're looking at it's pretty daunting I mean our share is going to be you know 4 million and then it's going to climb up to you know over 7 million dollar possibly so and I've also provided I sent that down today showing what our current payment schedules are um I pulled out the dery debt exclusion

that's that we have available and then I showed you all of the other responsibilities currently now and that's prior to the 13.7 million in short-term bands that we have that we'll be having to long term and that's without any other additional financing as of yet which you know we're looking at that what needs are I also wanted to notate that besides the school department just the city alone over the

five years the capital plan that was submitted shows about $45 Million worth of capital projects that were requested so there's a lot of needs in the city um again we'll as Mr Akin said we'll do what we need to do but we just there's also a lot of other demands on the city and we have you know increasing costs that we all know are going up over 3.7 to4 million

annually and I just I mean if anybody has any questions all right counc C4 Council kby yes just in by way of a comment um I couldn't agree with you more mistakens on the argument that you gave in terms of why it should be placed on the ballot um some of us on the council have been um not to beat a dead horse but we we thought that U the question to begin

with should have went to the voters uh was a cop before the whole scenario um in my opinion so I was one of those but I will full disclosure purpose I did vote for the pro I did vote for it I didn't see that the votes were there and um but I I tried my best to you know to have the uh the voters we on it so this is for me this is just remaining

consistent um I I think it's just it's a it's a matter of self-determination for the taxpayers to to determine in this case how they want to pay for it we have to pay for it right it it's probably going to be made clear to the voters in some way sheap or form that we have to pay for this anyway because you might have some people if this passes go into the voter

booth and and feel that uh you know they don't if they vote no they don't have to pay for it now just another renue or another mechanism to pay for it so um and I repeat this many many times but it's worth repeating um the the 51% um if you mention this forgive me I was taking notes but where are we at now with diamond are we we're close to that

the reimbursement because we was I think we uh originally when when this project was uh discussed it was 70 what 70 so that's the reimbursement so that's the confusing thing yes it's it's still at 79% but again as Mr Akin pointed out when you add in all the ineligibles brings that entire thing down to 51% and I do know at one meeting El meaning reimbursement so so then you have to

take the entire project and what is reimbursable in it's the overall so you it ends up being an overall of around there're they're using 51% right now again we've heard I mean they can't tell us they won't know until it could take two years after the project closes out for the final so for me it's a matter of of conscience philosophy uh um I don't think the city counil I

don't think I'm not in favor of the of ruling by referendum I mean that's we get elected to make decisions uh tough decisions roing on the budget and things of that nature but um questions of this magnitude I think we um we have an obligation to let the public um have a have a say in it um so again like I said last time I don't want to be labor the

point but in 1995 1996 the ordance on a books was any expenditure by the city over $500,000 has to go to the voters I mean talk about not being able to get anything done $500,000 and that was passed I think it was Jack Medeiros who pushed that through and it passed because of all the horr shows that were going on with the new dery and the defense and people went to

jail and and all that stuff so um Lambert put on a um a a campaign to uh to get the that ordinance chain to 51% and take advantage of um the 90% reimbursement at the time so it's staying consistent so that all the new schools went to the voters dery went to the voters um so this is just it it's just a logical thing to do that we have the

public we on it weigh on it it's again repeating it's a matter of self-determination the taxpayers um should have have to decide and this now it's at the point of how to pay for it because it's happening you drive by there it's U the stuff's going on and the bill's coming so I just would hate to see people laid off went through that before under Bob career and it's a it's a terrible

experience so with that I Y thank you Mr President I will be supporting this wholeheartedly good evening good evening so I guess I'll first say that when this first happened a few years back I was on same side that councelor in C4 was in um I felt that it should go to the voters as a two-part question do you want to build the school and if so do you want to pay for it the voters

were denied the choice to build it but now we want them to pay for it because of that I can't stay on that side anymore we denied them the choice and we only want them to pay at this point I've spoken with many taxpayers individuals and at neighborhood meetings and there's only one thing that I've been told so far I don't want to pay any more taxes I can't take any more money out of my

pocket people's tax this this particular uh we just got our preliminary bills quarterly taxes have gone up anywhere from $45 a quarter to three to $400 a quarter so that's on top of the of the tax bill from last year then put dery on top of that on a $300,000 house I don't know I don't know what the formula is but I have to think that's at least $50

a quarter diamond on a 50 on a $300,000 home is going to be another $50 a quarter plus we're still supporting C C PC which is a very good thing so I find the problem is we understand that the city is financially strapped but we never understand that the taxpayers are strapped if I want to do something at my home you're right you either get another job EXC or you cut stuff out of your

budget because nobody else is going to take money out of their pocket to help me it's sink or swim for me so so that's part of my of what I have to say um Diamond no matter how this Council votes tonight no matter how the citizens and T and the voters would vote if it goes to a vote whether they vote Yes or No whether we vote Yes or no exactly the school is going to be

built in terms of cuts well we've heard we put 16 million into stabilization this year use stabilization money and pay for the school you know it comes down to the needs and the wants yeah we need a lot of things we want a lot of things but this is here this is a reality other things can be put off this can't in terms of the ordinance I disagree with you

respectfully this is not a bond a city bond this is not a city debt this is an assessment we're being assessed to pay for somebody else's Bond so I disagree that that ordinance comes into play in this situation um and honestly I just cannot support it for those reasons um I I I just I I just I don't think some I don't think people completely even understand the whole

concept I don't think a lot of people um which happened with done with which happened with dery but but they do understand we can't afford to pay anymore and they don't want to pay more with that I yield thank you councelor counceling seat six Council party thank you Mr President um so a couple things I'd like to get into on the financial aspect of this because I I recognize that the administration's position is to

let the voters decide on this let's not make nine counselors or two people at the table of the mayor decide whether or not we're going to pay for diamond right and I I respect your position I respect you very much but I am going to professionally disagree with you respectfully disagree with you and here's why in 2018 when the city you weren't here and neither were you um jel and his Finance

team and the mayor who was the advocate for building dery sat here and spoke candidly about how we are going to pay for dery high school and we have to get this before the electorate so that they can decide whether or not we need a new dery and everybody in this chamber stated we need a new dery because we did need a new dery we needed a new dery big time and there was one

counselor I remember this vividly because I was standing up where a council president is and this place was packed with people and it was loud and contentious and people were yelling at counselor in seat one because he was against dery at the time when we were trying to have a serious discussion about the long-term 30-year Outlook of what dery it was Sean yeah point of information I was I was

not opposed to dery I was opposed getting there yeah so just want to clarify the the issue wasn't the issue wasn't that this specific I'm not I'm not calling you out here I'm just speaking that oh maybe I am but um I'm just saying that the the financial aspects were a concern and there was representations at that time made to the city council that within eight years the debt exclusion was going to go away and

the city was going to be able under a different Finance team I get that was going to be able to absorb it in their financial budget eight years I have the sheet here from the presentation in 2018 from the prior Administration that it was going to cost the city of over three4 million or whatever it is consistently for the life of the bond and for some crazy reason that didn't

happen so when at that point a colleague of mine for dery was in favor of the school but was asking questions and the only one that took a tough vote that said no we shouldn't go to the debt exclusion because it didn't want to be a cash grab that was then and I remember that vividly because it was contentious here we're here tonight to ask the voters or put a ballot question before

the voters as to whether or not to decide if we're going to do diamond when then we made representations to the voters and sold the voters on the fact that it wasn't going to be 30 years and it wasn't going to be6 S million a year or whatever it is those numbers that I have here then reference $3.5 million for eight years because we made a representation that by 2030 we were going to have some

additional schools retiring off and I'm not asking you to comment on it my point is it's insincere for anybody to say that what we did with dery and what we're doing with diamond are equal because we didn't follow what we told the voters at that time we were going to do we didn't follow it a representation was made to our our the city of Fall River and everybody who voted in favor of dery

that in eight years the debt is going to retire off and we're not going to use it anymore now you're going to go to the extent of the loan and it's going to be until what appears to be here the life of the loan for dery can I just make a comment all that I'm not saying what we're doing I'm just telling you that's I broke out what how much the

dery debt is separately no no no I I and I see that but there was representations made at that time and again you weren't here but it was told to the electorate that we were going we need in new dery but don't worry it's going to be eight years of payments it's going to be $3.5 million annually and every year it goes up from 2025 all the way to 20 uh

2046 so for counselors or colleagues to say that we should put this before the voters I'm worried about any kind of presentation we're going to give them on the educational component because what we said in 2018 didn't materialize the way we said it was going to I don't know if you have any comments on that yet so I will agree 100% that that representation as it was made was kind of misleading and

irresponsible um thankfully we weren't the people that made it and we certainly aren't the people that would make a representation like that today um I think what's important to know is that what the person who made that representation was trying to say is that if you look at the amount of bonding and the amount of indebtedness that the city had at that point and then you look at what comes off that it ends

up equaling out which is a very different animal right because it still means you have a mountain of debt it's just different debt that's a very different animal than saying that the debt for dery will disappear it won't disappear other debt will taper off um but at the end of the day we're still going to have a significant amount of debt we're here to say that um that whether we do the debt exclusion or not

we're going to pay the service on dery to the tune of $4 million and $6 million and $7 million for the next 27 years um I'm sorry on diamond I apologize uh and at the same time that that happens we are trying to acknowledge that we have other obligations that we take very seriously um you know I believe that that well let's say in the next five to seven years right all of the collective

Bing agreements that we have are are going to expire even twice over we have obligations to continue to pay a living wage to the people that work for us and never mind the people that have worked for us we have a solemn obligation to continue making sure that retirees are taken care of as much as current employees are taking care of so let me ask you those responsibilities are real

and we take them really seriously so let me ask you this if you're in our shoes because and I'm not saying you're doing this but and often times counselors and people are put in a situation where you have to do this or else right so we're here today in 20124 in the fiscal year 2025 and you're telling me something that I want to believe and I'm I'm sure the council wants to believe it but in

2018 there was another Council here being told the same thing and it didn't happen the way it was and whether the mayor with all due respect him because we spoke about this knew what he was talking about then because he didn't because he's the one who campaigned heavily on it and debated at length that it was only going to be eight years so whether maybe he didn't know and then now he has his own

financing and he's you know he has AIDS and all these people telling him where what's happening financially he's running the city now he was a school Committee Member then how can you sit here and say today that this is what it's going to be like for the next 30 years and it could change and it not be again that cash grab to the taxpayer can I just make one comment yeah of course so the I did

watch some of those historical meetings and the representation one of the representations was made that if the city took on no additional debt so again that's not realistic because we've I mean we've put on over 20 million dollars just in the last few years of of new debt of because of projects that have had to happen so I mean we're not going to sit at this table and make the representation that we're not going to

do anything else for the city because that's not even real I mean let's be honest we all I mean we hear complaints all the time of you know we build it and we don't take care of it we don't want to be put in that position we're trying to to do better I get that so I mean we're not going to make I understand what you're saying but I again if you go

and I watched some of those I mean that representation was made and there was you know a caveat of if the city doesn't do any other borrowings but there was also a caveat then that debt was retiring off and this is what I want to get into that's what I mean debt retired off but you brought new debt on this Finance team brought new debt on well we didn't have a choice they were

banned from prior to us regardless it doesn't matter I'm just telling you new debt was added on and you knew it was coming just like additional expenses collective bargaining was coming you know we can sit here and talk about everything going on what I can say though is looking at the analysis that you sent us and thank you for sending this um in in FY 2025 we're looking at principal interest in school payments of

$8.9 million if you go down to 2030 that debt retires $4.2 million right is that am I reading that correctly that's without any new debt going on correct correct we might get to we might have to get to a point look tough decisions need to be made and some we might have to say we're not going to be able to bond anymore we're not going to be able to pay increases anymore

we're not going to be able to give unions money without doing a financial analysis because that's what we needed to happen that's what's going to have to start happening around here soon like realize it like we have to say stop one of these days and I know you guys know this but I'm I'm frustrated with that we have to make sure what's that sorry okay we I said want to know what I said

yeah I would love to yeah okay we got a Facebook post uh on today saying the teachers need uh they should get a ra as high as they can you're talking C you he speak I'm sorry he does not Council 6 floor has the floor please keep your comments to yourself other people respect whenever other coun speak ask me what I want to say thank you doesn't work that way thank you Mr President so

let me let me let me refocus the conversation I would stand here and I just going to comment on that now because it's appropriate to do so I would stand here loud and clear saying our teachers need to get a raise because they do okay but that's the school Department's responsibility the school department gets money hand over fist from the state in the city year over-year to pay their

employees so it's within the school Department's purview to do that and I'm going to sit here and Advocate as loudly as I can for teachers to get more money because they need to get paid more money my problem is when you have collective bargaining agreements that this last Council the prior Council to this one had that you needed to pay police officers because they needed to get paid an 11% increase and there was no

financial analysis done and then you were then told we'll figure it out we have no choice that's the conversations that is frustrating to me because that's what happened it's not exactly what happened there was not no financial analysis well then then the respect totally totally get it maybe there was an analysis done but the council never received what that Financial Outlook was going to look like

in terms of the increases for collective bargaining sure sure they whenever whenever a agreement comes before the council a financial analysis comes with it there and that's no there was no exception here I don't think a financial analysis came before thec counc then because I've asked for it and I haven't seen it so I would love for you to share with me the impact future collective

bargaining agreements may have on the city with the increases that we gave to a union that needed an increase but the the domino effect that it's going to have on the city is going to have an impact we've talked about this offline before councelor Kadeem when I started had requested that so when I started we start and we started sending those down with the collective barg I don't know I

wasn't here and I don't have it I'm just saying not to harp on the on the teacher issue but I think it's I think it's apt point that we are in the midst of of a conversation where where the teacher is saying it's not a raise it's an adjustment right it's it's a it's an adjustment to make up for years of low colus right and that's what we did with police um there are I think there's

definitely arguments to made up can can we funnel back to the diamond conversation and we can talk about the teachers and the police and the fire later on at another point in time I understand there some relativeness to it because of the obligations that we have that we're going to have to meet in the future as well but let's stay focus on this going on the ballot which is the primary so

let's talk about the debt retiring off I mean we want it to be a distraction here so um in 2025 you have $8.9 million of debt by 2023 you have $4.2 million retiring off why can't we not bond anymore because we've bonded enough the last couple of years and utilize what we have and not go to the debt de exclusion or not go to pay for Diamond as you approach those years why do we have to

go for the cash grab a second time well have to object to the term cash grab because it's not well um it's a it's a long-term solution as opposed to a short-term solution and I think that's part of the problem is that what you're describing definitely satisfies the need on the short term in the same way that Council Dian said hey use the station stabilization fund I get that that's

good for a couple years right that's there's enough in there without depending on there being more in there that's good for a few years if we don't bond that's good for a few years but at some point there is going to be other needs that we're going to have to do we're not going to be able to stop things from getting more expensive we're we're certainly not going to stand in

the way of you know uh Cola increase for retirees I'll I'm glad to offer zeros for the collective ging agreements because that may need to be what's done I won't be glad to do it actually I kind of hate to do it but at the same time it may be what has to happen we're going to have to freeze spending in many departments uh we we are already looking

at how to reduce um the costs of those departments whether that's Personnel equipment or operational expenses we're not saying we're going to pull the trigger on that but we need to have a plan if it has to happen and we're building one um so I I don't disagree with you that those are immediate short-term you know no debt exclusion right now Solutions but they don't get us to the 30 years and that's the

biggest problem is that they buy us a a little bit of time and the debt exclusion is the longer term solution even though it it does hurt it does hurt I I acknowledge that it it it puts strain on people that are already under stress uh if in fact they vote for it but at least they have the opportunity to make a conscious and knowing and intelligent decision to vote for it uh

or not and that's all I'm asking for no I get what you're asking for you're asking for more resources to be able to pay bills without having to cut expenses I think I'm asking for Choice Democratic choice but do you see where we're up against when we told one thing and it happened totally completely different so how can we then go back to them again and say this is what it's going to be like but

guess what three Mayers can come by and that might change I think we spend a lot of time here sort of haunted by some of the really terrible stuff that's happened in the past um because you can pick that story and there's probably a hundred others of things where somebody said something and that's not what they did I live I'll give you a few I live through it trust me but I've lived through

more but I think get you know there are also opportunities here to say you know let's trust the voters to do what they believe is right whatever that is and if they say no then let's trust each other to have a conversation about how to figure out how to move forward and get this school built um while doing everything we can not to compositions because there's other things we're going

to do first no question about it I'll do there's a hundred things I'll do first before I cut positions because these are people's livelihoods so if you don't get the two and a half increase the up two and a half are you you you're cutting Personnel not not yet no not yet I'll start with stabilization and then we'll do zeros on cvas we'll free spending um there's we'll probably Lobby for a trash

fee uh because free trash is is crazy um I mean there's a lot of things we can do none of those are going to get us all the way there but but if we do enough Small Things it'll help right all right I I'm going to wrap up now uh let my colleague speak but I'm just going to say we got to remember one very important thing here and the important thing is this isn't about

Diamond this is about taxes and increasing fees to the residents of this community that's what this is about diamonds being built there's a foundation being poured blasting is occurring as we speak and I don't agree with the way this is being conducted and being handled I am a no vote on this and uh if the council decides to pass it great but I don't I don't have faith in the system that will allow this

to be sustainable for the taxpayers and the business owners in the landlords I just can't so I yell thank you Mr President counc counc C3 Council hot thank you Mr President good evening um I I do have faith uh in this in this process and I do think that I mean obviously I'm not going to go back and rehash everything that this council did before I got here I would have brought

it to the voters I'm doing it this time um and I know the ramifications if there's going to be a no vote in it um um I and you know just frankly if if there is a no vote you I'm sure you have at least considered some some uh things that we're going to have to do correct you just mentioned them what more ex can you be a little more detailed about that

I know it's tough to to do that but I mean it's not put on counsil there it's too many Mis Parts the only reason I would hesitate to answer that question is and you should hesitate is when you you start to speculate about all the things you could do folks hear it they may not understand that what we're talking about is speculation as opposed to a real fact and then people panic for

their jobs and their livelihoods I don't want to put people in that position okay I just want to say I just want to say too that the uh as far as the public safety goes the fire and police are already low right now when I was a counselor with Mr President kamarra back when I was a city council I think the they were the police were up to 240 and

maybe the fire might have been at 250 260 and those numbers they're not there anymore like as that that those numbers so to see them uh get depleted again with their force is going to be devastating to the city um and that's something that I'm never going to do uh but I do think that the voters have a say in this and I think I'm going to I'm going to do the right thing tonight and

send it to them they vote no they vote no they vote Yes they vote Yes but um I'm not going to uh deny their right to uh to decide so I yeld thank you thank you C I just want to clarify the voters have a right as to how they choose to pay for it but diing is going to be built right regardless of what happens I don't want anyone and I'm telling you

you're misrepresentative Council I'm not saying that at all but I don't want anyone to think that this vote tonight is a vote to saying we're going to pay and build timing if we don't if we vote no we're not going to have this bill no it's it's it's there it's coming it's just a matter of a different way of paying for it so that's the only that they'll vote for councel in SE eight Council

Samson thank you council president so I am going to labor the point for a minute I think it's terrible that this is coming before us like this I think that this should have gone to the voters 100% the first time this is the equivalent of being forced to accept a gift and then being told you got to pay for that gift that you never wanted in the first place this is totally being put back on the

laps of the residents of Fall River without being asked if they wanted it in the first place uh it's you know dery got building Diamond wants building I'm Diamond grad I graduated from Diamond proud Bango uh class of 99 but unfortunately um I have to say that this is this is terrible but so I'm left with the decision do I have the vote it's coming it's happening it's built you go

on highest in the street you can see it um how they are going to pay for it they're going to pay for it one way or another no matter what they will have to pay for whether they have less police fire people in this building or they're going to pay higher on their taxes they're going to pay no way around it um that right was stripped from them when this was voted on so that's number one

number two um I like to be able to for people to make an informed decision so when we Scurry around the fact well what what are our options well I don't want to really talk about the options because the options could scare people in this building what are the options what are options are we looking at the stabilization fund how long is the stabilization fund uh Miss Alman you said a couple of times you've done like

a a fantastic job of putting money away and investing money you got all this money invested can we use that money being invested and and the stabilization funds what are we looking at I mean there are so many options but what are our options so then we're going to look at do I make a vote towards the the citizens of for R yeah put it on the ballot or what does that look well I

don't want to put too much information out there because we don't want to scare anybody so how can we make an informed decision with a little bit of information we are going to have to pay for it so we need to know how are we going to pay for this our are we going to be laying off fire and police or are we going to have to go into our stabilization fund are we going to have

to not spend nope cut back on the paper towels I don't know what you're going to do but what we should know what all of our options are and so yeah I'm not going to take the the right to the voters away they're going to have to take a look at this but am I confident what that ballot question is going to look like I don't know I mean we had

that Charter I'm sitting on the charter review commit when that Charter came out people voted for the charter didn't even know what they were vote for it was confusion were they voted for the charter schools were they voting for the chter people didn't know so am I confident what have you considered what that is going to look like on that ballot question for the people so they can make an informed decision to they

know exactly what they're looking at so I'll answer that two ways okay uh the first is to all the things you just said yes those could happen we've consider those we understand what those would look like and how much money they would save um I could rank them in order of preferability but I think we can all understand what that ranking would be without me saying a word which is you start with the stab fund the

stabilization fund as a result of SE Almond's uh fantastic investment in Saving uh because it that really has been remarkable right so you start with the money we have on hand and then you work down from there you look at freezing spending you look at uh a total essentially uh if it were a country it would be called austerity um where auster measures go into place and you

start to look at um how can we cut costs and how can we increase revenues from where they are now so once we deal with the stabilization fund then I would look at trying to increase revenues garbage would be the first place I would probably look because that's something that for a long time has been an expense without any sort of Revenue attached to it to offset it um there's several other

places where I probably look at fees um and you know those end up being in you know in engineering in and in DCM and in planning and all the different places where there are fees we'd have to look at how those fees are assessed and are they enough and are they current uh and then from there once you're done with Revenue then you start to look at saving money and you know the last thing you

want to do when you absolutely have no other choice is to cut Personnel it's the last thing you want to do uh these are remarkable people uh they come to work every day most of them don't get paid enough most of them know that people in other towns with a lower workload getting paid more money and at the same time they come on time they do their work um they're great to deal with

uh and I'm proud to have them work for me in different ways um so the absolute last thing I could imagine is saying to somebody hey you know we uh uh we don't have a position for you anymore but keep in mind we're already working with sort of close to a skeleton crew I mean you can talk to CF Alman about what her staff used to look like even 5 years ago

7 years ago she's you know working with half to two-thirds of the people maybe even less of what you used to um you know the fact that there is a a single receptionist for the mayor um you know if you go to Brockton that mayor's office I think has eight or nine people in it included and that's before you even get the support staff so so we are already working you know on a you know

with a a smaller staff than most cities of this size and we'd have to look at how do we do that even more efficiently and with fewer people as awful as that is so thank you for that definition because I think that's what the voters deserve is full transparency of what they're voting on so to say um I almost feel like it's a less is more look the there are going to be some hard

decisions we're going to have to look at something cut let's let the voters then be able to decide what exactly it is that they're looking at what are they voting for are you going to vote for uh you know the override or or this is the this is the consequence of yes and no but when we're when we're skirting around the issue and not talking about it we're not able to make an informed

decision you shouldn't have to make that decision we shouldn't have to make that decision the voter should have to make that decision so in these circumstances for me the more information the better it is for the people if I may yeah the second answer to your question is exactly that education so if in fact uh this Council sees fit to allow us to go to the voters um what's going to have to

happen is for for both sides um to do their very best to make an argument uh and educate the voters about what a Yes means and what a no means um and we may have different perspectives on on what those two things look like depending on what side you're on but at the end of the day you know it's I don't really think it's it's too subjective I think

at the end of the day it's like well this is what will happen if this happens it's about if this happens there are costs associated either way so there will be time between now and the fall which is when this this question it would be on the presidential ballot question in November um if we were to be able to do this between now and the fall to actually educate the voters and give

them something to make that decision on um and if the decision is entirely based upon hey I can't afford more taxes I get it I understand that if it's going to be more you know tell me what this means if I say no well then then that information is going to be provided to the best of the ability of the people that are advocates for the for the yes un fortunately um in all du respects and

and fortunately you're going to come get this money anyway whether it is a trash fee so you can't afford the 260 but you're looking at raising so a trash R so all of that needs to be brought to the voters and however and that would be my ask here that if this I don't know what the votes are and if it passes but I'm going to vote for it to go to the

public because it should have been in the Public's hand immediately but the public deserves all the information and with that I yield Council thank you Council Council T1 Council Kine thank you um I guess I'm just going to be the individual that continues to disagree with everybody so um I I don't think this needs to be before the public um I understand the Democratic process but

you know chapter 59 section 21c clearly outlines that the city council takes this vote um I agree with my colleague inc8 education's important but how can we ask the voters to get educated when we don't have the information tonight to take this vote and you think that the voters are going to be educated on this uh I apologize cash grab that was my terminology um it's I I I still feel the

same way that I did back in 2018 there were promises made there was discussion that there was only going to be5 million or 8 million that was part of the debt exclusion and I told people that number one the average voter does not understand the debt exclusion that is a problem okay what taking up this issue tonight we've got a handful of people here there is nobody following us there's nobody paying attention to us

there's nobody paying attention to this issue there's only on a good election maybe 20% that go out to vote so we're asking 20% of the voters to go out who are not really truly paying attention about the issues who do not truly understand and I'm not saying um you know they're uneducated because that's not what I'm saying the problem is is that we've got councilors here that have

been serving that truly don't understand all the ins and outs of municipal government and we want the lay person who is at home working multiple jobs to try try to understand how municipal government works it's never going to happen the responsibility falls on us we are the representatives of the people this is why the law says that the city council by a vote of 2third will make the decision as to whether or not we

want to see this question on the ballot okay so that's for us to make that determination by two-thirds vote so if we do not feel comfortable putting on the ballot because we don't have the information why should we put it on there just because of the democratic process we are supposed to know more about the debt exclusion the inner workings of government compared to the the voter right so I don't know that

we've got the information tonight to to make that determination that's just me personally I've got some questions but in terms of of the cash grab it's exactly what transpired I I said it two years ago four years ago however long it was we were promised that only a portion of this was going to come out of The Debt Service and I kept on saying that once we have a ballot question for a

debt exclusion it's the entire amount there is no dollar amount so when times got tough and that's this is where crash cash grab came out that the administration was going to use the debt exclusion as a cash grab okay so my first question is the dery debt exclusion is is the dery debt 100% on the debt exclusion um this was the first year that was 100% on the debt exclusion okay

so we were told it was never going to be 100% so we're 100% of the debt exclusion so we've got a debt exclusion for fedia at $98 million right so as far as I know that this Administration made um he did not put it on for the full debt exclusion for three years and I'm pretty sure that was what I understood was his uh representation no no I recognize that but the the representation that was was

that we would never be at 100% of the Deb so again that was from be well before the anybody sitting at this table I I'm not I'm not suggesting it was the folks at the table no I know and I and again and and I understand you down from the administration to answer the question but we were told by an Administration and and the mayor again to to my colleague in C6 I think um he

he mentioned that you know mugan was an advocate for for the dery he was part of the group going around advocating for the fact that if we go to a debt debt exclusion we would not be at 100% % and I was the loan novoe and everybody criticized me for not supporting dery and I said I supported dery within the debt limit within our operating budget and it is what it was like and I and I

recognize it you know you you deal with financial issues you have the ability to go to a to the debt exclusion and use it and that's and that's what transpired so now we use 100% of the debt exclusion that we were told was only going to be a percentage so that being said how much if if we followed the promise that was taken back in um was it 2018 2018 if we if we did the projections

that were were provided to us on 2018 how much are we sha saving off of the debt schedule now that is currently being funded under the the general fund it's got to be Millions right so two three four million so what I so you're asking me about dery or or D dery so in 2018 we we we were told and I forget what the percentage was yes so again and

I looked at those and so my and again when you read and you look at what it it was the the you know footnote was as long as there's no additional debt and that didn't happen and that wasn't that I get but that but that's not what that's not even realistic I I agree with you because you're never you're never not going to have debt On Any Given year I don't believe that I can't see myself

making that kind of representation I wouldn't make that repres that was the representation that was made to the to the public that was the representation that was made to the council so I guess what I'm looking to figure out is if that repres presentation was upheld there is a percentage that was coming out of the general fund what was that percentage so if you're moving it all to

the to the debt exclusion there's got to be a savings there and I guess what I'm what I'm trying to suggest is if it's $ four or5 million I think without going to another debt exclusion you went to a you're at 100% of a debt exclusion let it pay for for diamond and last two years were at 50% it was only 50% was put on for the debt exclusion this was the first year

and I as far as I understand that was the promise that was made by our current mayor so three years the debt exclusion was not fully put on so but what $2 and half million against yeah so the budget three years so we saved we we freed up $2 and5 million in the well we didn't free it up we we absorbed it into the operating budget that two and a half million so

the so two and a half million was not put on on the debt exclusion but it is now this is the first year yes right so but again you I mean you've looked at our budget you know I mean there's I'm not so to fit the room again there's going to be consequences either way for anything I mean I think the what the this Administration is asking is is to

let it go to the voters to make that decision because either way again there's consequences I I understand the I understand that there are consequences we just don't know what the consequences are that that's what I'm saying we we talked about a capital item right so we we got Capital planning I asked the question what's what's the actual plan for spending down on the capital so we

don't know if we're going to spend a million dollar $2 million $3 million $4 million a given year on the capital items that came before us so we don't have any of that I don't disagree with my colleague and C6 in terms of the negotiations the negotiations that came before us and and you did give us a funding mechanism like the total cost and and I had asked for it um but we

questioned whether or not it was accurate and I personally am still waiting for the for the information on that aspect so he is he is absolutely correct when he says that so from my standpoint looking at the totality of where we stand to be able to make an educated vote as to whether or not we supported debt exclusion to go to the uh to the to the voters to take a vote on

we don't have that information so we don't know you know what what we're looking to spend on Capital items we don't know uh anticipated what new debt is coming through we don't even know you know when I look at the um the debt runoff we're at $8.9 so $9 million I I think originally we had an internal Target of of 10 million a year to keep there so that we could you know you know

have some some additional debt come into it so that it was it was budgeted so do that we've never had the conversation as to does that need to look at like 10 million 12 million $15 million so from my standpoint we just have not had those conversations um I I don't disagree and another discussion is is the trash fee and know I i' support a trash fee and and maybe that's not a that that's not a

popular vote or or statement to make to the to the taxpayers but I I will tell you that at least they have an option I mean they can opt out of a trash fee right so if they don't want the trash service they can go pay for another service if it's cheaper what they can't opt out of is the assessment for for the debt exclusion so you know those are those are conversations that I think we

need to have before we even entertain uh the discussion or the vote to put something on the ballot and then when you startop looking at the ballot question which is you know prescribed by law I mean I I don't know that an average voter who is not paying attention to local government is going to be able to understand this question and know exactly without somebody standing there explaining it to them

that this is a debt exclusion and you know if we were in a town and you know because there's a lot of towns out there that do debt exclusions for all of their debts that's a different story because I I think the average voter is used to a debt exclusion the dery high school project was the first debt exclusion for the city of FL River and and I and I maintained that the average person did

not know what that truly meant in terms of what the impact was going to be on their taxes so the question is pursuant to section 2131 of the for of a city code of ordinance do you adopt uh do you adopt the city council's approval on February 22nd 2022 of the greater for of Regional Vocational School Districts vote to borrow for costs associated with the construction of a new Regional

Vocational High School Diamond which will obligate the city to pay for its for its allocable share of said project and and shall the city of for River be allowed to exempt from the provisions of proposition 2 and one2 so-call the amounts required to pay for the city's share of the principal and interest on bonds notes or certificates of indebtedness issued by the greater for ofer Regional Vocational School District

to pay the cost of design and construction originally equip equipping and Furnishing a new Regional Vocational High School including the payment of all costs incidental or related thet there's no way that the average vo is going to know that that means you're going to tax me on top of what I'm already getting taxt right and I understand that this isn't your question this isn't the question this is the

question as it's written by the general law so for any of us to think that you're going to put that on the ballot and the average person going into the first of all I think once you get past the uh the first sentence I don't think they're going to want to read any further so it's either going to just be a no or a yes and and it doesn't truly

matter but I don't I don't know that the average voter is truly going to understand what that question means um and so it for me I think it's incumbent upon us to make sure that we truly understand what the impacts are and you know I'm hearing that there may be some layoffs there may not be some layoffs um you know I I I think there's a little bit more conversation that needs to be

had in terms of what the actual Financial impact is going to be what the strategy is for U additional debt coming on you know we've we've got other building projects uh that that need to take place we talked about the fire departments uh we talked about um some additional uh buildings that need to be maintained and and I know you've mentioned it that we constantly say we don't take care of our parks and and all

this other stuff so I think from a totality standpoint we need to truly understand you know where we where we are um from a from a financing standpoint of all our projects and and what the game plan is going forward uh in terms of what we want to see in our budget year overy year because I don't even think we've had that conversation um so with that I don't I

don't know that I I'm going to be supporting it but so I will I mean I can I can give you a list of all the debt that's been brought on and the majority of it is school debt over the last three four years um you know the the count they come to the council they get the authoriz the approval the project starts and then on the city Side on the

treasury side we have to then borrow for it we don't have a choice so that's kind of that's what's happened I mean and unfortunately that's not net School spending eligible so that that becomes the city's responsibility and that's what most of that debt is I mean you I can get you a breakdown so what's the total What's the total allocation for Fall River in terms of diamond so is it a for diamond yeah um

so diamond is it's it's on this I did give you this lovely provided by them anization schedule um and so if you're looking at it like in 26 it's going up to they're projecting uh 4.7 million then it'll drop for some reason down to 4 million 7 and then it goes up to 6.9 6.9 and then then uh like 2030 it goes to $7.4 million is full River share so again

like to sit here and talk about like you know what do we what kind of what are we going to spend on capital projects every year it's a little daunting when you're looking at numbers like this and if we're going to have to fit that into the budget then we have to say no to other things so so so we we're representing so The Debt Service so our portion of the 286 is

220 that includes interest that's your principal in interest but that's is two include the reimbursement too the msba reimbursement yes I thought the total project was uh wasn't the total project to 293 or something but then you have to add the interest on over 30 so the the msba reimbursement I believe was 145. 7 million out of 293 so I guess the $293 million or whatever it was magical number it

doesn't exist anymore so what is the real number then that's what I'm trying to figure out I don't know in fact when when we when this this was presented to you in February the numbers we had met with the diamond folks literally the day before and didn't and hadn't seen any of the things that were presented to this Council we had a a basic number so we have some folks on the diamond uh building

committee uh who are talking about value engineering and the different efforts that they're making to try to bring that cost down but at the same time the cost themselves for just basic materials are going up so uh from what I understand we're still close to the 29 3 um but but probably a little bit above I don't have an exact number as of today so again this was the most this was recently prepared within the last

couple weeks sent To Us by Diamond um so but if we do the 293.50 million div by so the scenario that they're the figures are 147 725 is do I'm sorry say it again um this is what I have something from them that said 147,50 and again this is based on a project have something from them who is them diamond from Diamond yes and is that based on 293 million it says estimated District share of construction

is 147 725 all right so that's only 400,000 more than it was at the time and I'm and I was told um that this was presented back in the original presentation and the number hasn't changed is what I was told when was this a little bit I was just told this a few weeks ago I was told that when they presented in February so then when you add but I

would I would think it's 113 right so 293 51% of that is going to be msba and then 75 76% is is our portion right so without the interest yeah so our our portion is 113.9 roughly I think that's low is that 76% of 147 it's not including interest no it's off the 293 oh the 147 yeah okay the 51% rein reimbursement yep that's not so I guess that's where I was going

so so dery was 98 million so we got a debt exclusion of 98 million so you know we again we we were sold that that project would be 100% within the general fund at some point so now essentially we're at Diamond you're looking at 113 million so you got one school that's just assuming that since dery is not on the general fund we we absorbed diamond in the general fund

and we went to we did a Deb exclusion for one of the high schools and quite frankly and and I know folks may not been in support of diamond but we we've just built all these new schools for every single Public School in the city of Far River with the exception of of diamond we just did dery at $98 million and then when Diamond comes before us we're going to tell them no that you

can't have a new school 70 75% of the students off FL of a student so I you know just well nobody's saying no I mean it's happening no I I get it and and if we and and those students if and if those students didn't didn't go to Diamond they would be going to dery so we would need a larger school right or we'd need a second school so it's just

it's just one of those but in all fairness the reimbursement rate was significantly higher on those other schools that you built in no I I I don't disagree with you that and and the cost the cost to build a vocational school is higher as well and and that's that again that's that's an issue with msba that's an issue with the state legislature in terms of how that that all works out but

I I just so unfortunately I mean if if it was a much higher percentage then we'd be looking at a less share for us I mean if if they were you know if if there was significantly less ineligibles and the and the share was closer to that 70 9% then this these this would be significantly less but it's not listen I so I think I think we should be I think

we should be advocating uh with our state reps to to see whether or not we can get that msba um reimbursement higher for for vacational schools that that because the reality of the situation is if you if you're building a a general school it's a lot cheaper than a vocational school and those reimbursements should be higher than what you would expect at a dery or any other public school so I did

ask that question and it's so if the legislature changes because this was approved then they still will live into this that's what I was told yeah if they wanted to they could change it well maybe you can persuade them I I don't you know so is that what they told you all right that's that's all I have thank you I thank you Council counc C2 counc Dan do you have your hand up yeah

just a couple of comments um I think in terms of the democratic process that sailed two years ago um it could have happened it didn't I voted no I didn't vote Yes because I could see the vote going that way I voted no um but that that boat sailed I noticed in this conversation that over and over we hear layoffs layoffs Public Safety Public Safety I didn't hear anything about zero

increases for anybody making $100,000 a year or more I didn't hear any any concessions or anything said about well I guess all our contractual people will have to not take increases you always go right to the public safety that bothers me so just to correct the record and I promise while I say this I'm not going to roll my eyes I'm not going to low sigh I'm not going to throw my head on

the desk because I'm not that respectful all right why do I do that oh absolutely let keep it professional let's keep it professional I want to see that on film roll the tape back three minutes while uh when I said I don't know the number of the total cost of diamond no I will not do that to you anyway go ahead let's continue on at the end of the day I think it's important to

correct the record because I never said we're cutting Public Safety I didn't say it not once truth is important and I do not on the radio by the mayor but that's that's okay I'm telling you what I just said you said during this conversation Public Safety Public Safety Cuts I didn't say that I said the last thing we want to do is cuts and there's many other things that we're going to do

before that and that could include freezing salaries that could include I mean I might do myself a favor we get rid of the position of City administrator all right I mean there are highly paid positions that we may not need and you know I think there's a reasonable argument for the organization of city government changing dramatically but like I said when councilor Hart asked and I've been you know my hand has been

forced a little bit here there are speculative conversations there are things we are doing and then there are things we may do in the future but none of those things can be taken lightly because you you got to look at the the financial impact and the operational impact if we were to say you know what you know a CFO makes too much money okay now the question is are we going to get

a CFO that is going to come for less and if we do is that going to be a person that has the knowledge that we need to to do the work a city administrator makes too much money are we going to get somebody here that is willing to do the job for $75,000 or $50,000 or whatever salary is acceptable to this Council and to the city of Fall River I don't know

and if we do is that person going to be able to do the job maybe maybe not there are so many considerations that are so much more complicated than just saying and I know it's a it's a good narrative to through out there to the voters but there are so many Sation that are much more complicated than this oh we should reduce people's salary who are over a certain amount of money it's not that

simple you none of this is that simp in all due respect I get that and that was part of the point and and it feeds right back into we don't know nobody has the answers nobody has the the complete answers nobody knows what the total picture is I mean you've said it multiple times tonight we don't know moving forward the decisions have to be made so basically that was the point but my last statement

and I don't know you can take it whatever way I'm not really I'm not trying to be disrespectful but that's good during one of the uh contractual times I asked the CFO if that par if a particular contract was sustainable and the response I received was the city of Fall River doesn't have a choice so I guess tonight I say to you diamond is going to be built and the City of Fall River doesn't have a

choice I've acknowledged that from the beginning and with that I yield thank you councelor councelor NCA counc Samson so are we on a time constraint to have to take a vote tonight because it's a valid question or can we get some more information to so we can take an informed decision of what some of those numbers look like some of those ways that you think that we could save the

$67 million a year and what some of those cost savings would be if we use a stabilization fund to be CAU cut you know C cost here I mean I'll be honest with you that I mean I believe it has to be has to go for August 7th and your stabilization I mean if you look at the balance I mean you're looking at it within a couple of years you'd use it up and you'd have

nothing you have nothing but you're not putting anything in it so you're saying we use it up there's no more money going in there I mean I I I'm struggling a little bit because I feel like we just heard um during budget Seasons that we're doing great we we're going to keep putting money in there we we have all these things if we stay the course we said if we stay the if stay the course

but we're not so if we're doing this and now you're not staying the course you're doing you're going off a different course we're but we're still going to put money in there so if we're using the stabilization count to stabilize the city pay for this I mean I just feel that there are other we don't I don't have enough information I feel at this point I mean we're talking about numbers we don't even know is everything

being looked at and what do those numbers look like you're saying well if we stay the course what does that course look like what was your cost looking like and what is it this course look like if we're taking another cor and we and we're taking $4 million from here and we're we're cutting here and we're cutting there and we've we've tightened up the budget and this is what it's

going to look like without having to lay people off but if we lay people off this is what it's going to look like and we had that that information in front of us to say all right look this is this is an accurate picture of what it's going to look like if we don't do the override I just feel that so I don't think we're asking we're asking for the I think the

administration and correct me if I'm wrong it's just asking for you to let the voters decide so it's not asking you like we're not asking to make all the decisions about how like what we but what do the voters deciding so my question is this what are so I am so grateful for my counselor in seat one this is why love him so much because he just is a matter of fact he's amazing

and he read that and I agree like so what are people voting on so do they know what they're voting on do they know what the ramifications are for voting this way I don't even know what the ramifications are so my question is council president do we have to take a vote tonight because because it's got to be yes so in order to get on the ballot it does have to go to the Secretary of

State and there's a whole process and it's by August 7th so that's our is were just so everybody knows that that's for this election so even if we shoot it down they could come back every single year for the next 30 Years asking for a Deb exclusion that's a nothing prevents that so that's a that thank you thank you can I ask him to explain that one more time so the the people so in order

to get on the November ballot yeah that's the August so if you want to do it for another election so so then we could you know take the break off the the tax payers this year and go to your stabilization fund that you've been so diligent about putting money putting money in there and see what that looks like and uh next year it can go back um on the on the voters we could have this

conversation every couple months we could do it next month at which point I would definitely cut the position of City Minister but we could definitely have this conversation every couple months if you wanted to listen we we can make this as much we can have a dead exclusion for firefighters we can have a dead exclusion for police off we can have we can go on there's so many different things to do but I'm not

encouraging any of those things no and I feel like so I just feel like my hands are so tied I feel like it's such an unfair vote because it's and so what we take the vote we don't take the vote and then we're laying off police and fire and say well the city council didn't vote for it so please don't say that don't say we take the vote we don't take that we're laying

off police of fire no one is saying that yeah well I I kind of you know so I guess I'm also kind of like it just seems like the fact that we've you know invested money made some money we're able to put some money in stabilization I just feel like you think that's a bad thing no I don't think that's a bad thing I think we use it who it's a bad

thing if we have it use it I'm not why do I say it's a bad thing what I think it's a bad thing is that we're stuck here with not a limited information information that you have you failed to prepare I feel for me a good outline of what it should look like what it's going to look like what's what it's going to look like on the taxpayers and then

you're asking me to take a vot so yeah I think that that's poorly put in front of me honestly so yeah not saving money keep keep saving money but what are we saving money for here's a rainy day it's pouring out people are sick of coming out of their pockets so yeah yeah good job saving it now it may be time to spend it with that I yield Council counc counc SE 7 Council POS

on okay so my question is simple if if it were to go to a ballot you mentioned before the pros and cons of a yes and a no if it were to go to a ballot you would be in a position to present to the public what possibly could happen if a no vote happens with the exception of the word you if we were to substitute a group advocating for all right because the

administration can't actually advocate for the question correct um I hesitate to say because then the question is who's going to Advocate it for and that's that's a legitimate important question um but um there would be a committee whose responsibility would be to educate to Advocate to create materials uh to do whatever they needed to do to advocate for whatever side they were taking in this particular

uh conversation do you feel that between now and and the November election if it were to happen that is enough time to properly plan information to the public to say this is what would happen if a no vote takes place yeah with a with a number estimated number of what would need to change in the city I do um I mean I spent most of my career trying cases trying to explain stuff to

juries that didn't know anything about that thing when they walked into the court that morning um I have a tremendous amount of Hope perhaps misplaced in the ability of people to understand stuff that isn't part of their everyday lives um so yeah I do think there's time and I think it could be done just my opinion okay and the only question I have left is back in February of

22 I voted no the first time and my question was how do we plan on paying for it and there was no clear answer fast forwarding two years you have a sense of what could happen if correct me if I'm wrong you have a sense of what could happen if it's a no vote why at this point has that not been presented the what could happen not the necessarily the what could happen but

the this is this is roughly the number we would need to to work out to make this work well I think it is there it's in the ammonization schedule no no I'm saying as far as in the city if we were to absorb it right back in 20 February of 22 I asked the question how would the city pay for outside of a prop two and a half so again I wasn't here then I know

I'm just I'm speaking justifying why I said no the time it had nothing to do with the school it had to do with paying for it so now that's why I'm asking you the question now if it were to go to the voters and a it has to be presented yes or no would you be prepared to put those numbers out in the public and say this is what if it's a no this is what would

have to change in city government yeah I I think we would I would not um I would probably stop short of specifically identifying you know the you know the clerk and you know that's thing because that that just causes Panic correct um but I think we would have to be fairly pointed about what um our contingency plan would be if it's a no vote um I think we would have to um you know

there's a process um so so you started with another question which is why why it has it been two years before you even come to to say to create this say what the plan could be or what the consequences could be and I will tell you that that probably March of 2022 the first thing we started trying to do is is can we um can we sort of figure out how to change our net School spending

like what's eligible for net School spending Not Our obligation but how how we get credit for it bus transportation things like that so we we started looking at a lot of kind of sort of inside baseball kind of nerdy things to try to figure out how to free up more money right um and that's when uh you know Bridget came in shortly thereafter um she's talking about investing arpa money we're looking at that you know and

that's why stabilization is on the table so there actually have been a lot of things we've tried a lot of which it was kind of like all right can't do this not Last Resort be clear I'm not saying that you sat in your hands for 2 years either I I'm just I would like you to what you're doing now explain from February of 22 to now where what we've done how

we've gotten to this point so continue please so so so there have been uh a number of of efforts that have been made to try to figure out can we find this money elsewhere um and in some ways uh the fact that stabilization is where it is that's been a great success in other ways our our uh School transportation uh idea that just wasn't that wasn't going to happen uh so fine that's that's okay

uh but we looked at a lot of different uh options we've been trying to figure out the trash thing it was slow to cancel commercial but now we're getting a little momentum there um and just to be clear when I say trash fee I'm not ruling out the different iterations of a trash fee whether that's pays you throw whether that's a trash fee whatever that looks like um you know that's you know

that's been on the table and that's probably and it's something I've represented this Council that we're going to um you know be talking to about and trying to figure out is that you know the Right Way Forward um and and I would say if if we can't do a debt exclusion then we're going to have to figure out a way to raise revenue that way we've looked at uh many of the fee

schedules and some of those have come before you to increase them because they hadn't been increased in years so a lot of the little things that you've seen have sprung from the 2022 meeting um most recently the conversation has been uh Staffing wise are the numbers we have now now in our different units whether our different bargaining units so there's seven units which is three

bargaining units in police one in fire two in city hall and then um our custodians which is law it's a three person unit um is the Staffing where it needs to be and if it were to stay at that level and we were to only replace attrition could we could we do that all right and that's been that's been the analysis recently um the addition um of Emily the development of Cedric

and the arrival of Bridget over the last couple years at different times has been really helpful in that analysis um because that's sort of what they spend you know the second half of their day doing after they make sure the city is moving the way it needs to move uh and Ian too I I w't forget Ian um and Rebecca I could keep going there's a there's a ton of people that are doing

that work um so that's the the analysis right now is from Staffing standpoint do we have who we need and if people retire and we only replace the retirees can we continue doing the job and are there positions where we can find efficiencies have you gotten that answer yet um I have some answers and um a lot of the conversation during the budget was uh the reorg that was much talked about in

DCM um you're going to see that get sent down for the next meeting which will then likely be uh referred to ordinance uh after that so in August you'll see that for the first time uh we've been working on that for the last while um so there's you know those are the things we're trying to do to avoid cutting people um because that's the last thing you want to do you know if austerity

means you know that you know we look you know people take Furlow days because that happened you know during the phate administration I believe um you know whether there's percentage Cuts you know whatever those are to keep let people keep their jobs but maybe at a slightly lower um standard that's part of the conversation so it's all it's all being looked at we just need to understand the consequences of it

okay thank you for that I yield thank you councelor de be no further questions you ref to full Council hold on hold I just want to make a statement no I mean everybody has asked questions and said things that questions that I would have asked for I I'm in favor of letting people decide but I did want to say Mrs Alvin I think you've did a great job with you know getting all the banks to

come in giving us more interest and putting more money uh into our account and getting us an extra $5 million I appreciate that and I appreciate the work that your team has done I just wanted to say that because I felt that more question I feel that that needs to be said with that I yield Mr counc coun Samson I just have one more question does the uh doesn't the fy2 budget

already have the diamond assessment in it no I mean no it has a diamond assessment for for the kids that are there now for 25 for which is interest only yeah it's it's much lower it's much lower it's only a b what's the what's the's that's like 840,000 or I think 808 yeah so it's so 808 would be in there so that would come off of your so there's a savings right there because it's already in

there it's already budgeted for like we just found money so they okay you just found 800,000 there you go you're using thank you I just want to share one thing with my colleagues and people that I think Seth you had just mentioned briefly upon it about furlows and stuff back when the N SE Cuts hit during the Bob career Administration and city had to make some very tough choices SE cuts

the city went to a 4 day work week not saying that's what we should be doing not saying this relative Flanigan Administration came in some people want the Union want to take a vote whether they're going to go back and get their 8% it was an 8% cut across the city all employees everybody some of the people wanted their 8% back they wanted to go back to five day working a week get their 8% back they

needed the money they wanted their salaries to go back to where they were prior to the night SE cards the Flanigan Administration went on the radio newspaper everyone said there's going to be 40 layoffs if that vote passes if the union votes for those five-day workload and they get their 8% back there's going to be 40 layoffs it wasn't just they were thinking about it was definite people were crying in this

building I was getting phone calls all the councelors were getting phone calls they were crying 40 layoffs that vote was taken on a Friday it was tabulated Friday night the union voted to go back five days get their 8% back Monday morning there was a press conference no no layoffs we found the money so anyone that's telling you firefighter is going to get laid off police is going to get laid off let me tell

you they'll find the money somehow somewhere they always have and they do just want to put it out there it happened true story back in 2011 and I'll never forget it 40 layoffs no ifs hands buts about it 24 hours later 48 hours later over the weekend they found the money needed they were not there was not one person laid off so it's a tough decision we've always got to make tough decisions

information same thing with the school department there was uh there was a lot of pink pink subs and then they Tred and they found the money then people left to other communities motion to refer to for Council already second it is but we refer anyways motion to refer Council to made in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries motion to adjourn motion to adjourn Finance has been remain seconded all in

favor I any opposed motion carries guys want to take a two-minute break before we take a two-minute break this gentleman can I give the citation out to this just start meeting that's let's just we'll just start the meeting and we can the citation okay start our meeting now right I'm telling Council we're going to have to C sit down we're going to start the meeting first we have to open the meeting to do the

citation yeah two two more minutes guys all set yep

city council please come to order the cler will call the Road Council is kadim here Dion here Hart here Kilby here Pereira here Pony Roso Samson president CRA here will everyone in the council chair please rise for a moment of Silent

prayer please remain standard for salute to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation indivisible with ability 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 through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are

being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible Madam Clerk is there motion to take the citation out of order motion so made motion to take item eight nine item nine out of order has been made and seconded all in favor any oppos motion carries Council prayer will you come down please okay Ben I'm sorry and also the Administration has a citation as well

Seth's going to present the citation sorry Seth Ben is a student at d and he also um works or volunteers at the dayon fire department do you want to tell them what about um so I'm a junior firefighter and it's a program that we can sign up for and basically teaches us about all the equipment and gear that the firefighters use on calls so it's pretty cool and you learned how to do tpr and

all the get certified so what happened was Ben happened to be out at a restaurant and there was a young lady who was choking yes and how'd you feel when you um it felt good being able to help somebody um knowing that I probably saved somebody or did save somebody that was a really good feeling so uh yeah he ended up giving this young lady the Heim lick maneuver and ended up saving her

life so on behalf of the city council for your courageous and selfless act to assist someone in need using the heick maneuver your bravery and compassion exemplifies the highest ideal of heroism and service to others so thank you so much ben thank you all right so we already know the story is this s yep all right so this is a mayoral citation be it hereby known to all this moal citation is hereby

conferred to Ben Corville in honor and recognition of your exemplary Service as a junior firefighter your heroic actions on June 30th 2024 in identifying someone in distress and Performing the higher maneuver saved her life given this 16th day of July 2024 signed Paul e Coogan mayor of Fall River conat

you're welcome thank you so much good job

Mom the first item before you is the mayor's request for the confirmation of Paulo J Emeral to the zoning board of appeals as an alternate member motion to confirm second motion to confirm has been made in seconded discussion on the motion counc SE six counc py yeah thank you Mr President so um I I tend to um be voting against this reappointment uh main due to the simple fact that number

one I feel that the zoning board of appeals is a very even though it's an alternate position um is in any kind of appointment that the council would give to any volunteer body I would want this person to be somebody that would be able to work in tandem with other elected officials in my opinion which means if something happens we have to have a joint meeting I want to be able to have a respectful

dialogue with this individual years ago there was this long- winded process to get people to go on boards we had a hard time finding people and to to some degree the mayor does have a hard time finding people to fill boards this board is quite an honorable board and I recall recently the the specific individual who has the appointment before us wanted to categorize this honorable body as trash

in and trash out and it's just not something me as as one counselor feel like it's to we can tolerate so I'm going to be voting no on the reappointment of this individual it's not a reappointment an the appointment whatever it is I'm sorry I I stand corrected it's the appointment of this individual I yield thank you councelor uh roll call on confirmation of the appointment council is kadim no Dion no Hart yes

Kilby yes Perera no ponti no raposo yes Samson no president no fa my motion fails motion to reject the appointment second motion has been made and seconded to reject the appointment all in favor I any opposed councel seat three opposes counc seat seven opposes sorry I'm sorry the motion is to reject reject yes okay my apologies I'll change my let's do a roll call just to play on the safe side that's way you can

whatever you want to go Caron kadim yes Dion yes Hart yes Kilby yes Pereira yes Pony yes reposo no Samson yes president C yes click the motion carries item number two is the mayor's request for a confirmation of the appointment of Ryan Pico to the greater full River Vocational School District confirm second motion to confirm has remained second on the motion C C5 Council PR you know these are the kinds of um

appointments that I like because Ryan has a lot of knowledge with buildings and because diamond is being built I think with all of his construction background I think this was a really good appointment to have on the uh Diamond School Board because all of the board members are certainly very involved with the building of the school um so if he can save us money Ryan as they're building things um would be much

appreciated by the city um you know and I know that he had a good leader a good learner so I am very pleased to uh pass this that's aome congratul hats off thank you and a diamond grad himself so he coun if you short in your speech we can vote for him I do what did he say go Bengals I don't know he told me to sh in my sweet that's okay I don't take

offense he been waiting here long enough huh he's been waiting here long enough I know he probably wants to go home let's go watch the allstar game ah motion to adopt has been made and seconded roll call mtion confirmation of the appointment council is kadim yes Dion yes Hart yes Kilby yes Pereira yes hty yes Roso yes Samson yes president yes congratulations congratulations quick item three is the mayor's request

for confirmation of the reappointment of Maria Connie Su to the historical commission Mo conf confirm seconded y all in favor I any opposed motion carries next before you is the mayor's request for um the approval of Grant orders from the mass Executive Office of Public Safety and Security the first in the amount of $10,200 um the department of fire services for student awareness of fire education

motion to adopt second motion to adopt has been made and seconded all in favor I opposed motion carries the next is the amount of $3,100 from the um eops Department of fire services for senior student awareness of fire education motion to adopt second second motion to adopt has a made in seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carried and the third in the amount of $100,000

for municipal local cyber security grant program motion to adopt motion to adopt as a made in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries item five is the um communication from the mayor and The Correspondents from the director of financial services regarding the amortization scheduled for Diamond adop place on file second accept the place file has been made in second all in favor any opposed motion carries

have the quarter four budget report motion refer the committee on finance second motion to refer the committee on finance as a m in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have the traffic commission recommending amendments to the ordinances refer to ordinance motion to refer the committee on ordinance and legislation has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries where is the Pine

Street and Robison Street intersection has been the location of many traffic accidents and has increased overall con concerns regarding Public Safety and whereas the intersection currently only has stop signs on the Eastbound and Westbound sides of Pine Street and where as many automobiles bicycles and pedestrians commute within this neighborhood as it is nearby to a large Hospital historical Cemetery Veteran

Center and public park now therefore be it resolved that the Committee on Public Safety convene with the director of traffic and parking and a representative of the fer Police Department to discuss possible plans to remedy the vehicular bicycle pedestrian safety matters within the area of the Pine Street and Robison Street in motion to adopt seconded to adopt has a been seconded on

the motion Council seven Council posos on yeah so just the purpose of this is kind of twofold um the intersection itself I would rather go around than go through that intersection um coming off Pine Street on the robus street it's a blind corner it's not good and there was just an accident there last week where a car ended up in the parking lot of the gas station um so it's clearly not safe

and and I I applaud the traffic department for already um looking into it I also did send a letter to the traffic board about this um but also I mentioned in the resolution is some of the parking situation that's happening um the growth of the vabc on Pine Street which is great um has been kind of plagued with a traffic issue and a parking issue where people going to the vabc are being ticketed um on because

there's no parking on that side of the street which is completely problematic um so that's also going to be looked at as well so I'm just looking for the Committee on Public Safety to look at this first end about that particular intersection which is uh kind of dangerous so that I yeld thank you councel councelor Cat 3 councel har thank you Mr President yeah for the councelor and seat 7 I will definitely

have called a meeting it's going to be shortly um we're going to have a few other things on there but I will um work it out with Warren and we'll have it maybe I hope mid August thank you Council okay y councelor i yield I'm sorry thank you m CLK um item n on motion has remain second all in favor any opposed motion carries out of nine is a citation motion to adopt second

motion to adopt the citation we already did that oh maybe we didn't I'm sorry motion to adopt the citation is made in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have the order granting permission to Mass Electric Company in Verizon New England for one new jointly owned pole location on Veil Street motion to adopt second motion to adop adopt has been made and seconded all in

favor I any opposed motion carries have the order granting permission to Kyra Ciro for the Cur removal at zero High Street motion to adopt second motion to adopt as in second all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have the order granting permission to Elanor Cahill for curbing removal at 71 Maran Street motion to adopt motion to adopt has been made second seconded all in favor I any

opposed motion carries the police Chiefs report motion to adopt motion to adopt report has remain in seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item 14 is in order um for the applications of renewal of auto body shop license located at 1033 Pleasant Street motion to adopt motion to adopt has been made in seconded all in favor I I any opposed motion carries item 15 are applications for auto repair shop

licenses um at the following Loc locations 537 Bedford Street 400 Stafford Road 129 Rhode Island Avenue 56th Street and 10:33 Pleasant Street motion to adopt motion to adopt has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries item 16 is the order reappointing Joyce rodri to the to serve on the historical commission motion to adopt motion to adopt hasn't made and second it all in favor I I any

opposed motion carries we have a number of claims motion to to refer to Corporation Council motion refer to claims to Corporation councel has been made there a second second second all in favor I any opposed motions item 18 is a communication from the um license holder um at um excuse sorry at 193 Oak grve Avenue and he's looking to um revisit the conditions of his license motion to refer the committee on regulations

second motion to refer the committee on regulations has been made and seconded all in favor I any opposed motion carries we have 19 a through F which are Street openings less than five years um the request from the city administrator the first would be for 15 Robison Street motion to approve is there a motion to take items a through F together motion so made second motion made and seconded all in favor I I any

opposed motion car you just read out items a through F please mhm we have 15 Robison Street 365 montop Street 323 South Oxford Street Oak grve Avenue in Locust Street intersection and Oak grve Avenue and New Boston Road intersection and the last um would be Palmer the Palmer Street Corridor motion to approve to approve has been made and seconded all in favor on counc C5 coun you have hand I just wonder why why are

these emergency most of these cils new buildings in they're not emergencies no they're not emergencies they're just the um the 5year street opening requests they're not emergency though but are there houses being built there new constructions on the ones on New Boston Road the other ones right but I think that people should know and get approval from us before they start doing new construction because what are we

going to do now say oh no you can't and then you have everybody else on the street complaining because they they just did our street and they're already making cuts and when they make Cuts they never put them back the same I've got one on Bedford Street they built a house and they put it now that all the trucks are going back and forth to Diamond bloody thing is sinking it's been

sinking forever they should do it right it's crazy it's bonded progress I guess right you I don't know where that curb to curb and Flow Phil W but I certainly don't see it all right got to vote for it now because uh can't have somebody moving into a house and not have water or sewer or whatever right you your C aggravates me yeah I just wanted to say that council

president want to let you know how I felt okay I think we all agree with it's frustrating it thank you so much Council C7 Council propos you have your hand up yes just for clarification purposes each of those items has a letter from Liberty Utilities specifying exactly what the issues are some are cutting off abandoned line service others are um for gas utility infrastructure and then the

rest of them D through f are about reducing loss in unaccounted gas so they all have reasons it's in the letters in the packet but that's the communication we need to have with the gas company correct but those do that stuff before it's frustrating those are all in there I Y thank you thank you Council motion has remain seconded all in favor any opposed motion carries and lastly the committee on

finance at a meeting held on July 16th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying order be referred to the full Council for Action this would be the ballot question regarding the new diamond high school roll call motion to adopt motion to adopt second second roll call roll call an adoption of the order council is kadim no Dion no Hart yes Kilby yes Pereira yes Pony no reposo no

Samson no president CRA no the motion fails motion second motion to adjourn has made in second all in favor any oppos city council meeting is now adour

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