9.24.2024 Fall River City Council

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Finance meeting if the clerk could call the role councilor kadim Dion here Hart here Kilby here ponti here Roso here Samson here president CRA and vice president Pereira here pursuing to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees and therefore advise that such recordings or Transmissions are being

made whether perceived or unperceived by the those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible citizen inut the citizen input is three minutes per person uh sometimes the council will say something but sometimes they don't because citizen input is for the citizens to be able to come and give us input so don't think that we're not listening to what you're saying we are but those are the rules the first one

that signed up Christopher Carlos Carlo conin on 73 Brownell Street Fall River come on down yes citizen input time is held before finance and after for whatever you want to speak about have a seat and speak into the microphone facing this way oh bre this one just trying to help I appreciate you that's the first timer here you know what I mean that's good run for councel yeah okay so I just

want to speak on behalf of like the homelessness ordinance that's supposed to be like an issue today right and um so as as a gentleman who's been homeless in the city of for about two and right two and a half years right on and off stins in different uh facilities and and uh different uh shelters you know what I mean so i' I've been boots on the ground for a long time here um with these

people and as far as like it being an ordinance to like as far as I understand I don't know the facts in particulars about it but you know finding people for having outside camping equipment taking confiscating uh tents and things like that all it's going to do is perpetuate people into a state of fear when people in a state of fear right when the man comes down and wants to take whatever

little bit that they have of their dignity or place or sheltered and like that you know all it's going to do is inhibit them from a new experience and only through a new experience of being in a safe place right feeling welcomed by their Community not shunned for the situation they might be in because they're just circumstances these individuals right uh they're sick and suffering right

whatever the case may be they've fallen on hard times they could have drug addiction or mental health issues right I would not have the same contempt for somebody who had cancer or heart disease for people that are just you know down and out and it's only in in a safe environment right lacks Lacks of like this ordinance to to to make them feel more shameful or or or adopt these labels of guilt and shame because of

like their Community shunning them we need to make them feel more safe and more open to a new experience to get them back in involved in community right that's this the only way we're going to solve the problem pushing these people out to and finding them I know I got holes in my shoes I've been walking around for three days when it rained with wet socks dirty socks feet soak and

wet going to different programs going to different uh Community meals right um with these people and and I know that from my own experience and that's the only thing I can speak of is is only from having a safe environment for them then they are they are uninhibited by fear which shuts us off from a new experience right God let me forget what I think I know so I can have a new

experience and the new experience isn't finding people for this stuff it's not um taking their tents or forcing them into a state in which they don't want to exist right cuz all you're doing is is you're just making the problem worse I feel like I feel like if we could just you know as a community come together open up our doors a little bit open up our hearts and be open to these

individuals as I am right talking with them because they're just people everybody is somebody somebody and you can't treat people like that I mean I wouldn't want to be treated like that because all I'm going to do is rebel against you if you do do that and that's not going to solve the problem solving the problem is making a safer place for them opening up building more shelters cuz it's only through a safe

environment people are open to a new experience unencumbered by fear and I witnessed it with my own eyes 15 more seconds so that's that's really all I have to say and and I I've developed a rapport with a a lot of the people in the city of Fall River as far as like the homeless go and I shot herin for 15 years about five years up stay from all

was and Valentine today I I was of the Hopeless variety you know what I mean and when I got down to a situation that was not my own fault it was not of my making right I suffered a traumatic brain injury and I realized that what was going on around me when I got down to the level of being homeless and having nothing right that what the real problem was and it was only from sharing

in the experience walking around throughout the night in the freezing cold to stay warm and then during the day trying to find somewhere where I can get enough rest and peace of mind to think clear enough to fix my own situation but I didn't have that right not a lot of people do not a lot of people um have have have you know I don't know they they let them circumstances get down because they're

stigmatized and they're judged by a community that should open up their arms and should want to help them and not shun them because everybody's somebody somebody and everybody deserves to feel like they're worth the trouble thank you Mr Conlin thank you next up is Kelly B Cannon Bradford Avenue good evening guys you know why I'm here I'm Pro for the ordinance and I hope that we have the votes tonight to

pass it thank you thank you next is Reverend James Hornsby Lake Avenue r j m no it's not I got I'm going to use mine Council vice president is that a is that a Fall River address yes Lake Avenue is Jim Hornsby 260 Lake Avenue Fall River thank you for the time I'm opposed to the proposed ordinance please vote it down arrest jail removal possible criminal record finding people with money when they don't have any

it all sounds rather primitive this is the 21st century where people human beings are homeless provide a home when folks are in need of treatment for physical health problems see a doctor

when folks are addicted provide detox provide also long-term Residential Treatment when people need support reach out and provide support and Love and

Hope in my experience as a social worker as a clergyman at St Luke's Church as a board member of United Interfaith action it's my opinion that we need to reach out with healing not with punishment thank you are you any questions or welcome thank you Reverend next to speak is Sarah mayor from Somerville Massachusetts so we'll need motion to wave the rules second motion second all in favor

hello it's good to see you guys again can you hear me okay yes okay so yeah I live a little ways away and I come here and I take care of our patients who are homeless um at Star and I take care of them on the mobile van at places around the city um and it's been special for me to work in Fall River because um one thing that has stood out for me is the

compassion that this city shows its residen even when they're homeless um and I've been really proud to be a part of this and for my patients to say hey the mayor checked in on me in my encampment there's very few cities that can say that um I've been so proud watching my patients go to the go through the sober housing Grant and to see Fall River leading in the state in terms of effective um responses to

homelessness I'm urging city council to continue on this path of effective and compassionate um efforts against homelessness and therefore I'm opposed to this ordinance plenty of places have passed these ordinance they all still have people who are homeless there is no evidence that it's effective there's evidence that it is cruel when there are no shelter beds for people to go to um what fixes

homelessness is housing some people need sober housing we're doing great at that some people need affordable housing senior housing some people need permanent support of housing they do not have the um cognitive or or mental health function to manage an apartment on their own they need a case worker um they need support they need just a little room some meals um I just want to encourage the city to continue on the

good path it has been on towards effective and compassionate um treatments and not to be led astray by the the sort of social winds towards um window dressing but harmful Solutions thank you thank you next next next is kenri 2000 Bay Street on

housing how you doing councilors how you doing your time I'm really trying to contribute to my city this city our city that we live in the best we can um I've been talking years on certain platforms about the Tiny House program sir just Mr can you speak into the mic aat and that way you're closer to the microphone there you go good job I thought the mic would pick that up

but I guess there you go all right um yeah just I just believe that there's some kind of gingerification going on in our city where we're putting rents so high it's making it untain for people to even have that American Dream never mind afford an apartment in our community um and you look at what happened in South Boston the grif foration in South Boston I've been saying this for years where we

need Solutions and then California you know some things I don't agree with what California does but it makes a a thing for where we can improve our our circumstances um having entrepreneurs set up um pieces of land and put tiny houses a tiny house Community for veterans um I know there was talk of it last time the um you guys met last City council meeting I wasn't able to uh

attend that due to health reasons but um I I think there is Solutions I don't think I know there is Solutions we just have to try to work together in the middle in our city and not every make everything so political and worry more about the people and what something that just popped into my mind where I thought we had this this discussion about the marijuana and the tax money to allocate

this why isn't the marijuana tax money being used for the infrastructure the housing the needs that this city has I thought that what this marijuana tax money was supposed to do was alleviate the burdens the rents all of this stuff we're talking about the homelessness that it was supposed to alleviate this and all I see is people getting poorer people that are even making six figures

can't get ahead they're crying at the taxes it's like I thought I was going to be able to afford a a home in this city there's no way even with a Section 8 voucher and a HUD certificate you can't afford because then you have your electric now the rents are so high where this Section 8 Home Choice voucher only covers a certain portion of the rent so okay let's try to you know take that in

perspective and hey can I buy a house with this okay oh well it it Avo you whatever that subsid is going to cover with the FSS program with the for of a Housing Authority so and the for of a Housing Authority is strapped at its own length and and and I feel bad for the people that are you know live in the housing and that have to run the for of a Housing Authority

due to the H housing crisis I think we need to put Priority like I said before on the veterans the people that are disabled um the and the people that are from our Our Town our city and and and even not from the area but from the country itself like I said last time and I I'll make this clear like we need to all work together and put this this tribalism this indifference that we've

had in the past with the politics and and start taking care of the people of our country and our city we need to do our city and our country first thank Youk you Mr Rio next is James medley from South Alman Street

excuse me um are you from Norton Mass that's ma'am no okay go ahead I'm from River Fall River from River river we'd have to waave the rules we'd have to wave the rules for you to speak I'm in I live in no we don't have okay we don't have good I'm not from Fall River as you can probably tell uh thank you counselors thank you I'm here to speak about the ordinance that uh criminalizes outside camping

unauthorized camping do criminal just a minute councelor Dion okay can we please put this to rest non-criminal procedures there's nothing criminal within this ordinance non criminal nobody's going to jail nobody's getting a fine nobody's going to have something held against them on their record it's non criminal Well ma'am I the way I read the ordinance and and forgive me I am not an expert in law but

the way I read the ordinance is that there are fines and there are three criteria that have to be met to not be fined if you're homeless if you if shelter is not available and if you do not immediately say that you will go to shelter when room is available point of clarification um councelor Kelby yes a fine is not criminal a um a fine is civil okay okay

so it's that that thank you c d for clarifying that there's nothing criminal in this ordinance but every ordinance where you're asking now you're requesting someone to make a tough decision to have has to be an enforcement mechanism or no one's going to obey it there has to be so it's not criminal all right I I forgive there are steps that have to be followed in order for the fine to be

instituted so many steps M many options many opportunities to try to help that's and I think that's a missing point we're trying to help people that's my I think we're trying to help I know it's citizens input Madam president thank you your patience I counc Sam I think we should let him finish his point because I there are some valid concerns so I think that goad Mr medley you may continue uh uh forgive

me for misspeaking that's criminalized um but a face reading of the ordinance to me and again I'm not an expert in the law but reading the ordinance it's let's not say criminalize homelessness but Outlaw homelessness and it's it's this is a an ordinance that again in just my opinion is that you're trying we're trying to hide the problem and not address the problem if people don't have a place to

stay if they don't have the money to go to a hotel if the shelters are full or if the shelters won't take someone because they happen to be an addict and are not are currently an addict you're just hiding the problem we're not trying to fix the the root causes of homelessness Shel more Shel affordable housing as the gentleman before me said places where we can have compassion and empathy and kindness

this ordinance again to me does not strike me as compassionate kind or empathy or empathetic I would urge the council not to pass it I am a citizen of Fall River obviously though I'm not from here originally but it's a beautiful city it's a beautiful place to live I like being here but I think we could be more compassionate in the area and not try to hide a problem we need to address the

problem thank you thank you thank you thank you Father next Jamie Springer Jamie you are from Norton so motion to W the rules the rules a motion and a second all in favor

hi hello I'm the Reverend Jamie sprigs I'm the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Fall River um we feed about 12,000 meals a year uh in this community uh we have a clothing Ministry we have a homeless Ministry some of those tents and tarps come from us I love this community and our people and I'm going to say I don't want there to be homeless encampments outside either I don't want

there to be places where people have to live without shelter without running water without sanitation I agree that those things are problems and I'm going to say something that the mayor probably hasn't heard me say very often which is Mayor Coogan is right that Fall River shouldn't have to bear the burden of this by of of the Comm of the problem that we have in our region by itself I

agree um but there are initiatives that are going on um in on a regional level um to try to address the homeless problem and we haven't participated in them this thing that we are trying to do to fine homeless people who then won't be able to pay those fines and what happens when you can't pay your fine more fines what happens when you can't pay those fines is there a jail at

the end of this somewhere this might not be an immediate criminalization of homelessness but it creates all of the fear that would come along with a criminalization of homelessness here is what I want to say it won't be effective it won't accomplish the thing that you're trying to accomplish which is to make there not be these encampments do you know what works the creation of affordable housing do you know what

works tracing people not anonymously but by name do you know what works not having uh dispersed services in 10 different places that people have to check in with but having a unified structure to handle cases of folks who are homeless I want to end homelessness in fell River most of my homeless friends here want to end homelessness and Fall River but this is not the way to do it

this is only cruel and you're not cruel people the mayor isn't a cruel man he has showed up to work at our homeless shelter at our overflow shelter when he didn't have to put on jeans and work the shift no one here is looking for someone to die this winter and I am telling you that if you pass this ordinance in September when it is getting colder people are going to die and it will be

on your shoulders at the End of Time forgive me I'm a Baptist pastor you're going to get a couple seconds of gospel I apologize at the end of time when Jesus comes in glory and separates people on one side and the other he's going to look at one side and say you took care of me you fed me you CL clothed me you took care of me and they're going to sayl when did we do

that for you and he's going to say when you did it for the least of these for those of you who have faith please trust me that we are supposed to be caring for and loving these people not punishing them no one can be punished out of the circumstances that they're in but they can be helped let's put this ordinance aside and work together to help them thank you thank

you next to speak is Paul heru from adelar motion to we the rules he is also the sheriff of Bristol County second welcome

Sheriff good evening to this honorable body and Mr Mayor it's nice to see you again um this ordinance I am opposed to and let me tease out something that the Miss Briggs just talked about so while this ordinance may not be criminalizing homelessness the way it works and unfolds the way it ends up being more inmates in my jail which is I don't think what anybody wants is that when fines are placed on someone the fines

have to be paid if they're not paid um the city then is going to be faced with the obligation to either enforce those with uh the courts or to say okay we're going to issue fines but they don't really mean anything now if they say doesn't really mean anything what's the point of doing this but if they want to go the route of the Court where you're going to say okay we're going to get the

U person to pay the fines to the courts okay how do you get blood from a stone you're going to then Force the courts to say you need to pay these fines or you're in contempt of court if you're in contempt of court and you still can't pay the fines where do you go you come to my place the jail which I don't want to see because now what we're doing is

we're taking people who were previously homeless and had a really hard time getting a job getting housing getting their health care and now you've added a criminal record to them because now they've been sentenced for violating a court order to pay the fines that were imposed by this ordinance we don't want that I don't think anybody wants that I used to be mayor of Adel bro uh Fall River is the

second largest municipality in the in the uh in the County but when I was mayor of adbo um I dealt with a lot of homelessness as well but we actually building a homeless shelter there when I was a state representative for five years before I was mayor I personally drove people to homeless shelters it's an issue that I've dealt with for a long time there are some solutions though the

state just passed a several billion dollar housing Bond bill that's something that this community could tap as a way to help build additional resources uh I'm willing to work with the municipal like River in any municipality for that matter to help with the placement of people you know using some of our resources to help place people with housing Healthcare and a job um there's you know I want you to

I time is limited I how much time do I have you know three minutes you have another minute okay great if you give a politician a microphone they'll talk forever if you let them so um I'm a politician so I'll admit that but the um but visualize this for a moment though visualize that this ordinance passes and then you are ask asking the police officers to go and issue fines for

people who are already down on their luck now you've uh said okay here's a fine now the police officer doesn't want to do that the police officer also you know we want to actually have better relations police and the public want to have better relations in adbor what we had was a problem oriented pleasing uh unit which I don't know if we have one here in Fall River yes they do very good

so the uh pop team in Adel bro would address issues like this rather than using a fine so between you know using a pop team between using the housing Bond Bill between my willingness to partner with the city of Fall River and any of the other 19 municipalities in the county I think there are other Solutions we can pursue rather than doing this which is a slippery slope to having more

people in my jail which I don't think anybody wants happy to take any questions if you have any thank you Sheriff Haru councilor Kilby yes wait a minute really quick no really quick since you're here um um what resources do do you have MH and have has your office been in contact with the administration to try to relieve this problem well one of the issues that's the only question yeah so uh let start

with the first one the actually go backwards the um mayor and I met many months ago I forgot it was over maybe even a year ago but we are providing um lists of people who are being released from the jail back into Fall River so and we assume that if somebody's last known address is Fall River they're like to go back to Fall River so um the classification unit provides that list

to the city and then um I'm not sure what the mayor does with that list but I believe he he takes action to try and make you know some type of accommodations so that's one thing um that we've done already you know just to let you know who's coming back in because uh when you're coming back into society risk of homelessness is a problem um especially for people who have been locked up they've lost contact

with their family lost contact with their friends as far as resources I created a post- release unit a post- release unit um before I got there there was about four people dedicated to um uh housing Healthcare and a job for the the pillars of prisoner re-entry there's about four people now there's about 20 and those four people were spread really thin they were doing all of those things

plus providing transportation and getting IDs they were just you know but I I organized that better so we have our uh like a professional staff of post-release workers you can think of them as like case workers and what they're doing is they're working with inmates directly to provide housing Healthcare and a job before their inmates are released back into society what I'm going to be do when I close Ash

Street jail um I'm actually going to take the Civil building actually I'm going to do this before I close as street but I'll be turning that into um a homeless shelter of some sort for former inmates and I have the resources where I could also have an office here in Fall River uh which I'd be willing to do we just have to you know coming up with the funding is a lot easier at the

state level than it is at the municipal level I know the challenges you face I was a mayor but you know that that staff that's dedicated to housing Healthcare and a job and Healthcare includes mental health and substance abuse we can use them to hit the ground running to help your population here in Fall River I mean your constituents or my constituents the same people that vote for you vote for me as well so um

these are things like I said it's three different things we can you know willingness to partner with Fall River there's the housing Bond Bill and there's a problem oriented placing you know if you know a little bit of creativity a little bit of caring we can solve a lot of problems thank you I take a regional a regional approach would be U would be a great thing yeah if this passes push people to other communities

a chance of getting all that funding you Council kby Council Samson I just want to say thank you for coming down it's a relief to have um someone come down and have some actual uh assistance that they could offer it's it's really refreshing and I appreciate you for coming down and um sharing that with us thank you it's a great City with great great Council and you know like I said a little bit of

creativity and a little bit of caring you can solve a lot of problems but there is that three billion I think it's three billion dollar Bond bill that the legislature just passed talk to your state reps and state senators see if some of that can be used for a um like homeless shelter certainly affordable housing I know that's certainly possible thank you Sheriff heru thank you folks

probably we'll have to call Sheriff Fu to come down when you have a housing uh subcommittee meeting maybe he can shed some light on stuff the next one to speak is Dawn cinik kiniki and she is from for River Northfork Street good evening hello um I'm uh opposed to the could you speak into the microphone I'm opposed to the ordinance um I did some research last night and I wrote some notes down and uh

homelessness and inadequate housing directly impacts on inequalities health education and the life chances of current and future Generations homelessness should be rare brief and unrepeated smaller homes are needed for the many single people experiencing homelessness along with larger homes for extended families and more homes are needed that better meet the needs of disabled people not just homes but jobs

and training opportunities and what I mean about homes uh vacant apartments that around the city and um people feel uncomfortable and scared if you want to serve us help us thank you thank you thank you D next one is John Sylvia Fall River I'm housing okay I'm probably in the already here I'm on the opposite side of this we all know that there have been issues with people on Bay Street I live near

Brighton Avenue there were issues there it was cleaned up I understand we have this but there's going to be a happy medium with this um we have to look at really it's a national problem so we have had 10 million people walk into this country in the last four years supply and demand what do you think's going to happen with housing it goes up so what I would like to see is including

the mayor all of you guys is when these people come down like the governor this one that one say look we have a problem here and by you paying thousands of dollars we have some folks there that are homeless right we have a hot whole hotel in Taunton that is housing people that are not supposed to be here so why aren't we holding their feet to the fire and saying look something's got to give

here and I don't what I would like to see too is these nonprofit agencies I'd like to see them holding Elizabeth Warren's feet to the fire the uh Governor's feet to the fire and aen Claus when they come down here tell them there's an issue here because there are people on the other side that there are issues that folks are stealing from them and their yard it's it's there's no

happy medium to it but I I'm just so incensed with when are we all going to figure out 10 million people walked in here and they're being taken care of and Americans aren't and when are we going to start doing something about it we have a party in that's the Democratic party right now if we have have people that are in office in this chamber that are Democrats you need to say I'm a

Democrat let's step up and fix this situation that's what I think needs to happen and it's a shame that we had not been able to build a building to House people because we know we have a big drug problem here I have a an acquaintance that just passed away 47 years old the other day it's a big problem we know it's a big problem why are we letting them live on the street

it's inhumane but again we have to look at this from a union from a national thing I think this is great the mayor goes out to see the homeless but the homeless I'm sure would rather have a home than seeing the mayor so that's all I have to say Thank you Mr siia there's no other um citizen UT um item two on the agenda was to convene with representatives from various utility companies to provide information

regarding um the process of install in and removing or relocating utility poles with the city and the delays that may affect the timeline of the process however um the clerk did receive two emails from Verizon who were unable to be here this evening but we do have a gentleman who is here from National table motion to table second there a second all in favor okay concludes motion to adjourn

Finance second second all in favor hi so this concludes the finance committee but the mayor is here and um also from the council we have a citation to a very dear Gentleman Jim Su If Connie could come open you have to open the full council meeting Madam clerk well we'll do it now huh you have to open full councel open full councel I was going to sneak this right in there Cliffy cck call the rooll councilor

kadim Dion here Hart here Kilby here hty here raposo here Samson here president Kamara and vice president perero here we stand for a moment of Silent prayer and maybe on this night we can all think of our friend Jim

Su we stand for a salute to the flag I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all as always pursuant to the open meeting warw any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that

such recordings and Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and per missible motion to take item number eight out of order second all in favor motion to adopt

second obviously um Fall River lost a great resident someone that gave back to the community d day out um I usually see him in the morning up at uh Jimmy su's place and uh we'd argue about something and laugh about something else but uh Jim Su did a lot for this community he put us on a solid footing he's the kind of Resident we want in Fall River all the time we lost him it's regretful I

did want to tell uh Connie and I don't know if the kids are here or not um in honor and recognition of his lifetime dedication to the betterman of our city the citizens we offer our deepest condolences to Jim Su and his family I'm so sorry as the former president of the preservation Society of for River who contributes to the city his range worked from um dmats nonprofit preservation

Society helping to establish the first Fall River protected local historic district I remember working with him on that and advocating for the k ation of a community preservation committee I remember him and Al Li and I working on that and his commitment to the city of for River will forever be present in our hearts and Minds this is a resolution from the entire city council and be resolved that the for city council

hereby stands in solemn remembrance for a moment of Silent prayer which we did and that the resolution be entered into the records of the city council he was one in a million yes he was you're calm before the storm

and to the children of Mr Su you were blessed one of a kind I saw him singing happy birthday on Facebook and I just had to like play it a couple of times brought a tear to my eye but what a great memory for your daughter thank you so much the regular council meeting will begin at 7 do you need a break no so we can just go right into it number one Madam Clerk

would it be appropriate Madam clerk to adopt the order that was taken out of order at that time motion to adopt the resolution be appropriate item eight I'll make that in form of a motion second all in favor all Madam clerk item number one item number one is a communication from the mayor requesting confirmation of the appointments to the cultural Council we have David Melo motion to confirm second all in favor

I and the item um 1B would be the confirmation of Christine Nicole peler Southgate motion to confirm second all in favor I item two are recommendations from the traffic commission recommending amendments to the ordinances refer to the committee on ordinances second all in favor I have the um submission from the special Charter Review Committee the report of the of the charter Finance seconded all in favor

I for second reading and enrollment we have a miscellaneous traffic ordinance motion to pass your second reading enrollment second all in favor item five um would be for Passage through second reading and enrollment as well this is the membership of the historical commission motion to P passor second reading and enrollment second all in favor I item six for Passage through second reading and enrollment as amended we

have the proposed trolley fees motion to pass through second reading and enrollment as amended second it all in favor abstain whereas beginning in 2016 the town of Westport began Acro overdue balances owed to the city of full River related to South wapa pond water use due to submitting only partial payments and whereas beginning in 2020 the town of Westport resumed paying current bills in

full but had accured debt for the partial payments from the previous four years and whereas the city of full River has developed a payment plan with the town of Westport to remedy these overdue balances now therefore be res D that the committee on finance convene with the city administrator and the administrator of Public Utilities to discuss the current status of the overdue balance

and provide information regarding the plan to collect the remaining debt motion to adopt second second all in favor I have the police chief's report on licenses motion to adopt second all in favor I I have a number of claims motion refer to Corporation councel second all favor I have the F of a public libraries annual report motion accept place on file second all in favor I item 12 um is a request for a

structure over a public way on behalf of Greatful River Recreation motion to approve second all in favor I we have minutes of the committee on finance held on September 10th motion to approve second all in favor I we have minutes of the regular meeting of the city council held on September 10th motion to approve second all in favor I the committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on

September 19th voted unanimously to recommend that the accompanying proposed ordinance accompanied by an emergency Preamble be passed through first reading second reading passed to be enrolled and pass to be ordained with counselor Hart absent and not voting this is a handicapped parking ordinance motion toop emergency Preamble second roll call on the motion excuse me to adopt the Preamble councelors kadim Dion yes

Hart yes Kilby yes Pony yes raposo yes Samson yes president CRA and vice president Pereira yes motion to pass for all readings second second all in favor I I committee on ordinances and legislation at a meeting held on September 19th voted unanimously to recommend the accompanying proposed ordinance accompanied by an emergency Preamble be passed through first reading second reading passed to be enrolled and

pass to be ordained with councelor heartt absent and not voting this is the um ordinance relating to unauthorized camping on public property councilor Samson I just need to speak on this um I don't know if I do it after the you can go ahead so I cannot support this and I'm going to explain why um we have no overflow shelter yet so we're going to move these camps we have nowhere to put

these people they're just going to go camp somewhere else in the city they're going to be in doorways the city shelter a resident spoke we need to put it back on these nonprofits we have a shelter that has 30 beds are not at capacity we have nowhere to put these people we have land from the wppa heights that's in court we have to look at that and he's right there are 10

million people in the United States of America that are in hotels and shelters and it's our people that are in these camps and we talk a lot about you know people being drug addicts and mental health but not everybody in these camps are drug addicts and mental health people and they are and we just don't have a place and we're going to keep pushing them I believe we need this ordinance but I also believe that we

need to put some work behind and get some solutions before we approve this ordinance in my world there's a slogan sometimes you have to go slow before you go fast so we need to take a look at this do it properly or we're just going to continue to move people around I am probably in the minority here but I can't in good conscience move people out of these camps move them with nowhere to

put them and there's nowhere to put these people and so until we find a solution and we work we had you know I'm grateful that the sheriff came down and is offering some assistance and hearing this $3 billion doll Bond bill that we could maybe tap into but we desperately need places to put our people and we need to put the pressure on the places that are in our community that are not

at full capacity that are receiving this funding so I I cannot support this I am a citizen of Fall River I do not like to see our people homeless it's not safe but what are we we're just going to move them we see that happening in our sister communities we see a New Bedford they go in there they take down a Camp and guess what it pops up somewhere else we're

just going to keep shuffling and then when they go to the case workers go and look for these people they're not at that camp and they got to go disperse around the city it's just we've got to go slow to go fast here this ordinance needs to happen I don't feel that we need to rush into it right now we need to rush into finding um housing and solutions and looking at some of these

things that we talked about tonight so with that a yield that's just going to be where I stand with this Council Dion so we've been a couple of years already minimum a couple of years working at this some progress has been made not enough obviously I agree we need the um we need housing people in the city there are C some people in the city don't like to hear the word affordable housing we need it

absolutely um we do have wppa in my world if it was a perfect world we'd have a 100 tiny houses on the property in wer and everybody in the cment would be in the tiny houses we have the bathrooms the showers the laundry facilities we could put a tra we could put another trailer there with all the services everybody would be in one spot they'd be protected they'd be centrally located it would be

transitional it's something that can be done I'm sure we could work with the state if the state is so concerned about human beings and their welfare at the same token whether you vote Yes or vote no somebody's not going to be happy I get that but you know what that's that's not the situation that's not what you have to worry about I feel as a city counselor I have an obligation not only to the homeless

people but to the people who are affected by the encampments you know it's not their fault either um and nobody can say that nothing bad ever happens nobody can say there haven't been problems nobody can say there wasn't a fire in an encampment and I'm not trying to be mean to people and believe me I have compassion for the people who are in there I know people who are in there

personally um but I don't think we can just sit idle because I feel like the longer we have sat idle the longer it goes on and we never had anybody come down here and say we can offer a solution never had never had a Sheriff come down here and say oh I can give you an option on housing until this ordinance came up so guess what it already had an effect it already had an effect people

are now finally starting to think people are talking more about ways to house these people so if that's what this ordinance does I'm all for it to help these people get them out of the encampments put them in a safer place and make our community a safer and a better place do you councilor de with that I yield Council kby yes I um 100% agree with Council Deon we have to get something some

legislation ordinance passed it's got to get on the books and I stated to my colleagues at least 10 times privately that the Lost message here is we're trying to help we're trying to help these people and and I like saying these people we like we're trying to help these human beings that's the Lost message we have to do something we have to act and the reason I asked the sheriff a question in terms of resources

in terms of um you know has he reached out to the administration well I'm glad he came down first time I met him I'm very happy he came down this definitely requires a regional approach New Bedford Fall River Taunton adbor there has to be a task force put together we passed this ordinance and of course we we we have to provide for people but I'll tell you living in a tent when Winter's

approaching is not a pleasant thing and I'm sure all the clergy will agree with me that is not so the ordinance should be passed and the thing is the ordinance is like not like the Ten Commandments edged in stone we can revisit this ordinance so many times and as an attorney I've been to court many times and you know something a judge will give an individual every single benefit of the doubt for years

years as long as he sees that person helping him or herself so please let's get this on the books people have been waiting and I'm sympathetic to the neighbors but we have to do something we have a responsibility to act and to help thank you you yeld councilor kby councilor Ponte thank you madam vice president so um I've been pretty quiet on this issue for for some time and I have been because I'm try trying to

listen to both sides of everybody's position and argument and as elected leaders and as a legislative body it's our responsibility to listen to what people have to say and then make a decision on what we think is best for the people who elect us to sit in these seats and if for some reason the people don't like the decisions that we make they don't elect us again that's just the reality of where we are as City

councilors number one number two perfect is the enemy of good we are never going to be perfect at making this decision this ordinance is is never going to be perfect we're not going to be able to help every person or every organization or any person who is struggling with homelessness it's never going to happen Okay I want to also say that Fall River has its share of issues we have a

homelessness problem right but if you compare Fall River to other Gateway cities in other places in this state and across the country you are not going to see it like it is elsewhere I I would suggest that you go to a place like Seattle or I'd ask you to go to a place like Oregon when outside of their City Hall people are living intense okay so in the airports in

Boston and in other areas we have a problem but I think the the the city has a lot of resources that can get tapped into to help people so let's not discr at the work that this city has done and has continued to do to try to help people and the organiz ations that are here the churches that are here the pastors that are here and the different organizations who are here who are

nonprofit organizations have done a tremendous job in curbing the issue that we have here when there when there's been truckloads of people who have been dropped off in this community okay so I I wanted to make that comment the other thing that we all have is is is we keep talking about last couple meetings what tapa Heights let me just make one thing clear the city council has no ability or

no bargaining ability to do anything with what tapah Heights okay that needs to come from the FL of her Housing Authority so if a counselor wants to file a resolution and invite the housing authority to come down to give us suggestions on what they're going to do with wupa Heights maybe let's take a proactive step and do that because if tiny houses is a solution on the wppa heights thing that is just sitting there

with grass you know higher than six feet tall in some cases and not preserved and not taken care of maybe that's what good will come out of it so I'd be happy to be part of any kind of a resolution if any of my colle want to file it to get the Housing Authority down here and give us Solutions on what they're going to do with that okay so I if anybody wants to

do it if not I'll file it myself um the other thing I wanted to say two more things three more things number one um I filed a resolution earlier in the year that I think is still sitting in the ordinance committee on the city of Fall River creating a housing fund for housing ISS issues and I know with all due respect to my colleagues it was met with some res with some resistance

okay I believe it's sitting an ordinance I had this whole presentation I gave my my colleagues a whole packet of information and it's no disrespect to the ordinance committee because you guys have been very very busy but maybe it's time to resurface that discussion and have the city put their money where their mouth is and it comes to housing I said on this Council floor when I filed

that resolution that the city of fiver should be putting money into Housing Development and I I said it and we're like oh we don't have the money we can't afford it we can't use arpa we can't use onetime money we can't do that I'm just telling you that there are a number of cities and towns that put money into a housing fund to start working on addressing housing and we can do that

here all right so I'm just going to also urge my colleagues and people in the community to say well we want to say that we need more housing and we and we we say that we need more affordable housing and yes yes we do need more market rate housing okay then let's get that out of the ordinance committee and let's start talking about a mechanism with the administration on how we can

start funding something like that right that these are examples of us trying to be proactive this city and many other cities for many many years no disrespect to the administration or this Council we are a a a a city that often times makes decisions on on pressure and we're not proactive in anything that we do so we need to start doing that and housing is the start of that and my last note I

have here is this if this does pass tonight and it passes through its necessary readings we can amend this at any time so if the mayor wants to come down or call the council president or vice president or speak to any one of us and say listen we're having a hard time enforcing this for a variety of reasons this is creating a problem this doesn't necessarily mean like my colleague said

this isn't the Ten Commandments like this isn't you know we could we can adjust TR this as a legislative body if we so need to so um I I I'll yield when it comes to that but I I I just want to say I'm not going to yield yet I'm just going to say nobody else has come down to us with solutions they sit there and they look at us which they should

because we're elected to make create ideas and have Solutions but I can't find any other solution other than create more housing put more money as as a city if we can in housing so we can start slowly addressing these issues that's where it begins that's where it starts so let's get the Housing Authority down here let's talk about what tapah Heights let's get that resolution out of the ordinance

committee to for the city to invest in housing and let's have serious debate about it instead of waiting for something like this to happen and say we need more housing well I told you that six months ago we all know that we all campaigned on it we all had debates and forms we need more housing let's go let's do it let's work like I yield you yield yep I yield Council kby um I your

yes my points have been have been made Council counc Samson I just want to say a couple of things um we are talking about the the agencies that come before us and I wanted to say the ones that come before us because they don't all come before us but the ones that come before us are the experts the ones that are serving the the church leaders their in their homeless camps the Outreach

workers Stars Physicians that are that these are the experts the experts are telling us that what happens around the nation when you just pick up and move these camps out of there tell because what's going to happen we're going to pass us and and they're going to assume that they're going to go in there and start knocking down these camps and then there's no place to put these people the

experts are telling us we there's nowhere to put them it's going to make our job harder we're making progress right now and this ordinance is going to disrupt this process because what's going to happen is people are going to stop calling and saying these camps need to move these people need to move we need to move and I have so much respect for my colleagues all of them um but there fires in people's home yeah there

was a fire in a camp but people's homes have fire I mean we heard from a gentleman tonight who was walking around he he's been sober five years and he can't can't find a place to live and he's got you know his socks are wet for three days that's heartbreaking these are our people these are our American citizens American citizens who are in these camps who now we saying that we

have to displ yes I can't agree thousand billion times more with that individual that came down here tonight and said get to your Democratic leaders and say you got we got a problem but we do have a problem and as long as I'm sitting here and we don't have a solution although there are some some good Solutions guess what our shelter needs to go to capacity they're not there our overflow shelter

we need to get one there's a solution we need to look at this $3 billion Bond bill was the first time I'm hearing about this and the sheriff came down so you know what there are some solutions that are set before us but to just throw ordinance together as I go home to my warm house tonight and say we can amend this bill I can't sleep at night doing that that we can throw these people out

of their camps we got no place to put them wherever they want to go but they can't stay here I can't sleep doing that so as long as I'm here that's my stance and with that I yield thank you I'm going to add a couple of my own feelings and I believe going regional is something that we should be looking at and if you think that we need more affordable we have more affordable housing in the

city of for River than we have in the towns what does Somerset have what does swans have what does Westport have what do they do with their homes everybody comes to the city everyone comes to for River everybody needs to step up to the plate and do something I saw a lady at uh Kennedy Park who was from Dartmouth who lost her apartment and she was going to the shelter here but they would only

let her let her take one bag and she was getting rid of things in the barrel and I told her put it over here because GCM was coming but dmouth doesn't have anything you know what she said to me dmouth doesn't have any homeless uh shelters for me so I have to come to this dump of a city and I thought to myself this dump of a city obviously she was stressed out she lost her apartment

maybe she didn't mean it but we provide a lot of services to people about a homeless I can name you a a number of places and you know counselor Samson all of the support that has been given but we have to start somewhere and is there a motion on the floor to adopt as emergency Preamble second second roll call on the emergency Preamble councilors kadim Dion yes Hart yes Kilby yes Ponty yes reposo

yes Samson no president yes excuse me president CRA and vice president um Herrera motion to pass through ordinance for Passage through all readings so second all in favor I opposed okay yep we going to take a brief recess to sign the order

back in session okay last we have for Passage through um final ordination we have the membership of the historical commission motion to pass be orded second all in favor for final ordination we have miscellaneous traffic motion to be ordained second all in favor and lastly we have for Passage through final ordination as amended the trolley fees Mo to off second second all in favor I

abstain that's all we have motion to adjourn second second all in favor I I thank you very much

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