this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers good evening welcome to the samton city ccil meeting for Tuesday June 25th the meeting tonight is being recorded and bro broadcast by edia on chatter channel 193 and live streaming on their web page ampton media.org conss are participant in this meeting are gathering hybrid on the order extended until March 2025 which allow us to do so I remind both the member of the city council and the public participating remote remain mute on the recognized by the uh city council president also for the member of the public please remove your camera for the duration of this meeting unless you are participating and the public speak time or the public hearing thank you this meeting is now called to order Barbara Connie Denham here salm Derby Omar Gomez here JP kazinski Tom Peak here Brad Riley here Tamar Smith here J JT Terell here and Owen zarett now is the time for the Pledge of Allegiance a moment of silence of allegiance to the flag United States of America and theic where she stands nation and the God and the liy justice for all [Applause] approve of the minutes I would take a motion to approve the minutes of June 5th 2025 2024 move so move second I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of June 5th 2024 any further discussion seean Barbara Connie Denham hi Salem Derby hi Omar Gomez hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith hi JT Terell abstain MO passes with one OB stains public speak time this is the opportunity to the public to address anything to the council regarding any topic not listed on the public hearing if you are here in support of anything that is not in the part of the public hearing now will be the time to speak to the council if you are here to support a resolution or something different that we have on the agenda this is this is the time to participate I will give you two minutes please save your name an address for the record and just go to the podium I'm going to start with the people that are in person first and then I'm going to the people that are participating remote good evening Kathy wisinski Overlook Drive I wanted to briefly request that when discussing the Redevelopment of the three schools that the city council not wave the requirement that the pepen school gym be used for Community use um I think that is before with the council later but not part of a public hearing thank you thank you hello my name is Ellen excuse me my name is alen cotin I've had a studio at one Cottage Street for 18 years uh we were grateful to the city council for the resolution being put forth this evening it means a great deal to the community to the cottage Studios Community but it also means a great deal to the larger artist community in East Hampton and to those who appreciate the Arts I'm not aware of a similar resolution being adopted by another town or city in Massachusetts the very first thing I want to say is that the staff of Riverside performs heroic work we have nothing but admiration and support for the critical Services provided to those with developmental disabilities for 40 years College Street Studios in Riverside Industries have coexisted in Harmony and mutual support the challenge that is facing us as tenants relates to the management of Riverside not to their programs I want to address a few statements that have been made by Riverside management Riverside states that only a small proportion of tenants in the building are experiencing steep rental increases some of whom are currently paying well below $70 a square foot I'm sorry $7 a square foot the reality is that the vast major majority of tenants will see their runs increase by at least 25% many well over 50% and some over 100% currently very few tenants pay less than $8 a square foot reference is often made to the comprehensive market and building analysis done which Riverside has used to justify the rent increase to $15 a square foot for all tenants regardless of the size of this studio are years of tency the buildings used in this analysis are not at all comparable to one Cottage Street for example the silk Mill in Florence was used it has as many professional medical offices Interstate Drive in West Springfield houses a subsidiary of Mark Pharmaceuticals The People's Bank building in Holy Oak the Trinity Health building in chapi ETC the management has said that several tenants are extremely unhappy with the rent increase the tenants Association that was begun to speak in one voice for our efforts to sit down with board members to find a way forward together has 79 tenants more than 75% of all tenants this is not several tenants the board of directors its president or any of its members have never met with ATT tenants reference has been made to meeting on May 6 with a board president and ATT tenant who they identified as being the spokesperson for the new tenants Association excuse me the tenants Association did not exist at that time and the Tenant attending the meeting was there just to address her concerns about her individual Studio it's also worth noting that Riverside is receiving just under $4 million this year from the State Department of Developmental Disabilities we were told by the CEO that Riverside pays $6 a square foot for the portion of the building that they use we really do not want to fight with Riverside we want to continue to use our Studios to create art to be in community with the other tenants in the building and to continue to contribute to the well-being of Riverside thank you what Matt okay marshia Morrison 24 Winter Street I'm speaking in support of the resolution by the East Hampton City Council in support of affordable artist workspaces 20 years ago when I arrived in the Pioneer Valley I discovered a place that was not only beautiful and chalk full of Creative Energy but also one that inspired me to become part of a community organized around the Arts excuse me I am proud of my contribution to East Hampton the city arts the two bear fests public art The Cottage Street Cultural District and of course cultural chaos I worked along Ed a family of artists many of whom had studios in one Cottage Street friends from other places who have visited and bought art and ate at restaurants and listened to concerts and who made repeat visits ask me what it is that makes East Hampton so special my answer is simple East Hampton supports its artists and new entrepreneurs by creating and encouraging a lab environment that gives them the economic freedom to explore develop and experiment the risks are always there but the community is inspired um excuse me the community is inspired by their products and encourages their continued output recently our city was lauded by the press for its mission to provide affordable housing in ongoing future projects yes this is important and a worthy goal but the house the artist works the work the artist Works in also needs needs to be affordable their studios are classrooms showrooms workshops and yes Laboratories dear beloved City please find a way to keep our artist in place and continue excuse me the Arts generated economic environment that has made East Hampton the best in the west thank you thank you thank [Music] you thank you hi my name is Becky demling I'm a parent of an attendee uh of my son attends Riverside programming I'm also a member of the board I want you to know how how much sympathy I have for the artists in their situation I understand the inflationary costs are really hard my concern is about the clients at Riverside if you've ever been on the first floor where dayhab programming is you'll notice a buckled floor that is not easily traversed in with any type of Walker or wheelchair we have my son attends with clients who need the physical space maintained and Riverside yes they do get State money but they also have expensive programs to run I don't know if you've ever worked with this population they're expensive population to staff for because of re requ ired ratios and the safety needs of this population my son has been at Riverside since 2017 and thrived he has learned so much and grown so much in a building that's pretty run down and we the clients there deserve better and I'm not I understand the artist's concern but the mission of Riverside is to support the kids like my son who need a safe healthy building to go to every day and I want I want my son to be in a building that meets the needs of not only himself but the other clients in the building and subsidizing rents in any way shape or form is not part of the Riverside Mission the mission is all around these most vulnerable kids in our population and I would like you to consider the clients that many of whom do not have either the physical or the verbal capabilities to speak at this meeting and speak for themselves so thank you for considering them um that's really hard for me to follow I'm one of the tenants at Cottage Street um I'm a book binder Workshop instructor and a small business owner um um I've been at Cottage Street for the past six years I started there with three other Studio mates this March I made the step to expand my business and ask her to leave I did that it was scary it's the first time I've expanded my business but I did it and I planned for my rent to go up 5% which is 2% more than it always has in my six years that is what I thought the high end of rent going up would be but my rent will be going up 36% in September um and the doors are now locked 24/7 so I can't have my workshops run smoothly and suddenly everything is different um so it was an absolute shock to me to say the least I've got 775 Square ft I've got like 3,000 lbs of equipment and materials and that's just not easy to move I can't just pick up and go somewhere else and start again um and what I need everyone to realize in this room which most of them are on my side but it's not just 80 artists and tenants that are being affected this is 80 small businesses is right in the center of downtown East Hampton um I've personally employed two people in my business I've been employed by five different artists in that building um I'm currently still working with one so my entire livelihood is right in that building um I think that these businesses need stability they need honesty and they need fair prices um potentially losing 80 small businesses in the center of downtown East Hampton at the heart of the Cultural District which is what made it the Cultural District will be devastating for the community of eastampton thank you that's hello my name is Tracy Eller I am an artist a resident and I am the chair of East Hampton City Arts um I am here at this meeting because I believe that the artists in this town are a vital force we are um good for the economic development um I believe the economic development is tied linkly is tied directly to the artists in this community the strength of the artists I mean cultural chaos is just one example we have Open Studios we have artwalk we have uh City space uh luers and um marold we have all kinds of Arts that are bringing thousands of people into our community um also in uh 2019 ECA hosted um the eastampton Futures project which was an initiative to find out what the city what the What the residents of the cities were wanting and one of the biggest things that came out of that initiative was affordable housing affordable workspaces for artists and having the artists uh Community Thrive I believe that this initiative um should be passed I believe that we should put um measures in place to keep the artists in this community because it would be a real shame to have our artists leave because it would be a uh it would devastate our community thank you thank [Music] you hi my name is Alice LaVine I live at 79 Plain Street I am here neither as an artist nor as anyone who has any direct connection to Riverside but just as a community member my partner and I moved here seven years ago uh partly because it was somewhat uh although not completely more affordable than some other communities in the area um and I am very invested in seeing this remain an affordable Community both for housing especially for renters and also for artists and small businesses that need to rent space in order to survive uh and create uh when we first moved here what became a joke in our family was every single person we met in this in the valley when we said we were moving to East Hampton said oh that's such an upand cominging place so it became the joke of our family but now it doesn't feel like a joke because now it feels like maybe up and coming is just going to keep going up and up and leaving more and more people out um I was really impressed that the tenants you know I've been part of various negotiations in unions and things like that and the tenants here are being so reasonable and saying we just want a meeting we just want an opportunity to continue the collaborative relation ship we've had for all these years and the idea that that collaborative relationship is now dying due to how Riverside sees its own interests is very upsetting um one thing I did as a community member is I looked on the eastampton website and I wanted to see what kind of planning goals were in place and I found that there were a number of goals around affordability and support of the Arts right in the goals and objectives from 2019 to 2024 and the priority projects that the city has been working on I'll just name four of them the continued affordability of of commercial space and so I think people here have talked about um artists Studios as their small businesses continued assistance to artists maybe you all know what this means I don't including maker Collective workspaces marketing and supporting East Hampton's Cottage Street Cultural District and supporting an increase in public art and art education thank thank you hello everybody my name is Evan Plotkin and I'm an artist so you don't have to sit down um I'm I am also an art Advocate um I'm a commercial real estate uh I own a commercial real estate business in Springfield and if anybody knows anything about me they know that I've been sort of on the Forefront of bringing arts and the Renaissance back to Springfield and I've been doing that for the last 40 years I produce the jazz festival responsible for most of the murals downtown I provide art spaces for artists and so I have an appreciation for the people who are standing up in this room right now for the tenants I'm also going to be engaged as the property manager for the property and it is my goal along with um collectively we're going to look at how the building is running where there are efficiencies we're going to work with the tenant population here um and and try to manage the property in the most efficient way possible and um and we'll be advisers um uh to the ownership of the property so that we can you know maybe find ways that there can be a win-win for everybody we really believe that I believe and I know that um Lynn believes that there's a that the artist Community here is is powerful um it is important and it it will not be ignored as far as I'm concerned um and I I'm going to listen and and hopefully um see what we can do as stewards of the property as we're going forward as a as a property management company to guide the ownership to to reach their goals and and to provide for um affordable Studio commercial space for the occupants so that's our goal and um and I'm going to uh they'll be getting Communications very soon relative to our management what we're going to be doing to help um you know have the chain of communications lines of communications open to everybody so that we so everyone can be heard and so that we can kind of build um you know a new way together thank you y I just want to stop uh po speak time for the moment are going to reopen Poli speak time again after the public hearing the reason we're going to do public hearing now is because we schedule for 6:15 and some of the city employees that the experts are here and we don't want them to stay here over time um so that way we can save you some money and um another one have a commitment at seven so uh we're going to open the public um hearing now and after the public hearing I will open the Poli speak time for those one that want to say something and didn't say anything yet you're going to have an opportunity to to talk to the council I can I ask you a question I'm not going to be able to stay until that because unfortunately as other people have said I have to be able to go support the door being open we'll be able to have a class there tonight so if there's any possibility to speak before 6:45 which is well possible then if I could speak now there would be I'll give you a I will give you your a minute okay if you can do can you do it in a minute I will try to do it in a minute thank you so much um my name is Marin Goldstein and um 16 John Street is where I live uh I first want to congratulate Barbara as Clerk of the year so congratulations to you welld deserved honor um so my name is Mary Goldstein I'm the president of heronbridge we're a nonprofit um martial artarts community group in Riverside we've been there since 198 before um and we were formerly known as the women's Valley martial arts we teach a variety of martial arts um and Community Building groups including power girls um we offer a sliding scale for all of our classes uh in order that our doors can be open for every participant um and so suddenly being asked to be able to afford on a few months notice a sudden I think it's roughly 66% increase in our rent is not really affordable for our nonprofit organization um like said we've been there over 40 years um I really want to thank the council members and the mayor for considering this uh artist support resolution um I think that one of the oh my goodness that's so fast um I just wantan to the last thing I just want to say then is just that I you know we have been trying to negotiate to bring up this opportunity to have a conversation um and we just keep being stonewalled and told that $15 is the max is the minimum that they're even going to be offering to any of us and again regardless of the space regardless of the condition what I ask Beyond just a resolution is that hopefully somebody from the city council can get involved and really encourage us to be able to have negotiations so we can find a means to stay in this and keep the Vibrant Community in one Cottage Street thank you very much again I will open the public speak time again after the public hearing um I will take a motion to open the public hearing so moved second I have a motion and a second to open the public hearing any F the discussion seeing on Barbara salm Derby hi Omar Gomez hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi Connie Denham hi motion bues the first item that we have is transfer cons Peak thank you Mr President uh all of us have been around long enough at this point to know the drill on this one but for the benefit of the public uh the city receives a payment quarterly from Spectrum uh formerly Charter uh that uh is then passed along to uh East Hampton media to cover uh that is a forms of large part of their budget uh there just has to be that we're the ones to receive it we need to pass it along so uh we do this once a quarter there's not really much else to it any conselor have any questions or comments anyone from the public have any questions or comments about this transfer anyone participating remote have any question questions or comments about this transfer see none cons all right I'll make this request in the form of a motion uh oh I should just say before I do that that uh all three of these items were voted on three to Zero by the finance committee um request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation amount requested $487 19.95 to be transferred from the peg access access account to be transferred to the peg access account account the amount requested will be used uh for the following purpose to give approval to spend from the peg access receipts reserved account for cable related purposes consistent with the franchise agreement second I have a motion on a second for the transfer of 48719 95 to the P access account for the cable related purpose any further discussion see on Barbara Omar Gomez hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamar Smith hi JT Terell hi Connie Denham hi s Derby hi motion passes all right the next item we have is a $25,000 appropriation from uh free cash to Legal um there are some uh ongoing Union negotiations uh that have cost some money and uh I think all of you know at this point that legal is a notoriously difficult uh item to budget for because exactly what uh is needed you know can change very dramatically uh so uh with that coming up uh there's some fees that we need to pay that we haven't received the bills for but this uh the mayor and her and her Finance team estimate will uh cover us uh for the remainder of this fiscal year until the new budget takes effect any Cil have any questions or comments about this Appropriations see none anyone from the public have any questions or comments about this appropriation anyone participate in [Music] remote see none consel Peak all right I'll make this request in the form of a motion request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation amount requested $225,000 to be transferred from free cash $25,000 to be transferred to Legal $25,000 the amount requested will be used for the following purpose legal costs build for FY 24 since the last appropriation we have incurred 15,000 in Union negotiation fees and have yet to receive bills for March through June second have second for the supplement appropriation of $25,000 from free cash for fiscal year 2024 legal cost any further discussion see n Barbara Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi Connie Denham hi Salem Derby hi Omar Gomez hi motion pass thank you Mr President the final appropriation for the night is uh 1,300,000 appropriation from free cash uh to the general and capital stabilization funds um so free cash is basically the Surplus just for the benefit of the large number of people who are here free cash is the Surplus that we receive uh once we have looked at last fiscal year what we spent and what we brought in um if we don't spend our free cash by the end of the fiscal year it gets rolled over and we can't touch it until it gets certified as free cash again uh sometime in the fall and uh so the stabilization accounts are are colloquially what you could call uh rainyday accounts um there are things that we can spend out of at any time that we need to just requires a vote of the I think 2third of the have the of the city council um so the idea is to move this money into here so that uh it's Surplus money and we could we could then access it uh at any time rather than having to wait for uh certification again and it also helps to make up some of the difference of We There is some money that came out of stabilization to help with just some uh you know speed bumps that came with uh this year's um fiscal cycle and so uh this helps make up some of that and put us in a stronger position uh so that's about it that's good any c have any questions or comments anyone from the public have any questions or comments about this appropriation can you please go to the podium you have state your name and address for the record and make the question or comment since this is Surplus would it be possible your name Marsha Morrison 24 Winter Street thank you since it's a surplus would it be possible to use it for scholarships to artists PE uh it could be used for anything that the the mayor chooses to you know use it on subject to Mass General law uh but we don't actually have the ability to steer that we can just approve these uh transfers or block them uh so uh this fiscal year is ending in a few days and so I think the idea is to move this into here and then at this point it can be used for whatever we want or we can save just hold on to it for a rainy day it has been uh quite a few years since the US has gone into recession so it's something that you know that does happen from time to time so uh there's any number it could be used for B pretty much anything uh with the one thing that some of it's going to Capital stabilization so that money would specifically be used for uh capital projects uh so infrastructure but then that frees up money that might have been used for free cash it's complicated but in in short if that was what the mayor wanted to do then yes these dollars could end up in something like that at some point potentially and I will add the uh basically that money we can use it for um City business for for the city um government City business uh any other questions go please go to the podium and state your name address for the record please my name is Jan ugoni I'm a tenant at one Cottage Street I do have a question about what you're discussing I'm naive about how it all works but how does that compare with the CPA loan this money that you mentioned something about how it could be distributed in different ways can it be used in Riverside building for help with repairs Peak uh I I need to I think there's some questions there the the we' need to check with some people I mean in theory there are things that could potentially happen with that sort of thing but again it wouldn't be our call or our ability to make that that decision that would have to come from from the mayor and the executive branch but uh and and and depending on the exact use the various legal things that I may or may not even be aware of might apply but yes we have spent money on various sort of public private Partnerships and it it's conceivable something like that could potentially happen but it isn't something that we would have any any control over and to the important of this particular thing I think it's really important that the money tonight go into stabilization and then what happens to that money whether it's used in two weeks or 10 years we are able to use it whereas if we don't do anything with it tonight it will go to free cash and it will then be months before we're even able to to access the money for any sort of project that anyone could ever conceive of sure and and want to add something else to is one thing is the capital stabilization funds and something different is CPA money the money that we're moving today from free cash to this account can be only used to City business related to the government right all the CPA we can use it for different stuff if we have the money so it's and we are not moving money to CPA this is not what we're doing tonight okay thank you anyone [Music] else anyone participating remote say none cons Peak all right I'll make this request in the form of a motion request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation amount requested uh 1,300 ,000 to be transferred from free cash $1,300,000 to be transferred to uh General stabilization $550,000 Capital stabilization $750,000 the amount requested will be used for the following purpose to fund General stabilization to provide uh stability to the current environment to fund Capital stabilization to meet Capital needs second I have a CH second for the supplemental appropriation of $1,300,000 from free cash to General and capital stabilization funds any further discussion see none Barbara Brad Riley hi Tam Smith hi JT Terrell hi Connie Denham hi Salem Derby hi Omar Gomez Tom Peak hi Mo passes thank you cons Peak uh city ordinance Amendment this is conselor denam thank you Mr President um so before us this evening we have um the ordinance committee worked on with our conservation agent um Cassie drer um the purchase of fuel efficient vehicles for municipal use um which was presented to us from councelor zarit um and essentially it um amended some language within there is also established a vehicle procurement PRI um prioritization um to include the following zero emission Vehicles plug-in hybrid vehicles hybrid electric vehicles or other alternative fuel vehicles as well as standard Vehicles operated by an internal combustion engine fueled by fossil fuel so the goal given the fact that we live in a um uh an environment that is continually being challenged by climate change uh the responsibility of the of the city to uh take action to in the purchase of vehicles to attempt to minimize our um carbon footprint um and what this uh change in policy uh does is it prioritizes the zero emission vehicles and this may include um uh electric vehicles but also it's very uh Forward Thinking in terms of preparing for vehicles that may not be uh Road ready so to speak um and that might include hydrogen powered vehicles and so we really tried to to think uh Forward Thinking so we don't have to continue to come back to this particular policy each time there's a new innovation uh or technology changes and so we we tried to be mindful of that it is important to note that this policy shall not require a department to take any action which can conflicts with local state or federal requirements nor mandate the procurement of products that do not perform adequately for their intended use exclude adequate purchasing competition or require the purchase of vehicles that are not commercially available or practicable practicable so this really is if we're looking at fire trucks or things of that nature those types of vehicles perhaps aren't electri or um all electric and so this would not force um any Department to purchase vehicles that do not meet its uh specific needs um and so one of the things that's very important also about this particular policy is that it helps the city uh to um it's one step closer to achieving a uh climate leader designation um and at this time uh president Gomez with your permission I think it would be useful to have our uh conservation agent um Cassie Trager to speak not only about this particular policy that she helped to uh amend and make edits to but also to talk about the uh climate leader designation um so that other counselors have a clear understanding of not only the uh the positive impact this has for the city uh but also the positive impact that the this uh passage of this policy allows in terms of uh getting grants for the city yeah K's here CI just a copy of my me a moment I just want to get myself set up here for my [Music] presentation I'm going to share my screen so that you can see the presentation all right so yes thank you um councelor denim for the introduction my name is Cassie Trager I am the conservation agent for the city of East Hampton I'm work in the planning department uh here in City Hall um thank you to the council for giving me this opportunity to share my perspective um for how approving this policy and also the specialized code that we'll talk about in the next item um will help us achieve our climate goals in relation to the climate action plan and the potential to gaining this climate leader designation so um first I want to talk about the climate action plan the climate action plan is something that uh is being pursued in response to the climate emergency resolution passed by the city council in 2021 um that was a really critical thing that the city council did um to show that kind of giving a mandate to the the City staff um and to show to the to the community that climate change is a very uh it's a huge problem it's a it's a it is an emergency right now that we need to address and creating this climate action plan gives us a way and it guides us to address that um the and so I mention that also because I would request that the council try to look at these these measures both the zero emission vehicle policy and the specialized code um through that lens of an act of climate emergency that has been recognized in the past um So the plan itself uh will lay out actions that the city government can take to um reach a net zero carbon emitting City by 2050 the actions are grouped into things that the city can do for municipal operations for to support residents to make green changes to support businesses to make green changes and then lastly to um collaborate regionally to drive a larger scope of uh change towards addressing climate change um the plan itself has gone through many public and departmental iterations um it's got a lot of uh Outreach to those groups to help craft it so it's taken a holistic approach to get to where it is today it should be uh completed by early July and um it will align us with State goals for climate uh response which will help us be more competitive for Grants um and grant opportunities to help us complete those actions so one of the big sources a new source of grants for uh completing these actions that are outlined in the plan is a climate leader Community designation so this is something that's been created by the department of energy resources do um and it's basically a level up from being a green Community we are a green Community we've been a green Community since 2010 this is helping us kind kind of reach the next level as it were what a green Community being a green Community does for us is that it allows us to go for grants that help improve Municipal operations in terms of their Energy Efficiency um but the limitation currently is that it's only for municipal buildings and Municipal operations what becoming a climate leader uh Community would do is allow us to go for a much broader scope of grant opportunities that would help us pursue the actions related to um supporting the public to make these changes and businesses and more Regional um efforts so if we want to be able to go pursue all the actions in the plan this is going to be a critical tool to help us fund doing that um I have't here that the application is due July 25th to get that designation I've actually just been informed by um do that they've expanded that um but I'll explain with more detail later why I still think it's important for us to approve these policies this amendment these amendments now um to kind of be the most competitive we can be so what are the criteria to be a a climate leader Community um they're all listed here the first one is to be a green community in good standing we are we have been since 20110 no problem the next is to establish um a local energy committee we already have that it's the energy advisory committee and we're really lucky it's a really dedicated group of people who have been doing good work um the next would be to issue a formal decarbonization commitment that's going to be satisfied by the climate action plan that'll be completed this July um early this July the next is to create a decarbonization road map for 2050 that's related to municipal buildings only that's going to be included included in the climate action plan so that's going to be completed imminently so the last two pieces the only other two pieces that we need are the adoption of this zero emission vehicle policy and the adoption of the specialized code so I'm going to talk about the zero emission policy now but um I'll be back to talk about the code mhm oh but first I explain how these two things are coming together like I said the actions that are identified in the climate action plan we will get access to Grants by being a climate leader Community to help make those actions happen um I urge the commission to uh excuse me the council to uh give us the ability make these two last pieces something that we have so we can get this designation at this moment um because we've gathered a lot of momentum through the climate action plan development we've created we've been able to gather a list of residents who are interested in invested and seeing how this unfolds and likely helping with these you know more public facing elements in the future um and we've kind of set the tone we've been working in certain departments there's a lot of momentum to kind of keep this going so if we can get this climate leader designation as soon as possible then we can really hit the ground running once the plan is done and start pursuing and executing those actions of as soon as possible the other element is that I've been the main staff person um kind of driving this and and working on these projects but I will no longer be with the city starting August 1st so even though we have a longer deadline than I knew before to get this designation I would encourage us to make it so that I can still apply for the designation before I leave um and then last piece it would also support existing projects that we have going on which are listed there but also would help support funding um potentially for a sustain ility coordinator position so that there could be a new position to make to execute the climate action plan after I leave um which I think is a really critical component of the plan being successful okay so the zero emission vehicle policy so like I said this status I I would ask this to be adopted today because it satisfies one of the last two criteria we need to become a climate leader Community um it improves upon the existing fuel efficient policy that we already have because we're a green community so that policy just that we need to buy the most fuel Fu vehicle possible this establishes a more clear hierarchy of how we should make that consideration um and so Connie explained this pretty well already but just to reiterate if we say the um we need a department head needs to buy a certain vehicle they know what it needs to be able to do and they know what their budget is for it this asks when they consider when they try to choose a vehicle can they choose an electric vehicle that can do that if you can't okay can you choose a a plug and hybrid that can achieve that no what about a a um a gas hybrid no okay what's the most fuel efficient combusted engine you can find there so it really just lays out a clear process for that but it's not a huge change from what we've already been doing in my opinion um and then yeah just to reiterate again because I think it's really important to know that it doesn't compromise require any compromise for performance safety standards or cost um for these departments when they're considering vehicles and that's the explicit language that's included in the policy um and so so yeah I would ask that the the council consider to pass this amendment and thank you for your time thank you denim yeah so I think at this time um it would be I'd like to with your permission um president Gomez open it up to council members if they have any questions since Cassie is is here also now to be able to answer those questions any have any questions or concerns comments councelor Riley um and this is just a quick comment um to say thank you for all of the work that you do on behalf of the city um you know the things that you specialize in are the kinds of policy areas that I'm not always the most familiar with um so you know when you come to meetings and you give presentations like this like you have in the past um it just really helps me understand uh the totality of what we're talking about so um I don't have any questions because of the presentation so I just wanted to say thank you thank you I'm glad I can do that therey so thanks um I know one of the things we had talked about in committee was um including a piece for not necessarily electric but emerging Technologies I just wanted to make sure that we made that in there because when you went through your hierarchy I maybe I missed it oh yeah no sorry I just mentioned electric vehicles as the top choice for the example but yes that is in there I think it is important that we had the language crafted drafted to prioritize zero emission Vehicles not just electric vehicles because there could be new technology that comes out such as hydrogen powered or I don't even know what that we want to be able to be included if it doesn't result in any fossil fuel emissions that should be applicable and a good option for for um departments to choose from yeah any other conselor cons Smith um first Cass I just wanted to say um we'll miss you um as part part of the city and I really appreciated being part of ordinance you really broke down a lot of the language that was really difficult from the state regarding these and um to the other counselors that that piece with the green the yellow and the red bullets to it was really helpful and it really helped me understand why I would be going for these different designations and what was at stake and so when we look at how many grants we would be able to be to be eligible for as a city I thought that was a really important part of this process and so because of that and because of the history um of our city being able to really diligently write grants and see results that really helped me making a decision about this as part of the committee so I wanted to bring that forth to the other counselors as well that that was really helpful and um this is very difficult to to understand so having I mean we really went through many many iterations of just having to be like can you explain this to us again so that's certainly part of the um part of the process and my my questions were really answered and I appreciated it okay thank you conselor any other conselor uh conselor do you want to add something else before we go to the public or yeah so just one uh final thought one thing that we had discussed also was just the review of this would take place um and this was part of making sure that it would it discussed zero emission was so that we don't have to review this each and every time a technology comes but this would just fall under a the typical review of of ordinances um and so I think that that's something that um was discussed also and we had voted three to zero um to um support this so just want to make that known um and if you'd like I can read the motion not yet let me open to the public first okay yep anyone when you're ready anyone from the public have any questions or comments about these changes of uh on this ordinance anyone participating remote I see Julie hi Julie from Precinct one um I really am hoping that you approve this resolution because I think it's really important um when our Police Department went to the two EV Vehicles the two electric vehicles I was very in support of that due to trying to go green and I hope that you guys will decide to go ahead and move forward with this I think it's so important for our future for our children and their children and we can as I said before in the past we can only go up from where we're at so I appreciate you taking the time to listen and I do hope you approve this thank you thank you Julie anyone else see n cons denim I move to amend chapter 2 Administration by replacing the existing section 2-6 purchase of fuel efficient vehicles for municipal use with a new section 2-6 purchase of fuel efficient vehicles for municipal use as presented to the city council for its meeting on June 25th 2024 second I have a motion seconds to the city ordinance amendment to amend chapter 2 Section 2-6 any further discussion see on Barbara Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi Connie Denham hi Salem Derby I Omar Gomez I Tom Peak Brad Riley I motion passes uh consim y um thank you Mr President um and the second thing that we have the ordinance committee is bringing to council today is the um opt-in specialized code um which is um an addition to the um oh no I'm forgetting it the stretch code um and I'm not going to go too much into this because I'm going to turn it over to our conservation agent um Cassie tager again to uh discuss this this was a particularly and I think it was hinted at U by councelor Smith this was a particularly confusing um discussion um around kind of the stretch code and the specialized opt-in code um but essentially the uh again the the specialized opt-in code would um uh present some requirements for uh building additions and new um structures um that would make buildings more um energy efficient um but uh conservation Asia Trager actually has a presentation that will walk us through um what the distinctions are from that which I think would actually be a a a a better visual representation of kind of the discussion so that that um we can kind of move forward in that discussion so with your permission uh president Gomez I think it would be helpful to have um Cassie uh provide that presentation Cassie hello again okay I'm going to share my screen again if you can bear with me and also Mr President if I could yep so we also have uh Chris Mason from the doer who's also uh present uh in the meeting who will be able to provide some Insight um uh regarding the optin uh specialized code as well just so you are aware okay thank [Applause] you thank you Connie um and thank you again for allowing me to share my perspective once again um so this is again related to this is the now we just passed the Zev policy so the last piece that we need to be able to be eligible for the climate leader designation is passing um adopting the specialized code um and so let's see here many people aren't familiar with the building codes um so I wanted to give a quick overview of what is out there before we get start and then dive into more detail as we go so I do ask that you hold your questions to the end um even though that's what we've been doing anyways but just hopefully it'll make sense uh if I can give it all in one go so first of all there are three building codes related to energy efficiency for buildings that are available to all towns um and the lowest level is the base code we have that adopted that's the minimum standard the next level up is the stretch code which we have adopted we've had it adopted for many years because it is a requirement to be a green Community um that will remain the case whether or not we choose to adopt the specialized code or not um so sometimes there's confusion between the two because they both start with s and it's hard but um that stretch code is you know it's subject to changes it's actually going to be updated this July that's going to happen either way what's being asked today is to adopt the specialize code oh hold on I'm in the wrong there we go so first just the key points about the specialized code so again it's not the stretch code we've had the stretch code you'll see how they differ here in in Inc coming slides but just keep that in your mind doing the specialized code only tonight stretch code exists and will exist either way big overarching questions that we experienced thus far is um bringing clarification that it will not apply to additions alterations Renovations or existing structures this is only applies to new building construction and I'll explain more how how it applies to each kind but it's only for new construction it does not require all um all electric homes so for those new construction there is a way to have them be not um not all electric but there are standards you need to meet if that's the path you're going to go it does not reduce or disincentivize affordable housing which is is a legitimate concern um but the reason is is because affordable housing projects in order to get the funding and the approvals that they need from the state they already are going to be developing to the standard of the specialized code and so um affordable housing will still still be reaching the specialized code standards whether or not it's passed um and so this should not dis disincentivize affordable housing nor um be a barrier to it um but what I will say is that it it could result in in increased costs to new buildings that are privately developed and not going for those affordable um that affordable standard uh because they'll needing to reach a more energy efficient standard um but I would highlight that they will be less expensive to live in for those who are occupying those spaces because they'll be more energy efficient they should be able to expect lower energy bills um and so that's something I want to highlight and be able to go for the incentives from the state for Mass saves okay so now we're getting into the details oh no no sorry this is something I wanted to add in here so this is an infographic from doar that kind of just corroborates these claims I just made um and one of the ones that we talked about at the ordinance subcomittee maybe was a potential source of confusion was does the optin special I code apply to existing structures no improvements to existing structures depend on SI depending on size are regulated by the updated stretch code in the base code that depending on size qualifier there was concern that that meant that if it was above or below a certain size yes it would impa impact existing structures that is not the case what it's saying there is that depending on the size it operates under the stretch code or the base code so it does not impact existing structures alterations Renovations it's only for new construction will the will the specialized code discourage affordable housing no um for the same reasons it will encourage affordable housing um through other incentives through the state there already going to be meeting this standard uh whether or not we pass the specialized code is it possible to install a gas cooktop in a home under this standard in a new in a new home yes it is um you just need to pre-wire for it to be switched to Electric we'll get into details about that but yes there's a mixed fuel pathway is what they're how they're describing it or any other type of Appliance or um fossil fuel sourced energy source in the house you will be able to do that um why should we op uh adopt the code the specialized code they highlight that the number one reason is the pre-wiring requisite um that will make it easier for folks to Electrify in the future it should they want to do that um which is much easier and and uh less expensive to do when they're building the home than after it's built so that is a benefit to Future owners and residents um but again I would highlight that it will satisfy the last criteria to become a climate leader community and thus will make us able to get more grants to execute the climate action plan um and then why does the opin Cod permit fossil fuel usage why do why can they do gas cooktops and the uh mixed pathway the mixed fuel Pathways to preserve Market Choice which I think is good to have a little more flexibility built into it okay so now we're going to get into details so um there's basically three Cate or two categories this one has two sub pieces um looking at this this infographic these charts were made available by do they come from them um the information on the left in the lighter boxes is kind of describing the building you're trying to build the dark blue boxes is what exists that's what's required under the stretch code that will be the case and what they need to meet regardless of whether or not you choose to adopt the specialized code it's only these green boxes is what will be required what I'm asking to have be required and been adopted today um for residential structures new residential structures they divide it into single family homes and uh multif family developments so uh zooming in again the within those two subcategories these are the only two types of homes that will experience the change through adding the code so if you can build an all electric if you're building a new home and you can make it all electric no matter what size you just need to meet the stretch code that's already the case if will be not impacted by us passing the specialized code tonight if you are making an addition or an alteration of any size or it's an existing home there's exemptions if it's historic but also it wouldn't affect either of them existing standards apply but if you want to try to build a new home that um is requiring mixed fuel you will be impacted by this um and then it divides it into depending on the size of the home what the criteria is but of any size you need to pre prewire the home for electrification in the future so like I said if you want to install a gas stove you can do that but you need to pre-wire it so that someone could swap it for a gas stove and that that that applies for all the different appliances in the home if you make all the appliances not electric you have to pre-wire all of them to be electric um but if you only have that one then you just pre-wire that one for homes um that are of a certain size if you're under 4,000 ft you also need to add solar but it has to be minimum of 4 Kow if you're over 4,000 ft for this new home you need to have enough solar to achieve Net Zero what's important to note though is that that solar is only required if it's physically possible because of the trees surrounding the area you will not no one will be required to remove trees to uh make solar possible so you would be exempt from the solar requirement if it's not physically possible because where you built the home is surrounded by trees that um is a really important distinction but if you can have solar you're going to have to have solar um the next category is residential multifamilies so this would only apply if those multif family developments these new multif family buildings are four stories or greater and over 12,000 Square ft so there may be housing developments that are below those standards and would not be impacted by this but if they meet that size threshold even if they're all electric or mixed fuel they're going to be impacted um in the past they if it's if it's was all electric if they met just the stretch codee they wouldn't have to to do anything but what this will change is that they have to be passive house any multif family development that meets that size threshold will have to meet the passive house standards what we're talking about there is a is a weatherization General Home Efficiency standard so that's like uh they have to build it tight enough and um insulated enough to meet this efficiency standard um and then for mixed fuel homes if they're not all electric they have to be passive house and they also have to pre-wire like for the other structures so that's for the residential section last one commercial so this is the last category um it's important to note that commercial structures for do includes municipal buildings and schools um but again what would change by getting the specialized code this chart works the same way the light colored boxes on the left describes the type of structure the dark blue boxes describes the um the current code the stretch code what is in place either way the green boxes is what would change so now I'm highlighting it the only ones that would be affected our mixed fuel buildings non all electric buildings so if the city wanted to build a new city hall and we couldn't make it all electric we would have to build it such that um we pre-wire for electric for those parts that aren't all electric and then we can either meet this Teddy rating and add solar or we can achieve passive house Teddy is another type of building ceiling building efficiency tightness for a building installation so for mixed fuel pre-wire and passive house house or the other one plus solar for all other commercial structures that are over 20,000 ft if you're under 20,000 square feet this does not affect you but if you are building a structure that needs mixed fuel if you can't achieve all electric then um you need to either achieve passive house and pre-wire either way you got to prewire it and you can either achieve passive house or achieve ashray SL Tedy and add solar ashray and Teddy again just another standard for weatherization and uh building efficiency and so uh the theme really across the whole board is this pre-wiring if you can't get all electric and then trying to have extra sources to um be uh provide energy for the home through the solar if you meet those certain standards okay so you know I won't necessar I don't need to go through all of these again but just quickly it's not the same as a stretch code stretch code is in place dark blue boxes happen either way the um it will not apply to existing structures additions alterations or Renovations no matter the size or scope you could totally gut an existing building would not apply it's just the bare bones you still wouldn't have to apply for the U be compliant with the specialized code um it doesn't require all electric homes there are other Pathways for mix fuels homes but you will have to pre-wire and sometimes add solar it does not reduce or incentivized affordable housing um but there there may be costs for private developments that meet those certain size th size thresholds that cannot be all electric um but they will likely be cheaper to live in for those tenants um and the folks who would be using those homes and buildings um and so I would just ask the council to again reiterate that passing this not only is it good for helping us get that climate leader designation and being able to go for that while I'm still here not only will that then help us execute the climate action plan it is a critical piece to address the climate emergency that the resolution was passed on this will help make sure these future buildings are going in this direction that will um help us do what we need to do to address this climate emergency so um thank you and now we can open to questions and I thank Chris Mason for being here as well our regional coordinator so thank you I know it was long so thank you Ki that was a great presentation just one second any conselor PE I guess we're going to miss you a lot um but um I was just wondering for uh so uh at the beginning of your initial presentation so I probably should have asked this then uh we were talking about this climate leader designation and all the various grants that it would open it up to um this might be a difficult question so if you don't know that's fine but um like how much if we don't act tonight like how much money are we leaving or like what what kind of money are we leaving on the table like what are these what sort of Grants are we talking about in terms of like you know like what are s i I guess that kind of yeah I know what you mean so um it's a good question and Chris Mason may be able to speak to this more directly but the the real thing is is that we don't actually know they haven't laid out what all the gr grants are that going to be available are um but we do know that this will be the major tool to go for the those grants and we do know that the scope of those grants will include the things that are in the climate action plan that simply being a green Community does not include exact numbers I couldn't say and it likely will change over time as the city likely increases incentives um based off of how they've been the direction it's been trending already um and so yeah we don't have all the specific answers to that yet unless anything new has come out from Chris but um that is the piece I think that one of the things that was highlighted in the materials that are out already is the funding potentially for a sustainability coordinator position and that I think even if that was the only thing would be huge for us to be able to do because like I said having a staff person dedicated to making the climate action plan happen um is critical to its success than you any other councel cons Riley Chris U yes let me cons Riley and then I will take Chris thank you yeah thank you um so this may be a question for you it also may be a question um for counselor denim to answer um so you know I was thinking as I was listening to your presentation about uh how to best facilitate the onboarding process for oversight and how this works so let's use the example of um tree cover for a new um a new home being constructed and they cannot reach Net Zero because of the you know the the tree canopy and the shade um is this a um oversight that belongs to the zoning board of appeals to Grant waivers who who was the the uh body that um takes these situations up in terms of waivers I'm not sure it would be the building department and the Building Commissioner who would be uh enforcing the code just like they do now that's who enforces the stretch code and the base code so um the waiver process I'm not sure what that would be but it may just be at the discretion of the Building Commissioner to be like Yep this meets these criteria um but I'm not sure okay um yeah thank you I'm going with Christopher now but I'm going to ask one more time can you please mute your cell phones thank you Christopher hello thank you for having me Chris Mason western Mass regional coordinator of the green communities program um uh uh let's see questions before me are um what kind of Grants are going to be coming out um right now uh East Hampton takes advantage of competitive grants from being a green Community the Green community is competitive Grant application and um uh as a green Community those those grants are limited to a certain amount for instance you can't put PV on a municipal building you can't support PV on a municipal building with those grants we've never allowed that um if you became a climate leader Community then uh we would broaden the areas that you could use that grant money for uh for instance you could possibly that point you could be putting money towards a PV r on a on a building on a municipal building um and it'll be broader uh in more in other ways as well one of the things that kassy hasn't mentioned for the climate leaders Community is uh that every three years you need to be recertified um and part of that is showing that you've done some kind of um activity for the Greater Community not just Municipal operations but kind of outward facing and I won't go into the details on that but that's the other kind of thing that this that this grant fund might open up for is you you can help you with kind of Outreach and stuff to the community um uh climate leaders Community is also going to get a second Grant of pool of money for the grant um the accelerator program and that's not up and running yet uh we haven't even gotten anybody is designated a climate leading community community yet but that one um is both going to be broader and bigger it's going to um you know right now the climate leaders competitive Grant are on the order of $200,000 $220,000 uh the accelerator grants are going to be more on the order of over 3/4 of a million um they're going to be larger grants meant to be uh doing big things um that's it in a nutshell for the grants uh do you want to take questions on this or I'll move over to uh what was the other one the one second any con I have a question about grants councelor Derby oh actually I don't have any questions on grants I just wanted to comment Qui so um as part of uh committee deliberations I was I was hard on Cassie and Connie and and and honestly I was going to bring this forward I got beat to the punch and the reason why um I asked a lot of difficult questions was because you know I wanted to ensure that if we adopted this it wouldn't have consequences that we didn't anticipate and I think that um you know those questions were answered to my satisfaction I think that you know they did a great job of kind of out you know outlining those tonight um you I think some of the apprehension here from Builders because I talked to a lot of Builders and Architects and people in the community and there was a lot of apprehension a lot of it has to do with stretch code which is different than the specialized code um and the and because there's some ambiguity there around when that does kick in what it will be so people are a little on edge um so there is some like uh tension in the community um but you know I I wanted to make sure that we weren't going to impact the major projects that we have in the in the city now the school reuse the Fairy Street project the affordable housing projects that we had coming up and I think that to my satisfaction those are going to be um protected because a lot of them are going to meet that they existing buildings etc etc but I think I wouldn't be doing my due diligence if we didn't you know protect those projects and make sure that they were um a priority um not that you know this isn't a priority because I think this is really important and you know I'll never forget you know I was there when we passed the first stretch code and the the late Burnie gal told me that it was going to kill building in East Hampton um and I think that was in like 2009 or something so I think we've done okay since then um so I don't think this is going to hurt necessarily I think it it will have an impact on new construction for sure um because when you talk about passive house the um that is an emerging standard and it requires air handling which is going to have to be done by specialized systems that aren't necessarily widely available so I I do think it will have an impact but I don't think it will be a widely negative impact because this is going to become more standardized and these things are going to get cheaper and you know as people start to build new construction hopefully those costs will stabilize but I just wanted to make sure that I said that and acknowledge the hard work so and yeah thank you thank you cons denam thank you Mr President I think that uh just kind of piggybacking on what um vice president Derby uh is saying I I think that there was a lot of confusion between the stretch code and the specialized code and I think that there is a great deal of concern around um cost and so my question to uh Mr Mason is can you talk about or can you give examples of incentives that are available to builders so when they're building and they're like holy cow this is becoming increasingly more expensive as I'm building what are the incentives then that they're GNA help kind of bring those costs back down again sure trying to actually find the right documentation for that myself um so the Mass Save program offers um uh subsidies for building even if you're build just to just to the the current code uh you can actually get the sub the Builder will actually get a subsidy uh here we go for massive one to four units all electric homes if you get a hers rating of 45 as a measure of Energy Efficiency uh you'll get $155,000 from Mass Save if you bring that and that's going to be at the um the code level uh if you go below code or if you go more efficient than code if you get down to hers 35 um passive or passive house for a single family they you can get $225,000 from Mass safe um for the multif family um homes uh if you have the specialized code you you're going to have to be working to passive house you can get $3,000 per unit plus design study funding so there's U Mass a provides funding for the the multif family as well there's also Federal um inflation reduction act uh funds uh$ 2500 to $5,000 per home of tax credits aligned with the hers rating up to $6 a square feet for tax credit for commercial and multif family um uh all of these funds the mass sa funds I'm talking about are are put into effect by the Energy Efficiency advisory Council which goes through threee cycle and it tells the utilities basically what they need to have in their Mass safe programs um another cycle is coming through and i' my understanding is that these um incentives actually will be going up I don't know exactly how they are um right now but the state is very dedicated to to making sure this works and so the subsidies um and when they do go in effect they will be in effect for three more years in which case the energ efficiency advisory Council will then kick in again um but at the moment the trend is um higher level of subsidies um uh I also want to say that if you are worried about uh say someone you know a first-time home buyer uh being able to afford this and whether the specialized stretch code is going to make it harder or not um generally speaking all electric homes are the cheapest way to build a home so if you're if you're trying to build a home that you just just so I can afford it you're going to build an all electric home and that one is not going to be affected by the specialized code so when you're talking about the lower you know the lower income folks or the folks who are just trying to get to that first home the specialized code is not going to impact you yeah great thank you Mr Mason and then I just oh one other um point that I think we had discussed and so it's not really a a question it's really just more of a comment so people are aware is is that well there's two points really one is that say we pass this and it's just not working uh through our conversation with Mr Mason we would have the opportunity to resend it at at any point in the future um that's point one that we had discussed and and the second point I think is um a little bit more um importance to the conversation of how this impacts Builders um in our conversation uh a local Builder was saying look we're having difficulty getting from I can't remember what it was 52 to 45 uh in terms of hers rating and I think that what's really important to understand is I think part of that policy discussion or challenges that's really for the state to be able to to navigate those issues and concerns with Builders and not necessarily what's happening within this city right and the and the the the passage of this particular ordinance and so I think that that's it's something to to to keep in mind and understand that that this is a larger conversation that is happening across the state and not just within East Hampton and so some of those conversations and and some of those challenges have to come from um you know drer uh kind of intervening and engaging with um Builders to be able to kind of navigate those um questions that that that may be a challenge but again going back what's really impacting Builders at this particular time is the stretch code not necessarily the specialized code and so I just want to kind of reiterate that as well thank you councelor and any other councelor have any questions comments concerns celor Derby just a quick question for councelor Denham of cons can you just stop the sharing document that way we can have a better view of cons when she's talking Mak sense thank you so we've covered this pretty completely I think um I think the only outstanding thing is one of the components of this is a adoption date and so we had thrown around a few different dates I just wanted to check with councelor what because I can't remember exactly what date we uh had settled on whether it was a year um or whether it was 18 months or so I just want to make sure that people understand that as well yeah Connie yes go ahead Cassie oh sorry just I have some information about that so that was a question of we need to adopt it tonight so that we can apply for the climate leader designation but when would it be implemented when would it take effect and so the effective date can be up to 12 months if we go longer than 12 months we will no longer be um uh eligible for the climate leader designation it's not I was able to confirm with do we wouldn't really be in the spirit of the designation anymore if we wait that long but anything up to 12 months um you could delay the the effective date uh that far they question I'm just wondering what we setted on that's what I'm saying that's I'm asking if that denim yep so two things one we in our discussion said agreed upon a year um but if I'm not mistaken and Mr Mason you could provide Insight from the other communities that have passed I I think most communities either pass it and it's in place at the time like this evening at the point of or I think it's six months but Mr Mason maybe you have more kind of insight of what other cities have done sure I I don't think it there is a regulation that says when it has to be done I would not advise uh passing it and then have it go in place right away um I think it's really wise to have uh like a six-month period which only kind of becomes a concurrency period where you can build to the specialized or you build with stretch code um gives Builders and the building Community a chance to kind of get used to it um I think six months is probably what the most common um out there um uh you know if you passed it and you want to go this way then waiting 12 months just seems a bit much um and then uh we do ask that uh when it goes into effect either be July or January so that you know you don't have Builders looking at a code change at any month of the year you're going to get a code change so this way you know it's going to be changed in it's going to be get implemented in July or it's going to get implemented in January they're kind of looking for that at the moment thank you yeah yep so I think that's the question that the council then needs to decide so if we do the July date then technically we're now over 12 months um and if we do January 1 we would be at about six months so I think that that's a conversation that we have to decide on as a council any C Riley um do we need to hold a completely separate motion to vote on what that time should be no we can just we can uh deliberate and agree that it's be six month I'm in full support of uh 6 months at uh January 1st that makes the most sense any other [Music] counselor no one else um then something else before I go to the public nothing okay anyone from the public have any questions or comments about this ordinance please go to the podium state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes my name is Connie Dawson I live at 12 night Avenue and I am a member of the eastampton energy advisory committee which strongly supports passage of this measure and I also would like to tell everyone here what an important part of all of the work that our committee has done Cassie Trager has been for us we would have not been able to do anything without her she's she's a very smart really easy to work with incredibly hardw worker very creative we really are going to miss her thank you thank you so much so um I'm really I don't have a lot of new to new to say except um I think it is useful to know that 44 cities in towns have already adopted the specialized code there are 12 municipalities that are in in process and planning to adopt it so it is something that's happening throughout the state Northampton and Amherst in in Western Massachusetts have already adopted it um and then just to reiterate why we as a committee really support this um first of all buildings are the Second Source um big source of um pollution in in terms of greenhouse gas emissions so it's really important for us to get a handle on um changing the way we heat and cool our homes and and and use energy in general we have to get off of fossil fuels um I think this this issue of providing consumer protection by having all new buildings um that use any kind of fossil fuels wired while the building is being built so that when the transition has to happen the consumers don't have to spend huge amounts of money rewiring for something that could have been done very easily and cost effectively initially um and then of the other issue is this issue of our um being able to become a a climate leader Community I think that um as Cassie said this could be how we are able to have a sustainability coordinator right now Cassie is performing the functions of the sustainability coordinator although is not really her job and some of the things that um are happen in terms of our climate plan are really going to require a designated person to make sure that all of these things actually happen and fall into place um and we really can't expect um the um Conservation Commission uh agent to do that job any longer um and also I would like to reiterate I think everyone knows this now but this does not affect Renovations additions or historic buildings it's just new construction so I um I hope that you will vote for this I think it is really important to do it now and um and I also would really prefer I agree that it should be 6 months and that is typically what municipalities have been choosing to do thank you thank you hi uh David Bole 146 uh hoyo Street um I'm not an active Builder but I would say that um this is a good step um I have a a 23k solar system and um which has led me to um research a lot of things and become involved with two alternative energy companies there are things coming out in 3 or four years on the electric side that if this stuff is in place will be very helpful it's it's coming and it won't be hydrogen it's coming thank you hi I'm Donna chapello I live in eastw works at 116 Pleasant Street I'm a resident and I have um two questions um one for Christopher is whether or not this will apply to buildings like my building where I live in eastw Works whether Renovations come in the form of um um affordable housing or market rate housing um and my second question which I it may have been addressed already because I came in a little late but um I wanted to know if um what do I want to know if this applies to buildings that are already being built so the projects on Main Street for example um and the one that's coming up in Oliver Street um or if this is just new construction going forward and my comment is that um I volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and Habitat for Humanity has been been building houses in um Northampton and Greenfield and Conway and all of their houses are um being built all electric with mini splits and heat pumps and solar systems um and they've been able to do it very effectively the houses are are really nice um and so I'm in favor of this thank you Mr Mason okay sure so um uh projects such as eastworks um they existing buildings so the specialized code won't won't affect them and if you're working on that building you're going you're going from an existing building it's a renovation or an addition um so that falls into that category um and any um existing buildings that building struction building projects that are happening right now they're already locked into the uh when they got their permits um it was under the current code and that's what they're they're locked into and it won't change um so this will only be once it's implemented thank you and cons in terms of the construction that's taking place on Main Street so that development that's going in um their intent is to do passive housing and so it would already um um kind of meet the criteria of the the specialized code thank you anyone el else from the public anyone participate in remote see none councelor [Music] denim y so um I'd like to read the motion um I move Toops I move to amend chapter 4 buildings and building regulations by adding a new section 4- 2.1 adoption of the specialized energy code 225 CMR section 23 or 22 and 23 to read as follows the specialized energy code AS found in 225 CMR sections 22 and 23 including appendices RC and CC in their entirety is hereby adopted as the minimum energy code for the city including future additions amendments or modifications there to for the purpose of regulating the design and construction of buildings for the effective use of energy and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions with an effective date of January 1st 2025 second have a mo on a seconds to amend the chapter four by adding new section 4- 2.1 adopting the specialized energy code to 25 CMR section 22 and 23 any further discussion see none Barbara JT Terrell hi honey denim hi salum Derby hi Omar Gomez Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi tamber Smith hi motion passes thank you thank you Cassi good job thank you uh now we have an amendment to the traffic rules and Order cons Derby thank you Mr President president so um Public Safety uh looked at two different uh sections of parking um on Maine and Union streets um and we are only going to be affecting two of the areas that we looked at but I'm going to have three motions and I'll explain where those sections are um so in front of the Congregational Church um going down towards pepen there's a a set of parking spaces that are reserved for Sunday parking only um and we deliberated and looked at those spaces and um kind of anticipated what the current load of parking demand is downtown um we thought it would be a good idea to make those parking spaces permanent and not just reserved for Sundays um and so that's one of the uh spaces that we looked at the other one if you look at the Congregational Church as it um faces big ease there is a section for parking that is reserved for Sundays again um and if you look at where that section of parking is um it is a massive obstruction to Union Street so if you were taking a right from Main Street onto Union Street You' basically be taking a right into somebody's car that was parked there um so we felt that that was a um a safety hazard and that there should be no parking at any time there um and so basically what the Motions would do is they would um allow parking for that first section of parking spaces at all times um and then um the next one which strike the Sunday only parking um on the uh uh let me see west side of the church and uh make that a permanent no parking so that's what we have happy to entertain any questions any con have any questions or comments or concerns see none anyone from the public have any questions comments concerns about these parking regulations anyone remote see none con Derby so um we did do a site visit I think I said that um but we also voted uh to approve these changes 3 to zero uh and I will start with the first uh motion I move to amend section 1-25 parking prohibited on certain streets During certain hours subsection A and B by striking the following Main Street southernly side from the intersection of Main and Union streets in a Westerly direction to the intersection of Maine and Clark Avenue no parking at any time with the exception of Sundays from 8 to one uh and then the um and bar do you want me to do these all together uh and then amend section 1.2 1-25 parking prohibit on certain streets during certain hours subsection B by striking the following Union Street Westerly side from the intersection of Union and main streets for a distance of 214 ft in a southernly Direction no parking at any time with the exception of Sundays from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and to amend section 1-24 24 parking prohibited in certain streets at all times by adding the following Union Street Westerly side from the intersection of Union and main streets for a distance of 214 ft in a southerly direction uh and that is the motion second I have a motion a second to amend appendix a TR rules and Order section 1-24 and 1-25 regarding parking restriction on Main Street and Union Street any further discussion see none Barbara Connie Denham hi Salem Derby hi Omar Gomez Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi motion passes cons Derby move we close the public hearing second I have a motion on a second to close public hearing any further discussion see none Barbara Salem Derby hi Omar Gomez Tom Peak Brad Riley Tamar Smith hi JT Terell hi uh Connie denim hi Mo passes public hearing is officially closed I will open public speak pick time one more time uh for those one that didn't say anything before this is the time to address anything that wasn't not related at the public hearing you have um you're going to have two minutes 30 seconds and 30 seconds to talk to the conso me to go now as soon you say your name you're David Bo 146 Hoy Street um an apartment in commercial property owner former chairperson and master plan and the Riverside windows project which the city helped contribute a lot of money towards through the preservation fund I have no direct affiliation to Riverside but two cousins are former clients um friends in town that had a daughter and son as clients and my son used to be a employee um currently as a landlord I have a few residents that have rents that are 30% below the current market rate I will continue that for them until they leave on their own because I do not have to answer to anyone and I do not have to fulfill a nonprofit Mission however Riverside has a duty it's Duty bound to fulfill its mission of empowering people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live rich and full lives as best they can remember R Riverside started as a residential program and a sheltered Workforce program um which was the first steps away from institutions um their mission is very serious we had institutions we all know what they were like um obviously fulfilling that mission may include a symbiotic relationship with artists or possibly other groups but that relationship has to be at the minimum close to revenue neutral um Riverside also has to answer to State funding and their requirements it must not be a significant Revenue loss unfortunately gentrification which is happening is a tough Paradox everybody is hopeful everybody wants to be upand cominging but unfortunately up and coming is also mean because it's not for everybody um there will be displacement you know unless unless there's some kind of sacrifices shared by all easier intended than accomplished but one example would be would the city consider foregoing its real estate tax I I I know full well the um ramifications the discussions that would go but put your money where your mouth is you know it's $224,000 roughly with the city you know we have a school that's very rich and because of the Dober Amendment doesn't pay real estate taxes we have disabled people paying real estate taxes um is that it yeah thank you thanks a bunch have a good night thank you evening counselors Mike tnik 166 Hendrick Street um I won't use nearly that kind of time I'm here to support the resolution that I believe is going to be come before you tonight um we built this community on Arts it's important to promote Arts it's important to show that that uh we support arts in this community um I wouldn't want to be in your shoes to have to directly deal with the issue that's been talked about tonight but I do believe that the the U the vote tonight would be an important step forward in the resolution thank you hi uh my name is George Shaw I live on Chapman Avenue um do you mind if I just read from this I'm a little nervous um first of all I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time to listen to us and air our concerns and I'd also like to apologize if um we're burdensome as some people have claimed um but I believe that this uh discussion is important to both the city the artist community and even Riverside Industries so a little on my background I'm an artist who lives in this wonderful City a father with special needs child and the grandfather of two neurod Divergent children it's big word now um so my perspective might be slightly different from other people um I'm you know very sympathetic obviously to Riverside and what they're doing um but I don't think that you know our interests and their interests are mutually exclusive which seems to be how it's being presented from one side more than the other um I'm also a survivor of um multiple artist displacements extending back to the 80s so this isn't new to me um it's my observation and opinion that every time we're displaced the community loses some of its luster and joy um I like to note that it's almost July and none of us know exactly what our rent increases are you know we can kind of figure it out but we don't know what the terms of the leases are what future increases are you know but we're supposed to make a decision before September that's you know going to greatly affect all of us you know I doubt and I hope that I'm wrong you'll be able to stop uh these rent increases as Miss Ireland and I apologize I stated it's a done deal um what I'm seeking is that the city find a way um sorry find a way to invest in an essential essential element of our community the Arts um it's time to think creatively perhaps renting unused City buildings to us funding rents subsidies or perhaps um buying the building from Riverside and converting it to an artist building um you know I it's my opinion that they the building has been mismanaged for years and there's a a you know kind of a crisis um I know that the fire department is you know looking closely at the building thank you thank [Music] you my name is Margaret and I'm a tenant at one Cottage um so I'm urging you to support the resolution but I also want to talk specifically about what's happening at Cottage Street um my husband Greg and I have been in the building for 16 years we rent 4,000 square ft on the first floor uh we own a woodworking shop as well as a golf simulator we also used to own the New England School of architectural Woodworking and we brought hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people to this community um I thank Mr Plotkin for his support of the artist but unfortunately um I believe his ideas will come to fruition far too late for many of us our own square foot rate has doubled over the last 16 years which was appropriate and expected but now it's doubling again within a few short months that means our annual rent will be almost 50,000 a year I challenge all of you to face an increase of that magnitude in the middle of a fiscal year and not panic given the repeated refusals to meet with our ten Association Greg and I wrote a reasonable proposal that allows us to stay and provides Riverside with one reliable tenant rather than multiple tenants and the turnover often associated with that that proposal was flatly denied without a counter all tenants understand the financial challenges faced by Riverside as well as the condition of the building because we live with the challenges and restrictions every day however that's always been a tradeoff we accepted as a quirky building in return for lower rent I personally struggle with the lack of transparency from Riverside we've been told that the increase is directly tied to a new strategic plan but when I asked for a copy my request was not granted president Lyn Ireland told us at attendant meeting that Riverside may use may move their operations within the building this adds even more uncertainty to an already untenable situation because some of us may take heroic Measures to stay only to be surprised with displacement at a later date and given the short notice for the rent increase we count count on an appropriate time frame to move finally most of us as George said have yet to see new leases but are supposed to make decisions by August 1st with rent increasing in September for tenants like us with unique space needs and heavy equipment to move this is unreasonable all of this feels disrespectful and lacking in compassion and empathy I expected more thank you good evening I'm Lyn Ireland I'm the villain in the room um I am the president and CEO of Riverside Industries um I will submit a record in case I run out of time of this but I think it's important to understand that Riverside Industries is a private entity we own and operate one Cottage Street and our mission is empowering people with intellectual and developmental disabilities let me repeat that part of the most vulnerable population you can have and our job our mission is to support those people as the president of Riverside it is my duty to exercise fiscal responsibility over every aspect of the program and the building I have to assure that every single dollar spent is in the best in highest use in alignment with our mission we are one of the largest employers here in in the city of East Hampton we have 140 employees 98 of which are your constituents they and their families live here in the city of eastampton they support the vibrancy and the economy of East Hampton so we we work with 200 clients a day in a number of ways we have an employment program 60 to 70 clients daily work at um Amis College Westfield State University Big Y Center School in Long Meadow and many many more places they earn uh a paycheck they feel valued and they have purpose it's extremely important for all of us and for them our community-based day Services is all about bringing the clients out of the building and integrating them into the communities where they live creating informal supports giving them volunteer opportunities outings and truly becoming an integrated member of that Community many of you may have seen when they come across to the fire station it's their favorite volunteer opportunity they work side by side with the firefighters they also go their favorite outing to a horse farm which is extremely therapeutic and also enjoyable for them our day habilitation program we serve almost 60 clients daily in very highly medically compromised health status where they receive nursing Services occupational therapy Physical Therapy speech therapy all in an effort to create Independence I ask you to Advocate as strongly as you are for the artisans for Riverside it can't be on the back of these clients to support and subsidize Artisans I don't have the solution thank you but it cannot happen thank you good evening my name is Marcus Jones I serve as the senior director of development and strategic operations for Riverside Industries I'm speaking on behalf of Riverside as Lynn mentioned Riverside owns and operates one Cottage Street a historic Mill property that came into its possession by an act of individual philanthropy the building was donated with the intention of being a permanent home for Riverside's operations and to serve as an asset to financially support the organization as staff members of Riverside it is Our obligation to use that gift as it was intended which is in support of our mission it is disheartening that some of one Cottage Street's tenants are putting their desire for below Market rent above the needs of Riverside and our clients one of the most vulnerable populations in our community through a targeted campaign this same group of tenants has spread misinformation through the media direct contact with our donors our banking Partners vendors our volunteer board of directors you our city council members and our State Legislative delegation as of this afternoon 14 tenants and 13 non- tenants continue to send emails as part of an ongoing email campaign I believe these individuals have knowingly painted a negative image of Riverside by stating its leaders have acted in harmful or unfair business practices the this is a gross misrepresentation misrepresentation and cannot be further from the truth in my opinion these actions are meant to only harm Riverside's reputation and to pressure its leadership to bend to their own personal desires these actions have the potential to negatively impact Riverside's ability to conduct business and ultimately deliver our services as a member of Riverside staff leadership team I assure you the decision to strategically equalize rental rates at one Cottage Street was not made in haste our staff and our volunteers leaders have a share of mind about Riverside's Mission our strategic vision for the organization we are deeply committed to our clients and will remain steadfast and Relentless in our pursuit of Riverside's Mission I am immensely proud to stand in support of Riverside and the individuals in our care Riverside's mission is to empower individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live rich and full lives I choose this Mission every single day and I now encourage this city council to stand with us in support of that mission Riverside's program participants and the dedicated staff who care for them every day thank you thank you anyone else hi my name is John Ander I live at 96 Everett Street and I'm a tenant at one conet street I've been there for six years uh I wasn't planning on speaking but uh this is this is very disturbing the stuff I'm hearing uh I I think this model that's been being put forth that the tenants are somehow at odds or want to live on the backs of the Riverside clients is deeply offensive and wholly untrue there's not an artist I know in the building who isn't extremely supportive of the mission of Riverside it's I'm sorry it's just so it's so offensive I can I can barely process it um we understand that the rents rents need to go up we're just asking for it to be done in a way that's manageable and Humane getting a note embedded in the sixth paragraph of a long rambling email that was about everything else telling us that our rents were going to go up 10050 25% seems unconscionable to me when I moved into the building 6 years ago the relation ship between one Cottage Street and Riverside Industries was so collegial that I had difficulty parsing the difference between the two organizations Rick kobc and Scott Bergeron were extremely welcoming to me I thought they worked for one Cottage Street they worked for the building they worked for one Riverside but about two years ago maybe three this wall came down and all we want to do is have a place at the table a have a discussion be treated with some kind of respect I also take issue with the model that we are somehow being subsidized in the early years of Riverside industry they were reliant on the tenant and artist income to get their building afloat so I think I've said everything I want to say I'm sorry I'm so emotional I didn't mean to be but please don't accept this this this this scenario that somehow we are against are trying to exploit the the clients of Riverside Industries nothing could be further from the truth thank you thank you before you before you talk I know this could be emotional for a few people here I will please ask please don't react to anything I know could be emotional you could be one side could be the other side I just want to ask for respect for the people that are here thank you good evening thank you my name is Melissa Pike I am here as president of the building committee and the uh board at Riverside I'm also a commercial and residential landlord in East Hampton I'm providing a real uh a full statement to you because I'll never get it done fast enough um in this is a uh overview from 2016 till now the building committee was formed as a result of its strategic plan under CEO charentes rental rates were identified as a vulnerability causing a deficit 2018 Market rates were raised to $12 a square foot push back was from low rate long-term and tenants with large Studios tenants were told at that time a meeting with the board of directors was inappropriate tenants were also told no they cannot have a member put on the board of directors tenant Representatives met with me and Char and others $12 foot plan was not fully achieved mostly due to the push back then the pandemic then our leadership changes 2024 we're undergoing another strategic plan once again it has been identifi that our rants are a vulnerability market rate has been raised to $15 a square foot again push back for much of the same tenants tenants again have been told that a meeting with the board of directors is inappropriate as the board of directors in the RSI Mission do not include the tenants this occurred at a meeting in May with the tenant association Representatives Margaret and Greg Larsson attended by me Lynn Ireland Marcus Jones and Sergio Hernandez as a building committee chair I provided I provided the Larsson with my accurate personal email and asked them to follow up with me the next day after their first 10 association meeting multiple emails requesting a meeting with the board have been sent to some of our board and some of our community members to date I have only received one communication from a tenant regarding rent please note the personal email I shared was for the purpose of communicating questions concerns suggestions for review by the building committee my personal email title and name were then posted on the internet without my permission and this is violating to me the email campaign has been nothing short of harassment to date I've received 30 emails an additional 20 from one person Alone um I think sorry I can't um finish um the next portion is going to identify that there are 15 tenants under $9 a square foot and there are 29 new tenants between 12 and 15 since our rate increase in 2018 thank you just good evening my name is Burns Maxi I am the President of City space we are the nonprofit that manages the Oldtown Hall as a Center for the Arts for western Massachusetts um I am standing here on behalf of City space tonight uh it is what city space does we are dedicated to keeping access to Arts spaces affordable and Oldtown Hall it's a historic building if you're not familiar with it centrally located on Main Street in alignment with our mission and goals we believe in the economic and creative value of the Arts therefore at our monthly board meeting just last night on Monday June 24th we voted unanimously to support this resolution by the East Hampton City Council in support of affordable artist work spaces in eastampton I hope you'll consider thank you thank [Music] you anyone else was that only one [Music] copy um I wasn't planning on speaking tonight um and I don't have much prepared but I moved here in 1992 and got a studio space and I was really excited to see that there was something called Riverside Industries in the building I I there were my landlords but where I grew up in Troy Ohio there was also a Riverside and it had exactly the same Mission I would go there with my mother it's it's painful to me um that something seems to have happened to The Cooperative atmosphere that used to be there um when I moved here I could go to the cafe I would meet with the clients it was fun it was amazing it was like the most incredible example I ever saw of an integrated group of people who were people with disabilities artists who we you know we have our own kind of weird place in the world and the people who work at Riverside and I love them and I don't want to put them out of business I don't want them to suffer I want the floor to get fixed so nobody gets hurt but I also don't want to leave the studio I've been renting for 30 years because my rent is going up 51% I'm going to try really hard to stay and I don't want it to be us versus them I want to be able to work with them I help lots of times when I can I donate every year to the auction I know that's like just a drop in the bucket for what they need I helped raise money when they wanted a greenhouse I helped raise money for the elevator I want to work with you guys but 51% is just a lot for me to swallow in a couple months after being told that my rent was only going to go up 5% for the next few years the last time that rent went up I got rid of half of my space I had a halftime job at ums I was so thankful I still have a halftime job to help support myself and I um I downsized and I did as much as I could to try to to live with that and it worked and I was doing okay but this is really going to hurt my business I'm a business person I make pottery um it's hard I can't raise my prices 51% I have raised my prices I did everything reasonable for a business and I will raise my prices but I just would like to slow this down a little bit and for us to be able to work together and to talk and meet but we aren't we haven't been allowed to meet with the board I've been told to only email the building committee and that's what I've been doing I've been trying really hard to follow the rules I don't want to harass people but I want to stay Thank you before you go can you please tell us your name Evelyn Snider I own Kaleidoscope Pottery on the fourth floor and I love it and I love ride anyone else 30 seconds Ron Pike proud husband of a Riverside volunteer just as far as the equalization of rates there's 98 tenants since 2018 there's 29 new tenants 27 of those new tenants are paying between 12 and 12 to $15 a foot all anyone has to do in that building is look down the hall to their neighbors and see what the new comparative market rates are in the building all the new tenants since 2018 are paying 122 to $15 when they wanted to Institute a new rate back in 2018 it didn't get achieved but anyone knew is paying that new rate and those new tenants have been paying an es escalation costs every year they pay you know a 2% 3% or whatever B so it's just a matter of a lot of uh the older tenants just with a lot of push back push back always seem to get their way the new people in the building are paying a new rate they're happy to be there everybody's thriving I don't know what else to say thank you what going to get a tissue okay hi my name is Janny youon I am a tenant of one Cottage Street since 1987 I employed up to 25 people today I have 10 most of them have been with me for 20 plus years I'm definitely going to get emotional and I apologize for that and I'm not a good speaker public speaker but what I'm hoping for is some way that the City perhaps Riverside and the tenants Lynn I'm looking at you I'm hoping you're looking talk to us just talk to us please very good thank you but I my heart goes out to everybody right now this is a very difficult situation let's all put that right out there on the table it's difficult for everyone and emotions flying high never helps but there are so many things it's AK Riverside's at stake my company's at stake I not only do I have these employees that have been with me for so long but I have vendors in this community that are second generational that will be affected if I close so again I'm sorry but there's a big impact with this decision for all of us for the town because we it used to be a spooky place at 11:00 when I left it in north and and he stampton and the police welcomed us to call them to escort us to our car in the back you know we we cut our teeth here and we loved every minute of it and I love the community with Riverside as an integral part of that building Vibe and it's it's so disheartening that this is what it's come to and it but it let's be honest Riverside's in some kind of a crisis mod to have reacted so so much in this short period of time to save Riverside and we know their mission we understand their mission we would love to help in it in more ways when we first came up with the artist auction that was that was out of a communal effort for all of us to say how can we how can we get this off the ground even more for Riverside I have served on the Windows of opportunity for which was the fundraiser for the windows of uh in I'm sorry I've put in gardens I have done signage I'm constantly redoing colors I will do anything I support the Arts with materials I'm right in there with Riverside and I know you're saying thank you but can this city and Riverside and the Arts perhaps get together to see if there's some funding available thank you thank you for letting me go [Music] over I just want to explain something to the public um I don't know if you realize at the public hearing we have interaction between counselors are public in experts as a part of the police speak time that that is not allowed uh by open media law we are not allowed to participate in deliberation with the public in po speak time because it's not part of the agenda it's not because we want to be rude or we don't want to engage with you uh folk is because we we're not allowed I just want to clarify that in in case someone uh don't get why we are not making questions or deliberating with with with you guys um all right let's move on I have communication for elected officials boing committee um I don't think Mr G denim you have a question yeah sorry that was you had public speak for people in the room did you want to open it up for people online just that just want to be fair is anyone online that want to participate see none thank you cons denim um again I didn't see I don't know if Mr Matt is here I will ask the counil if this will be close for him um to come to the full counil and tell us why he disagree with the decision of the mayor or we as a counil we want to we can give it another opportunity to come to the July meeting um I will contact him again and invite him to the July meeting if uh Mr Matt didn't show up in July 10th then we close this chapter um now we have the property Committee Member from I think celor s he sent one I don't know who's going to read it I guess it's me do you have it I have it here oh yeah that would be great I have it on my phone but and I know we have the mayor we have I'm pretty sure it's this one we have the mayor we have our city solicor Mark Tanner and the procurement officer Michael Owen here for the follow up uh after we hear from uh celor p in behalf of consor or we going to do that during property or are we going to do it now I get it now this is just the fact that we received the memo okay so we can discuss it during property probably more in more depth I yeah but read that first so I'll read it now and then we're going to yes and then we can property okay so just to be clear the these are councelor zerit words and they may or may not represent my own um just doing my job uh I say that with all due respect uh members of the city council uh the property committee met on June 11th to discuss and consider a recommendation to remove the provision for public access to the pepen gym space from the land disposition and development agreement LDA with Arch communities the committee voted to uh councilor zered and myself to one councelor Kinski to recommend the removal of the provision to the Council um following the May 2023 selection of arch communities as the preferred developer uh of the three Surplus former schools the city made a significantly concerted effort to negotiate terms uh to fulfill the provision of maintaining public use uh of the pepen gy space such terms would require a 30-year commitment from the city or other committed party to the space including a triple net lease uh this would not include other operational expenses Staffing and Logistics surrounding operation of the space estimates for basic tripl net carrying costs uh range from 12,000 to 14,000 per month uh while this does not represent a nominal cost in quotes uh based on research on hourly rates for gym space extrapolated uh to monthly rates the or while this does I'm sorry while this does represent a nominal cost based on research on hourly rates for gym space rental extrapolated to monthly rates the acred yearly costs of likely are likely close to or exceeding $200,000 in 2024 with Staffing Etc over 30 years raises questions uh for the city uh over the course of the past year the city engaged in conversations uh with a number of other organizations who might uh consider operational responsibilities of the space an rfii was issued in May of 2024 to access some or to to assess a similar uh interest with no returned responses uh president at the meeting were mayor lelle City procurement officer Owens city solicitor Tanner and Arch communities developer uh Mr Relic uh these stakeholders provided in-depth information surrounding the LDA negotiation process and the efforts taken to honor the pepen JY provision committee members uh participated in a robust Q&A with stakeholders to clarify the process and efforts surrounding the negotiations and other questions relevant to the provision it was underscored numerous times that the council and public had a vested interest in the use of the gym space and the city was making a concerted effort to honor this via the provision in the LDA uh the committee recognized these efforts the exhaustive nature of these of such efforts and the current impass with the negotiation process uh it is important to note that the developer has missed out on a few rounds of affordable housing tax credits which are key to proceeding uh with funding this project uh following a thorough discussion uh the committee arrived at the 2 to1 recommendation from the council to remove the provisions in order to allow the provision uh for public use to the pepen gem to be removed uh from the LDA removal of this provision will result in the addition of at least 4 60% Ami affordable units to be uh added to the project uh the provision for public use of the cafetorium space will continue to be included in the LDA while not Germaine to the item uh there was expressed interest in pursuing gym space via future projects in the city uh please reach out individually for any questions or clarifications guess it's a little late for that yeah a little late thank you cons PE um what we going to do Madame mayor is are going to allow you to do mayor's communication then we're going to have communication for the V Vice President and president and we going to property to finish this so mayor communication thank you Mr President that was was a lot so I think I start with just mayor communication okay um a couple of comments I was going to make actually have been um addressed uh around the um EV ordinance as well as uh the um stretch code uh quick comments I'll I'll make on on those both thank you very much um it means a lot for the capital uh also for the capital Improvement plan uh because we have some very key energy related projects on that Capital Improvement plan that directly go to our climate goals and this gets us a couple of of steps forward um if as far as uh projects like these and what you've just adopted one the uh EV uh Net Zero vehicle um policy that would ordinance provides a great template and form that we're adopting that actually walks through what we're choosing I mean there is a requirement now um but it it's somewhat informal um this is a a a really great form that explains what we're buying how it falls in with the policy it also clarifies all the jargon um for each type of car the difference between hybrid and um partial hybrid plug-in versus regenerative uh the work that Cassie Connie uh Jamie pette uh Josh did on this is phenomenal um Cassie's been asked and has spoke on Statewide conferences about this work but thank you very much for uh supporting it I also I last night was the public hearing for the municipal Electric aggre plan um with a presentation from uh good energy who's walking us through the process uh uh very informative that information will be um on there will be a link on our website to the website that specifically walks through the plan that has been put together by the energy advisory committee um tomorrow we have a hearing with the Department of energy resources about our plan and there is still opportunity for the public to comment on that plan or put forward questions um until early July I think it's July 8th I forgot to ask Cassie um but I just wanted to put it out there um the presentation and also the examples uh members of of the Hadley energy committee uh he came over and talked about the savings and just the structure of the plan and there are examples in their presentation that shows on potential uh savings there is also an option to opt out there is also the base plan um which is what we get from Evers um so it's not that people are being forced into a higher uh en uh electric electricity rate um the one thing it does not do um and we're not allowed to do as a municipality or even a consumer of electricity um are the delivery charges and the demand charges those are set by GPU based on the application of eversource or National Grid um and it it's basically how you get electricity um from their Transformer and their plant to the house and um to our houses and in that is maintenance of the grid expansion of the grid uh Line work so this is about Supply and what you pay for your kilowatt hours as as they are so again would encourage public uh to take a look at the material and um hit the link for um uh for comment or questions this is another big step for us with the climate action uh plan what all three of these um steps forward also are related or similar to uh the housing Choice designation we saw uh the local rapid recovery program where we were almost first at table to get them and we were uh unknown what kind of grant money we would have gotten or what the grant programs were we ended up getting over a million dollars for housing because we had that designation um actually Fairy Street $2.7 million for that because we took the leap um also for the local rapid recovery money to small businesses and whatnot um so this designation attached to the climate action plan um is very similar to to steps we've taken in the past to really um prepare to take advantage of opportunities that are not all uh that are not all defined at this point um so I I wanted to uh speak to [Music] that what was next on the list you're going to have the opportunity later for the gim uh pep and gy yeah you going to have opportunity later to to do that after our communication um yeah that's all I had okay okay thank you uh correspondence announcement first I never ask if any other cons have any for tonight no sorry I apologize um correspondence announcement from the president Mr uh vice president um there thank you Mr President uh we have a couple tonight uh so this is um from the city east will participate in a 30-day process June 20th to July 20th to collect and Report accurate information about uh available internet access in the city as well as its speed and reliability we need your help Gathering evidence of issues with internet service between June 20th and July 20th East residents are strongly encouraged to conduct multiple speed tests at different times of the day through a special porter portal howyou internet.org to document that internet service is not as fast reliable or available as providers claim step one visit howyou internet.org and click on the button to access the map then enter your home address select the speed test under the service challenges window in the bottom left corner of the screen to complete the speed test and complete the speed test and enter your personal information if prompted check your inbox for reminders to take two additional required speed tests if available so that can be very helpful to improve internet thank you um before you going to read something I have I have something to said and is about Barbara um if you have Facebook you can see you can tell that barbar was recognized as a CL of the year in massachusett and who appoint Barbara to that position is the counil um so how we can uh know be part of that celebration right we have to be part of that celebration I'm going to say something really quick I know this meeting being long but I I want to say something really quick uh because I think it's important and it's really important for me um three years ago when I get elected as a council president I feel really really comfortable because I knew I'm going to have bar next time me uh you don't know how many times I I lay down back and I say hey Barbara can we do that um so her knowledge it's is is amazing um I don't know what the next council president is going to do because I'm not going to hear forever I don't know when I'm going to get out um but um I can tell that the next cons president um can feel comfortable in this position having you uh having you next to that person thank uh what you bring to this conso is is valuable um you your knowledge is incredible and I don't know how we will do stuff without you um so thank you and we have something for you so this is in acknowledgement of receiving the 2024 Massachusetts clerk of the Year award uh the eastampton city council is proud to present Barbara L LA bombard with a certificate and recognition of her unwavering work ethic and dedication with your gratitude and heartfelt thanks we acknowledge her in invaluable contributions to the city of East [Applause] Hampton thank you Barbara thank you now I will take uh the rep reports from uh standing committees we're going to start with property because our city solicitor are here and cost us a lot of money so um do you want to Sure uh thank you Mr President I am the only member of the property committee here so you are stuck with me yes um there's not much to report beyond what uh councelor zarett memo said we met uh on uh the uh day that he the June 11th and uh we discussed this issue um it's a challenging one um and one that I have a lot of mixed feelings about uh there's things that if I could go back there's questions I would have asked uh that I didn't um or or or things that I might have seen differently or been more involved in than I was um and so uh that was like there there's I mean it's tough to say learning experience when these things have real consequences uh but you know I I certainly um it was a bit of a learning experience um and there and there's some things that I uh I I wish it' been done differently I'll say that um my feeling and I'm I'm just expressing my own feeling because I'm the only one here uh is that as much of this process uh as as many things as I would have liked to see different in these Pro this process where it's at a point where it's at where um the the conditions that would have to be met uh for the developer for for a tenant to be in there there's not a tenant uh in the world that's ever going to um meet them and so uh realistically the options that we have available to us are to either remove this requirement which uh is unfortunate I know that a lot of people care very deeply about this um or basically go back to the drawing board um because I uh and and I don't know exactly what that looks like uh and I certainly think that whatever it looks like it would likely involve uh a delay in uh those uh schools being converted to affordable housing and it would lead to uh a delay in some vulnerable people getting housing and it would lead to an increase in US continuing to pay for the upkeep to the city that being said um my colleague councelor kazinski wrote uh and you all received this in your emails so uh I I'll leave it that he wrote a a sort of a a Minority Report on on his perspective and I think that uh he's entitled to uh uh feel the way that he does and I know that there's probably a bunch of other people on this uh Council who uh will also feel similarly so uh that's fine uh I'm not saying I'm thrilled about the situation I'm not saying I'm pleased with how this went down um my personal view on it is that uh it sucks and it is what it is and there's you we just got to kind of move forward and next time we're going to do something like this we need to be uh maybe a little bit uh smarter about how we do some of this stuff but that's my view but maybe somebody else is uh knows more about it than me so that's that's that's my cons uh what was the the vote at the committee yeah the vote was uh 2 to one councelor Zar and I voted for coun Kinski voted against to recommend the removal of the provision okay um I'll just also say if somebody else has some brilliant idea that we didn't think of like that's also great I just where we were kind of felt like we were kind of in a corner and this that was what I thought was the best thing to do cons Derby's going to read the email for the Minority Report and this is from JP Kinski fellow counselors right to you today not to convince you to save East Hampton's gym and Auditorium although saving these two gemms is a worthy goal I WR to document for posterity the opportunity the council let slip by some of us believed we had a resource worth millions and simply asked a developer who would agree to provide affordable housing and preserve for public use the Rock Solid Gym and Performing our t for uh future public use at nominal cost uh definition nominal is uh defined as an insignificant trival amount trivial amount the seller sold for a fraction of the cost far below its real value so I ask is 10,000 a month a trivial amount for a local nonprofit to pay per month is ludicrous to think that this is a nominal fee it's even more ludicrous to waste time on such a plan uh and that uh instead the city should prioritize the project and invite Banks businesses companies even Wilson to come together for a summit meeting to figure out how to make this happen otherwise the resource will be gone the opportunity lost and thousands of people will not have the opportunity for such public use uh it would have it would have been nice to at least say that we tried everything James JP quiny Mr President can I derby um so as someone who was on the committee to choose the developer um and unfortunately I missed this meeting it was during a pretty significant time with end of school and graduations and family and and whatnot I have some um pointed questions I think to ask um so who should I be asking questions too um I I uh I mean we have we have all three here I think uh I think all three could stand up and we cons will make questions to all three if needed so and I'll I'll just put this out generally you can pick who's going to answer um so the number of 12 to $116,000 a month where did that come from before you answer just for the record and for the public we have mayor leel we have the city solicitor Mark Tanner and we have uh the recan um Michael Owen um and the developer rich is online okay and re relish Relic yeah oh he was yeah he he's right there he's right here come here um so the first question um I will defer to I'm not sure who wants to go first um around that U Michael or Rich um what I will say to to um The Minority Report and nominal um nominal is related to the type of development it's also related to the type of um of use and not just to that space But the common area as well and we all know that there are significant impediments to reach that um space and throughout the building for Ada accessibility um that said that was kind of the um not was that was the description that we put out to both the developer and in the uh request for information the request for information was put out publicly like any other RFP it was sent to leadership it was sent to the city council the school committee as well as major not for-profits in this area in Western mask asking them if they are interested in developing this property this space within the property and we did not get one response um so it was um around that uh then uh around the um R uh request for information the developer worked with the procurement officer to talk about build out that nominal cost so I don't want I'm not trying to skip that over but that's what got us to the point um our inqu my inquiries before that um calling YMCA Hoak boy boys and girls club um girls ink and whatnot uh was informal in making phone calls we discussed with uh the City attorney and the procurement officer and we said we need to put this out in a more formal way hence getting us to the um Roi so Michael or or Rich can further coun Derby was curious about the number 12 to 16,000 a month okay I'm I'm I'm going to defer to Rich on that uh Rich Relic yep I'm here hi everyone so so that number was a um is an estimate of costs it's not a mark and anything related to the property itself um but those costs would be significant to run that gym which are estimated um to include Insurance utilities management of the space security um cam charges that would be passed back in a triple net lease including real estate taxes so that's an estimate of all the charges that the operator would face by running that that gym area that's where that that number came from it's not it's not marked up by the property it's just an estimate so that the entity that was looking at it would know that the cost would be significant for them that's where the number came from I thought there be um Rich what what would Arch properties uh charge for rent for that space so the say the city was running it what would what would the rent be because I feel like during when we were talking about this it it seemed like it was almost nothing I feel like yes so so the rent so actually there's no markup in this in this number this would just be operational cost to The Entity that's running the gym so if the city was running it it would be um it wouldn't be a triple net lease because there would be no tax um there would be no rent so basically it would just be um the cost of paying someone to be there to unlock it lock it and make sure the property was safely taken care of and and and utilities for that space Insurance costs for that space um pays Insurance already security um well the I guess the issue also is that this is going this is going to be a completely redeveloped building that's going to have a building permit ped pulled so it will have to be um be brought up to code um so the whole building is going to be brought up to code so the the issue is the gym would have to be brought up to code as well so there would be there be there's cost associated with improving the space you have another question you want wait until I go wrong well I'm just wonder I guess like if we think about it so before we dispose of the buildings the gym was used for public use does anybody know who ran that I think that was the the parks and with with the school because they Haven an agreement to use the gyms they include uh the high school too and the and the fields for the high school they have an agreement between departments right so I was I was very curious when I saw that there was an Roi sent out to all these organizations when we have an organization that has been running the space for 30 plus years that was confusing to me and if the city runs it we don't have to there's no triple net lease because there's no taxes there's no taxes if the city runs it just one one let's let let uh because there we finish your questions and thought so I guess this brings me to um you know something that I think is important to understand which is something that we recognized when we were looking at this disposition which was the lias Brookings um affordable housing in Springfield has an exact same situation where their gym is a public space used by Springfield's Park and Recreation which it is um and so I I think that you know that model makes a lot of sense um and and I think that as we discussed this I think that you know until some of these questions can be answered I think this needs to either go back to committee or we need to sit like get the answers to these questions um because I guess my last question is um how is this particular piece impeding affordable housing um funding like this seems like this would be the absolute last piece that any funer would be looking for is who's using the gym um so I guess maybe Rich May is that so it said that we've missed a couple rounds of affordable housing grants because of this can you explain that so so we need to have a uh an LDA agreement with with the city that's going to have a basically a control agreement that will allow us to move forward with our design our engineering all of our predevelopment expenses that we need to do to be eligible for funding it's significant um and until we get that agreement we're we're we're waiting so I don't want to speak for Mike and for the mayor but I the the idea was that there there really wasn't a use for the for the gym that was identified there was no parties that were willing to take it um we you know we've waited a considerable amount of time right now it's it's basically been a year where we've we've looked for the used for this and try to come up with a way for it but um you know there needs to be an entity that's identified that's financially viable to be able to handle the space for a long term um that can handle it because you know this this is 61 units of mostly affordable housing the the project is relatively small it just it can't handle an unoccupied space and it certainly can't handle it you know um an entity going into the space and then not being able to sustain and dropping out in a few years that's that's a problem obviously for the property so that there really needed to be some kind of entity identified that would be interested and be able to handle the space and that hasn't happened uh thank you Rick um I I'd just like to say a few things yeah uh you know we are at an impass at this point because uh no City Department no nonprofit group no community group has the staff capacity or the fiscal capacity to take on the operation maintenance and management of this space uh this building all these three buildings were declared Surplus by the city council over two years ago declared Surplus without caveat meaning they are not no longer used being uh no longer required for a public facility now as uh as part of this deferred I mean uh preferred developer design ation uh the city council directed The Mayor to negotiate an agreement with the preferred developer who is the owner of the building will be the owner of the building uh for public use of that gym space uh we have reached out again to every possible entity we could think to partner with and we have gotten no response uh we have made an Earnest effort to do this and we have been unsuccessful and in the meantime the city is paying in fiscal year2 3 $119,000 plus to maintain these three buildings in this fiscal year we've spent upwards of $78,000 to maintain these three vacant buildings in the meantime it's been 12 months since the city chose this preferred developer we cannot offer this developer any certainty in terms of the the uh the uh the use of that gym space and how we are going to carry that cost cuz we're not going to own this space the buildings a surplus uh we would be a tenant of the developer and no matter how you cut it it is uh pretty much a triple net lease that we'd be paying or any any other entity would paying or any of our partners would be paying and this is the impass we have we have gotten to I will also say that uh this building is not in any way equal to the building you referenced down in Springfield the building is almost 200 years old the gym level is basically 5 ft below the outside elevation so you know you're talking about major major renovation of this space and the developer is not going to be able to has to re recoup that renovation at some point and he does it through a trip net lease uh again the city has has has taken seriously the city council's direction to find a way way to keep this as public use and we have been unsuccessful and that's why we're back in in front of you tonight cuz we are at an impass and in the meantime we have to maintain these three buildings and we're unable to execute this this land disposition agreement with the preferred developer uh he is still 30 months out from closing on these buildings 30 months from the point he signs the land disposition agreement with the city so so we're in a kind of a tough spot right now I understand the need for gymnasium space is this the appropriate spot for the gymnasium space that the city needs in a almost 200y old building that requires significant renovation and will be leased from a private individual in my mind it it's not and it's time to move on and allow the developer to uh sign the LDA with the city and uh get this project on track and I'd like to just talk about nominal cost uh at the property committee meeting uh City City attorney Mark Tanner talked about nominal cost I'd like to for him to talk to you about that right now so let me just start by saying I really don't have a position in this my job is to do the city's bidding and whatever everybody tells me to do I'll do this is the last issue in negotiating the LDA and what I suggested is let's just leave it open let's just say there's going to be some use of this space right and sign the LDA and go forward and what the developer and the developers Council said is we can't go out to funders or to Banks or show people Pro formas without knowing with some degree of certainty how the space is going to be used and how it's going to be paid for the number that they're putting forward this 12,000 roughly dollars a year is not profit to them that's their actual cost to operate and carry that space and so assuming uh that per month I'm sorry per month and and so even assuming that it's possible to to carve out the gym as a separate tax parcel and to put it on the city's uh Insurance you still have all the other costs associated with carrying that space heating cooling security snow plowing all those sorts of things that the developer and in my mind pretty reasonable is going to ask the city as the tenant to contribute to so let's say that's $100,000 a year $120,000 a year whatever that number is the city would have to commit to spending that amount of money every year for the next 30 Years in order for the developer to go out and to its funding sources and show them that it has this type of a tenant secured for this term which is why I think when I spoke with the mayor she then said well let's go out let's put it out to everybody and see if anybody quite frankly has an interest in this space right um granted it's it's it's pretty expensive space even though they're just re recouping their cost right and again they reached out to a bunch of people they put out a request for proposal they called people they talked to people in the community and there was quite frankly and I was surprised no one who even came back and said hey if you can get us a little better deal we'll take it just no one responded period and so I I I just suggest to you that when you're talking about nominal cost right the developer is giving whoever wants the space the space at their cost no markup no fair market value no 150% increase this is just exactly what the developer is saying I have to pay just to have this space here and I'd suggest to you that to to me that's a nominal cost right because there's no markup there's no profit uh I think we're at the point where we need to tell the developer yeah you can go ahead and go with your project and let's sign this LDA um because quite frankly this is literally the last issue that's out there happy to answer other questions if you have other questions but that's that's the point we're at thank you uh gon Riley yeah so um you know I've obviously been following this issue since day one um before I was even a city counsil um I served with Mr Owens on the uh committee to develop the um request for proposals on what we thought would be the best use of these buildings and what came out of that process was affordable housing just affordable housing across the board um and and I I remember being in that moment and seeing the plan of what it takes to go from developing the RFP to actually getting people to move into these units and it's years upon years upon years of processes that are expensive time consuming and delays in those processes means that we spend a lot more money and there are people in our community that can't find a place to live that's affordable um I was in support of the change at the last minute to retain the gym totally fine by me I have no problem with doing that but in terms of plans not coming to fruition exactly like they were intended to being able to have four affordable housing units at 60% area median income as the oops instead of a gymnasium is probably one of the best possible oopses we could ask for um you know there's been so much education and advocacy around this term around affordable housing and you know when we talk about the term affordable housing with a capital A we are talking about a HUD calculation based on the uh Springfield metropolitan area and capital A affordable housing units are not actually affordable for people that live in East Hampton right 80% area median income for an affordable housing unit in East Hampton you would have to have like your cap is like 60 some 60 something thousand per year as a salary for a one-bedroom so I would gure that a great deal of us with our families would actually qualify for affordable housing in eastampton because of the jobs that we have and the very small typen we get to be City councilors these units are stunning they're gorgeous on the inside they provide everything that you could possibly ask for far above what our actual housing stock in East Hampton looks like the the community that I live in I've said this before but there are actual animals living in the walls of the apartment buildings there and I'm not talking about mice I'm talking about squirrels raccoons rabbits Birds because the infrastructure of our housing is that bad in that neighborhood so we build affordable housing units with capital A affordable housing and then we tell those families that live in those housing units that are paying $1,200 a month for rent we have a place for you you to live in but it's going to cost $1900 a month or $2,400 a month in order to live there what kind of a decision is that right it doesn't make any sense to me um so then when we're talking about what is 60% area median income because that's what these four housing units are going to be that go inside this gymnasium 60% area median income is far more affordable for people who are poor than the 80% that developers almost always come in at right in order to qualify for the litech uh tax credit your housing units have to be 80% area median income so what is every single developer that we come across do they put everything at 80% because it's the most amount of money that they can gain while still qualifying for the tax credit to me having a developer that wants to put as many housing units into those schools that are at 80% 60% and I want to say maybe 30 % area income uh area median income I can't remember what the actual number is but we have like actual progressively capital A and lowercase affordable housing units available to us so I get that it's unfortunate that we're losing uh a gymnasium but there are worse possible things that we could lose um that's all than you cons Derby so I don't think anybody here is debating the importance of affordable housing I think all of us probably up here feel that that's critically important I think the piece that's missing here is the piece that we discussed at nauseum when we were looking at choosing the right developer which is if you have a lot of affordable housing um they you're probably going to be bringing a lot of families into town and if you don't have a place for those kids to recreate then you are not going to sustain a quality of life that is is worth living kids need to be able to run around in the winter we live in New England we need to have places for kids to play basketball to play sports and to have active lives because that's what a healthy Community has it has people that are well balanced active and healthy and I have to say that something is not driving with me because if we're keeping the auditorium area as an undefined space but for some reason the gym has to be fully defined and structured before we go forward what am I missing so why why is it okay for the auditorium to be completely unaccounted for and the gym has to be specifically spoken for and before before you answer that question I would like to know on the ROI did the the recipients of that Roi were they informed that the cost of um maintaining the space or using the space would be12 to $16,000 a month because I have to say that's Insanity 122 to $16,000 a month isn't I mean I'm not a 12 12 to 14 big not a big difference it's insanity and it's not accurate and there is and I and I'm going to say this again there is not a reason in the world why we just don't say to our recck department here's a new space you're going to maintain this get some staff hire some people in the community and we're going to open it for the kids that's $120,000 a year added to their budget I disagree with that but that's what it is Sir i' love to see the figures on that at our next meeting you can give me the breakdown because I would like to see that Vel oper has told us sir that I don't care about told I want to see it I would like to see it you know this is this is why we're at an impass here sir okay well so answer my question about the the auditorium space um so the difference between the gym and uh the auditorium is that the auditorium will be declared historical by the historical tax credit uh within the historical tax credit program and the developer will not have a choice to that the gym is not going to be clared as historical therefore it is space that will not add into tax credits and help with financing and this has been true in other I will let the expert uh Rich Relic speak to that but that's the difference between um the gym and and the auditorium especially the stage um and that would was represented in two different ways in the preferred development um uh decision and I just I just wanted to say that you know the the city council resolution talked about this is the direction given to the mayor negotiate with the preferred development team to retain the auditorium in gym space at the pepen school for public use as stated on page seven of the proposal okay let's turn to page seven of the proposal while common area space is limited at mapin Center it is anticipated that the auditorium at Pepin will feature Community amenities including a large community room with kitchen a Library community community room a library and computer room a Fitness Wellness area it is anticipated that the gym within Pepin will remain available for City use and will continue as existing gym as needed by the city with a nominal cost which has been identified by the developer and again the city has made every reasonable effort to identify a city Department the school system a nonprofit group a community organization to partner with the city to undertake the leasing of that space and the operation maintenance and management of it and we have gotten no takers we are talking about $120,000 a year and that does not include staff or workers comp for the staff or insurance for the staff you know these are all other costs and to think that the developer is just going to give this space to us for a dollar is is you don't know anything about development I'm sorry uh that's completely unreasonable okay um the other I I just want to add into the insurance cost for the gym that we're renting from a third party we are not insured for that we have an insurance policy for property that's owned by the city and that's why the um when pepen was a school which it it is no longer uh it was included in the overall School insurance which you know you guys see that insurance amount changes when we're leasing um a nominal cost uh both the school and park and wreck really look hard at doing this I don't tell them what their priority are um they both have both departments have priorities we I was very disappointed that the Century 21 after school program grant that we receive now we could not access more money to do exactly this um even if instantly it wasn't a gym and um the superintendent uh Morin Benda who's done those programs looked deep and hard uh Park and wreck as far as capacity um and what they have going on the park Grant also working with the commission uh to look at Staffing to look at recreational programming um I don't disagree with you councelor Derby whatsoever and and honestly I am shocked that we didn't get a proposal because when you as a council were uh considering and talking through uh that I was making calls informally ho Boys and Girls Club and and say hey what do you think and they were interested and wanted to know more detail um I can't speak to you the exact reason but I do know Girls Inc um got their own building and are focusing on that Hoy and boy hoyo boys and girls club have up their own programming and and a lot of that has to do with the schools and receivership and and just a different um uh mix of money they can access uh and there was a question if um that money could be used for something in East Hampton because of school choice and whatnot we talked to Head Start um about using the space as Recreation we don't have headstar classrooms in the city anymore because we lost some when we built a new school the requirement for those classrooms is you need to have Recreation space year round and was there a match perhaps with the gym maybe there was a partnership that we could build um Head Start one couldn't wait they're looking you know first they have to find a space in the city um also it is very difficult for them to get rent versus Rehabilitation of a space um not undoable but there were some barriers there but I reached out to um uh Hampshire uh gosh Community Action H Hampshire Franklin uh just to say look is there anything that we can do that you you know um back of my mind uh the third thing I was considering thinking about too is our opioid money and is there a part of the Opium money that could cover Park and recck staff or or um might help with renovation or towards rent or whatnot um we have other priorities set by the state to use that money it doesn't prohibit us to use for a gym uh it the amount of money we get annually what we could give to that isn't substantial and that money is while it's onetime money um and it stretches out of year uh over years it would not stretch out over 30 so just to give like some some context um back um and I was at Mountain View for their Civics uh fair and the gym and space um indoor outdoor and whatnot was top of mind and I encouraged them to to come this Council and also to park and rack but I I the need and the want is is something I understand very very well um and tried for a year to make it happen and and every city Department got that Roi you know hand god um and I did not say don't you dare put something forward in fact I said if you think you can do something you think you can come to a department budget and say hey mayor let's do this I was in um and and school and park and rack both lucked and when the the cost all around it started adding up they had other I I don't want to say they didn't want to do because they they do um but they had other priorities for the money and it was a big financial burden for the the Departments any other the consors have questions or comments before because I I have a few go I mean I'll let you but I'm going to make a I'm going to make a motion not yet okay not yet writing I do um I want to make a few a few comments we have uh we have in massachusett and probably in in the whole United State a housing crisis we we talk about uh we hear that from the governor multiple times we hear that about um housing crisis in our city in with our neighbor cities and towns that we do have a crisis housing crisis and definitely we need affordable housing one of my daughters is not living inton because she couldn't find an apartment here so we need affordable housing inton and we we need that pretty soon I just want to remind the counil the a month ago we vote to take some money from the savings account 1.8 million to supplement the budget 1.8 million we're short with money we we take it from the savings account we're going to we're going to be in a whole 1.8 next year and that's without the uh using the estimate from the developer of $10,000 a month um that's out of the equation right that that's completely out um um Mr Owen you're correct we are no developers but we can do our homeworks and I did my homework if you rent a place like this one per hour cost around $125 you multiply that times a that's a th000 a day and we're talking about 30,000 a month that's the average out there you can find it [Music] online and that is someone who's going to rent that I don't know how to run a and that one I'm not an expert I don't know how to run a gym I know how to coach but I don't know how to run a gym um and about bringing families to that's is really important it is but we have to um recognize too that we are losing kids our last graduation that I was happily invited and happily show up and shake hands with a bunch of kids it was only 84 kids graduate this year only 84 and that number is reducing every year so next year probably is going to be 70 75 and every year it's going to be less and less so the people that are moving Toton or the people who live in hamton they're not having kids I'm not saying that the kids that are here they're not shouldn't be using a gym I'm not saying that I have a grandson and he play basketball and I'm so happy see him running back and forth at the basketball court um you don't you don't know how happy I I am every time I see him having fun playing basketball and I know the needs of the of the gy for the kids I really do understand it because my my my Bron is part of it um but it's it's costing us money um not to um not to do anything with those buildings um I [Music] know that you as a coach you as a parent you as a teacher you want the best for the kids I don't have any doubt that that's what is you're looking for and I admire you for that because that's what we need we need a like you uh to fight for our kids but at the same time we need to move forward we need to move forward um and convert those buildings U to units that we can have neighbors and and then we can create stories that we can share stories when we all really old and and and talk about stuff more life um been saying all all the stuff that I already said like U we're losing kids in schools the the average cost of renting on our gym is around $125 per hour um that we supplement our budget with 1.8 Millions so that means that we don't have money um I think it's time to move forward and for those reasons I I'm okay removing the gym of of the RFB because I think we we should move forward cons thank you Mr President um just a couple things I I didn't say at the beginning that I I thought I should say um I I voted for this and and I'm prepared to vote for it again tonight uh and and yet there's a certain amount of discomfort I have about that and that discomfort doesn't actually stem from anything about the gym uh truth be told just me if you asked about like an old gym that's not up to 88 standards or six unit for six units affordable housing like I probably would go at the housing like that's just me I I had a whole speech that I had prepared for talking about the flex code that I didn't use about there everything has winners and losers you know like every single thing that we do there's people who would have preferred we did something else that's the burden of our uh task um and and there's a lot of times where there are things that this Council does that maybe I wish we had done something else so that's fine there the one thing I I just want to say uh before we take a motion to do anything um is I don't think anyone acted in in in bad faith here and I I want to say that really clearly because I'm worried that what I'm about to say could come off as that and that's not what I'm trying to say uh but what I what I do want to say is that when I looked at this stuff when it came before us the first time I didn't necessarily look at everything and internalize and maybe this is on Me Maybe I didn't read the fine print well enough or maybe there were things that hadn't come to light I didn't necessarily internalize that when we were talking about a nominal cost we were talking about five figures of of costs per per month and plus oh the whole thing's going to have to be brought up to Ada for the renovation and that's going to be huge and blah blah blah and all this stuff and and and I think um you know when we initially were talking about this there were there were folks in City Hall who basically said forget about the gym it's not worth it it's going to be super expensive to get it up to speed it financially doesn't make any sense uh and and I was like prepared to accept that argument and then we got if I'm not mistaken more than one proposal that offered to save the gym and I kind of thought like wow they figured out a way to make it work right well isn't that great they figured out a way to make it work everyone said it couldn't work and they figured out a way it turns out the way to make it work is to find a unicorn that doesn't exist and and so like I think that there is a way in which I uh feel that we this isn't going to be the last time we let go of a building probably um I and and I think it's certainly going not going to be the last time we approve a major real estate deal as a council um I don't know if I don't know where this got messed up and I and I'm not even really looking to to assign blame because it is what it is it's happened I don't really I mean my just my thing is I hope that we can use this as a learning experience because I think we are going to disappoint a lot of people if we do what property committee recommended for us to do and I I kind of wish if we had gone back that we had you know just given the the structure of this whole thing I kind of just wish that no one had come forward with an offer to save that gym so that we could have just taken this medicine back then instead of now having paid a bunch of money to go through a year of something that was probably never going to happen so that's just what it is but it it's really kind of I mean I don't really feel like there's any I'm just saying that not to the developer not to anyone in the city but I'm addressing my colleagues here this isn't going to be the last time we find ourselves uh in the middle of a complex real estate situation and I hope that in the future we we can just remember how this all went down and maybe uh learn something from it do you help this um sure but president I I I appreciate what you said um and I understand I understand all the points that you made um but I think you know part of part of being the the eldest counselor here um as far as time served is perspective and this is the most consequential um land uh dispersement we have done um as a city at the three elementary schools and I will tell you that we will never ever get that gym back once this goes it's gone the city is never going to raise funds to build another gym for public use it's just not going to happen ever right um and so I think that we need to um money you know money is very important and being fiscally aware is very important and understanding affordable housing is very important and you know we have a lot of housing that is in the pipeline right now that's in in process and I think that's you know we all can take some a little bit of a bow on that but I think we're operating under a premise that is not necessarily clear to me and I don't know if it's clear to anybody anybody on the committee anybody on the council which is that number of 12 to $4,000 a month has anybody seen the breakdown of that number has anybody seen where that number comes from what that number involves has anybody seen it I think that's the most important question for us to ask ourselves right and then we have to look to our neighbor neighbor in Springfield and say well they have a former school that was hit by a tornado part of it was destroyed and what they did was they built a brand new Elementary School the lies bking school and they turned the former school that was damaged into affordable housing which is good on them but what they also did was they preserved the gym and they preserved it so the Springfield Parks and Recreation Department can use that gym for Community use and so did anybody on this Council or anybody in the committee look at that example and say what did they do that we're not doing and so what I'm going to ask in the form of a motion is that we delay this vote until our next meeting July 10th we've waited a year what is two weeks and we can at least have our due dilig our due diligence done because we can answer those two questions I just asked and until we answer those questions we are not doing our due diligence because that number is what this entire thing is based on and we have no idea what number is based on so in the form of motion I propose that we postpone this item until our July 10th meeting two weeks so no one is seconding it so we don't have a motion I'll I'll second the motion just so it gets a vote thank you I have a motion of seconds to move this item to the next meeting full conso meeting um any further discussion I ask a question of of the of the mayor this is no now okay well I don't know what to do year it's been a year two weeks is nothing the rules what do the rules say about about somebody asked for a delay we can make a motion to to continue in to the next meeting and does allow right I know yeah so um any further discussion um Barbara Omar Gomez no Tom Peak no rad Riley no Hammer Smith no JT Terell no Cony denim I'll say yes Derby yes motion fails cons PE okay um I move to amend the May 17th 2023 City Council vote accepting the proposal of arch communities LLC as the preferred developer for the Maple Center and pepen elementary schools by removing all Provisions pertaining to the retention of the pepen school [Music] gem second seconds to amend the Maple peping Center School and disposition development agreement any further discussion see none Barbara Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Jammer Smith hi J T Terell hi Cony denim hi Salem Derby no Omar Gomez I motion [Music] passes do conclude that's concludes thank you cons Peak uh Now we move to finance cons Pi again thank you Mr President um well we already uh talked about the transfers and Appropriations because we had our public hearing so those all passed uh we are going to meet tomorrow to discuss the new business on our agenda uh and also I think it's probably time that we start uh we kick off the review of salaries for elected officials and appointed uh committees Etc uh once again so we'll start talking about that too that's tomorrow 5:30 uh conference room 1 uh thus concludes thank you speak uh Public Safety con Derby thank you Mr President um we have not met since our uh last meeting where we discussed the parking um and since councelor zared is not here I don't have a date for our next meeting so I will request it in the form of a motion that we extend the ordinance review committee's final report 90 days second I have a motion on a second to extend for 90 days the ordinance Review Committee final report report and for discuss [Music] see number BR Connie denim hi Salem Derby hi Omar Gomez Tom Peak hi Brad Riley Tamar Smith hi JT Terell hi uh this concludes thank you cons Derby appointments cons Riley thank you Mr President um the appointment committee last met on June 17th 2024 um to meet with the mayoral appointee Josh rosenblat to the zoning board of appeals with a term expiration date of December 31st 2025 um I think those of you who have been on the council for several terms now are familiar with Josh rosenblat um so he has an extensive career working for IBM he has now retired um also in his career he has served as the uh chair and a a member of edic for many years um also last year we voted unanimously to approve him uh to the appointment of the energy advisory committee um and then you know just some extra work that he does um on the side for volunteer work is um that he works with local Works which is um an organization that helps create um business spaces um for small businesses to operate within um and then also is uh works with Habitat for Humanity building houses um and serves on the building Committee in Greenfield um you know we had a very in-depth discussion about what it means to serve um on the on the zoning board um you know we talked about the um complexity of our uh zoning ordinances which we have been told by experts multiple times it's way too long and too complicated suffice to say he understands what um complexity comes with the job um we also had conversations about um the type of work that the zoning board has been doing and is uh set to do um I mean he seems like a a really great fit um he served the community for so many years and um and then also uh I will say the uh the the zoning board chair um recommended him uh as well for appointment so um unless there are any questions can we move ahead with a motion or move the motion and then for the discussion okay perfect all right so uh oh and then to say uh we voted 30 uh to recommend his appointment so I move to appoint Josh rosenblat to the zoning board of appeals with a term expiration date of December 31st 2025 second I have motion on a seconds to appoint Jos Rosen BL to the sun board of appeal for the expiration 1231 2025 any further discussion see none Barbara Salem Derby hi Omar Gomez Tom Peak hi Brad Riley Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi uh Connie D hi motion buzzes all right uh thank you and then um just a an update um on the appointment process Improvement plan um we have been engaging in a uh sort of fact finding process and documentation of how all of the um various boards committees and commissions um originated and what the um you know the administrative codes um ordinances our Charter Mass General law Etc all of the The Guiding laws that say what goes into these committies we have six left that we are um following up on so that work is almost done the final process which doesn't require the committee is for me to work with Evan leau on producing an actual document that we can share my intent is to bring that document to committee for review um since it's a non-binding document I don't think that it requires a final vote but this is just a resource guide um for the city to have um there is no uh appointees before us so um we do not have a a meeting set at this time but one will be set as soon as we get a new appointee thus concludes thank you councelor or [Music] consim thank you Mr President um we last met on June 11th uh two of us were there and we discussed briefly the um item around the temporary moratorium on the use of sewage sludge and fertilizer in East Hampton um generated some additional questions of research as well as I attended the um agricultural commission's uh last meeting and they actually also took up this issue um just on kind of impact on farmers and so we agreed that we would be in collaboration working collaboration um to uh discuss this matter um and certainly expressed my commitments to local farmers uh to make sure that um whatever the um policy is that is created is is supported by farmers and is um both uh Works in um effort to um support support their uh Farms as well as uh ensures Public Safety and so that's a conversation moving forward that we'll be um having with them U to discuss that matter um and that is um the date here is it's good um so I haven't scheduled another meeting I'll do that um with the committee and we will um meet probably try to meet before the next meeting on July 10th um and thus concludes thank you C denim uh property we already done that we don't have anything there rules on government um relations um was um was supposed to had a meeting a week ago was it um but it was cancel because I was on vacation and uh consult Terell have some personal um issues that he couldn't attend so uh we are expecting to have a meeting before July 10th as soon councelor Kinski came from vacation and um that's conclude for rules and government at least I miss something just right um new business um cons you want to start with with the resolution and why up first let me ask if any conselor have any objection of voting tonight on the resolution you guys good all right con uh thank you Mr President um you know I had other thoughts that I was gonna say um this evening um but the first thing that really just comes to mind after um listening to public speak is just the kind of the heartbreak that I feel for um the artists in the community as well as the staff and um participants and clients of Riverside um Community I think this is a really um unfortunate situation that has um Arisen um but also this evening I heard a lot of expressed desire to be able to work together to find a solution to the situation um I think that I heard this evening um the need of Riverside um to um have a safe space for its clients to be able to um receive Services um and I also heard a lot of business owners who have expressed a great deal of fear around their future and I just want to say that I'm holding both of those things um simultaneously um I've worked in uh organization nonprofit similar to Riverside I I know the the the work that goes into that um and I have nothing but respect for staff and certainly um the clients who who there and are there um and also as a resident of this community I have taken um great pride in the fact that we have a community that is rooted and and supports the Arts and certainly um someone who has both enjoyed um the experience of being able to see the creative and artistic work of individuals and kind of the what that offers to me personally as an individual and also I see the benefit that that comes from people who are take classes in those um businesses as well as enjoys those um um art in general I think that there's something for the spirit there um and I think that this resolution right that is before us that uh in collaboration with the artist of the community that President Gomez and I have are presenting here um is is an intent to affirm um the the the work and the commitment and the dedication of um artists and the work that they did to um not just work but they really revitalized East Hampton in in so many ways um it's the Cornerstone of The Cottage Street Cultural District um and I think it's a it's a opportunity for us to think about um the future of East Hampton um when I moved to East Hampton part of why I wanted to move here was because that East Hampton was economically diverse um and I think that the direction of and and someone spoke to this you know gentrification this is going to have a lasting impact on our future um whether or not we provide workspaces that remain affordable um and this obviously is a is a non-binding revolution resolution um but it is it is an affirmation that we are offering um to the rest of the community um to recognize the contributions that artists have made um to this to this community um as well as recognizing um the space that is Riverside um Industries and the the clients that they um serve in this community and so um I think that this came right is offered in the spirit of recognizing that contribution that artists have made and also again it's a cautionary tale of of the the unfortunate results of gentrification and whether or not we can slow that and actually do something meaningful um to try to be able to um of um the needs of of both of those communities communities met and um I heard from some folks you know asking for input from city council and I just want to um State this evening my commitment to work with Riverside um and um the artist to try to find some sort of solution that would be uh best for everybody and so uh Mr President this is a is a um resolution to really affirm the the work of of not just the work of but the history that artists have done um to um really Revitalize um East Hampton and and affirm that they too have a place in this community thank you before um any conselor celor Riley um well first I want to say thank you to councelor Denim um for her remarks um you know for me um you know I just want to say first that with respect um to the organization of Riverside Industries um I want to be crystal clear on this that their mission to help people with Developmental and intellectual disabilities uh to gain meaningful work and professional development is admirable um so my critiques and my comments tonight have absolutely nothing to do with their program or with people with disabilities um what I do take issue with are the president and board's decisions as landlords of The Cottage Street studios around what many think is an issue of fairness and what I think um risks the delicate economic balance in East Hampton now I fully recognize that this is an issue of a business's needs to take care of its finances but there were dozens of business owners who attended tonight who also need to take care of their finances is the reason that Riverside Industries felt that they weren't required to meet with these small business owners halfway is because they're the ones that hold all of the Power um that's what it feels like to me and it doesn't sit well with me um when somebody holds absolute power they should be a uh it should be a humble undertaking that empathizes with the powerless and recognizes that their needs uh need to be heard there also felt like a them tonight of using the vulnerability of people with disabilities to somehow discredit artists um and I just want to really emphasize this that to be pro- artist is not anti- disability and to be pro- disability is not anti- artist I don't think that we should be putting two groups of good people against each other for the gain of an organization to me that was incredibly harmful and it was hurtful to hear now to me in in my uh understanding of the situation a 3 to 5 Monon lead time where rents will increase um to the magnitude that they're set to increase by places tenants businesses in a precarious situation that doesn't give them much time to build the rent increases into their business model I want to know why there is no opportunity for collaboration or incremental increases to help these business owners stay afloat a refusal to collaborate forces them to choose choose between probable Financial bankruptcy or eviction and to me neither of those situations seems fair I'm also worried that this could have a chilling effect on our local economy you know I often tell people outside of East Hampton in my work at the federal level of this wonderful story of how the East Hampton economy has come alive over the last 10 years or so and it's anchored by local artists the Cannabis industry and a vibrant restaurant industry these three Industries together create a Synergy which allows all three to thrive stronger together than were they to Stand Alone by themselves and all of our small businesses benefit from this Synergy I fear that a decision to force rent increases to go into effect in the magnitude that they're planned and the short amount of time before it occurs can unnecessarily jeopardize our entire economy I also fear that a bullish attempt that harms our local artists can hurt the reputation of Riverside Industries and make filling vacant spaces more difficult in the future to me how they handled themselves tonight in front of the public eye determines How likely small business owners are to rent from them in the future um so in closing since the Riverside industry folks have left um I'm asking some rhetorical questions um and the first one is just Why why are we pushing forward with a decision that feels so anti eastampton when their entire business model is pro eastampton why haven't they asked for help from other people like us to move forward with a plan that meets everyone's business needs while still protecting the economy to me in my experiences the East Hampton that I know would embrace the dialogue with open arms and it would help everybody find common ground and I hope that we can do that because everybody deserves the right to have a thriving small business in our community thank you thank you um I have a few thoughts I should have probably organized better than I did um and I've just the first thing I just want to say this is just address to the council is is how just absolutely sick I am of being once again in a situation where there's a real issue that really is going to affect real people and the only thing that we can do is do a non-binding completely symbolic resolution I'm just sick of it I don't have any solu either so I'm not like well why didn't you think of something better cuz I could have I didn't I haven't it's just it's just the reality of the situation that the business model of this Council has become more and more to just observe the world and say well we don't like that bad thing that happened and then just it just happens anyway because powerful people get what they want that's just the reality this is the thing I've been saying for a long time now and I don't have a solution to this but I'm I'm just hoping that somebody does our model for economic growth based on the Arts I have come to believe over the years was always a lie it was always a lie because if you could look down the street in Northampton and see where it leads right artists capitalize on the cheap space and the cheap the ability to find affordable housing they create a beautiful community that makes lots of people with money want to live here those people with money then outdid them first for residential space then eventually for commercial space chew them up and spit them out it's what happened in Northampton which is why it is now a boring cultureless husk of what it used to be I was born there so I can say this it's a it's a boring Town there's nothing to do and there's no art there because all the artists came here and now they're going to go eventually somewhere else because rication here is going to drive them out just like it drove them out of everywhere else right now the issue that we're talking about involves the landlord of this building being a organization that does a lot of really really good things for the community and that does complicate it but ultimately every one of the PE of our artistic spaces around here unless people happen to have got bought at the right time is owned by a private landlord who has nothing but their own interests at at heart when it really comes down to it I mean Riverside just they came in here and said it they don't owe their tenants anything because that's how our economic system is set up landlords don't own their tenants at anything it's it's I wish they did they don't and so I don't know what the solution is here and I will vote Yes on this tonight because there's not a single word in this resolution that I don't support but what I but I don't feel good about seeing this situation which is going to affect 80 businesses in my precinct and the conflict between 80 businesses in my precinct and one of the most well-respected long-standing public good organizations in my precinct I see this going down and I and saying like well we really acknowledge and support and respect your contribution to this beautiful city that is now becoming too expensive for anyone creative to exist in it anymore I I think that there there has to be I don't know I don't know something like there has to be something more proactive we can do than just say we acknowledge you I'm so sick of saying that we acknowledge people I'm so unbelievably sick of acknowledging people if we as a body aren't the people who can do something about this then somebody else I'm not just saying this is in this specific land dispute I'm saying this situation where we bu built a thriving City on people's artistic contributions their creative contributions and now we've reached a real estate point where it's convenient and easy to throw them out right that is going to keep happening again and again I'm in a a big artistic Community you know how many of my artistic friends can afford to live in this city cuz they weren't they didn't buy when I did so now none of them can none of my friends moved to this city this is a this is becoming a city for rich people and rich people don't make cool art most of the time like so it's just going to create like we are in a serious this is a crisis and it's it's I don't put that on Riverside exclusively they've got a complicated situation but the reality is that if Riverside is Riverside is going to charge what they can charge in rents and so is every single other landlord everywhere landlords unless they are s set up in a very very special way not here as public good organizations they're set up to do what's best for them and if these guys are saying hey we think that there's the market rate out there that we can these we can charge these people this and if they walk away hey there's going to be other people who can come in a lot of other landlords are going to be thinking the exact same thing if they aren't already so I don't have a solution here but this this can't just be a thing that we say well thanks for your contributions and then just sit back because if we sit back they're all going to be gone and we're going to be another stupid boring rich people town with nothing to do y uh i' sort of been I've lost my train of thought but that's just I have I've had this concern since I first ran and it's just played out exactly the way that I worried that it would I'm really worried that we are at the point the breaking point where we start to be a start to see what Northampton did and that we start seeing some other communities around here with people going oh wow they're really upand coming and people really excited about that as if in 10 years the exact same thing isn't going to happen to them um so I don't know like maybe that's just capitalism and it just sucks and it is what it is but it uh there's got to be somebody out there with a better idea than anything I've been able to come up with any other consor before taking the motion I want to make a few comments first one thank you thank you is Anon is the place that we have today because of you guys um as soon as soon we came down the mountain and go to C Stree and we see the huge moral we know this is Art town we have Art City that's our welcome to ampton so thank you um I would say that this console believe in art you can see it every time that we vote um to approve money for the Old Town Hall that's for art so we are doing the part that I think we can do I agree with you conselor Peak is is really hard to fight uh with the rich people it's really hard and I think we can find a better ways to um to fight for the people they need um help um and and we have them today um thank you to you guys we have one of the best probably one of the best festival and I will call it Festival because it's Festival around Western mass cter chaos what a what a great event and what event is that it's about art dancing painting you name it it's it's about art so thank you again um and we know um that that when you own a business especially the business that that you that we have next to us um proba they have a tight budget like we do with a couple weeks ago and they have to do what they need to do to to stay in business right we we understand that um but we we know how hard it is to to create a budget and and accommodate everybody but we talk about affordable affordable affordable um I hope we never stop talking about it because um it's really hard to find something affordable in our town being rent for apartment or rent for art or for businesses it's really hard um again thank you and again I I want to make it really really really really clear because it bothers me um this is not disability Community against the art it's it's not and um I hear so many stuff today that bothers me a lot um the intent of this resolution is not against the disability Community they deserve respect they deserve the the same rights they deserve that we fight as much as we can or more for that Community um we need to think more about that Community we need to put our choose in their choose to understand that community so is unfair is low to compare and to try to make a situation that is disability Community against Art or art against disability Community I I again that bothers me a lot and I cannot leave this meeting without saying that that's not they intend and this I I will talk in behalf of the council we support the disability community in all their needs and we're going to be here for them too for everything or any anything they need it's as simple as that c denim I think Mr President um again just want to thank the um artist in the community for reaching out to us to draw attention to this matter um certainly again this is um uh an intent to affirm um and also it an opportunity for us to think about more clearly um that that relationship between artist and um as we've been talking about um the disability community so I think there's a I see this as a as an opportunity and again I just want to um State again my commitment to working with you all to to find a solution to this um Mr President um in the form of a motion um I'd like to read the resolution by the East Hampton City in support of affordable artist workspaces whereas the city of East Hampton Community Development strategy 2019 to 2024 describes East Hampton's Community Development goals and activities including those that may be suitable for assistance under Community Development blot Grant programs and other state and federal Community Development programs and whereas the following goals were identified by the community enhance the local climate for sustainable economic development in the commercial downtown the industrial manufacturing base green energy and the growing Arts cluster protect key historic and cultural resources through the ReUse of Oldtown Hall and the recognition and protection of key historic districts and will contribute to the long-term maintenance of East Hampton's Community character where the following priority projects were identified strengthened downtown through increased housing units continued affordability of commercial space access to Gathering space and links to public transportation market and market and support East Hampton's Cottage Street Cultural District support and increase in public art and art education whereas the members of the East Hampton City Council endorse the ab mentioned goals and priority projects and recognize the key roles played by artists and other creatives in the economic development and revitalization of eastampton over the last two decades whereas the Arts enhance the lives of all eastampton residents and affect every aspect of life including the economy social problem solving job creation education creativity and community livability and where at as the members of the East Hampton City Council recognized the foundational role that Cottage Street Studios comprised of more than 80 artists with Studios at one Cottage Street played in the designation by the mass cultural Council of The Cottage Street Cultural District one of the first so established in the Commonwealth further that in 1976 one Cottage Street was the first converted mil building in western Mass to Foster creative community and the first to host Open Spaces now therefore be it resolved by the East Hampton City Council that the East Hampton City Council hereby supports the maintenance and continuation of aordable Art Studio space within the Cottage Street Cultural District as well as in the downtown Corridor and Pleasant Street repurposed Mills the council further understands that the arts and culture are significant contributors to the economic viability of the city attract thousands of visitors to the city each year and have greatly enhanced the reputation of the city as a cultural destination second I have a motion on a second for the resolution by the simpton city council in support of the affordable artist work space any fur the discussion see Barbara Omar Gomez hi Tom Peak hi Brad Riley hi Tamara Smith hi JT Terell hi Connie denim hi Salem Derby hi motion passes pe oh yes sorry I got my there we go I'm looking for it too thanks bar that helped um okay uh so I have one thing uh request is I'm going to make this in the form of a motion yes and public hearing for July 10th I will make this in the form of a motion and also set a public hearing for July 10th request is hereby made for the approval of the following appropriation amount requested $299,000 to be transferred from Capital stabilization to be transferred to wastewater treatment plant mechanical airator $299,000 the amount requested will be used for the following purpose the funds will serve as a match funding for the Long Island Sound Futures fund Grant and mass D gab 3 energy grant that have been awarded to the Department of Public Works these grants and the associated match funding will cover the replacement of all four mechanical aerators and repairs to the aeration basins at the wastewater treatment plan second for to move the supplementary approp to the finance committee and to schedule a public hearing you like 65 CH any further discussion see Barbara Peak hi Brad Riley Hi C Smith hi JT Trill hi Connie denim hi Salem Derby Omar [Music] Gomez do Barbara uh Tom Peak Sorry Brad Riley hi tamber Smith hi JT Terrell Connie denim hi Salem Derby hi om Gomez MO is adjourned see you Connie I think it's like what 2: a.m. uh it is 3 o' oh my God good morning thank you Connie thank you yes good morning see you see you soon by e