e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e no one two 3 four okay good good evening everyone today is the regular meeting for the Len city council today today's date is July 16 2024 pursuant to chapter 20 of the act of 2022 this meeting will be hybrid allowing participation both in person and at the city council chambers uh as well as remotely the soon link was provided to anybody that requested through email and uh at the city clerk office this meeting will be conducted um here but you can actually uh watch it or view it through the laen city council Facebook page as well as the laen YouTube page uh Madame CLA please call the roll councelor Levy is noted as absent councelor leant present councelor Luzon pres Council Del Rosario present councilor Santiago present councelor marmel present Council Reyes is noted as absent Council vice president Infante present council president Rodriguez present please uh join me for the moment of Silent pursuant of the Pledge of allegion please join me on the pledge of allegion United States the indivisible with the liy and Justice all there is no minute to be approved today but there is a minute to be the reviewed by the counselors we're going to proceed with public participation uh anybody that wishes to speak there was a list on the uh on the podium there is anybody that so the rules of the public participation is that everybody is going to have 2 and a half minute to speak at the 2 minute Mark we're going to have a a towns indicating that uh you still have 30 seconds please uh refer to the council as a whole not as an individual counselors the first person that we have on the list is H Mali name and address for the record please Mal 53 Chester Street good evening honorable members read the citizen forever thankful to this honorable Council and honorable mayor Brian depena for working so hard so our police officers have a contract we are proud of you Lawrence Police with the impactable leadership by honorable Chief Bonia doing excellent job to protect our citizen we are proud to support Lawrence police officers Union seniors officers Union million thanks to our DPW workers for making Lawrence a beautiful City we support our DPW Union and Leadership Lawrence Inspection Department thank you for excellent job we support Lawrence inspector Union and Leadership we must hire more inspectors Lawrence Public School with the impactable leadership by honorable ra G are moving forward Lawrence teacher thank you for excellent job we support Lawrence teachers union please bring food and donation every Wednesday night to Bak garage to help our homeless we the citizen demand the best contract for our firefighters with the 3 person color raay and has our pay Lawrence always is strong Lawrence always unite we are proud to be the best example of support of Union right we pray for the safety of all police officers sacrificing their life every day Lawrence Police Officer thank you for working so hard to make a Lawrence a safe city with the Laurentian United in support of the Lawrence Police Union and thank you thank you the next person that we have is Brenda Rosie name and address for the record please Brenda Rosy 127 Chester Street um just just want to remind everyone that August 6 is our National Night Out um from 5: to 8 and that's when we want to police fire fighters um EMTs and we just all have a good time so um the elap which is the lawren neighborhood association partnership is um is supporting three uh neighborhood associations who are having um their National Night Out the first one's going to be at staro Park and that's prpic Hill district a the next one is Colonial Heights which is 29 do have and the third one is going to be at Mount Vernon Park and that's South Lawrence West neighborhood hood and um the president of the Tower Hill neighborhood association is also joining us um for ours so we look forward to seeing you all on August 6 and there will be a moade I believe um going around the city to the three events so um important see you then thank you thank you the next person that we have is Rich Russell name and address for the record please Cel Russell good evening councilors I'm Richard Russell 3 across street tonight is gripe night first over the weekend on the common some sort of event was being held at the Bandstand I know that when these permits are issued parking on the common is not allowed there were about 20 cars parked on the common why and how uh next last Tuesday night one of the hottest nights of the Year DPW work has turned off the spray pipe it's on havil street at 6 15 p.m. why don't the children deserve to be cooled off next the biggie I will include the mspc animal abuse phone number in case you want to turn me in for beating a dead hus the phone number is 1 800- 628 5808 anytime between 9:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. last Tuesday evening plans were put forth to improve the Bandstand area of the common 1182 nights ago on April 2nd 2021 a similar meeting took place at RL Park photos and plans were shown and discussed the powers at B said the design work would begin shortly and funding source would be located since then R park has been pushed to the back of the stove and designs and financing were found both for Cronin Park and dunan park when an individual from groundworks Lawrence was asked he pretty much said that RL PK has been pushed off the back of the stove lastly when is work going to be started on repacking the Tumi mendus in Stockton Parks this item was passed by the council in March with the Proviso that the money would come out of the FY 2025 budget the FY 2025 budget money is here I would like to see some of that money being used for what it was allocated far before it is uh totally wasted I said lastly previous but this is another lastly why was the Arlington school choosen chosen for solar panels why not the frost or the SLE or the weatherbe or the high school are solar panels and the construction plans for the Oliver and the Ley schools it seems strange that a lot of money is going into certain areas of the city while other areas are being ignored but that's just my H humble opinion as always I thank you for the time thank you councel Russell right on time the next person that we have on the list is Luis robbles name and address for the record please Luis robbles 183 Abbot Street um this weekend we saw how the rhetoric politically almost cus that attempt for an assassination and I wanted to bring that here because there's also been like a rhetoric going on locally um whether it's between councelor council members or between counselors and the mayor's office or employees and I just wanted to urge everyone that well obviously I don't think it's gonna it's something that will turn into an assassination attempt locally that's not what I'm saying but when when we have all this rhetoric going on what we're doing is we're creating a bias and sometimes we can be against or for certain ideas without actually debating them just because it's an US versus them so I just want to urge everyone to stop vilifying each other and just debate the ideas for what they are individually versus creating enemies and closing doors because and everybody has good intentions but if if you vilify each other then we can't find we we can't actually make progress because our BAS can hold us back and um I also wanted to mention the problem that we have with the motorbikes in the city I know everyone is already aware of that it's like beinga a dead horse but I I would urge the public safety committee members to please put more pressure on the Police Department and ask them for an actual concrete plan for what they're doing the chasing around is obviously not working uh they need some kind of intercept a plan to intercept the um these people that are doing this uh so please Public Safety Committee I urge you guys to please put more pressure on the police and ask them for an actual concrete plan for the public thank you thank you uh all these names are going to be submitted for the record um I would like to uh speak uh add something for public participation on behalf of a resident all right uh Council m is asking for personal privilege to speak on public participation by all means go ahead so City Council Members um my name is Vivian marmal I'm your city councelor for district D and I would like to read this into the record on behalf of uh resident pla breedo home residents of 81 Bradford Street Lawrence Mass 01840 dear City Council Members it has been brought to my attention of the constant issue of parking the affected areas are Bradford and Franklin Street and intersects with Broadway every day after work I struggle to find parking and have to park further from my home and walk at night to get my car closer to my home the business owners and clients who enter the barber shops and salons are also blank because I cannot read what was written there the problem with owners in and I am requesting for the area to be surveyed in the hopes of the city finding a solution to Residents who are unable to find parking near their home I appreciate your attention to this matter and there are 13 signatures attached to this um to this letter and that is the end of it um I also wanted to speak on behalf of myself for public participation go so vivier marmal 341 Water Street um I'm also here uh representing myself um as a city council member for district D and um I appreciate that Miss Brenda Rossi mentioned um National Night Out and mentioning three uh three locations to which um this event will take place um so I wanted to take this opportunity to also uh include and speak um and have it on record that um I thought that it was super important that um due to power Hill neighborhood association deciding to uh collaborate with uh the Mount Vernon neighborhood association um I found it to be extremely important that um that Tower Hill is being representative of the residents that they serve which is why along with myself and our city council president in addition to the invitation um that will be extended to all the city councilors who are not part of a a neighborhood association um in addition to our fellow um City counselor of representing the Tower Hill area as well which is Mr G Gregory Del Rosario which is representing District C that we will also be hosting uh National Night Out at the reservoir park uh with the hours of 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. and I encourage everyone to come out and participate this is going to be a community event um in collaboration with the Lawrence Police Department um in hopes to um have some fun and making sure that we are educating the youth and um we're having them involved with uh the elected officials that are representing them thank you thank you uh the the letter and their comment is going to be submitted for the record uh without not further notice we're going to uh continue with the agenda council president um C I'd like to know if U through you if Angel Noble or Noble is here this evening is Angel he is here I like to do take something off of table of matters for for the idea of giving a presentation for him the document is document number 1709 off of table matters do you mind reading the item the item is um 179 is resolutions recognitions of Lawrence academic achievement by means ccel PL uh I had a mo you actually have a motion right it's a motion to take off the table Yeah motion it's been properly second by council president inant all those in favor please say I hi the I have it Council you have the floor didn't that thank you very much council president um stand right next to me here go so um as you know we've been going through this for some time now uh and it gives me great pride and I think all of us great pride frankly to recognize those individuals who go to our schools who have achieved Excellence not just ordinary Excellence but the top Excellence that the very top of their of of their class um and I going to have you pronounce that your middle your last name so it's Angel salce Noble yes they pronounced that correctly so so if I can just call you angel that would be a lot easier for me and and I had a chance to meet him at at graduation U and I'm going to read the citation here but I will tell you um I've met a I've met a lot of borans and top Achievers throughout when I shook this young man's hand he shook it strong and firm and looked me right in the eye and I said congratulations and he said to me uh thank you very much for recognizing that I appreciate it and that listen I got kids his age and um they don't do that so when I find someone who is as confident in their abilities and confident uh and and have the kind of people skills in addition to the kind of intellect that he possesses it impresses me and I think it should impress all of us so without further Ado Angel if you don't mind um we as a city council really recognize that you're at the top of your of your craft you're the valid torian of Lawrence highest class of 2024 and as a junior received the Yale book uh book award you were you were highly involved in in in leadership and Community engagement um and you've been very involved in your personal educational development um not that this should be of any concern to any of us but um he served as a class senior class president so already he's won an elected office at the high school and was a member of the National Honor Society and served on its governing board uh you were getting involved in early college classes to get a head start at miramac College uh you took AP classes honor level courses uh and you're also involved athletically you're involved as a member of the JV and varsity track and field team by the way what was your event um herles okay so you're a jumper okay uh straight lines and jumping okay good um what was your GPA by the way uh 4.6 4.6 out of 4.0 so of course that's very impressive angel will be attending Boston University that we all know is a highly prestigious school and very difficult to get into congratulations and you're looking to pursue a career in finance yes so all of us as members of Lauren city council recognize your achievement recognizing the Excellence that you have that you have exposed um and that we want to send this resolution to you and give you every good wish as you go forward into into Boston and representing the city in your special way and hope that you come back and visit us as often as possible congratulations thank you so [Applause] much um I just want to say uh thank you so much everyone thank you for having me here um and it's definitely a great pleasure to to be able to come out here and uh be recognized so I'm very very grateful for the opportunity and um thank you so much you walk around there shake your hands and the FR [Applause] of councilor can I have a motion for 3 minute recess been made probably seconded by councelor of the plant all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it e e motion you got to Res so there is a motion on the table second properly second all please say I I guys have it let's go on top of the agenda there is no public hearing tonight uh communication from the mayor that is none and we're going to go straight up to a committee reports angel you're you're all set thank you all right we're going to go straight to budget and finance committee Madame vice president Infante and chair of the buet and finance committee the budget and finance committee met last week and the first item on our list is item 437 a-23 solar PPA and Lease contracts with solar SCT electric for City Hall um which will include 150 solo panels and for the Allington school which which will include 600 solo panels the fin the budget and finance committee sent this up as a committee report and I make that as a formal motion there is a motion as a committee report this is just for the committee report to accept it at uh at the at this level so any discussions uh on the committee report there is none all those in favor about the committee report please say I I any knows there I have it now we're going to discuss uh the potential approval of that uh potential contract of 20 years for item uh 3 uh 437a 33 which is the solar PPA unleash contract with a solar select uh for the city hall 150 panels and the arlingon school 600 solar panels we have ail uh that is here with us he is the the energy advisor of the mayor uh Anil welcome and name for the record and local adviser to the mayor city of lores thank you you have the floor please explain uh gentlemen uh thank you for this opportunity what we have done is we have created a reasonably good size presentation so that all of you can actually look at the whole proposal uh we have chat from the energy here to explain the whole project so that you have a good idea we will be here to answer all the question and answers uh there are two projects in front of you city of there is one on the city hall and second one is in Arlington school these both projects will have a rooftop solar that's being proposed and we are asking requesting you to weigh in on it and vote on it uh there is a certain deadline for Arlington school that we are working against within a two days if this if the committee approves it we can go ahead with that project otherwise that project gets stalled so I think chart can explain more of all of this so thank you chat for coming and explaining everything so please sure go ahead um hello counselors thanks for uh having me back for those of you that um I haven't met yet my name is Chad coocher from select energy I'm a Director of Business Development um you know purpose here today actually before I get started if I could I did receive a text from someone on the uh video that said it was muted they couldn't hear anything um it's actually Walter from power options who will be making some comments tonight they hello no he said it's all set all set okay thank you so um again the reason I'm here tonight is to discuss two solar projects for city property um with the purpose of um producing long-term cumulative savings over a 20-year period um to develop these projects uh we need the city council's approval to authorize the mayor to execute the power purchase agreement and the um lease of property from an agenda standpoint um I'm not sure if you have copies of what I have in front of you uh sorry if you have to look behind you I'll just speak briefly uh for those that aren't familiar with our company about select energy um your energy consultant power options and their procurement model uh as well as the overall solar program um how the procurement is done the Contracting process uh what a power purchase agreement is versus a um outright ownership model uh as well as the City of Lawrence project summary summing up the savings available to the city and then at the end uh what the next steps uh could be so I want to talk briefly about select energy we're a non-residential solar developer out of hopkington we've got about 100 employees 100 W2 employees here in Massachusetts we've been around since 2009 installed 700 50 or so commercial scale projects um warehouses industrial complexes higher ed uh school districts U large scale solar projects not uh residential we design them excuse me Finance them install them service them uh monitor maintain them ensure them everything out of headquarters in hopkington uh we are decam certified most importantly to this process though is we recently want to power options RFP which allows us to leverage uh some Mass General law to contract directly with public entities without you or any other public entity having to uh go through their own competitive procurement because the organization that you're a member of um has done that work previously I won get into the details of that in a minute um just to be clear that city is a member of the power options organization you're currently buying thirdparty Electric Supply from um through them um that was I'm here by the way if you can hear me sorry Walter Gray from power options is dialing in remotely I don't want to steal his Thunder I'll let him address this slide thanks Chad hi everybody I'm sorry I couldn't make it there in person um I'm Walter Gray I'm the solar program manager at power options um power options is a nonprofit energy buying Consortium so we're a nonprofit ourselves we operate a 500 plus member Consortium um our role is to go out to competitive bid and set up buying programs that our members can take advantage of so one as Chad mentioned uh Lawrence is a power options member um you pay a annual dues payment which funds our operations including um conducting these these programmatic scale procurements setting up these buying programs paying attorneys consultant staff time lobbying Etc um the ideas to provide our members with a streamlined transactional pathway for energy and energy related products and services we can move to the next slide please uh one of the programs that we offer is a solar program so that's what we're we're here for today so we've been in the Solar business for um coming up on 12 years it was prompted because our members were getting solicited by different solar developers they didn't know who was a reputable company who was good what was a good deal and so we decided to launch solar program to uh solve that on behalf of our members we've done a lot of projects so far we have over 90 megawatts completed through our program um it's across 150 projects delivering over $170 Million worth of savings to our members um this is all based on a competitive procurement so we go out to bid um it's very competitive because the offer is that the winner of the RF P process gets access through our program to our 500 plus member Consortium um very valuable sales tool for our program suppliers but they have to win the procurement which is very competitive so what we set up within the context to that competitive procurement is the pricing model so we pre-negotiate pricing on a dollar per watt build cost basis um which you'll see if uh as as you look at the numbers for the purchase option for these projects we also negotiate a pricing methodology to calculate PPA ratees and we'll go into that in a moment um we pre-negotiate the contract template so that it'll hopefully save our members some some attorneys fees and and get them terms and conditions and consumer protections that would otherwise not be achievable without the the scale of the the power options consortion behind it uh very consequential here is our enabling statute mgl chapter 164 section 137 this specifically allows public entities to participate in our programs without having to conduct an RFP which You' otherwise be required to do under Municipal procurement law specifically um if you were to do a a PPA and and enter into a lease associated with the PPA um you can skip to the next slide thank you uh we've been working with select since 2015 they won an RFP originally just to build small projects under our program we had a different uh solar provider for large projects and due to um their their competitiveness on price and non-price factors they've been uh significantly growing their business to a point where we felt comfortable with them um and selecting them in our most recent RFP process for large projects S as well as small projects so our program offers power purchase agreements and like I said we'll we'll talk a little bit about that in a moment or system purchases um as well as battery storage and at the bottom you can see some examples of our projects on the left is uh ha Roll City Hall and you can go to the next slide please uh you want to take this one Chad yeah I'd love toar thank you um this this slide sums it up pretty well what we're recommending you do have options you could do nothing you can purchase the array yourselves um what we're recommending is a it's called a power purchase agreement we actually as a corporation we're taxpaying entity we can take the tax benefits where the city um can't take an ITC tax credit although there are other options there is no upfront cost to the the city so um there is a cost to purchasing the power from the array but as far as the construction goes um that's something we take on with our development dollars we build it we're the owner we're responsible for it um we ensure it you know if there's property taxes associated with it they're paid it's 100% our responsibility um one of the power options requirements when we won the RFP was that if we offer you a power purchase agreement rate we need to keep it the same for a 20-year period that's one of the biggest drivers here as the utility National Grid continues to raise their electric rates the electricity that you're getting from the roofs stays the same from 2024 to 2044 um and that generates quite a bit of savings which I'll get to in a minute uh so and just to be clear select energy is the developer we we build we do the construction power options um whose our partner is actually I guess for lack of a better term is on your side of the table right they manage us they look at our pricing they monitor the whole process to make sure that we're in line with the original competitive procurement um so we do it like I said install Finance uh backend maintenance we monitor these in real time uh we'll know something's wrong with it before you do uh we have production guarantees so if we tell you we're going to put 600 panels on the roof of the Arlington school and you're going to save X we're responsible for producing that power and delivering it and if not there are damages uh due to the city so there's some protection there uh pre-negotiated contracts uh we tried to be respectful of the process get the agreements to the City attorney as quickly as um possible last year they they've been reviewed and I'm told that um they're okay with the language within the pre-negotiated contracts uh and then I Walter already addressed the enabling statute for there were some questions in the beginning of why don't we have to go out to RFP um being a member of this organization relieves you of that obligation before I move on from this slide are there any question questions on any of those items up there no you mue thank you um I wanted to address this engagement process up here just to kind of let you know where we started and where we sit today so the summer of 2023 I actually met the mayor at one of Lawrence's largest employers the uh gem line gem group uh he was impressed with what we had done over there the scope and the savings that we were providing one of your your businesses and had brought us in to just have some conversations and it evolved into getting a list of about 40 properties and Anil and I had taken a very significant amount of time to go through those properties address by address roof by roof on Google Earth looked on National Grids map there was a a question earlier you know why Arlington school and not some other properties um the truth of the matter is there isn't a lot of places that we can get an approval to build a service project solar project from National Grid in Lawrence right now this area the area of the Arlington school we were able to get um approvals and I can get into the details of that but quite a bit of due diligence feasibility work dealing with National Grid almost a year of back and forth with them um had resulted in two approvals a few of your buildings DPW nece these failed structural um it probably is cost prohibitive to upgrade the structure of those buildings to get those size solar arrays so really we're focused on these two properties although optimistically with new schools being built um other buildings getting new roofs and the grid opening back up in the coming years There's an opportunity to do dozens of these types of projects in the city so we did sign a letter of intent with the mayor's office authorizing us to engage with the utility uh and like I said we spent some of our own development dollars which is normal on application fees and stamp drawings and Structural Engineering reviews to get these projects to the point where they're literally shovel ready like if the agreements were to get signed they could be immediately start construction after permitting so there's where we are today um 7162 24 uh the construction Could Happen imminently if we were to receive approval from the city council I did uh briefly want to address uh something related to the Arlington school so that's a a much larger project than city hall right City Hall is about as small as you would get as as far as a commercial scale project Arlington school is about an average size project 300 kilow 600 panels um the area of the city over there actually had everyone if you know what a substation is it's some electrical equipment owned by the utility is at capacity and it requires uh some equipment to be attached to it to allow for the Arlington school to come online and we were actually build $56,000 by National Grid back in April and they gave us 60 business days to make a decision and um pay a portion of it by Thursday right sounds a little bit like a fire drill but we've been talking about this at budget and finance committee meetings coming back and forth and and trying to do our best to to make the case that it's uh that it's a good project so some action will need to be taken if it if it isn't taken National Grid we'll just follow their standard process and just cancel the project and we would have to start over at a later date through their whole engineering review um let me just jump into the two Financial models because this has come up quite a bit in the budget and finance committee meetings do we buy the system do we allow a third party to own it maintain it operate it and U take some incremental savings versus some direct savings uh I I'll get into that right now so as I mentioned before we recommend that we own it we're a professional Solar Company we've got many years of expert a large headcount to take care of U these types of systems we have the funding we have the tax appetite um really we're a well oiled machine when it comes to working on these types of projects and we've done roughly 180 of them across many school districts colleges state colleges the state itself um many cities and towns across the Commonwealth so we would own the project for a 20-year period we would lease the roof space um the financial benefit to you would be that you would buy that power at a discount from what you can currently get it for from National Grid I looked at some statistics and since 1990 in Massachusetts electric rates have gone up around 2.25 2 and a half% every year on average some years a lot more some years zero some years they went down but on average they're continuing to rise we propose that we own the system give you a rate today under through the power options program and fix it and lock that in for you uh you could purchase it uh for sure you would need funding you would need financing um you would need to apply to the federal treasury for um essentially a direct pay benefit or a grant um which is 30% I'll talk about it a little more later if you use a certain type of bond financing to get that done they make you take a haircut on that and it's 15% so you'd still have to come up with 85% of the project cost out of your own funds uh so there's a major benefit there to owning it um but there's also upfront costs and ongoing um you know ongoing I guess you could say advantages and disadvantages so with the PPA excuse me power purchase agreement no Capital expense to the city you are not responsible for maintenance service monitoring um it really is our personal property sitting on top of your real property and and you're just benefiting it from the reduced price of the electricity so we monetize the investment tax credit there's no secret there where where a company making an investment um Florence would benefit by reduced electric cost over a long period of time um that's a very low-risk proposition that we are paying for it we're delivering discounted electricity ensuring it monitoring maintaining it um but like I like I said on the slide here it's incremental savings if you're paying X you'll be paying slightly less for the green energy coming off your own roof um on the ownership model all the savings is yours if the project costs $700,000 and you can get 15% of it from the federal government and then Bond Finance the rest then that's your responsibility you would hire a company like us to service it right but there's a cost associated with that um ongoing on andm like I said uh there's some some things that would need to be done for you to get the money from the treasury I'm sure you could figure it out most public entities are opting to do the power purchase agreement and I'll I'll run those numbers right now actually Walter was able to provide this data which I thought was pretty interesting um yeah Chad can I take the slide absolutely thank you sure so I put this together um just to help give some some context so um things changed in 2023 calendar 2023 with passing of the inflation reduction act one of the things that it did for for renewable energy is that it made this um investment tax credit ITC which is applicable to solar projects and it's pretty hefty it's 30% so previous to the passage of the inflation reduction act this was only able to be monetized as a credit against your federal tax liability so no wonder everyone went with ppas because that's a way to monetize this tax credit by essentially routing it through a for-profit company since 20 since the passage of we've had a lot more interest in nonprofits and public entities buying projects because this ITC is now able to be accessed via a direct pay option where they will uh the IRS Will Will just essentially write you a check for the value um so since that happened um I and an Neil asked me to look at these numbers and um there's still a pretty heavy waiting toward power purchase agreements um we do have some purchases under a program by municipalities um most of them tend to prefer power purchase agreements and big question is why um because as you look at the numbers in the next slides you'll see there's a Delta there um there is more financial benefit associated with owning it um my job isn't to try and sway you one way or the other um it's mainly in in my view to make sure that you're you're making an informed decision um the big key reasons why they decide to do ppas is um as I put here there's there is an element of risk and responsibility associated with owning solar projects and um I hear it all the time from our members who buy projects and eight years down the line after a couple key employee turnovers um they lose sight of them and lose track of them and they fall into disrepair these Financial return numbers you'll see which are asso iated with owning the systems on the next slide require that the system produces at or near um this is PPA summary but we can just back up a slide for a moment please um but these these Financial targets require that project operates at full capacity yes you can Outsource that via an on andm contract with a company like select in my experience that doesn't always happen so my advice to the city would be that if you were contemplating a purchase it's crucial to be ready to assume those those responsibilities associated with ownership this is not a set it and forget it um the second element is the investment tax credit monetization so the way that would work is that you sign a contract with select to build the project you can count on that 30% ITC which you'll see um on the next slides is baked into the the financial numbers um but that's your responsibility to run it down and actually get it so um my concern on behalf of our members is that that can be an expensive process um 2023 is the first tax year for which this ITC was available to be received via a direct pay so we're you know the first round of applications went in um early 2024 um it might be all ironed out by the time you're you're ready to do it it might cost a fair bit of money to go go hunt down and and actually receive um so that's my two cents guidance to the city I'll pass it over to Chad to go through the numbers thanks Walter before you go to the numbers to the numbers uh just to be fair to the process you guys going to present numbers when it comes to listing the the panels the solo panels so if you discuss the potential ownership we also would like to see numbers as of owning uh the panels so since we've been discussing both possibilities I have both y thank you thank you so the first project that I have um and I realize this is an ey chart and and I'll be brief on this one is um City Hall so this is the power purchase model I'll get to the um ownership model in a minute um we would own this project we would Place those panels they would sit there for 20 years and if you look in the lower right hand corner here it looks to be about $86,000 in net savings um that is a reduction in electric cost on the meter in this in this very building now I've heard that that seems like a pretty modest level of savings um this project does have an above average build cost due to some um items like cranes and things like that in the relatively small size uh but the PPA rate was calculated and run by power options and approved right now you're spending around 18 cents per kilowatt hour all in for supply and delivery um an Neil actually has some data that that's actually gone up so the savings that I have here in the lower right hand corner uh seems to be a little conservative um so I guess the question is between this model and the following model which I realize is another ey chart um this project is let me see see here spare with me one second so it's uh $215,000 project if the city were to purchase it and the idea would be you would apply to the federal government for either a 30% direct pay benefit or if you use certain types of financing a 15% direct pay benefit the difference is if you own it and you're responsible for paying for it and maintaining it for a 20-year period you achieve $221,000 in savings on the electric bill for this meter in this building versus um 86,000 if we own it and offer you an incremental savings between what National Grid charges and what um power options allows us to charge under the program is the rate for the energy calculat on both uh situation the same yeah so the um both buildings have a a G3 meter with National Grid and between your municiple uh aggregation rate or the rate you get from power options for the supply and the delivery charges from National Grid um it's I had calculated 17.69% than what I have on this document so the savings would be greater in both scenarios now um I think the prize here really is is the Arlington school that's we applied for five projects with National Grid they said no to three of them and allowed for two of them and I'll give you an example I live in adoro um the mayor down there in the city council is begging for solar my kids go to those schools we can't get a single product product project approved in the city limits of adoro all the substations are over capacity so there is an opportunity here to kind of strike while the Iron's hot while we have National Grids approval um uh you can get approve projects approved and unfortunately uh I can't locally but with the Arlington school much larger project 600 panels producing 340,000 kilowatt hours you're currently paying 16.5 cents for electricity at that location on that meter um it's been approved by power options that we would be allowed to charge 11.75 cents Allin for supply and delivery right of the electricity from that roof so there's annual incremental Savings in the far right hand corner and then there's the cumulative Savings in the lower leand corner of over just over $600,000 back to the city that you would no longer be giving National Grid that you could use on other initiatives or um you know other budget items besides ever Rising electric costs I do have the Arlington school estimate as well a much larger project this is a $791,000 project that's again been reviewed and approved by power options if you were to purchase it uh all the savings would come directly to you but you would also have some operations and maintenance expense which I outlined there projected over a 20-year period so instead of $600,000 if we own it and you have no upfront cost you have an upfront cost of 791 th000 and Achieve 1.1 million in savings over a 20-year period so much more savings but there's an investment on the front end if you own it goal in both case were there any questions on the council president Financial models excuse me sorry do you have anything else that you should add I'm sorry anything else do do you want to that you want to add to the presentation before we open up the conversation for discussion sure I I think there was questions asked before you know who else is doing this who else is you know participating I we'd put together a slide some higher ed uh institutions state colleges we have 33 projects at Harvard I I bring that up because they don't do business with just anybody they um they vet their their vendors quite a bit and we've got a lot of success there tough Stonehill College Bridgewater State Salem State many many school districts uh we're doing business with the city of Boston the city of Worcester uh and many cities and towns so I did want to just this last slide touch on this briefly anything that you see in bold up here in the top has been completed so we we're done environment electrical engineering dealing with the utility State incentive applications been filed and approved um interconnections pricing has been approved by power options my concern is you know whether I can get approval from my company to make that $114,000 payment to National Grid on Thursday electronically without the city council's um approval of these projects because we've already invested uh well over $10,000 closer to 20 in engineering fees structural engineering fees application fees stamp drawings and things like that so we really are at the point where if you find that you do want to do do these two projects we need to get back to National Grid relatively quickly and again it's their timeline and their deadline not not ours right right thank you so much thank you so um we are we are going to open uh this item for discussion uh let me just recap about the about the item we have item we have Iran uh 437 a23 which is the solar PPA and lease for uh with contract with solar CET uh for the city hall 150 solar panels and the AL School 600 solar panels this contract is uh this boat will represent a contract that is either 20 or 25 years according to the slides that we have here depend on the motion so councelor with that's say I will entertain a motion before we open up for discussion don't have another motion councelors there is a motion motion to approve for 20 years there is a motion to approve the contract for the next 20 years uh well to approve a contract that is been review by the City attorney can I hear a second can I hear a second motion dies for lack of a second I'll second I'll second it for discussion purposes all right um so let's let's go back like can I hit a motion again since the first motion to approve for 20 years all right there is a motion to approve for 20 years second there is a second for discussion purpose discussion uh Council of Vice President Infante thank you through you council president um as you all know we've been going back and forth on this at the budget and finance committee level but there was a comment made during public participation that did not occur to me during those conversations and it was the comment of how the Arlington school was selected and why not other schools within the City of Lawrence have been selected I want to know the how the why why this school and if did we look at other schools what did National Grid say about other schools and any information that you can provide about that thank you thanks for bringing that up so National Grid has a public uh website that has a map on it that is colorcoded um showing the saturation of the grid and and so we try to target areas smartly and and apply for projects that we know have the likelihood of getting improved so I can be glad to send you that map uh on a color scale dark red is bad red is bad orange is okay the almost the whole entire city is covered in red distribution lines the electric wires that go down all the streets in in uh Lawrence there's schools that we knew we would never get interconnection approval from na do you know do you have a list can you state those schools yeah so um Anil had given me a list of 40 properties in a spreadsheet um and I went down every single one of them there was two new schools to be built it's too early to apply for those because the interconnections are only good for 12 months with National Grid so if you apply and they expire it's it's almost doesn't make sense to apply too early --------- is that um these are the two projects that we could get approved the Arlington school is a great project if they're not tied together so if you decide that hey look let's do the Arlington school let's get the higher level of savings I didn't get into the other ancillary benefits but we we hold educational days we did I don't know 86 graders I think in Fitchburg and had a solar day and how to you know you can become an electrician you can become an engineer we partner with technical schools and take interns and um and apprentices I mean there are many ancillary benefits Beyond just the pure savings accessing clean energy if that's a u a goal of the community I would like to add a little bit about uh making City Hall as a Lawrence Pride okay are there is few things that come with it one is the pride part of it but also we are trying to apply for all kinds of improvements to the city hall for heat pumps convert the whole building electrification when we apply for these grants when we say that it already has solar panel project in pipeline are already there the heat pump part project becomes a lot easier to get grants on so it becomes an electrification project and City Hall is where people come in they see that city is taking leadership in this whole thing so it becomes a wonderful token for the city to be proud of so yes it's not a huge deal if you just drop it other opportunities are there but I really want to represent this as a question of Pride I work very hard to make the city a wonderful place a place where needs to thrive it doesn't have the it should not where it should be I want it to thrive like crazy and I think City Hall can represent as a starting point for everyone this is the right thing this is a good thing and uh it it and it's it's not going to cost you anything except it's going to start saving money today and it's going to improve saving money because energy cost goes up but the rates that we are getting are fixed for 20 years so in in every respect it becomes a great example our Ling to school is an obviously a very big uh project so I would like to urge you to think of it from variety of angles thank you you Mr chairman so what Mr President what is the uh the amount of savings for City Hall 86,000 at your current electric rate um slightly more if the recent Bild that an Neal has um reflects a higher electric rate that's $86,000 over 20 years total 20 years yeah so about $4,000 a year we can't fit very many solar panels or something like that that's the savings is what that's that's the savings right, but over 20 years that's going to be about $4,000 right all right that's about $4,000 4000 okay I got you so between four and five how's that okay so you said somebody said that you've already talked to the folks with the historic commission what was their response or their reply when that was brought to their attention so I think I don't know what the date was we put an inquiry in with um do you have the name so we put I believe it was last October we had put an inquiry in I mean we had pulled deeds and all kinds of document out of the registry just to check things out um I don't believe we ever got an official response we we will not be proceeding this project without the explicit approval for sure you have asked them but they haven't responded yet okay so just so I'm clear I'm trying to make sure I understand you correctly so you've asked them and they did not respond is that is that what you're saying you've written the letter you requested comment and they did not respond to the to the to the request you haven't heard from the okay um I would feel much better I I I don't know what their workload is I don't think that the these people who are on those boards have a passion for things like this building and other buildings and so I think if they if was on their radar screen I think knowing the people who serve on that Port they would very much provide some sort of response I would feel more comfortable hearing what that response is I'm okay with Arlington I mean I I'd vote for that twice today if I could I'm fine with that um not a problem but I'm really before go down that hole with u with City Hall I I would like to get there make give him one more bite of the Apple sure that's what I would want that's [Music] fair Council council president I I don't want to stop the debate or discussion if anybody else wants to but if if everybody has spoken if they've wanted to speak at some point I would like to make a motion to do two things I would like to make a motion to table and resend communication to the historic commission and make sure that they are aware that this is up for an imminent vote and if they don't respond that means that they're losing the bite at the Apple and we're going to have to take a vote C we have both of the items together under right item so I think that we should split those items into two CC president U okay so we're going to we're going to eventually down the road once we finish up the conversation and the discussion we're going to split item 437a into one and two so and that way we can have 437a for one which is going to be city hall and then u 437a b u i mean two um to be disc for the Alon Alon school but uh let's continue the discussion in the meantime canel um Santiago hi earlier you said you have you did a contract with some another city like wer Y and can you mention how big was the the contract with them and can you mention if he you have another contract in Lawrence and private company sure um as far as um Walter are you still on by any chance I am yes I got there was a two-part question there I'll address um your second question first and then Walter if you could just maybe speak to a few of the other surrounding communities that have decided to um enter into Power purchase agreements I'd appreciate it but to answer your question we can't get a lot of solar approvals in Lawrence right now there are pockets all over the city where the grid is okay one of them was uh the gem group um um they put a system the exact same size that we proposed on the high school like a 720 kilowatt 1500 solar panels um the system has been significantly reducing their costs and it was well over um I believe over $5 million in savings over a 20-year period it's a phenomenal project i' be happy to put you in touch with anyone over there but as far as other cities and towns that are entering into Power purchase agreements I listed a few on the um on the proposal here let me just pop back up and Walter if you want to speak to um you know Worcester uh any of the other surrounding areas we've I guess we've signed 11 properties in low um working with methan uh North Andover uh Walter do you want to comment on that any further uh sure um a partial list of municipalities only and we have private nonprofits um municipalities state agencies Etc that have gone through a program but I'm just looking at the list now um W Walpole LEL Dam um Harvard Sharon Sudbury Fitchburg Arlington Somerville Medfield uh mayard um Melrose Danvers Hopkinton um that's that's an extensive list right how big is the contract the most bigger do you have I'm sorry do you mind repeating that the most bigger do you the contract the biggest contract have the biggest contract do you have the in which city I would say that the biggest one is going to be Boston it's up over time it'll be two private or uh public y so we'll be doing power purchase agreements through um you've heard of the uh company Honeywell they're a electric uh services provider um we'll be building the projects for them for Boston Y and then all of the low projects will be power purchase agreements combination of rooftops schools parking structures like par parking canopies with solar panels on top of them so just to clarify from that you are you are you doing that project for the city of Boston or or somebody else in Boston for all they'll be all at Boston properties Boston Schools the transportation um Department um I'm not the person personally working on that one we have 10 sales people at my company but um it's a massive undertaking yeah but is it for the city of Boston city city of Boston yeah those are all municipalities that are on the slide Boston Worcester those a municipal projects Boston wer Hopkin and so okay they're members of power Sano wait she still have the floor and can you tell me about how many kilowatt because here we have 3ou 300 300 panels 300 panels Y and and the biggest you have in Boston and was in City Boston I would like to know how bigger they would vary from the size of this location here all the way to larger I would say than the you know than the high school here in in Lawrence 50 to 720 kilow in general right here in Lawrence do you bring in private company um private businesses yeah I would say um I mean there's got to be at least a dozen um none approved recently except for the gem group because of the grid situation but what I can do is create a report and send it to everyone of all the projects that we've got in warrant when was the last time did you get the last cont um I believe the gem groups project was turned on January of 23 okay around there thank you it is important to recognize as well around the conversation that during the budget and finance committee you mentioned that there is about 750 projects that your company have and about 250 projects you guys own so that means that about 500 projects were owned by uh the institution that hire you to do those right yeah I can that was that was something that get brought up during the during the conversation so 33% % of your project are the one that you own the rest of them are owned by someone else um that that's correct so um I would say from 2009 to 2015 we almost exclusively sold projects to commercial businesses manufacturing companies warehouses Office Buildings that's all we did they took the tax credit in 2015 we had won this power options um RFP and we decided that we wanted to be project owners ourselves so we do that in two different ways we rent roofs from commercial building owners or we sell power to Municipal um off-takers uh school districts municipalities towns so it's I wouldn't say it's a new phenomenon but like in the last nine years we've really ramped up us owning the projects versus selling them to the end users I just had a point of clarification on the on the motion if we table City Hall uh will we miss that July 16th or 18th okay okay only for Arlington okay I just want to make sure that we we we haven't got to that point yet those are going to be clarified eventually Council rosar um the think I just want to offer a motion though I mean that motion to split um item 437 23A to one and two one being in Allington school and to be in City Hall all right there is a motion to split the item into one and two uh can you hear a second discussion there's a there's a motion to split but the discussion will continue uh just into two different items yep there is a motion on the table properly second discussion on the split oh this is this is just to split the item the the underly motion will continue and the president I I just want to add something to can I on the splitting portion in the splitting portion okay just taking in through you cons president um just to keep in mind that they mentioned the deadline and they also mentioned that in case that the historical commission uh doesn't agreed with this they will be able to stop the project is is that accurate that the one on City Hall no um so the one at City Hall is fully approved yeah it could be built starting as soon as we get a permit the Arlington school is the one that National Grid had a little bit of an issue with and they said if you want to connect a system this size to our grid in this area of the city you need to put a piece of equipment on a substation a relay switch that switch is like $56,000 and like we're ready to pay for it as part of the development cost and it is reflective as you pointed out previously in the power purchase agreement rate right but it's like 0. you know like one tenth of a cent right of the overall development cost so we do need to pay that and I know it sounds like a fire drill but um we applied for that project last year we were approved on April 24th um we' come to a few of the budget and finance committee meetings to try to explain the situation we're in and I just did not want anyone to think that that was like our deadline or our Timeline under the Tariff that National Grid is run under you know by the dpu and everything like it's up to them they they say you pay this in 60 business days or they will literally cancel the project the following business day it's just the way it works oh thank you for the clarification thank you essentially sure essentially the $56,000 that he mentioned that there's a deadline on that that funds were going to be reduced out of the saving that the city of L will have uh directly so that was part of the discussion as well right on the and Fin committee um we have a motion on the table to split item 437 a23 into one and two one being the Arlington school and the other and the and two being the city hall at this point I call the questions all all Us in favor for the split please say I I I any knows the I have it so now we are going to continue with the U one of the motion I mean I guess that we're going to have to entertain one more motion individually now motion to approve 437 81 which is the Allington school project so before you do that do you withdraw the the original motion just to be clear and and have that that one as an underline motion we'll draw the 20 years motion we could we could continue on that with the 20 year motion on the no no no because the fact that we split both so now we're going to have one extra motion on top of it and then down the down the line is going to be in the air what is the underline motion the underline motion it was to approve 437a 23 before split okay so you withdraw the motion withdraw the motion all right now we entertain a new motion for uh 437 a231 motion to approve that was a motion to approve at uh 43782 4378 231 which is the alingon school only uh and the motion is to approve for the next 20 years uh getting to an agreement with that 20 year for a 20 years contract discussion on the Alon school only uh there is a second can I hear a second second there is a motion on the table properly second discussion council president the last thing I I've been reading this book by a freedom in it's called I forget what it's called now um but one of the premises of the book was this thing called Mo's law and War's law used to be about the the quickness of techn technological change and every two years things would change and now things that have changed technology wise have gone through the roof things very immensely quickly so I just you know one of the premises here is that we're dealing with this technology today going out 20 years and I think we can all agree that 20 years that once you start nailing whatever you're putting onto the roof it's going to be outdated pretty soon and I'm just wondering what that means for us as a city who's recing any the monies from that if anything at all and I just wanted to ask that question do you mind if I ask for a clar on whether you whether you own it or whether we own it so we're going to be leasing it we're going to go with the motion which is the lease okay so that's a great question technology does improve I think if you look at laptops and TVs they get thinner and they get better um we're at the point with solar panels technology that it's it's getting there I'm not going to say it's not going to get better but it's incremental so it used to be that we went from 400 watt panels to 425 to 450 the last was like 485 excuse me 480 watt to 485 right they just made a model change and started shipping new ones I don't see it getting exponentially better and it comes down to how many kilowatt hours you can produce per square foot so one of these panels is like 32 square ft it's not a residential panel they're large commercial panels um it's going to get better but it's not going to get exponentially better and what I would say too is you can only apply for a tax credit once so if you refresh those panels at year 10 that's great but you have to pay the full price of that and you'll never recoup that in additional incremental Energy savings we've looked at it a bunch that question comes up quite a bit it really is better to place those panels up there and let them sit for a 20year peri perod what's interesting too is that the panels come with a 25-year performance warranty they only degrade at a half a per per year every year for 25 years this agreement's only for 20 but they're warranteed for 25 if I do the math on that that's they're still 87% of what they were when they were put there day one so the the technology will get better to refresh it the cost of that is usually not uh won't make sense and the last thing through my last question through you Mr President is that did the the city Administration are you are you requ are you suggesting 20 years or 25 years for the lease cuz now we're talking 20 is that the recommended is that what we're recommending what you're recommending to us is 20 years so it's it's 20 years on the rooftops and the reason why you saw 25 in the presentation is we do 25 on all parking structures thank you any other questions on uh in regard to the Alon School to you consel president uh you mind please repeating the saving that we will have once we place the panels on Arlington school sure um if you count 20 years from the day the system is turned on um it's $601,000 and and again that savings comes from the reduction of what you would be paying National Grid to just buying the power from the system we own off your own roof at a rate that power options your energy advisor sets through their original competitive procurement can do you mind um also sharing the cost of the project yes so um yes so the Arlington school is a $791,000 project that includes equipment permitting drawing drawings labor equipment rent there's got to be 60 line items that go in into pricing out a solar project um all the labor all the approvals I mean I there's a list a mile long I can kind of get you what's involved in that but total TurnKey it's 79 $791,000 onetime cost with an ongoing annual highly recommended maintenance agreement if you were to own it um we monitor those via the web or a 5G modem and also um do you mind uh sharing so essentially if the City of Lawrence own that own that project uh the saving will be after we recoup that uh the the initial cost of the project president let me uh Mr I shared a a document with you that actually shows yeah but we're not talking about that we're talking about new project that's out of order that's not part of it so we're not entertaining the order project that we own we're not talking about negligent we're talking about what what what's going to happen I wanted to just say that what happens when we have an ownership issue with the water treatment plant we still haven't recovered the money that we yeah but we still wanted to know know we still want to know like what the saving because it's fair for my constituents for me to let them know what are the two projects so one thing doesn't take away from the other so councelors any other questions about in regard to to this specific motion which is just for the uh for the school related project council president I promise I have one last question one and I promise this is my last you can I don't want to we have a lot of stuff to talk about there's going to be dealing with this tonight and we're all going to get tired pretty soon so when we're doing this cost savings and we're thinking about the school budget is this a savings on the city side or is it a savings on the school side and if it's savings on the city Side are we going to be able to attribute those savings for the net School spending portions and other things that we have required to do how does all that play out this is uh 100% on the school side that we're you know by doing this project uh they save uh 61,000 bucks over 20 years which is a conservative number uh more than likely will be a little bit more than that because of the electricity rates has Chad mentioned so it's our you know again for as as the C of the city it's kind of a no-brainer we don't pay anything and we save 600,000 over 20 years it's kind of uh again the joining power options the reason why we join power options uh and it cost us I think our dues are about 2500 bucks a year uh is to get these these savings uh Energy savings recommendations from power options and take advantage of their massive purchasing power uh so so again as CFO it's highly recommended that we proceed with this project the school department saves some money uh I know they have a lot of money but 600,000 is not small money for really doing nothing thank you uh any other questions so the saving will not be for the uh for the city of L general fund it will be for the school system of the city of lens in general not for any particular area any other questions in regard to the this specific item for this specific school only for the 20 years at this point if there's no questions I call the questions all those in favor please say I I no Roo please councilor Selena Reyes is noted as absent councelor marmel no Council Santiago no council Del Rosario yes Council Lon no council plant yes Council Levy is noted as absent Council vice president Inon yeah yes council president Rodriguez i v no pass the counts yeses G motion fail um so we're going to the next item which is item um 437 so 437 a232 which is for the city hall I got a motion on that [Music] I make a motion to um and then I'll be making a motion to table I like to make a motion that we can we just table that matter here and then and ask for if you ask for a motion to table it could be table at this level two things I like to ask make a request that we sent a communication to our the the Lawrence historic commission for their uh for their opinion on putting solar panels at City Hall and then couple that with a motion to table second if anybody would like another Mo before that I mean that was also in order there is a motion on the table together with the communication to be sent to the historical commission it's been properly second by councelor Santiago um no discussion on that uh on the table matters all please say hi hi any negative I have it now we have item 437b which is the solar panel PPA lease contract for with select energy property for any other uh property on the city of lawen uh councilors at this point I think that we should with draw this motion this item since each specific property will be coming in front of us individually uh I I will entertain a motion motion to withdraw item 437 B-24 I mean that's 23 there is a motion to withdraw properly second discussion I know at this point I call the question to please say I ni have it and next item is item 332 33224 which is the net meering agreement this is also another energy another energy project for the City of Lawrence um we have Anil and the rest of the T that they were presented in front of the U from the V Finance but before I call this item I'll then Madame Vice Madame vice president Infante item 33224 item [Music] properly second uh on the committee report all those in favor please say I I any negative guys have it so we have item 33224 which is the net Meer an agreement uh the project was presented to us it is we have the uh the team in front of us so we can explain a little more yes do you guys have a presentation yes good evening council members um my name is Matthew deatti I represent Renewables worldwide along with my business partner for Angelo and we have before us this evening a gilas energy who is the project developer of the community solar farm project that we have before you here today uh before we get into the actual presentation which are gilas and Matthew aardi who represents them will be conducting uh I just wanted to give a quick overview uh of the last 20 months because that's about the process that's been to kind of get to this point this evening and I'm going be very brief and this again is more of an overview not for discussion of questioning uh just again to give everyone up to-date information so I think it's important to mention renewals worldwide uh we work locally and nationally with solar farm developers uh those are things you see on the sides of the highways you know anyone ever driven along Mass bike or any Highway and you see panels out in the field those are solar Farms so to make a distinction this evening although that's wonderful rooftop solar we're not talking about rooftop solar the distinction is we're talking about Community solar Farms which are in fact a Massachusetts legislated product um and they are virtual in that sense so there's nothing evasive going on uh renewals worldwide we are veteran owned we are based in the merac valley um our job is very simply to uh work with solar farm developers and locating customers for their solar Farms we work in the commercial space we work in the federal housing space uh and we work in the public space obviously here tonight working with towns and and schools of that nature uh what our job is simply is to consult and educate those entities on the benefits of virtually and again I'm going to stress that word virtually because we're not talking about rooftop here virtually connecting to a local solar farm um in agilitas and their presentation is going to explain certainly in much more detail about that our customers uh range we work with a lot of federal housing across the United States uh We've signed on many of the federal housings in New York in Maine uh several in Massachusetts uh we also work on the retail level with Chick-fil-A Dunkin Donuts those types of customers Mass School of Law locally here as a customer of ours uh General Hospital UMass Etc so we worked with many types of entities and I will say that 80% of the towns uh in this um state of Massachusetts are currently receiving the benefits of community solar and the savings uh that are attributed with it and being a lorenci and myself having been um born and lived in and owned property in Lawrence for about 25 years um when this opportunity came about when Chris and I sourced it I wanted to bring it to the city and um really have them benefit from the opportunity why well we Source this opportunity it's a unique program it's through the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and what's called the Massachusetts system of insurances without getting overly technical that is just a regulatory body that oversees these projects and make sure they for lack of a better word up to Snuff um since then uh this program has been vetted and approved uh you heard the word here tonight of the company power options has reviewed this program on behalf of gilas and given its blessing uh an Neil navil who is the mayor's energy advisor uh has vetted this program to his liking as well uh it's gone through the appropriate departments uh procurement City attorney Etc um and this program is unique to other and compared to other solar farm projects that we've worked on over the last seven and a half years uh in the state of Massachusetts and Beyond and what is unique about it uh again it's regulated by the entities I mentioned prior Mass Department of um uh system Insurance excuse me and Department of Public Utilities um there an application process which was submitted over 20 months ago specific to the City of Lawrence to partake in this program which was approved by Massachusetts system of insurance and the entire Sol of farm production and the entire Farm itself will be dedicated to the City of Lawrence so usually when we have a solar farm we have hundreds of customers on those Farms most often uh because this is a unique program specific for a public utility or excuse me a public entity uh that has to be uh individually part of the farm so the City of Lawrence is dedicated to this Farm should you choose to move forward with it it has a capacity maximum which has been reached so in the state of Massachusetts and as you all heard this evening with solar in general and rooftop there's not a lot of opportunity because of infrastructure issues saturation issues these things um this is a capped uh program as well and City of Lawrence again should you move forward did receive the last uh capacity allocation for this particular project so why are we all here what is the snapshot uh in agilitas is going to go into much more detail and I'm about a minute away from being done here so just bear with me it's really here tonight to discuss the opportunity for the City of Lawrence to save just under $150,000 per year with this program not not in 20 years per year annually so let me please stress that I'm not a great math guy but if you do that cumulatively over the next 20 years that's just under $3 million per year now what makes this unique is that it's being offered at cost so this is free uh it's completely owned managed operated by gilas energy don't feel bad for them they're getting compensated by the federal government state local facilities so they're making their money too but the benefit is they need you just like you need them there's a savings opportunity here the savings is guaranteed for 20 years as rates rise and I don't know if anyone have an electric bill here whether you're at home or an apartment rates do rise they may fall it es and flows but chances are over the next 20 years rates are going to rise Therefore your savings could actually increase the risk is rates may come down you may save less that's your risk but other than that it's a freak program it's completely non-invasive by the way there's no equipment there's no widget there's no Gadget there's nothing involved in the city there's nothing on the roofs there's nothing inside walls or anything like that it's completely virtual so I ask and I candidly ask uh where could the city allocate or reallocate $150,000 a year to other resources and other opportunities whether it be for hiring new jobs infrastructure Parks things of that nature so that being all said I'm going to segue now to our colleague and our partners uh in this project uh gilas energy Matthew Accardi he is the lead project developer I'll segue to yeah thanks for that uh thanks for the introduction good evening uh council members thank you for the opportunity to present this evening be rather name address for the record please excuse me name address oh sorry yes mat cardi from agilitas energy uh I'm in New York if you need my address it's 11 belar D okay um yeah so thank you for the opportunity this evening I'm going to first just provide an overview of what we call the net metering program which uh Matt was hitting on um and then I'm going to get into an offer or a request of the city council to consider a net meeing agreement with our company agilitas energy regarding a project that we have and expect to be up and operating by next June so let me just begin with a quick overview of net metering so the net metering program comes from the Massachusetts general laws at chapter 64 uh section 39 uh and that law governs the generation and distribution of gas and electric uh that law is further regulated under uh 220 CMR uh section 18 by the public utilities Department of Public Utilities and what this offers is a unique solar incentive program as Matt mentioned to incentivize energy developers such as agilitas energy solar electric uh that spoke earlier to partner uh with what we call off-takers so an off-taker in this case would be the City of Lawrence other off-takers might be a large uh industrial complex uh or you know a hospital another off-taker might be a group of residents called Community solar uh so the Massachusetts General law sets up the net metering program to uh to work in order to give uh developers like us a place for the energy that we're developing and producing that energy needs to go somewhere and be used by someone so we are incentivized to make sure that that uh in in instances like the opportunity we have here we have a project that has been applied for and approved uh to have a public utility off a public entity off-taker which is you all a city um and so you know the net metering program it's going to incentivize Us by uh tributing a credit to your electricity bill so what happens is our project is going to generate electricity that electricity is going to go out into the distribution system uh that National Grid manages they manage as are regulated by the Department of Public Utilities um National Grid you know we all have a meter here right at our house that was that spins uh it spins at your house likely in One Direction it counts the energy going into your house off of the grid into your house at our project it's going to spin the other way it's going to count the amount of energy being produced from our solar farm and being put into the grid and the calculations that count of coming off of our meter is lishes a credit and then that credit would go towards a public entity offer such as yourselves it go to your bill so essentially that credit of all the value of the energy that our project is producing would go into your energy bill and that's done virtually that's done through National Grid that's through their net meter their their meters are counting the amount of energy coming out of our project and going into your various facilities through your meters uh they will then kind of balance the balance your electricity bill balance your account with all the credits that our project created and distributed into the grid now a little bit about that is that to to add to that that net metering uh credit we call that the M nmc the the net metering credit rate includes more than what you might see under a power purchase agreement it includes the what we call the full stack of that value of the energy so if you look at your energy bill at home you'll see the utility is charging you for uh their sourcing of the energy to a a generator they have to pay for the generation of the energy they have to pay for the transmission of the energy to their grid and then they have to pay for the cost to distribute that to your house so all those costs are added and then added to your bill so under a power purchase agreement where you're leasing out for a solar system you're you're going to get only what is that the value of the energy that's produced but before it would have gone into the off so you're it's almost as though you're not turning on the lights while you're getting the energy from your project here you're running your energy as you are just fine and you're getting a savings from our project through the the credits that our project is creating and it's going to cover the full stack of uh of the value of that energy so it's even you'll see a greater savings through the net metering program than you might if you were just uh reducing your own energy demand so I think you know credits that's the net metering crediting program it's virtually it allows uh an entity like us to have a project that is not located within the City of Lawrence but to still give you all the city the net metering credits what's being generated from our project uh so Matt mentioned about 20 months worth of work with the mayor's office yes why what that's because uh these incentives for a developer like us to work with a public entity as yourselves they have only so many uh that there's only so many incentive available what they have is they call capacity blocks so they have X number of megawatts megawatts which is you know about uh 10 times more or 100 times more than a kilowatt we were talking about in the previous project so we're talking about the scale of megawatts here um and so we've been able to reserve through National Grid through the dpu uh the necessary uh capacity credits or capacity block for the net metering proposal that we're going to share this evening uh so the utility has already agreed to this uh and it is you know it's compliant with the net metering regulations and requirements uh so thank you to the mayor's office and renewable energy for setting this up connecting agilitas with the City of Lawrence um so as I said we we do have a project I'll get into that kind of detail right now we have a project called wa far Farms solar project it's located in Warren and it will uh it will generate 2.7 megaw of electricity this is a very just a visual overview of how net metering Works uh we're there on the right agilitas energy with our uh solar farm we're collecting energy from the Sun and putting electricity into the grid that grid that energy is going through the grid all the net metering agreement which is approved by the the utility and then the utility will uh accredit the City of Lawrence as a public entity uh with the credits that come from the agilitas solar project we're going to get into the next slide real quick just details on that project but what we're offering is a split of the credit which is more than many companies offer uh and we would offer the city 12 and a half% of the credits that are generated just details on the project as I said it it's located in Warren so that's again net metering with the ability to virtually net meter your projects we can take advantage of this project here um and and be able to accredit the energy towards your bill here in the city and that is even despite you know the previous uh presentation had mentioned some issues with the distribution lines and the need for utility upgrades in the city this is a great way around that and uh let me get to the next slide your projected savings what we expect for the city to save if we were to enter into this uh net metering agreement so our solar system is going to install uh 2,700 kilowatt of energy that's the amount of energy that will hit the grid the 3,46 mega uh kilowatts that's DC that's that's before that's when the energy hits the panels before it goes into the inverters and the panels and out to the distribution system so it's going to be oversized for that dcac conversion uh we expect that the uh the project Pro will produce 4.1 kwatt hours of energy per year um we're going to share the 12 a half% of the revenue that that 4.1 kilowatt hours a year produces and that 125% would equate to uh 149,000 for the city every year over the 20 years we'd expect to see uh a net Savings of uh $2.9 million over the 20 years of the of the project we understand the current uh usage of the city uh 18 uh million kilowatt hours per year this would offset about a 4 million you would still have 14,000 kilowatt hours per year that you you know you would come up with paying National Grid installing uh rooftop solar projects Etc um so again and this was just based on the last 3 years so uh there's a picture of the National Grid bill to show you will see on your bill a negative amount um and that's how you'll realize your savings is there any questions about these numbers so far okay and then I just real quick net metering the the benefit of net metering and again you know the incentive through the state the Massachusetts General law was to promote renewable energy to promote the the use of renewable energy and also to promote uh the distribution of that renewable energy to public entities and uh cities such as the City of Lawrence uh there's really zero risk for a city under the metering program agilitas energy we are uh we we are going to own the project for the long term we are constructing the project we did all the work to to have the entitlements to to build the project and we expect that project to be operational for by next summer um there is really no regulatory risk here uh the net metering program the Department of Public Utilities has been regulating solar projects just like this for over 10 years um and 80% of the ma municipalities in Massachusetts participate in net uh metering in one way or another uh and we'd like to bring lawen into that group um you have Council thank you through you council president can you um can you stay can you let us know what uh cities or towns like around Lawrence are currently involved in this net metering sure we have a list here these are these are some towns and entities so greater we have the screen here and the screen did it did um all right never mind thank you okay I'm going to go back to just the risk or the lack of risk right so uh this is what the net meeting program was set up for by the legislature this is how the dpu has been regulating it uh the risk is 100% on agilitas energy we're going to own the project for the long term uh we do like most solar projects the life expectancy is is 20 years uh depending on that we can we can extend that but uh you know there's there's no Financial Risk to the city whatsoever uh that we're not asking for a scent up front uh nothing um the project is all the way down in Warren uh and it's a virtual interet metering program so ideally if if this is attractive to the city we can enter the agreement and uh yeah it's it's just that simple just be you'll see a negative number on your bill and it will be settled after CL the U so just before you I actually expend the extend the opportunity to discuss the previous slides was the the question from Council ice president Infante if you can put the previous sles on there I'm sorry no the pre the previous sles was a the response uh for Council expressing Infante which is all the cities and towns around us yes that have that do you mind just saying it for the record oh sure yeah I can read out the list so so other towns that are participating in the net metering program you have the greater Lauren Sanitary District greater Lawrence technical school town of Anover town of North Anover has two projects uh the city of methun has two projects the city of LEL has has six projects and only one of those projects are located within the city of Lowel that I know of uh and then the town of BOS area has uh two projects and I'm sorry for not saying that massach City got bring back the lawence N we got you on the spelling nous guys are let's talk about with the with the lren kid right here you do you mind reading the the cities uh massachusett people that's how we are sorry I I first said I was not going to mention I was from New York so sorry um all right yeah so so those are the cities again you know I'll just review we we see zero risk that's why the dpu set these regulations up that way it's why they allow for virtual net metering this way and just briefly agilitas energy we are a Massachusetts based company uh it started in 2014 uh we we own uh over 26 megaw of uh solar and battery energy storage projects and we work with um a number of municipalities throughout uh you know the Northeast primarily New England and now a bit more projects in New York thanks to me uh but yeah we we we really are find that we're working very well with uh municipalities and being able to provide this energy for them to off take uh you know benefits and the clean energy stuff it's really great all around so um all right I will I will finish there take questions my phone number is there uh my colleague Mustafa s he is our technical expert and he is the project manager on the wa Farms project in in Warren so we're both here if you have any any more questions so uh before we continue and iend extend the opportunity to councel Rosario uh well thank you for the presentation uh I'll say that at The Bu and finance committee it was not a good presentation but you definitely you definitely you know explained explained this the program how a little bit a lot better than before so we definitely appreciate that yeah it's important that you guys do understand it uh obviously yeah obviously yeah it's important and and just to be clear on the savings uh it's $149,000 around there every year every year so we have over two over $2 million on saving almost 3 million almost almost $3 million on saving potentially over 20 if days and we don't get a lot of might do even better than that right yeah yep all right uh cel thank you through you council president it making fun of uh the way you were pronouncing in the city in the morning there's a window commercial it said don't do business with people who doesn't know how to pronounce you City's name I don't know if you guys have seen it but that's okay um the question that I right that's uh the question that I have is this is great right but why National gret does not offer the type of project ah well National Grid is a public utility tightly regulated by the Department of Public Utilities so what they're allowed to do is is pretty strict um only distribute Mr produce energy they cannot own the energy they can only distribute the energy that's that why Charter that's Council counc Council vice president infant thank you so the reason my for my question earlier I actually I was on the G lawence technical school committee when we approved this project so I'm very familiar with with the job that greater that you guys have done with greater Len technical school and we have another former school committee member that has even more recent um knowledge on on the benefits and the impacts that g lawence Tech has had through through this project um my question is it's been a so it's it's been a while that I've been familiar with this but what I want to know what is one negative aspect of this project what what can we is there anything that that we can be like or I think foresee or cuz everything sounds great but this is real life too I want you to really it's it's actually right there that slide that says if we buy that much capacity from them we cannot buy similar capacity from somewhere else that means that we have about 18,000 units 18,000 megawatt hours whatever that unit is 18,000 uh 18 million megawatt hours that we are buying total energy out of that 4 million megawatt hours is committed so even if you put all solar everywhere where we would not be able to exceed 14 Mega hours that that's the only thing that's really such a minute risk in fact I don't know whether you call it as a risk because even if you the state does not allow us to have more than 10 megawatt capacity on the City properties no more than 10 megawatt so if you put 10 mega us we still wouldn't be able we still will have left our capacity to meet so you really don't have any risk but the is if you want to ask the risk that's that's the only thing I can think of as a risk category am I clear all right um any other questions in regard Council so the one thing the vice president asked another good question and I was thinking about the same thing which is this $149,000 seems like an awful lot of money but over inflation and the purchasing power of $149,000 in 2024 is going to be much different than 2044 and it seems as though when we look at $149,000 in 2044 if I'm alive back then or then that's going to be a pittance it really is is there an inflation adjustment that goes through that that has escalators as we go through this time because right now the the purchase power is somewhat it's it's going to be really minimal in 20 years from now just just just before you answer that that question uh as we as as I understand that at the budget and finance committee it was not necessarily based on $149,000 it was based on 12.5% of savings so am I right or that's right yes the we we would we as percentage ad% equates to 149,000 per year so were you suggesting that that's the aggregate so you're looking at you're you're projecting and having an what what would be a potential average of of of what that would be that would yeah it it would it would it would it would rise with with the energy rate so since it's net metering the utility will give the credit of the energy at that point in time so so here's my let me clarify so this this saving is calculated by energy production times just go go production oh sorry about that so this the saving is calculated by energy production times the electricity supply distribution and transmission rates so let's assume there's nothing is going to change in our energy production number as the Pres previous presenter presented the supply rates increased 2 and a half% for the last decade that's what he said right so the distribution rates transmission rates Supply rates are expected to increase in the upcoming years so as long as the race increase the savings potential is going to increase the number that you have 149 is the first year savings and and it's not inflation adjust would it be would it be fair to say because the previous the previous uh sponsor or the item before us mentioned that it was roughly a 2 and a half% increase annually some years it's higher some years it's lower some years at zero and I'm just wondering as a ballpark estimate if we were to apply the two half% annually to that 149 would that give us a ballpark if I was to do that if I was to extrapolate that over 20 years would that give me a ballpark as to how much money we would be receiving as a city it's 12.5 12.5 no it's well the question that I asked these gentlemen through you Mr President was the previous speaker said the cost of electricity has been going up roughly by 2 and a half% that's 125 at 2 and 1/2% so if we use that metric of 22% over 20 years then then that I'm not even sure if I did a if I did a compound interest I'm sure I could calculator I could figure out what that is but it'd be more than it' be more than 149 it'd be who knows what $5,000 a year or something like that project numbers that you have will go up at the same escalation rate at which the energy costs are going up so we will be continue to increase our money that comes in at that same escalation date all right even more potentially the most conservative likely more than 3 million likely yes this is very conservative over 20 years period council president Council vice president Infante thank you to add to council the pl's discussion if you look at the slide titled wa Farm solar project details the term of the net metering program they have stated here 20 years with with additional two five years extension so if you when doing the math it's is $4.4 million if if you do it as a full 30-year um program so it'll be even more than than what you just stated counc the plan yeah but yes just to clarify a little bit on that uh we're going if we do the 20 years period and then make sure that the accountability portion of it on the farm stays at the level that he supposed to and then whoever is here at that point might be able to extend a two five years project but it's going to be based on how the the business relationship between us and the farm and the production rate at that point yes will be will be um yeah and and I'd say as an owner of course all these projects are still new and they're not near there 20 years yet but uh as a owner of multiple projects like this we have the ability to call augment the project by taking you know panels from another project that for whatever reason might might not be performing well or is coming to an end we can take those and supplement uh any of the panels on an existing system that may be degrading faster than than what we had thought so that's what gives us the option at year 20 to to go back to the utility and say hey we can squeeze another 5 years out of this system um and then again at year 25 so yeah just for the record one of few slides you also mentioned that 87% efficiency uh or you mention an 87% that mean the efficience of of the warranty efficient on the on the pels yeah so the 87 uh 87.5% and the 12.5% is the breakdown of what we're offering to the city in terms of that net metering credit do you have any number when it comes to the efficiency of the panels over time yeah of course yeah we we can get got that to you we we have Engineers that look at that I think we usually uh presume 1% uh degradation every year can you please share that with us sure can we share that can you share that with us I think we could provide as a followup um all that data on the system thank you yeah councelors any other questions in regard to this project uh uh this is obviously different I I want to I want to speak on my experience with the farm that the agreement the N met n meters or project that vocational school have after shortly after they have the the the opportunity to own or perhaps to have this agreement in place they come in front of us uh to ask for a potential U uh Bond allocation that we allow them to borrow money to fix the fields based on the money that they going to they were going to acquire uh from these these uh this savings and um and I believe that the amount of dollars that they were talking about at the school level was close to the 500,000 and uh and they were able to update the fields and so far so on based on the benefit that they that they get out of these obviously borrowing money and then paying back once they got those savings so there is a a direct cor relationship of result now just what what what we want to see but a result based on that local school that we are part of which is the vocational school so with that said councelors I there is any questions in regard to this specific uh project all right I call the questions all and please say I hi any Nots committee report I think that we call the committee report that's the committee report cuz we also have a committee report the ordance committee okay so uh we have do you mind join both um uh both items I mean it's similar yeah and that way we can take one botom the ordance committee sent this document up to the full Council as a as a as a committee report that's a that's that's the committee's motion we can tag it along with the so essentially this item was sent to both committees uh that um the on finance to look at the financial aspect and also looking at any type of questioning around the contract or anything regarding to that uh at the ordinance committee the ordinance committee discussed this send it over as a committee report at this time all ENT chain the there was a motion to accept that as a committee report um by Council the chair of the committee council plan can h a second second properly second uh discussion on the committee report I Hear No so at this point I call the question all those in please say hi so now we're going to join both items uh to take one vote uh for both uh coming from the ordinance committee and also from the budget and finance committee um do we need to do that as a motion to join them course we split them as a motion no you just assign them to different committees all right no problem so we have one item in front of us uh which is I 3 33224 uh uh and at this point a motion motion to approve there is a motion to approve properly second discussion on the approval this is for in a specific amount of years 20 years motion to approve the project net metering for the 20 years and then five years no all right um for the first 20 years and then after that let's eventually potential all right uh there is a motion on the on that U there is a motion to approve this project for the next U to approve the contract regarding to this project uh the net minor agreement item 33224 for the next 20 years uh properly second discussion on this all those in for please say I I I any NOS Roo please for the records of 20 years contract um Council Levy is noted as absent Council Le plant yes Council Lon yes Council Del Rosario yes Council of Santiago yes councilor marmel yes Council Reyes is noted as absent Council vice president in fonte yes council president Rodriguez yes motion carries all right now we going to the housing committee thank you now we go to the ordinance committee uh Mr chair from the ordinance committee cons plan thank you thank very much Mr President um ordinance committee sent out document 123 Washington Street no parking at any time on east side of Washington Street and this was sent up to the full Council to order a public hearing and make that in the form of a motion motion on the table properly second discussion are hear none all those in favor please say I I any negative ni have it item item 101 23 this item count president is Hillside have one way from havil Street to Yale Street this was sent up to the full council with a favorable recommendation to order a public hearing make that as a motion second there's a motion on the table properly second discussion I hear none all those in fav please say I I any names the eyes have it item 44423 requesting a voting ID so this document uh is a uh requesting a voter ID was sent up to the full Council as a committee report um and to make that in the form of a motion there is a motion to uh to as to accept this item as a committee report uh properly second discussion on the committee report I hear none at this point I call the questions all us and favor for the committee report please say I hi the I have it now I entertain any other motion council president I make a motion that we uh um approve this matter there is a motion to approve this matter uh properly second discussion discussion council president so before us this evening on our at our desk right here is the language from the city attorney um uh that had that codifies that of course we're not ordering a public heing this this a would be a home rule petition and a home rule petition as we all know council president uh goes to the state legislature if it's approved by the city council and approved by the mayor it goes to the uh we we can't adopt this by ourselves it requires a vote of the state deleg state legislature and approval by the governor so um the author of this is not here this evening um I I'm I'm prepared to vote in favor of it because I'm familiar with this but um what I but I I'll leave it there that's those are my discussion purposes y all right is this item was submitt as a as a h petition it has to be because we're changing the laws and only in the City of Lawrence and that requires a vote of the legislature you can see by the Preamble being enacted by the state and House of Representatives by The Authority no the question is if if the item was submitted as a home RO petition than you councel ly put it on the agenda I can't speak for councelor Levy I don't think that's the item wasn't me as a home which it should because the intent is to have a home rep you can't change your time the council is not with us this evening and all I have is the one sentence member that just requesting voter ID it doesn't specifically reference to have it be a hom R petition or not the attorney obviously knows that it needed to be so he drafted it accordingly I I think your question is was it put on the agenda correctly council president uh Council through you I I don't know how it was put on the agenda and that's was your question but when she was presentent with us last Tuesday Tuesday she specified that that should have been a Home Room petition um Anna was here councelor Levy was here last last last Tuesday and she specified actually on the microphone that that it was supposed to be a Home Room petition and we were waiting just for the language from the from the city attorney but the boot configuration for home repetition is different than the than the regular approval all right um a home rule petition would require six votes to pass by this body but other than that I don't really know of any other and then it goes to the mayor's office to be signed and like the legislation for the school audit it has to have both bodies on board it his veto would nullify it um but aside from six votes from this body and really not he the inability to override The veto um I'm not aware of maybe I'm not understanding the question but I'm not aware of any other so just to the committee uh you guys you you the committee decide to send this over to the full Council as a committee report there was any discussion around uh at the committee level as of uh how many cities and towns of massachusett have these specific uh uh law um did was there any discussion around that so there no discussion but I can answer the question which is there is no other law in anywhere else in a commonwealth that requires a voter ID we would be the first city or municipality in the Commonwealth to do that if the legislature and the governor approved it well if if the city council vote Yes and then if the mayor sign it and then he go to the legislation but I just wondering the the type of U what is what are the I mean there was any discussion around the benefit the the repercussion of having this type of law are the ordinance committee so there the the proponent gave her presentation this has been a this has been in the hopper now since 2023 um it's a it was a file from last year I was not on the committee when this was first brought before but I can tell you that the counselor did speak I think back in 23 on it um and then she was working hard to get this language down to the full Council which she was successful in doing through the city attorney's office and I think what I think her plan was to get this to this level so that we could have that kind of robust discussion at this Council level I think that it will be essential to uh to have councelor Levy's uh presentation to this body to make sure that we are uh educated about her thinking around the voting ID and so far so on I understand uh the the potential uh repercussions of it and I also understand what how other countries uh might might use this specific uh law um to perhaps make sure that people vote uh that is supposed to be the person but uh understanding the system and also understanding the system that we have in Massachusetts all throughout this country pretty much everywhere uh I see the the the negative effect uh on this as well so canel the Rosario do you have any anything that you want to add since you w one of the proponents I mean it with all the cases that we've been having and all the everything that's been happening in Lawrence I mean the least we can try it is just to pass this and it goes to the to the state level and they can make a decision up there um we've been in the loop for all kinds of stuff when it comes to voting for years not just not just this year or this past year but for years it's been questioning and a lot of us have been asking this is a proposal a Home Room petition yes to send to the state but a lot of us a lot of us some of they are here some they weren't here back in those days they've been asking for this thing so we have it here in our hands I think we just move it through and then the state state leg legislators decide if it's if it's SK I mean what's the negative uh what's the negative that we can get out of it it might be POS positive we might be the first city in massachusett to pass this and then all the cities might copy us um and and and just because we've been in the loop for all kinds of stuff going on on our on our election this would be a step forward to to show some positive move when it comes to elections and Lawrence right Point well taken uh council president council president inan thank you I don't recall through you council president I don't recall I remember this question being asked but I don't recall the answer how would this be enforced for mailing ballots do we have that answer well essentially what I think it might happen is that you're going to have to get a printer or get to a public printer uh get a copy of the ID and send it over and and then it's going to be up to whoever is up to the election division to make sure that that ID is not falsify that's how I think it's going to happen because I mean how I mean I don't I don't I don't really know there there because I mean I I also understand that in third world countries like my country that I feel proud of they use voting ID but they don't have absentee ballots and they don't have um B by mail so that's it's different so that's why I'm confused because for years there's been a ongoing growing issue with absente voting and mailing ballots the issues that Lawrence has has experienced throughout the years is does not has not happened physically at voting locations it's the other options where we have issues so I don't see how this is going to help the found issue that we have during election season I mean in Z mail ballot you have to put your ID in it uh some people when they vote for the first time BML and when sometimes when the election department has confusion they also requested for you to send uh you you buy ID through the mail with the mail ballot um it I mean it's not us they are going to write how this is going to be uh done I mean we just doing The Home Room petition and again we let the state decide if they approve it how are they going to implement it and maybe enforce it no because I mean c Rosario those the local the local uh elections is not the state that enforced uh the law is the local people I mean we are the the the the election division is the theend that enforce those those president at the end of the day we vote let's vote whatever we need toot I mean if nobody it'ss in favor of it I mean it's fine it it will collapse I mean whatever you guys want to do I mean it it I don't know why we cannot try to implement this what would be the negative effect on this to be honest with you I don't see the negative effect to it but if nobody agrees to it it's it's it's it's a vote I mean and it fails it fails I mean uh yeah yes I no C I think I still had the floor yeah but I mean we need to clarify this because I mean those are things Council vice president yes we need to clarify these because those are discussions that that might take place it it happened before in the city council long time ago uh it didn't pass um I don't know what level I mean I think it was at the state level I don't quite recall but we we we can find the records uh but it will it will be important to probably get to understand as of how we're going to be providing that information to the state and to the legislators that haven't se those those those bills in front of them uh on their cities and towns and then be able for them to make a decision and inform decision that we need to provide that information council president point of parliamentary sure inquiry uh just just as a reminder council president with again with all du respect um the opinions of the president he may not express unless he leaves leaves the chair and and there's several times here that there's been some opinions issued and I would just caution the council president that if he wishes I would love to hear it but he would need to talks the G and we are we I'm discussing that uh the potential questions that councel Rosario or any other Council have those are not necessarily my opinion those are based on records those are based on facts that in the past happened and those are based on potential issues that with my face those not necessar is my opinion Council would like to make a motion if if if if I can if the floor is available I still have floor apparently I don't have the floor I'm going to relinquish the floor to the vice president who believe she still has the floor so I I won't take it I mean pres I give the floor to celos and then I'll provide it to you okay you done you good Vice presing in thank you I just and I think I I just heard counc and I think that's the the most appropriate um so I I wanted to respond to my colleague uh counc De Rosario I I personally I'm one councelor out of nine I don't have an issue with with this home R petition I do agree with you that at the end of the day no matter what is discussed at this level the state delegation the state representatives as a whole the state senate as a whole are are the ones are going to make the final decision but and I'm going to reemphasize for the counselors and people watching at home for the years that Lawrence has been in the news over elections it has not been over physical voting people have abused mail in ballots and absentee voting and that's the reality in our community and I'm not afraid to publicly say that what is what are we going to do with that because that is the foundational issue that we have in this community it's not physical voting that's a solution that I don't have the answer but it's an open open-ended question for all of my colleagues what are we going to do about that moving forward counc councilor vice president uh and the and and um you just expressed your you agreed with the home repetition and you also stated that the issues were not what is on the home rep comptition so what is it I'm both I guess C this is supposed to be a place where we can have differences of opinion so I have a difference of opinion with the vice president uh there has been times of physically voting where people and allegations have run rapid through the years of people giving who would who know that there's a person's name on the voting list would give a different name on the voting list and the person doesn't know that you don't ask for the ID and that does happen I'm not saying how rampant it is I'm not saying it's widespread but I'm suggesting to you that that that rumor that threat that that possibility exists today and I'm I'm going to save my powder on why I think we should or shouldn't vote for it for a later discussion because I hope tonight that would made motion to table it but I do have a parliamentary question as well I'm UNAM with the six six votes on a home rule petition so I would ask the clerk to clarify that when she can on that like we're going to I'm going to make a motion to table you won't need that tonight yeah we need six vot on the home I'd like to see that at some point I'm might I guess I'm doubting it but only remember specifically because my own position as a chief of staff to the mayor was contingent upon the passage of a home R position which required six votes so I I specifically remember that in my it's bra boiled in my brain actually under state law um so that being said it it may say super majority or it may say the number six but either way it was a super majority which here would be six if if council president my intent is my intent is to give the courtesy to my colleag who is as the sponsor so she could be here so she can speak to it and answer the questions because there's a lot of questions here that people have and I think that she would be the best positioned to advocate for the bill that she is sponsoring so as a courtesy to my colleague unless anybody else wishes to speak any before you make a anybody else that wishes to speak councel Mar no because you're going to make a motion to table oh okay and then no discussion on that okay through council president I would like to gain understanding from those council members that brought this forward are you guys if we I agree with council president um Council vice president uh inant in terms of I'm not completely opposed to this um but I I am opposed to the fact that when it comes to the absentee and the mailing ballots if we're not gaining any clarity as to how we are planning on iding those type of uh votes are you guys opposed to removing or including that as part of the ID requirements and this is just for those who are physically going to polling locations that would that would be a great question council president not the author but I think I can at least shed some insight I don't this is not the definitive answer I believe and the clerk can help me again sorry Clark to put you on the spot but here we go I believe there are times um that there's a requirement that when you submit something if it's a whether it's an absentee or Ballot or some sort that you must also PR present a a picture ID I don't recall the um specifics behind that so clerk do you remember in the election division when CU I remember that last year that we had not an IDE it's a there was a time when someone need to subit submit also with the something they also maybe it was the the voter registration they had to submit a a a picture of ID with it I just don't remember all the details can you help I know it's not a photo ID because I know proof of address can be a utility bill so I know it's not a photo ID but you do have to provide proof of address um if you have not even in situations where you haven't returned your census you can get made to be a um I can't think the word but it's inactive basically an inactive voter you're not you're still on the voter roles we can see you but you're not showing as active you have to to reactivate yourself they can requireed ID but any proof of address will do including utility bill so that's not a photo ID um it should you know you bring in your literally your utility bill which would have your name and your address on it does not have your photo on it you can use that to vote so we do not have a photo ID requirement at this time so I'm sorry so I so maybe it's not a a photo ID but some sort of identification some sort of something that establishes that you who are who you are and this is where you live all right this is I'll make a motion to table at some point but this is how it is if you're an active and you're required to vote even when you go to the booth you're required to have some type of uh proof of address which is could be a proof of address not necessarily your ID and just to put it in perspective if election would have be yesterday I stay without voting because I lost my license because I was cycling on Sunday and then I lost my license so I stay without voting no vote for the council president sorry because it's no ID so that's the reality but anyway I entertain a motion I make the motion to table second motion to table properly second no discussion on the table matters all those in favor please say I guys have it uh next item from the B finance committee item 250 2502 24 loading is on uh 25024 loading that ordinance committee met for this document which is a loading zone at Heritage packing Incorporated at 441 Market Street this was sent up to the full council with a favorable recommendation to order a public hearing and make that as a motion second there's a motion on the table properly second all those in favor please say I I hi any knows I have it next item item 28424 yeah this is the the DAT Day program that's going to be on August 24th 2024 from 1: to 5:00 P p.m. at camping yon common the ordinance committee met and sent us up with a fable recommendation and then make that in the form of a motion there is a motion on the table properly second um before I call the questions I would like to send the opportunity to the group that is here and uh to to speak to us a little more about this is this important uh event yeah leing cuz I need to leave I had a total leave 4 weeks ago that's why I'm not walking too carefully but those who know me I will recover um good evening uh Mr President good evening members of the city council uh my name is Frank Audie um I was the chairman of the Lawrence uh uh appeals court uh that was here for 19 years right where you're sitting Mr President and we had some great uh issues over zoning uh board issues with a wonderful group of people that I served with for about 19 years so um I am very uh aware of what you're trying to do here tonight and uh I want you to know that uh hard work does pay off presently uh Tom Fitzpatrick and Sean uh English are are with myself co-leaders of the fatherhood program we've been doing this this uh for a number of years and I have one question that I want to ask the the the council members I want people to raise their hands if they're not familiar with the fatherhood program good I guessed four so I I did good um thank you for doing that the fatherhood program is the product of the massachusett trial court and the staff at Lawrence District Court Probation Department for the last 29 years they've run the program I was the probation officer who started it 29 years ago and uh at this time the assistant chief probation officer uh too concepion is one of our strongest supporters in the fatherhood program uh he himself went through the probate and family court on a very um serious issues and went from not being able to see his children uh to now having sheared custody of the of those children he is like a Guiding Light to the fathers who come to the program he's a guest speaker and he talks constantly about the fact that it takes time but children have only one father and one mother and they need both of them so he's been a great champion of that the fatherhood program most people think uh is something uh what is it and uh Tom would you uh give the to uh the members here a copy of the five principles I want you to keep these because I think this will help you to understand the program thank you very much counselor we live by these five principles so I'll wait till I give them out and I think you'll understand why I think there's enough there is enough oh fantastic all right so before the meeting starts for the last 29 years uh and to be in the program you have to complete 12 weeks you have to say the following as a father is my responsibility to give affection to my children to give gentle guidance to my children to provide financial support to my children and the mother of my children to demonstrate respect at all times to the mother of my children and to set a proud example for my children by living within the law and without the taint of alcohol or drug abuse once that's said we do the go around g a r o u n d and we would ask if you were all fathers Zoom you off for a moment to state your name full name the name and age of your children and never call them kids we forbid that in the fatherhood program they're children kids are on on a word we don't use and after you name their children in their ages say one positive thing you've done with them since the last time you were in this room that takes sometimes 35 to 40 minutes just to do that once that's done we uh have guest speakers and too uh is one of those speakers and the guest speaker would introduce himself and talk about one of the principles too talks about principal number four for the last 10 years he comes in and explains what happened to him through the probate and family court his relationship with the mother of his children and his and his present uh relationship with his children right now he has two in college one's about to go to college and I've known those children since they were three years old so they've been involved in the program for all those years after the uh guest speaker speaks the members of the fathers ask the speaker questions about how he presented and guess what happens the fathers start talking about their families so everything everything that's said in the fatherhood program stays there so if Mr llant who knows me pretty well says how is Bobby doing in the program my answer is Bobby's in the program so that was said there and he's he has spoken at the fatherhood program so he knows that so that is a pretty good thing and at the end of the program we asked the guest speaker to say the five principles again to close the meeting so from start to finish we read the five princi they each have a plastic one and I don't have enough money to give you each a plastic one so I gave you a blown up copy but you can frame that if you'd like uh and I'll maybe I'll give you one next time so the fatherhood program a lot of people think that the fatherhood program is just about fathers so what I want to say to this group is that's not true the only thing we talk about in the fatherhood program is the children and the mother of those children no other conversation is allowed and it can never be negative I say go to the nearest bar talk to the bartender he'll listen to you but we won't and what happens all the time is the fathers get very much involved because they see others making progress and they want to do the same so that's the fatherhood program but I'd like Sean Brook to talk for a few moments about about what happened to us that we never expected last year we were able to start a nonprofit organization called dat day Legacy Inc and it's made up with only fathers that are in the fatherhood program so they rais money write proposals came to the mayor and asked him if we could get 10 uh well we asked him for 2500 $100 and he said you should ask for a little more than that so we asked for 10,000 12,000 and we ended up with 10,000 the data day group runs programs in the public and that's what data day is there so every year and this will be our fourth year we meet at the commons and all you have to do to go there is be a father or a mother who has children and wants to be there for the day now now since last August a bunch of fathers have completed the program we're going to give them a huge certificate the day that we're at data day and what we'll do is I'll say Johnny Jones where's your children and where's the mother of your children they'll stand up and they'll come up and we'll give the certificate to their children who give it to their father in front of everybody else I'm going to start crying because it's the it's the high point of the whole year and it's everything we live for so we're happy to be able to get the permit tonight to be there to do that so I'd like Sean to talk a little bit about what some of the things that does you continue can I get a motion to so mov there's a motion on the table you continue thank you Sean we'll just take a couple of minutes thank you very much my name is Sean work uh dat day fatherhood was uh is the opportunity for people to talk about being a parent and dat day was created for the execution of being a parent a little different right first I would be a guest speaker there and I'm like you know people are just talking there we don't really know what's happening with regards to the person when they leave and we wanted to be able to support them in becoming a parent in learning how to be a parent many people struggle with this um I have a Social Work business in the courts I see this on a regular basis and people want to be invested but sometimes don't have the tools to do it so one of the things that dat day focuses on is the execution of being a parent of giving that opportunity because it doesn't matter when you're a child if you have any any parent that's not involved that's a lifelong uh piece of that affects them for their life and it doesn't matter if they're 10 years old 18 years old 35 or 57 you know they remember if they didn't have a parent around or somebody that they could be with the biggest thing that we find with fathers that I feel like that I hear is that you know money is a piece of that puzzle for them to feel feel comfortable with going and being with their children and sometimes they don't have the money they don't have the cash flow they're barely surviving in everyday life dat day Legacy as we say you know legacies are are not necessarily born it's not just it's not going to just happen all the time but we can all be a part of that your support our efforts are all one they're all moving to the same direction that families and Lawrence families everywhere are super important and it doesn't matter how we help those families it's that we help those families Those kids deserve an opportunity and dat day is doing that we did it with uh we've had two events at the Boating Club both of them very successful um we were very for fortunate to to have some of you there and um we did a uh building model airplanes in Rockets over at the airport why is this so important is because we're learning how to help people we don't know it all we we actually have learned that some things don't work um I actually am honored in the fact that not everything's perfect but what we've learned is when the when people were building Rockets and airplanes they had interactions with their kids that some of them never really had the opportunity to have and we also highlighted things where um you know like that you already have here in Lawrence for example the Boating Club in the um in the airport some of those individuals that have come to these have never been to those facilities and that was their opportunity to do that the airport was ex excellent the management there was phenomenal they brought the people that did this pro project we did over a 3-we period on Tuesday nights I believe it was and we got to go up into the tower and see planes landing uh kids were very excited about that parents a little bit more and um so all of these things are so important the data Day event that's in the park is a great opportunity because people could just come right it's um it's a little bit more relaxed and not as um you know focused around hey this is going to happen at this time and that time this is just an opportunity for parents to come last year we had lots of mothers with their children there everyone's welcome it just happens to be that we're called dat day because data day is about being a parent and fathers we want to welcome them into the community of being a parent and some people feel isolated maybe they didn't do a great job up until they went to fatherhood but now they have an opportunity to do the job and be able to talk about it with with a lot lower risk and while the people are at um at these events we actually take photos of them we give them to them we have a mock trial a mock trial so that people can learn how to speak in front of a judge when they cannot afford a lawyer and one of the things we do is we say Hey you know this is a photo and we do it over at Lawrence District Court in to present that photo so that the judge can make a connection between who they are who their child is this is not at the expense of anyone else this is this is empowering people so this permit is much bigger than a piece of paper is what I'm trying to say to all of you in that all of you should be very proud of the fact of everything that you do for the community we're very proud of the fact that we're able to help people that want to help and invest in themselves so if we could you know get that continued support from you with the permit that that would be fantastic and we hope to live up to our end and make sure that as many people as possible have that opportunity to spend some time with their family so thank you very much thank you councilors uh any questions in regard to this event this time I call the questions please say hi hi do you mind share sharing with us uh this sent us last year information about the event and everything no on on the on an email so if you can please send it to us by email the flyer by email they just want you to send that to them by email yeah we'll we'll do that on a regular basis now thank you we have events that we started last year for the first time this year will be the second time so when we have the events we have people give us their and that's what we have this past Sunday we did the smooth sailing 123 people showed up 53 of them were children and the rest were adults now this is what happens when you put good people together one of the fathers said I think I know on a Sunday afternoon when it's 90° what kids want to do so I get nervous when I hear that stop thinking what well see said I brought balloons and we filled them with water and we told the children throw the balloons at somebody you love they the fathers they love the mothers no I we care about that but we had a great time donated to us hot dogs and hamburgers the voting program called us and said you got to come back again this year and next year they had extra staff on the young people a voting program was so good to these young children they didn't even know that there was a voting program in Lawrence that's what they were what better way to learn than the go the Pontoon vote went on for 4 hours straight they had extended another a half hour because they had so many children and fathers and mothers were Wonder so what happens when you put things together people come and have a good time so if I just one thing if that's okay sure so one of the things that we've been working on is we fathers have been telling us that they're having difficulty with visiting with their children especially when there's a restraining order or there is uh something that may be blocking that maybe their history is not so good with uh the communication or maybe they're in an unhealthy relationship or they view it that way um so we've with marac family services marac Valley Family Services we're we're opening a visitation center um for for fathers but we'll probably we're going to we're going to let mothers go too but but the idea is we would open up the idea of being able to do this inexpensively to free for Lawrence residents because it's so important for the first um time to be able to have that interaction with your child I'll give an example um Frank and myself met with the sheriff uh the sheriff was very interested in the idea of the visitation center when people are released for their first interaction with their child because some mothers for obvious reasons you you may not want to send your child to go visit somebody at the jail so this may be a great opportunity for somebody who's within the community to try to re-engage uh that family aspect so we're you know we're going to learn you know um what works and what doesn't work and this is one of the things that we're doing and all that support that you guys gave us last year we're trying to really make some positive things within the community and um you know we really have high expectations for ourselves so thank to meet their child and a safe place to do it so when they go there it's going to be somebody like Tom or Sean to the father you about the fatherhood appc then we're going to say to the mothers do you know anything about programs that go on at Family Services for mothers no there's an application for that so that's what's going to happen just for visitation no thank you thank you for everything you guys are doing for real to send secretary thank you all right we're going to go with the next item item 320 24 thank you Mr chair from the thank you very thank you thank you item 3224 which is M with purpose yeah the mines with the purpose was send up to the full Council aable recommendation this is taking place on August 11th 2024 to conell park and make that in the form of a motion there's a motion on the T table please second U discussion I he none all in favor please say hi hi I have it item 32124 the Feast of the Three Saints August 30th 31st and September first um this year there's a city parking lot on the comment they want to use for Carnival this was sent up to the full council with a favorable recommendation that's the motion there's a motion on the table can you hear a second properly second discussion I hear no fav pleas say I any nice guys have it um item 32 okay item 3232 24 uh Mr chair from the uh from the ordinance committee proposed new ordinance manager of financial this is the proposed new ordinance for a manager of financial administrative services this was sent up to the full Council to order a public hearing make that in the form of a motion motion to order a public hearing uh on this item properly second discussion I hear no Lo please say guys have it any guys have it item 324 uh 83 27 24 so one way on Hillside Street starting on haille street to the hill this was sent uh uh this was actually sent uh to the full Council to withdraw it's a duplication take that in the form of a motion is an item to withdraw um I properly second discussion on thew I hear none all those in favor please say I on thew hi uh the I have any Nam the I have it item 3 33224 yes yes you're right so now we're going to go with that uh with the housing committee uh with that item I going to have to uh abstained uh due to a potential conflict of interest um Madame vice president okay the housing committee item 29824 Madam chair of the housing committee okay through you madam chair on item number 29824 the acceptance of a street layout plan for amsbury and Lauren Street area for amsbury Street two-way Redevelopment project um it was discussed in the housing committee um and we refer this matter to uh the full council with a favorable recommendation and I submit that uh I submit that to you in the form of a motion motion has been made is there a second second second councelor De Rosario discussion Mr McCarthy I see you in the is there anything you would like to add no okay thank you all those in favor say I any knows the eyes have it thank you thank you all what else do we have old business now counselors we're going to go to Old business business um all business that is a it on 70 76 824 which is the resolution uh resolution amending the resending reimbursement requirement for the creation of the drive allowance Grant awareness for the amount of $400,000 to the Federation commerci there was this this was sent to the U to the U To Us by the advisor spanner and the mayor the pay uh there was a request for reconsideration so there is a request for reconsideration on what so there is any background information about this item so I all this point I um I mean we have no information as of what they looking for motion to table there's no motion to there's no motion to table we can't table it council president uh we voted on that exactly why is this being sent again if it is a motion to reconsideration but reconsideration of what because it was a vot and then a vle and then an over the V so I really don't know what's the intent at this time I don't know the intent do you want me to try I I don't have any additional paperwork I did receive a phone call asking it' be placed back on for reconsideration I don't think the after discussing with the council president at length today I don't think the procedure that was followed was appropriate um with other items when they've asked to like move funds back from ARA monies from the cemetery back to Community Development or things like that they put on a new item so putting it on the way they did without any backup documentation probably was not the appropriate venue to begin with so um but they did ask we would put back on and have it be reconsidered so coun uh council president who just added curiosity who's on the prevailing side that could offer a motion to reconsider who isn't the no I could tell you so I don't think we we be able to do much with this item specifically because this item went through all the way the whole court so approve not last item would be the override of the veto exactly we can we can we can reconsider that vote I'm curious as well who's on the prevailing side of that um Everybody um everybody but you like to override the vich was um anybody yeah counselor lzone Del Rosario Santiago but I mean I mean I mean if we for us to be able to get to where they want if they want to do that we're going to have to not just not just overwrite I mean uh reconsider the vote to override the but we need to go back to the other items as well three items in three vote instead of just submitting it as a right as it's supposed to be if you want the money to go from one Department to another department you submit as as as such and then we proceed with the court as as it's supposed to uh but not just putting all the work on us like reconsidering the boat of the vle and then the item stays as how it was which is approved so and then we need to reconsider the vote of the approval and then go back couple of vote more like one more to be able to send it to committee and uh because we already approval we already approved the item so the Parliamentary procedure on that will be a lot more difficult than just receiving a new item from the administration with depends of what they looking for council president counc Ros can we just send it back um and and you know send it back so they can send it back to us with more information or whatever exactly they needed to do so it I will offer a motion to send it back uh to the mayor's office to the thing is coun r that we we can't send this item back because we already the the item was uh approved beo and then override the beo so this item have no effect on what they want to do maybe some send correspond we can send correspondence to the mayor's office clarification of what exactly they want to reconsideration for and even even even that for us to be able to to take a take to even discuss this we need to reconsider a vote so to be honest with you we can off record send corresponding to them but officially under this item we can't until we reconsider the vote so we can unofficially do that but I mean we're not moving forward with that we just move forward on the table matters any table matters that we need to uh discuss tonight I hear know so at this point I'm going to go to new business um on the new business item 32 item 324 24 naming of the sub is athlete phield uh David Ortiz athlete complex uh that was send out that's going to be sent to that's going to be referred to uh to the ordinance committee item 325 item 32524 50-minute parking at uh 152 Broadway uh that's going to go to the ordinance committee item 33624 the removal of two stop signs on Canal Street intersections of appon and mil and mill Street this is going to refer to the ordinance committee item 320 item 33 724 stop sign on appon street at Canal Street from the bridge heading uh northly that's going to go to the ordinance committee uh item 32824 stop sign at the M Square garage at canala Street uh heading to northly that's going to go to uh the ordinance committee uh 33924 is stop sign on Mill Street uh and at the street uh that's going to go to the ordinance committee uh item 34124 the speaker River clean up on September 21st that's going to go to the ordinance committee uh item 33 item 34224 the removal of the handicap parking on Broomfield on Broomfield Street that's going to go to the ordinance committee item yes I'm going to go back to that one to that one in a second um uh item 343 uh 24 the removal of handicap parking on on ha Street that's going to go to the ordinance committee item 34424 no parking here to corner on Logan Street uh we don't need an ordinance for that we're going to refer to we're going to be sending this address to the DPW department for they do not park from here to corner I on 3454 stop sign at the corner of U at the corner of ha Street and Columbus of this is going to go to uh refer to the ordinance committee um item 34624 resent parking on on brfa Street this is going to go to the ordinance committee item 34724 Amanda nonunion classific uh classification plant uh this is going to go to the ordinance committee uh it 348 24 the disclosure of potential conflict of uh conflict conflict by a special City employee this is going to go to the ordinance committee item 349 24 the disclosure of potential conflict of interest uh this is going to go to the ordinance committee do I need to say the the the person well that's fine item 35024 the disclosure of potential conflict of interest uh City employee uh Ken laon this is going to go to the ordinance committee item 35124 the dis potential conflict of interest City employee uh geraldina mcneel this is going to go to the orance committee item 35224 the disclosure of the potential C of a special Conflict by special City employee uh loran Megan this is going to go to the ordinance committee the item 353 5324 the disclosure of potential COV of special Conflict by special city employees uh Marlin morphy referred to the ordinance committee item uh item 35424 the disclosure of potential Conflict by special City employee uh Linda Pine this is going to go to the ordinance committee item 35524 the disclosure of potential conflict of conflict by a special uh city employees uh Patricia dler this is going to go to the ordinance committee item 35624 the disclosure of potential compl of conflict by a special City employee uh Richard Roser this is going to go to the ordinance committee uh item 35724 the disclosure of potential conflict of uh Conflict by special City employee U Mar Marlin Tumi this is going to go to the ordinance committee uh item 358 uh 24 the request of amend zoning map uh R2 to uh to a B1 uh 341 South lens this is going to go to that ordinance committee can we also send this item to ask the zoning board to consider this item um yeah usually the attorney will do that but I'll make sure that it is item 359 24 gr Grant of the utility eement at learn Municipal APR this is going to go to the housing committee item 36024 authorization topend Grant fund for the amount of $250,000 safest Street uh and road for all uh this is going to go to the buet and finance committee item 36024 approval of contract over three years uh five years specifically between the opw and exos Enterprise this is going to go to the buet and finance committee right uh 36224 authorization to spend grant for the amount of 761,00 this is going to go to the finance committee item 33624 the authorization to spend grant for the amount of 61,2 additional SS uh Yi Grant uh 28 28,750 for the fiscal year 2024 and 32,500 for the fiscal year 2025 this is going to go to the bay and finance committee uh councelors we have one item uh which is item 24024 which is that uh that uh Greenway 5K on August 4th 2024 at then in Market uh Park uh this iron um usually we need two weeks about to to get this this type of Island approved or this type of permits the fact that this is going to be a five weeks we have an extra week between we have an extra week between meetings with uh the the date get a little um messed up but I mean we we um I think we're going to have to um require this item to be considered as an emergency uh because the event is going to happen prior to our next meeting and uh and deal with it at this level so counselors at this point uh if we want this this this event to happen which is been quite some time now uh we need to consider this item as an emergency so can I get a motion if Council decide to consider this item as an emergency some there's a motion on the table can I hear a second second discussion second discussion council plan so where are they looking to have it at the at the ano Dem Mar park at the that's right the park that's on the at the end of um um Island Street yeah I remember so I you r that one before I think I beat you in that race yeah all the time you you haven't beat you one but I will we have G be like 10 times well he run he runs with his child and that's a no he beat you though he did beat me yeah he beat me I guess a PO um I they're here as As a matter of principle they really should be here they're asking us to do something they're an applicant I they're an amazing group they do a lot of things and all our districts I'm fairly supportive of all they're doing here but a they should know better than to put something late number one number two if they're going to put something late they should be here to advocate for it go ahead go ahead so anyway um those are my points and hopefully this this will get to them um or I I'll tell them myself but I expect I expect a a higher bar from this organization who does such a great job in our city that's all thank you no no problem understood Point well taken councelors at this point I'll call the questions to the clar this is an emergency all in please say hi hi any names I have it second so now huh the second who approve it now councelors uh we are opening opening the floor to discuss this item at this at this level motion to approve motion to approve has been uh taken any uh any second second properly second discussion at this time I call the questions say any guys have it councelors we have no other items there is any other items there's a motion to adjin Second commit committees committees I entertain motions so committees uh bu I mean um ordinance Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday at 7: p.m. next Tuesday uh by Finance July 31st at 700 p.m. July 31st 7 p.m. comme 30 why don't we put it together I'm giving you guys a week off no that put it together that way we can we be all be here and that day um on the 30 president for the record I'm going to be away next week so I actually don't mind the 31st and I could put housing at 6 if that works for everybody but I want to hear what you were going to say no I was I was going to suggest to have that uh the budget and finance together with the with the committee of the whole which is going to be on the 30th I'll you're going to be here on that day well you still have to schedule housing so let's just keep it the 31st housing can be at 6 budet Finance at seven you can have the three of them together H cuz it's only one item for housing okay okay so all right so fine um budget and finance the 30th at 6 p.m. all right we have budget and finance and Committee of the hall on the 30th one at 6 one at 7 housing committee housing I'll do 5:30 then there it's only one item all right 530 for housing uh on the on the 30th and any other committee safety the Safety Committee um Economic Development Personnel all right um thank you counselors we have the committee uh already set I entertain a motion to Mo to a thank you so much e e e e e e e e e