##VIDEO ID:KstNxOmTLhg## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers welcome to the East Hampton City council meeting for Wednesday November 20th 2024 the meeting tonight is being recorded and broadcast by edia on charal Charter channel 193 and live streaming on their web page eastampton media.org counselors and Par ipants in this meeting are gathering uh hybrid on the order extended until March 2025 allowing us to do so I'm Ryan both the members of the city council and the public participating remotely to remain muted until recognized by the city council president also for the members of the public please move your camera for the duration of the meeting unless you are participating in public speak time or the public hearing thank you the meeting is now called to order Barbara Connie Denham here Salem Derby pres Omar Gomez JP kazinski Tom Peak Brad Riley here Cameron Smith here JT jel here Owen Zer pres okay uh and we have a moment of [Music] silence and we can stand for the pledge of allegiance of Al to the flag of the United States of America to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and jce justice for all I will work for okay we don't have any mini uh minutes to approve um oh do we yeah we do sorry it doesn't it's not on there oh okay you do um all right November 6 so we have uh minutes from November 6th to approve I would entertain a motion okay second and we have a motion in the second any further discussion uh all in favor I I any opposed okay see none motion passes uh okay um public comment so this is public speak time uh this is where members of the public can uh comment on things that are not on our public hearing um and we will give you up to three minutes uh to address the council just step to the podium say your name and address for the record hi my name is can you hear me yes okay we can hear um my name is Nathan Marquee I live at 37 Holio Street um I am the chair of the East Hampton Democrats I'm also on the board of directors for edia though I'm not here in that capacity um I know that the mayor is receiving a lot of flack over the um ordinance I know that the potentially meeting downstairs might be cancelled so I'm just going to say my comments up here instead um I believe the mayor is right it violates US flag codes in at least two ways that being a light must it must be illuminated at night or else it needs to be brought in and out every single day at sunrise and sunset also it's not supposed to be out in the um snow rain Etc unless it's a certain particular type of flag um I've known mayor L Chapelle for many many years I see a lot of work she does behind the scenes and she cares very very deeply for this town and for all of their constituents regardless of political affiliation The more I've gotten to know her the more I like her and I know she's only looking out for the best interest of the town or the city rather and its constituents thank you thank you anybody else like to speak yep just say your name and address for the record uh Carl prawl 15 Tor underline Farm I'm here just to inquire well first with some stats uh regarding uh housing in East Hampton 46% of households in East Hampton are low income of those one or one in eight households in East Hampton are spending 50% or more of their income on housing uh I think according to census.gov more than 30% of uh sorry let me start that over again in our area we have 41% of renters who are cper which means they're spending 30% or more of their income on housing in East Hampton the average rental is $1,779 if if you do the math on a minimum wage $15 an hour job it is simply unaffordable there are there are no rents in East Hampton below $700 there is nothing in the first quarter of 2024 40% of H house single family housing in Massachusetts was purchased by corporations in East Hampton we are below the state average on owner occup uh occup in our housing we're like 15% below the state average which means more corporations more llc's are buying up housing making it more and more unaffordable as a small business owner I find it impossible to find people who can stay in the area keep a job set down Roots at my day job to make it all possible I work with guys who have you know have good Blue Collar jobs who cannot afford a down payment on a home in the area and are simply looking to leave and so my question for the council is what is being done to address this when kro Landress was looking to build affordable housing this Council stated that we were in a housing crisis morah hey has stated that we are in a housing crisis and yet we look around and landlords are regularly raising rent year in year out and so again my question what is being done to address this thank you thanks anybody else for public speak and uh just for clarification we're not ignoring you uh but we don't respond to public speak because oal meeting l so just want to make that clear um okay nobody else anybody online for public speak okay seeing none uh I think we don't have any items for media attention Communications from elected official boards and commissions I think uh councilor Jam thank you Mr Vice President I just want to uh first want to remind folks in the community that we have the municipal Leadership Academy um that President Gomez myself and um councelor Smith are uh facilitating uh and working with um uh department heads in the city it's an opportunity for residents to uh learn about the ins and outs and of the function of government here in East Hampton uh it's a great educational opportunity um and it's a great way to to meet um uh directors of departments uh get to know the the what the Departments do and also if there's issues or concerns that you have in the future you know who to go to right so it's a great relationship building opportunity and the second thing I want to address it was a bit of a it was a it was a huge oversight uh last week just want to acknowledge um our city clerk uh Barbara Lombard who uh did yet again an amazing job of running our city election um and had a great turnout of individuals know you put a lot of time energy um and have a huge commitment to the city uh and so I just want to extend our gratitude and our appreciation for all the work that you do for the city and for the residents in in ensuring our right to vote thank you so much thanks thanks councelor denam councelor Zer uh thank you Mr President or Mr Vice President acting as president thank you um I just want to announce that the um High School play uh Little Women uh is this week Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday I think it's 6:00 tomorrow 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and I believe there's a 2:00 M on Sunday um I know that the uh the group uh the drama club has worked very hard to put this on um tickets can be purchased in advance online or at the door um and I think it'll be really entertaining it's always great to go out and support our high school um and then I just wanted to take a moment to um acknowledge uh the loss of life that occurred in our city this past week with the drowning in the pond um to certainly thank uh the people on scene and all the First Responders uh who who made great efforts to save this individual's life um but also just to acknowledge uh and send support uh and love to the Friends neighbors and family of this um individual um so um just sending that out there to the universe and uh thinking about them and everyone else and may their memory be a blessing thank you okay thank you councilor Zar uh we don't have any correspondents um and there's no president or vice president Communications do not see the mayor so I think uh that we can since we have about 6 minutes we can uh get ourselves into uh committee reports Finance Council Peak thank you Mr Vice President um so Finance met uh last week we discussed the item that we will be discussing in approximately 6 minutes um and so you'll hear all about that at that point uh other than that uh just a reminder that next week or sorry not next week in two weeks we are going to be having a uh public hearing about uh the required review of salaries for elected officials and appointed committees specifically uh the uh Council or the the finance committee made a recommendation uh to set a schedule of $3,000 a year raises uh for the mayor but leave all other salaries and stipend unchanged um so that's going to be in two weeks uh at in these Chambers at 6:15 um and uh I don't think we have any new business so we will not be meeting uh next week so uh I think that concludes great thank you thank you Council Peak um I had sent an email earlier today requesting next week for uh minutes approval for finance next week either Tuesday or Wednesday I'm so sorry I got I've had a horrible it problem and I was locked out of my email today um yeah let's do it all right so we'll be meeting uh at 5:30 on Wednesday is is Wednesday okay it being the day before Thanksgiving I'll be around if you to yeah 5:30 yeah okay 5:30 do Thursday if you want I'll be asleep uh but uh yeah uh that's uh yeah let's just do that we'll do minutes approval great I'm I'm so sorry for that okay thank you yeah uh and thus concludes thank you councelor Peak uh Public Safety councilor there thank you Mr Vice President we met last week uh predominantly discussing the proposal to reverse the traffic direction on daily field road uh this is primarily uh a park owned property but the uh uh Park director wanted to be able to create a little bit more visibility and transparency by bringing it through the council um he was not able to attend there were two Park Commissioners there I think the general consensus is that uh we agree on the proposal it would be a lot safer and it would facilitate easier traffic flow um as well as line people up better uh to be able to pay entry fees or bypass entry fees if they have a season pass um the plan will be to have um more public comment and hopefully have the director present at our next meeting uh which is uh December 10th at 6 p.m. um and uh the committee is still discussing it uh because I don't think this falls under traffic rules and order but we'll figure out if it's either just a report out of committee or some form of a a more General vote recommend to the commission uh to reverse uh the traffic um I see we have about 3 minutes left we uh also briefly discussed the proposal uh to create a Citywide speed limit of 25 miles per hour except as other are specified I think again there's General consensus that uh we in order to limit uh traffic incidences and create or as much pedestrian safety as possible that that would be wise I think we just have to figure out uh the best way to do that language wise um and then we dove into uh the review of traffic rules in order for the most part most of the changes so far are uh just broadly uh changing some um kind of outdated uh gendering within the language as well as uh references to uh boards and committees that no longer either exist or have perview over uh uh traffic so we'll continue to have that discussion uh as noted um our next meeting is uh December 10th at 6 p.m. I'm assuming in room one um probably likely okay um and just a quick look over I don't think there's anything we need to extend oh we did also um vote to dismiss uh the ordinance Review Committee final report without prejudice there are a couple lingering items that need to be examined in order to be brought back to the council um and the committee felt it was best that those could just be handled individually I believe one of them still needs attorney review and another one just needs some word smithing so actually at this time um to to the council I would um like to in the form of a motion uh propose uh a removal without prejudice of the ordinance review committee's final report second okay so we have a motion the second to uh dismiss ordinance review riew committee's final report without prejudice um all those in favor I any against any abstentions seeing none motion passes and that brings us oh councelor is there are you thus concludes okay that brings us to 6:15 I would entertain a motion to open the public hearing so moved second have motion to the second all those in favor I I okay we are open councelor Peak I'll go turn it over to you um sorry C pres are you trying to I was just trying to say I think the meeting you're looking for is downstairs the statement here is looking yeah the meeting downstairs being can fire Depo people oh all right okay so um yes uh so sorry thank you Mr Vice President uh yeah so so the only item we have tonight is the uh fiscal year 2025 uh tax classification uh the uh finance committee met and discussed this um last week on the advice of the board of assessors and our principal assessor uh Martha lii who's here uh right now uh we uh voted three to zero to uh essentially keep our uh tax classification the same in 2025 as it has been uh for many many years um I could go into detail but I know that uh Martha has uh prepared a presentation that will probably do a better job at it so I'll if with if you're okay with it I'll pass [Music] absolutely I don't see it oh Mr President or Mr Vice President y I'm not sure that that microphone is turned on turned on cuz I had a hard time hearing the person speaking before so I think something has happened push push yes can you hear me now not any no there's a little green light there is a green light if it was a green light it should be good yeah so hopefully people at home can hear okay okay all right good evening I'm Martha lii principal assessor and uh just want to say that this presentation is located on the assessor page on the website for East Hampton and we are here for the tax classification uh notice of this hearing was posted on the city's website and in The Gazette on November 16th as required by the do the following information is for ill istrative purposes only and many of the figures used are from fiscal year 25 before the tax rate can be set the city council must hold a public hearing each year to consider the tax rate options available to the city under tax classification this hearing is held only after the board of assessors has determined the final values and classified all property reported and reported this information to the Depart of Department of Revenue who will then certify our values which will set up the parameters for the options the municipality May adopt and we have received final notification of our values on November 8th this hearing does not determine the tax rate and we have not set it as of yet as I mentioned the board uh the purpose of the hearing is for the board of assessors to present information to you so you're able to vote on a factor in which to establish the allocation of the tax levy with either a single tax rate or a split tax rate you will also determine if you want a um to adopt a residential exemption or a small commercial exemption which I will get into at the end I think it's important to know simply how the tax rate is determined and again these figures are used from 24 to show the process of setting the tax rate uh city council and assessors work separately of each other um city council will vote Appropriations and other amounts to be raised on Cherry sheets with the overlay um minus estimated receipts which gives you the real impersonal property tax levy and that is the total amount to be raised by taxation the assessors will develop values based on actual sales in the town which for fiscal 25 use 22 and 23 sales valid sales as mentioned earlier values are reviewed and approved by the Department of Revenue which gives us the total valuation of all real in personal property you take the total raised by taxation divided by the total valuation time 1,000 and you get the tax rate which last year was $13.56 getting to the split or single rate you must decide to tax all classes of property at their full and fair cash value of the tax levy using a factor of one will result result sorry I don't mulate task well on the first line that would be a fact factor of one which keeps the tax rate at a um a single tax rate for both commercial industrial personal property and residential if you choose to go um or or if you reduce the share of the tax levy paid by the residential property owners and shift those taxes to commercial industrial personal property tax payers it will result in a split tax rate and you can go up to 50% over so the bottom line shows that it lowers the tax levy percentage for residential raises it for commercial and with a 50% shift it would lower the average single family tax bill $339 based on a single family assessment of $381,000 one which is based on our average for fiscal 24 and again with that same maximum shift of 50% it increases the average commercial industrial tax bill $4,130 6,646 so that using that maximum based on last year's figures residential would be$ 12267 and commercial industrial would be $20.34 [Music] this is just a historical perspective of our tax rate and if you notice when the tax When the Levy goes up the tax rate comes down so we had a tax rate in 2017 of $16.21 and over the years it has lowered to last year's tax rate of $13 56 cents except for 2020 which I believe was an override for the Mountain View school and this is just some information on neighboring Towns how they compare for last year's FY 24 with the single family home values the average single family tax bill the number of parcels per community of single family homes and the single family values total um and then just the do income per [Music] capita go now one of the options to adopt or not adopt is the residential exemption you may vote a residential exemption that is for all principal res residences which is let me start over city council may vote to adopt a residential exemption for all Residential Properties that is the principal resident of the taxpayer it is a fixed dollar amount that is excluded from the valuation of each owner occupied residence the exemption percentage is as low as 5% and up to a maximum of 35 for 35% of the average assessed value of all Residential Properties it does not change the total taxable value the effect shifts the tax burden from lower valued owner occupied home to owner owners of rental properties vacation homes and higher valued homes and it typically is in cities and towns where there is a large population of second homes rental homes such as 18 municipalities uh Barnstable Brook line Boston con ConEd Cambridge Chelsea Everett Malden MHP Nantucket Oak Bluffs Provincetown Somerville Tisbury Truro walam Watertown and Wellfleet East Hampton taxpayers would not benefit from this exemption due to the majority of Residential Properties being owner occupied we don't have a large population of second homes and the last to adopt is um the small commercial exemption city city council may vote to adopt a small commercial exemption of no more than 10% of the assessed value of each eligible commercial property but only if the following conditions are met the business has an annual average employment of no more than 10 people as certified by the department of employment and training and the valuation of the property must be less than $1 million if the exemption is adopted it would shift the tax dollars that the small business would be Exempted from paying onto REM remaining larger businesses in 24 fiscal year 24 there were only 14 communities that had adopted the small commercial exemption and they are all located out east uh again this exemption does not change the total taxation for commercial properties and it does not benefit small business owners it only benefits the owner of the real estate and the board of assessor has recommended for fiscal year 2025 that city council adopt a single tax rate for all classes of property that you vote to adopt no residential exemption and no small commercial exemption thank you thank you any questions any counselors have any questions okay seeing none I guess um to and this is where the public gets to ask questions questions uh does anybody from the public like to make a statement okay a none I would entertain a motion online oh how about online oh um I don't think there's anybody online yeah there's no hands up and there's only looks like one so thank you see ey ready for the most sure all right I move that the city of East Hampton set a factor of one for the fiscal year 2025 tax rate keeping a single tax rate for all classes of property and to not Grant an open space discount nor a residential exemption nor a small commercial exemption as recommended by the board of assessors and finance committee check it okay we have a motion the second any further discussion okay seeing none all those in favor I any abstentions or NOS okay motion passes uh and I that's all we have for public hearings I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing second okay we have a motion the second all those in favor okay uh public hearing is closed that brings us back to committee reports and I believe we ended with Public Safety so that would bring us to appointments councelor Riley all right uh thank you Mr Vice President um So currently um we did not meet since our last meeting um but I I do have um new uh business items that are going to be coming up at the end of this meeting so I would like to schedule our next meeting for December 2nd at 6: p.m. um and that's going to be that's a Monday and that'll be in conference room two which is right here behind city council chambers um and thus concludes thank you Council Riley uh ordinance councelor denim thank you Mr Vice President uh we haven't met since our last uh meeting we're still waiting for um uh the review from the uh City attorney uh regarding the East amp and shevy ordinance um and we're still evaluating the uh amendments to chapter 2 Division 3 uh Council on Aging I do anticipate that we will have some uh additional items um for our our next agenda in addition to these uh but we have not set that date yet um because we are waiting for that um uh information from the city attorney and that's all I have to offer the council this evening thank you Council Denham property counc is there no report thank you okay uh rules and government relations councelor kazinski no report M kin okay uh I guess that's easy so the new business we have is the uh mayoral annual reappointments I'll pass that to council Riley uh we can do them all in one motion oh you want to do them all right now yeah um as in do you need me to read off everybody's you do not perfect yes okay um so at at least just for everybody to understand I have looked through the list um there were no any glaring issues uh with those who are being reappointed the one thing that I do always want to point out every year that we do this is While most people have three-year reappointments our City attorney must be reappointed every year on a one-year term so if you happen to look at the list and you see why is Mark Tanner being only appointed until the end of next year that's why his uh contract is very specific from the rest so um that being said um I will make a motion to reappoint all of the uh current mayoral reappointment to your Oh I thought you were saying we were we were literally approving no we're going to send we're going to send them to committee first too bad I mean that would be nice but thank you I was so confused for a second yes to I I make a motion to send all of the mayoral reappointments uh to the appointment committee second okay we have a motion this second any further discussion okay see all those in favor any extensions or Nays see none motion passes and on my agenda I don't see any other new business um so I would entertain a motion to adjourn so Mo we have a motion in the second uh all those in favor okay thank you everybody it and I just press stop right [Music]