good evening this is an informal meeting of the gardener City Council on Monday March 25th 2024 I would like to ask the assistant clerk to please call a roll certainly uh mayor at the to yeah no you just you just go counselors you don't I apologize for that uh councelor Brooks presid councelor corer not here councelor General lawitz present councelor Herman pres councelor Heath present councelor heglin pres councelor Mack pres councelor tbot munes pres councelor tone president councelor tyros pres president kazinski presid okay we have a I'm present is anyone here recording tonight's meeting no one is recording tonight's meeting for the public watching this evening we are meeting informally tonight regarding agenda item number 11 12000 a request from councelor George tyos to have an informal meeting to review the city's management of the Community Development block grant program this item was posted publicly in the city council regular meeting packet for a Monday March 4th 2024 meeting where the city council voted to me as a committee of the whole on this item which is our purpose of our meeting this evening City councilors and the public have had the opportunity to review the item ask questions and gather information since the packet was posted on Thursday February 29th 2024 this is not an item that requires a further vote of the council but rather this meeting is informational also for the public watching this evening the Community Development block grant or cdbg program provides funding and technical support for projects that achieve the city's development objectives while principally benefiting low and moderate income persons Andor addressing slum and Blake conditions funding for the cdbg program is provided by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development under the guidelines of title one of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 as amended councelor tyros is the city council's designated member of the cdbg steering committee which meets periodically and is made up of six members under the City's community velopment and planning department Community Development and planning director Trevor beard is here this evening to provide information answer questions on the topic of the meeting thank you for being here director beard since councelor tyros brought this item to the council at this time he has the opportunity to speak on the item before we turn over to director beard Council pyros thank you madam president thank you for uh your brief synopsis into the how we got here this evening I'd like to take a minute to speak to the why we are here and explain my objective in having this discussion in preparation for the first cdbg meeting of this year I reached out to the director in February to request an update on previous block grant projects specifically the demolition of the Greenwood IND indoor pool construction of its new Pavilion in its place and the construction of Macky Park downtown the director informed me that the block grant 2223 funds have not yet been released so no project could be initiated and at a follow-up question he informed me that all work related to the block grant 2022 2023 Grant would need to be completed by the assistant director after he starts the reason why we are here this evening is because at that meeting the director shared with me and the committee that as a part of regular monitoring and review by the state of the program issues were found in the administration of both construction and public social services aspects of the block grant program issues that as I've said before are not detrimental but are holding up funding for important projects and opportunities that we have to action on if we want to continue moving Gardener in the right Direction and keep this important funding and honestly a great program that has delivered wonderful improvements and funded important causes in our city my objective for this meeting is to have a discussion about the challenges being faced to make sure that the changes are being made to prevent these issues from happening again and to prevent further future issues that could threaten the source of funding that the city receives so my first question is what were the issues identified in the state's monitoring of the block grant program in February and more importantly what actions are your department is your department taking to resolve those issues thank you counselor Dr Beard so just to address one ccil titles had mentioned the U the audit for the 21 Grant is not holding up any funding at this time the funding for the F1 2023 um is being held up because we need to do an environmental review you and um meet two different conditions that were placed upon it when we were wanted to Grant last year late last year so um I haven't had the staff in place to do that and so the new uh assistant director who started last week is now implementing that process working with the state and our program manager of the state to get that done um and as far as the audit for the 21 Grant is concerned um we responded to the audit it was last Friday was our deadline for responding so um we did respond to a number of comments that were uh that arose from the audit on the construction project of Park Street and the um Monument Park project and also we have four public social service programs under that Grant and we also responded to the comments um on those also anything further I apologize for the awkwardness of having to turn and take notes uh thank you director for that answer uh so to be clear for the uh 2022 2023 block gr um the major project in that block was the green full Demolition and stting initial questions I had had for updates to um that project uh when you say you didn't have the Staffing in place was was there no work being done on that project uh in terms of getting the environmental study moved forward uh without resources in place correct thank you Council tires you have F questions right now uh not at the moment just do anything further to add Dr would open up to questions if you're good for now um only that just as a continuation of the audit and our response we're waiting for the state to review and get back to us for the final um report thank you questions comments from the council councelor Mac um so clarification the um issues the information was on here says February 23rd so what you've given an extension you said last week to March because I'm here said it was due by February yep given an extension yeah we we okay we uh we Prov provided one response to the construction um in public social service programs however we didn't have time to gather all the information either from our files internally or from the uh contractors that actually oversaw the work so we would going an additional couple weeks to put it all together and submit to all counc um on the um PSS monitoring um I just want you know in moving forward um is there a plan to get the different programs voice to truth Boys and Girls Club Etc to do more progress reports complete the information that the grant is requesting um you know moving forward you know how are we going to make sure that the people who run these programs are accountable providing the necessary information to continue to receive this funding sure great question yes so courtly report should be submitted with the invoices so the invoices should not be processed without necessary documentation being submitted by the um Social Service Agency and unfortunately that wasn't the case and that will be corrected it has been okay great counc M Council Mac um not right now thank you further questions comments from the council counc General Al thank you m president director obviously a number of um points I'm here in a review that to be addressed the a is time on responding your response I I don't know I don't know way toce that I know they're in the process of reviewing it right now okay but we're also in the process of a I just submitted the fy2 24 Grant today so they're in the process of receiving new grants from all the communi Statewide so I'm I'm and I know they're somewhat short staffed also and speaking to obviously you have um assistant director leave there was you know kind of a quick turn over there as well where there's been some gaps um is there a plan going forward to try and help um I guess plug those holes in the future in case there's turnover um so we I guess can avoid maybe some of these issues um down the line so what issues are we referring looks like some of these some of these items things weren't being turned in um satisfactory progress reports the things from the following up with these with the other agencies to make sure they're submitting everything with the invoices um as you say are short staff is there a road map for someone coming into here these are the things to do and if someone's not around here's the check check box checklist of things that yeah so you know as far as training is concerned the state has given our new assistant director um Evan cmore um some training modules to take um as he starts and then um I've learned a lot over the past few months under you know having to take on the Block rant responsibilities and so I think I I can provide some some more leadership as far as you know what resources where the resources are reach he's already reached out to a couple other meaning titlan communities with questions um on the environmental review um there's a system in place that's been in place now for decades within our department for filing and really all you really need to do is go into that system and duplicate what's been done in the past um and it and it's well we had a we've had Decades of successful programs run through the department and um um and it's and it's all right there and so I have instructed him to you know go back go through the files whether it's electronic files from previous years or hard hard copy files that's what they actually come in and audit so just to make sure that all the files complete um and then to go back and look at the older files to see what's actually in the files because it's really it's all there you know thank you councelor just first off thank you for you for what your department does for the city first off and I'm very appreciative in no first understand how hard everybody works my question uh is is we a lot we allocated monies for grant writers um this past year and just did once again uh recently this past meeting um have have you been able to leverage these grant writers that were hiring from the outside to help you in any way I haven't I haven't know um it's being done s yeah uh so in my previous discussions with the with the mayor um you know where my my Department's at capacity we have you know upwards of $6 to8 million in grant money that we're managing right now um I've had a recent turnover of three staff people for the second time in three years that I need to train and get back up to speed um which takes up a lot of my time and so you know writing grants is one thing administering them is another the hard Parts the Administration Management coun Mac as you as you you're aware um it's time consuming reporting overseeing projects making sure people are are submitting reports and voices um it's it's it's a lot it's it's a lot of work so um you know the more money we can get in the better but at the same time you know you can only do so much unfortunately without you know unlimited amount of staff coun anything further no thank you madam president if I could just add to uh director vard's answer on that one that's 100% if you hit it on the head uh why we looked into getting that outside grant writer is that when you have a department that just has so much on their plate you it's easy for things to fall through the cracks because you just have too much to handle and not only is there been an unprecedent amount of grant funding that Community development's been overseeing with the projects that they're doing but we've also appropriate a lot of money on the city's end to go towards different projects as well that they're overseeing um and as so we do have uh right now Central Mass Regional Planning Commission on uh call right now for grant writing services for the city they do the writing not so much the administration so that does fall back to City staff after that um but it is something that um we have available if there's new grant opportunities that are out there to help right we've used cmrpc to help us uh when we had a change in an assistant director a couple years ago as well to uh help with uh some of the work there so there's options available it's just not what we used for this program thank you Mr Mayor um I just have kind of a followup here so in your experience in the past if so the state grants an extension on something or you know the state is now reviewing something and that's kind of pushing this thing a little bit further than you know it was expected probably when the grant money was um when it was going to be allocated to the city um so in in your experience in the past are they would they look at this as like due diligence like okay we've extended it but we had a reason that we had to extend it we got it in on time so we're just we're best practicing it we're just trying to put things into place and get it out there as fast as you know as we can but this is we were limited to this deadline you know that we just had for the reasons that we gave to get the extension you know I would think the state might like understand that moving forward and releasing the funds to get the projects moving but I don't know so the timeline for releasing funds and the timeline for U for responding to the audit well so our timeline so like so so we've responded to the audit with an extension right like that was an extension yeah so and now it's in the St where they need to review it and get back to us and that's for the fy21 grant right which we pretty much closed out I think we have like $3,000 left in the grant okay um and then there's the FY 22.3 Grant which is a duplicate it's a double they doubled it up just to catch up with the distribution of Hud funding due to co right um so we got two years in one um that's the one we are working on freeing up right now okay releasing the fs and that's with the state right now or that's dependent on the the study that needs to be done that's dependent on us doing the environmental review um and um meeting uh two one condition which is we we can meet okay which is something that the assistant director is working on right now okay thank you um I just want to see if any over here you guys have anything over here okay I want to make sure I'm looking at the whole room here um councelor tyros thank you and uh thank you director cuz it is keeping the line straight between the uh fy21 audit and the projects going on with the 2223 grand um it's very good to hear that uh you'll be taking more of a leadership role and make sure that these reports and uh standard procedures are being followed so I'm very pleased to hear that in regards to the um 2223 Grant and kind of the timeline we're looking at the study I understand that the the environmental reports associated with the Greenwood pool demolition project correct that's a question is the Environmental study relative to the Greenwood pool demolition it's relative to all the projects the but that is the one that um is a little more U intricate right right because there's the Rome block uh demolition correct involved as well construction design with Mackie Park so there's various aspects to that 2022 202 fre Grant um so what makes it more intricate um the pool project is the fact that it's it is not on a historic register but it meets the qual qualifications for being on historic register so all this environmental review needs to go through Mass historic and I know our previous assistant director reached out the mass historic on a number of occasions I have a number of emails back and forth through the Secretary of State office um very hard to get in touch with very hard to get a response uh from um so we're really not it we're we're at the behalfs of them as far as our timeline and filing our environmental report and getting all the approvals through through the state and so it's not just us doing the work on our end we need to file all the paperwork have public hearings but we have to receive feedback from n and order to close the environmental review out excellent because just very quickly Madam president too we get a lot of questions as counselors about you know we in 2022 we had a council as a council voted on authorizing that 2022 2023 Grant in 2023 um we had had an event at Perry Auditorium to announce the cdbg uh Grant because of its size and the nature of the project so we often get questions from constituents about you know when is the pool coming down what is the Pavilion be constructed so it's good to hear that the work is going on and that uh there's a path forward for that funding and for U working our way through the process as we move forward so that's part of the reason like I had said it's not detrimental issues that were discovered in the audit but things that we're just talking through and making public aware for transparency thanks celor councelor Mac yeah I just just to follow up um on the FY 2223 with the environmental reviews because you do have a new assistant director because it is important is a lot of money in these projects so I mean I'm assuming you'll be more involved in getting in acclimated to that um the other thing too and I don't think in my opinion I don't think it's out of line saying that when you look at the like the construction review thing some things were you know not submitted but some things by the previous person in charge of that was just gross negligence of Duty I mean they just didn't do their job you know and I just I mean it's it's very clear um and I just think that's that's something that um hope can be corrected in in the past because I mean some of these things are just part it's if you oversee estate Grant is part of your job they're they're just very cut and dry but when some of these things weren't done at all it's not they were missing something so were incomplete is different than just not doing it um and that's just that's just a concern I hope that can be corrected moving forward thank you madam president thank you further questions comments from the council uh I would just you know like to say thank you for being here and all for all of the information answering our questions I think it's important um I Echo what councelor Tyro said we do get a lot of questions people get really excited about these projects too we're very fortunate to have C cdbg here and um I think having a public discussion about how it works and where it's at and what's going on is valuable to everyone especially that they can see that you know we are concerned about it we have a um a couns designated to the steering committee your a city department head you know you're part of it you work with the mayor like just kind of seeing how it all works um it's I think a large part of the questions I get a lot of the time are kind of the explaining you have to do sometimes to people because they want information is just how things work they just they're just don't they're just not aware of it um and it can be all out there but kind of putting the puzzle pieces together for for people sometimes is is helpful for them um and so that's you know our connection with the public I think also that having lots of grant money is a great problem to have I guess you know in the situation where it needs to be remedied there needs to be work that has to be done but you know you have the role that you have you're doing what you can moving forward and you've explained that I think really well this evening and I appreciate it um so if there is there any other questions comments councel T curious about the mass hist work and um you know in terms of getting a response on wonder we leverage our state Senator anyone else in the state that we could get try to move them along and try to get an answer to use those relationships something done consider um I don't think it's been done I mean it's you know something you can consider um we are having a conference call with the state um later this week with a new assistant director to talk about this process and um we will um let them know of our concerns and our our issues of getting responses from m hisor I don't think we're the only ones I think there's a from what I hear there's a backlog at Mass historic right now of hundreds of projects and so um we're not the only ones so I I I did Evan did mention to me earlier today that he does plan talking to somebody from Mass hisor later this week they have told him they get back to him so we were just going through a bunch of our ex assistant director's emails and found kind of a chain where we we did find people to kind of get in touch with so we should be uh talking to them this week actually but good good idea questions comments further uh thank you Council you just uh you just remind me that question of uh the fy21 audit was submitted and and now the fy22 and 23 block grant we're kind of waiting for the state to to fulfill and start with that work uh for the Public's awareness is there a timeline on uh that funding would expire if we don't make sufficient progress with the block grant program or is it regulated in some other way no it's it's there's a timeline so basically I think the state contract is through June of 26 however they they typically set a shorter time frame I think it's the end of this calendar year but it's not um unreasonable to um to apply and get an extension if we need need it if you know if we have especially when we have our project is on going we're actually implementing if we don't get them done by the end of the construction season it'll probably carry over for next next year and it's it's normal to get an extension on these grants like I said we have the 21's open the 20 is actually still open that's a glitch in the state system um so we usually have more than one gr over that once and just a final comment from me of uh I think this has been a very useful um time discussing these topics with you and I think you know a a motivation I had of having this discussion before our Council vote on the FY 24 block proposal was to kind of get the update of previous years and to speak a little bit about the upcoming years's project which I know we didn't get a chance to tonight talk about um the the large project in the 24 Grant being the School Street um School Demolition and Jackson Park upgrades so um hopeful moving forward we can have those discussions sure yeah thank you counselor further questions comments from the Council on the topic of the meeting anything further Dr Beard no I just want to thank the councel for um having me here tonight and hearing me out um and um just want to let you know I'm always open my do is always open I'm here pretty much every day and you know phone call away email away so feel free to reach out anytime thank you Dr bear thanks again for your time being here this evening we sincerely appreciate it hearing nothing further the meeting stands adjourned thank you everyone thank you