##VIDEO ID:Rajdt2w-lWY## the Monday October 7th 20124 regular meeting of the gardener city council will come to order the clerk will please call the role Council Brooks present councel Craig Cormier present Council hegan present Council General LTZ Council harder pres councilor Heath pres Council pres Council ton yes councel Munos pres Council tyros pres and president kazin pres please rise to recite the opening prayer and pay the Pledge of Allegiance almighty God we thank you for bringing us together this evening Inspire us to worthy deeds and sound decisions and direct us toward the attainment of good city government we pray the to bless and protect all the people of our city and us that we may delate in unity and Harmony amen I to of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all open meeting recording notice any person may make a video or audio recording of an open session of a meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium subject to reasonable requirements of the chairs to the number placement and operation of equipment used so as not to interfere with the conduct of the meeting any person intending to make such recording shall notify the chair forth with all documents and Exhibits used or referenced at the meeting must be submitted in duplicate to the chair as they become part of the meeting minutes pursu to General Law chapter 38 subsection 20 is anyone here recording tonight's meeting [Applause] okay we'll begin with the reading and approval of the July 23rd 2024 informal meeting minutes July 23rd 2024 public hearing minutes and July 31st 2024 special meeting minutes is there a motion councelor cor uh move to accept the me the minutes as printed and wave the reading second motion made by councelor Cormier second by councelor Heath to wave the reading of the minuts and accept them as present is there a discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I oppos say no motion passes there are no public hearings Communications from the mayor mayor item 11395 a communication from the mayor regarding the certification evaluations changes and qualified comparable sales le3 councelor M I make a motion to place a communication on file second motion made by councelor Mac second and by counselor ton to place the communication on file is there discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I those opposed say no motion passes item 1396 a communication from the mayor regarding the certification of city valuations la4 councelor man I make a motion to place the communication on file second motion made by councelor Ma seconded by councelor ton to place the communication on file is there discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I those oppos say no motion passes item number 11397 a communication from the mayor regarding the certification of New Growth la3 councel Mac um uh excuse me this is La 13 I I make a motion to place a communication on file second motion made by councelor Mac seconded by counselor tone to place the communication on file is there discussion on the motion Mr Mayor thank you very much Madam president uh just to the members of the city council uh for the last three items one of the reasons why this was submitted this year is just so you can see the buildup before we have our tax classification hearing later on which I anticipate will be sometime in early November or late November uh keeping with the schedule that we've had recently in the past couple years I anticipate free cash will be certified by the end of the week uh so hopefully uh we'll be able to get things going in that way uh one of the things I just wanted to clarify is that new growth as uh defined by the Commonwealth is uh increase in valuation due to improvements in the those properties so it's the valuations growing that was not anticipated when the budget was originally passed that's additions added on to a house renovations that have been completed new construction that's been completed all of which have had their final inspection and their final occupancy certificate given for that specific project therefore if something's currently under construction but it's not done yet we haven't captured that growth yet that'll happen once that uh is finally done yet so yes uh New Growth is lower than we've seen in years past in terms of compared to what we budget to what we done before but I think there's a couple factors that have gone into that and that's why I just wanted to explain those here today uh the first being that there's a lot of projects that are currently ongoing I'll use 25 Main Street as an example and that uh they were uh waiting on some architectural designs that had to be done and then national greaters uh currently working on an easement with them for a new Transformer and a lot of the work that has to be done up there can't be done until that electrical system is upgraded that they need that Transformer for so a lot of that were anticipating coming soon in upcoming fiscal years uh additionally from that we had massive Spike during the pandemic so while we're used to these higher numbers over that doesn't me match the trend and if you look at the 10year average versus the threeyear average it's actually on par with where we've been in uh a lot lately there was a lot of uh new construction that was done a lot of building permits that were pulled during the co9 pandemic and aashan Hardware said it was their best year uh on history in their books with the amount of construction materials that they sold during that time too people were doing home improvement projects all of that plays into it and then you add inflationary Trends and things like that to it um but the other thing I want to clarify is that new growth isn't it does not mean all new Revenue that's there that's just new tax revenue from property taxes uh the meals tax that was passed and adopted by the council earlier this year we just got the first receipt of that from the Commonwealth again how that goes is uh those taxes are paid directly from uh those that businesses that qualify for that to the Commonwealth who then gives that to the uh to the city in a wire transfer once a quarter we just got about $38,000 uh for the June July and August period June was in the last fiscal year so we just got that for July August uh we got that receipt in September um so we're on par with what they estimated we would be with that all of this is stuff that we're you know working towards right now is the auditor's office is putting together the tax recap sheet and once that tax recap sheet is done uh we'll work on having the tax classification hearing and moving forward with that uh so the $32,000 in change that were over in New Growth is new revenue on top of what we budgeted for so that's in addition to uh to the revenue side of the budget and then you add all of those other things into it too so I just want to make sure the council had a clear Financial picture of where we are right now uh and what this new growth is versus New Growth versus free cash versus just general new Revenue that we're having uh so this is just increases in the property valuations based on those Renovations that people have done to their properties thank you thank you Mr Mayor further discussion on the motion again this is to place the communication on file which is from the mayor regarding the certification of New Growth La 13 there's no further discussion all those in favor say I I I those oppos say no the motion passes item 11398 a communication from the mayor regarding City employee health insurance rates councelor Mac I make a motion to place a communication on file second motion made by councelor Ma second can by councelor Tone to place the communication on file is there a discussion on the motion councelor tyros thank you madam president I watched the finance committee meeting from last Wednesday and the mayor had stated that it had been a number of years since uh there had been an increase however in our packet the data only went back five year or four years to 2020 uh and it showed an increase in 23 and 24 and now this upcoming 25 increase before that it was zeros uh I have a question for the mayor do the chair uh when was last year that there was an increase and how much was that increase and the reason I'm asking is to get a better understanding how process works and understand what sort of situation we're in thank you councelor Mr Mayor thank you very much Madam president the uh last time there was an increase we increased by about 7% last year there was a smaller increase of about 3 or 5% the year before that um before that there were several years of zeros uh and there was um I think it was four or five years before that uh was a I don't have the data in front of me directly but just going off of what I can remember I think it was four or five years before that that the increase uh was seen there too uh prior to that we had done a couple years of zeros there had been a couple health insurance holidays that were given how the process works is every August um because our health insurance years prior to this were uh October 1st to September 30th uh the reason why that was done is that there tends to be a lot of teachers that are hired in the month of August uh so that way the rates are put in after everyone's hired um what we're going to be move doing moving forward is uh doing a short Insurance year this year at the recommendation of our broker in the city a uh so that we're following the regular fiscal year rather than a separate insurance year uh so the rates are set come the beginning of the fiscal year because the city does pay 75% of our insurance uh it's a uh 75 25 employee to employee split for what we do to our uh do for our employees that are here um so we meet in August usually uh our broker cooking company provides us with uh their analysis Blue Cross Blue Shield who manages our self insured plan provides us with an analysis as well of our high claims over the last year those claims are then used to help set our um rate proposals that they have for us and then it's up to the committee of the mayor the city auditor the city treasurer and the Director of Human Resources uh to decide what that increase is going to be in the end uh and last year we knew that we were going to we were catching up to where we had been with so many years of not having an increase so we increased a little bit the year before that we started to see that Trend happen so we increased a little bit we did uh just slightly under what Blue Cross and Cooking Company recommended two years ago just to try to ease into those and this year was just that hard year where just everything caught up where we had $4.4 million in uh High claims over what we anticipated uh that's something that looking at a uh across the board on insurance companies we looked at uh what other people were going through right now companies like Etna uh like Blue Cross and other companies Harvard Pilgrim they were all seeing these large increases in claims because there's a lot of people going to elective surgeries now or one of the biggest things that's happening right now that we didn't see before on our high claims list were mental health issues or issues of uh alcohol abuse and substance use so that's something that we're going to be working on over the course of the year to see if there's Wellness programs that we can Implement for our employees uh and their families to see if they can go uh with any mitigating factors of those uh so that's in the process question that's that process side but there were several years before uh but the last three years we've done some incremental increases and it's just one of those years that we just had to otherwise the health insurance trust fund was to go into the red and if that went into the red we'd have to supplement that with the general fund tax dollars uh so we'd be taking away services to supplement the uh health insurance trust fund so that's why we had to just uh go with the increases that we had if I may M president I I thank the mayor for that context because I think it's important uh I think I think it's an incredibly uncomfortable and difficult decision that had to be made for this fund to bring it out of a deficit and I think the easy thing to do would have been to defer as you know previous Mayors have done done to just let it fall for the general fund I think um certainly we're in an environment where increased uh services and rates and costs are affecting people's and families and I know that this was a tough decision so I applaud the mayor for trying to get this fund back in shape and it sounds like there's some process he's putting behind it so that next year we won't be in a similar situation thank you thank you councelor thank you Mr Mayor further discussion Council Brooks thank you madam president just to add a little context to that as well uh being familiar with with another Community pitor uh because I was involved with them over the last few years um what we found was that the uh Health claims went level or down during covid people didn't have procedures they didn't go they they were dealing with covid but the feds also put a lot of money into the Health Care system for that and like Gardener Fitchburg coming out of it had a had a very robust uh trust fund which is now at risk of of being decimated I believe fitchburg's increas is is on a par with gardeners if not a couple points higher um just it expenses just shifted that much so what what I see happening here isn't isn't different from what I had seen in pitchburg I can also say that at the uh Monte tech school board meeting Wednesday night last Wednesday night they they have a I believe it's an 8% increase in rates and that's on on top of more more uh regular rate increases from their prior years as well so thank you thank you counselor further discussion all those in favor say I I those supposed say no motion passes item 1399 a measure authorizing the mayor to enter into a grant agreement lease with the gardener community action committee for a use of a portion of the space at the Waterford Community Center located at 62 Waterford Street I'm going to give the opportunity um at this time for the mayor to give us um some information as he submitted some new information to the council this evening that will be reflected in the minutes of the meeting Mr Mayor thank you very much Madam president the uh packet of information in front of you we're going to get to that in a second but just to go over the process that we have here too um and this really isn't new information uh it was just some amended language that had to change in one of the sections of that document uh but under the general laws of the Commonwealth uh Grant lease Agreements are expressly Exempted from the uh processes of chapter 30b so our RP uh processes in the Commonwealth uh what that means is that in recognition of services provided to the community that do not directly financially benefit the government agency but benefit the quality of life of the residents of the community uh that are offered for free to the residents of a community the city can enter into a lease agreement with that company as as a grant type instead of an exchange of money it's an exchange of space uh so that's exactly what we have here too is why the cac's uh lease uh finances here says a dollar a year even though the market value analysis was $16 per square foot per year is because that's where the um in the if you look at the legislative document that's there too included with this vote page it's not just your typical voted that the mayor shall be authorized to enter into it actually goes through a series of wear ass CL that talks about the services the CAC provides to the community so in exchange for those Services the CAC is uh if passed by the council would be granted that space in the Waterford Community Center for their services that they provide to the community so that they can grow and expand those Services now the vote by the city council is a vote to authorize the mayor to fully uh enter into the agreement so negotiate and sign the lease agreement on behalf of the city with the CAC so the document itself isn't what's being voted on it's the authorization for the mayor to sign sign that document that's there but in the spirit of transparency I figured I'd show the city council that uh there was a typo in the lease and that is set a 5year lease with one-ear automatic renewals after that uh the new language that's listed there is three fiveyear terms uh with you know a renewal after the each 5year term up to the 15 years of the lease the reason for that is if you enter into a long-term lease which the Commonwealth describes is anything after 10 years uh the tenant doesn't have to pay prevailing wage for the uh the improvements that they do on on the building because they're there as a long-term tenant therefore the benefits of those improvements are going to the tenant not to the city so if we had someone who's in there for 3 years they spruce up the property and they leave after three years the person is really getting the benefit in the end of the city because three years later we can go for a lease at a higher payment on their dime and that's a go around with prevailing wage but if you're in there for the longer term that's there that's what allows the uh the tenant not to pay prevailing wage on their property um this is something that you know the purchasing and procurement departments uh been checking the Attorney General's office the uh Law Department uh drafted the lease that's there drafted its language uh so that's the change in the document that's there it's just the term is the three fiveyear terms so 15 years total uh and the reason for the three fiveyear terms that's going to be something that's going to be across all the leases that we do in that building is so that we can do Market adjustments after each five years to see if we're still keeping up with uh inflation rates and the cost of the building and just market analysis for the other tenants but since this that that doesn't really affect the CAC because they're getting this grant agreement rather than paying per square footage so if that clarifies anything that's there I'm happy to answer any questions uh on the process and things like that I know we have uh Jun me an executive director of the CAC and their some of their board members here as well uh for the process as well so if there's any questions that come up I'm happy to answer those and just explain what that new information was uh it's not a change in the procedure because the procedure was to authorize the mayor to enter into the lease it's just out of the transparency what that lease has incid of thank you thank you Mr Mayor um so on the item is there a motion councelor Mac uh as the mayor just outlined um the correct language of the lease provide uh agreement with the CAC the community action committee for providing free services to the city for the New Waterford Community Center the inine for service lease for $1 a year Renovations are still ongoing but as the CAC offers numerous necessary services to our community and citizens the need for a larger space and accessibility the finance committee recommends to the council that they approve to allow the mayor to enter into a lease agreement with the CAC so I make a motion um to authorize a May to enter into a grant agreement lease with the garden community action committee to use a portion of the 62 Waterford Street space as the Waterford at the Waterford Community Center second motion made by councelor Max I by councelor tyros to authorize a mayor to enter into a grant agreement lease with the Gardner community action committee for use of the portion of the space at Waterford Community Center located at 62 Waterford street is there a discussion on the motion coun Brooks thank you madam president uh Gardner is very fortunate to have an active and well-run community action committee operating in this community in the 50 plus years that it has existed it has provided a multitude of Social Services overseen by a series of three hardworking and dedicated women Rita bis Pat jandas and and Julie Manan who have overseen and coordinated all the staff and volunteers who make their programs work today these programs include the food pantry Fellowship table fuel assistance Medical Transportation backpack projects seasonal clothing and holiday programs they also have connections with other social service agencies in the community and can help direct persons in need to those services having worked in a neighboring Community I experienced what it was like to not have an agency like the regard to CAC other than fuel assistance which interestingly was handled by the mayor's office constituents had to figure out for themselves which of the local social service agencies could help them and then hope they pick the right one as I said at the beginning Garder is fortunate to have the CAC I am wholeheartedly in favor of this measure and wish the CAC a long and successful tenure on Waterford street thank you thank you counselor further discussion councelor Tyrus thank you madam president I think well said I just want to remind the public that the CAC is an independent nonprofit that serves uh disadvantaged individuals in our community that does amazing work and I I've been looking forward to seeing this document on our desk uh for many reasons one of them being uh when you think about the new community center at Waterford Street uh the utility of the space that it provides the there's so many things that make sense um you know I certainly will be looking forward to not climbing up seemingly a half mile long ramp to get to the CAC and then the flight of stairs I think um it it there's the services being provided to the community are so Priceless and they're just I'm looking forward to seeing uh what new great things can be done at the community center thank you thank you counselor for the discussion councelor Mac um I just want to point out the CAC for a lot of us we concentrate on their holiday um generosity to a lot of families and they've already posted on social media that their um their lists are available however what they do throughout the entire year for our community is just unbelievable and at the finance committee they you know food and Security in this area is up 63% so they are with us 365 days a year and there is such a great need in this community so I just always want to emphasize you know the donations and the you know for food and you know financial support is needed every single day of the year not just during the holidays but those who do need help for the holidays that the lists are available and please reach out to Julie and her staff because they are amazing and they have definitely outgrown their space and this is so much needed um and I just I I'm anxious to vote Yes on this on this um lease agreement thank you thank you councelor further discussion all those in favor say I I I those opposed say no motion passes item 114 a communication from the mayor regarding the sale of 94 Pleasant Street councelor heglin thank you m president I'd like to make the motion to place this communication on file second motion made by councelor heglin second by councelor tyros to place the communication on file is there a discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I those oppos say no the motion passes item 1141 a communication from the mayor regarding fire chief legoy receiving State Fire certification councelor heglin thank you madam president uh likewise i' like to make a motion to place this on file second motion made by counselor hin second and by councelor ke to place the communication on file is there a discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I those opposed say no motion passes item 11 1402 in order authorizing the city to enter into a 5-year contract for grant writing and government Outreach Services councelor Mac I'd like to refer this to the finance committee second motion made by councelor Mac second to by councelor tyros to refer the item to the finance committee is there a discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I post say no motion passes petitions applications Communications Etc item 1143 a measure relative to the November 5th 2024 state election councelor heglin thank you madam president um so where this is something that we do pretty regularly before State elections um to allow the clerk's office to do what they need to do to get prepared um it's a pretty standard operational thing I think in Li of maybe referring it to the finance committee as might otherwise be done with the election uh coming up I would like to make a motion to adopt the order second motion made by councelor hegland seconded by councelor Mack to adopt the order is there a discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I those opposed say no motion passes reports of standing committees finance committee item 11289 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Gardner part one thereof entitled administrative legislation councelor M uh the committee reest request for more time um the councils will be receiving a u new copy of um this item with some a strikeout format of the new codes and ordinance changes in the next few weeks if there is no objection the committee will be granted more time the committee will be granted more time item 11370 in ordinance to amend the code of the city of Garder chapter 590 thereof entitled Solid Waste to change the the fee for solid waste collections Council Mac I make a motion to send this to Second and final frontting second motion made by councelor Max second and by councelor tyros to send the ordinance amendment to Second and final printing is there discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I I those opposed say no motion passes item 11371 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Garder chapter 553 thereof entitled sewer rates councelor Max I make a motion to send this ordinance item to Second and final pring second motion made by councelor Max second by counselor ton to send the ordinance amendment to Second and final printing is there a discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I I this suppos say no motion passes item 11372 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Gardner chapter 171 thereof entitled Personnel to amend Schedule E non-union compensation schedule councilor Mac I make a motion to send this to second and final printing second motion made by councelor Ma seconded by councelor Heath to send the ordinance amendment to Second and final printing is there discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I I post say no motion passes Safety Committee item 11 1204 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Gardner chapter 600 entitled vehicles and traffic section 24 entitled parking prohibited on certain streets edel street from Elm Street to Lawrence Street councelor Corman uh thank you madam president uh as the traffic commission met on this item after having it referred back to them I would like to wait for the Public Safety Committee to have a chance to meet and discuss what was said in that meeting so therefore I ask for more time if there is no objection the committee will be granted more time the committee will be granted more time service committee item 11326 a petition by National Grid Elm Street and cross street relocate pole one solely owned pole approximately 15 ft mad yes Madam president um service committee would like to request more time on this item however we will be scheduling a public hearing on our next for our next meeting uh for this item as well if there is no objection the committee will be rented more time the committee will be granted more time item 11385 a measure to Grant National Grid and easement to install a Transformer at 95 Pleasant Street councel president yes um the public service committee uh request more time on this item as we will be meeting shortly to um discuss if there's no objection the committee will be granted more time the committee will be granted more time there is no unfinished business in matters for reconsideration there is no new Business Council comments and remarks are there any Council comments and remarks councelor M um thank you madam president I'd like to just take this opportunity as we're ending our our gardening season to thank all the volunteers who assisted planting the flower pots in downtown gardener South Gardner this year um in the spring and fall everyone's efforts Are Much appreciated there were fewer pots out this year but the goal was to achieve to have them look fabulous and to have the project fully funded by donations I think this these goals were achieved without the sponsorship of the local businesses and community members this wouldn't have been would this would not have been possible if anyone is interested in sponsoring or volunteering next year please contact Katie yonky in the mayor's office there will be an additional 18 plots added around the city next year and two more large flower planters and spons sponsorship information will be available shortly um but I can't say enough how just 14 people stepping up made a huge difference thank you thank you counselor further Council comments and remarks councel Brooks thank you madam president in case any wasn't any in case anyone hasn't heard there is a presidential election in four weeks a lot of work goes into holding an election and making sure the results are honest I learned about the checks and balances in elections not in school or because I worked in City Hall but because I spent over 10 years as an assistant registar in the city of Garden of board of regist of Voters many people are involved and the city clerk's office is almost always looking for more election workers if you want to learn more about elections by being part of the process or you are just looking for one long day of work I encourage you to go to the city clerk's office and fill out an application to be an election worker seeing how an election works from the inside will give you a stronger appreciation for the Integrity of the process and remind you of how lucky we are to be living in this country thank you thank you counselor further Council comments and remarks councelor Heath thank you madam president I just want to go ahead and um congratulate hey with at hospital for um getting out of bankruptcy um I'm surprised it wasn't talked about but that's a huge deal um and I just just want to say congratulations I was along with a couple of us other counselors were there last week and um The Joy the feeling in the room was amazing so um it's something very hard to overcome so congratulations to them um and I just want to go ahead and go back I didn't make a statement as far as the CAC going in to the uh into the community center um for someone that relied heavily on you know handouts basically as a child things of such you know it it really touches me to know like they're going to be able to go ahead and expand their services and I'm really excited to see what's next in store for them so I'm really excited for the CAC and I just want to say thank you mayor for going ahead and um putting that in front of us that's all thank you thank you counselor further Council comments and remarks I have uh a comment this evening uh earlier this evening the uh Gardener Community vigil and recognition of domestic violence awareness month was held at City Hall and um you know it's just a reminder of all the wonderful resources that we have in the city to assist people with um their various needs and to help them feel safe and to help them have a voice um and the gardener domestic violence task force does an excellent job of promoting safety and all of the resources that we have in Garder in the area for um victims of domestic violence and it's an incredibly valuable resource it's just one of those incredibly valuable resources that we have here and um the Garder domestic violence task force team does a fantastic job every year putting together a really nice ceremony um to honor those who have passed due to domestic violence and also to promote their resources um along with the police department and um the mayor's office uh you know there's there City counselors who were there um along with members of their their team on the task force and also the Garner Community Action team uh it's just such a wonderful um resource that we have here it's one of those that's unfortunately that we have to have but since there is a need we do fulfill it in Garder and it's one of those things that gives you a really good sense of what we're about here in this community um and if any members of the public do have a chance to go by City Hall um city hall is lit up purple in October uh to uh recognize the domestic violence awareness month of October and you'll typically see City Hall blit up different colors for different reasons but that's why um it's purple this month so I just wanted to acknowledge that because I thought it's just something they do every year and they just do such a fantastic job um and then on another note I would like to thank councelor Mac for all of her efforts with the beautiful flower pots um as well as all of the volunteers te if you drive through the city it just beautifies the city um it was done in a very costeffective way this year it was an idea um that she had and moveed forward with and I just want to thank you for all of that so thank you is there any further Council comments and remarks this evening Council tyus thank you madam president I just like to welcome back our Madam clerk thank you any further Council comments and remarks okay I will entertain AEM motion on for to adjourn after the closing prayer so Move Motion made by councelor J second by councelor Cormier all those in favor say I I say no Almighty father over all as weour we thank you for the opportunity to join deliberations and action witness during the course of this meeting bless Lord all here and the people represent we are next meting meeting stands adjourned thank you everyone