##VIDEO ID:Tg6EzcHfqo8## we're not waiting for any of their Department good morning John morning need this I just keep it okay the Wednesday October 16th 2024 meeting of the gardener city council finance committee will come to order the clerk will please call the RO pres pres pres that okay seeing as a quorum is present is anyone recording today today's meeting okay item number 144 in order to raise an appropriate $17,995 for The Debt Service department for operating expenditure budget for fiscal year beginning July 1st 2024 to June 30th 2025 um I don't know if the auditor John come on up have a seat auditor Richard is here uh begin with you Mr Mayor thank you very much Madam president this is the annual supplemental budget that we normally put after we growth is certified every year uh New Growth constitutes about $32,000 in change of this the rest comes from $125,000 worth of meals tax funding uh that was received that's Revenue that came in over budget because when we made the revenue for the budget we didn't include a dime or a penny I should even anything of meals tax uh so now that we have the first quarter come in and we have our projections uh this is lower than what the full projection is we're projected to get around $200 $250,000 of meals tax in based on receipts that the Commonwealth has received from there local sales tax or their Statewide sales tax that they do on meals um So based off of those projections we should be getting around that amount but just to be safe since it's our first year we only doing $125,000 of that that's going to The Debt Service Department mainly because with a lot of the fluctuations that we've seen in um prices that we have in the market uh while interest rates you just came down a hair doesn't mean that prices still aren't higher than they were before um and we're still paying that high interest on the debt that was taken out when those that the loan itself was taken out uh so this something that it's more of an investment into us where New Growth was smaller than usual but still above budget we have this new Revenue in but we don't really know the full extent to which that new revenue is going to come in uh we're looking at just paying down some of the debt that we have uh really just set us up so that we don't have to worry about that moving forward as we start to make the budget I'm going to be sending out the budget memoral to the department probably for the next couple weeks to start crafting the 2026 budget uh probably going to have that due beginning of February so just you know kind of get us with what we can pay down down so we know what we're planning for in the next year at a little bit of a better range so that's the uh supplemental budget for the Curr this and that has to be done before we submit the tax recapitulation sheet which is uh in conjunction with the tax classification hearing all of that needs to be done before January 1st before in order to set the tax rate uh so it's all just part of that process thank you otter Richard do you have anything you'd like to add I have nothing to add thank you counselor any questions comments so roughly 50 to 70% of the projection of the meals tax is what we're using and the rest is going to be fall to um free cash there's the word uh free cash uh one question is the two numbers you have on here the 32351 and then 125 but then the total is 157 951 which needs to be 600 more is that supposed to be 351 yeah okay that's I don't that I look at the other sheet if it was correct on that one so it's not so just get that updated for the um the meeting but other than that I have nothing else yeah the the number on the document is correct my cover letter probably needs to be add the document need to be updated too it looks like yeah um so just the clerk take note of that too the item um would be 157 351 yeah double check that supposed to be 951 that's I don't know what seems like to be right to me though yeah just double check the figure and then if we can get that information to the clerk to be updated for the council agenda for Monday um thank you thank you for this letter these your cover letters are Al always very uh helpful uh just for the public watching and maybe this is also something we want to be sure that we report at the meeting free cash what what the timeline for free cash free cash was certified last week you'll get all the notifications on free cash as Communications for this upcoming meeting thank you perfect 2.6 million okay uh thank you I have no um further questions or comments or anything um make a motion we recommend passes to the full Council motion made by councel D second seconded by councel Kus to recommend pass to the full council is there discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I post say no motion passes item and Mr Mayor too I think during the council meeting um I'd like to call on you for this item if you and you're usually at the meetings but uh we do have three new counselors who've never done a supplemental budget before so I think that would be helpful for the public as well as um just to be sure that we have them although I know Council General is going to do a fantastic report I think it's helpful to have um it come from you as well so thank you thank you item 11145 in order authorizing $1,626 186 payment of Prior year expenditure for public building utilities Mr Mayor thank you very much Madam president this is the item that was before the council before that we withdrew uh to get more concrete numbers and provide the bills for you here so this is for the uh overages and utilities over at our public buildings mainly at the Waterford uh Community Center building um until we get tenants in there it's on us to pay that as our own um now that we have the leases out for active RFP um those are set to open on November 15th so we'll be able to hopefully award a tenant probably I'm going to guess by December 1st or second week of that month um but this is the uh previous fiscal year bills that we received in um after the July 1st start fiscal year for that building thank you and there were several things in place that we've done to reduce the cost in that building can you just give a quick synopsis of those absolutely so the uh twostory ring has had all electric heat Mini Splits installed um so that may result in some increases in electricity however that doesn't mean that the cost savings isn't there on the oil side of things uh we do need to get the boiler service but that's actually substantially lower now because we have those new systems put in place uh we are uh the lighting in the building has also been completely upgraded and converted into an LED system that's motion sensored rather than a switch system prior to that all of the classrooms had their own circuit breakers in each room so the lights could have stayed on for however long it took someone to shut that circuit breaker off uh that has since been uh completed there too and then of course we're working right now with select energy we've entered into that power purchase agreement now that the council declared the roof of that building Surplus to install a solar array on the roof uh to help with the electricity in that building too uh with the national Goods permitting we're probably still another year out before the panels get flot on that roof but we have that plan put in place think too and what does that do for the roof of that building they were actually replacing the full roof as part of that and that's at no cost of the city no cost of the city at that you I have no further questions or comments or anything councel I have nothing further thank you for providing these I know that we had asked for them so um and you're typically as thorough as possible but this is something um that's you know really helpful just kind of in best practice of full transparency so thank you um I will entertain a motion to recommend to authorize the payment so moved motion made by councelor kazinski seconded by councelor dwit to pass to recommend passage of the ORD there discussion on the motion all those in favor say I I those oppos say no motion passes item 11289 thank you auditor Richard item 11289 an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Garder part one thereof entitled administr Administration legislation um so this has been on our for a while we bring this up the last few meetings it's a very lengthy document um we do have some new information here I believe yes so you have the redline version you have a clean version of if it passes this is what the code will look like and then you have a copy of what the code currently looks like too so you can compare them all so we did request this councel generals has done a lot of work on this as well so I really appreciate kind of this the phases like the steps we've gotten this in um I think it's pretty clear I don't I I'm don't have any further requests or anything right now I just would like some time to absorb it if I'm being you know we just got it um counselor no I agree we're on version 5 six I don't know at this point um it's there's many um iterations of this um the newest as you said just got to us um like a week ago um so there's a lot to go through um we've taken our time there's no reason not continue to take our time and make sure we do it right um so I would recommend more time as well yep I'm going to I'm going to go ah have with that we'll ask for more time on this item um and Madam clerk too if we could get a copy of just this item printed for each counselor on their desks I think that would be helpful I know something like this I just for me personally I find this to be really really helpful to have in front of me um and so I'll just make a note of that to the council at the meeting but I would appreciate if we could have it this version I think I think it's worth printing out this version of it at this point so there's a footnote now that says which version it is on the bottom you can see it's version six version whatever other one it was before but thank you okay so we're going to do more time item 1142 and auth an order authorizing the city to enter into a 5-year contract for Grant rating and government Outreach Services um sorry this together um so this we received from director Cormier and uh this um we we just did one of these like previously but this was referred to us at our last meeting um I have no questions right now if you want to go ahead Mr Mayor and just explain what it is for the public watching yeah just anytime we enter into a contract for a period of over three years it requires the council to vote to approve that we can't go over 5 years but we are allowed to add those additional two years on uh this is something for the past couple years the Ci's had an on call grant writing contractor with us uh we've been capped at how much we can utilize them for because we can't go over $50,000 a year from chapter 3B unless we go out for an RFP and I didn't want to do that until we saw if it was worth it or not and now seeing the return turn that we've had on the grant writers that we've had uh in fact quite frankly we've got two right now our first contract is still active uh still has uh some funding in it with the central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission they really handle our state Grant applications that we have where Keller Partners is our full-time grant writing and lobbyist firm that we have right now they handle our um federal grants and then some of the more complicated State Grant applications just because cmrpc is a Planning Commission so they yes they do Grant but they're not you know they don't may not have the time to do that with the other projects that they're working on right there um so we that's worked out extremely well for the city in fact the returns been almost $20 million for so for a um $75,000 investment between what was first appropriated for cmrpc and what was then appropriated for uh the Keller Partners contract to have you know spend 75 get 20 million back is quite the return on that uh investment so I'd like to keep that going so one of the things that we're doing is we've reached the dollar amounts now where we have to go out for an RFP and I think it's proven successful and I'm ready to put it out and I think it's good for us to have there too um but I also think one we get a better price off of going to a 5-year contract we get a better commitment from the company because they know that we're committed to them so they're committed to us in our applications um and it's something that in order to go out for RFP we can't put the RFP out until this authorization is approved and if this authorization isn't approved then we put the RP out just for a three-year contract instead of five So the plan right now is to do a three-year contract with a a the ability to extend for an additional 2 years after that threeyear period is over uh and be able to continue those grant writing services that we have there's just so much funding that's been released from the federal government mainly and a lot of that funding is coming directly from the federal government and some of that funding is going from the federal government to the state who then has their state application that's out there too um some of it dries up in a couple years some of it doesn't some of it's been put into trust funds some of it's not some of it there just so many different complexities associated with all the funding from the American Rescue Plan app andu by parts and infrastructure law and all of those other things that are there that um it's good to have someone who just knows this and is the expert in that field so that's why I'd like to put out this RFP so this is the request for the uh RFP to be able to go out at the next council meeting I the request for the appropriation to go with that RFP uh for the first year and uh that's what i' have to say on hand thank thank you so Keller partners and cmrpc that's 75 total you said right um with a $20 million return combined y um and then can you just say real quick again what what's the the contract with either of those so we started two years ago with a contract with cmrpc it was a 2-year contract uh that said that they would help us with our state Grant applications uh so those are grants like the green communities Grant the best practices Grant the compact grants and all those other things that come directly from the state um they've done a good job helping us with those grants um and it's those grants that are above and beyond what we're able to do in house houses particularly with the staff changes that we've had in some departments that have been helpful in making training those staff on those Grant applications that are done in house um but that's really more of a technical assistance where Keller partner is really the uh firm that writes the Grant and does all the reporting for the grant once received too so that really takes the full burden off the city's staff on that one there too that the reason why there was a little bit of overlap is that we had a little funding left over in the $25,000 that was appropriated for cmrpc so we were able to carry them over a little bit into this year that funding will be exhausted at the end of this year I was just saying that as an example to show how we've utilized these services in the past and how we're able to kind of see where that could take us in the future um this RFP would leave us with just one gr writing service thank you and then so you said it was 3 years to extend to 5 years yeah so it's a threeyear contract and if they you good at the end of the three the two the parties can agree to just extend the contract for an additional 2-year period okay and so what we what the council would be doing in this because the vote is to authorize the administration enter into a 5-year contract for grant writing so is that it's a contract for up to five years up to five years okay so since anytime we have the option to extend over that we actually need Council approval too so even if say we decide after the initial threeyear period you know what it's just not working out it's just an evaluated period so you locked in for at least that could go up to the five the three years of contingency but you want to have the opportunity to go up to five so that's I just want to be sure that was clear okay thank you uh and then in terms of when we we get grants and we have to receive them from the city and they have to go in all the right places to be recorded correctly and maybe that helps that the Auditors here that that's done well the communication is going well with these places yep okay oh yeah okay um I think I remember when we did the cmrpc grant we talked about this we were like one Grant is going to to cover the cost of this and it seems like that's what's happened um which is a good thing and I think we do a really good job in the city of not only applying obviously because we have this in place but we also seek them out we know that the money is available and we have to apply for it and do certain things um and I think on the city end which a lot of what the city council's responsible for is we have to approve money to be spent in the city and if certain Grant um entities I guess I would call it cuz it could be Federal state or private if they see that you invest in your own City a lot of the time they are way more likely to look at you as someone that it's worth spending the money that they have available on because you put your own money into it as well uh so I think that's a really good partnership of the work that we have to do here with you know certain projects and things that we end up putting some of our own money into um and it's a good it's it's a good justification for it um because we get this this basically supplemental money which is I mean it's like you know a third of our budget I mean quarter of our city budget through grant money so I I support this uh and I like to know that there's that three or contingency I think that's actually a really great feature uh councel do you have any comments or questions no the not really just the return Investments obviously fantastic here um the if we are I guess one question if we are going down to one grant writer are they going to help with the state level and federal level gr they're going to body at all instead of two separate entities that we have right yeah that be in the RP be in the RP yeah I mean and while we worked with these two it could be someone who's not these two that's how these work could be work to someone else too but it's one of those things that we evaluate on um the lessons that we've learned cmrpc charges by the hour for grant writing services Keller charged a flat monthly fee for unlimited grant writing during that month but an application may open up that month an application may not open up that month um cmrpc Sol did grant writing work Keller also provided lobbying work where they went and advocated for the grant applications or the initiatives that the city um had going on that were related to some type of funding too I think one of the things that I'd like to do with whoever is awarded the contract in the end is actually bring them in to present the you know at an informal meeting of the council if that's what the council choose us to do so that you can one meet who they are and do see the full work that they're doing because the council is going to be appr appropriating all the matching funds that are required to these two and even though the state just passed the federal matching bill that allows for funding from the state stabilization of accounts interest to be given to cities and towns as grants to cover the federal side of the match those are still competitive applications to get that match covered by the state uh so I think one way or the other it's good to just get a full picture of what they're doing they've got 158 million do worth of applications currently pending uh for the city right now and we're not going to get half of those but at least we try and maybe we get half and maybe we get 3/4 maybe we get one of those six but in the end we get something more than what we have right now yeah I have possibly applied for you know a fraction of that amount and got half of that so it's a big difference to get all those applications out there and having someone um you whatever group it may be lobbying for it as well is fantastic I would um I would I'm sorry Cel I would um I would suggest too and I know that we have a lot of um you you know your office does press releases and all those kinds of things but if there's like a place that we keep grants like the name of the grant how much we get all that stuff if we could like put that on the city's website you what I mean like in one spot um I just think that type of thing is is helpful and just effort for transparency but also for people to really understand there's a lot of work that goes behind getting that money but again the return is just so much richer than the work that goes into it um or sorry paying for the work that goes into it that it's worth doing but I think you know you say we got 20 million back I having that itemized is it it only works you know to the benefit of of the support that gets behind having this kind of a contract so in in the future I would just suggest doing that to the the meeting you talked about not only for the council for people at home of you know process how it works and what type of things the whoever the group will be not pursuing well I mean especially as a city counselor too I could tell you or any of us in the positions I can tell you there's a project going on or there's something happening in the city and people don't know who pays for it and we do a great job I think of putting signs out being like this is federal funded or state funded and City funded or whatever it is but um I just we get the questions all the time especially when people see some of the Cosmetic stuff that's done on the just and I I think credit should go where it's too and it's like well hey you paid for it but also we have a good partnership with whoever you know in the state or at the federal level or private you know company or whatever who helped us out with it I just think that's um really helpful cuz I think it it to me it's helped with conversations with constituents about how things work and and the work that goes into it and why we do it so um and the money is going to go somewhere that's the other thing it's available if it's choice of Gardener's money going to Tuscaloosa tuscaloosa's money coming to Gardener I'd rather get might here mhm no I I would definitely agree with that um so I think on this item I will motion to recommend passes to the full Council um I would second that motion made by councel General seconded by councelor kazinski to recommend passes to the full council is there a discussion on motion all those in favor say I I those oppos say no motion passes I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second motion me by councelor out second by counsil gets to adjourn all those in favor say I I I those suppos say no motion passes meeting stands adjourned thank you