##VIDEO ID:TXM1LqqL4Wc## all this week she's all right yes we do um councelor Levy is on Zoom counselor Levy huh no she's going to be on Zoom tonight on Zoom yep good evening and welcome to the B budget welcome to the Personnel committee meeting today is Wednesday December 11th it is now council president what time is it it's uh 6:3 6:13 p.m. voting members present we have to my right um council president javanni Rodriguez on Zoom councelor Anna Levy and myself pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2022 this meeting of the Personnel committee is being conducted both in person and via remote participation a reminder that persons who would like to listen or view this meeting while while in progress May either attend here at the city council chamber or use any of our social media um pages this time can you join me in a moment of silence for the father of Lieutenant Jay cillo who recently passed away and served the City of Lawrence as a fighter fighter for many years can you now join me in the flag the pledge pledge Ali to the flag the United States of America the United States of America na God indivisible councilors can I have a motion to untable item um P can you do a roll oh now we have councelor Wendy lzone joining us councelor we're voting to untable the HR um the HR Director update yes okay um R call uh councelor Levy councelor Levy yes council president Rodriguez yes councelor lzone yes and the chair votes in the affirmative councelors can I also have a motion to to accept um our city clerk as the as the minute taker for the this exe executive session motion has been made by the council president is there a second second second by Council Levy discussion seeing none uh roll call council president yes councelor Levy yes councelor lzone is noted as absent and the chair votes yes Council now can I have a motion to go into executive session um I'll make a motion can we have the disclaimer for the motion specifically for what purpose do you have the oh I'm sorry yes yes so we are going into executive uh session for the purpose of personnel um matters pertaining to the Personnel department and it also involves the possibility of strategy for litigation and it possibly involves the strategy for a later initiative um can I have a motion to go into executive session I'll make a motion um staying for the purpose of the personal matters and and a strategy for potentially motion has been made by the council president there is second second second by Council uh discussion seeing none coun Levy recognize you Council Levy yes uh council president yes councel lone yes and the chair votes in the affirmative um at this point councils can we please meet and in in the uh city council conference table e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e councelor Lev is noted as absent and the chair votes yes all right back to the top of the agenda item 5779 d24 extend 90day temp tempor temporary appointment of meix Bona as chief of police brought To Us by Mr aella or cafo and acting Personnel director um C you have the floor yes councelors uh U mx's uh 90-day appointment is expiring and we're asking for an additional 90 days while we're uh pursuing the police chief's uh search thank you um Chief you are here today with us is there anything you would like to say or you all set councelor do you have any questions for chief Bonia should I do council president uh Chief Bonia can you tell us uh the last three month of uh of your uh experience on the job can you tell us a little uh a little more about uh why do you think that we should uh voting in favor for the next three month as based on your experience in the last 6 month you want me to tell you what I've been done the last three months so the reason why the last three months so in the last three months the Lawrence Police Department uh have responded to 10,589 I'm sorry I I got the wrong paper so since September 1st to November 30th the Lawrence Police Department have responded to 13,180 calls for service 1,5 96 motor vehicle stop uh we responded to 997 noise calls we issue 670 motor vehicle citations uh we criminally charged 133 individual in valious on chapter 90 violation which is motor vehicle violations and we arrested 321 individuals additionally uh year today from January 1st to November 30th uh part crime on part one crime had decreased by 10 % compared to this time last year and when we talk about part one crimes we're talking about homicide rapes um robbery aggravated assault felony um lony uh burglary and motor vehicle death uh not on we have decreased the crime on on domestic aggravated assault autot and Commercial burglary they all down and when we talk about that the street narcotic unit we have confiscated uh 10,589 gr of fentanyl 4,746 gr of cocaine 7 17 gr of methenamine 5,000 50,000 pills of fanton pills and 10 thou and 10 pounds of marijuana um additionally to that uh last week and Captain agulara was here with Fleming and when we talk about the homeless problem in the city of lawence you know this is a new way of policing I remember on 38 years ago when I started we only have one hom individual and now we're over like 300 and we have all these encampments that we have to um you know try try to get rid of them uh in the last U three months I've been working on recruitment or new offices uh we have five in the academy right now and 15 that are going through a background process uh and they do to start the academy March this year and as soon as we finish this on on this 15 on background process invest vation we are going to call for another 15 we want to bring we want to put on at least 30 of them and another thing that's being occupied in my time is a new building I don't know if you've been around the new building but it's going now we already have the fourth uh the fourth floor we're going to be needing and soon they're going to be wrapping it up so they could do the inside the electrical and the plumbing and besides that and and we uh obtain permission to buy five new cruises they on the way uh I've been attending the neighborhood meetings and on my contestent meeting on the chief's office this is every day two or three people come to see me from the community so that's what I've been doing the last three months uh and if you have any other questions that I could answer councelors any other questions mad coun uh the chief forgot to mention the uh neighborhood meetings Association that he attends thank you for doing that I think he did I think he did he said meeting okay yeah I mention it all right good I I didn't okay good that you did can I ask a a question to the C uh Madame Sher if I me [Applause] yep um thank you Madame CH to you so Ka uh and um we know that the chief has been doing everything that he can and doing a very good job uh based on the circumstances but we are also concerned about the police chief search committee do you have any update in regards to that and I'm assuming that Chief Bonia if he uh interested in in the position he's going to apply or he already did because everybody has uh councelor we have an item do you want to do you want to untable it no I wanted just listen to his help dat uh so people can um listen we we have an actual item for your question yes that's tabled currently so it's okay with you madam chair I don't have a problem do you want to sure all right um a after this though after we finish with this actually is this a question um you want you want us to yeah can I have can I have a motion to table item 57924 the um EX on the 90day period for chief Pon motion as is there a second second proberbly seconded um council president yes councelor Zone yes councelor Levy yes and the chair votes yes can I have a t can I have an item um a motion to untable item 39323 police chief position search committee and update motion to un table item 393 d23 so move motion has been made um probably seconded roll call C council president yes um councilor Levy yeah councelor lzone yes and the chair votes yes go ahead councilor lzone thank you Madame chair uh so can you give us an update uh on the uh search committee for the police chief I I don't have my specific notes in front of but the uh consultant who's uh consulting firm who's doing the police search uh informed me Monday that I believe they have approximately 20 applicants uh there's approximately I think they've performed seven or eight interviews uh they're doing the first interviews and they down to a a batch of seven to 10 for the search committee to review uh the uh believe the um this the posting expires uh December December 27th uh I think he mentioned the consultant mentioned depending on how many applicants they've received they may extend it two more weeks at the most uh but if they get enough uh applicants by December 27th they'll close the posting and complete it uh so we're just waiting for the uh search committee to be appointed we're hoping the search committee can be appointed about mid uh January which is when we would probably begin the uh be ready to begin the interview process uh so according to the information that we received that uh city council will appoint a member of that committee Madame chair is that correct because we haven't get any information in regards to that is my understanding that was the original proposal yes um an appointee from the city council and then the the community applicants three from the community one from the mayor's office one from the city council two from the police department and the police department have one already uh appointee which was a uh the certification officer uh something like that uh that they the officer that deal with the certification of the police department so that's that's my understanding as of how the committee is going to be we we having have we're having here or otherwise and we hope that stays like that CU otherwise going be another issue thank you counc president mad Madame chair so I'm assuming that at some point we're going to receive uh an email by the contact person for the search committee in regards to what the council president just mentioned that will that be accurate uh I I don't know we haven't appointed a search committee that's in the mayor's office to appoint the search committee so what what's you know if you indicated the the items that you indicated uh uh I'll find out uh and see if there if a memo has gone out to the council to choose someone so there has been multiple there has been multiple have you appointed anybody yet no because we don't have any correspondents yeah in other words has a as a correspondence receiv the mayor's office the issue was that uh the person that was appointing the committee putting everything together for the committee was the former um H H HR Director so councelor um coun councelor lazon you you missed uh you you weren't available um for the form for the last Personnel committee meeting we spoke about this and one of the topics of discussion was this committee um I I was very frustrated that during that meeting because there was a lot of I don't knows okay and um and from the way that I was interpreted at the the the the um the presentation my understanding was that this committee the Community Committee uh was no longer part of of the process even though we've been advertising it for months and we had people apply for it and we had we have multiple I believe it's three correct me if I'm wrong council president three inquiries uh from the HR department asking for a city council appointee um the presentation well the discussion that was presented before us uh from uh the acting HR Director currently was more of that we have this this um we have this Consulting agency that's doing all the work and that once once um you know they narrow it down then then the council gets involved which is not the original proposal uh that was presented multiple times to this committee um I also questioned the cfle about his adonal um I asked him in terms of as being the head of that department of being the the the you know the the main director um how was it that he wasn't aware of the actual processes or the work that was being done for something as big of a matter as this uh so that's I recommend councelor lzone that that you go back to the recording of that that meeting because that was a very very important discussion thank you Madame chair uh and my question uh is based on the letter of resignation that we just received uhhuh yes I just mentioned it I just mentioned so C is going to be in charge out of order that's not out of order C mad chair can I get a motion for a 10-minute recess so move motion has been made is there a second I moving second um council president yes councelor Levy councelor Levy yes and councilor Lon no and the chair votes yes motion you e e e e e Mo by the council president uh Council second by councelor Levy roll call council president yes uh councelor I mean councelor Levy councelor Levy yes and the chair votes yes can I have a motion to table item to retable item 393-2320 can I get a motion to untable item 57924 with a favorable recommendation to the PO Council motion has been M discussion is there a second Madame chair discussion I need a second second is there a second discussion councelor lzone I have a question for kafo and I spoke with the mine cler okay thank you madam chair let me re read uh frame the question so and and I'm going to re ask uh ask the question again my understanding is going to be a vacancy on the humans resource uh Department who's going to be in charge of the search for the chief of police are we have do we have any information on that the chief of police we have a firm doing the police police chief search we hired a professional uh police search firm if you will and they're searching for the police chief which I just indicated uh they have approximately uh uh 20 applicants they've done uh uh I believe they performed seven interviews already they're trying to get the uh narrow the number of applicants down to 7 to 10 for the search committee committee to review and then they'll recommend uh you know two or three uh to the mayor and then the city mayor will present somebody to the city council for confirmation that's the general process and I understand also that there was you had a meeting there was a meeting I was not present and it was a lot of uh Missing information the community and the people that I represent is concerned about this committee Serv they don't have complete answer are we going to get at some point a report from this well the mayor hasn't appointed the search committees so I'm not sure what your question is once once once he appoints the committee uh you know is there going to be three community members uh you know um if that was if that was conveyed uh to the council before presumably with the mayor's approval then that's what's going to be appointed by do it looks like that we we don't have a time frame to get an answer from the mayor's office on this committee yet no I think it's in mid January okay advisor spanner you're from the administration can you come up to the podium please good evening committee chair Infante City councilors good evening thank you good evening um what is your understanding on on the process of this this community search committee that was originally uh planned for for the yeah as you as you saw tonight or heard tonight there was a uh uh a change in HR and uh the mayor would come up with a um some information to this body pretty soon that's the best I can go there are going to be changes okay all right now I'm going to call the rooll so this is a motion to send this to send item 57924 with a favorable recommendation councilor president yes councelor lzone yes councelor Levy councelor lvy yes and the chair votes in the affirmative thank you Chief yes yes next item we have is item 58-24 the appointment of AA Santana as Deputy D DPW director brought To Us by the cfle cfle you have the floor so councelors in your packet you have a a letter um sorry in your packet you have a a letter uh from from me uh uh with the following U items are attached the uh in in accordance with the uh with the city ordinances there's an opinion of the City attorney there's a copy of ordinance pertaining to the position uh there's copy of the job posting is enclosed for your review and the application and resume of the applicants can we have the applicant we do have the applicant and the uh DPW director and the applicant for Deputy DPW director here tonight how many people applied for this position um I don't have that in this package a second let see if it's in here oh Jorge's got it director evening coun jge DP director 200 common stre so the position was posted twice the first time just one applicant we have we repos the the position searching for more because there were two vacancies and uh the second time three applicant um send um applications counselors any questions regarding the position itself not not the not the applicant but the position itself myself before I move on see uhad uh what are the responsibility of this uh POS of this what are the responsibilities for the job description so is in the is in the job posting here okay you mind reading for the people that are watching the meeting okay assist the DPW directors in overall management and administration of the department operations supervise and coordinate the activities of DPW divisions including but no limited to highways maintenance sanitation Fleet Maintenance and Facilities maintenance develop and Implement policies um Pro procedures and programs to enhance the departamental efficiency effective effective Effectiveness plan prioritize and allocate resources for Public Works projects and initiative in accordance with Department departmental goals and objectives monitor monitor projects Pro uh progress budgets and expend ators to ensure uh to EST establish time timelines and financial constraints collaborate with the other Municipal departments and um as well as external agencies and stakeholders to coordinate Public Works activities and address Community needs provide leadership and guidance to Department departmental staff uh team work accountability and continuous improvements represented the PW director in accents and serve as alation with elector officials Community groups and the public on matters related to public works as others as assigned as the DPW as by the DPW director too thank you thank you Mr Heim [Music] all right now I would like to call up the applicant Miss Ida Santana to address the council I mean the committee hello good hi good evening councelors how are you a Santana 200 commissary and I'm acting deputy director of DPW I I would like to see say some words um I am so honored to be here for the opportunity at least to speak on my behalf and I would like to speak about myself and my commitment and connection with Lawrence my journey began in 1990 when my parents immigrated to Lawrence with me and my siblings to look for a better future this city welcome us became our home and has shaped me to the woman that you see in front of you today I'm a product of Lawrence my parents became business owners they're not only were business owners they believe in serving and giving to the community my mother owned a beauty salon and what she did was she opened the door for homeless to do their hair and for anyone that needed guidance and needed um business guidance um to help the community my father owned a mechanic shop which reflected in hard work and resilience and that's what we lawen what we are in Lawrence hardworking their example of service has always been guiding me and and inspiring me in my life after my mother passed away of breast cancer sorry I made a promise to carry on her legancy of helping others Lawrence is where I grew up Lawrence is where I went to school Lawrence is where I had my kids and Lawrence is where I started my career professionally I've always looked for roles that challenge me to and allow me to serve the community I was the legal assistant and office manager for the law offices of Socrates De La Cruz I gained skills in client relations in contracts and office operations while learning the value of teamwork and Leadership later I worked in financial sector at marry MC Valley Credit Union and John dark Credit Union where I developed expertise in account management problem solving and providing excellent service this experience has shaped me with my dedication in professionalism work ethics and making a positive impact in any role that I have wanting to serve the Community Serve Lawrence I appli for DPW office supervisor position after seeing it online from my first conversation with DPW director I knew that was the right fit his leadership remind me of the mentors that has shaped me to the woman you see today I saw this role as a change and a and a change of growth and serve my community contributing to my city with my background illegal and finance contracts I brought valuable skills to the department and focus on learning and improving I earned my mcpo certification and attended seminars of topics like Paving estate contracts to better support the city's projects each steps reflects my dedication to grow and my achievement to best serve my community when this position DPW deputy director position became available I saw it as an opportunity to bring everything I have worked so hard for through leadership programs and continuous development into a position where I can make a difference I can follow that Legacy this position allows me to apply my skills and passion to impact the the city that shaped me a in a positive way and help Drive progress throughout my career I have embraced roles at that are challenging always driven by my commitment to learning and providing reliable Service as acting deputy director I have managed over 50 contracts including change orders such as those at streets and park par holes sidewalks repair electrical service and rockar procurement among others this responsibilities have strengthened my expertise in procurement and contract management key components in addition to managing contracts I am leading several important projects I am leading the solar lights that we are going to Implement in some of the parks in Lawrence we rent test of two units and once that is completed and to go to we have 18 more to to to implement I'm sorry no go ahead okay sorry I'm also um leading the Mario bridge and is currently we just had a meeting today currently with the engineers and mass do because we're in the scoping phase I am I'm also leading this with um the planning and the planning supervisor the street lights repairs we took the initiative after so many feedbacks that our lights are being broken and that double PS and a lot of other things I took the initiative to reach out to the secur team a National Grid and through that that initiative now we have monthly meetings with the directors and National Grid to see progress and this area I also manag the day-to-day operations of the office including the staff requisition purchase orders communication within the department ensuring everything runs smoothly and on time no Gap I also coordinate the director's office meeting schedule and represent him when needed a key focus of mine is it has been to improve communication within or Department initiating monthly meetings with water sewer Park and building facilities to align um everyone to be updated these meetings will help ensure all areas of of our department work efficiently and together if given the honor of permanent appointment my priorities will focus on improving Department efficiency enhancing public services and fostering collaboration more collaboration key initiative I plan to continue and expand include steamline operations implementing policies that promote efficiency across all divisions with the DPW safety and City structures prioritizing Community focused projects while Main maintaining physical responsibility Community engagement continuing to build stronger relationships with residents and stakeholders to achieve a common goal I have worked very hard my entire life to be here I worked hard to overcome challenges in any role I take and I am dedic ated to helping our city to continue to grow and improve Lawrence is not just the place I work it is where my heart is where my family is and where the community is that saw me grow I want to make a difference I humbly ask for your trust and support to continue serving as DPW deputy director together we can keep improving the city thank you again for the opportunity as there's a saying if we want to go fast we go alone but if we want to go far we go together with your support we can continue to go far improving our city and making a better place for everyone that calls their home thank you so much thank you Miss Sana councelor do you have any questions Madam chair councelor Lon um Santana you don't have any uh Municipal experience this is your first job at with the city is that accurate I you have a lot of legal backgrounds um I have I have legal background Financial background which inter is a skill that transfers we are aware of that my question is that if you have any municipality experience if if you work for any for the city before taking up on this uh job or if you work in another city that's my question no no I haven't worked for a city and no experience with uh I know you have to work very close with the engineer uh uh this is the first time that you do that type of job with engineer with an engineer it I worked my entire career with different professionals so that's a skill that transfer to any title that anyone has so I haven't worked directly with someone that handles engineering but I have worked with many professionals CEOs legal representation so thank you thank you for your answer but the question still the same there's no experience she mean she means during within your acting capacity have you have you have have you worked with Engineers within your acting capacity I think that's within the acting capacity yes of course that's DPW that's other dpw's division so we work closely with the engineers but you have to you chair you have not worked with Engineers before no or in any municipality before no previously ma no counil no thank you that's a question okay any other questions council president um question so looking at the ordinance have you look at the ordinance 26480 that is in the package for this position I I don't have that package with me it's in the package I'm sorry just had it okay have it in front of me can you describe your experience describing uh based on the definition of the ordinance that we have I have worked closely obviously in DPW as an aced deputy director um closely with streets and park which handles Landscaping I do the contracts for landscaping so I've worked directly with those those vendors I've done the contracts as I said for the sidewalks Road Works um repairs and construction I'm working closely with the bridge that we're going to repair um which is the Mario Bridge as I explained so most of my skills and career the skills that I have leadership in my previous job are trans are transferred to what I do now um based on what I'm seeing here well based on what I have here that you do a lot of the work relation and related to uh office work um and the assistant uh the DPW director uh at that capacity correct I do a lot of that in that capacity yes can you describe your line of work directly related to the office work that you do based on the ordinance that you have in front of you I Implement policies monitor Financial operations Capital improve Improvement projects I do any projects through the director's request that participate in administrations and planning I assist that director as ass said to his um in meetings when he's not um present did that answer your question president counil I'm seeing here that there is a requirement for Education which is a high school diploma you mentioned that you have um you have graduate from um from from the local University right yes I graduated from Neco I have an associate of of business management I have several leadership um certificates I provided uh a package for The Honorable counselors to see my certificates uh I have a leadership certificate from Mil city um Institute uh certificate from The National Society and Leadership success which it was appointed by Northern exus Community College because of my um academics success um they don't they don't offer it to everyone so I'm very honored that I was part of that I did that certificate I've done business certification so um I have over more than just a diploma high school diploma I'm a nor Republic as well I was a commissioner of Deeds of the new of the city of um the state of New Hampshire sorry what that is is uh judge have to appoint you so you can um take notes in court but that's expired now but I I used to do that so talk to me about that uh your experience when it comes to uh office related work for any type of operation related to uh snow removals repairs and constructions and uh and uh any type of uh Water and Sewer assistance that you provide to the water and SE Department yes in my Administration work I have to make sure that there's no Laps on contracts I have to make sure that those contracts are are working and in budget so there is no so the constructions or the repair works are continuing in the operational part um can you repeat the question again please I'm sorry anything related to uh repairs and constructions um sewer operations in regarding to the sewer water departments that the DPW um assist when it comes to that department H we usually also get most of the complaints of feedback come to DPW which it comes to me so I collaborate with water department directly to have to make sure that they go to our residents and take care of that so in the administrative part I have to work in the office making sure that everyone is communicated everyone is having the information he needs um probably it's not I'm not sure if the my nervousness is not um giving you the answer but I practically run everything that has to do with Administration in the office so if there's a there's a sidewalk that is being repaired it's because of the work that I've done behind the scene with the contracts and making sure that every vendor it's it with or divisions and Department are are strongly connected and collaborating so essentially you deal with the personal matters within the department in a lower capacity the other acting deputy director deals more with that that issue and um so basically I'm seeing and based on what you describ in you working a lot with with that uh with the administration portion of the uh of the department that is correct okay all right no more question thank you thank you councilor ly do you have any questions uh no thank you mad chair just was was change the to deputy director language the 264 uh 080 so see I'm looking a little Downs on the application and the opportunity publish you know is practically completely different what it is in there what it is um on the application careful not sure I heard the question was it something about the ordinance job the job application is different from the language of the ordinance can you hear well the the the ordinance is just a summarized version of the job description so the job description is probably in more detail but it should be uh similar we just uh they said that quality so on the jion or the whatever that was published they said bachelor degree or an associate in related fi prefer at least three year of progressively responsibility experience and Public Work Administration can you hear me yes yes councelor he's he's looking find the okay here's the U missing a piece of it so the deputy director shall have a minimum 5 years of progressively responsible Municipal operating experience a high school graduate shall possess specialized knowledge of Municipal Public Work operation and shall be familiar with the financial operation of the department and you're saying the job description is a little different than that so yes it's a little F you be readed as the qualifications qualifications y uh let's see this is the uh Deputy DPW director um well uh it does say draft on this copy I don't know if they changed it for the final I just notice it says draft on the beginning of this uh uh the job posting uh but under qualifications it does say bachelor's degree or or an associates and related field preferred at least 3 years from respons experience so it is a little different than from the ordinance so we don't know if if the the application language is the first or the second yeah well they posted it twice well the the uh the job posting I think is what you're referring to yeah the job posting yeah the job posting in the thein this is the job opportunity and down there in the ordinance there is not a lot of uh details what we always try to do in the job posting to attract uh applicants as you as you can see he just ask for a you know um high school diploma but we always ask for something else and we prefer just if we don't get what we asking for so but if somebody with those qualifications appli so we we choose that as a prefare so we had we had two positions open and there were just three applicants and uh two of them are in front of you tonight who who put who put the the documents together so Scott was the personal director no for for tonight for tonight's meeting who put everything together um HR HR put this work together yep all right thank you C councelor president council president council president do you have any further questions I'm good you're good all right I have two questions um tell me about a time that you were faced with a challenge during your act I'm not with all the respect I'm not I'm I'm not going to ask you about your your administrative portion of of of your of of your duties but as acting DPW director tell me about a time that you had a challenge and how did you handle it that you fac a challenge and how did you handle it any challenge any challenge within we have challenge every day so within your acting capacity as DPW director I went blank but let me please um I went black but one one of the challenge maybe that's not a huge one but it is a challenge um was when we ordered the um solar poles to put um in the Parks unfortunately we couldn't receive it on the timing matter that we needed and I just got another idea after that so I'll say another one um so I had to reach out and and and think outside the box in order to have that on time and make sure that it's going to be that's why we're doing the the installation of two before we install all of them to make sure that um everything run smoothly um so it went back on time because I was able to reach the right person think outside the box and just reach the right person so he can get here I know that we wanted to have it here before October and that didn't help but we had it um on a time that next year everything that we had planned on those solid poles will be placed I just had a uh like I said when I was saying that I just thought about uh a challenge National Grid a huge challenge for us um having poles double polling poles being removed attaching to another pole and taking or lights and putting it on the floor so it can or lights was broken um sometimes they were they would do jobs take out not illuminated and then leave it unilluminated needed so how did I handle that challenge as I said thinking outside the box with my experience before with executive I reach out to the CEO on National Grid explain the city's um issues concerns and how that is now it it it's their tax money and by doing that we're losing money we're also making the city not look as as beautiful as we have all worked very hard to look beautiful so reaching out to the executive to the CEO itself uh the CEO sent an executive team their director and from that is that we are having now monthly meetings with National Grid to make sure that they listen to all of our concerns so if there's anything that you would like to let them know please every month we're having a meeting with them you are more than welcome to also raise your concerns and uh that is a challenge that I had and that I'm seeing progress due to our monthly meetings and thinking outside the box right thank you my next question is and again this is within the the time frame of of your acting DPW director capacity what is one aspect of the job so far that you excel in and what is one what is one aspect that you believe um you need to improve in one aspect that I believe that I exceed in is communication I I I like communication I like everything to be documented maybe because of my previous um employers um I think I exceed in communication and deadlines deadlines is something so important for the city because a deadline skipping a deadline on a contract means that we can lose a lot of money or not have an important contract vendor for a project for salt if I don't if I don't pay attention to those little details um in reference to dates we might not have salts if I don't pay attention to the budget we might not have the the the the necessary um budgeting Finance for the projects that the city needs to improve so I think I excel on that what I don't Excel on is I have no ties with politics so I'm saying sometimes I need to learn so that's a a a a an area that I need to learn um probably that but um that's my answer thank you and I know you you present you you gave a a great speech at the beginning of of your your present of your Testament but I'm going to end it it's it's repeated I'm going to end the discussion with this question one sentence only why should the city council confirm you because I love Lawrence I'm from Lawrence and I work heart to to excel in any role that I have thank you you know thank Miss Sana Madame chair councel LZ uh just a reminder to Mrs uh Santiago Sana Santana my apologies no worries part of your I think it's part of the ordinance part of the the the posting it mention that you supposed to be a license between DPW and elected officials just to put it out there uh perhaps you need to work a little bit more on that because you just said that you need to learn more about the politics of your job but it's it's also part of your responsibility to be a a licon between uh Community groups elected officials and the general public just to put it up there and I know you mention that you need to work on that what I meant I'm sorry um L it's it's fair that you're and I think it being honest is good but I just going to put it out there as a reminder May I have the floor yes okay thank you so much what I meant by that is not that I don't I'm not a lient within the community my entire life is connecting people with people and resources that they need I I just do that as a passion so when I meant politics I didn't mean as a lizen or as someone that can connect um the um or residents with what they need what I meant is um the I I believe we all we understand we we all understand there's certain aspects of of any job not just municip a municipal position private what wherever you go there are there are certain parts of the job that we won't know 100% you learn it as you go being the liaison to the to us to to the elected officials for DPW you're you're going to you're going to you're going to have to come before us more and more and then you'll get that as as a time comes as of now you've only had to come before us once or twice that's okay it happens if you were to get confirmed I'm sure there'll be more more times where where you're you're going to be required to be in front of us and that experience will come M I don't see if I may if I may ask I don't see her address in the resume do you live in Lawrence I don't I don't leave in law thank you you're welcome all right counselors at this point I'll entertain a motion I would like I wouldn't like to make the motion since I'm visiting the committee any other Council Levy councel lzone at this point I'll entertain a motion actually can I have a motion to send this up as a committee report second motion has been made she came Oh I thought she made a a motion motion to send as a committee report motion has been made is there a second second properly seconded uh discussion seeing none I'll call the RO council president yes Council lzone aain councelor Levy councelor Levy Council voted yes and the chair votes yes thank you so much thank you for your time the next item is item the Rosario as Deputy DPW DPW director cfle you have the floor and again councilors your package is the same we have the opinion of the City attorney the copy of the ordinance pertaining to the position copy of the job posting and the application in resume of Ranna Del Rosario the applicant for deputy director can we call M Mrs Del Rosario to the podium please M Rosario please say your name and address for the record and the floor is yours good evening councilors rosan Rosario acting DPW deputy director for the City of Lawrence 200 Common Street City of Lawrence first I would like to start thanking all of you for the opportunity of having me here tonight I am honored to be considered for the position of deputy director of publicly works for the city of lawence my with the city has been a journey of growth service and commitment to fostering sustainability and Community Improvement I began my career in Lawrence as a recycling coordinator a role that introduced me to a critical topic of sustainability this subject quickly became a passion of mine especially as I realized the unique challenges of educating an immigrant Community about something that they may never have encountered before and that is recycling through this role I learned the importance of engaging with the community and implementing practical solutions to make a lasting impact as a recycling coordinator I Empower our community secure larger recycling containers to make recycling more accessible for our residents increase funding I successfully obtained 56 $56,000 in Grants for two consecutive years this l of funding was never received in the City of Lawrence before I also navigated operational challenges I had to address disruptions caused by the acquisition of JRM by Republic Services despite significant challenges I had to negotiate with Waste Management to accept Len's recyclable material overcoming overcoming prior refusals due to our high contamination rates my work has always been driven by the goal of finding sustainable and effective solutions for our city I have consistently sought opportunities to grow and expand my knowledge attending key conferences and earning certifications that have shaped my approach to Public Works leadership some of those um conferences I will mention here I attended in August of 2022 my first ever conferences in in atin Texas in this conference which was very special I connected with solid waste reduction advocates and explore Innovative Recycling strategies I was also brought to a side in which I was able to see what happened with our recyclable material once it's collected that really opened my eyes in December of 2022 I went to San Diego California and attended the swana executive Leadership Summit there I attended a workshop such as such as managing the public sector after covid-19 as you all know it's very difficult to retain employees after the pandemic it was very interesting to see what the other sectors in other municipalities all around the country are doing to to make it better for them to rain their their employees and that is something that I can apply at the moment in this curing role I also attended in September of 2023 the swana Wast conferences here in Boston there I was able to participate in classes focusing over overcoming challenges faced by government offices including strategies for collaboration and problem problem solving something that I'm able to use on a daily basis in this current acting deputy director role in January of 2024 I assisted the Massachusetts Municipal association meeting and trade show this was a very exciting time because the governor and the lieutenant governor were there to announce a lot of funding that were coming to communities like ours and recently in November of 2024 I attended a public work Summit in toxan Arizona this was a very special time in which only 50 Public Works officials or directors were able to attend this Summit during those three days we were focused in collaborating with each other and learning with each other on how to excel in the roles that we that we're um doing at the moment I'm I am also proud of ser to serve as a board member of Mass recycle which is the only Massachusetts organization dedicated to dedicated to improving recycling through real world Solutions and Community engagement additionally I have completed the associate Massachusetts certified public purchasing official program which has en enhanced my ability to navigate procurement process effectively what is the vision for this role well if I am given the opportunity to serve as a deputy director of publicly works I will continue to Champion sustainability and Equitable access to resources drive operational efficiency and innovation in public works I will stength Community Partnerships to ensure every resident benefits from our efforts Foster and motivate and scill Workforce ready to tackle our cities evolving needs Advance the cing projects I am overseeing as AC as acting deputy director which are managing the sanitation department which encompasses a student Park cleaning operations throughout all seasons including the curing snow season as student and addressing traffic challenges in our city such as the increasing number of accidents at intersections that I am aware all of you are aware of in working towards practical data driven Solutions also collaborating with our water and sewer commissioner on in on initiatives like like the storm water resilience resilience master plan to address floating issues caused by heavy rainfell rainfall as you all know we were we have been really hurt by the rain and how it damages our properties and in our houses also working with our personal director to develop policies that ensure accountability for our labor employees while safeguarding the city equipment overseeing on the job injuries of Labor employees and implementing training programs to help prevent such incidents and promote a workplace safety and last but not least handle the public words I handle the all the emails that public words receives while getting this emails is very interesting to see that our residents really report how worryed they are about their City what they would like to have change in our city and also they can have complaints that I can see and I can direct to whichever other department or division within the public work it needs to be sent to it is an incredible honor to repres Lawrence in every capacity I've serve my dedication to this community runs deep as you know I live in Lawrence for the past 17 years this has been my home I was able to bring my whole family from the Dominican Republic to live here I am raising my three kids in this community also and I and I plan to keep leaving in here I am eager eager to bring my experience and passion to this role thank you for your time consideration and I'm welcome any questions that you guys may have thank you Mrs the Rosario councelors any questions Madame chair councelor lozon I have a question for the uh DPW director uh jman director Heyman so for the both positions we have the same job description that's correct okay great are they doing now that we hear from uh f for then they doing separately separate uh they have separate job responsibilities I'm assuming as a Sign by the DPW director why do we need two deputies director so I I also said in front of you even when I brought this position in front of you that you do not need to we need at least five okay but that's what we have so as you as consors you probably know how many calls do I receive a day for complaints for all type of things that we are you know dently managing throughout both thies on the supervisor so the department is huge the city is growing the needs are you know getting more and more so that's why I think if the city is growing the the department needs to grow to uh give a better service to the community um do you mind explaining um IA um son IA mention her responsibility so how they both have different responsibili one more in the administrated side it is a Mr the Rosario more uh talking to the constituents making sure that those issues get resolved is that what what are they what are they doing is that it yes basically so as AA say she's handling right now 50 contracts so that's keeping our city moving every day so everything H with the amount of employees that we have we had to rely on vendors contractors and and that's very important to keep up with the contracts that they do not expire or that we have the fundings allocated for that but also we need you know we have hundreds of employees we need to do reports there is incidents accidents every every day that if we handle you know those well we can save a lot of money as we doing right now with one of our deputies that is Rosana that is working with with those type of things but they are uh you know working in different capacities uh as as the posting says so they are assigned whatever duties that the director assigned to you Madame chair I mentioned this cuz we get to see more Miss Rosario out there we get to see her more at the neighborhood meetings and that's because we are signing her to you know to do that to engage with the community because so if we are if we send both of the same time to the same event so we we lose certain you know loops and things like that so is any of them to you Madame chair is any of them uh do is part of their responsibility supervising DPW employees at some point as they work under me so they are supervising supervisors foremans and labors right and lastly do they both have cars that belongs to DPW that's correct okay you mind explaining why do they need cars I know why but I want my constituents to know because we had this conversation before but I want you to explain to the people that are listening why it's necessary for them to have cars that belong to the city so we every day we move to whatever location that we need to you know to move or see if you as a Consul call us that there is an issue in one of the parts we need to have the sources to go to those Parks that's why we you know assign vehicles to you know emergency employees because we need to make sure that they are there when they need it it's the same thing with phone so we need to contact them when we need to contact them that's why we provide phones to all of them to you know keep the communication going thank you director thank you so much no more questions any other questions or comments council president thank you m chair going to go again to the ordinance that we have for the city of L that's ordinance 26480 the the deputy ctor so when it comes to that position explain uh your your roles uh within that description just give me one second let me just grab the document from the CLE so are you referring to the ordinance correct yes okay so the the ordinance States the take a take a second look at it okay okay so it says here waste collection and Disposal I handle the sanitation department at the moment um I oversee our invoices I have to approve my invoices for Waste Disposal waste pickup with our new which is capital and I also have to oversee the recycling operation on a daily basis I am the person in contact among between the city the contractor the employees either the capital Contra um employees or our employees also our labors I also have to manage our DPW Yard and every waste that has to be picked up from there I have to coordinate the containers that have to be brought to our site also the encampments that we were recently cleaning up that we're still cleaning up with the police department with groundwork Lawrence I have to coordinate that those SCS are there and when they get failed out I have to coordinate for them to be picked up every single item that arrives to a DPW Yard that has to be collected I'm the person in charge to making the calls we make sure that the item gets collected and disposed in the correct matter because I also have to provide information to the estate um about those items so my format are also also known also with our supervisor for Street and parkings that they have to let us know when they see something it's like you see something say something so that we can communicate among our department to make sure we tell the facility manager um if anything is broken in a park um and this was something that it was not very easy to do at the beginning because if our guys we send them to pick up trash they'll probably just go and pick up trash so we had to kind of teach them um so if you go to a park do also some sort of supervision and communicate it take pictures of it so that we know what's going on CU we may not go personally to every single bar every single day but my labors our crew is out there doing that job for us so they are eyes in the operation so also in the administration and planning of the long and short-term projects of the department I am involved in some of the pro the projects that we are starting to work on um recently I had to meet with uh delegation that we that that we will be working to to work on our storm water and that that is with in team with this water and sewer um commissioner and the engineering team is is a bunch of us that are overseeing that project that will come to lens um soon and we also have to monitor Financial operations as the Cod Deputy um mentioned um I'm also their eyes out there we have to make sure that that contract that she just executed that the contract that the contractor is supposed to be working on I have to make sure that we have the amount of guys that they promised they were going to have that they will comply with the scoop of work that we contracted on and obviously I have to serve as as the Director whenever the director is is not around or needs us to to represent him in meetings with the police department again with any other division or any other lead leaders of the city come in front of the city council as well and and represent the director in any any capacity that he requires us and that that gives you the last portion of it the municipal services manager sure that that we serve as the Director of the department in the absence of the director and again implementing depart departmental policies I have been working with the prior um HR director and the current acting director on doing like creating policies and also educating our labor guys of how to proceed with when they get injured when when they have to communicate to us if something happens to them out there when they're working sometimes they will get hurt they'll come home they'll go home and then the next day they'll come and say oh I got her yesterday so we had to kind of start on a process of letting them know that the minute something happens to them they need to let us know um all right now U let's jump into the education portion of it I'm seeing that in your resume you have it u a high school diploma and a doctor uh degree so I actually went into med school back home in the Dominican Republic I did not finish I did four years of it I I am happy to say that I'll be trying to get my B my bachelor's um starting in January okay um so you you have your high school diploma yes and you have um education when it comes to um higher education in the school four years of medical school um talk to me about your previous experience um as of U the recycling coordinator you already mentioned but something that uh help the operation that you have that you currently doing today uh other than the recycling director of course so prior to coming and work for the City of Lawrence I did work airport operations that is at the tower um at Logan Airport in Boston I oversee Aviation operation there which kind of give me some of the knowledge of the fast thinking portion that we need to work on this environment as well the critical thinking takes a makes a huge role especially when you're working overseeing what other people is doing you have to have the fast thinking of avoiding things that you may see that will happen protecting your employees or the employees that are under your sight just to make sure that nothing will happen to them and I did also did operation for the snow over there it was obviously a little different because I never had to drive the actual vehicle that cleaned the snow but we had to make sure that the roads were in certain conditions and clean to make sure that it was drivable for for the airplanes is that something that um I mean I'm assuming that that's going to be part of your roles here at the city um correct doing the the snow removal yes tell me about that that um that expectations well I did started working with the guys already um as of last week we had to start um putting some salt in a roads to avoid um ice on on a roads and and I do get um a daily operational break sheeet of how many drugs we have there how many salt we're putting how many tons of salt we're putting on our streets um which streets we think it's going to probably need more which one we probably think is going to need less so we have that communication with the supervisor of of a streets and parks and the two forance so I am in constant communication with them 24/7 as you know this is a role that do do not have uh come in and go away um time we are at 24/7 operation do you know anything related to the technical portion of that operation well I know how many trucks we have available I know how much salt we have purchased and I can see it because we have it at the DPW and I am learning I'm learning um the process as of now we have deal the Seas the season inhouse we have not need to have any of the contractors it's probably busier once the contractors are in or once we have a heavy snowfall or we we have a big amount of accumulation so that I no I'm asking you I'm asking you that because um that's my role for the last 18 years and and and I can go in deep with the with that operation or any particular operation related to the DPW but I just want to make sure like to be fair that if you have that experience and then we I can ask you a questions but I mean if you don't I just leave it up to that and then I probably um ask another questions do you have any experience when it comes to um um the street repairs because my assumption is that you are the operation and the other the other uh uh put it is more like the administration correct correct so uh do you have any experience when it comes to uh repairs for the uh the road repairs sidewalk repairs well I I'm excited to say that um we will be meeting with a company that may may do a study in our city that's going to tell us how good our asphalt is and the sidewalks that we make need to have repair um that is on one side that study I believe has never been done in our city and I was able to meet with the vendor that does that study brought it into the director and he agreed that we definitely needs to need to do this in our city we will be meeting in January um but so far what I what I've learned in the in the months of the acting DPW D um deputy director role is how we have different um different ways of covering the the asphalt so we have some part that is done inhouse our labor guys do some of the work when it comes to PO holes and there's obviously another part that needs to be contracted so far that's that's what I what I've learned so far so the in the technical aspect you're not there yet no I'm not there yet okay uh what about that um the CER Improvement uh budget or anything related to the coer Improvement uh plans that we have in the city well as of now I do know that we are building two new schools and also a new police station when well but that um I'm pretty sure that the ordinance or the job description doesn't necessarily focus on one particular project but in general when it comes to uh copper Improvement budget or copper Improvement plan that we have do you have any uh expertise on that no not at the moment um there is a department that is oversee currently by Jose Jael which is basically uh the oper the C improvements uh projects that we have that is also a construction um construction different type of construction that we need to do that we need to manage the reason that I'm asking is because it is part of the the ordinance as part of the experience that the DPW uh uh Deputy uh need to have um yeah so sorry you so as of as as of now our duties have been assigned by the director um maybe in the near future if we get the permanent positions it may wi up a little bit more our duties um assigned by the director so as of now I am overseeing and working on the roles that he has assigned me to no the reason why I'm asking is because as of um being a civil engineer on the operational side uh of the of a department at the state level that's essentially what I do and and having that opportunity to question somebody in front of me uh that is related to that position it is is very very excited because we can go deep into the technical portion of it uh and and that will help me to make a determination uh that's why sometime it's h I'm hesitant about um asking potential questions but let's go to your Peri the previous experience as a recycling coordinator uh on the application you said that you were doing that you start doing that operation from 1213 2022 right is actually I started in the city um since 1213 2022 and I took into their role officially as a recycling coordinator in January January of 2023 20 2022 yeah told a lot of people has asked these questions and I can't I I can I can uh just Let It Go um a lot of people were asking this question about having similar schedule in your previous role that you were at at jblue until 2024 and the recycling coordinator at the city of lens were you working on both on both locations at the same time or were you working uh at jblue in a different Tim in than the city so I have never been able to be at in two places at the same time that's one thing and the second thing is that when I took the role in the city I was on a medical leave from JBL I needed surgery in my back so I was on a medical leave I was on a medical leave for almost a year and a half while while working at the city then I went back for a very short period of time because 6 months after my back surgery I ended up having an accident I was rear ended in route route 9 93 so I had to stay out of work again and the airline offered me a seance package which is also known as a buyou and I took it so I left no the reason why I'm asking is is not because I'm I'm I'm expecting you to be in two location at the same time but nowadays you can do multiple jobs uh uh in an office online and and you know away so it could be or it could be that you work in you work here and then you work there uh a different schedule yeah but the schedule in the city um is back then it was um from 4:30 to 8:30 7 hours a day and at the 8:30 to to 4:30 8:30 to 4:30 7 hours a day and at the airline we have a very different schedule I could be in at 2:30 in the morning and leave at 7:00 in the morning or I could go in in the late evening and come back home early morning which is 1 2 in the morning yeah the intent of the question was that if if it was yeah there schedule yeah and I apologize if I didn't understood the the question correctly so the way that their airline industry works when it comes to a schedule their first their their like their first shift it starts technically at midnight so for us that's obviously time to go to sleep but if you work in the airline industry you know that you have different time schedules and also because I had the seniority I was in the airline for almost six years I was able to play around with my schedule so back then when I went back to work I was doubling up on the weekends at the airline we have a similar questioning when it comes to another position that we have in front of us and that question was made by um councilor Lon back then to uh and one of the applicants um specifically for the next position that we're going to be discussing and that was the questioning around um having the mayor having the uh people from the city as your reference uh I know that you have other reference as well so why do you think like that might be something that is going to help the application uh having the mayor the senior adviser and the deput director as part of your reference on the regional application cuz they they have seen what I've done in the city since the m and I came to work here I've been with the city for for 3 years now and I believe they they could they could say firsthand what I've brought to the city um so another question and I going to leave it up to that is what make you apply to the DPW starting at the recycling uh what make that trigger coming from the from uh from completely different set of experience first on the medical field uh being the an student at the medical field uh and also coming to the airline uh or JetBlue and working at the towers what make you play to this so I like to be operational I like to be out there I like to be hands on the airline industry is very of that is very operational and I'm going to give you a little bit of background of how I started working at the airline I started as a ground UPS operator I used to back handle the the luggages and then I move up to the counter and the gates to do the April operation part of the customers and then I was like what's next what position can I go up to that is going to give me a little bit more and then I move up to the tower unfortunately I couldn't keep doing it because of my back there's a lot of walking involved in the long drive when it comes to the airline so in the city I wanted something that was going to be operational and that I could all also um keep keep serving with my customer service skills and that is where why the recycling position was I felt that it was good for me because I needed to be out there I was able to outreach the community talk to the constituents and also be out there all right going to leave it up to them sh at this point Council L do you have any questions counselor I'm okay okay thank you m doar I'm going to ask you the same three questions that I asked um Miss Santana tell me tell us about a challenge you fa during your acting role as DPW director and tell us how you handled that situation well the most challenging and difficult time is when we are short staff of labors and there was a time in which we were preparing for our most recent um inauguration of the um Julia silvario event and we needed to get flowers so one of my forance was actually blocking the traffic um at Arlington school so that one of our labors could do painting so I had to just think quickly and say you know what don't keep on waiting here just go and get those flowers because we need to have the event going soon and I'll stay here and it sounds kind of simple but blocking blocking um an area of or like blocking traffic itself um on a small car like the one I have with no with maybe not not the actual lights for the Emergency um it was it was something challenging for me and I I and I felt great about the fact that I was able to think quickly and have everything move on and and accomplish both things at the same time thank you the next question is what's one aspect of the job so far that you excel in and what is one aspect that you need to improve on I think one part that I could say I excel in is talking to our employees and and and making them realize sometimes when they're not doing what they're supposed to or when they when they do wrong I mean it sounds tough but I've had to give out warnings suspensions um at some point terminate also and and it's not a very um good place to be on um but dividing the professional part and the personal part I think is something that I could say has been good so far and is where what is one aspect of the job so far you need to improve and maybe learn more I would love to learn more um about everything that um the council president just asked I I definitely need to learn a lot more of what would you're having done out there okay and then last question in one sentence to conclude why should the coun the city council confirm you I would like to leave a a legacy for my kids of what I do and I believe serving my community into this capacity will do that thank you all right councelors at this point I will entertain a motion motion to send as a uh to the full council with a committee uh report as a committee motion has been made to send to the full Council as a committee report is there a second I second the motion seconded by council president discussion one one last question uh council president um you mentioned that um that there is a data driven Solutions um I just want give you the opportunity to expand on that yeah and that is what I just mentioned to you we have a company that is coming to if we hire them to do so a study in our in our streets to tell us what what needs to be fixed when it comes to our asphal in our side sidewalks you want to oversee that or we will all together meet up with this vendor at first see their presentation and then we'll take it from there we have to also check if if we can afford to have to have them come in and perform the study and that was that's going to give us the data that we that we may need to to fix some of our roads in a more efficient matter well I said if you get confirmed on this position um that you should you should do uh technical trainings that relate to that a specific position M um it is it is a lot of training up there that are not necessarily presentations presentations are not going to help and uh and having an expertise on this field um and looking at the potential um the potential assistance of for the DPW director um I think that it technicals uh technical expect is is it is it is required for this field I'm I'm I'm I'm telling you because I'm I'm just finishing up a projects that just on the um H part of it asphalt mhm we have four different three different mixes and we have the base and soft base that if we don't have that technical expertise there is so much into it that trust me that the state is not going to get uh the life charms of those Road and at at the city level I think that you know we we are way behind when it comes to that and and it is unfortunately because the salaries we pay this salary is is a is is a great B salary which is going to be anywhere from 101,000 to 145,000 about uh which is a good amount of money uh especially for for for these positions uh I I I encourage anybody that is going to take these positions this type of position with that type of salary that uh become u a very experts when it comes to these um experiences and and not necessarily uh you know make make time make your make make yourself available in your own time to be uh a technical technical experience not necessarily within the time of the of the of the city because it will be it will be it will be challenging if we don't have those expertise thank you council president thank you council president for the advice um all right roll call council president to send to full Council as of committee report yes uh councelor lzone yes councelor Levy yes and the chair votes in the affirmative thank you so much thank you good evening I think director where did I put my can I see so oh the last item on the agenda is item 582-2408 just did with the other candidates give me one second here it is uh we have uh attaches the opinion of the City attorney the code uh or copy of the ordinance pertaining to the position the job posting the application and resume of uh of a will pimel the uh recommended uh applicant and I believe uh a will do on online yes thank you c um before before we get into this there something that um captured my atttention on the application of for employment um as the acting director of Office of the director of planning and development and as a director of Community Development for both jobs the supervisor listed the current for the Act and the supervisor listed is chief of staff and for the director of Community Development says the the director of of the office and also the chief of staff since when has the chief of staff been when when when does a chief of staff um becomes a direct uh a direct supervisor for employees of the City of Lawrence my understanding of that of that of that role is managing the daily operations of the mayoral office um serving as a liaison for the mayor's office to other to numerous departments and other you know elected officials Etc I I don't understand how this and if someone can educate educate me on this please yeah I I I I the this position uh the community development director position reports to the uh director of The Office of Planning and Development the office of planning and development director reports to the mayor obviously all city city department heads work closely with the senior advisor to the mayor and the chief of staff of the mayor uh because we they act on his behalf as well so I'm not sure correct why that's on but but they but they're supposed to even I mean the advisor and the chief of staff is there to help obviously I'm I'm aware of that help the mayor um uh fulfill his maral duties but they're they're not direct supervisors the mayor is the mayor is so why is this why is the chief of staff listed as a direct supervisor uh the applicant put that in there I I don't know why oh U Miss pimel uh that's going to be a question for you when when you have the floor for from for uh acting director [Music] primel okay good evening councelor can you repeat the question for me please can you um just explain to us why on your application for employment you have the chief of staff listed as your direct supervisor um just as acting director and obviously as the director position that I held um usually rep report to Chief of Staff to the mayor um and usually we report our you know our operational duties or any projects anything things like that usually all directors do via department head reports uh to the mayor and usually we will submit it to the Chief of Staff first but that's not reporting to the chief of staff and and and I want to make this clear this has nothing to do personally with the current chief of staff I work well with the current chief of staff but what I I mean if if you were for anyone if you were to Google simply uh the role of a Chie of a mayor chief of staff is is not is not being a direct supervisor to anyone the direct supervisor is the mayor of the city um so even if you're submitting things to the chief of staff that does not mean that the chief of staff is your direct supervisor even if if the chief of staff or the advisor is acting on behalf of the mayor they are not your direct supervisors the mayor of the city is whoever that is currently in the future so I just want to make that clear for this body and and for the public um with that being said director primel you have the floor thank you yes the mayor is our direct supervisor and you know usually I think I just put that because when we do send our reports and everything of our day-to-day operations in the office we usually will send it uh to the chief of staff the mayor obviously and the mayor's assistant so it's kind of like we send it to all of them but uh yes we report to the mayor right so even again it doesn't matter the title every employee in in the mayor's office is is assisting the the mayor of the City of Lawrence they're assisting any mayor of any M municipality they're not the bosses they're not anything it's under the direct supervisor supervision of the mayor of that M municipality so I just want to make that clear um that because this is also public record so anyone can see this that we are discussing that the chief of staff is not your direct supervisor it is the mayor of the City of Lawrence who is currently uh mayor Brian a depena yes that's correct okay uh director acting director you have the floor um tell us a bit of of why you want you you you're looking to be confirmed what what have you done and um yeah you have the floor thank you um basically as the Director I I have been responsible for the development implementation evaluation reporting and ongoing assessments of uh various Grant programs and the departmental projects that have gone into the office of planning and Community Development um I have demonstrated my leadership and responsibilities with many projects that have director I'm going to sorry to interrupt you I'm going to ask you to turn on your your camera if you can because we did have two other uh acting acting applicants that were here in person so just to make things fair if you can turn on your your camera please sure thank you yeah as you can see there we go um I have demonstrated my leadership and responsibilities with my uh projects um as well the number of people that I supervise and the decision making Authority um as well as judgment and complexity and the nature of personal contacts and all the budgetary responsibilities um but moreover um it's really about for me collaboration with all the Departments the businesses uh the nonprofits uh local state and federal delegations the developers and our people um as we build a resilient community and I believe that you don't need a title to serve um but it's about a call to service and public service and really that sacrifice and hard work and dedication and executing for our Community thank you counselors any questions or comments I think Council Lon oh [Music] um oh um councel L you'll go after councelor Lon that's oh you heard I was looking okay do you want yes uh I have a question can you uh um director deel can you go over some of the uh projects that you have accomplished uh and hopefully s that you are working right now uh sure so we can start with some there's a lot of departments um and units in my department so I will start with housing unit uh we have been assisted and we helped with Island Parkside one Island Parkside 2 ston Mill um with home funds which is our federal funds and as well as in our lead departments for delet homes um all these projects I am involved in um personally all these projects I oversee as well as the first-time home buyers program the Community Development block grant um programs and um actually today we were just that's why I'm here at the Library um uh we had the workshop mandatory today here at the library um the mayor's Health task force just the various grants that we have actively um and aggressively applied for and you know it is an honor to be able to bring in almost $15 million in the two years um that I have been here as well as all the public infrastructure projects the Gateway project um the business grants youth velopment program scholarships there's just been a lot of projects that we've been able to execute in this short time with helping small businesses and nonprofits in our community thank you Madame chair thank you uh councelor Levy uh thank you Madame chair um radically one of my question was they saying that uh the can but also can you tell me what is the pro councelor Levy you you are breaking up oh did she I'm here okay repeat the question councelor ly now I can hear you can you hear me now okay so what is the most important project that you have right now uh to me they're all important right now um the business development um as you know uh we just went out to a few businesses two days ago being out in the streets and and dealing with all these businesses that are unfortunately still suffering a lot from trying to recover from the pandemic or from floods that are Ed all the projects are extremely important to me whether is you know um the homar project for construction the Gateway project uh which is dear to me because it was a project that a lot of people did not believe in abandoned it for 20 plus years um in this city and as we can all see now it is a beautiful area of economic development of affordable housing we've now named it to the Julia videoo Park but that was an area that nobody wanted to be around nobody wanted to deal with it there was just way too many Investments it was contaminated and that was actually one of the the biggest projects really turning it to what the beautiful site that it is today and um the the more um important goals we have car any other questions probably one of the important projects as well can you hear me we can hear you now any other questions counselors counselor chair yeah thank it's a little hard but it's okay I can make the question later okay okay thank you Council lzone uh in Grants uh director pel um how many U Grand in total have you work uh in do you know the amount that you have bring to the City Grants and you mentioned nonprofits it started a collaboration with nonprofits uh cuz I know like Lawrence Community works I'm going to use it as an example they um um they have projects uh housing projects um but it's sometimes the city is just there to provide support because they do their own gr writings etc etc so any nonprofit any local nonprofit that you have uh worked directly and exactly what was the collaboration yeah and I'll actually um elaborate further uh to provide more information on that so let's say for example lcw is not just uh Provide support the City of Lawrence has actually through our department has actually provided um over a million dollars in home funds so a lot of the process where that begins is first doing inspections um we have to make sure that the project is uh a responsible good project for the city we go out there we either speak with you know whomever is the project manager obviously we've worked with Jess and everyone else um but it's also allocating those funds responsibly to help those projects is about going to do those sidewalks being at all those deliverable meetings um so there's a lot that goes into it especially when we're allocating home funds because as well these are audited by Hud um so this is something that HUD comes in every year into our office and monitors our files and it's and you can come in and and see how they are themselves um so there's a lot of work that goes into uh these home funds projects and affordability projects projects and also sometimes they have to increase the amount of of funding um let's say the ston mill that was another complicated project so where they actually had to stop three times previously and it wasn't done it was just now in this Administration that that opened because we were able to allocate additional funding that building being an all electrical building um there was a lot of issues a lot of delays as if someone you know if you all familiar with construction there could be a lot of obstacles that come up and there's a lot of things that goes into all these deliverables and scopes of services and and also I've worked with basically all the nonprofit organizations that are in the area that come into our office looking for assistance as I also overc the cdbg um unit Madame chair uh Madame chair director pel I asked uh about grants how many Grand okay so can you answer my question please um it's many to count but I'll I'll list some for you um the I've brought in with my team over almost $15 million something that's never been done in the City of Lawrence I will add um thanks to the hard work of of this team um because it's a lot of grw writing and it's a lot of of applying and it's a lot of a lot that goes into those applications but I would say is the homark 3.1 million um a lot of the cdbg in the past um they were going to get recaptured before I came into this office we've saved it from recapture to be exact we've saved 2 million from cdbg um ESG CV which is the emergency Solutions grants covid $375,000 we saved from recapture Mass Trails grants $130,000 the reach Grant 1.3 million mass in motion 70,000 saved from recapture uh cdbg CV 60,000 safe from recapture um the lead healthy homes grants that we just uh received award notice of 7.3 million that is the highest ever in the history of Lawrence and also a new grant that we just received notice um that you guys will get the information as as long um they send us all the grant agreements and everything else you guys will get it is for uh 1.2 from the Department of Justice it's a Federal grant so in total it's been almost over $1 million in two years well thank you for the information but I I just for the people that are watching some of the people that work at Community Development are still the same people uh they have worked there for years uh just to put it out there and they are amazing employees they've been doing a great job not only to this Administration to the past and all former Administration so uh uh just I'm making this comment to make sure that people are aware that we appreciate the work that they have done and they continue doing uh and I'm going to check the amount of millions that you mentioned um and this Administration have been very lucky with Federal uh funds um just to put it all there but thank you for the information yes and thank you for mentioning that we haven't like I said you know an amazing team um that really work very hard but all these grants they take a lot of work um as well because it's not just working hard to get those grants they're just not given to us we have to work apply and also specify the deliverables what we're going to do and once we get those grants we have to deliver we have to perform the scope of services there's a lot of activities that have to get done the deadlines the reportings a lot of things that people are not aware that you know goes into when you're handling grants and it's not just our department Although our department is probably one of the best they're amazing everyone there but also the finance department because we work hand inand with the finance department with all the contracts so all this all these grants you got to do contracts you got to review all the contracts making sure the deliverables are there um and within the time frame because if you don't get that work done properly the way itates in the grants you lose those fundings they recaptured so there's a lot of work that goes into it to it we're lucky to have an amazing team amazing departments um and I would say all around as I've I've learned to work with many of all the other directors and it's really a big collaboration among departments thank you director counselors at this point I I'll entertain it just ask had are are you are you all set yes M Che thank you councel love said that that she's going to wait for the full Council you said all right so at this point I would entertain a motion no wait I have a question for her that's what I said I wait for them to finish question oh that's what you meant okay council president thank you uh director you going to have multiple departments under your supervision as per the uh that uh distribution of the department what are can you do you mind specifying those uh those departments that is going to be under your supervision all of them as per the last um charts that we have in the city of lawence I believe from 2014 or something um well most of the already the departments were already under Community Development as far as the lead Department the housing department um cdbg mayor of Taw that's already all under Community Development the new ones that I have been overseeing is the business and economic development and the um planning department so it's just those two others but basically the largest amount of staff um and departments and units are actually under Community Development but now obviously we're adding the other two departments well I'll clarify um the uh the charts from 2015 because I believe that is that is a lot more all the Departments uh that are under that specific supervision but anyway my question will be more around the uh the project uh there is a lot of uh interaction your department is H historically have a lot of interaction um with uh the exis the um the organization that deal with um transportation Improvement projects uh or the te mbpc yeah we all work together with mbpc Mar Val Mar Valley Planning Commission planning Planning Commission yes I remember that our previous director she was part of the board and uh and she was also um she ended up ended up working with them but my point being is that based on that experience something that she have uh she have worked on she work a lot on it was to have project at the 10% level design um in case that any project fall off uh from other community and uh usually uh they they look for projects that are in line ready to go but I have seen that that those practice IES in the city of La have reduced significantly and I haven't se those funds coming in uh because those fund pop up as an emergency uh and we used to approve those in a in a way that it was it was very beneficial for the city um I can give you a couple of projects all the traffic lighting the flashing lighting that we have in front of City Hall flashing lighting that we have uh in front of the high school um also that there is a couple of um Street uh or street light uh projects that were done in the City of Lawrence and all that happened because we have the 10% designed ready to go and and any when any project fall off uh we were able to attack those funds and be able to bring it to the city of lawence is is that something that you foreseen doing uh as part of your duties and responsibilities to have project at the 10% level designed and and have it ready to go yes um we're working actually very closely with mvpc we also attend um monthly meetings with them as you seen we worked with closely with Ian who presented for the MBTA communities um and actually we work very closely with mvpc um for our Bron Fields projects as well and Safe Streets to school um so we're still very very active working with them and we meet with them monthly actually we're going to be doing a walk with Gerard um over at tarell coming up so next week so we do work very closely with them do you know that they have a board yes okay sometime it's good to have it a sit on the table otherwise you'll become the menu thank you very much counselor I will make sure I look into that thank you counselors at this point I will entertain a motion to send this item with favorable recommendation motion has a has been made is there a second second probably seconded discussion seeing none council president yes councelor Levy yes councelor lzone yes and the chair votes in the affirmative thank you so much um councilors can I have a motion to adjourn thank you thank you all councelors andk thank you Kao for all your assistance thank you everybody thank you motion has been made is there a second probably seconded um council president yes yes councelor Levy yes councilor lzone yes and the chair votes in the affirmative councilors do not move we're going straight into it all right do you have I need to ahead do you what do you have the the items oh okay no no go no no go get go get them go quickly [Music] please how good night everyone councelor lovey you're all set we're going into budget and finance now I know that's is what I'm saying good night good night good evening and welcome to the budget and finance committee meeting it is Wednesday December 11th it's now 9:05 p.m. voting members present tonight is uh council president javanni Rodriguez councelor Wendy lzone and myself councelor infon chair of this committee pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2022 this meeting of the budget and finance committees being conducted both in person and via remote participation a reminders that persons who would like to listen listen or view this meeting while in progress May either attend here in the city council chamber or use any of our uh social media accounts we're going we have minutes to approve can I have a motion to approve the minutes from uh October 23rd 2024 so move motion has been made been property second in discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it all right new business first item item 560 5682 for Trans the transfer of $400,000 from the aror free cash which was previously allocated to the Hispanic Federation um to be transferred to small business through the to small businesses through the prospering Lawrence grant for established conditions oh sorry through through the pro pro prospering Lawrence Grant U we have this is from Octavian span see uh senior advisor to the mayor uh senior advisor you have the floor good evening again uh budget and finance committee um and vice chair uh in fante City councilors uh good evening uh this is a request from the mayor to transfer uh the $400,000 uh that was originally allocated for the feder Hispana the commerci to transfer uh that same amount to the Department of Economic uh business and economic development uh the reason for that is because first of all we received uh a large amount of applicants uh it was a total of 494 applications correct yeah 494 uh of which a portion has received um the were awarded the the funding the grant to um through the uh Pro what's the name of the prospering law prospering Lawrence and the mayor would like to um to continue with the program in order to um to assist other small businesses with the remaining funds of uh that has been allocated to the feder counselors any questions or comments um in addition sorry there were a I believe um our director of business and economic development has responded to the uh questions that were asked by uh our council president uh javanni Rodriguez which uh to my knowledge has been shared with you as well uh and if you have any other questions uh please free uh and we have the director to hear with us and staff for any respon any questions or comments for this item council president um well I asked four questions in relation to uh the previous program we used and those questions we were were can you please confirm who was the selection committee for these funds at uh uh last time meaning the $100,000 that we that we U allocate and that uh in the answer were the recommendation committee uh composed of Francisco sillo Susan F Kate Kean Kelly lamarch ranielle uh fenini and Claudia oos uh they work in collaboration to make recommendations to the mayor the second questions that I asked it was uh when did they met uh it was more than one or or how often did they meet and the answer they that I received for the $500,000 allocation it was on relation um it was that uh they met on 108 2024 1024 2024 1119 2024 um and then uh I also ask a questions in regard to please provide a legible list of uh list of fund distributed on the the initial U item 121 a24 and it was a um in in um the applicant and the the hour the ORS and the amount of dollars that they received legible list that we have um uh please and and I also provide the questions the the question number four was uh please provide the C as of um the criteria that adopted in given those funds and the review criteria was as follow um Financial capacity um that was one of the one of them and the financial um and the RFP application uh complete and accurate and incoherent are all the requirements DCH uh this is that the business capacity RFP uh does the business demonstration experience capacity that conclude the compos activities uh is there's any b b business adequately EST staff with a qualified Personnel does the business have an adequate resource uh function does the business have a sufficient qualified staff to oversee the financial operation uh does the applicant have a pass do obligation with that uh funding resource does the business have a financial capacity to operate programs until the fund is available uh is the budget realistic a cost efficient cost efficient is sufficient information provide uh all that question were uh response and I get an email yesterday and I forward that email uh for the to the food Council so they can analyze it uh in case that this this uh this item move forward I did not I I did not send it to this committee unfortunately I was um I wasn't able to I I apologize to the committee but um I send it out to the full Council today um and and everybody's going to have that information but that doesn't limit the capacity of this this committee having um those questions uh for that for that matter any other comments is well essentially I would I would like to add a few things to the program U um first of all the original program that we allocated $500,000 was different than how we allocate the fund and uh and and that's an issue to me and also the criterias that I asked uh as of how those $500,000 were going to be given a lot of the business that were there they were not necessarily uh where you know they were not in compliance with the criteria that was uh that was um provided so essentially now that we are talking about um that we are talking about this 500 400,000 more uh I have I have issues truly to uh to give a a positive recommended V uh when it comes to those allocations it is it is it is a challenge to me seeing everything how everything plays out uh with this 500,000 and to be honest with you that was not part of the criteria that we approved at this Council the criteria was was to work with the F with the F uh and uh and also uh to work with the um professional experience or more related to um technical experience or technicals uh expertise uh that we we were going to expect this gr to be given uh to business instead what we saw was sometime a heck of a show a what a heck of a show oh a heck of a show uh even people being denigrated by waving the checks and that's that's not right I personally don't want to see these $400,000 to be given the same way because can you can you repeat that the waving the checks you see that no no can you no yeah they were people were waving the checks uh and D that was taken uh you know like it is this is it was here in in City Hall yes and to me this is serious if we given money to business is for specific things that we the council approve first and and and not necessarily to you know to get a great show as as that that could be interpretated in a way that a lot of people might say it's a political show or it's a political gain to the mayor I don't want to see it that way I don't want people to me even mention those words uh with public funds I want to make sure that business that are where the are where dieso these uh funds are not necessarily um are not necessarily just to be picked uh on the air criteria that not necessarily was approved by the council because we were clear when we said these $500,000 are going to have to be for an exempt off instead what we saw with 500,000 was like I said a heck of a show every week and every every day us been criticized it because we didn't include radio shows and radio hosts and radio uh broadcasters to be receiving those funds it's like it is challenging for me to even say yes to this type of uh funding to be transfer and I want from an organization that is supposed to do the same work but differently I'm glad thank you council president I'm glad you mentioned the whole radio Fiasco that happened CU I am going to make a comment about that cuz I I was criticized a lot on the radio uh because I was the one who eliminated uh radio stations and shows from from from this from the criteria I want to make it a point I believe about two I think there there are only two radio stations radio shows that are actually within the City of Lawrence the rest are all located in methan and not one person from this Administration including the mayor clarified that on on on air so it was it was allowed so the administration ation allowed us to be like dragged through the dirt over something that we all know that majority of the of the Stations of the programs are registered in methan at the main radio station location and um I was not too happy about that and I and I did I explained that to people that called I had constituents uh who are friends with radio hosts um and it and it was unfortunate that that Fiasco um that when the administration had the opportunity to clarify that no one no one did and that you guys let us look look bad uh Madam chair mhm that was something that was brought up by by by this by this body that was not something and obviously when I came here and I together with uh then the den OPD Direct director uh we did mention about the criteria and I would like to have the opportunity to clarify that as well you know sometimes you keep silent because otherwise it's going to be another Fiasco and it's going to be an unnecessary debate that was uh the request of the this body it was respected and that was done however I do believe council president that um uh we may uh have a difference of opinion how the funds have been used and I would like to call the director uh for a minute because um yes there were checks that were awarded and uh there were several applications that involved um I think facade Improvement programs right and maybe you can explain more about the different and technical assistance we're already providing that for free for the City of Lawrence and I'm about to start putting the next round of classes for technical assistance as well for next year which basically a lot of these businesses definitely need a lot of technical assistance um whether is business planning where it's um learning how the paperwork for to be able to apply for a loan and budgeting all the just little nuances to to really make a business grow in the City of Lawrence projects that I don't have that with me if you can give us a minute please sorry I thought I had um actually I do the only thing I didn't have put on here was what they were watered for which I could also Supply toys the businesses and the amounts Madam chair which is what the um council president request oh $10,000 $10,000 that's that's the shop that's on South Broadway from the top of my head I couldn't tell you what the address is hold on cuz there's there's a reason why why I'm asking this oh sorry give me a second counselor which one is it she saying billmore billmore mhm saying this is Lawrence here oh yep yep um are you guys aware and I'm I'm aware because it 185 um yeah South BR correct yes um I have constituents that have consistently called City Hall regarding this this this um this business with concerns um with concerns of of a possible illegal junkyard um operation in the back uh there was a time where I did have a meeting with the mayor and other City officials in that area um and I I mean how how do you how how do you guys vent through this like how how are we awarding businesses that have that people are reporting issues with consistently and that's a valid I think that's that's a valid question I mean and I don't have the answer because I've never heard of a complaint on this business so we go through the business licenses in the city as well as making sure that they nobody owes any taxes as well okay thank you and and um Madam chair uh we cannot pick and choose sometimes you don't know which uh business have been in violation uh and and probably they have taken corrective action what these funds are being used is to make sure that we have as you know small businesses are uh the back and bone of uh the majority of our cities in the United States they employe people they are hardworking and they are the ones that don't run away usually run away from a city and that's uh and that's something that is very important for us and I I agree with you 100% And I I mean I know I know the employees and I know some some of uh the owner very very nice people um but I I do want to highlight the fact that there there's been issues and the issue seems to still be happening um and it has been reported so my question I wanted to know whether or not those those things are taken into consideration when when looking through applications yeah that's a legitimate concern and we will make sure that tomorrow we present that to the ISD director to find out uh if there if the violations are still there I doubt uh because whenever there's a call we make sure that we have our inspectors go over to to correct or mitigate the situation thank you madam chair c l on let me see if I got your explanation so you're saying that this business some of this business get uh money from the city without checking if they had a violation or or or missing permit is that where you're saying a senior advisor that's not true I'm asking the senior advisor uh that's incorrect counselor um violations you can have violations every day and it could be corrected uh mitigated immediately whether through uh uh the owners uh uh comply with the with the um Inc correcting the violations or it may be something that fine has been imposed uh we have checked see if there's anything owed to the city that's obviously if there's a uh a uh business that is in violation and has to receive a fine um then obviously that needs to be corrected and the fines need to be paid if there's no fines that is something that has not been recorded with the city um we cannot go by here say we receive a lot of calls from the city they call from one businesses to the other so sometimes uh there's an inspector that is already addressing the matter and some of them have been resolved and it's incorrect information we can't go by here say I'm assuming that all the permits permits required by the city to operate were in order is that correct yes that is true and correct that is that was verified with all the businesses that receive their funds my other question if I may Madam shair um the business one of the requirements how long did the business have to be uh functioning uh operating in order to receive uh according to the requirements to receive this award not there has never been any as long as it's a legitimate business in operation in the city that they become eligible that was um there has never been uh placed a restriction or a time frame for a business to be uh in operation and how many conflicts of interest uh do you receive because I've seen some of the businesses here are from uh city employees are you aware of that I believe all the all the applicants if there was any conflict of interest or a apparance of a conflict of interest uh it had to be um a disc closed anyone that you recall um Mr zuro yeah there's one that's from a city employee who had file her disclosure you can disclose because this list is all over the city yeah I'm look trying to uh k m Inc she follow or her disclosures because you know the way to even receive money sheet we needed a copy of that as well as need be filed at city clerk's office is that the only one the only one I could think of to the top of my head do you know more I see like City employee when he what did he did it before because you took applications eight months ago correct I'm assuming that he had a file a a disclosure as well he did and he did file but he's no longer a city employee I think that um for the sanity and for the uh transparency I would love to see a formal report from your department to the city councelor if I may request it Madame chair um if if I may because I think there's uh questions I'm getting questions from my constituents about this um and I think in in order to for the best practice I think we should see a report because we approve and approve and approve and we never hear back from from specifically I'm going to use your department as an example we're going to get we never get a report back I just got this list because council president forward us an email but we didn't receive any list of businesses that were getting awarded so not not that I'm aware I just got releas a few seconds ago I know it's out there social media um and that was submitted to the city clerk's office which is also submitted to you guys which by the way that list was posted on social media before the even applicants who were going to receive the funds found out so no and I got once again I submitted it once it was Rec requested it'll be sent to um sent to the city clerks and you have a VI question and have no problem submitting your um report on I also would like to know how they would pick what was the process because it looks like that there was no um the the requirements that that that we mention here they were not followed so if they were not followed how did this committee choose this businesses so include that in the report yeah um is that is that that were you're looking for a written a written thing counil counselor through you chair I just wanted to correct this because uh I mean no information has been delivered or any letter has been sent by none of the um by through this body concerning their concern there was something that went wrong not that uh that I am aware of uh otherwise uh we would have discussed uh any concerns that you had so we went through our process and it was made aware it was even made public and um I myself I work uh very close with all of you if you had any concerns and if you do have and you can pinpoint any business aw there might be something that was just mentioned like for instance tonight we're going to double check but during the process we haven't been informed about I senior advisor if I made mad cheer coun Council what what I'm to say is uh at times concerns and questions come up later on which is a a natural process um I know this has been circulated this is the first time I'm seeing the list myself so um and what was that oh so yeah it's regardless example of why my question arose um Rose tonight so what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask for a motion to table this I want the report uh submitted to to the to the committee as soon as we have that if we can have it before next meeting so we can untable this item and proceed um with with with a decision Mak let's let's do that and let's but before we ask to table let's ask for all the questions we have to include on the report so we don't have we don't have we don't have to go back and forth so yeah thank you I appreciate it Council on the the qu questions I want to know how they pick the businesses I want to know how many conflict of interest they have uh and and if the the person that uh resigned I I want to see well it's going to be included because it's going to be part of the conflict of interest um and you said that there was no time frame for the business to be operating you say no to that and I want to know if they check for permits cuz in order to money violations yeah I need we want to know that cuz we have to you know they have to be in order with their permits in order to receive money from the city um and how many times they met cuz I know that they had over 400 applications they met three times three times that's a a three meetings to choose to review so many applications that is concerning okay do you have you guys have the questions now again I'm I'm requesting this before next one before the next budget and finance and if and if I and if this committee receives it the day of or the day before I'm not uning this so it's the ball is in your court because I know we we've had issues of of comments about how the council holds you know prolongs things and a lot of the times it not not Yuga just general comments that that are made and more often than not it's because we get things last minute or no one shows up but we get blamed for for prolonging things so I just want to make that clear yes and we I would like to also request from from this body and the city council um you're the legislative body you put the rules uh we execute from the mayor's office execute so in the future if there's any other like for instance uh stipulations that you would like to talk uh then we would definitely um have those uh included as part of our evaluation process thank you uh I have a question mad chair U I'm glad that you brought that up I'm glad that you brought that up that U we are the legislator body uh I think that to be honest with you uh the criteria that we that we imply last time um he it was not quite as as as as follow because I'm not talking about the committee because the committee is a recommended body that is going to recommend those people to the mayor at the end of the day the mayor is the one that make the final recommendation or the final determination as of how much that person or that business is going to get but the criteria were not follow I'm concerned about that and I'm also concerned as of like you the administration need to convince us why do we need to just get rid of the previous organization that they were going to do they were going to do the uh the distribution like why do we should why should we go and stay with the administration doing this process of just give the community an opportunity to have an organization uh to to look into the and and award those funds I believe uh council president uh that was explained by the City attorney when you this body first uh when the city council voted it went to the uh to the mayor the mayor Vito uh based on recommendations from the city attorney we requested the city attorney to come before you he apologized at that time as you can may recall uh that he was not clear enough or he didn't um explain that to you uh but he did give the reasons why um he uh counsel the the the mayor not to not to accept as well as you not to accept the other organization or because it was not part initially um part of the uh um it was not advertised as part of correct you are absolutely 100% correct uh yes he is correct uh originally the or the advertisement on the RFP as of how the arpa funds the $4.8 million was going to be given as part of the $6 million yes uh that the RP was uh not quite clear as to how they should be we can have an another RP we can we can just put up there another RP that allow to clitch on those mistakes that we made regionally that's not a problem and then we can have different organizations to apply and be able to uh make sure that we don't make the same mistake on the our P process and then the 400,000 could be gone could be done through an organization at the end of the day personally I don't feel comfortable providing another $400,000 to go through the process that we went and trust me it is not about the people that actually went through the application because they they check boxes check check check check check at the end of the day they are not doing the award they are not awarding the money they are not award in the morning the mayor is well we we can um for your satisfaction council president we can have that conversation with the mayor I'll bring it to his attention that that may be one of the uh the option however I would uh also as we as you just spoken today I think through the previous meeting uh the the Personnel committee we have a staff that we we trust uh I myself was not involved in it there were um there were basically the department of of planning and development that was involved in it and um like we did with the first um thriving lawence we made our recommendation and indeed uh the mayor is the the the the CEO of the city and makes the final determination in terms of um uh of who which company or organization will be receiving the funds uh but we will bring that to to his um to his attention thank you senior advisor Council marmo you have the floor um thank you madam chair um so there's a lot of things I wanted to touch on um so let me see if I can remember chronologically senior advisor spy you mentioned uh you made a comment saying how city council is the legislative body and uh you know and the administration is the executive body um but what I've learned in a short amount of time is that um as a city councelor I have seen and noticed how we have made decisions and um the administration chooses when and how to execute them if he chooses to execute it um so with this specifically with this uh Grant I was extremely hopeful considering that I represent a district to which um there is plenty of businesses that would uh benefit from these grants which is Essex Street and Broadway um and I must say that I'm quite disappointed seeing uh how this process has played out um when asked by Council Lon uh which I believe she touched on a a lot of uh the questions that I wanted to originally ask was was there a criteria in terms of uh the length of time that businesses were established in order for them to qualify and that was pretty much a vague response where a business could have been established yesterday and I'm being sarcastic here but um it could have been like less than a month of being established and pretty much that would have qualified them to apply and receive this grant um I think it's extremely GR like grossly negligent on the administration's part to not set something in place um to not set something in place to to avoid those type of loopholes um I think that there's so many businesses out here uh some that are fairly new and some that have been here for 10 plus years that would have extremely benefited from uh some of these $8 to $10,000 grants um so I am intrigued and I would love to see uh provided in our next meeting um and I'm not sure if that is already uh part of the request from uh the other the council members um so I'm seeing the list of all the businesses correct um I want to see attached the their application I want to see also attached what was the criteria that the Committee created to justify why one business received 5,000 why the other received eight and why the other received 10 to 15 um I I I would like to gain an understanding as to what was the criteria to be able to qualify uh for the the quantity of those grants um give me one second because I'm I again we just rece I just received this this document and as we're going through the meeting I'm going over it um which I I find it highly ineffective to do my job as a counselor to ask the proper questions um so I'm glad we're tabling this and um again it's I was extremely hopeful I would have been so uh for approving this 400,000 but because of this process and the way it has turned out it's making me now want to ask questions that maybe I didn't ask previously and I think it's important for us to do our due diligence because I feel like in this round uh I think I I think we could have done a better job um I'm also intrigued in this list of businesses do you have to have a brick-and mortar like do you have to have a physical business physical physical business in the the of Lawrence to qualify for this grant councelor is that a question you're asking now or or you asking it to be included in the report I'm asking that specific question now yes the answer is yes you have to have a brick and mortar you have to be registered and have a so you know what I want want you have you have businesses because I know for a fact one there's definitely it's not a brick and mortar it's not a physical business um so I I want to a list of uh the addresses of all those phys like the physical businesses of where they're located okay I I would like to yeah with your with the your question you have businesses that can operate from home so it's not a brick and mortar though it's not a physical business it's a physical business so I want to see the justification of how those grants uh for those type of businesses why I want to see the justification of them receiving like what what would be um how are they being uh how are those grants being put to use and is the committee um that was assigned to to uh distribute these grants um do you guys have a plan in place in terms of like the aftermath of once these businesses have received the grant do they need to provide any type of receipt some sort of you know um documentation to prove or show how those they also sign a contract and I'm sorry for interrupting celor um marmel marmel they have to they WR they have to sign a contract saying and what they're going to be using the the funds for and it has to be used for exactly what they're saying they have to provide receipts we are going to go and verify what they bought um what they use the money for what the receipts are and if they don't and they use money for anything else they what they're saying for they have to pay the money back so this is what I'm going to request I I want to see for this for this committee um included in the report all the applications of the approved businesses so we can have so Council marmel I I believe this this will this will um cover that question for you so we can see exact we can we can have their addresses and exactly what they need they they're going to use this fund fun with for also what is the time frame of when is the city going to go back to ensure that these funds or as for the receipts of the usage of the money that it of How It's required to be used um and I'm wording it so so badly right now but I'm exhausted I haven't right for the sake but you guys understand what I'm asking correct for the sake of time uh chair I would like to to have these question answered uh I do want to correct since it's mentioned publicly there's no uh uh wrong intent or if you know uh councelor maral mentioned that basically that previously you folks have been blindsided uh if there has been any any circumstances then that should be brought to our attention uh you had the opportunity as the uh to make the decisions on how uh the funds would be distributed with all the requirements um and if that didn't happen prior then now probably with a second round um maybe you can put more conditions uh stipulations for us Council Maro is there any other questions or or comments you have pertaining to this I'm sorry madam chair was that question directed to me yes um no no as of right now um that that's all I have I'll I'll just wait for for the administration to provide um the documentation that we have requested and I believe there's going to be more questions that um that's going to come about once we receive those documents that we could address it at a later point in time okay thank you can I have a motion to table item 569 I mean to table before you do that I want to go over make sure I got all the questions down correctly okay um how are the business pick you can review the video I can't review the video but we're here and I'm going to be on vacation so I want make can you quickly go go go over it please but no you motion the table that's fine can you no I I just asked all right all right motion to table um item 56824 motion to table mad chair can I no no more discussion can we request the Federation to be here please clerk um can you make can you make a note to ask the Hispanic Federation uh to be present for the next budget and finance meeting you're welcome do you have that Pat the Hispanic Federation thank you okay motion has been made by the council president um is there a second second seconded by the Vice chair of the committee um this uh roll call council president yes uh councelor marmel yes councel lzone yes and the chair votes in the affirmative the next item we have is item 56924 to transfer in the amount of to transfer $50,000 from the r um retained earnings to the first school year 20 uh 2025 airport budget fund and who do we have from the airport hello um great evening um my name is Chast and I am a finance officer from the airport uh Airport Manager Froman Cisco asked to be excuse as he is currently at a northand over compensational meeting um and um we are asking to uh transfer $115,000 um to cover the new administration building um our share um the state just granted us um a grant which we cover which will cover 95% of the um of the grant of the new administration building and we asking to to transfer the the 15,000 from the the return earnings account to the airport budget fund which has been uh certified good question council president um I just when when that uh when the director come back probably we can discuss this but usually the April pretty much um uh they have a budget that they cover most of the expenses uh and I just wondering to see if it is more expensive or or that is more or or less money coming in so when he come back you guys probably be able to respond on that got it okay yes thank you uh any other questions or comments seeing none I'll entertain a motion I'll make a motion to send it to the full Council um with a favor recommendation pending the information that we request second motion has made properly seconded um roll call council president yes councelor marmel yes Council lzone yes and the chair votes in the affirmative thank you chass thank you good um the last new business item is item 570-4 authorization to pay prior year invoices in the amount of 3,00 $346 for travel reimbursement costs and we have Mr McCarthy acting planning director here um good evening Council this is Danielle mccy acting plan director for city um I forward you some documents today I don't know if anybody has the hard copies in front of you um they're not going to be part of your package I I for them to you today they for so I apologize to uh Council M I know I didn't realize you were uh out of town today but uh um these um the reimbursement requests are for do for uh trips that were taken um by myself on behalf of Grant projects um the trips are a requirement the ten tenant at conferences um both of these uh conferences um both of these grants are federal funds um one of them is an Environmental Protection um conference that they hold annually I attend these maybe every three or four years I'll attend one of these uh V I believe all five of these during my tenure with the state um with the city um these are requirements and these are budgeted as part of Any Grant we get this is part of our budget um the same thing for the second Grant um was the trip to Atlanta was on behalf of a grant we received from the center of Disease Control uh we attended this um this um conference at the center um and stayed in Atlanta um this was part of our budget myself and and one other employee were one other City employee were were budgeted for this so these monies are currently being held uh either in escrow or they're part of our budget uh so the money is available um I was advised afterwards that um they should have been submitted to the city before the U because these are federal programs and the money was being held I figured that money was uh secure almost like money in the bank but I was advised afterwards by the City attorney that there were late invoices and I didn't realize um the documents coming from myself were actually third party invoices but I guess they are thank you any questions or comments question council president I read authorization to pay prior years invoice but I mean there they were done this year the reimbursement what's that the reimbursement were made this year but I mean did the conference happen last year okay yes any other questions so so the fisc here and I I attended a meeting in May uh let me um let Mr McCarthy finish his statement and then we're going to go to you Council Mar the one about being in this year I attended the um meeting in May the fiscal year ends July 31st I guess I was supposed to submit my uh reimbursement request before that uh knowing that that money was still being held in an account I sent it in when the end at the end of the federal fiscal year and I was told that it was not in in time that I had to come before you that was a late invoice um but again I assumed it was a job benefit not a a third party cost because it was coming out of my pocket not uh not not the money going to the hotels or the airplanes that I paid for thank you councilor marmel councelor marmel sorry I was trying to unmute myself um so first off I'm not out of town I'm actually not feeling well which is why I'm remote Mr McCarthy oh sorry secondly um I'm looking at the agenda so whatever attachments that you're providing is not part of the agenda um I feel like I I I think it's important for us to try to be as uh prepared as possible that um any documentation that is being submitted during these meetings that they are either attached to the agenda in order for us to review um in a timely manner before the meeting begins or um again if there are any attachments that are being provided on the spot last minute that um you're also including that as a PowerPoint presentation for people that are viewing it um via streaming on Facebook or other online platforms understood any other questions or comments seeing none I will entertain a motion motion to send for Council uh recommendation motion has remain properly SEC second in discussion seeing none uh roll call council president yes councilor marmel yes councelor Lon yes and the chair votes in the affirmative thank you thank you councilors can I have a motion to untable item 234 D21 tax collection and local receipts update for fiscal year 2024 motion has made by the council president is there a second second seconded by Council lzone uh roll call council president yes councilor marmo yes Council lzone yes and the chair votes in in the affirmative um you guys have the floor good evening counselors um my name is par R city treasur tax collector here for the City of Lawrence it's been a long evening but I do want to um I'm here before you to pretty much go over the collection efforts from my department um so I'm going to go over the tax services I believe you should have received a copy um email as well as hard copy so it looks like this Che my email probably was it that by you or the city CL yes send it yesterday evening oh yep yep it's here let's to um slide all right we're following okay so I'm going to go discuss the real estate and personal property what you have before you is a list of fiscal year and collection by date by year so we'll start with 2025 if you go across the board you'll see what the gross ta tax levy is and that's based on the certified amounts that the State Certified so thanks for you guys passing the tax rate last week we did receive the 2025 um grow gr tax levy minus the overlay um and that gives you your net tax levy so as you will see the the total dollar amount that was collected is highlighted in red um and you'll see that we've only collected so far this year 4 40 million 40.3 million or 40.4 million um which accounts for almost half of the collection effort and that's due to the fact that we still have not sent out quarter three or quarter four bills that's scheduled to go out January 1st due February 1st and then the fourth quarter April 1st du May 1st um so I think from an overall perspective we're pretty much showing great um collection effort as you can see from a trajectory it has you know we've been around the 97 98 99 um percentile for that collection during the fiscal year and then cumulative as of November 30th you see that it normally does go up and then we can move on to the motor vehicle excise tax so it's a similar layout it's going to be based on the um calendar year so the commitment years um which shows how much we've the assessor has committed to myself as the treasurer as The Collector to um collect um you're going to see cumulative what we've collected so far for calendar year so the difference here is with excise is reflected of as of calendar year so anyone that has a car within this calendar year we'll get a bill and that's how our collection are portrayed on here so so far we've collected about 84% of the taxes that we have build for excise we still have two more commitments which is commitment number six and commitment number seven for calendar year 2024 and the reason for that is usually the R&B notifies us of anyone that registers a car towards the end of the year what is what is R&B the registry of Motor Vehicle so the data is I heard RnB not RnB okay sorry I apologize no worries um so we still have two more um commitment for calendar year 2024 and the biggest commitment does go out on febru in February and so we're expecting the 2025 calendar excise Bill to go out in February I know because there's about you know 6,000 pieces of bills that do go out to our residents what I do always um try to communic unate to our taxpayers that if they don't get a bill by January 15 or usually I'll say by St Patrick's Day to just go on the website or to call our office cuz usually that means either you know it was lost in transition um so again just reflecting our cumulative collection um we're about the 90 90% um percentile on these collections counselors or I'm I'm going to go to you first council president because this is your item um any questions or comments yes we we we we good we good on that on the real estate personal property and then motor vehicle exis um I'm assuming that the local receipt is is it's a lot more than that we just went wait for the rest thank you conselor thank you thank you we're going to have some some the local receip analysis she'll hand them out thank you Council marmel um council president is is sending you this this this table uh through through a a photo as we speak okay good evening Council Ramona sabalos controller so before you is the local receipts the format that we have is the format that um the do expects from us when we report the uh tax recap I can go into detail as to what each of those line items represent or explain to you what they are so I'll give you a minute to review so the numbers include FY 24 budget versus actual as well as FY 25 budget versus actuals year to date as of last night's data okay give us some explanation as of what each means so the public up there they will know and then we'll take some note yep um so motor vehicle excise as the treasurer just commented is our largest local receipt as of uh 1210 24 they have been six Motor Vehicles commitments the first and largest is issued in February and FY 24 50,23797 of the sales price of the meal in addition to that um the cities and towns have the option to accept a local option and receive 75% more and Lawrence does have that we receive those payments quarterly from the state Hotel excise tax Massachusetts has a state room occupancy excise tax rate of p 5.7% in addition to that the city has a local option to um add an additional up to 6% that's also received quarterly to the city from the state um Urban Redevelopment exercise per Mass general laws chapter 121a section 18 c this is received from the state um in FY 24 we received it in January so um we have not received that yet for fy2 it will probably be received in January as well um penalty and interest on taxes we have under that category we have interest on taxes which is about 14% exactly 14% penalties and interest on tax Lans cost on taxes and service fees usually includes fees and demand notices for the taxpayers on um if not PID within 30 days after the fourth quarter you m that the 14% include the penalties on interest taxes and payment on lean taxes both together so the interest on taxes 14% mhm penalty and interest on tax leans or tax title um used to be 16% but as of November of 2024 is now %. payments in Lee of taxes also known as pilot um it's usually an agreement to help communities recoup some of the Lost Revenue that is um as a result of State Property Tax exemptions such as the Lawrence Housing Authority that is a pilot payment inlo of taxes other charges include uh Downtown parking which we get 100,000 per month guarantee payments uh the 10% admin fee that we get from police detail city clerk receipts and also from other departments as the cemetery other fees include uh fees collected from various departments ISC Community Development and so forth other department revenues specifically here it's some payments that we receive from the Lawrence Housing Authority related to police detail license and permits um that's one of our biggest uh receipts um includes Building Inspections Electrical Plumbing fire alarm and smoke detectors fines and forfeit um usually trash ordinances fees Towing fines uh fines and parking violations investment income we've done very well with the uh investment income for the last few years um it's profit earned from our investments the interest rates have been favorable to the city so we've done um very well Medicaid um since 1988 Medicaid has reimbursed state for certain medically necessary services provided in a school-based setting um for an individual education program for our students and misscellaneous um it's usually receipts um not specified in the previous items such as um we get some um state reimbursements for elections also insurance claims any settlements that we get and homeless Transportation reimbursement you have any questions councelor is any councel L um do you know how much money have the city received from um real estate sales how much money real real estate Sal real estate sales like yeah property owned by the city I do not have that you don't they don't have that so um year to date for fiscal year 2025 we haven't sold anything but um for fiscal year 2024 we received $150,000 fiscal year 2024 2024 and what's the amount $1 15,73 15 okay and my other question if I made my then Che what uh when properties are transferred what percentage of of taxes uh we get if a property is transferred from the city um not sell like if a property is transferred maybe to a nonprofit I don't know if this has happened I'm just asking you the question if a property is transferred to a nonprofit uh do we receive any uh taxes out of that so if we transfer a property is because we we have the deed to the property so by default we're tax exempt so therefore we don't have any taxes that we build to ourselves and if it if it's being transferred to a nonprofit there's also non-exempt so therefore there will be no no tax we normally would sell the properties we don't transfer Deeds um I haven't seen it in my tenure here I can't tell you whether or not that's actually something we were in the business of doing thank you for you answer thank you mad Che just to just to give you some clarity on that um she say she does any Clarity she doesn't any Clarity no she doesn't council marmal do you have any questions or comments no I'm must set okay council president do you have any well I'll add on that besides the clarity she doesn't need it not a clity okay all right so with that being said said hold on one second I said uh when we transfer a property that need to be approved by the council and signed by the mayor got it thank you for the clarification is there any other on your end um you guys all say I do want to take the the moment um I was sent a really nice article pea um from someone in in in your family your husband and I just want to say congratulations to him it was a beautiful story and I'm sure you're also very proud of of your husband so I just wanted to take that moment you're welcome M chair I just want to say U thank you to the department for providing this information um it is an item that I have on the agenda for so we can get information like this to the city council otherwise we wouldn't we wouldn't know so um for next update definitely it's that's something that we're going to look forward if you have a format that you're creating so we can have this type of update uh we definitely appreciate the fact that you guys are doing we can we can include this update and our quarterly update to the council oh perfect because they C and the treasure both provide a report but if you like this format uh they can do that easier just to include it on there and also like what you what you did today providing the definition of each uh line item please add those as part of the the definition and that will that will be helpful thank you quick question um councelor Lon just asked when PE when when a homeowner sell sell sells their their home in the City of Lawrence do they pay taxes on on that on on that profit that they make uh that would be not paid to the City of Lawrence that would be paid to the federal or state if they have a capital gains tax but but I think what you might be referring to some towns have a um CPA tax Community preservation Act tax and for every sale they might charge I don't know if it's 1 to 3% but uh we don't have that tax to our residents but thank you can I have a motion to to con to adjourn concern motion to adj has made probably seconded um council president roll call yes uh councelor marmel Council L councelor and the Chev votes in affirmative thank you so much counselors