e e e e e e e e e e look you oh that's [Music] name to somebody head up [Music] s fil they did the they did the flag raising and and w City advertised functions the only way you can see is if you on the and St [Music] 2 of you know that I know that say all [Music] you better believe to yeah but you don't get nothing extra so we use this she told me about this app called that you put the number 25 in what else is the kind of like un [Music] spe spe so it should be I don't know don't you know I would think it might be [Music] okay it's hot in here what is this all right you guys ready [Music] don't go too far out okay i b right how you friend last ready good evening and welcome to the Personnel committee meeting today is Tuesday June 25th it is now 7:18 p.m. with me I have voting members of this committee to my left counselor at large um Anna Levy and to my right counselor of District a fedelina Santiago 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 in progress May either attend here in the city council chamber or use our Facebook and YouTube channels at this time can you please join me in the in the pledge of allegiance to the to the flag United [Music] stes stand Justice counselors we do not have any minutes for approval so we're going to get right into new business the first item item 293-2474 in January 2026 brought To Us by mayor depena is there anyone from the administration here I know we have our HR Director but we also have our land use planner Mr McCarthy I don't know which one of you would be introducing this yeah good evening Madam chair um I would defer to the planning director on this um and I apologize when we just spoke briefly I I thought you were me discussing a a different matter uh that's why I reference the City attorney attorney but um for these appointments it also wouldn't uh I I not privy to any of these appointments it would be the mayor's office or maybe the planning director so I would defer to him Perfect all right thank you I wish I could answer it's okay but just in case is there any HR Personnel questions it's good to have you here Mr McCarthy is there anything you would like to say for the first individual um no I just state that we do need uh membership in these Sports um I've read all the resumés and they all look like they're um well well educated knowledgeable people of an interest in the city um so I just suggest maybe that you talk to them individually and see how you feel about them I do notice the only one that I actually know from prior is tonight but I'll give make a phone call and see if he's going to be here uh Mr abis Samra mhm okay okay I actually I believe he's the one and this is just an FYI as you know the city council office also always reaches out to um applicants or appointees to let them know about our meeting and um I was told I I got a call from my confidential secretary I was told that one of the the appointees was not aware stated that they did not receive a call at all from the city or any communication from the city I I don't know I'm just bringing that message up you know letting you guys know I found out about this yesterday so so so there you go so there's miscommunication in this building and um moving forward if we can uh improve that that would be great M okay so can we have Mr Diaz to the podium so he can speak a little bit about his interests and his experience and why he wants to be on the zoning board Mr Diaz uh name and address for the record please hi my name is uh good evening counselors thank you for the opportunity my name is Frederick Diaz I live in 19 Bailey Street St Lawrence and um I'm interested in the board because I want to be a part of the uh the development of the city I've been here long enough uh more than 25 years and I get involved in every city um aspect of progress and development I want to be a voice and I want to be involved in the local government development to improve the quality of the development of the city also I want to give back to the community Community interested to preserve the uh character of residential neighborhoods too in um in local government and what that's one of the reasons too that I want to be part of the board thank you councelors any questions or comments councelor um lovey thank you Council chair uh this is only uh two years no position yes that's what it says two years just two years yeah but this is that in reality or this is that you are finishing the termal of somebody else it looks like usually it's three years I was actually when I saw two years uh probably that's what it looks like yeah that's what I saw on the agenda cuz I believe every 3 years for planning and the sun yes I think I think Mr McCarthy has a clarification respon M yeah please so so the positions are actually threee term but they run in slots so he's going to he's being projected to fill a position that's already been out of out of position for a year so he'll go into that slot that ends on a certain date so what they have is that they we set up so that every year two out of the six board members should require to be reappointed or replaced uh so it goes in a rotation so he just happen comeing that on the schedule the calendar date for that position uh that he's placed in so it is is a three-year position uh if he fulfills his first two-year term gets reappointed that will be for three years so they are three-year positions and they go from January 1st so it doesn't depend on when you're appointed it depends upon the the the length of that term so if he if he was appointed now he'd be going to a set term for two years does that answer your question yes thank you so much um Mr Diaz I have a question for you what is one aspect of the zoning board you feel um that your background or or your knowledge experience can be an asset what do you what are you looking to improve or help to improve within the board is this on is is yours on can we give us one one minute one second hey I don't know why it went off sorry can you repeat the question Council Stefan dep um in Council vice president sorry um what is one thing that you hope to uh improve within the board given your background and experiences not only within public local government because you were part of local government but also as a resident of of the city I want to be I'm want to being grow to the city we need grow we want to bring businesses back to the city uh and build that trust more all the trust of investors to come here and and bring businesses and parks and a bunch of uh we need we need a lot of sports here too so it's part of it we I can see uh the lack of parts that we need for the kids to and then you know we need to grow I'm a progressive person you know I've been here long enough to see the changes and how the community is being developed so I'm not just a yes person either so um you know I like to see what's bring brought to the plate and decide what's best for us as a community too and I want to get back to the community also you know um you know we all fight for a better day here um especially different parts of the city um that's that's what I want to bring yeah my second question thank you my my oops sorry I did not put my phone on silent excuse me just for one second sorry about that um through zoning and and planning these boards specifically you you will see projects like development projects business projects um a lot of them from individuals within the city many whom you may or may not know how are you going to ensure that you're being fair to everyone throughout this process I I hold the position in the city and I'm not easy to drive I'm not a years person like I told you I like to look at budgets and and remember after the end of the day we all part of the community and whatever can affects me as it affect anybody else um I'm not a yes person I'm going to look through it and what is convenient to the city and all of us I'm part of the city too my sons my kids actually my family you any everybody that is in the city this is not just a yes yes yes I have to look what is in front of me in the S side for all of us it's not about me it's about the kids in the future you know so we have to make it better for them and everybody that is coming in you know and develop the city the best way a Citywide crime businesses we all need it to get better cuz we need to grow we needed to grow thank you any other questions councel Santiago for how long this position it is open has been vac yeah it's it's a two it's twoyear ter how long was open so how long was this position vacant for Mr McCarthy um how many members do we currently have there's actually five members sitting on the commission but three of them are out of been out of they've been they've been acting three of the members have been have been performed their duties after their terms have passed so the one of the positions he'd be going into would be one of the ones for that person person who was um should have been um placed back a year and a half ago and how many members they have how many members they have the Z board has five full-time members and one associate member so there's six members total only five vote at a time so we need a quarum of five we right now we have five people we don't we have four full-time members and one associate member um and I think the recommendation was to make associate member who up to a person if Mr Diaz will be accept he would be the number five he would be one of the five I think both these positions have full-time B yes so there's I have a question for Mr I have a I have a question for Di okay good to know to help the community to do the improve the community help the kids and why do you decide the mayor appoint you and you don't decide byself I mean the applications are online you always apply you can apply in any Administration so um I always want to be interested in participating in the city either in the city council or getting involved in anything of the city it doesn't matter who who is a mayor at the time you don't need to get involved in it's when it's a specific person as a mayor you need to get involved when you think it's right I think the time is right now we need a lot of improvement we have a city council that is actually working really good so we all need to be connected we all know each other in the community and we all accessible too so things are right in the right time um and that's also my interest is actually the the kids in the city we need a lot of growth and I can help I have a criminal justice degree and I always been involved I always so it's not just cuz of any mayor is my friend if you know about any mayor that was here before they all my friends but we need to help the community you know uh if there are on duty or not we still have to do our jobs as the city council has to do it you know what I'm saying so I I think I can do a great job and getting involved in a lot of things in the city we need we need the help I don't know question your job just I I asked about how you decide your mayor appoint you or how do you know was this position was open I mean it's on the city you everybody check on the portal what is available or not I'm always checking checking what is available and you know and see what you can be part of it I'm well prepared educated and I can do it you know okay okay council is any further questions or comments I do have a question counc Levy but my question is to MTH Mr McCarthy oh you look like you are out of it today me too it's a quick question for any of the commissions so just to follow just only full clarification what's that just full clarification yes for any commission people apply but the major is the that has to appoint the person for the commum no that's correct that's correct all right thank you okay any other questions or comments seeing none at this point I will entertain a motion motion to send it to the full council with favor recommendation motion has been made properly second discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you so much our next council meeting is July 2nd so that's when the the final full vote will take place thank you for your opportunity and your time to listen to me thank you thank you love day thank you the next one Mr McCarthy do we were you able to get a hold of Michael ab ab all right so we we'll abar abar some some of the last names I'm you know I'm trying my best here all right so we're going to move on we're going to skip over 294 for now we're going to go to 295 d24 the approval well he's going to see if he can if he can call for if not we'll table um um number item 295 d24 the approve to approve the appointment of Ed Edina Dava to the planning board with the term expiring January 1st of 2027 brought To Us by mayor depena do we have Miss T Vera here with us today hello good evening good evening Miss AA um the same process just introduce yourselves give us a little bit about your background why you're interested in the planning board and and we'll take it from there okay thank you my name isina tavas I'm a resident of 0s sunr Street Lawrence Massachusetts District day I am a life practically a lifelong resident for over 32 plus years residing here um I've been a homeowner since 2015 in the City of Lawrence um I'm an educator former Middle School assistant principal and I am interested in serving my community um I am highly involved in sorry in um volunteerism um especially through my church affiliations um I have experienced organizational leadership experience as well as Finance experience um I've worked as a treasurer for my local church for I'd say over 7 years so and I also have successfully acquired um grants that I've collaborated with a well in Girls Club in another um municipality and I assisted them in writing their Grant so they can acire funding to um start a stem program which I have been um Carry teaching over the Summers for the past um four years and I'm a person that am devoted to this city to this community that I probably have served previously as an educator for Lawrence Public Schools and I feel that I have many talents um and I would like to serve in whatever capacity I can to help the betterment of this of this community that I love and reside in thank you I actually um before I called you miss toos we actually have a planning board member in the audience Miss Brenda Rosy Miss Rossy do you mind taking the podium and just for the for the people watching at home and and and I'm assuming the people in the gallery already know what the planning board does but can you summarize your like a typical duties of a of a planning board member um the oliv school the Leakey School esparanza those are all POS planning board we we get plans um someone wants to add on to their house someone wants to take a building Prim example next door and we we go to um they come before the the um planning board and we um approve it don't approve it more often than not it gets approved but I'm so glad that I was actually part of the Ley school because that's where I 8th grade so that was that's one of my but yeah um I've been on since well g r i think rer so 2014 somewhere around there so yeah but a lot of parti is and seeing a lot of growth in You Know M Veron area um plastic Hill Tower Hill it it it's great to see people wanting to stay in the city and fix up housing as opposed to moving away awesome thank you m sorry I should have called it first before all right counselors do we have any questions or comments from Miss Tas Tas with an s yes okay on our agenda here doesn't they they forgot the S so that's to Vera are you related to the next person we're going to call up I am okay I her aunt nice okay um any questions so I have a question and this might be a Personnel more of a Personnel question um so these boards are supposed to be separate from local government um now after asking the the the relation question um we do have a member of the mayor's office related to the two individuals we have on the agenda tonight tonight how do we keep that separate is that allowed just for I know I'm going to get that question as a counselor and I want to clarify that for people watching at home or for us to have the the correct information to say yep so uh mam vice president it uh the question is that just so you understand correctly um there's a relationship between a person in the mayor's office and somebody being considered for two people considered for for for the planning board tonight okay okay um and and I assume these two folks are related yep to each other yes that would serve in the same board yes okay um you know that I uh I I would have to review um for uh for potential conflict there um I don't I I don't see um I I don't think there's so much a conflict between the relationship between the individual in the mayor's office and the board um more so uh two of the board members being uh related um okay um off that's a unique situation that I haven't seen um so off hand I I can't um give you an answer whether there would be or would not be a conflict and I'd probably want to look into the issue a little bit and maybe um reach out to the City attorney on that as well okay can I have a motion to send correspondence to the cityor attorney with to corresponds to the City attorney and ALS even though you're here but just to make it formal um and to our HR Director to send a memo to the Personnel committee regarding um appointee er erolina Tes and Gabriela Tes um serving being related and serving on the same board so Mo has been made SEC properly second in discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you we just want to make sure we want to make sure we're doing things correctly and we don't want anything you know to come back to the city especially these are volunteer I mean the fact that you guys are even here wanting to volunteer not a lot of people do that so we just want to make sure that you don't get in trouble we don't get in trouble and and we're doing things correctly and just for the record I I'm not saying there is a conflict either way but uh it's definitely something that before actions taken I think it should be yeah yeah it's better to clarify yep okay so with that being said um we're going to continue the process can we what I recommend I I want to yeah I I want to yes I I want to give you um the opportunity and and also any any the opportunity for the counselors um okay you're okay yeah no okay I have the same question that you had said that was a conflict but so this is what I recommend for item 25-24 I recommend sending it as a committee of report pending um the advice the legal advice from the city attorney and the Personnel advice from our our director um that way we don't luckily for board appointments there isn't that 30-day um 30-day time frame uh I mean we have your your qualifications here we we've listened to you I think we think that that you that you're qualified so I I don't see the reason to to keep this here and if a conflict does uh occur then we you know we handle it at the at the full Council um do my colleagues do you guys agree with that is there yes I do I am okay so can I have a motion to send item 29524 as a committee report pending uh the advice from the the individuals that I stated motion has been made by councelor Levy seconded by counselor Santiago all those discussion all those in favor say I and the eyes have it thank you thank you for your time so like I told Mr Diaz so our next meeting is July 2nd at 700 p.m. and that's no problem the last item is item 296-2422 brought To Us by Mr depena Mayor depena sorry uh Miss Tes hello how are you all doing today good good so to introduce myself I'm Gabriela Tas I was born and raised in Lawrence Massachusetts so it's truly the only place that I know to call home throughout my entire life I've always done community service just getting really involved in the community and as someone who to some extent wasn't at risk youth as well that's really helped because it's allowed me to really see Lawrence through the lens of where we've been and also where we could be and that was always my thing as a child was growing up saying this is what Lawrence could be and how great would it be if I could work towards that so I went to Emanuel College I obtained my bachelor's in neuroscience and then later on I became Miss Massachusetts so I've done a lot of work with City Hall and doing community service I actually have the key to the city which is like one of my most proud moments being born and raised here that's not something you expect to get and then I built my own company I have a company called heads up Venture so I am an entrepreneur where I partner with small and medium-sized businesses to help them to do operations in marketing strategy and integration and so it's all about how is it we can take small medium-sized businesses and grow them and so by tra just by training who I am I'm a very Innovative person who's a Visionary and sees things that don't exist yet and that led me to going to nor Eastern University where I was on a scholarship a full scholarship with the Dr Martin Luther King Jr fellowship and there I obtained my MBA so I recently graduated and my concentrations were corporate renewal corporate Innovation and marketing as well so it's all about how is it that we can take things that maybe people don't see the potential and the value in and we can give it a future give it a second life and be able to make it more sustainable for future Generations thank you counselor's any questions or comments see none another so the same process with you miss tares um again your background your your introduction same thing uh we don't have any any further questions we might end up having more questions on July 2nd for for the both of you but uh uh the same thing I don't I don't feel I don't see a need of keeping it here um in terms of background and and experience qualifications I think it's all there so can I have a motion to send this as a committee report pending um advice legal advice and HR device so move motion has been made by counselor levies I counselor Santiago uh discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I the eyes have it thank you so much we'll see you July 2nd thank you we'll see you Ben thank you councelor is there any other items oh um actually really quickly can I have a a a mo a motion to untable item 33-20 23 the police chief search committee and update motion has been made properly pyed in discussion um no discussion on table all those in all those in favor say I I and the eyes have IT director very quickly um any update on this how have we started the how we started the process anything that you could provide yep um Madam chair uh appreciate the question uh so um we are moving along um where we stand right now is we did reach out uh there were four uh professional executive recruiting firms uh that we sent out for bids um we uh we received um some information back and moving forward with selection um of one of those firms um so I'm going to make a recommendation um for one of those firms um and uh that's pretty squared away that part um Also I spoke to the IT director to create an a um online form uh for constituents that are um interested in serving on the committee uh this would be a form that would be on the city's website should be shared on social media um to the general public where constituents if you're interested in serving the committee go in fill up the online form those would come to the HR department we would surface those to the mayor for appointment um so um I I still have to send a memo to the mayor um that would you know um recommend the the form how the committee should be formed um I spoke to the city attorney's office um about um we have to do some further research about you know how that committee would operate um in terms of how it would comply with open meeting law um because there are uh some of these um some of the when you're dealing with a search committee um sometimes the applicat don't want it to be known that they're in the process you know if they're Chief in another community that type of thing they don't want it to be known until they're a finalist so some of the sessions would have to be an executive session and then a number of the sessions would be public once it becomes the finalist stage so I met actually today with the city attorney's office for them to provide me some information that I can include in the memo to to the mayor that would speak to that how the committee should be formed how it can comply with open meeting law and uh you know I'm making a recommendation to the mayor as to how who should what that Comm committee should look like I think I mentioned before that there should be you know appointment from the mayor's office appointment from the council uh there it's my recommendation that there should be two or three constituents on that committee and probably one or two members of uh of the police department um and maybe an additional seat for um uh a community um activist group or you know a community a group that deals with with youth in the community something to that effect um I don't know if that could be captured by the constituent seat so um those are all the considerations that have to be discussed so um the long and short of it is uh we're we're in a good position with um Contracting with the executive Search firm I am uh meeting with the city attorney's office to get the necessary legal a guidance from them as to how the committee should be formed um and empowered by the city um um and uh I hope to put all of this in a formal memo to the mayor hopefully you know within the next week or so um and then from there the expectation would be that the mayor would move for move forward based upon that guidance and and actually start to um you know gather the applications from constituents and um you know hear from the council about their appointment all that and actually form form the committee awesome okay so so we are moving thank you just know doing doing our diligence no thank you I I appreciate that um councelor Levy thank you coun sh uh one quick question how many application have you been receiving at this point for for the police chief itself yes um so it has not been posted I know in the past um it was posted for a short period of time before my tenure here um from and I haven't looked at those applications I haven't reviewed any of that I from what I here um from the you know um Personnel department is that there were somewhere in the ballpark of 10 or so 13 13 13 okay yeah and I haven't looked at those I haven't reviewed those um as I stated before the position will be posted um through various channels using the the Executive Research firm and uh any of those individuals are welcome to apply again notice will go out to them that we discussed before I sorry to I believe counselor you weren't you weren't here for that for that meeting but yes yeah y exctly now that I'm thinking about it so nobody has applied it has not been posted at this point the search committee will do that with the help of the executive Search firm when we get there okay okay thank you yeah thank you I think we're do you have any questions or I think we're all set thank you thank you for the update can I have a a a motion to table item 39323 Mo motion has been made properly seconded all those in favor say I I the eyes have it can have a motion to adjourn motion to adj motion made probably second all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you so much everyone thank you good night