[Music] yeah she's ended up with no recommendation so there's noort this 7:00 316 3 month ago my eyes are like sometimes it catch Focus so if I move it back and forth was soon as I got them and up [Music] la [Music] po makes a decision [Music] of remember they were that was theam te gas power [Music] masss how [Music] is this I no IDE yes I mean obvious making the city look sa nobody [Music] know my [Music] [Music] help na [Music] occas I don't really Lance I [Music] friends the [Music] this is not even know Map GPS [Music] Des that was that wasas Brothers us they still a of those death sence on find police because when they they went encrypted [Applause] [Music] what were supped to supp to hold on let me fix something home good evening and welcome to the budget and finance committee today is Monday June 24th it is now 6:21 in the evening with me tonight I have to my left councelor Wendy lzo and council president javanni Rodriguez pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2022 this meeting of the budget and finance 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 Pages at this point can you please join me The Pledge IED [Music] [Music] alates counselors we don't have any minutes to approve so we're going right into it item 3-24 acceptance of gifts from Charles dahar and Commonwealth motors forceable entry prop in the value of 8,605 brought To Us by chief morot chief you have the floor good evening councilors how are you um as you all know our budgets are tight and uh Mr dare and his family of Commonwealth are extremely generous and every now and then he tries to get us something that we could use and this time he got us what's called a forceable entry door prop and I know that probably didn't mean much to you so I printed up some pictures of it for you if you wanted I didn't think I didn't think of the pitches till today or I would have submitted them with the thing but um It's Made of heavy steel metal uh they made it down in New York it was shipped to us uh or will be shipped to us um so we can use it um it's it's one of the critical tasks we perform and any building fire as forceable entry being able to get in get in a door maintain control of that door so the Fire doesn't blow out at us get into a search or attack the fire it's an excellent prop it's extremely popular in the fire service and uh we've had to borrow uh a number of these from different communities in the past so now we'll have our own so uh I thank Commonwealth motors and Charlie G and hope to do a a presso with them if people approve it thank you councelors any questions or comments sure council president uh thank you m shair um did um Chief did you get in touch with them for them to be able to do this for the city of lawence did you did did you introduce the issue and then they they they consider say that again did you introduce them the issue and then they consider I did yeah he's a he's an extremely generous friendly man we have a nice conversation he saids what do you what do you need I said well we could use this we've had to borrow a few times and our budget's are tight so he said I'm taking care of that fire Brian thank you so much thank you chief for doing that that's very impressive thanks I appreciate it thank you any other comments or questions no no no com it's always to I make a motion to send it to the full Council what a fa recommendation motion has been made seconded by Council lzone discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you thank you item 30224 authorizations to expend Grant funds in the amount of $79,999 with 90 from the Commonwealth Transportation infrastructure enhancement trust fund brought To Us by DPW director H is anyone from DPW here tonight c n can I have a motion to table this item motion to table this item motion has been made there a second is that the the attorney just just for the I want to tell you director emergency I had meeting SCH with him ear and he was want to think did not show up here thank you what was that do you does the committee feel comfortable with that I mean I don't care all right all right counselor president uh thank you m sh just to just going over what is what is this intake about what the intakes of this it is based on what I'm reading so essentially payment markets within our city have been lacked for years having this opportunity of getting 79 $80,000 uh that I believe is related to the shair right uh uh trust fund for the state of massachusett is a great opportunity to enhance safety so essentially um we have seen that lately we we have the city of L have paint uh the markings around the downtown area and uh and and the the stop lines uh to me as a civil engineer that's very important uh I I don't see many cities and towns uh going away without having proper payment marking very often so councelors I would I would like uh this to be considered at least as a committee report if if the committee uh feel comfortable with when they when it comes to the intext of the real meaning of the of of the item and knowing the fact that the director have an emergency priorly we can consider this as a as a a commit report the C is here I I could just fill in one thing this is the we get a piece of every Uber lift Drive that's where this money comes from and we do have to tell the uh the Commonwealth how we're going to use it that's there are no limitations pretty much uh so we just have to tell them how to use it so I believe that's what Jorge was attempting to do uh to get permission to spend this grant money so you can tell the state we're going to do these crosswalks yeah if I remember correctly from last year we get $104,000 right yeah uh I don't remember the number but I know every year we get uh a piece of the Uber and lift uh yeah that's what I that's what I thought so councelors if you guys feel comfortable with this being sent as a committee report knowing the fact that they're going to be using it exclusively for the enh enhancement of the safety U of the dantong area can I have a motion to send this up as a a committee report I'll make that motion motion has been made by coun council president there a second second signed by Council lone discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it item 30324 the transfer in the amount of $511,000 with $1,000 with $100 of opa funds to the home buyer assistance program from various accounts brought To Us by senior advisor spanner advisor spanner you have the floor yes chairperson Infante city councilors council president good evening this is a request to transfer the remaining funds um from the uh Enterprise agencies uh the cemetery uh the airport as well as the Water and Sewer Department to transfer the re the remaining funds to be used for um uh home buyer program um during my presentation um before you I believe it was last year during the previous city council um I've indicated the transfer that the mayor wanted to use some some of these funds uh specifically for um for people that are looking for homes to buy uh sometimes there's a gap uh of uh funding um and um some families would need just a little push for them to purchase their home in the city so the funds will be used specifically for for that council's any questions or comments director hi a Willa pimento 360 Mar Street um community development director um we really want this program to be implemented for our laurentians this program will create housing stability and New Opportunities um this home buyer program will focus on meeting the housing needs of our residents and as you know the housing costs have risen and the home ownership has become unreachable for many so we are dedicated to building the wealth of our residents and this Administration we want to break that cycle of poverty and create generational wealth for our lenan so we expect your support to help us in this Mission thank you thank you any questions coun Lon um thank you Madame chair um director Pimentel do do we know how many people have used this assistant uh for this fiscal year zero oh well this is a new program there but we I I know that there's a home buyer program in the city or this is something different yeah we're trying to design a home buyers program um with these funds that's a little bit different than the first time home buyers program that is with the HUD limits which are extremely low and that is why we haven't had anyone purchase and last year we only had two purchases for the first first time home buyers program okay so two people in the entire city have used the funds the first time home buyers the first time for last year okay thank youc president because of the yeah the prices and the cost has gone up as you know um also the interest rates are extremely high um so a lot of the residents in in order to even qualify uh for mortgage most likely have to you know join with someone else for a mortgage application so that your income can be higher um so it's just been a real big battle for the people to purchase at this time thank you council president uh okay let me get to understand this this new new program uh thank you for the information uh director pel so first time home buyer that's a you mentioned that is that's a program that is funded with the Hub money with uh home money and uh and there are very limited amounts of dollars that goes to the to the people how much money goes to the first time home buyers in the city of L right now we have about 500 something thousand in that account for first-time home buyers and how much each each person that apply that qualify I get we only had two last year no how much how much they get when they apply uh well one was part of the heroes program so um that one was $20,000 and the other one was $50,000 so within the first time home buyer you have different programs we have the heroes which is for First Responders for the City of Lawrence um that one's $2,000 and that was a first time home buyer the hero yes why he didn't get the 50 then the income limit they wouldn't qualify okay what is the income limit for somebody to qualify for first home buyer um I can send you all the guidelines we have different for a family ahead household of 1 2 three four and five they're all different but I can send you those so you don't have it with you I don't have those HUD ones no okay no I haven't finished yet so that's the first time home buyer so we will do will send the the the treasure for the firstand home buyer and usually people get 50k yes but those incomes as you will see when I send you the chart are very low and then in order for you to qualify right now with the interest rates and the cost of houses you have to make more income than what those people actually make yes I agree but the issues that I have is that the fir the the first time whole buyer uh they might need more help compared to somebody that already own a home because you're not distinguish and when when it comes to uh home buyers assistant program so that could be somebody that have that have owned multiple property in the city of L and take advant will also be owner occupied will be I understand I understand that uh that's one of the requirements so there that uh that's going to be that was going to be my next question what's the requirement of the program because we don't we don't have those details yeah that will be owner yeah and also um they want to place a 5year restriction where they will have to live in the home in the City of Lawrence for 5 years so five years mhm owner occupi um and homeowner occupy and and not necessarily any type of limit when it comes to amount of property that you own in the past we have not established that yet but we can why don't why don't this program goes to the First on home buyers uh with limited limitations when it comes to income well they will qualify as well so like a first time home buyer will qualify the same way yeah I understand that but I mean the thing is is like first time home buyer tend to need more than somebody that already own the house because it could be that you're a homeowner already MH and this is your second the second the second property or investment because we don't know it won't be investment property it'll be owner occupied so they will have to live there but no I understand but the thing is is like when you when you own a home your first home and you move into a second home the second home not necessarily as an investment is the is the owner occupi home but you already have an investment property which was the first one different than the first time home buyer that does those requirements are not those type of issues are not going to exist yeah counselor I think that the uh that can mean I mean that can be part of the one of the requirements that you may have right uh and could be included th this is the issue if you limit it to the first home buyer program let's say someone has a home but by let's say by forclosure loss of employment uh they have to wait I don't know how many years before they can apply again what do you mean go ahead when you're first home buyer when you're for first home buyer program M okay it's not it's not specifically to my understanding a first home buyer after certain period of time that goes by you become eligible to qualify for the program as well if you don't own a home sorry if you don't own a home so so you're correct what we're saying is don't limit with first home buyer program you can stipulate conditions like the ones that you just just mentioned as long as the property the the owner doesn't have more than one or two properties because then they're going to rent it and that's what we don't want we don't want them to have be home or occupied what we are preventing is that someone let's say you have you have a home and all of a sudden because of the economy a loss of employment that you lost your home so how many years does it take before you can go back and qualify well it the the way that I'm seeing is is like we have young Generations that also need help and if somebody already lost a home I think that we can provide an opportunity to somebody that haven't own a home as a firstand home buyer with a new set of uh guidelines perhaps on the limit of the uh of the total amount that they make so if we increase the limit when when it comes to because this is the thing we identifi an issue on the first s home B that we currently have because of the limitation that the feather guidance have this is a is a a local funds that can be used with another set of treasure if we identify the issue on the firstand home buyer which is that why don't we just change the limit of the of the of the income and keep on persistent on first time home buyers because we have a new generation coming up that they're not going to be able to afford a afford a home at all and that's kind of like you know the trick portion of it if we just increase the the limit on the income that they making probably a lot of people might take advantage of it but not necessarily for you know previously owned uh buyers council president we leave it at the pleasure of the of the the committee to make the recommendation um I don't think staff nor we we don't have a you know we're we're just considering the circumstances that exist currently postco uh but if the city council is um is adamant about it then you vote make the decision Madam chair we can we can we can discuss this at this level and then we can probably make recommendations Madam chair councilor uh so my concern here is that we are approving something without guidelines there's not actually a program uh presented to us about how this is going to work so I'm kind of uncomfortable of approving something without knowing where this money is going uh and the guidelines for a program so we just approving a name basically and leaving the door open for any possible guidelines that the department chooses to include and my other question is for director pimel if I made Madan chair is um how much uh phones do we have available in the first uh home buyer program the first home buyer because this is another so this is different according to it's supposed to be called home buyer assistant program which is the program that you're presenting to us without guidelines no what we're saying counselor is we want to design this program we don't have any objections to any recommendations that you want to make this is why over here um what we do see is a pro a problem that we're trying to address is why these residents cannot qualify for down payment assistance and cannot become homeowners right now and is because of these income limits now we have raised the down payment assistance which the mayor did that um which before it was only $25,000 and he raised it to $50,000 um and still then a lot of people cannot qualify when they go to the bank to get a mortgage so we want to design this program and if whatever recommendations you have we obviously want to consider that and implement it because what we want to do is get people to purchase home and have Equity so they can create generational wealth it's unfortunate that right now we have a lot of professionals that don't even own a home don't even own a condole they're renting or living with family um because of the system that we have right now and also the high interest ratees so we want to be able to help our laurentians yeah I thank you director I I completely agreed with you and I understand your concern uh I'm a resident of Lawrence for so many for more than 25 years I do understand your concern but my my other suggestion is why not build a program and come to us with a program with guidelines and so we can approve it CU right now if we move this uh we just approving a name for potential program that's what I I wanted to put out there my second question uh director is how much fundes do we have available in the first time home buyer program CU you mentioned that only two people apply it because of the difficulties that you explain uh B that uh that you explain to us I wanted ask I didn't hear how many well you're still speaking so listening before before we get to that question I do see Council lzone that that you're looking at your your agenda um the name of the program is Miss yeah misnamed on that and it wasn't fix it was emailed to us but it wasn't fixed on our actual agenda so just I just want to make that make that clear so the new program is going to be called it's called home buyer assistant program y That's the program that she talking just making sure CU I how you looking down thank you no yes Contin director my and I appreciate your uh suggestion Madame chair but my question uh if if possible if how many uh how much funds we have available in the first buyer program the one that is the ex yes I understand the HUD one yes thank you the first-time home buyers program has about $500,000 but I can get you that exact number um because it's been sitting there so you know we can also move it to like the home funds I know Su is here um because it is part of the home funds pool from HUD and if it gets approved a director are you planning to merge we can't merge no you can merge okay good the Housing and Urban Development funding for home or cdbg or ESG we cannot merge that with our our arpa funds or free cash we can augment a program and expand it but we can't merge those funds because we are accountable for our HUD funds and we're accountable to our free cash thank you for the explanation uh so it's still not a lot of money it's not yeah that's that's still not a lot of money but I think we will be able to help um a lot of people that are ready right now um and that will qualify because that is the other piece you know the high interest rates and who can qualify for these mortgages so I mean we're going to do our best to to help these people whether getting them ready credit wise or financially we want to help them um but this program will be excellent for for the people I totally agree my only concern is that we don't have nothing in front of us with guidelines for potential uh participants but I think it's a great idea I think it's needed but I also as a counselor my concern is that uh I'm if I vote in favor of moving this to full Council I'm approving a name a program without guidelines and I would like well we don't anything without no guidelines but what I can do to address your concern is I can submit to you the 1800 you know Ami the area medium income from 180 to 200 um which is what we want to do and Implement with this program I can submit to you those um guidelines maybe design an application that's similar to the firsttime home buyers but it's going to be modified to us to the City of Lawrence um without the HUD guidance I can submit that to you and see if you guys can approve that and or make any recommendations that we can Implement together for this program because in essence it's for your constituents um I'm I'm not a political figure I'm Not Elected but I want to help my people in Lauren so it's for your constituents no and I we we agreed we agreed I mean I we are not saying that it's a bad idea it's a great idea but once again I would like to see a complete program before approving this amount of money which I think is Not Enough by the way I think it's not enough financially I think that's what we're able to get for this program if there more I would love for it to be more I have a a question for the kaaf or I don't know if advisor spanner either either one can answer but I'm looking at the memo here and this memo was received by the city clerk on the 12th I'm going to read it as follows uh transfer of 51,00 with $100 from ARA founds to to the um home buyer assistance program it's coming from the cemetery division 20 250,000 airport 200,000 and dpww water 61,000 60 $61,800 and then this memo ends with paperwork to follow what paperwork specifically are you guys referring to think transfer no it's the transfer between um the remaining so I believe uh Susan so what is the paperwork that we had uh that was the um actual evidence of that's the the remaining balance of the of each one of the from the cemetery from the airport and from the Water and Sewer Department this is what happened Sue was in a conference that week that we send it and sorry yeah was in a conference and so we called her and then she gave us the information um but I think you can provide the info I mean that's the balance of each one of the the Departments thank you so this is what I recommend to to the committee this is what I'm hearing I I would like to see that that document I also would like to see a tentative program overview before moving forward on this I recommend that the committee tables this item until we get further further documentations that's my recommendation as a chair um council president sure so let me put it in perspective we identifi an issue for the first time home buyer the issue is the time limit anything else that is an issue with the program other than the time the the fund limits for somebody to apply excuse me repeat again the we identifi the the issue with the with the first time home buy it through the home phones right that issue is the limit when it comes to the the income right the income limit other than that what other issue it's on that program that might not help what this um one other issue with the the HUD funded firsttime home buyo program is as you increase the amount of Hud fun funds that a property receives the affordable housing restriction gets longer and a lot of people don't want to have a 10year restriction so if you get $50,000 you're up to a 10 to 15E affordable housing restriction so some people aren't interested in adding that onto their property okay I understand so we have limits on income and extension of the time with within the program right right so we wanted to reduce to 5 years right and we want to increase the limit on the incomes why don't we adopt the same program of the first time home buyer except for those two criterias and then we have a protection from the federal government program which I don't know what it is but we do because they build it in and we only move or change the limit on the incomes to higher up and the reduction of the timing on the years for the people to stay on that program and then we have a guidance that is well developed by the federal government and we identify those issues that affecting the community which is those two why don't we adopt those I think the body your body is a policy and and yeah but I mean I mean that's not something that I mean I it's it's perfect but we brought it before you in order to make to to see what the uh the wishes are from from from you from the legisl and I and I understand that and I think that through you mad sh and I think that that's absolutely wrong that's absolutely wrong that you leaving it up to the city council no because the thing is is like we are not a full-time employee that actually can develop those I have some experience based on previous year that I'm been here but I mean that and I can tell you that amount of money that we approved throughout because I always look at this program because I know it's going to help the community but it's not fair that we need to think through this type of things it should I think that it should be a documentation coming from the administration because you you guys are the full timers if we have if we bring something before you even if it's documented you still have the power to change it and it happened before we change it what we're asking since this is a very delicate situation we have the funds that was brought before you before we you approve the not by the entire body because we have two or maybe three or four uh new Council uh counselors but in the previous uh city council the previous body we came before you and said that we were going to transfer that amount of money that is left over from each one of the Enterprises and use it as the because the mayor didn't want uh want it to be transferred the question that we had which was kind of difficult was will transfer it we made certain recommendations tonight right for instance with the five years but then before and I agree it so we're not coming here for a total approval we coming here to see what this body would like to do and then we will prepare a document based on the wishes that will be adopted by we need to move forward so this is this is what we're going to do I'm going to cut discussion here um there are pending items that the board would like to see um at this point you guys I we I've already stated I already summarized the additional information that the the budget and finance committee would like to see at this point can I have a motion to table motion to table motion has made there a second there's a second all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it roll call Maria roll call councelor Wendy L yes councelor javanni Council pres ganni Rodriguez councelor Vivian marmo yes and chairwoman step fante Maria is is director Castillo there can you can you get him please item 34-24 authorization to expand Grant funds in the amount of 250,000 for the community Community compact Municipal fiber Grant brought To Us by direct Our IT director Castillo I know he's here somewhere um or we do have the cafo CAO second oh he's he's here just preface and say it's the uh he applied for 250,000 from the state for the from the community compact Grant and we were awarded the amount he's going to explain what he's going to use it for sorry guys it's you were helping us in the back back there everywhere as you know Carlos Castillo a green W stre good evening counselors um as Mark as Mark was saying um I had the opportunity to apply for a fiber Grant okay so I'm I'm actually asking permission to um to spend it on Fiverr related issues that we still have um my plan is to start um I I I have in mind to create a fiber backup right right now we have a single point of failure so my plan is to create a second uh a point of failure and um and with that money huh councelor what happened president don't say too much on the plan oh all right no no So the plan is to spend it on fire related rent um need to create a secondary point of redundancy for our fiber Network and that's what I'm planning to use it for and with your approval I'm hoping that I can use it for that motion to send it to the coun a recommendation properly seconded discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you director can we try to keep um the chamber door closed please there's a lot of commotion out there thank you um council president made the motion Council lzone seconded and it's a unanimous vote item 36-24 authorization to expend Grant funds in the amount of $392,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation for the rail trail for rail trail related expenses brought To Us by our land plan our land use planner Mr McCarthy Mr McCarthy you have the floor good evening Council this is Daniel McCarthy here on behalf of the planning department uh the grant for you is um is a mass Trails Grant is one of um several grants that were given to many communities throughout the state um we met with them and discussed the expenses that were going to the the costs for the rail trail um in the past we were able to um as you know get donations and uh leave some of the costs by the state uh but the state now iies upon the cities to provide what they call the soft cost the cost for acquiring all easements including Awards so that's what the main portion of this money is for it's to go to pay for the awards for the easements it'll also pay for filing fees um recording fees um charges for appraisals and attorneys fees so all those kinds of costs that we have to bear are going to be made up on this so thank you councils any questions or comments seeing none I'll now I'm I'm sorry hold on I'm not can you clarify so we have two different I didn't realize that we have we have 392,000 on our agenda but here written in our actual paper um we have 392,000 with 92 82 with 65 so the mount the one on the yellow papers on the yellow document is correct mtion sool motion has been made there a second second second by councelor Lon discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you Mr McCarthy thank you thank you Mr MTH can I have a motion to untable item 437 d23 solar PPA and Lease contracts with so with select electric for five City properties which includes three schools and two City build buildings so Mo motion has been made is there a second second second by Council lzone no discussion all those in favor say I I roll call Maria roll council president jaavan Rodriguez yes yes yes motion carries thank you counselors last um last meeting I did say that we were going to move forward on this so um I'm going to be truthful I'm still 5050 with this I I did review some of the stuff I still don't have a concrete um decision myself but um but I did say that today we we're going to move forward on this whether if it's favorable unfavorable or committee report we will be sending this up some somehow so any comments and qu any comments or or questions from from the council council president the first thing I would like to do is to split this item into um into the two properties that is in front of us and and and therefore any other property that is in common in front of us I mean we I cannot vote on something that I haven't se uh I'm not I'm not uh I'm not in favor of that can you refer the two properties for the uh the two properties is going to be the city hall I mean the two set of properties is going to be one and a I mean 76a which is the city hall and the Arington school and 76b which is any other property in front of us the other the rest of the property the other three proper that we don't know okay are you making that as a form of motion yes I make that as a form of motion there's been a motion to to separate item 47 437- 23 to item A and B is there a second second seconded by counselor Vice chair marmel discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I I and the eyes have it all right so now we have in front of us item 437 a-23 which includes City Hall and the Arlington school for this um solar project that we're looking to uh to to move on councelors do you have any other questions or council president uh for the city hall project what is the capacity of that project um 75 Kow 75 Kow it's about 150 Solar Panels 150 solar panel and that uh based on the information you present about $81,000 over 20 years that's going to be the saving and for the AL alingon School uh project what is the capacity on that 295 Kow 2995 295 the Arlington school is 295.27 point2 KW uh the city owns a similar a similar one which is about 300 yeah uh the savings are significantly different when it comes to both owning and and uh and uh and leasing so I just want want to make sure that we we brought it up to the table when it comes to the sizes of the of the of both projects how many solo panels are you going to have at the atlington school um about 600 600 solar pels what is the the angle about angle facing south of the school yeah so they're we try to get them as close to 180° South as possible based on how it's been and the panels themselves are 5 to 10° pitch to the South that c more south to the South yeah so it's it's it's fair to say that is it's very efficient uh when it comes to facing south yeah we use like an industry standard 3D modeling software with like 30 years of historical weather data to figure it out what about the city hall one city hall panels would be pitched uh to the south at a five or 10 degree angle so also we can say that it's going to be in a very efficient position it is yeah and I would like to point out that um these are connected to the internet and that as soon as something goes wrong with them we get a notification in the office and send the technician out to remedy the the issue and it's 100% our responsibility we understand that it's a lease so when you have a lease that's that's part of the responsibilities um um I personally not in favor of um leasing this type of those type of project I think that we can definitely take a advantage of that um ownership of of those of those programs I'm not going to stay more there is a specifically said that two different project one that is very similar to the city of lawence that we have uh and another project that is half of the size pretty much one third of the one one 1/4th of the uh of the size uh the amount of saving that that I'm see in here in a 20 years is not as significant as it should be um we are talking on a perfect size uh project a perfect size uh project solo project it could be bringing to the city close to $2 million on a 300 uh on a 300 uh kilowatt project we are getting 60 68100 6 something thousand uh on a lease I don't think that this is this is a good investment to the city and I going to vote uh on the negative unfortunately I think that we have the capacity of move forward as as as a city that that is going to be saving funds and be able to to own it so sorry go ahead um I just wanted to clarify because if we weren't clear before um like we would own the panels they would be our personal property on top of your real property you would purchase power from those panels for less money than what you can get it for from National Grid so it is an incremental savings versus a full avoided cost if we own it we ensure it we maintain it we monitor it we pay property taxes on it if it's applicable there's no responsibility on your end if we own it other than purchasing the power on a on a monthly basis right so the risk and reward it's um you're not investing in anything you're not spending any money on the array so the savings is a little lower um if you were to purchase the array outright which we actually don't recommend and I would say about 95% of our customers allow us to and we have 180 of these projects out in the field they don't want to deal with it they've got a lot of other things to deal with besides worrying about solar arrays and maintenance and monitoring um so no doubt you will save more if you own it it just depends on is it the right thing to do and it's not industry standard I can tell you that well um through you mad Sher that was the opposite of what you said before you said that about 75% of the properties that actually you guys installed it it wasn't an ownership situation and you guys own about 200 something project and out of the 700 and something project that you guys have installed so we have and the other ones are owned by the other people people so we have two business the opposite of what you're saying right now so we have two businesses we have our business with our public entities uh state colleges things like that and a whole commercial business so the gem group where I met representatives from the city they're a commercial business they're a taxpaying entity they get tax credits and depreciation they bought it and yes 75% of our customers have bought them but you don't pay federal taxes and you can't take advantage of depreciation tax savings so the economics are different right so I mean we just want to build projects under the power options program we recommend that you don't own them obviously it's an investment that we're making with our dollars and our tax appetite and things like that and in exchange for that investment we offer a discount to the host of the solar panels so it could be on a school City Hall any public adate I'm going to pause you right there because I did not notice uh before calling uh council president that our City attorney stood up I've been waiting attorney H is there anything no I had missed coming for I was available for any questions that you have I I just wasn't sure if you had anything to say about us to I I notic that you stood up later on so I don't know if there was anything called out and then I came in got I was more here in case there was any questions okay thank you or any of that nature so uh you can thank you attorney you guys can continue a comment that you know again it was our recommendation to uh to to do this uh deal with uh with select uh based on our power options participation uh We join power options for this very thing and all we're trying to do is save some electricity for the city and school department so our recommendation was to do the lease we we're not interested in owning an array and maintaining an array we did that with the water department uh was not functioning for a couple years nobody noticed and we lost a lot of money with this situation as I explained before the onuses on this company uh if the panels don't generate electricity doesn't matter to us they're they're guaranteeing our electricity rate they lose money if if they don't generate that power uh so that's their that's in their business model uh they're as uh as you just mentioned they're absorbing all of the cost for this then what we get is a guaranteed price over the next 20 years for uh for electricity reduced at the rates we have today and that and that's a recommendation of power options which we we we joined uh you know last year to take advantage of their expertise and that's that's their expert recommendation to us is this is a good deal you should get your uh get your schools hooked up uh unfortunately we can't get all of our schools hooked up because we need the National Grid that's why we're kind of in a hurry to get this National Grid only allows us to have uh uh or or they've they've uh um uh allowed us to do these two projects but any more projects theyd have to uh give us I don't know how it works but they'd have to give us a a l us off the The Grid somehow so we could generate uh some more projects so good project well it is important to recognize two things that uh as you mentioned for the record the $56,000 that we paying to National Grid you're saying that you're acquiring all the cost we paying for that because you build in that $56,000 into the program 100% yeah 100% so we we are already paying for the system we also are giving the the you guys the the FEA the federal credits which is about $30,000 also and also what is not being mentioned here and when we did the assessment for the property for the different properties to assess if they are capable of receiving or supporting the panels we also pay anywhere between 25,000 to $25,000 I don't remember correctly but it's about uh we are already invested into the project 65 potentially 55 to $65,000 and we're going to be saving $81,000 over 20 years over 20 20 years and we already invest almost 80% of that $81,000 not to include because I want to be fair to the process and I'm not including the 56,000 that you are actually taking away because you buil that in so putting the math together is like the city is getting a screw when it comes to the project here at City Hall so I just want to for the record just make sure we're using the the correct numbers so um the city has not paid us a dime for anything we've fronted all the capital for the development work and I've been working with National Grid with my team since last summer on these a quick question right there who paid for the assessment we paid for the entire thing out of our development dollars so you're saying that the City of Lawrence didn't pay for the $25,000 assessment project to assess the properties not anything related to what I'm up here for it could have been something uh for the water plant uh but not a dollar no it is related to this project I'm not familiar with any any cost we've incurred to this house I don't know what you're talking about okay we we bring the document later on I'll bring the document later on because it could be built in in a way that is not look like what what I'm talking about and we might look like okay you not you don't know what you're talking about but yes that it was a cost involved on an assessment so so we have never received any funds from the City of Lawrence for any of these projects um probably you but it was it was related to the assessment of the buildings to see if we are capable of installing funnels Council uh chairperson council president um I think that would be speculation we trust the information of the cafo that the funding has not been used and anything other than that I believe that the request from this committee then should be whether you have proof or uh to bring it to the cafo but not to uh not to create confusion because okay right now I just requested the information I ask certain information I asked Anil if it was correct uh because we need clarification if the information is not correct then it would be speculation let me ask question say no in in addition and to say that we use $65,000 that's an assumption that means the administration is unaware of those expenses and I can and I Trust and Believe by our Careo that he's providing the right information okay let me ask you a question to the uh to the company to the company did you guys work for the water for the Water Street project water department mhm yeah did you guys provide uh a certifi payroll to the City of Lawrence that you guys actually pay uh 75 payroll according to that uh to the rules and regulation of the sale Massachusetts did you guys provide those documentations 75 payrolls I when you guys did the work at the Water Street project they they they got the uh uh the water sewer uh equipment was down we called them to do maintenance to get it back up yes did you guys provide did you guys provide that the Cy payos for the people that work there during those times I don't I don't know how much money was involved I'm more informed than a lot of people in this panel no problem no more questions all right this is what I recommend for the committee to do we also we are four there's five other counselors that probably have an opinion on this as well I recommend that this committee sends this up as a committee report that way giving a chance to the full Council to debate and then at that meeting we make our final decision on this uh you've heard different you've heard what I've said prior you've heard what council lzone Council marmo um council president uh Rodriguez I think I I believe our our statements and opinions have been have been uh unified well unified in a sense that we have not individually as councilors we have not derailed from our own own opinions and and questions and statements so that is what I recommend to the committee um obviously the committee can move as it chooses but uh at this point if there are no further questions or oh let me ask is there any other questions or comments seeing none I will entertain a motion on this item what is the motion to submit to full Council as a committee report motion has been made is there a second second attorney who and I can second right discussion see Maria can you call the RO coun president joavan Rodriguez no celor Wendy L armal yes chair Stan yes so the motion so the motion fails all right at this point any other motion motion to table there's a motion to table is there a second second properly pyed Maria can you call the role roll call for um to be t counc W yes council president joanni Rodriguez yes Vice C Vice chair M Mar yes and chair stepan F no motion carries all right item has been tabled thank you so much um at this point there are no further I'm sorry oh yeah um no other further items at this point I'll have a uh a mo I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so Mo motion has been made properly seconded discussion C and none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it 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 sometime so it's it's happening soon [Music] so Qui got so quiet right [Music] than [Music] between [Music] the ice God bless the only person that was for [Music] I second [Music] I have these two resolutions should I keep them should I not keep them I them to you okay Michelle and you want us to um I talk to the superintendent he's going to get tou okay do you want me to hold on to these for the second okay thank you very else no we [Music] are okay it's okay we're good now [Music] [Music] so mon [Music] house [Music] want his mic is on that's why start same e good evening and welcome to the lawen uh special meeting uh for the L city council today is Monday June 24th 2024 uh right now is 7:44 pursuing to chapter 20 of the act of 2022 this meeting will be hybrid allowing participation both in person and at the city council chambers REM and as well as remotely the zoom the zoom link was provided to anybody that requested through the city clerk office the this meeting also can be um can be also view through the laen city council uh Facebook page as well as the uh laen city council YouTube page R call please councelor Levy present councelor llant present councelor Lan present Council Del Rosario present councelor Santiago present councel marmel present councel Reyes present Council vice president infon present council president Rodriguez present please join me for a moment of silence please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of Al to the flag of the United States of America Nation indivisible withy and justice for all participation what are you going to do with this now uh we have post public participation uh I would like to recognize the mayor of the City of Lawrence Brian Adena that is here with us uh thank you mayor for putting this uh uh this item in front of us and the uh fiscal bu 2025 uh for the City of Lawrence uh on this agenda we have public participation therefore we have a public hearing on only one item which is the fiscal year 2024 um 2025 of the city of lawrens anybody that wishes to speak at the public participation is going to have an opportunity to do us so at the public hearing with that said I going to move forward to I to the public hearing of item 24324 which is the mayor which is Mayor Ryan ña recommended budget for fiscal year 2025 uh and I would I would like the city clerk to please read the notice for the record document number 2 43-24 notice is here give me one minute please before we do so um before we call for the public hearing we need to pull this pH committee we still have this item at the committee level because we were waiting for the proposed cut that the mayor the mayor was supposed to send to have another meeting at the buet and finance committee Madame cler from The Bu finance committee please um do we have a motion to U Pull the FR committee I mean mad Madame chair from The Bu and finance committee yeah give me one second I make a motion to suspend rule rule per rule 11 and pull the the uh budget document the proposed budget document out of the budget and finance committee some motion to uh pull it pull item from committee item 24324 and it's Pro it's been properly second discussion I hear no at this point I call the questions all those in favor please say I I I we do need yes I'll call the questions uh please say I and roll please coun councel Reyes yes councelor marmel yes councelor Santiago yes councel Del Rosario yes councel Lan yes councel lant yes councel Levy yes Council vice president Infante yes council president Rodriguez yes with that said Madame cler I would like to uh now uh read the noce of public hearing for item 24324 which is the mayor Brian a Peña recommended budget fiscal year 2025 Madam CLA please read the notice for the for the records notice is hereby given that the Lawrence city council will hold a public hearing on Monday June 24th at 7 p.m. said hearing may continue into Tuesday 25th at 7: p.m. if needed the purpose of set hearing is to gather testimony information and public input concerning the proposed 2025 fiscal year appropriation order and appropriation order Enterprise funds as presented herein for consideration and approval by the Lawrence city council for the City of Lawrence Mass said public hearing shall be conducted at a meeting of the Lawrence city council council chambers 200 Common Street Lawrence Mass notice of the meeting of the council's and said public hearing shall be published in advance as required by law on the city council website www. city ccil cityof lawrence.com as aggenda Center and the city clerk public meeting notice website at www.cityoflawrence.com document Center index 193 the proposed fy22 budget for the City of Lawrence to be presented for consideration of approval is as follows City of Lawrence fiscal year 2025 appropriation order Commonwealth of Massachusetts in order concer erning Appropriations for the fiscal year beginning July 1 2024 ordered that the following sums designated as personal services purchase of services Professional Services supplies and other charges and expenses Capital outlay intergovernmental and debt services are hereby appropriated separately for each department in the general fund of the City of Lawrence and that $5 million from free cash be appropriated to support the general fund operating budget and reduce the FY 25 tax rate general fund fy2 mayor's recommended budget city council 476,000 Administration and finance 4,537 855 City attorney 1,43 637 city clerk elections and annual listings 1, 57,8 office of planning and development 1,590 146 police department1 18, 4439632510 th000 Lawrence Public Schools 279 m854 22 8 educational assessment 42,2 2017 excuse me 42 mil 21797 greater Lawrence technical school 3,882 657 Department of Public Works 15,520 189 Cemetery 550,000 aging 53,723 veteran services 535,000 Recreation 38,6 181 Library 1, 149,50 debt Services 14 milon 47,3 7 intergovernmental assessments 1,716 40 employee benefits 29,5 54 risk manag M 644,000 other Finance other financing sources and uses 1, 266,000 EXC me 43,7 64757 total amount appropriated for the general fund is 394 mil 49,1 the Enterprise funds the from the common MTH of Massachusetts is an order concerning Appropriations for the fiscal year beginning July 1 2024 order that the following sums designated as personal services purchase of services Professional Services supplies and other charges and expenses Capital outlay intergovernmental and debt services are hereby appropriated separately in the parking garage and lots Enterprise fund for the City of Lawrence parking garage and lot Enterprise fund 800 867,000 789 order that the following sums designated as P Personnel Services purchase of services Professional Services supplies and other charges and expenses Capital outlay intergovernmental and debt services are here by appropriated separately in the Airport Enterprise fund of the City of Lawrence Airport Enterprise fund 72,1 190 ordered that the following sums designated as personal services purchase of services Professional Services supplies and other charges and expenses Capital outlay intergovernmental and debt Services hereby appropriate appropriated separately in the water and sewer Enterprise fund for the city of lence water sewer Enterprise fund is 21, 755,000 99 a copy of the proposed FY 25 budget in its entirety is posted on the city of Lawrence's website at cityof lawrence.com document Center view 48828 submitted hashtag submitted d budget- 51524 a copy may also be viewed at the city clerk's office 200 Common Street room 107 Lawrence Mass that's the end with that said public hearing is now open anybody from the public that wishes to speak name and address for the record please uh council's name is Richard Russel 34 cross street I welcome the opportunity to address the full Council on what I perceive as serious issues with the proposed FY 2025 budget I have tried to do this in years past with no success but after looking at this proposed budget I would be remiss if I kept my mouth shut about the unarmed robbery that will take place if this budget is passed as posted uh I do understand that recently that uh Some Cuts were made uh in the budget by the mayor that I consider those budgets uh those budget cuts to be look good budget cuts I will start off with page 29 the proposed raise for the city council I as a frequent deserve of all the transpires at the council do not see much that warrants a $5,000 raise particularly when the council received the save amount last year last year's raise has not in my opinion done anything to improve the quality of the work of the present Council next the mayor's office budget in fy22 the mayor's the budget for the mayor's office was about $430,000 but that office succeeded with a total of only five people in FY 2025 that budget will ballooned to almost 1.3 million about a 28% increase with a doubling of the staff the mayor's office now has a locked door and anyone uh and getting anyone to answer a phone in that office is almost an impossibility how did the likes of Mayors Vasquez Rivera Lanta and Sullivan do so much with so little money page 90 uh page 37 the controller office why was some positions eliminated and replaced with newer positions with fancier titles and bigger paychecks those paychecks were increased by a little over $50,000 page 41 with the IT department why didn't we have somebody in cyber security previously is $100,000 a Reon reasonable salary we never found out what it cost the city when our computer system was hacked several years back and why was it able to be hacked in the first place page 43 the assessor's office a new position of assistant assessor was created at a salary of just over 59,000 bucks the office already has an assessor a chief assessor and two assessors what's next a junior assistant assessor in training page 45 the treasurer's office the accountant position the salary of 57 396 was eliminated and the position of assistant treasure was created with a salary of just over $80,000 $80,000 same position same person I assume with a net increase of salary of $22,900 page 47 tax collector's office a collections of positions were shuffled around and REM uh with new titles and remarkably increased salaries to the increase of to the tune of about $9,000 an accountant's position paying $63,750 183 page 52 city attorney's office the first and second City attorney salaries were boosted by just over $64,000 what happened to the dollar value of the contracts that were that each signed and were approved by the council last year the fy2 budget breakdown shows a net increase of last year over last year's allocated funding of 67,900 position was vacant all of last year and the first assistant attorney's position was vacant a good portion of the Year using funds that were allocated and not expended figured into budget calculation is just another in my humble opinion another example of financial finagling how much of the unused funds from the attorney's office were transferred to other budget Accounts at the end of the year to cover excess spending page 61 the office of community and development why the creation of two new field operation supervisors at an increased into the budget of $147,000 why all of a sudden is a housing manager with a salary over $77,000 needed why all of a sudden the three project offices II whatever that means needed at a total of $240,000 and $240,000 and6 an administrative assistant at $55,200 an intake specialist 44 $226 that's a total of $8,885 in new salaries page 63 from the planning office why all of a sudden uh a manager of Financial and administrative services at a salary of $110,000 a neighborhood planner at a Sal salary of $71,000 a finance officer at a salary of $80,000 a comprehensive planner at a salary of $71,000 needed making a grand total of $436,500 in new salaries in the planning office page 68 Planning and Development budget why do we need a second economic development project officer adding 7 90 I mean $79,700 to the budget the last three items that I mentioned account for a total increase in the budget of a m258 or 35% of the total budget increase page 71 police budget why are we playing games with various clerk positions the financial Hocus Pocus on these items is cost and the tax pay is just under excuse me 28 ,000 why do we need a position of deputy chief at a salary to $125,000 that position hasn't been filled in years page 79 we have the position of assistant fire chief that was not requested by the chief I do understand that that is a budget re uh budget cut requested by the mayor uh that position was $120,000 why are we also same situation regarding clerk positions are being renamed and res salaried in the fire department on page 90 the inspectional service department why do we need an enforcement prosecutor at a salary of $104,000 when we have a total of three City attorneys on the payroll also we eliminated two senior clerks but created two principal account clerks with a netcase increase in salary of $1 13,24 on page 10 three why do we need the newly created position of Emergency Management director at a salary of $130,000 I've gone online and downloaded from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a list of Massachusetts Emergency Management directors I find the position of a director of Emergency Management Falls to 165 165 people associated with the fire department 33 people associated with the police department 15 people in other city or town positions and 129 communities with no designation as to who is in charge of their emergency management position my thoughts are shouldn't this position be part of the skill set of the fire chief on uh page 113 of the DPW budget why do we need to why do we need two DPW deputy DPW directors at a total cost of $190,000 why was the capital asset project manager given a $33,750 raise why do we have to play games with salaries of several clerks at the DB DPW at a cost of over $122,000 I have my opinions as to why some of these various bits of financial finagling took place all I know is some of that money matters that I have mentioned if eliminated would save a considerable amount of tax dollars a good example would be cutting eliminating the position of the assistant police chief at a 125,000 eliminating the fire chief POS assistant fire chief position uh 120 and the Emergency Management at 100 uh at 130,000 that would be a total saving of about 375,000 bucks the position of Emergency Management is a position that should fall under under the fire chief with an increase in the fire chief salary of uh somewhere between $25 to $50,000 this move could save the taxpayers over somewhere around 300 uh $300,000 at the risk of sounding political we know a lot of these newly created positions will be filled by the fappa friends and political allies Employment Agency where all the better qualified people post their resumés uh I understand that $250,000 has been cut from the snow removal budget and $200,000 has been cut from the litigation funding we all know that money will go back if it's needed snow removal is a something you can go into Deb over please consider making cuts to some of some if not all of these issues that I have brought up the taxpayers and voters might appreciate it quite frankly as a taxpayer I do not approve of this proposed budget and if I were a city council I would not vote to approve it thank you for the time for allowing me to express my concerns on the financial waste in the FY 2025 budget thank you thank you for your comments next uh next person that would like to speak on the public hearing name and address for the record please 53 Chester Street in this important good evening honorable members in this important meeting for the budget of the city of the lawence verness this expression of the thank and gratitude from this honorable Council and honorable mayor Brian the Peno they made important budgetary decision offering our police officers patrolman officers and Superior offices contract we are grateful to you we have to know Lawrence Police with the budget of only $18 million do excellent job with the best leadership of honorable Chief Bonia has done EXC excellent job to protect our our citizen this Union of Pride and honor has been the best display of Bravery in a few weeks ago Lawrence police officers from Lawrence went to Andover to save lives we are grateful for Lawrence Police we ask for more police officers the city of the 80,000 people population cannot do with the number of the police officers the blue lives matter we are proud to say with one voice We Stand United to support Lawrence police officers that bring safety and the safy grateful to the Lawrence Police Union for working tirelessly to negotiate the best contract Lawrence police officers thank you for making Lawrence a beautiful city Lawrence firefighters beat a budget of more than 15 million only with on this budget they sacrific their life this department deserve the best cont contract support for our citizen for the contract with 3% raise and the cola raise and Hazard pay our DPW Department with the budget of only 15 million making Lawrence a beautiful city we support our DPW Union and Leadership with the limited budget our DPW employees working tirelessly making Lawrence a beautiful city with the best leadership Lawrence is the best this playay of the beauty and safety for our DPW we must support our DPW leadership and the union our Inspection Department with a budget of only 3 million doing excellent job the city of the 880,000 need to hire more inspector this important department under excellent leadership deserve the best support and compensation remember our a few inspector doing excellent job to cover the city of 80,000 population we support our inspector Department we are grateful to you as our awesome conselor in all the subcommittee meeting and the budget hearing emphasized to the most important flaws in this budget that absolute unfair compensation which is astonishing to our citizen how is it possible a senior employee of our city such as Cemetery director receive less salary than a new employees Administration how hardworking maintenance worker after 20 years working at the Lawrence Public Library only receive a salary of the $51,000 but a newly higher employee received more than double we are we this is unfair and just way of compensation we as the city that it's standing with the record of the union and support of the workers we must support our Union Union employees we must compensate our senior employee and revised the salary now is the great immigrant city as the city of the revolution of the bread and Roses we must be correct this unfair compensation policy that the hardworking senior employees in our city making a lot less than the new hire people in a rate of $95,000 we must correct this problem in this important budgeted hearing we must remind the school department with a budget of $279 million must know that our citizen have a right to the budgetary hearing what they did LA in this year they deprive our citizen to attend the hearing by scheduling the budgetary hearing at the same night in conflict with the schedule of the lawence city council we must know that our teachers are the best teachers in the nation we are proud to support support our teachers we must make sure by offering the best competitive wages we do not allow our other cities take our excellent teachers Lawrence teacher thank you for excellent job we are proud of you and your union in this important budgetary hearing we must recognize one of the most important crisis which is the parking enforcement the parking enforcement agency that has been hired by by by by city of Lawrence in this Podium they promised the best service but now is have a crisis in that sense they they are poorly trained employees fighting with our citizen including our respected elected official on the street also they making our citizen pay a lot more this enforcement agencies misconduct we cannot allow spell to the next year of the mayor election in this important budget hearing we must remember what what honorable Dr Gorn head of the city of Board of Health of the city told us that lawence Board of Health need to do do the most important changes our city of immigrant deserve the best Board of Health which could address all the health issues of this great City remember Lawrence always a strong Lawrence always unite we rise in unity and strong to support our police Department we are proud of you thank you for excellent job thank you so much next person that would like to speak at the public hearing please anybody else I call it again anybody else that would just to speak at the public hearing with that said uh public hearing is now closed wait okay so we have one more person that wishes to speak at the public hearing he coming here address for the record please thank you for Indulgence councilor South William Collins one plat Court Lawrence Mr President members of the council Mr Mayor I'm here uh really not well prepared but after hear Mr Russell he inspired me to get up here and I hope anybody watching this in the future rewinds in a few minutes to listen to what he said uh I have a question before I go on with the comments members of the dab and Lawrence appeared before the ordinance committee two months ago to talk about two unfilled positions that are ordinance in the veterans department can I ask if those positions have been money has been put aside for that could somebody from the administration answer that not now not eventually probably yes but not now well that my comments would be predicated on whether they honored the veterans by filling those positions that have been vacant or not you need to address everybody like you as you wish but we cannot answer the questions can't answer the question I can't ask for somebody through the chair from the administration to answer that question once we open the discussion of the budget that question might be raised will be uh you know they're going to be predicated on what I hear tonight about that position being filled but you can keep on talking about the issue all right here comes the Salos get ready this city has uh no no uh respect for veterans there are two positions in the veterans department that have been unfilled for decades an assistant director and a deputy director when veterans came here two months ago we pointed that out and we were told the administration would look into it and fill one position I believe the veterans director left he quit after 14 years because the position was not filled by the mayor that we lost the great veterans director because of that right now we have no veterans director we have not one veteran in the Veteran's Office for the past month and the job isn't even be it advertised so I need to know whether the money is in the budget for those positions that we lobed for and I need to know before I go on is it in or not thank you that confirms it that this city has tens of millions of dollars of free cash and veterans are not being served here a city of over a 100,000 which means roughly 10% of the population that's a thumbnail that all agencies use are veterans 10,000 veterans in this city that are daily coming to live here start their lives in an entry level Gateway City that are coming out of incarceration that are in nursing homes that are in hospitals gold star families we're not just talking about veterans here we're talking about the whole family 10 years ago when this director came in 14 years ago let me correct myself there were about 130 cases of chapter 115 Indigent veterans that needed help there were about 30 now from what I understand because we're not doing any outrage and uh that camera's moving by its own nobody's back there anyways um it it's disheartening and it's really a tragedy that veterans don't get the respect that they should this Administration has created dozens of jobs out of in air they've written new ordinances and created jobs that never existed before and here we have two positions that should be filled they're ordinance everybody sitting before me has taken an oath to uphold the laws of the city including the mayor so if you don't honor that oath fill these positions and serve the veteran fam's allwen it's a shame it's all I'm going to say I won't go into detail about the 15 new positions 15 new positions in Community Development 15 new positions in a city less than 5 square miles and you can't fill the positions in the ordinance book for veterans 10 positions I believe in the mayor's office where there used to be three or four it's a shame I won't go any deeper I don't want to burn any Bridges yet but this is going to be heard out inside the city because this is a shame what you're doing to Veterans thank you thank you anybody that wishes to speak at the public hearing anybody else with that said now public hearing is now closed um councilors I will entertain a motion uh to be able to discuss this budget motion to approve second there is a motion to approve uh properly second uh discussion and uh with that said I believe that um before we continue with the discussion I would like to invite the mayor of the city of Len to introduce the budget and anybody from his administration to talk about um what is the fiscal fiscal year 2025 uh and what it means to the city of L name address for the record please yes my name is Octavian spanner I'm the senior advis it to the mayor 200 Comm Street uh I'm going to read the mayor's uh budget statement that is going to be placed in your in the document for the passing of the budget tonight um when I assumed the office of Mayor over two years ago I was driven by commitment to fulfill my promise of creating a thriving Lawrence for everyone I aim to rejuvenate a city burdened by aging infrastructure lacking economic Direction devoid of Hope and marred by tarnished reputation my promise was clear to radically change Lawrence Destiny I was fully aware of the challenges and the Monumental effort required to break free from a mindset resistant to change today today I am Pro I'm proud to report significant progress towards fulfilling my promise of economic prosperity and transformation as we gradually close the gap Gap towards our goal as your mayor I am committed to the people's mandate I am dedicated to being a responsible Steward of the city's finan finances by ensuring we collect our taxes pay our bills avoid overspending and engage in careful future uh planning as mayor I promise the community accountability Financial prudence and a proactive Administration and the result speaks for themselves the re the recent audit reveals the city overall strength on both the physical and management levels today I'm presenting the residents of Lawrence with a balanced budget outlining an increase in the Ci's overall operating budget for the fiscal year 2025 compared to the previous year this rise is mainly attributed to inflation which has impacted various City governments sector government sector and the budget particularly regarding the cost of goods services and employee salaries the increase in employee salaries largely aligns with the Union contracts which the city council and the mayor have recognized as long overdue the Consumer Price Index which tracks inflation ACR across the economy Rose by 3.4% from April to 2023 to April 2024 Nationwide budgets for employee salary increases have surged by an average of 4.4% since 2023 marking the most sustem growth over two decades this largest increase since 2001 is driven by inflationary pressures and a tight labor market despite looming economic uncertainties employers including Municipal governments acknowledge that comp competitive salaries are essential to remain competitive and attract Talent this reality holds true for our city as well the federal reserves has recently adjusted its economic projections now expecting a single quarter per in interest rate reduction this year down from the previous forecast forecasted three cuts the annual inflation rate in 2024 is revised to 2.6% from 2.4% with core inflation also adjusted upward to 2.8% factors contributing to inflation include increasing increased House housing demand vulnerabilities in Supply chains and shift in consumer spending from services to Goods during the P pandemic to stabilize this situation we propose a moderate increase in the property tax rate of 25% or 2,439 744 plus New Growth estimated at $900,000 the average single family home valued at $405,700 means an additional $150,000 uh $15.13 in property taxes annually the average physical year 25 single family tax bill increase in North Andover increase in North Andover is $566 uh Andover 454 haval 444 and methu and $263 we recognize many of our taxpayers financial pressures and do not make the decision likely however these adjustments are necessary to continue providing quality uh city services support a sustainable future and pay our debts in an economy saddled by inflation the proposed budget also includes adjustments to Water and Sewer rates to ensure we can maintain and enhance our city infrastructure and services despite economic challenges we must recognize the necessity of these increases as crucial steps in addressing escalating costs and minimizing future budget deficits failing to act now will inevitably result in the more significant CH in more significant challenges and Financial crisises in the future furthermore the city's c financial situation can be attributed to a lack of proactive planning and political initiative during a more favorable Market climate when there were opportunities to enhance the economy and expand the city's tax base conversely my Administration remains steadfast and committed to address in the current reality with a pragmatic approach economic development is crucial for improving Lawrence overall quality of life effective Economic Development strategies aimed to to attract create and maintain businesses that can offer employment opportunities to Residents the proposed budget outlines spending in the office of Planning and Development to enhance this quality including collaboration with the Lawrence Redevelopment Authority to complete the revitalization of business districts progress with supporting the first home buyers program and boost the competitiveness of local small businesses as evidenced by employment and income levels nevertheless these objectives are contingent upon improving Public Safety specifically in the areas of law enforcement and public health for physical 2025 I'm proposing additional funds for hiring additional law enforcement Officers Training for the inspectional services department equipment and fostering more inter agency collaboration with our local state and federal specialized agencies in physical year 25 more funds will be allocated to the Department of Public Works for essential infrastructure enhancement and capital Improvement these improvements will focus on reserving streets and sidewalks beautifying neighborhoods and initiating the second phase of city park upgrades also I would like to add that my Administration will continue its commitment to helping our hardworking families in this new budget Year my Administration will invest an additional 800,000 in in child care allowing Working Families greater access to Reliable and affordable child care other areas of focus during this fiscal year are leveraging federal and state funds for various needed programs during the fiscal year the city was able to secure close to $6 million and approximately $20 million in projected revenue for fiscal for this fiscal year my Administration will continue to aggressive aggressively pursue funding to address Financial gaps across departments through a centralized and coordinated system thank you thank you so much uh councilors for the record we have the proposed fiscal year uh for the City of Lawrence been proposed by the mayor Brian the Peña this budget was presented to us on May 16 at approximately 106 uh p.m. with that said the proposed budget that we have in front of us uh with no revision at the moment that it was what we received was uh for the total amount previously mentioned and also uh a total increasement on um of about 6,781 621,000 that increase on the uh fiscal year um property taxes of the city of Ls of about 8% which include about 2.5% uh for the tax levy capacity which is about 2, 439,000 744 th000 the new growth about estimated for about 900,000 and the ex tax levy capacity for about 3,44 uh 441,000 for the total total amount increase potentially of 8% after a discussion uh at the budget and finance committee and a discussion with the administration uh that the administration have reconsidered this total amount of dollars uh to be reduced to um uh by uh to be reduced by 300 3,44 441,000 taxes so that's what we have in front of us for L to happen a a proposed got by the by the administration uh need to uh need to happen before we actually up um reduce the total amount to the previous the previous amount that we discussed pre that we discuss and it was mentioned at the public hearing the mayor's office have proposed a total cut off like I said previously 3,441 77 with multiple cuts on multiple departments with several pages that were proposed at the at the U at the memo that was sent to us on June 18 2024 with that with that said counselors we need to adopt this specific cut that the the administration had proposed to us we have an underly an underly motion to approve uh the budget we if we approve it as presented on May 16 206 2024 the total total amount of increasement on the taxes will be 8% if we proceed with a cut of about 3,441 1888 total amount of tax increasement will be only 4% after the discussion and the recommendation of the city council and the City Council budget and finance committee the mayor proposed this this this those cut and counselors we need to adopt those the way that we should adopt this we need do read the page read the account number the department and the proposed salary the proposed cuts that have been specified on the memo that we received back in June 18 2024 council president sure Madame Madame vice president councelor Infante thank you can you clarify where you're seeing the 4% because on the document of from June 18th what I'm reading is two and two I I'll get 2.5% Mr Ka he gave me the number I know uh do you mind clarify what council of Vice President Infante just discussed we don't have the 3 point something almost 4% in the memo or can you point us out where that come from yeah the memo it put it in dollars you're asking for a percentage so in dollars it was uh uh 2.4 million plus new 2.4 million is the 2 and half% tax increase plus new growth of 900,000 so the 2.4 plus the 900,000 is 3.3 million and that's a increase of 3.95% council president Madame vice president fun so my question for you thank you council president for you C why was that not clarified in this memo because reading this memo just says it only specifies the 2 and a half% and then plus and then I'm seeing the plus New Growth but there isn't any there there isn't a clarification on the overall percentage again I gave it to you in dollars I didn't give it to you in percentage I'm not a mind reader so again you did present the property tax rate as a dollar and percentage So reading this off the bat I mean I'm just one counselor and I I thought the overall tax was decreased to 2 and a half% that's the way I read the document well we did we reduced the taxes from uh from a greater amount to the maximum of 2 and a half% then plus New Growth which we've always which is a total of three 3 and a half% which equals 3.95% if you include the New Growth okay but we went up 2 and a half% that's all we're going up the normal normal amount and then New Growth is as those uh additional assessments that the the assessors find we've always gone up new growth in every year since I've been here got it um I just ask for the future we clarify everything if if you're if if a a financial document is going to be presented originally first with a percent and a number if we can just continue it because that could be a little confusing like I said I misread the document um so I would have appreciated to see like a both Total I don't think there's anything to misread in the document counselor I mean I again I I spelled out a lot here I also gave the $150 per taxpayer the average uh taxpayer amount there's a lot of information in this paragraph uh I thought that was enough but you know percentages a tax increase or tax percentage increases if that's the f Focus so I'll try and remember that for next year thank you um the it is also important to recognize and bring it up to the record since the since Madame is pres uh just bring it up the $150 uh per property tax annually uh means that these Council going to have to vote on the tax rate of residential factor in no November and adapt the factor of 1.75 those are the conditions for that specific amount that it will happen maybe but it's not quite uh 100% because the council need to vote in November uh for this to happen anyway counselors uh we need to propose the cut that the administration have uh recommend to this budget uh between the original version and the current version so those cut are well specified on the memo and that if the cuts need to for the a cut those are the options of the city council M vice president I give you the following a minute those are the options of the city council we are Alle allowed to approve the budget as is approve the budget with a specific cut were presented to us approve the budget I mean reduce the budget as the council desire or deny the budget those are the options we have we cannot increase any amount on the budget uh but we can definitely uh reduce it and the mayor have proposed a specific cut that we need to First mention the page second mention the account and therefore the department and the total amount of the alls that is been proposed to be cut the council need to approve those cut with six vote am I right so the cut is five votes for each cut and then six for the total budget okay five vot for the cut six vote to approve the budget uh after so counsellors we are willing are if you're willing to make a motion to read those cuts we entertain the motion CC Council infant thank you um quickly before we move on I I was going to let this pass but now I'm I'm extremely aggravated with how the C spoke to me because and I'm going to use an I apologize for one of my for using one of my colleagues as an example but if it was a you know my colleague of District F asking these questions or wanting a clarification you would have not spoken to him the way that you spoke to me so I would appreciate if you show respect moving forward councel I'm sorry I don't think I meant any disrespect I was just pointing out basically what you were saying to me that the way that I process that my brain proc processes document was wrong and everyone processes information differently and what I asked for was a clear clarification moving forward that if we're going to start numbers with percentages and numbers to continue that throughout the document and I don't think that's too much to ask for thank you I don't think I I I I think the your point is well taken I'll make sure I do that for the next year but I I don't thank you I I I'm sorry for any disrespected have shown but uh it was not intended I was just trying to point out I mean you could you could roll back the video and see it for yourself later certainly will thank you thank you for the clarifications now it's it's time to uh talk about the potential cuts that we have in front of us for the total amount of 3 million4 41,8 77 so councilors willing to hear a motion council president uh councel at large Anna leby um I already did a motion to approve the buet and I can accept the amendment from the major office cing that uh the 3,441 877 uh you you made the motion which is the online motion to approve the budget now we can either do two things have a um a friendly Amendment to the to the proposed um uh to the proposed uh to the proposed motion or we can do individual motions for each one that told your underline motion going to be uh as presented it could be either or so that's is what I'm doing a friendly Amendment to the budget you are the online motion counselor so somebody else need to make the okay all right she could amend her own motion or you can amend your own motion to reflect that's what I'm doing and am the motion that I did first with the new proposal that is been made by the mayor office okay so Madame Clair please read the uh the motion and what intakes the motion with the reduction of the total amount that is presented here you want me line yeah this because that need to be part of the record sure so the motion is to accept the budget as presented and also to incorporate the following cuts which total $3,441 1877 so cut on page 31-32 in the mayor's um budget there would be a salary reduction um for program coordinator for economic development of 72,800 on page 3132 in the mayor's office there will be a salary reduction for temporary wages of $1,915 on page 51 in the budget for the city attorney's office there would be a reduction in court judgments for $200,000 in Pages 70 and 71 in police Administration there' be a salary reduction in the deputy chief line item for $125,000 on pages 72 through 74 in the police operations budget there would be a um increase in the grant reimbursement which constitutes a reduction of $450,000 in Pages 72 through 74 of the police operations budget there will be a salary deduction of the facilities manager which of $51,000 in Pages 78 and 79 of the budget in the fire Administration there would be a salary reduction of the assistant fire chief of $120,000 in inspectional Services Pages 89 through 90 of the budget be a salary reduction for the assistant director of ISD of $14,000 in page 106 in the school department they reduced the education contribution of $1,500,000 on page 127 in the budget the DPW snow and sanding reduce the snow removal contracts by $250,000 in page 154 of the budget the employee benefits reduce the group insurance commission contribution of $198,600 page 154 of the budget and the employee benefits reduce the reserved for I budget of by $100,000 on page 154 of the budget for employee benefits reduce the reserve for workers compensation Reserve by $350,000 the total expenditure reductions would then be 3,441 877 right uh we have we have uh we have read the propos got by this by the mayor's office also we need to uh integrate one more portion uh within the motion if possible uh counc leby will you consider uh then uh your motion to uh absent uh the DPW department since uh we have a potential conflict of interest of yes we do oh yes I do all right so now we are discussing the entire budget except uh the DPW portion of it which it also include uh page 127 which is the DPW snow ni and sanding uh that cut that will go with the the next vat correct that's the only one that affect that so counselors now we have a uh a motion that is been Amendment with uh the uh the approval of the budget fiscal year 2025 uh with the proposed cut as well included councelors uh there is anybody that wishes to discuss uh this potential motion it's been properly second right yeah when there's a motion and then the second the underlying motion was second the underlying motion was on second all right councilors any discussion quick quick discussion council president thanks so this is an important Amendment and I just hope that we we we pass it uh talked about a lot of different numbers I just want to this could be a long night I'm not going to make it as long as it can be so I'm going to try to make this concise so two things are important about this if if this does not if this is not this amendment is not part of the budget if you're a single family homeowner you're going to be paying $300 more in taxes if this amendment passes that's cut in half so this is an important amend amendment to reduce the taxpayers cost by half if this budget is passed that's the first point the second point is we have this thing called excess tax capacity fancy words meaning over the course of years we have not always packed to the 2 and half% Levy and that amount can continues to go up which sounds fantastic if you're a homeowner and you're paying taxes if you don't if your taxes don't go up as much we all I'm a homeowner love it right don't want to pay as much love that idea but here's the flip side for every good news there a little bit of not so good news right the not so good news is that when that goes up people who sit in this chamber and a mayor whoever it is on the third floor can send us a a revenues taxes that go Way Beyond the 2 and a half we got a little bit of a taste tonight before this amendment it went a little bit beyond this is the 4% stuff we went a little bit beyond the 2 and a half% now we're going to go back just to 2 and a half% and that's a good thing and that's a good thing four times this Century before I wasn't on the council back during this time 2003 2005 2007 2008 people who were sit people in the mayor's office and people who were sitting here actually went beyond the 2 and a half% because they had that amount of money we haven't done this since 2008 and we're not going to if this amendment passes we're not going to do it tonight thankfully so I just I think it's important that we have some context on this vote um and that's the reason why I am going to be supporting it because it does two things uh it it it it doesn't go into the excess tax capacity number one and number two it reduces the amount that taxpayers will have to pay in their taxes next year thank you uh thank you councelor plan any other counselors that uh wish to discuss counselors also it is important to recognize that we have an online motion and and any other motion can take place perhaps any other cuts that you wishes to or desires to take if any counselors have any other cut uh before the discussion end uh this is the time to propose any particular motion for any particular cut in any other department that is not been part of the amendment so that way the council can discuss the potential cost that anybody might propose if there is any council president council president inant thank you before we proceed with um proposing budget cuts I do want to hear from the administration um we did receive a question during public hearing about the Veterans office and those two positions have been ordinance and we have an a city employee as you know asking a question and want and wanting answers and and I'm curious to know the answer to that too so if the CLE can come up and and or or the or advisor spanner either or whoever can address the the question pardon me I think I can answer the question I think there are two positions funded in the veteran services department I think he indicated that there were three positions ordinance uh three positions ordinances in the budget but there are two uh three positions in the ordinance there are two positions in the budget services and a confidential secretary it's it's just for the record it's for on the ordinance to be funded and he was asking one of the other and then he was asking for another one to be funded yeah okay so he on the public hearing it was a question maybe this is the time to to discuss yes and I would like to clarify on behalf of the mayor the other uh another aspect that we considered yes indeed our population is growing but the veterans population has gone down based on the information that we have received based on previous years that we've saw uh if that information uh has been uh is different than that information needs to be provided we did our due diligence and looking at that if you have the amount of veterans based on on uh in previous years that were higher that required uh at that time they required more employees and that was never brought up so now that the numbers are reducing so you look at at the number and and the services are remaining the same what we're looking at if the population was higher there was no the services was based on the same amount of people that were in the the department now that the in that the numbers are dropping then how could you justify it I mean there's no there's no well that's the logic of the administration the question was raised and so far this city it's not only the mayor or this Administration but including yourselves as a body you have attended several uh ceremonies within the community and we have given the veterans the best amount of service at least under this Administration with um even F our fallen soldiers uh this Administration has been very supportive of the of the uh of the veterans and it's reflected in the budget thank you right no problems with um Point all taken uh the the question was asked and the question was respond or answer so any any any Cel plan like to make an amendment I like to make a budget cut you you make you making your motion I'm going to make a motion make a motion uh for a budget cut uh this evening for I guess the rules are name the page 101 Emergency Management um looking for a reduction of $25,000 for that line item uh 0000 miscellaneous 51 personal services so councel plan do you mind mentioning first the page 101 fund the department and that way it stay for the record please Emergency Management page 101 101 ring it to 10 105 215 and I'll explain if I can get a second 2 105 so the proposed card is been for $25,000 for the position of the Emergency Management uh which is the fund uh page 101 fund 01 Department 029 um you can you can explain y go ahead and speak okay they came hear a second second thank you it's been properly second discussion thank you so discussion um so I had a chance to talk to the mayor about it uh he firmly believes that this is important um clearly emergenc Emergency Management in the city wherever it is is critical whether it's a fire whether it's whatever but there's things that happened before to get ready for an emergency things that happen during an emergency and then things that happen after an emergency so it there's a lot of work involved um I would have liked to not have to have this position here but we're going in that direction so I had a chance to take a look at some other cities because what I wanted to do is I wanted to make sure that whatever the number was made at least made some sense so um quickly pulled up three cities put pck LEL Boston and Worcester so three major cities uh they all have emergency services director someone who dedicated for that purpose um the highest one was Boston $110,000 Low was $105,000 and Worcester was I think about $887,000 so my Amendment here is to put it into the ballpark of where the other major municipalities are so going from 130 to 105 which is similar to what Lowel is um and just a little as a tick below Boston but higher than Worcester so that's the motion that's why I went to 105 that's that there is a motion on the table properly second discussion all right at this point we'll pres uh council president Council councel um uh I just want to uh make a comment in regards to this position uh we are trying here uh to reduce and make some cuts and on the other hand the major is creating new departments because in my understanding based on the last meeting one of the meetings we had of the budget no personal I don't recall which one that one person can be uh one Department can be formed by by one person so the mayor off it instead of sending this position to the fire department where we have uh where we can get the job done for free so it it it's been done for free well for free for years by the chief of of the fire department um we the mayor office wants to create a new Department basically so we're trying to save money on one hand and on the other hand we're trying to create new positions new departments so it doesn't make sense to me ideally this position should be in the fire department under the chief of the fire department all right any other councelors that wish to speak on this specific cut of $25,000 for that emergency management position anybody else at this time I call the question for that specific motions all those in fav please say i r call please Council well I'll I'll let's be let's be a little bit fair to the administration I I apologize I did I called them up to the podium but before I actually give them the opportunity to speak I call the question so my apologies so councelors let's let's hear from the administration before we we make counil president yes my Council we keep every time you call the administration we get advisor the administ Adis the administration the administration decide can we hear from the mayor is up to the administration Council if they want to have the mayor and the podium that here so I'm inclined to to to vote for for the for your race adviser um as spanner because you represent the chief of staff and you represent the mayor so you're doing the job for three people the administration have the floor at this point uh council president I follow the instructions and direction from my boss which is the mayor which is the mayor and in clarifying the uh the the point uh that was brought by by councelor uh Mark llan we have also done our research based on the information um during the flooding and this is going to be brief during the flooding that we had last year we had to rely on the information that was provided by our neighboring City uh North endover uh the city manager the town manager uh was very generous in terms of having staff provide us the information most recently uh we had uh the incident that happened with the plane that uh it didn't even ditched it it it basically crashed in in in our River there was a loss of life God forbid if that case would have happened in a densely populated uh area like in lawence and it it happened in methun it could have happened in Lawrence we have the mayor uh has requested this position to be filled for the last three budgets and it has not happened we did our salary uh comparison comparison for the position and unfortunately uh if there's any emergency in terms of coordination that would would have not happened uh in terms of the fire department we have uh every each one of the department and you have seen uh I do agree with you there are certain communities where they have them under different departments uh they do have uh the salary that is different but in our case they are not nothing to compare with the emergency services that we go through recently with a two power with the explosion of one of the um the uh U what you call it the um Transformer the Transformer there was one that we expected and we knew uh eventually because our infrastructure is old was going to blow and it did happen and that caused from a small group of families that needed to be displaced to a number of 79 uh families individuals that were that needed help fortunately the weather changed so some of them went home but if it was a normal situ situation of it or if it worsened then we had more expenses because then we had to transfer the families to other area I would I would advise the uh the council to really consider um it's not about saving it's about helping our community and this position is going to require a lot of work council president so thank you council president and to you council president uh it's supposed to be also about saving because if you mention safety is going to be an issue so you're trying to send a great police officer very uh a great police officer with zero experience experience on emergencies you're trying to send hand uh to be the director of this new Department because it's basically what the Major's office is telling us is that they're going to form a new Department with one person it's not only about saving money here I guess so it's also about safety and you're saying uh senior um adviser that the department of the the fire department de a poor job uh in the last emergency that you mentioned is that accurate cuz you didn't mention not once the job done by the fire department so you mentioned two emergencies two two emergencies and you didn't mention the job done by the fire department so we were in a lot of trouble dealing with those emergency I ask I'm going to respond to your question through the council president we are everybody worked in a team and it was it was uh visible during the exercise even the city councilors that I called uh including the the the president that was away we maintain in communication so everybody worked as a team if the fire the fire chief fire department everybody gets paid just like us we get paid this is about not and the team here in the city as with the state of the city of the of the mayor he asks you to thank all the employees because we are very grateful without the teamwork this would never happen nevertheless uh the fact remains that we the administration considers the mayor considers that we should have this position uh to be dedicated and an individual that is Trin and as you know the person that has been appointed right now uh temporarily has been a police officer or is a police officer thank you for responding that to you counil president so once again you're going to take a great police officer with zero experience with emergencies such as the one that you described and you're going to send him uh to create a new Department a oneperson department that is what we have in in front of us I think this position should be under the fire department and yes send him there at least he will have the supervision that is required for this Ty of job and then we're going to put safety first and then make the cut make the cut make the salary cut but send him to work at least under the fire uh the chief of the fire department all right uh both argument have been here counselors U it is important to recognize one little one little portion uh this this emergency management position has been on the budget this is the first time um and and the administration have mentioned that they have trained several time um if it's not in the budgets it is it is something that the the council cannot be cannot consider so just to uh to clarify that point on there so councelors we have a motion in front of us to cut the proposed emergency management position by $25,000 to $115,000 so at this point councelors if there is any comments questions U uh or concern on that I'll call the question for the cut all in fav please say I hi Ro call please Council Levy yes Council plant yes Council Lon no council Del Rosario yes councilor Santiago no Council marmal yes Council Rees yes Council vice president Inon yes council president I will yes motion carries so councelors any other proposed cut uh remember this is councelor councel pres Infante thank you I have a question uh either for the Kao or senior advisor spanner regarding the the new cuts that they sent over um the cut under the mayor's office the salary reduction temporary wages why is it being cut by 10,000 and not by the by the total amount can you go over again what what what those that money would be those monies would be used for in a temporary basis within the mayor's Department I think that that uh cut of $1,915 was to reduce the uh budget to a similar number from the prior year um so it's a kind of an odd amount but I think it was to get the budget within the same uh uh increases the prior year if I recall so Council Council infant Council Infante you can propose the the REM remaining cut if you prefer I'm aware thank you um can you state what this would be used for this line item the remaining would be 18 18,957 of of the employees but that that's why uh the administration supports and advocates for the individuals that they have within their office because it's needed um I would like to make a motion to cut the salaries and wages from the mayor's temporary from the mayor's office in additional $1,915 so out of the uh page 3132 32 yeah page 32 account 010 220 5120 um the salary reduction temporary wages uh to be reduced by the total amount which is1 18,000 right $1,915 all right discussion I mean can I hear a second can I hear a second second properly second uh discussion discussion CC plan so uh I I think we're going down the right path to asking the administration when we are making Cuts what impact that has and through you Mr President I like they ask the administration a reduction of 18,000 what does that mean for the office what do that means for the office this this specific cut that is been proposed on uh solid R reduction temporary wages I think we can having that thank you all right uh the administration have said that they can compromise with with having the cut can there any other discussion I Hear n at this point I call the questions all those in favor all the cat for the previous account mentioned for the total amount of $18,000 8,915 uh please say I I any objection any NOS I hear no so uh motion carries uh councilors any other proposed card that is not been proposed at this moment that the council's wishes to to continue council plan CC Le thank you very much Mr President um under the City Council budget on page number 28 Professional Services looking to make a motion s for discussion purposes to reduce that by $15,000 page 28 page city council Professional Services page 28 uh city council font 01 Department 01 division 029 under the Professional Services uh the total amount to be proposed or to be cut uh for the total amount of $15,000 under the Professional Services that is a motion by can hear a second properly second discussion discussion thank you Mr President so um putting this budget together back a year ago um Professional Services was done for a lot two different things one it's it paid for um the folks who actually run the cameras come to the meetings people who some do some of the transcriptions and also um the transl services and I'm very proud Mr President of us getting the translation services last year uh and I think it's been going very well and it's allowed many people an opportunity who may not have to speak and listen and be a participate in our city council meetings um but I think we need to dig a Little Deeper as to why that 15,000 and in in Professional Services uh we have $30,000 which is the amount of money that we've set aside last year we spent out of that amount $26,000 so we underspent but what's important is this we have encumbered and that's a fancy accounting term encumbered encumbered means we have put aside money that we haven't spent yet for the purposes of paying individuals or paying for something um in that particular item so if if you look at the encumbered and you look at the unspent money we have about $177,000 left $117,000 left in that account that we have essentially five business days because the end of the fiscal year is on Monday to pay for I think we if if what we're going to do here is ask residents to pay more money and taxes ultimately if this budget passes the mayor's office has already done their part a little bit maybe it's whatever but they have cut part of their budget as well I think we should also show some leadership and and understand that we're going to pass this budget we should also do some cutting as well um in our own budget especially when it's really not going to impact our expenditures coming for the next fiscal year so that's the reason why it's 15,000 because I still think there's plenty of money left even with that cut through the encumbered and and money that's that's been unspent this fiscal year thank you uh if I might um I will U justify the $15,000 increasement on that are Professional Services for the following reasons that increasement uh means that the city council with the current technology that we are actually acquired that is been uh we were waiting for so such a long time we also need to look into uh priorly acquire all type of technology and that uh might help us out when it comes to uh multiples uh services that we provide including perhaps looking into potential so the um other way of taking the minuts that are not going to Fe that are not going to necessarily reduce the the employee that we have in place but try to make it more efficient uh through different softwares and different uh perhaps even U uh AI if possible uh looking into the potential of uh reaching out to more youth uh potentially and reaching out to to a lot more people uh through technology since we're going to be able to uh look into uh different options if the council decid that we're going to stay as we we are um a body that potentially uh reach a minimum amount of people through the technology that we've been using by all means we can uh we can stay like that I prefer not to since we have a young population that is not being involved is not getting involved uh with the with the council uh and we actually were able to to see the potential of getting the youth and getting that specific uh population that have not been reached out by uh by for many years when we started using the zoom meeting back then um during the pandemic a lot of people start join the meetings through the zoom meetings and a lot of people start interacting more with the city council that was purposely reduced and we are trying to purposely get back to the population that we have missed uh I think that this council is uh is a council that understand the importance of um reaching out to different people reaching out to different communities reaching out to um different population in terms of age gender in terms of anything that we understand that we understand that we might serve um and with the help of the Professional Services in the future uh we will uh try to get to that point we are talking about $155,000 that we increase on the line item um looking at all departments I see that the line item didn't increase by 15,000 increase by a lot more but I understand what is behind this I understand uh uh what was the intent I just don't share it so when it comes to speaking about leadership it is a different style of leadership for the city of lam have moved in another Direction uh counselors any any comments concern about this I go into the second round of questioning yes I need to go to the second round of questioning Council plant and then go back to you Council lant thank you thank you very much Mr President so um I was able to get a the memo that you sent to the CFO regarding the budget increases I'm not sure if anybody else has it but I have a copy of it and it it looks as though a couple things one is that you're in the memo that you have your mixing accounts with your AI initiative versus what's going on in Professional Services because you have that under a different account that's the first thing and the second thing is under your Professional Services account you mention that the line item pays for the staff to broadcast the meetings on local cables it's also used to pay the Spanish language translation services all that's correct currently we're only able to pay for 2 hours of translation services per meeting and we're still going over the budget we've never put a cap as to how much time we've had for translation services and we're not clearly going over the budget we have $1,000 in spent our goal is to be able to have the services for longer time frames Etc and we want and that's the basis for going up to $45,000 so I just I just I one of the things as well council president and and I don't mean to nitpick and please I hope that you'll find this in the spirit that it's given um I I just recall very specifically last year how you know we wanted to have more collaboration with counselors and asking counselors what they want in the budget that was very clear to me when I sat where you sat and I wasn't asked and and not sure I'm not complaining about this but I wasn't asked in this particular round if what these were and if you're going to go in the direction of AI that you just mentioned that's a very significant change in policy I I know that the Commonwealth of the state is actually quite hesitant toward embracing that at some levels and they're still trying to study whether or not it's actually a place where they want to incorporate AI into state government and that's a conversation that's ongoing because the technology is so new and for us just to go ahead and start leaping into AI without having the kind of background and talking about what that might mean unattended consequences what does it mean for the workforce a lot of other things that you touched upon council president correctly um I just think that we should just I think that's more of a conversation that we should collectively have uh before we start going down that road so I just think it's important through you Mr President that our colleagues are aware of that thank you no no problem I understand Council planed and uh and I understand C plant at the end of the day everybody everybody's aware that before we uh actually get into an agreement uh with any specific specific or any any particular services like we did with translation services this Council have to vote on it and then if we don't spend the money the money is going to go back to the general fund uh that I just want to make sure that everybody's aware who was counc LE yes I would like to hear from the C uh see we have a still left $177,000 is any bill that has to be pay um on the next uh few days before the start of the new year uh the uh the amount that you have left in the budget the amount that's encumbered I think in that line item was 13,000 is that what counts yeah 13, 36707 which means they've encumbered uh uh they've encumbered uh uh uh Consulting Services of 13,000 I'll have the breakdown of uh of which Consultants are in there but that's the account where they pay the uh uh where they pay the U guys that work the cameras and the uh uh translator and um the minute taker yes but my question is still do we have any bill to pay before the end of the fiscal year so because right now they say that we have a 13,000 left so we have any any other bill to pay before the end of the fiscal year or that amount is going to be he transfer or what is going to happen if we don't use it before the end of the year well the 13,000 is encumbered meaning it's set aside and it'll be carried into next year so any invoices that are outstanding can be paid out of out of those encumbrances that's the reason why we usually get a incum or purchase order for an estimated amount of what you need and they can use that in the next year the uh so that will carry over once it's encumbered and the 13,000 will carry over into next year so we don't uh if there's any invoices that they have that haven't encumbered uh or for a vendor that they don't have on here that'd be different but uh I'm pretty sure these are uh the encumbrances for all of the consultants in the in the Council Office council president through you so if we do know are going to use the money and we remove like the 15,000 that's amount that we have transfer this year to the next year can compensated uh based on the conversation that I have with um with with the cafo today that was not the total amount we never bring that amount specifically we've been paying bills as we uh this budget I didn't put it together we've been paying what what is in front of us uh what we encar to uh encounter to and then uh we keep we keep on uh moving the city council forward we're not having discussions about coffee we're not having discussions about pens we're not having discussions about supplies because those are things that the city council need and uh and and use uh as we all know uh we are having a a m main discussions when it comes to things that uh the city council um is is is it's having a daily basis just like any other department the city of lawence any other councilors around this you uh Mr President councelor c c is [Music] okay I think we can keep in this amount because uh when we are starting to offer interpretation uh we are starting to offer uh to our full counil meeting but we have a lot of inconvenience to our ordinance committing because sometime our constituent attending but they don't have the ability to express they so see we have more funding we can Implement to have interpretation to our ordinance committee too because sometime we have we need to ask into the audience to support our participant or our constituent to when they want to request or presenting some issue all right thank you Council reges um all right at this point councelors are going to explain what a about Yes means a Bo Yes means to cut the $115,000 a Bo no means uh to keep it as proposed councilors any other questions council president sure that's one way to to spin it the other way to spin it is to keep it the balanced budget to keep it as it is keep it the current rate it is right now so there's two ways to spin it so we're just not adding more money we're keeping what it is and we haven't we haven't spent all the money we had this year so we would be able to go to the ordinance committee and some other committees just based on the money that we have today thank you council president councilors uh vote Yes means we cut in the budget a Bo a board Note means that we we keep it as is at this point I call the questions all those in favor please say I no Ro call please Council councelor Rees is to maintain the budget as the the B yes mean that we cutting the budget by 15 so you're voting no counil marmel no counil Santiago no council Del Rosario no council Luzon no councelor llant yes Council Levy no council Infante no council president I about no councilors any other um proposed cut uh on the budget council president Council vice president infan thank you I have a question uh going back to the cuts that the administration proposed on June 18th I'm looking specifically at the employee benefits section towards the bottom and I would like to know um from the CLE making these Cuts uh are these areas where perhaps in the future you would have to come before the council again to ask for additional funding because it's employee benefits so I just want to clarify that I don't believe so I think the we we budgeted six exactly 16 million for uh employee Group insurance or health insurance for employees so we think uh we cut almost 200,000 out of that we think we can still get by it's still a little bit more than this year I think it was our budget this year is 15.6 million so it still provides us with an increase the uh the next two accounts uh res uh reserve for I I was just trying to build up the I the reserve fund uh and the workers comp Reserve fund so I had put additional amounts in the budget so if we cut those budgets I still have balances in those accounts that just was trying to build up a a larger Reserve so unless we have an unusual year for I or workers comp we should be uh we should make it through the year you I do have a slight concern with one and and I can't you guys already suggested a cut so uh for the uh Group Insurance Commission I do see that the budget fy2 24 through April 10th it was a bit lower lower than fy22 and FY 23 however it looks like there there could be a a increasing pattern and I'm just a little worried about that section uh for the future cuz even though we didn't use everything up to April 10th we still have some more bills to pay so we plan on uh using the uh the appropriation or we going to be pretty close to the appropriation this year we think we'll we uh when we came down for the transfers at year end that account uh and all the others uh uh we we projected through June 30th so uh this amount that we're projecting for next year we originally projected 16 million uh we're cutting it almost 200,000 here it'll be a little closer than I'd like it but I think we're going to make it I mean uh if if not we will be back at at the end of next year but I don't think uh I don't expect to thank you any other uh any other propos SC uh be on their on the this fiscal year 2024 that the council would like to propose council plan thank you I'm going to take one more bite at the Apple see how far this goes because I think it's important that we show some leadership I'm going to make a motion again to um to reduce the City Council budget page 28 other purchase Services $88,000 why that is a motion on the table to reduce the City Council budget by $8,000 can I hear a second just second it's been properly second by Council Levy discussion thank you very much council president again I know this is not easy council president no no no it's your it's your it is within your right thank you so we um this does not have any encumbered money set aside but we are increasing it by $9,500 and this year um we have $88,000 unspent in this account again to to remind folks this is other purchase services on page 28 we're going to increase it by 95 so I'm not even looking at the whole increase I'm looking to reduce it by the amount of money that's been left the line item is other purchase Services Under purchase Services 5380 so again it's not so much that what the council president has is a bad idea in this thing but again we are asking tax payers to sacrifice and we are including I will say this we are including in our own budget I'm not even going to look at the salaries $35,000 worth of new new expenditures in the city council Lo and we don't have a very big budget and that's a lot and so if we're going to be asking folks to pay more in their taxes I think it's important that even if it's just tokenism even if it's just an example even if it's just showing that we're we're we're going to do a little bit as well so that they don't think that we're just going to increase everything in our budget too and we're going to ask you to pay some more especially in light of the fact that I I don't because of the money that again we're putting out we're not spending this year I don't think I don't think we're going to feel a lot of pain if we don't put it the council president I'll read what he put in his memo to the CAO on this the council's request to increase his line item is based on several different upom objectives this line item is used to provide the city council's resources to assist their constituent for plaques and other tribute materials that the council uses to honor dignitaries and noteworthy residents as we expand with the newly created Economic Development Committee the council aims to fund marketing and related video and promotional items most importantly the council intends to adopt AI based technology to assist with several different functions including our minutes and would need funds to both start up these programs as well pay annual licensing and servicing fees I I don't know what the price is for that um I guess I when I relinquish the floor I would ask the council president does he have a quote does he know what that is um but anyway so I think just keeping it where it is we're going to increase it by $1,500 to be quite Frank uh so it's not going to go down completely to what it was but again it sends the right signal to our community about what we're doing thank you um CC Bland as as we previously mentioned it before uh we are trying to uh do a different job that it was that that from compared to what what happened in the past uh these Council have chosen uh to move from another direction we have um we have bought it out voice it out by the community and and we are going to uh continue doing the work I wish that uh we look into um all departments as well as we are being um deeping into it this department this is Department that you led for uh three 3 years I believe and uh and we are trying to um start our next budget to have the autonomy and to have the services that the community that the community deserved I'm not saying that you did the you did you did the opposite but we're moving in on that direction I believe that based on what we've been discussed uh and the propos on the memo uh I believe that um the the total amount that we was proposed to be increased is something that is not exponentially or three times more more than what it was before budgets that in the past you have no question whatsoever um and I'm going to go back and forth I allow the council to to take a look at this and and preferably not to uh support the cut and move forward to uh all the things that are maybe more important council president councilor de rosar thank you through you council president sure like I don't know if I'm losing of anything can we make some Cuts they actually make some difference on the tax of the constituents CU it seems like we how would that make a difference kafo on on on the tax levy for the constituents if we if we make some different cuts um we just Penny picking here and and and general not just not just our department but the major the major Cuts has been done that is going to make a difference on our constituents when it comes to to relevant tax pay so I mean can it's just my opinion if we're going to make some Cuts Make Some Cuts that's going to make a difference when it comes to tax paying thank you councelor Rosario at this point any other councilors would like to speak on this a vot Yes means that we making the cut a vot no means that we are not allowing this cut to go through uh all please say I no no Roo please councelor Levy the question is I say yes you would like cut you you would like to cut okay no council plant yes Council Lon no council Del Rosario no council Santiago no councilor marmel no councilor Rees no council vice president fonte no council president Rodriguez no mtion motion fails councelor any other specific C that we would like to discuss tonight page 32 uh councelor councelor before you you go [Music] U have her hands raised before so I recognize her and then right after Cel M I'll try to be brief and um I agree with counselor uh Del Rosario in terms of the fact that it does feel like we're Penny picking here um it seems like out of everything that we could discuss here in this budget and I'm a little disappointed Council the plant that you're choosing to um focus on like what I would my opinion would be considered minor in terms of the dent that it would make in terms of the budget and the the effect that it that it would cause uh to the residents in the city but then I also have to um argue the fact that uh councelor De Rosario you you brought up a good point um in terms of can we could we get to the to the meet and Bounds of what the purpose of this meeting is for and yet I have yet to hear any with the exception of uh councelor Infante in making uh a recommendation to make some Proper Cuts um as a new newer counselor here I I Look to uh senior counselors to kind of start this discussion um in order for us to make some proper decisions for the city um with that being said I would like to hear from uh the mayor's Administration considering how um the discussion regarding the 1.5 million in the reduction in education and how that was uh kind of like a a major um disappointment when it was uh spread through the public if you guys could speak on that in terms of how that's going to affect um the the Amendments that you guys have made to the budget um in order for me to proceed with my line of questioning okay I think uh I think you were asking about the 1.5 million in education um this is a uh proposed proposed decrease to the um to the allocate the appropriation to the school department uh with the caveat that we're hoping to uh come up with a u uh work with negotiate with the school department to see if there are some uh cost that the city incurs that we could uh could count towards our required contribution our required contribution is roughly 15 Point U uh 15.2 million which is an increase of 1.5 1.5 million more than last year and so we're just uh we're we're going to see if we can uh can find some expenses that the uh City incurs to uh put towards our net School spending contribution and one of the key areas that we're we're proposing is that uh our administrative uh expenses that we can charge to school right now is approximately 1.1 million uh the Desi publishes a uh a an amount per capita of student of roughly $139 per student which equates to a little over $2 million so we've got about you know we think there's about 900,000 there that's a little reasonable within Desi regulations and then we have some other expenses that we think should count towards our 15.2 million that we must contribute uh but we would have to work that out with the school department uh even though it's uh we're still within the uh we still have to contribute the 15.2 million uh but it can be in cash or it can be in in kind Services if you will so the 1.5 million reduction um do you mind going into detail exactly um where is it exactly um is it going to be reduced from that that would be up to the school department to decide where the where the amounts de increas from they have a total appropriation of uh uh 20 um 279 of the education component uh is 264.7 million so they would have to decide where the 1.5 million is allocated in this budget they just get a lump sum they decide what to do with the whole 264 million teacher salaries and so on that's within their purview not ours councel councelor councelor the way it work is like we are responsible for a specific amount of dollars that we need to put into the school system and this the school system will be able to distribute that funds accordingly it might correct yeah the school department decides how to distribute the 264 million yes sure you have a point a clarification just question yeah okay goad can can the current uh superintendent answer me this question if if it's possible thank you Mr Rodriguez good evening Council sure thank you uh Mr Rodriguez regardless of anything well right to the question in the past two um budgets how much money have you have the school turns back to the state uh we don't return anything back to the state any any funding that we don't use goes into a general City account if I'm not mistaken Mr Mr sorry for that well just to make sure there's no misunderstanding since I've been here in October of 2011 we've never taken any money back from the school department what happens is um money that they in general they have a large budget they don't spend all of their their budget but they encumber we allow the uh the remaining balance to be carried into next year for example this year it's anticipated they may have around 4 million left over we don't put that back in general funding the free cash uh we allow them to carry that into the next year because as I read the Desi regulations uh as long as you're under unless you're over net School the required net School spending amount you can't really take any money back from the school department they're entitled to that once we appropriate it so roughly 4 million this year and how about the period um the last uh budget million here I mean over the last 10 years it's a few million here one year might have been 7 million it might have been actually it might have been a little close to 10 million during the covid year as obviously that was uh extenda circumstances uh might have been 13 million something like that because the schools were pretty much closed but in general just a it's a it's in general it's a few million every year 264 million a lot of it they encumber what they can uh with invoices and uh uh uh proposed invoices for the following year uh and they encumber those funds which which which kind of sets it aside but then there's certain amounts you just can't even uh uh they aren't even able to encumber uh because they may need it for salaries and so forth so they're allowed to carry that in the next year and appropriate it as they see fit okay that's all thank you thank you superintendent yeah I and I think just to follow up on what councilor ml had asked I think you know the municipal reimbursement um is something that's an allowable expense for net School spending um obviously the controller's office does work for us um we'll reimburse some of those costs DPW does some work for us we'll reimburse DPW those costs um so that's kind of what we're talking uh about here and we had initial conversations about theou which was last drafted and signed I believe in 2013 if I'm uh not Incorrect and it expired in 2019 so it has not been updated for The Last 5 Years um and we are looking to update theou again according to the Desi formula the formula that the Department of Education um has for allowable reimbursements so we're not I mean we're we're certainly not talking about U reducing the number of reading Specialists for example or the number of par professionals that are going to serve in our district in fact we're we're uh with our increase that we received from Chapter 70 and from SOA we're proposing 126 new positions counselor so um I don't want folks to feel like there's going to be um any type of services that that students are going to Lo uh lose out on of course we'll uh myself and Mr Carrero will will have conversations with the folks on the city Side um to make sure that we're doing this in an equitable way Guided by the Desi regulations thank you thank you superintendent you're welcome um Mr Rodriguez um so I'm so sorry um is the state saying that Lawrence is required to uh as as the CF was said it's about $15.2 million um is the required um City contribution and again that's U that's the the the formula from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts um and and um you know as the C mentioned um last year and a half anyways um they have not asked for any money back from the school department of course we collaborate on many things um with not just the with many of the city departments as we should so and you feel okay with this reduction well it's not really it's not really a reduction because we we have to spend approximately $280 million per the state we have to spend this $280 million there are some things that we reimburse for as I said um if the Department of Public Works comes over to one of our schools and works on a temperature control system we don't have someone to do that um we reimburse the DPW for the work that they're doing um again the controller's office the Treasurers Office things that they do for us that we cannot do that's work so you know it is an allowable expense for us to reimburse and again um we're proposing 126 new positions for next year that are to be fully funded um and hopefully we can fill them all and get as close to spending 100% of our money as possible and again to follow up on what counc Del Rosario initially asked we have approximately $4 million right now um you know there might be something that comes up some expense that we have to pay these last couple weeks but um you know money that we have excess that we're not going to spend we found ways to use it for example um we got waivers for new fire alarm systems at the Arlington and the South Lawrence E school that we're doing work on this summer so um uh you know I personally feel like we're in pretty good shape moving forward so this is a point of clarification through you council president so the one point the the reason why it's being reduced is because uh you did not use the 1.5 million so when money is not being used um again I just I you know I I get concerned when it when we say reduce again um allowable expenses for net School spending involve teacher salaries but they also include Municipal reimbursements so we are going to spend again approximately $280 million um we we are working on this uh Antiquated mou that's over a decade old um and we're talking with the city about um incorporating a new mou that's agreeable to everybody that's based on a formula that the state sends out to everybody so it's not what I think is good or what maybe Mark thinks is good it's a state formula that is used by probably almost all the municipalities across the state and their School departments I can I could just be excuse me I can just be a little more specific just because I mentioned it the uh uh the administrative salaries that we or administrative costs that we uh charg the school for is roughly 1.1 million for our our 2013 mou the Desi calculation uh the uh uh allows $139.90 per student uh as a as a per pupil administrative cost average and they print that on their website every year in many municipalities uh you use that uh per pupil cost instead of trying to figure out what the actual uh uh administrative cost may be and you know again um when we when we do have the updated mou signed whenever that is um again it's it's not going to be a cut to the school department the city um the city can't decide that all the state said that our contribution has to be 15.2 we're only going to send 14 million to the school department if that happens probably in December January you'd get a letter um from somebody at Desi saying you need to transfer uh $1.2 million over to the school department so again um you know this will be something um whenever it happens allowable reimbursements to the city for work that is being done there any other questions about the $1.5 million allowable spend expendition yeah council president ccce president inant thank you I don't have a question about 1.5 million I do have a comment because I don't know when's the next time I'm going to see the intrum superintendent I believe your last days this week or when is the new superintendent coming within the next couple weeks okay well I'm I may not see you this counselor may not see you and I just want to say thank you for for your service as interim superintendent you have been amazing to work with you treat everyone within the City of Lawrence equally professionally and um I just want wanted you to know that that at least I will miss working with you and I and I look forward to working with you in other capacities in the future appreciate that I appreciate those kind words Council vice president I think um you know Lawrence is a great place in general I've love working for the school department um being able to work um you know with with the city councilors and the LA board folks from uh from City Hall and all the department heads has been a great pleasure so thank you I I appreciate those kind words yeah mean it was a uh just just to piggy back on your comment C vice president it it make a huge difference uh between what happened in the past and what happened with uh superintendent Rod Rodriguez I definitely appreciate everything they have done for the city thank you councelors um any proposed C any any anything else before we move on on the questions did you I mean okay can can L go ahead no just I the only thing that I want to say is like uh thank you to all that having been taking the times you know during all of this time for putting all the budget together uh I think so that is a great we've been having a very great budget so after all the cut that was done by the mayor office so that this is great I think this is very important right now that uh the tax pay was reduce the from the 8% that we had at the beginning when we saw the first time the budget is been cut to 2.5 so thank you I want to thank you everybody for taking this opportunity and brings all of this reduction without I know that also all member of the city council have been putting a lot of time in here uh talking about every single penny that cons sent to our our uh our city so uh this year I know that I has been very controversial but I think so that we already had a very good year so we haven't done a lot of things that hasn't been done in this city for many year we are A+ in reality we have a very good AIT so for the first time I hear the person that did the AIT okay to say that many of the things that hasn't been accomplished for many year has been accomplished for in the last so I know that it's very hard for people say that we've been having a city in a very good shape right now we have a city in a very good shape and there is so many changes that is happening in Kia whether or not like it or not to people but are we having a lot of good things and I want to thank you all the city members here the administration for the J that they are doing also the member of the city council who's taking all of the time because we've been putting a lot of hours revising this budget and doing all all of the changing in getting the penny single by single penny in here okay to make sure that our tax pay are getting the best and this city is going to continue getting forward and it's going to contining getting the best because we are the best we are right now in a very good shape and I'm sorry but this is my feeling thank you thank you motion to pass time motion motion to pass it's already time all right motion to pass them I understand the motion there is a second second all pleas there have it uh Council of District D you have the floor so I guess uh for the purpose of continuing this important conversation that it seems like most of us are maybe afraid of asking um I think the the majority of the issues and the consensus that I'm getting um there is a heavy part in terms of the line of questioning in terms of new positions and um salary increases um I think it's important especially um as a new counselor for me to gain gain an understanding for one if the position makes sense um do they serve a purpose um and if the salary aligns with the position that is being created so for starters I want to um before I even make a recommendation to cut or to make adjustments um I'm hoping that the mayor's office could provide Clarity in terms of um page 32 Office of the mayor data entry clerk um I see that this is a new position if we could get a description if this is uh you know I I want to be able to gain an understanding to justify this position and the salary that's uh in place yes uh councelor through the council president the that position has been failed it's not a new position it's a position the title has changed the title has changed the title has changed but the position I mean we went before the city council and requested it to be change no no no no hold on a second title last year was uh administrative Aid to the mayor you can see there was two last year and there's none this year that was one of the positions that was reclassified to a data entry clerk uh in front of the council last year yeah so we just reflect it in the budget this year one thing I forgot to mention as well um counselor and council president of councelors is that the the question in regards to the uh Emergency Management also is by ordinance and that position has been placed or on the books for go to the this no no no it's just to clarify just to clarify it is by ordinance and it was many years ago and now the reality in the population has also grown no thank you for the clarification but I mean uh wa we we are on that specific yet we haven't are you satisfied with the answer um well that yes I am satisfied I thought it was a new position I did not know it was a change well it and on the on the on the budget it was not budget in fiscal year 2024 and it was Budget on fiscal year 2025 so it's a creation of a new position it's not a creation of a new position but it's been funded on this budget first time so it was cut on another one and then funded on this one so that's the that's the uh that's what is in front of us but I um wait my just clarify wait wait time out time out through you council president my original question was to justify the need for this position go ahead yeah so you know the position was just renamed uh it was not a cut last year it was a it was a different title last year as as I just indicated if you can look on page 28 you'll see that there were 10 positions last year and 10 positions this year so there's nothing no new positions were added the data entry clerk is is the person the greeter at the front of City Hall uh that's the position that uh uh that's that's a person serves in that title dat andry clerk it's just per ordinance uh the data entry clerk was a was a position that was created uh and and approved by the city council a couple of years ago so last year it still had the old title administrative Aid to the mayor this year we eliminated administrative Aid to the mayor went from two down to zero we didn't really cut those people they're just reclassified to their proper titles that were uh amended by the city council counc distri D you have any other question cons president C before before I recognize you I mean I need to recognize I need to recognize councelor Santiago first she was she was asking me for the floor councelor Santiago yes yes through you Mr President can the can the office or somebody for the mayor's office can describe who who what is the regular Duty what is the day what is the job describe the day how how the the ENT so the duties of the the entry push the button counc councel Santiago you got to push the button but they got a question yeah sorry council president the um that's the position that um I hate to mention uh names of individ individual justo the names just avoid the names just talk about the position itself is the position that you have the GRE the person that sits up front when you come in through City Hall that individual's position I don't have the job description before me that is by ordinance uh I don't know if the city clerk can provide the uh the job by ordinance when we came here and you can provide the city counselor with the response because I personally don't have it and I don't think uh HR is has it either for now but I think it's by ordinance and you can find it on the uh I mean if if you can can you lock up all right uh I guess we have no answer but I mean uh if we walk in it's a person that wel welcome everybody at the city at the city hall I don't know can the city clerk I mean she can she won't be able to pull pull it up right now I have it you have it sorry Council Council laan have a point of information that he would like to provide D entry clerk 2.1 270 um it says is established in the office of the mayor the position of data entry clerk Who Shall Serve the pleasure of the mayor B it's only two letters b the salary of the data entry clerk shall be the benit and Associates Compensation Plan non-union non-exempt grade level one the data entry clerk shall be entitled to receive all benefits provided to non-union employees regularly employed in the administrative service of the city and that's all we have on the data entry clerk great in our ordinance and that was actually redone back in 2022 all right um council president that's point of Cl point of information or you want to change the topic because Council Santiago still have the floor point of information in regard to this position point of information counc through you counil president sure may I ask a question no that's not an appointment related to the position once you have the FL clarification council president yes once uh councelor Santiago finish with the the floor you will be able to take it coun sanago you finished all you good councel I think uh I receive a few emails in regards to this position and the question should be if if if this position is needed nothing to do with a person that is uh in the position if a position to greet people to welcome people to City Hall the person that is is making $68,000 a year is necessary that is the question on or if we can can we have an intern because I the person that is doing this job is a very capable young man no discussion on that but maybe uh this person should be moved to another department but I mean do we need someone making $68,000 to welcome people to City Hall that is the concern council president and I would like someone from the from the mayor's office to answer well uh we have we have um the the uh the senior adviser yeah sorry uh through you uh council president that position was created as uh city council has read it in 2023 and was voted by the previous Council the one of the reasons why to my recollection and correct me if I'm wrong some of you that were in the previous city council that was created because the service here was bad was really bad and and no and no it was in discussion it's by the video that the people were not um that the uh people came to the city council sorry yeah the city council it came to to you as as as a body and city councilors that complained that there was no service people didn't know which department they had to go to and we don't have that issue right now and it's not my opinion it has been brought up by several uh council members and we worked on it in addition to some of the the work that this individual does is that they enter information that means if someone comes in before they go to the city to to the mayor's office if they could be helped uh through this um immediately then that person would enter the information is communicated through the mayor's office before they go upstairs and also with the department heads in order to resolve the their their situation so that's the best I can can say uh in regards to the salary compensation that came also before you uh before this body and his body accepted the recommendation that was given at that that time through the calling center if I'm not mistaken right is the yes to you council president C and I just asked my fellow Council um if the if the ordinance is specific on having this person in front welcoming people so the ordinance is not as specific so it's there's no nothing in the ordinance that that says that he should be welcoming people that enters City Hall people are concerned about the salary not the capability of this young man and through you Mr President and my question is can this be done by an intern that's what we getting via email yeah uh C that may be something that is decided by the by the mayor's Administration uh but just to clarify from the salary I mean it was mentioned on the ordinance that grade A was the salary assigned do we have the grades so we can have that the and I just wanted to clarify that the ordinance has a brief uh description of the position the job description has all the duties and activities of a yeah of a position the ordinance we have the the the need of the position the the job discretion is the specific of the position so the the Colin Center put the data andry clerk in uh in we have a letter grade from a to H and this is a g position which is a range of 80 41 1,860 to 6864 I'm not sure if the position it's in the budget at 6864 I'm not sure what the actual salary of that person is could be in that range somewhere but it's in the budget for the the 6864 so that's that's on the I mean this a discrepancy Bas on the what C plan read uh and the grade you say it's great a I think that was referring to not the uh benett Associates which is a old nonunion Compensation Plan in the old ordinance and the previous salary for those two positions were $129,000 which represent about $64,000 each uh 64500 um that's what that's what it was in the past now it's 68 uh 640 uh councilors any other questions in regard to this specific council president councel rosar through you Coles Coles their stuff in the budget that we cannot do we cannot even discuss cuz we're not going to make any changes when it comes to that and we just prolonged this meeting so when we going to ask a question besides that I mean now we're talking to people saying the salaries now we're talking to people saying if they in the front of the city hall there's nothing to do with this budget to be honest with you that could be a discussion that could be in another scenario um nothing against anything that my call saying but we prolong in this meeting already and and digging on the same item or the same issue on the same people on the same position that we're not going to make any changes when it comes to that let's stick it to the budget and let's get it done if we're going to do it so just just point of clarification on that that's part of the budget and and the the questions were in order uh but I understand your point that there is a lot more important things on the budget that we should be discussing but I can't not I can I can't not allow this discussion from happening councelor decide to speak on anything or any potential cut there was some clarifications for a potential cut that we proposed that's not happening I mean that haven't happened yet I haven't hear anything and I open the floor to any type of U any other uh potential cut that the councilors has before I call the questions councelors uh CC celes Jesus Christ okay thank you sorry about that I'm very upset because uh when we uh put it on the front line our people our employee when we mention 68,000 and 6 40 uh what you mean we talking about you think it's too much uh you think we not need it because our constituent mention how happy they are when they have a wonderful people in the front to give you direction to the different department give you the guideline and you find out what you're looking for what is the reason we lose a lot of employee because we have low salary when we compare with another city we be at the low salary ever I don't want to mention the salary from the administration because when you compare with another city another city have more High salary when you put in in at the front line who is the the the the description uh of what they do or is necessary or not every employee is necessary they do amazing job in our City they represent us they support our contion it's very not very simple to to bring it out and and and mention like we talking about for less than 30 doll per hour isn't all right uh next questions Council District D counil president Council of District did I going to recognize you first well I I just wanted a um respond on to counselor raes um by no means are we're trying to by asking certain questions we're not trying to attack or insinuate that son through the Pres and that way we don't have arguments what was that coun son I mean sorry we're not trying to we're not trying to insinuate that um our employees that work for the city are not deserving to be compensated properly um however when you're looking at the budget and you're noticing from from other departments similar positions similar with similar duties similar responsibilities for example when you go uh to page 63 office of planning um and we're looking that the reception is there is getting paid $45,000 again I'm not trying to say that they do the exact same thing but when you're trying to compare to see why why is it fair for this receptionist that that may have probably these similar duties is getting paid 45,000 so me as a counselor if I'm going to approve something I want it to make sense and I want it to be justified all right uh Point well taken um anybody else that would like to speak counc Lon we are in the process of U of if we're going to propose cut let's propose C if it's not we need to call a question um my last comment it's just for the people that are watching and the people that are present a new police officer makes 56,000 56,000 a year so just to add to my colle um from councelor from uh from District D so our the person that welcomes people in City Hall is making more than a police officer per year so that is concerning thank you all right uh any other uh potential Cuts councelors let's move forward from the that uh if it's not got on that page 32 all right page 32 fund one Department 002 division 0 030 where from there Administration for special [Music] projects there's a suggested raise of $20,000 BAS 32 page 32 Administration Administration for the special project uh it is an increase of um a potential increase of proposed uh increase of 20,000 on there the salary 70 currently the proposed uh salary for the position went up to 90,000 with a total increasement of 20,000 counc Lon what do you want to do with it I'm going to suggest to cut that in half maybe less than that CU it's a very good race $20,000 so councelor son stick to the point you want to propose a card of ,000 my point consel president I'm going to propose a card of $10,000 all right thank you so much counc Lon it is a proposed card of $10,000 on that specific line item um fund 01 Department 002 division 030 a proposed card of $10,000 on that can you hear a second you guys follow can I hear a second all right he died for a lack of second for discussion purposes for discussion purposes council plan have a second second motion uh discussion Council Lon why there is no discussion no no through you consel president I think a reasonable race could be $10,000 but I mean I asking us to approve $20,000 for an Administration Aid a person that is not even well I think he covers the job responsibilities is not what I see here so not to get into whoever is doing this position I think reasonable will be to request $20,000 and raise the salary up to up to 80,000 80,000 reable all right uh Point well taken Council Council Lon any other discussion all right here known at this point I call the question all those in favor please say I roll call please councelor Reyes no councelor marmel yes councelor Santiago yes Council Del Rosario no council Lan yes Council plant no council Levy no council vice president infon yes council president I vote Yes what's the count motion is Five For U um cut it's five to four five in favor five in favor mhm so motion motion carries all right councelors any other cut page 3 2 page 32 so fund 01 Department 002 division 030 councelor on can can I get the count again on that on that last one the count was um yes five counselors in favor counselors um can get the name five in favor and four against you don't need the names or get get the names please so in favor of the item where councilors marmel Santiago lzone Infante and coun president Rodriguez those voting against it were Council Reyes Council Del Rosario Council plant and Council Levy okay thank you all right uh Council Lon you have the floor page 32 Administration uh administrated aid for I think it's community and constituent Services the office of the major is asking for 14 ,000 rais I'm suggesting to cut this in half to do 7,000 it is reasonable all right uh Council have proposed a cut on that specific for $7,000 um line item uh the part on page 32 uh the mayor's office um and that is for the position specifically admin on a to uh to contion services so the reduction of uh of the potential $7,000 which is half of what is been proposed by the mayor uh can hear a second second it's been second for by Council Santiago discussion discussion Council pres Infante thank you for this specific admin aid for communications and constituent services and I know we're not trying to make it about the individ I'm making it solely about the job and I honestly think this position needs a second person I think this what comes with this position is a lot um I see the individual everywhere uh and and I and I I think I I think particularly this this position deserves like an assistant or or something I I don't think it should I don't think it should be cut all right any other discussions around this position I I think thank you council president through you council president I think the major office has 10 well I don't think I know that the mayor's office have 10 employees uh I think is nine because one of one of them has been proposed to be cut on the proposed mayor's okay nine thank you council president still a lot of people for one office um I think the that yes the P that this person this job has a lot of responsibility but I think it's fair to say that $7,000 is a a a raise is is doable instead of $114,000 so that's a lot of money all right councelors any other questions councelors any other questions around this any coms around this motion that we have in front of us are you here known so at this point I call the question all pH please say I any nice any nose Roo please um Council Levy no council plant noted as absent Council Lan yes Council Del Rosario no Council Santiago yes Council Mamu no councilor Rees no council vice president fonte no council president Rodriguez president ccil president like record my vote as a no on that thank you uh being recorded any other motions to propose any potential cut or we move forward to the question council president May address the board of course um it it appears to us out here that you are addressing individual salaries it can be it can be done that way we got it you are cutting the whole department I just want everybody to clear if I'm making $20,000 and you cut the budget and you think it's affecting me the mayor can fund me the $20,000 yep you are not affecting that person this you are affecting the budget at home the budget of the because You' been mentioning like the person at the front door we're going to cut this alley you're not cutting that person's salary you're cutting no one's salary you're cutting the budget for that whole department yep counil president yeah wait wait a minute wait a minute C just to clarify from that when when it comes to cut that's why I keep on mention fund department and division not the specifics uh other than that it's the mayor going to decide as of who is going to be CAU on that on there usually that tend to be the based on uh senority but it's up to the mayor to change salary Arrangement because it seems to be people are mentioning a particular person or people that's not that's not going to happen that's not that's not that's that's not how it is [Music] President Council thank you attorney for the clarification but we have the most expensive mayor's office in the state I think so if we can cut a little bit here and there it will be beneficial for the entire Community but then thank you for your um clarification thank you just want to further clarify it's not the total budget it's the personal services line item yes on page nine of your budget book is the appropriation order I have uh and the clerk has a a new appropriation order reflecting the mayor's potential Cuts uh so basically in the mayor's office there is uh four line items personal service purchase service supplies and other charges so in this case you're reducing the personal Services line atem by the proposed amendment yep Point well taken councilors any other specific uh cuts that is that it will like to be proposed okay any others all right councilors at this time we're going to be calling the questions in regard uh to the entire budget with the proposed C by the mayor except the DPW department and the cuts that is been presented by the mayor regarding the DPW as no nice and sanding uh at this point uh Madame clerk I would like to call a roll call for the vote for the proposed budget fiscal year 2025 council president also the Emergency Management 25,000 yeah that was part of the recording yeah any other cuts that was right after this is the fy2 budget with all the cuts as outlined accepting their from the one DPW cut that's what we're voting on right now and it said by the entire budget for the Department of the DPW and and their cut and the cut that has been proposed by the mayor okay so this is the budget except for the DPW budget and except for the DPW cut so we going to start with councilor Reas uh to approve the yes to approve the budget as proposed with a specific cuts and she was yes yes okay councilor Mar yes Council Santiago no council Del Rosario yes Council Luzan no council llant yes Council Levy yes Council vice president in fonte yes council president Rodriguez I vote Yes what's the count it's 7 to2 7 to2 motion carries and so now we're going to entertain and I will excuse myself we now we're going to ENT the DPW portion guys we haven't finished and I and I'll excuse myself we're going to entertain the the the the uh budget yes uh the budget for the DPW um and the potential C that the mayor have in uh have request uh only the DPW and the mayor's office C so councelors at this point I entertain a motion to uh for the that specific Department as what is allowed by law that the council could do motion to approve there is a motion to approve the budget for the DPW with the cut properly second Council can you clarify it's with the cut with the cut okay with that specific cut by the council by the mayor that it was to reduce this noiz and sending uh removal contract by the total amount of $250,000 um any questions in regard to that this by the way Madame cler uh let's go to that specific department so we can uh oh page 111 page 111 and 112 111 through 1 20 to one 12 129 from 111 to 129 that specific budget of the DPW is for the total amount of just let's I think we want to go one more Page Beyond that um oh yeah 129 to 130 13 theet is not yeah it's not part of it so it's 139 111 to 129 councelors any questions in regard to the DPW uh it's important to recognize that councelor Del Rosario have recruited himself uh due to a potential conflict of interest um uh at this point councelors we have a motion in front of us it's been properly second discussion page 111 give me a minute just going to give it the chance to look at it all right councelors at this point I will entertain and call the question if it is not potential cut we entertain the question as is all those in favor please say I I any nice Roo please Council Levy yes Council plant yes councilor Luzan we approving can you repeat the motion the motion is to approve the DPW with a spe specific C of the total amount of 250,000 from the no ASN I removal so it that's for the DPW only obain I confused with the motion counil president all right the motion let me go back just just just for the the fact that uh we are dealing with the budget and this is an important vote uh the motion right now Council on uh was uh the previous motion was to accept the budget except for the DPW due to one Council that have a potential conflict of interest now we are um that counselors which is councelor Rosario have have leave the room to a potential conflict of interest and now we are entertaining the motion to approve the DPW budget um with the proposed cut by the mayor's office of for the amount of $250,000 for the snow nice uh snow nice uh account that is that was the motion that was made by Council Levy was second by Council reges and uh and at that point we mentioned the pach of the DPW uh budget which is from page from page 111 to page 129 therefore we ask any councel if that have they have any potential cut as as we did it with the main budget at that point there was no coun that propos any budget and I call a question any questions on that I council president but I I missing to uh I do have a uh a cut to propose in one of the uh I have a uh a a uh a proposed cut for the budget for the DPW budget do I are we going to have an opportunity to discuss it if you propose the card I'll entertain it okay so I'm going to vote no point apart confused so you you're not proposing the card we're moving on with the question all those in fav please say I any n any NOS she was confused I explain it and then we are actually calling the question again yes we are any nice any NOS Mr presid we calling the question this is the second time I explain it so any nice any nose Roo Council Levy yes Council plant yes councelor lzone no councelor Del Rosario is noted as recus using himself councel Santiago Council Mamu voting right now for the DPW budget DPW okay it's finished withle councilor Rees yes councelor vice president F fonte what is it hit my God because there's some confusion I'm going to obstain okay council president Rodriguez what's the C four you through you Mr President you vote vot vot yes and uh now motion fail uh at that point councelors we can Pro we can uh for the purpose of the budget we can propose a new budget with a reduction of an specific amount that could be that would be an order uh it could be a dollar amount a different amount of the DPW uh the DPW budget 111 i' like to make a motion i' like to make a motion that we have an additional $1 cut to the DPW budget okay the motion is in order the council Council Council Council of District F have propose the budget of the DPW with an a specific cut from the mayor it includes a specific everything's identical to the previous motion just DPW no other the department minus one more dollar one1 more dollar that that motion is in order um and it's been properly second discussion second that the councel Rees thank you so the total amount of cut will be for the total amount of $251,000 $250,000 one and I take that out of the um I take that out of the DPW sanitation s the snow nice snow ni yeah let's make it easy thank you yes us council president uh now we have another Motion in the floor and if it is any potential cut that councilors want to propose we can do that if it is any potential uh and and and we can either approve deny or cut the budget those are the three options we have motion without specific C have been proposed Council vice president in funding I will thank you you just summarized I I wanted to make sure that my colleagues understood what what is happening right now what we're about to vote on or make cut suggestions or it's specifically just for DPW I just want to make sure that everyone's on the same page yeah so the reason why we doing this this way is because there is a potential conflict of interest from counil Rosario which he's he left the room because of that that was the reason why we split the budget into two uh counselors at this point I going to entertain any motion as uh on top of the underline motion or part of the underline motion councelor Santiago you ask for the floor before c you ask for the floor before so when when I ask the floor it's about because I was lost in the the boat before yeah so now if we vote it uh the difference will be that we actually proposing a cut of 250,000 $1 out of the snan uh account any other proposed all right council president Council I propose to cut one of the can I refer to the position I need to refer to the amount $95,000 out of 113 out of that uh phone 01 Department 040 division 068 out of the personal services salary and wages per uh salaries and wages of the DPW you are proposing a u make cat of how much $95,000 there is a proposed card of $95,000 uh on that specific account uh Fone 01 0040 Division 068 and that uh and the on the personal services um permanent salaries any questions in regard to these councelors uh okay I I mean there was somebody second it there is no second on the motion second oh councelor councelor Santiago just second on the motion any discussions on this councelor if there is any clarification from the administration we chain IT director hm do you have any explanation and regards to sorry my apologies what's the question yeah he he was following it who he will get it celor DPW director Comm Street you have any specific question if you have anything to say on that position I know that you've been advocating for it um and uh it just to be fair to the process yeah the positions are really needed we you know did all the process coming in front of you you approve the positions you approve the salaries and uh we we went to the proper Channel I think you know leaving me with my deputies is going to delay in service that's what I think because I cannot do everything by myself it's a huge department and because political reasons I think we canot no no no coun I mean yeah just just stick to that the need of the department around the position please yeah as I explain it this I I really need the the positions all right um any other comments concern or questions around this specific cut it is important to recognize that the cut is not for a specific person it is for the for the Department that specific cut doesn't reflect necessarily an a specific position that a specific cut will reflect into the personal Services as explained previously by the City attorney and the CFO that a specific cut will be for as the desire of of that up of that up of the DPW and the mayor the DPW director and the mayor eventually just to be clear any other questions and concern or clarifications on that at this point I will call the question all those in favor about the cut of $95,000 out of the account for 0 1 Department C 40 division C 68 out of the portional services all please say I I any NOS Roo please coun Le no council plant no council Lan yes Council Del Rosario is noted as recusing himself Council Santiago yes Council Mamu no council Reyes no council vice president inant no council president Rodriguez vot present all right any other proposed C counselors on this department any other propos cut on this department at this time I call the questions all Us in favor for the proposed budget for the DPW except for that cut that the mayor propos of $50,000 $1 please say I I I any n any no Roo please to approve to approve everything yeah is on the DPW side the DPW side only Y and that will conclude the the mayor the the budget discussion councelor Rees yes councelor marmel yes councelor Santiago no council Del Rosario is noted as having recused himself Council Lon no councilor leant yes Council ol Levy yes Council vice president infon yes council president Rodriguez I vote Yes Council this time I entertain any other motion motion to adjourn before we adj join councelors give me one minute before you adjourn you need to take a vote on a total budget yes so we need to give you a new toal exactly that's what I was looking for councelors we need to entertain a motion that I'm looking for a motion to approve the entire budget as presented as voted to approve the entire budget as presented and as voted with the different cuts discussion uh discussion Cel plan I mean there was a second C yes uh I don't think it's really needed but I mean there have been times in the past where we actually had a number and they had to Crunch it before we voted on on it and I think that's what they're doing now yeah how on can we get a number Ramona can we get it right away or we need we need a few minutes all right motion to resarch councel motion to recess for 5 minutes or if additional minut there is a motion to recess councelors can you hear a second second proper really I'm morning can we e e e e e e e e e e e e e calls you no must think councilors can I get a motion to get our resist motion to to resume from Recess there's a motion on the table properly second all in fav please say I I have it councelors we need four motions uh one that is for the new general fund the total amount and the other one that is for the Enterprise accounts the April the cemetery and the parkings the water and sewer the A and the the parking all right but the first one we're going to take is that uh the total new general fund uh for the fiscal buet 2025 proposed by the mayor Brian ña for the total amount of three uh three 390 million 9139 9 90 309 so let me repeat the that amount again is 390 million 19 309 that's for the general funds councelors can I get a motion can get a motion to uh to approve this um this fiscal year 2025 with this amount there is a motion on the table properly second any discussion no discussion at this time I call the questions all fa please say I I the rooll call please councelor Levy yes Council llant yes Council Lan no council Del Rosario it's noted as absent Council to come he recused he's going to vote on that the general gotcha Council of Santiago no no because that's including the DPW you Council M yes councilor Reyes yes Council vice president Infante yes council president Rodriguez I vote Yes uh now councilors we need uh three more votes for the Enterprise funds the first one that are going to entertain councelors is the parking garage and lot Enterprise account uh that is for the total amount of 800 $ 67,68 councilors can I get a motion to approve motion to approve there is a motion on the table properly second discussion all those in favor please say not please say I I any nice any knows the I have it councellors now we need another another vote for the Enterprise uh Enterprise fund related to the April in uh April uh of the city of lence for the total amount of 72,1 190 can I get a motion for that motion to approve second there is a motion to approve properly second on discussion councelors any any any any questions I hear none so all those in favor please say I I any ni guys have it so now we need a motion for the Enterprise fund related to the water andore Enterprise that is for the total amount of 2,755 1899 motion to approve there is a motion to approve the the Enterprise the Enterprise funds for the water and SW Department properly second discussion I hear none at this point I call the questions all those in favor please say I I any Nam there I have it councelor with that said we finish the discussion and approval of the fiscal vo 2025 I would like to say thank you to everybody that was involved in the process all the counselors that took the time to uh evaluate to analyze and uh and to vote on this Mr kafo thank you so much for every work that you have put into uh this fisal year 2025 budget the administration thank you for listening to the counselors when it comes to the the proposed increased taxes and to all the counselors and all the administration that have something to do with the budget but more importantly everybody that work in the city of lawen and on this uh City Hall thank you so much for everything you have done for the city so at this point I entertain a motion to motion toj there is a motion to adj Second pleas say thank you so much e e for