that's what he told me you're Goode [Music] you can have this hey how are [Music] youl whenever the person here speaks Spanish I'm going to stand here [Music] [Music] Rel [Music] [Music] my pi I want I want are you going to play [Music] TR spe spe [Music] coun not here counselor you know I'm just going to sign some names to it be here okay oh yes the public participation list is right here what is your name last first name so if it is for the resol if it is for the resolution which solution the chair we're going to have an item on that can you just you want to write it down for yes are you here with are you here with Tom are you here to speak okay yeah he wanted me to tell you though my name independently on beh of Northern you want me to write it down I I do actually can you just print it neatly and I need your address [Music] also no don't worry I my family's from Costa Rica and my parents are I was born I was born in LA I know because it's a secure country dud you know what I mean my brother's wife is from yeah so can I do Northern tic address well there's a campus on Franklin is it 16 17 Franklin okay if you ever want to go there let me know cuz it's safe but you know you want to be smart when and then CL climate change is also tricky and I want people to understand that even when I went to Cuba and we have 15 20 here yeah so there 11 people I made oh it's a beautiful thanks oh thank you um this is the woman Magie we we only have 30 minutes so we're going to have to extend it Stephanie at some point Okay no [Music] Okay not suppos I got scared like yeah they each have I have one too yeah oh and then I what is the we're going to we have it on the agenda first hello well I need to start 1 two 3 four five okay good evening and welcome to the Len city council meeting today's Tuesday April 2nd 2024 pursuant to chapter of pursuant to chapter 20 of the act of 2022 this meeting will be hybrid allowing participation both in person and in the city council chambers and remotly The Zo link was provided to anybody that was uh requested through the city clerk office we also going to be transmitting this this meeting through the laen city council Facebook page and as well as the uh laen city council YouTube page roll call please councelor Levy councelor llant present Council Luzon noted present Council um Council Del Rosario is noted as absent councilor Santiago present Council marmel present Council Rees is noted as absent Council vice president in fonte presid council president Rodriguez presentent please join me for a moment of silence following for the pledge of allegion allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all you have a minute to be approved okay so now we have public participation the list we have everybody's going to have two and a half minutes to speak at the TW minute mark You're going to hear a belt that means that you have you still have 30 seconds please refer to the council as a whole not as any individual counselors the first person that we have on the list is H Mali name an address for the record 53 Chester Street good evening honorable members we the citizen respectfully request from this honorable Council please approve the contract for Lawrence Police Superior officers Lawrence Police one of the best police department in the nation doing excellent job to protect our citizen we welcome leadership of honorable Chief Bonia we support Lawrence police officers Union Superior officers Union Lawrence Police this Union of Pride and honor deserve the best contract and compensation Lawrence is a beautiful city because of our hardworking DPW workers leadership we support DPW Union we demand the best contract and compensation for our great DPW employees Lawrence Inspection Department thank you for excellent job we support our Inspection Department employees and their Union we must hire more inspectors Lawrence teachers you are number one you're the most important reason for success of Lawrence Public School we support Lawrence teachers union please help our homeless bring food and donation every Wednesday night to Bley garage Lawrence always a strong Lawrence always unite we demand the best contract for our brave firefighters Union victory person colar raay and Hazard pay we pray for the safety and protection of all police officers endangering their life for our safety and protection we the citizen rise up in unity demand the best contract for our Superior officers Union the best example of the protect and serve Lawrence Police thank you thank you for making Lawrence a safe city thank you for excellent job the next person we have is the person representing Timeless and juice smoothie uh please name an address for the record hello honorable Cil my name is Evelyn Lambert I represent Timeless juice and smoothies I'm business owner for this uh Enterprise and uh I Shar this with my brother stepen Lambert and his um counterpart Jennifer pus Timeless and smoothies has just opened we're about to reach our one-year Mark as a recent business owner in Lawrence I have found it very difficult to grow and expand my business in a you know um in a steadfast Manner and for this for this reason we would like to ask for this funding to come in as a grant and not as a loan um because it'll allow us to be able to do bigger and better things for the community so what we do is offer natural juices we offer seos we offer asai bows we're trying to make the community more educated in Healthy Living style and healthy eating options um and this would enabled us to hire more staff but also to move forward and you know go about the community in a food truck in a completely different concept um for healthy options for all of our communities here in Lawrence and that is what I have to say today thank you thank you the next person is uh little Grant Little Giant Little Giant name for the record please I I put I put my name hi my name is sua Gil hello everyone it's a pleasure being here um I have been running my business Little Giants Early Education and Care in the City of Lawrence for three years now um we serve Quality Care by helping children achieve their Milestone by um implementing a a curriculum that Services their needs this money will greatly um benefit our Center by helping us market and um helping us renovate the outside of our building we are on Broadway Street and we Face many challenges with that area um but if we're able to renovate the outside premises it's a we're able to represent more of what's going on inside um as well as we would like to add transportation services to those families who are not able to transport their children to and from child care so I we would greatly benefit if this money is distributed as a grant because it will um it will lift off of the burden of having to pay this money back and alleviate the pressure we can focus by alleviating the pressure we can focus on hiring staff with um qualifications and making educated decisions that will um benefit our business in in the community in a successful way thank you thank you NE next person we have is uh Maggie super charge good evening counselors Maggie super Church 90 Nesmith Street in Lawrence uh I'm here to speak about a matter that uh as I understand it does not have a public hearing scheduled so I'm speaking in public participation we'll try to keep my comments brief I understand there is a proposal for a transfer of a number of city-owned parcels from the city to the Lawrence Redevelopment Authority uh within the bounds of the urban renewal plan that was approved by this Council in 2017 um I'd like to State for the record that there are very clear uh processes and procedures for the transfer of land within the context of an urban renewal plan those are itemized in significant deta in the plan itself and are consistent with state law it appears from what I understand about what is proposed that those rules and regulations are not being followed I'd like the council to consider what can be done to ensure that the city is moving forward consistent with state law and consistent with the approved Urban rural plan that this Council reviewed in 2017 in the context of that broader set of challenges around uh how this process is unfolding I want to highlight a particular issue of concern which is that it appears that the proposal includes a parcel of land uh that is adjacent to pton park and for all intents and purposes part of the park that is tagged for residential development the plan is very clear that that Park uh that the desire of the public and the community has expressed in the plan is for concert venue and expanded public park not for residential development on that site so in addition to the procedural issues that this raises there I think very serious concerns about a major priority a centerpiece of the city that is proposed for use that was not considered and not recommended in the plan I have plenty of detail and citations if you're interested in trying to figure out where in the plan all of this sits happy to share that um and thank you for your consideration thank you the next person we have on the list is uh yes Ander name add for the record please so much easier good evening councilors Jess Andor three Jackson terce and Lawrence um I'm here to speak on the same issue I think um a few months ago uh several of us came before you to express our concerns about this property transfer and I think one of the major concerns about it is that it seems to be happening outside of the approved public process for dealing with such things and um what's being contemplated is you know a major transfer of most most of the developable property that the that the city owns um without any clear public process or plan around that and in contradiction of the um rules and regulations that govern this um and so I I do uh just want to point out that what is being proposed um I understand I think there's an executive order um happening around this would constitute a major plan change um which by the laws governing urban renewal um would require a public hearing it would require that um the plan that the change is like certified to be in Conformity with the intent of the original plan and existing Plans by the planning board and it would require approval by the city council and I just want to say that you know you guys on city council you are our elected representatives you are the voice of the people and I don't think that you should give up your right and and responsibility to oversee and review this process and and this transfer this is a this is a big deal for the city and I think it's something that needs to be undertaken with a lot of public input and planning and the proper process around it and so I would just urge you to consider that um as as you're figuring out this issue thank you he good afternoon H consum my name is Christian Martinez and I'm the CEO sen sentinent technology we have uh two years in business and uh what we do is cyber security right so essentially one of the few companies here in in the in the in the City of Lawrence that is doing this type of of work what uh one of the thing is that um few questions and more than questions is uh essentially if there is any requirements for uh for the uh for the businesses that receive the funding um such as uh providing any updates of how the funding is going to be used and also what is the application timeline and what documentation is going to to be required to apply for the funds that's that's uh that's the second one and um just a a request about the funds to be granted as a grant instead of of a of a loan because essentially most of this uh most of the work that uh sentinent technology is also doing it's pretty much like giving back to the community like uh with the youngsters uh um you know kids essentially after uh 14 15 kids in in in high school teaching them in uh about cyber security because this is really really really needed uh not only here in the state of massachusett not only here in in the City of Lawrence but globally I mean as a as a as a as a industry there is a big shortage of uh jobs for cyber security there's a lot of uh lack of uh expertise that we have in the field and we need more people in this in this field that's pretty much that's it thank you good evening councilors excuse me I am Richard Russell 34 cross street a bunch of questions for you people to ponder tonight number one exactly how much money are we presently paying both of our provisional police Chiefs and salary right now number two who is the 501c3 nonprofit that is broadcasting the council meetings on various local cable channels number three when will the parking meter vultures I use that for lack of a better phrase be fully compliant with the contract that they have with the city that states that their vehicles must be fitted with proper warning lights four-way flashes in my humble opinion are not contract compliant off of that matter safety compliant number four who in the city government City hierarchy is controlling the release of the non-release of public record requests I'm still waiting for answers as to who authorized the investigation and Lawrence Police Chief Roy vas and how was ajdan investigations chosen to do the investigation these questions were asked by me in public record request back in last December and number five why does it appear that most unqualified individuals are hired at exorbitant salaries with no council approval and why do some of these jobs appear to be newly created without Council approval as always I thank you for the time thank you uh former I Council Rosell the next uh person is uh sea Nunes Chris Bey um salom name and address for the record please hi um so my name is I am at 343 Prospect Street yeah Pro Prospect Street Lawrence Lawrence [Music] okay so the reason why I'm here is because um I have a small business um and I am the owner of Chris Chris beauty salon Chris beauty salon and I'm an entrepreneur [Music] yes so the reason why I'm here is because as a small business owner I would like to take or or I would like to receive the help the um with the funds that the City of Lawrence is providing for small [Music] [Music] businesses so um one of the reasons why we want to do this is because we have employees employees that we want to train and right now we have not been able to keep on with the training because we don't have the resources to do so so as a Lin that Lain person that came to the United States I greatly appreciative of all the help that we that I have had and I just think that when if I get this help it will help the people that are coming behind me to keep on um with the um entrepreneur spirit and keep on working towards better life thank you for the opportunity and I hope that I could get this uh the next person we have is Juanito good evening uh conso um my point is this spring and summer comment Laurence family need uh stay together go to the park have a good time unfortunately we have all the parking meter around the parking all the weekends all family when they go to the par they need to run away to get money back in the parking miror it's something like uh as a family we need be quiet be uh in peace when you enjoy with the family I propose Friday to Sunday um the uh consider consideration to put the weekends as uh uh people don't have to pay for the parkimeter around the park so that people can go there and um have a good time with the family also people um I have to mention I am the C CEO of carefully transportation and we talk about funds that we we needed to share or you guys have to share um the transpar transparency we need is very important because in this time uh politic comments and we need the most the most transparency in and the fund if you guys decide to share with the community but more importantly the parkimeter for our kids our family and Lawrence thank you gra uh the next person on the list is Sara Perez hi my name is s 17 M I thought I was tall I'm sorry my name is sah b 17 M Avenue Lawrence and I'm here representing feder I know it's an organization that's been around for a few years and we do want to help business owners we want to bring this money to them not as a loan for two reasons we don't have the capacity to do that and the people need this money now and they don't have to pay it back that would be a huge burden to them I hope you guys um I'm sorry to all you guys I good I hope you guys again um change this to not not for the Federation but for these people that here to time time of the time to come in and help with this huge organization it's an it's a high of all of us uh we we service the barber shops the beauty salons the people that you see here regular people and they deserve this change from the Federation and the $500,000 that the business um development from the city got it would be a huge help and it can get to the people that need it thank you very much and people waiting in the zoom the zoom meeting got it are people waiting yep we we got it uh the next person we have on the list is uh Kelly seski good evening councilors Kelly sanusi 47 Hammet Street uh I was just talking about a couple of agenda items 11724 the new Street layout for Marry ma Broadway concerns me a little bit because the intersection that they redid at Mount Vernon and South Broadway actually made a bigger mess more traffic and I do feel like a lot of cars are cutting through neighborhoods which do have smaller side streets um I'm also um talking about the 440 23 where it's a right turn only for vehicles exiting businesses between derso AV and chering I do feel like the same thing is going to happen in that aspect it is going to go through um chering road so so main traffic's going to divert off of um 114 and go through cherin because they only can take a right-hand turn so that's my concern with those two um I feel like there was a mass Exodus with uh items being withdrawn it wasn't on video or anything I did miss that meeting but there is affect those ordinances um 40119 Frost Drive uh that's being withdrawn no parking on both sides um during school session I believe office Carno did recommend that the school uh that street is extremely narrow um buses are trying to get through cars are trying to get up and then 25322 is also being withdrawn and that was the traffic study on Hamlet Street now offic of Carno did recommend that as well I thought last time I spoke we were headed in the right direction my signs matched but then I come to find out that Lawrence has a bid request in to redo the frost school now my street has been repaved three times or will be repaved three times in 13 years they should be doing every time they repave a complete Street process um it's not just for new construction it is for existing as well um the scope of this project does nothing to drop off and pick up um public streets are basically an easement it's an easement for us to get to our house both lanes are blocked and nothing is being done to fix this bids were due on the 4th the contract said it was going to be awarded on the 26th I hope somebody speaks up I didn't know about this but we need to address everything all at once and stop wasting taxpayers money three times is too much hello to everyone uh my name is Tom Meyers and I reside at 550 havil Street uh here in the city and I'm here tonight on the uh cherish Act which I'm asking you to uh vote on a non-binding resolution in favor of the cherish act which is a piece of legislation before the Massachusetts legislature uh concerning higher education community colleges colleges and universities which are public and what the cherish act will do is to allow students who are in community college for this coming year the 2024 year to have debt-free Community College and it would be a scholarship involved that would provide so that no student ends up being in debt and the following year for to to be expanded into the state colleges and I know many of you here have attended state colleges and you know how difficult it is to work and to go to College the average person coming from a Gateway City Works over 30 hours a week in addition to trying to do full-time college and that's really hard and it's a disadvantage for students from our City versus a fluent communities I taught in and I know the difference between what goes on in Andor High where I taught for 38 years and what goes on here for students who are struggling now this did not come out with a favorable vote from the ordinance committee and that's really unfortunate cuz it's it's really screwing over children students in our city and I'm hoping that this can be amended and in fact the vote out of the ordinance committee was two in favor one abstention and one against and so I'm asking you tonight to stand tall and to support this because this is going to make a tremendous difference for every person who wishes to go on to college uh from our city to be able to make it affordable thank you all and I think I know you'll do the right thing good evening councilors Wendy L 11 11 Aldi Street Lawrence wow I'm here on behalf of fed commerci as a president I'm here to support my committee members and the all the members and all members of the Federation of commerci and I would like to ask the council to approve this uh money as a gr not a salon uh they all need this money now we are facing hard times and all these people are essential uh to the economy of the city thank you thank you council president there's a rule council president rule seven does not allow placards to be raised during the City Council [Music] meetings correction president did you meanly said Spinosa yes I did sorry um good afternoon good evening when to start this um consult people and politicos I'll see if I can try to do this in bilingual style we see how it goes we have a translation so you I don't want that I may not so I'm a professor of uh literature espanol and uh engl at Norther committee College over 15 years of experience I help students with freshman writing that means I get early college students I get your high school students in there early I get them when they're ready to attend Community College after they graduate um I would like to speak of from the perspective of an educator who has served diverse communities diverse communities means everybody community means everybody most of us are working class we may not have started there we may not end there but the community does represent all Representatives all Creeds all uh ethnicities all generations of Americans local and also International and Veterans a story massetts cherish Act so um because I have a perspective that is very thorough here I'm looking for leaders leaders that are brave to live in the present and ensure a secure path including those who attend public higher ed next person is council president Infante good evening counselor Stephanie fante vice president of the city council name and address for the record uh 226 m Street Lawrence um council president it had it came to my attention um earlier today and also yesterday that we were going to have um some of some of our community members and business owners here tonight and I wanted to take this opportunity to explain to the coun to the full Council and also to our members of our business community that the item that they came to express their concern about tonight um as the chair of the budget and finance committee we tabled this item due to um information that we were missing the representative from the mayor's office that presented the documents and the item to the budget and finance uh committee did have a situation with a conflict of interest um the committee voted to obtain more information on that so we tabled the item until we received additional information from our city clerk uh I wanted to make it clear that this does not mean that the committee uh voted against it or anything we are just waiting for more information for the next meeting in order to bring it up to to the full Council for the final approval or however um the city council as a whole wishes to to vote on on this item but I do wanted to make it clear that it's not because we do not want to approve it just click the Boton there I'm sorry the green button click yes leave it like that I thank you we have one person that he would like to speak and is a a school Committee Member Jonathan Gusman he's on the zoom meeting and he would like to participate on public participation Jonathan Gman can you hear us I can can you hear me just give us a few second so they can allow Che John yeah let me know when you're ready yeah you you say go ahead okay hey everybody uh Jonathan Gman by share the lawen SCH committee 39 ly Street um I I firmly oppose any major changes that are happening to the 2016 urban renewal plan without adhering to the proper governmental procedures we cannot afford to cut a corner or bypass essential practices several Parcels requested fall outside of the boundary initial propos and the uh initial urban renewal plan it is crucial that we do not proceed with projects on land that have not been appraised or were project cost remains uncertain I implore my decision makers not to push the City of Lawrence into another Financial receivership I'm also here in support of item 132-2 to ensure that our students can continue the educational Journey it is crucial that our faculty members in higher ad receive the necessary resources to thrive and succeed I urge that item 204-211 is not withdrawn from the ordinance committee suggestion instead let us table this matter at the full Council level and enable members of the school committee to actively engage with this body I'm here in support of the allocation of the $500,000 that uh thousands that are for small businesses that they need and support but they also need transparent Community Driven process that gives them the chance to apply I firmly oppose item 148 d24 under new business unfortunately the chair of the Lawrence committee has yet again excluded elected members from the scal pro proposal their actions have raised concerns they have engaged with a legislative delegation to use this process to remove the elected School committee based on political ideology and do a majority appointed school committee the only the one that wrote This Home R petition has taken an extreme step to allowing the mayor to retain the shair position on a board that he himself appoints this move will place Lawrence back under the eye of the justice department just representation and a propose of a diverse Community let us advocate for a transparent fairness and the best interest for our students and Community thank you anybody on the zoom meeting that would like to speak we still have uh two more spaces all right with that said oh we have one more all right we have one more person that would like to add to the list name and address for the record please just click the click the button the green click to speak yep my name is Lawrence tester I live in 171 abber Street Lawrence Mass and I'm here mainly jumping out a little bit but I think I can get in public participation because I think it's very important of our values and Norms in the City of Lawrence meaning if you live in a residential neighborhood I didn't move there to be in a business district on a major thare otherwise as a city I see so many things and bringing it to this body because this is the legislative body that makes laws and regulations to be enforced so that we have an environment of our people in our community that make some sort of sense okay and my biggest thing is that I see businesses beauty salons that require licenses being run in the City of Lawrence in the basement it's not right but yet I see people come out do gestures to me because I take a picture because I want to have Primal faal evidence to show these things and I get bad gestures I'll leave it at that I won't use the explicit words but that being said we need to uh get some rules and regulations my street and everybody knows about the parking we're over parking my street is like when we had a St Patrick's Day parade for blocks on both Sid thank goodness it's wide enough that we can move from each side for the snow plows I got 14 units coming down the street I'm going to wait and see what happens with that close to South Union Street what I say to you when you bring up the residence I mean the sticker parking program for 17 for Abbott Street that you enforce that and that you approve that regulations because it means so much for a taxpayer that pays $4,000 to can't park in front of his house or other people that are on the street that are landlocked okay or the person that can't that was here last time one of my neighbors that came I'm going to make R he's got to walk around the car around the street to get his kids to school I suggest that you put that ordinance vote it favorable to do it 24 hours from Phillips to Osgood Street if you want to give some more parking from South Union to Phillips Street allow them from the 7:00 hours okay that'll take care of some of the traffic from the meters on on South un Street till I'm back but not in the residential neighbors and you got to have it on sats cuz that's when they run these on S thank you thank you so much that uh what anybody uh public participation with that said oh we have one more person one yes um address for the record please Street in lawence so good evening um and I have my offices at 60 Island Street in Lawrence LC massetts and my company is my LLC registered in the state of Massachusetts and right and right now I'm here as part of the communication community in Lawrence and I am here because I am concerned with some um some some things that major Brian depa said on Power 800 on the 25th of March and I am asking the counil to do manifest against what he said because um he his declarations were that you have an agenda to work against him and if we here as residents and also as business owners see that it's because we count for your with your vote for things to go better on this City and we're advocating for a democratic community and like he said that he was going to um govern and make decisions through decrees and I would like you to please make your observations and take the the necessary um things thank you good uh with that said we are closing public participation for today's meeting we have time for one more in Zoom um councelors can I get a motion to extend public participation um to allow this to happen it's already over the 30 minutes there is a motion uh on the table uh by councelor vice president Infante properly second by councelor Infante all pleas say I oh counes coun Rees yes all those in fav please say I hi the eyes have it so yes we have more time for one more person and on the zoom thank you very much my name is 183 Abbot Street um thank you for extending the time I do want to add to my neighbors's concern Lawrence Hester that um uh we we have an issue with parking in here and the approving the residential parking area is going to make it better however all the adjacent streets they're going to have the same issue because we still have people from other streets that Park in our street and vice versa sometimes we have to park in their street is a first come first serve situation and it gets crazy and you have business underground business that you have like five cars from customers parked at the same time so you can't even find parking apart from that you got people smoking weed in their cars multiple people smoking weed taking our Park as well that don't even live in our streets that are just using our streets to smoke weed instead of their cars and you got people that you might have to even create an ordinance for people that have driveways to use their driveways because even people that have driveways are parking the street knowing that there is not a lot of space so part of it is we're close to Union Street where there's businesses part of it is underground business part of it is people not using their driveways when they have a driveway and part of it you know it's just human consideration for others so it's not just our street I'm telling you this is happening in probably our whole block other people suffer to the same thing so apart from approv in our street uh ordinance you guys should really look into this for other places because if you approv parking in our street it's another street is just going to have a worst problem and then that it's just going to have a dummy night fight so please take it to this into consideration when approving new housing and all these things because things get out of control you might have a three-bedroom apartment but we already know there's 10 people in there and I don't have anything against that it's just we have to be realistic with the situation that we are creating thank you thank you so much sir uh all all this name has been U um have been submitted for the record and now we would like to continue with the agenda today we have a a full agenda and uh we would like everybody you to collaborate for this meeting to go a little quicker so with that said councilors I'm looking for motion to take item 47723 which is the recognition of the Lawrence High School theater program uh it's out of it's out of the table matters and out of order so there is a motion on the table properly second uh allv please say I I the eyes have it with that said I'll pass the gabo to the senior counselor because councelor vice president that my would like to go to the front good evening counselors uh uh today we're here because we are recognizing an important group of students of the Len High School is the theater program they are amazing kids amazing amazing students of the L high and today we are taking this opportunity to actually recognize their effort all the hard work that they have put uh to actually get this program uh to the level to the National level and the way they have put it and uh we're very excited before you read that can I just add add to sure councelors before council president Rodriguez continues with the first resolution I actually um I wish council president and myself and counselor Del Rosario who's not here tonight I wish the three of us can take credit for this recognition but we we cannot um we happen to be in the city council office one day the three of us in our confidential secretary Teresa Vega was the one who told us about the Magnificent accomplishments of this theater program so I invite Miss Vega to stand here with us as we present these Awards to the Lawrence Theater [Applause] [Music] students Thea thank you for all the hard work that you do for the city council uh you means allot to us with that said counselors member of the public students uh the staff from the school and everybody that is present I would like to uh read the resolution as follow whereas the Lawrence High School theater program provides a venue which allows students to develop this and display their uh thetical Talent while also celebrating the talent of their peers and whereas the Lawrence High School theater program has completely regionally been recognized at the massachusett education theater guilt Market award in Boston in Boston for the performance of aita back in 2019 winning the best outstanding musical best lead actress best dance um best dance assembl best special assembl best hair and makeup uh for the rent in 2023 best support actress and world best male and best female performant in the musical of a Theo solo competition back in 2023 whereas the lawence high school theater program also recognized has been recognized nationally at the national performing uh art of Festival in Orlando Florida receiving the superior the superior rating for their performance ments of Jesus Christ Superstar back in 2020 uh winning the best leading male actor best leading female actor best female solo performance and their performance with the wi in 2023 receiving the judge Award of assembling of excellence in Artistry as well as the best female solist and the three and the three best performance medal therefore today the second day of April of the Year 2024 the city council of the city of laen and by through the city council headed by recognize and congratulate the Lawrence High School theater program to extend its member and every good wish and comment comment then and the numerous uh accomplishment respectfully this resolution has been signed by all nine counselor and with that we would like to open this mic to one of the teachers that is here with us it is my honor to have you here thank you very much thank you Council um the kids are really honored to be here today um but I would like them to speak for themselves so Alex and we also miss Vegas son that she's so PR she's so proud [Music] of uh good evening counselors um we would like to thank this body for everything that you do for our community we really appreciate the council for recognizing our theater program and enjoying all of the Productions that you previously mentioned we have complimentary tickets for our next production um we are performing the musical Tarzan the last weekend of April and the first weekend of May thank you so much and have a great night thank [Music] you so counselors councelors we're going to proceed by reading the names of each of the student that are here that have been recognized by the city council the first one that we would like to call is Wen [Applause] aosta thank you uh Brandon Alon Carla Almon Jimmy [Applause] Alvarez David Castillo [Applause] paroi Antonella Cruz I see you savet DEA [Applause] Cruz Kiara [Applause] Felix now Teresa Teresa will continue jayen [Applause] P kolina [Applause] Sanchez Maya Salasar janisa Rosario dein [Applause] pinong Kevin [Applause] Reyes NE Maya Vasquez Amos [Applause] vasher Henry [Applause] met I want to say your shirts are really cool you're welcome jasine [Applause] Fernandez ared [Applause] fras chassid [Applause] fora Brandon Hernandez [Applause] you're welcome n nelia Garcia I think I'm mispronouncing your first name it's n Nala Nala Garcia you're welcome Leslie Hernandez congratul Christopher [Applause] Hera BR Brenda [Applause] Javier Devin Johnson and J Jalisa [Applause] Lara you're welcome Jaya [Applause] Maria m IA [Applause] moru Malia and U we I think we're missing one righta could you please my son Alexander narino [Music] so um with that said we have the U the the main recognition of the U the main resolution of for the program here that we're going to uh give it to the teachers and I believe that the student will have something for all the counselors and the people that are here present right so oh singing to this mic is get on your [Music] feet get up and make it h get on your feet stand up and Tak some action you'll say I know it's the waste of time there's no use trying no trying so scared that life's going to pass you by your spirits dying you got to keep looking on to Tomorrow there's so much in life that's meant for you get on your feet get up and make it happen get on your feet stand up and take some action come on shake baby that you any long feel the rythm all the means getting stronger don't you it till you try to do that shake body shake your body shake your body come on shake your body baby do [Applause] [Music] that councelors can I get a motion to recess for five minutes is there a motion to recess yes yeah motion made by counselor all in favor say I pose no the eyes Haven it in recess no no no come over there [Music] so [Music] get think [Music] foree [Music] for [Music] spe [Music] [Music] fore foree funny cuz she said Jennifer and I'm like why are you cing my oh I was like did you give her one know oh no actually he had he had a death in the family he did send table till April he was not going to be at the March meeting was [Music] [Music] foree but food was out and I was like I always think I'm going to bring in a bag of like put it in the then I just feel like sitting out [Music] for [Music] hey [Music] and I'm just going to SK over but that one was remember hey Wendy [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] are [Applause] [Music] spe [Applause] [Music] are you [Music] [Music] went I'm not surpris right let's see what he says spe councelor can I can I get a motion to um be out of rist moved second there is a motion to uh there is a motion on the table properly second all those in favor please say I I there I have it councilors I'm looking to request a motion to take a document uh 38223 of the table matters to discussion in conjunction with document uh 3916 uh which is the uh on the agenda as an old business those are the to lerate items so moved there is a motion there's a motion on the table uh properly second by councelor reges uh all those in favor please say I I the eyes have it councelors those two items are one of one of them is the disposition of of the properties the item uh two uh 38223 which is the disposition of the properties towards the array and uh 3916 which is the uh which is that that was the item 3916 which is the uh the acceptance of the uh of the renewal the the renewal plan business all business and table matters so counselors there is two items in front of us related to the lray both of them are combined uh at this point I believe that there is a underline motion on one of them if it's not we can open it up with a motion for discussion purposes so Madame CLA there is any motion on the line motions on one of them um on 38223 there was a motion to approve and then there was tabled there was no real discussion and then all right there is a motion underline motion to approve uh this is for the purpose of discussion uh to provide us with an update as what what is happening with this item and um and and other matters for the records uh at at this point counselors uh I'll entertain a discussion when it comes to this item we have here the City attorney uh that uh are going to give us an update as well of as well as residents of the city that provide an important information when it comes to the late uh Urban re renewal plan council president just so there's some confusion which item are we discussing right now item 38233 which is the transfer of real estate property for the city of laen the and itan from the from the table matters and item 3916 from the old business the acceptance of the AL renewal plan I'm I'm confused council president we I we took both of them as a as a block as a block yes we take both of them as a block one of them are going to one is one is the disposition and the other one the old business is the old renewal plan sure counc Levy and we are just uh we put we have an underline motion for discussion purposes cons we have the City attorney that is going to provide us with um some important informations U about these items good evening counselors uh basically what what you're asking is where where are we in the process and the process um if you look at your your agenda in 2016 the city adopted a urban renewal Pro program um a result of that there was a map which encompassed many properties uh within the City of Lawrence uh certain of those prop properties were designated as commercial for redevelopment for residential for redevelopment um and they're colorcoded based on that uh recently what's happened is that the um the mayor has decided to take some underperforming properties and transfer them to the L um and he signed an agreement I believe with the L the L signed it to transfer these properties properties include parking lots they also include uh what they don't include it's an A and A B part so when you just not to get confused the a just designates that these particular Parcels are covered by the urban renewal um scheme of 2016 the B are Parcels that are not originally contained uh the L is currently uh looking to uh add those Parcels into the um the renewal process and is going about that process so the only thing we are dealing with is the currently is the a uh transfers and the a transfers at this point the mayor has signed an agreement um currently titles are being done on that on these properties and the properties are are to be transferred um I want to be very clear on this following Point um as a lawyer a lot of people use legal terms incorrectly they have very specific meaning okay nothing that's done tonight nothing that's going to be done tonight is illegal that is a wrong term we may not agree on the form but nothing is illegal so when people say oh you're doing this illegally somebody's doing that illegally there's no breaking of a law no matter what we do these are procedures for transfer of property uh illegal would be if I stole the property uh but having an ownership and transferring it and maybe incorrectly transferring it there's nothing illegal so I just want to get that because people Bandy those terms about and they have a specific meeting and they do not apply here so where we stand right now is that none of the um designated properties have been transferred uh the titles are being done and there is a difference of opinion between the City attorney and the L on the proper method of transferring these properties um the L believes that the 2016 uh urban renewal program was an Ascent by the city council to the transfers of these properties um the uh City attorney disagrees with that I don't like talking about myself in a third party it sounds funny but um uh my position is now does that make me right does that make them right um we have a difference of opinion I believe that it is Inc correct but you know we can always be proved wrong it some it at some date might determine either of us but that's the status of it right now no property has been transferred um but there is an agreement to transfer the properties council president council president sure uh before I open I open up the floor to the councilors it is important to recognize the following give me a minute councel the plan please uh it is important to recognize that we invite the L members to be here tonight they took a vote on their meeting to be present I believe that we have uh members of the lr8 on zoom and we also have the U the the attorney representing the LR in the room tonight so and we have a member of the S Perez that is here as well councilors before we open the floor to um for discussion I would like to extend an invitation to the L attorney in case that they want to um uh probably have some U some information that regarding this matter good evening counselors um always a pleasure to be before you um I want to make uh something very clear and I I think that we discussed this at our last meeting uh council president when you were in attendance um there's nothing that we are attempting to do um that is outside of the scope of the approved urban renewal plan and in fact as I explained to you during the last meeting uh what we are seeking um in terms of the properties as mentioned by the City attorney the so-called exhibit a properties which are all underutilized dilapidated surface parking areas throughout the city we are seeking approval of the State uh we I submitted a letter to the executive office of Housing and livable communities which is the office that overseas urban renewal plans I've asked uh that office to uh uh uh provide us with an opinion on whether the transfer of those uh properties uh from the city to the lra would be considered a minor Amendment to the urban renewal plan um if the state agrees then we believe that we can move forward um because that's essentially the process we have an urban renewal plan approved by the state and if the state says that what you're attempting to do here L now in 2024 um is a minor Amendment then we don't need to go back to the process that was followed back in 2015 2016 which involved many public meetings uh planning board approval city council approval and then ultimately State approval so um with that said I want to I want to make sure that everybody knows because I know that this has become a very has become a hot button topic that's being talked about in various uh circles there are a lot of things being said that uh are don't seem to be based on the truth um I want to make sure that you know that uh I am not going to put my name on anything that is inappropriate uh I want to make sure that this is all done by the book If the Commonwealth comes back to us and says L uh we don't think that that's a minor Amendment we think that you're going outside the scope of what was approved then we are going to have to go for a major Amendment which is going to requ require that full process once again that I think council president you note and you Council Council of plant you two were the only uh members uh that participated in that process uh back back then um so um although the mayor has signed an agreement nothing is going to happen until we get that State uh response and um I just want to make that clear secondly um once we do in assuming we do uh take ownership of some of these properties I also want to make it clear that what we intend to do is essentially what any other active Redevelopment Authority in the Commonwealth does and and very much akin to what this body does with um tax lean foreclosure properties that come up for uh dis position and um and sale uh to the public uh we are going to uh publish uh requests for letters of interest uh right off the bat and I'll just read just very briefly an excerpt of of this um this is something that would be uh published um we would be seeking uh uh interest essentially worldwide from anyone interested in coming to Lawrence and and and redeveloping uh blighted property uh the purpose of this request for letter of interest is to identify potential Partners or developers who have a genuine interest in and capability to redevelop the mentioned properties in alignment with our organization's goals and objectives with a reference to the Lawrence uh TBD urban renewal plan to which we have a site um any proposed redevelop V ment of the property must be consistent with that plan what we would be seeking from prospective interested developers uh is the following information organizational information a brief overview of your organization including name history Mission relevant experience and Redevelopment uh identify Key Personnel um identify previous projects that you may have uh uh handled including project description sizes costs and outcomes Etc so we can do our due diligence vision for redevelopment conceptual and schematic designs preliminary and conceptual plans um preliminary business plan including a proor of capital and operating budget indicating sources of revenue required expenditures General time frames for improvement development and our occupancy of the property Financial capacity and timeline and of course references all this would be done in a very open transparent public setting we are proposing as I think we discussed at our last meeting to assemble uh uh public advisory committees 25 person uh public committees each counselor would have uh uh two appointments to that board the mayor would have appointments to that board we would we would seek to have business owners uh representatives of the nonprofit uh Community perhaps the Murray Mac Valley planning uh community and that would be an Advisory Board those would be that'd be an independent board once they are assembled they would act independently they would provide us a feedback on what they think are the best proposals uh coming in for redevelopment of of these blighted uh properties and then of course everyone here would have the ability to participate in that it just wouldn't be through the city council it'd be through the L but what have I what have I described here that is any different than what you would do with with a project like this except that what you guys have here is a massive agenda every two weeks hundreds of items on your agenda and I don't think this is the appropriate Forum or venue for president assessing Redevelopment projects that may just be my opinion okay but Council Council pressing in thank you through you council president I I want to go back to what our City attorney mentioned and also we have documentation from our City attorney stating that although this is exempt from perhaps state level procedures and processes is not exempt to our city laws so what I'm hearing is that the city laws don't don't matter what I'm also hearing is that we have a City attorney that we are paying six figures for to advise I'm sorry s this is all public information when you know when you apply to advise the mayor's office and we so happily have the mayor senior advisor as your secretary who's been knowing for months the concerns of the city council so we have the City attorney to advise properly our mayor's office and clearly he has brought up various concerns one what I just mentioned right now about neglecting city city laws and procedures and and processes another one that down the line there could be issues with Deeds secondly I wish I could attorney Corgan I wish I could believe you about transparency and procedures and processes on the L side and and this is nothing against the members itself this is as a whole but I'm already hearing rumors and this was before this issue even came to the city council cuz one of those properties happens to be in my district that it's already been promised by the depena administration to someone they're not going to tell you that but people in this small City talk and everything comes out in the light eventually so do not shake your head because if this is true everything comes out in the light eventually so my question is why are we paying a City attorney I mean I know why we're paying him cuz he's great but why are we paying a city a city attorney when he is directly advising the city on what they should do so we could not so we do not get into legal issues down the line and I'm over here hearing the complete opposite I also watched your your recent L meeting and I heard your chairman said saying that that was the first time he has heard that counselors or our City attorney have have concerns about this process now another fault on the lra side is that your secretary knowing this and having direct access to our City attorney did not invite our City attorney our representation for the entire city of Lawrence to your meetings to M uh Madame vice president just just since you mentioned that uh the senior advisor it is important to just for the record say that Octavian spanner is the senior ad senior advisor Octavian and also uh the secret Secretary of the L who is also the the secretary of the L so again um I I don't the the fact that our own City attorney that is here not only to protect the city councilors but also to to protect every Department of the city was not brought up by your secretary who is also the senior advisor to the mayor of this amazing City that right there is a red flag if that doesn't tell you something then I then I don't know what to tell you but council president AR rest my case thank you Madame vice president Infante uh the next counselor that is here that would like to speak is councelor llan thank you I the attorney Hoon was actually mentioning his opinion and I didn't fully grasp or understand what he had to say I was just going to ask him to repeat his opinion you you you were mentioning in the context was you made an opinion and maybe somebody wasn't listening or or use your own words I don't want to put words in your mouth express your opinion again and then what what the reaction was okay my my opinion is that a deed of these properties must be signed by the mayor and approved by the city council okay I think that both myself and the allar attorney agree on that process the difference being I believe that each individual lot there should be an approval by the city council the L believes that the vote back in 2016 accomplished that that that was the city council's chance to chime in and they approved it so therefore they approve any transfers that's the difference between the two positions um and and again let's I make no no statement regarding I mean I think the L is is a great Organization for the purpose it has that this is has nothing I do it the transfers no I do whatever the council tells me to do I I make no opinion whether it's a good transfer bad transfer my opinion is to the form I want to make it a legal transfer that's the only thing that I make so that the issues of whether these propit should be transferred not transferred that's not my pay grade that's your pay grade thank so so yeah thank you so the other thing that we had some testimony this evening from Miss super Church which dealt with uh a property on pton Park uh that was part of the I believe the 2016 uh vote uh I happen to have voted at that time I voted in favor of it and I'm sure once I heard this evening again I don't know if this is true um part of this but I the the Assurance back then was this supposed to be remain a park with more amenities and the plan here is to to move away from that and listening to miss Super's testimony this evening and I haven't been able to verify with the documents quite yet but that parcel is going to be utilized for housing now had I known that if that's true back in 2016 I think we all know how I would have voted uh for that it would have been a different vote than a yes vote um and so when the L attorney is mentioning that he is petitioning or requesting an opinion from dhcd or the is it whatever the agency is if you can correct me whever it is for their opinion on Major versus minor I I don't know if there's an opportunity for someone like myself or the council to have a chance to provide their input to me that's major when you move the structure from what was going to be a minut I haven't verified it yet but if if that is true I'll stop want to say something I I can speak to it very quickly um I would like to provide you with this information which I sent by email and that's exactly the lot that we were talking about just just so you know pton Park is not a b pton Park is already included it's an A and the other thing to tell you is just I hate to parse things pmon Park is grass the parking lot is not part of the park I think it's pars away because it's important but I also we need to figure out what is the difference between a and b one more time for those of us who are new and some of us voted eight years ago if you if you look at the the map if you look at the map from 2016 it encumbers a bunch of properties it has has them colored in any property that's that they're looking to transfer in those sections is an a property some of these properties are outside the boundaries of the colored in portion of 2016 some of them for instance um the tomell property is outside of the boundaries so what they that has to do with is that the lra is asking can we put the torella property into the Redevelopment that's what what they're asking the B when you have your list you look at the B's they're looking to put the B's in with the A's and and so so the question then through you Mr President the question then is not necess well I guess does the question also include what is an a if we we know what the a is but if if an a is a Park expansion or upgrades for example and and now that's going to be switched to housing again to par your to par your words there would be no Park upgrade remember the park is grass the parking lot is not the park much like if I want to build on that and I want to build over here there are two separate Lots there's your Park I won't build on it here's your parking lot I can build on it no it's what the City attorney was trying to say it's two different Parcels it's they're all included on the later's email that they sending up to the state uh and that's that's there right council president so so so there's a dichotomy there there's a difference in then apparently than the earlier testimony which is which was leading me to believe that a parcel that we are we approved in 2016 was going to be for use which was Park and Recreation purposes and quite frankly that's not necessarily true what I'm hearing now because there is asphalt there and that asphalt is going to be where the building is going to go not a park is that am I repeating that more accurately well you are and you aren't you were if you were under the impression that the parking lot was part of the park in 2016 you were mistaken the park is only the grass so if there's going to be improvements to the park there's going to be improvements to the grassy area I'm sorry to harp on this but this is a perfect example of what we have to deal with here so the the picture that's that we have does the a include the asphalt and the grass no just the asphalt but my point but my point you're but you're you're buttressing my point the the the there was no well I need to let me know when this design was submitted to the council in 2016 that parcel that dealt with the asphalt did that was that promoted to be housing back in 2016 counil bre whatever it's in it's in the map I don't know if that was commercial residential or pass of VI I I don't have the map right in front of me uh councilen we have have the privilege to have one person that actually worked on the plan on the urban renewal plan back then in 2016 and she's here she's a resent of the city of lens uh Miss George so I would like to open the floor for her um she can U guide us through a little more thank you counselors uh let me preface by saying I am not an attorney and so I'm not going to opine on the legal specificities that you all have been hearing about from the attorneys but I did work on the plan and I am a planner uh and I was a consultant to the Redevelopment Authority throughout the process of creating this plan so I want to just read to you some excerpts from the plan itself which you can find uh it's available online it's public document um and you can come to your own conclusions as to um the matters under consideration section 6.5 of the urban renewal plan 760 CMR 1203 which is a reference to state law process for future plan changes this plan has a Time Horizon of 20 years and may require updates in the future the provisions of 760 CMR 12.03 specify two mechanisms whereby this plan may be changed a minor plan change and a major plan change all modifications will be added as Section 8 and then there is a following section that describes a minor plan change which says the L may make a minor plan change through resolution minor plan changes do not substantially alter the provisions of the plan minor plan changes include the following correction of typographical errors modification of proposed language of zoning changes and design guidelines to be consistent with language approved by the city council major plan change a major plan change involves a more substantial alteration of the underlying plan and as such requires a more complex approval process the process for a major plan change is the same as was followed to produce this urban renewal plan evidence of a public hearing certification of Conformity with existing Plans by the planning board and approval by the city council all affected redevelopers must be notified and given an opportunity to comment dhcd approval that's the State's Department of Housing Community Development now referred to as executive office of housing liable communities all proposed minor and major plan changes shall be submitted to dhcd for approval in addition section 4.1 of the urban renewal plan 760 CMR 12.24 financial plan 12.24 again a reference to and citation of state law requires six categories of information related to the undertaking of specific projects the categories are as follows a estimated cost of acquisition B detailed cost estimates for site preparation C detailed cost estimates for all proposed pel improvements D detailed cost estimates for relocation expenses e detailed cost estimates establishing the gross and net project cost F project budget including contingencies prior to acquisition the L must conduct an appraisal of the property 760 CMR 12.04 requires two appraisals for Acquisitions this plan would be amended by a major Plan update and the initial apprisal must be included in the updated materials c section 65760 CMR 12.03 process for future plan changes no appraisals are included in this Urban rural plan as no properties have identified for acquisition lastly 3.3 proposed Redevelopment actions in the plan specifically calls out the parcel in question that is now a parking lot adjacent to pton park the priority action is to create a permanent concert venue and stage at pton Park and tie it to local tourism efforts and I quote directly from the plan pton Park a pro proposal to create a permanent concert venue at pton Park was a recommendation that surfaced during the public process and received wide support figure 1-11 shows the existing Parks an expanded pton Park would address the current lack of parks on the west side of the urban renewal area participants in the public Workshop identified a number of uses and activities they would like to see a pton park Beyond staging for festivals many indicated the desire for an outdoor music venue such as the Hat showell along the Boston Esplanade people identified facilities for visitors and kiosks that could be used for vendors at the festivals as other desirable permanent structures lastly I would note that based on information I have seen table one of the parcels for acquisition tagged for multif family use include parcel ID 12528 North Canal Street 6.46 Acres pton Park so that is what I have to share I think it's fairly self-explanatory and hope that you will take this into consideration happy to answer any questions uh celan I guess that the urban renewal plan explained a lot of information when it comes to uh the process to follow so you have any follow-up questions on these counselor president excuse me so you you said you sent to us the the the map what what email was that you have a copy of it in the front of you and I also sent an email council president if it's all right I don't other councelors may wish to speak I'm going to relinquish the floor with the hopes of maybe we're getting it back later thank you councilors any other council president questions huh yeah let me see if it is any other first any other any other counselors before Stephanie councel inant to take the floor Council leby that everybody 201 we are going now all that we are thinking of people comments that they going to be so what we going to do we're going to change this uh for resident or we are going to keep it parking or we are going to do why we going to do like a parking and and we're going to do housing but all of this integration all of the new plants that maybe is coming around everywhere that we can see the difference and we can mount one part or whatever that what it was supposed to be on 2016 what is going to happen in 2024 so that what I might see thinking right now because we most of us were not inh here in 2016 um we have the urban renewal plan um it's yes we do have Mr President we do have the urban renewal planning here but not the same kind of a sliding there that they are showing you this is what we plan when we transfer all of this property that whoever that was the councel in here approve it as a full Council now we are discussing you know new changes or new modification or new transfer so that everybody can understand that can everybody stay on the same page and still having all of the rumor that out that they going to do this they going to do that it much better we have a one meeting just to talk about the L what happened in 2016 what it was approved in 2017 what we going to do now and see we going to approve or no whatever change that we going to they going to be presented thank you councelor president just to bring some clarity to your comments uh the urban renewal PL uh we have an expert of on the urban renewal plan when it was approve if you have any questions regarding to that she's probably going to be able to answer and uh and and she provides some information when it comes to that minor change and and and largest change to the urban renewal plant uh this Council um have this item here and invite the L uh to here we have the attorney uh when it comes to um any questions regarding regarding their end of that uh of the issue what what I'm seeing here and based on your questioning is that we should have a meeting we are trying meeting just only to discuss the we are trying to get some clarities when it comes to why they already transfer those properties uh without council's approval and and I don't think that we even have the chance to have that meeting or any type of meeting because as we speak and I hope that the C20 might clarify from that uh those titles are being transferred to the L am I correct on that point there there is an agreement to transfer there is no transfer right now that titles are being done on the property um but I have had no request to do the Deeds at this particular Point okay Mr President through you ccil living um so the property had never been transferred that was an agreement just only to be transferred right it's just an agree inclusive on 201617 currently there is a written agreement between the mayor and the lra agreeing to tr transfer the properties there has been no legal transfer of title the title is still the City of Lawrence still owns all property but but the city the city the city attorney's office is working on those the title is as we speak yes as we speak counc le you satisfied with that answer all right we're going to councel Rees I agree with cons leev I think we need to do a special meeting to review a point by point to understand what is the process what happened what thing was approved in 2016 and also what we can uh do for the new item or what we can do to the new property to transfer Ora or if we have the right to review or not uh in this uh uh item uh I think uh to have the special meeting because Anna be an here in 2016 and also we have a new College I think every College had the right to understand the process to know what happened with this property I think we can find out what is the next special meeting and now finish to uh programming special meeting to discuss uh Point by Point what happened with the property and what is that mean for our community so um just to just to say a few words on what responding to what you said independently of the process that is been written on the plan the properties are currently being transferred so the and we have no agreement uh no no no I mean he just said that they're working on the title to transfer those properties yeah they working on the title but we need to to understand more better the process well we are actually understand the process they actually doing the transfers for we represent and explain to our community of course president um coun councel counc Lon I um thank you council president I think uh uh we are going in two different directions uh basically they're saying to you council president that the city council will have nothing to do with this transaction my understanding also I just hear the the attorney saying that they are in the process of uh doing the titles so we are what we're trying to discuss here is if the C council is going to have a say in this process and it looks like that according to what I hear we don't but based on the letter that according to the L the well yes but based on the letter that I that the Cil president sent uh the attorney's letter uh we have a chance to get into the process is that accurate uh council president we as far as I understand we uh we have to um do an emergency injunction through the court as far as I think we have to do that's the process we need to go to stop this emergency uh order from happening because otherwise the the the transfer of the property going to occur while we thinking about it so this is not about this Council having an an an opinion or and a saying in this process so it's just it's about taking the next step if I'm understanding this correctly that's I think that's that's the correct way so there's no need for an special meeting from this Council we will we will have an special meeting on the item once we actually okay more clear when it comes to we stoping the process but not right now my other question to you consor president if I may uh can can we get an answer from uh Maggie church about it is what she presented is a minor change according to her or a major she if she's she's here as a as a resent but I mean I hope that she can guide us on that it's important to to know that Maggi George is it's a resent of the city of L and she's on that on those matters yeah so and uh at the risk of being repetitive I'm going to say again there are two things that qualify is a minor plan change as written in the plan that has been approved by the city council correction of typographical errors which we're definitely not talking about modification of proposed language of zoning changes and design guidelines to be consistent with language approved by city council which we are also not talking about as such acquisition of property changes of proposed uses not following procedural requirements all of that is inconsistent with what the plan States and I would further note that the state through executive office of Housing and livable communities is the approval body for minor and major changes and there's a number of things that are required to be presented to the state and the city council is meant to have a role in that as written so what is the page of the section of the pl if you have it section 6.5 of the urban Ral plan is the section that describes process for future changes the state reference is 760 CMR 1203 it's toward the back of the plan any any other questions councelors Council presid oh yes so so basically what I what M explained to me or to us is is that we are supposed to have an opinion dur this process not an opinion not a a vote thank you thank you council president and unfortunately this council is not part of the process unfortunately that is clear Council Council Council M um it is uh through you council president it is very clear that uh a lot I'm okay um that most of us are not clear as to what's going on with uh the parcels and the transfer of these Parcels to the lra um I want to be able to support my my colleague uh Ana Levy and uh Selena Rees in wanting to have a special meeting to discuss this but it's also very clear based on your explanation and um our City attorney in describing the fact that there's already a transaction um that is taking place robbing us of that opportunity to even discuss these items so with that being said um I have two motions that I would like to propose I just want to make sure that I have the floor and the opportunity to do this at this point or do I have to allow um you're in order okay so yeah we no no no we're going to we have two motions and then we're going to open up for discussion yeah but I mean we can keep on going on the motion was there a motion already on the floor it's an underline motion but you but you can actually propose your motion and we will continue with the underline motion which is uh so the two motions that I'm proposing is to allow for us to have this discussion to even begin with and by freezing um what's going on um with the administration in transferring these Parcels my first motion is to order the City attorney to desist from passing over the Deeds to the lra and the second motion is to consult an outside attorney to follow an emergency injunction um on the passing of these Deeds um and that would allow us as uh as a council to be able to even have this discussion going further Let's do let's do one by one each motion and uh we can have a second each motion and then uh have the proper vote and open it for discussion so do you want do you mind doing it one by one so my first motion um that I'm submitting is um the motion to order City attorney to desist from passing over the Deeds to the lra once again I'm submitting that as a form of a motion there is a motion to the floor second properly second Council M put the motion second by councilor vice president Infante discussion discussion if I Council pres infant may I just address that um uh attorney it's an illegal motion um there is a separation of powers the power belongs in the mayor's office it does not belong in the city it does not belong in City Council Office you cannot order the City attorney to refuse a mayor's office under his function much as the same as the mayor could not order me to not listen to the city council so I just want to tell you you can pass the motion do whatever you will it will be deemed in my opinion my opinion only as an illegal motion uh councilors we counceling fund why is this happening okay well now that the City attorney said that through you council president um attorney Hoon um so in regards to the second motion that I propose is that uh cuz you only I mean we're not the No No but he said that the first one was illegal he never mentioned the you would draw on your first motion okay so we still on the first one uh we're going to keep on discussing the first one and then we go over the second motion councilor president in F you council president I think okay so hearing Miss Maggie Church explained the or the the renewal from 2016 I I first want to say I through you council president I appreciate that you're physically here tonight being the person that who originally worked on this and clarifying things for us for a council that's older and newer thank you so much for being here um secondly the the packet that we have here that lists the the property that they're looking to transfer um I I want to put it out there I already I mean first let me backtrack first I agree with my with my colleagues councelor Reyes and and councelor Levy however they were blocking us from the opportunity to participate to participate in this process from the beginning we heard mayor depena accidentally say that he was going to do an executive order during the state of the city which he was not supposed to say and he said it anyways so this was the plan all along secondly in this document that we have in front of us that lists all the properties that they're looking to transfer I know counc infant the property is to amend the allowance uh urban renewal plants going to the state so on that on that documents right this document yes correct um so I know I'm not the only counselor that has met or has seen a proposed plan A lot of these these surface parking as as they have it which is how it's currently used these properties are are being used as as parking lots what I was shown from the administration were plans to develop parking garages and and to add additional parking to to our city in this document however that was presented to the L they're proposing these properties all properties listed to be used as a multifam residential or mixed use so but to us it was not presented M pres uh this document was presented from the L to the state so thank you thank you for clarifying that but what I what what I'm saying is that when it was presented to us I can I can tell you off the top of my head perhaps two or three of the entire list were presented as mixed use um for for future the rest were presented as parking garages and so that's a lie right there council president if I could address sure attorney ding hton it it should be noted that per the request of the mayor on all of these properties that are currently being used as parking lots again I have no idea what the end use will be whatever the end use is contained in the deed is a requirement that how many parking spaces are there today will be there when whatever project is built so if you take a parking lot and you build a 82 unit house in addition to the parking for the 82 units let's say currently there's 75 spots for the city there will be 75 spots for the city so that's contained in all the so it is true that any of the lots that have parking whatever the use is in the future we'll have that amount of parking through you counc uh thank you for the glorification Madame vice president inant thank you uh through you uh attorney hen I I hear you and I hear the man's plan the mayor's plan unfortunately originally that was not how it was presented to me as a counselor when they originally showed this plan what I was presented the beautiful presentation that that was shown to me was that it was it was not such to me I can only speak for myself it was not said to me that the number of X parking spaces should be included in whatever development would be what was presented to me was parking garages with with a side of greenery and and saying that this will be an opportunity for City parking um employees and stuff like that that was what was PR presented to me and that is not what this document show shows youing at this moment yeah I I believe the document does not State what it's the the end result I mean obviously they have to go out to bid so I have no idea what the end result all I can tell you is what's going to be contained in the deed to the L through you cons president yes uh give me one minute we Council infant still have the floor and then almost thank you all right and then we going to counil plant and right after that we're going back to uh councelor Santiago and then coun I'm just going to speak to the motion there's plenty of other stuff but just to this motion regarding um essentially putting a freeze on your actions what was the verb you Ed with respect to that motion it would be what it would be illegal illegal no such thing so exactly so my my question is it's an act that this legis this body couldnot take against another body so my my question regarding this is based on the you prefer I'd call it inappropriate not illegal for you guys well my I whatever you it's your choice of words but I the Council president that the City attorney has used very strong language here in respect to this motion it is within your purview of course to claim that that motion is out of order are you going to claim it to be out of order once we uh once we have we finished the discussion I will make a determination I would like the councilors to have an opportunity to speak just like you have so we have two more counselors to finish up the discussion and I will call that uh the motion in order of out of order once we finish thank you celan Cel Santiago okay thank you for coming and we know we have a lot of problem with the parking LW in Lawrence and that happened when when they when they did the presentation for us was about parking lot like you said if we have 10 parking and we will receive the same T and how we can solve the problem if we give the properties the problem is still there again I make no presentation of what that it very well could be that some of these properties are developed into a 300 lot parking garage I have no idea what the end use is my limited involvement is the transfer from the city to the L when the L puts out their requests for proposals they're looking for the best use of the property I don't know what any of the all I know is what's going to be contained in the deed that I am asked to prepare to the L what happens with the properties after that besides the fact that we're guaranteed those spots I have no knowledge of L thank you counil president I I I love uh to you counil president the attorney likes to use the the term illegal when he refers to the city council but when it's about the the mayor's office he likes to take it out it is illegal in the fact that you go to I I just made a uh app point I'm not an attorney so who cares C um so um you are the City attorney correct so what can we do to stop the mayor's office to keep uh uh yes that will be the next okay oh I was can I yeah thank you council president uh if you may answer my question attorney sure again I know that um councilor infan will not like the start of this answer but I wish the mayor's office and the city council would meet and discuss this and see if they could come to some resolution I think that would benefit the City of Lawrence mostly barring that the city council has the right to go over to the superior court and seek injunction against this process that is their right uh no no no just we will answer we have the give me a minute uh Le thank you council president uh with all my respect coun by chair and regarding that by calling for a a special meeting and stopping the process no on the contrary so right now the atorney said that the best thing is to get together and try to get a points you know where we all are on the same page because we really don't know so many things you know so see we bring what happened on the 16 17 to the table a PowerPoint it's not the same that you look at each paper in here it's not the say that if you show you know a power point over there that show this is the different property this is the different parcel and that's is what it was supposed to be done parking building residences whatever now we're going to change and we're going to try to make something different that way we go I think that for oh it's going to be much better to understand what's going on inste of being talking oh they going to do this because they spoke with me or somebody say this because they talk to me or they talk to whoever if we all see the same thing we can come out maybe we a point that we will know what is going to happen with all the par and we can decide it together you know if we should pass or no those property to the L if the mayor had a reason see the councelor had another reason and and what we can do we going to do the injunction okay we're going to go and do the injunction we're going to pass the transfer we're going to transfer but I think that we should get a point where we ought together know what's going to happen together and we can make a decision we can decide it together we the say maybe the techology you know instead of talking in here in there and he say he didn't not say somebody say or whoever but I think that we should come you know that we should invite for an special meeting everybody you know the L the major the whoever is in the city council and everyone just to discuss that item look at right now look at the agenda what I maybe we're going to be leaving today at 1:00 okay and everybody have a question everybody want to go home that's not nice in some way I'm can if anybody from this can if anybody want to go home we're not holding anybody here no we are not holding nobody we have a responsibility with but we have also to learn to respect the other so we have so many things to discuss and we are only on the first item y right now but we should have like a meeting to just to discuss this and go stay by stay you know on what happened since the beginning to the end and get you know the point where we all together can work together how we should do it all right uh the next person we have anybody else that would like to discuss this on this motion president through you Mr President uh I I I think we can uh coordinate a special meeting because when we had the opportunity to see the presentation what they show to us we are so happy to see the Chang it so it's really important to understand what is that mean in these changes because when they do the presentation you are so happy everybody are so happy when every every single counselor had the opportunity to see the presentation and we see the presentation wow we moving forward and it's looking amazing so when we the presentation we are so happy now we have a a big conflict but we need to understand what is that happening what we what we see different as that c Rees I think that we missing one point here and it's not like we are against these developments nobody's against this what we seeing here is that the intent of the urban renewal plant was mistaken because uh we didn't approve dispositions on those on those in the urban renewal plan and what we seeing based on what I'm what I'm hear from everybody is that we have one fact is that those properties are being transfer transfering currently as we speak and I I'm not against to having a special meeting but we need to understand that the properties are been transferring as we speak and the council back in 2017 on the urban renewal plan Den not include or vote in favor of any partials dispositions and I guess that we are taking that uh back the vote on 2017 as a good and ballot for disposition and the and that what happened back in 2017 was the approval of the plant which didn't include a vote for a specific disposition of a specific parts when we do uh dispositions we need to take an specific vote with a specific language and that's basically what is missing here we're not saying that we are against this we are saying that the mayor took uh his pencil or his pen and signed an agreement with the L leaving the city council out uh uh through you uh Mr President uh you answer my question it's very clear to me but we need to do uh a special meaning to make it clear to our community because what our uh by President mention our community is talking a lot about that is making a different phone call because they want more clarification when we do a special meeting when we review Point by Point uh it's clear to us and also it's clear to our community because we sitting uh we are making questions we visiting H and asking what is that mean uh we make the question but we want to bring this information to our community too to be clear too the special meeting is is is not an issue we will we will have an special meeting the only the only the only thing that I'm hearing here is uh that there is some concerns that need to be taken care of now I mean uh it's it's not it's nothing wrong with having a special meeting we we will call on a special meeting if we have to three counselors can call on a special meeting I'm pretty sure everybody will like more clarifications when it comes to this we have no issues whatsoever the only thing is that uh we need to do in conjunction of in conjunction of the special meeting we need to do all the things and that's what uh councilor Maro is is is proposing to have this thing this this motion that she put I don't know what your desire will be uh with the motion uh but we will have we will have uh that special meeting with everybody we have no issues whatsoever thank you Mr President sure um uh Council MMO what is your desire I just want to make sure that for the record cuz I feel like we're like beating a dead horse um we're I'm not opposed to having a special meeting to discuss this I I agree we all should have a special meeting specifically uh to discuss this specific item I feel like some of us are missing the point on the fact that having this special meeting to discuss this is going to be considered null and void it's going to be pointless if they're already in the process of robbing us of the opportunity to even talk about it what's the point what is the point of talking about it for them to give us a presentation about these Parcels when they're already transferring these Parcels to another entity that's going to make decisions on it we will we're no longer in the picture which is why I put this P this motion to stop whatever is happening in order for us to even have that opportunity um in order before I withdraw um that motion I would like to ask um our attorney can the legislative body um passed an ordinance uh that trumps the transfer of property um by executive order so I I'm not going to address any I believe I have a resolution the L has agreed that they will not accept any Deeds from me until this Council meets in a special meeting until afterwards when did you receive that information just now oh just now he leaned in my ear while you were talking all right no problem so um so I withdraw my motion uh Council draw your motion just for the record it's important to recognize that Council La plant at some point you were part of the L right yes I was okay and Council M as far as I understand you also were part of the l i yes so we have two council members here today that before or during their time in the council they were also part of the lawence Redevelopment Authority the intent is to make sure that we are working together did you hear me out people together all right uh with that said Council M we have an underl motion you withdraw your motion yes I do motion is accept uh it's been withdraw um we have a second motion you were discussing right the the second motion was to consult an outside attorney to follow an emergency injunction on the passing of these Deeds all right there is a motion on the table can hear us second properly second by Council Lon CC yes Council Lon um discussion discussion of course um well we weren't really sure we were going to get such a strong opinion from the city attorney on the previous motion do you have an an opinion on this motion well I would suggest that you could delay this motion since there's an agreement that no properties are going to be transferred to you have your meeting and at that time you could take this motion up again that's just procedural but secondly no this the council was within its rights to uh if they wish to entertain uh the motion is in order the motion is in order if they want to retain an attorney and and price anything but so that's it's the council's BL so just thank you so I just think I needed to hear that thank you Mr President so I think something else we need to consider is if we're going to go forward and entertain this motion and look to hire outside Council who's paying for that who gets selected for that if you're if you're look I'm I I throw that out there perhaps rhetorically but I guess through you the author is is who's asking because she it's her motion so who through you Mr President to District D who who would pay for that and how would that person be selected I'll take the lead on that uh Council Council plant since the question has been done through me so before I pass it to councel M like that's that's it is right so uh I believe that the emergency injunction and the outside console will be um in order to uh any other outside Council that we hire from the City of Lawrence we approve every year over $800,000 uh to hire up up side attorneys so if we don't have the opportunity to T into that fund for something that the city council is looking for which is the legal uh brand the of of it's a legal uh how can I put this not using the legal word but I mean it's a it's a the executive that the the legislative body of the city I mean it will be uh kind of challenging to to believe that the mayor don't want us to tag into that but he could definitely say no to but we also have the right to uh counterpart about that decision so we have a said on the matters because we approve those over $800,000 for outside Council every year so if you want to answer you have the floor not right Alber a question I I I I believe I had the floor that was a question to through apparently to through my colleague from District D that was not answered by my colleague from District D oh thank you so much so what the other question I I will not be supporting this this item this evening only because it appears as though we have an opportunity here to have a discussion and some sort of dialogue and to immediately this evening go from here to then start going and doing outside Council seems to really be to be fairly aggressive before we work through all the other channels we could possibly work through to find a resolution the last thing we should be doing the last thing we should be doing is going to litigation on this the very first thing we should be doing is engaging in a conversation with the executive branch and perhaps even with the Lawrence Redevelopment Authority and have a discussion to to discern what is our authorities and and see if there's an agreement and see if there's a way that we can get to a place at that point we make the determination is the response is the discussion productive if it's not productive to our satisfaction then we look for Alternatives but this evening to go ahead and start voting on this is extremely premature and I would vote against it and I would encourage my colleagues to vote against this motion should it be it should not be withdrawn this evening thank you just uh just to we clear while we are discussing today at this point we are asking asking the City attorney to uh contract with outside Council for this matter we also get from the uh from attor from the L uh that they are not accepting any deed uh from the city going to them and then is that means that they are not that the executive order will be withraw will be I'm sorry withdraw no it's it's basically saying that until there is a meeting nothing will happen between the two parties okay so what I'm hearing is that exactly what you're saying and what we are doing based on what you're saying is that we can take this vote and be ready in case something else continue to happen because we have no control of what happen eventually they might say you know what we change our mind because it's nothing on writing and then the process might continue it's not going to be up to the council we meet every two weeks so we're going to have to wait two weeks to come back and take a vote I think it will be safe I think you would have that vote at your special meeting special meeting yeah in a special meeting it will cost a lot of money for that but anyway uh we have a motion right now uh to uh H not ask but ask the City attorney to contract outside outside Council for this that doesn't have that doesn't have to happen right away it will it it will happen once we need it that's that's my understanding right um I I would just add one last item and I know that everybody's going to Snicker me at me at this one but um you have your own budget you don't have to take it out of mine oh we don't have money for that you you can contract but that's not fair because I mean uh just to answer to you if anybody any Department within the city of lawrens have an issue they got Sue or they got something they don't go to the to their budget to talk into that they go to the city attorney's budget I understood but this is no difference it it is different in the fact that I will not be representing either side both side would have to get outside Council this is the city suing the city that's different outside council is someone from the outside suing the city that's when it's in my budget because I'm I I defend the city and this one it's kind of it is it is it is a little complicated but it's it's not different I mean uh it is it is not different uh the motion is on is is in order and any counselors would have to speak on this motion discussion all right at this point I will call the questions for the uh can you repeat the question M CLA please or motion the motion made by Council M and seconded by Council Lon is to consult um to ask the City attorney to consult with outside counsel to obtain an injunction against the transfer of these properties um it was open for discussion at this point I will call the questions all Us in favor please say I I I I the I have it no no I say no have to ask you got to say there's no you just said you didn't you didn't ask if there was any nose there is any nose no roll call please Council Rees no council marmel yes Council Santiago yes Council Del Rosario is noted as absent Council Lan yes Council plant no council Levy no councelor Infante yes councelor Rodriguez yes motion carries we have timeline or do you did you want to provide um the timeline um we will we will have an special meeting and by that time I hope that uh we probably have an answer not necessarily um to go to court but to to hold the up Council but eventually we'll we'll have further details parliamentary qu sure so just so we're clear if I I think I know what the vote was I heard what the City attorney said he says he's not going to pay for it is he still going to go out and look for an outside attorney that he's not going to pay for I just want to make sure he knows and that I know what's going forward council president discussion has been closed on this the discussion has been closed on the motion wait yes once we get once we open that opportunity we will we'll allow you to ask that question uh at this point we have an underlined motion which is to approve these transfers uh for the purpose of discussion we still have that motion in place uh and before we do anything on this I would like to have both of these documents which is the amend to the L rate uh urban renewal plan Amendment one that was submitted uh that was submitted through the L to the state and uh that was I would like to submit this for the record and also I would like to submit for the record as part of this two items uh the the memorandum from the city attorney which include uh section U appendix A and B for the properties to be um transferred uh those are being submitted for the record uh counselors any other discussion on this could you also for the record get the the urban renewal plan that was mentioned several times this evening from miss church so that we can have that because I don't think in all the stuff that we have I don't have that um at least I don't have it from eight years ago so it would be good to have it again sure we will send that over uh through email to everybody um it maybe to the entire city uh probably I I emailed it back then but I mean we'll BR that's fine councelors at this point we have um we we have discussion enough discussion on those two items any particular any other discussion when it comes to I'd like to make a I like to make a motion to table motion to table no discussion on table matters uh on the table uh motions all those in favor please say I the I haveit both of the item has been uh back to where they were on table um so councelors we're going back to the top of the agend uh before we do that councelor before we go back to the top of the agenda we have item 13224 which is at dat at the ordinance committee this is the resolution adoption of the charer ACT um so councelors councelors at this point uh this this item was posted on the agenda which uh indicate that it was the the public was noticed for over 28 hours and we uh there is a desire of some councilors to pull it off committee u i will at this point entertain a motion to pull it out out of committee U out of the ordinance committee if that does the desire of the council item 13224 item 132 uh 24 which is the solution adopting of the Cher's act which we have people from the in public participation speaking about this um there is a motion to pull it off committee second um properly second discussion discussion council plan so there was a mistake this should not have been on our agenda out of the committee the vote is Mr Myers mentioned earlier this evening was two to one to one and in the committee you need to have three votes to send this up I can't explain why this is on the city council agenda this evening except to tell this group that this this the ordinance committee by that vote it did not pass the ordinance committee and remains in the ordinance committee and I would encourage the ordinance committee to continue to do its work thank you Mr President all right we have we have a motion um ding order council plan that um we have an item a motion on the table uh in front of us for item 132 24 which is a resolution adopting the Cher act uh it's been properly second uh at this point councilors I will call the question to pull it off committee um all those in favor please say I roll call please councilor Levy yes Council pant no council Lan yes Council Rosario is noted as absent Council of Santiago I'm confused about the motion the motion is to put it off committee so to discuss it at this level the cherish act yes no for that we don't need a motion um we we pulling it off committee all right I'll call I'll call the question again uh all those in favor please say I I Roo please Madame CL can you start the board again councelor Levy no council plant no council LAN yes councelor Del Rosario is noted as absent Council Santiago yes Council mam yes counil Reyes yes Council Infante yes council president um Rodriguez yes the motion carries motion carries councilors we have this this item at the full Council now item 13224 which is the resolution adopting the Cher's act before we do anything counselors I would like to open the the floor to this uh for the people that are proposing this act so we can understand um more about the act that we taken also counselors what we are doing it is important to recognize that we are doing a resolution a resolution is an official opinion of the City of Lawrence or only the city council can can do this not the mayor's office not any other department only the city council can produce an official opinion of the city of L and that's exactly what we're doing for the purpose of a a Mass General law that is been currently discussed at the state level um I would like to open the floor to Mr uh Mr Thomas Mr Tom yes should I State my uh address again okay Tom Myers and I reside at 550 havil Street uh in the city and uh I'm asking you to consider and as uh the uh chairperson uh has indicated it's a nonbinding resolution the cherish Act is a piece of legislation which is currently pending uh in the State uh legislature and uh what it will do and I've I've sent documentation on this uh to you uh through the the city clerk uh attorney benal and uh a couple of the the key points of it first of all what it would do is ensure for the 2024 uh school year that every single student who enrolls in Community College public Community College would enr debt free meaning that uh along with pel grants along with with uh other contributions uh they would not have to incur a debt by the fiscal year 2020 um or for the school year I'm sorry 2025 the uh program would be in place for every public college and university so that students would not incur debt in Massachusetts students walk away from four years in a public institution currently with $45,000 in debt and many of you know this either there is young people who have gone to college yourself or else uh is a little bit older who have sent children to college or you're anticipating sending children to college and you realize that the cost are astronomical and so that is one of the the uh key components another which I think is really critical to consider is that it requires the state of Massachusetts to assume full cost of state salaries and Fringe benefit benefits for future Capital Construction renovations to campus facility to pay for uh campus existing Capital Debt Service obligations and this is incurred by student fees which is also astronomical and what this will do is is help students in Gateway cities like ours throughout the Commonwealth you know kids from wealthy Comm ities I mentioned in my opening remarks during public comments that I taught in Andover at Andover High for many years and there are kids that struggle from Andover High financially families that struggle financially but not in comparison to what students and and families in our community struggle over and so this would alleviate that particular issue where does the funding come from comes from money that that is already delegated constitutionally through what it uh was enacted last year the fair share Amendment also known as a millionaires tax which taxes every dollar earned over a million by an additional 4% and that money as I indicated is earmarked for public education and also for public transportation and so this is a wonderful way to put this money to work to work for for students and families in our community so i' I'd like to answer any questions that you may have at this juncture celor are this point I would like to uh read the resolution for the record so we all be in the same page mad CLA Clair please read the resolution I'm sorry this is the um so the motion reads um city council resolution in support of higher education for all whereas Massachusetts Public colleges and universities are among the state's greatest resource and whereas our public colleges and universities are anchor institutions that are the foundation of our state's Regional economies and are essential to drive economic growth and provide essential services in all our cities and towns and whereas higher education is an important Pathway to economic mobility and public universities graduates are much more likely to remain in Massachusetts after graduation starting families contributing to the economy and forming the fabric of our local community and whereas I'm sorry um public colleges and universities educate the majority of students of color and first generation college students and give the US given the US Supreme Court's destructive decision on affirmative action which threatens to undermine access to students of color and whereas there remain significant opportunity gaps demonstrated by lower College enrollments and com completions particularly for Latino and black students and whereas 10 of thousands of students in Massachusetts graduates from high school graduate from high school each year but do not enroll in college and 700,000 adults in our Commonwealth have earned college credits but have not completed their degrees and whereas new revenues from the fair share amendment gives us the opportunity for transformative investments in public higher education that will remain Decades of investment in the public higher education by providing students with the opportunity to graduate from public higher education debt-free providing the supports from students that are critical to help them graduate in investing in the staff's and faculty salaries so that our institutions can recruit and retain highly qualified Educators who will be able to afford to live in the communities in which they work and where whereas investing in our public higher education institutions means investing in the students faculty and staff who are woven into our community in our local economy now therefore be it resolved that the law and city council urges the legislature to pass the chish ACT which respectfully submitted and your names would be attached to it councilors we have a resolution supporting U um higher education and this is an official opinion to the city of uh from the city of lawrens uh to the legislators that's what we have in front of us any discussions councilors on this matter quick discussion council plan just very quick I'm not going to be supporting it not because I don't think it's a good not because I think it's a bad idea I just think that the the resources of fair share act I think can be better spent on other issues that are directly impacting the people in Lawrence we have a lot of schools we can all go through our city right now and look at the number of schools that need help structurally needs help and we're going to be say to the to the folks in Boston the most important way that we want to see the money spent is for that I don't agree I think that we need to F we need to work on the infrastructure that's critical right now in our city we built two new schools that we have a lot of tired buildings we have a lot of growth going on it's going to be very difficult to get another another new school built in here so I would like to see that fair share money being spent on things that have a direct impact today in the City of Lawrence for our our residents nothing think that's my opinion council president thank you very much I just want to I just want to say to you that the Act was related to transportation and education and not necessarily infrastructure and and I think there's a misunderstanding on that but it is your opinion I respect it uh I believe that uh the council sure um have their own opinion and also respect everybody's opinion um with that say councelors any any anything else that would like to um discuss on this celes motion to approve there was a motion to approve and it was properly second I mean there is a motion there was a motion there was motion yeah second and just two from committee there was no motion there was no there was a motion to pull it of committee and we're still discussing that so um we call the question we already vot we did it pass and then we now we need a motion so I just motion to approve to approve the resolution uh of the sheriff's act it was uh by councelor vice president Infante second by councelor Rees uh discussion councilors Mr President Council Levy uh my question is regarding what happened at the labor of the ordering committee that uh they decided or they what they request for for them to send it to over here before you can bring the request of that of the ordinance committee and we can uh we can discuss it at this point if we have an answer if is not and then uh we'll continue the discussion what was the request of the ordinance committee Council Council leby to vote in the ordinance committee plan yes the vote in the ordinance committee was two in favor one opposed and one abstain okay CC what was the what was the request of that uh of the ordinance Committee in regard to the actual request yeah what was the request from the ordin Committees okay did you have a request yeah something happened at the ordinance committee that they want to keep it over there uh on they get do you recall what happened there yes what happened what they request they request something C plan do you have an answer for that sure so the conversation that we had with Mr Meyers Mr Myers asked questions what's our next step what can we do now so Express to him what is options were councelor from District C recommended that he send information to not only to the committee but to the full Council because the council from District C believe that there may have been some misinformation and that perhaps more education and information would be helpful and that's what we left it at the ordinance committee it's unfortunate that uh it was been brought up to the full Council because it should not have been brought up here because the committee didn't do its work but but here we are thank you I'm sorry for my request asking you because you're not part of that of the ordinance committee I was my understanding oh my it was my recollection that you were but I don't remember everything no I'm not part of I apologize for asking you directly what happened there since you were not there uh we're moving on uh to the discussion councelors any other questions in regard to this specific resolution the the online motion is to approve the resolution I hear none so at this point I call the questions councelors all those in favor please say i i i r call please um councelor Reyes yes councelor mormal yes Council Santiago yes Council Del Rosario is noted as absent councel Lan yes councel plant no councelor Levy yes Council vice president Infante yes council president Rodriguez yes okay motion carries motion carries so we are going back to the top of the agenda councilors we're going to uh thank you uh a million times for voting for this and the benefit will be for every student within the uh Commonwealth so thank you all I appreciate it very much there is an official opinion uh in regard to supporting um higher education uh councilors we going on top of the agenda public hearing Madame CLA we have some public hearings uh in front of us motion to pass then there is a motion to pass 10 counselor yeah we probably go we go probably go let's go to every Everything house while they he and there is a motion 10 counselors hear a second discussion I he all in pleas Council sorry to interrupt Tim on Zoom we can long EX on the zoom meeting uh okay we mut it all right um that's okay yeah we we we have people here as well so let's uh let's talk about this all right the councilors we have um public Hearing in regard to few things but we also have people uh people that work for the city that are here for other matters uh we have the budget and finance committee which is a few items that we can take right away and we have uh some representative of the of the city here present Madame Sher from the bo mad's vice president Infante chair of the bu and finance committee please provide us with the report for the item related to the buget and finance committee thank you um council president the budget and finance committee met last Wednesday and on the first item we have to bring up to the full council is item 121 d24 the appropriation transfer of in the amount of 700 7 7 750 ,000 um among the arpro slf free cash allocations and we sent that up with a as a committee report and I make that as a former motion there is a motion on the table properly second um counselors any discussions on this discussion councel Council vice president Infante thank you um counselors we so the appropriation that that we're looking to transfers actually um this was monies that was um transferred to the cemetery department for a project that is no longer needed so now we are looking to transfer it back to this to to the city uh $500,000 of of this amount will be going to small businesses the other portion which is $250,000 will be going to rental assistance we sent this up at a committee report because we did have additional questions as to how what was the proc what would be the process for both small businesses and individuals with rental assistance and we were supposed to have the acting director here um the acting director of community planning and Planning Development and slor the mayor senior advisor Octavian spanner I don't see neither of them here or or is Su here is think here Sue oh I'm sorry we do have our our city our our manag Sue can you can you come to the podium please no you have the floor so and you were there during the meeting we the committee asked for additional information on what the applicant guys it's really distracting when I'm trying to speak and there are convers side conversation happening Theo infant you have the floor Miss F yes do you have the information that we requested as to what would the application process be for both the small businesses and the rent for individuals for rental assistance I was not given that information I'm sorry thank you um another concern that we brought up that we were supposed to have additional conversation at this level was that the mayor last week that I personally heard with my ears was on the radio and mentioned that radio radio show hosts were eligible to apply or to get funding from the small business portion I did bring up uh to the to the senior advisor that I do not believe that's a great idea as to radio hosts you know they they play political commercials um some radios host are in favor of others and and that's a whole fias scho and they should not be receiving City funds um because of that to me it look it looks like a conflict of interest however no one's here to answer these additional questions so council president I would like to make a motion to table this matter some there is a motion to table properly second there is no discussion on such um all please say I I the eyes have it uh any notes the I have it the second the second item and sorry I'm here looking at my phone because I have my notes Here the second item is is item 12324 the authorization to expend Grant funds in the amount of 33,2 180 for the Emergency Management performance Grant which was brought to us by fire chief Brian morotti now this particular um just give me one second this particular Grant is the chief here okay chief I'll let you expl you have two things here you were going to say it was brought forward with a favorable recommendation sorry it was brought yes sorry I forgot I was looking for my notes on this item I was here to remind you uh that particular that particular Grant was for automatic defibrilator and the electric carfire equipment that we are um a new face the new danger in the fire service in this decade is lithium ion batteries uh so we've ordered uh want to order some special equipment to fight those in some handheld tick what we call Tick thermal engine cameras and that was and that is being brought up to the full council with a favorable recommendation and I make that as a formal motion a motion on the table um can you hear a second second uh was second Le discussion I hear no discussion at this point I call the questions all those in favor please say I I any notes thank you guys have it the third item is item 12424 the authorization to expend Grant funds in the amount of 35,000 for fire safe for the fire safety equipment Grant and the the budget and finance Council sends that up with a favorable recommendation and I make that as a foral motion there is a motion on the table to approve properly second by councel Rees discussion councelors I hear none all F please say hi hi guys have it thank you very much the next item um the next item is item 12724 the Lawrence Police Superior officer contract brought To Us by Sergeant Michael samart um the full the sorry the budget and finance committee this up to the full Council as a committee report and I make that as a formal motion uh there is a motion to accept the committee report uh properly second by Council Le discussion discussion Council of Vice President infan thank you councilors this item was brought in front of the budget and finance committee because if if they were to have a a contract in front of us it would be the first committee to to that the country will go before um the start Sergeant samard came before us to give us an update on that process and and looking for support from the city council and he is here tonight I don't know if there's anything different that has happened since that but most of us weren't at that meeting um so if you would like to say a few words Sergeant thank you madam vice president thank you uh president thank you councilors for allowing me to speak in for also for voting this to the full Council from the budget and finance committee there's no movement um right now we're currently again my name is s Mike samart the lawence police appear officer Association I represent 36 appear officers within our Police Department um we have an offer on the table with the city our attorneys we're approximately 1.5% away from a a ratification that we're hoping that we can uh get together and and um kind of put us on the front burner for once's Public Safety um you know I do have a few things to add if I could um when I spoke last week just uh before you continue you you made you um tell us that there is 36 Superior officers just for the uh for the benefit of the public can you explain what is being considered a superior officer so they know like what we're talking about yes I believe we have H 22 sergeants and then we have uh currently five captains and uh I believe nine lieutenants so that's what the super Officers Association makes so sergeant lieutenant and captains captains yes yes um and uh with the leaders of the department we've been uh in the department the longest out of out of um both unions for the most part and um we we're uh exposed to more liability because of the new post commission standards that that that have been imposed Upon Us in 2021 so I just wanted to bring up and I brought up uh last week in front of budget and finance that um Mr ielo came before you when the patr union was ratified and said that he was frustrated that the um that we only had four meetings for for negotiations um I and I and I said there was some resistance and some interference by uh former provisional Chief Castro in that process and and I'll point to two instances where um most recently he he mentioned to one of our members that if we asked for five five and five the city would say yes which we did and then the city said no so there was interference from there there was also last summer I I made a um and again we've acted in good faith the city has for the most part um Mr inel has acted in good faith and again he's the bean counter and he's always looking after the coffers um their attorney Mr McKennon has acted in good faith too but over the summer I I reached out to uh uh the mayor's one of the mayor's Chief advisers and who I know and I have a good rapport with him and I asked for just a meeting with the mayor just to kind of maybe um sit down casually him and I and hash out this contract save the city some some money for attorneys save the union some money for attorneys shake hands like a previous president and and a pre previous mayor did and see if we can resolve the contract so the advisor met with the mayor and the mayor then um scheduled myself for an appointment in his office over the summertime and the appointment was to discuss contract negotiation so I I I brought a fellow Executive Board member uh who speaks Spanish and I I brought him just in case there was some miscommunication we went to our scheduled appointment time at at um two o'clock and we're waiting outside the mayor's office our former provisional Chief who was chief of staff at the time came over to us and said if I may if he's going to discuss contract negotiations in public that is not the this is completely inappropriate so there is there's there's conversations going between the police department and the city there is negotiations if he wants to now play this out in the Press that's all but private negotiations are not to be re no matter which it is if you want I'll tell you what the what the police said but nobody wants that so I'm just saying we are treading on very gentle ground right now uh we understand that um councilors at this point I think that um um Sergeant uh SAR I think that we should we should just keep the conversation okay and in regard to uh not necessarily any type of contract negotiation uh because like the City attorney just said it will be important to keep those between the union and the and the city once we have an opportunity to read the contract will and and and the contract come to us I think it will be in a better position when it comes to um you your position I mean the superior's officer position in the city Mr President with all due respect just like Mr ielo spoke to you last month during negotiations I I would be giving the same uh ability to do that but just for the record we have the ground rules that we that we have and one of the number three is no unilateral media release or public disclosure until the agreement or impass is reached it should be noted we have filed for arbit arbitration months ago so we're at an impass there is current negotiation but we're at a standstill so we're not in violation of our ground rules and that's why I said it at the budget and finance meeting where the city is on notice that we were coming before you which was posted several days ago so according to our ground rules we have 24 hours to do that so I'm not in violation Mr Hut of our ground rules so just for the rec just like your attorney or your Capital spoke I'm so again we'll we'll we'll go Mr the mic because nobody going he you he he's been put on the spot quite a bit tonight so I'll give him a free pass tonight but we're not violation I have a copy of the ground rules here so it's been very pretentious let's put it that way we're close to an agreement but you know we we always get put on the back burner as far as Union negotiations and contracts go um you know just for the record our provisional Chief when he came in in October off the street as Chief of Staff he got $29,000 and then two months later he got a 3% raise and he was never in our ranks and yet here we are asking for You Know parody to our to our you know our um fellow officers and other communities and we're not even close so it's been a cat and mouse game for years we're at a standstill they're not going to budge our Union wants to go to arbitration I just want to ask maybe we can ask for a resolution from the council to the mayor to say to the to the CAO pay them what they should be paid because everyone else here is getting paid as we know it's it's it's a free-for-all and it's frustrating for us it really is so again um I I take exception to the fact that you came up here and interrupted me when the ground rules are right here sir no no I me I believe that um at this point we we'll definitely understand your your concerns about the negotiation okay uh we appreciate that you giving us an update uh when it comes to the update uh from from the uh from the the contract for the uh Superior officers we we would like to see a contract uh in front of us uh sooner rather than later we understand the the struggles that everybody is going through and uh we we also um are going through many things but definitely we understand that what what it means to be a police officer nowadays and respect every your work and the superior officers as as well yeah thank you and again the red flags are being sounded but they weren't being sounded last year when 44 non-un employees got over a million dollars in raises and that's the disheartening thing is when we put our lives on the line and this Council sees it how hard we work yet we have to beg for scraps and it's frustrating for us again and and they want to parody The Petroleum Union but again we we have more liability exposed to our members we're just asking for a fair contract and we're hoping gets resolved soon so um if anybody has any questions they can reach out to me privately if they'd like and I I'd be more than happy to to fill them in on what's going on and what is transpired over the last year in City Hall so thank you thank you for your time I appreciate we definitely appreciate you coming over thank you thank you so much motion to table there is a motion to table no discussion on the on the table matters properly second Rees um thank you all those in favor please say I hi the nose guys have it okay um the last item we will continue with the item um Madam shair that is there is anybody from the uh no but I have from the U uh from the uh vocational school if it's not I think that we should go uh to the ordinance committee since we have a few few people here I mean I have I mean uh there's two people here like I can just quickly report on this so let me it's president and I have the information here just fin stay here anyway all right so item 13724 the approve to the approval of a uh $4 million bond to purchase to P purchase of real property on Andover Street and Lawrence brought To Us by Miss superintendent John LaVoy from G lawence technical school um the committee he he spoke with the budget and finance committee let me we set this up as as a committed rep point I make that as a formal motion motion to accept the committee report from the buet and finance committee properly second discussions councelors discussion discussion uh Council councilor pres infant thank you uh so counselor so we we we did get we did well I think I got an email but I did receive an email from the city attorney stating that we do not have to approve this however the superintendent insisted for us to continue with this as the three other municipalities did make a did make a a a formal vote on it and did they did formally approve he wants to make sure that each of the municipalities that each of the serving communities that the school serves is 100% in and um for him this is this is just a formality to ensure that the that the school has the buy in for for all four communities that the school um serves so this $4 million bond is to purchase the alks on Andover Street to expand the school um with this expansion if purch it will expand the school to an additional 300 students um increasing the school's capacity to 2100 students this space will be used as a new medical center they will be adding programs to their to their day program their after dark program and their evening program and that's going to cons consist of um a medical assistant program a dental assistant program a health assistant program an EMT training program a paramedics program and also a a pH itical program now the way that this Bond will work is that Lawrence will pay whatever percentage of student Lawrence has um is what Lawrence will pay back so as of right now this is just an estimate as of right now the gr lence technical school students jeez about 71 to 72% of the overall student population and great alarm student comes from the city of Lauren so that means I'm I'm going to say about 71% of the overall $4 million bond is what Lawrence will pay back in the in a in a in a period of 10 years so 71% of a 4 million bond is is about $2.8 million so divide that by 10 years that brings us to to $284,000 per year that the the city of lawence will be paying back towards this respond and that is it um I know we don't have to formally vote but I would like to make a motion to to uh to approve this for for the superent for the superintendent Council Council pres infant before we do the motion to any we need to First accept the a committee report we haven't uh any questions on the Comm Comm report cons plan I'll wait for the next motion okay uh at this point I call the question all those in favor please say I I any knows guys have it now at this point I'll entertain any other motion motion to approve there is a motion to prove properly second and I would like to open the floor for attorney hton the city the city solicitor councel Fon has already Stolle my thunder uh there is no NE necessity of to take a vote on this but a favorable vote would be appreciated by that but it it will it will it will be a forar according to what you said right it yes it this was a informational item only they they have an obligation to inform all F communities there's no bond authorization nothing like that is right no they they they automatically get the bond authorization but they again I I will defer to councelor and F's presentation um I just I have one quick question because before back in 2016 I remember that we actually uh did a Bor authorization for the for the vocational school and we split it up based on the amount of students so is is is not the same well to be honestly there's many peculiarities some of it we can't go into but it authorizes them to get a bond if they get the school if they get the building they may not get the building they may not need the bond so it's not there's nothing definite this this is just authorizes them to go for it understood counselors um uh this time if there is any other any other question Cilan sure so a very quick question and I'm going to put somebody else on the hoty not you attorney who through you Mr President are we losing any any tax monies on this or is it a nonprofit to a school and there's no property tax impacts at all I just think we need to know that I'm going to be supporting it but it's just good to know if there's an impact um good evening Council Alexi theya Chief assessor for the city of lawence yes the Elks is taxable and the acquired if the vocation School acquires the property prior to July 1 that property will be exempt so say that again so if they acquire the property before July 1st they are they are going to be tax exempt in perpetuity yes they acquire it after July 1st they are taxable for one year just for one year okay so and then they get the then they get relief benefit okay and how much do we have you estimated with that what what we're I'm want to say losing but that comes across kind of negative you understand my question yes uh I would off the top of my head the Elks is probably assess for about a million one tax rate is $19 per thousand so you're talking about roughly $22,000 a year give or take no thank you Mr President thank you Chief Assessor any other question any other questions councelor at this point I call the questions all Us in fav please say I I guys have it um I can take a document out the ordinance committee out of order so some of these folks can go home sure if that's all right course I like to take document number 11624 off the out of out of order on the ordinance committee uh of course you're in order any objection on that uh no objection council plan thank you the ordinance committee met for document 11624 which is a senior tax right off resolution this was sent up to the full council with a favorable recommendation to make that in the form of a motion second there is a motion on the table prop second any discussion uh council plan can you can you give us an update on that or on intake what is what is this is all about sure so I brought some expert Witnesses with me this evening just to help out with this conversation uh I can give you a very general overview there was a program that initiated back it's arguable when it started I want to give props for who props should be given to our city clerk when she was the city counselor from District uh e was the originator of this proposal back in 201 or 12 well it started in 12 but I don't think we got it through till 16 16 okay we'll go with 16 so anyway so so she started this process uh and got this thing going and it's been eight years now since we've started it very simply what this is and and director bz will go into more detail if needed but it allows seniors over 60 who own property in the City of Lawrence to be able to work in a city department and uh the money that they would be making in quotes would be applicable to their property tax um and it's been a very good program it's been growing over the years and and and Miss FZ has all those those details but um it's something that's worthwhile I want to thank counselor to my left for being a co-sponsor of this as well and this idea came up from one of the neighborhood association meetings that we were at where somebody was asking about this and it just made sense that we should make it make sense here at uh 2024 as opposed to 2016 thank you m Miss V hi yes thank you um it is for senior 60 and over um it it is for um um anybody that owns a home no rental property um they do work for City organization City departments and they come in um we are requesting $1,000 to be raised from $500 to $11,000 and um there was a question on um what the uh hourly wage would be and it has been determined that it is by um State minimum wage so it's $15 an hour so roughly works out to about 67 hours uh in a year and usually we start in may by the time everybody fills out their applications and we finish by um no later than the beginning of November so they have all that time to work the 67 hours thank you is a Mr bega here for that right now well quick question Mr rega is this is 41c and 17d or does this is something different this is uh 5K 41c was approved a while back reducing the age from 65 to 60 and increasing the amount from 500 to 750 this is totally different this is the senior work off of bement program which the city council is allocates uh $50,000 a year to the assesses overly account uh and we have enough funds so there's no additional monies that we need to raise uh on the recap uh there's an uh there's money available the program is growing uh so this is a great opportunity with the reval coming up to increase that amount to $1,000 like other communities have done the maximum you can raises $2,000 but I think we took a made a great decision Council a plan to increment it um a little bit higher uh and then look at it again in the following years understood thank you so much thank you for the clarification uh Miss bz what is it that we doing to to encourage people to do this uh we put out advertisement um we put out flyers we send it to elderly um homeowners we you know the tax workof um program is widely said on the radio we go on the radio we also um we have a way of doing rooc calls now so um and we've kind of inserted because of Co the um voter registration list so we will be sending out a robo call just letting people know that you know tax workof program has been approved and we've grown from it started with eight people right now we have about 38 people um and there's people that say yes I want to do it and then once they find out that they have to work the 67 hours or 40 hours it was they'd be like no I don't have the time to do it and they don't do it so it's really um flexible but um it is in my opinion I appreciate that you're raising it because I think cost of living is very expensive and you know I wonder um you know how much an elder that's you know living on a social security check can really afford to pay taxes and also um go grocery shopping and do what they have to do pay electric bills and everything else councelors any other questions in regard to this counc pres uh so they go through you to register and you send them to they work with you or they go to any place in the city of lawence to no no no so there is a process you come in you fill out an application you have to be cored you have to um it goes through Personnel everybody we also have to make sure that you owe the city no money like if you owe taxes you can't do it if you owe water you can't do it so it has to be someone that is um I thought it was Al um I thought it was uh so it has to be someone that you know can do this and pass a Cory and also not owe money to the city and if they do owe money to the city we we start to work with them as the council and agent we start to ask you know why are you behind on your bills is there anything that you need can we address any concerns that you may have and there's been people that have come out and told us and then we helped them to get to a point where they can pay their taxes and others that you know will just say well no I don't want to be involved so then they come to us and what we do is once we have the applicants and we ask the applicants like what is your passion what would you like to do what what did you do did you work and what was your work like and we interviewed them it's actually one of my um senior workof person is the person that does the um applications we're doing applications right now people are coming in to interview um and once they've done that then I sent out an email and at a department head meetings I say the tax workof program has begun and it's to All City departments so anybody that's City Department gets that email from me City wide saying that we started and if you'd like to have a volunteer in your organization let us know in your department and then we match them and sometimes it's worked there's been times where it hasn't and then we move them somewhere else and basically um I keep a couple but I always if there's not enough space for you know all the all the people that are involved and you know the Departments don't have the need for it then I have them work at the center with different things that we do whether it's programming filing calling decorating everything and anything that we need but they usually wor 67 hours during the year no it'll be 67 now for $1,000 it was 37 hours for 500 for five yes but during the whole year is 67 nine months yeah CU then Alex has to we have to send all the information to Alex and Donna um the um payroll person and then they have to process all the um paperwork by December 31st by December 31st so it it is a process I mean it's not just like okay yeah come in and that's on the that I you know that they have the process but what I want then to to know that they has to come and they has to work for a couple of hours uh during the week or maybe one day a week or they they make that determination I really work with people they whatever they can do I mean somebody might say to me hey I could do 10 hours for the next 6 months and I'm like okay what days are you available and they tell me and then they give me you know we're very flexible um we also understand that people have lives and things happen so but we do we are increasing to $1,000 yes okay so we divide it on whatever the time that's they already expect there's somebody some people say to me okay I want to work 35 hours and they'll do it in two two weeks right and then there's people that say I don't I only want to work one day a week or I want to work four hours is it's really up to them what they're available to do I we don't put no restrictions on it I love my seniors no stress you retired you worked you're done I know thank you okay thank you so much thank you councelors any other questions in regard to these I just want to make one point so we want to do a couple things we want to amend this we want to amend this so that it's a it's it's $1,000 which is part of it but there is no dollar amount it it is whatever the state minimum wage law reflects so there is no set dollar amount except for whatever that is if it moves up it moves up right so it's indexed to that that's number one number two this program should begin starting July 1 so I'll make that as part of the motion so a July 1 start date for for this as as as recommended by the uh by Miss bz yes um Alexi and I spoke about that and it's really important because it would be fy2 and that's what we need so that the people that are working now will get their tax break next year so Council Council Blan can you cl5 a little more when it comes to that uh what you just mentioned to be clear on them on that uh on the amendment so two two things just to be clear three things to be clear $1,000 the rate is the minimum wage start date July 1st so the $1,000 is going to be divided by the minimum wage and that's the amount of of hours are they going to be correct correct are they going to be working if the if the minimum wage goes up and then the hours go down correct all right uh canel any other questions in regard to this matter and just one more thing just so that you know this it's um a minimum of 50 people so 50 slots that's what it is maximum councelors any questions regard to this item if it's not at this time I call the questions all and Fa please say I I any notes the I have it thank you on behalf of all the seniors in the city that need your help thank you thank you M for being here uh we have a few other items consider planed for somebody that is here sure we've got a I've got a few here that I know folks are here for 134 135 and 136 yes I have those highlighted okay okay 133 okay yeah but I mean later we so um will you first would do one it does make difference we have city employees here I like to get them out if we can I I Mr Vega what are you here for B are you here oh you're I know what you're here for uh we'll go with if that's all right we'll start off with 13424 that the Full Count the ordinance committee met and sent this up to the full counil with favorable recommendation pending some information so and that information is the the actual ordinance that we are reauthorizing so that is my that's the motion there is a motion on the table 13424 is the number properly second on uh the information that was pented is is the the information current uh good evening councilors um yes I met with attorney hoen uh this afternoon and we did find uh clause in the section that uh was um ordinance at one time uh but the position hasn't been filled in over two decades uh I do have a principal clerk that we want to and need to retain uh in any other community or in Lawrence she could be an assessor so essentially the assessor's office is benefiting by uh increasing or reclassifying the the principal clerk to an assistant assessor uh you know what you just did right that you going you pointed out somebody that is so valuable that so my so another Community might take she's uh been yes and unfortunately I've been getting calls from other assessors oh you see and she has applied but she's um she's staying in larts uh she declined the position but uh this essentially was um supported by the mayor uh I worked on the uh class uh the job description with our former uh HR Director uh and it was uh classified as being in the clerical Union so we're not gaining a position in the assessor's office we're just um in essentially U reclassifying the position to act uh increase those duties that she's already doing celor uh any questions attorney you you approaching the podium I didn't know I I I I I asked him he thought I was going to ask a question Mr President and he's so correct so so the the the ordinance is very clear we are for this and the next three when a position is vacant Mr President for six months or more the city council must reauthorize that ordinance so the very first question that the ordinance committee asked was what ordinance are we reauthorizing some of them were able to find and some of them we weren't and that this was one that we weren't so the very simple question is which ordinance in this book are we reauthorizing so the ordinance is not in that book but it was ordinances it is missing from the book because and you of all people appreciate this it was ordinances in 1887 87 um it has never been removed and as you know once an ordinance is added it cannot be removed unless it is there's a formal V formal process so it has never been removed it doesn't have a number but it's been filled in the past number like 20 years ago obviously our last person that filled this is sitting in the room but the ordinance exists I can't give you a number but I can show you where it was in 1887 when it was adopted by the City of Lawrence so I I so I think we're going to support at I'm going to support it this evening but however with with this I will ask for a gentleman's agreement here through you Mr President which is this I would ask that you submit that whatever you have to the city clerk so I what I don't want to do is start a precedence where we are we are authorizing authorizing things that are not authorized we need to have a basis and I not on my watch I'll support this but if you could provide that to the clerk I will feel much better about this vote no problem I I agree with you uh thank you Council PL can you also uh provide the the uh the actual listing of the of the position as part of it as well as a we send it to all members of the council yeah all right uh counselors any other questions or concern or any other um anything on this matter at this point I call the questions all Us in favor please say I any Nots the eyes have have it councelors uh councel plan you have other items I got some more uh doc document 13524 the ordinance committee met and sent this document up which is to authorize the The Filling of a supervisor's position in ISD uh make that uh send it to the full council with favorable recommendation and make that in the form of a motion Mo on the table properly second discussion that was I I think that was one that we were clear 130 do we have a number on that one we did okay we did or do okay under the ordinance 2.64 241 06.04 got it you subit can you submit that for the record as part of this uh item sorry can you please submit that for the record for as part of this item just the yeah yeah that's good thank you so much counselors any other questions in regard to this authorization at this point counselors I call the questions all as in favor pleas say I any not the I have it uh C plan document 13624 the authorization to fill the assistance commissioner's health and code services for more than 6 months make that in the form of a motion there is a motion on the table can you hear a second second properly second by celor Rees um I'd like Council uh yes this next item was for a position for a u licensing supervisor um intensive search I didn't go back to the 1800s to find an ordinance but um I couldn't find an ordinance for that one so at this point I'd like to withdraw Mark hang on one second there we go they're on this one the assistant commissioner no we just they just voted on that no that was the supervisor position so we're supervisor you just submitted 13524 you approved that one that was the supervisor position and and we approve and now you're on assistant Commissioner of Health and services so we don't we want to approve that one it's the next last uh can you take the mic please for clarification purposes Y which one are we dealing with right now 135 or 136 I thought we just 136 should so for 136 do you be at 136 and that's the number we do have a number for that it's 24407 we gave you the previous one I think you the previous one was the supervisor position and that should be 2. 64241 so we do have an ordinance for the for both for the for the item 135 and 136 we have an ordinance number it's 138 which we're not there yet yeah yeah yeah one just one thanks all right uh councilors we do have an ordinance for this and the council most authorize uh this position to be fail uh pass in six month counselors any discussion uh on this at this time councelor I call question all those in favor please say I I the eyes have it any Nots the eyes have it um coun plan item 13824 uh the ordinance committee and I I just I'm sorry that I just keep here it is the ordinance committee met and sent this up with a favorable recommendation pending the citation number uh and I make that in the form of a motion is there a citation number Mr blanched for this and I think the answer is no um so unfortunately I didn't find a a citation number for this and and at this time I think I would like to withdraw this um this item from your agenda and come back after we like to withdraw my motion and now make a motion to withdraw we have two options may I table works table pending preparation of a ordinance for this position we'll have the City attorney prepare a new ordinance I'll remove my ordinance to I remove my motion to withdraw I will insert the motion to table hi thank you council president 3124 31 3124 five or six items up in middle of under ordinance I'm sorry councelor speaking the microphone 3124 is review and update of mileage travel that's the uh the review and update of mileage travel policy uh ordinance uh 2. 140 uh 240 uh I I uh we're just amending the we just amended the ordinance uh 2.14 240 to changed a few Clauses I'll defer to the City attorney if that requires a public hearing yeah we CH the ordinance that require a public hearing uh there is a motion to public hearing properly second by C by CC vice president infant all those in favor please say I hi any knows the I have it [Music] um all right and now we're going back if it is anybody all from The Bu and finance if I I mean from the ordinance committee I have in the table matters it is 23 of 374 on page eight we have that item yes item um item uh 37424 which 23 which is the request State aor of Diana vogo outed the law Community assess television alcat uh it was uh put together by councel Levy uh and we have attending uton with with us here can I can we hear a motion to untable this item table second there is a motion to untable this item by councelor Levy second by councelor Rees uh discussion I hear none all and fell please say I hi any knows the eyes have it U hton please give us an update on these item item 13 7423 the the itself it seemed like a great idea until it came into practice uh what happens is when we contact it uh the Zia's office they cannot um do a uh an audit of the um elcat but what they will do is they will audit the City of Lawrence in charges $330,000 um so I would recommend that we dismiss this so that a we're not subject to an audit because that's not what we wanted to do when we don't have to pay the $30,000 when it comes to the audit uh to the city of lers what do they mean so they would audit our books of money we received from um the uh for for transmission of the um cable what we've spent our money on you know what we did related to the if we if we bought new cameras they'd audit all that which is not what we wanted we wanted to audit elcat we wanted to counselors any questions regarding regarding to this item um Mr pres Le okay so I spoke with u Mr Miss and what she said that it's going to cost about is $10,000 and what they going to do is to addit the the contract so they want to looking on the Contra and they're going to see practically you know what was right for the city and what was right for the the company the ELA company but still I know that she is coming this I think so that this week and to practically to let her know what is going to be our and what is not going to be outed but at the cost is not she never mentioned 30,000 she say it's going to go approximately $10,000 right which but they sure because we are not getting money from the estate or Fe that's why they canot um AIT that that part right so it would it would not help us in any event what we want at elcat is to see what they've done with our money that's the one one thing this audit will not do they don't have to review their books they don't have to show the state anything they would review what we did and maybe they might find something that we did wrong but I it doesn't make sense to audit ourselves um because we pay we pay taxpayer money to audit us we want the lcap to find out what they I mean that's the purpose of it was to determine so I I think my opinion is it should be dismissed because they're going to audit us if we don't dismiss it C the plan and is oh no he's still here so I mean if we wanted to we've already pay the auditor our auditor that we do the annual audit um if rather than paying 10,000 I mean there is the possibility of we are audited every year and on your agenda time under new business is the FY 23 audit so so that would that could include or does include that if we that includes all City expenditures All City Grants and funds that we have but does not include anything for lcap because they're separate entity remember lcap was getting their checks directly from Comcast to the nonprofit elcat so the state auditor can't audit a nonprofit I get I get the through you I get the why the auditor can't do it I'm just wondering if our own Auditors would would do would they but again that that would be us and not them and the whole point of this was to figure out what are they doing with the money that we're giving to them to do the work that they're supposed to be doing what are they spending the money on and that's the reason why I think we were starting this whole process and so uh even if so I was I was thinking there may be a way for us to encapsulate that but no that's not going to work that way because why it be our books we want to know what elcat is is doing with with the with these I'm going to call the public dollars right because it's filtered through us to them got it thank council president uh Council Council inan you through you um attorney who in is a city required to have a nonprofit specifically to run our our channels no we're there's two two ways of doing it we can have a city Department many cities have their own cable company located so it would be city employees instead of being the Department of Public Works it would be the department of cable so you can do it that way or you can hire an outside number nonprofit both ways school department our school department does it anyway so there just like the school that was I was going to say that is there Council Council CC you have the floor pass it over I'm sorry Council L we have three you you won't we have three channels yes I will I will share the floor we have three channels yeah so all right uh thank you thank you yeah the three Channel counseling F in case that that might be a little bit of clarification uh we have the educational Channel we have the community Channel and we have the government Channel those three one of them it's been run by the school department currently the other the other one I don't know is as the government the one that we actually R in the City Council meetings right so in the community is the one that the alcat used to run right yes right now technically no one is running the other two the government Channel you are putting through YouTube it's not really through the U the proper Channel we're looking to purchase some equipment to change that and thank you so much thank you for the clarification that's one of the question that we have in public here in public participation today um councelors at this point I entertain any motions in regard to this item motion to table second there is a motion to table properly second no discussion on the table matters uh all just so the board understands tbling this means we're getting audited underst St uh there is a motion on the table no discussion on the motion to table can I make com if you want to withdraw your motion we can you draw it but not discussion on the table matters I'm going to withdraw the Motions because I motion table is been withdraw now councelors I entertain any other motion motion to withdraw I want all right there is a motion to withdraw properly second can I hear who second the motion just for the record second Ana or Lon on second so you got we got it for the record so did you make the motion to withdraw oh L make the motion to withdraw who second the motion no I will if no one else will and then Council La plan would uh second the motion discussion I hear no discussion all and please say I I the I have any Nots discussion I said discussion C Le got to hurry up because we need we you before I have a question you said that if we table if we table this uh item it's going to be the audit but I feel like I say Miss deogo is coming this week to speak you know with the mayor as far as I know and they haven't made any decision regarding the audit this that we are getting a FR before no talking so if if you vote the state auditor will not come she's saying the state auditor is coming this week if we vote to dismiss this item the state auditor will not come she is coming I'm sorry but she is coming she she may she may arrive she's not doing an audit let me be that specific she can come and talk let me ask you a question do you want do you do you want the city to be out of it that's the question if you desire that and then we should keep it table as you as you desire and then they going to out of the city of Lawrence if it's not and then we should do what been I've been asked to Mr President through you okay so EST is not being decided any add it at this moment to make a table iose we miss the and it's no discussion I SP with is is is been not decided to do any a until she had this meeting that is coming this week do you wish to table most that's is what I say motion to table there is a motion to table can you hear or second second properly second no discussion on the table matters all those in favor please say I uh bro please councel Levy yes councilor llant no councel Lan no council Del Rosario is noted as absent councilor Santiago yes Council marmo no council Selena Reyes no councelor vice president in fonte no council president Rodriguez no motion fails now we'll have an underline motion which is uh a motion to withdraw uh councelors if it is any other discussion in the motion to withdraw I'll call the question any discussion I hear none so at this point I call the question to withdraw all those in favor please say I I um bro please uh Roo please councilor yes Council Amo yes Council Santiago yes Council Del Rosario is noted as absent Council Lan yes Council plant yes Council Levy no council vice president fronte yes council president Rodriguez yes motion carries thank you thank you uh councilors any other uh before we go to the top of the agenda any other items from the um from the ordinance committee that would like to to take um 133 is still here uh and then we have U all items that are in the public hearing have to let it know that I get a motion to pass 11 I there is a motion to disable properly second discussion I hear none all in fav please say please say hi any knows the eyes have it uh 13324 which is the proposal to allow retail solve of cannabis within the uh Lawrence uh City Limits uh they are here um I don't know if you want to councel a plan do you wish us to take this item out of the sure counil president I'm happy to do that um what's the number again I remember the motion 13224 that was uh the motion was to withdraw 1334 133 for the the the ordinance committee met on 13324 this is a proposal to allow retail sale of cannabis within the luren city limits the ordinance committee voted unanimously to withdraw this item and make that in the form of a motion there is a motion to withdraw properly second discussion discussion uh councilor vice president Infante thank you um through you chair Council of the plant can you can you let us can you explain why the the commit voted to withdraw this please I cannot and I'll tell you why each Committee Member as you know has their own reasons they may or may not say their reasons during their votes so I can't explain why each counselor voted the way they did so so there so there was just it so it wasn't this this is a new item for this year so it wasn't even discussed there wasn't nope it wouldn't I'm sorry no it's okay um well so the there was no discussion at all pertaining this item it was just motion to withdraw that's it so so there's a lot of things happening here number one me um the vice chair is correct U there was nobody here to speak on it number two oftentimes if you've been to an ordinance committee meeting you will know that uh there are times where counselors either will know well I mean they have their reasons so I'm not going to go into why counselors do what counselors do um but they felt comfortable enough with the materials in front to vote the way they did and I can't speak I can't speak beyond that right Madame Vice Sheriff bam Vice presentent Infante um do you wish us to ask questions to the proponents they here tonight I I would like to comment on this item I don't have because they are here tonight I think it's great to hear from you guys so so okay let's let's open the floor to them uh they for out of the respect that that as a proponent they deserve U welcome to the law City Cil name man for the record yes can and uh please you have the floor to explain item 13324 which is the proposal to allow retail s of canovis within the lawen city limits thank you um yes my name is Andre cologne I'm from Canal Street um ladies and gentlemen esteemed city leaders my name is Andre cologne today as We Stand United in our community let's let us remember it's not about the challenges we face but about the resilience we show in overcoming them together we have the power to turn obstacles into opportunity doubts into determination and dreams into reality let this Gathering ignite our Spirits fuel our passions and Propel us forward on a journey of collective growth and prosperity for in our city in our Unity lies the strength to shape a a future filled with hope compassion and boundless possibilities let let's embark on this journey together inspired by the belief that our actions today will create a brighter tomorrow for generations to come I stand before you today with a vision a vision for the future of our beloved City of Lawrence as we navigate a complex landscape of Community Development and progress it's imperative that we come together to explore new opportunities for growth and prosperity one such opportunity lies in the establishment of cannabis retail within our city limits I understand that this may be a controversial topic for some but I urge you to consider the potential benefits it could bring to our community first and foremost let's talk about the financial benefits the Cannabis industry is booming and by allowing retail establishments and lares we have the opportunity to tap into this lucrative Market through taxes licensing fees and other revenue streams we can inject much needed funds into our Ci's confers enabling us to invest in vital Public Services infrastructure and Community programs but it's not just about the money the economic benefits of cannabis retail are vast by creating new businesses and OPP and job opportunities we can stimulate economic growth reduce unemployment and improve the overall prosperity of our residents moreover Studies have shown that the presence of legal cannabis dispensaries can actually raise property values in surrounding areas this means increased equity for homeowners and more vibrant real estate market for our city of course I understand that education and transparency are key that's why I'm committed to working closely with city leaders church leaders and Community stakeholders to ensure that the establishment of cannabis retail is done in a responsible and transparent manner we will prioritize education campaigns to inform residents about the potential benefits and risk of cannabis use as well as the regulations surrounding a sale and consumption by fostering open dialogue and providing accurate information we can Empower our community to make informed decisions so as we Unite with a single voice alongside with City residents um business owners who are already dedicated to fostering Economic Development within our community I respectfully urge the city to place the question of Permitting cannabis establishments on the ballot for residents to vote on in closing I invite you to join me in this journey towards a brighter future for Lawrence let's work together to embrace the opportunities that cannabis retail can bring while also ensuring the well-being and prosperity of our residents shouldn't we aspire to leave a better place than we inherited thank you and I thank you again for your attention and I look forward for your support in this endeavor thank you council president do I still have the floor you have thank you I first um many of my colleagues may have a different opinion than I do but I first want to applaud you guys for coming in front of the city council um because we do have a more overall and I might I'm going to just say overall as a community we do have a a more more old school mentality however the the average age of the City's population is 32 years old so most of our residents are within the millennial age um within conversations that I've had within that age bracket um people see the benefits the tax benefits of this people see well the financial benefits um we've we've have Deb we've had debates within um within our within our groups about seeing Billboards of other uh Cannabis stores being advertised here in Lawrence and yet Lawrence does not have a piece of the pie I've I've read multiple um business articles on the growth of of the Cannabis industry and and all of that so I'm I'm speaking because I've I've done research on this because I've also never understood why the City of Lawrence did not jump on this when it was first legally when the state first legally approved and we may have different conversations to we might we might have had different conversations today about financial resources when we need to fix a school or something if we've had another tax revenue benefit um so but again this is a much bigger conversation that requires a lot of Ed that requires a huge educational component um I do believe I I don't know if coming straight to the city council is the right way of doing it I I think there there is a whole Community benefit um Community forums uh partnering with other um organizations uh other groups that do want to see this and are willing to put in the effort to make sure that that educational piece of this industry is brought into our communities so that's something that to be looked into as well I'm sure you guys already have but just to put it out there thank you Council councelors any other questions in regard to this item item the underly motion for the item is to is to withdraw so councelors any uh any questions um on this item councelor M council president at this point my my question is directed to you or or our um our chairperson for the ordinance committee as to where how do we move forward from here with this specific item if if it's I I guess the request is for it to be withdrawn but yet we have someone speaking on behalf of this item well we we are that the motion wasn't detained it was in order to withdraw but any other motion uh will take prejudice if it if it gets second so the motion to withdraw doesn't mean that it's that we need to take a vat on that we can take we it just happened a few minutes ago that we have a motion to withdraw and then it was another motion on top of it uh to table it and then it that one fell and we this is the same situation do you Mr President yeah will a motion to table we proceed but we're not telling you to table it but I mean we we're telling you you know the the the parliamentary procedures so you can have any other type of motion uh on this matter as as decided by the council so just to finalize then um and it is important to recognize to that back then when we discussed it when we discussed this uh back in 2016 I believe it was if I recall correctly um huh 2018 2018 2018 was one I remember remember that it was back in before 2020 but um uh we adopt a portion of the state law that allowed that is was allowed to communities that bed no uh on the uh on the legalization of that U of Cann ofes within the state of Massachusetts back then it was the City of Lawrence just for the history portion of it I guess that I become hist teacher sometime but just for that uh for the sake of the uh Clarity of this item the City of Lawrence voted not three times during different elections when it was uh when he was uh when the people have the opportunity to vot it uh for the disc criminalization of the Canabis uh uh and the people wouldn't know to and then there was the um the medical uh marijuana vat uh back it was like probably 3 years after that and the City of lawren was one of the only two municipalities that were know out of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts and then when we come when it comes to the legalization of of marijuana uh on within the state of Massachusetts the City of Lawrence was one of the uh I believe less than four or five uh cities and towns that voted against it uh it a coalition within the city of L come over to the city council and petitioned that the desire of the voters at that point was to not allow um any type of um uh business or dealing with uh marijuana at the point at that moment when that happened uh uh the city of the city council uh chose to adopt a portion of that specific law uh that uh prohibit um commercialization of the marijuana within the city limits and that was that was what happened so now we have an item in front of us to um potentially have the opportunity to discuss what was adopted back then in 2018 um so but that's the that's the a little bit of um of what happened back then I was part of the council that's so I you you Mr President for the record oh so that was the longest meeting that we ever have in history we were here like in the morning U to you cons president yes but uh uh C do you finish um it's just I I I think that the what my opinion is uh the best course of action um is to uh I submitted in the form of a motion that this item is get sent back to to the ordinance committee and have them address it at the um um at the ordinance [Music] level well it's being it was withdrawn it was it is a motion to withraw we have at the full Council because nobody was there to yeah to speak on behalf of this item so but I can I can send it back to the ordinance committee when to would take a vote uh to any that this motion to withdraw or any type of motion uh any other only know the motion that that overseed that overpass the motion to withdraw so we will entertain any other motion but at this point we have this motion here so Council Lon have the floor and I mean c is asking for the floor you have the floor but I mean um coun I I just uh through you Cil president because I know they're doing meetings in the city um the commission um cannabis Control Commission was here a few weeks ago so it it's an opening is this a possibility out there cuz I know they were here yes um what they were having here was an application Clinic um to let the residents know about their um social Equity programs it's that what you're proposing it's it has to do with that do you guys apply for I am a social Equity applicant but I didn't apply this time around I applied about two years ago okay so I and and I'm it's confusing cuz we voted against it but they here conducting Community uh Community meetings well we what we vot against it it was uh any type of uh commercialization of marijuana within the law City Limits one the city limits were prohibited any commercialization that doesn't mean that any type of infos section might happen okay and I believe that what happened was an infos section that they have within the city of La uh but no commercialization perhaps dispensary are not allow or any type of commercialization of I said for the legal one marijuana that's true I mean it's been happening every day within our streets but not legally cons president so it this are they um are we are entertaining no let me put it this way so if we send this to the ordinance committee if we do another MO motion uh are we are wasting their time cuz this well um to be honest with you uh I believe that if let's put in perspective if we withraw this item uh nobody will be able to bring this item to the city council for the next year if if any other uh any other motion take place that motion will will take place and and and we either keep it here or do something else but in the meantime the motion in front of us is to withdraw and that motion is in order so if we keep it here and we don't entertain there is 71 item on the ordinance committee that were send it up for withdraw on today's agenda this won't be any difference I mean it's it's something that we do very often we table items uh we move on we withraw with prejudice without prejudice uh and then we do all things I mean what the city council wants is to take take an stand on the item meaning that we either leave it here or we would are and then if we leave it here other step might take place Cil president so my question is there is there is any possibility of having this type of business near the city can we councelor I mean we don't know I mean it's up to the city council to AB up to and then it's up to the city council to take that portion of the law or I mean withdraw that motion that we took back then in 2018 and maybe allow this to from happening but remember we are not the only body I mean this the mayor have the power of beetle if we take any measurement the mayor might say you know what I'm beaing it and and then a super majority vote need to happen at the city council to override the mayor's vle but we don't know I mean what possibility exist we don't know it's it's like it's up to the city council to take a position on on any item and then it's up to the mayor to either be to it or not be to it the motion that we have in front of us that I'm being entertaining that is in order is motion to withdraw may I say something sure um you right now do have um other dispensaries being placed on your borders from other neighboring cities um so you are allowing your residents basically go and pay their their fees over there and provide those taxes to Lo and havil and drit uh we understand uh councelors at this point uh if it is any other motion or any other question I would like to make a motion to table there is a motion on the tables take Prejudice um properly second all Us in favor please say I I I Rocko please on a motion to table Council Levy no council plant no council Lan yes um Council Del Rosario is noted as absent councelor sanago yes councilor marmel yes councilor Selen rez I yes Council vice president fonte yes council president Rodriguez I say yes uh motion has been table thank you for coming thank you thank you um now we go to the housing committee Mal Sher from the housing committee who is here who is ready to go uh Madame shair uh Council M from the housing committee we have one two three four items so through you council president the housing committee met on item number 11724 um um accepting new Street layout for Mar ma Street and South Broadway um I believe we have Mr Kenny Lamar if I'm pronouncing uh his name correctly uh to speak on behalf of this item which was voted um in a favorable recommendation to the full Council I welcome name and address for the record please so I submit that in the form of a motion we there's a motion on the table can I hear a second Mark help me out no I mean uh there is a motion on the table can hear a second second properly second discussion question uh welcome and name and address for the record hello K March 1046 s Street uh project officer of Economic Development Department so uh we met uh a couple of weeks ago uh regarding the projects Marx Street and BR U Martian Street and we're just trying to accept the new layout for Mar Max street it's pretty straightforward just want to hear your thoughts all right councilors any uh any any questions on regard to these at this time I call the questions all those in favor please say I I there I have it item 11824 through you council president the housing committee met on item number 11824 accept New Street layout for Marson Street and uh East havil Street um we have Mr Ken La march to discuss this item to which uh the housing committee voted in a favorable recommendation to submit this item to full Council there is a motion on the table properly second by Council Santiago um discussion after you council president counc Lon I just want to say a thank you to um um councelor marmel and to uh um mcarty and the department for the an excellent presentation uh that um they invited some of us I think uh and it that helped a lot so thank you so much for doing that thank you councelor Mar for organizing it you're very welcome pel any other questions in regard to this item are here no so at this point I call the questions all those in favor please say I I NOS any NOS the eyes have it um item 11928 through you council president the housing committee met on item number number 11 1924 approved donation and voluntary Grant of easement necessary for the Redevelopment of a public roadway at the intersection of maren Street and East havil Street 255 East havil Street param School we have Kenny L Marsh to discuss this item I submit that in the form of a motion to which the housing committee met and voted in uh in a favorable recommendation to submit this to full counc so there is a motion on the table prop second Santiago uh discussion I hear none all Us in fav please say I hi any not guys have it um Madame chair from the housing committee item 1224 through you council president the housing committee met on item number 12024 approved donation and voluntary Grant AV easement necessary for the Redevelopment of a public roadway at the intersection of Marston Street and East havil Street uh 207 maren Street which is the parum school we have Kenny L march to discuss this item I this in the form of a motion to which the housing committee met and voted in favor in a favorable recommendation to submit this item to full Council there is a motion on the table properly second discussion I hear none all those in favor please say I any not there I have it thank you thank you so much um I counselors we have public going to top of the agenda we have item we have the public hearings um Madam uh we have public hearings for hindica parking uh Madame CLA please uh read the notice for uh all the handicap parking that were um we have a handicap parking uh Madame CLA can we can we read the public hearing notes please for the record um document number 29121 notice is hereby given that the City of Lawrence will host a public hearing on Tuesday April 2nd 2024 at 7M in the council chambers 200 Common Street lence Mass pursuant to chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 and in accordance with the recently revised city council rule 2 this meeting will be hybrid allowing participation both in person and remotely to accommodate any participant with health considerations that prevent them from participating in person to receive access codes for remote participation please contact the city clerk at eileen. bral cityof lawrence.com or at 97862 3230 the meeting may be viewed on Facebook and YouTube the purpose of that hearing is to gather testimony information and public input concerning the proposed amendment to the revised ordinances of the City of Lawrence to be further amended by adding the following subp paragraph to section 10. 36. 340 of the municipal code handicap parking Lawrence Street East Side from a point 108 ft north of the intersection with Fern Street to a point 128 ft north of the intersection with Fern Street persons wishing to be heard shall be afforded the opportunity councilors U at this point at this time public hearing is open anybody from the public that wishes to speak on this item anybody from the public that wishes to speak on this item I Hear No so at this point uh uh public hearing is closed councilors what's the motion to approve there is a motion to approve properly second discussion I hear no discussion so at this time I call the questions all us and fav please say I I any knows the I have it uh councelors can I get a can I get a can I hear a motion to wave the the reading of that Preamble on the acts motion to wave the Preamble there is a motion on the table properly second by councelor Santiago uh this question I hear known so all Us in fav please say I the I have it Madame shair can you read the notice for the public hearings on Resident parkings the purpose the purpose of the hearing is to gather testimony information and public input concerning the proposed amendment to the revised ordinances of the City of Lawrence to be further amended by adding the following new paragraphs to section [Music] 1040 660 of the municipal code permit parking Street designation to be inserted in the proper alphabetical order Walnut Street East Side from Myrtle Street to bronfield Street and Walnut Street West Side from Myrtle Street to point 216 ft north of Myrtle Street which is directly across from bronfield Street and Coleman Street both sides from Everett Street to the dead end and Abbott Street both sides from Philip Street to Osgood Street and Chum Street East Side from Arlington Street to Center Street and West Street both sides from Alden Court to Florence Street and Basswood Street both sides from Arlington Street to Alder Street persons wishing to be heard shall be afforded the opportunity uh we have a public hearing on items uh 29123 336 23 35823 39023 and 4623 and and 47923 uh if anybody from the public that we should speak on these items this is the time president is the for all item council president my for that um thank you I would like to take item 330 three yeah but P36 on its own because there's additional information we will do that you can but we will just open the public hearing we close the public heing and then we go to each item individually um the public hearings for those items are now open anybody that wishes to speak on these items this is now you have the opportunity anybody from the public y NE just for the record please yeah my name is good evening all consuls my name is Hector Rodriguez I live in the a little part uh War Street or problem to or problem of the my neighborhood is that when I return it for the everybody his job anybody find the parking for his car because the the other Street leave the car and Old Street and uh my neighborhood needed hope for the city for the putting the signed for this only resident parking for the 7:00 700 p.m. to 7 a.m. and uh more support for the um traffic control because the city put a lot of sign of parking in the corner and anybody respect that every day every single day turn around a lot of time or wait for the one people leave it for park it in low and then you go to my house this is the situation for all neighborhoods and they a little part other person have a other person have for example something business and he parking for repair something car because this is not legal and uh his car putting outside and occupa more space for that this is the situation in this a little a little part the the the the one or three um you you have the floor anytime you want is do this this is everything we need to say if you want other another information no I just saying the public hearing is open uh yeah because uh I send up I give you the a lot of pictures for proof that what is the situation in this history anybody else that wishes to speak on on these items that we just mentioned previously name and address for the record please hi hi sorry I'm nervous uh my name is Elizabeth Jimenez uh 681 Street um I live in the first floor where he live and I just want to verify uh that all he's saying is that there's no parking at all for him because uh there's a different cars from different street parking our street because they also don't have parking and they leave it there like the whole day like we every day is a fighting like for the for the parking oh let me see he left let me take it and for that's why we want we asking for Resident parking uh at least two resident parking like for the house and visitor parking also um because all the people are coming from all the street to park where we supposed to park and then for example for him he work over night so when he come he need to leave the car like far far far away from the house and walk to the house and then in the morning go back to his car and sometime you know uh they can do anything to his car over there when he really can have space but other people from other Street are coming to park in our street sometime they also block like my driveway like when I go to work there's a car blocking my driveway and then I need to call uh like P like do it you know in the find in the morning that I need to work so it's really like a problem no matter that I had two parking but you know he don't have parking and then they also blocking my driveway so last time I hit somebody by mistake and you know that's point for my license when I really was trying to get out because I needed to go to work and thank you so much anybody from the public that wishes to speak at this point C's public hearing is now closed I will entertain a motion for each of the item individually item 29123 which is the resident parking on wner street um it was u i a motion on this motion to approve there is a motion to approve second properly second uh councilors we have a recommendation discussion uh before we go there we have a recommendation from the officer Cano from the police department for this item I hope that everybody have read this uh C plan thank you uh one of the Shockers time and sometimes you're always shocked when you open up this book and you find something you didn't expect place for Resident parking I did not know until about a month or two ago that Resident parking stickers must be renewed every year it's been 30 years 1994 is when the when the resident parking stickers were it started this process not 1887 but 1984 and so it's so I don't think anybody's been going back and so my fear is that even if we go ahead and we've got several coming up here you're the first one but if you don't go to the police department the ordinances is very clear it's the Traffic Division who's in charge of issuing the um the stickers right uh under under the police department and it's two two two bucks it's not a lot of money um and so what I what I what I don't want and we haven't had this problem but I could foresee it happening is what I don't want is for people to come here not renew their Li not renew their their resident parking sticker at the police department and then there's a some sort of litigation some sort of squabble or or disagreement regarding yeah I live here no I live there I got a parking sticker but that sticker is not legit because they didn't renew it and so I'm trying to get the word out i s the word out to former police chief Castro about it but things we all read about things got kind of nutty so I never really got a response but the issue remains so I say this now I'm not going to say it again for the rest of them but we people should be aware that we have ordinances on the books that require individuals to go to the police department to once you get the approval here You' got to get the the permit at the police department you got to pay it and it's due all permits will expire on January 3 31st the following the date of the issuance so it's due every January 31st and that's in case we're watching or if you're wanting to look it's 10. 4.20 issue of permits right thank you counc PL for the clarification um councilors we have an we have an item in front of us a motion to approve any other questions I Hear No so at this point I call the questions all and F please oh by the way they clar we got a clarify that that um according to the recommendation that um The Residency parking will be from Monday to Sunday from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. during the night since he did that officer Cano sent and I I I know we copied you I I don't know who else we copied he actually was saying he was going to to make it more uniform he was recommending 5:00 p.m. to 7: a.m. to just have it be consistent um on all the Resident pocket if they're going to have a time restraint he was proposing that one um no no he's well resident parking wouldn't be with there's meters so but he was saying 5. because people get home from work at 5:00 and there's they can't park till 7:00 the spaces don't open up because so he's suggesting 5:00 for the start and then 7:00 p.m. so they're out of the there 7 a.m. yeah yeah 7: a.m. um but that was if there's sections that are having hourly constraints he was recommending 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. to be consistent councelors we can uh we can modify the motion based on the recommendation uh 5-7 uh or 6 to8 is up to the council uh councilors what is the motion within a specific time I would encourage through you I would ask who's the author of The amend of this motion councel infant I would ask the counselor if she would mind accepting a friendly amendment to go with coun Mr Cano's recommendation of 5:00 p.m. to 7: a.m. and keep it consistent I accept the friendly Amendment uh so the new so the the timing will be from 5 p.m. to 7 in the morning all right councelors any other questions in regard to these you Mr President Council Council re yes I want to to offer some clarification because when we assignment resident parking is uh for every resident is not assignment for apartment or something like that so and the way that it work as far as I know is that anybody that live on that street and have a car registered on that street uh will will take advantage of the Russian parking uh is for Resident parking typically block by block so you your block will get a card everyone in your block will have the exact same card from the police department that you can park on your block usually they run run about a block anyway like the length that they usually issue it is usually about one block so um if somebody's three blocks down and they have res parking they should be parking where you are they Park in their block where where they have their own resident parking are we starting to do something like that in our city the plet that they get states which street they're on so it should be pretty clear okay thank you I question sure can you finish you guys on clearity yes I want to uh be clear on that because we have a lot of Resident parking but uh we have different street they have resident parking but they don't have two spot for Resident uh they only have resident parking is interesting to know because we have some resident have lot interesting to have the own spap for they don't need to worry about that no that's not how it work I mean uh okay no that's my question it is important to recognize that you know everybody that live on the Block and park within the block and we actually adopting a a a a resent parking within the street um essentially you know that it might be more people than the than the street can hold but it's not right in front of your house nobody's going to be entired to not even the handicap Park can en tired to that uh unique a a space is like it's for anybody living within uh within the block or Street uh that it's have the right to to park but it's not it's not no exclusivity yeah uh sometime our Resident was confused because when they when we off for Resident parking they think oh I can parking in front of my house and other resident cannot occupy the space so that's why I want to offer this clarification yeah the question that I have is that Resident parking is for w New Street that's correct and W New Street have we know we have problem with the parking anywhere but War Street it is like a side street we have principal street over there like Arlington Street is they they do a corner with wo and Arlington and the resident live over there they don't have in front of the street they don't have parking and how if they do just for the wild yeah we have the situation before and um unfortunately that the program goes for people that have the car register on that street we have that uh situation on Jackson Street that Jackson is prohibited and then that is Park Street the house is aone Park street but the rest the address of the of the house um belong to Jackson so they were not able to take advantage of that uh of that uh resident Park and we ended up removing those that the handicap Park I mean the resan parking from there but the signs was just renew I not is said so it is that's how it is people that register the vehicle on that specific Street are going to take advantage of that it's not necessarily people that leave on the street could be that people have um people people live on the street but doesn't have the car registered on the street they register on the mom on or somewhere else and they don't they won't take advantage of that they won't they won't be able to park because it's with the registration the proof that you leave there as far as I know right all right councelors any other motion any other any other questions in regard to this at this point I entertain I call the questions all and F please say I I the eyes have it any knows the eyes have it uh item 3 3623 resent parking only Colman Street councelor Infante was the auor of this U of this uh item what is the motion motion to approve there is a motion to approve second discussion discussion Council Council vice president Infante thank you just quickly I I don't see here that it was some say reference to to officer count and and the City attorney um the City attorney did send his recommendation and he he does um recommend us to to move forward with this so just officer can also send it and yep so motion that we did the motion that we did with with the time frame that that just pertained to the previous item right correct or according to what he was saying and what this what this clerk was uh requesting to is to keep it consistent with all uh resident parking okay they want signs my huh they want to have signs that they purchase that have the times on them so they all have different my motion my motion is motion to approve with the resident parking only um time to be from 5:00 pm to 7 am there is a motion on the table properly second discussion I Hear No so at this point I call the questions all Us in fav please say I the eyes have it item um uh 35823 resent parking permit for AA Street between Phillips and good C plant that was your that was your item I'd like to make a moot make a motion that we approve this document what it should read because it was amended at the ordinance committee was from between South Union Street and ozid street so there should be a change it should say South Union Street and oid street so I make that with that change in the form of a motion there is a motion on the table um specifying the time from 5: to 7: and including the yes including the time 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. properly second um we have public par participation on this item specifically uh all those in favor please say I I the I have it uh item 3933 resent parking only Chester Street on OD numbers between Arlington Street and Central Street uh councelor Rees and councel Rosario where were the out of this item councel Rees what is a motion there is a motion to approve proper second uh inconsistent with the time 5 to7 uh any discussions councelor I hear none all Us in fav please say I I the ice haveit item 4623 which is the resident Park in for West Street in front of in front of Florence to aler street from Florence to Alder Street both sides it was uh sent out to uh it was put together by uh Council Rosario celo malm this is part of your District do you desire to make a motion yes and one side is D and one side is C I represent that area trust me it is it is like that thought you said it was my district it's no cons m i uh any [Music] no I said if you're willing to make a motion motion to approve can I hear a second can I hear a second all let's keep it consistent with the timing uh the same time counselors uh the motion include from 5: to 7: in the morning yes all right counselors uh any any um any discussion on this I hear known so at this point I call the questions all please say I the I have it councelor item 470 47923 resent parking only for BSW Street uh from Allington to Alder Street councelor Rosario was putting this item on the agenda councelors what is the motion item um item 47923 resent parking only for B bus bwood Street motion to approve can hear a second second properly second discussion I hear none so at this point I call this is this is in combination with the time right yes from 5 to 7: a.m. um all pleas say hi there eyes have it public hearing for stop sign mad share can you please read the notice stop sign um the purpose of the hearing is to gather testimony information and public input concerning the proposed amendment to the revised ordinances of the city lawence to be further amended by adding to section 10281 100a of the municipal code stop signs and flashing red signals the following two paragraphs in their appropriate alphabetical order Carver Street it should just be one paragraph I apologies cover Street northbound drivers on cover street at the intersection with marac Street persons wishing to be heard shall be afforded the opportunity um public hearing is not open can uh there is anybody from the public that wishes to speak on the item 32523 I here known so this point uh public hearing is now closed councelor what is the motion motion to approve there is a motion to approve the stop sign councel inant is this is a one two-way stop sign or four-way stop sign this is a oneway one two-way stop sign okay no one way so Carver Carver street is a little side street that go onto marac street so they they take that little size three SE okay so one way all right not a one way either no one way is stop sign yeah yeah one way stop sign correct y yes um councelors at this point um can I hear a second properly second discussion uh there's no discussion at this point uh I call the questions all and Fa please say I I the I have it uh public hearings on concast utilities madame chair please read the notice for the record not not for the not for the concuss document number 41-24 is the public hearing for Comcast as the purpose of the hearing is to have the testimony information and public input concerning the petition presented by Comcast cable communications Management LLC requesting the city of liance mass by and through its council members for permission to locate poles wires fixtures and conduits including the necessary sustaining and protective fixtures along and across the following public ways it's a document number 41-24 install underground conduit at two Appleton Street under methan Street starting at the existing utility poll number 3293 D2 put on the agenda by David R flow fluing from Comcast copies of the relevant plans for this petition are on file with the office of the city clerk may be viewed upon request persons wishing to be heard shall be afforded the opportunity councelors at this point uh public hearing is open anybody from the public that wishes to speak good evening Dave lelling um Comcast 9 fores Road wuben Massachusetts would like to speak in favor of the Comcast petition from thean Street um to place one 3-in PVC conduit at 172 feet plus or minus for the purpose of providing service to number two Appleton Street all right um um if you finish I will say U thank you for the information uh at this point anybody else will wishes to speak on this item item 33523 I hear known so at this point um public hearing is now closed we will call ID on 33523 I'm sorry item 4120 40 4124 which is the in the installation of underground conduit for two up Street councilors I will entertain a motion motion to approve motion to approve properly second by Rees um discussion I hear no so I'll call the questions all as please say I the eyes have it a public hearings on National greet utilities Madame shair could you please read the notice the public notice for the record I have three Public Notices on this do you want me to read all three or yes please okay the purpose of the hearing is to gather testimony information and public input concerning the series of 15 petitions presented by Massachusetts electric company DBA National Grid requesting the City of Lawrence Mass bu and through city council members for permission to locate poles wires and fixtures in conduit including the necessary and sustaining protective fixtures along and across the following public ways document number 1j pole on Abbott Street near South Union Street National Grid reference number is 24911 796 document number 48523 install one J pole number 781 on Beacon Street near the intersection of andova street reference number is 2943 8746 document number 48623 install One S O poll number 524843699 Bailey Street near Foster Street references 3055 2693 document number 487-2340 and 5149 on Market Street near Parker Street reference number is 3055 2693 Dr number 48823 is installed twoo polls number 5217 d84 and 6097 on Salem Street near Blanchard Street document number 489-2322 n to mh- 691 on Market Street near Parker Street reference number is 3055 2693 document number 49-23 install one J poll number 5430 on South Union Street near Grafton Street reference number is 29866 089 I might have had an extra six in there I apologize document number 491-2334 52690 document number 492-2344 72 document number 49 3-23 construct underground electric conduits on South Canal Street near Asbury the reference number is 29411 772 document number 49423 construct underground electricity conduit from pole number 106 to MH number 1794 in merac Street near cver Street document number 49523 locate 1 s so poll number 1184 in remac Street near Parker Street reference number is 29411 772 document number 49623 is installed two s polls number 6560 and 6671 on South Canal Street near amsbury Street reference number is 29411 772 document number 49723 is installed one Jo pool number 12-50 on Canal Street near Union Street reference number is 30552 269 document number 48 49823 construct underground electric conduit from mh-1 127 poll number 12-50 on Canal Street near Union Street reference number is 3055 2690 copies of all 15 plans for copies of the relevant plans for all 15 petitions are on file with the office of the city clerk and may be viewed upon request persons wishing to be heard shall be afforded the opportunity um continuing on with the additional seven petitions presented by the Mass Electric Company DBA National Grid requesting City allance by and through city council members for permission to locate polls wires and fixtures and conduits including the necessary sustaining and protective fixtures along and across the following public ways document number 43-24 install one so poll number 5880 at the intersection of Ferber Street and ever Everett Street document number 44-24 install two Jo polls on Green Street reference number is 30861 30861 1638 install document number 45-24 install two J polls on havil Street reference number is 30861 1660 do number 46-24 install one J pole on Park Street number is 30611 648 document number 47-24 install one J poll on Mark Washington Street reference number is 3068 4441 document number 48-24 is install one J pole on Railroad Street reference number is 3039 4415 and document number 4924 is install one J poll on Broadway reference number 30 39441 15 copies of the relevant plans for all seven of these petitions are in filed with the office of the city clerk and may be viewed upon request persons wishing shall be afforded shall be afforded the opportunity and then the final is um a series of 15 petitions presented by the Mass Electric Company DBA National Grid requesting the City of Lawrence Mass Buy in through it city council members for permission to locate polls wise and fixtures and conduits including the necessary sustaining protective fixtures along and across the following public ways is document number 9324 install one J poll on Washington Street reference number 30 68449 document number 9424 is construct underground conduit on common near Asbury Street reference number 30 46932 document number 9424 installed two J polls on Lawrence Street remove one jail pool and relocate one jail pole number 3075 2978 docum number 9624 and install two J polls on Salem Street near South Union Street there's no sound coming 2 38-50 document number reference number is 29411 796 document number 9724 is install one J poll on South Union Street near Abbott Street um reference number is 29411 796 document number 9824 is install two JL polls on Springfield Street near Parker Street poll number 6193 and 5176 the reference number is 29411 796 document number 9924 two J polls on Newton Street near Kingston Street polls numbers are 405 and 49-8 4 reference number is 3054 6082 document number 10024 is install one J poll on Newton Street near R Street poll number 39650 reference number 3054 6082 document number 10-24 is install one J poll on Durham Street near Rose Street poll number 45884 reference number 3054 6082 document number 10224 is install one J poll on Crosby Street near Broadway poll number 476 reference number 3054 6082 document number 103-2 24 install one J poll on ever Street near sandborn Street poll number three excuse me 539-8386 [Applause] d24 motion past 12 there's a motion on the table properly second this cion I he no so all fa please say hi ni have it um I don't even know what I just on but um document number 105-24 is install one so poll on South Union Street near Springfield Street poll number three 23384 reference number is 29411 796 docum number 10624 is install 1so poll on Springfield Street and sou Union Street poll number 5163 reference number 29411 7 96 document number 107 d24 install twoo polls on South Union Street near marac Street poll number 2330 and 2331 reference number is 29411 796 copies of these relevant plans for all 15 of those petitions are on file with the office of the city clerk and may be viewed upon request persons wishing to be heard shall be afforded the opportunity councelor councilors at this time um I open the public hearings in regarding to that National great utilities anybody that from the public that wishes to speak anybody on Zoom please this is the time hello Council Tim Williamson here from National Grid 1101 Turnpike Street in North Andover um thank you for the hearing for this large number of petitions I'm here to represent the vast majority of them um the first 15 that were read off remember is 48523 no okay we we good we good on the numbers okay uh I just wanted to let you know I'm here for the vast majority of them we'll ask you any questions if if if we have any questions yes and we've been through the ordinance committee where I answered more thank in depth questions so please let me know if you have any other questions thank you so much anybody from the public that wishes to speak I hear know so at this point public hearing is now closed motion to approve um as as a package we are will willing to to take everything as a package or we're going to go individually as a package all right we can we can do three packages or we can do only one package all been record yeah we going to we already have it uh all of the items been readed on the record uh on the public hearing so we proving everything that was rating on the public uh on the public hearings so we can if it is if it's not I have no objection to take it as a block I think that we should take three different blocks all the J's or the SOS and the utilities uh utilities um conduit so motion to approve all the J's um so there is a motion to take all the Jos as a block uh all the jail Pauls as a block the item on item numbers were rating on the public hearing uh properly second discussion discussion cons plan I don't have any problems except for one of these items and so I would like to take one off the block because I'd like to support the rest of them as a friendly Amendment just to not deal with 42823 if you could take that one out of the block and have a single vote on that I would support the rest of them Council of ice pres inant will take the friendly amendment I accept the friendly Amendment okay there is a friendly amendment being accepted um so now let's go with EV every other J Paul set for item 42823 so we go back to that one later on uh counselors any any questions in regard to the Y post that we're reading on the public hearing I hear no at this point all those in favor please say I I the I have it any knows the I have it uh let's go uh let's go to s o PA no motion to approve all so poll items that we reading on the public hearing we read on the public hearing yes there is a motion on the on the there is a motion on the table properly second discussion on the S so polls I Hear No so at this point I enter I call the questions all Us in favor please say I I the I have it now the motion will be uh for the U uh the underground ele elect conduit can you hear a motion to approve all of the underground electric conduit motion to approve all the undergound electric cond there is a motion on the table uh to approve all the electrical underground conduit uh that we're reading on the public hearing properly second discussion I hear no questions or discussions uh at this point I call I call the questions all please say I hi any other um um characteristic of work on their National Grid I think those are the only threes all right counselors now we're going back to itan 42823 which is that U w307 9965 install one J PA on AA Street um so I entertain a motion to um I entertain a motion for this item counselors what is the motion item uh 42823 we have the uh the the person here in front of us that was the item that we actually removed out of that ordinance committee and send it out for public hearing motion to approve it's been um motion to approve we have no questions at this point yes hello uh do you do do you want to add anything on this item yes I'd like to know why you're tbling it so that no we are not tbling we are not tbling it okay thank you all right we'll ask the question okay so I it's been it's a motion to approve item 42823 can you hear a second second properly second this council plan oh okay I thought okay uh all those in favor please say I I uh any NOS Rock up please um this is with regard to document number [Music] gone noted as absent Council plant no council Lan yes councelor Del Rosario is noted as absent councel Santiago yes councelor Marl noted as absent Council um Selena Reyes Council vice president Inon yes council president Rodriguez yes motion carries five votes councilors we are finishing with with all the public hearings now we're going to go uh to all business we have item 18122 which is the resolution to establish appropriate feed structure for the utility companies councelors this item was uh was was sent out to order a public hearing but according to the City attorney we have no requirements on this because we're only changing the rate the rates are as following according to what I remember and Madame CLA please correct me if I'm wrong we are going to be we are going to be charging any utility company coming from fa City allance asking for permission to to do any work for the the amount of dollars for the of the publication plus $100 um at this at this time with not Jud on entertain a motion councelors uh counil was one minute I apologize there was a little there's not a little there's a lot of conf usion on this item and it's but stalled out and I apologize for my pot in that stall um I was able to meet with the city attorney and he had initially said to me because we're just changing the amount of a fee it did not require public hearing same as when we change a salary we don't change the whole ordinance for a position however he said we weren't adding a fee today he said to me you know I've been thinking about that one you're not adding a fee you're adding a set amount plus a fee so you really should have a public hearing on that so he said that today so I AP we just haven't connected today so we should order a public hearing on that so counc entertain the motion to order a public hearing on this item there's a motion on the table to a public hearing property second by councelor Santiago discussion I he know so at this point interested u i call the question so all those in favor please say I there I have it um U Mr M Mr chair from the ordinance committee please go on top of the agenda document 42323 um thank you for your notes excuse me we will take those back to um the management and thank you for the public he go ahead Mr U Mr chair from the ordinance committee 42323 handicap parking and East ex Street was sent up to the full Council to order a public hearing and make that in the form of a motion there a motion property second um discussion are hear none all those in favor please say hi hi item 44 23 440 is ordinance the right turn only for vehicles exiting businesses between durav and chering Street uh that is sent up to the full Council to order a public hearing that's a motion motion on the table to order public hearing uh prop second say the item for 4823 uh 15 minute parking two spaces at 205 South Union Street this was to full council with a favorable recommendation to order a public hearing that's the motion second uh the motion is this a meter meter location I believe there's meters there yeah I mean that's not going to fly so after 6 p.m okay all right um thank you for clarifying that uh there is a motion to order public hearing on this item properly second all please say I I the ice habit item uh 3024 this was sent up this is upon Pawn broker's license at 333s Street the the applicant was here at the ordinance committee this was sent up to the full Council to order to to approve make that inform of a motion there is a motion to approve uh properly second properly properly second discussion any questions on this um all right um at this point I call the questions all please say hi there item 11124 this ISS no parking 20 ft on Bennett Street West ride near me for Street and this was send up to the full council with a favorable recommendation to order a public hearing that's a motion this is a this is a No Parking from here to Corner seems to be a no parking area let me go into it a little more deeply hang with me what did they say I mean I mean I don't want to a public heing if it is a 25th from here to Corner because that's an ordinance already the sign the sign I mean we just need to request that through the DPW we don't we don't have to publish that all right uh let's councelors we can we can we can table this matter here and then uh we find out because I mean uh ordering a publication for this I mean doesn't make sense document 11224 um so we'll leave it there we'll just leave it there I'll come back to it when item 11224 no parking Farley Street North Side at South Broadway sends up to order of public hearing that's a motion motion um motion um there's a motion on the table properly second discussion councelors I hear no at this point I call the questions all and Fa please say I uh item 11324 no parking Farley Street Southside at South Broadway sent up to the full council with a favorable make that inform form for motion door public hearing second there is a motion on the table properly second discussion I hear none all those in favor please the I have it item 1222 24 um this is to remove a handicap parking sign on five plat street that was sent up with favorable recommendation to Republic hearing that's the motion motion to remove um handicap parking there's a motion on the table properly second discussion here none all those in favor please say item 12524 uh remove handicap parking sign at 15 FMA street that was sent up with a favorable recommendation to order public hearing that's the motion motion to to order public hearing on this item it's been properly second by councelor R of Santiago um please say hi have it item um 128 handicap Park in 48 Utah Street uh this was sent up to the full council with a favorable recommendation to order of public hearing that's a motion all right there is a motion on the table properly second discussion none all probably say guys have it um going back to item 11124 yeah I found the police department's recommendation um on that um the distance starts from the edge of a private driveway which may be the mitigating factor of a building 24 Bennett Street traveling south I'll cut to the chase here according to officer Canó he recommends that this ordinance be granted um all right there is a motion uh motion to public hearing second there a motion that's I'll make the motion all right motion properly second U discussion I Hear n all those in favor please say I guys have it it now we going to ordinance but the withdraw items counselors I would like you to take a minute to look into it to see if there is any item that wish to to keep otherwise we're going to withdraw it all and next meeting you can put anything that you wishes to work with council do you have any suggestion yeah council president you know we um I I think what we're trying to do here is that there's a lot of and I heard the public heard the public participation earlier this evening and I I saw some of the raised eyes from some of my colleagues earlier about what is going on here this is important why you taking this off what is happening here's a couple things one is that the there's not a lot of confidence to be very Frank with the nine pages of materials that's before the ordinance committee previous members of the ordinance committee says what's this doing on there we passed this we withdrew this we did something on it it shouldn't even be there um there are there are things that have been passed there are things that have been withdrawn so what this is an effort it's this is not going to be 100% correct and I I think we're going into this with with our eyes wide open open but what we're trying to do is have a clean slate but understanding that there may be counselors Council presidents which I think is the point you're driving at there may be counselors who say you know something this has not been dealt with adequately or or whatever I think what we want to do rather than going and started cherry picking we say you know something put it on put your name some some of these are not even people's names or other people's names put your name on this um and then I I will support putting that um that's a a commitment I'm making right now if you decide that we withdraw this evening and if you have a problem getting it back on the agenda I will support you getting it that back on the agenda just because we're trying to clarify this thing as much as possible so that would be a long way of saying I hope we can go through this entire list and if somebody wants to put something brand new on it again we should take it and refer it back to the committee Council of plan thank you for the suggestion there is a few items that we're going to be sending back to the ordinance committee that were publish it here item 0823 handicap parking on for benington Street apartment 81 that's going to be back to the ordinance committee item could you do me a favor council president I'm trying to look for them could you say slowly please the very end the very last ones the that W supped to be on yeah item 10923 which is the 15 minute parking uh on 4 and 359 Len Street that's going back to the ordinance committee item 2223 with one way um on win of Winter Street um that's going back to the ordinance committee councilors if you if you take a look at any item that you think that you're going to be working on please let me know so we can send it out and then we draw the rest of the items just to give an opportunity to anybody to send anybody anything to to the back to ordinance uh mad's vice president infant thank you I would like to sign item 2553-22 traffic study on for Hamlet Street and surrounding School Z Streets back to the ordinance committee I have not heard back from the city engineer nor was the item number 250 2553-22 I've also 253 d22 uh going back to the going back to the ordinance committee counselors any other ones I have a few a few here as well okay it 11219 um that item is going back to the ordinance committee I have I have one I have one item give me a minute cers just take a quick pick to see uh if it is any item Council council president if somebody doesn't see it this evening for whatever it's tired it's 12:15 or whatever it is they can always put it back on afterwards yep um item 11019 going back to the ordinance committee uh item 20421 U the base typing for the school committee going back to the ordinance committee I um 20421 m that already pass there's a couple actually it wased different it wasn't like mhm if you see there get all right councelors we will call the questions to withraw all the the rest of the items M CL do do you do you believe it's appropriate to read all the items I will also ask that we take off uh councilor Levy since the box has been open has asked me for for one so 11819 as well 11819 going back to the ordinance committee that's it2 it on 20421 going back to the ordinance committing item 167 D21 going back to the ordinance committee 15722 going back to the ordinance committee MH council president would it be an order for me to start reading these now sure like to make a motion all right we'll make we'll have a motion to withdraw um The Rush of the item we're going to have to read I will read them quickly unless the clerk wishes to read them sure i' like to make the the ordinance committee met to withdraw the following items in bulk here we go 719 plastic bags prohibiting single use 1519 no parking H Street in front of school Street New Hampshire and Franklin Street 1 to 7 a.m. 5319 American with Disabilities Act coordinated reclassification 10619 handicap parking remov 170 172 Boxford Street 11319 traffic set Aon Street speeding and traffic controls 11919 speeding speed limit Common Street to New Street 1209 speeding limit Common Street to Union Street 12419 upgrade city council and Clerk Office salary s Clerk Office salary 17919 petition to reloc is this handicapped parking space 2019 establishment of health and human services including reorganization 20819 propos city ordinance Amendment ordinance section 5.36 regarding vendors in public places 2219 Rene Museum Square parking garage of City of Lawrence Central Parking facility uh 2 2619 one side parking only Tenny Street 21929 update no parking signs Hall Street 27119 loading zone parking space between 12: and 300 p.m. 27419 C parking 105 doorchester Street 2 9219 noise ordinance Amendment prohibited noises 9.04 point4 219 29919 no parking in front of schools 2 to 3 hours 33419 fourway stops sign intersection of Butler and Milton streets 38119 handicap parking 337 bangton Street 38419 loading zone 381 hav Street 36 3969 noise orance review 9.04 point4 40119 fost Drive no parking both sides of the on day schools in session 7:00 a.m. to 8:15 and 3 to 4:00 p.m. 5320 roundabout study May and Manchester streets Bodwell and margin streets uh 5720 request to rezone 576 handy haval Street to R2 residential to ha Highway access 6420 resolution Jim Ross 75 B20 proposed ordinance calling for eviction Mor term for all Lawrence residents due to co Corona virus covid-19 120 amend ordinance 5.48 790 15120 request to amend a zoning ordinance per mgl 4A section five the proposed planning industrial district 25220 city council salary review 26620 resident parking 11 East table Street 491 I'm sorry 4921 proposed minor reorganization of Lawrence planning board [Music] term um schedule and replacement policy Teresa can you do me a continuing 5721 winter parking Trenton Street alternate side parking ordinance 8221 proposal to regulate outdoor dining within City and sidewalks EV title 12 City Municipal Code 8320 proposed changes to administrative fees for municipal boards 10421 residential permit parking ordinance Amendment Amendment 12621 handicap parking 132 Margin Street 13421 open meeting law complaint 17121 review and make changes to the new noise ordinance 17421 remen the city clerk Bond section 2.16.20 17721 taxi liery renewal Town Livery Incorporated 201121 1n Street to be named after Juan dios Vios Venturi as well as a Dominican artist 20221 street named after sergeant johanni Rosario 2221 crossing signs daycare 80 I'm sorry 96 table Street and Berkeley streets 23121 Sterns AB one way Northbound from Mayflower Street to lawren Street 23221 Sunset AB one way southbound from sarga Street to lawren Street 23321 Min or is 10.3 6.31 to include Stern a for the winter alternative parking to 3721 amend ordinance 10.3 6.31 to include Willow Street to the winter alternative parking 23821 amend ordinance 10.3 6.31 to include Exchange Street to the winter alternative parking 23921 amend ordinance 10.3 6.31 to include Sunset AV to the winter alternative parking 24021 50 minute parking 93 sa Street 24821 flood insurance increase in Lawrence 25621 alternative parking Mechanic Street 25721 oneway mechanic street from north to south from El Street to Union Street 26021 amend ordinance 12.1 12.01 0 2222 handicap parking 53 Bradford Street 2722 modification of ordinance regarding compensation of Library director 4422 study review Magnolia Street 4822 request to accept three public utility easements for construction and maintenance of South Broadway and marac Street intersections do I need to read all those okay 492 4922 request to accept five permanent easements for construction and maintenance South Broadway and Marram Street intersections I'm just going to read the property address 2628 South Broadway 24 South Broadway 1822 South Broadway and going back to 4822 those addresses are 10 South Broadway South Broadway marac Street and 5 and seven marac Street page six oh I'm sorry in the continuation of 4922 you have 10 South Broadway and South Broadway marac Street 7422 is for sales from fixed locations uh L Mercedes home appliances 9622 preach the word of God May August of 2022 2 to 4 p.m. O'Neal Park 10922 request for a resolution of establishing language for RFP RF RFQ 11922 oo license Kaja um joer 20024 Broadway 13022 platform Outreach Ministries uh 147 uh Camp no common 14722 old golden secondhand dealer license 18222 resolution limiting food trucks to one per business 18522 decoration of Square Park Union Street Corner Canal Street 19422 request for easan acquisition to South Broadway uh and South Broadway miramac Street intersection and Improvement projects 19522 request for Eastman acquisition of 13 South Broadway South Broadway mirac Street intersection Improvement project 20822 discussion of ordinance chapter 15.14 conflicts 22822 traffic City Lynch Street 23522 resolution resident parking only bigel terce to Reservoir Street to bellie Street 24522 handicap parking 24 Belmont Street 24722 traffic City re review Basswood Street 25222 traffic City Mount Vernon Street 267 B22 resolution supported requiring payment of prevailing wages to all city workers performing private utility con constructing in the City of Lawrence 29622 TR City Review Sunset AV 30222 resident parking only Bass Street from 6:00 a.m. to 6 6 p.m to 6 a.m. 30422 traffic City Review Avon Street from Berkeley Street to Jackson Street 30522 traffic City Review SX street from a street to Milton Street 30722 drop off pickup parking space 94 Street 6:30 a.m. 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday through 2622 request for staff parking only a city owned school property 6: a.m. to 600 p.m. beginning at on 8:28 through 6:30 of each year or any day the school is in session 33022 traffic stud review on Jackson Street Corner with Park Street 330 322 parking permits 163 lawr Street super Mass grocery LLC 3 37022 handicap parking 56 Avon Street 374 7422 Human Rights Commission ordinance uh 389 22 and gstar family parking Amendment UN code 10.3 6.44 39022 oneway Sarah toga street from benington Street to Park Street 39222 review and adjust fee schedule city clerk's office 43522 National Grade Essex Street install 1j pole 1471 8 to 23 handicap parking Four B 10 did I miss one stop3 is not being withdra sorry 923 is not being withdrawn thank you there's a big stop sign there all right councelors um all the items were written um any questions in regard to this item uh who was the one the councilor that second day I was a motion to withdraw can I get a second properly second by C re yes uh the items went reading any questions on the items I hear know so at this point I call a question so all those in favor please say I I guys have it uh councilors we're going back to new business um and on the new business item 14024 stop sign on W Street that's going to the ordinance committee item 14124 Declaration of hunger uh hungered allowance Municipal April as a school that's going to the ordinance committee item 14224 preach the war of god uh various spk and locations between uh 51 24 to 9282 24 that's going to the ordinance committee uh 14323 temporary public uh Arts installation a Pik River Gateway and O'Neal uh companion park that's going to the ordinance committee item 14424 Earth Day City wise clean up May May 4 2024 that's going to the ordinance committee item 14 14524 regaining the the regaining in the Valley Evangelical event uh that's on a 16 17 202 uh of year 2024 that's going to the ordinance committee item 14624 uh 3 and3 basketball tournament June 8 2024 that's going to the ordinance committee item 14724 La Fiesta bario June 8224 that's going to the ordinance committee 14824 establishing a home rle petition uh defining the governor structure of the L school committee upon the exit of the state receiver that's going that's a home R petition that's going to the ordinance committee item 14924 removal of Hut Park in 67400 Street that's going to the ordinance committee 1524 Dia clamore servicios the clamore service that's on a August 31st 2024 that's going to the ordinance committee item 15124 request for status on veteran advisory Council chapter uh 2 116 that's going to the personal committee 152 24 uh concerns regarding the staff the Staffing at the veteran services office that's going to the personal committing council president yes I make a motion to formally request the presence of of our veterans affairs director Jamie Melendez there is a motion on the table to request the person of the Veterans Affair uh Mr Melendez properly second discussion I hear no no discussions all please say please please send the notice item 15324 handicap parking on 17 B uh bford Street that's going to the ordinance committee item 15424 the creation of an ordinance regarding the C uh the Cel agenda automatically withdraw of document after every two years that was um that's going to go to the ordinance committee item 15524 update from urban renewal plant councelor this is a a a duplicated item we already have two items on this that we will discuss and we can use to um to discuss this can I hear a motion to withdraw so moved there is a motion to withdraw properly second discussion discussion Council Council vice president inant thank you I quick question now that we're going to have a meeting is this going to be as a special meeting or are we bringing it as a committee of the whole um oh no because they're already at the full Council never mind the full Council um there's a motion to withdraw item 15524 properly second discussion I Hear No so at this point I call the questions all Us in favor please say I all any NOS that I have it item 15624 fiscal year 2022 audit uh of the financial statement uh by power um suent uh it was um that's going to go to the budet and finance committee item 15 724 appropriation transfer for the amount of [Music] $170,000 uh from salaries um to the litigations um that's going to the budget and finance committee item 15824 appropriation transfer for $ 29,257 funds to the AIL repairs and maintenance funds that's going uh to The Bu and finance committee item 159 24 extension of a contract Beyond 3 years contract 7055 L LHS associate that's regarding to the city clerk office that's going to the budget and finance committee item 16024 install a j on a near Union Street that's going to ordinance committee item 16124 review and approval of annual application on Hop uh for the Community Development block cbgs and then estimated for the amount of um 1, 55162 and the home ground U funds estimated for the amount of 944 074 75 that's going to the budget and finance committee item 16224 the transfer fund for the amount 1,874 [Music] 6394 uh councelors we need to uh declare this item as an emergency to be added to the uh to the agenda this is in regard to the transfer fund for the amount of 1,874 $639 49 from the retaining earance of uh to debt Services that's in regard to the um to the water Ur Department councelors can I get a motion to add to uh to add to the agenda in declar J as an emergency for the benefit of the community second there is a motion on the table properly second discussion I hear none at this point I call the questions we need six vote for the approval all those in favor please say I any nose the eyes have it item 16324 this is the S situation lawen High School civic education uh project is creating an U the creation of an ordinance um this is uh we need to declare Jus an emergency uh for the benefit of the students the community um to be able to add this item to the agenda can I hear a motion to declare this as an emergency for the benefit of the community and the students of the lawence High School uh Pro there is a motion on the table properly second um discussion at this time I hear n all Us in favor please say I the eyes have it so this item both of them are being added to the agenda and the first item 16224 which is the transfer fund will be to will be going to the budget and finance committee and item 16324 which is the L High School civic education uh project is going to go to the ordinance committee both of um the project want 324 was a sponsor by the teacher and the students uh my name is there but I just was transmitting the information and uh one of them is going to is going to go is going to be around trash disposal and the legality of it and also and the other one is going to be regarding the traffic uh traffic U situation around the high school councelor at this point if it is any other questions or Matters from the table matters uh this is the time I Hear No so at this time I entertain a motion to to we have Comm committee meetings and you get a special meeting you're going to call I'm guessing Council ccors um budget and finance Wednesday at 7 p.m. Wednesday at 7 um ordinance committee Tuesday at 7: Tuesday at 7: personal so womon you have two two minor items one no CU um Wednesday at 6 and I would also like to make a motion to invite the mayor's Chief of Staff Santiago Maas uh the mayor senior advisor okan spanner and also the acting HR Director mik Mark aello to that meeting as well there is a motion to invite previous name that were mentioned by Council of Vice President Infante um can hear a second second uh she was inviting the chief of staff the senior adviser and uh the CF regarding to person items is that Wednesday at 6 p.m. no next week you won't be able to wake up tomorrow 10 yep councelors any objection any questions at this time I call the questions all Us in favor please say I I the eyes have it uh the special meeting will be oh personal on Wednesday at 6: p.m. uh we have no items for housing no item for safety and no item for the um Economic Development um we will get in touch with um the elate and the disponibility of of the board to see when they might be able to come for the special meeting and also we need to uh figure it out who's going to be presenting uh the urban renewal plant specifics uh in regard to to that so we'll decide when that special meeting is going to happen once we have those three or four parties all together motion to adj motion to adjourn motion properly second all those in favor please say I I there I have it thank you thank you so much councelors