e school coming how are you good evening everyone welcome to the July 22nd joint meeting between the city council and and the school committee please rise to salute the flag Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation indivisible withy and Justice R Club the members of the city council and the school committee councel agenzio here here councel janino here here councelor greo SAA here here councelor H here here councelor hero is absent councelor Kelly here here councel McKenna here here councel nelski is absent councel Silvestri here here councilor zambuto is absent and council president Cog Leandro here here members of the school committee school committee person Bronson Rizzo absent School Committee Member kiano here here School Committee Member Kingston here here School Committee Member Milbury Ellis absent School Committee Member moso here here and chairman Keef here here Quorum is present pursuant to chapter 147 of the acts of 2004 the city council and remaining members of the school committee shall meet and join convention and fill the vacancy cause by the passing of school Committee Member Anthony Tony Mata for the remainder of the unexpired term by selecting the defeated runner up for school committee from the last regular election Frederick sella Madame clerk please call the role shall the joint Convention of the city council in school committee select Frederick sella the runner up from the last regular election councel agenzio yes yes councel janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly yes yes councel McKenna yes yes councel noeli is absent councelor sylvestri yes yes councelor zambuto yes yes and council president Cog Leandro yes yes school committee person Bronson Rizzo is absent School Committee Member kiano yes yes School Comm member Kingston yes yes School Committee Member Milbury Ellis is absent School Committee Member monteroso yes yes and chairman Keefe yes yes the defeat of Runner R Frederick Pella has been chosen to fill the vacancy caused by Tony School Committee Member Mr Pella please raise your right hand and repeat after me using your own name after I say I if I say my own name you're going to be in trouble I I Frederick sella do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that will faithfully and impartially that will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me all the duties incumbent upon me as a member of the rier school committee as a member of the rier school committee according to the best of my abilities and understanding to the best of my abilities and understanding agreeably to the rules and regulations agreeable to the rules and regulations of the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth the laws of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts so help me God so help me God congratulations Fred did you see your autograph over here like take this opportunity to thank the voters of R for taking a look at an old warh hor and unfortunately how I'm replacing a past member of the school committee it's not a comfort zone but the mechanism was in place and I am grateful grateful to the city council members grateful to the members of the school committee and I will serve with the best of my ability again thank you there is no further business and this meeting is adjourned e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good afternoon we're calling the legislative affairs sub committee meeting to order please join me in a salute to the flag States Amica stands indisce for all loc of the members councelor greo SAA here here councel hero here here councel Kelly here here councel sylvestri here here and chairman agenzio here here Quorum is present first matter on tonight's agenda is an ordinance providing for interpretation services for public meetings and public documents Council har um thank you Mr chairman for the leeway on this ordinance um the administration and I have worked for a few months now to align uh not just city regulations but city ordinance and code with uh some requirements that the the uh Department of Housing and Urban Development uh has put on us in relation to in order to be able to receive some Federal grant funding um and so you know this does a lot of that alignment and puts it into code that way um you know we we can be in compliance thank you any other members wishing to speak hearing none um Madam um should we move this to a public hearing it's up to the committee okay motion to move to a public hearing there is look at the ordinance there's um it says this ordinance shall take effect on July one okay so um can we I thought we had to fix that Madam clerk but if not can we move that so it could be was is it 90 days from adoption oh different ordinance all right well let's do the same for this so 90 days from adoption I think should be fine that a motion motion okay all in favor all right all right now motion to move to a public hearing Mr chairman roll call roll call of the legislative affairs committee members to send the ordinance providing for interpretation services for public meetings and documents to a public hearing as amended councilor Greeno SAA yes yes councelor hero here yes sorry yes councelor Kelly yes yes counc sylvestri yes yes and chairman agenzio yes yes this ordinance will be for forwarded to the city council with a recommendation to be ordered to a public hearing thank you next matter is a is an ordinance requiring the publication of certain records of the police department Council Kelly thank you Mr chairman so we have had a lengthy discussion on this motion already it was in Health and Human Services subcommittee where two amendments were proposed and passed and we've also had a public hearing so I feel at this point um we've really beaten this like a dead horse um so I'm requesting that we vote this out favorably tonight and recommendation to the full city council to have a vote there um the motion is in the interest of Public Safety public awareness and transparency and I believe a majority of councilors are in favor of the motion uh it is not seeking anything over and above what other cities display on their website for example the city of Lynn and I am also like to mention that I'm glad to see that the police log has been reinstated again in our local paper thank you Mr chairman any other members wishing to speak uh Mr chairman I I've shared a couple amendments that I hope are amendable to um to the group and if I can pull them up quick enough while the Wi-Fi logs in I don't know if the clerk has them handy u h okay um let me pull them up on my on my cell phone and I can share what those amendments are my apologies two addition ones there were two additional amendments um at the last meeting that councilor Harry Mio had offered but uh the committee or the city council did not vote on them it was just notated in the in the meeting minutes so I have them up if that's helpful uh and you have them in for your records uh to add to this ordinance uh subsection D the Department of Public Health and R Police Department mental health and substance use clinician draft a recommend draft recommendations that govern and guide this ordinance with the best interest of harm reduction mental health and restorative justice justice in mind that this ordinance go into effect no later than 30 days after sub recommendations that duly submitted to be placed on file with the city council and the mayor's office thank you any members wishing to speak on the amendment roll call on the amendment roll call on the Amendments councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor Haro yes yes councelor Kelly no no council sylvestri no no and chairman agenzio no no the Amendments fail is there a second amendment no there together so roll call on the original for motion F favorable recommendation correct shall the legislative affairs subcommittee offer a favorable recommendation for adoption as advertised on the ordinance requiring the publication of certain records of the police department councelor greo SAA yes yes councelor hero yes yes councelor Kelly yes yes councelor sylvestri yes yes and chairman Areno yes yes the ordinance will be forwarded to the full city council this evening with a favorable recommendation for engrossment and ordainment thank you uh next Council order is motion presented by coun Greeno SAA that the mayor requests the city planner to draft a zoning ordinance prohibiting short-term rental use in single family zoning districts councilor Ginos good evening um I found out a lot more information today and my situation is I think it's really important that we try to support the neighborhoods that have single family homes and um I've also found out that there aren't that many Airbnb families in in um in single family home districts which is a plus and there's only a few operating that are in the process of being shut down as they are not not adhering to the primary residence ordinance in this place so I do understand that we're that we being that the short-term rental in the r a district We Can't Stop people who already have it but if this passes no one will really be affected this evening because they are closing down airbnbs and short-term rentals that are legally oper ating so what I I really really want this to pass because it's really important that people know that they they can feel safe where they are that these people are not coming in constantly and with the airbnbs and they're not following what they're supposed to be following is impacting a couple of neighborhoods and one in particular being the point of pines and um I appreciate the work that Nick Kazo and um Vin azio are doing and helping us with this they do a phenomenal job and I will take the recommendation of what they have and go from there thank you any other members wishing to speak okay okay okay now there there are additional uh requests from the short-term rental off office uh that they want to put in uh to tighten up the regulations uh Madam clerk would you mind reading those sure so the the short-term rental office had submitted a proposed ordinance um for the purpose that of you know assisting the the city council in getting the short-term rentals um tightened up uh section one would be as follows section 8.09 point3 A2 of the r revised ordinances is amended by inserting a new subsection a the city shall Grant no more than two short-term rental licenses to a dwelling next section amending section 80930 A3 is hereby amended by inserting a new subsection a the city shall Grant no more than two short-term rental licenses to a dwelling section 80904 A2 is amended by deleting it in its entirety and the remaining numbered subsections are hereby renumbered accordingly Section Five Section 80904 B is hereby amended by deleting the word two and inserting in place thereof the word three in section 80908 is hereby amended by deleting a subse this subsection in its entirety and inserting in place the following new subsection a of this section any person who violates a provision of this chapter shall be founded $490 per violation per day each day's failure to comply with a notice of violation or any other order shall constitute a separate violation in addition to fines described in this section the city May issue a cease and desist order and seek an injunction from a court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin the offering advertis ing or use of the unit as a short-term rental and in addition to this the um Paul capy the city solicitor has given us an opinion on uh councelor green U's motion uh if you could read that please and the city solicitor has also submitted an opinion as follows I've been asked to render an opinion regarding a proposal to amend the short-term rental ordinance May the city Council amend title 8 chapter 9 to prohibit short-term rentals in the ra zoning districts yes but there are matters to consider before adopting any changes generally no use is allowed in any zoning District unless expressly authorized by the city in 20121 the city adopted a short-term rental ordinance which for the first time in Rivier allowed residential homes to be used for short-term rentals homeowners are required to register their home as a short-term rental with the short-term rental Enforcement office consequently any change to exclude the currently allowed use of short-term single family rental in the ra zoning districts will not apply to those single family homes already lawfully registered as short-term rentals in the ra districts the amended ordin shall apply prospectively and not to existing short-term rentals so any single family home in the ra District that is registered as a short-term rental may continue to operate subsequent to the adop of any Amendment prohibiting the use also given the ra district is single family only any prior non-conforming multif family homes that exist in an RA Zone will be well positioned to argue that it applies to single family homes only therefore any multi family homes in the ra District are permitted to register as short-term rentals this will undoubtedly frustrate the intent of the amendment but also segregate single family homeowners from multif family homeowners another argument for concern will be that of single family homeowners in the ra District who claim that the law is unfair and biased because single family homes outside of the ra districts May legally register a short-term rentals of course any any Amendment until legally challenged May stand but I bring your attention to the inconsistencies to be raised and the expected scrutiny to be asserted from opponents thank you uh Mr katzo do you have any yeah uh Nick katzo director of shortterm rental office um Vin Vincent Areno inspector in the short-term rental office yeah if you have any questions we'd be glad to answer them for you um do you have an opinion on uh restricting single family homes in the i1 IR District or is it not uh no I don't uh no um I think it's the the way it's written I think it was a Mis interpreted uh at first saying a single you know we could rent it out to a single person right but the person had to live there so how could that be so what what happens is if I wanted to go to Florida and I own this house and I wanted to rent out my house under the short-term rental rule long as they had another Guardian that we could call in an event of an emergency you could rent that house out yeah we don't have we don't have many of them believe me right yeah so thank you yes um any other members wishing to so um thank you thank you Mr chairman um I can definitely see both sides of this issue but I'm just I guess I'm I agree with attorney Cap's opinion in terms of the issues that it could raise um because I'm just afraid that a multif family home in the single family district is going to say well they could argue either way right they could argue that I'm not a single family so it doesn't apply to me right or they could argue well you know I am a multif family I wanted do it so right so I don't know if we can because of these non-conform if we just had single family neighborhoods with just single families homes existing there a lot easier then we wouldn't have this problem but because we have the non-conforming multif family homes there I think it just raises a whole host of issues that if you're one street over and you happen to have a single family and you're prohibited you know someone on the next street over that's not in an RA district is going to say well I I can't have them but you'reall one street over from me and Y so so that's going to be an issue too so I think it just really right kind of polarizes things and just so I I don't know I mean this just came into being in 2021 through a city ordinance so maybe I mean I I would want to get more I hate to say this but maybe we should just look at um this issue from the standpoint of a ballot question and just see if the city wants them or not yeah and just you know if the city wants them great then we we continue them if not because they're becoming too much of a problem to single family areas and and things like that regarding parking and noise and you know well I can answer that for you um if we didn't have an enforcement office there'd probably be 1 12200 1300 of them in the city and they could be illegal apartment ments they're renting out unsafe conditions we knocked out in the first two years almost 1,200 that's a lot yeah uh councelor McKenna uh brought this up in her area she had a huge problem back two three years ago still yeah but we we have a great um software package um that picks up anybody who goes on Airbnb or any of these rental sites the people who don't do it and they do it illegally they're far and few we pick up almost every single one we generate a letter to them saying that they have to register with the city the minute they it's seen on the website so then why is the pro why is this prohibition being requested I it's a good question because if it seems like if it's under control if it's so well under control why would I I don't know I I can't answer you on that so I guess that's my question to councelor yeah Gino sooya yeah it's being requested because there were certain issues that were being held in the point of Pines a lot so I had multiple homes that were being utilized as airbnbs they were shut down they were ticketed they were fined they and then they just came back up again so and and then after just speaking with vin um he did get back to them again but they're still operating they are still operating they are supposedly closing and selling the home back um come August but they are still operating and and it's still affecting the entire neighborhood trash is being thrown out there um garbages all over the driveway there's all kinds of bottles being thrown places that's not supposed to be and um I'm having serious issues down there and this is why it's important that we try to establish something that and if you can't have a an Airbnb or short-term rental in a home that you're not um it's not your primary residents then why are we having short-term rentals in single family housing if you have a three family yeah I understand you grandfather didn't it's a three family a two family your grandfather didn't it's a two family but why are we allowing them to keep coming I had a serious issue years ago I mean I wasn't the counselor then but it took years to shut them down years Mr Powers can attest to that I mean it it was it was on Pines Road it when I tell you it was the worst thing trying to shut them down but I mean they do their job they do a wonderful job but the problem is people just don't care they do what they want so it's urgent that we do something about it and this is why I'm so adamant about having this thank you thank you Council Kelly so it it seems to me and I don't like them at all I just want to make this clear I would rather put this out to a vote and and possibly not even have them at all so I I'm totally on board with this and I see that they can become issues but it sounds like then that maybe the issue is that the um the penalties are not really acting as a deterrent so so so maybe the penalties need to be stricter Mr chairman Council McKenna wwin counselor um in Beachmont we have the most ir& bnbs because we're close to the water like uh Angela uh counselor greo uh SAA but the thing is that I've been working with Nick and Vin came on later but I was working with Nick we had a couple of um incident is down in broadsound a where we had um single family house uh no owner uh we had an Airbnb they were leaving garbage bottles the same thing that you were going through uh called Nick Nick came down find them that didn't deter them so they came back he did did it again there was bottles and garbage everywhere and again we called Nick he finded them again and then the third time he closed them down and we have I've had no problems with that so I really do think that we should leave it up to them uh and I think if you have a problem you call the police you call them and I think they'll come down and they'll do their job because they did I had I mean this house was ridiculous there was was bottles everywhere there was garbage everywhere and it happened three times and then now it's not happening anymore because I think the first fine is what's the first fine 15 150 the second fine is what 250 250 and then it goes up to $495 maximum of three oh three I'm sorry thank you thank you Mr go ahead Council zambu thank you Mr chairman um Anthony zamb buo 87 High Street um I think this it's I I I understand the problem they have in the pintes I think this is an Enforcement issue and and I'd be willing to offer more help to the department if that's what they need but this is positively an Enforcement issue and the the more you uh the more they do it the more you find them and sooner or later they're going to stop and and uh it just sounds like if if if they need more bodies we give it to them but I mean that's that's the bottom line thank you just want to say one thank you Mr chairman uh I just want to say one more thing that we have a a great mechanism we also work with inspectional Services housing uh I was in charge of inspectional services for 20 years so I know basically everything that's going on there's there's always going to be a problem you know so that's why we raised the fine under the 40u to $490 you that we can find every single day we have a problem place and Angela was right there was a problem on Pines Road uh we had to go to court we had to go go through the Pres ended up selling the house but it was was a you know that was probably the worst one in the city but um we really don't have that many problems anymore we don't we really don't have that many problems anymore um unless somebody does it under cover doesn't go on on the site and tries to rent it out through Airbnb a verbo we send them a letter and say you have to register with the city now if we have a big problem then we use we use the you know inspectional service the building department health department and we can work we work hand inand together we're in the same office um Mark knows he's worked with us for years out of that department so um I think we do have a great mechanism of uh how to find people and how to keep everything safe the idea is we don't want people rent in our places with an illegal apartment no uh egress in the back of there's a fire God forbid and somebody dies um I we hear our concerns and you know where they far we gonna always be there so I've been doing this a long time so um so you want to say something ahead Mr ranzel okay so have a little bit of leeway because a lot of just got brought up so I'll address it all in order so mainly down the Pines when Nick and I came on 3 years ago there were roughly 12 short-term rental units in the Pines specifically we're down to four active right now there's one licensed multif family that has not been an issue there are currently two unlicensed properties that are in the process of being shut down and there is one that has now that was a short-term rental unit that has now transition to a long-term rental unit of 180 days as a minimum night day so over time the amount of units has come down since enforcement began the problem that councelor SAA has alluded to in the Pines over the last three years is someone may do a short-term rental we shut them down a year later the house is sold and the property is then looked at as an investment property oh you can do a short-term rental here you can do an Airbnb so then a new homeowner comes in the Pines good area right outside of Boston decides short-term rental Airbnb would be a good idea so there is a recurring frequency to them depending when a property changes hands now the next excuse me uh in terms of some of the Amendments that we propose instead of a outright ban on them which may or may not be challenged I don't have an opinion on on that either way that's up to you to decide but in terms of enforcement action going up to a maximum of 490 instead of a maximum of 300 for the fine placing a cease and assist on the property and being able to add more pressure to non-compliant properties to make them come into compliance or shut down and as well as establishing primary residents uh we're recommending for what is originally in the U ordinance to prove primary residence that we also add that into our ordinance instead of trying to investigate if this actually is the primary residence or not in terms of being able to apply you must Supply these documents so outside of an outright ban whether that's decided or not that we would be able to add more teeth to the ordinance in the meantime where we've brought down originally when we came on about 1,200 units down to about an active a 100 in the city and maybe we could then shave off a few more from that um in terms of a ballot question of allowing them in the city or not again it's um I'm not a legal expert but after speaking with solic capy about this uh if you do look into uh what had happened in quinsey uh the city did decide to put a ban in place and pre-existing short-term rentals did and they were allowed to remain active because they were pre-existing so I do believe that we may be married to the uh short-term rentals now since we have allowed it and and and be or at least if if they were banned throughout the city the pre-existing licensed ones would be staying so that's where that would stand in terms of my opinion on a ballot question is that since we have a allowed short-term rentals given applications that we will now always have those we can't take them away because that did happen in quiny so just as information yeah thank you yeah thank you thank you counc syv thank you Mr chairman um through you to Nick gin um it it seems from what I'm hearing is that illegal use is going to happen no matter what we do right it seems like even if we put a ban in place a total ban someone's going to illegally use their apartment or if we ban single family homes someone's going to illegally ban their illegally rent their their use right um so I I I agree with the Chairman's um notion that it is an enforcement uh yeah mainly uh I know there are only two you um but I I just don't know if if banning them across the board are our our single family use is is going to solve it because it seems like they're working around it no matter what we put in place to put checks and balances they're working around it yeah but I I I'll be serious you with the Mark I don't really see a lot of it I don't okay I don't see people working a lot because they got they got to they got to advertise their property somehow right and and it's picked up right we do have if somebody neighbor calls and complains to us and say geez a you know can you check your list that they have a short-term rental license and we check it and we don't see anything then we'll like I I was explain we'll send them a letter and if we see activity there then we'll get inspectional service involved housing inspector uh so now our fines are like $490 we can start finding them so we have a good mechanism is there a way to make that 500 or a th000 i me we that's a state uh regulation it's 400 $90 under 4 you okay yeah we were only no okay I'm sorry go ahead president cogle Andro thank you Mr chairman so you just said a 100 we have roughly a 100 active airbnbs in the city out of all of those how many of those have caused any issues How uh nto so and I just I just want to say something about the enforcement anytime I have called your office the issue it's like you guys teleport over to where you need to be so adding another person I I understand that we might need it if more you know airbnb's register I also just want to remind everybody of The Gauntlet of inspections that have to happen uh and I think the problem the real problem is and I don't want to take people's ability to make money away from them the real problem is they cause a disturb we call you right you give them a warning slap on the wrist and so this disturbance could take a month to solve either they comply or we shut them down right and and so I think that that's one of the problems but I just want to bring to to light how many existing short-term rentals we have that aren't bothering anybody no they're there there is actually no we haven't had any problems as a matter of fact and so a lot of people don't know once they fill out their application and everything we also I we put it in place we have the fighter Department involved also with the inspection of the apartment make sure it's safe smoke detectors everything that a regular inspection a housing inspector would do because you know in in my experience we knew how to set this up and we had to tweak the uh the ordinance because you know after a couple years we saw some things that we need to corrected and we brought the fines up we brought up the application fee up so because other cities like I was it Boston Cambridge is charging almost $500 for you know but I think if if you ever got rid of this you would see tons of them out there because it's a Big Money Maker Now hotels in Boston are like $7 800 now so you get a house you come in you come into the City and if it's long as they're not bothering anybody and they if we have States at right in the rules is there is there any problems we shut them down and they we take their license away and we haven't had one problem seriously thank you we're kind of pressed for time oh okay um councelor Kelly yeah you're good any other counselors wish to speak yes I'd like to put in a motion to amend my motion if that's possible um to amend it to what the short-term rental off office put on their amendments so I want to add all these amendments into it and I will withdraw the motion but I do want to amend my motion to have all these changes put into the um the law okay chair okay excellent um Madame clerk if you want to she's withdrawing her motion to ban them in I do we is withdrawing the the I like to amend it I Amendment amend amend it yes by withdrawing the ban on the yes by replacing it with this okay okay picking up the proposed ordinance from the that's what you do you're pick up the propos I am thank you there is no there is no ban so councelor Gino sa is essentially withdrawing that motion and picking up the proposed ordinance that was submitted by the short-term rental office okay okay good on the ordinance proposed by councelor greo SAA um for the Amendments for the Amendments proposed relative to the short-term rental sorry short-term rental ordinance that it would be that the city council orders it to a public hearing on that recommendation councilor greo SAA yes yes councel hero yes yes councel Kelly yes yes councel sylvestri yes yes and chairman Areno yes yes the proposed ordinance will be forwarded to the city council uh for a public hearing request thank you thank you cilus appreciate your time okay no no further business the meeting is adjourned