good evening welcome to the April 29th city council meeting please rise to salute the flag I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all roll call of the members councelor agenzio here here councelor janino here here councelor Gino SAA here here councelor H here here councelor har is absent councelor Kelly here here councel McKenna here here councel noeli here here councel sylvestri here here councel zambo here here and council president cogliandro here here aor is present approval of the Journal of the regular meeting of April 8th calendar item number three public hearings hearing called is ordered on an ordinance relative to Street and sidewalk opening permits during winter months this is a public hearing we're going to open the floor to proponents anyone in favor good evening ma'am please state your name and address for the record Claren Zillo 281 Broadway solicitor's office um I'm a supporter of these amendments this was done in conjunction with the DPW uh they flagged numerous inconsistencies very outdated policies um the want to open up more work periods for some of the contractors we've got and some homeowners who are looking to do work so this was well thought out with various department heads and employees in the DPW I tagged along to make sure it sounded good when it was written out but that was the main goal behind this how you doing guys Chris CH Miller 519 malen in uh at the assistant superintendent of the r DPW so we just made some minor updates to the street and sidewalk opening permits to uh eliminate the complete closure through November 15th to April 15th to allow contract to continue work cuz I know that's made a issue in the past not being having those contractors on the roads that's all thank you sir thank you ma'am are there any other proponents anyone else in favor seeing and hearing none are there any opponents anyone not in favor seeing and hearing none are there any counselors wishing to speak councelor noeli thank you Mr Mr President uh to Chris I'm glad in section four you left uh I don't know what the number five stands for in that sub paragraph uh but I put that in about 10 years ago that nobody can open a street after five years of Paving yep correct so I don't know where that number five goes do you took it from the old ordinance yeah that was so it's maybe a typo sorry what do you mean a and under section four yep that should be an a rather than a five we looking under A1 no a15 no section four of your proposal oh he's looking at the WR oh okay sorry I'm looking what you submitted we were looking at our deine I apologize you're looking at section four which alludes to 12480 A5 correct correct yes so the 5 years is what's written in munico that's what our official legislative website lists right but the number five at the beginning of the paragraph the the number the actual number yes that's number five of the subsection oh okay so that that's the way it was okay CU that that's what I put in because people were digging up the streets and I hope we're still enforcing that that people if they open it up early there's a lot of construction going on in shirle AV area a lot of the new streets were dug up so I hope we're making those new those developers rep repave the street yeah we're not changing any oh I think I understand so the only changes to that section were the end of the sentence but because the sentence was so long I figured we'd put the entire sentence in there instead of doing the very wordy changes so the 5 years was not touched at the end we merely eliminated um the very language about what an emergency is and we just Consolidated that that's fine I you mean I apologize in general I have no problem with this um you know because those winter months get difficult yeah so uh but I just want to make sure that fiveyear rule is continued no that's still going to that's still going to stay right and uh and that we are enforcing it because like I said a lot of the streets that have been dug up because of new construction haven't been repaved yeah so as of now now we just allow them to do a temporary payment then come back in the spring and do a final either full WID or infrared payment okay and I hope that occupancies permits are not given out until all that work is done agre yes I'll keep track on that thank you I'll keep thank you counselor councelor McKenna thank you Chris I I have a couple of questions for you um so win bav you know has been um they've been digging up win B for about more than a year now correct and we were supposed to get on in October we were supposed to get uh it paved but because of the gas lines now they have to open it up again and then the now they're talking about they was talking about the spring to uh pave and now they're talking about again October because um I just want to know if there's a timeline on the lead lead is that Rivier has to remove on winter pev and when will this uh win Bev be paved because you can't even go up and down the street it's terrible understand it is bad but um so as of now we sent out all the right of entries for the homes we need to replace the their light Services we've received 20 so far they're going to send up with a follow a follow-up letter to each home so if they don't respond that's it we have to send three notices okay and if you send three notices and they don't respond then is that it then that's taken as a rejection that they don't want it removed yeah correct and so when is the third letter are going to go out do you know um it's usually 30 days 30 days 30 days so okay and the first letter went out already yeah that's already they've already got 20 back okay and I think there's about 40 that did not revise okay all right thanks a lot no problem thank you councilors any other councilors wishing to speak councelor arenia thank you uh thank you Mr cha for coming uh my question is about the fee for the uh Street opening permit it looks like it's going from 200 to 500 correct and for winter excav ations there's an additional 500 so to open a street in the winter would be $1,000 correct okay so my only problem with that is I I know I wouldn't mind utilities large uh projects but a homeowner that goes down his base so I'm sorry but we do we yeah we noted that and we emergency work will only be $500 okay so if if a regardless of winter months okay so if if a homeowner goes down their basement finds it full of sewage and they discover that uh you know they have to uh hire a contractor and get a street opening permit um that cost is directly passed on to the homeowner I'd hate to see them paying $1,000 in the winter yeah so Chris actually brought up to me right before the meeting um we're going to add in language we're going to submit to the legislative affairs subcommittee again when you guys meet again that U we're going to add a language right at the end that says $500 the additional winter excavation fee of $500 shall not be required in the event of an emergency permit that is issued by the city during this period so we completely agree all right thank you very much thank you counselor and this will be referred to legislative affairs on May 6th Mr President councelor can we suspend the rules take up motion 20 we have the chief of police and the commander for the State Police here tonight motion to suspend the rules all in favor all opposed we are now under suspension Madam cler thank you Cal item number 20 motion presented by councilors Kelly and sylvestri that the mayor request the chief of police to provide the city council with an update on security and safety measures in place on Rivier beach in preparation for Memorial Day weekend counil sylvestri councelor Kelly thank you chief being here tonight thank you Mr President um yeah we just wanted to have you come in tonight um I spoke to you briefly you explained to me and I think it's common knowledge that the beach is really under the jurisdiction of the state um however there are coordination and collaboration between local agencies and state agencies and so I thought it would be a good idea for you to just give us an update on the security measures and the collaboration and in coordination that's going forward with those local and state agencies in preparation of um the Memorial Day holiday um you know when temperatures warming up in past years we do see some have seen some incidents we have seen some serious injuries and altercations down there and I don't think anybody wants to see a Repeat Performance of what happened last year um so I just thought it would be a good idea for you to come in tonight and give us a little bit of update on security measures thank you for being here good evening sir name and address of the record please good evening uh David Callahan chief of police 400 Rivier Beach Parkway R Massachusetts uh good evening councilor Kelly I know we had a discussion regarding it and you know the beach as everyone knows is DCR property formerly the MDC property and it's patrolled mainly by the state police out of the r police uh Rivier State Police Barracks we as system when we can but I am in constant contact with Lieutenant bossy frequently we talk on the phone or communicate our cross path with one another and we're in the process now of in the next week or so between myself Lieutenant bossy some other commanders from the state police from the MBTA uh state representatives and a few other uh law enforcement agencies to kind of get everyone on the same page before the warm mons come and we always try to have some type of plan in place but it's it's challenging because a lot of it goes on the weather and a lot of times too and Lieutenant bossy can explain this to you A lot of times the state police get extra funding for directed patrols Down River Beach so I think they're anticipating that financial assistance that helps them you know supplement the Manpower down there and they can do it as the weather starts to get warm so you know we haven't forgotten about what happened last year it was awful and you know they did have patrols down there but it seems like it kind of got overwhelming pretty quick we also have collaborative uh efforts with local communities I'll talk to the chief over in Chelsea Everett sis Lynn they're very supportive East Boston the commander over there will assist us so we're just trying to keep things in motion and we want to put You Folks At Ease that mean no pl's perfect but we try to do the best we can and if you have any specific questions if I can answer them I will and we have Lieutenant bossy here as well so if you want to speak to him directly he may be able to give you some better Insight out of his barracks and his station down there with his uh Manpower I would like to thank you okay and with that I'll introduce you to Lieutenant Donnie bossy he's the station commander and he's one of the best commanders we've had down there very easy to work with and very responsive thank you Chief thank you good evening sir name and address for the record please good evening my name is Donald bossy I'm a lieutenant with the state police my uh address is 220 Riv Beach Boulevard here in River uh I've been a station Commander for three and a half years this will be my fourth summer uh I'm not a Riv native however I'm in East Boston native so this area these beaches these Parkways are my home uh and being a trooper for 32 years this is my responsibility as Chief callah Hanah said he and I are not only colleagues in law enforcement we're friends we're in constant contact uh we spend a lot of time planning whether it's for the sand castle events the pumpkin Dash or just the events that come up one of the issues that we deal with when it comes to Public Safety on the beach or really anywhere is that our minimum Manning for the state police not sure if you're aware of this but it's a desk and two patrols now my two patrols are responsible for all of R Beach Mario Mali Park and Chelsea lysha Drive the lynway thean Beach thean Causeway and Route One from the Tobin Bridge to Route 99 in SAS a lot of area to cover with two people in the summer times we supplement our patrols with dedicated patrols money that's allocated by the state for patrol of various areas with that come restrictions when they give us the money they don't they don't give us a blanket uh check to do as we please it has to be sent spent in certain ways for instance we can hire four patrols between uh 300 p.m. and 11: p.m. on certain nights now they give us a little bit of scheduling discretion and when we see a cold rainy night we'll likely cancel the patrols to make the money go farther unfortunately and this is what happens around Memorial Day Memorial Day is right near the end of the fiscal year so we're operating off of what's left from last year so we only have so much money that has to get us through until July 1st when I ask for resources I'm generally received well but I don't control the PE strings uh what we try to do and I know the chief uh um his intelligence along with the state police intelligence and the Commonwealth Fusion Center monitors open- Source media we monitor to see when there may be a Potential Threat we also use history we know on the first warm day we're going to have problems so on those days we try to put extra Staffing in addition to the dedicated Patrol we have approached to State Police Command Staff uh we have operation plans in effect or we have written operation plans for various things I know we saw last summer and the summer before we showed up down there in great force and and unfortunately one one weekend it got away from us before we had the plan in place uh major James Basin current major of tro a which is all of nor Eastern Massachusetts and he's my boss recently instituted a policy to make it easier for us to respond now when we have incidents of the five other state police barracks which are Andover Newberry conquer Medford and Danvers they're a dedicated p controls that if something happens there's no thinking we don't have to try to figure out what to do we we uh do what's called we activate a qrf a quick response force and d uh patrols going to the start of their shift to know that if something happens not only here in R but it could be anywhere it could be um at the governor's house in Arlington or or anywhere else that if they activate a QR after the patrols from each Barracks respond in addition to that we've um we're in an agreement are a um we've formed an alliance with trf which is Logan Airport which is very well staffed it's the beauty of federal money um and they have their resources available to us matter of fact I was on the phone with one of their people today about a different matter and I did bring up the summer is coming make sure you're ready um but they will respond with multiple resources as well tro troop H which is greater Boston South Boston Barracks Milton um and I know the chief has done a wonderful job with our local Partners last year when we did have the issues within a short time of it going bad we had a small army down here uh unfortunately it got ahead of us the one thing that and I know people don't want to hear this uh but the one thing that I can say is bad people do bad things and it's our job to stop them we can't read minds we try to predict when things are going to happen we try to have the resources in place when they happen and we're not ready for them we try to react as quickly as possible I believe Colonel M addressed the chief I'm sorry the mayor the chief myself a bunch of us at a meeting last year and said we have to accept that bad people do bad things and we could make the beach we can make all of our beaches very safe uh but that would require a military state that would require you know metal detectors at the beach that would require just to show a force and when nothing's happening people don't want to see that people don't want to see me on the beach I try to get out there and be as friendly as possible I try to do the same with my Troopers but our job is to get out there let people know they're safe uh and unfortunately we also have groups that fight that while you harassing these kids I sat in this chamber last year and was was asked that question not by the council but by somebody else well kids are down there for for a good time can't you let them have their space we can within reason so we have a plan in place we're working to get plans in place unfort we don't I can't promise you this but I'm quite confident in saying something will happen this summer this spring or this summer and we will try to be prepared for it if the kids are stupid enough to put it on social media we'll be more prepared for it but um we'll do our best uh and chief Callahan and I along with all of our counterparts will respond rapidly if we're not ready soon as it happens but in a perfect world would be enough of a presence that we're a deterrent from things happening bad so I hope that addresses some of your issues and I'll be more than happy to take any uh immediate qu or any direct questions thank you very much sir you welcome councilor sylvestri thank you Mr President and uh thank you lieutenant for coming up here tonight um you said you said it perfect bad people do bad things there wasn't any you couldn't have had more police um at the Marathon bombing and they were still able to pull that off right so um just hearing that you have a plan in place um they do use social media so I'm glad you guys are paying attention to that cuz that's how they got the word around last year my biggest concern is how do we prevent the youth in teenagers from other cities that have taken the MBTA and Transit into the city is there I don't know uh is there is there a a time where the te is going to call and say hey we have an abundance of kids coming through the train station into R like is there a call that happens on that like I mean I I don't know if that makes sense but we have addressed that with the uh Transit Police that if they see something because they'll they fortunately for us the only way to get here by train is you have to go into Boston right and you have to switch lines um so if they see large numbers we hope that they give us a call and if it's a day that we weren't expecting and we don't have extra patrols on it gives us a shorter window to prepare but it gives us a window to prepare we also have to be cognizant when that call comes in of who the group is what the group is because sometimes it's a senior skip day and if it's one school with a Senior Skip Day most of you were younger than me um but when I was on when we had Senior Skip a we didn't want me around there um and I'm not saying I want people drinking a partying on the beach but I understand understand kids being kids so we do allow for that um we within reason the problem comes when it's two or three schools or towns having ski a at the same time so we try to monitor through the transit uh MBTA has been pretty good uh sometimes they have other things going on we don't get the call till it's too late sometimes it's my patrols noticing hey there's a lot of people coming off the train um and then we start scrambling uh but we can work and and at this upcoming meeting I think it's next week of uh we will talk to Transit about giving us a better heads up on that thank you and thank you for your time T Lieutenant you're welcome sir thank you councelor councelor Gino SAA thank you for coming you're welcome mam um my fellow Council actually asked the question that I was going to ask but I want to elaborate just a little bit is there any way to stop the train from stopping at that area would there be a way to talk to someone and have them skip over the Riva Beach stop if we see that there are a lot of people coming on to our beach that's more of a constitutional question my immediate answer to that would be no uh because what happens to the person I don't want to fail the call from Council Nova selski that one of his um constituents couldn't get home um and also R Beach Wonderland station is the end of the line so if you stop them getting off at the riv Beach te station what do you do bring them to Wonderland and then turn the train around without opening the doors but what if it was an immediate threat like we had an immediate threat like last year on the beach if we stopped the trains and all the people from coming off maybe we wouldn't have had the people there by the time the incidents happened last year the Bad actors were already here there weren't more people coming down to get involved stopping the trains actually might make it more difficult with getting rid of people at the end of the day when we saw what was happening our job was to push them all and I'm not trying to make more work for the Transit Police but yeah we were trying to push them all back onto the train so by stopping the trains that would actually slow down the evacuation of the beach makes sense thank you you're welcome thank you counselor counselor H thank you Mr President Lieutenant bossy and chief cahan thanks so much for being here tonight um great minds must think alike because both Council of sylvestri and councelor SAA um kind of spoke to this a little bit but I'm very happy to hear that you are partnering ING with the mass transit police um that was one of my questions after last year if they noticed a huge crowd or a number of kids getting off at the same stop and um I'm happy to hear that there's a partnership there and also I'd like to talk a little bit about the social media aspect um I know a lot of the kids posted beforehand last year on Tik Tok uh Facebook live and is that something that's monitored 247 or is it mostly looking for tag words or locations so now I can't say exactly how they do and chief Callahan might be able to speak more to how his intelligence section does we use the Commonwealth Fusion Center and they monitor all open- Source media uh that being said what I can also tell you is after um the really bad day with the two shootings last summer which I believe was the weekend before Memorial Day um we were ready for them to come back another week that that they were posting that they were coming back and a lot of it was stemmed with us greeting them near the T Station um but then three three different weeks after that there was post that we're coming back we're coming back and as we really looked at the social media we realized this is some kid that wants to make himself self-important and nobody's listening to him so that also becomes an issue with our preparation because you have people saying oh we're taking over the beach we're doing this and they're not and nobody's listening so trying to figure out which are the legitimate threat which are the credible ones also becomes a challenge for us and if we gear up every time that that happens uh for starters they're making us a dancing monkey and number two they're blowing through a state budget that I'm going to have to answer for somebody's going to have to answer for so we try to monitor them but also look for credibility and with the the quick response for us um that's something you said you just call if there's an incident and then those units come from other other beaches over wherever they may be stations other Barracks correct so when our when the troop wide Patrol boards go out for the day um every Barracks as a desk and two is our minimum Staffing sometimes we're you may have four or five patrols out of a Barracks it depends on how many people are working that shift and certain patrols are highlighted so if the Medford Barracks happens to be a desk officer with five patrols three or four of those patrols will be highlighted so if I call up to troop headquarters in Danver and I say we're having an incident we need a response they'll just put something out over the air and everybody throughout the troop that's working they know either I am a quick response person today or I'm not and they automatically respond so we're not calling each individual Barrack saying who do you have available send this one send that one uh The Troop headquarters just puts out we need a response and everybody responds great and I know it's a budget issue but you said two patrols and one desk person is that that that's our minimum manic Statewide now that's I'm not going to comment on the uh the state police policy it's been that way since the 1970s when Andover would cover 93 from the New Hampshire border to the Boston Garden and section of 495 in route three with a desk and two patrols I I at least have a smaller Patrol area that my two patrols have to cover but in the summertime as you know a desk and two no matter how small my patrol are isn't does isn't ready to deal with the size of the crowd would they ever look at say seasonal coverage where they would pull officers from other areas off the I mean not off the road but maybe a couple from Logan here and there a couple from traffic or um in the summer time they do staff uh my minimum for the evening shift just the evening shift the 3 to 11 shift does go to a desk and three patrols um so we do have one extra body on the evening shift usually from Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day um but that's only the 3 to 11 shift and then that's augmented by the dedicated patrols um but again that's all going to depend on state money we I don't know I don't know how much is left right now cuz I don't do the scheduling for the dedicated patrols but whatever we have will get us to July 1st we're hoping in the new fiscal budget there'll be money for next year but given the current climate of the state I don't know how much money we're getting so great thank you so much you're welcome thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you Mr President um Lieutenant bossy I just want to say thank you for everything that you've done for me in Beachmont um as everybody knows Beachmont uh has DCR roads and we've had a couple of issues and I called and you were very responsive and got things right away um fixed so thank you I just want to say uh on another note um we've always had problems down Riv Beach Easter was the worst you'd go down there and people from other towns uh would come in and they would fight you um I remember that because I was in a fight once and uh but the thing is that Senior Skip is a big a big day for these kids and they come down and the only reason why this is getting attention because of last year on Memorial Day or the week before Memorial Day because there was a gun and there were shootings and people got hurt and that was why this is why we're talking about this now but there's always been problems down there and they've always been addressed but there was never uh violence like you see it now so times have changed kids have changed and we just have to address it thank you for everything you do and thank you for everything that you do chief thank you counselor councel noveli thank you Mr President uh Lieutenant we've been together since the first day you got here yes sir and uh it's great you know that you've taken over some difficult shoes from before Lieutenant Lieutenant Hanley and Lieutenant Mills you know we we all go way back and uh I'm probably one of the few people here that could say that other than the council janino um but the cat team that you have is out outstanding if it's still together I know you have different people in it um but you know between you and the chief and I remember I don't know the chief probably remembers this about 12 years ago uh we got word that there were 300 kids coming in from Boston M and between State Riv and T police we actually lined up at the exit of the train station and made a line across Ocean AV and we had seven buses and we and the kids say where we going where we going you're going home get on the bus and we took them back to Boston so they didn't have a chance to do anything wrong but uh you know you guys do a great job down there I appreciate it uh when uh we have the sand castles going on guys are right on the job and uh we appreciate that you know I have input in that all the time so uh yes you do sir but uh no thank you thank the chief and you know and thank the chief from the te uh police for for all their work thank you I'm glad you did bring up the cat team and I apologize to the council for not mentioning this earlier among our staffing uh tro a as I mentioned earlier is Northeast Eastern Massachusetts we do have our cat team Community Action team in the summertime they are frequently deployed and spent most of their time at River Beach uh I'm very fortunate uh it's a blessing and a curse the cat team is staffed mostly with people that they've stolen from me some of my best cops Rivier native Carlo Master mate uh who knows everybody in Riv and I I don't know how he isn't the city council president but um Carlo was one heck of a c tyam who used to work for me one heck of a cop uh and their Sergeant right now it's Eddie Troy who was my e shift Sergeant when I got here these are people that are used to working with this crowd because policing on the beach is different than any others grabbing Troopers are supposed to be interchangeable it's hard to plug somebody into Riv Beach unless you've really gotten a feel for it and we're very fortunate that most of the cat team which is spends most of the summer down here is experienced with this type of policing so I know that desk and two number sounds a little bit it's not actually as Bleak as it looks when we factor in the cat team the third Patrol in the summer um and any um dedicated patrols thank you sir councelor zambo uh thank you Mr President and thank you lieutenant thank you for coming up here tonight but more importantly thank you for what you do uh some of us know and thank you Chief also some some of us uh support a lot law enforcement more than anything else I'm one of those people and I I truly appreciate what you do and I know what a tough job it is and over the last several years it's become a lot tougher than it ever was so uh I know enough people don't thank you for what you do but some of us really do care thank you thank you councelor and to your point from earlier um I don't know that I can put people on first I don't know that I could get seven buses and I don't know that we could but I will say one of the things that we have found and I've personally done it is we do meet them there and um that was two years ago after one of the big fighting nights and they came back the following week I literally greeted almost everybody coming off the train and uh we locked up three people within the first probably 20 minutes but everybody else I shook their hand or I said hi and a couple of people asked them why I was harassing them and so I'm not harassing you welcome you welcoming you to America's oldest public beach have as much fun as you want and my whole the and this is what we try to do at the beach to try to prevent these problems is the beach is your house just like it's public America's first public beach I can't keep people from it however if you're going to come down the house you have to remember dad's home and watching so that's the whole message of greeting them uh and that's what we try to do it's easier when we have more person more Personnel down there but um we try to do it as far as putting them on the bus I like the idea I just don't know that I could actually Mr President if I could just respond for a second those buses were city of Rivia school buses with our drivers even better we we at that point it wasn't like it is today but we did it and it worked thank you counselor councelor janino first of all I want to thank you guys for coming thank you lieutenant bossy Chief caran thank you Mr President I don't have any uh questions for you it's really you know is there anything we as a c could do assist you guys to help you out give you resources reach out to and let us know I've I've seen the changes down there over the years I know what you're going through I know your Manpower I know when you're short-handed I know when the city short-handed your short handed what happens down there I and I've you know remember the BS were down there back in the '90s any change that happened so anything we can do let us know will be their Fe us thank you councelor and I do appreciate all the support I know I know a lot of you personally I appreciate the support and I'm glad that we have the relationships that we've had and my relationship with Chief Callahan obviously is very important but also this relationship with all of you is very helpful thank you Council NOA Mr President thank you just you know as an FYI we also have to thank our state delegation you know over the years I mean going back to uh even before coun uh representative reinstein uh and the speaker always in the budget they always had a line item of $250,000 for the State Police for extra details and you know and we try to do it in rier Beach I don't know if we used it all for rier but you know we still had Lynn and Winthrop that we had to deal with but uh you know we do have to thank our state delegation and uh reps and the Senators at the time you know for giving for getting that money for us in the budget there was always a line item just for that so thank you and thank them absolutely sir thank you counselor and thank you both for being here tonight and giving us more Comfort appreciate you anyone else we'll be placing this on file thank you thank you all Mr President back to the reg if we if we can stay on uh suspension and take up uh the city auditor for item 12 and 13 any objections no Madam clerk calendar item number 12 communication from the city auditor relative to Massachusetts general laws chapter 44 section 53 and A2 departmental revolving fund spending authorization for fy2 good evening sir name and address for the record please good evening Richard viske CFO 281 Broadway um before you tonight is what would be normally part of the budget documents but um figured I would get this in front of the council early and what it does is uh sets the spending limit for departmental revolving funds that have been um set by ordinance by this body uh for fiscal year 2025 so um departmental revolving funds are basically um uh source of funds and a use of funds that are defined by the law that you set it's in the ordinance but um the Department of Revenue try to make it efficient to ordain the revolving funds to save some uh some some time and effort but they um they still require a yearly not to exceed limit for all of the departmental revolving funds so what you have before you is all the departmental revolving funds set by ordinance and the not to exceed expenditure amount for fiscal year 2025 happen to answer any questions on that thank you any counselors wishing to speak Mr uh president councelor oen you is this going to be going to ways uh ways means or is this something we're just going to vote out tonight we're going to vote on this this evening okay would you mind tbling this till next week I had some I made an inquiry about one of these accounts about 3 weeks ago and I'm waiting for some information about revenues and expenditures and I know it's very busy time for Mr V and his um employees with the budget coming up but I'd like to see that prior to uh voting on this if we could just table it maybe till next week we have motion on the floor to table this motion until the next meeting which is next week on the Mr B you think you'd be able to have that information by that yeah no I I actually have it I just have to coordinate it and review it and um you know happy to uh table this so next week or or put it in ways of means um like I said just trying to get get front loaded on some of these items that are coming up so I think table and it would be fine I just give a few more days any other councils have any questions I'm happy to answer those while I'm here as well yeah sorry um Madam cler I was thinking the same thing tabling it would be easier than sending it to sub committee we won't have time otherwise so right uh motion on the floor to table until the next meeting all in favor all oppose thank you you so Ed calendar item number 13 communication from the city auditor relative to the wind waste contract renewal hello again Richard viske CFO 21 Broadway um as many of you probably are aware we have a 10-year contract with wind waste for disposal of our um solid waste that contract is set to expire on June 30th of this fiscal year uh I have been negotiating with wind waste over the past month and a half on a new contract um we've gone back and forth for uh several months uh what I believe you have before for you is uh the best and uh final deal that we could put together with win waste it's um it's a 10year contract but it's 5 years set and then options for each of the six S 8 nine and 10th years on uh the city's half and the wind waste behalf and um contract we negotiated is um set to go up 5.7% on the uh disposal rate for fiscal year 2025 and then 4% for the 26 27 28 29 um the seventh and uh Sixth and 7 years are uh 4.25% option for both parties and then um 89 and 10 is 4.5% increase um mutually uh uh declined by both parties if if need be uh we did uh we're able to negotiate uh some other benefits with regard to um yard waste uh we currently pay $16 a ton to get rid of that they have agreed to take that for free so long as they can um use it in their um current facility where they can spread it out legally and um that would seem to be pretty good and um they have offered a $25,000 year contribution back to the city I believe the intent of that contribution is to uh try to promote a um uh Jesus uh what am I no uh composting composting sorry uh a composting program which uh you know anything we can do to get trash out of the general stream at $89 a ton whether it be through recycl or composting we uh certainly rather pay the lower fees but um that's the contract um anything over three years is uh required by law to come before the council for a vote and that is why I'm here before you with that contract to uh try to answer any questions with regard to it or um or otherwise thank you thank you Mr Vis we're going to open up the floor to the city councilors councelor Gino sa when are they ever going to close I'm I'm not here to speak about the business operations of wind waste I'm just here to speak of the contract Fati and I saw did the city ever go through cavant have they contacted cavant to see about taking out our trash or they going to stick with one waste I certainly haven't why don't we check on you know different options instead of just going with wind waste they truck all kinds of Ashes through our city they go down 1A then they go down Squire Road but they don't go through other cities they're only giving us $25,000 what's $25,000 when other cities are getting hundreds of thousands I I I I just I I don't understand why we keep going back and giving them using them when we want them to close down they keep trucking all their Ash out because they don't want to reach that 50ft capacity which they've been trying which they've been told they would be shut down after they reached it I just don't understand how this company can control an entire city and it's just I I don't know I I'm I'm disgusted with them and the toxic Ash that's coming through the city of Rivier and I really don't even want to do business with them to be honest with you well I just just to just clarify one thing I I our current trash collecting contracts are such that they are hauling it to wind waste right now so if we were to look outside to other uh disposal sites we would then have to probably open up our collection contracts and and negotiate that because the proximity to the city is advantageous to us you know the answer is in Lynn again we our contract is going to wind waste right right now so we would have to open up the contract okay thank you councelor counselor novaski thank you Mr President um Mr vesque the uh do we bid this out or is it just uh negotiations we did not we did not bid we we we negotiate with them exclusively and um quite frankly I believe it to be a pretty good deal regardless of what you think of the business and the and and such I mean we have to take our trash somewhere to get rid of it they've uh we've had a very favorable contract I've checked around our rates are as low as anybody's and uh for what it's worth it it it appears to be a very good contract for us with regard to what we would pay at other places and then tacking on any kind of transportation fees that would bring us outside of the the city to dispose of it so we did not put it out for a competitive bid though if that's a question we're not required to by water either do we do we investigate what the other cities are paying of course are we are we one of the lowest yes or not we are and the $7 per ton is for yard Wass only that's free now in this contract it'll be free so that 25,000 is annually that's a that's a um a donation that uh they've uh offered to us to use at our discretion and um I believe what the mayor wishes to do is put that towards a composting program in the city that um I don't have a ton of information on just yet wanted to get the contract approved and then take it from there I was going to say where would we do composting again I I'll start researching that once I know we have a contract but I know there's several councils I know Council Haro is uh pretty um into the the program and has been educating me on some of the merits and um like I said anything that can take waste out of the out of the landfill would be great so um looking forward to looking into it so the uh the first first five years are already negotiated and we have to negotiate the second five it's just option the the sixth 7th 8th nth and 10th years are options of both wind waste in the city to extend it beyond the 5 years but anything after three years has to come before the council so we we I wanted to do a 10-year deal but they they wanted some uh flexibility on CPI and such so um we went we made it that we can also back up and they can back out so I was hoping for a 10-year deal with lesser percentage increases and uh uh we went back in forth for a while and they sharpen their pencil and and what I believe is the best deal that I could present on behalf of the city is before you tonight thank you thank you counselor any other counselors wishing to speak Mr President councelor has thank you Mr President rich I know a lot of people a lot of residents have questioned the um the EPA guidelines and um they're they're Meeting those said guidelines if there's say two years into the deal if they don't pass the regulations or whatever guidelines are set in stone is this a contract the city can find its move move out of or is this something that's set in stone for like what if they have to cease operations there because they fail certain EPA guidelines I mean I I'm not too um I'm not a lawyer so I can't speak too specific to some of those terms I do know that they are obligated to the um rat their quote and whether they have to uh incinerate here or take it out or or take the ash out there's um there's no changing in the rates there but I I really didn't do a deep dive into their whole business and and what may or may not happen with them I mean I'm aware as much as the normal person who reads in the paper but uh as far as it's it sounds from from wind waste they're going to continue to operate like I said what when their landfills completely full and they have to truck Ash out and all that stuff is um that's part of what they do for their business and we're just want to make sure that we pay the right rate for the amount of trash we take there so I um I wish I had better answers but I'm not too ke on that in the yard waist the free yard waste is for the length of the deal the entire well it's it's as long as they can use that they I guess the landfill can take the adways for free so if they stop using that landfill then that free land waste would go away but that could be within a couple of years but the trash contract couple months though hopefully right not it was indicated to me it should at least be two years it could be longer but again there's all kinds of stuff going on at the state and federal level I think with regard to their future operations and such but certainly not here to discuss that cuz I'm I'm not an expert on it thanks you're welcome thank you councelor councelor janino so if I'm not mistaken here we have one price from when waste without anyone else putting any um input into it any other companies looked into if any prices right see what's going on out there yes why I didn't we didn't we didn't put out to bid this was just negotiated between wind waist and the city why wouldn't we find just make phone calls to find out what other other uh trans station are Charing all that Cil but we but we didn't put it out to bid I don't want you know I don't want to mislead anyone this is a contract that we negotiated exclusively with them and um and that's how that went we could have put it out the bid I don't think we would have got anything better than what we got but um that's that's how we negotiated so so it's a 5e minimum up to 10 years it's a fiveyear fixed rates and then the 6 through 10 uh uh uh rates that party can back out of if they so choose Thank You counselor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President thank you Mr viske I just want to make sure I understand what you're saying here so let's say I don't know they cap the the fill in sagus right and we're in year three so our rates are locked in even if they have to transport it somewhere else that's correct okay thank you counselor councelor Kelly so I understand that this was never held out to bid this is an exclusive contract that you have but you did say you checked with other cities to see what their rates are when you made that statement was that the rates that they other cities the rates that other cities are paying exclusively with win or rates that other cities are paying with other providers of this service primarily with when because most of the surrounding communities that we comp to use them as well so you don't have any comparative figures to really even though you didn't hold it out to bid you can't confidently say well if we did hold it out to bid we can pretty much say you know in comparison with the deal that we have here with wi it's pretty good over what we would have with someone else or you just don't even really know what that would be well like I said the uh the contract that we have for hauling our trash with capital waste is uh predicated on them bringing the waste to wind waste so if I were to put it out to Bid And it and somewhere to win and it was in north and over say now I have to go and open up contracts with um Capital to talk about the transportation cost to and from um trash is kind of a delicate subject in this city for many reasons but the ability to get in and out of the neighborhoods before 4:00 during the week and and the way traffic is and such around there we we we you know nothing's perfect but I think we have a pretty good uh system right now so I didn't think it was was worth disrupting the uh collection contract to uh go out to bid and try to find places that may save us a couple dollars but then cost us money on the other end so and and other cities are using this facility just not Ria it's Lynn is using it and oh yeah there's yeah a lot of people use it thank you councelor Council Zan buo thank you Mr President I wasn't going to speak on this because I'm so controversial because everybody thinks I'm a shill for win but I guess I got to put a couple of facts on the table here uh Rivier has had the most lucrative contract for the last 10 years uh from wind waste and uh the CFO has negotiated what I think is a an unbelievable deal because you won't you won't get this deal anywhere else he's a a shop negotiator and knows what he's talking about um I think that uh he's uh protecting the taxpayer and uh this is a I've looked over this deal and it's better than I thought that uh he could have got so um everybody can say oh we shouldn't bring our trash to win waste let's let's use another carrier almost Boston Chelsea Lynn so everybody Burns that trash at wind waste and all the surrounded communities so uh it you know you could see I don't think you could save any money on the uh the the end disposal uh by going somewhere else other than wind waste it has nothing to do with uh my position on the facts and science because everybody knows where I stand uh that uh but I uh I want to commend the CFO for uh negotiating what I think is a really good deal thank you thank you counselor any other counselors wishing to speak permission to speak from the chair permission thank you um I have the utmost faith that you have put the numbers together for the city to the best of your ability and got us the best deal my concern is that if by shipping out this ash to not meet that 50 foot threshold with our city growing with surrounding cities growing how much more transportation of that Ash is going to go through our city so that's my my biggest concern because that was also a bargaining chip and wanting them to stay open uh is that you know that's the alternative is to ship it elsewhere so just my two cents on that uh this is going to come to a roll call vote Madam clerk call the rooll shall the city council approve the contract between wind waste and the City of Rivier covering a 10-year period beginning on July 1st of 24 councelor agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA no no councelor h yes yes councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly yes yes councelor McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes counc sylvestri no no council zambuto yes yes and council president cogliandro no no the contract is approved back to the regular business calendar item number four hearing called is ordered on an ordinance relative to appendix one table three salaries of the revised ordinances of the city of Rivier also known as the parody salary ordinance this is a public hearing we're going to open this to proponents anyone in favor I Mr visc thank you thank you councelor I'm a popular guy today I suppose um thank you um Rich Riske 281 Broadway City CFO um I did just pass out um a slightly revised version of the um one section of the ordinance that um after um uh I put the budget together I ticked and taged the budget numbers two the ordinance here and there were a few um that were off for one reason or another but um the amended salaries are are just three employees that uh may had some other things added in there besides the base salary so what what we're trying to do here is we're trying to update the uh salary ordinance of the city that has uh not been updated I believe in at least a dozen years or so um Mr Vis I'm sorry to interrupt you do you have an extra copy for me oh I I yeah oh thank you oh you're all so kind thank you sorry about that um so yes um again with uh with the help from the city clerk and the solicitor's office uh myself and uh my my budget team we went through and called through all the positions that are not covered by Collective bargain and agreements um with those employees are considered exempt employees and they are listed in salary schedule e that I just um passed out modified this um salary ordinance update also does um re-clarify the longevity compensation as well as compensation for the city council the mayor's office and uh many of the boards and commissions in the city so um took a lot of work uh I think it's been just uh refreshed every year via the budget process but we thought with the new Administration and uh the timing was right to kind of get this modified and up to date so that we can have um a a current version of the salary ordinance that will tie to the fiscal year 25 budget so um happy to try to answer any questions on this uh well it's a public he so I guess I'm not answering questions I just I'm just here to support it but uh we'll answer any questions if needed thank you thank you Mr bis um any other proponents people in favor seeing and hearing none we will move to opponents anyone not in favor seeing and hearing none I will open this to City counselors any councilors wishing to speak councelor Areno thank you I just have a question for Mr vque from now on and in subsequent years will this salary schedule be updated by parody with the Union employees if the union employees get 2% or 1% or 3% would this just automatically click in for these employees that's a great question I might defer to Ashley on that but I um I would hope so and if not maybe we can make it as such that when we voted it it does but I know that the parody Clause is pretty much what we've been fall for the last 14 years or so here without this being updated so I don't see why we couldn't but um maybe put some belts and suspenders on it to make sure that it's you know it doesn't have to come before you every year it it makes sense because all these employees you have a union negotiating for one group and it can just carry through uh to the rest of of of the employees I know historically that's what we've done so if we can memorialize it through this ordinance I think that would be helpful okay thank you thank you councelor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um Mr VC so these positions um are kind of at the will of of the mayor right I mean you're we're setting the rates but the mayor can can um negotiate back and forth with someone who's taking a job in a position right my my understanding uh when speaking with the city clerk is that what this does is set say minimum it doesn't set a maximum so um I believe what's voted here would be at least what the position would pay not any less but potentially could become uh more if the council votes so during the budget process but the if you read the language of the law once these are ordained there's really no play in those numbers because we just be breaking our own ordinance so um it it's considered to be at the minimum base salary that that position Pace right uh but to councelor AR enzio's uh point in Mak the the raise go concurrent with the Union raises um you have someone that could be taking a job this year I don't know I'll pick one out $121,000 um and this is set this year we negotiated just a one-year contract correct we have one-year deals with uh Unit A and Unit B and and we don't have any deals with any other unions but everybody's in contract till June 30th but we haven't done any contracts in the city longer than one year is correct right so potentially someone could be getting whatever their salary is here and then a year from now get a 3% raise and then the following year because the contract going to be up in a year going do you see what I'm getting at or I think I see what you're getting at and just to clarify the salary that would be that you're voting on right now is for fiscal year 25 that is the fiscal year that we've agreed to the contract so there'll be nothing in 26 yet we don't have any agreements this would actually cover the the 3% call that was given to Unit A and Unit B for fiscal year 25 so this directly correlates to the budget you'll see in June okay but there's no there's no Cola for 26 yet because nobody has an agreement past 25 does that answer your question yeah okay thank you you're welcome thank you counselor councelor Gino SAA hi Mr vque thank you for coming coming my only question is is this included on on this list here are we including the people who just recently got hired and giving them another raise on top of their new pay that they just got hired with the these are for positions I don't speak in terms of people wait a minute if there's new positions that people were just hired should they be getting another raise on top of the job that they just got I'm I'm I'm not going to answer that I'm going to say that this is the fiscal year 25 salaries for the positions that exist right now there's no new positions in here there aren't there's no everybody who has everybody here will be in the budget they all exist there I don't think there's any position there there's no new highes in here well there new but there's no vacant positions okay thank you just to clarify the people may be new but the positions are not correct thank you any other counselors wishing to speak well to be further clarified there are some positions in here that are new to this salary chart but the jobs are there and the people are working so I don't believe there's any position on this that's vacant at the present time thank you any other counselors uh this is going to be please pardon me this is going to be referred to legislative affairs on May 6th thank you next item is the legislative affairs subcommittee report councelor arenia thank you Mr President the first matter we brought up was uh 24- 057 this is a motion presented by councilor Zan buo and it's an act relative to City employment and candidacy for offices of Mayor we made a couple of amendments to it and we have a final draft and it was looked upon favorably so if Madame clerk can read the amended version and call for a roll call to look on it favorably thank you the amended version as reported out of the legislative affairs subcommittee was as follows an act relative to City employment and candidacy in the offices of Mayor city counselor at large board counselor and school committee of the city of Rivier section one no city counselor or member of the school committee shall hold any appoint of city office or city employment during their term section two no person shall be a candidate for more than one municipal office at the same election and section three this act shall take effect upon its passage call the RO mam cler roll call on the legislation as amended councel agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor H is is recused from discussion councel hero is absent councelor Kelly yes yes councel McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes councelor sylvestri no no councelor zambo yes yes and council president cogliandro yes yes the special legislation is approved can uh uh Mr President suspension of rules or are we under suspension we are not okay motion to suspend the rules all in favor all opposed so order reconsideration and I hope it will not Prevail on the reconsideration all in favor all opposed back to the regular order of business calendar item oh I'm sorry this is we're contining on the legislative affairs subcommittee report so the rest of the items 24- 061 24086 and 24- 091 um the first one was is tabled in deference to the um councelor that proposed it that will be on May 20th and the other two items will be brought up uh on May 6th we had a little um discussion and the has to be revised and will be presented on May 6th thank you next up is the ways and means subcommittee report councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President uh Mr President tonight we had a ways of meetting subc committee uh we had one motion um 24- 092 which was voted out favorably uh will we read the Amendments mam cour so the uh motion was amended coming out of committee as follows I'll reread it on the for the report motion presented by councelor agenzio as amended that the mayor and chief of infrastructure Don charmella be requested to return or to amend the water and sore discount program for seniors to the following rate structure 35% discount for consumption of 25,000 gallons or less 20 20% discount for consumption of 25,000 one gallons to 70,000 gallons and 10% discount for consumption of 70,000 one gallons or more uh take a roll call on the motion or we can do all in favor all oppos on the motion as amended I so ordered calendar item number 10 communication from the mayor relative to the re reappointment of John camarada to the election commission this will be sent to the appointment subcommittee calendar item number 11 communication from the mayor relative to the appointment of Leah Hoffman to the planning board appointments on to motions calendar item number 14 motion presented by councelor Kelly that they may be requested to begin negotiations with trade unions for the purpose of entering into a pla between the city of Rivier and labor unions relative to the construction and build of the proposed new high school at the Wonderland site to ensure that the project is a quality build and built in a timely and efficient manner I believe this motion has been withdrawn Madam Clerk calendar item number 15 motion presented by councelor Gino SAA that the mayor requests the traffic commission to approve the installation of a speed table on Sagamore Street to slow down cut through traffic Council Gino SAA motion speaks for itself all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 16 motion presented by councelor Kelly that the following ordinance be ordered to a public Hearing in ordinance further amending the senior citizen property tax workof abatement councelor Kelly thank you Mr President so um this has to do with the lottery for uh senior citizens um available to 50 senior citizens which is a tax abatement workof program um and when I looked into this it hadn't been it hasn't been updated since 2014 So currently the rate per hour is $112 per hour I'm asking that that be increased to the current minimum wage which is $15.75 per hour um and I'm asking that the tax credit of $750 be increased to $1,000 and by doing such that would increase the number of hours worked from 62 to 63 um but again I think this is something that does help seniors um we do want to give seniors every opportunity to make it easier for them to stay in their homes um this not being increased in the last 10 years I think it's overdue considering inflation and everything that that is going on and the uh tough times that so many of us are facing in terms of a crunch so I think this is something that would really help and um I'd like to see it get put in place thank you thank you counselor any councelors wish to speak councelor agenzio yes this is an excellent uh motion uh councelor Kelly uh it hasn't been increased for so many years and you're asking senior citizens to come and work for less than minimum wage so I think it's a tremendous um motion and uh hope to see it move forward thank you councelor councelor Gino SAA I wholeheartedly agree with councelor Kelly I think this is an excellent motion as well thank you councelor great Motion councelor Kelly this is going to be ordered to a public hearing on May 20th calendar item number 17 motion presented by Council noski that the city council approve the attached Proclamation declaring May 2024 Jewish American Heritage Month Council noeli thank you Mr President Mr President uh City Rivier has established itself as a very diverse community and uh this is just showing the inclusiveness of all religions and faiths Creeds everything we can think of and we've done a great job uh dispersing the word that we're Diversified now whereas the city of Rivier has been continually re renewed and enriched by the many different people who choose to reside here each bringing a part of their own Heritage which over time becomes part of our common Heritage and we're as President Joe Biden proclaimed that the month of May 2024 be recognized as Jewish American Heritage Month in the United States of America which has been going on since 2006 since President Bush and whereas generations of Jewish Americans have helped this city rever in the United States of America what they are today there are currently more than 5 million Jewish Americans in the United States and whereas approximately one quarter of rivia's population was Jewish in the mid-20s with three synagogues located throughout the city being in shirle AV and Beachmont and whereas Jewish Americans have shared their Rich culture Faith tradition with neighbors and Friends while also setting fine examples of model citizens and public servants and whereas Jewish people around the globe have fled persecution endured prron and genocides for centuries and currently face a record rise of anti-Semitism and whereas Jewish Americans have joined with all faiths to work for tun repair of the world remembering lessons of the Holocaust and leading movements for civil rights and social justice and whereas during this special month Jewish Americans are able to embrace American diversity and celebrate the spirit of community that binds us together as one nation now therefore be it Reserve resolved the city council the city Rivier proclaims the month of May 2024 in the city of Rivier a Jewish American Heritage Month be it resolved that the residents of the city of R are encouraged to join us and our Jewish Jewish American Neighbors in this special observance and to learn more about the Heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and it's signed and I thank the mayor also uh for signing this mayor Keefe and clerk Ashley Melnick and at this time I do want to wish everybody that we have been going through uh Passover over the last week and um like everybody else have their own uh remembrances on what they do and how they handle their own religion and uh I thank everybody for understanding and uh supporting us here thank you very much thank you councelor councelor zamuro thank you Mr President uh uh and my thanks to council noveli I think it's a wonderful thing that at this time in our world history there was no nothing more appropriate uh what's going on right now with the anti-Semitism it's just unbelievable it breaks my heart and uh I I congratulate my colleague and uh I of course wholeheartedly support him thank you thank you councelor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um I too support this motion um but I I also want to um to speak to the fact of of what's happening in around in college campuses in these days um you know back at the beginning of of OE and oif um we we made it uh a a point to not group all Muslims as as terrorists and and and bad people and that was something that we we stood by and I think that's something we need to stand by with with this here because um social media and and and uh online are are portraying both sides as as evil and and I just want to see the the people here in the United States be supported throughout their Heritage and for supporting their Heritage and not be shamed or or punished or hurt in any way because they are proud of their Jewish Heritage or Palestinian Heritage this is not for the Israeli government this is for the heritage of the people here in the United States and around the world world and that's what uh I'd like to say thank you Mr President thank you counselor on the motion all in favor all opposed awarded calar item number 18 motion presented by council president cogliandro that the city council discuss the city's street sweeping program including fees scheduling and any other potential changes permission to speak from the chair thank you uh this this motion came about speaking to the parking director uh in regards to some of the changes they're making to ticketing during street cleaning a lot of the people in in I know in ward 3 and Ward 6 we don't have actual sidewalks we have transitions So to avoid a street sweeping ticket what's happening is people are pulling up on the sidewalk with all four wheels uh and you know the parking department is trying to put a stop to that um speaking to a resident uh it brought up some really uh interesting ideas in regards to the consistency of certain streets uh getting street cleaning the amount of tickets or the amount that the the street cleaning tickets are um and it just it it got me thinking that maybe we do need to discuss how often certain streets uh get cleaned you know because ultimately we want to we want to help people I I don't think that the the first thing that people are thinking about on the last Friday or the last Thursday of the month is oh I got to make sure I'm not parked to avoid the street cleaner um I don't believe we should be penalizing people that are paying taxes in this community I also believe in accountability as well uh so I believe that a discussion is warranted on this for instance Broadway should be cleaned every day believe it is cleaned every day my Street Newman Street still a lot of old school Italians are like to go outside and sweep up their front the front of their house I think we all see them they they clean the street they clean the neighbors they'll clean you if you want um so but um I would like to put this into the maybe the Public Works subcommittee um and uh obviously any other counselors wishing to speak on the motion no councelor McKenna thank you [Music] um during well in in on winr have we've been inundated with with um National Grid uh the Water Department everybody and uh for the last uh since last year we haven't had a street cleaning uh all the way down winra bav because of construction uh we still have leaves from last year on the in the gutter and I'm one of those Italian women that uh go around and clean the gutter and clean my neighbors and if you want to come down I'll clean you too but uh um it's just it's it's hard because I call DPW and they won't they won't come down because they're afraid of stones they're afraid of this and we contract out this Arrow um street sweeping you know I just wish that uh we I know we have a street sweeper this and Al ask Paul agenzio um we have a city street sweeper so maybe that City street sweeper could do where the construction uh you know we're we're limited with construction because Arrow will not come down because he's so afraid that he's going to hurt his machine uh with rocks that he won't come down and I call the DPW and it's still not done and last year the city the the uh street sweeping has not been done where the construction is since last year so I can respond to that if you'd like counc so a a street sweeper is is a very delicate uh piece of equipment and it does get damaged very easily but however the people that are doing the construction should have construction sweepers there and they should be sweeping uh periodically or right at every day I mean um that should be the responsibility of National Grid who or whoever the contractor is um so I don't think that's I and I'll check into that but I know last year when I talked to the foreman he called the city to come down and the city wouldn't come so um I I'll find out tomorrow but thank you for that information I really app postively be something that they do okay great because there's a lot of rocks and there's a lot of dirt right so thank you you're welcome thank you councilors councelor Kelly um I think this this is warranted for a discussion because as many calls as I get from residents who say um the streets aren't being cleaned properly because car are being parked all four tires on the sidewalks and the street sweeper will just go right down the street and won't clean because he's afraid to get too close in proximity to park cars because he doesn't want to damage them um I get those calls I also get calls from um constituents that say a my Street's clean I don't need to have this cleaned and it's an inconvenience for me to move my car I also get calls from people that like to take walks in the neighborhood and can't walk walk on these so-called transitional sidewalks or um because of the cars being parked on all four tires and they don't have any room to walk so that forces them into the street so I think we definitely need a a you know it warrants a larger discussion to try to come up with some kind of a balance to take all of these things into consideration and come up with some kind of a solution thank you thank you counselor uh and and if I may you know one of the other changes we could potentially make is the time of day if we send the street sweeper out after people have already left the work it might alleviate some of the the parking that happens on the side of the street um you know and and I just want to State for the record that I do not believe in any way shape or form if it's back on the table I don't know but we should not be towing cars uh just don't do we used to do that I heard that it's a potential to come back I do not want that to happen a president councelor house I will say Thank you Mr President I will say I was in East Boston the other day and I was saying to myself there's so many parking spots on near our Maverick Maverick station I was shocked and then I turned the corner and there had to be three or four tow trucks because it was street sweeping day and they were Towing the cars like you wouldn't believe councel janino first of all this is a good motion Mr President and uh this program hasn't been looked at in quite some time I remember when the first start doing the sweeper Citywide with the towen the tag in the whole nine yards the only addition has really been they've added some of the main drags to be done more they added it up till December now for some reason yeah so I think it's time that we look at this program and figure out what's working what's not working on it councelor McKenna um councelor janino your daughter um rep uh janino and I put that ordinance in to increase it until December and the reason why is because um we the trees are not uh the leaves are not falling they're falling later in the year so that's why we put it in for December I just wanted to clarify that thank you thank you councelor councelor noeli thank you Mr President Mr President I agree this should be uh looked at it has been a long time and you know honestly you know I don't have a issue down in war two you know and uh we're very strict with uh people and people are good with moving their cars you know you can come down hitchborn Street Highland Street Thon Street Su Street wet a and find no cars there on Thursday morning every week they know to move their cars they put them in their driveways they put them on their front Lawns they put them in their backyards and they sit on the porch waiting for the sweeper to come by and they goes back out on the street as soon as the guy leaves and uh you know they they know down in my neighborhood they know and uh which I'm glad and uh you know surely have you know we always had they do every day but alternate sides of the street because there are still residents that live down there and they have trouble finding other parking spaces because all the streets around there were done on the same day on that Thursday so you know but things work out and we do it alternate days Monday Wednesday Friday and Tuesday and Thursday and also we had we used to have we lost them but one of our senior citizens used to do the other side of the street as a senior citizen workof program uh clean the opposite side of the street that wasn't swept on those Al alternate days and it worked out very well and they even went into the parks you know into cost the park and Fitz Henry Square and cleaned in there just to make their 15 hours a week work and and it worked out and so I I think it's a a good discussion for us to have thank you thank you counselor um if I may just I'm looking at the I'm looking at the uh parking penalties ordinance and I'm looking at parking on a sidewalk is a $20 fine but obstructing a street sweeper is 50 um here's another one $25 $25 Fine Parking on a rotary or traffic island is only $25 but 50 if you if the you're in the way of the street sweeper okay so yes we definitely need to talk about this um uh Public Works I believe is counil noeli this will be referred to public works thank you calar item number 19 motion presented by council president Cog Leandro that the city council Awards certificates of commendation to the Rivier high school speech and debate team in recognition of their performance at the msdl state speech Championship motion speaks for itself save my comments for that evening all in favor all opposed so Ed calendar item number 21 motion presented by councel Gino SAA that the mayor requests the DCR to station a lifeguard on Rivier beach in front of the Jack sat house lifeguards are not stationed this far up the beach but there is a great need for a lifeguard in this vicinity due to the many seniors utilizing the beach residing at the senior living facility councelor Gino SAA I've received phone calls from I want to say approximately six or seven seniors over at the SAT house and they all had the same concerns as they get older their Mobility isn't as good as it used to be um as I'm seeing now but what's happening is they sometimes have their grandchildren and if their grandchildren are on the beach with them and they want to play in the water God forbid something happens to them they can't get to them on time and they there is not a lifeguide station there that could actually assist these seniors that enjoy going to the beach on a daily basis that's why they're at the Jack satad house right on the beach so if we can have the DCR um help us with this I would greatly appreciate it thank you thank you counselor any other counselors counselor sylvestri thank you Mr President um I can't agree more I think it's a great motion never realized that there wasn't a lifeguard down the end cross from the Jack sder but I think there should be so I support this whole hardly thank you counselor on the motion all in favor I'll post so ordered calendar item number 22 motion presented by councelor Kelly that the May request the Director of Finance to set the fee for a municipal lean certificate at $50 councelor Kelly thank you Mr President um this was actually brought to my attention by an astute resident um that right now for our mlcs on Municipal lean certificates we are charging a $25 fee um towns like winthrip for instance is charging $75 um Lynn is charging $75 Somerville 60 um so I think we should increase this in an attempt to try to bring in some more Revenue to the city I believe in fiscal year 2022 there were 755 Municipal lean certificates issued so if we were to bump up that $25 to $50 or even $75 we're doubling or even tripling those fees coming into the city um and with the high school we can use um every bit that we can get so I think this might be something that we should consider thank you thank you councelor councelor Gino SAA I love this Motion councel Kelly but I would go with the $75 um the $75 will meet the mo the norm for the surrounding cities and the more Revenue we bring into the city the less Tex burden we have on the taxpayers um the leans are only usually requested by an attorney right when they're selling a house so let's bump it up to 75 bucks I I'm all in favor of that amending the motion to um from 50 to 75 I believe sargus is at $50 if I'm not incorrect good evening sir name and address for the record please Anthony pale 51 Arcadia Street I think in a time when things are so expensive it's very nice to have something that's 25 bucks I've uh for years people may or may not know this but I used to own a franchise with this company home vestors where I bought and sold homes and the other person usually gets stuck with the bill of $75 not the attorney the person selling the houses and I know it's not like if you're selling the house for a million dollar and you're going to make $250,000 like what's the big deal but you guys were just talking about not nickeling Diamond people on permits or on uh parking tickets I don't think we should do this I think we should leave it at $25 Mr President to your point yes sagus is $50 we have an amendment to the motion on the floor right now to change it to $75 is that still absolutely councelor Gino Mr Pali this is from people who are selling their homes and are leaving the city of Riva why would we not try to make the most money for our taxpayers I I don't want to get into a back and forth with the with the audience no no disrespect sir um you know what let let's keep it at 50 for now how's that okay the motion on the floor is now amended to $50 do I hear 45 withdrawing the amendment um on the motion withdrawing the amendment on the motion as presented I like to keep things interesting on the original motion all in favor all opposed I calendar item number 23 motion presented by councelor Areno that the mayor be requested to instruct the engineering department to stop the practice of reducing the size of residents driveways when sideway walks are being reconstructed unless the driveway poses poses a public safety concern councelor agenia thank you uh Mr President so recently the engineering department has uh decided to follow the letter of the law with the ordinance and driveways that have been established for 20 30 40 50 years as they're reconstructing these streets they're now attempting to reduce these driveways down to 20 ft to um be in align with the with the ordinance uh we just had a little situation up off Park Avenue and I want to thank the mayor and the engineering department for helping out that homeowner and the issue was resolved but the the practice of doing this I don't really see what the point is going into Old established neighborhoods and starting to reduce these driveways that people have had for like I say 20 30 40 years uh when I was superintendent and we were faced with reconstructing a street I would go up and uh down the street with the engineer at the Time Michael kesman and unless a driveway posed a public safety concern people used to have driveways maybe they built something on their property and now they no longer had the depth so their car would stay out onto the sidewalk blocking the sidewalk in that case we would close that driveway up so I I don't see what is to be gained um by doing this I know the ordinance says 20 ft and I I don't see going back all these years to try to close these up uh does anything for the neighborhoods thank you thank you counselor Council isan budo uh thank you Mr President I I couldn't agree any more than with this motion they redew in Washington have and and and people are being forced to pay money and and lose their driveway it's it's asinine excuse my language but it really is foolish and it's really uh sticking it to the homeowner and uh I think uh if it needs an ordinance change we do it right now because it's it's just not fair and and there's no reason for it it's just following uh what what I consider a stupid law and and uh the council said it perfectly when he was superintendent he did on a caseby Case basis if something was a public safety haard you get rid of it if it's not leave it alone stop torturing people thank you thank you councelor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President uh councelor agenzio great motion um I have been called by several people on Washington have um who actually for years invested their own money into their sidewalks and and driveways and now with the new curb Cuts they're going to be losing several feet of their driveways and and stuff like that so I don't see how this in any way helps our residents I think it's a nuisance on them and I don't think it should be happening thank you Mr President thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you Mr President's great motion councelor aeno I just want to say that I've witnessed you and uh um the engineer kesman uh go up and down the streets talk to Residents and help them uh if there was a bush or something and there was an you know uh footage that they couldn't they needed a little bit more room you gave it to them and I just want to say thank you for that thank you councelor councelor noveli thank you Mr President Mr President you know I agree with the councilor aeno and these places that they are reducing shouldn't be reduced these had grandfathered in you know that that's a magic word grandfather it was there before the rule change it stays the way it was before not under the new rule and I know you know M cman was great I I always walked the streets I walked with the councilor renzio when he was a superintendent talking about driveways there were areas that we added driveways for people you know because they had the space to do it and they they were driving over the sidewalk you know without the curb cut and I'd ask me would you rather have a curb cut here with a little driveway and they said absolutely and I talked to you know councelor agenzio and we we made things work we and if we had to widen something a little more we'd widen it a little more if we had to reduce it some for various reasons we do it you know M kesin was very good and you know honestly I heard haven't heard Boo I I don't think they have a replacement for him they have someone that does it but I haven't heard heard from this you know city engineer about things on new sidewalks I haven't heard anything from his engineer that he uses about going to doing new sidewalks we're doing Campbell La Now new sidewalks and you know I would like to have had some interaction before they even did it while they were planning it to show where we could add trees to it and they didn't even do tree pits so there has to be more discussion on that too thank you thank you counselor councelor janino think this SEL a motion brought by councelor J here it's one of the first situations I had to deal with over in war 6 with Washington Avenue and the residents over there with the concern at the driveway cut down for no apparent reason at all and I I support this here thank you councelor councelor Kelly I just want to thank councelor agenzio for bringing this motion it's an excellent motion and I think a just a blanket rule like this um just take away um keeping the best interest of the resident at the Forefront which is really what we should be concerned with and it sounds like it used to be that way and maybe now we're moving away from that and um I think we need to go back and and really look at this and and give it some more um individuality to the circumstances so thank you thank you counselor counselor H thank you Mr President I totally agree with my fellow counselor to the right of me councelor renzio um you know in a time where we squeze where residents feel like they're being squeezed I can't imagine a a rever senior walking out of their house to see their driveway had been cut you know without any safety concerns or anything like that um and I like the idea of council arel saying he used to go walking with um Mr kman on a house- to house basis and for talk to the residence um this is crazy that this is just being done and the residents are just walking out of the house to see it it doesn't it doesn't really add up thank you thank you counselor permission to speak from the chair thank you what I was really surprised about was I got a phone call from a resident there and they were told that if they wanted to keep their driveway the same way as they bought the house that they were going to have to get a variance to avoid having their driveway closed up a little bit and then they were told they needed an up-to-date plot plan which we all know cost you know somewhere between 2 and 3,00 ,000 um we need to do better for for the residents there this person bought this home has lived there for over a decade now we're telling them you got to get a variance to keep it that way that should not be the case on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 24 motion presented by councelor Gino SAA that the city council order to a public hearing the following Amendment to the zoning map of the city of R an ordinance further amending the zoning map of the city of re rier relative to the Ted District Section 1 title 17 of the revised ordinances of the city of Rivier and the zoning map provided by section 171202 of said title is hereby amended by changing the zoning District of the following Parcels from GB to Ted uh parcel 10188 a 3-1-2 D3 and-4 and that's on Northshore Road councelor garina SAA in order to allow a business owner in the city to have a class two onec car pocket license we will just be making the two existing non-conforming businesses which are both repair garages in that location that is now GB District conforming by making it a Ted District in other words we're basically making this Ted which will make the two non-conforming uses currently permitted adhere to the location conf warming that's that's it thank you thank you counselor anyone else wishing to speak this is going to be ordered to a public hearing on May 20th calendar item number 25 motion presented by councelor agenzio that the mayor be requested to contact the DCR and the state delegation to make the portion of Rivier Beach from Beach Street to Rivier Street dog friendly yearround many dog owners enjoy walking along the beach with their dogs during the winter months and making this area for the many dog owners who live in Rivier a yearr round activity councelor Areno uh thank you very much um I was contacted by quite a few dog owners uh that enjoy uh going on the beach with their dogs um and the DCR bands April I think through October I mean I I've gone down the beach uh this past month and there's just a few people walking uh in their over coats on the beach um I have in here I suggest this are from Beach Street to Rivier street because I don't see any piping plovers there and there are no homes uh but I would be amenable to anything that the DCR could come up with just a small portion of the beach that be uh designated dog friendly um if if that can't be done maybe um close the window a little bit uh maybe make it a Memorial Day to um Labor Day when these uh dogs are unallowed um but it's it's an enjoyable activity um I've I've walked many times with my I've never met um a dog owner that that wasn't doing the right thing and dogs are always friendly so uh I'd like the DCI to look into this and and come up with at least something thank you counselor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um councelor jio is a good motion I'd like to just possibly amend it I don't know if it if it would automatic but um just to Ure that they're on a leash oh oh positively still a leash law on R and and that wouldn't be I I'm not intending to do that thank you thank you counselor councelor Gino SAA although I completely respect counselor Areno for this motion I've gotten about a dozen phone calls from residents that live along reier Beach um that are against it the reason being is first they were they had to overcome the piping plovers and them taking over our beach and I mean I love dogs I I'm a dog owner so I I completely understand where this is coming from but they the what they were looking at is the people go to the beach we we have such a short summer here in on Rivier Beach so it goes from Memorial Day to maybe Labor Day if we're lucky so we take our families on the beach some of the kids may be afraid of the dogs some of the dogs may be aggressive it's you you want to be want these families to be able to enjoy the short time that they do have on the beach not to worry about whether a dog is going to come up to them or or or whether there's going to be poop left on the beach which is extremely um a health hazard for for these children um but my I have a little suggestion that is used on another beach in the area maybe have the dogs there prior to 9:00 a.m. in the morning and after 700 p.m. after Dusk to walk the dogs so the people do have their time with their families on the beach not having to worry about a dog coming up to them thank you sorry thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you uh Mr President so last uh year before the council changed I put a motion in for a dog dog park uh on the beginning of Rivier beach before the piping Clover is and uh a part where no one uses it no one uses it it's um it a buts uh I think it's broad sound AV but it's all rocks there's really no um residence unless it's up uh it's a it's a small place but uh dogs can go in there and I know I've been in California and they have uh dogs on the beach but they have a certain section for the dogs to run and play and this would be perfect because there's no one uses that part of the beach um where the rotary is to the um going into Winthrop uh going towards winrop no one uses that no one sits there on their because the C is different it's it's not really sand it's like mdsh uh kind of sand so no one really sits there so it's a it's a place where no one uses and it could be utilized for a really good dog park and we could monitor it to see if we could you know especially because I've had after I did this motion last year I got some calls saying well what if they don't pick up the poop it's it's uh you know it's not good for the water and B but I mean if they did it right I think it could work and it's a great place because no one uses it so they start after the piping Clover is that's where they start so uh we should look into it it died in the water no pun intended but um but anyways maybe we can bring this up again thank you thank you counselor any other counselors Mr President coun I understand uh council swi is saying um and I'm only looking for a very small portion of the beach I you know I I understand people want to go down and and and use the beach and some people are afraid of dogs and what have you I I I totally understand that just a small section uh like I say maybe closing the window where they when they're not allowed Memorial Day to Labor Day instead of through October and St in April first when just people are walking on the beach and they're over coat so if if we can send this to the DCM maybe they have some suggestions and councelor Mna brings up an excellent one thank you and and there's other cities and towns that do allow this I know theart they have a a dog friendly Beach they you can't park but I mean so you can't go but but they they have a dog friendly uh Beach there so thank you for your consideration thank you councelor councel noas selski thank you Mr President Mr President uh you know I like dogs I carry dog treats with me over in the beach because there's so many people walking down there with them and uh most of the dogss are good but you know this particular area that you know councilor agenzio is suggesting is actually all my ward and uh I know the people that live in the homes across the street have an issue with this so you know I would I would think twice about uh you know agreeing to this and that was just that area was just a suggestion right I understand and you know I like Council McKenna's idea of you know the area down by one Boulevard and you know down that neighborhood it's my w to and that's not W two it a w one and they can't and they can't get flooded in that area but uh you know I I have a I have an issue with this so you know that's my thoughts thank you thank you counselor uh permission to speak from the chair oh thank you I was waiting I thought I thought that was going to be the first no um sorry um so do we know why and this maybe it's just me but do we know why that dogs are banned from being being on the beach at certain times of the year does anyone right and that's my question is why is it that way I feel as someone who pays taxes in this community not only that who pays to have a dog license in this community that I should be able to walk my dogs on the beach whenever I want um but I also want to know why people are opposed to this um if any any of the counselors could shed light on that why the opposition to having dogs on the beach I just I think this is kind of silly I agree with councilor Reno's motion I think it should be the whole Beach they should be allowed all year uh it's just me and I love my dogs almost as much as I love my kids for the record so anyone else and no nobody has any more information on why or all right yes sir we can do a roll call Madam clerk please call the roll on the motion councel agenzio yes yes councel janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA no no councelor h yes yes councelor Haram is absent councelor Kelly yes yes councelor McKenna yes yes councelor noeli no no councelor sylvestri yes yes Council zambuto yes yes and council president C Andro Ru no yes I'm sorry yes the motion is approved calendar item calendar item number 26 motion presented by Council sylvestri that the mayor be requested to contact the State delegation and mot to repair all state roadways through Bell Circle to include routes 6016 107 and 1A each of these State own highways needs major repair council zambuto is recused from this motion councilor sylvestri thank you Mr President um this motion speaks for itself although I did call our state delegation uh both um rep janino and turo and Senator Edwards they got on it immediately and um so some of the works already started to be done and continuing I hope to to finish it because um there's a lot of landmines out there that need to be fixed thank you counselor councelor Gino sa can we just amend this to add the Linway hey no comments from you accuse do we know if it's DC okay so it's it's DCR so we would have to amend it to add DCR right on the motion as amended all in favor all opposed so ordered C number 27 motion presented by councilors McKenna and Kelly that the city council request Tom O'Brien of hym to appear before the city council to provide a construction progress update on suff Downs at the May 6th city council meeting councilor McKenna thank you Mr President so councilor Kelly and I put a call into Tom O'Brien hym suffect Downs to shed some light and set the record straight of the rumors that are going around that hym is not doing well uh we as a city and a council are uh banking on this development mostly from the revenue to fund the new High School uh Tom O'Brien's been up here for eight years he's been a he's a standup guy and uh he's always told us what's going on so I trust uh that he will come up next week and give us an honest update on what's going on down there thank you thank you counselor coun councelor Kelly thank you Mr President um yes in light of the fact that the city is counting on hym being one of the biggest revenue streams to fund the high school I think it'll give everyone some peace of mind if Mr O'Brien can come in and just um assure us all that the project is still on course so thank you thank you counselor any other council is wishing to speak all in favor all opposed so Ed calendar item number 28 motion presented by councilors Kelly and McKenna that the mayor request the city solicitor to draft special legislation requiring that the city enter into an agreement with the Comm of Massachusetts and DCR providing for regulations concerning the closure of The Floodgate on winther Parkway councelor Kelly thank you Mr President so this motion comes in resp respon to the last storm where um some residents personal property homes got damaged as a result of the floodgates not being closed uh we understand that The Floodgate is not the property of the city of Rivier um it is DC's property however um that just because it's not the city of Ria's property doesn't mean that decisions regarding whether or not that Floodgate is closed doesn't impact Direct directly impact residents and taxpayers in the city it does therefore I believe there should be some type of at least joint decision-making process um so that you know between the mayor and the ward counselor and DCR can make a joint decision as to when The Floodgate is closed thank you thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you Mr President so after my presentation in the last meeting about why the floodgates weren't closed and uh uh mayor Keefe called me the next day and assured me that we would make the decision uh uh mayor the mayor the mayor and myself so uh hopefully that will happen at that that the next storm happens and and they'll they'll say Okay Joanne yes there is no Arista coming in and we we need to close the gates so they'll assure me that they'll close the gates thank you thank you counselor councelor H thank you Mr President I totally agree with this motion and um the woman who was up here a couple weeks ago that spoke about her basement being flooded really hit me and um I think this is something that was it wasn't common practice back in the 90s that the city would do this but they would do it do it somewhat often so I know it's not rev property but this does affect R residents and anytime we have a chance to stop any damage or any damage to house Vehicles anything like that that's something the city should take a hard look at and just make the call thank you thank you counselor councel noeli thank you Mr President you know I I'm disgusted the way this was handled by DCR you know that gentleman that refused to do it even if for two hours I don't care if it would be one hour if it made a difference it they should have saved our neighborhood and I remember way back when when Donnie Goodwin was the superintendent he didn't care what DCR said he went down and closed the gate himself Paul was probably with him at the time they went down there with a whole crew and they closed those Gates and and the city Riv told DCR they told DCR that we blocking it off that you better get guys on either end to block it and if they didn't then the city did it and stopped the traffic so you know I I think we have to get on DCR and you know see what we can do to for the issue whenever it's necessary thank you thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you Mr President for the leeway I would also like to amend could I could have put amendment in this that um a pump the pumping stations on um Belling uh Bennington Street and uh broadsound AV be opened during these storms uh turned on okay thank you um because uh couple of months ago go Bennington street was underwat it was under 3 ft of water so um and I don't know if the pumping station was working or not but um it does uh take out the water from a lot of uh streets on low-lying areas in Beachmont so I would uh I would like to amend that too for the pumping stations that's yes they are Council Kelly All Good with the Amendments any other counselors on the motion as amended all in favor all oos osed so awarded calendar item number 29 motion presented by councelor H that the city council award certificates of accommodation to the life skills students who assist Mrs Sally branos behind the scenes at the recreation department the life skills program has grown to seven students since its Inception eight years ago the students assist with shredding to painting props for City advents the students truly are the unsung heroes of the department councelor H thank you Mr president I would like to save my comments for the night that the certificates are awarded thank you very good all in favor all opposed awarded calendar item number 30 motion presented by councelor Gino SAA that the city council award a certificate of commodation to Nick rrom the city engineer and Don charmella chief of infrastructure for their fast and efficient work in Oak Island during the MBTA track shutdown which ultimately saved the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars councelor Gino sa I will save my comments for the presentation thank you very good all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 31 motion presented by councelor sylvestri that the city council present a certificate of commodation to Richie scanelli in recognition and celebration of his 70th birthday councilor sylvestri I will save my nights for the night we uh give him a certificate but if you grew up in the city of Rivier I think you know Richie scanelli so be a fun night can we amend the motion to have a cake no I'm kidding all in favor all opposed so ordered that concludes the meeting we have a point of personal privilege from councelor noveli thank you Mr President this is more of a public service announcement for our veterans and rever just want to remind everybody all our veterans that this Wednesday May 1st is the uh food drive behind the American Legion and it everything is free you just have to make sure you call the re uh the Veterans office at 78128 68119 and put your name on the list you just drive up they put couple a bag of food in your in your car you don't have to even get out they do all Lifting for you so show up right now we we service almost over 300 people in the city and there's still food left over food comes from the food bank Boston food bank and everybody loves when they go uh so please sign up and let them know you're going to come and it's good food there's fruits there's vegetables there's canned food any almost any anything you need is there for you it's not like shopping and Stop and Shop but it's you know it's something there for you to uh get get you over the hump thank you Mr President counselor if I may uh I just want to say that this food bank uh Services we we've been doing this food bank I I hopped on in 2020 it's it's every month the first Wednesday of every month so all the information Council novas selski just gave please come down there if you're a veteran or or your family members a veteran come down get food and like you said there is a such a spread down there um fruits vegetables fats proteins carbo everything everything youd need Mr President just uh a little addendum uh from 10:30 in the morning nothing is given out afternoon time so get there early and you'll get in line and they'll take care of you you're in and out they got some great people from the VFW that working there to help give out the food and uh you know Donna is there and our new our new uh vso is there our veteran service officer Isaac McDaniel and uh everybody's a big help so thank you and thank you Mr President for your help councilor sylvestri with that said the meeting is adjourned we will reconvene on May 6th have a great evening everyone Celtic are winning yeah --------- [Music] flag of the United States of America to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all rooll Club the members councelor greo SAA here here councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly here here councelor sylvestri here here and chairman Areno here here forum is present first matter on tonight's agenda is Council order 24- 057 motion presented by Council zambuto that the city council approve the following special legislation an act relative to City employment and candidacy in the offices of Mayor City councelor at large board counselor and school committee of the city of rier any uh members wishing to speak no okay Council Zeno thank you Mr chairman Anthony zambuto 87 High Street um as you can see I've uh taken everything that was offensive out of this to appease everybody I think and uh it's it's very really very basic now it comes down to if you get elected you serve one office that's it so that's really in summary that's what this is I think it's uh prudent and uh and you can't be a city employee any longer right right you can't be a city council and a city employee that doesn't mean you can't go back to being a city employee after you leave you know okay doesn't doesn't buy you forever in other words it's not but I think I think this was a good uh um it eliminated all the things that was offending or offending people and uh that's it thank you thank you very much Madam clerk do we have to officially uh amend okay Mr Mr chairman okay take your time Mr CH Mr chairman yes um do you yeah I just want okay go right ahead I'm sorry I wanted to hear what council zimuto had to say first I just wanted to thank him uh for putting this Motion in um and adjusting it the way we he listened to everything councelors had to say at the last meeting and I appreciate that council president thank you Mr chairman I just want a clarification does this also include school committee is it all elected positions it does okay thank you very much so the new language as presented by Council buo would be as follows if adopted by the legislative affairs subcommittee an act relative to City employment and candidacy in the office of Mayor city council large board counselor and school committee section one no city counselor or member of the school committee shall hold any appointive city office or city employment during their term and sentence there section two no person shall be a candidate for more than one municipal office at the same election in section three this act shall take effect upon its passage thank you any further discussion council president thank you for the leeway Mr chairman um do we need to change any of the wording considering that school committee was just changed to Wards as well because we do we do have it for the council through you Mr chairman to council zambuto uh Mr chairman I would defer to the clerk but I I believe that no matter what the school committee did in in changing they're going I guess they're going to ws and and so forth uh the language still stands if you're an elected official no matter how you get elected from a w or from I so I I don't believe we need to change anything is that correct Madam clerk if the committee wanted to they could change the title of the ACT if they wanted to but section one does explicitly refer to city counselor or member of the school committee and that would cover whether or not those indiv indviduals are an atlarge member or a board member thank I just wanted to make sure we're being thorough thank you so much thank you any further discussion roll call on the special legislation as amended councel greo SAA yes yes councel hero is absent councelor Kelly yes yes councelor sylvestri no no and chairman Areno yes yes the special legislation as amended has has received a favorable recommendation and will be reported out to the city council this evening thank you madam clerk next item next item is Council order 24- 061 an ordinance providing for interpretation services for public meetings and public documents yes that's been moved to May 20th the maker of the motion is not here this evening next item is calendar um sorry Council order number 24- 86 an ordinance further amending the revised ordinances of the city of reier relative to the term of superintendent of Public Works hi everyone I don't know if there are any specific questions oh sorry Claren zero 281 Broadway um I don't know if there were specific questions from the uh public hearing or from the introduction from last time but I'm here and happy to answer them any questions or comments Council Gino why did they just decide to change it given them less years yes so it's been in discussion for a little while um especially when we changed from Brian to the acting position kind of cleaning up some of the positions and cleaning up trying to keep things consistent and they thought by the premise of having someone for 5 years you're technically outliving the moral Administration that puts you there depending on the timing of the appointment um but when you do appoint at the beginning um they would end up outliving if he appointed someone right now so he wanted to kind of keep everyone in house as most Mayors do with their Chiefs you have the people closest to you in your cabinet the next mayor puts those folks in to help them so the idea was to keep everyone mostly that's not dictated by state law at for and under to kind of keep for fresh turnover for getting new folks in but if you're keeping it at three years that's under and if he renews the contract for another 3 years it's still going into the next May the mayor yes that's the hope that doesn't make sense that's what I was told when they wanted to get someone in is you want someone you can try them out see if they're really good put someone in who's been here I don't know who's going to be appointed I'm not privy to those conversations but the way it was explained to me was that we wanted to give the opportunity for new Talent if someone's not working out you know try to remedy that um whether it be moving someone around or getting someone in there but it's to kind of keep the wheel turning and not end up with you know a regret how about four years why not go with the four years as they may um the mayor's term would be U because then as the point that you just made with it being outlived if you did three and three four and four could end up completely overlapping the next mayor hi thank you excuse me Council sylvestri thank you Mr President um Mr chair um CLA thanks coming up uh so I'm just a little confused these are just the chief positions yeah so there's some difference between um certain Chiefs and department heads it was a little confusing to me when I first started but um I do have the mayoral appointments some of them are Chiefs that's in their title some of them like the City Assessor they're not a chief but they're still appointed so these are all mayoral appointments so we have the City Assessor the city auditor The Building Commissioner city clerk election commissioner city engineer director of ISD Director of Finance City treasur collector director of Parks and Recreation purchasing agent again not a chief but a department head director of veteran services city solicitor and the superintendent of Public Works and the chief of planning and the chief of Health and Human Resources or human sources sorry I'm just a little confused because some of those positions have Union protections and others don't that's correct so how how are we giving protections like that those positions some of them are appointed positions so we're giving appointed positions the same protections as we're giving Union employees I I don't see how that's that makes too much sense well like for example me everyone in my office and the solicitor's office were not covered by a collective baring agreement so what the city does is they from what I understand they match so everyone in my office gets the same benefits as someone who is covered by the union so I think that's the intent behind applying it to our Chiefs and exempt department heads as well I may defer to Rich or no I I get what you're saying but what I'm what I'm trying to explain is is someone that's protected by the union they can't just go in and fire now someone else if a mayor loses an election who's not protected by the union your chief of water and soore can be fired at the election of the new mayor so we are protecting people for almost blocking the new Administration from bringing in their employees do do you see what I'm saying and I'm struggling a bit um but I don't I don't know I'm not very well versed in the differences because I'm not in the union so I don't get I don't get those emails I'm not too sure about the union protections I know if someone's not doing a good job anyone can get fired at any moment I mean the union can only go so far um I would hope it's not weaponized in that way but you know I I don't think I can speak to those matters if you can help Council Kelly has a question you may elaborate do you happen to know if this is in concert or in line with what other municipalities do yes so most municipalities they range from 3 to four um very very few of them hit the five Mark for mayoral appointees uh it's a little different in towns with a select board and city managers and stuff like that but uh five is a rarity it's not it's not super uncommon but it's not common usually 3 to four is what most cities try to keep with those um higher level positions thanks councilor sylvestri thank you for the lway okay so I my question is going to be um and and I I hate getting this personal but does your position do you pay union dues on a weekly basis I don't know Rich no okay so you who don't pay union dues and then we what say the director of veteran service Services who does pay union dues are going to get the same protections now I I know the the union representation will represent anyone that works in the city and and will'll give them advice but they don't get the same protections by us agreeing to this I I think we're we're protecting non-union employees I don't know about the word yeah so when you uh get a term the term is set by ordinance and when the city council approves it you you have that term and I don't believe anyone can remove that uh you from your office if unless you're doing something unless you're der of your duties or what have you so I I think that uh any person that comes up here is appointed by the mayor confirmed by the city council that's your term and nobody can remove you from that until your term expires that's correct that's sure good afternoon uh Rich R CFO to on Broadway um just to help clarify Council sylvestri um the manager unit unit a uh management is a Union contract the Union contract however for the management does not provide uh job security it provides a set of rules so I believe the appointment is really more of the job security once it's appointed by the council a council and jenio said it's a it's almost like a contractor appointed unless you're director of your duties you serve the terms of that so I think the appointment by Statute kind of gives more protection than that unit a with regard to whether you can replace one or the other The Unit B contract does have Protections in it but that unit a management contract does not have protection but rather just a set of rules that they follow so um I don't know if that answers your question or not no I'm just a little confused that why we would just wouldn't keep them concurrent with the mayor well I think the idea was to try to keep it concurrent but I think um Council soai has a good point why not a four-year term or I know the finance director serves co- terminers with the mayor so I think there's room to to adjust that but I think the the underlying problem is that a 5-year term on a 4M may can create some difficulty so I think that's what we're trying to adjust here thanks I can also add that you know we're always amenable to the council's suggestions to what you guys think is best and we do have two co-terminus uh terms as Rich mentioned that's the director of ISD and Rich's position the finance director um all the rest of them are three years and some of them are at will and we get into special legislation like with the city clerk but you know if you guys thought four was better than three that's certainly something I can bring back and we can discuss um three was chosen because again it gives a little more leeway for trial and error and seeing who works best in what conditions and with certain folks council president C Leandro thank you Mr chairman I I think the idea of attaching the language or changing the language to go concurrently with the mayor's you know term is better and I think that if we get a new mayor that it's every mayor's right to appoint a new Chief or or something I think that that would be best uh instead of the three years that's just my two cents on it but if we attach if we attach it to the mayoral term I think that that might have less political implications and so does three years honestly but four years would make a little bit more sense thank you and when you say just a question when you say co-terminus if uh the mayor's elected for 4 years if he stays on and gets another four years does that person still have to come up before reappointment in in a sense they are do have multiple folks right now who as we've seen with many mayors in the past they are still serving out appointed positions that they have not been reappointed too so that technically their appointed position ends but they're still in that employment role they'd have to be reappointed so that's the job security that councelor sylvestri is referring to if there's a person right now who was appointed under former mayor Rigo they may not be reappointed right now they're still under our employment but they could be removed he mentioned without that security of being reappointed and approved by you all once again okay what's the will of the committee do you want to uh make a substitute motion to okay which who would care to make that thank you thank you Mr chairman um I would like to put in the substitute motion to change it from 3 years to four years Co coterminous yes okay just read the section to make sure it makes sense to you guys please so if the word co-terminus is added it would the section the pertinent section would read as follows um this is 2.63 point0 2 superintendent appointment term the Department of Public Works shall be under the general supervision of a superintendent who shall subject to approval of the city council be appointed by the mayor in the month of January after the beginning of the mayor's term for see it would say five years but that it would not make sense if you had the word co-terminus there so we need to the committee should change that language around so it fits properly okay we could cons yeah you all want four years co-terminus Coter cuz the way ISD is right now it is a term of four years Co co-terminus with the mayor so they assume that you're being appointed in January although you may not be right so if you're if you're appointed in July you've got a three and a half years I I would recommend to the council perhaps removing language that they have to be appointed in January and just saying that upon the election of a new mayor the mayor shall appoint a director of uh the super sorry superintendent of Public Works to serve co-terminus with his term or to serve coterminous with his with his election that sounds that sounds good I think restricting it to the month May right Prov difficult so be appointed by the mayor for a term of four years to run co-terminus with the mayor yes Mr chairman thank you Ashley yes I I'm I'm just want to be uh thorough so let's say we have a situation like we just had where uh we have mayor resign and now we're going to have new legislation surrounding the acting mayor let's say that a mayor's elected they resign in the first year we have an acting mayor for six months and then somebody else becomes the mayor does it now does that process start over again where they're finishing out a four-year term and I just want I'm only asking because I want to make sure that we're very thorough so there's no loopholes in this I I good question maybe we should table this till the next legislative affairs meeting okay so uh do we have a a motion to table this until uh next week May 6 we are going to have a legislative affairs meeting that okay will that give enough time to uh yep whatever you all want feel free to email me too if something comes up um and I can arrange for the language okay this is table for now until May 6th when we get some correct language oh some better language and the last item on tonight's agenda is Council order 24- 091 an ordinance further amending the revised ordinances of the city of Rivier relative to Food Truck regulations any members wishing to speak no okay members of the public thank you Mr chairman members of the committee iron noeli 53d H Street um I've just run into some situations on Shirley Avenue and I know we have something going on Broadway but um what's happening is some of the food trucks are ATT keeping their wagons attached to their vehicles and taking up two in three spaces so some of the business people are complaining that their um people visiting their stores don't have a place to park they've gotten complaints like that so I would like to propose uh that uh we limit you know they can only have right now they can have two vehicles between the hdav and n road so I'm proposing that uh we leave the one spot by the municipal lot so there'll be one spot between the h Avenue in Walden Street and then make one spot between Walden Street and ner road so it'll be in between there um you know it seemed to work out the other day because I talked to one of the vendors and he moved down and it's okay but what's happening is when they come in at 3:00 there's no place to park their vehicles so they're parking in other spots so uh that's one thing that looking at but also that and I don't know if it's in the current ordinance that they cannot keep their wagon you know the food uh trailer attached to their vehicle while they're utilizing it while in business I know counselor that when I was looking into it no they're not they only have a specific space and they can't they can't do that so that's more of an Enforcement issue um Madam clerk can we add something now without a public hearing you the committee can certainly add something I would just need time uh to look at the ordinances and see where Council Noel's amendment is going to fit in with those ordinances the language is correct you know I'm going to need time to do that okay would we be able to pass this piece of it tonight and then maybe on May 6th or or May 20th we could uh to um you're looking to pass this as you would have to I guess submit resubmit if you plan on passing this portion this evening yes you would have to re Council melki would need to submit a new request and that would need to go to a public hearing if you're passing this tonight or if but if we hold off if you hold off on it you can make the committee can make an amendment city council can vote on the amendment um and then send the second reading up to the city council for you know for a vote okay would we be able to do that by May 6th uh okay okay Mr chairman also too there's an issue about them pre- saving spaces okay because some of the vendors are coming in and putting cones in the parking spaces okay so that would be an an Enforcement issue also so okay okay okay just you know I just want to bring it up on behalf of the business people and Sur have okay okay thank you so is there a motion to take y m uh Mr chairman sorry Ira I just have a quick question for you that parking spot that you're talking about in front of the municipal lot isn't that a handicap spot that they're taking it is not it was never the one in front of the municipal lot never parking never handicapped because there was a truck there that was parking in that the handicap spot that is in that area the handicap spot is in the municipal lot it's in the municipal lot okay this we're talking about weal soses right that no down between the the entryway and the exit of the municipal lot is one space okay well there's another truck near vos's and is constantly parking in a handicap spot that he refused to move at one point there were no handicap spots on Shirley Avenue itself okay all right I'll look thank you y councilor McKenna Mr chairman councilor McKenna W one uh counselor um I have also a problem um I have a food truck um in front of Cummings uh kimy U Park uh on rush hour and it's taken up a lane and it's causing Havoc down there but I did I do have a solution and I talked to you about it uh Doug man from hym called and said that they were going to start a food uh Park a food truck park down in uh suffk Downs until the next uh construction site starts and maybe they'll keep it I don't know but I I think it would give the opportunity and I asked them I said would you allow trucks from Broadway Beachmont shleev to come down uh and and be a part of your uh truck Food Truck Park and he said yes so and that should be starting pretty soon so that's a good way to get these trucks I know a lot of residents have called uh for Broadway because of the generators and they're going to supply um the electricity so there won't be any generators down there and it's off of winr B into suff down so people can see it we have a lot of construction workers down there so I really do think that this would help the food truck owners uh to get some business down there it may be more business than where they are now and it would help the uh restaurants down there so it wouldn't take away from business so I think this is a win-win for everybody thank you thank you very much uh counselor anyone else wishing to speak so are we tabling this sure yes positively press the button there pal I think Anthony cantino 240 suffk Avenue R Massachusetts I think I'm pretty familiar about food trucks I have never ever heard about a food truck permanently parking in front of a business a break and motor business never heard of it the only time that the cities and towns give these food trucks leniency regarding to park there I I know in Lynn to park for the fireworks you have to pay as a food truck $400 for the night and if it rains you eat it you don't get much refund you understand and that goes for the person that the city designs to collect the money and the police will not allow you to stay there I used to stay in swamps SC now the police came to me I say I have a permit to be able to park in swamp scad I have a permit what the police and swamp Squad did along the beach they put all mini horses there so that no one would be able to park there the only place they can park permanently was in Lynn and pay and that's it and that was a on- day permit now these food trucks I don't know if they have a state license I don't know if they're inspected by the health department I don't know who they are and I don't know what they're doing there is there an inspector that allows this particular practice to exist I don't know what what this particular practice is all about it may be it may be a new ordinance that the city has put on now because of the business they're doing the they need them actually they need them there are places where there are not enough food establishment there and these cities and towns need them to supply the public to so that the public was able to do it thank thank you very much the ones in Rivier I don't know where they need a food truck especially on Broadway I don't see that kind of business on Broadway that you need a food truck to compete against the brick of motor place thank you very much sir thank you for your UT so is at the will of the subcomittee to um table this until next week and we can get uh councelor noval sel's language in put it into this okay thank you okay at this uh point the legislative affairs stands adjourned we have no further business we'll be meeting again on on May 6th thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening ladies and gentlemen we're here tonight April 29th 2024 for the ways and means subcommittee meeting will you please join me to salute the flag roll call of the members councelor agenzio here here councelor Kelly here here Council noeli here Council zambuto here here and chairman sylvestri here here Quorum is present there is one motion on tonight's agenda motion presented by councelor agenzio that the mayor and chief of infrastructure Don charmela be requested to return the water and sord discount program for seniors to last year's rate structure as follows 30% discount for consumption of 30,000 gallons or less 20% discount for consumption of 30,000 one gallon to 70,000 gallons and 10% discount for consumption of 7,1 gallons or more councilen Mr chairman thank you um for quite a few years the senior citizens have uh gotten the benefit of a senior discount on their water uh this year the uh qualifications have changed thus eliminating a lot of seniors uh from this program uh this is owner occupied one two and three family homes where seniors are trying to hold on to their homes and we constantly talk about seniors being able to stay in their homes age in place uh this is a benefit that they've enjoyed it's not much money um but it is a little help at the end of the year um and we always talk about absentee landlords these um seniors are living in these homes um taking good care of them so I would like to see this program go back to how it was over the last few years so all uh senior citizens 65 years and older can have some uh relief on their water bill thank you thank you counselor any other committee members C noski thank you Mr chairman Mr chairman you know I was disappointed when I saw that change come through and we really weren't notified that it was happening and and uh I think you know we owe our seniors something good yeah there no good no good thing to take things away from them when they've been depending on it for so long so I'm in favor of this thank you permission to speak from the chair thank you I uh I too support this uh any way we can help our seniors um every dollar counts these days uh I know working several jobs and you know it's it's tough paying your bills food car payments it's not easy so anything we can do to help our seniors get by just a little bit easier I'm in favor for so I say we bring this back thank you councelor for bringing this motion forward thank you any public members want to speak name and record for the council please sure good afternoon Richard SK 21 Broadway uh CFO of the city um I did see Council AR jeno's request and um we had been chatting about this a little bit and this came about after we did an audit um of the discount program and noticed that there were um many of the users that kind of exceeded what would seem reasonable for uh Senior Living place people um like uh the council said it's goes up to three families and and I would imagine that if you're a senior you're own a three family you you you collect the rent and and what we're doing in some instances is actually subsidizing the water rates for the rentals so what we try to do is uh expand the discount for those people who are truly conserving water the ones that look like they're living in place and single families and did an average of of the discount um the average is about 45,000 gallons we're seeing 100,000 plus gallon usage here and um doesn't seem like it fits the spirit of the program so we try to increase the benefit benefit for the people who use less water and capped it at um at 60,000 gallons um which seemed a good amount above what the mean is for that program so I know it's not popular I don't really love going up coming up here and and stating this but um like I said we look at everything and and we tried to uh modify the program to serve the the seniors the best especially those who need it the most who use uh most likely the least amount of water because you know if there's a leak or something we want to try to address it but you know when you get three family houses using 100,000 plus gallons of water and you got some rentals in there and I'm not trying to classify that to everybody but it's It's tricky to kind of pick that point and what the best program is and if it's a two family or a three family or what have you so just wanted to give a little background on what our thought process was and certainly not out there trying to hurt the seniors but just create a good feir and Equitable program thank you no thank you and um do you have a number a rough estimate of how many of those houses that might fit that bill um you know houses that say would fit the program but are showing way more gallons of water being used than a normal three family would well um when we did the data uh dump and and we did some analysis um the program is has gotten popular uh 21 fiscal year 21 we had 1,28 applicants 218 of those applicants got a 10% discount so they exceeded that 70,000 gallons and fiscally at 22 we had 1147 applicants 240 received a 10% discount uh 581 received 20% and 326 received 30% the average use of in 2022 was about 49,000 and the mean was 43,000 so 2023 we had 1,49 applicants and 159 received a 10% discount 712 received the 20% discount and 378 received the 30% discount a juice of those applicants was about 48,000 gallons and the mean was about 43,000 gallons so you know most of the people will fall within the discount um of 20% or more and and many will actually see a greater Savings of 35% versus 30% so um that's the program we came up with that we thought was Equitable we thought 60,000 gallons was a good cap we are trying to conserve water and and you know try to um promote water conservation that maybe help some people get that discount but that was the thought process there thank you Mr viske anyone else um Mr President could I respond to that please so I understand what Mr V is saying people that own two and three families they're they're Gathering some income this could be the main income for that senior uh this might be how they survive uh a couple of the seniors that gave me a call uh they're supporting their kids and their grandkids so yes there could be one two three family homes that have 7 8 nine 10 family members living in it they're trying to support their kids trying to support their grandkids uh so I I don't think you can equate water conservation with this a senior living by themselves I don't think you can say is conserving more water than a family of 10 obviously we're going to get a lot more water um Mr VC speaks about the 35% that increase benefit for the lowest amount I think the maximum amount of money that you can gner from that is $30 a year if if my calculations are correct so if you want to keep that uh 35% for that lower tier that's great uh but the expression that looks good on paper it sounds like we're giving a big benefit to these low tier people but I think it's a maximum of a 30 a a year that that they would see from that so I I think we we really can't equate water conservation with what's happening in these homes are there a few well-to-do seniors that are getting some income from these uh two and three families and they're benefiting from them I'm sure Mr V is right there are a few of those but I think for the spirit of the program I I think the seniors have relied on it it gives them a few bucks at the end of the year and I think that's the least we can do especially for uh homeowners that live there and they're not absentee we're always vilifying absentee landlords they're there they're keeping their house uh the way it's supposed to be and I think we should keep it but thank you Mr VC Mr chairman you're welcome Mr chairman Council Zam thank you Mr chairman um so Mr viske uh I I see how the numbers work and I see that you know I I think the administration was trying to do uh The Prudent thing for the taxpayer uh but I do like uh uh councelor Reno's suggestion that we up the Anthony give more money to the to the more needy people and and I you know that's I know that's not going to agree with what you your proposal was cuz we're going to support this uh thing for the seniors but I would like to maybe even spend a little more money on the on the people that need it more no I mean we're we're certainly open to any suggestions I just felt I had to come up here and give some explanation no and I appreci and I appreciate all the work but uh I think that this is one of those instances where statistics don't really uh don't really do what we wanted to do I'm not sure there's a perfect answer but just want to kind of justify what a thought process was AB no no no and I and I appreciate all that information but I think what comes out of it is what the the uh councilor's proposal that maybe we should modify it to do a little better on the more needy people cuz we're not going to we're not going to be able to find those probably few people that are making money off of this and we're not going to throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak that I guess that's a pun I wasn't looking for that but but I got to keep my mouth shut but I I I do want to I do want to help the more needy so if we can make an amendment to to up the ante on the uh the lower uh usage uh model I I'd be glad to add substitute motion that anyone using 25,000 gallons or less get 35% and then the other increments that were existed uh last year great be maintained nice just for conversation would anyone object to to um if you go over a certain number you might lose that benefit if you're over a 100,000 gallons well there is already a tiered system if you o use over 70,000 gallons you only get a 10% discount so that is built into this tiered system already that the more water you use the less uh percentage you get just was that just to make sure I understand Council youed saying that maybe there should be some kind of cap on this yes that's what I thought I heard too yeah we don't but we don't believe so we don't like that though okay so anyone else have anything we so so on the substitute motion on the substitute motion to it was amending 30% discount for consumption of 30 gallons is replaced with 35 % discount for consumption of 35 gallons or less no 25,000 or less oh 25,000 excuse me so on the motion as amended would read 35% discount for consumption of 25,000 gallons or less 20% discount for consumption of 30,000 1 gallon to 70,000 gallons and 10% discount for consump ion of 70,000 1 Gall or more I I think that leaves out the 25 to 30,000 increment there so it would be 20% from 25,000 to 70 and then 10% for 70,000 gallons or more 251 okay I'll read that one more time into the record that the mayor and chief of infrastructure Don chello be requested to return the water and sore discount program for seniors to last year to uh to the following rate structure 35% discount for consumption of 20,000 gallons or less 25,000 25 25,000 gallons or less 20% discount for consumption of 25,000 one gallon to 70,000 gallons and 10% discount for consumption of 7,1 gallons or more correct perfect thank you on the am could you roll call the members please sure on the amend on the substitute motion for a favorable recommendation councelor agenzio yes yes councelor Kelly yes yes councel noeli yes yes councel zuto yes yes and chairman sylvestri yes yes the motion as amended will be forwarded to the full city council this evening with a favorable recommendation that closes tonight's business meeting adjourn e for