e good evening welcome to June 12's budget Ways and Means hearing for the 200 2025 fiscal year budget please join me in saluting the flaged alance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all roll call of the members councelor agenzio here here councelor Kelly here here Council noeli here here councelor zambuto is absent and chairman sylvestri here here Quorum is present first department on for tonight is parking control good evening Zach good evening thank you Mr chairman members of the ways and mean subcommittee so I'm going to spare the the narratives um happy to answer any questions that anyone may have on those and uh we'll dive right into the money it items um not much has changed from the parking perspective in my department but one of the major upgrades was we integrated with the crossing guards we took on the crossing guard program coming up with the school year um so you'll notice an increase on salary and that's uh the main reason for that is we took over about 37 crossing guards as well as two supervisors um and so that's the biggest increase you'll see a a decrease in our appropriation account for office supplies uh the reason for that is we have uh gotten full support of this Administration to add more technology to our field adding more technology is a reason why I'm not asking for additional parking officers um we have a good sense and working with other communities have already um upgraded to this we're looking to add some uh license plate readers technology to allow more consistent and streamlined enforcement uh more effective enforcement um less labor intens um less man labor out there walking the streets checking each individual vehicle um this computer system will help us go through a roadway and drive through a street in about 5 10 minutes and come back with exactly how many violations we should come back with that street um this type of process and upgrade is really going to streamline enforcement make sure that you can cover double the area in less time um this is a huge upgrade to us as we were con constantly looking for ways to save cost um so this is going to reduce Manpower reduce the need for extra employees on the street as well as reduce the overall resident permit cost right now we are still issuing physical permits there's a cost with that to print that permit to mail that permit um with a digital asset there is you're taking that out and there reduces the cost of our permit program by 2/3 those are the two biggest changes that you'll see here in front of you tonight be happy to answer any questions anyone may have thank you Zach any questions from the okay councilor Kelly thank you um thank you for being here tonight nice to see you thank you K so the so the new equipment is the line item that you were just speaking about correct correct and I see that there's an item here um rentals and leases is that also something that's new or ties in with that in some way um so that's the rent for our office based of the parking Department in years past we were paying that out of our meter Reserve account uh due to the recent cbas over the past couple years with Union negotiations the salaries of our parking offices have increased greatly um and upon the creation of the parking benefits District which also takes some money out of our meter Reserve account we haven't had the way to sustain that under that meter Reserve account so we've had to find a way to put it into the appropriation thank you you're welcome and just to piggyback on that the city is looking for ways to remove move that completely in the next few years I know with the upgrade of McKinley School there are some big talks about moving parking over there back into a city building uh to take away some of our overhead for that reason that would be great thank you Council nooski thank you Mr chairman uh thanks for coming up love your department great guys great gang uh one question and I don't know if the mayor can answer why did they put the crossing guards on the parking um to answer I wasn't really in those conversation what I was kind of what I heard through the great final it was kind of a hot potato right they were uh jumping around and as a public safety entity um with parking I have two children in the city one of them is currently in the school system one's going to be entering a few years I kind of monitor the program for from afar and I I seen some some of the ideas that I could bring forward and help create help create positive change and I think we did do that um this year I'm not sure if you've seen there's a lot a different uh environment on Broadway with those cross guards they've kind of spread out throughout the community and we've gotten a more efficient program out of that Council I can elaborate a little bit on that as well um previously the crossing guards although they're paid for um by the city uh the schools had them in their budget but they really aren't part of the school department they there was an offset on our schedule 19 then we had um um Council janino was kind of over saww that as a traffic divent when he retired it kind of left the Gap and we tried to find the best place for it but and we we felt that parking um and traffic and Crossing guyss kind of synergized together and um you know Zach Zach had the willingness to take it on and um so so that was kind of the natural thing so you don't see an offset in the schedule 19 any more Crossing guys CU it was really a city funded operation that the schools were administering and there was always some Crossing on you know whether people were off and how you back fill and everything else so now we're just totally controlling that operation on the city Side now Mr chairman through you to council noveli they answered it very well uh mentioned the Hot Potato one great thing about uh Council janino was he really managed the program for the last many years and he was the conduit between the school the city and the police department um with his exit it it there was a little bit of a gap you know Mar day police reform it's really uh it's difficult to have uh a lot of Civilian types of people doing uh police functions so we felt uh the leadership uh Zach and his team was able to really take on the leadership we did reward Zach with uh being being able to do that oversight uh but on top of it if there's a if there's a short shortage of staff at maybe one of the schools one of his parking control officers uh takes the initiative to go to that school put the lights on and make sure kids are crossing safely so we felt like they were the most likely person to be able to respond if there's shortages at schools with uh crossing times and that happens over the over the last few years but if I may Mr chairman just you know I I knew they were being bounced around between traffic and the school department and I was kind of surprised when I heard it was going to parking yeah it was it was just the most likely they have uniformed Personnel that can really help support Crossing they care about uh public pedestrian safety it goes hand inand with the parking department and the police it's just a little too overwhelming for the police to be able to you know a sector car to take over a School site during a during a busy day so it's just a little bit um a little bit easier for the parking Department to help manage that and they've done a really good job of it so I do commend Zach and his team for being able to do that I thank them and and most importantly the parking I'm sorry the the the the meters I'm sorry the crossing guards they were bounced around so they're humans too and they didn't you know who were they reporting to where do they where do they belong so they finally have a home as well and Zach has really brought them into that fold yeah and that that's what I was getting from them you know they didn't know which way to go or turn who do you call it was being run by like a phone you know it was being run by like a you know it wasn't being run like a Department yeah I just think it you know it has still has to be clarified to them you know cuz I still think some of them don't understand what's going on so just to let you know thank you thank you thank you councel Council Areno thank you Mr chairman uh thank you Mr babo for coming up tonight um just a couple of things the total salary other sources is that directly from the parking meter receipts those salaries yes that that comes from the receipt reserve the account for parkam Revenue you alluded to the fact that you might be not sending out physical stickers anymore so I know some residents through a glitch or whatever uh don't get the sticker so how will those residents know that they are registered and are you referring to restricted addresses or some resident that just might not make it into the Fulfillment at the I know several residents call and say they're you know they pay excise tax they registered here but I didn't get a sticker and they come down to get it so we we've been working on those um for the past four years there's usually one of three reasons why you didn't get a sticker um overdue excise tax overdue parking ticket or an address uh discrepancy right address discrepancy is one we really run into a lot cuz we're an early civilized Coastal Community so for the most part somebody might have 70 on their door but their tax ID is 68 um there's only so much manipulation with the data that we can do to ensure that those are issued each and every year but we have continued to work on Creative measures on contacting these individuals should they have not gotten the sticker um if we get a list each year on why what stickers have not gone gone out and why um during that process we go through a warning phase where we try to get to those individuals leave them a warning on the card just saying we need to update your sticker we will continue to identify um ways to adjust data and get the cleanest way to get all stickers fulfilled uh this upcoming year there will be a notification via email so if you have if you're in my system you have an email there you will be notified via email come February that your sticker will be digitized and you will receive an email confirmation similar how you get the printed out sticker today you would get that in your email just to confirm that your your permit has been created here's what it would look like should we print it but there's no reason to display it okay so if you don't get a physical sticker and you're enabled and you're not looking at your email H how will you know when the uh when the traffic enforcement goes by will a ticket be issued and that's how you'll know you that's a great question no we we we try to ensure that we don't hurt our residents through this uh sticker issuance we do about six weeks of warnings to make sure that the communication is out there um we post it across all social media Facebook websites I know um some elderly base aren't great with the internet so we try to leave physical notes somewhere along the way to get their attention all right thank you very much absolutely I'm all said thank you counselor and Zach thank you um sorry councelor caliandro thank you Mr chairman director babo I am thrilled you're getting license plate readers have been asking you for the last now three budgets um that's going to help you and that's going to help us cut down the number of phone calls about cars you know that aren't supposed to be parked and whatnot just a quick question before the crossing guards came over how many employees were in your department 17 and now how many do you oversee uh about 57 about 57 and is part of those contract negotiations is that where your raise came in as well so uh there was uh a stiping given to me last year uh at the beginning of the year for taking on the crossing guard yes so you took on 40 40 employees all right I'll save the rest of my comments for Mr Vis later thank you thank you thank you counselor um Zach thank you for coming up tonight I just got a a few questions one with the the crossing guards how is that going awesome um so we have two supervisors we consider them floaters um so on a regular basis on a full complimentary staff there are two supervisors they're given half the staff each they have three schools they circulate making sure that their team is um okay everyone's healthy everyone's um if there's anything to report they report them to the supervisors come right back to me directly along that they also monitor what they're doing if there is something that we're not doing process and procedurally there is training done in that moment to ensure that we are crossing children safely um and it's it's been great uh my the two supervisors we selected are real Hands-On real attentive and easy to communicate with we have our year- end final meeting on Friday where we'll be sitting down with the uh the current crew um they'll be given their uh reasonable Assurance letters to return next year and we'll go through talk about how this year went um some of our expectations going into next year and get ready for a nice summer and then an early training before the school starts next August excellent um so on that topic I know it was very important for the mayor to catch up and the administration to catch up with their contract negotiations and I know they got a pretty nice raise and they're they're not finally making what they deserve um but over the years I've watched them go from a a very professional dressed they they almost look like police officers Crossing children to more or less wearing civilian clothes and and whatnot I'm hoping you can bring that professionalism back because I think that takes a lot of the respect that they get when when a car is coming it it matters when they see that uniform and I I think that's a part of the safety aspect that we need to bring back I know they given a a stien for clothing I believe so I think that if they're given the stien they should be using it I agree thank you counselor and I I'm big on uniform I just recently did the same thing last year with all my Park Control Officers and we stepped it up a bit more this year um uniform allowances are coming out we expect everyone to be in high viz yellow shirts exact same styled shirt same color needs to be uniform and when you see that person out there you need to know what role they're fulfilling for the city and I'm big on that I agree thank you for that perspective thank you thanks for your time great job next up is good evening Chief good evening chairman sylvestri and uh ways of me councilors um regarding our budget presentation we're not want to toot our own horns but we'll go down the line real quickly uh about our 24 accomplishments as you can see in the first bullet we hired a new civilian apparatus mechanic and um that has been working out tremendously for us we've been going through our Fleet and you know really really getting our equipment up up to Snuff and a lot of a lot of the uh programs that we weren't able to do over the years uh that are required by NFPA like testing the ladders and the Pumpers and everything we've we've been getting into that stuff we've been you know getting in deep so that program has been going really well for us under the second bullet as you can see we secured um a grant from Mima for 27 almost $28,000 uh for the purchase of a new diesel emergency backup generator for headquarters that backup generator is currently up there's over 30 years old and was in uh you know di trits uh replacement long overdue so in the process now I think that equipment is in and we'll be be uh installing that very shortly under the third bullet as you can see uh we placed an order for two additional engines and one ladder truck um you you know that's there's long lead times for that to come in well you hopefully that'll be in sometime uh next you know this coming fiscal year 25 or shortly there after um a lot those apparatus were purchased um again through Opa money and thanks to um May Keef for support on that and going down to the next bullet uh Freeman Street fire station which I think everyone knows is over 100 years old and really is in need of replacement but we've been trying to keep that station operational we installed a new heating and cooling system down there uh and again just to try to make things uh you know to keep it in service until we can um figure out uh when we can build a new station for Engine 5 and uh going right down the line you see we purchased a new assistant Chief's car the other car was 10 10 years old and in uh in need of replacement and um the last item that you can see on on the list is we received an empg Grant in amount of approximately $31,000 to purchase uh new ballistic gear unfortunately in in these times that we're in these are things we have to take into consideration when we respond to uh to active shooter type of situations and um so this will help um us be better equipped and uh better protected in those situations and uh at this time I'll open it up to any questions on a you know fiscal year 25 goals and objectives or the budget itself Chief thank you very much um any questions from the committee Council thank you Mr chairman and uh thank you chief brigh for coming up uh you have an excellent Department a lot of the firefighters I know personally I've known you since high school um and I'm looking forward to the opening of the new Pines fire station um I just wanted to say thank you very much I really don't have any questions about the budget and good luck and great job thank you Council Jens appreciate that thank you Council Council C Leandro thank you Mr chairman uh welcome Chief thank you for the presentation thank you you know that I support the fire department uh wholeheartedly um budget looks great I did have a question not related to the budget um I saw a video of a car that an electric vehicle that was on fire but what concerned me the most is that that car was underwater and it was still on fire so my question to you and I've just gotten this from a few residents how do we how what are we doing to tackle the electric vehicle fires because I know that water doesn't really work to put them out yeah water's probably still the best thing we have unfortunately I think the fire service it's a it is a real problem and we're all scrambling trying to figure that out you know we're constantly um you know looking to like how fdn and wise handling those situations they have a lot more experience with them um you know with our partners in in the State Fire Marshall office and all the other different organizations so on our end again we we've been trying to train purchase equipment that may help us with EV Cari and the Cari is aren't really even in my uh my opinion aren't aren't the biggest threat it's it's all the other devices that people are taken into their apartment buildings and highrise buildings and everything else that's that's the real danger that I I can foresee incoming attractions that has me you know keeps me up at night but to to be quite Frank there's no great answers for that right now I think the the best thing that could probably happen is they can somehow come up with uh laws that um you know penalize uh a a lot of the uh non rated stuff and a lot of stuff that's FL the bootle batteries that are coming in from uh say other countries that those are the dangerous type of things that are causing the fires uh typically so um you know and uh and if they make a safer battery at some point in time but right now again it's it's you know we've been meeting trying to you know uh you know write rewrite ordinances to make things safer um you know whenever we're doing inspections what we can do and you know and we've had some incidents of EV fires again but I think it's it's a real concern going forward and uh and again we are all over it but I I be honest we don't have great answers at this point Point thank you very much Chief appreciate it C noi thank you Mr chairman U nothing more great than we can say about our fire department it's the best in the state as far as I'm concerned thank you but the question I have and Council Zam buo brought it up at the council meeting a couple weeks ago about fires in buildings where the charging stations are and when that came up do we have capability uh uh availability of foam if we need it foam trucks is it under us or do we call in mutual aid for that or our engines have the capacity to to flow foam our Frontline pieces um if we have anything really big we can call in uh massport you know which is right next door and we have like if we have tanker rollovers stuff of that nature we're going to need we're going to be there well you know it's going to be a big call in the calary you know we need everybody down there but our our front line pieces do have phone but you know that's really not you know you know that that'll help with a class class B and certain other figh is not so much Eves not so much um are there laws changing regarding um garage charging stations you know to deal because that's what council zambuto was talking about about the charging stations under apartment houses yeah well that all all that stuff is under review you know we're trying to re you know rethink things and right ordinances going forward so any of the new new things being built as safe as possible but I mean let's face it I mean you know uh right now there's really nothing out there to prevent anyone from taking a bike or or you know any type of Mobility device into their you know their apartment building or or highrise or know multi-unit Triple Decker somewhere and you know those types of things and it's not just cars it's you know be a wheelchair it could be a scooter it could be a bike it could be um it could be your cell phone you know your iPad things like that computers all that stuff so it's a okay but I know we're going to be continually working on stuff like that as far as city ordinance is concern but I'm not sure what the state code has come up with or is working on well they certainly are working on and I know we've sat down locally too uh with the solicit CLA and the solicitors office and we've been trying to work work on the city ordinances we start work on that I would hope that you know a committee that is working on that includes your departments some input on no we have we have sat down we have already met and sat down on that yes thank you very much appreciate it you're welcome good job thank you thank you councelor Chief thank you very much for coming up tonight the the men and women R fire department uh Class Acts um your your professional of training in in and everything has come leap years from years back I mean water training everything you all are doing right now is top- notot please continue to do it to keep us safe great job I can't thank you enough for the kind words I'm sure uh all our firefighters appreciate that uh and and um thank you again Mr chairman I have one more question sorry Council that's okay uh you increase the number of firefighters by two this year from 119 to 121 that's cor oh okay great thank you Mr chairman just excuse me one other thing I just want to make a comment about Freeman Street I agree with you 1,00% and if you if you came in and I know it's a lot of money you know to build a new station it would cost us almost 4 million for the Parkway Building I don't know if we need it that big you know but we need something better than what we have and I think we have a spot for it too uh so I I hope it comes up well I'm still around so I can vote for it you know because I want I want it to happen because I I understand what's going on I agree K La the last thing we want to get into a situation where the Freeman Street right now it's being literally held up with you know Timbers in the basement and stuff the apparatus Wars you know we have some structural issues down there so we're trying to keep it going but that is a major concern CU as we have the alate Mills station reopening this year by the end of the year the last thing we want to have is Engine 5 to get condemned right that would just that would be a thank you Mr chairman for the latitude thank you thank you councelor and again thank you Chief Regional Emergency Communication Center good evening uh Ways and Means rich sk21 Broadway um on behalf of the Regional Emergency Communication Center um I'm here to um try to answer any questions on that um as you may know uh the wreck is uh a joint um operation between the town of winp and the City of Riva um the assessments are based upon uh population and call volume from the two communities um that's a threeyear average of of those figures and our um assessment is based upon that percentage split um the number before you was basically the assessment for the operations of that Communication Center between win and Riv and uh it's an assessment we get and um happy to try to answer any questions on on the budget itself um I guess that's it thank you thank you very much Rich um any questions councilor renzil thank you Mr chairman thank you Mr VC I know there's plans on moving it to the McKinley School eventually will we still be involved with winthrip at that point yeah right now it's definitely winr in River we're we're looking to open a standalone Operation Center and pull them out of the police station on winre bav I know uh part of that is also trying to get a third party member to join us to reduce costs and and and acquire additional grants but winter B rable will still be the the two members until we receive will that be to our advantage because it's housed here it'll be to our advantage um financially well I think the financial benefit would be the fact that we are eligible for up to a $50 million Grant to retrofit the McKinley School to build that uh Center but um at that point there'll still be operating cost right now the the the center pays $48,000 a year to the city for the utility and some of the um operational costs over there and um it was 24,000 we negotiated back up to 48,000 it's I don't think it quite covers the cost so but I think uh more importantly it's going to allow the police station to uh take over their full space and and and have a little more room for the for their staff thank you very much I'm all say thank you councelor any other councilors no thank you very much uh just one quick question Rich um the the third City how's that look how's that coming we yeah we we're looking I know we got a new town manager in Chelsea uh city manager in Chelsea that I believe there's some conversations with there has been some turnover in uh staff in the city of Everett um I know Whitney Morgan who is the director over there may be better suo to ask that I can um follow up with her and see if she has any more input and I can bring back back to you at the at the next C at the next meeting thank you very much have good next up is the Building Commissioner good evening leis good evening everybody uh my name is Louis cavar I'm the Building Commissioner and basically we're going to have the same budget as last year it's actually a little less um with all the building going on as everybody knows um last year we brought on two part-time electrical inspectors and a part-time building inspector to keep up with all the inspections and um to handle all the reviews of permits we that helped a lot this year um I feel like before that counselors and everybody was probably getting a lot of complaints about permits taking a long time inspections taking a long time and this year we I feel like that has been decreased by 90% um I feel like we need to keep that going and if any Cuts get made I feel like there's going to be a lot more complaints um just to go through a few numbers um last year we had 4500 permits in a total of 210 million in cost of construction and this year we had 4,900 permits and a cost of construction of 240 million and I don't foresee that going down I would say we're going to put suff downs and all the building going on is just going to continue um 311 is great but creates more work for us we have to respond to complaints noise complaints other complaints that normally wouldn't have we didn't get as many without 311 now that we have 311 there's there's a lot more which is good it's good that we respond to all the noise complaints or something about off fence or anything um we have as you know the safe housing task force which handles all these complaints and right now we have about 800 properties that either have illegal apartments or some sort of violation that we have to take track of and spend time um so Rivia just to put in perspective Riva has a population of about 70,000 and we have uh three and a half building inspectors and Chelsea has about 50,000 they have five full-time build inspectors which I think I I think we're doing our job which is good we're just doing our inspectors are doing more and we're being more efficient which is good for the city saves the taxpayer money um so goals our goals is to ensure that all the construction within the city is properly completed up to building code ensure the welfare the well-being of all residents um we want to make it easy for people to pull permits we try to do that as best as possible um I feel like when people want to spend money on their house and make it nice it's a good thing for everybody good thing for the city raises tax money so when people come in they want to spend money on their house and City makes a have for them a lot of people end up not pulling permits not getting inspections and it's not good um language we have uh multiple people that speak Spanish Portuguese um we're working to add more to that um and then another goal of mine is just just like communication as to what inspectors do so I feel like everyone knows what a police officer does you know they pull someone over speeding everyone says yeah they they agree with the police officer but when I ask for plans you know I get like an angry response and um I just feel like we have to do better of communicating that yeah the buildor as plans that's what's required by building code um same thing with the legal Apartments as everyone knows um I have apartments that have been there since the 30s been taxed since the 30s and it doesn't matter how long it's been there unfortunately and it's been bought and sold 10 times and they have to remove it now in 2024 and it's I we want to work on a I think we should have an ordinance that tries to legalize if they've been there for so long and we're trying to work on that and um that's uh basically my presentation if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them thank you Louis great job any question from the council Council C thank you Mr President Lewis thank you for being here I just wanted to ask in regards to responding to noise complaints is that about construction going on in in that's your area not like a a party in a backyard right no yeah it's all only construction noise yeah so the thank you and the other question I have is what is the best way for us as the city councilors who get the calls on the weekends I mean Friday after 10:00 who what's the best way for for us to communicate with you or the department right um right now the the best thing to do is to call the police cuz we don't have any anybody on standby which maybe we should have someone on standby doing an emergency on the weekends um but usually if it's a roof being done um the police go by they stop them and then we send them a letter on Monday and then we write them a ticket of fines make them pull permits and I just one more there's no non-payroll for this department is that on the inspectional services side yes it is thank you thank you very much Ceno thank you Mr chairman and thank you Mr cavanaro for uh coming tonight I know you have a tough Department uh a lot of residents uh don't like you because you're enforcing things you're ticketing them uh but it's it's something that needs to be done and if a fire occurs because the wiring wasn't done correctly or a deck collapses you know that's what you're there for and you do a great job uh I have a question as uh Mr uh council president cogliandro said that the nights and weekends I know I call you or I call Mike Wells and you're very responsive but I know that's not the answer um I had made the suggestion before uh a system like the DPW that has a answering service which is a very uh small cost an on call phone you get a small stien for your inspectors you pass it from one inspector to another and then for a week a particular inspector is on if something happens at night if something happens on the weekend uh so if I could make that suggestion maybe you could uh you know pass that along talk with the mayor I I agreed I think that would be great if we had something like that because I'm maybe in main on a Sunday morning when you text me and guys so you've always been very responsive to me as well as Mike Wells but I know that's not the answer so I I will respond to emergencies if there's a fire or a building goes through a car I'll either have one of me or another inspector respond or they hit a light pole the electrical inspector will respond but because I know a lot of times the calls would come through the DPW you know cuz for lack of any other place to call and I would pass so along so just something you know that you could discuss of course and thank you very much Mr gavar you're welcome thank you councelor Council noi thank you Mr chairman uh Lou you know I know it's been said that you have a tough job you know and uh you you'll never have enough people to operate properly uh even and I know you do your best uh I know we have weekend issues what is the rule on contractors and developers working on on Sunday they are not allowed to work on Sundays at all they can work from 88: to 7:00 Monday through Saturday no holidays 8 to seven on regular days yes oh it's that's a side of the noise ordinance which is and then the noise 7 to 9 yeah the noise Ence was close by like debb till like 11:00 or something so Sunday is absolutely cuz we do see a lot of that going onay is absolutely and they usually start Friday afternoon yeah Friday Fridays they I mean Sundays they cannot work at all at all at all unless they have special approval from me and the police department um but there's I haven't given any for that are they are they given anything written to that effect that they have author authorized to work on Sunday yes I will if so for example some of the apartment buildings on the beach they want to start work at 700 the union like to start work at 7 now order says 8 and I'll give them something written to start at 7 but that I have never given that for a Sunday yeah yeah I I know I you know I text you on weekends I don't expect you to respond to me but you do you know and I appreciate that you know but it just gives you a heads up for that Monday morning Target that I'm I'm looking at um but what is this do you have any uh additional people for plumbing other than Mark lock so Ma's full-time and we have a part-time plumber inspector but he's not as you would say full-time parttime he only works when MOX on vacation so we only have one guy is in plumbing right don't we have a lot more work than that we have a lot of work yes um but Mack gets gets the job done oh I know he does you know but you know I'm just trying to think about you because sometimes I get people call me gee I called the plumbing inspector last week and I haven't heard back from him you know so you know I I don't like to put him in the on the lineer at all you know as a Target but you know and I know he's busy but you we think that we'd need a couple part-timers to like we did with the electrical you know I I never heard that when it usually mock will do the inspection that day or the next day um I don't really get a lot of complaints like that okay but we we'll look into it yeah just you know just trying to make things easier for him you know and so in case he doesn't get overwhelmed right you know but it's just something to look at for the future right we have a lot other than that you know all you guys are good and you know I I always have different issues as you know we're always in touch but uh I thank you for your efforts and I thank the whole department for their efforts so thank you thank you thank you councelor councelor Kelly thank you um just one question you noted that you had a couple of part-time you had a couple of part-time hires is that the line item for other salaries would that be what that is comprised of council the part timers are on the bottom right hand corner of the salary sheet we only list the a full-time equivalence on on the detail and then you'll see underneath part-time salary 738 38 okay so on uh page 70 of your book okay so the other salaries then that's no it says part-time salaries right underneath the uh the subtotal 719 775 and then you'll see part-time salaries okay thank you got it you thank you councelor and uh Lewis thank you thank you for coming up I think you guys do a great job actually we have one more question from councelor s behind you hi sorry Council thank you um going on what council noeli had asked you on a Sunday you said there's absolutely no working would a truck coming down and delivering water to fill up a pool with the generators going be considered as part of that noise ordinance cuz I'm having that issue you know I I don't know that's a good question never asked that question before but if they were dropping off like a machine or uh any type of material no filling the pool say yeah filling the pool I would say yeah for a Sunday okay cuz like if it starts at 8:00 in the morning it just continues until they finished it's considered work yeah so I can call the police and have the police right now that's what we have set up you got to call the police the police will stop them and then we'll send out the violation on Monday thank you you're welc thank you thank you councelor Louis thank you great job um I think you're 100% right I think you need more inspectors I think you guys are short staffed but you still do a great job you're very professional down there you're very responsive and I appreciate it thank you thank you on to Public Works Administration how you doing guys Chris shella superintendent of Public Works good evening Chris good evening um so we're starting with the administration budget some of our accomplishments of the admin is moving into our new DBW facility that we have obtained we have done some restructuring of the entire upper staff of the DPW I'll let you guys find them that so we've done some uh restructuring of the the higher level of DW admin staff and it's pretty well worked out where it's a tree it it's um it's well evaluated we thought through the whole process and we think we've come up with an idea that will work over the next couple years um so we've had some training on our new well munis execu time which is the new timing um the two timekeeping system we're going to be using for now on I believe we're going to be the first Department to use it but it'll automate everything and make it a cleaner easier system to run and that's all I got for you guys thank you Chris any questions from the council C thank you very much Mr chairman and thank you Chris uh Mr CH for coming obviously I'm biased here it's a great Department a great bunch of workers um and I wish you a lot of luck in your new position uh so in the administrative salaries uh the superintendent the business manager business manager the general foran and the operations manager are split half on the water suicide and half on the administrative side that is correct okay have you filled the uh position of construction oversight yet no we have not okay do you plan on doing that yes okay um and you're going to be adding a mechanic finally yes all right that's going to be one of the other large yeah so that mechanic is going to utilize be utilized for the entire city for parking City Hall I mean whatever it is I mean we got to bring all that in house that's going to be a huge gain for us okay great thank you yep okay Chris thank you very much you're doing a great job continue it and uh the men down there just keep up the good work thank you Public Works snow and ice couple more budgets I can um I can answer snow and ice it's uh pretty straightforward it's been the same budget since I've been here um we uh level fund that every year because once we raise that appropriation we can never reduce it uh per Mass general or um as most of you may know um it is the one budget that we are allowed to overexp um without further appropriation any type of deficit that is um is in that account at the end of the year um is usually um covered by a free cash transfer or if not covered it is part of the following year's tax rate recap where we have to raise that deficit so so um it's pretty lean budget we typically do go over that but we don't like to uh overinflate that budget with the risk of um affecting other departmental budgets so uh 350,000 has been pretty much the same appropriation at least for the last seven years thank you very much any questions from the council okay up next Public Works Highway Division and signs okay so for this year um just for the fiscal year accomplishments we've Mill and paid 18,600 L feet of new Resident streets there's a lot more to come this spring just so everyone's aware and um we've done a extensive tra staff training over the past couple months we've held OSHA classes um hazardous waste handling classes we're always is pushing uh all of our employees get their CDLs as far as we've held a hoisting class to help individuals get their hoisting and pass the exam as well down at the bottom you guys can see the uh actual breakdown of work orders and stuff over the past couple years performance measures any questions from the council Council norowski thank you Mr chairman um I know you're fairly new for knowing what my title is down the city yard uh being the sign counsel sign King yes and uh you know cuz I believe and I know when we used to take it to court the courts would say there's no sign you can't give them a ticket you know you know for parking and stuff like that yeah and you know I've always reinforced that we have to get signs up now two things on signs number one I know we put a lot of them on Telephone polls and I know a lot of the polls become double polls for various reasons but National Grid doesn't recognize our signs and when they eliminate a poll they take our signs with them yeah I technically I don't believe we're allowed to put signs on Telephone polls excuse me I don't believe we're technically allowed we're not I know we're not uh and uh so we lose a lot of the signning so we have to push to utilize more posts agreed agreed you know in between the telephone poles and not to obstruct any particular thing so I think we have to concentrate on that and you know I the sign Department's been my target for many years uh what do you think they I think they've stepped up and done a good job over the they have no question but you know one thing that you know I put in and I've been looking for over 20 years I've had like 20 veteran signs that disappeared in the Blizzard of 78 that are still missing okay that's something we're going to have you know and I I've submitted the list several times and I I put in a couple years ago that we put extra money in for the veteran the black signpost and I was told oh we have enough money for that and they were still never done and I'm still looking for them I have the lists I have the if you could pass me along that list I'd like to try go see what what's there and what is not yeah and uh you know I actually went around with Nick bu one year and we surveyed every name that we had that we approved at the city council level so we went around and found one that were missing so that's one thing that I want to Target for this coming year did we get those veterans in honor of veterans that are Mia they did recondition large amount of signs this this year for the veteran memorial they there's 300 that they changed out and a lot of the if there are missing ones that's a separate issue that we can address and and a lot of the signs that are out there now are worn you know you can barely see some of them you know and I I can give you a list of those I haven't pushed those they have been changing those out but we have to make sure a lot of those that have a worn out you know who changed the rule about no gold star that I do not know on that that I do not know because I you know I was just recently told that they're not putting gold stars on the names of veterans any longer they're just using a red white and blue stripe on either end of the sign I don't know if 319 charger so it came from the uh veteran services the new veteran services um and the signs that were are missing um that the list that you were given me they've already been printed um so we're working on getting those up with stars or without stars um without if they're not gold sta families they're not going to have gold star well those weren't made for you know specifically gold star families you know anybody that was a veteran's name that had a uniform on and that was in combat got a a gold star absolutely we have to never related to a goldar family that I know I'm more than happy to revisit that with the uh veteran services and we can go from there you know I I you know I think it's important especially if they've had it before you know cuz asked for some to be replaced and they say we're not doing go STS even on the replacement ones which I don't agree with no we can revisit that with the with the new veteran services okay and I will have to discuss that also with them so but you know I wasn't happy when I was told that anyway I was not aware that there were there was a gold star program in place that was being removed right the uh the last item you know and I talked to councelor a jenzo about this the street size that we have a blue and white with the city seal correct and that was done maybe what six seven years ago yeah we started about five six years ago yes and and I know and I've noticed that a a lot of them have fallen off never never put back on and a lot of the streets never had a blue sign at the corner of an intersection okay I don't know how the the counselors you know W counselors feel that you they've noticed it or the counselors of large have noticed it but I have and you know you drive up to an intersection you you have no clue what the street name is we know because we live there but I mean if someone came up they're going up one way streets not knowing the name of the street or looking on GPS and you know it's bad so I you know I don't know if anybody else wants to walk work their Wards and find out what blue signs are missing On what streets I'm I'm willing to do it and I plan on doing it we can we can tackle that as well I think we got to read that there was a program we switched out a large majority of the old signs for the new blue signs with the city seal if there are any missing that something we'll have to address and and there's still some old black and black signs that is still there's not a lot but there's still some there may be a handful yes it should be uh addressed so I will I will make you my list and uh just add to the list of things that you have to do in the sign Department feel free to send it my way Chris I'll get you you what time's the game ST councel aeno thank you Mr chairman um I know and I know this this isn't you uh Mr CH it's more of a battle I've had with uh Mr V in the last four mes um the overtime for the different departments it's been stagnant for years and it's really not a realistic figure I know in looked in the water sore enter prize and that overtime account has gone up dramatically um any reason that the overtime accounts on the general side have not gone up at all um no particular reason and and you are correct we typically do um exceed the overtime budgets um and sometimes it's just a matter of trying to balance the operation costs that are fixed like the salaries and you know let's just assume we had a fund extra $100,000 in that DBW overtime spread out over those departments that may affect the cost of hiring another labor or two what we find is throughout the year sometimes there's vacancies and and uh turnover and what we usually do is we transfer some of that Surplus salary down there to supplement it we actually do think though that's uh part of um the new time of attendance uh we hope to have a little bit uh more accountability of that over time hopefully bring it down costs and uh We've also been talking for several years about creating a Saturday shift that may actually reduce the cost of overtime so you know we we try not to plan to spend more overtime than we need we know it's a necessary um item in these budgets and um yeah we we do realize they hedge down a bit usually to level funded and uh we always make up the time it's we've never um not done something because there was no overtime money so it's more of a strategic um play on on not overfunding that at the risk of affecting a full-time equivalent thank you very much thank you counselor Council Kelly no uh Public Works open space and Parks the next Department we have is the parks in open space the fiscal year um accomplishments were rubberized Services surfaces at Harmon Park Gibson Park Costa Park they have replaced the netting and made it higher along griswell Park to prevent balls from going over to the neighboring properties and REM mulching of Lewis pastoral Park the parks department has also done a great job this year um maintaining in all the Open Spaces and stuff that we're tasked with cutting in the city it's a small department and they've done an outstanding job so far any questions from the council Council AR jenil thank you uh Mr chairman it's more of a question for Mr V I know uh in years past the tree removal account in the park uh playground you used to supplement that with some some additional Monies is that going to happen again this year um it's my hope that we um fund that this year we um this year was a little different due to the the the large Bond authorization and and all the um talk about the high school it delayed our submitt of a capital plan kind of wanted to see where the um Council end up voting on that high school and now that we know that it's a reality um we do have one more actually two more meetings before the end of the fiscal year to appropriate the balance of our free cash for certain items uh free cash usually is the supplement um to that account in the form of the CIP but I am look I know trees are always um a Hot Topic so I I think we will definitely see some money in the account for some tree work the parks itself I believe there's some incumbrances opened up that may supplement that but right now we just um we just wanted to wait to see where the high school was before we submitted the capital plan so unfortunately we'll we'll probably submit that Capital plan uh sometime in the summer or fall and then um and we we can revisit any uh types of Appropriations we need for those operations thank you very much thank you counselor councelor Kelly good evening um I'm just wondering is there any plan or update regarding mcmackin field so mcmackin field is a problem we've been going back with the two condo associations next door so to date we've had a the site survey has been done for mcmacken field we've also done borings to figure out the quality of the soil under under mcmacken field currently the problem we're having is the drainage water that's being directed to the field from the neighboring properties we've had two meetings so far with both condo associations and we're we've asked both associations to come together and make some type of agreement to redirect their water that's flowing out into the field out to the uh re Parkway so we can make that field usable again thank you no problem counc noi thank you uh thank you councelor for bringing up M Mackin field um it's unfortunate that we've lost that field um we'll get we'll get it back counselors well well I see the pumping all going on all the time but way back when before your time um it was my understanding that we took uh somebody took them to court and the courts ruled that the city had approved the drainage back then and that they didn't because I know somebody in the park tried to plug those holes the dra holes yeah so I actually came across an email from 1999 stating that there was the drainage problem coming across that the city investigated it and did come to the conclusion that it is their drainage coming onto mcm's property at that time it was not a city facility it was owned by the r little league and the city has absolutely no right whatsoever to allow one entity to drain on to anothers so there is no perming that the city if there was such a thing that is legal in any means well I I know it's not legal and you know but for some reason way back when okay it was approved for that drainage to go into the field and and because they got their uh certific certificates of fitness and occupancy the city approved it and gate and let everything go and it was way back probably even before my time so you know and the Court ruled that the city approved it they gave they gave them their building permits and approved everything and that the little league could not do anything about it so that you know you may want to look at that or talk to you know Ron I I I'll definitely look into that you know I kind of remember that and one other thing while I get is there any way we can get that flag down the flag American flagi we have a demo proposal there's a proposal we have to demo the existing site yeah but that flag should be taken down it's it's real bad shap we're trying to address that as soon as possible It's just tough with all the water getting into that field and actually doing work with all the extra flow coming in yeah it's almost it's nearly impossible to get the Machinery down there with the yeah so anyway inflow but you know everybody does a great job there and you know I know we do the best we can with what we have and uh but you know thank you for everything and thank all the guys for everything so appreciate it thank you thank you Chris thanks for coming up tonight I appreciate your time I just got one question it is regarding MC macfield um I got a call from a neighbor the other day that AB buts uh mcmackin yep and they see that the water is being drained and they understand will it be sprayed for mosquitoes that was their question because the mosquitoes from the water festering in the summertime becomes brutal in their backyard I can definitely add that to the list just so everyone's aware there's also a website you can go on and ask for specific areas to get um sprayed by the mosquito control um but yeah that's also part of the issue with the water coming on it makes yeah for stagnant water but we can have that sprad thank you Chris Mr Mr chair can I make a quick comment yes sir can we um I'm just I see uh councilman kind of going up there some of this mcmacken field uh drainage issues is um there's some litigation and and and lawyers talking back and forth so I would just be pretty careful about what we say on camera about that understood um as the ward counselor of mcmc and uh field I have it sprayed every year so and I'm sure it's the same woman that asks every year so it's sprayed every year thank you councelor you're welcome thank you thanks Chris Public Works facilities public property okay the next department is facilities so facilities has done renovations to the de office help Department their new office which was the previous water sewer building office the new nurses station Treasures Office they've PID the lower level of City Hall as well as improved electrical services the I also have to make a point to make you guys aware the Hass and Wellness Center they were huge help in getting that off the ground anything from drywall installing doors they were a huge effort I mean part of that effort to get that building get up and going um yeah that's all I have for you guys any questions yes councelor kandra thank you Mr chairman um this isn't really a question I just this department of the DPW specifically I just want to give them a shout out because once a month we have the veteran food pantry um at the ISD building and it turned in uh from them just coming to help to them even showing up before I do and setting up tables and setting up the canopies and everything so they're really an integral part of it now and I just I just wanted to say thank you that's all Stevie and their two do they do a great job they do a lot of odds and ends things that we ask of them they're not just Building Maintenance thank you C Areno thank you Mr chairman I noticed one thing the um contracted Services the cleaning company that are you eliminating the cleaning company correct and okay go ahead and there there's a extra labor position in the budget for that for the um for that department to back fill that okay so you're you're confident that uh the DPL DPW uh facility scw will be able to keep up with all we've all come to agreement and we've all agreed that we will be able to take that work back in house great thank you very much M thank you councelor Council noski thank you U regarding uh facilities was Street lighting always under Public Works yes I was made aware this the first time I ever noticed that you guys and then Bill you know Billy gaso mentioned to me oh yeah we we have uh street lights Bill's been tracking that down and he's starting an audit to figure out how accurate that number is that we're being charged from National Grid but yes that does come out of our accounts CU I noticed um several years ago we had all the LED lights put in all on all street lights and yeah and I believe that has a factor why our bills are so high we're not being charged for those LED lights I don't know that off fan but that's what our thoughts are right and I know they've they put in when they put the LEDs in they put in the lowest wattage in a lot of cases and uh we had to ask for additional lighting which changed the cost of whatever our savings were because I know there were a lot of savings oh that I wasn't aware of yeah so um you know cuz I you know I asked for higher wattage in certain spots intersections and crosswalks and stuff like that so in the Parks uh so and I'm still asking for some to be increased but then uh Billy said well just let me know and we'll do it but there was a I always went through three through the council I did motions through the council because I know account it was money that had to be expended that that was a huge hit to our budget this year was that that one line yeah so uh you know but you know I still continue to do it I get complaints from people that lights are too bright in some spots you know so we have to ask for them to be reduced from a 210 down to a 45 or a 96 or whatever it may be oh I'm sorry you saying they were too high yeah oh okay yeah I got one street they put two two 20s in two 10 in the whole length of the street you know and you know and the neighbors were complaining I you know my shades don't even block them because they're so bright so I had to ask them to be reduced in some cases so but you know but I'm glad to see that Bill's on it and I'm sure we'll get that Bill's on it down together yeah we have a best guy on bunch of good guys Mr chairman I can M Mr chairman I Can Shed a little light on that so Ira uh sir when the we were supposed to see a huge cost savings when the LED lights came in uh and I inquired about that but at the same time they said they went up three times the rate on the electricity so it event it just wiped out whatever savings we were promised so I had that discussion with National Grid uh quite a while ago so yeah thank you councelor councelor agenzio okay next water and store Enterprise fund all right now we're at water sewer Enterprise just so you guys are aware some of the fiscal 2024 accomplishments oh sorry we all set okay so some of the fiscal accomplishments of this year we've replaced 3,330 linear fet of water main we've done completely redone Howard ran Oxford mcleavy Bell View has been completed there was a loop created from the end of Roosevelt to Atwood Street a redundancy I mean that's basically our goals is to Rel Loop all these water mains um 45 catch bacing repairs 30 hydren is replaced 48 valves replaced 105 LED Services through both um contractors and our own DPW We have replaced and rebuilt five sewer pump stations we started our um annual hydrant flushing program it's been a little delayed because we've been doing um night work down at the fire station putting in a sewer service along with we've had some water issues down Washington that we've been trying to complete at night um oh we have a nice New 12in um drain our second vertical solid handling um turbine down at the Pines fire St I'm sorry the pin drainage station which was a huge Improvement for the area now they have redundant backup and God forbid we get a nice heavy storm that that station will do its job um Wade Park electrical upgrades that sewer station this year we've had 51 water main brakes repair well to date the fiscal year and gald park the drainage station there that dewaters that whole field and makes that field as usable as possible is now currently up and running it's doing a great job it's about 50 starts and stops each pump each day and it's from what I understand it drives that field out very well down at gwalt so it's you can use it day after a rain event it's hard to list all the accomplishments but that's great job thank you any questions Council cand thank you Mr chairman uh hello again Chris you mentioned the uh the loop repairs at Rosetti Street Rosetti Street to Atwood Street yeah so I know that that's been in the plans I know that line starts all the way at like Grover Street and goes pretty much across the city is is the current repair that you just did helping with the flooding on that street oh you talking about the drainage oh okay okay this is a water line we looped the water lines cuz they were technically dead ended it's just a water quality thing you have to Red Loop and have redundancies for back feeding and stuff like that gotcha but um we have a design done up for the head wall at that tie gate down there the so it's the Martin Street tie gate where all that comes through so yes that design is complete we're actually having a metal new flap fabricated that should be installed within the next two weeks and that should greatly help the uh flooding down that area and and there was if I remember my the conversation uh that gravity pipe that goes across Broadway was a little too small and you guys were going to replace that with a bigger SI size or the main that was going into that gravity pipe was bigger than uh there's a hydraulic jump there is that we talking the drainage underneath Broadway going under um so you get off at Rosetti Street and you just cross across right across Broadway was I'm sorry this is a conversation I had with your father like a year ago so I'm trying to think Rosetti Street all right let's keep it simple we're going to be helping Rosetti Street sooner than okay yes thank you thank you councelor thank you Chris is a question from behind you with councelor McKenna so um councilor McKenna um I would just like to ask a question are we still using CDM Smith currently yes but their Engineering Services are going back out to bid okay so I would like to say something I think we should abolish them uh they've raped the city for 20 years and um I think the DPW and the water department are capable now uh maybe not 20 years ago but now uh to do the work inhouse so I really do think that they should get rid of CDM Smith because we're building a new high school and they charge us I don't know how millions and billions of dollars for the last 20 years and I just think that we're capable as a city to do it in house and um one of the audience members said that you guys should wear GoPros so when you get down you can see what's down there you can record it it could be historical and the city could see what you're doing so I think that's a great idea so thank you thank you Council McKenna so yes Council Mna um we have been I do know the engineer Nick the city engineer is interviewing for Resident engineering positions um we have a couple applications to go through there are two open positions of course the city's endgame is to hire um enough in-house Engineers to run each project individually from design oversight to completion and it would be honestly I believe a huge fiscal savings for the city as well so I'm not completely against what councelor McKenna has said but yes we are working towards self-sufficiency excellent news any other questions from the Council next and lastly for Public Works Solid Waste Enterprise fund okay solid way Enterprise this is a department that we've had a lot of change again over the past couple months this has been restructured and we're trying to get down to the basics of Dependable service just Basics emptying trash on a daily basis throughout the city so no one can say that there's no overflowing Barrel anywhere that is the end game we've hired a couple new employees and um one of the things I'd like to look at most is our mattress recycling program because that seems to be a little bit of a hot issuein the DBW thank you Chris any questions from the council Council Areno thank you Mr chairman U I agree with Mr cha the The Mattress issue is out of hand and I see there is a large uh increase in the recycling disposal account which I know is necessary because we ran a deficit last year and a lot of that I believe is tied to the mattress uh recycling program we be we've become the uh go-to place to get rid of mattresses um I believe we charge 35 and it's cost 75 to get rid of um so I I think the city should probably look at that and then also the rate of recycling it it fluctuates while wildly so I know that's gone up recently so um I I think relooking at especially the mattress program uh would behoove us if I may Mr chairman um I did mention earlier uh when I made a presentation we were going to review all of our fees and over the summer early fall we'll be coming with some recommendations on fees but um with regard to mattresses in particular I have pulled some of the surround the communities and it seems to be that more and more communities are going toward third party recycling of mattresses so that if a resident calls and says they have a mattress there's a two or three vendors they can call to pick up that mattress and uh take it right out of the city's hands the um the pricing for the the recycling of mattresses was um made lower than the cost of getting rid of them uh purposefully back when we got the big increase in in the recycling because of some D regulations but um we feel we felt that if we charge the $75 that it cost us we'd find more and more of those mattresses dumped behind buildings and on street so it's really a a tough um one to navigate but I I think we're leaning more towards the Ming model and I think Everett now that if someone calls and says they have a mattress you you refer them to three different uh uh types of vendors that can actually just take care of that third party but it is it is becoming a problem like Council Areno says and we're working toward a solution thank you counselor councelor noski thank you the The Mattress problem is uh terrible and you still find them finding them laid out on the sidewalks all over the city and I know down in my area you know I have to call Public Works to you know remove them all the time but uh I know uh they recycle mattresses but in some cases they can't because of bed bugs and stuff you know they can't touch those they probably have to burn them but uh I I know it's difficult but overall you know I just you know I know this is one particular item that we're talking about with recycling because I'm I'm a big recycler um and uh I I encourage it to everybody and but overall I just want to say you know being here for the 24 years I've been here I have seen such a dramatic increase in the productivity of the public works department and you know even re recently you know your dad coming on board 10 years ago and attacking the new piping system and the drainage the sewage system and the drainage systems it's just amazing the amount of work that we've put in even under this uh the department of justice issue that we've had you know and working on that which you know hearing that we're almost through with it is a is a positive thing and with your assistance and your dad's assistant and everybody involved you know I'm just so glad to see the public works and and giving those guys a new building which you know in 2012 I put the motion in to build a new building so it took us 12 years to build give the guys a new building of what they're proud of now and give them a nice place to work and good quality of work uh location so thank you I'm just glad to everything with Public Works and I thank you and all the guys for their efforts thank you very much I know they appreciate that thank you very much counselor any other questions from the council no uh Chris I just have one so I see um the pest roading control trash barrel lease and the new equipment have all been there there's no budget line item for them this year is there any expl are we done with the rodent issue or are the radent control actually comes out of Health and Wellness I believe yeah the public health uh would have that rodent um issue and and we also um um it's required for any of the the water soil projects that they uh also uh bait when they do those um uh projects uh we we've thankfully seen a a great decrease in some of the problems we had past several years and you know that's one of those budgets that if we need to uh appropriate more money to it we certainly will um with regard to Capital outlay um that line should probably be hidden that was uh an over that was from when we leased the barrels the blue barrels that we did several years back so there was a 3 a capital least that um we have um paid off in full um new equipment that's when we need replacement barrels but this Council uh I think two years ago voted a revolving fund for that Barrel so the fees that we charge for the barrel we buy those barrels out of there so this last 15,000 was used to um buy some inventory and that should be self- sustaining going forward Thank you Rich Chris thank you very much Mr chairman before thank you Mr one more question Council noski thank you sir uh through you to Rich uh Mr B are we still doing uh home um uh poisoning for the rats you know rat yeah the program still exists thankfully it it's um it's really cril a lot since when we had that really bad problem but we still through the Board of Health we will go and uh beat uh residents if they in activity and to what extent we give them the black boxes how about do we I mean I'm not an expert on what they do but we do provide the service i' I'd probably refer that to uh what hell tomorrow night but yeah the service does exist okay thank you thank you councelor Chris thank you very much thank you next up is Municipal inspections the rodm program still does exist Ira um with the signed waiver from the from the resident in um public health will U 311 gives the gives the request to the Exterminator and then they will schedule it with the homeowner is that is that a recurring thing every year or do they have the every year they would have to call for additional service yes and they do it once or they reate we do it once and then they they will go back and rebate as well and add some add some more bait to the the box that's already on site yet if somebody needs it they should give you a call a call 311 uh they have to go online under r.org rodents and there's a uh waiver on there that they need to way um sign okay and and submit you know allowing the company to come on their property to um do the road and B gotcha thank you welcome thank you councelor any other questions from the council okay Mike please thank you um in L of time you guys have the um the accomplishments and goals for municipal inspections on the health side um on the um number side pretty pretty much the same as last year um no no big changes um be happy to answer any questions thank you any questions from the council Council Kelly hi good evening good evening thank you um there's a a line for um a position inspector sanitary has that is that vacant or has that been filled uh it was just recently filled thank you any other questions councilor Areno uh thank you Mr chairman thank you Mr Wells for coming uh as I said to uh Mr cavanaro yard Department always gets uh Sometimes some bad press cuz the uh all the uh findes you give out and what have you but it's a necessary thing and thank you for that you have a a great staff and I know they're stretched um as far as questions go uh and I had said the same thing to Mr cavanaro some uh weekends and nights I know I call you you respond immediately I I know that's not the answer but I I think you're going to work together to try to come up with a A system that uh will cover nights and weekends uh the total salary from other sources is that from tickets and faru is that what that is 4 to you yes that's 40u okay very good and I believe that's it thank you thank you counselor Council noi thank you sir uh just a comment because you know I I don't see anywhere we can cut in your department because they do a great job they're always on top of things and I just want to again I know I've been congratulating a lot of people tonight but I do want to congratulate you also with your staff thank you and they do a good job and you know they get out there um not totally happy sometimes with some of the decisions they make but that's the same with everybody else you know with a lot of things um and I still have to follow up in a few things but in general you know I think you run a great Department things have changed a lot like uh Public Works and uh it's very positive and you know I hear from the neighbors some are good some are bad and I take it from for where it comes and uh and but in general good job thank you you know it's we live in an nand world you know and everybody wants everything yesterday right um unfortunately you know you call 911 police and fire show up at your house right away and unfortunately we we don't get that with our department you know we have policies and procedures that we need to follow uh we try to get everything as closed out as fast as we possibly can um but there are policies and procedures that we have to follow you know before we can t take take action on properties so yeah sometimes it takes a while sometimes we get we get good results um but sometimes it it is a it is a little bit of a waiting game as well and I understand the frustration on that behalf but thank you councelor thank you Mike Council C thank you Mr chairman hi Mike are you also doing short-term rentals tonight uh short-term rentals Falls uh does fall under me now yes it's all in one who's I that's what I had questions about so I didn't know if you were going to represent both yeah I'm well the uh short-term rental budget has actually been rolled right into ISD so there's no separate uh presentation for that okay um then if if I may I do have a question so well two questions um not really budget related the budget looks looks fine um is have you seen a a large uptick in the number of short-term rentals in the city over the last couple years and do we you know do we think that the the the department needs to grow it all because I know and we have two great employees in there we do and um one of them actually helps out on the housing side now as well which which is was a huge need um with the amount of you units that that came into the city so uh there there's definitely an uptick um they we have a great Software System that identifies um any listings and rentals that are that are out there um they get letters out right away um pretty good compliance you know there's always a couple out there that are always straggling that we're not getting the compliance that we would like right away but once we get owners attentions and um we had one in in in Beachmont not to just recently um that we we got into non-owner occupied house and you know so um they they're definitely out there and and we deal with them as they as they come to us um a lot of them are are definitely licensed and and we again we deal with the ones that we get the complaints on and and that that department or that part of your department has done a great job with the enforcement and um I love that that program kicks out a letter automatically when when a listing comes in um the other question is we have something before the council which is to eliminate the ability for single family homes to be short-term rentals and I just I'm sure you guys are going to speak on that I didn't know if you you had an opinion on on how you feel about that if that's something we should look into doing or not the ordinance states that it has to be a single family home um it's kind of hard to to rent out your home if if you're if you're living there too you know so I think it might be ideal if it doesn't go to a a maybe a two family you know an owner is living in in one unit um and then they they are able to short-term lease the the additional unit thank you very much thank you Mr point of information on uh July 22nd we're going to have a uh legislative affairs meeting and that subject is coming up and I sent a letter to uh Mr capy he's going to uh be here that evening uh to explain the legalities of that so that'll that'll come up on the 22nd of July thank you very much thank you thank you councelor and Mike thank you very much uh you do a great job down there I just got one uh question so if if the city identified like a major area so the hitchborne Street Extension area down across from Easy disposal there has been a lot of uptick in in um rodents uh I don't know it's a very transient part of the the city so I don't know if the people are invested enough to even want to pull out the so if the city realized that was a bad area would they send the bers down to to do it or would individual houses have to still fill out the individual houses still have to um approve the um baiting company to come on to their property um and approve them to to apply bait to their property as well okay thank you very much thank you next up is the police department budget good evening Chief good evening uh my apologies of being late had uh training today so I apologize and thank you for accommodating me at the later in the meeting I'm just going to start off uh quickly I'll just go over our mission statement for the police department and then if you would like I'll go over some accomplishments or a few folks have questions the mission statement of the police department we the members of the riv Police Department are committed take pride and are dedicated to the needs of our community and the delivery of quality police services and an effective responsible and professional manner we recognize and accept our responsibility to maintain order while affording dignity and respect to each and every individual that we encounter our objective is to improve the quality of life through the community and Inter agency Partnerships to thereby promote a safe and secure Community for all some of the accomplishments we had in this past year uh the wonderful thing out of a you know unfortunate circumstance but we had three officers that were honored at the 40th annual Trooper George Hannah rewards for bravery and Trooper Hannah was a gentleman who was killed in the early 80s during a traffic stop and he was gunned down by several um suspects uh these officers were awarded that for an unfortunate event that occurred uh a couple years ago on Broadway where they engaged the armed career Criminal Who unfortunately fired several rounds uh bullets at the offices un busi Broadway at about 8:30 at night and they acted immediately swiftly and returned fire at one round only and ended it protected the community no one else was injured and even that individ idual was injured but slightly so they did an outstanding job and it's all attributed to their training and who they are and their professionalism so I'm very proud of those three officers and that's what we promote down at the police department and they're model offices for everybody else right now we're continuing to replenish the patrol force and increase the ranks of the department we hired a couple of officers that just got out of training now in a total of eight officers were hired in the past year they just uh completed 26 weeks of the police academy but we also have an additional five that have just started in the L police academy uh in May so we're going to anticipate them getting out of the police academy in about 6 months so it's just a long drawn out process and it's continual we everything's always changing and what I mean is at any time in the department we probably have 10 to 15% of the department out for different reasons injured on duty uh sick uh military leave FMLA so we have a lot of different things going on all the time so it's always challenging and a daunting task to staff to shifts you know especially we go 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year so we're doing pretty good right right now our staffing level we're at 105 we have five in the police academy we just got a new police list and we anticipate and higher and probably seven to 10 offices if we can get them in the next uh in the near future but like I said it takes a while to get them trained they go to the academy for six months we have at least 12 weeks that they do fa training sometimes we extend it just to make sure that they really grasp the job and what they need to do so you know just a roundabout number it's about a year between vetting them and going through the training process and things like that it takes almost a year for an officer ready to go on the street so and I don't think sometimes people understand how intensive it is and just it just takes a long time uh we still have a behavioral health unit from uh you know a grant that we received uh it's in the second year the uh eaps Grant Equitable approaches to Public Safety that you know handful of communities in the state we're fortunate enough to get it and Rivier was one of them and it's it's done a lot of great things in the community we can deal with a lot of substance abuse issues mental health issues we're out doing work and referrals and things like that and it's uh very beneficial because in the last probably decade we've dealt with a surge of mental health related problems that can be attributed to substance abuse issues alcoholism or just other things that are going on in their life and people are having trouble and you know in the past those things were stigmatized but now they're not and we try to work with the courts we work with the uh you know Health Department the board of health health and human services for the city so everybody kind of works collaboratively together and it's worked out well and the the result have been tremendous so and we've offered a lot of resources and touched a lot of people you know we've been doing a lot of work a a lot of training just because of police reform and things that have changed dramatically in the last few years especially since 2020 where we just recently did uh uh it's been going on for a while but we just cycled a bunch of offices through uh rewire training it's through Roa it's basically anti-bias and talks it teaches the police officers how to think differently and how to interact you know better with the community and people that we may encounter and that's been very successful and a lot of the offices and even some of the older offices have given high regards on the training very happy with it and uh you know they've gotten something out of it we still continue to do CIT training which we've been doing that for several several years and it was started in the uh sumerville police department years back and I want to say we started doing it about 10 years ago and it works hand inand with our Behavioral Health Unit so it's a lot of Crisis Intervention so the office go through some about a week long training and it's Grant funded but similar to other programs we do it teaches officers how to deal with people that are in crisis mental health issues and other things and some it gives us other options on responses because some of these people have issues that the courthouse is not the solution to send them we currently still I'll just kind of cap it off we we have a lot of things that went on last year but I'll cap it off with we were able to enter [Music] uhou with the suffa county sheriff's department to help us with housing prisoners and the cost of it has been well worth of it just because of the liability and the issues a lot just like I said in a few things that we talked about different training we're dealing with people that we have in custody that they have a lot more issues or severe issues that the police Department can't deal we don't have the staff to deal with these people and sometime we house them for 3 days it it's I'll be honest it's almost inhumane we send them to the the jail they have the staff medical people they have all the services they can offer and it's been well worth the money and it's taken a huge liability away from the police department in the city and about a decade ago there was an unfortunate incident with someone in custody that cost the city about 1.75 million during the litigation and I want to say there was another entity involved they had to pay 2 million so it's well worth the cost and I think it just it's better we can keep the police officers out on the street and not in the station doing a duty that the sheriff's department is much better at than we are and they're much better trained these are just a few highlighted things I don't want to belabor it so if anyone has any questions for me Chief thank you very much councilor agenzio thank you Mr chairman and thank you uh Chief uh you and your offices have all my respect I know it's very hard working uh as a police officer in this day and age and thank you uh to you and your and your staff I just have two very small questions uh one um the clerk to the traffic commission I know the city council just passed some uh to give uh that position a stien I I don't see it here in the budget maybe Mr V can see if it's that was the clerk to the traffic commission um you correct councelor I don't see it in here I um I'm not sure if that was placed in a different budget um okay I don't think there is one that will be placed in but I cannot follow up with uh my budget annals tomorrow and and get you an answer on that one thank you and my other question the police activities League I understand they may have lost their Grant uh is there a way of keeping that program going yes it our funding has been decreased significantly and I want to say at one point the there was tens and thousands of more dollars in that Grant now it's been cut down considerably so we're trying to look at some different Avenues because that's another very successful program that Bridges 's a lot of gaps in the community with the young people and you know that we encounter right I I would hate to see anything happen to that program it's very successful and yeah we we're trying to come up with some different ideas I know Mr Alon has been you know getting some do donations and support from other folks and businesses and stuff like that so we're going to continue on that and we you know we're always we always have our eyes out for Grants and things like that so we're going to try to keep that going cuz one of our that better programs it's been going for over 20 years right thank you very much probably 30 so thank you I'm thank you councelor Council ciano thank you Mr chairman chief thank you very much for being here um I I'm really excited that I think last year uh we we we didn't see a lot of people wanting to be police officers and from what it looks like it looks like more people are now applying and wanting to take the position have you noticed an uptick in people wanting to be part of the police department we've seen a little bit of an uptick in the last the new police list was just certified just come out around June 1st and it looks like there's some fresh fresh new names on there and we're going to start vetting them very soon and you know with the challenging thing is police officers are in demand very difficult to get them you have Boston for the first time that is hired non-residents it's always been one of those things that you have to be a resident of Boston unless in a couple of occasions they did lateral transfers they tried to do lateral transfers it didn't work out well because a lot of police departments won't let anybody leave because of the staffing issues and then when the state police they hire 300 at a time that makes it very difficult so we're hoping to strike right after the the new fiscal year and start vetting through people and try to hire them before you know the bigger Department start getting into the uh the list thank you very much you're welcome thank you thank you councelor Council noeli thank you Mr chairman uh Chief you know again you know you're just part of the great team that we have in this city and your department is excellent I appreciate all your help you've done down in w i uh I remember back in 1978 when we had had all gangs down there you were there yourself walking the streets are surely have and I thank you for that and everybody realizes that and where you've come from and how far you've come up to now and putting directed patrols at certain locations at certain times has been a great asset and everybody appreciates that especially me and a lot of the uh residents that know what's going on and we thank you I I I see the uh patrolman all the time I talk to them they tell me what's going on and I appreciate their openness to talk to myself I don't know how they do with the other counselors but you know they're very good when they deliver the packets you know everything is very above board and uh they don't tell me private stuff so don't worry about that but it's uh it's it's really good to see the way the department is would I like to see more patrolmen on on the street absolutely um did you say we had 105 now uh yes and and that's by the ordinance 105 well there's no real ordinance did we go up to 112 at one point I want to say probably in the Heyday the most I've seen at the police station from memory is probably 1188 119 yeah so in this Con fcal budget uh there's going to be two positions added so we'll be up to 117 and hopefully you know we'll be able to hire some additional folks that we desperately need yeah just to to be able to service the community Riv is a a busy busy Community yes we with a lot of good things but just there's a lot of people yeah and a lot of people come and go through it especially I just I just want to thank you and the whole staff all the way all all the way down you know and for all the hard work that they put in and the love that they have for this city whether they live here or not believe it or not and they have they've had family here they have family here and they still feel like they live here and I I appreciate that very much well they spend the vast majority of their hours of the weeks here you know at work at different times but no we we're very fortunate we have a tremendous staff at the police station a lot of young new offices and they're all very committed so we're very fortunate thank you thank you councelor Chief thank you very much and you have a great night thank you thank you very much okay that will do it for tonight's budget meeting I'd like to put a motion on the floor Madam clerk um I would like to put a motion on the floor to carry excuse me sir the meeting's not ended sir the meeting's not ended sir the the meeting has not ended thank you Chief Madame clerk I'd like to place a motion on the floor um that at the end of tomorrow night's June 13th meeting I'd like to refer the remainder of the ways and means uh budget to Monday the June 24th for a committee of the whole what time 5:00 P p.m. on the motion chairman councelor agenzio yes yes counc Kelly yes yes Council noeli yes yes Council Zamba is absent and chairman sylvestri yes yes the ways um the fy2 budget will be referred to the committee of the whole after tomorrow night's meeting thank you and that is for it for tonight's meeting meeting adjourn e