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e e e e e all right this meeting is now in session clerk please kick us off with the Roll Call Council teneri Garo president councilor Jimenez Rivera
present councel rupo Council Taylor here Council Robinson here Council Tesha here Council Kelly G pres councel San present council oega is absent Council Brown also absent Council desus present nine members
present you have a quorum thank you welcome all to our second regionalization meeting um today uh we will be discussing um what the city intends um is proposing it is an informative meeting and I would like our
city manager to please kick us off thank you city council um thank you for your time and and all of the um thoughtful consideration on this very important matter what we plan tonight is uh uh we have a a a full staff who who
is going to come and present uh uh a lot of information to you uh we we definitely want to leave a lot of times for Q&A so we're going to try to to move as fast as we can on on on the content and and and and take as much time as we can to present uh to to answer questions
for the city council but uh uh we're going to start off with uh uh with Terry uh uh Terry is is uh the retired police chief of winrop he he was also act uh acting Town manager uh uh twice on this
occasion and it's really the the the uh um the person that really drum this up and and thought this up so we we really thought that that he would be a a a a wonderful person to introduce the the city council the the the process by
which which it happened why it happens right and and and share what are the benefits uh uh uh Terry as police chief and then as Town manager led the uh regionalization with Winthrop and rier right and and you all know the the proposal is to join their uh
regionalization as part of a of a larger group that we hope continues to grow into the future uh uh after Terry is is going to be a presentation by uh by Steve uh and Whitney who uh Whitney is is the director uh of uh of the wre in
in uh in R uh and we're also going to hear from from State 911 uh we asked uh uh our partners uh at the state to to come and answer questions uh and share obviously you know the the the larger picture right of why why why this is
happening and why why this is something that that the state is pursuing Statewide we also asked uh uh the police Chiefs uh of R and win to to join us tonight uh and share essentially what is their experience uh from from a a public
safety standpoint uh uh rier and Winthrop have been regionalized for some time now uh and you know uh they certainly can share you know any questions you have about transitions but they can also answer questions about long-term benefits you know long-term
operational things uh so the the the public safety Chiefs are are here as well obviously we also invited uh uh our fire chief uh and our police chief is is at a conference but Captain Dana is here is here to to answer any questions so with that said I I'll turn it over to to
Mr Terry thank you and thank you to all of our partners from Rivier winr and our state department for joining us this evening I appreciate it thank you uh my name is Terence stany
uh as the introduction said I'm also the general counsel for the uh Regional Dispatch Center currently uh so I have a long history um with the rier and winth Regional Dispatch Center which started in MO 2014 and the planning stages uh we opened in 2016 Rivier being merged in
first and and winr coming over um and being merged in as well uh throughout those planning stages we absolutely uh were demanding went through was a small community uh but it it's also expects certain levels of service um and we knew going into this
if we didn't have a certain level of service um this was going to fail U so we were very demanding and that's why the board is made up of the police and fire chiefs of each Community uh the city manager or their design or his his or her design um and then right now
currently because we have six board members we have an alternate member the alternate member will fall off of the uh chatter for the regional dispatch as we pick up in if Chelsea so ceas fit to come then will be at nine board members um so there'll be no uh need for an
alternate it would be Mak it an odd number already um by the operation of the special statute um so part of this process of course is the IMA and you know which brought us here tonight as well as working with Fidel we've worked with Chelsea um city
managers before this as well on trying to get U Chelsea to come in and Mer merge in with this to have more efficiencies in all departments um there was no more uh bigger efficiency that I saw as the police chief in winr at the time acting Town manager as well as when
he had a um a triple homicide in winrep and we were screaming for help Riv was already coming we didn't have to say Mutual Aid get the nearest department this Dispatch Center had rever already in route um so it's a big timesaver when you're dealing with major active shooter
events um and again those are those are the infrequent events that we have to worry about where where we get help coming from um but the more day-to-day events that we have to worry about is our response time and in Winthrop we had about a two-minute response time when the Dispatch Center was in Winthrop and
we assured and made sure that that response time remains in place as we as we go through the proc process here as the regional Dispatch Center and we do that by the Chiefs the Chiefs watch our response times and say hey why didn't this get dispatched for three minutes
should have been dispatched in a minute and a half um and then Whitney is there and she gets called out on that uh sometimes at board meetings and sometimes on a day-to-day uh basis depending on the situation if the chief feels it's urgent enough he'll pick up the phone and talk to with the in the
moment or there supervisors so one of the big things going to a regional Dispatch Center it's fully staffed with supervisors 24 hours a day um so a supervisor from the fire department or the police department gets to talk to a supervisor at the wreck if they can't
resolve it it goes up the chain to the assistant director and the director so we've had a very good relationship we had to build that relationship over time um being a new center the dispatchers had to be familiar with certain areas in
winth you know Lon rink Engleside Park they had to know not just the address addresses but what we called things uh so we implemented training procedures with with these uh direction that people actually drive around the communities as part of the dispatch training and they
learn like in Chelsea obviously Bellingham Square K Square um the main Hot Topics um I used to work many years ago in Chelsea as well as when they had the housing police um so I'm familiar with some of the hot areas in Chelsea and they would have to learn that part
of their part of their training as the general counsel uh we currently just got through a complete review of all the policies and procedures rules and regulations that were implemented um we just didn't change the policy rules and regulations we gave a lot of thought into them we
compared them to other Regional dispatch centers and we made sure they were the best practices in the Commonwealth then we actually took the other step to train them during the 911 training so we wrote them revised them and trained them and
then you start enforcing them so all of this goes out seem as sleepy is we have a u a portal that actually controls the document the documents and people sign off on the documents we know they have read the documents and then they receive training on those documents as well um
so as far as the training goes it's one one of the main goals uh it's liability reducer um to make sure and ensure everyone's properly trained to in the best practices the states here um they require 16 hours of of training in
service training every year um um so we do that training and we do more training we to worry about workplace harassment um we bring in Specialists Jean hurdle respect and safety at work uh we coach our supervisors on based on
oneon-one to ensure they know how to supervise uh their subordinates um so we we offer a lot um the most important thing I think as a police chief um and the active ones in the room can can uh disagree or agree is how quick we can
get the calls out that we don't jeopardize or lose any types of type of service um and we enhance that service by forc multipliers I say forc multipliers is like one dispatcher is listening to the other there's a major
problem start sending people um so it's that seamless in the operation side um I know there was there was a couple things that I was asked to um to speak on you know layoffs was one of them so that's a
procedural mechanism in the process of merging departments I know people think oh we're going to lay off everyone in Chelsea and they're not going to get jobs in Rivier um the city manager is really adamant in negotiations with us as the regional
Dispatch Center um Rivier and Winthrop um to protect his employees that's his number one priority in all of our conversations was that he wants to assure their pay is the same um their benefits are equal to what they give so
we did an analysis the r dispatch contract in the city of Chelsea contracts um and the city manager of uh Winthrop in the uh mayor of Rivier has guaranteed the city of Chelsea that we will actually match their
benefits uh which means we have to go to NE negotiations with our Union so I don't want to go too deep into that um because we still have to negotiate with them to bring Chelsea in so there's a lot of negotiations uh to be had I know Fidel is in negotiations with the
dispatch Union uh we will be going in shortly once the IMA if the IMA is signed then we'll start engaging our Union and and rever so the layoffs is just a mechanism to say your employment here has
ended you stop here the same the same time so Whitney had the experience of actually working in rier um as a dispatcher she was laid off at midnight her first shift was 7: a.m. the next day um so it's all worked out ahead of time
it's a seamless transition uh the signature on the check changes but her o is didn't the commitment to her as an employee didn't um so I think that's important to point out that we've been through this we know the procedes we
know how valuable our Personnel are the most important asset to any chief our director is their employees and we want to make sure that that we we are thoughtful in the process that we consider their concerns in the process um now if they don't want to come
obviously we can't force them so the layoff Works in their benefit lay off at midnight you start your shift maybe at midnight or 8 o00 the next morning or 4 in the afternoon the next day whatever the shift may be Whitney and Steve will speak to that um
if they don't want to come then they're laid off and they get to collect so uh it doesn't harm them by doing it it only helps them I think you know our conversations is Fidel wants a guarantee from us that their employees will be observed we have given that guarantee um
so that's one thing the 100y old building in Riv the called the McKinley School that's the building that's going to be renovated and it's going to actually hold the new dispat center uh very large space we're going to have training rooms there as well um the
state through their incentive program is funding The Dispatch Center side of that school so every building that we we operate out of is old and we renovate them it's a common practice in government um and that's what's
happening at McKinley School I think someone said that you know hundreds of millions of dollars I think it's 13 or 14 million for the dispatch side rever using the other side I don't know what their cost will be to R I don't want to speak for the mayor um but it's not hundreds and hundreds of millions of
dollars and it doesn't come from the local communities it's coming from the state so they've already committed this year $900,000 um to that project and yeah we would like to see a third agency coming in but they're already committed to us to build
that project so I just want to to um put the facts um to that note that you see circulating around um I'm I apologize ahead of time uh I have a 6:30 stopped to be in Chelsea to present there at 7
p.m. tonight I'll be willing to answer questions now um or I'll call up the um State 911 to do a quick presentation and then Whitney and Steve will come in after them thank you Terry um I'll open it up for questions from the
council seeing no questions all right thank you so much for your time really appreciate it I members of the council uh my name is Tom Ash I'm the director of legislative affairs for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security just wanted to thank you for the opportunity um to
meet with you today and the residents here to really speak about the um really benefits of this operation that the state is really pushing across the Commonwealth and your city manager reached out to us to you know provide some specifics and educate all of you on
this um and our director Frank pniak from State 911 is here to answer some of those questions and educate you about the incentives the Commonwealth provides um so I'll certainly defer to him as a subject matter expert but then thank you again very much for the opportunity to be here we really appreciate it thank
you thank you very much for having us here today from the state nland department again my name is Frank posnak I'm the executive director and I also want to introduce Norman fornier who's the deputy executive director he's right behind the screen there but he's there um so I just want to give you an
overview of of the program that uh the state 911 Department runs to regionalize our 911 centers 911 centers are are called Public Safety answering points the acronym is paap that's the only acronym I'll use uh during my little talk today uh so I you say peace app or
911 Center uh so in 2008 uh chapter 223 of the acts of 2008 set forth the um grant program that we run at the state 91 department and two of the grants the development Grant and the incentive grant were to incent uh regionalization
of the 901 centers across the Commonwealth because at the time back in 2008 we had over 260 it was either 264 268 we had quite a few of them at that time and just to give you an idea of contrasting that around the country if
you look at Maryland and Maryland has roughly the same population and uh geography as Massachusetts they have 24 PS we have 268 so in an effort to you know improve service and efficiencies
the program was generated again chapter 223 of the acts of 2008 and that was back in the Patrick Administration and now were three administrations in Patrick Administration Baker Administration and alah administration and all three of them have been supportive of the regionalization effort
and again it's all done through an incentive program so the first grant that I mentioned to you was the development Grant it's a annual Grant uh it's a competitive Grant but that sets forth uh the the money the funding to get regionalization off the ground and
also once you become a regional uh it's it's there to enhance operations so again it is a competitive Grant and what we try to do is we ask all applicants to uh list out what their priorities are and we try to fund the top priorities
and as uh the chief D Hunty mentioned uh we have awarded this project already uh it actually 87,000 I checked it before we came but um and we are committed to the project once we we award an amount like that we are committed to to the
project so the idea is to uh the McKinley building to make that a state-of-the-art facility which is is the goal of the state nland department when we uh make a commitment to this to the funding of these projects to make it a state-of-the-art facility which I think it will be once once uh when once
it's done and it's to add communities if if they possibly can through the the incentive program so another thing I want to mention about the development Grant and it's a pretty big incentive is uh the assessment incentive so the way the uh it's calculated what each
Community pays is they look at their total budget then they subtract out what the state gives them through a support and incentive Grant and then the remaining money is divided amongst amongst the communities that are are part of of the center so the uh what the
incentive that we put in about three or four years ago for the for the assessments was that for the first three years let's say Chelsea comes in so for the first three years of of that uh when they're in they the state nland department would pick up that assessment
and then in the fourth year it would drop down to 50% and then in the last year the fifth year uh it would be 25% that the state would kick in so those out years are sort of to to wean you off of it so to speak so that you get ready to pay the full amount in the six years
but this fiveyear deal again the first three years the state picks up the assessment for Chelsea then 50% and 25% % so that's the like I said incentive that we put in about four or five years ago um we always had that type of assessment incentive in the guidelines
but we reinforced it three or four years ago a couple other things with a development grant that are important that's been mentioned is the construction once they get to that point and they're looking for construction funding since we're committed to it and as long as they put it up the higher priorities which I assume they will um
most likely they're going to get that money to uh construct the center in the manner that that they're they want to do so um the construction item is a very important uh uh element of the development Grant and also the equipment
part you can't have a 91 Center without equipment so the equipment would be covered through the development Grant so the development Grant has again has been put in place and like I said when we started this and well before I get to the numbers just one more other GR is
the incentive Grant so once they become a regional now every every 911 Center gets the support Grant it's an allocation to all of them and right now we have 2011 so like I said when we started the program we had 264 it's 268
we're down to 2011 in two months we'll be under 200 so once you become a regional you get the incentive Grant so it's money on top of the support Grant to cover your operations and just to give you anide idea of the numbers right
now um uh Metro North their support and Grant support and incentive of grand allocation is 1.7 million we projected that once Chelsea comes on their support in center of Grant would would rise to 2.8 million so it would be additional
million dollars to run their operation so that's a pretty big number and uh so I just want to make everybody aware that there's that Grant as well to help with the regionalization effort so um so that kind of covers in a
nutshell the the grant program that we run now there's other elements of the uh development grant that can be applied for but the three I mentioned right now is probably the most important for this project so again the assessment the
construction part and the equipment part would be covered to make this facility at the McKinley School a state-of-the-art 911 Center to service the communities that going to be part of it so kind of in a nutshell high level that's the grant
program thank you so much I will open it up to my colleagues if there are any questions counselor heenez and then counselor tesi hi there uh so I my question is as you are moving forward with this process
of regionalization right you're down to almost 200 I'm just I'm curious does the state want to keep adding communities and regionalizing even further you're down to 200 Beyond which point do you see the value of regionalizing dropping off I just want to make sure that I understand kind of what the long-term plan is from the state you know like
down to five you know down to 50 right like what is that what is that cost benefit analysis for the state in terms of how many we have statewide well that's a good question because like I said we we've reached 2011 we'll be under 200 in in a couple months and one
of the things that we're thinking about doing is is taking a step back at this point to take a look look at our program going forward and where we want to be when we started out because it's so difficult to the beginning to to make
communities move to regionalization because right now the scorecard looks it's 31 Regional centers and 170 primary centers now a primary Center they just answer for one municipality so we reached the point we want to take a good look at the 31 we have what can we do I
mean is is it making sense for those to merge and make them bigger and what can we can we do to move those 170 more of them into a regional center or to form their own Regional Center so we're going to probably have somebody come in we're
planning on it to evaluate that to make a plan for us for the next year's going out but that's not going to stop our program we have a number in the queue that we're dealing with right now we're dealing with with the the Metro North's proposal we're going to keep moving as we take another look at our our
regionalization program so we don't have a number we want to get to we started this out the idea was we'll take anything we can get and we're sort of still in that that mind frame but we want to take a broader look at it to see how much more we can do but we don't have a goal to get down to five if you I
what we got 13 counties in in the state you know to get down to 13 would be very tough I mean we're going to be under 200 so there's not number that we're targeting but we're going to take a comprehensive look at our program going
forward thank you councelor tesi um would you mind repeating again what the plan is in terms of uh onboarding Chelsea uh as it comes to fin finances you mentioned uh there would be the first year the first five years um
I'm just trying to get an idea of you know what will the expense be for the city after the 5 years and the state provides no more Aid I think that's a question for the uh applicant thank you I can't forget the people um So based it's based on
population and call volume um that's how the um current IMA call what it calls for the proposed IMA has that same formula so depends on the call volume of your community and the population of your community and that's how the assessment Works um and Whitney do you
have rev off the top you had I know winr is about 500,000 Tony give a take so win is about 500 $500,000 a year um and I'm guessing you know Reef has probably double a little bit more
than double on that but we can get you that figure um wouldn't if you don't mind Senor Fidel so they can quoted the council the exact figures um the good thing is when we do the assessments and we look at the call volume population at
the end of the year if there's an excess other than what we put in for reserves it goes back to the cities in in the town so there's a um a wash back at the end of the year after our accountant has done the books closed our books for the year um and that washback has been
sometimes you know Frank has been so kind with uh State 911 during Co we got extra money so the town of winr didn't pay their fourth quarter because they got extra money from the state during Co so we're able to operate on grant money
for that one quarter um so July 1 our assessments would go out for the entire year as we get grant money in we wash it back or we tell them we're forgiving the fourth quarter or the third quarter some I think one year was third and fourth quarter that was forgiven um because we
had excess money thank you thank you councelor brown thank you councilor Brown district 8 um my question is um you talked a lot which sound very well um regarding the
first five years the um the three years then the 50% the fourth year and the 25 what happens after the 5 years completed the project is up running um where's the excess fun coming from now if Chelsea
has a higher phone um volume call than winp just because winp is smaller than Chelsea well again I think that's uh the project that Metro North can explain that a little bit as to what that would be after the five years what the um the
assessment would be for for Chelsea so let them take it so just re iterate what um Terry said so it would be based on call volume and population so right now Riva gets about 1.5 million as um winr gets about 400 so
it's based upon that so percentage so if you look at Rivier and win right now it's about 80% that Riv covers and then 20% for with so when Chelsea coming in it would be divided by call volume population and then the percentage of that is how it's broken down okay if I could just ask one more let me tell I'm
sorry councelor so in uh um uh uh I believe two minuts ago we we submitted uh a packet to the council corre and uh in that packet was a a projection of of what the assessment would be right because obviously what we're talking about is is uh uh five years from now
the the um the cost the support from the state is going to be gone right so it's really hard to project what the cost is going to be in 5 years but what we did is is we projected what the cost uh uh would be today right this F school year and what
we projected is is that it would have been about a million dollars a million dollar per year so and how is how it's based basically is as Frank was saying or I think Terry it's based on call volume and population so if you can imagine a uh uh uh winrop is about a
third right uh and then Chelsea is the second one and Rivier is the third so uh rier obviously uh uh continues to pay the most uh because it it has the highest population followed by by R by Chelsea
and and wrapped up by win but what what we submitted to the council was a a projection by Whitney and her team and what the projection was it was going to be a m a million dollars and uh we'll try to put it on on the screen right now
okay my last question I was going to ask it earlier um regarding um the Personnel in Chelsea I believe we're talking less than 15 employees or is it 15 or 14 employees and we hear a lot earlier where did he go I think he just left
about the guarantee of those um safety of those positions but again I thought um there was something said If a person doesn't show up that's the responsibility action they will fall on them and that's the only way they could be um fired is that
correct sure question so so so we said that and and we had this conversation um transparency that the we guarantee our personnel and it's about 14 of them correct that's correct all right that's so if they decide you know I don't like
what the city did you know I'm not moving I'm not going to Wi up then that could be some action for them to be fired is that correct so so um I will say that that all employees are represented by unions right so so uh uh
and and Chelsea follows Progressive disp right uh uh um so so we would certainly uh uh talk to our our legal department and in human resource department our hope our goal our goal and you know I
I've said this a lot I I we entered this conversation and and it was a non-negotiable for Chelsea we had to ensure that all of the jobs were guaranteed and and uh you headed from Terry Terry is the lawyer for the wreck right and the lawyer just in front of
you in a public meeting said that that all the jobs will be guaranteed in in uh in Chelsea right we we have a a proposal that is before the the dispatcher unions that that have it in writing now and and and and it very clearly says that all
jobs will be guaranteed okay so I just ended um basically if someone is lit off it's because of some action that they brought not because they was part of this Regal exactly okay I think you're right okay thank you yes thanks thank you
counselor now moving on to our next presenter apprciate all right Terry I'm sorry Whitney good evening my name is Whitney Morgan I'm the director at the rec and obviously Steve is a director for Chelsea so what our um hope is to just
cover some of the things that we haven't been able to speak about which is operations so we did a quick couple slides um we'll speak about those So currently we run on a 554 shift with proposal of Chelsea coming in we'll run with a 996 which means that we'll have a
dedicated dispatcher for each department and then we have additional call takers uh obviously with a call volume increasing we would have multiple call takers on storms coming in or major incidents as the sand castles or the tall ships um or Riva Night Out Chelsea
night out we have additional staff in the event that there is a major incident all supervisors on shift have the right to send out emergency OT TX which brings um dispatches in for Chelsea alone I know that you guys from what Steve had said has two dedicated dispatches to
Chelsea Police um I think that we can run with eight dispatchers I mean eight on shift but talking with Steve I think that in the beginning we would run with 997 just like Terry said we do have a supervisor on shift for all shifts no no matter what and that's the rank in the
room so if I'm not there if my deputy chief is not there all things are facilitated with the supervisor we believe that it does help minimize and mitigate issues so that they're the rank they make sure that the policy and procedures are followed to a te if there are any issues they reach out to the OIC
or the deputy on shift for the Departments uh we follow policy and procedures of what the Chiefs have put out and at the end of the day if there's issues they know to reach out also um with the centralized coordination of the emergency response there'll be zero
disruption of any response times for both fire and police I believe that there is you know there has been a talk of delay the delay is based upon the call taker the dispatcher not regionalization we follow the same policy and procedures you pick up the telephone and you answer 911 with's your
emergency and what's your location I really focus on the basics of dispatch which is location location location and getting a call back number and just like the police and fire chiefs expect of their dispatches or their um members I expect our dispatches to know
the area that we dispatch for so we do ride alongs like Terry had mentioned I myself still take them out uh we go all of the pots through Riv and went through up and say these are the well-known areas or trouble areas or great areas this is where the kids play at the school grounds whether there's the steps
through the city um I did not grow up in the city of Chelsea my grandparents had a bar here for many years so all of the places that I know as a childhood I would use here um for example 205 the parway is now a hotel but a lot of the older communities will call up and say
Shaw so for me Home Depot used to be Bradley's in that area so it's those things instilling in our dispatches to know the community that you're dispatching for and pay attention and even have talks with the department members to learn of what they went through or what they saw because we do
have a lot of elderly community and they do use older um yeah Yeshua I'm sorry you're welcome um like I said the call volume is going to have any no negative effect on anything and there'll be zero
loss of knowledge um State 911 already spoke about their funding and what we can talk about basically like I said we just expect all of our dispatches to know the area a good example actually is we use
echoing so we do have techn technology and it's great but it goes back to the basics there could be a situation where our CAD systems down and we have to know the area that we dispatch for in a lot of situations there was speaks of of talking about we're not going to know
this area we're not going to know where to send them who to send them and we have to know our districts however you can't base everything on technology and mapping you do have to know that when it goes down or a major incident comes in you Echo so if they say this shots fired
on shleev the call taker is taking that information and in the meantime the dispatcher is dispatching out so there is no delay in any response no delay of putting the call over to the dispatcher um it was talked about residency for our
dispatchers not knowing the area currently we have five dispatches um that live within the city and Chelsea I believe has seven so it is the same difference of when you have a new hire and they have to know the area that they're dispatching for you know with
the ride alongs and helping everybody learn the area I don't think that there's any issues want to talk about anything we already tou y all right so as far as technology goes um two important points both the recre
and the City of Chelsea um currently share the same radio dispatch platform uh we're all tied into the common Statewide core that initiative has been taking place for a dozen years now um we already share resources uh across the
core and as the dispatches transition and move into the regional it'll be the same exact platform they're using so as far as training it's almost zero secondly both the wre and Chelsea utilize a similar CAD um platform
especially on the police side here in Chelsea we do have separate one for fire we're in the process of merging to a new CAD system here uh for both police fire it's also the same CAD that the wreck is interested in moving toward it so once this happens over the two-year
transition um all six agencies that are involved in the wreck will be on the same CAD system so again that training will already be there almost at zero as far as technical support there'll be three dedicated members there's two now currently um that already work for the
wreck um and additionally with my background in technology I'd be the third as far as the support and as the state 911 uh spoke about on some of those Grant programs were're able to use that funding uh to support radio to support CAD even subscriber units and
computers for both police and fire which helps obviously cost saving in the community I think we're ready for Q&A thank you Steve and thank you Whitney I will open it up now I know that uh councelor Tes she has a question
and then counselor Garcia and councelor brown um so we'll do two questions I know you just uh presented over operations I have one about operations but uh first I'm going to pose um once we go into this uh
regionalization is there going back uh let's say if it doesn't turn out to work for Chelsea can we go back um and then let's let's go through that and then I'll do the second one maybe that's probably for State 911 Frank um so the questions about five
years down the road you decide you want out right so one of the things I would point out is had to looked at your IM May today before I came over here and it if you sign on it is a 40-year ima and um and I if I read it correctly I think
you can't get out until basically one year prior to that ending period which would be 2039 so I guess let's say at that point you would want to get your pie at back so from our perspective um once this the
community signs the IMA the inter mpal agreement that's a commitment on your part and at that point once you move into the regional we pull our equipment out the circuits come out because we don't have to pay for them anymore so they're not there so the way we look at
it is once the commitment is made to join a regional uh it'd be very hard for you to get your primary back you would have to show to us that there's a substantial Public Safety reason why you would uh want your PAB back and would have to be
in writing and in detail spelling out all those substantial public safety reasons that hasn't happened yet with anybody we've run a program since 2008 it's not that we didn't have some conversations with some communities that felt they wanted to pull out but we
worked with them and uh and made it work for them for where they are so our goal is once you're in once you sign on that you know you're committed we're committed and if any issue comes up we'll work with you to resolve it thank you uh my second question is
regarding operations would just be uh you mentioned a call taker is that an additional person as of now as of now I understand we just have a dispatcher takes a call and immediately dispatches what what what is exactly what happens
exactly if I call who picks up where does that information go before I get a response yeah I'll start off on this one so the way the current operation works here in Chelsea I kind of call it around Robin if you will so the dispatches on duty all answer 911 um if they're on the
left side of the room they the fire dispatcher the right side of the room is where our police dispatchers sit and they share the information and that works for small to medium dispatch we almost have no choice when you go into a tier one Regional okay it'll be uh as big as Boston La Chicago that type of
environment in which it needs to be functionally split up so they're all trained to do all the different functions but if you come to work and you happen to be a call taker that day then you're dedicated to that function as a call taker you enter the call into the cad system and then the radio
dispatch it will dispatch it happens simultaneously especially with the new CAD system it's what we call live type as the person types the information in they actually can see it on the radio dispatch side exactly how the big cities do it around the country and for how the recck works
right now um Riv police and Riv fire are only dispatching winter police and win fire and the addition call takers like Steve said around Robin but the designated call taker is the person whose assignment that day is call taking and then if she or he is on the phone
then the other two have um the opportunity to pick up the phone but with the call volume for Riv police and R fire we only have them dispatching they don't have to be answering the phone at any at any times and the um other call takes answer the phone but you could be a call taker today and
tomorrow you could be dispatch RVE police we have everybody trained on all ask aspects so if there's are any issues then or a major incident that call taker can now move to help the dispatcher that's the most busy thank you counselor counselor
Garcia hi good evening first and foremost thank you to the excuse me to the uh state representatives that are present here answering our questions uh and to the dispatchers that are here constantly advocating for for their role uh one of the things that I am hoping to
to honor is their longevity and their commitment to the city of Chelsea and so can you talk to um to us about how promotions would work when this transition happens so how promotions work now inside the record we post it
internally and then we have everybody apply and if you meet the requirements so say a supervisor you have to be working for at least a year and then we just interview all Personnel that meet those requirements so it's not b no no because you could have somebody
that started a year ago and supersede and and really do well with all their tasks and have leadership um qualities versus somebody we have a dispatcher that has worked 20 years he was called take it for Riv police for while and he just he only wants to dispatch he has no
aspirations of being a supervisor so for us it's if they want to apply they have the opportunity to apply and some may not great thank you and then yes so currently we do do not have shift bidding it's management rights but we also take in consideration that same
dispatcher that I just spoke about he prefers the mid-shift so when I can I do you know help out and try to give them the shifts they want but also too I need to make sure that every shift is stacked properly so we have stronger dispatches with the ones that are still learning
and we always have a fire and police strong to help mitigate any issues thank you I have two quick follow-up questions what does the onboarding look like like and how long does that process will that process take for dispatchers from Chelsea so before they're even hired at the rck we have
them come in and take CR call which is a mock dispatching um simulation basically and it takes about three hours and if they reach a certain score then we bring them out for an interview couple interviews and then they have drug testing and if they pass that then they're hired then we follow up with the
state 911 mandated classes which is either one week of pst1 or like in my case I went to the academy that was five weeks after that they're designated as call taking only for probably 2 3 four months and it's based on what they
comprehend and it's accelerated you know at their learning speed but we have them sitting down with oneon-one um my deputy director Ashley she helped us create the curriculum and it covers the gamut of everything what to do in
this call what to do in that call um and the biggest thing that we really rely on is we have to know what what we have to be answering the phone calls at no time do any of our members answer any media questions that is immediately sent to the pi and also to the front window of
the department because we're not at Liberty to share any immediate information the same goes for if somebody would to call in with a custody issue we are not sworn in offices we do not have the right to answer any of those questions that again is pushed off the Departments so it is slowo but we
dedicate it so that we do it right the first time and then you just stack on so we figure out the next step is would they prefer fire or police training and that's another four or five months um I have one dispatcher that was just released on Riv police and she's just
over a year working for us so she started with fire first and it was three four months of training and we do one department at a time and we usually start on the busier one because they're not answering any 911 calls so say with the with the fire training you start on
fire you're always sitting next to somebody there's always a shadow and then once you're released from that we start training on win fire because win fire has a p so now you're obviously with dispatching everything is about multitasking but in this situation you could have an incident going and the 911
Line's blowing off so you have to be able to answer that call and also make sure that your radio aware of what's going on and there are situations where say this shooting down river Beach um Last Summer the summer before we had hundreds of of calls hundreds of calls
within that short time so everybody is multitasking and everybody is helping and the great thing of how I set up in the room is with the radio consoles everybody has the opportunity to answer the radio so that the radio is answered at all time so I could be sitting on
River fire Steve could be on wiri fire and I'm on the phone say with the deputy or the or the chief he has the capability from his console to answer my radio so there is never a radio transmission missed okay thank you it's all about teamwork
everything is be about respect and teamwork and just really working together and the thing that I'm most proud about as a director is we have had many crazy situations but it's great to see everybody just hone in and do their job and then afterwards the excitement
of like wow we just had this incident it was a terrible incident but how everybody works together it's really proud moments for me awesome thank you and I know we're pressed for time with 10 minutes into our council meeting so my last question and perhaps this is for you Mr uh city manager but um can you
share a little more about how the contract will be built for like during this transition um and then the time the timing uh is it in two years that if hypothetically it passes you know this transition will begin in
two years or talk a little bit about the the timeline for us please absolutely so so the the the focus for us is is uh is to ensure that um there's no um no impact to our current operation right so uh with that said what we did
is is uh uh last Thursday we put a a proposal uh in front of the employees to uh incentivized to stay right so so we we put in a few different things that we are are are uh you know are hard incentives uh obviously those are
ongoing negotiations but we are approaching it from a a a place of really good faith right and and and as you said as as uh was said by by Terry they they acknowledge and understand that that that two uh non-negotiables
have to happen one is that all jobs are guaranteed right and that is in writing and that their uh uh the pay of of our dispatchers U will not go down right so the pace are are going to be matched by all communities right uh uh but we're
also adding uh additional uh incentives to ensure that our employees are are are going to be here I also realize that that a few of our employees are are close to retirement right and and we're going to deal with those you know in a different basis I I understand that that
some employees you know might want to stay with us in other jobs right I mean we we open jobs all the time in in the city of Chelsea so we we incorporated that into the agreement which is to say that that uh uh uh if in these two years if a job open sub that you are interested in U please apply and in the
agreement it says that they will have first consideration of any open positions so we are are are trying to be fair as I know that that it doesn't seem like it is on online but I want to assure the council that that that we
approach this with an an employees first mindset that our focus is ensuring that our employees are taken care of first thank you all right thank you city manager um he menis and then we unfortunately have to wrap it up because
we need to be able to change the mics for our 7 PM meeting okay um is this the last presentation just making we're already done this is Q&A okay yeah yeah just making sure um so I have one really
quick question for Steve and two questions for the city manager um for Steve can you just clarify really quickly what the three columns are the 554 and the 99 seven just to like what did the three numbers mean for the on the presentation yeah
that's actually one okay talking about the um the numbers of Staff yeah yeah so what oh so okay so our shifts run um 7 to 3 3 to 11: and then 11: to 7:00 a.m. so so that's a number per shift yes so that's the amount of people on shift that makes sense and then also to Monday
through Friday you have myself and Ashley and if there's a major incident her and I responded got it got it thank you so much welcome so now two quick questions for the city manager the first one is um there's been mentioned in some of the emails that we've received about a state offered audit I'm just curious
if you like know what that is or okay first up I'm hearing about a state offered audit I mean yeah around the um not sure that means an audit around the process and um so I'm not quite sure maybe in the in between period I will figure out um and ask again in the next
one listening to I mean the the the I I have no idea what that means I mean uh uh the state is here obviously they I'm not sure Frank if you know if you know anything about a state offered audit or I'm not sure what the term was yeah yeah that that's that's what was used in the email that we received I'm not I wasn't
sure of what it was so I'm yeah I never heard of it I don't know we we haven't at the Executive Office of Public Safety we haven't received any communication related to that but I would defer to the state auditor's office um reach out to her office to see if it's came from her okay so I will touch base on that point
in between meetings and then hopefully have a better sense of what it is in the next meeting and hopefully we'll have the chance to ask about it um so my second question is related to the first question that councelor Tesha asked around um you know is there going back I understand that that in five years there
is no going back right my question is the thing that we have today in our in our upcoming meeting is it a vote on the IMA or is it a vote to enter negotiating the IMA you know you said earlier that there are other negotiations that still need to happen
happen with our unions I I get that there isn't a going back after we fully join but is there a period in between us taking a vote presumably in the affirmative because if we vote in the negative then this doesn't matter but if we let's say we vote in the positive right and this moves forward is there a
point from there up until we fully join at which we could undo the vote and decide like this is no longer in the best interest of the city so uh um an IMA is a is a contractual contractual agreement with with the communities right and uh um we we have several imas
with wi VI right now right and uh um uh we we periodically come uh to the city council and approve uh and request approvals of revisions to imas right so so it doesn't mean that that that uh uh the terms of the contract uh uh will
never change right of course those will change the the IMA as as as uh um as most contracts with with the city were negotiated by by me and Cheryl right and and Steve looked at a police chief look at it most contracts are are set up that way right where where we negotiate we
spend a lot of time on them right I mean uh uh uh and and we we put something before the council that we feel is is fully uh uh uh flushed out however uh um if there was something you know that that uh uh a specific request of of of
uh of the council in in that contract a specific piece of course can be amended okay okay I think I think that's helpful thank you yeah all right thank you counselor uh counselor Vega go ahead go for it
sorry I have a question and I'm not sure if um you'll be able to answer but because I know negotiations are still happening um I'm curious if other communities ch um Rivier and winup are
they receiving raises based on added call volume no so so the the um what what um what is happening right uh uh Chelsea dispatchers get paid more than R and win dispatchers right that that is
that is just facts right uh uh so so what what what I did right is is I looked at Tony and he he can say it in the room and I looked at at at the mayor and I said Chelsea dispatchers cannot take a hit right the Chelsea dispatcher salary cannot go down so obviously I
mean naturally what that means is that is that everyone is going to get paid the same right so and everyone will get paid Chelsea rates it is not related to C volume it is not it is not an incentive uh uh for them it is to ensure that that that uh all employees are the same and you know when we enter in
negotiations with police with fire with DPW we're we look at comparables right uh uh that is is the start I'm I'm sure in the school department uh uh negotiations it came up all the time right uh uh municipalities pay people differ right uh and and some pay more
some pay less so so in this case it just happens that Chelsea dispatchers are paid more than than than revier dispatchers and wi dispatchers so what we're doing is we are raising the uh uh everyone's salary to meet our salary okay
um and I have another question are uh our employees going to have the same access that they do now to the overtime and double time or is are they going to be impacted by the volume of other
dispatchers and other like co-workers that's something that that came up right that and and I I I will tell you that that over time and I'm just looking at it and some of our employees make double the salary so if that's the like their
livelihood and for them to have good quality of life I am scared that they won't have that access and what would that mean for them definely so I I I was going to say that that uh overtime right and and and double time is not guaranteed right uh what is guaranteed
and negotiated in the contract is a salary right that's guaranteed uh and and it fluctuates depending on Staffing right it fluctuates uh uh depending on incidents it it fluctuates uh it is not something that is guaranteed so I do want to to to to back to a point that
that the councelor him menes pointed out which is we're kind of at a catch 22 right now right which is which is we're we're in active negotiations right but but those negotiations are are not moving as efficiently as I think they they could because we we there is not
confidence that this is happening right so so so it's uh we're being told you know uh this is not happening uh uh or this will not happen until the council votes right so so so it's it's it's more like um the the the process would move faster and and and would move more
efficiently if we all knew everyone on the table knew that that this was a reality okay counselor tesi and this is the last question I'll make it quick um will you let's say we vote on this today
and we approve it will you still hold negotiations with unions about ongoing transition we have to hold negotiations with Union that is that is what we are doing and it is legally mandated so the the the Mandate from from the law is
that we negotiate on the impact we we uh uh the unions don't get a say on the decision right that is something done by by by management but but what is what is done is we negotiate on the impact so that is why we're we're we're framing it in terms of incentives right that it's
it's a retention incentive it's a training incentive it's it's an incentive to to remain with us until the end of of of this journey so so the answer is yes we will all right thank you so much city manager
thank you to our neighbors from winr and Rivier thank you to our state department for being here this evening uh that concludes our meeting and we will start wrapping up to get started for our 7 p.m.
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e e e TR all rise for the pledge of allegiance to of United States of America and to stands Nation
indivisible andice all okay calling this meeting to order clerk please please kick us off with a roll call Council tenaru present councelor Jimenez Rivera absent somewhere councilor
Reco he's Council Taylor I'm here Council Robinson here Council tesser here Council Kelly Garcia present Council San present Council Vega here Council Brown present and Council Deus present 11 members present you have
a quarum Madam president thank you Clerk and so i' like to kick us off with memorials and celebratory resolutions I'll be asking my counselor colleague Robinson to please join me at the um chair um we are going to be celebrating
some of our Local Heroes good evening everybody as we know it's Black History Month very special events that take place in our community there will be an event on Thursday night at the Williams
school to start things off we have a certificate of recognition for Miss Tanya bayz who was a reach program leader and actually I had the opportunity to know uh Tanya for a number of years and actually she worked
for my wife who ran the reach program for a number of years and as as a care development and education specialist T bers is dedicated to gu to guiding atrisk youth toward successful careers her passion for
students development drives her to the bridge and the gaps between education and professional growth through the tiess advocacy for essential Services a commitment to creating a safe and supportive environment and deep
understanding of the unique challenges students face Tanya empowers young people to reach their full potential her work ensures that students don't just succeed they Thrive and Excel we honor you as a Black History
Month 2025 Chelsea Trailblazers if we can have you come to the front we'll have everybody stand that's going to receive a certificate and we'll take a quick recess after everybody's presented to take pictures
[Applause] well the next person is Miss W Baldwin executive director
roko mly Balwin unwavering advocacy for youth affected by trauma and urban violence has been truly transformative throughout her dedication and Leadership Roa has empowered young men and women to break Cycles build selfworth and create
bright brighten Futures roa's impact has expanded Beyond Chelsea reaching communities across Massachusetts Baltimore Maryland and even abroad the organization rewi C CB T model is
phenomenal in its ability to create meaningful change at all levels we honor you as a Black History Month 2025 Chelsea trailblaze
[Applause] and Mr Javier Fela from pronounce your name correctly owner and design or click
Vision jaier seamlessly weaves together Aesthetics and Entrepreneurship creating more than just a look it's a movement his vision not only empowered individuals to look and feel their best
but also uplifts the entire Community by fostering economic growth and social transformation by infusing a deep love for family and Community Javier is not only shaping culture but also creating opportunities for local startups to
thrive ensuring that Chelsea talent and business have the platform they deserve we honor you as a Black History Month 2025 [Applause]
oh my boy man how you doing all right all right he is an incredible young man and the next is St Chung [Applause] my my former neighbor on Chester Avenue um Sergeant at the Chelsea Police
Department Sergeant cha Chang dedicated to fering Community Partnerships and collaborations at admirable and deeply impactful her empathy leadership and ability to make people people feel seen and heard have strengthened the bond
between law enforcement and our community with a Down to Earth approach she connects with the uplifts diverse groups reassuring residents that we are united and shared mission of Public
Safety Sergeant Chung has excelled in community policing and become a steady bridge in the storm bringing stability trust and hope where it is needed most we honor you as a Black History Month 2025 Chelsea
[Applause] trailblaze the [Applause] mo she's a poet and the next one is Mr Marcus
Quinn Community act activist engaged in youth recreation Advocate with thinking of Marcus two words come to mind building an empowerment as a selfless leader he demonstrates an unwavering commitment to advocating for
Environmental and Cultural Justice while expanding children's programs that nurture essential motor social and life skills his Relentless pursuit of personal growth through education training and hands-on experience not
only strengthens his impact but also uplifts the entire Community Mark a spirit of community and dedication to change Ure a brighter future for generations to come we honor you as a Black History Month 2025 Chelsea Church
all right my man before we take a quick recess I'll ask any of my Council if they want to have any statements Calvin Brown thank you just want to congratulate everyone thank you want to congratulate everyone on receiving these Awards and stuff
being recognized I know you put all the hard work in all the dedication and you don't look forward to Wars but folks in our community see the work that you do the love and the joy that you bring to our community I'm so grateful that we have this city to bring the unity together and the the different
backgrounds come to make this a wonderful peaceful community so I'm honored to be here to um welcome you and wish you the best not only for this um citation and recognition but also for the work that you do you know in your own private time and want to thank the
CBC for the work that they do that they continuously go out throughout the years and find folks and work with folks and not just put them up there but you know really get them integrated in our community where they pay off and they help people on their way so thank you all for the work you do and again we are
black history thank you nor I also want to con congratulate you all I am so proud to call you my community members thank you for carrying Chelsea's name and representation thank you to the CBC for all you guys do shout
out to you all yes and and you know just just knowing uh a little bit about all of you and and hearing how you impact from the younger generations to the older generations to just anyone in the community regardless of you know anything as long as they're Chelsea I
know that you guys they're in they're in great hands with you all so thank you so much and so proud of you all thank you we're going to take a quick recess so the counselors can get a photo and then also the family members could take some photos
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e congratulations once again to all of our
Trailblazers all right this evening this evening we do not have any hearings so we are moving straight along to public speaking if you are here for public speaking please line up behind the podium anyone here for public
speaking all right state your name please and your address oh turn on the mic this one hi uh my name is Miriam I'm here as the president of the npba local
for the 911 dispatchers um you guys know why I'm here am I good to start yes okay I'm furious that this conversation of regionalization has turned to a rushed
vote I'm furious that the people who have never felt the weight of a life or death call are the ones deciding to dismantle something that doesn't need to be destroyed this isn't about cost savings the city manager stated that the that
Chelsea has a cash flow of $ 33.8 million this is not about tightening our budget this is about dismantling our services stripping away good jobs removing them from the city and taking away the ability for families to thrive in this community the city sat down with
us at impact bargaining of our new contract and not once brought up regionalization therefore nothing that the city has done has been in good faith we stood up here multiple times and asked for you to support the dispatchers who have carried the city
through every fire every shooting every crisis ensuring that our police officers and our firemen got home safely at the end of the night let's be clear that this is not about efficiency in 5 years when
regionalization costs more than you were promised when the response times get longer when Chelsea's needs are ignored in favor of other cities none of you will be here to answer for it a new Council will sit in your seats a new
city manager will be left to deal with the Fallout and the burden of your failures will fall on the residents youve swore to protect and don't think that a for a second that back room deals will stay buried the truth always comes out do me
a favor take a look around this room look at your residents look at your First Responders their children look them in the eyes and tell them that you don't care about the sacrifice that they' made to the city that it means nothing to you that
their safety means nothing to you because that's what you're saying if you vote to push regionalization through what works in rever and winr does not mean that it will work here in Chelsea Chelsea has the infrastructure we have
the resources and the Personnel that Rivier and Winthrop are struggling to secure State funding for you want to talk about transparency or do you want to talk about the lack of it this was the first time in this room today we've heard from our
director he hasn't addressed the staff at all about any of the issues here but you know what he did do he resigned his position as director of 911 how many more meetings are we going to have where the city manager laughs in our
face where the city solicitor tells us that you could try negotiating that with the new employer we can't promise you anything what is it going to take for you guys to realize that this isn't going to work and everyone that's here tonight
my children are watching your children are watching one day they'll ask what did you do when it mattered most did you fight for your community Did You Stand by Your Word or did you turn your back on the city and us when we needed you most you have less than
one minute thank you tonight you're deciding on more than just a budget line you're deciding on what kind of leader you are and what kind of Legacy you'll leave behind because when it fails and it will fail when response times are stretch too long and Chelsea's safety is compromised
your names will be attached to it so when you cast your vote tonight I want you to ask yourself one thing when the DK settles and the truth comes out will you be able to live with it thank you thank you good evening
everybody my name is Christine paac you've seen me the past what three four meetings I'm here for the same reason the 911 presentation that was done tonight it all looks good when it's on
that they gave you numbers about R and winr those numbers combined we outdo it we do it in a room we have day shift first half last half we have four people on
day mid shift last last half we have three calls come in hot calls regular calls everybody in that room knows so a minute minute and a half that it goes out we're under
that we're dispatching as we're getting the call to make sure that the people have a response and have the proper response okay it's not a race it's just getting there efficiently and we're updating the units
and the fire department as things are coming on so they're talking one dispatcher on police one dispatcher on fire is basically what they're talking we have two police dispatchers
we actually have three and a fire dispatcher one can go when when a fire comes in or a major incident comes in we handle it we handle the calls we handle putting them out we do a really good
job we we're going to end up paying when the contract's over with the state you're going to end up paying probably triple that's why the r May is looking to get somebody in there with them because it's costing him an awful lot of
money right now and as the years go it's going to cost him an awful lot of money because Winthrop is a small town we might be 1.8 square miles big but we have a lot of emergencies
here and I'm not laughing at anybody we really need time to negotiate with the city if you're really set on doing this and you're going to not give us time we need time but it's
very discouraging when you go in to negotiate and you're losing your job and they tell you don't take it personal with the laugh we had that from both city manager and the solicitor and their
attorney okay that's not the way to conduct business that's very insulting we would like you have one minute left we'd like to do
negotiations and it's our right under Mass General law is 150e and if you're going to vote on something like this that's going to disrupt a lot of people's lives you have 14 people you got people here with
families 19 years of service what they said about the contract isn't going to happen we get double time for holidays that might seem seem a lot but we work every single day we're here if there's a if there's a different
underlying issue then it needs to be a dressed with us not just shove us out the door because Underneath It All we're really good at what we do we're really good at what we do I thank
you for your time time and I really hope that you take into consideration that it's the citizens that you really need to worry about thank you thank you okay seeing no other speakers oh
yes good evening my name is Joan crumwell and I live at do you give your address as well okay 38 Addison Street Chelsea Mass and I just thought that I would thank um the council for recognizing um Chelsea Trailblazers for
Black History Month and thank you for um the spirit of black history month because it's all of our history combined and as you could see tonight um our Trailblazers represent our community so it's not just about black folks it's
about all folks and that's who we represent here in Chelsea uh whether or not Dei stays or goes we've been doing this long before a Dei was even a thing and that's what we represent and because we stand on the backs of Legends and
over 400 years we have history in this city as black folks but when it comes to to Black History Month we uplift our community and that means blacks whites Latinos we're in this all together and
this day and age is really a trying time for us to be together for us to stick together as one as one Chelsea and um Chelsea black community slogan is one strong voice and that's what we represent tonight throughout the month
and throughout the year so I thank you for recognizing um the Trailblazers for lifting up Black History Month for supporting the event and um just wanted to thank you for that and also wanted to extend the invitation for Thursday evening at the Williams school it's an
evening of um commemoration and celebration and it's a community event and we are so many faces that represent history in Chelsea so just wanted to invite all of you um to join us on Thursday at 5:00 pm at the Williams
school thank you thank you Joan okay any other speakers y good evening um CLA Cora I'm chief of staff for the city rier I'll be brief Madam uh president through you to the rest of the body um I wasn't going to
speak this evening but um I decided that it was really important that we make emphasis and the good partnership the rier windr in Chelsea has had for years and the success that we had had a very good example is the partnership that we
have with Kappy with Rocka where we probably employ a lot of the young adults through inner Department of Public Works with Harvard COV where we have addressed a lot of the unfortunate domestic violent cases not just in Rivier but in the region so I just
wanted to point out that all these relationships have been built throughout the years and we look forward to continue to work together we don't have the same safe code I agree but we do care about our residents we do care
about the safety of everyone that lives in the region so um again I just wanted to uh thank you for having us here but also remind everyone that when we work together we're definitely much stronger so again thank you for listening thank you
thanks my name is Brian capistran I'm a president of Chelsea fire local 937 uh been Union president for 18 years negotiating multiple multiple contracts both for uh the PEC as it relates to health insurance and our own uh membership I'm not going to talk about
the operation as far as regionalization my main concern of coming up and speaking on the issue is um Collective bogging respect and Mass General law 150e impact bargaining I just feel if the council takes a vote tonight um it kind of puts the cop
before the horse I think um you know the dispatchers in the city of Chelsea need to continue to have conversation negotiate whatever terms it is that they they come to uh until they're at an impass I think this um this motion that
might be before you tonight should be tabled I think amendment should be in order I think it should be tabled I think the temperature in the room between both parties needs to be lowered so that they can have uh decent conversation and try to come to a um an
outcome that both sides can live with going back about six years um similar situation um different topic as it relates to health and Insurance um past city manager Tom Marino uh came in front of the current Council six years ago and
asked to give him the power on the Mass General law to give him a complete plan design as it relates to health insurance that was when we were actually negotiating um he came into the room I'm not saying the city manager or the city um ad Administration is actually doing
this because I don't know what happens behind closed doors but it was basically give me what I want or I'm just going to make the plan design anyway way which just if anyone was on the council and some of you were we we all know how that went down six years ago so I think
to um have both sides to negotiate and um whatever it is that comes out of out of those negotiations I think in order to have decent discussion in good faith I think the council uh I would ask the council to make an amendment to the
motion to table it let the temp temperatures lower a little bit um especially where uh if such a thing wasn't going to take place for at least two years anyway uh I know they have to enter an agreement but it's my understanding they can enter that at any
time and as we heard from the state I believe I think he said something like 49 years once you get into such an agreement that is a longtime commitment and I think with that and knowing what that what your
vote could do tonight um I think you just need to slow it down in my opinion in my 18 years of negotiating contract so I appreciate the time to speak and I ask that um there' be amendment to a motion just to table it not kill it just table it give both sides the ability to
talk and and lower the temperatures to have good conversation moving forward thank you any other speakers seeing none closing the public speaking portion of tonight
uh moving on to approval of the minutes seeing no objections thank you counselor and on to Communications from the city manager our first communication received from the city manager responding to council order 24195 statue in Chelsea Square dear counselors I am
writing in response to council order 24195 requesting that the city manager explore the feasibility of replacing a statue in Chelsea Square our team has been actively working on this important city council request I am excited to announce that the city will be partnering with Embrace Boston in this
journey a copy of theou signed with Embrace Boston is attached to the city council's reference the city council will remember that the city held an envisioning session in the summer of 2021 to engage the community on what could take place in Chelsea Square the event was titled the people's Memorial
project the event highlighted several Chelsea leaders it was an incredible night with the help of embrace Boston we will continue in this effort with a clear goal of installing a monument that honors our community most importantly M president uh move to wave the rest of the reading uh accept and file under communication if there are no objections
seeing no objections thank you counselor our next communication received from the city manager responding to council order 256 construction impact on Broadway dear counselors I am writing in response to council order 256 requesting that the city manager conduct a study on businesses on Broadway and their
activities during the ongoing construction with a focus on how construction has impacted business levels I want to assure the council that our Administration is committed to working with our local businesses to proactively communicate and when possible minimize the impact of construction in our downtown we
understand that construction along with inflation and reduce foot traffic are having a negative effect on our downtown we continue to search for solutions that will alleviate some of the stresses that businesses are currently facing our small business liaison will continue to research and apply for grants that can benefit our small businesses our
director of con constient Services is in communication with municipalities to see how similar issues are addressed and resolved our director of constituent Services is also looking to search for broader solutions to the limited parking in the downtown Corridor we will continue meeting with business owners and the Chamber of Commerce to address
any issues that may be swiftly resolved is there a motion on the floor move to accept and found under communication seeing no objections thank you counselor moving on next communication responding to council responding to transfer fund from stagnant CIP accounts
to Chelsea opportunity Academy dear councilors I am writing to request that the city council approve funds from various Capital Improvement accounts to fund the renovations of our Chelsea opportunity Academy located at 26 County Road since the start of our Administration our finance team has been diligently reviewing old capital
Improvement accounts with remaining funds that are no longer needed our finance team reviewed Capital Improvement accounts from fiscal Years 2012 to 2019 specifically focus on to wave the rest of the reading uh under uh under Su under suspension if there
are no objections there'll be something coming up under new business seeing no objections thank you councelor our next communication received from the city manager regarding intermunicipal agreement for regionalized 911 Center dear counselors I am readying to share the intermunicipal agreement with Riv
and Winthrop for a regionalized 911 Center over several months we have shared the prospect of a possible regionalization of our dispatch operation with r and with I am grateful for the city council's thoughtful questions and consideration to this important Endeavor we understand that this is a big shift for our community I
would like to emphasize that Public Safety is our number one priority and we will ensure that any regionalization results in the improved safety of our residents we will also make sure that our dedicated employees have guaranteed employment in the new operation and that they do not lose seniority salary or
benefits attached to this letter you will find the intermunicipal agreement governing a regionalized 911 Center the center will be hosted by the city of Rivier at a state-of-the-art renovated McKinley School which is 1.6 miles from Chelsea City Hall the center will be governed by a nine member Board of which
Chelsea will have three seats our Police Chief Fire Chief and city manager the renovations of the McKinley School will be fully paid through a state Grant the state Grant will also fully cover the first three years of Chelsea's annual assessment 50% of year four and 25% of year five we estimate the assessment in
year six to be lower than our current operating budget today thank you for your careful attention to this process and thank you for your support move to exemp communication uh under suspension if there are no objections seeing no objections thank you councelor moving on our next
communication request city council action on school department budget dear councilors I am writing to request city council approval to amend the school Department's budget for 2024 through 2025 schools year to increase funding from 1 million from 140 mil
37,8 2016 to1 14,623 $148 this amendment is due to the following reasons per the city Charter each year the school committee must submit to the city council a budget based upon the governor's proposed prepared in January that means that each
year if the state legislature adopts a different figure a budget revision is needed this year the legislature increased Chelsea Public Schools budget by $317,200 fundings in the amount of [Music] $315,100 traffic and parking commission hold public hearings as to their
recommendations on the discontinuance of a parcel known as Merit Rogue pursuant to section 24-85 of the city of Chelsea code of ordinances Meritt road is a paper Street between Webster Avenue and Stockton Street it is a 50 foot stretch of land that we believe at some point
was meant to be a street for reasons unknown the street was never built M president uh move to wave the rest of the reading except and file our communication if there are no objections seeing no objections thank you counselor next communication received from the city manager request Council adopt an ordinance for property management
companies dear councilors I am writing to request that the city council adopt a new ordinance article one of chapter 6 section six of the Chelsea code of ordinances regarding buildings and Fire Prevention this ordinance provides a necessary process to regulate property management companies in our city this
ordinance was reviewed by the city council at a subcommittee on conference the ordinance was first read by the city council at your regularly scheduled meeting on November 18th 2024 theity M president move to wait the rest of the reading under suspension if there are no objections seeing no objections thank you counselor next communication
received from the city manager providing an update on Sports funding from director of athletic infrastructure and sports tourism dear counselors I writing to share an exciting update from Charlie jufa over the past 6 months Charlie has been focused on supporting our athletic leagues a major Focus has been
increasing capacity and ensuring that our leagues have the ability to be self-sustaining for years into the future Charlie has hosted several capacity building trainings with coaches and leaders of leagues a critical piece of sustainability is supporting our leagues in fundraising activities particularly applying for grants that
haven't been assessed in the past this document attached was developed by Charlie to summarize his work on this topic Madam president move to wave for the rest of the reading accept and f a communication if there are no objections seeing none thank you counselor our final communication received from the city manager providing
an update on Chelsea opportunity Academy in 26 County Road dear councilors I am writing to share an exciting update on our visioning process for 6 County Road using arpa funds the city council approved the purchase of 26 County Road to H Chelsea opportunity Academy the
Chelsea virtual Learning Academy and the intergenerational literacy program our school department has hired an architectural firm to help with the envisioning process attached you will find a letter from our school superintendent Dr Aly ABA as well as a packet from the architectural firm mad president moved away for the rest of the reading accept and file under
communication if there are no objections see no objections thank you counselor moving on to committee reports our soul committee report received from the council president from the meeting of the subcommittee on conference dated February 11th 2025 this conference uh
was rescheduled due to other conflicting meetings that were taking part um at the same time accept communication on suspension also attach the all the ABS that relate to the conference thank you
counselor moving on to Second reading our Sol it under second readings is a communication received from the city manager being read for the second time requesting approval of a reappointment to the planning board there Council pursuing to section 4-2 of the charter of the city of Chelsea I am writing to
recommend the following individual to a board and Commission in the city for reappointment to the planning board Mr William tuck Willis of Chelsea for a new three-year term expir Madam president moved away for the rest of the reading and adopt under a roll call vote you had a roll call need a roll call on this I
just okay um make a motion to adopt on the roll call vote okay that's what I said perfect moving on to a roll call Vote Yes vote to adopt Council tar RAR yes councelor Jimenez R yes councel recupero
Council Taylor yes Council Robinson yes Council teser yes Council Kelly gcia yes Council sanate yes Council Vega yes Council Brown yes and Council Deus yes 11 members in favor zero opposed zero absent employment
approved moving on to new business first item under new business we have an order introduced by Council Taylor ordered that in accordance with chapter 44 section 20 of Massachusetts General law the sum of 1,929 4760 cents representing the
unexpended portions of projects appropriated under fiscal Years 2012 through 2019 Capital Improvement plans for the projects as noted in the attached listing and which remain available after completion of the projects for which the funds were authorized and which are no longer needed to complete these projects are
hereby transferred in the amount of 1,929 4760 to a new fiscal year 2025 School building renovation project for renovations at the Chelsea opportunity Academy 26 County Road thank you cler is there a motion
move to Ways and Means seeing no objections thank you counselor next we have an order introduced by Council Taylor order that the Chelsea city council approves an increase of the fiscal year 2025 school department original appropriation from 140
m378 20116 to 14,623 1848 for a net increase of $317,200 new business an order introduced by Council recupero order that the city manager provide an update to the city Council on the status of council order ID number
24196 requesting a statute of John Ruiz be placed in the park bearing his name adopt under the suspension there no objection like to speak on it you have the floor councelor um I believe that we should have a
normal statue not a cut out and I think the money should come from the CPA which they use it so use it for a good cause and put a statue of a person that was very proud to say he came from Chelsea and he was the first Hispanic
heavyweight champion instead of putting one piece of metal everywhere else they have a statue made out of whatever it is made out of rocks whatever it is they don't have one made out of just a cut
out so I think we should have one and uh the money should come from the CPA thank you thank you counselor moving on next door to run a new business business we have an order introduced by Council Taylor order that the city manager examine the feasibility of creating a Chelsea Historical Museum and
report to the city council on his findings councelor Taylor I'd uh ask for approval under suspension if there's no objections I'd like to speak on it you have the floor counselor so this is this is something that
I've really thought was necessary for a long time we just celebrated our four 400th anniversary we are one of the oldest cities in the Commonwealth we have a rich vibrant
history if anybody's been to the library they can see some of that history that's stored up so being a trained historian myself I have a passion for this I think
we have a lot of uh different pieces of the pie uh that we've tried to do uh including murals we've we've you know given money to to renovate the the uh uh
Bellingham carry house Etc I think that for our future for our future generations to understand who came before what happened how did we get here
these are very important uh cultural things for us to understand and it helps us understand each other better as well this City's changed a lot over time and I think that we need to recognize these
things I think we should invest in the future of our city and and and memorialize some of these things let's clean out that Library let's get somewhere where we can um put it all we just hired somebody to be uh a sports
and tourism director uh I can Envision a lot of different things uh we've had great people come through here uh we have the ls ladimer Society we've
got a lot of different things let's put a lot of this stuff together and save our history for our future Generations I think it's worth investing in thank you thank you counselor moving on to the next item
next item under new business we have an order introduced by councelor Kelly gar ordered that a meeting of the subcommittee on public health be held to discuss a proposed service line replacement ordinance councelor Garcia sure I'd like to adopt under Su suspension and uh would like to speak on
it if there are no objections you have the floor councelor uh Team we have all received that letter stating there may be lead in our water and so I think it's really important to have have the conversation of what as counselors can we do to ensure the safety of our community and so I'm proposing that we
need to uh continue having this conversation thank you thank you counselor moving on next we have an order introduced by councelor recupero ordered that the city manager report to the city council as to the status of a fire hydrant at the corner of Lind Street and suffk Street and the
estimated time for it to be repaired IOP on the suspension there no objection like to speak on it you have the floor councelor um I notice that this fire hydrant is covered with a paper with a plastic bag and from what I understand it was shut down because of uh it
doesn't have enough pressure but if you go down on Subic Street there is no other fire hydrant that is the only one that's in that street so for the safety of the people that live there their fire hydrant should be in operational it should work if it doesn't work what is the point of having a fire hydrant if
there especially if there's none around subex Street that's the only one so I would like to know when they will make the fire hydrant operational and how long would it take for it to be fixed thank you counselor moving on to the next item next we have an order
introduced by Council aesha order that the traffic and parking commission temporarily remove the dedicated bus Lan on Broadway for the duration of the ongoing construction project ccor tesi Madam president I move to adopt under suspension and refer to the TPC if there are no objections I'd like to say a
couple of words you have the floor so I've introduced a good number of orders uh today that we're going to look at including this one this one is saying let's get rid of the bus lane um andan the reason I say this it's because the downtown construction project is
effectively killing the businesses of downtown Chelsea I am not kidding you the last meeting that I stood up and said something about this I told you that they were down to 40% of profit well now they're down to 15% I am being told by business owners that they are making $144 a day when
they used to make $30,000 a month and this is this is not because of Co this is not because of Donald Trump this is not because of anything else but poor management um of the way impact is
being being received by by businesses as a result of the construction so this is one of the orders that you're going to be seeing that is going to be attacking through different form forms that we can uh methods that we can achieve some Financial stability for our businesses
because I'll be honest with you I do want a better Chelsea I know the construction is necessary but if it go if it's going to cost us 50% of our businesses in downtown I'm telling you I'm telling you that's not the way to go so we need to find a better way to do construction and we need to find one now
because businesses are not going to last any more than a month or two if we continue going down this road thank you counselor councelor Brown thank you madam president I like to support the councelor on this again I've heard also
same conversation um you know shopping eating in downtown that the impact that it's taking here not sure if the removal of the bus L will help um I'm just you know on a different era you got all those trucks and all those holes and
pipes and taking up a lot of the space so I think we have to really take a really hard look at what's being left left there and how long it's being left there over the weekend and and you know if we could just put it behind some of the buildings in Lucha place and other
Cherry streets and stuff we have to have them the the mechanics behind those uh drivers realize that we just can't afford to continue to um have our business suffer the way it is down there thank you thank you coun councelor himz
just really quick I I the counselor um initially spoke about the number of orders uh a number of orders that he had so I just want to really quickly um comment on just a couple of them uh not specifically to the content of them but I I think it's um a couple of them are directing individual staff within
City Hall and I just want to make sure that that is not it is not our role to direct the individual employees of City Hall it is our job to work with the city manager who is the administrator so I just want to make sure that we have those conversations with the um city manager Madam president I would I would
object because he's addressing something that's not being discussed right now I would ask ask you to make those comments as as as I can certainly do that I was I was doing so because the counselor spoke about them in as a grouping so I will I will reserve my comments for when it
does come up thank you thank you counselor moving on then to the next item on the agenda next we have an order introduced by counciler ordered that the city manager director director of Housing and Community Development to assign an employee to perform Grant research and application assistance for businesses applying for local state and
federal assistance programs councelor tesi Madam president I move to adopt under suspension there are no objections OB objection yeah objection move for call v motion sure I I'll move for a VOC call vote um
uh wait what's your objection is it is my CH to speak or is it the counselor you're able you're the one with the motion on the ground with the objection you're able to speak if you want the floor I will speak so um my objection to this is not the intent of the of order it is simply that I don't
believe that the council should be directing individual staff members within the administration it is our job to work with the city manager to ensure that the the what the council the will of the council is is coordinated so I would just encourage us I I I won't I I am objecting so that I can speak I will
I will not be voting no on this but I just want to make sure that we move this through the proper channels and engaging with the city manager rather than us directing the individual workings of each department I don't think that's how we should be doing our business that's all thank you councelor T oh I with draw
my addiction as well I I would just like to note my order says order that the city manager order to the city manager okay one second guys so is there a motion on the floor to object the
order no I withdraw my objection so now the councelor can speak on this motion original motion is on the floor and then counselor would you like to proceed yes my my motion is to adopt an suspension if there are no objections seeing no objections moving
on to the next item on the agenda would you like the floor do you have comments no no okay moving on to the next item next item on the agenda order introduced by Council teser order that the city manager direct The Parking Clerk to ease parking restrictions on
Broadway during the ongoing construction project by issuing one permit per business to a business owner allowing said owner to be exempt from ticketing councelor tesi Madame President this order is with the intent to give business owners only one ticket per
business uh the the ability to park on Broadway without receiving any tickets as we know the businesses in downtown Chelsea they conduct business every single day they go in and out of parking spots there's not one business owner that just goes and sits in the same parking lot nonetheless they stay there
for 15 minutes they either forget to put on the meter and they get tickets and I'm not talking about just one of them so so in order to ease out the construction and everything that's going on and help at least even if it's a couple of bucks
prevent uh the the elimination of some of our businesses I think this is a small price to pay for the city councelor can you share the motion for the order the motion would be to adopt under suspension if there are no objections okay thank you counselor moving on to the next item on the
agenda next we have an order introduced by Council aesha order that the city manager direct The Parking Clerk to parking enforcement on Broadway during the ongoing construction project by limiting enforcement to every 4 hours on weekends councelor tesi do you have a motion Madam president I move to adopt
under suspension if there are no objections seeing no objections moving on to the next item next item on the agenda we have an order introduced by Council teser order that the city manager look into maximizing parking availability on weekends by cooperating with areal
organizations including Roa and Chelsea District Court or any other with an available parking lot councelor tesi Madam president move to adopt under suspension if there are no objections I'd like to say some words you have the floor so I I would just say the city manager is already uh looking uh and
working uh together with Roa um I'm hoping to see if we can get uh some conversations with the uh Chelsea District Courthouse so that we can expand parking availability for businesses whether that be just on weekends or during night thank you thank you counselor moving on to the next item
next we have an order introduced by Council Tesh order that the city manager look into coordinating with the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce to provide a grant to fund one or two positions in the chamber to assist with addressing concerns of business owners during the Broadway construction project councelor tesi Madam president move to adopt under
suspension if there are no objections I'd like to speak on it you have the floor so the reason why we want to make sure that we F positions at the Chelsea um Chamber of Commerce is because they have been doing a tremendous job at holding conversations with businesses
they have been doing a tremendous jobs at holding the hands of businesses when they they are saying hey you know what I I I can't take it I'm losing a lot of money I've had to fire half of my staff uh they have had to dealt with the emotional um downfall that they've had because of this construction and I think
uh you know as I've had the conversations with the um with the executive officer they definitely need some help so we got to make sure that as a city if it is as a consequence of our actions and our construction that this is happening and the Chamber of Commerce
has taken that responsibility of of caring for them and providing that support then I think we should get in on that and we should be able to fund some of those possessions thank you counselor moving on President Taylor I'd like to speak on it
so I think it's very important especially uh coming out of covid and especially when there are no more AR funds to be had and we are uh looking
down the barrel of U of A lot of funds drying up in the near future I think it's very important that we try to do whatever we can to support our businesses I I personally do not believe that it's the role of government to come
in and bail out businesses however in this in this case uh the construction that's being done by the city I think the city does have uh some obligation to offer some sort of mitigation for this and to do everything that we can afford
to do um to help these uh businesses the businesses of this city um are a huge part of our community and it's what makes us go we need to expand our business Community not shrink it so uh I
would just ask that the city and and and uh the Chamber of Commerce uh would would pay attention to this uh because I do think it's important and there there is a lot of uh suffering out there thank you thank you counselor moving on to the
next item next we have an order introduced by Council Ates ordered that the city manager direct the Department of Housing and Community Development to double the number of businesses that receive funding to the store fund Improvement program to help at least 10 businesses per year Madam president I move to adopt under supension if there
are no objections I'd like to speak on it you have the floor coun so to give you a little bit of background the storefront Improvement program is a program that the city has to be able to provide some financial assistance to businesses so that they can in effect renovate their storefront so that they
more they look more appealable uh to you know members of the public that want to come in and buy consumers um nonetheless the city has been only helping three to four businesses a year I think I think we can do a lot better than that so I'm asking the city manager if we can double
that amount and again the amount of money per business that is being spent is only $10,000 so I'm hoping to see again this is a small price to pay if we're going to help a business have a better storefront so that they attract more customers so that they can remain in the city then we'll do that because
again we we have already done damage with the construction thank you councelor moving on to the next item next we have an order introduced by councel teser order that the city manager exp potential ways for the city to provide financial support to businesses in the downtown Broadway area
Madam president I move to adopt under suspension of the rules if there are no objections you have the floor councelor that would be it okay moving on next item on the agenda we have an order introduced by councilor recupero
order that the city manager provide an explanation as to the purpose of red markings on the roadway at the corner of Congress Avenue and Park Street and which city Department determines when and where those markings are placed you have the floor councelor we're losing a lot this city
is losing a lot of parking there is not enough parking in this city they should go out and talk to the people that live in our city to see how it is to have parking by shrinking all these things and making it that way you're taking away parking spots all the time here
I'll make you prime example you go down at the end of Congress right at Park right across from cats Bagels they used to be able to park two cars on the left hand side if you're going down because you can't take a leftand turn you can only go to the right hand turn so why was the point of putting those red
markers you took away two spots people cannot turn to the left if you're going down they can't turn so what was the point of it cuz it's one way coming up so I I see to understand why you put those markers what was who decides to
put these markers all over the streets and how do they determine I want an explanation I want the people to understand why they putting these markers and why they're taking parking spots Away parking spots are very important to the people of our city you start taking them away you're
going to create a bigger mess than it has now so on the next meeting I would like an explanation who determines to put these markers and what are they for what are they for because you can't take turns or because you're in an intersection that you can't go any
but on the on on the case of Park Street you can't go to the left so why did you put that and they put it on the other side I get complaints from the guy from cats Bagel he tell me when when it's business going back to one of my fellow counselors they said about business losing business so what is the point of
doing that when they go get bagels and they can't park so why would you do that so you hurting a business to do what you can't take a leftand turn you can only go to the right hand turn so who determines and does these things and I would like to know how they come across it thank
you thank you counselor moving on to the next item next we have an order introduced by councilor recupero order that the city manager provide an update on the status of funding for the city's housing rehabilitation program specifically if any funding remains and if more will be
allocated adopt adopt on the suspensions objection like to speak on it you have the floor okay this program has been in effect for a while we have two programs there the city one is the Hut program and one is the one that the city puts out itself to help the poor homeowners
of our city that do not qualify for HUD so what happens is for the last five years only two people two people two people have gotten such help that and every time they ask there's no money the last time I heard when the city manager explained that the money was used by the
Chelsea Alan Authority they took up all the money well I that part I couldn't understand how uh I an entity that's part of a state that gets funded doesn't gets all the money and some of the money so in 5 years how do you have two people
two people in the whole city to help the homeowners a lot of them do need help everybody's looking for help how about homeowners I know that they say well the people that live in the house and Authority are elderly well that's fine there's not that I'm not saying nothing against the elderly that live in the
Housing Authority I'm just curious to know about the elderly that own homes how about that elderly they need a little help pcks in their homes they don't matter either they do matter so I would like to know if there's any money available to these programs or if there's any money that's going to be
there I think once I asked for them to have someone downstairs to show how to fill these applications because a lot of people go there they fill the application and they don't know how to fill it and they got denied for some reason or another so I would like the city to help these people whoever owns
homes in Chelsea that falls between the line that they can't afford the picks and whatever it falls under they should be able to get help and that's what I would like to see that maybe the people that are supposed to get it will get it thank youor human just to make sure that
the public understands this is only councelor is saying that there are two people that is two individual homeowners there are hundreds of residents that reside in the Chelsea Housing Authority that are also being supported by this so just want to make sure that people understand that as well thank you counselor moving on to the next item on
the agenda next order introduced by councelor recupero order that the city manager provide an update on the status of potentially locating a fire station in the Marginal Street Waterfront area adopt on the suspension there's no objection like to speak on it you have the floor councelor okay uh that side my
district or practically that side of the city doesn't have a firehouse it used to have one on Park Street then it disappeared and uh all the sections of the city are being covered but that that side and from what I'm gathering that they want to put a firehouse on the other side of Emerald's Hill there will
be what will be the purpose of putting one down there near where the bank is or whatever it is uh that what doesn't make any sense because you have the central Firehouse which is right here can go straight down Broadway and go anywhere it wants to on my side there's nothing to go there and they're all oneway
streets well I know fire trucks can go over anywhere but there is nothing to go on that side and the increased population that's coming in that area you got all of Central Avenue which is growing then you got all of 170 which is growing and you have Mill which is there
already so for them not to have a firehouse in that side it's very unsafe for the people of that se that side of our city so if the city manager maybe can explain when he thinks they'll probably put in a small one truck
Firehouse there or where is it going to be put is that what I'm hearing that they're going to put it on beachum Street way down the other R near the post office that's kind of like a you you're defeating the purpose you put in a firehouse where it's not needed put one where it's needed which is on the
other side which does not have one thank you thank you counselor moving on to the next item next item under new business we have an order introduced by the council president ordered that pursuant to chapter 171 of the legislative acts of 2014 and Mass General Law chapter 40
section 4A the Chelsea city council hereby approves the city of Chelsea entering into an agreement for the Metro North Regional emergency communications district and Dispatch Center with the municipalities of R and winther councelor Robinson I would ask to lay this motion on the table and Order both
parties to get back to the negotiating table and see what they can work out if they can't work out anything then it'll be up to this Council will take action needs to be seconded is there a second for this motion okay motion goes back to the original
order councelor jenez I move to um have a roll call vote uh after discussion so move to open discussion and and end with the roll call vote okay entering open discussion are there any comments from my colleagues president since no one so a
lot um we've had a lot of um reading and a lot of emails and a lot of calls um speak personally for myself but I'm sure other residents have called other council members regarding it so it's so everyone knows this a heated
conversation um I've done my homework um I've listened to the speakers I've heard the end the outs I wish to have a lot of more time but we're at a point of of time that we can actually start
this B from rolling and and make a vote tonight um you know it's every time we do something here in the city and I've been on the city council quite a few years and it's always been with the
residents and the people in in our mind that we're doing the best thing we have for um I again I've been on the city council for some quite time and there's not one city council board that I sat on that we sat down and we found out a
reason or a way to put a project or proposal before the city council that people will be laid off or people will lose jobs or people will be hurt um we've always tried to do what's right for the people to and expound and expand
on doing what's best for Chelsea um it's a a a something that's happening all around the state um not all not even just this state but other states throughout the United States we as we grow the population grow the desire to
be able to work with other communities is going to be essential for the survival of a lot of communities um there's resources there's money there's Pro you know the only thing is hard is the change uh and particular for the workers so I think that we should go
forward tonight I there was a motion on the floor to wave it and give it some more time I think you know what we're going to get the same thing we did if we give it another week or two weeks but but the reality is that I think we have enough um information before us on over
the last few weeks to make a decision today whether you vote in favor or you vote not in favor and it's unfair to to continue to hold it up if we had some stale passage so I'll be V voting in favor of it tonight thank you if it goes
to vote thank you counselor councelor tesi Madame President could i s defend the rules to ask the city manager a couple of questions before I cast my vote so that I do it with good conscience can we do that with a motion
on the ground we okay I'll allow yes um city manager if you can join us at the podium please okay Mr city manager so you you know what been going on with this right we have received a lot of communications
regarding the concerns of this happening um you from your end also and from the state have had a couple of people come in um and explain to us what are going to be the benefits uh my question is is a couple actually do we
have um urgency in voting today what happens if we don't vote on it today um I think there's there's some logistical urgency there's also some uh
operational urgency right I me I mean I I don't think that that it's it is very evident what what we have been going through as as an Administration what we have been going through as a community I I think that that uh um it has been rough right for for for all of us for the city council I'm sure that being per
peppered with emails with calls is it's not something that that is is is enjoyable to to you as as it is not for me I I I do fear that that dragging this on uh uh will will continue that right uh um as opposed to as councel brown
said uh uh I I think all the information is is before you that that could be offered uh uh take a vote and if and and if if if it passes it passes if it doesn't pass it doesn't pass right but but I think I think what's happening right now particularly in the last couple of weeks has has been has been very emotional uh uh for for the council
I would imagine with with everyone that is that is reaching out I also wanted to to say you know that that uh uh the city will continue to sit in good faith uh and and our city solicitor has has been with the city for a very long time she she she uh uh Keeps Us honest and makes
sure that that that we offer the the best thing for all parties however you know that that that there are uh uh tense bargaining tables out there right and and we saw them on the school side recently we we we have been a part of of
T negotiations over the years the that is just part of of of this work it's part of being a leader in a municipality but but uh on behalf of myself on behalf of our city solicitor I want to assure this Council and I want to assure everyone uh in this room that that we
the city will continue to bargain in good faith and ensure that we get the best deal for for everyone for everyone involved for all parties that that is good to hear so um the motion we're going to vote on it already I think there's definitely support to pass this
uh from from my peer counselor so I would I would just ask one final thing um is it true that if we did not approve that today that the grant funding would be pulled and and regionalization would not happen there there is a a uh um a
submission deadline right that the there is a a submission deadline that that that uh uh um a vote of of the city council to approve the IMA is a requirement today uh it is it is around March 1st so so I mean it it is very close okay thank
you thank you city manager councelor San um I just want to start by saying that I appreciate the dedication and the passion that the 911 dispatchers have displayed recently uh I also have to say I was surprised and sad to receive
correspondence from a union member that imped that I was rubber stamping something or that I had not performed due diligence concerning the regionalization issue and that is very far from the truth uh I was born and raised here um my families were actively
involved in the community and I continue to do my best to serve the people of Chelsea I was an educator here for 20 years I'm a city counselor now and all I think about is my community if you know me at all you know that I was actively involved in the city before I became a
counselor and I'll be actively involved when I'm no longer an elected official and I love Chelsea um I've seen the city grow and change a lot and I can tell you that I do wish that the economy were different and that the need for enhanced
Public Safety wasn't necessary I know the work you do and I thank you profusely for helping my family and countless residents of Chelsea for decades it is my responsibility as a counsel to consider issues of finance and Public
Safety I'm proud of your performance and I'm proud that if regionalization happens that the amazing staff of Chelsea's emergency 911 emergency dispatch will have a chance to display skill and Prof professionalism if you're
in a regional center with more staff I know that you will manage the change even if it seems overwhelming at the moment thank you thank you counselor seeing no other comments counselor H
menis I don't know that I can follow up councelor sanates uh comments with regards to to the portion that she spoke of but I just want to start off by saying that from the very beginning when this was first brought to council I've been saying that we needed to have all the necessary conversations prior to us
taking a vote I agree with president capistran from the fire Union that this seems to put the cart before the horse however conversations were scheduled and the negotiation did not move forward because my understanding is that the position has been that since Council has
not made a decision we can't start start impact impact bargaining so now I think because of that we're left with no option other than taking this vote so that we can decide whether we're not going to do this or whether we're going to properly initiate the conversations that in my opinion should have already been happening I am frustrated that this
is what we've come to but I have no reason to believe that slowing down is going to change what has already happened I've met with Union leadership I've met with the administration I spoke with residents who both support and oppose this I've weighed everyone's opinions and I've looked at the data and here's where I land this move is going
to save the city multiple millions of dollars over the next five years we're in a time when we have a lot of uncertainty with Federal funding State funding potentially and when our School District budget has a gap of over $2 million is it not our duty as city council as the fiscal stewards of the city to provide high quality service and
high quality 911 at the lowest cost of the taxpayers a key consideration for me was ensuring that our staff would retain their jobs there is now a signed letter from three the three communities ensuring that anybody who wants a job at the wreck is going to have one they will have a similar or better position with
access to potentially better benefits and we have made offers the city has made offers to increase base pay at a higher rate in the next two years retention bonuses we're doing everything that we can so that the savings are not only going to the City but that they are also partially going to the staff that
have been working so hard over the many many many years so I don't understand why why we have not been able to make more progress in this after hearing from the city and the state my understanding is now that the way that the wreck operates is the best practice for large scale dispatch
centers across the country so if it works for the larger cities why can't we figure out how to make it work for us when claims are made that this is going to reduce the quality of service I so far have not seen anything to to support that with clear evidence it is
mostly it could happen I think if the state saw that there were actual disruptions that would reduce the quality as was mentioned earlier the state would step in and they would say hey this is actually not good for the public safety of this community and they would pump the brakes and figure out
what else to do so I believe that this proposal is in the best interest of the residents of Chelsea I'll be voting in favor and I hope that the city will now be able to engage in the conversations that have needed to be happening already and figure out how to best position our staff for this
transition I don't want us to to get to a point where because of hardships in the conversations we stop trying to give the best that we can to our employees and I want to make sure that the city manager understands that that is still the priority it has been and just because we've had uh challenging
conversations and now we're taking a vote that has to remain the priority it is ensuring that we have best quality possible uh 911 for our community members and making sure that our staff are made whole in this process thank you
thank you counselor counselor Taylor so I just wanted to rise and say that you may not hear me say this very often but I 100% agree with counselor Jimenez Rivera in what he just said and for the
reasons and I I mean that honestly so so so um look I I I I don't want to belabor it because I I think he was clear uh eloquent and uh
comprehensive in his comments uh so uh kudos to you thank you counselor I think we're ready for a vote roll call vote has been requested a six vote majority is required for
adoption Council ten yes councelor jenez Rivera yes councilor rupo yes councilor Taylor yes councelor Robinson yes councilor teser yes councelor Kelly G yes councilor sanate
yes Council Vega yes yes Council Brown yes and Council adus yes 11 members in favor zero opposed order is adopted thank you clerk okay next item under new business we have an order introduced by the
council president whereas by section 21 of chapter 82 of Mass general laws as amended it is provided that the the Chelsea city council May discontinue a public way and whereas Meritt road is a 50t wide way between Meritt club and 121 Webster Avenue in Chelsea and whereas
the city Administration has researched determined and recommended that Merit road is a paper Road not used for travel and has become a nuisance for trash and debris and therefore should be discontinued as a roadway and deemed Surplus property whereby making disposition appropriate which is described on the attached survey plan
and whereas the city Administration has filed a request to discontin the paper Road Merit Road between Webster Avenue and Stockton Street and now'll therefore be it ordered that pursuing to section 24-85 of the code of ordinances of the city of Chelsea both the planning board and traffic and parking commission may
hold public hearings as to provide their recommendations on the discontinuance of a parcel known as Meritt Road Madame President move to adopt under suspension if there are no objections see no objections thank you councel refer to traffic was that refer
to traffic and planning and refer to traffic oh and refer to parking and traffic thank you next item under new business we have an order introduced by the council president whereas the Chelsea city council has authority to adopt ordinances to protect the health safety
and Welfare of all residents of the city of Chelsea and whereas the Chelsea city council has determined that there are numerous properties located throughout Chelsea managed by an entity other than property owners and whereas the Chelsea city council has found that the quality of life and Health and Welfare of many
residents are affected by the persons in control of managing housing units and those managing not meeting the specific requirements of State sanitary code now therefore be it ordained that the revised code of ordinances of the city of Chelsea as amended be further amended
and adopted as follows a new ordinance article one chapter 6 section six of the Chelsea code of ordinances regarding buildings and Fire Prevention a new section for property management companies section one the purpose of this ordinance is to regulate property management companies operating within
the city of Chelsea to ensure compliance president uh move to wave the rest of the reading and adopt under a roll call vote thank you can I speak on it yes councelor um Garcia you have the floor awesome I'd like to just start with a
thank you to the members who constantly attended meetings regarding the slum Lords in the city and and prioritizing the safety of our residents and so this is just one step forward to this Council making their commitment to ensuring that
our homes are safe and and um our residents have a dignified space that they can call home and while also simultaneously holding uh landlords accountable for not handling business as
as they should and so uh thank you to the team who drafted this and and made all the comments and commitments uh to to once again making um a solid commitment to ensuring the the cleanliness and the safe of our homes so
thank you councelor himz yeah I would like to Echo councelor Garcia's comments around just huge thanks to our staff who worked on this I I think it's just it's really important for the people to understand that there is not a lot that the state allows us to do when it comes to improving um the the circumstances uh
around housing for the residents this is one area where we are able to do this so um it's very very exciting that we that we were able to to move this forward so that we can start to hold accountable some of the folks that you know are really causing uh our our residents a lot of pain uh in in their home it's uh
having having difficult situations at home is is not something that you want to have and then not be able to deal with because the person that can fix it doesn't live with you right so we really need to to do better in terms of supporting uh our residents and thank you for everything counselor Brown thank
you madam president I'm glad this is going forward tonight again um the residents they pay a lot of money to rent and be in these properties and they deserve the dignity to be able to live in a clean and place and also to have folks come that's responsible to to
handle the issues so I'm glad that we were able to get these meetings and our Law Department was able to draft this up and to those um landlords who have been Fallen the land of the law you don't have anything to worry about these are for those landlords that have just taken
um advantage of folks year after year and time after time we are now have something in place that we can come before and come after you so I'm glad to see that again that we're putting the residents forward um and also supporting
them on their cry um and also establishing some dignity for them with disorder thank you councelor Taylor so I just want to make a comment about um how useful the subcommittee was on this
issue and this is a good step forward this is something that other cities do that we should probably should have been doing before I'm glad we're correcting it now but do you see what what can happen when we have a subcommittee and talk about things and actually have a
conversation about things the conversation good things can happen so I I I commend everybody and uh the city that worked on it and uh I uh uh I appreciate that we were able to talk
about this and get something good thank you thank you counselor if I may get permission to speak from the chair briefly thank you um I would like to just give a shout out to um our local nonprofit um
lativa actually had been working on this since um the pandemic when and they started doing inhome inspections with an application that they um were working on with um Mass law reform and um and I'd
also like to give a shout out to Cheryl for um her support and um all of the conversations that took place with um our inspectional service department and our different uh Board of Health and um the fire department and all the
different cases there was a lot of work that went into this I would say that yes definitely having conversations among us as counselors was definitely a um a support but I'd also like to shout out the countless
community members um that organized themselves and and and came to the chambers to share with us that this was still important that this was still happening and that we needed to prioritize it and so shout out to all those efforts and I see some of our um counselors from previous years who were
also part of the conversation are here in the chamber as well I'm sure that those counselors that are watching from the past are very glad to see that this has finally moveed forward we still got work to go um but I'm glad that this is going through today thank
you roll call vote requested yes vote for adoption Council tarer see you absent councel Herz Rivera yes councelor recupero yes councelor Taylor yes councel Robinson yes Council
Tes yes Council Kelly G yes Council San yes Council Vega yes Council Brown yes and Council wus yes 10 members in favor zero opposed one absent ordinance adopted thank you clerk moving on
[Applause] great we have several items that were received late first we have an notor introduced by councelor Cooper or receive late there any objections to accepting seeing ordered that the city manager look into
allowing veterans who reside in the city of Chelsea to make use of the shuttle service offered by the senior center adop and suspension no objection like to speak on it you have the floor counselor um lately I got calls from
some veterans that they can't go to certain places but they're not old enough to go to a bus and we do not have a bus so I thought the idea would be a good idea to combine the senior bus Which senior veterans can already use
because they're seniors and combine it together if any of these veterans they need some type of support they can get it and I hope that every you know that the city manager looks into it and talks
to um Miss nowiki and uh come up with a solution to try to help these veterans thank you thank you counselor next we have another order introduced by councelor recupero received late any objections seeing none ordered that the
city manager look into creating a policy or ordinance that allows the city of Chelsea to within a set time frame after citing a business owner for not removing snow from their sidewalks in accordance with existing ordinance to remove the snow from their sidewalk and charge the business owner for the
expense microphone please turn on your mik counselor and you have suspension there's no objection like to speak on it you have the floor be for to clean up their business it will be good business for the business to clean up that business
because without cleaning up in front of that business people can't go to that business so I know that the city gives them tickets but sometimes these tickets are ignored so what happens is they can come to City Hall whenever you get a ticket and you can't appeal these
tickets and a lot of times these tickets uh let go so but if the city goes and deploys DPW workers to clean then it will send them the bill these businesses will clean up so people can go to their business so they can make money inside
of their business thank you thank you counselor next we have an order introduced by Council Tes received late there are any objections seeing that order that the city manager wave property tax for all business owners along Broadway from
Fifth Street to 2 Street to account for lost Revenue due to ongoing construction project you should before um I move for second reading Madam president is there any discussion Mo move to Second reading councelor
Brown councelor hez just procedurally just is there opportunity for discussion about this right now or no no it's been moved to Second reading okay sure F order introduced by Council teser received late any objections to
receiving the late order seeing no objections order that the city manager provide the city council with a report detailing how the planning process for the Broadway construction project was developed move to subcommittee on Public Works seeing no
objections have another order we have another order introduced by Council aesha receive late any objections to receiving the late or this is the last one guys yeah order that the city manager direct the commissioner of Department of Public Works to work with the construction contractor working on
the Broadway reconstruction project to move their hours of work to 4 P p.m. to 10 p.m. move to the subcommittee on public works see no objections are there any public
comments announc public announcements y i' like to thank makid of Chelsea get Sol and that was very nice of them and I
hope it's very well appreciated and if the Sol is still needed there's any more need you still go down get thank you for Supply the people of this city thank you
counselor any other public announcements councelor San yeah I just wanted to announce that um the final event for Black History Month in the city will take place on Thursday night the 27th at the Williams school from 5: to 8: and
it's always a wonderful time and the Trailblazers will uh be there and there's food and vendors and I hope people can come and it's free thank you counselor all right any moments of
Silence counselor recupero I'd like to have a moment of silence for my nephew M Michael Foley he just died and he was only 36 years old and God Rest the soul and they just buried him today
S I just like to have word of prayer silently in your own way for Frances Pope Francis okay e