This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. Welcome to the East Hampton City Council meeting for Wednesday, February 4th, 2026. The meeting tonight is being recorded and broadcast by emeddia on charter channel 193 and live streaming
on their web page eastampton media.org. Councilors and participants in this meeting are gathered hybrid on the order extended until June 30th, 2027, allowing us to do so. I remind both the members of the city council and the public participating remotely to remain muted
until recognized by the city council president. Also for the members of the public, please remove your camera for the duration of the meeting unless you are participating in the public speak time or the public hearing. Thank you. This meeting is now called called to
order. Maddie JP Quisinski >> here. >> Connie Denham >> here. >> Tamara Smith. >> Felicia Jatzik >> here. >> Tom P >> here. Jonathan Schmidt >> here,
>> Amanda Newton >> here, >> Cam Jim Rag McUade >> here, >> and Nathan Marque >> here. >> Great. Thank you. Um, right now we're going to take a u moment of silence. Uh, please do whatever you need to do in
order to be able to uh prepare yourself uh and be present for tonight's meeting. Thank you. If you would like to participate in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, now is your opportunity to do so. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Great. Thank you. Uh I will take a motion to approve meeting minutes for
January 21st, 2026. So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Uh any further discussion? Um all those in favor? I I >> Great. Opposed abstensions. Uh motion passes.
Uh Vice President Jadzik, >> I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules to allow for swearing in of a member of our public to um a committee. So I have a motion to suspend the rules. >> Second.
>> Second. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Extensions? Motion passes. >> That's me. That's you. >> Um, sorry, my apologies. >> Um, if I may.
>> Um, I'd like to direct councelor Marquee to introduce the member who's getting sworn in. >> Thank you, Vice President Jackson. Um, we met with Mary Church um recently and she she answered our questions. She's
been a member of the East Hampton Housing Authority for a few years now. and um she gave us some knowledge um and um yeah we uh we I believe we already had the vote on it but yeah it
was nice to meet with her. We welcome her knowledge. She seems like a very um active and uh question she asks a lot of questions of the housing authority. So yeah without further ado Mary.
>> Okay. I don't know how Marian did it last time. So, we'll just what what would you like? >> Right here at the front. >> And then Mary can come up. >> Thank you so much. All right. Um, so if
you will just raise your hand. >> All right. So, do you swear or affirm to perform the duties as a member of the East Hampton Housing Authority to the best of your ability? >> I do. >> Perfect. Congratulations. First of all,
yours is lovely. I can get you to sign off on the book. >> Okay, great. Awesome. Thank you, Mary. >> Thank you. >> Uh, now we're going to have public uh comment. This is an opportunity uh for members of the public to address the
council regarding any topic not listed under the public hearing. Uh members of the public will have 3 minutes. You will hear two signals. The first uh signal will be when you have 30 seconds left um to speak and you'll have uh the second
signal will be an indication that your time has concluded. Um so please wrap up your thoughts. Uh please remember that um city c because this is not an what you're talking about is not an item on our agenda. City council members are not
allowed to respond uh to your comments. So we are listening um and there may be council counselors afterwards who reach out to you to for further information but we're just not allowed to to respond. So, if anybody would uh like to participate in public comment, please go
to the podium uh state your name and address and um please let us know your thoughts. >> Mhm. Great. >> Hello. Uh good evening counselors. U my name is Natalyia Ruiz. I'm a resident of East Hampton. I live on Maple Street.
Um, so I'm here to express my support for the resolution to establish a housing crisis task force. Uh, I'm a renter of many years throughout the valley. I've experienced a lot of instances of uh, fraud, maintenance, neglect, intimidation, and abusive behavior from landlords who are never held accountable. Um, and I know that
I'm not alone. Uh, as a member of the Eastampton Tenants Union, we hear different stories every week. We have a lot of different struggles against various uh, mostly corporate landlords going on in the area. Um, the median age of home buying now is 40 in the state of Massachusetts. This is a record high. So, this is showing that homes are less
and less affordable and it also highlights an important call to action because many people now spend more of their life proportionately as renters. Um, there need to be policies and initiatives that reflect this new reality by improving protection and advocacy for tenants. Um, we're now the majority and this is now a lot of our
lives that we that we spend as renters. It's not just something that we do in transients or after college. This is this is a lot of our lives. Um I also want to highlight that a lot of the issues that we face as residential renters are also experienced by small businesses uh uh renting from large real
estate. They too are suffering from rent increases and maintenance neglect. Losing our small business and commercial uh retail presence will have significant cultural and economic impacts on the city we call home. Um so this you know this impacts a lot of different people as well as residential renters. So, I
see this task force as a gateway for collaboration between the city, non-government advocacy groups like the East Hampton Tenants Union and private citizens. Uh, collaboration, idea sharing, and diverse representation is the best and most resilient model for pushing forward meaningful change. Um, I
appreciate and feel that it's important to have East Hampton renters present in this task force as we are the most familiar with our needs and are best equipped in identifying the problems that we face. Um, many of us are a single paycheck away from missing our rent payments. And if that's not a crisis, I'm not sure what is. So, I encourage all of you counselors to
support this resolution. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Natalia. >> Please state your name and address for us, please. >> Carl Prawl, 22, Gaston. Don't have anything prepared, but also want to express support for the housing
crisis task force. more attention drawn to this subject is only going to serve us well and you can never go wrong with more organization some way to bring all of these efforts together and focus it cannot hurt so I just want to express my support for it thank you
>> great thank you so much Carl anyone else in the room who would like to participate in public comment not on public hearing great >> forgot something Carl Pearl 22 Gaston I also was very curious and I know I won't
get an answer to this but I know according to the charter our citywide speed limit went to 25 October 31st and it would be really great if we got that implemented. I'm a walker in town and this snowstorm has made things interesting and people speeding by has
made it even more interesting and that's just acutely now. So it'd be great to know what the uh timetable and road map for that is. Thank you so much. >> Great. Thank you Carl. Anyone else in the room? Anyone on the line who would like to
participate in public comment? Please raise your virtual hand. Um I see Carolyn Cushing. >> Yeah. Hello Carolyn Fishing just went >> I am also I and I also am serving on the
um brand study committee and I'm just here to add my voice to the affirmation of the task force bring together the many committees that are doing work with slightly different
um charges and it's a complex situation and it's wonderful that he's doing so much and this coordinating I think is important for us really meeting both the immediate crisis needs and the longer term planning and implementing of things
that will be sustainable for these teams. So that's me. Thank you. >> Thank you Caroline. caption. Do you turn the captions on? Okay. Anyone else online who would like to participate in public comment?
All right. Seeing none, we'll close public comment. Um we still have four minutes before the um opening of the public hearing. Um so quickly I'm just going to move to the uh items for
immediate uh attention. Um before us we have a resolution in support of establishing the East Hampton Housing Crisis Task Force. Um before I ask um councelor Jamrod McUade to speak on that, is there anyone who has objection
to um uh addressing this uh this evening or uh would you prefer that it go to committee? >> All right, seeing none. So I will >> madam president typically we if we're establishing a task force and not just a resolution
>> it would be studied and discussed uh >> it may be worthy because of the composition of the committee uh to do so. >> Okay. So you'd like to send it to committee? I would uh if that makes sense to everybody um
>> to follow that standard procedure. >> Absolutely. >> Great. So we will um I will take a motion to uh move the resolution in support of establishing the East Hampton Housing Crisis Task Force uh to the
rules committee. >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Uh we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Abstensions? Uh, great.
Motion passes. All right. Um, we still have a couple minutes. Uh, so I will move down to council communication. Uh, councelor Jam Quaid, you wanted to >> I just want to move the TV back a little. I can't. >> Sure. >> The other TV now point of order point of
information. Is the other TV not working? I >> sure uh council Jam Martin McUade, would you like to make an announcement? >> Yes. Um thank you, President Denham. Um I just want to give a reminder about the
East Ent Tenants Union, which meets uh every Thursday in this room um from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Um so they're meeting tomorrow night here. I just want to call them out. They're um sharing resources on tenants rights and building solidarity. Um they're a great group.
Great. Uh, any other announcements that people would like to make? Um, seeing none, we still have a couple of minutes. Uh, >> okay. Yep. Um, thank you, Council President. Um, I'd like to just let
folks know that um, if anyone is interested in the future of cultural chaos, which is a great event that happens here in East Hampton, it is something that has been determined um, by the East Hampton City Arts Committee at a meeting this week to uh, cancel for
this year. It's not been 100% uh, voted on quite just yet. So, if you'd like to express your opinions as a member of the public, you uh I would encourage you to attend the next meeting of the cultural district subcommittee, which is going to be held on Wednesday,
February 11th, at 9:00 a.m. in person only here at 50 Pacin in the conference room B, which is in the basement. So, encourage people to attend if you have thoughts um or comments you'd like to share with the cultural district subcommittee on that matter.
Um, and also I'd like to share that Winterfest is coming up on the 14th of February. And so also encourage everyone to attend Winterfest, which is another wonderful event that we have here in Eastampton. And I'm sure there's going to be a lot of counselors who are going to be taking that plunge into the pond.
So I looking forward to that. >> I'm looking forward to watching it. >> I see now counselor Kazinski, I thought for sure you were going to lead us off there. So, >> so I hope everyone will attend that. So, thank you for those announcements and certainly I do encourage people if they
have concern about um cultural chaos future of that um please um attend that um important meeting. >> What was the date again? I'm sorry. >> What was the date? >> Uh February 11th at 9:00 a.m. >> Right. And uh it is 6:15. So I will take
a motion to open the public hearing. >> So move. >> Second. >> So I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Uh all those in favor? I. Any opposed? Abstension? Great. Motion passes. I will turn it over to Chair Peak.
>> Thank you, Madam President. Um, so, uh, the one item we have today is a, uh, supplemental appropriation of $23,500 that would be coming from the CPA fund balance reserved for open space, uh, and would be appropriated to, uh, dog park
design. Uh so anyone who has been uh around in East Hampton Civic Life for the last decade or so has probably been very aware that there's been a very uh persistent effort to get a dog park in East Hampton that's faced a lot of
setbacks, but um they've got a location uh and uh they need to do a design and then of course they'll need to raise the funds for the uh building of the actual park. So this probably will not be the last time uh that this project comes
before this body. Um but uh this uh if if we fund this project, we would fund uh the rest of the work that we would need to uh complete a construction bid ready design uh for the
dog park. So, uh, the CPA committee and the, uh, finance committee both voted, uh, unanimously to approve this appropriation and, uh, yeah, that's what we got. >> Great. Um, is there anyone who you would
like to invite to speak to it or >> Sure. Uh, Ava, would you like to speak to this? >> Yeah. So, Ava, can you just, uh, state your name and ask? >> Of course. Yeah. Hi, city council. I'm Ava Gristl. I'm the CPA coordinator and conservation agent. I'll come to you in both roles, but more often you'll see me
as the CPA coord coordinator and you'll get to see me quarterly when I come to represent the CPA supplemental appropriations. Um, so this is a $23,500 supplemental appropriation for the dog park. As counselor Peak said, dog park design. Um, the dog park committee has
raised $2,500 through donations that they're matching this with. Um, this is a a location for the dog park that's been approved by the East Hampton Parks and Recre Commission at a former meeting at a previous meeting. Um, yeah, they have an architect lined up. It's It
seems all to be in good order. As Councelor Peak said, it was unanimous and yeah, I'm happy to take any questions about it. >> Good. >> Anyone have any questions? >> It was 200,000. You said 2,000. >> 2,000 to match this. >> Oh. Oh,
>> I see. >> Good. So, seeing no uh questions, um is anyone from the public would they like to speak regarding this? Okay. Seeing none, um so I will uh take
a motion. >> All right. Uh I will make the following request in the form of a motion. Uh request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation. Amount requested $23,500 to be appropriated from fund balance
reserve for open space $23,500 to be appropriated to dog park design $23,500. The amount requested will be used for the following purpose. The funding would be used to complete a construction bid ready uh design of the East Hampton Dog
Park. >> Second. >> So, I have a motion and a second to uh approve the following appropriation of 23,500 uh uh for uh from uh fund balance reserve for open space to uh dog park
design for 23,500. Um all those in favor? I >> I >> uh all those opposed abstensions. Motion passes. Great. Um I will take a motion
to close the public hearing. >> Second. >> So I have a motion in a second. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor? I >> Any abstensions or all those oppos? Any opposed? Abstensions. Uh great. Motion passes.
Uh so moving on uh to committee report outs. Uh chair B club, do we do you have any communications? >> Um I do not have any communications. So
you already did that. Yeah. Thought we already did that. Uh uh chair Pete. >> Uh sure. Yeah. Thank you, Madam President. Um so uh finance uh met last week sort of on our normal cadence to discuss the item that we just voted on.
Uh we will be meeting uh as usual uh next week. Uh we're not going to have um actually could be kind of a short meeting. Uh but we do have a quarterly phys uh uh fiscal report from the city
auditor to go over. So, we got some revenue reports. Um, and uh we might potentially be able to talk about the rescending of borrowing. Um, so that'll be uh 5:30 uh on conference room 1 uh a
week from today. Uh and that concludes. >> Great. Chair. >> Oh, Vice President. >> Um if I may, I have a question for Chair Peak. >> Yep. Um, Chair Peak, at our last council meeting, you mentioned that you were going to have or you disclosed, rather, you're going to have a private meeting with the mayor about um an item on the
agenda, specifically MGL 329. >> Yes. >> I was just wondering if you had that meeting and if you could disclose what the contents of that meeting were. >> The meeting has not happened yet. >> Okay. Thank you. Sorry. >> Great. >> Do we need to extend? >> And that's my next uh question. So, you have a public hearing set for next
council meeting. Do you want to extend that public hearing? Hm. >> Uh, no. I think we'll have it done by then. >> But you have a public hearing scheduled for next meeting. >> Yes. >> So, I see. So, you want to keep that public hearing set?
>> U, that was my intention. Do you think we should extend it? >> Well, >> I'm open to extending it. >> Yeah. I think the So, regardless of your conversation with the mayor, just to be clear, you're going you're going to have set the public hearing. So, that is going to be
an item on the agenda. >> Yes. Okay, great. Just want to make sure that was clear. Yeah. >> Um, >> can I also ask a point of information or clarification? I'm just noting that uh for a couple of these items there is a
2426 kind of deadline and I was wondering what the process was for >> sending or borrowing off needs an extension. >> Yes. So, uh, I'll take a motion to extend that. So, would you like to make a motion? Uh some of
>> second >> uh would you like to extend that for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days? >> Um I'll do it for 90 days just to be safe. I think it should be any day now that it comes in, but it's not really something we can control. Great. >> So I'd uh request a 90-day extension in
the form of a motion. We already made the motion. I >> Okay. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second to extend uh rescending of borrowing authorization for city space restoration at Honeywell uh construction project for 90 days. All those in
any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I I uh any opposed? Motion passes. >> The action request. >> Oh, would you do you think we do I think I should I mean
>> it says three. Oh, 32. >> Oh, indeed. Yes. Um, >> okay. Yeah, I think that's good then. >> Yeah, we can do that next meeting, right? >> I suppose we can. >> So, so that concludes >> Yeah. Okay. I couldn't hear what
councelor Kazinski said. Sorry. Uh, public safety chair Newton. >> Okay. So, we actually met yesterday. Um, our next meeting will be on March 3rd. Um yesterday we had our quarterly report
from Chief Alexander. Um and he talked to us about a couple of things that I want to share. Um so he he's very much aware of the visibility issue on Cottage Street and he's planning to have
um officers watching crosswalks and and being around as much as possible. Um he also we talked about the storm and how um after the storm ends 12 a 12 hours after
the storm ends um sidewalks need to be shoveled uh and he recognizes that that has not been totally happening uh in the past couple of weeks and there have been different complaints and he said that Um, if you
notice a sidewalk is not shuffled, the best best thing to do is call the non-emergency line um to report it and then an officer will go out as soon as possible to speak to the owner um and if
needed, they'll give a $50 fine and then there's a second and third offense um before the town gets involved in actually doing the plowing. So, the best thing to do is to report it to the police station immediately. Um, rather
than using outlets like Facebook where the police don't really get to monitor that as closely as if they had something coming into their non-emergency line. Um, then the other big thing that we talked about in this quarterly review
was ICE. Um, and so I just want to read exactly what was discussed. Um, the East Hampton Police Department does not work with ICE. Um, it's never notified by ICE if they are coming to town. Um, and they do
not assist ICE in any of their operations. Um, if ICE called them and asked them to hold an individual at the police station, they would not do that. they are not able to do that by law. Um
so they can't do that. Um and there is a duty to intervene. So if there were a situation when where ICE became violent, an officer was using excessive force, um East Hampton Police would be able to
intervene in that situation. Um, and we also have m mutual aid agreements with other cities and towns and of course the state police. So if there were a larger issue concerning ICE in our town, um,
the police department is prepared to get support from other communities to handle the issue. >> So um, I think that concludes. Thank you, Chair Newton. Uh, appointments. Um, Chair Mar or not
Chair, uh, Councelor Marque. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, appointments met on January 27th. Um, hold on, I'm pulling up something right now.
And, um, we have we are continuing to discuss the draft appointments manual. Um we have some a few questions around that particularly with um website updates who's handling vacancy review
etc. Um we also are planning hopefully at our next meeting which will be held February 17th at 5:00 p.m. right in this room back here. Um hopefully Marlene M I want to say her name correctly but I
might not. Um, Michanski's appointment candidacy, we she wants to attend, so hopefully we can meet with her. Um, and unless councelor Jadzik has anything to add, this concludes. Okay, >> great. Thank you, Councelor Marquee.
Um, ordinance, >> uh, Chair Jam RCU. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, so ordinance committee has not met since the last city council meeting. Um, we're still working to finalize the STR ordinance language for committee approval and recommendation of full
counsel at the next meeting hopefully. Um, so I'm working with uh the planning director, our Beldum commissioner, and our fire chief to get that buttoned up. Um, our next meeting is currently scheduled for Thursday, February 19th at 6 p.m. in conference room B. Uh, and
thus concludes. >> Uh, quick question. Um, back in December, there was a public hearing set for February 18th. Um, would you like to extend that into March? >> Uh, for the short-term rental
>> for short-term rentals. Sorry. >> Um, yes. Yes. I >> I didn't see that on here. Sorry. >> Yep. No, that was uh So, would you like to extend that in set another date in March? >> Uh, yes. I guess the second meeting in
March. >> Okay. So, um, >> the 18th. It's the 18th. >> The 18th. It's the 18th. So, would you like to make a motion? >> Uh, yes. Uh, I will move to, um, extend the public hearing on the general
ordinance amendments regarding short-term rentals until uh, March 18th. >> Second. >> Um, just one second. So, we also have a public hearing set for the short-term
rental zoning ordinance as well. So, would you like to make a make a motion for both of those? >> Yes. Okay. Um, >> can I modify my original motion? >> Sure. Just grab that on there. >> All right. So, I will um move to extend the public hearing on the general
ordinance amendments regarding short-term rentals as well as the zoning ordinance amendments regarding short-term rentals um until March 18th in at 6:15 p.m. in these chambers. >> Second is great. Also, so I have a motion and a second to
extend the uh public hearing for the general ordinance amendments regarding short-term rental as well as the short-term uh uh rental zoning ordinance amendments, definitions, and tables uh to March 18th. Um any further
discussion? Uh all those in favor? >> I oppose abstensions. Uh, great. Motion passes. And I think that's the concludes. Um, property chairwisinski.
>> The property committee will be meeting uh tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. uh to discuss the townhouse ton lodging house uh the referral for disposition along with possible terms that we we as
a council would uh hope to agree with. the mayor. So that there could be a disposition if that how we proceed. >> This concludes. >> Great. Um, great. And, uh, rules and government
relations. Chair Kazinski. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh, we do expect to be meeting uh either next week or the following week with rules. Uh, we'll be getting together to make those arrangements. >> Great. Thank you, Chair Bizooki. uh old business uh city council president
appointments. Um so just to uh update uh everybody, Carl Sailor has been sworn in and has participated in the uh and is participating in the rent study committee uh with the term expiration of 1231 uh 2028. Um as city council
president uh regarding that particular appointment, I do not need to have uh city council approval. So he has been uh appointed. So uh I'll take a motion to uh remove uh the item of car Carl Sailor uh being appointed to the rent study
committee term expiration 1231 2028 uh to be removed from the agenda. >> Some moved. Second. >> Second. >> So I have a a motion and a second to remove Carl Sailor uh um from the appointments process. Um
any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I I Any opposed? Abstensions? Great. Motion passes. Um, second item under old business is the uh appointment of Tamara Smith to the bees committee as a city
council representative term expiration of 1231 2028. Um, that appointment does in fact have to be uh approved by city council um as uh outlined in the uh ordinance. Um, so I will take a motion
to send um the appointment of Tamara Smith to the bees committee as city council rep term expiration 123128 to the appointments committee. >> Second. >> So I have a motion and a second to send uh councelor Smith's appointment to the
to the peace committee to the um appointments uh committee. Any further discussion? Uh all those in favor? I oppose abstensions. Uh motion passes. Great. Uh
and I will new business. I will turn that over to vice president Jadzac. >> Thank you, Council President Denim. Um in new business, we have a city council action request for ad hoc committees for council president appointments. And I'd like to make a motion to move this
action request to the rules subcommittee. >> Second. So I have a motion and a second to remove the item of ad hoc committee uh committees uh regarding council president appointments. Any further discussion?
Seeing none. Um all those in favor. >> Uh opposed extensions. Uh seeing none. So motion passes. Um that has completed everything on our agenda. So I will take
Uh, I have a >> very efficient. >> Very efficient. I have a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second to adjurnn. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Abstensions? All those in favor? >> I.
Sorry. Uh, motion passes. Thank you. Putting my hand up because I wanted to. And thank you so much everybody. Appreciate all of you participating this evening and we will see you next time.