This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. All right. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the East Hampton City Council meeting for Wednesday, May 21st. The meeting tonight is being recorded and broadcast by Emedia on Charter Channel 193 and live streaming
on the web page eastamptonia.org. or counselors and participants in this meeting are gathering 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're participating in public speak time or the public hearing. Thank you. This meeting is now called to order. Mary Peg Coniff, Connie Denim here. Salem Derby present. Felicia Jazzic here. JP Quisinski here. Tom Pete here.
Brad Riley here. Tamara Smith here. JT Terrell here. Okay. And uh join us for the pledge of allegiance or take a moment of silence. 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. I will work minutes this time. And uh it doesn't appear that we have any uh minutes. Um, so that would bring us right to public uh speak time. So if you have anything you would like to address
the council that uh is not a part of our public hearings tonight, uh please address the council, state your name and address for the record and you will have 3 minutes. Good evening. I am Kathy Wisinski from Overlook Drive. I had two things that I
wanted to to um bring up. First, I wanted to thank their council for the position on the lithium battery project. that was a great success um and really important for our community. I would ask that you also consider supporting the proposed legislation stopping any
further sighting across the state until they can um get a better grip on the safety and the efficacy of these battery storage units. There's a number of small towns in central Mass that are currently being pushed to site them there. one
very close to the quabin. Um, not necessarily going to directly impact us, but if it there was a fire in that one, it would directly impact the drinking water and the quabin environment, which would be a huge environmental disaster. So, there is proposed legislation before
our state. Um, we've asked our, um, state senator and state representative to support it. Um, and it would prevent any further sighting until additional work can be done on the safety issues. So that's thank you for your your um
position on that. Um I would also ask that we consider as a city going to hybrid for all boards and committee meetings. There's a number of committee meetings that only are in person. Um and then there are some that are just hybrid. Um and the planning board often
will do just hybrid meetings. I think it's important for people to be able to participate in person if that's what they want to do. But also, there are a number of people in our community that aren't able to participate in person and I think having all meetings for boards and committees and city meetings be um
hybrid would be a wonderful um step forward for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else for public speak time? Good evening, counselors. Dan Ritz, 26 Line Street, precinct 5. I'm here for two reasons. To speak to you. First
about my hope that you will appoint Chad Alexander as police chief. As retired city councelor with a great deal of experience with our police department, both personally and professionally, I'm asking you to confirm Chad Alexander as our next
police chief unanimously. First, I must compliment the mayor on a very transparent and independent search process which takes away the notion that Chad's appointment was somehow ordained from the beginning. In fact, Chad had to go through rigorous interview process up
against other very qualified applicants. In spite of this, Chad Alexander rose to the top of the group as the most qualified and is more than ready to serve. Unlike an outside new chief, Chad has East Hampton roots that can lead on
day one. He knows his city. He knows his responsibilities to East Hampton, and he is ready to adjust policies to the new realities of policing in the modern era. His emphasis on community policing, on conflict resolution and deescalation,
and on continued diversity of the ranks will be welcomed by our residents. Please appoint Chad Alexander. The city and its and its residents won't be disappointed. Secondly, I'm here to speak to you about the
budget. I am here to express my satisfaction with the mayor's budget as presented to you. Is it perfect? No budget is. As longtime finance committee chair, I think I have the credibility to analyze it as a necess as necessary to
the financial stability of our city. As the political heat is turned up, we suddenly, but not surprisingly, have those that want to be bone it as not responsible because it uses reserves to balance expenses. This has been done in the past. And as I also questioned it at
that time as non-structural revenue, the mayor has been able to replenish reserves every year with free cash. Without use of reserves, we would have layoffs especially in the schools with health especially in the schools with health
costs extremely high this year and increased education special ed costs. The mayor was still able to maintain level services and no one is losing their jobs. We have free cash because of conservative revenue estimates and conservative spending by departments
which returns funds. I feel the mayor's budget is a necessary one and although it may be that future budgets will need more fiscal constraint, it gives the city hope for the coming year. You don't lose staff, you don't lose teachers, you don't have
protesters, and you do have the school committee support. and you don't have to ask for an override, which we haven't done for since 2008, and that failed miserably. Please pass it without any cuts, as that would lead to the layoffs that the mayor has always avoided. Thank
you. Thank you. Right on the nick of time. Uh, anybody else? No. Hi, my name is Jean Pow Wilson. I'm on Main Street and I just wanted to also uh as somebody had said before, I wanted to
uh just recommend that you have meetings that all the city meetings be hybrid. Sometimes if you just have meetings that are only virtual, then that seems to exclude people who do not have access to a link or who do not have a phone or who do not have internet access. And if
we're trying to encourage participation for people to uh be involved, then that would be the way one of the ways to do it. On the other hand, some meetings are in person only. And so then that makes it difficult for people to participate. If there's some somewhere else, they may
be able to participate if it were remote. So again, I just wanted to propose that all meetings be hybrid. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, seeing none, I will uh close
public speak and I will use my privilege as uh president to rearrange the order of our agenda and I am going to bring us to appointments. I feel like we have some people here that might be waiting for an appointment. Uh so I would like to do that before we go into our public
hearings. So councelor Smith, take it away. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. We actually have three appointees that I would like to discuss and move forward to the full council this evening. Um the first one is Samantha Mater for the board of health with a term expiration
of 123127. Um Samantha Mater had come up before as an applicant and we had gone through the process of approving her and then she had to withdraw from the process. So she was able to um rejoin.
So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time recounting her credentials. The next one, would you like me to move them forward all at the same time? Um, I think maybe the um the two that are um you can do individually.
Okay. Yeah. Um and the next the next appointee is Maddie Palmer for the assistant city clerk with a term expiration of April 1st, 2028. Um, just as a little background, Maddie double majored in history and political science
at the University of North Alabama and then she came up north in um right around the pandemic time to study parallegal studies. Got a parallegal studies certificate um from Boston University in 2022. So, she's been
working with Maryanne um in this past month and this is the formal approval to have her approved by the city council. And with these two nominations, I would like to make a motion to move the names
to the full council for consideration. Second. Okay. So, we have a motion to approve um the two affformentioned people. Um and uh any further discussion? All those in favor? I. Any abstensions or against? Okay. Motion
passes. Okay. Takes us to our big one. Okay. Our third appointment. Our third appointment is Chad Alexander for the position of chief of police. Um to give you a little background, Chad Alexander is a lifelong East Hampton resident. Um
and he has served for 22 years on the police force after having been hired at the age of 18. So really has spent his entire adulthood um with our police force. And he's also embedded within our community.
He has two children who um go to school at Mountain View School. When we were interviewing Mr. Alexander for this position, we asked a lot of difficult questions that are on the record to review. Um but some of the things that I
really want to highlight is that Mr. Alexander spoke a lot about community outreach and being a presence within the community. Um he has already been a part of organizing many community events such as coffee with a cop um lids for kids,
the military uh banner program, and then a barbecue with the cop. So, um, he had spoken to future plans such as having more walking patrols throughout the downtown area and we had a fruitful
discussion during our meeting and I wanted to offer a chance for my colleague Brad Riley who was also at the appointments committee. Um, did I miss anything that we better make sure we say? Um, yeah. I guess I would just say,
you know, um we peppered Mr. Alexander with a lot of questions concerning issues that are very important to the community of East Hampton. Um you know, we did a thorough
review of um federal and state um court cases related to immigration and what the role is of police officers in East Hampton. um he fully understands what the legal framework is for policing um as it
relates to immigration. I felt that he answered all of the questions in a way that was more than sufficient. Um, he also talked about, you know, some, you know, I'll just say what
I I approached the topic of what happened with the fire department um, 2 years ago where there were some issues of sexual misconduct that were happening and that the police department and the fire department immediately acted. They
listened to the women that worked in the workforce and they dealt with the situation in the way that you would expect um our leaders to do. Um he was obviously there when all of that work was ongoing. Um he reaffirmed that that would be a similar stance under his
leadership. And I mean just you know all the questions about community policing, how to engage with youth, um you know even making um you know data-driven decisions um in tandem with the city council on
how to to best formulate policies. So I we gave everything that we could possibly give in this process and he handled every question exactly as I would have liked him to answer them. Um, you know, I know that, uh, Mr. Alexander
has, um, you know, prepared remarks that he'd like to deliver to the full council. Um, and, you know, please, if you do have questions, ask them. But I I can't think of somebody who is more qualified and prepared to be our chief of police than he is. Thank you. And I
think this might be an appropriate time if you'd like to come up and address the council. Thank you. Well, Councelor Smith and uh Councelor Riley stole my thunder about everything that happened here, but um good evening everyone. My name is Chad Alexander. I'd
like to thank the entire city council for hosting me in your chambers tonight and considering me for the next chief of police for the city of East Hampton. I'd also like to thank Mayor Lashel for selecting me through a very thorough selection process completed by public safety consultants. And a special thanks
to my family, friends, and numerous members of the police department that are here to support me, as well as all the members of the community who voiced their support throughout the entire pro selection process. The appointment committee made up of councelor Smith, Riley, and Jazz uh hosted me this past Monday evening. We spoke about several
important issues within the city of East Hampton, as well as national topics. One very important topic we discussed was the possibility of ICE coming to town on a civil detainer. I want to be clear, the East Hampton Department uh police department has not and we will not work
with ICE with any such request. I also express the importance of equality in policing and assure you all that everyone will be treated equally with dignity regardless of race, background or neighborhood. Further, we discuss things that the department has recently
been doing and plans that I have as I assume leadership of the department. The command staff has already begun working on imp uh implementing a new hiring and promotional process which is aimed at fair and open recruitment and promotional procedures as well as continued diversification within our
department. We also plan on continuing to uh reduce our carbon footprint by adding hybrid and electric vehicles to our fleet, replacing them with the gas vehicles, as well as applying for any grant funding available for personnel and equipment. I further discussed my three most important goals that I hope
to achieve in my first year uh as chief. First, traffic safety along with bicycle and pedestrian safety is of key importance to our community. Growing up on Hendrick Street, a busy street uh with vehicles traveling at high rates of speed with no sidewalks, showed me at a young age the importance of traffic and
pedestrian safety. As our community continues to welcome families with young uh young children as well as numerous visitors to our vibrant community, my goal is for our department to make East Stampton Streets as safe as possible. I plan on having a permanent full-time officer assigned solely to traffic
patrol to field any and all complaints about traffic in a timely and efficient fashion while also providing proactive traffic safety measures. Another important topic for me is community policing, community outreach, and giving back to the community. Throughout my career, I am responsible for starting
East Hampton Police's Coffee with a Cop, Cookout with a Cop, Military Banner program, and several other initiatives. Coffee with a Cop is back to regular meetings with our community with our next event tomorrow morning from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. at the community center. Uh I urge the public to keep an eye on our
social media for any future events as it will be a monthly uh event. Finally, uh, Deputy Chief Scribner will be assuming the role of our accreditation manager as our department begins it its efforts to achieve certification and accreditation through the Massachusetts Police
Accreditation Commission. These are very exciting times, not only for me, but our entire department as we begin the next chapter of the East Hampton Police Department. I thank you all again for hosting me this evening, and I humbly ask for your vote of approval to become the next police
chief of our city. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, and councelor Smith, I think this would be an appropriate time for a motion unless anybody has Before I make a motion, I wanted to give counselor J uh Jazz also an opportunity to talk because the three
of us were the ones at the meeting. Perfect. Thank you. I don't have much else to add beyond what my fellow counselors shared already. I'll just say that as a new counselor in this role, my dealings with um hopefully soon to be Chief Alexander have always been very pleasant uh very prompt and very
responsive and I look forward to continuing to work with you. Thank you. Okay. So, without further ado, I would like to forward uh Chad Alexander for the position of chief of police for the city of East Hampton. Second. Okay, we
have a motion to second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I any against or abstensions? Motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you. Okay. So, now we're going to jump back on track and I would entertain a motion to open the public hearing. So, moved.
Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Okay. Um it looks like Council Peak. Thank you, Mr. President. Um yeah, we have two appropriate we have a supplemental appropriation and an interdep departmental transfer uh to
consider tonight. Uh I'll start with the supplemental appropriation. Um it is uh is uh is is Mr. Nuttleman here? Uh uh let me see. I see a hand. Okay. In the back.
Yeah. Uh well I anyway um it's uh it's an appropriation of $41,916 from capital stabilization uh and it would go towards uh funding a shortfall uh between the grant funding
amount and the prior appropriation that we voted on a little while back uh for the uh repair work on the the Manhattan Rail Trail. So, um, you know, these things happen sometimes where we we
already did an appropriation, we got the bids in and, um, just it's the tough world out there in municipal construction, so they're going to need a little bit of extra money. Uh, if anyone wants any details on the specifics, I'm sure that Mr. Nuttleman can fill them in, but the that's the gist of it is
that it's if we want the rail trail prepared, we're going to have to spend it. And I think we can all agree that sort of the economic benefits that we get from that rail trail being safe uh to utilize are uh probably a lot bigger
than $41,000. So we voted uh 3 to zero to approve this appropriation. Okay, great. Uh does any councilors have any questions? Council Riley. Uh thank you, Mr. President. So, um, do we know is this the the final amount or is this like a periodic updated amount that we
would be, you know, like will will we come back with more money requests in the future? I believe the answer is no, but I'll if you want to fill that. Yeah. Good evening everyone. Greg Nman, director of public works. Um, for this project, yes, this we will not be back
for looking for any more funding. Okay. Be back for funding for other city projects. This will be it. This 41,000 will cover all munisible construction for the rest for the rest of time. We're so lucky. We got a great deal. Thank you. Any other counselors have any questions for uh
Director Nuttleman or uh does anybody from the public have any questions or comments? Okay, seeing none, I guess we could get a motion on the table. All right, I'll make this request in the form of a motion. Uh request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation.
Amount requested $41,916 uh to be transferred from uh capital stabilization 4 $41,916 to be transferred to Mass Trails grant program revenue $41,916. The amount requested will be
used for the following purpose. Uh this funding will cover a shortfall between the grant funding amount prior appropriation friends of the rail trail donation and the total project construction cost for the manhan rail trail pavement restoration and repair
project. Second. Okay, we have a motion to second. Any further discussion on the item? Okay, seeing none. All those in favor? Any abstension or nos? Motion passes. Thank you, Council Peak. And looks like interdep departmental transfer is next. Great. Um yes. So uh
this interdep departmental transfer is uh uh just a matter of um we as you know we've had some uh instability sort of with at the treasur's position and some turnover there. Um and in the process uh it was
noticed that uh there was um there was some uh uh FY24 credit card charges that had not uh been paid. Uh so since that was a prior fiscal year, it's
not something that can be paid out out of uh that budget. So, um we've been assured that that is not going to be uh a challenge uh going forward, but it um we're it's just uh we're just going to
have to to pay those off, right? Any questions from counselors? Is this one of the ones that where there was like something was bought that was supposed to be taxfree? I think that was part of it. Would you and it wasn't
and we can't pay tax? Yeah, we we sat on the credit card bill. So that might have been uh Good evening, council. It's Mike Owens, uh procurement officer, interim treasurer. Uh I did a uh as the interim treasurer, I'm now the administrator of the uh city's credit card. Uh I found some administrative issues that need to
be tightened up. These include uh timely issuance of the POS, sales tax appearing on our statements which we don't pay uh annual auto pays uh and timely receipts of the payment by
the credit card company uh taken some measures to tighten up all those all those procedures uh and uh to avoid this happening in the future. But this is an inep department dental transfer requires your approval because it's a a prior year expense,
right? And so we we should probably shouldn't expect to see anything like this. I'm I'm hoping this will uh not occur in the future. In fact, the the measures I'm going to I'm going to take to tighten up these administrative procedures uh will hopefully uh avoid this in the future. Great. Appreciate
that. Any other um questions from counselors? Quick question. Council present. Just a quick question. Uh this is from FY24. So it's pretty old. We're pretty much into FY25. It's almost over.
Yes. So So uh kind of an old bill might acrue some interest over time and I know we didn't pay the bill because there was taxes. Was there any thing that happened in terms of that the credit card conceded because we don't pay taxes or was it we're still dealing with that
vendor that put sales tax on that on that particular purchase to have that removed from this this account, our credit card. Uh we're having some difficulty in dealing with that vendor. Uh some of the steps I'm I'm going to take is to ask people when they do get permission to use the credit card to
look very carefully at uh their shopping cart at the end of the purchase. Look at the totals, make sure there's no sales tax on there. Uh I issue uh the ST5, the ST5C, and the city's tax exempt number
to any vendor, any city vendor who requires it. Uh I do this uh probably uh three or four times a month for vendors on request of uh city employees. So that's more of a vendor issue than actual credit card. It's a vendor issue rather than the credit card issue. Yeah.
Are not paying the bill to the credit card company. Well Mhm. I've also found issues with the you know payment not arriving at the PO box uh by the due date because of US mail issues. Yeah. I don't know if you've noticed, but the US mail does not class mail does not arrive
in 4 to 5 days anymore. It's about 7 to 9 days. Uh so, you know, this is all about when a purchase is made within the billing cycle of the of the credit card. Our cycle ends on the 14th of the month. Uh
it's about timely uh payment and processing of the POS. And I had an auto pay come up on the credit card uh two weeks ago. Uh I went directly to the apartment to the department responsible for that and said, "Hey, you guys have
to put this on a calendar reminder because if I miss it uh and you guys don't have it on a calendar reminder, it's not going to get processed in a timely manner." I'm glad to see that. That's my goal is to tighten up those administrative procedures so we don't deal with this in the future. Thank
Thank you, Michael. Councelor Denn. Yeah. Um I just want to reiterate um acting treasurer Owens that um really appreciate you stepping into a difficult situation and filling that
role and um getting on top of some of these things that you weren't aware of and we're kind of figuring out and and addressing them as as quickly as possible. So appreciate you um and all the work that you've done in the last few months to kind of do your job and
take on some of these other pieces. I think that's that's very um uh gracious of you to to help us out with that. It's it's important work. I enjoy it. So y Thank you. Any other um thoughts from counselors? Anybody from the public?
Okay. I I would also say that we know that this was something that was inherited. Um, all right. So, if there's no questions, no comments, uh, I guess we could entertain a motion, right? I'll make Thanks. Have a great night. Thank you. I'll make this request in the form
of a motion. Uh, request is hereby made for approval of the following interdep departmental transfer. Amount requested, $82,22.77 to be transferred from professional services. $822.77 to be transferred to tax refund
interest $822.77. The amount requested will be used for the following purpose. Payment processing for FY24 credit card charges in the amount of $822.77. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any
further discussion? Okay. Uh see none. All those in favor? I. Any against or abstensions? Motion passes. Move to close the public hearings. Second. We have a motion in the second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. Okay. Uh so public hearings are closed. Thank
you everybody. Uh we don't have any items for immediate attention. Uh uh communications from elected boards and commissions. Does anybody have any announcements they'd like to make tonight? Okay. Seeing none, I will move that to uh we don't have any correspondents. Uh president vice president communications. I know
councelor Krinski has announced. I just wanted to be sure everyone was aware and cognizant of the step off time for Memorial Day uh parade here in the in the community on Monday uh at 10:30 a.m. starting at Cottage Street and going
Clark Street to Cottage onto Union around the Rotary in Maine and then uh to the uh park in next to the Emily Williston Library. Uh, two East Hampton residents who gave the ultimate
sacrifice in Vietnam are being honored. Uh, Donald Ashton and George Lean. Uh, I would ask that we all just give a quick moment of silence at this time in
[Music] honor. Thank you everyone. Uh, hope to see you there. Okay. Uh, thank you, Councelor Kisinski. Uh, mayor communications. Madame Mayor,
welcome. I learned to watch the meeting downstairs online, so I knew when to come up. Um, yes. Uh, so I wanted to I I submitted uh a memo to have the city council review sandwich board sign
regulations. David Gardner, our building commissioner, had a complaint and concern about where a sandwich board was placed. He went out and did um the measurement that we now have, which is
standard ADA. It's 36 in, which is very tight. Um, so technically the sandwich board where it was on the sidewalk met our our space requirement but really wasn't sufficient. So um that was the first
reason we're we have concerns around that space requirement. Not only because some of our uh sidewalks are very narrow, they are not flat. So, extra space to get up and down and and um uh
especially on the side streets to get to um Union Street in particular. So, that was one request for the um review. The other is there is a a fee associated to a sandwich board. Um that's $200 and uh David thought that that was
excessive. I agree. Uh especially for small businesses. Uh a lot of times sandwich boards induce engine um one bring notice to the business but also advertise uh sales and what's going on and some of them are just really pretty. Uh so we
would request uh a review on the space requirements um but also the fee and um Commissioner Gardner is out of the office but is happy to attend whatever meeting to talk about what the fees are in other
communities and and talk about with and whatnot at the council's leisure. So, I would just appreciate a a review when I know you guys are really busy and ordinance has a lot going on, but when it can happen. Good. Okay. Thank you.
All right. Um, so it looks like we are down to our uh council communications from standing committees finance uh councelor Peak and if you want you can move your new business uh after your two. Okay, great. Thanks.
Um, let's see. Uh just one thing. Um do we have a print out of those? Do you have that open up there, Marian? The the language for the new business. Uh the police. Yeah, the police. I think
I gave copies. I believe maybe they're in JP's pile. They're kind of thick copies. the police three of them. Thank you. There's three of them. Well, before I get to that, uh we've
been meeting quite a bit uh to discuss the budget. Uh we've heard he heard from all of the departments. Um I'm very grateful to everyone for all the hard work they put into this budget. Um there's uh a few questions just about
sort of the long-term um stability that I think we're going to have to think about hard over this weekend uh because our next our final budget meeting is this coming uh a week from today. Um, and so I would encourage uh anyone who wants to be part of that process or has
any input uh to if you haven't already review uh maybe some of the the the meetings uh that we've had so far uh or get in touch and and ask any questions. Not that you wouldn't be able to propose anything at the full hearing, but it's
often easier if we can talk about these things in committee. So, um yeah. Uh but uh that'll be our um that'll be the last one and then uh I believe we've we've already scheduled a public hearing for uh for the budget for the our next
council meeting so we don't have to do that now. So is that is that when is that meeting? Is it Wednesday your typical Wednesday or typical time? Okay. Uh 5:30. So um yeah um that'll be the last one and um I'm Yeah, great. I think
that's about it. So, and I would also just if um I would just uh appreciate the finance committee for the work that you the questions were thoughtful. I thought um I thought that uh in the budget meetings and I think that one of the important things to just highlight
what you said was that if any of us have any thoughts to make sure we go to that meeting cuz I know the mayor kind of expressed that if there were to be any changes, you know, that that would be have to be something that would be a collaborative process. So, um, you know,
if there was any thoughts on that, I think it would be important to get those out there. Yeah, I generally think that, you know, I mean, it's our it's it's the the mayor's responsibility to come up with a budget and then it's our responsibility to look at it and um, you know, propose any we can't move money,
we can't increase money, but if there's places where we think that things should be decreased, uh, then it's our responsibility to do so. And I think that, you know, the if that's a conversation that people want to have, then I think the earlier that that we have those conversations, the better. But um
uh that being said, uh yeah, I will be meeting uh and uh taking our votes on that matter uh in a week. So, uh, with that said, uh, I have three, uh, new appropriations,
um, which, uh, I'll read as new business, uh, as a first reading. Uh, and I'll set a public hearing for all three of these for our next meeting, which I believe is June 4th. Hey,
Alison, Free has not been certified, so can't have that on the 4th. It hasn't been certified. It was submitted and you have to vote for the budget. So, I will schedule a public hearing. I'll just move these into
uh I'll just move these to finance and then uh we'll address them when we do and we'll have we'll schedule a public hearing once free cash certified which hopefully is quite soon. Um all right. So, this is just I'm just going to do
these all as first reading. Um, I'll do it as a single motion just to save us a little time. Um, so request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation. Amount requested $110,51845 to be transferred from free cash
$110,0005 $110,51845 to be transferred to dispatch equipment $110,51845. The amount requested will be used for the following purpose. to cover a shortfall in the FY25 RECCC development grant budget. Uh we
requested [Music] $466,7.79 for upgrade dis upgraded dispatch radio consoles based on a quote from Goosetown Communications but were only awarded $357,492 leaving the difference of uh
108,51579 uh project costs uh with Evans consults exceeded did the grant award by $2,2.73 due to unforeseen increases in material costs. Um, all right. Second
one. Uh, the police department writes some long narratives. Uh, so okay. Uh request is hereby made for approval of the following appropriation amount requested $144,11.14 uh to be transferred from free cash to
be transferred to police base pay $8,5614 police overtime $75,000 police sick leave $31,675.85 85. Police unused vacation, $10,27325. Police medical expense,
$1,945. Police union expense, $1,556. Police auto expense, $12,600. Police dues, $2,400. The amount requested will be used for the following purposes. uh to
cover the cost of contractual payouts uh for the retirement of Staff Sergeant Brian Ross. uh to cover a shortfall in the FY25 overtime as a result of one officer on maternity leave. Three
officers on paid parental leave, one officer that 10 to 12 weeks of K-9 training, one officer on military deployment for 9 months, two officers with monthly weekend military training. one officer assigned to field training
and minimal special officers available due to police reform bill and post requirements as well as a new hire that may need to attend the police academy. Uh the co to cover the cost of medical exams and uniformed gear for two new
hires. The cost of anticipated auto supply and repair expenses for the remainder of FY25. and the cost uh for the contractual obligation of MPA legal defense fund due dues for eight
supervisors. Okay. Um, one [Music] more request is hereby made for the following the approval of the following appropriation. Amount requested $2,000 to be transferred from free cash to be transferred to animal control
professional services $2,000. The amount requested will be used for the following purpose. to cover a shortfall in the FY25 acco professional services as a result of increased costs to share animal control and animal shelter services with the
city of Westfield. The monthly fee has increased by $1322 effective 111824. There are also additional monthly fees that which can incre uh include boarding and medical fees, uh cost per call services, rabies, testing,
associated shipping costs, kennel inspection fees, etc. Second to all. Okay, we have um three motions and seconds for all of them. Uh do we have any further discussions on moving these to finance? Okay, all those in favor? Any abstensions or nos? Motion passes.
Thank you, Councelor Pete. Does that conclude? That concludes um do a motion to have a public hearing for the budget. I thought we already did that. No. Well, then we should Let's just be safe about it. We kind of think we did. Okay. It
was advertised, but I didn't know. Yeah, let's make sure we do it just to cover our bases. Okay. I move to set a public hearing for the FY26 budget at our next meeting on uh June 4th at 6:15 in these chambers. Second. Okay. We have a motion
and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. Extensions or nos? Motion passes. And now I think we will conclude this. Thanks, Councelor Peak. Uh, public safety. Um, councelor Terrell, we have not met since our last
meeting. Um, so I have nothing to report. Okay. Um, thus concludes. Thank you. Uh, appointments. Councelor Smith. I have no further business. Um, so thus concludes. Okay. Ordinance. Councelor Deon. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mr. President,
um we uh met recently to uh continue to go through the um a review of the I'm sorry, I have a a review of the um zoning ordinance amendments that uh were proposed by the
affordable and fair uh housing uh partnership. So, we went through those um continuing that conversation. um with that as well. Um we haven't met uh regarding the uh short-term rental since
our last meeting for that which um because we've been waiting for uh communication um from the city solicitor, which we now have. Um so we will be having uh a meeting for that. um the other items on
here just because of th those two kind of large items we haven't gotten to and uh still waiting for communication from the um agricultural commission uh on their recommendation. Um we do have two meetings uh that we are have set. Uh the
first one is June 9th at 6 p.m. and we'll be talking about the short-term rental um ordinance. Um and we will be discussing the um recommendations and
edits from the um city solicitor. Um so hope to be able to wrap that up and bring that back to council after that. And then on June 10th at 5:00 p.m. we uh we'll be discussing the zoning ordinance um
amendments. Um both of those meetings will take place in conference room one. Um and uh I hope folks can can can attend that uh if they have concerns or anything like that. Uh I do um need to
extend the ordinance review committee's final report uh for 90 days and that's in the form of a motion. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to extend uh the zoning ordinance amendments uh 90 days with recommendations. Uh any further
discussion? All those in favor? I I any sensors or nos? Okay, motion passes. And that's everything that our committee has to offer the [Music] Okay, that was okay. Uh thank you. Thank you, councelor. Uh property councelor I
guess Pete will take it tonight. I think I uh will be taking it because it turns out I'm the chair of that committee. So it makes sense then. It makes sense that I would take it in the future, too. Uh but we have not met since our last um
meeting so no report. All right. Appreciate that. Chair Pink and rules and government relations. Uh councelor Kazinski. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh regarding the mayor's compensation and that that issue, we did another take at it uh at our last
meeting and have sent that on to the city attorney. Awaiting word on that. I do anticipate that we may have something for the next city council meeting if that agenda isn't too busy. If it is, we can probably delay until the middle of
the month. uh regarding the creation of the nine member rent study committee. We met discussed the uh merits of the subject and decided with a recommendation of 3 to zero to recommend that the this council move
forward uh with the rent study committee. Uh I I think the job of the president will be to have a committee that is well balanced in terms of the interests of the community. I'm I'm thinking of of of the the
business community, the small landlords, the larger landlords, the uh folks who are tenants uh in in the community, a mix of counselors, uh really to in order to have a productive group. If it's weighted too
much to any one side, I think that it won't be as productive and not as much buy in. That I think was the bottom line. Council Jantic, was there anything else to add to the uh No, we we uh we discussed in the proposal there is a
clearly laid out recommendation for how to balance the nine members of the committee and I think it's made clear that there are um enough voices for a wide variety of different interests that would be represented there. So that'll be your task should we pass it. Our
recommendation was to move forward three to zero. Do you have a motion? I move to establish the rent study committee. Second. Okay, we have a motion as proposed to establish uh the creation of a nine member rent study committee as proposed. Any further discussion? All
those in favor? I. Any nos or abstension? Motion passes. And I thank you for putting that on my plate. You're welcome. You're welcome. And uh I don't you you were a co-sponsor. I know. Um, okay. So, we don't have any
uh old business or pending business and we have taken care of new business. So, if that means I could entertain a motion to return second. Okay. We have a motion in a second. All those in favor? I. Thank you everybody. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
Efficient tonight. We are efficient. Three appointments.