being time i now call the Monday April 7th 2025 Gardener City Council meeting to order the clerk will now please call the role council Brooks present councelor Permier present councilor Dyl present council Hardurn present council Heath present council Hegeland present
council Kazinskus present council Mack Council Tibbo Munoz present Council Tony present and President Tyrus present please rise for the opening prayer and pledge of allegiance almighty God we thank thee for bringing
us together this evening inspire us to worthy deeds and sound decisions direct us toward the attainment of good city government we pray that you bless and protect all the people of our city and so guide and inspire us that we may liberate unity and harmony amen
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 announcement of open meeting recordings any person may make a video or audio
recording of an open session of a meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium subject to reasonable requirements of the chair as to the number placement and operation of equipment used so as to not interfere with the conduct of the meeting any person intending to make such recording shall notify the chair forth with all
documents exhibits used or referenced at the meeting must be submitted in duplicate to the chair as become part of the meeting minutes is anyone tonight recording the meeting besides staff no response readings of minutes of prior meetings February 3rd 2025 regular meeting
councelor Kazinskus mr president I make a motion that we accept we uh wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented second motion made by councelor Kazinskus second by councelor Tone to wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented is there
discussion all those in favor i i all those opposed no motion passes we have no public hearings there are no communications from the mayor there are no petitions applications communications etc report of standing
committees be there no objection at this time i would like to take item 11501 and 11508 out of order appointments committee item 11501 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Nicholas Summer Hayes to the position of
conservation commission member for a term expiring February 13 2028 councelor Heglin thank you Mr president uh I move to confirm the measure and the appointment second motion made by councel Heglin second by councelor Heath to confirm the mayor's appointment is
there discussion council Hegman thank you Mr president and through to the council we met last week on these appointees um Mr summer Hayes is currently serving a temporary appointment on the Conservation Commission thus far he's had a very good experience i think he's learned a lot um
and I think what was great that night was sort of the theme of having a few people actually reach out to the mayor directly about wanting to get more involved in the city uh and Mr summer Hayes was one of those uh residents um he brings great experience I think from the Army National Guard he's over uh
seen some drills at the Wusa Reservoir which is a highly regulated area um similarly he has experience working under government contracts and I think he'll be a great addition to the committee we were all unanimously in favor and I look forward to supporting this any further
discussion all those in favor i i all those opposed no motion passes item 11508 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Emma Chen to the position of board of health member for the term expiring to February 27th 2028 council
Hegel thank you again i uh move to confirm the measure second motion made by councelor Hegelin second by councelor Heath to confirm the measure is there discussion council Hegel thank you uh similarly we met on this item and appointee last week um Miss Chaitton
also had reached out to the mayor to express uh her interest in getting involved it was also I think worth noting of some of the four three of them are are recent residents to Gardener so we have some good committed people who are looking to get more involved in the city they're calling home um she does
bring I think a good new perspective to the board of health and I think it complements the rest of the group nicely uh she's previously worked at Hwood Healthcare um now she works for MGH Bighgam as the practice manager of the cancer center there um and she has a really I think strong knowledge of where
policies meet delivery and accessibility for the public so again she brings I think a great perspective she's uniquely qualified we were unanimously in favor and I look forward to supporting this appointment thank you any further discussion Council Brooks uh thank you
Mr president i am going to support this i just want to point out that this is would be a fourth member of the board of health which concerns me because it leaves an even number on the board i did talk with the mayor who indicated he was looking for a fifth member i think it's important that we have odd numbers on
these boards and commissions so there isn't an issue with tie votes and things like that so thank you thank you Councelor Brooks is there further discussion councelor Heath um thank you um President Tyros uh going off what you said right there he's right there is a
even number however any votes if it's a you know if it's a even vote it's considered a no vote until we find a fifth member thank you thank you Council Keith is there further discussion all those in favor i i all those opposed
no motion passes at this time I'd like to take a brief recess for the clerk to swear in the new appointees i state in me I Nicholas Summer Hayes do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and impartially that I will faithfully and impartially perform
the duties of conservation commission member perform the duties of conservation commission member according to the law and the best my abilities according to the law and the best of my abilities [Applause]
going to have you raise your right hand repeat after me i state your name i am a do solemnly swear domly swear that I will faithfully and impartially that I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of board of health member perform the duties of board of health members according to the the best of my
abilities the best congratulations [Applause] We'll now resume our agenda schedule with the safety committee item 11466 a request from councelor Karen
Hardurn to have an informal meeting with the Monachus Regional Transit Authority MART to discuss rider and pedestrian safety and route route utilization and ridership councelor Craig Cormier uh thank you Mr president uh we discussed this item at the last meeting and uh we
unanimously recommended to approve uh bringing this to the full council uh at this time I'll defer to councelor Hardin to present her uh request council Harden yes President Tyrus um we've seen recently two serious accidents involving MAR buses and pedestrians one in
Gardener resulting in serious injury obviously this is a concern but I am also concerned about the performance of the MAR system in Gardner in general i have witnessed unsafe driving and have attempted to report this to Mart first as a private citizen and then as a
counselor any I did I felt not taken seriously furthermore it has been a growing irritation for me for years the number of times I see buses in the city that are completely empty or maybe with one or two people i don't think I've
ever seen a bus even half full this is a concern because people in the city especially those I represent in Ward 4 could benefit from better service and access to public transportation i hear these concerns from many of my constituents all the time it is also
important to consider that right now because of increased funding from the state that the MAR bus is free to ride at least by my observation this hasn't seemed to improve wrership at all they literally cannot give their services away in a community that really needs
public transportation i hope this is looked into and we can have a productive conversation with MART about ways to improve service in the city and be more responsive thank you cor make a motion to uh schedule an informal meeting with Mark to discuss
the items listed second motion made by councelor Craig Cormier second by councelor Harder to schedule an informal meeting is there discussion all those in favor i I all those opposed no motion passes
item 11478 application for motor vehicle license class 2 MTM auto 207 East Broadway council Cormier thank you Mr president uh this application was actually filed last year and uh was unfortunately lost in the shuffle um we
did get it back and discuss it at this last meeting this license is in good this applicant was in good standing uh and we were unanimously in favor recommending the license uh in the meantime uh we will as a committee this year make sure to look through the
application process to uh make it more efficient as we can to make sure that we don't lose any other applications or have any uh applicants feel that the city is not uh working in their best interest on this process u but that said uh the committee was unanimously in
favor and I move to approve the application motion made by councelor Cormier second by councelor Hardurn to grant license for motor vehicle license deal dealers's license class 2 MTM auto 207 East Broadway is there discussion all those in favor i all
those opposed no motion passes finance committee item 11515 a resolution of disapproval and opposition to the proposed building department fee increases at this time I would like to call on councelor
Kazinskus to the chair so that I may participate in debate in accordance with rule two of the city council item number 11515 a resolution of disapproval ando and opposition to the proposed building department fee increases is there a motion councelor
General Owitz i make a motion to adopt the resolution second motion made by councelor general seconded by councelor Heath to adopt the resolution is there discussion on the motion councelor Generals thank you Madam President um the finance committee did meet on this item this evening
council President Tyrros did present on it i'm going to um hand the floor over to him um to recap the discussions as much of it was his um and the mayor's comments thank you thank you Councelor it's President Tyrus thank you Councelor Kazinskus as a matter of transparency I'd like to uh reiterate what I said to
the finance committee earlier this evening it'd be fair to ask why I felt it was necessary to propose this resolution and I understand some people may think it premature however I think this is a serious issue this proposal put forward and sent to the council by the building commissioner is potentially
damaged to the image of gardener and as a matter of public record I feel we need to quickly and decisively reject this before there is any inkling that we are giving it any consideration building costs are already expensive peritting fees are already expensive and navigating city
bureaucracy can already be burdensome this proposal would substantially increase those costs and give nothing additional to our residents or businesses in return so again I realize this is not the typical way we may do this but I typ but I certainly have no intention of
supporting fee increases maybe there's an appetite for that i guess we'll find out soon in 2022 we raised fees for the first time in 14 years i thought then given that the amount of time had passed it made sense to do so and at that time
we discussed conducting a review every 5 years which puts this proposal at least two years ahead of schedule i'm deeply concerned about the proposed the proposed proposal requesting a substantial pay increase submitted shortly after the fee increase proposal
these two proposals which are included in our packet seem to be paired together as just a few hours after the fee increase proposal the building commissioner put forward a follow-up proposal to substantially increase his own salary i do not want any of our constituents to think not even for one
second that we would consider raising fees to pay for salary increases of that department head such a scenario presents a clear conflict of interest establishing a link between fees and fines collected by government entity and the salary of those imposing
them is undeniably a bad policy this has been demonstrated time and time again frankly I'm disappointed that this concept was put into words let alone presented on city letterhead the other reason we should deal with this issue now concerns the credibility of the council when we last took up this issue
the mayor and the council at the time said it is best practice to review every 5 years which again puts this proposal 2 to 3 years early there's a lot of fees increase fee increases listed here far too many to take the time to list tonight but as examples this proposal
includes a 50% increase to the minimum building permit fee a 28.5% increase to the fee by square footage for new single family and two family permits it nearly doubles the fee for signs and triples the fees for fences just to name a
few not just being talked about but written down submitted to the clerk and made public record how do we think our constituents will feel about this happening when we say we have to increase fees we say we won't consider it another five years as a matter of best practice and then the time energy
effort and resources are spent on this for no good reason my hope is that we will preemptively reject this the mayor earlier at the finance committee meeting said that he would not support an increase so we can send a clear message to the residents and businesses of Gardner that we will not allow them to
be squeezed to boost salaries thank you thank you President Tyos further discussion counc thank you Madam President um so uh I'm sort of leaning toward a no vote on this and I think the
reason for for me is that there the building department has unionized right and there's been a significant increase in salaries across uh across the department um and I I first personally when I saw it I was thinking that this
was proactive of the building commissioner to say you know because we're going to have to right as a council and as a city have to come up with the increase um the increases right um for the department um to to support the increases in salaries um so
um from my understanding I met with the building commissioner on on Friday uh it's it and and it sounds like you've done a little bit more digging but when he when I when I spoke to him he was saying it would be amount to in some cases only a $5 increase up you know up
to 25 $25 increase permit um when you think about like the amount of funds it takes to let's say redo your kitchen you know what is a $25 increase right i mean so you know personally I think that you know we're going to have to come up with
the funding anyway this doesn't really generate a whole lot of funds if we increase these but it does increase um it does create some revenue for that so thank you council further discussion councelor Heath thank you madam i'm
sorry Council um what was it yes it's not proterm today right it's not proterm i apologize um so I'm in favor and um I'll explain why i don't think increases is what's best for the constituents of Gardener with the rise of costs and
needs that we can't control such as electricity food and many more um items I can't think of right now i think we should control what we can control so you know I don't necessarily you know agree with increased costs for the
constituents um I pay attention to the stock market um globally we are potentially entering to what's called a bare market and you gave me a point of order at any time if you want um so we're entering what's considered a bare market and for those that may not know
that's when there's a 20% drop from the highest point of the um market and um or the highest peak I'm sorry that happens when businesses and investors lose confidence
in the current direction of econ econom policies which leads to recession conversations um with that being said again I'm in favor and I think that this is an item that should be brought back up like we said in 2022 and 2027 um
times are tough so I don't believe making it tougher for constituents is the right move thank you thank you counselor further discussion councelor Harder yes um why do we want to increase fees where there are so many people out
there already hurting just trying to get by there will be no better services for the people by raising these prices do we just want or do we need more money for what raises this is not a good reason in my eyes so I will be supporting the resolution brought forward by um
President Tyrus thank you thank you councelor further discussion councelor Cormier uh yes I will support this resolution uh as councelor Tyrros so eloquently stated uh to put both of these together um is a little too um
closely linked um we have time to deal with these increases i support the that the building department has unionized and these salary increases are something we have to deal with uh I don't know that we need to knee-jerk um though I do appreciate what councelor Tbo said that
it was proactive of them to try and come up with solution to the issue um I will support this resolution at this time thank you thank you councelor further discussion councelor Brooks thank you madam president acting president um I guess my question is why
are we being asked to take this action in December 2024 the city settled a new contract with Teamsters Local 170 covering non-EP department head inspectors in the city's building and health departments shortly thereafter to cover the increased costs the building
commissioner proposed an increase in building permit fees that proposal was addressed to the mayor and as of today the mayor has not chosen to forward that request to city council i believe the mayor has the
prerogative to propose a change or to propose no changes i feel that we are putting the cart before the horse in acting on a matter that isn't ready for city council consideration furthermore as the mayor works on
balancing the FY26 budget he may find that an increase in building permit fees will help close the gap without impacting city staff and services and so in my opinion we should not foreclose that option at this time
um I will not be supporting this resolution thank you thank you councelor C uh President Tyrus thank you Council Kazinskas sorry for the confusion um I I'd like to address a few points and it may take me a moment so I apologize but
uh to to work off that analogy um the cart before the horse I don't believe we have a horse in this scenario i believe we have a cart that's just rolling down the hill and it's our job to jump in front of it and stop it on this one um I I saw and was raised to my attention
that you know the clerk was addressed in this fee proposal so it did come to the council uh to answer that question and as as a matter of discussing the proposal itself it's a bad proposal for our constituents um you know I hope my fellow counselors will join me in voting
in favor of the resolution i just want to be clear because it can be confusing a yes vote to support this res resolution is a vote to oppose fee increases a no vote to this resolution is an opposition of it and would be a vote in support of fee increases and I
also want to be clear that I intend to lead this council through a thorough fair and publicly debated consideration of the broader issue of non-union salaries that must be addressed with a complete proposal that's put forward however this sort of scheme I think we just need to reject outright
and some of the other points that were raised uh specific to the building commissioner salary uh the building commissioner would already earn more than his subordinates uh would and when you would factor in his analysis of there being a cola a cost of living
adjustment to these direct reports I don't believe this analysis uh took into effect himself receiving a cola so it was kind of disproportionately elevating his subordinates and this really comes down to equity as well because we have a
situation where um this fee proposal I believe there is a link to the department head salary increase where there's a request of 20% for the salary uh of the building commissioner and when you think about all of our other department heads what sort of message that was sent across the city I don't
think this council can afford to nor should it consider any scheme of this nature thank you thank you thank you President Tyros further discussion councelor Tunos just to put out I when we're this this
um what you proposed uh council Tyros or President Tyrros um is related to fee increases not necessarily related to the proposed increase in the commissioner's salary right this is what we're talking about is that through i mean I I'm sorry
sorry question to council Tyros president Tyrus thank you Council Kazinskus uh it is my opinion that these proposals are connected they were sent just a mere few hours between each other on the same day and this resolution uh to be clear would be the council making a stance that we will not support fee
increases of the building department and I think a subsequent consequence of that would also be stating our disapproval of raising fees to pay for salaries salary increases to be clear thank you thank you councelor
question counselor further discussion councelor Hegler thank you very much um I really appreciate everyone's comments tonight having been at the finance committee meeting earlier this evening where we talked about this when I think about this procedurally I do believe that I I agree with President Tyrros a
request was made to our clerk it's in the packet as well that this be on the finance committee agenda um and so I think through his prerogative you know the council president decided to address it in this manner um as is his option and so I I think it was worth not
ignoring right the score request was made it was out there it's a matter of public record and so I think it was right to address it um I don't think we as a council should necessarily feel hesitant or afraid to put our express opinions out there however it might work
out tonight or on any matter that we take up um the budget is right around the corner that's probably a more appropriate time to address things like this um and so when I think of this resolution it's really against the current proposed idea from the building department not even necessarily future
actions that might come up uh and the mayor was there this evening at our finance committee meeting and he spoke favorably of the resolution uh and he had no issue with it going through tonight as well so thank you that's it thank you Councelor Hagglin further discussion councelor Dalowitz uh thank
you Madam President um obviously also at the finance committee meeting tonight do want to although it's been said already that the mayor did not approve of this that's is why we didn't receive it however the clerk did receive it um I did mention during the finance committee
meeting that it's the five-year is um best practices of reviewing these 2027 was mentioned by councelor Heath is best practice to review it again it doesn't mean we can't review it again earlier that doesn't mean the mayor himself can not come up with his own proposal in next week if he so wishes um and
proposed if it's something he approves of however this was with us um and action um I believe needs to be taken to let um let even the entire city know and build department heads know if you submit something like this and it's with
the city council we may take action on it proactively um whether the mayor proposes it or not um I will be in support of the resolution um and I thank uh President Tyrus for his work thank you thank you councelor further discussion councelor Brooks uh thank you
uh I just want to comment on one one thing that was said that um a yes vote is in opposition to fee increases and a no vote would be supporting fee increases and I disagree with the second part of that statement because I don't
when I'm voting no I'm not saying that I'm in favor of increases i'm voting no because I don't think this is the appropriate way that this issue should be handled that u it could have been done in a different way and I also feel it's
important to leave some uh room some wiggle room out there uh as we go through the budget process so that if they if the mayor finds that he needs to do something he has the ability to do it so my no vote is not saying I'm in favor
of increases it's just saying I think the option should be left out there at this point in time thank you thank you councelor further discussion president just for the final time uh madame uh Kazinskus u almost did it
um ask councelor Kazinskus um I I just want to be clear too because it's important right when you read the resolution that that was drafted and submitted uh it is the council saying that we will oppose fee building apartment fee increases that uh people are are working hard enough right now
fighting hard enough every day to pay for things simple things that we shouldn't add any burden to them and I just want to be clear that this does not prevent as councelor Dalawit said the mayor next week submitting a proposal there's no action preventing the mayor from doing anything in this resolution it is simply a statement by the council
saying that we do not support this proposed fee increase thank you thank you President Tyrros further discussion councelor D allowance i'm going to continue to call you Madam President just to start off with um with the wiggle room um for the mayor if department heads want to leave that
wiggle room do not send it to an employee of the city council um it was at the clerk's office um therefore the council president had it um discuss it with the mayor and uh leave leave uh the clerk's office out it was with us um and again um I think appropriate action was
taken thank you thank you counselor further discussion if there's no objection I'm going to enter a roll call vote thank you and to be clear the a yes vote on the resolution of disapproval in
opposition to the proposed building department fee increases would support the resolution of disapproval in opposition a no vote would not support a resolution of disapproval and opposition the clerk will please call Is
there any further discussion the clerk will please call the role council Brooks no councelor Craig Cormier yes council Dowitz yes council Hardurn yes council Heath yes council Heglland yes
council Kazinskus yes council Tibbo Munoz no council Tong yes president Tyros yes that is eight yes and two no
the resolution passes thank you Councelor Kazinskas appointments committee item 11474 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Lori Rita to the position of zoning board member for a term expiring January 22nd
2028 councelor Heath thank you President Tyros um the committee met with uh Miss Weider we voted unanimously to recommend therefore I moved that appointment to be certified second motion made by councelor Heath second by councelor Hegeland to confirm the mayor's
appointment is there discussion council Heath thank you President Tyrros uh Miss Weda is I'm sorry Weda is currently completing her first year as a member of the city zoning board of appeals she originally appointed was appointed when
the ordinance was changed uh from three members to five members um the purpose of this reappointment is to keep a consistent staggering of terms of the zoning board's membership with that being said the mayor submitted a
reappoint for Miss Weda early uh Perta City Law Department an appointment renewed before its expiration date restarts the appointees time in the position to the date of the newest appointment rather than expiring in 2027
Miss Wita would have an expiration date of 2028 uh Miss Weed also serves on the board of appeals with the town of Templeton alongside uh currently serving on the city of Gardener zoning board she is someone with a wealth of knowledge in land use
policies and laws she has played an integral part of the board's success and that is all thank you counselor is there further discussion all those in favor i i all those opposed no motion passes item
11476 a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Eric Flint to the position of planning board member for a term expiring January 7th 2028 council Heath thank you President Teros um the committee voted unanimously to recommend there for I move the appointment to be
certified motion made by councelor Heath second by councelor Heglin to confirm the mayor's appointment is there discussion councelor Heath again the committee met with Mr flint to discuss his interest in becoming a planning board member mr flint is a resident of Gardener and is willing to bring a wealth of knowledge to the city of
Gardner with years of experience as he's currently the conservation planner for the city of Worcester previously conservation agent of the city of uh Marshfield and he also worked in the private sector in Denmark um I'll use a full quote from the mayor his resume
shows he's the full package and overqualified uh he's calling gardener his home uh for him and his family and he wants to see gardener succeed uh currently the planning board is down two members following two resinations and if
appointed the board would meet the uh quorum requirements that is all thank you thank you councelor is there further discussion all those in favor I all those opposed no motion passes the council already
addressed item 11501 and 11508 this evening there is no unfinished business in matters for reconsideration there's no new business councelor comments and remarks council Heath uh thank you President Tyros um it's April which is
um autism month autism awareness month as I'm wearing a nice tie I just got it in um so I just got a little thing I want to read uh celebrating autism awareness month now often referred to as autism acceptance month is a crucial for fostering understanding promoting
acceptance and advocating for the rights and needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorder ultimately leading to a more inclusive and supportive society that is all happy autism is there further counselor comments or
remarks councelor Kazinskus thank you President Tyros uh earlier this year uh President Tyrros has um under the uh new city council rules uh has assigned me as the council liaison for constituent
services and community outreach and so with that um part of that goal was to um make some significant changes to the city council website we do have a web page on the city of Gardner website and so I just want to give a couple of
updates on that um I have met with our director of technology Bob O'Keeffe and we've gone through the uh city council web page um some of the updates that have been made uh are to our staff
directory on each of our individual pages uh very easy to find our contact information and also the standing committee pages and information um and there's also we're starting with changes and updates and then we're going to go to additions and so um I hope to make
this more user friendly for the public um a good resource for the council to be able to refer constituents to we get a lot of um questions that are kind of frequently asked questions and so it' be nice to have a place to go to direct them to that information uh Director
O'Keeffe has been incredibly helpful incredibly efficient uh in making these changes and also giving great suggestions on the fastest way to do this with the most efficiency uh and also if anyone is interested in looking
at it I just please be aware there are some ongoing changes so it's not all completely updated yet but if you just go to gardener-m.gov/city councsil you will reach our page and um so there'll be more news on that to come but so far there's been some good updates and then
just a second update the economic and community development committee did meet last week um we kept um some items in committee as we asked for a little bit more information from the department uh as at our last city council meeting there were uh two items that had been
referred from the finance committee had already met to the economic and community development committee regarding a new position in the department with the combining of positions and we'd asked for a little more information wanted to give some time for them to get it to us before it comes back to the city council and
director Stevens was on top of doing that and so again I would always encourage people to watch our meetings and I do mean that for all singing committees is with the council rule changes uh I think anyone paying attention would notice that our our agendas look a little bit different as
well uh there are many items that remain in committee and before they come to the council so they've been fully vetted um and so we won't have referrals typically um but I would definitely encourage people to just you know check out our meetings um and then our next EchoDev meeting we will have an update our
monthly update from uh the department um and then just on the Mackie Park um the Mackie Park project uh we did get a an update that they are they are still working on it in terms of getting there's some funding that needs to come
forward to be able to um to correct the errors that were made in the park but it is moving forward and they are inquiring about it um and so that basically is the is kind of the summation of it um but again we I just wanted to give a quick update since we didn't have anything
come here today um but also remind the public to certainly look at the city of uh the city of Gardner's YouTube page and check out any council commissions or committee meetings um but particularly with the council now our standing committees meet more often more regularly just by the way that uh the
structure of the council has um meetings have been made um due to the rule changes and there's a lot that is done in standing committee and it is time um and effort that we spend as city councilors on behalf of the people that we represent doing good work in those meetings so I just wanted to um to make a shout out to check out those meetings
so thank you thank you councelor Kaz is there further discuss council comments and remarks there being none I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn after closing prayer so second motion made by councelor Tony second by councelor Keith to adjurnn is uh all those in favor I i all those
opposed no motion passes almighty Father who sees over all as we thank thee for the opportunity of joint deliberation and action during the course of this meeting bless Lord all who are gathered here and the people's representatives we are and do thou
attend to our common welfare until our next meeting amen thank you