I now call the meeting of the appointments committee of Garden City Council, Tuesday, August 26th, 2025 to order. Clerk, please do a roll call. Council He present. Council Piscus, present. He present.
All right. Um, open meeting recording. We don't have anyone here. So, um I guess we have to worry about that reading of um minutes of prior meetings. Mr. Chair. Yes. I motion that we wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented. Second.
Um a motion made by councelor Kazinsquez to wave the reading of the minutes. Um seconded by councel Heglin. Um all those right. All those in favor say I. I. Those say no.
Um, let me see. Interview of the following appointees. Item 115 51, a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Russell Counts to the position of police officer. Um, report
from the mayor. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Officer Counts has completed his probationary period with the Garner Police Department. All the reports that I've received from the chief and the deputy chief have been uh very positive in his work here with the city and I've heard nothing but good things about him. I'll let the chief as always uh get more
into um you know officer counts as he deals with him on a day-to-day basis. Um but I am very happy to put forward this appointment and have no complaints and fully recommend this appointment. Awesome. Awesome. Um evening counselors, thank you for the
time. U introduce you to Russ Counts. Um Russ is actually our first hire outside of civil service. Um and that's that's in on the on the department now. Uh we do have currently three more in in the pipeline for training and with another two coming up. Um so just to keep you a
breast of that and um so Russ came to us from Jupiter, Florida. Uh Russ does have family in the area. Um and they were looking to relocate. So, I without getting too too specific, I'd like to Russ to explain, you know, if you'd like
to explain how we got here. Sure. Mr. C, if you'd like to uh introduce yourself. Sure. I'm Russell. I'm from Florida. Uh did 14 years in Jupiter. Um I met my wife in Florida and she's from up here and then she had some family stuff going
on. So, the kids are up here and she lives here and I applied up here and just they luckily hired me. Russ brings a ton of experience from from Florida and really um truthfully just to follow up on this hit the ground running. uh we were from a hiring
standpoint and for uh the quality of you know candidate and the person that Russ is we were very fortunate um because he sought us out um you know to to help you know ease the transition with the family and everything else and it's been a great transition and it's been a great
uh hire for us and and I I can't be more pleased with Russ. It's been nice. It's been a nice easy transition for such a tough decision. And uh I'll add that candidates like Russ is exactly why we wanted to get out of civil service when we could find
someone who was already trained, had the background ready to go and ready to just hit the ground running uh rather than go through the process that we had traditionally seen before with the civil service uh process that was a lot more lengthy, a lot more um time cost of money expensive when it came to trying to uh find only new recruits to train
from the ground up. Uh, and this is really something that where we were really lucky to get him here and he's done a great job and proven that it was a good move for us to take. Uh, so I'm really happy with how he's been and that he's with us on the team. Awesome. Awesome. Councilman, do you have any questions? Sure. Uh, thank you. We're happy to have you
and it's great to meet you. Uh, I'm curious. I hadn't I hadn't had any questions really originally on the gardener. So, we covered that. But any significant differences that have stood out to you, you know, in your change here or anything good, bad or otherwise that you think we should know as counselors or I'm going to get comfortable.
Yeah. Yeah. Uh there's a lot of differences. Yeah. Uh policing in general is different up here. Um just the way, you know, the way things are run up here different. But it's not just here. It's the northern part of law enforcement. Um it's a lot
less busy. But I I mean that means just they're doing a great job of keeping the city clean, I guess, because it's it's a big change in call volume. Like we were we were slammed down there, but up here it's it's the same kind of police work.
It's just different players and it's it's a little slower. Little change different change of pace, but it's it's been nice. And they've been they've been great. Like the transition has been from the minute I walked into the doors like at my first interview, it was I don't know. It's like home.
Thank you. That's great. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Awesome. Uh, council consensus, any questions? Welcome to meet you. Appreciate it. For joining us in gardener. Uh, how long have you been up here from Florida? Came up here in May. Oh, so that was quick. So, we should
probably interview him again in January. See how the winter's going. I've been coming up here. So, my my wife and kids were up here for She's like I said, she's from here and they were up here for like two years without me. So I was coming up here every month cuz our schedule was four on four off. So I
would come up here my days off. Oh, this is much flat for you. But yeah, it's 5 minutes from the police department. So it's nice. That's great. Um and you said 14 years as a police officer or just a law enforcement in a different area. Uh 14 years as uh did almost 14 in
Jupiter. So great. Um I you know everything else is covered for me. So thank you. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. So, um it kind of stole my thunder a little bit. Um you asked how what the
differences there are. She also asked um how the winter was going to be cuz I was going to ask you if you know how to throw a snowball. Um I can throw some snowballs. My kids my kids are good at it. So, we'll we'll I did fall in the driveway one time and I was like, uh I don't know about this, but we'll be all right. We'll figure it out.
Yeah. Um, listen, I'm I'm happy that you're, you know, for one, I'm happy to meet you. I heard a lot about you before I even got to meet you. Um, I talked to a lot of police officers. You know, I I I hit comeies first thing in the morning and I happen to run into a lot of the officers and I'm like, "Hey, you know, um, I'm trying
to, you know, I have an appointment coming up with, uh, Mr. Council." Like, "Oh, he's awesome." Every one of them eyes light up. He's awesome and everything. I'm like, "Ah." So, I'm happy that your energy matches their energy because they were just as excited as you are to be here. They were excited
to have you here. So, that's um that's definitely awesome. And um you know, I just want to say thank you. Absolutely. Um I want to give a little message to the uh to the chief over here. I'm hearing uh was it 46.6%
less crime is the number that I that I see. So with that being said, if it's less than what you already deal with in Jupiter, this is probably like a quarter of it. So um so this is big change, but it's it's nice though. You know, it's nice to not be humping calls every
day. Yeah. Well, hey, welcome. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Item 11617, a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of
Mario Guay Guay Guay um to position of board of registars um report. Uh thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Guay was unable to be here this evening. Uh he was first appointed to the board of registar voters as a Republican member
of the committee back in 2013. uh under the general laws of the commonwealth, the board of registar voters has to have as close to an equal makeup of the major political parties in the commonwealth as possible. Uh with three members being appointed by the mayor and then the city clerk acting as the exeicial voting
fourth member of the committee. Uh ties of the board and in a um a no vote as it uh results under the general guidance there, but it has to be four. That way it is as close to equal as possible. Uh Mr. Guay acts as the one of the two Republican members of the committee with the other member being Patricia Darby
and the Democratic member being Marcel Cormier. Uh with the city clerk Tier Fan acting again as the fourth um voting member of the board of registars. U Mr. Guay has served again for several years on this position uh and I've been impressed with his work. The city clerk
has said that she's enjoyed working with him as well in this role through the election process for both the state, local and federal elections. Uh and I'm happy to put his reappoint forward. He's a gardener resident. You have to be a gardener resident unless you're a city clerk to be on this board. Awesome. Uh any questions, council, consensus?
I have no questions. I appreciate the info ahead of time. We've had this for some time and I um well aware of Mr.'s work. So I have no questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Council He likewise. No question. Appreciate the report. Uh his letter
also expressed a strong desire and hope to continue on. All that experience I think is worthwhile. So, I look forward to supporting this. I I do expect him to be in the city for quite some time. His son Andrew, who um left Garden High School, went to uh Military Academy at West Point,
graduated, served down in Washington, DC, just um ended his term in the army, moved back up here with his two kids and his wife as well, too. So, I think he's got a strong family ties here in Gardner. So, he'll be here for quite some time. Uh 12 years he's been doing it. Yes. 12 years. Yeah. Awesome.
Any more questions? All right. Thank you. No. um res uh resignations. Thank you uh very much, Mr. Chairman. A couple to go over. Um Director Hasselman, who's our director of veteran services, uh is his last day is
tomorrow. He did give us two week notice a couple weeks ago. Um he is going to serve as the veteran service director for the city of Lemonster. Um that with being for a higher paying uh position. Uh we have already made an offer that's been accepted to Mr. Christopher Davis, who's the current veteran service
director for the town of Lancaster. Um, the Lancaster position is a part-time position. Uh, and Mr. Davis is actually no stranger to us because since Lancaster is a part-time position, he was getting his masters at Fitchburg State at the same time. And through his master's education at Fitchburg State,
he entered into a fellowship program with the VA uh that paid for him to do an internship in a local VSO office. So, Director Hasselman was his internship supervisor and he was actually working afternoons in our veteran service department. Uh so he's already familiar with the clients, already familiar with the operations of the office in the district. Uh so he will have his
temporary 60-day appointment beginning on September 8th. Uh and will uh go on from there. Uh assistant director Lauren Bimler from the veteran service department also submitted her resignation uh from the department uh citing just a desire for a career
change. uh for her reasoning. Uh we are waiting for director Davis to step into the position so that he can hire his own assistant at that time. Uh just making sure they vibe together. We have already posted the position and have several applicants for that. Again, mainly coming from the smaller towns that have
part-time veteran service agents that are now looking for full-time roles like we have here. Uh so, um we'll let Director Davis be the one to go through those applications and interviews and then eventually hire the assistant director. uh as well. Uh Katie Jablonsky from my office uh has uh gone for a new
career down in Richmond, Virginia. Uh so she had her last day with the city at the end of last month and the position is currently posted. There's uh no interviews or anything that's been done with that so far. We're just collecting resumes at this time. Uh and then in our building department, um Dalen Dominguez
and uh Scott uh Scott the other local inspector. Both of our two local inspectors in the department. So, our building inspectors that are not the building commissioners both did submit their resignations. Uh, Dalen cited a family change uh with a new child on the way looking for a uh full-time career in a different sector
so that he could be home more with his family. And uh Scott was a retired police officer from the town of Harvard who was uh hitting his hour marks that he needed for uh in order not to hit his retirement benchmark because our retirees are only allowed to work 1,200 hours a year uh before there's a deduction in their pension payments from
the previous service. Uh so citing both of those things, they both did submit their resignation to the city as well. Uh we did make an offer that's actually already been uh accepted um by Timothy Scott who had his first day as a local inspector today. He's operating in his
60-day probationary period as we speak and after which he will come before this committee as well as all inspectors in the build building department are subject to council approval. Uh we have also made an offer that we are waiting to see if the candidate accepts it or not for the second local position as well. So, we have filled all of those uh
resignation vacancies except for the executive aid position so far. Uh I will say we also have a new building commissioner who's going to be starting on a 60-day temporary appointment beginning on September 4th. Her name is Melissa McDonald coming through us from the town of Shrewsbury. Uh so she's set
to begin her role uh in the building department as our new building commissioner, our first female building commissioner uh in the city's history uh beginning on September 4th. Uh and then you uh just a couple of other updates. You heard from Chief McAfee that we currently have the three police officers in the police academy.
We also have three firefighters in the fire academy currently that are set to graduate over the course of the fall between now and January. Uh and then we also have a new opening in the department of public works and the foreman position for the municipal grounds position that we also are currently hiring for as well. Uh so those are the vacancies that we're
currently working for and trying to find um new uh people to fill those roles for. Awesome. It's been busy, but Director Morris has had her hands full, but she's really been taking an excellent, excellent job in trying to find people for it. Her
and, uh, Megan Graves, uh, her HR manager, have really done a tremendous job in streamlining the process, but also broadening where we're posting our positions to get more applicants. That's great. That's awesome. Um, any questions? Okay. Thank you.
Awesome. Um, discussion of appointees. 11551, a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Russell Counts to position of police officer. Mr. Chair, yes. I would like to recommend the council that we confirm the mayor's appointment. Second. All right. A motion made by councelor
Kazinskis, seconded by councelor Heglin to recommend the mayor's appointment. All those in favor say I. I. All those post say no. Motion pass. Um I don't know. You guys are outside. Yeah, I didn't want to interrupt if you
want to go. I was like, you're free to come. Next will be the council meeting, but you don't have to here for whatever. Yes, we will see you guys on Tuesday. You can say if you want. It's great to see you guys. We'll see you on Tuesday. Tuesday 7:30.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Item 11617, a measure, a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Mario Guay to to the position of board of registers. Mr. Chair, yes. Move to recommend to the full council the measure be confirmed.
Second. All right. Motion made by councelor Hegeland, seconded by councelor Kazinsquez to recommend the mayor's appointment. All those in favor say I. I. All those oppos say no. Motion passes.
Item 11626, a measure confirming the confirming the police officers assignments to polling locations. Mr. Um, I would well actually maybe we should have the mayor talk first. Sorry,
I was a little Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, councilors. uh under the votes act and the police reform bill that were both uh recently adopted by the state legislature and signed by uh governor Baker for both of those actually um the general laws of the commonwealth require
an additional check in balance on election operations here in the commonwealth in terms of the police officers that are signed as security details for our various polling locations for each election. Um this is for state, local and federal elections uh throughout the course of a calendar year uh for uh the police officers. The
police officers are the ones who escort uh you know maintain uh security within the polling locations themselves throughout the day, but then also escort the ballot boxes themselves after the ballots have been counted through to the locked vault here at city hall uh to verify that they are securely kept throughout the course of the day. Uh
previous prior to these two laws being enacted, it was solely mayoral assignment uh to confirm the chief's appointments. Uh but in order to add a layer of public accountability and transparency and additional um check and balance again uh to the process that's there, this is now subject to city
council approval. Uh so what the order you see before you is assigning all of the police officers to the various polling locations for both the preliminary election to take place on September 16th and the general election to take place on November 4th for the 2025 calendar year.
Um any questions? I'll make a motion to recommend confirmation of the police officer assignments. Second. All right. Um motion made by councelor Kazinskis to make a motion
I'm sorry to recommend to recommend confirming of the full city council, seconded by councel Hegland. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those oppos say no. Motion passes.
11627, a measure confirming the mayor's appointment of election officers for 2025 2026. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um this is something that existed before the votes act and the police reform bill that we just talked about. But again it adds an
additional layer of transparency to the process that's there. The pole workers and that's our inspectors, wardens and clerks uh in the three levels of the positions of the election workers um are set for this is the uh for the uh both the September 16th primary or
preliminary and the November 4th general election. Um any discussion? Um, yes. I was also just um because these are election officers, I don't know if the clerk had anything else to add to about it because it does have to
do with elections. Um, there's about 95 of them that have had to get these letters out and they they've been with me year after year. I'm very happy that they committed to helping my office and staying with the elections and
I look forward to their reappoints and hope they stay with me forever. Thank you. I feel like nothing's for me. That was a great great point. Thanks. All right, we got a motion. I will move to recommend to the full council the measure be confirmed.
Second. All right. Um a motion made by councel Hegland that the uh measure be confirmed by the full city council, seconded by councelor Konzinskus. All those in favor say I.
I. All those post say no. Motion pass. Um I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. We are wait.
Oh, just a motion made by councelor Hwood. Right. To right. Yeah. All right. Y um second by council cuz that's what I
I favor. All those in favor say I. I. All those oppos say no. All right. Now we are. Thank you.