Now call to order the Monday, May 4th, 2026 meeting of the Gardener City Council. The clerk will now please call the role. >> Councelor Brooks, >> present. >> Councelor Craig Cormier. >> Council General Lawitz, >> present. >> Councelor Harder, >> present. >> Councelor Heath, >> present. >> Councelor Heg, >> present. >> Councelor Kazinskus,
>> present. Council Math, >> present. Council Chis >> present. >> Council Tibo Muse >> present. >> And President Tyrus >> present. Those who wish me now rise. We open prayer and pledge of allegiance. >> Almighty God, we thank thee for bringing us together this evening. Inspire us to
deeds and sound decisions and direct us towards the attainment of good city government. We pray thee to bless and protect all the people of our city and to so guide and inspire us that we may liberate in 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 and exhibits used or referenced at the meeting must be
submitted in duplicate to the city clerk as they become part of the meeting minutes. Is anyone recording tonight's meeting? No response. We'll begin with the reading and approval of the March 2nd, 2026 regular meeting. Councelor Mack. >> Um I move that we wave the reading of
the minutes and accept them as presented. >> Second. >> Motion made by councelor Mac. Second by councelor Kazinskus to wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented. Is there discussion? All those in favor? I. >> I. All those against? No. Motion passes.
There are no public hearings. There are no communications from the mayor. Petitions, applications, communications. Item 11825, notice of city clerk resignation and appointment of special search committee for the city clerk. Council Kazinskus.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to make a motion to place this item on file. >> Second. >> Motion made by councelor Kazinskus, second by councelor Hegman to place this communication on file. Is there discussion? Councelor Kazinskus. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh the council president uh reached out to councelor
Mack and I um to schedule our first meeting and I'd like to thank the council president for his diligence on um moving the search forward. The clerk role is incredibly important to the city council and city operations and um knowing that we're going to have a
vacancy, it's important that we move forward in an efficient and timely manner. Um so I just want to thank you for getting that moving. >> Thank you councelor. Further discussion. All those in favor? I >> against no. Motion passes.
>> Reports of standing committees. Appointments committee. Item 11644. A measure confirming the mayor's appointment of Pip Burns to the position of board of assessors member for a term expiring August 21st, 2028. Councelor Heath.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh the committee met with Miss Burns and uh the mayor's assistant, Mr. Egan from the mayor's office to discuss the appointment. Uh the committee voted unanimously to recommend. Therefore, I move the appointment to be confirmed.
>> Motion made by councelor Heath, second by councelor Hegund to confirm the mayor's appointment. Is there discussion? Councelor Heath. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'm pleased to recommend uh Pilot Burns for reappointment to a three-year stipen term on the board of assessors. For over
a decade, Plet has overseen our city's property valuations and adamants with exceptional fairness as long sorry as a long life resident and former local business owner. She brings a deep understanding of our community that is
an essential for this role. Her ability to balance the requirements of general law and practical knowledge of garners ensures the evaluations are handled reasonably and properly. >> Thank you counselor. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor I. I.
>> All those against no. Motion passes. >> Item 11819. A communication from the mayor regarding ordinance requirements for length of terms for appointments. Councelor Hegman. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Move the communication be placed on file. Second >> motion made by councelor Heglin, second
by councelor Heath to place this communication on file. Is there discussion? Councelor Heglin. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Review of to the council. This is just the letter that we've been anticipating from the mayor stating and writing the change in opinion and understanding of the ordinance language, not capping him or
requiring three years from appointment, but allowing him to go from one to three years from appointment. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. Any further discussion? >> Motion's placed on file. All those in favor I. I. All against no motion passes.
Welfare committee item 11794 a communication from the mayor regarding the January, February, and March 2026 report of the Gardener Community Youth Center. Council Brooks. >> Uh thank you, Mr. President. Leading up to a motion, uh, welfare committee met
on April 17 and received an update from Brandon Huie on activities at the Gardener Community Youth Center operating at the Elm Street School. He reported that the number of unique visitors has been increasing each month from 35 in January to 55 in March,
demonstrating a growing interest in the program. In January, they added an assistant director, so have been able to add programs as the months have passed. Mr. U also thanked Representative Jonathan Slotnik for obtaining additional state funding which will help
in the coming year. With that, I move that item number 1194, a communication from the mayor regarding the January, February, and March 2026 report of the Garden of Community Youth Center be placed on file. >> Second motion to place the item on file
by councelor Brooks, second by councelor Tibo Munos. Is there discussion? Councelor Mack. Um I was happy to see the hiring of the assistant director. Uh Miss uh Fchelle is a former student of mine. She's a very very talented uh young lady, very artistic and I think
she's a tremendous asset to the staff. Thank you. >> Thank you counselor. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor? I. >> All those against? No. Motion passes. Finance Committee item 1180 Lifeline Services Update.
>> Councelor Hegman. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh move to accept the report and place it on file. >> Second. >> Motion made by councelor Heglin, second by councelor Durawitz to accept the report and place it on file. Is there discussion? Councelor Heg. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Through to the
council again. Uh this is just from our last finance committee meeting. We had received a report from the mayor and the senior center director regarding the status of lifeline services. I do want to thank director Ellis uh for the very detailed report and the time he took to meet with the finance committee. As you recall when this partnership was first
being explored and entered into. We had a lot of discussion around the logistics of it, the financial implications and establishing the revolving fund. This update was to hear directly from director Ellis on how things were going. the full updates in our packet, but some of the highlights do include uh that one
staffer, their director of communications assistant, who's part-time, dedicates about seven hours per week to lifeline coordination in addition to the director himself, particularly new subscriber installations and assists with troubleshooting issues. Since April 1st of 2025, there's been 14 new
subscribers. Of the 69 subscriber counts as of April 22nd, 2026, 16 are from Gardener. Uh monthly expenses to the city for the service are about $1,400. Uh whereas revenue is about $2,500. Though at the moment there's a bit of a
a backlog there on on money coming in. So there's a slight um amount in the red right now. They are projecting that by June they should have a surplus of around $6,000 at the end of the fiscal year. And the director does anticipate asking the council to increase the revolving fund cap. I think the need to
continue monitoring this in terms of staff time and bandwidth though it hasn't seemed to taken up too much yet. Um as well as the expenses is important. It doesn't seem again to occupy a lot of time and the account um you know at the moment is in the red but is projected to be in the black. So I think it's
something just to monitor for the foreseeable future. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor for the discussion. >> Councelor Kazinskus. >> Thank you Mr. President. Uh I would like to say thank you to the finance committee. I do appreciate you all staying on top of this. Uh the report that was submitted, I agree with councelor Hagrin was very well done and
I do appreciate the work that went into that. Um with that said, the concerns that I had raised last year when this came up are all still very much present for me. Um and because of that, I do believe that's important that we continue to keep a close and careful eye on this program moving forward. The
financial projections also don't appear to be exactly where we were initially told they would be, and that's not necessarily a problem in itself, but it does reinforce the need for some type of ongoing oversight. I also remain concerned about the potential impact on city staff,
specifically whether this could stretch resources too thin, as well as the indirect cost of potential liability issues for the city. This is especially important given that only about 20% of the people served by this program are gardener residents. And I just want to
be clear that I do recognize that lifeline is an important service and I I expressed that last year as well. Um however I do think it's a fair and very necessary question whether it's the best fit for the city to run it. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor. Any further
discussion? Motion to place on file and accept the report. All in favor? I. I all those against. No. Motion passes. Item 11804 FY2027 city council budget proposal by
the council president. Council journal outs. >> Thank you Mr. President. Um as you stated you submitted this budget to the finance committee to go over and review. Finance committee has met on it. Um and finance committee was in support of sending u this budget u to the full
council for their review and approval. Uh that being said, I therefore move to submit the city council's budget to the mayor. >> Second. >> Motion made by councelor journal allowance. Second by councelor hegland to submit the budget proposal to the mayor. Is there discussion? Council journal.
>> Uh leading to a motion. Uh finance committee did discuss during our meetings about technology and that being part of our budget. Um, I have passed out a amended copy of this budget uh adding an additional line for technology
at uh 2,000 um $2,000. Um I think this should be part of a budget being able to have a rolling replacement of devices um and the council um planning for that themselves. Um, as we are submitting this to the, um, mayor, um, this isn't a
final approval of that line item, uh, but something that can be part of discussions, um, when we take up all the budgets again and it gets back to us. Um, but I think that forecasting planning for that um, and staying up to date on technology is important. Therefore, I do move to amend u, the the
budget um, that we're submitting to the mayor um, with the addition of that technology line item. >> Second. Motion to amend made by councelor Durn allowance. Second by councelor Heglin to amend the proposal and add a technology
line item to the budget. In accordance with rule eight of our council rules, I'll call a brief recess now for the counselors to review the amendment proposal. back in session. Uh motion made by councelor journal allowance. Second by councelor hegland to amend the proposal to add a technology line item. Is there
discussion on the amendment? >> All those in favor I. >> All those against? No. >> Passes. So as amended item 11804. All those in favor I >> I. >> All those against no. Motion passes.
Economic and community development committee. Item 11772. An ordinance to amend the code of the city of gardener chapter 675 thereof entitled zoning to remove article 9 thereof entitled signs and advertising devices and move it to a new non-zoning
chapter to be numbered chapter 665. Councelor Kazinskus. >> Thank you Mr. President. I move to send the item to second and final printing. >> Second. >> Motion made by councelor Kazinskus. Second by councelor Heath to send this item to its second and final printing.
Is there discussion? This will be a roll call vote. The clerk will now please call the role. >> Council Brooks, >> yes. Council Lowitz, >> yes. Council Hardon, >> yes. >> Council Heath, >> yes. >> Council Heglin, >> yes. >> Council Kazinskus, >> yes. >> Councelor Mack, >> yes. >> Council Tony, >> yes.
>> Council T Munos, >> yes. >> And President Tyrus, >> yes. >> 10 years. >> 10. The motion passes. Unfinished business and matters for reconsideration. Item 11782, donation acceptance order, gardener community action team. Councelor Heglin.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. Move the donation be accepted as amended in our packet. >> Second. >> Motion made by councelor Hegeland, second by councelor Durn allowance to accept the donation as amended. Is there discussion? Councelor Hegman. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Three to the council. Uh I do want to thank the mayor
and his team. I know we've been waiting on some of this information for a while now. Uh but they've finally gotten us more details on the donations. Before they were just um turnovers were how they were listed on the mun report. We now have some more details on where they came from. I think you know departments
should probably anticipate I think our need for receipts and those good details. I think just for transparency sake it's really great to have that information. Uh and then you may have noticed the order language was changed uh by the mayor to reflect donations being received by the board of health as opposed to GCAT. I think I, you know,
just want to take a moment or two to thank him for hearing at least my concerns on that and for the need for, you know, consistency in language and titles. So, thank you again, Mr. Mayor. Um, these are far more accurate now. I'm certainly satisfied and will support this. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. Further
discussion. >> All those in favor? I. >> All those against, no. Motion passes. Item 11808. Second letter from Teamsters Union Local 170 regarding union negotiations between
the Teamsters department heads and the city. Council Kazinskus. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, leading up to a motion, I spoke with Mayor Nicholson regarding my comments and requests from our previous meeting on this item. Uh, he would like to speak at
tonight's meeting and I would like request to have him do so. Um, but with that, I move to remove the item from the calendar. >> Second. Motion made by councelor Kazinskus, second by councelor Dur allowance to remove this item from the calendar. Is there discussion?
Mayor Nicholson would like to speak. >> Thank you very much, Mr. President. councilors. Uh this is something I want to state very clearly and unequivocally and I uh believe in the past actions that we've had when dealing with the various different departments and dealing with our city's government document, the city charter, uh that the
three departments that the city charter specifically enumerates as those uh departments, the city clerk, the city auditor, and the city treasur collector uh fall under the purview of the city council. uh and that the checks and balances set forth in our charter mimic
the cornerstone of our American democracy as a whole in that there's always a check particularly a financial check on the office of the executive uh and something that really does remain firm here uh in gardener through the work that we've done too. I've we've seen examples of this particularly when
we recently reviewed the city charter document itself when it went to the ballot. We've seen examples of this when we uh work to construct the new uh ordinance uh regarding non-un compensation particularly for those uh individuals who work for those three departments and having those be
initiated by the members of the city council through the leadership of the council president as the direct supervisor for those offices. Uh and that's the my strong opinion and the opinion of my administration as well. Uh that's something that uh it really is a reason why it's listed that way uh in
the charter and it wouldn't be there for any other reason other than to make sure that there's that strong check and balance and that oversight by the city council uh to make sure that we uh do things the right way here too. That's my personal opin opinion uh and I'm happy to share any further uh information on that with the counselors and any
questions may arise in the future. >> Thank you Mayor Nexon. >> If there's no objections I also have an update that I can give on this item as Oh, any objections? As was voted last month, the council voted to send a letter to the Department of Labor Relations uh requesting some
clarification around the specifics of this scenar scenario. Um I spent about an hour on the phone with an attorney from DLR last week. I had a great conversation. Uh the attorney brought me through the many technicalities of the process that's being taken right now. Uh
actions that were taken by the city's legal team and actions that weren't taken by the city's legal team. At the end of the hour, it left me with some more concerns than I went into the conversation with and it's something that I believe might warrant a conversation with our city's legal team and if appropriate in executive session
to do so. Uh so I wanted to make sure it was an open u item for us to get called back from DLR and that did take place. I did speak with them and I did have some learnings that I'll be speaking with the solicitor about and if appropriate we will meet on the topic again.
Is there any further discussion on this item? The motion is to uh >> remove it from our calendar. >> All those in favor? I. >> All those against? No. >> Motion passes. There's no new business. Councelor
comments and remarks. Are there any councilor comments and remarks this evening? Councelor Tibo. Just wanted to uh give a a thank you to uh the more than a dozen private, public and um nonforprofit organizations and
hundreds of volunteers who participated in keeping gardener clean up last week. Um especially uh Diane Mwin who has been holding it down and coordinating uh efforts for uh
many years now. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. Any further discussion? Councelor Mac. >> Um to piggyback on council Tamuna's part of keeping the city looking nice is the beautifification efforts we do in downtown Garden with the flower program.
Um we will be putting out signs and it's already on the city hall Facebook page uh to um get more volunteers. It's a four three to four hour commitment. It's all done in one day and uh we desperately would like to have more volunteers this year. So, please um
check out the website and there'll be uh sandwich boards around town and the planting day will be May 29th. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. Any further comments? Council Brooks. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'm just thinking that there's a lot going on in the world today. We've got wars in Iran,
Gaza, Ukraine, dysfunctional Congress, gas prices, uh sports. We could talk about the Bruins, the Celtics, and the Red Sox. uh personally the construction on Elm Street that seems to be all happening at the end of my driveway.
And all these thoughts were going through my head a week ago Saturday while picking up beer cans and bottles, Duncan coffee cups and nips on about a hundred yards on West Street next to the transfer station. I kept thinking, why do people from
Templeton have to throw their trash out their car windows? As a kid, I remembered the public service campaign against litter. Litterbug, litterbug, shame on you. My crabby old man syndrome was kicking in.
So, as I drove away from the cleanup day at the transfer station, I began to think about why I was there. Not the why answer of my picking up litter, but the why answer of someone in this community who thought the litter should be picked up. and so organized
the event. They did it to make this community better. Couple of days later, I saw a story in the Gardener news about the efforts to bring back the baseball diamond at Stone Field for Babe Ruth play. I remember the
years of care that Steve Zold gave to that field and I started to feel good about my community. Tonight we shared in the kickoff for the Relay for Life another locally organized event that is
successful because of the hard work of the organizers and the participants. Here in this room are people spearheading things like the downtown flower pot program, assisting with overdose awareness in August, and
helping youth sports programs in the city. The more I thought about all this volunteer work, all the people who step forward to fill a need, the more my crabby old man syndrome melted away.
In many communities, members are only too willing to step back, take it easy, and to complain. We here in Gardner are all extremely fortunate to live in a community like this one where members are willing to
step forward to do some work and to give back. That spirit of giving back, of looking out for each other is what makes this community so special. Uh thank you to everyone who has taken the time to do just that. I applaud your work and I'm
proud to live in Gardener. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. Further councelor comments and remarks. I would just like to end this evening with a brief thanks and appreciation to our city clerk. Uh as we had earlier in our meeting, we have her till July 2nd,
so a few more meetings yet. Uh but I think it's important for the public to know just how important this role is. It's uh long hours helping residents during the day and then she comes here at at night to meet with us to to conduct our business and all of our subcommittee meetings, all of the elections and the census work that the
office does. It really is a kind of a central artery of our city hall and I think everybody who's worked with T appreciates the hard work that she does and and we wish you the best in your future. Thank you. >> With that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So >> second motion to adjurnn made by
councelor Sony, second by council Heath. All those in favor I >> I. >> All those against no. Motion passes. >> Almighty father who sees over all as we adjourn. We thank thee for the opportunity of joint deliberation witness during the course of this
meeting. Bless all who are gathered here and the people whose represent we are and do thou attend to our welfare until our next meeting. Amen. Stand.