WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=0XlLuBGPB1U

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: 0XlLuBGPB1U):
- 00:00:00: Call to Order, Open Meeting Announcement, and Minutes Approval
- 00:01:06: Salt Shed Repayment: Mayor's Explanation and Financial Analysis
- 00:04:26: Salt Shed Discussion: Interest, Free Cash Transfers, and Confidence
- 00:07:50: Salt Shed Further Discussion: Copy Request and Agenda Status
- 00:08:09: Recurring Internet Outages: City Hall and City Departments
- 00:14:51: Internet Outage Discussion: Credit Origin and Administration Review
- 00:15:56: Internet Outage Discussion: Administrative Work Cohesion and Uniformity
- 00:16:31: Internet Outage Further Discussion: Future Review and Outage Causes
- 00:17:35: Internet Outage Further Discussion: Non-Payments and Role Merges
- 00:19:43: City Council Rules Discussion: Proposed Changes and Rationale
- 00:24:13: Council Rules Discussion: Support for Changes and Review Process
- 00:27:30: Health Insurance Payments: Balance Update and Committee Review
- 00:28:43: West Line Street Land: Surplus Declaration and Disposition
- 00:29:48: West Line Street Discussion: Hesitation to Sell Municipal Land
- 00:31:42: West Line Street: Motion for No Action to be Taken
- 00:31:59: Facilities Management: Current State and Future Plans
- 00:34:36: Facilities Discussion: Accepting Change, Costs, and Waterford
- 00:35:55: Gift to Community Action: Amount, Awareness and Review


Part: 1

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All are you ready to go? Yep. Okay. Uh continue this time. I will call the Wednesday January 14th, 2026 meeting of the Garter City Council's finance committee to order. The assistant clerk will please call the role. >> Councelor Dalowitz, >> present. >> Councelor Heglin, >> present. Councelor Mack.

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Thank you. Uh announcement of open meeting recordings. The open meeting recording notice is up on the wall over there. Is anyone here recording other than staff? I hear none. Um, on to the next item is the reading of minutes of prior meetings. We have

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the August 27th, 2025, October 1st, 2025, November 25th, 2025, and December 10th, 2025 meeting minutes. So, I can move to dispense with the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented. Second motion made by Is there

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discussion about the minutes at all? That's good. Um the motion made by councelor Hegeland, second by councelor general allowance to dispense the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented. Is there any further discussion on the item? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Those

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opposed. Motion carries. On to the second uh section of the agenda. First time on the agenda. Item 11752, study and report on the salt shed repayment issue. Um, I know the mayor's provided some additional documentation to us

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here, but I'll let him speak on it now. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I provided you with a copy of the document I gave you at our last meeting that says as of 10:3125, uh, so you could compare the difference between today's document and that document. Uh, at that meeting, um, one

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of the, you know, items that was mentioned was the amount of interest that was in there being taken out because that's not really a deposit that's been made into the account. as we're planning on uh reimbursing the salt shed for the full amount including the interest uh removing that and seeing where we were. So if you look at the second page uh that's here in front of

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you, I took out the interest and just kept the appropriations that were made and the principal uh that was there uh and basically uh worked out what the interest would have been had that $625,000 not been withdrawn. So, we know from uh

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for instance uh the 2024 number that $2.9 million in change is without the 625 in it. We transferred in that $128,000 and we got $92,000 in interest. That equated to a $2.98%

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uh uh interest that was earned on the account that year. So, if you add the 625 into that $2.9 million and then add the transfer into it, um add uh with an interest rate of $2.98% that would be that $111,000 that were there. So, there was a difference that year in interest

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of $18,616. Uh the formulas that I use for each line are listed below where that asterisk is so that that math can be shown there. adding up the total number of interest that was not earned in the account because that uh withdrawal had been made, that's where you get that $22,4542

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number again. And so then if you have the appropriations that were put into the account not including the interest that was earned on those subtracting the amount that the salt shed cost and then the amount of interest that was lost were still $155,000 short of where would it be to fully reimburse the

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stabilization account uh with principal and interest uh potential uh from when we withdrew that $625,000. Uh and just as a note to uh for interest variations uh in the month of December the stabilization account earned uh

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these are trust funds so they are invested funds so the interest is different depending on the uh the month. Uh the interest in 2025 for December alone was $2,187.99. Uh in the month of November uh there was interest and a gain experienced in the

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account. Uh so there was $12,735.90 uh was the total income in the account that year and of that $4,928.76 was interest and $7,87.14 was the gain uh that was in the account. So that equated to that $12,000 bump up.

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Uh in the month of October, there was $3,000 in interest. So it really depends on when we experience a gain in that account and when it's not. And that's normally within the November month uh that we see those come in. further questions. >> Um, well, thank you first and foremost.

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Appreciate the information. I know because we talked a lot about sort of that good faith expectation of we loan that money, it was going to come back. We're going to be made whole. Um, so it's nice to see we're on our way there. Was I know the appropriation was 625. Is

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that actually was it on the dot? Was it less more? >> There's still some close out that has to happen. So, I don't have the final number on the final number. Okay. If we do if you forget that close >> once it's closed out for sure. I I would also say too um Mr. Chairman to add that that while it says 155 I wouldn't hold

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that as a hard number right now just because interest is gained on a monthly basis. So the longer this is drawn out while we add appropriations into it there is also interest that has to be made up interest potential uh that has to be made up into that too. So it will fluctuate. I don't expect it to go too much up from that, but if we earn around

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ballpark three to2 to $3,000 a month in interest, that may be something that fluctuates the the longer this gets drawn out until we fully pay it off. >> Okay. And the transfers that are in here for that are noted for 2024, 2025, 20,

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26 year date, those are the >> free cash >> free the free cash transfers. But are they the what is outlined in the fiscal um policies or is this >> for 25 for 26 we did the 10 because we wanted to wait to see how the fiscal

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year went out because of the financial trends that we were seeing certain places and then at that meeting that that was brought up to the finance committee and later to the city council. mentioned that at the end of the year, we do have that um I guess in our internal notes set aside for to go back and put in the remaining 5% uh over the

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10% that was or 5% in here to go to the remaining amount that was put into the financial policy so that we can come back and do that after. But rather than tying that up at the beginning of the fiscal year, waiting to see how the trends go in case we need it for an additional reserve. >> These aren't above those fiscal policies. These are just these numbers

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that were put in where the >> were the fiscal policies. the fiscal policies and nothing in excess of that other than 2026 which obviously is ongoing. We discussed that as you said prior. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um any further questions or discussion?

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I don't think at this time um do we know I guess I guess one last thing. Do we know what that I know we're 155 short. So was there any estimation prior to this? you know, we're taking out that 600,000 is what we expect that number to

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be. >> Uh, that I'd have to go back and look. I know we did have that in the original projections with the former auditor. I just have to go back and find that >> if possible. Great deal. >> Thank you. >> I think keep this item on our agenda. >> Digest more. >> Digest more. Mayor can come back with

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those two pieces of information that Council He has about >> um on that. Just to add to that, um we whenever we estimate that far out, we estimate uh $1.5 million in free cash and then the policies relate to a certain percentage of free cash. Uh the reason why we estimate 1.5 is we just

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never know where that's onetime funding and it fluctuates yeartoear. Uh we normally average between $2 to $3 million a year in free cash, but that 1.5 is really just to be safe to make sure we have something stable there. So it may be higher in future years. Uh but that's what we estimate on. >> Sure. Yes.

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>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a question. >> Sure. >> Uh Mr. customer. What's your confidence that the finances will work out for that additional 5% in a few months? >> I'm pretty confident. Yeah, >> I'm pretty confident. It's just more of a conservative safety measure to wake. >> I'm sorry, Mr. President. Do you want a

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copy of this? >> Any further questions from the committee or president? >> Thank you. We'll keep the item on our agenda and uh till the next meeting with further information forthcoming. Uh on to item 11763, discussion of the

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recurring interest uh internet outages at city hall and other city departments. Uh Mr. Mayor, >> uh thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. >> I know this was put on our agenda by councelor Mack. I know there was been some issues um with that. Um I know some

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of the questions surrounding it is the process for paying those bills just to kind of lead into your discussion. Um and just further information on any kind of previous outages and if that's um how it's going to be remedied going going forward. >> Absolutely. Um we've experienced uh

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twoish two to three outages within the last four years or so. Um some caused by uh some issues, some caused by others. Um just to for background of process with this um prior to

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f uh prior to June of Jul July 1st of 2022, so fiscal 23. Um the uh human resources department had one full-time staff member. Uh and then under the previous human resources

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director and the beginning of fiscal 24 so July 1st of 2023 that um oh excuse me uh pri on July 1st of 2022 in fiscal 23 we added an additional part-timer to the human resources

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department. This was to accommodate for the uh human resources department overseeing the pool and the building done by the pool and also doing golf work as well. This position was paid 50/50 between the golf enterprise and the general fund that was budgeted for under the human resources department in the beginning of fiscal 24. So effective

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July 1, 2023, that position was increased from a part-time position to a full-time 37-hour a week position with the position still being funded 50% golf, 50% general fund out of the human resources department to account for that

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position doing all of the billing work for the airport, IT department, pool, recreation department, as well as the air uh the uh golf enterprise and human resources department as well. So that position was bumped from an administrative coordinator to a financial administrator position under

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the ASME union, excuse me, under the Yeah. the equivalent title of the ASM union but in a non-UN position in the human resources department. Uh in on the 1st of January in 2025, human resource director at the time, the new

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human resources director at the time, Amanda Morse, decided to discontinue that second position and combine the positions. And that's when the council voted to create the human resource manager position. When that happened, those duties that that second position took over were then reassigned out to

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the various positions that held them before. So, golf is now under its own uh clerk basically another admin is doing that part-time. The airport manager is doing the billing and the reporting for the uh airport. Uh it took theirs back and then the purchasing department is still helping with the recreation department as well

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as golf. um it uh has help in doing the bills by the assistant auditor as well who helps with immunist processing once the bills are cleared by the um by the director of IT uh and then it's just the step going forward from there. So that's the process for the bills that are in

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there right now. I will say that billing in general, especially for the smaller commissions is something that I would like to see the administration look on look at in the future because right now we have these various clerks that are doing part-time duties assigned for their full-time duties that they have during the day and seeing how those can be better allocated to make sure that

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people whose job descriptions are to do a particular job in a department are doing the job in that department not also then triaging uh part-time work in other departments on the way uh that was there. Uh so that's something that I think uh a review of that um that the administration's currently conducting is

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something that I think would be helpful in the long term to addressing this issue in a long-term goal. Uh but really what uh happened here in the short term is that there are two Comcast bills that the city receives on a monthly basis. One is for our co-ax service that does the internet for city hall and one on our fiber service which does the

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intranet between city buildings. Uh we have uh fiber optic cable connecting most of our city buildings uh except for some of the um DPW buildings on the outskirts still have to be connected. Uh so the Comcast fiber bill currently has about a

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$10,000 credit on that bill. Uh the coax bill uh had a um cross and payment uh that was done where the payment wasn't received in a timely manner because it was confused with the other Comcast bill. and therefore uh

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wasn't paid which resulted in a outage that lasted for about an hour and 15 minutes. Uh that was then paid that day. Service was brought back before the end of the day. Uh so that was the result of that. In the other long-term goal, so we're working right now on getting those more clearly defined. Uh the other issue

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with those is the school department also receives uh bills from Comcast under the same fiber and coax system. Uh and sometimes with the munice reporting system, it combines payments to vendors even for various different bills into one check to the same vendor and just denotes that differently in the memo

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line. Uh that was an separate issue that came up with the cleaning service that we have for the youth center. Uh so all of those different reporting mechanisms to make sure that we know what gets reported in what check are now also being taken care of on top of making sure the timeliness of the bills to make sure they're accounted for the other way are being done at the same time. Uh

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additionally, we aren't planning on keeping our full co-ax service with Comcast long term. Uh we are planning on going out for an RFP process within the fiscal year uh for internet providing to the um to our municipal buildings uh with the new options for internet

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providers that are newly here in Gardner with both Comcast and Gateway Fiber uh as the as well as the other uh internet uh providers that service the city too. Uh so there's various different ways that this is planning on being addressed in the future so that this doesn't happen again. Um the bill payment that

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was the issue this time didn't wasn't the uh same issue as there was a um blip in internet service a couple months ago that was a um Comcast outage that caused a longer um I want to say it was around a 2 hour 15 2hour 2hour 15 minute uh

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outage that was here in the building. uh to prevent something like that from happening in the future. We are planning on while having you know this RFP is going out to do our primary internet provider we are planning on keeping our coax comcast service on a reduced rate here so that there is some type of backup internet service here so that if

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one goes out we have a backup system uh that we can rely on as well. Uh so I hope I know that was a little uh in-depth uh for a brief rundown of the process the situation and how it's being addressed moving forward. Um, so if I

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said anything that was confusing or skipped a step because I was trying to get through the whole process, I'm happy to answer any questions over there, too. >> You know, I appreciate the information. You did mentioned in there there's a credit on the coax. >> Yes. >> The credit on the fiber side. >> The fiber side. >> Yes. >> Okay. Where did that originate from? And >> that's from a bill being paid that was a

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bill being sent to the fiber >> instead of >> instead of the coax. >> Okay. So, we're >> we're working that down and paying the other bill now. Okay. Um, further questions? Um, no, I appreciate the info. My big one was what was the situation? Um, I hadn't heard anything

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yet, so I appreciate that. Uh, I guess just kind of clarifying obviously when you say like to see the administration do X, Y, or Z. I assume you mean your administration this way, you were hoping to own that. >> Yeah, >> good for you. Thank you. Appreciate the changes and looking at these situations

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and reviewing these things. >> I think that's good. Please come up. >> Thank you. If I could just add, I mean, I know director Carm is here. the the fact that the uh administrator in the purchasing office is doing all of the admin work for the rec department that's in a completely different building somewhere else just just doesn't make sense to me. So just finding out ways to

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make that a more cohesive more streamlined unit because someone's hired for a job so that they can do that job, not that job plus all these little side jobs at the same time too if we're not recognizing it in some other way. For golf it's different because the golf uh enterprise pays someone separately to do that after hours. everyone else. It's

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kind of like the same minute clerks that we have for various commissions where someone's here and someone's there and someone's there and it's not a uniform system. All of those things are things that uh I'm hoping to look at within the term. >> Great. Thank you. Um any further discussions on that item?

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>> You know, it might be good to have more time. I know it was something council Mack had requested um just kind of think things over more and to her, but other than that, no questions today. >> I agree with that sentiment. I think we should keep going here. Be back for the

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next council weekend financing. >> Mr. Chair, can I have a question and comment? >> Sure. >> Uh, so a question to you, Mr. Mayor. You said there had been two or three outages in the past four years. Was that just for this building? Was that for non-payment or in general? >> So, the non-payment was the one and

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that's where it went to the wrong bill. And that two were for non-payment. One was where we got that $10,000 credit. Uh and the other one was for the um the bill was paid, the check hadn't reached Comcast uh by the time that they went through all the processes that were

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had. Um the other one was that Comcast had an area um outage due to their own technical difficulties that were there, but we didn't have that backup internet system. So the building was down for that 2 hour and 15 minute period. By going out for that RFP for that primary and secondary service, we're hoping to mitigate that in the future, too,

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>> if the bill gets paid. >> Yes. >> Right. So um because that that is something where to have the city basically have their lines cut due to non-payments concern. I'm glad your administration you are looking into it. Um the comment I had uh cuz you had mentioned that in January which I

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remember the human resources department had two roles merged into one. Y >> I don't remember the council being aware of the IT bills being paid through that role. And I learned here today that the assistant auditor helps pay the IT bills. uh which is >> a council position

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>> interesting because that's a council department as well. I I applaud the purchasing director for helping out on the uh recreation department. I think in part of that's necessary with the small town that people wear different hats, but I think in the future if we are going to work on >> adjusting departments or emerging roles that we're fully aware of the

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responsibilities cuz that leaves gaps. >> I I want to say and I I' I'd have to go back and look at this. I'm sorry, Mr. Do you mind if I Mr. Chairman? Sorry. Um the the budget memo for the budget that created the position in the HR department did mention that those new

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duties would be added to that second position that was in the department at the time. Uh whether the letter mentioned that when it was the positions being combined and that position being continued is I I don't remember that >> cuz that budget letters >> it's huge. It's huge. That's what I'm saying. Like it may have been in one spot but not clear when the other part

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happened there too. So I'll get all that information put together as well. >> For sure. >> For sure. But yes, I agree with that for sure. I will say the assistant auditor helping out came from um the first time that one of the that $10,000 credit started to be build from the bill being paid to the wrong account. Uh was when

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the previous city auditor then recommended that for a period of time the assistant auditor help out and making sure that that tracking gets done the correct way. That's when that change happened at the former auditor's request and then I think that temporary move was just never made on temporary

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>> a few months ago. >> Yeah. So that's something that I think in the long term won't be something that's going to be continued or shouldn't be continued either. >> Anything further? >> Nothing for me. >> Okay. Hearing nothing else. We'll read this item on our agenda for the next

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meeting. Um on to item 1164, discussion on city council rules. This item came down from the council um for um a review of the rules as we do every year. Uh council Edwood had passed

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temporary rules, continuing our rules temporarily. Um we're going to have this discussion now. I know council president um is here to discuss some of his proposals and move forward. >> Happy to Mr. Chair. Yes. So, uh, as part of the large package of changes that

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occurred, uh, when then council president Kazinskus proposed rules changes, um, one of them was at the end of the session rules expire. And I think, uh, councelor Kazinskus was, uh, it was a very good move, very smart move to make the changes she made and get the

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council in a habit of reviewing rules. I think when I looked at the revision history of the past, it was kind of ad hoc when something came up versus every single two years going through it. Um, and that's where you see areas for opportunity and for improvement. Uh, there were two, I would say, groups of

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changes that I made in the document. You'll notice that the newly created economic and community development subcommittee that is chaired by um, councelor Kazinskus last year only focused on the community development department. Uh, and for good reason. I think that department is in a better

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place now. And that committee has also been around enough that they can take on more on their plate and take uh zoning, planning, cultural uh council and um industrial development uh were some of the departments and jurisdictions that I

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moved into their oversight. Uh those came from the public welfare and public finance committee. So to relieve the some pressure off those committees. Um and I also made the change to vacancies uh additionally to appointments committee because they're a portion of their agenda that does cover

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designations that the mayor reports on. Um so those that was kind of administrative uh changes. The second group of changes I made was to rule 14 adding a section at the end of it. Um, rule 14 is uh a new rule that was

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implemented during that change made by council kazinskus to uh basically allow the council to bypass uh subcommittee review and go straight to the council with the ascent of the chair and the president. Rule 14, I think needed this addition to require that submissions by

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subcommittees must come by the Wednesday prior of a council meeting. Right now, meeting law states that we have to have a a meeting posted by uh the Thursday prior for the 48 hour notice. In my past year as council president, I noticed that it's just the

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way of things, right? Things back up, things get dropped or forgotten. We were using rule 14 quite a bit to put things on full council agenda for emergencies that things that needed to get done in a timely manner. I especially noticed that in December we had a few items that unfortunately were dropped and had to be

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rushed through. Even in our upcoming agenda, there was some drop submissions over the new year that we need I actually asked your permission to bypass for uh sensitive deadlines for grants. Right. So, I'm hoping implementing this

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rule isn't viewed as more overhead or trying to put more process around to delay things. It's really meant to show that the council needs time and we really need to be more scheduled and more diligent with looking at the upcoming calendar and putting things on

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earlier so the council has time to review those items uh any questions or submissions that gives the mayor time to update the packets so that when we get to the meeting we can take action on those items. the second meeting, December, we did have a situation where something was added to the calendar um

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with very short notice and it came to that meeting and it just wasn't ready and we had to remove it. So, I'm hoping with this additional rule uh we can prevent some of that by giving a little more uh leeway not only for the council but the clerk's office uh that has to manage not only creating our agenda but

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all the subcommitteees. So, there's a lot of moving pieces once something goes through the council the legislative process. Um so you know I think I think those two changes are enough for this go around. We made a lot of changes um two years ago. Um I think these uh changes

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are necessary and if it doesn't work we can always there there's process in our rules to adjust them mid session. So I I suppose we should um explore that. But for now minor edits those are the two groups I would recommend. I'm happy to

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take any questions on them um by the committee. >> Questions, comments, >> new questions. I u you know I didn't notice those changes. I think a lot of it made sense too. We the economic development was new um and that rule was new. So it was sort of just what we've learned or what maybe you learned I

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guess and they make sense to me looking it over. I like the idea. Um the stuff seemed administrative. So I had no issues there. But I do like the idea of adding that extra time just to remove some of the pressure and stress from the councils, the committees, the uh clerk's office, and just setting the expectation

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that we do need more notice for things. Obviously, if there's emergencies, things come up, but I think I noticed in my, you know, first year and a half or so that things can really feel rushed and there's pressure to get moving things along. Um, but not everything is an emergency and so we can take that

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time. So, that'll help with that and just more time to digest. I would be supportive for sure. >> Um yeah, agree the change rule 14 um I think I'd like to see it in action to see how it works and see you know you said we can change it if we need to

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change something in it later on doesn't work but I think it's worth um worth the change. You're the one who who sees it from committee um and direction we can set agendas. So, um I think that um be a helpful tool and we'll we can

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review it if we need to um any changes. As for the shifting of some of the roles u the committees have some of the oversight they have with the economic development um committee. I think it has been a success. Um they the committee

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has been able to do great work. Um, and I think those other um, parts of the city departments naturally fall under them if it's something we're going to continue. Um, and it should be something they had over have oversight over this. Um, the moving parts apply a

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lot to the economic development going on in the city. So, um, I'm in supportain a motion on the item. >> Yeah. I would move to recommend to the full council for new rules be adopted. Uh second motion made by councel

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Hegland, second by councel general to recommend adoption of the rules presented by president Tyrros um be adopted by full council. Is there any further discussion? I just excuse me. I'd just like to summarize uh by saying uh these changes were done by

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researching other city council rules. So uh the cities of Fitchburg, Blster and the city of Worcester consulted their uh economic development rules uh department rather and their council rules and also uh for the rule 14 change because it can be kind of confusing that it's so many days before and I think the simplest way

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to explain it is in the past the council uh everything was was based off of a state deadline by law that we'd have to post a meeting. In its simplest form, this rule just moves up the deadline to give ourselves a deadline before that stressful, you know, the packet has to

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be posted by X time. Um, so that's that's really what it is. It's just giving ourselves u a dead a further deadline, a little stricter deadline. That way when it does get to the last hour, we're not up against a state deadline. >> Further discussion.

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Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed? Motion carries. On to subsection three in subcommittee. Item 11482 discussions regarding the city's health insurance payments and trust fund. Uh Mr. Bay, is there any further update on that?

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>> Uh working with the assistant auditor and the temporary auditor that we have. I have a current balance of 1,472,268.89. And last month or the last time we reported on this was on December 5th with the and that's at the end of December. At the end of November we had 1,392,261.71.

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>> So slight off >> slightly static but slight. Um any further questions comments on that item this time? >> Nothing today. >> No thank you. Nothing today either. Um

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but um hearing unless you rejection but just keep it with the for the committee um for further um further agendas um for next meeting. Usually the updates are at the end of the month. So the may agenda but be on the following agenda for the

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finance committee. No objection. We'll move that item on. Um item 11685, a measure declaring the land located at uh 13 through 17 West Line Street as defined in the attach approval required ANR plan as surplus for the purpose of

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disposition. Um this item has been in front of us for some time. Um there's been requests for further information on it as well. I don't know if there's anything further the mayor would like to add at this time. No, I think the last time uh that we met on this item, the um law department's legal opinion was new.

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Um so there was more time requested for review of that. Um other than that, if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer those. But the administration is still in favor of the sale and uh putting it forward for um its RFP process and going forward with it. But I was also happy to answer any there's any

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new questions, anything like that. Anything uh as a result of reading the the legal opinion if there's more time needed because of the legal opinion just to go through everything that was there. Happy to answer any questions that come up. >> Thank you. Um further questions, discussion?

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>> No further questions from me. I really appreciate all the information and um you know the city solicitor's opinion I think was interesting and good to read and the more time was helpful with that. I at this time I I'm still inclined that I'm hesitant to seed any municipal

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parking lot or spaces that we currently own. I know a lot of those spaces are utilized by the tenants at that building. Um but it is still available parking to people in the city. Uh especially before we are maintenance done to you know potentially lose any

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parking for me. I just don't know if I'm comfortable with that at this time. Um I have issues with a complete sale. I think of a parcel in downtown Garner and losing control of it for in perpetuity. Um I can't foresee the future, what kind

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of developments we may want to have downtown. um and considering some kind of possible other option where we don't give up a visible um in the in the might be something I'm willing to

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consider but um an outright sale um I don't think it's something that I'm at least currently currently comfortable with um with the information that's been provided. I understand the stance of the administration, the ideas behind it, the you know we have to plow it and you know the concerns there um with it um but um

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that there's concerns on the other side obviously as well the mayor appreciates um so I'm not inclined to be in support this time either if there's any type of motion that you'd like to make on the item. Yeah, kind of lead to that. Just one last thing I'll add is even at this point, you know,

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pending more information review, I would even be inclined and and open to reviewing removing those special permits and going solely back to um strictly municipal. Uh just that's where I'm at this point in time. Just to sort of emphasize that one last time. So for me,

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I would move uh to report to the full council that no action be taken. Second motion made by councelor Heden, second by councelor Delos to report to the council that no action be taken. Is there any further discussion on the item?

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Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Um item 11728, a discussion on the current state of facilities management for all municipal buildings. This item has been before us um before. It's been sitting

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with the finance committee and now it's we're in a new year. um it was time to put it back on the um agenda for some type of action um or at least the beginning of action and discussions again. Um I know there's a lot of moving parts here with a lot of different um

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roles as we've discussed u before that are under different unions and non-unions and um etc. Um but some there needs to be steps taken to um untangle that web and see how it can be put back

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together possibly in a different way that it's much more um efficient for the city. Um especially we have the Waterford Community Center um hopefully coming um on board here in the near future. That's another whole uh building to be taken care of. Someone's going to

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have to u be in charge of the management there. Um, so I think it's an opportunity to um get ahead of that as well and possibly do some type of I don't know if it's reorganization or just um what exactly would look like. Um

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the council president and I do have um a meeting set up. Um I believe the mayor is coming as well on um on Friday um with HR to try to begin um working these um working this out the discussions

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there. Um and we'll obviously can also report back um reportless um to the committee on this. Um but that's where I am there. The current situation is probably it's just the way things have been done. Um and it's kind of worked but sometimes it's it might be best to

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look at them and see if there's a better way to do it with the new building coming um coming forward. I don't know if there's anything further from Council He I'm glad this item is still on our agenda. I know we've all agreed. I'm was very glad to hear the mayor was in support of looking into this as well. Uh

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I'm happy to hear that there's a potential, you know, next step coming with this meeting. I'll be curious to see how that goes and what your discussion entails. You know, just for us as the finance committee, obviously this could have financial implications. So I think it's proactive that we're all looking at it. We're tracking it and

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discussing it early. Uh and I look forward to seeing you what's next and the next steps and hearing both learning more. So I'm interested in keeping this obviously and continuing this conversation. Um, President Dy, you have to add anything to this. >> I I thank the chair. This was something that I submitted last spring. Um, I

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think we were ready to discuss it at that time. I think now is a good time, like you said, with the new year. Um, I think we should just be ready to accept that this this change that we're looking into making is it's going to cost money either way, right? If we if we don't make a change to facilities the way

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things are going, we're going to see the costs on the back end with you know high bills and uh you know maintenance issues that are neglected uh that come to a point of failure where we get these emergency orders, right? Salt shut's a great example. Not that that's exactly what we're talking here, right? But if

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that had been budgeted for and saved for incrementally over a point of years, uh we wouldn't have been in a situation where we would have had to take from emergency loan from a rainy day fund. That's the idea behind this item. And I think, you know, Waterford uh Community Center is a building that was maintained

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by the school department for many years. Now the city's got it. So, we're going to have to look at things and the meeting on Friday is really to look at the current state, see if there's any efficiencies to be gained and then seeing what the impact of turning Waterford on uh on an operational basis will have on the city and like you had

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said to get ahead of them. So, I appreciate the chair taking this taking on this side. >> Thank you. Um I don't know if there's any further discussion from anyone. If not, we'll just keep the item uh with the committee and we'll report back um when there's further information

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presumably the next meeting. That's cool. We'll stay on the uh stay on the agenda. And on to the last item on our agenda, item 11744, a measure confirming the gift of $10,64367 from the Department of Public Works to the GRA to the Gardener Community Action

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Committee. Um this item has been before us um since last year. There was asked for more time to review the information that's in front of us. Um Council He to add on this item currently. >> Just two quick questions um for you to

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the mayor. Um it may have come up, but just recapping back at what point like when and how did you find out about the amount that it was? Cuz I know this is a sort of a historic example. They do a few hundred bucks maybe here and there. >> Yeah, here and there. The amount I wasn't aware of until after it was ready

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to be given um and give given. >> Mhm. >> Um I don't think anyone was expecting that much to be done. Um which I'm glad it helped out the CAC as much as it did. Um but just normally it's a if I said the most we've ever that's ever been given before and the other times that

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this has been done was maybe $300, that would probably be normal. >> Mhm. um $10,000 600 $10,000 $600 you you know what I mean? Um was nowhere near what I was expecting on that one.

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>> Oh, thank you. And do you think are so department heads aware now sort of like the thresholds triggering the council approval for >> Yep. >> Thank you. That was it for me today. >> Okay. um with us um not having council Mack here today and um this was

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something I she she put on the agenda originally um it's not a timesensitive issue um so I'd like to keep it um for um for return um unless there's objection we keep that item on our agenda for our

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next u our next meeting and that being said I will entertain a motion to adjourn second motion made by council Second, second by councel to return. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed meeting stands adjourned.