5 meeting of the gardener city council finance committee will come to order. The clerk will please call call the role. Council present. Council Hegman present. Announcement of open meeting recordings. It's posted there by the door if anyone needs to review it. Is anyone here
recording the meeting other than staff? Hearing none. On to the first um section. Review and approval of meeting minutes. There are none. Uh section two, first time on the agenda, item 11520, measure authorizing the
administration to enter into an intermittent school agreement with the town of Widen for veteran services for FY 2025 through 2027. We have uh the director of veteran services here, Cory Houseman, the mayor. I know you've met with the public
welfare committee on this as well prior. Um I don't know if there's um if you like to speak on it um and what we're going to be doing with the town or the mayor at the work. I'll just start by saying we were approached by the town manager in Winston. Uh their director
gave his notice of his retirement, gave them a twoe notice uh that um the position is now vacant since then. Um but they had heard of the good work that we were doing here in our veterans uh regional veteran service office uh and we're looking to join in that matter. Um, this is a office that does have
minimum staffing levels based off of full population of the communities that we serve. We are within those staffing levels even if Winchin was to get added to us. So, we don't have to add any additional staff members. And talking to the director um with the uh new appointment of our new assistant
director who just started yesterday, um we do have the capacity to take on this additional uh community. uh for the formula that we use for the other communities that we have is $2 $2 per person in the population of the community. Uh so for Winonin that'd be
around $20,000 uh that is included in the uh intermunicipal agreement that you have in your packet. Uh and then additionally the Winon board of selectman uh did vote to authorize their town manager to approve uh and sign on their behalf already. So there's a signed copy on Winchendon's side. Uh so
we haven't counter signed it yet obviously because this does require council approval and that's something that we're waiting for there but this is approved fully on Winston's end zen uh and it's something that uh would bring in more revenue uh on the city side of things as a new revenue source but also provide those services to the people in uh Winon and I'll let the director take
all the technical stuff after after that. Okay. Anything you like to add now? The mayor kind of summed up everything. The only other thing I'd like to add is um as I had expressed to um the public welfare committee is we are already helping out Winston veterans as it is with when it comes to VA
claims. Um so from a workload standpoint it is it is not a huge lift for our office. Um I am the accredited BSO in this local area. Unfortunately the Washington BSO was part-time so he was never allowed to be accredited. Um, so the only big change for us will be
chapter 115 and they have currently 15 clients and I have spoken to my my team expressed you know the workload that we would take on and it's it's well within our our means we believe with your current um staffing what is what would be the threshold for the city do you
know like how close to that threshold are we going to I think it's 65,000 is when it changes and this puts us at um just about 53 53 so still the 12,000 to 10,000 um buffer there that according to the state regulations we have to be under. Correct. So we're still well well
under that. Um I can also get that if needed ever. But if that's the if you believe that's the the amount um if you want to provide it for the full council. Um that would be great. That's good to know. Um it you have full staffing now as of Monday as the mayor had stated and
you stated during the welfare meeting that the person was starting this week. So that's that's good to hear as well. Um, my one of my questions was about the town officially approving the signature. I know the signature was on the document, but the town has supported
through that. I know in the past we've run into some hiccups. Um, but that's good to hear. Um, I don't have any further questions, I don't think. Councelor Heg. Yeah, I think luckily most of them are answered. So, thank you both. Um, with that, would it be possible to include that vote in the
packet for the B the from the their board of selectmen in our packet? The only thing we have is just that email that's included in your packet that says that they were approved it. I don't know if they have minutes or anything from there. I can ask. I just don't know if they have just in case. Yeah, that' be awesome.
Um, and then um, so it sounds like we're definitely doing them I think a favor, right? they they need these services and we want to make sure no one's without services. So cost there's really no cost to us then there's no additional staffing or anything needed. Um and the breakdown is what it's going to be for
Winon these three or two which years on here. So the sorry no go the the first number is the prrated amount for the end of these two months for this fiscal year and then the the final number that you see is a 3% increase just expecting the cola for the the third number that's
listed there. Um, so how does the does it come directly from the town? So what if they I know they're sort of in financial straits right now. What happens if they can't pay? There's a cancellation clause in the municipal.
That's all it would be. Yeah. Okay. Um, and I saw there was like dispute resolution too. So if it came to that worse came to worse. Um and then at the end of this I guess have like two years is that you know what goes what's a normal timeline for
these contracts is two the norm is it's three but if we include the remainder of this year then we would require council approval separately before we were to do this just like we would with any other contract. Okay. So you think just at the end we'll see if we're going to revisit it renegotiate the normal Okay. That's
what we do with the other five. We have four towns currently is um we just renew it every 3 years subject to council approval of course. All right. Thank you. That's it for me. Just one more for clarification on many of these veterans are already coming to
you as you stated because you're an accredited VSO. Um the veterans in general if they come to you, you assist them. It doesn't matter what community they're coming from most in most cases. Correct. So, depends on what they're coming to us for, right? If it's uh chapter 115, the
financial assistance program, obviously, I have to refer them to their respective town and their respective agent. Um, but when it comes to a VA claims realm, as long as it's not going to affect our communities in any way, shape, or form and the veterans that that we service,
um, we try to fit them in where we can. Okay. I really remember hearing in the past. Just want clarification on that. Yeah. I feel like it's also worth um pointing out too that so we receive 75% reimbursement for all of our chapter 115 claims from the Commonwealth in our cherry sheet. Uh and we budget for our
chapter 115 claims in our annual budget that gets approved by the council. If we add an additional community on those communities are budgeting their own chapter 115 benefits and getting their own reimbursements from the state. We just provide the services so that those can get processed. Uh but it's not gardener
money going to pay a Washington veteran resident. It's Winon's paying for the Winon veterans. It's just we're processing the paperwork, paying for our paperwork time, office time here, and they're dealing with the payments for the actual benefits. Correct. To their veterans. Understood. I don't have I
don't believe anything else on this item. Me neither. That thing covers everything. Entertain a motion to authorize the council to pass the measure. So moved. Second. Although any further discussion hearing none. All those in favor say I. I those
opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Um I am going to uh on to the section three in subcommittee. However, we're going to skip down to item
11527. Um a communication from the mayor regarding the FY2024 single financial audit report for federal grant funds. Um this is kind of in combination with 11528. direct communication with the mayor regarding the FY 2024 final financial audit report. Um we have
Richard here as well. I know he put together um some information for us um that was part of the package um auditor Richard I don't know if you want to speak to it first. Yeah, basically um the three areas where they audited uh
for the SARS the single audit was the airport runway grant uh project. We got about uh 33 $3.8 million and then the uh basically the uh ARPA funds. Yeah. Uh we
got 1 million. We spent 1 million in FOY 24. Uh and then the third one was the FEMA. Um we actually spent it uh I think the year before, but we we just finally got the uh reimbursement in FY um 2024.
um trying to figure out what what what you know years we're in. Yeah. So those are the three uh areas where they audited. Again, they go through everything. It's it's uh it's very intense. Um they do it's about I would
say um mostly it's done through email and I upload it to their portal and makes it a lot easier. Um, but they they they really do a good job of looking at every I mean they go through the procurement process, make sure we're doing everything correctly there. Um,
payables, make sure everything's signed, um, anything we use for, uh, salaries, they they want to see our time sheets, um, anything like that. So, we provide them with everything. And again, after they looked at everything and they
couldn't, again, we we had no findings. Um you can read my little spew about what's the purpose um why did they do this and all that stuff but basically they just do it to make sure that we're complying with the laws and regulations. Okay.
Any questions from the committee? I don't believe so. I thank you first and foremost and it was a little extra for you. So I appreciate you putting all this together and and taking the time to give us this background information. And I think it's just helpful for us with such a big dock that we don't always get to be involved with the process
obviously to know how it works and and how it goes. Y um but no any further questions. Okay. Yeah, just to uh echo that we appreciate the time, you know, with the audit itself that it takes and the hard work that goes into it and the results that
we've gotten. Um the extra information um I think is just great for the council. with some new counselors as well that haven't been on as long and the further details of how it works and what hap happened, what what was audited um is is great. So I have nothing
further either. No no um 11527. I'll move to recommend the full council the uh communication be placed on file. Second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. So on to item 11528 which I
previously read. I assume that's is there anything further to add? It's basically the same thing. I did a little uh little write up about how it it's I think it's a little easier looking at our free cash which is our net income calculating that out it that basically
shows how you know a community what you know how well or bad they're doing really. Um so I I gave you a little spiel about that. Um but no nothing else to add there. Okay. Thank you. Council.
Uh, no. No questions on that one either. Again, just appreciate the extra work and I thought it was really nice detail you gave us. Um, that made a lot of sense. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Motion. Yeah. I'll move to uh recommend to the full council the communication be placed on file. Second. Any further
discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Thank you Richard. And back to the top of in subcommittee item 11516, a proposal by President Tyrus of
the city council discuss the creation of a special committee for the Waterford Community Center project. Um, Council Tyrus. So, this has been in front of us for um a few meetings now. Um I the waterford project is a big one
in the city. Um a number of um different community groups are are going to be working out of there and you know that also could be expanding. Um the um scope um the membership um duration are kind of the big keys of what we uh
need to be discussing here. Um I want to I guess at least start with the membership um of the committee and how we think we're going to constitute that. um it's going to be kind of maybe more open table round discussion instead
of um which I guess normally they are in a finance committee level but um I I I foresee this being something pointed maybe by the council um maybe by other bodies in the city plus the mayor um and three maybe five members um we can
discuss further um but um varying type of backgrounds maybe people you know business people in construction so they have the knowledge base what's going on in there. Um, business um, acumen I think be key. Um, but open it up to I
don't know if councelor Hegman has any further to add on it or we can pass it over to councelor Tyrros and the mayor for any further discussion. Yeah, I think I'd be curious to see what you both have at this point and then maybe that'll answer some questions and I'll see what's left. Okay. Um, Tyrus. Yeah, as my uh proposal, I'm happy to discuss
it. Um, to your to your question about membership, the mayor and I had discussed this matter. I think a smaller board would be better. Um, a three member board uh of members of the community. I think uh you know we as a city council are pretty busy when it comes to the amount of boards and
subcommittees we're we're on. Um and I think it's also important to have community members involved because it is for the community. Um experience I'd be looking for are uh individuals with experience with managing large projects because this this is a doozy. It's a
substantial uh project in our community. Um it interacts with numerous agencies both in the city uh privately as well. Um Waterford Community Center has a lot of interest that I'm sure the mayor could discuss in the shared use space not only inside but the grounds as well
with Wilder Field. Um and I think uh a few other areas uh obviously community leadership would be key. having connections in the community to have the vision of what we could make a community center be uh are all experiences I think would be beneficial to this this
board. I'll echo what the council president said. Um we as I said at the previous meeting, we've had building committees for almost every other major building construction project that we've had. We've had one for the new school project, we have one for the new police station. um it just adds an extra set of eyes to
make sure everything's going the right way and makes it so you don't end up siloed. I think it just makes the project stronger and better uh moving forward from there. I do agree with the president that a smaller committee tends to be um more easy to manage, more easy to schedule, more easy to have more
meetings. Uh the school building committee that we had had 13 members. That was quite difficult to make sure everyone had the same task. Everyone had the um same timeline that they were able to meet and everything like that. Especially then when we had an additional nine associate members that would vote if someone was absent from
one. It made it quite cumbersome. Now that's not our process. That's the MSBA's process that they come up with and we had to follow no matter what. Anyway, um but it made it very difficult to try to make sure that everyone was on the same page because not everyone could make every meeting when you have that large of a group. Uh for the police
station, we had I think it was between five to seven members that were there. But when you look at the project that we have over at the Waterford Community Center, we're not building a building. We're retrofitting a building that's already in existence. So there's a lot less work that needs to be done. And quite frankly, once it's leased out, it's out of our hands, except for if any
uh alterations or modifications to the building need to be made, then those have to come on an individual request to the city council uh and approved by the mayor after the city council's vote in order to have that work be done there, too. So, we're not building something out of the ground. We're just making
sure that we get to a basically gray box uh level location that can be rented out and then retrofitted by the entities themselves once they actually have that lease in hand. So that's why I believe a smaller committee is actually quite appropriate for it um compared to the other building committees that we had
because the scope is a lot smaller and while the scope is still large scale and that there's a lot of work that needs to be done again you're not building a building from the ground up. Um so I think that there's a lot of benefits that a smaller uh committee of three to five could have um to it and its
membership I think really depends on what the final number we come up with is. Thank you councel. Um, thank you both. That that answered some of my questions luckily. Um, because I do I like the idea of it being community and citizen based to get that extra
perspective and and input. Um, and I think I think it makes sense to do just a small group like you said for more eyes to have um, you know, some different perspectives involved. To me, you know, I I think having you and the council president
kind of jointly appoint I think would be a good appropriate way like we do with most other things as well. Um what uh what do you think the overall sort of hope and purpose though would be of the committee? What do you think? Anything in mind or Yeah, I'd be happy to start. Um councelor Heglin the
chair's approval. Uh the the purpose of this committee um right now this Waterford Community Center project uh it's been ongoing for two years two years. Um a lot of work's been done. Uh like the mayor said, uh we're not necessarily constructing a new building,
but there still needs to be a lot of work into uh finishing out the buildout and also the policies, procedures, what it means for gardener to have a community center. Um so it's right now it's it's no one's full-time job. Uh and you know, we've certainly had um
instances where um you know, me personally as the council liaison to the Waterford Community Center project have struggled to get updates and information. um just now been waiting about two weeks for an update on uh recent investments. We're rekeying doors
inside the building because now we have the CAC and Growing Places um operating and building out their spaces and um you know just a document of who has what key to what door has taken two weeks for me to to get a hold of. So, um, you know,
there's certainly aspects where a committee having a regularly cadenced meeting to be able to move the ball forward on this project, I think would be important. Um, that's that's what I envision with the initial purpose, but it's also been 2 years since this project started, so a committee was going to have fresh eyes on the project,
too. Um, and I'm always uh in favor of, you know, re-evaluating like the original idea, if it's still fit for need, if there's anything new since the project was uh conceived. um that could be beneficial to the community. So, I'd be interested to hear honestly what they
have as like an initial assessment of um where we go now. I' Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd also add that, you know, the council president mentioned policies and procedures. One place in particular that that would work is, you know, you mentioned the front lawn that the farmers market utilizes the front lawn
of it for their um May through November, May through October farmers markets. Uh, we know Holy Family Academy is interested in utilizing the gymnasium for their basketball program. All of these things are there, but we don't have the rental policies. We don't have the building use forms. We don't have
all of those things we have in other locations. We have a rental form for Perry Auditorium. We have a rental form for our school buildings, but what are the policies and procedures going to be for this location? Because each of those locations does have a unique usage of it. You're not going to use Perry Auditorium for the same thing that you're going to use the cafeterium at
Waterford Street School for. There are also different spaces too in terms of a gym with bleachers at a um the community center being different than um a larger space like Landry Auditorium
or or the chance gymnasium at the high school. So seeing really what those procedures should be, how you know the policies may even have you know have a custodial staff on duty if there's something going on in there or the rental fees uh and things like that that we have built here and we're working on
building those up here too. Um in terms of you know working on the first agreement and rental fee space for Perry Auditorium. How do we incorporate all of that there? So having those type of sounding boards is actually just very helpful for us in that process because when you open something like that, it's not like it can just open and then just
sw, you know, expect something to just fall out of the sky and it just work perfect on day one. There's discussions, there's evaluations, and there's just policies and procedures that just need to be put in place. I think hearing that I like that I like the purpose of it.
Um, so I think it is frustrating to hear, you know, the council has had a difficult time getting some answers, information. I know that, you know, we've asked some questions and and look for updates too and community people are always excited and curious about it, what's going on over there. So to have that better streamlined communication
would be really beneficial for everybody. Um, and we got a lot going on. So I think just having more eyes on these projects would be really helpful. Uh hearing that though it sounds though it might be beneficial to have somebody from the city involved whether it's three or five if there's going to be
policies procedures ultimately you'll you know sign off on everything anyway but someone who has access to those documents that they can use or reinvent. Um so that would be perhaps my only other suggestion or thought some balance in the community with someone from the
building or relevant to the project that can help guide them in an official capacity. I think that's that makes sense. And if there's further input on that, I would agree with that. Yeah. And and it would be uh to your point, councelor, it' be good to have someone um you know, who's a member of the committee, but also in city hall Monday
through Friday to um collaborate and work with other um departments. So yeah. um think that as part of one of my questions the scope of the committee itself obviously we've talked about some of it here
but is the I do we envision them you know inviting less less ease inviting you know contractors inviting other stakeholders whoever they may be city other employees who are involved in the project uh to report to them or at least provide information for them that
they're going to request it um and Because if we have a city employee um the mechanism to update the council for what they're doing, what do we envision that mechanism to be? Are they going to come present to the finance committee? Are they come submitting
things to the um you submit things in paper? Um either way, I think it could function uh fine, but I don't know if there are thoughts on those items. What we normally do with our building committees is um they you know, it all depends on too how long you want the committee to last for. Um, with the
building committees that we've had before, it's normally a year and a half after the building is fully opened that that committee stays in existence to evaluate how the process has been now that the the entities are functioning in their space. Uh, are things working the way they're supposed to be going? Is there any follow-up renovation? Is there a punch list that we have to work
through? Things of that nature that's there. Are things working the way um, which I would uh, I don't know, you know, that's a discussion we can also have on the length of time that a committee like this would be active. uh but where we're developing new policies and procedures in particular where there's still buildout happening there
too. If a tenant was to come in say uh the CAC was to come in and say that they were looking at constructing a a wall or a kitchen or adding something to their space that's a good update to bring there too because it also brings it to the public attention that there's work happening in the building and what's happening there behind the closed doors.
Uh but at the same time, if there's schedule conflicts between Growing Places wants to have something in on one day and the senior center wants something in on the same day and the CAC does, how do we make sure that those policies and procedures are going the right way if we don't have a conduit for that type of feedback on an active basis? So, um I would recommend at least
until a year and a half after all of the entities in the building are open. Um but that's also what's there too. With a building like that, obviously there's wings, there's sections, and there sections that might not be I guess what are we defining open as is ready to be rented, I guess, or to be leased. I
would say at least a year and a half. Okay. Um that I think that makes that that's the course of you know for other building um committees and it sounds like the um Massachusetts um school uh
board building board there runs on that that timeline. So um seems to have worked with us more success with that. So I think that makes sense. I don't know if Council Ty further add on duration. Yeah. Uh in in terms of duration, I think uh yeah, establishing
a criteria for the committee is going to be important. That way um you know, we might come to the end of this and discover that there's a need kind of like the Rockwell fund um committee that you know there's a need for this um committee to establish maybe in a a different form, but to be um ongoing for
strategic planning or capital improvements, you know, um watching out for the building. Um I think in terms of your question around scope um you know that I think that's another reason uh the committee is a good idea is like the mayor was saying there's a lot of
excitement with the community center and having having leie having growing places CAC senior center come in to a public meeting and talk about you know their vision for the community center the work they're doing the plans they have um and giving input back to the committee I think is going to be really important
because we have had a couple um I know the growing place has been in there a number months. Give us feedback, you know, as a city. What what what do we need to do better? What can we uh you know, make small invest investments in now that might pay off big uh later? But
having information, I think, is going to be key for the committee. Thank you. I have nothing further. I don't know if he have any further questions or comments. No, I think this is really good. I'm glad we're getting to this point with these conversations. I like the idea of the committee continuing
sometime after the building is opened whenever we sort of view that as being because you never know what will come like you said. Um I'm jumping a little ahead of myself but do we envision there being a point person for whether it's your office if there are scheduling things or Yeah, we're working on those
options right now. Be it a it'll likely be someone from my office but there's also things that we're reviewing in terms of is this a contracted property manager? Is this something that's internally handled? visit something that's done like that. So, all of those are being reviewed right now. Awesome. Thank you. No, thank you. Obviously, all
subject to appropriation by the council. Um, no, I I like this. This is great. Um, you know, I do have one other one. When we're talking special committee, are there how does that differ from like ad hoc or subcommittee
obviously or council? Is there any sort of legal actual difference or is there a better way to set this up? Special committees are I'm sorry, Mr. service. Um, special committees are subject to the open meeting law. Um, so they would be required posted meetings that are publicly available and publicly viewable later on and recorded. Um the main
difference if you ever hear ad hoc advisory something like that um the open meeting law says that if there's a committee that's job is to review one specific item that has a short-term duration and they aren't the
committee making the final decision on that matter. That's not subject to the open meeting law because the final decision is being made by someone else. They're just making recommendations where this is reviewing a more longer term project and there's not a specific
item that a decision is being made on and the the committee may not be making the decision. That's the, you know, different people here in city hall making the decisions with their consultation and with their input, but they're reviewing something on a longer term basis and it's not one just project
one project. It's an umbrella of the whole. That's what makes it subject to the open meeting law. And I think that uh when the council president proposed something like that, that's I I a thousand% agree with that. It's just an extra level of transparency. It's an extra level of informing the public of what's going on. Uh so that's the difference with all of that. Thank you.
That's what I thought. I really like that. Yeah, that works well. Council Tyros, any further? No, I think this is good discussion. Look forward to more. No, I appreciate all the input. I'm glad we're uh really kicking this off here with further
discussions. Obviously, councelor Mack um isn't present here with us today. Um I think this is kind of digest what we talked about. Come back maybe with um maybe more ideas, more questions, and maybe more concrete um solutions of how this committee is going to be formulated
and move forward at the next um possibly at the next next meeting or next couple meetings um with how this is going to be put together. So without any objection, I'd just like to keep this item on the on the calendar. All right. Item 11516 will stay on the fin calendar. Uh item
11517, a proposal by President Taros that the city council discuss the current sexual harassment policy and other city policies. Um this has been with us um for a little bit now. The sexual harassment policy is now complete. I believe approved by the city solicitor. Correct, Mr. Mayor? Correct.
Um we have it in our packet. Um it's um I think we at least I would like more time to to go over it and review it but we um again don't have C councelor Mack here either. I don't know if you have any particular questions related to it at this time counselor.
Um nothing at the moment I think and I think some of them would be more best suited if director Morris could attend. Um, so Director Morris I know was um on vacation last week and so I avoided trying to jump her into this meeting right away um on Wednesday. So um
figured I could give her wait till the next meeting as this isn't time sensitive and possibly get an update maybe on the process in the process of doing this policy and the other policies as um this item encompasses both. Um I don't know if there's anything else to
add. I just say that uh the policies that I sent you aren't just the sexual harassment policy, but also our social media policy and our dress code policy. Both of those were also recently updated by the director. I know that was talked about at the last meeting of doing more than just that one policy, but rather a more broader look at what's done. Those are the three that have been uh updated
since uh director Moore started. Um and she began a year ago. It'll be a year and two weeks from now. So by the time the council the finance committee meets again, it will be her full one year with the city. So that's the work that she's been able to update in that time frame on top of everything else that's been happening.
Thank you, sir. Yeah, I think that's the only thing I'd add. Um, and I'll say it again when she is here, but it's really just impressive. At a quick glance, it's night and day. I think from what we had, it looks way more modern, uh, way more thorough. Uh, and I just really appreciate the time she put into that.
Council President Tyros, um, for kind of bringing this up with her and you, Mr. mayor for your and city sureary for looking through and and overviewing the whole process as well. Uh it's just nice to see this happening. One of the questions director Morris and I had
would it be helpful to have the old policies for comparison sake or do you just want the new policies that you have now? I don't think that could hurt them both. That would be helpful. Yeah. Yeah. So if we could get that added as well that um do you know how many different policies are there that she's working
on? was like I said as I said I want to say the handbook has 27 27 but I'd have to take a look like I said most haven't been updated since 2005 yeah thank you um council do you have to be on this for I I just that councelor heglin hit the nail on the head with the
word impressive uh I write information security policies for a living and to see the turnaround the quick turnaround that director Morris stood on this I'd like to give a thanks to the administration for jumping on this and uh working on it thank you thank Thank you. Yeah, thank you Director Morris and
um we'll hopefully be on the schedule here in one of the coming meetings to come chat with us about the this policy, the other two policies we had as well and um how's how it's going um with the process in general. So uh without if there's no objection, I like to keep the
item on calendar. Agreed. Okay, no objection. The item stays in the calendar. Item 11518 proposal by President Tyrus with the city council discuss the current state facility management for all municipal buildings. I know the mayor had provided um some further information in for our packet uh
here. Um I don't know if you would like to speak to it. Yeah, absolutely. I know councelor Mack at the last meeting asked for a breakdown of the different facilities projects we have. I wasn't able to get to that yet just with the time constraints between the meetings. Uh but what's before you right now is the breakdown of what personnel oversee
what building. Uh, excuse me. The library has three um uh three uh facility staff members, one direct uh one, I guess, if you will, manager and two individuals under them. Those are non-un employees. Um that have similar
titles to those custodial staff in city hall, but the custodial staff in city hall are members of the ASME union. Um the library themselves again is funded out of the general fund, but they're overseen by the libraries uh private nonprofit. That's why they are separate of the other employees that we have. The
school department custodial services is a contract that we have with Morris cleaning service. Uh so they undertake those there too. But they do have uh facility staff members. They have a director Wayne Anderson and uh three individuals who report to him who basically take care of the grounds work and the major projects at our school
buildings. Uh the DPW takes care of their own buildings. That's both the two garage buildings, the coal storage building uh and the uh administration building. The uh water treatment plant and the wastewater treatment plant are maintained by our contractor, Violia, uh for their services that are offered
there. Uh the police department has their own uh custodian. They've got one person that's there. If that person's ever on vacation, the city hall custodial staff is their backup. Uh the senior center has a uh single custodian as well, and that person also takes care
of the Greenwood Pool over the summertime. Um that is a shared position that has joint oversight between the director of the senior center and the director of human resources because that position oversees the pools for several years. Uh the custodian at the
uh senior center Greenwood Pool City Hall and the uh head custodian at the library all maintain the same title and level of status where they have people who report to them. Uh the senior center doesn't have people who report to them but where he manages multiple properties. That's why that uh position
is in that title grade that it's in. Uh in city hall, the custodial staff reports to the excuse me, custodial and maintenance staff report to the building commissioner. Uh that's really different depending on what city and town you're in. When I was in Rutland, it reported to the DPW director. Here, it reports to the building commissioner. In other
locations, it reports to the planning director for some reason. It's really just whatever the city and town came up with when they established their own custodial services. Um, we have uh one facilities manager, Phil HL. Uh, and he has one custodian
under him, uh, director or manager, Hul is here from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. And, uh, our night shift custodian is here from 1:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. So, there is some
overlap there, too, where they can work to make sure that Phil worked on something in the morning, Ronnie can make sure he finishes it at night. there's time for them to connect on what needs to be done. Uh but it's Phil's job to set the this is the job list for the day and this is the job list for the week and so on from there. Uh and they report to the building commissioner who's there. Um if there's coverage
that's needed at the uh police department, it's the night shift custodian that goes and fills in over at the police department. Uh and that's because there's certain sanitary standards that we have to have, particularly with the inmate cells that make sure they're cleaned on a certain schedule uh with the sanitary codes that we have for people who are residing in
our cells. Uh on aside from all of that, I will say the only other time that something unique comes up with our custodial and maintenance positions is if we have night events. Uh so the uh custod we they are the ones who normally staff the building during events that we have. Um, that's why we, you know, have
certain user fees for the use of Perry Auditorium over the weekend because we have to have a clerical uh, not clerical stuff, a maintenance person here. Uh, just to make sure that the bathrooms don't run out of toilet paper or paper towels or uh, soap or if there's a mess, it gets cleaned up the right way. Uh, the building is unlocked before the
event and then properly locked after the event. That way, we're not giving out keys to people who aren't city employees due to liability issues. Uh, all of those things there. So it's uh you know shared amongst the custodial staff on the buildings that they oversee. So if there's a night event at the senior center, it's the custodial member of the
senior center that's overseeing that night event and working that time there too. If it's here at city hall and Perry Auditorium, that's overseen by the two custodians who are here depending on who's able to make it um on an overtime shift. Um they the city hall custodial staff also oversees any other non-used
buildings in the city. So, Waterford Street, Community Center, School Street School, Helen May Solder, all of those fall to those staff members there. Not so much to maintain, but they go in once a week to make sure that the building's in an okay condition. There's no pipes broken, no breakins or anything. And if there is a break-in that the police department reports, they're the ones
responding to the scene to secure the location. Thank you. Questions, comments? Yes. Uh, thank you first of all. That was a lot. Um, so thank you for the letter. I appreciate it. It sounds like, and I
know it's not necessarily normal for public sector things, but it doesn't sound like there's an organization chart that map this necessarily. Um, and so it doesn't seem like there's either any normal any sort of uniform way I'll say that building maintenance is handled in the city. Looking at it, right? School
committee, the school department, like you said, the some things are contracted. They have their manager and then staff. DPW does some things inhouse and contract some things out. Senior center and pool share someone for part of the year and they report to two people. Police has its own facilities or
shares with city hall and then city hall has a facilities maintenance manager and then an employee under them and then they report to the building commissioner who I think also used facilities director in his um letter for a raise on
December 20, 2024. So you inherited the system. Yes. Do you are you open to continuing to review this. Oh, absolutely. Okay. Any I think it's uh one of the things I've tried to been clear since I've been mayor is any efficiencies and for effectiveness that we can pursue and not make better, we
should be doing. Um it's just one of those it's you have to wait for certain dominoes to fall before you can get to where you want to be. Uh and those dominoes are there were a lot of other things that were on the fire at the time and now I think it's a good time to review it. I think it's um it's nice to centralize things. The only thing we just have to keep in mind
is that some are union positions, some are non-un positions, and when you mix and match there, there's impact bargaining that has to take place. You have to make sure you're not giving a union job to a non-UN employee, things of that. Uh that's all there too. So that all of that stuff that we just have to keep in mind with it, but I'm absolutely open to stuff like that.
Thank you. No, I appreciate hearing that. Uh because one thing I noted, too, fire, airport, and golf course aren't on here. Do we know what they do? They all take care of their own facilities. Okay. Yeah. Uh just like the fire department plows their own facility too instead of the DVW plowing them up. So with airport
like is it just the staff there emptying their own trashes or cleaning up things. Okay. Um so they don't they don't have anyone specific things. Okay. Um so I think yeah I think that definitely helps warrant maybe further looking at
this. Um cuz I know when I you know from my experiences the school obviously is a great example where they have a facilities manager and then the team divides jobs. Someone's got plumbing expertise, someone has electrical expertise. There's usually a general. Um, and I think too when I worked at the housing authority, we also had like a
maintenance supervisor. We'd all meet in the morning, get our assignments, off we went. Whereas this is, I think, far more haphazard. Um, for instance, even just here at city hall, is there a real difference between a facility's maintenance manager title and then Phil's like maintenance manager
title or is any of this in ordinance anywhere or job description wise or? So, for the city hall custodial staff, that's in the union contract. Um, for the libraries custodial staff, that's in the ordinance. Um, but again, one union, one non-UN.
Mhm. Um, do we know what they do? Same thing too, like for Waterford, Helen May, School Street. Do you know what generally they have to do or how often they have to go to those buildings or uh I mean it's it's on their regular rotation to check those buildings.
Um, and if again if there's a call from the police department that there's a break-in or something like that, then they'll go out special for those to make sure it's all boarded up. um if there's someone who's going in to view the buildings for development opportunities, they'll be the ones with the keys to let people in. Um so it's they're not
constantly there. The main focus is the buildings they're assigned to. And for instance, the Waterfr Community Center, um when the contractor that we're waiting for that list from came in and redid the keys, uh Phil had went around with them to make sure that he knew the key system that was in there. for the um
contractors that were doing work before, you know, Phil was the one making sure that everything was was coordinated the right way so the doors were open at the right time and stuff like that. All those things like that. So, it's more on call for the other properties. Okay, that makes sense. Thank you.
Anything else? No, I think I think this is this is a good start then. Um you know we have a facilities manager with sort of a shifting portfolio and we talked a little bit some of these things are union some of these are in order and some of these things are are not
um you know it did you know it felt like it took some time to just even get this basic information like a month or so. So obviously it's not readily available and I think that would be helpful as well and just as we continue to look at this and organize it to have some better systems in place and documentation in place
um you know to have a facilities manager and not be able to just ask them for this stuff and then they had it readily available I think is disappointing. Um and there's a lot of different titles there's variations building the building human resources directors partly supervises a maintenance position and
the pool so I think you're right. I think there's there's room to improve and and room to make this better. We've got a bit of a buffet plate here with a little bit of everything on it. Um so I'm excited to look at this more and see what we can do with it. If if I may instead of I like the analogy of when
the mayor was describing the current um system he inherited the structure and he inherited. It's kind of like I love crime dramas and it's like the the whiteboard with the red tape and the pictures of who goes where. And I think, you know, there's just from this letter alone, I think there's there's enough here uh that the mayor has shown there's
efficiencies to be gained and I think we're in a position now where where we can take a look at them. Um so I do just want to add to the people who are in these positions do a great job with what they do. It's just the system that they were also thrown into when they were hired. So it's one of those things just working to make sure they've got the right work environment. So
obviously slowly over time new positions were added in order to do a job in a certain building or for a certain department. And then it's just the system was built out in that manner. Um instead of having an overarching, you know, top and then um structure under
buildings. Um it is a quite the web. Um and as you said, there's further information um that was asked for as well to go with this. But I think this is a at least a good start to get what's going on. I think council Tyrus has some more information. Oh, just just that I I do want to make sure I connect uh this
one the catalyst catalyst for this item was the Waterford Community Center because I think that is a major change in you know our municipal building footprint and and what that means and can we do things differently and better and uh more engaging. I think that makes sense. You know, it's
going to be a larger building to manage be managed by school um and they as council Hegman described have a more structured release system in their department and they have a number of buildings to um to handle. Um so um I think this is obviously
warrants time. Uh again, Council Mack is not with us and the information there's still other information the mayor is working for together which I'm sure isn't the um the quickest to gather. So we appreciate that. I appreciate the time that's been taken so far. Um setting everything else to add on this
item. Um not I would uh there's no objection. I would keep item 11518 on our calendar for further discussion. Agreed. Hearing no objection item 518 to stay on the calendar. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All those in favor say I. I. The motion
carries and the meeting stands adjourned. Thank you.