So, welcome to the Greenfield City Council meeting. Today is the 15th of April for those of you who don't file taxes. I am calling this meeting to order. Um, if I could just have a little bit of quiet back in the audience, that's
really helpful for us. Thank you. Um, so this meeting is being recorded by the city council and the Greenfield Community Television GCTV9. If any other persons present are doing the same, you must notify the chairperson. And I don't have Anthony,
our regular reporter. So, >> welcome Addison. Are you recording? >> You don't have to. >> Great. Um, I just want to mention for those of you who want to do public comment, there's a signup sheet right there and
you get three minutes. We always ask everybody to do your name and where you live as just part of open meeting law we have to do. If you're online, um, we don't see you if you raise your hand. So, you'll just have to put it in the comments section and we'll take people
as we go. So, first order of business is our roll call of members. Councelor Golib >> here. >> Councelor Gordon >> here. >> Councelor Bottomley >> here. >> Councelor Bullock >> here. >> Councelor Williams
>> here. >> Councelor Bullduck >> they are here. >> Um here but stepped out of the room for a minute. Uh councelor Webb >> here. >> Councelor Brown >> here. >> Vice President Garrett >> I am here. >> Councelor Minhos
>> here. Councelor Civ >> here. >> President Wandelowski >> here. >> And we'll try to announce when councelor Bulock comes back to the rail. >> Great. Thank you. So, um, first on our agenda is the pledge of allegiance,
which is voluntary flag. All right. So, we're going to go to um the order on page six to suspend the rules and be able to go out of order. Could I have uh counselor read that for me? >> Councelor Bick.
>> Okay. Councelor Baldick's back. >> Are you ready? The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council wave the rules of procedure chapter 565 rule 8 order and disposition of business to allow the agenda items to be taken out of order. Majority vote
required. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Extensions. Great. Thank you all. All right. Um, next we're going to approve the city council minutes from
January 21st. appointment on page 28. >> Okay, >> I'm going to do the minutes and then we'll do the appointment. Thank you. Um, could I have somebody read the order on page seven, please? Is there an order? No, that's not an order. Just uh can I
have a motion to accept the minutes, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> Great. Okay. All right. Now, we are going to move things around. So, I'm
just looking through my packet to get the right >> 28. >> So, uh page 28 on the appointment of Ann Dilimoth. Could I have somebody read that motion for me? Order number
FY26120. The city council moved that it be ordered that the the Greenfield City Council pursuant to charter section 211 approves the appointment of Anne Dillmouth to fill the precinct 3 city council seat vacated by Michael
Mastrotaro until December 31st 2027. Twothirds vote required of counselors present. >> Great. Any discussion? Um the committee chairs met. We discussed it. We were all
um in favor of moving forward. Um no, nobody and fantastic. So we are so lucky to have somebody raise their hand and say they want to join us. Um anybody else have comments or want to say anything?
I'll just say I think I'm possibly the person on the council who actually has known an for a while and I'm thrilled that she's willing to do this and join us on the council. I think that she'll be excellent at this and I really appreciate you.
Thank you. So, all in favor of appointing an I I don't see any abstensions. So, Ann, welcome to the Greenfield City Council. We'll now um give you your oath of
office. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I am Dolman >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully and impartially >> that I will faithfully and impartially >> and to the best of my abilities
>> and to the best of my abilities >> perform the duties of the office >> perform the duties of the office >> to which I have been appointed >> to which I have been appointed >> in accordance with the ordinances >> in accordance with the ordinances >> and the charter of the city of Greenfield >> and the charter of the city of
Greenfield >> the constitution and general laws, >> the Constitution and general laws >> of the Commonwealth >> of the Commonwealth >> and the Constitution >> of the Constitution >> of the United States >> of the United States. >> Congratulations.
It happens so quickly, doesn't it? All right. So, um, next we're going to move to communications from the superintendent and the school committee. So, I'd like to invite the superintendent and the chair to come up. You want to go first?
>> Hello. Um there are a few different things that we wanted to highlight and promote for you. Um, one on April 17th, the history department at GHS in collaboration with dial selfra uh, youth and community services are going to host
the annual youth engage with legislators and officials conference at the GHS library. Um, a few dozen students will have the opportunity to meet and engage in discussion groups with elected officials from the Greenfield School Committee, the city council, maybe some of you, um, and other town committees as
well as state legislators. This year's main topics which were chosen by the students are municipal finances and budgeting uh AI in schools and drugs, alcohol and vaping among teens. So our kids are great and they're very curious
and they want to know about these topics. So I'm hoping that whomever of you signed up to be there uh really enjoys and has a good time. This is going to be my third time running. Um it's a fabulous event and so excited that we're doing it. And also on April 17th, uh wanted to highlight that at
5:30 at the high school auditorium, we will be having our high school and middle school film festivals. These are student made films. Uh you can come check them out. There's also going to be snacks. And again, that's at 5:30 at the high school auditorium. And then I also
just want to highlight that you can always go to Arbiter Live if you are a sports person and you would like to go support our teams. We've got softball, we've got baseball, we've got tennis, we've got track and field. Anything that you could want to go watch and support our kiddos, please do. Um, all of the
games uh are listed on Arbiter Live and there are too many for me to list for you right now. There's like four a day every day for the next several weeks. So, please go support our our youth. >> Good evening, everyone. I have a few highlights of some great events that are
going on in our schools. at the high school. The Key Club during the month of April focused on community service and picking up litter. They had some planned events where they cleaned up downtown in the bike path on April 11th. And the Key Club students will be cleaning up and around the ghs campus and parts of
Shadic Park. And they also plan to schedule another trip to AAL as part of the United Ways Read, Learn, Succeed program. Our French club is taking several Greenfield High students, staff, and family members getting ready to
depart to France during April vacation. Key spots visited will be Paris, Straburg, Djon, Leon. Mark your calendars also for the French club on Thursday, May 7th. They will host a spring coffee house talent show from 6:00 to 8:00 in the Greenfield High
School auditorium. Admission is $5 for students and $10 for adults. And they will have lighter light refreshments as well. I'd also like to highlight the Greenfield High School drama club who just recently performed The Secret Garden. And what I'd really like to
highlight about that is not only did they have a great performance I was able to attend, but they did a showing Friday prior to their opening to the public for our third and fourth graders in the Greenfield public schools who went over there and saw had saw a great play. Um I was at that performance. The students
did a great job. They were attentive and it was easy to be so attentive because the actors and actresses did a great job. I ended up talking to the directors afterwards. They screened the the scenery behind it. Everybody did such a nice job. So, congratulations to all
those involved and a nice opportunity as I mentioned to bring our third and fourth graders and introduce them to drama and the big school. Right? We know that Greenfield High when you're an elementary student that is the school and we hope everybody aspires to go to that. Also want to just remind people
that we have a vacation academy going on. We've done that now for the last couple years and we'll be doing that next week during the April vacation as well. You may have seen in the newspaper the other day that the students of color club at the high school had a dodgeball tournament and congratulations to the
winners which were the administrative allstars that night. Um, I did not play that night. It was my wife's birthday and and I'm sure many of you know when you have a there's not even a choice on that, is there? Really, right? Um, on that one, but I want to congrat the fire department for also showing up. They
they entered a team as well as many others doing that. So, it was a nice night. And I want to have, you know, let you know we have a Green Greenfield High School has a Greenfield High School, Greenfield Middle School, sorry, a teacher who has been awarded the Grinspoon Award. Some of you might be
familiar with that. It's um now called the Piner Valley Teaching and Excellence Awards, but commonly known as the Grinswood Award for many years. And Lisa Morrison, a physical education health teacher at Greenfield Middle School, is this year's sole recipient for the Greenfield Public Schools. And her
principal, Michelle Fenomore, says Mrs. Morrison has a remarkable gift for seeing the unique strengths in every student in designing experiences that allow each one to shine. Whether it's building confidence in a hesitant learner, challenging a natural athlete to lead, or finding creative ways for
students to demonstrate teamwork and perseverance, she ensures that all students feel successful and valued in her class. Her commitment to inclusion, encouragement, and growth makes physical education a place where every student can thrive. Uh, Miss Morrison will be honored at a celebratory banquet at the
Log Cabin in Holio on May 6. So, congratulations to her. And my last shout out I want to talk about is I was fortunate to attend a poetry slam at Greenfield High School. And prior to that, one of their one of our students
at the high school entered a poetry slam that happened on April 3rd at the Academy of Music down in Northampton. It was senior Ash Bigalow and came in third place and won a cash prize. But then subsequently last week, they had a poetry slam at Greenfield High. do an
annual one and they did a great job. I'll tell you, I was thoroughly impressed just as I was with the drama students telling you this. And I tell you this because I guess I don't have that creative mind in me to be able to write like these people did. And it was
faculty members, uh, staff, students got up there, they were vulnerable, they expressed their own feelings. Um, and we have some talented people out here doing a lot of great things. And um not only can you write your own obviously right at a poetry slam, but you can actually
then read your favorites too that you grew up with. So people did that. So um shout out to the librarian at Jess Pollock at Greenfield High School and all those who participated. Um just showcasing that um as Chair Saxon mentioned, right, we have a lot of athletics going on, we have drama going
on, we have music going on, we have poetry going on. So we're not a we're not a one-size for everybody. We're an everything for everybody. and that's what we try to be in the Greenfield public schools. Thank you. >> Thank you both. You always have a very busy agenda going on in the schools. We
appreciate hearing it all. Um counselor questions and don't feel like you have to ask questions just to keep them here longer. Wow. Okay. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate all of and the the
enrollment summary. So >> So I'm going to take this a little bit out of order and if Linda Dunley, the executive director of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments is available. Uh I'm just going to jump up the city employees if that's okay.
Although she doesn't work for the city. >> Hi. I'm sure I sure am here. >> Great. Linda, thanks for being here and thanks for giving us a little bit more info on what the fur cog does and how you work with Greenfield.
>> Okay. Um, I'm going to start by telling you a bit about what the COG is and how we work, some current projects with Greenfield, and then Laura asked me to also talk about some advocacy work we're doing. Um, if you do not know, the
Franklin Regional Council of Governments is a municipal service organization and also the regional planning agency for Franklin County. We became a council of governments in 1998, which moved us from a county government to a council of governments, which means
we are no longer a cherry sheet assessment entity. We are a voluntary membership organization and all towns in Franklin County have been members since 1998. Um, towns pay a membership assessment
based on a formula that we that uses equalized value and population. And then we have a separate assessment for all of our municipal service programs which are optin programs that towns and the city can choose to use. You participate in
our collective purchasing municipal program, highway products and bids. You pay $3,417 in a bid participation fee. And with that, we provide the bidding and contracting for your highway
department's asphalt, road materials, aggregate and lom, salt and sand, etc. You also participate in our Franklin County Cooperative Inspection Program building and plumbing inspection
and you've just renewed the contract for that. Moving to our regional planning agency and community health program, here's some current projects we're working on with Greenfield. Now, starting with climate resiliency, we're working with
your planning board, open space task force, the Franklin Land Trust, and some city staff to consider zoning protections and land conservations within the Green River watershed. The Green River is kind of interesting because it tends to have a wider area
than the flood plane. And so, this project is aimed at reducing conflicts between the built environment and the river over the long term. Also on the Green River, we're working on a storm water project with the with
an engineer and the city to identify storm water best management practices to reduce pollution impairments on the Green River. And as part of the municipal vulnerability program, we're doing an assessment in all Franklin County municipalities
about water supplies to reduce climate vulnerabilities for drinking water, firefighting, farming, and other water uses. Um, I'm going to keep going. Moving to transportation projects. We are helping
out your your DPW with the Greenfield Main Street mostly working on helping you um connecting you with the mass dot right-of-way staff and the right-of-way work that needs to be done for that project. That project once fully
designed and right-of-way acquired will is slated to receive a significant amount of federal transportation funding for that project. with Masdot. We just completed a road safety audit of 2A from the Rotary to
Duncan and we're now working to um a road safety audit really looks at conditions in a corridor and needed improvements and now we're working with Masdot to come up with how we can improve the safety and flow of traffic
and other users in that corridor to move the Northern Tier passenger rail proposal forward. word. We are in the midst of doing an economic impact study in hopes of showing Massachusetts and MASDOT that Northern Tier passenger rail
is worth investing in. We were recently awarded a federal grant, safe streets for all to do a demonstration project on safety measures and one of the two uh pilot areas where we're doing that is the area of
Greenfield around the John W. Wolver Transit Center and that part of Bank Row and Olive Street. We're working with the Greenfield Business Association to relaunch the bike friendly business bike friendly
business program in Greenfield. Um, and we do we've been doing Valley Flyer passenger rail marketing for maybe five years or so. Uh moving on to public health projects,
we are the um public health training collaborative. We have the grant to provide those those services. That grant funds um now state developed and statemandated classroom and hands-on training for all Massachusetts public
health staff. and Meg Trudin, your very own Meg Trud Tudran, was the third inspector in all of Massachusetts to complete the entire housing certification program. One of our ST staff sits on the mayor's domestic violence task force. We provided funding
to your community development department through our mass in motion program for age and dementia friendly work. Um, we supported the Greenfield schools by helping to write and now we're helping to coordinate a six district six district
uh public school opioid settlement grant to support access to mental health support and discipline reform. And our community health department is collaborating with the Greenfield Health Department to conduct a measles outbreak tabletop exercise with the Mass
Department of Public Health. I think that's next week. Um Laura asked me to talk a bit about the advocacy we do. We do work with our legislators quite a lot and do a lot of advocacy both with legislation and with policy and program
and state agencies. Recent work has been to work with the Senate on the environmental bond bill that um has passed through the Senate with with the 500 million more for the most mass municipal vulnerabilities
program. the creation of a Connecticut River Commission and $50 million to implement climate resiliency for the Connecticut River and all of the all of its tributaries so that we can try to stop devastating damage from flooding.
The House budget came out today and I honestly was too busy to see what's in it because the other big thing we're working on now is the COG is the chair and facilitator of the rural policy advisory commission. In 2019,
Massachusetts issued the first um rural policy plan and we are updating it now. And while Greenfield is not defined as rural by the Rural Policy Advisory Commission, most of the recommendations
we are working on will improve equity and capacity in all Franklin County commu communities. And we also are strong believers that if we have a strong Franklin County, we have a strong green field. I don't know how long that was, Laura. I
tried to keep it under 10 minutes. >> Amazing. There's a lot. >> Thank you. So, thank you so much, Linda. I appreciate it. Um, questions for Linda. >> Councelor Barrett, thank you for Sorry. Um, thank you for all the work that you guys do over at
Furcog. Um, there's a whole long list that you gave us there. So, I uh I really appreciate all the efforts you guys are making. One thing I noticed that came up quite a bit was um infrastructure regarding you know bicycles and something I read about recently is the valley bike share just
expanded to places like Westfield and I know we're not part of that consortium but I was wondering if that's something that Furcog is working on to any degree even if it's not through the program that's out of Northampton and Springfield but something along those lines. I would be curious if you guys
have engaged with it all. We have looked into it and it makes I the last time I talked to staff about it, it really makes the most sense to try to hook into the work in Hampshire County. Um, and we
would need to get a grant for that, but uh you remind me that I should get an update and I believe you are the teacher of one of my staff's daughters and she says you're great. And her her daughter is great.
>> That's what I hear, too. >> Yeah. And the work she's doing for Furcog is also amazing. It's some of that completes. >> I know. Huh. >> Yeah. >> Linda, it is my understanding that on the Senate part of the environmental bond bill that there's two ear marks for
Greenfield. Are could you mention those um for everybody? I don't know that I know which is one for the wastewater treatment plant. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Um that would make improvements to
the wastewater treatment plant. I don't know what the other one is, Laura. >> The the lunch property. Yeah. >> At least a million dollars. I think that's >> I don't want I don't want to put you on the spot. You don't have to read through the bill.
>> Yeah. I don't have it open, but I can I can I'll I'll look it I'll look it up and um send you information. >> Great. No, we're we're we're really excited about this. Um especially because of the historic flooding issues we have in Greenfield and any support we
can get to help with that is going to be really important, especially as climate change is going to exacerbate that and make more flooding. >> Yeah. And that's that's the other reason to be excited about the Connecticut River Commission because um there's an
that that went from $0 to $50 million and we're still hoping for hund00 million. But if we can use that for climate resiliency of the Connecticut River wershed plus all of the tributary wersheds, that would be a really
significant amount of money and work for improving our resiliency and trying to stop some of that devastating destruction. Counselors, any other questions for Linda? And seeing no, so thank you so much for taking the time and zooming in.
And I know you can't see our faces, so it's kind of weird. >> No, I can. >> Oh, you can? Oh, good. >> I can. Yeah. >> Last last month they couldn't. So that's what I heard. Can you see my face? >> We can.
>> Okay, good. Thanks for taking me out of order, Laura. I'm going to go pack for a weekend trip. >> Okay, enjoy. >> Thanks. Thanks, everyone. >> All right. Uh, next I want to invite up our folks from the um planning board.
Uh, George and I think maybe Ella Wise is on from >> Ella is online. They're running late so they said we could go back to them in a few minutes if you want. >> Perfect. All right. So, we will invite
the mayor um and city officers and employees up. Good evening everybody. Um, before we get started, I want to give a quick update. We are getting ready to submit our FY27 budget to you.
As you know, we're in a tough financial spot right now. Unfortunately, this means we will be seeing staff reduction across many city departments. To add to that challenge, we've been hit with two major infrastructure failures. Um, both of which happened on April
Fool's Day. Um, and uh, so first I'm going to tell you about the generator. At the beginning of the month, we discovered that the 25-year-old generator located at the police headquarters has failed. This is the backup power for police station,
dispatch center, and the server room. If those servers go down, we lose access to all city digital storage, including the system police use for dispatch. Basically, if that facility loses power without a backup, our communications go
dark. Right now, we are uh renting a temporary generator for $14,000 a month. I want to give a huge thank you to central maintenance, IT, fire department, police for helping with that installation. And a special thanks to
our central maintenance director, Joe Pugs, for negotiating a better price on the on the rental. But paying 14,000 a month for the rental doesn't make financial sense. On the flip side, repairing the broken unit would cost
around $110,000, which is not a great investment. Because of that, I've called an emergency city council meeting for next Tuesday, April 21st at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be completely remote. At that meeting, I'll
be asking the council to approve $250,000 for a new replacement generator. It looks so far like at least seven of you are able to attend. So, we should have a quorum as long as everyone logs on. Um, Shelurn Road Culver Wash out. Um
that this this also happened on April Fool's Day. We had a major wash out on Shelurn Road at the Wheelerbrook Culver. Repairing just that culbert by itself would cost several million dollars. Mass DOT came
out to look at the site with our DPW team. They saw active erosion right while they were standing there and warned us that this could turn into a much larger and more expensive project. Mass DOT also made it clear that they are not interested in taking ownership
of the road, which we tried. Right now, there are two Greenfield homes on the west side of the wash out. DPW has been great about collecting their trash and recycling using our smaller trucks. The residents are still getting their mail
and we are checking with them regularly. We are also talking with Verizon and thankfully their lines seem to be a safe distance from the wash out for now. We are still weighing the options for the future of Shelurn Road, but a permanent fix is going to be incredibly expensive
and honestly it might be beyond the means of the city. I will keep you updated on the next steps. Um, I want to give a shout out to our first responders and fire and police. yesterday responded to a terrible fire,
a brush fire near Wisdom Way and I 91 um in the afternoon, shut traffic as you all know on 91. And I wanted to thank all the surrounding agencies who came to our assistance and helped extinguish the fire.
Transitioning to the group insurance, GIC, I want to talk about health insurance. Our current insurer is Health New England. They just increased our rates by 19.3% for FY 27. That represents a $2 million
increase that the city simply cannot afford. Greenfield is not alone in the in this. Insurance costs are crippling budgets of towns and cities all over. Switching to the state's group insurance commission or GIC is a huge step towards
getting Greenfield on stable financial footing. Tonight you are voting on adopting statutes from chapter 32B. The crit this critical vote is the first step for us to transition to the GIC in January of 27. Making this switch is
expected to save the city a substantial amount of money, but more importantly, it will save jobs. We need to keep our department staffed. Every decision I've made about the budget so far assumes that we will transition to the GIC. You all have an
important role to play here and are holding the city's financial future in your hands. We cannot afford to get this wrong and we are on an extraordinary tight timeline to make these changes. I want to take a moment to thank Tara Clutier for bringing the insurance
advisory committee together and for working so collaboratively to get to this point. I am very happy to partner with our unions on this process and work towards an agreement under section 19, but we do need to be cleareyed about our
odds. Our attorney, the GIC, the MMA have all advised us to pass sections 21 to 23 because historically the success rate with section 19 is very low. I am hopeful that we will be an exception to this statistic. Our great
unions have committed to reaching an agreement by Tuesday and and I believe them, but we must have a plan B ready. Attorney Quinn can tell more about the plan and the timeline that we are on. Lastly, I'm asking for a budget extension because of the highly unusual
circumstances uh surrounding this transition. Attorney Quinn is here and I I brought him up with me tonight because he'll answer all the questions on insurance. if you have anything else for me for for me. Thank you >> counselors. Um if we have questions, I'm
going to ask you all to hold off on questions about the GIC until we get to that portion of the agenda. And I know it's extremely hard not to jump in, but otherwise we'll have this weird bifurcated conversation. So I'd rather have it all at once. So I appreciate
having the attorney here as well. So any questions about anything not related to insurance, please? Councelor Gordon. >> Thank you, Mayor, for being here and for that update. Um, I'm thinking about culvert washouts, uh, which have
happened, um, happened in my precinct a couple years ago, and we had a very rainy summer, and I think, you know, a very small culvert that had two houses on the other side, cost several million dollars for the city to repair. We're seeing that now with Shelurn Road. Um, I know that there's not a whole lot the
city can do to prevent this, but I'm curious if um, DPW is or anyone perhaps from the state is keeping an eye out kind of proactively on, you know, which ones might be next, what can we do to shore them up so that we hopefully don't
see these very expensive washouts as as much as I'm afraid we will in the future. So, we actually knew that this one was a little problematic. We'd gotten an ear mark just before the collapsed, like 16
hours before, actually. It's been a great week, great couple of weeks. Um 16 hours before we got a uh we were just told that we had an ear for that. So, so they DPW I I don't follow them around
every day, but they know which things are going to they that's why you have such a long list from DPW because they're watching everything. I just actually got a bridge report that I didn't really want to open up because I didn't think I could face anything else.
Um, you know, and so yes, they are keeping an eye on it. By the way, did you all get I think I forwarded everybody the email from Furcog on this on this particular street cuz it's
really tough because there's a couple houses at the end. Um, >> I think I had councelor Minhos and then councelor Brown. Is that >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> You sure?
>> Hello. Um, as you know, yesterday we kind of had a few fires and I just wanted to ask if you could give a little update on what actually happened yesterday and what the response was from our uh, courageous folks who I saw in
front of my gas station just like 40 damn cars just boom boom boom. Um, so and also kind of just on the topic of natural disasters, given that that was so close to our community yesterday, uh, are there any
precautions that the community members can take to kind of mitigate that sort of issue from happening in the f future and exploding? >> So, um, that was a really that was a terrible fire yesterday and they did a
great job. Um the first call that I I I received was it was near the nursing home and Mson Street, a lot of homes. Um we had a wonderful response from so many people. How did it start? It had
something to do with the brakes on the terrain and um I love explaining things that I don't totally understand. So, you know, something happened and then some fluid came out and it was a bad kind of fluid,
I think. And um you know, not the kind that you want that made it worse, I think. And um so it was all up and down the tracks and then then it was windy. I went up to see that after we finished meeting with I think we're meeting with
attorneys on this insurance thing and then left to go up and see that. Um but um I think that's how it started and then it kept it spread and it went into Deerfield. So after they finished and put out was fascinating. They have the
staging area was so hot I can't imagine fighting a fire dressed up in all those clothes. Um but they did a good job. It was on all different parts of the track and then shut down 91 and then they went off to Deerfield to help them after they put
it out where we were. Um, I think drought doesn't happen. Um, you know, what can we do? Pray for rain if you're a prayer praying type person. Um, and um, you know, that we were all hoping for that. And then it rained last night.
So, that was a good thing. And I can get you more information from the fire chief who would probably be able to explain that better than I did. Councelor Webb.
Um, I don't have a question. I just wanted to say thank you for showing up to the trash pickup on Saturday. The mayor was super sick and still showed up to pick up trash. And with her help along with I don't know, so many that I could name.
Um, we picked up over two uh what am I thinking of? What's the word? two junk stores worth full of trash from the Green River and um downtown. And I think there were like 32 um shopping carts, something like that. It
was a lot of shopping carts. Pretty amazing stuff. >> Williams. >> Uh Councelor Williams. >> Yes. Not a question, but a comment. Uh I want to extend also thanks from the M&A nurses at Franklin Medical. They were so
happy that you came to their picket. It meant everything to them. So, thank you for that. Councelor Bulock. >> Yeah. Um just I was reading today that the House Ways and Means um released
their budget plan for 2027 and it looks like the amendments are due by Friday. So, I'm sure you're working with our state delegation, but there was some um things in there that would actually help us a lot as a city. There's an increase
um to the unrestricted government funds in there. There's rural aid for schools in there. None of them are at a significant increase, but something that could potentially mitigate. Um, so I know that I will obviously reach out to
our local delegation, but the turnaround was fast. So I just wanted to let you know in case you didn't that it's by Friday. We have reached out. Um, they're worried about us. I think they're trying to do everything that they can. I'm sharing my worry with them constantly
and submitted remarks and the other the unrestricted government aid. It's terrible. We have all these unfunded mandates. They have not kept up with inflation. It what we are receiving in a
should be so much more. I don't know what's going to happen. >> Great. Thank you, Mayor. >> Is there someone else? >> I I I just want to let attorney Quinn know. You're going to wait and have all
questions on insurance later as we get through? >> Yes. Because that way it'll help us in our deliberation if that's okay. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> All right. So, I've got George to come up and Ella who's online to give us an
update on um the master plan. >> She's in person. She >> Oh, she is. >> Okay. I I thought your I thought I saw your name on the >> It wasn't over there. >> Ah, >> great. Thank you so much for being here
and giving us a short update. >> I have hard copy materials. Is it >> like me to just start? >> Thank you. Um, George Tulumsus. I'm the vice chair of the planning board. I'm here representing the planning board. I'm here in lie of Jeff Sauer who's the
chair uh because he couldn't be here this evening. Um and uh I'm also I've been honored to be for the past 10 plus years the planning board representative on the master plan implementation committee. Um and I have a little show
and tell. This is the uh 2014 master plan. Um it's 336 pages. It's uh easily found on the town website and um so it's called sustainable green field and so
the master plan implementation committee is called the sustainable green field implementation committee sgic and um so there has been a process to uh update because it's been 10 years we're starting uh with a partially starting
with a couple of chapters and so the two chapters that we had an opportunity to update were the land use and the national historic and cultural resources. The other um chapters uh there are seven chapters total. They're
transportation, economic development, education and that only applies to uh the buildings not to the educational process itself. Public facilities services and energy housing. That's it. Um, so two of the seven
chapters have just been updated and I should say that the master plan is by state statute. It's a planning board document. So we have uh the planning board has approved this um these changes, these two new chapters and we're bringing them forward now. We
wanted to share them with the council. Um Jeff's going to setting up a meeting with the mayor to share them as well and then we're going to have a public um dissemination a public meeting on uh uh May 15th uh I think right here. So I did
I should have said at the beginning I appreciate the invitation from the president and from the counselors to be here today to share this. And I'm going to um touch on a few talking points to make sure I don't miss anything. Um the
purpose is um um to present these um important resources to encourage leadership buyin and uh initiate the next phase of the implementation and action. And the master plan is a shared guide for city policies, programs, and
investments. Ideally, it translates the values and hope of people who live, work, and play in Greenfield into specific actions. The power of the master plan, a master plan is a shared guide so we're all rowing in the same direction. Um, and want to um inform the
council how uniquely committed Greenfield and the SGIC uh have been over the last 10 years maintaining and implementing the plan since its origination a decade ago, which is not that common in cities and um towns
across the state. and that was often commented on by our former planner Eric Tuark. Um the Greenfield master plan was adopted in 2014 with a focus on sustainability. I've mentioned the the chapters um and for each of these topics
there's a robust analysis of the current conditions based on data and public engagement and then recommendations of goals, strategies and implementation actions. And these two chapters um have recently been uh refreshed um the um
national uh land use and natural historic and cultural resources. And a couple years ago, the planning department started to work with the students of the Conway School, a school for ecological design in Northampton. The updated chapters maintain many of the same goals, strategies, and actions
of the original plan, but with new focus on improving Greenfield's tree canopy and promoting development and activity downtown. And um what Ella uh disseminated were the two um lists of goals, strategies, and implementation uh
actions for each of those two chapters, but also a uh two-page comparison of the original and uh uh current um uh revised chapters. And those are very helpful to see how this some things are sustained
and continued and some things are kind of a a revised focus. Um the process for writing the chapters included community engagement through review by local volunteers. The Conway school hosted two community engagement events and an online survey. The
students worked with the planning department and the SGIC. Uh the committee um the updated chapters were prepared by the students were then edited by the members of the SGIC and finally reviewed and approved by the planning board.
Um, and the updated chapters relate to your work as city councilors because it provides a helpful outline for shared goals between the many different stakeholders in town. The master plan can help translate priorities into policies. Almost like a menu. If you
have goal you want to pursue on the council, the master plan likely has recommended strategies and actions for achieving that goal. Next steps are to use the master plan implementation table to find a goal you're interested in advancing and the recommended strategies and actions. For
example, if you're interested in increasing urban tree canopy and expand an urban green space, you can identify which type of strategy you're most interested in pursuing and then which action. Maybe it's to help increase the city's ability to plant and care for trees by assisting the planning
department and DPW on complete streets funding applications. Uh and another step is to engage with the planning board as you consider planning priorities and zoning amendments so we can collaborate on how to move them forward in the context of the master plan. There are many
recommendations in the plan for zoning changes. And lastly, the SGIC will check in regularly with the council to keep you updated on the plan status and ongoing implementation. And in addition to the two um tables that we just disseminated, there's also
the students put together a 90page uh background chapter that will be sent to you electronically as well. We have this hasn't been put on the uh website yet because we're waiting for the public um event that's going to be happening on the 19th. So, so again just wanted to
share this respectfully with all of you and um uh hear any um sorry tapping the table and hear any um uh feedback or thoughts you might have. I know it's it's a lot as I was saying
it's a lot a lot of information a lot to take in um but uh the process one is meant to represent the entire community and both you know um and going forward as well. So, >> thank you. This is really helpful. And actually, this little cheat sheet, I
think, is really fantastic so we can see the differences between where we were and where you're going and what's still ongoing and what's been achieved. So, thank you. And then having also these recommendations so that the council can
look at what we might do as as part of that. So, counselors, um, questions. I know it's a lot to digest, so we might not have questions today. It might have to come to you guys um via email or at a future date.
So, I see a lot of hands. Um >> okay, so I have councelor Minhos um then councelor Williams and then councelor web and I think councelor Garrett. First off, thank you for such a
comprehensive and extensive list that um uh we can go over later. So, just kind of for the interest of public knowledge, this is the master plan that
potentially has had some controversy with folks when it comes to parking and Main Street. Am I correct in that? like this is the one that will change um parking from being uh perpendicular to parallel potentially down the road or is
that something different? Well, that um I'm trying to remember. I believe that in the original master plan um that might have been one of the
that might have been one of the recommendations to consider from the point of view of having more effective multimodal transportation downtown. Um so so there are some things like that
that had might have influenced some of the um uh things are being worked on right now. Um but I'm I'm not sure exactly and obviously >> I can answer that. Um that's the complete streets plan which is different
and that's being done with DOT. Um >> so that's a different completely different >> completely different. It's not the master plan. >> Okie do. So you're off the hook for taking away people's parking. >> There's a lot of overlap of these different plans and approaches. And so
the the complete streets was one of the recommendations of the master plan for example. So >> also if you Oh, you can go ahead. >> I would just add that the master plan I agree with everything that's been said. Hi, my name is Ella Wise. I'm the new planning director. It's an honor to be
here. It's my first city council meeting. Um the master plan sets a higher level direction. So multimodal accessibility and healthy streets and a thriving downtown is a goal of the 2014 master plan especially in the transportation chapter. The
transportation chapter wasn't updated um in this recent round. Uh but the the downtown complete streets project is a like an implementation action rather than the master plan setting higher
level goals. >> Just one thing I had was and forgive me if you've mentioned this before. Is there some type of public engagement uh that is coming up? Some type of meeting that the public can expect to come to and kind of have a back and forth to see
how this would be implemented, what their town is going to change to look like. I mean, most of the stuff I'm seeing, I mean, all of them, this is looking like pretty good stuff. I mean, more trees, more green space. This is a good thing. Yeah, there were as I mentioned there
had been previous um involvement of the public uh both a couple of uh events public events and online survey in developing these and now on the 19th there's going to be a public event to share it and have engagement. It's good
>> council Williams. >> Yes. So my question is on May 19th is the meeting is a public meeting and where is that and what time is it? >> It's here and >> here >> uh it hasn't yet the planning department
>> Can I have you put on your Thanks. >> Yep. Sorry. The planning department is not hosting that. It has not been publicly posted. Um but the draft plan would be that it was May 19th located here >> in the evening. But I'm not sure of the
exact I don't think we've set an exact time yet. That's being hosted by the SGIC. >> Thank you, >> Councelor Webb. >> Hi. Thank you all for putting this together. I sit on the SGIC who has been
meeting about this and meeting about the public engagement process. You should all come. It's really cool. It's how we get to choose what our city looks like. Um I had one question for you all. I saw that you updated the solar um infrastructure for the city and I'm wondering if community owned solar is
something that we're interested in as a town or was it put forth on the plan? >> I don't recall that being included. I wasn't involved in the drafting but I could double check. >> Yeah, I'm not sure specifically. >> Thank you.
>> Yeah, >> I've got councelor Garrett and then councelor Gordon. Oh. Oh, we thought you were okay. >> So, I don't have a question, but just a thank you to you folks for all the work you put into this plan and a plug to
members of the public who here we have a 300 page planning document and maybe don't automatically want to go and read it, but there's genuinely it's a wonderful document. I've read it, the 2014 one. I look forward to reading the updates. And that's not just because I'm
the kind of person I am. It's really good information and it's there's lots of pictures, there are bullet points like it really lays out a future path for the city to take that is optimistic and hopeful and proactive rather than reactive. And that's one of the things I
really love about the master plan is it's a chance for government to plan rather than just simply jumping from crisis to crisis, you know. And so thank you for this work and I really hope we continue holding ourselves to the standard of being a city that plans
rather than a city that simply reacts. So thank you >> councelor Golope. >> I want to echo again Mike first. I want to echo my colleagues that said this is this is incredibly well done and excuse me I
know it's well done because one one thing that I'm really excited about this is because as a counselor my our scope is so limited about what we can do and I'm just reading through this and as the chair of appointments and ordinances I'm always thinking about okay what what
type of ordinance can we have under our uh purview and immediately I located one about the wetland protection ordinance which we recently amended but we could amend it again. So I'm curious if all of
this is in one spreadsheet. I love a wonderful spreadsheet. This is a wonderful spreadsheet. Um do you have this in a spreadsheet that I could like search and look up ordinance and see okay the these are our next steps to implement this as much as possible?
I'll just say we we have folks on the SGI who are more techsavvy, very tech-savvy. I'm not that person. And um what's the name of the the um the system that's going to be on the >> um there is a I think a public facing
air table, but there's also an Excel document of this PDF. >> Can you please send that to the council? That would be incredibly helpful. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Councelor Dilmouth.
>> Uh, this is very exciting news that two of the chapters of the master bond have been updated. Um, I'm curious, is there a schedule for updating the other chapters? Like how does how does that work? I'm hoping that that there will be. Yes, this came about somewhat by
happen stance because the Conway school came forward um and then the SGIC in consultation with the planning board said which two chapters would best fit their expertise and then after that we were thinking okay we've got a little
momentum going for updating this 10-year-old plan and we uh the SGI thought economic development would probably be the next uh most important thing consulted with the planning board. The planning board agreed. So, we've been trying to uh look for funding to uh
do a an update of that chapter. >> Councelor Balder. >> Hi. So, first of all, this is fantastic. And I didn't get past the word history. Um and I stopped there. That's it's a surprise, right? Um, and I
just want to say that I think it's incredibly valuable that you have this this focus on uh highlighting the indigenous history of the area. I think that is incredible because for the longest time, Greenfield has been an industrial community. Um, and I think that going back to those kinds of roots really teaches us, you know, not to use
the horrible pun, but you get to the root of where we are as a community and where we started. Um, but I also as the secretary of the historical commission that totally publishes minutes on time and uploads them to the city direct. That's I'm going to get you those minutes. But, um, I also think that um,
if at all possible, I would love to to see some we'd love to have those conversations with you because I see there's parts here about uh, updating uh, the historical commission and talking about historical signage. I can just say that we'd be more than happy to get involved in that. So, not to put that on the agenda. Sorry, Margot, if you're watching. Thank you.
I'll just say the Conway students did a wonderful job putting a lot of emphasis on that history. So >> yeah, >> if I could >> What's up? >> I just wanted to make one last comment. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> I I just want to say the the um the
title of the um sustainable Greenville implementation committee is a bit of a misnomer. We don't really implement much. um you folks do and uh the department heads do. Um and what has been great over the past 10 years is to
see uh so much in in department budgets. The master plan has been um completely integrated into that process. I've heard so much. It's been so heartening over the years to hear counselors up here reference the master plan so deeply. And
so we're we kind of try to fill in the gaps uh when something doesn't fall into a certain uh area that's being covered and we're kind of champions of things and cheerleaders. So I don't want to I don't want to take too much credit in that regard. So um I just want to
mention that appreciate all the work you folks have been doing in putting this uh plan into action. Thank you. >> Thank you for the update and welcome to Director Wise. So, we're so excited to have you in front of us and to continue to work with you.
>> So, thank you both. >> So, I want to thank everybody who's turned out tonight. Um, it's great to have a lot of faces here. um and hear from everybody. So, we've got a comment sheet. So, if you haven't signed up, um
just quickly run and grab it from Kathy and we'll get you on the list. Um each of you is going to have three minutes to speak, say your name, where you live. Um and that's about it. There will be a little um annoying alarm that'll go off.
We try and not cut you off, but if you keep going, we will cut you off. Um, and we're going to go back and forth between online and in the room, folks. So, thank you all for being here tonight. And the first person I have is
um, Ahmad Est Estfani. >> Thank you. Um, my name is Awan Desani. I live at 44 East Cleveland Street. Um, across Massachusetts as well as in neighboring states, elected officials are no longer treating the issue of
immigration and customs enforcement as a theoretical issue. There's growing consensus that some federal immigration enforcement activity is operating outside the bounds of state law and due process. Here in Greenfield, the conversation appears to be at the level
of internal clarification. What the city can and cannot do and how to avoid direct conflict. That is a position, but is not the same as a response. What Ammerst did in February and what Brattleboro Vermont did even more recently was different. They made a
determination. They stated clearly that certain conduct is unlawful and accountability should apply regardless of federal authority. What is emerging not just in Massachusetts but across the country is a widening gap between what the federal
government asserts is lawful and what states, municipalities, and residents are increasingly recognizing as inconsistent with their own laws and constitutional framework. That gap is not abstract. It is being experienced in courts, in schools, and in our
community. And when that gap appears, local government is forced into a position either to defer entirely or to assert that the rule of law still operates at the state level. The question is whether Greenfield intends to remain in a holding pattern or
whether it intends to take a position consistent with the direction of the region because at a certain point continued in action is not neutral. It becomes a form of alignment. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
Next I have Tara Clutier. >> Hello, I am Tara Clutier. I am a I live at 25 255 Cole Rain Road in Greenfield. I am a teacher at the high school and I'm the president of the Greenfield Education Association.
Before I get into the GIC conversation, I just wanted to thank Verog because they didn't mention that they helped me take 46 kids last month to New York City to go see um Buista Social Club on Broadway, which is
a magical musical about the uh music of Cuba in the 1950s and with the same characters in the 1990s. So, thank you so much, Fogg. You're doing lots of great things. I'm also taking kids to Spain on Saturday. Last thing I'm going to say about myself. Um, thanks so much.
So, I would like to thank the Ways and Means Committee the other night for voting to reject um, Mass General Law 32B, sections 21 through 23. Um, I'm going to ask you tonight to vote for
accepting section 19 and that same law. I'd like to thank the mayor for circling back and recommending section 19. Um, as union leaders, we appreciate the um allowing us to retain our collective
bargaining rights over our health insurance. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I have L. Norman. >> Good evening, councilors. Uh Al Norman, Grenell Street. Um I want to u make a
few brief comments about something that's come that could be on your agenda very soon. I've talked with uh Chairwoman Golib about this. Uh filed some testimony. This this is um if you if you fall behind in your in your property taxes, you have you are at risk
of going into tax title uh which then leads to foreclosure and can include an auction of your home. Uh this is something that according to the treasur's office is around 183 183 homes by June will be in tax title.
Um, this is a great concern because you also have the right under state law to to redeem your house. In other words, to pay back what you owe. To do that, you can enter into a payment agreement with the city uh to pay over time. So, the question is, are those payment
agreements fair and equitable both to the city and to the taxpayers so that no one's being exploited? Because these are people who aren't simply negligent and don't care about paying their taxes. They don't have the money. they just don't have the money to pay for that. And so one of the things that you will
be seeing soon, it's going to come out of ANO or whatever, but it it's u uh back in uh in March 2nd, the uh the mayor uh looked over submitted a statement to ANO that said that um uh the goal is for everyone to stay in
their homes and the taxes need to be paid. I don't disagree with that, but what it leaves out is what about the interest? Uh it's curious that we we as a commonwealth and as a city have been for years charging people 16% interest
on on their their tax arers. Um and you know that can that could break a a deal right there. Uh the the state law that was passed during the home equity theft issue that that I was involved in, it's now 8%. any home after November 1st of
2024 should be getting charged 8% for any uh any taxes that are owed. I would like to see the new payment agreements which are allowed under state law to put a cap on it at 8%. I don't think anybody should be charged 16%, you know, 8 9%
10%. Let's cap it at 8%. Let's make it so that interest doesn't destroy people's ability to pay back. We also can allow them to pay it back over more than 5 years. the proposal that's in the pipeline towards you uh caps it at 5 years, but the state said no, you can
you can allow 10. I don't particularly want 10 years because that's an extra payment that people have to make in interest over all that time. I'd like to see it at set a compromise at seven seven years to pay back instead of 5 years. And also, and probably most
critically, the the law that's been in effect for a couple of years now allows towns, cities like Greenfield, to uh to charge um uh to wave some of the interest that's accured. That that's that interest will kill you. I missed
one payment once in all my 47 years of being a property owner. The interest is built up enormously quickly. So, I just want to tell you I'm going to submit the statement for you uh to to the clerk uh to to Tammy so that you can all see it
before your next meeting. Katherine has already seen it. I understand what the mayor is trying to do, but and I and I agree with much of it, but this this this payment plan is not a little issue. It's actually a big economic issue.
Thank you, President. Thank you. So, we have a few folks signed up who are not from Greenfield. So, I'm going to take people out of order because of our our rules of taking folks from out of Greenfield last. So, just so you know for the people who signed up earlier.
So, I have Joy Whit Whitbeck next. Hello. Hi. Hey. Um, I'm Joy Whitbeck from 49 Lincoln Street and I'll apologize to anyone that weighs and means on Monday. You already heard my little spiel, but it's a little different. Um, so as someone who's been a lifetime Greenfield resident, then an
employee, and now a representative of the SA union, um, I'm here on behalf of the union and myself to respectfully ask you to enact MGL 20 32b section 19 and reject sections 21 to 23. We can all agree that health insurance is a very
important, personal and expensive part of our lives and that a change to our current health insurance situation is necessary to better support the financial standing of our city and its contributing employees. Unfortunately, for the third year in a row, the city has faced significant premium increases and due to time constraints, there has
been there has not been productive discussion or room for new ideas or opinions. Most recently, the city requested that employees not only deal with Health New England's 19% premium increase, but also take a larger percentage of the expenses. This would create an impossible situation for
employees, especially families, who would be asked to shoulder an almost $500 per month increase in premiums. The current union influence on health insurance provided to city employees is limited to an advisory only role through the insurance advisory committee. After
meeting last n month, the IA's response to the city was a request for change by enacting MGL 32B section 19 as was suggested by the finance department. It further acknowledged that the committees created by this enactment much worse swiftly to review this current situation
and potentially move to larger group insurance like GIC as soon as possible, perhaps even by January 1st, 2027. In America today, an exorbitant amount of control over our healthcare is dictated by insurance. insurance companies. MGL23B section 19
gives decision-making power to individuals and families instead of us just advising. These are the people with fresh ideas and a desire to work collaboratively. In contrast, sections 21 to 23 restrict employees ability to have a voice in the future of our critical health insurance coverage and
leaves the burden of change in the hands of those who until now have failed to show a desire to make substantial changes to the plan. If the real if real change fails under 19, then 21 to 23 could be enacted. But Greenfield employees deserve the opportunity to
work collaboratively under 19 before assuming that will falter. Therefore, I ask you to please support unionized labor, the financial health of Greenfield, and its employees who keep Greenfield a wonderful place to live by enacting 32 section 19 and a brighter
way forward for city employee healthcare coverage. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'm going to jump to online and I have Jesse Cole. Jesse, if you're there, you can unmute mute. Hello. Uh, my name is Jesse. I'm a
resident of 8 Prospect Avenue in precinct 5. Um, I'm a library worker at Greenfield Public Library and I'm a co-to for the city's clerical union which is part of UEE local 274. Um, and as both a citizen and employee
of Greenfield, uh, today I'm urging city council to support NGL 32B section 19 and reject sections 21 through 23. Section 19 allows the city to find a more affordable insurance option while still ensuring those directly impacted
have a voice in their future coverage. Section 21 through 23 restricts our ability to negotiate future health insurance. And I hope that the council can see by the overwhelming concern across multiple city unions today that sections 21
through 23 set a dangerous precedent. So please support Greenfield and its unionized workers. many of whom are your neighbors uh by rejecting the enactment of 32B section 21-23 in favor of 32B
section 19. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Pamel Pamela McBride online >> I'm sorry. Um, this is Pamela McBride. Um, I actually tried to delete I decided not to make comment tonight.
>> Okay, thank you. Um, next I have Danielle Peek. Hi. Yes. Um, my name is Danielle Peek. Um, I reside at 726 Cole Rain Road in Greenfield. Uh and um I uh in addition
to living in Greenfield, I uh also work at in Greenfield at Bayate Franklin Medical Center as a labor and delivery nurse. Um I'm also a member of the um MNA, which is the Massachusetts Nursing uh union.
Um as many of you know, um we are working uh hard to get a fair uh contract, a new nurses contract. We've been working since uh September um uh on this effort. Um we have had a lot of really wonderful support uh from
the community. Um in particular, we had a uh picket um last week. Um and a lot of um uh Greenfield uh residents showed up for that to support uh their local hospital and their local nurses. Um we
really appreciate that. Um we had some great movement today in negotiations. Um uh but we are um asking for more continued support from the city council and from Greenfield in general um to
ensure that um we get a um fair and competitive um uh contract um from Bay State. Um, I'll just say really quickly that um, I have personally been very moved by the support that we've received
from uh, the residents of Greenfield. It makes me love living and working in Greenfield even more. Um, this is a very scrappy community um, and um, a community that's really strong in its convictions. Um I love living and
working here and um having a fair contract um from Bay State um means that um you know both myself and my co-workers can continue to uh uh to work at Bay State knowing that we are being
um compensated fairly and knowing that um we have safe uh patient um uh nursing ratios as well. We need continued uh community support to reach a final agreement um and to make sure that the um momentum that um
uh we achieved today just continues going forward. Um so thank you. >> Thank you. I'm going to move back to the room and I have uh Steve Chevier. >> Hi Steve Shvalier uh 40 Plantation Circle.
not even books. >> Uh so I'm here just uh I don't have a lot to say. Uh it's been said a few times here, but I I am I do want to sit up here and just um agree with my other unit leaders here and say that um I'm a
uh I'm in support of adopting 32B section 19. um it gives us a say in in that um now and in the future as things seem to change very quickly on the health insurance stuff. Um I think we can all agree that the GIC is
currently our best option. I don't think there's any difference in opinion honestly at moving to GIC at this point. It's um uh we've been asked a few times to um
to switch from an 8020 to a 7030 split on the health insurance. Um I've heard people uh ask us to do this. Um maybe we should just accept that and do it. I just want you to know that for myself and a co-orker of mine, uh, who
currently carry a family plan for both the health insurance and the dental, um, if we were to accept a 7030 split, it would increase our costs coming out of our paycheck by over $6,000 a year. Um, it is a crazy amount of money and it's
not really feasible. Um, so it's uh, it's not easy to say that. I know that these decisions are not easy to make. Um, I just want to have uh the ability to have that choice or at least have an ability to vote on it. Um, as a working
employee here in the town, um, I do work for central maintenance. Uh, my co-orker is here. He worked on the generator. I helped work on the generator with him. Um, we're always here doing whatever we can for the town and I hope that the town uh can support us in uh, choosing
the best health insurance and giving us a chance to do it. So, that's it. Thanks. >> Thank you, Pamela Goodwin. Good evening, counselors. 54 High Street. It is Pamela Goodwin again. Um, I looked at this huge agenda and printed
it out and um, I guess there's a lot to think about and a lot of things to fix. Um, I noticed that there are like five different vehicles whether it's a car or a truck. Um, there's at least eight things that have to do with water. Um,
three sewer issues. And if you drive a car around town or any other town, you're going to find a lot of potholes everywhere. Um, so we know that there's a lot of expenses and um, we know we know that the mayor is responsible for
the entire city and um, it's not just about schools. It's not just about roads. It's about running an entire city. Even though many people say, including me, it's a wannabe city. It's a town. But we are over 17,000. And so
therefore, I'm very glad to have for instance a city planner that I welcome Ella to help with the planning board. Um I want to talk about the nurses because I was a CNA and I actually went into Worcester and walked around and around
and around with the nurses when they went on strike at um one of the hospitals there. Um, and I got a bunch of signs and I'm handing them out to anybody that's willing to stick them in their yard or on their property. They're in the back seat of my car. I'm going to
need to get more signs. Um, I believe in in safety of the nurses. My daughter has been in the nurse profession in the hospital in Milford her entire life. It bothers me that they're so underpaid. I'm very bothered when the management
wants them to work sick. these people have already struggled and struggled for good contracts and now here we go again. So, I fully support that. Um, on the back table I have a bunch of papers. There's a QR code where you can just
pick it up, take it with you, read what else they're concerned about. We all know how long we have to wait in Western Mass for a dentist, for an eye doctor, for any doctor. There's a fewer and fewer here. I just put on Facebook that
the urgent care is now changed to Mass General Bighgam. Four people sitting there saying with a sign we're closed, go to the ER. Four people that are getting paid to do what? I don't know. And that's Mass General and Brighamin Women. They've changed the name from the
EIOU. So when I need urgent care, I have to go to Ammerst on University Drive because when I went to Brattleboro, they don't save your information in the computer system. My daughter said, "Geez, if I had any money, mom, and could quit my job, I'd come out and make urgent care
here in Western Mass." So, I fully support what it is that they're doing. I love to give out more and more signs. Um, I know you can either reach out to them or messenger me on Facebook. The last thing I want to say is
I hope that people will look, listen, and watch as soon as it goes up. We just had a GET meeting. Again, no public comment. Nobody came. Nobody cares. And I want you to be able to see what we're talking about once it comes over off the
cloud. Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> Uh Annie has it. >> Okay. >> Annie has it. 2100 Street Bu. We have a large uh Hispanic community
here. I don't haven't heard anybody actually address them. So, as a senior citizen on a a stable in income, not very much that I uh I have, but what it's like to they went up $550 a quarter
on my taxes. That's $2,200 a year. Now, think of your grandmother. We all have grandmothers, right? They're still alive. Are we going to have our grandmothers eating cat food, dog food, not eat at all? They can't pay their taxes. Uh, I'm afraid of gentrification.
People come and Northampton, Amoris, we watched come. I went and I said, "Hey, what can we do about my my property taxes?" And they said, "Well, let me in your house." I said, "No, you're not going to come in my house, but how do you justify that kind of money?" $2,200.
So somebody I feel like somebody my age, not that I'm special or anything, but that I would have to go back to work. Think 85 95 they're going to have to go what what kind of jobs you want your grandmother to go to a job to try to pay their taxes. That's outrageous that
something 83 he said uh this close to lose. Now you know what the guy said? Oh that's okay. You can uh we'll just somebody else will buy your house and they'll pay the taxes. We have a problem and it's bigger and it's growing
financially. There is not enough money. The answer is not to tax all of us people who have been part of Greenfield for a long time thinking that that's going to cover the it's it's not going to. Um last time I saw the mirror I was in a
food line over to church. That's what I do. Mondays, Tuesday, and Wednesday I go and I get and she was there and I felt like saying, you know why I'm here is because I don't have enough money to do anything else with everything else that I have. So, we have a big heart here. I've been here for a long time. I know
you really care. We have to find a different solution for the problems that are only going to get greater. And I know together uh with heartfelt consciousness that we're going to find a way to do that. And I really appreciate everybody here that's given their
effort. But you know, uh, am I going to have to sell my house after all these years? I'd hate to leave this community. I've stayed because I love it. And I love the people. And, uh, it would be hard, but if I have to do it, I'll move along. Thank you very much, each and every one of you.
>> Thank you. I'm jumping to online and I've got Reese McGovern. Hi. Yes. Thank you for um for coming to me recent govern. I live in precinct 8. Um I if you can hear my
cat screaming in the background, I apologize. Um I will keep this short because the things that I want to say have been said very eloquently by other people already um save one. So, I want
to encourage the council to adopt MGL chapter 32B um section 19 and to reject sections 21-23. Um, and I also want to reiterate what
the first public commenter said. I would love to see Greenfield in the same way that we as a city stood up for um trans residents of our city and of Massachusetts and declared that um
everyone is welcome here to be who they are and to be safe. I would really love to see the city move in a proactive way to reject the unlawful actions of um immigration authorities
uh under this administration. And the last thing that I would like to say is I would really I I didn't see this on the agenda tonight. Um so it may be something that is more for counselors to encourage the mayor to take action on, but I would really encourage um the city
to fund the recck room staff position to make sure that kids have places to go and things to do that are safe and pro-social throughout the year. um including in the summer when schools are closed. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. Uh Ryan Whitney. >> Hi, my name's Ryan Whitney, Greenfield, Massachusetts. Um, I just wanted to say that I came to the council a little while ago and I did a public comment about not being able to see the screen
and technical problems and then you guys did u I think it was a community relations thing on it. I had emailed all you guys and still right now I can only see from Patty to John. I can't see any of the commenters at all. Today I tried
to log into the um health board meeting, the the health board meeting and um the link was the lady couldn't figure it out. So I'd really like to urge you guys cuz uh I have a disability. I don't go to the meetings because of my anxiety
and I don't want to cause outburst for you guys. You guys have all seen me do outburst and I try to avoid doing that. So, I really wish like I Katherine Golog championed, you know, being accessible and this and that and got a, you know,
an article in the paper and then nothing is done about it. Like the access to the meetings are terrible. Links are broken. Like we really need to focus on like some of the meeting accessibility. This all you guys, our city council and our mayor, I've worked with a lot of you on
transparency. Like I remember back before the mayor wasn't the mayor and she was complaining about these things also, but now they're happening in her administration and doesn't seem to be any attention to it. And um that's about it. Thank you.
>> Thank you and thanks for continuing to bring that up. I appreciate it. Stephanie Duclo. >> Hi Stephanie Duclo, precinct 8. Um, so today, um, I was I really don't know too much about what's on the agenda. Um, I
was very upset that I saw a last minute, uh, added item that I wasn't able to go over. Perhaps this is this 32B sections, whatever they're talking about prior to me coming um, commenting.
Um, I think that it's a disservice to the people to not follow the 5-day rule. Um, I believe that we should have the agenda set before 5 days. It allows for the public to go and look at the um information on
the agenda, possibly reach out to counselors prior to the meeting, but when you have to digest 114 pages and then you're trying to attend overlapping meetings, it's a little much because I spoke at the planning board meeting earlier, missed the fact that the
planning board meeting had moved its regularly scheduled Thursday meetings to Wednesday that conflict with other meetings like the board of health and the city council meeting today. Um the scheduling issue is a nightmare people
it how do you encourage engagement if all the meetings are all scheduled at the same time on the same day because it's convenient for counselors I and committee members I I think there needs to be a structured schedule like the committee chairs the first Monday of every you know like it has to be out
there and that has to apply to all the boards it's it I understand it's not always convenient you can't always get a quorum Now, you took an obligation, you took an oath, you show up to these meetings, you come prepared. Well, that leads back to my original point. the the
agenda to digest as much as that you wanted us to digest in two days and said, "Okay, well, I just got it under the wire because I got it in at 9:00 in the morning and then Tammy has to send out updates to every single counselor and then every single
counselor has to in the last minute digest whatever it is you added to the agenda." It's not fair to the counselors. It's most certainly not fair to the public. the um and I wanted to speak a little bit about the what Al Norman had touched upon. I want to thank Wahab for all the
work that he's done on this and all the efforts he put forward to make this a reality. And I appreciate the counselors that are currently on it and working on it and understand the importance of keeping the elderly, our largest population in Greenfield, in their homes.
This cannot happen if you overt tax your seniors with with inaccurate assessments, um overt taxation, not making agreements with them instead of char, you know, you go out and you gouge them like these credit card companies do where they tease you in at
two 2 3 9% at some of them and then before you know it, you're at 30% and you paid your bill always on time and they bankrupt you. Well, I don't like that mode that we're going in where Greenfield's looking to bankrupt its citizens by overt taxing them. I will
never support a 2 and 12% override. We have debt exclusions we have voted for for libraries, for fire stations, comes back, change orders, millions of dollars out the door, and we can't fund our schools. 1,285 kids. What's that budget? Um, there can
be compromise on that insurance for the city. I'm sorry, guys, but cuts have to happen somewhere and we need to fix things like public safety. Well, no. I want that money from the elderly taxation when you do take these people's homes. >> Thank you, Stephanie. >> Elderly taxation fund. Thank you very
much. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh I also have Joe Mkin online. >> Thank you, Joe Mkin, 29 Highland AB and Greenfield. And this is in regards to the uh the closure of the wreck room on Sanderson Street. And it's something my
son who's in middle school has used uh daily this whole year he's been in fifth grade. Bunch of his friends, Mr. Heslink and their staff. Really the entire wreck department is kind of a godsend for the youth of this town. And uh you know I know every day after school library is
packed, the recck room's packed. This is a great resource for our uh >> our middle school age. >> I just I'm waiting for my diploma. >> Okay. So, you did sign off. >> I've seen you like and I didn't know if you knew that you needed to sign up or anything like that.
>> Someone is unmuted. Please mute. Make sure that you're muted. If you're online, thank you. >> Thanks. Anyway, just to say, you know, that I really want to see that uh program return next year. I'm I'm understanding that it's supposed to be cancelled. So maybe I got wrong
information, but you know, I want to be a voice to say that that needs to stay as a resource to this town. You want to talk about public safety. You know, if we ain't investing in the kids now, you're going to need a lot more public safety down the road. This is investing in the youth is, you know, where it all
starts from, square one. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. So, I'm going to go back to the folks in the room who don't live in Greenfield. And first, I have Stephanie Murdoch. >> Oh, yeah. This person is in the hallway waiting. Okay.
>> Hello, I'm Stephanie Murdoch. I live in Miller Falls. I've been teaching fourth grade in Greenfield public schools for 5 years now. So although I live outside of Greenfield, I consider this city city to be my community. I care deeply about the public school system with families and children, my fellow educators and the
unions. I'm part of the Greenfield Education Association. I'm here like many today to urge you to adopt MGL chapter 32B to join the GIC, to adopt section 19 to preserve union rights in negotiating their healthcare plans, and to do away with sections 21 to 23 that
would strip union workers of these rights. Union workers are all here to serve our community and to support what's best for it. Maintaining collective bargaining rights is at the heart of acting in good faith with unions. The unions themselves have every reason to want to join the GIC as quickly and smoothly as possible. None
of us want to see the dire health insurance cost increases or the budget cuts that would go along with these. Teachers want our buildings as fully staffed as possible so that we can best serve our students. Workers want to be able to afford to keep their positions and health insurance increases could get in the way of that. Um and it seems like
there's talk of um having um unions like um have you know we're going to um move quickly anyway. So, um, as economic conditions are likely to worsen in the upcoming years, unions will be more important than ever in advocating for the people who keep our communities
running. Therefore, there's no reason to take away our bargaining rights in any capacity. We're acting in good faith and will continue to do so. I trust my union to do what is right for our community and to continue advocating to keep things fair for everyone. Please keep our bargaining rights intact and adopt section 19. It's the right thing to do.
Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Sasha Morsmith. Hi. Hi. My name is Sasha. I live in Northampton. I'm the field organizer for the Western Massachusetts Area Labor
Federation, AFL CIO. Uh, our federation represents 60 unions with over 50,000 union workers in the western four counties of Massachusetts. I'm here to stand with two of our affiliate unions today, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the Greenfield Education
Association. I'll start with the M&A. Their nurses work hard every day to keep this community safe, to keep us healthy. Let's uh repay that, stand with them, show solidarity, and help them win a fair, equitable contract that keeps our
community safe with Bay State. I'd also like to address the issue of the GIC with the uh public sector unions. I urge you to adopt section 19 and say no to section 21 to 23. Our unions
statewide just have to fight like hell to keep the GIC affordable. Right now, it is the best option because of how hard our unions fought um after the governor proposed shifting premium burdens onto towns and to their employees. We ensured that that didn't
happen. We won and we plan to keep on winning, but we don't know what the future holds. That's why collective bargaining rights are absolutely essential. Don't go down a route that would take away the bargaining rights of the workers in your city. Adopt section 19. Say no to section 21 to 23. Thank
you. Thank you. And last on my list is Suzanne Love. Thank you. My name is Suzanne Love and I live in Florence. I am one of the nurses at Bayate Franklin Medical Center. I'm
on the bargaining committee for the union. I work in the emergency department. Um I'm here because I don't live in this town, but I work in this town. And working in this town as your one of your care providers on emergency
basis is something that's been really important to me. Something that really brings a lot of satisfaction in my life. if I really identify as being a nurse and I want to care for people in your community and the best way to do that is to keep on working with people who I
also work with on a daily basis. We've been at the bargaining table now trying to get a contract that expired December 31st of 2025 renewed. We've had 18 sessions. Today was number 18. We had great community support last Tuesday for
a picket. We had a a strike vote yesterday because we just have been uh stagnation. We don't want to go on strike. I want to be really clear about that. I always say striking is more work than work. Have to go around talk to every single nurse. I know how to go to
work and be a nurse. That is my shift. I go in, I hopefully go home on time. I usually leave about 30 minutes late. But strengthening is so much more effort. It puts the community at risk. It spends money. The hospital does not need to
spend. Just spend that money to get the get the wages that we need, get the benefits that we need, keep this community going because you have a well-paid workforce in the nursing and keep nurses working here. I've been there for 17 years. I want to keep on being there. I'm 59. There are eight
more years to go. I'm going to be staying there and keep on working till the end. But we need to attract more nurses to come in there. The way that we do that is that we have the right starting pay. We are currently the lowest paid hospital for new grads between 10 and 23% lower in this western
part of the state. We need to fix that. One of the major sticking points, one of the things that is in the resolution that you have before you asking the Greenfield City Council to support the nurses in getting a fair new contract is that the hospital does not have outside
nurses not in the union shop hospital come work there. I'm very happy to say that we had major progress at the bargaining table today. They took that off. They also had wanted to eliminate differentials for a bachelor's of
science in nursing and a master's in nursing of which 170 out of 230 nurses have. They wanted to take that away from us and instead say they're going to incorporate the raise across everybody. It makes no sense. What they were offering to replace that was just a 75
cent increase for those nurses who put in the extra effort, paid the extra money, did the extra education to become better nurses to better serve this community, give better health outcomes to this community. So even though this
major piece was settled today, we haven't reached an agreement. We still have work to do. We have two more sessions scheduled and there will be probably scheduling more but we are looking forward to ratifying soon by having fair negotiations and talks keep
going and your important resolution supporting our efforts will make a big deal. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So thank you to everybody for your public comments. Um really appreciate
everybody's passion um and comments about affordability. We all know that it's tough out there um and we're facing really tough budgets as well and that is laying the table for these conversations that are going to happen over the next
three months um here in this city. So appreciate everybody being part of this discussion. So I'm taking a breath. Um we have no public hearing or second readings tonight. So we're going to go now to the
mayor's reappoint to the board of registars of voters and that's on page 31. And uh I will ask councelor Gol if you're ready for that. Could we have our five minute recess right now before we dive into voting?
It's almost we're almost there. just need >> if not Yeah. >> If not, can I use your >> I think we're uh voting with our feet. I just thought we could get like a quick easy thing out of the way and then >> Okay, we're going to take a five minute
recess. Thank you everybody. >> I'm like power through it y'all. If you all could take your seats, please. Thank you very much. >> We're good to you. Good. Okay. Back to order. >> All right. I'm calling us back to order.
It's 8:27 p.m. So, that was our fastest five minute break that I've seen in a while. Um, I just and I also uh wanted to comment uh because I heard from GCTV that if you want to be able to see everybody, if you
go to the YouTube channel, the only problem there's a 3minut lag, something like that. So, it makes it hard with the public comment, but that way you can see everybody's faces as well as the speakers. And I know that Fernando is working to fix that and isn't sure why
Zoom is only showing a portion of people while YouTube is showing everybody. So no idea what's going on there. All right. So we're going to come back to the mayor's reappoint for the board of registars on page 31. And councelor Golib, if you can read that, please.
>> I can. I just need to get to the right page. Hold on one sec. Okay, great. Order number fiscal year 26087. The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City city council pursuant to charter section 210
affirms the following reappoint by the mayor to the board of registars of voters. Ava Carrier for a three-year term to expire April 30th, 2029. >> Majority vote required. >> Is there a second council? Thank you.
>> And this received a positive unanimous recommendation. >> Great. Any questions, counselors? All in favor? >> I. >> Great. Any Okay, it is done. Thank you so much. Thank you
for your service, Eva. All right. So, I'm going to be taking things out of order. So, next we're going to go to adopting Massachusetts General Law Chapter 32B, sections 21 to 23. And Councelor
Bullock, um, I'd like to ask you to read that. It's on page 50. Order number FY26-089. And the city council upon recommendation of mayor disorder move that it be ordered that the city council adopts Massachusetts general law chapter 32b
sections 21223 which authorizes the city to implement changes to employee health insurance plans through the alternative negotiation and transfer process established by the commonwealth including the pursuit of the transfer of participation from health new england to
the group insurance commission GIC. Majority vote required. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> This received a um unanimous negative recommendation from the Ways and Means Committee. >> Thank you.
>> So now we'll open up for discussion um and I just want to say coming into this um there's been a lot of discussions. We moved this both 19 and 21 to 23 back on our agenda so that as a council we could
discuss everything um and have all the options in front of us. So that is it was on chairs it got pulled off and came back on. So it is back on. Um, I appreciate the mayor
>> and if um the mayor and attorney Quinn want to come up if people have questions um we can bring them up now. If you don't have questions, we can have them wait in the back. So um but I also want to just appreciate Tara and the firefighters and all the unions that
that we've been speaking to over the last gosh, I don't know how many days it's been. um and that you all came to us with a letter that said we want to move forward with the GIC. I think that's really really important. Um and
seeing that everybody had signed off on I don't know if the full council has seen that but I've I've seen a copy of that letter. I think it went over our email um earlier this week. And also that we're on a really expedited timeline to get this done. And so that's
going to make it really tricky. we've got to get it signed really by the 21st. Um, so I thank the unions for being willing to be that expedited and the mayor and her team for also being able to be expedited
on this. So I'm going to turn it over. Anybody have any questions about sections 21 through 23? Councelor Bulock and then councelor Goliv. I'd like to make a motion to table this and move us to um
the section night to discussion on section 19 and ask questions there. >> Second. >> Do I have a second? >> Okay, let's >> debatable. >> Non-debatable. We're going to um and I
think we'll do this as a roll call. >> Thank you. Councelor Golib, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Dummouth, >> yes. >> Councelor Botmley,
>> yes. >> Councelor Bullock, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Baldick, >> yes. >> Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes. Vice President Garrett, >> yes. >> Councelor Minhos,
>> yep. >> Councelor Cibson, >> yes. >> Does the president wish to vote? >> Yes. And yes. >> The motion to pass. The motion to table passes unanimously. >> Thank you.
All right. Next, we will take up um no surprise. Adopt Massachusetts General Law Chapter 32B section 19. Um, and that's on page 35 for councelor Bullock to read. >> Order number FY26-088.
The city council upon recommendation of mayor disorder moved that it be ordered that the city council adopts MGL chapter 32B section 19 which authorizes the city of Greenfield to negotiate changes to its employee health insurance plans with a public employee committee PEC
including the pursuit of the transfer of participation from Health New England to the group insurance commission GIC majority vote required. >> Great. All right. So, um, and this was not before Ways and Means, so you guys don't have a formal recommendation. So,
I'll open it up for discussion and questions. So, I see councelor Golib. Um, I I want to thank you, mayor, for working on this, and I want to thank the unions for working on working on
this. Um, and I want to say that I I if I'm understanding correctly, I understand why you put forward uh the first one, the 21 to 23, because it's because we're in such a crisis
right now. And I was very grateful to hear you say that you want to be an exception to the to the statistic and that you're willing to try that. Um, and I could never vote against collective
bargaining. I so grateful for the unions and I want to say to the unions, please help Greenfield be the exception to this statistic because we need to move forward now. So, we are counting on you all to negotiate and to to do this. and
we believe you like and we trust you and we're grateful to you for um for prioritizing a swift response and to make Greenfields an exception to the statistic and an example for um for
being able to for other communities to enter into the GIC and to preserve the possibility for collective bargaining. So, thank you all for the work you you have done and that you will do in the coming week. I don't Oh. Uh, okay. Councelor
Bottomley and then Councelor Gordon. >> Um, this is an incredibly difficult vote for me because I genuinely would like to vote with the majority on this. I approached this not as a union member or a Democrat, but as a city councelor on
Ways and Means Committee who's charged with evaluating the situation on fiscal grounds. The following points have helped inform my decision. One, the advice of all experts in the field is to adopt 21 through 23, including the Mass Municipal Association, our attorneys,
and represented from the group representatives from the group insurance commission. There's a documented proven success rate for cities that adopt 21 to 23 as a path to transfer to GIC. Two, it will save a million dollars in jobs cuts
for fiscal year 2027 alone. Three, 21 to 23 expedites the timeline to achieve the transferred GIC in order to save that 1 million in jobs immediately. Achieving that timeline for 21 to 23 is already a
herculean task to implement for the city. Four, health care and retirement are some of the biggest drivers in our budget. If the course continues, our healthc care budget alone will have doubled from 2023 to 2028 from 7 million
to over 14 million. It is not sustainable. We can't fix this problem by simply raising taxes. The risk involved with failure is just too great. The impact of losing a total of $2 million worth of jobs from the city
departments in FY 2027 will be felt by all residents of Greenfield and it will have a lasting impact. I support the work that's been done here uh behind the scenes and sincerely hope it succeeds. But based on the information at hand in the five years I've spent serving on
Ways and Means, I don't believe it would be fiscally prudent to vote in favor of adopting 19 at this time. >> Councelor Gordon, >> I'd want to echo what councelor Golov said. Um, I am I am happy to uh support
voting for this. Um, really appreciate the very difficult position that the mayor is in, that the city is in, that the unions are in. Um, I I think none of us wants to vote in any way to take away collective bargaining rights. We recognize how incredibly important those
are. Um, and also recognize that the statistics are real. Um, and there is a, you know, a reason that the city feels that it it may need to have a different recourse. Um, we do believe in you and we appreciate uh the unions coming so collaboratively to the table on this and
and believe that we can be an exception. Um, and I I feel like I say this uh a lot, but it it's worth taking the opportunity to say it. Um, you know, none of us should be in this position. I'm sorry that the city is. I'm sorry
that the unions are you all have you work so hard for the schools and for all the other city departments. You have better things to do on your Wednesday evening. Um it doesn't have it shouldn't be this way. Uh we need singlepayer healthcare. We need better state aid to our schools. We need better state aid to
our municipalities. Uh it is not okay that we are constantly pitted against each other this way because I absolutely believe that all of us really are here um believing in Greenfield and for the best interest of everyone in Greenfield. Um and no city can can solve these
problems within itself. you know, that's why unfortunately property taxes do get raised um because that's the basically the only recourse that the city has to cover its costs when state aid just goes down and down and down compared to what
we need. Um so, you know, let's all contact our state legislators and and push for the things we need from them. Um, also, you know, at the federal level, we need a a really different approach to support all of our municipalities.
>> I've got Council B next. >> Um, yeah, I just want to say thank you. Uh, I mean, honestly, thank you to everyone who has taken the time over the last two weeks to work on this issue, whether
it's been phone calls or conversations between counselors, the union um, stewards who, you know, met with some of us on the weekend to really explain this. the level of respect and um just
like willingness to collaborate on this is not something that I've often experienced at city council, right? These things become divisive. Um and so it has really been at the start of a
very difficult budget season um a hard hard conversations but felt uh very positive in it. Um, and it was great to see uh Oh, I think maybe she's gone, but my son's old teacher was here. And so,
it's just I know we can't the employees in our city can't shoulder this burden and our and and the city can't shoulder this burden burden either. And so, everyone knows we have to enter the GIC. Um, and I I think for the sake of us not
having paid a lawyer for two hours to sit here and listen to our meeting, um, I would like to uh hear from you why the recommendation of 21 through 23 was made um from an you know a attorney's
perspective um for our municipality rather than 19. >> Sure. Well, good evening everybody. Thank you. Um I was getting a little bit lonely because not I was up here a couple of times and no one was asking me questions. But um but yeah uh we advised
to pursue sections 21 through 23 because both section 19 and 21 through 23 um those are the two avenues to get to the GIC basically and and they both involve a collective bargaining process with a a public employee committee. Um and uh
really um the only difference is is that under 21 through 23 the bargaining process after the city provides information about the transition to a GI to a GIC plan and provide you know information about the cost savings the
uh the city uh then has and the PEC the public employee committee have a 30-day period to uh engage in collective bargaining negotiations. And the hope is that an agreement would be reached during that 30-day period. And you know, in many cases it is. But in the event
that no agreement is reached, then a health review panel is appointed. Uh one member rep is appointed by the city, one member is appointed by the public employee committee, and then another uh person is referred by the the state. And
this like this tri uh this tripartite panel if you will has a short window of time after seeing um the proposal provided by the city and any other information provided by the the public employee committee to make a decision right to make a final decision that would end the collective bargaining
process. So it it's it's a it's a u a process you know 21 through 23 has this process where there's a final ending and I think it's important to achieve that final you know we thought it was important to achieve that final ending before the July 1st date because as you
know uh under both section 19 and 21 through 23 the city has to notify the GIC by July 1st of the transition and if it doesn't you cannot transition to the GIC on January 1st of 2027 have to wait
another year July 1st of 2027 of 2027 to transition right so it's that deadline that kind of you know prompted or prompted me to provide that advice to the mayor about adopting 21 through23 because you really have to meet that deadline if you don't meet that July 1
deadline about notifying GIC then you're stuck with these substantial crippling uh health insurance increases for a year um and so that's that was The only motivation basically is because of that deadline. Under section 19, there
is no deadline. You can theoretically engage in negotiations for as long as it takes. Now hopefully, you know, hopefully that will not happen because it looks like from what people are saying that the unions or the the public employee committee would agree to transition to the uh to the GIC. But you
know, again, I always say nothing's assured, right, when you're engaged in collective bargaining. So that's why we advised that 21 through 23 should be a backup plan or should be a process that should be considered by the council. >> Councelor Run,
>> um, thank you for your time and for giving us that explanation. I guess I just want to say as you're going through cuts, I understand like on paper we need it balanced, but just considering how cutting and balancing on paper affects
the paychecks and the take-home pay of people that work here. You know, when we're talking about this, we're asking them to pay more than they can afford. They're not going to be able to work here. They're not going to be able to live here. then we're definitely so when it comes to taxes. Same with the recck
room. Um, but I would just say this is an exercise in trust between city government and the people that work here and section 19 is an easy vote for trust and trusting that we can make through this and work better in the future. Council Minhos.
>> Um, so I I I'm conflicted between given how we know that you're charging us for your services. Um, whether I want to make a long statement or I don't, but I mean I kind of just want to take a little step back as to why we're in such
a conundrum. The reason we're in this weird conundrum is because we are being ruled by a class of people who have decided that our tax dollars rather than going to our healthc care should be going to bomb kids a thousand miles away
who we know nothing about. So that's the reason why we're in this conundrum today. And just to kind of make it as concise as I can, anything that supports the American worker, I support. Anything that dilutes their power, I will oppose vehematly. So, I can wholeheartedly
support this measure. Councelor Williams, >> I just want to say I'm very proud to live someplace where folks can bargain in good faith because there's so little of that in this government today and we
have it here. So, thank you. Thank you. So, now is my my hand up. Um, I support the workers rights for collective bargaining. I think it's a really important part of
everything. Um, and the other counselors who have talked about we're in a place because of failure of of equitable funding for rural communities like ours. Um, and that goes
across the board for lots of different things. So, I won't go off on that for but I think the things that has given me so much hope is is watching people come to this conversation with open hearts and you don't often have that especially
because it gets often adversarial in these sorts of situations. So, we are all trusting together that we're going to come together and get this done quickly. And I know we will because um looking into your eyes and your hearts, I've seen it and I've seen people's
drive to make this happen. We know we've got to get it done by the 21st and that is our special meeting. Um, and I know that puts a lot of pressure on everybody, but I also believe in all of you to get
this done because we all want what's best for Greenfield, which is making sure that your insurance rates don't go up a lot. It's making sure that we don't have to make big cuts because we can't sustain that budget. Um, and nobody
wants a two and a half overrides. So, thank you everybody who has been contacting us about this. um who's gone to work and I also want to really thank the mayor who has also gone to work on this and has been batting for all of us
and staying up late and um not sleeping and worrying day and night over our budgets and all of the people and the workers who work for the city. So that's my my spiel. Um and I'm looking forward
to voting for 19 So, I think we can take a roll call vote. >> Councelor Golib, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Damuth, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley,
>> no. >> Councelor Bullock, >> yes. Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Bulldock, >> yes. >> Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes.
>> Councelor Minhos, >> yes. >> Councelor Cibison, >> yes. >> Does the president wish to vote? >> Yes. And yes. >> The motion passes by majority.
All right. Thank you all. >> Do you have any other questions on anything for the attorney before I can send him along? >> Make up his time. Um, we we do need to figure we we would like to figure out if
we can give the mayor more time on the budget um because of the charter. And um I'm being advised that we can't. So I'm going to ask you, Attorney Quinn, um your thoughts on
that. >> Yeah, I I I did speak briefly with the mayor about that. I I I you know, the charter never doesn't provide a specific uh or outline a consequence if something is not submitted by a certain date,
right? There's no consequence. and and so I'm at a loss to really give advice as to what the consequence would be if the budget is submitted shortly after a particular time limit set forth in the charter. Um I I don't think that there's
any uh financial penalty associated with vi with you know perhaps overstepping that time limit. I'm not aware of that. I haven't researched I mean in my research I haven't found anything like that. Um, and I think it's basically a costbenefit
situation where you have to, you know, if if if the budget needs to be submitted a little later with the council's approval and the, you know, if the council approves that, I think I I don't see what the major if there are any major legal rep any major legal
legal um repercussions uh associated with that. Um, so, um, you know, I think especially with given the significance of of needing to pass a budget, um, I I think if the council and the mayor come to a come to a consensus on that on the
time limit, I I think I think you should be, you know, it's it's it's it's not a great situation, but I don't think there's any any uh significant penalty associated with it. >> Thank you. Um, I have a follow-up question to that. H how much does that
open us up to a floodgate of not following our charter and what would the repercussions of that be? >> Well, um yeah, I I mean I guess it could theoretically be cited by other others in the future if there's some other time
limit under the charter. Um um I think I I'm not sure if that's a you know, you'd have to weigh if that's a significant reason to not approve an extension in this situation. I think you know it's just a costbenefit analysis. What what you know a budget has to be passed. Um
it seems as if my understanding of in speaking with the mayor is that because of the health insurance issues all rising at the same time as as this budget discussion. It's almost practically impossible right to provide a budget within the specific time limits. So I I think every situation's
got to be kind of viewed in terms of their you know in terms of the situation and I think there's a good argument given the exigencies associated with this situation and the budget and the health insurance that uh I think you can carve out an exception in this case especially if the city council were were
to agree with the mayor. >> Okay. Thank you. Um because this is not on the agenda, I'm very aware of going too close to the sun on this one. So, councelor William. >> Okay. I got my wings out to fly. Okay.
So, I would I would strongly agree if t more time is required to give more time, we can make it nonprecedented setting so it won't create any problems for the future. So we could do a formal agreement that's non-president setting with a time frame beyond whatever it
says in the charter. >> Councelor Gulib. >> Um yeah, aware of of open meeting law. What I would support is if the you the council president and vice president and the ways and means chair if you
I I feel like this could be under the realm this could be under the realm of uh this conversation is under the realm of questions for the mayor and we have asked the questions to the mayor and the attorney and if this gets out of the realm of us all debating this
would feel more comfortable to me. Does that make sense? >> Yes. So, what I'm going to recommend that is um because we've got the special meeting next week that we can move on something next week
related to this topic. >> Agenda needs to be posted by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. >> Yep. and we'll have it posted by 5:00 PM tomorrow so the mayor will know that she potentially has extra time which is really important to give her extra time.
>> Councelor Bottom. >> Um the only concern is isn't the when is the budget officially due? The 2 >> on the 22nd. >> So that feels a little bit scary to not vote on something tonight.
We can't vote. >> We can't vote on motions in a city council meeting. >> This is not on the agenda. I think that we need to defer to the council president to >> I would like to get it on the special meeting agenda.
Thank you. and we'll know by tomorrow. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Next on our agenda is the resolution in support of the nurses of Bayate Franklin Medical Center. Um, is
that an ANO? Thank you. It's on page 33 if you need it. >> Thank you. Order number fiscal year 26119. The city council move that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council approves the attached resolution titled
a resolution in support of the nurses of Bayate Franklin Medical Center. Majority vote required. >> Second. >> And this received a positive unanimous um recommendation from the committee.
>> Thank you. Any discussion? Uh, councelor Gillip, >> I'll just say the same thing that I said in ANO, which is just so much gratitude for the nurses for organizing for safe
and high quality standards for all of the members of our community. And this is a lot of work and people shouldn't have to fight for this, but I'm I'm grateful to all the organizing uh councelor Williams and then I've got or are you
>> okay >> just briefly um one of the major topics here is safe staffing that the folks the nurses at of Franklin Medical got safe staffing language in their last contract and that was a hard-fought battle and
part of the concessions being demanded to by the hospital is to take that away. And if if you think about what it means to be in a hospital with not enough nurses, that gets real scary. So, I
think this is the nurses had a very big ticket last week. I attended as did the mayor. A number of you attended. I think it's extremely important to support this. This is for our benefit. They they they fight every day for our benefit.
So, we need to stand up for them. Thank you, >> Vice President Garrett. >> I'm really pleased that we're passing this resolution or we're likely to pass this resolution. And um also incredibly proud of Bayate Franklin being a unionized workplace, especially
considering its sister uh hospital down in Springfield is not. The CEO of Bayate is famously um proud of firing people. He's written a book. He goes on uh financial talk shows to talk about how firing people is actually a good thing
and people need to be less afraid of it as he ras in six figure maybe even more than six figures. It's hard to honestly imagine um salaries. And so, you know, off of the backs of the workers here in Greenfield where many of our children were born and many of us may need
medical care in the future or the past, that's where his luxury lifestyle is coming from. And so, you know, this is speech. This is something. But I'm glad that our council has the option to lend our voices in support of these workers.
You know, not to continue for too long, but one of the things that always strikes me about this country is we accept dictatorship in our workplaces in many instances. And yet we talk about being, you know, the oldest democracy in the world in a lot of ways, which is,
you know, in some parts true. But unions allow workplaces to be democracies at least to some degree. And so I'm just again in solidarity with the workers there and glad that we're doing this. I don't think I see any other hands.
I think we can do this on a voice vote if everyone's okay with that. So all in favor say I. I. Any abstensions? Opposed? Great. The motion passes. Thank you nurses for being here tonight and
thank you for all your work. All right. So, um, we don't have a pre presentation of petitions or similar papers. I don't have reports of committees. No official unfinished business. No old
business. Um, so we're moving to new business um and the um elderly and disabled tax fund committee counselor report. Um, so that's on page 68. So, councelor Williams.
>> Yes, thank you. I'll keep it brief. So um the uh elderly and disabled tax fund has been working the committee has been working together for a little over a year and uh we have uh come up with a
prospectus we've come up with a very very detailed application uh we have uh come up with a pledge sheet um so there's a all sets of materials that are in place to do fundraising which is actually the phase
we're in now. So, we have all of our documents that were painfully worked over meticulously, but now all of our documents are in place and we are ready to start fundraising and we plan to be operative. Uh we'll start accepting applications next September. So the
following uh time period after that we will determine awards in March and they will be uh begun to be uh given out in the third and fourth uh quarter of uh the following year. So we are in a
fundraising stage. So that's why I wanted to talk to y'all because y'all got wallets and uh we would appreciate any kind of donation you can make. We're we're trying to raise we we will raise 20,000 for the first round. Uh there is
a limit of tw of $2,000 that will go towards folks uh tax bill and uh that will be the limit and so we would like to at least service 10 households on our first round. Uh this has been a very
very popular program throughout the state and the committee has done an incredible amount of work as have all the advocates of this program outside of the committee. Um done an incredible amount of work to get this done and so I
just want to give my gratitude to all of those folks who are too shy to be named. Um but yes, we are in the fundraising level. I do have the documents with me. If anybody is interested in seeing the documents, I can certainly give them to
them, but feel free to write checks. Uh you can bring them to Mandy. She will take take them happily at the treasurer's office. Anything you can do would be very very uh would be would be
uh appreciated. Thank you for your time. Councelor Menos. >> Uh again, just echoing councelor Williams uh comments there. So just reminding people the gravity of the
situation right now. We all understand the behemoth of an issue that housing has become and how homelessness and people being kicked out of their homes has become. According to the latest
statistics from our municipality, there are over 180 homes that are potentially at risk. That means over 180 families in a town of 70,000
that could potentially lose their homes. So, this is that program that can prevent somebody from going down the path of homelessness. Um, and I would also not to give away stuff, but having
really good meetings with a lot of financial institutions, a lot of businesses in the area um, who had reached out to me years prior when I had told them about this idea that community members and I kind of uh, figured out
uh, we will definitely get past that 20,000. Um, and I would love for community members, individuals to be part of that. Um, and have a role in helping our most vulnerable folks stay in the homes, stay in the buildings that
they call home. Um, this would be huge. So, thank you. >> Uh, Council Webb and then I will go to councelor Bulock. Could you just share um what are all the ways that people can donate and if there's a website or
anything that people can look at? >> Um there is a website or it's part of the city website. You can donate through that. Um there is supposed to be and I understand in the next tax bills and the water and sewer bills there will be a
check off there where you can add money in order to have it go into the fund. And it's a restricted fund by the way. That's very important for folks to understand or you can uh sache into town hall and write a check in the treasurer's office
if you like to sache. Okay. But no Venmo. >> Also, sorry. >> Uh, none of these funds are going to be going to any of the committee members. Like, we're not taking a salary. We're not having like some really nice stipens
or I'm not going out buying a Bentley with your money. Like, this is going straight directly towards people's homes and their tax bills. >> And Councelor Bullock next, and then I have councelor Golib. Uh, Patty, uh, Councelor Williams answered my question.
It was about if, uh, there was like a checkbox when I get my next bill. If I could just do it that way, that feels easy. Thank you. >> Okay. Councelor Gulib, >> sorry. Um, by restricted fund, you mean that these funds don't go into the general fund. They're they're
specifically anyone who checks that box. It goes specifically to this fund and will not go to anywhere else in the budget. >> Exactly. Okay, great. >> And the funds go directly to the city. So if somebody is given an award, let's say somebody is a thou a thous let's say
they're $1,000 in a rears, that $1,000 comes out of that account and goes to the city to to the tax bill. No checks are handed out. So there's no issue with any problems regarding that. So it's a very, you know,
Yikes. It's a very clean operation. Thank you. I just want to thank you for the update and also for all your work on this. It's so important. I mean, as we heard from others, it everything's becoming so unaffordable and this is it's
a really public way of of making a difference. So, really appreciate all the thought that went into that and helping our neighbors. So, really really great stuff. Um, all right. I'm since we just talked about delaying
and after my sidebar with Kathy um since there is no penalty mayor I'm just going to give you till April 30th and we're done. So no penalty we're not going to no one's going to come after you. We're not going to change the
charter because I think that's a bad precedent. So I think it's much better. We've got you've got till the 30th. We appreciate all you're doing. um and that you need some more time. So, thank you. So, I'm going to move to new business now and the first reading which is um
DPW chapter 90 funding. So, I think it's Marian's going to have a lot to read off. >> Yeah. Again, >> round two. Um were you in theater? Do you have your drama voice? >> I was not in theater,
but I can talk. Don't worry. Um, order number FY26-083. The city council upon recommendation of Mayor Disorder moved that it be ordered that the city council approves the Department of Public Works to accept chapter 90 funding in the amount of $960,000
$9638,00054 to be used for road works and repairs. I did it wrong. What do you need? >> You can just read page 69 so you don't have to >> I don't have to read every order like I did the other night. Great. Okay, I'm going to start at um >> 69 and 70.
>> 69. City Council first reading April 15, 2026. Approve Department of Public Works to accept Chapter 90 funding in the amount of 9638,054 road work and repairs. Approved transfer of $173,611,000.75
from general fund bond premium to general fund legal expenses number 5302 for $10,740.91 and general fund short-term interest number 5925 for 162870,84.
Repurpose funds from anorobic digtor appropriation for 15,000 to cover increase of cost in the water meter replacement appropriation. Repurpose funds from the Leiden Woods pump station appropriation for $41,731.82
to cover increase of cost in water meter replacement appropriation. Appropriate $250,000 for borrowing for to purchase XXX BTU generator to replace police department emergency redundant power generator.
Fiscal year 2027 capital budget. Approve $130,000 from borrowing for reclamation and paving of Abbercomi Drive. Approve 15,000 from capital stabilization account 8402 to replace gutter at Academy of Early Learning. Approved 36,000 from capital stabilization
account 8402 to resurface basketball court at swimming area. Approve 25,000 from sewer retain earnings to purchase Chevrolet Equinox to replace car number 10. Approve 100,000 from borrowing for cross connection survey for water department. Approve 317,000 from water
retained earnings to purchase dump truck number 40. Approve 70,000 from water retained earnings to update door, window, and heat for Green River pump station. Approve 40,000 for capital stabilization account 8402 to replace guard rail. Approve 200,000 from capital
stabilization account 8402 for highway fund. Approve 158,000 from capital stabilization account 8402 to replace highway truck number 45. Approve 600,000 from borrowing for repairs to inflow and infiltration systems. Approve 35,000 from water retained earnings to relocate
lime solo ladder to Adams Tower. Approve 45,000 from water retained earnings for rehabilitation of of Milbrook well number two. Approve 150,000 from water retained earnings for engineering and design of redevelopment to Millbrook well number one. Approve 100,000 from
sewer retained earnings for engineering the upgraded nitrogen removal. Approve 65,000 from water retained earnings to update wiring at Oakill building. Approve 85,000 from borrowing for Oakhill flow valves and structure. Approved 700,000 from borrowing to
replace place terrace water man. Approve 50,000 from sewer retained earnings for press supervisory control and data acquisition system development. Approve 90,000 from high school building account 4312 to purchase Ford F-250 for Greenfield public schools. Approve
200,000 from capital stabilization account 8402 for sidewalk replacement programs. Approve 50,000 from highway school building account 4312 for track maintenance at Greenfield High School. Approve 40,000 from capital stabilization account 8402 to remodel
the bathroom at the transfer station. Approve 80,000 from capital stabilization account 8402 to replace breakroom at the transfer station. Approve 370,000 from borrowing to replace trash check number 197. Approve 80,000 from water retained earnings to
upgrade water system modeling. Approve 100,000 from sewer retained earnings to upgrade electrical to water pollution control plant. Approve 315,000 from sewer retained earnings to replace screen number one at water pollution control plant.
That's it. All right. Mic drop. All right. Thank you. And uh we have zoning amendment proposals and Vice President Garrett. Sure. Um, so this one
is related to really all the city. Um, but it came from Lawis, our new planning director, and she discovered it in a review of zoning amendments. And I would argue this is what I would call a technical fix regarding height restrictions. Um,
this is not there's going to be a joint meeting at the beginning of May that has not yet been scheduled, but the date that it is 99% likely to happen is May 7th. for any members of the public who are listening and are interested in attending this meeting. Um, so again, May 7th is likely to be a joint EDC
planning board meeting. It hasn't been scheduled yet. What's that? You want me to read it? Okay, that's probably a good idea. >> I just wanted to make sure people knew it was happening, you know. Um, all right. So, notice of zoning amendment proposal, April 15, 2026. The following zoning amendment proposal has been
submitted to the Greenfield City Council for consideration. Amend zoning ordinance uh section 200-5.3 additional dimensional provisions and 200-6.2 accessory uses and structures submitted April 10th 2026 by the planning board
and all that other stuff I said was true and I got a thumbs up from Kathy. So um that's kind of the long and the short of it. We'll be discussing this more at the beginning of May. >> Thank you. I don't have any motions for reconsideration tonight. So I will take
a motion to adjurnn. >> All in favor? >> I. >> We are adjourned. It is 9:15 on the dot. Thank you everyone.