##VIDEO ID:TczquxTuBqw## [Music] this meeting is being recorded by the city council on gctv 9 if any other persons present are doing the same you must notify the chairperson at this time all right we do have counselors appearing remotely so we're going to do a roll call vote for everything and can we get a roll call of members please councelor Golab is not here councelor Gordon here councelor Master tataro here councelor bolock here vice president Gilmore here councelor Perry here councelor wandalowski here councelor Healey here councelor Brown no here councelor Garrett here councelor minhas here councelor toronzo yeah I'm here Madam vice president you have a quarum thank you all right now is the pleasure plge of Allegiance and this is voluntary PL to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under indivisible liy Justice for All do we have a motion to approve the September 18th and November 5th city council meeting minutes so moved second thank you um is there any discussion okay can we get a roll call vote councelor Golab and Gordon are not here oh councel Gordon is here I am I apologize councel Gordon sorry my sound cut out there for a second what did she say we're voting on um a motion to approve the September 18th and November 5th uh city council meeting minutes yes I vote Yes councelor Mr Taro yes councelor Bullock yes councelor Perry yes councelor wandalowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes councelor minhas yes councelor toronzo yep vice president Gilmore do you wish to vote Yes yes the motion carries thank you now we have communications from superintendent of schools and school committee good evening even two updates today the first is on Green River School um at the September school committee meeting all of the items that remained in the building were declared Surplus and after the two weeks of that declaration we have uh an thing that goes out to City departments and community members if they wish to acquire any of the Surplus items we did have community members from juk and the Boy Scouts who did reach out and acquired some of those items and then the district worked with a local contractor parody Builders to remove the remaining items from the building um we specifically sought out a general contractor locally who recycled construction materials so um they did all of the construction material recycling along with the metal so that was positive um the remaining materials that the district needs for redistricting have been moved to all of the schools in district and some have been moved to storage because we will need them in the redistricting and I'm happy to say that as of uh Monday the building is officially empty and is being turned over officially to the city to engage in the next steps that they wish to do with that building the second update I have is just on the department of Elementary and secondary education site review in August we were notified that Greenfield Public Schools was chosen and there is a short version as well as a full comprehensive version we were lucky enough to be chosen for the full comprehensive site review um so they uh gave us options of three weeks to be um visited and evaluated and interviewed and this week Monday that started um prior to that visit though the super the assistant superintendent myself we had to meet with the research team that conducted the visit we met with them six times we had to upload over 150 documents relative to curriculum and instruction Human Resources hiring practices budgets school committee agendas and meetings educator eval Etc and that was documentation they wanted for the past two to three years um Additionally the research team has been on site all week as well as conducting interviews in person and virtually they have interviewed numerous stakeholders the mayor school committee chair and vice chair uh teachers students families principls business office staff the assistant superintendent and myself they also have been in buildings all week conducting classroom observations of all five Schools elementary middle and high and they will finish up Friday afternoon um we expect approximately a four-month turnaround for their report and we're hoping to have it by April when we work with our ssos team to plan the district prioritization for the 2025 26 school year so thank you does anybody have any questions yes councelor Healey in regards to desie is there like a turnaround for their report or comments so they indicated that hopefully by early February they'd send the draft and um it's really just to fact check and then after the district has an opportunity to fact check they said hopefully by April we would have the finalized publishable report to share with all the stakeholders thank you any other questions right you're getting off easy just the one all right um Communications from the mayor City officers and employees good evening everybody um can you hear me yep okay um so I'm going to start with Veterans Day we were blessed with a warm a very warm sunny day for veterans aay great turnout um several city councilors were there um special shout out to uh Christ Ms and the entire staff of the veteran services department the Greenfield High School band who played and also the Moose Club who hosted a warm welcoming reception after with coffee and uh pastries for all participants um on December 6 we'll have the annual tree lighting at 5:00 pm. and I'd like to thank the DPW who spent weeks hanging the lights uh down town it's quite a project to watch and thank you to them finance department's updates We are continuing our search for treasur collector and um very grateful to Stella Chan who stepped into that role on a temporary basis um Steve numof as I think you saw will be joining us on December one as CFO um he's known too many of you he's uh spent his career in Municipal finance and has worked for the city in the past um he has mcppo certification and is an attorney and uh I wanted to tell you also we had the Department of Revenue here on Monday for a few hours and I'm very pleased to report that our new growth has more than doubled the uh tax rate is going to be going down I think 43 cents you'll be hearing from Randy Austin in a little bit and our free cash was certified yesterday morning at uh 3 million 392,000 process this year and that new growth figure um was really due to him um he had us re-evaluate all the personal property in town and that was a big part of what made up that new growth um and he also spoke yesterday uh about what a wonderful Board of assessors he has he said he's worked all over for years in assessing and he's never had such a wonderful Board of assessors so so thank you to them as well um um Mon's March is next week uh and uh I will be joining them from Deerfield on on Tuesday I'm walking from there and they'll be a a uh Finish Line Feast at 6m at hawen Reed so I'm hoping I see a few of you there looking forward to that and that's all I have for now now I'll take any questions that you have does anybody have any questions oh councelor Garrett I have one fairly ignorant question um we have a finance director and we hired a CFO which I'm assuming is Chief Financial Officer what is the difference between the two positions they are that's one and the same Stella will be stepping down from her Finance director position that was a great question coun Garrett sorry I didn't explain that um she'll be stepping down from that as of December 1st and Steve will be stepping into that role thank you all right I guess you're also getting off easy all right John's gonna be jealous of me look at this all right so no questions for well no further questions for the mayor um we didn't have any other City employ employees who are invited this month so we're done with items s and 7A uh next we have public comment did we have anyone sign up sure actually you know what if let's not waste the paper if you're the only one go ahead just name and address and yeah we can use that next month hello you're off again oh okay thank you uh David mosol 43 Country Club Road um speaking of a as a private residence resident tonight not the public safety commissioner um so 1 a.m. 2 am 230 a.m. 3:30 3:30 3:45 5 a.m. these are the times that my wife and I have been woken up almost every morning for about a year and a half so my neighbors on Davis Street uh adopted roosters in chickens which I'm fine with the chickens um but the roosters in a this a residential area to me seem to be unjustified in a problem um I've talked with my neighbor um it is the church across behind my house I'm on Silver Street Darren Davis Assembly of God um and the pastor when I confronted him told me that he um took them from a parishioner that his parishioners are very important to him um and my comment was well your parishioners probably uh if they live right around the corner in a suburban area and they don't have 5 acres of land and they're probably violating the ordinance and now you've adopted them now they have 8 or 12 acres of land but their house is registered with the city as 3.8 acres of land the church is the rest of it um I don't the the planning department says that doesn't matter I feel like it does matter it's under the five acres of land either way I don't think any Suburban house needs to have a rooster I can see the urban residential areas and the farming areas but in the suburban area I don't think there's any farms in that area that actually need to have chickens to to roosters and have a thriving business in the Suburban area so that's why we wrote the petition and we got signatures um I know it's complicated I know there state laws but um my neighbor is um you know I'm trying to be nice I'm trying to be reasonable I'm a reasonable person um but um he tells me that um um hopefully with the grace of whatever um that uh the noise will become numbing to us that's his statement so I think that's pretty unfair we all live in Greenfield we all want to get along I certainly want to get along but I think it's a little bit unfair you know five acres of land is great but if you have five acres of land there's no laws that say you can't put your chicken coop um 80 yards from your neighbor's bedroom and that's the situation that we're in it's great that he has five or 10 or 12 acres but he decides to put his roosters underneath his back porch which is not even a real chicken Coupe um and they're right at our um bedroom window so you know I'm I'm trying to get along with him but um it doesn't seem to be working and it's quite frustrating um when you work really hard all day long and you just want to get a good night's sleep and I'm a light sleeper so once I'm awake I'm awake so that's why I I wanted to just explain why I put that forward to you so I thank you for you all listening and for the time you take to serve the public thank you thank you any other takers for public comment Sarah Hearn 21 Mill Street um I'm here just to make some comments about the removal of the park benches um you know I was uh very disturbed when I heard uh that they were removed uh mainly because I'm a direct service provider of recovery Support Services to Har reduction in the city um and what kind of messaging that sends to our community members who are our neighbors um and when we take away Community spaces uh for a specific class of our population what messaging does that send uh most of those folks are unsheltered and do not have uh spaces to go during the day um the library is also uh a topic of conversation with you know folks saying that there's problematic behaviors happening in the library as well and I'm not here to like point figurers at anybody but it's about the messaging and and and I see it as an opportunity to look uh where we could be doing better um I work with a colleague of mine is a lieutenant in the winter Police Department Saro guran and he founded the clear program and what he talks about is the service side of policing and that's the 21st century model of policing which is the guardianship side of policing it's an opportunity to continue to develop those relationships through the community impact unit that part of gbd now um getting to know these folks building those relationship continuing to build them so that um we have officers that will spend time downtown while walking the beat like they did when I was a kid getting to know these community members um better so that when things come up they're seeing them every day and not just when a call is made uh for problematic Behavior but also the community members know that the police department is there to also enrich their lives and protect spaces for them as well because the park benches and the chess board um are for all community members uh not just the ones that we don't want to see or here thank you thank you all right um public hearings um C toronzo you ready for us that's why I'm delayed a little bit of a I guess didn't recall the Wi-Fi do you want to from my paper copy oh that'd be awesome I hate looking at a computer screen yeah got that all right um public Hearing in accordance with the home Rule Charter of the Greenfield city council while a public hearing on Wednesday November 20th 2024 at 6:30 p.m at John on Community Center 35 Pleasant Street in Zoom to receive public input on the following to appropriate 150 Grand from Capital stabilization fund for the purchase and installation of a public safety data center an FY 25 Capital request repurpose 197,000 for design and emergency repairs of the electric light and power Dam the city council may consider the same on Wednesday November 20th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. at John sonon Community Center 35 Pleasant Street and zoom materials can be obtained from the city clerk's office from 8 14 Court Square from 8:30 to 5 Monday through Friday or phone 413 7721 1555 extension 6163 John Botley city council president thank you all right so second reading sorry all right appropriate 150,000 from Capital stabilization fund for the purchase and installation of a public safety data center fy2 Capital request repurposed 197,000 for design emergency repairs of the electric light and power Dam maybe this was just printed a little weird but now that's I'm reading the public hearing for the tax classification in the second reading is that it's the same thing essentially well you have my paper so I don't I can't tell okay I don't know maybe it was just do your best maybe it was ju deposed but uh all right well we're goingon to do this anyway even if it's wrong uh the Greenfield city council will hold a public hearing on Wednesday November 20th 2024 at 6:30 pm at johnone Community Center 35 Pleasant Street in Zoom to adopt a residential factor in accordance with the provisions of Massachusetts general laws Chapter 58 section 1A which shall be used by the board of assessors to determine the percentages of the local tax levy to be bor War by each class of real and personal property the assessor shall provide all information and data relevant to making such determination and the fiscal effect of the available Alternatives the hearing is required under Section 56 of chapter 40 Massachusetts general laws John Botley Greenfield city council president thank you okay yes um would you like to join us and do the presentation of s's report [Music] pers [Music] excuse me could could you put your microphone on and start over the folks joining us at home won't be able to hear hi sorry about that we are here for the property tax classification hearing according to Mass General laws chapter 40 section 56 um we're going to you know as far as our property classes go we have to classify all real property according to its use as of each January 1st into one of four classes residential open space commercial or industrial um as far as open space goes it's something we historically have have not uh adopted we handle our open space through the chapter land program and so it's something that um I just wanted to mention but also you know it's something that we sort of aren't participating and there's also one item that we would vote on if we had open space where there's an open space discount but it doesn't apply in this situation and so I just wanted to um you know bring that up because that is part of the process there's three votes that we're going to have and we have talked to the Ways and Means Committee about it and had Advanced me meetings this year with them to field questions about the different things that were going or the recommendations that we made as far as residential exemption and um I think also the uh affordable housing exemption was one of the things that we talked about small bu and small business exemption and so we mentioned them at last year's classification hearing and there were questions and it was sort of at that point kind of too late to start um you know to make a vote or change things at the very last second so this year we were trying to be proactive and I think it worked well with ways and means to have them in and field questions and give answers and then have the opportunity for more questions when those questions were uh the the answers to those questions were were brought up and so um I do have here our classification PowerPoint basically and take a few different things um you know our table of contents and yes this is what we're doing the fiscal 25 assess values a little bit of an outline of the information that I have in the following slides this is our notice and uh I hope I have all of the counselors identified correctly with their correct precincts hold on a minute Randy it's not coming up on the screen it is not it's well it's working here darn it let me see whose screen is being shown that says it's Rand that says it's mine so I'm going to try to reshare there okay good job all right so again this is what I was talking about and I have all the counselors here and hopefully in the correct precincts andc correctly identified and no names misspelled all right Advance it's exactly and so when I tried to do that [Music] all right so just leave it at that size um yeah I think if you hit function f F5 that'll make it full scen no sorry okay go to slideshow there you go then that's when I that's when I have the disconnect sorry and so I'm just going to leave it in this because this way it's working so again I notice of the classification hearing and um then we have some of the valuations that we came out with and now this is a comparison or just information about the values by classification residential commercial industrial and personal property and then the total value as well as the examed value and then the absolute total value for the whole town and it's displayed so you can see for the um the last five uh five years where we've gone so yeah in 2020 we're basically up a you know a billion dollars or well I guess it was not a billion but a half a million anyhow so um yeah this is what we have for the total value of the the town and um then this is just a pie chart showing the different classes of property and the percentage so we 75% uh residential and then um you know the mix you know we don't have as much obviously as much industrial and personal property makes up a good chunk of the value too and then I have a comparison and actually this is between 24 and 25 not 23 and 24 I thought i' fix that but um it shows our total residential value as I said open space is something that we don't participate with but then it gives you the parcel count from last year to this year and a comparison of where the values went and increases or decreases in value and actually I haven't stopped yet but if there's any questions at any point that anyone has please interrupt or by all means um so just looking at that chart you're on now looks like the partial difference is two two property so we've gained two Residential Properties in 2025 the assessed value difference is $62 million so what I'm buying from that is you've reassessed every home in Greenfield and each home if you look at the 5909 has increased by about $10,000 in value or is it just you've done part of Greenfield and not all of it or is the extra 69 million dollar coming from so the changes in value so we did make changes in value and adjustments of value according to what's going on in the market and what the sales told us so I don't have to go to anyone's house individually and inspect it to and increase their value every year I'm doing things in mass and I'm looking at all of the ranches some ranches have sold your Ranch may not have sold but what happens with those other ranches is affecting your value if I see that they're selling for more then I'm going to make a a change to the tables in my database that increase that the value of that according you to the percentages and what what the statistical data is telling they have to and this is all monitored by the Department of Revenue to it's just not an arbitrary thing that I get to do and and no one's double- checking me and so yeah um there we have a two parcel that a difference but we might have had some that were no longer residential and now they went to land so it doesn't mean straight hey we just got two new houses and so I just wanted to bring that up you know as far as the parcel it's not a true you know you have to see all of the numbers to know exactly you know what happened as far as um what used to have uh you know what was formerly a 101 a single family home and it's now a 130 because the home was demolished or whatever the case may be and now it's just uh vacant but developable land um and so just I just wanted to bring that up about the partial difference so as a followup when you reassess somebody's home our notification sent out to those residents saying your home value has been reassessed so they at least know to expect a higher tax bill and that's part of what we're doing right now and so there's more of a a public disclosure where in when we're in a reval year there's a public disclosure uh time so in the past we would do a reval and it was every three years and that was when you would do your adjustments to Value but in early 2000 they realized that the real estate market was moving faster and when you waited that long that you're leaving tax dollars on the table and then it meant you had to do a larger increase than you maybe really wanted to and they started doing what they referred to as the interim reval and so we are adjusting values every year um there is a cyclical review that goes on and and it's our responsibility to inspect every home every 10 years um and some of the residents of the Town received a questionnaire that was sent out by the uh the Consulting Group that we work with and that that was taking care of that and it was a survey asking for information because like I said every 10 years they want us to go to Every property and inspect it to make sure that our data is up to date thank you and so yeah just a comparison between what happened with those different classes of property and um you can see you know where where there were increases and you know the larger increase was personal property so I'll talk about that and we did um I had seen since I arrived in May of 22 that uh there were indications that personal property needed attention and then um my board members who I was complimenting earlier uh about how healthy they are helped and went out and basically did an inventory I gave them here's the list of businesses that we have in our system go and walk the streets and see what you find and we it kind of confirmed what I uh was concerned about and we found many more businesses out there than we actually had recorded in our system so we also have a $10,000 exemption and so not every business that was missed is one that's going to end up getting a tax bill if your personal property doesn't amount to more than $10,000 you're not receiving a bill because of an exemption that was voted in here in Greenfield but um we did see that it needed attention and mayor had mentioned it also that it was part of our new growth and so was something that I had been concerned about and then when my board members went out and we went into one Precinct and found 91 new businesses that we didn't have um and and overall it was uh you know over 300 businesses uh in town um that we didn't have properly recorded so we're not giving all of those a tax bill but um it is our responsibility to know and keep track of it in the assessor's office so it needed attention um they my board members helped me to verify that that it did and we were able to use arpa funds to help fund the the project of having an outside group come in and do an entire inventory of all the personal property in town and so that's why we're seeing a 23.9% increase in that category and that was also responsible for about $240,000 worth of growth and so then I also wanted to provide some information about the mean and median single family value so the the the mean is the average and the median is well from high to low what the you know you have 300 what's number 150 and um just to kind of show the comparison I couldn't give uh really an estimated tax amount although I think when I did it you know so we're we're expecting that the tax rate is going to go down and um I don't have the exact number so it might change by a penny or two but right now my estimate is is that it's going to be 1995 so that's um you know 44 C decrease from 2039 in what our tax rate was last year so um the average single family tax bill I think came out to about 5700 so it did go up but only a little bit in a smaller percentage than in previous years and so that was another thing as I went through my examination of sales and my analysis of data I was I felt that raising the average single family tax bill by 16 a. half% in one year and then the following year 10 and a half percent was a lot for the people of the city of Green Field to absorb and with our tax rate initially going down to $267 from 2232 to 1965 uh you know the 16 a. half% didn't hurt as much but then when 10 and a half% went and we increased the tax levy by $4 million uh and the tax rate went up um you know by 74 cents um you know I I heard from a lot of people in Greenfield in January and a lot of them were seniors on fixed incomes and I just felt that with inflation and everything that was going on we needed to make sure that we did everything we could to just raise values only what was needed and um with additional staff this year I was able to give more attention unfortunately uh we had another loss and staff but we're doing our best to um keep running and we have uh you know some potential candidates that we're hoping will work out and so um any questions on the single family values okay and then those here's a little bit of a history of the way things went and the percentage change you know our total value and then the average value not sure if you see saying that you okay and then again the tax rate now I'm anticipating will be$ 1995 and the average tax bill about 5700 and so a a Moder a moderate change compared to the previous year and then uh for commercial industrial and you can see that the average value did go up and so that I I didn't run the math to see exactly what the impact would be but I did raise the commercial and Industrial values a little bit more actually I think just commercial and not industrial a little bit more than I did residential uh the land was was um sales showed that our land values needed to increase and that was the the larger part of the increase that was done this year there were some slight values to building the different building values that we have in town but for the most part we tried to keep everything to a minimum and we were able to get our approval through the Department of Revenue with the statistics and the information that we had from the sales from calendar year 2023 we also have personal exemptions that we Grant every year it's something that we're always trying to do Awareness on and maybe this would be a good time to mention some of the things that we're doing for awareness regarding personal exemptions we've been talking about having something here at the center about and ask the assessor night and also where we're going to be promoting personal exemptions and so um that ended up getting complicated and keeps getting getting postponed but what I decided I think that we should do and um the board is behind it is that we are going to have the ask the assessor night in the about January 12th of the the second week in January so it it's right at the you know we're quarterly billing Community our fiscal year starts July 1st and ends June 30th and the first two bills as you know or hopefully everyone knows that they are called preliminary bills those preliminary bills don't have your value on it and it's an estimate it's an estimate based off what you played last year we're basically dividing that by four that's your bill for the first and second quarter because in November is when we set the tax rate but I have to send those bills out and we have to make some estimate of of what the money that's gonna come back so when we get to the third quarter bill it's referred to as your first actual bill and that's when you'll see your value and the tax rate on there and there's the breakdown and that's also when you have 30 days if you do not agree with your value to apply for an abatement and we can do something about your tax bill we'll take a closer look at your situation so we're certainly not inviting we don't want to invite everyone to dispute their tax bill but we also want to make ourselves available at the the best time of year for you to actually have something done and make an impact on your tax bill and what you're paying so it's sort of an awareness campaign because everyone should really know this explanation that I'm giving about quarterly tax billing and how it works and also part of that is that you can never take that estimated tax bill that you got in the first and second quarter and multiply it by four and said well that's my tax bill for this year because it's the preliminary and it's the second half where there's any adjustments to Value you're going to see the difference made up and so you also can't take your third and fourth quarter Bill and multiply that times four and then say well Randy what are you doing to me because chances are it's going to be a little bit inflated you have to look at both of those quarters together and your total value divided by a thousand times the tax rate and actually yeah so another awareness thing or go ahead and take over actually I I just want to say that the uh Outreach night that Randy is speaking of uh we'd like to do it uh here right before the city council meeting on that day so that more people might be here and it might be easier for people to come to uh at talk to to hear us and to talk to us about their taxes and then come to the city council meeting right after um so that's what we're going to try and arrange and like Randy I think you said the 12th um well and that was I just picked out a date I didn't really look the calendar but the second week in January um is when we're going to and so the meetings are usually on a Wednesday so that's a proposed date that we're GNA have it that if I could [Music] just apparently no do you have your zoom on no I got nothing on okay sorry it's okay um I just want to point out because I do have a calendar the 12th is a Sunday yeah okay and that's why so good the 15th would be the third Wednesday of the month which is when we would meet um we don't meet on the second we meet on the third Wednesday that would be you're going for scheduling that's want to point that out so I I think the 15th would be the best date and so we're going to try and plan for that excuse me could you pull the mic a little bit closer to your mouth people on Zoom or sure yeah and so it's the 15th is the the date that we're looking for that so if you have any questions about your tax bill and um part of that will also be being aware of your property record card um you know we want you to print out a copy of that property record card and bring it along with you or maybe we'll try and arrange so that we'll have the capability to print them out from here for any uh Citi residents that show up we can print it you know so they don't have to worry about it and we can hopefully make it easier for them and um just trying to not necessarily be transparent but you know let's share the information there's two people that are responsible for every uh assessment it's our office we're one of them and it's the homeowner who is the second and so sometimes we make mistakes and we need them pointed out by the homeowner and um our our goal and objective is to be fair and I don't want anyone to pay for something that they don't have and I don't want anyone to not pay for something that they do have you want to mention the other and yes we do have other Outreach we've been doing some uh classes that we had in uh conjunction with the Greenfield Community College and also these individual board members have been doing Outreach and have ours here at the johnzon center and also at the library um if you ever have a question and want to talk to one of the assessors and they're available every month and you can make an appointment or I believe just show up show up at the library yeah yeah at the library you could just show show up and ask questions and they'd be happy to answer any questions or show you information as I said about your property record card which is the the card that comes out of our C system computer assisted Mass appraisal system that basically has all of the data that makes up your assessment and your valuation so when I say data I'm talking about your square footage and the number of bathrooms that you have and kitchen and if you have a fireplace and is your vinyl you know your vinyl sighting or you know do you have an asphalt roof of metal all those different things make up your valuation and they're tied to different values and all that statistical data is what makes up your valuation and you should be able to know that what's there and understand what it is and make sure that it's accurate and so that's what we're as I said that's what we want we want it to be accurate we want to be fair and so sometimes we can't be fair unless you bring stuff to our attention and so these are the personal exemptions that's part of the Outreach that we'll be doing or we're always trying to push that awareness because if anyone qualifies for the exemptions the chances are that they they deserve it or badly need it and so continuing on I also wanted to do a little bit of a comparison to some similar communities and what I had done is I uh looked at their total Levy compared to ours and we had a little bit of a a spread there but um I tried to pick some uh I I think actually what I did is I went off a population this year and so these are these are communities that have a similar population to ours and so there was a little bit of a t difference in the tax levy but um for the most part that's you know a comparison to Greenfield I I didn't have and actually one of my board members was commenting that I should put GRE Greenfield in but Greenfield statistics are on the other slides so if you wanted to just compare the two if you have the opportunity and um in the future again if there's any uh you know we'll we'll be reaching out again we had such a positive experience with ways and means that we decided we should really be doing it every year and we'll be discussing um if there's any type of comparison that you would like to see um you know and I think that councilor Healey last year you mentioned something but it was more toward demographics and that was part of why I use the population for this but there's a lot of other information it's not necessarily tied to the assessor's office but it's certainly the statistical data that we could access if you did have questions that took in you know other factors besides value that you wanted to use as a comparison to compare us to other communities and so anyone that has any ideas we're happy to um do whatever we can to accommodate you or brainstorm the best way to present the information and the last slide I had was just uh about our Levy limit and the Lev sealing and kind of how that different information is established and um yes we're basically using the the levy limit base from the prior Year and that with the from proposition 2 and a half that allowed 2 and a half% increase our new growth which this year was really good $641,000 4 and so so another thing I just wanted to bring up is um you know our total budget so you are all on the city Greenfield Council and the City of Greenfield if you think about it it's like a big Corporation and you're on the board and our budget's $85 million this year and that's what you guys are all responsible for and so um I just wanted to kind of bring that out is that's the magnitude of everything we talk about the budget and how much money we're spending it's all tied into what we're doing now and the the product of all of that is the tax rate and and how much everyone has to pay and so um I appreciate that we have so many of the counselors here tonight and then actually you know the the commitment and the good questions that we had from Ways and Means um when we did that that Outreach in the proactive uh um you know question answering prior to getting to this point thank you so much um does anybody have questions before we before we move on I do have one question the the presentation that you just showed us is that on the city website it will be it will be that was going to be my followup thank you and so we do have and I don't have them with me but we have the other recommendations and we have them all worded appropriately um I unfortunately did not uh because part of what we have to do now is we're going to be taking a v I'm not sure if I'm running that or if that's something that you're doing but we did make recommendations to ways and means and I guess maybe councilor derano will be um you you have those and ready prepared with the correct language and so could I turn that over to you at this point or are we done as far as uh answering questions or your need of us um well yeah uh yeah I think we're all set as far as the presentation because this is part of the hearing correct um we are going to be bringing these back up later today um for for a motion to approve on those three same same ones we read last night at ways and means you heard as they were worded and as I asked you last night um nothing has changed from that wording um you guys agreed with those those were your recommendations as the as the orders came into us um and I don't think Shy of any other discussion that would happen later I think we kind of have covered right another advantage of uh you know the the meetings that we had earlier and so we're well prepared tonight so it's doing homework in advance is great all right well thank you very much then thank you so much so nobody signed up under the public hearing is there anybody who wanted to say something now that we've had the presentation all right in that case I'm going to close the public hearing at what time is it 7:22 great all right now on to motions orders and resolutions so we've got mayor's appointments reappointments um councelor bull can you or no councelor councelor goov is the chair of that committee who else is Ono who could give the report out for that do I have a volunteer I am councelor Gordon you want to walk us through this one sure um I believe that this was positive unanimous we just had one like typo that needed correcting which looks like it's been corrected I'm sorry I'm going to back you up just a little bit we have to read the motion first and then if you would kind of let us know happened in committee that would be perfect great I forgot that part no worries thank you I'm I'm on too much cold medicine um let me just get to the page here all right uh the city council moves it it be ordered sorry I'll turn my camera on maybe H there we go the city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield city council pursuant to Charter section 2-10 affirms the following appointments and appointments by the mayor Board of Health Ellis Taylor term to expire December 31st 2027 Board of license Commissioners Randall Bernard term to expire December 31st 2027 Commission on disability access Douglas Mayo term to expire December 31st 2027 Council on Aging Margot Townley Michelle delissio terms to expire December 31st 2027 elderly and disabled taxation fund committee newly established Jim Gman Board of assessors chair term to expire December 31st 2025 wahab minhas counselor term to expire December 31st 2027 Gary George term to expire December 31st 2027 Franklin County Technical School Barbara yetter term to expire December 31st 2027 Greenfield Redevelopment Authority Otis wheeler Gan wall terms to expire December 31st 2027 his hisorical commission Douglas Mayo term to expire December 31st 2027 mayor's task force against domestic violence Matthew Conway term to expire December 31st 2027 majority vote required thank you um and can I get a brief report from the committee sorry I need a second great can we get a brief recommendation from the committee sure this was yeah positive unanimous from the committee we were we appreciated everyone volunteering awesome do we have any questions comments we're ready to vote all right can I get a roll call vote please councelor Gordon Yes councelor master tataro yes councelor Bullock yes councelor Perry yes councelor wandalowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes councelor minhas yes councelor toronzo yep does the vice president wish to vote Yes Yes motion passes all right thank you folks next there is a resolution declaring a climate emergency uh councelor wandowski would you you chaired that meeting for me I had work on Monday sorry guys would you be willing to read that and then give the report of the committee please sure happy to and do you wish me to read the entire resolution or just the motion just the motion okay the city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield city council approves the attached resolution titled resolution declaring a climate emergency majority vote required all right do we have a second second great thank you was the recommendation from committee yes it was unanimous yes great excuse me do we have any discussion on this motion I just want to frame it if that's all right please yeah um So Greenfield was very early a green Community um it's something that we really care about in this community is our sustainability we've seen it from Greening Greenfield and many of the works that we've done in this community so this I introduced this resolution as really a guidepost to give us the backing to continue doing the work um we have the work of Carol Collins and her department and our cities and towns are really poised to do leadership on climate and given changes and circumstances federally um it's going to fall on our cities and towns to allow us to continue to move forward you know we're getting to the place of a really bad Milestone which is 1.5 degrees Celsius warming scientists have said like once we get past that um our climate systems are self-perpetuating and it's going to take a long time to to back away from that even if we keep get taking greenhouse gases out of out of our emissions so this is going to give us some of the teeth that we need to go for the climate leader designation um in the Commonwealth which will unlock a whole bunch of grant funding and allow us to keep doing this work so we've seen the impacts here in our community whether it's the fires that are happening right now around Massachusetts that's like unprecedented um the flooding that we've seen flooding that we saw with with the hurricane earlier this year so this is here and we have the opportunity to build a more resilient community and take action so I hope you all support it thank you thank you do we have any questions any comments is everybody ready to vote all right can we get a roll call vote please councelor Gordon Yes councelor master tataro yes councelor Bullock yes councelor Perry yes councelor wandowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes councelor minhas yes councelor toronzo OB does the vice president wish to vote yes and yes motion carries thank you all right now we have the resolution on Northern Tier support if you would read the motion and then go through city council order city of Greenfield that move uh that it be ordered that the Greenfield city council approves the attached resolution titled resolution for Northern Tier support majority vote required do I have a second second thank you um and a report from the committee sure this was unanimous and positive great and then did you was this your motion also okay would you like to speak to the motion please absolutely um so thank you for having this on the agenda and I hope it ends up passing the Northern Tier study was just completed and you know the results were out and they basically you know would provide public transportation on the Northern Tier rail that parallels route two to Boston for the first time since the 1950s if the study becomes a plan for construction and so the intention of this resolution is to give the uh Commonwealth the sense that the city of Greenfield is fully behind this and there's a couple of other pieces um when the members of our State Legislative delegation were here one of the questions I asked was how can we as a city council help promote this passenger rail service happening and they suggested before budget season which is in January passing some sort of resolution or a letter of support um and then I ended up reading an article in the newspaper uh The Berkshire Eagle I think it was about North Adams pass a resolution and so I emailed North Adams council president who had put it Forward asking for permission to effectively just copy their language and he said go ahead and he hopes he sees a pass and so that's why this kind of came and before us um the other piece is it does tie into climate change you know public transportation is far more efficient as far as energy consumption than a personal vehicle and it would provide an option for folks including members of our state legislature to take the train to Boston instead of having to drive every time so which is a privilege that our Boston area legislator legislators have that ours do not so thank you there any questions comments okay can I get a roll call vote please I know you're having fun with this definitely councelor Gordon Yes councelor master tataro yes councelor Bullock yes councelor Perry yes councelor wandalowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett All Aboard yes councelor minhas that was funny yes councelor toronzo abstain does the vice president wish to vote yes and yes and any more dad jokes and I will have you removed I've got about a week until the due date so I'm almost ready to be changed constantly the motion carries okay councelor toronzo do you want to take us through the next motion please um doke order number FY 25016 the city council upon recommendation of the mayor disorder to appropriate the sum of 150,000 for the public safety data center move that it be ordered that the sum of 150,000 be appropriated for purchase and installation of a public safety data center from the capital stabilization fund majority vote required do I have a second all right and report from the committee please uh this was unanimously positive great are there any questions yes well just to keep everybody up to date I was wonder if Fernando could could you could we ask him up to explain exactly what this entails is that okay yeah I I think that would be fine yeah if you want to come up and kind of tell us what's going on thank you yes any questions so basically um it is not the building of a data center is the replacement of our current data center server structure um so it's not really building that would be a lot more money um so that that server infrastructure uh it's been around for about seven and a half years it's end of life and uh um it houses critical information um and systems for for the police and dispatch it's actually the integration hub for 911 uh dispatch and other critical systems like uh the criminal justice information system um there are other many other databases within it uh but at the end it's really uh the servers that that perform those functions um it is critical uh loss of if something happened to that it could literally mean the loss of property or life because uh it contains thousands of data points that allows our dispatchers to be able to have the information to dispatch uh fire police uh to the locations that they're needed with all the available information that I can present to them thank you yes Council toronzo um just so it's not coming from me but coming from you uh this we already we did a pro we talked about this last night ways in means we already appropriated 132 for this so this is only an $118,000 increase to what the expected costs were at the time of the original capital exactly the taking a look at how the the cost of Technology have gone up at the time I thought I had given it enough money but uh it's a lot more expensive but it's not a it is a lot of money but um it's not huge I just wanted to point that out so people knew it wasn't an additional $150,000 on top of what was already being appropriated for this particular project correct thank you thank you did anybody have any questions all right okay thank you we get a roll call vote please councelor Gordon Yes councelor master Taro councelor Bullock yes councelor Perry councelor wandalowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes councelor minhas yes councelor toronzo yep does the vice president wish to vote yes and yes motion passes all right councelor toronzo you're up again uh order number FY 25-19 city council upon recommendation of Mayor disorder and in accordance with Massachusetts General law has move that it be ordered that the Greenfield city council approves repurposing the amount of $197,000 of the previous authorization FY 24- 080 for repair Design Services for the electric light and power Dam to design and emergency repairs to the electrical light and power Dam majority vote required second second thank you uh report from committee unanimous positive uh we talked with both or well all the the mayor um DPW director marlem Warner as well as uh two members of the CRC last night at our meeting um they were all on the same page uh I think the biggest question due to maybe some confusion in in what has gone on has been the um the the talks about removal of dams and I was trying to keep my little off the hook here if I had if I had the ability to uh as it was a really good uh answer that was um explained what that concern might have been and it's not we won't be wasting our money put it that way we have to uh resupport the structure underneath regardless of how and if that particular Dam uh gets modified it's not going to be can't be removed entirely um but if there is modification in the future this isn't going to be like we spent some money now and then we're just throwing it away by getting rid of it later um it is critical and uh so that that was the report we got sure um sorry there is a fault in the structure that's like 10 by 10 at this point what it's gotten bigger since they last inspected it so that needs to get uh repaired in a hurry because the dam could fail and as far as the removal of the two dams that would somehow that got mixed me mixed up in the press the low the lower Dam by Meridian Street that is getting removed what they're going to do with the upper Dam which is the one that we're talking about um I think it's 3 feet 3 to 5 feet they want to remove from the the top wasn't that it and um and that's there to prevent silk from flowing down river so that game's going to get modified but it still needs to be structurally sound and that's what this is for sounds good anybody yes councilor Garrett just in case anybody in the public is wondering they also have inspected the other dams on the Green River and they're not concerned about similar structural dangers with those so that was a question that was asked last night as well in regard in the silt it's intended to keep the sewer Main and the water M up River by the Dunkin Donuts on Main Street like right up there that's meant to keep it under the silt so it doesn't get destroyed by flowing rocks water all that kind of ice thank you any other questions or comments all right can we get a roll call vote please councelor Gordon Yes councelor master tataro yes councelor bulock yes councelor Perry yes councelor wandalowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes councelor minhas councelor councelor menas let's come back to him in case he had to step away for a second councelor toronzo yers councelor Minas I don't think it's going to change the outcome of the vote does the vice president wish to vote Yes yes motion carries right so fiscal year 2025 tax classification we have those three orders all right uh order number FY 25- 027a city council moveed that it be ordered that the city council adopt a minimum residential factor of one resulting in an equal tax rate for all class of property for the fiscal year 2025 majority vote required do we have a second any discussion oh sorry report out first then discussion can I spoiler alert and say the next three that they're tied together we're all unanimously positive okay great you're still going to have to say it when we get to H I know you're not saving time um are there any questions about this I did have one question because we were talking about possibly adopting a different resident poal factor and I don't know if that is something that's just going to be looked at next year or was there um we asked again we had the great two uh meeting presentation from the board of assessors um and the chief assessor uh who had outlined even more in detail than the presentation that you saw tonight and uh one of the first questions we raised last night was has anything else changed they wanted to get Outreach early which I think is smart and we should do annually um or by anually or something but it's good to to have that information up front and ahead as as this does seem to come up to some degree every year um and they confirmed that from the data they had uh there wasn't any significant shift in what's happening in Greenfield right now that would um change their recommendation to keep these three orders as are um I think that if something were to change with the city uh development wise going forward it' be more uh of an option but it didn't really seem it wasn't the recommendation of the board um I see Chuck still here I don't know if if anybody wants to direct anything extra towards if you don't mind I would love to hear I feel like I got to be part of the beginning of the conversation on chairs thank you very much um I don't have the exact numbers in front of me uh because Randy has those thank you um essentially the problem in a nutshell is the Industrial and Commercial value is much lower in aggregate than the residential value it's a more than a 3 to1 ratio so what that means is if we change the split instead of just equal but if we put more of the split on commercial industrial it'll make residential taxes go down an extremely small amount but it will make the commercial industrial taxes go up an extremely large amount um and so it's still up to the council whether that's they think the decision right for Greenfield but based on the specific numbers we provide and Randy actually had the very specific numbers based on the new tax rate at our meeting last night Excuse me yes I I have those numbers that he gave us so I sign I wrote them down thanks counselor um again the the the the ratio is still very strong and um so that was we shared that information and then the ways and means um agreed with our recommendation thank you wonderful in case anybody wants to know if if we went with a split tax rate of 1.1 would lower the residential rate from 1995 which is look what it's looking like right to uh $19.29 and a commercial industrial rate would go up to $21 95 so it's $2 more per thousand thank you yeah I I know that this came up on chairs and I just didn't hear the end of it it was all all right did anyone else have any questions comments no can we get another roll call vot [Music] please councelor Gordon Yes councelor master tataro I didn't hear you either yes councelor bulock yes councelor Perry yes councelor wandalowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes councelor minhas I'm seeing in the zoom that he like left a little while ago and then came back but it looks like he left again I'm wondering if he's having connection issues okay oh thanks for letting us know okay so we'll skip over him for now okay councelor toronzo yep does the vice president wish to vote yes and yes motion passes all right order number FY 25-0 27b the city council moved that it be ordered that the city council votes that no residential exemption be adopted for fiscal year 2025 majority vote required do we have a second second I know you already told us but you have to say it again yes positive any questions comments all right can we get a roll call vote councelor Gordon yes councelor M Taro yes councelor Bullock yes councelor Perry yes councelor wandalowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes councelor Minaz councelor toronzo does the vice president wish to vote Yes Yes motion passes order number FY 25-27 the city council move that it be ordered that the city council votes that no small commercial exemption be adopted for fiscal year 2025 majority vote required do you have a second second and can I get your report positively unanimous great questions comments nothing can you get a a roll call vote councelor Gordon Yes councelor master Taro yes councelor Bullock yes councelor Perry yes councelor wandalowski yes councelor Healey yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes councelor Mah excuse me councelor Minas is still not there councelor toronzo yep does the vice president wish to vote yes and yes motion carries all right thank you folks now we are moving into presentation of petitions and similar papers um thought there was a petition that we were being presented with tonight it says None on the agenda is that I guess we're gonna does that mean we're going to send it to committee chairs is it the rooster oh it's under new business I'm sorry I was looking for Why is it under position it has to it has to go to um it's going to go to for zoning okay so nothing under presentation of petitions and similar papers report of committees says that there is nothing anticipated by the chair unfinished business we didn't have anything anticipated by the chair old business uh nothing anticipated 15 new business um councelor bul do you want to take us through this notice of zoning Amendment proposals please yep um the following zoning Amendment proposal has been submitted to the Greenfield city council for consideration zoning Amendment RB Suburban residential and ra Urban residential would have no allowance for Roosters no matter the Acres limited chickens would be allowed 10 Rd rural residential would allow chickens and limited Roosters on land 5 acres in size submitted October 10th 2024 by 10 registered Greenfield voters in accordance with mgl chapter 48 section 5-1 um do I have to read the actual motion too no this is just a notice so yeah we'll we'll hear this um in our December uh EDC meeting and we welcome public comment about the roosters great and just so that folks know just because we do have some new folks in the room when we have these notices we let them know just for transparency for the public that it's happening so we're not going to debate it tonight um we're going to hear from our neighbors EDC is going to take it up then they'll bring it to the full Council and so I didn't want people to think that we were kind of squashing it tonight it's just this is our notice period do you mind if under new business I add one more thing for um EDC which is that our meeting this month we weren't able to hold it because it was not the City calendar was down and so the public couldn't enter if you were trying to enter remotely um so everything that was on the agenda this month will we heard in our December meeting um there was three zoning ordinances yeah I know that was unfortunate you made the right call I mean we want it to be accessible to everybody but yeah that was unfortunate and yeah czy but we'll hear this month anyone who planned to attend okay and then we have a first reading and yep I see a dollar sign this is you Mike I hate that um hold on sorry it was already uh approve memorandum of agreement between city of Greenfield and mass cops local 470 and transfer $326 57.92 from contract stabilization to Police salary and wages thank you um do I have to read this part here that it was added to the agenda lit got it all right any motions for reconsideration do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second great and a I'm just going to adjourn the meeting I don't need a roll oh I do fine can we get a roll call vote absolutely councelor Gordon Yes councelor master Taro yes councelor Bullock yes councelor Perry yes councelor walowski councelor Hy yes councelor Brown yes councelor Garrett yes Council toronzo indubitably does the vice president wish to vote Yes Yes John is gonna be so jealous of me look at this look at that all right we're closed [Music]