heat heat heat heat heat hey heat hey heat good evening everybody i am calling to order this meeting of the Griff City Council it is 6:31 p.m so thank you all for being
here our first order of business before I do anything is to mention that this meeting is being recorded by the city council and GCTV9 if any other person present or doing the same you must notify the chairperson at this
time got you okay greenfield recorder all right so now we're going to take a roll call of the members do we need And want to Never mind i was trying to figure out who was
virtual and who is not but I we don't think there's anyone currently virtual currently online so but we'll find out in a minute councelor Golib here councelor Gordon
here councelor Master Taro here here councelor Bottomley here councelor Bullock here councelor Perry here councelor Healey informed us earlier that he is more than likely going to be
absent councelor Brown here vice President Garrett here councelor Minhas we have not heard from uh we will let you know if he comes
online councelor Toronto I'm here president Wandelowski yes here you have a quorum great thank you all our first order is the pledge of allegiance which is voluntary all right our uh for those of you who
have come for public comment I just want to mention that there's a signin sheet over here so if you want to speak um just sign in you'll have three minutes and our first order of business is a message from the superintendent so
I think I'm going to kick us off i'm Glenn Johnson i'm the chair of the Greenfield School Committee just wanted to give an update on our redistricting um thanks for the opportunity to speak with you as you may know the school committee has been
deeply engaged in evaluating the significant impact of the mayor's proposed reductions to the school budget we have taken these challenges seriously and acted quickly to respond in a way that is both student centered and fiscally responsible at our meeting last week we
acknowledged that we are at a crossroads our prior redistricting plans now intersect with new financial realities and updated enrollment data we've always approached these decisions with the best interest of our students families and taxpayers in mind and that guiding
principle continues to shape our path forward in light of all that has changed in recent weeks we took two immediate steps we identified a path forward for the 2025 2022 school year that minimizes disruption to students and staff while
preserving core services and supports we will continue with our geographic redistricting for elementary schools but pause the reassignment of 8th grade to the middle school and the fifth grade to the elementary schools and then we will we will
reconvene the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee for FY26 and this committee will take a fresh look at our long-term configuration in light of new data it will explore how declining enrollment both locally and across the state
affects our future planning and how we can adapt in ways that preserve equity efficiency and educational quality including the possibility of closing a school the committee will include members of the school committee as well as Mayor Disorger and we'll work closely
with the superintendent to identify the most sustainable model for our schools we're committed to being transparent and collaborative in this process we recognize the complexity of the challenges before us and are ready to work together with city council and the
broader community to meet this moment with clarity compassion and resolve thank you for your time and continued partnership superintendent thanks Glenn um just to piggyback that I just wanted to remind families that the nine streets that are affected in that
geographic reassignment are located on our website under the redistricting but also in my weekly parent update i have fielded a lot of emails and in inquiries from kindergarten parents about those um and you can always call central office
and uh that just piggybacks to the second topic tonight which is kindergarten registration we've been doing uh each Thursday this month a different elementary school has done kindergarten registration tomorrow nights is discovery school at four corners from 4:30 to 6 but kindergarten
registration along with any registration for next year can be done at central office or the school at which you are assigned and just a reminder that central office is closed on Monday due to the Patriots Day holiday but we will be open the rest of the school break week thank you
great thank you both and thank you so much for the update i really appreciate that uh questions from counselors councelor Toronto i had one and I apologize i meant to ask this last night at Ways and Means and with having
people go back and forth and and ask questions i totally uh phased out on this one um so I remember I I know we're we're we're at this point we're not doing this redistricting this year and that's fine um but as a as a financial
question um I I've heard the number tossed around that it was going to be about 1.8 million to do that redistricting and so just I don't know as a point of u inquiry um why would it cost that much
to move a couple of teachers from one building to another where we already have classrooms like I know that the elementary schools have enough classrooms to house this right like I mean that was part of the whole plan and that was part of what was
looked into so I mean we're talking about I mean most schools right the the the teachers leave at the end of the year I don't I don't want to make it sound like that but like uh you never know when the pink slips are going to be
until it's like July but so so they're essentially clearing out their classrooms the end of the year to the most part and then repopulating their classrooms you know a couple weeks before the school year starts so if they were just moving over and so we're talking about possibly moving some desks
and some furniture and things like that like I'm I'm trying to figure out where the and again correct me if I'm wrong but I I think I've heard that number over and over again is 1.8 million was going to be the cost to make this move and so it's it's hard
to figure out where that where that cost would come into when it's literally just a couple people are moving and then some maybe I don't know central maintenance or I don't know how you guys move around desks and and chairs and all that stuff um but where where that cost would come
into so what would what would that look like i have no idea where that 1.8 million came from so it's the $1.889 889 million cut to our budget which maybe is what people keep repeating um but not directly tied to redistricting the
redistricting was the additional four teachers at the middle school for the science and social studies for them to be extended years and then additional costs with impact bargaining with custodial uh bargaining units if they we had to impact bargain the help to move
and uh teacher time so I'm not sure where that $1.8 million cost associated with option 2B came from but um So would those So those costs are still going to be there is what I mean like to to extend
those to fullyear programs what you're talking about they're still going to be there anyway regardless of whether we we shift folks from the the fifth graders and the eighth graders down are they still going to be there or why would they only be there because We are we're
keeping the same schedule at the middle school that is current which is halfyear science and social studies gotcha so the pause put a hold on that okay so things are tied together even though they're not being
seen as two separate things they've all been group that's what I mean and sometimes it's just the way the well and I the uh the the narrative comes out is that if we were to redistrict in the sense of moving fifth
and eighth graders you're saying we would then also at the same time be adding these other half year to full year positions but because we're not going to move them we're going to keep them at half year like those seem like two two separate
things that are now being kind of combined together so that's that's where when it comes into that I think that's probably where some of that narrative comes from and it's much more complicated than that i think everyone wants it to be an A plus B and that it makes it clean and easy but scheduling
for middle and high school is not that clean and easy and the piece that people forget is that uh secondary teachers at the high school are content specific licensed so at the middle school you would have needed two eighth grade teams
but at the high school you have a team of one eighth grade team of four but you also have high school teachers who are certified in that content that can take on additional sections I guess so it's really a complicated process that I think people really want it to be
cleaner than it actually is and moving all of those pieces always affects another piece that affects another piece down the road and that's what we've been working on in the last few days to try to really get a handle on how many sections do we need for the students that are now going to be housed in the
buildings that they're remaining in because that wasn't what we were planning in the scheduling process earlier this year okay no that's that's helpful information to explain that that those multiple layers end up coming into play i don't think that that might
have been uh spelled out earlier so I think it's in the um superintendent presentation from the um from the uh the budget hearing um there was requests for us to provide a level services budget number that's in there as well as the
number for the plan to have the redistricting so if you're looking for a cost comparison of those that's a place to look I think no do we ask for that and then yeah as of last night we asked for you to come back excuse me on the third councelor Toronto I just want to give enough room
for other folks to ask questions so and we can come back to you if there's uh councelor Garrett just regarding the level services budget the number I think I saw in that presentation that you shared with us is around $600,000 is that correct
no I didn't bring that slide but it is a $600,000 difference so between the two but I think the 5.42% level service was still a one some I I don't have that on you John yeah okay so one closer to 1.2
million correct okay that's helpful thank you sorry I didn't see councelor Gallob no you're good um so first I want to say I really appreciate the work that you all have done to take the mayor's proposal to close a
school seriously and I really appreciate the school committee um voting to reconsider even despite all the work that's been done which I know that you all have done a lot of work on that um but given the current circumstances I I
really appreciate you all thinking through how to how to make changes right now and um and I am working very hard to figure out how we are going to figure out how to fund the schools well this this year
um and so I've been working hard to get clear on the financial circumstances and I and so I feel reluctant to say I was pretty frustrated by some of the responses last night and that that I wanted more
clarity um and about there were questions about what are the plans with the reserves um and I heard we might take 500,000 but we're not going to use all of it and there's a big difference between zero
and 4.5 um also with the questions about reclassification of funds um I heard the word we are allowed to do this several times but it is important i think that the request that I'm hearing from
counselors is to see the schools as part of the whole of the cities of the city and I and we still don't have crystal clarity about what the number for our level of services budget is and I think that in order for us to have
I don't know what votes we can have on what what will be within our power to vote for I don't I don't know that yet but in order for I think there to be trust from the council to make whatever move is possible to fund the schools we
need more transparency we I and and I think that you know I think Glenn you know but I think both of you know and my colleagues will attest to the fact that maybe there's someone who will fight as hard for me for schools on this council
but everyone here will agree that I will fight as hard as I possibly can which is part of me saying we need more clarity and so um we need those numbers i would love to see a special meeting of the sui of the
school committee to be answering these questions and offering transparency and clarity and I know that's your choice Glenn as a chairperson i would ask you to do that um because I do not know how we move past this point unless there is
really really clear sharing of information and I know that when there's confusion between parties it's the first place to look is what information is not being completely clearly shared and I'm seeing that on both on on all sides is and also the complexity of school
funding is is is a lot so I'm not I am I am I am trying to demonstrate how much I'm on your side and I was frustrated by the answers and wanting more clarity and hoping that you will meet so that we can all hear clear answers to those
questions it's a statement question yeah I'm not sure there's a question I can answer i did explain last night you know the the plan since July 1 has been to operate under X fifth grade was moving eighth
grade was moving we did all the scheduling you know who what teachers you need to cover preps you know what you need for electives and all of that so in four days since the shift that's all I have spent doing and so to have
all of that clear for last night's ways and means was impossible and I understand the frustration but um I can't work harder to try to now undo what I've been working for seven months planning for September to now try to do
in less than a week and give clarity on what every answer everyone wants when I haven't yet actually um figured out how many do how many teachers do I need in specials to cover those preps for how many teachers are going to be at these schools now so um
we finished the middle school today i worked all day Monday at the high school and we're on to elementaryaries tomorrow so um there are only so many hours in the day and I am trying to get all of the the chess pieces on the board so
that we know exactly what we need along with considering a lot of um issues such as people who have retired and can we survive without that position being refilled or was there a resignation midy year and then we haven't filled it so do
we need to actually fill that we're trying to be as fiscally responsible and really address the needs and understand the constraints but at the same time I'm not going to obliterate a school system and the programming and the supports and the needs of our students so I'm trying
to be thoughtful about that but I can't do it in less than 72 hours so um certainly we will we talked today about a potential special meeting and um you know school break is next week i will be working but it'll be quiet so there will
be a lot of work that can get done but um we're trying i would just add that um you know I've been on this school committee for almost six years and the the the I feel like some of the concerns about lack of
transparency or sometimes it sounds like people feel like there's some kind of shell game going on it actually has to do with the complexity of the system um and I don't know why there's been a practice in Greenfield for you know a
long time of having a reserve fund where all the charges to it for a fiscal year get built one place and then they get reclassified at the end of the fiscal year and so you can't just look at that reserve fund number and go well they have all these reserves and why aren't
they using them uh I don't I don't know where that how that practice developed i don't know how difficult it would be to change but I will say that I do believe that some of the um the questions that people come to us with some degree sometimes of of suspicion and concern
actually have to do with uh with the complexity of the system and and some of those you know revolving funds have their own rules about what they can be spent on and how they get accounted for um so I you know to whatever extent we can help to make all of that clearer to
people I'm committed to that and continue to con continue to learn myself about some of these items so Fer yeah I I don't know that and I I don't know that I'm someone who falls into the category of thinking that
there's a shell game i came with the expectation of or the hope or of of clear answers and it makes complete s what you're saying superintendent makes complete sense to me that figuring out the level services budget requires work and I heard you commit last night to
bringing us that number and the answers around the reserves are not were were not clear um the answers around reclassification were not clear i am talking about the current responses that that we received last night i know that
school funding is incredibly complex and I know that these practices uh precede you however I do believe that it is it behooves you and it behooves all of us to be having really clear answers now and so I'm hoping that you will that you
will have a special meeting so that those an the the current questions can be answered like we're Yeah i would be grateful for that thank you i'm not seeing any other questions so thank you both um I know last night was
a long night as well um and I look forward to the special meeting i think being able to come together is really important next on our agenda is communications from the mayor good evening counselors
um brief report getting uh in the spring cleanup spirit i'm excited to share that I'll be organizing and taking part in a downtown cleanup on Friday April 25th from 12 to 3 you're all invited the cleanup will cover Main Street Federal
Street and um some parts of Bank Row and Hope Street many departments will be participating no sign up or registration is necessary just come to the common with some gloves um I'm very grateful for all the great businesses and
organizations in the downtown i think it's a great way for our community to show them some support and promote maintaining a clean downtown um also on Tuesday April 29th the city is participating um in partnership with the Greenfield
Business Association and the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce um hosting a business listening session at the John Zon at 5:30 i encourage any business owner who's listening or watching to attend and make their voice heard we did
this last year and it was very successful um on your agenda is I I urge you to pass the transfer of $354,000 from free cash to tax title legal expenses ex
uh settle pending litigation the settlement is um is in a response to a US Supreme Court case as you may recall we sold the property in excess of the outstanding debt owed by the plaintiffs the settlement represents
much less than the city could be paying should this case continue in federal court keep in mind that it is not covered by city insurance we do not anticipate any other cases such as this for two reasons the state of
Massachusetts has since passed um a statute of limitations on this additionally the city has not sold any other properties since the US Supreme uh court ruled on this um also there's been
widespread uh support in the city for making right by the plaintiffs um I'd like to extend an invitation to you for our upcoming flag raising greenfield will be recognizing the National Child Abuse Prevention Month
with a flag raising that will be happening on the common on Friday April 18th at 11:00 the ceremony will com will uh include remarks from local leaders and also a musical performance from Jaduk um I was there last year and that was
phenomenal and lastly our recreation department continues to work non-stop to fundra for this year's fireworks um the recck department will be hosting their annual cornhole tournament on Saturday May 3rd at um 3 pm similar to
last year I'm proposing a friendly challenge to all of our city counselors the mayor's office may not have been victorious last year i actually remember those of you who did very well and but we will be back again this year
challenging you again and I'm just very grateful to Christy Moore for the continued uh for continuing to organize these great events so any questions that you have I'm happy to take counselors are we doing all right
no this is un unofficial we will not have a quorum i'm really bad at porn um I'd like to say that President Wandelowski was wonderful you You were great i remember that it was a good It
was a good event uh councelor Garrett so speaking of games there's been a discussion between councelor Wentalowski and myself about the idea of doing something similar to the cornhole tournament but with the new botchi courts so that's just something you know this is a it's in the public so it's
real now but at some point that would be a fun thing to do as well so just keeping it in mind sounds great i'm really good at botchi by the way great good councelor Golib hello my question is um as I'm thinking
about the school budget and um how what what to do how we're funding the schools um and all the different options it's come to my or actually two years ago when we were working on it it was mentioned to us that
um in previous years there had been a practice of using free cash from the next year's budget um a promise of free cash to pay for the the upcoming year's budget and I'm wondering if you would be
open to considering that or open to a conversation about that as one possible one possibility if first if I remember correctly it was probably about using the free cash that we had but perhaps we were talking we were talking about next year's future
years yeah so I wouldn't be propo I wouldn't be in favor of doing that for a couple reasons one we don't know what we're going to have in next year's new CA um free cash although I'm sure there will be some but secondly I think I made that clear or I
will be making it clear i think that this is very doable for money that is in reserves the um the revolving accounts 3 years ago had a balance of 2.5 million and right now they're the balance is
5.2 million um the you know transportation revolving a couple of years ago had zero or 100,000 and it's now got a million um we haven't been using
uh 1504 or 1521 school choice or um special ed revolving it's increased dramat dramatically and I think that's doable in addition to not hiring the um folks that were planned as part of the move
uh councelor Toronto and then councelor Bulock i just want to point out it's actually there's there's no way that we can um it's illegal to pre budget something that you can't fund because you don't know what the funding
is going to be so there is I think you might have misheard something counselor Golib we cannot pre-budget free cash because it's not until it's certified we can't promise to spend anything that's entering into a contract that is
unfunded and that is completely illegal under state law um so that would that would never happen anyway and we wouldn't legally be able to even if we got a financial order from the mayor on it we couldn't legally uh vote on it um
because that that that's money that you don't know is there um and that's one of the fundamental rules of contract law with the state is you can't enter into a contract um if you if you know
knowingly do not have the money to do it um so that's all I want to say about that i have councelor Bullock yeah um I guess my question is well first I'll make a statement one is that
um you know two years ago I think we all we knew this was going to happen this was this was forecast to happen with the school budget um we were many of us who are here on the floor today yourself included were lucky
enough to be able to swoop in and address um a deficit in the budget in the moment uh largely because there was uh separate federal funding sources that had come through the city at the time due to CO
um I think what I'm looking for and and really more than anything I'm speaking as a as a parent of a child in the school district at the moment is for everybody to take some
accountability in this process and look forward because we are going to be in this exact same position next May and the May after with our education budget we have to come up with a systemic way
to create a sustainable budget that's going to work for our kids and I think that means level service funding the budget with the contractual obligations like for four years I've heard that right we we've entered into contract negotiations we have to meet that
um and you know I think that there's what I've tried to understand and and I and I want to say like I've met directly with the superintendent and the business manager
um twice now um and there's two different ways that this is being viewed uh this issue is being viewed there's a real difference of frameworks that have to do with revolving accounts and how much you hold in a revolving account and we can talk
about that on the floor when we discuss our budget um and what is the right way to do it and what isn't and what I heard you ask Katherine was not like will we get a financial order ahead of a deficit but what I heard you ask was like if those
revolving counts get drained and we have two special ed students that enter the school district and that brings us out of compliance with being able to meet the needs of our students is there going to be free cash available to fund those
students education because we've drained the appropriate revolving accounts that we can utilize for sped education or whatever it may be because my understanding and I don't know if I agree with the amounts that are held in those accounts right like I think we're
in a crisis right now so we need to dip into the savings account to utilize it so really what I'm asking I guess as The parent more than anything is a process for us to come together once we get through this budget season
which is going to be a band-aid to really look at a larger picture of sustainability for the school system over the next five years um because I think whether you leave office Jenny or
run again you're the the person after you is is going to run into this p this problem and we need someone in leadership right now through the superintendent's office and through the mayor's office and through the council that's going to sit down and create a sustainable plan for the long run
because many of us have kids that are here for the long run you know my kid has another seven years eight years in the school district so I agree with you that we have to make a plan not just for this but for every department we're facing in
fiscal year 27 um we're going to face unique challenges and I think you know I am thinking about that especially with each new person that we're putting into a position um and as somebody comes forward and
there's a resignation I think about it so yes we have to make a plan for not just school department but for every department that is part of our city because we're it's we're all part of the whole so yeah I agree with you
did I have councelor Perry no I thought I thought your hand came forward um does did anybody need to ask a question first and then I'll come back to councelor Golib the phantom hand over there okay councelor Golib yeah
councelor Bulock spoke my mind thank you thank you Mayor did I hear that there will be blue bags available with us oh yes we'll have blue bags will be available and you can bring your own gloves and actually I think it's going to be a lot of fun we have business
owners that going to come at the sheriff's office i vest i don't know if people going to come from the school but um I have high hopes for those three hours let me tell you oh no clean up i'm on cleanup that was
blue bags right blue bags yeah so if if I wanted to walk around my neighborhood and clean up I could get a blue bag oh I have some in my trunk i I'll I'll bring them during the break i happen to have them from when I was helping at Energy Park you know during CO so there's still
some there and yeah I'll give you a few thank you okay I'll make us I'll make a pit stop during the break thank you Mayor so next on our agenda um I'm bringing up uh City Attorney Gordon Quinn of
Sullivan Hayes and Quinn um in filing a response to the open meeting law complaint filed your mic Good evening okay great so uh just to recap I'm going to give you a little bit of the background so this this open
meeting law complaint which was submitted to the council back on March 24th relates to a March 19th meeting of the council and basically what the complaint is alleging is that there was a violation of the open meeting law with
respect to the posting of an amended agenda to that meeting uh and just a little bit to provide some further background so there was an agenda posted and then uh on the morning of the meeting on March 19th
uh the agenda was amended to include um two items um and uh these items had to do with questions that were going to be posed separate sets of questions that were going to be posed to the superintendent and the mayor relating to
school district uh accounts operations and financial issues and um so the the al the complaint that was the open meeting law complaint was that those those amendments shouldn't have been added because they were not posted u
more than 48 hours in advance of that March 19th meeting so uh I've taken a look at the amended agenda for that March 19th meeting as well as the circumstances that led to the uh amendment of that agenda and just by way
of background so what what had occurred here my understanding and looking at all the evidence was that uh on the evening of March 18th uh councelor Gulib had prepared lists of questions that she wanted the superintendent and the mayor
to ask and she ended up emailing those questions to other the city c other counselors as well as the city clerk as well as president Wandelowski and um she wanted to the mayor and the superintendent to address those questions the next day and don't
that email was sent after 8:00 p.m on March 18th so uh clearly you know the these amendments these topics were added to the agenda now the law is is that
typically generally speaking um a an agenda for a meeting of a public body in Massachusetts listing items has to be posted more than at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting now within 48 hours the agenda can be uh
amended provided that the topics that are being added to to the agenda were not reasonably anticipated by the chair of the public body which is President Wandelowski okay so the issue in this
case was is in this matter in terms of resolving this complaint is were those questions that councelor Gulib had submitted on the evening of March 18th reasonably anticipated by President Wandelowski and my understanding is I
don't know if there's any evidence that President Wandelowski was aware those questions were going to be asked of counselor uh Gulp and in looking at the statute the open meeting law statute as well as other open meeting law determinations issued by the attorney
general my conclusion is based on those facts is that there was no violation of the open meeting law by adding those items they could be added and they could be addressed now the attorney general's office has said that notwithstanding that they strongly encourage public
bodies to postpone a discussion if you can on items added to an agenda within 48 hours but you're not prohibited from discussing them uh and they also the the attorney general has also asked that you know no action should be taken on some
of those items as well if if they if if they can be avoided but these are just encouragements from the attorney general's office so again based on the information I believe that there was no I advising council I believe there was no violation strict specific violation
of the open meeting law by including those items on the agenda for the o for the March 19th meeting um so I I know that the earliest that President Wandelowski could have viewed those questions was the evening of March 18th i'm not sure if that's the case or if
you saw them the next morning uh as a city clerk I've spoken to the city clerk and she first viewed them the next morning um but that's the standard and so my advice would be that on behalf of the council because now I have to
prepare a response that I would outline that those facts that legal argument uh and submit a response to the complaining party uh I think we have until Friday to do so uh and then I would submit that and then the complaining party would
decide whether to appeal that to the attorney you know further to to the attorney general's office so I'm not sure if anybody has any questions about that about the facts about the my advice or the process councelor Toronto
I do and uh I know we already I believe obtained the legal opinion we got was from your office in regards to some of these weird changes that have happened in the last two years um and I've been here four um and it's been brought up
multiple times so we have we have things like further down our our agenda that have to do with like old business unfinished business and it has been at times that we've been told and even new business that um if it's not I keep
using that word of course the reasonably anticipated we keep seeing this we didn't used to have this on agendas and it kind of came out of nowhere um and I think that there's been a lot of confusion with that um if I get a communication from say the mayor was just here and giving us communications
and and she listed what she was going to talk about tonight um when I hear that communication I can't reasonably anticipate because I didn't know what she was going to say right i can I can hear I can list she can list downtown cleanup and maybe
something that she says at the time spurs a thought that I want to ask a question about and there have been times where I feel like in some of these categories um it's
been I don't want to say stifled um but the idea is that like we're we're no longer allowed to talk about something that wasn't already posted on the paper and I believe the um opinion the legal
opinion we got from from your folks uh before was saying everything we were doing before we reprinted it this way was totally fine we're allowed to have old business we're allowed to ask questions of the people who come to us that evening obviously I in good faith I
think we all should try to reasonably anticipate and if we can uh submit our questions in advance so people have time and and I think a reasonable response would be if if if you know the superintendent of schools comes up or the mayor comes up
and somebody has a question that's going to require uh digging into some details we shouldn't reasonably expect them to answer it that evening but A reasonable response would be "I will get that information for you and maybe I can
bring it up to you next month at our communications." Um I just I want it I want to make it clear so that we're all on the same page that um we can still have um wildcard stuff that comes up there might be things that
come up 300 p.m the day of the meeting and like you have an epiphany you're like "Man I didn't I I want to ask that question now." and to not have to be feeling like you're not able to ask that question because you didn't have 48 hours advanced notice to ask the
question or put it on the agenda is that a is that an okay process for us to just go through being humans and and ask what comes up in conversation or in communications um and if we end up throughout the agenda we
get to we don't have anything listed tonight under old business but if a conversation we come up with during one of our other things tonight when the old business portion comes up and we say "Oh by the way I'm remembering this thing from like two months ago I want to bring
it back up but it wasn't on the agenda should we not still be able to bring it up under the open meeting law?" Yeah I mean I I think you can you can certainly bring it up i mean there was one case I read an attorney general determination where there was a select board and a select board member brought up an issue
just like that that was prompted by some discussion and the ch the determination was that the chair didn't reasonably anticipate that that item would be brought up so discussing it there was no violation of the open meeting law even though it wasn't posted on the agenda
the original agenda um again the attorney general I think cautions public bodies to say you know if if there are items like that think about postponing discussion if you can you're not going to be technically in violation if there's any action to be taken like a
decision certainly try to postpone those kinds of things decisions based on something that just has been brought up in a meeting sure so it's it's really kind of a a rule it's like a reasonable rule right that that I think everybody can understand um and um so yeah I mean
I I think it's not fatal to to to have a discussion about an item that is prompted as long as the chair didn't reasonably anticipated in preparing the agenda the original agenda uh you know more than 48 hours in advance of the meeting they could never read my mind
sorry so I'm and I'll go come to you in just a second so I'm hearing that when we're asking questions to the mayor to the schools we're okay to if if we just ask a question that comes up from that
discussion um even if it is hasn't been put on the agenda ahead of time well that's right i mean I think there was a question to the mayor i mean I think today uh under item 6A questions from the council for the mayor at the time of posting there were no questions reasonably anticipated by the chair uh
and then there were some questions that were posed uh to the mayor that she addressed in terms of the budget so I again that's something that I'm sure you president Wandelowski because you're the you're the standard here didn't anticipate that question from a specific counselor and so again not a technical
violation of the open meeting law so I I appreciate and understand um and feel settled by that your response that's saying that Chair Wandowski could president Wandowski could not have reasonably anticipated um and we weren't
in violation and I'm still curious about good practice because we have maintained we have maintained as a council that we have the right and responsibility and and I appreciate you saying that we we do have that ability to ask the questions that emerge in the
moment and my intent with sending the questions to the superintendent and the mayor was was to give them a heads up that I'd be asking those questions um and I'm ambivalent i mean actually not completely i would like those to be posted so that the public could read
along and see the questions but if it is in violation of the law for them to be posted or for me to share them in anticipation I don't have to give them the heads up and I you know I could just ask them spontaneously and so I'm I'm
I'm wondering what is good practice i'm wondering should I have sent the I mean I could have just sent them to the superintendent and mayor and not share them with President Wandowski and the chair or um yeah should I have sent them like what is or is or does the law have
any like is there any guidance and if there's not I'm also okay with that but I I just want to be clear i was trying to give them a heads up and trying to allow the public to know what those questions were but I don't I don't have to send them in in
the future yeah no I mean it's it's it can be very challenging because as a counselor I'm sure you're bombarded and you're you're thinking about what what's been said at certain meetings and then all of a sudden there there's an epiphany and you want to ask some information i I think the rule of thumb
is you always strive to comply with the open meeting law the spirit of the open meeting law which is hopefully you're able to frame your questions and develop those questions that you want answered at a public meeting well in advance so that you don't even create an issue such as this one sometimes that's impossible
you know I mean people are busy and it happens so as soon as you have this idea of these questions you like to ask of a of a me at a meeting you should try to you know you can still it's still good to put the questions down as you did
send it to the president I know it was the day before the night before but you sent these questions on and um they were added to the agenda it wasn't a violation of the open meeting law I mean it it I understand from the the hearing the March 19th hearing there were some
concerns concerns about being able to address these items because people thought that some counselors thought they didn't have enough time and and that's we understand that um so all you can do is try to get the information out or the topics out to the chair as quickly as you can once you are aware of
the questions you want asked and um in this case you know you try to give as much advanced notice as possible sure thank you okay uh I I'm not sure if there's a motion that needs to be made to allow me to authorize me to respond
by the agenda oh okay and it's posted and it's po great it's okay i don't want to be I don't want to come back here you know okay okay thank you thank you so much we're almost to public comment so
so next we have um Carol Collins from the energy department so thank you for coming look at how many people came to hear me talk so we thought since it's Earth Day month
um that it would be good timing to hear what you all are up to great thank you it's too warm in here first of all thank you for the invite and it's good to see you all and tell me if this is
too loud because it feels very loud it's okay okay so I'm going to start off with good news which is not how I spend my days but there is a lot of good news to share and uh and a lot of this is also in the
budget book under the energy department narrative i try to kind of use it as a year-end report kind of thing but um overall throughout the municipality we are now saving 28% off of what we were
using across buildings and vehicles when we started as a green community back in 2010 so that is a massive accomplishment and it's been the effort of of a lot of
collaborations and people working together and never stopping so that's what we do and uh we're in a great place where people are on board and things happen that should um the other thing
that I'm wicked excited about is that we now have the numbers on the DPW office building and you may remember that we were very fortunate that a generous resident gifted us a solar array for the rooftop on the DPW office building which was already built to be net zero ready
it's extremely energy efficient it's all electric so through his gift we sized an array that should have met the needs of the building for a year that's what net zero is all about and yay we did we actually are what's considered net
positive because there's been more electricity generated than the building used in in the calendar year of 2024 and then a little surprise is that we also get a check every month as part of the smart solar market program and so we've
generated over $1,000 in income also and we're now getting a new uh EV that we're gonna have a charging station at the building which all is going to be free so if I can say anything I just want to say that
the office building is roughly about the same amount of usage as a home and it's very easy to do this and I know everyone thinks they can't afford it but there are there's an a fabulous solar loan program the state is is great at um
providing the support so that people can do this and uh it's a heck of a lot easier than doing bigger bigger projects but um I'm happy to talk to anyone about how you can pretty much put no money down and get off of fossil fuels for your
home with a lot of work or depending on where you're at with your health it can be done and uh it may be easier than you think so another thing is I just wanted to say that uh well there's a bunch of thing well
one thing that I think is good to highlight you know I think you're all familiar with greenfield light power where we've been providing 100% green electricity as an option for every electricity customer in the city since whatever 11 years from before now 2014 I
guess and uh to date we have saved collectively close to $7 million over whatever sources rates were for 100% green electricity so those are the kinds of wins that I am really excited about because everything I do I'm trying to
save money and it's easy to go green if you have an unlimited checkbook obviously we don't which is the real reason I know everybody's here not because of me but um you know every time that we're able to save money it's long-term and it makes the city better
and we're getting off of fossil fuels while saving money so that's I guess what you call the win-winwin kind of stuff and I'm going to keep trying to do it so I will uh we did just apply for a
green communities grant and we'll hear about that in July and so that's kind of taking our next steps towards finding the projects where it makes the most sense to invest some money and then seeing where we can get that money from and make it happen and
have a big impact again with an eye toward saving energy and and money long term and saving the city on having to maintain properties and equipment which is a big expense also so
um I mean I guess the one thing I do want to mention is and I'm sure you have questions so I'll stop soon for those but uh I would say that there's been a shift and I was trying to think of just since I started this job in
2010 we're using a whole vocabulary now and there's a whole set of the work we're doing these words didn't exist in 2010 and when I first started going to college back in the 80s sustainability wasn't even really a term i was studying
environmental science and solar energy design was what I you know because there there weren't any other terms so this is a field that's like rapidly changing there's uh technologies coming best practices and but I will
say that we are seeing more extreme weather events they're happening more and more frequently they're having a major impact on not just municipal operations but on people and and homes and farms and we've
seen enough that it's safe to say this is going to continue to happen so I would say that what I see looking forward is that we still need to keep doing what we can do that's cost-effective and has a big impact to save energy and to do really
cool things like get the police department its first EV i I know he's standing back there so you know all these fun things are always happening and they're fast and yay but um we also need to keep thinking about how we need
to adapt to all these changes and you know one of the things who would have ever thought we needed cooling centers and and heating centers and maybe I just said no and we did but I you know it seems like things are much more critical that we need to provide so much more support to people and it has a lot to do
with you know many different things but I see the city's role as becoming much more committed to building to withstand you know whatever we're doing that we're going to withstand and extreme weather events
that are coming up and a lot of that again it's like hitting a moving target and things are still but but there's enough out there and there's enough really great examples that I I think enough of you are new that you haven't talked heard me talk about Fisk Avenue
was a very small project but one of the main reasons I wanted to work on it is we took up a bunch of asphalt in an area that flooded because there was all this impervious surface in a downtown that's filled with impervious surface The problem with that is the rain when
it comes has nowhere to go we get more and more rain more and more water with nowhere to go that's where the flooding comes from by pulling that parking lot out to the street and planting the grass we now you know took care of mitigating a lot of that storm water and
eliminating that flooding tiny tiny project just a smidge but a fabulous outcome and it was just a matter of thinking like oh you know Marlo's going to replace that wall there we have this plan let's let's see what we can make
happen so it's just a matter of and and so again we're already doing it when we can but I I just wanted to highlight that for the council and thank you for all your support and uh just don't ask me why there isn't more solar but no go ahead ready for any questions
this is what happens when it's after seven sorry more punchy council me hi hi i was curious if you'd be willing to address the the
250% Yeah uh unexpected electrical use at the fire station so I was hoping nobody would remember that but it it does kind of highlight one thing I I keep telling
people is that when we're building buildings now it's they're a lot more complicated and part of that is because we're creating structures it's very easy to have a building that uses like almost no energy but then you have to you know in a fire station there's so many unique
uses there's you know air quality is a really big deal so there has to be a lot of air movement and stuff so with that what I thought immediately we had a great team everybody worked really well together we did everything that is advised to do on a on a net zero ready
project it's the same kind of stuff we did with the library so to see that kind of number it was like something's going on so everybody's been the chief keeps calling me up he's like I found the culprit so it's kind of cool everybody's really you know looking
at everything and and so we are I I don't want to get too in the weeds but I would say that we're everybody is committed to addressing this issue and we are pretty certain we've already um identified and are on
the way to reconciling a couple of the issues which had had to do with vent fans that were on 24 hours a day instead of being triggered when the CO2 triggered it um and so we also have what's called a verification scope where we're going to have everything kind of
double checked the building already gets checked as part of the commissioning process but this is the second um just again because of the numbers being like out of whack that that we want to make sure we're not missing anything so I would say
that even though it was a surprise that's one of the reasons they're really good to keep up with what's going on with the energy consumption so that we can address it in pretty much real time so I'm hopeful no wood to knock on but I I think within a
few months it should be under control and back to what it should be councelor Garrett I was also going to ask about the fire station but instead I'll just take the opportunity to say thank you and I know the whole council appreciates the work you're doing as well as the
administration and you're helping us both achieve our fiscal goals and also our moral obligations to the planet so thank you it's a pleasure thank you Councelor Perry i'm just going to thank you too i gotta say when that story came
out about the fire station it was like "Oh my gosh." But the way it was written no no offense Andrew but the way it was written it made it really sound different and my first reaction was "It's got to be some kind of system problem where someone didn't know what
to do." It's like when you move into a house you didn't realize there was a secret vent behind the dryer supposed to turn on i knew it was going to be something like that so I'm glad to hear that you guys are researching it and looking at it and trying to figure out what it was and if it's a timing issue that makes a lot of sense yep
well thank you and uh I will just say that like we're very fortunate that again anybody who works on these buildings they they you know we all thought the same thing it's like okay we got to figure this out we know it's not like there's something wrong with the design and all of that was done
impeccably but there's a lot of moving parts so thank you i just have one quick question um first uh really exciting that it's that we've got a EV coming on board possibly for
the meter reader and was wondering when we were looking at the three new police cars if they looked at EVs for those um because we talked about this last year and I asked for that last year moving forward
i know we've discussed it and I think it's still to be decided to be determined and I will say too I've been watching the market and there really hasn't been an adequate they call them PPVs was that personal police vehicle or
something but there finally is one and so it's just a matter of I I don't want to recommend something that then doesn't work that doesn't help anybody so I think we're uh we're in a good position and I if the chief's still back there maybe I think yeah we'll discuss it
are there grants available for like fast chargers or any anything that we could do to That's a much uh harder question to answer because a lot of that those pots of money are they come and they go and
so I just with our green communities grant applied for a grant to help offset the cost of the EV for the police department and to cover the cost of an uh charger sorry one of the new cars in the police department is going to be an EV yeah I
know the truck the Gotcha we misheard that apologies sorry i I think that's it thank you so much we really appreciate it and all your efforts to save us money and save carbon it's fun we should all try it
all right so we're at public comment we have 26 folks signed up so this is going to be at least an hour or so i am so excited that we have such um robust public comment tonight so thank you all for turning out uh to to
reiterate when you come up um just state your name um address uh and if you don't want to give your street address at least the street you live on or the Greenfield resident that's helpful to us and we're just here to listen to you all
you'll have three minutes so that don't I don't want anybody to be nervous so our first person up is Staley is that Stacy or Staley stacy stacy thank you i can read your I figured it
was you but there's four people online all right hi I'm Stacy Ston i live at 74 High Street here in town um I am speaking to you as a private citizen a resident of the community not as a school committee member um and I do want
to just very quickly please support the resolution i that is not what my public comments are about but please support the resolution to make Greenfield a safe city for trans folks um I want to talk about money a little bit i keep hearing about our financial wos as a community i
hear the resignation to cuts in people's voices and the meaning is clear expect less fewer services fewer choices fewer dollars i invite a reconsidering of the problems that we're faced with i say double down expect more expect more from
ourselves and each other more participation and more forward thinking there are ideas for how to feed two birds with one seed um ideas that can help us solve our shared struggles and at the same time lay a solid foundation for weathering the coming political economic and as
Carol mentioned actual storms that are facing us specific ideas that I'd love to see discussed are creating additional pathways to recruit for municipal careers out of high school what would it take to get more kids with certifications like a CDL or getting
paired up with Marlo and DPW um they're not sexy careers but they are valued in necessary jobs that our kids could be encouraged and provided pathways to pursue in a robust and systematic way we could aim for more even more ambitious goals like growing our own pareducator pathways in
partnership with GCC we could do this with allied health we could do this with green careers and futures entrepreneurship to boost our downtown and more the those are investments they take money yes but they also take the support and the facilitation of all of
our community especially those of us tasked with steering and leading these types of efforts if we want young people and young families to come and stay here then we need clear ways to integrate them into the actual running of our community and give them a reason to be here we have so
many talented dedicated and hardworking young people their creativity and persistence are such assets such strengths to our community if we allow ourselves to be changed by them i'm not naive i see the political and economic landscape i feel its unsteadiness under
my own feet and and there are still opportunities out there there is hope hope is not lost not for our schools and not for our city i recognize these investments likely won't produce any fruits for 5 to 10 years but I also know
that these investments could have a tremendous impact on the future of Greenfield far beyond that i'm looking for bold ideas and big partnerships i'm looking for some of these ideas to come from other municipal leaders including other elected officials i'm calling for
more communication between municipal and civic channels um from my vantage point although I am a private citizen here I am thinking specifically about the school committee and city council but I'm also thinking about how we can bring all the other offices together in coordinated ways it involves a much more
public and shared vision of where we're going as a community and what our priorities are not just for holding tight but for actually moving forward thank you Pete Brown start my own timer here um thank you i'm
Pete Brown i live at 24 James Street in Greenfield and I am here yet again to beg you to fund our schools i understand we're a small city with a lot of financial challenges i understand that many of those challenges
are due to structural issues that are out of our control i understand that we have even more budget risks due to all the things going on at the federal level i understand why the school committee seems resigned to budget cuts that mean
we can't move the fifth grade back to the elementary schools or move eighth grade back to the middle school and I understand that our insurance rates are going up and our healthcare costs are going up precipitously i do not understand why
the schools need to shoulder that burden i feel like that's something that should be spread across all the city departments i do not understand why some of you on this council seem to think that because we found the money for the schools previously that somehow ends
that question and oh no why are they back asking for money again and I don't understand why some of you on the committee seem to think the schools are filled with waste and um padding and fraud um in my day job I
work for a fairly large company it's well understood that if you have a large organization serving lots of people you need a robust administrative and managerial function to keep that operating smoothly i
um I feel like I'm pretty reasonable i uh try to look at both sides of all the sides of arguments i try to understand where people are coming from i don't come at things with constant outrage and alarm um but my pleasant demeanor this evening notwithstanding I am frankly
outraged and I'm tired um I feel like absent people like me and probably a lot of other folks in this room coming and yelling at you and begging you and being outraged and asking you to fund our schools the
default is always cut cut cut because otherwise all you're hearing is bad faith arguments about waste and fraud that aren't based on anything so as a taxpayer and as a resident of Greenfield and as a parent I will say I don't think there's any department in
this city that is more important than our schools and I am begging you please figure it out find the money fund the schools unrelated to all of that I strongly support the sanctuary city resolution i hope you all vote for it
later this evening thank you thank you Empress Bonu just turn on the mic so that the audience at home can hear you my name is Empress and I'm not here for any of my titles or what I do for
this community i'm here as a mother of an elementary student that goes to Federal Street School um we have an issue in Greenfield public school system and to be more specific Federal Street School there's a situation brewing that I want to bring to the wonderful people of Greenfield there's a substitute who
has been engaging in racial discrimination hatefilled rhetoric segregation practices and bullying to our elementary age black and brown students there has been numerous incidents in prior years that many people know about but until now they didn't feel supported so they stayed in
the background i'm here to tell you those days are over the days of not allowing our black and brown students to utilize the restroom but allowing white students to those allowing white students to those days are over the days of black and brown parents going unheard
by the school department those days are over the days of my child having to be shamed and embarrassed in front of his white peers by being called a black monkey i'm here to tell you that too is over i'm here not to bring this so much to the council but to the community as
at large the days of segregation and slavery is over and how dear a so-called teacher disregard that fact but would rather humiliate our students black brown and white students by forcing her racist garbage on them but I'm here to
tell you I'm going to fight to ensure her days as a teacher in the state of Massachusetts will soon be over to the parents of black and brown students in the Greenfield public school system who I feel that you felt ignored by the system i hear you i feel you and I
understand the parents of white children who had to explain to their children why people act this ignorant sort of way i respect you and I thank you for your support in this struggle to the youth of Greenfield you are beautiful you are
good enough you are smart enough no matter what color you are I believe in you and I'm fighting for you thank you thank you i have Tucker next is there a Tucker i'm certainly not going to have
as much power as our previous speaker but add my voice um my name is Tucker and I live in precinct 8 and before I read the comment that I have prepared I want to add my voice in support of education funding because we cannot invest in our community without
investing in our teachers and students all of them um I grew up in Greenfield and after living across the state and halfway across the world I moved back here because I love living in this city um I'm a gender queer person and I'm
using a pseudonym tonight i'm actually using the name that I almost chose for myself after coming out as trans almost 20 years ago because it is a dangerous time to be openly identifying as trans and I wish that I could use my real name but the reality that I'm
living is that to state my full name and address in a meeting whose minutes become part of public record is to invite danger trans and gender non-conforming people across the United States are living under continual threat of violence from federal officials as well as states and
individuals who feel emboldened by discriminatory policies and laws from restricting access to life-saving health care for children and adults to removing protection for individuals from surveillance based only on their gender and sexual
orientation to criminalizing simply identifying as trans the unconstitutional actions of a few in power have made life in the US fearful for many I love including myself in a country founded on the inalienable right to life liberty and
the pursuit of happiness trans people are being denied both equal citizenship and equal humanity however actions of affirmation affirmation of our lives our equal protection under law and our very right to exist taken by states and local
governments communicate a different message designation of sanctuary cities safeguards for healthcare access and local coalitions of support tell us that we are welcome we are human and we will embraced as part of be be embraced as part of the
community while a resolution is not legally binding the message of support it carries for me my beloveds and many more like us is invaluable the message that it sends to those who denigrate us is clear and it invites the city to continued allyship such as
passing an ordinance that holds legal power against those who wish us harm i love this city and I want to feel welcome here this resolution is an important part of being able to proudly say that I am from
Greenfield thank you thank you heather Mahoney hello Heather Mahoney um uh I reside of Fair View Street here in Greenfield let me just get my notes i am here to support the
resolution for Sanctuary City i am president of Franklin County Pride and in that role I have been able to hear from trans and gender non-conforming folks that they feel safe in Greenfield due to Greenfield hosting Franklin County Pride people that I have spoken to have said that they that that day
makes them feel affirmed and seen this feeling will be year round if this resolution is passed rather than relegated to once a year and will show other towns that Greenfields cares about their neighbors thank you max Solomon
F good evening my name is Max Solomon Fry um I live off of Federal Street in Greenfield and this is my first city council meeting um I want I came to to voice my strong support for the resolution to make Greenfield a
sanctuary city for transgender people um I moved to Greenfield 3 months ago although I've been in the valley for a while and I was really disappointed and disgusted to see the amount of hate on the public Facebook groups in this city um so I came to this meeting in part
because I wanted to see what the people of Greenfield actually look like and what they actually stand for and I'm really grateful to see the turnout tonight supporting this resolution um in a time where our federal government and our elected officials are making the
world unsafe for transgender people not doing anything is not enough right now and it feels critical that our local government tells the trans people in Greenfield that they are welcomed here and they are appreciated and they are safe i thank everyone for showing up
and I thank you all for your time i'm gonna take Lev Benzra from Zoomland hi thank you so much for um allowing me to join via Zoom my name is Love Benzra i live on a high street in Greenfield Massachusetts and I wanted to speak today in strong support of this
resolution to make Greenfield a sanctuary city for trans and gender non-conforming people i have been around this area living and working for decades but I only moved to Greenfield in 2020
my wife is from here and when we closed on our house on High Street before we unlocked our door the first things that we did were hung our pride flag on the porch and stamped our Black Lives Matter sign into the front
yard since that time our pride flag has been ripped down from our porch not once not twice by three different times and ripped in such a manner that the person had to have climbed up onto our porch probably stepped up onto the
banister in order to actually tear the bracket down i am a cisgender person and I recognize that my rights and my livelihood and my existence as a queer person is built on the shoulders and the foundation of trans folks before me
mostly brown and black trans people and as I look at what so many of my beloveds are facing right now in this world in this community in this country it is essential that our community stands up for them and for anybody
either in the audience at Johnz or via Zoom who thinks that this is not about them I think that it is also critically important for all of us to recognize that we whoever we are that we are next so I believe that it is critically
important for us to take every action possible to make every single one of our neighbors safe because it is all of our neighbors who make our community what it is who make our community safe for each other and who just like make us what we
are and just to all of our trans community folks in the audience thank you for being who you are thank you for sharing who you are with us and I am so sorry that this is where we are thank
you going to take one more from Zoom and that's Anna Lua Fontes hi um my name is Anna Fontes and I grew up in Franklin County and I've been living in Greenfield for a few years i'm here to ask the city council
to take positive action and designate Greenfield as a sanctuary city for transgender people unfortunately we are living in a time where a lot of hate is being directed at trans people this is
making it a dangerous and scary time to be trans and the thing about hate is that it spreads people pay attention to what their neighbors and friends are thinking and saying what is socially
acceptable passing this resolution puts out a strong message that we aren't on board with that hate we love our transgender neighbors and we are here to stand up for them so I hope that you
pass this um resolution and thank you for listening thank you next I have Sid John uh hi i'm Sid St john uh I live on Highland Avenue in Greenfield and uh I'm here to talk about the school budget uh
I'm a bus driver uh for uh Travel Cuz which services Greenfield Community Schools and um I just wanted to remind everybody in the council and everyone on the school committee that uh funding our schools and taking care of our schools doesn't just uh take care of the burden
on the teachers it also takes care of the burden on everybody working for the school district and all of the parents at home who rely on services provided by the schools and uh you know I think we should all care about this i think it's uh pretty important i think we want to
take care of our neighbors um to that end also I think the school committee should really um you know recognize the gravity of the situation that they're negotiating right now um the questions that are being posed I don't think they're intended to be uh accusative
it's really just a matter of like this is really important stuff and we really need to have our ducks in a row with this so I just hope that uh everybody can work on getting those ducks in a row um also I learned about the motion for
the trans sanctuary while I was out in the parking lot today and uh I just can't think of a good reason not to pass it outside of or anything that's just rooted in ignorance um we're a town that really values being able to get together and talk about things we're at this
meeting everybody turned up at this meeting um we work hard to make Greenfield greener we are always pushing to like take care of our future and make Greenfield a better place i don't see uh why this would even be a question so
that's all I have thank you thank you nico Scott the green good evening good people thanks for coming to work tonight thanks for coming to work tonight my name is Nikolai Scott and um
I'm here to talk about Can you just add your address or that you live in Greenfield or We just have to have that for the record um my relation to the um the resolution will become clear thank you
um people ask me "How are you when I arrived here tonight?" And the answer is that I'm nervous i've been nervous all day and the reason that I'm nervous is that this matters to me it matters to me greatly as a member of this as a privileged member of this wonderful
trans community um this is not simply a political exercise it's not a game it's not a show as one of your council members joked about as I was signing up to speak here tonight I'm going to get this out of the way first in order to responsibly move forward the suicide rate of trans
community is the highest of any population at this time in this country but with supportive family that rate drops 40% with the supportive community it drops even further it plummets effect
um just let that sink in for a second if you will i work at the hospital here in town but I do not represent Bayate Healthcare uh although I do have the support of all of my supervisors to come here tonight my colleagues and I have a
sacred charge it is a pleasure to fulfill and that is to provide exceptional care without prejudice and that is not easy to do especially lately but it is rich in reward the delight of unity and freedom
i delight in the opportunities in my daily work to choose the principle of unconditional care for all that I encounter um you will be sending a copy of this resolution to eight individuals
uh one of whom one of whom is my boss Dr jod Stack it will inform Bayate Springfield Bayate Noble Bay State Wing and Bay State Children's Hospital of their policies and care and equity of over 800,000
patients so what you're doing matters it's not a game it's not a joke it's not a show and I just really wanted to thank you for joining me in service to this community thank you thank you Judy Draper
hi I'm Oh there hi I'm Judy Draper um I live in Greenfield i've lived here since 2007 uh retired here um I've been a teacher in Minneapolis Minnesota and in Springdale Arkansas
and I listened to the school committee try to figure out the budget especially a couple of years ago i remember listening as I was in my kitchen and they were it just felt like nickeling and dimeming and taking everything off the backs of the children i remember
that they decided to do away with the fourth grade band program and to do away with some paraprofessionals that were needed in the schools and I just despaed and I don't understand all the the way
the finances work but I just urge everybody I I appreciate the way people have gotten together and are trying to talk about the finances and about what's going on and and be supportive of the schools and I hope that the conversations can continue in a vein
that is productive um so that's one thing I wanted to say i really support the schools i don't understand the finances but I hope I hope the we don't take it off the backs of the children we don't rest anyway you
get it so the other thing I wanted to say is that I'm pretty old and I've been around for a long time and back in the day when I was coming out as a lesbian and living and be realizing that I was a lesbian and
um combining my family we we were not in the same position that the trans community is now not by any means but we did fear that our children could be taken away from us because of our lifestyle and so in that way it's
similar to what's going on now and I support our becoming a sanctuary city for trans people for non binary gendered people for families of all kinds and
um I'm just um overwhelmed by the support that's here tonight for passage of this ordinance um I love this city i hope to live here forever i hope to
die here and um so let's be all supportive of each other the schools the trans people and all kinds of families thank you thank you Kristen Gra
testing testing there we go hi I'm Tristan G i live at 73 Solar Way just real quick who is my council person are you here yes okay cool i was hoping it was you all right so thank you for
entertaining um the idea of a trans sanctuary resolution um I know you have a lot on your plates um go Greenfield Schools um go clean energy we live in a solar condo i can't recommend it more and our
child is in Greenville public schools i want to talk about why I wrote this sanctuary um resolution and and and handed it off to you guys the reason I wrote it it wasn't just for the trans people living in Greenfield and there are a lot of us and there are more
coming but it's for all of the trans families in the nation that are currently under siege and it's quite serious um I didn't do it as a game i didn't do it to stick it to Trump although I wish I could um I did it because it's needed i go to a summer
camp in New Hampshire for trans families um parents raising trans kids my family is completely trans so we're one of the few that fit that way most trans families with trans children are just people like you but they happen to have a trans child and right now those
families are scared and they're running and we've heard so many horror stories at this camp about what their children go through in Texas if you parent a trans child you can have your child taken away and you can be put in jail um
25 states have outlawed transaffirming care for trans youth this matters um studies show that a trans youth who has is provided with gender affirming medical care has a 73% reduction in
suicidal ideiation now that matters that's a real number and that's why we need sanctuary cities because so many of these trans families are looking for places to come now I don't think Greenfield's going to be in inundated with that's not what I'm saying
but those of us but those safe communities that are out there we need to put out that we're here and that we're welcoming and that we're safe and to be perfectly honest I'm hoping that if enough cities in Massachusetts pass
resolutions like this we will eventually become a trans sanctuary state and I think that's what really matters because we've got to be the island of sanity in this madness for trans people we're less than 1% of the population but we're
getting all of the hate right now and all of the persecution this isn't a show it's real there are lives on the line and there are trans families who are currently trying to move and are simply looking for a safe town and Greenfield is a wonderful town it would be a
wonderful town for them my child is gender non-conforming they're having a wonderful time in the public school their teachers and their their friends and the administration are all 100% supportive and that's just one thing I could talk about about why Greenfield is
great so thank you for your support i'm gonna move to our online so I have Molly Merritt from Zoom hi Molly Merritt i um live at Solar Way in Greenfield
i am here um to speak in favor of the resolution for transgender and um non-binary folks um I hope that it will get passed tonight and then go on to become an ordinance for all the reasons
why um so many folks have so eloquently spoken about already um I'm asking all the council members to please vote in favor of this even if you don't like resolutions this is obviously really important and really meaningful um so
this is the le this is really the least we can do um to support our trans community who as so many of you have spoken to are really under attack right now um I'm also here to ask that we
provide level service funding for the Greenfield public schools um I'm a Greenfield parent i hope to send my child to the schools um I agree that uh the schools can't bear the burden of the budget shortfall and we need to
figure out how uh to give them everything that they need to support our students our teachers our families um that's all thanks thank you uh next I have Mark Maloney mark are you still online you can unmute
yourself hi there can you hear me now yep yes oh now we can't nope how about now yes
all right uh my name is Mark Maloney i live at 239 Green River Road and I'm actually here with my employee hat on i work with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments and just wanted you all to know that I'm here in attendance to be available to answer any questions
that you might have as you consider the approval to amendments to the Furkot Charter i recognize that Mayor Dorger is there who sits on our council which is the equivalent of a board of directors um and would likely be able to answer any questions that you might have but did want you to know that the Furco did
have people here to answer any questions as well and this seemed like the most seamless way to let you all know that I was here so that's all I have thanks so much thank you i have uh Taran Reineer hi I'm Taran Rener i live in
Greenfield um people have said really beautiful things in support of level funding for the schools and the trans sanctuary resolution so I won't take up a ton of your time repeating things you've already heard but I um I fullthroatedly support what I've heard
tonight and just wanted to add um as someone who's been teaching uh English to immigrants and refugees in the community for the last 15 years um I think that there is a really
unfortunate culture war divide that has sprung around uh the existence of trans people in this country right now and people find themselves um in a lot of uncomfortable situations kind of needing
to argue for or against um just the very existence of trans people and whether or not they should exist i wanted to put forward that um regardless of whether or not Greenfield is a place that can provide uh medical
care to trans and gender non-conforming people um those people will go and seek it elsewhere and if they have to seek it through illegal channels they will if they have to do dangerous things to get it many of them probably will um I've
been teaching trans and gender non-conforming folks from all over the world for a long time and the stories of what happens to people when they are not uh granted access to the services that they
need are horrifying um people will go to really great lengths and people um in some cases will make themselves really ill um or die uh seeking the services that they need to fully express themselves as
humans and so not providing those services won't uh make trans people go away um it will just drive them underground into uh more dangerous situations and that doesn't
just affect them and their families and people who care about them it affects all of us because trans people are driving the bus they're taking care of kids and after school programs they work at the hospitals um they are embedded in
the very fabric of our community and so regardless of how you feel about the existence of trans people um not allowing folks to access what they need to fully express themselves as
human beings is going to cause really harmful ripple effects throughout our whole community i just wanted to um state that regardless of where you find yourself uh in the culture war
um funding and providing services for trans people is something that's going to benefit all of us and I hope that Greenfield can be a place um that just openly stands in favor of support for
all humans um all of us actualizing ourselves and I think that no matter what your political beliefs we're all going to benefit from that so thank you thank you Alyssa Kai hello uh my name is Alyssa Kai i'm a
resident of precinct 8 um I'm very happy to be here tonight um thank you all for your work so far and thank you to everybody in the room for uh coming out tonight uh I wanted to hopefully offer a little bit of perspective uh if the sort of
uh frustration or the uh the crisisminded uh note that some of the people speaking tonight have with them uh are coming into um I'm one of the few people who can say that I was a trans athlete i was a uh trans high school
athlete uh trans college athlete in the Midwest uh I was not very good but I was on a women's team uh throughout the rural Midwest and had a lot of uh very bad things happened uh a lot of very adverse experiences although a lot of
people were very nice um I was uh prevented from accessing hormones as a teenager uh even though I was able to get access to puberty blockers which arguably saved my life
um and I w came out in a family with no no I knew no trans people i had no trans community i had no gay people in my family uh and um might be supportive um and so I think that there were a lot of
difficult things um about the way in which I tried to come into this world and exist in this world and the things that I see happening now are so catastrophically worse any small step that this council can
do to address the horrific position that trans people as a scapegoated minority among many others in this country are suffering would be not just a great comfort to me but it would be a nice comfort to me as well and I live here so I'd
appreciate that thanks Thank you Andrew Randazzo uh hi everybody i'm Andrew Randazzo i live on Laurel Street in in Greenfield um and uh I'm a a cis man and
I um identify as queer and I'm also a forester and ecologist by training and um part of my experience with moving to to Greenfield u moved here about 3 years ago uh looking for for a job uh in my
field and it's often difficult to to find a a a community where uh it when you're working in forest ecology you're often in in rural spaces working in rural spaces and so it's often uh difficult to find uh opportunities where
both my family could feel safe um and protected and I can sort of engage in in my profession um and that was the amazing thing about coming to Western Massachusetts was to have both rural space as well as um sort of welcome and
affirming community um and and I brought some of my Laurel Street family you better raise your hand all of you that wasn't I can't even see it raise your hand all and um and we all came to to share
that message and and to support um the passing of the sanctuary city uh resolution um because um our queer family on on Laurel Street is growing uh and and around uh all of our our uh
neighborhood we have this incredible opportunity to make sure that people feel safe and affirmed by engaging in a really simple action um and I hope that we can think about this as a a meaningful first step as opposed to um an actual problem solved and so we
should continue to we should pass this resolution then continue to think about how we can grow our community uh in a way that makes all people feel safe and affirmed um and sounds like um there's you know lots of great ideas and lots of
people who would benefit from um um a continued conversation around how to grow Greenfield as a welcome and affirming fa place thank you Max Webb max Webb
do I need to this is on now it's on great hi um the reason I'm here today is because there's a threat to trans rights in this country can you just name I My name is Max and I live in precinct 9 thank you um so there's a threat to
trans rights in this country in the big picture this means there's a threat to trans or to human rights i'm a trans person from Texas and I'm a child care provider and someone who cares about community and social justice i know what it's like to have to jump through hoops to be myself and while there aren't as
many in Greenfield they still do exist in January I made an appointment to update my gender marker on my license i changed it from X back to F for female to match my birth certificate passport and legal documents my suspicions to act were proven correct when I learned that
conservative states are using mismatching gender markers and photos to dehumanize and subsequently question the citizenship of said persons i don't need to tell you how this ends i was unaware I would also have to update my picture when I updated my gender marker which
now shows me with facial hair i have had many heated debates with friends on whether it is safe for me to have facial hair in my legal ID i have chosen not to legally change my name because I fear it will complicate my rights and flag me as a target as we have seen happen to so many folks already as a trans Texas
native I fear that I won't ever really be able to escape surveillance um that means I have to out myself multiple times a week when I use my debit card when I go to the doctor when I pick up my prescriptions the list doesn't end i come to you knowing that
my community needs more protections despite the pro the protections Massachusetts already provides us if we are to rely on the judicial system to check the executive I want as many roadblocks as possible and I want protections for my doctor who prescribes my affirming care parents who invest in
their child's gender affirming care medical or not and teachers who support their children related I urge you to consider threats to education budget in the coming years when funding gets withheld because you hopefully choose to support trans kids or defend migrant communities in the district from ICE i
can't imagine why you would ever think to be cutting education at a time like this thank you i support this as a resolution to move forward as an ordinance thank you Mel Goodwin uh Mel Goodwin precinct 9 um
Greenfield so I just came for two reasons there were two things um but first just thank you so much the time that each of you gives is truly amazing and I wanted to thank you for that just listening to the meetings all of them
takes a lot of time and I get to empty my dishwasher while I'm doing it so again I want to really thank you because the commitment to time and I had no idea how much time things would take but many of you don't know me i was a math
teacher for many years and I'm also an army brat numbers were always something that were important to me so when I look at $5 million in accounts over three years and things have been cut in our
schools I I cried things got cut in the past three years when we had the money to fund them every other department gives leftover money remaining money back to this city where it earns interest
so I'm giving you homework this is an MCCAST question if we had taken the money that has been in those accounts for the last three years and earned interest on that
money we would have made a lot of money that could have funded a lot of things for children second I'm concerned about our school budget again requesting money for transportation when we're transporting
children in Athal Pittsfield other cities and towns i my tax money um subsidizing other towns transportation is a concern and I'm not hoping that's something you're going to look at there's over a million dollars
in a revolving account for transportation in my 40 years as an educator I've never seen a revolving account for transportation special ed yes so I'm concerned about that and I plea
on behalf of every teacher child family we have to bring the schools and the city together it has got to stop where it's
one against the other and other cities have had this problem and I can tell you I've worked in some of those cities and the number one way to bring people together is to have the same finance director responsible for the schools and
the city it's not your money and our money it's the city's money and I think that needs to happen um there have been efforts to do um some outside of the box thinking but without bringing people
together it's always going to be they're hiding this you're taking this it's always going to be a negative experience for the children I hope you will come together thank you Pam Goodwin
Good evening as always I thank you for all your hard work would not want to sit in your shoes although I have people ask me wouldn't I do it i'm like uh no did we get your name and address sorry sorry 54 High Street Pamela Goodwin um I wish I had more than three minutes um I want
to say I'm especially grateful that attorney Gordon explained the open meeting law i am so sick and tired of us talking about this of of us paying money to this attorney for the explanation i've even asked somebody out there to
get me a copy of what you got from the attorney general's office so hopefully it will go to bed if we have to put it on every sheet at the beginning of every agenda on the website to explain to the citizens then let's do
it secondly um I want to talk about the school and I might have sent this on I don't I hate emails i'm always in my inbox but I want to quote a couple of things about budgeting for the school from Doug Swellen who sat in front of the school
board much more than I did as a former educator he says this is not just about resources i'm paraphrasing he says um let me get down to where he says "Until districts across the state join together
to demand a functional educational funding plan for the state we will continue to twist ourselves into knots to do the impossible." That is what I think we're doing wrong other than I agree totally with what Melody Goodwin
just said and I'm not related to her by the way i also want to address the resolution i have spent a whole lot of time looking on community TV and originally I was going another
resolution it blew us apart when we had to do one for GSA in the Middle East so I'm not opposed to it i have a lot of friends who are gay lesbian queer i never know whether queer used to be the inappropriate word but now it's
politically correct so this blows my mind because I'm 77 um so I'm not opposed to it and if you do need an ordinance then go ahead and make it an ordinance however I am hated because I am a
Christian and I'm probably hated because I refuse to say what my pronouns are and I retain that right as my freedom of speech i don't care i I don't care what you call me and she her is fine but I'm not going to do that so that makes
people uncomfortable i'm also struck um I'm hated because I have a Kennedy bumper sticker by the way and I'm hated because we have Trump now for the president and he had to support that so that he could
make us healthier in America for the Maha campaign um I'm struck by how many people tonight did not want to stand for the pledge of allegiance we've always had a few but this was like threequarters of the group
that refused to pledge our American flag and I bet that's because of of it's a blue state and we have a Republican president i hate that there's hate everywhere that's what I want i want signs that says there is no place for
hate the Route Two standouts all of the stuff that's going on we have to start loving one another and I'm sorry I'm going to apologize that's a Christian attitude thank you for your time thank you Pam sarah
Duket I can't read your handwriting that was a little scribble at the end okay on purpose yeah I was looking for precinct 4 you are precinct for
hello you weren't paying attention but now you are because you're I'm in your precinct my name is Sarah i'm in precinct 4 and for 48 and a half years I called myself a Rhode Islander you'll be able to pick up my Rhode Island accent
no doubt in the next couple of minutes so you might think there's a lot of similarities between Rhode Island and Massachusetts other than the beach landscape I would agree rhode Island is a fantastic
state the core of Rhode Island was not enough to penetrate the community that my family lived in we had I'm here to support the sanctuary for transgender
city we had enough actions and words that I cannot physically speak but was that heart-wrenching drop to your knees pain that occurred in our in our
community but we also had our fire chief who was our sensei Dave at our local dojo and we had our Mr g our principal at Hope Valley who showed us the strength of when some people in the community step up and that was
life-saving and my family sought more sensei Daves and Mr g's so I'm an optimist i live on hope and I'm really stubborn so I Googled and whether my family ended up in Seattle Washington or Western Mass we were going
to do it so for two years about three days a week we stayed in short-term rentals hotels Airbnbs in Holio Amherst Sunderland East Hampton Northampton Greenfield i really like the Hampton in here it's my
favorite i remember driving downtown in the winter to Sha Theater i took the back roads and I saw your lights and I thought I could live here i started googling you 80% passage for transgender bathrooms like "Okay I could live here." We went to your June 2023
Pride i saw preschoolers marching with smiles i couldn't keep up with the banks of which one should I choose because they were all marching we purchased our home in February of 2024 on Silver Street unfortunately probably the worst
neighbors to pick beside us but I didn't know that not a good choice um if you saw my family on Main you did see my family on Main Street this fall and this summer in and out of bookshops and antiques a lot of antiques and ice
cream that change of the past couple of months there's back to staying inside more they have hesitancy and I I'm the one with the hope and I need them to have the hope you guys are giving me the hope with
seeing this and that's why I'm here today so I have three asks just three i asked to pass this i left my spouse i left my mom who needs me for her health i don't know how much longer she'll live
she's crying today at a healthcare appointment i'm not there with her i We gave up a lot to choose you guys so we ask you to pass this hang your pride flags as an ally and be a sensei Dave or Mr
g thank you i'm going to move to online for a little bit so I have Laura Castano so Laura if you're out there you can unmute yourself can you hear me we can okay um you're
seeing a different name on the screen because I'm zooming from a family member's house um I'm here i'm speaking up can I get your name and address please oh Laura Castano i'm on Mil Street in Greenfield i want to speak in support of
the resolution of Greenfield becoming a sanctuary city as we all know there is a palpable sense of fear among our nation's trans population right now emboldened by hateful rhetoric coming from the current administration are our
trans brethren across the country are being stripped of civil rights and the right to life affirming healthcare this is wrong history has shown us what can come of the othering of minorities being it for who they inherently are the religion they choose to follow or the color of their skin it's frightening
standing up for and supporting the rights of all is the right thing to do it's the kind of good trouble as espoused by the great late John Lewis when we welcome everyone equally we build stronger more vital communities i stand in support of the resolution thank
you for giving me the opportunity to speak thank you Wendy Goodman wendy are you there there you are yep I'm here just listening further away from the computer um Wendy Goodman i live on
in precinct 9 um I want to start Oh I don't like looking at me how do I change this so that I'm looking at all of you um I want to thank you all as always but I'm so moved by what people have been saying and I just really want to
acknowledge that um there is such wisdom in this community and such heart that um makes me really proud to be here way I'm figuring out how not to look at this um well that's better I guess um I'm not
going to look at it what I want to I was really pleased to feel a sense of collaboration with the school committee and and the superintendent and the city that it's moving towards that i I think
that's what we need to move to what I want I'm not going to talk pro or con anything here other than pro our community and I think that our community and the world quite frankly is in crisis but what does crisis mean the Chinese
write it the way they write things is like if they have a tree they have a glyph for a tree and then they put three three trees together and that means forest and the way they write crisis is danger and hidden
opportunity and the opportunity in all of this what feels like danger is things are changing underneath us and we don't know how and things are unstable and I think of the immigrants who have chosen to live in an
unstable reality because they're they're working to live their dreams so maybe we can take a a note of um lesson from people that have been willing to sacrifice stability to realize their dream and that's what we're in we're not
stable we can't continue to do things the way we've always done them and the invitation in that is to really look and see who are we and how else can we function how else can we achieve the things that our values are calling us to achieve and you've heard everyone that's
spoken tonight has spoken for that whether or not it's actually the budget or whether or not there are ways that we can achieve what we need to achieve in other ways i think we're being called to think out of the box more and more so I
just wanted to acknowledge that acknowledge the the council which is really awkward because I can't see anybody other than than this screen i don't like this um but to really and to acknowledge this community of folks that stood up and if we are going to start
really acknowledging who we are then it is a no-brainer to pass a sanctuary so that people can live their human rights that's what we're talking about so I um
I trust you i thank you and um that's all I have to say now I can go back to seeing all of you thank you so much for your service there you are next I have David Moscaro
hello sorry about that can you hear me yes we can okay it's David Moss Carrot Holo uh 43 Country Club Road Greenfield i'm speaking as a resident um and I'm also speaking as the chair of the public safety commission i'm not speaking for
um other public safety commissioners just myself as a public safety commissioner um and I want to say that this resolution is very important to my wife Amy and I and um I encourage that it pass um as a
public safety commissioner in Greenfield the word hate is um a very scary word and it should not be accepted in our community and fear is something that nobody should live with in our community and as a public safety commissioner I am
dedicated to the safety of transgender people and all people that live in green the Greenfield community and that's all I'd had to say thank you melissa Torin hi can you hear me yes we can okay great thank you uh my
name is Melissa um I live on Orchard Street in Greenfield um I'd like to first thank everybody who has spoken so far tonight and the city council for all their hard work and dedication um thank you for giving me the opportunity to voice my strong support for the resolution to make Greenfield a
sanctuary city for trans and gender non-conforming people um in this current administration which we all know is targeting the trans community it is crucial to the success and safety of all of the citizens of Greenfield that our most vulnerable constituents are
protected this also sets a positive positive precedent for other towns to follow in order to create resolutions that ideally move on to ordinances to protect trans and gender non-conforming folks in their communities as well um I'd also like to voice my support for fully funding our schools our children
deserve our unwavering commitment to their future thank you for your time thank you John Bassuit hi um I um I just wanted to say that I
address real quick um my name is uh Johnny and um my address is 50 Orchard Street in Greenfield i have been a resident of Greenfield for 5 years now and um I love it here
because of the groups the business the businesses and the people that make me feel seen heard and supported and for creating a sense of um belonging and community that I haven't felt in other places in the Pioneer Valley Valley and
I've been here for 20 years and um I want all people to feel this so please um please support the um making Greenfield a sanctuary city um into an
ordinance thank you thank you uh Kristen Rita Gartner can you guys hear me yes we can okay amazing um hi Kirsten uh Wedita Gartner from Redell Street in Greenfield um
thank you all so much um basically I I kind of have a mild problem in the sense that um I watch almost all of your meetings and I do genuinely know and I don't just mean the
city council meetings I mean the subcommittees like I I get it you guys are putting in the work and basically volunteering for that so I genuinely appreciate you guys um I wasn't here uh I didn't sign up to
speak about the this resolution uh to protect trans and uh non-gender conforming people in our city um but and and I am on board with
it in general like 100% but that's not why I wanted to sign up for public comment but oh my god how could you not vote in favor of this and I recognize that it might seem
performative but at this point in time we have to do something stand up go for it what's the harm the harm in my mind or what might be in the back of your minds is or in the back of Jenny's
mind is is that going to put a target on our back as a city that might be signing to go for a grant and then this resolution is somehow going to harm
us i I don't care go for it like I don't care i of course we want the grants we deserve the grants but um we have to stand up do something go for it please please pass that
um the the reason that I was here or that I signed up is just to ask for some kind of explanation about this um settlement regarding the uh free cash
transfer just like talk about it a little bit like I think it's BS on some level i think somebody is facing us because it's going to cost a lot of money to fight um I think we would win if we fought but
I get that it's going to cost some money to do it but I just want you guys to acknowledge that the city wasn't in the wrong the city was following state law at the time that that property was taken so
um and then also uh if do I still have some time left i hope I do i I'm just going to say I concur city schools everybody's got to get on the same page you're all a part of the same thing
get together um counselor Golib keep watching start watching the meetings it's not complicated the the the way that the schools do stuff well it is complicated but if you watch and you
learn you learn about the way that they do it it so everybody needs to just get on the same page about the way everything works um and I think that will benefit everybody so that's all I have to say thank you again for
everything you do morgan I don't know where they live in hi good evening my name is Morgan i work on uh Main Street in Greenfield and I'm coming here in
support of the immense amount of trans and gender expansive folks um adults children if you want to talk about education you want to talk about supporting schools um then you need to talk about all of the folks who are
there um and this ordinance is is it's not performative it actually means a whole lot um as a trans person um who works and spends more time at work right
we all spend more time at work than we do with our families at home um it matters that I'm safe when I go to the doctor when I go grocery shopping when I get my car fixed it matters when
I need to disclose something to a banker it matters when I'm walking around downtown Main Street whether or not I feel safe to go up to someone and say "Hey I need help." Um but also I need to disclose my identity it means that I can
move freely and it means that the people who are there can move freely i think that um when we consider it to be performative we don't actually consider how many trans and gender expansive people live and work in Greenfield it's
huge i don't have a number for you what I can tell you is that I work there and I work with a large amount of trans folks um and gender expansive folks and we're there because we feel safe and folks have left when they don't feel
safe and if we are wanting to build this community if we are wanting to say truly that folks do belong here um it's not because we want others to be forced to like us or to feel uh that they are
being made to do anything other than give us the exact same right and dignity that they already have we are not asking for anything more other than the same rights and dignity um I represent uh well I work in healthcare i'm not here
to represent that um entity i run an organ I help run an organization uh that who live in Greenfield in the greater Franklin County and Pioneer Valley area but they need to leave Greenfield sometimes to get care elsewhere because
they can't find where they feel safe and this ordinance makes that possible this ordinance allows folks to stay and spend their money in your city and keep their dollars in your city so that they can fund the things that you are here to
talk about consistently but if we do not make it a sanctuary city if we do not make it a safe uh place for folks to go to receive care to receive services to purchase the things from our small businesses then we won't have that money to continue all of the amazing work that
you are already doing so I am very much so in support of this resolution to allow myself and my community and my family who are scared we are very very scared right now because of the country because of what's going on and it is not enough to just say that Massachusetts
puts protections in there because we know that that's just hasn't been enough we know that there's violence anyway we know that there uh are problems within our smaller towns and cities um and Greenfield has a really great opportunity here to say you know what there might be a grant that we won't get
and we don't want it because it's worth it to make sure that our citizens and the folks who come here every day are safe thank you very much for your time thank you i've got Vex Ursa Nova Saddowski hi I'm Beex um I live on Park Avenue and
I'm speaking to you as someone who is non-binary living in Greenfield um I've grown up in Greenfield my entire life i've lived here since I was a child um I also want to name that I went to the public schools here and I very much
support um the budget for um our public schools i feel like it's really important that folks who like me didn't get the support that they needed will be able to um by extending a budget um I also wanted to
say I'm also in support of Greenfield becoming a trans sanctuary city um not only is it important to me but people that I work with regularly um are also in fear um and I wanted to highlight that especially right now our black and
brown trans friends are facing um an even greater risk and it is even scarier for them to come out um to get their groceries to do their laundry so um I urge you folks to support that thank you thank
you all right uh Julie I can't read your handwriting canvas okay not even close in the same it's my handwriting it's fine um hi I'm Julie Karu I'm in counselor Gordon's precinct
I live on Adams Road in Greenfield I'm here tonight for two reasons I'm here to speak in favor of the proposed resolution and hopefully subsequent ordinance making Greenfield a sanctuary city for trans and gender diverse people I believe in stating something like this
is necessary especially in this current political climate it just makes sense if we really are a community that values all of its residents and families for us to put measures in place to help ensure safety and security for those who are
vulnerable this is one way we can and should do that and speak strongly as to who we are as a community that as we say in my faith community because I am also a Christian at the Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew that all are welcome here no
exceptions i also support what I have heard tonight in support of the Greenfield Public Schools and supporting what they need to help all of their students thrive i am hopeful that so many of you are working on this and also hopeful and I am begging you that it
will truly be a collaborative effort to figure this out for now and for the future as a community we have to value our young people and show them that by prioritizing them every single one of them so thank you thank
you Rachel and Micah Roberts does it matter any mic okay is it on it sounds like it's on uh first of all I just am Rachel and I live in Greenfield and um I am not
mentioning my address because in Greenfield it is not safe for me yet to mention my address i am here in support because my son asked me to be here and speak so first thank you for your service thank
you to the other speakers who have spoken tonight in support of the resolution for declaring Greenfield a safe city for transgender and gender diverse persons i live in Greenfield and I have lived here for over 20 years my husband and I grew up in Franklin County
and we returned to Greenfield after years of living elsewhere to raise our family as a parent of a trans male many fears for my child's safety have surfaced over the years as the trans rights have never been secure it is very
clear that trans people are less safe now than they were five years ago if citizens in this community feel it's time to issue a bold statement that trans people are safe and supported in Greenfield they have my support if such
a declaration keeps any trans person safer then I feel it's imperative we support it there's enough fear and uncertainty elsewhere in Greenfield my son began to realize he had the majority
of this community's support at a fragile time in his life he has been able to be his truest self here in Greenfield even so he worried about walking down Main Street holding hands with whoever
he wanted wearing genderneutral or non-conforming clothing in retail spaces or even just walking from our home to downtown with a group of friends who may also be non-conforming that's here in
Greenfield his hometown the place I chose to raise him that speaks volumes to me and it should to everyone in this community in this room
everywhere a child teen adult who does not feel truly safe here under the most common of circumstances trans people have enough to struggle with and if we can help make
more of them feel safer know that there is a space that they can feel less afraid right now then let's do it but really let's step away from fear-based concerns let's look at this as the right
thing to do let's support all of the people in our community thank you thank you arjuna Arjuna Christ hi Arjuna Grace Precinct 7 um before I speak in in favor of the
ordinance of the resolution which will hopefully become an ordinance soon I would also like to um voice my support for fully funding the Greenfield public schools um thinking outside the box maybe we can have two more police cruisers instead of three something like
that anyway um so I just wrote this first they came for the socialists we all know the poem right we hear the powerful lesson that we must speak up for any group under attack by a
fascist regime if only to ensure that someone is left to help when they inevitably come for us as masterful as the poem is it is missing a stanza because next they came for the trans
folks the iconic black and white image of Nazis burning books in 1933 is not random or generic that pile of texts on fire was the entire library of the Institute of Sexology an academic
foundation devoted to sexological research and the advocacy of gay and trans rights fascists scapegoat groups who are on the edges of society those who already face suspicion misunderstanding fear and
oppression trans folks are once again one of the very first targets we have an opportunity today here in Greenfield and all over our state and our country to write our own poem together
first we protected the trans people and we protected the queer people and we protected the immigrants and we protected the black and brown people we spoke up together and we acted together and our speech and our actions wo a
shield of safety for all thank you thank you so last on our list I have Rose Skiroff who's on Zoom oh okay we thought you were going home
okay hi I'm Rose Skrilof um I I live on Lynen Avenue in Greenfield i am a fifth grade math and science teacher at the middle school um and the reason that I keep coming back to the middle school every year especially as a queer person
is I feel seen and I feel supported and I love going to work every single day um and so I am speaking in support of the resolution um and I just for folks out in the public uh the only indoctrination
that is happening in my classroom is teaching math to students against their will so um if you can just find some comfort in that um and then the other thing I was already planning to speak uh councelor Golib and just say thank you for um being so open to finding a
solution and just naming that like we don't have the answers right now and we need to band together to figure it out um it w that wasn't quite the um like what I had uh gleaned from the ways and means committee last night um
so to hear that tonight it just gives me a little bit more hope that like we're not doomed with our budget and that um things might get a little bit brighter so thank you and thank you all for your work and time so I just want to thank you all for coming here tonight and sharing your
stories and um feeling safe so I can't say more than that because I don't want to get in trouble for open meeting is Was there one more um there is Patricia O'Neal but I don't know where they're from okay online okay one
last person Patricia O'Neal hello I'm Patty O'Neal i live in precinct one and I also want to speak in support of the resolution um to make uh Greenfield a trans sanctuary city um just kind of echoing what others have
said um that this will have so many like unseen maybe unagnowledged uh ripple effects and that passing something like this would um just give a lot of people comfort who
maybe it it's just going to be impossible to know how much this good uh will bring and um and also that uh yeah we need to be making
um big moves even if it does uh seem risky um that's what the times are calling for now and I think it's time to be bold so if if that's a bold stance then we need to take it that's it thank you
thank you all right now thank you everybody for coming really appreciate a full house um and we're not even passing the budget tonight so um I I this is heartfelt so I'm getting a little fur up here myself
um hearing all your stories so we we see you we're going to take a our break um five minutes which will probably be 10 minutes all right we'll see you back in a 10 minutes stay for the moment hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey That's a All right I'm going to call us back to order please
9:16 So who's for midnight midnight no no nobody wants to go to midnight okay all right our next order of business is public hearing and second readings and
can I turn that over to councelor Torono because he is the money guy oh god that's a that's a tall order um no i'll get there in a second um page seven yeah I'm scrolling
what page seven is still part of the agenda hold on oh just they're just first readings no it's public hearing and first reading right why is it not it says page seven i'm on page seven
no just talk amongst yourselves this is Does anybody want to read Robert's rules of order i'm gonna read that good okay i'm gonna wait for my paper okay okay yeah he's got the better copy i have the We got it here um version this
is great because it's just just readings um public hearing in accordance with uh home rules charter greenfield City Council hold a public hearing on Wednesday April 16 2025 at 6:30 p.m at Johns on Community Center 35 Pleasant Street in Zoom to receive public input
on the following uh transfer $354,000 from free cash to tax title legal expenses to settle pending litigation related to tax title taking of real property fy2026 capital budget 15 orders here we go uh appropriate 16,000
from capital stabilization for purchase of a fully electric vehicle for use by the Department of Public Works for meter reading appropriate 300,000 from capital stabilization for purchase of three fully equipped uh police patrol vehicles appropriate 200,000 from capital stabilization for road work and repairs appropriate 250,000 from capital
stabilization for purchase of a bucket lift truck appropriate 150,000 from capital stabilization for purchase of a one- ton truck appropriate 90,000 from capital stabilization for purchase of a Department of Public Works 3/4 ton highway truck appropriate 34,000 from capital stabilization for design
engineering services for repair of Maple Brook Culver at 34 Redell Street appropriate 35,000 from capital stabilization for design engineering and permitting services for repair of Cole Rain Street Bridge appropriate 300,000 from capital stabilization for repair and installation of fire alarm panel for the middle school appropriate 35,000 for
repair of Davis Street tennis courts approved Department of Public Works Water Enterprise Fund to expend retain earnings funds for 35,000 to inspect Adams Hill water storage tanks approved Department of Public Works Water Enterprise Fund to expend retain earnings funds for 80,000 to purchase
pickup truck approved Department of Public Works Water Enterprise to bond for 500,000 for engineering and design services related to dredging Green River water supply intake approved Department of Public Works sewer enterprise to bond for $200,000 for inflow and infiltration
repairs and replacement approved Department of Public Works to accept Chapter 90 funding for $622,758 for road work and repairs city Council may consider the same on Wednesday April 16th 2025 at 6:30 p.m at Johns on Community Center 35 Pleasant Street and
Zoom and that's it public hearing is now open at 9:20 and can you ask the second read the second reading oh lovely yeah um sorry second verse same as the first uh
transfer 354,000 from free cash to tax title legal expenses to settle pending litigation related to tax title taking of real property fy2026 capital budget 15 orders appropriate 16,000 from capital stabilization for purchase of a fully electric vehicle for use by the Department of Public Works for meter
reading appropriate 300,000 from capital stabilization for purchase of three fully equipped police patrol vehicles appropriate 200,000 from capital stabilization for road work and repairs appropriate 250,000 from capital stabilization for purchase of bucket lift truck appropriate 150,000 from capital stabilization for purchase of one- ton truck appropriate 90,000 from
capital stabilization for purchase of a department of public works 3/4 ton highway truck appropriate 34,000 capital stabilization for design and engineering services for repair of Maple Brook covert at 34 Redell Street appropriate 35,000 from capital stabilization for design engineering and permitting services for repair of Corin Street
Bridge appropriate 300,000 from capital stabilization for repair and installation of fire alarm panel for the middle school appropriate 35,000 for repair of of Davis Street tennis courts approved Department of Public Works water enterprise fund to expend and retain earnings funds for 35,000 to inspect Adams Hill water storage tanks approp approved Department of Public
Works water enterprise fund to expend and retain earnings funds for $80,000 to purchase pickup truck approved Department of Public Works Water Enterprise to bond for 500,000 for engineering and design services related to dredging Green River water supply intake approved Department of Public Works sewer enterprise to bond for 200,000 for inflow and infiltration
repairs and replacement approved Department of Public Works to accept chapter 90 funding for 622,758 for road work and repairs and yes I went to Greenfield Schools thank you we don't have any uh anyone signed up for public comment
so I will be closing the public hearing right now at 9:22 all right um next up is the motion about the open meeting violation could I ask councelor Bottomly um to read that one which is on page nine uh order number fiscal year 25-90
the city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council votes to authorize Sullivan Hayes and Quinn's LLC to file a response to the open meeting law violation complaint filed against city council president Laura Wandelowski and councelor Katherine Golope of the Greenfield City
Council and received by the city clerk's office on March 24th 2025 from Stephanie Duclo majority vote required there a second councelor G second unless somebody else said
any questions or discussion okay we'll move it to a vote all in favor i I I any abstensions any opposed the order passes all right so next order of business is the
safe city for transgender and gender diverse persons um could I ask councelor Perry to read that for us it's on 17 oh order number FY25077 the city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City
Council approves the attached resolution entitled Resolution declaring Greenfield a safe city for transgender and gender diverse persons majority vote required is there a second thank you
uh discussion Councelor Gordon really nobody else um I just want to say this is a really beautiful room full of people who are here tonight and I thank you so much for being here um and I thank you for being here in this
room tonight and online and I thank you for being here in our community um there's absolutely no reason that we shouldn't do this and there are a million reasons that we should my only concern is that it is is not really a concern but it's that it's just a
resolution um just understanding that it means a lot to a lot of people here so it's really important that we pass it and then I think it's really important as a community that and a council that we then make this into an ordinance um that has real teeth so that people have
as much protection as possible um you as as someone said in public comment you know everything that's happening to trans people right now is a test of all of us it is a test of how much you know billionaires can divide us
and turn us on one another and I I think and I hope that Greenfield is a place that is willing and able to stand up and say we will not be divided that way it is all of us or none of us um so thank you for bringing this resolution and I'm
very excited to vote yes on it councelor Perry I was I've been thinking about this because I have strange as might sound I have heard from people who do not support this you know privately you know and what do you say there there's
sometimes in our lives that we're called upon in all aspects of our life to do the right thing and human rights is the right thing you know and people we got an email today where someone suggested we wait for what human rights doesn't
change with time and as a Catholic I hear my community but human rights has nothing to do with religion and for my political friends I know that There's political differences but human rights is not
political and for some of us on this council we do have problems with resolutions it's true but this is specific to Greenfield so I don't have a problem with a resolution specific to Greenfield and so you know it's a human
rights issue we're all human so thanks Councelor Gol councelor Garrett had his hands hand up first if you want to go first and then I'll go no okay I've got it on okay
um yeah I was It's been a really hard time and um I was on the phone with a dear friend the couple of weeks ago and she
said "At least we know how to love each other." and and that and at least we know how to love each other and the love in this room um is a gift and I'm grateful um I'm really grateful for all of you
showing up and I think that the only argument against this that you may hear is that this is a resolution and couple of thoughts about that the first is when I received the resolution
I said "Yeah we need to make this an ordinance." And so the ordinance will be coming forward and we've been working together on it um and the response is "Well why don't you have a resolution and an ordinance?" And I was like "OV
obviously." Um and an an argument against resolutions is that they have little teeth well little there's a few few teeth and in a moment in which we have so few tools within our
power I think that we have a responsibility to use all of the tools within our power and we have a representative democracy i I haven't heard from people I believe you completely that you've heard from people who didn't support it and I thank you
for supporting it um in a representative democracy where our job is to listen to and not a single person here has asked us to vote no for it many many many people have asked us to vote
yes and this is an opportunity even if this doesn't have the teeth of an ordinance and what will come forward will have the teeth of an ordinance but even if this doesn't have the teeth of an ordinance what we've heard from our constituents
is that this is an opportunity that this is a that if this gives just one person a sense of care a sense of comfort a sense of support then this is worth it and that there are institutions
within our community including hospitals including health care providers that are listening and if the sense of if the sense of care and support and comfort saves just one life then I think
that this is worth it or just makes one person feel good when they go to sleep tonight i think that this is worth it and I liked hearing about Sensei Dave and Mr g and I think that this is an opportunity for us to be like Sensei
Dave and Mr g and I hope that all of you will come back next month maybe it's not in the next couple months it will not be in May but it'll likely be in June when Could you We can't talk about the the
ordinance now thank you well I hope that people keep showing up this room is beautiful and I hope that people keep showing up for whatever reason so thank you Councelor Garrett just on the note of showing up there are
many council seats that'll be open this fall so if you enjoyed being here for this meeting you could be sitting up here as well and we would love to have you so you've shown some civic engagement and commitment to this and genuinely you know if you go and Clerk Scott right over here can help you out
if you go to the city clerk's office walk in the front doors i believe it's two doors to the left and ask for nomination papers in in all seriousness that would be fabulous to see some of these faces on this side of the bench um the there were many comments that
resonated I think with all of us sitting up here the ones around there was a person who I did not catch the name of and I otherwise I would say it but they cited the poem the famous one about the Holocaust and it and then someone else
also used the words minority scapegoat and those two particular comments chilled me for lack of a better phrase because when we behave you know if it was 1933 in Germany and we're
bystanders then we become collaborators And so that's again it's a a moral obligation is a phrase I used about the environment earlier but it resonates here as well so I just want to again thank the public for showing up and yeah now I'll be voting yes i I just want to say thank you to
everyone for showing up for being there for being yourselves being genuine authentic um I'm really moved and I I knew it would be emotional to to hear the stories and and and still
feel it deep in my heart when my ex-wife and I moved to Greenfield over 20 years ago we didn't know if we'd be welcomed here and um I've seen you know I've had slurpies thrown at me um for moving cars uh and
I've also seen the best and had neighbors who I never thought would be supportive um be really supportive of our family so and that was not our current political climate so I think this resolution allows us to be
fullthroated in support of our community and that we can say it out loud um and even though you know we talk about whether or not a resolution does anything it does something because it's us saying out loud that we all matter so
I'm really excited to support this so I think we can move for a vote unless uh councelor Bulock yeah um two things and then a friendly amendment just because there's a typo
um one is that I just want to remind everyone on this council I I've heard a lot of things about feelings about resolutions um we all unanimously supported a resolution about lead
paint um so I don't know how those two equate with with making judgments about what resolutions matter um I am obviously fully supporting this this has been the best public comment in the four years I've been doing this so I just
want to thank you all for staying for a late night um and whoever said um the are flocking to Greenfield you should make a sticker cuz you would make a million dollars um and my friendly amendment is that on
page 18 um it's just the typo is it's it says Franklin Country Pride March and it should be Franklin County Pride March it happens it happens there's auto correct don't catch that
all right all in favor of Please say I I Okay the resolution passes that feels good and now we're going to talk about money
which is which is equally important absolutely okay so now we're at the mayor's appointments and reappointments to the uh so I'm going to turn that over to councelor Golib excuse
me order number fiscal year 2578 the city council moved that it be ordered that the city Greenfield city council pursuant to charter section 210 affirms the following appointments and
reappointments by the mayor ad hoc Greenfield unhoused community committee Pamela Goodwin and Zoe Smith both terms to expire December 31st
2025 agricultural Commission Sydney St john term to expire December 31st 2028 board of registars Wanda Pyram Pyram term to expire December 31st
2028 public safety commission Gary Br term to expire December 31st 2029 majority vote required okay okay second and there is there is no recommendation from committee because we
did not meet this month we didn't have a quorum okay any discussion all right so we can move it to a vote all in favor i I any
abstensions any opposed motion passes all right um next is Oh I'm getting I keep getting lost um approval of amendments to the Franklin Regional Council of Government's Charter which is on page 24
um is there anybody who could read this i can read that thank you uh this is order fiscal year 25-076 the city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council vote to adopt and enact the amendments to the Franklin Regional Council of
Governments (Parenthes Furcog Charter." said amendments have having been proposed by a two-thirds majority of a weighted vote of the full membership of the Furcog Council and a majority vote of the Furcog executive committee committee with set amendments taking
full effect immediately upon adoption by twothirds of the member towns unless a later effective date is otherwise specified or take any actions relative there too twothirds vote required second that any discussion and and we do have
Mark on Zoom still if All right no questions um all in favor i I Any abstensions any opposed motion passes okay we're at number five um transfer of
free cash um if I could have councelor Torono from page 51 can get in there it's loading um order number FY25056 this city council upon recommendation of Mayor Serger an order
to transfer 354,000 from recash to tax title legal expenses to settle pending litigation related to the tax title taking of real property move that it be ordered that the city council approves the appropriation of 354,000 from free cash tax title legal expenses to settle pending litigation related to the tax title taking of real property majority
vote required second uh any questions or discussion said a positive uh recommendation from committee thank you hearing none we can move councelor Perry just one constituent who asked the
question twice the question was asked at ways at Ways and Means last night and it was asked again tonight so if anyone wants to give a overview of what we can say about this so the public knows that we're what's going on attorney Quinn do you do you feel
comfortable that's fine i wasn't sure not it not it oh sorry you can hear me okay so this um this relates to litigation that was filed back in September of 2023 and just
to give you the you know we've talked about this obviously in executive session some time ago but um uh the city had followed I guess a practice in the past like other communities across the Commonwealth of once they uh took acquired property through tax
foreclosure for failure to pay taxes uh they would retain the surplus over the tax amount that was owed by the taxpayer uh so for example in in this particular case one of the uh parcels that was taken uh the taxpayer owed let's say
$30,000 but then the city acquired it and then sold it later for like $270,000 and and pocketed the difference and a lot of communities have been doing that over time the Supreme Court the United States Supreme Court in 2023 uh issued a decision saying that that
practice was unconstitutional and um and so communities should not be doing that and the consequence of that is when communities did do that they were exposing themselves to damages including attorneys fees uh because the prevailing
plaintiffs could uh uh could obtain attorneys fees prejudgment interests all kinds of damages okay um and um so in September of 2023 after the Supreme Court case was decided the one I just described this action was
filed and there was an attempt during the prior administration to have the case dismissed and it was not successful and so um the amount that's be that uh is being transferred to settle this case as I've indicated in executive session
in the past um is favorable to the city when compared to the potential costs and risks that the city faces if this uh litigation is not settled on these terms and um so that's basically where we are uh I think a lot of these issues are
probably going to be resolved going forward for communities including Greenfield in the future because the state last year passed a statute which basically said cities and towns you can no longer pocket this that surplus under state law and um and so uh communities
now are have to follow that new state law but at the time this action was filed in September 2023 that state law wasn't in effect and uh people you know uh property owners could sue under the under the federal constitution which is what happened in this case so that's why
we recommended that this settlement be uh resolved on these terms thank you thank you any uh councelor Toronto i um I did mention this last night as well um but I'll just say it here
um I reluctantly voting for this um I did last night as well just to put it to bed um I as one of our constituents uh online said I believe that suing somebody for
something after the law is changed when it was the property was taken before the federal judgment therefore it was completely 100% legal to do at the time and the fact that a lawsuit's able to be filed for something that happened before the law was changed is kind of bunkked
to me um so I think we would have I don't know i'm not a lawyer but I'm just gonna say it sounds rational to me if I were a juror on that um that you can't go back for something that was legal to do at the time um and the reason I say that
is not to go way off the rails but we got a lot of people who who were sitting in jail for possessing weed when weed got legalized we didn't let them all out they were in violation of the law at the time we didn't just open the doors and let them out and that's what I feel like
this is the same thing but different is we're allowing somebody to sue for something that was completely legal at the time we're taking the settlement and I get it this is probably going to be the only case we're ever going to have to deal with this for because we don't have any other pending out there we didn't have any other tax titles is from
what I've heard my understanding from the city so that's great um but on a principal level I'm very much not in favor of this but on a financial level for the city is the only reason that I that's the only reason I'm saying this
because we gave a positive unanimous recommendation last night but I did my fifth vote with high reluctance um I just wanted to say that so I I I don't think that hopefully this is not a practice we ever have to
um go through again whether it's obviously not on tax title but any other kind of litigation point of clarification just for the record Massachusetts did pardon anyone who was charged with a misdemeanor offense of marijuana after marijuana was
legalized in the state point of clarification they're still sitting in jail they weren't pardon they weren't pardoned all right governor Dard since it's not on the agenda I do not want to end up
paying Thank you paying our lawyer again so we'll we'll let you guys figure that out in private um can we can we take a vote on this all in favor say I i i uh any
abstensions any nays okay this passes all right we are on to the capital budget all right councelor Torono yay page 53 it's 2557 right is that the first one
okay um order number 25 FY25057 city council move that upon recommendation Mayor Dorger an order appropriate 16,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase of a fully electric vehic vehicle to be used by the department of public works for meter reading move that it be ordered that the city council approves the
appropriation of 16,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase of a fully electric vehicle to be used by the department of public works for meter reading majority vote required second what was the recommendation can I spoiler alert you that all of these were unanimous positive
recommendations um they came out of capital that way uh was sifted down and uh and then after we went over them in ways and means thank you same conclusion any questions discussion
councelor Garrett if it's possible councelor Tronzi would you mind just explaining the capital budget process and what capital stabilization is for the public just I think it can be kind of confusing so there's but if you wouldn't mind doing so
as far as the process for how do we get here yeah how do we get here um so every year the um departments are requested in the fall to submit their capital requests um there's a capital committee
that is comprised of uh the chair of ways and means or a designate um the a member of the school committee and a member of the um I can't think of it right now not
building department um construction construct and planning planning against construction okay um see that's like Rex and Park last night it really messed me up it's parks and wreck um yeah so and then so the the three folks on that
board um advisory board look over uh all of the capital requests from all the departments uh sift through those have presentations given by um the department heads and then put in recommendations to the mayor uh who
then when we we get them u we talked about them at Ways and Means when we get the financial orders given to us and the ones that I've already read twice tonight now I'm going to have to read three times um then we we sift through those when
they come to the subcommittee um and go over those and um we look at the um recommendations from the finance director on uh in this case for capital stabilization there are uh we talked
about this a little bit well quite a bit at Ways and Means last night as well as other times um what what is needed in our capital stabilization funds uh on recommendation of the Department of Revenue to carry
healthy bond rating uh what we need in there you know to cover things that may come up throughout the year that you're not expecting we've got one that's spoiler alert uh we got a new capital request for an oven at the middle school that we're now going to have to take on
uh next week that we weren't expecting so um taking the balance of what we have in our stabilization and and uh deciding what would be healthy choices to make for that year
um on departmental needs uh from looking at prior years past uh looking at what might be coming forward uh those recommendations are made and then like I said the mayor submits
whichever capital requests um she would like and then we deliberate over them and and then they get to this point i don't know if that was helpful okay all right I think we're ready to vote on this one if
thoughts so all in favor i Any abstensions any opposed okay that order passes uh on to the next page um it's order number FY25058 city Council upon recommendation
of Mayor Zurger an order to appropriate 300,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase of three fully equipped police patrol vehicles move that be ordered that city council approves the appropriation of 300,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase of three fully equipped police patrol vehicles majority vote required second
positive unanimous if if you need me to time councelor Gordon I just want to say that I I do hear the folks who say you know why can't we put this money to the schools
instead of buying police cars um and I also want to prioritize school funding um like the folks who spoke tonight um and and this is I will say to the public this is where being up here is hard because there are things that we have control over and things that we don't
have control over um and we could vote no on this but we can't dictate where that money goes after that um and the police need cars just like the other departments who need vehicles that we're voting on tonight um so I am going to
vote yes on this um and I'm also going to uh continue to urge the mayor to find more money for our schools um because I think that we should be able to fully fund the needs of all of our departments councelor Perry just wanted to mention
for the public that the police department uh vehicle fleet is is horrendously out of date they haven't got a new vehicle in about 5 years in the past practice was getting a new vehicle almost every budget year so it's
not as if this is a Christmas gift it's a need for the police department to keep the fleet on the road uh safely for the police department and for the citizens so it's it's a tough thing to do but it's a necessary thing to do
i have a point of I have a question point of question um I was it last year or the year before that there was a request for vehicles it was last and it was it not funded last year was funded because I I I
remember because I said I don't want to fund any more gas cars yeah that's why I voted for it thank you i thought that they they said they had been passed over for many many years and please It looks like no more comments so um why don't we move to a vote oh councelor
Gollum i'm I'm just noting the the $300,000 in the next few years for the for the vehicles i'm wondering I was also wondering about the difference between leasing and purchasing i know that the request from
the department had been to lease um and the mayor chose to purchase i was curious about the the rationale with that i don't know if that was something that was discussed um at Ways and Means i wasn't able to to see that so yeah it was discussed and and if and so and so
this may be a question to Ways and Means members both the rationale of le purchasing versus leasing and also the plan in future years yeah no we we did discuss that there um it's it's something
that could be talked about more u once once the the hole is dug out of um it's not really a a reasonable thing to do right now to get back up to speed um and we did talk about that we talked
about um you know we're gonna they're they're going to keep looking into um you know working with Carol Collins with electric vehicles as they become and I'm I'm glad that she was here tonight to to state that because I know that that's a concern of a lot of people
um the technology is just not there yet and and I'm I appreciate her being the one to say that and not just me um that you know it could be a really bad investment if we try something when before it's been tested and true and
then we end up wasting a bunch of money on something but I I think we're going to revisit that down the line um but with the state of um we also had talked about you know previously like last year um and we even
brought up this year as well is um some of these things used to be done out of operating on a rolling basis and and right now it didn't seem feasible to carry that burden in operating um like I said because of the
the depletion of the fleet as it is right now so um you kind of got to I don't know for lack of a better term you got to buck up right now and and take care of it um in order to get what is necessary to
complete the job um that's I just want to comment on the technology because uh East Hampton has electrical vehicles that they've had for I think two years now at least my electric car is out in the lot i I know my car is not
the same as what a police cruiser needs but um there there is the technology available it might not be at the cost we are ready for but uh mayor I I just wanted to say that one of
the three of these is going to be an electric vehicle we're um I wanted you all to know that we're also Carol's putting in for a charger there so one of the three vehicles is going to be electric and secondly on the leasing
when the capital um committee met that was one of the members suggested because they were so far behind of putting three more into lease and so I took that out so that we weren't doing six yeah but I just wanted to clarify that that we are
trying one of the first ones as an electric vehicle cool thank you Counc i just wanted to mention for the public as well that the police department uh you know did a lot to keep the cars on the road they worked behind the scenes they
did other things they got used vehicles for the detective fleet and so they have been stringing it along trying to make this work as long as they could and we're just to a point now where we have to get new vehicles for the safety of the police department and the citizens
councelor Bottomley um I also wanted to point out this applies to DPW also um in the past some administrations have not kept up on a schedule of vehicles and it really comes back to bite us because then we're dealing with three or six vehicles or multiple trucks in one year
uh and I think the DPW and the city in general has done an incredible job of serving servicing these vehicles and keeping them going way past their life in many life that's expected um so it's it's just a little bit dangerous if we
if we get off those cycles that the uh department heads set forth because we'll have to do it at some point and it's just much more painful when we have to double or triple up councelor Garrett so just two thoughts on this um automobiles are one
of those areas where tariffs are particularly likely to increase the cost in the future so I have concerns about putting off any vehicle purchases just in general because of the potential cost the second piece we got a lot of emails from folks talking about the cop cars and the school budget in the same kind
of breath if we voted these police cars down it would not go into the general fund to be available for the schools or go into capital stabilization so if there's anybody who ends up watching this video later that was still wondering about that I thought that was
important to clarify if there aren't Oh councelor Trano uh I just want to say I'm glad that that one of them is going to be electric it was a little bit we talked about a little bit but it wasn't in the original specs we got so if that can be in the same price
range that's great um the other part to to kind of echo uh what councelor Garrett was saying is there's the reason for us having funding broken up the way that we do is
because not every you have to have you know it is a stability for the city to have capital coming through no matter what department it is um and and like we've seen as councelor Bottomley was um
referencing is in the past when when you lose that um stabilization you end up having to eat it later and that's essentially what we're doing right now is we're having to pick up the pieces of some past what I
would call misjudgments um and and while I understand the the the simplicity behind the idea of we could just move this money over to the schools for that it's not that's not why we have these
these pockets it's not why we split up um money in the in across the city um in the ways and so it's it's it's not as cut and dried as just like we could just not do this and and do this it it it's not sustainable um in the long term if
we don't keep some kind of I keep using that word but stability even though it's in the word stabilization but that's all I think we're ready to vote so I'm going to ask for a roll call on this one
councelor Golib yes councelor Gordon yes councelor Master Jataro yes councelor Bottomley yes councelor Bulick No councelor Perry yes councelor Brown
yes vice President Garrett yes councelor Torono yes does the president wish to vote no
the motion passes by eight votes all right next one uh order number FY25059 the city council upon recommendation of Mayor Dorger and order to appropriate 200,000 from capital stabilization for road work and repairs move that be ordered that the city council approves the appropriation of
200 grand from capital stabilization for road work and repairs majority vote required second looks like no discussion so all in favor say I i any opposed
abstensions motion passes on to bucket lift trucks um order number FY25061 uh city council upon recommendation of Mayor Dorger order to appropriate 150,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase of a one
ton truck what happened on the other one oh sorry it already scrolled down preemptively sorry order number FY25060 city council upon recommendation mayor disorgan appropriate 250,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase
of a bucket lift truck move that it be ordered that the city council approves the appropriation of 250,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase of a bucket lift truck majority vote required second any questions i I was thinking about our ladder truck and if we could
just use that but all in favor I any abstensions any opposed okay now to the one ton truck order number FY25061 the city council upon recommendation of Mayor Dorger an order
to appropriate 150,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase of a one-tonon truck move that it be ordered that the city council approve the appropriation of 150,000 from capital stabilization for the purchase of a one- ton truck majority vote required second
seeing no discussion all in favor i extensions opposed passes and now we're on to the three quarter truck uh order number FY25062 to city council upon recommendation of mayor disorger and
order to appropriate from capital stabilization funds in the amount of $90,000 for the purchase of a department of public works 3/4ton highway truck move that it be ordered that the city council approves appropriation from capital stabilization funds in the amount of 90,000 for the purchase of a department of public works 3/4ton highway truck majority vote correct
second all in favor say I extensions opposed passes Okay engineering services uh order number FY25063 uh the city council upon recommendation of Mayor Disorger in
order to appropriate 34,000 from capital stabilization for design and engineering services for the repair of Maple Brook Culver at 34 Redell Street move that it be ordered that the city council approveves the appropriation of 34,000 from capital stabilization for design engineering services for the repair of Maple Brook Culver at 34ell Street
majority vote required second all in favor abstensions opposed passes okay colin Street Bridge order number FY25064 the city council upon recommendation of Mayor Disorger in
order to appropriate 35,000 from capital stabilization for design engineering and permitting services for the repair of Cole Rain Street Bridge move that it be ordered that the city council approves the appropriation of 35,000 from capital stabilization for design engineering and permitting services for the repair of Corin Street Bridge majority vote
required second councilor Master Tutoro all right all in favor i any abstensions opposed okay we now we're on to the middle school order number FY25065 the city council upon recommendation of Mayor Disorgan order
to appropriate 300,000 from capital stabilization for the repair and installation of a fire alarm panel for the middle school move that it be ordered that the city council approves the appropriation of 300,000 from capital stabilization for the repair and installation of a fire alarm panel for the middle school majority vote required
second all in favor await i have a question about this i'm sorry um I didn't hear anything about this in ways and means um if there's the potential that we're annexing that building and we like we
recently sunk $300,000 into that building is this something that we can't make it through this next school year with what we currently have because if that building is no longer going to be on the city roles
potentially next year this is just one of those like long range issues that I'm like if we're looking at everything why are we the buyer could sink $300,000 into that in a year i did you have your hand up
councelor Golib first i was going to I was going to ask the same question okay great then council meurro I'm just guessing here but This this is a safety issue we're talking a fire alarm system with a
building full of school children and from what I understand um when we talked about this it's it's the panel is outdated and
um and it's one of those things that just has to get done um and even if we sold the building at some point if we didn't use the building um that would probably have to get done before the sale of it anyway so my
understanding from the the questions that I've already asked is is that it is it is functional and it does need to be replaced but at the moment it like the kids it is functional and I say this as a person whose child will be in that building next year um so obviously I
care about safety of that building um but I don't know who would know the answer to this question i did watch all of Ways and Means and I did not see a specific answer to that council Toronto um when we discussed this at Ways and
Means there was no discussion of getting rid of the middle school at the time so this didn't come up um which is why you wouldn't have seen any of those questions i thought the same thing now that we're being asked about replacing the oven at the middle school and I think that's around $100,000 that's
going to be looked at however I agree with councelor Mastero that this is right now we don't know what's going to happen with our school buildings we don't know what we're going to end up until 5 days ago that fifth grade and eighth grade were moving right so I
think it's imperative that we keep our buildings right now up to code safe um as they're supposed to be used like I said we're looking at asking for another you know 100 grand for an oven that well yeah we might not use the school a year
or two from now but we got to cook meals in the meantime as well um I'm just but I just wanted to clarify that this is why we didn't talk about this at Ways and Means is because there was no talk at the time of ever getting rid of the middle school um uh Councelor
Golib I I think that the question remains though for the safety of the next year does it will we will we be out of code will we be out of compliance and will it be unsafe for the next year
i'm I of course I will make sure I will I will fund something to keep the school safe and if we're not going to be using it after the next year and if it's safe and up to code and for the next year uh I don't see why we would pass this i
wonder if this is something we if there's urgency for us to pass it in the next month or if this is something that could come back in a month from now councelor Perry I was gonna before before this conversation started I was going to say
to the public this is a great example of the universal city of we all help out each other we're going to spend this much money to help the school system so now to sit here and say well maybe we shouldn't help out the school system to me is just it just seems like just throwing a
match on a fire you know the school needs to have the fire doesn't matter what's we don't know what's going to happen in the future but we know right now that the school asked for this the school needs this and we should back the
school in this pursuit councelor Torono and then councelor Bulock I also just want to point out this was the only capital request from the schools and they haven't asked us to reig on this um we've had that happen in the past where departments have had a
change in uh in what they're doing and then have reneiged on uh their capital request and said we don't need it anymore we actually had that we had that last year actually with the schools where they thought they were going to need a lot more done for the elevators at Federal Street and then
when they got further information they downgraded that from I think it was three million down to like 85,000 that was great um so we were very happy about that one um they haven't asked us um to pull out of this one so this was
their request and um when they presented it at capital made it known that it was of some urgency so Councelor Bullock I would um like to
make a motion to table this until May 8th or our May 21st I think it is meeting um I would like to speak directly to the superintendent um about this and ask specifics i am obviously
Can I Can I get a second and then you can further discuss it second i um obviously fully support funding our schools to what exactly number this year I'm not
sure um and I think that that means that we have to be prudent in other areas even though reappropriating money would take the will of the mayor uh to do so $300,000 is around the amount of money
that I believe it would take to level service fund this year's uh school budget after conversations with the superintendent so um if if possible uh I would like to hold this I I find it hard to believe work
would be done before May 8th um or May 21st okay so May uh just to for clarification May 8th is going to be zoning only so it would be the May 21st and uh we'll have to move to a vote for something to be
tabled without further discussion if that's it all right so do we do a roll call with tableabling want a roll call you can roll call if not why do we roll call this one
on the motion to table councelor Gool no councelor Gordon yes councelor Master Tataro no councelor Bottomley no councelor Bullock yes
councelor Perry no councelor Brown yes vice President Garrett yes councelor Toonzo nope does the president
wish to vote yes and yes the motion did not obtain a majority vote the motion is still on the table still on the floor sorry floor on the table so I think if I think we should move to
a vote so all in favor i I any abstensions any opposed motion passes yes everybody voted yes
okay we're at tennis courts um order number FY25066 the city council upon recommendation mayor disorder an order to appropriate from capital stabilization funds in the amount of $35,000 for the repair of Davis Street Tennis Courts move that it be ordered that the city council approves the appropriation from capital stabilization
funds in the amount of $35,000 for the repair of Davis Street Tennis Courts majority vote required second councelor Perry this was going to be my protest no vote but the mayor explained that it's really a safety issue and we
can't have people breaking their ankle out there trying to play tennis or pickle ball so it's something that needs to be done all in favor say I i i don't see any extensions or opposed it passes
all right water storage tanks uh order number FY25067 city Council upon recommendation of Mayor Dorger in order to approve the Department of Public Works Water Enterprise Fund to expend retained earnings funds in the amount of 35,000 to inspect Adams Hill Water Storage tanks move that it be ordered
that the city council approves the Department of Public Works Water Enterprise Fund to expend retain earnings funds in the amount of 35,000 to inspect Adams Hill water storage tanks majority vote required second all in favor indicate I
i i don't see any abstensions or opposed motion passes all right another truck for Marlo order number FY25068 city Council upon recommendation of Mayor Disorger in order to approve the Department of Public Works Water
Enterprise Fund to expend retained earnings funds in the amount of 80,000 to purchase pickup truck move that it be ordered that the city council approves the Department of Public Works Water Enterprise Fund to expend retained earnings funds in the amount of 80,000 to purchase pickup truck majority vote required second
all in favor i I no abstensions no opposition order number FY25069 the city council upon recommendation of Mayor Disorger in order to approve the Department of Public Works Water Enterprise to bond for 500,000 for engineering and design
services related to dredging the Green River water supply intake move that it be ordered that the city council approves the Department of Public Works Water Enterprise to bond for $500,000 for engineering design services relating to dredging the Green River water supply
intake majority vote required second all in favor i order number FY25070 the city council upon recommendation of mayor disorder an order to approve the department of public works sewer enterprise to bond for 200,000 for inflow and infiltration repairs and replacement move that it be ordered that
the city council approves the department of public works sewer enterprise to bond for 200,000 for inflow and infiltration repairs and replacement majority vote required second all in favor i order number FY25071 and the city
council upon recommendation of Mayor Dorger in order to approve the department of public works to accept chapter 90 funding in the amount of $622,758 to be used for road work and repairs move that it be ordered that the city council approves the department of public works to accept chapter 90 funding in the amount of
$622,758 to be used for road work and repairs majority vote required second all in favor i no opposed no abstensions
all right so presentation of petitions and similar papers there are none reports of committees uh nothing unfinished business there is none but I'm sure there is some um old
business uh all right we're we're back to Mike for some first readings and under new business these are quick at least um authorized 1,787 thou what that's not right
$1,7876 for payment of FY23 electric utility bill from the FY25 utilities budget fy2026 operating budget appropriate 67 million $925,100 for the FY2026 general fund budget appropriate
$2,840,89 for the FY20226 water enterprise fund appropriate $3,895,664 for the FY20226 sewer enterprise fund appropriate 2,390,826 for the FY2026 GAT enterprise fund established budgets for revolving
funds pursuant to MGL chapter 44 section 53E and a half for FY 2026 that's a thing all right um next is appointments um to the newly formed unhoused
community ad hoc community committee uh President Laura Wendelowski of the Greenfield City Council has appointed the following to the newly formed Greenfield unhoused community ad hoc committee councelor Sarah Brown who will chair Reese McGovern Larry Thomas and
Christy Allen the special city council meeting scheduled for Thursday May 8th 2025 6:30 p.m at the Johnz Community Center Zoom hybrid for all pending zoning amendments and the last thing on the
list is nomination papers and I'd like to turn that over to Clerk Scott saving the best for last there's no one here to hear i know there's no one here to hear it yes um so nomination papers
will be available on April 24th there are going to be open seats to counselor at large seats a precinct 5 precinct 6 precinct 7 precinct 8 precinct 9 there's going to be one
two-year school committee seat and then other school committee four-year seats assessor seats trustees of the AK Warner Fund election under the will of Oliver Smith and TR trustees of Jenny Albasum
fund papers will be available again on April 24th you need to be a registered voter in the city of Greenfield to run for office please come take out papers thank you any motions for
reconsideration i will take a motion for adjournment so moved second all in favor good night good luck and it is