Good evening everybody. Welcome to the Greenfield City Council meeting. Today, I think is February the 25th. Um, and we're so glad everybody's here. If you are here for public comment, there's a sign-in sheet over here. So, please put your name down and then you will get
three minutes. Uh, and there's the procedure and we'll explain it again when we come back around. But, thank you all for being here tonight. And, um, I'm calling this meeting to order. It is 6:35 p.m. Uh, this meeting is being
recorded by the city council and Greenfield Community Television. If any other person besides Anthony from the recorder is doing so, you must let me know. All right. Nobody else. Great. Um, we have at least one member with us
online, so we're going to have to do all calls tonight. So, that's how this is going to go. So, Clerk Scott, who's here? Well, let's take attendance, shall we? Oh, you're giving it back. Hey, if
you're gonna gonna share it, why not? Councelor Goolum >> here. >> Councelor Gordon >> here. >> Councelor Bottomley >> here. >> Councelor Bulock >> here. >> Councelor Williams >> here. >> Councelor Bulldock
>> here. >> Councelor Webb >> here. >> Councelor Brown >> here. Vice President Garrett, >> I am here. >> Uh, Councelor Minhos, we don't believe we'll be attending tonight. Councelor Citizen Alves
>> here. >> And President Wandelowski >> here. >> Madame President, you have a quorum. >> Great. Thank you. Our next order of business is the voluntary pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Next on our list is the approval of the city council minutes.
Um, at this time we do not have minutes to approve. So, we'll move next to communications from the superintendent of schools and the school committee. So, I'd like to invite the superintendent and the chair to come up. Welcome,
>> Patty. >> Hello. What do you have for us tonight? You got a >> a list of things. I see >> have a list of things. I will say that I think that that list is a holdover from the January meeting, but we will be touching on some of those items. >> All right. We're sorry about that. Sometimes
>> that's quite all right. It's all >> carry over. Correct. >> Um, first I just wanted to extend a hearty thank you to the three members, the three counselors who were able to come and be present at the school tours. Um they spent several hours with us looking at our school infrastructure and learning a bit about the history of our
buildings, the size of our buildings. Um seeing where some of the the pain spots are, but also hearing a little bit more about how we maintain and and um also seeing some of the um renovation work that's happening at Federal Street that the superintendent will talk about in just a moment. So, I just wanted to
thank you very much for showing up. Um, we know that it's sort of shared duty and it's nice to know that you all are paying attention and and willing to to be there for us as well. Um, then we I wanted to give an update on the superintendent search. Uh, this is a
bit of old news at this point, but we've got one. Um, we >> Thank you. Yes, appreciate that. Um, so we we uh extended a formal offer of employment to Carol Cruiser um who would be coming to us out of Chapi. We're in the middle of uh contract work right
now. Um and hopefully we'll get that signed soon. Um so we can get get that person onboarded, develop mentoring plans, that sort of thing. But we're so excited to have Carol coming uh to be a part of our district and we think that it's going to be a really positive step
forward for us. Um, last on my my list that I've got is I noticed that on y'all's community relations agenda, you had an item related to student internships, municipal internships, and we haven't necessarily had any formal communications from y'all about that yet
because I don't think you all have discussed it yet, but I wanted to offer and extend that when you do, we would love to be part of that with you so that we can um collaborate on whether there's academic credit involved or just what some requirements are for working with our students or if we can give you any
um sort of like knowledge about what their day already looks like so you know when it might be feasible to bring them to places and things. Uh so just wanting to note that I love that that's another possibility for us to collaborate really well together and do things that are positive for our kiddos. And with that I'll turn it over to the superintendent.
>> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um few activities going on at our high school. Just some of some of the few recent ones there's some big ones coming up just to keep you posted. Uh past one that just happened in January was that our school Special Olympics has a unified botchi
team and they went to a tournament, statewide tournament. They brought three teams representing Greenfield for that. And in March, they are looking forward to taking another polar plunge to raise money for the Special Olympics. This is our student council and if you'd like to be involved with that, you can contact
Angela Mass at the high school. Our key club has done a lot of great work, a lot of great volunteering, and has collected over 60 pairs of shoes that were brought in for donations. And during the recent winter carnival, they volunteered and helped the Kuanas Club in their food truck at Beacon Field. Also, the Key
Club on February 12th participated in the United Ways early literacy program, which is called Ready, Learn, Succeed, and they were reading to students at the Academy for Early Learning. The high school will be holding a blood drive in March. Stay tuned for that. If anybody
wants to donate blood, the drama club in March will be having a rehe not a rehearsal, a play, the production, The Secret Garden, and that will be on Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th. This Friday in a couple days, the
library club is having a book to movie event. They'll be co-hosting this with the Mosaic Club. This will honor honor both Black History and the upcoming women's history month by showing the film Hidden Figures. Doors open at 5:30 on Friday for pizza and popcorn. The
movie will start at 6. This is a community event and all are welcome for that one. So, those are a few of the things going on at the high school. In terms of our programming in at the city in the schools, teachers did professional
development. You may recall obviously teachers teach 180 days a year to our students but they also have to do professional development and keep up what the state calls PDPs professional development points and have to accumulate those and when they get rellicensed they have to relic
themselves every five years have to have so many accumulated in certain areas. So, we do professional development in addition to, as I mentioned, the 180 days that they work, they do another four days of professional development within the city schools. And they had their final full day of professional
development on Friday, January 30th. And they participated in grade band sessions aligning to district priorities. And in the afternoon and the morning, they did some split sessions. They also participated in restorative practices learning. And we've talked about that a little for you in the past. So, all of
our teachers had some training on that. Uh, we have some great grants going on. We received a nice, I say a smaller grant, but $25,000 grant between us and Greenfield Community College, which we're excited to get. We just received a letter on that a few weeks ago. This is
funding for the early college planning grant and that will begin collaboration between the college and obviously the schools to assess readiness, identify opportunities and determine next steps to have our students take more classes and have more interaction with the
college. In addition to that, we had the winter carnival recently and what a winter it's been for the winter carnival. Great finally to have snow, right, for sledding and etc. and the ice sculptures looked great coming down Main Street and everywhere. Um, we were fortunate enough
through the schools in Title One to sponsor the Mad Science Fire and Ice Show held on Saturday at the middle school. Had a great turnout there. I want to thank all those who volunteered to make that a great success and thank the schools, our schools in Title One for doing that. And last week during
February vacation, we had a vacation learning academy that was offered to all elementary students. We had over 40 students participate for enrichment activities from 8:00 to 1:00 Tuesday to Friday. This was double the number we had last year, which was the first year.
Uh so we're glad that that increased and we'll be expanding that and hoping to do this in April again during the April vacation. Uh many districts sometimes will have these learning or vacationmies for those students who might be struggling and to help catch up, right? Get ready for things. And while this did
some of that as well, it was open to everybody. So it was an enrichment academy in that sense. uh they had classroom instruction, they had arts, they had physical education, they did a lot of nice things there. So, we're glad to that we were able to offer that for free to all our families and they were
fed breakfast and lunch as well by our food services on that. Um you know that we had a little water break just before just at after the new year at Federal Street. Those repairs are ongoing almost done about another two weeks. They are actually doing painting today and some
finish work in the classrooms. Also, the fire panel we've talked about that is done. So, we'll probably stop talking about that. Over and done with at Greenfield Middle School installed last week and just this afternoon at 4:00 the
elevator at the Greenfield Middle School, which didn't have a problem but had to be reinspected because of the when you do new fire panel work and you start touching all the fire alarms, etc., There's firework stuff in the elevator. So the state inspector was delayed as you could probably imagine
from Monday with the weather. So it came out today and we had passed on that. So fire panel done, elevator working at the middle school, everything up and running. Thank you to your cooperation with the funds for that. And also, as I've mentioned, we were able to save a significant amount of money with our
director, facilities director, Mike Budro, and company working on that with the fire department and having a an alternative way to fix it that did not spend quite as much as we thought we were going to have to as well. And um
want to thank as chair ston mentioned the three counselors who were able to come out and spend a long time over three hours on a tour through the city seeing our schools our schools enrollment and sometimes I'll pass out numbers to you hadn't really changed it's minus two this month so we have
1343 students enrolled and we'll keep you posted on that and obviously I would assume and we'll get it to you that you'll be very interested during budget season etc of seeing how all that's going to play out with our classrooms on there. So, those are some of the updates and the nice things that are happening
in the Greenfield public schools. >> Thank you. That's a very long list. So, we appreciate the thoroughess. Um, counselors, any questions. Council Gordon, thank you both for being here and for all the great updates. I have to admit
that when you mentioned the elevator, I really thought you were going to say that they found a problem with the elevator now that we've fixed everything else. So, I'm really glad that that's not what you told us. Um, but it's really good to hear that all of that is is in good shape. Um, I know there was some consternation among parents this
morning about um, you know, wondering why there wasn't a delayed start to the school day. And of course, on the flip side, a number of parents thinking, I'm so glad that there wasn't a delayed start to the school day because it it does, you know, create challenges obviously for people who need to get to work and such. But I'm wondering if you can just share a little bit about how
those decisions are made. >> Yeah, no problem. uh as superintendents in the state, we have a weather service. The Mass Association of School Superintendent has a weather service that will send us updates during any weather events. So during great weather, no updates at all for weeks on end,
right? When things are happening, uh twice a day, generally early in the morning and in the mid afternoons to keep us posted as to what's going on. Uh we thought we knew that it was going to we knew I knew and I'm telling you that there was going to be snow this morning, right? And if you watch the weather, and I sometimes kind of joke with people,
unless you live under a rock, you knew it, too. Everybody knew that there was going to be maybe a band coming through, but the predictions were for under an inch in that sense. Um knew that it would come during the morning commute. I definitely knew that. I'm also in a text group chat with Franklin County
Superintendent, all the other ones as well, too. and they talk with like just like we do as well with our highway department and everybody in that sense and realizing that the timing from what was predicted, right? And you never know with the weather of prediction whether we moved it from the beginning to a
two-hour start, we were still going to be in that snow band. So had they said maybe the snow was going to come through at 4 in the morning and end at 7 or 8, that two hours would have pushed us out of that window maybe for buses. But I our buses start to roll
a little after 6, probably by about 6:20 a lot of the drivers 6:30 they're out. We have people going out before 6 though to do extended runs in that sense. So you have to make some runs and and as you know I say sometimes right you can you're never right. Damned if you do, damned if you don't in that sense. Um,
in there. So, for the two-hour delay, did not think that the two-hour delay was going to push us out of the window. And if it was the first one, counselor, I would say like back in November, probably would have treated it maybe differently. A lot of times we do as superintendents say, "Oh, it's first time anybody's driving in the snow.
We're not sure which way the car is going to slide or move, right?" And all that kind of stuff. Hey, we're dealing with we're used to snow now. I say in that s to some extent. and people know all right it was snowing it's New England and it was done by maybe what 10 o'clock 11 o'clock today in that sense
so so we don't take it lightly obviously we put people's prior safety first other but the two-hour delay wasn't going to help I'll use the word safety wise it would have been a cancelling we didn't really think it was worthy I did talk to not all but several of the principles
today and they said that generally enrollment I say enrollment but the start time and attendance was per was I say perfect was not really factored in this morning. It was snowing. People liked it. Um, might have taken a couple extra minutes to get some places, but I
guess that's what we get in New England. >> Councelor Web, >> um, thank you for all those updates and I love that you can do the vacation school for free. I think that's an excellent service to be able to provide to residents. Um I'm wondering I know
you're in process of um talks with the new superintendent. Is there any timeline of when she will start? Um >> July 1. >> July 1. Great. >> Perfect. Easy answer. Thank you.
>> I don't think I see another hand. I thought there was. Um, I really appreciate that you do the school tours and just one comment. I know most of us learned about it the week before and most of the counselors here have other jobs. So, if we can have a little more
lead time, we'd and I know it's a lot of moving parts, but anytime we can get advanced notice, we'd really appreciate it. And even if you guys considered like late afternoon or evening to accommodate because I think more of us would show up if we could.
But thank you for doing it. We appreciate it. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. Next up, um we have communications from the mayor and uh city employees. Um, and I just want to
comment that there is a um bit of notes in in our packet. Um, and I'm not going to allow any questions related to that because that was that that's kind of personal communication. So, um, it's kind of outside of our scope.
>> Oh, great. And councelor Minhas has joined the meeting. So, mayor, welcome. Hi, Erin. Uh good evening everybody. Um we've had a interesting few weeks eventful. We had a visit from the economic development
secretary Eric Paley last week at the Furcog and we took this opportunity to highlight the strengths and struggles in Greenfield and Franklin County. Amy Cahillain did a great job of outlining the need for more investment in Greenfield and from the Commonwealth.
Representative Whips was in attendance and made some great contributions to the conversation. And a big thank you to Senator Cmerford, Linda Dunl, and Jesse Dean for organizing this important meeting. And we are looking forward to another visit from the secretary.
Two weeks ago, um we had the uh a vault in the um treasurer's office. We were unable to open the um 100year old 2,000 lb safe um due to uh it froze internal mechanisms. They were unable to
open it. Um central maintenance led the effort to open the safe with the support um from fire and the treasur's office and others. Um it I think it took a day and a half or two days to get that open and it is yet to be removed and replaced
by the other one that's nearby. Um but thankful to all of the employees that um worked together to get that done. Um I've also reached out to our state legislators to see if we can get the MSBA to pitch in a bigger share to match
the the tech school. We all know they desperately need a new building and we absolutely value them here in Greenfield. But like all the surrounding towns, I am very worried about what that cost is going to do to our local budgets. We have to look out for our
taxpayers. In many instances, the MSBA has paid a much larger cost there of the building, some up to some in some instances up to 90%. So, we'll be advocating for more of that. Um tonight's city council meeting um
conflicted with uh public safety commission um and also I think board of health was tonight which puts me and other department heads in a situation of needing to be in two places at once. So I would just ask that the city council
be aware of the possible conflicts when adjusting the schedule. Changing the meeting sometimes can have more implications than you might think since we have over 40 boards and commissions to manage. Um we are continuing to work on the
budget and most departments have already submitted their budgets into Munice. Federal and state money is shrinking and all the signs show the broader economy is slowing down. It's going to be a very very hard year and we're going to have to tighten our belts. We had a meeting
yesterday with our insurance team and their projection was a 19% increase. Unsustainable. Uh the flock cameras have been removed and I'm very thankful to Chief Dodge for spearheading this and working quickly to
have them taken down. I know that the officers of the Greenfield Police Department will continue their excellent work to ensure we are all safe without the potential pitfalls of the flaw cameras. Um, last week I submitted comments to
the state expressing my concern about the Berkshire gas proposed rate increase. I made it clear that Greenfield residents cannot afford higher costs and expressed my frustration about the moratorium on new services. I will continue to collaborate
with our legislators to keep prices in check and address um the moratorum. As I'm sure you are aware, GET had a major uh internet service outage starting on June 9th. Service was fully
restored by the 12th. GET staff worked very hard over long hours to resolve the outage and I appreciate their efforts. This was frustrating and disrupting event for GET customers which included the city. The outage also exposed a vulnerability and emergency
communications for residents who are reliable on the VoIP phones which cannot make emergency calls without internet service. We will be working with GET and our public safety departments to address this and other concerns that emerged during the outage.
To end with some good news, uh the winter carnival was once again an amazing success thanks to the hard work of the recreation team. They worked very hard to prepare for and coordinate this event and spent the the entire weekend outside in the bitter cold. I also want
to recognize the DPW. On Friday morning of the carnival, there was a water mane break at Poet Seat which could have cancelled the fireworks. Thankfully, DPW repaired it quickly and the fireworks went off. Not only does this highlight how departments have come together to
make these events happen, but it also underscores the importance of finding ways to find upgrades in aging critical infrastructure. >> Thank you, Mayor. And I just wanted to comment because uh with the snow, was it this morning? yesterday. I can't even
keep track of which day, but uh I know people like to complain about our streets and how clear they are or not cleared. You guys are doing a great job. I work in Ammerst and >> it was bad. >> Wow. >> So, you guys are doing a better job.
>> Well, I'll be sure that to DPW because um it's always it's nice to hear what people Everybody likes to hear what a good job they've done. So, thank you very much. >> No, I appreciate that. And um my question is uh you know I know you have requested a discretionary freeze on
spending within school or not school the city departments. Is that related to worrying about the future budget or overages in the current year? Um to answer your first question the discretionary spending is measured to
address overages in several budgets this year. uh we are seeing a slowdown in state and federal funding along with projected general economic cooldown. When you combine that with a third consecutive year of doubledigit health insurance hikes and the sharp across the
board increase in the cost of goods and services, this freeze became necessary. My primary goal is to stay within our operating budget and to minimize borrowing. Greenfield's outstanding debt is significant. It is higher than many of our neighbors and peer communities
and due to these factors our bond rating is expected to go down this year. Ultimate ultimately this spending freeze ensures we can maintain all all critical government functions without overextending ourselves. Um given the economic outlook we are also going to be
exceptionally careful about making any new hires. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. And then um you've got the second question which is just understanding the process for approval contracts for things like the flock cameras um if those are approved by the departments or if those come to
the mayor. Um as mayor I serve as the chief procurement officer for the city as outlined in section 32 of our charter. That means I am responsible for ensuring we follow all state guidelines under chapter 30b.
I am involved throughout the contracting process which includes the final review of all contracts for new services. I review contracts only after they have been thoroughly vetted by the relevant departments and the finance director. Regarding the flock cameras, that
agreement um for that was uh first actually predated both my administration and chief Dodge's tenure as the chief. that agreement was nearing its renewal period, which is when we would have formally reviewed and discussed it.
Not every operational purchase crosses my desk. While I review major service contracts, I rely on our department heads to select specific operational supplies, whether it's investigatory tools for police, life-saving equipment
for the fire department, or specialized software purchases. I will leave that to the experts. >> Great. Thank you. Uh and then there was a question from Vice President Garrett and then we'll have uh councelor Gordon.
>> Sure. Go for it. >> Um so my question was basically the connection between GET and the other city departments. The reason I thought of this is I had heard that both fire and police and I believe city hall didn't have an outage. And so that's kind of what prompted the question. So,
I'm curious about literal connections between the various departments and >> GET. GET operates differently from city departments. The mayor's office doesn't provide supervision over them. Instead, they are directed by their own board of commissioners. They are a board of five
dedicated volunteers who meet once a month. Uh my authority over GET is essentially the same as yours on the city council. Ultimately, GET's general manager and their board are the ones responsible for the day-to-day operations. This includes maintenance, replacing um outdated equipment and all
decisions on their budget. This works until it doesn't. In the case of the recent outage outages outage, many reached out to us at the mayor's office when they wanted more information or help. GET is an MLP and also an enterprise fund whose finances run
through the city. GET is not incorporated. They use the city's EIN number and this past year when it was questionable that they would meet their revenues, the department of revenue threatened not to certify the city tax rate. In other words, although the board
of commissioners in conjunction with the general manager sets the rates and makes all budgetary and operational decisions, the city's financial status and liability can be greatly impacted by decisions that the city actually doesn't make. I meet regularly with um the man
general manager, John Lunt, and um have not interacted with the commissioners for over a year, but um keep up by watching all of their meetings once they are posted. On the physical side, uh GSET provides internet service to the city hall
and the the fire, the police stations, dispatch, the DPW, the library, Sanderson Street, and the public schools. um that they provide an excellent service. To ensure its continuity, our IT department has set up automatic
automatic backup providers for our critical public safety and administration buildings, specifically city hall, fire, police, and dispatch. It if GET goes down, those facilities seamlessly switch over to another
provider. The DPW, the library, and the Johnzon Community Center do not have the same automatic internet backup, but they do have radios and landlines to maintain communication.
Additionally, all departments heads can log onto the city's VPN ver virtual public network remotely. For instance, the library director, Anna Bognola, could still log in to handle payroll or check her budget during an outage even
if the public Wi-Fi is down for library visitors. As for the schools, they manage their own separate backup system to stay online. And I don't really know more about that, so I'm not going to speak to that. I don't know. They they were they went on and off and in very
quickly from what I heard. Sanderson Street. I asked Fern Fernando about that. They're linked to City Hall. No, they're linked to the >> That's my >> Yeah. No, no, I I I actually checked with him because I don't like to speak about it things without checking because
it's not my Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Uh Councelor Gordon. >> Hi, Mayor. I just want to thank you for the quick action on the flot cameras and and thanks to Chief Dodge as well. I think I originally raised a question about the flot cameras in November of
last year and um this is been it progressed very rapidly and I really appreciate the time and effort that you put into understanding the issue. Um and also really appreciate the members of the public who were very u active on this reached out. I know we're in communication with you, with council
members, with the police department, uh, to express their concerns about it. So, um, I think many communities are having, you know, real fights about flot cameras, and I'm I'm really grateful and proud of Greenfield that it it wasn't a fight, but you really understood the concerns and did what was best for the
public. >> Thank you. I didn't really know that much about them till this all started, and so I appreciate you bringing it up as well. Thank you. Councelor Brown. >> Hello. Um, I have a question to follow
up on U. Vice President Garrett, which is I'm wondering I I know that a lot of residents were going to the library when there was the GET outage and then in the beginning it also didn't have Wi-Fi. I'm wondering if it could be if it's possible what it would look like to get
that on a backup system as well since that's essential for members of the public. that actually did come up in um that's right there was a lot of people that were going there and I know that Anna made a big effort, you know, to make
sure that that was available for folks that needed uh the internet. So, that did come up and certainly that could be looked into. I don't actually know how that works, but we could look into it. Thank you.
All right, I don't see any other questions, so thank you so much. Um really appreciate it. Uh and now we have uh Amy Kelly from economic development. So thank you for coming and uh sharing
based on some of the questions u that were submitted. happy to and I know I h the way the agenda reads it's um myself and then John and then questions for me and then questions for John. >> Yes, there won't be me and questions for
me or is the Okay, >> great. >> As much as I want to have you guys do the hokeyp pokey. >> I enjoy the back and forth, but perfect. Okay. Uh first topic was Hope Street and I I don't know if I'm allowed to have a handout, but you will find in your
inbox. Can I being admitted as evidence. A >> Oh, here. >> Yep. >> Um, coming around is the flyer which outlines our public engagement process for the Hope Street RFP.
Um, you now have all the copies with the exact dates, so I'm not going to guess on the dates, but um Oh, thank you. I'll give it back. Um, the way that we've structured this is we have two citywide
public meetings, one at the start of the process and one at the end of the process. Then two precinct 5 focused meetings, again, one at the start of the process, one at the end of the process. and then a variety of other ways to engage with me. You'll be very tired of
me by the end of March. So, I'll have Zoom office hours, tableabling hours in the library, um and then two sets of office hours um offsite and not downtown. So, one at the Starbucks and
one one at the Starbucks in the morning and one at Four Phantoms on an evening. Um, and then we have an email address which is hopereet greenfield-mma.gov. Um, if folks want to send in thoughts, questions, whatever. And we have an
online survey which is available on our website now which is a way for folks to also offer their input um on the RFP within certain parameters. Um, if they can't get to a public meeting or even if they can, you can still hop on and
complete the survey. So hopefully there's channels in there that will accommodate folks schedules and preferred methods of communication. Um, and you should be able to always find me or members of my staff in my office or on Zoom or whatever your preferred
channel of hunting me down might be. Um, timelinewise, the engagement is highly concentrated in March and early April. After that, we're going to take a pause to pull together all of the input that we have received
um and actually write the RFP. And I am hoping to get the RFP issued in the spring, ideally the month of April, but um just because life happens, I'm going to say spring, April optimistically. Um
I am told that that's good timing wise for developers in terms of what their typical funding and financing schedule is. So, um I think as long as we stick within that spring window, we will be good to go. Happy to pause there and answer
questions about that. Councelor Gol, >> not a question, but an observation that as I count these up, there's, if I'm counting correctly, 14 times between March 2nd and April 8th that you're making yourself available to the
community. So, that's that's a lot and I want to thank you for that. >> I feel like I promised you public engagement and accessibility, so I'm trying to deliver on the promise. >> Thank you for following through. >> Sure. Other Hope Street questions.
Okay. Are uh I mean I would assume naturally, but are residents of other precincts invited to go to the precinct 5 meetings or are those exclusive to precinct 5? >> All of the all of the meetings are open and accessible to anybody who wants to go. Um the precinct 5 meeting is obvious
meetings are obviously um a little bit tailored more at um concerns that might be more specific to their neighborhood and are um hopefully done in partnership with their neighborhood organization and councelor Bulock but anybody is welcome at any of the meetings. They are all
public and open. >> Thank you. Sure. Uh I've got councelor Bullock online. Hi Sorry, I'm driving home and I'm in traffic. So, um I'm handsree though,
don't worry. But I just wanted to also express thanks. I've gotten a lot of questions over the last um couple weeks especially. It sort of ramped up. People are like, "What's happening with that?" And so, um I've been sharing that this
is um in process and there's dates coming. and when you sent me the plan, like it was just more robust than I even could have imagined. So, um I just want to say thank you and I know that precinct 5 folks are um excited to come
and engage. So, um looking forward to it all coming together soon. >> Great. Thank you. Uh councelor Menhos, >> hello. Can you hear me? >> Yeah. Hello.
>> We can hear you. >> Yes. >> Okay, great. Sorry, I'm in the hotel right now. Um, I just wanted to say thank you in specific to Amy, but also every other city department that's been working on getting this transparent project off the ground to involve public
input. Um, as someone who in the last uh this whole election shenanigans uh might have disagreed with many of the counselors here, I would just like to say to people who are like-minded like me, who were critical of perhaps what
they thought of as the lack of transparency, I would just appeal to them that this is a open invitation from not only the city but from every organization and person who's been supporting development here
to come and hear your voice. Um, you might feel discouraged based on the uh outcome of the last election, but please do come and show up rather than just,
you know, being reactive to every single issue and feeling like you're being pushed out and all of these things. Show up. the city is doing a good thing here by involving the public by hearing everyone from across the aisle from
every precinct and specifically precinct 5. So please guys show up. They're doing good work. This takes time and energy that they're taking out of their own business and the work that they do for the city. So, please come and show your support
for the democratic process and have your voice heard. And I just want to thank Amy and everyone else who's been who's been uh active in this and Maryanne as well. Thank you for the work that you do. We can all disagree on how we get to our end goals, but our end goals are to
have Greenfield grow and develop and prosper. And I don't think there's anyone in this meeting or particularly literally anyone in Greenfield who doesn't want Greenfield to be a better place. There's always room for improvement and we might disagree on
ways to get there, but this is a huge initiative taken on by the city to involve folks so you can have your voice heard. So, uh, thank you to everyone in the city who's involved in this. And again, to the folks who might have thought like me who were perhaps a
little bit critical, um, instead of just shutting things down and being like, "No, no, no. We're going to fight it." Come and have your voice heard. That doesn't mean that you're just going to become dictator and chief and they're just going to listen to you and just do everything that you say, but you become
a voice that is in the cacophony of of the rest of the voices in the democratic process. So, please come and and and support this process. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, councelor Cis.
>> Uh, yes. So, I'm just wondering what venues uh you're planning to advertise to get this out to the community, these opportunities. >> All of them. Um, social media, um,
hopefully the or the recorder. Um, uh, we've sent it out to a couple of community- based groups. We, um, are hoping that the counselors will share it on their precinct website, so email. We also are looking into doing um a mailing
to um the precinct 5 residents um at some point during this process. Um it March has gotten here exponentially faster than I had anticipated. So I'm not sure what that is going to look like, but um Kathy Scott has been helping me figure out if that's going to
be possible. Um so we're looking at good oldfashioned mail. We also um have done some flying in the past and I imagine that we will do flying for this as well. And I am open to any other suggestions that anyone wants to send my way. >> Any other questions? Um, councelor
Minhus, we're going to come back to you, but Amy has a few other questions first and then we'll give second chance. Shifting topics. Shifting topics. >> Shifting topics. Um, next question was
regarding the status of First National Bank. um and the RFP and I am very excited to say that the RFP I'm working out some final details with our finance director and we are hoping to issue it next week. Um it will be open next week
already March. Um the RFP process is roughly a two-month or so process that it will be open. Um it's a big project and while we do have um two entities that have expressed interest, we want to make sure that there's ample time um for folks to um engage with the RFP. There's
a lot of prior work that's been done that's available on um on the city website of prior documents. Um so it'll be out and active for a couple of months and then there will be a review process um once we receive bids at the end. So
more to come in probably a week or so. Um, oh, sorry. You may. >> Um, so I am thrilled to hear that. I am curious to know how long has the First National Bank been sitting empty and
owned by the city at this point. >> Do you have in rough guess would be >> um those are two different answers. So empty I'm going to say I believe since the late 70s. >> Uh it is owned by the GR, the Greenfield Redevelopment Authority, not the city.
and it has been owned by them for I am certain I will get this wrong but I would say maybe 20 years. >> Well, thank you >> Park 15. >> Thank you tremendously to everyone involved in this. This is a huge if we
can hopefully this all comes you know knock on all the wood but I am beyond thrilled to hear this. >> I'm I'm counting zero eggs until they are hatched or whatever that expression is. >> Stop talking. Um, >> I don't want to ruin it, but uh, thank you. >> Other First National Bank questions.
>> It was commented that Tim Ferrell probably knows. >> Nine. >> Okay, >> thank you. Uh, ready to move on to uh, updates on wayfinding and bikes. So,
two two separate projects that are going on. We are doing a wayfinding study. Um it was grantf funded through a state program that doesn't give you dollars but it assigns you a consultant. The consultant they assigned us is Stantech who is the company that also did our
parking study. Um and what they're doing is working to um review the signage um predominantly in our downtown commercial core because that's a focus of this grant. Identify signs that are out ofd um inaccurate.
Um there's a lot of sign clutter in a couple of key locations. Um looking for signs that we can remove and then looking at places where we just don't have signage to things. For example, the parking garage, um businesses down Wells Street, um a variety of other locations.
So they're doing a lot of work like that and talking to stakeholders about where we need signage. Um and then they are also looking for opportunities to pair signage with public art. We're a vibrant, wonderful, thriving community with a lot of artists and it would be great to tap into that more. So things
like murals or footprints on the sidewalk or creative ways like that that we could do wayfinding that's not just your standard um green sign. They are in the midst of that process now and I believe they wrap up by the end of June.
Um separate from that, we are doing a citywide bike plan. We're working with master students at the Conway School. They are looking at our existing infrastructure, existing patterns of bike usage within the city. Um and then
gathering public input regarding um hopes and dreams and concerns um barriers and benefits to biking in Greenfield and then are going to use those to put together a plan. Um a couple of they I guess a couple of
interesting things to note. They had a public meeting. I think we were there like a week ago or so, which had a great turnout and a lot of really interesting um conversations. And in addition to sort of the expected bike conversations that you hear about like it's a train
wreck to bike down Federal Street or whatever, there was a lot of um really great conversation in particular around youth biking in Greenfield. um both uh that Greenfield is a really great size to be a bikable city to get around to public schools if we just had the
appropriate infrastructure and youth and others seeing biking as a tourism driver and a outdoor activity. In particular, a lot of talk about mountain biking and how there are great places to go mountain biking all surrounding Greenfield and there could be great
places in Greenfield too. Um so I'm really excited to see what they find. Their timeline is really short. that report should be finished in April. And um more or equally excitingly for both of these, the state does a great job at doing planning grants. It does a less
great job sometimes at doing implementation grants, but they did just announce as part of the one-stop funding. There is a grant that I am sure everybody will apply for where you can actually implement some of these plans. So, we are looking at wayfinding um or
biking as possible ways where we could pilot some ideas or get some grant funding to do some signs or a mural or something like that. So, more to come on those. Happy to field questions on those two. >> I actually submitted public comment on
that already. Um but >> thank you. >> Oh, and we have a bike survey online. If you live in Greenfield, please take it. >> I have a bike. That's unfortunate. But I do have records of projects in the past uh of this nature that have tackled that have tried to tackle me street. I don't know if you have any uh it was I think
it was a project um like literally trying to improve the entire Deerfield Street corridor and I can provide those if that's going to be any use to the project. >> Sure. >> It's a box of old historic documents I went through and I it was actually from like 2012 so it's fairly recent. Um, and
I know there's been a lot of interest in in precinct 7 to kind of bring me street back into make it a bike path. So, anything I can do to help with that? >> I would gladly take those. And the Conway students are super enthusiastic and jazzed about this. So, I'm sure that they would also love to um take a look
at them. So, I'm making a note. Um, that would be great. Thank you, >> Council Minhas. Thank you. Uh couple things. One, so I'm checking the um Hope Street Development
RFP uh events and for the one on Thursday, March 12th. Is there a reason why it's held at Starbucks? But like could we not have found a local coffee shop or something?
>> Absolutely. The reason I Yep. We absolutely could have and you will find me in all of our downtown local coffee shops on any given day. I was trying to pick a couple of locations that were not downtown. And when I tried to find a place where I could sit and people could feel
comfortable to come and go and talk to me and not necessarily have to make a purchase or sit awkwardly at like a table, um I struggled to find some spots. So, I am absolutely open to other suggestions, but that was one location that I came up with that was outside of
downtown that was in a different part of the area um that people could get access to, has parking, and you could come and go without being disruptive. >> I I can understand that. It's just I
don't I mean Starbucks is here whatever but um they are a company that does not respect the American worker and I in turn don't have any respect for them. Um I mean they're here they can do business but I don't think we should provide them any legitimacy especially when we have
uh businesses of our own that provide much better service at much reduced cost. I mean, they're overpriced disgusting coffee. But anyways, um I I can >> if it helps, it will be my first time in this Starbucks. >> I haven't been I won't go,
>> but uh yeah, if I mean, if we could potentially find a local place that's outside of it doesn't have to be coffee, but any any type of um restaurant or something like that that would be outside of the main street. >> Also a reason why you'll find me at Four
Phantoms. Yes, that I really liked. I really like that. Thank you. Um, just another thought about some of the other stuff you discussed. Um, perhaps I I might have missed this, but uh are there any talks of potentially getting like
electrical bikes, like electric bikes that you or like scooters that you can like rent for like an hour or 30 minutes or something like that um in downtown and then just drive it around wherever and then you return it to the locations there. As I'm traveling, I see how
useful they are. Um it's very easy to explore a new place when you're like, "Oh, okay. I don't have to walk three miles. I can just bike it and it's kind of fun to do. So, uh, and it's fairly cheap. So, um, are there any talks to potentially have something like that in
Greenfield? >> We have looked into and have talked to the folks doing working on the bike plan about, um, something like Valley Bike Share, which is down in Hampshire County. Um so yes, it's been talked about the um infrastructure needed to
get off the ground is relatively substantial. Um and I think our our thought right now I guess is a couple is twofold. Um a we need to figure out how to pay for that, but b it's putting the cart a little bit before the horse to get the the valley
bike share or something if we don't have the connectivity of bike paths around town. So, our first focus is getting those bike paths up and going so that people can actually take those bikes somewhere. Um, but yes, absolutely on the table. I have not talked about the
scooters at all, but >> they are a lot of fun. >> Uh, councelor Webb and then Vice President Garrett. >> Um, I agree about Starbucks, but you know, there's no purity under capitalism. I
did want to offer that in precinct 9, we have the two housing developments uh Greenfield Gardens and um I'm blanking on the other one. No. Oh, Courts. Thank you. Sorry. Um that have great common spaces and might
be a good fit um to host outside of downtown meetings. And thank you for all of this work. It's amazing. I uh have another bicycle question. Um I love the idea of doing the valley bike share extension. I remember this came up at SJC a couple years ago and you you
know expressed similar excitement about it but also the multiple steps. Um just as far as connectivity is concerned, I remember hearing a while ago there was a kind of dormant plan involving uh making a bike path along routes five and 10 in Deerfield to Northampton to connect to
that network. I know George the former chair of the planning board was very enthusiastic. I also imagine it's probably not moving anywhere very quickly right now, but is there any life to it? Is it more of a zombie study at this point that needs to be resurrected?
>> I'm not aware of any actual study. I am aware of I would say almost anytime that biking in and around Greenfield comes up that corridor is mentioned as a death trap and one of the more desired corridors to have bikeability. Multiple
hurdles with that most notably it's not in Greenfield. >> Yeah. >> So I what limited powers I have end at the edge of Greenfield. Um but I think collectively everybody would love to see that happen. I think that's a huge
undertaking. >> Yeah. Okay. So, we got to get Deerfield to buy in basically >> and maybe a wider five and 10. >> Yeah. >> With a bigger shoulder. >> That swamp is kind of in the way. But in any case, >> councelor Brown,
>> um thank you for everything you're doing. truly just you have a really cool job and you're doing very cool things all the time and thank you. And I wanted to think about the wayfinding signage with the unhoused committee because that
was one of the um ways that we were thinking of like um collaboration with the city to have signs more towards like the Portland Lou the public bathroom that's 247 or if there's other ways of like there's outdoor water access or
whatever. So just to like put a little bookmark on that of thinking about like those infrastructure needs for basic needs, the lockers, the future lockers, >> which Portland Lou is absolutely on the list of identified sites um and I will keep the others in mind, but we
certainly are targeting um sites like that as well as like the fairgrounds and the Y and everything. Now we're on. Thank you so much. I you guys are doing so much stuff and so we appreciate the regular updates and to make sure the public also knows all the
movement that's happening because sometimes you don't see it when you're driving downtown, but um it's coming. It's coming. And you asked if there was any other programs that um I should let you know about and I don't like to pass up an opportunity. So, could I just flag one for you, which is a facade
improvement program that our department is currently running. It is funded through um CDBG funds and because of the funds, it has to be businesses within the commercial corridor, though we fully recognize that there is a host of Greenfield outside of that space, but that's out of our control. Um, it's a
rolling deadline and it is for renovating commercial storefront facades. um things like re repointing brick or fixing your windows or putting up an awning or painting your storefront. So if you are a downtown business owner or you know a downtown business owner with a storefront who
could use some love. Um the application is on our website again because it's CDBG funded the application and some of the hoops you have to jump through um are a little cumbersome. That's being kind, but we will walk you through. So just send anybody our way and we'll be
happy to help them. Just a question on that. How are you are you guys proactively talking to businesses? When I saw that I was like driving down Main Street, I'm like, "Oh, they could use a blow up." And how about that one or glow up?
Um, we usually, I mean, not usually, we always disseminate the information to everybody. Um, and then we try and walk doortodoor. And when we walk doortodoor, there are some businesses that very obviously don't need the glow up or just had just, you know, got a new sign
through similar funds a year or two ago. And so we would try and um make sure that businesses that haven't had the opportunity to take advantage um are are share the information, but we publicize it as far and wide as we can.
>> Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Great. Perfect. All right. And we've got John from GET. So, thank you for being here. >> Good evening. I was invited here to talk to you about
the GET major outage that occurred um on February 9th at for us at about 1:16 p.m. we detected a major outage. We have monitoring systems on the entire network
at all times. Um, at 1:18 for about the next half hour or so, we began to dispatch staff to the point of presence at city hall. Uh, and
we began to work on um contacting our hardware vendor partner because we have professional services that we work uh with them on. And very quickly
um we identified by sometime in between 217 and 233 that there was a hardware fault in what we call a PE router which is an edge router and a router that stands between
the green field network and the outside. Um, a hardware error generally triggers what's called an RMA. Every year we buy a service that says, um, we will get a
24-hour replacement for, uh, a piece of equipment like this. At 2:33, we started saying, "Okay, it's got to be done by three. If you we know if you don't start this by three, then you won't overnight
it tonight." and they didn't end up saying they started until 3:07 p.m. So, uh, we got to them and said, "You're close. You should send it anyway." And they said, "No." So,
we spent from about four o'clock to about 10:00 uh working on trying to find whatever we could do with the damage router to get
some people back up. At about 9:54, we figured out how to have a partial restoration of service, but it was split. um core routing upstream connectivity
for public IP and enterprise was stabilized and at that point uh enterprise services came back up. uh public IP which is a certain kind of internet address uh which is primarily
business but there are residents in town who have public IPs that came up as well and what stayed down and what really ended up being the problem was um
something called CGNAT carrier gradeNAT and that is a way to share IP addresses among users dynamically ally as they access the system. It is very difficult to get IPv4 addresses in the United
States. There are actually no large blocks of them left at all. If you ask Aaron, it takes about three years to even be considered for a small block of 24. So the technology to make it so you
can use those addresses for more people is important. Um with enterprise up that meant um the city was up, public IPs meant businesses were up and some uh residents were up. In total that was
about 500 people out of about just shy of 2175 just shy of 2,200 people. And it was essentially at that point we were just trying to ring whatever we
could out of the damaged router but we were not able to get CGNet services up and running and that meant there were about 1,200 people who were 500 no I'm sorry I'm wrong it it means
there are about 1,800 people sorry math um that were continued uh to be down after that at 10 p.m. we continued coordinating with JTAC which is our vendor support team from our uh hardware
provider and that essentially went on in pretty late into the night. I will say um people expected and they should have expected that GET staff would work pretty much continuously. That is what
you should be doing in that situation. And we basically had people who were up for most of 3 days. Our chief technology officer survived on almost no sleep, but we would have people drop off for 4 hours
or so to sleep and then come back because lots of stuff, as you'll see, happened at 3:00 in the morning. So we began early on the next day when we knew the router would not make it and we had posted that that would be the case.
Uh we began to think about what we could do in the interim. Was there anything else that we could squeeze out to get more people up? And what we decided to do was take every other IP public address that we had, which is really not
recommended, but in a situation like this, we assigned those IP addresses at random to people who were CGN customers, and we were able to bring up about 600 more customers. So at this point we
roughly had half of them the network up ha sorry that's wrong half of customers up and half of customers were down. Uh and at that point we had made no progress on what was going on with
cgat. Um we knew it was a hardware fault. We knew it was in an area of the router that is quite rare to have a fault like that. Routers are not just
redundant or not redundant. There are parts of routers that there are and parts of routers that aren't. This was in a nonredundant part and I can talk a little bit more that about that after the timeline. So,
we um by 10:30 a.m. on the 11th, which is was Wednesday, um the replacement arrived, we began the process of cutting over, which takes hours because you have to bring it over.
So you have to remove some components from different items and you have to basically build the connections for the router and it takes a while. It takes a long time. Um, and at 3:05 we were ready
to begin troubleshooting. And at that point, we were working with our vendor partner when a senior member of the vendor team came online and said, "I'm pulling my team because we insist
that you upgrade to our latest version of firmware before we will proceed." It's a esoteric world. you you don't do that because it causes so many problems every time you upgrade and we said
please don't make us do this this will cause bugs it will take a ton of time and their answer was no this is a requirement so from 3:05 p.m. to about 700 p.m. We did the upgrades as they
suggested to our our routing engine and at 7:10 p.m. on Wednesday, we switched over to the new routing system and as we were afraid of, everything crashed. Um, it's
called an unexpected service regression. It's bugs, bugs from new firmware. So, at that point, enterprise went back down public IPs remained up and CGNAT remained down because we still hadn't
been able to get to troubleshooting CGNAT. All told, uh we worked until roughly 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Um, all told, it was about 13 to 15 hours
that were added on to the outage by having to upgrade and then work through all the bugs that were um introduced by um adding the the new firmware. By 3:00 a.m. we had worked
through it enough that enterprise was restored, public IP stayed up. So when enterprise went down and public IP stayed up, there were still about 800 people, 800 accounts that were up um and
CGET was still down. So finally after all that, we were able to start working with our network partners and they're indispensable. You can't fix things like that without working with experts who made them. They are very complex
systems. Um and from 7 o'clock to 11:00 there was real progress made in restoring pathways and understanding how the hardware fault had affected data that traveled through the system. There's 10 gigs of data a second that
goes through our system. So when a fault happens it can cause malformed data to lock in certain parts of the network. At 11 am there was improvement observed in
testing but not enough that we were able to get CGAT up. So it took us another four hours working with at this point we were constantly requesting upgrades and we literally ended up with one of the
most senior people at our hardware vendor partner who used to work with the person who invented CGNAT and at that point we really started to understand exactly the nature of the fault which is
I won't go into it here because It's essentially the hardware fault caused data to become malformed and corrupted in several different areas and we had to go find that and fix it one last time as we went through the
fix. Everything went down for about 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and then um at 3:16 everything finally started to come up. And what we had had to do was find essentially all the places where the
malformed data had gone and clear it out and restart everything. And at that point, Cgnet recovered. All services were stabilized. We began to see people on the internet saying, "Yay, I'm back up." up, but we did not announce for
another 45 minutes because the last thing in the world you want to do is say, "Hey, we're up." And have it go back down again. So, we watched it for 45 minutes along with senior staff at our vendor partner and determined at about about 4:00
uh on Thursday that it was stable enough that we could tell people that the network was back up. And I think the notification went out at 407. At that point, we had all of our essentially 2,175
customers back up. Some of them still were on public IP addresses, but everyone was on connection. That was 4:00 on the 12th of February, and it's been running without incident since. Um,
we did contact people and say that for a major outage like this, we thought it was entirely fair that people should get credits for the amount of time that they were down. It turned out that it's pretty easy. 24 hours times 28 days is
the total amount of time you can run. And the time you were down ended up being 11.3%. Um, as I've said throughout this, there were people who were up and down. Some people stayed up throughout the entire incident, but it was disruptive to
everyone. So, in the end, we decided the fairest thing to do was to offer credits to everybody equal to the entire 76-hour span that we started at the time when our first customers said, "Hey, wait a minute. There's something going on here." To 4:00 when we told people the
network was back up. Um though almost every one of those credits has been applied. The way billing works is most people will see it on March one when their build for their March bill because February billing had gone by. There's a few more uh mostly rel related pardon me
to TV customers and they all have separate anniversary dates and we're working through that and by the end of tomorrow we should have credits out for everyone. Um once it was over, the last thing that
happened that we really regret was during the course of the outage there were about 50 people who had unplugged their routers and when they plugged them back in, they weren't plugged in correctly and our evening phone didn't get switched over to our answering
service because our customer service person literally just fell asleep after 3 days of being constantly awake. It's understandable. It's not great for people who couldn't have their service. So, as soon as we learned that that had
been the case, we got everybody up. We started calling people and we spent uh the next morning after that making sure that those people were back up and connected as well. And at that point, we were able to say that not the aftermath,
but the actual event itself was closed. It was I've been here for eight years. The network's been running for over nine years. It's the first major outage that GET had. Um, as a percentage of all the time it's up, it's very small. As a
percentage of the time that people wanted to be using it during that time, it's very bad. So, we take it really seriously. Um, and there are some questions where I want to talk a little bit more about risk management and how that works that
were submitted by the president and vice president and I'm happy to take questions from anyone. Um, so is it right if I move to these questions? Do you want people to ask them or Okay. Um
the president asked uh the first question the president asked is what is your communications protocol for outages? I guess it's a good place to start because I would rate our communications performance during the outage as poor. I
think that the systems that we had, which is a pool-based system, work fine for when a few people go down and you have to get in contact with people, but it just didn't work. We had too many internal checks that we did. We did not
have enough pre-made statements. We did not have enough well-defined roles and people who could communicate without having to check back into the system. So we have been working on a new communication plan that names people
that distributes uh decision-making authority more because we really feel like we need to make sure that everybody understands what their role is. We need to know what
kind of specific communicating we want to do. We need to have templates that are all set up and we need to know when we're going to use them even if we have nothing new to tell people which is I think probably the area where we were worst of all which is when we didn't
have anything new we were very busy trying to figure out ways to have something new that's it's not good enough so we have to be able to communicate with people too um and we have to um we've already determined that we'll be moving from micro Microsoft
Office for emails because we ran into our 10,000 daily limit of emails several times during the outing and we're we'll be migrating to AWS because in addition to unlimited emails there's an integrated SMS texting function so we
can when we send out an email it will automatically send a text to people as well. Um, I think that's important because not having that kind of texting ability was not sufficient. It wasn't okay to
not have that um those kind of changes. We had said um that there were some really great responses. I will say most people were incredibly supportive and it really was
great to see and some people had great suggestions about how they'd like to see things timestamped about how they'd like to see things phrased and we will use those. So, um, when we're done with this, we're going to put it on the website so people can read it and see
what it is because it really is an indicator that we have to make a real commitment to this. And it has to be something that becomes a core part of GET and go from something that we didn't do well enough to something that we can be proud of when we work with customers.
So, we got some work to do there. Um, >> thank you. I really appreciate that. Um because I know when when it first went down and it said go to Facebook and see the updates and I was like if I can't get on to Facebook, >> right, >> don't have internet. So um
>> it it does >> it got me a little angry. >> It does show how central to people's lives internet is and how much of the way people communicate runs through the internet. Now >> um the next question from >> Could I interject? Sorry.
>> Yeah, >> sure. I just want to clarify that you're putting the communication plan online is what you're saying for >> when it's done. It's not completely done yet. Yep. We're going to post it on our website so people can see how we're going to go about doing it. I'm sure it
will engage, excuse me, engender some comments. That's great. And we will try to, you know, you always have to balance it out with what you can actually do, but I I think getting that kind of feedback and I think we just want to make sure that we're showing people
here's an area where we're going to learn and we're going to listen to customers and work on a system that works better. So um the next question from the president is are there
redundancies in the systems for situations like the equipment failure? Practice in the industry is that you go through and you rate what percentage of occurrence you think will happen and you
work to mitigate risk accordingly. No one erases risk. There is no internet company anywhere that hasn't gone down. It's just a fact. So the goal is to get as much risk mitigated as you can. What
we think, for example, is the top risk is we spend a lot of money every year to have an entirely redundant internet link. Um we have had to use it on different occasions. No one in Greenfield ever noticed a thing because
we had it in place. We failed over to it gracefully is the phrase and we were able to keep going. It is generally considered to be the most common kind of failure there is. So we just pay every year to have an additional link. After
that you basically just start working your way down. I will tell you that a hardware fault in the back plane of the PE router is a really really rare event. And when you
get to events that are statistically considered rare, it's common not to keep another $100,000 router on hand, but to have a rapid response contract service that you buy, which is what we did here.
It's a very rare event, but it happened. So, when it happened, and we're in very close contact with our vendor partner, we were not very satisfied with the timelines that that came to us. It was
quite frustrating. Um, and we're talking with them about what can we do because it's actually it's so rare that the the contract for replacement is really inexpensive because they don't expect to ever have to pay out on it. So, we said,
"Okay, well then we should probably spend some more money if there's another level above that." There's it's an odd thing there is, but they don't tell anybody about it, but you can work with them. And that's what we're doing now to see if we can make sure
that that works. Or if we should put somebody on a plane and fly them to Lexington, Kentucky so they go get it that night. That what happens is John goes to Bradley whenever it happens. One of those will be the best thing to do.
Or we hire a courier service to bring it here. One of those will be the best thing to do. When we figure out what it is, that's what we'll do. Um the last thing to say is
we these routers are two years away from end of service. There's end of life and end of service. End of life is when they stop selling it. I think the best example is most people's iPhones in this room are end of life because end of life
doesn't come because something is old and broken down. It comes because they want to sell you something new. End of service is what counts because as long as things are in service, they're considered
topline products that are within their life cycle from the manufacturer. there's two years left. Um, the odds of it happening on the other router are no greater than it was happening on the first router.
It's sort of like the lottery that way. Two tickets don't make it twice as likely that you'll win. Um, and we have begun a process. It was our plan to come next year to capital to ask for
new routers because then we would be a year away from end of service and we're going to move that up and there are certain things we could do. There are things we could do to mitigate this particular risk but when you do that there are other risks that you take too.
So the main point is we try to balance out the risks there are with the resources that we have to mitigate them and we understand there's no way to get rid of them entirely. So we've started
talking about it earlier than we had planned because that's what you do after an outage like this. you reassess whether you need to maybe spend a little more time thinking about how you want to make something like this work.
So there's a question, what is the protocol for equipment testing and maintenance? Is that internal or external review? It's really more about monitoring. And we have several different software programs that tell us everything. I've
turned them off because if I didn't, you'd hear it all the time I'm up here. Um, we watch all of the network all the time. The first alerts come when there's a problem. This was not something that
gave in any indication that it would fail. Uh, it just happened and that's just how it happens sometimes. So, um, people should know that we watch constantly and every weekend I'm talking
to my chief technology officer. We're talking to our outside plant team that works all week and if there's an issue goes out on the weekends to fix any issues that come because expectations for internet are very high. People would
like the service to be up 247 365 and we have to do whatever we can to live up to that. Um, councelor Garrett had a a question that says, "Is it fair to say that the server that went down can be considered
a single point of failure for the GET system? Is it possible to create a full or at least partial redundancy?" It is fair to say that and I think the answer is what I spoke about in risk mitigation earlier. Um any alteration in strategy
on the north build regarding winning customer trust. I I'm happy to say that to date we've lost a dozen customers out of almost 2200 customers. That's one half of 1%. I think the entirety of the credit for
that goes to our customer service team. We try really hard to take good care of people. We get a lot of feedback that says that happened and we build up a lot of goodwill which is a good thing because we spent a lot of goodwill in this outage and we are well aware of
that. So winning customer trust up north is really for us a matter of information and materials and outreach and physically going. One of the good things about having such a targeted market is you can just go and we will go and work
on communicating with people and we will work in our communication plan on making sure that people understand what happened and what we're doing about it and what reasonable expectations are for internet and I think that's really the best way to do it is just engage with
people um concerned that the outage might make folks reluctant them to switch. It's always a concern after an outage. We had three people sign up today and we have had people signing up fairly regularly and it went exactly how
you thought it would go. First couple of days after nobody signed up and then one person did and then two people did. So we have worked back to pretty close to a normal level of of customers coming in. Um
we don't take that for granted. We think there are some marketing programs. We have to be careful as a public institution. We have to be really careful about what we can offer to certain people and make sure that we're following all applicable applicable, pardon me, laws and guidelines. But
there's things that we can do. Um the I'm sorry, I'm trying to see where I am here. Um also, what is the current status of the north bill? That's a bigger question. Currently since there we put an update on the website on the 27th of January.
Currently um we have completed all the power installation at the um LCP the local convergence point up north which is where we have to put all of our switching equipment to make it work. We've put in all of our fiber optic
patch panels. the um fiber optic cable is right there at the LCP. Um and we have done a large percentage of the lashing which is where you have to go and essentially bind the heavy cable
up to the the steel wire that you use to make sure that it's stable and lasts for a long time. Um we are making good progress. It is a busy time for us. We start next week uh working with Greenfield housing authority over the
next four weeks to get 200 new customers uh with a digital equity grant where we will provide service there. We start at the end of next week or the beginning of the week after that working at the Weldon which is another 109 customers
that are low-income seniors. We feel pretty strongly about digital equity and that will be 300 plus people who not only will have internet service but we will be able to be subsidized by a grant
and have it be free for up to two years for people who just have found that really difficult. So we we put a lot of effort and resource into that. Even so, we think we're 10 11 weeks away from the first customers up north being brought
online and then we will work in a ripple out from from the LCP and continue to work to bring people up. Uh we also are at a point now with uh the GAP grant which is also has a few locations up north that's for people who are in the
most inaccessible parts of town. Um, we're working closely with MBI and the Executive Office of Economic Development in Boston to work through everyone's favorite thing, which is Make Ready. And it's great to have them because they get
a much better response than we do. And when we do that, that will add up north and some in the south. We will add coverage to several hundred more homes. So, it's a really busy time for us. Um that's a little more than the north
build. Um I think that we've come to the end of the questions that were submitted. So >> thank you. So I have councelor Williams and then councelor Gordon. >> Yes. Hello. >> Hi.
>> Good evening. Could you please tell me um what you expect it to cost uh in terms of the replacement of old equipment that needs to be replaced in the next couple of years? You said there's you have two more years on that
and also >> to actually get service to the rest of the city like it was promised early on. Okay, your first question is really about um not just routers, there are other
switches and things like that that happen when you upgrade and it's about $250,000. They are revenue bonds and that's an important thing to remember. They do not get paid by the taxpayer. GET pays the bonds out of the revenue that they get.
We've been doing that for years. We were profitable last year. We put money into retained earnings. We will be again this year. Even though there will be a bite taken out of that from credits, we're like everybody else working on our budget for next year. And we should be
profitable then, too. None of that replaces the need for infrastructure like internet to be able to access bonding to um to spread out over time large capital costs. If you
don't, then you have to make it work out of your operational funding. We've had to spend over 20 grand in the last couple years in fixing trucks. We've had to spend about $50,000 in equipment that we
would normally bond for, but we haven't been successful in accessing bonding for years. By the time we're done with um the programs I outlined, we should be at about 95% coverage of Greenfield. That
will leave a few areas that are um a little harder to get to. It's very hard to get across the interstate highway because you have to work with the state and shut the entire highway down which is a difficult proposition for everyone unless you can
find another way to do it. Um that will cost some money but not anything on the scale of the routers and the switches that will uh need to be updated as and part of that is just as we get more
customers traffic increases traffic increases in the system. Um, we after what happened, we're re-evaluating CGNAT and should we just go into the auction market and spend the money to get a bunch more public IPs. So, some of how
much it'll cost is dependent on getting the the equipment to upgrade and we'll need other investments too. Most enterprise funds and most departments come regularly for capital investment. It's been about six years
since GET's been able to access bonding and that's a problem and it will become a problem because there's no organization if you couldn't bond for six or seven years for water or sewer that would be a problem too. So that's
something that we have to be able to get done going forward if we're going to get to the point where we can spend the money to upgrade the network and go from 95 to 99 or as close to 100 as we can get >> and when do you expect the you talking
about the 95% when do you what kind of a time frame are we talking about? Um, I'm just trying to think because it comes from all the different a large percentage of that should be well underway by the end of this calendar
year, meaning a large percent of it should be covered. The one that we're most concerned about is gap grant, but that's not the largest amount of people. Um, by the time we finish the north build, which should
happen definitely this year, by the time we finish um um working through GHA and Weldon and some of the other digital equity, that's really going to happen in months.
So we're we're at the point now where we won't be held up by make ready and once we finish the work configuring then it's really about just building out up north and that will just happen
sequentially. So, we what we'll do is instead of wiring up the whole thing and making everybody wait, we'll pick an area and we'll wire it up and we'll light people up and we'll move on and we'll pick an area and we'll light it up and move on. So, it's going to sort of roll its way
in. So, but what kind? So, time frame wise, >> well, what I said was most of the north build, the gha work, the u what's called a retrofit work um for the welden will
be complete by the end of the calendar year. I don't know that it'll be 100% complete, but it'll be substantially complete by the end of the year. And that will bring us up over 90% >> okay >> coverage. >> Council Gordon,
>> I have a lot of questions. U spoiler alert, but this is actually just a quick followup to the question that councelor Garrett asked. Um how many single points of failure would you say are in the system? Do you have a sense of what that number would be? They're all very very unlikely events.
Um, I would really want to talk to my chief technical officer, but you could most likely count them on one hand. Okay, >> I'm going to go to councelor Minhos um
and I've got councelor Webb and then we can come back to councelor Gordon if you have 500 questions. Councelor B. Thank you. >> Um, I'd just like to say thank you, John. I had like 10,000 questions while
that outage was happening that many of my constituents were reaching out to. I myself had just recently become a GET member, like not even a month ago, and then this happened and I was like, "Oh my god, are you kidding me?" Um but
thank you for being transparent. Thank you for being available. Um and just as a reminder to everyone, every business, every entity that is providing a service can experience something like this. Like
we have a gas station. There's at least once a year, we hate when it happens, but for some reason something in the software system or hardware system goes down. We cannot give gas. That's our primary function, but that happens. It's like once a year. That's just how
equipment works. It's just how technology is. We just aren't in the year 3000 yet. I mean, it's just that's just how technology is. Um, but I think the most important part is how we deal with that. Um, and if an institution has
enough resources to combat that and soften the blow. Um, and I think from at least my experience, uh, the way that GET handled this, um, potentially some of the communication
could have been a bit better. But I will say that John himself was, uh, very available. U many of my constituents reached out to me to reach out to him so that I could get some information and he provided us constantly. I can't even remember the amount of calls and emails
that we sent in between us and and G set and they were prompt and they were honest and sometimes the honest answer isn't the sweet answer. I mean, I wish that they would have just told us, you know, hey, it's in a few hours. But they were like, nope, this is when it's happening and uh this is just what the
reality is so you can plan for better. But um I think we're still at the end of the day, despite all the financial complications, the technical complications, we are very lucky as a city to have a company that we actually have a stake in. Um this is not the
norm. And uh just wanted to thank you before I head out. uh especially you, John. Thank you for your transparency and your uh willingness to be available. >> Thank you, >> Councelor Webb. >> Thank you for all that info. I have
three questions. Uh first, I wanted to say like so precinct 9 is west of 91, which you just talked about would be >> like Mson Street area. >> Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. Um I guess I'm thinking about like
the meadows and co rain. Um >> we're actually up in the meadows and we are across there. Um Mson Street is we either go across beyond the landfill and part of the gap grant is getting us down
to the landfill because it's a city service that really could use better connection than it has. going across means you have to shut down the interstate, which means working with Mass Department of Transit, which if any of you have ever done, I don't even need
to tell you what that means. Um, the other way would be to find a way to go underneath near um north to uh the church there beyond um sorry, I'm blanking, North Robins
Church. Um, and that would require um making sure we have all the easements necessary to go underground. It's a little more expensive. Going underground is less expensive than it used to be. And we're just actively looking at both and seeing what we can afford and what
we would be able to get um the equipment and know how to do. But I I'm not gonna tell you it's gonna happen before what I've laid out here. It It's not. >> Yeah. >> So, we have a small team. There's seven
of us. >> No, totally. I think >> And but I don't say it to say I don't say it as an excuse. It's just true. And that allows us to put money in like we did last year like we will this
year. It is financially stable. Um, but it also means we're not going to be the fastest. We can't job out and bring big teams in to get things done because we don't have the money. >> Um, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And
I want to also say like this is kind of our first rodeo because you're one of one. So, um, I wanted to acknowledge that. I also I guess my questions were about like the standard for router
replacements and then like when you have to do the server upgrade um with the risk mitigation plan you lay out like do you add percentage points each year as it gets closer to its end of service life? >> That's not usually how it works in the
industry. It's expected to work solidly throughout its entire life. >> Yeah. Um, so it isn't like it's okay, but if you get, you know, within three years it's a 10%, two years it's a 20. It doesn't work like that. Um, and and
that the best indication of that is how the replacement programs work. Every really serious bit of data from a hardware provider is under an NDA. All of them. So you have to figure out anecdotally by knowing people in the
marketplace and by insurance because insurance reflects reality and insurance says they all are supposed to work right up until end of service. There are people who keep them beyond end of service. I don't think that's a good idea. Um because then you can't get
firmware updates which in a normal time is a good thing. It's not a good idea to do a bunch of them in the middle of a crisis, but um it is something you need and bug fixes that come through. So once you reach end of service, then yeah, your risk does go up. It doesn't mean
it'll happen right away, but eventually it will. >> Um >> and a refresh just to say um we're talking about routers. We don't have servers in in that traditional sense. We're talking about replacing the routers we have with new routers.
>> Cool. Um, and then last just um you mentioned that you were planning on asking for new router money in the next capital >> round of capital. >> Mhm. >> Would that line up to getting the router
for the ser end of service and end of life? >> Yes. It would be a year before the end of service and it would literally a chunk of the money is every new router has to be learned. It has to be integrated into the system and balanced.
So we would get the routers in and run them for months before we even thought about making any kind of a change. So you really need to do it before end of service or you you have to cut over before you want to. People have
certainly done it but it's not the best idea. >> Thank you so much. >> Sure, >> councelor Brown. Um, thank you. My question is about the upgrading the firmware and how that caused an additional outage for 13 to 15
hours and I'm wondering um why that happened or how that >> because our hardware partner required it and said if you don't do it we will shut down. We'll shut your ticket and walk away. >> But was that because it was behind or what was the
>> People run on all different levels of firmware. Um, it's generally, you know, when you're running something like that, I it is an issue of do you want to take the risk to upgrade firmware? And for
most people, if they're on a firmware that works and the system is stable, they don't, which is why software, excuse me, hardware manufacturers tend to require it. It was a poor time to require it. and we will now do it more
than we would have before. Even though it does introduce some very small risks, we feel like we have to, but it isn't common practice in the industry. >> Councelor Gordon, did any other counselors want to ask a
question before we come back around? So, I've got councelor Bottomley. >> Yeah, one kind of generalized big question. And I I think I've heard your answer already, but on your website under the FAQs section, um it says, "Is
GET sustainable?" Yes, GET costs are paid for by customer payments. So, would you consider having your customers absorb the costs of these upgrades uh that are needed? >> Well, they will
even bonding has to be paid for. Bonding doesn't mean GET doesn't pay for it. it means it pays for it in a predictable time period. Um so ultimately costs of a business like GET
because GEIT is a business that works in private markets those costs have to be passed on. The other advantage of bonding is when it happens in really predictable increments over time, then customers don't face the swings in
prices they might if the if you can't do that because that bonding acts as a little bit of a cash flow buffer for customers as well. So whether you bond or not, eventually
you pay for the service you get. Um the only reason I'm concerned because you know this is a really we're heading into probably a few years of very difficult budget. >> I do know that. >> Um and I just want to make sure that it's clear that we have to look at the past a little bit because a million
dollars of ARPA money was spent. Hundreds of thousands dollars of taxpayer money was spent on fringe benefits. That's direct taxpayer money being spent. So I just it feels like we're always around the corner. We're almost there. We're almost there. We're
almost there. >> And so I I just am concerned about the sustainability part. >> So respectfully, we haven't been on the recap and in I believe it's four or five years now. So we're not almost there. We did put money into retained earnings. In
the beginning, it was widely understood that it would take five years for GET to become profitable. It did, and we were. And since then, we have not been on the recap. We put money into retained earnings this year. So, it's always a
good thing to worry about sustainability, but it's not just around the corner. We are here. We pay for all of our bonding. We pay for all of our expenses out of the revenue we have. And that needs to
be something that people internalize, too. There is no doubt that the early years before we got here of GET were pretty rough and I know it leaves an impression on people, but that was 10 years ago and at some
point we have to be able to look at what's going on now. We literally do a hund times the amount of business that we did when I started eight years ago. We have grown every single year. We're
not growing as fast in core markets as we did because now we're starting to actually get pretty good market penetration. But the idea I mean it just needs to be recognized the progress that G said has made and the fact that when you put money into
retained earnings, you're profitable full stop. So we're looking at that again this year. We're looking at it again for the next year. So, I I understand where the concern comes from, but we really need to look
at where we are now. And it's easy to be nervous forever when bad things in the past have happened, but that's not where we are now. >> Councelor Golib, did you have your hand up before? >> Okay, good.
Yeah, I just want to I want to start by saying I I do not envy your position at all and I am talking to you as the uh head of G set from the as the counselor from precinct one
>> Katherine to John. So, uh, you could probably read some, um, disgruntledness on me, um, as I, as I there's two things, >> two things that I want to say that this is what I think is this is my
observation >> and give you a chance to respond to them. >> Okay. >> Um, the first is that about the routers, it's not adding up to me. Um, you said it doesn't make sense to keep
routers past end of service and that end of service is 2028. When in 2028, you know, if it's >> I don't know the exact month. >> That's fine. 2028. So, we're in 2026. And we know that you know that the
routers were needed when the ARPA request was made five years ago. Um, we know that capital are things that are supposed to capital are things that are supposed to last five years and and we have a schedule of anticipated requests
for routers. My understanding is that we haven't seen a request for routers. I heard you say now that this happened now we know we're going to push it forward to 2028, but pushing it forward to 2028 is end of service. So, so saying we're
pushing it just Yeah. and then like keep track if you disagree that's okay. This is what I think I hear you saying. >> Um >> and so if you asked for the ARPA funds for you the proposal was for the router.
It hasn't been in our capital schedule. You know that it's not wise to keep routers past end of service and yet you're not making the request now. And if the request, if we said yes to it next year, it would still take time for the routers to come in and for the bugs
to be worked out. By the time the routers got there, it may be past end of service and you haven't even made that request yet. >> Um, so that's not adding up to me. Okay. What's your response to to that? >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thanks. Um,
>> so you asked about ARPA and I have heard other people say, "Well, why didn't you spend ARPA money? why didn't you buy a router uh with ARPA money? And my answer was we never said we would buy a router. We said we would upgrade a router. Those
are very different things and we did that. So um when I say that we ask for money that means that um when we ask in the next round then we anticipate getting that in
2027. So that means we can run it for the entire if we ask for >> I shook my head because um I think that's what you're responding to. Is the capital request coming through now? I
mean the >> the capital's if you're if if you ask me the request now and it was approved now then maybe you would get the funds >> right? >> So >> no I a request >> there isn't
>> I my answer is we have asked for a lot of different things and when you don't have access to bonding for years and years you have to deal with things that are right in front of you and at that
point will it be close to the end of service? Yeah. But the idea that we just should have asked for it before, well, we asked for a lot of stuff and none of it went through. So the idea that it would just we haven't had access to
bonding since fiscal year 21. So let's just be honest about it. We haven't been able to get last year we had a unanimous positive recommendation and it wasn't put forward. So
over time you have to think about what is what's right in front of you that has to work. You have to think about building out the network. And for us coming to you with a request for a
router frankly has to be something with some urgency to it because we have had zero success. So the the unspoken part of that is you somehow should have done this earlier, right?
>> I sorry I don't agree. I don't agree given the entire situation that we've worked with for years with the prioritization that we've had to have. And if you feel that way, you feel that way. I understand. I don't agree with
you. And I think that asking at this point is what's appropriate and it should give us enough time to be up and running. And I'm not going to count days and weeks and months with you because it's
it's actually a little frustrating to hear about what we should have done a while ago when any request we have made has been disallowed or not allowed to go through. So I I hear we should have
spent ARPA money on it. Although we did, but if you recall two years ago, if you had wanted us to do it then, we spent most of the year with the ARPA money locked up because it had been taken back. We And when it was finally released, we were told it had to be
could we promise that it would be spent on the north build. So, I understand, but the reality is we have to make decisions based on what we think we're going to get. And right now, no one at
GET has any confidence that any bonding will be put forward to the council. That's what the last few years have shown us. So you can say, well, you could you should have done it here and that's fine. >> So what So
>> I I don't want to get into a debate, so I'm going to be really careful about this, but I I just want to clarify. So what I'm hearing from you, John, is that you have put in capital requests before and they haven't made it to the council. Is that what I'm hearing? >> That's what happened last year. It happened in previous administrations. We
had previous administrations where they came to us and said, "Don't bother putting anything in because we won't put it forward." So we have lived in a very capital constrained environment for a long time and that forces changes in timelines that you don't necessarily
want but you have to be able to keep things going and I it's I understand where people are coming from but that presupposes that we would have been able to access capital earlier on and the evidence shows that that's
just not the case. >> Okay. So we could keep going. I have a different like I said at the beginning I had a second and then I've got councelor Bullock and then I'm gonna come back to >> Yeah. And we could respond and we could keep talking but we're not going to do that right now. I have a few different responses that I could make to that.
>> So do I. >> I believe it. I believe you. Um, I think in particular when I read that uh you had asked for the RIT router and then you said that the the ARPA funds
went to the north build. Um, I I want to be able to I want GET to survive. I want to be able to trust you, John, and and GET. And and I've been here for three and a half
years, and I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. Right now, I'm representing my constituents by saying it's really hard to trust to trust GET. And I have been hearing over and over and over it's going to happen. And specifically the last time you came here
in LA I don't many months ago you were like this is about to happen and now I hear you saying there's these other priorities it might like it will happen. I hear you saying it will happen but it hasn't happened yet and I'm not even going to ask when it's going to happen.
I heard your response earlier but I just I I felt like it's it's a bit it's a bit flabbergasting. So, I don't know what requests and it and it and it puts me in a difficult situation with with uh future votes around funding
if the north bill doesn't happen because I have to represent and several of my colleagues have to represent now people who want to survive because they want it but also it hasn't happened. So, you said 10 to 11 10 to 11 weeks
>> that it would start. You said something very similar several months ago. >> No, excuse me. I said we would start work up north. I didn't say we would be turning customers on. I said we would begin pulling the backbone up north.
That's what's on our website. So, let's be clear about what people are saying. >> And we could go back and look at the transcript of what of what you said, but I want you to succeed. So, please finish the north build. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I I don't hear a question. So, thank
you. And that is exactly what we intend to do. Okay. >> Councelor Bullock. >> Yeah. Um, okay. My question here is
I'm trying to recall what happened either last year or the year before, but maybe you can shed some light on and I know um obviously I was there, but I can't remember it exactly at the moment and I was trying to dig through the agendas, but
we there was an approval whether it was in Ways and Means or at the full council, I can't member, but can you speak to what it like what the impact is of not being able to bond appropriately
and um like what that means? And I what I'm struggling with here mostly is we have a public utility um that we are very lucky to have. if
this was like, you know, we're not discussing that Verizon went down for an entire day for cell service like, you know, earlier in the month or maybe it was January. Um, you know, and we could invite them to our council meeting and they'd probably
say laugh in our face. Um, but I think that what I actually am most concerned about is the plan moving forward. Um, and what type of like process for improvement
there is. This was obviously a really exceptional situation and it seems like the vendors added to it, but I'm concerned with like as a city this is an investment that we have made in a public utility. I wish all of our utilities
were publicly owned. We you were like you are a small department. what is necessary for there to be success and for this things like this to not happen and
I think that's directly related to your ability to bond. So if you could just speak to like if you remember what happened when I believe that there was like a unanimous vote at some point and then I honestly didn't fall I don't I don't remember what happened after that.
So I don't know if you can speak to that and just share with the council what it means to not be able to bond. >> Sure. Um as far as the vote is concerned last year there was a unanim unanimous pardon me positive vote from the advisory committee but we were not put
forward to council by the mayor. That's that step is necessary because you can't vote on things that don't get put before happen. Businesses have lines of credit that they use to address fluctuations in income. Businesses have investments
moving forward so they can improve their infrastructure and offer new services. GET has none of that. And the idea that the outcome of the instability that brings means we won't vote for new ones.
I mean, I hear that and think, well, what are we working so hard for? because we work really hard to make this work in Greenfield. Everything slows down when there's no access to capital because we have to stop and figure out what we need
to do. It is the single biggest issue facing GET. You have a small group of people who have run a network that even with this outage is still at 99.99% uptime that competes successfully against some of the biggest companies in
the world. But if it continues to be starved of capital, that will no longer be true. So where that's what happened to the process last year, several years ago, a different administration came and said we just don't even ask. It just can't go
on like this. How many years has have other enterprise funds been denied capital? Is there any stretch in the imagination of either of the other two enterprise funds going six years without any capital investment? I've been here
for 10 years. I've never seen it. So if you want a public utility, you have to invest in it. Not overly, not in ways that are unsustainable. That's not at all what we are asking. We are asking
that we be seen for what we are, a business, a public business that needs investment just like other departments of the city do. The only difference is we pay it back. The city doesn't. That's my answer, counselor, about
capital. If I miss something, please let me know and I'll try to answer that portion, too. >> No, that was helpful. Thank you. >> Councelor Gordon, do you have additional question? And then I I do want to kind of >> wrap this up because um we are we are
not GAT's board, but we do have a responsibility. So, I want to make sure that we balance that and not keep them here all night. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, my question has changed 12 times, uh, while other counselors have asked questions because I've asked some of the questions that I was thinking about, which I appreciate.
Um, and I very much appreciate how challenging all of this has been and and the hard work that everyone at GET put in. Um, I was one of the people who was out of internet. My internet was down for four solid days and that was >> it's terrible, >> rough. Um, I' I've found a number of new
businesses that let me sit at their tables and buy a cup of coffee and work for a long time. Um, I think one thing, you know, we're talking about trust and, you know, I'm in precinct 2. I hear the same questions from folks saying, you know, is the
north build actually happening? You know, they keep saying it's coming. We don't really know. Um, so you know, I feel I feel that pain. >> Um, I I do think another aspect of of the trust question comes up or at least I've heard it, you know, and I've been
asked about this >> around um the accessibility of of G says like meeting minutes, meeting recording. I mean, I don't know if this is a question for you so much or you know, the the board >> um but you know, in looking for recordings and and written minutes of
meetings, they they often are not there and and obviously as a public body, it's governed by open meeting law. So, I think one question is, you know, why aren't they findable? And the second question is um can how soon can that change? So we work on the same system we
were asked to record to the cloud so it could go into the same domain as all the other um meetings that are recorded. So that then goes over to the city side. There was earlier this year several
months where they just didn't show up. I literally get them from GCTV and then put the link on our website so people can't and they just weren't there. So, they have shown up more lately. We had a meeting last night. I recorded it to the
cloud. It automatically goes over to the server in in the greenfield-m.gov. Um, uh, that is the server that it goes to and it goes from there. I don't really know the process beyond that of
how it gets to GCTV. It doesn't come back to us. We have to go back and find it. So, Um, let's use that one. I will look for it and I will see it and as soon as it's posted, I will put it up on the website.
We've actually begun using AI to transcribe them because we don't have a clerk and I cannot run the meetings and be the clerk of the meeting at the same time. So I have to wait until I can get it transcribed and then
I go through and authenticate and take out all the things that have no bearing on reality and condense it down and put it up. That's the process such as it is. So it would be great if we had a clerk. We don't we can't afford one and we don't use a city clerk because we do run
separately from the city. So, I will look and see when it goes up and I will try to follow up with you about it. Okay? If other people have questions too after, I'm always available to ask them
to answer them too. Pardon me. >> I'm going to allow one brief question from councelor Botmley and then we're going to move on. >> Thank you, President. Um, I wanted to also echo the fact that you are always available. you always have been available and I think that's really
remarkable. So I want to thank you for that and also it's incredibly complex. I learned more about make ready a year ago than I ever want to know. >> So I get and I just want to be completely honest with you. The north build is killing you. >> That's where the trust issue is
>> and that's it. I just want to be honest but I want to I really do appreciate that you will take every call. You've set up meetings with the board when the council came a year or so ago. >> Yep. >> And it is extremely complicated and difficult and I know that your team
worked really hard in this outage. >> Yeah, they did. >> And that is appreciated and that that's all I wanted to say. >> Well, thank you. I appreciate that. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. I also appreciate that you're going to connect with the city on the um Oh,
>> okay. Short. You guys are killing me. >> Just just short. Okay. So the fact that you came forward last year, you said to try to with a request for a capital expense. >> Yeah, I went through the normal capital
>> and it didn't come to the council. The mayor did not bring it to the council. Were you given a reason? >> No, >> you were given no reason whatsoever from the mayor. >> No, we had no communication about it at all. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. So I was starting to say just the public safety and connecting with
the mayor's office I think is going to be really important. >> Yes. And we will of course meet with public safety. I am constrained by law. I am not allowed to give out information about people's contact. It's called consumer proprietary network
information. It's the law. I can give it out in an active medical emergency but only to 911. I can give it out for certain kinds of subpoenas from the FBI but not others. And I can give it out if
GET gets permission from the homeowner to share that information. I've told the mayor that we will absolutely follow up and we've already made lists of how we can contact people. We can't compel them to tell us, but we will get in touch with every one of them. We will do
everything we can within the law to work with public safety. It's really difficult to only have one method of communication. So, how you deal with getting people backups who don't have that, I don't have all the
answers for that, but we'll certainly be a part of working to try to find that because people need to have more than one way to connect. >> Yeah. And that's what this outage has sort of taught us um in hindsight. But I also like I work in Amoris as I said
earlier, you know, we're on Comcast. We go down all the time. So you guys do an amazing job. So I just, you know, this was a major outage and to be out for 4 days was the big frustration. Yeah. >> Beyond beyond all >> and we know that. We hear that. >> So thank you for all of your hard work.
We appreciate you. >> Thank you. Have a good night. So, I know we are at our like break time, but I also appreciate the public who are here and we have three people signed up for public comment. So, we're going to go forward with public comment and then we'll take our break
counselors. So, thank you all for being here for public comment and being part of this conversation. So, all right. So, the first person I have um is Patty O'Neal who's online. I hope.
>> Hello. There you are. >> Hi. >> So, we just need your name and address. Thank you. >> Right. My name is Patty O'Neal and I live in precinct one. Um,
I appreciate all the gat in precinct one. Uh, and also I appreciate what's been going on with the the removal of the flat cameras and I hope that a ban on um that kind of surveillance and
facial recognition can be um made. Um, and when I was looking up some just hearing earlier about the budget that a lot of departments have already put their requests in, it's kind of frustrating
because um I was looking for some past information for several committees and many of them don't have minutes posted or videos. um the SGIC and open space task force which
I am a community member of uh public safety historical commission g um G greenfield redevelopment authority were just some that I I noticed don't have the last um
year almost posted and some committees do so I would love for there to be funding um um for to do whatever it would take to make it so that that's something that's
communicated on the website and not just kind of like left to um like find on YouTube if if that exists because it's hard to navigate there too. And then the other thing, the main thing I wanted to talk about was um that
um I hope that there can be funding for DPW because um the new chapters that were just updated um for the for land use and the um cultural um and
was it I always forget heritage um and historical cultural resources. Um, a lot of that calls for asking DPW to um provide more training for their staff um to um maintain uh native plant species on
municipal land and lowmaintenance designs for the Green River swimming area and to train them on green infrastructure maintenance. And like this is DPW is like maybe the only
committee that is charged with uh like the stewardship of Greenfield and and this is like the implementation um part of it and feel like so often there's um a lot of like you know there was so much
time spent by the Conway school to develop up these updates and by Furcog with their development of the pollinator um corridor implementation. toolkit, but I think that DPW is just so like underfunded perhaps that like it's it's
hard to even support them as a volunteer um within the Open Space Task Force because they're just too busy um to even like have these conversations. At least that's been the case so far. Um
>> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. It's always awkward when you're online to hear the alarm, so I apologize. Um, I have Ahmad Estafani. Thank you. Um, good evening. My name is Ahmad Esani. I
live at 44 East Cleveland Street. Uh, I'm here tonight to respectfully urge the Greenfield City Council to consider adopting a resolution like the one recently passed by the town of Ammerst on February 23rd regarding federal immigration enforcement and
accountability. This resolution calls on Massachusetts and local officials to investigate and prosecute federal immigration agents when they commit crimes under Massachusetts law and and urges the Commonwealth to end cooperation agreements with ICE that may
lead to violations of state statutes. The core principle is simple but fundamental. No one is above the law. Federal agents, like anyone else, should be subject to criminal jurisdiction when they violate state laws, including laws
against assault, unlawful detention, constitutional rights violations, or kidnapping. Therefore, I kindly ask the council to examine the amorous resolution's language and rationale, which I have if you'd like to have it. Consider a
similar resolution for the city of Greenfield and send a strong message to Massachusetts leaders that communities across the Commonwealth value safety, rights, and equal accountability for every person. Thank you. >> Thank you,
Pamela Goodwin. Good evening, counselors. It's our monthly time together, is it not? Pamela Goodwin, 54 High Street. Um, I want to start by thanking Councelor Wahab. He had um a group of
people get together and asked for input uh as a counselor at large. It was a super fun meeting and uh he asked us to problem solve and not to complain. So he set the lay of a land which is what I heard him doing from a hotel room
tonight. I urge everybody to go and show up and be heard whether you won or lost your referendum or whatever the situation. And I just really highly admire that counselor. I am a commissioner at GEIT. The mayor
asked me to serve the city in that way in um January 1st of 2023. As you heard tonight, it is extremely complicated, very technical business. And when I was
at ANO, I was told um you know, gee, we want business people. We need people who are technical. We need people. And I thought, well, you got me. So, it has been a learning process for me. And before I run out of time, I want to tell
counselor Gordon and everyone else when I came on board, it said click here for the minutes. And there was no here to go. So, the minutes are there, the videos are there, and if there's not a video, then we might have had a
technical problem, and we did that at least once or twice. You have to kind of fish around and find that area. But I will tell you that I was looking for GEIT videos. Even though I sat there live and in person, I was like, why can I not find this? It needs
to go back to city hall because as you heard John explain, it goes up to the cloud and Jonathan, who is now over there for communication director, um is the one that has to send it from the cloud over to public TV. And at one
point I went to Bella and I said, I cannot find this stuff. What where to go? We didn't have a problem of technicality. and out came all of these links from city hall over to her while I'm sitting there and she has to click
on every link to figure out what's it to which of the meetings. So I would suggest that if you can't find a recent meeting and actually last night was pretty recent. So I'm going to give a little time for city hall to get that sent where it needs to be. But I always
encourage everybody to go and watch these meetings, including people where I live. Um, I have to put on these glasses. Hold on. I will say there was a recent I think capital improvement committee. I just
can't keep up with all these meetings that I need to sit through and um is my understanding that it was denied. So when it comes out that the mayor doesn't put things forward, there's a problem. So if you get denied
the bond and you get denied capital improvement and you get denied any kind of funding, you've heard enough tonight from John Lunt to say that we kind of hope at some point >> there would be stuff. Thank you. >> Thanks, Pam.
>> All right. Thank you everybody. Thank you for the public comment. Um, much appreciated. I think we're all getting a little tired, so let's go for a 10-minut break and we'll be back. Hey We're back. And for those who are
leaving, close the door please so that we can hear ourselves. >> Okay, we're flying solo now without Kathy in the room. All right. So, our our first order of business um
is to suspend the rules of procedure which is on page 18. Can I have a counselor read that please? >> I can read that. >> Thank you so much. Uh, this is order number fiscal year
26-067. The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council wave the rules of procedure. Chapter 565, rule 8, order and disposition of business. Subsection E, measures once rejected to allow the same measure to be
presented the city council and rule six, orders of motions. Subsection B, reconsideration to allow council to revisit a previous vote taken at the December 17th, 2025 regularly scheduled city council meeting. Twothirds majority
vote required. >> Second. >> Sorry, we were we were conferring and so uh we will need to take a roll call now. That does anybody have any discussion? No. Seeing none, we will move forward with a vote. Thank you.
>> Councelor Golib, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bullock, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, Councelor Bulldock, >> yes. >> Councelor Webb, >> yes.
>> Council Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes. Councelor Minhos did not return back to the meeting. Councelor Cibels, >> yes. >> And the Does the president wish to vote? >> Yes. And yes.
>> The motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. So, next we're going to amend zoning ordinance um 200-56. So, that is Vice President Garrett. Order number FY26-061.1
that the Greenfield the city council moved to be ordered that the city council of Greenfield amend the zoning ordinance chapter 200 section 200-56 accessory dwelling units to add language and bold and remove language and strike through as required revisions under the affordable homes act signed by Governor Mora Healey relative to accessory
dwelling units 760 CMR 71 or 71 sorry to read as follows in attached exhibit A and further amends the table of contexts and index the code and further non-substantial change the numbering of the ordinance be permitted in order that it be in compliance numbering format of the code of the city of Greenfield majority vote required.
>> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Anything from the committee, please? >> Yep. Um, so this is a revisiting of a vote that failed in December under the affordable homes act and we had a
discussion about it at economic development that lasted I think a grand total of 12 minutes and 11 was it 11 and it was really you know and everybody had a chance to speak. It was a robust discussion for the short amount of time but in the end the conclusion of the
committee was a positive unanimous recommendation. This is something that we frankly need to get done. Um I'm happy to answer any questions from counselors about the specifics of it, but the details are less important than that's required by state law. So
>> any questions or discussion, counselors? >> All right, let's move to a vote, please. >> Councelor Golib, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Botmley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bullock, >> yes. Councelor Williams,
>> yes. >> Councelor Bulldock, >> yes. >> Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes. >> Councelor Ciban, >> yes. >> Does the president wish to vote?
>> Yes. And yes. >> The motion passes unanimously. >> All right. Um, now we're on to mayor's appointments and we have councelor Golo. Order number fiscal year 26068. The city council moved that it be
ordered that the Greenfield City Council, pursuant to charter section 210, affirms the following appointments by the mayor. All terms to expire December 31st, 2029 unless otherwise posted. Greenfield Local Cultural
Council Edin Donnelly Mouse, Human Rights Commission, Angela Campbell, Anthia Martin. Majority vote required. >> Second. >> And these received a positive unanimous recommendation from the subcommittee
>> with gratitude. >> Excuse me. >> Um, did the ano make a favorable recommendation? I wasn't. >> It's okay. Yes. >> I just didn't catch that. >> That's fair. I apologize for this sidebar. Um, any
discussion or comments. >> Great. Let's move it to a vote, please. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Very enthusiastic. Yes. Yes.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. And yes. >> Great. And I just want to thank the folks who are stepping up and serving. I know at least one is in the audience
tonight. So, thanks for being here. If it is okay with folks, I'd like to um without objection, uh this order will be considered after all the other agenda items have sorry.
Without objection, I'd like to ask the council to move the executive session up to right now so that we can allow the um guests to go home and then we can continue with our business if that is okay. So, this order will be considered.
>> Yes. Um so, you're going to this will state I'm assuming conven >> okay so the Greenfield city council will enter into executive session reason
number four to discuss strategy andor deployment of security personnel or devices and open session will have a detrimental effect and further details would compromise the reason for going into executive session and then
We will reconvene after >> after the executive session. Well, can I ask for someone to read the motion which is on page 85 of the packet can do it. I got it up. Um, order number
FY26- uh 080. The city council moved that be ordered that the Greenfield City Council votes enter the executive session for reason four pursuant to Massachusetts general law chapter 3A section 21 uh four to discuss tragedy and or deployment of
security personnel or devices and open session would have a detrimental effect and further details would compromise the reason for going into executive session. Roll call. Majority vote required. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? I I know this is new for
all the new counselors. Um so there's a process for these things to happen basically and this is the process. All right, we have to take a roll call now. >> Councelor Golib, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon,
>> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bullock, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Baldick, >> yes. Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes. >> Councelor Garrett,
>> yes. >> Councelor Winhos is not here. Councelor Cisell, >> yes. >> Does the president wish to vote? >> Yes. And yes. >> Okay. The motion is unanimously voted.
It is 9:20 p.m. >> Yes. So, roll called out to executive session at 9:20 p.m. >> and we will reconvene after we're done with the executive session. So, um, GET will say that we're at a break and we're
going to go in another room and then councelor Bullock um, >> recording stopped. >> We will call you separately. >> Thank you. >> And thank you to the public who are here and hang out for a little bit. I don't have any snacks.
evening. It's 10:15 and we are back in regular session. Thank you to the public who is tuning back in and councelor Bullock is back with us. So we are ready to go through rapid fire
um a whole bunch of ordinances. So councelor Golo, >> are you ready? We're starting on page 37, which is >> amending the city of Greenfield code with hybrid meetings.
>> Page 20 >> 37. >> I Okay. I think we are working on different or different not ordinances. We're working on the same ordinance but different pages. So in my if people don't find it on that page, I'm finding
it on page 28. So I think it depends on which version you have. Um either way, it is order number fiscal year 26070. The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council amends the code of the city of
Greenfield as written in the striketh through attached here to chapter 49 meetings article 3 hybrid meetings and further amends the index of contexts of the code and further that non-substantive changes to the numbering of the ordinance be permitted in order
that it be in compliance with the numbering format of the code of the city of Greenfield. Majority vote required. >> Second. This received a unanimous positive recommendation from uh the appointments and ordinances
committee. These are some updates um to support the implementation of the hybrid meetings ordinance which we passed about a year ago. That's what this is. And counselors, any questions?
I just have one question because I I think there was something about the appropriation in there and that being pulled out and just wanted to understand that because I I know with having translation services like that's important. >> Yeah.
>> And expensive. >> Yeah. Um, I'm trying to find the clause on Does anyone Can somebody direct me to the clause on interpretation? >> Which interpretation? >> Um,
>> can I ask what you're looking for, Catherine? >> Yeah, I'm looking for the clause on interpretation being available. interpretation available. >> Okay. Right. I got it. So, um,
so I'm not sure how to handle this because I think that that there there's a strike through that not all the Yeah, go ahead. >> Correct me if I'm wrong. Other members of ANO, but I think if the question is why was that specific piece taken out?
Well, >> it was because everything is subject to appropriation and so we decided that it wasn't necessary. In fact, it was a little strange to include it specifically in this ordinance when like that everything it's a blanket statement
that everything is subject to appropriation. >> Yeah. So, that's a direct answer to your question. So, it's implicit in in all the ordinances, but all of our ordinances don't say subject to appropriation. Then you asked about translation and I found
three. Um you okay because you had referenced translation. Okay, that clause has been edited >> as well. >> Do we know if there's any funds within the budget for translation because Okay.
>> Not currently. Um but what we wanted this to still be we still wanted something about translation to be included even though the aim of this ordinance is to um increase meeting
access by making all meetings hybrid and the aim is not just the interpretation. We felt that it was important to include language um include this clause on language interpretation um
even though there's not funding I think that if a it it helps if a board or committee chair if someone is in the audience what I've translated for people before into Spanish and that's not cost anything and that was when Rudy Ronald
was the council president and she was supportive, but if we didn't have a supportive board or committee chair having this in the law, I think and in the um also the the language that we created, Kathy and I created to then
include in uh in agendas for boards and councils, I think still supports people to receive translation support that is available. And I would ideally like funding, but unfortunately that's not okay. nothing right now.
The other I guess follow-up question I have I and and this is just for I guess all of us in general because um I think sometimes the challenge for this ordinance is like the last minute snowstorm and you want to go all
online and I know it says inclement weather but um or the building isn't available so like h >> Yeah. So, in fact, while we were discussing this, it was uncanny. While we were discussing this at the subcommittee, GET went down for like
five minutes and we were like, "Oh, what do we do?" So, we read um the FG clause. Um, I'm not going to read the whole thing in its entirety right now, but the intent of this, when we worked on this
with the ACLU and we worked with the city to pass this, um, the intent of this is to not to allow a meeting to go forward in that emergency situation and we we said that was an emergency situation and I spoke with I know that the school
committee decided to stop the meeting when that happened. Um, and I since then have spoken with uh chair text in about how we interpreted it at email. >> Okay. I I think that's just important for us all that we have the interpretation that we can go forward
and not get hampered by this which is really important that we have the hybrid. So I don't I'm not at all questioning that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We don't want all meetings to have to stop just because the internet goes down, >> right? or you know whatever the building
isn't available at the last minute because the fire station had a emergency. Uh councelor Bley. >> Yeah, sorry. And I this it's late and so I'm not this may be in here. My concern about these is just that the meetings are recorded. That was something that
came up with the well I was thinking about in the school committee meeting because I was watching and it went down and I could see a meeting going forward but it's kind of problematic if there isn't some recording like when I before the hybrid stuff was mandated we used to
have a little recorder for every subcommittee meeting. So I don't know it's just something Yes. So, so that somehow there's a backup. If it goes down, the meeting could go forward, but there's some sort of recorded documentation.
That's the only thing that concerns me. >> I mean, I think I think that that would in I think it's a really good point and I think that if it's something you'd want to work on, I I would totally support that. I think it would require
more conversations to make sure that the equipment and the process is set up. Um, and I don't want to stop these, but going forward, um, but I I agree. It took about a year of conversations
with the city to put this forward and have it passed at the beginning and we didn't like the recording is a whole another ball, but I if you want to catch it, I I'd support you. Yeah. So, it sounds like we don't have a
friendly amendment because that would be like crafting it right on the spot, which might not be a good idea. So, anybody have any other questions or do you want to move to a vote? Fantastic. Let's vote on this.
>> Councelor Gool, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bullock, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Baldick, >> yes. Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes.
>> Councelor Vice President Garrett, >> yes. >> Councelor Cibson, >> yes. >> Does the president wish to vote? >> Yes. And yes. >> Motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. Back in your court. >> Order number fiscal year 26071.
and the city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council amend the code of the city of Greenfield as written in the strike through attached here to chapter 58 precinct meetings and further amends the index of the code and further that non-substantive changes to the numbering
of the ordinance be permitted in order that it be in compliance with the numbering format of the code of the city of Greenfield majority vote with prior >> second >> so this received a positive unanimous recommendation as well and I think it's a
the the community relations committee did a ton of work on this and I think it's a really great example of the collaboration that's possible between the community relations and ANO committees. Um, we've had this uh
precinct meeting ordinance for a while, but it was very weighty and not being enforced. And the work that you all did, I'm hoping will support um support regular precinct meetings. So, there'll
be more communication with the community. Thank you very much for all the work you all did on that. >> Thank you. I guess I'll just comment having shared um community relations. So we really wanted to remove some of the barriers
and really think about how we could make sure we had regular precinct meetings happening and have them be inclusive. But also I think the number of people that was on the list that had to come was also going to become unwieldy. So,
you know, councelor Williams worked on this a a lot. Council Brown, so it was a good discussion and collaboration and also just getting public input into so I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has any comments. Councelor
Garrett, >> just a clarifying question on section uh 585 where it mentions after the strike through any relevant city department members, the superintendent of schools are design. Does that mean the superintendent of schools has to be at every precinct meeting or only if
they're relevant? Like does that's what I'm I'm just trying to parse this because it's late and I just want to make sure I understand it. >> Council Brown, >> I think there is required to have representation from the school, but it can be the designate. >> Okay. So, the schools have to be there,
but it doesn't have to be a specific person from the schools. Got it. Thank you. >> Correct. We felt like and even from having them at the meeting that schools are such a important part of the fabric of every single one of our precincts and for them to hear from constituents in
the precinct I think is is really valuable. All right, if I don't see any other questions, let's go ahead for a vote. >> Councelor Goolum, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bullock,
>> yes. Council Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Baldick, >> yes. >> Council Webb, >> yes. >> Council Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes. >> Councelor Subson, >> yes. >> Excuse me. >> President Wandowski, >> yes. Yes. >> The motion passes unanimously.
>> All right. Recreation >> order number fiscal year 2672. The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council amend the code of the city of Greenfield as written in the striketh through attached here to chapter 173 recreation
commission and further amends the table of the con table of contents and the index of the code and further that non-substantive changes to the numbering of the ordinance be permitted in order that it be compliance with the numbering format of the code of the city of Greenfield. Majority vote required.
>> Second. >> Okay. And this uh was um changes to the ordinance on recreation commission. These were brought forward by um uh
department head uh more um and yeah, it's part of our ordinance review. Any questions or comments? All right, we're ready to vote. Councelor Golden.
>> Yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bulock, >> yes. >> Council Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Baldick, >> yes. >> Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Council Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes. >> Councelor Cen,
>> yes. >> Does the president wish to vote? >> Yes. And yes. >> Motion passes unanimously. >> All right. On to vacancies. >> Okay. Order number fiscal year 26069. The city council moved that it be
ordered that the Greenfield City Council amends the code of the city of Greenfield by adding chapter 191 vacancies and appointed offices ordinance as attached here to and further amends the table and index of contents of the code and further that
not substantive changes to the numbering of the ordinance be permitted in order that it be compliance with the numbering format of the code at the city of Greenfield. Majority vote required. >> Second. Okay. And this was drafted initially.
Thank you so much, uh, Clerk Scott, um, for drafting this. And then the, um, committee worked on it a bit. Um, and again, a good example of us all working together. And this was a request from some committees that weren't able to
meet because they weren't reaching quorum because uh, appointed members were not showing up to meetings. So this is a response to that challenge. >> Any questions or comments? >> All right, we can move to a vote then.
>> Councelor Goolan, >> order. Oh, yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bullock, >> yes. >> Council Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Baldick, >> yes. Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown,
>> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes. >> It's not coming out of my mouth. Councelor Shibson. >> Yes. >> Does the president wish to vote? >> Yes. Yes. >> Motion passes unanimously. >> Alcoholic beverages that will be
purchased by councelor Bullock for making us do roll call >> at the next meeting. >> All right. Order number fiscal year 26073. The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council
amend the code of the city of Greenfield as written in the striketh through attached here to chapter 209 alcoholic beverages article one public consumption section one city controlled property and further amends the index of the code and further that not substantive changes to the numbering of the ordinance be
permitted in order that be compliance with the numbering format of the code of the city of Greenfield. Majority vote required. second. >> And this also came from the recreation commission um from department head more and um
small change. What's in red? >> Questions, comments? Let's vote. >> Councelor Goolum, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bulock, >> yes. Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Baldick, >> yes.
>> Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes. >> Councelor Ciban Alves, >> yes. >> President Wandelowski, >> yes. And yes. >> Motion passes unanimously.
>> All right. So to continue on, we are past our curfew, >> but do we have guardians? I'm not sure. So, let's read it. It's order number fiscal year 26074. The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council
amend the code of the city of Greenfield as written in the strikethrough attached here to chapter 235 curfew section 3 definitions and further amends the index of the code and further that non-substantive changes to the numbering of the ordinance be permitted in order that it be in compliance with the
numbering format of the code of the city of Greenfield. Majority vote required. Second >> and this is adding or guardian. >> Seems like a major change. Anybody want to talk about it? All right, let's vote on it. >> Councelor Goolib,
>> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bullock, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Bulldock, >> yes. >> Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes.
Councelor Cibson. >> Yes. >> President Wowski. >> Yes. And yes. >> Motion passes unanimously. >> All right. Next one. >> Order number fiscal year 26075. The city council moved that it be
ordered that the Greenfield City Council amend the code of the city of Greenfield as written in the striketh through attached here to chapter 265 farming section 4 disclosure notification and further amends the table of contents and
the index of the code and further that non-substantive changes to the numbering of the ordinance be permitted in order that it be in compliance with the numbering format of the code of the city of Greenfield. Majority vote required. second. >> And this is striking through a clause
that had not been enforced in an incredibly long time. May have been passed, I don't know, before the internet. I don't know when it was passed, but um it had required the city to send a copy of this ordinance to all
city residents. And then I asked, how about we post it? And then that was going to be really hard to do. So people question their right to farming in Greenfield, which they do have, they can look it up online and find it there. >> I don't see any questions or comments,
so we can vote. >> Councelor Gool, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bulock, >> yes. >> Councelor Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Baldick, >> yes. >> Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes.
>> Councelor Ciban, >> yes. President Wandowski. >> Yes. And yes. >> Motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Order number fiscal year 26079. The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council
take from the table order number fiscal year 25107 to accept Massachusetts general law chapter 44 municipal finance section 32 submission of city budget to city council procedure for approval rejection
or alteration attached as exhibit A which was tabled at the June 18th 2025 city council meeting majority vote required. >> Second. >> This doesn't get a does taking from the
table. Does this get a discussion? >> Good to go. >> Yep. So, let's vote on the taking from the table. >> Councelor Golib to take from the table. >> Yes. >> Councelor Gordon. Yes. >> Councelor Bottomley. >> Yes. >> Councelor Bullock. >> Yes.
>> Councelor Williams. >> Yes. >> Councelor Baldick. >> Yes. >> Councelor Webb. >> Yes. >> Councelor Brown. >> Yes. >> Vice President Garrett. >> Yes. >> Councelor Civan. >> Yes. >> President Walowski. >> Yes. And yes. >> The motion passes unanimously.
>> Great. >> On the table. >> Okay. >> Don't need someone to make the motion because it is already on the table. >> Okay. Well, I will share the report from committee is that this received a positive unanimous recommendation. And
what this is is that our charter states that we have the ability to if the school committee asks us to and the funds are available within the levy limit, tax levy limit limit to um appropriate.
City Council can only cut from all the lines except for in the case of a request and the availability of funds to appropriate funds to the school committee. There has been an argument when we have either used or planned to use this
clause that somehow we did not officially accept. Um we didn't ratify this part this this clause. Um, we did use it in 2023 and it the challenge did not stand from
the then mayor last year. We were hoping to use it. Um, and then the mayor again uh asked the the council um their lawyer if her lawyer if she if we could use it and the question was did they actually officially accept it. So this is just
making abundantly clear that yes, we do uh we do uh approve of we do accept we do take on the responsibility of being able to appropriate funds to our schools. >> Any discussion? Councelor Bley,
>> I just have a question because this came up before. I mean, I'm obviously in support of this for just for clarity, >> but I mean, it seems so strange that we would have to adopt state law. And it can anyone think of another instance
that we had to adopt state law? I would just like to know if someone can >> the ADU ordinance. The ADU ordinance we just voted on is a good example, right? So like we had to vote on the ADU piece and even though state law trumps local law and any developer could have come in and followed state law, we still
officially adopted it here. >> So it is ridiculous. >> But you don't you don't think it's a good met analogy? No. >> No. >> I mean I I don't actually think that it's exactly the same because this is a weird thing where councils can also vote not to. >> Yeah. >> They can vote not to give themselves the
right to make this kind of appropriation. So, I think that you're right that it's just weird. I'm not sure. I mean, so I think also for those who weren't here or anyone who might be listening, the thing is that in state law, this thing where councils could vote yes or no to give themselves the
power to appropriate money to the schools. I don't know what year that happened, but it preceded Greenfield be writing its own charter and becoming a city. In our charter, it says that we can do that,
which some legal opinions say means that we had essentially adopted this law and that we can do that. Other legal opinions say, but your council never specifically voted on it. So, even though your charter says that you can do it, you still didn't specifically vote
on it, so we can question the legality. So, what we're doing here is specifically voting on that piece of legislation to definitely give ourselves the right that we believe we already have under our charter and that lawyers have backed us up as having under our charter,
but it's weird. >> Yeah. Okay. >> It's a good that that was the perfect explanation because it preeded when we chartered ourselves and so whether or not it was grandfathered in. Um, councelor Bullock, you've got your hand up.
Yeah, I didn't know if you wanted a report from committee because we discussed this obviously at Ways and Means last night. Um, which it received a unanimous positive as well. But yeah, that's there's nothing in the there's nothing
about this that says we have to do what we're doing here. We're doing this because this has come up twice in four years where the city council has attempted to make a decision um or made a decision to increase the school budget
and this piece has been called into question. And so um and what has come up as the question is that we have not accepted this as a state law even though it's almost exactly the same word for word in our
charter. So, we're just doing the things so we don't have to spend more money on another legal opinion if we have to do this process again. >> All right. So, I think there's no other discussion. Um, can we then um vote on
the motion? >> Councelor Goolum, >> yes. >> Councelor Gordon, >> yes. >> Councelor Bottomley, >> yes. >> Councelor Bulock, >> yes. >> Council Williams, >> yes. >> Councelor Bulldock, >> yes. Councelor Mass. Sorry, where the heck did that come back
from? >> The ghost. >> Councelor Webb, >> yes. >> Councelor Brown, >> yes. >> Vice President Garrett, >> yes. >> Councelor Cisan, >> yes. >> And councelor Wanowski, >> yes. And yes,
>> I think you were being called Master Toro. Counselor Mass. >> Maybe. Don't know. >> Okay. >> Uh, great. We already did executive session, so we are um nearing the end.
We do not have petitions or similar papers, no reports of committees, no unfinished business, um, no old business. Uh, and then new business. Um, we've got first reading and this looks like things that have to
do with money. >> That's me. Um, this is to approve a payment. It's FY226-078. The city council upon recommendation of mayor disorder moved that it be ordered
to approve the payment of two prior year invoices for FY2025 dated 61125 and 61825 respectively for CBS Xerox totaling $764 to be paid from FY26 central services
copy machines account number 01000190.5274 four. >> Um, this was a >> Do we have a second? >> Oh, sorry. >> Oh, no, we don't have to. >> It's just >> Oh, yeah. It's just a first reading. >> So, we can keep moving. Great. Sorry.
Um, all right. And then, uh, under new business, we have um councelor appointments. Uh, so, councelor Webb is being appointed to sustainable green field implementation committee. Um, I am going to the Greenfield Business
Association. Councelor Bulock will be joining the Fire Station Building Committee and Councelor Gordon will be joining the mayor's task force against domestic and sexual violence. So, thank you to everybody for your willingness to take on another committee onto your busy
schedules. it's super appreciated and that I didn't have to volunteer vacancy. So, there is a press release that's in the packet, but just wanted for the public to to know that if you're interested in in serving and stepping
up, we would love to have you. you should submit a letter of interest and maybe even a resume. Um, and that we're hoping to have those by the end of March on March 27th. So that then that can go
to the committee chairs, we'll ask you to come to the committee chairs meeting if you so desire. Um, and then at committee chairs, we'll make that decision so that the person can be seated in April. So that is the process for anybody wanting to do that. And then
the last thing we are still accepting letters of interest um if anybody wants to be parliamentarian and be our referee here during meetings. So please call me if you're interested in doing
that job. We the parliamentarian looks at the Robert's rules of order and if there's any a question about how we're doing our process, they step in and say, "Wait, your motion to recommit wasn't done right."
That sort of thing. And I think the key thing is you have to like not have an opinion of what's happening so that you're not swaying the discussion in in one way or another. But I I bet you you know some people, councelor Boulder. Okay,
sounds fantastic. Um all right, so I think we can um take a motion to adjourn. >> Has to be by roll call vote. >> Okay, so Councelor Williams and someone seconded over on that side. >> Third, fourth. >> Okay. All right. Let's vote on this,
please. >> Councelor Golib, >> yes. Yes. Councelor Gordon. >> Yes. >> Council Bottomley. >> Yes. >> Councelor Bulock. >> Yes. >> Councelor Williams. >> Yes. >> Councelor Bulldock. >> Yes. >> Councelor Webb. >> Yes. >> Councelor Brown. >> Yes. >> Vice President Garrett. >> Yes. >> Councelor Cibson.
>> Yes. >> President Wandowski. >> Yes. >> The meeting is adjourned. >> 10:47. We are adjourned. Thank you all.