Heat. Heat. All right. Okay, we good. Good evening. I am calling to order the Greenfield City Council meeting. Today is May something uh May 21st. We were just here a week
ago, two weeks ago, and it's 6:32 p.m. So, thank you all for showing up. We really appreciate having a robust, uh, public debate, and it's great to have a full room once again this week. So, um,
our first order of business, um, this meeting is being recorded by the city council and DCTV9. If any other persons present are doing the same, you must notify the chairperson at this time.
Who is Anthony? Fantastic. All right, we ready for a roll call of members? Everybody feel good? Oh, we're here for a different meeting than I thought we were here for. There's cookies. All right. Councelor Goolum here.
Councelor Gordon here. Councelor Master Tataro here. Councelor Bottomley here. Councelor Bullock here. Councelor Perry here. Councelor Healey here. Councelor Brown here.
Vice President Garrett present. Council Minhos here. Council Toronto here. President Wandowski here. You have a quorum. Excellent. All right. So, next we're going to do the pledge of allegiance. Um,
so 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. Uh, Madame President, if I may. Yes. Um,
I'd like to make a motion to suspend to suspend the rules um of procedure. If we could second. My rationale is if we could vote on the city budget after public comment,
I think we'd be uh good for the the folks that are here so they don't have to wait till late tonight. If if it takes that long to get there and possibly have to come back tomorrow, I think just for the sake of
those in the gallery if that if you would consider that. Um, I also know that folks are here for the opioid resolution. So, could we do the opioid and then um the budget, which I would be totally amendable to.
And I I if anybody else wants to comment um please uh councelor Torono I I uh would concur that I think unfortunately with the timing but uh I think the budget being the most pressing uh issue I would agree
that that if we can do that first that would be better. um and the other the other uh items further down on the um second readings and and whatnot and other motions
um be after that. That would be my that'd be my vote. Uh councelor Bulock. Um, I do agree that the budget is pressing and I don't want to make the public stay here longer and um, the
opioid resolution is something that's been worked on for over a year and has been bumped off of the agenda for multiple months and I know that there has been multiple meetings that the community has showed up for and there was an organized effort for people to come speak on behalf of it tonight. Um,
so although under normal circumstances I would actually I would agree 100% with you to take the budget first. Um, I think that uh I just think that we should take the both of those things and then move the
agenda. So I will suspend the rules. I'll take the um the ordinance first and then and then I want to take the budget right after that. And so we'll need a vote to suspend the rules. Um and we can just do a show of hands.
So all in favor? Any abstain? Any opposed? Okay. The rules are suspended for order. Thank you. All right. So the the um next thing
quickly is the uh minutes. So we need to approve. I'll take a motion for that. So moved. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay.
Passes. All right. So, um, next thing on our agenda is communications from the superintendent. So what we essentially just moved in our motions and orders was that uh Roman numeral 2 will be
first and then Roman numeral 7 will be second. Are we moving 8, nine, 10 and 11 as they are part of the budget as well and then moving all the others one, three, four, five and six after
those? It was kind of unclear as to the initial motion that was made to suspend the rules to move that first and then there was like a change in the discussion. So, it didn't really sound like a a real uh change was made.
I think my understanding was that we would we would hear from the folks who showed up to be here um and then take public comment and then and then go to the opioid amendment and then to the budget.
Right. Well, what I mean is that what I'm what I'm trying to clarify is what order we're doing this. We already I don't think correct me if I'm wrong council master he wasn't asking for the the budget to be talked about before any of the communications from the
superintendent the school the mayor um the DPW director anything like that he he was saying after public comment happens so which would be part eight we move to part nine which would be next public hearing so are
we I just I'm just trying to figure out what order we're doing this in um to to figure out which which thing we're addressing when because it didn't really seem to make sense. Can I try to clarify? So, the motion to wave the rules taking
things out of order. Yeah, he said public comment. However, the public hearing has to be announced and the second reading has to be held before the operating budget can
be considered. Sure. If everyone is amendable after the public hearing and the second reading is held, the first motion order or resolution would be the opioid um ordinance. Mhm.
Then again, if it's acceptable, we'll move down to the FY26 operating budget, which includes five orders. Right. Then we'll go back to what is listed on the agenda as item
number one, the mayor's appointments. Yep. And work down the agenda from there. Cool. I just wanted to make that clear that if people were following that where we're going, that makes sense. Thank you. All right, I think we got our ducks in
the row. Good evening. Um, a couple of announcements. The Greenfield Public Schools was officially granted state designation for an innovation career pathway in advanced manufacturing by Desi. Um, this designation reflects our
district's commitment to expanding opportunities for students and preparing them for success in high demand industries. The ICP will provide students with hands-on learning, technical and employability, skill development, and exposure to career and college pathways. Uh, we won't know the
grant total amount in funding for the until the next couple of weeks when Desi releases those, but we're very excited about this alternative pathway for our high school students. Our Greenfield High School graduation will be Saturday, May 31st at 10:00 a.m.
at the auditorium. It is a ticketed event, but we cordially invite any city counselor who would like to celebrate our 88 seniors who are graduating this year. So, you please can let me know and you are more than welcome to attend. And then I would just ask the city
council to show support to the schools by voting yes tonight to approve the $350,000 funding toward our budget. The schools are using reserve funds to fund our budget, but our concern, like the mayors, is in having reserves available
for FY27 and beyond. Preserving savings to support the needs of students in the coming years is pivotal. Our students deserve to have the support of the city in which they live and learn. And by voting yes tonight, you are illustrating
to our students, our families, and our staff that they matter. Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations to all of the graduates. Very exciting. Um, questions for the superintendent. Oh, I have something to to add. Sorry. I just
wanted to read to you a resolution that was passed by the Greenfield School Committee on May 13th. Uh following up on the superintendent's comments, whereas the school committee has already committed to using $2,189,143 in revolving funds and now
requires an additional $765,477 in reserves totaling 70% of the June 30th, 2025 projected reserve balance to preserve staffing and services. And whereas the city and the schools have a shared commitment to maintaining educational
services. And whereas the city has available levy capacity, the Greenfield School Committee hereby requests that the Greenfield City Council and the mayor work together to add $350,000 to the school committee budget
rather than reducing our funding by $254 from fiscal year 2025. Any questions? Uh, Council Master Tutoro, I I have a question after I re
read this if uh if that's okay. Um, this is an email from Carol Collins. Uh, hello all. Please find attached the site report from breakaway energy services on the HVAC control review at
the high school. During the site visit on 429, it was discovered that the building management system BMS was overridden and operating as if the building were occupied 24/7 since around January of 2024. With Mike's assistance,
I think that's referring to Mike Budro. Uh Kaj and Nick from uh Seammens were able to get the large majority of settings restored, although several more issues need to be resolved as listed in the report. The sustained dramatic
energy increase since early 2024 is on track to result in over 50% increase in FY25 and gas and electricity consumption that will cost an additional $150,000 over historical use. This is a
top priority to work together to fully resolve the implement implementing an effective plan moving forward. We need to expand Sim Simmons time allowance to complete further system review and resolve identified issues in addition to
performing uh quarterly visits aimed to ensuring system performance and maintaining occupant comfort. In addition, mechanical work needed to be identified equipment fully functional ER-38 replenish glycol and bleed HW
systems etc. It is also a priority to get the AHU1 N2 operation operational again. I look forward to discussing and completing this work as soon as possible. I guess my question is is that
$150,000 is paid by the city side. Um I uh my first question is who is Mike Budro? Is he the facilities director? He is. Um so how is that going to get resolved?
I mean again not to put the cart before the horse the f the school committee is asking for $350,000. the score the the city is already on the hook for $150,000 because
somebody made a huge mistake and I got to say that I was the facilities director of a a 200,000 square foot assisted living facility and if something like this
happened I would have lost my job and um So, how is this going to moving forward? How is how is this going to be handled? I guess uh Carol Collins, Mike Budro, myself and the assistant superintendent met today.
Um this issue goes back prior to Mike Bedro being the facilities director. So pointing the finger at him is inaccurate. and they had a BMS uh that Kai I don't know his last name came and did a site visit and they coordinated
with Carol today for Seammens and Kai to come back because it is more complicated than someone just hit the wrong button. Um, I wasn't actually expecting to address this this evening and didn't bring all of that documentation, but can certainly follow up with council at a
later date, but we are obviously working with the city to uh figure out these issues and to resolve them together. I mean, that's a huge number and the city's on the hook for that. And that
doesn't that doesn't uh just happen those have to be taken those settings have to be uh manually changed. So um I think it's important that that gets
fixed. And um again, money. We're talking about money tonight. And this is this is a huge oversight. Can I I'd like to put this on the to talk about it next month. um just to give you all time to respond because
it sounds like it's a a newer issue and uh want to make sure that you have the information you need to answer our questions. That makes sense. Um councelor Healey. Yeah. I I just have a question that kind of relates to that, but it's going to be directed towards
you guys. Um you're not in charge of monitoring the energy usage of your buildings in Greenfield, are you? No. There's a Department of Energy here. No. Like, so you're not in charge of that. The
school's not in charge of that, just to be clear. Correct. Thank you, C. Councelor Toronto. I get I get where that's going. Um, but whether or not this happened while this when this person started or
before, is it not the responsibility of having a supervisor of maintenance for your buildings to monitor things like that? We've always worked with the city. When George Vanderinder was in the position, he monitored most of these systems and
had firsthand knowledge and worked with our department. But we have had transitions as is you had had transitions and people are working with Carol Collins now to figure out what is exactly going on. It is not a simple system that is installed in the high
school. It is not as simple as a manual. Many of it is automated and we are working to address the issues. Again, we had the first meeting today to talk about what the uh inspector found. Mike Budro has a
meeting with that same BMS system this week and we have coordinated with Seammens to come on site. Um, we thought originally it was the auditorium and the lights and AC in there, but it seems to be a bigger issue because the spikes
that Carol alluded to today are in July and August. So, when there's no one using that, we're trying to figure out what actually is happening in that building. But we are on the case, so to speak, and trying to get to the bottom of it. Councelor Gordon, this just reminds me
of a, if I remember correctly, a similar issue uh with the fire station um and sort of unexplained energy usage there. So I wonder if uh in a couple you know we could ask for reports back on that maybe next month or the month after from from both departments just on the status
of you know looking into these mysteries. Councelor Bulock, I have a question that you might not have an answer to and I don't expect you to necessarily, but um I was speaking with a teacher this week and um they brought up chapter 70 funding with uh all answer
you. If he has an answer, great. If not, I can definitely take it over email in the next couple days. I'm uh I am on I'm just going to uh the most up to date with the House and Senate versions if you just give me a couple minutes. The number is great, but also does that
money flow in directly into the school budget or is that money that gets absorbed into the city budget as a whole if that's known? All the funds, all state funds go to the city, but then it is ultimately allocated as part of a funding source for the school's general
fund operating budget. I can get the exact numbers over email, Andy. You don't have to search through the state database right now. Any other questions? Uh, councelor Garrett, I think because it hasn't been asked and you guys put forward a resolution about
funding the schools to the tune of $350,000 just to be clear that Can you just describe the reasoning and intention behind that? Uh, absolutely. um the superintendent put forward and the school committee endorsed a budget that went to the mayor
um that we thought was in the best interest of the students educationally. Um it's part of our um part of our policy to put forward not just what we think is economically feasible but also something that would meet the
educational needs of our students. The mayor came back to us not with um a smaller addition to our budget over fiscal year 2025, but with a decrease of
$254. Um this is a pretty hard blow for our school system to take and I know um all the city departments are having to take some serious lumps this year. Uh but
um we also want to make sure that we maintain essential services for our students and also that we are well positioned for what we expect to be an even harder year next year especially with the possibility of federal funding
cuts. So as such we had um already committed quite a bit of our reserves um but much more than we feel comfortable with. And so what we're asking is that since there is additional levy capacity,
in other words, more funds uh that could be accessed for the city budget without a vote of the populace, that would you please help us um and meet us halfway by uh offsetting
uh some of the amount that we're expecting to take from our reserves because we think it leaves us in a pretty um precarious place. Uh school budgets are in I mean all all city um
department budgets uh deal with the possibility of emergencies and unanticipated expenses. But there's a special way that the school district experiences that in a more extreme way
because you could just have uh one or one to five students come into your district who have special needs and we're committed to meeting their needs and we're we're required to meet their needs and that could cost millions. So,
we really have to be cautious about our use of our revolving funds and making sure that we have an adequate um an adequate amount. Um just like the mayor has talked about, you know, being
advised about um use of her her funds that it could put the city in a out of best practices with what's being recommended. Same thing for us. So, this brings us a little bit closer to that. Um, and we appreciate um all of the city
council's engagement over the last several months. Um, that the opportunity to answer your questions and to meet with you. Um, we know uh that you care about our students and are doing the best you can in a difficult financial time, but the school committee wanted to
make this resolution um in order just to see if there might be the possibility of some cooperation between you and the mayor um to uh increase that number for us. So, I hope that you can and I appreciate your time tonight.
I see that Andy has his hand up. So, uh, you've got a chapter 70 number for us, I imagine. Yes, I do. Thank you. Uh, the governor's original chapter 70 amount was $16,621,614. Uh, the Senate version of
the budget has chapter 70 at $16,748,64. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is communications from the mayor, city officers, and employees. Good evening
everybody. Um, I'm going to start with a happy and a well-deserved announcement. Kathy Scott, the city clerk, was nominated for and recognized as an honore for the municipal clerk of the year award. So, I just want to make sure everybody knew that.
Okay. We're all very proud of Kathy and I can see that she just loved all that attention. Um um moving on to the or opioid ordinance. I just want to say I'm so proud of all the people that have worked on that.
We've had uh city councilors, um city employees, uh many wonderful citizens who've worked together for months to make an ordinance that actually is is going to be emulated throughout the the state. Um other cities are looking at us
because people did such a great job on it and I'm certainly really hoping that you you pass that. Um they answered a lot of question on how the spends will be how the funds would be spent, who is responsible for ongoing community engagement and
accountability. Um they want to ensure that people with lived experience um will both benefit from it and participate fully in the settlement. So um there's an opportunity with this settlement to use the decision-making process to empower
marginalized people and help build community around these areas. and I'm thrilled to watch that on the sidelines, but good job to everybody that worked on that and I'm hoping that'll hoping that you'll pass that. Um, I know that you've invited Marlo tonight and I'm going to let him discuss
the upcoming changes in the single stream and Swiffer. Uh, last week was the Beef Fest, very successful this past weekend and um, the weather even cooperated and the rain held off until the celebration was nearly
over. Uh, on to the budget. Um this was a very very difficult uh budget season. Um every single uh department had cuts that were hard to absorb. We knew last fall it was going to be a difficult
budget and every department was asked to do their part. Each line item in every department's budget was examined and considered. We, as you know, we're limited uh limited by the constraints of
Prop 2 and a half, most of which was taken up this year by health insurance, as you well know, and um by uh post-employment benefits. So, we've had very sobering meetings uh
with both the bond council and the department of revenue over the past six months. They will be watching us closely in fiscal year 26 due to the city's high debt to income ratio. Over the previous four years, the outstanding debt
increased by over $26 million. The do told us that we have a one in three chance of he of our bond rating decreasing. This would mean an increase of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in the interest line item in the city budget. Where we are today may not actually be
where we are in the fall when the tax rate is set. The recent decrease in fed in in the federal bond rating which happened just this past Friday is is going to affect us in fiscal year 26 because interest rates for everything will go up.
Furthermore, as the state budget picture unfolds, there's a strong possibility of the governor enacting 9C cuts mid midyear, which will require the city to either make up the shortfall in funding or cut services. So, actually, some of what I
budgeted for changed last Friday. The Department of Revenue advised us to avoid hitting our two and a half ceiling to limit um to help us keep our double A minus tier one bond rating. I just want to say doing a
budget is ex is very difficult. Every single department provides a vital service and all departments have needs that the budget is unable to allow for. Greenfield has an aging population and a declining school population. Budgets need to be
adjusted accordingly. The communities that are going to survive are the ones that start doing things differently. The ones that weigh every expense wisely and who are strategic and look for areas of saving and collaboration will be the successful
ones. I did find it disturbing that the school committee did not make a single cut to any line item in the school department budget. Good fiscal stewardship means closely examining the additional of staff, especially in the face of declining
student population. There was no detailed analysis by the school committee for the rationale for budgetary increases. For example, no one questioned the cost of seven new employees or why the school would need 13 new employees in the last two years
while the enrollment decreased decreased by over aundred students. Last Tuesday, when the school committee requested an additional $350,000 for the budget, there was not a discussion about exactly what that money was for.
However, I met with a few of you on Monday night and heard your request. So, I went back and thoughtfully reviewed the major drivers in the increases and I was there till 9:30 going through that. Um, there were three
or four main drivers in that budget. transportation, the increased needs which we would have had with with the move which meant more pe more um staff um and uh the biggest one was the out of
district tuition. Um but I found several line items that actually in those three categories that appeared to be artificially inflated. For example, contracted services and
transportation for busing increased by $170,000. That was a 25% increase. So, I pulled out the contract and read it at 9:00 last night. And um it could be between 2.5 and
5.5% for this year. That's what stated in the contract. And um for next year, it's going to be a 2.5% increase, which would have been approximately $20,000. A a far cry from the $170,000 that's in the budget. Furthermore, the outofd
district tuition cost, as I've said, it showed a 387% increase next year on the local side. I called several of uh several of the schools, and the statutory cap for next year is 3.67%.
67%. The question about this discrepancy was never answered, but I will say this, what we're spending this year on the local side will be a,465,000 and what's projected for next year is a million5. It's not easy, but for us to
for for us to succeed as a school district, we actually have to carefully examine how we do things. The budget is serious stuff. I look at every single line item. No guessing. I go over it and I looked at that again
last night. Every single department has needs that are not met and we have to make wise choices. I feel like I did my part and I I wish you the wisdom to do
yours. Thank you. Take any questions. Thank you, Mayor. Councelor Perry, could you just tell us what your opinion is on the levy? That we're almost at the ceiling and
that there is a a very small, you know, there's a small amount between us and the ceiling. It's not great to be at your levy ceiling. And we have some things that are actually changing within this, you know, within this year as the federal changed to the bond rating. I don't know if you have anything more to
say on that. Yeah. So the, you know, as as we reach the top of the levy, point of clarification first, are we almost at the levy ceiling or the levy limit? Because those are two different things, correct? Yes. Yeah, we're almost at the
levy limit. Limit. Thank you. Yeah. And so, you know, as we look at that and as we look at the bond rating, as we look at the general health of the city, um the how close you are to that levy limit is is what's taken into consideration.
Um you know, u as you pay down debt, don't take on new debt. That means a healthier uh budget and a healthier city uh to move forward. That can happen in different ways. Um sometimes cities grow. Unfortunately, we're not in that
situation. So, we have to contract our expenses. Councelor Brown, um I reached out to DLS on this because I it's municipal finances are hard and confusing and you know a lot. Um and
they were saying that typically bond rating agencies are looking at a number of different factors including financial management tools, financial policies, forecasting, capital planning and existing debt and healthy reserves can contribute positively as well. But
excess capacity is not traditionally viewed as a resource and that um over half of municipalities in the state budget within 1% of their excess levy capacity. And that's common practice. So, I'm not understanding and I also
reached out to another council president. So, I'm not understanding the linkage between excess levy capacity and um affecting our bond rating. So, you know, you're absolutely right. It it it's a large conglomeration of
factors that go into determining what your bond rating is. Um and right now we're at about you know 600,000 or so uh from that limit which is you know well within that 1 to two% there. Um so you know
if when they look at the bond rating uh again it's it's a conglomeration of things. However, uh what as the city operates, it's a good indicator of how the city's operating as long as it's in within that 1 to 2% limit and you're not
going for overrides. You're not going for things like that. So, councelor Bulock. Yeah, I have I have two questions. one is um you said at the beginning that a lot of cities can count on new growth. My
understanding is that we do anticipate new growth in the next year. Um, and so I think what I'm confused about is we're if we anticipate new growth, which we also had this year, this increase of
$350,000 would bring us from like we're at 1.46% of the levy limit down to 71 um% closer to the levy limit. um which I want to be clear
like that that's different than the levy ceiling, right? So that means we have we have that ex we have that excess amount of money and like councelor Brown said um many municipalities I think it was
actually more than 70% of municipalities across the state budget within that 1% and many budget right to the levy limit. And so I'm wondering what is like the big fear with 300 being
$350,000 closer to the levy limit this year. Yeah, I think you're you're raising a excellent point where it's you know you're within a percentage here or there. So it's not a tremendous amount of money uh that we're talking about. And then when I said growth um
our growth is very modest compared to other uh cities and towns. For example, uh our bumper year was a year ago where it had about $600,000 worth of growth. Uh we're usually in the $300 to $400,000 range, which is literally a 1% growth.
Um if you go out east, they're looking at 10, 15, 20% growth every year. They're bulldozing million-dollar homes to put up $10 million homes. So you know we have a very modest growth rate here which is why we have to look at
contraction of expenses as opposed to relying on that growth. Um and yeah you know you you as a board can decide okay 73 or 74 is is fine as compared to a 1.7
you know that that's your prerogative to do. That's it. I I have one other comment on that. When you get to the end of this, which is actually kind of fascinating to work right till the end. Like we were up till quarter of 11 the night before the budget was due. You're
trying to get to that number and you're also worrying about the taxpayer at the same time. So we were close and I made decisions to add things that actually help the taxpayer.
So, taking $350,000 for out of parking revenue and putting that in, we could have put $250,000 in there, but we tried to whittle it down a little bit so that the what you know what you actually go with
the tax rate for the taxpayers is is something that's manageable. So there is a part of that that at the very end certainly you could get you know to the very end of that we added from um pendant
stabilization to and you're you're juggling and you're going back and forth making sure that you're not over that I would say the day before on the weekend when I was actually calling other department heads for reductions at that point we thought we were
$300,000 over We overestimated on the or not overestimated, we estimated high on the local receipts. Usually it's 4%. We put in 6% for our taxpayers because I believe that that will be there. But the
tax burden's difficult in the town. So I wouldn't, you know, go back on that decision either. I'm I'm happy that that happened. That will, you know, you'll make your decision. Uh, councelor Perry, just one last question. Have we used a levy before? Do
you know? We we have used up to the levy limit before. That is absolutely accurate. Um, however, I don't think that we've beyond gone beyond the levy ceiling through a Prop 2 and a half override or operational override or anything like
that. I looked back several years um because the for the past three years since we were looking at that, the year that we did something with this, we were right at we we were we were right there. But if you look back years before that,
we were a couple of million away. Um, I actually went back through the budget books and people weren't thinking about that, but we were two million away from the levy limit um for I think the three or four years before that. But I, you
know, I'd have to pull that up. But I remember looking at the time because we were discussing about putting in the, you know, helping with the uh with the additions of parking stabilization.
And I think that was it. Council Tronzo. Um, I also want to ask, um, because I don't want this to seem, uh, like a pennywise, pound foolish kind of,
um, vote that by us getting closer, if we needed to make any kind of adjustment throughout the rest of the fiscal year after we voted this on, if we're that close to the limit, that's going to be a
problem. So, if proverbally the I'll try to try to clean this one up. The poop hits the fan on something throughout the next 12 months and we're this close to maxing
out. We're well, I guess I'll lose that. We're screwed, right? So, I don't think it's a good though. Some people may use it as a good practice to be that close to their their limit. It doesn't sound like fiscal responsibility to me. Um
especially when when we've seen the breakdowns already and we've had these discussions about adjustments that may have been able to be made and are either uh ignored or just completely disagreed
with. And um as as we saw going through this stuff um with Ways and Means and going through the book um there's been a lot of cuts and that happens and adjustments need to
be made to every department and I don't think that it's prudent for us to get that close to the cap and raise taxes because of order clearly. Sounds like something to be saved for discussion later less than it sounds like a
question for the mayor and the finance director. Do you have a question councelor Toronto? I do. Do you um so would you agree with that statement that if we've seen a mismanagement of funding um throughout? Would it be prudent to push
ourselves to the limit of the levy at the beginning of the fiscal year and leave us nothing, almost nothing for the rest of it? I would agree with your statement. I'm just going to go to councelor Bulock, councelor Healey, and then
councelor Brown. And just one comment because I think we don't go above what was budgeted as a normal practice. So I was a little confused about that. So councelor Bulock. Yeah. Um I have a few things. One
is building off of um what the finance director said like we can decide as a board. So my my f I actually have three things to be specific. My my first thing is um two years ago when we um funded
the schools when we were in a very similar position, we were right um very close to the levy limit as well. And right there, um, we did use the power as the council to,
um, to override and in that situation, we cut money from the budget um, in different departments to reallocate into the school budget, which is the only budget that we can put more money in. Um during that period of time, we received
or the the city bodies as a whole received three legal opinions regarding um whether or not we had the power to do that. One was a legal opinion that was acquired by Mayor Wedigardner at the time that advised us that it didn't
think that we had the power to reallocate money because we hadn't adopted um a section of the law. Uh, another legal opinion was obtained by the school committee which said they first had to vote on it um that the correct amount that we need that they
needed for us to allocate and then um we could vote in favor of allocating that money and that it had been adopted. Um and then a third that was obtained by President Gwyn at the time um which said that we did and it brought up the order
um that was stamped by the city clerk um and voted on June 20th, 2012 uh unanimously that adopted um the town charter section 5-6. Um, and then today we received a
legal opinion, so a fourth legal opinion on this same issue. Um, that in my opinion, and I'm not a lawyer, said like maybe we can, maybe we can't. And so I'm
going to say two and a half yeses and one no is a yes. But which is like math my teenager would love. But I'm wondering, mayor, what your intention was with getting that
legal opinion and sending it to us. And do you intend to veto a $350,000 increase if it is passed to the school department? So,
um, I I had a question. I asked the clerk what what act I I had to review them and then I asked Gordon about it because past practice has been if you were
making reductions, I remember that and I thought that's what was acceptable. So I I asked Gordon. So my intention was to see what he said and I have you know
not more opinion on that. It was it was a little unc you know we we all talked about it was a little unclear from what he said. Yes the statute says that but to the past practice has always been
about reduction. So I can see it I I guess I could say I could see that both ways because it was unclear. Yeah. I Yeah. His opinion is that it's unclear. That was that was what it said. Yeah. And yeah, I agree with that. So will So Okay. So will So the other
question I had is will do you intend to veto Can I just point of order? Um because I have can I just have uh clerk Scott um has the DLS on this. So Oh, great. So this is a DLS city
budget process frequently asked questions from March of 2019 and the question is can the mayor veto a city council budget under MGLC 4432 or city council appropriation under GLC
4433? The answer is no. under GLC 39 section 4, city council action on the budget submitted under GLC 4432 and appropriations by the city council under GLC 4433 are not subject
to veto by the mayor. So I'm just going to go to councelor Healey who is next and then councelor Brown um because I know we're going to get into this. Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure if anybody else has a comment because we're
going to get into this. I promise. So, if there aren't any questions for the mayor. Councelor Garrett. I thought I was going to have to wait. Um, so I haven't heard it mentioned yet, but could you describe the role of the health insurance
increases in this overall budget picture? So, it's, you know, it's a major issue and I don't think it's been mentioned yet. And then my I have a second question because we're coupling them together. It feels like um in the event of an emergency like the chair of the school committee mentioned, you
know, say that the school committee doesn't have or I'm sorry, the administration doesn't have enough money, a kid moves into town who requires tremendous services. I've heard you discuss this before, but I think it's worth a public hearing. What would you do in that circumstance? So, the health insurance piece and then
an emergency budget. Listen, everybody does their budget and they do the best of their ability to say what they're going to spend. That's I love every department that's in this city and if somebody's in desperate need
of something, they're not going to go without it. That's just what's going to happen. Um, everybody budgets how they budget. Um I don't know how that works particularly with the school. Do you? Yeah. No.
Sure. If uh if at some point uh additional money could be uh reappropriated to the schools. Um but one, I've never seen that done anywhere. And number two, uh it would have to be an extreme emergency situation. uh in
order to do that. And then the second piece is the health insurance. Um health insurance went up this year by $1.8 million uh which is a considerable part of the total budget and which is a considerable part of the total increase uh that were
that happened this year. I just have one other thing to say on that. Inside of the, you know, we talked about people coming to to the school district that needed special services in the budget. We were told that they're
budgeting for three children from, you know, from to come that haven't arrived yet. But with the reserves that they have, I'm I'm I'm like not really concerned that that would happen. um even what is
projected to be taken from revolving that is not what has happened in the past. It will be anticipated that that's going to be used. Um the last time that we did this in 24 I forget what the total dollar amount
was. Maybe Cath um councelor Golib remembers but um at the end of that fiscal year there was a million2 that was left and that just went into revolving funds. It was not used for for um it wasn't used for student
expenditures because it wasn't needed and and so I I feel confident that there is enough in there. There's you know 5.2 million in there after things have been taken out for this year. There's still 5.2 as of yesterday. I didn't look today.
All right. Thank you both. Um I'd like to in Oh, sorry. I don't want to lose the opportunity and not have the questions answered for the debate on this. Um so the other question I have is
specific. It's it's specific to what councelor Garrett was speaking to, but um what I'm having a really hard time with is that I feel like what I'm hearing is that like the schools are overfunded, which is just such a different narrative than I hear ever in
the entire world. Um and so so that's just I'm like I'm having a hard time absorbing that. Right. and I hear what I hear the numbers you're giving me and what I've been told is that the school is going to spend down
their revolving accounts that the that we've had this cushion because of ESSER funds over the last five years that were these emergency relief funds and if you do look back like 2017 18 and 19 we didn't have such a cushion in our
revolving accounts right and that's before Esser funds existed and so what I've been telling myself is like there's two different ways to look at this budget and I understand how you're looking at it because you have to look at the whole budget of the whole city
and I understand how the schools looking at it because they have to look out for a department that has is chronically underfunded and I say that not because you underfund them or we underfund them but because the equation for funding
schools is broken. And so my question here is the numbers that have been given to me and to other counselors at the meeting last week basically leave the schools with around a million dollars left in
um left in revolving accounts. And there's an estimated over a million dollars in federal funds that could that very likely will be cut based off of the way that federal funding um is being cut. And so this is to councelor Garrett's
question like that to me is an emergency, right? If our federal funds get cut, those are funds that do affect the most vulnerable and high needs students in our district. Is there going to be
a a financial order to cover those if that happens. So I want to answer first. Did I think that did I think that this was over budgeted?
Um every department every department could be budgeted more than it is. Every single department they actually have all more things that they needed. So, I think we have to think of it like that. Um, and I heard the projections which I
explained that to the best of my ability. Yep. Down to a million. I I'll eat my hat if that's what happens. Okay. They said every year we're going to take 300,000. I don't think it's 300,000's going to come out. 300,000.
300,000. There was 15,000 that came out over the past three years. another one that was going to have we were going to use that. It's budgeted in there. It's not what was happening. So, if I told you I'm going to spend every dollar in
my wallet, what is the guarantee that I'm going to do that? None. Because it's really a choice that you know you're going to make at the end. I looked back to see did that happen? Did it happen on the year that we all worked together on
this? The only one of those funds that was used was the circuit breaker which um we used I I forget whether it was a million two or a million for that year. We used all of that and not the other
funds. It was almost a million dollars that we did not use and then we added more to the revolving. So because that's projected that was what was projected two years ago. We did not use any of that and I don't have all the numbers in front of me. So don't hold me to that
because I like to speak accurately with the numbers. But what I remember was we used the circuit breaker. We didn't take down any of those that were projected from the other revolvings. Additionally, at the end of the year, we reclassified
$650,000 and bought two vans and one bus for 183,000. So it's projected. Could that be? Certainly. Do I think there's going to be federal cuts? I do. Do I think it's going to be down to a million? No. But I'm not a fortune teller. I just looked
at past practice and saw what happened. And um and and so I asked everybody to use their reserves. The fire department had money in the reserves of both of both
um of both of their revolving accounts. I put the numbers up and we put other expenses into it and said we're not going to hold that because it's a tough year. Would you be willing to write a financial order if if what I've been told all I have to operate off of for my
vote tonight is what I've been told by the superintendent and the business manager and what I've been told by you and the finance manager and I'm weighing both of those pictures and the picture that I have says that there's no actual
number guidance of how much you hold in revolving counts that I've been able that I've been given by anyone I've asked or that I've been able to find on any of the mass.gov DLSS Desi websites. Charter schools are told to hold about 20%. If we have if that budget was 25
million, 20% is $5 million. And so there's a there's the question that I have though is if we end up if what I'm being told is true that the schools are going to spend down and there's no more Esser funds coming in and there's this
potential that DOE funds are going to be cut and we would then have an actual emergency in our school department. Are you willing to write a financial order? Yes. if there's an emergency and they don't have money to educate the children. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank
you. That's McNight. Councelor Haley next. Yeah. So I I just want to kind of Maryanne touched on it briefly with the ESRE funds, but you know, did the school not use I forgot what the dollar amount was of a funds,
whether it was 5 million or somewhere around that range. Um, maybe the superintendent can remind me what that dollar value was, but hypothetically speaking, if math is math, if we didn't use all our ESR funds by September 30th, 2024, and I think the school did use
most of those ESR funds, they would potentially be sitting in front of us right now asking for $3 million or $4 million because they would have had to dry out their their reserves if we didn't get those ESER funds. So they planned accordingly in my opinion and
and we could disagree to agree here by using those eser funds they saved their reserves. So just the question I guess here is did they use all their funds and did they use them appropriately? I didn't re well I'm sure that they used
them appropriately. I mean, I would feel confident I didn't look through every bit of every what every penny went for on that, but um what I would do if I had extra money
would be saving it, right? Yeah. Um but like I said, we had a almost $2.4 million increase, which is, you know, pretty much what we could go through. I
went through every municipal budget and uh wages, salary, and expenses, and I think $783,000 was cut from asks. Um, and besides that, I had people go into their reserves and take part of the operating out of that. So, but yes,
if you had extra money, you wouldn't throw it away. You would save it. That's that's what I think you'd do and that's what I I'd do. Yeah. Just so just follow up there. So, you you agree that the school department saving the $5 million cuz they had it at the time was probably
a good idea because now they need it. They're using it. Mayor, one quick question and and then I I don't know if anybody else had any questions. Um, when I look at the budget, it looks like most of the departments did get a certain percent
increase. There was nobody who got a decrease over last year. Overall, I think it was one department that went lower. Is is that correct? No, there were there were there were seven or eight departments that had decreases. Okay.
Veterans assessing um mayor's office, central services, um city council, city council. Um, there was $91,000 in in
um I I can't name all the departments that have the paper in front of me right now, but I actually was doing that last night. So, they certainly were not the only one. And overall, what was a percentage increase in in 1.5?
Okay, thank you. What? 1.5 in department budgets. Okay, that's what I meant. Um, thank you so much. Thank you both. We appreciate all of the details. Uh, now we have Marlo Warner to come up
and talk about um recycling in DPW. Yeah. And we've got about 10 minutes, so sorry. Uh, good evening. Oh, sorry. Five minutes. Yeah, five the worst. Um I think the two agenda items I could use a half hour then take questions, but I'll
get through this as fast as I can. Um quick update on the single stream recycling. Um as you most you all know that you have an a complete ordinance rewrite for solid waste on your agenda tonight. Um it was 25 years in the
making. We had to have the recycling pieces line up with our single stream recycling which is going to start the first week of July. We're on scheduled to start that program. So that's the update on that piece. Um so the other
piece was the um the solid waste part of it as far as the trash 25 years in the making. Things are much clearer in there. Um a lot of less gray areas when anybody has a question on the transfer station, so on and so forth. So, um the one thing with the the Swiffer
program, as we call it, and um we we ran into a little bit of a speed bump on the trucks. We were supposed to receive them this month. Uh we found out in in late March that they were going to be running behind. Um we're the trucks have been in
Quebec, Canada um since November and December. Two trucks in November and one in December arrived in Quebec, Canada for its automated bodies to be installed. Um, we were supposed to receive them in late April, May. Uh, we received word that they're pushed out to
two of them in December and one in January of 26. So, um, we didn't put that right out there. We all tried to keep calm. How can we figure this out because how it's going to affect the the the federal grant $2.05
million. We've been reimbursed 1.4 of that money. So, it was scramble time. Uh Athena and I I don't think slept for a few nights. Um so we figured it out where we're we're looking for additional funding to lease or rent automated
trucks, three of them starting September 1st. But between July and September, we're going to go to single stream. We're just not going to be able to get the carts out there to the residents. We're going to have to use our current bins, but still go to single stream recycling and mix it. Um, we're
rebuilding, half rebuilding one of our recycle trucks that's been down for quite some time to get us by. Um, we've done the RFP, got it ready. We're just waiting for a funding source on leasing or um, renting those trucks from se
September 1st through the end of January is what we're looking at. So, we can train on our new ones when they come in. So, um, as far as I know, as far as we know, we're all we're okay with the grant. took a little talking with EPA, but the important thing is we're moving
ahead with the program. So, um, we were told that it's not your fault. So, we were we were fortunate, I think. So, um, we've been lucky in many cases to get the grant. Uh, thank goodness for Athena. Um, so that's pretty much the
update on that. There's going to be further information coming out, um, as far as when we get going, so on and so forth. So, I want to thank the Swiffer team. Um, uh, I have two two supervisors in the DPW. Um, Matt Matt Conway, our
comm's director, has stepped up big time. Uh, last but not least is Athena. She's done a lot of background work. There's been the soft match we talk about of $800,000. Well, there's been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get where we're at today. Um, and
back to the ordinance. um we need that ordinance in in order to go single stream uh July 1st. Um so that's the update on the the the Swiffer and the where we're the status is on the recycling uh program.
So um quick update on the 3.85 million um dewatering project. It's a it's actually a sludge press. Um I think a lot of you are on the count are aware of this goes back five years started with an anorobic digtor. We had to switch
gears because POS came into the picture and we didn't want to take POS in from other communities into our treatment plant with an anorobic digtor. So I switched gears and we went to a a sludge press. Um quick overview on that. We're
shipping our sludge now sewer sludge to LOL. It's the only place we can send it. It was $146,000 to ship it for the year in 2014. And I just got the latest numbers. It's going to be over $900,000 this year. And 80% of every load is
water. So, um, we're looking at some pretty big savings down the the treatment plant when that project's complete. They started the project uh December 15th. Uh we ran into a couple of uh design changes, engineering
changes. Um but of course we ran into we were going to be finished with this project early fall. Right now it's forecasted not finished until March of 26 due to supply chain issues. Uh you guess electrical parts. We went through it with both buildings we built in the
city. So um we're going to be waiting on switch gear and a few other things on that project. But um I will be extremely happy to see that project off the ground and the savings we we will um incur with that press up and running. So that's the
quickest five minutes I can give you on $7 million in projects. So Councelor Garrett and then Councelor Gordon, thank you and thank you for all the work that you and Athena and the rest of the team are doing on all of these projects. Um, I have a question about the Swiffer
Grant. I remember in a meeting somewhere or unfortunately I'm having dreams about city council and this may have been a fantasy. Um, that you had said that instead of the single stream going down to Berlin, Connecticut, it's likely to
go to Springfield or in that area. Am I right in remembering that that it's not going to be as far of a distance of travel? I'm asking because in our discussions last year, we had numerous discussions about the number of gallons of gasoline burned and I was really excited to at least have the belief that
we're sending the single stream recycling closer. Is that true? So, so no, but there's a there's there's a twist here. Um, so we I I did as I promised with the city council last fall or well the winter I should say. uh we
looked for a closer facility or something to take the single stream that would have been uh more cost-effective for us. The only other company would have been uh trucking it to Wurn, which makes it even worse than Berlin. If anybody's traveled out near Wurn, Auburn, it's real fun in the afternoon.
Um so our our recycling um uh contract ends with the Springfield MURF on June 30th for the dual stream. So, we we've signed a contract with USA Recycling Single Stream. It's got to go to Berlin. On the flip side of that, they have our
trash um contract and we've been hauling it to Wilberham. So, they've agreed they've bought the old Bondi Island in Awam and and got rid of the incinerator they call it. So, they're going to allow us to take our trash to Awam as opposed
to um Wilberham. So, there's there's the twist. There's a there's a little bit of an offset by having to go to Berlin with the single stream recycling. Our trash is going to be a shorter trip. And our brand new truck we got through the grant is getting about 8 miles more to the gallon than uh our our truck with a
million miles on it. So, not a perfect match, but uh it it's offsetting some of it. Yeah. I just want to echo councelor Garrett's gratitude and I think thank you from all of us to you and Athena and everyone on in your department that's been working so hard on all of this. Um
and this is a question that is definitely on behalf of the general public and not just myself but uh how long do people have to request a differentiz cart before the single stream program gets going? Is there a deadline on that? So Athena, I haven't really talked about that, but it lines
kind of up with we're not going to start collecting with the carts until September 1st if we get lease trucks. We delayed ordering the carts because we should have them by now for the simple reason is we didn't know if anything was going to go south with the
grant or anything. I don't want to commit any more uh city funds to that if all of a sudden we get the grant pulled. That was my thinking. Um, so I think it it we're going to run into probably July and August with the carts. So people don't folks don't have to get us what
they want for a cart between now and July 1st because we're definitely going to be picking with our current bins. Councelor Haley. Yeah. So, um, first thank you for your department and Athena having the foresight to realize we had an issue
with our trucks and it was going to be a major budget concern for the city if we had to pay to replace those trucks and getting this grant. It's a great thing for the city. Um, really much appreciated. There's one thing that you we didn't touch on here that I just want a quick update because I we got a lot of
stuff to talk about but talk about, but in previous budget seasons we talked about INI, right? So where do we stand with INI and meeting D uh satisfying the D with our INI programs? So we're ini inflow and
infiltration um storm water or illicit connections of storm water getting into our sewer system. Um so the only information I can provide at this this at this time is the flow meters at the wastewater treatment plant. when we get these rains, we measure the rains and
what we're getting into the plant. Um, I can tell you that we've improved um because there's no doubt in my mind with five inches of rain last week, we would have had an SSO, an overflow in the past. So, we're improving. Now, we're in
our fifth year. The consent order, we just had a visit from D of Sanitary Survey they call it. So, we're going to be they're going to be updating the the um consent order. So, we're making improvements. I'm hitting the reset button. We're going back to uh Wright
Pierce. We had some good flow testing we took last summer some good rains. So, it gave us some very good identification in different sections of the sewer system where we're getting high flows when it rains. So, reset the button, go back to to doing that and get to our worst
places and keep improving it. So, I'd like to say I got zero going in the system tomorrow. I don't know. Nobody wants that more than me, but um we're we're just grinding away on it. So, in the INI in your budget, do you have any funds allocated for future INI
work? Um or is that not we're not kind of thinking about that because we're waiting on the D. Just want to make sure that we're not going to have a huge financial order down the road for ini. We're we're still we're still pursuing some some funding um for ini. Uh there's
a couple of things out there that look a little bright, which they haven't in the past. Um I don't mean to dangle the carrot, but I just don't want to put it out there because we just haven't heard officially on anything. So, um no, I don't have anything in the budget. Uh I decreased the the the capital
appropriation to 200,000. The mayor and I talked about it this year because I still have some current funds to hit the reset button and go back and do another evaluation. hit the reset button and then go to the the worst places first. Thank you. You're welcome.
Councelor Minhus, uh, first off, thank you to you and everyone at the DPW for all the work that you do. I know this is just a little bit off topic, but something that I keep getting asked by constituents. One, what is the the recent construction that's happening on Main Street? And
two, when can we get that like finally paved? because it's a huge problem for a lot of folks. I can answer that. Um, so this year's Main Street project, it was put out by our uh comm's director is is a a gas company project.
They're replacing the gas man from uh basically right in front of Court Square to Conway Street to hook into the new main that they came up from Cole Rain Street last year. And then, as you know, we put our water mane in after that. So, um, we got into the ordinance when I
came back in 2018. Um, if there's so many feet of trench done by a contractor, they have to pave half the lane. So, we've been switching around working with the gas company from year to year from our construction and their construction and and we work it out to
even footage. Hope Street got done last year um by the gas company. We picked up Chapman Street. It was within a few feet. Plus, they did Marshall Street. So, the answer the answer to the paving of Main Street is that Main Street project is has been pushed out to FY29
for the reconstruction of it. But we're working we're hoping this fall we can get that worst lane, the north lane on Main Street repaved through the gas company. Um, and we'll we'll do some other patching too where it's starting to deteriorate on the on
the south side. Um, I would like to try and get it by. I wouldn't want to put 7 $800,000 of our chapter money 90 money into it on Main Street and then in four years have it torn up and thrown out. So, um it it's fluid right now, but I anticipate we're going to be doing that
bad lane in the fall. That's as soon as we can everything get out the bid and whatnot. So, you're welcome. Thank you so much, Director Warner. Thank you. Oh, by the way, Kathy, thank you. She had a little hand in getting
the ordinance going, guiding Athena and I. And congrats. She always does. Um I have health director Michael Throw, which I think since we're going to talk about the ordinance, if it's okay, since uh councelor Bullock is really in the weeds
with that that we're going to skip over his comments because we'll come back to it when we talk about the ordinance. So, um I'm going to go to public comment now. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, I do want to skip over um clerk if you do. No,
clerk Scott, please. We just want to remind the public that there is an opening for a precinct six counselor. If you are interested, please send a letter of interest. And if you have a resume, to the city council email, which is city
council greenfieldmma.gov on or before May 23rd at 5:00 pm. Thank you. Thank you. I picture those billboards when you're driving those like you, you know, you don't have to be in your car. You could be there so you could be right here with
us instead of in the audience. We got it. President Wandelowski, Laura, could we It's almost 8. Could we have our five minute break so that we can give everyone our full attention? I think everybody is kind of getting up and
using facilities anyway. So, let's take a five minute break and we'll come back to public comment. I just want to before we break one real quick. Um, make sure you sign up if you want to do public comment. And when you come up, you're going to have three minutes. That's just our rules. You state your name and and
and where your address and there's still time to sign up while we're taking our fivem minute break. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey.
Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Right. We are back to
order. It doesn't feel like we're back to order. Okay, great. Thank you all for coming back. Uh we're going to start public comment and the first on the list is Melody Goodwin from the school
committee. Good evening and thank you for letting me speak. My name is Melody Goodwin. I live at 29 Meadow Lane in Greenfield. and I'm here tonight as a school committee member and as an educator. I started teaching in 1983. I've been watching Greenfield
School Committee meetings for over 20 years. And some of the same things I've heard tonight, I've heard over those 20 years. The same debates about a child moving into town, who needs that money, different mayor,
different school committee members. But I've heard the same debates over those 20 years. But tonight, one of the things I wanted to say um and plead for on behalf of the students and the staff is
transparency. I've been pleading for transparency. You could talk to Amy Petti because that's like my she would say that's Mel's favorite word. She wants to know what it costs, what are we paying, and what are we doing. When you spend money, you want to know
what it's for. That's me. Um, when I pay my taxes, I want to know where it's going. I've lived in this town for a long time. My name has been on three houses in this town. And I want to know where the tax money is going. And as a
school committee member, I do not know what you're what you're talking about. you're talking about 350, you know, 350,000, 700,000. What is that money going to pay
for? I should know that as a school committee member. So, transparency means knowing what's what the numbers mean. So, as a math teacher, I've taught kids to do critical thinking when it looks at numbers. So, I asked for a staff list
way back July, October, was told everybody was too busy to give me a staff list. I know it's my job to to look at the budget. So, what am I paying for? People, because that's usually the number one thing in a school budget. So, I had to do a student rec uh record
request and pay $100 to get a list of all the people who worked in Greenfield public schools. I went to the mayor and I said, I want to look at the money for the last three years. She believes in transparency. So, she printed out budgets for the past three years so I
could see the numbers because for me as a taxpayer and me as an educator, I want to know what we're paying for. So, I saw revolving account money that was never spent. I see money in accounts that are never used. A
longevity account that has $78,000 but was never used. And I know the teachers got longevity because they would be very loud if they didn't. So, it was double billing. As somebody who's built additions on my house and been part of construction of a school, double billing
is something I've I pick up on that real fast when you're paying being asked to pay twice. So, all of a sudden, I didn't trust the school budget. So, I ask that you find out that the money where the
money is going. Um, also concern about reading. 80% of our third graders can't read and there's no additional money in that budget going towards elementary reading and I beg for that. Thank you.
Thank you. Next I have Sarah Ahern. Sarah Ahern, Precinct Inc. Good evening, Greenfield City Councilors. My name is Sarah Ahern, and I'm honored to be here tonight as a member of the staring committee that co-created the ordinance before you, an
ordinance that amplifies the voice of lived experience in our city's decision-making by establishing an opioid use and prevention commission. This work is deeply personal to me and to many others. It represents not only a policy proposal but also a shift in how we think about leadership, expertise,
and inclusion. Before I speak to the ordinance itself, I want to take a moment for sincere gratitude. To this council for your time, for your commitment to the people of Greenfield and for being willing to consider doing something different. To the mayor whose leadership made the creation of our steering committee
possible. to our city legal team who didn't just review our ordinance but stood beside us in making sure it aligned with our city charter offering both structure and support. To the many community members who showed up at public meetings, told their stories, and added their lived wisdom to this
process. To all of our partners, formal and informal, who contributed their insights and energy to help make this ordinance not just an idea but a reality. A very heartfelt thank you to the team at Caris Mass, our technical partners who supported us at every step.
Your expertise, your patience, and your encouragement help bring this vision to life. It's not easy to innovate within systems that weren't built for this kind of inclusion. But together, we found a way with care, with accountability, and with a shared commitment to equity. This ordinance is about recognizing a
different kind of expertise. It didn't emerge overnight. It came from years of conversation, from years of hope, from years of harm, from a deep commitment to do something different. The expertise we're talking about is lived and living experience. Is the kind that comes from those of us who have experienced
substance use, who have navigated homelessness or incarceration, who have lost someone to substance use. We are not disservice recipients. We are knowledge holders. We have lived through the failures in our systems and we've survived them. We understand what works and doesn't because we've been there. and and for too long people with lived
experience has been invited into the rooms but but rarely into positions of power and almost never into a budget. This ordinance changes that. It creates a legal structure that gives community members with lived experience real power, real input, and real compensation. It creates a model where
voices don't just contribute to the conversation, they help shape decisions, guide funding, and evaluate outcomes. Thanks to Governor Healey's 2023 amendment to chapter 77 of the acts of 2023 section 9 which superseded the 2022 guidance regarding municipal funds, we
now have the ability to implement this model effectively. This new regulation allows for the expenditure of settlement funds without further appropriation. It includes administrative costs related to managing and dispersing those funds and implementing abatement strategies. It aligns with Massachusetts General Law
30B procurement rules, meaning it's legally sound, transparent, and accountable. This is a huge win because if you ever signed a contract with somebody who was in recovery or someone who was unstably housed or someone navigating the complex systems that come with trauma and survival, you know how
hard it can be. These systems weren't designed with equity in mind. But now, thanks to this ordinance into special law, Greenville has a path forward. This ordinance removes barriers legally and equity. It is not symbolic work. It is structural. And I know I'm out of time. I just want to acknowledge that the
CARES mask team is also in attendance. um that is the state subcontracts out to help municipalities approach these funds and thank you for consideration in passing our ordinance for our commission. Thank you. Sorry. Uh Max will be
Did I just speak? Okay, thank you. My name is Maxwell Joshua Bouchby. I'm 32 years old, live at five chemistry green field and I'm 10 months clean. I encourage the establishment of the opiate prevention use commission. I've seen our community
lose skate parks, arcades, and its detox. Though some of these items have been rebuilt and or replaced, I feel this commission and the funds available to it can not only improve lives but save lives. Not abstensibly but absolutely. Thank you, Ella Condan.
Elacond precinct 4. Um, I hope the council will put their support behind the opioid ordinance as well as the uh school resolution to fully fund the schools. Um, it was just a couple years ago that
the council and community really uh put forward their desire to fully fund the schools and I hope that that hasn't dissipated. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah Marcha.
Sorry. Hi, Sarah Marhka, 18 Russell Street. Um, I don't necessarily agree with raising taxes if it comes to that in order to level fund the schools as this will have a disproportionate effect on some people. I don't however see another way as our mayor will not level fund the schools but will meet the budget
increases requested by the fire and police departments. Public education is simply too important. This morning, my partner and I were talking about the logistics of getting to this meeting tonight. Our 8-year-old Federal Street School student yelled from the other room, "Vote yes." I asked him, "Vote yes
for what?" He said, "Very matterofactly, to fund our schools." I asked him why he thinks this is important. He said, "Just so that we can keep doing what we're doing." As Francis said, he's not asking for anything more, just a continued solid public education. I'm not, nor is
the school district asking for anything more than the money to fund programs that already support our students. I believe public education to be fundamental to a functioning democracy. Without it, there's nothing left to fight for. Thank
you. Andrea Michael. Hi, I'm Andrea Michael. Um, James Street. Um, I have two kids in our schools, enrolled in our schools, one in the middle school, one in the high school. Um, I'm also been in the school system since 2016, and I've been
president of the PTO for uh, most of those years. Um, one thing that I've never said is that our schools have any waste. There is not waste. They run out of paper by the end of the year. that are constantly asking us for things to fund at the PTO such as like chairs for
parents to sit on, things like that. Um, I have also been around long enough to remember a year when we had students who went to another school that who had special needs and needed to be paid for and it was something like a million dollars that we were over budget and
everybody in town said, "Well, why didn't the superintendent think about that? Why did we not budget for that ahead of time?" And here we are with a superintendent who is thinking about that, who is budgeting for our the needs of our students and the potential needs of our students because it's not when you budget only about knowing what's
going to happen. It's about anticipating what might happen. And our superintendent is very knowledgeable. She's got a lot of experience not only in being a superintendent, but being in our school system. And I think that we
should listen to her and trust her and believe her that she knows what she's talking about. Thank you. Thank you, Sal. Sincada. Chinata. Am I close? Okay, I got it completely wrong
because they didn't come up. Uh, Judy Bennett. Hi, Judy Bennett. Uh, I live on Conway Street in Greenfield. I'm a teacher at the high school. I am also on our, uh, union's executive board, some other various committees. Um, I could probably
speak to all sorts of things. And actually, it was wonderful hearing your questions um because some of them were the same ideas that I had running around in my head. But I thought I would just bring up um as part of the union something that is kind of concerning to
me is we're currently in contract negotiations and it ties into the health insurance increases and I I mentioned that at the school committee the special meeting the other evening. But I I just want you to be understand that many of our staff members because of the health
insurance increases without a cost of living adjustment are going to be making less next year, right? their take-home pay will go down and our IAS obviously kind of at the bottom of the pay scale
are going to take that um differently than someone who's been at the top of the pay scale for quite some time. But I just want you to understand that that is the situation many of our staff members are going to be facing next year. So
thank you. Thank you. Uh Michael throw you're gonna skip. Okay. Uh, Susan War. Thank you. I'm Susan Warft. I live at 45 Forest Avenue. And for the once, I'm not talking to you about housing.
Um, I am uh here to talk about I have great support for the public schools. And as a former teacher, I'm very aware that budget has many nuances and a lot of concerns when we look at the school budget. However, I'm also concerned
about the physical health of the city as a whole as well as the schools. If the $350,000 requested by the schools puts the city's bond rating at risk, then we will all be paying additional funds on
the city's debt. And so that $350,000 will be actually quite meaningless. Uh rather I would suggest that the budget submitted by the mayor be passed with the understanding that if the schools find their budget seriously
stretched later in the fiscal year that they can return to the council with a detailed statement of why additional funds are necessary for and ask for a supplemental budget. uh considering the uncertainties of the state and federal budgets right now, the
national economy and the bond markets themselves overall, I believe that it's prudent to budget conservatively at this time and and use the budget that we have presently before you. Thank you,
Jessica Pollock. My name is Jessica Pollock. I live on Norwood Street in Greenfield. I'm a mother of a child at Four Corners Elementary School, an employee of Greenfield Public Schools for the past 15 years, and a Greenfield Town and then city employee for 10 years
before that. I love our community and I value our schools. I'm here to implore you to increase your funding to the school budget for next year. Per the recommendation by the school committee, children have the most to lose with the significant budget cuts
to the school budget that have been proposed by the mayor. Most of the children in our schools who would be affected by this have also endured the impacts of pandemic learning. From academic learning loss to an increase in mental health challenges to lacking
social skill development. Budget cuts to our schools will likely lead to larger class sizes, fewer academic support for highnee students, and a possible loss of arts and music programs. Doing this will make our schools less
attractive to families, leading to impacts on home sale values and possibly resulting in an exodus of families choicing to other school districts, which will only exacerbate our budgetary challenges. My daughter was here earlier
this evening with me, whisked here after her dance class without dinner so we could plead with you to adequately fund her school. She's since gone home to go to bed. We came here on behalf of all students and families who were not able
to come tonight. The children deserve to have a fully funded school budget. Thank you for your consideration. I'm going to go to a few that are online for a minute. Um I've got Molly Merritt if you want to unmute
yourself. Hi, Molly Merritt. Um I live in precinct 7. Um, I am here to speak in favor of the school committee resolution to increase um the GPS budget by the
350,000. Um, the mayor says that the school age population is shrinking and to the point that the last speaker just made, um, if we want to turn that around, we have to
make the schools attractive. um to parents. We have to show that we care and prioritize funding our schools to um make this a place where parents are going to want to send their kids. Um I live in a house um in Greenfield where
the person who sold us the house was moved to Northampton because she wanted her daughter to go to high school in Northampton. Um, I have a 2-year-old and I strongly believe in public schools and I really want to send her to uh the
schools in Greenfield, but if I see the schools getting defunded year after year, um it really makes me think about sending her somewhere else. So, um again, I'm asking the council to vote in favor of the school committee resolution. Um and also to echo the
request to trust the school committee um and the superintendent and the people who are uh making the budget and have the best interest of our students in mind. Um I don't see the other departments in the city facing the high
level of scrutiny that the school system seems to be facing. Um, I'm sure you can make a similar argument about wastefulness in other departments. And I don't see people sitting around picking apart the budgets of other um
departments and distrusting um the people who are requesting those funds. So again, just um asking you as a parent, as a Greenfield resident, as a taxpayer um please fully fund the Greenfield schools. Thank you. Thank you. Um,
Max Max Webb. Hi, my name is Max Webb. I live in precinct 9. Um, it seems like we're at a critical point of decision-m regarding how the city allocates its money. I'm hearing the ask that the school get
creative and with all due respect, that creativity demands financial investment over time. Before I lived in Greenfield, I worked as a music therapist for a large public school system in Texas. I was full-time salaried and there were
even three of us on staff. We also had two interns a year. The three of us saw every single elementary school special needs class a week. We added a bright and exciting way for students to meet their goals and excel. IDA requires that you provide the best possible services
to all students. The residents have spoken. We want you to invest in the schools. We want it so badly. We are willing to pay more in taxes. While I support increasing the levy to meet the school's budgetary needs, I need to underline how much the residents are putting on the line. Invest in the
schools so that invest in the schools so that parents will choose to keep their kids in district. Invest so that neighboring communities want their kids to come to our schools. I would also ask that moving forward you scrutinize the budgets of other departments as hard as
you do the schools. Please consider that in the very near future federal aid may not be available or worse levied against us to progress a hateful campaign by the government. Three cop cars would pay for over five teachers aids. Furthermore, while I support this measure to fund the
schools, please recognize that if you do not get this budget under control, you are only asking residents to send their tax dollars out of district as more and more parents choose to choice out. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to go back to those in
the room. So, next up, I have Roxan Wedigardner. Good evening, counselors, madame president. I'm uh speaking to you tonight as a Greenfield taxpayer with experience as a Greenfield. Sorry, we didn't get your
name and address. I know we all know it. Okay. Well, the name Roxanne Wed Gartner, 85 Hastings Street. Sorry. um with experience as a Greenfield uh school committee member for a total of
10 years and the city's past chief executive. I fully understand the difficulty of the task ahead of you in finalizing the FY26 budget as a balanced budget.
But I am also taken aback by Mayor Disorger's 0% increase in the FY26 school budget. In essence, a defending of the budget. I ask you to at a
minimum authorize the expenditure of the school committee's request of an additional $350,000 to increase the school department budget by 1.48% 48% over the FY25 budget. With their request, I believe
the school committee has struck a positive uh compromise uh in good faith and um a little special extra shout out to and hope that you will also
support the uh forming in the opioid ordinance. um good work on the part of those people who are involved. I think it's an excellent way to proceed on that. Thank you. Thank you,
Pamela Goodwin. Good evening, counselors. My name is Pamela Goodwin, live at 54 High Street over at the Weldon. Um, about six years ago, I decided that I wouldn't get involved in the school committee's business. I kind of chose to get involved in GET and a
whole lot of other things. However, I have been attending the school committee lately. Um, and I have been watching some of the things when I haven't been able to be there in person. I'm struck as Melody Goodwin just talked about um when things are
requested um she's not getting them and she's a member. I also saw that um the mayor had to get up her seat and go over and make a public comment because the chair would not recognize her. Um, I know that we had asked um which
programs might be cut of the superintendent and there was not any information about that forthcoming. Um, I know this was a big deal about, you know, shutting down buildings and reorganizing. Um, many times I don't see
the school committee acting like a committee. I don't see a vote called among members and that concerns me. Um I will say that when my youngest son went off to um Lake Tahoe
um I he was in um the cuisine area and he called me up and he said, "Hey mom, I'm going to come back and go to Boston." And I said, "Well, what culinary school is that?" and he said, "I want to go to Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology and become a
master mechanic." He has done this in entire life. I took out a loan. He took out a loan and I had a real debt to income problem the rest of my life. He recently he always took the loan over
and I said, "This isn't something I was going to do. I just was going to help you get to school. Now you pay it." So, he paid off his loan, my loan, and his wife's nursing loan. And I just recently am able to actually get my own credit
card because everybody looked at that and said, "We're not going to loan you." When my car was destroyed, I couldn't get a car loan from a credit union that I had had since the 1990s. So, you don't have to tell me how hard it is to have a
debt to income ratio and how much I've had to tighten my belt and take a close look at my budget. I also when I became an educational consultant, I chose to talk about money management. I taught a college class. I taught little tiny
children. I was teaching adults as well. So, you kind of tighten your budget. You look at see what you can get rid of. you live within your income. And I would like to think that the city of Greenfield can figure out how to do that. And I honor the fact that our
current mayor looks very closely at every every penny, at every budget, at everything, reading contracts, and I honor that. And so I would ask that you not um spend more than you can afford and wait and see. I like Suzanne's Susan
Morafik's thing about a supplemental budget. should there be a problem. When we have exploding pipes, we have emergencies on the city side as well. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Sarah Lentz. Hi, thank you. Um, I have a
surprise visitor. My daughter Juniper Lince uh was so excited about this she came over. Um, my name is Sarah. Uh, I live at 35 Lincoln Street. Good evening and thank you for the time today. Um,
I'm relatively new to Greenfield. I moved here two years ago with my family from Austin, Texas. It was a big move. Uh, and every day there's someone who asks me why Greenfield. Um, a big part
of that move, uh, when we visited cities around the country was the community here and talking to people who clearly valued education. My husband is a teacher. He was a teacher in Texas. He currently teaches as a special ed teacher at the
Greenfield Middle School. My daughter goes to fourth grade uh, at four corners. And I have to say, I hear a lot of complaints on the street and on the Facebook and all the things about the Greenfield School, and every one of them
usually surprises me because my experience here has been nothing but excellent. My kid is thriving. Uh, in one year she went from very low percentile testing on her math and language arts scores, which we could not
get support for back in Texas, to in one year, she is now over the 90th percentile in her tests. And that is completely because of the incredible dedication of the school and her teachers and the attention she gets here
that she would not have gotten where we came from. I see such a bright future for this community, but only if the schools keep getting the support they need. There are young families who are
considering where they are going to next. Right now, this is a moment where people are thinking about where they will move to. Without prioritizing education, this district will not grow. This city, Greenfield, will not grow.
This is a tough choice, but our kids need more, not less. I ask you when you are thinking about this not to think about just one year's budget. I you really need to be considering the future. What kind of community do you
want Greenfield to be known for? That is what you are voting for today. And and thank you for your time. Do you have anything to say about your school? I have time till the timer goes off. No.
Nope. You just talked into it. Oh, no. You got to talk into the green one. My teacher gives us all the support we need. I have a kid in my class who has a hard time with everything, but she just goes on. But when she's done, she comes
talks to the kids and help him through with all the stuff. and if anybody has a hard time, she helps them and she's really nice and she plays a song to get everybody to know what it
is. And and this is after her class doubled without any warning. And she's also going to the middle school next year without any warning. And throughout all of this, she has been ecstatic and excited because she trusts the schools
here. Please keep our kids trusting the schools. Please keep the parents trusting the schools. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Finada. Louden. I can't read it. It looks like sen.
Oh, Bel Lden. Me? Sure. Sweet. I don't know if I can follow that. You guys, come on. So, I'm here to talk about the um opioid. Um we have to get your name address. My name is Bowden 68 Federal.
Um, I work at the recover project and I'm also um a person with lived experience. Um, and uh um I am a a a product of
opioid use and um so these sexy legs aren't just for show. Uh it's exactly what happens to people when we abuse drugs. Um so I've been through uh the
stigma that it causes. Uh I've come to the point where I don't care anymore. Uh I don't have to explain uh how I lost my legs. Most people think I was in the war. I whatever.
Um but uh I was in a war a war on drugs and um and uh you know I I I got out alive so I guess I won but a part of me stayed stayed behind and I don't want this to happen to anybody else and I
don't want the stigma to follow them like it has with most of the people that I talk to. I've been clean and sober for 22 years. I've seen what happens to people. I've lost a lot of friends to
opioids and uh I've heard the stigma. I' I've been in conversation with people who don't understand. Um we're just trying to get people to understand and to see that we're just people.
And yeah, I made some bad decisions, but um you know, I I'm still a good person. I have a good heart. Uh I work in the the service of others because I know what it's like. And so, please consider
passing this ordinance. Thank you for your time. You Sarah Rashad. Hi, Sarah Rashad. Uh, Greenfield, Massachusetts. All right. Um, I'm here
to ask for your support and passing the opioid abatement commission uh ordinance. I don't really know what we're calling it, but that's what I called it. Um, a lot of work has gone into this,
uh, not just the past year, but for years. Um, and beyond that, a lot of lives and a lot of lives lost and that are continuing to be lost. Um, I want to like just recall something
that was said earlier by Mayor Jenny. This is something that across the state they're looking at as the model. That's huge. That is so big and I'm so proud of all the work that has gone into
that. Um, and all the people who helped to pioneer that. I also want to mention what might be um like a hot button issue with the $3,000 stipend that gets paid directly
from the opioid abatement funds themselves. Um so if there was any questions or concerns about that, just wanted to offer that clarity. Um, and then, um, outside of my role as a recovery
coach and as a person in recovery, I want to touch on the school, the schools, because I'm also a parent in this town. Please, please, please fund our schools. Um, there was talk about overfunding. I don't think you can
overfund a child's education, honestly. Um, so please, please fund our schools. And I'm going to go back to the abatements actually. Um, it's hard, as we've heard with the stigma, it's hard to get up and identify
as a person with lived and living experience. Um, so when we're asking for a majority of the commission to be people with lived and living experience and to get up here and um do really really heavy work, I think it's
important that we compensate for that work, which is why we had put in for that $3,000 that gets paid through the opioid abatement funds themselves. Um, but I I want to acknowledge that it it there is still stigma. the town. Um,
we're we're changing and the country is changing, but the stigma is still very present. Um, and please pass this so we can uh we can have less less stigma and more help. Um, and please fund our schools. Thank
you for all that you do. Yeah. Thank you, David Mascer. To better this time. I'm say Wendelowski. Good evening, David Moscaro, 43 Country
Club Road. I I always make it clear that um who I'm speaking for and I'm speaking as a resident, not the public safety commissioner of Greenfield. Um I find it interesting that there's applauds and then there's not applauds. Um, and um,
you know, the folks that are concerned about the school budget aren't necessarily against the schools. I mean, I'm 100% for the schools and for the schools to be funded 100%. But I'd like to know where the $2.2 million or reserve are going to
that the school committee and the superintendent say are committed to. Does anybody in this room, including the superintendent in the the school committee, have a list of where that $2.2 2 million is going to be spent on. Is it going to be spent on music, which is important to me? Is it going to be
spent on arts? Is it going to be spent on reading in English? The grade schools are in the bottom 50 cities in Massachusetts for the reading in English. Is that $2.2 million going to go towards the kids? A lot of folks are
talking about the kids, the student, the teachers. Teachers should be the priority. How many assistants of the assistant of the assistant of the admin do we have? Why don't we have more English and reading assistants to help
the children so we can get out of that 50 lowest 50%. I think we're administration topheavy. I'm concerned about the business finance director of the schools who owns a consulting firm who also has POS coming
to his consulting firm from our school system. He should not be the financial director of our schools as a consultant writing POS to his own firm. This is a problem. Does it border fraud? I don't know. But it's a
damn good question. I believe in the schools, but I believe in the teachers. I believe that the children should be educated 100%. Why are kids leaving Greenfield? When I first moved to Greenfield 20 almost 30 years ago, the first thing I
read in the paper that there was like two or$4 million missing. This was back in the '9s. I choiced my kids out of Greenfield because of the money problems. Not because of the bad teachers, but because of the money problems. We have to look into these
problems. You can't draw the line and say I'm for the schools or I'm against the schools. I'm for the schools, but we need to be fiscally responsible. And what does that mean? We need to manage our money. We need to use our resources
effectively. And we need ethics. As a person in the security field and as the public safety commission, ethics is number one to me. Do we have ethics in the administration of the school department and the school committee? I don't think
so. This is where I stand. Nobody needs to applaud, but I'm 100% for the children of Greenfield, but things need to change and we need to look at the finances. I'm calling for an full audit independent of the school financials so we can all see what the truth is. Thank
you for your hard work because I know you all work really hard for our city. Thank you, Anna McB. Anna McBain, Deerfield Street, uh here in town. I'm here as the unit C. So
that's uh everyone that doesn't hold a DESIE uh acknowledged professional lensure who is on our education staff. Uh, I am their representative for the union and I'm just here to plead that
you guys don't give us a pay cut because with the 17% health insurance hike that is coming, there is no one I represent that will not lose money. And pretty much
everyone I represent already has to have at least two jobs, including myself, beyond my union job and my job with the town, to sustain the bills, and we're still begging our parents for loans all
the time. So the fact that I'm hearing that people that are not the ones who are educating the kids are not the ones that are looking at reports that say you are failing be and then you're saying
you're saying that these people in other departments are getting raises and then the mayor is saying oh you can't even have enough to have the same amount you had last year. That doesn't seem fair. That seems
like we are being punished for the fact that we chose to do something nice with our lives instead of just going around and sitting at a desk. give 350, but actually enough to level fund our
schools because we will never get out a turnaround unless you give us enough funds to finish staffing because we are understaffed already and then you're saying let's have less money. Well, that will incur more anger from the state. we
will get in even more trouble because our so our special education and social emotional departments are already severely understaffed and inaccurately staffed. So yes, there are problems.
Everyone is at fault. But you guys not saying that the mayor's budget is wrong is just going to increase the problems and cause more reasons for families to genuinely need to have their children in other
locations because of the lack of funding. Um so just please know that when the mayor says that we are overfunded, we're not. We're in fact severely
underfunded and if you guys can't come up with a bigger number, we're going to be even more out of compliance with the laws and we're going to lose more students. Uh, thank you for your time. I hope the
opioid thing also works out. Thank you. online. I have Sophia Pastor or Pastori you can unmute. Hi. Yes. I'm Sophia Pastor 366 10 Walnut Street. I am a
parent of a Federal Street Elementary Schooler who started in kindergarten online during the lockdown and was taught by a 20-year veteran teacher who had never taught online before how to read in kindergarten. And I still the
amount of gratitude I have for the school system, I really just can't state it. I am an evangelist for the Greenfield school system. Um I have a younger child who will be a kindergartener at Federal Street this fall. Um, I have a fourth grader who was
prepped to go to stay in his school in fifth grade and and is really excited about the middle school because of the work that his that the staff at Federal Street have done to get him excited to, you know, they have taking them over there, talking to them about the
programming. I really could not be happier with the experience that we've had with our neighborhood school. Um, I would like to echo what was stated by councelor Bullock earlier that hearing that schools, public schools
anywhere in the United States, but particularly in Greenfield are overfunded is impossible to believe. And I I say this as someone who was born in the European Union, has family in a country where where schools are
genuinely fully funded. Um, and we, this public school is the only public service that we have in the United States. The only equalizer, education is the only equalizer that we have. Greenfield is a workingclass town. I love Greenfield for
being a working-class town. We are so passionate. We work so hard here. The mayor works so hard. The town council works so hard. Everyone who's spoken tonight works so unbelievably hard. Um and so I all I have seen is public
school staff work creatively with very few resources. I see the PTO meeting gaps in you know I see parents, teachers and staff who are not only educating but also working as social workers as you
know therapists as family workers. There is a lot that goes into educating in a town where people's basic needs are not met. And that's true again in a lot of the country. Massachusetts, we're lucky, but still Greenfield, we have some very serious resource issues as a town. Um,
so I I would love and I I also I want to applaud the the town the sorry the school council the current school council and superintendent for the work they have done on equity for many many years. I was one of a group of parents. There have been many of us who asked for an end to school choice, who asked for
redistricting, for some of these equity issues to be looked at, and I applaud the current superintendent and um and school council for their conviction in addressing that. Um, and I see some of those benefits already in in the town in
the one year that it's been in effect. And I will lastly say I am also um a social worker in the field of addiction. I'm someone who has addiction in my family, in my friend group, who has lost people, who has been lucky enough to work alongside people who are in
recovery from opiate use. And I also applaud the town council and everyone who has worked on um again, I don't know what it's called, the opioid um commission. And I and I would like
to earlier that um people who who stand in their um personal experience with opioid addiction are being incredibly brave and we ask people to live in the worst things that ever happened to them.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Back in the room I have Stacy Ston. Hello, my name is Stacy Ston. I live at 74 High Street here in town. That's precinct 6. Um, I'm speaking for myself as a as a
citizen of our beautiful community. Um, I just want to be clear that the way that I'm approaching this conversation is by knowing very, very much in my heart that we all have the same at heart right now. Everybody in this whole room
cares about our kids. There's that that for me is not in dispute. But I do think that perhaps we have honest disagreements about how we care for that how we get there to that place um of having the kinds of school and the kind of community in general that we
want. When I hear the question being asked of what do we get for these dollars, where are they even going? I wonder if anyone went to the band concert last week. or heard about the accelerationmies that happen during the breaks that are working to try to
address the actual gaps that we recognize and we admit that we have. I wonder about this innovation pathway grant that we're going to learn more about that will help springboard us into the future. These are the kinds of programs that we want to be highlighting and working together to support because
that's what's going to draw more students back hopefully if we're lucky. It also could be the source of good jobs for people in our community. I've heard also a lot about the students who are leaving. Some
people say the word fleeing. I don't think that's true. They all have other reasons besides whatever perceived um decline of our schools there there is. But I wonder are we resigning ourselves to that to perpetual shedding of
population until we're all gone or are we actually identifying a place where we can say here we stand what is our goal for growth and specifically how are the schools a part of those goals and part of those plans that's what I would love
to hear more about um when we think about the budget we gave several numbers one of them is the what we needed that was 7% that's out of the question we get that but then there's the what we need to sustain us which would have been a level funding.
We're trying to get close to that. And I want to be clear, the $350,000 like that is not the actual gap, but we're going to try to backfill it with additional reserves beyond what we had committed prior. Um, I would love to do more to work with
you all as partners in this work moving forward. I think that there's a lot that we can learn from this experience and how we might actually address some of these questions further earlier on in the process or develop working relationships that avoid us having this kind of thing every time we get
here. Um, I did want to seek clarity on a thing that was mentioned earlier, but I'm just going to put it out there and we'll see if clarity comes. But thinking about our transportation numbers, um, in the budget that I received, there was no
25% increase. It was actually a 9% decrease in our transportation budget. So, I would love to know where the sources being referenced are actually coming from on that number. Thank you. All right, I have Tara Clutier.
Hello, my name is Tara Clutier. I teach Spanish at Greenfield High School where I have since 1995. Um, excuse me. Uh, my I went to Greenfield High School. I graduated in 1988. I've been here forever. my family,
all of us, my children, um my siblings, my nieces and nephews. Um this is important to me. Um I'm asking you to level fund the budget. I have two things that sitting here this evening have come up for me. One, I need
to talk about Karen Patnode because I've also worked with Karen for I'm not positive 20 years. Um she is extremely qualified. She is extremely invested in in our school system. I've worked under
seven, eight superintendents and I have never met any that are this invested in our community and our school system. She has extreme integrity and Karen Patnode is a rule follower. It's insulting to
our our schools and this is contributing to a negative image in our community that we're sitting at this this evening and and and doing this. Um so um I'm asking you to vote to to fund the
school budget. This is a level we're not asking for expansion. We are asking to keep what we have. What do we have? We have strong athletics. We have art, music, libraries, foreign language. We
have lots of AP classes. We have services for high need students and highly qualified teachers in reasonable class sizes. That's what we want. We want Greenfield to be a place where kids want to come, where parents want to send
their children. When I went here in the 80s, Greenfield public schools were the place to be. everybody. This was it. The the surrounding towns looked up to Greenfield. Um doing this and having
accusatory um discussions or comments is not putting us where we should be. This is taking us down. Um we are not asking for extreme things. We are asking for a
levelfunded budget and We deserve it. Your the children deserve it. The teachers deserve it. Um I've heard people talk about growth for our town and inadequate funding for schools
does not equate to growth for the town. Plain and simple. If we don't have strong schools, we don't have a strong town. Please fund our schools. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Emily Coer. Hi, my name is Emily Kester. I live in Precinct Six. Um, I'm a mom of three children. I raised them in a community not Greenfield. My eldest is nine years older than my youngest.
Um, by the time my youngest graduated high school, her graduating class was onethird the size of her older brothers. This is declining enrollment. You want to be afraid of it. Um, a a community that does not invest in its
schools shoots itself in the foot. I really encourage you to invest in the schools. At the same time I'm hearing tonight there are some concerns around transparency and I don't know what the council can do to um break
through that but it would be really helpful for all involved if you could do that. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. I have two more online. Uh Cheryl Sabara. Yes. Good evening. Um, my name is Cheryl
Sabara and I am the executive director and senior staff attorney for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards and I'm also a member of Care Mass, which is the municipal training and technical assistance team for the opioid abatement settlement funds that
are managed by the Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction and Services. and I really want to thank you for considering enacting the first opioid use and prevention commission ordinance in Massachusetts. Um I I was a
proud I am a proud member of Care Mass and I was very proud to have worked with your health department and other municipal departments and people with lived and lived experience um to to help um with this ordinance and enacting it
will really demonstrate the city's commitment to listening to people with lived and living experience in determining what evidence-based debatement strategies are needed most in Greenfield. We hope other municipalities follow this city council's lead and do
the same. Thanks very much. Thank you. And last on uh online is Erica Hansel or Henzel Hensel. Hi everybody. Good evening. Um my name is Erikica Hensel. I'm the
project manager for opioid response. Um, and I just wanted to I am not a Greenfield city resident. Uh, I just wanted to applaud all the work that went into the opioid ordinance, especially by Sarah Hearn and Marine Maryanne Bulock.
And I wanted to uplift the Greenfield community for valuing the voices of those with lived and living experiences. As the mayor said, it will be groundbreaking for the state and spotlighted. So, I just want to say great job. Thanks. Thank you.
is I think I've got everybody. There's not anybody else on the list. Going once, going twice. Great. Um, thank you all for turning out this evening. Um, I really appreciate and and the kids Juniper I think who has left
already. Um, thank you for being here and folks who are being through your lived experience. Um, I know that's this is not easy. So, thank you for being public um when there's stigma. Um, we really appreciate you being here. So, thank
you. So, the the next on our agenda is the public hearing and second readings. So, Mike, can I have you uh councelor Toronto read the second reading, page 26. Uh, in accordance with Home World Charter, the Greenville City Council
will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at Johnsaw Community Center, 35 Pleasant Street in Zoom to receive public input on the following. Authorize 1,7876 for payment of FY23 electric
utility bill from the FY25 utilities budget. FY2026 operating budget appropriate 67 uh 7,925. That doesn't sound right. Million. No, sorry.
67,925,100 for the FY26 general fund budget. Appropriate $2,840,89 for the FY2026 water enterprise fund. Appropriate 3,895,664 for the FY2026 sewer enterprise fund. Appropriate
$2,390,826 for the FY2026 GAT enterprise fund. and to establish budgets for revolving funds pursuant to MGL chapter 44 section 53E and a half for FY2026. The city council may consider the same on Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at John
Community Center, 35 Pleasant Street and Zoom. Thank you. And now the second reading. I'm going to open the public hearing at 9:05. We have nobody signed up for public comment.
And now you can read the second reading. All right. Authorize $1,7876 for payment of FY23 electric utility bill from the FY25 utilities budget. FY2026 operating budget appropriate 67,925,100 for the FY2026 general fund
budget. Appropriate $2,840,89 for the FY26 water enterprise fund. Appropriate $3,895,664 for the FY20226 sewer enterprise fund. Appropriate $2,390,826 for the FY2026 GA set
enterprise fund. Established budgets for revolving funds pursuant to MGL chapter 44 section 53E and a half for FY2026. Thank you. It is now 9:06 and we're closing the public hearing. All right. So, now we're going to skip
to motion two, and that is councelor Bullock. Would you like to read the motion on page 33? Okay. Order number FY25-083. The city council moved that it be
ordered that the Greenfield City Council amends the code of the city of Greenfield by adding to part two boards, commissions, committees, and other governing bodies chapter 156 opioid use and prevention commission as attached hereto and further amends the table of
contents and index of contents of the code and further that non-substantiative 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. Do I have a second?
And it Catherine I don't know how it voted out of committee. Yeah. So we'll go to Katherine for committee and comments there. Sure. So this received a unanimous positive recommendation from appointments and ordinances along with a
unanimous positive recommendation for an amendment. Um and and looking at the um the amendment was basically just to clarify the first section so that it it was not substantive in changing what
would happen. It just kind of changes changes the way it's written so that there's no doubt about the structure of the committee. Um when I looked in the packet today, the amendment that had Yeah. been
um the amendment is not uh Oh, there it is. Sorry. This has been a It's on page 36. It's right there. Thanks. Well, I can Yeah, it's been a stressful day. So, if you all look at uh page Thank you to the clerk's office. If
you'all look at page 36, you will see the amendments. Um the crossed out version is what was initially there and the boldage with red letters is what was
amended. What I don't know is whether we need to whether we can just make a motion to pass the I I imagine that we can make a motion to pass the amended version now. Can you let me know if that's accurate? CL clerk Scott.
Yeah. Yes, it is. Okay. Could I ask Councelor Bulock to just give us a like fly over of what this does? Yeah. Um just so everyone knows, the amendments didn't alter the spirit of or technicalities of the um ordinance
at all. Um it really was just like a little more like language the type of language that's written in charter and for ordinances. Um, basically this establishes a
commission, a formal commission for the city. Um, the commission is staffed by a by a board that is majority um people with direct experience. Um, that is spread out. Um there's a staggered
membership of two and four years so that there's um not all the whole board could not be vacant at the same time. Um it really tasks this group of people with not only figuring out what like how
to spend these dollars, but it also figures out how to adequately um engage in the public engagement process for these dollars on an ongoing basis. So, it's not like a oneoff thing and then the dollars are spent. Um, and
it also sets up a commission that then is who would be addressing issues around opioid use um in the city. So, if there was this sort of addresses um the new committee that was formed um you would
have a place to go if you want to ask questions like when the benches were removed from downtown. this is a commission that could have been tasked with addressing some of those issues, seeing could there be people that could work with some of the harm reduction services in town. Um,
so on top of dealing with the abatement strategies and making annual recommendations on where the funding would go and that sort of thing and making sure that the public engagement process is happening um, and there's a community feedback loop that's happening. Um, it's also administering
and overseeing a commission that would then be able to be an adviser to the mayor, to the police department, to the fire department, to this to the city council um in an ongoing way with a current and upto-date
um resources and really that's embedded in the community. Um, and I will just address the um I know the only real feedback I've heard in opposition of this is around the $3,000. As um some of the speakers said, the $3,000 is coming
out of the opioid abatement funds. It does not come out of the city budget. Um, and then it was highly recommended um by the partners that we worked with outside of the city that actually we compensate at a higher rate and and we lowered it
because we didn't think it would get through. Um, it works out to be about $250 a month. Um, and the idea is that these folks, especially the people who are there for the first three years, are
going to have a really high rate of engagement that needs to be done in order to get this system set up. Um, so someone said to me, I can't remember who, but someone said to me, that's more than we make on the council. And I'm like, yeah. And like this sucks. Like
it's terrible. You get paid nothing. I suffer at my other job not doing my other job because I'm doing this job. And so we do not want to put people in that position. Um, and the last thing I'll just say about that because I know that might be where we get some debate on it is that when you're a person with
lived experience and you identify as recovery in a professional setting, you're then often blocked from advancing in a professional setting in your life. You can get peer roles. Um, you can sometimes get roles in a program director uh position. Um, but really
being in a higher up position, you're you're blocked. And I I dealt with this at the hospital. Um, there is not a desire for you for there to be a staff that is outwardly identifiable as a risk. Um, whereas any other person who's
not outwardly identified as in recovery in the public like just deals with their substance use issue in private HIPPA confidentially. Um, and so I think it's just really important that we're compensating people and
um, it's not that much money and it comes out of the suffering of really the people in this community who've who've lost people. Counselors, any questions? I've been working in the department of mental health uh field since 1998 and so
I've seen uh the succ stories and how great this is. I want to thank the people who came here to tell the stories. It's wonderful to hear that. It's my person I know personally. It was just great to see him here and to do that stuff. And I I have to admit I was
one of the people who had a real problem with the $3,000. Not because people working on the commission don't deserve it, but I just need to I'm not gonna question this at all. I'm voting yes. No one worry. But I wanted to shout out to all the other volunteers. We have over
150 volunteers in this city who serve on commissions and boards and committees and some of them have lived experience too. Human rights commission has lived experience. the newly established ad hoc
unhoused committee has u people with lived experience. So I just want to make sure that we recognize and remember the other people who do the work behind the scenes that we kind of forget about and there was a I don't want to there was a comment made at one of the meetings
where I took offense to where it kind of dismissed the other people as unimportant. the people who serve on the boards and the commissions and the committees in this city do the work that we don't have to do. They do all the stuff to get the information to the
councils, to the departments, and we need to remember that. So, so I want to just take this opportunity to remember the other people who do the work as well and let's not forget about them. Councelor Mendes, I just want to kind of piggyback on some
of the stuff that's been said and just voice my support for this. Uh, we as a community have really been affected by the opioid crisis and I've lost many friends because of that.
Um, and if there's any way that we can provide institutional support and legitimacy to people who are struggling with this and have moved past it and are in a position to help others and guide
others, I think we should do that. I don't think I see any other comments. So, let's move to a roll call vote. Okay. And we're just making it clear that you're voting on the recommendation from A and O with the little um
amendments. So on page 36. Cool. Councelor Goolib. Yes. Councelor Gordon. Yes. Councelor Master Tatara. Yes. Councelor Bottomley. Yes. Councelor Bullock. Yes. Councelor Perry. Yes.
Councelor Healey. Yes. Councelor Brown, yes. Vice President Garrett, yes. Councelor Minhos, yes. Councelor Teronzo, yep. Does the president wish to vote? Yes. And yes. The motion passes
unanimously. Thank you all for all your really hard work. Really appreciate it. Okay, we're going to skip now to the FY26 operating budget. Um, and so that is page 103. And Councelor Toronto, it's
your show. Thanks. All right. Um, order number FY25085, city council, upon recommendation of the mayor to appropriate
67,925,100 for the FY2026 general fund budget, moves that it be ordered that the city council vote to appropriate the sum of 67,925,100, which is the full amount necessary for the fiscal year 2026 general fund budget July 1, 2025 to June
30th, 2026. To meet set appropriation, the following funding sources and amounts will be raised and transferred from parking meter receipts reserve 350,000, oped stabilization 100,000, stabilization 200,000, free cash
100,000, raise and appropriate 67,175,100. Majority vote required. Do I have a second? Yes, second comment. Um and then uh any comments coming out of ways and means before go.
Um no I don't believe so. We we uh huh I mean it was yes we had a unanimous positive recommendation on this uh budget number. Um we, you know, critiqued
um what we could and to be honest, um stopped some of the deliberation at a certain point when it was apparent that what had been cut is already been cut. Um and
there was really no more fat to trim that would be feasible. Um, so we did a we did have a unanimous positive recommendation on this budget. Thank you. All right, I've got councelor Haley next. Yeah, I'd like to make a
motion to amend. Second. That motion would be as followed. Um, move that be ordered that the city council approves the appropriation of 68,272 $275,100 for the FY26 general fund budget, which reflects
a $350,000 increase over the mayor's budget for the purpose of increasing the FY26 city of Greenfield schools operating budget allocation to $24,47,000 five or 47,549 as recommended by the school
committee resolution on May 13, 2025. a point of order on the amendment. Um, we typically do this uh department by department, right? So, we're I feel like we're not there yet. I don't know.
That's um I think it's the full number and I talked to um Clerk Scott about where the best place for the amendment and felt like at the beginning so that you know what the number is and then then we'll
go through discussion. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, councelor Healey. Yeah. So, um just a little background on why I agreed to do this. Um because as most of you know, I'm probably one of the most conservative members on this council. All right.
Um this was a tough one, but I also have four kids in the Greenfield public school system. One of them did start school during COVID in kindergarten. He had I heard all this stuff about reading, so I wanted to touch on this. My son had Jen Marsh on every day working
with him to get his reading scores up because his math suffered. He's now doing great at math and reading, right? The schools did a great job rebounding from that issue. I think when you look at this, do I disagree with the mayor? No. Do I disagree with the
schools? A little. But I think it's it needs to be thought out in a well planned manner before we start defunding the schools. We need to look at the school needs to look at transportation. I've said it two years ago when I voted
on this. Um, and I was very hesitant when I did it then that transportation was a big issue. Um, we're we're running a transportation department that is failing. Um, we're busing students in other districts as a business unit that we don't even have the business running.
So, the school committee has a lot of work and I'm my vote for this is placing a lot of faith that there's going to be some collaboration between the school department, the school committee, the mayor's office, and the council to find ways to make our budget more feasible for future expenses because I will say
we can't sustain this in the long run. It's unsustainable. Um, with that being said, you know, I know a lot of the other counselors here did a lot of the leg work. I listen to them. They have the statistics. I I really just want to say let's get over this hump. Let's meet the
compromise that they asked for. Let's look at it next year. And I swear to everybody here, I might not be in this chair next year by choice. But I will be in that chair if we don't see results in the school department and the school committee to get their budget in line. I
will be in there vocalizing how I supported this and how I haven't seen changes. And we need changes. Thank you. Councelor Bon. Um, the problem throughout this entire budget process is that it's really hard
to assess the truth of the school budget because of all the manipulations, the lack of detailed numbers, unclear financial policies, and lack of meaningful oversight from the school committee. I'm not going to rehash the Ways and Means Committee budget meeting because we covered a lot
and a lot of statistics and it took hours to review this stuff, days to review this. Uh, but I want to highlight one thing. The school revolving accounts currently have well over five million. That's an extraordinary amount. The history and the spending pattern of
those accounts over the past three years show that they will continue to retain a large surplus. I believe they have enough money to cover their expenses. how they spend it is up to the superintendent. It's not up to the city council. I know every single person in this room values education, and I'm
proud to live in this community that supports education. We've seen that over and over again. Um, but we deserve better from those tasked with creating and reviewing the budget for our schools. Transparency and good management are critical. They're
absolutely critical if our schools are going to get the funding they need because this is a very difficult moment. Um, if this motion is approved, I actually do believe this will be a slap in the face to all the city departments and department heads
that have scrutinize their budgets to live within the means we have in this very abnormally challenging year. So, I will be voting no on this motion. Councelor Toronto.
Um yeah, uh it's never fun. Um I've been in this seat uh for four years now and every year this is a little bit of a problem. A couple years ago, we were able to find some creative solutions uh
and dig some money out of some other funds that weren't being utilized at the time um and put them towards the school. Um what I've learned is that those funds
actually never really ended up being needed and then they ended up staying in the revolving funds of the schools. So, it didn't come back to the general fund. Um, which is a little disheartening. Uh, so we essentially already made this decision two years ago. Um, so the
money's already there. So, just use it now because we already gave it to you from different accounts. Um, I think it's fiscally imprudent to use to to raise our taxes to raise towards the um levy limit any
closer. um when there are other funds available, the other 350,000 is available in revolving accounts and could be used. And I understand the argument that the schools don't want to deplete all their
extra funding, but I think the school should deplete all their extra funding before they take from the city's funding extra funding. Extra funding because the city has the responsibility of running all of the departments, not just the schools. And I I hate that the narrative
gets spun with these kind of things about like whether you're in support of the schools or you're not because I think it's a really really crappy tactic to use. And I grew up here. I might be the only person sitting at this loop. I'm not
sure that bled green and white my whole time here. My kids go here. So, if anybody wants to challenge my my feeling about the school department, Tara was my seventh grade Spanish teacher. All right. Like her first year.
All right. So, like I love the school system that's here. I want my kids go to the same school I went to. It's it's phenomenal to go in there and see the activities and the changes. But what's also disheartening to hear is there's so much work being done
by the people who are there. And then yet it seems like there might just be some lack of a better term some mismanagement of how we're use utilizing our our money. And we've talked about this before about being an administratively
topheavy system in comparison to a lot of other systems. And we've got the data for that. We've we've we've all seen this. Whether or not the people who are actually doing it agree that's that's all right. They don't have to. Um, but I will say it's it's
really it's warming to have the person doing it and then a little bit disheartening at the same time that the principal at Four Corners who just started this year has to spend and I love that she does it but it's
unfortunate that she does. She spends part of her day being a reading interventionist at the school. That makes no sense. We don't we I just think we need it needs to be looked at better. And I I appreciate um Dave
Moscella's uh comments earlier about perhaps we do need an audit. Perhaps we do need if we're not going to be able to have a full transparency on how the money is spent, then force it. Um we've asked, we've gotten some things. We've gotten stonewalled on some things. It would be
real nice. I would love the collaboration that councelor Healey is talking about for the future even though I won't be in this seat after the end of the year anyway. But it would be real nice because it would make it better for the students to see, the teachers to
see, the administrators to see, the the taxpayers of the of the city, all the everyone to be able to see as clearly as they can every other budget. Um, and this one just has it it's unfortunate that it has a
history of just being uh veiled for us to really get a clear picture of of exactly where our taxpayers are going or taxpayer money is going u when it does come to the schools. And so I I'm going to vote no on this as well. Um because I
don't think we need to put any further burden on the rest of the citizens or get closer to our levy limit since we already have money sitting in an account that could be used to to pay that rest of the 350. I appreciate the work to try to lower that number, but I still don't
think it's necessary. And and if it come as uh Susan Morgafic said earlier, if it does come to a point where we need it and we have to do a supplemental budget, I think that that's a lot more prudent way to do it than to put the money up front, it not to be spent, and then it's going to go back into a revolving
account. So that I will be saying no to this uh this amendment as well. Councelor Perry, my mother was a teacher. My daughter went to Greenwood High School. I have two grandkids in the Greenwood school system. I even substituted for a year in
2006 when I was between jobs. So, you know, I've seen it. I know it. Uh I have I'm new here and I've been here, you know, less than two years. But I think if we went back to the minutes
of previous years and we went back to the GCTV video and Zoom videos, this conversation has happened over and over and over and over again. Some of the previous colleagues warned about this
four, five years ago and here we are having the same conversation again. You know, it's a heavy ask. It's a heavy asked given the history of the past budget debates. The question I asked is will we be right back here next year having the same conversation. No matter
what guarantees are made, no matter what pledges are made, it was inferred that there would be certain concessions requested in exchange for $350,000 if I made a good faith vote, which leaves me in a very compromised and conflicted position, not knowing if those assurances will be honored down
the road, especially given past practices and failures. Who am I supposed to believe? Who am I supposed to trust? Fool me once. The jokes's on me. You know how how often are we going to keep doing the same thing over and over again? Whatever happens tonight, I ask that the school
and the city begin working collaboratively together now on the next year's budget. But I don't know if that's going to happen. What What Why would have I have any feelings that that would happen given what has happened in the past, given what even happened this
year? You know, I sought to complete this the seat uh hoping to bring change and make a difference as an independent member, listening to all the sides, taking in all considerations and making determinations based on what's best for this city and not based on both of favor
or payback. The politics drives me crazy. People keep saying about cuts, cuts, cuts. There was a cut two years ago and concert disorder went back and got the money to save that cut and then the
previous mayor who made that cut has the gall to sit there and say give him the money. Well, where were you two years ago, mayor? That politics drives me crazy. And I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this. I know Andrew is gonna put this quote in. And I'm getting quoted
right this time, Mike. Not from the last time when I was misqued. But you know what are we what are we doing? I had to write this down because I knew I never remember any of this stuff. I had no experience when I was appointed to Ways and Means Committee and I got an expertise of others to help
guide me. Thank you Ways and Means who helped me through. And we, you know, it was a tough budget season. It was frustrating. We had to walk through the blood on the floor to get into the city hall and listen to the department heads.
They didn't cry, but they wanted to to tell us what they wanted and what they weren't getting and what they were giving up. Department heads who run the city for us and they're making the sacrifices over and over and over again.
And we get they get how many times we hear the ridicule. They don't need a fire department. They don't need a fire, you know, new building. They don't need a new fire engine. The cops, they can ride a bike. They don't need cars. all the stuff that demeans the work. What
are we supposed to cut? Can we get get rid of the recreation department? Get away do away with all the parks. You know, that will save us $275,000. Why not do that? The works of the Ways and Means Committee appears to be irrelevant now.
If we vote this in, all the work we did for the last four months doesn't mean anything because don't listen to us. Two weeks ago, we were talking about how folks can't afford to live here and how we need to find ways to make living here more affordable. You know, we got to
make some cuts we got to find to save some money, make let people live here. And now we're talking about increasing taxes. Does that make any sense that we had this conversation two weeks ago, let's not do this, and now we're saying let's do this. I don't get
it. So, here we are back at the same place. We seem to find ourselves every year. Does anything ever change? You know, I like the com I like the suggestions that Susan made. I like the suggestions that Maui made. Those are good things. Yes, if you need the money
during the year, come back and tell us and we'll see what we can do. You know, but when are we going to leave the politics at the door and govern from a place that services everyone in the city for the greater good? That's what we're here for. everybody. You know, this these special wants and these special
needs insults all of us because we're all in it together. We're all going to sink together. We're all going to swim together. It's up to us to decide who's going to swim the fastest, who's going to swim first? Do we think that undercutting others is the best way to govern? Do we
vote a certain way because we're afraid of the repercussions if we make a difficult vote? Do we vote out of vengeance or revenge? You know, the politics of the city that we've seen over and over and over again. Is that unreasonable for us to support the mayor in her best recent attempts to guide the
city and break the culture of the past? Why is the mayor being criticized for doing her job? A tough job. And yet the politics over and over again, you know, just slam her for doing her job. This will be the most consequential
vote for me as a counselor. The council as it is constituted next year at this time will find ourselves right back here doing the same thing over and over again. No matter which way tonight's vote goes or how the vote goes in November and that if you people have a
problem, change the council, change the school committee, put new faces in there who might approach it different and change the culture that we've been watching over and over and over again, you know. So, I ask my fellow
counselors to be sure that you're making the right vote for the right reason. Forget the politics. Forget about what people have been telling you. Forget about all the stuff. Vote your conscious. Vote your heart. Vote for the
city. Thanks, Councelor Minhas. This is an like an insane amount of thinking that I've put into this in the last like week or so. I could barely sleep last night cuz I was
anticipating what happened in public comment. I don't like the fact that and this is being presented as anyone who's critical of the way the
schools are spending their budget is anti-schools. Um that's not true. I've been to the schools. A few of the people who were in public comment were my educators.
Um, and what makes it difficult for me is that I don't want them to think that I'm against the schools. I don't want the schools to not get enough money. What I've been grappling with
is we're being told over and over that, hey, if we all lot the schools this funding in the next fiscal cycle, the schools will be more cooperative. I have over and over again,
if there's anything that I've like badgered down on every single damn time is I don't like the way that the school system is spending so much money on administrators rather than
teachers. I've said that a million times and that's fallen on deaf ears. That's doesn't the school committee. The school system thinks that's like a joke. That's stupid. Um that's insignificant.
And for me to believe that now all of a sudden that they want our votes that they're going to change that it's very hard for me to believe. But also at the same time I don't want the schools to be in a
position where they won't have the funds to operate because I think the teachers are doing a great job. The actual schools are doing a great job. Um, I don't think the administration is at all.
Um, and I wish I had written something down, but I I tried to last night and I just I couldn't because I was like, I don't know how exactly I will I will vote on this, what I will say. I wanted to hear everyone's point of view. But
um like councelor Perry was saying, this needs to change. We can't continue every fiscal cycle just promising things for the next one. And uh like
all for me, if I'm being honest, it's not even about fiscal responsibility and all of those things. It's within the school budget. I don't like how the money is being distributed
and I understand it's some people might say that's not our role. We don't have any say in that. But I will continue to keep saying that we need to stop spending so much money on these useless positions while our performance is going
down, while our enrollment is is declining and while our teachers are struggling. I I I see the school committee. I see I see the school administration kind of using
the teachers and our educators as like these like human shields and being like, "Okay, these are the people we need the funding for." And I'm like, "Yeah, but then you have like assistance upon assistance upon assistance for what? I don't see the advoc advocacy for
increasing teacher pay." And if it was about that, I' i'd be 110% down. So, that's what I'm grappling with. Um, and also another thing, if the mayor goes back on her
word, she has explicitly told us if there is an emergency, if there is if there are services that the schools cannot provide, she will ensure that they are met.
We are not going to let her go back on that. That's absolutely not possible. She's going to have a hell of a hard time continuing if she does that. So, those are those are my
thoughts. Um, I'm not sure if I was just rambling, but uh thank you, Councelor Bulock, and then council master. Okay. Um, there's a few things. One, I'm
wondering, on the council, if you met with the superintendent or the business manager and sat down one-on-one with them or two on the last three months, can you raise your hand?
had a direct conversation about the budget with any of the administrators from Greenfield Public Schools, one-on-one conversation. Okay, thanks. That's helpful.
Um, I think that I want to share why I asked that question. And why I asked that question is because a few months ago, you might remember that I brought some pretty hard financial questions to the council that
I was told by city employees that we were going to have a budget shortfall this year. And those questions weren't really met with open arms and like let's all be transparent and talk about these. those
questions were really met with anger and um it was pretty frustrating for me because I was at that point in time it was October and I was trying to figure out what are we going to see for a budget picture when we get to March,
April, May and this hasn't been so clear for me as like there's a lack of transparency and and there's like the like the the vibe, no one's explicitly said this, but
there's this like real undercurrent narrative that like there's some shady dwellings going on with the Greenfield public school budget. And as someone who has sat down, I have taken up many hours of Karen Patnout's
time. She did not know me before this and thank you for letting me take up many hours of your time and talked me through the 150 questions I've sent her over since March
and also I've sat down with Jenny and she has talked me through and gone line by line and showed me things. My understanding is that there's there's truth on both sides of this. And even
those of you that I don't agree with, I agree with a lot that that I maybe don't agree with your vote or what you're going to vote tonight. I agree with a lot of what you're saying. The way that I see this and what I've been told is that we currently have
$5.3 million in revolving counts. The unpaid expenses for FY25 are $1.2 million. Additionally, the school plans to use $2.2 million that they'd already
budgeted in. They're gonna pull. Karen told me this last week when I met with her again when she had 30 minutes between the ad hoc redist the ad hoc building whatever they're calling it building redistricting consolidation whatever it is now ad hoc committee
meeting and I'm assuming it was her lunchtime. She's going to pull an extra $765,000 out of the revolving funds that will leave us with about a million dollars in reserves. There is a best guidance from
the state that we do not spend down revolving accounts to zero. And the business administrator, the business manager did go over what types of things crop up throughout the year. And I was also shown what
positions we are not funding next year in terms of administration. So this idea that like these things have fallen on deaf ears like isn't true. You just have to ask the person directly and get the answer.
My the way that I view this is that actually I think that we have a public school department that has been fiscally prudent over the last five years with
ESSER funds. Rather than create unfunded mandates by spending those ESR funds in ways that we then couldn't fund, they didn't spend them on reoccurring expenses. So they were able to hold them over time. If you go back and you look
at 17, 18, 19, those revolving accounts were much lower. And if you look at and this is where we might not agree, but I can kind of und I can really understand as a person in a leadership position why Karen is choosing to do what she does.
She's saying this is my budget number because she's already entered into contracts with people for next year. Our teachers have already gone through choosing what schools they were going to move to when we were consolidating the buildings differently. teachers made plans and gave up concessions based on
like they have one kid in this school and if they went to that school they wouldn't be able to pick their other kid up on time. And so these administrators who many of I know by name and do not do nothing like we have to stop talking about public employees in this way. They
are employees of our city and they work every single day whether we think the ratio of them is correct or not. Like we should not be sitting on this floor and saying that people aren't doing their jobs unless we have a real founded claim and we have done everything to bring
that claim to the head of the city, the mayor, and it has not been addressed. Okay. The last thing I'm going to say is that I agree that things do need to change. I won't be here next year. And that means
that this vote for me is either I believe the mayor or I believe the school department. And what I believe is actually the numbers that I have been shown. And when when the school tells me this is what
they're gonna spend down and I said this to Jenny on Monday, I don't know what to do when I'm told one thing and another person tells me another thing. All I can do is look at the numbers. So I am absolutely voting yes on this. I've looked at the numbers in
depth for too many hours since March. And alongside this, I really encourage the school committee, the school department, the mayor's office, the city council to take a planful and intentional look at a three-year
projection. I don't think that that's the job of the school department. It is the job of the city to look at that long do that long range planning. this whatever the schoolart department is only getting what trickles down to them
or what they can get back in repayments from the state and so they rely on the city budget to fund them. So there's this collaboration process whether it's like another committee that gets formed I will sit on it for the next six months of my term I
will do that work for the next six months there needs to be some way that we're all intentionally working together I also agree that We need to implement additional oversight that supports budgeting in the upcoming years. And I
think this means the ad hoc committee that's looking at building closures and consolidation. I think that needs to be representative of multiple the multiple arms of um government in this city. I think we need to transition to an in-house employeebased business manager,
not one that is um uh cons on a consulting basis. We have the city This the school department has tried to do that. We have scared off multiple business managers with the things that have been said on council floor and school committee floor. People have withdrawn applications after they have
watched meetings that have taken place. And the last is that I think we need to outline policies more clearly that reallocate funds and review reallocations at set touch points throughout the year. So every quarter there is a review of revolving funds
that that goes to the school committee that that report gets brought to city council that this ad hoc committee or whatever it is is able to look at the budget throughout the year because the next three years are going to be very difficult for us. Um that's all I can say at 10 o'clock at
night to be honest but I will be I will be voting in support of this council me. Thanks. I've lived in Greenfield for a long, very long time. I have three adult children, all of whom went to uh
Greenfield public schools, my youngest of which was the overachiever. And uh because of the education he received at Greenfield uh public schools uh he did
uh five years at university university for practically nothing with all the scholarship he walked out of that high school with that were awarded to him. Um I don't want to use the term false
narrative but line items seem to roll over year after year after year. The funds don't seem to be used and I believe the money's there and um I
I also believe uh uh what Um Maryanne had to say that we we we definitely need an in-house finance director. Uh but there is uh this this the school has
more available funds than uh the city has in the stabilization fund. More um things need to be fixed. I think we need to uh take a look at the
the firm that does the uh the finances for the schools. And until that happens, I'm going to vote no tonight. All right, I'm gonna see if I can do this at all coherently.
I haven't been on council all that long. I have been in Greenfield for 10 years. Um, which is a tiny amount of time compared to a lot of people. And still having come to a lot of city council meetings in those 10 years, I've
never heard any other department head questioned and doubted and undermined the way that I have heard our school superintendent questioned in these meetings. I there are department heads who come in and say we need x amount of
dollars for this and who I as a private citizen I may have thought I'm sure you do not but I actually didn't know right and I've never heard the council sit here and say to any other department head repeatedly you are wrong about what you
say you need the council might say you know we we can't do that right now we're sorry there are things we can't fund we have a lot of constraints. Obviously, that is very real. But I I do find it really frustrating the way that the
superintendent and and other folks advocating for the schools are regularly dismissed when they are advocating for the things that they as professionals with much more experience than any of us in in that area have, you know, looked at it closely and said that they needed.
Um, so I agree with councelor Bulock. The way that we we talk about this just has to change. I don't want the superintendent question that way. I wouldn't want any department head question that way. We can have, you know, um, substantive disagreements, but to
sit here and say, I know better than you do how to how to run your department, I think is is really insulting. Um, all that said, I share a lot of the frustration that that others are um
voicing here. I get it. Um, none of us wants to see the schools underfunded. I think that's also a really key point. I wouldn't accuse anyone on any side of this of not caring about the schools. Um, and none of us wants to keep having this conversation.
Um, I would respectfully challenge the idea that, you know, what we're talking about now means that the work of Ways and Means, um, over these past few months doesn't matter. I think it's mattered very much. I'm very very grateful for it. I know I've I've watched the meetings um, the recordings.
I and I know how much work goes in behind the scenes before and after those meetings. Um, and I think that it's what's gotten us to a place where we can have a, you know, a real conversation about this that that we need to have. Um, and I really appreciate the work that the mayor has done and every city
department. Um, you know, this is, as the mayor said, this is just really, it's really difficult stuff. A lot of hard decisions have been made by everyone. Um, and everyone's put a ton of time into it. Um, and there are just so many ways, it's so striking to me that there's so
many ways that this whole thing could be different, right? Um it's we we're just set up for failure um and frustration year after year by and that is the fault of absolutely no one here. It's the way that our state
structures school funding. Um it's the way that our whole country does it. Uh there I I come from Illinois. Illinois does not have school budgets go through city budgets. So they just don't have this problem where every year the city has to have a fight about what you know department is going to get less funding
so that the schools can get more funding or vice versa. Um you know the chapter 70 formula needs to change. We have a profit driven health care system that is hiking our insurance rates um that is totally killing us. The way that you know rural school funding
is funded by appropriation at the state level every year makes it really hard for us to plan ahead. Uh, you know, there are just so many reasons why we need really big structural things to be really different in ways that would actually make it entirely possible that we wouldn't have to do this anymore. And
I can't help but think that there's like some people somewhere behind a curtain that are, you know, kind of loving watching us have these little these fights over scraps of funding every year, right? because like it keeps us focused on each other and not organizing to actually create the bigger structural
change that we need. Um, so I'm going to vote yes on this. I mean, I'll cut to the chase. It's I don't think that we're giving the schools a free pass if we put in a little more money for them to be able to uh meet level service needs. Um, I do
think that there's more of a need for oversight and transparency. I very much look forward to there being more conversations and more collaboration uh between the the schools and the school committee and the city council and the mayor's office on that. Um but I think it's just really irresponsible for
us to ask the the schools to completely drain their reserves. Um particularly in this year when we're very likely facing, you know, federal cuts. I said similar things about the in the zoning meeting last week, right? like the there are very likely federal cuts coming down the
line that um are going to do tremendous harm um in our communities in ways that we can't anticipate and also that we can't. Um we need the schools to have some reserves so that they can face whatever is coming. Um even if it's not direct
education funding, right? Like if Medicaid gets cut, that's a lot of, you know, uh, health issues that are going to affect our students and families and teachers and and school staff. If SNAP and EBT get cut, you know, kids aren't going to be able to have enough food at
home. That's going to affect the way that that, you know, things happen in schools. So I think that we, you know, need to give the schools something so that we can demonstrate good faith and they will have an opportunity to demonstrate to us that
they hear our concerns um and can do some things differently. And that's where I think is the best place for us to land right now so that you know we're not in an even worse situation next year or even even earlier
than that. Thanks. So, I don't know if I'll be coherent or as eloquent, but I first came to this room two years ago when it was the cuts on schools. Um, I have two kids who one
is out of the school system and thriving at a great school and uh the other is in the school system and her Spanish teacher is back there and um absolutely um and
I I keep thinking, you know, and when you talked about it being for me it's not about politics gotcha or who is on top. Um I really appreciate the work the mayor has done to call to light um the
challenges that we have and I really appreciate that the schools have said, "Okay, we're going to put $4 million in over this year and next year out of our accounts. That's going to leave us down at $1 million." Um, so I
feel like they've heard us and that's really important. Um, and I've talked to some of the school committee who have also said we want to do more transparency. Um, we want to make sure we're looking at what money is moving between accounts because that's really
important to because we are voting every time something moves in accounts here on city council and the same is not happening on the school committee. So why is that? Um, and Yes, they'll say it's their rules. Those rules need to
change and maybe that happened because of COVID year and there was extra money, but it's really important those are rules change. Um, and I appreciate the counselors who said we need to work on this like, you know, whether it's Friday
of this week of what's the followup. How do we have a relationship with the school committee that starts this a lot earlier? But I think the thing that I can't sit with is if if we vote down this
amendment and go with what we're going, we're cutting the schools by $254 and we're sending a signal to this community that schools don't matter. And I know that's not what you all are saying, but that's that's what people
are going to hear. And schools are what draws people to our community. It's it's what families make a choice of where they're going to move and where they're going to live. It's something that I considered when I moved to Greenfield and we were like, "Well,
the schools aren't great, but I can afford Greenfield." And we don't want people to feel like they've made the bad choice because I've seen time and time again how well our schools are doing by our children. And yes, they could do more.
They could always be doing more. Um, but our schools are creating our future workforce, our future community leaders. You know, I see the young people who are serving on some of our commissions, they're coming through our schools. And,
you know, there's other people who said that our budget is our values. And so if we're taking away $250 over the last year, I worry about what that says about our
values. So I want to I I'm going to be supporting this and not because not because I don't think there there aren't things that need to change because there are things that need to change, but I I don't want
to undercut our schools. Brown. Thank you everyone who's spoken and the public comment was really sweet to hear. Um, it's rare that you find people in a community who are asking you to raise the levy limit or use more excess levy
capacity and I feel like that just speaks to how much people really support school funding and that's um heartening to hear. Um, so I've been on waste and means and I feel like I've been deep in the weeds of this budget and have learned a lot. Um, and I appreciate that
the superintendent has made time to educate me on this. And I understand the challenges that this has been a conservative budget and that finding cuts has been really hard. Um, and it's funny that I'm in this position now advocating for schools because I hated
going to school. So, I don't know. But I feel like funding schools makes it better. Like these are the things that make it like fine to be there, nice to be there, like okay. So, it's okay. Um,
and also, yeah, I don't want this to be like a moral argument, a moral high ground of like who's supporting students. And I get it's not like that. Like, I do feel like, um, we're down here fighting over scraps. And we need to have a unified movement advocating
for state funding, um, education reform. And I was just looking up the Senate budget today about some some things that seem hopeful and other things that like the whole child program didn't make it. Um but anyway,
um so that I feel like is the larger goal that we need to stay unified around. Um and that the order of magnitude of funding that we actually need is closer to millions of more investment rather than like 350,000 more or not. It's like 6 million more. Like
we could really like that's the level of investment that we could be that would be help schools thrive. Um, and yeah, we have challenges of course, like we're don't we're not a rural school. We're not a gateway city. So, um, we need to
figure out how to do that better. Um, and also I just wanted to speak to some people's concerns about the levy capacity. Um, I've been looking at spreadsheets and learning. So, um, yeah, just I don't In 2024, we were within
0.18% of our levy of our levy limit or $73,000 away. So, this would what we're doing this school resolution would put us $332,000 away um 71% and that is normal like I referenced before to be budgeting
within 1%. Um, and also the levy limit is based on the previous year's levy times 2 and a half% plus new growth. So you either use that levy capacity or you use it or lose it. Like it's like we have it and then that's going to we're
going to have that again next year. What we budget we have the levy limit and it's not based on like what we actually budgeted to. It's based on the levy limit. So we can use this now or we cannot. And if people are asking us to use it to fund schools, then we should
do what people want. Um, and that is sustainable because it's we get this every year. Um, for 2 and a half% and also it's not using capital stabilization for operating costs. It's not doing something that would put our
reserve at risk. Um, also I know sorry if I'm going on too long, but like the schools um don't have ESSER funds anymore from CO. So that's a really significant change. People I know that that's different than previously. And just I think it's almost
interesting like we invest now in schools or we pay later as a society. Like it's almost interesting that we're talking about the opioid ordinance on the same night as this. It's like we pay for we invest now or like we invest in social services, incarceration, supports
later on in life. um that if we're not serving students well um and also recognizing that this is a manufactured crisis not by people here in this town. So of course there's no blame but I do feel like 517,000 is the amount they
need for level of service and us compromising by doing an init an additional 350,000 is a step towards that collaboration and that cooperation that we want to see. Um, so and I also really like the idea of what your of councelor Bullock of a follow-up um committee that
could help work on this and possibly have some school committee members. I know people don't want more meetings, but again, it just shows how much people care and want to do better. So, I'll be voting in support if you can't tell. Councelor D,
at the uh risk of 1015 or 1010 incoherence, um I just wanted to just kind of speak on the subject, the politics of scarcity. And so we're in this situation because of Proposition 2 and a half and the fact that our schools are paid for by local property taxes. So
it's effectively a regressive tax, which means in kind of layman's terms, it hurts the people that have the least. And so one of the things I really appreciate about the mayor and members of the school committee who have raised concerns about how much we're spending is they're
concerned about people that don't necessarily have a choice on their income, folks on fixed income, the like. And so, you know, Council Gordon mentioned somebody laughing behind a curtain as we fight amongst ourselves for scraps, and that resonated. Um, and there are individual people that I could
name um in Washington DC that you could talk about, and I won't. Um, I do want to talk about though what we do for next year. You know, these I think everyone at this table at the bench has made up their mind about how they're going to vote on this amendment. And you know, I'm a public school teacher. I have sat
in the chairs waiting and listening as people figure out what they're going to do about a school with declining enrollment with administration that is expensive. And in the district I work in, what h they had to pass a two and a half override. Now, was it last year? I
think it was only last year. My god. Um, and the way they went about it is they had two meetings. They had the finance board, the uh town, what do they call it in a town select board select board and the school committee had two joint meetings. One in which they explained,
you know, did a presentation on why they needed an override to pay for the school operating budget and listen to questions. They did it effectively as a public forum. And people asked hard questions. When I was a kid, there was 40 kids in the graduating class. This year's class is going to be 18. I work
in Hatfield, which is the smallest public school district in the state. Those are real questions. Those are important questions. And there's declining enrollment in virtually every school, including our cities, because people are having fewer kids because they're pinched. And this next couple of
years is going to be tough. There's a, you know, again, not to be too dire, but there is a storm coming and it's a financial one. And we don't know the it's going to take. And hopefully that's not true. But regardless, the business as usual, we literally, this isn't
metaphorical, can't afford. And so we're going to need to, you know, as the mayor has said, and as member Ston was mentioning earlier of the school committee, we have to find new ways to work together. And it's it really it starts now. It's not tomorrow after we pass the budget up
or down on this amendment. This conversation is part about of how we do this differently in the future. So, I'm choosing to be optimistic. I'm choosing to be hopeful about change in, for lack of a better phrase, the culture around school
budgets in this city. And I'm hopeful that when we all, you know, walk out of this room tonight, we're able to, first of all, pass a budget because we have to be done at 11. And know that we're moving in a direction that we're all talking to each other. and most
importantly spending the time to answer every single question for as long as it takes. And that's going to make the biggest difference in the world. When people know the answers to the questions they have, there won't be this kind of moment where we're sitting here having
these kind of conversations. So, I don't want to take any more time. But the last counselor who hasn't spoken, it's my turn. My my Fitbit has buzzed several times saying that my heart is beating very fast and I always said I
would never be a politician or at least a good one because I don't speak in subtleties and I I don't know what like I don't speak in subtleties and I say what I think and I think that I may be about to say some things that might make some people upset
and that's making my heart pound so and it's past my normal bedtime. Um, and I've been hoping that colleagues would share some of the points that I that I had so I could take them off my list, but actually like more points have come up. Um, and so I'm not going to try to say all of them. I'm going to try to
say a couple of them. Um, so first I want to agree with some of the some of the points that the my colleagues who will be voting no on this have stated. Um, I do I agree that the need to have
more clarity in how they present their numbers. And do I agree that the school committee needs to have more oversight? I do believe that. Um, and do I understand the health insurance costs that have made it impossible to get give the schools everything they want? Yeah,
I do. And I will say it, do I believe that the schools need a new full-time business manager who's a full-time employee of the schools? I absolutely do. And I will that here now. Um, and we have this
really hard job as counselors constantly. We have to just vote yes or no on these really complex issues. And that's not easy. And so we have to choose what we will prioritize and make imperfect choices. And for me, as I've
weighed all the variables, and I've had multiple conversations with the superintendent, multiple conversations with school committee members, with the mayor, with the mayor staff, and I've weighed all the variables, I do land on what I can sleep with is voting yes. And
one of the ma one of the reasons why I'm voting yes on this is because I believe that well-paid educators are a necessary ingredient for good education and that a good education is a necessary ingredient for a healthy
thriving future for our community. And I remember this is this is a different conversation. This is a significantly different conversation on many levels than the one we had two years ago. One factor that is very different is that two years ago when we went into this
conversation, this the the paras and the teachers had been coming to us for months advocating for their their contract and they settled the contract just a couple of weeks before we got the mayor's budget. And so we knew that in
order to pay for the increases in the budget, we had to fund the schools. Now the teachers and the paras are negotiating their contracts and I do not want to be in a place where a couple of
months from now they come to us and say we don't have enough money for for the cost of living increases that we need. What did you do a couple of months ago to fund our contracts? I want to be able to tell
them I did everything that I possibly could and I will fight if I need to. I will go to bat for the teachers in the pairs like y'all everyone in this room better better better you know that to be true I think
um and I have a lot of notes so thank you for pausing with me um and that we we cannot we cannot have a thriving future for for Greenfield without good education and we can't have
good education without well paid teachers and paras and as school committee member Ston said, "Yeah, the enrollment has declined, but we cannot resign ourselves to that. We we can't like so we're just going to
keep dwindling. We can't resign ourselves to that and we have to have a vision. The front page of this budget book talks all about collaboration. If we're going to have a thriving future, we need to actually be collaborating. We need to be creative and we
and yeah and we need to think creatively about the future and not resign ourselves to the present. And I want to say that the mayor is not a monster. The problems at the root of this situation are an economic system that
requires debt to have growth and the fact that we have debt, all this debt to have the things that we have an a health care system that that puts that is that is doing this to us right now. A school a school funding
formula that doesn't work and the dismantling of the department of education. So I I've never had that happen. I'm almost done. I'm going to I'm going to finish. That's not always happened to my colleagues. I think that was an Oh, it was an
accident. All right. Well, I appreciate you. I've asked for everybody to to be timed, so I'm almost done. I I'm almost done. What I'm going to say is I do have a hard time trusting now. I fought with the mayor for the school budget and during
the election system during the election process I said I know Jenny will fight for the schools and so my heart has hurt during this situation and I don't quite trust that a supplemental budget would come forward and it's and it is a
question of trust and I am choosing to take the schools at their word that they will spend down the reserves. I don't know the $1.2 2 million is a healthy amount to have in reserves, but I I'm trusting that they're going to follow
through on their word. And um so weighing all of these many factors, I am hoping so much that we will that we will pass this tonight and send a message to Greenfield that we care for our student
center. Thank you for listening to that long service announcement. I think we're ready to vote. And just as a reminder, this needs a 2/3. Councelor Golib, yes. Councelor Gordon,
yes. Councelor Master Tutaro, I'm a no. Councelor Botmley, no. Councelor Bulock, yes. Councelor Perry, pass.
Councelor Healey, yes. Council Brown, yes. Vice President Garrett, yes. Councelor Minhos, no. Councelor Torono,
no. Councelor Perry. No. Does the president wish to vote? Yes. And yes. Motion fails for lack of a twothirds majority. Okay. So, we're back to the main motion
and that is you, Councelor Toronto. Um, all right. So, if it's all cool with you guys, uh we usually have done this to try to streamline it. Um saying the full amount
for a department and then if there's any discussion on it, we can take it out of salaries and wages and then expenses. Um otherwise, just do it as the full number for each department and then move to the next. Is that all right? Um
so city council uh total is $11,087. Okay. Um the executive uh mayor's office is $218,82260. All right. Uh, chief of staff, $72,750. Economic development,
$174,774. Accounting $451,924. Audit 60,000. Assessors $247,287. Treasurer collector $234,881. Tax title 60,000. Um operation support uh legal labor is 95,000.
Uh legal city is $150,000. Human resources $283,92. Technology $672,600. Uh licensing and registration, city clerk, $25,893. Elections, $41,500. Board of Registars,
$22,500. Licensing Commission, $52,848. Uh, land use and development conservation commission, $500. Uh, I don't know. Okay, we can do it. All right. Uh, planning board, $500. Zoning board
$500. Planning department $131,340. Other general government central services $300,400. Central maintenance $800,877. Energy $1,40,656. All right. public safety uh police
4,20 I'm sorry yeah 4,20,245 parking $124,600 dispatch $746,48 fire 3,293506 building inspections 272,700. Weights and measures 23,000 FC cog inspection program
$11,400 animal inspections $3,000 emergency management $23,100. Animal control 33,91 uh education education assessments uh 1,446,660 Greenfield public schools
23,697,549 public works DPW operating 2,676,522 DPW Snow Ice removal 217,800 DPW street cleaning 42,000 DPW trash disposal $444,000 DPW Cemetery
8,000 Health Inspection Services $312,90 Council on Aging 177,223 Veterans Services 586,58 $8441. It's very specific. Uh Human Rights Commission, $500. Commission on Disability Access,
$500. Domestic Violence Task Force, $500. Culture and Recreation. Library 883,586. Recreation Department 284,848. Historical Commission $500. Debt service long-term debt principal
2,26,100. Long-term debt interest 1,500,000. Um, shortterm debt. Uh, we don't have any. Cool. It looks like your letters that lined up wrong. All right. That's right.
Um, miscellaneous furcog assessment 92,000 contributo retirement 6,942,559 workers compensation insurance 350,000 unemployment insurance 90,000 employees health insurance
10,652,707 employees life insurance 10,652,77 Medicare City match $530,000 liability insurance $732,450 for a total operating budget of 67,925,100 There is a part of me that's like, could
we just find $254 for the schools? But I'll get over it just so they can be the same as last year. Which page is that on? It has been suggested that we would accept a motion to take $254 out of city
elections expenses. Expenses. So moved. Can we move for a vote? Clarify the new numbers for those. If there can be discussion, is there any discussion? Do I have to read the adjusted numbers
for both of those departments? That would be a good idea. Where did you say it was coming from? Um, expenses. The election budget expenses. The request is for $14,500 and you're
moving it to expense line. Um, and the reduction is 46. How much? 20 What is it? 254 $354. 254. 254. $41,246.
We need the expense line. Yeah. So it would be 14, 254. 264. No, two. Wait, we're taking 254. Is that we're moving? Taking 254. All right. So it' be 14,
246. 246. Okay. And so just just to clarify, the motion is to reduce the city elections expense budget from
$14,500 by $254 for a total expense budget of $14,246, which would also affect the bottom line, but I don't have that number. The bottom line would change to $41,246. And then the school budget would be 23
million time. Oh, sorry. Councelor Perry, put the microphone on. Oh, I want to apologize on behalf of the ways and means committee that we didn't come up with that idea. We should have thought about that and so I apologize and thank you councelor Healey for thinking of
doing that. We need to vote. All right. Well, uh, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Abstensions. All right. Thank you to the clerk. Now you need to
add it. And now I need a motion to Oh, sorry. Council, I have a question on accounting. I I'd like What are we spending $125,000 on for a software assessment? For what? Software assessment. We're spending
$125,000 in accounting on the software. They got an 18% increase in salaries this year and a 3% increase in ex expenses. Um, I'm a little baffled that we're spending 125 grand in a tight budget season on a software expense
audit. David, maybe maybe the mayor can answer that. Yeah, come on up. It's a tight budget season. Okay, so uh software expenses 125,000 is for the Munis software system, which is the software system that does all our
billing. It does all our collections, it does all our accounting, it does all our HR services. So that is the software system that operates the entire city. So, you spend $125,000 every year on that? Yes. That's what I say. It ain't cheap.
You sure? Sure. Where we could. So, I think we have to have another motion of where that $254 goes. Correct. So moved. Thank you.
And I'm just going to read the number out loud. So it would bring the school to $23,697,83. Mhm. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you.
Any other questions or comments on the operating budget? Then we can move to a vote. Uh let's do this as a roll call just because amended. Sorry. Thank you. Councelor Gool, yes. Councelor Gordon,
yes. Councelor Master Tataro, yes. Councelor Bottomley, yes. Councelor Bullock, yes. Councelor Perry, yes. Councelor Healey, yes. Councelor Brown, yes. Vice President Garrett, yes. Councelor Minhus, yes. Councelor
Toronto, Yep. Does the president wish to vote? Yes. Yes. The motion for the operating budget passes unanimously. Are we doing the next one? The rest of the four that follow. Is that what we
said? Keep going. Keep going. Charge. All right. Uh order number 525086 the city council upon recommendation of the mayor to appropriate uh 115 uh to appropriate the sum of 2,840,89 for the FY26 water enterprise
fund. move that it be ordered that the sum of 2,177,19 be appropriated for the FY26 operations of the water enterprise and further appropriate the sum of 662,980 to be transferred to the general fund for indirect cost for a total appropriation to the water enterprise
fund of 2,840,89 to be raised from water user rate receipts for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026. Majority vote required. Second. unanimous positive. Any comments,
discussion? Let's move to a vote, please. Uh we'll just do a show of hands because I don't see anybody. I I All right. So, we're going to go to sewer order number FY25087, the city
council upon recommendation of the mayor to appropriate the sum of $3,895,664 for the FY26 sewer enterprise fund. move that it be ordered that the sum of $3,187,199 be appropriated for the FY26 operations of the sewer enterprise and further appropriate the sum of
$78,465 be transferred to the general fund for indirect costs for a total appropriation of the sewer enterprise fund of 3,895,664 to be raised from sewer user rate receipts for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026. Majority vote required. Second.
Unanimous positive. All in favor? I um order number FY25088 the city council upon recommendation of the mayor to appropriate the sum of 2,390,826 for the FY26 GET enterprise fund move that it be ordered that the
sum of 2,225,826 be appropriated for the FY26 operations of the GET enterprise and further appropriate the sum of 165,000 be transferred to the general fund for indirect cost for a total appropriation of the GET enterprise fund of
$2,390,826 to be raised from GATE user rate receipts for the fiscal year starting July 1, 125 and ending June 30th, 2026. Majority vote required. Second, unanimous positive. All in favor? I. Any opposed?
Okay. Revolving funds. Um, order number FY25089, the city council upon recommendation of the mayor to establish budgets for revolving funds pursuant to MGL chapter 44 section 53E and a half moves that it be ordered to authorize a revolving funds budgets in accordance with MGL chapter 44 section 53E and a
half for the fiscal year 2026. Receipts received but not expended in fiscal year 2026 shall be carried over to fiscal year 2027 unless otherwise prescribed in MGL. Majority vote required. Second. Unanimous. post.
All in favor? No abstensions. Okay. So, so now we're going to go back to the first motion and I'm going to throw it over to Katherine for um appointments. Order number fiscal year
250093. The city council moved that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council, pursuant to charter section 210, affirms the following appointments and reappointments by the mayor. Greenfield Local Cultural Council Bella Lavi Lavi term to expire December 31st,
2028. And Sustainable Greenfield implementation committee Martin Bram Morenus term to expire December 31st, 2028. Majority vote required. This received a unanimous positive recommendation.
Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you. All right. Solid waste. I read this order number fiscal year 250083. The city council moved that it be
ordered that this Greenfield city council amends the code of the city of Greenfield by adding to part two boards, commissions, committees, and other governing bodies chapter 156. Nope. Moving on. Sorry
y'all. All right, scratch that. Order number fiscal year 2584. The city council move that it be ordered that the Greenfield City Council amends the code of the city of Greenfield chapter 372 solid waste as attached
hereto as exhibit A 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. This received a positive unanimous recommendation with lots of gratitude to Athena and Marlo for their hard work on this. And I imagine also to councelor Healey
for bringing it forward. Thank you. Any discussion? I think the only change right is the single stream. Correct. Oh, it's a it is a if you read this, it's a it's a
I mean, if you scroll down, it is a thorough rewrite and so well written pages and like I mean this is a big change. It's a beautiful book. It's it is this is like what did he say? What did he say?
It is it is thorough and and beautiful. Okay, we will frame it later. Um all who are in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you.
Okay, we are now at the let's see um charter never ending the neverending back and forth with the state charter of the things that we've already put in and approved that have come back for us to
reapprove. Is that accurate? Yeah. Okay. Uh, who should we have read this? I'm in reading mode. I can read it to y'all. Okay. Thank you. Order number fiscal year 250013. The city council moved that it
be ordered that the Greenfield City Charter section 210 council review of certain appointments subsection C. Section 38, temporary absence of the mayor, subsection A. Section 53, submission of budget and bud budget
message. Section 56, action on the budget, subsection C. Section 510, capital improvement program subsection A. Section 611, Public Safety Commission subsection E and H be amended as
indicated on the attached exhibit A. and that the city council further instructs the city clerk to submit the approved vote to the legislature of the commonwealth of Massachusetts and requests said legislature to amend the city charter. Majority vote required.
Second. Councelor Brown beat you to it. Sorry. I'd like to make a motion to amend it um to have genderneutral language on the public safety commission. Um, so on page 61 it says
family member shall mean father, mother, spouse, child, stepchild, grandchild, brother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew, niece, grandparent. I'd like to strike that through and amend to say um family member shall mean parent, spouse, child,
stepchild, grandchild, sibling, sibling-in-law, siblings child, and grandparent. Repeat that one. Uh, sibling. Sibling-in-law. So, parent instead of mother, father. Sibling.
Yep. Sibling-in-law. Sibling. And siblings. siblings child. Correct. Amendment. All right. We'll need a vote on the amendment. I'll in Oh, sure. Um I didn't
know that this amendment was going to be offered, but I do appreciate it. Um, I've actually been talking to David Mascartolo about the public safety commission makeup and wanting to get more representation, um, particularly from the trans and non-binary community in Greenfield, um, as well as everyone
else, uh, in the community because our public safety commission should represent the entire community. So, um, I do think people will be better able to see themselves in that role, um, with this slight tweak to the language. So, I appreciate Councelor Brown offering it.
All right. All in favor of the amendment so now we're going to vote the motion as amended. All in favor? Any abstensions? Okay. Okay. Um, we're so close, y'all. Uh, we're at the preservation
restriction agreement between the city of Greenfield and Franklin County Agricultural Society. I don't remember which committee. I think it Yeah, it went to EDC. So, councelor Healey. So, this is order number FY25-091. Um, in order pursuant to the Greenfield Community Preservation
Committee's funding to the Franklin County Agriculture Society, move that it be ordered pursuant to Mass General Law section 184 subsection 31, 32, and 33 that the city council approved the preservation restriction agreement between the city of Greenfield and the Franklin County Agricultural uh Society.
So, um, this received We need a second second. This received a positive unanimous um vote. Um this is more of a formality than anything. Um basically we use CPA funds to fund the re- roof project at the fairgrounds of these
buildings. So they were waiting on the historic do or the historical commission to write this agreement which we're now voting on that says they have to preserve these structures. They can't dismantle them in the future because we use CPA funds on it. So, it's a very
fancy legal way of saying it, but or non-legal way of saying it, but if you really want to read it, you can. Councelor Healey, were there any downsides to to doing this that ties our hands in any way? Um, no, we have to do
it because we use public money to fund the project, CPA money to fund it. So, any other discussion or questions? Okay, I think we can vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed?
All right. Uh, councelor Torono, we're at utility bills. Order number FY25075, city council upon recommendation of Mayor Sorger, an order to authorize payment of a fiscal year 2023 electric utility bill in the amount
of $1,787. Right. Uh from the fiscal year 2025 utilities budget, move that it be ordered that the city council authorized the payment of fiscal year 2023 electric utility bill in the amount of $1,7876 from the fiscal year 2025 utilities budget. Majority vote
required. Second. We didn't have a meeting to talk about this one and this just went straight through. It's kind of straightforward, I think. Discussion. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Abstain. Okay.
Okay. Presentation of petitions and similar papers. Report of committees. I I just have a very short just wanted to let everybody know that we've appointed Robin Green to the unhoused um ad hoc
committee. So that is just a update that goes in new business or committees. I don't know where but there it is. Uh unfinished business, none old business. Oh, and then uh to new business, first
reading. Back to councelor Toronto. FY226 Community Preservation Budget appropriate 276,000 for the FY226 operations of the community preservation committee. Appropriate 7,000 from Community Preservation Act funding to the Greenfield Public Library for the local history room collection.
Appropriate 8,000 from Community Preservation Act funding to the Greenfield Housing Authority for Conway Street. Additional units. Appropriate 15,000 from Community Preservation Act funding to the Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity for the Birch Street Project. Appropriate 15,000 from Community Preservation Act funding to the Greenfield Housing Authority for the Security Deposit and Rental Assistance
Fund. Appropriate $17,178 from Community Preservation Act funding to the Franklin County Agricultural Society for phase 2 preservation of Greenfield's agricultural history at the fairgrounds. Appropriate 18,000 from Community Preservation Act funding to the Greenfield Housing Authority for Winslow preservation. Appropriate 32,000 from Community Preservation Act funding to
the Greenfield Recreation Department for Hillside Park stem installation. Appropriate $45,984 from Community Preservation Act funding to the Connecticut River Conservatory for Franklin First County Courthouse Rehabilitation Project phase 1 and two. Thank you. Uh Councelor Perry, I think
you had a new business item that you wanted to I did. Thank you very much. And Kathy, help me if I word this wrong. I'd like to make a special motion to leave a blank page in the minutes for tonight's meeting in memory of Alfie Ciano. He's a former counselor. He ran
for mayor in 2009. He passed away this morning. And for people who are really go in a way back machine, he was very instrumental. Oh, we need a second. I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. Thank you. He was very instrumental in the zoning changes on
along Federal Street way back when. that was one of his big projects and he passed away this morning from Parkinson disease at age 83. So we just want to recognize his service to the city over the years. Would it be acceptable if rather than
leaving a blank page we put his name on there and put some of his accolades and Thank you. Okay. All All in favor? I I just want to thank you all. Um it's been a really busy budget season and
it's been hard and even though not everybody agreed tonight, um I saw the council coming together and I just really appreciate all my colleagues being really respectful of each other. um and all the hard work you you all did both ways and means um folks who talked
to the schools, folks who didn't talk to the schools who went through everything, talked to one another. I just really appreciate all the collegiality that that we've seen together. So, and it's not even 11 p.m.
and we thought we were going to go tomorrow and then the next day and then Memorial Day weekend during the Nor Easter. So, thank you. I will take a motion to adjourn. And thank you to all the public who showed up. Second. Third.
All in favor? See you next month.