yep he was dressed in his nights at Columbus he had a giant sword big hat one of constituents was put into her contract we put the city council president the vice is the same thing the way that we did with Mar um president vice president and then
the president poed we learned that from last time CU When we did it with Mark we didn't post it did you eat corn beef and cabbage did you eat corn beef and cabbage at brend they didn't have
it you just like in and out and it seems like today went really fast [Music] good evening and W are the mics working this time all right good evening welcome to the Personnel committee today is Monday
March 10th it is now 6:36 p.m. voting members we have present today to my left we have the vice chair of the committee councelor Wendy lone and councelor Anna Levy pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2022 this
meeting of the Personnel committee is being conducted both in person and via remote participation a reminder that persons who would like to listen or view this meeting while in progress May either attend here in the city council chamber or view our meeting um through our social media
channels at this point can you please join me in the pledge to the of the United States of America and to the Republic stand andice for all councelors we have minutes to approve
from February 24th can I have a motion motion to approve motion to approve motion has been made by councelor Levy seconded by counselor I mean I'm sorry motion has been made by councelor L [Music]
counselors we do have a 30-day uh time frame for this uh for full appointment full approval or uh denial uh which expires on March 31st and we have our HR
Director attorney you have the the floor good evening uh councilwomen oh hold on if you leave if okay if you leave I won't have Quorum sorry I don't have Quorum right now it's okay attorney you have the floor thank you
good evening Council women we are before you for the confirmation of Mr Victor Ortega Cruz to the director of veteran services Mr Ortega uh Cruz is a veteran himself with a number of years of experience but before I give away too much uh I'll give Mr Ortega Cruz the
floor and I think are we following this is is this yeah I made that for you guys yeah name and address for the record please uh my name is Victor eorta I live uh for Union
Street so I guess mrga will will just tell us a little bit about yourself and and your goals for the department and um yeah whatever you would like to share with this committee all right so good evening uh members of the council I do thank you for giving me the opportunity
to be in front of you today uh I was born in Puerto Rico and uh After experiencing Financial challenges with my family we decide to move uh to United States uh in 2001 I was laying down on the couch watching
TV and it was breaking news that my mom and all that there was a building in fire uh when I open my eyes I witness a second plane hit uh the Twin Towers uh that sparked a lot of a motivation for me to enlist in the
military and to serve uh my country not knowing English it took me a while uh to pass the test it's an as is required to join the military and I fa a lot of challenges trying to even take that next step uh into join but I never
give up and I continue to uh take the test and I finally in 2005 I joined uh the United States uh Marines uh in 2007 I deployed to Iraq I spent a year in Iraq and I was in charge of a
supervising the training of my team and I help the Reconstruction of the city that we were assigned to we helped to rebuild schools hospitals and other basic facilities for like water electricity to help improve the living conditions of the population in 2009 I
served in Afghanistan as a squad leader and I was in charge of Base security and inspection of traffic coming in and out of Base I was also part of a rescue and a recovery mission that helped secure the crash site that took the lives of four Marines at
night in 2012 I was assigned as a marine cor recruiter and my initial assignment was the office in hro but my command decided that they needed someone that could connect with the community and spoke the language so I was reassigned
to the office in Lawrence as a recruited in Lawrence I felt at home home like I had never witnessed a more welcome Community uh during my three years that I spent as a recruiter in Lawrence I ended up enlisting close to 40 54 residents of
Lawrence into United States Marines in which some of them are currently serving the city today and sadly some of them are not with us today uh in 2018 I receiv received my discharge papers and I became a United States
veteran but no one prepared me to what to come the transition from military service to civilian was not easy and as a veteran I did have I did not have someone to guide me or point me in the right direction of what I needed to be done to become
successful as a veteran I bring 12 years of experience in management supervision mentoring and Leadership having worked as a recruiter where I gained valuable experience in public speaking and advocacy during my time working in the Department of Veteran Services I have
the privilege of contributing to Veterans rehousing assisting veterans with federal and state benefits attended a great number of meetings and training to be in compliance with the state regulation and also during the four uh months as a director of veteran services
I compile some data that I prepar for you guys on that package that shows the amount of Veteran living in the city uh divided by Race by age uh War period and the income they bring uh to the city as well
these experiences have given me a strong foundation and understanding and navigating different resources to help the veteran Community I am confident that my skills in leadership problem solving and confidence will allow me to effectively serve the veteran community and contribute to their
success if confirmed my primary goal would be to reach every veteran in the city and inform them about the services we provide and that we are here to assist them in any way we can I am committed to ensuring that the needs of our veterans community are met
and I believe in our collaborative approach to tackle the challenges ahead my vision is to make the veteran community in Lawrence to be the leading example and the leading Beacon for others to follow I am dedicated to serving all
veterans with transparency integrity and focus on Long long-term Solutions in closing I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your co uh consideration today for allowing me to be in front of you today and I'm fully committed to giving my best
efforts in this role and working together with you guys once again thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak before you today thank you you and thank you for your service thank you thank
you counselors do we have um many comments or questions for either the HR Director for Mr OA seeing that I guess I I do have one comment um and this is I guess con constructive criticism one thing I would appreciate
and this is not for you mrga this is a to to send back to the to the administration I did notice um once Mr Ortega was selected that there was a press release that went out it was it was made as as it should cuz your background is amazing uh it was made a
big deal however this process was not completed um sending out a press release prior to the city council confirmation you never know what can happen at the city council sometimes you think something's going to pass and it might not sometimes you think it's not going to pass and it does pass uh so I just
advise the city to hold off on I mean things become public anyways but hold off un official statements until the entire process is is completed um and that's my only feedback or my only comment on on this particular item other than that I think Mr Orga your your
years in the Marines um you know any anything you come directly from the military you know directly what um firsthand what our veterans are going through you've went through it yourself and um so I I thank you for coming to
the City of Lawrence no thank you and um I I thank the city for allowing you the opportunity and I hope everyone gives you a a fair opportunity to to turn that that department around because it does need a lot of help well that's my goal uh so that's that's the only comment and
statement I have on this item um any other statements or comments I mean statements or questions seeing none wow you have it easy Mr us thank you so much
apprciate you're welcome counselors at this point um can I have a motion to send item 82- 25 up with a favorable recommendation motion has been made by Council L there second second seconded
by Council lone discussion you want a roll call oh discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes out thank Youk you there's one more stuff so we will we will see you at the full
council meeting next Tuesday at it starts at 7 um and then that will be the final vote on the confirmation but best of luck and thank you again for for for joining us thank you have a good night thank you good night thank
you I know okay Council the next item we have item to confirm the reappointment of Francisco Abad to the Lawrence planning board um he is currently a full voting member with the term
expiring 12 uh December 30th of 2028 and it's brought To Us by our planning director director McCarthy director McCarthy you have the floor uh good evening councils I'm here to introduce Francisco Abad as a
candidate for the uh full voting membership to the uh lawence zoning board uh Mr Bad has been an active member of the planning board for the last three years he was um um nominated into the position as an associate
position back in uh in 2022 May of 2022 and he's currently an active member and have discussion with the mayor we wish to have him appointed as a full-time voting member of the board um his term
would be running from December 30th uh of this year to uh January 1st of or December 30th of 2028 that's correct and I'll let
Mr Abad uh present himself thank you hello Mr Abad name and address for the record good evening Francisco Abad uh 37 Hillside Avenue I guess tell us about the work so far
and and why why you want to continue serving on the board um so far it's been a great experience I um like like Dan just mentioned I've been on the board uh since May of 2022 it's been a great experience I've always been um I came to the country in in 1996 from the
Dominican Republic and um I've always resided in the City of Lawrence um I've always had a passion kind of for helping others and and being engaged and involved in the community I was um I'm a lawren high alumni old lawren high I might not see me I'm I'm pushing 40 in
in a few months so um I've always been um I always been involved with the community played Lawrence Lawrence basketball for four years I was was involved with the YMCA and the community and Habitat for Humanity and things like that and I I found uh this was a great opportunity for me to kind of make a
difference and continue to continue to um help others and and be involved with the city and um it's been a great experience obviously I'm I'm here in front of you guys um to kind of extend on that and go from an associal voard
member to a full-time member so um if given the opportunity um that's um I'm enjoying the experience I feel like I am making a difference um hopefully then the rest of the team feels feels the same but um that's the reason why I'm in front of you guys um just want to
continue to make a difference and uh make an impact in the community thank you counselors any questions or comments see none I do have a question this is for the City attorney that hopefully you can answer I don't know how this was missed
but I'm I'm just noticing it myself right now um on the c um certificate of oath the Mr abad's in his address the city is not included I don't know if that's do we have to
resubmit the the certification of oath is that something we can fix it just doesn't have his address on it it has it has his address but it doesn't have the city the city the city section is blank yeah so if you know that the this the address is contained
in the City of Lawrence or you know the address but I there's many Hillside ABS I don't know where which so Hillside he's he's talking about referring to Hillside Avenue in Lawrence Lawrence okay yeah so is that is that but so is that something that we this is
an official certification so is this something that needs to be corrected is it you should correct it but I don't think it requires you not to vote on it oh no no yeah no no I'm just yeah yeah I'm not asking about the he has to be a resident of the City of Lawrence so okay so can we just for for the record just
can we just correct that can you connect with the city clerk's office and make sure that that we have that corrected thank you and go tesy that the city of La other than that that that was my only that was my only question or comment regarding this um councilors any other
questions or comments seeing none uh can I get a motion to send this up as a favorable recommendation motion to send item 83 d25 to the full council with favor a recommendation second motion has been
made by councelor Lon second by councelor Santiago discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you so much thank you coun appreciate it we'll see you next week yes ma'am thank
you counselors our next item is item 89- 25 creation of job description and posting for school committee appointee and this is to cover the education requirement it was brought to us by the by our council president joanni
Rodriguez and we have the president with us today council president you have the floor oh thank you councilors uh thank you Madame CL I mean thank you m vice president Infante and the council member of this committee uh essentially what
what what we should do has a counil is uh we don't have give us one second council president okay okay good okay so essentially what we should do as a council is to ensure
that we develop those uh job postings as it is going to be required for us to have candidates to interview and go through the process for the school committee members that uh that are going to be interview subsequently uh
appointed by the council um and essentially we will we we need to have some sort of a job posting that indicate the requirements that's why I have uh three different items uh one and the one that is corresponding to
education the other one that is uh for wait hold on hold on uh can I can I do uh attorney since all three items are about the same thing can I take another can I do another motion to take it as a block
you could take it as a block okay councils can I have a motion to take item 8925 creation of job description posting for school committee appointee education item 90- 25 creation of job description and posting for school
committee appointee finance and item 9125 creation of job description and posting for school committee at pointy legal as a block summer motion has been made by counc Santiago is there second seconded by councelor Levy
discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I I all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it you may consider thank you I mean um yes it makes sense to take it as a block um we got to work it out um for each individual one
essentially we looking for three postings uh one that is dealing with education the other one that deal with legal and the other one that deals with finance and to have those three postings uh uh with what is required by law uh on
the postings and essentially what is required for somebody to be in a school committee members we're going to have that uh essentially right now it could be that it's a allance resident and and essentially we we are looking to have a posting for people that have those
backgrounds so essentially have a a poll of candidates and this Council going to be able to make a determination on a specific candidates Council it is it is also important to recognize that um the council will make uh those will
make we will appoint and confirm those candidates only the council so essentially that's why we're taking a step forward and be proactive about this about that about the job posting since it's going to be our
responsibili to uh go through the the pool of candidates uh all those candidates that apply and also um be able to um interview confirm and appoint each candidate that is going to be part of the of the school
committee for the three appointees positions so what I would like to see is um have it job posting and also uh post post those positions uh at the city
website perhaps six month ahead of time and that way we have we have no excuses of anybody seeing it we have no excuses of not having enough time uh and we have no excuses of people not be able
to apply because of time issues um that's that's the goal so we have that posted on the website and uh and then we can determine it whether or not um when we're going to be closing those
uh positions and so far so on my intention with these three items is to create the job posting so we can be open and transparent to uh to the public so they be able to have an opportunity to
discuss those and be able to apply on time okay councelors any comments or questions I have a question councelor Santiago the question that I have is about those those different person H have to qualify
with those different H profession and they need the salary to request can you explain how we can pay yes uh one of the item that I have on the uh on the ordinance committee that we haven't we
haven't um we haven't been able to develop that uh the salaries and benefits for the school committee members is that is that the the benefit package that ordinance as per the city chadow uh need to be
need to be done I actually have an item what I haven't being able to kind of like put the package together to present it to the ordinance committee um I actually I believe I sent I sent an email to to you right about the J the
posting I mean about the about the benefit package for the school commit School commit MERS yes we I have I have sent an email to the cityne and uh and I believe to the city clerk so we can work together to get a package for a benefit package for the
school committee members uh that's going to be for the appointees and that's going to be for the uh for the regular electeds uh for the all of them um and essentially the the the city council will be able to to work on that benefit
package to ensure that we get candidates to uh and also be able to get people that apply for those position uh with some sort of benefit as well so we are going to work on a benefit package that
we all agree that is a fair package and it is a uh a a competent package package uh benefit package for the for the school committee member that will include uh in the way that I see it that that would include an specific amount of
money and also other benefits that could be um it could be uh benefit related to the health insurance uh and other benefits I think it's it's it's something it should be very very close or similar to the city
council one and through you madam and what would happen with the with the other three going to election H there are just volunteer no
they will get the same benefits so the same benefit that uh because this package is for City uh for the school committees so that's going to be for the electeds and that's also going to be for appointees that's the way that I Vision
it but obviously the city council will have the final determination as of how we want this this uh benefit package to be and as as for who that's going who's going to benefit from it
okay thank you council president I think that's fair to have to to if if this is a plan for it to be inclusive to all members just like how it is for the city council um one thing I want
to will reiterate for the members that were that have been here um something that I mentioned earlier on one of the on one of the the items however this is worded I don't know what's going to come first either this or or the vote for for the
compensation package but sometimes things that we believe are going to pass in the council does not and sometimes things that we believe may not pass to the council does so however that's worded in the job description we have to make sure that we it depends on you know the timeline of
of all of this but if if this posing goes out before before the process of that ordinance is completed we just need to make sure that that's properly um stated in the job description so they're aware this might come with it it might not um so people are are aware and and
the city doesn't get question questions afterwards if it doesn't pass see yeah the the intent is to start working on the on the on the posting um if the benefit package come in then uh we can definitely uh readjust the posting uh
but at least we have something on the books that we start working uh because it's better it's better off to be proactive than reactive any other questions or comments councelor Le councelor Levy so um
the intent is to present the benefit package to the city council we as a council will we're going to make a determination as of what's going to be there but we're going to present the package uh that are going to be if you ask me I'll prefer to be inclusive to
everybody uh either elected or or non-elected uh but essentially the the city council will make a final determination uh and why am I saying that it should be equal for both is because at the end of the day uh then we might get people that
you know apply for those positions because of the benefit package but we also going to get the knowledge behind it uh those are various specific positions one is related to education uh that he could be a former teacher one is it could be that is the
legal it could be a a an attorney we don't know and that one could be uh and the other one which is related to which is related to uh one is education the other one is legal and
finance one it could be somebody that is they have a a good background in finance but not necessarily um have a benefit package that uh help them out if you look at those positions and we look at
how uh individuals have different companies we have a lot of Finance people that have individual independent companies that they might don't have uh part of the benefit package and they go they might get and say you know what I'm going to apply for this position because
I want to give back to my community but also I'm getting something back and that's not I mean that's not unfair that's something that a lot of people would like to see and a lot of people would like to uh would like to talk at least talk
about it but like I said counselors this is something that is at the ordinance committee and and this is something that we're going to present uh to the entire Council to see uh how the the city council uh perhaps vote on a benefit package that is going to benefit the
city I mean the school committee members council is on so is the uh thank you Madame chair is the ordinance committee working on this ordinance already and and they I actually was the responsible body of putting that in front of the ordance committee as a
council president and I'm working on that I'm going to start working on that with the city attorney and the city clerk all together so we we at least look into the different uh benefit package that we have and that we have have in the past and be able to present
something to the ordinance committee I mentioned this cuz we sit here every every two weeks and we ask the Departments to have things in order uh and I'm going to Echo Madame share because you always mention the same
thing over and over and it looks like we uh are doing the same thing that you request every week so um and correct me if I'm wrong but it doesn't the ordinance supposed to come first
yeah so we um so this is let's let's take the compensation benefits package away this that has let's let's handle what's at what's What's um in front of us so the job description creation of job description
and posting we do I actually because this is this was a a home RO petition so I believe it needs to be added to the city Charter these new these new appointee the no uh the Ben the benefit pack what you talking about the benefit package or the PO I'm talking about the
PO itself uh we're going to we have to uh open it up for the public the way that we open it up for the public is through a job posting no no that that I understand I'm saying the changes so because this is an an appointment um three appointment positions I believe
we do need an ordinance for each for each um foro appointment and my question is because it's a home rule petition is a change to the city Charter I believe this also needs to be added to the city Charter or I may be wrong I don't know
I'm looking I'm going to already we we already have the city Chad change section five of the the city the home RO petition changed the city the city chadow section five uh which allow uh allow this to
happen so essentially what we're doing is developing the posting so people can apply to those positions specifically I'm just going to get a confirmation from the city attorney so the the vote on the home rule petition so let's break it up in two parts the home rule
petition took care of the changing of the entire got it for the charter part two is I do agree with you what you have to now do is change the ordinance so that it's not six elected you have to change the ordinance to reflect that here's three positions that you're going to have what you know these are going to
be appointed the what the duties of each of the appointments and three are going to be elected so you do have to change the ordinance section of the school committee so that it reflects what the actual composure okay thank you the school committee is not Onin he not an
ordin if it's not ordinance then but we'll take a look at it we we'll take I'll take a so can we just double check so I'm I'm not talking about the actual um I guess I'm more asking the three appointed positions do those positions need to be ordinance just like every
other appointed position that we have so yeah so I'm getting the ND from two attorneys here so council president in either way I was I was planning to ask the committee to to table these three items um to give you time to work with the HR I know we already have um a
similar job uh at least a foundational job description that we've used in the past that you can use that um to reflect through you man is to maintain it here MH we're not looking to send it
up at all but just have that uh the HR Director working on those positions and then when we have everything ready uh when it comes to the order ordinance that we have uh that for the benefit package to integrate that into the
posting and also Al to make sure like when we have um everything done and clear when it comes to the shadow any ordinance that we get we get that but in the meantime we don't want to just sleep on it right uh because I mean we haven't done it I mean we need to advance it a
little it and then everything will take place once once uh once we have the two different ordinance that we're working on separately okay uh councilor lby are we thinking to have those position F out
um bu before the final election if you ask me we shouldn't uh uh as a as a city council president I will say that we should we should fill those positions uh after
November I think that we should accept nominations uh or allow people to uh apply for those all the way until November and then at the November uh at sometime sometime in November when the election happen could be that uh we stop
getting uh applicants uh to make a fair and and then after that what I would like to see is that any anytime within November and December uh have those uh positions to be fill and everybody uh during that uh during the
time that that uh electors take the oak they can be there as well as an appointee not at the same ceremony or at the state perhaps but uh as an special guest that they're going to be part of the school part of the school committee
that's how I Vision it um and that way we together to start working together right away in January thank you all right with the HR department and the city attorney's uh Department to final to drop something and then bring
it back yeah definitely I mean that's the intent to start early we're in March so still have time but I would like to see this posting to be uh on the website at least 6 months and that way we can actually uh receive people and give a lot of a lot of time to people awesome
thank you council president no problem councils can I have a motion to table items 8925 9025 and 91 d25 some motion has been made by Council Santiago seconded by councelor Levy all those in favor say
I I I the eyes have it councils can have a motion to untable item 49-25 authorization to fill enforcement prosecutor position ordinance uh number 02725 inspectional Services vacant for more than 6
months brought To Us by the HR Director and ISD director so motion motion has been made to untable is there a second seconded by councelor Levy all those in favor favor say I I I and the
eyes have it councilors last time we had some questions um pertaining this I believe there's an update for this committee so I'm going to give the floor to the HR Director um so just to be quite frankly I was to be quite Frank I'm sorry I'm so
short uh to be quite Frank I I thought that it was going to be attorney Tim hooton that was going to be uh in front of you today um to my understanding you requested that there be some sort of legal um legal opinion pertaining to to this um to this so I'll give him the floor and if you have any further
questions I'll be here please free now councelors I do want to remind we are dealing with the actual ordinance or the actual yeah the the reauthorization of this item not an individual not any
we're solely focusing on the reauthorization of this position that is correct if if you were to ask me any questions about particular individual uh we would have to be an executive session um but this is that that's not before you tonight uh because it would involve
reputation etc etc uh what we have tonight is if you have any questions regarding the prosecutor position um I'm happy to answer that if you want to know what I know of it I'm happy to give you that but um the again I'm not the
department head department head is here the prosecutor position would uh go to the housing court or the district court to enforce um the rules and regulations of inspectional services um you question you might ask me is what have we done if
we haven't had this position um my office would handle that um I believe that there's only been three maybe tops five times in the past year that anybody's asked me to go to court on any of these uh we've taken care of that so
um that would be taken over by the new person um they would then take it to cour I I assume that they would work in conjunction with my office but I don't know that but as of right now my office would handle it until the appointment of this
person thank you attorney hen um any questions for the City attorney seeing none thank you I have a question for the uh ISD director trying to find the um
good evening uh Madame chair counselors good evening oh sorry I just um so hearing getting receiving the information that we just received from the city attorney what other I'm trying to find the um the
tabled uh oh here it is what would be the task addition other task besides going to court that this position May yeah so um we we have um what it's
called the the U Mass General law 40u uh we issue um you know tickets uh when people there's housing code issues uh any uh any businesses illegal dumping anything like that so anything has to do anytime that we um anytime that we have
to um um issue tickets they will be in charge of that whole um um that whole uh section of you know of of of of um excuse me um so you know they they they would essentially be in charge of
anything that has to do with ticketing uh under the 40u 40u law that's that's um that we enforce okay and what is the plan for the Department um I explained as I explained before um so last year we issued uh I
fig how many tickets but you know we have $160,000 outstanding that we didn't collect because we don't have the person to do that um um and we only collected 30 thou 32,000 um um
$32,000 only because the people complied on their own no I mean I mean for the actual position what is what is the plan so the the plan is if if the council wishes um we could I could repost the position and have everybody apply and
come in and we'll interview everybody okay um councelors any questions or comments um yes madame chair I have a question um for director Ruiz yes so can you explain what are the
duties of the um it says I'm reading the ordinance here and at almost at the end of the part eight it says relay duties as as are assigned by the commissioner of special services so
besides this um employee going to the court to be the liation between the court and the attorney's office yes what will be others uh responsibility of this so they they would manage the it's called citizen serve all the tickets all
the inspectors when they write tickets it goes into citizen serve um so depending on what the violation is sometimes it you know they have 5 days 10 days 30 days um so they would have to uh monitor all that and then you know
and then a after that they would have to uh once they monitor it and then they would have to send letters out um you know complaints uh file complaints go you know they would have to go to Housing Court work with the attorney's office um also they you know they would
be um you so anything that has to do with with uh with the you know like illegal dumping um you know we isue I'd say 20 20 you know 10 to 20 tickets a day so it it's it's you know it's it's something
that's constant um because you know um a lot of some businesses some apartments some landlords don't want to comply so that's what we use for them to comply um that's basically it yeah up to you Madame chair so this employee is going
to be in direct contact with uh uh home owners business owners yes or okay yeah so it's it's um concerning that uh being bilingual is not part of this uh that
would be an HR thing um I don't you know I don't know thank you thank you yeah so attorney um well director attorney so knowing that our community
is is mostly bilingual mostly uh they speak Spanish most of them so it's concerning not seeing that bilingual being bilingual is a requirement for this position based on what the director explained I can definitely understand
your concern um it's something that we can we can obviously address uh I do believe that it that this position is ordinance so it would have to reflect an ordinance as well thank you any other question any other questions
or comments yes councilor Levy thank you so we theet so right now I'm sorry go ahead I'm sorry so you know right now we don't have anybody doing that job so what happens is when when we issue a ticket
there's a procedure that we go by you know you have 21 days then you know um then if they don't do it then you know they they they're supposed to uh appeal the ticket they have certain time to appeal the ticket if they don't you know if they don't uh once if they don't have nowhere to appeal the ticket then then
the ticket is not in void basically I I I I I'm pretty sure that's uh we can't go after them because they need an appeal process so we need uh we need you know someone uh uh uh a prosecutor to go to court just if they don't want to pay
um they go to court you know they they work with the housing court uh and they work with the with the with the city attorney's office sotic am well mostly because the time lapse the time lapse so basically that money
is gone you know we have other options we could put leans on the properties also but that would be the prosecutor that does that so there there there's a number of uh a number of um things that we can do but we need the prosecutor to to do that we
just don't have the person out to do that it's it's a it's a full-time job so that's theity to do that so is somebody coming on board to work on that position we have time to do it or we
have or no I'm sorry say again if we have somebody working on that yes okay and still we going still have the time to recuperate the amount um that would be a legal question
I'm not sure because there there there there's a there's a time there's a time period when when you issue when you issue tickets under the 40u Master General law 40u then you know there's specific time periods and specific things that you have to follow and if you don't then the ticket in my opinion
is null and void so just just so we can say the problem with the process to be honest with you is that the we've gone through a couple of directors and um we at one time had a trash task force which consisted of myself a police officer members of the d
uh DPW uh we would uh chase people we could take them to court and then that gradually just fizzled out it just wasn't being enforced by a prior head of the department um it also what happens with these tickets is you issue a ticket
um at some point if someone disagrees with the ticket they can appeal it um that's a person is supposed to be an independent person that hear has the ticket then and they are called a 4u and 4u is just a section of the Mass General La it's in um at prior we had a from the
firefighters we they had a grant and the person that did that was paid for it was free uh we had that for a long period of time uh later I was asked to um get some 40u um uh attorneys these would be attorneys
there because you need an impartial if you're if you're appealing it to the person that gave you the ticket it's not really impartial so um and I had contacted a couple of attorneys who agreed that they would be Fu officers but then again that just went by the wayside nobody did anything with it so um
realistically that's a long way of saying to answer if if they haven't appealed the ticket yes we can still collect the money we can still take them to court and collect the money but I mean I'm not going to suggest that if it's like 10 years old but it shouldn't be because we were doing this not not
that long ago and like I say my office still does it if if requested so so they having appeal do they have appeal they they have an appe if if they want now some people don't appeal some people just get their ticket and they just let it sit and they let it sit and
they they know they kind of count on the fact that the city's never going to come after them um but some people appeal and those people have a right to a hearing now if they don't have their hearing as the Director said the ticket would probably be dismissed but I don't know unfortunately I was left out of the loop
you know I don't know who's appealing tickets I don't know how many people have requested 40 years like I said I was very deeply involved probably year and a half ago we had a pretty good task force going but right now I'm no one's asked me
long story short no one's asked you no thank you attorney H well you w to council president uh thank you uh to the committee for the opportunity just to just to put in perspective what we have
done at the city council before with the POs with the position and the requirement of of chapter chapter 40 for you as the city attourney menion is that we have to have somehow a way to resolve the ticket at the city level and for
that to happen you cannot have uh somebody that give you the ticket here to be the person that you appeal the ticket to uh so essentially we what we did as a city was that we have a
prosecutor that came into the city uh to hear those ticket out and before you get it to the court you have to have that step here at the city level and and we not we're not having that having this
position uh enacted potentially we're not solving the problem the problem here is that uh we have to have the the the the task force that we used to have uh with that
uh with the positions that with the position that actually can hear the ticket out uh for the people to come over in front of that person before we take it to court so the solution that we looking for right now is not necessarily the solution of the
problem so we have we have we can actually look into the record of the the city council records of when we approve uh the uh the process or the way of doing uh the the how we handle the ticket at the City of Lawrence um I
believe that the uh the chief Association send somebody over to be the prosecutor uh on a volunteer basis and uh with the intent of that we can develop that program and and make it
make it going um because without that in place we're not going to be able to to get those ticket to the court let let me just be very specific the position you have here has nothing to do with the F of you here that has to
be a very specific different person it can't be it's not going to be a member of the city member of the City of Lawrence that's going to be an attorney or somebody that we hire that will do the hearings we can use it in many cases we we can use methu we can use someone else so that's until
the prosecutor doesn't get it until we fill the F you we need to have a f of you hearing officer who will hear these tickets first that's step one because if somebody appeals it doesn't matter if you have the prosecutor anyways because if they've appealed it and they didn't get a hearing they their rights they their
ticket is dismissed the prosecutor what happens is the 40 it's simple as this you get a ticket you either pay it or don't pay it if you don't like it you appeal it you you go to the FL of you hear hearing this is an independent person at that point that
person can dismiss the ticket say nope I agree with you've done the work the inspector is wrong or that person can then say um no you owe the ticket at at that point the person can either pay the ticket and if they don't pay the ticket our only way of enforcing it is to have
a third that uh someone take it to court whether it be attorney or or or this uh prosecutor takes it to court that's that's the third step so right now the problem is we do not have a 40u officer so um so essentially the the
prosecutor is the administrative person that's going to put all the paperwork together make sure the ticket you know is written the the correct way train the people to write the tickets um and make you know just to make sure before it goes you know further um that you know
they're doing that you know that person would have to be trained anyways so they would you know I would send them to you know different training um and as the you know the City attorney stated um we still need a independent person for to
do the appeal process the the the prosecutor is not going to do that they're just basically the administrative person that's going to make sure that everything's good before it goes to that level and then they go to the hearing and they present in front of the in front of the other in the appeals person that that's how it
works okay all right um I mean I'm I'm from what I've heard tonight it appears that it looks like you you want to repost this re repost this put this out
there I'm okay with that with it being reposted people applying for it and Etc like the process starting again um other than that I mean councelor lone mentioned something about the ordinance
that's an ordinance specific item so it would be nice to get the ordinance um committee members opinions or input on that um so with that I'm okay with sending this as a committee report to the full Council to get those answers and to give those members an opportunity
to speak um other than that I don't have I don't have anything else to say on this I have a question mother counc so it so they it's going to be uh they going to open for interviews again is that what I'm getting yes so um like
like uh like I stated I'm willing to um you know with with you know with ACC you know working with the Personnel um director um to you know post the position do the interviews and do the whole process again
thank you for doing that director and other the humans resource thank you for doing that I'm okay uh satisfied with that counc Loz oh no I'm done I mean I'm sorry I was looking at councelor Levy
but with just little remind that person should be le uh I'm not sure about that um the ordinance
yes council president well thank you again um essentially the reason why we send this item to the U to this committee instead of sending it to the ordinance committee it was because the intens is to uh look
into the U the current posting we have for the position and if it is anything that the committee uh is intent or really believe that that need to be changed on the ordinance so you the the committee the
committee report reflect those changes and then subsequently we can actually look for a change of the ordinance and reauthorize the position with the proper changes because obviously those positions sometime they very old when
was the last time that we post this position which council president I did I did explain that last meeting when we first um dealt with this item I did explain that the purpose of this was to look over the job description and and ensure that if it is any changes and
then recommended to the full Council and then don't do all don't do things all the way around because essentially what happened in the past is that uh being happened within my time as well is that we sent our U job descriptions and and
ordinance to uh the ordinance committee without having the the study or the research behind it and essentially just reauthorize the old previous ordinance that we have the opportunity to change but didn't so essentially that's that's the whole
thing that's the whole purpose so if you guys recommend that to the city council would be awesome I did explain that as well thank you council president all right so I think um any other final questions or
comments CN n all right I I think we should send this up as a a uh committee report so if I can get a motion to send item 49-25 as a committee report to the full Council so motion has made councelor Levy seconded by councelor
Santiago discussion yes councelor Le uh councel you guys are both out um um thank you Madame chair it's my here I guess I just want to put up there and I thank you uh director Ruiz for uh
letting us know that this is going to be reposed uh and it means that it looks like the intention of uh having a process with transparency is in place uh
unfortunately we get uh information before we get information from the community before it gets to the council and it's sad but it means that the process is not working a how supposed to work so I'm very glad and I
want to say thank you for deciding to do this because it it means that is an intention there uh for transparency thank you madam chair thank you councelor L any other questions or comments seeing none all those in favor
say I I and the eyes have it thank you so we will see you guys next week thank you um and at this point there are no other matters can I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn motion has been made by councelor Santiago is there second second seconded
by Council Lon all those in favor say I I the eyes have it thank you I I don't think you put in your recommendation that the person be bilingual I would have thought it's part of it's part of the committee report yes so I I would be stating that yeah yeah
yeah yeah