um so I asked that for an interview she came in I've interviewed her and I'd like to present her now before the board if I may hello Miss Garcia good morning or good afternoon good afternoon how are you surely feel like it's the morning good evening good evening my name's uh Carol Garcia as uh Council just said uh I live here in the City of Lawrence actually just a couple of streets away um my husband has been living here since he's about 14 years old uh I attended Massachusetts school of law um where I became pretty acquainted with Lawrence because I I came from New York without knowing absolutely anyone in the area and once I found Lawrence I felt like I was at home coming from a Dominican household I felt like I was at home like I just said um and I graduated from massachusett school of law back in 2014 so I've been a practicing attorney for the past n and a half years primarily in the areas of um criminal defense where I was a bar Advocate um what that means is that I was a essentially a public defender um so I was representing citizens of of the City of Lawrence in criminal cases uh making sure that their constitutional rights were uh being uh uphold it or upheld rather said and I also primarily also practice in the areas of landlord tenant as well helping the uh the City of Lawrence and their landlords for the most part in their capacity of um representing their rights as landlords um and that's pretty much about me awesome before we go into questions or comments uh attorney hen I don't see the ordinance for the second Assistant Attorney in our packet did you the origin I'm sorry the or the ordinance you don't see the ordinance no here with with her application okay I'll make sure I can do that do you have that does anyone have that available no no okay Mr aelo is he still here do you know off the top of of the top off the top of your head the salary range for the second Assistant Attorney um I'm going to I don't have it with me but I think it's um I'm going to say it's 80 to 120,000 something like that maybe 90 to 120,000 okay thank you councilor has any questions or comments for Miss Garcia is it Miss Mrs Miss Miss or um attorney who I thank councelor councelor lone thank you madam chair uh I don't see any letter of references on here do you see any in your package um I didn't as I said by the nature of this I did not ask for references because this was not a situation where I put out um a general request this is a situation where she was internal already um so I reviewed her um internally um but if you if you would like me I could have her um get references but this was this was not the situation where there was an adain it's plain excuse me but she was here already no no so she had applied for the Personnel um director's position Okay so anything that regarding that was for personnel while she was here she didn't obviously you just met the Personnel director she did not get that job um but during that interview process um a few people the CFO a few other people said uh remarked on that her background and knowing how hard it was for me to find attorneys they recommended that she come over to me so there was no ad there was no need for her ad at that point we she came in and then I met with her I I had her meet the mayor and I looked at her qualifications and thought she would be a great candidate for the second but if you would like me to have her Prov provide um references I'm more than happy to do that Mr arello during the HR director interview process did you go as far as reaching out to references uh for the Personnel yeah direct when you okay yes I did and how many references did you reach out to uh I believe three three do you do you you know do you remember the names off the top of your head no at least one give me one well I I just remember the uh I remember the position somebody was uh in uh was a former mayor and that I spoke to and also someone in the office where where he worked okay any other questions or comments I have a question Council of vice president if I may yes the ordinance for the second um uh City attorney is 2.204 2 20 20 04040 okay I'll make sure that is included for the full Council um I do have a question Miss for Miss Garcia love the fact that you live in Lawrence actually I used to live in the same building where where where you're currently living and you you you're just like a minute or two a walk away from City Hall which is great and love the fact that you you know our community um and you can help these two great men that we have in the office already from a different you know different standpoint but you your legal experience has been more in the private sector can you can you explain in your in your opinion how that ex I mean law is law right but but what experience in the private sector can you transfer to the P to the public sector that you believe that would make you a the best candidate for this uh second Assistant Attorney absolutely great question by the way I think that one of the um one of the things that I can transfer is obviously my ability to learn uh as I go um as you said the law is ever evolving I mean we get um decisions from the sup from the Supreme Court and the and the SJC on a daily basis where we're supposed to be um reading the slip opinions so that's one of the things that that I would be able to bring in it's just to learn learn the municipal laws learn the ordinances and so on and so forth because it's ever evolving thank you you like Mr attorney hen as you well know as I've said to you many times before um being a City attorney is a is a different job because the law is so unique there aren't many people that know it what we did like when we looked at the resume was the fact that first of all she had done litigation uh part of this job is going to that she's going handle a lot of litigation so the fact that she've been in court the second thing is that most people don't realize is my office handled a lot of real estate for the city we're either taking over properties uh there's leans there's tax leans uh we we issue out a lot of that tax work that real estate work and we felt that she would be perfect for those aspects of the job so I I know that but I didn't want you to say that for the record because like as you mentioned a lot of people don't know that the city attorney's office does handle a lot of Real Estate um cases so it's good to have someone with that background there um I have I don't have any further questions or comments councelors do you have anything um councelor Santiago yes can you describe your regular hours day in your private sector and how you can ER share the if you you if you are elected how you can share your schedule with the private in the city hall my day is the same same thing on almost on a daily basis um let's say uh as Council just just stated I'm I'm Al I'm a litigator so I'm inside the court I I know the attorneys I know the sitting attorney if I may I I I I think with the council and you tell me if I'm wrong what you're asking is how can she do her private practice and work for the city at the same time she will not be doing that she is giving up her private practice but go that's correct actually my last two cases are scheduled for next week on the 23rd so I did start closing out all of my cases and I've transferred the majority of my other cases to um to another attorney so now now that you mentioned that your two case your two last cases on 23rd what is the anticipated start date if she was to be confirmed I I would suggest not looking at payroll and everything but assuming uh I would or anytime around June 1st like whatever the payroll date or the start date is just so it it it goes easy like that but okay I she would have everything wrapped up by the end of this month and that's assuming favorable recommendations by that Council Council um it looks like she the attorney mentioned that experience in real estate law is important it looks like she only had one year of experience at according to her resing with st office I also worked at Cherry Tree title back in 20 uh 2014 which was just uh just real real estate related and I also from the beginning of octo September I'm going to say of last year I've been doing real estate on an off as well in under Garcia law offices oh yeah I see it here see okay you you about 24 2014 job that's right it's not included in your resume it's under CH tree title I can absolutely upate no it's it's that's okay I just wanted to double check thank you yeah problem okay any other questions or comments no at this point I will entertain a motion uh motion to send it with favorable recomendation would I would say pending references of pending references second our motion has been made by councilor lzone seconded by councelor Santiago discussion no all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it we will see you next week thank you so much and please make sure to get those references in for us thank you're welcome huh we have yeah yeah I have it next next and our last item of our agenda today is item 241-243 appointment of Pascal Ruiz director of inspectional services brought to us my mayor Brian a depena but we have director Carlos Matos from the office of planning and development director Matos uh good evening uh Madam chair and councils I am uh pleased to present to you an outstanding candidate for the position of director of inspectional services we are fortunate to have someone with the breadth and depth of experience as well as the familiarity with the City of Lawrence and the actual position um having served in it for approximately four years prior um I think that we're very fortunate to have this candidate and I would hope that the council looks on them favorably thank you Mr Ruiz would you like to say anything good evening uh Madam chair good evening counselors um uh so uh uh I'm just here tonight um just to say that you know that I've been the director of spectal services um for almost four years from 2014 to 2018 originally I started working in the fire department in 1988 I have 36 years of experience with the city I lived in the city most of my life um uh my my you know my my kids went to school here um um so I've done the job and also um um um you know we're working in in in the department to try to you know to for customer service and and and a lot of other issues that you know that are right now going on in the department thank you councelors any questions or comments councelor lzone I thought I don't know were you raising your hand okay I think you're reading my mind well I already see you know where someone goes thank youer thank you uh Mr Ruiz um so just for the people that are watching can you explain uh your transition from the uh fire department to City Hall will are you yes so um what I did is um so since I would have to retire next year from the fire department so I applied for the position um I was offered the position and uh so I want to stay with the city longer so um I've done the job before so I I thought it would be a good fit for myself because I want to you know I feel I'm still too young to retire so I want to you know stay with the city longer um so what I did was um I I put in for a leave of absence for 90 days and if if confirmed um I will um I will um retire from the fight from the fire department councelor Santiago are you are you um yes councelor Santiago thank you can you explain us why do you think you are the best candidate for this position well I'm the best candidate because I have 36 36 years of experience um the last 18 years I've I've been I've actually been doing inspections uh fire investigations um as you see my resume I have a ton of experience uh I went to uh went to the police academy I went to the you know um bomb schools I went I'm also trained in U in you know in fire investigation I've worked I've testified in federal court State Court um when I was the when I was the fire investigator for the gas uh gas explosion I was the the lead investigator working with um you know working with all the the branches that were here for at least a year um you know conducting the investigation um I've and I've received multiple Awards in the fire department Five fight of the year um also uh um you know I've been a fight fighter in in the in in the military I have 12 years experience in the military um but you know i' I've been I've been doing a lot of um um [Music] inspections if I could just add to that counselor um one of the things that I think as I mentioned briefly he has four years of experience in the position which is uh a major plus having done that in the short period of time that he has been in the acting capacity of inspectional services he has made significant can I pause you right there because my question has something to do with with his current experience so not to be rude I'm going to pause you right there director of course M chair but go ahead U councelor Santiago um so um you know I think I'm the best candidate for the position because the experience that I have the four years that I have half the staff there I hired when when uh I was a director and they've been there 10 years they're excellent inspectors um I know I know uh I I'm certified housing code inspector certified their determination so when I was there I I even got certified on everything um that has to do with the with you know with the inspectional services just so I could you know monitor what the staff is doing thank you I have a question acting director Ruiz when you were the ISD director under the Rivera Administration the city was undergoing a transformation that we are still going undergoing today but it's more um I would say it's more advanced like it's it's been years in the making right mhm what would you say what are the different challenges that you have seen so far in your acting role and what have you done so far to help um Rel relieve those those Challen well not reli you know I know there was some challenges with the public health um Department I met with um I met with uh Department of Public Health I met with methan with with with their Grant um we have a plan in place we we're going to try to get everybody trained on the same page we're trying to create some uh standard operating procedures so everybody's on the same page um when I was here last time I was I was part of the team that created citizen serve so I know I know that system inside out I was one of the main U Know per persons that I was working on that um so right now um this week actually uh I've been going over all the applications and and trying to reorganize all the applications and make it more customer friendly also um uh um customer service is uh is you know Paramount um I I had a meeting with the clerks and and it's going to be I'm going to try to make it almost like a Dispatch Center so when someone comes in um they you know they get um all all you know all the um all the help they they need all the assistance they need thank you any other questions or comments counc you confirm go ahead councelor would you um take in consideration not a structure or position of the department but I know that uh there's a few concerns in the department will you take a would you look into that yeah yes um so whatever you know so whatever concerns the counselors have anybody have you know you could come talk to me and I will uh address them immediately um and I'll do what I need to do I I can share with with my with my colleagues that I recently had an issue with a con constituent on Andover Street it's about two weeks ago and I I called um acting director Ruiz and and he was on I called him back the next day and he already had a meeting set up with with the individual and we actually I need to follow up to see where that that is that but you did take immediate action and I and I I appreciate that so any other questions or comments okay at this point I will entertain a motion I would like to make a motion to send to the full counil to favor a recommendation motion has been made by councelor Santiago zer second second by Council lone discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you Council we will see you next weekk you thanks again this point are there any items any tabled items that you would like to discuss counselor seeing none can I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn there's a motion M probably second all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you so much have you spoken