--------- for good evening and welcome to the Personnel committee meeting today is Thursday February 13th it is now 5:54 p.m. apologies for the delay we were waiting on Quorum and fixing some technology issues in the back voting
members to my right I have councelor fedelina Santiago to my left I have councelor at large Anna levie the vice chair of this committee apologizes for not being here tonight um she is homesick pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2022 this meeting of the Personnel
committee is being conducted both in person and Via Vermont 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 use our YouTube account um to view it at this time can you please join me in the
pledge United States of councilors we have minutes to approve from our meeting uh from December 11 2024 can I have a motion to approve motion has been made by councelor Santiago probably second Council Levy discussion on the
minutes seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it tonight we have one new business we have item 38-25 the confirmation to appoint um Pamela gonell as the assistant Commissioner of Health and cold Services
brought To Us by our current acting director attorney Garcia attorney Garcia you have the floor just for over a year now and she is here with quite a few of supporters so I will give her the floor and let her give her her little it's been on yes how about
now me now Verizon can you tap it just [Music] yeah uh do you want me to repeat all that um yes is Cas absolutely that's not a problem so we are here uh for the appointment of Miss pameela gonel as the
assistant commissioner of the health um and cod Services she is currently health and safety Equity one officer for over a year and she's here with quite a few of supporters for from her office and her department and I will let let her have the floor now
so I'm sorry can you repeat her she she's been what for over a year she health safety and Equity one officer for over a year okay can you can you provide the committee when she became the acting commissioner cuz on her signature when she emailed us today it says acting
commissioner I can let uh Mr Pat Ruiz answer that I can hold on let me put it up on my email good evening counselor um so at the end she she emailed a a package to
everybody the last page is when um uh mayor uh Ryan DEA appointed her um uh Health Equity so okay so she's been think probably uh couple months
maybe two or three months maybe two months maybe two and a half months okay so we don't have the the the the term Health Equity here the title we have assistant Commissioner of Health so she's been well that's a position yeah that's acting on that position she been acting but she was Health Equity one before that okay but
she's been acting since November 18th is that correct yes that's correct yes okay thank you y Miss G now hi good evening everyone uh my name is Pamela gonell um Ste City C council members and respect colleagues thank you
for being all here thank you for your support um thank you for granting me the opportunity to speak before you today it is with great great humility and enthusiasm that I request your acceptance to serve as assistant commissioner and health and cods this is
a role that carries immense responsibility and I'm excited about the potential to continue to serving our community in this capacity first I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my colleague colleagues who have mentored me and
supported me through my journey um their knowledge and guidance give hold on just one second can you the mics please okay you can they're saying it's working so oh it is working now yeah it works
okay sounded a little low okay okay their knowledge and guidance have been invaluable for me and and consciously learning from their perspectives this role is one out of continuous learning and I'm eager to grow not only in my
knowledge but also in my ability to Le to lead and guide our department I understand the critical importance of of health and safety codes in creating Thrive and Safe Community these codes are Foundation upon which we build
public trust and ensure that all residents have access to clean and secure environments as the assistant commissioner of the health and codes I'll be committed to support the ISD director in ensuring that this standard are effective enforceable and
responsible to the needs of the city over the past months I have worked diligently um to improve our Department's efficiency and responsiv through through collaboration and fostering a culture of professional
development we have made significant stride and improving our operations like creating a standard operation procedures through the department um I'm committed to continuing this progress and ensuring that our department remains real
reliable resource for the community if given the privilege uh to serve as assistant Commissioner of Health and codes I will work tily to to strander the communication increase efficiency and maintain a culture of respect and
accountability with our own Department my focus um will be on ensuring that we meet the needs of the residents and create practical solution for the challenge we face thank you again for your time and consideration together I'm
confident that we can continue to improve the health safety and well-being I look forward to the opportunity to serve and contribute forther to our share goals thank you thank you at this time I will open it up for questions or comments
from the counselors I can start or you counselor love you thank you you just have to press it it stays on you don't have to leave your oh much better uh can you tell me a little bit
more about you and your experience working on the Human Service Department inspectional service department okay um over the past few months I have been serving um through my department making like more efficient um
supporting the ISD director and creating some standard operation procedures and make it more reliable and accessible to the community members so you has to go out and do also inspection outside no at this point at
the beginning when I started as a Health Equity safety uh officer yes I did so what did you do at the Dominican Republic what kind of word do you have for well I I left the Dominican Republic
when I was like 19 years old I I was studying as a medical doctor in the University anona Santo Domingo but then I moved to Italy and I lived there for five years and when I started to work a
as a cook so you were doing also cook over there and did you do or here too yeah I started when I moved here to United State I started work as a as a CHF tand in a restaurant for how long
are you working in here right now in United States and in Lawrence in Lawrence I have one year working uh the inspe department yes so as an assistant before no as a health I started in
January 20 9 in 2024 I started as a health safety and Equity one a grant agent that that is in charge to make uh Co calls to the May why were you doing in there in the to
the health safety and Equity so yeah um I started um as a trace contact Tracer that is an agent that is involving um calling the the patients that have been like um
contagious with the covid or some um influenza and kind of illness like that okay thank you you're welcome yes [Music]
you okay can you hear me no yeah okay and can you tell me can you describe and tell me ER how you know you are the best for
this position and okay I consider now mine is not working can you hear me it's not working we've been trying to fix the radio issue
that we've been having we spent over like almost two hours yesterday trying to figure out this technology so the red some some things were disconnected so I apologize no okay so okay I consider myself like uh with great ability for
supervising and management um professional environment ments um I think that I'm a great asset for the city because um to the my department with the support with my colleagues I have been doing some quite of uh
resources and tools to make more accessible for the community as well and why us just use the I have to press okay
and for your current positions H what do you think is H the big challenge for that one for that position
yes well um I have been facing some challenges to my the past few months for example um when sometime we had to handle some cases with uh that are declared onfit for human habitation or
maybe not accessible for for the uh for the members of the community maybe sometime because they don't have some sanitary condition that to live with um we have to make the process uh part partial between the Landers and the
tenants to make it follow the rules and the regulation to fit that so that that sometime might be some kind of tricky to deal with can you describe what usually you do in your current position okay yes um
sometime we um we create some tools and resources to give to the community uh in quite of uh the Board of Health um for um for example when they had to deal with uh uh comply with codes and
regulations and also um um to deal uh um can say um when sometime the action that need that needs to be taken between the community we have to make the
regulations clear to them in order to they comply and um follow the rules and and step step in for them and tell them how they comply and make more easy easily for them to
um sorry I'm a little nervous um to cooperate let let's say like that cooperate um with has with everything that has to need that needs to be follow in this position do you get some training for
the myself to the inspectors yeah I provide the resources sometime I I I look through the association and uh um for example in massachusett restaurant massachusett Health boards
associations I try to canaly the the trainings that inspectors and the health coaches need so in order today to be certified for are you part of co-owner
from gonel incorporation G no longer the gonell Enterprise have been dis solve in 2022 okay and about the your your college you was in D you were
studying medicine yes I was studying uh as a medical doctor in it was in 2015 no 2012 when I started the uh University yeah which one if you remember because 10 years ago
H the the ER aign in the program which one ER you pass if those are the college you know the the regular one or or you
go to inside the the program no I went inside the program I I started right away as a medical doctor yeah can you mention how many which aor which you did already Anatomy one
Anatomy 2 biology chemical and Physiology um to mention um chemical um biologist um flomist
to my je you okay it's not to I don't want to accuse you but I don't think for me it's true because you said two years and two year you don't go to the fast in the W
to the what sorry can you repas in two years you have you say you you say you was just two years yes I am a doctor in the Dominican Republic and two
years you don't have time to do so many ER assign you said yes every uh curriculum that I made it was like 18 you know that is um some
um Laboratories and the assignments so when you start as a doctor in the in the was so you make some Quest like four quest to get inside the medical career so I complete the task and I started
with the basic Stu and then when I the second year I started with the medical um career um let's say uh Anatomy one anomy to okay and the first year you're
supposed to do Spanish Spanish ma math yeah physic algebra something like yes in the second year you have Anatomy an e no in the second year you don't you don't do
Anatomy yet yes I did you don't okay I we can Che we can check the pencil okay I can grab the pencil yeah and I ask
for health and safety h i I would like to do you have some knowledge about safety and and health
and if you say you have two year you don't have enough experience about it I might not have the not experience to but I'm still learning I'm capable to um do the research and I also be
involved in all the kind of trainings every day um as as long as I'm permitted to it I'm I'm willing to do it and I'm eager to learn everything I agree but you we don't have to lie that
just sorry we don't have to lie just you have to say ER the thing you want to do but not put it extra in your curriculum and the those information today we have
like a few minutes ago before started the meeting I didn't have chame to review all of those paper because you send it today well I have been um and you you you know
you will come yes it's actually uh excuse me counselor it's actually the the responsibility of the director of the apartment to provide all adequate documentations um um director yeah so um so she she did
she did bring down um the documents um all the letters um um to um to Teresa but to to councelor Santiago's point we we received it today we have full-time jobs we're not full-time City councilors we don't we we don't have the time
during the day to review all documentations so moving forward this is luckily I did have the time yeah you know but that does not always happen for every counselor um so moving forward and we we say that this is this is not
something new that that has been said at the council level committee level level or the the full Council level please provide the appropriate documentations okay um because before I would just table this from the back I wouldn't even entertain it um but for the future
please make sure that we have what we need okay in a timely matter all right thank you are you upset all right thank you councelor Santiago uh Miss go now yeah I see on your
resume uh under experien 2024 to present you have business manager for the teruna group are you still associated with this organization um my husband is okay and also one of your certifications
is you have a a Serve Safe for to be an instructor and and a proctor are you currently facilitating any serf safe you're not no okay and now this this is a question for our acting HR
Director are you aware of contract number 8883 from agmr Fusion consultant Inc I do not know who with the city no okay now if you are referring to a because I did discuss this with um with
Miss ganell if you are referring to her husband's relationship I do believe that she got an opinion from the state um from the ethics that she has a copy of it I'm not sure whether or not your package uh has that she did get she she
did get um an opinion from the state ethics board can we have that so I can read it for the record and also just for the record I'm I'm happy that you guys came prepared because I am going to read for it could be on for it can be in the minutes the the Massachusetts ethics law
Massachusetts conflict of interest law apply to to public employees immediate family members under General Law chapter 20 268a section 6 13 and 19 public employees are prohibited from
participating in manners where they or their immediate family have a financial interest immediate family includes the employee the employee their spouse and their and their spouse their spouses and their own parents children siblings and the the spouses of the siblings and
children uh my did you specifically ask the state by any chance the relationship between the taluna group and your husband cuz that falls under the conflict of interest law yes I did and I also filed when I started because I knew
that it might affect that the conflict of interest I when I started working here I filed a conflict of interest interest in the city clerk and also I did as well this year I complete the uh ethics commission conflict of interest training as well and also request
request advice from them and they um gave me a paper that you're going to have soon in your hands and that I recused myself from the section 19 and the section 17 and 23 B section c that is recuse me from any conflict of
interest perfect okay can we see that yeah thank they have oh she's making copies make a copy okay um Al also too we uh we uh we uh spoke with the with the city attorney and he he um gave her a letter also saying that
there was no conflict of interest okay I want to I I I want to curious to see what what question was was made to the state and and their answer because one there's I mean there's a current relationship with the deuna
group and two contract 8883 is valid until the 28th of of this month so obviously you guys you guys can see my my concern and I I want to prevent the city from having any more scandals because we we definitely don't
need any of that um at the moment yeah well in the meantime while we wait any other questions or comments from the counselors councelor love you January so this so the disclosure of
appearance of conflict was received uh by the city clerk on January 20th 2025 um given that you that You' been working for the city for a year and that's that's the second one you you're going to have the first one
in the yeah it's in there too okay September it appear September 15 2024 okay okay and where is this the where is where is the legal advice
from the from the ethics commission I write it down in a document that you have in your hands also I think it's the second part that says um I respectfully request to recuse myself from participating in discussion
and decisions related to section 19 24 B3 and 17 due to a potential conflict of interest I believe this action is necessary to maintain transparency and integrity decision- making process The Advisory where the 8602
880 uh-1 and 05-11 all right I'm going to ask the committee to table this it for for the time being I've I've requested legal opinions from the ethics commission and I know what they look like and they
don't they don't look like this um so I I I feel more comfortable to table this until we have an official written statement from the Massachusetts ethics commission via email providing that there is no conflict of interest um with
within Miss gonal and and and The Business of her husband it's just is a way to protect you is a way to protect the city we want to make sure that we're doing the right thing I understand yeah can I have a motion to table item hold on item 3
38-25 motion has been made is there a second seconded by councelor Levy uh no discussion on tabled matters all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you so much thank you councilors are there any tables matters
that you would like to untable council only or the HR department okay hello where is the director from the HR department right here oh okay
so that's is for you okay so you you Council okay so we're going to request through you the information that we needed from um missell commission yes
absolutely so so so you can bring that to the next meeting I would appreciate it that's not a problem just for the ref or send it to us as soon as possible so like we say we would like to have any information that we ask for like it's at least 48 hour before any meeting that's
not a problem Part: 2
voting members um here with me today to my left count to my left counselor Anna Levy and to my right councel Gregory devario pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2022 this meeting of the Public Safety 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 use our YouTube um live stream at this at this Mo at this point can you please join me in the
in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the plag of the United States of America the IT stand One Nation indivisible and justce counselors we do not have minutes
to approve so we're going right into straight business the the first and only item under new business we have item 30-25 review City Towing list criteria and procedures requesting LPD and DPW to
participate and this was brought to us by Council De Rosario councelor you have the floor thank you to you good evening um this item was put together uh first first was put together due to the fact that communication went out that we
short on sewing companies for no removal procedures um while doing that we was asking why we short um and we checked the criteria which we also noticed that
the criteria was somehow fixed in a way that more to company will command and will able to work with us in the winter time in the meantime uh through all that that that trying to put this meeting together we bounc into one company that
was allow to on the winter time and has way too many complaints um and we wanted to bring the man on also for questioning and see how we can fix those complaint or go out and tell our people exactly what happened um you got to understand
that we represent people and two complaints even if it's she said he said as a Consul we need to take in consideration and trying to find out what exactly going on and uh what I did was um sent an email to the police station uh to to the police chief and we prepare that this meeting and they have
all the paperwork and stuff and we're going to start with with with the police and and we'll take it from that thank you Chief Bon good coun um I was asked to be here tonight uh but um I have brought with me Lieutenant um J
Rulo he's in charge so he's a supervisor in charge of the Special Operation who and responsible for the winter TOs and every op emergency operation that we have in the city I'll be standing by if you have any any other question but this is the expert that we have in the police department and I ask him to come on
tonight with all the data that you ask from us if if you have any specific question about how we do out uh on cleanup operation and as far as Towing for the city this is the expert from the police department you have any question I'll be sitting right here do we have the toying company present
tonight can we um can you just quickly introduce yourselves before we we start the thank you anyone Dr oh no no you're okay you're okay good evening good evening my name is Jam Le I'm the owner of best price toying Services Corp and this is my attorney
thank you thank you for being with us tonight um Lieutenant good evening councilors nice to be here tonight uh Lieutenant J cillo Lawrence Police Department thank you lieuten for being here lieuten can you walk us through
um the requirements and the procedures to to allow the towing companies to work with the city all right so I'll give you just a a brief overview on the towing uh we have we have two current contracts in the city one is the regular Duty tow which is the two week tow or the onewe
tow process that we have with uh sheens and Cody's who are on that that procedure right now and under that agreement they're available to service the city 24 hours a day seven days a week uh when they're on their rotation and again with that would be no removal
Towing any Towing that comes about as an emergency of abandoned vehicles under the DPW or for the police department the second tow agreement that we put together a few years ago was to increase the number of vehicles that we could tow
during DPW in City snow emergencies uh snow emergency Towing falls under the DPW the police department assists in that and uh they put together a uh a list of tow companies that they wanted to bring into
the city to assist the city when we had snow removal Towing the difference in the two agreements uh The First Agreement to be on the duty toe there are a lot of uh spe specific casties and and things that
need to be in that agreement that aren't in the second snow removal towing package for instance uh The First Agreement which show Cody's and and shein are under you have to have a tow company or a tow lot that is fenced and
secured in the City of Lawrence uh Valley Towing was one of the tow companies that was on that agreement they allowed them to tow for the city their lot was outside the city you have to be AAA certified you have to have uh
certain liability insurance again the city attorneys came up with a plan a second agreement to allow certain companies to just tow for snow removal so those are the two current agreements we have in regards to snow
Towing I thought we have three we have two now we have two we have a city ordinance that addresses trespass toes so the the two are different and how many companies are authorized to tow on the winter time or
working with the city towing snow on the snow removal so last year we had uh five which were shens Cody's Valley mos in best price those
were the five that were uh under the current snow removal Towing agreement any reason why we only have three this year or two uh well Valley Towing is out of business
um martinos decided not to tow for the city this year don't know why that's that's their prerogative and I don't which company again uh Matos uh they didn't want to renew their snow agreement contract and best Price's
contract was not signed by this by the mayor I believe and I don't know why the reason was that the city didn't sign their contract so currently right now we have two Toe Companies that being sheens
and Cody's who are the regular regular rotation toe as well as the uh snow removal toes and those are the only two that we have operating right now any reason why do you think of you say you don't know but any way we can find out why they weren't renewed I don't I don't
have that information You' have to talk to the City attorney uh we were in a pro I was just provided with an email from the city attorney that said the the agreement wasn't signed this year for them they weren't to be used in the snow rotation that's the only information I have I don't know if the chief Can Shed
any more information but I believe that's the only information we have on that can I have a motion to send correspondence to the City attorney requesting that he provides a detailed explanation as to why the contract for for best price Towing was not um
renewed can I have a motion so move motion as made there a second probably second discussion all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you Maria do you have you have Okay um good for this
is I request I request some documentation we request you guys any complaints and stuff what was the find on the complaints so again as far as complaints on let me let me make it on best price what was what was what was the complaint find so again as far as
complaints uh I didn't didn't find any complaints that were lodged by any officers or anything in our system but what we do have is a thing called CAD calls which is how many calls are generated for a specific location or a specific company and what I did was I
ran the cad and uh from 124 of from from January of 2024 to February 12th of 25 uh we responded to uh this address at
27 Winter 37 times out of the 37 times 27 times were related to uh towing or trespass toes okay uh and what I found
in there was uh no violations to speak of there was people that were disgruntled about their vehicles being towed which is not uncommon very common um all the Deep pu regulations as far as
fees charged storage charges fuel charges uh all met the met the uh recommendations from the dpu so there was no violations there uh I took it upon myself to do a little investigation of some of the locations that were uh of
the complaints in the um CAD so again Burger King McDonald's 101 asbery Street I believe 234 Island maybe uh and I went to those like locations checked if there was
proper signage which there was uh it also had signs that said best price Towing was the towing uh company that provided the service to to the landlord in the location and again these are all things that meet the criteria under the trespass toe and again I'll get into the
trespass toe a little bit uh but that's what I found uh as far as any complaints but there was no official complaints or any anything to sustain any of the complaints they were disgruntled people who had their vehicles towed rightfully so we go through this during snow
removal also so sheens and Cody's is no different When people's vehicles are towed they're not happy a lot of times offices got to be sent over there to settle the matter but it wasn't a complaint that the vehicle was taken illegally uh it wasn't a complaint that they were overcharged or anything along
those lines so that's what I came up with I've also spoke to Abel Canó who's assigned to inspectional Services uh he checked with inspectional Services they have not received any complaints against Best
pric Towing uh and as far as uh Abel said they're up to code with all their business certificates and everything along those lines so there's no issues there and how do you feel about the no transpassing U ordinance that they so
again like I mentioned in in um April I think of April 12th of 23 the city council passed an ordinance because we were having a lot of uh complaints and again not from any specific company that's here tonight but there was
complaints that Vehicles were being taken illegally there was no signage uh they were waiting for people to walk away from their caruse so we did some investigations that company was was talked to I believe they received some citations at that time and at that time
uh I believe Captain Montas uh worked with the city council City attorney to uh come up with an ordinance which was ordinance 13623 which addressed strictly trespass toes and again in that ordinance some of
the things that they you know that like I've already mentioned make sure that there was fair notice so at the locations that the property owners hire these companies to to to do trespass has to be posted right uh the second one that's big for us is that they have to
notify the police department right away which again we're not seeing that that's not being done it is being done it's being done in a proper proper time frame so there's no complaint from from that uh again they have to tell where the
vehicle was taken to I've looked at these locations uh certainly at 101 Amesbury and a couple of the other one it says car was taken to best price Towing it leaves a telephone number so that that fits with the ordinance uh again they need to give
us the vehicle description the type all that stuff so we can put it in so it doesn't come in as to as stolen right and then uh they have to Pro charge the proper fees which we we checked uh the
property has to have video surveillance which it does uh proper lighting uh safe eress fence all these things that are in the ordinance these companies do and if they don't then they would issue a
citation and then if it was a second offense another cation third offense I believe they get uh a week suspended uh from their tow rotation or from from from Towing and then a third
uh or for subsequent offense they been brought before the licensing board for suspension revocation or review so again that's the trespass ordinance in a nutshell um and again to
the best of my ability uh I don't have anybody right now that's violating that and there has been no tickets issued especially against this company for violation of that and like I stated earlier I went through every C call got
as much information as I could and I didn't see any discrepancies in anything or any complaints that was sustainable at this time thank you officer you guys come up if I could just correct the record
briefly um there was one point I wanted to make regarding the snow Ru Towing for best price sure I'm sorry I'm usually pretty loud in court during the day so they tell me to quiet down um they are still doing snow ring but the signed contract never
was returned back to my client just to make that clear they asked still doing it this year with the city she's prepared documents for all of you thank and she'll do a far better job explaining them than I will that's interesting no I'm just thinking lot
that's it's interesting to hear that they're still conducting business um when when there's a a a letter from the city attorney just saying you know the contract wasn't wasn't signed so my clients did sign it and they returned it they no I mean I
mean from our end yeah yeah so maybe there was some sort of a disconnect thank you and and that was going to be my first question if you guys have any knowledge of why I mean according to what we hear the the contracts was roked basically so or not
signed to for you guys to operate during the winter operation um when thank you for having me um so to answer your question we weren't given a reason we didn't receive a letter can I have for the record your name and address I was no you guys
already presented sorry um but just in case jamed Diaz best price toing Services Corp um we did not receive any notice from the City of Lawrence no email no letter nothing we actually heard from a friend of ours don't expect
the phone call next no removal so we don't know why we were removed from snow removal because we did do a snow removal in January of this year okay and I have the contract that I signed when I spoke to the City attorney on Wednesday
Tuesday sorry um he said that that contract never came down from the mayor's office okay so I guess I'm curious to know um Council De Rosario what is your your intent or the go what what would you like the
committee to do with this item we requested communication from the city attorney is there anything else that you're looking for I mean the main thing is that in one day that I was here it was a lot of complaints uh from constituents to this company
while I was searching to put it in the in the agenda to uh learn how to how to actually you could operate basically in the winter time right and what are what are the procedures or what are the paperwork so we bounce into a lot of
complaints and people coming in even though people do not go to the police station people do not complain or actually have a read complaint like a family that is back there uh they don't they don't you know a lot of people don't take that extra step they don't they don't they think it's worthless to
to actually file a complaint and it's it's a lot of people that I talked to that morning it was a Tuesday um and you know how Tuesday gets here they wen't arguing of the price or they were toing they were arguing
about the way they were treated uh it it I have a video somewhere that the lady back there it was waiting to pay to get her car released right at the moment the ordinance actually says that the ordinance that we signed on that year says that if they wanted to pay on the
spot they pay in amount I don't know what the percentage is and you release the card and you pay to them $60 okay and that car was actually running and they clipt the run and and put it back and they didn't want to give it to her that was one of the one of the one of the complaints that outrages me uh there
was a there was a veterans there was a there was a veterans also coming in the same day that he came in walking because he wanted to pay for his car they were throwing and they didn't allow him to so those are the things because when they when they come to me even if it's she
said and he said like like the lady that call me the owner I'm assuming it's you say well those are she said he said I'm like well regardless of what it is my constituents come to me I got to take that because they they actually elected me to represent them regardless if it's that she said or he said and all I wanted to do was learn the procedure how
they get there and also bring the company in we have a conversation to see how we alleviate the way that they working I wasn't aware of the contract not being signed on the winter time I don't know how that works cuz we here at the city council we don't have access to none of that unless we request it uh we
don't deal with the contracts of the toen we have nothing to do with the contracts and when we were on the phone say it's a conversation you ask me can I bring my lawyer so you could you can bring but it's a conversation to see how we can alleviate the way things are happening with you guys um also on that same issue with the lady sitting there
says when when she was complaining he said the gentleman that sold the vehicle said we're going to send the video to the Major's office we have you in camera but we're going to send the video to the mayor's office that you violated the parking why will you send it to the mayor's office why do you not why don't you just
release the vehicle get paid and if the if the video is requested why you have to send it with the mayor's office um when the mayor's office has so much to do in regardless when it comes to a towing so that was the issue well I invited
them the meeting was already set and I invited them in because we were going to talk about Towing and to ask questions and to see how we can somehow alleviate but once again I wasn't aware the contract wasn't signed or you guys weren't allowed I'm assuming that because the contract is not signed you guys are not allowed to tow on the
winter time that's what I'm assuming I could probably shed some light on the situation for you best pric has come up with some answers to issues Tony's adversar in any City you go to so they now they've had body cers for a while but they're not recording every
transaction every phone call and the toe slip I I'll let her explain it to you exactly but she come up with a good idea trying to avoid some of these issues yes um before we begin though I'd like to go over what I have written down if that's
okay yeah sure okay um when we received a phone call about this meeting I personally was taken by surprise because we haven't had any in office compl compl s so we asked who could give us more information about the
meeting and we were giving Mr Gregory de Rosario's phone number when I spoke to Mr deos on Friday February 7th he stated himself our company's right to perform business in the city was under review because of the numerous complaints this would be the first meeting and if
another meeting has to be held it will be held with a bigger party of nine attendees and our rights to operate in the City of Lawrence would be revoked I specifically asked Mr De Rosario if these are only he say she say complaints or if they are public complaints and
where I could get a copy Mr derosario stated there are both he say she can he say she say complaints as well as public complaints I asked Mr De Rosario again how I could get a copy of these complaints to which Mr De Rosario stated
he doesn't know he's a member of city council and doesn't even know why he's being pulled into this meeting as he is not not a part of the committee but is excited to be there to hear what the owner has to say and could not provide any information on where I could get a copy of the public complaint records
from the City of Lawrence per our conversation Mr De Rosario was under the impression the previous owner was still in business and he would be the person standing here today during that conversation Mr De Rosario advised that he and M and mayor DEA had a verbal
altercation over the phone with whom they believed was the owner but was my employ regarding mayor Thea's Treasurer Nel daas known as Kathy whose vehicle was impounded from 2030 Island Street on a private parking violation this was
months ago specifically October 11th 2024 therefore I did my research and the altercation was regarding mayor depa's Treasurer whom stated her vehicle was re removed from city property however it was not and the property owner who is
present here today personally em emailed Mr Thea to confirm this information if you can please turn to Exhibit C I will be reading the email provided to us from our contractor at 2030 Island Street Massachusetts in Lawrence
Massachusetts I provided it in English translation as well but she sent it which that is his partner they are the owners in Spanish so I just are you are you going to read it for the record you want me to read it oh can I read it for the record
go ahead okay um for the record this was dated October 15th 2024 from Jessica Anders property owner of 2030 Island Street to Mayor Brian a Deena mayor good morning I hope you enjoyed the weekend I am writing because someone told me that one of the residents in the new
apartments on Island Street had a complaint because the tow truck removed her car I just wanted to clarify that the resident was not parked in the public spaces that belong to the city which are the four near the entrance to the park she was parked in the Comm commercial spaces owned by lcw and
assigned to squashbusters as their program opens next month all residents receive clear notice of the parking rules recently furthermore this resident already has two free spaces assigned to her which she does not use and she chose to park in the other space where she
does not have permission normally I wouldn't bother you with something so simple but someone told me that you were very worried about this as always call me if you want to talk more thank you Jess on the following in page we have the
pictures of the mayor's treasurer's vehicle because we do not touch a vehicle until we have pictures so they take pictures all the way around they assess damages and take pictures of the damages so you so just just just uh
Miss Jam yes just so I can make sure I'm following you the photos of this night were taken by one of your employees correct your company was the one that did to the vehicle that where it wasn't supposed to be parked correct okay continue this is
the only complaint I have in my files and proved without a shadow of a doubt that that vehicle was not wrongfully towed and the customer was not overcharged so I went ahead and requested the public records complaint for not only our company but also Sheen's Towing Cody's Towing and hook
Ando Towing for the year 2024 and 2025 as both the mayor Brian DEA and Mr De Rosario stated our company is the only towing company in the City of Lawrence receiving complaints exhibit D shows the emails that I sent in which the email that I
received from the city clerk states that the department that this was sent to was the police department and as the chief and the lieutenant stated there were not any official complaints which I also have that form and you guys have in front of you with the response from the police
department okay so I'm sorry I'm sorry continue I'm sorry I thought you were as you can see in the email the city clerk's office advised us that the police department would be the ones to provide us with this information therefore I went down to the police station and they gave me the information to the records department as you can see on the
following page Mark the officer records keeper for Lawrence Police Department responded to our email and stated we do not have any official records documenting complaints against any towing companies at the Lawrence Police Department we received an additional email as you can see on the following
page stating in summary to request any public record please go to the City of Lawrence website the request will then be processed by the city clerk's office assigned the foa and disseminated to the proper department the city of Lawrence assigned my request in FIA and sent my
request to the Lawrence Police Department as you have seen on the first page the Lawrence Police Department didn't have any complaints for any of the towing companies in their records for the year 2024 and 2025 as requested so my question is what complaints are
the City of Lawrence referring to that are a public safety issue I have a question for for either you or your attorney Miss um jam um jam Le your last name Diaz Diaz Miss
Diaz when when did you when did your company receive an official communication from the city attorney that your contract wasn't renewed never never when did we um I I thought we did did it come to the council that it
wasn't renewed I thought I saw it um oh we have the unsigned one some the unsigned one okay all right so thank you for coming so well prepared I really appreciate this thank you for
your explanation um and and going as far as even even contacted just just Anders she's she's a very um a notable person within our
community what I'm getting from this this is how now I'm start I was interested at first and now this is how I'm starting to to interpret it there was an issue with the mayor's Treasurer and now they they that might be a reason why your contract was retaliation
and and I'm hearing that word a lot and um I just that's all I'm gonna say councelor the if I could just keep yes go right ahead we will be seeking to remedy that because as far as I'm concerned I spoke to the Chief and Lieutenant can you go the mic please
because we're live we're live they want to be reinstated so we have to figure out why I mean retaliation is not a good reason I mean if they had a justifiable reason I would like um Miss Diaz to take two seconds to show you the protocol she put in place so you guys have an understanding of how they
operate just show me the I to explain this is a 2 tbte encrypted password protected hard drive everything now moving forward because of what I have noticed going on in this city every
phone call that comes in to best pric towing services will be recorded everything that has to do with every impound car impounded vehicle from the the body cameras of the cars going in cars going out the footage from
when the people come to pick up their vehicle because in office our personnel has to have a body camera on all of that footage all of that information will be saved based on the vehicle's license plate so we can find it easily I am
going to be the one in charge of this so I have enough evidence to prove that my company is not a public safety concern because my my my concern is is that I'm standing here today and I was told that I'm here today because this is going to be the first meeting to see if things
change if not there's going to be another meeting and my and my ability to perform business in the City of Lawrence is going to be reviewed so I believe it's unethical and illegal for my rights to operate to be
in question based on hearsay complaints and no evidence of any wrongful tolls or wrongfully over pricing the citizens of Lawrence when we have she and towing whose employee admitted to kidnapping and raping a woman ins stop you I'm going to stop you there I'm going to
stop you there and they are still on for snow removal Council the Rosario thank you uh first of all I'm not saying that that statement is wrong but probably you you did not actually listen how you supposed to listen I said I was not the chair of this of this committee now that I'm not the member of the committee
first of all the phone call that I listen that I was made with the p talking to whoever was talking was that day that that veterans veterans came in and he called him from his phone we were outside in the parking lot I also never
told you that you was revoked I said we work on the city we have no power to revoke your permit no power and when I said we're going to review it for the first time and whatever this committee decide to do we might be reviewing with nine of the other counselors and see
where would be taken why all further Communications will be recorded yeah that's why that's why I told you we're going to review it and then you say can I bring my lawyer I said we don't have it's just a conversation we don't have no power to do anything and you pyramid is with the
state we don't deal with the state I said that and I don't hear that and you and your not I said we don't have no power it's the state that has the power to do anything us as a Consul we can't do anything for your contract with your contract or against you when it comes to your contract and all the stuff when you was bombarded me with question that I
try to answer to the best of my knowledge at that point in time it was just a conversation that I was going to bring you in and I stated it's just a conversation we don't have anything to do with that cuz you got to go if anything is have to do we deal with the city your contract basically your big permit is with the stay and I I don't
hear that either in there so again I don't know when that incident happened with with the mayor strer I don't know if it was before or after that phone call October 11 but I don't remember I actually don't recall what time what's the call cuz we were outside talking to the veterans actually walk from I think
it was from the Tora restaurant or somewhere there walk through here to complain and from it was from the outside that they call them so about revoking new contract I have no power I have no say I have no knowledge of it I couldn't mention that that's what I
figured but you mentioned it twice that our our rights to operate in the City of Lawrence would be in question if these complaints continue that could be something that I said I don't I said I mean if the complaints continue with our constituents we got to review what's
going on and that's what I told you also I said I'm not here for anybody to loses business and also I stated I know people don't like towing companies and I told you that I say I don't I know people don't like towing company but when they constituents come me with to me with a complaint regardless of a she say he
said we got to go further and trying to find out what I said to you was we comeing in we check this out and we see how we can help that also I don't see it there I say how we can help for you guys to have a Bigg a best relationship with our citizens with it's going to be hard
because nobody likes to companies correct and I stated that too so I just want that to be there if I may I'd like to know what procedures does the city have counc when you received these concerns um from your constituents um I mean I I received
concerns from toing like like you mentioned no nobody lik I don't like to told either nobody um it's hard did did they specifically mentioned this company to you yes okay um aside from
that I think the issue uh because this the treatment of of residents in Lawrence go goes beyond that I think I I want to continue this conversation and I think Cody's and Shen should be part of this um because they are not the primary
towing company in the City of Lawrence correct they're not and I've received complaints and and I know it's not from you guys um now that does not mean that that we're not you know we have received complaints that it appears like uh that
does involve your company but if we have three toying companies all three all three companies should be here um can we can I have a motion to send correspondents to Cody's and Sheen's um companies to to just get to get on the
same page of of thank you second MO May probably second discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I the eyes have it I'm sorry you were you were going to say something um I just wanted to make sure that the
citizens of Lawrence understand the laws and the Massachusetts general laws they're all in English most of the population here not all of them but most of them only read and speak in Spanish what does the city have in place for these citizens to be able to read the
these laws and understand the trespass Towing regulations that are in place that's an excellent concern and luckily we have our council president here um so he's listening to this conversation and the council president and I can connect
on this later on and see how we can yeah that's that's actually an excellent point that I didn't I've never thought of that thank you for that um another thing I want to bring up because um you know can I word this
um there's some tension between my colleague and and Best Towing um and and in order to ensure that we have the most productive um respectful efficient conversation moving
forward I'm going to ask your attorney uh and I'm going to ask our our secretary to make note of this for our confidential secretary all communication regarding this is going to go through the chair I'm going to request that the committee members be
cced but I'm going to be the the primary Point person just to keep things transparent to keep things you know moving in in the right way and and that way we can we can work together because obviously we have some issues and and we're like councelor dezar mentioned
earlier we we we want to get to a solution we we want to we want to make sure that our residents are are treated well and that the companies involved they're being treated well and just overall hopefully get a win-win for each party um if I me um I have a summary of
that what we're going to do to ensure the safety of the citizens okay give me one second Lieutenant I I saw your hand go up ju just for the record their contract was or their license was never revoked I did hear revoked they were never revoked
to my knowledge it was just not signed so again I don't know if that's a clerical error I don't know what it is that's something we should talk but it was never revoked I know we mentioned revoked so not revoked okay okay thank
you I do you have a question okay give me one sec councelor Levy it just uh sergeant good evening Council good evening uh because it's no Revol can they still
work for the city or we has to wait or they has to wait for the Contra be sign no that you have you would have to wait for the contract to be signed so they're not revoked their their contract for snow removal Towing for 2025 to my
understanding is was not signed was not sign so it wasn't to my knowledge wasn't it wasn't terminated for any reason it was just not signed I don't know the reason behind that that would be a question for the for the city of so but
the only thing that they can not do right now is do a snow removal correct so so they can continue with their regular normal operations of trespass toes uh personal Towing all that stuff that they they currently have licenses
for in the city Remains the Same can chian Ori uh make like a su contract with them and War for then for who shean yeah or
Cori can she work for them yeah like they wanted you know see they need more yes any back up to remove for a snow removal can they hire I don't I don't I don't I don't think so I think we we try to cross this bridge before
uh to bring different companies in I don't think their liability insurance allows that to work for another company okay so I think we did try that with outside companies because they didn't have tow yards in the city so they were going to tow fans to their tow yard but
I think that's something that the state does not allow so practically the only thing that they cannot do at this moment is the snow removal snow removal correct for the city yep so any particular they have no contract with the City of Lawrence at the city of lawence all
right thank you you're welcome before we we move on um we do have someone in the in the gallery that does want to say something so I'm going to allow them the opportunity to speak and then we're going to do the second round um
umio we're gonna need translation just cuz it has to be huh oh Maria can you do translation well she's this all right okay name and
address name and address for the record me uh Loreno Rodriguez okay 109 M three Lawrence thank you um but microphone yeah you got this I just want to speak for the record um I'm here on
behalf of my parents I'm in no way shape or form representing or here for the Lawrence fire department uh my dad is just stating that he's been a a resident for the city of lawence for 32 [Music] years
price for um my father is just talking about a situation that occurred um early in the month with my mom Isabelle um with the company best price Towing he he understands that in this situation there
was a claim that there's a video of the situation which he's very comfortable and she's very comfortable saying that the video does not exist um actually it's I think it's just easier if I speak about the situation rather than translating on January 15th K uh around
noon time my mother had an appointment at 1:25 ansbury um she was parked there she was there for no longer than 20 minutes um she went inside asked a question by the time she came out her car was on a it was being hooked up and told um she was
confused by it because she did have an appointment and there is signage on the building saying that the parking is meant for customers and staff on the side of the building she um tried to stop the car from being tow um but they said they could not stop the towing and
if they were going to stop the towing uh she would have to pay $100 in cash she begged and begged at the time she only had $93 in her pocket they were denying a taking the money um they said it's $100 or nothing um eventually um they
decided to lower how on and they they gave her the vehicle back she had called and complained about it um and the company some the represented of the company uh my father say he spoke with the owner I'm not sure who he was in the
phone with um but it was someone from the company but they claim that they have a video of my Mom leaving the vehicle from 125 ansbury and walking over to the common Park which you know it doesn't make much sense to park so far away just to walk to the park when there's middle of the day is ton of
parking there I mean I'm parking around uh the area so the complaint is you know they my parents say it's not about the money it was more about the treatment uh they she had the right to be at the location she doesn't feel that they had the right to to the vehicle but
then it felt more like they were just trying to take money away from her um she was asking for an explanation they wouldn't really give her a proper explanation they just expected cash or they're going to take the vehicle U and they feel like you know
after doing some research um the company apparently has a reputation that you can find online of people with similar complaints um based on this same claim doing some research on 2 20 CMR 272 it
claims that Massachusetts toll company could charge no more than $132 uh to involuntary involuntarily to a vehicle um however they have a they have a drop fee that cannot exceed more than 50% which would mean that they were
either overcharging her for the service that were providing or they were just Towing the vehicle against um their will [Music] in for like can you repeat that part in English
please um he was saying that so so at the they were there returning the next day and they were witnessing that they were doing the same thing in the same parking lot um people still had their vehicles running and they were Towing vehicles and they were doing the same thing they were doing with my mother they were expecting $1100
in cash so they were not going to lower the vehicle um with by standards say you know saying that they witnessed that she was just there um the vehicle had the right to be parked there but they're by they're waiting for people to leave the vehicle and within 10 to 15 minutes they're showing up at the parking lot to
to a vehicle okay thank you I'm going to end it there because we we want to make sure that that we stick to to your situation but because it happened right a the day after which is why I I wanted to um
allow you guys to express that my mom wants to know if she can just add she said that she wanted to make a report at the police department the police department said they could not uh make a report okay cuz it was not a uh to company that was
from the police department and that they recommended to go to the court she went to the court and the court said they also cannot do a report on this she felt a little frustrated which is why my father contacted the company
which is which is why she felt like she uh needed to contact uh councel Gregory because she felt like she had nowhere that she could turn to and complain to okay thank Council Rosario and for
the record like we've been saying the meeting was already uh posted to be happen before they call me so this meeting was already set up before the call me yes in case U Chief
Bon gra so Chief before sorry before you start in case anyone is tuning in the live stream right now I just want to reiterate uh that the gentleman ignasio did uh at the beginning of of of their
their statement did inform the council the the committee that he was here on behalf of his parents not in any any capacity with the fire department I just want to make sure that we repeat that that is in case you know people are tuning in at at this moment Chief Bon uh
after hearing the um Family stating that you know had gone to the police department to report and the report was not taken a lot of our offic that work the front desk understand that there's a private talk there's nothing we could do however what I'm going to do uh sometime next week I'm going to me with liutenant culo and instead of generating a a
regular police report with a log number what we're going to do is we going to put those notes in the cats so next time that we have this issue we could give you some notes that someone by this name came in and complain about this whether we could do something about it which is a private toll I'm not sure but we we
could probably forward that to inspectional service in DPW uh DPW is in charge of Towing for emergency on on snow removal but this is not what we're talking about here today but nonetheless uh the police department is in the business a good customer service and we we have to have some respect
responsibility will take the notes not a regular police report for the for the record thank you is that okay yeah yeah and that actually I mean even even with the with the folder that was provided to us tonight and they did request a foer and obviously they they didn't have anything on record so even in the future
if any company requests a foyer on on their own company we'll have at least those notes from thece dep be fair to say it also that those 37 complaint should have been AC accompanied by some kind of notes and we didn't have those right no no I I riew oh okay so we have
some care notes right all right but for the future yeah we're in the in the business of good customer service and U we we're to try to fix that thank make it better for next time thank you CH okay so what I'm hearing um you guys no you you guys Al thank you
I'm going to address the attorney just cuz things are getting a little attorney attorney Hutchinson I'm going to leave my card for email purposes for communications okay thank you attorney um from the stories that I've been
hearing it appears and and from from the statement from the new owner because you guys mentioned this is a new new management it appears that the owner is trying to do the right thing however what I'm hearing from the from the
company's employees may not be aligning with the vision that the new management has so that's why we've gone with the body cameras and that device that you saw and that Miss Di is the only one handling the phones and in the event that she doesn't answer the phone someone has to the Call's recorded so
there's a backup of it now so if one of our people gets out of line she's going to take care of it I don't see it happening at the small company mostly family that works there um but I I don't see it as an issue okay and just for the record Miss Diaz has no tension against
this gentleman here she was she came in here defensive tonight worried about a company yeah and and that's understandable that's that's no trust me we deal with worse we deal with worse I know I've been here before so it's it's understand it's just you know
as as a chair is just easier if if we just streamline things a bit um so what I'm going to I'm going to stop the discussion here unless the the sponsor has anything else to add um C councelor Levy has one more question and
then I'll finish my my closing hi thank you it just only one question how many trucks do you have in total we have seven there's one for trespass Towing just only one for trespass there's one for trespass Towing
correct so and that one for trespass uh they wor the 247 so it works in two shifts are you're asking like the shifts of the job okay it works in two shifts so the first shift is from 9:00 in the morning until 5: in the afternoon the second shift
comes in from 6:00 in the evening to 2:00 in the morning or it can be later now when it comes to these properties for example the property that they were speaking about 125 Asberry Street the security guard at The Institute the school that's there that's the one that has the contract with us they send
pictures of these vehicles and they're circled so that we can come take these vehicles because they either saw the person going to Salvation Army or leave the property so we have contracts with these companies they can either have us pass by every 20 minutes every 30
minutes minutes they decide or they send us pictures most of the time they have a security guard on the field and they go ahead and send us pictures with the car circled once they see that the person has left the property so the school what kind of school it is the
institute at 125 Asberry Street okay so they are the one who got a contract with you correct okay and 101 are the manager also of the building are they the manager of the building yes yes okay the property manager they are
the property manager of the because I was thinking so that maybe they have X amount of parking assignment and the only part the only people that are supposed to be parked there are the ones going to The Institute and there's seven
assigned spaces for the YMCA that's it no one else is allowed to park there there's signage and also if people ask they're told do not park there that's why the security guard sends us pictures of the vehicles to pick up like the vehicle in question that they spoke
about today okay thank you so much okay so the V so the situation in question um I think it was more it was a treatment so I I would appreciate if before we we regroup for on this matter that the
company you know goes back and speaks to their employees um also what's concerning that and I don't know if my colleagues agree with me or not but as one counselor the 50% up charge of of the of of releasing
the vehicle from from the I'm sorry so what we get a lot in this city is when you tell someone $60 they say oh you want to take $100 from me they round it up and I have plenty of
body cam footage to prove that they told them $60 on multiple accounts I just have to to take the time to look for it and my attorney can provide it to the city however we have always done $60 there's police officers I'm sure Bonia has been there before when they come
down and they tell them just pay the $60 they'll drop the car and you go on your way but they round it up to 100 in their head or when they're talking on the phone same as when we tell them it's $167 to take out the vehicle oh you want to take $200 from me no we don't it's
167 so what they're doing is they're rounding it up it's something that I do too you know they tell me that it's 90 bucks I round it up to 100 but I am 100% sure with the evidence that I have I have over 523 videos just on the one that I have on me right now and there's
two so I have a driver and a helper each one has a body cam I have plenty of footage to prove we're not charging $100 we're charging $60 okay well either or um either or it it it is is something
in question so I I respectfully ask that you guys go back uh gather the team uh just review things again and we'll do our part um on the council side we're going to we're going to bring in the other towing companies like I said
where we want to make sure that everyone is is can work together or is working together and that when we as counselors receive any any complaints or anything we'll at least know hey we we spoke to this company like this is what they're doing oh I've received this complaint on
this date let me call the company do you have for in your example do you have footage of this date this time you know so now these conversations needs to happen so we know how to how to how to handle situations as counselors and and as as a city so that's the only thing
I'm I'm GNA I'm going to save and I'm going to pass it on to council dear and in closing that was part of the conversation that we had on the phone if you record it said you would originally you weren't part me when the complaints come in and I said to you I don't know if you record that he said I just want
to have a conversation to you to see how we can make it better when it comes to the treatment of the people that was one part of the thing that's why you here we don't have the power to drip you from anything as counselors and I also stated that and we will like I said we will
review it here and maybe we'll bring it up to nine counselors because right now you're seeing three but it's nine of us and probably some of them have questions and that's what the conversation I have but the main purpose was to B like we did have them speak hearing you out and
see what we can do going forward to make it better thank you attorney we will be in touch for the next meeting and um thank you so much for being here with us tonight Chief Lieutenant thank you for being here thank you for being here
thank you for being here um at this point counselors can I have a motion to to table item 30-25 second Mo has been made properly seconded all those in favor say I I the eyes have it motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second properly seconded all
those in favor say I I and the eyes