Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone to the legislative subcommittee meeting. Uh please join me to salute the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
indivisible and justice for all. Roll club the members. Councelor Gina Saya here. Here. Councelor House here. Here. Councelor Kelly here. Here. Councelor McKenna here. Here. And chairman Argentio here. Here. Quorum is present.
First item on the agenda is an ordinance removing outdated language from title two of the revised ordinances of the city of River. I think this is mainly a housekeeping issue. Uh do do any councilors wish to speak on this? Councelor Hass. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I did see some of the um the wording uh city pharmacist. And I did want to touch on one thing though that I wasn't sure if maybe someone can answer it. Mentioned the clothing allowance. So, did that mean it was going to totally delete the clothing allowances
that some city employees get or is it was it just the way it was worded in the old language? That's old language. Clothing allowances are provided for within the respective union contracts to the best of my knowledge. Thank you.
Anyone else wishing to speak? Roll call. To provide a favor or recommendation to the full city council to adopt the proposed ordinance. Councelor Gino SA. Yes. Yes. Councelor Hass. Yes. Yes. Councelor Kelly. Yes. Yes. And councelor
McKenna. Council McKenna. And chairman Argentio. Yes. Yes. The ordinance has received a favorable recommendation for adoption. Next is an ordinance further amending further amending the river revised ordinances relative to financial impact
statements. Any councilors wishing to speak? Uh, roll call. Yes, please. Shall the legislative affairs subcommittee offer a favorable recommendation to adopt the financial impact statement ordinance? Council go.
Yes. Yes. Councelor Hass. Yes. Yes. Councelor Kelly. Yes. Yes. Council McKenna. Yes. Yes. And Chairman Argenzio. Yes. Yes. The ordinance as proposed has received a favorable recommendation for adoption. Next is an ordinance further amending chapter 805 of the Reier revised
ordinances relative to the regulation of vacant buildings. Council's wishing to speak. Okay. Roll call for a favorable recommendation. Please. Yeah. Shall the legislative affairs subcommittee offer a
favorable recommendation to adopt the vacant building ordinance? Councelor Garino SA. Yes. Yes. Councelor Hass. Yes. Yes. Councelor Kelly. Yes. Yes. Councelor McKenna. Yes. Yes. And Chairman Argentio. Yes. Yes. The ordinance has received a favorable
recommendation for adoption. Next up is an ordinance further amending chapter 12.20 poles, wires, and cables of the river revised ordinances. Any councilors wishing to speak? So just um before you uh go counselor uh this is a motion that I put in uh
National Grid comes before us uh and holds public hearings as to the location of poles and conduits. Uh this motion would put that under the jurisdiction of the city engineer and no longer come
before us. Now, that doesn't mean that at any time we wanted to call National Grid before us, if we had an issue with double poles or we had some some other problem, we still have that that ability to do so. Um, I think that the people
that come before us um for a certain issue, we kind of tend to vent on them and they really don't have an understanding what we're um discussing that night. uh because it really has nothing to do with them. Um and second,
I had asked the policy writer to come up with a policy that when the city engineer uh gets a request from National Grid that they reach out to the uh wad counselor to get their input. So the wad
counselor would still have some input. They wouldn't have any official sign off on it, but uh we could still get the opinion of the wad counselor. So that was the uh idea behind the motion. Councelor Novaski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh members of the committee,
Iron Novaski, 53 Dehorn Street, W 2. Councelor, um I understand what you're saying. Um I just think we'd be losing a a general voice from everybody. Uh
because National Grid we know is very bad. you know, they have not been good to us and uh lately they have not even attempted or even acknowledged coming up to us to talk to us about the double pole
situation. Uh now, how would we would we bring up the city engineer to ask him about double polls? You know, if that's you know, because everybody's going to have questions. Who who else are we going to ask? That's one question. Well, this this particular, if I may, uh,
councelor, uh, this particular ordinance just covers installation of poles, installation of conduits, and gets us out of the, uh, public hearing. We can still call National Grid at any point we want or periodically to come up and discuss issues like that, double polls
and what have you. Uh, this doesn't put the juris the idea of double polls is an issue that we have. Uh, I don't think that would be handled by the uh, city engineer. We'd still be able to call, but at least we would have somebody in front of us that could answer those
questions intelligently rather than a person coming up here to speak about a poll location and us hammering away at them. Um, so yeah, I I did meet with U National Grid and the gentleman that came up and talked to us uh down on
Walnut A uh when we had that situation down there. And uh you know they were trying to get me to bend to bend and uh change my mind. And I said well at this point you know we had already voted no so they couldn't come back to us until
the next session next year to ask for something like that. But I I told them absolutely not. The neighbors don't want it. And I just told them straight out. And there was still one wire on the single pole that they were questioning
was a private company coming. So they can't even take the double pole down until that private company moves their wire. So that that was a bad situation. But you know, if the city engineer is only going to handle pole locations for new new poles, I don't think I have a
problem with that. But again, yeah, he still has to communicate with us to make sure that we know and it shouldn't only be me. I think it should be the at large counselors also because they have a they have some tendencies to work down there
and you know get votes down there and talk to the people. So I think maybe it should be the uh counselors at large and that particular ward counselor uh to uh be notified when that happens. Uh and
and again do we talk to the city engineer about other issues that we may have or do we have to go d you know try and call up national grid to come up and discuss you know changing lights and double poles.
You know, you said double poles, but changing lights and stuff like that and hanging wires, you know, I I just think we we lose we lose a little out of this. So, but you know, you know, I'm open. I'm I'm not going to, you know, step in
front of a gun, you know, if I if we if I don't get it or if it goes the other way. But you I just want to you know view my opinion on it and what my thoughts on uh as a city engineer is a busy guy and uh he just has to communicate to us which is very very
important which you know honestly there's a lack of that communication and energy to do that you know for anything you know in the engineering department but just as far as the polls are concerned you know we may have to bend and you know go for that. So that's my
thoughts on it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to? Uh, Council McKenna. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, I have a problem with uh a lot of problems with down wires. Um, and they're not just they're not the telephone wires. They're um just cable
wires or um old uh telephone wires. Um, so, um, I have to go through a series of, uh, I have to call, um, RCN, uh, Astonish or whatever it is. And, um, and then they direct me, they go down A,
and they say it's not their wire or it's Comcast. So, I have to get in charge with Comcast now. And there's a new person on uh, a new person. I haven't been talking to Angela. Her name is Stephanie. Yeah. So, she's been Stephanie. I don't I can give you the contact number, but she's been great.
But it's not that what I'm trying to say is it's not always National Grid. It's all these other companies that uh are on this on the on these polls. And there's many of them. There's the firefighters. There's uh you know uh the telephone, um
Comcast, RCN, National Grid. I mean, there's a ton of them. So, um, and and that's I have to go through the chains of commands to get the problems fixed. So, I just don't think that it's a good thing for Nick, uh, um, Ryum to, you
know, be in charge of that because, you know, it's just I think it's a ward counselor thing. So, the thing is we're not putting him in charge of all those things. We're only g he's only doing the new polls. Yeah, the new polls. You know, even even the new polls, if there
was a new poll going in front of my house, I would want to know. And if he doesn't communicate that and it goes in, then, you know, it's lost. So, I I would like to know I, you know, I get what you're trying to do, um, Mr. Chairman,
but I would like to know, especially, it's my ward. I would like to know where polls are going. uh you know what why is it hanging down who we have to call and just you know that's it. Thank you councelor Kelly. Thank you. So I think that the
the premise behind this is great and I agree with it. Um, but I'm just curious that there was an instance not too long ago that um dealt with Tap Street and a resident reached out to me and contacted me because there was an a very old pole
and when they were putting that pole in, they damaged his fence and he had a lot of difficulty with it and National Grid was going to come in and instead of um revamping that existing pole, they wanted to put another pole in which was even going to be closer to his property.
So, he was very concerned that if they damaged his fence the first time and the pole was even further away that his property would withstand some damage and things like that. So, in instances like that, would would this take away our opportunity or would it make it more
difficult for us to have that opportunity um to voice our opinion, our opposition to something like that? Well, part part of my original motion was it would require through a policy written by the policy writer for the engineer to
inform. At first I said wad counselors, but we could certainly extend that to councilors at large that anytime a request for a poll location came in that they would seek the input of the ward counselor. We could certainly uh widen
that to the counselors at large. But I I think my question is I would have an opportunity maybe hopefully if that goes smoothly and the message got to me and that I could you know um convey a message from the resident and things like that but I think that night
we actually had an opportunity to vote on something. So would that would this process then be taking that away? Uh yes it would. Council H. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, the premise of this, the original motion was more or less based on a lack of
communication between National Grid and um someone a repres excuse me, a representative coming up here at the council meetings who had absolutely no answers to the questions we were asking. And um that was one of my big gripes when I first started here on the
council. I couldn't believe that a representative from that company would get up here and they wouldn't know where the street was or they'd be very reluctant to answer um any questions regarding the work. And I've talked to councelor Novaselki about this and I
always felt like the ward counselors should be alerted immediately well before the plan comes before us. Um that was always a huge issue with me and I know councelor Novaski had told me that sometimes they they would alert them
other times they wouldn't and um I just always thought there there should be a plan in place where the ward counselors are notified that way they can answer the questions that come in from the from the residents and um I know recently about a month or so ago I had talked to someone at National Grid who said they
were planning on meeting with city representatives and they were supposed to come up with this this plan where um they would talk about what poles they were moving, what what um conduits and all everything like that, but still
haven't heard back and it was a month or so ago. So, I understand the motion. Absolutely. Thank you. Council Grito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree with the motion as well. I do not agree with adding the at large counselors on there.
I think the ward counselor needs to take the first initiative and if a ward counselor is needed to help the process that's fine but I think that if somebody one of the atlarge counselors comes into my ward and does something without me
knowing and then it comes to me oh Angela this is what happened um I I went this other ward counselor this other counselor uh took care of the situation and I don't know about it I'm going to have a problem with So, I would rather keep it with the ward
counsel as the way you had it. Okay. So, so to be clear, uh, this just amends the motion. I mean, excuse me, amends the ordinance. There's nothing in the ordinance that says wad counselors or counselor at large need to be uh brought in on it. That would be a separate
policy that we would ask the policy writer to create for us um and give to the engineer. So, and am I speaking correctly? Uh, yeah. So, this would just take the pole locations
and conduit locations out of the city council's hands and put it with the city engineer. Then hopefully the policy writer would create a document instructing the um city engineer to
inform the ward counselor. Now I I whether it's a ward counselor or whether it's a a counselor at large, I guess we could debate that later uh when Miss Inarello is I know she's on vacation can appear before us and we could make our
feelings known on how that policy should be written. Mr. Chairman, if I may just, you know, to clarify things, we have to realize this is only for a new pole location. It's not dealing with a double pole. If a pole is old and they're
replacing it, that's not what we're talking about because it's basically going in the same spot right within a foot. Okay. Would everyone be more comfortable if we leave this in committee and wait for the policy writer to return and then we could discuss both
issues at the same time? Is that How's that sound? Okay, madam clerk, leave committee. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And last on the agenda is an ordinance further amending appendix C salaries of the REI revised ordinances which
provides for parity salary adjustments in concert with a recently approved unit A and unit B collective bargaining agreements. Any councilors wishing to speak? Roll call. Shall the legislative affairs subcommittee offer a favorable
recommendation to the full city council to adopt the parody salary ordinance? Councelor Gino SA. Yes. Yes. Councelor H. Yes. Yes. Councelor Kelly. Yes. Yes. Council McKenna. Yes. Yes. And Chairman Argenzio. Yes. Yes. The parody salary ordinance has received a favorable recommendation for the full city
council. There's no further business. Thank you. Meeting as adjourned.