Welcome to the Rever City Council meeting of June 1st, 2026. All rise and salute the flag, please. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madame clerk, >> roll call of the members. Councelor Aenzio >> here. >> Here. Councelor Cogleandro >> here. >> Here. Councelor Gino >> here. >> Here. Councelor Go Slaya >> here.
>> Here. Councelor H is absent. Councelor Kelly >> here. >> Here. Council McKenna >> here. >> Here. Councelor Mccurio >> here. >> Here. Council Novaski. >> Here. Council Sylvester is absent. Council President Zambudo >> here. >> Here. Quorum is present. Approval of the journal of the regular meeting of May
18th. All in favor, all oppose. So ordered. >> Calendar item number three, presentation of the 2026 George B. Kala Academic Awards. Good evening everyone. Mayor Keith, City Council President
Anthony Zambudo, members of the city council, superintendent of schools Dr. Diane Kelly, our school principals, award recipients, and their family members. Ladies and gentlemen, at the onset of this evening ceremony, I would like to thank the mayor, the president,
and members of the city council for once again hosting the awards ceremony and showcasing these talented students for achieving academic excellence in the public schools of the city of River. Welcome to the Mayor George V. Kala academic achievement awards ceremony. I
would like to take a moment to thank former superintendent of schools and school committee member Carol Tai for guiding this awards program and acting as the mistress of ceremonies for 10 years. Carol's dedication to the education of the young people in Riviera
is legendary and her personal educational partnership with Mayor Kalala benefited all of the students of Revier. We wish to express to Carol our thanks for shephering this awards program from the beginning for a decade. The Mayor George V. Kala Academic
Achievement Awards are presented annually to outstanding students in recognition of their excellence in academics and citizenship. One award recipient is selected from each of the six elementary schools and from the three middle schools of the River Public School System. Each of this
evening's nine recipients will receive a $200 award and an honorary certificate in recognition of their achievements. Thus far, including this evening's recipients, 108 students will have received the awards in the 12 years of
the program, amounting to over $18,000 in honorariums. Mayor Kala conceived of the awards program and arranged for the personal funding of the program just months before he passed away. He sincerely believed in one of our founding fathers,
Benjamin Franklin, once said that investing in education pays the best interest. We hope that their early education pays the best interest for this evening's award recipients. To our award recipients, we ask that you continue striving for educational
excellence. Keep up the good work and sometime in the future when you have achieved great success in your chosen professions. Just remember your early education here in Revier. and maybe you might return to Revier and tell the next generation of Revier students that their
hard work on their early education may also pay great interest for them. I'd like to now introduce Mayor Patrick Ke. Say a few words. >> Thank you, Councelor Jenzio, and thank you to the city council for allowing us
to present tonight. U it it's it's really u important to myself. It's important to the entire administration and I know it's extremely important to the city council and school committee to maintain these traditions um that were founded by our forefathers uh and making
sure that we understand the value in pass uh uh passing it forward. Uh we have students here that are going to represent all of our schools. Uh and it's every single year we sit here and we do these awards and then later on tonight there'll be the community scholarships. Almost each time we see
that this the recip recipients of the Keller awards tend to get the Revier community scholarships five or six years later when they're graduating high school and moving on to college. This is a very worthy investment. As you mentioned, the $200 is a very small token. Uh the significance of the award
is really what matters to myself and the city of Rivier. I'm going to continue to help shepherd this award uh with you as as helpers and and and um keep and keep this Kala award uh in recognition of of what it was intended for to plant the
seed into these young students to make sure that they have memories that will they'll take on to high school and college and then hopefully come back someday to pass that education and knowledge back to our uh younger students or residents of the city. I want to thank specifically the educators
that are going to come today and speak about their students. They've shown the amount of time and investment that they put into these students. They're going to read uh descript bios on why uh these future leaders of Rivier are being recognized. And I also want to thank the leadership of my my colleague and I'd
like to, you know, she's been doing this for so long and I've been doing it for not not as long as George Kala, but I've been doing her for a few years. I'd like I'd like to think that someday people will think of myself and Diane Kelly as as community leaders, that we work together to make
sure that these kids are recognized and that our school systems and our and our city as a whole is maintained the same way that Carol Tai and George Kella did. So, I'm honored to be here tonight and I'm honored to pass the torch over to my good friend in our superintendent of schools, Dan Kelly.
>> Thank you very much. I'm gonna Am I I'll come up this way. >> Yeah, I think so. Because you got to give out the certificate. >> Great job. So, I have the privilege and the honor of welcoming all of our recipients up here to be honored. And the way this piece will work is we're going to go
school by school. I'm going to invite the principal and the recipient to come up. The principal is going to talk a little bit about why each child was selected to be the recipient. Uh, and then after that, we'll invite the family to come up and have a photo with the city council. Okay. So, our first
recipient, I'm very honored to introduce you all to Alexis Leona Feldman, who hails from the Lincoln School. And I'll invite Principal Surman to come up and say a few words with Alexis. Today we are recognizing an exemplary
student whose hard work, dedication and character have truly set her apart. Alexis Feldman consistently demonstrates positivity, um, resilience, and a strong commitment
to learning. An active participant in all of her classes, she approaches every subject with enthusiasm and curiosity. Her love of learning has inspired her dream of becoming a teacher one day.
Outside of school, she is an accomplished competitive dancer who competes in ballet, tap, and jazz. While she excels in all three styles, tap is her favorite. What makes her truly special, however,
is the person she is each and every day. She is friendly, respectful, helpful, and always brings positivity to those around her. She not only succeeds in the classroom, but also helps make
our school a better place through her kindness, leadership, and positive attitude. We are incredibly proud of all that Alexis has accomplished and excited to see all the amazing things that lie
ahead for her. Congratulations on this welldeserved honor. Does her family want to come up for >> and Mr. is I see is >> get the picture. >> Get the picture. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go stand.
I think >> my mother talked to her niece. >> Our next recipient is Valentina Lancereivic from the AC Whan School. She'd like to come up with Principal Shanley. And just while they're coming up, I'm going to let the parents know there's a
live check in this envelope. So take that when your child comes back. >> Good evening everybody. Tonight I am joined with assistant principal Mr. Galuchcci is over here in the audience. Give a wave, Mr. Galuchcci. And we're
also here with Mr. Cis, our amazing fifth grade teacher that had the pleasure of having Valentina for two years. We are here tonight to proudly recognize an outstanding member of the AC Whan community. It is my honor to announce that Valentina Lancarich is the
recipient of the 2026 Mayor Kalala Achievement Award for grade five at the AC Whan. Chosen by her teachers for this prestigious honor. Valentina con consistently demonstrates academic excellence, leadership, and
responsibility and especially kindness. She's a student who approaches every challenge with determination and embodies the values we strive to instill in all of our learners. She has a passion for social studies and she takes great pride in her success on
challenging science assessments. Valentina credits her mom, dad, teachers, and best friend Asia for inspiring and motivating her to always do her best. Outside of school, she enjoys spending time with her family,
playing volleyball, playing games, and spending time with her dog. When asked what advice she would give to younger students, Valentina shared, "Make good, close friends, and when things get hard, think about the times that you have done hard things already."
As she prepares to begin middle school, Valentina is excited about experiencing new classes and opportunities. In the future, she hopes to become a police officer or to pursue another career that allows her to be a strong leader and make a positive difference in the lives
of others. We are incredibly proud of you, Valentina. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor. Congratulations. Mom's coming up. Congratulations. >> So excited. Congratulations. >> Congratulations.
>> Our next recipient heals from the Beachmont Veterans Memorial School, Jacob Alexander Frasier. I invite him up with uh Principal Fryzen for the award. All right. Uh, good evening. My name is Chris Fryzen and I'm the proud principal
of the Beachmont Veterans Memorial School. I'm joined here by Miss Christine Anderson and Marty Katib, Jacob's fifth grade teachers. Um, I'd like to take a moment to thank the mayor and the city council for continuing the George Mayor George Kala academic achievement award and for recognizing
the hard work and accomplishments of these incredible students across our district. Tonight, I am honored to recognize where there you go. Sorry, I'm standing in front of him. Jacob Frasier as the Beachmont School's uh grade five recipient of this award. Jacob truly
exemplifies what it means to be a beachman bee. At the Hive, we encourage all students to be respectful, responsible, safe, and kind. And Jacob demonstrates these qualities every single day. Jacob has made tremendous impact at the Beachmon since kindergarten. Not only does he excel
academically in the classroom, but he is also active actively involved in many of our extracurricular activities throughout our school community, including peer leaders, steam club, runwalk club, coral club, chess club, and math league. This year, Jacob earned first place in the math league
competition, an accomplishment we're incredibly proud of. Outside of school, he also plays hockey and baseball. I am joined uh said that uh when I speak when I spoke with Jacob last week about receiving this award, he shared how excited he is to attend the Garfield
Middle School next year. He also told me that he hopes to attend MIT someday and that his dream job is to become a machinist for NASA. Jacob is passionate about making new making new discoveries and shared with me that he wants to make
an impact on history one day. Beyond his academic achievements and leadership, Jacob also has a great sense of humor. I still remember when he was in second or third grade until he became maybe too cool. He would come down to the main office every single morning during morning announcements and share jokes
with the entire school that I added to my collection of corny dad jokes. Jacob is a well-rounded young man with a bright future ahead of him. I have no doubt that he will continue to accomplish great things and make a positive impact wherever his journey takes him. We are so very proud of Jacob
and all that he has accomplished during his time at the beach mom. We will miss him, but congratulations, Jacob. Congratulations. >> Do you mind? >> So proud of you. Everybody, >> congratulations. Uh next from the Garfield Elementary
Garfield Elementary School, we welcome up uh Kosam Marvy Tiana Sun and Dr. Nate Pierre will come up to present Congratulations. >> Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council, Dr. Kelly, and the
wonderful scholars you see before you. My name is Percy Napier and I am the principal of the Garfield Elementary School. I'm joined by two of my fifth grade teachers, Miss Koreah and Miss Brinkle. Um I would like to sincerely
thank all of you those who continue to provide us with this grand opportunity to recognize academic excellence. Our students hear many messages outside of school and very few of them reinforce the idea that it is good to love
learning, that it is admirable to pursue your passions, dream big and work hard to achieve those dreams. So that is why I'm especially thrilled to be here this evening celebrating the accomplishments of students who forge a different path. Students who choose what is most
beneficial to their growth and development rather than what is simply most popular. Excellence begins with a choice. And when our students make the right choices, it is so important that those choices are recognized and celebrated. Standing beside me today is a remarkable
young lady who's chose Exodin at a ve excellence at a very young age and continues to reap the benefits of that decision every single day. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce Garfield's Kala Award winner, Kosa Mavaris.
Kosamavari consistently performs at the very top of her class in all aspects of her academics. Her teachers describe her as an exceedingly dedicated student who though reserved at time speaks with a great thoughtfulness and insight
whenever she shares her ideas. Last year, she was among the top scores in both the English and math on the MCCAST, and her star assessment scores in reading and math consistently place her at a high school grade level equivalent. Beyond excelling academically, Kosavari
is a talented artist, an avid reader, and gifted writer. In her free time, she enjoys drawing with a focus on both realism and cartoon styles. In fact, she is already preparing for to one day create her own graphic novel. When she
grows older, she hopes to pursue a career as either a teacher or an artist. I am quite confident in the years ahead, we will all be hearing much more from this exceptional young lady. Congratulations, Cole.
Congratulations. I told you a little bit >> this way. Congratulations again. Congratulations. Our next re our next recipient hails from the Paul Rivier Innovation School,
Briana Cinedino Roma Nuskimento. And I invite her up with Principal Coyle. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. I am so excited to share with you tonight Brianna Nasimento. She's a fantastic student from the Paul River student. I'm
going to read some words that the grade five team has put together describing Briana and why she was selected as a recipient for this award. Briana is a shining example of what hard work and determination can achieve. She approaches every task with a positive attitude and consistently gives her best
effort no matter the challenge. Her dedication to learning has made a lasting impression on both teachers and classmates. Briana listens carefully, thinks deeply, and contributes meaningfully to class discussion. Her calm focus, steady growth, and quiet leadership make her a valued member of
our classroom community. She uplifts those around her by bringing a positive and encouraging presence to the space that she enters through her kindness, support for others, and willingness to help. She strengthens the class community. It ensures that everyone feels valued and included. Rihanna
stands out among her peers as a true leader. This award honors her strong work ethic and unwavering commitment to doing her best each and every day. One thing I want to add that is a to me I think a standout um you know uh part of Banna's personality is we got to see a
video of when her mom was telling her that she was going to be the recipient of this award and she was excited but she didn't start crying until she heard that she was getting this for being a strong role model and that really I think means so much and tells you everything you need to know about the character of the young lady next to me
and where she's going in life. She's a kind person. She has a a great heart and she's definitely going places. Congratulations So I do have Miss Chapen here who's one of the grade five teachers and then Miss Quirk, assistant principal. I'll go wherever you want me.
>> Do you want to go next to >> You can probably stand behind the size. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. I'm sure enough Congratulations. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. >> Okay. Our last elementary recipient hails from the Staff Sergeant James J. Hill Elementary School, Omar Aradi. And I'd like to welcome up with Principal Martell. >> Thank you so much for having us tonight.
I am joined with my assistant principal, Anna Mclofflin, who is also here with me tonight. Every year, teachers are lucky enough to encounter students who don't just sit in the classroom, but actively lift up everyone around them. Omar Aradi is exactly that kind of student. From
the words of his teachers, Omar is a true leader defined by his maturity, kindness, and an exceptional work ethic, all while staying incredibly humble. When a classmate is struggling, Omar is always the first to step in and help. But he doesn't just hand over the
answers. He takes the time to explain the strategies, helping his peers grow alongside him. His love of learning extends far beyond our classroom walls. Whether he is diving into a book, sketching a new piece of art, or giving his all on the sports field, Omar proves
every day what it means to be a truly well-rounded student. While Omar's favorite part of elementary school might have been the field trips and his work on our student council, his future holds much bigger journeys. He is looking forward to middle school, excited to meet new people and dive into new clubs.
And when we look further down the road, Omar's dreams are as big as they come. With his sights set on MIT and Harvard, not or he plans to study aerospace engineering and criminal justice, aiming to make an impact both with the FBI and
the FAA. On top of that, he hopes to be a future entrepreneur and professor ready to teach the next generation. Omar, keep working hard, keep lifting others up, and never lose that wonderful humility. We cannot wait to see you change the world. Congratulations.
We'll have to connect you with Jacob. >> I know. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. I was saying we'll have to connect Omar and Jacob because they'll make a formidable team.
Um, so for our middle school recipients, we're going to start with the Garfield Middle School Sophia Korea Muriel. And I'll invite Principal King up to present her awards. Good evening. Thank you for having us. My name is Thad King. I'm the principal
of the Garfield Middle School, and I'm very proud tonight to present Sophia Caro. If I can find my glasses, will do something more for me. So, I would like I asked some teachers to speak on her behalf, and I'm going to read uh what they said about Sophia for
this evening. And here's what they said. The thing that stands out about Sophia is that she can walk into any space and find a way to make it better. I mean, look, come on. She's smiling already. She lights up a room with her smile. She puts people at ease with her ability to have conversations with anyone about
anything. She never forgets a detail, which shows how much she genuinely cares about others. As a scholar, she works the hardest out of everyone in the room. She perseveres through challenges and always seeks out feedback in order to improve.
This is the case for any subject throughout her time at GMS. She is one of the most reliable students we have ever had and her peers see that quality in her as well. She has been involved in our unified basketball league as a student volunteer in order to continue to be a leader not just in
the classroom or on her travel team, but in other spaces that she wouldn't normally have the opportunity to shine. She also volunteers her time at lunch as a peer mentor, showing her dedication to the betterment of our school community and making everyone feel included. This is the kind of student that you never
forget. She holds a special place in everyone's hearts that she encounters. You'll never meet a sweeter, kinder, more empathetic, and harder working person. And our community is a better place for having her in it. There's a PS that I don't believe the teachers wanted me to read, but I will. They said, "We
are crying as we're writing this." I would just like to add that when I think of Sophia, I think of her as a leader. And when I think about leaders, I recognize there are many types and styles. Some work to become leaders. Some are simply chosen. Some lead by example while others may be more
systematic or use the authority of their positions. And then there are natural leaders who inspire others to want to do better or be better just because of their presence. This is Sophia. So, I thank you, Sophia, for inspiring others to want to do better, but more
specifically inspiring me to want to be better. Thank you. >> So, well, congratulations. >> Thank you. Get the family up. >> All right.
>> Thanks, Al. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations. Good job. Our next recipient is from the Ramni Marsh Academy, Fouad Abdubaki Ahmed. And
I invite Dr. Bob up to tell us a little bit more about this student. Good evening. I'm Heather Bob. I'm the principal, very proud principal at the Romney Marsh Academy. And it is my honor to recognize Fouad Ahmed this evening. A
student whose journey reflects real perseverance, curiosity, and steady growth. Fouad joined our school community last year in seventh grade as a newcomer from Ethiopia and entered as a beginner English learner. Through hard
work, independence, and a strong drive to learn, he moved out of beginner ESL support in a matter of just months. Fouad shared that even before coming to the United States, he began teaching himself English by typing and studying words on the computer, an early sign of
the initiative and self-motivation that still stand out in his learning today. Fouad is consistently described by his teachers as thoughtful, motivated, and genuinely eager to understand more. He shows strengths across content areas
with particular engagement in mathematics, science, civics, art, and physical education. He has also shown impressive commitment to independent learning, earning recognition among the top 100 participants worldwide in the vocabulary
bowl out of more than 1.1 million students. As a point of pride, the Romney Marsh Academy was the vocabulary bowl state champion this year, and Fouad's efforts played a meaningful role in helping our school reach that achievement. In his
work, Fouad mastered 1,487 words and completed over 34,000 questions, an outstanding demonstration of persistence and academic stamina. Outside of school, Fouad enjoys playing soccer as a right-winger and pickup
games with his friends. He has also developed a strong interest in finance independently exploring stocks, investing, and how markets work. Looking ahead, he has set ambitious goals for himself, including attending a competitive college and studying
marketing and astronomy. Next year, Fouad will continue his academic journey at River High School where he has where he has been placed in honors level mathematics. An exciting next step that reflects not only his growth and his ready but his readiness for an increased
challenge. We celebrate Fouad not only for his academic accomplishments but for the curiosity, resilience, and self-direction he brings to his learning. We are confident that he will continue to make our school community proud as he transitions to Reier High
School next year. Congratulations. >> Miss Chapen, would you like to join us as for math teacher in the photo? She said it's one right here, please. Thank you so much. Thank you.
>> Congratulations. >> Okay, our last recipient, but certainly not the least, it comes from the Susan B. Anthony Middle School. It's uh Yasier Ham Hamukatu. And I invite Principal Wlette up to present the award.
Good evening. Tonight, this evening, I'm joined by Yasser's um eighth grade math teacher, Grace Kingsbury. This evening, it is my honor to recognize Yaser Hamukatu as Susan B. Anony's George V. Kalala academic award
winner. Yaser is an exceptional student whose AC accomplishments extend far beyond his outstanding academic performance. What truly sets Yaser apart, however, is his character. His teachers describe him as kind, thoughtful, responsible, and a role
model for his peers. He is known for asking insightful questions, seeking feedback to improve, and helping create a positive, inclusive school community. One teacher shared that Yasser is a leader amongst his peers by consistently
demonstrating kindness and persistence, while another described him as one of the kindest and most conscious students they've ever worked with. Outside of school, Yasser enjoys playing soccer, spending time with family and friends, and playing video games, board games,
especially Uno. He enjoys going to the beach and was fortunate to travel to Morocco with his family this past summer. His favorite subject is civics and next year he will attend Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School where I'm confident he will
continue to succeed. On behalf of the entire Susan Banthony Middle School community, congratulations, Yasser. We are incredibly incredibly proud of your accomplishments, grateful for your positive impact you've had on our community, and excited for all the accomplishments that lie ahead.
Congratulations. Congratulations. I'm going to stay. >> Okay. Okay, that that concludes the presentation of the Kala Awards. Congratulations to everybody.
We're going to enter We'll take a one minute recess. Okay, >> madame clerk. >> Calendar item number four, presentation of the city of Reier community scholarship for the 2026 River High School recipients.
>> Mayor Keefe Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I actually have our colleague or my associate in the office, Rose Burns, who's going to be uh offering up some remarks tonight. Uh, she has been uh one of the chairs of the uh community scholarship and she's done a wonderful job uh taking over the
program with other members of our community to make sure that this this is another one of the our city's traditions that we keep alive. Uh before Miss Burns uh presents to you the awardees, I do want to make a little bit of a of a pitch tonight, um this scholarship has
been notoriously funded through goodwill. Uh when you get your tax bill, you you see a little letter sometimes to offer an additional payment to help support the scholarship uh a dollar, $2, $5. And there's also been generous contributions uh from people in the past
including some of our former mayors and Rizzo u most notably uh made some large donations. That fund has uh been uh coming down. Uh so I am going to take it upon myself uh to help with some uh scholarship initiatives over the next
year. Maybe some charity events. We're talking about wrestling council mccurio. No. Um I just see that beautiful smile. I think he'd let me win. But um we are going to do some different uh collaborative events to raise some funds for this scholarship. Uh I would ask that uh you
continue to spread the word and if possible you're certainly welcome to chip in. But we're going to come together with something nice um potentially a road race in the fall to help raise some more money and funds for this to keep this scholarship going. So Miss Burns, you can take it away. And we're very again, I would be willing to
bet and I I saw tonight some people uh that are going to be recipients uh that these students that are receiving this community scholarship were potentially uh awardees from the Kala awards. It goes very very much handinand because the leadership and the um the the the
criteria that we put forward on the scholarship committee is very similar to Kala awards and often the students that get it in fifth grade or or eighth grade tend to get it as they're going on into their senior year and going into college. So congratulations to the winners. Thank you Rose Burns.
>> Thank you Mr. Mayor for the leadway. Good evening everyone. Mayor Keefe, honorable city council and in Superintendent Diane Kelly. Um, my name is Rose Burns. I am Mayor Ke's aid, but I am also the chair of the city of River scholarship committee. This scholarship is funded every year through volunte voluntary taxpayer contributions and
community source donations. It recognizes students who are community oriented and service driven. So, I would like to thank everyone who has helped to make the scholarship possible each and every year. This year, our community our committee was able to provide four graduating seniors from River High
School with $1,000 towards their college expenses. Many outstanding students applied for this scholarship this year and it was hard to select just four recipients. However, these students stood out to the committee based on their community involvement, care for their peers, their people around them,
their teams, their teachers, and their dedication to their future endeavors. They are off to four phenomenal schools, Union College, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University. Congratulations to all. You make your city and school so unbelievably proud. So, at this time,
I'm going to read the names and if you'd like to join us for a group picture. Um, so first we have Gemma Samatopoulos. >> Congratulations. >> Next is Jalia Figureroa. >> You want to do the family? Okay. Three times today. Yeah.
Congratulations. >> Okay. Now, next is Julia Figuro and her family. If you would like to join us. Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Okay, next we have Ethan Men.
>> Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Are you Okay. And last, but certainly not least, we have Adah Lui. >> Congratulations. Good to see you. >> Good to see you, too. >> Thank you. Anybody
else? Good job, Rose. >> Thank you. I didn't have to lift it. >> Madame clerk, >> public hearings calendar item number five. Hearing called is ordered on a loan order in the amount of $12,200,000
for the Wonderland area sore improvements. This is a public hearing. Proponents. Proponents. Anybody in favor of this loan order. >> Well, he better be.
>> Sorry, Mr. Chairman. A lot of traffic going by. Good evening. Richard Visque, CFO 281 Broadway. I am here in support of the bond authorization for the sore work at uh the wonderland area. It is part of our consent decree and we
continue to fund the improvements needed to uh relieve that decree and uh I am here to support the loan order. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other proponents? People in favor hearing and seeing none, we're going to close that side of the hearing.
Opponents, people opposed. hearing and seeing none, we're going to close that side of the hearing. Counselors >> Wow. Council Mccurio. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, Mr. Fiske,
thank you for being here this evening. Just a couple of quick questions. This is a 15-year bond. >> I believe it's a 15-year bond. Yes. and percentage that we'll be paying on the bond. >> Um it's it's subsidized by the um the
the state trust and I believe it comes in at a 2% interest rate with um up to 6.6% of principal forgiveness if we meet certain criteras of that bond. So we use the state trust on these projects because it gives us the the most beneficial rate.
>> Great. And this is part of the 134 million that the city has spent already in the so repair or is this something different? We can't. Well, this this loan order needs to be approved by the council in order for us to commence the work. So, it's not part of it yet, but it certainly will be once it's
>> It will be part of the 134 million. >> Um, right off the top of my head, I don't have the exact number, but it it's part of the overall um I don't know if it's part of the 134, maybe in addition to the 134. >> It will be in addition to the 134 >> because it's new debt. Again, we're not counting the debt that hasn't been issued. >> So, it be 146 million that will be up to
date once we approve this loan order >> plus or minus. I don't want to agree to that in in totality, but it sounds about correct. I didn't bring those numbers with me, but I can certainly verify for you. >> Well, thank you very much, Mrs. Gay. And uh >> you're welcome. >> No, no further question. Thank you, Mr. President.
>> You're welcome. Any other counselors? I guess I'll ask a co a question or two. This is part of the consent decree. This has nothing to do with the high school, >> correct? Council is part of the consent decree and the and the work that goes along with that degree. Yes. >> Yeah. Somebody asked me that question
and I said I don't think it's part of the high school cuz I would see to it that the high school paid for it but uh I thought it was part of the consent decree and uh thank you for clearing that up. >> You're welcome.
>> Um any other questions? No. on the bond. Roll call. >> Shall the city council approve a loan order in the amount of 12 million $200,000 for Wonderland Area Sore improvements? Councelor Aenzio.
>> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Kagglandro. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Janino. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Gino SA. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Hass. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Kelly. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor McKenna. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council Mccario. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Novasellski. >> Yes.
>> Yes. Councelor Sylvester is absent and council president Sambudo. >> Yes. >> Yes. The loan order has been approved. >> Okay. Uh there's a resolution that goes along with that loan order. On the resolution, roll call. >> Shall the city council approve a resolution relative to the loan order
for Wonderland Area Sore improvements? Councelor Aenzio. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Cogleandro. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council Gino. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. Councelor Gino SA. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Hass. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Kelly. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council McKenna. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council Mccario. >> Yes.
>> Yes. Council Novaski. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Sylvester is absent and council president Zambudo. >> Yes. >> Yes. The resolution has been approved. >> Calendar item number six. Hearing called is ordered on an ordinance further amending the revolving funds table for
FY27 of the Revised Ordinances. >> This is a public hearing. Proponents people in favor >> good evening Mr. President Rich Fiske, city CFO 2 on Broadway. I am here to speak in favor of the revised ordinance
for the revolving funds. Um we uh ordained these funds uh I think in fiscal year 2004. Um as part of the department of revenues new regulations um they do request that if we do have any changes that has to come before the council to be
reordained. Um we have analyzed the revolving funds for the departments. We have moved some that were pretty much inactive and we have added a few more for some of the operations that we are um currently looking to run as a revolving fund. Um probably of most note
is the house health and wellness center revolving fund that will allow us to account for all the revenues that come in for the center into one uh special revenue account and pay all the bills through that. We also have proposed a few others. We do have one for um taking care of the community gardens uh for the
health department. And we also have a new fee for weekend work at the DPW. That would be a revolving fund where we could uh grant permits through the winter for work and that money would go towards some of the expenses that come with working towards the winter. But otherwise, most of the revolving funds
remain the same. But this is just an opportunity for us to revise them as we go into the fiscal year 2027 budget. I'm happy to answer any questions on those funds if possible. >> Thank you. We'll finish the public hearing then you can have questions. Uh any other proponents, people in favor of
this hearing and seeing none, we're going to close that side of the hearing. Any opponents, people opposed? Hearing and seeing none, we'll close that side of the hearing. Councilors, councelor Kelly,
>> question for Mr. Visque. Uh thanks for being here tonight, Mr. Visque, I just had a couple of questions. One in particular regarding the HAS center. Um, were we originally, if you could help refresh my memory, were we originally told that that would be um
self-sufficient at a certain point in time? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, right now it looks like we're asking or we're $300,000 will be paid for employee
employment um employee salaries, right? Labor fund. So, and that's coming from the general fund. So, that's taxpayer money, correct? So, that's not going to be coming out of the revolving fund. Yeah, we we um we budgeted $300,000 for fiscal year at 27 for salaries to run
that um operation and we're hoping that that's the final year that there's any general fund subsidy for that. We were paying salaries through the OPA funds which are set to expire in uh December 26. So this will kind of bridge us through fiscal year 27 with the hopes
that 28 this is a full cost recovery operation. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you for that. And also just the um on the Wonderland revolving fund um the adjacent properties. What exactly constitutes an adjacent property and who
decides what an adjacent property is? >> That fund was one that we've had back when those um the wonderland was um parking lots before they got developed. But we do get revenue that goes into that revolving fund to help us um take care of the marquee bridge and some of
the um expenses that have to do with that. That bridge was built um for us, but then come to find out that we actually own that bridge. So monies that we get in through that fund and we also get some contributions from the uh association over there and goes into that revolving fund and helps pay for
the repairs of that bridge and some of the city owned property over there. >> Okay. Um, and then on the mayor's discretionary fund, um, there's a term there that some of the money could be used for economic development. Is that's kind of broad. Could you are there any
examples that you have from the past in terms of what constitutes or what would be classified as economic development? I just think that now that that economic development came from um years prior, but I believe that would be used for any
kind of uh consultant or other um expenses that would have to do with enhancing the uh development of the city. So, I don't believe we used it for that, but it was intentionally left broad so that the mayor had some discretion. Again, the mayor's discretionary fund to use that for uh types of economic development that he he
or she would seem uh worthy of uh exploring. >> Okay. And then in the mater I don't know I know we had some materials that we were given this evening but in the packet I didn't see the um the current balances in these funds or like the expenditures and things like that but
are we going to be provided with those things on each on each of these accounts? >> Um >> do we already have them in >> I believe when we submitted the um the bud we may actually you may be right we may have only put the budgets for 27 I actually collapsed that um spreadsheet
with the balances. I can provide you with the balances through June uh March 31st for all the revolving funds if you if if you'd like to see them for sure. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. That's it. Thanks. >> Any other counselors? >> No questions. Wow.
Um I don't have any. We're going to refer this to Ways and Means. Public comment pursuant to chapter 402 of the acts of 1965. Reier residents or Reier business owners only. Please provide your name and residential or
business address. Two minutes per speaker. Please indicate which council order number you will be speaking on. Do we have anybody under chapter 402 public comments? Seeing none, we'll move on.
>> Unfinished business. Calendar item number seven. Motion presented by councelor Kelly. Motion to reconsider. Prevailing substitute motion by councelor Janeino to request that the DPW remove the traffic island at Hall's Corner. >> Motion to reconsider is non-debatable.
on the motion. >> Roll call. >> Shall the city council reconsider council order number 26-097? Councelor Agenzio, >> yes. >> Yes. Council Kogandro, >> yes. >> Yes. Council Janino,
>> present. >> Quoting present. Councelor Go Slaya. >> No. >> No. Councelor Hass. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council Kelly. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council McKenna. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council Mccurio.
>> Yes. >> Yes. Council Noveski. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council Sylvester is absent. And Council President Zambo. >> Yes. >> Yes. The motion is now on the floor. It's been reconsidered. >> Councelor Kelly. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I just I
know that the amendment um asked to remove the island entirely, but after last week's uh two weeks ago after that meeting, I just had some reservations about moving it entirely because I really think it's presence there is acting as a traffic calming measure. So
I think rather than just make a decision one way or the other, we could ask maybe the opinion of traffic and some other experts um as to what they think might be the most um viable option in terms of
an option that would provide the most safety. So I don't want to do anything that would um be making anything worse. So we want to try to improve this. So the original motion that I had just asked to make the island more visible. that might be the correct way to go. Um, but I think we need to just give it a
little more thought before we decide one way or the other before we hastily say to remove it in its entirety in case it is acting as a traffic calming measure, which I believe it may be. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor. Council Mccurio. >> Oh, Council Novasowski.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, uh, I think this is a great move by Council Kelly. Uh, I drive that area a lot and I see that intersection. And I know it's been a bad intersection and that's why we put extra stop signs there. And I think that island is a
calming measure. Uh before we had a couple of the uh veteran memorials uh actually there were city firefighters. The Fanti family had two uh polls there, memorial polls, and they were always always getting creamed. >> But so I think we ought to leave the
island there and even put in something more definite to show that the island is there. And I think that we should refer that to the traffic commission. Let them make make the call. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. Councelor Janino. >> Thank you. I'm all for having the island
looked at and reconsidered, reshaping, whatever. I do know it's sticking out too far to the way it is now. And any improvement is a plus. And I'm all for improvements on it. But I don't want to see them spend money on it, put more
signs in, do it all over to continue being run over and destroyed every six months, you know. I mean, as far as safety wise, we we need safety down there. I mean, there have been numerous actions that area
and the stop signs reduced a lot of the accidents down there, but but I'm all for any improvements to the area. >> Thank you, councelor. Any other counselors? I guess I'll give my two cents if that's approved.
Um, I think uh I think this is good motion. I think it uh I didn't like the idea of completely eliminating it. It does need to be modified. It needs to be made. I don't
know if it's maybe shrunk down a little and taller or something. We need engineers to look at this, people that are understanding why people are driving over this thing. And uh so I'm I'm in favor of this 100%. So I guess we're
going to send you asked to send this to traffic commission. I think we I think we need to send this to public safety and I think we need to hear from the city engineer and people that uh you know will look at this with a discerning eye.
All right. Public safety >> communications calendar item number eight, communication from the mayor relative to the presentation of the fiscal year 2027 operating budget. >> Mr. Mayor, >> Mr. President, >> we're honored to have you here.
>> The honor is all mine. Thank you so much. Uh honorable council, Mr. President, um I'm pleased to present to you uh the fiscal 2027 municipal budget. Our total operating budget is a culmination of good governance and
fiscal prudence. Respect taxpayers values and our responsibilities to manage that the same way they must manage their homes and finances. We will not live above our means. This budget represents a
structural increase of only 1.8%. I want to restate that. a meager structural increase of only 1.8%. We all know that with the rate of inflation alone, we're doing more while
spending less. That's due to our team's approach on digging deep into what the necessities are, removing waste, and how we maximize funds using technology, strong work ethic, and creating efficiencies across the board. This
budget is built around right sizing general government while investing in our core programs to enhance our residents experience and quality of life. The fixed cost increases such as utilities, healthc care and contractual
growth are managed by embracing new funding sources, strong labor relations, and exceptional management from our chiefs and department heads. We are doing all of this while making record investments in our public safety teams,
educational portfolio, public works, city services, municipal buildings, infrastructure, and open space. I have to give kudos to my team and department heads for really digging deep and making the appropriate adjustments and coming
together and from what I could see is quite possibly the leanest increase in municipal spend in all of greater Boston. To that I give large thanks to our CFO who painstakingly works alongside me that has been a culmination of work that
we've done together over the last three years but also a sign of the work that we will continue to do in the years ahead and we want to ensure that REA is always moving forward allowing sustainable growth while preserving affordability to our taxpayers.
Rivera is a place to live, set deep roots, enjoy recreational amenities, get a great education, raise a family, and to thrive. I present to you our budget, and we are here to answer any questions. I do know that this is going to be going to
Councelor Kaggleandro's committee, but I hope that you you're pleased with what you see, and and I and I and I do say that we did the research. I I can't find a community that's doing less than a 4% increase in their total spend. So, we're very proud of what we're putting in front of you. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Visqueke, >> I don't usually call you by name, Mr. CFO. No problem. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the kind words. I appreciate it. Um, couldn't do without my, uh, great finance team and all the good hard work
of all the employees here of the city. So, uh, thank you for that. I'll try to make this brief. Um, I know it's a little late and we had a lot of awards earlier, but I did think it was a good opportunity here to present a uh quick uh slide deck presentation of the
fiscal year 2027 budget and um not an entire long range uh financial planning review, but just some highlights and some important financial uh information that I think um you would find useful in deliberating this budget as well as the
general public. So um next slide please. All right. So the goals of this uh slide deck is to review the financial condition of the city to review um that's 10 year financial forecast. It's really nine years but um to convey other related information especially with the
financing of the uh new river high school the McKinley renovation and the McMackenfield. Those are pretty much the big three projects that we have going on right now as well as the Northeast Vocational High School, which we're not directly involved with, but we are ultimately responsible for 20% of that
debt service. Um, so the objectives here is to present financial information to the city council. Um, this 2026 C tax rate has been set. That is the baseline for the budget um in which we build off
of fisc fiscal year 2027. and we'll um look at the situation uh for fiscal year 27 through fiscal year 34 and I'll answer any questions. I did hand out um budget books to everybody. I know there's a lot of information in there, but with that I did hand out what I
think is probably the most important document. It's the fiveyear it's the financial forecast out to 2034 and the narr that go with that. So um if you get a chance to read those later, feel free to ask me any questions. But in the meantime, I'll go through this
PowerPoint presentation. Next slide, please. Uh, so the good news uh for the financial condition is that we've been pretty diligent about um putting our money away in multiple stabilization and savings accounts. I have listed them all there for you that we have um to note,
we have about $12.2 million in our general stabilization fund and another $4 million in our water and sewer stabilization fund. We have $2 million um in our health insurance trust fund which um dipped below the $3 million threshold that we uh like to see. So
there has been some modifications to our health insurance budget with regard to that. I can get into that later. Um I won't read every single one, but all the balances are there for your review. Um we are double A bond rated with a stable outlook with standard and poor. We are
um about to have another bond rating call with standard and poor um in the middle of next month uh middle of this month now June 1st. Um with regard to a large borrow we'll be doing we we'll probably be borrowing up to close to $200 million in short-term debt to uh
continue with the construction of the high school and um the bond rate call will happen in two weeks and then we will issue that debt in July. Next slide. The challenges well building the
financial capacity to fund a new high school as well as a northeast vocational high school. We all know that there's no appetite for a debt exclusion or an override vote. Um rise in fixed cost health insurance. Um our health insurance trust dipped below $3.1
million in fund balance. We did negotiate a 9-year um agreement with the public employee committee with regard to health insurance plan design. And um one of the caveats of that uh agreement was that if the trust fund fell below $3.1
million, we would open up negotiations to try to write the ship. We did do that and we did come up with uh modifications to the 2027 health insurance plans largely with regard to uh the medics and managed bofer senior plans which are our
retirey health plans. We're one of the few communities that offered um prescription drugs as part of our Blue Cross Blue Shield programs um as part of the negotiation. We have carved that out and uh seniors will be enrolling in uh
prescription uh drug plan through uh CVS which brings substantial savings not only in the short term but to our unfunded liability but there will certainly be some hiccups and questions with regard to that. I can get into that a little bit later. Um our pension
liability uh the state says we have to have it funded by 2040. We are on pace to have ours funded by 2033, which is very important because once that liability is uh paid in full, we only have to pay our normal costs for our pension obligation, which significantly
reduces the amount that we have to budget year-over-year, which will create some capacity to fund the high school uh debt service as well as other future needs in the community. other post-employment benefits. That's um the cost to provide uh health insurance for
our retirees as uh seen by the actuaries. Uh basically our pension is uh by law we have to raise our pension unfunded liability by 2040. There's no law that says we have to raise our other post-employment benefit liability often
called OPED liability. However, um it is on our balance sheet. that is considered by the debt um um bond buyers. It's also considered by the standard and poor. So um we're trying to do all we could to keep that oped liability as low as
possible. Some of the good news with the the new health insurance plans that uh we will have for the retirees is that it's going to significantly reduce that liability could be to the tune of 30 or $40 million. we can see a decrease in that because of the long-term cost present
value back to today's liability would uh see some substantial savings and I should have that figure within a couple of weeks working with my actuaries now to see what the impact of that is. So those are the challenges fixed costs uh typically the biggest challenges in the city. Next page
so like the mayor said we are coming in with an uh budget of $322.6 6 million. Uh this slide represents uh where the revenues come from and where the expenses are. Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires that we have a balanced budget. We cannot deficit
spend. We do uh most of the hard work through the months of February through May to get us to a balanced budget. We present it to you for deliberation and um as you know, you're uh welcome to reduce any budget that you seem see fit
to do, but you cannot increase. So, um the budget is balanced. It's in your hands and um we'll go through all the departmental budgets uh over the next couple weeks and voted on it on the 22nd. Next slide.
So, for revenue assumptions, uh property taxes, they are, you know, $133.2 million is estimated there. That's based upon our best estimates for new development in the city. Um development is definitely the catalyst
that helps us uh keep uh away from uh other unpopular ideas on how to raise revenues. But the the growth, the new growth and development in the city is definitely uh what what is driving our um our revenues.
The local receipts um we are only estimating a 6 increase in our local receipts. That's pretty conservative, but um it's it's any revenues that we receive over what are estimated drop to the bottom
line and go into our free cash. But right now, we're estimating that we will collect exactly what we anticipate collecting in fiscal year 2026 with just some slight increases for meals, tax, and room tax that we are uh considering due to some of the restaurants and some
of the pending hotels that are opening up. But otherwise, we look to level fund those local receipts. Most of the local receipts are typically your motor vehicle excise tax, your license, your permits, your investment income, and and other departmental revenues that come in. Those are general fund revenues that
goes towards um the the overall budget. Uh state aid, state aid is uh the money that the state gives us, often called cherry sheet revenue. We are um looking at an increase of 1.5%. That's based upon the latest Senate numbers that uh
have come out. Senate and the and the House will get together and have a conference committee and lay out some final numbers that'll ultimately be approved, but we're using the latest numbers from the Senate in our estimates for the 2027 budget. Then enterprise funds are the monies that we um generate
through our water and sewer enterprise fund as well as our solid waste enterprise fund. Our water and sewer enterprise fund is full cost recovery. All the revenues that we collect from water and sewer um sales we do put towards the budget and it covers all the direct and indirect costs. However, the
the solid waste enterprise fund generates close to $400,000 a year. However, total costs are about $4.7 million. So, general fund subsidizes the uh solid waste operation to the tune of $4.3 million. Next slide.
So again, this is just going to buzz through uh a little more detail for each of those. Uh 2026 tax levy was 126.5 million. Prop 2 and a half allows us to raise that levy by 2.5% which is 3.1 million. Our estimated new growth is 3.6
million. Those numbers uh reflect the additional property taxes to any of the new growth and any of the new development that happened in the city. And what you do is you take the value of the new growth and you times it by the previous year's tax rate and the department of revenue let you recognize
that as additional revenue going forward. So um take the new growth and the prop 2 and a half gets us to 13 33.2 million. I say it every year and I just want to say it again. We can't raise taxes any higher than they are. We tax
right to the levy limit. There's uh you know if anyone says oh they're going to raise our property taxes to do this and do that just can't happen. We already tax at a levy limit. Every year we tax a levy limit. The only way to go above that levy limit would be an override or a debt exclusion. So when people tell you that the taxpayers are going to be
stuck paying this and that. It's really not true. The new taxes generated by the new development help pay for stuff but existing property taxes only go up the the the amount that's allowed by law. So, I think that's pretty important for people to know out there. Based upon the forecast, we're
estimating about 23.6 million of new growth over the next 5 years. And um you know, 3.8 and then it gets up to over $5 million a year. So, a lot of that growth comes from the development at the one uh at the Suffach Down site. And uh it's great to see some uh activity over there
because again, it's very important for that development to uh help us meet our uh goals. Next slide. Local receipts again 23.7 million is what we're anticipating collecting. It's only
an increase of 6% from fiscal year 2026. Example again of some of the local receipts is motiviz 7 a.5 million rooms excise rooms tax 3.4 4 million estimated sales tax $1.3 million estimated license
impairments 3.7 investment income $3 million future local receive forecast. So um like I said I I passed out that uh fiveyear forecast and we're averaging we we're forecasting about a two 3%
increase each year. So um to the extent that we can exceed those numbers it's great and if we can't meet them it's not good. But those are pretty modest uh in increases that we anticipate. Next slide is um our state aid. Again,
per the Senate 2027 budget, $125 million. Chapter 70 is the money that goes directly to the schools. We're scheduled to receive $18.4 million for chapter 70 funding. Um the funds that do not go to the schools is typically
called UGG, unrestricted general government aid. um that's direct local aid to us that we can spend on any legal purpose. Right now the uh estimate that we are going to receive from the Senate is $13.3 million. And total state aid again is we're
estimating that they'll raise it 4% each year from fiscal year 2020 and beyond. Um it's been about that if you look historically the schools have gotten a little more than that over the past several years due to Student Opportunity Act, but typically you'll see about a 4% increase and and we hope that continues.
Next slide. So, other financing sources. So, this is uh something that's new because we typically don't use other financing sources to balance the budget. However, um when we borrowed $75 million last year to start construction of the
new high school, we put that money into its separate account that is generating investment income. And uh that investment income has built up um over the year to about 3.1 million I think at this point. So we're going to use $3 million of that money to offset the cost
of debt service for the high school. So we call that other financing source because it's really not typical of the state aid or the local receipts. So, um, that strategy is going to play out throughout the next couple years because each year that goes by, ultimately we'll
be on the hook for around $250 million of debt service with the new high school. But we don't go out and borrow $250 million from day one. We go out and borrow incrementally as we build the high school. And then ultimately, when the high school's totally built and we know what the final cost is, we'll go
out and essentially refinance it or sell long-term debt for that. So every time we borrow funds, we'll invest those funds. We'll separate the investment income that those funds are raising with the hope that that money will help go towards paying the debt service in the following year. So for fiscal year 2027,
that's $3 million. Now, as we get down the road, we're gonna hit a point where we're going to need to figure out how to come up with some additional revenues to fund that gap because the construction of the new high school may develop quicker than
some of these anticipated revenues through development in state aid. And we'll talk a little bit about that later. But we did several years ago set up a high school stabilization fund to start to put money into it to help bridge that gap as well. I believe we got a uh let's see it was on the last
slide a million and some odd dollars in there right now $1.9 million. We did pledge to put any energy credits that we received from the construction of the high school into that fund. I'm happy to say that some of the conversations we've had as recently
as today, um, some of those geothermal wells and the in the heating system that we're put in that school may generate five plus million dollars in energy credits that we will also put in that high school stabilization account, which will also help bridge this gap. But, um,
we're looking for other creative ways to fund um, that stabilization fund. And I'll talk a little bit about that later on in the presentation. But anyway, the other financing source for fiscal year 27 is the $3 million that we have already earned in interest on the 75 million we borrow.
Next slide. Final uh revenue source uh again is the enterprise funds water and sewer and solid waste total is 37.7 million. $ 37.3 million of uh 37.7 will generate from water sore operations
and $390,000 is what we expect from solid waste enterprise. Next slide. That was the revenue side of the budget. So now we'll go through the expenses and I break them out by category uh like the department of revenue does. The first uh
category, the 100 series as they call it is the general government. uh 27 general government appropriation and these are rounded numbers in here is $10 million. Um we are seeing one full-time equivalent decrease um in general government. Um one of the biggest
changes you'll see in the budget for general government is that in the finance division I had um worked with the mayor to separate the budget department and the audit department. We were all in one office together. I'm also the budget director as well as the city auditor. But those roles are
somewhat different, actually pretty different when you think about it. The auditing department is in charge of making sure there's no fraudulent, excessive, or illegal charges. They pay all the bills. They do internal laws, make sure that our our books are straight, but the budget department is the one that monitors the spending,
ensures that we're uh you know, using purchase orders. we're going out for our bids and monitor the budget monthtomonth, work with all departments to make sure that we do not um exceed our budget or you know make sure we make adjustments if if there are any needed to be made. So you'll see that there'll
be an auditing department and a budgeting department where before it was just all under auditing. So thought that was worth um mentioning because I'm sure the questions will come up. One of the other changes that we made is that um we're moving property and casualty insurance administration over to the city solicitor. That was also a function
of the budget department which was kind of a square peg and a round hole. But most of all uh property and casual insurance issues that come up once we get a claim or have an accident goes right to the lawyer anyway. So we will be putting that with the city solicitor. Um some of the increase in contract
services you see and some of the increases in the general government budget are just uh related to some of the uh implementation of financial software modules. We have been uh working really hard to embrace the uh technology and the powers of our munas
financial software system and I won't bore you tonight with it but we've made some pretty tremendous strides on on how we operate that system. So uh that's general government $10 million. Next slide please. Public safety is uh budget at 35.2
million. Again, that's your police, your fire, your inspectional services, your parking department, and your 911 dispatch center. Uh we are budgeting two additional uniformed officers for police as well as two additional uniform budget um officers for uh fire department. We
have um 8.7 full-time equivalents in uh civilians at the police station. There has been some restructuring of the civilians with new Chief Levita in charge and I'll let her talk a little bit more about what that means. But um for the fire department, like I said,
two new uh uniformed officers and I'm happy to hear that. I believe that um four years ago, we ordered three fire trucks. I hear two of them are coming uh this summer. Is that right, Mr. Mayor? uh June, July, we'll have the two new uh pieces and then the the Lada piece will
be arriving in sometime around December or January. >> But they actually drive them up from Oscala, Florida. >> Yeah. So, we'll um within the next six months, we should hopefully have uh two of them on site and then a third by um hopefully the spring of next year. Um we
didn't realize it would take four years to build fire trucks. So, um, you may not see it in the the capital plan that's in the budget book, but as we modify that, it's we're probably going to have to order some more fire trucks, seeing they take so long for them to get, uh, produced right now. But happy to say that you'll see three new pieces
of equipment and those are all funded through the OPA funds, which was a I thought a nice use of that those dollars. U 911 call center um through the MREC is level funded for fiscal year 2027. We should see decreases in that budget into 2028 as Chelsea joins in and
we get some uh grant awards from the Commonwealth, not only for the building of the new 911 call center over at the McKinley, but we'll also get relief from operation costs with regard to the director salary and some of the other support and staff salaries. So hopefully that's one budget that you'll see
decrease over the next several years. inspectional services. We've seen some decreases in in their budget due to offsetting salaries from our 40U account in the parking department. We've also found some efficiencies by uh attritioning out some full-time people and use them more part-time as as we
parking is really a 247 operation now. So having a lot of part-time is helps us cover the shifts on the nights and the weekends. Uh next slide please. Education. Uh the two main components of the education budget would be the River
School District at 133 million. We fund them at the spending requirement uh promulgated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Education. Um the 133 million is I believe a 1% increase in the overall budget for the
school department. They had their own uh work to do to make that work with regard to uh staffing and otherwise. But um with regard some of the expenses that are directly related to the city operations, uh the mayor, I'll give him some credit. He's uh been really
diligent in helping keeping school transportation costs in line. We'll be able to decrease that budget two years in a row. And um that helped uh keep us at that 1.7% increase overall. Regional schools is another story. That budget is
high as it's ever been because we have all of a sudden a lot of kids going to Essex Tech. I think we have 16 students this year. Typically, we've had like three or four or five in the past. Nothing we can really do about that. They're allowed to go there, but those assessments, I think we have 16 at the
at the Essex Tech this year. We got one going to Minute Man Tech, which again um for whatever reason they they they offer some kind of um high school uh education that isn't offered by the local high school or the tech schools around here.
So you'll see assessments for Northeast Voke, Essex Tech, and Minute Man Tech, as well as the debt service for our 20% share of the new high school for the vocation um Northeast V, which is actually built into the budget. So the
funding of the vocational technical high school is now fully covered within the budget and shouldn't be an issue. Few years back, we were wondering how we get there, but we got there. So now the next hurdle is going to be the funding of the high school. But all the debt service for the new vote is is covered in this
year and subsequent year budgets. Next slide, please. Department of Public Works, uh, $5.1 million for fiscal year 2027. Uh, one of the big initiatives at the DPW is they're going to take over all facilities management. We used to budget money in the police department and the
fire department and they would take care of their own buildings, but that became inefficient and um we now move money from the police and fire budget into the DPW budget. So when you're looking at the increase in the DBW budget, most of that other than the coal is in normal uh
collective bargain and agreement stuff, um the biggest change there is the cost that um we've shifted from water uh from police and fire into DPW for building uh management. Snow and ice deficit was rough this year. It was a million dollars. That million dollars is
provided for as part of this budget. So while um we won't appropriate that per se, I have built in the capacity to raise that as part of setting the fiscal year 2027 tax rate. Um we also rolled in there was a budget for
historical and cultural resources. Fancy way of saying we were paying utilities at the historic museum. Didn't make sense for us to keep funding a $10,000 budget. So we just rolled those funds into the DPW and eliminated that budget. Next slide.
This is our health and human services as well as our culture and recreation budgets. Uh $2.2 million in health and human service budget combined. That um includes public health, health services, veterans, and our commission on disabilities. It does say human right
commission, but we did collapse human right commission. There was a small $1,000 budget that is now that's now in the uh human resource department. So that's a typo that I should have fixed, but human right commission now is just going to be collapsed into human
resources, culture and recreation, $2.4 million includes the library, parks and recreation, house health and wellness center, as well as the workforce development, youth engagement departments. Um, some highlights there. We got a new bookmobile that was delivered again paid
for OPA funds. Um, I'm sorry I missed the uh the ribbon cotton, but I guess it's a pretty nice vehicle and we we plan to do some uh great things with that bookmobile for the community. Parks and Wreck uh also got a grant for a new digital screen. You may have seen it. I guess it's going to be prevalent when
they start uh showing some of the FIFA World Cup games. So, uh that was also bought on a grant. and uh house health and wellness center. Again, we're uh proposing a revolving fund to run that operation. We did fund $300,000 of
salary for 2027 as part of this budget. We hope we don't need it, but um we want to make sure because it's hard to say if for sure that 2027 will be the year that we cover all the funds uh all the costs with the with the memberships. But if we do, then that money would be turned back
to the general fund. budget is budgeted for 2027. Next slide, please. Debt service for 2027 is 12.6 million. That reflects all current debt service requirement as well as the $75 million
interest payment on the bond anticipation note we took for the high school. That payment is due in July 2026. So, it's part of the 2027 budget. the McKinley school in the McMack and Fields. Um that debt service is going to begin in 2028. Um you'll see the the
schedule the proform debt schedule in that forecast I gave you. So when you look at the five-year forecast, you'll see the forecasted debt schedule for the high school, the Mcmacken, and the McKinley, and you'll see what the results of those uh anticipated bond payments are on the bottom line. We'll
continue this for short-term bonds as the construction of High School continues. As we said, updated cash flow statements from Conigley and left field will dictate how much money we need. So if I have a forecast in there this year for the for the construction and that and that scheduling changes or the cash
flow changes, those numbers will change with them. We're going to try to borrow as little as we need to make sure we have enough money to go 12 months and then we'll borrow more. So, it's really an art trying to keep those borrowings as as as little as possible borrowed so you can
incur the least amount of debt service, but um you know, we're getting 101 million uh warrants from them every month now. So, I mean, they're getting cooking over there. So, it's a it's a big project, biggest one I've ever been involved
with. So, anyway, next uh next slide. State assessments. That's um the state give it. they take it back. The state assessments are basically uh netted from the revenues they give us. The the biggest uh assessments we get uh for
retired teachers health insurance 2.9 million. For those who don't know the mass uh the retired teachers of the River public schools actually end up in the GIC and the GIC uh payments are netted out
of our state assessment. So, our share of the retired teachers health insurance is taken out of our state aid. We also pay an assessment to the MBTA. So, you know, we have three uh train stops and multiple buses. That doesn't come for free. It comes at a cost of $4.6
million. Special education and tuition assessments. Again, um kids that go to charter schools and school choice out, which means there should there are some schools out there that say, "Hey, we have capacity. We'll take students from different cities into our schools. If
they offer school choice, rever kids have an opportunity to go to different high schools. Those are taken out of our state aid as well. And that that's about 14.5 million that comes out. 60,000 for mosquito control. 22.3 million of state assessments. Again, those numbers come from the
state. Next slide. Fixed costs. Again, the three big budget busters is usually fixed costs. Health insurance, retirement assessment, and debt service.
Uh health insurance, um for what it's worth, it's only going up 7%. Um again, because our health insurance, we are self-insured for health insurance. So, we set rates. We hope those rates um cover all the costs of providing health insurance for our active employees and
our non-teer retirees. We had about a $10 million fund balance in there three years ago, but um it's been dwindling pretty quick. GLP1 drugs uh were one of the drivers. I think a lot of the postponement of elective
surgeries through pandemic drove it as well. Um but um we've had some major changes in 2027. Our health insurance providers no longer prescribe GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. it's only for um medical conditions such as diabetes.
That wasn't a change that the city made. That was a formulary change made by the health insurance provider. So, we didn't have any say in that. If we wanted to add that back in, they were going to uh estimate it was going to cost us an additional $3 million a year just for
that drug uh service for that. So, so we did not back then. Um, but since our fund balance went under $3.1 million, which is essentially less than a month's worth of claims, we had to sit back down with the uh PEC and negotiate um on how
we can write the ship and um to their credit, they they listened and they um allowed us to be one of the last communities that finally um get out of having a prescription drug plan embedded
into our retirees. health insurance. Now, I don't have all the details, but by carving out the prescription drug plan, it dropped our rates significantly to the extent that I think a retiree will pay probably $1,200 less a year for their health insurance plan out of their
pocket. So, there may be some disruption with prescription drugs and tearing of them and and we have some meetings set up to go over all that and we sent out mailers. But um but if all things are equal and you don't pay any more for drugs, um a retiree can stand to save
about $1,200 a years with these um changes. So it's not all terrible. I know there's a lot of angst out there anytime you touch health insurance. It's um it's a big deal, but um we do have some educational sessions that um everyone's welcome to come to two in person, one online. I know our human
resource department did mail that out and um we know it's a big consequence when you mess with health insurance, but uh you know if we run out of money, we we run out of money. So, it's my job to make sure that we're solvent. That vote was taken by the PEC and those
uh changes will take effect 71 and the rates um as proposed are reflected in the 2027 budget. Our property casualty insurance has went up 12.5% and we're kind of getting beat up on that because of rising values of buildings being a
coastal community and um cyber insurance is now a new thing that never was an issue but now we pay about $100,000 a year for us. So um you know if we get hacked or we get malware or something we we got insurance for that but um it doesn't come for free. So, uh,
unfortunately that 12 and a half% is, um, is not final yet because they never give me the final rates until like the day before they need to, but, um, based upon all our quotes and uh, in our, uh, discussions, we're looking at about 12 and a half% increase on property
casualty insurance. Our retirement assessment is $18.4 million. Um, our assessments allow us to fund our pension obligation by 2033. We're on a schedule to increase at 5% per year. So,
every year we pretty much go 5% on our assessment until we hit 2033 where we are hopefully will be 100% funded and then all we'll have to really pay is our normal costs, not our unfunded liability costs. Um, some good news with regard to
the retirement assessment. we are um over 75% funded in the in the pension obligation that um when we hit the 75% mark that triggered an increase to the colas for all our retirees from 14,000
to 15,000. So starting July 1st not only we have a 3% colar increase that colar increase will go on 15,000 worth of uh salary not 14,000. We've been hearing a lot about trying to raise those colas up. Uh we got a we're on a path to get
to 18,000. So every 5% increase in our funded liability, we're going to go up $1,000. So next stop will be 80 80% and we'll go up to 16,000. This council um votes that of course. So we break that before you and you voted it. So thank you for that.
And the FICA Medicare is just our 1.45% tax on um everybody's pay. We have to match that and you have to pay it as an employee. So that's $2.1 million. Next slide, please. I'll try to go quick. I know it's
getting late. $34.2 million um for water and source solid waste. You can see the breakdown there. It's only 3 uh $3.3 million is really our expenses. And then everything else is either debt service or
assessments for water and sewer. I like the way the mayor puts it. We don't sell it. We, you know, we buy the water. We buy the so we're not we're not selling it. We're buying it and then we have to pass along the cost. So that's uh I like the way he puts that. So I'll waste $4.7
million um $340,000 for our salaries and expenses and contract services drive that budget. You guys you you all know that we just did a five-year contract with Capital Waste at three and a half%. We have a 10-year contract um I think we're in our third year for 2027 with uh
Wind Waste. So, for what it's worth, we have pretty stable costs there. Um, our natural levy growth should allow us to uh keep pace with those uh contractual uh obligations. And uh again, we we we
supplement the the trash pickup with $4.3 million of general fund revenue. One more slide. other funding uses um that are that that's the other funds that we um are
part of the budget, but you don't necessarily vote them. Again, that's the uh overlay we raise overlay to uh fund abatements and exemptions. The Department of Revenue lets us realize 100% of tax re tax revenue collection, but they say, "Well, you have to fund an
overlay account because when people get abatements or if you misassess someone, you have to refund them and we don't have to net it from the receivable. So, we have a separate fund to deal with all the abatements and exemptions. Most of our exemptions are actually statutory for veterans, for blind, for elderly.
So, most of the activity in our overlay account are statutory exemptions. But there are cases where someone has a gripe on their assessment, they can uh bring it to the assesses on in the month of January and those cases are heard and either awarded or or mitigated or they
go to the ATV. But um 1.6 million is what we put aside for 2027. 163,000 of cherry sheet revenue goes directly to the library. So we recognize it as revenue on one side, but then I put it as an expense because that goes directly to the library. Um, and the
snow and ice deficit, like I said, we had a million dollar snow and ice deficit. I think it's 1.022 million to be exact. And, uh, that will be raised to fund the operational deficit of 2026. Next slide.
So, balance budget 2027 revenues equal expenses. All the revenues in this uh, presentation are estimated and rounded. The budget is the foundation for the forecast for 2028 and beyond, which I um also have distributed to you as part of
your budget book. So, the real challenge here is how do we close funding gaps during the years of construction of a new high school while we wait for tax revenues from new growth to catch up. So, I had a few ideas that I thought I'd
list. Next slide. So, the following, again, these aren't endorsements. These aren't these are just talking points that I think are some of the the the least uh prickly ways of raising revenue to help bridge
the gap. So, we've talked about many of these already, but the CPA is called that's the Community Preservation Act. For those who don't know what the Community Preservation Act is, that is a law that
allows for us to have additional revenues of up to 3% of the tax levy for certain expenses that will create and and if we raised uh 3% more taxes, it would create capacity in
the general fund. But that CPA needs to be spent on certain things. Historic preservation, open space, affordable housing, and administration of the of the CPA itself. So again, if we were uh a community that passed the CPA, we
could raise an additional 3% in tax revenue to fund those types of programs. And the Commonwealth also matches those funds. Um it used to be a 100% match but every year it's a different match based upon the sales in in the Commonwealth
because there's u I believe they call them stamps tax or whatever the four 4.56 on the thousand you pay at the registry um of deeds that goes into a fund and those funds are matched to your CPA fund. So, not only do you get 3%
more tax levy, you get uh free money on top of that, again, open space, affordable housing, historic preservation, I can think of many things that are funded in the general fund that those um could be deferred to the CPA and create capacity.
Cannabis excise, what can I say? Everyone else gets it around this in in in neighborhoods except us. I'm not going to get into it, but it's uh >> people just voted against it. doesn't mean I'm not going to talk about it every year. So, um Okay. >> Anyway, that's an option. Uh beats an
override, doesn't it, Mr. President? >> Um anyway, again, I'm not here to I'm not proposing. I'm just talking. >> Well, again, I don't think it has, but >> um >> it's sunk. It hasn't just sealed. It's
sunk. Um other ways other ways some of them I left off here because I didn't want to see everybody's head spin off their shoulders but um currently we fund the high school stabilization fund with 10% of our free cash going into that fund. And we've
also um u made a motion to uh dedicate any energy credits from the high school uh construction to go into that fund. So um that's a start. So, >> yeah, keep your fingers crossed. >> Here's one to consider.
>> Um, I put in the sleeve of your budget book a breakdown of the uh community improvement trust fund revenue that um the city has and um right now that's over $2 million. I would respectfully
like the council to consider putting 50% of the community investment trust fund into the high school stabilization account. Everyone's not a no. I don't know what any bigger community improvement there is than the new high school. I don't know any community that does what we do with these type of funds, but I'm here
to say it and you guys can say no all you want, but I think it's a good idea. Sale of city owned land. I don't know what's available, but if there's city-owned land that's available, city- owned buildings, proceeds from those types of sales could go into the high school stabilization account to help
bridge the gap. you know, donations, sponsorships, public private partnerships, stuff of that nature. There's got to be some uh there's got to be some brainstorming here on how to fund the gap here. Now, you can you can nod know every idea I have, but until
you have better ones, uh we'll be here asking for things like overrides and trash fees and stuff like that. So, before you just nod your head on all these things, I think you really got to consider some of these because we'll be there before you know it. up. The good
news is next slide. On be on behalf of the mayor, I'm happy to answer any questions on the budget as submitted. I know you just got it tonight, so obviously I'm not going to have too many questions, but for those at home, the budget hearings are scheduled for ways of means subcommittee
on Tuesday, June 9th, Wednesday, June 10th. Then ultimately on June 22nd will be the final ways and means subcommittee meeting and then final deliberation and appropriation of the budget on June 22nd. Um thank you all for listening.
Happy to answer any questions but otherwise that's my presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you for your presentation. >> Sorry Mr. Mayor. We don't have to agree with your suggestions, but uh >> yeah, I appreciate uh his his view and he he comes from a a serious financial lens, but I know that he he does like to
throw everything out at you, so he can always go back and say, "We talked about things and and sometimes uh obviously uh he he can talk a little too long, but he's really good at what he does. We know that and I appreciate him." So, I appreciate his I appreciate some of his honesty, but uh we do we make collective
decisions together as a community. Uh certainly as a as a legislative body and and the in the mayor's office, we have good relationships. So we put we put together, as you saw, we put forth a really good budget for 2027. It shows our fiscal responsibility and restraint
over the years to come. Uh and but without any any uh detractor from uh taking care of our community. We're increasing our police department. We're increasing our fire department. We're paving more streets. We're taking more of us care of our city property. we're
we're investing in our schools. Uh what more can we do? So with with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with with the uh as you as we've read um state funds are not coming in as fluidly as they had in the past on percentage based uh consistent with the expenses uh three years in a row of pretty much double digit increases in
health insurance. Those are the things that fortunately we have had growth in our community to help provide um an offset to those increases. And you know, it was I think 3 years ago it was 12 or 13% in health insurance, uh 10%, this year 7%. So do the math. When you only
got 1.7% as a total budget, we're we're we're doing that with new growth. >> I think we're we're probably going to save questions for the uh Go ahead, Council Cogander. >> Thank you, Mr. President. One's more of a comment. If you want half of my CIT, I
want full control over the other half of where we spend it. That's my deal. >> I think that that's a pretty re that's a reasonable request. >> Thank you. Because I have sidewalks and streets that I would like to get paved with that money. So, I'm happy to give up some of it. Maybe not 50%, but we can talk about that. But >> you started with 50. We were good there.
>> I'm not endorsing that. Just for the record, I'm not endorsing that. Uh >> um I'm willing to help with that. So, this is a question. I'm looking at this year this this new budget. I can't seem to find the section where it says fixed
cost because uh I can see it says the old budget says DPW, human resources, cultural and recreational departments. Then under that says fixed cost debt service, employee benefits, retirement. Where is that in this one? Because it
ends it ends where where it should be. >> Um fixed cost would be the debt service is is the 700 series. Um so if you the order of the the budgets are numerical like the 100 series is general
government then 200 300 600 is um um recreation and culture and then 700 series right after should be right after the recreation budget will be your debt service. That's the first part of fixed costs. And then the 900 series would be
your health insurance and um your retirement um um pension obligation. >> I can point it out to you in more detail, but it it it falls under those three categories, the 700 series and the 900 series. >> Thank you, Richard.
>> You're welcome. Council Garina Sire quickly so we can move on because we're gonna we're going to spend time on the budget. >> I agree with Council Kaggleando. I'm not I'm not giving up my CIT funds. I am saving Freeman Street Fire Station with my money.
>> Councelor Aenzio. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be brief. I just want to thank the mayor and uh Mr. Visque. This was an excellent presentation. Really laid it out very well. Um I might be unpopular with my colleagues because of this, but I as a
um city council, we authorize the borrowing of all this money. So I think we have to be kind of part of the solution when it comes to paying for these things. Um speaking from a wad council, I have probably less CIT money than anybody, so maybe it's easier for
me to give it up, but but uh I I don't have any problem um you know, working out the CIT money. Um, I don't have a a problem looking at the cannabis thing again. Uh, I know Mr. Vesqueke said he had some other um uh options that he
didn't want to mention. I I certainly like to hear them at some point just throw them out there no matter how uh much our heads would spin. But I think we have to be part of the solution here. Um, you know, we we authorize the borrowing of a lot of money and at some
point we have to pay the piper here. So, I I I I wouldn't be in favor of the CPA because that's just uh that's almost like a override because you it's three more percent on on people's um you know, taxes. I wouldn't be uh support that.
But I'm willing to listen to anything you uh you throw out there. Thank you. >> Thank you. I tried to warn you. Uh >> do it quickly. Yeah, we're going to be doing this in the budget hearings, but go ahead. >> I think it's important that
>> Yeah. No, no, absolutely. Go, go right ahead. >> Go right ahead. >> Thank you very much, Mr. President. We talk about Mr. Visque, we talk about the funding gap, and we're going to go through a a few lean years with the funding gap. Could you be more specific of the years that we're going to have
the funding gap? >> The next three. >> The next three. Okay. Question number two. What is our total borrowing going to be on the new high school projected? >> 259 million. >> $259 million. And you think by taking a
million dollar of our CIT money is going to help fund a $233 million debt? >> I know it's going to help. It's going to bridge the gap between the lean years of 2028, 2029, and 2030. And that's only
existing funds as of uh March 31st, 2026. So I'm not even talking about the the funds that will come and all future CIT contributions. And again, the the community improvement trust in the nature in which we run it is very unique
to the city. So not to go down too many wormholes here, but you know, I never seen a city council have control of city funds. So it's it's a it's a suggestion on how to bridge the gap. >> Correct. >> So yes, I do think it will help. I know it will help.
>> Okay. >> Our debt service is 12.6 million. Uh according to your 20 27 budget, our debt service is going to be what in 2028 or 29 with Jack Gap? >> If you look at the um 11.
>> No, no. I know. I want you >> that's in front of you. I don't have the number in front of me. That's what I'm saying. You come before us and you don't have the numbers >> for 20. I'm talking about the 2027 budget. I don't have the 28 29 30 in front of me, but you do in front of you and I can certainly >> Well, we're all a little concerned of what the that that gap is going.
>> No one's more concerned than me, counselor. >> Okay. I think the residents are going to be concerned about this also. >> Again, res have to bear the cost of this on on their back because we can't raise property taxes anymore. So, that's why we have to come up with alternative solutions. Okay.
I'll have more questions at the uh ways and means committee and thank you so much for your presentation. I know you put a lot of hard work into it and great effort. It was a great presentation and uh I thank you very much. You and the mayor. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you councelor Kelly. >> Thank you. Thank you for the
presentation both of you. It was a great presentation. I appreciate it very much. I think it was very clear. Um just I have just one couple just two questions. The first one is when does the big jump in that debt schedule happen for the high school? Right now we're at three
million. When is the when does that I know it increases. So >> it's going to increase every year till 2031. >> But isn't there one year that it really jumps or? >> Yeah, it's it's it's all in the document that I gave you. Hold on. I I'll read it to you. Let me just grab my forecast.
>> Okay. >> Sorry. Oh, there it is. All right. for so for 20 27 $3.125 million of short-term debt interest is
uh budgeted and uh accounted for. In 2028, it's estimated that that short-term debt service will go up to $6.1 million. 2029, we are estimating that we will borrow
permanently $75 million at a cost of 4.6 million in 2029 along with short-term debt of 5.9 million. And um that'll also start to begin
bringing on the debt from the McMackenfield. So in 2029, we're going to go from $6 million to approximately $15 million. >> So that's probably your biggest spike from 2028 to 2029. >> Okay. >> And then and then if you look on the
forecast that I gave you on this, >> y >> you can see the projected debt service for both for all three, the McKinley, the McMacken, and the high school. And the high school is broken up into five lines as we kind of progress through the iterations of construction. >> Okay. And just one more point because I
know we want to wrap up. Um, a lot of this I think I think you stated in your presentation you're you're relying on future growth to to to bridge this gap to fund >> well the city is but yes >> the city is right. So is that growth
that's already in the pipeline at the present time or is that growth that you're hope you're projecting that will come in or both? >> Every year that goes out further and further it's more and more speculative but yes it's all stuff that we would consider in the pipeline. a lot of it is um generates from the 20-year plan from
HYM. >> I just I I'm concern I'm concerned with that only because of what went on with SuffK Downs, right? SuffK Downs the the revenue didn't keep pace. It's not keeping pace with what we're going to need. So to keep relying on future
things that may may or may not come to fruition to cover commitments that we already have is just where I have a problem. and and already tonight if we're depending on future growth, we see motions on the agenda tonight that deal with some of the impacts or look at the
impacts of that growth. So, we have a balance there. We want more growth, but we're seeing impacts. So, I just want to >> Yeah. Well, that's exactly why I'm talking about different options other than growth if if if the growth does not happen. So, right. >> So, for sure, every single number on this forecast is a is a guess.
>> So, I'm worried about growth. I'm worried about the police budget. I'm worried about snow and ice. I'm worried about the school budget. I'm worried about transportation. I'm worried about it all. This entire It's very unique in the cities where we spend $322 million before $1 even comes in. So, the whole
the whole idea of this is is is risky and and you know, I think that I have a pretty good handle on kind of calling out the highs and the lows and giving a responsible budget. But there are some gaps coming down the road that are inevitable that we need to talk about.
But mostly everything that's talked about that has to do with anything with new revenue is comes with the shaking head in no way. But if we don't do nothing >> well that that's >> we're going to have some we're going to have some issues. >> The CPA would need to be voted on. Correct. >> Of course. >> I just want the residents to understand that.
>> Oh yes. Thank you councel. That's uh so Mr. President. >> I want to before before you speak, Mr. Mayor, I want to thank uh the CFO and you for a a great presentation. I don't agree with some of the suggestions and that's fine, but it doesn't it doesn't
take away from the professionalism of this presentation. I thought it was it was very good. Uh and I'm not going to be the one to say uh you know, I warned you, but this this was coming and we knew this was coming and and there's got
to be ways of finding money to pay for this now because you did bond it. You did you did put the city on the hook for it. So, we're all we're all on the same page when it comes to that. Some of us don't like some of the suggestions. We might have some of our own and and we'll go from there. But now, Mr. Mayor, you
got the floor. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate your your leeway. I I just want to make sure that the message is isn't missed. Uh, you know, uh, Rich CFO does a very good job of making a very full explanation of not just this year's budget, which is very good, but also giving you the the five-year forecast,
which, you know, we could just come up here and say everything's great, and everything is very, very good. every s almost every community in the greater Boston area has gone through an override over the last couple years. It's wild. We're not considering things like that. So, don't let the message that Rich is sharing good information with you
distract you from a a very uh professionally uh in in responsible budget. This year, we're going to go at the same process next year and present you another responsible budget. what Rich is just trying to do and and we always we have to be uh we want to be um
forthcoming with everyone is is when there are those lean years, those those years that they're going to be potential um areas of opportunity, we want to make sure that we're getting ahead of it and and that doesn't mean that those things are going to happen. But if the stars don't align, then yeah, we're going to have to make uh some some some different
decisions. >> Just don't fill the fire station. >> No, no, of don't what? >> Don't sell the fire station. >> No, no, of course not. and he says things like that, but it's these are these are vacant lots we're talking about. We're not selling any city property that is of any use to us. These are things like if we were, you know, and I'll just say this, if we talked
about moving the recreation center to a real a real recreation space, what are we going to do with a dilapitated house on Beach Street? >> We're not going to keep it. So, those are the things that those are five, seven, 10 years down the road. We we may not be here at all, but he puts things in front of you. Please don't take it as
a distraction. Don't get distracted. stay focused on on uh the areas in front of you. I think that we the buzz terms did exactly what sometimes I feel that they do is they buzzed you up. Um it's really we presented a good budget. If you if you think that we're in trouble,
if anyone here thinks that we're in trouble, then give us a real recommendation uh and and let us know how you how you would solve it. Don't uh the word concern is overly used sometimes uh without a real solution. So if there is concern, provide me with a solution. I'll be happy to work on it.
And I and and and I think that we've had we've done that so far over the last few years, and we're going to continue to do it over the next few. Thank you. >> And this was a this was a a a good presentation of a of a fiscally responsible budget for this year. I'm not worried about this year.
>> I'll do it again next year, too. >> I'm not I hope so. I hope so. >> Thank you very much. >> Ways and means. Calendar item number nine, communication from the city auditor relative to the opioid abatement trust fund transfer for
the FY27 budget. >> Mr. Vis, Mr. CFO. >> Hello. >> Um, thank you. Um, as you all know, the city is um a recipient in awards due to
the um the opioid um u pandemic or whatever you like to call it. We are receiving funds from all the drug manufacturers and such. Those funds go into its own trust account. We cannot spend those dollars without the appropriation from the city council. Uh
the way those dollars are spent uh under the purview of the chief of health and human services who can give you a nice presentation on what her plan is and all I'm here to do is support the appropriation from the trust fund into the health department's budget so they
can perform uh uh the goals of the 2027 opioid trust. So, um, I'll leave it to >> Chief Buck here to give a more explanation. Thank you, >> Miss Buck. You have the floor. >> Thank you. We're going to fly through
our presentation. Um, I am Lauren Buck. >> I hope I didn't scare you into >> No, no, not at all. Um, I'm Lauren Buck. I'm the director of public health and I'll introduce my colleagues. >> Hi, Kerianne Celei, program manager for the substance use disorder and homelessness initiative.
Hi, Nicole Polalmo. I'm the clinician for the Substance Abuse Disorder and Homelessness Initiatives Office. And I want to say hi to my daughter. She's been watching me since 7 PM to see me on TV. >> Thank you all for showing up here. >> Thank you. Okay, before we start with
our PowerPoint presentation, I want to talk to you about two data points on the piece of paper that was handed to you before the council meeting. They talk about the picture of opioid um overdoses in Revier, and I think they highlight some promising trends. The first one um shows the opioid overdose deaths in a
bar chart and it shows it from 2016 until 2024. You can see 2022, 2023, 2024, we've had a decreasing amount of opioid overdose deaths. This data comes from the state's Bureau of Substance Use um initiatives, you know, their bureau.
And so we've had a decrease of 10% from 2022 to 2023 and a decrease of 15% from 2023 to 2024. The data for 2025 is not available yet. that it usually comes out around July, but we're hoping and expecting to see another decrease in 2025 as well. So again, a promising uh
rate of decline in our opioid overdose deaths. And then the second um chart is data from our River Police. It's not necessarily comprehensive data that shows the complete picture of overdoses uh because there are many overdoses that happen potentially that someone doesn't
call 911 or maybe they go right to the hospital and not don't use a first responder. But this is a good picture that shows as well that we're decreasing in the total amount of overdoses for the last several years. You can see in 2022 we had 149 total overdose events that were responded to by police and fire.
2023 122, 2024 75, and 2025 555. We obviously don't have the total number for 2026. We're only 5 months in, but I thought it might be good to um illustrate where we were in those years um where we are this year. So at the end of May in 22 2022 at the end of May we
had 64 overdoses in 2023 51 2024 41 2025 21 and this year only 18. So all of that both of those data points show that we are trending down in both overdose deaths and total overdose response which is a great trend. And now we can start our presentation. Uh so you can flip to
the next slide. So, we're first going to talk about how we spent uh opioid abatement funds in 20 in fiscal year 2026. We spent a total of um $211,43. We had a goal of spending $243,000 and we didn't hit that goal for one specific
reason, which I will talk about. We had three categories of spending. If you remember, we came to you last year um presenting a five-year spending plan that was voted on by our opioid abatement working group, which at that point was meeting monthly, now meets quarterly. But still as a maintained a good group of people with lived
experience, people who work in the field, people um bereieved parents who are you know have a connection to Revier uh and us who uh you know um kind of administer the group and we decided on three categories of spending at that time. Housing, community engagement and
prevention and harm reduction. We were able to execute contracts in all of these spending categories in 2026. The amount of expenditure is the second um column on the page. And you can see at the very bottom we were expecting to spend $65,000 for our street medicine contract, but we only had a street
medicine physician for half a year. So that decreased about approximately by half. And that's why we had the discrepancy between total amount we wanted to spend and total amount we actually spent. But other than that, we were able to spend all of this money and have our cont uh contracts executed in each of these categories. And I will
just say um the there is a we feel uh uh the need to spend this money efficiently and effectively. Um we have a goal of spending that much money each year because the state has made it clear that this money is not to be you know we don't want to sit on it. We want to spend it right now. There's people who
are using opioids right now. There are people who need this fund funding right now. And that's why we feel a sense of urgency in spending. We're doing it responsibly though and we have a plan for five years. Next slide. And now we're going to talk about the outcomes of the programs that we
implemented. >> So for the first um program on the slide, the sober home detox bed voucher, it says on your slide 12 people have been placed using the voucher. There's actually 13 at to date. Um some of the
and we've spent so far $24,250. Some of the success stories are um that we did have a resident that entered into the program. He was laid off at the time of entering into the program with no source of income. With ongoing support
in housing stabilization, he was able to obtain full-time full-time employment within his three months and is now living independently in his own apartment that he received through Malden Housing Authority. Is this on?
Oh. Um, and the next resident that we that entered the program had no income with significant unmet medical needs through coordinated case management. Medical medical care was addressed, employment was secured, and the resident
is now working full-time and is consistently paying their rent independently. Then we had one more resident that had repeated calls of service to RPD involved in substance use and mental health concerns. After being sectioned,
he was connected to sober living through our program. He has maintained his sobriety and successfully rebuilt relationships with the family members who previously were calling Reier police
for help with him. and he is thriving and doing great. So the next thing is the housing case management which that kind of goes inside with some of the success stories
is that we have had 175 hours of case management, 13 clients and 110 encounters um with the in the highintensity case manager and she has been able to help
with these success stories. Um and the next thing is the RAW which is the Rivia adolescent wellness. We've had 12 kids that started. We end did with 16 kids. Four new kids joined. On average their
resilience score went up throughout the course of the program. Next bucket is grief support. We've assisted only one family so far and spent $1,395 for grief support for our business
Narcan outreach. 178 businesses in the city have been trained. 298 employees have been trained and 358 knock um doses have been given out to
those businesses. Um the next bucket is basic needs. We have spent about $2,964. We have about $5,36 left over. Um street medicine, we've had
18 individuals served with 58 encounters. Some of their success stories is one resident engaged with our street medicine um team and was connected to appropriate medication support entered treatment and is now
inemployed and thriving in recovery. Another resident was connected to medically assisted treatment and psychiatric medication management through our outreach efforts and continues to remain stable and engaged in care. Another resident received a
referral to a stimulant use treatment program and was prescribed psychiatric medication and is now stable and working independently living in his own apartment. So those are just some of the outcomes that demonstrate the importance of low threshold harm reduction outreach
case management housing support and access to medical and behavioral health care services. improving quality of life and reducing strain on emergency response systems within the city of Rivia. >> And I just want to make a note some of
the numbers Kianne mentioned are different from the slide because we've previous we've updated the numbers since um we put the slide together. Uh next slide. Um just a quick reminder that we want to spend approximately um 40% of the spend each year on housing, approximately 30% on prevention and
community engagement, and approximately 30 on harm reduction. And now we're going to talk to you about what 2027 will look like. >> All right. So this next year um you can go to the next slide. Thank you. Um in the housing bucket we have um two kind
of programs. So the general housing support um we will we wanted to make this funding more flexible so it would help people with something other than just um sober living specifically. Um, this could help people with like some
moving expenses. If they're just getting on their feet again and they don't have um any furniture because they're coming off of the streets, this would help them with that. Um, getting a moving truck, um, things like that. There will be another proposal in September and then
the contract would essentially be signed again. Um, for that it we had 48,500 allotted and then the 32,000 $85 that was unspent from fiscal year
26. So that totals to $81,35. And then the second bucket is the high-intensity case manager um that Kianne told you before. Kind of goes along with this housing voucher program. Um we see the value in continuing having this
highintensity case manager. A lot of times you get people housed off of the streets and they're still in survival mode. um that kind of makes way for them to potentially get violations against the against them in their housing wherever they're staying. Um with this
highintensity case manager, they're meeting regularly. They have that extra support. They're learning how to kind of live independently again. So, it's preventing people from coming back on the streets and, you know, back through our doors. Um, and then the total number at the bottom. Yours is a little bit off
because we didn't add up the we didn't add in the 32,000 to the total. So, that was our mistake. You can go to the next slide. Um, community engagement and prevention. So, the business outreach um knock
administration program will get 13,000. Again, it's going to be continued on. Um, they'll continue to reach out to five businesses a month throughout the year. So that's just going to be a contract renewal with the same um company that we contract now. And the
second program is the adolescent program. Um that's going to continue to get streamlined. The number of the amount that's going into this program is less than it was last year because last year we got a matching grant. So we
matched 50,000 to the grant that we got. Um so we only have 60,000 this year. So we added an additional 10 from a different bucket so we could kind of keep the same program running. And you can go to the next slide.
And in harm reduction, we have our street medicine program. Um that's going to be a contract renewal again for 69,000 um for the full year this time. So it's more than it was last year because last year it was only for 6
months instead of 12 months. So total our total target for fiscal year 27 is $271,8527. >> Any questions? >> Any counselors >> right here? >> Council McKenna.
>> Um this is just it's not a question. I just want to thank the three of you, especially Kianne. Um you helped last year. you helped uh a Beachorn homeless uh man who was has been in Beachmore uh all his life and he was homeless. He was
down the park all the time. You helped him get housing. And I heard you were helping another friend of mine that's from Beachmont that's trying to get housing, too. He just got out of uh he was incarcerated for three years and he's trying to get housing. So, thank
you. I just want to thank you so much. Uh it means a lot to me and it's so nice not to see I'm not going to mention any names but this man who was constantly down beach corner gone and is and and is
surviving. So thank you very much. Anyone else? Well, I want to thank you for the presentation and I want to thank you for the work you do. It's uh it's important work and uh you're saving lives and uh some of us appreciate it. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. On the appropriation roll call. >> Shall the city council approve an appropriation from the opioid abatement trust fund to the public health and other expenses account in the amount of $239,000? Councelor Agenzio.
>> Yes. Yes. Councelor Kaggleandro. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Janino. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Gino SA. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Hass >> is absent. Councelor Kelly. >> Yes. Yes. Council McKenna. >> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Mccurio. >> Yes. >> Yes. Council Novaski.
>> Yes. >> Yes. Councelor Sylvester is absent. And Council President Zambudo. >> Yes. >> Yes. The transfer has been approved. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Calendar item number 10. communication from the chief of planning relative to a proposal for a tourism destination
marketing district. >> I'm going to send this to zoning. Um I've asked for suspension of rules on suspension. All in favor? All opposed. So audited. Madame Clerk, we're going to take up uh Council McKenna
as she's not feeling well. Calendar item number 14, motion presented by councilors McKenna and Novaski, that the mayor request the DCR to install a green arrow turn signal on Ocean Avenue for traffic turning left onto Beach Street. >> Council McKenna.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. So, um I got two calls uh within the last two weeks or three weeks, who knows? Um and um people can't get onto Beach Street from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. because of the
flow of traffic that is coming from Lynn, Swampscott, Marblehead. They won't let them in. They won't let them turn. What I'm asking for is um an installation of e a green arrow and I think uh councilski has a an idea too,
but what that's all I'm asking for. So, I have one guy that works on Beach Street and he's late because he has to wait three lights before he can take a left turn. So, that's it's an easy fix and I'm going to give it to Councelor
Novaski because he has a great idea. So, thank you, >> Council Novaski. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President. Um, I've been contacted also, but more so on the Shirley A location at Ocean A
and I suggested to DCR a long time ago that instead of putting in a new headlight, a new traffic light, it would cost a lot more to do that than just put a delay on the box of the of the of the
ongoing north the north and south traffic. put a delay on the south southbound traffic so the northbound traffic can make the turn. And I'd like to offer this as not as an amendment, not as a alternative, not as a substitution, but put in the letter that
it be an or the right arrow from at Nasha Road, I mean at Ocean A and Shirley A. Also, instead of a right arrow from Ocean A to Beach Street, put
a like a 30-se secondond delay on the green light. And I think this would be a lot easier for Mass Dart to handle. So, I'd like to make that a not a total. >> Is this mass start or DCR? >> No, DCR.
>> Okay, >> that's still in trouble. >> That's still a question. >> DCR. I heard I heard Northshore Road there. Yeah, it's not it's not it's a DC spot. So, and they've helped me on stuff like that before. So, uh I'd like to make that as a secondary choice.
>> I think I think they're good suggestions. >> Yeah. So, I'd like to see that happen at both locations. Surely >> we're going to amend that motion. >> Street. >> Yep. >> Okay. On the amendment.
>> All in favor? All opposed? So I I should have said on the motion as amended. >> Okay. >> Perfect. >> Calendar item number 15. Motion presented by councilors McKenna and Novaski that the mayor request the DCR to repair potholes on Ocean Avenue from
Shirley Avenue to Beach Street. >> Councelor McKenna. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to add Winthrop Parkway also to this. Um the holes are ridiculous. They're like two I I it's like six inches uh deep.
It's ridiculous. I don't know. I don't understand why they're not fixing the potholes. It's June, so it's it's not January. So, I just don't understand it. So, I need help from the mayor to contact DCR if he knows someone to fix
these potholes. Thank you. >> Thank you. Council Novaski, you want to add to that? self-explanatory, Mr. President. >> Okay, great. On the motion, all in favor, all oppose. So audited. >> Thank you very much.
>> Back to the regular order of business. >> Motions. Calendar item number 11. Motion presented by councelor Go SA. that the city council respectfully request the governor, state police, and department of conservation and recreation to immediately implement a public safety enforcement plan for River Beach during
the peak summer season. This plan should include increased mass state presence, coordinated EMS and fire coverage, and targeted enforcement at key crowd concentration points, including MBTA stations in adjacent city streets and neighborhoods. further that the Commonwealth assume a more active
enforcement role on the beach to ensure that public safety responsibilities, emergency response demands, and enforcement burdens are not disproportionately placed on the city's taxpayers during peak seasonal demand. Further that special attention be given to
disruptive, dangerous, and unlawful behavior associated with large regional crowds traveling into Rivier Beach from outside the city, including incidents that spill into residential neighborhoods, interfere with traffic and public safety, overwhelm local resources, and negatively impact the
quality of the life of residents of Reier residents and businesses. further that the city of River should not continue to bear an unfair share of the public safety burden and public criticism associated with state-owned destination that requires consistent
state level oversight, visibility, and enforcement from the very very beginning of the summer season, not only after serious incidents occur. Further, that a copy of this motion be forwarded to the governor, Mass State Police Colonel, the DCR Commissioner, River State delegation, and all appropriate public
safety agencies. Finally, that the city council respectfully urges the commonwealth to work in full partnership with the city to ensure that residents, visitors, businesses, and public safety personnel are supported throughout the summer with the resources and enforcement presence to maintain a safe
and welcoming environment. >> Councelor Gino SA. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I know some of my fellow councils are mad at me because this motion is so long, but it needed to be said. Um, >> it's a bit long. Yes, >> it is. Um, we have only experienced a
few days of summer weather and already we have had significant public safety incidents on Riviera Beach. Both on May 20th and I think it was May 27th there were serious incidents including fights and stabbings. Large regional crowds are
arriving through public transit and other routes and with that comes predictable public safety challenges and requires coordinated enforcement visibility which is very important. We need visibility
and rapid response. Rever is not the problem but too often we are left to manage the consequences and absorb that criticism. We should not be expected to carry the burden of a statewide destination with local resources while
taking the reputational hit for conditions we do not control. Most importantly, we need help. We need the governor and our state partners to provide resources necessary to keep both our visitors and our residents safe.
These incidents have the potential, as we have seen in the past, to spill into our neighborhoods, putting residents at risk and creating situations that could have been prevented through proactive enforcement and adequate staffing. Public safe safety must come first. Any
additional assistance from the state level will be greatly appreciated, and I urge our state partners to act now before a preventable situation becomes a tragedy. Thank you. Thanks, counselors. I'm sorry for the long motion. >> Thank you, councelor. Anybody else?
Councelor Novasowski. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um I I spoke to council about this and um you know, I understand where you're coming from, but may I say we were not forgotten. Believe it or
not, those incidences were pre-summer, actually pre-summer events. And the state police in those incidents had 14 troopers there. And there were at least 10 rever police officers there. And
there were at least a half a dozen MBTA police officers there. There were plenty of police presence. There's no question about it. And the state police sent their CAT team down which came from
Danvers to handle this thing. They go everywhere to try and help a city, not only Rivier, a city that has a problem on a state roadway or a state reservation.
Every year from back to Representative Kathy Rinstein, we have gotten three to $400,000 a year designated for Rever Beach for the summer, but that doesn't start until July 1st. You know, I understand
where you're coming from. I'm not going to vote against it, but I just want to let you know this isn't a new thing. you know, you're opening you're opening up a black hole here that a lot of people are going to fall into, which I know you want to happen, but
you know, I I think we have to be careful on who we blame and what has happened and what has the responses have been. So, that's what I have to say and good luck. >> Thank you, council. Anybody else? Just one question,
>> Council Kelly. >> I support the motion and I understand the premise and where it's coming from. Um, but I don't know if it should be if it should have a little more specificity. I'm I'm thinking that if we keep it vague, we might not get what we
want to see from the state. So, I'm I don't know if this is going to go to um public safety subcommittee or I mean because we're saying that, you know, we want additional increased mass state police presence. Does that mean two? Does that mean 20? Is it supposed to
occur every day only on the weekends? Only at nights coordinated EMS coverage, what exactly does that mean? More active enforcement role, what does that look like in practice? So, I don't know if it's if we should fine-tune it to to just ask specifically for what we're
we're looking for or, you know, I'm just putting it out there. So, I don't know if it's going to public safety and we can get some more specifics or not. That's it. Thank you. >> Uh, I'm not sure what I was going to do with it, but let's hear from the maker of the motion. >> Council Green,
>> Council Kelly, I am open to any suggestion you may have to >> Okay. So, I am going to send this to public safety. Thank you. >> Calendar item number 12, motion presented by councelor Go Sua that the mayor, traffic commission, Rivier police
department, Mass State Police, parking department, and inspectional services be requested to increase enforcement against delivery vehicles, ride share operators, and commercial drivers, including but not limited to, Uber, Lyft, Door Dash, Instacart, Amazon Prime, and similar services who
routinely double park or stop and active travel lanes over Beach Boulevard and other major roadways instead of utilizing legal parking or designated loading areas. Residents continue to raise serious concerns regarding drivers who stop in travel lanes, place vehicles in park, and leave them unattended while
completing pickups or deliveries despite the availability of nearby legal parking options. These practices contribute to traffic congestion, unsafe roadway conditions, delays for motorists, and potential barriers for emergency response and public transit operations.
This council further notes that enforcement expectations must be applied consistently. Any private motorist who obstructs a travel lane and leaves their vehicle unattended would be subject to immediate enforcement action. And the same standard should apply to all commercial and delivery operators using
utilizing city streets for business purposes. Finally, that the city coordinate enforcement efforts with the Mass State Police and evaluate whether additional signage, designated loading zones, or enhanced penalties are warranted to address ongoing safety and traffic concerns along Re Beach
Boulevard and surrounding corridors. >> Council Gino SA. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, just last week alone, I received four separate complaints um from my constituents regarding this issue. One of my constituents was extremely upset um after nearly being on a head-on
collision on Rivier Street. There was a delivery driver who stopped directly in the middle of Revier Street. Didn't pull over on the sidewalk or anything. Didn't pull into a spot. They stopped in the middle of the road, got out of the car
and went into a restaurant that was on Rev Street and stayed in there for about 7 minutes. Left the car there that they had to try to go in the opposite lane to go around them. and there was a car coming head on. So, they have to be able
to adhere to the rules of the road. If if I were to do that, I would probably get a ticket. If you were to do that, you'd probably get a ticket. So, it should be the same for these drivers. They should have rules and regulations and they must be followed. Thank you.
>> Thank you, council. Anybody else? Council Novaski. Oh, well, >> Mr. President, thank you. Um, I've seen this a lot of this happen on surely have, but
we can't we don't have enough police in Revier or state police to be on every corner and watch every violation be made and be able to tag someone. They're there for seven minutes. By the time a cruiser gets to there, they're gone. >> So, it's okay.
>> So, I'm not saying it's okay. And I hope that you wouldn't do what this is talking about, but again, I'm going to I'm going to vote for it, but I'm just telling you again, you're opening up a black hole.
We do not have enough people to watch every moment. If it happens to be a cop coming down the street and sees it happen, then yes, they'll get them, but they're not going to be looking around just for people double parking. Thank you. >> Thank you, counselor. Anybody else on
the motion? All in favor? All opposed. So audited. >> Calendar item number 13. Motion presented by councelor Go SA that the mayor be requested to establish a housing impact monitoring committee to be administered by the department of planning and community development in
coordination with relative I'm sorry relevant city departments. This program shall produce an annual public report on housing development in Recl including total housing units permitted under construction and completed distribution of development by neighborhood and
zoning district progress related to MBTA communities act compliance housing proximity to transit corridors. The report shall al also assess impacts on school enrollment in capacity, traffic and transportation infrastructure, water
sore and public safety services, emergency response access. The department shall include policy recommendations based on observed trends including potential zoning, infrastructure or planning adjustments. The report shall be presented annually to the to the city council, posted
publicly on the city's website, included in major zoning and large development review materials where applicable. Further, that this motion be forwarded to the planning board for review, and that the administration provide an implementation plan within 90 days.
>> Councelor Gino Slaya, >> all I'm asking for is a document. I would like to know. Okay. So, as housing development continues through Ravier, residents often ask, "How many units are being built? Where where are they where are
they going to build? Where are they going to be built? What impact will that growth have on our schools, roads, public safety services, infrastructure?" The annual report that I'm requesting um would provide that information in one transparent and publicly accessible
document. Um it's important to recognize that residents do not always see the broader benefits of the housing development as well. So increasing housing supply creates a competitive market. So that's what I want this to basically show um which can help
stabilize housing costs and improve affordability over time. So it also um should stay state like what developers are often required to do for infrastructure improvements and mitigation um investments before their
projects move forward which benefits the community as a whole. So that's what this document that I am requesting um be brought to us so we can make it public to the residents so they can track the growth and understand the impact and um
ensure that the city is making informed decisions based on data rather than people assuming that we're just building building. I want them to understand why and I want us to understand what what's happening like on one paper. Thank you.
Councelor Kelly. >> Thank you. So I I understand this motion. If I understand it correctly, it'll look at the impact. Okay. Um so I already know that there's impact on these things. But if we need
to see this in black and white to to help what you know, hit it home or whatever or to see it in black and white, I'm all for it. Um but I think we actually need to also include the number of special permit and variances um
variance applications the requests the allowances um the approvals that we have because right now if we just look at this housing and the growth from the from housing we're looking at what it can be automatically allowed. So, it
really should distinguish this is housing that was automatically allowed under zoning and it was by done by right and these were um developments and proposals that needed special approval whether through the city council or the ZBA because ultimately if the report
shows that we are impacting traffic and infrastructure and school enrollment and water and sewer capacity, we should have that information because it would be a help when we're deliberating on future special permits and um we're evaluating
them. So, I would ask that we amend it to include special permits and variance requests as well. Okay, I think we're going to send this to zoning because this needs a lot more discussion. Zoning
>> calendar item number 16. Motion presented by councelor mccario that the mayor request state rep. Jeff Turo and state rep. Jessica Janino to appear before the city council to present a comprehensive map and overview identifying all state agency responsibilities within the city of
Rivier including but not limited to MASDOT DCR MBTA. said presentation should clearly identify which agencies are responsible for road maintenance, winter snow plowing, sidewalk snow removal, grass and landscape maintenance,
sidewalk grass strip maintenance, pothole repairs, roadway reconstruction, traffic signal maintenance, parking lot maintenance, and surrounding areas around parking lots and other seasonal maintenance responsibilities. The presentation should also include a detailed map of all applicable roads,
sidewalks, parking lots, and traffic signals along with a list of agency contacts for residents and city officials. >> Council mccurial. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, this is fundamentally about accountability, communication, improving city services
for our residents. Since I was sworn in in January, many many residents have contacted me regarding potholes, snow removal, sidewalk maintenance, traffic signals, grass cutting, and roadway roadway repairs. Too often, the
challenge is that many of these roads, sidewalks, and facilities are not maintained by the city of Ree, but by various state agencies, including the Mass DOT, DCR, and MBTA. Many residents and frankly many elected
officials do not always know which agency is responsible for a particular roadway, intersection, sidewalk, parking lot or public space. This creates confusions, delays, responses and causes frustration for everyone involved.
This motion seeks a comprehensive presentation and map identifying exactly who is responsible for what throughout the city. It will provide counselors, city departments and residents with a clear understanding of maintenance
responsibility responsibilities, agency contacts and report reporting procedures. This information will help us respond more effectively to residents concerns, advocate more successfully for repairs and improvements, and hold the
appropriate agencies accountable when issues arise. This is not just a ward one issue or a district issue. It affects every neighborhood in Revier and every member of this council. Having this information readily available will improve
government transparency and make it easier for residents to get answers and results. Our residents don't care which agency owns the roads. They just want the problem fixed. This motion helps us to identify the right agency, contact
the right people, and get results faster for residents of Revier. I respectfully ask for the council's favorable support of motion 26116. And thank you, Mr. President. >> Thank you, councelor Councelor Cogleandro.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh I agree with this motion. I think having a map uh readily accessible to us and the public is a great idea. The only thing I have in question is who we're sending this request to, which is the state reps. They're the legislative body. I
would rather see this go to the, you know, what you mentioned, Mass DOT, DCR, and even our I bet you the superintendent of public works uh knows exactly who takes care of what. And I do know in some instances that there are state uh regulated areas or stateowned
areas that the city takes care of because we need to uh because we don't want to wait for the state. So I would rather see this go to them because I mean we're a legislative body. We were sending it to another legislative body. I would rather see the the actual agencies themselves do the presentation.
I know it's probably a lot harder to get masked out up here or in city in the city in general, but that's just my two cents. I'd like to amend it if it's okay with councelor mccurio. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh councelor Gino Shay.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. Council mccurio, I absolutely support this motion. This is an amazing um motion to put in. It would be a really an invaluable resource for city councilors as well as the residents. Um,
I do want to note that I'm not sure the city council should be asking the state reps for it. Um, state rep Turko or Janino. I agree with councelor Kogleandro. Um, I'm sure that both of them would step up to the plate and help
us though. Um, and even if this were like a simple document or a map or a contact list that would be forwarded to the council, I think it would be extremely helpful, especially in a ward like mine and yours. Um, I'm I'm often trying to
determine which agency to call. Is it state? Is it is it Masdot? Is it uh DCI? Is it the city of Reier? Um, who's responsible to maintain what? So, this would be an amazing asset for me. Um,
thank you for putting it in. Thank you, >> uh, Council Novasowski. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, it is a great idea. U, all may I say is between Council Zamutoo and myself, we've been around so long, we know exactly where these items are
already. >> But, uh, I agree, but it shouldn't go to the, uh, state reps. Yeah, >> it should be uh the uh public works superintendent and also our planning and development department. >> That's where it starts. Yeah.
>> To start, I think I should keep it in re because I think they will be able to answer all the question because I've been told by many superintendent that the sidewalks on state roads belong to the state. So, you know, and that's why a lot of them aren't fixed that we know of
>> that are state roads. Uh so those are the two departments I think we we should send them to. >> Thank you. Uh councelor Aenio. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I don't know if anyone has tried 311. I know they
have an extensive uh map and listing of state property, DCR property. So when a a call goes into them, they automatically route it there. So you may want to include them. I I believe they have a lot of this information at their
disposal because I know they they root these things as as people call in. So, you may want to add them to the um local uh people that we're going to ask. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. I'm I'm inclined
to send this to zoning only because I think it starts with the director of planning. he can he can help us with it and we can reach out to all the resources and I agree with council Calandro that it it's got to be
addressed to in-house and not to uh not to not a legislative body but they will they will assist us >> the higher powers that they would have more people >> yeah but it doesn't work that way you you won't you won't get there that way but listen it's a great motion I support
it 100% uh unfortunately I'm recused from this motion, but um it's going to zoning and we'll get the rest of the information we need. Calendar item number 17, motion presented by councelor Kelly, that the mayor request the owner and/or
management of the Northgate shopping plaza to meet with the city engineer and any other appropriate departments for the purpose of reviewing internal traffic circulation patterns within the plaza and exploring possible operational improvements that may help alleviate vehicular congestion and improve traffic
flow within the shopping plaza parking areas. said discussions may include, but not limited to, internal traffic flow patterns, directional signage, lane markings, turning movements, and other reasonable traffic circulation measures intended to improve vehicular movement
and public safety within the plaza. >> Councelor Kelly. >> Thank you, Mr. President. So, I think anyone who visits that Northgate shopping plaza parking lot will agree that it can sometimes be a nightmare. um especially when it's busy, when it's
around the holidays. And the way that this motion came about was that a resident actually suggested to me um who was an engineer, by the way, was he suggested that the quasi intersection um at the entrance of Market Basket be
done away with so that traffic could flow straight through without having to stop at that intersection. and in turn that might help the congestion and the backup on Squire Road. Now, I don't know if that's the solution, but um I think
that if if we can even get the owner of the plaza to agree to speak to our um city engineer, that might be something that an option that they could entertain. Um I did float this by Nick Rystrom and he said that he did welcome the opportunity to engage in these
discussions. So, um I think it's worth a try in the um in the vein of public safety to try to get something done in that parking lot. I'm sure the owner of the plaza wants the patrons there to be safe. So, I'm hoping that we can get some cooperation. Thank you.
>> Anybody else? >> Mr. President, >> council Nova, >> can I just make a suggestion? Senator Mayor contacting the manager directly. Let Senator Nick Rystrom, let him deal with it because I think it may, you
know, he knows the engineering. The city approved this parking lot. You just you have 40% more cars coming into it. >> So, I would I would think that we include Nick Rystrom on this. >> Yeah. >> So, we're a victim of Is anybody else
Okay, so I'm I'm going to speak for a minute here. Um, we're a victim of our own success. We created the most successful tiff tax incentive financing in the history
of of the state and brought market basket here. That was a dead mall. There was no traffic problem because nobody was going there and and now it's it's overwhelmed. And so we do need some work and there needs to be unfortunately
there's there's different ownerships. Market Basket's owned by one group and and and the the the building they don't the Market Basket doesn't own that building and the people we gave the tiff to unfortunately I think the man is dead
but the company still exists. Uh um but we created this monster and I I think it it it's on us to fix it and I think it is probably appropriate to go through the um you know the city uh engineer and
DPW and anybody else traffic anybody that wants to get involved because it's going to be a monumental task to make it flow. It's just the volume. The the hope was that that other supermarket was going to be torn down and that was going to be parking and that was gonna but
that didn't work out the way uh we hoped. So uh it is it is in need of help and uh so I'm going to uh where am I sending this? Um I'll send this to public safety.
Calendar item number 18, motion presented by councelor Gino SA, pursuant to rule 46 of the city council rules of order, that the city council approve the installation of a portrait for Katherine Penn in honor of her being the first woman elected to serve as president of the city council and first woman elected
to represent W 2. Councelor Gorino SA. >> I would like to add councel Novaski to this motion and I will speak on it the day of the presentation. Thanks.
>> Okay. All in favor? All opposed. So >> Oh, it does actually. Yeah. Appointments. >> Calendar item number 19. Motion presented by councelor Cogleandro that the mayor request the chief of police to appear before or provide to the city
council information regarding existing Massachusetts laws and local enforcement options related to excessively loud motor vehicles modified exhaust systems, street racing activity, and other vehicle noise disturbances impacting neighborhoods throughout the city of River. Further requesting that the
administration and police department consider establishing a clear and accessible reporting process for residents experiencing ongoing disturbances from excessively loud vehicles. >> Who is this? Oh >> forgot about me already, Mr. President.
It's getting late. I know. >> How could I forget you? >> Um, so yeah. So I I mean this I think that we have an issue with you know noise and quality of life. So I just I put this in and we can get a clear a
clear reporting system and what people need. Do they need to take video? Do they need to you know have pictures? So whatever it might be just so it's clear how people can report these things. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else on this motion? >> On the motion. All in favor? All
opposed. So ordered. Calendar item number 20. Motion presented by councelor Cogleandro that the mayor request the chief of police to increase patrols at the intersection of Adam Street and Mountain Avenue. >> Council Cogleandro. >> Thank you, Mr. President, for
remembering me this time. I just want to give a quick shout out to uh I don't I don't know if they want me to say their name, but the a resident has been sending me quite a few videos of this intersection. I I probably have 24 or 25 over the course of two days,
people running stop signs. I know I share this intersection with council Aenzio. And if you want to be on on the motion. Sure. >> I'd like to also add council to the motion, but it speaks for itself. Thank you, >> councelor uh Aenzio.
>> Uh thank you, councelor Kaggalando. Just an update. A while ago, we put in a motion for flashing uh stop signs. Those have been ordered and I believe they're going to be if they're not already delivered, they'll be installed fairly soon. So, >> that'll help out with that. >> Let's hope it helps. And if not, we got
to ask for enforcement. Right. >> Right. Thank you. >> On the motion. All in favor? All opposed? >> So audited. >> No further business. Mr. >> President, Carlandro has a point of personal privilege. >> Thank you. I just want to uh wish all my
friends and family that celebrate this month a happy pride. Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, this city council stands adjourned till June 8th.