##VIDEO ID:tBt76pH8pEA## e e e e good evening everyone welcome to the October 28th city council meeting please rise to salute the flag I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll Club of the members councelor agenzio here here councelor janino here here councelor greo s here here councelor H here here councelor herio is absent councelor Kelly here here councelor McKenna here here councel noeli here here Council sylvestri here here Council zambuto absent and council president C Leandro here here Quorum is present approval of the Journal of the regular meeting of October 7th point of personal privilege Mr President State your point counselor thank you Mr President before we start tonight I'd like to take a moment to to remember a great Rivier resident and a great rier man um last week Rivier lost Cosmo delro 96 years old he was the former building inspector and anyone that's had a pool put in in Rivier probably knows him from Cosmo pools but up until a couple weeks ago he was still his usual self talking politics and he was a great friend and later on um uh happened to be a family member but he was a great man and he will be missed thank you if you would all join us in a brief moment of silence please thank you back to the regular order of business public hearings calendar item number three hearing called as ordered on an ordinance further amending the revised ordinances of the city of Rivier establishing a program to divert waste from landfills and incinerators to offset waste disposal costs this is a public hearing we'll open the floor to proponents anyone in favor seeing and hearing none I will close that side do we have a proponent oh he's working his way through the crowd got it good evening sir name and address please good evening Tom scosi 281 Broadway chief of planning and Community Development um I'm not necessarily sure if I'm a pro or uh con here I think generally speaking though the um City Administration uh the key Administration is behind a composting um effort that we've already begun uh to undertake both with funding from the win um mitigation fund but also just looking at other opportunities and grants we can take on I think we spoke about that at a previous meeting I think we take issue with some of the details in the ordinance itself which I think ties our hands both from a procurement standpoint but also looking at how much funding we're actually earmarking I think it unnecessarily restricts what we do that being said we will be taking on composting whether it's specifically to the letter of how this works out or maybe some mixture thereof and I know the counselor's not here today but we can talk through details further on thank you sir are there any opponents anyone wishing to speak against seeing and hearing none I'll close that side any counselors wishing to speak this is going to be referred to the legislative affairs subcommittee calendar item number four hearing called is ordered on an ordinance amending metered rates of the revised ordinances of the city of R we'll open it to proponents anyone in favor good evening sir name and address address for the record thank you sir iron noveli 53d hon Street we here um I uh had requested the councilors to submit this realizing that uh there was some owner occupied homes that uh were changed from residential rate to a commercial rate and what we're trying to do is uh you know get those 40 or 50 people around the city back to a residential rate and uh make it a little easier for them so thank you thank you sir any other people in favor seeing and hearing none closing that side are there any opponents anyone not in favor seeing and hearing none I will close that side of the hearing City councilors wishing to speak councelor Areno thank you Mr President um this motion I put in uh pertains to a very small amount of uh four five and six family homes these are owner occupied um we're always complaining about absentee landlords uh these people are are in their homes um they're using it as income to support their families and they're paying residential tax rates so I think it's only appropriate that they pay residential water rates thank you Mr President thank you counselor any other counselors wishing to speak seeing and hearing none this will be referred to legislative affairs calendar item number five hearing call is ordered on an ordinance further amending food truck locations this is a public hearing are there any proponents people in favor seeing and hearing none I will close that side any opponents people not in favor seeing and hearing none I will close that side any counselors wishing to speak councelor Gino SAA thank you Mr President um after receiving quite a few letters from residents in that neighborhood I would like to place this on file until Council y milel gets back I don't think you want to place it on file then you probably want to just put this into subcommittee okay that's fine okay that would be fantastic thank you any other uh councelor McKenna thank you Mr President I was just going to say that I would like to put an amendment on this um also um to keep it away from um par that kids play at because uh if you put food trucks there and they run by generator or if they run by uh plug plugin uh there's still fumes and if the kids are playing like for instance Sunny Maya Park the kids play from 3: to 7:00 in in the daytime and if you put a food truck there uh near the park there's fumes that are going to run from this uh truck and the kids are playing so it's going to harm the kids so I would like to um put an amendment if we can to keep it away from any uh recreational uh Parx um uh wherever there's kids playing and thank you that's it Council I think we would have to take the amendment up in the subcommittee okay that's fine so if there's no other counselors this will also be referred to legislative affairs next up is the legislative affairs subcommittee report councelor arenia thank you Mr President there were two items before us tonight uh the first one was uh regulations on Veterans Memorial polls um we looked favorably on this and I'd like to call a roll call on the uh motion as amended ordered on a second reading as amended ordered on a third reading as amended roll call for endorsement and uh and ordainment excuse me shall the city council approve an ordinance establishing rules and regulations for met Veterans Memorial polls councel agenzio yes yes councel janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor hero is absent councelor Kelly yes yes councelor McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes councelor sylvestri yes yes councel zambo yes yes and council president cogliandro yes yes the ordinance is engrossed and ordained as amended thank you Mr President the second item was an ordinance establishing rules and excuse me an ordinance repealing the prohibition of non-medical marijuana establishments the uh committee discussed this briefly and we uh voted to put it on file president I'd like to file a Minority Report and uh I'd like to call for a roll call on placing it on file I'd like to file a Minority Report councelor Kelly is asked to give a Minority Report share your report councelor I'd like the um full councel to vote on whether or not this issue should in fact be placed on file we we have an incredible amount of residents here that worked incredibly hard to try to make sure their voice was being heard in their opposition against the repal of this ban as a result of putting this motion on file they're they won't have an opportunity to be heard tonight they won't have an opportunity to see and to know how each counselor feels on this issue and what each counselor's position is on this issue and I believe we owe that responsibility to these residents who worked so hard organizing trying to have their voices heard um so in that regard I would like a Minority Report file to take a vote on whether or not we should keep this on file or whether or not we should let this go to a hearing tonight and vote on it thank you what is specifically the roll call on I'd like a roll call on whether or not we keep the motion the the ordinance on file or whether or not it go to a full hearing and vote tonight understood uh Council Isam buo I'm just a little confused I heard mentioned that uh we don't know how these people feel I think I've heard from everybody in this room and I know they're all against it so I mean I'm sorry coun zambuto you misunderstood me they have a right to know how we feel on the issue it is clear well how they feel okay so speaking for myself I think everybody knows how I feel that's the way I should have phrase that I apologize for speaking for my colleagues but everybody knows how I feel on this issue I'm sure anyways uh that's why I was a little confused I don't know how you feel excuse me excuse me I will not be entertaining that from the audience let's you guys have been awesome tonight please keep it that way thank you very much um so let's take the roll call if we could just have some clarification on what exactly we're the the wording that we're voting on just so we can all be clear we got to figure that out Mr President can I say something councelor aen thank you so for the audience's sake the city council decided to place this on file there's a ban on medical Mar excuse me recreational marijuana dispensaries and R by placing it on file it's dead we've kept the ban the ban will continue as to such time that it may come back up again and at that time it can be addressed Again by placing it on file it is dead and it's not and and the ban will still is still in in existence thank you thank you counselor I'd like to give the opportunity of the full city council to vote on whether or not we should be placing this on file or whether or not we should move forward tonight with a vote on whether or not the B the ban should be repealed looking to so you want the city council to take just take a vote instead of up or down instead of placing it a fire before hypothetically vote on the correct and I'd also like to point out that yes it's true that this is placed on file in some respect it is on hold until someone at such time revives it and that could be at any time until December 31st 2025 so I'd just like to make that clear Mr President councelor McKenna could you could um the clerk just clarify um what we she's she's working on it okay thank you so shall the city council move to take a vote on engrossment and ordainment of the ordinance repealing the prohibition of non-medical marijuana establishments I'm sorry I would like the the full city council an opportunity to vote on whether or not it should be placed on file and whether or not that what was placed on file in subcommittee should continue to it hasn't been placed on file the full city council would need to take a vote in order to place that on file okay that vote will be happening not unless a substitute motion that you make prevails I have no substitute motion I then I would like a vote taken by the full City Council on placing it on file that that's it so there's no subtitute no then we have to take a roll call on placing it on file correct well correct that's what I want whichever way we need to get that done whether it be by Minority Report or regular procedure well the the majority report of the committee was to place it on file correct my I'm I want a Minority Report to not place it on file right to either so you wanted the city council to take a vote on the ordinance so it's a move for engrossment and ordainment of the ordinance you always have to ask a question in the affirmative but I don't want this to be a vote yet on whether or not we're repealing the ban I want to give people the opportunity to speak on that Madam clerk the motion on the floor is to place on file y you can vote Yes or no if if you vote no then it's not on it's also up to the will of the city council again the city council is the judge and jury of its own rules if the city it's the will of the city council to allow people to speak so be it that's up to the city council to decide so we're going to take a roll call on the recommendation the legislative subcommittee gave to the whole Council which is to place this on file so if you want to place it on file say yes if you don't want to place it on file say no that okay roll call shall the city council place on file an ordinance repealing the prohibition of non-medical marijuana establishments councel agenzio yes yes councel janino yes yes councel greo SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly no no councel McKenna yes yes Council noeli yes yes councel sylvestri yes yes Council zambuto no no and council president CL Leandro yes yes this matter will be placed on file I'd like to put a motion on the floor Mr President what's your motion counselor I'd like to put a motion on the floor that if the ma this matter ever be revived or put placed back on the agenda at any given point in time from now until December 31st 2025 that a robo a robo call will be required to go out Citywide to make the public aware of the day in time of the public hearing of said motion time out point a point a parliamentary procedure point a parliamentary procedure State your point through you uh Mr President to the clerk uh I I don't believe a motion like that is in order but tell me how that uh fits with our uh Rules of Order I'm personally okay with that motion being put on the floor I think it's a great motion and I know that we want to place these on file but I also openly stating that I would never bring this up so oh is it is is that the purpose of this so that I I think being onile so basically when you place something on file it's dead it's dead but that does oh yes woo but um how how hold on I just this is for the edification of everybody here when you excuse me please one moment everybody thank you when you place something on file that essentially means that the council has discussed something and decided not to make any changes we're not changing anything nor are we hiding anything when you T when you excuse me uh if we vote on it then you could bring it up again anyway and this is what I'm trying to tell you so what councelor Kelly is trying to do is make sure that even though this motion is placed on file that we can not bring it up until the end of this legislative session which as she stated was December 31st 2025 is that accurate councelor Kelly if it if someone does bring it up before December 20 31st 2025 I would like a robo call to go out just advising the public of the no no no no roll call Robo call not roll call so so um I don't Do's no second requ on the city council so uh councelor Kelly if you wouldn't mind just just stating the motion one more time and then I'd like to take a roll call on it sure if at any given time time from now until December 31st 2025 the motion on repealing the ban the prohibition for recreational marijuana in the city of Rivier is revived and placed on as an item on the agenda of the city council said item shall be notified be be on a robo call so that the entire city is notified of the day and time of the hearing hearing of the public hearing counselor if I may um this may cost money how would you feel about putting this into excuse me I think it's money SP me guys please don't do that it's our responsibility about money and I'm just making sure that procedurally we do the right thing because we have rules to follow too if this costs x amount of dollars by law it has to go into a subcommittee we can't just pass these things so please I understand that you don't understand and I am more than willing to talk to you about any part of this I I know that when Robo calls went out for other um items that happened during the city uh popey's uh changing directions of traffic on streets and things like that those robocall decisions were not put in subcommittee um they they just kind of happened and no you know so I don't I don't know why um I don't know why rules apply in one occasion and not another maybe it is due to the sum of money I I don't know and just so you know we wouldn't have the final say in something like this it would go to the administration as well to my understanding so I'm trying to make sure that we have another Avenue to have a conversation about this because I agree I'm voting yes on this there's no question um so what what is the will of the council roll call let's take a roll call on councelor Kelly's motion then before the roll call you talked about money there's an ordinance on the books I know that if anything costs more than $5,000 it's got to go for a financial analysis now I'm willing I'm I support the motion however I don't support changing our rules and changing our ordinances in order to create that so the bottom line is I'm sure rooc call is going to cost more than 5,000 bucks do you want to break the rules to go that way fine but I don't and that was my point earlier is I want to make sure that we do follow the rules um councilor Kelly would you be agreeable to putting this in subcommittee the actually the next legislative I I don't know if we'd be able to fit it into the next one but I also understand I believe it would be Ways and Means oh okay so how uh councelor Kelly I'll leave the decision up to you this is your motion I honestly don't know I don't I don't know if um a robo call would cost more than $5,000 can can anyone here actually guarantee that it would I don't I don't know I mean without knowing that I don't know how I can vote I don't know how I can recommend without knowing that I think that's part of the reason we need a a a financial analysis done just a point a point of information point of information Mr President State your point a simple uh email to the Chief Financial Officer will be able to tell us quickly by the next meeting we would know uh what the uh what the cost of this would be and if it's under 5,000 then you just vote it in simple I think that's reasonable move move to table so this will be tabled until the next city council meeting which is November 4th next Monday the Parks and Recreation subcommittee did not meet today tabling is non-negotiable unless somebody objects to it if does anyone object to the tabling till the next meeting then there's no there's no there's no discussion and there's no roll call needed thank you next next order of Business Council before you move on can we please present our signatures absolutely uh Miss katano just please uh pass those to the clerk and we're thank you very much so I'll give it to you in in a second m katano i I said you could pass the signatures and we're not taking speaking right this second you can I just want to say that 2,19 residents of Riv have put their signature in here saying that they do not want retail marijuana okay so these people will be they'll just be watching what happens next thank you actually okay next up is the Parks and Recreation subcommittee report that meeting was canceled today and rescheduled for December 2nd at 5:30 next up is the zoning subcommittee report oh council is Amba thank thank you Mr President um obviously because of uh what What's happened in the legislative affairs committee this needs to be placed on file so I would ask place this on file placed on file just so everyone knows that is all the business of the recreational Cannabis issue uh everything has been placed on file there will not be recreational pot chops in the city of river and let's take a recess five yeah we're at recess e guys excuse me everyone we're going to need order in here we have a meeting to conduct let's please clear the chambers clear the chambers we have a meeting to conduct please thank you e excuse me can we clear the room please can we clear the room so we can get started on other businesses thank you e please clear the chambers so we can resume the meeting please clear the chambers so we can resume the meeting [Music] if you're staying for the meeting please take a seat if you're not please uh exit out the doors thank you so much e e let's resume the meeting Madame clerk calendar item number 10 communication from 101 Wall Street and Walnut Street LLC Robert Mahoney requesting that the city council consider a proposed land swap of Austin Street parcel number 34467 f-22a for number 35 Morris Street identified as parcel number 34467 b-29a is Mr Mahoney or someone on his behalf here miss O'Neal name an address for the record please uh good evening city council president and City councilors my name is Nancy O'Neal I'm an attorney located at 14 Proctor Avenue and I'm here tonight on behalf of 101 Walnut Street LLC and its manager Mr Robert Mahoney a city of river resident as to a potential land swap with the city of river uh today Mr Mahoney's compan company 101 Walnut Street LLC own some of the last privately held land in the city of River's North River Conservation Area uh specifically this is an unnumbered uh parcel of approximately 7,800 Square ft uh on an older Street in North R called Austin Street uh which is surrounded by city-owned Parcels all of which are zoned as Conservation District and what we are proposing here tonight is that Mr Mahoney provide this conservation parcel to the city of river in exchange for a small residentially zoned parcel in North River that is adjacent uh to other land owned by Mr Mahoney and specifically I am talking about uh the vacant lot at 35 Morris Street and approximately 6,900 foot parcel uh which would be undersized for the ra1 district uh but when combined with my client's adjacent property uh which is a lot of approximately 15,000 square ft uh would would be uh of the propit size uh and my client is interested in putting housing uh on that parcel uh so overall uh this would be a win-win situation for the city the city would be able to consolidate control uh over conservation land in North R and it would allow for uh low density housing uh to be developed in a residential neighborhood and we are happy to answer any questions that you may have thank you thank you very much councelor Gino SAA hi what is he planning on building uh likely residential housing um that that uh district is zoned for single and two families so something of that nature nothing more than that I don't believe so no okay thank you thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you Mr President um I talked to Frank stringy and he said that the swap um the land that he's given us is bigger is that true uh yes that is true the uh parcel that would be given to the city is 7,800 sare Ft give or take and the parcel uh that we are seeking to have uh transferred to to us is approximately 6,900 squ feet and one more question so it's not going to hurt it's not AB budding um any conservation land or on top of any conservation land uh I mean we're talking about conservation land you know little by little by little by little we're getting rid of our conservation land and we we can't do that so I was just wondering is this conserv this would be considered conservation land uh the the land that uh that Mr Mahone owns today that is conservation land so this that would be going towards the city what we are seeking is a residentially Zone parcel surrounded by uh residentially zoned so my question is we couldn't use the parel that he gave us uh to build no no it would go into the conservation corre part of it okay thank you Council thank you councelor councelor novaski thank you Mr uh president Mr President you know I've run into this before and we've given you know done land swap but before we can authorize it through the council we have to make sure that the city engineer and the DPW do not have any objections to it because there may be there may be some kind of U underground utilities going through it and we just want to get that confirmed that that is not the case and we usually get it in writing from those two bodies before we can actually do the final authorization so I I would ask that that be done this is going to a public hearing next so we do have some time thank you councelor councelor is zamb BU yeah that was going to be my point that it is going to a public hearing how and obviously we're going to find out every everything about these properties before we make this decision we've done this those of us have been here a long time we've done a lot of these and you got to be real careful and we will be and uh we got a reputable uh gentleman here who's proposing this is but that doesn't mean we check all the facts and we will thank you thank you counselor any other counselors let go to a public hearing on November 25th calendar item number 11 communication from the chief of police relative to the fy2 24 Jag Grant presentation good evening Chief name and address for the record please good evening uh David Callahan 400 reveal Beach Parkway city of Rivier and I'm here tonight for uh a Jag grant that we usually come in far off then I get some handouts I'll pass out to the council here you go Council as the clerk's uh going to pass out just some uh basic information on the burn Grant and we it's an annual thing we come up here every year for it it is the Edward burn Memorial Justice assistant Grant which they it's known as the Jag Grant and this year the police department's requesting a total of$ 17,7 157 in funding basically the the money's used uh to assist with investigations involving domestic violence related matters also some educational Outreach things that we do in other community engagement that's all focused on domestic violence matters and we work collaboratively with the suffa County DA's office and City officials and also HOV HOV is a a local victim Service uh agency that helps with victims of domestic violence and helps to assist them with alternate housing and things like that and unfortunately we see an up and domestic violence related matters and you know we work a lot with habac COV and they help us and they see that these Services is definitely warranted to help uh victims also what the the money assist us with overtime to do other follow-up investigations that are in person and other things we do assisting victims going to court and things like that but it all focuses on domestic violence and some of the other money is going to focus on on doing community engagement in uh various other non- enforcement activities and community outreach like some of the events of the uh student Boxing Club citizens Police Academy National Night Out Walkin routs and someon other community and school events and other Outreach that the police department ordinarily does in the community so and there's some other things some of the services with the funds by par are and things like that that we need to conduct these events so I don't know if anybody has any specific questions yes councilor McKenna thank you Mr President uh did you um I know Jerry Salva salvati was the person that used to go to the schools did you get someone to do that yeah we we have resource offices okay uh additional ones we have three that are currently in the schools now we added a so they go and talk to the kids about um certain things yeah they do engagement with the youth especially at the high school and the middle school and then if there's other things that need to do in the uh lower grades they'll do that as well you thank you councelor councelor H thank you Mr President Chief thanks so much for being here is the the Pal's basketball league is that included in the some of it yeah it helps we don't have the funding we used to have for the Police Athletic league but some of the money will help with that and also we have another grant that helps us uh the Shannon Grant and that's another state grant that we also use and that uh adds supplemental monies for you know the Police Athletic League great thank you you're welcome thank you Chief appreciate you being here tonight this is going to be placed on file and this is any other questions there's no vote to be taken place on file thank you very much I appreciate it thank you Chief have a good night my apologies for being late for a moment no I think I'm up for another matter as well we'll see you in a moment thank you calendar item number 12 communication from the assistant water and Source superintendent relative to an update on lead Services good evening sir a name and address for the record please good evening Council Chris shella 319 charger Street I'm the superintendent of Public Works I just want to introduce you guys all to Anthony Gia the assistant superintendent of Public Works I'm sorry assistant superintendent of the water department I just want to express my gratitude for his and all their work the water department for removing LED services in the past two months Anthony just has a quick briefing on what they've accomplished and let you guys all know what will be coming out in the next couple of weeks thank you sir y so I'm here to speak to the city's efforts in removing lead services from our water inventory and just to catch everybody up on speed where this came from there's been changes to Federal legislation that have trickled down to the state level and then through the city and town level um so this is a nationwide issue that's really being addressed um the changes are to the Le and copper rule through the lead and copper rule revisions which now require cities and towns to update a mandator a mandatory um inventory update of the material of service lines in the city so the classifications are copper lines lead lines unknown service material lines and galvanized lines um to remain in compliance the city has completed their inventory it got submitted October 15th and the update that we have is that there are 50 578 unknown lines and 461 lead lines out of the over 10,000 services that we have um so our goal is the LCR goals are to replace them at a 7% rate a minimum of a 7% rate until all of the lead is out of the city and that's something that we've been really strongly committed to um as Chris mentioned I'm I'm also extremely proud of the work that the water department has done in the last 3 months we've performed over 200 excavations and a really short period of time just to get a better handle on our inventory and figure out what we have under the ground here um of those 200 excavations our own water department replaced 22 lead service lines and we also had contractors various contractors work in the city to replace another 28 service lines so since last November we've replaced 80 service lines I heard you did that in pretty much record time too it was fast um don't it's okay you can brag a little bit if you um it just our guys worked really hard to do it and the contractors were a great help as well and also our Highway Department to follow us around make sure that we pave these trenches and get the streets looking the way that they should um and all of those Replacements are at no cost to the homeowners and that's the goal here is to do this for free to people so they have clean drinking water um we've pretty much wrapped up for the end of this year and we're going to continue this next year so I just wanted to relay to the council what our plan is for residents um because we we imagine there's going to be a lot of questions so on our website now we have a interactive map that's on our homepage right now where all residents can enter their address and it brings up a map of the city brings them to their parcel they can click that parcel and it shows the record on their on their waterline so it will say copper unknown lead whatever that may be um today notifications have been mailed out to all of the residents that have unknown and led service lines so they'll be receiving notification likely this week and any questions that they may have they can contact myself they can contact the City 311 um City Hall everyone's aware of of what they should of what they should tell our residents so I just like to also open the floor to the council if they have any questions thank you very much if I could also because you we need them to brag a little bit more and so I think the boss will help brag for them and I honorable body Mr President and of course I know that councelor agenzio uh knows us very um intimately uh the work that they did over the last just few months uh was incredible we sat down at the M MW less than two months ago and we told them what we had left to do before the deadline of of of October 31st they almost laughed at us um they didn't think it was going to be attainable uh and Chris and Anthony and his team stood across the table and said we're going to get it done and they didn't just get it done by October 31st they finished last week um but that was due to the hard work of the entire team working 12-hour shifts there were people working two to three 12-h hour shifts a week in the water and sewer department and also as mentioned in the highway department that were helping fill these trenches so it was an entirely collaborative effort by our entire um uh Team over at the Department of Public Works so I just I can't thank them enough for what they've done I know that this sometimes is a disruption to our residents but as mentioned this is at no cost to our residents and it's making sure to that not only to provide clean drinking water it's also making sure to check that they have the right um lines in their system so when Anthony mentions an uh unknowns that doesn't always mean they have led it's just we just don't know sometimes people build houses even in the 80s and 90s and just didn't Market properly so we have to do a trench uh dig and and to checking to see what's there even knowing more than likely it is not LED but they're doing their due diligence and taking care of our residents so I I can't thank them enough and they team uh for what they've done thank you thank you Mr Mayor councelor McKenna thank you Mr President Anthony thank you for all the work that you've done especially on with rev and I know you guys are trying to get that done so we can pave it uh it's it's a mess but um a a couple of residents have called me and there's still um spaces that are open they're not um done yet do you know when that's going to get done um so counselor to answer your question the highway department is now working down proav and we'll be moving down to Winter bav after that also to update you on the pavement because I figured this question may come um the week of the 4th November 4th we will start pay Milling um Oxford Howard Rand mcleavy the week after that we'll be final Paving of that area and then we will be moving along to Winter Bev okay so I need I need since we're talking about win Bev I really need because I was going to ask the mayor I have a uh uh meeting with the mayor Wednesday so I was going to ask the mayor the same thing um and I know you and I have walked winther pav together and uh is Webster In Sum Summer Street getting paved along with win Bev that was not included initially in the scope of work but we can have that conversation and okay because they really from the heavy construction trucks uh they've really did done damage to those two streets and they're very very shot streets I think there um two or three houses on them so it would just be from win Bev to Crescent um summer and uh uh Webster okay and one more thing um sorry while we're on the subject I know I'm a pain um Philips have too um that's a dead end street that really needs to be paved uh it was sinking uh people couldn't drive down there uh residents couldn't walk down there I was just wondering if that had a timeline that would be spring Phillips that's just final so that was temporary trench Paving after the sewer line and now final Paving will be coming in the spring thank you very much guys thank you councelor councelor Gino SAA thank you Mr President Chris and Anthony I have to tell you not only did you do it in record time but I was informed and that's a plus when you keep the counselor informed you keep the neighborhood happily and I'm really really thankful that you did keep me up to date with everything that was going on in W five thank you you're welcome thank you counselor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr chairman gentlemen thank you very much Chris I remember you came up when the letters went out originally um and I think there was a little bit of misunderstanding so if the lead service was on the the resident side we might not have done it and if it was on the city Side we were going to is that still the case so the letters that initially came out just to keep everyone aware we were part of a pilot program being an mwa Community to test out the future processes of this now enacted rule so the letters are going out these current letters that we just sent out today will be stating both material of private and public side okay and the city is again picking up the cost for both private and public side which majority of the communities require homeowners to pay for the yeah private side of the service and and how do we get that out to our residents our seniors English with that second language that to not get caught up in a scam where they're where they're paying for this service in an understanding well you you may have to get this done because you have a service and and them not understanding that the city's going to take care of that so only people receiving letters are receiving letters because they either have a known Le public or private side or unknown service anyone else that is worried that they're not receiving a letter that is because we have documentation that their service is not LED and they have no reason to be contacted thank you y thank you counselor councelor Nova selski thank you Mr President uh Chris first of all congratulations on your wedding your recent marriage um so when talking private and city with up to the meter as far as replacing that carpet line so the the public side the city owned portion of the utility is from the water m to the curb stop and the resident owned portion is from the curb stop to the water meter okay so are we replacing it up to the one meter yeah the entire line yep the entire line I just want to double check that but I wanted um I wasn't notified of any what was being done down in War I uh but I there's a a couple uh cuts at 122 Campell AV one on the street and one on the sidewalk and I don't know if that was from you or from National Grid and it hasn't been resurfaced so if you can check that out and hopefully on the sidewalk ones those are fairly new sidewalks we would hope that concrete goes back where that square was cut up so if you can check out 122 Campell thank you C oh councelor all set my apologies thank you councelor councelor Zam buo uh thank you Mr President uh I just want to uh give u a couple of Kudos here but I'm I'm I'm proud of the way this is being done now I know we had a little mishap with that original letter that went out where there was a little confusion and so forth but uh it makes me proud to be a city counsil number one that we're paying for the um homeowner side of the the lead pipes it shows our commitment to removing lead from the the system and uh um it makes I I guess Kudos go to the administration for for uh approving this and everybody along the line from the superintendent all the way up and down and um I just thank you for your efforts and uh proud that we're uh we look real good here and it uh sometimes we don't look good and it makes me really disappoints me but this is one of the times S I can say in 25 years I'm very proud and happy to be sitting up here and listening to this so thank you thank you counselor um thank you all for being here this is going to be placed on file thank you thanks guys calendar item number 13 communication from the chief of planning and Community Development presenting the city's policy and procedure for implementing traffic coming measures good evening councilors Tom karowski chief of planning Community Development 281 Broadway I'm here tonight to talk about a new uh internal policy that was developed um between my department the city of Rivier Police Department fire department engineering and DPW um taking a look at how we take in traffic calming petitions and evaluate their effectiveness and Implement new traffic calming programs I know I I don't believe on tonight's Council agenda but many Council agendas over the last few years we've been seeing a lot of traffic calming petitions things like Road diets um speed humps um route restrictions things of that nature and we wanted to just create a really clear and a streamlined process by which we take those in we use data to determine which um strategies we be taken on and and basically Implement a clear system by which all this gets approved so what you have in front of you is that policy I'm not necessarily asking for for an endorsement of the council it's not an ordinance or anything like that it's really just an internal way that will be doing business moving forward um but just to give you some of the highlights so um we set uh a series of strategies within our traffic calming toolbox um horizontal deflection uh which is you know sort of like a speed bump where you're slowing traffic by um going up vertical deflection um Road diets and rout restrictions we have those four different categories and amongst those four categories a variety of different strategies Within them and with each and every strategy that we have in our uh traffic calming toolkit we now have a set of design standards that go along with them those design stand standards include um for example with a speed hump where you shouldn't shouldn't put them in terms of a roadway with a a very high grade where you might have issues in the winter time when a plow is going up or a car is going up and they get um stalled by the speed hump and can't make it up the street um it has specific design standards for emergency vehicles it has estimated costs and it's all taken from the it traffic calming toolkit so it's sort of standardized and National um and provide some really clear criteria for what we um should be looking at in terms of various tools to support traffic calming um we also have a list of criteria both a minimum criteria and a priority criteria when we're looking at these various tools so um first of all the minimum criteria are those things that would need to be met in order for a petition to be acted on by the city uh those minimum criteria include speed so our cars actually speeding on the roadway the um generally accepted definition for that is that the 85th percentile um the vast majority of cars are not speeding or are um depending on the definition a volume are 800 vehicles at least traveling on this roadway so we don't want to implement traffic calming on a road that nobody's using um is there actually a a lot of support behind a petition so if it has 10 or more residents within a street signing on to it that's another set of minimum criteria that must be met and is there actually a real verifiable engineering solution for this particular problem so those are sort of the minimum criteria that need to be met as well as Street width um and then we also set a a series of prioritization criteria so if we have two petitions in front of us but only one pot of money we can't Implement both of them all else equal which are we going to choose uh we have prioritization criteria that says basically if not only are cars speeding but they're going particularly fast in this roadway um it receives extra points if the adjacent land use is a public space a senior center affordable housing a building of worship it receives an additional point if this street is adjacent to upcoming roadway improvements it receives additional points point because if we're already ripping up a road it's easier to put a speed hump in as part of that traffic um program and then equal distribution is the last we want to make sure that we're having these traffic calming petitions being distributed throughout all the wards in the city not just concentrated in one particular neighborhood um so again that's how we would all else equal um grade which projects get funded today and which ones might be placed on the capital needs plan for future years of funding um and then along with the prioritization criteria we created just a a clear process and there's a flowchart um in in the guide and and the guide for those of you that can't see in front of you tonight will be on the city of R's web page there'll actually be a specific uh page called um traffic calming strategies and traffic calming policy you can click on that right on the drop- down menu under Community Development um and it outlines a clear sort of process by which this all happens and it would still start with the ward counselors it just would start with a formal um petition that we've created for traffic calming strategies in particular if the petition's approved by the city council then it goes to a traffic working group for review um that includes members of my department the police department the fire department The Parking Department um engineering and DPW where we'll take a look at the particular strategy being proposed we'll grade it according to the criteria if it meets the minimum criteria then it will move on to the next stage where we'll propose a solution based on all the tools in our toolbx um if there's funding available for the project we'll start designing that solution and working towards implementation if there's not funding available for that project we'll put it on the capital needs budget for the next year and hopefully the council could approve additional funding for such strategies in the future um and then we'll bring it in front of the traffic commission once we have a full design if the traffic commission approves it then we will move on to implementation um so that's it in a nutshell I know we got a lot of business in front of us tonight so I don't want to overload you but I'm happy to take any questions you might have about the policy thank you Tom counselor sylvestri thank you Mr President Tom thank you very much um this is actually awesome I I got to say this it's even better that it starts with the board counselors um but I I think this is great because you know everyone believes that their streets most important and and their neighborhood deserves the most but this is going to give us a clar cut understanding of actually which roads are being mostly driven on which ones are speeding the most and a clear understanding for us to have answers when someone says well why did a speed bump go on this street and not mine well now we have data to prove why that was when before it was just kind of uh we didn't have answers to those questions so thank you thank you councelor councelor novas selski thank you Mr President uh Tom thank you that this is great uh there's a lot of questions I have I know we've met already on some of the locations but uh what happens if we the council pass something and we getting it from people on the street you know the residents they're flying up our streets and you guys say no you can't do it what do we tell them well I think we've we've faced that with a few different petitions that have come in front of the council and that's part of the and why we wanted to create a clear set of criteria that would basically explain why the petition's not being accepted so I I think what I would tell them in that instance is we call you I mean yes honestly in this case I think that would be warant to careful what you wish for mrowki hey I didn't wish for it but if if if he's asking I mean that's that's our job and and quite honestly we want to create a data informed policy so we're not just saying we we don't think it should go there it just doesn't feel right now we can say well the 85th percentile speed is going below the speed limit which means the vast majority of people are speed are not speeding so a traffic calming strategy is not warranted or in another instance we saw sure a few cars might be speeding but there's 500 cars a day on this roadway and we don't have enough funding to support something like that versus a street where people are cutting through all day long we have 10,000 cars on the roadway we got to make those difficult decisions and hopefully this gives us a little bit more data to help inform those difficult decisions cuz you know I can just bring up uh specifically Campbell AV we put a speed hump on Campbell which I've been yelling for for 10 years and we finally got it last year but now the that's in one spot but now leading up to that people are flying up the street and I'm getting complaints from the people down the lower end of the street are we open to put another speed bump on that street I think I would encourage you to work with a resident to submit a petition on that effect but um and I definitely will yeah but but what I would say generally with with speed humps I think we should be moving towards a strategy where they're not just isolated but they're part of a broader system within the traffic Network so you know on one street you might have multiple speed humps so you're really slowing traffic for the duration of the road not just for that small portion that has a hump um and then on the other side of things we want to consider other streets within that roadway Network so if we have a speed bump here and then a car just diverts and goes down another road and speeding down that road it's like a game of whacka mole right we're not really solving the problem because I have I have uh just recently I've had at least a dozen phone calls on Franklin Avenue going from hitchborn Street down to Walnut EV they come off the highway flying off the highway and taking the turn from hitchborne Street onto Franklin and people have been screaming my phone is ringing off the hook because of that particular Street which I will be putting in you know and now and that's a long street that people I've already had in for two locations on that in that particular Street I don't know what uh the feeling is for two but maybe you and I know it all depends on driveways and street corners and stuff like that so but you know I'm just telling you people are flying on every street not you know I'm just talking about my Street and I I'm sure everybody up here could tell you they are flying and it's not 5 m an hour over the limit it's 15 to 20 to 25 miles over the limit and one guy said 85 miles he was going on Franklin half today and he almost got hit in his car so but I'm just telling you what's going on and we we got to do something logically and for the people agreed and and what I will say is if you send people in my direction for me to explain why we can't um fund a particular project maybe it doesn't meet the minimum criteria just know I might send them in your direction or the councils generally if we don't have enough money to implement all the traffic calming petitions that are coming down the pipeline um because this all does cost money both to design it the right way to implement it the right way and I don't want to be Pennywise and pound foolish in how we do this if we're going to do it we should do it right but it costs money right and I can understand that and I saw the costs for spe speed bump or depending on uh uh flow of water and you know stuff like that but you know we have to do something and you know and actually you know I I'm pleading to you for this but I also plead to the chief to get more directed Patrols in some of these side streets and catch these people it's ridiculous C the lower in the cev going down to the parkway we've had 15 different accidents over the five last five years 15 accidents and and we've damaged at least 32 cars parked on the side so something has to be done and you know I know my people want it and they want to hear from me and I'm throwing it right at you and I'm throwing it at the chief also thank you thank you counselor councelor janino thank you thank you Tom thank you Julie for all the work and effort you put into this here I like the way it looks I do with one question as far as the surveys will done inhouse or are they going to be put out the other companies so for for the time being at least the the speed and volume surveys those will be done inhouse by review PD us we have now using equipment we have now yes all right thank you thank you counselor counselor H thank you Mr President Tom thanks so much following up on councelor janino's question will the petitions be available online online if someone registers with in accounts can they fill this out online in some in some way they can fill it out online and they'll be encouraged to work with their War counselor to actually formally submit the petition but um since I mentioned it a few times now you go to the drop down menu I had to go online to see it myself it's not live today but it'll be Live this week under business and development um and then I believe projects and planning initiatives and it will be right underneath rier municipal irrigation plan uh again it's not there today but the page will be live later this week great thanks thank you councilor councelor McKenna thank you um Mr President um this has really nothing to do with caling but I was just wondering uh would you be in favor of uh do not block the Box because we need them uh in uh certain areas like crescen AV to go into Bennington Street to try to get out of you know so I was just wondering if you're in agreement with that and it it could be uh something that we use in the future absolutely and it's certainly something as the better bus Network redesign on Broadway is going to be going live later this December uh we're working with the MBTA on actually putting um a don't block the Box um pavement markings right at Broadway in central because that's another um big offender for that and I think if we should be locating those areas and identifying them and using that strategy to make make sure people are aware even though it's already law and everybody should know it those particular areas of concern so if I have uh some areas in my wad that need to have something like that do I contact you uh you can contact my office and you know one thing I neglected to mention is we have a traffic commission right that meets every month to actually vote on laws that are subject to title 10 in the ordinance related to Traffic but we now have a working group that meets every month um as well and that's more of a working on the ground handling a lot of these complaints um and concerns and working towards Solutions so not just this traffic hming petition but you might have seen online now there's an improved process by which we handle construction notices and uh another thing we've mentioned at previous Council meetings it was that working group and the folks within it chiefly um Chris chel and and Rosie in the mayor's office who all put that together but but yeah we're I can be the clearing house but by no means will I be the one doing all the work it's really the traffic working group putting the work in thank you counselor counselor Areno I'm all set uh Mr President councelor Gino and ask my question thank you very much councelor gabino SAA thank you Mr President thank you Tom thank you Julie for all the work you've done on this um what do I do in the situation in Ward five Ward 5 is not just Rivier it's DCR do and I get con constant phone calls that they want traffic caling measures on rier beach they want traffic cing measures on Northshore Road what would be the process that I would follow that's a great question so I I think this policy really applies to all the roads within the city of R's jurisdiction and we do have a lot of state owned roads both DCR and mot that um are just not within our control um so I think you prior to perhaps submitting a petition and an area where you're questioning something like that you might just want to reach out to myself or Julie just to get some clarification on jurisdictions of the roadway and then if our answer is we can't handle it then we could and I know the mayor's office is great about this too connecting you with folks whether at DCR at do that can get some answers for you thank you I find it really difficult to try to get a hold of MOT or DCR to try to get some work done the city of R usually responds immediately but as far as you know I think we need to establish some type of a relationship with both those entities so I can get a faster answer because I've get I get phone calls on the daily especially in front of the Jack sat house they were asking for a speed bump for a long time and I haven't been able to make that come into fruition yet thank you I'm I'm getting a look from Julie which means she might have something to say here name and address ma'am Julie dearo Department of planning Community Development 281 Broadway um what we can do in those instances is we can reach out to our District 4 rep for Mass do I can find out who is now in charge of the DCR roadway the person that was there is no longer there obviously there's been some movement here in the DCR and different people are handling different things now so I think for anything that is MTH doot related we can reach out to The District 4 office if you want to send us what you have so far exact locations and we can definitely send that to Mast do I will say this anything that math do does takes quite a bit of time um so but we can at least get the process going we can talk to them directly um about what the next steps would be they've been very respondent and um very quick to handle anything that's related to Signal timing especially in Northshore Road re Street um they're very anytime we have an issue with that light they're out there um so I think that they are pretty receptive but anything related to any changes to the infrastructure of the roadway will take a little bit longer but happy to happy to forward those along for you thank you councelor permission to speak from the chair thank you all I think it's a very important Point what councelor Gino SAA just said and I don't know if everybody in the city understands that we are riddled with state run on roads Broadway is a state road uh Squire Road is a state road so it's good to know that we can contact you guys I I also had luck uh contacting our state representatives as well representative janino and representative turo are fantastic um I just want to say since Council Nova selki was throwing some streets out there been trying to get Mountain a and Proctor AV done since I got elected on this Council so if we could somehow give those priority because we've been asking since 2022 to have those done I know that there's something in the books but I would like it to happen sooner than later those two streets specifically are long they're wide and their raceways right now um not to diminish the problems on other streets but I have to advocate for w 3 sorry counselor uh but thank you very much anything else Tom that's all I appreciate it place on file calendar item number 14 communication from the mayor relative to the water and sore rate stabilization appropriate anyone have any questions just up here if you have any questions but I think you got the communications from our correct we we let we let the auditor take a couple days off so I'm speaking for him if there's no questions from the council uh we will take a roll call shall the city council approve an appropriation from the water and sore stabilization fund to the water and sore Enterprise fund the amount of $2 million councelor agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councel greo SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly is absent councel McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes councilor sylvestri yes yes councilor zambo yes yes and council president C Leandro yes yes yes the appropriation has been approved calendar item number 15 communication from the city auditor relative to the Public Employee commission PEC agreement health insurance coverage covering the period of fy2 through FY 34 Mr Mayor uh thank you Mr pres president uh honorable Council I'm here with good news uh the PEC as everyone uh knows is a commission made up of representatives from each Union that works in our city so you have police fire uh teachers administrators Local 22 asme the whole gamut that represents our community meets and this uh Health commission talks about our health insurance uh rates and what that's going to look like for 3 six or forever many years uh we were able to work in harmony uh with all of the unions uh bringing up recommendations on how to um long-term plan when it comes to our health insurance as you know uh it's it's constantly evolving uh and we do know we want to have protections built in for our employees but also protections built in for the city uh so we were able to reach a 9-year agreement this won't this is going to give us the ability to plan out our finances when it comes to health insurance uh for the next nine years as you know we do have some things coming up on the pipeline so it's really nice to know what we're going to be planning for and uh and we came into a really nice agreement again that was uh offered up for a 9-year term uh this affects all of you uh if you if you uh are able to benefit from the City's health insurance and any retirees as well so it's a really good deal and uh we were happy to uh come to that to this agreement um thank you Mr Mayor before any counselor speak I I just need permission to read something that uh Captain Kevin O'Hara sent to me on behalf oh councelor go g so I just want to read into the record uh the president of the firefighters Union and and captain of the fire department Kevin O'Hara sent uh he says we are in favor of the p agreement we negotiated it to help better the city of river it's a small give back from a union standpoint but we understand what the important issues are in the city uh all the union have worked together with the mayor and collectively bargained in good faith thank you I I would like to add to that and just say that he had a family emergency so he couldn't be up here to speak thank you correct thank you councelor councilor Isam buo I just want to congratulate the mayor on a job well done Madam clerk we'll take the roll call shall the city council approve a memorandum of agreement between the city of Rivier and the Public Employee committee covering the period of july24 through June 30th of 33 councelor agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councel greo SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor Haro is absent councelor Kelly is absent councel McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes Council sylvestri yes yes Council zambuto yes yes and council president Cog Leandro yes yes the memorandum of agreement has been approved calendar item number 16 motion presented by councilors cogliandro Gino SAA McKenna and sylvestri that the city council requests the city solicitor to draft special legislation providing for for four-year terms of office for city council and school committee beginning in the municipal election to take place in 27 Mr President I have to recuse myself from the special legislation councelor H is recused councelor Gino s thank you Mr President since the day I got elected the first thing I said is why do we have two-year terms when you're elected to Serve the People two year terms is nothing the first year you're working the second year what are you doing you're sitting there trying to campaign all over again I can't do what I have to do for everybody for all my constituents in two years I need four years and what I would like to do is put it in conjunction with the mayoral election so when the mayor gets elected for fouryear terms I think the counselors should do that as well and that's why I had put in this motion with council president and my two fellow fellow counselors thank you thank you councelor permission to speak from the chair so I made some notes Here uh just why I wanted to put this forward some of the reasoning behind it first would be increased stability longer terms can leave lead to more stability in governance allowing council members to focus on long-term projects and policies without the constant pressure of re-election I think councelor Gino SAA said that uh fouryear terms can foster greater continuity and Leadership reduce campaign costs candidates can save money and time on campaigning improved policy development City Council Members have more time to understand issues and develop comprehensive policies rather than spending significant time preparing for upcoming elections stronger relationships can be built um among council members and with constituents that's the most important part leading to more effective collaboration and communication um greater accountability with more time to execute the ideas they have council members may feel more accountable for their decisions and performance over longer periods of time longer terms can reduce voter fatigue from frequent elections and I think everybody in this city understands what I mean when we say voter fatigue there's been so many special elections um time and cost efficiency aligning City elections will lead to less cost for the city uh longer terms can give council members the necessary time to tackle issues and ongoing issues within the uh Interruption of regular without the interruptions of regular electoral Cycles uh so that's really those are the points um that I wanted to make about this and I also want to state that our uh our fellow elected officials in the school committee have reached out in favor of this as well um I know this is going to take a lot of work to get done this does not this Starts Here It by no means finishes here um it has to go here it has to go to the mayor it has to go to the state house or the House of Representatives and then uh to the Senate so it's a long process and the recommendation would be that this aligns with the mayoral races to give everybody a break essentially um with that said open the floor to any other counselors wishing to speak on the issue good evening sir oh sorry Council Liz amuto thank you Mr President I I don't mind having this discussion I'm I'm one who's not in favor of a four-year term I might consider being in favor of a three-year term uh but uh I think uh not many cities have a four-year term for City councilors and I think there's a reason behind that but that's for a later discussion and uh I I certainly enjoy will will enjoy having this debate as to uh what way we move forward on this thank you thank you counselor uh what's the will should we put this into sub committee while we wait for that letter from the solicitor uh yeah yeah I'm sorry uh name and address for the record sir my name is Anthony cantino and I live at 240 suffk Avenue excuse me uh uh president if I'm wrong but I understand you missed a step when uh councelor Kelly brought up her motion and every body discussed it you missed a step whether anybody in the audience has anything to say about it you all agreed that it wasn't proper to bring it up because it's already been passed by the city council okay it wasn't passed so you people pass her and put her back on the agenda and the issue will be brought back again on the that's not what's going to happen all right we're off we're off topic let let me stay stay on stay on topic for the motion let me stay on stay on topic for the motion Mr Cano have a seat you're you're done let me say what I absolutely not you're going to have a seat yes you're going to have a seat or you're going to be asked to leave Mr cantino this is your last warning okay Mr cantino you are to be removed from the chambers Mr cantino please leave the chambers Mr cantino please leave the chambers officer I'm sorry thank you if you don't mind marijana good evening ma'am name and address for the record this is Olga I live glendel Street um and I wrote my statement is this a statement in regard to the motion that we're discussing yes four year terms four year terms yes ma'am I'm just making sure we're going to stay on topic sorry about the theatrics everybody ma'am please continue yes thank you it's short so thank you good evening city council members and thank you for the opportunity to speak I'm here to exppress press my opposition to extending terms length for our elected officials and school committee members to four years I believe the longer terms uh could reduce accountability um and create a gap between our representatives and Community with shorter terms officials are regularly encouraged to stay connected to the people they serve and address the community's changes changing needs in particular our school um our school needs uh need leaders who are responsive and adaptable to the involving challenges students and families face by keeping terms shorter we ensure that school commun members and elected officials remain accountable and align with the priorities of the community they represent please consider this important keeping for the twoyear terms thank you thank you very much good evening name and address for the record ma'am good evening counselors vivana katano Mountain Avenue so first of all I would like to start by saying I really respect what you all do whether I agree or disagree with you all on whatever topic or issue you're talking to I respect you for having the courage to run to be elected to be a voice and to often times sit in the hot seat right uh but I'm speaking today in opposition to extending uh the two-year terms and I'm really glad glad that this was on the agenda tonight so that you know we heard about it early and can nip it in the butt and it doesn't have to go through a whole uh Community Scandal and people are open and knowing that this is happening um and so I also believe that it's important for checks and balances for the mayor I know that we moved that to four but I think for checks and balances is important that the council stay as a two-year term I think it's important uh for counselors to remember that we elect you to represent us and represent our voice and I think it keeps you on your toes if you do have to be reelected every two years I know some of you have been here for a long time councelor zudo counselor Ira Joanne McKenna and so if the people like what you're doing they're going to keep voting for you and you're going to stay here so I don't think there's any reason to officially extend the term from 2 to four years if people like how you're voting you're going to be here but if people don't like what you're doing I think it's a good reminder um that we elect you to be our Representatives that when we call upon you when we show up in numbers we we want you guys to really consider us as your constituents thank you so much I'm going to have to sneak in something very quickly I just want to give ashy as long as it's on topic if you need to give the something you can you can do so on the side if you want if it's not on topic with this motion ma'am we have I just want to pass more just a few more just step step seate over there and the clerk will take their signatures from you okay thank you thank you good evening ma'am name an address for the record please my first time here this Beachland Avenue I don't think this is appropriate especially at this time when we don't feel represented for many of you that we vote so I don't think that will serve our community to have a stock four years with people that we don't like to be represented so I think that should be kept in two years and we go from there thank you thank you very much so to my understanding the solicitor unless we vote on it the solicitor won't draft the the letter unless it's voted favorably so do we want to vote on it do we want to put it into a subcommittee uh what is the will are we asking for an opinion from the solicitor is that what we're asking for we're asking for the solicitor to draw up the special legislation and word it correctly so that we can send it up to the house I'd like to I'd like to recommend uh that we I'd like to put a substitute motion that we asked for his opinion on how to go about this if we were to go for threee or fouryear term uh I think his opinion might be a better thing to ask for at this point than to flat out ask him to draw up the uh legislation we have a substitute motion on the floor just give the clerk a minute to jot it down and then we'll take a roll call on it in general rather whether this is the right way to go about changing the terms of the council and then from that point whatever his opinion States then we can draft if we want to do we can draft special legislation but need to be special legislation I understand that but this is putting the C cop before the hor because we're not even sure everybody's in favor of fouryear terms right so I think we we've got to we've got to sort that out first and then so I think an opinion is more appropriate at this point it's only my opinion absolutely I agree with you yes ma'am please step up to the microphone good evening ma'am name and address please good evening my name is Christine Robertson 187 charger Street I'm just listening to this conversation and I'm wondering where it's actually trying trying to change the charter of the city would this not become a ballot question at some point it doesn't have to be I I would be 100 listen we file motions and we look forward to public comment I look forward to that uh on these these are just ideas that we put forward so I'm in favor of a ballot question I'm in favor of doing whatever the proper procedure is a ballot question would probably be great uh but I would want that to line up with the next municipal election to save money for the city I don't want you know a special election but you know we're 11 people up here we need to hear from all of you as we did earlier so thank thank you thank you so we're going to just wait for the substitute motion we'll take a uh a vote and uh we'll move forward what I drafted is that the city council request an opinion from the city solicitor on whether a three or a foure term would be for the city council would be appropriate and to bring I mean I I'm sorry I just need more like further clarification like that what are you are you asking for an opinion on whether or not the city should adopt or how to adopt said legislation or so let me put it this way we're asking for an opinion on the potential of drafting special legislation for uh an extended term for the city council whatever that might be and the procedure uh recommendation for how we go about that if if we should want to go about it after we see his opinion that good enough sorry huh okay help me sort it out why why don't we place this on file and put this on the ballot that we don't need but we don't know that so we need to get a legal opinion right I mean this is getting you know this is it's getting a little crazy but I mean just well unless the council as a whole wants to develop uh the idea of going forward with a 4-year term then you're going to ask the city solicitor uh to help draft it but I don't think we're there and that's why I put this Motion in so typically with a home rule petition either the city council or the administration would submit the home rule petition to the city council the city council would then need to approve any potential sched legislation with a two-thirds vote of the city council the mayor's signature would be required on that home rule petition in order to even send it to the state so and then the state then the state has to take so here's another way to go about it let's put this in a committee to discuss what we're going to do and if we are in fact going to go forward with proposing a four-year term for City councils then we can get the uh nuts and bolts of that done but before we do that we probably should have this in ledge of fears or whatever committee you choose that would have been my recommendation is to put it into so legisl anyone else so I withdraw my uh substitute motion and I ask that we go to ledge affairs with this thank so this will be further discussed in legislative affairs calendar item number 17 motion presented by councelor janino that the city council approve an act providing for violent act injury retirement benefits for retired police officer Leo mccal section one notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary Leo mccal a retired police officer of the city of Rivier police department and a member of the Rivier retirement system May reapply for retirement benefits pursuant to section 7 of chapter 32 of the general laws if the Rivier Retirement Board determines pursuant to said section 7 of said chapter 32 as amended by chapter 149 of the acts of 2024 that Leo mccal was retired for for a violent act in injury all of his retirement benefits dispensed after such determination shall be paid and administered in accordance with retirement for a violent act injury pursuant to said section 7 of chapter 32 as so amended section two this act shall take effect upon its passage councelor janino just for the record the cor Massachusetts recently passed the um law had it been in effect today Leo would have qualified under the retirement of it this this law basically covers officers who are violent violently injured in the line of duty violently injured by either guns stabbing run over and they become victims of a crime during the ACT currently Leo is not covered under the ACT because the the date of the injury was when the paperwork was being filed and sitting up on the state house they said had it been into effect today he would have been covered so I'm looking for a home rule to have Leo be able to reapply for the retirement under the bill to cover him you know this this bill that they passed it covers police it covers fire it covers EMTs it'll First Responders that are violently violently injured not just a slip and fall not a regular motor vehicle accident there there's some there's more to it there's a lot more to it and we owe it to our guys and ladies that protect us to protect them and currently they retire under 72% and that's it Leo would have worked the day after the accident had been able to he he came into work he worked his shift he wasn't there for an hour and a half left it an ambulance never to return again not by his choice not his choice at all so I think we allowe it people us to protect them and that's it thank you councelor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr chairman Chris thank you for filing this coun Gino thank you for filing this um Leo thank you for your service to both this country and the City of re and I think we believe this 100% we we should support this um if if he was injured today he'd be getting that full retirement so it's our duty to give him that opportunity thank you thank you councelor councelor McKenna thank you um Mr President I just want to say a little bit about Leo on his behalf um thank you Chris for putting this Motion in it was wonderful uh when I uh when Leo was an officer police officer uh he was always concerned about the homeless encampments that were around the city um I heard that there was a baby a bassinet uh in an encampment and I was really concerned that there was a baby there uh and it was in my uh area so I called Leo and he personally I called him I didn't even call him he was I don't even think he was on duty and I called him and I said can you check this out I feel like there's a baby in an encampment homeless encamp encampment we need really to check this so he said okay he went down there and he called me and he said there's no baby they're using the b in it for I don't know something else um he was he's a stand he was a standup uh officer uh great great great to work with he truly loved his job and I really feel that we should give him this uh these benefits thank you thank you councelor councelor Zam buo thank you Mr President uh and thank my colleague from wat 6 for putting this in for for Leo um I don't know how many people know the story about what happened to Leo but uh he was always a a First Rate cop and and and uh I can't think of anybody more deserving of this particular law and so provided we follow all the procedures to do this correctly so that it does go through I certainly will support it and uh I think any that wouldn't has no h at all that's all I have thanks thank you counselor counselor Gino SAA thank you Mr President thank you councelor janino for putting this Motion in I've known Leo for a very long time and I will never ever forget that day when I got that phone call saying that Leo got shot it was heart-wrenching I I couldn't believe it he is such a people person he loves every every body and he deserves this he absolutely deserves this so I'm 100% for Leo getting this thank you thank you councelor Chief Council I want to thank you for all your full support here for this matter to support former officer Leo mccal who was seriously injured in the line of duty uh apprehending uh a felony suspect and as a result he was was feloniously assaulted with a motor vehicle officer mccal served this country did two tours of Duty with the United States Marine Corps then came on the police department worked on the police department for over 25 years did an exemplary job one of the most Dependable officers in the police department and you know it was an awful thing that happened to him but that's just reality what may happen especially in this line of work and to support him we have to wholeheartedly support our Public Safety employees absolutely and unfortunately this bill the timing of it it just missed officer mcal so I've been in contact with folks from the state house as well as the city solicitor and other Chiefs and the chiefs of Police Association and we just want to put this in the right direction and with your full support it definitely helps us and we're going to move this forward to give him what he is due he's taking care care of the community for many years now it's time for us as City officials and representatives of the city to take care of him for his exemplary work over the years so I just want to thank everybody for all your kind words and all your support here in this matter thank you thank you Chief um before we refer this to subcommittee we have to request a detailed analysis and vote from the Retirement Board pursuant to section 2.12.1 120 of the ordinances um so with that request I will refer this to legislative affairs thank you thank you couns item number 18 motion presented by councilors McKenna and zambuto that the mayor request the Dei director to provide the city council with a cost estimate to provide an interpreter for City Council meetings utilizing the city-owned interpretation earpiece devices councelor McKenna thank you um thank you Mr President I just feel that we need to because we have such a diverse Community right now and a lot of people don't speak English and they come to the meetings I really do think that we really need an interpreter to give us the uh uh to to put this in Spanish or whatever else um uh language that we need Pro probably more Spanish um than than anything but uh I really feel that it's necessary to have have that in the council thank you thank you councelor Council Isam buo um I think uh my colleague said it all I see the director is here and so we can uh bring them up and and ask them I guess thank you counselor councelor H thank you Mr President I definitely think translation services are necessary and I would love to see the city partner with high school students or even the youth Works um that are involved with that program maybe save uh some there would be some cost cutting me cost saving measures and you also builds nice relationships with the students in the city thank you thank you counselor um good evening sir name and address for the record Steve morbido 281 Broadway director of diversity equity and inclusion um I'm here to let you know um that yes we can and we will get a cost analysis for interpretation Services currently we do provide interpretation if residents give us 48-hour business notice um we can do that with no uh issues whatsoever um some of the things uh the reason I'm here is just to get clarification so I can tail the cost analysis to the expectations of the city council I'm going to go from my left to the right uh right so counselor the counselor to my left mentioned um you partnering with a student students youth works there are some um some kind of guidelines for interpretations like currently we do have an intern on our office but he's helping out with like for instance translations and the difference between translation and interpretation translations are taking someone taking a piece of paper and writing it so whereas uh interpretation is verbal uh verbal translation basically verbal interpretation but at the end of the day we need a professional interpreter like if we're if We're translating or interpreting um here and there that's fine but when it comes to the council agenda it has to be a professional interpreter because we're dealing with legal matter legal situations may I ask you a question sorry to interrupt you director who's the gentleman that's been here with the earpieces because he is fantastic uh and so are those earpieces um I I also know that that comes at a cost and I'm curious to if you know that off the top of your head so the good thing is we own those um air pieces we don't so what we're paying for is the Professional Services um obviously if um just let me go back to what I was saying um so as far as partnering with the youth it's great idea um for some city hall tasks like if We're translating Flyers essential Flyers but if there's legal situations amendments we cannot have a student do it it has to be someone professional and is certified to interpret as far as um the counselor to my right she mentioned languages you know um we get into different ranges of price based on how many languages so we would base it on our language access plan which you keep hearing repeatedly over and over again so according to our language access plan based on the federal census we are supposed to interpret the threshold of 10% of the population which would be the Spanish um as far as translation it's 5% so we would want to interpret in Spanish if that's that would be my suggestion if it's the will of the council I'm here and the administration um is willing to and wants to give you a cost analysis catered to your expectations and that's why I'm here I want to know as as far as are you looking for just City count live C City Council meetings or City Council subcommittee meetings at a City Council subcommittee meetings I'm sorry um I'm I'm just looking for a professional that's uh nonbiased um that's that's uh someone that's professional that has no skin in the game that's going to say it the way it is I just um that's that's what came up for me because uh in the last couple weeks in the last couple of months it's been uh different people translating and the they weren't on task so I just wanted uh this I just want someone that's going to be unbiased that's going to say what is uh the what a counselor is saying true to to what it what is said that's what I'm looking for so I am looking for a professional he want show he wants to know the extent of it do you want just a regular counil meetings you want sub commmittee meetings yeah I would say I I would say all of it because we you know you have when you say all of it all of boards and commissions just all of City Council meetings city council and sub I would say City Council meetings I think that's where mostly people attend um so I would say City Council meetings we could startop from there and see where it grows you know if it grows to uh um subcommittee so based on 2023 um hours that I collected so city council and subcommittee met 71. 22 hours for the year but the way this city council has been going you guys have been earning your money up here because you guys have been going like four hours every every council meeting so the question is do you want to because what happens is a lot of your business gets referred to subcommittee so if you have an only interpretation at Council meetings for public hearings like do you want the interpretations for just public hearing meetings all alive City Council meetings or do you want us to include the subcommittees as well m is the boards and commissions no I see what you're saying definitely um I I don't mean to bombard you with the questions I just want to give you the you say that the you know the the product is mostly in the subcommittees then maybe we should just do it in the subit I think we should do both if you want I I Steve I agree I think you should I think you should get a price for both I think you should you should also try um a multip multiple languages as well I I think Arabic French Creo I think Mandarin I think these are all um as well as Spanish that that we should look into the prices Portuguese so my next question would be that prompt me do you want human interpretation live interpretation or do you want AI powered interpretation or both because so for instance like Wordly um for 200 hours it's about 25,000 yearly and the with AI with AI interpretation it's less accurate as live interpretation AI kind of learns uh voices and stuff yeah I I think we would need live interpret for for business so I think at the end of the day um some of the prices I got like for 50 thou for just is AI interpreters um go anywhere in this area go from 100 to 150 per hour and some of them actually do a three-hour minimum so that's something we want to keep um in mind do we want to contract an interpreter or do we want to pay him hourly thing is if we exceed a certain price it has to go out to bid or we have to get permission through the purchase and so there's a lot of ifs and ends but I'll give you the best cost analysis that I can um but that's that's all I really can provide you with right now like so I think the most it would cost if you would be if we contracted it would probably be like 22 to 25,000 based on 2023 hours hours thank you thank you counselor councilor Zan buo so um just for the heck of it we had a gentleman here last week I mean he was very good and and and I think he's sufficient and what do someone like him cost $450 for the evening so that was hour 150 an hour 150 an hour yep okay the issue when you p uh when you don't have someone on a retainer or if you don't have a contract say if someone backs out last minute you can't there's no wiggle room to negotiate and be like hey listen we can no and I I think that's reasonable that's reasonable thank you EXC that's really all I need y you know thank you councelor councelor Areno thank you uh Mr Mido when you say interpretation I know we have um the earpieces so if somebody's sitting in the audience and someone is at the podium speaking Spanish for example that happened to me on October 21st at the subcommittee meeting I didn't have an earpiece cuz I was in the audience I couldn't understand what was happening is this all through earpieces this would all be ear through earpieces now when I got a quote through Wordly about in January that was actually my first initiative when I took the role of Dei director I looked into interpretation for City Council meetings and I sat in a meeting with uh Bob dunba from Rivier TV our city clerk Ashley Melnick and um uh George from it okay so I want to make sure everyone was sitting in the meeting was very productive but at the end of the day um they Pro they they were AI powered so what they would have done was not only would you have an uh trans they would have a um Bob could I don't know the technicalities but they would have a mixing audio device so as the council spoke it would come up on a dual screen but I think we should hold off a little bit and go on the hourly rate for right now because I'm working with Bob Dunbar and we may have something in the works once the council chambers um is on the horizon I don't want to get your hopes up i' rather uh set a low expectation and then surprise you and wow you afterwards and just a second question uh you spoke about uh Bob dunba when you watch it at home on TV or on YouTube is there any way to get Clos the captioning at the bottom of the uh absolutely so if you if you watch the riv City so if you watch the Rivier city council via YouTube there's actually a link language toolbar and I think you can choose over 80 languages okay I didn't realize that thank you very much and also on our websites same I know some people were asking questions about the water department how they would know if they went on the uh water department we also updated all our websites so there's a drop down as well oh very good thank you thank you counselor we have some people in line to ask to make a statement Y and I I just want to close with I will definitely be providing with that cost analysis or actually we're going to go right thank you very much Steve good evening ma'am name and address of the record please Angelica Lee live Harington Street um I appreciate really this um this point because for example for me I my English I say is poor but I I understand more that I can toy to talk and I think so this very important this um this um translation because H most people today speak Spanish in in here is a Portugues to and Chinese to yeah this three um it really the people feel frustration yeah all the time because it's difficult to me that I learn a little bit more for explain other people but it's more easy if they has the opportunity for Express every single thing they feeling clear no because it's difficult I think so this initiative is very well and I knew there is it's expensive but maybe came to to phone another code um more options yeah if you give one one gift for the people like so it's important you you look good no because you thinking in all people know KN in the English people yeah I don't know thank you so much I appreciate that thank you very much good evening ma'am name and address for the record please good evening again Olga glendel Street uh Rivier I'm here to express my support for implementing interpretation services for this public ccil meetings and others in a city as diverse as Rivier it's essential that everyone regardless the of language proficiency can engage and understand the issues affecting our community when residents feel informed and included they are more likely to participate voice concerns and contribute to a positive change offering interpretation services will not only enhance accessibility but also demonstrate our commitment to inclusivity and Equity I will send a p it will send a powerful message that this conso values the voices of all community members and is dedicated to ensure they have equal opportunity to be hurt thank you so much and I know money is involved again thank you uh Council on the motion all in favor excuse me Mr President before you gavel just one last thing I just want to say one thing we are going to that um my assistant esma just did we emailed all the chairs of every board and commission and they put in an aster at the on every agenda saying uh you can we will provide interpretation within uh 48 hour business notice just so you know counc mcken what about a grant I've looked into them uh unfortunately they're very lengthy I haven't se I've been going on Grant Works um and looking I haven't seen any recently but we do have a grant writer and I know she's going to be in high demand when she starts in November so okay thank you yeah I have been keeping my eyes open on the motion all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 19 motion presented by council president C Leandro that the mayor direct the chief of police to conduct heavier enforcement of the no trucks regulation on Harris Street large trucks are driving down the street to avoid Bell Circle traffic causing debris noise and damage to the pavement motion speaks for itself all in favor all opposed soed calendar item number 20 motion presented by council president Co Leandro that the mayor appear before the city council and executive session to discuss the status of eminent domain case regarding the Wonderland site permission to speak from the chair spoke with the mayor about this earlier he's more than willing this is just housekeeping to keep our thumb on what's going on with the the cost or the potential cost so uh on the motion or anyone else want to say anything on the motion all in favor all opposed so order calendar item number 21 motion presented by councelor greo SAA that the traffic commission be requested to amend schedule 9 resident parking streets 24-hour enforcement of the revised ordinances of the city of R by inserting dashwood Street even side entire length councelor Gino SAA move to traffic traffic commission calendar item number 22 motion presented by councel McKenna that the mayor request mot to install sufficient pedestrian lighting under all overpasses throughout the city in the interest to Public Safety councelor zambuto is recorded as recused from this motion councelor McKenna thank you Mr President I'll be short um we have five underpasses that have really poor lighting and with all the apartments that are going up and all the people that are walking and not driving uh this is really uh important to do uh the other thing I would like to do is uh add to this um uh motion that a net be put down um under point to Pine um underpass we've asked the mass do and we got the State Rep to ask too um because we have a lot of pigeons that hang out there so now that they put the new uh apartment building and people are walking underneath it it's it's crucial that we clean it up and uh stop the pigeons from Wrecking the walkway so thank you very much thank you counselor councelor noveli no I passed Mr President on the motion all in favor all opposed I president before we adjourn if you plan just a couple PSAs absolutely counselor thank you uh first of all well um I know Veterans Day is coming up in two weeks and um of course we want to thank all our veterans but just as a reminder the city and the Rivier veterans committee are having a dinner dance uh on Monday November 11th at 5:00 pm at the beach one BFW uh tickets are $20 each a Chinese buffet and dancing Tow and LaBella so anybody that needs tickets contact myself or Al terminello uh all veterans and citizens and friends are invited to 10 second of all um this came out um October 10th uh from a National Grid and it all affects certain areas in Riv so I just want to remind everybody that I guess tomorrow night they're going to be shutting down some electricity on streets such as Albert AV Bennington Street Campbell AV charab clock Road Cove Street cittis Road Elliot Road everod Garfield a uh Green Street ner Road Overlook a Pleasant Street Porter a uh Pratt Street Pratt place and Riv Beach Parkway and I guess they're updating some of their electrical oh and also Standish Road Washburn a winrop a walart road Woods have so I guess uh they're changing some of their upgrading their electricity and they're going to be shutting down between 10 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. uh tomorrow night so just to let everybody know thank you thank you counselor there is no further business the next city council meeting will be the following Monday November 4th at 6 pm thank you all for your participation this evening and have a good night wow for --------- ##VIDEO ID:Z43k_3_axOg## e e e e e good afternoon everyone I'd like to welcome you to the legislative Affairs subcommittee meeting please uh join me in a salute to the flag there are two items roll call oh roll call of members sorry roll call of the members Council Gina SAA here here councel Harry Mio is absent Council Kelly here here Council sylvestri here here and chairman agenzio here here corm is present there are two items before us tonight we're going to take up vence polls first no uh good evening Mr chairman yes uh our veterans director uh new veterans agent uh was supposed to be here tonight but uh really I know that the uh conversation has been discussed it really just legitimizes and adds certain uh uh values to service to honor these veterans with these Memorial polls um as a city over the last you know many many years uh at times these veterans polls had been politic ized and really this is just to take that out and to Merit uh the service from people that have had uh proper Service uh and designated years of service uh to be able to be memorialized I know Council sylvestri requested uh up to 20 anything over 20 years service which I think the the veterans agent uh felt very good about and of course there were many other uh service requirements Kia injured in injured in in the line of duty served overseas Etc so this really just standard that and puts a good U um standard moving forward thank you m thank you any members wishing to speak on the veterans polls Madame clerk do we need to add that Amendment for the 20 years oh excuse me councelor noveli thank you sir I noeli 53d H Street War Two counselor um 20-year veteran and uh may I say you know I have no problem with some of the changes but I just want to make sure cuz there's probably maybe about 40 or 50 poles that are missing over the years and I just you know they had gold stars MH and I just want to make sure that they get their gold star back yes any existing sign or missing or missing ones would certainly and I can understand the you know the red white and blue stripes on the side to replace so but and I know this doesn't affect any uh City official right that will get a a black um plate and will have the city seal on it you know so I just want to make sure that the folks that have been forgotten and I think they've been forgotten because it's over 30 years some of these are are missing so and I know just down in my neighborhood I got over 20 so I just hope it stands that way thank you thank you councelor any other me members wishing to speak Madam clerk that am okay that proposed amendment I just want to make sure the language that I'm getting that I'm writing it down correctly in terms for like the military okay so it was discussed previously I believe Council sylvestri had adopted the uh proposed amendment which hasn't been voted on by the committee and that would be to um add a new section e under Section 12.22 30 eligible ability if I'm understanding correctly to add service members who have at least 20 years of active duty service is that correct is that correct language okay so it's if it's the will of the committee the K committee can take a a vote on that Amendment if they want to on the amendment all in favor say I I I so voted so it would be on the proposed ordinance as amended if the council I mean if the committee would like to offer a favorable recommendation as amended roll call to look favorably on the motion as amended shall the legislative affairs subcommittee offer a favorable recommendation to the full city council for adoption of the veterans poll ordinance as amended councelor Gino SAA yes yes councel hero is absent councelor Kelly yes yes Council sylvestri yes yes and chairman Areno yes yes the ordinance as amended will be forward to the full city council um with a recommendation to be adopted thank you next item next item on the legislative affairs committee agenda is an ordinance repealing the prohibition of non-medical marijuana establishments councilor sylvestri thank you Mr chairman Mr chairman I'd like to take this a moment and um although disappointed I'd like to share um because I I believe it takes an opportunity as us as elected officials um to to understand our fiduciary responsibilities and I think it's a vital to recognize that through economic tough times that social programs and recreational services are often the first to cut the tax revenue generated from Cannabis would not have been a Panacea but could have provided a steady source of income to help support our community when we needed it most our duty ex our duty far extends Beyond merely maintaining our El positions or handing out plaques we must resist the temptation to allow the loud minority to dictate our actions or shape our decisions based on misperceptions especially it's essential that we remain steadfast in our commitment to the broader needs of R residents today I'll will be placing this motion on file so I can hope we can engage in more thoughtful discussions I hope that we can work to explore Sustainable Solutions that truly benefit our community ensuring that every decision we make reflects on a collective responsibility to support all C all citizens particularly during challenging times please Place file on please place the motion on file motion to place on file roll call on the motion of councelor sylvestri to place the proposed repeal on file councelor Gino Saia yes yes councel hermo is absent councel Kelly no no council sylvestri yes yes and chairman Areno yes yes the report of the legislative affairs subcommittee is to place that ordinance on file thank you excuse me no further business for