City Council - Regular Meeting

on this sustainable.

Right. I call the meeting of the accounts committee together. It's January 28th at 5:30. We were supposed to start. My apologies to those of you who follow these meetings, but unfortunately all of us had travel problems with weather related issues andor being trapped in another community because of road detours, etc. Uh the meeting I recognize a quorum. To my far right, I have W four councelor Susan Diccastro. To her left, I have W seven city councelor Shirley Azac. And to her left I have councelor Marlon Green in ward one. And to his left we have councelor at large Jeff Shaell. I am counselor at large win farwell. It's my privilege to chair the accounts committee. Can

you speak directly?

It's my uh privilege to chair uh this committee for this year. Uh I'd like to welcome the new counselors who were just elected. Uh the accounts committee is an important committee that's established by city ordinance. It probably should be called a post audit and oversight committee because we don't actually audit in advance of any bills being paid or purchase orders being entered into the system. But we do look over all of the records and you received in your packet a couple of warrants to review for this evening. So with that said, if there are no questions at this point, I'd like to ask our auditor to just give us an overview of u your responsibilities uh with the accounts committee and also any other information you'd like to provide.

Thank you, councelor. Um in terms of my role, I am the basically gatekeeper for the city of Brockton's finances. Um, I currently oversee $618 million worth of funding here. Um, I try my best to do my job to stipulate every single payroll and every single AP warrant that comes through my desk where I put my signature on it. Um, there's a lot more things though that um that the auditor can do that they haven't done in the past and I kind of wanted to go over that if that's possible. I don't know if uh if BCA can put this up on the screen or not.

Let me know if you guys can see that or not. No, we're not seeing No, nothing yet. No,

if you can't see it, then I'll just go over it to be honest. Um,

so what I wanted to do in my three-year term here, uh, mainly the first year, we've had a lot of issues with the processes being extremely archaic. Um, we've had issues with financial reporting where we're not meeting deadlines. That's one of my priorities right now. And we've actually met deadlines this year for the Department of Revenue. We told them we were going to send everything with a specific date and we sent everything to them from a specific date. Um, when it comes to performance audits, I'm not sure if internal audits have ever been done in the city of Bronton in the past, but however, I've actually done one and my team has done one now. We've fully completed and we have a draft that we're working on with, you know, talking to certain departments with a department alongside with the CFO and the mayor um to address the issues that we found with that internal audit. Um, I do plan on doing more internal audits with all city departments at some point. Obviously, we have a lot of departments. It's not going to be, you know, God knows how many departments we have. It's not going to be done in one year, but I will assess the risk and depending on how big the department is, how much overtime they have, how, you know, many transactions they have will determine um the priority of the internal audits, if you will. I do want to establish a internal audit program. This is from the uh internal auditors association. This is best practice to do. I know that when we walked into a particular department and we told them we were going to audit them, they kind of looked at us funny because they don't really know what powers the city auditor or town accountant or finance director have. um when it comes to internal audits. Um I have a sample charter that I probably send you guys um to fill this out, but I do think it's best practice to do so. Um

excuse me. Which leads me to something that other municipalities are doing now that is best practice and establishing an audit committee. So what that is is you have a committee of for example five people. It would be uh three members of the council and then two members from the independent public but they would need to have some sort of you know CPAs, JDs, um CPEs, things of that nature. People who are in the business or have been there for quite some time. um people who are qualified to look at whatever we provide them or our external auditors provide us and we'll go in and we'll look at these things because what I have found the four years that I have been here and I've gone and looked in the past for the external audits at least we have the same qualified opinion for five or six years in a row and nothing has been done at all to correct any of it. So I do feel and we can discuss this later on. I know that we're, you know, short on time, but I do want the this committee and the city council as a whole to make this committee, I do feel like it is best practice and it just from a transparency point of view will let the public know that we're actually doing something to safeguard them from fraud and waste. Um, and also just last but not least, we need to get the open checkbook back up. Um, I've been trying to do this for quite some time. I know, um, Mark D Augustino, I used to watch the, uh, the accounts committees and I used to watch, you know, the finance committees and that conversation would always come up about the open checkbook and that will come up relatively soon. We're working right now with open architects to give us a um, a dashboard, if you will, to basically show us like all of the bills

that we paid for both city and school side. Um, I'll take any questions if you guys have anything. Counselors, any questions? Yes. Thank you. Um, Mr. Gonzalez, can you use us as your audit committee?

Yes, we can. I mean, I I think the best practice would be kind of like either council president would, you know, decide who would be in the audit committee. Obviously, you know, having people who are already dealing with warrants and issues with the auditor would be probably the best fit to be in that audit committee. However, best practice is to have two independent members aside from city council to have that external oversight, if you will. Okay, let's explore that. Thank you. Yeah, council. Thank you. Um, Mr. Auditor, how long has Open Checkbook been down?

Um, 2021, 2020. Um, and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, we are legally required to have some sort of dashboard like an open checkbook for the public for transparency purposes. and we haven't been complying for quite some time, which is why I'm kind of hellbent on trying to get this up and running as soon as humanly possible. Okay. Because I mean, I was there when we established it on the IT uh committee, so it wasn't up for long.

No, it was not. They've they've stopped updating it and it was just left there. And I remember going in to the open checkbook dashboard that we currently have and it's been inactive for quite some time. The the census numbers are down. There's nothing in terms of the bills paid. Everything is just off now. So, is this is it the city's part or is it open checkbook? That's No, it's it's the it's a city. So, we have we we have to we as a city have to undertake that. So, I would have to, you know, get a hold of it um and figure out how to get this back up and running. Or if we don't use the open checkbook, we can use something like an open architect because we're paying them via the uh the municipal compact grant.

Okay. So, we're paying them a lot of money. So, they said they have they could have a dashboard for us that would, you know, do the same as the open checkbook that we had in the past. That's great. And I believe if I it's been a while, but if I remember correctly, we we paid a lot for I mean it established it. They worked um they worked on it for for a while. It took a while to get it up and running. And I know council Fowl was very um you know uh this goes back a number of years. Yes, we supported it. And I mean we were really I thought it was running. I was I didn't realize that it it was down. So um thank you. So, whatever you need from us to get it up and running, it was really an important tool to have. We'll do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You're welcome. Anyone else? Uh, Council Green.

Uh, just a couple questions. Um, you uh mentioned the um the audit committee um and also the establishment of a internal audit program. Um, are those kind of related or are those uh two separate things? And my second question is could you just help me better understand what the uh difference would be perhaps in terms of scope or um uh between uh this accounts committee and the uh proposed u audit committee. So in terms of the uh internal audit program versus the audit committee, even though they're two separate things that you guys will probably undertake, they both relate to each other because ultimately what will happen is that when we have that program in place, people don't realize, I think in general, what the power is for the city auditor as a whole, either from a Massachusetts general law perspective or from the city ordinance that does stipulate that we have that authority. I feel like if we have that and I quote a charter in place, people will know, oh, they're going in, they're going to perform these duties. It also stipulates what we can and what we cannot do, right? So, we would go in, we would test, you know, for risk, we would test for fraud, we would test for waste, but we can't tell them what to do. All we can really do is tell them what is wrong and potential recommendations as to how to fix it. the auditor's role as a whole for best practice. We should never be making managerial decisions ever. That that is a conflict of interest in in ways that are just astronomical. You don't do that. How it relates to the audit committee. We would have something like a draft or a final report that

would come out either for external auditors or or our internal audits and then we would go through and view the recommendations and the results and we would see then afterwards are these departments implementing these changes to fix whatever they have wrong in their department.

Okay. All righty. I'm I'm certainly interested in exploring that with you and I think that would be um something of potential great service I think to the the other city. Now I understand that it is uh from what you've said is best practice um for uh the establishment of an audit committee. Is it also best practice for members of the city council to sit on that audit committee? Yes.

Okay. Yes. As as long as it's not the entire like for example, if we were to pick um people from this committee here, the best practice would be to have, you know, they usually say three independent members and two members of the council. I kind of want to have it three members of the council and two members independently just to test it out. Um, we we know how politically charged the environment is in the city of Brockton. So, I kind of want to have it as a pilot, if you will, to test it where you have three members of the council, two independent members who are qualified. They cannot be just random people. They need to have the proper qualifications to be in this committee.

Okay. Okay. And what what have you seen in uh similarly uh situated uh municipalities um in terms of the other the composition of the audit committee and who is the uh the appointing authority um for the uh the audit committee. Usually it would be for cities I believe it's like a council president that would appoint it would be the same concept when it comes to the independent members. However, it it would go through like a rigorous process of like you you would have to interview people basically to get in. You would have to look at the qualifications. You would have to interview. That interview process could be you know council president, city auditor, right? Or anywhere in between. Um, but I'm not too sure in terms of how the the ordinance would work, which is why I would need legal counsel to ask that question. But I'm pretty sure that if you had an audit committee, members of a council or select board would be appointed by something like a council president, but anyone who's outside of that realm would go through the same process that we would go through. would have to be interviewed and you know just the whole thing, background checks, all of that.

Okay, great. Thank you. Yes, uh just uh a couple of questions. Um so I'm I'm assuming we do some type of audit annually. I'm assuming the state comes in or we provide something. Um and this year you said we did it on time.

So the reporting of the financials to department of revenue. Yes. In terms of our external audits from our cliff from our external auditors Clifton Larson Allen. No. We've had severe turnover as you know members of the council have duly noted in the past. Um, I got put in a position obviously after my predecessor left and we were scrambling for quite some time to try and get data to send to a Clifton Larson. And that's one of my goals in there that I feel like we're the auditing department should have the data readily available to us immediately. That hasn't been the case ever since the four years I've been here. Ever since I've been an intern until now, it's never felt that way. It's been just like pulling teeth. And every single time that we do an external audit, we're always delayed on that because it takes a while to get that data. And I feel like we have to fix those workflows relatively soon because that does affect, you know, credit rating. Sometimes, you know, uh either a Moody's or an S&P will say, "You guys are taking too long on these audits." and they will withdraw or withhold the rating temporarily until you know we show them that we have this audit and then we will bring it back. But that that should never happen. I mean rating should never be you know withdrawn or withheld from these credit agencies. We should always do the stuff on time but that hasn't happened.

So the the external auditor uh provides a report is that report with the findings available? Yes, there would be a management letter for depending on what um fiscal year the audit has been done for. That management letter will then say what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong basically.

So, uh just just high level, what what did the last report indicate? And I'm assuming it's ongoing now, but what were the you know top three things Um I I feel like it's just more of the reconciliation portion of it when it comes to capital assets or fixed assets. The other thing is the grants as well. We've we have I think a massive issue with grants where you know they're not you know I don't want to oversp speak but I feel like we can do better in terms of the rec reconciliation of grants because sometimes what happens is that um like something we did in fiscal 24 where I had to personally go and clean these funds out because there weren't um appropriate reconciliations being done and sometimes that can lead to clawbacks as they say for these grants. So, for example, if you don't fully spend a grant out, you either have to pay it back to the state or you have to pay it back to the federal government.

And and that that's that's pretty serious because then if you go and apply for a federal grant or a state grant, that agency will then say, well, why would you want more money if you didn't spend it all in the first place? So, that does greatly affect that.

So, just one question on actually the grants since you bring it up. Would it be would it be in your best opinion to actually purchase a grant system that can manage the grants so the information is readily available versus having it siloed in a particular department or with a particular person? It sounds like that's where the frustration lies is that, you know, if you need the information and the person's left for the day, how do you and it's on or it's on their it's on their desktop, you know, not in a drive or something that's available to all of us. How do you how does that even work?

I think I mean I think the issue is far more than that. We as I mentioned uh before we went live we're not using Munis our accounting system to its full potential and they it does have a very sophisticated grant module that we could be using to track basically anything. We can even use that grant module to basically print out invoices on our own if we wanted to. So powerful this thing is but we just haven't been using it. The other issue that we've had as well is with the turnover. you know, let's just say uh a prior auditor is here, does his or her work, you know, has, you know, their own documents or whatever, they leave. They don't leave anything behind for us to then say, "How do you do this? How do you do that?" What I'm trying to do at least for my department and other departments should copy it as well is have like a repertoire or some sort of system in place where everything that you do, anything that you document, everything your standard operating procedures, whatever the case may be, should be housed, you know, in in a public drive for us to see because then somebody leaves as you say, right? How do you perform the duties if you don't know what you're doing? You know, business can't just stop.

Yeah. you have to keep going. It's been a massive issue here for the city of Brockton and at least for for my department where I've had to learn the hard way basically to uh to do certain things because that data as you mentioned is not readily available. Yeah. And just my my last question is the the external auditor um can that last report be made available to especially a counselor like myself that's relatively new and hasn't um is unaware of what might be in it because I think that is because again if we keep on doing the it's

the same thing keeps on happening. Uh is it online? Yes, it's it's on it's public and it's on our web page for the city auditor. Okay.

Okay. Just a couple of comments. Uh starting in 2020, obviously we had uh co and then we had a turnover in auditors. Uh the open checkbook. Uh Mr. Auditor, I would probably suggest that maybe you just start at a from a date certain that that's relatively recent instead of having to go back and do all of the data entry and post everything on in the open checkbook. Uh I mean, obviously we have paper records and and other ways of tracking the information, but I think if you were to try to go back six years and get that all uploaded, uh I would think that might be a might be a problem. Um, number two, just for the fellow colleagues here, one of the things that's bothered me, and I do support collective bargaining in unions, but when a position becomes open in a department, let's assume that you've never worked in finance, never done any accounting or auditing work, never really got into any municipal data regarding finance. you under your contract can bid to leave the department in which you're located, let's just arbitrarily say DPW, and take a position in the auditor's office. And I do not believe there's any restriction on how long someone has to remain in that position if they were to bid into your office. Am I correct? They could stay there six months and then if another position is posted, they could say, "Well, you know, I like that one better. I'm going to leave." And so I I think respectfully to all of you from a collective bargaining standpoint, the mayor and the law department needs to tighten up a little bit on when people can bid for a position. minimal

qualifications, particularly if if you're going into finance, and certainly a requirement that you stay in a position for a period of time, because it doesn't help the auditor to perhaps have a new employee come in, train him or her, and then they decide, you know what, this isn't for me. I want out, and they bid out of another job. I mean that that constant turnover and that attention that is drawn from his work is is pretty profound. And the other thing I would say is I think we've done a pretty good job uh given the fact we were distracted by the school deficit. We were distracted by Nestrom Beckman and Paris coming in and all of the information and records and materials that we had to prepare for them. But I will say that I'm very encouraged by having stability now in the auditor's office with you and also an issue that's coming up in a few minutes. To have an independent, highly competent, focused auditor is so important for that 600 plus million dollars that you're responsible for. I mean, it's people's money. I always say this, we don't do anything in government unless people have paid their obligation, taxes, fees, whatever it is. And so reassuring the public as to how we're functioning, constantly working to improve things. Um, and I would say to you, and I think my colleagues might agree, you know, don't be afraid to rock the boat. Bring some things up here that you think really need to be done. Some we may be able to do, some we can't, some might require uh some additional revenue to be expended. uh but but I do think auditing is that critical important function of government to safeguard and prevent waste, fraud and abuse. Um so with that um we can we can proceed to the next agenda item if there's nothing more.

Mr. Chairman, uh yes, quick question for our auditor. Um two things. Uh first of all, I think last year or I had requested that we receive a key to help us. Uh I don't know if you remember there's a way to be able to tell with the POS which department the bill belongs to Oh, it is papers you gave us tonight. Okay. Did you get I didn't get it. Perfect. That's so that's great. Um thank you so much. Thank you. Perfect. And for Jeff, we pass for Jeff.

Thank you. Uh, thank you. That's perfect. That helps. I know that helps uh and figuring out when we're looking at them uh to locate them. Um, the other thing is is I'm very excited about this. I think I I agree with everything, you know, that you brought up. I think it's long overdue and anything I can do to help in that sense as a city councelor or on the ordinance committee to be able to write that ordinance, we can work together to do that because um I think it's once again long overdue. I I think every department should be audited regularly. So um uh perfect. Um last question just to help our new counselors that are um you know that are new to the committee because it's not easy always reading these pee. Can you just um kind of give them a brief like how to read them like what the

I know it seems like it's easy but the warrants like what if they're asking you a question like you know I I don't want to usually what you want to look at on these um excuse me on these warrants is uh the purchase number the amount uh and so the purchase number is the PO that what's on P at the top. Okay.

So, basically this doesn't um here's a caveat. I know that if I forget who it was in council, but um there you're probably going to see um GL accounts or general ledger accounts that are very vague, right? like other contract services if you will, right? Um all you would have to do um is just let me know, for example, if you have a question on a vendor. I know that um Council Farwell has a question on a vendor that we're paying a lot of and he asked as to why we're using that vendor instead of WB Mason when we have a contract with WB Mason. um you would just give me that PO number um and I would just go in and look at it and it will show on the screen here the invoice the physical copy of the purchase order and then it will also tell you what the services are. For example, if uh if it's Amazon, it'll tell you what they've got from Amazon. If it's from WB Mason, it will tell you what you have for WB Mason because these reports are not very detailed. I think the only real quote unquote important thing on here would be just the vendor and the purchase order.

Perfect. So, they just need to give you the purchase order and the um if the vendors if it's there and the total dollar amount. Yes. Perfect. All right. Very good. Thank you. Thank you again, Mr. Chair.

You're welcome. Uh the next item on the agenda is more to make everyone aware that there has been a legal opinion that was requested back in 2019. Uh at the time city solicitor Nesala contracted with outside council to render an opinion on the role of the chief financial officer and the city auditor. Uh I will let all of you read this. I would suggest that at our next meeting we perhaps have our legislative council or someone from the law department take a look at this. As I read it, it reassures me that the auditor is truly independent. Um cannot be ordered to act in a manner that is inconsistent with state law, rules, regulations, department of revenue guidelines. Uh he or she and I think it's important to indicate I'm not talking about Dr. Claxon or our current auditor. But in general, whoever occupies those positions, they are truly independent. They function in a manner to protect the interests of the taxpayers and to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. Um, I don't know if anyone's had a chance to look at this in detail. I do know we have Council Niccastro who is an attorney. I don't know if she's taken a look at it. Um, Mr. Auditor, I don't know if you want to comment or not. I'll I'll start with you and then if anyone else has a question or an observation.

All I'll say is that um you are correct that I have a statutory duty via Massachusetts general law and the city charter as well as city ordinance. Um, in terms of the independence part, at least I'm not going to speak to all the auditors or whatever may have said in the past because I I don't really know, but in terms of my excuse me, my experience here, I have not been told to do something illegal or something that I wouldn't want to do. Everything that I have done thus far has been transparent. It has been within the law and it has been within my judgment to do so. So I I will reassure counselors that I've not been coerced in any way or anything from that n from that nature either from the mayor or the CFO or anyone else. I operate independently in that sense. If I want to, for example, do an internal audit on a department, there's no one telling me you can't audit this department. I go in and I make sure that I let set department head know that we're going in there and I do my business. There's no one that says you can't do this or you can't do that as a city auditor.

Well, councilors, I the reason why I say it's so important to be independent is I I know personally in the past there have been people who have served as auditor uh not our current auditor who actually were directed not to send an email to the department of revenue unless it was first screened. Um I disagree with that. I I do not think that someone who occupies a position of auditor should have to justify a an email to a state agency either reporting information or requesting information. And I will tell all of you that I will watch very carefully to make sure that our auditor is truly independent. Um Mr. to one of the things I was thinking about when I mentioned independence in the past and I know it's happened someone will say well and I'm just going to arbitrarily take two two two departments the cemetery budget doesn't have the money to pay this bill but the police department's running a surplus so just have the police department pay it you know when we approve the budget even though money can be moved around within ordinary maintenance unless it's separately appropriated. I expect the money to be expended by that department for a for that department's purposes. And I do not like the crosscontamination, if you will, of appropriating money for one department and then perhaps having it pirated away uh without a formal vote of the council to pay a bill, an obligation. And I and I want to make sure that doesn't happen. Um and and then lastly, I will say I am gravely concerned and that's why I'm reassured that you're independent. We're doing too many fin excuse me. We're doing too many transfers to pay obligations from prior years. And I

think you're going to have to crack down on departments to say if you have entered a purchase order and you know that we're going to have to pay a vendor, you've got to get the bill in from that vendor and get it paid so that 14 months later we don't have to go before council and have money approved for that bill. We should be able to close out a fiscal year and know exactly where we are within a prescribed period of time and not have these things constantly pop up. Um, and I don't know how anyone else feels, but that's those are some of the things that I'm happy that you're going to be independently reviewing.

Anyone else? I think the the biggest issue which is why these internal audits are so important is just the lack of standardized operating procedures, right? Like there are people that don't know, for example, the law that says that you have until July 15th to encumber prior year purchase orders. Um or for example, if you have I'm just going to make up an apartment like DPW, right? And they're just sitting on invoices and they forgot to pay them. I mean, you're you're hurting the credibility of the city, and you're also screwing over the vendors, the very same people that are engaging with you and providing services to the community. So, this is extremely, you know, egregious in my mind, and which is why these internal audits are super important to do. I can go in and see who's doing what and make sure that they're encumbering these POS and these vendors are getting paid on time because I I don't like it when I get a phone call uh to my office and say, you know, XYZ vendor isn't getting paid because whether it's the school department was sitting on POS or invoices, sorry, or DPW, whoever the case may be, that's something that you're absolutely correct that with this new program that I'm trying to put in place, we need to start cracking down on that. Okay. Councelor Shanel.

So, so currently is there, so I know you're trying to implement this program. Um does that is there like any orientation that takes place where we sit down every department head with you and say um you know fiscal year this is you know the road map or anything that has taken place in the past or is that something that you're trying to look to implement now?

That's usually what I'm trying to implement now. Um I've only done one internal audit thus far. is relatively new it feels like because when I walked in into this department they were a bit shocked and confused but it is with within my legal authority to do so and to figure out and I'll just say this and you know we've spoken in private um with some counselors that we needed to audit this department because there's just um underlying managerial issues and with the performance of the health insurance trust fund we had to foot that $7 million bill if you will. So that's where we had to go in and basically say, "Look, what's going on here? This this cannot happen because you're you're jeopardizing the city, especially when we use free cash to balance the budget."

Yeah. So you us knowing that this has kind of been an ongoing issue for you know again supersedes you. So I'm the what will be implemented will be essentially discussed with um everybody and I think one issue that I've just already realized is that you know it seems like everything lives on people's desktops which is a bad practice you know we have cloud services now we have Google drive which is kind of our our main engine. I mean, even what you're presenting today, I mean, I'm looking at it through, you know, uh, my phone because, you know, I don't want stuff in paper. I want to be able to go in a drive, click on it, and be able to see it because that's what makes it accessible to everybody. So I think that practice, you know, um, within your process needs to change because it's just not a wellbalanced way to run any department because again, if I get sick and, you know, council Farwell needs to access something that I put on the drive, he can just go and grab it. Um, and again, this stuff's 99% of its public record anyway. So that doesn't create an an issue. But you know this whole desktop thing needs to that that that needs to be eliminated and everything should live where anyone that has the authority I'm not saying that but anyone that has the authority like yourself in your department or you know

the uh CFO the mayor wants to go and grab the information they have that ability and they don't have to wait till someone comes in or wait for this and again these things can be locked and you know formatted in a way where they can't be altered and all these things can

take place. So if we don't change that practice the like right now I mean this is just going to be this this none of this is going to change. I mean I don't see this ever changing if you allow people just to put stuff on their laptop and computer because the information doesn't belong to us. It belongs to everyone. So, you know, that's how I I think that needs to be in the repertoire of, you know, what you want to implement because, you know, it's great to have the paper, but it's better to just go on a drive and be able to pull it up and whenever I want, you know, I could be home on my phone or anything. So,

and and the mayor needs to hold the department heads accountable for following the policies that the auditor Absolutely.

sets up because otherwise we're wasting our time. Absolutely. And I and I and again I think that there should be, you know, things put in place where if people are not following these policies that they're flagged somehow because, you know, it only works if everyone does it, right? So if you go in and you're like, "Hey, why aren't you putting this stuff in the drive? Why aren't we uploading these things?" And they're not doing it. um they there should be some sort of consequence to that you know within reason you know some you know I forget you forget um but if it's habitual if it's someone that's keep keeps on doing that particular thing I think we have to address it because it's a big issue if people are not using you know drives I I heard how people I've heard how kind City Hall sends a PDF and it's like from, you know, archaic. You know, it should be where everyone can go in and grab a PDF and then type on it and then sign it digitally and then send it out, not copies to copies to upload to, you know, again, I know you're very I can tell you're very frustrated. you're you know

it it's it's tough because this I'm not sure when this practice stopped but there was a practice where we have a public drive where every single employee from the city of Brockton can access this drive and it was is for contracts right something very simple you have a contract right with $10,000 $50,000 whatever the contract may be for whomever now when I go into these drives not all of the contracts are in these these folders. So if I wanted to figure out who has a contract with what, who do I go to now when it's not on the public drive anymore? So now I'm going to have to go to either the department, find the paper copies, you're just delaying stuff and it just makes it so much difficult for me because if I get asked a question by council farwell or whomever, I can't answer the question because I don't have that available to me. That's a big issue. Colleagues, I know we're bearing down on the 7 o'clock uh council meeting. So, I'm going to go on to the next agenda item, which is review of warrants. If there are any that we do not reach this evening that someone has a question about, please forward it to uh the auditor and we will make sure that it's researched. So, having said that, uh if people have questions on any of them, council Razak, I'll start with you.

Um so, on page Uh, page 13. Um, which which warrant number counselor? O2 066 or 062? 066. Okay. On page 13. And um, this has nothing to do with the vendor. We all love the vendor, but I'm just 76985. And then the it's only for $419, but the invoice is labeled December 25 prisoner meal. So are we feeding prisoners? Yes. Oh, okay.

Yeah. when when prisoners are held uh starting Friday evening and over the weekend for arraignment. Uh and it could be if they're arrested, I don't know, at 3:00 in the afternoon and they haven't eaten, we do provide a sandwich and a soft drink for uh for those who are incarcerated.

Okay. Um on same warrant page uh 21 um 11535 that um I see T-Mobile which is looks like a monthly fee for cell phones but we also so we use T-Mobile and we use Verizon because I see Verizon like on the next page. Wouldn't it be beneficial just to have one cell phone company or one vendor?

Um, I'm not going to speak for the uh current IT director, but I know that there have been talks to merge um services to one either Comcast or Verizon or whatever the case may be because we are paying a lot, you know, a lot to different vendors. It's kind of the same um idea with the WB Mason thing, right? Well, we have WB Mason as a contractor or as um as contract and we we purchase from everywhere else but WB Mason.

Okay. So, let me see there. So, that so it uses T-Mobile. So, I'm figuring that's like for the whole city. And then on the next page, U 4932 Verizon. That's 534, which would be what department? Um 53. There is no 534. 200. Who's Oh, I'm sorry. 0135. I read it wrong. So, that's your So, your department has the Verizon. Um, is that? Yes.

Okay. And then it So, different cell phones are So, is it each department or like does it cover all departments? Cell phones? I see the uh department covers all of them. All of them? Yes. Okay. But then your department has you have the the telephone services for the city. Yes. Oh, so that's the actual phone. Okay. Cuz some say wireless, some don't. Um 021. That's okay. 021. And that's police. So there the police has Verizon. So that's something that we're working on to kind of consolidate cell phones. Yeah.

Services. Okay. Very good. So that's for that one. I did have a question on the warrant uh 062 P26-062. Let me just find it. Um in the meantime, I found this uh you gave us this page with the v different vendors. Yeah.

And um the date how much they have um you know what they fill the city. I just have a couple because some of them are like in people's like names. I wasn't able to find all of them in the warrants um in this time since we've been here. But for example, um Red Sherak Dreginald year to date 141,350. What would that be for? I would have to go back into the general ledger and figure that out because

there's a bunch that are just in people's first names and not it doesn't look like uh like I can't tell what it's for. So, unless I find it in here. Um, let me see. I'm going to till I find I made a note in here, but that's fine. So, with with this list that you gave us uh with the vendors year to date, in order to get answers on these, should we just ask you like like there's a Rob Elas and Robins for 236,000?

Yes, you can just uh shoot me an email with that uh with that vendor number and the year to date amount and I can go in and find that for you all the details on that. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm I'm done for the moment.

You're welcome. Anyone else? Okay, I have I have one then and it's actually on the last page of warrant number P266 and it says total EFT transfers 15 and it's $182,271.36. Now electronic fund transfers for those of us who aren't in the banking business but I'm familiar with them at home. Does that mean that we we pay invoices through the through the internet? Yes.

Okay. And so we obviously verify because that's an opportunity for fraud. We we very carefully verify what we're paying and that we have all of the backup materials. And who would authorize who would have the capability of authorizing an electronic fund transfer? Would it only be your office? Is it out in the different departments? It's our office. We have a form online that the department would have to fill out. No, not the department, the vendor

for whoever they're doing business with. What whatever department has to fill that out. It comes back to us with the banking information. Then we go and then we track down the bank and make sure that we have the appropriate information from the bank. The bank has to verify that that information exists with that vendor. If it doesn't, then we can't do EFTs. If it does, then we've matched it and then we can do the uh the EFT transfer or set them up as EFT and then we get a receipt back that it's paid. Correct. Okay. All right. Thank you for clarifying that. I have a question on that. Uh go ahead, uh council.

So, they're just listed as total EFT transfers. How do we get to review who got what and for why? I don't believe it's in this report. That would be that I would have to run a different report for that. Do you think we should though? Because that's part of paying bills. Yes. Yes. That's okay. So, for the next time we do this, we'll receive that report as well for the warrants that you give us. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Council. Anything else? I have a question. All right. I'll let uh councelor Green go. I already spoke, but

All right, Council Green, go ahead. Um on the u the EFTs, um is is there a fee that is associated with uh doing these uh these electronic fund transfers? I don't believe so. That's I would I don't want to misspeak. I would have to ask the the treasurer because the treasurer is really the one that that cuts the check. All we do is we run the process in our office when it comes to you know payroll and AP but ultimately the people that caught the the physical check or send the transfers will be the treasury department. Okay. Okay. All right.

It's usually usually uh no fee for doing electronic stuff. It's usually preferred way just get the money quicker. Got it. Okay. Council Ajac.

Thank you. On warrant uh P26-066 page 11 um the PO hang on 32361258. Um no, I'm sorry, wrong one. The one right above it, the 32361249 GRS Transit LLC. So, it's stated that's all for tra uh homeless transportation, incoming outgoing. Um like how is that the McKini Vento? Is that with the students or what homeless transportation is this?

Yes, that would be for Mckin Vento. That's all Mckin Vento. Yeah. And then um right under So that's the same thing under H&L Bloom. Uh that's the same thing there. That's just another contractor. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Council, anything else? Mr. Chair, I do have questions, but we're out of time. Okay. So, we'll submit for the record uh to uh the auditor and then we can always discuss something at the next meeting. Okay, that's fine.

Counselors, it would be my uh plan to meet at least monthly. So, I'll survey you about the next meeting in February. Uh please if you do have questions get them to the auditor because I want to make sure we are very thorough and meticulous in what we're doing. Uh, I would like to ask the auditor to have the young lady who does the school part of auditing, who was hired to be an auditor strictly for school revenues and expenditures, just to come in and introduce herself, tell us a little bit about what she does and also to uh review the progress that we've made integrating, you know, the two the two departments, the two functions. I think it would be a great idea just because we've uh recently received the response from the uh inspector general's office and it was very positive when we mentioned that we now have Amanatana Sharif who is the assistant auditor for school finance working in my office and we're very very happy about that.

Very good. So all right if there is no further business is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. All right so moved. All in favor? All oppose. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. All right.

Council with time having arrived, I call the meeting of the city council to order. Uh would you all please join me in standing in saluting our flag? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right.

All right, Mr. Clerk. Actually, first I'm going to read notice is hereby given that the regularly scheduled meeting of the city council was postponed due to inclement weather and city hall being closed. The properly posted to this evening, Wednesday evening, January 28th, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers, city hall, 45 school street, Brockton, Mass. Item number one, we have the appointment of Luis Martin of Fairview a Brockton Mass to the Brockton Redevelopment Authority for a 5-year term ending January 2031. That is referred to finance. We have the appointment of Natasha Jean Gillies of Thomas Street Brockton Mass to the Cemetery Board of Trustees for a 5-year term ending in January 2031. As referred to finance,

we have the appointment of Natasha Jean Jillies of Thomas Street Brock and Mass to the Women's Commission for a three-year term ending in January 2029. As referred to finance, we have the appointment of Steven M. Owens to the Commission on Human Rights for a three-year term ending in January 2029. referred to finance. We have a communication from the mayor appointing Luis Martins of Fairview of Brockton Mass to the Brockton Redevelopment Authority for a 5-year term ending January 2031. Accepted and placed on file. We have an appointment from the mayor appointing Natasha Gene Jillis of Trauma Street, Brockton, Mass, to the Cemetery Board of Trustees for a 5-year term ending January 2031.

Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the mayor appointing Natasha Gene Jillis of Thomas Street Brockton Mass to the Women's Commission for a three-year term ending January 2029. Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the mayor appointing Steven M. Owens to the Commission on Human Rights for a three-year term ending in January 2029. Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the mayor in accordance with the general laws of Massachusetts chapter 44 recommending that the city council authorize a transfer of $35,856.64. This transfer will fully fund the sewer enterprises debt service category for the remainder of the fiscal year. Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the CFO relative to the same. Accepted and placed on file.

Communication from the mayor in accordance with the general laws of Massachusetts chapter 44 recommending that city council authorize the acceptance and expenditure of the grant award in the amount of $500,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to the Department of Public Works Highway Division. These funds are part of the complete street grants and will be used to provide two-way vehicular to traffic travel travel and vastly improved pedestrian and bicyclist accommodation along the Warren A corridor. Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the CFO relative to the same.

Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the mayor in accordance with the general laws of Massachusetts chapter 44 recommending that the city council authorize the acceptance and expenditure of the grant award in the amount of $235,600 from the United States Department of Transportation and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to the Department of Public Works Highway Division. These funds are part of the Safe Streets for All SS4A grant and will be used to design and implement a demonstration project at three of the city's high crash high-risk intersections. Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the CFO relative to the same.

Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the mayor in accordance with the general laws of Massachusetts chapter 44 recommending that the city council authorize the approval of prior year unpaid bills of $2,976.75 in order to pay for invoices from previous fiscal years. Accepted and placed on file. Communication from the CFO relative to the same. Accepted and placed on file.

Ordinances. Ordinance. Whereas police and fire department candidates must successfully complete a statewide civil service examination and are then placed on a list of eligible candidates. City residents receive a resident preference, but many highly qualified candidates live outside the city. Whereas the police department has difficulty recruiting a sufficient number of highly qualified candidates for entry-level positions. An increased number of police personnel in all ranks are scheduled to retire in the next two years, creating more vacant positions. Whereas a school police and other certain and certain other school employees are already exempt from any any residency requirement. Therefore, an ordinance amendment to the city's residency ordinance will provide opportunities to expand recruitment efforts for both public safety departments ordinance. An ordinance amending article 3 section 2-110 of the revised ordinances of the city of Brockton. Be it ordained by the city council of the city of Brockton to amend article 3 section 2-110 residency requirement of employment and promotion of the revised ordinances by inserting the following language at the end of the ordinance. Sworn positions in the police department and all firefighter positions in the fire department shall be expressly exempt from the requirements of these provisions. referred to the committee on ordinance.

Orders. We have ordered that the following name sum be and the same is hereby transferred as the same was submitted by the mayor as follows. Transfer of $35,856.64 from DPW sewer goods and supplies to DPW sewer debt service. Referred to finance. Excuse me. Ordered that the city council authorizes the acceptance and expenditure of the total grant funds in the amount of $500,000 from the Mass Department of Transportation to DPW Highway.

Referred to finance. ordered that the city council authorizes the acceptance and expenditure of the total grant funds in the amount of $235,600 from United States Department of Transportation $188,480 from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation $47,120 to DPW Highway $235,600

referred to finance. Ordered in accordance with the general laws of Massachusetts chapter 44 recommending that the city council approve the expenditure of $2,976.75 from police purchase of service to Alcom $465 to HD Supply $9763 to Proprio $174.87 87 two Central Square $286.16 two Thompson Reuters $1,953 referred to finance councelor Farwell

Mr. President this is a relatively small amount of money and these vendors have been waiting to be paid. Uh I'm going to make a motion to suspend the rules and act on this this evening. Second council has been a motion and a second to act on this this evening. All in favor? All opposed? The motion passes. Uh we'll have a roll call vote. Madame clerk, uh would you please call the role? Azac? Yes. Charnell? Yes. D. Roza? Yes. Farwell? Yes. Green? Yes. Lai? Yes. Mcastro? Yes. Texera? Yes. Eight in the affirmative.

The orders adopted. Um, councilors, as we uh get to the next item, item 22, uh, seeing as it is more than one page long, uh, would anyone be willing to make a motion to, uh, allow the clerk to summarize it instead of reading the entire thing? So, move. Second. Motion's been properly made and seconded to allow the clerk to summarize item 22. All in favor? Motion passes. Mr. Clerk, I'm going to defer to the uh person who wrote this.

Um item 22 would be a home rule petition to the state legislature to approve increasing the age for special police officers in the city of Rockton to be able to serve as special pre uh police officers up to the age of 70. That is referred to finance. Anyone for item 23? Motion to uh so move second. Motion's been properly made and seconded to summarize item 23. It is more than a page long as well. All in favor? All opposed? Motion passes. Madam cler.

Item 23 is an order for a special act to petition the state legislature for a home petition to amend our existing chapter 324 of the acts of 1990. Um, this adds specific language to um, further expand and clarify the duties of the chief financial officer in Brockton relative to things like collective bargaining um, agreements and making sure that they apply uh, citywide and schoolwise as well. And that is referred to finance 24. Mr. Clerk.

Item 24, resolve. Pursuant to chapter 12, section 24 and chapter 19, section 26 of the Brockton city ordinances, the chief of police shall make an annual report to the city council concerning traffic accident situations in the city accompanied by recommendations and shall report to the city council the condition and organization of the police department, including a synopsis of the business of the preceding year with remarks and recommendations. Pursuant to chapter 6, section 33 of the Brockton city ordinances, the fire chief shall make an annual report to the city council of the condition of the fire department, including a synopsis of all losses and accidents by fire. And pursuant to chapter 3, section 21 of the Brockton city ordinances, the animal control officer shall make a bianual report to the city council stating opinions as to the maintenance and conditions of every premises holding a kennel license in the city. Wherefore be it resolved by the Brockton City Council to invite Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez, Brockton Fire Chief Brian Nadelli, and animal control officer Thomas Duchillis to appear before the public safety committee to discuss and provide annual reports in accordance with the Brockton city ordinances

referred to the committee on public safety. Item 25, resolve. Whereas the city recently conducted its municipal election and whereas it is important to constantly seek improvements in the election process so as to ensure support from the voters for the integrity and results of any election. Now therefore, be it resolved to have the four election commissioners for the city of Brockton be invited to a meeting of the council to discuss election procedures and to identify improvements which may be initiated for the conduct of future elections. Referred to finance councils any late files? Councelor Farwell. Mr. President, at the request of the mayor's office, I move to admit a late file. Second.

Motion's properly made and seconded to admit a late file. All in favor? All oppose? Motion passes. Mr. Clerk, members of the city council, I hereby appoint Elijah Romulus of 48 Cedar Street Taton Mass to the role of director of planning and economic development. As referred to finance counselors, are there any moments of personal privilege or council's recognition? Seeing none, with no other business before us, I declare this meeting ajourned.