City Council - Regular Meeting

Can I get a motion to get out of recess? Motion. Second. There's a motion to get out of recess. Properly second the discussion. That is done. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The ayes have it. This is the special meeting and continuation of the Monday night meeting, which started the discussion of the fiscal year, of the budget fiscal year 2027. Yes, if anybody, it will be repetitive, but I mean, I think in case anybody. Anybody at home is listening. We're just going to read the disclaimer. Pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Act of 2022, this meeting will be hybrid, allowing participation both in person at the city council chambers as well as remotely. This meeting is also being transmitted live through the YouTube Lawrence City Council page as well as the Facebook page. Madame Claire, call the roll, please.

Just to show . Councilor Gonzalez? Present. Councilor Miguel?

Present.

Councilor Marmo? Present. Councilor Infante? Present. Councilor Reyes? Present. Councilor Del Rosario?

Present.

Councilor LaPlante? Yes. Councilor Vice President Levy?

Yes.

Council President Rodriguez, no, this is a roll call. Who's present? That you're here. Anything?

To come out of recess?

No, we already voted that. This was just a roll call to show who came out of recess.

Oh, present, yes, here.

We can't have ground rule in silence.

All right, this meeting, since this is a continuation, please, I know it is not required, but please join me for a moment of silence. It's always needed. Now join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United

under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Councilors, can I get a motion to allow public participation? So moved.

Second.

There's a motion to allow public participation. Properly second discussion. I hear none. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. The ayes have it. No. We have one person on the list. No. Morocco, please.

Council plant?

No.

Council Del Rosario?

No.

Yes. Councilor Reyes? Yes. Councilor Infante? Yes. Councilor Malmo? Yes. Councilor Miguel?

Yes.

Councilor Gonzalez? Yes. Council Vice President? Yes. Council President?

Yes, what's the count?

Nine to two, seven to two, excuse me.

Seven to two, okay, motion carries. We have one person on the list for public participation. The rules for public participation are as follows. You're gonna have two and a half minutes to speak. At the two minute mark, you're gonna hear a beep indicating that you still have 30 seconds. Please refer to this council as a whole. The first person that we have and the only person that we have is H. Malik. Name and address for the record, please.

Thank you. Humayun Mali, 53 Chester Street. Good evening, honorable members. We, the citizens, pray for the recovery of the honorable police officer who was injured in the line of duty. Lawrence Police, this union of pride and honor with the impeccable leadership by honorable Chief Morris Agler, doing an excellent job to protect our citizens. Thank you for making Lawrence a safe city. Lawrence is a beautiful city. because of our hard-working DPW workers and their leadership. Thank you for making Lawrence a beautiful city. We the citizens support our inspection department and their union. Thank you for excellent job. Lawrence Public School with the impeccable leadership by Honorable Superintendent Ralph Guerrero doing excellent job. Million thanks to Honorable Director Wu. We the Laurentians support our teachers union. We are proud of you. Because of you, Lawrence, we rise again. Lawrence always strong. Lawrence always unite. We are proud to support our veterans. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your sacrifices. We must hire two new positions in our veterans' department and create the best commission for the elders. In this important meeting, as we honor the best police officers and the first responders, we support our firefighters' union. Lawrence firefighters with the impact of leadership by Honorable Chief Delaney, one of the best fire department in the nation. Lawrence police officers, thank you for excellent job. We are united to support your union.

Thank you. All these names are going to be submitted for the record. Now we continue with the discussion for the fiscal year 2027 budget, the municipal budget for the City of Lawrence. Councillors, we have received information from from the Mayor of the City of Lawrence, Brian Edepena. And now we're gonna expand that opportunity for the administration to present the different amendments for the fiscal year 2027. So if you mind.

Good evening, Council President and Councillors. Octavian Spanner, Senior Advisor to Mayor Edepena. I'm gonna be brief again just so we can proceed. The, I am presenting this budget amendment tonight on behalf of Mayor DePena, Brian DePena. The mayor remains of the opinion that the FYI, FY2027 budget he submitted is fair, balanced, and physically responsible. He continues to emphasize that the management of a municipal operating budget must be viewed not only through the lens of current needs, but also with a long-term vision for the city's financial stability and future growth. As the executive branch, he has a responsibility to ensure the continued delivery of essential services while pursuing policies and investment that foster economic development, expand the tax base, and strengthen the city long-term fiscal health. At the same time, the Mayor has listened carefully to the concerns and recommendations expressed by members of the City Council throughout the budget process. In the spirit of collaboration and shared responsibility, he has directed the adjustment be made to the the fiscal year 2027 budget to make it as lean and efficient as possible while preserving the city's ability to meet its obligation and continue providing critical services to the residents the amendments before you this evening reflect the that effort they represent a good faith attempt to address council's concern while maintaining a balanced budget that protects the city financial position and supports its long-term economic objectives. We respectfully request the city council favorable consideration of these amendments. The amendments are as follows. I think you all received the amendments. From the mayor's budget, if we look at advertisement, the mayor has reduced it by $20,000. The mayor's other purchase and services, there was a reduction of 30, additional reduction of 30,000. From IT salary and wages, there was $100,000 cut, as well as in the planning department, one position, I believe one position was eliminated. From the fire, there was $150,000, which represented the assistant chief position. and also the emergency management. We were considering, well, let me continue, from DPW parks and other purchase services, $30,000 was reduced. Motor vehicle excise revenue, we have added $88,794. and from the school department transportation and lease, which covered the 594,794, so which balance presents a balanced budget. The cuts that we did, and this is council president and counselors, is it's a difficult task, especially considering that certain items that were included i believe during our discussions and i think uh... counselor laplante you can appreciate we'd we'd went before beyond eliminating the emergency management position that doesn't mean that position was not needed and i know that the room during the the budget discussions yes there were differences of opinion what was needed are not We do not agree, but we need to compromise at some point. We did feel, Council President, that there were certain concerns because, you know, you look at the dynamic during the different budget sessions, different department questions that you ask, and that information, both CAFO and staff, has related the feedback to Mayor de Peña. And in discussions with him, We believe that we have met you halfway based upon your request. And what we are basically asking is for you to accept the mayor's budget tonight. Thank you.

Councilors, at this point, we have received the amendment that it was asked, and I get a motion for the purpose of discussion for the fiscal year 2027.

Motion to approve the Mayor's FY27 budget with the amendments as outlined in his memo dated June 16, 2027. Do I do the exclusion now?

June 15.

I mean, June 15, 2027. I mean, 2027, 2026. June 15, 2026. You have 2027 here. Sorry, I'm like my brain. Excluding. No, no, no. There we go.

So there is a motion for the purpose of discussion being seconded by Councillor Reyes.

I promise I'm not going crazy. Discussion.

Discussion. Thank you. It may be a relief to know that I'm not going to offer any amendments tonight. Maybe I'm disappointing a few of you, but I'm not offering any amendments tonight. However, what I will do is this. I want to focus on three places that I think can use some improvements as we go forward in the next fiscal year. And then I want to have one comment regarding the approach that we took this year and how we got here. Number one, in being a part of the Budget and Finance Committee this year and listening to the department heads speak, and by the way, I thought it was a good job and it was very informative, despite the lateness, we were able to, I think, get a lot of information. One was, one of the concerns that I have that I need to work on is the ISD revenues. The numbers that we have for this past fiscal year can really be improved upon, I think, whether it's under the building inspection fees or the trash ordinance fines, for example. there was room for improvement. We brought, the administration asked, and while it didn't come before the council, we did reauthorize the prosecutor's position, but across the board, we have new staff there, we got more beef to the ISD department. We should be expecting more revenues not because we want to get more money we would want to change behaviors but it just seems to me as though there's a lot of opportunity out there to change behaviors and those behaviors if they don't change there's opportunities for us to reinforce a behavioral change with a penalty with a fee a penalty not a fee but a penalty so I would I would number one that we go ahead and look toward increasing that and be more attentive to that in this upcoming fiscal year. Number two. I look at the budget, I'm gonna raise it as a prop, I look at this document more than just a budget, more than just numbers. To me, this is a book that talks about policy. This is a book that provides direction as to how government is going to proceed in the upcoming year. Saying that, this should be a surprise to no one who sits here and perhaps no one who sits out there that what I believe to be one of the top issues, maybe the top issues, I hate to rank them like that, but it is our housing situation. And our budget should reflect the fact that we have an incredible spike going on right now and that we need to have cooperation within departments and leadership from the mayor to work on the unlawful apartments. If we were as good on the unlawful apartments as we are with building new apartments and new units, we would have a fantastic balance in the city. But right now, we are so good at building, building, and creating more, whether through zoning or planning or whether it's through ADUs or whether it's just through Sure Growth, but we're not good on the other side. There's room for improvement is my point. So that's the second thing. The third thing is, and councilors, council president, I say this not to be petty, but I do think that we have a leadership position, and even if the dollar amounts aren't large, even if the dollar amounts aren't large. I think there's places to improve in our budget. I see things that we're spending money on that I think as times get tough, and they will be getting tough, we should not be spending some of the monies that we are on certain items, certain things. So I'm not offering amendments tonight to cut. I'm not gonna go into the details regarding what the problems are. I'm happy to, but I don't wanna go down that rabbit hole tonight unless people want to. I don't particularly want to. I think the council president knows where I stand on a lot of these issues. I don't need to say it again. So, but there's room for improvement in the council budget, and I would hope that we'd be more conservative in our approach on expenditures in our council budget. Now, on more of the good stuff. I want to applaud the budget chair. We may have had differences of opinion. They may be a lot starker recently than they have been, but I can be objective. And I can see that the way the meeting were run, the way that the management of it took place, I need to applaud and give flowers where flowers are due. So I want to publicly say that I thought that me as a rank and file committee member had every opportunity to ask any question that I wanted to ask. I didn't feel as though I was being shut down. If I wanted to go deep into a rabbit hole, I was allowed to go deep into a rabbit hole, and I appreciate that. So I just wanted that to say that. The last thing I want to say is I want to commend, not condemn. I want to commend and applaud Mayor Brian A. DePena. I want to appreciate the fact that he sent down to us some cuts so we don't have to vote on additional cuts taxes. We're already going to be voting up to the tax levy, plus new growth to over $4 million. I have less of a problem with that, and I'll tell you why. It's becoming more expensive to produce the kind of services we want, and essentially going to the 2.5% provides just kind of a baseline to continue offering government as we've been. What really troubles me is if we actually were gonna go down, and it was discussed, to go down the road to dip into excess tax levy capacity, and to extract money, whether it's $200,000, $600,000, or $2. Once we see that we're able to go ahead and do that, what's gonna stop any one of us or any mayor, I'm shocked they're even talking about this tonight, because I never thought I'd be talking like this years ago. What's to stop us from going ahead and increasing taxes beyond the two and a half and the new growth? If we did it under this budget, if we did it successfully, right? that should give taxpayers cause for alarm, that they were not asked, and they're not required to, but if we're gonna go ahead and tax people beyond the two and a half, we need to go to, I think, As good government stewards, we should be going to the taxpayers and asking them that question. We're going to be raising your taxes for whatever it is for this purpose. Do you support that? Anyway, but we don't have that tonight. That's fantastic news. Mayor, through you. Thank you very much for bringing. It's not easy, as Mr. Spanner said. It's not easy finding $600,000 in a budget and try, because you're cutting stuff, right? There are plans that you had, and you had to cut. So thank you for doing that. I appreciate that. And I'm going to be supporting tonight's budget. Thank you.

Any other questions? Any other comments? All right. We are going to get ready to vote on this item. Before we get ready to vote, even though we have a motion for the purpose of discussion, we need to tweak that motion a little bit into three different motions, if not four. The first motion that I'm looking for is a motion to approve the fiscal year 2027 budget for the finance department. And also for the inspection services, those two together, Councillor Rosario is going to step out for potential conflict of interest.

A motion to approve the budget for the finance department and also the inspectional services department portion of the mayor's FY27 budget. which includes also the amendments as outlined in his memo dated June 16th, 2026. Second.

There's a motion in front of us, properly second.

Discussion. Real quick discussion. I don't think we said tonight yet, and someone needs to say this, that based on these cuts and based on what we're about to vote on, The folks that came here two nights ago, that bus issue has just evaporated. We are now fully funding. It hasn't been said yet. That is now being fully funded, and it is as it was this year. It's going to be again next year, and that's for those folks who really want it as a victory for them as well.

Yeah, and once we get to the general budget, we're going to bring this up to make sure people understand it. But I just don't want to confuse them with the two other votes that we've taken. Any questions, councillors, on this motion that we have in front of us? OK, I hear none. Madame Claire, please go the roll.

Councilor Gonzalez? Yes. Councilor Miguel? Yes. Councilor Mambo? Yes. Councilor Infante? Yes. Councilor Reyes? Yes. Councilor Del Rosario has recused himself. Councilor LaPlante? Yes. Council Vice President Levy? Yes. Council President Rodriguez?

Yes. Motion carries. So now I would like to get a motion So now I'm looking for a motion to approve the fiscal year 2027 portion of the budget for the water and sewer department.

Motion to approve. the Water and Sewer Department portion of the Mayor's FY27 budget that also includes the amendments as outlined in his memo dated June 16th, 2026. Second.

The motion has been made properly. Second. Councillor Miguel has stepped out because of a potential conflict of interest. Any discussions on this matter? I hear no, Madame Clerk, please call the roll.

Councillor LaPlante?

Yes.

Councillor Del Rosario?

Yes.

Councillor Reyes? Yes. Councillor Infante? Yes. Councillor Mamo? Yes. Councillor Miguel has recused himself. Councillor Gonzalez? Yes. Councillor Vice President Levy? Yes, Council President Rodriguez.

Yes, motion carries. So now I'm going to entertain a motion for the reminding of the fiscal year of 2027 budget, which is everything but those three that we just mentioned. So can I get an amendment on the original motion, on the underlying motion?

I can't make that amendment because, oh, make another. Remake the motion? Okay. Motion to approve the remaining budgets within the mayor's fiscal year 2027 budget which also includes amendments he made in his memo dated June 16th, 2026. This motion excludes the three departments that we just voted on.

So this motion is for fiscal year 2027 budget. Everything else but the three departments that we just bought, which is the water and sewer department, the inspection services, and also the finance department. Any discussions on this? Before we continue, that is important to recognize what Councillor LeBlanc just said a few minutes ago. It was second for Councillor Levy.

Oh, okay, I didn't hear that. That was second by me.

Oh, okay, I didn't hear it. So the $594,794 uh, dollars for the transportation issues for the Lawrence folder school, uh, has been allocated, uh, with the cuts that it was presented by that, uh, by the administration and the mayor, Brian and the Pena, uh, and the amendment was just discussed. So the issues that was brought up to everybody's attention here at the council, uh, all the parents that came here, thank you for showing up and presenting that issue that was, uh, take care of. Hopefully, the cherry-cheek for the Senate budget that we take as a base is accurate so we don't have to come back again with the same issue. Any questions, Councillors? Discussion? Councillor Brandt.

The other night I was listening to my colleague from District C who was commenting regarding the transportation contract, and I thought it intrigued me because I wanted to learn more about that. Just because we have the folks here, I would like to ask at this point through you if anybody from the school department has a reaction or a comment regarding the contract that we have with, I believe it's NRT, When does it expire? And I just think that to my colleague's point, this may be something we need to review.

Good evening, Council. Thank you for your time. We have, and I wholeheartedly agree with what Councilor Rosario expressed the other night on Monday. And it's a concern that is not only a Lawrence concern, it's a concern for the whole Commonwealth. In June of last year, the legislature instructed the Office of the Inspector General to conduct a study, a review of that very same problem for the whole Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I am happy to provide that for you. It basically had 17 findings. A lot of the findings are the same things that were mentioned here the other night. The cost of the bus drivers, the cost of the lack of competition and, you know, just, well, you call that a monopoly, but that is in essence what we're talking about. And then they provided some recommendations on how to mitigate some of those findings. And those are some of the things we are planning on doing. Some of it is starting the process early, the bidding process early. The Office of the Inspector General recommends six to 12 months to start the bidding process and looking for those things. Some of the things that you talked about of breaking up some areas, for example, that's another thing. What else? There are a number of recommendations that were proposed by the Office of the Inspector General on this study, and those are some of the things that we plan on implementing. Our contract with NRT just started this fiscal year, so we're in the first year of a three-year. That doesn't mean that we cannot go back to the table and renegotiate, and that's what we're planning on doing. That's how we're gonna move forward with this.

I appreciate that. I appreciate your attentiveness and listening to what my colleague had to say. I support what he was trying to accomplish, and it appears successfully accomplished. We'll see what happens. I don't think that we actually have an ability to do anything with respect to that except to bring it to light. We don't vote on the contract. This is purely a school department issue. This is something that happens internally. We don't get into those kinds of details and weeds. That's not our jurisdiction, right? But our jurisdiction does, at the end of the day, when you look for the budget for the entire school department to pass, That's going to be in there, and I would hope that when we have these budget discussions next year, that we can, I want to hear about what happened and how much money are we saving because of that.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And just for the record, the contract with NRT, I said we're finishing up our first year. The first year was a 2.25% increase, and I believe for next year it's 2.25% increase. That's the extent of the contract that we have with NRT for the services of special education and also general population.

Thank you very much, Mr. Cabrera. Thank you.

Before you go, Jason, I just want to say thank you for your military services.

Oh, thank you, sir. Thank you.

A lot of people don't recognize that because you're young. Well, yeah, thank you.

When I left Lawrence, I went straight into the military, so I did my time proudly. Thank you. Thank you.

Questions. Thank you. I was going to say this earlier, but I think, um, cause of the plan did a great job saying it, but then I, now I still want to say, I also want to follow my colleagues lead and thinking mayor to Pena and the team for the amendments that you offered. Um, I also recognize that, Some of this was not easy because we did hear the petition from the department heads and the need. But to come together in the middle, I think this is one of the easiest budget process we've been through. So I do want to thank you for those efforts. And I once again want to thank everyone that was part of the budget process from the committee to the behind the scenes, to the front line, everyone. This is the first year that we did not go past 12 a.m. Other years, we got home sometimes at almost two in the morning. So I am proud to say this is the first year that we did not do that. And I'm hoping to continue and continue to improve this process if elected chair.

Any other questions, Councillor?

No, just Councillor Levy.

Councillor Levy? Yes. One, my counselor, Infante, But I want to thank you. I want to thank you first. I want to thank the committee also because we have to thank you, the committee of the budgets. This year, I know that it was a very, very long process because you started before talking with different departments and tried to get a better understanding of what's going on during this coming season budget. So I want to thank each one of you for the great work that you already did. But also I want to thank you all the employees, also for all the different departments, because of the time, because of the patience, and practically you guys, thank you so much for all your great work that's in your community to the city. Mayor, thank you for understanding, you know, what is the process and to work. And you hear, you know, the voice also of the community and not just the voice of the community, but also you hear everything that was said in here during these practically two months that we were working during with the budget. Thank you the community also who show all and spread their concern about the problem with the school, with the bus, and so many other things that was happening here. And the school department, thank you also for getting the way on how to provide bus again to the student. Every one of you, everyone that is also in here, I think that we are showing a very consent with whatever that happened to the city. Thank you so much.

Anybody else, councillors? I just want to take one last opportunity to, I appreciate the hard work of the committee. I'm part of that committee and also every department that were here. They were here on time. They were here available to respond to any questions. There were a lot of them that were willing to provide a lot of information. And that is all the departments that you still need to work a little bit around. That's always happened. But the good thing about it is that we here, all of you, and all of us, we serve the city of Lawrence on different capacity. And when we serve a community that is so much in need, it's a collaboration of all. and having an opportunity to work with every single one of you, having different point of views on time, and having similarities and many others which are more than the oppositions. It is amazing. So thank you all, all of the head of departments, all of the workers, everybody that is supporting everybody that is supporting the administration, everybody that is supporting the general purpose of the budget, which provide the services to the community, thank you all. I highly appreciate, I definitely appreciate your hard work and your dedication to the community. So if it is not any other questions or further questions, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilor Gonzalez.

Yes.

Councilor Miguel. Yes. Councilor Marmo. Yes. Councilor Infante.

Yes.

Councilor Reyes. Yes. Councilor Del Rosario. Yes. Councilor LaPlante. Yes. Councilor Vice President Levy.

Yes. Council President Rodriguez.

Yes. Morning cares.

Congratulations.

Mayor, you have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Vice President. Thank you, every single member to City Council. Tonight, everybody make demonstration to the City of Lawrence. When everybody work together, everything is possible. ONLY ONE IS BENEFICIATED. IT'S THE COMMUNITY. I WANT TO SAY THANK YOU, AND I THINK IT'S GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR CONTINUE WORK TOGETHER, AND THE CITY IS A MORE IMPORTANT ISSUE IN EVERY AGENDA. TONIGHT IS A BETTER DEMONSTRATION TO THE COMMUNITY. THANK YOU, AND THANK YOU, RAMONA, YOUR TEAM. THANK YOU, EVERYBODY IN MY OFFICE. because working hard, very hard, everybody in the city, including council members, my car, my staff, working late. 9 o'clock, 9 afternoon, and started early. But if you don't support my job, impossible doing great job. I want to say thank you. God bless you. God bless your family. And I love you. Marlene. Marlene, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

With no further ado, motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. There's a motion to adjourn for a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.