Town Council - Regular Meeting

Council uh meeting for April 6th, 2026. And Madame Clerk, will you start us off with uh a prayer and a and the pledge, please?

Thank you for bringing us together today in a spirit of generosity. May we honor one another by keeping an open mind. May we voice our truth and listen with an open heart. May we discern your will to unite in a fruitful outcome. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you, David. Thanks, Okay. Roll call, please. Madame clerk, roll. There's an extra pen. Huh?

An extra pen. I might. Roll call, please. Mr. Burggon here. Mr. Christopharo here. Mrs. O'Hara here. Mr. Punchek, here. Miss.

Okay. Open forum pursuant to 42-46-6D maximum of three minutes per person. Uh before we kick off, do we have anybody else that would like to sign up for open forum? Oh, okay. Kevin Carrier, uh Kevin Carrier, 118 Elizabeth Avenue. Uh so good evening. I actually had a comment for the town administrator, but I suppose since our our council obviously you can pass ordinances, I would welcome the council's input as well. Uh so 10,715, that's the best estimate I can find on the number of individuals over the age of 18 who live in North Smithfield. Uh, of those individuals, uh, 9,296 act are registered active voters. There's 99 inactive voters, meaning there's about 500 people in our town who have yet registered to vote. Um, in 2024, only 70% of the town voted for the presidential ticket. While down ticket votes, for example, only 61% of voters voted for the position of town administrator. Um, I'm not going to use the February bond vote to compare anything, but that was about nine and uh three4s of the registered voters on the town. Um, it might seem like 500 isn't a lot, but it's worth noting that that number of 500 is larger than the difference between the presidential candidates of 349 and larger than the difference between the fifth best vote getter for town council and the lowest official running candidate, which was 472. Now, it's not the town's job to get out the vote, and it's not to remind me to vote. Uh, you have much better things to do with your time. Uh, so I'm wondering if there are small changes or ideas that you have that could make it easier for people to vote. Uh so for example, the town calendar on the website right now

does not list any of the important dates for this coming election, including the date for the primary, September 8th. The deadline to register to vote for the primary August 9th, uh early voting deadlines, uh the beginning on August 19th, the November election on November 3rd with the register to vote deadline for the general election on October 4th, and the deadline for mail and ballots on October 13th um to register. Uh, the town could easily include a reminder button that you can click and it can add to your calendar. Uh, I've made one myself on northfieldtownpolitics.com that you could easily kind of like take that and apply to the town. Uh, that kind of like coding idea. Uh, it I don't know why the town website doesn't have like a a link to go to the Ryland Department uh of state to to um check your voter status to see if you're eligible to vote. Um, especially in the how do I section of the site, we could have a how do I register to vote on the website. Uh, my wife recalls that last election it was uh early voting hours. She thought they remembered that closing at 4, which made it really hard for people who got off of work at 5 to be able to vote early. Um, and so maybe like staggering when the early voting hours close. Um, other ideas, when people sign up for their library cards, can we provide them uh with a flyer how to register to vote when people move to the town and record the deed? Can we also provide them a form to register to vote and update their voting address? Um, and can we do does the high school have ways to kind of uh let our 18-year-old graduating seniors uh register to vote when they turn 18? There are small changes, but as the numbers show, even small increases in participations can truly change outcomes. Um, it's just whether we can make it easy enough for them to act on it. So, thank you so much.

Thank you. Lar.

Good evening. I'm L. Macaron. I am a member of 465 Greenville Road. I'm a member of the Parks and Rec Commission. I'm also the player agent for North Smithville Little League, which means I'm responsible for what goes on on the field for the league. Um, and I'm here to invite you all to um, opening day for North Smithfield Little League and girls softball, which is going to be uh, April 18th, Sat. It's a Saturday. We're going to start the parade at 10:00. come see us at 9:45 and walk with us in the parade and wave to everybody. And um it's really a great time. All the kids love it. This year we're actually going to have some games, too. We we worked out a schedule where we can have some games instead of just pictures and parade. Um a lot of fun. Uh recognize our 74th opening day uh for the Northfield Little League. So, next year will be another big one. I'll be back to invite you again next year, but I hope to see you there this year. And if you have any questions, uh, our our emails are all on the website on our northmfield.com website or you can catch me um later after the meeting or some other time. Happy to start that dialogue.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Mike Clifford.

Mike Clifford, 489 Black Plane Road. Are you going to allow uh questions to be asked of the auditors from the audience tonight? Normally they do. Historically, do we allow for questions? I guess he's answering no. Okay. Then no, we will not be. Okay. Then I'd like you like you to consider asking them some of these questions. Um when they bid for the job, how many hours did they estimate it would actually take to do the town's audit versus how many hours did they actually use? Just for reference for bidding in the future. So estimate versus use. Yeah. I mean they have to anticipate how many hours they were going to have to put into this and then what was the actual hours they did. Was it over or under?

And um when the decision to was made to transfer the uh responsibility for the detailed billing to the police department uh by the former administrator Zinski and the business manager. Um both recommended that at the town council meeting apparently. Um, were were they were the auditors consulted on whether that would be a good move or a bad move or was that decision just made in a vacuum by the two individuals when the detail was initially moved when it was moved to the police station? Is that what you're asking? Yeah, the finance clerk used to do the detailing and then it got re moved as the responsibility of the finance as the police department.

Yep. Okay. Um, and then I I would like to I'm just curious where did the pay come from to pay the offices for the detail services? What account was that that cash drawn out of if we didn't get the revenue from that until after the end of the of near the end of the year? And was there any type of alert that we should have been aware of that happening? Um, and also, uh, did they actually audit the detail account as well to see if that was being used properly? Um, and one last question. This is just a question. Who can tell me where is there a line item in the budget for Steve Mast Maseron's sal pay payment for his firm for the fin acting as the financial advisor for the town? I'm assuming we must pay him something. So what line item would that be under the nobody knows?

I I wrote down your questions. Well, that was a question for the council or the administrator or the business manager. How what is our contract with Steve and how do we pay him? Is it a monthly? No, he Steve does only gets paid when we go out the bond or whatever the case might be. He doesn't have a he's not on retainer. Does that answer your question, Mike? And we Yeah. Where would we find his with his cost and charges in the budget? Anticipate that in the budget or not? No. As I understand it, his payment will be part of the bond costs. That would same thing with bond council. They'll be paid out of the bond cost. Okay. Thank you, Tony.

Okay. Before we conclude open form, do we have any other any others that would like to speak? Okay. Um the next item that we have is presentation of citation to our Eagle Scout. I don't see that he's here. President, the Eagle Scout is not here, so I'd rather just uh document. I'll have the council president sign it. Okay. Thank you. Um, North Smithfield Town Council sitting as board of licensing. Discussion by council vote or other action on pedaller hawker sales license DVA Keystone Fireworks Tents owner Keystone Novelties Distributors LLC 900 Victory Highway.

It's that time of year again. Time of year again already. Uh, any questions? You know, we haven't had any problems or anything. Everything is all in order. Okay. Excellent. Just got to get the Okay. Okay. Yeah. Do we have a motion? This is in Bridgos's parking lot. Yes. Yes. I will make a motion to approve the um pedaller hawker sales license for Keystone Fireworks tents at 900 Victory Highway. That's a motion. Do we have a second? Second.

We have a second. Um any other discussion? Nope. Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Bagod. Yes. Mr. Christopharo? Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yeah, Mr. Punchack. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. See you out there. Oh, yeah. Uh, the next item is discussion by council vote or other action on payment of bills.

I just had one question. There's a um Bowererman Construction Hallowell Community Center. Is that for the estimate that you had them do, Scott? Bowererman Construction, Hollowell Community Center. Is that for the ES? So, you have their estimate or We do. Um, my other question is, do we have any updates on the Prism Street lights? I think any updates on that contract?

Not as of yet. I know, um, last time I heard, Ry is going back and forth with them and DOT and Rhode Island Energy. It's kind of an amalgam of different conversations going on right now. That's the last I heard. It was like last week. Okay. Any other questions on payment of bills? Not for me. In that case, I will make a motion to approve the payment of bills for April 6th, 2026 in the amount of $376,19769. That's a motion. Do we have a second?

Second. It's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? No. Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Burgon? Yes. Mr. Christopharo? Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Punch? Yes.

Okay. Next item. Discussion by council vote or other action on presentation of fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025 audit. Pat Boucher and Cherylan. Good evening. Um, I'm Cheryl Langman. I was the audit manager on your engagement and this is Pat Guushe, the audit partner. Um, we've been here before, so you're probably familiar with us. So, I just have a brief overview and then you guys can ask me any questions. I don't know if you do you have your your audit reports because I'm going to be referring to pages. So pages 1 to three of the audit report is the audit opinion which was unmodified for the year ended June 30th 2025. Uh pages 13 and 14 are the governmentwide financial statements which are full acral financial statements uh broken out between governmental activities and business type activities. Your governmental activities which is basically your general fund, capital project, special revenue, all of those types of funds. Um ended the year with a net position of $43.3 million of which 50 million was invested in capital assets. 11.9 million was restricted for various purposes and 18.5 million was an unrestricted deficit. Your governmental activities increased net position in fiscal year 2025 by 7.4 million. During fiscal year 2025, uh the town implemented Gatsby 101 related to compensated absences. Um all governmental entities implemented

that this year. Um because of that there was a restatement to your beginning net position of $4.2 million. So it was a decrease of 42 $4.2 million to implement that gas fee. The business type activities ended the fiscal year with an opposition of $17 million of which $10.4 million was invested in capital assets, 134,000 was restricted and 6.4 4 million was unrestricted net position. The business type activities increased your net position 4.2 million in fiscal year 2025. So if you turn to page 15, that's your governmental funds balance sheet. So that would you'll see you'll have you have a column for general fund, unrestricted fund, your opera fund, and then all of your other governmental funds together. So the general fund ended the year with a total fund balance of 13.4 4 million. Of that, 7.9 was unassigned. The school unrestricted fund ended the year with a total fund balance of 3 million. Your opera fund was fully spent at the end of fiscal year 2025, so there was no funds left remaining to be spent. Your other governmental funds ended the year with a combined fund balance of 2.6 million. Uh if you if you want uh the detail of what's in that other governmental funds total, you can go to page 106 and there's a breakout of all the various funds that make that up if you're interested. If you turn to page 17, it's your statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance for your governmental funds. The general fund increased fund balance by 1.8 million last year. The school unrestricted fund increased their fund balance 202,000

and your other governmental funds increased fund balance by 240,000 fiscal year 25. Pages 19 and 20 are your proprietary funds which are your water and sewer funds. The water fund ended the year with a net position of 6.6 6 million of which 510,000 was unrestricted. Your sewer fund ended the fiscal year with 10.4 million in net position of which 5.9 million is unrestricted. Your water fund increased its net position by $3 million in fiscal year 2025 and the sewer fund increased its net position by 1.2 million in 2025. The last set of financial statements are your fiduciary funds on pages 23 and 24. The town's OPE fund has a net position of 3.2 million and that increased 664,000 in fiscal year 2025. The next se section you'd probably be interested is your budgetary statement. So that's pages 97 and 98 for your budgetary statement. The general fund had a budgetary surplus of $2 million last year. The following page, page 99, shows the school's budgetary information. They had a budgetary surplus of $558,000. If you head towards the back of the report on page 125, uh those are the reports on governmental auditing standards and uniform guidance reports and on page 131 is a schedule of findings and question cost. There were two uh findings related to the financial statements. One was

capital assets and one was related to police detail. And there was one um uniform guidance finding from our single audit related to suspension and debarment. So that's a very quick overview of the report. I don't know if you have specific questions on the financial statements or the note or any of the findings that you want to ask us before I move on to the letters. So I would like to just acknowledge Mr. Clifford's questions since we won't have public hearing um during this reading today. So detail specifics were you guys consulted prior to us making the switch from the finance clerk supporting the detail specifics to the police department?

To be honest with you, I'm not sure. Do you remember if I don't think that we had contacted you? I think we had just made the they had made the call as of currently at that time. Um the accounts payable the previous accounts payable clerk was doing all of it plus accounts payable. Um and it was just way too much for her to handle. Um and what is that something an auditor would weigh in on though? Isn't that like a business consultant? It it is. Yeah. It's not's responsibility. in the light of the um problem with receivables, we stepped in to rectify the problem.

Right. Yeah. So the auditor would only have consideration on how we account for it, but um we had made that decision uh because she was well over her head with the amount of work that goes into that. Um we had met with the chief and we had transitioned it over. Um and then since auditing fiscal year 25 um because we don't look at the balances every single month. We you know when we go through the audit is when we have the time people would have looked at every single account every single fund. Um and that's when we had seen the auditors had seen it and then we had taken as you can see we had taken corrective action to be able to rectify the issue. Okay.

And then his other question was was an audit completed for the details account? Was it an audit completed for the receivable balance or I mean that's how we audited the receivable balance like we did our testing on it. Yeah. That's how that's how we discovered. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So it was part of the regular audit part process. Okay. Thank you.

I don't think I have any questions at this time. I did want to point out um not to put you guys in a difficult position, but uh our auditing firm will not be our auditing firm going forward. They are getting out of the business of the auditing and we have uh we're going to have to transition to a new auditor for next year. So, is that like the they're not auditing any towns anymore or is it just we're not auditing North Smithfield anymore? All I'm not going to answer for you. So Pat is Pat's retired. You're retired. Okay. So it's a business change, business decision is what's spurring or what driving that. Exactly.

We have gone out for proposals uh for new auditing services and not surprising given the nature of the auditing business. We received one proposal. So it was a three-year contract. They did two years. Is there like a termination clause or how's that work? Yeah, they have to do one more year. locked in. Joking, they have the right to be able to exit. There's no prepayment to that. We had paid for any uh fiscal year 26 auditing. So,

okay. So, you also have two letters from us. One is a management letter and another is a communication with governance. I don't know if you have any questions on either of those letters if you've had a chance to look them over. I didn't have any question. They seemed to be positive from what, you know, when I read through them, it didn't really seem like there was anything overly negative or even negative. Yeah. The larger findings would be the ones on page 131. These are the smaller items and just general information for you to have as a council.

Okay. And at a quick glance, some of the observations from last year or the recommend observations and recommendations from last year, were those rectified? I do see prior year observation, prior year. So on page four, so it's broken into two sections. Section one and section two. Section one is new finding or new management letter comments

um from last fiscal year. Section two is prior ones. So if you look, there'll be a status. So it says observation recommendation status. So that's the status for fiscal year 25. So for instance number four, you know, we found one that had a revenue posted to expenditure, that type of thing. So it's each one is updated with the status and management provides their response. Okay.

So, as far as the sign the deficiencies that were identified, do you guys have a response to that or do you have like so the police detail receivable? Seems like that one is being worked on, right? The capital assets. Um, so there's a section the last section of each comment has the views of management and they're corrected. their plan corrective action. It's required to be part of the report. No time frames associated with them though. Yeah, it all depends on funding.

Okay. But it it does seem like some of the prior year observations are still the current observations, right? So what we're going to work towards rectifying. Yeah. So capital assets has been one that's been around for a little bit. Um yeah, it's just being able to carve out the time to do a midyear uh reconciliation of the capital assets. Um, ideally what we would like to do, which I think I stated in the management response, is to get a software, which is what we're actively working on, is okay. A holistic software that takes a looks at the town's assets as a whole. And that would be very, very ind depth with

a an accounting of what we have, what we don't have, um, very detailed in the current status of that asset. So that's the idea is to be able to move into something that's more digital instead of just like a big Excel sheet that has like 4,000 lines. Yeah. We're we're looking to transition, of course, like the finance director said, it comes down to money, but we would like to transition into a whole new budgeting software that also provides online transparency. So there's a lot more accountability on a real-time basis where we stand. Uh but we've been interviewing some firms on that. I don't condone AI because I think it takes up too much water, but is is that something that

AI uh none of Yeah, I don't think any of that would really have to AI would be involved in any of that. I'm sure there that some of the softwares we talked to were like, oh, we have AI, but we don't. Okay, I want a little more. I went to the um Rhode Island League of Cities and Talents conference a couple weeks ago. There was a event that I participated in regarding AI. Um for every positive thing that people talk about AI, there's another negative thing.

So when you start talking about finances, you have to be very very careful. Um there are things that we can do that are lowerhanging fruit, if you will, that are more constituent-based that could really help the constituents really sort of um navigate our online resources. Um, but as it relates to financing, that's a more difficult question because there's all sorts of legal ramifications to that as well. Right. Right. Okay. No, I do recall seeing some AI financial dashboard floating around the Nor Smithfield internet and I thought it looked appealing, but I'm sure that more goes into it than just Yeah.

typing some numbers into AI. Um, okay. Anyway, I think so, too. Okay. Are you done? I I I would like to to recognize and thank our auditors for the relationship we've had. Um, I've only been here for a year and a half. Um, seems like 10 years and a half. Um, but I sincerely appreciate the professionalism uh that you guys demonstrate. Thank you. We appreciate that. Cheryl, may I ask one more question? I know that that Mike had one other question that I I didn't know. Um the hours that were estimated for auditing versus the hours that were used.

So Tony, the last bid that we submitted had our estimated hours included in the bid on it was two or three years ago. So you could look that up. Yeah, I'd have to pull it up. Give me one minute. Thanks, Tony. Um as far as the actual hours account. Yeah. And I would imagine they're pretty consistent year-over-year. No. Yes. This year was a little bit more the compensated absences. The new gas fee was Okay. was a lot. Okay. Is that a town specific thing or was that

it's government? All governments. Anybody who uses uh Gazsby for their GAP had to implement that this year. So, the state local. Okay. I think I have the physical version upstairs. I don't think I have their bid digitized. I mean, I'm Yeah, no worries, Tony. Whenever you get to it, we don't have to hold up. Just Yeah. I mean, our actual hours would be fairly close to that. It's usually over. Okay. Okay. Well, I don't have any further questions at this time. I don't need

Thank you very much. Do we Is this Do we need any sort of vote for this or is this just merely a discussion? Just for a council review. Okay. Yeah. Okay. As far as I David, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck in retirement. Yes. Enjoy it. I can't wait to retire. You got a long way. I know. I do. I do. I have a long way to go. Aren't you semi-retired now? Almost. I I have two kids, so Feels like it's far from it. That doesn't count. No. Yeah. No.

Okay. Our next item is old business. Discussion by council vote or other action on status progress report items. The North Smithfield Police Station renovations update. Yeah. What we are going to be uh to attempting to schedule a special town council meeting on April 27th. April 27th.

Yes. Um that is to basically go over the GMP. um and all other issues relating to the project uh for the final council review. Um regardless of that, we've been working hard on a variety of fronts. Um one of those areas was uh we had confirmed with our discussions with the state of Rhode Island that the um elevator is not required for this project.

Okay. Um however with that being said um in consultation with Councilman Punchac um Council President Als and myself we had instructed the um the team to go to the state for a full ADA compliance review. Um as a private developer I would never do that

but as a public entity I think it makes sense. Um, our architects are are confident that we meet all ADA requirements, but it doesn't hurt to be doubly sure. That's not going to delay the project at all because our first phase of the project will effectively entail demolition and hazardous um mitigation. Um, we're kicking off with the chief um looking at furniture and equipment. Um we also um are working on the issues of fiber connections for the police station dispatch. As you recall, we received a half a million dollar grant

for the dispatch uh infrastructure. Um that dispatch infrastructure requires a connection with OSHAN, which is the private nonprofit fiber network in Rhode Island that connects a variety of nonprofit and public entities. Um, North Smithfield is not on the OAN network. Um, many of our neighboring towns are, but the dispatch system has to tie into OAN. So, the chief is meeting with his team on Thursday, and we're starting to work on that issue as well. So, we're still working very hard on all fronts. Um, but we look to the 27th to come back with a final GMP on the project. Have you seen the latest GMP since the last?

I have not. The only change that we had was a reduction as it relates to the hazard mitigation management plan that was reduced from I think it was $25,000 down to $5,000. Okay. Um but we have not seen the rest numbers. Uh we expect to see them if not u you know tomorrow by midweek. Okay. Um but so far it seems everything is um is on par.

Okay. And then I do just want to confirm that when we last spoke the request was that during the budget committee's review of you know departmental um requests that we were also going to include how the bond may impact the tax base. I like I know that it's tangental. So that's already that was already addressed in a previous analysis that was done by our fiscal advisor and that has been provided to the budget committee. Okay.

Um so that that's been done that that effectively looks at the status quo and not any debt savings that we are having now because we're in 2027 because we're not we paid off the school bond. So they'll look at it regardless of that. What's the impact of the bond on the taxpayers? But that's in their fiscal assessment which was provided to the budget committee. Okay. But the budget committee is going to include the bond in their assessment.

The budget committee's recommendation is is that it's a recommendation in terms of how much they think that we should be pro um incur or taking out of unrestricted fund balance, you know, to write down the amount of bond that we pull down. That's the only recommendation that they're looking at right now. No, David, go ahead. So, just while we're on that topic, correct me if I'm wrong, but is that unrestricted fund balance as of the end of 2025? That that is that's not right. That's not the unrestricted fund balance at the end of fiscal year 26. At the end of 25, we have right now 25 is what we included in our analysis. So, this number 12 million, that is correct.

Okay. But the Okay. So when we last spoke about the bond, we didn't make a decision the last meeting because we wanted to hold off. That's correct. Until budget to understand the potential implications or lack of implications in approving the bond for 789 dependent upon how it would impact the tax rate. So the request was that they incorporate that analysis into their budget so we can make an informed decision to determine how much we would like to use of the bond. Are we recalling that request?

I know that the council wanted us to go further down the budget process before they make that final determination. what exactly the budget committee was incorporating in their analyses. I can't answer that other than they are coming out with their recommendation. Okay. As to how much we should be pulling from unrestricted fund balance. Okay. But I want to see I want

almost like the dashboard that our financial advisor provided. I'd like to see some semblance of that within the budget. So, if we if our if we use the bond for 7 million and the general fund for 2 million, I'm just throwing some numbers out there. What would the tax rate implication be? If we go for eight, if we go for nine, I'd like to just see that itemized so that we can make an informed decision on how much of the bond we would like to use based on the potential implications or lack thereof to the tax. We'll make sure that the chairman of the budget committee understands your expectations. Okay. May I ask a question?

Uh, my question is actually more of a uh recommendation. Better late than never, but I wish I thought of this two years ago when we were looking at building a new station. Uh, but um this would be more of a question. Also, Tammy, I'm going to need your input on this. Maybe on the 27th it would be a good idea if we have a council meeting at the police station. I know there's a room there that can that that can uh we'd be able to use for the um for that meeting. And then at that point, even if the council wanted to get a tour of the building, we wouldn't have to reconvene at a special for a special meeting to go look at the building. And anybody who was in attendance would be more than w would be more than welcome to uh to join us on that tour. I think it' be a great opportunity to get a firsthand look at the condition of the police station and um uh even take a quick tour by the chief uh if he so obliges us.

You serving donuts? But uh now now the question is it's doable. Tammy, uh CJ will not be doing that meeting for recording. Renee will be. So I'm not sure if CJ can um CJ, can we pull that off? How to do that? Be a live stream. No, it won't be a live stream. Can we do it? The council can do it. You can um council is free to have a view. Um if it's a public meeting, that would mean the public would have to have access wherever the council goes. Yeah. If that's not going to be the case, then the council would have to do it in less than a majority of the members.

I'm sorry. There's two ways to do it. Three ways to do it, right? One way is you meet, you have a a majority of the council there, and everywhere you go, the public goes. That's one way. Another way is the council could go less than a majority could go through the building. Not a majority of the bu the council can go through the building. I don't know what the chief's security situation is there. As long as there's no prisons, you could take any public member with you. So then, and even if you did have prisons, they just can't go into the basement. Exactly. Okay. So, as long as the chief has no restrictions on public access, then the council could have a meeting. It won't be recorded, but you can do it. The clerk would have to take minutes of any discussion just like

it will be recorded. It just won't be live streamed. That's a she would take minutes. Yeah. Yes, you can do it. Chief security. Yeah, we'll look at the logistics on that. Councilman. Okay. And that I think it's a good idea. And I think then at that point um we hold the meeting in the police station. Get let everybody see what you know the condition of the police station. They may love it. They may say you don't need a renovation. But um and then if they want to take a we'll take a walk through and uh anybody who's in attendance at the meeting is welcome to join us. I wish I thought of it two years ago when we were looking at a new building, but better late than never. You're slipping. I am. Okay.

Thank you. Any other discussion?

Okay. Thank you, Scott. Okay. The next item is going to be a bit of a mouthful. Um, I'm going to read the notice first and then I will run through um the itemized text. Okay. Notice. A mediation process regarding the following matters B1, B2, and C1 is currently in progress but has not yet been completed. The town administrator will request the following matters B1, B2, and C1 be continued to a new date of April 20th, 2026 due to the ongoing mediation. Um item old business item B discussion by council vote or other action on petition application for an amendment to the zoning ordinance pursuant to Rhode Island general laws 45-24-50 and 45-24-51 45-24-53 as follows. Item number one, petition application for an amendment to zoning ordinance filed by Poundale Realy LLC co 618 Greenville Road, North Smithfield, Rhode Island 02896. The owner of the parcel of land situated off Old Oxford Road, Poundale Road, and Pinehill Road in the town of North Smithfield more, particularly described as Town of North Smithfield, Tax Assessor's Plat 7, lot 38, consisting of 89.44 acres subject property. Item number two, text amendment and a zoning map amendment to the zoning ordinance of the town of North Smithfield. The quote unquote zoning ordinance. The proposed zoning amendment will create a new zoning district quote industrial special management district one overlay and quote the intent of the district is to allow mining, coring, sand and gravel extraction, loom stripping, stone cutting operations, crushing, washing andor processing of materials. The zoning map amendment proposes the to amend the zoning designation of the parcel of land located at 14 Pineh Hill Road in the town of North Smithfield more specifically described as assessors

plat 7 lot 38 the property from rural agricultural RA and rural or estate agricultural REA to industrial special management district 1 overlay. Um 2 A is continuation of public hearing. 2B is discussion by council vote or other action and item B uh C rather is discussion by council vote or other action on mediation which is currently pending Poundill Realy LLC versus Tana North Smithfield case number PC199-1811. So again, a mediation process regarding the following matters is currently in progress but has not yet been completed and the town administrator will request that we that the following matters or the matters affermentioned be continued to a new date of April 20th, 2026 due to the ongoing mediation.

Okay. Y may I say something? Sure. On this? May I may I speak on this? Sure. Um this is really a hot button issue. So, can we at least let people know, yes, we met twice, we met once. We're going to meet again. I mean, can we give them Can we throw him a bone? There there will be a public hearing. It's a continuation of the public hearing. No, but as far as the mediation, has the mediation begun yet? The mediation has begun, but the mediation has to become private per the mediation agreement. Well, I'm not I'm not saying I want to discuss anything that took place in the mediation, but can we at least say yes, mediation has begun. We they Yes, it has begun. We've we've met three times on mediation and we are hoping to conclude the mediation this week. Perfect.

At that point, when we comes back to the town council, they'll the town council will discuss the mediation in executive session and then bring it out to the public for conversation. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. New new business discussion by council vote. You need to vote to continue those date. Okay. Okay. I will make a motion to continue items all business items B1, B2, and C1 to a date certain of April 2026. Is that going to be here or is that going to be at the middle school? Here. Same time. Same place.

Is going to be on the 27th. Yeah. Is that what you were asking? No, no. I was asking about this, right? Since well, so since we were meeting on this at the middle school previously. Well, that's um should we go back to the middle school? Do we need to go back to the middle school or are we good here? That's a good question. Um well, it's continued to a date certain. It's up to the the the council where they decide to have it. But the date certain is critical. So that's my motion. I I don't know. Whatever the council wants to do, that's fine. I don't know if we did last meeting was at the middle school was it? No, it was not.

I think it was here. But wherever you choose to do it is not critical. It's the fact that you voted to uh continue to a date certain to keep everything the public hearing alive under the law. Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. That's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Mr. Beer. Yes. Mr. Christopharo recuse. Mrs. O'Hara. Yes. Mr. Punchack. Yes.

New business. Um item A, discussion by council vote or other action on communications from town administrator Mr. Gibbs on the grants status.

Yeah. In your package is uh the same summary form that I previously provided to you. Things that I've identified in yellow. I assume they showed up in yellow in the digital printout. I don't know if the print out it did. Um, as you know, we received the $500,000 grant for the uh police dispatch system, which is showing in yellow. Um, we also submitted a congressional appropriation request in the amount of $824,000. Um, what we did is we segmented out of the police station project two elements. Element one would be the security system and element two would be the u the uh storage garage in the back. Those are going to be elements that are in the later part of the project. The idea is we can get the money for that. That would basically reduce the amount of money that the town has to put into the project. Again, that's typically 12 to 15 months before we know the end result. But it will be coming in at a point, I think, that it'll be timely for us. We have communicated that to our um construction company and they have taken the necessary uh steps to make sure that we segment those costs out.

And what's the likelihood that we would there is I cannot give you an assessment of any likelihood right now as it relates to congressional appropriations in Washington. I can't. It's just it is what it is. So we we put our wars in the water and we're trying the best that we can. Um, I mean, as always, and I don't mean this in a derogatory way, but North Smithville is a small community. Um, our leverage is not huge, um, but quite frankly, I've always been impressed by the engagement that we received from our congressional delegation staff in our town and the things that we're talking about. So, I remain semi positive. Okay. Um the other things that we did um before we move on from the police station grants, pardon me.

Before we move on for the police grants, who applied for those grants? Uh I did with Lisa Andoa. Okay. Um the infrastructure, parking, road upgrades as it relates to Scouters Hall or Pico Park. Um we put in a request uh for $930,000. uh that was uh submitted to um Senator Reid. What happens is on these congressional requests and although you say you submit it to Senator Reid, our entire congressional delegation, their staff work together.

So when the applications come in, they sort of divvy them up. So we've submitted that uh that is a a broad range of um initiatives relating to storm water management improvements, road reconstruction, parking expansion and um period specific uh architectural lighting both going into Pico and on Main Street.

Um we've um also have submitted a grant request. This number has changed a little bit. It shows here uh $350,000. Actually, the number is $475,000. I just got off the phone this afternoon with our congressional delegation. This is kind of an interesting opportunity. Uh USDA um we are eligible to USDA because of population. We're under 15,000 and um they were undersubscribed in the congressional district. So they reached out to us through and said, "Hey, does North Smithfield have a project?" And we worked together and we came up with a project. It further leverages the stuff that we're talking about in Pico Park, that whole area. So that number is actually going to be $470,000. All of these requests are very um nuanced because number one, a lot of the federal appropriations do not they require matches, but the matches can't be other federal funding. So when we got the state um grant for Patical Park, we can use that as leverage. Mhm.

Um, and you'll see another thing that when you look at the administrator's budget request, we put in there, uh, an additional half a million dollars for Scout Hall, but put it being funded out of unrestricted reserves. Effectively, only if we got the grant, we could provide a match. Um, so we're trying to play all those nuances of these grant programs because they're they're not real simple. Um, and of course you know that we got the particular uh park grant. Um, and we're going to uh the administration is going to start working with the uh with the parks and recck committee uh start to refine that a little bit once we come up we want to come up with a vision statement for that whole area park through scouters hall down to main street. Um and then once we come up with a conceptual idea then we want to start to encourage public input into that. I don't know what the exact form that we're going to do that on, but we want to get public input into that process. That that whole area could be really exciting. Yeah.

Um but we'll wait and see because like everything else, it's tied into federal funding. And will you engage those businesses, too? Yes, we will. In fact, one of the arguments that we made as it related to the USDA grant was it's not just an infrastructure, parks, and wreck. It's also historic preservation, economic development. um being able to partner with the owners of those two properties to deal with how we how we manage the parking issues and how we deal with the front of those buildings on the main street which is quite frankly rather dangerous. I know because I park there every morning.

Um we have to engage them in that process. But before we do that, we wanted to create some general vision on that area so we can sit down and show them this is what we're thinking about and get them engaged in the in the discussion. Okay. And then the CDBG grant, are we going to try for that one again? We are going to go try again for CDBG this year. Yes. For Scout Hall, uh we we will pro well we were we were uh discounted for CDBG as it related to Hollowwell, right? Um Lisa's told me that she's not that confident that that's a necessary given. Okay. So, we're going to be working closely with her if we can't navigate that problem. Yes. Scouters. Okay. Okay.

No question about it. Okay. Thank you. I have a question. Is it possible? Is it, you know, feasible? Is it necessary for Lisa to come in on like a quarterly basis just to, you know, talk to us? Like you give us the these updates, but it' be nice to hear from her. Council President Alice has asked me on numerous occasions to do that. Um I will make sure that she will be here first meeting in May.

And I do see that the Rhode Island CDBG grant was actually included at the bottom. Yeah. For rejection. No, the intent to submit for March. Okay. I'm sorry. We're also there's um um another there are a couple private foundations that we're also looking very closely at. Okay. Um those are more in line with probably scouters than anything, but we I'm working with Lisa on those now.

Okay. Looking forward to that Pico Park update and vision. Any other questions on grants? Okay, scroll on up to our last item. Okay, our last item, discussion by council vote or other action on the Axon taser contract and IT support. Chief Lafering,

good evening. The reason I am before you today is to request permission to enter into a contract with Axon Enterprises who provides our police tasers to our patrolman. And the reason why is uh we're moving from a taser 7 to a taser 10, the new generation new technology of taser. Uh our current tasers like ballistic vests uh their shelf life only lasts 5 years and uh we're going to expire that fifth year before the budget gets approved July 1st. So, we're looking uh within this contract with Axon to keep our current tasers current, supported, and warrantied through July 1st. It also gives the company um the okay to go ahead and order these tasers because they take a long time uh to come in and try more or less beating the other municipalities that are putting in the orders. Um and the uh master service purchasing agreement that is involved in this uh contract provides an appropriation clause where if the town does not support uh in its budget process the uh spending of the amount of money within the contract then it's null and void. So there's there's a no lose in signing it earlier if in fact something happens where the town couldn't financially pass this current contract in their budget process. It's a five-year contract. Um so due to the longevity of the five-year contract, that's another reason why we opted to go to the generation uh Taser 10. It has its pluses with distance of multiple cartridges like a uh a duty pistol. Um as well as the Taser 7's shelf life will be expired by won't be supported within the 5-year period of uh the contract.

It says that the quote expired on 331. So would is this quote still relevant? Well, yeah. What they'll do is they'll support our current teasers uh with it's it's supported by the software and the warranty from from the company. So we're fine until we get the new ones. Okay. I I just have a question. So on the cover page says the program length is 69 months whereas on page three the taser 10 certification standard plan says the term is only 60. So what what is the discrepancy between 60 and the 69 months on the cover? The 69 what?

So on the front page program length 69 months on page three. Oh yeah. Okay. If you look at the program taser 10 the term is only 60. H that might be just the uh the support of the current teases that we have that amount of time and then but that's the amount here 168,683 the numbers are the same. So assuming the math lines up across

I'd have to look into it. But that span of time where we're not going to have the Taser 10, we're still going to have the Taser 7. Maybe that's why it only kicks in a few months um when they're actually delivered and physically in our department and carried. Yeah. Like the next line item is Alakart software and it has a term of nine. Nine. Yeah. Just like I don't know what you know what that any of this it just doesn't add up. Why would you buy something for nine month nine months and something for 60 months? Well, because together that's where the support that you're paying them for the support the warranty of the current teasers that we have up until we get the new software license though, right? On the ones you currently have. Exactly. Yes. Okay. Oh, so you

that's another reason why I'm getting it this sign now is to protect us up until the time uh we have the new TA. So at the time in October when this was originally done, nine months would have made sense if you got him in June. So okay, now I get it. So that 69 months on October, nine months would have got you to June when they thought they were going to deliver you the new stuff, right? How it adds up. So we don't intend to purchase these tasers until fiscal year 2027. No, this is in my capital budget. It's in 2026

for this for this budget. Okay. I don't have any questions. Do we have any further questions for Chief Lafery? I don't. Okay. Do we have a motion? I will make a motion to approve uh the purchase of the Axon um tasers and taser uh and IT support in the amount of $168,68357.

Well, do we have to authorize any signature? Yes. Madam President, is the chief signing it or is the town administrator? the administrator and authorize the town administrator to sign. That's a motion to We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Madam Clerk, Mr. Bryan? Yes. Mr. Christopharo? Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Punch? Yes. Thank you. There you go, Chief. Enjoy those new tasers. You're not going to go like uh hangover and take them to a school. tased.

No, I've never been tased. I don't ever hope to be tased. Okay. Our last item, open forum pursuant to 42-46-6D, maximum of three minutes per person.

Uh Kevin Carrier 118 Elizabeth. Um uh you had brought up a website. So, I had made a website that just kind of like looked at um I just wanted to clarify a few things and answer some questions um that it kind of like visualized the town's budget um and the spending on it. Uh Councilman Drisvaro, you mentioned like giving numbers to AI. I just want to make clear that I looked I tried my best to look through the different documents and most of that is my own hand and I know a good good amount around a computer but like I did note and I'm happy to acknowledge that yeah like some of like the design I don't know how to use JavaScript well so it it helped on that so there was some AI used to it but I just wanted to clarify part of that a good part of that uh attempt with me and then Councilman Bureard you mentioned that it was um I I I didn't hear exactly what you said but you it was wrong. I'm happy to receive any feedback. It was just me trying to understand the the town budget. And so if there was something particular that was wrong, I did list at the bottom where I got all the numbers. Um and so if there was a number that I totally misread, I'm happy to uh address that or talk to you more about that. Uh but it was just, you know, me me trying to figure out the the town budget. So I'm excited to hear that the town's looking to make things like a little bit more accessible to the town. Um that's that's wonderful. Um, and I think that that can only be for the better. So, happy to clarify anything, but

I don't think it's a clarification, Kevin. I think that it's a smart tool. Um, I found it to be informative and I immediately texted our town administrator and I said, did the administration infor work with the North Sithfield Democratic Committee to inform any of these numbers because we obviously don't want those numbers created and then shared to the public in a vacuum. I don't remember I don't remember seeing that message. Council woman, I did message you. You sure? I Okay, just want to make sure

I can clarify that. I did not talk to uh No, he did not at all if if he had seen the tool and if they informed any of those numbers. Um he was not aware of the tool. So my request would be that moving forward if any financial numbers are shared with the public. I mean, I'm sure Tony would make himself available to help you and like ensure that some of those numbers are are correct. Yeah. Are correct because we just don't want to be sharing inaccurate numbers with the public. So, I thought it was a very cool tool um very informative and it was presented in a way that was pretty, you know, easy to read and understand, but my recommendation is just to work with the administration to ensure that those numbers are well informed.

Would love to do that. Thank you for that feedback. Did I miss something? Oh, so there's a there's a little I made a web page. You can kind of like look at uh like the bond and how much you would want to take out from the bond and then see how much and really it shows that the town is good. It's in a good financial space. Okay. So, I did miss something. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Thank you, Kevin. Any other question? And any other open forum participants? I just have um feedback from the question earlier about the hours I had found it.

Um so for year two which is what they just completed was a total of 604 hours is what they estimated. Um 394 of that would have been for the town and the rest of that would have been for the school side including the AUP totals that they have to do. Um, two things to note similarly to what she had mentioned is two things that they didn't take into consideration when providing those hours was the gazsby 101 which is the compensated absences and all the work that goes into that and then the single audit that we would that we had to do also for the ARPA funds that we had gotten a while back the co money

that we did for comtock we had to do a single audit because we earned it we earned like 750 grand for over so we had to do a single audit for that too. So when she said that they had done more hours, they had most likely definitely done more hours than the 604 that they had originally stated. So that's all. Thank you, Tony. Okay. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Madame clerk, roll call, please. Or can we just say I? All in favor? I I