City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Uh time having arrived, I call this regularly scheduled meeting of the Brockton Finance Committee to order. Will you all please join me in standing in saluting our flag? I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Clerk. Item one, we have the appointment of Lewis Martins of 206 Brockton Mass to the Brockton Redevelopment Authority for a 5-year term ending January 2031. Invited Lewis Martins. Good evening, Mr. Martins.

Good evening. Thank you for having me here and I appreciate the opportunity. I'll do the best I can for the city of Brockton. Thank you, councilors. Councelor Thompson. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh good evening, uh Mr. Martins, and uh thank you for stepping forward and uh seeking to serve your community. Um just one quick question. Um I was hoping if you could uh describe your uh relevant experience and qualifications that would support your work on the redevelopment authority. And additionally, have you successfully collaborated with committees or similar groups to achieve consensus and advanced shared goals? Good evening, Mr. Thompson.

Good evening, sir.

So, I've been uh a resident of Brockton for 41 years. In the last 26, I've been involved in real estate, helping first-time home buyers, um, various developers in the city such as Joey Gonzalez and Charlie Macy who are very close clients of mine. Um, among other developers that I've worked with, I've have a good relationship with the building department that I frequent once or twice a week. I'm also in the engineers department where I know a lot of the people by name there like Pete Keller um who are very helpful people for the city of Brockton I might add. Um I've done numerous projects. I've gone in front of the zoning board with uh Dilva Enterprises as well uh to get projects approved. Uh, a lot of times you don't see me because I'm doing the paperwork and the information behind the scenes, but a lot of those projects start because I find I find it and I point it out to these guys who have the money to develop and make the city better for me and the four children that I'm raising in the city right now.

Great. Well, I appreciate that. Um, and again, you know, thank you for uh stepping forward. Uh, we uh, you know, we need qualified and and dedicated people on our boards and um, we're just happy to you for you to throw your name in the ring. So, thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, councelor Councel Castro. Uh, and I saw another hand.

Good evening, Mr. Martins. Thank you for being here. Um, I reviewed the information that you sent in to um to the clerk's office and I did some looking around and um you you are um you are a real estate agent and broker with a good reputation in the city. I know you've worked with a lot of people. I know you're a property owner in the city with some investment properties. Yes. And I was aware that you did work with some developers and I just wanted to give you some caution. I think your skills and talents will will really benefit the redevelopment authority, but just be careful of conflict of interest issues. be careful. Be be sure to keep your own business and your own concerns separate from that of the city because, you know, you can do great business with the redevelopment authority and they need someone with background, but also you don't want to get it all intertwined with your own business and your own personal concerns. So, I just throw that out to you. I've seen this happen in other communities. Um, but you're smart, so you know what to do.

I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Good luck to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Councelor Charnell.

Um, good evening. Good evening, Mr. Martins. Uh, uh, I'm just going to make a few statements because I've known Mr. Martin and his character for uh, many years now. Again, he's lived in this city for um, you said 40 years. I mean, he's played sports, coach kids. um his organization has donated, you know, countless events that I've been a part of. Um and I've actually been telling Mr. Martins for probably as long as I've been sitting on committees to get involved. And I'm actually thrilled that a qualified, more than qualified um resident of our city is willing to give up his time. And you know, I count time of someone that does things around our community like Mr. Martin is very valuable. So, I want to say thank you to you. I know your your family's here, your wife's here. So, I just thank you to your family for giving us the opportunity to, you know, have you serve in a in a role where I think the redevelopment authority is one of the more important things in the city. So, thank you.

I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. Uh, councelor Tvaris. Hi. How you doing? Uh, thank you for being here and thank you for your apply. Actually, I do have two question. Uh, why do you believe you are the best candidate for this position?

So, I believe I'm the best candidate for this position because I've seen Brockton at its lowest and at its highest. I've been here for 41 years. My youngest daughter is one years old. She just turned one three weeks ago. I want to make a better Brockton for these kids to grow up in. I'm a graduate of Brockton High 1995. All right. I built my business here. I own my properties here. I don't leave here unless I have to go to a movie theater. I know what Brockton needs. We need some more things for our youth because to build a strong foundation, it starts with these kids. All right. Give them some things to do. Keep them off the streets and you're going to build a better Brockton that way because they're going to be leading us in a few years. That's very good. And then, uh, what is your main goal if you select it? What's your goal?

Well, my main goal is to make the city better, give kids things to do. We don't have a splash pad in Brockton. Rainree does. I know where all the splash pads are because I have a three-year-old, too, and 11 and 13. Right. We have a lot of things that other towns have that we don't and we have 10 times more people than they do. So there's no reason why we can't develop the city and make it better. All right. Thank you, councel. My question. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Counselor is there. Uh councelor Green.

Uh Mr. Martins, let me um also express my appreciation to you um for your investment in the city. Um the real estate investments that you've made, but um perhaps most importantly, um you've chosen to raise your family um in Brockton.

Yes, sir. Um that is an incredible um investment I think and um and I appreciate that and I appreciate you uh deciding to step forward to uh contribute and to be a part of the uh working uh solution to uh to our city. So uh thank you for uh lending your time and your expertise to the other city. Um, and a big thank you to your family as well because as you give to the city, it takes a little away from your uh family and you would not be here if you did not have the support um of your family in doing so. So, I do I do express gratitude to um your family for um supporting you in this um in this move. Um I um if you can um could you just perhaps uh comment a little bit um about the um the other caution for uh conflict of interest. Um you're a smart uh businessman and you've carried yourself well. Um if you don't mind just I'm comment a little bit for the uh the residents and just to kind of assure how you would uh conduct yourself. um in this role given your uh business interests.

So as far as uh conflict is always something I try to avoid, right? Because at the end of the day, my livelihood and my reputation is not worth the conflict that I'm going to run into. Um, the way that my kids and my family see me, it's not worth having to go home at them and and look them in the eye to tell them that daddy did something wrong, cuz that's not going to happen. At the end of the day, I want what's best for the city. I want what's best for my kids and the people's kids. I'm going to be here for a long time. I'm about to finish building a brand new house in Brockton where that's where I'm hopefully going to end my days and you're going to have me for a long time working for the good of the city.

Thank you. Thank you. Council good. Thank you councelor. Any other counselors? Do we have a motion? Councelor Asac. Thank you. Uh Mr. Chairman, I just would like to uh congratulate Mr. Mines on this appointment. Um he runs an award-winning real estate agency and um you know, his pride in business and in ownership in the city and being a Brocktonian really brings um you know, peace to my mind. So, I'm glad to see you being appointed to this position. Um and with with that being said, I'd um like to recommend this favorably back to the full city council.

Second. Motion has been properly made and seconded. All in favor? All oppose? Motion is recommended favorably. Thank you. I appreciate it. I won't let anybody down. Thank you, Mr. Mark.

Item two, we have the appointment of Natasha Jean Gillis of Thomas Street Brockton Mass to the Cemetery Board of Trustees for a 5-year term ending in January 2031. Invited Natasha Jean Gillis. Councilors, I have an email that I did leave a copy with you. Originally, she had answered that she would be here tonight. However, she had a fall over the weekend and is unable to be here tonight, but she did send a note asking for your vote. And if you'd like, I can read it. Good day. My name is Natasha Jean Gillis. I sincerely apologize for being unable to be present due today due to a recent fall that has tempor temporarily limited my ability to speak. Serving on the cemetery board of trustees would be a meaningful way to honor my father who was buried at Calvary Cemetery and it allows me to feel a continued connection to him through service. I am also seeking to serve on the women's commission to support, uplift, and advocate for women in our community. I am truly grateful for the mayor's recommendation and the committee's thoughtful consideration and I look forward to the opportunity to serve the city of Brockton.

Council Thompson. Uh so Miss Jean Gillis is a uh constituent of mine. Um I believe she's well qualified uh for both positions. Um I would have no problem uh seeking a motion uh for a favorable recommendation, but if the if uh the council believes it's uh better to postpone this, then I I believe that would also be um sufficient. So, uh, I would make a motion to recommend favorably. Second. You want to take these collectively or they're two separate positions, so we'll we'll go one at one at a time, but

motion's been properly made and seconded to recommend this favorably to the full city council. All in favor? All oppose? The motion passes. Item three, we have the appointment of Natasha Jean Gillies of 46 Thomas Street, Brockton, Mass to the Women's Commission for a three-year term ending in January 2029. Council, motion to recommend favorably back to the full city council. Second. Motion is properly made and seconded. All in favor? Opposed? The motion passes. Item four, we have the appointment of Steven M. Owens to the Commission on Human Rights for a three-year term ending in January 2029. Invited Stephen M. Owens. Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Owens.

Uh, do you have anything you'd want to say to the counselors?

Um, one of the main reasons why I had an interest in this committee is just because of the um, you know, current u division in this country and um, I've always think I've had a strong sense of empathy for people. Um I had retired from Eversource previously instar uh about seven years ago and I was a founding member of uh diversity council and at that time diversity I guess was um I guess identified as just race but then it expanded to like you know sex, gender, country of origin age. Um, I've in my jobs um I've interacted and dealt with probably um maybe people mopping on the floor as high as CEOs. Um, prior to Eversource, I worked for the Department of Revenue doing criminal tax investigations. And that's where I I guess got to I guess feel comfortable around people at very high positions. And one thing that I really feel strongly about is the youth. You know, I think that a lot of times um the youth don't really realize um the opportunities there. I've um I've volunteered at my church, Mount Mariah, serving homeless people. Um I've been on a mission trip, the Fiji uh the Fiji Islands with youth. So I I guess what I'm trying to say is I've dealt with all different types of people. In

fact, I could go as far to say that um my immediate family is really diverse as well. So, I' I've always been able to interact with people, you know, different, you know, races, um, sexual orientation, age. Um, and I just, um, I think I feel that I don't want to be somebody who complains about what's wrong. Uh, I want to be able to offer some solutions. And a lot of times I think that, um, Brockton gets a bad rep. I think a lot of times A lot of times you you you'll see people making comments and a lot of the negative comments are made by people who don't even live in a city. And I I feel that if you don't live here, leave us alone. Let us handle our own problems. You probably have plenty of problems in your city or town. Um I guess I would probably welcome some questions because I um I guess I don't really know what you're looking for. Well, that's that's that's fine. It's just a chance for you to offer anything up. Uh, councils.

All right. As you're looking for question, I have two questions for you.

All right. Uh, what is the actually what qualify you and the experience you have make you strong for this position? I think I have the ability to um interact with a wide range of people regardless of their, you know, their race, uh sex, age. Um I I've done it all my life. You know, I grew up in a um I grew up in, you know, a community where um it was, I would say, maybe somewhat diverse, not as diverse as Brockton is. So I I've always dealt with all different types of people. Um, I'm able to, like I said, I think I'm a very empathetic people. I can empathize with people who are going through, you know, different situations. Um, like I said, you know, volunteering at my church, you know, serving homeless people, whereas a lot of people would look down on homeless people and, you know, you know, turn them away. On the other hand, like I said, I in my job with u the Department of Revenue and Eversource, you know, I've talked to CEO, senior vice president. So, and to me, I think the person marked on the floor is just as important as the person writing the check.

All right. Second question. What is your goal? Pardon me. What is your goal do you hope to achieve uh if you selected for this position? Just to um to make people comfortable if they feel that they've been u discriminated in any type of way u that they can you know voice you know their opinion that they've got some you know somewhere to go someone to talk to.

All right. Uh like you know if you're selected what's your what's your roles going to be for long term and short term? Uh are you planning to teaching class human rights those we as we know we have a 30 right are you planning to teach that to educate that like you know what what do you think uh I'd be willing to do what whatever's asked of me all right I mean I have um you know I have you know in any type of professional setting but I have you know taught and trained people you know at my place of employment over years.

If you get selected, how do you plan to advertise your male right? Uh, councelor, I I believe that he serves on the he'd serve on the board and would handle things that came to the agenda. Thank you. That's all for tonight. Council Castro, thank you. Good evening, Mr. Owens. Thank you for being here. I very much enjoyed reading your cover letter and your resume. You put a lot of time into all of this. I think you will be a tremendous ac asset to our human rights committee. I hope you enjoy your time on it and I will support your nomination. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, counselor. Counselor Azac.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, good evening, Mr. Owens. First of all, thank you for your willingness to serve. Many times people forget that these are volunteer positions and your time is valuable. So, I know I truly appreciate um community members that are willing to serve. I just have a quick question for you and um it's usually on the agenda but it's not on tonight's agenda. What is your address? I'm just curious for your constituency. 383 Hill Avenue. So you're w three three. Okay. Perfect. Well, thank you. Thank you councelor. Counselors, do we have a motion? Motion to recommend favorably back to the full city council. Second.

Motion's properly made and seconded. All in favor? All oppose. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Item four, we have the appointment of Elijah Romulus of Cedar Street Taunt, Mass to the role of director of planning and economic development. Invited Elijah Romulus. Good evening, Mr. Romulus. Uh, good evening. You have anything you'd like to uh open up with?

Uh, yes. I did have something prepared. Uh, I like to write things out just so that I can uh, you know, get through some of the nerves. So, if you would indulge me. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the Brockton City Council. Uh, thank you for this opportunity to speak before you and a big thanks to uh, Mayor Rodriguez uh, putting forth my name for consideration. Uh my name is Elijah Romulus and I am here for the confirmation recommendation for appointment of director of planning and economic development. I am honored to have this chance to speak on my experience, skills and passion that I believe is a perfect fit to take the planning and economic development department forward and make the city of champions proud. I was born and raised in Brockton. I am the son of Haitian immigrants. Uh I am a Brockton boxer. Uh Brockton High, class of 007. The green building is where I met my now wife and I'm the proud father of two boys. Uh professionally, I have experience in both engineering and urban planning. I've worked at the municipal level in city and town forms of government as well as at the regional level. Uh during my tenure, I've been awarded close to $2 million in grants uh across uh infrastructure and clean energy projects in various communities. I have led half a million dollar projects uh negotiated for better affordability in uh one of the state's first MBTA communities uh mixeduse uh developments and have successfully led efforts to enact policy and establish long-term plans. I sit before you today eager and

willing to put my best foot forward to lead the department of planning and economic development. Uh work with you uh may the mayor and his administration uh various departments, boards and committees uh business and property owners, nonprofits, and most importantly the great people who work, live and play in the city of Brockton. Uh the history of this moment is not lost on me. Uh, it would truly be an honor to work in New England's only majority minority city with a mayor that is a person of color for the first time. I believe I too would be making history and assuming this uh director position. So, I humbly ask uh you Brockton City Council uh to vote yes on my appointment. I will be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you counselors. Sure. I'll go first. Thompson.

Uh, good evening, Mr. Ramlas. Uh, thank you for, uh, joining us this evening and, uh, congratulations for, uh, your nomination on this position. I'm sure you're extremely excited about it, and, uh, so are we as a council. Um, Brockton's uh, undergone uh, a tremendous amount of development uh, over the last, say, 10 years. Um, definitely the six years that I've been uh, on this council. Um I I kind of want to start with a basis of understanding of um our our existing city plans. So I was wondering if if you could share uh your understanding of Brockton's existing city plans uh such as the blueprint for Brockton and the downtown uh action strategy.

Uh yes, so thanks for the question. Um so I did take uh some time to look through the different plans. Uh I do know that uh the the blueprint for Brockton uh is the master plan. It was established in 2017. Uh from that various neighborhood plans have gone forward especially for transit oriented transit oriented development in the downtown Kempello Montel transit nodes. Um with that plan it's usually good practice to update it every 10 years. So, uh, if I were, uh, to assume this position, then, um, I would be looking to hopefully update that, um, in the year 2027, um, there's, uh, as I mentioned, other plans for, uh, let's see,

I do have some notes just to make sure.

Um, so the, uh, there is the trout uh, brook uh, plan for the CSX site. um that I think would be a great opportunity to uh add some mixeduse development as it's been proposed. A lot of the different plans for these areas include formbased code, which I think is a great way to move forward and um be able to be uh creative in allowing for different uses that aren't typically um that have historically not been put together um in the rigid form of zoning that we have. And so with this form-based code, it would allow it to kind of activate streetscapes, allow for some economic development and at the same time um housing choice. Um with Campello, um you know, that's uh another area that's along the the um commuter rail. I think that along with Montello are both places that will benefit from development. Um I think the Montello plan, they had started the outreach and presentation portion if I'm not mistaken. they a complete neighborhood plan still needs to be put forth in in place. And so um you know if I were in the role I would look to um expand on that. Um growing up I I grew up on the north side. I went to North Junior High and so you know it would be really nice to to be able to um help uh the Montel area kind of um uh move forward. Um so with your current uh your your current understanding of our existing plans uh maybe we can talk a little bit about vision um you know with um you know how would you leverage uh those frameworks and inform your vision and priorities uh for the city and the future development of Brockton?

Um yes so I mean I think it's definitely important to bring um you know all the stakeholders to the table. um you know some of the ones I touched on earlier making sure that u residents have a say in um the communities that are being developed um you know working with the various departments that um at city hall that are related to land use whether that's uh you know the building commission public works um you know engineering and and those making sure that we have the in-house knowledge to make sure that those um you know any plans move forward and then I would uh look to work with um you know any uh outside advisory um entities to help push forward. I saw that um in some of the plans whether it was RKG Associates or Studio Lu's you know their um different ways that we can make sure that we have uh the capacity to move things forward and um in the you know department of planning and economic development itself making sure that we have the staff and the staff power for that um there was another plan that I had uh forgot to mention was the I think the love it brook um the Boston Medical South area That's another um location that I think is prime for development. Um you know, growing up Brockton had Brockton had three uh movie theaters. Now there's zero. Um you know, the that Leatherbrook, there was one I remember I I had gone to when I was much much younger. Um, so you know, finding areas even like the uh the fairgrounds uh location, especially that uh location, it's already been uh recognized historically as a uh entertainment location for the Brockton Fairgrounds. So finding some way to um uh do, you

know, mixeduse development and looking at entertainment uh to allow for Brockton to be uh more of a destination. Um so yes,

thank you for that. Um kind of uh continuing with um vision and uh I again I represent W five which encompasses half of our uh downtown. Um um just late last year we declared uh the Brocknham Police Department as surplus property and uh to begin the um the RFP process at some point. I was wondering um you know given that it's no longer needed uh for public safety purposes uh how would you envision utilizing uh this strategically located uh site um that would best serve the community and uh you know the broader development goals of the city.

Uh yeah so I think that site um would definitely um benefit from a creative uh developer and uh design team. uh it is a interesting uh kind of uh topography uh for uh you know along the the railroad tracks. So uh finding a way to best use that I I think uh some type of commercial uh kind of structure um maybe add some you know uh public space as well. Um but definitely reaching out to different you know I would have to build some rapport with some of the local developers. I have you know um you know I have working relationships with the developers that I've worked with in previous communities. So I try to you know reach out and see like through the RFP process who would be willing to kind of uh look at that site. And then just lastly, you uh briefly spoke about your experience with uh collaborating uh you know with different groups. I was wondering if uh you could describe a project uh where you had to balance the interests of various stakeholders you know such as residents and business owners, government officials and uh what what strategies did you use to achieve consensus?

Yes. Uh so uh there are I guess a few different ones. Um in in the town of Westwood, I as I had mentioned, I had worked with um I had worked on reviewing the application for a 160 unit uh mixeduse building. Uh it's one of the first uh in the state that falls into the MBTA communities uh act. Um it has you know um retail uses on the first floor um and uh well and residential above. Uh in that process, you know, it was first of all making sure that the developer uh came to the planning board with an application that um met the rules and regulations, the town bylaws to make sure that you know it it fit the um the dimensional regulations and and uses. Uh and then we put that forward through the public process. Uh and it was uh you know my division's job to field u public comments. So we had a lot of resident uh input. You know showed up to the public meetings. So, um, working to in, uh, receive the public input, see how best we can work with the developer to, uh, you know, alter the initial proposal to then get to where, um, it finally was approved and, uh, I think they broke ground. Well, they broke ground and they've already, um, completed the project. So, I think they opened it last uh, sometime in the last few months. And so that that was a large project that I was involved with. Um I could give other examples, but I'll I'll stop there.

Well, I appreciate that. Um because you know, our city planner uh is an extremely important position in the city of Brockton. Um you know, our previous planner uh came to the job with uh you know, a lot of experience and he you know, really hit the ground running and was able to put together um a lot of uh impressive plans and and collaboration on those plans. And then over time, you know, it's it's that mundane day-to-day work to try to execute on the plans we developed. Sometimes, uh, those plans, you know, hit dead ends. You know, as you said, our, uh, blueprint for Brockton is coming up on about a 10-year, uh, time frame. Uh, I I think it would be wise at some point to kind of, uh, take another look at it, see where we are, what have we accomplished, um, where do we go from here? Uh, Brockton has all the potential in the world. I think we are uh well situated uh over the next five to 10 years for further development. Um and we need a city planner that is able to um you know harness uh all of the people in his office uh us as uh city officials um both state federal level somebody who has you know contacts and and knows how to collaborate and and get the job done. And um you know that's that's what we're looking for in a city planner. Um, I do appreciate you answering my questions and uh at this point I'll I'll yield uh to another city councelor. Uh, but uh thank you for being here this evening, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Uh, councelor Farwell, followed by Griffin uh and Azac.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, before I ask specific questions, I did want to let all of you know I had the pleasure of talking with uh Mr. Ramulus for a brief period of time yesterday and I indicated to him that of all of the positions in city government, this is one of the most critical. It is also one of the most highly visible positions because the planning and economic development director is literally the face of planning and economic development for the city, for the mayor, for the city council. He or she would attend regional, sometimes national meetings. He or she would be involved in interactions with state officials particularly I suppose the department of housing and community development. Uh he or she would be responsible for ensuring that we maintain our community development block grant program properly with funds accounted for. Uh it most people might not know who Tim Carpenter is as superintendent of parks or Marty Brophie is for collector treasurer but you do get to know the planning and economic development director because of meetings with neighborhood groups meeting with b meetings with business groups. So the skill set, the depth of experience, the progressive professional development that's required for this position is is really profound. And so with that in mind, I'm going to ask specific questions. I've never met Mr. Ramulus before tonight. Uh didn't know his name before his resume came to us. So I do have some specific questions for him which I think bear on his professional competence level of responsibility in his prior position excuse me prior positions. So Mr. Romulus do you have any professional certifications in planning and economic

development and specifically certified economic development director? So uh when I applied for this position, I did meet all the requirements of uh the posting. I do have a master's in urban and environmental policy and planning and uh the uh the aotted experience in years for that. Um so I believe that um best qualifies me. I don't have a specific certification to answer your uh question directly. So I understand. So you obviously have your degrees in mechanical engineering and and then your master's degree from TUS but no professional certifications from any uh regional national international planning association. Uh I am a member of the um you know the American uh planning association and um directors typically don't uh it's not a requirement of directors. I've worked with many directors that that don't have that sort of

No, I I do understand it was only posted as highly desirable. It was not posted as required. So you gave us your resume and it was in block years as opposed to month and year. So looking at what you gave to us uh or was provided to us in the last 10 years possibly going on 11 years you have had u six or seven positions in the aggregate. How many months and years of actual planning and economic development experience do you have in a municipal setting or a county setting or in some governmental setting? Uh yeah. So not including my engineering uh background, I would say I have about seven and a half to eight years um 10 years including my education.

Okay. Well, extracting the education and I'm just going by this. I I I don't see that many years. So is there something that's missing on here? No. I I've worked uh I started my first planning job out of grad school in 2017.

Okay. And and during your career, how many employees have you managed? How many have been your direct reports and you were responsible for assigning work and then doing performance evaluations and acting as their manager or supervisor? Uh so when I was in the town of Bridgewater I had three um under my purview and now in Westwood I have two direct and two um that are kind of part-time in terms of the uses. So I would say four alto together uh well seven altogether over my years. And and what what are the job titles? Are they administrative or are they actually planners and economic development people?

Uh in my current position it is there is a skilled staff who is a planner housing and land use planner. All right. Do you have any experience putting together municipal budgets for a department? Um I do lead a division and I have put together budgets for my division. And where would that have been? Westwood. in Westwood. So would it be a budget for example the planning board or the entire department? For the planning board and planning staff.

Okay. Uh just for the record, I happen to look at our department and right now we have 10 positions listed counselors and the budget is about $840,000. Um I'm going to go through the different positions you've held and just ask a little bit more information about them. the land use planner in the city of Chelsea. Uh did anyone report to you or were you just the land use planner and then you reported to the director of economic development planning and economic development? That was my first job out of graduate school and I reported to a director.

All right. And how about in Bridgewater? Uh uh tell me a little bit about what you did in Bridgewater and did you assign staff? Did you assign work? Uh were you responsible for hiring people for the department?

Uh yes. So in Bridgewater, I think that was my uh opportunity. I guess uh I was kind of a Swiss Army knife of sorts in the planning uh department there. I did have administrative staff that I I managed. Um, I was put forth to lead the entire retrofitting of street lights for the city or the town of Bridgewater. And so I had to work with the, you know, national grid. Uh, this was in the midst of the pandemic where, you know, there was a breakdown of the entire supply chain and yet I was still able to get that project done. Um, I maybe a month or two behind schedule and, uh, that was a half a million dollar project.

Okay. Okay. And then you went on to be a senior planner at the old colony planning council. Correct. That's right. And what work did you do for OCPC?

That was uh related more to uh environmental work. Um so uh hazard mitigation plans um municipal vulnerability preparedness. I did work on a housing production plan for the town of Easton. Uh but most of it was environmental work. So I did that with the towns of Whitman, West Bridgewater, um Halifax. I did work with Brockton as well. um the through the green uh communities uh program and I was happy to actually get some funding to uh weatherize my former uh school at North Junior High uh so that they could have better heating and cooling methods.

By the way, I want to go back to the Bridgewater for a minute. Why why did you leave Bridgewwater? What what motivated you to perhaps leave that town and the work that you were doing?

Um yeah, I guess I'll be as honest as I can be. Um, you know, when you are hired at a certain uh position and salary, it is uh a lot more difficult to be able to negotiate from within to get the pay that you believe is um is just um and I gave Bridgewwater, you know, the best that I could and I decided to look around um and found a position that did offer a little more and it was in Brockton and you know I'm from Brockton and so I I took the opportunity to work in my hometown.

All right. And why did you leave the old colony planning council and but Bridgewater was 2018 to 2021 then 2021 to 2022 which is either a two-year period or some something less. Why did you leave all colony planning council?

Yeah. So uh in old colony planning council uh I had worked there for a few years. Um I was I was working with a pretty large uh workload that was expected out of me. Um and I had stressed um to my you know supervisor and um higherups that in order for us to perform the work that we needed um it would take a little more staff power um to avoid burnout. And um you know there was differences of opinions and that coincided with uh my wife who had been staying home for a number of years raising our first child. uh she had wanted to re-enter the workplace. And so it kind of came to a head on both posi both both positions with my job and my personal life that it was best for me to uh step aside and uh you know uh leave my position and allow for my wife to reenter the workforce. Um I will say that when I left uh OCPC um subsequently there were two additional people hired um to fill uh the needs of that uh specific department. All right. Well, when your name was raised for this position, I did have a conversation with the mayor uh because it was reported to me and I'm going to give you an opportunity to talk about your professional development and and competence to carry out planning and economic development work that they had to impose a or they had to have you do a personal improvement plan because the

the work that you were doing did not meet their standards. And is that accurate or do you dispute that? Accurate for which for for were you given a personal improvement plan because they were unfortunately not satisfied with your job performance with OCPC. And the reason that's relevant is if you were hired for this job, they're right across the street. We still have to work with them. That's correct. And I I don't recall being on a per personal improvement. don't. Okay. And reason for leaving Westwood? I mean, other than perhaps a salary increase.

As I've mentioned uh multiple times, I've been born I born and raised in Brockton. I went to Brockton High. I grew up here. My home church is here. Uh I would be honored to have this opportunity to work for the city. I would put my best foot forward. I would give it my all. I have the opportunity to apply for this and I so I I decided to go forward with that and uh that that's why I I went for this position. You know, it it's it's interesting because I've spent a lot of time trying to evaluate which is our role here. Is this particular person the right fit for this particular job? Does this person possess the depth of experience, the abilities, the knowledge, the skills that are needed for a particular position, and this is a high-profile position that is so incredibly important to the city. If we don't increase our economic development work, uh we're going to strangle homeowners with taxes and we've got to generate jobs. I happened to look at what you did for a thesis at TUS and it really intrigued me because I figured I was going to see business retention, business expansion, uh, land use planning, zoning, and you did something that was really important because the grid down there is terrible. But the title of your thesis was energy justice and the stakeholders involved, a case study of solar power in rural Haiti, which I would find fascinating myself because they don't have a a power grid that is acceptable. But it just threw me off to see that that was your your uh thesis because then you went on to take a job as a solar system designer and then you mentioned some of the

energy work you've done in other communities and I I don't I guess what I was looking for is a super strong background in land development, land use planning, zoning, negotiating with developers, um all of the different things that I saw Rob May do And uh and and I'm going to close by saying this to the mayor because I I have great respect for Moyes. I apologize for calling you Moyes. Mr. Mayor, you were with us for 12 or 14 years. I've been with you for 10 years. It's always hard to try to put the right person in the right position. From the bottom of my heart, I think this gentleman would make a wonderful planner. I honestly do not believe he is ready to take that next step. He hasn't served as an assistant director or director of planning and economic development, but obviously he has the motivation. He has the interest. He has the background in the city. And I can't support and I'm only one vote. It may go through 10 to nothing 10 to one, but I can't support him for this position because I just don't see that progressive professional development, too many jobs in too short a period of time and not doing the type of work that I know we need done here in Brockton. So, if this doesn't get a favorable recommendation for whatever reason, and I haven't lobbyied anyone, I I come in here, you know, me, I usually don't know what I'm going to say until I'm sitting here ready to say it, but I hope you'll consider that alternative because I do think he has great value. I do think he could offer a lot to the city. I just don't think he's ready to go to that top position. So, thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, councelor. Uh, councelor Griffin, followed by Azac and Sho. Mr.

Sure. Uh, do I have a chance to respond? You may.

Uh, yes. So, um, I appreciate you taking a look at my, uh, graduate thesis. Um, I did, um, take multiple coursework in land use. Um, that my thesis was, um, in some some ways a love letter to Haiti. um you know my parents do come from Haiti and so I wanted to put some time and effort uh into uh finding ways to make uh things better in that country. Um I as a regards to my experience um in every position that I've had in planning I have um assumed greater responsibility. I started as a level one planner. I then got the role of assistant town planner. uh I became a senior planner and now I am a town planner. So in the if it has to be you know climbing a ladder then this position would be the next step.

And Mr. Chairman if I could just thank him for that comment. I will just say to you that we are a totally unique community as you know from being from Brockton and the comparison between Westwood and Brockton is is I mean the gap is so wide. It's a bridge too far as they say and I think that's what concerns me. I know the challenges ahead of us here both in terms of finding the revenue to do a lot of what we need to do but also the challenges of just what is going on in Brockton with all of the different projects. So, um, I I sir, I think you have a bright future ahead. I'm just reluctant to jump you up to that that level and and I appreciate your sincerity.

Thank you. How's that, counselor? All right. Thank you, councelor Griffin, followed by councelor Ajac and Charnell.

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, good evening, Mr. Romulus. Uh, thank you for reaching out to me yesterday. Enjoyed our conversation. Excuse me. Well, what I want to talk to about you first is development in the city of Brockton. On the horizon right now, we have some really big developments in the near future. The fairgrounds, CSX, hopefully the bag near and the old police station. As you sit here tonight, what is the biggest project you personally have handled as a planner moneywise, sizewise, and scope? Could you explain a little bit of that please?

Uh yes. So uh I would say the largest projects that I've uh dealt with in terms of scope uh would be um you know a 160 unit building that sits on well uh a series of buildings that sit upon I want to say six and a half acres. Um I do have uh experience in managing um projects that are you know million-doll uh kind of half a million dollar to a million dollar portfolio. Um and yeah, so I'd say those are the largest projects that I've worked with. Okay. Now, as far as developing like the downtown business urban renewal plan, that's a 10-year project. What type of planning longevity wise have you done already for any of the municipalities you've worked with? Thank you.

I know they were towns and they aren't cities, so it is perhaps apples to oranges, but I'm trying to find out the scope of your experience in formulating plans and seeing the fruition the just the the number of jobs you've had in this time. I don't think it's really you've been there long enough to see anything you put forward come to fruition, but I want you I give you a chance to speak on that, please.

Uh yes. So, I have um I've seen a few projects to come uh to fruition from being permitted to shovel in the ground. um you know, in a 10-year project. I I mean, I know that this position is um a five-year position, and I would be committed to fulfilling that five years and making sure within that um you know, uh I, you know, work with the right uh first of all, you know, my own staff and then also um you know, necessary consultants. I have taken a look at some of the plans and seen that there are uh consultants that have been worked with um over the years in Brockton and so I'd want to see how you know through the RFP process to see if you know those are still uh folks that we can continue with and so um to ensure that there's a certain amount of continuity. Um my predecessor has put forth a lot of plans and so I would uh make sure that I review them and implement them the best that I can. Um in terms of long-term planning, I have uh I did complete a climate action plan uh that would look at um uh you know how the town would be able to adapt to the climate. Um that timeline is out to uh 2060 I believe. And so um no 20 uh I I'm I'd have to double check, but I I did um put forth long-term plans in in the past. Um and so I I do know how to um to accomplish that. Now, have you also um written grants, grant applications for these municipalities?

Yes. Um I took pride in um the grant uh application writing that I've done. Um when I was in uh Bridgewater, I had was able to land multiple grants um for um complete streets for uh infrastructure projects to uh try to bring bike lanes and um and crosswalks. I was able to land a grant for a housing choice that would um bring a water line to a community that neighborhood that was previously on wellwater. Um and then I was able to get green communities grants that allowed to help um offset some of the uh cost to retrofit the town's uh street lights. Um and then um working at OCPC um I specifically was working with the green communities grants. Uh worked um extensively with the regional coordinator for the green communities program and uh successfully got um multiple grants for different communities, Brockton included.

Okay. I know we spoke yesterday. We have a short discussion about streamlining the building permitting process as far as the planner is concerned. Could you give us a little information that we talked about yesterday, please?

Yeah. Um I think that uh streamlining is uh very important. Um I would look at um what exactly is being done right now. Um I do know in my current position um we use open gov um and I think that's uh view permit open gov and I think that's a really um successful way to uh manage permits um and be able to field them. Um you know so I would see if that's a possibility for uh for Brockton. Um so I guess the first thing I would do is kind of like a SWAT analysis to look at you know strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and and threats and um and you know the permitting process I I do understand is something that uh has been uh somewhat of a bottleneck and I would try to my best to relieve that.

It's been a big bottleneck but specifically town of Westwood, town of Bridgewater, city of Chelsea I think you were land use there. So, this might not be applicable specifically. Have you streamlined any of this municipalities permitting processes?

I I haven't. I I work in Westwood. I I use the open gov program, but that was done prior to my uh coming into that position. And so, I have experience using it. And I think that it's honestly a really good thing. And I think that's something that could be implemented. And finally, I as I look at this resume, there are quite a few positions in a relatively short period of time, but as you stated, you are climbing the ladder. Convince me you want to stay for the city for the long run because a lot of the projects we have coming are going to be multiple year projects, five, 10y year projects. And I think continuity in the planning department is paramount to get these done properly.

Yes. Um so my first son is just uh he turned four in September. I would want to be in this position until he's at least in high school so that he could see his father working in a um you know as a public servant in a very important uh position that helps uh shape the lives of people. And so, uh, you know, for me to be a role model for my son, I think I would want that longevity, uh, for the city of Brockton, to have, um, you know, someone that is there to, uh, you know, fight for the city, uh, do the best that they can. Uh, I would want to be in this position as long as I can be. Um, and that means years, decade or or more if I if if God permits.

All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Ramulus. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, councelor. Counselor Azac, followed by Councelor Charnell and Councelor Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, Mr. Romulus. Um, I'm sorry I missed your call. I had a missed call from you. I was in at an event yesterday, so I wasn't able to take your call, but I'm very familiar with your name and we we knew each other when you worked in the city, and I know you were involved with some community events, so uh your name is not new to me, but um I just I'm not going to repeat what some of my colleagues said, but um Mayor Rodriguez and I when he was served on the council, economic development was huge for us. And I'm going to be honest with you, a year ago, our planning department was flourishing. I felt like it was growing and we were heading in a really good direction. And just a few months back, you know, we we um you know, our director decided to retire and the interim who was in the department already also uh left the department. So now I feel like this department's in dire need of um a lot And um this is a huge position and some of the questions that you've answered some of my colleagues. I mean I think your resume is impressive. I'm very happy to hear that you're Brocktonian. You know that you were born grew up here. I just um that brings me to my second part of um the question about residency. I see that you're you're in Taton. You live in Taton. Are you planning on moving back if you uh get this job? Would because as you know we have a residency requirement.

Yes. Um so thank you councelor Asac. I um uh so I guess uh just one part of the comment uh from your question. Um in terms of me being in the fabric of Brockton, I I did uh volunteer for multiple uh um community organizations. the Southshore Haitians United for Progress, um Brockton Interfaith Community. And so I'm very that honestly those two organizations is what spurred me to get into planning and wanting to go to graduate school and um and get a degree in urban planning. Um and so related to the residency requirement, I if given the position, yes, I would look to to move to Brockton.

Move back to Brockton. Okay. Well, that's um that's very good. I just I just feel like this is just such a huge job. If you were coming in as um you know assistant director or um or senior planner, I just I we expect so much from this because our city needs to move in a really we need a lot done in a short period of time and we um like I said, I want to support you. I want to support this. Um I would love to see you be a part of the planning um the planning um department. I just I don't want to put you in a position that I don't want to set you up to to fail because I just it's a huge position and we expect a lot. And our previous director Rob May came in to us when he came in about what 12 years either 10 or 12 years ago. Um he came in with you know on his resume he revitalized was part of revitalizing Somerville. He had a huge resume had was involved um you know with many years of experience. So I don't know which direction this is going to go in. I hear that you would move to to the to move back to Brockton.

Thank you, Mr. uh chairman.

Thank you, councelor. Uh councelor Charnell, followed by councelor Green, Council McR. Uh thank you s Romulus for um being very honest and truthful in um the council. So again um do see like uh the counselor was saying you know many steps in the resume but you know I'm a younger professional on the council and I realize that this doesn't necessarily mean there's gaps. This just means that you know can mean that like you said you're taking you know a ladder position or someone's poaching you usually what happens in our and I'm sure I'm a banker you're someone present you an opportunity and you see fit that if it um justifies you and your family you um you may take it. Um so I'm a reformed zoning guy. I sat on the zoning board of appeals uh for about four years. And when I was first confirmed by the council um that was present at the time, I believe everyone's like, "Why is that banker going to be on zoning? What does he know?" Um so kind of, you know, similar things happen. Um and and I, you know, from a lot of people, they actually wanted me to go back to zoning because I was actually uh very effective and I was had no experience and didn't go to school for planning. But again, I learned through just reading plans and trying to be a steward um on on that particular board. So, I don't look at a resume and it doesn't tell me everything, right? I think a few things that you can't really judge is character and confidence. And sometimes the people in front of us need an opportunity. I'm not saying all always,

but sometimes the people in front of us need an opportunity for because again, like I said, you can't teach those two things. I think you can teach someone zoning, you can teach someone to be on a planning board. Um, you can be taught a lot of these things, but some of those other things cannot be taught. Um, again, just me being a former zoning person, I'm just going to ask a few zoning related questions. Um, one being, what do you think some of the more frustrating or more um more inconvenience things are for developers when it comes to our our city's current zoning or, you know, what would you think some of the friendship points will be for developers? because you know I I don't you know in my belief you know I've interacted with the our city planner many many many times many occasions I was like I said on the zoning board I mean there's more to planning than just having degrees and certifications and all these great things and coming from the town of Somerville um there's more to planning than than that to me but what do do you think some of the bottlenecks in the process that you could bring that you've seen being a challenge that maybe we can benefit here in the city from?

Uh for sure. Um, so I think related to Brockton's uh permitting and and zoning, I would say um, you know, ensuring that there's kind of like pre-application meetings with any developers, making sure that they are fully aware of what um, they're going into, what kind of proposal they have so that it doesn't hit the um, you know, the public hearing process and all of a sudden they're um, having to, you know, adjust their their um their project almost in real time. So, trying to have the most complete um application that comes before um a boarding committee, whether that's the zoning board of appeals or the planning board. Um I do know that the building commissioner kind of handles the um zoning board of appeals, but you know, related to the planning board, I would make sure that they have the best application possible. um you know if that means uh looking at potential zoning changes um then you know you just being upfront with the applicant so knowing that you know if their you know big plan or big idea doesn't fit the zoning of Brockton there is an avenue to do that u you know through a you know change in the ordinance but just letting them know that there it is a kind of multi-step process and um you know ultimately being transparent with um with how many steps are in the application process, what's needed, um what kind of land use uh they're looking for, um if it's like a mixed use building, is that allowed in um you know, the commercial district or um making sure that it fits the um dimensional uses or dimensional regulations, making sure it doesn't hit a certain height or uh doesn't encroach on the um on the setbacks.

And um just another question. So where do you where do where do you most conflict good planning with politics? Like where do the two kind of like sometimes clash in a sense? Um I mean I've tried my best to you know throughout my career to not uh allow for the politics to affect the planning but you know at the end of the day that's just that's the kind of dance that you have to have. Um I don't know I'll say that ensuring that um you know the work product that I bring uh the work product that the department would bring uh is you know the best quality has the best um you know uh people in it. um once you can get um a good work product then the politics uh is more something that you have to kind of balance but because if the work can speak for itself then the politics uh isn't as big of an issue I would say and um I just have two just brief questions um what um zoning changes would you consider like on day one if if this was like a crystal ball that would make things easier for developers um and really yourself because I mean if it's easier for the developer you know the planner typically because some of our zoning ordinances here just come from such a long time ago that they create bottlenecks themselves. Um, so what what would you see as a

um Yeah, so I'd have to take a a better look at the um at the city ordinance for the the zoning. I do know, you know, that, you know, the chapter 27 kind of relates to the fairgrounds overlay district. So I would uh make sure I looked at that uh specifically for that uh fairground site and seeing uh what is you know what kind of project could best move forward and how um you know how to make it as efficient. Um I would see if there's anything in the you know whether it's a special permit or a site plan to see um what by right um you know allowances are and special permit um needs. And just my last question um what uh what's typically misunderstood between a planner and like council people like myself like what is the

uh Yes. So uh for a planner I'm specifically looking at the land use of the city. So how the city develops, how the land is used, whether it's for commercial, residential, uh if there's uh conservation land that needs to be set aside, um if there's um you know uh do amendment institutional properties like uh you know education or school, you know, schools and and things like that. So I I look at the the use of the land uh how it's built out and uh that's and then economic development side is you know looking how to um you know improve the economic welfare. So trying to work with business owners and property owners to um you know make uh Brockton uh the best uh it can be in that aspect. So I don't necessarily deal with um you know the uh I don't know the the regards to being a counsel a city councelor you know it's not an elected position this is a position that that's appointed and so there are um different needs and um responsibilities with that. So, I'll just end with uh just letting the council know that, you know, about 17 years ago when I was appointed on the ZBA, like I said, I mean, I probably wasn't qualified. You know, I was you could barely read a plan and I felt like towards my tenure towards the end, I was very wellqualified and could read many of plans and could tell people where things that where a catch basin was, where a catch basin needed to be and a catch basin should be going. So, you know, I I I'd like to I'd like the council to really realize, you know, when we have talent in front of us, you

know, don't don't discard it because of just a resume. I'm not a resume guy. I'm a character guy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, councelor uh councelor Green, followed by councelor Niccastro.

Uh Mr. Romulus, thank you for um uh your interest in serving the u city of Brockton and um thank you for u your time with us uh tonight in answering all of our questions um in the manner that you've done um so far. Um I'll be as as as quick as I can uh with this and thank you for um taking the initiative to reach out uh yesterday to connect with me and I appreciate the other conversation that we had uh yesterday. Um could you just um share with us and what are your your um thoughts about um smart growth? um uh what is that and what does smart growth look like for a city like uh Brockton and in that if you could just uh comment a little bit on form based zoning and how that would um fit into that smart growth and the benefit of that. Uh yes. So uh smart growth is you know how to best allow for the optimum uh use of land. Um you know we uh have to uh you know in a society where the population is growing you have to have the amenities uh and the facilities to house to provide the economic opportunities. And so smart growth is looking at you know uh you know infrastructure the um the use of the land whether there's conservation areas or wetlands um and how to best develop um moving that forward um related to form based code.

Uh that kind of uh ties into um how to best uh use the land. And so a lot of times um in the zoning as it's uh written um in many communities um there's a lot of uh you know um you know the the way that that buildings were created in the past um there was a lot of uh setbacks. So you see a lot of, you know, parking lots, uh, in front of in front of a building before you even get to it. Um, and so, um, you know, form based code is looking at how to best activate a streetscape, um, when you're in, uh, when you're developing so that, uh, you allow for that kind of, you know, multiple, you know, foot traffic or, uh, vehicular traffic. uh being able to add different uses that aren't typically allowed, you know, in a rigid, you know, commercial building has to have only commercial or, you know, so you can maybe have uh commercial, residential on top, um you know, so yeah, I would say that that's kind of form-based code in a overview.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Now in in your practice and your years of experience, how do you ensure that the uh planning uh decision remain uh data driven while at the same time you remain um community centered?

Yes. Um so um you know specifically I would say um any project that goes before a planning board uh whether it's a site plan or a um special permit uh you know to get to a decision uh or for a planning board to get to a decision. You want to make sure that um there's a set of findings that um you know show what the land use is, how it's historically been used. Um you know what percentage of it is maybe uplands versus wetlands. Uh you want to include um any density if there's proposed uh housing units. And um you know you factor all these things in um you know water and sewer usage um yeah so you want to factor all these findings in um and then uh to get the public uh you know it's a public process so I will say that um you know I think public outreach could be better um in in general you know the state's requirements to advertise for um you know a site plan or you know for a public hearing in general related to land use is you know you you send a butter's notices to you know the surrounding uh x number of feet for uh for that surrounding neighborhood but you know there's a greater neighborhood a greater area that could use um that could put that input so I think working with nonprofits in the area um different um you know small businesses to, you know, have a a directory to kind of get the word out like, hey, this uh application for such and such is going through, you and uh the folks that frequent your establishments may want to have their say. And so once it's in the

public process, you want to make sure that you do get any um you know letters that are sent to the um related to that project, any public comments, people that show up and uh and voice their opinion and you want to make sure that they're heard. um you know some sometimes there's a ingenious idea that comes out of that and so you want to as your as the kind of facilitator between the public and the private um do the best to to have the findings the data the public input to then finally get to that decision.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And as you can imagine and certainly appreciate um that these uh planning and economic u development opp um uh practices are quite uh uh consequential um they do have an impact on the uh community at large um and they and they do impact um um individuals as well. So, in that same vein, um I know you've uh you indicated that um you worked on a um uh somewhat of a large size project I believe in West Bridgewater. Okay. Uh

Westwood. Westwood, I'm sorry. Yes. Um could you just uh share with us some specific strategies that you've employed to build trust among the residents advocacy group and different um stakeholders in the process.

Uh yes. So um keeping an open line of communication. So you know making sure that I'm fielding calls, emails, uh meeting with people if they need a one-on-one. Um, you know, uh, specifically with, you know, that project that was working with the developer. Um, you know, Westwood is a more affluent community. Um, and so, uh, with the proposed project, it was, uh, I was able to negotiate to, uh, allow for a few more affordable units. um you know the the state is in the housing crisis and you know the affordability for even you know a lot of it's also public education. Um the you know a market rate unit in that community uh would not allow for the people that work in that community to live there. You know a police officer or a teacher. And so, you know, it's making that kind of um education to the public and um and the developer and and trying to find ways to to negotiate. You know, in that specific case, it was a special permit. So, special permit have a little more teeth and you're able to allow for a little more um uh negotiating um if you may.

Okay. Great. Great. Thank you. Um and thank you for um for mentioning uh public education and engagement. I think um that's critical in that uh process. Um I just have a couple more questions. What's one thing you would do um within your first 30 days in the role to um help to increase efficiency in the process in a city like Brockton?

Uh yes, thank you. Uh so uh so yeah, I did kind of draft a quick kind of like I would want to have like some type of seven-point plan that I would want to uh affect within my 30 days. I think the the first thing for sure is to ensure that the department is fully staffed and uh is functioning with all the necessary necessary resources. Um I do uh understand uh councelor as I had brought it up that there is uh staffing shortage in that department. Um there's some shuffling around of how uh the department functions and so I would uh want to really focus on looking at how that department functions and how we can um staff it and and if you know current staff want more training opportunities. you know, I operate from a place of abundance and knowing that, you know, there's always an opportunity to uh enrich yourself and to uh to better yourself. And so, um looking at ways to to do that and then um reaching out to any of the uh business owners and uh land owners that are currently there um and reviewing all of the the plans. Um, I did kind of have uh some of the the plans that kind of stood out to me was the downtown Brockton, the Troutbrook CSX site, the Campello Montel, uh the Love It Brook um Boston Medical South site. uh looking at that chapter 27 uh city ordinance for the fairgrounds uh the master plan and then one thing I I I would want to you know it might be a little farther down the line after I've gotten uh everything kind of um on the right path but would be to look at the arts and humanities community in Brockton. I think it's a

vibrant community and uh I would want to try to help champion that um as best as I can um in the position. Okay. Thank you. Um is it um I think you mentioned this earlier um and I just want you to kind of uh confirm this again. Um is it correct that um you've met the uh minimum requirements of the job posting and that's why you're before us, right? Yes. Okay. All right. Here's my final question and perhaps the most important one. What do you like to do for fun?

Thank you. Uh so, um I am a father of two young children, so I I don't really have as much time as I I used to. Um when I did have time, I did like to um go on nature walks, do kind of photography. Um, I still like to play chess. So, that's something I can, you know, just pull up on my phone, play chess, and I'm very active in my church community. Um, I do a lot of graphic designs for my church. Thank you. I commend you. I'm a father of two, two boys as well. Thank you for your time, and thank you for answering our questions today. Thank you. All right. Thank you, counselor. Counseling Castro.

Good evening, Mr. Ramulus. Thank you. Thank you for enduring all of us. You can see we're very concerned about how this position gets filled. This is a most important position, especially for a city like a gateway city like Brockton. Um, and I'm also the mother of two boys. And you ain't seen nothing yet how your your time is just going to get sucked all into activities and sports. And I'm sure you wouldn't have it any other way. I sure couldn't, at least most of the time. So, I'm a real estate attorney. I spent five years on the Brockton Planning Board. I spent two years on the Brockton Zoning Board. Um, I I'm familiar with all of this. And so, this is my first question for you. What do you believe are our planning and economic development issues in Brockton?

Uh, planning and economic development issues. Um I do think that um the the roadways I I do know that there's a lot of um there have been some uh fatalities um related to just you know pedestrian safety and so I would want to look at how best to um you know work with our our uh associate departments to address those concerns. Uh so that's uh definitely pedestrian safety making sure that Brockton's a walkable community. Uh we have the infrastructure, the sidewalks there and but just trying to improve on on that and seeing how best to do that. Um uh another area that um I guess I would see is um there are a list of plans that are um that are you know that have been finalized and so making sure that those are actually implemented and um you know working with um you know uh consultants as well as department staff to best execute on on the plans that are already in place. I I would not want to leave those plans sitting on the shelf. So, I think that's implementation is is definitely key.

Thank you. Um, so you've you've spent two years in Westwood. I am familiar with Westwood

and so I did a little bit of research today. God love Google. Westwood has a population as of 2024 of 16,533 people. You're the town planner. Brockton in the same amount of time at the same time period had a population of $105,788 people. The median value of residential real estate in Westwood is 1.04 million. The median value of residential real estate in Brockton $430 $37,500. Our our composition, our demographics are totally different. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. My number one concern is economic development. We have to increase our commercial base to give some relief in taxes to our residential owners. In the last 12 years, Westwood has added an incredible amount of commercial real estate. I'm very familiar with it. Um but most of it happened before nearly all of it happened before you got there. Yeah, you are fortunate that you work for the former planner Nora, and I'm sure you've learned lots from her. I know of her by reputation.

She's fierce. She's amazing.

Yes. um in in what we're looking what I'm looking for and what I suspect many of my colleagues are looking for for this well- settled city is someone to come in with lots of experience in a similarlyssized city to help us reach what we need and to help us attain our goals. I think I I think you have great promise and and what you've done so far and I think you'd be swell in um in a a position working with an executive director, but I I'm not sure that your your uh your years of experience make you a good fit for the position that we're looking to fill at this time. I also have noticed some procedural issues with the filling of this application, the job posting, and a few other things. So, um I'm glad you came in. It's been a pleasure to listen to you and I read your engineering social change and uh I found it really interesting um your focus on environmental and climate action um which God knows the United States and New England needs. Um but I just I'm just concerned that that this position is not a good fit with you at this time. I wish that you were applying for the position to work for the executive director. And that's hard for me to say. I don't like to let anybody down. I'm the mother of sons. But um that is what I'm seeing right now. Um and I'll I'll leave it at that. And I really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, counselor. Counselors. Uh anyone else want to say anything? anyone who has not had the chance to speak uh yet. All right. Uh Councelor Farwell, did I see a hand?

Very quickly, counselors, I don't particularly want to vote against someone, particularly a younger man who has a great and promising career ahead of him. I'm going to I won't make a motion at this time, but I'm going to throw this open again to what I suggested earlier. to postpone this two weeks to the next FINCOM and have the council president any and any other counselor that's interested meet with the mayor indicate the concerns that we have and see if the mayor would like to opt to have this gentleman come on board in a lesser position but however still serving the citizens of Brockton and utilizing the experience that he's gained to this point. Um, if if that's completely unacceptable, I understand. No worries. I I I respect everyone's vote and everyone's position. But if we go ahead and vote on this position of director of planning and economic development, it could be a split vote and that leaves the person in a weakened position in in my opinion. It leaves the the potential department head in a weakened position. So, Mr. Chairman, that's all I have to say. Other than that, I leave the next procedure to you.

Thank you, councilors. Uh, thank you, councelor. Uh, is there any motion? Councelor, I just have a quick question for Mr. Ramulus. Um, have you already left your pre because I believe your name came up last year in December that you were being uh appointed to this position. Correct. Uh, yes. Uh so I have not left my position at the moment.

Um if I may uh um chair um I I wanted to uh just mention you know this um this position uh I know that I I'm I'm ready for this. you know, in the planning world right now, it's at a vanguard where the older guard is retiring. A lot of the um you know, main stays have you know but you know five five plus years left. And so I would implore the the board uh the the council to to take a chance on me. I know that I have the experience, I have the understanding, uh I have the passion for this city. Uh and many uh directors in the past are in their positions 20 plus years and they were given that chance to then become the directors they are today. And so I believe that given that position, I will be able to fulfill it and be a mainstay.

Okay. So, um, so thank you. So, you haven't left your position as of, uh, as of yet. Okay. Thank you. Um, another question I may have to my colleagues. I'm not sure. So, no motion's been made. I had to No motion's been made. Okay. Um, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilors, council shel, sir. Uh, I make a motion to grant the appointment. To recommend favorably. recommend favorably. Council second. Roll call vote, please.

Well, there hasn't been a second. So, we do not have yet. Councilor, just as a reminder, um, a positive vote would recommend this matter favorably back to the full city council. A negative vote would recommend this unfavorably back to the full city council. So regardless, it would move on from this committee back to the full council next week. Um it would either just be done with a favorable or unfavorable recommendation. Uh but you know, passage or failure of this vote does move it to council next week. Currently there's no motion on the floor because we don't have a second. Just just point of information, Mr.

Point of Councelor Farwell. We we the mayor has indicated that at some point the economic development portion of this position would be split from the planning portion. However, we did advertise and and I think legally that carries some weight for a director of planning and economic development and it included both planning and economic development and CDBG work. It even mentions uh the integrated financial system uh that the government uses for um for federal funding, drawing down federal funds, the IDIS system. So, and it also mentions that this position is governed by the city of Brockton ordinances and is not eligible for remote work. So, we've established, we've publicly posted, and other candidates may or may not have have responded to this particular posting. So, if if this is going to be split, then I don't think we should go forward and and hire someone for both jobs. We should take a time out here and see how we want to proceed. Just just my opinion.

Thank you, counselor. uh councils, if there's no objection, he's not on the list, but uh the mayor is here and he may be able to answer that directly. Mr. Mayor,

boy, this seats this seat feels kind of funny, you know, so I'm not exactly sure. I'm used to this stuff, but uh well, good evening, councilors. Um just a quick note on this. Uh, Council Fwell, we did after you and I spoke, we did readvertise this position and took away the VRA and all its um sources away from this position. So, this position would focus mostly on planning and economic development, but not the BRA portion as we know it. So the bar is going back to its original uh form uh guided by the city in a way but through it to uh its original form. We're actually following um a model that uh the previous model that was being followed here in Brockton was basically the Boston model and that itself is not working all that well. So we're going back to the old model uh and implementing what Quinsey has actually done with its department where it has um director of planning and economic development and then the VRA stands here on its own with some relationship but they they two the two uh departments are basically distinctive and not um uh married as they were uh previously. So, just to keep that in mind that we're going to go back to having a director of of the VRA and the VRA's functions under the VRA and the planning office working on a separate plane altogether. And as far as this young man is concerned, I think um what I would recommend is that we have uh you would have by voting this forward, we would have still another week to go before the final vote. And if something was to happen uh in terms of additional

information or any other things that we felt uncomfortable for, you're free to do that on your final vote uh the following Monday. Uh I think um I want to go along with what councelor Charnell actually said when we um when we think about granted we we are always looking for people with experience you know years and years of experience but we did advertise this position uh I think extensively and they did receive somewhere around six resumeumés or six uh individuals and they went through the uh interview process and they felt based on the the uh resumeumés and the interview that they actually received that he was the most qualified person. And this happened prior to even this new council being uh um voted in or even myself taking uh over the mayor's office. So, this was done prior to my arrival here, but the point is that he was the most qualified out of the individuals that actually applied for the position uh back in early December. So, and I think we owe it sometimes to frankly when you sit down and think about it, if I the question that I was being asked and if that question came to me, I would say something like this. I'm a Brockton individual. Yes, I've jumped around look for some positions to improve my life. But when a position becomes available in my hometown, that to me is a dream job. And I would do whatever I can to be able to come back to come home and do the job. And it's something that again um a lot of us sat in these benches without a great deal of experience and we learn as

we go along as long as we're motivated enough to pick up and learn. So I would say let's give the young man a chance. Uh we're not going to be totally off the our rockers in a sense and not following up to make sure that he's doing the right thing in the position. Uh, and if he doesn't work out, I'm men enough to basically say you're not working out and you got to go. But at least, uh, leaving that department the way it is, it's in shambles to be honest with you. We have no planner. There's nobody in charge of uh, the bar. It's just sitting there with all these opportunities that we have to, you know, every single day we meet with a different developer in the office that technically should be uh working with the planning office, but we got to do that ourselves because we don't have somebody who's in the office or is is willing to take on the task of doing this. So, I would again recommend that you take a chance on this opportunity. Besides, it would land on me anyways. as the mayor of the city. So, take it, you know, take a shot. Let's give him an opportunity if somehow he doesn't cut out. You know, I'll be man enough to make sure that the the uh lever is pulled when that time comes and I'll be able to do that. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh councilors, councelor Niccastro, followed by councelor Texer.

Thank you. Um, I appreciate your words, Mayor Rodriguez, and I know this is your first big appointment and it's important to you. I just wanted to point out I received both job postings from the HR department today. The one that was posted November 13th and the one that was posted January 16th. There's no real difference. The January 16th one still includes all of the the uh uh Brockton Redevelopment Authority information and the CDBG information. I have them both right here. I line by line them to see what the differences were. So, I'm not sure that's the that's the the fact. And if this is the position we're hiring for, we need someone who's able to juggle until such time as the the two positions are taken apart. And I respect what you say about we were all new at some point, but we were paid a whole lot less than this proper this this position pays. And so I I I feel strongly that that um that the advanced degrees and the certifications and and the experience, the deep experience really matters in a position like this respectfully.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, counselor. All right, counselors. Uh do we have a motion? There's a motion that hasn't been seconded. We don't we do not have a motion on the floor. We do not have a motion. We have a motion to recommend favorably, but with no second. Then I'll make a motion to continue this two weeks. We have things to to look into. We have procedural issues to find out about. I think that would give us some time to work on this some more. I I'll second that. This is a motion properly made and seconded to postpone this matter two weeks. All in favor of postponement? All oppose. Postponement carries.

Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Item six, ordered that the following name sum be and the same as hereby transferred is the same was submitted by the mayor as follows. Transfer 35,856.64 from DPW sewer goods and supplies to DPW Sewer debt service. Invited DPW Commissioner Pat Hill, CFO Dr. Troy Clarkson. Dr. Clarkson, Commissioner Hill. Good evening.

Good evening, Council. Good evening. Uh Mr. uh Chairman and members of the council, I sent you my typical memo. Uh and and on this I provided uh an explanation. Each year when we set the the budget, many of the items, as you know, are targets. And in this particular one, u the budget that uh Treasurer Brophy put together, uh the needs for some of the temporary debt payments changed uh over the course of the year. And so this is just shifting money within the budget to satisfy those requirements. Motion to recommend favorably. Second.

Been properly made and seconded. Was something on the motion? I have a motion. Did we have a second? I did a second. Okay. I'm interested to know how did the strategy and overall needs for debt service change?

Well, sometimes the the money that's put into uh permanent debt versus temporary debt for principal and interest uh we renew temporary debt uh at some points. I'll get the specifics from uh Treasurer Broofphy for you when provided to you, but that that's the overall strategy that we generally employ with all of our debt. And so we develop a target number at the beginning of the year and sometimes those numbers change based on the debt payments that we're making. But I I can get the specifics for you. Okay. And may I have it before next Monday? Of course. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Motion has been properly made and seconded. All in favor? All oppose? The motion passes. Item seven, not ordered that the city council authorizes the acceptance and expenditure of the total grant funds in the amount of $500,000 from Massachusetts Department of Transportation to DPW highway. Invited DPW Commissioner Pat Hill, CFO Dr. Troy Clarkson. Gentlemen,

good evening, council. So, this is a grant that came from the complete streets program. Um, one of the grants that we actively sought out when we were doing the two-way conversion down on Warren A. Uh we submitted a project that had substantial improvements both to pedestrian safety and uh cycling safety within that two-way stretch of road between Spring Street and Belmont Street uh in the Warren have two-way conversion. Motion to recommend favorably. Second. Motion's been properly made and seconded. Council Castro on

the motion. Thank you. How did it happen that you didn't advance it to us in such a long time for a half a million dollars? I could not tell you the answer to that, counselor. I was under the impression that this was completed. I looked back through all of my council or for the past year. Um I think I've even talked about this half a million dollar grant on several occasions when speaking about Warren F. Uh I don't have a a solid answer for you. I just know that uh it was something that we couldn't dig up and certainly we're, you know, uh in the process of doing those improvements and prior to spending any money we wanted to get in front of you.

The paperwork submitted to us says this project is worth $1.2 million. Is the has the project been completed? No. This so this is certain pieces of the two-way conversion. So the the cycle lanes um that above the public safety property in front of the public safety building.

Yes. um that go from the entire stretch from Belmont Street all the way to Pleasant Street. So that cycle lane and some of the curb improvements and some of the handicap ramp and uh the the accessibility to those handicap rep uh ramps based on new pedestrian numbers that we've gathered through the two-way conversion project. All of the money is being applied specifically to those portions of the project. So, we're paying for the other 700,000. No, I mean, this is just going to pay for a portion of the overall two-way conversion, which currently is just shy of $15 million.

Okay. Um, and the paperwork says that this this portion has to be completed by June 30th. That's correct. Of this year. That's correct. And you'll be able to do that? The the it's it's substantially complete now. Uh we do not have a finished product yet, but we will be uh submitting all the paperwork once the final application on the top of that two-way road has been completed. Okay, you're on. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councelor Thompson, followed by Councelor Charnell.

Uh thank you, Mr. Chair, and uh good evening, uh Commissioner Hill. A few of my questions have already been uh asked and answered, but um you you stated that that this money has not yet been allocated or has not yet been spent.

It has not been expended. So, so as you go through a two-way project, right, we we get monthly invoices from the two-way conversion. Um the portion of this where it's not entirely complete is only partial. We we when we submit a uh reimbursement request to the state, it it goes in its entirety so that we make sure we check all the boxes. All the paperwork has to be pulled out. All the uh you know any any kind of curbing or or infrastructure that was put in due to this has to be pulled out. All of the time records uh have to be recorded and sent properly. So, it it's quite a feat, I guess, to to fill out some of these applications sometimes with prevailing wages and determining which employees are working at which site. Um, but it it it has not been fully expended yet. So, we we have the $15 million appropriation for the project in its entirety. And as soon as this work is complete, we will file for the reimbursement. The reimbursement will go back to the city. Now, the monies that we're al uh spending uh for the work uh as we do it, that's that's from our borrowing, our initial borrowing,

the secondary borrowing. Yes. Okay. The secondary borrowing and then we're reimbursed uh with this grant. Correct. Um so, secondly, how did we find how how did we find that we didn't this wasn't submitted? Was this something that you found in your review or is this something that the state said, "Hey, wait a minute. Um, we don't, you know, this didn't go before council yet.

We were actually beginning, you know, the the prep work to submit the request for the reimbursement. Um, a lot of that stuff happens as we go through the process. Some of the invoices, we pull out the specifics from the invoices as we go through the project. Uh, that one of our consultants does that for us. Um, and they prep all that that paperwork to for the reimbursement. and uh in speaking with Troy's office and looking back through the um through the through the council agendas and and through the approvals um we could not locate it. Uh I like I had said I I think on several occasions I think I had spoken about this grant being part of the overall uh grant package that we had received for this project both this and the smart grant. Um, you know, we we we got almost $3 million worth of grants to to do that two-way project. So, for the life of me, I I I I don't have an explanation as to why it didn't go. I could just certainly tell you that it didn't.

Just in your review, this was one of the boxes, the order was one of the boxes in your checklist that needed to be submitted to the state and you saw that you didn't have it. Right. I mean, part part of part of that whole reimbursement process would be providing the council order. Right. Right. Okay. Um, and lastly, uh, I know you're underway in your construction, uh, of the, uh, two-way on, uh, Warren Aav. Um, where where are we, uh, in the time frame and completion and opening up Warren a for two-way traffic?

So, they're currently setting a lot of the the street lighting, um, the decorative street lighting and the traffic street lighting. We're in a little bit of a holding pattern, not because of our contractor, but we're awaiting National Grid to energize a couple of the intersections. So, I suspect in the next two weeks or so, all of the traffic lighting will be hung. Um, all of the street lighting will be live. Uh, but there will be two intersections as it stands today that won't have power to to activate those street lights. So, you know, we've been working with National Grid to try to get them out. They've been out on several occasions. They've run into several issues. Uh undersized transformers, inability to close the road to to pull wires, relooking at some of their uh their heat mapping downtown and determining that there may be more power that needs to be sent to that area to to both energize what we've put in and for their future needs. So, um hopefully springtime. I mean, the goal was to try to get those traffic lights up and running this month. I I think we're ready for that. The unfortunately, National Grid isn't

uh Can we expect an a top coat paving on West Elm or is it paved as all those streets that we put water manes down? uh you know Green Street, L Street, Frederick Douglas, West Elm Street, all those streets will be paved when the final paving takes place um for Warnav. So there's a top coat coming for Warren. Correct. Okay, understood. Uh thank you. I appreciate your time. Uh that's it, Mr. Chair. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Charell,

I just have just uh one question for the commissioner. So when the grant comes in, again I'm new, right, Commissioner? So when the grant comes in, does that grant go into Munice or is it just housed in the DPW and then because it I'm just a little befuddled with the because seems like some grants live in departments, some grants go into Munis, some grants don't, some CFOs any Yeah, great question councelor. All grants uh once approved are tracked in in Munis. In Munis. Absolutely.

So this grant never went into Munis because it was never approved or was this grant in Munis and again I um so so because there has been no reimbursement applied for this grant the the grant was probably not set up in Munas. So, as we get ready to do those reimbursements and we start having those conversations with the auditing department to determine, you know, how the because once we put in the the grant reimbursement, the grant reimbursement comes back to the city through the treasurer, then is tracked through the auditing department and then placed in the proper um in the proper account. The accounts are set up through the auditing department.

Yeah. Yeah. So, this is something that we would have stumbled on at some point, but it was stumbled on based on the preparation for the grant reimbursement in the beginning stages of the grant reimbursement. Wouldn't wouldn't like best practice be to put the grant into Munice even though it hasn't that's usually that's the typical that's usually. So, okay. So, that's what I'm missing is correct. Typically the grant you apply for it's approved once it's approved essentially an account setup in mun account setup goes into munis and then you would even come to the council because does that I'm assume I'm I'm assuming sometimes the car before the horse type

you can't you can't set up a grant in munis without a council order. Okay. Gotcha. And and I think what Pat is explaining, counselor, is that so you cannot expend funds from a grant unless there is a grant account in Munis. There was a funding source for this project outside of the grant. And so there were funds appropriately spent uh through the borrowing. Correct. Throughout this process. Gotcha. So this this was a part of the loan that we're just being reimbursed for. Right. Gotcha.

Right. But again, I I still so the but the mun thing is happening because that's that's kind of my that's kind of where my question is. Once we approve Munice then takes place once once the once we get a council order with approval we will we will reach out to the treasurer's office and to the auditing office. They will set up an account in Munice. Okay. Thank you. Thank you commissioner. Thank you counselor. Council is there a motion? Council Green. Uh just a couple questions. Uh uh just to clarify, are we on track for the June uh 20 26 completion date for the two-way project?

Yes.

I I mean, I hate to put a date on it. We've seen a lot of delays and deliveries and a lot of delays and simple things like infrastructure outside of our control like national grid. I I hope that's the case. We're, you know, we're pretty far along. Side, you know, half of the sidewalks maybe have been poured. Uh I believe they'll finish the street lighting portion of things next couple weeks. They'll finish the traffic lighting portions of thing. The widenings have happened. Um you know, we're we're still waiting on uh Verizon to pull some poles out of the ground on a section of Warren A between Westm and Belmont Street. Those are things that are out of our control. Um, we're still waiting on National Grid to put some conduits in. Those are things that are out of our control. Uh, but that doesn't mean that the road can't be open. It just may not be I mean, it'll probably be substantially complete by June, but it may not be, you know, final.

Okay. All right. All right. Is is there a time period um for which um invoices should be sent to the state for reimbursement? I know uh some grants um stipulate that um after the the completion um of the specified event um invoices need to be um sent you know 30 to 60 days. Is there is there a time period uh for which you need to send those invoices?

So the final reimbursement request for this grant is June 30th of 2026. That doesn't mean that's the end all beall. If we've determined or if work gets delayed, then we can always file for extensions with the state. I don't suspect that will be the case here. We should have this paperwork final and completed and submitted and we should be reimbursed if I had to guess probably sometime in May. Thank you. Thank you. Say counselor green. You all set? Yes. All right. Thank you, counselors. I I did check with the clerk. Uh the clerk's office has reminded me there has been a motion made and seconded.

So if there's no other on the motions then motions properly made and seconded. All in favor? All opposed. The motion passes. reported 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 invited DPW Commissioner Pat Hill CFO Dr. Troy Clarkson. Evening gentlemen,

good evening councils. So, this is a grant that came from federal DOT to do a pilot program of a intersection where we've had uh substantial pedestrian issues, fatalities uh within the city. We applied for this grant and were temporarily or not temporarily uh conditionally approved three years ago. Uh it's been sitting in the federal DOT office for three years. So the federal portion of that grant, the 188,480 is for 75% of the total recommendations based on the proposed plan that we put in front of them for the intersection of Nelson, East Nelson, and Main Street. It's for temporary measures. Um some curb extensions, some some um new signage, some temporary pylons to try to centralize traffic in in the middle of the road to hopefully slow down traffic and prevent future issues.

Council Castro, thank you. Good evening. Good evening. I noticed reading the paperwork that all three of these intersections, Main Street at East Nelson, East Chestnut, and Perkins are in Ward 4. So, you're going to address all three intersections. The the only intersection that will get addressed specifically will be East Nelson at Maine. Um, that's about all that this award will allow for. Okay.

We have started looking at other intersections. Uh we've had some engineering work done on several other intersections throughout the city that we know are good candidates for some form of traffic improvement. Some of them are traffic traffic lights, some of them are alternate methods. It's you know these Brockton is the number one community in the state right now for traffic safety. We're the we're the worst in the state. So, um, there's plenty of room for improvements. There's plenty of room for improvements certainly in the main street corridor. Uh, but throughout the city, you know, we've we see a lot of these dangerous intersections that require signalization come to the traffic commission. Uh, every week, every month, you know, we we we send them off. We have engineers look at them. We they do traffic studies. They determine whether or not those the these intersections meet the signalization requirements based on engineering. um and most of them do. So this is not that. This is just a pilot to try to develop strategies that we can implement quickly that do not cost millions of dollars that will help ultimately the pedestrians in the city.

So you're focusing on East Nilson and Maine where the even the Lutheran churches and that's a terrible intersection and people have repeatedly asked as you know I've brought it in front of traffic commission. They've asked for signal lights. Signal lights are, you know, they're they're they're a great method of controlling traffic, but they're also very expensive. So, people I don't think people, you know, the the public really understands that it's, you know, they a lot of people come to the traffic commission with the expectation that they're going to get a intersection signalized, but that's a $2 million project for one little intersection,

you know, and and that's just a rough, you know, that's that's you know, between takings and engineering, you're talking three or four years before something can happen. Costs inflate over those three or four years. Um, you know, there are some it's it's difficult to be on that traffic commission side and is difficult to be in the city because we do have a lot of those intersections that could require this. But I think that this is an opportunity, this grant is an opportunity to show that, you know, it there are other ways to improve safety for the pedestrians in the city. Um that that don't take as much time and there's stuff that we can do quickly to kind of address issues as they come up until we can get through uh you know the long haul with with the finance portion of you know signalizing all those other intersections that require it. So what is your timeline for doing the pilot for satisfying the pilot program?

I I mean I would expect now that it it will go to a very quick design. We submitted an application with a design for those three intersections. um 6 months maybe um by the time we get a a final plan on board determine whether or not that's something that my staff could do or determine um if it's something that we would need to bring a subcontractor in for. So maybe we'll have you back six months after it's completed to report on how effective it is. I I mean I'd be happy to come in, you know, right after its completion. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, councelor. Uh, councelor Thompson.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair, and again, good evening, uh, Mr. Commissioner. I think this is a great program. Um, I've been in front of traffic, uh, you know, dozens of times talking about unsafe intersections. Uh, I am aware of the high cost of signalization um, and to maybe find alternative ways to address uh, safety issues uh, that that does not cost millions of dollars. So, I'm really excited and uh um uh to see how this plays out, what it looks like, and then collecting hopefully some data uh that that um would tell us whether this is working or not. Um you picked this intersection, and I I really don't have any qualms with this particular intersection as it is a a pretty highly uh dangerous intersection. Um, but I know OCPC in in the summary of work, it it seems like uh OCPC was involved uh in this process. I'm sure traffic commission um had some say with you being on it uh about what intersection was picked. So maybe maybe you could just explain why out of all the intersections in the city of Brockton, why why this one? So, this is one of the top three um intersections for fatalities in the city at the time of the application. I can't say for sure that it still is. I would expect that it is. Um and you know, whenever you start accepting, you know, federal and state money and it's related to traffic and improvements, you know, OCPC plays a role in that, right? OCPC is a outside agency that's funded by Mass DOT. Mass DOT uh gave us 25% a matching 25% for this grant so that the city wouldn't have to do it. So yes, I mean they've done downtown corridor studies that kind of lay out a lot of these intersections and and we do work with them to try to figure out what the best fit for these intersections are. this intersection, like I said, being one of the top three, um, and being in that very specific corridor, we we thought we would get, I

don't want to say the most bang for our buck, but I think this is this is a an intersection that requires an amount of improvements that could be afforded within the money that we have. you know, some of those other intersections, you know, you start, you know, start making curb adjustments, you start making all those those other things due to the the the the width of the intersection or the length of the intersection. Um, it can get costly. You know, we we got a $100,000 grant um a short time ago from from the state for an earmark to do the uh crosswalk down at the new high charter school. You know, that's that's $125,000 to put some a couple of curbs and some sidewalk in. You know, stuff is it's just everything is expensive. Everything blew up after COVID. So, we try to be responsible and we we we don't want to spread ourselves thin because the longer it takes to get the stuff out there, longer it takes to deploy um contractors and all that stuff, the more it costs. So, you know, councelor Niccastro had asked, is this the only intersection? I hope not, but it might be. It it might. But that that was the primary focus of the initial application was to address this intersection.

Well, I think if it's successful, uh maybe that would be get uh additional um grant funding for other intersections. Uh or maybe even um you know, some retained earnings and our own our own um uh you know, our own accounts that you know, $235,000 is a lot cheaper than $2 million. So, um I'm looking forward to this. Uh I I do look forward to uh calling you back uh so that we can see uh how it has uh increased safety in that area and then if it's uh um replicable in other intersections. So, uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh Mr. Commissioner. That's all. Thank you, Councelor Green.

Uh Mr. Commissioner, uh just a followup uh question um on this particular intersection. So, it's it's in the top three intersection for um traffic um fatality in the in the city. Are you able to share with us some uh specific uh numbers if you can on this particular

I don't I I could get get you the numbers council. Okay. There's been a pretty extensive look at Brockton um both through OCPC and through the federal government based on the fact that we are the uh number one community in Massachusetts for pedestrian fatalities. Um like I said before, this was one of the top three when the application was submitted. I'm I'm guessing it was four years ago maybe that we submitted this application. Um some stuff has changed since then. Um, but there there is extensive data that I could get you that will would show you like a like a map to give you an idea of where the high pedestrian fatality issues are, where the high uh traffic uh traffic issues are uh throughout the city.

If you could provide that, I would greatly appreciate it. I can do that. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. All right. Council, is there a motion? Motion to recommend favorably. Second. Motion has been properly made and seconded. All in favor? All opposed? The motion passes. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, council. Item nine. Mr. Chair, council Green, I make a motion that we wave the full reading of item number nine. Second.

I'll move counselor. Motion's been properly made and seconded to wave the complete reading of item number nine. All in favor? The motion passes. Mr. clerk nine is wherefore is an item regarding the age of retired police off special police officers. I I I was just going to move to postpone this uh pardon me for a month. I spoke with the police chief. She is heavily engaged in moving the police department from seven commercial street pardon me to the new facility and she asked for time to be able to study this and prepare to come in before the council. So motion to postpone. Second the first FINCOM meeting in March.

Motion's been properly made and seconded to postpone. This is the first FINCOM meeting in March. All in favor? All opposed? The item is postponed. Item 10. Mr. Chair Rosa, may may I make a motion to um to wave the full reading? Second. Motion to wave full reading is properly made and seconded. All in favor? All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, councelor.

Mr. Chairman, as the person who filed this, I would make a motion that this be continued to the first FINCOM meeting in March. Dr. Clarkson and former chief financial officer John Condan and I along with others are going to arrange a pardon me a meeting with the superintendent of schools to go over this issue and uh that will give us sufficient time to schedule that meeting. Second. Motion properly made and seconded to postpone this to the first meeting in March. All in favor? All opposed? The motion passes. Mr. Cler,

item 11 resolve. Whereas the city recently conducted its municipal election and whereas 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 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. Invited Frederick and McDermott, Alan Parker, Steven Kelly, Kelly, Chris Lane, Barney, the four commissioners. My office did receive notification from Mr. Parker that he could not be here tonight, but I know Mr. Kelly at least is.

Good evening, Commissioner Kelly.

Good evening. You know, I've been pleased to be a commissioner for the uh for the elections. I think we have a lot of work to do, but I think a lot of what came about with the last election. You know, we talked about things not following the law. Unfortunately, I think that it was a, you know, after reviewing it, we followed the law. What we need to do is have better training for people. We need to get more people involved in the election process. And I'm asking all of you that you get people to work on the elections department. You know, when the election comes up, we got a lot of work to do, but together we can get it done.

Fair enough.

Mr. Chair, council firewall, did you sponsor this? I was on my way. I sponsored this and I'm going to be very brief uh because I think we should probably postpone this a couple of months and maybe have legal counsel that is familiar with all of the work that was done during the recount come in and give us a sense of what we can do to make the process better. Limitation on uh recounts and who can who can request them. But one of the things I want to throw open to the mayor and and to Mr. Kelly is in my opinion during the election day there should be one police officer assigned to the office here at city hall who can rapidly respond to issues and that we don't have to send the executive director of the elections commission out. It is absolutely asinine to me that someone was able to put up a 4x8 sign on school property at West Middle School. And I don't know if somebody else I don't know if there was another school that that had a 4x8 sign. That is municipal property. It is completely unacceptable. and the officer assigned to the elections commission, if we go this route, could be given some training in advance of election laws as far as who's allowed to go into a polling place, who isn't, how to handle the different violations of the law that might arise. I know there were signs posted down at at the high-rise building on Main Street, 1380 Main Street, uh by candidates, uh you know, we've got to do a better job. the in this country now people are skeptical enough about elections and I don't want that to carry down to the local level. So u I'll I'll leave it for any other questions that councilors may have but I do think we ought to have Mr. Kelly and the commissioners come in maybe with some suggestions and a and a report on what we can do to work with them to make things better.

Thank you. Thank you councelor Councelor Azac.

Thank you um Mr. Chairman. Good evening Mr. Kelly. Thank you for being here this evening. I know you waited a long time, but um you know the election process is a very important process and we have a lot of the commission and the director and the elections office follow laws. There are laws in place that need to be followed even with uh when you train the wardens and the clerks, they're supposed to be following procedures and and rules. Um, so I think, you know, having more training would help, but I I also would like to answer uh Council Fwell. You know, he stated that there was a sign at West and that there should be an officer that goes out there. Each each, uh, precinct has an assigned detailed police officer and that's their job to kind of go out at that location. I don't think you need to send somebody else. I mean, if everybody at each location did their job, there wouldn't be the issues that that we have. So, I think maybe making sure that everybody's um aware of what their positions are would would help. But there are laws, there are procedures in place to protect um to protect, you know, the the office and everybody

from things happening. So, if everybody did their jobs, I think we wouldn't have had the issues that we had. Um, when I say that, I'm talking about the pole workers, the deta police details that are on site. So, it's a lot for one person. Yeah. The direct director isn't responsible. I mean, they're responsible, but they're not responsible for the actions of people at the individual um location. So, I think people need to be held responsible. And thanks to a council leading the way a few years ago, we raised the um their their pay. So, they're making a good amount of money. They can't say that they're just volunteering. So, they need to really step up and do the job during election day because their their jobs are important. So, um so I'm just I'm here for whatever, you know, if we need to work on creating ordinances or uh working I I know there's procedures in place. I think people just need to to make sure they're they're doing their job during at the polling locations.

I agree with you. And I think what we've also noted need to do is get new new people involved in, you know, in each of the polling places. You know, I think part of the problem is we didn't have people following procedures. Correct.

You know, election day, I was unfortunately in the hospital. So, I wasn't able to see what was going on. You know, and I think we can do better. I think we need to, you know, to use social media as a way of recruiting election workers. you know there's a national u you know a national site for election you know elections and one of the things they had is a whole series of u social media text bold postings that I think we could incorporate here you know one of the things I was amazed at is election day I'm trying to find out what the results are and because it was not on cable we had no mechanism of getting to seeing how the vote was so I'd like to see us establish some means of doing that so that if people want to look at see what's going on with the election results they can don't have to come down to city hall there should be other ways of doing it so that's one of the things they want to look at too

sure no definitely I mean I remember in past years when you know uh BCA had a person at each location getting the results at the same time that candidates people were getting results or they would be here at city hall um you know when things came in. But yeah, this last election, we weren't too happy with the way it went with with BCA, but that's another story. But back to elections, anything that I think, you know, we're in constant contact with our D director, Miss Garani. Um, so whatever we need to do to get ordinances in place or help with the process and procedures to make sure that people um, you know, follow the process because it's an important pro process. You can't take it lightly. You know, it's um it's it's important.

I've I've known most of you uh for many years for my involvement with elections. It's one of those things I take really, you know, I've been involved elections for over 50 years, going back to college, you when I worked on campaigns. And I think the integrity of election is what really keeps this country going. And we've got to work together to keep it going strong. And councelor Farwell, I appreciate the parts that you're bringing forward and I want to work with you further. And I do think that postponing it further would be a good idea. There were supposed to be some, you know, recommendations made by our attorney for the recount that I haven't seen yet and I'd like to see what they were. They were being supposedly being sent to the city solicitor and I'm not sure if they've received them yet. So once we have that, we can talk further on this and uh hopefully I can meet with my colleagues because I haven't had a chance to do that.

Great. Well, thank you, Mr. Kelly. Thank you again for being here. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, counselor. Councelor Shel. No, I was just going to mention that I thought there was a report that was going to be um sent to the council. So, I think uh my colleague Council Farwells once we get all that information, we can have the commissioners come and you know then see what the findings really were. Um just one quick question. What was one thing that you felt went well? Because we're talking about all stuff that didn't. What did you feel that went well on election day that you were elected?

Oh my goodness. I think overall the having the new people be elected, you know, having the involvement with the candidates involved. You know, I always like to see new folks step forward and come get involved in the political process. I ran for school committee three many years ago and I know what it's like to knock on doors and try to sell yourself on it. So, I I like people going forward and doing that. You know, I think that um you know, as I said, I was in the hospital. Yeah.

So, I really couldn't speak firsthand through what was going, you know, I'm in Mass General. I'm trying to figure out what's going on, you know, and it's pretty hard to do, you know, when when you can't talk to people and there's no election results on TV, what do you do?

Yeah. But I do want to thank you for serving on the commission. Um because, you know, as a former commissioner, it's like thankless work. you get beat down and blamed for a lot that you know is relatively sometimes out of your control because you know you're working on commission and employing a bunch of people to work on behalf of the election department training and I'm sure doing orientation and when things don't go as well you know you get the brunt of uh of the blame but uh I want to com you know really say thank you to all the commissioners you know for you know devoting their time and um their talent to and again I think we'll get beyond this and it'll be you know the process will only improve with you know with you know due time.

Well thank you. One of the things that concerns me is we're going to need more people because uh you know same day voter registration is coming up. You know there's a there is a uh Globe had an article about today while Galvin's in favor you know Secretary Galvin's in favor of it and that's something that we have to train people and be ready for. You know, it's, you know, it's funny that many years ago when I was chair of the Democratic City Committee, I was asked to speak, you know, to write an article for the Globe did. I am in favor of same day voter registration and have been for many years. We got to accept it and get ready to do what other states are doing. Thank you, Commissioner. Uh, council, you still have questions?

No. Okay. Didn't want to step in. So, just quickly, if we do make a motion to postpone, uh, we need a date certain for that. Correct? Inquiry. Yeah, we we would need a date certain for that. I don't know if councelor Farwell has second to income in March. Second income in March. All right. But there is no motion made right now. And I'm going to call on councelor Green. He had his hand up. So, that was actually my intent to make a motion to uh to postpone um to the uh I'm actually I'm going to go with what uh Council Farrell said to uh to postpone to the uh next uh FINCOM uh meeting in March. Second. Second.

Yeah, the second FINCOM meeting in March. and and and I also think it's important that we have um uh legal counsel um as a part of those invited and guests as well as the executive director. We second before you vote on this, I would like to say that director I'm sorry the uh the commissioners don't actually meet until April. I think that it would be best if they met and talked amongst themselves before coming before council. That's right. Could can they get schedule through through the chair? Couldn't they schedule a meeting before April? Yes.

Yes. No. If not, I I don't think councelor Green and I would object to postponing it to April, but it would seem to me that maybe the counselors could get the commissioners could get together, right? I would suggest that we wait until uh April on this because you I want to see the report, you know, that if it's being if there's something being sent to city solicitor, I want to see a copy of what their recommendations were. Well, it looks like April 6th then would be the first FinCom in March. And when is the meeting in April? April 6. We have to establish it.

Okay. And April 6th would be the first FINCOM. Um All right, Council Green, the motion. You made the motion. The floor is yours. Um, you know, we can we can keep it or we can move it to modify. Yeah. So, so it hasn't been seconded yet. So, we can modify it. Okay. So, I will modify to April 6 6 finance committee. Okay. Finance committee meeting. Second. Made and seconded.

Motion's been properly made and seconded. All in favor? All opposed? The matter is postponed. Thank you, commissioner. Thank you, director. Counselors, that is I promise the end of the agenda. A personal privilege. Councelor Azac.

Thank you. I'd like to announce that we're we will be having an ordinance meeting on Tuesday, February um 10th at 5:30 p.m. here in council chambers. Um, on another note, I would like to invite everybody on February 16th to the Toy Box Play Zone up at Westgate Mall. There will be an official ribbon cutting uh at 10:00 a.m. All are welcome uh to attend. It's going to be a fun-filled day with uh balloons and balloon art and a lot of family fun from 12 to 6:00 p.m. But the ribbon cutting is at 10:00 a.m. at the Toy Box Play Zone, Westgate Mall. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, counselor. Any other moments of personal privilege? Seeing none, we are ajourned.