Town Council - Regular Meeting

All right, Nesmithfield Town Council meeting, June 1st, 2026. Madam Clerk, can you set us up the prayer and the pledge?

Thank you for bringing us together today in a spirit of generosity. May we honor one another by keeping an open mind. May we voice our truth and listen with an open heart. May we discern your will to unite in a fruitful outcome. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Mr. Birrigan? Here. Mr. Cristofaro? Here. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes.

Mr. Punchak? Here. Ms. Alves?

Here.

Open forum pursuant to 42-46-6D, maximum three minutes per person. Would anyone else like to sign up for open forum before we start? Anyone? Mr. Grubb?

Sorry for that handwriting, my tremor's getting worse. I just had two things I wanted to point out tonight. I had a third, but I don't see it being necessary. One thing I noticed that you are finally getting a new member of the Conservation Commission. I just wanted to make sure the council is aware that committee hasn't had a real meeting since August of 2023. That's pretty dysfunctional and I hope whoever it is that you've nominated tonight will improve that and get the commission back on track. The other thing I wanted to mention is I know you have the results of the mediation with the quarry scheduled for executive session and that's not to be brought up again until next week, I mean next meeting. But I also noticed you plan to authorize signing the renewal of the road use permit. I wanted to mention a couple of things. Back in February of 2025, when this started, there were some questions about the number of trucks that run on Pound Hill Road, I believe. Mr Christopher as part of her testimony set up to 120 trucks per day. It was also mentioned during the planning commission meeting. Up to 120 trucks per day, and there was a promise made. by the Quarry's attorney that they would get back and verify how many trucks per day. I never saw that. It's like it disappeared. If you're going to sign a road use permit, please consider whether there should be a maximum number of trucks per day. Secondly, I know citizens have complained that there have been deliveries off hours to the quarry. And the way the system works now, it's up to the citizen to complain to the police and then the police to get out there. Well, that's a cat and mouse game if there ever was one. By the time the police get there, if they come at all, it's way too late to address that specific instance. Also, I know for a fact that Mr. Richard called the police about some oil deliveries that were before 7 a.m. and the response from the police was the oil deliveries don't count because they could be really delivering to private residences excuse me well let's define that just finish up please is it three minutes okay I'm done thank you

Nassau Field Town Council sitting as Board of Licensing. A, discussion by Council Voter Other Action on Elevate Collective LLC DBA Rise Up Nutrition, new owner Jessica Fernandez and applying for Victual License located at 900 Victory Highway, Unit 17. B, discussion by Council Voter Other Action on Peddler Walker License DBA Phantom Fireworks, 0 Victory Highway. Is there anyone here from... Rise Up Nutrition. Did you want to go up to the podium? Could you just state your name and your address?

Jessica Fernandez. And what was the other question? I'm sorry.

Your address.

The address of the businesses. Your address. My address, 220 High Street, Apartment 1, Taunton, Massachusetts, 02780.

So this is just a change of ownership?

Correct.

Madam Clerk, everything's in order. Anyone have any questions?

Operating hours stay the same?

Yes, they are.

I have a question.

Can you tell us what is an opportunity for you to do a little selling? So can you tell us what Rise Up Nutrition is?

Rise Up Nutrition sells healthy meal replacement shakes as well as energizing teas. I'm sorry, what? Healthy meal replacement shakes and energizing teas. And we also conduct wellness evaluations helping people in the community through social media platforms as well as the nutrition club with their goals, whether it's weight loss, weight gain, muscle recovery. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry.

Does anyone have any other questions? Anyone like to make a motion?

Sure. I will make a motion to approve the business license for Elevate Collective LLC doing business as Rise Up Nutrition at 900 Victory Highway, Unit 17.

It's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Any other discussion?

Roll call, please. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Yes. Ms.

Yes. You're all set. Thank you.

Thank you. Good luck. Thank you.

Phantom Fireworks, is there anyone here for Phantom? Do you want to go up to the podium, please?

state your name and address please my name is eric wellman and i live at 260 raymond hill road in oncasville connecticut madam clerk everything's in order everything is in order anyone have any questions uh is i don't see his name anywhere on this

I see John Russo, and I see an Ohio address. Does that make sense? Your name was Eric, correct?

Yeah, my name's Eric.

So you're going to be operating, I would assume?

I'm going to be managing. We just got an operator. Her name's Catherine.

Catherine had a BCI check. She's all set. What's that? Catherine had the BCI check. She is all.

So would that be the peddler hawker? So that's like if there's an emergency there, somebody like we'll have a contact information. Right. We're not calling Ohio. Oh, yeah.

John, you would you would call me. I'm managing the area. So you would have two points of contact plus plus even my boss, John.

I guess if there's a piece of paper behind the scenes that has that information, but it seems to me that that information should have been on here.

I didn't know.

What is your name again, sir? My name's Eric Wellman. Okay. It's A-R-I-C. I can give you my phone number too.

Okay. I'm sorry, I didn't know who was attending.

Tammy, would he be the person using the license? I was in contact with Robert Fulltar. Okay. Only because it says TBD under name of person using license. So it sounds like maybe your name should have been listed since you're operating it.

I'm not operating it. It would be Catherine. Catherine Casto.

Okay. Then Catherine's name should be there? Yeah. Okay.

You'll get that square light? I will, yes. Okay.

I'll make a motion to approve the license for Phantom Fireworks at Victory Highway.

It's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please.

Mr. Berrigan? Yes. Mr. Cristoforo? Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Punchak? Yes. Ms. Alves? Yes. Thank you.

Thank you.

DISCUSSION BY COUNCIL VOTE OTHER ACTION ON SOLICITATION LICENSE RENEWAL BY ANDERSON IS THERE ANYONE HERE FOR THAT LICENSE MY NAME IS JOSHUA KELLY DIRECTOR OVER AT RENEWAL BY ANDERSON HERE FOR HERNANA VILA WHO WAS FILLING OUT THE PROCESS TO SOLICIT NORTH SMITHFIELD

Can I just ask a question from my own edification? Of the doors that you knock on, how many actually pursue windows with Renewal by Anderson?

Purchase windows, so what we do is just we solicit for free window and door replacement basically a free in-home visit so whether people buy from us or not so on average um the person who is applying he usually is looking to said at least three to four homes per day um and based on that and then we have um we have numerous past customers in the north smithfield area and it's a good opportunity to check in on on them and give them the service number if they don't have it on them just to make sure we're also standing behind our product as well okay so you don't have like a percentage of folks that actually use your services given the door knocking uh like the turnover i guess uh the turn turnover no i don't have have the amount just because we're more so just focused on the in-home visit part of it and then a project consultant stops by at a later date

Does the person go into the door, have a picture ID and stuff?

Yeah, he has make sure to be logoed out, have an ID. And we always prefer permits that are wearable just so they can show it when they're at the door. They're instructed to knock on the door and take plenty of spaces back to give homeowners the space whether they decide to answer the door or not. They're instructed to never enter the home.

9 o'clock, everything's in order. Everything is in order. Anyone have any other questions?

Just one. Somebody came to my house last year. You guys, I don't begrudge anybody trying to make a living, but you've got to take no for an answer. I tried to say no like a dozen times. A dozen times. You've got to take no for an answer and move on.

Yeah, no, I definitely understand that. No, they're instructed to basically ask about the windows, ask about the doors, and then be done.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They find them a little pushy.

No, I definitely understand. You can also list my contact information in case anyone from the town has any issues. Also, I can provide my email address as well. Thank you. Yeah.

I'm not for this.

I hope you realize this.

I know you have to make a living, but I'm not for any type of board door solicitation. and then when something's wrong, you're stuck. For me, I'm stuck with a $92,000 rule that's good forever, if you can catch them. And I'm still working on it.

I'm sorry, that was your experience. Yeah, our office is based at Smithfield, Rhode Island. Everyone who works for us lives in the area. And yeah, everything that's purchased is shipped to our warehouse over at 10 Reservoir Road in Smithfield, Rhode Island, about a 15 minute drive from here.

Anyone have any other questions? Anyone like to make a motion?

I will make a motion to approve the solicitation license for Hearn and Pavila of renewal by Anderson.

It's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Any other discussion? Roll call, please.

Mr. . Yes. Mr. . Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? No. Mr. . Yes. Ms. . Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Discussion by Council Voter Other Action on HT Auto LLC Licensing Requirements. Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Cody.

There is no update and we're following up for the last meeting and executive session.

Discussion by Council Voter Other Action on Payment of Bills. Does anyone have any questions on their packet?

May I just, sorry, before we move on, may I just ask a question about that line item? If there were no updates, should we have not included it on the agenda so constituents didn't come expecting an update?

Yes.

Okay.

We should.

Okay, sorry, thank you. Back to payment of bills, anyone have any questions?

I do not.

I do not either, okay.

Anyone like to make a motion if there's no questions? I will make a motion to approve payment of bills for June 1st, 2026 in the amount of $175,427.35. That's a motion, is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. . Yes. Mr. .

Yes. Mrs. O'Hara. Yes. Mr. .

Yes.

Ms. . Yes. Presentation of Budget Committee's proposed FY26-27 budget.

Hi, everyone. My name is Douglas. I live in 1984 Providence Pike, and I'm the chairman of the budget committee in your packet this evening. There was. We switched it up a little bit this year. You'll have a full memo, which kind of outlines everything. And I'll go over some of that now. And then we also created more of a PowerPoint type structure to kind of. highlight and visualize some of the changes that are driving the budget this year. We tried to take into consideration like most of these conversations over the past few years and thought maybe it was time to kind of mix up how we're presenting the information. So I'm not going to read line by line, the four pages, but I'll go over some of the talking points. Essentially, this year's general fund budget is up to 57.05 million. It's an increase of about 3% or 1.7 million from last year. The net proposed increase in the property tax levy is 2.61%, which is well below the 4% cap. And the committee's budget proposal is roughly $631,000 below the administration's recommendation. And that reflects a series of specific deliberate choices rather than just straight across the board cuts. This year's budget is shaped by three pressures that the council should know up front and understand. The newly approved police station renovation bond is in its first year payments. Contractual personnel obligations across public safety and a school state aid reduction that, while modest in dollar terms, doesn't help the town much in terms of funding. So what's driving the increase? Three departments, highway, police, and fire account for roughly 84% of gross spending increases. Highway increased by 955,000, and there's two line items that account for most of this increase. One, you'll notice that the budget now distinguishes between road repaving and road repair. Road repaving is larger resurfacing projects, mostly capital projects, if you want to think of it like that, and road repair, which is the ongoing maintenance work that stays within the operating budget. um this change was really driven by the finance department and how these are classified and part of that new uh capital transfer line policy that tony's working on you'll also notice that in fy 27 we also added 610 000 for heavy equipment and that's a three-quarter ton pickup with a plow, drainage improvements, and a dump truck. The rest is personnel and benefits there. Police is an increase of $642,000. This is driven by the contract signed last year and is locked in increased wages, longevity, and pension obligations. There's not much wiggle room. Fire was an increase of 480,000. Again, a lot of this is driven through contractual obligations. This you'll notice the firefighters, the two phase four firefighters hired mid FY26, they're now fully online. And the committee also funded one floater position at half a year. The fire department has requested two, but the committee approved one to allow the department to kind of prove out the concept and to show how that model will work going forward. Uh, the police station bonds voters approved the bond up to 9Million dollars, which we all know. Um, the annual debt service is approximately 910,000. The committee and the administration both recommended covering this payment from the town's reserve rather than from the property tax levy without the draw from reserves. The levy increase would be roughly 5% rather than the 2.61%. And the committee felt that while this is one year decision presented in the FY27 budget, it should be studied further to see how future debt service will be funded. And that conversation shouldn't wait until the next budget cycle, but should start now. So the next section really gets into where we differed from the administration. So the committee's proposal is $631,000 below, which I just said. The largest difference relates to the parks and recreation capital, which is about $575,000. The committee supports both the Pacheco Park Improvement and Scouters Hall renovation and supports using the fund balance for them. However, the committee's preference is to allocate that fund balance when projects are shovel-ready, when completed design, confirmed bids, and a procurement timeline is established rather than pre-committing funding now. The committee also added $200,000 back to the highway capital for heavy equipment purchase and additional drainage. And for the police, which was 137 below the administration, the committee held academy recruit pay at status quo rather than approving an increase to the union bottom step. Trimmed overtime modestly and removed station janitorial services for the building that is currently under renovation. For FIRE, 62,000 below the administration. The committee approved one of the two new floated positions that the fire department had requested, and they funded at a half a year. Other changes included staffing decisions, which the committee declined to backfill the tax assessor. a half a position which was transition to finance and declined a building and zoning request to convert a part-time to full-time position and then also made roughly thirty seven thousand dollars in trims across legal planning town clerk and other small departments One of the biggest changes in the budget this year that you'll notice is that the committee decided to raise the assumed tax collection rate from 98% to 98.5%. This is significant. It also goes into the levy calc as well. And the committee did not make this decision lightly. We essentially looked at the past few years in terms of what we were collecting and saw that that number was actually closer to 99, maybe a little bit higher than 99%. It felt it was time after years of not raising it to raise it. Essentially what that does is it allows the town to, it doesn't create the surplus that the town has seen year over year. And so in plain terms, for every $100 that the town bills in property tax, The budget will now assume $98.5 will be collected with the remainder covering later uncollected accounts. The town's actual collection performance, like I just said, is 99% over the last few years, and so we felt that this was comfortable. The school department... Saw a decline in state aid this year, so far, based on when we last met. This, give me a second here, includes capital and other town contributions as support schools up to 412 state aid is down approximately 335,000. Primarily because what happened was the town's property valuation went from a 90% in the calculation prior year down to 70%. And the recent revaluation which lowered the state aid formula and total school funding from all sources is roughly 32.45 million. The committee supports a strong school system as a town wide asset and property values and residential demand and the ability to attract and retain working age households are all tied. To school performance and the committee also flags that the district's deferred maintenance backlog estimated between five and twenty million dollars at roofs and most immediate concern is recommended school Committee and the council jointly commissioned a facilities assessment FY 27 to weigh targeted repairs against the potential need for a longer-term bond Water and sewer. I won't get into much here. These are mostly paid, as you all know, through the rates and spending increased 125,000 and that the rate was looking to be increases from 10.52 to 13.01. Lodge you driven this was because of a 120,000 of new capitals dedicated to cleaning of the tank required for compliance of the statewide monitor water quality standard and other water revenue for sources of flat. So really going forward, um, the council, I mean, the budget committee has recommended that in FY 27, the council adopt or seriously consider capital scoring framework. The town does not currently have a written framework for prioritizing capital requests. This year's deliberations on parks and rec police and water each required judgment that a written framework would have made clearer cost benefit public safety deferred maintenance risk grant leverage and long term operating costs should each factor into the decision making material capital items should not reach the budget without completion design confirmed funding sources in the procurement timeline. Reserve policy, this came up a lot. The town has run several surpluses for several years and reserves comfortably exceed the required levels. A formal reserve policy covering minimum balance or modifying the minimum balance, permissible uses of the fund balance and replenishment expectations should be adopted. compensation study. I know this is something the budget committee has been asking for for a few years. Non-union, non-stipend positions were just flatlined at 3% cost of living, but the committee also recommends a full market compensation study along the lines recently completed by the town of Lincoln. Out-of-cycle adjustments and turnover are risky and more expensive than the cost of the study. Another area where we've noticed cost increasing is the software subscriptions. The town should complete a town-wide audit specifically on cloud software usage and see what we can do to offset that. One recommendation came from the town clerk's HeyGov subscription. We eliminated that after a no-cost alternative was demonstrated and accepted. The same review should be done across the board. So just in conclusion, I know I read more than I intended. The FY27 proposal reflects a line-by-line review. Essentially, as I said, the spending growth increased 3.07%, but the levy went up 2.61%. And again, if you have any questions, happy to answer them. And there's other members from the committee, too, in case I missed anything. There's other members from the committee here as well, in case I missed anything.

Yeah.

Doug, the difference at Parks and Rec for $575,000 between you and the administrator, what does that $575,000 entail?

So I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think ultimately it came down to there's a potential grant for Pacheco and Scouters in that area, and the committee felt just leave the money in the fund balance now. There's no need to allocate it up front. Essentially it would do two things. One, by allocating it now, it gets added into the budget, even though it's not taxed against the levy. the committee felt it would be more prudent to wait until that kind of actually came to be. And then at that time, the council could make a recommendation to move that money at a later date. But that's really what it was. We felt that the project wasn't fully ready, so we shouldn't just dedicate the money in the hopes that a grant will come. Right, did I miss that?

And Doug, clarifying question, compensation study. I know that we talked about this kind of ad nauseum last year, and it was our understanding that the compensation study would be complete for this budget season, so then we could determine the increase for salaries based on the compensation study. So are we saying that that has not been completed?

That's an administration question, but no, it's not.

And why didn't we discuss that last budget season? Is your mic on? Sorry.

Since the last budget process, we've had several Zoom calls with various companies that offer that kind of service, which is one of the things that when we are looking at the contingency fund, which the budget committee wants to eliminate, that contingency fund, in our opinion, gave us the ability to approach things like that. So we have not yet identified that because we need to really approach the council in terms of what they agree with. But it's not a cheap thing to do. And although Lincoln's done something and supposedly Portsmouth did something, when we actually looked at what Portsmouth did, it was far less than what we need to do.

I agree, it probably isn't a cheap thing to do, but it's either we complete it to understand what salaries should be, or we continue to maintain potentially salaries at a lower rate, because we don't have that compensation.

If the council wants to appropriate the funds for that, we're all for it.

Okay, thank you. Doug, did you want to go over your power point at all?

Yeah, I don't think anybody else on the committee wants to come up and talk. Yeah, that'd be great, Mike. So essentially, I'll let Mike Davis kind of talk through some of this. He was on the committee as well. So I'll let him kind of walk through it.

Thanks.

All right.

So, yeah, the uh so yeah the first slide's just kind of very high level um so like doug said when he's reading the memo so the total spending that we uh approved was uh 3.7 which translates to a 2.61 percent uh levy increase well below the four percent so that's good So yeah, the next slide. So the total spending increase for next year, we have a 1.7 million say, and then also what shows up as an increase on the town and school side is a decrease in state funding. So basically the town or the schools has to make that as of the last time we met with them, it was a $225,000 cut. Um, so then what's decreasing, um, you know, the levy would be if we take the, um, the payment, the principal and interest from the police bond out, um, of the reserve instead of putting it onto the levy. Uh, so that saves 909,000 for this year. Um, and then, you know, just other general revenue increasing by, uh, 51,000, which nets you a $962,000 levy increase. Okay. So yeah, so as Doug said, yeah, the top three departments account for 84% of the increase, so that's highway, police, and fire. Yeah, I'm not sure if there's anything in particular here that is called out.

I should say.

Yeah, so like we said, the police is going up drastically because of the new contract is kicking in this first year with those catch-ups plus the salary increases. Fire goes up by a lot just because of the new positions we've already committed to plus the new floater. And then, yeah, the other stuff is kind of just standard. So yeah, so the next three slides, they look a little bit deeper into highway. So I just highlighted that. So I'll go quickly. So when you guys start looking at the budget, you'll see that there's a big line item for capital transfer that wouldn't have been there before. So the first two lines equal what you'll see in capital. So yeah, so road repaving is just reclassified into capital instead of general operating budget, just so that way money can be reserved. with the new finance department's policies. Yeah, then there's a cost savings from street lights projected, so that's good. And then, yeah, we approved the equipment, drainage, and dump truck.

I love that. $120,000 in savings. Yeah.

in the budget, so there you go. All right, so then please, yeah, so you'll see of the 642,290 plus pension health insurance and stipends, that all you really, we can't, there's no flexibility in that because that's just contractual. There's a little, I guess, flexibility in the salaries because we added, what did we add? Two new police officers, a transfer and a academy recruit. But I think the police department was asking for even more than that. So yeah, there's limited flexibility in those numbers.

And Mike, can I ask a clarifying question? Sure. The other net, is that in relation to the contract or is that just other budget requests?

I think it's probably outside of the contract. Outside of the contract? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. When you guys get into the Excel, you'll see all the line by line. All right. That's about it. So then for FHIR, yeah, so again, the contractual increase. So phase four is what was implemented last year. You guys had approved two new firefighters each year. So the first year, we always only fund half of it. So then the second year, you have to fund the full salary. So it shows up as another $117,000 on top of the half salary that was approved last year. And then a new floater position, as DJ mentioned also, which this year we would fund half and next year we'd fund the whole thing. And that floater position was being added. So to help with overtime, you know, if I go out on leave, then if there's minimum manning, you don't have to, in theory, you don't have to pay time and a half for that. That's what the chief had told us.

Excuse me, Mike. On the floater position, is that above and beyond those extra? Right. Yeah.

So that would be outside of the phase four. So the department asked for two. We reduced it to one. But yeah, it's not part of what the council had already.

And it's a full-time position?

Full-time, yep. Yep, and then I think software and licenses is new. If I remember right, it used to be funded by, was it the town or the? EMS, okay, yeah, so that's a new, like, something the town's absorbing. And then, yeah, then equipment and maintenance and repairs going up slightly, but we know those costs have been very expensive. So that's the top three accounts. So yeah, so the, This slide is basically showing you how the budget has grown over the last few years. So what we did is we separated out the town controlled money plus state aid. So last year you'll see a 4.37% budget increase. That's mainly because of the 1.75 million increase in state aid that the school department got. So yeah, you'll see that that's shrinking to the 9.2 million this year from 9.5 last year. So overall, it's a 3% budget increase this year. Okay, so the things that are helping drive down the budget is, so debt service is reducing. That's one of the school bonds is amortizing down. And then obviously the police bond is coming on this year. legal was cut this year because last year I think we had a budget for a one-time annual expense and then DPW saw small increases Parks and Rec. Yeah, I don't remember specifics on those two. And then the tax assessor was just, there's a transition from a full-time position from the tax assessor department that's moving to finance. And this past year they had been, splitting their time between finance and the assessor's office so she's moving fully to the finance department so in theory if we backfilled that what was a full that half a position into a full position there would have been an added cost so we decided not to do that Because it would really be creating a new half a position, which would be quite expensive when you factor in benefits and all that. So the next slide is just highlighting the cuts that we made. So as Doug already answered, the parks and rec capital is really just we support the projects in general. We're just saying request that the money gets pulled once the projects are closer to being shovel ready. Highway capital, we increased by $200,000 for heavy equipment and drainage repair. Again, police was cut, as we already talked about. Same fire, fine, yeah, tax assessor. And then, yeah, there was another request, as I think Doug, you already mentioned, with building and zoning. So we declined converting that half-time position to full-time. Okay, yeah, the next slide. So do you guys want, I know you already went into detail on this. So really, by increasing the expected collection rate, well, I guess, let me just take one step back. So say we budget a million dollars, say, The town's assuming that 2% of the tax bills won't get paid. So we basically over, not really over bill, but we send out more than a million dollars worth of bills. So we kind of looked historically, you know, FY25, FY24, we collected, you know, 600, over 600,000 more than we thought we were going to collect. So in a sense, if you're looking for why the town's been running such large this is a major contribution to it. So what we said was let's increase it this year conservatively just a half a percent. And just alone that took $189,000 out of the levy. So basically we're saying let's build people closer to what the town actually needs. So we felt that was pretty safe for this year.

Mike, just a question. How many years did you go back to see historically what we've been collecting? How many years did you look at?

Yeah, I think we went back one more than was listed here. So every year that we looked, it was consistently over budget. I think another I don't know how I don't remember exact timing, but you consider that like tangibles now is most of it's covered at the state level. So you'll get all of that money. Car tax is now gone. So, you know, I feel like car tax, you'd have a lot harder time collecting than property tax. And then if you want to say anything.

I've also been doing the budget for I think all around 10 years now and I think it's been at 98% For the majority of that time so it's it's been some time since I think it's actually been studied But yeah, we went back a little bit. It's been like the last two years I think it was around ninety and a half ninety nine percent more so 99 or slightly over recently.

Okay. Thank you

So I got a question. Can you elaborate on what you hit on it briefly and sort of Doug about what's going on? You said something about the tax collector and the finance.

What's all that about? Yeah, so I believe there's a person that was originally hired in the assessor's department who started spending part of their time in the finance department. And this year, they're being converted fully from 50-50 to full-time finance. So that's basically creating a new salaried position in the finance department, which will leave, compared to last year, a half role missing in the assessor's office. So if we were to... basically give a backfill to the assessor's office, it would be a full-time position with salary and benefits and stuff like that. So there'd be quite a big cost to backfill that position. So instead of creating a new one, we're just transferring it fully from assessor to finance.

So the person will still be able to move into finance?

Yes. Okay. Yeah, so no one will lose their job or anything.

Councilman, if I can jump in, because the budget page is not fully aware of the operational strategies we have internally. There are some real reasons why we're making that move, just as there are some real reasons why we're making the proposed move in the zoning. And we can get into that in detail when we start having an open conversation about the budget. This is obviously the budget committee's opportunity. Okay.

So the next slide is just kind of showing you the revenue of where the town gets all its revenue. So you'll see the majority of it is property taxes, so about two thirds. The next biggest bucket is state aid at about $16 million. And then just very small amounts from fines, other minor school fundings. So then this year, because we proposed to pay for the first year principal interest of the bond, that would show up as $1 million of the spending comes from the fund. you know, reserves for the police bond and then just, you know, side agreements we have for tangibles and payment in lieu of taxes.

Mike, if we didn't do that, if we didn't do that with the, would that send us over the 4%?

Yeah, this slide says, yeah, if you scroll up a little, the levy basically would increase by an additional 2.5%. Okay. So, yeah, you'd get to 5.1%. Can I just turn it? Yep.

I know that was asked of the committee to really look at and I know for years, you know, it's been, this is going to be a tight budget. There's not a lot of wiggle room. There's a lot of contractual obligations that are hitting all at once. There's a lot of projects that still need to be done. You know, I welcome, you know, when the administrator said, you know, having conversations in public, I welcome that. There's gonna be a lot of tough decisions that are gonna have to be made There's a lot of work still at the schools that have to be done So I think at some point there needs to be some like, you know planning down here in terms of how we're going to as a collective budget all these things because there's not a lot of wiggle room in this budget and that is a Concern is that this could very easily go over the 4% mandate

Okay, so then the next slide is talking about the enterprise funds. So this year the water department was notified of a, you know, there was some contaminant or something that was out of compliance and the tank basically needs to be cleaned. So that's a one-time capital expense of $120,000. So that alone will increase, that plus salaries and other minor adjustments will increase the water department budget by 125,000. So that will, if we leave the user fees alone, that's gonna cause a 23.6% water rate increase. So it's gonna go up quite a bit from 10.52 per 1,000 gallons to 13.1. And that's with us not funding the St. Paul Street water extension request of, I think it was another 90,000. So if you added 90,000 more onto this, you could see the rate would maybe go up 50%, or close to, in the 40s at least. Um, so yeah, so there's, you know, quite a big jump in the water. I think the town should consider that, um, that that's will affect residents beyond the, um, residents and businesses beyond the, the property tax. Uh, sewer was, uh, very flat. Um, so, um, the, the budget was basically flat and then because there's a few more units, the rate will go down two and a half percent. Yeah, so then this last slide here is basically just some kind of metrics to see like how the budgets divided so we grouped kind some of the You know, we didn't list every single department in the fund. So you'll see 53% of the budget is consumed by the schools, which is you know fairly consistent with what you'd expect Police is at nine point two public works is at nine point one fire is at eight point five General government and debt, 8.3. Water and sewer, again, it's not part of the general fund, but we've looked at it as an expense that the town taxpayers and rate payers pay for, so that's 6.3. And then we kind of lumped, grouped town hall and library together at 5.3. So the next, you know, horizontal bar chart is kind of showing you what's changing this year. So, you know, 44% of the change is coming from public works, which is DPW and highway. Police is at 32.8, fire 24.1. You have water and sewer because of that big one-time jump is showing up there at 12.4. School is increasing. It shows only 89,000. That's because we decided to fund the administrator's request. But then we're just deducting what the state aid is getting decreased by. Yeah, the library's going up just modestly. And then the debt service that we talked about is coming down from the amortization of one of the other bonds. So that's it. I don't know if you have any more questions.

This was hugely helpful. I'm sure it wasn't just helpful for us, but for the public to see. It was very user-friendly and very self-explanatory. So thank you so much. OK, great.

Thank you. Thank you.

Will we post that presentation publicly? Sure. OK.

thank you thank you joey and thank you ryan and kevin is not here and i think what kim i think we're planning on being around on the 15th so during the public hearing if there's questions or when the public hearing is we can help answer at that time too

All right, we're going to move up the executive session closed session discussion by council voter other action pursuant to round general law 42 dash 46 dash 582 sessions pertain to collective bargaining or litigation or work sessions pertain to collective bargaining or litigation or potential litigation. One pound Hill Realty LLC versus town Nussman field case number PC 1999 dash 1811. So I'll make a motion to go into executive session.

Motion to go into executive session.

Is there a second? Any further discussion? Roll call please.

The only discussion that I would have is, my child is in the other room because I didn't have childcare tonight. So it just would have been helpful to know that we were going to switch up the agenda in advance. I probably wouldn't have come, especially since we didn't discuss the HD auto licensing. And then there are items that I would have liked to have been a part of. So I am going to obviously recuse myself from executive session and then open discussion on this specific topic. So with that being said, I'll probably just leave so I can take my infant home.

Okay. All right, so we have a motion to second. Roll call, please. Mr. Birrigan.

Mr. Christensen. Why are we doing this? Why are we? Going into executive session? Yeah, why are we going into that now instead of doing?

Because we have people here, lawyers and Mr. Carullo and yeah. So roll call please. Mr. Berrigan?

Yes. Mr. Cristofaro? Am I able to vote on this?

No.

Recuse. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Punchak? Yes. Ms. Els? Yes.

All set? Jamie, all set?

Yes, all set. Good.

I would like to make a motion to exit executive session, indicate that two votes were taken, and request that the minutes are sealed.

That's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please.

Mr. Berrigan?

Yes.

Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Punchak? Yes. Ms. Alts? Yes.

Open session, discussion by council, vote of other action pursuant to Rhode Island General Law 42-46-582, sessions pertaining to collective bargaining or litigation or work sessions pertaining to collective bargaining or litigation or potential litigation. One, Pound Hill Realty, LLC versus Town & Mill Smithfield, case number PC-1999-1811.

um so i'm going to just give a little bit of information on this before making a motion the mou as it was previously presented to us has been updated with our comments and is going to be sent back to material sand for a response we are requesting a response from material sand by friday and with that being said I am going to make a motion to have a meeting next Monday June 8th at the same time to receive that um response and also make the MOU public at that time that's a motion is there a second

Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Birrigan? Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Punchak? Yes. Ms. House? Yes. All right. Back to old business discussion by council vote. Other action on status slash progress report items. Nelson Field Police Station renovation update.

There's already no update today. We'll be taking that up on probably the 15th. Sure, we have a tentative mobilization date of June 8th. Demo could begin as late as the end of that week or early the following week. We are trying to orchestrate a groundbreaking, if you will, but it is supposed to start next week.

contractor indicated that their office trailers coming i think he said next wednesday temp fence is going to start going up so people should start to see activity around there in the next two weeks discussion my council vote other action on pacheco park recreational grant agreement mr gibbs resolution i'm sorry

Sure, in your package is the grant agreement relative to the half a million dollar grant we received from the Department of Environmental Management. So I'm asking for authorization for the administrator to sign that grant agreement.

That's good news.

Yeah.

Anyone like to make a motion?

Well, can I just make a comment real quick? I was out at a local establishment and two young mothers came up to me and they said, they made a great suggestion. They said, there should be a fence around the playground. Not a tennis fence, but maybe even something that's waist high for adults. And they said, every playground has a fence around it. And once they told me that, and then I was out and about, they're right. That's something that we should consider, because there are fences around playgrounds to keep the kids secured.

And once we commence this, obviously we have to begin on a design phase now, which includes the play structure as well as the walking path and improvements to the public infrastructure. There will be a public input process that's going to be part of that. We'll work with Parks and Rec and invite public comment. So we're not going to do this in a vacuum. Okay.

Anyone like to make a motion to authorize the town administrator to sign?

I'll make that motion to authorize the town administrator to sign the Pacheco Park recreational grant agreement.

That's a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Roll call. Mr. Rear God? Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes.

Mr. Punchak? Yes. Ms. Alves? Yes.

Make a note, the old business items B1, B2, and C1, just for the, these were put on the agenda for notice purposes, but they have already been continued to June 15th by previous council meeting. Just wanted you to be aware of that.

Okay.

And for the public to be aware of that as well.

Do I have to put that into the record?

Nope, I'm just wanting, it's already scheduled for a public hearing on June 15th, 2026. Thank you.

New business discussion by council vote other action on road access permit material sand and stone caught Mr Gibbs.

In your package is the road access permit, which is consistent with what was approved last year. What I'm asking for, again, there is no changes in the previous approved road access permit. We've kept the severity level at the same level of $150,000. That was based upon the investigation by the Public Works Department on road conditions. And of course, we also received input from the police department that's required under the ordinance. This is for a one year agreement, which actually has already started, but we haven't signed this yet. And they've already given us the bond that's in effect right now. So what I'm asking for is authorization to one, accept the $150,000 security. And two, to authorize the town council president to sign the road access permit along with the administrator.

Anyone have any questions regarding the request or the road permit? Just FYI, if we do approve this, we can't sign this one because there's a misspelling with my name. So I'd have to amend it and

Danny, we can come up with a new one. As long as you get approval to sign it, then I'll circle back with you to get that.

Okay.

How is item number ten enforced?

Don't know. It's something that we put in there because we were having experiences with some drivers who weren't following the rules. So effectively, we approached material and asked them to please provide this information, the document, to the drivers. And quite frankly, a lot of those occurrences that we were experiencing over a year ago don't seem to be happening anymore.

So you're saying should a driver be stopped, they should have a copy of it with them? Is that what you're saying?

Theoretically, whether they do or not. I mean, but material I've committed to provide this document to the drivers. Which was in last year's agreement too.

not all the people are going in and out of there. A lot of them are independent. They don't all work for material. People go in and out of there, so we couldn't expect every one of them to have a copy of this, right?

If you go onto a construction site, you've been provided all of the safety regulations and things like that, so it's... Yeah, but they wouldn't have a copy of the road use permit.

Anyone have any other questions? Anyone like to make a motion?

I'll make the motion. I'll make a motion to authorize the town council president to co-sign with the town administrator for the road use permit.

I'll second.

I'm sorry. Also, authorize the town council to approve the $150,000 surety bond. Should that be two separate motions or one? One. Okay, it's one.

All right, we have a motion to approve the signature and also the surety bond. Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. . Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. .

Yes.

Ms. . Yes. Discussion by council vote other action on appointments to town board slash committees. One appointment to the conservation commission for a three year term from 12-1-2025 to 11-20-2028. It's appointed by the town administrator.

I would like to appoint Alessandra Michaela Triosi to the position of member on the conservation commission.

Do we have to approve that or?

Brian, no. I'm sorry.

You don't need our approval, right?

No, it's an administrator's point, but I do want to reference a comment that was made during the public comment regarding the conservation commission. I had coffee with one of the new members of the conservation commission, was extremely excited about a renewed energy and a desire to become extremely more active as a commission, so I'm really excited about that.

Do they have a quorum?

They do now. Okay. They have three.

Do we know who's not showing up?

I actually, I don't have the names in front of me, but I sent an email to all members on the commission and basically said, if you are not attending the commission meeting, I need you to respond back to me that you no longer want to serve on that commission. So if we don't, I have gotten response from nobody at this point. We really need to explore the formal process in which somebody is removed from a commission. But when they're not even returning emails, and one of the current members, previously before I reached out, also was reaching out, trying to get a quorum together, trying to get people attending and no one responding to his emails.

There is a process that if somebody misses three meetings that they can be removed. I mean, it's unusual that somebody would be removed. just 3 means over the course of the year, but that might committee only meets every other month or whatever if at all if at all right now so 3 meetings and they there is ground for more but who removes that the council or the point of all members of the commission are appointed by the town administrator.

The head of the commissioner committee is supposed to say that to the council council will remove them correct.

they'll have the first organizational meeting where they'll they'll have a quorum and i'll make sure that they're instructed to to do that yeah okay thank you two appointment to the planning board for a five-year term for 12-1 2023 to 11 30 2028 appointed by the town council

So this is the one that we had a question about, does first alternate move up or, and did we get an answer to that?

Yeah, there's no requirement to do it either way. But historically, the council was always moving up an alternate to a full membership. But there's no requirement to do it one way or the other. That's the legal answer.

I thought the intent was to give the first alternate the offer of first refusal.

Well, I think that we checked it, there was no application.

So I was speaking with Bobby in the planning department, and she said that she had tried to contact the first alternate, and then I tried to contact, there was no response. Finally, after about a couple days or a week, well actually then we ended up speaking with Mr. Gasparro. The second contact said he did want to, but Mr. Gasparro had already been told that by the planning department that he would be moved up because there was no rule as to the first alternate that has to go into the spot. There was no definitive rule for that. That's why he's on the agenda like this again, because I was told that he can be put into the spot that's open as a full member. Okay.

Yeah, there's no rule, but I mean, there's a historically precedent that we put the first alternate up.

Yeah, because that's why they're an alternate.

I think you get a hard no from that person instead of just assuming. Maybe we can just ask, what's his name, the chair, Gary, to have that person reach out to you and let him know.

Well, it sounds like that person reached out to you, but it was after a time frame?

Yeah, he had already reached out to Bobby. The first alternate did? The first alternate after we had told Mr. Gasparro that he was going to be going into the permanent position because there was no precedence to have the alternate go into the- But what did the first alternate say? Did he say he wanted to be- After a week of trying to get in touch with him, phone calls, emails, there was nothing. So then we ended up talking to Mr. Gasparro and he said he would go into that position. Then after Mr. Gasparro got back to us, then we heard from the first alternate.

And he wanted it.

He did.

Okay.

I mean, if we tried to reach out to them and they didn't respond to us, we need to move along, right?

I just wanted to get this on the agenda. That's why I was trying to brush Bobby and to get, she was helped. She was helping me trying to get in touch with two people. I mean, with, um, I can't remember his name. I'm sorry. The first alternate.

I don't know either one of them, but I would say that there could be a thousand reasons why somebody's having a difficult time getting back to you, and I think it's theirs to turn down. That's my opinion.

So I mean we should just vote him in and then maybe the committee, the planning board can hash this out or? Is he not gonna come on if he's only an alternate?

Yeah, it seems like there's a material problem there. How does this happen before somebody is the first alternate, even knows or is even given the opportunity until this comes along? Yeah. Why, okay, so someone resigns, base is open. Why aren't they talking about saying, hey, first alternate, would you like this position? Like how do we even get this far? I don't understand that. I have a hard time, yes, it's nothing formal, nothing written, but I have a hard time if the person has been there and you're there as a first alternate saying, hey, maybe sometime I've put this time in, maybe sometime I will be a full member of this board. And then for somebody to come along just because you didn't answer a phone call or an email, and like John said, it could have been a thousand, maybe he was out on a cruise. I don't know, I have a hard time just saying, can they work it out themselves? I would hope so, they're all adults as far as I know.

Or if you give us the name of the Ferrell's alternate, we can make a motion right now to move them up.

There we go.

I'm sorry, what's your name?

Ryan Hammond.

Ryan? Yeah.

Okay.

Hammond. Hammond, okay. Then I'll make a motion to move Ryan up from first alternate to a permanent position on the planning board.

I believe it's the unexpired term.

That expires on November 30th, 2026. It's a one year term.

So it ends up being a one year term because it's the unexpired term of Dr. Roberts?

Yes, I think so. No. Who is it? It's going to be till 2028.

Okay, that's what I'm trying to do. The council needs to identify what you're doing, is what I'm saying, because it's normally a five year term, right? You're appointing Mr. Hammond to the remaining period of the unexpired term. Could you describe it, Madam Clerk?

Of course, term from 12-1-2023 to 11-30-2028 appointed by town council. So it's going to expire in 2028.

Okay, yeah, that so move. And also make a note, start answering your phone.

We have a motion, is there a second? I second it. Did you second it? I cleared it. All right, any further discussion? Roll call.

i'm sorry i do have a question would mr gasparo be the first one okay i just want to make sure okay um mr beer god yes mrs o'hara mr punchak yes yes okay so now let's get back to the planning board first alternate right do we have that listed it's not listed on the agenda yeah do it so you're gonna put on the next agenda okay okay next agenda

Discussion by council for other action on a transfer request from town council reservations.

Here's just to cover some of the overages in the department. Just to make a correction on the form that you guys have, the left side says 101-4211. The right side is supposed to say 101-4211, so it's just a typographical error. But like I said, these are just to cover some of the overages within the department so we can continue spending some of the things that the department needs.

So it's not 4-221, it's 4-211?

Correct, for all three on the right side. 4221 is the fire department.

Anyone like to make a motion to approve the transfers for the police? I'll make that motion. We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Roll call, please. Mr. Birrigan? Yes. Mrs. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Punchak? Yes. Ms. Alves? Yes.

Sorry, did anyone want to speak?

Mr. Grubb? Three minutes, please. Okay. I feel like standing in this direction so I can see that.

I just would like to offer one observation that I find very frustrating. The original road use permit was approved by town council under very strange circumstances. They went into executive session, similar to tonight, unscheduled. At that time, Rebecca wanted to speak, but she missed her opportunity. And the explanation that Ms. Alves presented was we had all these legal people here, so we had to move the executive session. All of a sudden the same thing happens today. Now I noticed those legal people weren't even in the session, they were standing around talking. But whether they were or not, we know when these people are going to come and we should schedule accordingly. I wanted to speak on a couple of things and not hang around for executive session. But the schedule got flipped over. Once again, meeting was made. The road use permit was agreed to without public comment. I mentioned concerns when I first stood up here tonight. They were ignored. Good for you. But stop and think. We owe it to the citizens of North Smithfield to at least acknowledge the concerns Cynthia Roberts happened to be the one that complained about how many loads there were during the planning meeting. Now, Rebecca complained during town council. Cynthia Roberts complained about the same thing during planning. And Mr. Landry, who I happen to notice was seated right there, he stood up in that meeting and promised to get her the information. Guess what? Dropped and forgotten. That is a bad way to run things. Follow up some of these things. If somebody makes a promise, darn it, make them keep it, or at least explain why they decided not to. Oh, I'm sorry. My tremor gets worse when I get angry, so I'm just going to sit down.

Anyone else like to speak there? No.

Oh, David, you're gonna read Jason's?

I have a public statement for the record. North Smithfield Town Council meeting, June 1st, 2026, submitted by resident Jason Richer. Mr. President, members of the Town Council, fellow residents, on May 22nd, 2026, I filed two formal zoning enforcement complaints with zoning officer Leo Cody, Town Administrator Scott Gibbs, and Town Solicitor David Igliosi. One addresses the illegal non-conforming use and unlawful expansion at the Pound Hill Quarry. The second addresses the main processing plant and 180 tons per hour asphalt plant at 618 Greenville Road. More than three weeks later, the town has given zero written response while both operations continue at full capacity. This silence is unacceptable and violates the Town Zone Zoning Ordinance Chapter 340, Part 5, which requires the zoning officer to investigate written complaints. The core problem is clear. The quarry and main plant are non-conforming uses that were never properly grandfathered. THE REQUIRED CERTIFICATE OF ZONING COMPLIANCE AFTER THE 1979 EARTH REMOVAL ORDINANCE WAS NEVER OBTAINED. THE 2000 CERTIFICATE ZC-00-4 ISSUED BY BOB BENOIT ON JANUARY 5, 2000 DECLARED THE USE PREEXISTING NONCONFORMING BUT ATTACHED TO ZERO SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS. THE TOWN'S OWN APRA RESPONSES CONFIRM THERE ARE NO VALID CERTIFICATES OF ZONING COMPLIANCE FOR THESE LOTS. This operation also violates Section 340-2.1, which prohibits the enlargement or expansion of nonconforming uses and states it is the intent of the ordinance not to encourage their survival. The town has aggressively enforce the same rules against smaller businesses yet continues to allow material sand and stone Corp to operate without a license and to expand at the same time the town has ignored years of documented tax assessment errors that provide a de facto subsidy to MSSC. The 2023 Superior Court summary judgment already gave the town clear permission to enforce its zoning and earth removal ordinances. Instead of enforcement, officials have chosen mediation and repeated delays on an overlay district designed to legalize the violations. Residents should not have to file complaints and wait months for basic enforcement. Taxpayers pay for officials whose job is to uphold the law, not to negotiate ways for a long, non-conforming business to prosper. I respectfully ask that the full written letter titled Ways the Town of North Smithfield is Failing to Uphold Its Own Laws be entered into the official record of this meeting. Thank you.

Anyone else like to speak during open forum?

Hello, Ryan Hammond, 19 Chester Street. I was wondering if we could on Chester Street, but if we'd be allowed since the telephone poles are technically the towns, if we could put turtle crossing signs on so that the turtles when they cross people know not to hit them. I don't know if I go to you guys or if I should be going to the highway department, but I just want to do it so that it's done with the approval of the town.

Yeah.

How will those polls the towns?

I'm sorry, can you speak in the?

I don't think the town owns any poles and the rodent energy poles and we're not allowed to put anything on them. In fact, we've been tearing stuff off of them. But we could take a look at that issue a little bit more. If you can call me tomorrow in my office, I'd appreciate it. Can do, thanks Scott. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else like to speak during open forum? Anyone else? Anyone like to make a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

All in favor say aye. Aye.