Town Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the May 11th, 2026 town council meeting for the Portsouth, Rhode Island. If you would all please recognize we have uh in case of emergency, we have three exits. One you came through, one behind you over your left shoulder and one behind Mr. Reese. Should there be an emergency, we'd all go over to the school department building and wait for further instructions from our first responders. If you could all now all join me for a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence for our men and women in harm's way to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone.

Madam clerk, roll call please. Mr. Gleason here. Miss Blank here. Miss McDow here. Miss Patton here. Mr. Pierro here. Mr. Reese here. Mr. Hamilton I am here. Thank you. Prior to this meeting, we had a short executive session to uh review some questions on uh pension language and pension uh potential litigation. So, next up, yeah, there were no votes taken. Sorry. Next up, we have public comment. First up, we have Anel Filela. Is that right?

Fila, sorry. Uh, he would like to talk about portaotties at the Portsouth Community Playground. Come on up, young man. Nope, not to me. To that podium over there. But that over here. You follow directions? Well, good job. Here. There you go. He stands on here. I'm up there. If you don't mind, just kind of hold on to him while he's up there. Yeah. Yeah, I got it. There you are. Welcome. And

my name is Ani and I want to talk about at the port community there's no porta parties and every week hundreds of people go there every week and um pe families have to leave early because um there's no bathrooms there to um pee at and or pro to like to use the bathroom um I mean so I'm asking if the city can put up some pool parties there

at the at the Portsmith Community Playground. um since March or April, you've got over a thousand people that frequent there and there's just no place to use the restroom and would be probably some of the best dollars spent in terms of improving the happiness of the citizens here. There just lots of families talk about that there are no restrooms there. So, people constantly have to be going driving to the library or driving home early because there's just no place to use the restroom. When I called the parks and reccks uh department, they said that they had to try to get in contact with the four hearts foundation, but it's like at the end of the day, I understand there's bureaucracy and red tape. We just want some portaotties. So, it's like the it's rated 4.9 and 4.9 on Google. It's the very best park in Portsouth and we just need some restrooms if we can. We don't need millions of dollars spent. We just need portaotties if we can think about that. Thank you.

Thank you. Anel, great job. Next up, we have Mr. Ray Abraham, who would like to speak about Ragged Island.

Mr. Abraham, could you just give us your name? Obviously, I given you I've given your name, but address as well for the record, please, sir. Thank you. Certainly. I need to see. Me, too.

My name is Ray Abraham. I live at 26 Davy Lane in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Davy Lane is directly across from the new senior center, the brand new building. It's a one-way small street. I have a u prepared text um that'll be short with this. It's not the whole book. So um my name is Ray Abraham. I reside at 26 Davy Lane, Portsouth, directly across from the new senior center and housing building. So many years ago, I learned if a bar was in your neighborhood, you would always have some kind of trouble or aggravation. This was proven true for the home I owned previously at 999 Quinnik Avenue in Middletown, right next to what was known as the old All Vets Bar, which is now defunct. When I moved there, it was just a bar for a local neighborhood bar, if you would. Shortly after I moved in with all the vet bar was turned into the Viking Writers Motorcycle Clubhouse. Nothing but problems because it was a bar with an unruly audience. I only have three minutes here, so I'm not I'm not going to recount the anger and the frustration living next to a bar. I resided at Davy Lane before Ragged Island bought their land where they occupy now. Ragged Island is a poor neighbor, as can be testified by me and many of

our neighbors, folks living not so close and not that far away. I'm only two blocks away and the amplified music might as well be coming right in my kitchen. I call the police. The police show up, take a reading with their decel meter, inform me they're well within the the li ragged island is well within the limits of their they're allowed and we go on from there. So I know that every Sunday that they're going to have amplified music, I have to have a reason to leave my house. I can't have the windows open on a summer day on a summer Sunday because of that. Now, in June, we have to put up with two more days this coming June of 16 hours total of this amplified music because they're having a concert the two days. This is a residential neighborhood, not downtown Newport, which is stopped at. Parking is not like at Fort Adams with its two with its two music festivals. You've allowed it to become a very undesirable neighborhood on concert days. I'm not against music. I just don't want it loud as anybody I've talked to. Also, the venue in Newport is Fort Adams and we don't have a Fort Adams. What we have going on is very abusive, vocally neighbors that live within a block at people as far as the water down by Carnegie Abbey, way down way down Sprag and way down on Turnpike.

So, my my complaint is Ragged Island continues to get permits to have their amplified music, but they're disturbing the neighborhood, and I'm sure there's been several police calls to the police department. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Abraham. So, uh, with public comment, we can't take any action this evening, but we'll make it take things under advisement and work with staff and see what can be done.

Um, next up, we have our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve as presented? Motion to receive. Motion to approve as presented. Second. All those in favor? I oppose. Motion passes seven to zero. Next up, we have a bunch of minutes from our meetings on 427 and the executive 428 and 429. Is there any corrections or additions? Mal,

I just have um a a question or clarification I guess for um the April 29th 26 minutes under the capital improvement plan. The first motion to encumber 162,000 for the cog shell demo and baseball field if the federal grant is not awarded to the town by by Mr. Ree seconded by Mr. Glee and motion passed unanimously. I just have a question. Um the matching grant so the 162,000 has been appropriated or encumbered. Um, and what is the grant for? How much?

Uh, the total amount I don't know off the top of my head. Demolition, right? For demolition of cog shell. But the demolition and installation of baseball field all related to the cog shell area. Correct.

And it's a matching grant. So, let's say we were given a grant of uh uh $50,000 and we have to match it with our 50,000. So, does that mean I I want to make sure I understand I didn't understand it like this, but So, if we uh encumbered 162, we get the federal grant of 50,000. We match it with 50,000, that's 100, we still get the 62 left on this encumbered money. Well, you'd have 112. What's that? You'd have 112 because you'd have the 50 from the grant. Yeah. Whatever. I mean, we could use the encumbered money to make up the difference of that. Correct.

Right. Okay. Well, if it's if we've Mr. Reese's motion, and correct me if I'm wrong, but was if we don't get the grant, leave that $162,000 in there to start building enough money to pay for it ourselves. If we do get the grant, the 162 is the potential match for that grant to completely level it and put a new ball field in. So I guess my getting back to the specific question. So if 50,000 was granted by to us, we supply 50,000

and we don't get anything done. It's going to cost closer to 500 just to take the building down and redo the land. Okay. So I I remember a discussion that was had with um doing it possibly in stages. It was asked, could you use this money and do it in stages? And it wasn't No one said no, we couldn't. But I'm I'm thinking that this motion certainly says no, we can't. No, because the staff would come back to us and say, "Hey, we have a way to take it down for $120,000." And then we would unencumber it and use that money. It's just it would just be another council vote. Okay.

Okay. Yep. Thank you. No problem. Mr. President, motion to approve the uh 427 minutes and exec 428 and 429 of 26 minutes. Second. Any other questions? All those in favor? I oppose. Motion passes seven to zero. Next up, town administrator's report. Mr. Rainer.

Thank you, Mr. President. Town council, ladies and gentlemen. With res uh respect to the transfer station curbside, we expect to start selling those stickers uh June 1st. Uh existing customers uh starting this year may be able to renew uh online via credit card payment. New signups and residents wishing to change programs will still need to sign up at town hall. So, your initial sign up for whatever program you desire uh has to be done at town hall. Renewals can be done online via credit card. Uh with respect to the 3S fields, um the proposed athletic fields uh on the property uh over there by Penfield. So, as the council may remember, this has been a continuing effort to develop additional outdoor recreation field space while working within the conservation easement restrictions that apply to the property. Since our last discussions, our engineering consultant has continued refining the conceptual layout uh after uh DEM identified that portions of the originally anticipated field area contain wetlands. So, the revised concept uh shifts the fields and the parking areas to uh better accommodate the wetland areas, the trail easement uh and anticipated permitting requirements while all still preserving the recreational use and vision for uh that site. So, we've continued coordinating with the Aquinic Land Trust through this process and they they are now reviewing the updated concept plan, the conservation easement and the trail easement with their legal counsel and legal committee. and I'll continue to keep the council informed uh as additional information becomes available and discussions continue with DEM and land trust.

Um I'm pleased to report that the Arbor Day Foundation has again recognize Portsouth as a Tree City USA for 2025 and that is in recognition of the town's continued commitment uh to preserving our community tree canopy. Uh, this designation reflects ongoing work of our tree commission chaired by Scott Wheeler, uh, our tree warden, John Fitzgerald, and the support of our department of public works under Paul Rodericks. I also want to thank the volunteers, residents, and staff who continue to support Arbor Day activities and tree planting efforts here in Portsouth. Um, in other news, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority has expanded a program called Flex on Demand. It's a pilot service to Aquinic Island. uh which will be available through June 30th. The new pilot program provides ondemand ADA accessible public transportation service connecting Newport, Middletown, and Portsmith. Uh and that includes the major employers uh including uh Rathon and Newick. Uh the program is intended to improve uh workforce transportation, reduce traffic cons congestion, and expand flexible transit uh options for residents and commuters. I also want to recognize the park parks and recreation department. They received a $1,000 merit neighborhood found fund uh grant from the aquitic land trust uh to support uh tree plantings at the Glen Park playground. Uh the merit neighborhood fund supports community- based projects that strengthen environmental sustainability uh here in Quidnik Island. And then lastly, Mr. President Town Hall will be closed May 25th for the observance of Memorial Day. Uh the town council meeting for that week will be held on Tuesday, May 26th. That concludes my report.

Any questions for Mr. I I do have a question. Um at a previous time we we had mentioned about um there's still going to be some agriculture on Portsmouth land. Is there an intent to grow corn on that on any part of that field or are we referencing somewhere else in town for the previous farmers that were there? Um, well, there's we haven't offered them any other land, but I think that there is uh some area. Yeah. Mean Mrs. Van Beerren's grazing area that she uses. Correct. That would be the only planting is down there at the bottom past the houses. But there's no planting. It's just the cows grazing.

I think they do a little bit of planting. Nothing much. But I think that we don't The town doesn't get money for that, do they? I think Oh, we do. You do get money for that as well. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. The whole thing is a bit awkward because when we discovered the the wetlands, it turns out that corn was also being planted on wetlands. So, uh, it's all getting straightened out now.

Yeah, there's not there's no benefit to, um, harrowing that field by the previous people. That was something we talked about initially and it never happened. Yeah. Um, you know, I don't know how many more times we can reach out. Uh, we we did ask them through the fall. Uh, once the ground got frozen, they just never came back. Okay. I think the amount of dirt that needs to be moved to make it usable is Yeah. Got to make that a moot point. Anyways, unfortunately, M. McDall, you had a question.

This this is um in regard to the uh first item here. There was um an email that went out and I saw on the website that it it discounted that it said it was not from the town. It had nothing to do with the town, but um many residents were confused. Can you just give me the history of that?

Yeah. Uh corporate, not the local administrators for mega, but their corporate parent uh in an attempt to make exactly what we're doing uh easier for customers uh to renew their contracts uh use the customer database for Portsmith in that mass emailing, which they should not have done. Uh so that email went out to all the Portsmouth customers in curbside encouraging them to sign up uh with Mega for renewal, but uh uh obviously we all caught it at pretty much the same time. Uh they've sent out emails letting people know that this does not apply to Portsmith. We put something up on our banner uh and we've received obviously numerous phone calls and we've reached out to people to let them know that uh this has nothing to do with the Portsouth curbside program. So um this is the followup to that maybe in the future. So Mega has the capability to do auto renewal for our present curbside um enrolled people. Correct.

Um no no we we pay Mega to pick up the trash but they bill the town. They don't bill the customers. So, it I don't think there's any way that they could go reach out directly to the customers for Reno. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Okay. Next up, we have uh resignations and appointments. And we have a resignation of Mrs. Miller, who started the dog park on the dog park committee. Yeah. A motion to receive the resignation of Carolyn Bunny Miller uh from the dog park committee. Second.

All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes seven to zero. I'd also like to comment, Mr. President, u without without Bunny and uh in a in a handful of people, we would not have a dog park. So, she deserves to be thanked for it and we wish her luck. Absolutely. She'll still be there with her dog. Yeah.

Yep. Great. Up next, we have old business number one, which is an update on the American Rescue Plan Act fund status. I asked for this to be put on uh so that everybody is a at the end of this year, we have to expend all of the money that we were given. If not, we have to give it back. Uh and just to make sure everybody's on the same page that we've crossed all the eyes, dotted all the tees, and we're heading down the path to expend all the money before the end of the year. Miss Barson.

Uh good evening, Mr. President. And honorable council, following the completion of the March 2026 ARPA compliance report, the finance department has reviewed the status of remaining ARPA funds, all of which must be fully expended by December 31st, 2026. The town originally received nearly 5.15 million in the ARPA funding with all projects previously approved by the council and reported to both US Treasury and Rhode Island Department of Revenue. At this time, three projects remain open. the Prudence Island water system uh project with approximately $218,139 remaining, the Island Park Portsmith Park Pipe Realigning Project with approximately $17,885 remaining and the cesspool replacement grant program with approximately $26,541 remaining. The finance department is actively coordinating with the respective departments to obtain final reimbursement or payment requests and will continue monitoring activity to ensure all funds are appropriately expended within the required time frame.

Miss M, does do any of the three remaining have any um did they give you any indication that they won't be spending all of their money? Uh no, all the departments will be spending the money. We will spend the full five uh.15 million. Thank you. If there if it isn't spent by the end of the year, we have to a give it back, but b if it's not if prudence uses $212,000, we could reallocate the six if we needed to. Is it comes back to the council or something?

No, it no. The way it would work is any money that's not expended, it has to be expended on a project that you've already approved. So, for instance, let's say I I don't know, let's say there's an IT project in there. You could expand that project a bit and spend more money on that project that you've already approved, but you couldn't create a new project. Oh, and there are several several projects. So, that that would take up. Yeah. Mr. I have a question on the cesspool replacement grant program. That money is used for the loans and for paying for engineering. Is that that is correct?

True. Is there any money in there for commercial? That's a good question. I don't believe so. Any of the grant any of the um applications that came through were all homes. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? No action needed on this. I just wanted to make sure everybody was up to date on what's going on with it. Will we get another update or not? Or Yeah. Okay. Thanks.

Sure. Towards the end of the year when it's hopefully all zeroed out. Next up, we have new business number one, which is request for from David Brenton to approve a variance for the sound limbs for set forth anification of ordinance chapter 257 noise for an event to take place at 933 Anthony Road, which is across is it going to be at the is 933 the home the the CFP hall? It's going to be at the hall across the street in the park. And that being said, I'm going to recuse myself from this letter. No problem. Do I have a motion to open the public hearing? So move second. All those in favor? I

opposed. Motion passes 60 and one. Is there anybody who would like to speak before or against it? Going once, going twice. I have a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes 60 and one. Any questions? Do we have a motion from council, Mr. Reese? Yep. I want to have make a motion to approve the variance to 75 dBs max for the um Anthony Road Common Vance Point Improvement Association party. Thank you, sir. Second. Any questions?

I'll make my usual statement. I'm voting against it because it's not a variance if we're limiting it. Um but continue, Mr. President. Thank you. All those in favor? I I oppose. N motion passes 51 and one. You're making me do math tonight, sir. Good for something. Thank you. I appreciate that. Next up under new business, we have new business number two. We got a summary of the work being done at Melbour Park by our park steward, Mr. Loose. There you are, sir.

Oh, good evening. My name is Steven Loose uh two Maple Terrace in Middletown and I am your Melville Park steward. Um was asked to give a brief summary of the work I've done over these past 11 months of this uh pilot program and I'm going to try to keep it very short to the 10 minutes. Um I have a small uh presentation I'd like uh to show um a few slides. Is that hooked up, Jen? Do I have a clicker? No clickers. We're not that fancy. No clicker. Okay. We don't click. You say click and and Kathy says it.

All right. Gotcha. Okay. So, um the first slide here um shows on the left picture I took in February. I thought it was very um just interesting to to show this because those are two people in the middle of the pond. Um the temperatures were so cold in February. Um the upper and lower ponds actually froze enough for people to walk on them and to do ice fishing. And that's what that couple there is doing. It's just very unusual um for the ponds to freeze over like that. And um I just thought it was worth noting. Now to the right u what I've listed are basically the main functions of the Melville Park student of what I've done um this past year. Um I wish I could actually see that a little better. Um perhaps if I came over here would that be possible? Am I

As long as you can get to the microphone you can go anywhere you want.

All right. So I I listed them somewhat in order of priority order of the amount of time that I spend working on um these um areas. So number one, keeping trails accessible. Two, removing litter. Three, repairing infrastructure. Four, cutting invasive vegetation. Five, planting non-invasive vegetation. And um I would like to say that I'm very um um glad and proud to contributing um to the planting of more trees here in Portsouth. I probably planted about 40 trees so far um the these past 11 months. And a big thank you um goes to um um the sapling giveaway that was done a few weeks ago, I believe on Earth Day um here at town hall. also uh spent some time purchasing supplies, um assisting visitors, uh coordinating with uh town departments, uh with the Navy, with the DEM, etc., um and reporting relevant incidents to the police. I'm going to go over each of these uh really quick uh as as quick as I can, but I'm actually going to start at the bottom because these are just going to be the quickest ones to just to get out of the way. What kind of relevant incidents uh do the police need to be notified about? Occasionally there are um people who illegally camp in the park. Um that hasn't been an issue this year. Uh the biggest um incident was in doing one of my um trash pickups. I found a handgun um in the park. Uh a 1911 um um handgun that was rusted. It was loaded. Had about a half dozen rounds in it. There was a round jammed in the chamber. As I was looking at this item on the ground, I naturally assumed it was just a regular piece of litter as always, perhaps a plastic gun. But as soon as I picked it up, I realized it was not a plastic gun. So, I immediately set it back down and called the police and let

the Portsmith police come and uh handle that. It was actually interesting reading the report on that. The police did a thorough report. They sent it off to labs for it to be analyzed. Turns out it has not been reported stolen and um the police department is holding on to it, which is a good thing for any future um questions or need. As far as coordinating with various town departments, the biggest town department I coordinate with is DPW, headed by Paul Rodri, who's been a great help u to myself and to the Melville Park Committee. uh you know basically whenever we ask uh uh for any type of help with anything uh coordinate with the Navy and unlocking the gates uh for example as just one example um so that they could um so that the DEM rather can come and stock the fish in both the upper and lower ponds and assisting visitors is is just something that you know happens almost uh daily at the very least a couple times a week whether um answering questions um giving a little uh history um about the area. That's always fun to do is All right. So, going back to the very top, keeping trails accessible. What does that mean exactly? That means so much. It means mowing. It means using the hedge trimmer to keep the sides of the trails open. It means laying down wood chips on very wet and and muddy um areas. It means using the weed eater to keep things um nice. It means using the chainsaw uh whenever trees and and branches fall down. So there is just a lot to each one of these uh bullet points. Uh click next slide please. I should probably just say next slide please. So in keeping trails accessible. Here's here's just a couple quick pictures. Uh the one on the left shows one of our trails and it's going from you know east to west looking towards the bay actually. And just it it might be hard to see the picture, but it's a a

very long straight trail. It's what I call a trail number two. So we have basically three types of trails within Melville Park. Melville Park, which is over 100 acres. Um the one type is trails that vehicles can be driven on. Call that trail type one. Uh very wide. Uh trail type two is also a trail that a vehicle could be driven on. That's what you see on the left. But it's very narrow. Just narrow enough. just wide enough rather for a vehicle um to drive down. And the trail type three um are the very narrow trails, not very narrow but wide enough for just one person or so about 3 4t wide, 5t wide. And those are the inner um trails that um go throughout the park. The picture on the right shows uh just one of the improvements. If any of you have any additional questions for me, by all means, please um call me, email, text me. Um because I could go on for hours about all the work I've done these past 11 months and got to keep this uh to 10 minutes.

Not tonight. You can't. Not tonight. I can't. Absolutely not.

Um not going to make this a marathon session tonight. U that picture on the right is just showing um one of the trails I've helped make accessible. The problem with that one spot is that that is a water outflow on the far right that was getting blocked up. It was um discharging sand and dirt and just everything. And this is coming from Leland Point apartments. So to the right of that picture would be looking east toward the Leland Point apartments which are right across from Melville Elementary School. And the water that would come out there would um discharge much sand and dirt that completely blocked it up to where when the water did push through that outfall, it then just stayed in that one area stayed on that trail. So it was just a very bad spot uh for people to try to um uh traverse across. So, I I I you know, I dug out that uh channel so that the water flows away from the trail like it's supposed to toward pond number two. I put um what you see there is part of a boardwalk that I had cut a couple years ago when I was a volunteer for the Melville Park Committee. That boardwalk needed a bridge to span a creek. Uh that part of the boardwalk was getting flooded at all times. So, uh, we cut it out, installed the bridge, and then held on to that piece of boardwalk, uh, in case it was needed somewhere, and this is a perfect spot for it. And then laid wood chips also to make the trail, you know, very accessible and dry. Uh, next slide. So, and also um in terms of keeping the trails accessible, uh what you see the picture on the right was a very large tree that had fallen down across the trail across the front of that um little bridge. So the picture on the left shows

uh the little bridge um looking south with pond number eight on the left and um the picture on the right you can see that the front part of that um little bridge toward the left and that large tree um is what was had fallen down um during a storm and was blocking that entire area. So, anything that I can do myself with the chainsaw that the town has provided the Melville Park Committee, um, I take care of myself like I did that tree. For much larger trees, much heavier, um, that would require a larger chainsaw that I do not have access to, I call Paul and Gavin. I'll email them from DPW and their guys come and, you know, we'll handle that. Next slide. And oh, and back to yes, making the trails accessible. So on the picture on the right, you see the after um what I did to reroute uh the waterway. This is a a water outfall coming um from basically the top of Smith Road uh by the dog park. So down the hill and it flowed to the brook um in the same way you're seeing it right now. But for a few years it no longer went to the right like you're seeing on the right hand picture. It started going to the left. And the picture on the left, which is now dry, is showing you where that water was going, right next to the stairs that we have. So, the main entryway into the park, the most popular way at the bottom of Smith Road behind the bulletin board. Um, there is a stairway that takes people down, you know, to the brook and across the brook. And that stairway on the left is wood and has been deteriorating and falling apart over the past few years because water was literally just um running right next to it underneath it, undermining it. And

then the bottom of that um stairway would be muddy at all times. So I I cut all the brush that needed to be cut and rerouted that water um away from the stairs and into a safer area in the book. Just to be clear, you didn't reroute the water. You just cleaned the debris out of the way. Correct. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I had to clean um debris out of the way in order for the water to flow back to where it was originally originally flowing. That's right. Where I would imagine DPW originally set the course for that waterway. I think mother nature did. So we we don't change waterways.

No, no, no. That would be too difficult. Uh next slide, please. And so just really quick on that staircase. There's the staircase to the right. U it was installed many years ago by a previous um Melville Park committee. And each one of those steps are made of wood and they have rebar um going through the wood and into the ground. And um because the water had um disintegrated so many of those stairs, I've already replaced two two or three of the stairs. The very bottom one that you see is one I replaced and I think the second from the top that you see um that second from the bottom um needs to be replaced. I'm probably going to be doing that over the next week or two. And on to the left is oh just the picture on the left is the bottom of that staircase and and the wood chips that I spread all around the trails in order to keep the areas um dry. All right, next slide. Now for the trash. Uh um this is uh quite an issue unfortunately. I've had a number of visitors um compliment me on on how clean the park is and they they're they're astounded. They say it's great that people don't litter here and it's such a clean park. And I just sigh and I say I wish I wish the park was clean because no one littered. But that's not the case. Um the picture on the left is just one of of many um groups of of litter um from the park. That particular picture shows some large items on the left. Very old litter like a rusty gas tank. Um, back in the 70s and 80s, um, there were no gates keeping people from driving down into the park. And let's just say quite a lot of things happened in Melville Park back in the 70s and 80s, including the dumping of much larger trash. Um, on the right of that picture on the left, just new more new trash that I um would find. It's

it's a combination of new litter. I mean, every day someone litters. Um, and that builds up after a while. But then we're talking about also litter that's been there for years, even decades. Yes, I still find the old pull tabs um from cans of um alcohol and soda that haven't been made in 40 or 50 years. The picture on the right, I just wanted to include that because what it shows is a bird's nest where the bird has used litter to help build its nest. Those are strips of plastic, those lighter, whiter things you see within the nest, which is really sad, but also shows how smart birds are. These birds are specifically choosing these pieces of litter over the many, many natural um fibers that are found all over the park. I imagine the plastic is very waterproof and very light. Um I don't know. I haven't asked a bird yet as to why they choose the litter pieces over the natural pieces, but it's also a very sad commentary on on our planet. Next slide, please. And more more with the litter. So, um just one other random picture of all those uh trash bags. Now, this is a whole separate time. So, in the past 11 months, I've already um emailed DPW and had um Paul and his crew come, I believe, six times um basically every two months to empty the block house. The block house is a World War II storage um building um there in Melville Park. Um and it's it's unfortunate. Um, but it's also a really good thing because as a volunteer prior to this past year, I did not have the time to pick up anywhere near the amount of trash that I've been able to get out of there. Now, it's it's frustrating. It's disappointing, but

it's also um a bit encouraging. Um, it's it's not there. It's not everywhere, and it's almost I keep telling myself it's almost done. I've almost pulled out all of the old litter. Of course, as soon as I say that, I found an area of the park that has been covered with um vines and inaccessible for the past few years. And once it becomes accessible, you see what was there um decades ago. The picture on the left, oh, it was just a random picture from just about a week ago, a week or two weeks ago. It may be hard to see, but there's about a dozen pieces of litter that you see, and that is directly across from the dog park. So, as I'm driving down Smith Road, um I don't take care of the dog park. Um there's a whole committee um that does that um Buddy Miller's um um committee that she started, but because there was so much there and I'm driving right by it. Yes, I I stopped and I picked it all up. And just to give you an idea of just how much trash accumulates even even now. Next slide. And to go with that, this is the last I believe the last trash um slide. So, this is uh the weekend of opening day at uh Thirst and Grey Pond right behind Melville School. Someone was at least nice to round up all the trash and put it in that big white bag that they put there, but you can see they didn't round it all up. There's still trash in the ground and there's still plenty of trash around. Um so, it's unfortunate. We have a carry-in carry out policy, which is better than having trash cans. Um, believe it or not, with trash cans that actually encouraged people to dump everything from their house, household trash, and it was quite a nightmare for the DPW workers. So, the carry-in carry out policy does work better, but still not everyone carries out what they carry in. Next slide. Now, this is uh two pictures of inside the block house. Um, just wanted to show

you I don't I I have before pictures. I wasn't able to find them quick enough. um for this uh presentation and also I was asked to really limit the number of slides I had. So what you see all that white is from me um scraping all of the um all of the peeling paint um that was there um before. And also the roof of this block house has had a leak on its west side. Um, I got an estimate a couple years ago and the estimate was for $5,000 to replace the roof. I said, "Thank you. Uh, no thanks. Instead, I'll buy some cans of Flex Seal." Spent about $80 on cans of Flex Seal. About five or six cans. I went up on the top of the roof and I'm pretty sure I've got the leaking of the water um taken care of. Um, the table there on the left, that's a table I u I got off of Craigslist. to gut it for free um just because the table we had pri prior to that was um very um weak and and old and falling apart. So just to show you the inside of um inside of the storage area, everything in there, almost everything, 98% of everything in there is town property, town owned. Um in doing my job, most of the equipment is from the town. But I also use my own equipment as well. I use my own car um to let's say load the lawnmower into the back trunk of my car along with loading any other equipment, the chainsaw, the hedge trimmer, the weed eater, and um it's it works, but it's it's not the most convenient thing. Um you know, if if ever in the future could have access to a town uh pickup truck, even a small one, even an old beatup one, I mean, that that would be wonderful. Otherwise, you know, it still works. And some other tools as well, um, after we're out of this, um, current non-spending phase,

perhaps when a new fiscal year starts, basic things like maybe a tape measure, a hammer. I mean, just some of the things I bring for my own house. So, whatever the um the storage shed does not hold, I I have to bring myself for my home. And next slide. This is a this is a pretty neat little sort of before and after. So the picture on the right is showing sort of before. What you're seeing are invasive multifllora rose. So the removal the cutting of much invasives is one of the major um jobs of this uh position. So, oriental bittersweet, um, Japanese knotweed, multifllora rose, porcelain vine. These are probably the worst of the invasives that we have. And, uh, so on the right there, you're seeing just a tangle of of briars. Um, the multifllora rose. It, um, it doesn't belong here. It prevents animals from being able to um, actually use the the floor of the of the area. And of course, people can't walk through it as well. And um so on the left, what you see is after it's been cleared, the picture on the right is still there. And on the left is just a little bit up the road. Now, this specifically, I can't take credit for that particular clearing right here. I could show you many pictures of all the clearing I've done, but this one right here, this is the from um Sean Kaine, uh one of the workers at DPW in using the mower arm. So, occasionally, again, um when I ask for help from from Paul from DPW, they provide it whenever they can. And this has been a huge help. We've been able to clear many invasives with the use of that mower arm uh from DPW. Now, it can only go within a few feet of the roadway wherever, you know, it's

it's like a it's like a bulldozer or it's a tractor wherever the tractor can drive. So, it can't go into the um wooded areas very very far. So, those areas have to be done by hand by someone like myself. Next slide. And talking about Arba Day and Portsouth's designation. Um so here are two just two of the um recent uh saplings that I've planted. On the left uh Norway spruce and on the right I believe it's a red um oak. And both of those along with a few dozen other saplings um were u obtained from the town. Um they were left over after um all the citizens came and picked up as many as they wanted. Um I believe that was on Earth Day here at the town hall. And next.

That's it. And that's it. And any questions? Questions, Mr. Reese? No, I was just going to say, should we all be so lucky to have an outside job like that? I can tell you, you're like me, you like being outdoors. Well, I have both. I have an inside job and outside. So, this it's a good mix. Do you ever use um volunteers? like um in other words, you'd be like a team leader working with um possibly boy scouts, girl scouts, so they can earn merit badges and things like that,

right? Absolutely. Um not yet in the past 11 months as park steward, but as a member of the Melville Park Committee, who are all volunteers. Uh Ray Abraham is one of them sitting right here. Um I was the chair of the Melville Park Committee before I took this um steward position. And and yes, we would have um um scouts come and clear some invasives. Um we would um have scouts um build uh bridges and such for the eagle projects. And so that's what I was thinking. Something like that. Yeah, absolutely. So that that is still done. Um if you know any eagle scouts that need to earn that um that badge, um send them my way.

How about grown-ups that like to go out, you know, as long as they don't hurt themselves? Right. Right. I mean, it's it is a bit of a double-edged sword. Um, like you say, um, as long as they don't hurt themselves, they would probably need to sign a waiver of liability with the town. Um, I I've found sometimes though, it's it's easier for just me to go to an area and take care of it right then and there rather than trying to organize um, a volunteer. Um, especially if we don't have all the tools to provide to them and they don't have them themselves. But, uh, but yes, we've definitely done that before. um on the committee and um just haven't had really the opportunity yet these past 11 months as the steward.

Well, thanks. You're doing a really incredible good job. Thank you, sir. Any other questions for Steve? M. Yep. Um so, Steve, first of all, I've heard from several residents how good the park looks as a result of your efforts, and I commend you for it, and I thank you for it. Well, thank you. I meet a few of them every now and then like Tom Greb he comes through every week I think.

So I mean looking at it though in a broader sense too just to get some um clarity on your position and stuff. Um Kayla would how much would you say to date we've used in that? I can look in just one moment. Okay. And then um going for like what what does that represent? How many hours would you say you've spent in the last 11 months? Just to give a ballpark. I know we've had a conversation um in in uh

it's it's right about 500 so far. So it was initially 400 hours um which would have been from June of June 1st of last year and I used that up by February of this year and then it was an additional um 200 hours for me to use by the end of June. So as of right now I've probably used about a hundred of those additional 200. So about 500 total. It comes out on average of about $1,000 a month. It's just $20 an hour as an independent contractor. Okay. Thanks.

And um last year just commenting on Mr. Reese's um question about volunteers. I remember your presentation last year and um in fact I I was an advocate for this stewardship position

after your after listening to you and seeing the condition of the park and what needed to be done and um and you talked a lot about the use of volunteers then you know because that's that's what you depended on and you talked a lot about the scouts and other organizations coming. I just um would hate you to hate for you to lose sight of the importance of volunteers, whe be it scouts or not, to bring them in as you did before, even though now you're a paid steward, but I think it's still important that we try to access as much as possible because I think it's a sense of accomplishment for these people. I think it's a giving back to the community as well. And um so I wouldn't I'd really work to try to reinstitute what you had before in terms of volunteers under your you know

I completely agree with you Mary. I really do. Yeah. Um the efforts we've done in the past to try to attract volunteers just didn't come to fruition too well. Um the Melville Park committee could use some new volunteers. Um, it's something and it's one of the reasons that this position was created because we just couldn't get enough people to volunteer to really handle all the work that really needed to be done. Right.

Um, I would welcome any recommendations for soliciting new volunteers. Could we use the parks and recck site, the town website? I don't I don't know what would um be the best. still reach out to the um the Cub Scout, you know, the Boy Scouts, even make that to the to the leader, the scout leader, and ask if they could give a day of service or something. I just don't want you to lose sight of that. That's all I that's a very important thing on many levels, but it also will add value to the work that you're doing as well. Um

I can definitely do that. Thank And just another again we talked about this but there is um there the town and the school are working on a collaborative effort to provide students uh kind of a a program where they can get credits and we we you had talked about I remember specifically in seeing the slides about the water tower that had all graffiti on it and the last time we spoke you hadn't you know you hadn't been able to do anything on that and rightfully So, you know, you've done a lot of other things, but it would be good to reach out um if and when this program does come to fruition to reach out to the school even now prior to because they're in the the the midst of forming it and looking for art students who could maybe do that program and do something like a mural on the water. You know,

I fully Mr. Raina is working with the superintendent um and I'm sure he's going to be um sending out a notice or something to ask different departments what they need and what could be and I think that that would be a perfect thing for some art student to to work on and at the same time maybe get credit. I absolutely agree with that, Mary. I I sent a couple emails last year to at least one if not two of the art teachers at Portsouth High. I just never got a response back from them. Um, yeah, you're absolutely right. That'd be a great um use of their talents and well, if and when a program is is instituted, you might be able to plug into that, you know,

be awesome. Um, and is there enough signage in in there as far as litter and um, you know, maybe fines or something? Is there any signage about carry in and carry out like I see on the beaches and stuff?

Right. Right. We do have that sign. Um we do have a sign that the Melville Park Committee installed a couple years ago um that basically says that uh um the park is cared for by volunteers. Please do not leave your litter and trash in our bushes and ponds is pretty much the message on that side. Um other signs are absolutely needed. That's something that we we worked um on the Melville Park Committee for a while to try to come to fruition. Um, we don't want, you know, a hundred signs all over the place, but definitely having at least one um on the bulletin board that covers the basics, you know, no camping, no fires, no littering, uh, would be great. Um, it is it is something that I would imagine unfortunately everyone knows and people who won't litter won't litter and the people who are going to litter are going to litter anyways. It's it's it's um it shocks me sometimes that folks go into a park u a nature park like such as Melville Park that has waterways and they go to fish and they go to hike and enjoy nature and then they leave their Dunkin Donuts cup, you know, on the side of the on the side. It's it is frustrating, but that's human nature. Yeah, I think I do think maybe um signage could, you know, more signage could help out a little bit and and if um we do have some sort of ordinance that talks about litter and a fine a penalty that should be noted as well and if seen, you know, to do something about it. So, so going forward next year, do you um what do you see as like your a regular schedule? Are you setting I mean do you have a regular schedule? Well, I do at this time of year. Um, you know, back in February and January, there's not too much you could do. February, I worked a total of three hours. It wasn't much to do. If there's nothing

you want to shovel the 3 ft of snow to get to the park,

you know, all's crew had that handled, I'm telling you. Um, but yes, this time of year, at least April um into November, it's basically um at least three hours a day, Monday through Friday. It so it comes out about 63 hours a month. Um, and that's that's my schedule. When it's still cool, I do those hours in the afternoon. As it starts to warm up, I'll be in there early in the morning getting those hours out, you know, getting them done because it can be pretty, um, uncomfortable in July and August, uh, working outside like that. But in the morning, it's much more tolerable.

And then, um, one or two two other things. Would it be possible for you to uh provide us with a list of goals you have for this year on what you plan to do at the at the park? Sure, absolutely. Um you mean additional things uh above and beyond the normal weekly things I'm doing? Yeah,

absolutely. I can do that. And then um with the the 29,000, this is just for for us or in terms of we just got done dealing with a provisional budget and and um you know there's a a line item of $1,000 for brush trimming and uh $2,000 for trail maintenance. I mean, you're doing that now, right? Right. Uh okay. I just wanted to clarify that I

I've never been an expert with the budget, but even before this position when the Melville Park Committee has its annual budget of it's gone from let's say 13,000 to 18,000. It was my understanding that the money had to be allocated somewhere on your budget. You had to give a specific purpose to it. You couldn't just say $18,000 for the Melville Park Committee. You had to say $5,000 is for trail maintenance, 3,000 for pond maintenance, something to that effect. whether that actually translates into, you know, the actual usage of the money. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm just

that's that's our our kind of thing. But I just wanted to uh to bring that out. Well, I again, thank you very much for what you're doing. I appreciate it and you've done a great job. Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate it, Miss Ben. Yes. So, again, I want to uh thank you for all the great work you're doing there as well. It's looking really nice. Um I just wanted to clarify um the position. I know I heard um when we were talking about the with the budget that it may fall under park and wreck or it may fall under DPW um as far as who's who he reports to or who oversees the role. Can you just clarify that?

Yeah, we're still talking about that within staff. The first hurdle was to get you to approve continuing the program. So, we're on it. Thank you very much for all you do. All right. Thank you. Any other questions for Steve? Steve, thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Keith. You all have a great night. You too.

Next up, new business number three. request for a report of our general fund investments, total returns of all money invested, where the money is where the money is invested and potential investment changes, as well as request to change the bylaws of the pension committee to advise investment general fund monies as well. Mrs. McDow. Yeah, this this whole um agenda item has been talked about several months ago. I just mentioned, but now with budget time um here, um it's I think it's brought to light some questions and some things that maybe we as a council should um look further into. And most specifically, several months ago, I had brought up the idea. It didn't go very far, but I'd like to bring it up again. um of the pension committee um advising on these or Yeah. advising on these funds and possibly changing um the bylaws to include that the pension club um committee um be an advisor to those general funds, special funds. Um and so that's why I brought it up again for discussion. Um, and I do, you know, I thank Kayla for for the information that she gave to us, uh, regarding this. And, um, I'd like to have further discussion on it. I mean, I can give my further discussion, begin it if you like. Um, so the the 362,000 represents the total income earned across all funds, right? And so what other funds are included in this? When you say all,

so this is um a pulled account. So they're all of our monies. So it includes the general fund, it includes our special revenues, it includes the enterprise funds. So it all money from the town. Correct. And I mean, I know what's in the general fund. I know what's in but how much would you say that is when you're considering all that other all those other funds. Sure. So I did provide um backup that is a tracker. So it does say how much is in the account at any given time. That's for all these funds that correct. Okay. And that's what's um gathering 2.35 exactly

for all that. Okay. Correct. Um and just this was helpful but is it possible to provide us with the um with this information that you gave us for up until now for year fiscal year 23 24 and 2425 in terms of the interest tracking. I could provide that.

That would be great. Uh because it would just be good to see those comparisons. Um and the last thing is it appears that it's not the last thing, it's the last thing in this question, but it appears that all our monies are invested with one vehicle, one one company, GD Bank. Right. That's correct.

Okay. I'm all set. I'm all set unless other people But I' I'd like to propose a motion if other people want to chime in before that though.

Anyone? Mr. Cleon? I I just want to comment that over the last three years perhaps I've said you know during certain financial things that maybe we should refer this to the pension committee and they are defined as just a committee to work on the pension. So, I don't know how this would work. You know, obviously this would just be like a committee um how would I relate to it? Parks and Recck Committee just giving general information to uh you know the parks and reccks uh department. And this would be a committee if if there was a bylaw change that would also encourage them to work on on something other than pension but financial related. And I I think it's a good mix because of the people that we have on that particular committee and their backgrounds. Uh ultimately it would just be you know assessing the situation and potentially coming up with thoughts and ideas to help the finance department or you know if there are other things that you know maybe we're do maybe what we're doing now is 100 100% correct they would endorse that. I I don't know. Um, so that's just my thoughts that that would be one way to have some political, you know, have some financial people view our process now and perhaps there's more money that we could make in in returns. I just don't know.

Mr. Po,

thank you, Mr. President. I I would have to advise one, I think we're putting the cart before the horse. uh we're asking for potential bylaw changes without seeing what the potential bylaw changes are going to be. Secondly, this council is the pension board and and to secede our power to any advisory committee or what it may be, I think is uh would be the worst possible thing we can do because we're the stewards of the town, not an advisory committee. Um they're not semi-judicial, they have no authority. U and I think the buck needs to end stop with us. Um I also think that it creates a really horrible situation um where you may have some issues between the finance director and this advisory committee and then who's going to do what and so on and so forth. I also don't like the use of the words we have good people on the committee right now when we establish rules and regulations about how advisory committees formed. you do it for the worst possible scenario. That is the way laws are written. Um, and I think that just because certain individuals may like the individuals that are on the committee right now, it may not be the same issue five or 10 years from now. Uh so so creating that precedent where we are now going to be getting a lot more where we would be seceding some of the authority of this council to an advisory group um just would create a really unnecessary counterbalance that I don't see us having a problem to fix with these bylaw changes.

Mr. Reese, yes, I can I concur with Dave Gleason. Um, we've got some experts in place in that. Um, and they're they're experts in finance. They know money. Um, we don't have to use what they tell us. They can going to come back and advise us, possibly give us a whole selection of choices to use. And that's the biggest thing. We'll look at it to make sure that they're advising the town. We want to get higher returns, safe, liquid investments. This could be worth2 to $300,000 a year for the town. I don't think the number is that high. Well, it's not even close to that, but we we can make changes.

There are recommendations that that I've investigated we could look at, but I'm not an expert and I would like somebody else to look at it. We have experts. Our finance director is an expert. Um I mean, a team of people. I mean, it's I mean, right now we're investing in a Canadian bank. I haven't figured that out yet. It's just a local bank. It's the Toronto Dominion Bank of Canada. Santain. It doesn't matter. They're all cooperates. I don't even know who Beacon Bank is now. They just swallowed up a bunch of Nobody does. Nobody does. So anyway, because there are other things is the state treasurer recommends the Ocean State Investment Pool. Of course he does because it puts more money in the state pockets

and you can use that for dayto-day. Well, that well I'm not going to go into finance stuff, but there's a lot of good information we can get and it won't cost us anything to go to the pension committee and see what we can get. Other than the fact that the pension committee is designed to help advise on the pensions,

secondly, secondly, we have employees who are pensioners on the pension committee that don't need to be advising on behalf of the way the town should be investing their money. I would not characterize those individuals as experts in finance. They're very nice people and very smart, but I don't characterize them as finance directors. I will ask both of you, Mr. Gleason and Mr. Ree, who advises the water board on their investments? So as soon as you set up a advisory committee and I would love to be on that, we can set up an advisory committee here. This right here, these seven people, whoever they happen to be, is the investment advisory committee. We can make changes without the help of other people who if they would like to come up here and make the changes, please, by all means, put your name on a dotted line come June 25thish.

All I'm saying is they can give us input. I'm I say we don't have to accept it. We would take that as more input. We take input. We take input from our experts. It has been my experience over the past financial these people have financial expertise.

There's a lot of people with financial expertise. But it's been my experience in the past year and a half that no matter what advice has been given by certain individuals, it's taken lock, stock, and barrel by this council. Whether it's right, wrong, or indifferent, whether the information that was given is correct or not. it's been assumed to be correct just because of the person that has given that information and it is not always correct. So, just to answer your question, um the board is sees sees the numbers. They're very happy with the numbers, but they're not directly involved with them. And the gray area for me is I've never been asked to make a decision on any of our pension money as a counselor. Personally, ultimately I would say as Carlos says, we are the where the buck stops here, but typically we are not asked for. So we're kind of like pushing our luck talking about it apparently at this point.

We have made changes as you have. You have made those changes. We have made changes specifically and I'll just uh I'm going to mess this up. So if you want to help me with Mr. agree the GEK, a guaranteed income program. We established that two years ago or two and a half years ago that came to this council. It did come out of the pension advisory committee, but it came out of a specific person in the pension advisory, but that was when interest rates were higher. it was a good time to do it, but it was it was money uh tied in with the pension plan obvious as opposed to right the general fund.

The the discussion that was made last two three weeks ago was to take all of this $23 million and throw it to an account. It's our checking account as long with along with our general fund. If we were to do all that and throw $23 million and tie it up to even even how short-term it is, we would stop paying our bills. I would never endorse. That was not what was said. It was exactly what was said at that podium. We have $23 million to put

Please do not yell at me, Mr. Hamilton. I don't deserve it. I have my opinion, but I don't deserve being yelled at. That was not what was said. And I would like to continue this discussion by asking um Kayla what her she thinks of the work of the pension committee. I mean, don't don't don't you see the value of that committee? I sit there in amazement listening to the people there. I I just there aren't they a a committee that is made up of very astute people, including yourself, who chair it?

I'm sorry, Mr. President. May May I interject? I think it would be unprofessional and inappropriate for a member of the town staff to opine about the membership of a council appointed committee. The job of the pension committee. I'm asking no because now that you're talking about the individuals because how about if you were to change the individuals the work would change. I think it would be inappropriate for a member of the town staff to do something of that nature. Mr. Greb, you have a question comment? probably both. Tom Greb 1103 drive. Um I used the uh

No, I I I I used the uh the T bank bank interest income tracker. Um and I I took the monthly average balances for each of the months and averaged them. So for the first nine months of the year, we've had an average of $20.5 million in this fund. Um, I would never say that we should put all of it in any one place, including where it is now. Um, it ought to be a little bit more diversified for sure. Uh, but for comparison purposes, I did this before. uh if it were in the Ocean State investment pool which was set up by the legislature and is only run by Fidelity with for a 125% um fee that $20 million was would have returned 3.61% in April. That's the latest figure I could get. In April, where it's invested today, returned to us 2.1%. That's a 1.5% difference. At $20 million, that's 300,000.

Compensationalizing the numbers because you just stated you wouldn't put all that money into one place. So, you wouldn't get that 3.61%. That's That's correct, right? That you're I'm I'm giving an example of you're sensationalizing this to try and put yourself

Well, let me sensationalize it just a little bit more. Then the Portsmith Water and Fire Department, which you talked about, and the board, and we do have some intelligent financial people on that board, uh, as as well as a very astute general manager, used lattered CD, uh, I'm sorry, not laded CDs, laded treasury bills, and in April, they returned 3.8% 8% on the money that we had invested that way, which is basically the same money. Um, that's a 1.7% difference between what the town got and what the water company got, which would be $340,000 if you invested all of it.

Right? So, stop sensationalizing and tell me exactly how much you want to invest. You're trying to make a point.

I want the point. The point I'm making, no, the point I'm making is we are not getting the best we can get today. Period. Whether you invest $5 million more or $15 million more in something else, you can get a better return. That's the thing. And I think rather than have one person or a group that is, you know, financially astute but perhaps not in investment advisors like are on the pension committee. I would rather have the pension committee rather than me or anybody else stand up here and tell you what they think a good mix of investments would be. I'm sure, absolutely sure they would tell you that we can do better than what we're doing today. And I am sure as well that they will tell you taking a mere $5 million and putting it in lattered CDs is not enough to get the returns that you need. That's that's where I would I would go. I think it's but you need to change the bylaws of the pension committee to do that. Now, let me read you just one sentence from the bylaws of the pension committee. The town council may modify these bylaws at any time by a majority vote of the council.

That's great. But this council is also built on transparency and doing that in a meeting without advertising it ahead of time would be wrong. I believe if if if if I read this right, the the it's very well advertised in the uh the changes are not advertised. The request to make changes is advertised.

Okay. Then then then then put it on the next agenda and and and do it that way. um it doesn't matter to me. It delays two probably two weeks um of of getting the results from it, but do it that way. I I I I can't disagree with you. Um so, let's do it that way. But let's do it. It can be done. It's the council's prerogative to do it. Vote on it and advertise it for the next time. I I don't I I quite frankly I I know we've changed bylaws in here without that, but I'm fine with doing it that way. Um

that's it.

The pension committee is specifically set up to track our pensions, which is why pensioners are on that committee. Period. That's that's where I'll leave it. What's the council's pleasure? I'd like to point out one more thing. You were concerned about liquidity, right? Day pay and dayto-day. You'd said if we invest all money, you know, you'll lock it up. So, let me just tell you the Ocean State Investment Pool, which is run by Fidelity, one of the things they really stress is that it provides daily access to funds, day-to-day operations like payroll and other bills. So, I went and I did some research. I went and looked it up and and started reading their perspectives since there is ways I think we should invest either we should investigate this or that's why we were going to have the invest the investment pension committee look into it.

Our finance director is looking into all of it. Is she? Yes, she is. possibly that should be a separate meeting. She she is looking into all of it. Perhaps we should give us Go ahead. Set that up. We'd have to set that up. Miss McDow, if you um took a shot at transparency uh in terms of changing bylaws, then I would like to put this on the next agenda. Advertise whatever you have to advertise um for the next agenda to consider this.

Just if you're going to make changes significantly to a set of bylaws, they should be advertised properly and not just done on a whim. I'm I'm doing that. I'm doing that. Is that is that a motion or a motion for that? No, she just I want it with said

do whatever we do consistently with other things to change the bylaw then I'd like it done here and put on the next agenda please. And this is in no reflection on our finance director or what our financer finance director is or is not doing. This is simply asking a committee that is doing a very good job on our pension who is astute in financial investments. Not not to say I I will say um Mr. President that two individuals are not and I question why two individuals are on there. I guess it's contract related. I don't know. But it does seem a bit strange that people who are part of the pension system are there and have a vote on the pension. That seems stranger to me than anything. But um having said that, put it please put it on the next agenda. Eve,

what to put it on the next agenda, whoever would like to do it would need to make the changes to the bylaws that they would like to have done. have a change here. Okay, then put it on the agenda. Miss Penn, do you have a question? No, your finger was close to the button. So, I She's poisoned on the button. Yeah, she is. No, but serious. This is the only thing we're trying to do is to generate additional funds for the town. You can either cut spending or you can generate more revenue to try to keep the taxes lower. And that's the bottom line of what I think I'm trying to do is

without harming anybody, without cutting any funding, without sending out bigger tax bills. You just look up the most way the easiest way is to streamline things and find additional funds which are just laying out there. I agree with you 100%. But when sensationalized numbers are used to make a point, they don't do any of us any good. We cannot take the $20 million out and use it all as finance to get the income that has been alleged. There's roughly million. No, I mean, have you investigated that? I'm telling you, I looked at the Ocean State invest. That's what they tell you you can do. You can write checks out of it and stuff. It's

great. So, let's before we before you spout that off million dollars in our quote rainy day fund, which would be the proper way to look at investing it rather than taking our entire checking account and putting it someplace. That is just what he said. I don't am I the only one that's hearing this? No, not the whole amount, but you keep some of it. You're you're dividing up. You'd have to figure out the right way.

The numbers that are being utilized to sensationalize the amount of money that we can gain is the $20 million. We would not be able to do that. So, we can make more money. Is it going to be $370,000? No. Could it be 50? Could it be 100? Well, let's do the best. Let's try and do the best we can. We are maybe we're maybe there was sensationaliz and we got excited about it. But no, we just we're going to get as much as we can and and maximize it. I'm sure you do the same thing. I wish I had enough money to invest that kind of money.

You don't need that kind of money. I can go to when I went to Navy Federal, I have one three and a half%. This was last week, you know, and I don't have, you know, a cintiller of that amount of money. So Mr. Please,

we we obviously can't lock up the money for any length of time because it's paying our bills dayto day and you're only going to pick so much out of here. But I I think this is an offshoot of what we learned through the budget process is that we need to try and figure out how to bring more revenues into the town and you only do that through your enterprise funds, your fees, etc. And this is one way to do it because I really wasn't aware that we had gotten, you know, that's my bad, 362,000. I think Kayla's doing a good job on it. The thing is, can it can we do better on it? And she's already starting to look at these motions or or movements, a plan if you will, and she can look at the the Rhode Island plan as well. She said, "You're going to commit to doing that." So, we can look at that as we go forward. You know, it's it's all looking for the betterment of the town. Not trying to throw mud in anybody's face here, you know, but

no, but the pension is designed and the pensioners are on there because they have a vested interest in it, right? So maybe you need a whole another committee. It just seems like you have the right people on there with the exception of people that you know aren't financial people on there for a specific reason. But we can go at it in a dual method. That's why

um I recognize where this is coming from of trying to you know get financial return. Um I don't think it's quite fair mathematically to look back on interest rates and the deltas and say well we could have um the way that doesn't account for the risk um that could be incurred. Uh and you also have the benefit of kind of snapping the line um of where you're choosing of well if we had started at February 2nd then we would have gotten this. Um I don't I recognize that there are deltas but it doesn't quite account for the risk that is um that could be seen. um recognize also that looking for the the input I am cautious of changing the bylaws to have this be a continuous thing. Would you consider a one-time kind of review wi with the people who are on the pension committee and not changing the bylaws? Um because since we since I'm hearing that the people that there are now aren't necessarily always going to be there. Um maybe a one time to look at it, see what could be financially done, but not a change to the bylaws or a forever continuation.

I think um Mr. President has already indicated you can't do that previously. Um you can't the bylaws have to be changed. if I heard him correctly, in order for us to give that charge to the pension committee. That's what I heard him say before. Now, if he um isn't holding firm to that, I I could see that as a a compromise right now and see where that goes. Absolutely. No, I think what she was suggesting was potentially an ad hoc committee to come together for a second. I I thought she was saying Yeah. Like a one-time don't change the bylaws, but have a one-time

Oh, I thought you were saying the pension review committee take that because they they they all have their Yes. expertise with those people have a one time. Yeah, but he's saying you I think he's saying you can't. He is talking about setting up a different committee with the same people or other people. We would have to advertise for said committee. She's not saying that. if if a committee is what's needed, but if there was a one-time tag up with the pension committee to review what you're trying to accomplish. Um, but I don't think we should be changing the bylaws for a continuation.

I have a responsor. You're saying start a subcommittee from the pension committee. For example, if you need a subcommittee for one meeting, I'm saying one meeting. as I just have taking a couple steps back. Has the pension committee asked for any of these bylaws changes? No. Thank you.

The trouble with doing your job well is you get more work sometimes. But I think that's re a reasonable ask. Mr. Gre.

Yeah. I I I I think you're coming close to what I was going to suggest and that is that you have a subcommittee of the uh pension committee which would be the financially oriented folks on that um ask task them with a uh the question of providing an initial plan for uh the I'll call it general fund funds um and to to to give that to you over the next, you know, month or so. Um, I think that would be a a reasonable compromise. It doesn't change the bylaws. It gets the right people involved. Um, and I think that would be a a good way to to get their advice without necessarily changing the bylaws if that's such a I don't see that as a big problem, but if it was a problem to somebody, uh, you could do it that way as as well. and you get the same advice. And if you if you want to change the bylaws, I've written something down that I I would read to you as to how the bylaws could be changed. It's one sentence that would be added to article three. That's all.

Still would need to be advertised. Oh, no. I I'm Yeah, but I think that I think whatever you're going to put together needs to be advertised as well. uh so that people know what it is. It's not just a a you know a change to the bylaws. I think we need to be specific uh as to what we are changing the bylaws to um or adding to the bylaws um in that advertisement. So if if if you need something or you want help with something, I'm happy to do that. But uh um that's the way I would suggest doing it.

Thank you, Mr. M. Mike. Would it be possible for if those members are interested to for them to get together and provide one email to our financial director of what that information is without the change but getting that information but without the change of the bylaw.

We we could potentially task our finance director with reaching out to the three main uh financial planning individuals and ask them if they would like to come in and review them with you. that would be outside of of that would be outside of the committee and you wouldn't have to have a quorum and it might satisfy the needs of this council. Right. I think that gets to what the intentions are without changing the rules for future uh laws. Miss Ben.

Um, so in all of this, um, I noticed that the, um, investment policy, um, is or was approved in 2012. Um, is that or who would update that or the council? Okay. I was just curious about Thank you. We would we would update the investment policy.

So, when do we begin that? Because I I did that was another point. It was done in 2012 and it needs to be I mean Caleb brought it to our attention too that it needs to be updated and reviewed. So when when would we do that? Any meeting you would like to? Thank you. If there are changes you would like to see to it. It would just again have to be advertised so that we everybody knows what's we're not doing it on the fly so to speak. Could we combine the two item, you know, under one? Sure. Agenda item. Sure. Okay. Thank you.

Is there any action the council would like to take this evening? I'm just going to move it on to what? What? Yeah, good try. What is the 20? I'm going to do math. 25th, right, is our next meeting. Thank you. No, 26. 26th because it's a Tuesday. It's a Tuesday, correct? I can't believe Memorial Day is already two weeks away. All right. If we have no action to be taken, Mr. McDow.

No, I don't have action then um after this discussion, but I I would like to leave room to have it on the agenda. Some sort something. I'm not sure yet what, but um I'd like to review what was discussed here and go from there. But I I think it warrants further discussion and further action. So, thanks. So hearing none, we will move on to new business number four. There's also you, Miss McDow. Requests a quarterly report for the public safety capital fund balance transactions, deposits, withdrawals. I'm assuming we're looking at major withdrawals, not the buying of fuel, but major purchases. There you go.

I'm just I'm looking for clarity on what a capital fund is. um because I have my understanding of it, but I'm not sure it goes in line with what um I'm seeing here and so I need clarity on that. Um so if I remember the discussion that was had last meeting regarding this fund, it was that it was set up maybe 2023 to provide a fund uh using the ambulance money ambulance revenue and to set up a capital fund for major vehicle purchases. That's how I heard it last meeting and uh some examples were given which fit in line with that as well. So then when when we got the backup for what was asked about the income and expenses for this capital fund um other things were there and and to my knowledge of a capital fund that doesn't seem to fit in with what should be in that capital fund income and expense sheet. So I I guess I need clarification and I'll ask specifically about this. Um, so there's we we are expending money on a multiple of other things other than major purchases, maintenance, vehicles, gasoline, diesel fuel, billing services, vehicle boat repair and maintenance. And we did receive a the quarterly report for that. And it appears um that over I want to say 120. I didn't I didn't take my calculator and and try to weed through this, but uh in the third

quarter went to things other than large vehicle expenses. And I I'll bring out what I what I found. Um the public police public safety budget has a vehicle maintenance line budgeted for 50,000 probably with a 10 uh 10,000 surplus this year. But we are using capital funds for vehicle maintenance. Is that uh for me vehicle maintenance for the police department or is that vehicle maintenance for the fire department? And I think it's not for the fire department because I couldn't find a vehicle maintenance line under operational expense for the fire department. So I am very confused about this capital fund and the expenditures that I saw and I I just want some clarity. Um and also I I'd like um to get we only got the quarter. I would like to get the whole year for that too, but can I have some clarity?

Sure. Back in uh I believe it was 2022, um this was brought forward to the council and there was a couple different proposals that were brought forward and the intent was was to take seated money from the ARPA funds, which was $1.5 million to start this capital fund. And then what the intent was is to purchase two police vehicles and then um spread throughout different years there would be purchases of fire equipment um apparatuses uh regular vehicles but also in this plan was the intent that uh maintenance would just for fire would come from this plan. The only thing in fuel, the only thing that was added as of this year was the uh billing service and that is because the general fund is supposed to wean themselves off of the revenue from the ambulance um ambulance revenue per se and that would offset the billing from the third party which is Corona Health. I I understand your explanation, but that's not really what was said at the last meeting though, you know, about the purchases, what it was set up for. And so, and then when I again my my concept of a capital fund is for major things, not operational expenses. So you're saying that this fund it was when it was set up, it was it was understood that it was going to be for operational expenses as well.

That is correct.

Yes, that's exactly how it was set up. And what was said, you know, we were covering the big ticket items. This is supposed to cover the major expenses for the fire and then the two police. And if you remember, Chief Ford went up and explained how this was also uh covering all the vehicle maintenance, the vehicle, the ambulance billing service um and uh the fuel costs and that was the council's direction uh when this was set up. I'm fully aware of what capital plans are. This is a hybrid obviously and it could have been named something different. But the whole design of this program was to uh not have the general fund take care uh and and have to be responsible for paying for these huge purchases and then the maintenance required uh to uh take care of those purchases and then obviously the fuel as well. Okay. It certainly wasn't my understanding of a capital fund for sure. So, um I appreciate the clarity like like I'm looking at fire tower rehab expenses. I mean that comes under this.

Yeah. Any operational expenses for fire due uh for the vehicles come to this fund. Wow. That's the rehab of the fire truck. So that would be capital. The other option is we can put it all back into the general fund, increase the line items in the fire department and bond out for fire trucks.

I think again I'm being misunderstood. a capital fund was something other than what I saw here in my opinion and from our clarity to uh the last meeting when it was discussed it seemed to me that it was still talked about as major purchases. In fact, examples were given that you have to be ready to have these funds available if you want to get a vehicle that comes up for sale. I mean, we went through this whole litany. I thought and I just really misunderstood it then.

Okay. You need any further clarification on it or you just want you want the last past year not just this quarter? That's it. Right. Please. Any other questions on the fund? New business number five is to set up a vacation for the council and staff. We usually take off one meeting a year. This meeting we would like to take off the 13th of July and go to the Bahamas on Ke. No, no. New Jersey, Pittsburgh, actually. If you want to come by, you know, tomorrow afternoon.

Yeah. Dutch country. I'll bring you back some cookies. bring bring back everybody from Paranti Brothers. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes 70. We have correspondence. Anybody want to pull anything off? Yes, please. Um number four. Okay. Motion to receive correspondence items one through three and place on file and five through eight. No. Yes. Are we 1 2 3 5 and 5 through eight? Second. All those in favor? I

opposed. Motion passes 70 and item number four will be brought forth to next meeting. All right. Uh future meetings. We have our May 26th meeting. We will have our regularly scheduled meeting on June 8th. We will also have the town council uh final public hearing for the budget on June 10th. That will be here in council chambers. And then June 22nd will be our final reading of the budget and the budget resolution ordinance. Now, Miss Mike, you can do you're not going to do the motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All those in favor?

Opposed? Motion passes. You wanted to do it and I gave you a chance and then you bailed out.