Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good evening, everyone. I'm Jake Wilson, he, him pronouns, counselor at large and your finance committee chair. It's 06:01PM, and I'd like to call to order the Wednesday, 11/19/2025 meeting of the finance committee of the City Council. First, it's my pleasure to read you all this language that lets us do this all here on Zoom. Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio video recording and a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Of Sunwell website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

Yep. This is roll call. Councilor Mbaugh.

Present.

Councilor Burnley.

Present.

Councilor Klingen. Councilor Scott. Alright. I I do see councilor Klingen. Councilor Klingen, are you there?

He's taking a nap.

Oh, I said present. I I had my my speaker, the other thing muted.

No worries. We got you recorded. Alright. Councilor Scott, chair Wilson.

Present.

Alright. With four here, we do have quorum.

Alright. And councilor Scott did let me know, that, well, councilor Scott might be joining us at some point tonight. We will see. We are going to take up our 16 item agenda, in the order posted. So, clerk, can we go ahead? We're gonna take up our first agenda item, ID number 25Dash1711, approval of the minutes of the finance committee meeting of 11/10/2025 on the minutes. Not seeing any discussion. The items laid on the table to recommend approval with a single vote at the end of tonight's meeting. That's gonna bring us to our second agenda item, ID number 25Dash1451. The director of infrastructure and asset management conveying the draft combined sewer overflow plan.

I see we have director Rich Raesch from infrastructure and asset management with us. Director Raesch had presented about this previously to the council. Director, I'm I'm guessing you don't have anything to add subsequent to that discussion. We're here for a discussion if people have questions about it.

That is correct, chair. Unless you want me to present the 65 auxiliary slides, I'm just here to answer questions.

Don't threaten me with a good time. Thank you for that. Alright. Colleagues, any any questions, any discussion on this item before us? Councilor Mabaugh.

Yeah. Thank you, mister president. No. Mister chair. Yeah. No. This is on this item and then also on my own good friend, director Rach's memo. And I I'm glad that you're here, director Rach. I just wanna say, you know, I appreciate you, and I value you as a friend, as a neighbor, and just your expertise. I wanted to say my comment during the meet the last meeting on this item was an oversight on my part.

I had met with a bunch of advocates. They were all in my head, you know, at the time. And so that's wasn't, like, very it wasn't intentional. So I wanna, you know, clear that out, and I appreciate, you know you know, I just wanted to have this opportunity to clear that up, and I wanted to reiterate my respect for the work that you're doing, you know, for our residents and our ratepayers. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, councilman.

Alright. Yeah. And we need we need to keep it focused on the item here in front of but I appreciate that, councilor Mubaugh. Any questions about the that about that presentation or big picture here about the CSO plan? Director, I'll ask one. Any movement, anything changed since we last heard from you in that in that council meeting, from your point of view?

Chair, good question. After I presented about a week after I presented, the MWRA staff presented to their board of directors. You know, as as you might recall, this is more of an informal presentation to get feedback from the council. There isn't a formal action that the council had to take on this, item. The MWRE board of directors do actually have to vote to allow staff to submit their recommendation.

There has been some discussion at the board of directors, some questions on the plan. The Charles River Watershed Association and Mystic River Watershed Association have been very vocal in their desire for a higher level of control, a more costly level of control. And so the the board is considering that it is they've delayed their vote until December, which will give the the tech team very little time to turn around and finalize this. So it it it may be the case that we need to file an extension for maybe maybe a month if DEP will allow us to do that. But, otherwise, the the tech team is still working away, on their, report writing right now.

Thanks, director. And and just for the public, if we were to ultimately have to go pursue that that higher threshold, what was the delta in terms of the the overall cost for for going to that level?

So the the delta can be significant. It's one of the things that I wanna highlight is that we managed to negotiate a cost share for what that recommended plan was, and and we have not negotiated a cost share for that at higher level. So, you know, for for what what we've you know, what's on the on the table right now is is as I I I said about a, you know, threefold increase to our sewer rates. If we go to the higher level of control, it could be anywhere from four to seven times the the increase for our rates subject to negotiation of that price or or price share. So, actually, I think the the council resolution that, councilor put forward that the council passed a couple weeks ago, make it clear Summerville's negotiating stance on that.

So I I thank the council for that direction, and we'll we'll see where it goes. But, it it certainly, at a minimum, would, increase our rates substantially.

Alright. I appreciate that. Colleagues, any other discussion on this? Council Mubaugh.

Oh, yeah. No. Thank you, chair. I just also just wanna reiterate that, yeah, there's no way that, you know, most of this is gonna, like, really, you know, pass with this current council as the as it stands. So I'm glad that the director like, this conversation, I just even you know, I wish you could let the director rest this evening. This I mean, we can't be having this conversation right now because they are already going back to look back into this, you know, like, this tough night in a very holistic way. So we are looking forward to having, you know, the conversation, you know, in the months ahead. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, councilor. Councilor Klingon.

Thank you, mister chair. Through you. You know, I just continue to be distressed, disappointed, dismayed at how we got to this point as a state. And, you know, I supported council Ewing Kampen's resolution, and I hope that's something that we worked out at the state level. You know, I haven't gone back in the sort of the looking glass of the past to see, you know, what was going on in the eighties or the seventies where we got all these, like, Winter Hill Building and all these cut all these corners and all this austerity.

And now here we are having to pick up the tab for something that we don't we can't afford as a municipality. And so this is a plan. It is, you know, it is a plan, and I appreciate you for bringing this forward, But something's gotta give here, so, hopefully, we can begin come to some some change can be made at some point. But but thank you for

Alright. Last call for any discussion on this one. And, again, don't have to vote on anything. This is sent here for discussion. So there's no vote that needs to be taken in this committee.

Alright. Not seeing anything else. So, we're gonna mark this one as work completed because we had that discussion. Director, don't go anywhere there. I think you're are you around for the next one as well?

I do believe director Bean is here to speak to that, but I can also

Oh, okay.

Assist director Bean.

Alright. Mister Chair?

Is from the mark?

Yes. I'm not sure why, you know, you will mark this as well complete when you know that we're gonna be revisiting this stuff, you know, in a month or next year. You know? So I I I you don't want the director to come and submit do another ninety minute presentation. It's it's at I think it is it is best course is to keep it in committee until we kinda, like, reassess everything that the director is mentioning before we cannot, like, mark it as well complete because we'll still need to get another presentation.

This is Counselor, anything anything sent for discussion, though, expires automatically at the end of the year so that there's no real point in keeping it. It would just time out and and disappear. So, it was sent to discuss this. We did that discussion. I appreciate what you're saying about, you know, subsequent discussion, but, I mean, we did you know, it was sent here for a purpose. We did that work, and, it's appropriate to market work completed.

Cool.

Alright. So moving on to our fourth let's see. That was the third thing.

Yep.

No. Wait. That was our second thing. Third agenda item, ID number 25Dash1680. That is mayor requesting the appropriation of $407,090 from the Water Enterprise Fund retained earnings account to the Water Enterprise Fund debt service account to fund debt service for a Massachusetts Water Resource Authority loan. I believe we said we heard director Bean was on hand for this.

Good evening.

Director Bean.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you. We can't see you. We'll settle for that.

You can't see me well. Okay. Let me see if, well, it's not working. Oh, there we go. There we go. Alright. Alright. So I actually wasn't expecting to speak on this, but this particular loan was executed in mid June after the budget was submitted. So, this is an appropriation from retained earnings, which is the equivalent of free cash for enterprise fund, to pay, the first year debt service on this loan.

Alright. Thanks for that explanation. Colleagues, discussion. Councilor Moi.

Thank you, mister chair. Good to see you, doctor Ben, our most our MVP person in the city. I guess

one of the

things I'm curious is, like so this when you talked about return because when I saw this first, I'm I'm glad you mentioned. I was very curious about where it's coming from. But is this, like, just for clarification, is this a loan from the city to MWRA, you know, to cover a certain you know, some aspect of ongoing seawater suppression project or maybe normal operation of water supply and sewage processing?

Yeah. To to the chair, I

can I can answer that? This this is, one of our, normal annual projects that we do to replace pipelines. And the the mechanism that we use to do that is actually a loan a zero interest loan program that the MWRA offers its member communities. Because they've got a very good bond rating and and stores of money, they're able to offer this to the member communities rather than have the member communities have to go out commercially at their own, usually at a at a higher interest rate.

Mhmm.

So we we leverage that money pretty much to the maximum extent that we can because each community gets an allocated amount. So, you know, depending upon where we are in that program, we'll either use this or commercially borrow for our annual pipeline. So this and and as director Bean says here, this is something we we typically budget the the repayment of, but the the paperwork from MWRA came late this year, we weren't able to catch it during, budget, season. So we're just making a correction there.

Gotcha. That makes sense. Thank you for the explanation. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Any other discussion on this? Makes sense to me. So, not seeing any further discussion. We're gonna lay this on the table, recommend approval. And that's gonna bring us to our fourth agenda item, ID number 25Dash1679. Mayor requesting the appropriation of $403,980 from the unreserved fund balance, free cash, to the debt service interest on notes band's account for payment of interest for the 90 Washington Street property acquisition. Is this you again, director Bean, I'm guessing?

Yes, mister chair. This is the interest on the first year bond anticipation note, which was floated to secure the 90 Washington Street property. The pay this will go to the debt service fund on the general fund. Payment is due in February.

And we were warned this would happen. Mhmm. Any discussion from the from the committee? I don't see any problem because we were warned this would happen. Councilor Mabaugh.

Yes. Thank you, chair. I guess one of the, just curious about, like, you know, what is, like, you know, like, maybe the outstanding, you know, like, principal, like or what the interest rate is. Like, do we know that?

Yeah. Yes. Yes. Oh, first of all, there's no principal because we're borrowing short term. So the way it works, we can borrow short term for two years, and then we're forced to borrow long term.

So if the property is not sold, to a developer or what have you through the RFP process after two years, then we will have to pay more principal and interest. So the interest on this bond anticipation note is 2.8%. So it's the first year. This next year, at this time, next in February of of two zero two seven, we'll borrow again on a short term basis, and, hopefully, it'll be about the same amount of money depending upon the interest rates. Gotcha. If we get to the third year, then it's gonna be probably over $1,000,000 in in debt service because you'll have to pay down a principal and interest.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, doctor Bean. Thanks, counselor. Counselor Klingon.

So on that, just to confirm, doctor Bean just said, so we won't make another payment till February 2027?

So that'll be the second year payment. So this is first payment is due on February '26.

Gotcha. Alright.

02/00/2027. Yep.

Got it. Alright. Thank you.

Alright. Any additional discussion? Alright. The items laid on the table recommend approval. It brings to our fifth agenda item, ID number 25Dash1698. The mayor requesting the appropriation of a $100,000 from the community benefit stabilization fund to the Armory revolving fund to prepare the Armory for onboarding and support of tenants. I see we have director Rachel Ned Carney from economic development with us. Director Ned Carney.

Good evening, counselors. I'm here tonight with, Greg Jenkins, director of the Arts Council as well. And we are here, to present this item. We are looking to move a $100,000, from community benefits to the Armory Stabilization Fund. And what that will allow us to do is really align the all of our stewardship support for the building with the onboarding of new tenants.

We are anticipating right now that we are getting this RFP for new tenants out at the December. We've already announced that it'll be out for three months, and so we'll be starting our selection process in March with the hope that, you know, mid next year, we're filling that building with new tenants. We wanna be able to bring on a staff person who will focus on the armory tenant management and property management. That has been a big part of the master plan that you all have seen. The anticipation is that that position will be paid for out of the armory stabilization, the armory revolving fund, basically paid for out of the rents collected from tenants.

There is a little bit of a lag, though, because we want that person onboard in time to help onboard those tenants. So this is really about the start up costs. So the main part of this fifth this 100,000 is $50,000 to bring that person on in time for them to be in position to support those tenants in their onboarding. The second part of this is to address, issues with the front door. This has been a long standing challenge for the tenants if you've had a chance to speak with any of them around how does a member of the public enter the building, and find them.

And so this $30,000 is what we understand from DBW's research is what it will take to be able to really modernize that callback system set up the tenants for success so that when they get there again on day one, they're really in position to start off right away with a great experience. Part three of this appropriation is $20,000 to support all the general custodial and maintenance support that we think is gonna be necessary to, again, go through that start up phase. We're anticipating that our utility costs are probably gonna go up when we aren't just keeping the pipes from freezing and our vacant spaces. We wanna be able to really make sure that we're in a good position, again, for this to be as seamless as possible for that those new tenants that are gonna come in next year. So that's the ask that we have before you tonight, and happy to answer any questions.

Alright. Thanks for that, director. Councilor Mubai, you're first up.

Thank you, mister chair, and thank you, director Nakane, for for explaining that stuff. I guess where I'm coming, you know, from with this, I'm just trying to learn a lot because this is, like, a new thing that we just created, and this is, like, the first time that we are now drawing funds from the new community stabilization funds. You know? I just wanna under make sure I understand what is going on so that it doesn't become like a precedent now where, you know, I don't know if money's, you know, in the fund would, you know, like, will be available for city agency to just plug in to, like, the operation, take money, you know, to kinda, like, do, like, some maybe routine program or ongoing programs. And so circumvent, like, the traditional way by which, you know, it's most of those programs are funded by rev by the general like, the regular sources of revenue.

So so would the appropriation of money be limited for projects and programs that are designed to mitigate or offset impacts of, like, development. Like, I'm just we just created this thing. I just wanna be clear. Like, if this is, like, how money now will be spent without really going through, like, the normal appropriation that is, like, okay. This like, we have money in the budget. They come, you know, and take it, but this is not, like, a new setup. Like, how is that gonna really work? Is it, like is it how things are not gonna be unfolding, or this is just, a one off? Like, how does it does that make sense?

If I if I may

I can repeat it if it doesn't make sense, but I'm sure director P

Makes sense.

Understand exactly what I'm trying to add. This is this is a whole new setup. I wanna understand what's going on.

Absolutely. Through you, mister chair, if I can, this is really anticipated to be a onetime thing. The armory is expected to be financially self sustaining. That is our ultimate goal. We are really looking at a gap financing challenge with the Armory.

The Armory revolving fund is expected to cover these expenses. We have built out a five year pro form a. We're anticipating that we are gonna be able to fill this building with some fantastic community tenants and support them through this. Why we looked to the community this this particular fund is that this is really this is not an ongoing program. This is not something that is going to be funded off the general fund going forward.

This is going to be the armory revolving fund funded activities in the future. And so this really is just this onetime startup time when we're looking for that support. And so we look to the community benefits as perhaps this could be that bridge to this success that we are all hoping for for the armory. Hope that answered the question.

Yeah. Like, you still got the floor.

Yeah. No. Thank you, chair. I'm still kinda, like, processing my thought. Yeah. No. But I I I appreciate that. Yeah. Because we got the, like you mentioned, like, for about $5,000,000. I think that was, like you know? And we really work hard to ensure that it it would be, yeah, self sustaining, like you mentioned. Okay. This is not gonna be like this. It would okay. Yeah. I I think you answered the first part. You know? Let me just mull that over and then while I listen in to my colleagues. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, councilor. Councilor Brindley, you're next up.

Thank you. And through the chair, excuse me for not having my camera on. My I have my typical, computer issues. If I turned it on right now, I will be upside down, and I do not wish to be upside down. Through you, I just wanna dissect a bit what we heard and get as much clarity as possible before making decision on my vote. Through you to director Nat Carney, when you we're just speaking about tenants. Are you talking about commercial tenants or residential tenants or both?

The Rory master plan lays out very specifically. We are looking for artist commercial tenants. The, experience that we've had is that the city is not in a good position to be a landlord to residential tenants as a direct landlord. There's there's a lot in landlord tenant relationship that we are just not well equipped for. And so what we are looking for is commercial tenants. They do need to meet the ACE definition of artists. There's limited range categories in that. Again, that has all been announced, and it's on the, Armory web page.

Thank you for the clarification. I'm pretty sure I I got that, but I do I might have to ask one more question about artists, commercial tenants as opposed to, like, simply just artists residential. So just to be clear, under this plan, no one would be, living in the Armory.

Correct. And that was established at least six months ago?

Yes. Through you. I certainly agree through you, the chair. I certainly agree with the assessment that the city has not prepared the appropriate capacity or infrastructure to serve as a good landlord to this point. I think the there is proof of that when you actually speak to the tenants of the Armory, who have been number of whom, reached out to me about this particular item, and wondering what it was for, wondering what it could potentially go toward.

This is a building that the city owns that, for the last few years, has had a number of facility needs, custodial needs, part of which this item, seeks to amend in a sense. But I'm curious also how much communication has the count the arts council had with, the current tenants of the armory in terms of, how these funds would be deployed?

If I can answer that, I I did have this conversation

Go ahead. Or through the chair.

I Oh, go ahead, Jen.

Go ahead.

Was gonna say, had this con conversation with councilor c yesterday as well. We have not communicated with this this appropriation to the tenants because we frankly aren't sure yet that we are we have it enhanced, so we don't wanna get hopes up that we are, making changes that we are not confident that we are able to make at this point.

And I I would also like to add and make sure everyone understands is that, you know, for the past several years, you know, the armory, we've we have lost tenants in the armory that weren't necessarily architects, you know, gym owners. So we approximately have four tenants in the building, and some of them, you know, are paying rent and some of them aren't paying full rent, point blank. And so the revenue coming in into the revolving account, we have enough to cover some basic expenses, but what we're asking for in the request in a way is to kind of up and revamp what our, you know, what our needs are in terms of expenses for this building. So related to the door, related to extra, hopefully, extra custodial support, and then also, to bring somebody on in the next, you know, four or five months as a staff person, which is all of what those services you know, everyone's claiming that they you know, what we all wanna provide. We just have a cash flow situation.

So once we start getting tenants in there, then, hopefully, you know, the the rents will stabilize, and we won't necessarily be coming, you know, coming back to you or coming to anyone. And that the the the rents coming in will help provide core services and core support for this building. So this, in a way, is a stopgap measure to get us through this threshold of the next six months.

Thank you for that. And that does, I think, help give some context to, particularly in relation to hiring new staff, what work would be happening from coming from this item, again, through the chair. I'm curious if you have a sense of, how this, person would be, setting up the the tiers for rent? Like, are these gonna be flat rates across the the board? Are they different for different tenants?

I know that they're certainly, through, RF cube process. There are, like, certain criteria that needs to be set for the city. But I'm curious about what the process is envisioned to be and also if there is room for public input about I I need to see. Mhmm. I suppose, like, how best the public would, you know, engage with this process moving forward. I just I'll leave it at that.

Do you want do you want me to chat? I mean, through the through the chair. So we have the master plan, which has been, you know, posted and discussed and promulgated throughout the community. And one of the things that we've learned that the community said that they wanted is that they wanted to have a multitenanted building. We're also looking at in terms of developing the RFP, the idea of to develop the RFP is to look at the spaces and to look at what some of the current rents are and to try to understand, are some of these rents too high or are some of these rents too low based on, again, from our own experience of knowing that, you know, rents at at at Vernon Street are at $15 a square foot and Joy Street are at 22.

Looking at varying rents around the city and understanding what the community, you know, has been paying or can absorb, and then looking at what our expenses are and how much can the city subsidize subsidize isn't the right word. If we look at a programmatic thing, whether it's a pool or whether it's a, you know, a field or something, the city provides resources to these activities. So we'd looked at all of these expenses and then looked at essentially at the the rents or at the spaces and thought that, you know, rents in the basement, it's not very high end space that they should be set at this rate. Rents on the 1st Floor, this rates. Rents there.

And then trying to find a mix of ultimately providing a rate structure or rent structure that makes sense both to support the arts community, but at the same time brings in enough money to create stabilization for that building. And that's what you'll what everyone will see when we start to issue this RFP is that we have a a rate structure. We have a pro form a as as director Nacardi mentioned, looking at a five year plan as to, like, how much money we need to come in to cover custodial services, common area cleaning, you know, trash removal, go down the list of all the services. And I think the whole discussion that's happened throughout this process is at what level we can't place an entire burden of operating this building onto the tenants of this building because we would probably be back in the same situation we were five years ago, four years ago when we took when we took the building by eminent domain is because the arts need that type of support and services. So what you're gonna find when we issue this RFP, I hope, you dive into it and you can come back to us, is that you'll hopefully see a balanced approach to where how do we support the arts community and or the larger cultural community, at the same time, create stabilization for the building, but yet have, you know, a very active, five year plan where we're we're developing stability and and fulfilling the mission of you know, through the master plan, and that's what it's about.

So, specifically, to your question, the rates for those spaces will be different based on the floors and based on the the the, you know, in a way, the amenities that those spaces provide. At the same time, point blank, we'll say it, we're not charging the large performance hall space. There's no way anybody could afford if we jacked up that space. So we're trying to create levels of balance between what's appropriate rate space or rate rent for larger spaces as opposed to the smaller spaces. And then there's differentiation between the basement, the 1st Floor, and the 2nd Floor, and the 3rd Floor. Hopefully, that answers a lot of questions.

Yeah. I think that's it's really helpful. And I I'll I'll ask just one more question before yielding to my colleagues through the chair. And I appreciate also the, again, the the emphasis on the need for this to be cash neutral for lack of a better term. You know, I I appreciate that you corrected yourself, for legal reasons or around subsidize, but I'll just say for the record, I'm not against government subsidizing the arts.

I think it is really, really actually incumbent upon us to do so. The SunReal has done so for many years, and I think should continue to do so. And on this council, I've advocated for, half of the the 3% community impact fee, that should be bringing about $400,000 a year to be going to the arts in the form of grants and funds that support put cash in the hands of local artists in particular. And, frankly, to that point, we are subsidizing this space currently, and we for the I don't wanna say foreseeable future, but for a bit, we will be. So just as a last point, you mentioned a five year the five year plan.

Is that the timeline that we're hoping to get this cash neutral, buy, or is is there an established longer term timeline? Because, and I asked just for clarity because that is some that is a space in which we, as municipality, I I believe, have maybe a bit more flexibility than, you know, other operators in this space, where we can talk about what it would mean to rent out spaces at this price along this longer term period versus another, and that's gonna have, pretty, in my opinion, pretty significant impacts on who's able to rent out spaces, in which spaces. So yeah. Thank you.

Through the chair. I mean, I can address it very quickly. At the first year, I think that we're, we project that we're bringing in approximately 200,000 in rents that will essentially go think around a 180 of that is would be going towards expenses. And then the following year, we are we are going to increase some of the rates, but I think they're between 34% that hopefully will match what we anticipate could be a three to 4% increase in expenses. So it it creates a parallel structure.

Director Bean, we've all discussed this too. We wanna try to create maybe a small, what you would call free cash flow of around 20 to $30,000. But but I back to your point that it should be fairly cash neutral after the first full year full year of teneting. So it would not necessarily happen this spring, this summer, but probably this, you know, June 2027.

If I may, bring it back to this appropriation. This appropriation is really about those start up costs. We we've been trying to balance three things with the rents. One, having it be affordable to the artists and the arts organizations that we want to have tenancy in this building, having it cover costs, all the operating costs, and then as available, build a little bit of a reserve. And that's what Greg was talking about. We're trying to build a just a little bit of a reserve. What happens if the elevator breaks? What happens if we have a leak somewhere? We need to fix a pothole. That's above and beyond our typical spend for our municipal buildings.

There are some things about the building that need investment. We've we know that. And so the idea is to build a little bit of a reserve that we can use to leverage for grants and other things. So that's been the balancing act that we've been trying to play with this pro form a. And, again, what we do know is that the first year, there's this bit of a gap, and we wanna be able to, again, offer the tenants the experience that we know that they would like to see the city offer as as a landlord.

Alright. Councilor, that's everything you had, councilor Brinley?

All set.

Alright. Thank you for that. Councilor Clinton, you're up next.

Thank you, mister chair. Through you yeah. Just speaking on the specific item, happy to support this. I do share some concerns about I'm sure that it falls within the bounds of, community benefits agreement monies, to the community. I do, you know, worry about rating it too much for lots of different purposes for something that we like, an a thing that we got ourselves into such as the Armory. So,

you know, this

is only a $100,000, and, like, you're asking for a million dollars. I am con you know, I do I am concerned about operating costs going forward. I did look at the the business plan, the Armory master plan, and, you know, I have I have faith that we can write this ship. And but as far as, you know, bringing this position on board and and and moving us forward towards tenancy and and towards cash neutral, situation. Happy to support this. Thank you.

Yeah. I'll just say I appreciate the discussion we've had here. I mean, obviously, the armory, we all know, is one of those things that has been, kind of a black box to a lot of people and definitely a source of source of a lot of discussion, a lot of anxiety, a lot of uncertainty. So I it's helpful hearing a clear plan sketched out like that. It definitely helps me, you know, wrap my mind around what we're doing here.

To counsel Klingon's point, you know, I this we just just authorized, right, the creation of this community benefit stabilization fund. And, you know, and, obviously, here we are. We we we tapped into it that basically, no sooner had we created, then we tapped into it, with those appropriations the back on Thursday? Thursday. And here we are coming back again. I guess, yeah, it'll be an interesting question of, like, how often do we go into that? You know, we'll have to I guess we'll be we'll be keeping an eye on that. But, yeah, I appreciate this discussion. Yeah. I I feel much better about this, having having gotten all those details. So any additional discussion on this one? Councilor Mubaugh?

No, mister chair. I just wanted to say I appreciate your comment. You know? It's you make made me feel, like, really you know, I thought I was my editorial was just a little too much. Nobody was getting me. I'm screaming on the rooftop and trying to put my so I appreciate that we are on the same page trying to figure out this thing out together. So, you know, thank you.

Teamwork makes the dream work. Alright. Any initial discussion? Clerk, could you please call the roll on a motion to recommend approval? I'll make the motion

so you can

call the roll now, please.

Perfect. On recommending approval for item number five, ID 25 Dash1698. Councilor Mbaugh?

Yes.

Councilor Burnley?

Aye.

Councilor Klingon?

Yes.

Councilor Scott? Chair Wilson?

Yes.

Alright. With that, that is four votes in favor.

Alright. Thank you all for for being here. Thank you for the questions. Discussion. Yep. Yep. Thank you for the questions. Alright. That is going to bring us to our sixth agenda item, ID number 25Dash1620. The mayor requested approval of a transfer of $15,500 from various Somerset ordinary maintenance accounts to the Somerset salaries and wages temporary account to fund additional temporary employee time. I see we have director Anna Garzman with us from Somerset. Director, please tell us about this request.

Of course. Good evening, everyone. So we had funded some OM, line items in the budget process. We were hoping to take advantage of some professional development opportunities this year. But with the combination of working to release the happiness survey in a timely manner while one of our staff was happily out having a baby, we aren't getting to them. And so instead, we would like to use that money to clear some of our work workload backlog. So we're hoping that the temporary staffing will help us with capacity towards that goal this year, and we can revisit the OM funding next time.

Alright. Thank you for that explanation. Colleagues, any discussion on this? Alright. I don't see anything.

So we're gonna lay this on the table to recommend approval. Director, thank you so much. Bring us to our seventh agenda item, ID number 25Dash1624. The mayor requesting approval transfer of $729 from the communications department community outreach account to the Sunerville High School SHS salaries account for SHS staff participation in the new pre k to eight school building planning focus group session. Does, IGA wanna speak to this? We have legislative liaison Kimberly Hutter with us from IGA. Did you wanna speak to this one?

Yes. Thank you, mister chair. Wanted to make a quick note that there is a a small error in this, item, so we will be resubmitting it. This should be coming from and the the account numbers in this item in the body are correct, but it's been mislabeled. It is not the Summerville High School salaries account. It's just the Summerville Public Schools, high school account. This, the participants in this focus group were from all of the different school, several different schools throughout the, school district. So staff will submit that corrected item, so I wanted to note that for the committee. But all of the substance of the item will remain the same. I am happy to answer any questions about this on behalf of the comms team, and, yeah, happy to answer those.

So colleagues and the public in general, what this means is, right, we're gonna have this discussion about this item. It's only gonna be marked as withdrawn. There will be a replacement item submitted at the next regular meeting on Tuesday. Tuesday. At which point, we'll have had that discussion. We should feel comfortable moving ahead with, immediate consideration of that item since the only difference will be a corrected account name. So, any discussion on this request given the explanation we just heard? Alright. Not seeing anything. So we're gonna latest one that actually, no. We're marking this one as withdrawn. Right?

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Yes. Caught myself in time. And then, again, there will be a replacement item submitted, for next Tuesday's regular meeting. So, clerk, we're gonna mark that item as withdrawn.

Got it.

Moving on to contracts and agreements. Item number eight, ID number 25Dash1649. The mayor requested approval of a pedestrian access easement and grant of maintenance license for 495 Columbia Street. I see we have attorney Kathy Lester Salkert with us, from the law department. Attorney Salkert, take it away.

Hi. Good evening, mister chair. Thank you. Yes. This is a, public access easement for pedestrian access along, Columbia Street and Webster Ave, and also a corresponding maintenance license for the portion of the bike lane is what it really is that's in the actually, the public way.

But it's on it's a protected curb protected bike lane, which you wouldn't know is in the public way because it looks like it is on the the private property because of the way it's built. And that's one characteristic of this. It's a little bit different because of the building being right up to the property line and then the sidewalk, being partly on the property line and partly in the public way. So there's an access easement over the portion of the sidewalk that's on private property and a maintenance license for everything that is in the public way. Property owner is responsible for maintaining the entire thing as always with our easements and licenses.

I have a I have a photo of it if you wanna see what it looks like. I can share screen, but it's it's it's a little bit unique because right now in this in this particular photo too, it's not striped as a bike lane, so you wouldn't really know. But, I don't think I submitted the photo with the item, but I didn't understand it until I looked at it. It just looks like a sidewalk with some pavement next to it, which is it's five it's not our typical bike lane where it would be in the road, and it'll be striped and have bollards and all of that. The the re the project approvals required curb protected.

So it's because it's protected by that curb and it's removed somewhat, removed from where the sidewalk is, they created the best bike path that they could with the building that was being put on that location.

Yeah. Clerk, did you wanna give, attorney Sokert the the the power to do a shared screen for all the visual learners out there? Curious what this looks like.

Alright. You should be all set to screen share.

Okay. Oops. Wrong share. One share button. Hang on. I was gonna practice this ahead of time. Oh, wait. I'm in the wrong. That's why. Okay. Here we go. One second. Sure. Can everybody see that? Yes.

So here's the here's the bike lane. Here's the curb. There's the street. So I I'm told by Justin Schreiber that this is marked better now. There's actually some markings on here so that people know that it's a bike lane. And it's supposed to connect with bike lanes, you know, before this property and after this property according to the project approvals. And then the sidewalks over here. I don't if you can see my cursor.

We can.

Okay.

Very helpful. Thanks for sharing that.

Sure. I thought it would help since this one's a little bit unique.

Alright.

Everyone get a look at that before we, before attorney Seeds screen sharing back to the clerk?

Alright.

Theresa, anything else to add to this before we throw it over to the committee for discussion?

Not that I can think of, mister chair.

Alright. Very helpful. Thank you for that. Colleagues, discussion. Council Mubaugh.

Mister chair, this seems like a standard agreement. I just you know, from what I I that's from what I can see, like, it's really nothing soft. You know? It's seems like a pretty standard agreement, so it should be good.

Attorney Saker, do you agree with that assessment? That's a pretty standard agreement.

It is. Although he although, counselor Mumbad did remind me of something I wanted to mention is that unlike most bike lanes, we have we have asked the developer, the developer has agreed to maintain that one because it's more on their property in appearance and somewhat easier for them to maintain with their equipment.

And does that include, snow removal?

Yes.

Alright. Excellent.

Mhmm.

Councilor Bah, anything else?

No. I've said my piece, mister chair. Thank you.

I wanted to make sure you knew you still had the still had the the mic if you wanted. Anyone else? I don't see anything else. So, attorney, thank you for that. We're gonna lay this one on the table to recommend approval.

Okay. Thanks very much.

That's gonna bring us to prior year invoices. Our ninth agenda item ID number twenty five dash one six three eight. The mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling a $125.43 using available funds to the Department of Rational and Social Justice computer equipment account for freight charges. This is a pretty low dollar figure. Any discussion on this that wasn't, anything that wasn't answered by the request itself?

Those free charges will get you. Councilor Mabaugh.

Mister chair, you know my philosophy around invoices. You know, they needs to be paid. So you can you can you can run through those invoices.

We're gonna we're gonna do that. Not seeing any discussion on this one, so we're gonna mark this one or latest one on table, we'll recommend approval. It's gonna bring our tenth agenda item up, item number twenty five dash one six four zero. The mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling $5,285.77 using available funds in the police department computer supplies account for computer supplies. I see we have director Emily Wisdom with the police department, here tonight. Director Wisdom, do you wanna take these up separately? You want me to take these all up together?

I think that we can take them up together.

Always here for taking up items together. Clerk, then we're gonna take up agenda items eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen altogether here. I'll read those. That is, ID number 25Dash1622. The mayor request approval to pay prior invoices totaling $1,765.28 using available funds in the police department professional and technical services account for case management services.

ID number 25Dash1646. The mayor requested approval to pay prior invoices totaling $1,547.55 using available funds in the police department animal control professional and technical services account for veterinary services. I need number 25Dash1648. The mayor requested approval to pay prior invoices totaling $271 Using available funds in the police department badges, emblems, trophies account for educational achievement award bars. And ID number 25Dash1651, the mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling $54.

Using available funds in the police department, badges, emblems, trophies account for a hat badge. Alright. So with those five items before us, Director Wissam, you wanna do you have anything general on those five? Or you

Yeah. We are working, diligently to kind of clean up. The majority of these are from f y twenty three, f y twenty four. Some of these these were missed due to employee turnover. I've been we've been reaching out to vendors to get them on our new shared police invoice email.

As we talked to them, they realized that they've still been sending invoices to people who haven't worked there in two, three years. So we we've been kind of collecting these. We're hoping by the end of this year to have talk to every possible vendor we could because we've been working through them, reaching out to them, and and and to clear that up so that, we don't continue forward in this way. We definitely wanna to, meet our our obligations and and get those done within the correct, fiscal year. So that's something that we're really being diligent about and really trying to, you know, reach out to vendors and just make sure that, you know, every time we talk to a vendor that it's not a surprise from last time.

So, we appreciate your patience with us as as we get some of those cleaned up from from people who haven't worked in the past, and and we we get it cleaned up to move forward.

Thank you for that. Committee, any discussion on these five items? Seeing none. The five items are laid on the table to recommend approval.

Thank you.

Thank you. But don't go anywhere, please, director.

I know. I think I got one more.

You got one more. We're gonna jump to our grant and and gift acceptances. Our fifteenth agenda item, ID number 25Dash1621. The mayor requested approval to accept and expend an $87,450 grant with no new match required from the Massachusetts Office of Grants and Research to the police department for public safety staffing. Once again, director Wisdom.

Thank you, chair. So the purpose of the this grant is, to, help municipalities maintain public safety, and helping to address any police staffing shortfalls. This is through the Massachusetts municipal public safety staffing program. To be eligible, a municipality must have a population of at least, 60,000 and demonstrate that their police department has a operating budget per capita of less than $200. A total of 10 communities meet this criteria, including Summerville is one of those 10.

So this is not a competitive grant. This is a a grant that's predesignated, and we just we apply, describe to them what we are planning to use with it for, in our case, OT to fill any vacancies that we have from promotions or from turnover, things like that. And, you know, we're going into the holiday season, so this is an excellent time in elections when we see a little bit of spike in public safety needs. This this helps us to kind of cover some of those gaps and, not need to ask for additional overtime in the future.

Alright. Thank you for that. Finance committee, any discussion? Council Burnley.

Thank you. Through the chair, just to clarify, director Wilson, this is for temporary staff? This is to cover what would otherwise be overtime hours? Just

Yes. So this is this does not add any staff or allow us to add staff. It is for existing staff members, and it covers, overtime.

Great. Thank you. And this, how would this be applied? This is, you mentioned election time. Obviously, our elections have passed. Is this going to be somewhat retroactive to cover what's already been done or moving forward?

So I was kinda speaking globally. I apologize through the chair. So we get this grant every year. And so one of the things that we we sit down and we kind of look at community events and things and try to cover, try to, you know, discuss amongst us, in in the leadership team what we expect to see a spike in overtime hours for. So, you know, in this in this case, for the 2025, we use it for, you know, some elections, some some of the OT that they needed for elections.

We use it for some increase in patrols in, areas for cultural events, things like that. So, it's more of of it allows us a little bit to strategize to to kind of bridge some gaps or to to cover some areas where we see an ex increase in our usual overtime. So it it does this 2026 probably would not be used for an election as there won't be an election next year that I know of, and at least not a a larger primary election. I guess, in my mind, I'm not entirely sure. But if there was an election coming up, we would we would absolutely use that for, you know, to bridge that gap.

And I'm getting smiles, there's definitely election next year. Right? I I mean, I know that there's always municipal elections going on. I guess I was thinking about the the the kind of the the mayoral race that we just had. So, I know that there likely will not be a mayoral race next year. Right? Okay. That sorry. That's what I was speaking to. I wasn't speaking to all elections. I know that we still have business to do throughout the year. I appreciate your grace with that.

Yes. Hopefully, we do still have elections. Yes.

I I I meant kind of some larger ones that really, draw crowds, and we we wanna make sure that we have enough staff to cover all elections.

Thank you for that. Councilor Bradley, did you have more on this one?

One question related to the application. Sure. There's a question on the application, yes or no question, related to diversity supplier.

Okay.

Are you are you able to clarify, like, what that would mean in this context? The city marked no. I don't know what it would mean to have marked yes. Yes.

So, through the chair, in my experience, when it comes to diversity the diversity requirement with some of the state grants, when we use vendors outside of our staff so in this case, I do not think that this would be a a grant that's applicable to the diversity requirement. But when so when we get funds from other state grants, there are sometimes, diversity factors like, vendors that are on the the supplier list. They designate so much of the grant has to be used with diverse suppliers. In this case, we applied for OT, so it would it would cover our staff rather than having the the diversity requirement. But I will, obviously double check and make sure that that's the case, but that's my understanding is, and that's why we marked no because we're not using outside vendors.

We're just we're just paying current staff that we already have, and that that diversity expenditure threshold does not apply.

Thank you. Through the chair, that's what I would expect, the the rationale to be behind that. Looking at this the form again, it it seems I mean, it literally says standard contract form. So it seems like this form is more broadly applicable beyond just this type of grant. Yes. Yeah. I I was just curious about that because by the nature of the fact that I thought, you know, this we wouldn't be able to have a diversity supplier, you know, programmed for such a thing, it was strange to see, the question Yes. On there. But

The, the state does use that standard contract form for just about every grant I've seen.

Efficient, I I suppose. Alright. That that's all for me for now.

Thank you.

Councilor Clinton. Yeah.

Thank you, mister Chancellor. You're happy to support this grant. You know, a lot of times people see police out on details. Those aren't paid by us. They're usually paid by a developer or a utility. But what we do need details for and over time is the many, many events that we have in the city, porch fest, fluff fest, all of, you know, our great fest. So it's good to have this little pot of cash that helps supplement, some of our amazing events. Thank you.

Thank you. Any additional discussion on this? Councilor Mubaugh.

Thank you, chair. I just wanted to also echo councilor Klingen that I always appreciate the wisdom, you know, from director wisdom, you know, and all the insights. So I'm happy to support it.

I see what you did there, counselor. Alright. Clerk, I will move to recommend approval of this. Could you please call the roll on that?

Yep. On recommending approval for item number 15. Councilor Mbaugh?

Yes.

Councilor Burnley?

No.

Councilor Klingon?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Chair Wilson?

Yes.

Sorry. I was just calling Consent Scott. Alright. Got you. I'm sorry. That is three votes in favor.

Alright. That's gonna bring us to our final agenda item tonight. Item or item 16, item number twenty five dash one six three six, the mayor requesting approval to accept and expand a $109,296 grant with no new match required from executive office of public safety to the fire department for staffing costs. And I see we have director James Mucci with us, from the fire department. Director, please tell us about this.

Yeah. Through you here. This is basically a sister grant to the police. It's, the exact same agency and grant application that we we applied to. This money will be used to provide overtime to cover any sick leave, injury leave, vacation so that we're fully staffed on all shifts.

Alright. Thank you for that. Colleagues, any discussion on this? Okay. We're gonna lay them on lay the item on the table to recommend approval then. Director, thank you for joining us. Alright. That brings us to the end of tonight's agenda, and councilor Mabaugh, moves to recommend approval of the items on the table and to adjourn. Could the clerk please read the agenda item numbers, of the items up for that recommendation to approve and then call the roll on recommending approval of those items and adjournment.

Yep. On adjournment and rec recommending approval for items number one, three, four, six, eight, nine, ten through fourteen, and sixteen. Councilor Mbaugh?

Yes.

Councilor Burnley?

Aye.

Councilor Klingon?

Yes.

Councilor Scott? Chair Wilson?

Yes, please.

Alright. That is all four counselors in favor, and it is, 07:06PM.

Alright. Thanks, everyone. Have a great night.