City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, welcome to the Wester City Council meeting. Uh, if you can please stand for the pledge of allegiance and the star spangled man banner. I pledge allegiance to the flag [singing] [music] by the dawn early [music] light. What so [singing] proudly we held And [singing] the twilight lasting who brought stripes and bright stars through the per [singing] [singing] [music] gall and the rockets [singing] the bombs Mercy in air gave proof [singing] through the night [music] that our flag was still there. Oh, say does [singing] that [music] star spangled yet [singing] [music] for [singing] the land [music] of the free and [singing] the home of the [music] brave.

Roll call. Councelor Bergman here. Councelor Bada here. Economo here. Brazilo here. King here. Mitra here. Aida here. Rivera here. Rosen here. Tumi here. Mayor Petty

here. We have uh several proclamations uh to give out tonight. Uh the first one is honoring the Oasis at Dodge Park. Says, "Whereas Dodge Park and the Oasis at Dodge Park has been recognized as a pillar of exceptional senior care without our community within our community providing compassionate, innovative, and person- centered services to residents and their families. And whereas the team at Dodge Park and the Oasis at Dodge Park consistently demonstrate an unwavering commitment to dignity, respect, and excellence in every aspect of their work. Whereas caring duck.com, a nationally respected resource for senior living and care, has awarded Dodge Park and the oasis at Dodge Park the prestigious Caring Duck Comm Superstar Award, an award reserved for facilities that have received the Caring Star Award with us three times since 2017. And whereas the award reflects not only the exceptional quality of care provided but also the dedication, professionalism and heartfelt support shown dearly by the staff and leadership at the Dodge Park noas the oasis Dodge Park. Now therefore, I may Joseph M. Petty, mayor of the city of Worcester, hereby commend Dodge Park and the Oasis at Dodge Park for earning the caring.com Superstar Award. And uh Ben, you want to uh to grab a picture and say a few words? Come on. [applause] Yes, I

Folks, if we can have you on this end, just squeeze in a little bit. Council, can you come in a little bit more?

All right. Ready? One, two, three. Okay, ready? Right over here. One, two, three. Great. don't make our agenda. So,

at the park one. Okay.

Okay. We have a second proclamation. Okay. The second proclamation is uh to honor the mission of Nihon Heno. And uh we'll read that proclamation. And uh whereas since the height of the cold war, the United States and Russia have dismantled more than 50,000 nuclear warheads, but some 12,000 nuclear weapons still exist and pose an intolerable risk to human survival. Whereas the United States has a special responsibility to meet the country's obligations under article six of the 1968 nuclear non-prololiferation treaty to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the secession of the nuclear arms race at the early date and to nuclear disarmament and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. Whereas on July 7th, 2017, 122 nations vote to adopt a treaty on prohibition of nuclear weapons which prohibits the possession, use and testing, stationing or transfer of nuclear weapons and creates an important legal framework for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Whereas the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winning organization Nihon Hedon Kio is visiting Worester to promote the mission of nuclear disarmment initiating efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again. And whereas the city of Wester stands with those affected by nuclear warfare and commits to promotion of Nhon Heanko mission to warn the future generations about the consequences of using nuclear weapons. Now therefore, I samped, mayor of the city of Worester, proclaimed May 5th, 2026 as nuclear non-prololiferation day in

the city of Worester and encourage all its residents to observe this day which honors the promotion of the mission of Nihon Hiking Hiking Go uh issued on May 5th, 2026. And uh All right, folks. We got a few cameras. Um, right over in this general direction. Great.

Thank you. [applause] Okay, we want to say I know you we have a couple gentlemen here who want to say a few words and uh one is a survivor of the nuclear bomb and one is a second generation survivor. We have a translation. Okay. My name is Hiroshi Kanamoto. I'm an atomic mo bomb survivor from Hiroshima. And uh I was just 9 months old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and I was at 2.5 kilometers uh from the hypo center and it was a miracle that I could survive and today I am so honored to be invited to your city

council and thank you very much for your kind acknowledgement uh about our long-term struggle for the elimination of nuclear weapons and we got um great encouragement uh from your city. So you know with such encouragement uh we will continue our activity to uh let the people of the world know about the real damage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to increase support for the elimination of nuclear weapons. So today I thank you very much for your you know kind arrangement for us to be invited here and to give us an opportunity to speak. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay, we have one more proclamation to give and this is our annual conf uh proclamation from the national associate of lettericarious food drive day. [clears throat] So whereas citizen participation in voluntary human service programs is a hallmark of the American democratic society and whereas the city of whista has committed and to voluntary community service for a benefit of the whole community since its foundation. Whereas support of the city is extremely important in addressing the needs of the community and whereas thousands of residents of this community have supported and donated to the national association of weather carriers food drives in the past. Whereas Wista has collected more than 125,000 pounds of food last year. And whereas Worster has collected more than 125,000 pounds of food last year. And whereas over its 30-year history, the drive has collected more than 1.94 billion pounds of food. And whereas the need for this food drive is greater than in the past. And the 32nd annual letter carriers food drive is this Saturday, May 9th. So everybody should have got their package in the mail. I hope with the uh with the bag today. Okay. And whereas the need now therefore I may Joseph M. Petty do hereby proclaim May 9, 2026 as National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive Day in the city of Worcester and encourage all residents to recognize and participate in observance. Mr. the Supro

and I want to get a picture with the group or and uh Norm could not be here today but he's he's been there he's been doing this for like over 20 almost 30 years. Yeah. Yeah. [applause] All right, folks. Squeeze in a little bit.

All right. One, two, three. Thank you very much. Okay, Mr. Shepro.

Yeah, I just like to thank the city of Worcester, city council for having me here tonight. Like to thank all the citizens because what we do, we couldn't do it without the citizens giving. Uh those numbers may be a little inflated, but for the most part uh this is what we do. May 9th, it's Mother's Day weekend every year. We've been doing it like we said 32nd year annual this across the country about the city of Worcester is unbelievable with how much they give and the need is greater than ever. I tell all my members, I tell all my constituents that when I bring food to all the food pantries, and we hit every food pantry in the city of Worcester, it's not just going out to the major food pantries like Shbury, Worcester County Food Bank. We set it up to design that we get food out to every food pantry in this city so everybody who is in need gets the food. But to see the looks on the people who run this when we drop off truckloads of food to them, uh, it makes it all worthwhile. It's a hard endeavor. We couldn't do it without the city. We couldn't do it without the citizens of this city. And I'd just like to thank you all. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And good luck. Public participation. The person may speak for no more than two minutes on any items appearing on the agenda. Mr. Clerk. Okay. What's that? Also approve the minutes. I'm sorry, we missed an item here. We'll go back to 4A. Motion is to approve the minutes. All those in favor? Oppose. So ordered. Yes. Next item is public participation. Mr. Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Rule 39, items of public interest. At every meeting of the city council under public participation portion of the agenda, the chair shall recognize any person seeking such recognition for the purpose of addressing the city council and any eligible item on the agenda for the meeting both in person and remotely. Any person who wishes to speak more than one agenda item shall combine their testimony on all items to one appearance at the microphone. Time for speaking shall not exceed two minutes for one speaker or 30 minutes for all speakers. move 40 petitions. On the first occasion, any petition appears before the city council agenda the primary petition may address the city council for no more than three minutes on the subject of their petition.

Okay. Um she names your residence and item number.

Uh Fred Nathan Worcester 9-39 uh A. So, as everyone here knows that reads the paper or checks out uh Facebook or anything or Mass Live or any of them, uh Worcester and the city manager is asking for a budget of $1 billion. And I just want to make people aware of something. Obviously, you're going to put money where it's needed, but I wonder how many people truly realize that there is an item that uh goes on here in this city and it's called automobile excise tax. I don't know how much they raised last year or the year before, but in 2023, $18 million was pulled in. And that money does not go to Boston. that money stays here in Worcester. Just curious how much of that $18 million, which presumably we probably get somewhere's in the neighborhood of 18 to 20 million every year. Like I said, I don't know how much they got last year or the year before, but in 2023, $18 million. I honestly do not think. I would like to think they have, but I in all seriousness, we don't spend $18 million on the roads in Worcester. If we did, there wouldn't be so many potholes. And just remember, Worcester is unlike any other city or town maybe in the country. I wonder how many other cities or towns have seven hills. Let that sink in. Seven hills times all those potholes everywhere.

Thank you. Anybody else? This your name, your residence, and item number. Wilson Lamb, Western, Massachusetts.

What? Okay. What item number are you speaking on? Oh, sorry. 7N to 7.

Okay. Go ahead. 7Z. Okay. I see a lot of requests for speed humps. But what about the potholes? In 2020, there were 1,700 reported potholes. And in 2025, there were 4,000 reported potholes. And mind you, um 4,000 reported potholes, uh that doesn't mean one. It could mean two, three, or four. So, if we double that, that's at least 8,000 potholes in the city of Worcester. What's being done? I had to change I have had to change my tire two times and I've had damage to my motorcycle. It's a safety hazard.

Thank you. I'm not done. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. Potholes, please. Please fix the potholes. Hey guys, it's Isa with Wilson. I'm done. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is your name, city of uh residence and item number.

Good evening. Alex Corales uh Worcester. So, good evening, Mr. Mayor, counselors, and Mr. Manager. I'm here in support of item 7C, the renaming of the GBV Playground Park to the Roberto Clemente Park. Great Brook Valley Gardens and Curtis Apartments are home to a strong Latino community, many of whom who are Puerto Rican. Roberto Clemente is a symbol of pride, resilience, and excellence in that community. This renaming is about recognizing the people who live there today in a meaningful and visible way. For years, residents and visitors have already been calling it Clemente Park. They feel a connection to that name. Tonight is an opportunity to make that official and align the park with the identity of the community it serves. Clemente represents more than baseball. He was not only the first Puerto Rican Hall of Famer, but a humanitarian who lost his life delivering aid to others. That kind of character, that kind of selflessness is exactly the example we want to lift up for young people in Worcester. It's also worth noting that the current name does not reflect reality. The park is not in Great Brook Valley. It's behind Curtis Apartments and there is no playground at the site. What exists is a well-used field and a gathering space. When people see the name Roberto Clemente Park, it sends a message about who we value and what is possible. It tells them that someone who shares their heritage, who faces challenges, and who achieved greatness through hard work and integrity is worth honoring. This is a small change that carries real meaning. It honors the community, reflects the present, and sets a positive example for the future. I respectfully ask for your support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Can I do petition? Yeah. Hang on. Any Who has petitions? Anybody? That's all we have left. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. What's your petition? What number? Um, my petition is 8A. Uh, my name Hang on a second.

My name's Cali Hess. Thanks, guys. I know everyone wants to go home. So, uh, good evening. I'm here about just the intersections on Thornike Road, Beverly Road, Monterey, and Bay State. And they're not safe. And this is nothing new. Um, it's a school area. Kids, family every single day. Yet drivers are still ignoring those stop signs. Even that stop sign, I'm hanging six feet above my head, waving around. It's one way, no matter which direction. I came in this color because I am literally in this color every day and I'm still being ignored. Um, I know it and you guys know it and I'm sure some of you live in that area have probably seen some of you drive by me in the morning. Um, even with all the doing I can to make it more aware of my presence, like I wore a bright traffic cone for Halloween with my vest on. I wore a six- foot tall inflatable unicorn to get attention and all through the holiday I wore the reflective green Grinch. Still being ignored blowing right by me. Um I just want to um make it aware it's just because there's no clear signage at all when you come down Beverly. You don't know you're turning left on Thorn Dike. You don't know it's a oneway until it's too late until you're already halfway up the road and then I can't jump back. I'm out there every single day like a postal worker. Rains, snow, sleet. Um, [snorts] let's just see what I also wrote. It just gets confusing for the kids, too, because we don't we don't offer those classes really much anymore. How to walk on those streets, how to cross the street. They expect all these crossing guards to be there. What if we're not there? What if we don't have the funding for us to be there anymore? I'm asking for another crosswalk just to get the kids across the road safely. That's all that I need. Um, I can complain about speed bumps like everybody else, but I don't think that's going to slow anybody down. Um, so all I was asking for was on my petition, I just had some clear things. The stop sign at the end of Thorn Dyke and Beverly because that's all a one-way road down the end and you don't know. So then you got people

coming from Beverly, you got people coming from Monterey. I had someone come from DTM to even look, oh my gosh, this is a mess. We got to do something. Nothing gets done. Um, I know if something can't get done because it's not in the budget, we can still reinforce having someone there. They're not going to learn consequences. I can sit there and say, "Stop. Slow down." They're not going to listen. They'll blow right by me. They're not getting tickets. They're not getting cited. I've had a cop come once and be like, "Oh, yeah. All the schools are like that." Well, instead of telling me what we can't do, why don't you tell me what we can? Um, sorry. So, I just I'm here standing here because something hasn't happened already. I just have this big fear that something is going to happen and I don't want it to. um every day there everything becomes predictable and if it's predictable then it's preventable um so all I'm asking is it for wear um because no parent no child none of us should have to hear the news of another child getting hit they've already been hit on wikis it's then been hit on burn coat it's going to start rolling downhill and I'm just trying to prevent it that's all thank you

thank you see more person okay your name residence and item 939 Gail Goodell talking about the budget. If you The budget. Okay. Pardon me. Would you say the budget? The budget. Okay. Go ahead. The 18 million that you have in funds. How about spending at least a half a million? Start there. These roads need to be fixed. Any comments? No, this is your time. Go ahead. Okay. So, closing comments. Yeah. Go ahead.

Exactly. What do you do about domestic violence? That's not on the agenda tonight. I know, but I have three minutes to talk on that on the item that's on the agenda. You can Yes. I just talked about the budget. You can you can keep on talking about the budget if you want. The um the roads, sir. You know what I'm talking about. It's not your first rodeo. What is being done about domestic violence? I'm a victim of 18 years here.

Okay. I failed to see any change. I had to go to the FBI for this last go around for five people. They're on it. The city should be on it. Police officers take a badge and an oath that says to serve, protect, and do no harm. When people are dying every day, when they don't respond, are they serving, protecting, or doing no harm? I don't think so. So, what can be done, if anything at all? It's a huge problem. You do realize that you have a very violent city. I know you like to sweep it over like it's nice. Very violent. People pop in from New York to here every weekend. Bring drugs into your city.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Your time is up. Thank you. You have a good day. I hope you'll do something about it because the FBI are Okay, we have a couple people on the line. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The first speaker is uh David Webb. Let me try the resident now. [clears throat]

Yes. Hello. Uh David Webb, Olympia. If it's predictable, it's preventable. I really like that. Uh that third proclamation was interesting. Uh are we sure that this body or city stands against nuclear weapons? It's very well known that most of the counselors supported child rapist and chief who's trying to support a nuclear war to extract from the Epstein files. Anyways, back to local matters, which you guys claim to care about. 9.26A, 26A, the billion dollar budget being proposed. While entire mental health programs are closed, special ed schools are shuttered, the city continues to hunt its unhoused population. A billion dollar budget after one of the most poorly handled winters in a decade, a new series of lawsuits against the police department, and uh very little has been done about the equity audit or DOJ report. Uh unfortunately, assuming your city continues as it has, this budget will be used to ensure uh that races stay in power and accountability remains impossible, especially when the second most notable increase uh percentage-wise is to cops. Uh this budget will not result in any improvement to accessibility, transparency, or any of the various departments finally beginning to uphold their responsibilities. This budget won't make our city administration honest. It won't make your street safe because it doesn't do anything about the priorities that have kept them unsafe. If you want smart spending, you need to have qualified people making smart decisions and Worcester doesn't have any of those because the Worcester way is simply appointing the person trained by the last guy to keep doing things the same way. Uh that's while that's why while the names and faces keep changing, none of the problems in the city ever get resolved. For your city to improve, it needs to start doing national searches and hiring people starting based on their resume, not their relationship to Tim Murray and Joe Petty. So for your city to improve, it would need a law department and city manager's office that ensures all the other departments are following the law instead of covering up for them when they don't again and again and again and again. The way the city is operating is inefficient and harmful and a larger budget will make uh it more of what it is not any better. Um lastly, uh welcome back Nico. Uh last time the uh time was shown while people spoke. That was great. It was an

accessibility thing. If you could have AJ Okay, thank you. Next speaker. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, the next speaker is Natalie Gibson.

Hi, good afternoon. Uh, happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. Uh, I'm speaking on a couple of items. One of them, and I might have the numbers wrong, so I apologize. One of them is the 9.7D, uh, regarding the trench work and potholes. I'm glad that there is a very thorough and laid out plan on what needs to be done. Now there needs to be count accountability. Uh it's too often that we're driving through this city and we are literally going through sunken trenches and I understand that it takes time to um fix all these matters, but people's cars are are being ruined by um these trenches and potholes. um especially when they're in areas where you're going about 354 miles an hour and they just sneak up on you. Um that's great that we're going to go from two years to five years. So again, I hope we hold these um utility people accountable. Going on to the budget, um you can pick what number you want it to be, 926 or 939. Um I'd like to know where the $1.8 million is going from the cannabis excise tax. I haven't heard yet. um in all my meetings where any of that money has gone to the community uh for fines and and uh forfeits of $3 million, I you probably can get more money than that for um all the tickets and parking fees and boots and court fees and blah blah blah. uh when it comes to the other departmental revenues for almost $400,000 um that I I I'm just wondering like where is some of this money going that you're getting from uh the community? The snow removal um it's going from 5 million to 5.5 million. Judging by the winter that we had last year, we will probably continue to have more winters like that. and the money that we had

last year was barely scratching the surface and you should know because you've got numerous numerous complaints from your citizens.

Thank you. Okay, so we are back to the agenda. First item is 6 A to 6 C. Motion is to open a hearing regarding a condom location on Penn a cond location in Lakeside A and a cond location Lakeside a second one on Lakeside A I'm sorry on Thornike Road too. Okay. Anybody oppose any of these items? See nobody opposed. The motion is to close the hearing. Those in favor post so ordered. The motion was to adopt. All those in favor oppose so audited. We have petitions 7 A and 7B. We're going to refer to the planning board. All those in favor post. So ordered 7 Council Pole who wants to recuse himself. And this is council request Great Brook Valley Playground be renamed Roberto Kmente Field during the ribbon cutting ceremony. Council Okono.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Um there's not much more for me to add at this either either. I think uh Mr. Corales did a great job explaining it. Everybody knows it as Roberto Clemente Field. There's no in my entire life, nobody's referred to it as uh Great Brook Valley Park. So, I want to amend my item. I believe I have some errors in it. So,

I want the park to be named Roberto Clemente Park, please. Um, and when it gets referred to committee, uh, I'd be more than happy to be there to advocate for that change as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, councel. Council King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I um stand in support of this. Um I just wanted to to say that once this moves forward, um you've heard testimony today from Worester Housing Authority um about the community impact that this location has had. Um I have always called it Clemente or Clemente Field. Um there's a deep deep history here um that goes beyond baseball and softball. Um but it extends and it brings folks from all over together and the legacy um of Roberto Clemente runs deep. Mr. Chairman, um what I would like to do by way of a motion, Mr. Chairman, is to request the city manager to reach out uh to Roberto Clemente's group that comes to uh the ballpark. um and it's represented by his son and you know I think it's a great opportunity um to wrap them into this ceremony um once this gets approved um you know and I I also hope um that we figure out a way to um include [clears throat] our middle schools in this and the reason I bring that up is middle school sports um I was out at a field today that I've been in communication with the city manager about um where they're starting to play baseball for the first year um for our students um and on the high school level, it's been significantly um challenging um for our high schools to to feel teams in some instances. Um so this is a great opportunity um to include community and to include youth um and of course the the Puerto Rican community and the Latino community um and and all the communities here in the city. So, um I I stand in support of this. Um along with that request,

thank you, Council Rivera. Uh Councelor King kind of just stole my thunder, but I think it's a great idea. Um I'm looking forward for this to come to committee that I happen to be a part of. So, we know it's going to be approved. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor O'Hara.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And um I really want to thank uh Councelor Connor for this. Um, not many people know, but um, my father was the founder, one of the founders of the Roberto Comment Softball League. So, going down there every Sunday really mattered to, you know, what people just mentioned about the culture and and just being there. And I just, I was talking the other day about getting up Sunday mornings, you had to be ready, get on the back of the truck and we drive down to the valley with six, seven of us in the back of the truck going to the valley. And um it was great to see what he was able to create with, you know, the Puerto Rican community and the Latino community to come together for hours from pretty much April to October every Sunday with, you know, uh people selling their foods, um kids playing off to the side, getting to meet people, people that I've known till this day because of the league and what Roberto Clemente meant to, you know, the Puerto Ricans that moved here to the city. and it was just an extension of what he's done and what he's meant to to so many Puerto Ricans uh growing up here at that time and to to to have his name um it's a it's a it's a huge honor. I know uh my father would be excited about it. I know he'll be there the day it will u it'll be mentioned. So it' be great to have the Roberto Clemente family there. But it is special to me there as well too because I I played there. I grew up watching, you know, all the all the older guys and and they're still around. So we got a M Mr. the uh city manager. We got to reach out to those guys and make sure they're there as well because um the league meant a lot. It meant a lot to a lot of families and people coming not just from Wester, they came from all over as far as Springfield and Connecticut and they would come and play. So this is special and I and I really look forward to it and if there's a way where we can, you know, invite more people to this. I think it'll be a great honor for our city to show that, you know, we can still we continue the the culture and the heritage of of the Puerto Rican community. So thank you.

Okay. So send that as amended to the parks and recreation commission and also the orders to the city manager. All those in favor oppose so ordered. 7D to 7 I refer to public works. All those in favor of post so ordered. 7 J to 7Z refer to traffic and parking committee. All those in favor post. So ordered. 8A by Kylie Hess. We're going to refer that to traffic and parking. And Kyle, you'll get you'll get a letter in the mail when that hearing is being scheduled. Okay, you're welcome. Those in favor, oppose, so ordered. That's the traffic and parking committee. 8B and 8 C refer to Veterans Memorial Parks and Recreation Committee. All those in favor, oppose, so ordered. Council Rosen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to take a moment to introduce two guests we have tonight. They're both senior students at Bankro School and here at city hall with me as their supervisor and hopey hopefully many of you helping out. They'll be uh doing their senior year co-op here at city hall learning about Worcester, its government, its politics and all the things that we talk about and the things we do. We have uh Emma Jaoai and we have Rob Lariano. Again, both seniors will be graduating, I believe, June 5th. And uh I was just very glad to see two students in the city of Worcester who wanted to learn about their government and what goes on with the city council and uh their interest is strong and I'm sure they're going to get a good uh experience here at city hall. Any of you who want to help out and work with us, please feel free to let me know and we can certainly arrange that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Okay, we have appointments uh nine. Congratulations. Welcome. And appointments 9.1 transmitting information communication of the appointment of Joseph Kahar to the board of health. Uh motions are put just want to thank Joseph for his service. Motions to file. All those in favor oppose. So a ordered. If anybody's here, just raise your hand on these. So okay. Is he here? Oh, he's back there. I didn't see you. Okay. Thank you for your service, Joseph. I appreciate it. Yeah. Okay. Treasure information communication over to the appointment of Susan Leoo to the elections commission. Roll call. Councelor Bergman.

Yes. Councelor Bada. Yes. Councilor Economo. Yes. Councelor Fzolo. Yes. Councelor King. Yes. Councilor Mitra. Yes. Councelor Hayda. Yes. Councelor Rivera. Yes. Councelor Rosen. Yes. Council Tumi. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. We have transmitting information communication the recognition of national public works week May 17th to the 23rd. So we'll put that on file. Thank you. All those in favor opposed so ordered. Transmitting information communication of the invitation to the sixth annual Paul J. Moosey employee award ceremony. So that's on during that was it May 17th? I forget. It's that week. Yeah. The week before. Okay. So, uh that will be held outside I think. No DPW. Yep. Okay. We used to.

Yeah. Place on file. All those in favor opposed. So audited transmitting information communication relative to payment restoration standards. Motion is put to public works. All those in favor opposed. So I'm sorry.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh I just wanted to say thank you for this communication to DPW in the administration. Um I had a few you know questions regarding the you know levels of staffing. It was interesting to learn just how many um utility patches are handled throughout the year. Um again just wanted to comment and say I think this really speaks to the need to increase you know staffing down the line for this program. Um I'm just appreciative of of the work that's being done. Um one question I had through the chair. Um is there any ability to switch like I know there's according to the report one full-time large patch uh large pavement restorations and patching someone that there's one uh coordinator that works on that. um the in the three inspectors that go around, it was mentioned that they go around kind of in batches to different um areas. What are some of the main I guess issues that we're having with patches and what are so are what utility companies I guess are not really doing their best due diligence on that? Is there any comments on that? uh through the chair, you will see an upcoming item uh that speaks to our recommendation to extend the warranty period from two years to five years. And that will cover thousands of patches across the city. And we believe that that will help uh take the burden off of the city and the DPW and place it back on the utilities and ensure that they do a better job during the restorations so that they will last longer.

Thank you. What's that? Council. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Council Con.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, thank you, Commissioner. Just a quick question. There's an observation. Uh, last week I was down on Pullman Street and there was a crew there. I'm going to say that they were heating up the current asphalt that was there. It was a patch. I don't know who the whose patch it was, but they were heating up the asphalt that was there. They regraded it and then they rolled it out and I got to tell you, it's better than the original street. Um, is that a utility patch that was corrected? Is that a city patch that was corrected? And how do we get access to that type of patch correction? Uh, whether it's through the utilities or even the the patches that we make ourselves. Commission for the chair. That's an infrared patching.

Infrared patching.

So what they do, as you aptly described, they they superheat the pavement so that it melts. Uh they can then add any liquid batumin if it's necessary, but then they can rake it out and uh compact it. So as you said, it comes out better than the original road. Sometimes it's an extremely expensive process that we would only use uh in unique circumstances. Uh it's labor intensive. It it uh takes a long time. It's a bid that we'd have to put out and it's very expensive per patch. Uh so that's not something that we do for normal pole potholes. Um and I'm not sure if that was a utility trench. Uh it must have been because the city doesn't have that equipment. So I've seen that um thank you for your answer. I've seen that done on Shrewsbury Street, Salsbury Street, and now on Pullman Street. And like I said, um that is the type of repair patch that I would prefer to see from any of the utility companies because it's it's you would never know there was a patch when they were done.

Um it's it seems to be better compacted. Um and it just sits flat, too. There's no interruption. You would never know you drove over a patch. Um, so if there's something I don't know how we influence that with utilities, but that would be certainly be something I'd be interested in uh being on top of. Thank you, Commissioner.

Through the chair, uh, we do have that ability. I mean, we do have DPW permit requirements that we could look at implementing that uh either on all utility trenches um or perhaps we just do it on the primary roads, but certainly something we can look at. Yeah, I would think I would think for sure on the primary roads it should be something that should be considered. Um because like I said it was it was a perfect patch. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you councelor O'Hara.

Thank you Mr. Ch. So uh we've been through several walks I want to say uh Commissioner Wesling and um just reading this on the inspection process for uh restorations. I know um we've had conversations regarding um say National Grid or whatever company's doing the work and they cut into the sidewalk um into the concrete and they don't fill it back in with concrete. They fill it back in with the the black top stuff. Um under the inspections, what is supposed to be that process based on what I'm reading here? First of all, are they allowed to come back through the chair to the commissioner? Are they supposed to come back or are they supposed to just fix it and just put concrete to begin with versus coming back

through the chair? They are allowed to come back and they are required to come back if they don't meet the standards of restoration. Um, and through the chair to the counselor, are we talking about those uh two trenches from Eversource Gas on Main Street? Correct. Yeah. Um, please tell me that those have been completed. I'm not sure, but I'll I'm driving tonight. I'll let you know. We will double check.

Uh, but it it is it is seen throughout um throughout the city. Um, I think there was some work done just recently and I was driving by and I'm like, there we go again. The whole sidewalk is all concrete, but right down the middle is all black top. And um that's that's really concerning because I think what ends up happening and I could be wrong. What ends up happening is they don't come back if they don't fill it. The city is now four, five, six years in. It's time to do the sidewalks. Now the sidewalks get done over as concrete. So they never come back to fix it over the years. Um Perry, you've seen it on Perry a you've had that issue over there. And then the the the type of work that's just being done, it's more of a quick patch, fill it in. It's not smooth. So, it's dangerous for anyone that has a a walking issue or and um for little kids as well. So, I I I feel as though when it comes down to those inspections, I think we really need to to to be um a little a little harder, maybe hit harder back on understanding that this is not acceptable. Um from what I'm seeing, I see it throughout the district. So, I'm pretty sure if it's in the district, it's throughout the city. So, I'm really concerned about that. And my question through to through the chair to you again, commissioner, when you said time frame, what what's what's considered the time frame

through the chair? Um, from the inspection report, they have 90 days for complete restoration unless it's a winter project. Uh, but they have typically 90 days and restoration standards are to bring it back to what was pre-existing or better. Okay. So then have we seen times where it hasn't? because I guess from what it said is that if they don't, they're not allowed to um they're not their license is not renewed. Is that something that's common throughout the city? Have we have we have we experienced that

through the chair? I wouldn't say that it's common necessarily, but for example, we had a license drain layer last year that we did not reissue their license because they had five restorations that they didn't get to in spite of our repeated requests. and uh we actually did not issue their license back and we also pulled their bond to make sure that those restorations were done. Uh as you see there were over 4,500 inspections done by one person um for those final restorations. So that's something that we're looking at is to make sure that we put the uh proper resources for all of those inspections where they're needed. Okay. Thank you. um through the chair to the commissioner. Did those bonds cover the amount of work that had to be done

through the chair? Yes, they did. You know that. Okay. All right. Yeah. That's another thing too. I just want to make sure that you know when they don't come back and we have to take care of it that we're not as a city again paying user into these jobs through the chair. No, sir. We uh we go after every resource that we can specifically the bond um so that uh it does not become a city obligation.

Okay. So, um I encourage my colleagues, you know, throughout the district to please, uh take a look at those sidewalks that are being, you know, cut up and making sure that they are coming back with concrete. Um because it is unfair to our residents where us as a city, you know, they're paying taxes. You know, we're on the city manager about these sidewalks and the sidewalks are getting done and these companies are coming in cutting up the sidewalks and not bringing them back to what they look like. And then again, we take we take the hit as a city saying that we're not being responsible. So, I want to make sure that, you know, we we're keeping an eye on that and making sure that the the word is out or whatever it may be that, you know, this is not acceptable and it's unfortunate that, you know, we continue to see this. So, thank you

through the chair. It is not acceptable and we don't accept those substandard restorations. Um, we have a a I'd say a good relationship with the utility companies. Um, and it's up to us to ensure that we follow through with them to make sure that they are doing what's expected and required. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Rivera.

To the chair, to Commissioner Weslin. Mine's more of a clarification because I think you covered this last time and and I just understood it one way, but based on the what I'm hearing from the residents, I I was a little confused. So, I said, I'll ask the commissioner and here you are. Um I was understanding that the 311 potholes were not going to be taken care of until after uh street sweeping or are we still doing uh taking care of some of the potholes from the old 311 tickets that were

uh through the chair? I think that we're down to 20% of the total number of work orders that were put through. So, we're making very good progress in spite of the fact that the majority of our crews are doing street sweeping and trash collection. What we've been doing is uh looking at innovative ways to take our resources off for example the night crew, put them on the patching crew uh to a suggestion that was made uh I think last week or perhaps the last meeting when we were talking about potholes. Uh there are occasions where we have taken uh street sweeping crews when we're when we're ahead of schedule in those areas. Taken those street sweeping crews and put them on to the uh to the pothole repairs.

All right. So you guys are still doing both pretty much. No through the chair. Yes, we are. and we're we're focusing on the the primary roads and we're following plow routes to ensure that putting all of our resources on those routes and making sure that those primary roads potholes are filled. All right. Thank you. There was one um resident um who said that they filled up two holes but still had left one. I said, "Well, they're definitely coming back. They probably ran out or something." Um I remember that was an issue before with, you know, stuff like that. So, just wanted to appreciate you guys doing both and uh but you know making sure that they're going to do two cover the third one as well.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Council Bergman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the commissioner, as I read this report, I I just want to make sure I am uh on the right track on on um the restoration. So this also through the chair refers to street restoration when when uh trench trenches are done. Is that correct? Through the chair. That is correct. And and is there a policy on the type of material that's supposed to be used when uh trenches are filled on a street? And through the chair commissioner

through the chair. Yes. There are uh two documents that cover that. The department of public works permit manual and the DPW permit requirements. those lay out everything from uh backfill to temporary patches to final restoration. So they're very detailed requirements.

I appreciate that. So through the chair of the commissioner and this may have pre I'm assuming this predated you by a lot of years, Mr. measure maybe even decades but I'm going to refer to it as as the final restoration when the street in my opinion just my opinion others may disagree the treat street before the work done by the utility company had a uniform look whether it was asphalt or more likely cement after utility work is done and after the restoration is finalized I I would uh describe this as the skunk look there's a black stripe right down the middle and everything house totally different color. And I just think that's a very unattractive way to restore things. And again, I'm not faulting you or your department anyway. But why isn't the utility company required to use the same material to blend in? I know it may just be aesthetics. Maybe what they're putting on there is every bit as good or even better, but it just doesn't look good. And the way I look at it is somebody living on that street shouldn't be impacted by the look because utility company needed to do work there. that that look should be the same when they're done as it was before they started and it isn't in a lot of cases. So I guess through the chair, my question commissioner is are they required to restore it so that it has a uniform look or am I correct that they can follow up and restore it uh in a way that it has what I call that skunk patch down the middle

through the chair. You're absolutely correct. Before 2024, I'll use your vernacular, the the skunk patch was the the way that roads were patched. After 2024, the DPW changed the requirements to to require that if you're going down a lane of the road that you are now required from the center line to the gutter to restore that road, but the other side, if I may, through the chair may still have a different look to it. Is that correct? When they're done through the chair, that is correct. The utilities are not required to resurface the entire road, but from the curb to the center line of the lane that they were working in.

So, uh, if I may through the chair, who decides on what the utility company does or doesn't have to do as far as the uniform look? Now, it sounds like DPW has some say since it was changed in 2024. Is that correct, Commissioner? For the chair, that is correct. It's it's again only the lane that is uh that has been disturbed by the utility work.

Okay. Without I could take this up in another day and I agree with you. The lane that was disturbed has been corrected and after 2024 it was corrected in a better way. But when you still have one half the street a different look than the other half of the street. I would say that in the future I'd like to see it completely uniform. I'm sure the utility companies won't agree. But I would also argue that they're the ones that have disturbed the surface for their own financial benefit. They should be the ones putting it back whether it cost them a little bit more or not. But again, that's a conversation for another day. So, thank you, Mr. Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Council Rosen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I threw the chair to the commissioner. I think there is a little confusion out there about the pothole reporting. Now, we've talked about 311 and I think we I've heard from people they don't know any longer who to call, where to call. Can you just clarify? There are still plenty of potholes around. We're making progress. We all know that and we're thankful for that. It is May now and hopefully in future years, you know, we can fill fill more of them sooner. But uh what is the process if people in a neighborhood or anywhere on especially on our main drags, who should they call? Where should they should they call city councilors? I get calls. I mean, is that an efficient way to get a pothole filled? Calling Gary Rosen. I don't I don't think I would do it that way, but some do it. So, I've got to clarify tonight through the chair to the commissioner. What should they do? Who should they call? Commissioner

through the chair. Uh the best bet for residents to report a pothole is to call 311 because that creates then a work order and we're able to track the work orders to see what workload we have ahead of us, what work orders we have closed out. So it's better accountability. Uh and to your your point of we hope that in in the future that we'll have better success with potholes, I assure you we will because this year we're we are investing in our roadway network the uh the the recommended level of investments uh per the pavement management plan. Also, this winter we hope to have uh the batch plant that I've mentioned here before so that when we're patching potholes in the winter, they're not going to reappear at the first thaw in the spring. They will m be maintained in a good condition beyond just the spring.

Any idea through the chair how many potholes once we fill them as we're doing now, we've done this spring, might reappear next year. Is that a common thing that a pothole that's been filled and we're all happy with that it's kind of vulnerable to the elements and next winter that's a one that's probably going to open up again. Is that is that common through the chair?

Through the chair. Um that's possible certainly. Um, but it's more likely that a pothole will open up next to the repair because the pothole is formed on a roadway that has a PCI pavement condition index. The the road has deteriorated. There may be alligator cracking. So, a pothole today will be patched and will likely m be maintained in good condition. However, uh what's more likely if the if the road has a a poor PCI that there'll be a pothole that opens up next to it. There are plenty of streets in the city where you look uh Sagamo Road is one that we've discussed multiple times where it's patch next to patch next to patch next to patch. And that's that's a roadway that has gone far too long without a full depth restoration. Uh but again, it's it's more likely that a pothole will appear next to previous potholes

through the chin. Now, some of these potholes, I assume, get dozens and dozens of calls, and it seems like sometimes it takes us weeks to get to them because we have a long list. So, does that mean anything to the DPW? Uh, that pothole might have 30 calls or more. I mean, if they're on Park A, and we've seen them there, and there was one at Park in Salsbury for a long time. I don't know if you're familiar with that one. It it kind of made the Reddit group and they were always talking about it and I know they kind of gave life to that kind of like what personification in literature or something gave life to that that pothole but uh are there emergency potholes because I've seen some on I mean my own street okay if we have a pothole okay yeah we want it filled but this is I don't live on Parkav Chandler Street Hamilton Street Grafton Street Pleasant Street these to me would be I mean some of them are very deep. So if it's on one of those main drags and it's that deep, to me it would be categorized as an emergency puddle, do we have such a category? Because I think they should be filled first. And I know everyone wants their own street filled first. But when you got, you know, 30,000 cars or 40,000 cars on park every day and you got, you know, 35 cars on my street, do park out first. So through the chair, is there an emergency pothole designation? Uh the chair, as best we can tell if there is an emergency pothole or it's uh reported as a deep pothole or a wide pothole, uh we certainly prioritize those. And uh as I mentioned, we are prioritizing the primary roads first. So we're following our plow routes and the primary roads. Those are the ones that we're doing first because as you mentioned they are seeing more vehicles every day and there's the potential for more impact on a primary road.

Okay. And now I'm going to ask a question that's not about potholes or paving, but since the commissioner is there the last meeting we had a few weeks ago, I guess uh one of the counselors and that was fine. One of the counselors brought in a long list of uh crosswalks that had to be restriped and that was great. But I said to myself, is this how we're going to do crosswalks in Worcester that the 11 of us should come in with lists? I mean, there's got to be a process, I hope, where the crosswalks that are used in this city, maybe more used than some of the others, and they need restriping will get done without depending on one of the councils to to petition that. I mean, I don't have anything against, you know, councils doing that. They're only doing it because evidently the crosswalks aren't getting painted. So, are we keeping up with crosswalks? I know we have potholes and I know we have streets and sidewalks and, you know, I know we have streets sweeping and so on. I know we have a lot to do and I think the budget's going to reflect that we can spend a little more money on DPW next year and get some of these things done. Uh, so crosswalks, where are we? Especially when school opens around the corner in August, not that far off. Mhm.

Uh through the chair, crosswalk striping and roadway striping and stopline striping and school striping. That's all done through the Department of Transportation and Mobility. So, okay. So, not your department. No, sir. Okay. And just going back to on the agenda, we passed over quickly 9.7A, National Public Works Week. What are we doing? We didn't say. So, can you give us a quick rundown? What are we doing here in the city of Worester to celebrate that important week?

Uh through the chair. Uh we're doing a couple of things. Certainly, we recognize our crews for that week and I appreciate uh the proclamation that was put forward. Uh these folks, they work tirelessly in the worst of conditions. These men and women are providing uh essential services to the city. So, our assistant commissioners, they all recognize their teams in uh different ways, but uh the the recognition uh the proclamation is certainly appreciated. That goes a long way. And also Friday, May 15th, when we will be issuing the Paul J. Moosey employee of the year award. That's a big deal for us. Uh it's recognition of former commissioner Musi and it's also recognition of uh one of our employees who was nominated by a peer and selected by the assistant commissioners and the commissioner. So that is uh that's a big deal for us.

Okay. And that's great. That's all good news. I was just thinking of many years ago we used to do a lot down at the DPW yard and the public came down and the kids came down. I don't know. they saw a snow plow and you know they learned a lot down there with different displays. So we're not doing that this year I guess but uh that might be something that DPW wants to bring back in the future because you know the public learned a heck of a lot and it's always good to start teaching the kids about you know DPW work and challenges that we face here in the city. So in the future if we could think it's a good idea for the chair I agree. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you C uh Council Mitra.

Thank you Mr. chair through you to the commissioner. Thank you for your report. Mr. Commissioner, um as you can see that most of the councilors are anxious to see uh about the pothole issue and the status of pothole and I'm no exception in that le in that uh list. Um I'm happy to hear that you said about 20% of the potholes have been taken care of. Is that something I heard you said through the chair? Just a correction, we're down to about 20%. Not that we've completed 20%, we've completed 80%. We're down to about 20%.

Oh, okay. So, pretty much almost done. So, do you could you then tell us based on your progress that when you think uh timeline that this is when all the potholes will be taken care of so we can let our constituents know, hey, it's only two more months and we're all going to be having no more potholes. And the second question I have is have you are you sure there are no more potholes left because in the past many of us have said that using some higher technological uh devices to gauge how many potholes really the city has. I don't know whether we have that in the plan to use that lighter technology or any kind of camera imagery systems that we had uh pro kind of proposed to use. Uh but what's the guarantee that all these potholes that you have given through the report of 311 or residents being calling you there are no more potholes left how do you guarantee that and I just wanted to know based on what you are saying the 80% are already done so when you think the remaining list of the 20% that is done remaining there when would that be kind of taken care of so just an idea I don't have to have a date but two months or about a month. So we feel good. We can let our you know residents when they call we can tell them that hey it's almost done but I must say that there must be still a lot more potholes out there that we don't know. Are we doing anything to detect that I have always said that let's be proactive not be reactive let's go out there and find out what is the inventory of pothole in this city. There are so many potholes are probably still out there that we are we are not aware of. Are we doing anything about that? uh through the chair. I cannot make any guarantees. Um but I think that after we complete our street sweeping, we'll be able to rededicate

that those crews. So that's 16 to 20 people that we'd be able to put back on the pothole. So I think that uh 2 months after we complete our street sweeping is a safe approximation. Again, we've got about 20% of the work orders, but we don't know. Each work order could be 10 potholes. Um, and I think that we are being proactive as a city in the investments that we're making in the pavement management plan. Uh, so that will go a long way to uh taking care of roads that are riddled with potholes. Um, and then back to the question of do we know how many potholes there are? Do we use that type of technology? So through the department of transportation and management uh I want to say a year perhaps two years ago uh they had an engineering firm come out and they drove every mile of roadway and they use that video technology. That's how they develop the PCI of every road.

Uh it doesn't necessarily equal potholes but that is a way of determining what the overall network of the city looks like. Uh certainly those road roads that come out with a PCI below 60 I would say we can estimate that those roads have more potholes than than a PCI of 70 or 80. Those are the much better conditioned roads. Thank you so much. I just want to make sure that we realize that every one of us are very anxious to see this is a city with no potholes and that's what we'd like to claim and ball is on your court. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you councelor Bala. Sorry. Uh, apologies. I don't have my notes in front of me. Um, so, so during this this conversation, we talked about the inspection roles and that there's seven individuals that are doing uh, the inspections in it says in the report that the majority of inspections are, excuse me, are inspected by batches rather than by completion date. And my question is I you know I think what's frustrates me and what frustrates so many residents is the length of time that patches are in bad shape that they stay in that condition. Um is this typically the the and it says also that the report says that this the inspections are typically done during downtime while they're working on other projects in the area. And my question is is this the most efficient way of doing it? Is this considered best practice? And is there any ways given the kind of short staff that we have that that is you know doing such that's taking on this massive amount of patchwork uh again is are there more efficient ways that this can be done?

Commissioner

through the chair every day we're looking at ways to be more efficient. Um, but I will point out that last calendar year 25, we had 5,210 permits that were issued. Uh, from April 1st of 2025 through May 31st of 2026, we had nearly uh 4,900 uh permits that were issued. And each one of those equates to a hole or a cut in the roadway. So those seven inspectors, they're inspecting the work as it's going on. And once the temporary patch goes in, then that restoration inspector of which there is one uh for uh over 4,000 over 4,000 excavations. Uh that's that's a tall task for that one. So uh we are every day looking at ways to be more efficient. Um but one of the things that I will call uh to your attention uh we have a recommendation coming up of increasing the guarantee period from two years to five years so that a utility company won't be as apt to think well I I just need to watch out for this for two two years and then I'm free and clear. Uh if we make it a fiveyear period then they'll be more apt to be more careful with their compaction with their methodologies used for full restoration.

Thank you. And again, I know there's a massive amount of amount of work orders and inspections and it is a tall task to ask this of such a small team, which I want to really go on record and say I think it would be important to staff this up and to increase the amount of inspectors that we have working out there on DBW on these issues to really turn things around quicker. So, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. So, we'll send that to public works. All those in favor opposed. Next item is recommend adoption of the ordinance to modify the requirements to replacing distributed portions of streets to extend the warranty period from 24 months to 60 months. So we can send that to committee or okay you want committee councel. [snorts] Uh Mr. Mr. Chairman, we we spoke about this already in committee uh if I'm not mistaken, Commissioner, uh a couple months back and I I don't know if we can move the item. We can do a motion to advertise. Yeah, let's get it going. Okay. Motion to advertise. Roll call. Councelor Bergman. Yes. Council Bada. Yes. Councor Cono, yes. Councelor Brazil,

yes. Councelor King, yes. Council Mitra, yes. Council OA, yes. Councelor Rivera, yes. Councor Rosen, yes. Tumi and Mayor Petty. Yes. Thank you. [clears throat] Next item is trans information communication about the water and so rates to send out to public works. All those in favor opposed. So ordered. Thank you. Thank you commissioner. We are 9.19A transformation information communication of the veteran services division efforts to recognize whisters residents who served in World War II but are not currently commemorated. Um council Bergman.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to thank um Alex Heryaga and also our city manager. This is something that myself and I'm sure other colleagues have been asking um to see a tangible document about. And just to recap very briefly, the reason why we are where we are on this issue is that in order to have you had your name on the World War II memorial monument on the common and I was fortunate enough with some of my colleagues here to be there as a council and it was dedicated. It's a beautiful monument. But in order to have had your name on there, you had to have either killed in battle, missing an action or lost at sea. And killed in battle at the time was defined uh within 90 days of death. we uh were able to extend that to what is at the Vietnam War Memorial, which is 120 days of uh of injury to death, which means that there are some people that were injured during World War II and other wars, um that passed away months after, more than four months after their injuries and they're not recognized. There are also people that die in accidental deaths while serving their country in active duty that but for the fact they were in active duty wouldn't have died. Um, so what this order seeks to do is to recognize particularly those in World War II, um, that have served that didn't fall neatly, and I hate to use that word, under the categories of being in active duty and being injured or killed within 120 days of their injury, lost at sea, or missing an action. And surprisingly to me, maybe not to others, there are 265 names of Worcester, original Worcester residents that would qualify were we to open this up to simply saying if you were in active duty and you and and death resulted during World War II during September 16th, 1940 through July 25th, 1947, we will recognize you. So the question really boils down to I think there's a will amongst all of us

to do that is how do we best recognize these individuals? Do we add to the existing World War II memorial? Do we create a separate one? Or do we do something uh between the two of them? And I certainly think there's a lot of great conversation that needs to happen amongst various um stakeholders and administrative offices. I look forward to those conversations. And most importantly, um as we still have World War II veterans living amongst us, they're getting less and less over time. I I would look forward to getting this done sooner than later so that those that are with us can see tangible proof that we continue to recognize all those who have served and died, not only those that fit under the previous categories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Send that to Pox. Those in favor opposed. We are on 9.268 268 transformation information communication rel to the fiscal year 27 budget and we also have you go through the finance items. It's on here twice. Okay. Okay. Let's let's finish off the calendar then we'll come back to that. It's at the end of the calendar. So we have 9.36A 9.37A. These are finance items. We adopt in the roll call. Roll call. Councelor Bergman.

Yes. Councelor Bada. Councelor Economo. Yes. Councelor Pasco. Yes. Councelor King. Yes. Councilor Mitra. Yes. Council Hayda. Yes. Councelor Rivera. Yes. Councelor Rosen. Yes. Councelor Tumi. Yes. And Mayor Petty. Yes. So we'll take uh 9.26A 26A along with 9.38A and 9.39A and 9.39B. So, um, we start with the presentation, Mr. Manager. What items, Mr. Chairman, again, what were the three items? I know 9.39A and B, but what else did you say?

Uh, 9.38A, which should which is really part of the 9.39B, I would think, but and 9.39A. So, anything to do with the budget, we'll put that in the committee or design these items. Mr. Manager, welcome to your $1 billion budget. [laughter] [snorts] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you uh through the chair, through the council. Um, you know, it gives me great pride and pleasure to present today the FY27 budget. Um there's a lot that went into take to develop in this budget. A lot of considerations, a lot of discussions with department heads, um a lot of discussions with the city council as well. Uh and hearing and listening from community and the needs from neighborhood meetings to meetings here to subcommittee meetings, boards and commission meetings, etc., etc. Um so this year what we've decided as the theme for our budget is funding the future uh through smart spending and stronger outcomes. The mission that we've created uh collectively as a city for the city of Worcester is uh to deliver exceptional public services and municipal operations that are rooted in equity, innovation, and integrity and centered on people. This budget here has given us a chance to kind of rethink a little bit of our funding, improve some of the allocations uh of resources, but at the same time achieving what we want to achieve, which is addressing community needs. Um, as you all know, this is a $1 billion budget. We've achieved that as a city. Um, this is a historical moment because we're achieving that that mark. Uh, a $1 billion budget for FY27. But to develop this budget was a little bit um uh challenging. It took some work

from the team to be able to look through um the areas that needed to be addressed. And one of the things that we did was that we focus on reallocating resources um to improve what we've talked about here in this council floor is core services, two encourage business growth, and then three enhance the management and maintenance of our infrastructure. and we spend significant amount of time discussing our infrastructure here in our city. This budget also presents a capital budget uh that identifies funding for public works, for public safety and also our school projects. One of the key highlights of this budget is also addressing our people and providing a cost of living increase uh of 2% to our staff. a strategic decision of this budget understanding and knowing the need to add certain strategic positions but we also didn't want to increase the complement of staffing FTEEs to the municipality because of the budget constraints so this budget presents no new net positions which means that we were able to effectively offset positions from different departments that either positions that were open underutilized or underresourced and we were then able to reallocate to other departments One of the biggest things and I'll and I'll talk about that a little later in the presentation is the city of Worcester has continued and we as part of our recommendation is maintaining the unused tax heavy capacity. We have the seventh highest unused tax heavy capacity in the state of Massachusetts which is at $25.8 million just shy of $26 million. So how do we what are we going to do and what are we going to do to address the needs of our community through this uh budget? There's three particular areas and I'll start with the first one. Infrastructure. We spent a number of hours time listening hearing from

neighborhoods um from the council as well inter in in into the importance of providing good road network, good infrastructure not only in our streets and sidewalks but also our parks as well. So this budget here presents an increased funding to parks cleanups, an increased funding for city-wide disposal, waste disposal, and cleanliness initiatives, something that uh we've been working towards for a number of years now. This budget also presents an extension of Milbury Dropoff Center. Um extending the hours and the days for that drop off center for our community. something that's been heavily discussed in this council floor, not only from this council, but also the previous councilors and probably even more before that. One of the things that we're continuing here is line painting and temporary permanent speed humps. We were just talking about line painting. It's uh continued funding there and this is a proactive approach that DTM uh addresses our line painting in the city. We're exceeding our capital funding for our pavement management program. Uh we're exceeding that of $19.4 million. We're exceeding that to address our infrastructure. We're increasing the DPW's capital equipment to address not only the fleet but also significant snow upgrades. And then we're going to be reconstructing a number of parks. Uh Lake View Park is important. Graveville Valley, we talked about that one here. Um Homesfield, multiple prays, and also much more. The second area that we're going to put some investment dollars um is going to be public safety. And so we we're going to talk a little bit about what what that means here. One, it's when we talk about public safety, there's a number of departments. There's four departments associated in public safety is the Worcester Police Department, the fire department,

emergency communications, and then department of inspectional services. One of the biggest things that uh that that plays a role in preparing for the budget is also managing the collective bargaining agreements. And so we have uh put some funding forward for police and fire collective bargaining agreements. We're actually going into uh agreements right I mean uh negotiations with all of our our our collective bargaining um uh unions happening in FY27. all of them and the FY26. This budget also provides an allowance for recruit classes for police and fire to add to the complement uh to maintain the compliment but add uh to the attrition that happens in those departments. One of the two strategic positions that we've added to this budget to support our small businesses and support the efficiency of delivery of services into the inspectional services is adding a wiring electrical inspector and a gas and plumbing inspector. Those are the two areas that we've seen a significant increase in the city um and permits and inspections. And so we need some support uh there. We have started the groundwork at the new southwester uh division fire station and so this upcoming budget will start to materialize uh the funding that will go to build uh and you can see the a little bit of the rendering there in your PowerPoint the rendering of uh of that fire station. Uh we are also going to be transitioning the monies from uh police department and the fire department relative to the maintenance of the buildings to the department of facilities. Department of facilities as part of this transition. Um they've been phasing multiple municipal buildings as part of their uh overall work. And so this year we're transitioning that work and and we're going to provide more

efficiencies in the way we do uh clean and also maintain our facilities. And then we're committing to invest in our police headquarters. We started that last fiscal year. The console body supported uh a loan authorization and borrowing to to fix the HVAC, electrical um and some additional needs. I believe plumbing as well in that building. Um this this year we're it's a continuation of that, but also we're adding an authorization uh for $5 million to address the roof of the fire of the police department. The third uh component here as part of the uh needs of reallocating our resources, it's operations and that's really the day-to-day of our municipal government. Um and that all starts with people. And so we're trying to address that with providing some uh cost of living adjustment at a 2%. We're continuing a compensation and pay study that we've started in a past couple of years to address uh some of the uh kind of uh inequities that we've seen in some department and some positions. Uh we're preparing the implementation of employee performance evaluations for senior management position in FY27, something that we've talked about in this council body. Uh we're adding additional security investments in the Wora Police uh Wor public library. Um we're finally going live with our HCM product, basically workday for the purposes of city payroll and human resources. For the history of the city, we've been doing this work manually. We're finally going into a digital environment for our employees, which is literally getting us into the 21st century and changing the way we do our business. This is a major this is a big deal for the employees in the way they they do their benefits, their payroll, they manage their time, etc. They now be able to do it in their

fingertips uh on their phones uh and on online uh something that we've never been able to do as a city. And then in addition and then lastly to enforce and support our renewed focus on small business support, we're adding a targeted position in economic development to support our small businesses um and provide additional support in special projects. This has been a a an important position that's been discussed in this council body, not only this council, but the previous council uh and in conversations with uh business community uh as well. So when we look at the budget we the budget is broken down in three components. There's three areas in which the budget um provides revenues or brings in revenues. It is important for everyone to know that a every municipality across the entire state of Massachusetts is required to provide and present a balanced budget which means your revenues and expenses they have to even out um every single year. This year our revenues are composed of every year the three uh there's three areas that our revenues are composed of. This year we have a 4.5% increase of those revenues. The biggest majority increase is a state aid governor's budget. So when we base this budget, we base it on the governor's uh recommendations. Then it goes to the house, then it goes to the senate, then it goes back to the governor, then it's finalized. Um we then come back later on sometime in November uh or so with a recap to make those adjustments. In the governor's budget there, uh the governor is proposing a 6% increase. Chapter 7 aid has a 6.3% increase of $26 million and then local aid is a $1.3 million which is only a 2.5% increase. The second component is property tax. That's one of the biggest components of where the city receives u uh taxes to do

the day-to-day operations of municipal government. Um that will see a 4.8 increase. And where do we see that increase? That increase uh is there's growth in in that we adjust in the municipal budget. We adjusted by prop two and a half uh and also a new growth included o overlay but this year we have level funded overlay at 3.7 you know we there was mentioned here earlier about motor vehicles excise tax that all is lumped in into local receipts and so local receipts we're seeing a 4% increase and the increase is really particular to net metering credits our solars uh licens and permits and then our fines There is a slight decrease that we've seen in local receipts and that is was either lease revenues that we've had across the city but also in uh interest income interest uh the income that we've received has actually come down uh as well. And so what does that look like on the expense side in balancing this budget the one uh when we look at the expense side we look at the education education has a $6212 million allocation which is $ 38.8 million increase. It's a 6% increase. Fixed cost, we see a $3.8 million increase, which is about 2.3%. The next component of increase is public safety. And I know there was mentioned about public safety and some of the uh impacts of that increase. The increase really is due to the fact that we have had over the past uh three years, we applied for safer grants for the fire departments. those safer grants. We're tailing off those safer grants. And so we've had to make now we're taking that on uh in the tax levy, the general tax levy where we have to fund those positions through the tax levy, not through the grants that that we we historically had. And so that is the biggest increase to public safety you see here. There's investments in infrastructure and then the rest of

which is uh municipal uh services as well. So when we think about stretching the dollar and what that impact is to the city, this this slide here shows what and the three ways in which the dollar is broken up for a municipal government especially here in the city of Worcester. So this slide here shows the three ways. One is education, the second is fixed costs and the third is city operations. And the city operations is everything else. 17 departments that are here every other week or so communicating all the things that they're working through 2,000 plus employees. That is that uh that component. And so this is the the way it is broken up and it's our job to find a way to stretch that Lawler just a little bit more every single time. And so I want to talk about the education because I know that's important conversation and also important for people to understand. The education budget is seeing an increase of we talked about an increase of 6%. Which means it consumes now the budget of 61.3% of the budget at $612 million. What we're seeing here is is three areas in which those that increase impacts. It impacts the Wilson public schools. It impacts charter school tuition and it also impacts special education. The biggest impact and the biggest increase is the general fund for the Wilson public schools which is $31.7 million at 6%. However, it is important to note and I have a note here that this is the last year of the student opportunity act. And so over the past five years, there's been a significant growth to try to create the base of what it is this the the education funding should be or their the schools funding should be across the entire state. And so this is the last year of the Student Opportunity Act.

It's a five-year initiative. Um and so this increase here is that per se last increase of the Wilson public schools which would now create the base of that budget moving forward uh for the municipality. The next graph here just shows you kind of what that increase has been over the past 10 years, not only to the local required contribution by the city uh for chapter 70, but also the foundation budget and what that increase has been. You know, during my tenure here uh working with the council body, um the city has actual the actual contribution has increased almost $28 million. Our actual contribution to public schools. Additionally, in FY27, we are actually uh included the FY26 midyear contribution. So, if you all remember in uh back in December uh if not November, we submitted uh the midyear cont uh recap. And what we did there, we we fulfilled the NES school spending by adding uh free cash dollars and new growth dollars, but we went beyond also the NES school spending. what we've done in this budget, we have now created that as the base in terms of uh what that would look like for the following year and that was roughly 33 $3.9 million. I do want to state that what this council and this administration done or in the last three years in the last decade, this three years and compared to the last decade has been unprecedented in the amount of money that we as a council, as a body, as a city manager have worked collectively to contribute to the WA public schools. The next slide here, it it depicts the next school spending. And when you look at the blue bar, the blue bar is the actual excess city contribution that we've provided uh the Wilson public schools. The green that

you see here, it's what actually gets credited as a city contribution. And so we give, but not all gets credited because of NES school spending, right? And so, you know, it just depicts a little bit of what I said earlier of our and if you see the last three years, FY20 4, 25, 26, and now coming up to FY27, you've seen that significant growth and contribution that we've provided uh the Wilson public schools. And so, amidst of all of that, we have fixed costs and and those fixed costs play a big role in what we can and cannot do. And it goes back to that dollar. There's three components. One is this education budget and the next one is fixed cost. I don't have control over those. Our job as an administration and the council is in some ways receive the dollars and contribute those to the schools and then the fixed cost uh uh it's an obligation that we have to uh manage every single uh year that the fixed cost if you see the pie chart here the pie chart indicates the areas is bro in which is broken down. The biggest component is debt service. Over the past couple of years, we've been able to try to manage in uh the the debt service as a city. Um we want to make sure that we prepare for the future. We have a new high school that we need to prepare for. We we have infrastructure needs. We have capital needs. Um the second highest uh expense here is pensions which is at 23.1%. And then the next one is health insurance. Health insurance. This year we saw an 8% increase in health insurance. health insurance is going up significantly, not only for the city of Worcester, but across the board. Um, and that has been a significant impact through the development of this budget. And so that leaves us with a capital budget of where are we going to put our dollars? And so where we're going to put our dollars, as I've communicated before, is public works, facility investments, parks investments, and equipment. The biggest impact that

you'll see in the capital budget is going to be public works. We're proposing and recommending a 66% increase to public works. A 66% increase from FY26 to address streets, sidewalks, additional equipment, uh maintain roadways, improve snow removal operations. We've talked about all of that. And so that's what we're going to address as part of this capital budget. In addition to we're funding a lot of our complete streets uh initiatives through to transportation and mobility, making sure that we increase uh roughly $2.3 million for roadway design and engineering. We had a roof collapse in DPW on East Worcester Street. We need to address that. It's a $3 million uh uh uh investment. our facilities like I mentioned the southwester division fire we're providing uh funding for public schools uh in in terms of supporting and sustaining their schools um the death service in their schools municipal garages we need to make some investments in those garages I mentioned the the police department investments and and then when we look at parks we look at Lincoln Square Lake View citywide parks playgrounds southwester pond improvement Green Hill Golf Course. Um, and then in our equipment investments, it's not only police fleet, our DPW fleet, our sewer and water fleet, our parks fleet, and then also our fire uh fleet and and their radios. This last slide here, and I'll and and I'll end the presentation with this slide. Um, this slide here, I was debating whether to show it or not, and I thought and I thought it was a good um I wanted to not just to knock other communities as they're struggling and having the challenges, but I also wanted to depict the constraints that we're experiencing as a state, as a federal uh uh government, but also as a city in

regards to our ability to fund the day-to-day operations with a limited amount of revenue that we're able to receive. As you can see here, these are all headlines across the entire state uh of different municipalities. We know that many municipalities across the state have filed for uh overrides. It's a real need in our state. Um however, there's the bright side of Worcester is that we're not in that position. Worcester noted on that position because of the city council and the city administration for a number of years holding true to the financial integrity plan working hand inand to make sure that one we stayed true to that financial integrity plan. We and we conservatively and we budget conservatively to make sure that yes we provide the services that we need to but also at the same time we look into the future to sustain our budget through these ups and downs and weathering the storm. The other important thing to know that I mentioned earlier is we have a $26 million unused tax levy capacity. It's the seventh highest in the state, which means we have the ability as a city, as a council to tax the residents another $26 million. But that's a decision that we are intentionally choosing not to. Um, and working as best as we can to manage a budget, present a balanced budget, do the day-to-day services, but at the same time taking into consideration the taxpayers of this community. And that's important to know that not that's not just happening by the administration, it's happening by the council uh body as well. And then I'll just end it here. I can't go on without thanking the team that really put this together. um under leadership of CFO uh Tim McGirthy, his budget director Eron Taylor and our assistant city manager Hunguan. All three spend significant amount of hours and time with every department and going through all the requests, going through all the revenue assumptions, all of the estimates, looking at trends, looking at ways that we could be uh creative to

provide the services that we need to do, but at the same time be mindful of not overspending and managing our budget in a way that also doesn't impact our residents. Yes, it's a billion dollar budget. majority of that is due to the student opportunity act and the increase in the school department to up to $600 million. Um but again it's an it's a good budget. It's a budget that we are feel very strong uh uh in terms of what we've been able to present because it it it achieves the mission of what we want to do is provide exceptional services to our community which I think is something a value that we all share. Um so I I I thank the council for the opportunity to present this budget. I thank the council for the discussions and the insight and the input to develop this budget, but I also then look forward to the conversations in the budget hearings with the department so you can hear from them uh specifically their needs and what their plan to do with the specific allocation of dollars that we've been able to to fund as they go out throughout their days uh uh uh supporting the residents but also uh uh supporting uh the overall good of the community. So thank you.

Thank you Mr. Manager for the presentation. So, next Tuesday will be the first budget session uh where we're going to be going over uh what's the public schools, emergency communications, executive office economic development, police, fire, inspectional services, and public facilities. Council conal.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um [clears throat] hopefully Nico can send us an email with those uh departments that will be hearing next week. That'd be appreciated. Uh Mr. Mr. Manager, thank to to you, your staff um in finance there, too. Um all your department heads for coming forward with the the budget that you came forward with. I for one, it's a healthy budget, right? For sure. But I for one, I I thank you for coming forward with things that we've discussed here on this council floor, whether it be the public works, the public work improvements. That's a tremendous amount of money that's going to public works. You've heard what we've discussed and I'm happy to hear that the money's going going to that area. I'm happy to hear um the improvements that we're going to be making to our parks. Um these are things that if I don't hear about this every day, I'm lying to you, right? every day, all day as a district council. Parks, our streets, the top two items that I hear about daily, and I'm honored to hear that that's going going, that the budget is heavy in those areas. I still feel that police station, I'd love to see an RFP put or request for proposal for that building. I think it's a not the right spot for a police station. It's the main intersection in the city. um and work to find a way to massage something with a developer in exchange for uh the parcel. I think um the improvements that we are making um to that building, that building's just a it's a concrete jungle. We all know it, you know, but we need to make the improvements. South Station sorely needed. I I appreciate the funds going

to fires there as well. And the last thing I'm I'm just going to comment on, I'll say more as we go through the the budget session, but add in that position um and economic development for small businesses. I think this is the perfect opportunity for our city to become a leader in shephering small businesses back into the city. And I think a position um of that type would benefit us in the long run, whether it adds jobs, uh improves our vacant storefronts, um creates vitality back in our neighborhoods, and just stabilizes the overall economy. So, I applaud you for those for those items that I just reeled off, and I look forward to getting deeper into this as we get into budget session. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Council Zol. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Through you, I just have a couple items I'd just like to uh bring up uh and get some edification from the manager before we start next week. Uh through you to the manager, uh I see uh on one page here, no net new positions, but we have to fill openings that now exist to provide the highest quality of city services. So, um, how are we addressing our need to I know I know the city, um, the, uh, civil service list is something the city has to follow, but it, uh, can you, can you tell us it still wasn't passed? The home rule petition wasn't passed in the legisle.

How are we going about to fill positions in this next budget? because uh you know I've I've heard that that's the reason why a lot of things aren't aren't being completed and and I' I'd like to see that addressed in this upcoming budget. Sam.

Yeah. Through the chair to the council. Majority of the positions in the city of Worcester um go through a civil service process and which means that uh they need to put their name on the list and um they then to wait to hear from the the municipality uh on when those positions has become available or when we have the opportunity to go through the list. Um because again we have to we have to request a list civil service we have to verify that list we have to verify the individuals it's it's a kind of tedious process and then we have to make those uh uh outreach to the individuals who go through that those lists can have hundreds of people in in them and so you then the HR once they do that process then they have to make out outreach to all of them invite them for interviews go through process and and sometimes we have you another list that has established itself uh and it's you know 50 60 70 80 90 people on that list and we still haven't gone through the other. So one of the things that we did because it didn't it didn't not only impact the municipality it also impacted Wilson public schools. So we're talking about 26 unions altogether that have been impact that are impacted by it. And so collectively as as as members of of the city and working with the schools and working with all the unions, we we we felt as though this would be an opportunity for us to leave the civil service process. So that gives us the abilities that if we have a position open today and we need to hire somebody, we can post that today, target post the position, do targeted outreach and be able to interview a person, get somebody into work right away rather than going through that tedious process because sometimes the civil service list, the person puts a name on the list, six months later they're getting a call. We want to avoid that. Um we we presented a

a home room petition. The council voted for that. The council fully supported it and then uh I went to the the state delegation. The delegation uh worked through that process. Um and the state delegation was able to then move it to study. I think there's a a bigger discussion happening around civil service around the state that might have prevented this from moving forward um regarding civil service, the civil service commission, etc. So we, you know, in in our our support and advocacy with the delegation and the delegation working to advocate as well. Unfortunately, right now sits in study. Um, our hope is to continue to work with the delegation and eventually get it out of study and get it voted, get it supported so that we have that flexibility to be able to hire and recruit people here in the city of Worcester, not just for the city, but also the Worster public schools because again, there's 26 unions, so it's thousands of employees. I I hear you loud and clear through you, Mr. Chairman. And uh any way we can expedite that uh with a with a game plan to uh hire those positions that are open. Uh I encourage that. Um because I hear from people that apply for jobs and never hear anything. So you you just explained why. So uh the general public needed to hear that and I appreciate that. Moving on. Uh I also would like to ask you, Mr. manager. Uh the House budget was passed last week. What was the increases in local aid and chapter 70 in school aid? Do do we know that? Because being serving in the legislature for eight terms, uh the I believe your increases that you should uh plan on are closer to the legislaturator's budgets than the than the governor. So uh have you any idea what what uh came out of their budget last week? If not, I would I would encourage you to do so. And and those are numbers that I think

are more firm to to go by. Yeah. Through to the council. Yeah. We spend quite a bit of time evaluating what the the House and the Senate do. Um and we always know kind of what historical kind of trends of the Senate and the House, what roles they play and what areas they focus more. Uh and that's an area that we try to pay attention and come back to the council with some recommendations especially at the uh during the recap. Um so we're definitely always monitoring that. Timid and his team are always looking uh to understand what what's coming from there. Uh so we be we definitely be uh uh be able to to evaluate that and then be able to make the adjustments necessary.

Okay. Thank you. Uh one question, why are we increasing charter school tuition? there are no uh new charter schools opening up. Why I thought you know educate me why why is that the case through

yeah to the ch to the council um uh there was one uh charter school that opened up I believe either a year or a couple of years ago um but that increase is just due to what the governor's budget's proposal recommendations are. Um I don't I can't look deeply into there to understand uh but I I do know the city of Worcester um uh there's another charter school that had opened up in the city about a year or two ago uh that there was a lot of discussions about and fears that dollars would go to them rather than those dollars going to the school department.

Okay. So so what you're saying then through you Mr. chairman is that any increases in charter school uh tuition or or uh yeah tuition uh is something that will be coming from the state and you have to you know forward that to them or is it costing the city uh yeah through the to the council. Yeah. All the the charter school allocation that that's that's a that's a school for that's a state formula that just comes to us and then it goes right back out. I can have Tim McGarthie if he can give you more details on that. Yeah, I'd like to hear what Mr. McGriffy CFO uh has to say on that. Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Through the chair, as the manager indicated, this is a number that we're given by the Commonwealth. We're required to use the governor's budget proposal to produce our preliminary budget. As the manager indicated, as we go along in the House and the Senate come out and then they do their reconciliation to get to the final budget, that's when we come back to city council in the fall to rightsize all of the numbers. But the charter school formula, the charter school number is generated by Desi who gives it to do who includes it on the cherry sheet. The city's given that number. It does change because it's not only new charter schools, but it's students moving back and forth from public schools to charter schools or from the Worcester public schools to charter schools. So, you will see that number fluctuate throughout, you know, year over year over year. The um associated number is the city does get funding to compensate when students move out of the Wester public schools to the charter schools. There's a period of transition for each student. So, there is some money coming in related to charter schools, but then there's a significant piece going out that comes off the top. It's why you'll see the city municipal budget has a $612 million education budget, but the city, the Worcester public schools budget is about 573 million of that bigger number. Our number includes both public schools and the charter school component.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for explaining that to me. I appreciate it. I'll end, Mr. Chairman, by saying the increase in public works I agree with wholeheartedly. And uh Mr. uh manager, I I would ask you to uh definitely uh uh look at increasing uh the bodies, the employees there to u you know, again, give the taxpayers of the city the best quality services we can. Everybody knows uh the complaints we've heard about our streets and sidewalks and uh snowstorms and so on so forth. I see the equipment that's being bought and increased on, but uh I'm hoping next year we'll have the bodies to uh man the uh trash pickup, do the street sweeping so we're not moving people from the street department over the trash when we need it. We need to get those positions filled and I hope uh you know you'll concentrate on that in this budget. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Uh thank you councelor councel Rosen.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. So as we sometimes it's hard to picture $1 billion. We can picture $1 million and this budget is a thousand times $1 million. And as we all know, the city council can't add to the budget, but we can, you know, subtract to from the budget, at least recommend make recommendations to the manager. We can't do line items, but we can say, you know, maybe we should cut it. And I think the through the chair, the manager, you realize year after year, all the years that I've been on the council, I don't even remember a city council cutting the budget. I mean, you could almost, my prediction would be you could almost say as it reads to tonight's budget and there it is without the hearings. And of course, I want the hearings. I'm just saying that we tend not to cut the budget. So, Mr. Chairman, this is not an order. This is just a question. Okay? And I know some people get all excited in the community if you ask a question because they interpret it a certain way. I'm just going to say this is a thousand times a million dollars. That's a billion dollars. Thousand times. So what would happen through the chair to the manager if we the city council just said we're going to cut the budget by a million dollars. That would still give us 999 more of those million dollars. So what would happen? How would how would you respond to that? What would you what would you do if the city council traditionally made some cuts which we don't do? We traditionally don't. Through the chair to the manager.

Mr. Manager. Through the chair to the council. Uh appreciate that question. Um it is a big budget. Take 612 out of it. I don't have control. Council have 612. That's a good point.

Right. And then take 173 172. That's fixed cost. We got to pay that no matter what. take that out of the so the 220 is 17 departments 2,000 plus employees. Those departments submitted to to me $11 million of request of needs that they have in the department whether it's increases to staff, adding more staff, equipment, etc., etc. You name it, but 11 million of requests. I had just a little over $2 million to be able to allocate to those departments on the operating on those 200 to to new request. The the the rest of it was just status quo lot, you know, paying people salaries, step increases, um funding programs that we just do. Um it's just status quo municipal government. So I had two million. If you cut a million of that, then that's a million dollars less of what I have to provide for new things, things that the council have requested that I will not be funding in this in this budget.

So through the chair to the manager. So a million dollars, even though I was, you know, saying that it's a thousand times a million, that would really be painful if we ever did that. Am I correct, Mr. Amanda? Oh, absolutely. because we worked extremely difficult to find those two million dollars just to have something that I can be able to give back to departments.

Okay? Because I think people in sometimes in the public think it's easy. You know, they they see the billion as the thousand million and they say, "Gee, that'll leave as I said 999 more million." Doesn't quite work that way. Uh through the chair to the manager, I think people wonder how much input went into this budget. Some people might say this is Eric Batista's budget. Is it is it just your budget? And I know you touched on it when you made your presentation. I don't want you to feel free you have to talk for 10 minutes here, but whose budget is it? Have you you you meet regularly with the city council? You've done that for the few years you've been the city manager. You've met with all of us, you know, the last few months. So, we all provide input and I assume that shows up in the budget. And where does our input come from? Each one of us comes from the public. So, we're representing them. So, the budget is more than your you and your staff. It is the public's budget and it reflects the needs. Could you touch on that just a little bit? because I some you know from what I hear from people and I don't do social media I can't read very much but the little I read sometimes I don't think they understand that it really is the public's budget.

Yeah. Um, this budget uh and every municipal budget should and needs to be uh informed by the public of the city and that encompasses everybody from employees who work in the municipal government to residents who live in the city to business owners to city councilors to every nonprofit organization, every petition that comes in the council floor that gets moved forward as an item for the traffic and parking committee or any other committee to be adopted and supported that goes into a list of things that we have to do. Everything involves community input from neighborhood meetings um to crime watch meetings to business uh uh neighbor uh uh uh meetings that have in the districts um to conversations with development uh and trying to develop and provide new housing to the needs not only the needs of what's happening in the city of Worcester but could perhaps what's happening around the region that we also need to play a role So when you think about the creation of a budget, it's not Eric Batista City, I'm the one presenting. I'm the one that's spend and at the end of the day, I'm the one making the final decisions, but it's every single department head spending significant amount of time with their teams, reviewing their expenditures, reviewing what their needs are, and then presenting that to the budget team. And then the budget team spends significant amount of time scrubbing through it, finding areas that we need to make reductions, areas that we can move, reallocate, move, you know, you haven't spent x amount of dollars in in the past five years, we're going to take that away and we're going to put it over here. And so when we think about the $2 million that I had to work with it, yes, in some ways you can say it's new money that we found through either revenues, increase revenues, but it's

also finding ways and we which we needed to cut some areas in some departments that were funded that we needed to also uh reduce the allocation there and move it to another department. And so there's a lot of that that happens across the entire this positions here that uh uh perhaps we may have made a decision to unfund because right now that position hasn't been utilized. So let's unfund that position. So there's a whole bunch of things that happen through this. At the end of the day, I'm the decision maker. Um but there's hours and hours and numbers and numbers of people who are providing input, providing conversations. I meet one-on-one with all the councils. You provide your inputs. your thoughts, your ideas, your kind of priorities, your orders, your your your petitions, uh the conversations that happen on the council floor, committees and task force that I'm involved in. All of that comes in and helps to develop the budget that we have today.

Thank you for making it clear that this is the public's budget. It's not just the city councils or the managers, the mayors. you know, there's been, as you listed there, there's just so much input from so many segments of our community uh that goes into this budget and and it's a year-long process, and it's probably even more than a year-long process because some of the things in the budget you probably heard a year or two ago, and you said, I'll I'll keep that in mind, and maybe it's appearing in this budget. Uh to wrap up, what about the through the chair to the manager, what about the cost of fuel now? That's just changed in the drastically in the last few months. Does our budget take that into consideration or if the war in Iran goes on for many many more months or another year? I mean, are we going to be in trouble because of the cost of fuel here in the city? What's

Mr. Manager? Uh through chair to the uh to the counselor. Yes. Not only fuel but also uh electricity. Um just to give you in perspective, there's an increase here of close to $300,000 because we've seen this increase in utility of electricity for our water pump stations. We got to keep our water pump stations going. We got to make sure and that's almost $300,000 of utility increase that we have to be able to fund. Uh so there's things like that in this budget um that significantly not only impact the residents and their day-to-day quality of life, but it also impacts the day-to-day operations of the municipal government.

Okay. of what we can expect through the chair to the manager that there is a deficit though forgetting the electricity which as you said is important but in the use of regular gasoline and diesel fuel especially that is correct there's an increase in in that and you'll see some uh areas here in in those line items uh increases for that

right but you probably didn't when you did this budget and that part of it you probably weren't thinking of war in Iran at the time and what it's costing you know for uh gasoline And the last thing is, and I've brought it up before, and I I guess it'll never happen, but you still mention it. Uh, the Worcester public schools is a department in the city of Worcester, like the police department, the fire department, the public health department, public works department, and so on. It's a huge department, but it's one of our departments. Is there any way we could share staff with them? And I'll just throw out the human resources. I mean they have their own human resources as the city of Worcester has its own human resources. You know the fire department doesn't have I don't think it own human resource department. Is there more we could do through the chair to the manager by combining uniting some of the services that we might overlap? Now I don't you know I'm not trying to do what the school committee does. I'm just trying to save the taxpayers some money. Uh is it something that we've looked at in the past or we might look at at least in the future through the chair manager?

Yeah, through the chair to the council. Um there's a number of positions that support the Wilson public schools in in our municipal land. Uh one is the law department. The law department spent significant amount of time on contracts. One position uh that you will see here is an added attorney specifically designated for the whistle public schools. Um and it's going to be and it's in the budget. Um the the the in addition to that our HR team um the human resources department manages all the benefits uh for the Wor public schools. Um even though they have their own the school has their own human resourc you don't think we could ever absorb the human resources of the Worester public schools.

Uh no because they do a lot of more so the recruitment of the teachers and the professionals and empower professionals etc. they they focus more on that recruitment but all the benefits and any other uh areas that they need support related to human resources uh our our our team uh here supports that. Our budget office and our finance office spends significant amount of time uh uh going and supporting the W public schools and the dollars that come in and out. Uh facilities plays a big role in supporting them. Um, our facilities department is the one who manages the con the the the design and construction of all new brand new schools, including some of the larger repairs that happen um uh in in the Wilson public schools. Our our department of sustainability and resiliency manages all the uh sustainable infrastructure that happens in the schools. They work through so there's a lot of kind of interdep departmental cross collaboration that happens with the schools. Um, we're always finding ways that we can uh uh be more efficient together, but there's a number of staff across uh the municipality that provides support on a day-to-day basis of core services. So when we look at the funding that the city provides to the Worester public schools mainly from our we'll say our taxpayers uh we certainly as you've mentioned we have several staff and departments on the city side who also loan their expert expertise and help and advice and assistance and all that to the public schools that might not be counted by the public schools. and they they're talking more often when we get lobbyed as city councilors by the public school and the parents and you know teachers and so on staff members and that's fine that they lobby us but they sometimes do forget many of the positions that you mentioned that we that provide services to them that they don't have to pay for. So that I think that's something important but I look forward to really delving Mr. Mayor

into this budget. It's interesting. First time of a thousand times a million and uh hopefully, you know, we'll take a look at each department and uh I think you've done a good job on it from what I've read so far. Got a lot more reading to do, of course, but I think you've done you and your department uh heads and your your uh uh finance department especially have done a terrific job. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Council Me.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. through you to city manager. I do not have any questions. I just have some comments. I think uh I want to congratulate you. Congratulate your team, the the CFO and his team for bringing together uh discussion worth budget for us. I know we'll have many questions as we move forward with the hearing. Uh I just wanted to say that budget is a matter of compromise in my mind. You know we we like to see that the money is used for what is best for our city for the residents and that's what our job will be to see that that's allocated that way that's coming in next few weeks but I think what you have focused here including us in your discussion and also focusing on what is really needed for this city the economic growth the infrastructure public safety and education. I think these are the most primary things and you have focused it very well. We will go into the details to see what should be done. But I really want to congratulate you for bringing in this budget which is now $1 billion. I personally feel very privileged that first time being a counselor starting with a $1 billion budget that's going to be a history for me to remember this all the time. But I think uh now it's time for us to see that this city even though we are second largest but we have the ability this council has the ability to work together to make it the best city in the council. We may be second largest, but we could be the best by creating a culture, by making this city safer, making this city affordable, making this city more comfortable, and making this city so attractive that we can fetch in many business owner, making it more friendly to the business community and making this city to be having more jobs. And that's the ultimate goal to see that we have more jobs with the budget we have in our

hand, the money we have in our hand. We all have to put our minds together to see how we can now use this money so that more and more people can find this city is the best city to come here, do their business, raise their family and call. I'm so proud to be in Wor. That's all I want to say. Thank you everyone for doing such a great job. Thank you. Else council councelor Rivera.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Um I too also don't have any questions. Want to share a few things. Uh agree with the councils before me. Thank you everybody. Um yeah billion dollar very historic you know and and I thank you for this for making this so visible because I think it's important that um like they mention a lot on social media out there. It's it's a lot of negativity going on because they don't have the the they have a different perspective or they're coming from a different understanding. So, you know, uh I and then and obviously as a city council, I got to represent my constituents and and uh but I want them to understand that that that's what I'm that's what we're going to do in these next few weeks with the with the budget. But I want to thank the city manager, you know, for making this visible, you know, uh because uh we know that uh um what what they, you know, this budget means is what we looking for is visible progress, real housing solutions, safer streets and sidewalks, stronger infrastructure, and immeasurable quality of life improvements. Um the residents are, you know, we know they're dealing with high high rising costs, homelessness, mental health issues, substance abuse crisis, and deteriorating infrastructure and roads, which this budget is is covering. And and obviously, uh it's a big budget. So they're, you know, there feel increasingly they feel insecure, unsupported, and unable to afford living here. and know the taxpayers have every right to question their elected officials on what measures are being taken to improve and enhance their o overall quality of life. Um but many residents may are not aware you know and thank you city manager for for mentioning today you know that um 60% over 60% over 600 million dollars is going to the school department you know and uh and and the decision obviously I have to say the decision um having that

kind of budget um to have to close some schools um that caters to uh children raises some concerns with some of the residents But I think what the city manager has provided so far and we'll be going through deviling in this next four weeks, you know, is that the worester what they want is transparency and and expect some competent fiscal leadership and um you know people who prioritize the community needs. I think that's what we'll be doing. And and I think it's important that as city councilors that we explain to our residents, you know, how important this historic budget is and how much is going to help them. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Counc.

Uh just thank you. Just a point of information. I I did uh see the U article regarding the uh program closures. Um I do want to state that from what I understand those programs are going to be assumed by the Wister Education Collaborative. So those services will still be given to the students. They won't be at the um uh at the uh facilities. I know the new uh the new uh it's the new it's this oh my god I can't think of the name of it but uh it was after Jim Keronio new citizen center. Um, I know that they're not going to be using that building. Um, they are assuming some [clears throat] of the programs into the junior highs and high schools. So, those I just wanted to be clear, these these youth are not losing their services. While they're moving the program and restructuring, they're not going to be the services will still be provided. So, thank you.

Thank you. [clears throat] Okay. So, we're going to send this to Council King. Mr. Chairman, before I begin my time, just point of order on these particular matters. One indicates an adoption on a roll call. Another one is written recommend approval. Um, just for uh clarification here. Will the Will the motion be to send to committee? Yeah, I already said that. I said 9.38A we're going to send to committee. I said that at the beginning of the meeting along with the two finance items we're going to file. We're going to file the presentation. So, these three items all go to committee that Yeah.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, again, I I I've stated this numerous times. Um, I approach governing with a coaching mentality, um, a sports mentality. And kudos when things are going well, um, and when things need to be coached up, we can go that route. Also, uh I want to begin by um stressing that these particular reallocation of resources that have been um built up by the team are appropriate. Public works, parks, transportation and mobility, um capital funding uh for many things. Uh more inspectors, police headquarters and fire stations. those things being addressed um for um good workplaces. Um you know, I I've been pushing for many years now for implementation of employee performance evaluations for cabinet um folks and I'm looking forward to that implementation as yel as well. Um the small business I agree um that that's an important piece. Um Mr. Jim and core services encouraging growth. Um we've heard today a number of mentions of um education um the significant funding that goes towards Worcester public schools. Um I am the chairman of the education committee and I serve on that committee with vice chairman um Gary Rosen and councelor Economo and we have been attempting to meet with the sister committee over on the school side um in order to discuss this as is traditionally done the majority of the time the 11 years I've been on this council maybe one of two years it didn't happen um but that gives us an

opportunity to ask some of these questions and as I was sitting here Um I too um popped up on my phone and um that the headline that the Worcester public schools are closing three alternative schools to save money. Uh I took a quick look at our budget here and it looks like special ed programs in Worcester public schools are increasing um the budget increased by only $30,000. the same time I heard representation from the administration that there's was it around 30 or so million dollars increases uh for Worester public schools um through the last phasing um of the state legislation. Um, and you know, when you couple when you add that to um I've received a number of emails um from educators, from folks in the school um pipeline in terms of employment and and and parents, etc., asking for more funding from the city of Worcester. And I was hoping to have a transparent hearing with um the three representatives of that uh subcommittee uh in Worcester public schools. And me and my folks here, our team, we we offered six to eight different maybe even 10 um different uh dates and times that work for us. My colleagues agreed to every single date that we have. Um we had it set for Monday, but apparently now the school folks are pulling out of that. Mr. Chairman. Um, and so we're going to move forward with our meeting regardless. Um, but I will say, um, it will have an impact on these young folks. Um, I've worked in the special ed programs as a DCF employee, as a social worker for almost 30 years, and there will be a loss. And we lost St. Casmmeirs um and they they moved um you

know we lost woodworking and some other vocational opportunities that you these folks who will never get into Worcester trade or worester vog are losing um and when we don't have adequate special ed services Mr. chairman, there's a public health and a community impact. Um, and you know, it's it's almost a domino effect. Um, and when those folks aren't receiving the resources at the same level, um, there is absolutely an impact, Mr. Chairman. So, I look forward to to dive into this stuff in committee, um, which we will do on Monday, Mr. Chairman. Um, and so again, snow removal, all these things, fixed costs. Uh but it brings me back to the special ed piece. I stood here on this floor and advocated um for SA Street um for opportunities for our Worester public schools and this body in the split vote, not this term, last term I think um they voted um to move away from that because of what it would cost to get that going. Uh we continue to not have that site rented. Um, we're not having any revenue coming in like we were previously when Clark was using it. Um, WPI and other schools. We were renting it out, just sitting there. Um, so we have to take a look at those types of facilities as well in terms of how we're generating revenue. Mr. chairman. Um, and it brings me to what I see as a gap as a uh for me as a social worker, it's a glaring ad um omission of this particular budget, Mr. Chairman, and that is um as it relates to reallocating resources. Our health and human service division is the lowest funded division in the city of Worcester, 3% of the budget. Um, I

stood here on this on this floor last term. I'm going to reiterate it today and when we get into it uh when we come to that department's budget, I will talk about it again. Um, and I'm going to reissue the challenge to the city manager. Um, I understand that money is finite, that it's um, only so much money that we have. But what I challenge and I will challenge again the city manager is that we take a look at HHS um and we figure out where we can reorganize. Um I want us to look at vacancy factors and that department needs to be built up because the glaring omission as it relates to reallocating resources as it relates to our unhoused population that we can see by the eye test is increasing. the elderly folks and the young people um who are finding themselves in financial straits and strains um and who are on the streets. We've had a lack of um shelter availability in this city. Um we certainly opened um did the ribbon cutting for the day resource center this past week, Mr. Chairman. Um but the challenge is that we need to beef up HHS. We need more folks. We need more people. Um, and if there's a way to do that, um, with a reorg um, at some point in this next in this particular calendar year, I'm going to challenge the city manager to do exactly that. Um, because we can't have an increase in that population without an increase um in the in the in the uh, folks that are responding to it. Mr. Chairman, in addition, HHS um, you [snorts] know, they have our division of youth services. Um we have many challenges as it relates to vaping um substance use etc. We have CHL closing down their youth recovery program closing down. We

have resources um that help um parents and and young parents who are um needing shelter and and treatment where they can go in with their babies. All that stuff is is going away, Mr. Chairman. But yet there's we don't have a reallocation of resource as it relates to that particular challenge. I think just about every other pretty particular challenge is outlined here in the reallocation of resources. Um but that um so you know I challenge the city manager as it relates to that. I'll continue um to advocate that way Mr. chairman and um you know I look forward to to to looking through this um [snorts] you know and and this is the people's budget. That's what it is. That's the answer to the question. This is the people's budget. This is the pe people's hall. Um and we are nothing but public service, Mr. Chairman. So um you know I I I look forward to this and um you know I'll have some some questions ready at that time. Thank you. Thank you, Council Bada.

Thank you. Um, yeah, big budget, billion dollars. It's, you know, a lot of large numbers being thrown around. Um, but what really struck me and councelor King just kind of stole my thunder a little bit about this, but uh, talking about the $30,000, uh, increase for special education. Um, I find this to be a very small number. It's very concerning. um through the uh chair to the city manager. Can we is there any more just because at first look again very small number um could we provide any context [snorts] for this or um what is the reasoning for this increase or or Mr. Manager?

Yeah. Um I'll have the CFO explain but this is basically part of the funding formula part of the governor's budget recommendation. Um, but I'll have the CFO explain a little bit further about that particular allocation. Mr. McGarthy

through the chair, the manager is correct. These are numbers that come from the state. They're calculated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. It's not reflective of special ed costs here within the city of Worcester, but is an assessment against the city of Worcester for its share of special ed transportation costs. I'm not sure how that's calculated or how it's applied, but it's the state assessing the city for an obligation related to state costs. The overall budget statewide is only about $3 million for this specialed cost. So, it's just a portion of um transportation related costs being picked up by the state. So, for us, as mentioned, it's the governor's budget number that we use. We don't set the number. it'll get um reconciled by the end of the year, but this number has always been, you know, in this area. Uh and it's just based on the formula that the state utilizes.

Okay. Um through the chair that $30,000, this is an increase for specifically for special education transportation. Uh through the chair, that's my understanding. Again, this isn't it's a kind of an assessed cost by the state that they apply to the city. My understanding is it's called special education, but it's related to special education transportation. Okay. Thank you. And another followup. Um, how much money is being allocated to special education in the budget this year? Is it going up? What What is the status of Mr. McGarth?

So through the chair, we wouldn't know that. That comes from the Wester public schools. So when the Worester public schools comes in for its budget hearing, we could ask that question, but their budget has not yet been posted. So we don't have the breakdown. you know, we know the $612 million. Um, I misspoke the actual tax levy contribution to the schools is around 550 million, but we have that allocation or appropriation over to the schools, but then it's the school committee and the school administration that distributes that to the the priorities that they have. So, they'll be the ones who determine how much of that is used for special education costs.

Okay. Thank you. Again, I, you know, am very interested to see and looking forward to having that conversation about what type of monies are going to special education through Worcester public schools cuz again, just on paper, just seeing a 30 $30,000 increase uh just seems to me alarming at first glance. So, I'm looking forward to getting more information. I think it'll be great for the public to have more information on that as well. Um and and again seeing that kind of justosition the uh having it kind of go go against the $1 million for the Green Hill Golf Course improvements. Uh do we have any information on what exactly that $1 million is going towards? Uh Mr. Manager, Mr. McGirthy

through the chair. Um, we'll have the Department of Public Works in, we believe, the next meeting to talk through their various elements. Um, Green Hill Golf is an enterprise account, meaning the costs of the golf course are picked up by those who play, utilize the golf course. But my understanding is the million dollars relates to maintenance. They're approaching the 100th anniversary of the golf course and they're looking to kind of upgrade the facility to make sure it's ready for that anniversary. Um, so it's costs that they identified as kind of needing an investment after all these years.

Okay. Thank you. Um, yeah, I really again look forward to having these conversations cuz um, special education public schools uh, we have some of our most vulnerable students in the least safe building in the city, the uh, Fanning Building and they've been there for some time. Unfortunately, like councelor King mentioned, the last council voted to not try to use Seaver Street to provide a safer space for these students. So, I look forward to having these conversations, but again, we really need to make sure that our most vulnerable students uh have the resources they need to have a great education. And again, this is a quality of life issue, too. It's great to see all of the improvements in capital investments going into services and facilities that improve quality of life for Worcester residents. I want to make sure that we're we're making efforts to really improve quality of life for all of our residents in Worcester and especially students uh that are part of the special education program. So, thank you.

Thank you. Okay. So, there has been a change to the schedule. So, public works will be the first one up for um public works and then transportation mobility will take place of education and of course emergency communications, police, fire, inspectional services. So the clerk will mail that out out to everybody. Don't have that. So the motion now is to file 9.26A. Those in favor post. So ordered and number take number 9.38A 9.39 A and B and we are going to refer that to finance. All those in favor opposed 10 A and 10B we're going to refer to economic development committee. Those in favor opposed. So that brings us to the end of the meeting. Council vizel.

Mr. Speaker, through you on the suspension, I'd like to bring up just a quick uh Okay, we'll just take a quick vote to go into We'll take a quick vote to go into suspension. Roll call. Councelor Bergman, yes. Councilor Bada, yes. Councilor Econom, yes. Councelor Brazil, yes. Councelor King, yes. Councilor Mitra, yes. Council, yes. Councelor Rivera, yes. Rosen, yes. Council Tumi, yes. And Mayor Petty,

yes. through you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I just want to let the general public know that this morning our good congressman, Congressman Jim McGovern, uh, made an announcement of a, uh, airmark that he received of 1.2 million to go through to the, uh, former St. Vincent School of Nursing and uh uh remediate the uh asbestous that exists there and uh will allow us to go forth and hopefully uh allow the uh developer of that property who intends to turn uh the nursing school into close to 100 apartments for senior housing. Uh I want to congratulate and thank the congressman for his hard work. uh that building has stayed vacant for 38 years. 38 years ago, the nursing school closed 1988. And uh as the as our good city manager mentioned uh this morning that uh when he had the open mic in each district, uh I uh asked him then to uh concentrate on turning that building into senior housing and uh hopefully it's due to happen. So, I want to thank uh the congressman again and uh the city manager for having us this morning. Uh uh councelor Mitra was there, councelor Rosen also made it and uh it was a great announcement and thank you Mr. Chairman for allowing me to uh explain to the general public what's going on there at the nursing school in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. So, we have a motion to adjurnn. All those in favor? Post awarded.