Budget and Finance Subcommittee

RECEIVED By City Clerk at 2:26 pm, 5/26/22 AMESBURY CITY HALL 62 Friend Street Amesbury, MA 01913 City Council Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 7:15 PM or Immediately Following Special City Council Meeting Virtual Meeting Finance Committee Chair Stanganelli called the meeting to order at 7:45 PM. Roll Call was taken and present were: Councilor Deschenes, Councilor Frey, Councilor Hickok, Councilor Hogg, Councilor Mandeville, Councilor Wheeler, and Councilor Stanganelli Absent were: Councilor Lennon and Councilor Rinaldi Minutes for Approval: July 14, 2020, September 22, 2020 and January 25, 2022 Councilor Wheeler motioned to approve the July 14, 2020 minutes with noted corrections. Councilor Hogg seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, 4 voted in favor, 3 abstentions (Deschenes, Frey, Hickok). Motion passed. Councilor Wheeler motioned to approve the September 22, 2020 minutes with noted corrections. Councilor Hogg seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, 4 voted in favor, 3 abstentions (Deschenes, Frey, Hickok). Motion passed. Councilor Wheeler motioned to approve the January 25, 2022 minutes with noted corrections. Councilor Frey seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. Communications & Updates:  None at this time. Public Comment  None at this time. 2022-022 An Order to transfer $4,320 from Community & Economic Development Salaries & Wages to Community & Economic Development Expenses. - Mayor Sponsor  Director of the Office of Community and Economic Development (OCED), Angela Cleveland, said as we wrapped up the most recent environmental monitoring on the former Trader Allen’s site at 21 Pond View Avenue, we discovered a septic tank that needed to be emptied. Because of that the OCED incurred a fee that was paid out of the expense line of the budget. There are extra funds in the salaries line which were due to the previous permit coordinator not being with us for some time, so we are looking to move those funds to pay for the fee, so OCED is not redlined.  Councilor Stanganelli asked if the tank was removed or just emptied. o Angela replied by saying the tank was just pumped. Councilor Wheeler motioned to send order 2022-022 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Hogg seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2022-024 An Order to authorize the Mayor to accept and expend a $100,000 Grant from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) for Special Projects in Parks and Recreational Areas specifically Lake Gardner. -Mayor Sponsor  Director of the Department of Public Works (DPW), Rob Desmarais, stated the project is currently at the Conservation Commission and the funds have been received from the state. We are waiting for approval of City Council so we can spend them.  Councilor Stanganelli asked if there were any match requirements. o Rob replied, none.  Councilor Wheeler wanted to note his thanks to State Senator DiZoglio for putting this earmark in the state budget this year. Councilor Wheeler motioned to send order 2022-024 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Hickok seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2022-025 An Order to accept the Transfer of Vehicle Ownership between the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority a subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Amesbury for use by the Amesbury Council on Aging (COA) a community program. -Mayor Sponsor  Director of the Council on Aging (COA), Doreen Arnfield, stated that the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MVRTA) offered us this used van, it has about 178,000 miles. We anticipate using it about 3 days a week to do day trips and to provide supplemental transportation options for people who may need them. For the rest of this fiscal year, we are going to use the rest of the earmark grant that we have, thanks to senator DiZoglio, for a part time van driver, insurance, and some maintenance. We are looking to do around $5,000.00 in maintenance cost to make sure the van is safe. We are going to spend $3,000.00 on wrapping it. Moving forward COA will be asking the city for a part time van driver, 19 hours a week, approximately $1,800.00. The rest of the cost of the van will come from the revolving account.  Councilor Frey asked what the anticipated lifetime of the vehicle is. o Doreen replied, with that kind of mileage [178,000] she would be happy with 2-3 years. She said it depends how many miles get put on it now. She was told it was kept up with regular maintenance. o She said she would like to write a grant for a new van in the coming years. She had applied for one last year, but it would have taken a long time to get and the MVRTA offered them this van. She said it is a good pilot program.  Councilor Frey asked about the $2.00 fee. Would the fee go into the revolving account? o Doreen responded, yes, the fee would go into the revolving account. She explained the first year they are going to make the service free. She said she doesn’t know if that charge will be added, there would have to be a way to manage it. She would rather write a grant than to collect the fees. She said maybe there can be donations.  Councilor Wheeler asked where the money from the earmark grant was. o Doreen responded, the ear mark grant is already approved and sitting in COA’s account. Councilor Wheeler motioned to send order 2022-025 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Hogg seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2 2022-026 An Order to authorize the Mayor to expend FY22 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Spending Bill Earmark No. 28000111 for Amesbury Lake Gardner Recreational Improvements in the amount of $25,000. -Mayor Sponsor  Chief of Staff, Anne Marie Casey started by thanking Senator DiZoglio for obtaining this ARPA earmark grant for the city. She said, currently we are waiting for the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to issue Attachment A, which is what is needed to have a full scope of service and budget plan. That will initiate a contract where 50% of the earmark is released. She is currently working with Kathy at the Department of Youth Recreation on the items prior to even getting the Attachment A. o Councilor Wheeler asked if the Council would have the Attachments before they vote on it in March.  Anne Marie responded by saying, she is not sure. She received an email from DCR, and they said they will be sending the documents in the coming weeks.  Councilor Wheeler asked if the council could be provided with more specific projects the grant money would go into. o Anne Marie responded, yes, she could work with Kathy to create that. Councilor Wheeler motioned to send order 2022-026 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Frey seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2022-027 An Order to authorize the Mayor to expend FY22 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Spending Bill Earmark No. 28000111 for Amesbury Outdoor Seating in the amount of $50,000. – Mayor Sponsor  Chief of Staff, Anne Marie Casey, began by saying thank you to Senator DiZoglio for the important allocation of funds for the support of outdoor dining. This contract is a little bit further along, we have received the attachment and are working on the scope of services and budget.  Director of OCED, Angela Cleveland, stated they are waiting on legal advice from KP law but should have the contract approved in a matter of weeks.  Mayor Cassandra Gove stated this grant will get the city started for outdoor dining. There will continue to be grants for outdoor dining. The city is focusing on 5 parts of town where outdoor dining has been on public property. The thought is to expand those areas, moving curb lines, elevating spaces where people were sitting on the street, adding lighting, addressing accessibility. She said this year we expect to start with barricades until more permanent plans are in place. VHB assisted with the original downtown design when it was changed over to a one way. They [VHB] are familiar with our downtown and that is one of the reasons why they were chosen.  Councilor Wheeler stated his concern with this order. He said he is concerned with the unknown appropriations with respect to what their [VHB] recommendation is. He said we are essentially appropriating money for the construction of something based on a recommendation we don’t have. o He recommended, when the council votes on this bill in March, that it is approved subject to any funds being expended for actual construction be brought back for approval prior to expenditure.  Councilor Stanganelli asked if not all the funding is used during planning and designing, are there turn backs for the money or can it be put towards construction. o Anne Marie stated she will get verification on the posed question.  Councilor Deschenes asked if there are any restaurants or businesses that will not benefit from this project. 3  o Mayor Gove responded by saying, of course they are not all adjacent to one of the 5 areas, but all the 5 areas are not designated to the restaurants.  Councilor Deschenes wanted noted that he believes that this will benefit some restaurants more than others.  Councilor Stanganelli read a chat from Angela Cleveland, saying, “We found that some restaurants did not want or need outdoor dining options.”  Mayor Gove expanded, she said there were outdoor seating expansions put in in some places in the downtown business district and the businesses asked to have them removed. Councilor Wheeler motioned to send order 2022-027 back to City Council with a positive recommendation with the caveat the City Council have review of scope of service. Councilor Hickok seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. 2022-028 An Order to request the City Council to authorize the Department of Public Works to overspend the fiscal 2022 snow and ice appropriation of $250,000. – Mayor Sponsor  Director of DPW, Rob Desmarais stated, we need to overspend the snow budget.  Councilor Stanganelli asked if the number from January 32, 2022 covers all bills currently or are there still outstanding bills. o Rob replied by saying, that is the number that was spent on that date. The current number is $358,297.47 as of February 14, 2022.  Councilor Wheeler noted that even though this line item in the budget was increased from FY21, the city is still spending more. He said maybe this next budget season we can look at increasing the snow and ice line item. He said it might be worth while to preserve the free cash a little bit. o Councilor Stanganelli stated he thinks the rationale behind not increasing the snow and ice budget is because once it is in there it is hard to move out of the budget. He said he might be wrong, but that is what he was told. o Councilor Wheeler stated he does not believe the snow and ice costs are ever under the budget. o Rob stated once since he has been director of the DPW which started in 2008. o Councilor Wheeler said, theoretically if we did overbudget snow and ice it would just flow into free cash. Councilor Mandeville motioned to send order 2022-028 back to City Council with a positive recommendation. Councilor Hogg seconded the motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. Councilor Mandeville motioned to adjourn. Council Frey seconded this motion. Roll call was taken, all members present voted in favor (7). Motion passed. Adjourned at 8:45 pm Respectfully submitted by, Ellie Andersen, March 29, 2022 4