City Council - Finance Committee

CITY OF EASTHAMPTON OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL Minutes Easthampton Municipal Building 50 Payson Ave., Ste. 100 City Council Easthampton, Massachusetts 01027-2260 Finance Telephone #: (413) 529-1460 Committee Fax #: (413) 529-1417 Meeting, 1/12/2022 Attendees: Finance Committee Members: Councilor Dan Rist, Chair Councilor Tom Peake, Clerk Councilor Koni Denham Other Attendees: Council President Homar Gomez Councilor Brad Riley Mayor Nicole LaChapelle City Planner Jeff Bagg IT Director Karin Camihort Treasurer Jennifer Gallant City Auditor Hetal Patel Police Chief Bob Alberti DPW Director Greg Nuttelman Assistant Planner Jamie Webb Jeff Burke Noah Halpern McManus Meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM. The meeting was held remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was videotaped 1. Approval of Minutes: No minutes for approval. 2. Mayor’s Communication: None. 3. Public Speak: None. 4. New Business a. City Ordinance Amendment – Amend Chapter 7, Sec. 7-18 (Pay Plan Exhibit B): The Council approved an appropriation to give pay plan employees a COLA in December. This ordinance should have been in the packet then. It needed to be accepted tonight or the pay plan employees would not get their raise. Motion made by Councilor Peake and seconded by Councilor Denham. Motion passed 3-0. b. Supplemental Appropriation from CPA Funds - $42,500 to create designs, cost estimates & hold meetings for a new skate park: CPA unanimously approved. Park would be behind 50 Payson Ave and would try to include a connection to the rail trail. Once the design is done, city can apply for grants to build the skate park. City Planner Jeff Bagg went over the design and community involvement process. CPA would likely contribute to some share of construction. Final design would have to go through Conservation Commission due to proximity to the pond, and a few parking spots may be lost, but the exact details would be determined during the design phase. Design project was increased to include studying connection to the rail trail. Mayor LaChapelle spoke in support and stated that the Easthampton Skate Park group had raised money to contribute to the effort. Jeff Burke from the Easthampton Skate Park group gave a brief history of the project and said that since each skate park is unique, he expects that people would travel here to visit the skate park and might visit local businesses in the process. Noah Halpern-McManus from the same group also spoke in favor, and noted that the skate park could be used as a community space. Jeff Bagg also noted that the footprint of the park might change in the design process. There was some discussion about the impact on parking. Motion made by Councilor Peake and seconded by Councilor Denham. Motion passed 3-0. c. Supplemental Appropriation from Cannabis - $144,327.29 to supplement grant funding for public safety IT computer upgrade: Councilor Riley had written prior to the meeting expressing concerns about the artificial intelligence and machine learning components of the software and spoke to those points. He gives an example of reinforcing existing patterns of policing, leading to a runaway feedback loop. Dr. Camihort spoke to those concerns and said that she believed that the software was robust and transparent. She said that the software in question does not have the capacity to do that sort of thing. Councilor Peake spoke in favor of the data component of the project, but asked for a clarification around the machine learning and artificial intelligence component. Chief Alberti stated that this software is not predictive policing, but that it does have a public portal that will allow members of the community to engage more with the police. He gave an example of catalytic converter thefts on Holyoke Street, where EPD was able to catch the suspect by watching trends. Councilor Denham asked how this software fit into the broader public safety strategy. Dr. Camihort explained how the software would make workflows and queries more streamlined. Mayor LaChapelle stated that the search for this software has been ongoing for several years, and that the current system was inadequate. This system will “speak” with other law enforcement agencies while also allowing the sort of data queries that have not been possible so far. She noted that this would civilianize the data by housing it within the city’s IT department. Councilor Peake asked Chief Alberti if the Council could receive a briefing on the technology once it was implemented, and Chief Alberti agreed, and said that he could get a representative of the company there as well. President Gomez asked about training and whether the fire department would benefit from this. Dr. Camihort said that each module of the program would receive training, but that the system is designed for police, not fire or EMS, although Chief Norris was looking into a different system. Councilor Rist asked how this pertained to the City’s current server. Dr. Camihort said that the City would be purchasing three servers, to allow for a hot backup. The servers were part of the appropriation and the servers would be housed at 50 Payson. After this appropriation, $237,188.50 remains in Cannabis. Motion made by Councilor Peake and seconded by Councilor Denham. Motion passed 3-0.  d. Review of council clerk stipend (City Ordinances, Chapter 2, Sec. 7-5): Not discussed this night. e. Review of pay grades of City Council appointees (Clerk/Assessor/Auditor): Not discussed this night. 5. Old Business  Supplemental Appropriations from Enterprise Retained Earnings:  $50,000 for purchase of water meters: this is a yearly expense. There are still a few non-radio water meters. It was difficult to enter homes due to the pandemic, but the City is at over 90 percent replaced. This also replaces some of the first radio meters which were initially installed. Motion made by Councilor Denham and seconded by Councilor Peake. Motion passed 3-0.  $112,000 for replacement of various components in the Waste Water system: original equipment from the 1970s is worn out and replacement parts are unavailable. One of the pumps has failed at Ashley Circle. 3G cellular communication technology will no longer be supported by the company, so they need to upgrade to 5G. Processed water strainer has deteriorated and needs to be replaced. Director Greg Nuttelman noted that this would likely not be the last request. Mayor LaChapelle spoke in favor of the appropriation and noted that the DPW focused on the areas where there was the most impact. Motion made by Councilor Peake and seconded by Councilor Denham. Motion passed 3-0.  $42,655 for sanitary sewer & storm water infrastructure work on Charles St.: Assistant Planner noted that the construction here is substantially complete, and it may be possible that this amount could be reduced, after discussions between her and Director Nuttelman, the thought was to keep the amount the same on this appropriation in case of contingencies. Councilor Gomez asked the balance of Enterprise Retained Earnings, which was over $2 million. Motion made by Councilor Peake and seconded by Councilor Denham. Motion passed 3-0. 6. Continuing Business  Review of QUARTERLY fiscal reports from the City Auditor: no report for this meeting  QUARTERLY Report on Covid-19 grant funding and Spending: no report for this meeting By motion made by Councilor Denham and seconded by Councilor Peake, the meeting was adjourned at 6:31 PM Next meeting: 1/26/22