City Council

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE METHUEN CITY COUNCIL METHUEN CITY HALL (SEARLES BUILDING)-GREAT HALL JUNE 23, 2021 @ 5:45 PM Chairman Saba called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m. Councilor Faretra was absent. Acceptance of Agenda MOTION BY: Councilor Zeigler, seconded by Councilor DiZoglio to accept the agenda. UPON VOTE: 7 yes, 1 present (Clr. Finocchiaro) Contract: C-21-45, JRM Hauling & Recycling Services, 265 Newbury Street, Peabody, MA. MOTION BY: Councilor Zeigler, seconded by Councilor DiZoglio to approve. Councilor McCarty noted there are three waste management contracts and asked that the Mayor explain each contract to Council. Mayor Perry explained the first one C-21-45 is the regular trash collection, the non-recycle household trash. C-21-46 Waste Management of Londonderry is construction and demolition material. C-21-47 E.L. Harvey is for recycling. The city is asking for a one-year renewal only on all three contracts because they are looking at alternatives moving the city forward. They are at the point where they want to do a public hearing and have resident input on what is appropriate to handle the trash moving forward. He is not going to say he is 100% satisfied with any of the trash services; but these expire July 1st. They are looking for a one-year extension only until they come up with a better option for the city. The residents have been actively involved where we are going to have a public hearing. Council is welcome to participate as well. For example, residents have expressed an interest in more than bi-weekly recycling. Those kind of factors plus a public hearing will determine where we go after this year. Councilor McCarty said it looks like we are exercising the one-year option on C-21-45. He asked if there is a saving having these pieced out for having non-recyclable, construction debris and recycling vendors. Mayor Perry explained you could have one company awarded all three bids if you chose, but a year from now, we could RFP them separately and one company could respond and win all three bids. Councilor McCarty said two out of three of these are exercising an option and the Waste Management is a one-year deal. Councilor Finocchiaro asked the Mayor C-21-45 is something by State law we aren’t required to go out to bid. Her understanding is there was some kind of bid process on this performed by the city and asked the Mayor to review that for Council. Mayor Perry clarified that the extension was not part of a rebid. The extension was proposed as part of the original bid. This is legal, as far as responding to a bid. The city is only proposing a one-year extension so we can continue it until such time as we determine what method we want. It doesn’t mean that they are done after one-year. It depends on the options that the residents and the Council determine is the most appropriate to go forward with. Councilor Finocchiaro noted this is the extension that was done through the previous administration, at that time that had done some sort of a bid process, not a new bid process. The Mayor agreed. Councilor Finocchiaro said this particular item is an increase of 3.5% over the current cost for this item. 1  Councilor Zeigler said she appreciates the explanation that was given and understands the city can exercise their right to extend for one year. She is not in favor of this contract. Since we have been receiving services from this company, almost every week, she has been receiving complaints from residents with regards to performance. She will be a “no” due to that reason. Mayor Perry said he doesn’t disagree with what the Councilor said. He receives a lot of trash calls too, especially the grass and the leaf clippings. The survey that the city did at the end of the winter, Joe Cosgrove and Director Bower were on the Mayor’s minutes and talked about the survey. The response was fairly positive from the residents on both recycle and the regular trash. It was more positive than he was anticipating based on the calls he receives. We are looking to keep them long-term and are just looking for one year. Councilor DiZoglio said he wants to make sure with this extension the city isn’t losing any additional services like the bulky item that you are allowed to put out. There was a rumor going around that was being taken out. Mayor Perry said we’re not. That’s part of the things that the city is going to examine and go forward. We ae the only city that takes large bulky items. The residents and the Council will be a park of making that decision going forward after the year continuance, one large bulky item will continue to be picked up by the trash collector. Councilor Saffie said she receives a lot of calls and the committee has talked about the trash trucks picking up recyclables and cardboard that is being left out for the recycling company on recycling weeks. It seems like they overload the trucks that the city pays for. She asked if the Mayor is aware that residents are seeing this happen and reporting it to the committee to hopefully put a stop to it. Mayor Perry said the trucks should be marked City of Methuen when they are picking up Methuen trash and the city is going to enforce that. To his observation, he has not seen that happen. The recycling is done by a different company, but the same rule applies. We will be stricter in that regard. We are not trying to give anybody a grade of approval here and the intent is still for him to bring both companies in and discuss with them the things that he sees and feels ae not working well. Right now, we don’t have another option. Councilor Saffie understood and wanted to make sure it is addressed. Councilor Simard asked the Mayor if the contract is done next week. Mayor Perry responded, yes. Councilor Simard and if we don’t approve it, is the city like a “tenant at will” until. Mayor Perry said we would have to quickly get out and find another company to do it. Councilor McCarty said he was part of the Council that voted on the original contract. He was a “no” vote at that meeting (5-4) and now Council is exercising an option on that contract. If this is voted “no” what happens when July 1 rolls around. Solicitor Rossetti said they would be continuing such as the analogy of the landlord/tenant relationship. The city would have to scramble to get somebody else and for so long as the period endures where we don’t have a permanent replacement and would be working our best to get an alternate hauler. We would continue with them until such time as the replacement is put in place. Councilor Finocchiaro commented that she agrees with Councilor Zeigler, Councilor Saffie and the Mayor have said. She has had a lot of concerns that she brought forward to the department, to try to deal with this. She agreed with Councilor McCarty. She was part of the group that hadn’t approved this contract to begin with. That is a huge concern for her. In thinking about the year and we have a situation where we haven’t though we are not required to, but we haven’t gone out to bid to see what else there is currently for this year and that process for 2 expiration hasn’t taken place for this year and we’re in a situation where according to the report that was given last year that Methuen is higher than 95% of the communities in the Commonwealth for our tonnage of trash, which is extreme. A 3.6% increase on our contract is a small increase in comparison to last year and in comparison to the increased tonnage. She feels that her decision of supporting this is made from a financial standpoint of looking at the Mayor’s plan to try to redo this in the next year, wanting something temporary and from a financial standpoint of the 3.6% increase vs. what we would get if we are asking somebody to start all over. She recalled when we switched from one trash company to another in 2018 because we were on the losing side of that vote. It took a long time for all the streets to get sorted out. It took half a year for them to even get used to that process and to develop their own routes and for things to be moving a little more smoothly. Her concern would be for us to go through that whole process for it to just be a year and not be assured that its going to be 3.6% increase or less. She feels like she is between a rock and a hard place. There’s not really a good vote here that she sees, but she will be voting in favor of it because of the financial risks that she sees here. Chairman Saba, assuming that Council approves this tonight, he knows that there’s more to it than just putting it out to bid next year. You are looking at different options. “Are we going to be beginning that soon?” Mayor Perry responded, yes, in all candor we already have begun it. We’ve done two of the steps and are the point where we have to have a public hearing. Then we have to weigh the options and come back to Council to talk to you about, based upon what the residents tell us and what the options are. For example, the initial feedback has been that a lot of the residents would like to see recycling every week. That is a recuring theme. We, as a group, have to understand there is a cost associated with that. He has the job that they have to come back to Council after a public hearing. If we verify that’s what people want, we have to quantify the cost and come back to you and say “here’s the cost of doing a program like that”. That is just one element of the many that is underway. So, its already started. They couldn’t finish it in time. Chairman Saba judging by what people see, we have one Councilor not here, so it is going to be a close vote. The last time when Council approved this contract a couple of years ago, it was at the last minute. He understands the Mayor is trying to get everything done here, but it was at the last minute and the only thing worse than a few phone calls is if we don’t have trash pickup the first week of July. That is something to consider. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 2 no (Clr. McCarty, Clr. Zeigler), 1 absent (Clr. Faretra) C-21-46 Waste Management of Londonderry, Inc., 26 Liberty Drive, Londonderry, NH 02053 for Hauling & Processing of Construction & Demolition Related Material – One Year Contract FY’22 $175.00 per ton MOTION BY: Councilor Zeigler, seconded by Councilor DiZoglio to approve. Councilor Finocchiaro to the Mayor – this award was based on competitive bids. It was for a renewal for one year. “Is it a similar situation to the last, that we did not go through this process for this year?” Mayor Perry responded, that’s correct. Councilor Finocchiaro noted this is something that is exempt under state law regardless. One concern that I do have is the level of increase that we have here. This contract is an increase of 37.5% (from FSO). If you look half way through the packet you can be able to see the rates for tonnage go up a couple of dollars each year. It goes from $127.30 per ton rate for the current fiscal year to $175.00 per ton rate. That is an increase percentage that she can’t live with. She 3 would rather see the city take a pause and figure things out rather than pay 37.5% increase, even if it is just for one year. One thing that she has been concerned about is often times throughout the entire time, the past few years, we’re told alright this is for one year and then the plan gets pushed back or that new amount becomes the forever amount that we build off of. 37.5% increase is not something that she can live with. Councilor Simard to the Mayor – Councilor Saba mentioned it a few months ago as far as going up on our fees at the Transfer Station. He asked if that has been implemented. Mayor Perry responded, no. He will be coming to Council with that in July. Councilor Zeigler questioned the performance rider, which was issued on November 1st of 2018, but the effective date it has is May 12th 2020. She asked if that was standard. Solicitor Rossetti said he doesn’t see an issue with this. Councilor McCarty said he has spoken to people in the community and outside the community who are builders and developers, small residential. They mentioned that there’s not a lot of places that accept construction debris and Methuen is one of those hidden gems if you are in that trade. Some of these individuals from outside the community wouldn’t mind paying a higher fee in order to drop off their debris. Just something to consider. There is an opportunity to get money on construction debris. Historically in Methuen, a lot of our fees are 25 years old without being adjusted. You know firsthand with your salary. Having a discussion with maybe DPW and seeing if there is any opportunity to increase the rates for people outside Methuen and give them that access. Councilor Saffie said she is curious how often this is happening if they’re picking it up from the transfer station, monthly or weekly. Mayor Perry said he didn’t know their schedule. Councilor Saffie said she is trying to get a feel if Council didn’t approve this, if we had more of a buffer opposed to trash and recycling for residents. Mayor Perry said he will provide the information to Council. Chairman Saba said this seems a little different from the others where we had a two-year deal. He asked if this is a new contract extension. He asked if this price was quoted in the original contract. Mayor Perry responded it was not included. Chairman Saba asked if the Mayor knew the reason it jumped so high in cost. Mayor Perry responded, no. Chairman Saba said some of the other councilors mentioned we have been on this for a while, turning that into a potential profit. But he doesn’t know what that does for the price going from $127 to $175. He is torn on whether or not Council should be approving this or whether or not he wants to approve it or not tonight. If Council doesn’t it will build up. We don’t have a lot of time. Council has another meeting coming up in a week and a half. He is curious if the city tried to negotiate this price or not. Mayor Perry said they definitely did and believes the price is related to the fact that it is one year vs. trying to go out multiple years. The city budgeted Council approved for FY’22 includes this price, the 37% increase. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 5 yes, 3 no (Clr. Finocchiaro, Clr Saffie, Clr. Simard) 1 absent (Clr. Faretra) C-21-47 E.L. Harvey & Sons, Inc., 68 Hopkinton Road, Westboro, MA 01581 for Recycling Collection & Hauling and Disposal Services – Year 1 Ext. FY’22 MOTION BY: Councilor Zeigler, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS yes 4  Contract: C-21-48, Valerio, Dominello & Hillman, LLC, Contract NTE $20,000 for legal services in FY 2022. MOTION BY: Councilor Zeigler, seconded by Councilor Beauregard to approve. The Methuen City Council will vote to enter into Executive Session, with the Mayor and legal counsel for the City, in accordance with Exemption 3 (Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A, Section 21(a)(3)), in order to discuss strategy with respect to pending and potential litigation, where an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the body and the Chair so declares. Following the conclusion of the Executive Session, the City Council will adjourn and not re-enter into open session. MOTION BY: Councilor Zeigler, seconded by Councilor Simard to enter into Executive Session and not return to open session. Councilor Finocchiaro stated for the record that while there are numerous pending and potential litigation that Council could speak on, she’s not aware of the specific item that Council is discussing today. However, she will vote in favor to go into Executive Session to find out. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: UNANIMOUS yes. The Council entered into Executive Session at 6:15 p.m. and did not return to open session. COUNCIL CLERK . 5