City Council

METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. Chair Zeigler called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: Clr. Saba, Clr. Saffie, Clr. Simard, Clr. Beauregard, Clr. Faretra, Clr. Finocchiaro, Clr. McCarty, and Chair Zeigler. Clr. DiZoglio arrived a few minutes thereafter. Acceptance of the Agenda MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to accept. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS Pledge of Allegiance/Invocation/Moment of Silence Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance and remained standing for the Invocation given by Chair Zeigler. Organizational Business - None Reading and Acceptance of Minutes from Previous Meetings • October 2, 2023 Regular Meeting MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. UPON VOTE: 7 yes, 1 present (Clr. Finocchiaro) Proclamations/Correspondence: None Consideration of Appointments: William Forbes – Community Development Board MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Beauregard to approve. Councilor Finocchiaro asked how the Mayor found this individual. Mayor Perry explained he is a longtime east end resident. He worked with him at Raytheon for four years and recently retired. Mayor Perry said he saw him at a store recently. He expressed an interest in serving on a board or commission, applied, and was put through the interview process. Councilor Finocchiaro asked if that would be difficult or an issue with him serving on a board. Mayor Perry explained individuals are not appointed to express the will of the Mayor. The Mayor does not interfere. There is a process to be followed. He does not see a conflict of interest. He sees him as a well-qualified individual for the Community Development Board UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Dominique Pierre-Louis – Constable MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. Councilor Simard asked what standards apply to constables regarding arrest. Deputy Chief Haggar explained there has been confusion in standards. He recently learned adjustments have been made to CMR guidance. There are two types of action: service of paperwork and the other is making an arrest on what courts provide. If a constable wishes to serve paperwork, they do not have to be fully certified. If they make an arrest, they must be certified, supervised, and fall under MPD. Arrests is a liability to officers. This is only for 1 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. service of paperwork. The constable will be notified it is paperwork only. The appointment comes under authority of the Mayor. MPD does a background check. There are no issues regarding this individual. Councilor Finocchiaro asked the Mayor how this individual happen to be recommended. Mayor Perry explained the individual applied, was interviewed, and had to have many lawyers recommend him as well. He served in Haiti. There is no prior relationship. If anything is amiss, the Mayor indicated he would take appropriate steps. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. William Goodman, MD, MPH – Reappointment to Board of Health MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. Councilor Finocchiaro asked for confirmation this individual has been on the board since 2020. Mayor Perry confirmed. This individual is a re-appointment. It is necessary to have a doctor on the Board of Health. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Presentations/Projects/Department Updates October Community Foundation Award- Randy Allen The Loop Mayor Perry read and presented the October Foundation Award to Randy Allen – The Loop. All the events the city hosts one of their partners is The Loop. This individual stepped up each time we needed him. Fourth of July and tree lighting were events done at The Loop year after year, coordinated with the city facilities. Randy Allen said he is very grateful. He thanked the Mayor, the Council, City of Methuen, and Lexington Realty. The Loop will support all events. He commented the city could not have a better group of staff. MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to declare a brief recess. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS Chair Zeigler called the recess meeting back to order. Members present: Clr. Saba, Clr. Saffie, Clr. Simard, Clr. Beauregard, Clr. Faretra, Clr. Finocchiaro, Clr. McCarty, Clr. DiZoglio and Chair Zeigler. Public Participation Mike Welch, Nelson Avenue, thanked the Council for addressing this. He has been trying to figure out what happened. The staff at city hall, Anne Drouin, Nancy Hudson, and Steve Gagnon have been very helpful. Mayor’s Report OPEB Presentation – Request of Councilor Finocchiaro CAFO Duprey explained this can be a very complicated matter. She is trying to provide information on a higher level. She emailed Councilors the presentation in front of Council right now. She has also included multiple documents with it trying to give more information that she will not necessarily go through all of it tonight. She has asked that it be posted on the agenda for tonight. Other Post-Employment Benefits – the city currently administers a single employer defined health care plan and provides it as a lifetime benefit to our employees. Currently, this is 2 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. available to our active, any of our retirees, and/or their spouses. The liability we are talking about tonight is really the future costs of what that benefit now looks like. What is OPEB is a benefit that the state and local governments provide to their retirees, outside of the pension. The pension liability is a separate thing, that has already been included in our financial statements because they do separate audits, etc. This all the other benefits: health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, all. It can be several things. The most common, by far the largest, is health care. There is a small amount of life insurance as well, but she is going to focus on health insurance because that is 99% of what the city provides. That is included in this liability. This liability is disclosing our long-term financial outlook of what that liability is going to do for the city long-term. We have retirees that may retire at 55 or 60 and then they live until 90 or 100. The city must pay for their health insurance for that entire period. “And what does that look like?” “And what does that cost the city?” Right now, we are equal, if not heavier on the retirees as far as our health insurance goes. The city is technically paying for more retirees’ health insurance than active employee health insurance. That has been ticking up and ticking up and right now we are at max. That is a lot of people we are currently paying insurance for. This is basically the estimated cost of what the city is obligated to pay its employees after they retire, before death, aside from pension. That is as basic as she can make that. We are basically trying to estimate. There are tons of assumptions that go into that estimate and that is where this gets really complicated. She has included, with the attachment that she emailed everybody, our most recent actuary evaluation that does detail all of our assumptions: what we have included in order to get that number, tonight she is going to talk in general. Our calculation that we use is done by an outside actuary. This is not a calculation that she comes up with in her office. This is something that we use a certified, independent actuary to calculate. Her department works with them as far as getting them tons and tons of data from our active and retirees; everything from age, to how much service everybody has because they are projecting out when people are going to retire and how long they are going to live. That is all included in this liability number by statute that we need to have an independent actuarial audit every two years. In the off year, we must review those estimates and make sure that we are still comfortable with that. The city outsources that every year. We have an actuary do the full audit every two years, but we also have the actuary reviewed annually. It is an outside review of these and making sure that we are where we should be with the general standard with investment, etc. There is a slide that says Liability Factors – where we fall in all of these is in that detailed report emailed. But things that go into coming up with this liability number, interest on investment trends, long-term rate of return, health care cost trends, inflation, retiree and active participation in the health plan, marital status, age based mortality schedules, pre vs. post 65 retirement. At 65 it shifts over to Medicare, so it changes a little bit. And then funding of the liability. “What is the city doing, if anything to fund this because as we put money into our trust, that will offset out liability. The next page is the number that we are looking at, which is massive. OPEB liability, other liability, is just under eight million two hundred dollars. Just as the perspective we have currently funded $520,000 of that. We are .2% funded, which is very low but not abnormal. There are communities that are fully funded. That is not our typical situation. However, we are in the lower end of what she would like to see. We should have a plan in place where we are continuously funding this so that we have a goal in mind for when we can have it fully funded. We should have a policy in place that’s says “this is the goal, this is how much we are going to put forward, this is how we are going to fund it, how much we are going to fund it, etc. She does not have the plan for Council right now, but it is something that we need to be thinking about and need to get in place. 3 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. Mayor Perry said it is also the reason why, with our Free Cash where it is, we would not spend willy nilly because we must start paying into this eventually. CAFO Duprey said we have spent the last four years getting everything in line to where it should be. We are finally in a good place where it is appropriate, and it really has not been appropriate to start funding this when we do not have reserves for all of these other things. But we are finally getting to a place where we are able to have these conversations to say “how are we going to get after this long-term?” just so the Council is aware of what the requirements are for retiree health benefits. They must be fully vested and receiving a pension through our retirement system or the Mass Teachers Retirement. This number includes the School Department and all the retired teachers, etc. If they are 65 years old or older, they must apply for Medicare and enroll in a supplemental plan. If you see Medex anywhere, that is our medical plan for those retirees who are on Medicare, our supplemental plan. They are currently paying 24% and the city is paying 76% of those costs. If they are not Medicare eligible, whether they are too young or they do not meet one of the other eligibility requirements, they are on our regular active employee benefit plan. They are getting the regular Blue Cross/Blue Shield that our active employees are getting. They use that percentage as far as the contribution goes. Spouses of retirees are entitled to remain on the city health benefits after the death of the retiree. If one of our employees has retired, dies, their spouse can remain on until they pass. The next slide is Utilization. She wanted to show what she mentioned earlier that the active to the retiree number. The retiree number is higher than our active employees. When you can retire at 55 or 60 years old, you have that retiree number just keeps climbing. It is a little bit off tilt from where we have seen it in the past. That is where the trend is going. Most importantly is “What’s next?” she has already spoken to this a little bit. We need to review what our retiree contributions are. when she started, the retiree contributions were an 80/20 split. She has been working with our insurance company and the health commission that we use from all the different unions and we have slowly been moving that in the direction of getting to 75/25 as a more reasonable split. We have gone from 20 to 24% over the last four or five years. It is about a percent a year is what we have been trying to move up to and our goal is really hopefully in the next year and that we will get up to that 75/25 shortly, which helps with this liability number because it is less on the city to pay. It is still a very reasonable contribution split with a very robust plan the retirees can access. The second piece is funding the trust. It is just figuring out how we fund it because funding that trust helps to mitigate the long-term costs. It reduces our impact inflation. What is happening right now is we are paying as it happens. If someone retires now, we must pay that whole amount. She provided an example. If someone retires right now and we must pay $150,000 for their health insurance fees. We must pay $150,000 now. The taxpayer is going to have to foot that bill. What we want to get to is that pre-funding this so that as we go along we’re funding it slowly so that taxpayers are only paying $80,000 of that $150,000 over time, but we are investing it as we go and twenty years later the taxpayer has only paid $80,000 of it and we now have investment income of $70,000. We are still paying the $150,000 but the taxpayers are only footing $80,000 of it. That is the goal. That is why it is important to start funding now so that we can invest that and to decrease this liability to the taxpayers later. We’ve gotten really far in changing our practices and there’s a lot of things, not just for this, there’s a lot of other things that we really need to start documenting and policies that are approved by the Council so that the future Councils and Mayors and CAFOs have these goals in mind and a path forward that is documented. The documented she provided via email is this presentation. It is a detail of the enrollment in our health benefits, active and retirees, a copy of the most recent independent 4 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. actuarily report, a trial balance report of our funds just to show where we are at. Also provided is a best practices excerpt from the Mass Municipal Association on specific managing OPEB monies and a GFOA which is Government Finance Office Association on best practices on sustaining funding practices for OPEB. There is a lot of good information there. She does not think it needs to be read to Council tonight. She wanted to provide resources especially with coming up on having these discussions over policies, it will be a good resource for everybody. Councilor Finocchiaro thanked the CAFO for all the information provided. She asked that this item remain on the agenda for the next meeting. Once the Council has a chance to review the documents, if anyone has any questions, they can revisit this. In 2018 she asked the auditor for understanding of our position for OPEB and it was similarly quite high. It was very concerning. She was not aware that a bunch of other very concerning financial things were about to happen that year. That unfortunately deflected the focus on that financial issue. It affects us in more ways than not just it being an unfunded liability, but it is something that as far as bonds and other things they have been increasingly saying okay, giving everyone a chance to get caught up. Now they are starting to look at this unfavorably and that will only escalate as other communities have gotten their OPEB sort of in order. When she first asked for Council to have this discussion it was before the budget season. Her reasoning for that is because obviously the larger that our budget grows, the less money we have towards OPEB. It is a relevant discussion that we should be continuously having. She is glad that Council is having it now and hopes that the next Council will stay focused on this as well. It sounds like such an overwhelming problem that sometimes some communities tend to ignore it, but this is the kind of thing that really could start to hurt Methuen short and long-term if we do not start addressing it. For her, she thinks that we need to do some catch up so in looking at a policy to her anything less than a million a year at least for a period is going to be such a small amount. She created a group for the Greater Lawrence Tech where they started doing their OPEB when she was on that board. They fortunately had a smaller liability, and they were able to put more towards it, so those percentages looked better and they made a policy where it was funded every single year and just included in their operating budget. it does not actually get to a point where you say okay, in five years we are going to make it, but it was enough movement where they at least felt like they were going somewhere even though very slowly. When you are looking at over two hundred million dollars in debt, it is hard to go anywhere fast with that but she feels strongly about the number being one million or higher at least for a term to do some catching up so we can get some stability in the percentages and not be in the lower portion of communities with this. She looks forward to working with you on creating a policy on this. She asked if we thought about numbers. “Have we thought about next year?” CAFO Duprey responded that she has not put numbers together. We have not talked about next year’s budget. It is on our radar as far as going forward. We need to figure out what that looks like and then have it blessed by the Council. Mayor Perry commented that people tend not to look at this side of the coin. The CAFO mentioned a member from every union is on a panel. The CAFO must present, “here is what we want to do”, from a health insurance standpoint. Health insurance is not unique to the City of Methuen. Everybody is getting beaten to death – the gap there is rising. We have tried to incrementally increase. While we don’t have a number to give you tonight, he could tell Council for the employees watching that we would want to increase it again and that’s only fair because eventually there is the point we are going to have to pay. There are many different ideas we have not discussed them yet. But we would present them to that panel and listen to their concerns. 5 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. They have valued concerns too, with the cost of inflation and all those other things – health insurance hits them in the same pocket it hits the city in. It makes for good discussion, but they will come back to Council with a number. Chair Zeigler asked how long the city has been using this actuarily firm to present us with estimates. CAFO Duprey said he is somebody that does a very good job and knows what he is doing. She does not know who the city used prior to that, but that is who she has been using since she started. Chair Zeigler said she asked because every now and then it is healthy for us to look at other firms for any audits, any estimates that we have. If there is an opportunity to review that, that would be healthy for us. Several years ago when she was on the Finance Committee, they started talking about fiscal policies and that conversation went back and forth and didn’t really go anywhere and you brought up the fact that you would like to see some policies come out of the Council to help with some of this. “What are some of the initial policies that you’d like to see?” “Is there anything that would be beneficial that we take up within the next couple of months?” CAFO Duprey explained there are four: Free Cash – we should have a policy around what our balance is, what we want them to be once they are over a certain threshold – what should we be doing? What is the best use of those funds? Stabilization – stabilization is probably the easiest one that we could do because we have already put that into practice. We really need to document what we are doing and what our plan is. This is important to at least get it pen to paper with a plan. This is something that the bond agencies are looking at more and more now and just for them to see that we are having a plan going forward is going to make a difference even if it is not a huge funding effort up front. The last one would be debt. That is going to be an easy one because it is something that we have been working towards, talking about every budget season, at financial committee meetings. We have a debt ratio plan. We have a goal, and we have a way to get there. It is just documenting it and setting that pen to paper and getting the policy approved. Some of these are just having time to do it. Then having the discussion between administration and the Council, making sure we are all on the same page and then documenting it. Some of these are easier than others but those are the four we could get after easily and that are most important to get after. Mayor Perry reported he has drafted Free Cash and Debt policies some time ago. He is happy to re-review them with the CAFO, then provide them back to the Council because those are the two that he could see where we want to go. The Stabilization could be done easily as well. This one would require a little bit more discussion and more thought and at the risk of touching the third rail this is the reason you do some of the things you do, to defray some of the costs. We cannot keep doing everything the same way we are doing it and expect financial matters to improve. They have taken jumps in some cases on many programs that are specifically targeting reduction in expenditures to get us there. It would be good to get the two drafts to the Council before the November Council meeting and then we can sit and talk about the other two. Chair Zeigler announced the OPEB presentation will be on the agenda for the upcoming meetings. CAFO Duprey commented that four years ago they were worried about covering the problems that we had. These have been on a post-it notes in her office of things we need to get 6 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. after. There is no way that they could have even talked about it because we were in such a bad place. It is super exciting they are having this conversation. Request of Councilor DiZoglio Information on Sober Home on Dedham Street Request of Councilor Saffie – Quincy Street Kelly Townsend explained the city received a complaint. Once they got there, they were refused entry. That is their right. If the city wants to move forward with that complaint, we must take them to court to gain access. The same thing with Dedham Street. Unless the city has a complaint, they can answer by going there. If they do not have cause such as a housing or code violation, they do not have authority just to show up and tell them to let the city in. Councilor DiZoglio – so you are confirming that Dedham Street is a home. Kelly Townsend said they do not know. They cannot get in. Councilor DiZoglio asked if the state should be telling the city about these properties they are purchasing. He understands that this is a protected situation but when they are putting it in residential space like Dedham Street, off Riverview Blvd. The property is three lots. They sold off two lots and didn’t notify the other homeowners that bought the properties adjacent to them that this was going to be a home and when gas is being installed and turned on, this is where all these conversations of this home being utilized for this. He asked: “Are real estate agents supposed to produce that information?” “Is anyone accountable here on notifying the city or the abutters?” Mayor Perry indicated if they are pulling the right paperwork when they are making modifications to the existing structure, they would do that through the building inspections. Any modification to code or otherwise is going to come through the inspections department. They have rights too. We are proceeding down a path that says, “you know we are going to go to court with them and say we need to get in there”. We need to get in there because we want to make sure there is no liability on the city. That is really the large premise for what we are doing here because – to make sure – you remember the discussion on Quincy Street was that they had cut bedrooms out of half rooms and things of that nature. We must follow a process. That process says in the absence of somebody who is a neighbor on Dedham Street filing a complaint, we must go to court. Councilor DiZoglio said the state nor these organizations do not have any responsibility of notifying the city that they are setting up shop. Mayor Perry said he does not believe that Dedham Street is state. Kelly Townsend – no. Even though Quincy Street was certified, not by us and not any longer by state, we have some other programs in there. We have key program in town and yes, they have come to us because it is more under rooming house sort of rules. But, unless the city has a specific complaint from one of the neighbors, they cannot go there and expect them to let the city in. Councilor DiZoglio said he wants to understand if it is an active site and if there were any responsibilities by real estate or any of the abutters that bought those lots to be notified of what was going in there next door. Mayor Perry said there is a responsibility to notify the city whenever you change a structure, any code irregularity in the structure, adding a room, adding an entrance or egress. Those are all things that require coordination through the building inspector’s office. Whether they did that, he will check that. If a resident on Dedham Street or a resident nearby filed a 7 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. complaint, i.e., not enough smoke alarms in the building, the city can legitimately send the fire department there and inspect for that specific thing. They cannot wander around and take notes, but they can look for specifics in the complaint. Barring that, the city must go the court route and it is lengthy and difficult. Kelly Townsend said if we are getting reports from the neighbors that they are seeing unrelated folks living there, that would be another reason. If there is a lot of traffic of individuals going in and out of the property, then we can assume that there are people living there that are not related. There is a limit to how many non-related people can live there. Sober homes are tough. They are not regulated very well by the state. She does not know what is going on in this home but in her experience with them, it is tough. Councilor DiZoglio commented when you have a neighbor who buys an $800,000 home that is new construction, not being notified about certain things being abutted to their property, with the same construction happening next door, there is something “buyer beware” for some people. Kelly Townsend explained if the city can see that there is not related living there, the city can go out. Councilor DiZoglio reiterated it is all new construction. Councilor Saffie so Quincy street is still up and operating? Kelly Townsend – when the city went to the front door, they said no that they did not have anybody living there. The city officials know from talking to people that individuals do live there. This is one that the city did tell them that we were going to go to court to gain access. Councilor Saffie asked if there is an update from the police department. She had originally started this concern with the police department, and they were very responsive. Deputy Chief Haggar explained MPD went to Kelly, Kelly gave them the reference for the state who runs everything. It is a very frustrating situation. There are homes throughout the entire city, whether they are sober homes or DYS locked facilities that people are not aware of. There is one on Milk Street at the corner of Veterans Park. It is a locked juvenile facility that has high-risk kids in there. They are all over town. There are half-way houses, and the police cannot just go and knock down doors to see what is going on in there. We do what we can. We can knock on the door. They can try to encompass a conversation to find out what is going on, but individuals are under no duty to speak to the police. As they learned in Quincy Street issue with the decision that came down, the police are very limited, even talking publicly about what maybe going on inside there. They always try to go with the health and human services department to try to figure it out. The police department has zero authority on those houses unless they are called there for someone screaming inside. Then they can go in and find out what is going on for health and safety of the person in there. But, the avenues to get in there are through inspections and when they hopefully trigger these licensing issues within the city. It is frustrating from them. Councilor Saffie indicated she is okay with taking this item off the agenda, for now and bring it back up in a couple of months for an update. Mayor Perry suggested leaving it on the agenda for update with the courts. Request of Councilor Faretra – Transfer Station Monies – Mayor Perry indicated he sent information to the Vice-Chair via email. The Vice-Chair said once the software is available, they would be able to provide more detail. 8 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. Nelson Avenue – Mayor Perry indicated the city is sealing Nelson Avenue – He does not hold a lot of hope that will do tremendous repair to the street. The bigger question for all of us and this is on him. He had an initial discussion with the Solicitor. Both he and the Mayor have been busy. The city put four million dollars in the Capital Improvement Plan. The question is “Can we use any of those funds for unaccepted ways?” if the answer is “no” that is going to be very problematic for us because we have twenty-nine miles of unaccepted ways in the city. We have got to get at them somehow. He plans to speak to the Solicitor this week. Councilor Faretra referred to an email sent by the Solicitor regarding the process and how it is a long process. He does not buy it. He does not care if it is a long process. All the citizens of Methuen deserve more. Just because people in the past decided to drop the ball, it does not mean this gentleman here and other people must suffer because of that. As much as this gentleman was very complimentary of yourself and other people, we need to find out what happened because at some point the project was finished and people are allowed to drive on this road and you get to that complex at the end of his road. He is driven down that road a few times since he has been here. Luckily, he has a truck because if he drove his daughter’s 2003 beetle it would probably be totaled. This is a situation he also brought up, the purchase of Branch Street. Branch Street is unapproved. “What happens as that road deteriorates as we drive school buses and staff try to go to school, they are driving on an unapproved way to get to a building that we own. We need to start figuring this out and just because it’s a long process, doesn’t mean we get to kick the can down the road and pass it on to the next Mayor or the next Council or the next Solicitor. We do not have to go through all 500 plus miles. We need to understand the ones that are the issues and start attacking those and figure out where the ball is dropped and how do we correct that because it’s just odd that every issue that comes up seems to be an issue. There was Shirley Ave before this. Its Nelson Avenue. It is odd that all the issues happen to come up it is the same. Mayor Perry said one of the things we need to do is stop letting developers finish a property and walk away from it. Ninety-nine out of a hundred times, we go to a homeowner and that has happened the homeowner is not even aware that what they signed is they are responsible for the road. There are properties built in the last two years that the city is leaning on the developer, whether it be a drainage issue or something like that because we think it is in the best interest of the citizens. If the citizens want to make a deal with the developer and then allow the road to be unaccepted. That is incumbent on the city talking to the citizens and making sure they understand what they are signing up for. You own it from the middle of the road in if that happens. He does not think people understand what that means. We are taking a much harder look on any of the developments and what the finishing task is. Quite honestly, a lot of the developers in the past would look at what monies they gave to city as mitigation and they leave it there because it is cheaper for them to leave it there and walk away than it is for them to finish the development. We have got to hold a finer line there. Maybe part of it is increasing the amount of money they put in the fund to start with. He completely agrees and would say “you just want to be careful”. He used the 29 miles because you could go to some sections of the city and there are a mirade of roads that are unaccepted that were former farming roads, etc. There are probably twenty-five of them near Forest Lake. We do have the ability to make some headway here. We have got to do it as a team and determine what roads go first. He highly encouraged Councilors to be the sounding board for that. Otherwise the city is going to pay four million and you are going to have frustrated people because they did not get theirs done. We have got four million a year for the next four years. 9 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. Councilor Faretra said he would like to figure out how the city’s list and Mass DOT’s list do not match. At some point, Mass DOT got a list of streets that were accepted and now somehow, we say they are unaccepted. One would think that list would have come from us as a town or a city. It is going to take time, but for us to just throw our hands up in the air and say “no, it’s a long process, too bad”. We need to fix it so gentlemen like this do not have waste their time every other Monday for three months coming to a meeting. Mayor Perry agreed the city needs a definite list of what is accepted, what is unaccepted, what is private, then here is the baseline and then you move forward from there. Mayor Perry said he gave Council a copy of the letter he sent to the Governor. He opened the letter thanking them for their service in the Commonwealth and then went into the heart of the matter, which is the Day’s Inn. Kudos to Kelly Townsend and the HSSI team who have been burdened. Our police department has been burdened. Our medical, ambulance calls, burdened. That is the key issue here “Do our taxpayers have to bear the cost of that added infrastructure?” His answer is “no”. He wrote this note. He did not expect to receive an answer yet. The Governor will be here in Methuen next Monday at the ribbon cutting at Factorial at 11:00 a.m. He is going to be right there by her side and walk up to her and ask if she read his letter. This is not working. When you can have the Director of HSSI and public health nurse go into a hotel room at 10:30 a.m. and see two adults still lying in bed with kids crawling all over the room, mice on the walls, rodent droppings, we are not helping anybody that way. He met with Phil Lahey earlier today and he brought up an intriguing idea that is said why do not we have some seniors adopt a foster family. He has to think about that for a while. Clearly what is happening is not working. The fire and police will tell you that people are not moving out of there. Nobody is being moved. We have got to do something. This is an opportunity to invite Council to the Factorial Ribbon Monday at 11:00 a.m. where the Governor and the Mayor will speak. Right after the Governor finishes speaking, he intends to tell her he must have an answer here because his constituents should not be forced to pay for this kind of additional labor. There was an additional article in the Eagle Tribune Sunday where the hotel owner basically tells the Tribune do not call here anymore. Do not call here anymore. We do not want to talk to you. He is going to use that in his discussion with the Governor and say, “knowing there is a homeless crisis vs. having an effective plan to address it, are two different things”. This is not working. Council has the letter. There was some discussion about Council signing on, but he did not want to hold it. he wanted to get it in the Governor’s hand before she comes to Methuen. When he sent to her, they listed all the police, fire, and emergency calls. He gave her a packet of the 104 room violations cited by HSSI. We are getting pushback from the agency that is hired by the state. CTI is a managing resource, kind of a middleman, and then you have got the hotel owner. The two companies making money are CTI and the hotel owner. We have got CTI telling us we cannot do inspections this time of day or this time of day. His feedback to Kelly is that is B. The city did an inspection. If the inspections revealed critical issues, then there is a 48 hour turn around on a repeat inspection. That is the code we follow. He has all 104 violations on his desk. Some of them are appalling. He says this not just from a funding standpoint. There is no way we should be letting human beings live like that. It is time to step up and do a little battle with the state. We have got to stand firm and make sure that our voices are collectively counted, and we are talking to them about what is fair to this city. Mayor Perry announced the city is soliciting residents for a Christmas tree. This worked well last year. The city had a resident pick out a tree. The tree was spectacular. He cannot 10 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. believe that on October 16th he is talking about a Christmas tree, but we are. we are asking residents to tell us where the perfect tree is. That has been one spectacular event year after year. Councilor Faretra said he heard the Governor had a press conference to discuss the crisis. He asked if the Mayor heard anything about it. Mayor Perry responded he did not see that. Councilor Faretra said he received an alert on his phone about the press conference. He is guessing there was no substance to it. Mayor Perry said he has been to a multitude of meetings with the state, sitting there saying “there’s a homeless crisis, there’s a homeless crisis”. There is nothing to address the homelessness crisis. Most of the meetings have been with the state. He did not go to that meeting today. Hopefully its different. It has been just us talking that we got a problem and not any fluid plan to address it. That is what he is looking for “what’s the plan?” We are going to sit “in hold” here through the winter and then these individuals are going to get released into the community. That is what happened the last time. They were release to our ball fields, Rail Trail, etc. Our police department, fire, our DPW were doing unmentionable tasks. Councilor Faretra said he did receive an invite today to the Factorial grand opening from someone at Factorial. Councilor Saba said they recently discussed the audit of the school department. He asked if there is an update on a full comprehensive audit. Mayor Perry said he has been working hard on that. It is very different than the other two audits we have done. He would not be remiss to asking the Council for some help. He has looked at other cities who have done it. He is more than happy if the Council wants to put one or two people to work with him. When the city did the police, he worked hand in hand with Councilor Simard. When he wrote the RFP, they went back and forth three or four times just to make sure they had a good product. He would not be against having Councilor Saba or anybody the Council determines to work with him. Councilor Saba indicated he would like to participate. We talked about environmental studies. We are doing that at DPW and at Battye property. The next step to building the new DPW building. He asked for an update on that. Mayor Perry said Weston and Sampson is the company that has been working for the city. Right after the election, we can probably have them come in and give Council an update on what they have been looking at. the only difference on what was done previously with them is we did not point them towards a location. The city did not say it has got to be Battye. We said, look at the site. It must follow these guidelines and determine the best site. They can come in and make a presentation. Councilor Saba indicated there was a meeting on Lorenzo and Arnette Street regarding the constant serious flooding in that whole area. They talked about a camera survey through the pipes and then potentially an engineering design to clear that whole area up. He asked if there are any updates on that. Mayor Perry said he should have a quote on that this week. The camera is to see if the line is broken, ruptured, or blocked. Once he receives the quote, the city will move forward on it. The timeframe would come from them as part of the quote. Councilor Saba said there has been talk about making the restroom at the cemetery ADA compliant. He asked if there is any plan to follow through on that. 11 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. Mayor Perry responded, yes. They have already repaired the employees only bathroom. Director Bower has committed to creating two publicly accessible restrooms in the back from the outside to allow people to have access to them. Councilor Saba – we discussed a reserves policy. If you recall a few years back, with the Finance Committee, we were going to do that and then we put it back to your office. he does not know if they would have time, with this term, to start that again. He will help anyway he can if you think we could start it through the Finance Committee. He is just not sure if they really have time to come up with anything. Mayor Perry indicated they have a draft that came from those meetings. Then other things happened. But he would be happy to bring those and let the full Council or subcommittee of the Council look at it. He has to re-run it by the CAFO. We do have time to at least look at the Free Cash and the Debt ones. He did not draft the stabilization but to him that is one of the most straight forward ones. The last one is the one that is going to take the most time. Councilor Saba said, with the developments, this has been a chronic problem and we have talked about the fact that we must stop the bleeding on building unapproved roads and then dealing with it twenty or thirty years later. To the Solicitor “Is that something we should force through some sort of ordinance of the Council requiring whether its zoning or whatever department it would be that would require those roads be completed to the specs of the city before any occupancy permits can go out to any of those buildings?” Solicitor Rossetti said he would look at it. Councilor Simard said if the city goes out for a new RFP on a new evidence management system, he could be part of it, if the Mayor would like. Mayor Perry expressed his apologies to Councilor Simard. There is absolutely no reason that should have happened last week. He was upset when he saw the meeting. Councilor Simard said there is no need to apologize. It was not the Mayor’s fault. He would be more than happy to help. On the Day’s Inn, he, Councilor Saffie and soon to be Councilor Valley from the West End toured the Day’s Inn last week. CTI was very helpful in accommodating that tour. It was tough getting other Councilors there and there is no doubt in his mind, there is two things. There are service vendors that are getting wealthy and Day’s Inn has turned into a state processing center for the homeless. When they finish and they place people elsewhere it is just going to be a revolving door. It does not seem like there is an end. There is no goal. They are servicing the people there, but it is going to become a processing center. Mayor Perry said the hotel is under standing order from the city, from HSSI, to reduce to 75 families. They are fighting us every step of the way. The room conditions are bad. Councilor Simard said he does not see an end anywhere in sight. The owner is being paid full rate. Councilor McCarty said he had a resident reach out inquiring about Methuen’s Electric Aggregation Program update. Mayor Perry said Methuen is still in que for approval. Joe Cosgrove could come and provide details. Councilor DiZoglio said he watched the press conference which was just a pointing game to the federal side and an appointment of a new emergency shelter for the state which is Lt. General Scott Rice from the International Guard. That is the only update from today. But she did mention that 7,000 families are here in Massachusetts and they are expecting another 500 by the end of month to be processed here in Massachusetts. It is going to be hard to reduce to 75 families at that hotel considering that is a processing plant at this point. On August 3rd, the state 12 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. filed a state of emergency for the homeless crisis and appointed national guard units to certain locations. He would like to know, if we are up 200% on 911 calls to our service, why have not we received any assistance and/or do not qualify for any assistance from the state. Mayor Perry indicated that will be part of his discussion with the Governor. Councilor Faretra requested that an update from the Mental Health Task Force be placed on the agenda. Mayor Perry said it is his intent to come to the Council on thoughts on how we would spend some of the opiate money to get this started. The Mental Health Task Force has done some really good work identifying certain things that will help. One of the things we must be cautious of is not running off with each department doing a different thing. For example, our police department just got a $550,000 grant to put social workers in with the police officers and then they got a $20,000 grant. Those are great things. The Mental Health Task Force needs to make sure it meshes all together. It was his intent to bring forward some preliminary designs on what the city would do educationally and execution wise. Councilor Faretra said it would be great to share that with the public as well to give them an idea of what we are looking to do short-term and long-term as well. Mayor Perry said he would want it to be viewed as a presentation on some thoughts. Whatever we come up with would be a jointly submitted plan because we are going to use a little bit of the opiate money. He is told that is an acceptable use. Councilor Finocchiaro said it was brought to her attention that we do not have monthly vendor reports up to date online or the monthly financials up to date online. The last vendor monthly report that is on there is from May. The last monthly financial report on there is from April. She would like for those to be updated immediately as well as the Clear gov financial transparency site that requires that the information from our budget is put in yearly. The information in there is a few years old. There were two resolutions that require both of those online. That was discussed and important to Council. Clear gov financials was also supposed to include was a report and a presentation to the Council that is sort of a summary of what the impact was of the budget to the residents and just a follow up after the budget process. The way they wrote it was flexible. She wants that done this year so that we are in practice of that for the following years with the next Council. She asked that this be put on as a request for the next meeting. Public Service a. Grants: None b. Licenses: None c. Contracts: C-24-21 Sierra Container Group, LLC, 6160 SW Highway 200 Suite 110, Ocala, FL 34476 for the purchase of 408 65-gallon Trash carts, 403-95 Gallon recycling carts, 403-recycling cart lids Omnia Partners contract #2-149 in the Amount of $48,444.35 MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor Finocchiaro asked if this is the number of people who requested an additional barrel. Mayor Perry explained this is funded with the money brought in from the program. The city wanted to keep 250 carts available for when people need them. He said the contamination rate for recycling is 16% and we want to see it at 10%. He intends to have an ordinance drafted on what happens if people do not follow process. For example, a resident put out two white bags 13 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. with a note they should be considered blue bags for pickup. He noted he does expect to see any large orders after that. Councilor Finocchiaro asked for a summary breakdown of what the city has spent. Mayor Perry said he would also provide how many carts were given to each resident. Councilor Saffie questioned why the city has to purchase lids. Mayor Perry indicated they come in two pieces. The green and the blue are separate. Chair Zeigler said she has had conversations with residents on the waiting list. She asked when these will be received. Mayor Perry explained once the order is placed, he will know delivery. There are only a couple of places that manufacture these. Chair Zeigler said elderly residents are wonder if there are carts smaller than 65 gallons. Mayor Perry said the lids could be switched to 35- gallon carts. DPW has done a terrific job helping seniors get carts to the curb. Some residents want to keep the larger cart too. Sometimes they are difficult to retrieve. Chair Zeigler asked if residents could get an additional recycling cart at no charge. Mayor Perry said yes and noted recycling numbers are up significantly. Chair Zeigler asked what resident should do if their cart is stolen or missing. Mayor Perry indicated they should contact DPW. The city does not question anyone who says the cart was lost or stolen. He urged residents to mark their carts. Councilor DiZoglio asked if the city has looked into getting replacement parts, more lids, more wheels. Mayor Perry said the city has more lids and wheels. DPW will drop off a lid for replacement. Council Saffie asked if it is useful for residents take a picture of carts. Mayor Perry explained the intent was sequential serialized rollout but that did not happen. There were dozens of calls for missed houses. Serial number make it simpler when carts go missing. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. C-24-22 Ti-Sales, Inc., 36 Hudson Road, Sudbury, MA 01776, for Cold Water Meters in the Amount of $75,000 (Second and final extension on original Contract C-22-24 MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor DiZoglio to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Other Officers and Committee Reports: None Unfinished Business Resolutions: None Ordinances: None 14 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. New Business Resolutions: TR-23-53 A Resolution to Provide Tax Relief to Seniors in the City of Methuen Part 1 of 2) (Requested by Mayor Perry, Councilors Beauregard, McCarty, Saffie, and Vice-Chair Faretra MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor Beauregard reported on October 4th the Governor signed a major component allowing cities and towns tax relief initiatives…. In 1987(36 years ago) Council accepted Clause 41C providing property tax exemptions for single residents (earning $23,523) for married couple $27,000 41C allows cities and towns $1,000. Residents are only receiving $750 exemption. The extra $250 could provide seniors with an extra week of groceries or be able afford their prescriptions. After four decades we should do the right thing and adopt the maximum exemption amount. Our Free Cash is higher than ever. We should take care of our residents. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS TR-23-54 A Resolution to Provide Tax Relief to Seniors in the City of Methuen (Part 2 of 2) Requested by Mayor Perry, Councilors Beauregard, McCarty, Saffie, and Vice-Chair Faretra, in Partnership with State Representative Ryan Hamilton MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor Beauregard explained this is directly tied to a package past at the state level which allows cities and towns to establish a work-off program. Seniors volunteer time and in return a tax work off. Seniors receive $500. The maximum level is $1500. Part of the Governor’s package is an increase from $1500 to a maximum level of $2000 that the state provides under the statute. Councilor Saba asked if any seniors are being turned away. Mayor Perry responded some, yes. It depends on the number of jobs available. There is difficulty with funding. Employees work in partnership with the Senior Center. They cannot tell until people apply. Councilor Finocchiaro noted she did not see this on the financial impact statement. CAFO Duprey read an excerpt from her impact statement. Councilor Finocchiaro asked if this could be combined with the $1,000 and what we are going to budget for it. CAFO Duprey responded, yes. How we budget for it is job based. The Senior Center has been great helping to match those together. All we can do is base the impact on what is available, approximately ten positions. That could increase by five or ten. Mayor Perry reported the city is closing the books in FY’23 in excess of four million dollars. He would give Council a list of people we are able to put to work. Council should have that information but not share it. He would not want to embarrass anyone. People are struggling. There are numbers of people HHSI sees that are living in cars that are seniors from Methuen. This a good thing to do to help our seniors. Councilor Finocchiaro commented the city increases taxes by hundreds of dollars. She is concerned with the direction we are heading. For some, this is a small token on that bill. Councilor DiZoglio said there are enough positions that are vacant to fund this. This is a great step going forward. He suggested having this as line item in the budget. Retirements are happening. Mayor Perry explained every dollar added to the budget goes to the taxpayer. Every dollar we have to think through carefully. 15 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. Councilor DiZoglio suggested looking at temporary work, not filling positions. These individuals are taking the opportunity to provide service to the city. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. TR-23-55 Resolution Authorizing Expenditures of $32,000 from the Edwin J. Castle Fund MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. Councilor DiZoglio asked if there are three separate votes. Chair Zeigler indicated it is cumulative. Councilor DiZoglio questioned why the Castle Fund is paying to have a projector installed and if the Superintendent is okay with this. He does not see the full application. Mayor Perry said he did not get an answer. Solicitor Rossetti said Council could table this item. Mayor Perry expressed concern about one of the items associated with the Veterans’ parade. MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor DiZoglio to table. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS TR-23-56 Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of a CY23 Sustainable Materials Recovery Program – Recycling Dividends Program Municipal Grant - $42,000 MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. TR-23-57 Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of a Fiscal Year 2023 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Award of $550,000 MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Saffie to adopt. Councilor Finocchiaro asked how sharing resources with the City of Lawrence would work. She asked if the grant requirements are like CARES grant and if used inappropriately the Federal government could make the city pay it back. Deputy Chief Haggar said his department applied for three grants. This is the first grant that has been awarded. Sheldon explained the City of Methuen is listed as a municipal partner. There is a 30/40 percent match, most is carried in-house. Councilor Finocchiaro said the needs and numbers are much higher in the City of Lawrence. She would like ongoing updates with this grant. Because this is like CARES and AARPA she would like to see dual control, especially with new types of expenses. CAFO Duprey said there is a dual sign off on everything. She has been added with DOJ as an advisor and must certify what they are saying is true. Deputy Haggar stated there is not an issue there. Data is going to be far superior due to Dawn’s expertise. Ordinances: None Any Other Business for the Good and Welfare of the Community Councilor Simard thanked Chair Zeigler and Councilor Finocchiaro for their efforts and help with Methuen Day. 16 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. Chair Zeigler announced there is a Fall Festival on Saturday, October 21st from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Greycourt. Mayor Perry said Halloween will be on October 31st from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to enter executive session. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: UNANIMOUS yes. EXECUTIVE SESSION The Methuen City Council will vote to enter into Executive Session with the Mayor, the Chief of Police of the City of Methuen, Methuen’s Chief Administrative and Financial Officer, and the City Solicitor for the City of Methuen, in accordance with Exemption 5 (Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A, Section 21(a)(5)), in order to investigate charges of criminal misconduct and/or to consider the filing of criminal complaints. After the conclusion of the executive session, the City Council will adjourn and not reconvene in open session. I do hereby certify that at a meeting of which a quorum was present, the foregoing minutes were approved by the Methuen City Council by a unanimous vote on November 9, 2023. Linda Gagnon COUNCIL CLERK 17