City Council

METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA Chair Zeigler called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: Clr. Saffie, Clr. Saba, Clr. Simard, Clr. Beauregard, Clr. McCarty, Clr. Faretra, and Chair Zeigler. Acceptance of the Agenda MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Saffie to accept the agenda. 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. A Moment of Silence was observed for Michael J. Rickard, a Methuen High Graduate in 2022 an employee of the city’s environmental service department. Organizational Business: None Reading and Acceptance of Minutes from Previous Meetings • October 16, 2023 Regular Meeting MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS Proclamations/Correspondence: None Consideration of Appointments: None Presentations/Projects/Department Updates: None Public Participation: A former Emery Street resident stated he has been going crazy trying to find a place to live. He gets the run around from Methuen Housing. He sent emails to Councilor Saba who never received it and one to Mayor Perry and has been dealing with Jessica Finocchiaro. Everybody she talks to has never gotten back to him. There are two hundred plus people at the Day’s Inn who should be in jail not in a hotel paid for by the state. And here he is born, raised, and still living in Methuen his entire life (60 years) and there is no way he should have to be going through this. He has a lot of health problems: seven heart attacks, quintuple bypass, COPD, diabetic, severe depression, and does not know what to do any more. He is hoping Council has an answer. Every place Councilor Saba told him before the meeting he has already been through. He is about to be denied for emergency housing because he did not go to court when the house, he was living in got sold. He lived with a life-long friend for eleven years since his open-heart surgery. She needed to down-size. She sold the house and moved to Laconia, NH. He could not go with her because she downsized. He has been living in his car since August 1 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA 31st. It is not right. He is just now considered elderly. Something needs to be done and all he can do is wait. He has been waiting eight years for Methuen Housing, five years for Section 8, 4 ½ years for the MIVP voucher. There is lottery for that next week. If he goes to the border illegally and comes in, he will get something. It is frustrating. Mayor’s Report OPEB Presentation – Request of Councilor Finocchiaro – no new updates Request of Councilor DiZoglio Information on Sober Home on Dedham Street – the city does not have the right to go in. Request of Councilor Saffie – Quincy Street – Mayor Perry said the city does not have the right to go in there. Request of Councilor Faretra – Recycling Discussion for condominium complexes that had it taken away when new system started – one of his concerns is the policy is not consistent. Chair Zeigler explained Council does not allow back and forth with the public. If they have a question those questions may be posed. But to maintain decorum in the meeting, there is not back and forth discussions. Mayor Perry explained he sat through multiple meetings. Things are being said by people at public participation that are not true. The public needs to realize this. This was not done without the public noticing. The city did a year’s worth of work, surveyed the entire city, had four public speaking engagements that must be put in the newspaper by law. The city did all that and two extra ones and tried to listen to everybody. He agrees with Councilor Faretra. He does not know of any condo association that is getting recycling from the city. If you do, give him the information so he can check it out. There were six condo complexes that were getting it. there are far more condo complexes now in Methuen. When we switched to the program, the decision was “what do we do?” Either you give it to everybody and be consistent or you tailor it. And we decided and we sat with legal. He sat with the people at the state level. The city can’t afford, even in the position we are today, if we start going on a path that says this Council authorizes recycling for all the city, he’s not going to talk about Free Cash anymore because it is going to start tumbling dramatically. If you make the decision to add it to all the condos it is going to be more than six million dollars a year. Councilor Faretra said our trash and recycling line item is five million. He cannot imagine bringing condos on for just recycling will increase that number by 120%. Mayor Perry indicated that is wrong. You must read the whole contract. The contract says you measure the weight even on recycling. Councilor Faretra bringing on 1500 units of recycling does not increase it 120%. The math does not add up. Mayor Perry said if you look at the past three years, how much did we pay last year for trash and recycling? Councilor Faretra responded it was a little over 4.8 million. Mayor Perry indicated 4.8 million is what was originally on the books. The city ended up paying more at the end of the year because of tonnage. That line that is in the contract is a killer. Trash and recycling have gone up exponentially. There is no other way to explain it. He is not 2 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA doing this to hurt a group of people. The bottom line is everybody talks about two things in municipal government. “Why aren’t our taxes lower?” Every time we try to do something to lower the taxes, everybody fights it. You cannot do pot. You cannot do recyclables. You have got to make some changes, or you have got to keep paying an influential rate as the tax goes up. You have got to make changes. He read a report today that said our recycling is now 31%. Our trash has decreased by 4,990 tons this year. That is just one element. That is fact. Curbside recycling has increased by 1330 tons. Our recycling rate was 10% and is now 22%. He understands it is not popular. If Council wants to turn it on for everybody, vote to do it. Councilor Simard commented the whole contention here, if he is not mistaken from a legal standpoint, is it your ruling or the city’s ruling that if we do accept this group that they say is grandfathered in and if they are, he is all for it because it is all about legality and point of law where we could say to the other groups “they’re grandfathered” “here’s the law”. They are covered, you are not. He would have been a green light months ago if Council could do that. Mayor Perry said as soon as Council does that, Emerald Pines will be here, Regency is going to be here and are going to be asking for the same thing. That is what our numbers are based on is “what happens if we get to everybody?” We do not give it to most of these people right now. Councilor Simard said he thinks they have a complaint base where they have something in writing to say: “we’re grandfathered in”. He does not think the others would be eligible and he does not have a problem saying no to them himself and he has. Councilor Rossetti repeated the issue that is called a stopple. He thinks some of the residents may be referring to, in principle, but not in name. A stopple is a principle of equity and fairness, which basically says if you have behaved in a particular way during one sequence of time and then you behave in a different way in a subsequent sequence of time, it is unfair of you to do that because you should be bound by your original course of conduct. The issue here is a municipality such as the city is not bound by the principle of a stopple. And the reason why is because of the greater good of ensuring the common good for the entire community and it also helps to preserve the public Fiske. If a community has been, for example, if a community has been irresponsible in its expenditure of public funds and then says you know what, we are going to stop doing the things that cost us these outlays and we are going to tighten the belt. The city then cannot say well wait a minute you have been irresponsible all this time, you need to continue being irresponsible. A stopple does not apply to municipalities. The city was well within its right legally to stop the recycling program. Chair Zeigler asked the residents at the podium to be seated. A resident kept speaking about twenty years of being able to recycle, etc. Solicitor Rossetti explained just because the city has engaged in a particular course of conduct over a period, does not prevent it from changing that conduct. And you can think of other areas of city management and other departments where it is good that we are not bound by the principle of the stopple. The city’s position is also supported by virtue of the nature of condominium ownership. By virtue of the nature of condominium ownership, individual unit owners together own a fractional interest or share of the common areas. Trying to compare a taxpayer owning a private single-family home vs. a condominium owner is a classic example of comparing apples and oranges. When a unit owner comes into a condominium complex, the unit owner owns what is within the four walls plus what is typically a small percentage of the 3 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA common area. There are exceptions to that with condos of two or three units. A typical example is a mutli-story or mutli-building complexes. It is typically a small fraction of the common elements. And those, upon entering condominium ownership, the unit owner agrees to abide by the Bylaws of the organization. They likewise agree to pay a common area fee for the upkeep of the common areas. The upkeep of the common areas includes removal of refuse. The claim is the city should be continuing to haul away the recycling for complexes for which the city previously hauled away recycling. The problem with that is recycling is embraced under the definition of refuse. Refuse or trash is something you no longer want in your home. Condominium unit owners pay a common fee for precisely the ability to hire a hauler to take away their trash and recyclables and should therefore not be looking for the city to do that for them. Legally, the city is on strong footing to continue to deny hauling recycling from the complexes. Councilor Saba said he keeps getting quoted – the Tribune has properly quoted him on a couple of occasions and for the most part has misquoted him. He has not been able to find any documentation, the minutes of that meeting, where he supposedly quoted the idea of picking up recycling for condos. He recalled that was the first contract that Council had to deal with and it was very controversial and he pushed the issue of stopping the pickup of recycling from some businesses while other businesses were paying and stopping the pickup of trash from some businesses where other businesses were paying. He does not know how the quote got there but he lived in a condo when he first got married and understands they paid through common fees to do trash removal, plowing, etc. For the record, he does not remember ever saying that. He does not believe he would have said it. And it was most likely taken out of context. If someone could find that, he would like to see it. Councilor McCarty said a majority of this Council is in the lameduck stage and a majority of it being five and with five new Councilors coming on within the next sixty days or so he thinks that body would be better suited to take that decision, if there is a decision to be made. He does not feel comfortable making that decision on his way out of office whether the vote goes one way or the other, he does not think it would be right for a majority of people to make a decision like that. Obviously, it is a big decision. He would ask that in January, the five new members come in, they become informed enough to make that decision. Chair Zeigler recapped the conversation. There was a decision that was made to cease pickup of recycling at these six condominium complexes. There were representatives from those complexes that presented before Council a couple of times with research and position to encourage the Council and Mayor to re-instate the pickup of the recycling. There is a decision before the Council as to whether we forward this conversation, whether that comes up with legislation, ordinance, what have you, or it is put off until the next Council comes in to make a decision. That is what we were discussing today. Its customary that there is not a back and forth with the public while we appreciate the public for being here, the point of which there is a discussion or presentations can be made is during public participation. It is up to the Council if there is a decision to put something forward that could be discussed by the Council in the form of legislation. If not, then it will be taken up by the next Council that was elected Tuesday. Mayor Perry explained that recycling is not $17 flat. The city changed all that. Some people are throwing a lot more away on recycling days. That must be acknowledged. He mentioned the numbers. We went up a significant percentage. The second part of that that he’d 4 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA ask the Council to keep in mind for discussions after, and he’s happy with that, is you can say it’s not four million/six million, you’re no counting how many condos in Emerald Pines, how many condos in Regency. That is just the two biggest. There are twelve others across the city that are not currently getting recycling services. His recommendation is consistency. When the new Council steps in, the city will execute whatever they decide. A resident handed Councilor Saba a document. Clr. Saba indicated that is the Tribune story and they misquoted him. He commented the Chair lost control of the meeting. Request of Councilor Faretra – to add Christmas Tree curbside pickup – Councilor Faretra indicated he had a conversation with the Superintendent yesterday and is unsure if the Mayor had any conversations with him. His intent was using the packer truck to pick up Christmas trees. In theory, it sounds great. The packer truck then crushes Christmas trees and therefore makes then unusable. The Superintendent explained that he would like to continue the drop offs. If there is any citizen out there who has an issue with getting their Christmas tree to one of these three drop offs, use seeclickfix or call DPW. The city would be more than happy to accommodate them to get their Christmas tree using a different vehicle. Unfortunately, the packer truck cannot be used to get the Christmas tree because then you cannot use the chipper with them. it defeats the purpose. As much as he would like to bring the service back, we cannot use the trucks for that purpose. DPW is more than willing to help any citizens who cannot get their tree to one of these locations or does not use the boy scouts or one of the other organizations as a fund raiser. As we get closer to the holidays, he is sure they will share more information on how that can be done. They are willing to work with anybody who needs to get their tree to one of these locations that does not have the ability or want to put it in their vehicle to get to one of the locations. Mental Health Task Force Update – Councilor Faretra said this is something that he usually does not do, but something on social media irked him and he wants to set the record straight. When the Mayor was on medical leave in early March, he reached out to Acting Mayor Beauregard with an idea he had to create a Mental Health Task Torce after the city lost its second young man to suicide in a short time. He spoke to the Fire Chief, the Police Chief, John Crawford at the High School, after speaking to the then Acting Mayor to see if they would all be on board. After to speaking to all of them, then he brought it to the Mayor’s attention about this idea and he was on board. They got the ball rolling and since then they have had meetings. In September they had another meeting where he came up with a possible funding source to help this community go forward without an impact to the bottom line would not hit the budget. In October, Mayor Perry put something out on social media about how the Mayor founded the Mental Health Task Force without any mention of him. Usually he doesn’t put himself out there as usually doesn’t toot his own horn, but he took that one personally because he put a lot behind the scenes for that and doesn’t look for that recognition, but for the one that put all that effort to get this going and for someone to take 100% of the credit really felt like a shot there. Mayor Perry offered his apologies and noted he did not take 100% of the credit. He is pushing the Mental Health Task Force. It was there waiting. He was unaware of the discussions with Councilor Beauregard. He was thrilled to have Councilor Faretra on board and his ideas are great. He had hoped to bring a spending profile to Council tonight but that got messed up by one 5 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA of the grants the city received. The city received a police force grant for $550,000. He was all set to bring Council a contract with Care Solace and that was an extension of work we are doing at the high school and how we could use it for the adults in our community. It is kind of a clearing house for Mental Health. There are probably twenty-five, twenty-six people on that Mental Health Task Force all of whom are participating. Councilor Faretra has an idea that they are going to bring to Council. The Mayor said he fully supports it. It is a great idea because they are looking to come to Council next meeting if they can get the Care Solace contract cleaned up to talk about the first things, they want to do this year. Council heard the first speaker who is one of many. When the Governor came to Factorial, he talked to her at length about the fact that Methuen needs help. We are in trouble here not just from the Day’s Inn perspective, but every day we are meeting hundreds of people like that. We have no place to put them. He apologized again. To him this is for the benefit of all the residents. This is not something he is doing just for his edification to put his name on it. It is not going to have the Neil Perry Task Force when it is done. When it is done, hopefully we will be more successful with our mental health issue which is out of control. He sits in the monthly police meetings where they look at everything that happens in the city of Methuen. Two-thirds of everything on there is mental health. Chief McNamara agreed. Mayor Perry commented either we are going to do something about all of this, or it is going to blow up all around us. Yesterday he got a call Tuesday night, an election congratulation calls at 11:05 that woke him up. One was from the Governor. He still had the wits to say she promised him at Factorial Monday she would find time to talk to him about Day’s Inn. “I need time”. Again, his apologies he never meant to make it his own. He wished Councilor Faretra would have come to him beforehand instead of doing this at a meeting. Councilor Faretra indicated he sent the Mayor two messages. Request of Councilor McCarty - Electric Aggregation Program Inquiry Councilor McCarty said the genesis of this was he knows we have had gentlemen in here maybe six months ago or so about aggregating our electric to try to get locked into a cheaper rate. He knows the price of electricity is obviously unconscionable at this point. He saw that the City of Haverhill was able to lock in an aggregate their community at a cheaper rate. It does not make electricity cheap but cheaper than it is. He is trying to look at “how do we get a better rate for our community?” Mayor Perry indicated he has called at least once a week. He noted there are some towns that have been waiting over four years which is unconscionable. The more noise the better. Every Monday starts with a call to DPU asking “where are we?” They say they are working on it. It does not tell him where we are. Though the rates are not going up as much as they did last year, they are still going up and that is a problem. He will stay on DPU and will report everything they tell him. He encouraged Councilors to also call DPU. Councilor McCarty said when he mentioned this at the last meeting, the Mayor made a comment about the city being in the que. He asked the Mayor to explain. Mayor Perry said the city submitted a package at the beginning of January 2023. It has been at DPU for review for ten month. It has been in the que for ten months. To him, he doesn’t know why it couldn’t have been approved by now, especially when you can approve a 66% rate hike in a month, you should be able to look at an aggregation package and approve it faster. It is frustrating. 6 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA Councilor McCarty asked if Mayor Perry had any conversations with Mayor Fiorentini about what they did. Mayor Perry explained Mayor Fiorentini had an aggregation package and was just adding on to it. Someone said Haverhill ended up paying more than previously paid. There are six or seven other towns that are first time through. Methuen went through, got approved, had it, got rid of it and now we are going back to it. This is a tough subject. Even when we discussed it, some people got up at the City Council meeting and said, “I don’t want the government telling me where to go to pay for my service”. We still have an obligation to try to make it cheaper so that people can afford it. That program that Council approved last year for $400,000 is still running. The city has paid out approximately $130,000 out of $400,000. The criteria eliminate some of the people. He is working with Kelley to come back to Council to discuss some options because some of the people that are not getting help, they need it. We are not going to disobey the rules. We must push back on the state officials to the point where they understand the size and the nature of the problem here in Methuen. And it is not unique in Methuen. We can start addressing it a little more aggressively. That is the part that worries him. You take this mental health issue, take the homelessness issue, and put them together and then you add in addiction, etc. It is a very explosive time right now. We have got to be very careful about the steps we make Request of Councilor Finocchiaro - Up to date Monthly Vendor Report online and monthly Up to date Financial Report – update of Clear gov transparency site Mayor Perry said it is out on the website. Mayor’s Report Mayor Perry thanked the Council. He was a little disappointed, but he has rallied. The only reason for his disappointment is he is not trying to personally hurt the condominium owners. 4400 people voted in a city with 40,000 eligible voters, with all the issues we have: mental health, trash, etc. 4400 people voted. That is nowhere near enough. That is outrageously poor. We need to do a better job. One of the things they are going to do before he leaves office is to do a better job of getting the vote out and not for any one person. We have got to get the vote out because 9/10 of our audience is not coming to the polls or to these meetings. That is a problem and we have got to face it. Mayor Perry commended Steve Saba, Jim McCarty, Mike Simard because they led the initial fight to straighten out the police department and that will never be lost. They have done a great service to this community and they city is going to follow it through to make sure it gets done. He will be there every step of the way, even if he is no longer the Mayor. That issue, kudos to the Chair, Clr. DiZoglio, and Clr. Saffie. This Council stood up when they had the chance. Council made a difference and are showing people that no matter what happens in Washington, you are accountable in Methuen for what you do and are held accountable. Council has his undying thanks for every day forward because this was, forget the financial part of it, that was the most important thing we had as a team when we came in. he appreciates all of them and all their efforts, in many ways and shapes, to get done what we got done without politicking. There was no politicking involved. He feels completely comfortable standing by a statement 7 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA saying: “when the residents are free to read the encumbered document, they will agree one thousand percent”. People are making up stories about how little was done, or what we know. This is just a political charge by some Councilors and the Mayor. He is going to look at the audience and the screen and say that’s baloney. His life would be far easier if he did not have to do that. We, as a team, felt it was important to you to show you that we do the right thing here in Methuen. Mayor Perry said he will do something when the term is up but thank you all from the bottom of his heart for standing there with him, for everything they have done to move this forward. It is extremely important and will matter terrifically in this city. Once everything is finished, we are going to ban the “oh, that’s Methuen”. That is where we are headed. That is the voting. Other than the number of people that came out, he wishes all the candidates who are leaving the Council the Best of Luck. He wishes all the candidates who were elected the Best of Luck. He wishes all the candidates elected to the School Committee the Best of Luck and those moving on the Best of Luck. We have far too few people running for office. Part of that is the abuse you must take when you are in office and the social media platform. We’ve to address that at some point but he tips his hat to everybody who ran, whether they won or not, including his opponent. He is a fine young man. He campaigned clean as a whistle and he told him that. Councilor Saba thanked the Mayor. He commented it has been a long course for all the Councilors here who all had a part in this. Councilor Saba said the person who spoke earlier tonight worked with him at his restaurant back in the 80s, a Methuen resident for all his life, and it is shocking, we know this is happening. But as you talk to someone you know; this is just not right. He knows the Mayor has been speaking with the Governor. He is not hearing the right things. He is not hearing anyone talking about stopping the problem. If you were to walk in your house and you found your kitchen sink overflowing all over the floor, what is the first thing we would do? Shut the water off. Not in this case. What we are doing is we are looking for a mop and calling people in and handing out more mops and the kitchen sink continues to pour over. We have a situation here where the Governor wants more money from the Federal government. We need more support. We have got to stop this problem and until we stop it from coming, we are not going to solve this issue. I do not know how we sleep at night knowing that we have got residents who have lived in the city all their lives and he cannot get a phone call back. “What is going on here?” It is out of the control of the city but there has got to be something that has got to be done. The state is not putting people in every motel around the state. They have selected Methuen and several other cities. It is causing a big problem here. He does not understand it and it is frustrating, but he is going to help him and try and find the right people. Councilor Beauregard, Councilor Saffie and he were just talking to him trying to get him some phone numbers. He does not know what else they can do. Mayor Perry said the phone numbers they give them now are Kelly and Jasmine. The problem is they have got no place to put them. All the places they would go to are full. We do not want him sleeping in the car. Councilor Saba asked if there is any progress on the environmental study. Mayor Perry indicated they are coming in to advise Council what they found in the environmental study. Councilor Saba asked: “after that are we going to focus on the situation with the DPW building?” Mayor Perry indicated the report would include that. 8 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA Councilor Saba said the Depot building is getting worse. Eventually we are going to read that the overhang fell, the wind blew it down. It has gone and we are going to hear everyone talk about losing another piece of history. He does not know what the city can do, but something needs to be done. We have a Historic Commission. He does not want to get any further than that, but we put pressure on other businesses that have historic properties. We have got to be able to do something to either get them to fix their building or come up with a reasonable price. He would have supported buying that building if .. You invest in it if you own it and then can lease it out and do something with it. But something has got to be done before we start meeting on social media that we lost more history in the city. Councilor Finocchiaro followed up with the Mayor on the Vendor Report information and the Cleargov transparency site. Mayor Perry said they are there. Councilor Finocchiaro asked if there needs to be an internal policy as to how often that is happening and how to check that. Mayor Perry indicated they should be updated every month. He is not close to those policies. They are working on the Free Cash and the Stabilization first. He does not have any written policy and procedure on that. Councilor Finocchiaro said on the Council side, they already wrote and passed the policy on doing this. She meant more of an internal policy because most of the Council at one point or another have said “this is three months late, its two months late”. That is something that she knows is a lot of competing priorities in the finance department always. But that is something residents rely on being able to see month to month. It is hard if you are waiting for a Councilor to be the first one to notice. Councilors get copies of everything in their emails and are not realizing if they are on the city’s website right away. If internally they could plan so that it is automatically done at the right timeline. That would be helpful. Regarding the homeless situation, it is very frustrating when we have Methuen residents who are homeless, living in their car, and are in a situation where we are calling every single level and they are saying that there is nothing we can do. In one of the emails between you and the state we were talking about potentially having a small fund for instances of this case. “Did we find out if we are allowed to do things like that, if that’s an allowable expense?” Mayor Perry indicated Kelly is still working on that. Councilor Finocchiaro said that is important if you are finding situations where the city is not able to try to help everybody. But if you are in a situation like this and everybody else is not helping our residents, she is not sure where else we can go from there. Mayor Perry indicated they are bringing forward the CARES Solace contract next meeting as part of what we hope to do. It would be a good time to discuss it. The city spent about $140,000 of the $400,000 the city got, which is because the guidelines from AARPA are so strict that you must stay within a certain wiggle room. He was talking to Maggie. We want to be careful as to not get in trouble with AARPA. But at the same time Maggie mentioned to him that maybe we talk to the Council about taking a million dollars of Free Cash vs. using a million of AARPA money. Council could be part of selecting the guidelines rather than the ones from AARPA which are like the GLC ones. There is a lot of people and he is talked to Congresswoman Trahan about this, a lot of people that are just missing out who really need it. he does not know if this is a subject Council is open to. Our Free Cash was almost seven 9 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA millions dollars for 2023. We are nineteen million plus in Free Cash. We have a big year of CBAs in front of us, with inflation. That is going to be difficult. Employees are struggling to get along too. We have got that in front of us. But he brought it to the Council and the Council saw fit to change a million of that from AARPA to Free Cash. We are doing some investigation. “Does that allow us to be a little less bureaucratic in how we are giving them?” there are certain people who are applying for it now who are not eligible for it. That can be discussed at the next meeting. Councilor Simard said when he, Councilor Saffie, and Councilor-Elect Valley were at Day’s Inn, they posed that question to CTI: would if we had some of our own homeless? He knows they were going to eliminate occupants from some of the rooms, but they flat out said no, because they must go through the state. He thought that was unacceptable. The only people getting rich are the vendors, the ones that are feeding them and the one that are coming in to provide health care. It is a processing center which is never going to end. And why let this gentleman stay there when they can get a full rate and not have to worry about anything. Mayor Perry indicated the city is fining Day’s Inn every day. We are at the point where fining came this week, through the Health Department. It was a recommendation made two weeks ago to trim the number of families there to seventy-five families because of the health and hygiene issues. That has not been done yet. We are still fighting that fight. His first request to the Governor is going to be “I want the National Guard”. We should not have to send the police and fire department there constantly. If they want to keep families there, he wants an allotment of rooms for the City of Methuen and the National Guard here because it is out of control. If he were a homeless individual in Methuen and the Mayor came and took you to Day’s Inn, he does not know if he would want to stay there. He does not know if they would be wrong. That sounds terrible but there has got to be something a fairer. Councilor Simard recalled when the first wave came in, he was told that the immigrants went to Boston Medical, said they were residents and were homeless. They had a right to shelter and then there were at the Day’s Inn. It seemed easy for them. He does not know why it could not be easy for this gentleman. He recommended Lowell, Haverhill, and Lawrence. Public Service a. Grants: None b. Licenses: Second-Hand Dealer Renewal Application – Lockhaven Antiques, 512 Merrimack Street, Methuen, MA 10844 MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Second-Hand Dealer Renewal Application – Game Stop, 90 Pleasant Valley Street, Suite 240, Methuen, MA 01844 MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Special Excavation License – New Main and Services Lowell Street @ Pearl Court, Methuen, MA 10 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor Faretra asked if the city goes in and sign off that the road is back to what it was previously. He mentioned walking Lowell Street which is in poor condition. Mayor Perry indicated he is considering calling them in and tell them they must do a better job. He spoke of the road off Lowell Street and it is going to sink. There is a driveway on Almay that is still dug from last year. He also asked them to remove the tree before it falls, and residents lose power. There must be a formal handover, accepted or not accepted by the city. Councilor Faretra asked if that is something that must be done by the Council or Mayor’s office. Mayor Perry indicated it could be an ordinance or a resolution or he could make it a policy. Deputy Director, Felix, said whoever is doing work here in the City of Methuen has to apply for a permit to excavate. There is a performance bond that they must pay. They must make sure that the work they are doing has to good. It cannot be something they complete the work and just forget about what they did and on to the next one. The performance bond is a way for us to protect the city to say either you fix what you did, or we fix it, and we are going to take money from that performance bond. In Lawrence he would provide contractors with the standards when it comes to excavation. He drafted it to work with contractors to provide some guidance on excavations. For this project, Eversource is proposing to do a street that was paved not too long ago on the moratorium. Do your work, best believe that you are going to fix it curb to curb because we paid to fix it and now you are going to come destroy it. You need to put it back the way it was or better. The contractor owns it for two years. After those two years, let us do a permanent patch, either with infrared or sealant to mitigate water from penetrating the ground. We need to provide guidance for the contractors to adhere to it and then city needs to make sure they adhere to it. If they do not do it right, then the city goes after their bond. Mayor Perry asked how often the city ceases the performance bond. Felix indicated not many. The contractors do not want to deal with that, and they will have someone fix the patch. If they are called in again, they must come in and take care of it. Councilor Finocchiaro said the performance bond has most often been $10,000. Council is looking for some research as to whether that is limited by the state or if Council could increase that. Some of the larger streets, $10,000 does not allow us to do what we need to do to re pair the issue. She does not know if that is how Methuen has always done this or if that is something that is limited by the state to that amount. If Council could have some research to clarify and understand if there is a higher amount the city could do. Also, with each one of these that are put in front of Council, it says on there that there is an in-person inspection before the bond is given back. She would like to know the process of what that looks like. If the Mayor could informally tell the Council at the next meeting. We can’t be having situations where if we have a rule that says we can’t open the road and then we make exceptions because we don’t want to do harm to the resident who is traying to upgrade or get a repair done or for a safety reason. Once they have done what they need to do and it is just about putting the pavement back together, then we can be sticklers for making sure they are doing it the right way. We already have the rules in place. It is just about figuring out how we can improve that, and can we increase the bond or any other penalties that the city would potentially need to. 11 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA Mayor Perry said the reason he did not just answer yes is because to him there is an inspection and there is an inspector. We must have something to give to the contractor that says, “here is what we expect”. They will follow up and get an answer. He does not think the $10,000 is a state limit. In several cases, the city got more than $10,000 for a performance bond. Councilor Finocchiaro suggested having several signatures required prior to giving the bond back to double check. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. c. Contracts: C-24-23 Calgon Carbon Corporation, 3000 GSK Drive, Moon Township, PA 15108 for Granular Activated Carbon in the Amount: $2.02 per pound (Requested by Mayor Perry and DPW Director Bower) MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. C-24-24 Water Safety Service, Inc., 6 Walnut Hill Park, Woburn, MA 01801 for Backflow Prevention Device Testing & Cross Connection Program in the Amount of $38,295.00 (Requested by Mayor Perry and DPW Director Bower) MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. C-24-25 Island Tech Services, 14 Industrial Way, Atkinson, NH 03811 for Outfitting of (6) Police Vehicles in the Amount of $103,121.00 (Requested by Mayor Perry and Police Chief McNamara) MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor DiZoglio asked if there was another contract that had police vehicles on it. Chief explained there was $420,000 which is going to provide six this years. It is roughly $55,000 per vehicle and $15,000 for outfitting of the vehicle, which is the $103,000 Council has in front of them tonight. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Other Officers and Committee Reports: None Unfinished 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 Saffie, seconded by Councilor Simard to approve. 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 12 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor Saba commented this is a great program. The Governor increased the amount. The Council used this in 2018/2019 for seniors to help in the office. It helped Council and the senior citizens. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. TR-23-55 Resolution Authorizing Expenditures of $32,000 from the Edwin J. Castle Fund (Requested by Mayor Perry) MOTION BY: Councilor Saffie, seconded by Councilor Simard to remove from the table. MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor DiZoglio commented that when the auditorium was built it was supposed to self- sustain itself. It was supposed to be outsourcing to other programs, theater shows, and off- Broadway type of things. We have had comics there, Vaudeville shows there. He has not seen anything there since post COVID. That theater was supposed to generate revenue for the city for things like this, in his opinion. When he was on the School Committee there was a huge push to make sure that theater was used and had someone dedicated on trying to get business for it. He is not sure if that is still the case in the theater department. But something like this should have been coming out of that fund for that auditorium. Council cannot vote on this separately. The Castle Fund approved it. It goes back to the School Department. It is using it pretty much quarterly at this point for field trips and different events. And now we are paying for technology when their budget is 100 plus million dollars. He would this would be covered by technology. He is not going to hold this up. And the fact that we have it combined with two other events that are big events for the city, it is a sneak it in through the back-door kind of thing. Mayor Perry said do not ever use that when you are talking to him. It says requested by Mayor Perry. He is not requesting this. People go to the Castle Fund, the Castle Fund votes on it, and then it goes to him to get it on the agenda. This is not being snuck in. If a Councilor wants to vote “no”, vote “no”. There will not be any bands in the Veterans’ Day Parade. Councilor DiZoglio said he cannot vote “no” on one topic and not the other two. That puts him in an unfortunate predicament to vote “yes” for the two things he thinks are true. This goes back to the way the School Department is running their business. That theater was supposed to make us thousands of dollars a year to self-sustain it to be able to bring in revenue for things like this. Just like we were supposed to use the football field for outside events and that generates revenue. We are not doing that with the auditorium. The regular ballets from the youth programs and small programs are not going to generate the big bucks. We used to have the two twins come. Then that was a whole story there. We used to have a comedian come and he said something wrong. Now he cannot do that anymore. We should be using the theater, promoting it, trying to get people out there to pay for a $15,000 projector. Our theater department, the actual students that put-on productions, is all self-funded. They are raising their own money to pay for those things. “Why can’t we be doing the same thing with this projector?” Solicitor Rossetti explained you have a public entity seeking to obtain a product more than $10,000. Immediately, he began thinking 30B. When you are seeking to obtain a product of service between $10,000 and $50,000 the public entity is required to get three written quotes. With three written quotes obtained, but then he thought preliminary, he should see if there is an exception from 30B for purposes of this projector. In reviewing Section One of Chapter 30B, 13 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA which has all the exceptions. There are about three dozen different exceptions to going through 30B. Council is familiar with some of the exceptions because they see them on some of the contracts that come before them. For example, the engagement of an engineer. There is an exception for 30B for photography services. Photography, you apply the standard ordinary use of a term when you consider its definition. It is considered to include cinematography and visual depictions of the images. It appears that this procurement fits within one of the exceptions of 30B. To the extent if anyone was concerned about 30B compliance, it appears that this acquisition fits within one of the exceptions. It is important for the audience to understand that it does not matter who pays, the fact that the money is coming from the Castle Fund does not take away the need for the public entity to comply with 30B. In this case, there was an exception that applies. Councilor Saffie agreed with Councilor DiZoglio. If the parade being held in two days was not on this, she would probably vote “no”. She suggested in the future we could try to encourage the Castle Fund to bring things separately so we can get each item our individual attention and vote accordingly. Council is being put between a rock and a hard place because its three items combined in one and one takes place in a few days. She is going to vote “yes”, but in the future she’d be hesitate to vote “yes” if it were to happen again. Councilor DiZoglio motioned to amend the resolution to table the “projector” item. Solicitor Rossetti said this is a resolution for the. He does not see a prohibition to an amendment on the floor to do this if it is the will of the body to do that. If the motion receives a second, he thinks that is a matter that can be voted on by the Council. Councilor DiZoglio asked if he could amend to table that portion or remove it. Solicitor Rossetti at this point you are on second read. Councilor DiZoglio said if he removes it, could it come back as its own? Solicitor Rossetti said at that point, the Council would be triggering the one-year rejection rule because it is a resolution. Councilor DiZoglio did not make a motion. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. TR-23-56 Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of a CY23 Sustainable Materials Recovery Program – Recycling Dividends Program Municipal Grant - $42,000 (Requested by Mayor Perry) MOTION BY: Councilor Saffie, seconded by the Councilor Faretra 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 (Requested by Mayor Perry) MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor Simard commented this is much needed in every city in America and if the Chief would like to speak about the addition the city received about this grant and mental health. Chief McNamara commented the issue of mental health has been a hot topic tonight. He reported they have had a very successful couple of months and received just over one million dollars in grant funding. The $550,000 grant in front of Council that will allow the city to bring in some mental health clinicians to work with them on Initial Response – it is secondary response 14 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA and follow up with bridge counseling. That is a three-year grant. What it will allow them to do, a police officer goes to a mental health call, they won’t have a clinician in the care with them, but when they get to a mental health call, they recognize it as such. They could then dispatch a mental health clinician to assist on that call. That is part of what this grant does. The other part of what this grant does which is one of the issue we have – CARE Solace does a lot of the leg work for you. It puts you in touch with mental health providers. There is always a lag. They find someone in crisis in the field and it might be four, six, or eight weeks until they are in a stable situation with a provider. What this grant does, is it allows the city’s clinicians to provide what they call bridge counseling. And to be able to do the bridge counseling, the department is creating an office for them right outside the police station and Sanborn Hall. He hopes to have another award in front of Council at their next meeting. His department was recently awarded another $400,000 grant. This grant is for the crisis intervention team response and that is with the responder with the mental health clinician in the car, with the police officer going out and essentially looking for problems and addressing them. That is what is going to be unique about what we do here. What you will see in many communities is they will either have the co- response piece or the follow-up piece, but almost nobody has both. Methuen is going to have that type of robust program very shortly. He is very pleased to have that in the works. It is a wonderful behavioral health partner and frontline services. Matthew Shelton the President of that organization has been instrumental in all of this. He has helped the department work on these grants. The Chief said he could not be more pleased with the team they put together, internal to the police department all of whom are working out of their lane and never really touched on this, grants. They always hear what about grants? What are we doing about grants? Director Dawn Reeve, the city’s coordinator when it comes to all our statistics, crime statistics and disorder, etc. She has been instrumental in writing these grants and help the city get almost one-million dollars in grant funding. Also, Captain Ferrera, Sgt. Mueskes, Lt. Gunther, Lisa Alaimo, and others. He is proud of their team. The Council has another grant in front of them for about $100,000, that is more internal to the police department. That is for crisis intervention stress management which is the peer counseling they are going to have. Often police officers will suffer from mental health issues, stress related issues, due to the severity of the calls they encounter. The department is going to train about one dozen police officers on how to deal with those situations to help their internal staff and co-ordinate with other police departments in the region. There may be times when we send our trained staff to help in a crisis. We will benefit from that type of relationship when other trained staff come and help Methuen’s staff. There is a good plan for inside and outside the department. Help is on the way. Councilor Finocchiaro commended Chief McNamara and his team as well as the Mayor and everyone who has been involved in moving this forward. This is something that she and many other Councilors have talked about wanting for years. They fought for funding for it to be included in the budget. This is long overdue. Many communities have gone out and done what before Methuen. She is grateful that everyone involved were able to secure this funding to make sure that we are taking care of our own. There is very specific use on this, but depending on the availability of funds, is he also able to use it for things like if somebody has an extreme incident and is maybe a victim of some kind of violence or witnesses some kind of violence. “Is this a fund from where some follow up can be done or is it strictly what the Chief described?” 15 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA Chief McNamara explained these are trained mental health clinicians and Matthew Sheldon is going to supervise them as well. We have some expertise in the city. They are trained to provide counseling services themselves and obviously when there is something, they are unable to provide firsthand, they are very well positioned to refer to more qualified and capable hands. The idea is there will be what they call a “warm handoff” now. They find people in crisis all the time. The only tools they have at their disposal are a Section 12 to commit somebody against their will or worse, handcuffs. He does not want to be arresting people that are in this type of crisis. Now the department has an appropriate option. But the idea is, by having this bridge counseling, they can make a “warm handoff” to a stable long-term provider. That is the goal. They expect to have every piece in place very soon. Councilor Finocchiaro said the question was whether it was for the instances the Chief described for the grant may be limited specifically to this instance. But she wanted to know if it is allowable within the grant to be expanded. For right now, he is saying for instances of extreme mental health issues when they arrive on a scene. There may be instances where, for example, if somebody just witnessed a shooting or was a victim of domestic violence and many other examples that could happen. “Are these able to be used for those instances as well or is it only in the instances of an active mental health emergency?” Chief McNamara said he would think anything would qualify. They do not get into what is causing a person’s mental health issue. It is just that you are apparently experiencing a mental health issue. The department will absolutely attempt to expand. They applied for approximately 1.5 million dollars in three different buckets and won two of the three they were targeting. Although the one grant they did not get, which was roughly $500,000, they got some great feedback. They will be able to re-apply for that grant in the Spring and pursue that aggressively. Councilor Finocchiaro mentioned that often there is a high percentage of individuals refusing the assistance the first time they are asked. If we could just make sure that there is an internal policy of always making sure that they get a card, that they get continuous follow up because it is very frequent that the first time or first few times that the help may be declined. Chief McNamara explained everything they do is data driven. The more data they can show to prove they have a plan and are implementing the plan as intended that well positions the department to get further grant funding to maintain in the funding they are getting. Everything they do is about capturing the data. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS Ordinances: None New Business Resolutions: TR-23-58 Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of an FY24 Housing Choice Grant of $80,000 (Requested by Mayor Perry and Director Jack Wilson) MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. 16 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA TR-23-59 Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of a Fiscal Year 2023 Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act Implementation Project Award of $101,855 (Requested by Mayor Perry and Chief McNamara) MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. TR-23-60 Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of a Fiscal Year 2024 Body Worn Camera Grant Program Award of $26,029.60 (Requested by Mayor Perry and Chief McNamara) MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Ordinances: TO-23-18 An Ordinance to Establish Special Permit Review Criteria Related to Storage Facilities and Automobile Wash Businesses (Requested by Councilors Beauregard, Saffie, Chair Zeigler, Vice-Chair Faretra, and Mayor Perry) MOTION BY: Councilor Simard, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor Beauregard explained Council can only table this for a Joint Public Hearing with the Community Development Board. In terms of the context, in 2016 the Town of Lexington was faced with an economic development dilemma where the town had been the target of significant interest on the part of banks and financial institutions. At the time, if you were to drive down Mass Ave in Lexington, you would be encountered by this overabundance of banks. At town meeting that year, what they did was they adopted an amendment to their zoning ordinance to in essence tighten some of the regulations relative to the establishment or expansion of new banks, credit unions, etc. in the town. And what they did was they simply said, in terms of the ordinance, if you want to open a new bank in this town or if you want to expand, you need to provide demonstrable evidence that it is the public interest that other such business come to the community. Secondly, you would have to establish it would not be market saturation, over abundance of the same use in that immediate vicinity. Rather than reinvent the wheel, he thinks Councilors all agree, that we are during a situation where in the City of Methuen. It is not banks. It is the people who are trying to open storage facilities and car washes. Methuen is becoming the car wash and storage facility capitol of the world. In essence, looking to the example set in the Town of Lexington when they addressed the bank issue and when they passed this similar type of amendment in Lexington, they actually saw overtime some turn over where they would have, in essence, what used to be a former bank, it would become a retail shop or restaurant or something like that. There was demonstrative evidence that this strategy has worked in other communities. Council cannot do much tonight, but nevertheless it has conversation going. Councilor Saffie thanked Councilor Beauregard. She has received a lot of phone calls, emails, text messages from family members who do not live in Methuen about residents and their feedback about a particular issue coming up. They want her to go to meetings. There is not much Councilors can do when these topics come up. She is not trying to prevent residents from talking to Councilors about it. She welcomes the feedback. Residents must go to meetings, if it is a Zoning Board meeting, a Licensing Board meeting, etc. She will go with residents to meetings but she nor other Council members can vote on those boards. She encouraged residents 17 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA to attend. This ordinance is how Council can make a change and how they can bring what the residents want forward. We are trying to make the community better and we must do things that are going to better our community, not for just today or tomorrow but for the future of the residents, children, and the generations to come. Methuen has many storage facilities too. Some are hidden but you drive around and notice they are storage facilities. Yes, we need some of these services in Methuen, but there is a cap to everything. If we had eighteen CVSs or eighteen Walgreens, it would be the same thing. She is not trying to target any business. These two are the ones Council has seen in the last couple of years flourish. It may be happening everywhere. Council, as a body, can do something. This is what they can do. She is in favor of this ordinance. She encouraged residents if they have issues with things coming in front of the city to go to those board meetings and to voice their opinions. Councilor Faretra said since Councilor Beauregard mentioned this needs to be tabled to a Joint Meeting with the Community Development Board and they have a meeting already scheduled for November 15th in the Great Hall, is that when this meeting is going to be scheduled prior to that board meeting? Time is of the essence and the meeting must be posted at a certain time. Chair Zeigler said if the item is tabled, Wednesday would be the earliest they could meet for a Special meeting. City Hall is closed on Friday. Monday would be the next day and we need forty-eight hours to comply with the open meeting law. Solicitor Rossetti – Legal Point of Order – procedurally, there are two points the Council should keep in mind. Councilor Beauregard correctly pointed out the need to table to a public hearing. This is governed under Mass General Laws, Chapter 40A, Section 5. Section 5 says that because this body is looking to amend the zoning ordinance, the body must submit a proposed ordinance to the Planning Board. In this case, our Planning Board is the Community Development Board. That must be done within fourteen days the body has received this. The Council is deliberating tonight. Procedurally, he recommended that the Council make a motion to direct him (deputize him) to act on behalf of the Council to formally submit this ordinance to Community Development. Secondly, table to a public hearing. Under the statute, the public hearing can either be joint or separate. It has been the body’s inclination in the past to do joint meetings. His understanding is the Community Development Board meets via Zoom. The public hearing whether it is a joint hearing, or two separate public hearings must convene within 65 days on the date on which the date the legislation is forwarded to the Community Development Board. Assuming it gets forwarded next week, 65 days out is just over two months. You are looking at about the third week in January for the maximum point at which the public hearing must convene. Beyond that, the Council cannot approve the amendment until A) the point at which the Council receives the recommendation of the Community Development Board or B) if 21 days passed without a report from Community Development, whichever happens sooner. That is what to expect procedurally. For purposes of this evening, a motion to direct him to formally submit the legislation on behalf of the Council to the Community Development Board. Secondly, move to table pending a public hearing. MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to authorize the Solicitor to submit the ordinance to the Community Development Board. 18 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA Councilor Saba said tabling is the first read. He asked if Council has time to act on this before the end of the year or would this go to the new Council and would they be able to entertain the second read. Solicitor Rossetti explained the Council operates under a continuous system. This has come up in the past. It is his opinion that legislation that is pending at the end of one session would carry over to the next session. That will not affect anything. Whether this session of the Council can take that up would depend upon whether the both public hearings and the joint public hearing convene more than 21 days prior to the end of the calendar year. There must be notice of publication. Optimistically Council convenes the first week of December, the week of the 4th and conclude them, Council has the 21 days that the Community Development Board has to offer a recommendation. Council could act after that. You are talking about going into the holiday season. That is what Council would be looking at if they were looking to get this done within this session. If it does not get done in the session, it will carry over into the next one. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Councilor DiZoglio asked if the Council could propose a meeting time to convene with the Community Development Board so that Council could have the conversation before the 15th. His concern is there is a great concern about a current property that this would impact. If Council moves this forward to have it before the 15th does it look like Council is retaliating towards that licensing board potential decision on the 15th? And if so, if this were to pass a Special Meeting, would the Zoning Board be able to see this on the 15th? Solicitor Rossetti said it would be mathematically impossible to have the public hearings done by the 15th. The Chair raised the point about the open meeting law, but separate and apart from that, it is a ten day or two-week lead time to do the publication notice for the public hearing. There is no way, here it is the 9th, that you would satisfy that for the 15th. The Council could express its desire to hold a joint meeting in person within a particular time frame. That becomes a matter of record based on the meeting and the minutes. Community Development can accept that or reject that. Councilor DiZoglio said if a license was to be granted on the 15th to this said business, this unfortunately does not stop the Pelham Street project. It does not put an end to review if Council were to pass this later because the license has already been given. Solicitor Rossetti agreed. Councilor DiZoglio said there is no way to do this in an expedited manner with a potential emergency to that permit. Solicitor Rossetti explained there is no emergency exception for the time frame for publishing notice. Councilor DiZoglio said he does not think there were any traffic studies done or anything like that to that project. There are a lot of questions on this project on how it has been proposed and how it has been processed and brought to this point. There is a lot of questions that are up in the air. Other than getting involved in pushing the meeting for the zoning board, there is no way Council can enact anything. Solicitor Rossetti to the extent there are concerns about the current development project, those concerns would have to be expressed as part of the procedure of that developed project apart from the legislation that is being proposed tonight. 19 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA Councilor Finocchiaro indicated she agrees with everyone. She does not know of anyone who said we do not have enough car washes and storage facilities in the city. Personally speaking, while she agrees with that and agrees this would potentially help that, she genuinely believes that businesses and the active market should dictate what we do. For example, if there is too much of a concentration in one area and the business should not have a reason to open then that market dictates that in free and open commerce. To her, that is part of a democracy so she has a hard time philosophically with this because she agrees this will accomplish what she believes to be needed. But the method is contrary to her personal beliefs. But she has heard from so many residents that genuinely want us to not have more of those two types of facilities. She feels like she must represent what the residents want and completely agrees with them. She is concerned with going down the road of government dictating, except in limited circumstances, what businesses open what, where, and why except for controlled substances in other areas which we have had lots of debate. If the residents continue to support this, she will be in support of it. MOTION BY: Councilor Finocchiaro, seconded by Councilor Simard to amend under Section 1, under purpose, in this first sentence the word intimately does not serve a need in the sentence. The sentence works without that word. It makes sense to keep government and intimacy separate. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 8 yes, 1 no (Clr. McCarty) Councilor Finocchiaro - under Section two, letter C, the sentence says the proposed use will not create an undue concentration of these uses in the immediate area. What that is basically saying is we will have the current regulations in place, aside of the exemption rules etc. but it will say and additional condition is “that the proposed use will not create an undue concentration of these uses in the immediate area”. That is the main crux of what Council is trying to do with this item. This letter is too much left to interpretations. If she were a business trying to open a tenth of one of these two items, we would say define the word “undue” and define “immediate area”. Everybody’s opinion on immediate area can be different. For example, if there is a car wash in east Methuen vs. west Methuen, but there is an unusual amount of car washes, how does that qualify. The same thing with the storage facilities. She asked the Solicitor to clarify if there is a better way to put that and ask the board with regards to a certain mileage or other details. Solicitor Rossetti, looking at this offhand, and being asked for any recommended changes on sub-part C of Section 2, his first response would be to replace “undue” with “unreasonable”. He understands the Councilor’s concern about the reference to the immediate area. “Is that within a thousand feet?” “Is it within the entire City of Methuen, 25+ square miles?” “Is it within west, central, east?” another way to approach this would be… he suggested rewriting the sentence that the special granting authority shall consider whether the proposed use will unreasonably saturate the City of Methuen with that particular use, if approved. Councilor Beauregard said to express for the record the spirit and intent of terms of immediate area, when he thinks of that phrase he imagines in his mind a business corridor in the City of Methuen where you have already one car wash or storage facility and then you can walk a few steps down and there is another one, and then you walk another few steps down, there’s another one and people are talking about wanting to put another one. When he thinks of immediate area, he is thinking of situations that currently exist. The spirit of that wording is just within a reasonable definition of that, he would view immediate area as the immediate vicinity, 20 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA not necessarily the whole city. For instance, that business corridor, if there is already three why do we need a fourth one? MOTION BY: Councilor Finocchiaro to replace the language with what the Solicitor stated. She asked the Solicitor to confirm the language. This is something that Council could continue in the discussions if adjustments need to be made. MOTION TO REPLACE: Section 2C with the following “special permit granting authority shall consider whether proposed use will unreasonably saturate the reasonable use, if approved”. Solicitor Rossetti explained he would go back to what the sponsor said. If the legislative intent is to ensure that a particular concentrated area within the city, he was thinking more globally, but at that point he was not sufficiently appreciative of the sponsor’s point in advancing this proposed legislation. What the Councilor has described is literally within the immediate area. You could have a situation where you have a high concentration of a particular business in a very small section of the city. It sounds like that is something that would be prohibited under what the Councilor is suggesting. He would advocate under that school of thought, he would advocate keeping “immediate area” unless we want to further define “immediate area” and come up with some numbers, within 2500 square feet in any direction of the proposed use or something along those lines. He wants to be able to capture the legislative intent fairly and accurately. Chair Zeigler asked the Solicitor if he had any suggested language. Solicitor Rossetti “Special permit granting authority shall consider whether the proposed use would unreasonably saturate the immediate area with that particular use”. MOTION BY: Councilor Finocchiaro to amend her motion to the Solicitor’s amended language: She thinks Council should concentrate longer on if they want to include a mileage for it. She restated the language: “Special permit granting authority shall consider whether the proposed use would unreasonably saturate the immediate area with that particular use if approved”. No second. Motion failed. MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor McCarty to table to a public hearing UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS Any Other Business for the Good and Welfare of the Community. Councilor Simard reminded everyone about the Veterans’ Parade on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. Councilor DiZoglio announced that the Santa Parade is on November 18th at 1:00 p.m. Councilor Faretra announced Friday at 9:00 a.m. there will be a couple of arraignments tomorrow for the former Chief of Methuen at Salem Superior Court, fifth floor, Salem, MA. Chair Zeigler echoed what the Mayor said earlier. Methuen had an election yesterday. She thanked everyone who ran, whether they won or lost. It takes a lot of energy to put yourself out there and it is appreciated by the community. For those who did win their seats, congratulations to you. She is looking forward to seeing what Councilors-Elect put forward for the city. The voter turnout was extremely low. She was happy to hear the Mayor say there will be a push for civic engagement and voter awareness. That is key. Some of the issues that she saw on election day is some people went to the wrong polling location. There were a lot of people since the redistricting who did not know where they voted because they were either a central district voter and became an east district voter or visa versa. She would like to see if we could work on 21 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 @ 7:00 P.M. GREAT HALL, SEARLES BUILDING 41 PLEASANT STREET, METHUEN, MA between now and the end of the year some sort of dedicated funding that goes out towards voter education, maybe a mailer, maybe some sort of note on the water bill that lets people know this is where you go. This is where the election is. That is something that would be great for the betterment of our community. Councilor DiZoglio said some communities put their polling places or other new flashes with the water bills and the tax bills that go out. It is an easier way of trying to get a handout, throw and insert into it. It is something to consider on an easy way of getting out the vote especially with the presidential election coming up next year on what your precinct is, just with all these tax bills and assessment bills that we do just to throw an insert to those people and the neighbors might be helpful. ADJOURN MOTION BY: Councilor Saba, seconded by Councilor Saffie to adjourn. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. I do hereby certify at a meeting of which a quorum was present the foregoing minutes were approved by the Methuen City Council by an 8 to 1 vote on December 4, 2023. Linda Gagnon COUNCIL CLERK 22