City Council

METHUEN CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2025 @ 6:00 P.M. VIA ZOOM Chair Marsan called the Special Meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Members present: Councilor Faretra, Councilor Saffie, Councilor Soto, Councilor Surillo, Councilor Valley, Councilor Campagnone, and Chair Marsan. Councilor DiZoglio and Councilor Pesce were absent. Acceptance of Agenda MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Campagnone to accept the agenda. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent. Public Participation – None C-25-63 Complete Cleaning Co., Inc. 548 Chestnut Street, Lynn, MA 01904 for Cleaning of the Tenney Grammar School in the Amount of $53,000.00 MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Valley to approve. Mayor Beauregard said in late 2024 they conducted some health inspections of our four grammar schools, along with the high school. We had some problematic reports namely out of the Timony. Not too far behind the Timony was the Tenney grammar school when it came to issues relative to evidence of critters in the building, rodents, and the like and just general cleanliness. He initiated a deep cleaning at the Timony involving Complete Cleaning Company of Lynn. We were able to exercise emergency powers under Chapter 278 to allow for that cleaning to commence right around the time of the Christmas holiday. What was helpful to us was that this company was on the state bid and we were able to procure them, especially given the emergency declaration. He made it clear at the time that his intent was to deep clean the Timony to start, the Tenney during the February break, and his goal eventually is to get to the Marsh during April vacation. The prevailing thinking for some time was that, due to the emergency declaration first of all and secondly this company was on the state bid list we would be able to proceed with this cleaning during the February break without any issue. But there was some internal debate about that. He reached out to the Inspector General directly for guidance as it relates to the validity of that emergency declaration for December to carry over to now. The Inspector General’s recommendation was simply to be safe from a procurement standpoint that the further we get away from December, the harder it is to make a case of that emergency declaration would apply if it were challenged through now in February. The recommendation was to go out to get some quotes. According to Massachusetts procurement law in a situation like this, they require a total of three quotes or at least the opportunity for interested bidders to be able to come to say “a walk through” of the project site. They put out a Request for those quotes on Thursday of last week. They held a walkthrough at the school on Friday afternoon and another company representatives from that company showed up as well as the folks from Complete Cleaning and the deadline for the submission of quotes was Tuesday at noon that allowed us enough time to confirm the company with the lower bid and also turn around the contract/resolution for the funding source and to post this meeting tonight. It turned out that the company they had worked with at the Timony generated the lowest quote. So we have this company that did a tremendous job at the Timony able to come back to the Tenney, assuming that the contract is approved tonight and the funding source resolution is approved tonight, they will be able to start first thing tomorrow morning and they expect to be able to get through at minimum they are saying they can get through 90% of the school by Sunday evening. If need be, they can come back the following weekend, but the goal is to get through as much of the school as possible this weekend. 1 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2025 @ 6:00 P.M. VIA ZOOM As mentioned Timony was the worst in those reports. Tenney was not too far behind. This is going to be significant progress for us as it relates to the cleaning program. Regarding the funding source, there are going to be some questions about the resolution. For now, he would be happy to answer any questions about the company the contract and the overall endeavor. Councilor Faretra said no doubt this is needed. This is step two of the process. He is not in the mindset of wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars. He asked what we are doing to make sure we are not repeating this in five years. We have done the Timony, now the Tenney, the Marsh and the High School. “What is being done at an administrative and on the floor to make sure these schools don’t fall back to where they were in December?” Mayor Beauregard explained that the high school and CGS in those reports largely indicated that the custodial staff at both schools are for the most part on top of things, especially at the CGS. That report came back clean. The issue with the Timony and Tenney namely was that there were so many issues for so long and the custodial staff at both schools had been limited. In fact, the day that the inspectors showed up at the Tenney and the Timony, the head custodian at the Timony was just starting off on his first day on the job. There was so much work to be done just to get these, especially the Timony, caught up so that they can maintain things going forward, the reference that he used was that the issues they were dealing with was like trying to shovel while it was still snowing in terms of the rodent issues and such. What they’ve done on top of the deep cleaning, just to demonstrate at the Timony, we’ve expanded our service with Pest End, establishing outdoor rodent control systems that had not been in place before at any of the schools prior to the month of January. You see sometimes those black bins outside of buildings to try to capture rodents and try to deal with the problem before it gets inside were completely non-existent at the schools until just a couple of weeks ago. We have seen significant progress on that, also increased exclusion efforts at the school as well as it relates to closing holes at various entry points for critters to get into the building. Also at the Timony they saw with this deep clean, it was really a great opportunity to give the custodial staff there, especially the new folks, the opportunity to kind of catch their breath and have issues that had been festering for a long time finally addressed. Going forward really the key is to take these steps to bring the custodial staff up to speed and caught up and from that point forward, he has in place a School Health and Safety Task Force. At the beginning of this process they were meeting on a weekly basis. Now they have expanded to every three weeks now going forward to follow up on these issues they are dealt with. At this point, he has a system in place. He is confident in that system as it relates to the follow up issues. The key is to help these folks get up to speed and this is step one. Councilor Faretra noted that in those reports, he understands that staffing may be low, but there were things in there that were just flat out neglect. Chairs that should have been thrown out years ago that have just been sitting there. Kitchens that failed inspections that really were not cleaned for a year, through multiple shutdowns, that were not getting done. This is not just, hey, we missed a couple of days. This was years. This goes to the top. Extending Pest End doing more does not solve the problem. You mentioned the CGS and the high school which is great. The staffing at the CGS and the high school is the same as the Timony and Tenney, which is a much smaller school. They should have been looking at staffing ratios at those schools. “Does the CGS need as much staff as the Timony?” No, because look at the class sizes at the CGS between the Timony and the Tenney which those two schools are busting at the seams and you have the same amount of staff. to him, we are throwing a ton of money at things, but we are not looking at the day to day operations at really changing what happening there inside those walls when it comes to our staff. that’s what he is more looking for when it comes to 2 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2025 @ 6:00 P.M. VIA ZOOM the things we can control is the Methuen Public School staff and the day to day operations and doing the things we need to do in-house so our inspectors when they walk in aren’t really hiding things and saying if this was a restaurant we’d close it down. We should never get to that point again and everything at Pest End and all these other businesses who do that does not control the day to day cleaning that our staff should be doing in those rooms. Hopefully between the Superintendent and the Director of Facilities and all those leadership roles that we have over there, they should be taking a harder look at how that department is structured and really be looking at how we got to this place and how do we address it and not just continue to short-change that department and add another administrator somewhere. Mayor Beauregard explained a big issue in the school department right now is staffing, especially when it comes to custodial staff. At one point in the district there were nearly seventy custodians on staff and now they are down to forty-six. They have had significant hits in terms of their personnel. That is an issue that needs to be dealt with going forward and just pointing out the CGS and some of the nuances here. The Timony and the Tenney relative to the CGS when it comes to usage of the school, outside the context of just classroom learning and use as a K through 8 school is the fact the Timony and the Tenney are by far used for various other events, sporting events and the like. When it comes to the CGS and its use, it is just not equivalent to the others. That plays a role when it comes to these issues as well when you have after hours events at the Timony and the Tenney. The custodial staff is trying to deal with providing support to those events vs. spending time cleaning and the like. There are a lot of different issues that play a role here. But nevertheless, as you referenced, these are problems that have been festering for a long time and now at this rate this is his effort to finally deal with it once and for all. Councilor Surillo to the Mayor said, looking back on his career in the procurement process, any bid under $10,000 is best practice. Any bid between $10,000 to $50,000 is soliciting three quotes. Anything over $50,000 we must solicit an RFP process. What we are looking at here is $53,000. He asked if the city went through a bidding process. Mayor Beauregard said the Inspector General’s recommendation was to put out an RFQ. Councilor Surillo and we got three back? Mayor Beauregard said two companies put forward proposals. Chair Marsan asked who determined that we needed twenty-two fewer custodial people. “How did that come about?” “Could they not fill positions, or did they cut positions?” Mayor Beauregard explained this goes back to the budget process for fiscal year 25 which he was on the Council at that time. But when it comes to these issues, it sounds like it is a mix. At one point the School Committee cut the Assistant Director of Facilities position which in hindsight he would argue was a mistake but that was before his time in the Mayor’s office. But also, there are broader issues with filling positions, finding folks who are able and willing to come to work and fill the roles that are open. He thinks it is a host of issues but in terms of the budget process, fiscal year 26, as we prepare the school departments budget, custodial staff is a key area that we’re going to have to really buffer up on in terms of personnel. Another thing too, is when it comes to the operational audit of the school department he has placed a stronger emphasis on an assessment of our facilities’ needs from a staffing standpoint, especially as an item of consideration for the auditors which really wasn’t on their radar when we began that process. That is something that is going to help us in terms of identifying some of these issues as we look under the hood going forward. But looking back, it sounds like it was numerous issues at play that lead to that decrease. 3 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2025 @ 6:00 P.M. VIA ZOOM Chair Marsan indicated as Councilor Faretra said we really can’t get back in that position and you are on board with that but we’ve just got to do the proper things moving forward so that we’re not back here even one year from now. When our inspectors go through, we must be able to say its acceptable. We always have minor issues, but it must be at least acceptable so that the public is confident. Mayor Beauregard said one other thing to point out too, the key part of this going forward when it comes to sustainability and accountability is going to be more frequent inspections. Leading up to the events of Fall of last year, there would be maybe one or two inspections on an annual basis. We did have inspectional staff working for the city previously. Looking back at reports from prior inspectors’ things were kind of just signed off on, all good, everything looks good, okay. And then we have the inspectional staff who are working with us now and they are quite extensive in terms of looking at a lot of these issues and documenting the problems that they see. We have outstanding inspectors who are working for the city now really keeping an eye out for various issues and doing more comprehensive reporting. Utilizing them more frequently so we can keep tabs on the issues is going to be key as well. Chair Marsan agreed with the frequency which is going to help the most. If they are in there multiple times a year, that is what is going to give us the proper feedback. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. Pesce and Clr. DiZoglio) TR-25- Resolution Authorizing Transfer of $53,000 from Free Cash, to be transferred to Accounting Expenses to fund a complete top to bottom cleaning of the Tenney Grammar School, pending Completion of state certification (EPA Requested) MOTION BY: Councilor Surillo, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. Mayor Beauregard explained this is an area where his challenge and the CAFO’s challenge is dealing with the confines of the fiscal year 2025 budget which of course was finalized in the second quarter of 2024 long before these issues really came to the forefront. When it came to the cleaning of the Timony the problem for us was that we had to identify a funding source for that in short order and we ultimately went to in the school department budget the emergency maintenance line item and the amount that had been budgeted in that line item was give or take a little bit of funds and now that the Timony contract required. Given the fact that we did not building into the fiscal year 25 budget this effort to bring these schools up in terms of cleanliness this is the only even potential option to pay for this right now. Therefore, he is coming to Council with this request. Certainly not ideal. He would have preferred to have this in the budget at the time, but we did not. this is where we are at. The CAFO added that she heard back from the state this afternoon. They told her if it were not approved today, it would be approved tomorrow. Right before this meeting she checked and still does not have approval. She anticipates this to be before the end of the week we will have that approval. She was hoping to be able to say it tonight, but she did not get that confirmation. She will let the Council know as soon as she knows. She did hear back from them today that is anticipated. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. Pesce and Clr. DiZoglio) MOTION BY: Councilor Campagnone, seconded by Councilor Faretra to adopt an EPA. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. Pesce and Clr. DiZoglio) 4 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2025 @ 6:00 P.M. VIA ZOOM ADJOURN MOTION BY: Councilor Soto, seconded by Councilor Campagnone. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 7 yes, 2 absent (Clr. Pesce and Clr. DiZoglio) Linda M. Gagnon COUNCIL CLERK I do hereby certify that at a meeting of which a quorum is present, the foregoing minutes were approved by the Methuen City Council by a unanimous vote on March 3, 2025. Lisa Yarid Ferry Assistant Council Clerk 5