City Council

METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. Chair Marsan called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: Councilor Saffie, Councilor Soto, Councilor Surillo, Councilor Valley, Councilor Campagnone, Councilor DiZoglio, Clr. Faretra, Councilor, and Chair Marsan. Acceptance of Agenda MOTION BY: Councilor Pesce, seconded by Councilor Campagnone to accept. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. Pledge of Allegiance/Words of Wisdom/Moment of Silence Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. Vice-Chair Soto read Irish Blessings. Public Participation – None Organizational Business – None Reading and Acceptance of Minutes from Previous Meetings: March 3, 2025 regular MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Surillo to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS CORRESPONDENCE/PROCLAMATIONS Chair Marsan announced there is a Citation honoring Divier Ramos. Councilor Faretra read the Citation along with Divier Ramos’s accomplishments over four years competing as a gymnast (attached). Senator Payano presented a Citation on behalf of the delegation. Mayor Beauregard presented a Mayoral Citation as well. Divier Ramos thanked everyone for this amazing recognition. He could not have done it without his parents and his coach guiding him. Duncan Gould has been his coach since he was five years old. He thanked his parent and his coach for their guidance and support. Coach Duncan Gould thanked the City Council for recognizes Divier for all his accomplishments. It has been his privilege to be coaching Divier privately through the club and through the high school program. He has been there since he was five years old. Coach Gould said it has been his honor and privilege to witness his journey firsthand. He has been there for so many of his firsts. Thank you for going through his records and going from just being a young boy in the gym with all that energy, to be there to see all the hard work that he’s put in, the great support system that he’s had from his family. Many of these firsts that he has had were his firsts in his close to forty years in coaching gymnastics. He has also had numerous injuries and overcome so much. Each time he has come back to reach new heights. Divier excels in school as well as he does at gymnastics. He has been like family and going to be missed but keep an eye out for the great things he is going to continue to do as he continues his gymnastics and academic journey at Stanford University. 1 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. Chair Marsan announced Councilor Soto has a Citation for Anilda Baez. Vice-Chair Soto read City Council Citation of Addy’s Beauty Center, Inc., for over thirteen years of services to the Greater Methuen Community (attached). Mayor Beauregard joined the Council in recognizes Anilda Baez for over thirteen years of services in Methuen and the Merrimack Valley area. Wishing continued success and congratulate Anilda on being a valued member of our business community. Mayor Beauregard presented Laura Walter with a Mayoral Citation honoring her for her exceptional work and dedication to the Zoning Board. Laura Walter has been a tremendous asset to our city as a member of our Zoning Board of Appeals for over thirty-one years. He thanked Laura to taking the time and serving the citizens of Methuen. It is with our sincere gratitude and continued wishes for good health and happiness as we extend this commendation from the City of Methuen. Laura Walter thanked the Mayor and Council for allowing her to continue with this work. She recognized Matt D’Agostino, Chairman of the Board, without whom she could never have lasted thirty-one years. He’s been a wonderful and she thanked the people of Methuen who have trusted her in this role and who have looked to us for guidance and for information and it has been her honor to serve over these years. She hopes that others will consider the honor of working for the city, of being a part of the solution, of being one of many that make our village work. Thank for this opportunity and if there is anything that she can do to help, to assist, to train, whatever, just ask because she loves this city. She has been here for the entire long haul and it has been an honor. Chairman Matt D’Agostino said many times people receive accolades and positive remarks upon their passing and he thinks it is great. He thanked the Mayor and the City Council for giving Laura the opportunity to hear those words said about her. She was a very dedicated member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Professionally and personally he will miss her. She was his Stan Laurel to this Oliver Hardy. A lot of people do not realize what goes into being a member of many of our boards. They see the program on TV, the hour, hour and a half that it lasts but, they don’t realize the many trips that we have to make and Laura made them all, during the heat of summer and the cold of winter, when the ground was bare and when there was four feet of snow on the ground. To make an informed decision, Laura always made sure that we visited the sites because everything looks good on paper. That is a real dedication to what she did for the City of Methuen. Thank you, Mayor, thank you City Councilors. He appreciates them giving Laura these honors this evening. Chair Marsan said he had the pleasure of serving with Laura on the Zoning Board and thanked her for serving and all the years of service and dedication to the city. MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Vice-Chair Soto to declare a five- minute recess. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. 2 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. Chair Marsan called the meeting back to order. Members present: Clr. Saffie, Clr. Soto, Clr. Surillo, Clr. Valley, Clr. Campagnone, Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. Faretra, Clr. Pesce, and Chair Marsan. Consideration of Appointments: • Anne Drouin – City Clerk (Reappointment) MOTION BY: Councilor Campagnone, seconded by Councilor Surillo to approve. Mayor Beauregard said he wanted to use this opportunity to share a few words. He has tremendous respect for the work she has done over the course of her time with the city but especially over the past year. In 2024, we had a Presidential Primary Election. There was a state primary election and then we had one of the highest Presidential Elections ever in November of that year. We ended having an unexpected Special Election after that and he was so impressed with the way she led her team through that time. He has full confidence in her now and going forward. She is an outstanding City Clerk and respectfully asked the Council for their consideration of her re-appointment tonight. Councilor Saffie said Anne Drouin has and continues to be phenomenal at her job. It is best seen around election time as we all know and this year with the Special Election but really it is daily. Her attitude is always upbeat. She is always quick to jump and help however she can. Clr. Saffie said she is truly grateful that she is part of Methuen’s team and looking forward to voting for to continue to do a great job. Chair Marsan thanked the City Clerk. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: UNANIMOUS • Luis Santiago – Chief Information Officer (Reappointment) MOTION BY: Councilor Campagnone, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. Mayor Beauregard thanked the Chair for allowing him to speak about our fantastic Chief Information Officer, Luis Santiago. There was a time that he remembered shortly after he joined the Council in 2020 that was at the same time as Mayor Perry and several others here took office. He said he will never forget about our city’s IT system at the time was, to say the least, primitive. We had an un-supported version of Windows at the time, Windows 7. We had an attempted cyberattack on our city’s IT system. We had to contract out for outside help with managing our IT services. Since then, Luis has come in and completely shaken up the way that we do IT. He’s brought our IT systems here in the city to point of which he feels comfortable saying “we have a state of the art” system in terms of security and capability and he gives all the kudos to Luis and his team. They are outstanding and huge assets to the city. He is grateful for Council consideration for his re-appointment. Councilor Faretra said the late Mayor Perry used to say Luis was probably his best hire. He would find anyone hard to argue against that. Where we are as a city now as compared to where we were when he, Clr. Saffie, Cr. DiZoglio, took office you cannot even compare where we are as an IT department. He knows Councilor DiZoglio beat that drum to death about the outsourcing and he thinks through the Director’s leadership we got to a point where we are now. 3 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. He does not think it could have been without somebody with his vision and leadership. Councilor Faretra thanked the Mayor for bringing this forward. Councilor DiZoglio said when we started this journey five years ago, we had to create an IT subcommittee because our internal IT systems were so bad. When we brought on Luis, it was complete transition from outsourcing where we were probably 100 to 200 tickets a day behind and our city’s infrastructure and Wi-Fi, computers were crashing. It is a complete 180. We all have Ipads. We all have Teams, access to emails now. He looks forward to seeing what this next Chapter for Luis and his IT team is when we start expanding into other departments in the coming months. He looks forward to this appointment. Councilor Campagnone echoed what everyone else had said. No one has a direct line, except for her to Luis. She is guilty of bothering that man all the time. He is always so gracious. She has to say publicly “thank you for being here”. Without him she is dead in the water. “Thank you so much for everything you do and every time I call you, you are right there.” Chair Marsan thanked Luis. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: UNANIMOUS • Jack Wilson – Director of Economic and Community Development (Reappointment) MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Pesce to approve. Mayor Beauregard stated Jack Wilson is another Rock Star in our administration. He has worked tirelessly to all that he can to grow our local economy, bringing in TIF Agreements and the like, Factorial, keeping Heavenly Donuts here in Methuen which is great in terms of their production through another such agreement. He oversaw the process of bringing in the first Master Plan in our city since 2007. He has been the quarterback for our efforts to restore and preserve the Searles Estate, which we will talk a little more about later tonight. We have a lot of growth underway in our downtown through the project that will be underway in short order at 54 Osgood Street. That will be a wonderful mixed use space with hopefully some restaurants and retail on the first floor, housing in other spots but nevertheless Jack has been a great partner when it comes to getting all these projects done and he is grateful for Council consideration. Councilor DiZoglio echoed what the Mayor said and on top of it everyone has a vision for Methuen. What is great about Jack is he listens to all sides and its always positive and its always moving Methuen forward. He has always gone to him for ideas on how can we do something to a property and even though his idea might be a little too crazy he welcomes it with an open mindset and he does that with a lot of the topics that come in front of his desk. This person in previous roles, this role has been more transactional, where Jack has been out there moving mountains with some of these corporations that bring in good jobs to the city and continue to grow the commercial real estate here Methuen. He has a yes vote tonight for him. Councilor Saffie said Director Wilson is truly an asset to this community. He is always positive and energetic about the city’s future. It is truly contagious. I am very thankful for the job he has done and look forward to what will come from Jack and his office. I also feel like he is the true example of what people say: “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life!” At least that is what it seems based off whenever we encounter you and whenever I have questions for you. Thank you truly for everything you have done. Chair Marsan thanked Jack Wilson. 4 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: UNANIMOUS PRESENTATION/PROJECTS/ DEPARTMENT HEADS – None Mayor’s Report Mayor Beauregard said most people have heard the terrible news about the pedestrian fatality on Merrimack Street last week. Unfortunately, the accident that claimed a young woman’s life took place after this general area had been a matter of serious concern in terms of discussion by Vice-Chair Soto, Councilor DiZoglio, and former Councilor Finocchiaro back in 2023. Former Mayor Perry had been in touch with Mass DOT regarding these concerns and he in his brief time as Mayor has also been pushing for action from the state as it relates to addressing these concerns. He stated he grew up in that area. He lives in that area today. He and his family walk in that area. As we know the Mass DOT corridor is under Mass jurisdiction. Although the accident is still being investigated by the Massachusetts State police, he was in touch with Mass DOT the following morning to coordinate an emergency meeting with top DOT officials along with members of our state delegation to urgently demand immediate action to address our Merrimack Street concerns once and for all. The meeting was productive. These Mass DOT officials shared the news that they will be making significant, and I mean significant pedestrian upgrades to crosswalks along the corridor by installing rectangular rapid flashing beacons at or near the following nine intersections: Merrimack Street and Riverdale Street; Merrimack Street and Derry Road; Merrimack Street and Meriline Avenue and Frye Road; Merrimack Street and Sorrento Avenue; Merrimack Street and Messina Avenue; Merrimack Street and Walton Avenue; Merrimack Street and Arcadia Street; Merrimack Street and Randolph Avenue; and Farley Street as well as Merrimack Street and Village Lane. You might recall that the area he is referring to, Sorrento and Messina, is around St. Lucy’s Parish and the Bonanno Farm, which has been a topic of significant concern for a long time. Mass DOT’s work along the corridor will be completed in its entirety by the end of this year’s construction season. We are also taking steps to improve the broader lighting issues on Merrimack Street as well. As I indicated in a message to the Council earlier today, Chief McNamara and Director Bower are in the process of identifying potential new street light locations along Merrimack Street once those locations are identified, Director Bower will work with our street lighting vendor to have the new lights installed immediately. Update on Financial Transparency dashboard – the new financial dashboard is finally up thanks to a collaborate effort between the CAFO, Luis Santiago, our Chief Information Officer, taxpayers are now able to visit Methuen.gov/transparency to track the city’s revenues and expenditures in real time. Real time, public payroll information is also available by position by clicking on the explore the operating budget tab and then clicking on the general fund link. You can then click through each department from that point to view the information you are looking 5 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. for. Vendor payments can be tracked by clicking the checkbook tab. The dashboard will be automatically updated weekly going forward through our Munis program and data extends back to fiscal year 2023 when Munis was first launched in Methuen. The CAFO is also providing the Council with a separate more detailed breakdown of the public payroll data. This is going to be posted online so we can get into the grove of sticking to the Council’s desire to a timetable outlined in the payment transparency resolution. We have made some changes to the parking situation here at city hall. There is usually one electric vehicle maybe two at the most that use the four EV spaces in the parking lot outside. You’ll see now that we have new signage that designates those four EV spaces as either fifteen- minute parking for folks who need to make a quick trip in and out of the building or for EV drivers to charge their vehicles. This way we can keep them reserved for EV while opening them up to residents non-EVs in certain cases. It seemed a little silly to him that we had designated four EV spaces inside such a relatively small parking lot area in the first place a few years back. This will help us reopen some prime parking lot real estate for our residents who need to visit city hall. Speaking of visiting city hall, he shared a reminder with the residents who might be listening that we are open late, until 7:30 p.m. on the nights when we have city council meetings taking place. We have a six-month pilot program running through early May and admittedly few people have taken advantage of the later time. He thought it would be good to pass along a friendly reminder. Update regarding the schools – he is planning to visit the Tenney School in the coming days with the City’s health inspectors to conduct a follow-up inspection now that the deep clean has taken place so we can take stock of where things stand. His goal is to ensure the district keeps up with the progress that has been made there and these continued inspections will provide us with a road map so that any new issues are immediately addressed. Update on rodent issue at the Timony – as we all remember the overwhelming presence of rodents was a huge problem last year. So far, during the month of March, there has been one unconfirmed report. These are large buildings but the custodial staff has been doing all they can to keep them clean and we are going to keep staying on top of this to ensure that we are doing everything we can to provide every Methuen student with a healthy and safe learning environment. Do Not Knock Registry – He gave a special shout out to Councilor Valley and Vice- Chair Soto for their efforts and partnership with Luis, our CIO, who essentially digitized Methuen’s Do Not Knock Registry, which is designed to help residents from unwanted door-to- door solicitation. Signing up is easy. All you need to do is visit Methuen.gov/DoNotKnock. You add your name to the list. He thanked the Councilor for their work on that. The Mayor announced Methuen Restaurant week is during the week of May 12th. they are getting to work for locking in specials and deals from Methuen based restaurants for that 6 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. week so stay tuned as we role those out. This is a great economic initiative that gives Methuen restaurants a boost every year. Textile recycling – we are starting to build some momentum with the new textile recycling program. This past Saturday Planet Aid reported that they had twenty-eight scheduled pickups in Methuen. They picked up a total of thirteen hundred pounds of recycled textiles. Every recycled item helps us reduce our trash expenses for the city so let us keep getting the word out there, visit the city website, or call 508-893-0644 to schedule a free pickup. ARPA Update – regarding the ARPA projects, he will focus tonight on the largest one. Linda Soucy helped us co-ordinate a community outreach in the Arlington Neighborhood at Starbucks on Broadway last week to inform residents and business owners about the project, potential impacts, and the city’s mitigation efforts as well as the project scope and preliminary schedule. we were joined by representatives from Woodard and Curran, Albanese, DNS, and Eversource and we introduced our outstanding ARPA project manager Kevin Pellitier. He is working with the owner of that shopping plaza at 4 Broadway to reserve at least ten, hopefully fifteen, but at least at a minimum ten parking spaces in their lot for the businesses along 28 that will be impacted by all the roadwork. For the west side of Methuen, the inflow and infiltration of Riverside Drive sewer main rehab projects are still on track to begin by the end of March. The Lowell Street drainage project, water line relocation, is expected to finish by early April with drain work tentatively starting on June 23rd to minimize school transportation impacts. DPW is addressing concerns from residents raised by Councilor Faretra. The Vice-Chair was on some of those emails as well as I recall. The contractor has agreed to limit equipment on city streets overnight and on weekends and to install a wind screen on the temporary fencing they recently installed. For the 213 water main project, Mass DOT comments were received and final design is expected by late Spring, early summertime time frame and just so the Council and Methuen residents are aware we’ll be working on putting a new ARPA dashboard on the website so residents can follow along and receive updates on each project. Regarding upcoming events: Congresswoman Lori Trahan will be visiting Methuen for a Town Hall meeting this Thursday, March 20th, starting at 6:30 p.m. we are holding this event in the auditorium at the Tenney School. Be sure to stop by and hear the latest updates from Washington and ask questions. Forgive me if this is poor form for me to announce this on St. Patrick’s Day, but he is excited to share that he has invited the British Consul General to the New England States to take part in an official diplomatic visit to Methuen. David Clay serves as the Ambassador from the British Monarchy and the new labor government of Prime Minister to our region of the country. He will be joining me and Director Wilson for an economic development theme visit to Twait’s market for some British style pub pies one week from today on Monday, March 24th 7 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. approximately 4:00 p.m. As we get closer, he will share more details with the Council. He would love for Council to join them. As a reminder, the “Dollars for Scholars” telethon will take place tomorrow and Wednesday. This important event raises funds to support local students in pursuing higher education. He encouraged our community to participate and contribute to this cause which directly benefits Methuen families. Also, the Methuen Cultural Association is hosting a reception at the Music Hall this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Leaf and yard waste pickup are on track to begin on April 7th. He will publish a Press Release in the coming days to get the word out about that. On a somewhat related note, save the date for our annual Spring cleanup. He has scheduled it for Saturday, April 26th, shortly after Earth Day so we can have that be a part of our Earth Day festivities in the city. We will be gathering at three parks in each district of the city and we will also have opportunities for residents to organize cleanups in their own neighborhoods. We will be pushing those details out in the next few days and weeks with a signup link on social media and the city website. Save the date also for a Ribbon Cutting Event we will be holding at the new high school tennis courts on Saturday, May 3rd, at 11:00 a.m. Councilor Faretra said during the Arlington neighborhood meeting they had on Tuesday, March 11th where Eversource and everyone was there, one piece came up about the ARPA project, he thinks they spoke to Mr. Santiago about making sure the updates for that Arlington project would be in English and Spanish. That way we can keep the community informed. Hopefully, you can work with Mr. Santiago on that to make sure that is bilingual on the website for ARPA projects when it comes to the Arlington neighborhood. Councilor DiZoglio thanked the Mayor and the team for calling that emergency meeting last week with DOT. We have been pushing this for months. Its not the only place in Methuen that needs work done as we all know. He knows the Public Safety Committee has met on a few different topics but with those sidewalks and those flashing lights, he does think that corridor should be very much like Riverside Drive with raised crosswalks, especially at the church and at the farm. Those are two very highly crossable roads right there, intersections, and especially with the idea of potentially putting another stop light somewhere in there. Raised crosswalks would do a little bit better justice in that area instead of just the light. CAFO REPORT - The CAFO said she did not have any specific updates for the CIP or the ARPA. They were able to run the 2024 payroll report with the detail that has been requested. That will be sent to the Council and posted on the city’s website before the end of this week. REQUEST OF COUNCILORS 8 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. • Update on School Audit (Request of Chair Faretra) Mayor Beauregard reported there are two more live interviews scheduled for this week. The audit working group has been working with CBiz to prepare the surveys that will be sent to faculty, staff, parents, etc. They are holding a follow up meeting with the auditors next week on Tuesday to discuss our next steps now that we are winding down the interview process. But in the meantime, they expect to receive the latest draft of the survey questions so that we can properly iron those out. Leave on until Council receives the results of the audit. • Ownership and assessment update regarding storage facility on Old Ferry Road (Req. of Clr. DiZoglio & Clr. Pesce) • Update or plan to address the ongoing traffic issues on Pelham Street towards Marsh Grammar School. (Clr. Valley) Mayor Beauregard said they are seeking support from Mass DOT safe routes to school program to address the traffic issues on Pelham Street near the Marsh. They met with Judy Crocker from the safe routes program, last week on Thursday. It was a great meeting. He was present along with Chief McNamara, Director Wilson, Dr. Kwong and her team, as well as Captain Moore and Lt. Gunther from MPD. For our next steps, Mass DOT will be working with us to conduct arrival and dismissal observations at both the Marsh and the CGS as well due to concerns about limited sidewalks access in the vicinity of both schools. This branching out from the Marsh. They are looking at issues that might exist in other areas. The city will also be assisting in their efforts to study traffic patterns to and from each school, not just the Marsh. They will be doing every school in the district and provide as many insights as they are looking for as they determine how to best support new sidewalk initiatives in areas near our schools. They are just as motivated as we are to help partner with us to address the area around the Marsh, which is probably one of the worse spots. This is sparking a conversation citywide. Keep on • Update on the fiscal transparency page that was due to be posted on the website to give real time updates to all city accounts (Clr. Faretra) Mayor Beauregard reported that the dashboard is updated weekly at the close of each business week. that is how they can provide the “real time” information to residents who are reaching out. Clr. Faretra said if the page is up and Council gets the data before the next meeting, we can take it off the agenda. • Update on plan for the Searles Estate property and the process the city is following for real property disposition. (Clr. Surillo) Mayor Beauregard said there is not much to add here. Stay tuned for some next steps that are coming in April. He is hoping residents will reach out in the meantime with their thoughts and feedback by visiting Methuen.gov/Searles. This has been quite a process in getting us to the point that we are at now where we are able to look at the next steps in restoring, reserving the property. He will have more to share soon. Leave on • List of COLA increases from 2008 to 2024 --- percentage increases only. (Clr. Faretra) Mayor Beauregard said this is something that they are finding the further they go back, the less data they are seeing. This is still a work in progress. The CAFO said if the Council would like to receive what they have, they have the most recent stuff. Once they 9 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. look further back, it is tricky. Mayor Beauregard said they have the schools going back to 2005. Clr. Faretra requested they send what they have now and then continue to work on it. Leave on • Update on the Youth Center at 10 Ditson Place (Clr. Faretra) Mayor Beauregard said as mentioned during the last meeting he forwarded information to the Council from the non- profit that is running the program at 10 Ditson. Earlier today he resent the lease that was approved by the Council in October to serve as a refresher on what had been voted on. The questions that were on the agenda as requests and some of the dialogue at the last meeting, the answers to those questions are in the lease. He can get more information if needed. Clr. Faretra said he is looking for a timeline from the non-profit on when they think they will start servicing the community. That is his biggest concern. The power point presentation did not have anything with dates. He is looking for a timeline. Mayor Beauregard said there was an email exchange with the Superintendent where she provided some of those answers. He will forward the email to the Council. The indication is in there that the non-profit want to have services up and running by this Fall. Clr. DiZoglio said he wants to know who is approving. He knew it was the school department that manages this. Who from the school department is approving the changes to that building? “Is it the head of facilities?” “Is it the Superintendent?” “Are there notices going to the other departments, MPD, Fire department, DPW, Recreation that there is going to be construction in the building?” Notices that there might be Wi-Fi down, electric down, etc.? He does not want our employees to be in a building and then all sudden services go down without any notifications. He wants to make sure there is proper communication going to all departments that are in that building and the people that are doing it are approving it ahead of time and know what is about to happen. Mayor Beauregard said no work has begun yet. He would expect that when work is eminent that they would alert anybody who would be impacted or not. Everything is being run through the school department administration, Superintendent, Director of Facilities; but he could get additional insights for Council. Clr. DiZoglio said if a wall is coming down, is it Bruce Stella or Brandi Kwong saying “yes” or “no”. Mayor Beauregard said, according to Dr. Kwong, the Director of Facilities is the main point person they are dealing with from the school department. In the lease it says that any changes that are done, any upgrades that are made, they need to be reviewed and approved by those school department officials. Dr. Kwong has indicated that is the Director of Facilities. He will confirm. Chair Marsan said once they get their approved architect plan what they are going to do, renovations, ADA, any type of things, if the Mayor could send them to Council. The Mayor agreed what he receives from the Superintendent. Clr. Faretra said if the Mayor forwards the information before the next meeting, this can be taken off. • What is the protocol for door-to-door solicitations? (Clr. Soto) Mayor Beauregard said Clr. Soto and Clr. Valley requested the vendors be added online. Chief McNamara provided him with the most up-to-date list of individuals and companies with active door- to-door solicitation permits. The information was posted on the Do Not Knock Registry page on the website. Any door-to-door person is required to register with the city; but is not included on that active permit list, if they are still out there visiting door steps and 10 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. peddling their wears and the like in Methuen, they are operating in violation of the rules and should be reported to the authorities. All we have on there right now I believe is the group from Power Home Remodeling Group. There are probably numerous other companies that are out there now who are not actively permitted to do that. According to what we have from MPD, all those individuals, everybody from Power Home Remodeling Group, their permit expires on April 6th. Clr. DiZoglio clarified that only one company is registered and everyone else is illegal. Mayor Beauregard responded yes. The other permits expired in 2024. Clr. Valley asked if the violations are a $300 fine for the vendors. Mayor Beauregard responded yes. He suggested looking at that ordinance because it is few years old at this point and see if there are ways that we could potentially make it stronger. There are, broadly speaking, first amendment concerns as it relates to door-to-door solicitations. However, there are numerous restrictions that a municipality can reasonably place on these individuals and companies. That would be a great project to look at together to try to make that stronger. Clr. Saffie asked if there was a way the MPD could have direct contact with the company so residents can give feedback to because she personally has dealt with a solar company and it is full blown harassment. They lie to you. They site laws that do not exist. She tried to get in contact with the company just to say “you’re kind of breaking the law” but also “I don’t think you really know what is going on here” Every email and phone number she found go nowhere. If they are pulling a permit is there a way the city could require that they have a company phone number, a company email that works on file? If a resident has an issue they can go directly to the company and know that it will get to them. Mayor Beauregard said they should all have that. We are at a point where the city must tighten this whole thing up. • Update on pedestrian crosswalk at Bonano’s Farm Stand, 255 Merrimack Street (Clr. Soto) The Mayor suggested this be kept on the agenda because Mass DOT, as part of this broader project, they are going to be having bi-weekly meeting to check on progress and provide information about, look ahead in terms of where they are at in their progress. He has asked to have an administrative representative be a part of those meetings so that we can be there and ensure that we are providing any accountability and follow up at the local level. This would be helpful for us to keep on the agenda. Chair Marsan agreed to keep this request on the agenda. • GLTS Discussion on documents (Req. of Clr. Faretra) Chair Marsan said Councilor Faretra has put the effort into doing all the research and collect and put it together from what information they have given him so far. Councilor Faretra said today he received all the evaluations. He has not had a chance to go over them; but it looks like the annual evaluations that should be done by the School Committee and filed are current. By listening to the Council with questions that have come up during this discussion, going through the documents, and listening to numerous individuals that have reached out to him since he brought this up, he started going through, not just the Superintendent’s salary but some of the other salaries that are going on over at Greater Lawrence. One of the School Committee members has finally started to speak up over there. Their budget has not been voted on. They are asking for 5.8 million dollars for fiscal year 2026 from the City of Methuen, which is an 11% increase. For that budget to fail, two communities 11 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. need to vote “no”. Clr. Faretra said he spoke to the Acting Solicitor and he is trying to work out a way that we can vote “no” on a certain line item of a budget; but pass the budget if Council decides to go that route. He created a spreadsheet that has, from the information he was given, and what he was finding on their websites of some of the salaries from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2025, and some of them are alarming. There is a woman who has a position that is not listed in some of the other information. She is the grant coordinator/workforce development. When they provided the list of individual non-representative employees for fiscal year 2025, this position does not exist on the list they provided; but when you go through their fiscal year 2024 payroll, she made $220,861.00. We do not know what her number is for 2025 because the position that she has does not exist in the paperwork they gave him. Director of Finance for a school of 1,178 students, she got a $25,000 raise last year, from $174,000 to $199,000. Their Director of Finance for a school of less than 2,000 people makes more than our CAFO who runs a budget for 53,000 people. We all know about the Superintendent. Chester Jackson makes $180,000 which is more than the assistant superintendents make in the Methuen Public Schools. You can see how these salaries are completely out of whack for a school that is smaller than Methuen High School. We need to continue to stay on track that no one is saying what is happening at Greater Lawrence is not great. These are two separate things happening inside the walls and what is happening in this administration is gross. Imagine how much more they could do if the funds that were being given to the administration at Greater Lawrence funneled back into the classrooms and the shops that could make it more of a difference. They are going to come to Council for an eleven percent bump. These are the salaries that they are going to ask us to support. If this is their salaries in fiscal year 2025 and 2024, what are they going to be in 2026? If Councilors went through the packet that he provided here, Superintendent Lavoie is due to make over $350,000 next year. And on the current rate, his current trajectory by the time he reaches 2030, he will be at $443,000 and that is given, he gets a 2% COLA and a 2% merit. If he gets more than that, obviously that number increases. This is for a Superintendent for a public school of less than 2,000 individuals. People keep telling me, but Joel its Methuen. Why do you have such a vested interest? In fiscal year 2025, Methuen’s input into Greater Lawrence, 5.145 million dollars, the most out of any of the four member districts with 418 students. We paid almost half of the tuition of all four member districts with 23.5 percent of the enrollment. They talk about the afterschool program. He has more fingers than we have students in the after dark program at Greater Lawrence. By their count we have nine students in the after dark program at Greater Lawrence. That is what was in their book Council was handed. He is sure the 418 students feel like they are getting a bang for their buck and they are doing great things over there. But none of these administrators deserve the salaries they are making. His secretary makes $113,000. The executive assistant to the secretary $113,000. If you look at the pay scale for the executive secretaries that have been approved upon CBAs, it caps out at $70,000. You have their maintenance director at $140,000. The maintenance director and the cafeteria director are the only two normal grade salaries he could find that are comparable to other districts. Their AD makes less than our Methuen AD, less sports. The Superintendent here makes $176,00. The principal makes $180,000, first 12 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. year in the building. First year, walks in, makes more money than the principals at Methuen High. His CT coordinators make $140,000. These are all assumptions because once again its not listed. $145,000 for the director of culture and equity equality. Assistant principal makes $150,000. The assistant superintendent making $176,000. You have a Superintendent making $337,000; assistant superintendent making $176,088; a principal making $180,000; and assistant principal making $150,000 for one school of less than 2,000. And they want to come back at us and ask for double digit money. Somebody at some point needs to stand up to these individuals. What has happened over the years is you have one school that has four districts that spend money, and this gets lost in the cracks and they’ve just been convinced that nobody is paying attention, and somebody needs to. And we all pay these in the long run. When all these people retire, they are going to be collecting money and we all pay on that. That has been his pet project for the last couple of months and Council is informed when that budget comes before them in June. This is what we are paying for and more than what we are paying for our students when they go there. We are paying for administrative salaries, not classrooms. Councilor DiZoglio suggested that the next step be getting the State Auditor in there to audit that school. Methuen does pay more for 23% of the population than any other community. Councilor Faretra said the CAFO and he have tried to get answers on when was the last time, they have looked at our equation and Dessie will not give him an answer. The delegation does not know. Nobody really knows when that has been adjusted last because for us to spend what we spend per student compared to Lawrence when our demographic has changed drastically over the last decade plus. But that formula has not changed, and Dessie goes here, here is the spreadsheet and the CAFO looked at it and she cannot figure it out. There is no way I am figuring it out. You cannot get an answer from Dessie or anybody on when its been adjusted or how its been looked at. Councilor Surillo said that has probably been like that since the school opened. It has not been adjusted and the grant coordinator and workforce development, the reason you cannot find it is because that title no longer exists. They gave Clr. Faretra the wrong title for that person. Councilor Faretra said she is getting paid that. She is getting the checks. Clr. Surillo said the person is still there; but the title no longer exists. They did not give you the right title for that person. Clr. Faretra – Point of Clarification – the only reason he found that title is because that is what she is listed as under their website. He matched the title on the website with the FY 2024 salaries, which was by the way her name on the website and her name on the FY 2024 end of year reports were different. It was not easy to get there. But that is how he got to where he is today. Clr. DiZoglio just to clarify if we go to the State Auditor, we need to get a signature in support from at least one other community because that will send a message to that school committee and that you probably have two “no’s” coming to you this year. He does want to prep them for that. You are right. The school has done some great things. The teachers and the students should not be penalized for this because their administrators are greedy. And they are giving themselves raises at 5% COLAs. If I am looking here at the breakdown you also have, this is going back all the way to 2011. This is over ten years of abuse. He would like to know what his contract says about sick time and vacation time because if he is adding up everything here, you said $450,000, you are 13 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. looking at over $500,000. Clr. Faretra said on numerous occasions they have come back to him and said he is not due any sick time. The original contract stated he is not due any sick time upon retirement. They have stated that in emails as well. He does not believe it. The Superintendent can sell back one week of vacation at the end of each year. He is eligible for 45 days and he can sell back up to one week every year and if you look at that spreadsheet, that breakdown, that’s how they come to his salary because he sells back a week a year at that rate. Clr. DiZoglio said he has 65 vacation days a year. If he adds this up, they have added five days. He has 60. Clr. Faretra said that is how much he sells back at the end of the year. He can sell back one week at the end of the year. Clr. DiZoglio said they added five days. He has had 65 days that he has been able to buyback one week in ten years. Chair Marsan thanked Councilor Faretra. He asked Councilor Faretra how we can get to the state and look at our formula. He knows we have this. He needs to know. We only have 23% of the students there. Methuen is paying more money. They have their formula and its just not fair to our taxpayers. Councilor Faretra said Dessie pretty much sent him away. When he filed the complaints there (the department of education), they came back with no finding. When he asked about all of this, they pretty much just said: “no, we’re good. You guys are fine”. Once again, we are fighting our own battles because nobody on Beacon Hill wants to help. He has no problem sending something to the delegation and drafting that and sending it to the Chair before he sends it and going that next. Somebody needs to help us. He is sure it is not just a Methuen problem. There is multiple of these schools. Chair Marsan said right, there’s other schools. Clr Faretra said there’s others that are probably having the same issues because a lot of these schools just go under the radar and are shared schools. Clr. Faretra said he could draft something and bring it on the agenda for the April 7th meeting, if Council wants to send it as a body. • Chair Marsan said there was the ongoing issue of the building at the top of Pie Hill from and Old Ferry Road and where it stands in the design. Mayor Beaureguard said he does not have any other updates from the Assessors that relates to the building itself at the top of the hill. He can follow up on that. It would be good for us to have more of a thorough deep dive into the broader project. Maybe at the next meeting on the agenda we could have an update relative to where things stand with McClure. We approved that agreement with them to begin the engineering and they will have a product for us. The expectation is quite soon because work will begin in the summer so he thinks it would be helpful for us to get an update. He does not have anything right now. • Mayor Beauregard said Clr. DiZoglio made a request for all Methuen based vendors we currently have active contracts with who were not in good standing with the city. For example, taxes, fines, permits, etc., We are in the process of compiling that information. We are going all out. We are also going to be incorporating any potential issues with motor vehicle excise taxes and the like rather than just say property tax issues. We want to provide you with an all-encompassing report. • Mayor Beauregard said, regarding the Lowell Street project, the impact that it has had on the community and neighborhood (Req. of Clr. Faretra). This is about some of the concerns that have been expressed by residents regarding the staging area that is in that neck of the woods in the city. He has been in touch with Kevin from Azar Construction, 14 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. their project manager, and we had an outreach to Kevin to the contractor with these requests that Councilor Faretra made. They responded to that in “green” in the email, all the responses to everything that was being referenced by Councilor Faretra’s potential issues. This is something that he thinks would behoove us to keep on the agenda just because that project is going to be extensive too. Councilor Faretra said they are fixing the drainage on Lowell Street and side streets. On the corner of Marc Avenue and Rachel Avenue meet, there is a large gap, a large area. They decided to make that a staging area for their equipment and because these are not abutters to the property, this area was not notified of any activity. One day, staging went up with temporary fencing, steel plates, equipment, all of that showed up. He started getting calls. Things got heated between one of the residents and Mr. Pelletier at first. It did not go well. They both went back and forth. Cool heads prevailed. Right now, we are working on the larger pieces of equipment about not being stored overnight unless it is going to be used the next day. But they should not have large equipment on the road. Over the weekends it should be stored at a DPW yard. Any damage to lawns, because there are no sidewalks in that neighborhood so if equipment is stored on where the sidewalk would be, now you are damaging somebody’s lawn. Going back and the end of the project and doing that. And then putting up a windscreen on the interior of that fence. One, for aesthetics you do not have to see it and two, on that windy storm last week, there was a lot of dust blowing through that neighborhood. Right now, it is a work in progress. But, Kevin, Mr. Pellitier and the contractor are now working with everybody here to make sure the impact is less on the neighborhood because they are talking about that being there through the end of August all summer. Chair Marsan: So, they are using that triangle for a staging area. Councilor Faretra responded yes. The talk was you have to leave the steel plates, you have to leave some of that stuff there but anything on wheels that can be driven away should be stored somewhere else unless it is going to be an immediate need for the next day. Chair Marsan asked the lawns. They tend to store pipes on the lawns and then the pipes that they are going to use for the next twenty or fifty feet and that makes a mess of someone’s lawn. A lot of people have beautiful lawns. Councilor Faretra said in the email correspondence today, they did mention they will be going back and working with residents to restore the areas as it was prior. If you are a resident and are affected, you need to make sure you let them know right away and stay on top it. If you do not mention it, they are not going to come back. Document take pictures and reach out to a Councilor if need be. Mayor Beauregard said it is a great idea for people to reach out to Council or him. Chair Marsan commented if they have a picture of the previous condition and what it looks like today its going to behoove them to take those. Leave on • Councilor DiZoglio requested an update from the Charter Committee at the next meeting and the estimate time they could bring something before this Council because this is one of the things that this Council passes and move forward to a Home Rule Charter. Mayor Beauregard indicated Chair of the Charter Commission, former Councilor Saba, has been in touch regarding a potential contract with the Collins Center. The solicitor is in touch regarding some questions that he had. But we are looking at getting that done so that they can move forward with the Collins Center. Councilor DiZoglio asked if there is going to be a cost underneath the threshold. Mayor Beauregard said last he checked it 15 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. was $8,000. That would not meet the threshold for Council approval, but he will keep the Council informed. PUBLIC SERVICE: A) Grants: None B) Licenses: None C) Contracts: C-25-66 CIVICPLUS, LLC, 302 S 4th Street Suite 500, Manhattan, KS 66502 for 311 Citizens Request Line (see click fix) in the Amount of $26,082.00 MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Campagnone to approve. Councilor DiZoglio said he did not recall seeing this have a phone line. There was seeclickfix on the website. He asked if the city has 311. Mayor Beauregard said that is referencing the type of program it is. The seeclickfix is a form of 311 citizen request line. It is electronic through the app. It is a 311 in terms of concept. Councilor DiZoglio asked if the contract says 311 or seeclickfix. Mayor Beauregard said it is seeclickfix. We are referring to the concept of the product, that is all. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS C-25-67 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the City of Methuen and NEPBA 117 Special Services Unit E-911 Dispatchers Parking Control Officers for the Period: July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027 MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Campagnone to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS UNFINISHED BUSINESS Resolutions: None Ordinances: None NEW BUSINESS Resolutions: TR-25-13 Resolution Allowing the Methuen Retirement System to Increase the Cost-of- Living Base from $19,000 to $20,000 (Req. of Retirement Board) MOTION BY: Councilor Campagnone, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. Councilor DiZoglio recalled this being done a year or two years ago and it had not been done for a decade prior. 16 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. CAFO Duprey said there has been a few things that have come from the Retirement system. She does not think it was that long. The CAFO said she received backup for that. Councilor DiZoglio said he wants to understand if this is part of last year’s retirement board. Council did a cost of living increase last year. CAFO Duprey explained that comes up every year. They can do a cost of living adjustment every year. Last year we moved it from $18,000 to $19,000. This is now asking from $19,000 to $20,000. Council had approved it to go from $17,000 to $18,000 in fiscal year 2021 and then last year approved it in fiscal year 2024 from $18,000 to $19,000 and this is asking further. Councilor DiZoglio asked if these increases are seen every year. The CAFO said we usually see it every couple of years. It looks like it is every few years. It is rare that it is two years in a row. Councilor DiZoglio asked if this is where it should be. He suggested building it out over the next decade with percentages if that is where it needs to go. He is trying to clarify the long- term goal. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS TR-25-14 A Resolution Authorizing Expenditures of $5,000 from the Edwin J. Castle Fund for the Comprehensive Grammar School (Requested by the Mayor) MOTION BY: Councilor Campagnone, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS Ordinances: TO-24-17 An Ordinance Amending the Wage and Salary Schedule of Chapter 6, Section 6-5 of the Methuen Municipal Code, Department Heads (requested by the Mayor and CAFO) MOTION BY: Councilor Campagnone, seconded by Councilor Faretra to approve. Councilor Faretra said the CAFO is not part of the department heads when it comes to this ordinance. When these come up when it is not as clear like on this one and on TO-24-19 before the second read could Council get the list of actual department heads and unaffiliated positions that are affected by this. We know the superiors. We know the other unions. But when it comes to these two, he wants to make sure which department heads Council is voting on and who are the unaffiliated positions Council is voting on. What are the numbers and how many are we voting on? CAFO Duprey said she would send an email to Council with the information. Councilor DiZoglio asked if the COLA increases were in the contract. Mayor Beauregard explained that the department heads do not have contracts. Councilor DiZoglio said they have appointments and then they have a contract. Mayor Beauregard clarified on the Police Chief, Fire Chief, Deputy Police Chief and Deputy Fire Chief. The CAFO has a separate contract as well. CAFO Duprey said in the police chief and deputy chiefs, their contract says that they follow the COLA increases that the Mayor gives to the department heads. 17 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. Councilor DiZoglio said whatever Council does here will increase those contracts too. The CAFO agreed. Councilor DiZoglio asked why 3% was picked over 2% and why are we doing this over three years. He is assuming July 1st, 2024 and 2025 are going to be retro at some point. The CAFO explained they looked at unaffiliated and department heads from the scope of getting them on the same schedule as the CBAs and that is what they did in the last round as well. The three years that they did for 22, 23, 24 and now we are doing three years for 25, 26, 27. She said yes for fiscal year 2025 retro, like what they are doing with the CBAs. That is already included in fiscal year 2025 but so there would not be an additional ask for that. They would need to budget for fiscal year 2026 and 2027 accordingly. Councilor DiZoglio asked why we do not do this a year at a time and why we are doing three years. Mayor Beauregard explained this is how this has been structured. Going back to 2022, we had a similar ordinance that covered a three-year period. We are trying to get things in alignment with the CBAs. This is three years as well. Councilor DiZoglio commented that corporations do this once a year and they come up with a number and they give a number. We are locking into almost $700,000 over the next three years. He does not know where we are going to be fiscally after this year, and we are approving something that we do not know what the budget is going to be like for next fiscal year. He keeps hearing we are in a good spot; we are in a good spot. But then he is hearing in the school department we are going to have cuts and it is going to be a tighter ship next year. Agreeing to $250,000 to $211,000 and then $149,000 for next year; $360,000 just in pay increases next year to department heads, he wants to be careful promising 3 ¼%. We also have new contracts that we must agree to and appointments. Year one, FY’25 the total cost estimate is $133,519.66 and that is for TO-24-17. He is commenting about TO-24-19 as well. He is adding all of this together. There are COLA increases. Over time we are going to be paying close to a total next year of over $300,000, $350,00/$400,000 just in pay increases to our department heads. He wants to be mindful when we are talking about 3% for the next three years and is that going to be in our fiscal means and is that going to be aligned to what we do as a city? He does not want to put the city in a position going into next year not knowing what the budget is. He is fine with retros this year. We have plenty of Free Cash. If we want to talk about 3 ¼ this year, 2 ½, 2 ½/2 maybe. He does not want to put numbers to it until he knows what a budget is. He is not sure if anyone else feels that way here. But we are locking into $700,000 almost just for TO-24-17 and another $427,00 for TO-24-19. You are looking at about one million dollars over the next year and a half, two years that we are going to be paying out. Mayor Beauregard just keep in mind these are the same COLAs Council voted for the other CBAs. It is not like this is unique. 18 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. Councilor DiZoglio commented that department heads make more money. We are talking about going after a school department that makes too much money too, granted they are getting pay increases every year 3 ½, 3 ¼, etc. He does not want to be a hypocrite when we are doing it to our own department heads too. Mayor Beauregard said keep in mind that we are the size of a Fortune 500 corporation technically. At this point, we are facing competition with the private sector. He would argue that this is all warranted. Councilor DiZoglio said if we are acting like a private organization, they go year by year based on how well they did. This year we did well, sure 3 ¼. Next year we did not do so well 2%. If we do well the next year, we do three. When we are going into different waters. We do not have COVID money anymore. We are in a whole different boat going into next year. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: 6 yes, 2 no (Clr. DiZoglio, Clr. Faretra, Clr Pesce) TO-24-19 An Ordinance Amending the Wage and Salary Schedule of Chapter 6, Section 6-5 of the Methuen Municipal Code, Unaffiliated (Requested by the Mayor and CAFO) MOTION BY: Councilor Campagnone, seconded by Councilor Saffie to approve. Councilor DiZoglio said like his last point, Council just approved a pay increase for three years. If you want to lock this in for three years we’ve got to make sure that we budget that and that means also tax increases because that number goes to the bottom line and to do this, one million dollars over two years, that is an increase to the taxes. You are retro pay this year. 2027 from now is two years, two and a half. The budget is almost over for FY 2025. It was in this year’s budget. It is not going to impact this year’s tax rate. It is going to impact next year’s tax rate if Council votes for the next two years and the year after. If it goes year to year, it will not impact the tax rate from the bottom line. You are taking it from Free Cash. The Free Cash is over twenty million right now. The CAFO clarified salaries would not be taken from Free Cash. Usually it is budgeted for an amount that we think it needs to be budgeted for. Councilor DiZoglio asked if it was budgeted this year. This portion of it some of it is from positions we did not fill, some of it is from that two million dollars that we budgeted for all the CBAs. Councilor DiZoglio said next year we are going to have to figure it out and that is why we are budgeting it now. It is going to impact next year’s tax rate. The CAFO responded, yes. That is why we do not need additional funds to fund this retro. MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Pesce to table. UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: UNANIMOUS. 19 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. TO-25-2 An Ordinance Requiring Denial, Revocation or Suspension of Contracts with the City for Failure to Pay Municipal Taxes or Charges (Sponsored by Councilors Jana Zanni Pesce and Nicholas DiZoglio) MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Soto to approve. Councilor Pesce said there is a good chance that after Council passes this ordinance nothing is affected by any of the pre-existing contracts we may have with the city. Her thinking behind it was, actually speaking with a state agency, they were looking to hire a new candidate and that person had owed money to the DOR and their comment was “well, we can’t hire them now” and she said “oh, that is interesting”. They said: “why would you pay an entity that owes you money?” She wondered if the city had something like that on the books. She spoke with the solicitor and had kind of an ordinance like this that was in effect and us kind of tweaked it to accomplish what she was thinking. At the end of the day, her thinking is the City of Methuen should not be paying individuals or entities that owe the City of Methuen money. It is as simple as that. Councilor Valley asked the solicitor how legal it is to revoke or suspend a pre-exiting contract. She asked if the city would be subject to lawsuits. Solicitor O’Neill said we would not be in this case as our contracts have clauses that allow us to do that. All our contracts have a specific clause allowing us to terminate for any reason. Councilor Faretra commented this is a great idea. His only concern is that we are hamstringing people that live in Methuen. If you live in Methuen and do business in Methuen and you owe the City of Methuen money you are fined. But if you live in Andover and you have a tax lien on your property in Andover, you can still do business in Methuen. He does not know if there is any way to figure it out. If you are a plow driver and you live in a municipality and you are going to come to do business, do you know money in the municipality that you live in? Councilor Pesce said that is more of an ethical question. She understands what he is saying, but from a financial standpoint it only affects people in Methuen because those are the entities that would owe us money. It is costing us extra money to have contracts with those people. Councilor Faretra asked how deep this will go. The Mayor mentioned earlier excise tax. Is it going to be somebody who – excise tax is due March 30th and its April 4th, and they haven’t paid, is that going to make you ineligible?” “How far in arrears do you have to be in order for this to kick in?” Councilor Pesce said she believes it is twelve months. For somebody to be in “not good standing” with the city, it would have to reach twelve months. The solicitor agreed. He said there is a state law that allows communities and municipalities, like this, that allows us to deny building permits, licensing, and other things for 20 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. those that are in arrears over twelve months. The tax collector has a process in place to create that list every year and share that list. They tried to piggyback on that instead of creating a whole new program of what the city must do. It also contains some safeguard provisions which would allow the CAFO and her staff to reach out to folks that might get a contract and become twelve months in arrears to work out a payment plan or some kind of offset plan where they would be able to maintain the contract but payback the money they owe. There is flexibility to address those issues for those that are over twelve months in arrears. Councilor Faretra asked if the city has that list already and are tracking that. The CAFO said they are working on it. Councilor Pesce said what they put into this is when this ordinance is passed Council will have that list provided. Then they will have to submit it every year going forward so that we have a list of those businesses if they are in good standing. Councilor Soto indicated she and Councilor Pesce spoke about the ordinance. Her question when she read it was who in this building was not doing their job because in her head (she has a small business in Methuen) and if she owed $22 on the furniture in her office she can’t get anything in this building. Her question to Councilor Pesce was A) who do you know? because are we doing this for a few that are getting favors done from anyone in the building? That was her original go to. She struggled with needing an ordinance for it because she thinks we must hold ourselves accountable here to make sure we do as we say and with a lot of the systems, i.e., trash. Her fellow Councilor last meeting was really upset about how that went sideways. She thought about the system like who is going to oversee it. Isn’t someone in charge of it already, a system that we have in place? It obviously is not being done if there is a list that is going to be produced. Before passing an ordinance just to have it, another piece of paper, those things need to be talked about and really address who is not looking at somebody who owes taxes, and we are still cutting them checks. Councilor Pesce – Point of Clarification – she just wanted to reiterate this is not to catch people. This was not put in or suggested because someone failed to do something. It is a fail- safe. If anything, this is preventative going forward. As an attorney anytime she must do something a lot of times she has to receive what is called a certificate of good standing. It is a little bit different here but similarly she thinks it makes sense. Someone goes to a contract with the city, they need a certificate of good standing. They need to check It may not be someone’s – it may not be a specific duty. She doesn’t know because we haven’t tied those things together in so long so that’s what this ordinance is going to do, tie those things together so that it is a very easy thing to check off the list and we prevent any of these type of situations. Councilor DiZoglio said it is a proper procurement process. This is all about procurement. When a city or municipality posts a project out there, they are looking for the best deal. It might not always go to a Methuen contractor. It might go to someone else. Even if the Methuen contractor won the deal, they are not going down the line looking at all their financials. 21 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. They are looking at what was the bid? What was the procurement process and now with this piece of legislation we’re also requesting on top of it that if we are active in that procurement process with them today, not in the bid, but in the active process we would then say “okay, you owe us $50,000 but yet we are paying you $60,000”. This is a problem and that is where that procurement process comes into play. Mayor Beauregard said this is a great idea to have on the books going forward so we can ensure that we are following these best practices and we are doing some digging on whether there are any perspective or potential issues out there and report back. Councilor Soto: so, the ordinances again “Methuen residents only” and “businesses”. She thinks it must be a blanket. It must be “all”. Councilor DiZoglio noted we cannot control other municipalities. He cannot control what Lawrence companies are coming here. That is up to Lawrence to get their tax money. Councilor Soto said for example on these contracts here, we are asking only Methuen businesses to provide more information than we are already asking someone that bids. Is that what we are saying? Because you live in Methuen or own a business in Methuen and you want to do business with Methuen, we need to ask you for more information. Councilor DiZoglio responded, no. What they are saying is if you have a contract with us that’s active, in the process, and you owe us money, we are going to review this with you and if you don’t want a true up then we are cancelling your contract. Councilor Soto said any new businesses or vendor that come to do business do not have to follow that only if you are currently in the pipeline. Councilor DiZoglio responded no because if they win a contract, they are going to have true up. Councilor Pesce – Point of Clarification – she is not sure what this would fall under but let’s just say hypothetically there’s a different city business that isn’t a resident of Methuen, there might be times when they owe us money and that would go through the same vetting process as a resident of Methuen. This is about the money coming into Methuen. Its not about your residency so there might be times when an outside city vendor owes us some unpaid debt and that would go through the same process. We are not asking for more information. Everything is done on our end. Again, it is getting our money, the City of Methuen. To Councilor Faretra’s point, she agrees with him, ethically. If there is a habitual tax delinquent who milks from one city and then jumps to the next, no, they really should not be getting contracts. But they are owed money in other cities is not helping our bottom line. We can only control the money that is due to us, be it from a Methuen resident or a different vendor. But it only has to do with the money owed to the City of Methuen. Chair Marsan asked the solicitor if the city could just fix the RFP process. We have all the businesses and people in our community that want to pull permits and do business in the city. 22 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. We have our Treasurer who sends you an email notice that says that you owe six dollars in arrears on an excise tax and we collect the money. The Solicitor said he thinks the Council would still need an ordinance to do it that way if you want to do it that way. Council could certainly pass a different ordinance that did it differently. When he looked at this with the two Councilors that sponsored it, they were trying to leverage the system that currently exists but not also be chasing people who are a month in arrears or a few weeks in arrears. Its mostly focused on tax arrearage but there are other things. It includes all other fees, fees, taxes, anything that is owed to the city. There could be situations where somebody was fined by the city for various issues that does not live here or own property here. Those would be included too and be checked against a contract that was written. Chair Marsan commented water bills get out of control sometimes too. They could be $5,000, $10,000 for a business. The CAFO asked about police detail if the vendor owes money through police details. The solicitor stated it would be included because it goes through the city. Chair Marsan noted it is still twelve month in arrears. Councilor Pesce – Point of Information – this does have a little discretion. For example, a new vendor comes to the city and they are going for a particular contract, and they are six dollars behind on their excise tax, she is hoping that whoever says “hey buddy, you owe six dollars”. “Can you just pay this before we sign here?” Councilor DiZoglio said we are making sure that we are doing business with the right people, especially not taking advantage of the taxes and fees that may be owed to us. There might be zero dollars on this wait list. Just putting the safeguard in place so that if we were to have this situation come up like if Holy Family did not pay the bill before they left. Who would that be on? That would be on the lien holder who would have to pay the bill before they left. Things like that when it comes to liens on property as in selling a property that are owed, this will also put a safeguard on that too if they are doing business for us in Methuen. Chair Marsan said that has taken care of at closing. UPON VOTE: Vote 8 yes, 1 no (Clr. Marsan) TO-25-3 An Ordinance Amending the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance to Further Update the Floodplain Overlay District as required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and as approved by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation in order to ensure that Methuen residents continue to have access to the National Flood Insurance program. MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Soto to approve. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. The solicitor reminded Council this ordinance needs to go to Community Development for a public hearing. 23 METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025 @ 7:00 P.M. MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Faretra to reconsider. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Campagnone to approve. MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor DiZoglio to table and refer to Community Development for a Joint Public Hearing. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS ANY OTHER BUSINESS FOR THE GOOD AND WELFARE OF THE COMMUNITY -None ADJOURN MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Pesce to adjourn. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS 24