Common Council

METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 @ 7:00 P.M. Chairman Beauregard called the regular city council meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: McCarty, Saba, Simard, Zeigler, DiZoglio, Faretra, Finocchiaro. Councilor Saffie was absent. Mayor Perry joined the meeting via Zoom. MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Simard to accept the agenda. Chairman Beauregard announced that the Mayor withdrew TO-22-13. Council needs to eliminate the words “remove from the table” from agenda title C-22-50. The Chair withdrew TO-22-15. MOTION BY: Councilor Faretra, seconded by Councilor Zeigler to strike TO-22-13, strike the words “remove from the table” from title line of C-22-50, and strike TO-22-15. MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor to move “Consideration of Appointments” and TR-22-25 A Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of Expenditure of FY 21 Massachusetts Development Block Grant Community Development Fund as items after Public Participation. UPON VOTE: UNANIMOUS. MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Faretra to accept the agenda as amended. Councilor McCarty asked if there is a reason why the two items were withdrawn. Chair Beauregard announced that Mayor Perry indicated that he would bring back the first item that was relative to the Personnel Coordinator at a later meeting. The other ordinance TO-22-15 will likely resurface at a later date after further consideration. At the request of Councilor Finocchiaro Chair Beauregard read the item titles into the record. UPON VOTE: (to accept as amended) UNANIMOUS yes. Pledge of Allegiance/Invocation Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance and remained standing for the Invocation given by Councilor Zeigler. Acceptance of Minutes MOTION BY: Councilor DiZoglio, seconded by Councilor Faretra to waive the reading and accept Minutes from Previous Meetings: March 7th 2022 Regular Meeting Upon Vote: 7 yes, 1 present (Clr. Finocchiaro) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) Proclamations/Correspondence – None Presentations and Department Updates – None Mayor’s Report – not present via Zoom Public Participation Ray Vallcourt, 41 Pinehurst Avenue, as a 35 year resident and a 25 year property owner, this is his first time compelled to speak with the Council. He is here tonight to voice his concerns on the CAFO contract. When this position was being interviewed and he watched the process. It was said that this person had a great working relationship with the state. “Was this great working relationship used when questioning the COVID money?” The money that we, the taxpayers, have to pay back. “Is filling out a standard form and sending emails now considered a great working relationship?” If so, he has one with the President because he can fill out forms and send emails. $195,000 a year for this position when the average certified public accountant in Massachusetts makes $90,000 a year. A $25,000 raise and 4% METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 @ 7:00 P.M. more that’s costing me, you, everyone of us $650,000 for not doing their job properly, six weeks vacation plus fifteen days sick days, thirteen holidays. This is absurd for three years of service with the city. Any private sector job, three years you’re there, you might get two weeks, you might get three weeks and five sick days. This equals almost sixty days a year paid time off, 4 days a week. Is this a part-time position?? Any private sector job would never give you a 16 ½% raise if you just cost them $650,000 for not doing your job correctly. And why does this position merit 16 ½% when others are only getting 1.5 to 2%? He voted and recommended for most of you for this position, your positions here because he thought you had the best interest of the taxpayers at heart. If this contract is approved, it will just be another empty political promise. He asked that Council reject this contract and any others that have such unrealistic terms. Sandy Holmes, 11 Brown Court in Methuen, spoke on the $25,000 increase for the CAFO. It is not just the $25,000 that are her concerns. She is a almost a thirty-year resident of Methuen, previously n Reading, MA. She moved here in hopes she could have a different outlook in politics. But politics are everywhere and we know that. Coming to Methuen it was just a town when she moved here, not a city. She thought that the small town vibe was the greatest place to be. Fast forward three years and Methuen became a city. She is here tonight because she has concerns that we want to give this position $25,000. She works for one of the most prestigious health companies ACROSS THE World Philips Health Care and have been there for fifteen years. As an employee she is lucky if she gets 2 ½% raise every year. That is based on a perforrnance of a 5, which is very good performance, 1 being the lowest. “How can you justify $25,000 to a person especially since our property tax increase this year has been the highest in over a decade?” “”How can you justify this when the gas prices are hitting five dollars a gallon and they keep going up?” “How can we justify this when you see the highest inflation rate in the country in over forty years?” when families are seeing their grocery bills doubling wondering where they are going to get their next meal for their children “Why would the Councilors support these types of raises at this time?” “Why is she getting special treatment?” that I don’t know and am sure it will never be answered. We all kind of know what it is and the reason behind it. “Would anyone vote for you as a Councilor the next time it comes around if you agreed to such preposterous raises for one person?” She will really have to think about it the next time. Her contract clearly states that she would maintain office hours with a schedule that could be agreed upon between the Mayor and her. She is an exempt employee under FLSA may not necessarily be at city hall during all those hours. But she agrees connectivity to the city personnel while working outside city hall. She doesn’t understand it because her employees have to come to work. They are told that they have to be in their office to do their jobs. “How can she sit at home on a couch and do her job?” When COVID hit, all of us worked from home. She worked from home. Understandable but now that COVID is over she can’t understand the reasoning that this person can sit at home and do her job, even if she is available by phone call, a text, or email. “IS it fair to her employees?” I would think not. She is very upset that we are even thinking about giving her a raise right now. I hope you think about this and decide that her contract is just not viable for the problems that we have in Methuen right now. $695,000 we have to pay back. $25,000 to this person. “What’s next?” it keeps going on and on and on out of our pockets. She owns her home so she knows. She moved to Methuen because the taxes were the lowest in all the area. She moved to Methuen because she thought it was a great place to live. But today she is really having second thoughts about living here. Honestly, she doesn’t have any children left at home. Her grandchildren go to Methuen public schools and she supports anything and everything that you for the schools. She cannot, in her heart, say that she supports this. Dennis DiZoglio, 8 Thomas Road, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Nevins Memorial Library. He is here to talk about an agreement that is being proposed and is on your agenda between the Library and the city and wanted to come down and talk about the historic perspective on that agreement and answer any questions the Council may have. To put it in historic perspective in 1883 the Nevins family decided to build a private library in memorial for David Nevins Sr. so that he would be remembered in the community and they basically built the town a library and they established an METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 @ 7:00 P.M. endowment. That endowment was talk about her sitting at home on her couch. An individual who gives sixty/seventy hours a week and doesn’t get any overtime. Disagree with him on the number but don’t make it personal. This is an extremely quality individual who has done a fantastic job. Give her the credit where credit is due. You want to hang the hazard pay on her then give her the credit for the 1.7. In the city, we tend to focus on the negative and not on the positive. Please I ask you if you disagree with the contract, disagree with the contract, don’t make it personal. As far as the comment about sitting at home on her couch, that is not what this is about. In this day and age he wouldn’t be able to join Council if he couldn’t do remote but he is remoting in because he has COVID and he can’t attend because he is quarantined. That clause protects us and believe me there have been instances where this individual had to work from home and she worked from home. She has meetings. We go through the same kind of thing day after day. This is not about sitting on the couch. That is offensive to hear because this is one of the finest employees he’s ever seen and ask all the department heads, probably one of the finest employees of the City of Methuen. Disagree with the contract. He said the same thing with the patrolmen, you may disagree with some parts of it, but don’t make it personal. Talk about the positive as well as the negative. We focus too much on the negatives in Methuen. That really bothers him. He is happy to keep serving as the Mayor for $75,000 next year again. The decisions that make the tax rate go up are the decisions he is going to make on trash that he needs the citizens to get involved in and the funding that we need for the schools, like the five million we gave them for mental health, we knew it was the right thing to do during the pandemic. So please call him, discuss the facts, lets talk about what it is and keep it non- METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 @ 7:00 P.M. personal. This is the finest employee he has ever come across and she works tirelessly to make this city better. We are going to be in the black this year. At lot of it is due to the fiscal processes she has put in. Consider the contract, consider the appointment, under that he wants to put her at the level of the Superintendent of Schools as she has that level of responsibility. Disagree with the number but don’t disagree with the individual. Chair Beauregard wanted to ensure that any questions Councilors have for the Mayor are not in line with any particular agenda item. We will get to that discussion later on in the meeting when we get to each item but with that we can open things up with some questions. Councilor Faretra said the Mayor mentioned the $125,000 for the Clear Channel for the first board. He recalled there was a traffic study being done on the board on Pelham Street. He asked if that was completed yet and what the status is of that. Mayor Perry said that is in process. Councilor DiZoglio said there was a piece of property that was going to be given to the city at the intersection of 113 and 110, that there are currently two billboards at. He asked the Mayor if they would be turning that over as well. Mayor Perry indicated as soon as they build the billboard, they will be turning that over. Councilor DiZoglio asked if there was a timeline on that. Mayor Perry said it is supposed to be done right after the completion of the billboard. Those two billboards are coming down in the valley. Councilor Saba to the Mayor – you did say that we are operating in the black and we get a monthly financial report. If the monthly financial report is not showing any concerns and we are operating in the black, then why is he putting a spending freeze on departments if they’ve got the money in their budget to do their job. Mayor Perry responded he typically does it this time of year just to make sure. He considers it good financial policy to do that. He doesn’t know what this Council is going to do with regards to the $500,000, if it comes back to us to repay. If Council is going to force his hand he’ll probably take it out of the budget. That means he’s got to find that money in the budget. At this point in the year with only three fiscal months left he would have to go into all nooks and crannies to get the money. The later in the year that decision goes the better it is for him because we will be in the black. His approach would be to take it out of Free Cash and put any additional funding into Free Cash the end of this fiscal year. Councilor Saba said he asked the Mayor this question at the last meeting “Are we working on hiring a full-time grant writer for the city?” Mayor Perry said we’ve got someone who is an excellent grant writer and well recommended. He was brought in under a grant and we are going to see how he would be a full-time grant writer. Councilor Saba said the Mayor knows his stance on ARPA but the Governor, it was reported that we have 9.8 million dollars in infrastructure money but he knows that money is going to be distributed with competitive grants rather than just distributed automatically to all the cities. He can’t stress enough if Methuen gets access to that money as well as everything else, we can get some of these major projects done. We have to be prepared for that. Mayor Perry said the city is going after that aggressively. Councilor McCarty wished the Mayor the best with his second case of COVID and wanted to make sure the Mayor is taking care of himself. Councilor McCarty said he took advantage of the weather on Friday and knocked on doors to meet with some constituents in the central district. He bumped into an abutter of Nimmo’s Farm who had noticed or at least made a comment about some activity going on there. She was trying to ask questions of the people working there but they were simply just working there. They weren’t obviously the decision makers of that property. She had asked him to ask the Mayor if there was any update relative to Nimmo’s Farm. METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 @ 7:00 P.M. Mayor Perry - Nimmo’s Farm is being groomed for a facility that will not only grow pot (41:50). The zoning in the area is farm related; but will also provide educational resources to local colleges and schools to have people come and stay and kind of participate in further development of the farm well. The intent is to have educational resources to come study the farmland and to develop. The Nimmo Farm has been in disrepair for quite some time to a fully functional farm/educational resource center, if preferred he could have …. Come to Council and make a presentation on that. Councilor McCarty said it sounded like the resident just wanted to make sure that it was going to be continued to be used for agricultural purposes and it sounds like it is. He will make sure to pass along that message. He appreciates the Mayor answering it. Councilor Zeigler said a few years ago this Council voted to enter into a Class Action lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies for their practices that would lead to substance abuse and we recently got notification that it was favorable for the Commonwealth. She asked if there is an update as to what our next steps are, what the financial allocation to the city would be. Mayor Perry deferred to the Solicitor. Solicitor Rossetti explained that 44:20 C-22-57 Lease agreement between Nevins Memorial Library and The City of Methuen Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) C-22-58 Grant Agreement By and Between Metropolitan Area Planning Council and City of Methuen Amendment #2, March 10, 2022 Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) Unfinished Business Resolutions: TR-22-20 Resolution Authorizing Expenditures of $421,331 Remaining from the 2016 Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs Rail Trail Grant Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TR-22-21 A Resolution to Affirm the Methuen City Council’s Support for the Independence, Sovereignty, and Integrity of Ukraine (Requested by Chairman Beauregard and Councilor Finocchiaro) Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TR-22-22 A Resolution to Support Women in Government by Improving Language in Methuen City Council Rules and Procedures (Req. of Clr. Finocchiaro, Clr. Saffie, Clr. Zeigler) Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) Ordinances: TO-22-5 An Ordinance to Amend the Zoning Ordinance to Rezone That Parcel of Land Located at 184 Pleasant Valley Street, LLC, Parcel 1010-78E-2000 from a Limited Industrial (IL) District to a Highway Business (BH) District (remove from the table) (C/D recommendation attached) UPON VOTE: 7 yes, 1 abstention (Clr. Saba), 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 @ 7:00 P.M. TO-22-11 Ordinance to Restructure the Methuen Police Department (to create additional police positions, per reorg- Add One (1) Deputy Chief Position, Remove One (1) Captain Position, Add Two (2) Sergeant Positions, add Six (6) Patrol Positions Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TO-22-12 An Ordinance Amending Wage and Salary Classification Plan, Middle Management Legal Assistant UPON ROLL CALL VOTE: Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) Consideration of Appointments Tammy L. DiGrazia Assistant City Clerk Approved 8 yes, 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) Maggie Duprey – Chief Administrative and Financial Officer Approved 8 yes, 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) New Business Resolution TR-22-23 A Resolution Adopting M.G.I. Chapter 59, Clause 22H, Providing for Property Tax Relief to the Surviving Parents and Guardians of Fallen Military Service Members who died serving during Conflict (Req. of Clr. Finocchiaro) Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TR-22-24 Resolution authorizing acceptance of a gift of $25 from Irene Leshane and Wendy Schofield to provide for continuing operations of the Methuen Cares initiative Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TR-22-25 Resolution authorizing acceptance and expenditure of FY21 Massachusetts Development Block Grant Community Development Fund Approved Unanimous yes (8) 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TR-22-26 Resolution Amending Traffic Rules and Regulations – 4-way stop signs Vermont Street @ Fairoaks Avenue Tabled to Public Hearing 8 yes, 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TR-22-27 Resolution Amending Traffic Rules and Regulations – 4-way stop signs Quincy Street @ Fairoaks Avenue Tabled to Public Hearing 8 yes, 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TR-22-28 Resolution Amending Traffic Rules and Regulations – 4-way stop signs Olive Street @ Fairoaks Avenue Tabled to Public Hearing 8 yes, 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TR-22-29 Resolution Authorizing Interdepartmental Transfer of $15,000 From City Council Personal Services Budget Line Item to Solicitor’s Office/Personal Services Budget Line Item to Cover Potential Fiscal Year 2022 Salary Increases under Consideration for the City Solicitor and the Legal Assistant Tabled 8 yes 1 absent METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 @ 7:00 P.M. TR-22-30 A Resolution to Establish Limited Parking on Haverhill Street Tabled to Public hearing 8 yes, 1 absent TR-22-31 A Resolution Authorizing the City of Methuen to Accept the Written Report of Uniqueness with Respect to the Property Located at 9 Branch Street in Methuen Authored by the Superintendent of the Methuen Public Schools and Approved by the Methuen School Committee Approved 7 yes, 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) Councilor Faretra recused himself due to an appearance of conflict Ordinance- TO-22-13 An Ordinance Amending the Wage and Salary Classification Plan, Unaffiliated, to add the new position of Personnel Coordinator WITHDRAWN TO-22-14 An Ordinance to Amend Chapter 6, Section 2 & Chapter 2, Section 10 of the Methuen Municipal Code and the Creation of Section 8 of Chapter 4 (Req. of Clr. Faretra, Clr. McCarty, Clr. DiZoglio and Clr. Simard) Tabled Vote: 5 yes, 1 present, 1 no, 1 absent (Clr. Saffie) TO-22-15 An Ordinance to Amend the Wage and Salary Classification Plan for the City Solicitor (Unaffiliated) Sponsored by Chair Beauregard and Councilor Saba WITHDRAWN