City Council

City of Salem, Massachusetts "Know Your Rights Under the Open Meeting Law, M.G.L. c. 30A ss. 18-25 and City Ordinance Sections 2-2028 through 2-2A33." The City Council Committeeon Ordinances, Licenses and LegalAffairs co-oosted with Committee of the Whole met in the CouncilChamber on Thursdav, Mav 23. 2024 at 6:03 P.M. for the purpose of discussing the matters(s) listed below. Notice of this meeting was posted on Mav 17.2024 at 3:09 P.M. {This meeting is beint recorded} ATTENDANCE ABSENT WERE: Councilor Harvey (recused), Councilor Watson-Felt joined a fenr minutes late From the COW: Council President Hapworth, Councilor Prosniewski and Councllor Stott Also ioining from the City of Salem: Anna Freedman, Finance Director; Voula Orfanos, Bullding lnspector; John Giardi, City Electrician; and Fire Chief Dionne SUBJECT(S} #216 - An ordinance amending an ordinance relative to Chapter 12 Sec. 2 - Building, ElectriciW and Plumbing Regulations relative to Additions - provisions relating to fees #217 - An ordinance amending an ordinance relative to Ch. 14 Sec. 40 - Fees for granting permits and certificates by head of fire department #?LB - An ordinance amending an ordinance relative to Chapter 12 - Building, Electricity and Plumbing Regulations Secs. 163, 154 & 165 relative to electrical fees Voula Orfanos, Building lnspector began with a discussion of changes in building fees. The last time the fees were raised was in 2005. She presented the finances for her department, which indicates that even with these increases, it is still short of the cost of providing the services. For every 1000, $7; for commercial every 51000, S1t. there is a base fee for residential of S25. Many timei there are several inspections for each project. They are not covering the cost of performing the service at the current fees. Some projects need a l-month review with many visits. They would like to increase the residentialto S15 per 51000 and S20 per S1@0 for commercial. The base fee will raise to S75. Councilor Morsillo asks about examples in her financial presentation. Ms Orfanos explains with the example of a door and how to calculate the full permit fee. Councilor Hapworth explains for those watching that this moving the burden from the tax payer to the permit applicant. Similar to the Tour Guide fees, the burden of the cost of city services is moving from the tax payer to the person seeking the permit. Councilor Cohen states that this is a reasonable raise in the fees, and are comparable or better than other communities. He moves to return this to the full council with a positive recommendation for approval. Councilor Morsillo asks Councilor Cohen if he can hold his motion until all of the presentations are complete. Councilor Cohen agrees and states that he is just letting everyone know where he stands. Councilor Morsillo states that Mr. Giardi also brought in comparisons with other communities, which is good to judge how we are doing but our fees must be based on our costs for services. But it's good to see if we are in line with other communities, and it's clear that we are not in line before. Ms Orfanos states that she checked with other communities and they did the same type of analysis of their departments and seruices, to get to these new fees. Chief Dionne states that it was an unwieldy amount of data to go through to get to their new fees, taking into consideration all of the services and personnel costs. He went very conservative on his analysis. He came up with an hourly rate of S70 for the department's work with permitting, Like the building department, they often need to make multiple visits to locations, and with larger projects 15-20 times. The Fire Department uses fixed fees for fixed services, not based on value. He would like to continue to work on fees, in a future year. He also checked other communities, with like population and demands. These new fees are all in line with them. For each item, he estimated the average number of hours spent. He clarifies that fees were changed in 2006, and the department fees were never changed in the ordinances, so the change from the current fee in the ordinance to this new fee is a bit larger. There is change and new structure, but the fees were increased minimally. Councilor Cohen asks about the installation and removal of storage tanks. Chief Dionne states that back in the late 70's or early 80's we removed almost every underground tank in America, in Massachusetts specifically. All of the gas station had to redo their tanks because we found out we were poisoning the world. There are still some tanks underground, for example his mother-in-law lives in a house where the tank is under the front lawn. When they selltheir house, they will need to take that out. They take very few tanks out of the ground these days. Councilor Cohen asks about rebates for heat pumps and the requirement that the owner must remove the old tank. He worries about companies not doing it correctly. ls this something that they would go back and make sure it was removed correctly? Chief Dionne states that they do make sure the site is remediated, that copper pipes are removed, the tank is opened and cleaned, and they know where the oil went. lf there is a leak along the way in the process, they are just the reporting authority, reporting to the DEP who would take over from there. Councilor Morsillo takes care of some bookkeeping by stating that Councilors Watson-Felt and Varela had joined the meeting previously, Chief of Staff Lisa Peterson has been in attendance for the entire meeting, and City Solicitor Beth Rennard has also joined the meeting. John Giardi presents the Electrical inspection related fees. He calculated their fees based on hourly costs and how long each takes, which varies from 15 minutes to 2 hours. They did not take blanket permits into consideration because applicants don't report everything they are doing so that was deleted. Minimum fee was 515, which is way too low. The minimum fee is raised to $30, stayed with a local fee of $3 per SfOOO. He continues to review the new fees. Councilor Cohen asks Mr. Giardi about the installation of generators, and whether it includes bafieries for solar panels. The law changed a year agq and solar batteries are now required to be surrounded by a S-inch wall, a fire barrier. Mr. Giardi states that the building inspector and the Electrician look for that. Councilor Cohen asks about solar panels and if there was a specific fee previously. Mr. Giardi states that they are adding new solar panel fees. Councilor Cohen states that most of the work is with the electrical side. Mr. Giardi states that they need to demonstrate a rapid shut-down. Councilor Cohen asks if the fee is enough to cover the service. Mr. Giardi states that it is. There was no public comment. Councilor Morsillo begins with #216 Chapter 12 Sec. 2 - Building, Electricity and Plumbing Regulations relative to Additions - provisions relating to fees. Councilor Cohen moves to refer this to the full Council with a positive recommendation for first passage, seconded by Councilor Watson-Felt. The motion passes 4-0. Councilor Cohen moves to refer #2L7 Ch.14, Sec. 40 - Fees for granting permits and certificates by head of fire department to the full Council with a positive recommendation for first passage, seconded by Councilor Watson-Felt. The motion passes 4-0. Councilor Davis moves to refer #218 Chapter L2- Building, Electricity and Plumbing Regulations Secs. t63,764 & 165 relative to electrical fees to the full Council with a positive recommendation for first passage, seconded by Councilor Watson-Felt. On the motion of C. Davis the meeting adjourned at 5:31 P.M. C- (Chairperson)