I would like to call this meeting to order, a special ordinance committee meeting on Monday, December 22nd at 550 PM.

Clerk, can you please take a roll?

Council Vice President Heroyan.

Present.

Council Banano.

Present.

Councilman Graziano.

Present.

Council President Wall.

Here.

At this time I would like to open up the public comment section.

Is there anyone in chambers that would like to speak on documented items only?

Seeing none in chambers.

Tom, is there anyone online?

There is no public comment online.

At this time I'd like to close public comment, moving on to new matters before the committee.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Any discussion.

Mr.

Director, thank you for coming.

If you would like to speak on this.

We've discussed it before in prior um public meetings.

But uh at least a verbal agreement, whereas on a voluntary basis for the day daytime shift, that that rescue unit uh uh out of um uh station three would be staffed uh you know to be able to respond in essence as a fifth rescue.

So it's a a part-time uh uh it was a uh yeah a part part-time rescue in terms of shifts uh staffed with us with saying volunteers, we're staffed purely on overtime.

And uh in a minute, uh Chief uh Green's gonna come up and uh give I think a pretty compelling argument over some statistics uh um regarding uh the number of rescue calls and and uh and other valuable information.

Uh it's not an easy decision, frankly.

Uh you know, that this was made.

It's been it's been taking eight years.

It came to a head uh during our last firefighter negotiation.

Uh that was uh ratified and in effective July first this prior year.

Um the uh fire administration, the firefighters uh made a pretty compelling argument to let's make a decision on this and and uh and give it an all-out effort to make a decision to you know do it or don't do it.

And uh we had established a uh an agreement of uh October 1st to come to that to agreement on that.

Yes or no.

Uh uh in October, I believe we came forward and said that we had such an agreement.

We outlined that the mayor will support and and uh present to the council uh a full-time fully staffed rescue five round the clock um by adding eight incremental permanent head counts to the firefighters roster.

Um that's what we hear this evening about.

Uh so uh this evening the ordinance that you have in front of you uh changes the head head count complement per rank uh in the in the department leading.

That's one of the the most uh one of the most important documents or approvals uh required to do so by this uh uh not required to do so by the council, but required to enable this uh rescue to come into effect if the council approves that this evening.

And uh so that's what's presented to you.

Uh it comes it comes in multi-parts.

Um uh uh complementing uh or augmenting this uh ordinance is another ordinance or two actually that's been introduced at the last council meeting that's gonna be uh discussed, I believe, uh in the first week in January to this council.

Um is the actual ordinance that's going to modify or proposing to modify the current year fiscal budget uh in order to bring you know to bring that rescue on before the next fiscal year.

Uh that's already been introduced and to be discussed uh and I forget if it's finance or ordinance, but the first week in uh in uh in uh January.

Um along with that, uh there's actually to fund that, and we'll talk a little bit more about funding.

There's a sister ordinance uh uh that to provide for that funding uh for the sale of a property that's owned by the city of Cranston to pay for that for this fiscal year.

Uh, you'll see that.

Uh this evening, along with that ordinance that we just I discussed a moment ago.

There's a fiscal note prepared by the finance director to show how that would be paid for.

I'll focus on uh the for the house can be paid for for this fiscal year.

I'll discuss that in a moment.

And then the other document is uh an MOA memorandum of agreement uh to be executed between the administration and the uh firefighters uh to propose to this council to be introduced uh very soon uh uh to be to be heard and and reviewed by you folks uh early January.

And that is actually, in essence, it's if you cut through it, it's really either an amendment of the contract or the MOA, which is really an adjunct of the contract.

There's a lot of paperwork, a few moving parts, but that's kind of the process.

Um, but this evening it's is the it's the vote to uh increase the permanent uh staffing uh of the firefighters.

That's what that's what it's about.

Um as I said, Chief Green would be here in a moment to explain, uh explain I'll say a lot of the numbers, a lot of the very impressive will be some statistics about when rescue four, the most prior uh full-time rescue was approved and implemented, what uh status of rescue calls at that point in time and how that's changed over the years.

And I think that's the one that kind of pulled it over the top.

In addition to a personal story that the chief had shared with us, uh, basically saying if we didn't have this rescue five, uh certain people's lives wouldn't, they wouldn't be here today.

And I think given those two very compelling reasons along with several others, that's uh that got the mayor's air to want to sponsor this wholeheartedly.

Um it would be a tremendous increase in uh service for our city uh for safety in terms of response time and in uh truly life-saving uh be a life-saving change uh that's gonna be incremental that the city has not known before.

One side I have to say this, so it doesn't come in expensively.

Um by staffing eight incremental folks, we will be saving uh overtime uh of those people on that uh in the part-time basis.

Um, but there will be an incremental cost, and that's why we're looking for this fiscal year to uh sell a piece of property on a one-time basis.

It'd be a structural issue.

I don't want to, I want it to be perfectly transparent and clear to everyone how it's gonna be how about financing.

So we we to say we cannot take it out of operations.

We don't have the money out of this year's operations to fund it, but as a one-time sell-off of a property that the city isn't doing much with will be as I alluded to earlier, presented to you folks uh in early January.

Um along with that, um it would they would there uh on our rescue runs, there's also increased in billings.

Uh you know, that we do build bill a bunch of bill uh you know some of the people and those two sources of funds uh will will pay for it for this fiscal year.

Next year, um we'll be again just realize this as we look forward, it will be incremental to the city.

There'll be a net incremental cost.

And I believe my calculations and the finance director will share it further with you, is probably to the tune of plus or minus five, six hundred thousand dollars.

But that will be an incremental cost.

Uh the mayor's committed to figuring that out in his budget presentation to you, folks.

I think that um gives us a pretty good overview.

I'm trying to frame this as best I can.

I'll I think I'm done speaking, but maybe Mr.

Chairman, if uh in time, if you can give the floor to uh Chief Green.

Thank you.

Is there any further discussion?

Let's start with President Wolf.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chairman.

Not to belabor the point.

I think uh Director Moretti did a fine job explaining the with great thoroughness uh the need for this.

I am going to be in support of this ordinance this evening.

I think if we can enhance public safety and make an already strong fire department stronger, it's gonna benefit us and uh in in so many ways.

You know, like you say, this will save lives.

So I'm gonna be in full support of this evening.

I won't make a long speech on the matter because we have another meeting coming up two minutes ago.

Um, but I certainly would like to hear the chief if he he'd like to speak up as well.

Thank you.

Starwood uh councilwoman Heroin, please.

I'd just like to bring the attention to a few things.

I believe the last time we put a full-time rescue into effect was 1994, and there was only about 7,400 runs per year.

Now we're doing over 18,000 runs a year.

Um, there's been a lot of changes in state policy with the Department of Health, and that a rescue has to be on scene for certain calls for a half hour.

So that really puts the rescue out of commission also.

Um 70% of our calls are with EMS.

Um when the fifth rescue first went into bases, that was in part time in 2019.

We were only doing about 14,000 calls.

So the calls have gone up greatly.

Um, we've also been building and we're getting more constituents.

The centers is going up.

This is definitely well needed.

The other thing that came to mind is everyone complains about overtime.

Well, with that overtime, also calls uh a firefighter or EMS could have been on duty for two shifts.

Now they have to stay for third shifts.

So this is gonna put them not working as many hours.

So the overtime will go down in safety.

Also, mutual aid.

If a Queensland resident calls 911 and all of our rescues are tied up, it could be a rescue at a fire, but they have to be there.

Or like what happened last week.

Our guys could all be in Providence helping out, not all rescues, but some of them.

If a Warwick rescue comes to your house, you're now billed for the city of Warwick because you don't live in Warwick.

So our taxpayers pay out of their pocket when we have to call for mutual aid.

So that's many reasons I think we should all be supporting this tonight.

Councilman Bonano.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um Councilman Heroyan said a lot of the things I was gonna say, so I won't repeat them, but this is long overdue.

That's all I'm gonna say.

This is long overdue.

Um, the last time that we added, as she said, uh, was 1994.

Well, how many years ago is that?

32.

So that means I would be uh, let's see, nine years old the last time.

So it was during the traffic canning administration.

That was my next point.

It was during Mike Traffic Canning's administration.

And and to that point, um, to be honest, I think this is probably going to be the first of many of these conversations we're gonna have because our city is getting bigger and bigger, more and more uh populated.

And um, you know, with that comes increased responsibility from the city to the taxpayers.

So this is overdue.

I'm in full support of this.

I'm very happy it's coming um to be.

I want to give credit to the administration.

I want to give credit to the fire department, um, the fire union.

Uh everybody deserves a little piece of the credit in making this happen because this is a giant step um towards making our city safer.

Giant step in saving lives.

And as I said in the previous meeting, when um when uh it comes to the saving a life, you know, money matters, but when it comes to saving a life, life is priceless.

Thank you.

Would the chief like to say anything?

Hello.

I'm the division chief of EMS.

My name is uh Richard Green, most of you know who I am.

Um Mr.

Moretti, uh I always I always want to say Chrissy, because that's why you always say sorry, yeah.

Councilwoman, um as you know, you you you all said exactly what's going on here.

Um, from the information that you said, everything is pretty much correct.

Um 94 is when we started that last rescue.

Um, obviously with about the 7400 runs.

Uh obviously it was around 2017, it was over 14,000 runs.

So we doubled the runs uh in that time frame.

Um in 2016, 2017, we tried to get the fifth rescue um at that time, and obviously uh they wanted to do it on a trial basis.

Well, obviously the trial basis worked.

Uh, we're over 17, almost 18,000 runs right now, and we still haven't put that rescue on.

So, with that rescue, um, that's helped out a lot of city.

It's helped a lot of mutual aid.

And um, from the the fourth rescue line to the fifth rescue, it always seems like was some tragedy that reason we got it.

Um, there was an incident in ninety-four, that's why we got the truck.

It's an incident in 2017, uh, in this own council uh up in the city hall.

That's why we got the truck because they always relay on a mutual aid.

So um I don't think we have to sell this.

Uh we've talked about this multiple times.

It's a need.

I believe the uh the the city administration, all the council members, we've all talked to you about this.

Um it's it's just a it's a it's a needed uh truck.

We shouldn't be talking about uh a fifth rest we should talk about six.

Okay, any questions?

Any further discussion?

Well, I want to thank the mayor and the administration, the union and the fire department for putting this together.

Um I went to the mayor with this, I believe, in February, and I'm glad it came through.

Uh the residents of ward three, definitely thank you.

And I'm pretty sure the residents of ward five.

So with that, clerk, please take a roll.

Yes.

Council Banana?

Yes.

Yes.

Council President Wall.

Yes.

Well, that passed.

Um, I messed up as adjournment.

Uh motion to end the meeting.

Motion to second.

All those in favor say aye.

I have any knees.

I said, we're adjourned.

We'll start the next meeting in less than five minutes.

Evening and welcome to this special city council meeting, December 22nd, 2025.

At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order, and I ask the clerk to please call a roll.

Councilwoman McGraziano, Councilman Injurar, present.

Present.

Councilwoman Baziri, present.

Present.

Here.

Council Vice President Heroyan.

Present.

Here.

Um before we begin, I know I've said in the past, and there was an error on this evening's agenda.

Every meeting that I uh that I preside over, I am going to take public comment.

So if there are no objections, I'd like to add public comment to docketed items onto tonight's agenda.

If there are no objections, speak now if there are.

Okay.

So at this time I'm going to take public comment on docketed items.

If anybody is in the chamber this evening who would like to speak on dock it matters only, please step up to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and you'll have four minutes to speak.

I see none.

Tom, is there anyone online who would like to make public comment?

There is no public comment online.

Okay, then I'm gonna close that public comment now.

Um next item of business would be a reports from committee.

The first and only report from committee this evening will be the special ordinance committee.

Uh the report will be from Chairman Anduha.

Chairman Anderha, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Yes, we did meet on December 22nd, and we met at 6:50 p.m.

Um 550 p.m.

sorry.

So uh I want to talk about 122504 ordinance and amendment of title two of the chapter of city of Cranston Court of Audiences 2005 entitled administration and personnel.

I urge passage.

Motion to approve, Mr.

President.

There's a motion to approve.

Is there a second?

Is there any discussion?

I just want to echo what I said five minutes ago.

I you I still feel the same way.

Your thoughts haven't changed.

No, my thoughts have not changed.

I'm certainly going to be in support as well.

Any other comment?

Okay, clerk, please call the roll.

Consident.

Yes.

Yes.

Council Trafficante?

Yes.

Councilman Vazieri.

Yes.

Councilman Capiano?

Yes.

Councilman Banano?

Yes.

Council Vice President Horyan?

Yes.

Council President Wall.

Yes.

Next the next item in business is the introduction of new business.

If there are no objections, I'm going to take this as a block with the exception of 122503S, which has been withdrawn without prejudice to be reintroduced at another time.

Are there any objections to taking this as a block?

Um, yes.

Okay.

Um make a motion to take is there a motion to take this as a block.

Motion to take this as a block.

Okay.

There's no discussion.

Oh, any discussion?

Yes.

Mr.

Cam, uh Councilman Campo Piano, pardon me.

Thank you, Council President.

Um I would like to send 122506 S to the appropriate committee, but the remainder ones I would like to put off until our meeting in January 22nd.

Uh there's some significant stuff to discuss here, some significant stuff to uh undertake and digest.

Uh I think we could uh all use a little bit more time to uh digest these things and to look into them.

Uh I don't think there's any rush, none of these things are um under any time constraint.

We could um easily do these on on the referment of the July 22nd meeting, and uh that'll give everybody a lot of time to look at each one of them and uh call the appropriate people that are involved, learn a little bit more about it.

I'd like to learn more about uh I did on the 122501 S.

I did talk to some of the residents.

I would like to talk to the the police and get their handle on it.

Um, I'd like to find out a little bit more about the revolving uh loan.

Uh the attacked property, this thing, uh at least uh property tax, the two of them.

That's a significant change to the tax.

I'd like to interview um all the parties involved.

So I think with the holidays coming up with um a lot of these people that we need to interview and talk to will be on vacation, might not be available.

I don't see any urgency to um putting these off to one of those uh the back to the 22nd in January, and then we can get more public comment.

We can learn more about it and then make the right decisions.

Okay, is there any other comment on this?

I see councilman and Mr.

President.

I feel we should just continue with this.

Um during the holidays, people have a lot of time on their hand, they could research, and I think if we delay, it's just gonna delay everything else.

So I I'm strongly in disagreement with my colleague next to me.

So I urge that we just move it along.

Any other comment?

Councilman Ritz.

I just have a comment.

I I have read through these, I have questions when they go to committee, but I am in support of them.

But if we did hold on to them, when would we hold on to them till then too?

Well, I mean, this is just to refer it to committee in January.

We're gonna have a hearing in January at the end of the month.

We you know, if if it gets out of committee, regardless if it does or doesn't, all these will go before us at the end of January, which would be approximately a month from now.

So we'll have a month that time, and I guess depending on what happens in committee, none of us can really tell.

Things can be committed, you know, continued, etc.

etc.

Um, but uh I don't have an issue with that.

I see count uh you also councilman ritz.

I'm sorry.

Okay, councilman Banano, I'm gonna take councilman banano, and I'll take you.

Yeah, I don't think I need two months to review this stuff.

Um, I think one is sufficient.

So I think I think um councilman campiano will be able to do.

I mean, he's a pretty astute councilman.

I think he'll be able to do what he wants to do in the next month because this isn't for passage, it's just moving into the committees.

So we still have two more sort of vets of every single one of these.

So um I'm in support of moving them forward tonight.

So decky, yes.

Uh, thank you.

Uh Mr.

President, just as a procedural matter, I I think it would probably be more appropriate since there has been a suggestion of continuance and discussion that this should be formalized.

I think in the in the form of a motion to continue.

So if uh councilman Capobiano wants to uh make a motion to continue introduction of new business, and if there's a second, then I think from a procedural standpoint, it would be more appropriate to do it that way.

I'll I'll defer to attorney Marcello.

Well, I think the original motion was for unanimous consent referral is to committee.

There was an objection to that.

Now what's before the council is a on the on the uh motion to bundle.

We're only on the motion to bundle as a block.

Okay, well, that's the only thing we're on.

So right, but I I think uh the councilman campabiano is uh making for lack of a better term, not uh expressly, but making a motion to continue everything rather than introduce, and I just thought it might be a little cleaner to the motion on the floor is the motion to bundle first, then we can okay it's been made and seconded now in discussion.

Any further discussion?

No one else has discussion.

We're still on the motion to take the new business as a block with the exception of the item.

Just for clarity, councilwoman Horyan, Council Vice President.

You're asking for a motion to take this as a block, and that block would this to ordinance committee, and then we would have discussion then.

And um may ask Councilman Anderhow, when is the next ordinance meeting?

The 5th of January.

So the 5th of January, we're moving this to the 5th of January.

At that time, we can have discussion, and then we can hold it if somebody felt the need to that could be done during that meeting.

If not, yes, it would go before us, I believe.

Without looking at my head, I believe January the 20th, the for full council meeting.

Full council for January 20th.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Everyone who had this, I know I just want you just procedurally, I make sure everybody has a chance to speak, and then I'll go a second time.

I see nobody else, so just not to delay that.

Um before I do take you, I say, you know, listen, I certainly respect, I may disagree that with the timetable thing.

I certainly expect councilman campbiano's you want to be diligent on this matter.

I'm not, I'm not slating them.

I just I just don't agree in this matter.

But council campiano, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Councilman.

Um, I just want to do the math that would you say January 5th is the uh is it a seventh?

Yeah, I think you're right.

I don't have the calendar for him.

That's not a full month.

You're right.

This that's not a full month from now.

It's January 7th is is just what two weeks away.

What I meant, I think is approximately a month from now, we'll be taking a vote, a final vote.

That's just a committee meeting.

But my point is that the these items are not on any time constraint.

January 7th is about two weeks away.

The people that we would like to interview, talk to, and go over all these ordinances, maybe on vacation.

It's it's Christmas time, it's New Year's.

That's not a lot of time.

There's five items here that we need to review.

That's not a lot of time to review all five items.

That was my point.

Uh, we want to make sure that we do our due diligence and make the right decision in committee.

So when we do go to 22nd with full council, we we have all our homework done.

That's that was my point.

It's not a full month, it's only a couple of weeks.

And one of the weeks is lost through Christmas and and uh new years, and there's a lot of work to be done if you want to do the work.

If you want to just flip a coin under the bench, that's okay.

But there's a lot of work to be done.

Thank you, Councilman.

Councilman Anderha.

Again, I disagree with my colleague next to me.

If he wants to hold the workshop, I'm pretty sure the senior center is open, but I just feel that we should move this on.

Um, once this, if this passes as a block, I will make my phone calls, and whoever I want to bring will be ready for the seventh.

So I feel it's enough time.

I think we should do the work of the people and help and help everybody that we can.

Any other comment?

All right.

Uh Councilman Rich.

I I don't know.

Mr.

President, does it make sense to unbundle this?

Would this make us less complicated to unbundle this?

And then if there's one ordinance that wants to be held, that might be a different conversation.

I mean, there's motion made and seconded.

Uh, I mean, I guess if it doesn't pass now that the motion is on the floor, let's say it doesn't pass.

Then we'll go one by one.

So right now the motion has been made.

We've been around a couple of times.

We I'm just about ready to take a vote on it.

Now, if that doesn't pass, I think that's that's the option.

All right, but no, thank you for that.

Any further comment?

Okay, clerk, would you please call a roll?

Considering, yes, no, conspiraficante?

Yes, councilman Vazieri, yes.

Council Vice President Heroyan, yes, President Wall.

Yes.

That motion passes, and that was a motion to bundle.

Yeah, I got you.

It seems so long since we started.

All right.

Now a motion to refer the bundled items to their respective committees.

Moved second.

Any discussion.

There being none, clerk, please call it all.

Councilman Andrew Har, yes.

No.

Council Trafficanti?

Yes.

Councilwoman Vazier.

Yes.

No.

Caspinano?

Yes.

Council Vice President Heroyan?

Yes.

Council President Wall.

Yes.

Okay.

Seeing no further business before the council this evening.

This time I'm going to entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, signify by saying nay.

The ayes have it.

Motion carries.

Thank you all and good night.