The finance subcommittee of the city council is comprised of five council members and considers any or all questions appropriate for the purpose of considering the budget.

Including the creation of new positions to the payroll, changes to the employee classification plan, or any matters pertaining to increasing the City of Framingham employee headcount.

The following City Council Finance Subcommittee meeting coverage is brought to you by the government channel, a service of the City of Framingham.

Welcome to the finance subcommittee meeting of November 25th, 2025.

So on our agenda tonight we have uh seven items.

So first I just would like to note that uh version two of tonight's agenda is was meet posted on the website yesterday, November 24th, with the addition of an item entitled Update in the FI26 Tax Levy.

This agenda was first posted within the open meeting law requirements.

This item was added less than 48 hours before tonight's meeting, but it's considered an unforeseen circumstance.

Additionally, version three of the agenda of tonight's meeting was posted today at 5 30 to include additional background for the uh FY20 2027 to FY 2031 capital budget, but no other changes were made to the agenda with version three.

So on the agenda tonight after our normal call to order and public participation, etc.

Is that this further discussion regarding the uh community development block grant funds and using them to uh power wash the downtown sidewalks?

Uh further uh discussion of the uh supervisors uh contract for the 1116 parks and recreation.

Also uh discussion of the financial analyst job description for the city council, uh a referral regarding the capital improvement plan.

We're not gonna discuss that at any particular length.

Uh just uh and uh the school department we will discuss with them a consideration of a five-year lease on school buses and then a referral uh regarding affordable housing funds we'll be dealing with, and lastly that up the previously mentioned update on the FY 2026 tax levy.

So with that, uh we'll start with public participation.

Is anyone in the room would like to publicly participate on a item that is not on the agenda seeing no one there?

Uh zoom uh I see no one in Zoom either, so there'll be no further public participation uh in that portion of the meeting at least.

And uh minutes from 111325.

Okay.

The way they were there, I thought we did, but that's fine.

Um, so first order of business then would be the request um to spend 54,964 and 15 cents to support the continuation of um downtown revitalization by pressure washing the sidewalks.

Do we have any further information on that issue from the administration?

Yes, Mr.

Chair, thank you.

Um so we got the bids and and one bid was uh sixteen thousand and the other one's twenty thousand.

So um as previously stated, we would like to start on the um Boris Way section, work our way up to Waverly Street, and then bid the rest of the project coming right through the center of uh the city.

Has there been any further discussion, analysis or consideration of purchasing equipment with the money as we discussed previously?

We did discuss it.

The the size of this equipment, we would probably only use it once a year for this type of uh application, so we could purchase it, but it would probably sit most of the year and wouldn't get used.

I assume this uh equipment as you describe it would be could be used, however, for something other than um washing gum off sidewalks.

We have power washes, but this particular one has a heater on it.

Uh so the heater gets the water hot enough to get rid of the gum and the grease and the oils.

So we we really don't need anything this powerful.

I did talk with DPW about it, and um they have the same feeling that it would probably sit and we'd use it once a year.

Other questions, Mr.

Steiner?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, if we do this, what is the plan to avoid having this just repeat again with more gum on sidewalks?

We would have to come up with a maintenance plan to use our own power washes to do it once or twice a year, or maybe more than that with our own staff.

Yes.

So why don't we have that maintenance plan ready to go and have a sense of what the plan?

I I I have growing discomfort with this because you're gonna have brand new looking sidewalks surrounded by sidewalks that look like they've been there for as long as they've been there.

And as long as I have been involved in the community, I've never heard someone talk about the gum anywhere.

And I was just uh out of town in a very busy city that I'm in a lot, and of course, since our discussion, all I see is gum on the sidewalks.

But for you know, 25 trips over there, I I have never noticed it.

So I don't know if we're chasing a solution to a problem that has not been meaningfully articulated and we're finding the most costly solution.

I'm a little concerned because now it's the quotes were sixteen and twenty thousand dollars, but the request has been for over fifty.

And if we have multiple power washers, uh I'm just puzzled.

Is there a uh is one due for replacement and one that has a heater is gonna replace that?

I just this doesn't seem like it's uh a fully baked plan.

We the the fifty thousand was asked for because that was left in the um the budget for the CDD C D B G budget that was awarded to downtown Framingham.

They didn't use the money.

We started we listened to the downtown merchants, and one of the biggest things was to get rid of the planters and plant flower.

We did that, everybody loved it.

The next thing we heard was the sidewalks are disgusting.

We don't have a power washer that big that heats up the water to to take care of this problem.

So to answer the other part of the question, we have like a second shift person who does clean the downtown.

He empties the trash, he picks up trash, he does it like a three or four in the morning, that's his shift when he comes in.