Hello, uh welcome to our Tuesday evening budget workshop.

Uh uh administrator Kane Rath, do you want to kick things off by um outlining the process uh and timeline for amendments, budget amendments?

Sure, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

So as discussed at our meeting last week, um we've set uh this Thursday end of business for amendments to be due um into staff.

Um the packet will go out normal schedule, obviously um deadline Wednesday, it'll go out on Thursday.

Uh and we will um consider amendments in regular session on the 19th at our meeting.

Uh I was discussing earlier um with the mayor and council president, it may be uh advisable for us to uh have a workshop next Tuesday um to consider amendments and a workshop uh amendments prior to the regular meeting.

Um we'll have all amendments in the Thursday prior, so we should have everything uh in if there's interest in doing a workshop uh next Tuesday evening um in advance of our regular meeting on on Thursday.

Uh how do counselors feel about that?

Uh I think we're uh counselor Chitum, did you want to say something?

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm concerned about I think it's important that we have that because uh the way the amendments are presented to us, if there are more than one.

Um could obviate the other, so I think we need to work through that first before we do that.

So I'm I'm in favor of a workshop on uh preparation.

Right, and there could be some, you know, obviously some commonalities among your amendments and in advance of it going uh in the packet.

Um it may be a good idea to sort of um call some of these amendments um and have something that's sort of very clear and ready to go for the meeting the following week.

That will be the goal, thank you.

Anything further, Administrator King Rath.

That's all for now, thank you.

Okay.

Uh we still have uh quite a bit of our budget workshop left.

Uh do counselors want to bring up any budget workshop items.

Counselor Chitam.

Yes, I just like to make certain that I'm working from the most current budget.

Um is that the one that's dated 429?

Correct.

Okay.

And that does not obviously have the details in it, but those can be obtained by drilling down through the information that's on sh that sheet into the actual budget that was presented to us uh at the beginning of the session.

Correct.

And I had sent you a list of all of those items in an email, I believe, to all council to show what those reductions and the ads to the revenues were.

So you had that amount.

Very much appreciated.

Thank you, Director.

Yes, Counselor Martell.

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor.

I have a question for Director Roy.

I'm looking to get some clarification on.

That's okay.

Okay.

If we were to say hypothetically do a 90-day hiring freeze, would we be able to immediately free up that money for the general fund for say salaries benefits and everything else that's already been saved and budgeted for that?

So if we were to freeze that, could we immediately put that money back into the general fund?

We could still uh take applications and do interviews but not hire or put anyone in the books for 90 days, and could we immediately free up that money?

Are you talking about this fiscal year?

Yes.

Um so we could do a carry-forward if you recommend carrying forward those salary um savings uh to next fiscal year, but I would not recommend we wouldn't interview somebody to tell them that they wouldn't be hired for another three, six months.

Um would go out and find another job.

Um so my recommendation wouldn't be to interview individuals.

Well, I I understand that.

I guess what I meant to say was uh it can sometimes take time to get through the hiring process.

So if we were to take, say, 90 days without putting anyone on the books, I would say um, with the exception of the the police department for uh current reasons and general reasons of of being so so short staffed.

Uh if we did that, can we recognize the savings immediately, regardless of you know whether you interview people or not?

If we do a 90-day freeze, can we take the money that's already been budgeted and put it right in the in the general fund?

As long as other lines have come in other, under and not over that need to be covered for the general fund.

It's always the bottom line of of how the expenditures and revenues finish for the year to what's brought over for fund balance.

So those things aside, if we did the freeze, that money would immediately be available.

Is what you're saying.

Recommendation or not, just if we do it, is the money immediately available?

Because it's already been budgeted.

We're not going to use it.

If we were to pass an amendment saying we're not going to use it, does it free that money up immediately?

Because it we won't hire anyone.

If the funds are available at the end of the year, we can't just say, okay, so if we do a freeze and it saves $60,000, if like say winter came in higher than $60,000, that would cover that amount.

So it until we finish the year and make sure that our funds are all reconciled and all the expenses and revenues are in.

So then in theory, if we didn't do the hiring freeze and say winter fees or expenses came in $60,000 more than expected in that, that would take us even further into the negative hypothetically than if we hadn't done the hiring freeze, still budgeted for that money and winter expenses went over.

We would have come back to you.

I'm just using winter as an example.

To kind of give you an idea.

I'm just stating that until the the final numbers are in, we can't say, well, we're going to carry forward 60,000, not knowing how all the other lines, because there could be an emergency that comes in, you know, something at public works that happens that they need to repair that would end up taking that money.

So you can't say it's a guarantee until we get closer, and that's why we start looking at all the encumbrances in June, uh end of June, July, to make sure that those funds are available.

We wouldn't carry forward money that we don't have available.

Okay, I think I've got the answer to my question.

Thank you very much.

Uh further questions, comment.

Counselor Longchamps, yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I know you have said this number before, Director Roy, but to maintain our parks, how much is set aside for that in our budget again?

Over expenses.

Good evening, Kevin Gonget, Director of Public Works.

Um I have a report showing uh with overtime and regular time, our 16 parks are right around $70,000.

$70,000 to maintain them?

Correct.

And that is in just Libra.

So I want to preface that.

That's not materials or equipment rentals.

So the question asked last time was what we were spending on overtime.

So we're spending about 27,000 of regular time and 40,000, almost 41,000 in overtime to maintain 16 parks.

So 70,000 basically.

Correct.

Thank you.

Anything further?

That's it for now.

Counselor Nadine, did you have something?

Yeah.

The parks and open spaces budget is 1.7 million total.

Is that that include projects?

Correct.

That would include any of the equipment rentals, uh, fuel.

I'm just giving you the labor costs.

Uh it would also include materials and supplies or receiving and anything we're doing depending on the specific park cleanup disposal.

Okay.

Um could we possibly all as a counsel get uh the email with the breakdown of the different parks and the expenses?

Absolutely.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Counselor Longchamps, did you have something else?

Yes, so basically I'd like to see if we could maybe um shave that uh amount down a bit, maybe by 150,000 if possible.

So if we could um get that breakdown, that would be great.

Thank you.

Uh further comments, questions from counselors about the budget.

Uh counselor Nagyene.

Um one of the things that keeps coming up, and I just want to kind of surface this.

So administrative costs with the five uh staff members are a little heavy.

And I believe that um Joe Brock Mall is currently working uh partially within the economic development department.

And I'm wondering, because of the fact that we are short um right now for economic development, if we could possibly move more of his salary into the TIFF funds in order to reduce from the like I I I don't know what the plan is, and so I'm just asking.

And I know that we're looking at hiring a new economic development director, so some of these things are maybe changeable, but just want some feedback on that.

Right.

So we are using the maximum allowable for that position in TIFF funds, which I believe correct me if I'm wrong, it's 35 percent.

Okay.

And the remainder of that comes from the general budget, no matter what.

Okay.

Uh was that it, Counselor Nagyen?

Uh for the moment.

Yeah.

Uh Counselor Longchamps, back to you.

In our budget, um, as far as frozen positions, the police department has one police officer or none.

They have they have um, I believe three frozen positions.

No, we had two last year, and we frozen under one.

So there's three frozen, three police officers.

And how many from our fire department, if any?

There are none for fire.

Public works is eight.

Um eight.

And finance is one.

So that's the 12 positions we froze.

Thank you.

Uh Director Roy, for police, how many?

I know we froze three, but how many positions are uh open right now?

I would refer to the chief.

Chief Conley, thank you.

Good evening.

So currently we have two frozen um and uh seven vacant, it would be nine if we didn't have the two frozen.

And then this year's budget, the plan is to freeze an additional uh position.

How many uh I I see.

So how many positions are like if it's if an officer showed up today and wanted to be hired, could we hire them?

Like how many open positions do we have?

With the frozen positions, we have seven vacancies right now.

Okay.

So we could hire seven officers right now.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Counselor Najene.

Uh, or sorry, one what did uh uh okay.

Yeah, sorry, Counselor Najene, then back to uh Counselor Long Chan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Chief, um just to verify.

So we have two frozen positions right now, and we had created two positions in 2022, I believe, that were never able to be filled.

We had uh I believe we had budgeted for three positions total.

Um one was filled and two were not, um, if I'm correct on that.

I I honestly am not certain back in 2022 when those positions were created.

But if we're full complement, we should be 86.

And we had had a conversation about the possibility of freezing one additional officer with the understanding that there was a possibility that that position would not be filled.

And that if you could fill it, you would come before counsel to ask for a supplemental budget in order to pay for that officer.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Yep.

Okay.

So we could technically remove one more uh officer position for the moment be due to the fact that we do not believe that we'll be able to recruit that officer this year.

I think it's just a matter of how many positions we currently have available, along with we know that three individuals will be retiring this summer.

Um so I think we'll have some wiggle room per se if you were to freeze another position.

But I would certainly like the opportunity if we could fill them all, um if we could come back to you and and have that opportunity.

I would strongly recommend if we get enough uh uh applicants that are that are able to be hired that you come back and ask for however many positions you need to fill um for sure.

Thank you.

Counselor Longchamps.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Chief.

So we originally um budgeted for two frozen positions.

We've just asked for a third, but you will still be able to hire seven officers, is that right?

Yes.

So last year we the we froze two.

Okay.

This year we're gonna freeze one more.

So that would be three.

And then it's my understanding that there's potential to freeze a fourth.

And I think we would be able to sustain that fourth position.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can um I talk about the fire department or have the chief come up?

Uh what one second before we do all that.

Uh uh, give me one second.

Counselor Roy, did you have something for the police chief?

Yes, thank you.

Um how many um officers do we currently have that live in the city?

Can I ask that question right now?

Off the top of my head, I don't I don't know that I would say probably 25 30.

Uh but I can certainly get that to you.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Uh any more questions for police chief conley.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh Chief Karen, are you here?

Yes, you are.

Okay, thank you.

Counselor Long Champs.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Chief Karen, for being here.

Um, how many positions do you currently have uh out to hire?

Do you have any open positions?

So currently I have one actual vacancy, but the way it works is when someone retires, we have to have, you know, the position has to be posted and then an opportunity for bidding.

So it it takes a few weeks before it's actually open, and then when we do hire people, it's we hire in groups because we have to, you know, um, you know, six or eight weeks of training.

We can't just hire someone and and put them on the truck.

So I I have two current vacancies.

Um and then tomorrow, Captain Daniels will be retiring after 41 years.

So I'll have three tomorrow.

Great.

Well, congratulations to him.

Uh and thank him for his service for us for certain.

So with the two vacancies that you have, um, would you be comfortable freezing the two of them to help our budget and share?

I don't believe so two of them would be a would be a big ask because those entry-level positions offset the overtime.

Um if you froze one of them, I could move the other two around amongst the three shifts to offset the overtime if I had a long-term sick leave or an injury leave.

Um but if you were to freeze two, it would it would impact the overtime line.

It would increase it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counselor Nijing.

Uh Chief Karen, I want to thank the department overall for uh the service that they perform in the community.

I I should have also brought that up with the other chief.

Um but I realize that um you're not just putting out fires, you're also responding to pretty much every 99 call in the city.

And so um, you know, I I think there are pressures there.

I think that we all know that um some of the contractual agreements make uh the overtime uh requirements um inefficient.

So we cannot do scheduling changes at the moment in order to like the only choice for driving down overtime is to hire more more firefighters at this moment.

Um and I think that's a difficult place to be in um in in a very tough budget year.

Um so um I just I just want to acknowledge that because it's if we're talking about paying overtime versus losing actual employees that are that are staffed, it's a challenge for us.

Um you know I I do appreciate the one uh position that you're willing to freeze.

And so if the one position is what you can give, uh understood.

Um but again, we're just dealing with a very tough budget year.

So yeah, so I'll just since you brought it up, um I'll briefly talk about the fire prevention staff.

So the deputy chief was brought back, was uh received funding a couple years ago.

Um that was one of the positions that was eliminated in 2010 when there was a mass layoff throughout the city, and it took that many years to get it refunded.

Um so I'm reluctant to call it a new position.

It was not a new position.

It's a position we always had and was just not funded for a period of time.

Uh it's definitely needed, and uh he he does a good job.

Uh the third fire inspector that you're making reference to that came out of the uh the housing committee and the rental registration where um they needed an additional body to address the uh the unsafe can living conditions downtown and the blight.

So and I think he does a good job.

He's very busy all day um keeping the landlords downtown accountable uh for their properties.

They're not always happy with him, but you know uh you know it's just the way it is.

You know, if someone tells you you need to spend money to make your building safe, you you know you might not be happy, but it's necessary.

So I would definitely support you know that position.

I would I would argue against eliminating funding for it.

Uh thank you, Chief.

Uh counselor Nagyen.

Yeah, I I would I wasn't inferring that would that we would want to eliminate one of the two new new positions because I think that the arguments that were put forward make sense to keep them.

Um one of the things that we were doing in the past was offsetting uh the cost of one of those uh fire marshals through uh rental registry program.

And going forward, I think that we do need to, and it's not gonna fix this budget year, unfortunately, but we do need to look at licensing um home health care offices um and other um uh organizations within our city that get calls for service and possibly we could look at those revenues that are coming in to offset some of the costs of those positions because first responders uh positions are are absolutely necessary in the city.

There's no question.

Uh the the I think the concern that we're having is just unfilled positions versus filled positions, and the argument that you're making that basically it's gonna run us more overtime than the positions worth makes sense to keep the that one unfilled position at the moment in there if you're willing to sacrifice the other one for this budget year as a f it's a frozen position, not a removed.

Yeah, I mean it i if you're telling me that you know you you need the positions.

Um I there is some savings, uh you know I I can shuffle them around some flexibility.

Um but I would I would you know caution against more than one because those it will you know impact the overtime line.

Okay, thank you, Chief Garrett.

Appreciate it.

Uh yeah, counselor uh long champs back to you.

No, thank you.

I'm all set.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Uh counselor Martell, yes.

Thank you, Mary Mr.

Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, Chief.

Um thank you to the fire department, what you guys do for the city, it's very important.

I'm very much uh pro-public safety and first responders.

I um I'm just looking at some some difficult realities in front of me.

Our police department has nine current openings and that could go up with retirements this summer.

Um recently we've had some serious public safety issues that that I think make that even a little bit more concerning.

I'm looking at public works uh that's down eight currently, and that's obviously a very important department in our city keeping roads paved and um municipality safe uh for residents.

So I guess it's just hard for me, like I get that it's unfortunate and it might not be ideal and it could I would hate to see more overtime, but you know, eight, nine.

Um, you know, we're we're fighting for one or two.

I mean, there's a lot of need in a lot of departments, and and we've got to cut some taxes up here.

So I just hope that you'd understand that and uh you know, hopefully work with us.

I I I would like to see the two.

And that's not because I have anything against the fire department or that I I think um you aren't trying.

Um I'm just looking at the numbers that I have in front of me.

And um, you know, if we're gonna be down nine in the police department and eight in public works, um, you know, one in the fire department, it seems like you know the the the difficulty needs to be spread across the board a little more equitably, I guess is the way that I'm looking at.

So I hope that you would um consider working with us on both of those positions as difficult as it might be thank you everyone.

So I want to make sure we're you know kind of thinking about things correctly we're we're not uh I mean we are talking about stamp positions but we're talking about saving money.

And so um uh Chief Karen we need to have 17 people on at all times.

Yes we're contractually obligated to staff with 17 people daily.

Right.

And so that's where some of this overtime is uh covering coming from and so if we're you know it sounds like we'll be you know if we're cutting positions at the fire department sounds like we we could be saving money but I'm not sure that we will be uh especially if there's um uh you know given the fact that we need to maintain 17 people at all times and I I guess if we're going forward in this discussion I would love for you to work with Director Roy to figure out what would be the actual financial hit.

You know do we actually save money if we get you know is the overtime less than the position that we've saved.

And so if it is then yes that saves money.

But if for some reason it is not then cutting position will not save money.

It will actually cost us more.

So I I guess I just want to make sure we're making decisions based on data.

Yeah if I may so we did this exercise a couple years ago with the R personnel.

Contractually I can have four um the council has funded three so I've always had one more available that could have been funded.

So I I did the exercise and the n a few years ago the math worked out that if that R person was utilized 70% of the time it was cost effective.

So that that was the cutoff point I mean if it was 70% or greater that they were in a spot saving overtime but if it was um if not then it was just easier to pay the overtime I can do that again with current wages.

I can resurrect that.

I would appreciate that thank you.

Yes back to you Councilor Martel.

Thank you.

Yeah I guess my question would be if being down uh that position is going to drive up overtime.

It's say we were to say come back to you and say all right let's open up three entry level firefighter positions can you predictably come back to us and tell us how much savings that will have on overtime so maybe we can find savings there.

Maybe we give you instead of cutting maybe we give you three spots and and you tell us that we can cut your overtime budget by X amount of dollars so that we find a net savings.

Well so there's a lot of variables in there.

You know the firefighter pay scale is 18 18 steps.

An entry level firefighter is step one.

So that replacement firefighter who's working for straight time is working at the very lowest possible wage contractually versus a 10-year employee working overtime or maybe a lieutenant working overtime for 24 hours.

So there you know the it's hard to predict so when I do when I you know when I run this model it's it's you know based on a median wage because I can't predict you know which person is going to be out on any given day but if but if we have more towards the lower end of the the spectrum whether they're on straight time or overtime then that would end up cumulatively having less of a strain on your budget than say that time or overtime at someone at a high a higher step level.

So I'd be saying let's see if we could bring in some of those lower level entry positions and and kind of cut back on some of the overtime hours of the more uh stepped up firefighters.

Yeah that I mean that is the purpose that we have replacements is to reduce overtime and that's when I when I had that conversation um with with Consul Negan I I you know one I could probably work around that you know um you know transferring them to the shifts that have you know the most um you know a long-term leave or an injury but uh with even with three uh it's one per shift so it's it you know this uh you know if I had two you know one of the shifts would have no replacements and every vacancy every day would be filled with overtime well I just I mean I'm I'm not trying to to take your positions or I don't want to see the the the fire department understaffed for any reason.

I'm we're literally up here trying to find savings and so if we can have a conversation in the best way in in which to do that that still allows you to do the very important job that you're tasked with but can save the taxpayers some money I I just think that's an important conversation to have and some math that should be done.

Yeah.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

If I could also just circle back to the the the fees that you had briefly mentioned.

I'd be happy to work with if the council would support fees for inspections and for services, I'd be happy to work with you on developing a more robust fee schedule, just knowing that you know you'll be the have to hear it from your constituents.

Uh yes, back to you, Councillor Nijene.

Yeah, I mean ultimately our revenue streams we have to diversify past uh just the tax base, so the rate payer uh for a service um in certain cases uh probably should be looking at um an increased cost as long as it's matching what the actual cost is, right?

And so I I would love to have some further conversations about that for sure.

I also just just for the the like public's understanding.

How long have we had uh uh 17 firefighters staffed as uh a good contractual obligation?

Like how long has that been?

So we went we went up to 17, I think in 2017.

Prior to that it was 16.

So we added uh an additional firefighter on the ladder truck in 2017.

And and that is not a requirement based on state or federal law or OSHA requirements that is that is well it's it's an NFP recommendation that we have.

Uh and we're actually understaffed.

They recommend that we would have five on the ladder and four per engine, and we have three per engine and four on the ladder.

Okay.

If if uh well I can look it up or get in tech contact with you later about that NFP.

We're meeting the minimum standards where we we meet the standard.

Gotcha.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Further questions for Chief Karen.

Thank you, Chief.

Okay, thank you.

Uh further questions from counselors about the budget.

Mr.

DeKainrath, do you have anything nothing further?

Thank you.

Director Roy.

Uh I think we're calling the budget meeting early then.

Uh uh Counselor Naging, yes.

I I'm just wondering what it would take um in this budget if we I don't I don't think we have it in this budget, but what would it take to to redesign the website so that it's uh uh do we have uh an idea of how to update this web like what's it gonna cost the city to update the website so that it's like yeah, I I don't want to say usable because it is usable but better.

You're talking about a total redesign, a total revamp.

Yeah.

So usually that'll be done with a third party um you know that we would put out to bid.

So I don't have an idea off the top of my head uh of cost on that.

Uh I'm not sure if uh we have our communications director is here.

I'm not sure if we've investigated further what it would take an outside um for him to do it.

Okay.

And could I have an could I have an idea if that could that come from TIFF funds?

Um potentially partially.

I don't think so, though.

I don't I don't think so.

We can investigate.

It's not considered to be like an economic development tool.

What's your I wouldn't imagine so.

We do have um a portion in the budget to make the website ADA.

Um so along with that, they could take a look at um the the difference of the cost and we can um see if we have any remaining funds from that to cover cover that.

But I believe they revamped the website, was it two years ago, Angie?

Um I I know we do have a piece in um MIS's budget for the website along with the ADA.

That could most likely be used depending on how how much of a um restructure of the website would need to be done.

And that ADA requirement is uh is a state mandate, correct?

That's a state state requirement.

It's federal.

Federal, okay.

Thank you.

Councilor Harriman.

Thank you.

I wonder if the council would find it appropriate to ask about uh revaluation questions now, or if that should wait till later.

Uh yeah, we got a few minutes still.

So I was wondering uh if there are any updates on the feasibility and the cost of phasing in the revaluation numbers.

So the the actual to phase in the reval, those are the same numbers that we had presented previously.

I will talk about my report um some numbers to extend uh the um informal assessments.

Um the scheduling past May 15th.

Um but as far as the reval numbers, we have that between 200 and 800,000 sort of scale based on what we were looking for.

Um were you looking for specific other detail in there?

No, it was really that.

Um and I didn't know if that was any more um you know, 200 to 800,000 is a fairly big range.

I didn't know if that had been narrowed down at all.

Um I was thinking based on maybe a three-year phase in.

Yeah, our assessor does have some additional detail that can be forwarded to you.

Um he's not available tonight.

Um just not here.

But um, let me um talk with him tomorrow.

If you're looking for just some general, more specific detail, perhaps we can email that out to you um tomorrow.

But uh if you do have specific questions, let me know, and we can get back to Tyler and get those those answered.

Uh okay, thanks.

Yeah, well, just to if I can jump in really quick, Administrator Kenrath.

Um I think no, and I remember from the workshop you had some questions, uh, but there was not majority support to do a phase in.

And so for the questions about you know the cost of the phase in were um yeah, since there wasn't majority support, like there just was not uh an advisable use of staff's time.

But if if director Healy has information that's like free, you know, available that he already has, he can certainly share it around.

Yeah, no, we're certainly happy to answer any questions and get more information if an individual counselor would like that, absolutely.

Okay.

Uh administrator Kenrath, please uh say what you're going to say.

I think I was done.

Uh well, no, you were talking about the um the the window for appointments.

Um that's part of my report for the regular meeting and oh, okay.

20 minutes.

Um I could do it now if you'd like, or we can wait to do it in the report.

Uh we can wait, I guess.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh Counselor Longchamps, did you have something?

Part of your report is regarding the reval.

Is that what you said?

Yes, just some updates on we had discussed uh extending beyond May 15th the time to schedule uh informal uh hearings on your new assessment.

So we have some numbers of what that would entail.

Okay and some general information there about where we stand with how many have requested appointments to date.

Great.

That was pretty much going to be my any questions I had.

We're we are building up res building up suspense for our administrators' uh report later on in the meeting.

Uh counselor noble.

So I've had constituents reach out asking me or complaining that when they reached out to Tyler Technologies to find out what they used for the numbers, they're being told they're not being told what was used for those numbers.

And I'm wondering if we can find out that information.

When you say not being told what was used, what do you mean by that?

Like what they use to come up with people's re the eval.

What the actual process that they've used to what did they use to get those numbers?

Because some people had appraisals done recently and they didn't come in anywhere near the number that's like an independent market appraisal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I don't know if that's information that we can get.

Like how the process went down and how they got that money number for each property.

Um or we can get something specific from Tyler, but I'm sure Bill Healy knows exactly the the process used by one of these companies to come up with their new assessment.

Thank you.

Counselor Longchamps.

Um just to share with Councillor Noble Um that I believe uh most of how they did this was basically went to the property, uh, took pictures of the home or building.

Um also looked at the land, how much land was there.

But when you have uh an appraisal done uh to get it at its real value, they would have to go in the home.

Look at your crown molding, your doors, uh there's lots of lots of things.

So most homes will actually be assessed at a much lower rate than what they're actually valued at.

If we can have it quite in the council chambers, I would appreciate it.

Thank you.

Please continue, Counselor Longchamps.

So just to share that with you.

Uh from what I've seen and heard.

Okay.

Thank you.

Counselor Harriman.

Yeah, I'd also like to find out more about what process they used and what they used for comps because things I've been hearing from people and in my own experience is that the assessed value that's coming in, which I shared that understanding is that the city's assessed value is typically a little bit lower than market value, but the the value that's coming in is significantly higher.

And um I believe we're also shooting for 95% and not 100%.

So that tax on another five percent on top of that.

Um so it's yeah, the values seem to be coming in generally uh quite a bit higher than what people expect.

Okay.

Uh I'm sorry, we're we're we're in a workshop right now.

So I'm you'll be able to speak during public comment uh in the next meeting.

Uh Counselor Chinum, did you have something?

Yes, I'd like to go back to the budget for just a moment.

I want to make certain that we're all on the same page here.

Uh, the charter indicates that we need a supermajority if we're going to exceed the CPI.

Um that number has been tossed around as being three point three percent.

The actual calculation based on December December is three point two five one.

So if if our goal is to hit that target, that's the number we have to hit, it would be too bad for us to come in at three point two nine and technically violate the charter and do that with only a majority of four.

So be aware, everybody, please, that the drop dead number for a four council for vote approval is three point two five one percent increase over the tax levy for last year.

And based on the uh city attorney's memo that includes the operating funds for the city.

It includes the county tax, and it includes the uh the third one.

No, not the school budget.

Um debt service.

Thank you, uh, administrator.

City operating budget, county tax.

All has to come in at three point two one percent or lower over last year's figures, comparable figures.

Further questions from counselors about the budgets.

Uh, Councillor Long Champs, yes.

I would just like to share that.

I'm I'm confident that that uh we will get there.

Further comments or questions about budget or reval.

Okay.

Anything from you?

All right.

Uh this concludes our budget workshop.

We will be reconvening at seven.

Thank you.

Hello, and welcome to our Tuesday evening council meeting.

Appreciate you all being here.

If we can have it quiet in the hall, that would be great.

If you need to talk, you can head out to the hallway.

Uh or text each other, but we will have it quiet in here.

Thank you very much.

Uh yeah, we're gonna have a quiet starting right now.

Thank you.

Uh is Chief Conley here.

Yes, there you are.

Chief Conley has graciously agreed to uh kick us off with a pledge of allegiance.

Chief, thank you very much.

Uh Madam Clerk, I believe we're ready to begin.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

All roll call votes for this meeting will begin with the counselor of ward two.

And I underst thank you, and I understand we have minutes.

We do uh the minutes of the April twenty-first meeting.

Move to approve.

Councilor Chitam.

Second.

Second by counselor Nagin, Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward Two.

Yes.

Word three.

Yes.

Word four?

Yes.

Ward five.

Yes.

Word six?

Yes.

Word seven.

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Uh, thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Uh, we are now up to public comment period, and we have a few public comment periods here, so I'm gonna quickly outline things and then we're gonna get going.

Uh so this first public comment period is uh for items that are not on the agenda.

What will be on the agenda for item number four is the th final budget hearing uh for the municipal budget.

So if you want to talk about the budget, uh, you need to wait till item number four.

And then way down on item number what is that sixteen, which we will be moving up to after the municipal budget.

Uh we'll be talking about the uh approving the budget for the Lucent School Department.

So if you want to talk about the school budget, you'll need to wait until then.

And this next public comment period is for uh things that are not related to the school budget or city budget.

Any and now I'm gonna read what I normally read here.

Uh any member of the public may make comments regarding issues pertaining to Lucent City government.

Uh this budget is reserved for non-agenda items.

Public comment is also allowed during individual agenda items.

Public comment is limited to three minutes per person.

Please state your name for the record and please indicate if you are a loosened resident.

Per our council rules, this period is reserved for loose and residents only.

Because this is the business meeting of the city council.

All questions should be directed to the mayor who asked up to follow up at a future time.

It is illegal for the city council to allow comments related to personnel matters.

All personnel complaints should be made directly to the city administration office.

Hi.

Um Janet Bowden, Ward 2.

I'm here to talk about the reevaluation, not the budget.

Is that acceptable?

Okay.

Um so I'm not here to argue that my home was overvalued.

My concern is how it's being implemented and what it says about the city's long-term management.

When a city goes 38 years without a full reevaluation, the cost of that delay should not suddenly be dumped onto taxpayers all at once.

It's not fair, and it's not good leadership.

I bought my home in 2019 for 280,000.

And I understand that market values change.

What I don't quite understand is why the valuation of my home didn't increase from 198 to 280 when I purchased it.

I certainly didn't purchase a 500,000 home, and my taxes really shouldn't reflect that.

I absolutely do not accept a system that lets years of neglect build up and then shifts the full burden onto the current tax base in one shot.

That punishes people who are still here, still paying, and we're still trying to hold on.

You've already said a phase in was considered to ease the impact, and that's exactly the kind of approach that should have been pursued from the start.

The real issue that taxpayers are the real issue is that taxpayers are being asked to carry the consequences of decades of delay while getting very little in return.

We have crumbling infrastructure, reoccurring water main breaks, empty storefronts, and no clear economic momentum that gives homeowners confidence in the future.

But we certainly have plenty of low-income housing.

Thank you for the one-year delay.

But that's not gonna fix the underlying problem.

The city should be working on a gradual rollout that softens the blow instead of slamming homeowners with the full impact.

If you want a stronger tax base, then build one.

Bring in real economic development, fill vacant buildings, stop relying on the same shrinking group of taxpayers to solve all of your problems.

As a middle class homeowner, I want to know where my representation is.

I want to know what I'm getting for the taxes that I pay.

Because right now I'm seeing higher bills, fewer services, and a future that looks more expensive and not any better.

Please don't punish the taxpayers who are left.

Face this in responsibly.

And for the love of God, vote Republican in November.

I'd like to I'm sorry, there's no uh there's no outward signs of approval or disapproval in the council hall.

Thank you.

And there's also no campaigning uh during public comment.

Uh please continue, sir.

Matthew Grain.

Ward five.

Honorable councillors, mayor, and city administration members.

I fear that you are all looking at pushing off this long overdue revaluation that we needed done for the past 38 years.

I fear what you're doing is looking at pushing off the financial responsibility and fairness to the people because there's an election this year, and I expect at least some of you are planning on running again and are seriously worried about the tar and feathers and pitchforks that are coming out.

I also assume that you want someone else to be the bad guys who are gonna have to hand out this bill to the taxpayers.

It's been three years since this all started.

Most of you sitting up there have been there the entire three years.

Now, if we back it off one year, what's to stop the next council from saying, well, it was good to delay this for one year, why not two?

And start kicking this down the slope again.

Now, if you're saying we need to hold this off because these numbers aren't right, how much did we pay to have these numbers done?

I'll be honest.

I listened to Robert Reed, who guessed about what the revaluation was going to multiply for the homeowner value, so I was not unprepared to see the uptick at some.

Now, could the city of Lewiston done better of warning the taxpayers what was to come down the pike?

A thousand percent yes.

Let's be honest here and say something that not many people want to talk about.

We don't have big business products projects coming to help absorb these belows.

Instead it's all gonna fall on mostly the homeownership to foot the bills for the city.

Well, at least till most of them start looking at selling and flooding the market here in Lewiston, and then crashing the housing market, which will then force another revaluation to fix these numbers.

You all need to put on your big parsoning panties, and instead of figuring out how to make this hurt, not just this year, but going down, prepare a past so it doesn't hurt in the future either.

I'll remind you, when your personal budget doesn't work, you have two real choices.

Pay odd credit, which will cost you more in the end, or cut out your expenses to make the budget work.

I know I personally prefer the second one.

Have a nice day.

Thank you.

Please continue, sir.

Ray Tutane Ward 7.

Mrs.

Longchamp, I'm glad that you said you're gonna try like hell to get to debt 3.251.

But I want to tell you a story that happened to me today in my neighborhood.

Um I have an older woman, lost her husband last year.

She's 95 years old.

She's got two adult sons that take care of her.

But in my neighborhood, we check on her and make sure once in a while that she's okay.

Today she came up to me while I was walking with my wife.

And she asked me if I got the tax evaluation.

And I said, yes, we did.

She said, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

I says, well, hopefully we have some city councilors that's gonna work their rear ends off to bring this down.

So what you said, I hope all of you think the same way that Mrs.

Longchamp does.

But this woman at the end of the conversation looked at me and she says, I'm 95 years old.

I hope I die before I get my tax evaluation.

Now, if that doesn't touch any hot string on this goddamn board, you guys shouldn't even be on that board.

Ninety-five years old, lived at her house for 48 years, lost her husband, and she's scared to death.

When you guys now bring you back to when you campaigned, Mr.

Sheeline, you were at my house in my driveway for 20 minutes, and you told me everything I'm gonna say right now.

I want to be mayor, I want to run, I want to do this, and I hope I win my election because I want to help the city of Lewiston.

I want to make it affordable for you people that lived in Lewiston.

And I don't know if you're doing that right now.

There's a sign that I'm sure you've seen all over the city of Lewiston.

Mr.

Jones running for governor and the bottom is uh we we are we are not campaigning.

I'm not campaigning.

I'm telling you what I'm gonna tell you.

In the bottom of its sign, it says, fight like hell.

I'm sure you've all seen it.

I hope that's what you're doing.

Because it's time to look under every rock to try to save everything you can.

And there's one more thing, Mr.

Sheeline, that you should do as a mayor.

It's time for Bates College to help us out.

Boating College helps Brunswick, Colby College helps the city of Waterville.

It's time for them, don't call it a tax, call it whatever you want.

They have more money in escrow in endowments than the whole city of Lewiston.

It's time for you to get on the phone and call.

It's time, thank you.

No, I'm not done.

Uh I'm sorry, we're three minutes for everyone, we have a line.

Thank you, sir.

You have a great day.

That's what I thought you'd do to escape this.

Can I have someone's time?

No, we we do not share time here.

I'm sorry.

Why not?

Why can you not share time?

I got like 10 seconds.

10 seconds to tell you something.

Ten seconds, sir.

Go ahead.

Okay.

It's time for you to pick up your phone in your office and call the president of Bates College and get a meeting and ask him.

He might say no, but we don't know.

And say, we, the Lewiston of people of Lewiston, Maine, need your help.

Can you help us?

And I hope you do that, but I don't think you will.

Thank you, sir.

Further public comment.

How are you guys doing?

Good evening.

My name is Destiny.

I'm a Lewison shooting survivor.

Thankfully, I'm not from Lewiston.

I'm from Wyndham.

Can I speak?

Uh recognizing that the council uh has agreed to let you speak before.

Please continue.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

For the past several months, I've been coming to these meetings and speaking during public comment.

Now suddenly a rule is being enforced that limits speaking to Lewiston residents only.

This presents a problem for me.

A victim of a shooting incident in Lewiston that nearly claimed my life.

That change feels like a message that we should step back, be quiet and move on.

But I'm here and I'm not going anywhere.

Survivors and victims' families will continue to show up, continue to speak, and continue to ask questions until we get the answers.

We did not come to the city council asking for help managing our personal needs.

What we asked for clearly and consistently is accountability.

Specifically, we are seeking transparency in answers regarding the 1.9 million that was distributed to 29 nonprofits, none of which were present at Smengies or at the Bolin Alley on October 25th, 2023.

We asked for an investigation into how those funds were allocated.

That request still stands.

Right now, the city has a partnership with the main community foundation.

Because of that relationship, it is responsible and reasonable for this council to ask the foundation to return the remaining funds so they can go directly to the victims and families they were intended for.

So tonight I am asking a very direct question.

What is the release date for the remaining 1.9 million that was raised for the survivors and victims of the Lewiston mass shooting?

And I'm respectful respectfully re question a response within 30 days.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Further public comment, please.

Andrew Jones, Ward 2.

It's been a little bit since I've been here.

Um just have a couple of things I wanted to talk about.

Uh first one was um last time I was here speaking, it was regarding a member of the council uh sicking the Lewiston police department on me as well as the district attorney uh to try and uh deprive me of my first amendment rights.

Um I understand the explanation for uh why he does what he does, but that doesn't uh justify uh him attempting to weaponize the police against me.

So shame on you, you fascist.

And it's a shame that the uh council declined to hold him accountable for that.

Uh one of the thing I want to talk about was the public comment sessions.

Um the first time I heard uh Carl say Lewiston residents and all that, I thought he was just making stuff up, you know, to try and prevent the uh the David Joneses and the uh Quinton Chapmans and Ryan Salvators from talking, but um the deputy administrator was kind enough to point out the rule.

And it just turns out that Carl's just never been enforcing it this whole time, and we hadn't had a problem.

So I would like to see that rule stricken because it's just curbing free speech.

Um, those folks, they may not live in Lewiston, they may not pay taxes in Lewiston, but they uh have a vested interest in our city and should be able to speak.

Um furthermore, that rule does say Lewis and residents and taxpayers.

That's a line that Carl omits when he reads it.

Um I would argue that there's plenty of taxpayers in Lewiston that don't necessarily live here.

If they buy a stick of gun, they're taxpayer.

I know it's probably supposed to mean property tax, but that's not what it says.

Um other than that, I would encourage uh folks to use 210 Blake Street as their address when they come here to speak because the council seems to be okay with that fraud.

Um last thing I want to talk about in my last minute here is uh the revaluation.

Um it's my understanding that you're you're going to a phase-in approach on that.

I don't really agree with that.

I think that it needs to be pushed through immediately.

I think Brett's right that we got to rip the band-aid off, and that the council, when they deal with the budget, deal with some real hard cuts.

Like he said, it's not cutting fat, it's lopping off limbs.

And that's unfortunate, and I understand that people will lose their jobs as a result, but again, this is a result of decades of mismanagement.

Um to that end, I'd just point out that you know, wards two, four, uh, six, as well as the mayor are up for re-election.

So people should probably consider that depending on how things play out tonight.

Um, lastly, I just want to remind everyone of David Chittham's words last year uh during the budget.

Um, his words to anyone who was faced with losing their home as a result of Lewison's budget.

He said that's life.

So again, something that needs to be considered.

Thank you.

Yeah, I won't give you the opportunity.

Further public comment.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Lisa Jones.

I live in Ward 2, and I own a tax-paying business in Ward 7.

I'm here tonight to talk about the shootings that keep happening in our city.

When there's kids on my playground, and I get a text from the superintendent that says there's a shooting, and I have to get my kids inside.

The shootings that happened twice last Thursday, twice last Wednesday, many nights before that as well.

People in Lewiston are scared and tired of hearing gunfire.

There's nothing from the leadership of the city afterwards.

Nothing.

Residents deserve acknowledgement, reassurance, and transparency when serious violence happens in our community.

Started thinking about what the role of a mayor is supposed to be.

A mayor is the public face of a city.

A mayor should respond during difficult moments with sympathy for victims, gratitude to first responders, a commitment to facts and transparency, and reassurance to the public while investigations proceed.

A mayor should listen to residents' concerns, address issues like public safety, and work to improve quality of life.

Instead, we get silence.

Because who's saying this is bad?

Stop.

No one.

Who walked away from a reporter four times last week when he was directly questioned about gun violence in our city?

That man, the one who claims to want to represent Lewis Dent.

It's disgusting.

And none of you do anything to hold him accountable.

And I also have to add, with my remaining few seconds, I'm not even going to finish what I had planned here.

People in the audience are asking me to comment on Councillor Harriman's behavior during public speaking during public comment again tonight.

It's a game for him at this point, clearly.

Further public comment.

Fifty years ago when I came to Lewiston, I watched, I was I joined the police department.

And I used to have to stand down on Ash Street and watch all these mill workers every day, parade down the street and go home.

Whatever.

They came down there every day.

Now what I see is if I go to the grocery store, I see these same people sitting there trying to make change, trying to get enough change to pay for their groceries.

And while I'm watching this, that that's in the morning.

But if you come back there in the afternoon or at night, my God, they all these welfare people have huge uh carts and they're filled.

When I was mayor, I tried to, we tried to get a hold of the welfare.

For six years I was up there.

Not one person, not one elected official, uh strike that, not one elected state official help me.

I had to go over to Auburn to uh to uh Mr.

Brakey, and I had to go down and see Garrett Mason in order to forget to get things introduced to the legislature.

This is just not right.

And it's still going on.

And what I'd like to see is I'd like to see, you know, is maybe it's about time we start looking at the welfare.

Because I'm sure that's a big chunk of change right there.

And these poor people here.

You know, they're struggling.

And what we're doing is, I mean, let's why don't we run the city like a city and not Elder Silent?

Okay.

Thank you.

Further public comments.

Mr.

Mayor.

Uh counselor, yes.

Uh I would move to extend the public comment period beyond the initial 18 minutes and cancel the second public comment period at the end of the meeting.

Uh okay.

That's a suspension of the rules.

I I'm sorry, say it again.

You want to suspend the rules?

I move to suspend the rules to allow this public comment period to continue and remove the public comment period at the end of the meeting, which is designed for overflow of the initial.

Uh yeah.

So I I appreciate that.

I would second now we so Madam Clerk.

Yes, sir.

We have a uh a motion to suspend the rules.

So that would need to be the first vote, correct?

Um sure, if you want to do them separately.

Um I believe the second public hearing is listed in the rules as well.

So we can do two separate votes if you'd like.

Uh in order to vote to suspend the rules, it does require a supermajority because you are changing the adopted rules, so you need a minimum of five votes for the motion to pass.

Uh thank you.

And if I may, counselors, I appreciate this.

I I think we can allow public comment and then dispense with uh uh bureaucratic theatrics, or if you want to continue to suspend the rules and go through all of this, we certainly can.

But um I I think public comment is nearly done, but uh Madam Clerk, we have uh we have a motion on the floor.

You do.

Um I guess I just need some clarification.

Would you like to vote them separately?

One is to extend the comments right now, and then the second one being to eliminate the second public hearing this evening.

I believe the motion was um combined.

I guess my question was do we need to vote to suspend the rules uh first and then uh and then vote.

Uh no, because I believe it's all one motion.

You're suspending the rules to extend the comment period and exp uh suspending the rules to eliminate the second comment period.

The the fastest way we can get this done.

Sure.

So we'll keep sorry.

We're just doing one.

Yes, so we'll keep them combined as the motion was presented.

Uh please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 2.

Yes.

Ward three.

Yes.

Ward four.

Yes.

Ward five.

Yes.

Ward six.

Yes.

Ward seven.

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Motion passed a vote of seven to zero.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, counselors.

Uh yes, further public comment.

Uh hello, Timothy Morin, Ward 4.

I'd like to thank the counselors for taking my emails and uh high counselor counselor Roy for taking my phone call.

Um I'm glad that you guys are finally unstrapped and that you can discuss what you need to discuss as far as the reval and stuff like that.

Um as far as my reval, um I just got a recent appraisal of my home, which was eighty thousand dollars less than what my reval is.

So some counselors have mentioned we need to find out the process how our homes were valued.

Um that appraisal was thorough.

That gentleman came through my basement, he came through my um my attic.

He checked around my entire home.

So that was a very thorough appraisal.

Um nobody came to look at my home, um at least while I was home.

Um, and they valued my home 80,000 more than a recent appraisal, so we need to get that figured out.

So thank you.

I we see the struggle on your faces during these meetings, and we appreciate that that you're listening and that you're taking us seriously.

So that's what the rally outside was all about.

So thank you, folks.

Further public comment.

Public comment.

More public comment.

Hi, Diane Chamberlain Ward 2.

I'm not gonna take three minutes.

I'm just gonna say my husband and I recently retired, and when we made our retirement plans, we were looking at our city taxes, because we knew that they would be going up through the through the hopefully 20 or so years that we're gonna still be in our home before we can't be there anymore.

With the val with the re-evaluation based on the mill rate that I have been heard is gonna be thrown out.

Our taxes are gonna go up to what I expected them to be 20 years from now.

It's a $4,000 a year jump.

That is just absolutely nuts, and that's with the 19-something mill rate.

And that's with the 19-something mill rate.

You would need to have the mill rate down at 11 for my patent my taxes to stay where they are.

So you really need to consider how you're going to implement this and what you're going to use for a mill rate because you're gonna kick all the people of this city out.

And right now, there's not a whole lot of good coming into this city, so you need to hold on to the people that are good and that are paying their taxes.

Thank you.

Further public comment.

Public comment is now closed.

Did you okay?

Yeah.

You beat the buzzer, sir.

Thank you.

And if I may, if there's anyone thing else thinking about public comment, please get in line behind this uh this good gentleman.

Thank you.

My name's David Janke.

I live and uh live here in Lewiston, resident, and I got my eval in the mail.

Uh of course, like everybody else, I was very shocked.

Um tried to uh follow the process to uh dispute the eval.

Um not that I really dispute the value of my home.

Um what I figured out was when I did the math based on the eval letter as well as anything posted that I could find on the city website, it looked like my taxes were gonna be somewhere around $10,000 a year, going from $4800.

So, of course, I um had a batch of kittens, right?

Like everybody else.

Um I went through the process of scheduling a meeting with um our friends down south who did the eval.

Uh sent a very nice clear letter that I've actually shared with other other folks asking for certain things from them and scheduling an actual meeting.

It's scheduled for today.

My request was that I will have the meeting with you today at the time that you given me.

Uh, but before we have this meeting, I would like to know the details of how you arrived at the number you arrived at.

So I will need to know what you used to reference and how you actually did it, and did you show up at my property?

Um, and why is my pool still in the eval, and why are what buildings are you actually using for this eval?

I have none of that information.

None of it was transmitted back to me, and they didn't even show up for the meeting.

So there was no meeting.

So I told them that the meeting would be null and void unless they gave it to me by 8 a.m.

this morning because my meeting was at 8 30.

They never responded and never got anything back.

So as of right now, my property can be value to anything you want it to be, as long as my taxes don't go to 86 to 10,000.

I don't care how you get to that number.

What I'm asking of you is common sense.

The common sense is there's no reason for anybody to have their taxes double in one assessment at any point.

Okay, so it's time to play some jury.

I don't care if you pass it through and you bring that mill rate down to 11.

All I can tell you is that I'll uh I don't want to have to pay any that much more.

I would expect four or five hundred dollars increase, like everybody else, probably in this room.

But when you're talking thousands of dollars, I dare you to ask anybody in this room to if they would accept that.

They won't.

Nobody will.

And I'm sure none of you up there would want to do that either.

Nobody's got that budget.

Not after taxes go, I mean uh gas going up, oil going up, electricity going up.

So I make good money, so is my wife.

Where's we we struggle with a couple hundred thousand dollars a year?

We struggle to live in the city of the city.

That's time, sir.

Thank you.

My name is Fred Shan Monsope, and I'm in ward six.

I think one of the things you need to do is you need to sit down in ward meetings and explain to people how the hell this happened and how exactly did they evaluate these properties.

We got some strange, strange stories.

Did they actually go out and evaluate them?

Or did they do it on a computer and guessing?

I've been through an evaluation before many many years ago in Auburn.

And they came through the house, they measured the land, they did everything under God's creation.

And we need to phase this in.

We can't afford to have it hit us all at once with all the retired folks, and you've heard them tonight.

They can't pay these taxes.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

Something needs to give.

And we need to be honest about what the hell happened, and you need to go into ward meetings and explain it to people.

Thank you.

Last call for public comment.

Lee Clement ward six.

I'll speak very briefly about the reval.

We built a home here 11 years ago.

We refinanced that home three years ago, had an appraisal done at that time.

And the value had gone up, not even half of what it was.

Just got the reval, our reval was better than double.

Now I understand there's a lot of moving targets out there.

I've been through revals and Augusta and in the state of New Hampshire.

The standard rule is about a third of your value and taxes will go up, about a third will remain the same, about a third will go down.

Now I understand there's an awful lot of moving targets in this thing.

We know we need to know the assessment ratio, we need to know the total valuation of the city.

We also need to know the budget.

And that's where you folks come in.

I talked to a lot of people in this city.

In the last two weeks, I've talked to two professional people that are leaving the city.

One made the comment, the city of Lewiston doesn't want me anymore.

I've been here 60 years.

They don't want me.

July 1st, I'm done.

I know another business owner looking to sell the business because they can't afford to stay here.

We came here because my wife is a native of Lewiston, and her mother was still living at the time.

We thought it'd be nice.

And we saw that Lewiston had some potential.

I hate to say it, but the current administration, the elected officials of the city, are not meeting that potential.

And Mr.

Chittham, that's life.

These people that are telling me they're leaving because you can't make it affordable to live here.

You need two or three things.

You need affordability, you need accountability.

Okay.

Without those two things, there's no sense going any further.

And we don't have those right now.

That's life.

I propose we ignore the charter.

Yet you want to sit there and argue with corporation counsel as to who interprets the law correctly.

The idea of public comment.

When I was on the council and I sat in your seat, when I was on the council, I proposed that we do away with anybody but Lewiston residents speaking.

The answer that came back, we can't do that.

It's public comment.

You have to allow anybody from the public to speak.

So I don't know whether the corporation council has changed their opinion of that or not.

But you know, you got to start taking things into consideration.

You've got to have a little compassion up there.

Ruling by edict, by fiat, just doesn't cut it anymore.

I wish you people would wake up and do something right.

And Mr.

Mayor, I employ you, resign before it's too late.

Further public comments.

My name's Jay Roderick, and I'm from Ward 6.

My taxes actually doubled.

So if it doubled, I'm going to be paying $17,000 a year for taxes on my home.

You know, you're making it to the point, it's impossible to live here.

I own a business, you know, I'm I'm doing fine here.

I closed my original business here and moved into Westbrook because I knew the city is is gonna do this to the people.

You're chasing us all away, number one.

And number one, the budget is so far out of control.

That's why you can't come up with accurate numbers.

You know, go look at public works, go look at the school department.

They ask for a raise every year.

They're asking for two or three raises a year.

You've got to put a clamp to that.

You gotta stop that.

It's time to it's time to be responsible to the people of Lewiston and to take care of our people.

You know, you don't work for yourselves, you work for all of us.

We we control the city.

We're the we're the boss of the city, not you guys.

And you guys need to take care of us, and that's not happening.

You know, Mr.

Mayor, all you all you are is a yes man.

I don't care what it is, you'll let anything pass.

You know, the city is spending spending money like it's it's going out of style.

Why?

It's not your money.

You don't care about how much you spend.

School department is the same way.

They're spending money, no matter how much money we put in our school system, it's not a good school system.

They're not teaching anybody.

What you need to do before you go with the re-evaluation and get to it, get a budget down, and then you have an idea.

Well, you can tell these people how much it's gonna take for them to live here.

But you're not even doing that.

You're you're you're worried about the evaluation, you're trying to evaluate on a projected figure.

You need to get this done, but you need to do the budget before you do your re-evaluation and see where we're at.

You know, uh start cutting the budgets down, you know, public works, school department.

It's time.

10% off first year.

And let them start cutting.

Don't care how they do it.

Find a way to cut your budget.

Even in City Hall, cut your budget around here.

You need to cut the budget before you can make any good decisions.

I've been in business a lot of years.

And um actually 50 years is what as long as I've been in business.

And I look at the way you guys do things, and it's not even business like.

No, we've we're lay off three people.

They get three principals in one school.

Two principals in another school.

You know, uh, and uh all this stuff you you're and you're building buildings like they're going out of style.

You see you gave away the police to back.

That's the time, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh last last call for public comment.

Public comment is now closed.

Madam Clerk, under whoa, okay, sorry.

Administrator Kane Rather.

We have a city administrator's report.

That was a close call.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, just a thank you to our public works department on Earth Day.

They cleaned up or picked up off Lewiston Street's 3,720 pounds of litter.

This is the fifth year of this effort, and we've now collected over 22,780 pounds of litter off Lewis and Street.

So thank you to them for all their efforts on Earth Day.

Couple updates on the reval um process.

First, we do have two upcoming public sessions uh for the public to ask questions uh and have discussions with our assessing staff.

The first Monday, May 11th, 1323 at the Lewiston Armory Senior Center, 65 Central Avenue.

There'll be another one on Monday, May 18th, 9 to 10 a.m.

Uh, also at the Armory 65 uh Central Avenue.

Uh on the hearings, on the informal hearings, our assessing department um has inquired with Tyler Tech as we discussed at our last budget workshop to get some information on extending the date in which to uh schedule one of these hearings.

The cost to extend uh past May 15th, um, two weeks will be 68,000.

To extend four weeks, another 131,000.

So just those numbers to keep in mind.

And an update as of today, we have 479 hearings scheduled.

Um that's out of 10,503 eligible properties.

Uh it's about 4% right now.

What we're being told is in typical reval situations, you can expect at least 10% of property owners to request uh a hearing.

So uh we still have a few weeks to go.

We could uh obviously hit that 10% or more.

We'll see, but we're currently at 4% of property owners have scheduled uh a hearing with Tyler.

Um, and again, um folks um to schedule a hearing.

Um, they should have their um information that was mailed to them on the form, the ID type and type of property uh listed on the letter.

Um, and they can schedule that uh by calling um the hundred number or at tyretech.com.

If you need any of their assistance or have any other questions, please contact us here at City Hall or assessing department or even administration.

We can direct you in the right place.

If you're having issues with Tyler, uh, as we heard one uh gentleman is um as far as customer service, please uh let us know about that, and we'll do what we can to help you through the process.

Um with Tyler, we want to make sure everyone is obviously being served here by the city also, not just with our our vendor.

So please please get in touch with us.

Uh I want to thank everyone who came out to our first uh for this year uh busing festival, Lewis and Live uh in downtown uh Lewiston on Lisbon Street between Ash and Maine.

Uh we have another date coming up this Friday, May 8th, and a third date coming up on May 15th again, 4 to 7 p.m.

on Elizabeth Street.

Uh please come down.

Uh we had a great uh event this last week, uh and we're hoping to keep building the momentum in the weeks ahead.

So thank you to everyone involved there, uh, a number of city staff and other partners.

Thank you for all of your efforts and um trying to make Lewiston a downtown destination and a family-friendly place with some good uh entertainment and shows.

So thank you.

Uh quick update uh school uh budget validation election is Tuesday, May 12th.

Uh, all voting will take place at the Longlease School, 145 Burke Street.

Um, you can also, if there's overflow parking, you need to park in the Colisei lot at 190 Burke Street.

Uh the Lewiston Public Works Department is working with Maine DOT to improve Main Street, Sabata Street, and downtown streetscapes.

Now they've created design ideas to address the community's concerns and want your feedback.

Um, you can submit that feedback at Lewis to Main.gov slash better streets.

Um please go there.

We're always interested in having uh public feedback uh and making Lewis a more friendly uh place for everyone.

Memorial Day, uh, we'll be having uh our continued tradition of events with the Lewis and Auburn Veterans Council.

We invite the public to attend the Memorial Day observance uh ceremony on Saturday, February or I'm sorry, uh May 23rd at 10 a.m.

at Veterans Park located at Maine Olinkin Street.

This year's program will honor the four chaplains and recognize the addition of nine new names on the granite monuments.

Like to thank Jerry DeWitt and everyone at the Lewiston Auburn Veterans Council for continuing to lead this meaningful tribute, uh and we hope to see you there.

Uh lastly, I just want to recognize some staff uh updates.

We've had two uh retirements, uh Billy Bergeron at Lewiston Fire, and also Norman Roy uh Lewiston Public Works uh who um retired after 37 years of service to the city.

Thank you both for your long tenures.

Uh also some other milestones to announce a number in the Lewiston Fire Department.

We have a few that have reached 24 years of service this year.

Phil Julian, uh Toddler Cork, Chris Fournier, Dennis Moran, William Wallace, all 24 years.

Thank you for your service to the Lewiston Fire Department.

Uh and lastly, Megan Bates at Oston Public Works, our deputy director, uh hit 31 years of service this year.

So thank you, Megan, for all your years of service to the city.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Administrator Kingrath, uh, for your report, and we appreciate your service to our city.

Uh Madam Clerk, I believe we have a consent agenda.

Yes, there are three items on the consent agenda this evening.

Item number one orders to authorize the city administrator to alter challenger drive and to authorize the city administrator to release the portion of old challenger drive to TRE.

Item number two, order authorizing the city administrator to execute a collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 93 on behalf of Lewiston Professional Technical Unit Local 3855, and item number three, order authorizing execution of municipal quick claim deed for real estate located at 85 Sleeper Road.

Uh may have a motion, please.

Counselor Chitham.

So moved to passage of all three.

Uh seconded by Councillor Harriman.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 2.

Yes.

Ward three?

Yes.

Ward four.

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Ward six?

Yes.

Ward seven?

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Thank you, Councilor.

Motion passed by vote of seven to zero.

We made it.

Thank you.

Uh item number four.

I don't know four.

Final budget public hearing for the fiscal year twenty twenty-seven municipal budget.

Requested action to conduct a final budget public hearing to receive citizen input and communication regarding the proposed fiscal year 2027 municipal budget.

Thank you very much.

Uh the public hearing for the budget is now open.

If you want to talk about the city budget, please step up to the to the podium.

If you want to talk about the school budget, that will be the next item, so you'll need to wait.

Matt, please.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Ah, Matt Roy Ward.

Mr.

Roy, my apologies.

Yes, thank you.

Uh Matt Roy Ward 6 for the record.

Um during tonight's workshop, you were discussing possible, well, freezing, not freezing, different positions.

Now I am uh I might have missed this, but as an avid watcher, I have not heard you help uh the council or city administration address the issue because of uh as of last Friday.

This new state law uh for the pay family medical leave is now in effect.

How given potential claims, how are we going to act the city gonna address that?

Especially in departments that are probably more prone to uh emergency situations.

I you know, public safety obviously and you know, given reports from the school department, you know.

How are we gonna deal with when we have people out for up to 12 weeks replacing those employees?

I have not heard that addressed.

It's gonna be a large issue, not just for me government entities, but you know, public sector employees, especially small businesses, especially hosp, you know, the hospitality industry, you know, the tourism hospitality in Maine in the summer is a mark.

I don't see how these businesses are gonna survive the actually could uh offer the same level of service they have historically done with this.

Thank you.

Matthew Agrin, Ward 4.

Counselors, I ask you all to reject this current budget.

I know a lot of work's gone into it, but let's be blunt.

It's not sustainable at this rate.

We, the taxpayers here in Lewiston are asked to pay larger and larger bills, yet are receiving less services and less results for these bills.

Something has gone wrong here.

I suggest a minimum of 10% off the top of the budget across the board.

No department left untouch.

Yes, there's going to be job losses, but we need to do something before we become the Detroit of Maine.

I stood here less than six months ago and saying we needed a city public health officer.

Now let me say we still need them, but currently it's an expense we cannot afford.

And I have a suggestion for you all.

We all have the rain tax.

Have we seriously looked at a public safety tax?

Which will force all the nonprofits, the hospitals, the colleges, and more to contribute a share of the cost.

Because they use those services too.

The CMP TIFF funds are being used to finance the economic development.

Thank you.

Department.

Let's put those funds back into general fund and agree that the city funds the department, which is going to focus on what its job title is.

Economic development.

And help foster real business opportunities for the city of Lewiston, which will grow our tax base as a priority.

And what do you say we try to get our whole budget closer to the 2026 Social Security cost of living adjustment increase?

Or 2.8%.

That's what our Social Security, our elderly on social security, are going to receive this year.

2.8% increase.

We are nowhere near that.

I wish you guys lots of luck, but don't kick the can down the road.

Make the start making the cuts now that are going to be needed.

Further public uh comment for this uh municipal city budget.

My name's Scott Gagnon, uh, ward two.

So first time I've been to a council meeting.

Uh the first time I've ever actually really inquired about the city budget for years.

I've lived here my whole entire life, all 50 years except for the time I was in the Army.

I have never really questioned what you guys have done or are doing from uh a budget increases, whether it's public works, public safety, whether it's education.

I don't have any other choice but to come here and look at you all straight up in the face and say, this is insanity.

You guys have to make some tough choices.

You guys were all elected to make tough choices.

It is time to put your boots on, put your straps on, and make the tough calls.

This this is not sustainable.

There's too many people.

I have in-laws that have lived there their whole lives, and they're like wondering how they're gonna pay for anything if the evaluations go through as they are.

Regardless of what you come up with for a mill rate, my personal opinion, put the evaluations through.

Don't wait, don't delay it, get it through.

Change the mill rate, fix the budget, adjust what you guys are doing.

That's what you're paid, not paid, but hired to do.

You guys were elected to make the tough choices.

Make the tough choices.

We don't have a never-ending back pocket.

My wallet is not just open for anybody to just rate it.

And that's what you guys are doing, essentially.

This is not sustainable.

You need to make some adjustments.

You really, really need to sit down with every department in the city and cut it down.

And the last thing I'd say, I tried looking at the budget data on the what is it, budget data.

You get some decent information in there, but it's really hard for me to look at that information and say, okay, here's where I think you can make a cut, or here's a suggestion for you to make a cut.

It doesn't go deep enough.

It doesn't tell me where the 24% increase is in this department, or what the 55% increase is over here, or why the Lewiston Police Department is looking for, I don't even remember what the number was.

I can't really effectively look at that information and make an actual suggestion to you guys because there's nothing there for me to really pick apart.

It's just a big broad number 50 million, 20 million, 10 million, whatever that number might be, and what percentage increase that might be.

That leaves me kind of just floundering.

How am I supposed to help you?

How am I supposed to help the city?

How am I supposed to make a recommendation or even come up with an idea if I don't even know what the heck you guys are looking at?

So those are my points, and I'll just leave it at that.

I appreciate you guys' time tonight, and I appreciate the work that you're gonna put into this, but I would suggest go back to the drawing board.

This is unacceptable.

Thank you.

Further public comment.

Public this uh budget hearing is now closed.

Madam Clerk, we are moving up, we are now skipping ahead to item number, I think it's 16, the school department.

Yes, item number 16.

Item number 16, resolve approving the fiscal year 2027 budget for the Lewiston School Department.

Requested action to adopt the resolve approving the fiscal year 27 budget for the Lewiston School Department.

I have a motion, please.

So moved.

Uh counselor Harriman.

Second.

Second by Councillor Chitham.

Uh we have Superintendent Lingless here to kick us off.

So uh thank you for the opportunity tonight to share a little bit.

I did share a lot of information in the packet in our prior meetings.

Um as we've we've looked at some of the things that we're talking about.

If you can just move the mic just to a little closer to you.

It's part of my goal to make you not have to say it's okay.

Uh school committee worked very hard and made some uh not some a lot of very tough decisions.

Uh the budget presented to you has 26 full-time positions reduced.

Um there's uh numerous other uh reductions.

We had some cost drivers this year that are that are not typical, including an increase in power, which I think a lot of people feel.

Well, we're feeling that too.

Uh increase in workmen's comp as far as that rate goes.

Um not just a small increase, over 100 percent increase.

We also have increases um in our special education costs and programs.

And uh, but there are increases that if we don't hold those programs, we will see a significant increase in cost in tuition elsewhere.

Uh the the 26 positions that have been reduced uh was a lot of work for the school committee to consider.

Uh they did ultimately swap some things out, put some things back.

Uh but what you have in front of you as an option.

Um we started by cutting six and a half million, and then we cut another two point two.

And the the numbers that we shared earlier, uh this is an 8.06 percent increase on the local budget.

Um locally, uh $34 million ask.

Uh again, just reminding you that we've um had a lot of reductions, and that includes six administrative and central office uh in nature staff.

That that alone uh totally I get over that 2.2 million dollars of reductions.

Um these are challenging times.

These are definitely very challenging times.

And I think that's why we tried to bring a budget to you that I knew would be hard for everyone to digest, but understand that we've cut millions of dollars because we know we could not ask our community for additional funds beyond what we brought.

I'm happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Um yes, questions, comments from counselors with the school budget.

Counselor Martell.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh you said you um cut a certain amount of positions now.

Is that just the amount of cuts without addressing the the restructuring or the adding back in of other positions, or is that you know one's taken out, one's put back in, and you're telling us the difference of positions that are now not there.

Yeah, it's a good question.

So we we did some things where we reduced a number of positions.

For example, um we have uh folks at work in technology that were assisting in using um modern technology, uh 3D printers, um robotics, things of that nature that were helping teachers facilitate those and seek the grants to get those.

We've essentially reduced all of those positions, but as part of a restructuring, I think you're you're mentioning we added one position.

So the the net of that was five reduced positions.

Uh and and that one position will try to get that person to wear many hats to keep some effort there with grant seeking and uh putting some some different things in front of kids, but that's part of that mix, yes.

So what's the net number of positions?

Just do the math.

How many cut, how many going back in?

I just want to know the difference.

Sure.

So we we shared that with you.

Um, but there's 26 reductions of people.

Um there are there are additional reductions, but there were some additions, yes.

So that 26 is that net computation.

Uh at the very last meeting, uh, they did approve to put in um two uh sunsetting grant positions.

So that factors into that as well.

Thank you.

Uh further questions, comments from the council.

Counselor Nadine Yeah, I just want to verify really quickly the school committee had approved this budget uh in a unanimous vote.

Is that correct?

It was eight to zero.

It was eight to zero, yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh further comments from the council before we go to public comment.

We are now uh council Harriman, yes.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just wanted to add that um the school committee did work really hard on on getting this budget down to an acceptable amount.

Um like the superintendent said, there were 26 net positions cut, and that's in addition to the many positions that have been cut over the last several years.

Um of that is due to losing federal funds due to changing priorities at the federal level.

Uh our schools kind of they they get funding from local local funds, state funds, and federal funds, and we've lost a lot of federal funds recently.

Um like it was mentioned, the committee did pass this budget unanimously.

Um there's lots of different views on the committee, and I don't think anybody got what they wanted, but we all compromised and came to a point to a final product that we could all um that we could all vote for.

So I would just encourage passage tonight.

Uh thank you, counselors.

Thank you, superintendent.

We're not having a public comment uh for this agenda item.

Uh if we can uh assemble uh behind uh Mr.

Royd here, just so we can move forward in an expeditious fashion.

That would be great.

Um Mr.

Roy.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Again, I'm at Roy Ward Six.

Uh as the council, the superintendent and the school committee are aware under EPS and the multi-page uh EDU 279, the fancy spreadsheet, multi-page Excel spreadsheet that determines state subsidies.

Two things it's very complex, but two things.

Mr.

Roy, I think you need to step a little closer to the mic, please for folks at home.

Is that better?

Uh yes, there are two things that determine uh a two-year average from the two previous Octobers of our number of students enrolled and our state valuation as determined by the state assessor's office.

You know.

So uh the reabout, and that's a previous three-year average running.

Um I was gonna say the school committee did mention well that there were a 50,000 foot talk among the school committee about what the evaluate re-evaluation would look like.

But one thing that wasn't really discussed is that three-year average, and as the evaluation is implemented, how that is going to affect our state subsidy.

Because historically, our state subsidy has been over 65, 70, 80 percent.

So all other things equal, not well.

And that would include the new bridge funding and how that's under LD 1228.

Superintendent can correct me later on with that regional quote unquote region or adjustment.

But that will still be our factor.

And of course, this the school department probably has isn't a better place come the issue I raised with the city budget about the paid family medical leave act, given uh a having a well, a reserve pool of century, you know, uhKA um substitutes.

Uh thank you.

J.

Roderick, Ward 6.

Why don't we start to consider like Portland was doing?

Paul considered closing a school down and distribute the kids between more between the other schools we have instead of turning around and keep us all these schools open.

Get rid of one, and you could probably balance the budget to a pretty good budget.

It would be a lot less than what it is now.

You know, instead of trying to hang on to all these schools and stuff.

Paul's is working on that, closing one building down, and like say distribute the kids between other buildings, other schools.

And it would it would work out well, you'd have less personnel, you'd have less maintenance on a building, you'd have less everything.

The expenses would be down quite a bit if you eliminated one school.

Consider this.

This is a very good option.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Uh my name is Julia Harper, Ward 4.

I also serve on the Lewiston School Committee.

However, I'm here speaking as a parent and a community member.

I know this is an extremely difficult budget season.

Costs are up everywhere, and this budget reflects that.

Due to taxpayer concerns about and rising fixed costs facing the schools, including electricity, insurance, transportation, special education, can crack contractual cost of living, salary increases, and others.

The school committee made the extremely difficult decision to cut 26 positions.

While some of these were administrators, most of them were roles working directly with our students and our teachers.

We also use half of the district's remaining fund balance.

Our schools are making real progress.

Lewiston is one of the few districts in the state with growing enrollment, which means economic opportunity as well as responsibility.

We have seen gains in academic achievement, school culture, and attendance since the pandemic.

Because we've invested in the people who make a difference.

This budget keeps roles initially slated for cuts, including librarians at our high school and our middle school who boost literacy and research skills, especially for our most vulnerable students.

Dean and family engagement staff who keep classrooms safe and call families when elementary students miss three or more days of school, connecting them to resources so kids can return and succeed.

General education social workers who are licensed clinicians who support any child regardless of insurance or ability to pay addressing clinical issues such as abuse, neglect, and mental health.

These rules are not excessive.

For example, our high school has just one general education social worker with 1,500 students.

In a community impacted by youth gun violence, I hope voters will see these social workers as investments in school and community safety.

This budget protects these roles responsibly thanks to community advocacy and for one-time state funding in the supplemental budget.

While the state currently contributes close to 70% of the total cost of Lewiston's school budget, looking ahead, there is more help.

The state updated its funding formula for the first time in decades, significantly increasing funding for economically disadvantaged students, will which will bring in more revenue to Lewiston schools next year.

One final note for the public, a reminder that while the local tax burden is compliant comprised of county, city, and school budgets, of these only the fate of the school budget is decided in a referendum vote.

I urge the council tonight to vote yes and let the voters decide whether or not the work we've done together balancing fiscal restraint with real investment in our youth is worth supporting on May 12th.

Thank you.

My name is Mike Morrow, Ward 2.

I think the school budget is out of whack.

All I'm gonna say is repeat what this person in front of me said.

The people will vote veto this budget if the school department and the city council do not make additional cuts.

That's all I have to say.

Matthew Egrin, Ward 4.

While I appreciate the hard work that the school committee has done on this budget, much like I asked you to reject the city budget.

Somewhere, it's just not sustainable to the tax base.

Yes, the school does a lot of great things.

It's what's hopefully going to bring new businesses in and new economic development.

But we can't afford a gold-plated school for lack of a better word.

And it's not a gold plated school.

It's at best stainless something plated.

It's not a gold-plated school, but we can't afford as a city this increase.

We're going to have a max exodus of taxpayers who are going to put their houses on the market.

They're already talking about it.

I gotta give, like I said, there aren't many places that the school budget has left to cut in.

But 10% across the board, which is what I've asked the city to do as well.

I'm asking for the school committee.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Sophia.

I am from Ward 3.

I am here to urge you all to support the school Lewiston Public Schools budget and allow voters to decide on May 12.

This budget was passed unanimously by the school committee.

That matters.

It reflects alignment across the people closest to our schools and to our students.

Yes, this budget includes an 8.06% increase.

But that increase is driven by raising rising fixed costs like electricity, transportation, and insurance.

Even that, the district is making hard decisions, including cutting 26 positions.

That is not a system asking for more without sacrifice.

That is a system already stretched very thin.

At the same time, the school, the city budget is not cutting positions.

So we need to be honest about where the burden is falling.

This budget also uses half of the school's fund balance.

That is not something you do lightly.

It shows the district is trying to meet this moment without overburdening taxpayers while still protecting students.

And what this budget does is protect um sorry.

What this budget does protect um protect matters.

It maintains mental health supports for students.

It keeps librarians and educators in place.

It continues investing in programs like LRTC and LAP and that are not that are working and growing.

Lewis is one of the few districts in Maine that is growing.

And we are very proud of that.

We have over 5,000 students.

Investment in our schools is not optional.

It is an economic development.

It is public safety.

It is how we keep young people engaged, supported, and on track.

We are seeing progress in academics attendance and school culture.

Cutting deeper right now with that progress.

This vote tonight is not about approving every line item.

It is about trusting the process and letting the people of Lewiston decide on May 12th.

I hope you can um unanimously approve the budget.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Kate Weber from Ward 2.

Um, I was thinking about the budget tonight while I was out gardening.

It's a beautiful night for it.

I was planting some peas, and I'm hoping to save some money on food this summer with the prices of everything going up.

And I had a lot of practice in this growing up in a farming family.

You know, they're out hunting and fishing for meat, growing our own vegetables, saving money wherever we can.

But one lesson from farming, sorry.

Yeah, we need to bring this to the school budget.

Thank you.

There's some things you can't save money on.

If you cut on the seed on the fertilizer on that time tending the crops, you're gonna be in a world of trouble later.

And we're seeing the same thing right now with school.

We heard a lot from people tonight about the need for a growing tax base for strong businesses, for skilled community leaders.

We are raising those folks right now here in Lewiston schools.

Our kids are the most valuable resource we have.

And it doesn't make sense to try to um cut their ability to grow in into the future community.

And I know the school committee has worked really hard to bring the budget down and face the rising costs.

Um they're not throwing our money around irresponsibly, just like no one would call you irresponsible for the fact that your heating oil bill was higher this month, right?

Like there are costs beyond our control right now.

So we're hoping to deal with that and look towards the future.

So I'm asking folks tonight to please support the proposed budget and uh and support our kids.

Thank you.

Martin Chartran, Ward 3.

You all have a lot of difficult decisions.

Uh I hope that you'll keep in mind that young people are our future, and we'll prioritize them by voting yes on the school budget.

I'm a behavioral health professional, and I see every day how necessary it is for children I serve to have supportive, safe and structured interactions with skilled adults.

Uh and I see how over the course of months and years how working with a child can increase skills such as patience, ability to focus toward a goal, confidence in social interactions, and ability to ask for what they need.

As a neighbor and community member in downtown Lewiston.

I see the great possibilities this community has and also its challenges.

I'd ask if if the 8.06 increase of the school budget sounds expensive in a time of rising costs.

Please remember that the children in our schools today are the same people who in coming years may be starting businesses, navigating marriage and parenthood, using drugs and alcohol, staffing our healthcare system, maintaining our public spaces, being charged with crimes, charging others with crimes, accessing firearms, and many other things.

Public relations, public works, the police, and many other city departments all work to manage our present reality.

Schools are one of the few ways we can shape the future and shape our future costs and assets.

And I it doesn't seem democratic that we all vote on the school budget, but we don't get a chance to vote on the budgets of all the other departments.

I'd like to see the each department prepare a plan A and a plan B, and the voters get to decide on it if the school is going to do that.

I'd like to, I'd rather be here talking about investing more in schools.

All I'm asking today is that you help our schools maintain at least an only slightly reduced staffing level to give our youth it the best chance that we can of the lives they deserve.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Sherry Blumenthal, and I live in Ward 7, and I promised my daughter I would hold up the poster that she made, which I didn't spoon feed her this message, but I feel like she captured an important message today, which is trust in our schools, and you'll invest in our future.

And I feel like you've heard that um from a number of people.

And as someone who's had the great privilege of living and working here for the last 20 years, um, particularly working alongside young people, I've seen that return on investment.

I've seen the young people that have come through our programs stay and come back.

They're here, um, they have kids, they um have opened their own businesses, their finance professionals or their home health care professionals.

Um because I've seen that, that's one of the many things that keeps me here.

And um it's in large part to the schools that they were able to make it to where they are today.

And um in the same way the schools have done their due diligence, and I know you have I asked the city to go back and do their best to do more.

Um the school budget, as others have said, is the only part of the budget that gets voted on.

And if the public still feels it's untenable, then you'll will know.

Um, but we have an opportunity to push forward a proposal that um had a lot of hard work and thought and care put in, not just by committee members, but by a number of um community members who stepped in and got engaged to understand what was in front of them and what was at stake.

So I ask you to continue to do the same and to move this proposal forward so the public can vote on it on May 12th.

Thank you so much.

Further public comment.

Well, the comment is now closed.

Back to the council.

Uh Superintendent Langless, is there anything that you'd like to address?

Just uh real quickly.

Um I want to talk about some growth measures we'll be sharing over the next several days, um, some growth that we have for the first time in many areas since 2016-17, so we're proud of that.

Also, want to share that um, and and this isn't uh to pit anybody against anything, but we did hear over the last few years that people do get confused that the vote or the referendum that is on May 12th is for everything, and it is not.

It is only for the school budget, and is only for the local portion of the school budget, and that is that uh that is that 34 million dollars, which is a 2.5 million dollar increase.

School system our size, 2.5 million dollars locally is it's a hard number to get to.

It really is.

Um, so I I appreciate the work of the committee and and the teams that help it get us to where we are.

And I'll close with uh last night ironically this was not planned.

We had fourth, fifth, and sixth graders come to the podium and share scientific charts, data they created and collected making maple syrup in the yards of our schools.

It's beautiful.

It really was.

Um we gotta support our kids.

That's why we're here.

Thank you, Superintendent Langless.

Um, you know, beyond uh council Herriman who serves on the school committee.

I know that uh we have several school committee members in the audience.

Thank you all for being here, as well as uh many staff members, so thank you all.

Uh yes, comments, questions from counselors at this time.

Counselor Long Champs.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um Thank you, Mr.

Langless for being here.

Um we are in a very tough uh time right now, right?

Uh our country is in our state with rising cost everywhere.

I think you guys um have done a good job uh trimming your budget the best you could.

Um I'm not sure that it will pass on the 15th.

Um I hope it does, but I'm not sure that it will.

Uh this isn't really for me to vote against at this time.

I think that the voters have the uh you'll hear their opinion, they'll vote uh and they'll have that option.

I I would just like to share on the city side.

Um although we have not shared our complete budget at this time because we are still working really hard at it.

Um, but we are not just sitting back not making hard cuts to because we are so uh uh for me, you know.

I hope it passes.

I'm not sure that it will, but I'll let the voters uh do that.

Um I will vote uh yes tonight um and we'll let the voters uh decide.

Thank you.

Counselor Chitham.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um we've heard some impassioned pleas to support the school budget tonight.

We've heard impassioned please to lower the tax rate tonight.

Um you can't have it both ways.

Uh it's a very difficult position.

That's been said how many times I I've lost track.

Uh I do believe that the schools reflect our future.

This is one situation where I do believe that kicking the can down the road is the proper thing to do.

If we invest today, we will see the benefits tomorrow.

I've always been an advocate for uh funding education to the extent that we possibly can.

I do believe that the school committee, the superintendent and the school committee and the staff uh in administration has the tools and they have done the job.

Taking a 23 individuals and telling them they no longer have jobs cannot be, it's got to be one of the worst jobs in the world.

I I sympathize with you completely, and I echo Councilor Longshamp's concern or statement that we're not through here at the council level either.

Um it is a very tough choice.

My email has been running about 50-50.

Support the schools, lower the taxes, support the schools, lower the taxes.

I'm going to fall back on my own personal preference, and that is that I will support the schools.

I urge people who are supporting this budget and supporting the education system to get out and vote.

This referendum question has historically been an exceedingly low turnout.

Uh so I would urge you, if you are in favor of the school budget, please express that at the polls.

I'm not trying to disenfranchise those folks who want to lower their taxes, they're invited to vote as well.

But it's especially important to me that folks who are supporting the work that the school department has done and the school committee uh get out and and express that appreciation uh on May 12th.

So thank you, Superintendent, for the work that you've done.

It's a thankless job and a merciless job.

Um, but I appreciate it very much.

Thank you.

Uh Councillor Roy.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh thank you, uh Superintendent, and thank you for all of you that um come out and support the school budget.

Um I ran, I ran on education, and I believe education is very, very important for our community.

Um, you know, to echo the counselors that are up here today uh and what they've said, it is very hard to make this decision, but for me, I feel it's not because we need to support our schools, we need to support our youth.

Um I also want to say I am full I'm at I'm in full support, and I don't know how to make this happen, and I've said this before in our budget.

Um I would like the citizens of Lewiston to vote on the city budget.

I really wish that would happen.

Um because again, I think you know, we need to hear more input from everybody.

And I would really like that.

Um and again, if if we need, I wish there was a way.

If people do not like the budget, let's make it a point to figure out why they don't like the budget and what they would cut.

Like I would really love to know that information because that way there it would make it easier for all the people to make those decisions and make those cuts and where they need to be cut.

Um but I will um I'll be voting in support of uh the school budget tonight.

Thank you.

Further comments from counselors counselor Martell, yes.

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor, and uh thank you, Superintendent, for being here.

I also want to thank all your staff and all the teachers and everyone in our schools that work as hard as they can to do the best job they can.

I am going to say some critical things, so I want to make sure that that appreciation is laid out and understood.

I'm looking at objective measurable academic metrics that tell a story that makes it very difficult when when when the the words trust our schools uh come out.

Because uh Maine wide, I'm looking at a graph that says uh between 2013 and 2024 spending grew 71 percent in the state of Maine to over 21,000 per student.

Uh that drastically outpaced inflation.

During that same time, fourth and eighth grade reading and math test scores actually consistently got worse.

Uh eighth grade math scores did level off in 2024, but reading scores have continued to plummet.

So I struggle to find the correlation between more money uh resulting in better results for our students.

Um I don't happen to think that the money is the issue.

I happen to think it the way that it's being spent and the uh the way that education is been adopted and changed over the years.

It seems to it actually seems the a negative correlation that the more money we put into school systems statewide actually produce uh worse measurable academic results.

That is not my opinion.

That is objective truth, and it's unfortunate.

So um I struggle to think that continuing to set record setting school budgets year after year after year um has benefited our our students in any way.

And this isn't a dig at any teacher or administrator or counselor or coach.

It is just a fact of the matter that I'm looking at, and it is getting more and more expensive every year.

Um to really do a uh a substandard job at educating our children.

Maine used to rank uh nearly top of the nation in school rankings.

Uh Maine is now near the bottom, and Lewiston ranks uh near the bottom in one of the worst ranked states.

And I think it would be disingenuous to not point that out.

I will be voting against this budget tonight because I was re-watching tonight uh school committee meeting that I watched a few weeks ago uh where multiple members of the school committee in open meeting discussed that uh they should preserve cuts that I they pretty much acknowledged should be made.

They acknowledge that they did not think that this would pass referendum, and so uh I'm paraphrasing very much here, but it sounded like let's wait until they kick the first one back anyway, so then we can make these cuts.

It it almost feels performative.

We're trying to appease upset tax base that that is just having their pockets reached into over and over again.

So acknowledging the fact that it costs the city money to continually host these referendums uh when these school budgets do get voted down, which happened I want to say three or four times just a couple years ago.

Um that can be costly as well.

So what I I think we should see is um a little sharpening of the pencil in in making the cuts that uh I think uh have been acknowledged are going to be required to get this to pass referendum beforehand, so we don't need to have any additional elections that aren't necessary and incur any additional costs.

Um I happen uh I I think having those types of dialogue and discussion in an open meeting is disingenuous to the taxpayer.

It's it's uh openly saying that uh we know we know more cuts are gonna be required.

We're just gonna wait and save them for for a later date.

So for those reasons and and those admissions, I will be voting against this budget because I I also do believe that while this budget was passed unanimously out of school committee, I happen to know uh at least one school committee member who also believes that this is going to get kicked back.

So I think it it's time to get real about the cuts, and um I I hate I hate to say this, but it shouldn't be so expensive to to objectively.

We've got 25% of fourth and eighth grade students that can read and do math at grade level in the state of Maine, which means three out of four kids can't.

Um I consider that a bit of a failure, and I don't think it should be so expensive to reach or or to fail to reach uh better better goals or or or better rankings or or better test scores.

Um I don't expect that the these comments will make me very popular with the school committee, but um I think that these are objective truths that are worth pointing out and that are gonna need to be addressed because uh the budget sets a new record every single year, and I don't see any correlation and improvement in test scores or graduation rates.

Thank you.

Uh further comments questions from Counselor Nagine yes so th um thank you Mr.

Mayor th thank you um superintendent.

I just want to go over a couple of things that I think is very challenging for all of us right now.

One of those is that the school budget referendum happens on the 12th the final budget for the city won't be approved until the 19th and then also we have growing enrollment which is good.

We haven't had an expanding tax base which is challenging.

And so many of the things that we're looking at it it's a Schroeder's cat uh for an expanding cat tax base is like is is it gonna happen is it not gonna happen because that's the only thing that's gonna save us at this point.

And unfortunately when we start to cut things to a point where those essential services don't actually function correctly it's a death spiral.

The the results uh for minimal cuts return uh maximal damages I would simply say that due to the fact that the school committee voted unanimously to support this budget um I would also uh vote to support this budget since it does go to referendum I do think that you're going to find a challenge in getting it passed in referendum um that's uh that's all I have to say back to you thank you Mr.

Mayor one of the things I want to say um that I just thought about when you continuously cut and got a school budget what what do you get all I'm gonna ask you uh thank you counselors anything further uh superintendent lingless uh I understand that you made uh cuts before it was presented to the school budget is that I or before you presented to the school committee is that accurate significant reductions before the the committee even got the my version of the budget and then the committee made reduction further reductions after that is that accurate it's correct yeah uh I understand that you've made hard decisions and I understand it's also a hard decision to pass this budget in the light of um you know everything that we have heard this evening uh this is absolutely an investment in our future and I urge the council to to pass this and I urge the citizens uh uh to to vote for this uh to uh on the 15th as well uh madam clerk or counselor long champs there's something you'd like to add yes thank you mayor um could you share with the public and I'd like to know too um I know there were some recent changes uh to the budget exactly how much you have taken off from your original proposal the um the proposed reductions that we had equal 2.209135 so 2.2 million dollars in additional reductions after the reductions that to be honest weren't even made public um I have a a team of administrators that I trust that work hard for our kids that said we really need this we really need this we really need this and I said duly noted uh we cannot add to this budget in this way uh we're not gonna be able to do that it's not real in our community um and I I think of the people that are struggling to make ends meet looking at inflation across the board and so um that would that's that's the total reduction number um I have from my latest sheet that would I presented to the school committee was 2.209 million dollars in additional reductions.

Thank you Madam Clerk please call the vote counselor from word two yes word three yes word four yes word five yes word six yes word seven no word one yes motion passed by vote of six to one thank you superintendent thank you for being here and thank you to everyone who spoke during public comment at the polls uh madam clerk we're gonna take just like uh three minute recess to allow uh people who wish to leave to to do so and then we'll pick back up we'll be we'll be back in three to five minutes you know I I was gonna say

And uh and we're back.

Thank you, everyone, uh for their patience.

Uh Madam Clerk, I believe we're back to item number five.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Item number five.

Public hearing for approval of an outdoor entertainment permit for Great Falls Pride.

Requested action to conduct a public hearing on an application for an outdoor entertainment event for the Great Falls Pride event and to grant a permit for an outdoor entertainment event as required by the City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 10, Article 1, Section 10-3 to the Great Falls Pride organization for outdoor music concerts for the festival to be held at Samard Payne Memorial Park on June 7th, contingent upon positive recommendations from the police department, fire department, code health officer, and land use inspector regarding compliance with all regulations and compliance with all city ordinances.

I'll move counselor chicken, second by counselor Nagine.

Uh discussion among the council.

Councilor Chinum, yes.

Yeah, general question.

Is this public hearing required by state law or city ordinance?

City ordinance.

Thank you.

Uh public comment for this agenda item.

Back to the council.

Uh fully support this.

Uh and uh Madam Clerk, please vote.

Or please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 2.

Yes.

Word three?

Yes.

Ward four.

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Ward six?

Yes.

Ward seven?

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Motion passed by vote of seven to zero.

I'm number six.

Item number six.

Public hearing for approval of an outro entertainment permit for Great Falls Brew Fest.

Requested action to conduct a public hearing on an application for an outdoor entertainment event for the Great Falls Brew Fest and to grant a permit for an outro entertainment event as required by the City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 10, Article 1, Section 10-3 to Baxter Brewing Company for outdoor music for the event to be held at Samarit Payne Memorial Park on June 25th through 28th.

Contingent upon positive recommendations from the police department, fire department, code health officer, and land use inspector regarding compliance with all regulations and compliance with all city ordinances.

Second by Councillor Najene.

Yes.

Uh discussion.

Public comment.

Back to the council.

Counselor Chitam, yes.

Uh I noticed that beverages are available, but it doesn't indicate whether they're gonna be given away, in which case I'll be there or sold, in which case I'll probably be there too.

You need to buy a ticket.

Uh counselor uh naying.

I I can answer that for you.

To get in, you have to buy a ticket and then the beverages are free as long as you're over 21.

Uh Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Word 2?

Yes.

Word three?

Yes.

Ward four?

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Ward six?

Yes.

Ward seven?

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Motion passed by vote of seven to zero.

I'm number seven.

Item number seven.

Public hearing for approval of an outdoor entertainment permit for art walk.

Requested action to conduct a public hearing on an application for an outdoor entertainment event for the art walk and to grant a permit for an outdoor entertainment event as required by the city code of ordinances, chapter 10, article one, section 10-3 to LA Arts for outdoor music for the event to be held along Lisbon Street and at Dufrein Plaza on May 29th, June 26th, July 31st, August 28th, and September 25th.

Contingent upon positive recommendations from the police department, fire department, code health officer, and land use inspector regarding compliance with all regulations and compliance with all city ordinances.

Excellent.

So happy that you're here.

Discussion.

Public comment.

Back to the council.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilor from Ward 2?

Yes.

Word three?

Yes.

Ward four.

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Ward six?

Yes.

Ward seven.

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Motion passed by vote of seven to zero.

I'm number nine.

Public hearing for approval of an outdoor entertainment permit for summer fund and films.

Requested action to conduct a public hearing on an application for an outdoor entertainment event for the summer fund in films and to grant a permit for an outdoor entertainment event as required by the City Code of Ordinances.

Article 10, Section 1, Section 10-3 to summer fund and films organization for outdoor music for the event to be held at Samaritpain Park and Pettangill Park on June 24th, July 8th, July 22nd, August 4th, and August 19th.

Contingent upon positive recommendations from the police department, fire department, code health officer, and land use inspector regarding compliance with all regulations and compliance with all city ordinances.

Mm-hmm.

Councillor Second second by Counselor Nagine.

Discussion.

Public comment.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilor from Ward 2?

Yes.

Ward three?

Yes.

Ward 4?

Yes.

Ward 5?

Yes.

Ward 6?

Yes.

Ward 7?

Yes.

Ward 1.

Yes.

Motion passed a vote of 7 to 0.

We're now up to item number 10.

And number 10.

Public hearing and final passage for an amendment to the zoning and land use code.

Article 11, district regulations for changes to the space and bulk table and the land use table regarding mobile homes, daycares, and used car dealers, and new dimensional requirements.

Requested action that the proposed amendments to appendix A of the Code of Ordinances, zoning and land use code, Article 11, district regulations regarding mobile homes, daycares, and used car dealers, and new dimensional requirements receive final passage by a roll call vote.

So moved.

Counselor Chitam.

Second.

I'll let you kick us off.

Just here for any additional questions that the council may have for this agenda item.

Again, just a reminder, it was originally brought to the council at uh behest of the planning board.

Uh there was an item in there, I believe it had to do with the minimum or maximum heights in NCB.

Uh the council voted it down.

We brought it back to the planning board.

They removed it, brought all of the other language that you guys all approved unanimously back to the council.

So happy to have uh answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you very much.

Uh discussion.

Public comment.

Back to the council.

Madam Clerk, please vote.

Or please Madam Clerk, please.

Please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 2.

Yes.

Word three?

Yes.

Word four?

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Ward six?

Yes.

Ward seven?

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Uh I'm number eleven.

And number eleven.

Public hearing and final passage to contractually rezone 860 Lisbon Street from the neighborhood business zoning district to a contract zone to allow the commercial uses and bulk and space requirements for the community business district with the exception of smaller setbacks for pavement and structures.

Requested action that the proposed amendments to appendix A of the Code of Ordinances, Zoning and Land Use Code, Article 4, Establishment of Districts for a Contract Zone located at 860 Lisbon Street from neighborhood business zoning district to a contract zone with the limitations proposed, receive final passage by a roll call vote.

So moved.

Councilor Chitham, second by counselor Najene.

Uh Director Connor, please kick us off.

Again, happy to answer any additional questions that the council may have.

And again, we have a member of uh a representative from LHA in the audience if the council has any further questions yes, counselor Najene, just checking on when a shovel is going to go on the ground.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh, when I was here two weeks ago, um my estimate was six to eight weeks for closing.

Um I still feel confident that we're in the four to six week range for closing.

Uh we don't have a closing date set yet, but we have had um multiple closing calls with Maine Housing and all the other representatives for the transaction, so uh all good signs.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Uh to that end, uh council.

I don't mind telling you that uh I had a conversation with Dan Brennan and uh we are approaching the finish line.

Uh further uh questions, comments?

Public comment.

Hello, counselors, Matthew Agrink.

You know, we keep getting told this project is funded.

It's ready to go.

We'll be breaking ground soon.

We were supposed to break ground in February.

In April.

Now we're in June.

You know.

And now they want to add commercial aspect to this property.

Wasn't the plan already designed with it just being a senior housing for our seniors that we desperately need.

How does this new business opportunity affect traffic in that area?

Will it make it safer?

Will it make it worse?

Will there be more accidents right there?

Um This seems more like a bait and switch operation now.

Because they keep delaying breaking ground.

We've all heard them say we'll be breaking ground this year.

I may be eligible for senior housing by the time that project gets broken.

Let's compare that to the Gendrons project.

They're already putting buildings up.

Started just about the same time.

To me, it almost seems like Lewis and Housing is trying to run out the clock on their on this property so that the city will buy that property back.

They already have the plans.

They theoretically have told us multiple times, they've already had the funding secured.

Let's get them building.

I understand them wanting this height to increase to include more space.

But the s the setback to five feet from the property line?

That's less than what the school had there.

I would rather see this just go up as a simple senior project, which has been promised to us multiple times by Lewis and Housing.

They they have it funded.

Let's not change it to a commercial zone.

Let's build it as housing.

And housing now, not six years from now, which is what it seems like this project is going to be.

We were supposed to build last year.

I'm probably sure we're supposed to build the year before that, but you know, just tell them to build, don't change anything.

They already have the plans, because now they're gonna have to change their planning.

Build it.

Uh further public comments back to the council.

Uh anything further, Director Connor?

Nope.

Okay.

All right.

Uh Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilman Ward 2?

Yes.

Ward three?

Yes.

Word four?

Yes.

Ward five.

Yes.

Word six?

Yes.

Ward seven?

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Motion pass a vote of seven to zero.

Item number twelve.

Item number twelve.

Public hearing and adoption of order approving the Lewiston fiscal year, federal fiscal year twenty twenty-six, community development block grant, budget, and action plan for submittal to the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Requested action to conduct a public hearing and adopt the order approving the Lewiston Fiscal Year 27, Federal Fiscal Year 2026, Community Development Block Grant, budget and action plan for submittal to the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

So moved.

Councilor Chitham, second by Councillor Nijine.

Yeah, it's my oh there we go.

Manager Ruth, I found you.

Is there anything that you'd like to say?

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh questions, comments from the council?

Public comment.

Uh Matt Rory Ward 6.

Um it's a miss no more to quote f Federal fiscal year 26 when that expires, September 30th of this year.

So it's not this great pansia that the city fiscal year uses a different numbering system.

The federal fiscal year 26 ends three months into our 27th fiscal year.

So uh make make uh this and the next agenda item make no logical sense how the fiscal years are structured.

Thank you.

Further public comment.

Back to us.

Questions, comments for manager Ruth.

Yes, thank you.

Catherine Ruth, community development manager.

Community development manager.

Uh we have been requested by HUD to uh list this on the agenda, and so we have done so.

Thank you.

Oh, yes, of course.

Uh counselor and aging, what do you have?

Uh I I just wanted to just quickly thank uh Manager Ruth and the CAC uh council uh for the work on this.

Um for anybody uh listening at home or reading the packet, um the way this works is we're actually given an allocation uh from the federal government.

This doesn't come from the tax base, and we're required to spend it in particular ways, including supporting uh local community organizations.

And so when you see the breakdowns of where that money goes and why it goes that way, where it goes, that is uh that is an allocation that's set uh by federal guidelines.

There's not a lot of moving around for us.

It's just a question of uh the presentations that are put in front of us for uh uh funding requests and uh the scoring system in which we use as as members of the CAC in order to get that through.

So again, um it does hit the tax base somewhere because it's federal fund funding, but it's not coming from the general funds.

Um and it is a limited pot of money that is uh specifically to be spent on uh uh on specific programs.

We don't have the option of switching this money into like we couldn't put it into the general fund, for instance, um, which in a year like this wouldn't be a bad idea, but um just wanted to point that out.

I also appreciate the CDBG committee for uh serving and helping uh manager Ruth through all of this.

Uh further questions, comments from the council.

Anything further, Manager Ruth?

No, we're all set, thank you.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilor from Word 2?

Yes.

Word three?

Yes.

Word four?

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Ward six, yes.

Word seven?

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Pass a vote of seven to zero.

Item number thirteen.

Item number thirteen.

Public hearing and adoption of resolve approving the city fiscal year twenty-seven, federal fiscal year twenty twenty-six, home budget and action plan for submittal to the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Requested action to conduct a public hearing and adopt the order approving the City Fiscal Year 27, Federal Fiscal Year 2026, home budget and action plan for submittal to the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

So moved.

Counselor Chitum.

Second.

Signed by Councilor Nijene.

Manager Ruth, is there anything you'd like to say?

No, we're all set.

Thank you.

Okay.

Questions, comments from the council?

Public comment for this.

Back to the council.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Word 2.

Yes.

Word three?

Yes.

Word four?

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Word six?

Yes.

Ward seven.

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Motion pass a vote of seven to zero.

Uh moving right along here.

Item number fourteen.

Consolidated five-year plan and it's submitted to the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Requested action to conduct a public hearing and adopt the order approving the Lewiston CDBG 2026-2030 community development block grant consolidated five-year plan and it's submittal to the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

I have a motion, please.

So move.

Counselor Chitham, second by Counselor Nagyene.

Anything you'd like to say, Manager Ruth?

Yes, thank you very much.

This is a very important plan for the City of Lewiston.

It's a five-year plan that needs to be submitted in May.

We are on a one-year extension.

We've been on extensions since about 2020 on a variety of projects.

And so this summer, all of our extension projects will all be completed up to date, and then we'll be back on track on the HUD schedule of when items are supposed to be done.

We'll have done two different types of grant projects and plans in one year, but we'll be caught up.

So this is a plan that talks about what's going to take place for the next five years based upon the current budget and from the amazing support that we've seen across the country for CDGB funds.

Because we won't be spending catch-up for the last year to get everything up to date.

We'll have more time to really focus on the projects and work with the public service agencies who are doing a wonderful job and very accountable to the city.

We'll be focusing on poverty as well as economic opportunities, public facilities, and especially the essential public services that are needed to improve the quality of life for people.

You have the executive summary, which is what you've always voted on in the past.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Questions, comments, Counselor Chidum, yes.

Thank you very much and congratulations on getting up to getting the schedule back on track again.

That must seem like a huge accomplishment.

Congratulations to you and all the folks that made that happen.

Thank you.

Public comment for this agenda item.

Back to the council.

Uh Counselor Nagyen, yes.

Uh I would just like to echo that.

Uh thank you, Manager Ruth, for your j diligent work and getting us all up to date on all of our reporting requirements and uh and and um all of these pieces.

It's super important.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

It will be good to work on actual projects now.

We are honored by your service.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 2?

Yes.

Ward three?

Yes.

Ward four.

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Ward six?

Yes.

Ward seven.

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Item number 15.

Adam number 15.

Public hearing and adoption of order authorizing an amendment to the 731, 897 CDBG CB CARES Act budget to add a project to the category, provide essential services, public services and public facilities infrastructure.

Requested action to conduct a public hearing and adopt the order authorizing an amendment to the 731,897 CDBG CB CARES Act budget to add a project to the category, provide essential services, public services, and public facilities infrastructure.

I have a motion, please.

So moved.

Counselor Chairman, I'm seconded by Counselor Nagyene.

Manager Ruth.

Yes, very quickly.

We started working on this grant uh earlier this year, and um HUD had indicated some of the projects that we had submitted for it just wouldn't fit.

And there were a lot of projects that other communities had submitted to spend the remaining funds that we didn't feel comfortable sending in.

So in working with our project manager, uh we found that because we have an open project at Sunnyside Park, and that project uh has bids out and quotes and um an environmental review that's a general in nature, that funding that is still available in this grant that will expire on June 18th.

We did receive an approval um two weeks ago that we could proceed forward.

And that would be a hundred and thirty-two thousand three hundred and fifteen dollars that can be spent on Sunnyside Park or another park if by some miracle I I could find a park in the uh four census tracks that we could do an environmental review for uh in well the few days that we would have left.

So I think we'll concentrate on Sunnyside Park.

We have uh playground equipment that's out to bid for almost sixty-nine thousand dollars.

So uh that will use some of the money.

And we have gone up to the park uh numerous weekends and see people uh standing around.

There's no place for them to set.

It's a park that needs some work, so there's a lot of projects that we can do there to spend the remaining 73,000.

And so we've met with public works, and everybody is very excited that we got approved to go forward, and we have to have all our bills through uh the expense warrant on June 18th.

So this will be uh all hands-on deck, all day long project.

Thank you.

Exciting times, thank you.

Counselor Najine.

Um so just really quickly, that this is uh CARES Act funding that we received in 2020 uh for projects that we didn't complete.

Um I just want to uh point this out to the council as well.

There's uh a hundred thousand dollar request in the LCIP for Sunnyside Park.

I'm hoping that this funding here would supplement that would actually allow us to remove that 100,000 from Sunnyside Park.

Um, although I would um uh request that we leave a $25,000 LCIP request for uh traffic calming measures on Ware and Mount Nav, which I can tell you that every single person who lives on Warren Mountain and the connecting roads have asked for basically speed bumps.

Um so uh point being we're going to re be removing the 100,000 from the LCIP as long as everybody agrees, and we found money that we can spend on it.

Uh public comment back to the council.

Counselor Chitum.

Yeah, I just want to recognize Councillor Nagine.

He's been indefatigable in supporting and arguing and uh championing improvements uh to Sunnyside Park in addition to the remainder of his ward.

So he's he's a he's a model.

I appreciate your efforts, Counselor, and I'm more than happy to support them.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Counselor Najing.

Uh Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 2?

Yes.

Ward three?

Yes.

Ward four.

Yes.

Board five.

Yes.

Board six?

Yes.

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Uh we have done 16, so we're moving to 17.

I don't understand 17.

Receipt of the finance committee's recommendation regarding the proposed fiscal year 2027 municipal budget.

Requested action to receive and review the recommendation from the finance committee regarding the proposed fiscal year 2027 municipal budget.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I think we have the chair here from the Finance Committee.

Um you do, and he I also happens to be the author of the letter.

So wow.

Lucky us.

Extremely please continue, sir.

Um you've all read the letter.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Uh the finance committee takes very seriously its charge to recommend uh action or consideration of its recommendations on the budget.

Um we are all deeply involved in the budget.

So this is another piece to add to it.

I'd be happy to answer any questions that people may have about this recommendation.

Uh questions for the finance chair.

Public comment for this agenda item.

Back to the council.

Uh we're simply receiving it, so there's no vote.

But thank you so much for authoring this letter and for your service as finance chair.

Uh we have voted out uh the second public comment period.

We're now up to reports and updates from counselors.

Should there be any?

We're now up to new business.

Should there be any?

Counselor uh Counselor Roy, yes.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um earlier tonight we heard from a lot of citizens, or actually over the last multiple weeks we've heard from a lot of citizens uh through uh email and uh and or maybe social media.

Do we have a system in Lewiston?

Like if there is I I know like the superintendent in the school system um sends out a bulletin that says, hey, active shooter, or you know, hey, you know, here's a warning or whatever.

Do we have a system in Lewiston that all the taxpayers could have?

Like, because I know if you if you have children in the school system, you get text from the superintendent in the schools.

If you have um something from Lewiston about parking bans and all that stuff, you may get something.

But I I have the parking ban one, but I didn't know anything about an active shooter or anything like this.

I don't get any updates like that.

So what I'm asking for is can we is there a system that we have in Lewiston that we can notify the taxpayers of something like that going on?

Like a shelter in place, a water main break, you know, because again, to get these things out faster so that people don't consume the water, people don't go in areas.

That's what I want to do.

Uh Mr.

Kane Rath, you want to take that?

Yeah, so if you're asking about sort of a text specific thing, we have we do have a notify me.

It's a subscription service.

You can subscribe to many different categories of what sort of alerts you like to receive.

For example, there's one about you know council meetings and city meetings.

So there are a number of different categories.

Um I believe there is an option to take everyone subscribed in those all of the categories and send something out.

It certainly does not cover all taxpayers, though, as you're talking about, because it requires them to sign up.

Um, of course, you know, in events like this, things are being posted on social media, things are being sent to the media, various media forums.

Um but I think what you're asking about specifically is sort of a direct sort of text type of system, which we do have, um, but it's requires them to sign up also.

And I'm just thinking about our uh our older population in Lewiston, right, who don't use social media or who may not you know know text numbers or whatever, right?

So I I in a perfect world I wish we could get everybody, but the majority of the people I would like to reach.

So Councillor Long Jams.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I think it's a difficult task uh to ask for only because for instance we thought there was an active shooter, but there actually wasn't.

This gentleman didn't even have a uh a firearm.

So if you start panicking people, uh that's that's that's more troubling and more traumatizing.

Um I believe that our police department does a really good job um putting out information when it's needed.

Do they put out every time there is a uh uh threat or a scare that someone may have a gun?

No, and that's for a lot for lots of reasons.

Uh one in particular is is it true?

Do they really have a gun?

So until they really apprehend that person or really have facts, they really can't share that because then what you're doing is you're re-traumatizing a whole city that has already been traumatized by uh gun violence.

So although I love the thought, um, I just don't think it would really be beneficial to have some sort of system where everybody gets alerted because it's just not always true.

I mean, a school went down in lockdown, or two schools, Bates College and the middle school or the high school and our hospital, but that's something that they chose to do as a precaution, which there's nothing wrong with that.

But um they were they were not asked to do that from um the city or the police department because no one really had facts on what what was going on at that time.

Thank you.

Counselor Herman.

Thank you.

I'd ask that the city that we use our texting and email platforms more.

Um some of the recent incidents that have happened.

I was kept up to date quite well by the school department with texts and and emails.

Um it seems like the city often only uses social media or or and or um TV.

And um for myself, I don't use social media very much, and I don't watch TV.

So I would prefer if it would be great if we could cover all of those channels, but the channels that most people have, like text messages and emails, that I feel like that would be more effective because I've been I've been kept up to date by the school department a lot more than the city recently.

Uh back to you, Councilor Roy.

Thank you.

And I wasn't um just so everybody knows I wasn't calling out the police department.

But what concerns me a lot with this is um like the water main break, right?

So there were a lot of people that didn't know that they probably sort of boiled their water first.

There's a lot of businesses that didn't know.

So that's why I'm saying, you know, if we could get the the bigger things out there, right?

The ones that we know to be true in nature, right?

I'll rephrase it that way.

So further uh yes, Counselor Nanine.

Um so just really quickly, um I'm gonna uh speak for our city clerk, I think.

Um but uh on the 16th of May, uh we have um uh the uh flag placement for Memorial Day at both uh Riverside Cemetery and St.

Peter's cemetery.

We're looking for volunteers for both.

This also happens to coincide with uh planned uh Sunnyside Park and Riverwalk cleanup um that's gonna be scheduled uh for the 16th, just a little bit afterwards.

So if you're in the neighborhood and you've got nothing to do, um put up some flags for the veterans for sure and uh come pick up some trash.

Um I'd also like to point out that there are 14 vacancies on committees uh in our city, including our public safety committee that uh I think uh is prescient and we need to uh get um staff of volunteers as quickly as we possibly can.

Um and I just want to quickly also highlight the fact that as we're going through this budget uh season, things are I think exceedingly difficult.

Um absolutely have uh cuts that we have to make.

Um and I'm not quite sure if that's going to be uh um acceptable to certain no matter what cuts we make, it may not be acceptable to certain segments of uh of our community.

We have people on fixed incomes who do not have the money to pay no matter what uh we're talking about for the budget.

Those are hard things.

Um we have the middle class is shrinking right now all across the country.

The economy is is horrendous.

Um we've got layoffs happening all over the place.

Um it's a really bad environment right now, and I guess the the the point that I'm trying to illustrate there is that um even in this challenging environment, we absolutely have to increase our tax base.

We need to desperately.

Um we need good paying jobs brought into the city.

We need more taxpayers contributing to what is essentially essential services.

What we're looking at right now, the more cuts we make, um eventually what will happen is we get a diminishing return on investment.

Um we'll have uh failing services in our community.

Um and that's when people talk about Detroit, that's Detroit.

Uh so let's not end up there.

Um that's it.

That's all I want to say.

Uh are we already ahead to executive session, counselors?

Appears to be so.

Uh Madam Clerk, we have two executive sessions we're heading to.

Yes, sir.

Items number 21 and 22, number 21, executive session pursuant to main revised statutes annotated Title I, Section 4056C to discuss an economic development issue of which the premature disclosure of the information would prejudice the competitive bargaining position of the city.

Requested action to enter into an executive session pursuant to main revised statutes annotated Title I, Section 4056C to discuss an economic development issue of which the premature disclosure of the information would prejudice the competitive bargaining position of the city.

And item 22, executive session pursuant to main revised statutes annotated Title I section 4056A to discuss the personnel matter.

Requested action to enter into an executive session pursuant to main revised statutes annotated Title I Section 4056A to discuss the personnel matter.

Mav a motion, please.

Move to approve both.

Counselor should have seconded by counselor Nagyen.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 2.

Yes.

Ward three?

Yes.

Ward four?

Yes.

Ward five?

Yes.

Ward six?

Yes.

Ward seven.

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Uh thank you, Lewis and thank you to everyone who came out tonight.

Have a wonderful evening.