Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

It is 7 p.m.

on Monday, August 25th.

I am Chairman Ryan Pereira calling together this committee on ordinances meeting.

Um live here in the city council chambers.

I am joined by my colleagues Councillor at Large Ian Abreu, Councilor Ward 2, Maria Giesta, Councilor of Ward 1, Leo Schocat, Councillor of Ward 5, Joseph Lopes, Councillor at Large, Brian Gomes, Counselor at Large, Linda Morad, Councillor at Large, Naomi Carney, Councillor of Ward 3, Sean Oliver, Counselor of Ward 4, Derek Baptiste.

I would like to know that this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.

City Council and Committee meetings can be viewed on the City of New Bedford's homepage under quick links and then meetings.

I will ask the clerk if there are any letters to be read into the record at this time.

No records, no letters to be read into the records.

Seeing no letters to be read into the record without a yes, counselor.

Without objection, can we take item three out of order?

Without objection, I will ask the clerk to read item number three.

Item number three without objection is a written motion, Councilor President Burgo and Council's Gomes, Morad and Pereira requesting that the committee on ordinance meet to discuss removing the city council as the granting authority for special permits as they pertain to automotive sales and/or rentals, body repair, general repair, and light service by amending chapter 9, appendix A, Section H commercial motor vehicle uses.

It was referred here on February 13th, 2025, and is now before you.

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

So colleagues, um, the chair would at this time uh like to invite up the clerk of the city, Dennis Farias to the podium, give a brief overview about uh uh the thoughts behind um this item here as it's uh a good starting point for us to engage in debate and conversation on this.

Uh Clerk Farrias, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh good evening, counselors.

So this this kind of started I don't know when it started exactly, but if several months ago um when Sue and I and Stephanie and I talk about things in the office, different procedures and things, we often talk about and discuss, you know, what can we make better?

How can we streamline things?

How can we make things better for the council, for the office, for the public?

And one thing that kind of just kind of kept coming up was special permits.

And so we started looking at the process and we realized that it's it's quite cumbersome.

It's quite cumbersome for really uh it's very cumbersome for uh applicants, it's cumbersome for the council, for your schedule, for the office.

So we started looking at it and we said, well, gee, you know, then we started talking to the licensing office, and there seems to be a lot of duplication.

Um course, you know, you folks might feel differently, but so we kind of just said, you know, let's let's talk to a few counselors about it and see what they think.

And we talked to a few of you, and you submitted this really, I think, for discussion purposes.

So I think it's good to talk about it.

Um, you know, I'm not here to advocate one way or the other, whether we revoke this thing completely or modify it somewhat, but I think it's worth looking at um to see how we can improve this.

Um I'm a big believer in always trying to make things a little bit better.

And uh and Sue Sue is uh on on that same page as well.

So I'm here with any questions you have from me, if you'd like to go over anything specific, we can certainly discuss it.

Do you mind just quickly um the current process?

Just a quick um uh four hour before we begin conversation.

Um Dennis, if you could just kind of go over uh the cost for the special permit and uh on average and the timeline, please.

Sure.

So on our end, so just to kind of backtrack a little bit, and I know Commissioner Manowitz is here, so we can he has his hit their procedures in his office as well.

So from my understanding is when when the building commissioner the denies the permit initially, that's when the special permit process kicks in.

So they have to come to our office, they they have the application.

That application begins with anywhere from a seven hundred dollar to nine hundred dollar fee right off the bat, just to apply whether they get granted or not, okay.

So they apply for that, as you know, it comes to the council, it gets referred to appointments and briefings, which is a very busy committee.

Then it gets a vote in appointments and briefings, as you know it comes back to the council, then it goes to the mayor's office, where he has 10 days to sign it.

Then it comes back down to the city council office, then it comes down to the city clerk's office where we hold it for a 20-day appeals period.

So now, and then after that, now it goes back to the city council office for for final approval.

But I mean, if you're the business owner, that that's a long time to wait to open your business.

You know, that's that's kind of what initially what made us start thinking about this.

So that's the cost there.

And at the same time, the licensing board is going through their own process with things.

They are the ones who really do the heavy lifting as far as the investigative work behind this.

They do the quarry, they do all that stuff.

They do the background check on the individual, the owners, the property.

And they are they have their own fees of $300 annually.

Our fee is a one-time fee for the application process, their fee is annual.

So that's really the process, Mr.