Good evening, everyone like to call this meeting of public safety and neighborhoods for March 9th, 2026, meeting at seven o'clock in City Council Chambers room two fourteen.

This meeting is being live streamed and recorded on City Council and committee meetings can be reviewed on the city's New Bedford homepage under the quick links, then meetings.

Dear Chairman Gomes and honorable members of the committee, I am ready to inform you that I'll be unable to attend tonight's committee meeting due to a prior commitment.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my absence.

Sincerely, Ian Abreu, Councillor at Large.

Motion received a place on file by Councillor Lopes, seconded by Councillor Roy.

All in favor?

Um in attendance for tonight's public safety meeting is Ward 2, Councillor Scott Pemmington, Wad one Councillor Leo Shikette, Ward Five, Councillor Joe Lopes, Ward Six Council and City Council President, Ryan Pereira, Councillor at Large, James Roy, Councillor at Large, Naomi Carney, and just walked into the room, Councillor at large, Shane Virgo.

Sir Clark.

This signage would welcome visitors to these areas and also provide instruction on the laws, rules, and regulations of the parks and beaches within the city of New Bedford, including the noise ordinance, no public drinking, parking, and the hours that these spaces are open to the public.

Yes, Councillor.

So on this uh motion, I was just wondering so we did the Bricklaw Packets not included.

If I can make amendment to include the question, no, all parks have been included.

This this kind of was for down the south end, but all parks have been included for that signage.

Okay, thank you for that for that quote.

Yes, and I'm getting a nod from Mary.

Mr.

Chairman.

Yes.

I don't know if you already received this hand out from the I've received it.

I haven't had a chance to go through it, but you want to do that.

So motion to receive and place on file to hand out the first time.

Seconded by Councillor Lopes.

All in favor?

No objection from the chair.

Um this is something we've been working on for a long time.

And um we did receive CPA funding to do phase one.

So phase one is going to be all the major parks and all of the uh the beaches as well.

Um really all of the parks except some of the smaller neighborhood parks.

We just didn't have it in our budget, but those will be phase two.

But um so I did give you a handout, and on the handout you can see the timeline.

We're working with a signage company out of Texas that's going to be fabricating and installing.

Um they're working with a local contractor to install.

Um so these are the the what I've handed out to you are the major signs.

So all of the locations, all of the major parks as well as the beaches, we'll be getting one of these major signs.

And I do have a sample here of the material, the colors.

The only difference at the beach is we're going to go with that like teal blue here instead of the yellow.

Otherwise, they're the same signage.

And I can I don't know if anyone wants to see that, I could pass it around.

So the signs are they're pretty good size, as you can see from the the handout.

They will have all of the parks rules and regulations, both in English and Spanish.

They'll have um some visual icons for folks who are you know not reading.

And they'll also have a QR code that will take them to the city website to our site, so that they can get more information about the parks, but also any additional information about renting renting anything, additional rules and regulations, that sort of thing.

Um the company has told us that they intend to have all of these signs installed by the end of June.

I think personally that's a little ambitious, but I do expect that they will all be in and um installed by the end of the summer.

And we did give them the list of parks that were in the um the order, and so those will be prioritized for installation.

And um the major parks and and also West Beach are going to be getting more than one sign because they're they're large parks.

We need to be able to orient people who are coming in from different directions.

The uh some of the major parks will also be getting finger posts.

So, for instance, if you come in on West Rodney Front into Fort Tabor, it would be nice to have a finger post to show you, hey, this is the way to the community center, this is the way to the beach.

So some of the larger parks will also have finger posts that will direct people.

The the parking lot on Hawthorne Street at Buttonwood will have finger posts showing them how to get to different amenities in the parks.

Is that the presentation?

Yes.

Thank you, Mary.

I'm going to call on Ward Six Councillor Ryan Pereira.

Thank you.

Uh Councillor Gomes.

Mary, when you can, can you provide a list?

Uh you said the major parks, but can you provide a listing of the parks?

I imagine that's Hazelwood's buttonwood.

Hazelwood, buttonwood, Brooklyn.

Okay.

Riverside.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

If you don't mind providing a list of of all what was included in this CPA round.

So some of the smaller parks like Roberto Clemente and St.

Teresa's are getting signs because they're we're doing construction there, so they're going to get signs as well.

All right.

Yeah, if you wouldn't mind providing a full list to the committee.

Through the clerk's office, that would be appreciative.

Also, can uh you provide the um RFP that went out for the signs?

Yes, I can.

Yep.

Perfect.

And then so the timeline that's been provided from the uh the sign company that you put here on the front page in your so they're they're still uh um maintaining that they can they're maintaining the schedule.

Yes.

And we just uh I know you were saying you think it's a little ambitious, but I do I mean we we're meeting with them bi-weekly at this point because we're really getting I mean we're almost you know uh well into the construction of the signage and so we've been meeting with them bi-weekly, but um they they're confident they can still complete this on this timeline.

Okay, that's awesome.

Uh if you wouldn't mind providing updates to the committee uh if there's any delays or anything uh as far as the schedule goes, if that if if you could do that.

I can do that.

Okay.

Thank you, Mary.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Councillor.

Thank you, Councilor.

Councillor Loebs.

Thank you, Chairman Gomb.

So, Mary, taking it a little step further, can you give us not only the number of signs but the number the number of signs per location as well as a map of where they're gonna be at each one of the parks?

So do you have that already predetermined?

I do.

It's GIS, so I might have to I'll probably have to give you a link to because it's quite a quite a big document.

Just because I know like at Bentonwood Park, there's ample places for the main sign and additional like the fingerling signs.

And I just want to make sure that we have the locations idea.

I know you probably do.

I just want to make sure of that.

And then on that material, how do we handle graffiti?

It's supposed so this the company we're working with, this is what they do is park signage.

So they're telling us that it's um either graffiti-proof or easily um cleaned with graffiti.

Okay, and then uh we've done signage at different parks before.

They fade and we don't replace them.

Not knowing that material, how long is it projected that it will be resistant to the weather?

Yeah.

So they they tell us 25 years.

Is what they're telling us for these signs.

And then the post that not worried about the footing, the post.

You know, this last storm, we saw a lot of things destroyed by some heavy equipment.

Yeah.

What is the the warranty on the signage, the posts?

Because they are installing it, so I'm assuming they are warrantying it.

Yeah, that's a good question.

I'm not I know what the warranty on the signs are, but I don't know specifically about the installation, so I'll have to check on that.

Could you find that out and share that information with the clerk?

Yep.

I think right now that's all I have, Councillor Um Chairman Gomes, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

Anyone else on the question?

Seeing none, no objection from the chair.

Mary, how big are these signs?

So um let's see.

It says there.

Oh boy, I gotta take my glasses off to read.

Uh five and a half feet by three to four feet, uh, three feet four inches.

That's not quite my four by eight, Mary.

I I know.

It's pretty darn big, though.

Okay.

Um let me ask you about the wording, because the wording on these signs are very important for the reason for many reasons for to notify the public of what the rules and regulations are.

But I also um have been notified and I have Deputy Chief here uh be long tonight.

Um this will help the police department if this information is on it.

It's so imperative that we get that information on there that we'll be able to help them.

That when they want to clear the beach at night, when we say nine o'clock, the beach is done, it will be on that sign, nine o'clock.

So there will be no question when they pull up and try to clear the beach when it's a good thing.

We're not yeah, we're not using Don to Dusk anymore.

And we did we did send the um rules and regulations to the police department before we sent it out to the signage company.

So they have had eyes on it.

I don't know if it was you.

Deputy Chief B Long.

You have I'm not sure what it was.

I can't recall either.

That was quite a three or four years ago now.

If if if not, could you forward that to the deputy as as soon as it's tomorrow morning?

So that he can go over it.

Yep, absolutely.

As I said, Mary, uh I don't mean to be a pain.

We've been going at this for a few years now.

Um myself, um, Councillor Pereira, um uh leading with me and the council's support.

It's important that these signs are up so that uh the law enforcement can enforce the law.

We can keep the park safe, we can keep the people safe, and um have a nice summer and and with the right information being put out there.

And I appreciate it.

Um I can't wait to see the sign.

If it's not big enough, Mary, I'm gonna be following you around.

Uh just one other thing, Mary.

Could you um I I think one of the counselors asked for the locations of them signs.

Could we make sure that we get that uh have you scoped out every area to make sure that the the that we pick the right place for the visibility and everything?

So the right now what we have is GIS maps indicating exactly where all the signs go are going, the type of sign, and all the finger posts.

So but once so what we but what we were told by the signage company is that before the signs get installed, we're going to meet with the contractor on site and actually put markers on the ground specifically.

This is where the sign is exactly going, and this is the orientation.

Would you mind if the when you did that if it is possible and some uh I don't care what counselor from whatever area is available for um just so that we get a visual and and make sure they are located in the most visible spot.

Yeah, what I could do is um I can I can share that information with the body at large or just with the um the ward counselors for their parks, and then they can let folks know.

How would you like me to do that?

Um I I think the body at large and and um you can still go with individual counselors uh to make sure that they are in the appropriate place.

All right.

Any questions for Mary?

Seeing none, um the chair would be in uh light of a motion to table for the time being, just to make sure that everything works out.

And if it doesn't, then we're gonna bring you back, Mary.

Yeah, make a motion that we table the item for 90 days, which would get us past the project close out.

Seconded by Councillor Carney.

Anyone on the question?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Okay.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Counselor Roy, uh what we did was uh the council of Lopes made a motion to table for 90 days, which will go past the time that these things should be installed.

The reason why we're keeping it here is just in case it doesn't work out.

We've been working at this for a long time, the entire council.

Mr.

Chairman Item 2 is a written motion from Council Gomes requesting that an amendment to section one of the home rule petition with the state regarding the appointment of special police officers in the City of New Bedford.

The change of wording is Chapter 32 of the general law, and it should read no retired police police officer shall be eligible for an appointment of a special police officer if the applicant has attained the age of 70 and any officer so appointed shall be terminated upon attaining the age of 70.

This is a home rule petition amendment to enable New Bedford police officers over the age of 65, the ability to be assigned to detail work in the city of New Bedford.

This was last heard by the committee on August 19th, and it was tabled for 45 days.

Make a motion to receive and place unfile and remove from the table.

Motion by Councillor Lopes, seconded by Councillor Carney.

All in favor?

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Um Deputy Chief B Long.

Welcome.

Good evening, everyone.

Again, congratulations in your new position.

Thank you, sir.

Where are we at with this?

Um last time we had uh uh uh at least um I we had a brief discussion with uh the chief about this, and he was in support of it.

But this is something been in the workings, you know that for a while.

Kind of uh I I there was some negotiation going on with the union and everything.

Where can you tell me today that we can do that?

Yes.

Um so first off, the chief sends his regards and apologizes for not being able to be out of out of state until tomorrow.

Uh pre-planned trip, but he sends his regards to everybody.

So speaking with Chief Thody, I know he spoke to the union about this.

It seems like everyone's in favor internally.

Um Chief Thoughty's biggest concern is to make sure that officers who work beyond 65 are fit for duty.

Um because obviously they represent police officers out in the street, so you work in a paid detail, they want to make sure they can if they have to provide medical care to somebody in an emergency, arrest somebody, there's an emergency that they are fit enough to complete that work, and he's requesting that they would have to conduct a um you know, see a physician and have a physical on a yearly basis to maintain that status as a special police officer.

But it from what I was uh what was communicated to me, the union and the chief are both in favor of allowing it with some restrictions in place, such as the yearly physical.

Okay, so one of them restrictions would be that um every year after 65 you would have take a physical and uh uh a physician would give you a letter of good to give to the department, and and that's how you would follow up on it on a yearly basis.

So as of now, they for special police officers they they are considered fit for duty, they go through specialized in service every year just like our sworn officers do.

Um that would continue as well through 70, but 65 to 70, they would have to provide documentation from a physician that clears them and says this per person is fit for full duty as a police officer.

Okay.

Any questions of the deputy on this matter?

Um I'm really happy to hear this, uh Deputy, that we could we've come to some conclusion and both sides are okay with this.

Uh uh when can when can we see this being implemented?

I would hope uh some point in the near future.

I mean that's gonna require obviously with um the union and the chiefs to sit down and work out the parameters of how you know the logistics of when do those officers over that age get called for details, because obviously the active officers get first crack at the detail list, then we have the retiree list, so that would be a system that would have to be kind of negotiated between the union leadership and the chief.

But I know they're both eager to take a crack at it.

So hopefully soon.

Do you need uh does the department do you need a little just a little bit more time um to give us a conclusion on this, Deputy?

Yes, that'd be great.

Okay.

What what do you need?

Sixty days?

Uh put the chief on the hot seat here.

Uh yeah, give it sixty days.

Well, you can come back.

I can bring you back and get the question.

Yeah, I'll put it down.

I'll I'll make a note of it.

Sixty days.

Okay.

Oh, sorry.

No, that's okay.

That's okay, counselor.

I'll still go to Councillor Roy.

Go ahead, Council Furr.

I just didn't know if we could hear from attorney Garatowski for a quick second.

That's okay.

Sorry.

That's okay.

Yes.

Thank you, David.

Thank you, David.

So David.

Is there a home rule petition written already?

Well, that's what that's what I I wasn't sure if we had had one before, because the way the motion was saying to amend section one of the home rule petition, but the home rule petition wasn't attached to this this particular motion.

So I don't know if there was one that somehow maybe didn't go anywhere because there was this issue about this.

Sure.

I looked through my files and I couldn't find such a home rule petition.

So I'm not sure if there was one drafted somewhere and it's in the can somewhere or then the other question I had was um it's talking about changing the wording of Chapter 32.

Chapter 32 is the retirement section of the of the state law.

Um so I'm there's like a hundred and six sections or something in that.

So I'd have to look through whether it addresses special police officers in this regard.

I don't I don't know if that might have been just a um misprinted somewhere else.

But Chapter 32, this doesn't seem to affect the um I guess it says retired police officers, but I don't think that would affect how you define a special police officer's age.

So I'm not sure what the home rule petition is, but it may require it if there's a state law saying that home special police officers can't be special police officers if they're over the age of 65.

Then it would need to be a home rule petition to change it.

But I don't know if there was one.

It appears here, the way this is written that there was one at some point.

And because it even says in the in the language that the mayor returned it unsigned.

I don't know if he returned the motion unsigned, or there was actually a home rule petition that passed that got returned unsigned.

I don't I don't know for sure.

So that's some of the things that were a little confusing about it, but um it appears somewhere there's something that's re prohibiting retired police officers from serving as special police officers after the age of 65, so I'll have to find where that is and then we'll make whatever whatever we need to do to do it.

Just it appears that this is has support from this body from the chief.

So Mr.

Chairman, just in those 60 days when we table this item, uh uh maybe uh as well as working the chief working with the union if Attorney Garatowski uh and and whether it's the clerk's office our office to make sure if we have a homework petition, if not, maybe Attorney Garatowski could begin the process of drafting one or something.

Yeah, because special police officers have a different meaning also, for example, a company can have someone designated by the city as a special police officer to operate in their grounds.

So this is speaking to detail work, which I think means out on the streets and doing police details and traffic details.

Now, special police officers, as we know it, like some company and might have somebody on their grounds as a special police officer that can do things to people that are on their property.

But they can't be out on the streets doing um traffic details, for example.

So there's some there's some difference between a special police officer as with as we're thinking about it, the council appoints them to for private uh companies, for example, will have a lot of those.

Um but certainly it would be different if we're talking about police officers that can be out on the street doing traffic details.

So I I gotta figure out the you know how that's differentiates from regular special police officers.

It just so my only comment is just that it seems like we're moving in direction of wanting to take action on this.

So, well, yeah, because I think there are some union rules that the first step obviously is the union is has in their contract that you know that police officers do the details.

So until that gets amended, we can't really go forward because the contract would would would prevail, the rules of the contract.

So um we need to change that and then go forward and then make whatever changes in the law to identify how we're gonna do this.

But I'm not sure where in the law it says that, because I know chapter 32 is the retirement section of the state law.

Just just so that we, you know, uh like I said uh again, it um just to keep things moving along as as the chair has said uh with this motion, uh just that it seems like we made a lot of progress with the chief in the union, so we just want to keep that moving along.

So if you we next time we bring this up to hear from the the chief regarding that, we'd like uh uh I I would like to see some sort of uh um idea of where we stand on the legal side of things too.

So okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Counselor Lopes.

My question is for Attorney Goratowski.

So Attorney Gorodowski, as you hit it on in your discussion with the uh council president, special police officers is more than just the retired police officers.

We do have the authority that we grant special police officer licenses to those that work in private practice.

Correct.

Will this affect their retirement age if we go from 65 to 70?

Or would it only be subject to do benefit police officers that retired and are going to be active as special police officers?

Yeah, I think what I think what this is talking about is this I think is for example, a special police officer that works for a company isn't isn't in the pension system.

They don't they're not considered public employees.

They're private employees that have special police powers.

Okay.

Um this is talking about I think police officers that are already retired and then just want to make some additional money for their deep to do details and make additional money in in their retirement.

They may not want to be, you know, doing a regular shift as a police officer chasing people out on the streets, but they'll they'll do a detail and they can do it once in a while and sort of it's flexible if they feel tired, they don't have to do on the next day.

They don't have to show up for their shift.

So I don't think it affects it would affect their pension because they have their pension locked in once they retire.

So I don't think this will address I can hit the check for the so I don't think it it adds anything to their pension because their pension is already done.

They don't unless they un-retire or something like that.

They can make a certain amount of money.

So counselor in the in the union contract is language that says they must be retired and receiving their pension, and it's only special police work for details.

And just to clarify something, in order to be a special police officer in Massachusetts now, you need to be post-certified.

So we used to give out permits for like St.

Luke's Hospital.

They weren't always cops.

They didn't they hadn't gone to academies.

When Post came around, Chapter 6 and Mass General Law requires them now to have a full academy under their belt.

So the only people that can get permits as special police officers anywhere in the Commonwealth are required to have a full police academy.

So we can't give out to private businesses anymore.

So you're not going to see that.

So everyone that is a special police officer uh falls usually under um like St.

Luke's now is putting a whole police program together, they fall on the Mass State Police and they all have to be sworn with a full post academy.

Just to clarify that.

No, I appreciate that.

And then there is language about receiving the pension already in order to be considered for special details as a special police officer while maintaining your post certification within service yearly after you retire.

Thank you for the clarification, Deputy.

Thank you, Attorney Gorotowski, and thank you, Chairman.

Thank you, Counselor.

Counselor Roy.

Deputy, uh are are these special police officers are they limited to how much they can make?

Do you know what the limit is?

Oh uh maybe the attorneys will have to be some better thing.

There's a percentage after this the first year there's a percentage.

Yeah.

And then after the first year there's a percentage, but we have a a our payroll keeps track of that through an ex like a Google sheet.

That way we can let them know if they're getting close, we can call them and say, hey, you're almost maxed out on what you can make this year.

Uh but there is a limit for sure.

Yes.

Thank you, Council Roy.

Anyone else?

No objection from the chair.

Deputy, how are we handling the retirees right now?

I know there's retirees out there working details and market baskets and whatever.

How is that being dealt with?

So they when they retire, if they leave retire in good standing, they can take the application for the details to be a special police officer, they fill it out, they process it, they come in, they redo payroll paperwork as if they're a new employee because they're no longer on the pension side of the house.

Once that's all established and they get all their gear, they have to buy their own firearm.

They buy a special police patch, badge.

We give them the patch, but they have to get a badge.

Once they have all their equipment, they then go on a rotating list with the active officers for details, but they go into a tier below them.

So once they're on the job, they have to our training division keeps track of their in-service yearly, just like our active officers have to go through in service, they've got to complete the same in-service, CPR, firearms, everything's the same on a yearly basis, just like the active officers, that's the post standard.

And then they go on the active rotating list, or if there's an ever source job today that is out for bid, all the active officers that are in the union can bid on those jobs.

If nobody bids on that, it goes to the second tier, which is the retirees.

And that goes by hours, so then the retirees can bid on that job through the automated system, and that's how they get the details.

And we have supervisors as long as well as Scott Alves, the detail officer, who call in, check in with those guys, check in on the jobs to make sure, just like our active officers that they're fit, they're active, they're out there, they're not sitting in their car because again, they're wearing the uniform and representing the city.

So at this point, is there any um reason to uh uh amend any chapter or anything, or uh does this work for the department exactly the way you're working it out right now?

You understand what I'm saying?

So yeah, so uh I think the concern has always been, especially from the union perspective, is that um we can't fill all the jobs, right?

The officers are sometimes overworked, it gets busy, uh they work a lot themselves.

As we get back to full complement, there's more officers to do the work, but I find the younger generations are more work life balance, so it tends to be a lot of open jobs.

So the retirees pick them up.

A lot of the retirees like to work, some of them don't.

Uh the idea was we have some retirees who are reaching that age of 65 who have requested the union and the chief, hey, I like to keep working.

I'm fit, I'm healthy, why can't I?

That's how this all came up to begin with.

Um that would be an easier um play to put into um with uh with the officers than going through all of this.

Well, without speaking on the attorney's behalf, I'm not sure how the rules work in the state regarding how you would change the petition, but I think internally, if we're talking about I I mean in real life is a small handful of people that would fall into this group.

It would be something that collectively the union and the chief, if they agreed on the language.

Again, is there a third tier where now that group fall underneath the retirees?

Do they get mixed into the retirees, right?

We want to make sure that the officers that are active still get the first chance to work the shifts because they are the ones active, you know, protecting the city currently, and then the retirees and where do they fall.

So that's just all like small things that can be worked out if there is potential to change the language and do it, you know, in a productive way.

I think that we we could probably figure that out for sure.

I mean you're talking about a small handful of people, so it's not really a big change.

Okay.

Anything else?

Councilor Roy.

Motion to table the item.

Councilor Roy has made a motion to uh table item two for sixty days.

Second.

Second by counselor loops.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Deputy, that that's enough time, we kind of get this off.

Yeah, we can absolutely sure.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chairman.

Yes.

If I might um would it be would you be opposed to moving to uh taking item four out of order?

Councillor Oliver had text.

I mean he's almost here.

No problem.

All right.

Thank you, uh, Mr.

Chairman.

I'll ask the clerk to read item four.

Mr.

Chairman, item four is a written motion from Councillor Gomes requesting that Mayor Mitchell and Chief Police Chief Thurdy consider immediately filling vacant positions within the department, including the Deputy Chief position, the North End Captain position, and several sergeant positions.

These leadership positions are needed for the successful operation of the Bedford Police Department.

Receive and place on file, second.

Motion received and place on file by Council Frera, seconded by Council Roy.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed the ayes have it.

Deputy.

What a motion to speak on.

Your position got filled.

We can scratch that up.

Can you give me an update?

Um I know I know the captain from the North End is um position has been filled.

Are we um completing this list?

Yes, so Chief Doty, uh his vision when he came in was to take some time to obviously survey the landscape and see for himself what he was kind of operating with.

He knew there were promotions needed to be made.

So he wanted to start like most places top down.

He wanted to fill his chief's office leadership, and then he obviously he asked Captain DeCosta to go to the North End.

Captain DeCars is doing an amazing job up there to fill that vacancy.

Well, the chief has expressed to me to share with the body here is that um we had three sergeants in the last month that abruptly left without giving much notice.

So we now up to we believe seven vacancies.

So now he's making that the next move.

Instead of going top down, he filled the deputy chief position.

Uh Deborah Peel's coming in.

He's now going to go to the sergeants and do a requisition for some sergeants to get some of those spots filled, and then go back to the top and start working on the lieutenants list and etc.

So he does have plans on probably as early as tomorrow doing a requisition for sergeant positions.

How detrimental is this to the department with that um much leadership leaving all at the same time?

You know, um two of them were out long-term sick, so instrumental, they had been out for a while, so they weren't directly involved in the day-to-day for a long time.

So, you know, our younger officers and sergeants have done a great job of kind of stepping up and leading.

Um, but obviously, whenever you lose people, it's always instrumental to fill them.

And the chief recognizes that, so he's he's made it a priority to do that next to fill, you know.

He's looking at he doesn't have an exact number, but it could be four, could be seven, like immediately, sergeant positions.

I think we have seven vacancies as of Saturday when the guy left abruptly.

Okay.

So obviously he's got some uh some potential lieutenant positions he may be filling as well, but they'll go do the sergeants first because of the need for that lower first-line leadership level, how important it is to have you know uh people that are are willing to go out there and do the work and help the officers that need, especially with the younger officers that we have.

And as we get more recruits out of the academy, which we're looking at uh being greatly staffed by the end of summer, he'll be able to promote even more and backfill positions that have been closed for years, like the traffic division having a sergeant, things like that.

So the main the main positions have been uh um filled where was needed, like the captain of the north and and everything.

The captain was filled.

That was probably one of the biggest ones because obviously that that leadership is so important for the entire station and district, and now he's recognizing how important it will be to get to the sergeants first, get that lower level leadership filled, and then he'll start working on the other positions, and as we get more staff, he will then start filling some of the auxiliary secondary positions that have been kind of vacant because of you know the crisis with staffing for a long time.

Okay.

Any questions of the deputy?

Seeing none?

I'll be in receipt of a motion of no further action.

Motion is take no further action, seconded by Council Roy.

And the reason for that motion is I have requested that motion is we've been uh updated and I think the positions are being filled, and uh deputy has said that uh chief is uh trying to take care of this as fast as he can.

I just think it's important that the leadership is out there on the streets with the offices um on a daily basis.

And thank you, Deputy.

Motion to for no further action, all in favor?

Aye.

Up hose the eyes have it.

Mr.

Chair, I'm three is a written motion from Councillors Oliver, Morad, Abrew, Lopes, Baptiste, Giesta, Carney, and Gomes requesting that police chief Paul Olivera, executive secretary to the traffic commission, Laurie Alfonso, City Solicitor Eric Jakes, Chief Financial Officer Robert Eckstrom, and a representative from the traffic division, meet with the community on public safety and neighborhoods to discuss current policies, procedures, and ordinances surrounding campers, RVs, boats, and trailers that are left unregistered and abandoned throughout the various streets and neighborhoods within the city of New Bedford.

And further to discuss improvements and initiatives to address these matters in a timeline manner so as not to pose significant safety risks and eyesores and to the and to improve the overall cleanliness within the city.

This was last before you were on August 19th, and there was a vote to refer to legal council and the city solicitors to draft an ordinance.

Motion removed from the table.

Motion take from the table by Council Burgo, second by Council Ollow.

All in favor?

I propose the eyes have it.

Councillor.

I guess speak to um Deputy Uh B.

Thank you.

Deputy, um as you can see, the uh former police chief's name is on here, so it's been in here for a little bit.

Yes.

Um has this been something that um you have been briefed on at all or or no.

So with the ongoing concern with trailers that we have in the city, right?

The first concern that we have to identify is that they are motor vehicles.

So most of the time what we first run into when they are reported to the city is that they are registered.

They're insured, they are lawfully on the on the public way.

We cannot tow a lawful motor vehicle that's registered and insured on a public way without either it being abandoned or being hazardous or doing something that causes us to take the vehicle, right?

So we run into that off the right from the beginning for some of these.

I know there are a list of uh trailers and campers that have been towed.

So now what's happening is we kind of go hand in hand with the hot protocol, right?

Because most of the time, as we know, the trailers are used by folks that are living that are houseless, right?

They're living in some capacity and they're using these places as their homes.

So number one, when it's a home, we're talking about we can't just barge into somebody's home without consent warrant exigency.

So we can normally go knock, we offer services through the hot protocol.

Hey, you're living in this trailer, we understand that the plates are now unregistered, you know, it can't stay here.

Do you have a way to get it out of here?

Sometimes they're cooperative, most of the time they are not.

So we have to look at alternatives and how do we get the persons that are in there away from there, and then get them wraparound services, obviously, because what the last thing we want to do is pull them out of a camper, kick them to the curb, and then tow their camper, which is their home.

They have a lot of items that are in there, they've made it their residence.

So that's another tricky piece of the puzzle.

If you have somebody who is willing to get help, in all perfect circumstances, and you have this shell of a camper sitting on the side of the road, the problem now is how do we get rid of it?

Right.

As you all are aware, they've been in the council chambers and been in this meeting before talking about these.

Most of the tow companies don't want them.

Why it's more expensive to take it and they don't get anything from it.

They have to have it scrapped, right?

They might sell some of the metal off it, but it doesn't make up for the cost of the law.

So you have to advertise it, I believe, right?

You have to say you have it, hold it for so many days.

This is all cost on the private company.

So the city, I believe, last year began to have a protocol where traffic will identify the ones that we can tow.

So we keep track of when they're registered.

The minute they go unregistered, they get flagged.

So now we know got your moment.

This one is now fair game, we can go start trying to get it off the public way.

If it's not abandoned already.

So we go there, we identify the individuals that are living in it, offer them services, and then we have to find ways to try to get them out so we can now remove that trailer from public property.

Once it's removed from public property, it goes over to I believe Shaman Avenue near the landfill where they sit until we can get funds enough to give them to some company to destroy them, which I believe is D F FM's house.

I think that's what DFFM handles that.

JJ is the one who kind of oversees that piece, so I can't speak too much to that piece of that.

But that's the process that we go through.

And you know, it's it's um it's challenging because of all the variables I just mentioned along the way.

Does that make sense?

That's the process.

Yeah, and I I thank you for that.

And and I although that's one aspect of it, um, I'm not although it's I don't want to say that I'm I'm not concerned with that.

Like I get it, there those folks are unhoused right now, they're using that.

Um but there is a like sometimes in the spring or we we see a little influx of like abandoned boats, some uh especially like in the Hicks Logan area around Korea's autobody and things like that that those neighborhoods that aren't as well trafficked, they're good little dumping grounds for that.

And um, although the the folks that are living in trailers is uh an another part of this.

My concern is how we're handling the ones that are abandoned, uh just regular trailers and/or the boats that are left.

I think I even in um my ward I had a boat that was just left with no trailer, it was just on the ground.

Yeah.

Um that was the scenario that we had spoken before is tow companies don't want to store them, they don't want to they don't want to tow them because they take up space that's more valuable to them for other purposes.

Um and they do cost a lot to dispose of, you know, a couple hundred bucks per foot or whatever it is, especially the fiberglass stuff.

Yes.

Um there's no real money in that except for the skeletons of the trailer itself.

Um you we run into those situations.

You spoke about them sitting in the the yard at uh over on Shamanav.

Um those are the tow companies doing that, are we pull are we more or less getting these off the road or something?

Yes, so we use still don't want to touch them at all.

Well, they'll bring them they I mean I know Sergeant Fonseca doesn't have the capability of towing a boat without a trailer, so uh we'll use to companies I believe I I might be wrong, but I think big wheels and South Coast are extremely helpful, right?

So the two of them have been the most helpful when it comes to these situations.

If your example, boat, no trailer, road.

If there are no other pieces of equipment at the yard that need to be destroyed, and JJ says, Hey, I got space.

Guess what?

Tomorrow, we're towing that boat out of there.

What we run into is a backlog because there's so many, and you know, D FFM only has so much in their budget to afford because it's expensive, and I don't believe it's like you know, the coffers not just overflowing with money to get rid of these things, right?

There's a cost of doing that business that in order for us to bring more to that location, DFFM needs money to get them out of that location and destroy.

The minute he destroys some and makes space, he calls these guys and says, Hey, I just got rid of three today, you got three more, and within a day or two, traffic is out there pulling the three that have been the most hot commodities, right?

The ones we're getting the most calls about, the ones that are biggest eyesores, the ones that are abandoned.

But we I mean, I I wish we had all the space and all the money to get rid of all of them, they'd all be the streets would be clear of boats with no trailers, but unfortunately, there's a process, and you know, we're kind of stuck in a holding pattern until we get information that we can bring more to the location where they get stored by the city until the city destroys them.

Okay.

But yes, but if you you know, for all of you in here, when you report those to the police, it doesn't go like unnoticed or not respond to these guys go right out there, they identify it.

If it's a camper, they find the folks that are living in it.

We notify Sergeant George, he activates the hot protocol.

If it's just a boat or a trailer, he calls D FFM and says, Hey, I got a boat, no trailer, you got any space?

Can we stand it up against a tree?

You got anywhere to put it?

Whatever we can do, because we understand how much of a priority it is for all of you here, especially for your constituents, right?

When they're calling say, hey, there's a boat next to my house for the last six weeks, what do I do about it?

I I can promise you that the police are doing our part and trying to make sure it's prioritize getting those out of those neighborhoods for sure.

Even on the boat, if I may, even on the boats, I still have to run all the HIM numbers on.

Paul.

Sorry.

We just speaking to the mic, please.

I apologize.

Thank you.

Um Sergeant Paul Fonseca.

So the boat part of it, I am port security, so I can get do the boat stuff.

Um even with the boats, we still have to run HIN number.

So where we're running into issues with that is shaving them off.

I buy I have this vessel, I sell it to you on Facebook.

You sell it to Councillor Lopes on Facebook.

It comes back to me on Facebook, so now we're tracking to see where this vessel is coming from.

And a lot of these folks they're smart about it, they actually cross everything off.

So now we're digging for this information.

And once we just take it and put it into the yard, JJ now has to still figure out okay, we have to hold it for this the 45 days.

Then we have it, it still becomes just like the campers.

So there's a whole process.

I know the deputy was talking about like we have a list in front of in front of me right here where we're going through it.

We know which ones have been uh sent out.

We have a another section where we know we have these five.

So out of 36 that are in front of me, five of them are no good.

They're not active.

So we know that this week and the next coming week, we're gonna grab these five.

But even then, when we get there, we have to check them again.

Make sure that they're still not active, and if they are, we start the process again.

You know what I mean?

So there's a big process behind this.

It's not for failure to try to get them out, because trust me.

It's it's it's a nuisance.

It is.

We get it.

We get it.

Yeah, I don't think I don't think anybody in this room is you know questioning the the the way in which you guys are handling it.

It's I think we're just trying to see if there's a way that we can tighten it up.

Um you guys spoke about you know 30 days, 40.

Is this mass general law?

Is it okay?

Yeah, but I believe that when it talks about abandoned property and the ability to destroy property, there is the law does give us time frames that we have to hold on to these things.

That's why I talk about toll companies, they have to make announcements if they keep them, right?

You have to it's there's even an antiquated law, says you must advertise in a newspaper three times or something like so like there's a lot that goes into taking abandoned property, seizing it as our own, taking custody of it, and when and when we cannot get rid of it.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think just to touch on you said streamline the process.

I think this process that they've been working on has been very helpful.

Because I remember prior to this process without the city yard, they were all out there.

There was nowhere for them to go, right?

Um so this has been a little helpful at the start, and and what is you know, like the sergeant said, is it's quite the process.

How long have they been doing that?

Is that something new that they like when we have space?

Let's go get the other ones that we've been waiting on.

Yeah, stand by.

I'll try to get an answer on that.

So one of them here that I have is 4624.

Yeah.

So fairly new.

Yes.

Okay.

Um I'll I'll yield for now in case any of my colleagues have any questions for deputy.

Thank you.

And let me recognize councillor that you um arrived, and you're uh vice chair of uh this committee.

And uh much appreciated.

Councilor Loebs.

Thank you, Council Gomes.

So my question would be for somebody from the solicit of not the financial CFO, but since we don't have anyone from that office here, I will ask through you to solicitor Jakes if you can get me two answers.

So, Solicitor Jakes, there are two items over here.

Voucher number 777488 and voucher number 777 483.

Those two items make up 22 percent of the overall expenditures.

So each item on this list, 31 items, we average 951 dollars.

These two items alone account for almost 7,000 dollars and 22% of the expenditures.

One says miscellaneous, doesn't declare what it is, and the second one is a hookup police.

The average hookup for a police based on this list is 154.37 cents.

This one hookup is three thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven dollars and seventy-six cents.

I'd like to know what was hooked up for four thousand dollars when every other hookup averages between 133 and 150 dollars.

That might have been the one that burned down last summer that required uh it was down in the north end, right?

I believe that's a trailer that was a cleanup to get it to get it cleaned off the street because it was abandoned motorhome that burnt down.

So I'm I think I'm not I don't have the obviously the invoice in front of me, but I'm I'm guessing that's the outlier in the group because that one did burn.

I remember that fire specifically.

And I appreciate that, Deputy.

But through through the clerk to solicitor Jakes, those are my two items, because even if it is an outlier, there needs to be a little information in regards to the expenditure line item on these information, especially when everything else goes for 150 dollars disposal, and this is the most expensive without any information in regards to to what it is, especially the miscellaneous, which doesn't clarify what it is for 2500.

Council, I'm happy to do that, but can I talk to you after the game?

Because the list that I'm looking at doesn't appear to be the list you look.

I think it is the exact same list.

Well, they're confirming that.

Um anyone else have any questions?

If not, I I'd like to ask the deputy uh a question or Paul.

Deputy, how costly does this become when we do get one of these campus and it's loaded with everything and anything?

Excuse me.

Do you want to speak to that?

Yeah.

Sorry.

Sir.

So in regards to that question, sir.

Um we need to think about what has to come out of it.

So we have articles of clothing, personal items that now has to be stored.

We have any chemicals that need to be removed.

Fiberglass, uh, metal, sheetrock, gasoline, all have to be separated.

So the company that takes it, we'll just we're just going to throw something out there.

Paul Fawn Seekers towing takes it to the yard.

The yard takes it, holds it for the 45 days.

The 45 days come, nobody claims it, it then goes to the facility.

At that point, the facility now breaks everything apart.

Fiberglass, wood, metal, um, um, what do you call it?

Uh gasoline, propane tanks, all that have to be stripped.

It doesn't just get crushed in.

That's with that major expense.

And then you get rid of all that.

So now you have loads of wood you have to get rid of, uh, bedding, plastics, whatever it be, plus if you have any big items in there, because you never know, you have to store that for a period of time, hoping that the person comes and picks that up.

Sorry.

Sarge, uh, if this is um if one of these trailers are infested with rodents and stuff like that, that's also an added cost that is not picked up by the company that's taking it that's crushing this thing, am I correct?

Correct.

That's that's a separate thing.

So every little thing that happens in there is a separate cost.

Even on a boat.

A vessel, say we take a boat, it has diesel fuel in it.

That gets separated from the bilge oil, but bilge oil goes somewhere.

Then you have fiberglass, that gets separated, it gets peeled apart.

You have paint, plastic, everything that's attached to that boat, glass.

It doesn't just get crushed into one, everything gets broken up and goes to different locations.

So now you have time of the business breaking it down, disposal, and and everything else that comes with it.

Thank you, Sergeant.

Sir.

Counselor Lopes, I'm sorry.

Uh it was while you were conferring with legal counsel.

I thought I asked that question.

I had a chance to move the city solicitor if you will give me the answer to that possible thing.

Okay.

Anything further, Counselors?

Could I speak with uh attorney Jakes?

Counselor Jakes?

Please.

We all want to hear your beautiful voice.

Happy birthday.

Yeah, I think we have a pick on the either.

Oh, thank you.

Um the uh have you gotten an opportunity or somebody from in your office?

Um is there uh because obviously this isn't just a new Bedford issue.

Um to see if uh other municipalities are handling it differ differently, if they are handling a lot of it internal in-house.

I mean, obviously we still have to wait the 30 days, 45 days, whatever it is, because that's we're governed by law for that for the abandoned property.

Um I think that probably should be an expedited or an exemption for this, but that's another conversation.

But how are other municipalities handling this?

Because it's it's we're not we're not alone.

It's an excellent question, Council, and I don't know.

We haven't reached out to find out what other communities are doing, and I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but I think Councillor Garrett uh legislative council Garatowski will mention to you at one point that there's a broader look that we're doing beyond this particular thing that's over in the ordinance committee that deals with boats, cars, trucks, and trailers.

And attorney Garatowski had started to, if not completed, a draft of an ordinance for the city, but that's over in the ordinance committee, not public safety.

So after our last meeting, I have not followed up on any of these items because we had moved over to that other ordinance that's in the ordinance committee.

Okay.

Um basically the answer to your question is no, but I talked a long time to say no.

Um it looks like there was a vote here to um ask department heads if they had storage space and things like that.

Um do you know if that has happened?

That did go out and the responses did come back, and there was virtually nothing other than I think DFFM.

So it has any city yards that's that's uh just the basically the city yard.

Yeah, most departments.

Yeah, we have parking lots, some of them even.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's all I have right now.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Councillor.

Any other questions for attorney or the chief or the sergeant?

Which a pleasure?

Motion to table for 60 days as we're working through this in the ordinance committee.

Motion to table for 60 days.

Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by Councillor Lopes on the question.

Seeing no one on the question, all in favor?

Or hold on.

Counselor Pemmington.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Yeah, on the question.

If I could just bring up uh Councillor Attorney Jury Towski, please.

Yes.

Yeah, David.

So uh you and I actually have been working on on an audience, right?

Um is that audience in in is there an audience that's in place now?

Yes.

So the request in this committee is about it's sort of specific to um campers.

Um however you you sent me some drafts of some parking ordinances and I've sent you some different things and um as you are working on not just a problem with campers, but I know your concern to me has been problems with trucks and other trailers and all kinds of things that are parking on the streets, blocking the streets, taking up parking spaces.

And so um what I've what we've shared with each other, and I know that you have that um that draft that that was sent that I believe is pending in ordinance committee, um, is more comprehensive than just trailer, uh just campers.

It has all different types of vehicles that your concerns brought to me are all in that ordinance and it's a little more comprehensive, but it includes those campers that that um that is in is before you tonight.

So I think um to address just campers, maybe the best bet is to see if we can get that ordinance that um that you have before the in front of the ordinance committee and maybe take it up as a more comprehensive package in parking um that will not only address what this committee is talking about tonight, but all those other problems that you have been uh addressing as well.

If that makes sense.

Okay.

Is that it, Councillor Pemberton?

Uh yes, Mr.

Sheaming.

Uh so you put your mic on.

Hello.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, uh Attorney Jaredowski.

So uh if I can I just want everybody know that I do have uh a copy of this if everybody wants to look at it before while we go around or if we want to just make it put on fire as well.

You want to receive in place on file and we'll we'll get a copy to every counselor.

Yeah.

Motion to receive and place on file.

The communication that the council of Pemington has seconded by Councillor Shaket.

Anyone on the question?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

We've um we had a vote on tabling um that um item for sixty days.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed the ayes have it.

Um let me remind the general public that uh while we've uh had this meeting this evening and you have heard that um phrase tabled.

Um the action continues to be worked on these items, and this is uh how we do it sometimes as the police department and government work together to uh solve neighborhood and safety issues within the neighborhoods.

With that said, I will recognize Council Burgle.

Mr.

Chairman, motion to weigh the reading of items five through seven, report out to the full city council for no further action.

Is there a second?

Motion by Council Burgle, seconded by Council Oliver.

Anyone on the question?

Seeing none, all in favor?

Opposed, the ayes have it.

A motion to adjourn by Councillor Burgle, seconded by Council Oliver.

All in favor?

The ayes have it.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

This meeting is a this meeting is concluding at 7 59.

Thank you for being here.

Have a great night.