It is Monday, March 30th at the City Hall at 701 p.m.

calling the City Council meeting into order.

In attendance, we have Councilor at Lodge, James Roy, Councilor Lodge, Naomi Carney, Councilor Lodge, Ian Abrew, Councilor of War 2, Scott Pemberton, Councillor of Ward 1, Leo Choquette, Counselor at Lodge, Brian K.

Gomes, Council President Ryan Pereira, who is also Warsex Counselor, myself, Joseph Lopes, Ward 5 City Councilor, and we do have uh is it one letter to be read into the record?

No, I have no letters.

We have no letters to Burdenford Records, but I did receive a text message from uh Council of War 3 Sean Oliver stating that he would be 10 to 15 minutes late.

You can read it.

Item number one is a communication.

John Taxios, uh Treasurer Collector to Councillor Joseph P.

Lopes, Chair Committee on Finance, requesting a vote of the Finance Committee to permanently finance various projects in the amount of forty-three, excuse me, forty-seven million three hundred and forty thousand dollars, and to issue a renew temporary notes for various projects in the amount of thirty-six million six hundred and twenty one hundred and sixty-nine dollars.

This debt was previously authorized by a vote of the finance committee is required uh to approve the actual sale.

It was received here on March 16th, 2026.

Item number one is before you.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

John, if you'd like to go to the podium.

That's number two.

Thank you.

Investors have previously anticipated more than two rate cuts before year end, and markets are now pricing in no cuts at all.

Despite these developments, we received favorable rates on both the bonds and bans.

The successful bidder of the 42,510,000 general obligation state qualified municipal bond issue of the city dated April 9, 2026.

Was Huntington Securities at a price of 42,689,377, and a true interest cost of 4.02%.

The city received 11 bids on the bonds.

Due to the premium received, the debt was resized to 41,075,000 as shown in the revised letter.

The successful bidder of the $37,448,169.

General obligation bond anticipation notes dated April 10th, 2026, was TD financial products with a net interest cost of 2.63%.

The city received four bids on the bands.

Affirm the city's double A minus double A minus underlying bond rating and assigned the SP1 plus rating to the notes, which is the highest municipal short-term rating attainable.

The rating agency cited the city's expanding and diversifying local economy, stable financial performance, increasing reserves, and forward-looking conservative management with strong financial management policies and practices as positive credit factors.

Furthermore, SP Global Ratings assigned the double A plus enhanced rating to the bonds as debt services secured by the State Qualified Bond Act.

Thank you for your consideration of my request to approve the sale of the bond and bans.

Thank you, John.

We do have questions, Council Choquett, on your first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Good evening, John.

Again, I'm kind of putting you on the spot here, but I was just looking at the uh reports here on the credit highlights.

Do these does this bond rating was it does this reflect uh our recent um you know bout with the Snow Mageddon blizzard there that we had that depleted quite a bit of the because I'm reading right here where it says um I just lost it here.

Okay, we note that the fiscal 2026 budget included a cut to the snow and ice budget that removed the city's ability to deficit spend in that account and a cut in the police budget by the city council, which was filed by uh filled by an allocation of free cash that we view as not sustainable.

I was just curious if this was before any of that.

Okay.

So we think we got that in before the budget classification.

I mean the uh the bond classification, the grading, right?

Yeah, so all of this debt that we have listed here was part of the 25 CIP and some other pieces for school that were related to those projects, but it did not include anything that was more recent.

Okay.

That yeah, that's I just wanted to clarify that.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I yield.

Thank you, Councillor Kitt.

Anyone else on the first council of Ward for Derek Baptiste is in attendance?

Mr.

Chair.

Council Pereira.

Thank you.

So just confirming um so first a point of information on the vote sheet.

The corrected information is is is present.

Is okay, thank you.

So at this time I just would like to make a motion to amend the communication that we received.

To amend it to 41,075,000 for the bond.

Yes.

And to amend the banned to $37,448,169.

Made by Council Pereira.

Second by Council Gomes.

Anyone on the question?

We're going to vote on just the amendment and then we'll do it at the end of the time.

Roll call vote on the amended amount.

Unamended amounts, Councilor Abreu?

Yes, Council Abraham, Council Baptiste.

Yes.

He has Council Baptiste, Council Carney.

Yes.

Yes, Council Carney, Council Choquette.

Yes.

Yes, Council Choquett, Councillor Gomes?

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Gomes, Council Lopes?

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Lopes, Councillor Pemberton?

Yes.

Yes, Councillor Pemberton, Council Pereira?

Yes.

Yes, Council Perr or Council Roy?

Yes.

Yes.

So the amendment passed.

920.

9 to 0.

And now we need a motion to approve as amended.

So moved.

Made by Council Pereira.

Second by Councillor Abrew.

Roll call vote as amended.

Approving as amended.

Councillor Abru.

Yes, Council Abrew, Council Baptiste.

Yes, Council Baptiste, Council Burgo.

Councillor Carney.

Yes.

He has Council Carney, Council Choquett.

Yes.

Yes, Council Choquett, Councillor Gomes.

Yes.

Yes, Councillor Gomes, Councillor Loebs.

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Lopes, Council Pemberton.

Yes.

Yes, Council Pemberton, Council Pereira.

Yes.

Yes, Council Pereira, Council Roy.

Yes.

Yes, that passes 9 to 0.

That passes 9 to 0.

John, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

You need to sign that now.

You want me to sign it later?

You sign it?

Okay.

You're going to have his signature.

Item number two, communication.

Council Morat submitting a letter from Eric Cohen, Executive Director for the New Befort Contributor Retirement Board regarding the fiscal 27 cost of living adjustment cola, base increase for retirees.

The matter was referred here on December 11th, 2025.

Motion to receive and place unfile the communication.

Made by Council Pereira.

Second.

Second by Councillor Roy.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Oppose the ayes have it.

Can I also get a motion to receive in place unfile the communication from Chief Financial Officer Barbeck?

So moved.

Made by Council Pereira, seconded by Pemberton, all those in favor.

I oppose the ayes have it.

Item new number two is properly in front of us.

Does anyone have any questions for the retirement board?

Council Pereira.

Thank you.

I don't know if Chair Belageron or Eric wants to answer it.

I just have a perfect.

Thank you.

Good evening, uh Councillors and the Chair.

For those that don't know me, my name is Lenny Belagron.

I'm the uh I'm a resident of the city of New Bedford.

I've been a resident with the exception of the three years that I was in the United States Army since uh 1955.

So uh I'm also a taxpayer.

I've lived in the city and I've paid uh you know excise taxes and property taxes uh since uh 1976.

So I am also concerned taxpayer.

Um with that um I am the elected chair of the retirement board.

I've served in the retirement board, was elected in and began service in uh July 1 of 2018, and uh I've been the chair for five years.

Prior to that, I was for people that don't know, I was a I served as city as police officer for over thirty years.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

Chair, um Council could thank you.

So uh a couple questions.

Uh in regards to the COLA, can as it relates to the health and status of our funds, what I I saw the actual that you sent out, uh Eric sent to me, I believe.

Um in that it looks like there would be an anticipation of approximately 1.1 in change.

Right.

The in actuarial study you received was 1,167.

Out of that, New Bett's responsibility is 88.12 percent.

Okay.

For 1,028 uh 28,360 dollars.

Understood.

That's the uh new B.

That would be the new BFIS cost.

Understood.

So my based on that too, uh, in regards to the health of the overall health of the fund.

I know that um uh uh Eric indicated to me earlier that towards the end of this month, beginning of the next month, uh excuse me, end of April, beginning of May, we'll we'll kind of see where we are in the funding's cover, hopefully close to 60 percent, I think is the goal to keep on track.

Um whether it's you or Eric the answer, the increase in the cola, what what does that mean for the fund?

How what will be the health?

Because my concern is making sure the fund stays alive.

Well, let me uh roll this back.

When I first became uh was a member of the board, our uh fund was three hundred three hundred and thirty-six million dollars as of January.

We're at over six hundred million dollars.

So that's an increase of two hundred and sixty-four million dollars in the eight years that I've served on the board.

We just uh we beat the PRET, which is the um public uh employees uh which I'm sorry, is the uh pension reserve Massachusetts Pension Reserve Investment Trust.

We beat that by 2.1 percent.

We earned 14.7 percent in investments last year.

That's excellent.

So we're well on our way, as you know, the system is supposed to be it kicked the can got kicked down the road again by the legislature.

So we have 13 years to make up the difference to get 200 percent funded.

Keep in mind nobody can prepare for what happened in 2008, right?

So we think.

But we're we're well on our way.

We've reduced our uh cost on our basis points.

We've negotiated.

We we're not involved in PRIT.

We're doing better than Pritt.

We have uh Seagomako consult advisors as our uh consultant.

And with them and us being actively involved, we've reduced our overall cost to the to the system.

And that money is being reinvested into the funds.

Right.

So we went from one per 1 percent basis point to a half percent basis point on a lot of our uh uh fund managers.

And that was through uh negotiations.

So this board has been working, you know, and it goes back to when I started in in 2018.

So we have closing the gap.

So I fully expect that we will be funded uh if we keep continuing the way we're going.

Um I mean I can answer some of the stuff too.

What I'm just to let you know.

Currently there are 957, 975 retirees that receive pensions of 2500 a month or less.

That's 57 percent of the members in the fund are making 200, getting 250 $2,500 a month or less in their pensions.

The poverty level, 287 retirees pensions for one person are at or below the 2026 poverty level of 15,960.

For 17 percent of our members, 17 percent of our members are at or below the poverty level.

That's crazy.

The average new retirement pension is 31,000.

The current new Bedford median salary is sixty-three thousand four hundred and eleven dollars.

You said that average was thirty, the average pension is thirty-one thousand.

And keep it keep in mind you have some high outliers.

Yes, fair enough that pulled that correctly number higher.

So the average there's 138 retirees who who are at or above the current UBEF average median salary, and that's 8 percent of the total members in the system, 8 percent are above or at the 63,411, which is the median salary for the for somebody that is living in the city of New Bedford.

Yeah.

I I fully um I fully understand the needs of our pensioners.

I think that uh they the uh a call-base increase is is definitely justified here, uh, especially given today's climate with the expenses.

Uh of an increase here though, um just to confirm, I just I'm concerned also about the fund, right?

Making sure this fund lasts.

There is no concern that this increase will negatively affect the fund because the last thing we want to have is a collapse of the fund.

It will collapse.

Okay.

All right, just to make sure that keeps going.

It will not collapse.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um when when it's appropriate, if possible, Mr.

Chair, uh CFO extra miss here.

Just want to uh uh I I fully anticipate uh uh an increase in in in um the budget next year.

I would like to know what that number would be.

We heard it a little bit from uh Lenning, but I'd like to further expand on that.

Thank you.

If you'd like to have a copy of this, this is what I've got.

It's it spells out everything with regards to the what I've done done, so the research is of our system.

I only made one call.

I it was just runoff copies.

That's that'd be appreciative.

Thank you.

That's good.

You're gonna get a motion to receive and place on file the communication.

Thank you by Councillor Carney.

All those in favor?

I opposed, the ayes have.

Mr.

Chair, I'll make runoff copies in a minute and distribute it to my colleagues.

Thank you, Council Pera.

Councilor Abreu, on your first.

Thanks a bunch, Mr.

Chairman.

Good evening, Mr.

Belageron.

Good to see you.

Um of the questions I was going to ask my colleague before me had we have already had delved into them, but I just curious, what are you hearing whether it's daily or weekly from your constituent members and your retirees about this situation, how it all plays out, right, with inflation being skyrocketed with Medicare and just property taxes and the cost of living just going through the roof.

And I would assume that you are getting in your office receiving a lot of calls for things like fuel assistance and the office.

And benefits and multiple calls weekly for people looking for uh assistance through PACE, fuel assistance.

Um it's kind of I I spelled it out in that document that I got earlier.

But it's it's it's weekly, multiple.

And uh Mr.

Cohen, who is our executive director, Attorney Cohen, he can answer that because he is there in the office all uh all the time.

Cohen who is our executive director attorney Cohen he can answer that because he is there in the office all the all the time but I know in conversations that we have that that is like multiple times daily we're getting calls from our retirees that just aren't able to manage uh you know and keep up with the with the current cost of uh living now well not only as the chairman but as a human being that must break your heart doesn't it to hear that these people many of whom were your colleagues in government you worked alongside these folks and to hear these stories must be heart wrenching.

Absolutely look in 1998 the cola was twelve thousand dollars it took us twenty-five years in 2023 to raise the cola we came back to the council and the council at the time uh and and the retirees were very thankful agreed to raise the cola so they raised the cola to to 14,000 the average cola across the 104 systems is 16,000.

That's what we are looking for is the average is the average cola through through the system.

That's kind of what we're looking for just to be on average in power with with other systems.

Thank you very much Chairman Belageron appreciate your service of the city.

Thank you.

Thank you Chairman Lopez, Councillor Abreu anyone else on the first for the Chairon.

Seeing none.

Lenny you are offset I do have questions for CFO Bob Ekstrom Bob please thank you.

So Bob you've seen the information can you give an overview from the the city's perspective of the matter while we wait for um Council President Primer to come back.

Sure.

Thank you.

Well first of all I am uh I'm gonna say that I've been around this current retirement board and uh I served on and off of most of the last 12 years I will be the first to tell you they do a damn good job.

The numbers that uh Lenny um has quoted are you uh certainly well above what the actual basis is uh the assumption I think now is at seven percent I would suggest that going from three something million to six hundred million is far above that uh so the the retirement board is looking out for the interests of the retiree uh all beneficiaries that is their fiduciary duty to do so and in my situation here I have to look out for the interest of the city as well.

So obviously this has a cost to it as Mr.

Balageron has um has uh quoted it's uh 1,167 thousand I think per year so the timing of this is you know it's they this has been around since December right now we were very close to issuing our our preliminary budget.

We're only six weeks short of being able to release that.

And so I thought given that situation and again the retirement board has uh has tasked uh KMS actuaries to come up with it the total uh cost the increase in the liability is six point five million dollars right away uh one point this is called 1.2 million dollars in annual assessments after that I just want uh the the uh the City Council and the finance committee here to just to understand this in in conjunction with the budget increase.

So obviously this is a subset of that overall increase.

It's it's not the fault of the retirement system that we're looking at a lot of other costs but this is another cost that has to be considered and I just want full disclosure that's all I am asking for.

So the memo that I sent out only earlier this morning just kind of gives you the high level look.

Now granted we are six weeks away we still have a lot of work to do in that six week period the administration I just met with um three more departments today we have gone through about ten departments now.

You know you have heard the CFOs in the past including myself say about how bleak things look well I I will tell you by a factor of about two times this is one of the largest deficits so far in the in the preliminary stages that I have had to encounter and again it's it's it's the non-funded mandates that are driving this.

Okay.

So I I give you some examples right away.

At this point on the fourth uh Monday of um January I'm fourth Wednesday of January we got the Governor's budget and we got the DESI Foundation budget.

DESI Foundation budget $314 million.

We have to spend that on our education no ifs, ands or buts.

Has to be done.

We also got all of our assessments in from I don't know, five or six different uh state and counties uh organizations, including refuge disposal, for instance, Bristol Aggie, etc.

And finally, of course, we have our um our debt service, which is already known about well in advance of the budget season starting.

So by January 28th, even before we asked our first department to weigh in, we're looking at 28 million dollars of expenditure increases.

And that's that's locked, except for the changes that the governor's budget uh might might happen to the governor's budget with the House and the Senate and the conference committee changes over the next uh three or four months.

So $28 million is a locked-in expenditure.

The revenues to offset that, we have $8.8 million coming in.

Uh the education aid, Chevy Sheet Aid is $8 million.

I'm sorry, $18 million.

I said it's $18.8.

So they've increased uh the total spend in the school department is over $20 million, and they've given us $18 million.

We have a net shortage of about $3.4 this year, which isn't terribly bad.

They only gave us $800,000 in general government aid.

And again, this the biggest driver here is UGGA, unrestricted general government aid.

We've been pointing out now for a couple of years that it just doesn't keep pace with anything.

They raised the 2.5 percent this year.

This used to be the old state lottery distribution back in 2008, and then after uh 9C cuts in that around that time, and uh they they basically got rid of the the uh the lottery formula distribution, but they locked in all the communities in relation to what that formula was back in 2008.

So now we only get a we get a share of of UGGA that's that's um slightly only slightly higher than Fall Rivers.

Uh so we're just not and and I can compare that to other communities too.

We're just not keeping pace.

So anyway, with mandatory costs of $28 million, extra revenue of $18.8, you can see we're at $9.2 million deficit.

That means that uh there's no other place to fund that except for the property tax unless local government uh local receipts come through.

So I look at that next.

Departments are asking right now for $2.8 million on their so-called baseline budget.

That's the amount to keep existing services intact.

No cuts in services, um, but no additions, no enhancements, no uh no buildup of staff, no extra new initiatives.

It's $2.8 million on about $103 million.

So they've been able to keep their requests to about 2.2.6 or $2.7.

On top of that, we have a $3.3 million increase in non really non-discretionary type costs, and mostly health insurance, other forms of uh insurance.

So I got $9.2 million from the mandatory stuff, $2.8 million from departments, $3.3 million from other non-mandatory expenses, it's a $15.3 million deficit.

I'm going to be able to fund that with two pretty much two different sources.

Local receipts, right now they look flat, but as I say in the memo, what happens is the fourth quarter in particular tends to really uh it it's the big month, it's the big quarter rather to determine how well we'll do.

We get two, you typically get two different hotel tax receipts come in.

Uh we get two uh meals and uh uh uh mills taxes, we get um uh uh uh the motor vehicle excise tax, which is one of our two biggest sources of local income.

That's only going out in the street only recently, so we've yet to see the full collections there.

So I'm optimistic we'll get about two million dollars to fund that.

And new growth should be about two point six million dollars.

But all in all, I'm looking at, without new growth, I'm looking at a thirteen point three million dollar deficit.

Now we have to do some work here, as I said, over the next six weeks, but that's a pretty big gap.

By contrast, I never I'm never more than ten million dollars.

And the the kicker here is that this doesn't include any increase for any of the three collective bargaining units that we're currently negotiating with, police, fire, and ASME.

The only one that's settled is the ASME Unit B, which is the EMS.

Okay.

Um, based on the numbers that we've proposed so far to the three unions, we're gonna be looking at four to four point two million dollars in all likelihood of increases in 2027.

Now, the reason that's so big is you have to remember that ASMI and uh and fire would jump into the second year of this contract, because this contract is twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight.

So the first what tends to happen on these increases is say you have a five hundred thousand dollar increase.

That five hundred thousand dollars in year one is also payable in years two and three.

And years two, you have another five hundred thousand, which is also payable in year three, and finally in year three, you have another five hundred thousand.

So it's kind of like a step.

One step, two-step, three-step kind of thing.

We're on the second step in fire and ask me, we're on the third step in police.

We are going to be settling a contract and going into the final year of that three-year contract when we do f finally settle police.

So I say all that, just I have to keep all of this in mind.

So I've got a deficit right now that I have to contend with in the budget, and I'm looking at about four million dollars just past the budget season in all probability that we're going to have to ask for a supplemental for.

So I just ask you to consider all of this when you do weigh your decisions tonight.

Uh I don't know how the health of the of the uh retirement board is.

I I think with the the capable hands it's in, I'm I'm sure it's pretty good.

The 60 percent that Council Pereira had uh indicated, that's kind of like my own estimate.

We were at 54.5 percent two years ago.

Um my goal is to is to hopefully see this get to at least sixty percent by this valuation period, because we're on that ramp now.

So between now and twenty thirty-five, we're going up about six point two percent a year.

So I need to start seeing this pick up about two to three percentage points each year to tell me that we're in on track.

We don't have that right now, which is why I respectfully requested you maybe consider waiting until we get that report before you make your decision.

But uh again, I'm only that's only my recommendation.

I'm just here to try to give you as much information, background as I can.

Thank you.

Council Pereira, on your first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh not that it has anything to do with you, but I just since you brought it up, I do want to just say um uh I think it's atrocious that um police are in a third year of a contract that they don't even have yet.

I think that's that's horrible, horrible uh management.

Um it is nothing to do with you, but just wanted to state that for the record.

Uh again, and and even to be in year two of AFSME and uh um fire.

That's that's not that's not good management.

That's not it's not uh capable for us to make uh financial decisions.

It is difficult, and I can only imagine the position you are in as financial officer of the city uh trying to budget and take that into account when we are looking at stuff like this.

I will say that there have been talks all through this period, and you know the unions will come back with requests and the city will count it and vice versa.

And I get it.

It hasn't like it hasn't we haven't gone from no activity into this situation.

Understood.

Yeah, understood.

I just uh it needs to just be more proactive, I think, and just uh can needs to be nailed down quicker.

Um in regards to your letter, the one other aspect of income that I did not see here is new growth.

I mentioned that in my reason I didn't put it in the letter is because whether it is new growth or tax increase is coming out of the tax levy.

So my letter was kind of focused on all non-tax levy items.

So where I quote in my letter here, 13.3, that would have to theoretically be funded if we make no other adjustments, it would have to be funded from the tax levy.

$2.6 million of that would be from new growth, brand new customers, brand new taxpayers, doesn't affect any of the existing base.

Right.

So the the number that would be affecting the the raised amongst existing the stuff that would feel would be that final number, in this case 13.3, subtracting new growth.

Correct.

So let's say roughly 10 million.

10 million.

Okay.

You know, we've we've discussed it, Bob, and and I'll say it publicly here.

I um based on these numbers of of a million dollars, I think it's justifiable.

Um I know it is it's it's a lot to to put on, but uh I stand I stand by that um to the taxpayers of the city, many of whom are retirees.

Uh you know, a call increase, I think is it it's it's needed.

Um I I would I would basically uh um be an agreement to to basically if we were to take that sixteen thousand dollar cola, we would effectively be adding a million dollars to the tax rule.

That's correct.

And I as always I respect the council's decisions.

I just want to make sure that the owning now.

It is just the timing, you know.

So like if this was six weeks later, you'd see all this.

I just want to make sure you are on with that because regardless of what happens here tonight, that budget proposed budget will be hitting you on thereabouts somewhere around May 15th, and I don't want any surprises stage.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Bob.

I just I I just wanted that for the record, I I don't have that as an issue.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Council Pereira.

And also in the first.

Any additional questions?

Seeing Council Gomes, did you have a question?

Council Gomes?

Yes.

Just a little bit more on these mandates.

Sure, the uh $28 million that I had referred to.

So the biggest one is obviously education.

So the uh DESI comes up with the foundation budget coincidental with the governor's budget.

And it's formula-driven.

Part of the formula is based on the attendance at each grade from kindergarten to grade 12.

And then there's another formula based on needs.

I think it has to do with English as a as a second language.

It's a low income, that sort of thing.

It all goes into a giant.

How much is all of that, Bob?

So the grand total is going to be $314 million this year.

And it is up to the I was asking about this language.

I am sorry.

You were just telling us about the cost for a language class or whatever.

Oh, I don't know the specific individual.

It goes into a formula.

And DESI puts it out on their websites, and I can certainly get you that, so can so can the school department.

But they take your educ they take your enrollments by grade and they price out each student like a kindergartner is worth X thousand dollars a year.

And the 12th grader might be worth Y thousand dollars a year.

If they have other modifications such as low income, it's worth extra money.

So it's just a it's like a giant algorithm.

And uh they put in your enrollment data uh and uh your some of your demographic data and it comes out with the the calculation.

And there's certain minimums that it has to go up.

It's kind of a convoluted formula, it's all in Chapter 70.

Um but it c comes out you know every every year on the fourth Wednesday of uh of January.

So that's the biggest driver.

Uh the other things are pension assessments and Bristol Laggy, I mentioned new New Bedford refuse management.

You mentioned the insurance earlier.

Yes.

How much of an increase you see in there?

So the uh health insurance itself is going to go up uh by almost three million dollars.

Now, one of the reasons it is going up by that much is if you recall the council did make a cut last year of 750,000.

We price out health insurance on a zero base, uh zero budget, zero base budget method.

So we'll tell you the exact enrollments by individual and by family plan for each of the well, it is mostly an HMO plans.

I uh and then we will also do the same for Medicare uh and the um and medic's premiums as well.

So we lay it all out based on existing enrollment at the time.

And we we use the current existing rates that the city pays, the 75 percent portion, and then we bump it up.

I bumped it up by 10 percent each of the last two years, and that's been very close.

So we have a pretty good idea exactly what our insurance bill bill will be.

And the pre prior to uh 2024, we had to kind of guess what medical expenses were going to be.

But we pushed all that risk to the medical claims trust fund now.

So the medical claims trust fund takes our premiums and it pays out the medical insur providers, and the and the risk is is in that fund, and fund balance could go up some years, it could go down some years.

But we eliminated the risk from the general fund by doing that.

And we also complied with state law by doing that.

So I'm looking at about a three million dollar increase there.

That's most of that 3.3 that I quoted.

General liability insurance is going up in there as well.

Nobody believes that.

You're positive.

Um I'm positive that it's going up.

Everything is that's pretty easy for the money.

Positive of that that $3 million.

Oh, uh yeah.

So so our HR department has already priced that out.

Now what we do is we use the ex we use recent enrollments.

So those enrollments could change by June 30th, but not likely that much.

Um we run into vacancies from time to time and uh we have new hires.

They will change those numbers, but not by any significant degree.

We have something like um across the city and school, we have we have 2800 to 3200 lives under um under insurance.

And of course, school pays its own share directly.

But on the on the city side, I think we have about 11 or 1200.

One more question.

We talked about lottery money.

Yes.

What is the last um amount that the city received?

For the lottery distribution.

Um I mean I can tell you that we haven't gone up by much since 2008.

We uh I want to say, and I can and I can follow up later on, but it was approximately the 27, 28 million dollar range.

And this year, for on UGGA, we've got um I think we got 29 million in change.

So it took us it took us nearly what uh 15, 17 years just to get back to where we used to be.

Because the big thing was those nine seed cuts that the state enacted.

Um that that that knocked everybody down across the state from I think it went into effect in 2010.

And after that, the State has done nothing but build it up on uh on a not even a cola basis.

They don't even keep track with um the CPI W or the CPIU indexes.

So they they'll give you anything, they'll give you two, two and a half, three percent, whatever, whatever can be afforded out of the state budget.

So the Delta is pretty big.

We didn't update the charts this year yet, but had we still been under the same methodology, uh still got the same basis that we had in 2010 and had that basis just gone up by the CPIW, we would have had $43 million in UGGA last year.

We only collected $29 million.

And the same is true this year.

It only went up by I think it only went up by $300,000 this year.

So it's uh it's one of those situations where the State aid is just not keeping up with the realities of running a municipality, especially one the size of New Bedford.

Where do you see the reason for that?

And I'll stop asking questions.

Yeah, pretty much the same pressures on the state level that we all face on the on the municipal level, you know, rising costs and uh just you know not a huge appetite for tax increases.

And I'm sure that whereas I'm sitting here complaining about state aid, I am sure that my peers on the state level are probably complaining about Federal aid.

So it's just kind of uh just different layers of the same argument.

The clock keeps ticking.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Council Gomes.

In attendance, we have first Vice President, Councilor at Lodge, Shane Burgo.

Does anyone have any additional questions?

Without objection from the Chair.

Thank you.

So, Bob, one quick question.

Once you get the budget set, understanding that you know you are going to be in a tight situation.

Can you provide us if the mayor got his budget without a single cut?

It has happened, what the potential tax increase would be when we set the tax rate in December.

So, yes, so that's uh hypothetical question.

100% hypothetical.

No, I would be happy to provide that.

Um you will know what the tax levy is, and we'd have to make a few assumptions.

Um, but we could we could work up a uh preliminary preliminary we also don't know what the split will be either, but we could assume the same split as well.

Well, just to give an understanding of what it could tend to look like when we looking at the budget.

It's a good it's a fair question during the budget hearing process.

Um we will have five or six nights of that, and one of uh a counselor could request that, or I can just provide it at that time.

If you could provide I am going to ask now, so if you could provide it, then it would be part of the official first question then of the 27 budget season.

Thank you, Bob.

Any other questions?

Seeing none.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bob.

We need a motion on the floor.

I move to refer to the full city council adoption of a sixteen thousand dollar colour.

Second.

Made by Councillor Prairie, seconded by Councillor Roy.

Anyone on the question?

Seeing no one on the question, roll call vote.

It's a motion to refer to the full city council for approval, Councillor Abrew.

Yes.

Yes, Council Abrew, Council Baptiste?

Yes.

Yes, Council Baptiste, Council Burgo?

Yes.

Yes, Council Burgo, Council Carney?

Yes.

Yes, Council Carney, Council Triquet?

Yes.

Yes, Council Triquette, Councillor Gomes?

Yes.

Yes, Council Gomes, Council Lopes?

Yes, sir.

Yes, Council Lopes, Councillor Pemberton.

Yes, Council Pemberton, Council Pereira.

Here's Council Pereira or Council Roy.

Yes.

Passes 10 to 0.

Item passes 10 to 0.

Thank you everyone for being in attendance.

Item number three is a communication from Jan DeSilver, Chairperson of the Community Preservation Committee submitting the Community Preservation Committee fiscal year 26.

Project funding recommendations.

The matter was referred here on March 12th, 2026.

I left my CPA home.

Made by Council Abrew.

Oh good.

Second by Council Shriquette.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

We will keep the same format as last year.

We will get an overview from either Jan or Jessica or both.

And then we will vote on each project one at a time, and then at the end we'll do a roll-up for the final numerical number.

Thank you, Chairman Loops.

Hi, I'm back again.

So thank you for having us come up today and uh kind of explain the CPA process and go over our recommendations for FY26.

Thank you for having us.

And I also wanted to extend condolences to Clerk Lawrence on behalf of the entire CPC on the passing of your mom.

So I just wanted to make you aware that we are offer our condolences.

Okay, where do we start?

So this year, we initially had 28 projects that we received applications for in November.

We actually reviewed 20 of them because two withdrew from consideration.

That was the Congden Lucas.

They did not get the grant that the CPA funds would match.

So they received state money for that.

Six were not recommended forward.

1937 Union Street.

They had received 250,000 in FY25.

And we did not refer them because we're trying to make sure that affordable housing goes for all the projects.

And right now that project, it was 27,000 per unit, and another 20 250,000 would have made it over $50,000 per unit when our normal amount is kind of like $20,000 per unit.

So it's very expensive project.

Capitol Theater has two open grants.

The Green Door Claskey Common project was not referred because the applicant prioritized the Russell Howland House as their primary application.

The James Arnold Mansion, they changed their project lead and there were there was uncertainty to us about what their next steps were.

So we asked them to resubmit an application next year.

The New Bear New Bedford Superior Courthouse, we asked them to try and find funding from other places for their projects because we have given them quite a bit of funds and it is a um county courthouse and we do feel like they should ask other communities within the county.

And then uh Siemens Bethel, that project was actually maintenance, it included power washing, and we do focus on restoration and rehabilitation.

So those were the projects that we did not recommend.

Thirteen received full funding requests, seven received partial funding.

Housing, we had four projects that included a housing component.

And um three are one oh five Ashley Boulevard, Russell Howland House, and Habitat for Humanity.

We have one.

Oh we have one project that we're uh the friends, the former friends meeting house.

They asked for rehab and restoration of existing housing, and we um recommended them for an assessment.

And then we have our usual roofs.

So we always do a lot of roofs.

So whenever you raise them.

All right.

So project number one is 105 Ashley Boulevard redevelopment.

The funding amount is 100,000.

It is CPA category community housing, and it is in Ward 2.

Does anyone have any questions on 105 Ashley Boulevard?

Seeing none.

Well oh, Council Roy.

Good morning.

Good evening.

Oh my god, good evening.

It's been a long day.

Let me check my watch again down.

Totally understand.

Do you there's there are nine units going in into this property?

Um do you know how many of those will be um at the 60 percent of AMI?

All of them?

Okay.

All of them, right?

Oh.

Okay.

Yep.

Yeah, this was one of the more affordable projects that we have.

The units are t it's $22,000 per unit if they received this extra hundred thousand dollars.

Great, thank you.

Thank you, Council Roy.

Anyone else?

Seeing none, moving to project number two.

The Cape Verdean veteran artifacts and documentation.

The funding amount is 35,000.

CPA category is historic resources, and it benefits the entire city.

Anyone have any questions on the Cape Verdean veterans artifacts and documents?

Council Baptist on your first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Hi ladies, how are you doing today?

Good.

Hope everything's well.

Good.

Um I just wanted to know if that was the highest amount they asked for.

Yes, they were fully funded.

All right.

And and do they plan on coming back as well?

Yes, they do.

I know I know the histor uh the restoration of um Cape Verde and Veterans Artifacts is gonna be very important to a lot of people in the city, especially to the people with of Cape Verde and Heritage.

So um that's all I have to ask, and you know, hopefully everything goes well.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, Council Baptiste.

Council Burgo on your first.

Uh did they outline how many phases they plan on uh?

I think it's five.

It was about 150,000 for the whole project.

This phase will inform it.

So this particular phase they're bringing in the expert who will look at the archive, um, categorize, clean, um, put some of the the pieces into productive archival materials, and it will provide them with a timeline and a budget for moving forward.

So this is just the first phase.

So once they have that, I think they'll be able to address how many phases they will need to do and also how much they as volunteers can also handle at a time, you know, their capacity.

So I think that that will once they work with their consultant, that'll inform how many phases, if you will, that they'll put into place.

So because they have they have such a wide range of materials.

They have um uniforms and medals and documents and photographs and video.

It's extraordinary collection.

So they may have to get other consultants in who can do this work because to have that scope of work, um, it's very unusual to have one archivist who can do all of that.

And some of that may also need to have some conservation work.

So this is really their first step to inform what they need to do in future for future steps.

So it could be longer, it could be more than five years, it could be shorter.

It depends on their capacity and their ability to get the particular um vendors in place.

So this excuse me, this initial envelope assessment of 35,000 will help us.

Oh no, no, this is not a building.

It's not the it's not the same.

Oh sorry, yes, I'm using uh wrong terminology, I apologize.

It's their collection.

This initial $35,000, though, will help them uh assess whether or not the actual project will result in costing potentially 150,000, how many phases it will take.

Yes.

Yes, and you've had training.

They're going to be training their volunteers too, so hopefully they'll be able to do some of the work themselves.

Okay.

And we've had the conversation with them about the fact that if it does result in multiple phases that the CPA may not approve them potentially if it is five phases, third, four phases down the line, and what they would potentially have to do uh in terms of uh money sources if that is the case.

We haven't started that conversation yet, but I'm sure it will come up.

Perfect.

Okay, thank you.

If I could, counselor, I wouldn't remind the council that because of the amount that the CPC in New Bedford has every year, it is very unusual for them to do a a project like this that's going to have phases in one lump sum.

Um, both in buildings or conservation work, we have to kind of fund phases so that the capacity of the recipient organization, but also the amount that we can provide to these organizations so they can continue to move forward.

So it would probably not be unusual for the CPC to see this project four or five times before them.

Um so I don't think that the CPC has made a decision about that because every year is different, obviously, with what how the ask is versus what the projects are and the urgency of those for this particular project, there is some sense of urgency because of the condition of a number of the pieces.

So the CPC felt very strongly about fully funding this first phase to allow the Verdian vets to be able to um assess the collection with the consultant, get a little bit of training, and also to um put those materials into archival uh material boxes and such so that it will protect until they could be fully conserved.

Um it's just that first step.

It could be that they you you all may see them once a year for the next five or six years, but it'll probably be asks that are like this size.

I don't think that they're gonna come back and say we will we need 250,000 because I just don't think that as an organization they have that capacity, they don't have professional staff, they have volunteers, so I think they have to be realistic about what they can achieve and also not tie up funds that they know they can't spend in any given year.

I think they're very aware of that.

I've had a conversation with Mr.

Career about the whole process of this before he even applied, and he understands and and found a great consultant that I think is gonna help them move this project forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Burgo.

Anyone else have any questions on this project?

Seeing none.

Moving to project number three.

Former friends meeting house restoration, funding amount is $15,000.

Category is historic resources, and it's located in ward four.

Questions?

Council Abraham, you're first.

Thanks a bunch, Mr.

Chairman.

Good evening, ladies.

Um, just curious.

Um how does one find the historic window preservation specialist and what exactly do they do?

Can you explain that a little bit?

Oh boy, here we go.

Uh oh.

So there are organizations in Massachusetts like Preservation Mass that has a directory on all kinds of um services that are that can be given to that can be given to people who preserve houses.

Plus uh they might be able to talk to people at the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

There's a Massachusetts listserv, they can ask questions there.

There are people who do this kind of work.

There are people in the city of New Bedford who do this kind of work.

I was noticing, I mean, it's pretty straightforward.

It's not a lot, it's not a big ask I supported, just wondering, unlike every other vote by your committee, this one was not unanimous with seven to one.

Um any insight as to why the one individual voted against they speak as to why?

I'm just curious.

That's a fun question.

How do I answer that?

Do you want to try to answer it first?

I mean, we don't have to name names.

We wouldn't have to get the.

Sorry, counselor, not naming names.

Yeah, no, okay.

So this is a national historic landmark.

It is one of six in the city of New Bedford.

So as a city, we have an obligation to preserve these National Historic Landmarks.

The company that purchased this building, which is really working hard to do right by this building, understanding that it's a National Historic Landmark that it is in the abolition road district, is a for-profit organization.

I think this particular member felt that we should not give funding to a nonprofit organization, a for-profit organization.

However, the other members felt that because it is a National Historic Landmark, a window assessment would allow this organization to fulfill its obligation to this particular building.

Because it's a National Historic Landmark, they will have to go through MHC will have to review it, the Historical Commission.

So we're helping them take the step to get the information that they need in order to execute the project.

That being said does not mean that they are going to get funding recommendations in a pre in the next year.

Or come to us.

And I can now I can say a little bit more because yes, it's a for-profit organization, but we're saying because of the importance of the building itself, that it needs to be treated well.

And we do one of our um tenets for the CPA is that we always want to provide assessments money for everybody, no matter who they are, because you have to understand what the priorities are for your building before you can move forward to the next step.

And if we want to try and make sure that this these windows are replaced, restored, rehabbed, we don't want vinyl windows in the building.

So we want to make sure that the person has enough information to be able to do right by the building.

Okay.

I would also like to add, Counselor, that this particular organization has made a very significant investment in a building that has been neglected for many years.

And it is a very prominent building in the abolition road district.

So that was another reason why the CPC felt strongly about providing this because windows are part of the building envelope and the windows are failing because of the previous owners lack of care to the building.

So the CPC felt strongly because it was an LHD, because it was abolition road, because it was the former Friends Meeting House.

That there was all those reasons why that um over that tipped the scales versus that it's a for-profit, but it tipped the scales that we that the city, the CPC felt strongly that if this organization is putting that kind of um what's that called?

Um investment into the city, that the least that the CPC could do is to help provide them with the documentation that they needed because they have done other historic projects in the city, but this one is just a little bit different because it's a national historic landmark.

So there's a few more steps that they have to take, and this window assessment will inform those steps for the or for that organization so that they can go out.

And they have been looking for other funding sources to do the work once they know what they need to do.

That makes sense.

Thank you.

Thank you both.

Mr.

Chairman, that's all I have on this one.

I will yield to now.

Council Roy, on your first.

Yes, that's that's that's the four years.

It has been for years for more than thirty years, I'm sure.

Is it thirteen or six?

Yeah, it's like almost like a studio single room occupancy.

Fourteen.

Fourteen units.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilor Royal.

Anyone else?

Counselor.

Leo Shaketon, you're first.

Thank you.

Hey, good evening.

Um just curious.

Any chance we could maybe get in there and look at the tunnels?

There are no tunnels in New Bedford.

No tunnels under there?

No tunnels.

There's no tunnels.

There wouldn't, there's no need for tunnels in New Bedford.

Because people were, once they came to New Bedford, they were actually considered free.

So they weren't hiding from anyone.

Oh no, I know that, but I mean they're not going to be able to do that.

Are you being tongue-in-cheek?

I think they were used for moving like pirated goods and stuff.

Right.

Yeah.

Maybe.

There's some springs over there.

That's why it's Spring Street, but not for that.

Well, there actually is an underground river right along the side of Unitarian Church.

If you go into the Masonic Lodge and go down, there's a river in under there.

Yeah.

Anyway.

All right, I I yield.

We can talk about it.

Yep.

Thank you.

Seeing any seeing no further questions?

Moving on to project number four.

Gallery X system modernization of the roof.

The requested amount is 55,000.

It is a historic resource, and it's located in ward four.

Anyone on this question?

Councilor Baptiste on your first.

Thank you.

Is this the um only monies that they're coming for, or are they doing more restorations to their building?

They've already received money from us.

They did the roof, they did exterior painting and restoration.

Uh that's not the budget.

Okay.

Their total.

This budget is 88,500, but they received money from us in previous years.

I can't tell you exactly how much, but gallery X has received 176,000.

It was two separate grants, both were for um exterior preservation work.

So this is for a roof, which is you all know uh CPC and roofs.

It's building envelope is the first it's kind of critical.

They um the budget is 88,000.

They're asking for 55, and for a small nonprofit to come up with 33,000, it's a very significant um portion of the project budget for them.

That's actually amazing.

So um no, I'm I'm happy to see that.

I didn't know how much, you know, I know they've come before, but I didn't know if they had more work to do, you know.

We want to see some of these buildings down here make sure that they keep their aesthetics and you know stay around.

So this is important.

Thank you.

Yeah, we never mind seeing anybody more than one time because they sometimes don't even have the capacity to do a bigger project.

Thank you, Council Baptiste.

Anyone else on their first?

Seeing none?

Moving on to project number five.

Russell Howland House funding amount is 288,835.

Categories community housing, and it's located in ward four.

Council Pereira on your first.

Thank you.

Um this might not be the best example, but my question is they I know they requested I think 300,000, and the funding was like 12,000 less.

So it's not that the what was recommended was 12,000 less or so.

So it's not a huge difference.

But what does the CPC utilize to gauge because you you want the project to be completed, right?

So you don't want those money, you know, that's committed being not wasted, but not utilized because they can't complete the project.

I don't see that being a problem in this because it's a small amount.

But what is that thought process across the board in like reducing some of the requests so you could you could fund more projects, spread it out more, but making sure that they still get done.

Is that something how does that work?

Well, usually as we interview the applicants, we ask them if they can move forward even if we do not fully fund them.

And most of them assure us that they can.

And then we also look at the smaller projects and just fully fund them just to make sure that there's you know the money gets out to people.

Some of the larger projects, especially something like this, they can probably uh apply for um affordable housing tax credits.

I don't know if they're applying for historical tax credits and all of that will give them a little bit extra money.

So they have other options to get money where some people have none.

Fair enough, yeah.

Uh absolutely, absolutely.

And then the leverage on this is incredible too on this project in particular.

The other thing that the CPC does is that um you see this very small booklet, the applications when they are together.

This is my binder.

Exactly.

This is only the applications and a little bit of the backup material.

It is thousands of pages depending on the construction project.

Um in that case, the CPC looks at the budgets and looks at any any contingency that might be built in.

They take the and if they can um fund everything but the contingency, that sometimes will inform the number that they come up with or close to the number, so that we keep our fingers crossed that they don't open up something and it's a big problem, but we've given them enough that they can move forward, they can find other sources in the span of doing the work.

So in this case, like $12,000 on a $14 million project.

So they should be able to find that money.

So thank you uh very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Welcome, Council Pereira.

Anyone else on the first?

Council Baptiste on your first.

Thank you.

Um I have no problem with housing projects.

Um I want to see you know development in the area, especially if it's going to be affordable.

Um I think the only one thing I have with this project is there's a lot of pushback from the neighbors on how high the apartment's gonna be, where it's gonna be pushed back against people's houses, how garbage cans are gonna be placed in certain places and the parking problem that we have at one car per unit with 16 to 20 units in a small neighborhood without parking already.

So like I said, I'm all for building houses and and putting putting apartments in in the city, but you know, I I still worry about how changing the aesthetic and you know, you know, with with the zoning changes now, you can build a little bit higher, which takes away from other people that have been living there for 25 years and it takes their whole neighborhood away and it takes their whole view and and some of the things that they have to deal with.

So those are the only things I worry about with projects like this.

You know, especially when you look at you know all the funding that's coming in here, 10 out of 20 projects are from Ward 4.

You know, and we and we have significant growth in the ward where they're trying to pack in apartments and buildings in small spaces and taking up you know the aesthetic of neighborhoods and and um no parking, high buildings, poor planning.

So when the new Bedford way.

Yeah, well, in Green Door came before us.

They are not the first.

The first project uh proponent was Wind River, who Green Door is purchasing the the building from.

Yeah, and that was terrible.

That was terrible.

I agree with you, counselor, 100%.

Not even live in the neighborhood.

Um Green Door is part of the neighborhood.

He lives there in that larger area, and he is he came to the city.

He lived there.

He lives in Matapoy's.

There will be two ADA units.

There'll be two that are for AV, so um audio visual.

So if someone's deaf, the lights will flash.

If they're blind, there'll be different accommodations.

They're also partnering with the Veterans Transition House.

One of the units will be specifically for a veteran and his or her family.

So he did talk about parking.

I believe you all questioned him about that.

That's the beauty about having like planning and historic and housing and concom and all on the CPC is because he's gone before a lot of them, so they already know the the backstory.

So I know that they questioned him about the parking, how sensitive he was, trash cans, things like that, how he was going to impact the neighborhood because they knew this was a project that had been a little controversial, what it was first person.

And even when he put it back on, I'm I'm just speaking because I still get I still get calls over the from multiple neighbors and the area that's don't that are just worried about the the basically the two things, how high the building is gonna be in the parking in the area, which takes away a lot in the area.

And you know, they're they're worried they're not worried about you know the building going in there because they want to see it occupied, but how they plan to build up around and near people's dwellings that have been there already is kind of it's just unfair.

And I know the guy I know everybody knows the neighborhoods, but everybody is coming in here to make money.

Like let's be a hundred percent real.

Like nobody would care if they couldn't make money out here.

And this is the place where they want to make money, so everybody's gonna give you the biggest BS role that they can give you any time.

So I yield with that.

Thank you, Council Barton.

If I could, Chairman.

Um I would just like to uh also say, Councilor Batice, that um this particular funding is to specifically address the roof.

Because this is again another historic building that is a very visually prominent building that we don't want to lose.

Um this will specifically address the roof.

The CPC can't say what you can and can't do.

That is not under their purview, but what they can do is protect the building by addressing the roof with providing this funding to the work can be done immediately so that as it's hashed out what the final project will look at, the roof, the building itself will not incur any more damage.

So that's part of the reason why the CPC said let's do this is because it's a roof and it's a very historically significant building, and it's everybody else's roles to figure out how to do that.

How everything else is I don't I don't mean to be above it.

I just worry about things that you know my constituents I I work for work for them.

So I have to listen to what they say and and advocate for them.

So that's my thing.

And no, nothing against him.

Like I'm making this as a general statement with everybody coming into the city and trying to take over some historic neighborhoods by pushing people out.

But anyway, thank you for the counselor.

Councillor Royan, you're first.

Um hi again.

Uh good evening.

Um I it's just 16 units of low to moderate income and four market rate units.

Do you can you can do you know about um the makeup of those 16 low to moderate income units?

Are there would they be more moderate income units, more low income units?

So I don't have it right off the bat.

16 of 16th will be lower moderate income.

Um and I stand corrected.

It was two fully accessible ADAs and two AV equipped units, four priority veteran units and services from BTH, not one.

Let me see if I wrote that down.

Did I write that down?

Oh, here we go.

12 will be below 60 AMI.

Okay, and four will be below 80 percent AMI.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Council Roy.

Anyone else in the first?

Seeing none.

Moving on to project number six.

Habitat for humanity, affordable community housing build.

The funding amount is 150,000.

The CPA category is community housing, and it's located in ward four.

Anyone on the Council Baptist, then Councilor Abreu.

Thank you.

Um is this just for the the Pleasant Street lot?

Because I know they bought one on Pleasant Street and one on Merrimack Street, and I don't know where the other one is.

I don't know if it's still in that.

Two on Merrimack.

Two on Merrimack and one on Pleasant.

Did they put in for any other funds with them?

No, just this is just the one house on Pleasant Street.

I'm not even sure they purchased the other.

Do they purchase the okay?

I think they purchased all three.

They're gonna do one house a year.

All right, all right, all right.

Uh and and it's good too because they're depleted lots, um, housing needed in that area, and it's affordable for homeowners, and you know, they buy it back if they have to sell it, and then they try to sell it back to um people that can, you know, low income and you know amazing amazing stuff.

So this is these are projects that we like.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Baptist.

Councilor Abreu, on your first.

Thank you.

Um, ladies, um just wondering, I'm looking and reading the notes here.

How will the 60 percent AMI buyer be selected?

Like, do you know?

Do they explain that?

Will there be a local preference?

Well, they had uh we asked them that, and what they do is a family selection before the before the project starts.

And the pan, I mean there was an article in the standard time stay, so I guess they're already taking people's names so they can get together a list of people who they're gonna interview for this project.

And it's from this the entire area.

It's a lot, it's a it's a lottery too.

So it's they have the family selection, people put in an application, they have to prove their income and that they're eligible under the 60 percent AMI, and then they're put into a lottery and then are selected, and then they have to have um so many hours of sweat equity that they put into the home.

Very typical model that uh Habitat for Humanity does across the commonwealth, I think across the nation.

I'm not sure if that's the 60 percent is the standard, but um, I think believe I believe in this area that is a standard, and that's the same model that they'll use for the other two lots over the next two years.

Okay.

I can tell you it's three hundred hours of sweat equity.

Okay.

All right, good.

Um how do you think this aligns with um the city's housing initiatives as far as priority housing as identified by the needs of the city?

Do you think this kind of is right in the wheelhouse of where we want to be?

Well, I would say yes, because you need all different types of housing.

You not you need more than apartments, you need houses, you need duplexes, triplexes, single family homes.

Everybody needs to have the opportunity to have a house in whatever format they want to have a house.

Okay, very good.

And if you refer to the Bill New Bedford uh report that was put out, is that two years ago now, maybe?

Uh maybe a year.

I don't know if they all run together at this point.

Um two things that are the priority is um affordable housing at all income levels, not just you know, market rate, and also increasing home ownership opportunities, which this one is the very first homeownership opportunity the CPC has seen.

Um all of the other affordable housing opportunities that they have provided funding for have all been apartments.

So this is the first opportunity for a family to build that generational wealth by um being selected for this home ownership opportunity.

So that was the CPC I have to say was very excited about this one because it was a box we hadn't checked yet because there hadn't ever been an application like this before.

So and it's also activating um it'll eventually activate those three vacant lots, which I have to say they pulled a boat, um construction material.

Well what else do you say they pulled out?

There was a lot in those weeds.

Let's just put it that way.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll yield for now.

Thank you, Council Abreu.

Anyone else in the first?

Seeing none, moving on to project number seven.

The historic born building roof replacement, eight uh the funding amount is 150,000.

Historic resources is the category, and it's located in ward four.

Anyone on the question?

Seeing none?

Moving on to project number eight.

Historical documents, Fort Tabor, Fort Rodman Military Museum.

The funding amount is $8,950.

Category is historic, and it benefits the entire city.

Questions?

Seeing none, moving on to project number nine.

The New Bedford Art Museum window restoration.

Funding amount is $215,000.

CPA category is historic resources, and it's located in ward four.

Anyone on the question?

Seeing none.

Moving on to project number 10.

I like this.

Oh.

Council Gomes?

Thank you.

25,000 to take your phone.

I'm sorry.

They're doing all the windows.

Well, they asked, what did they ask for?

250?

They asked for 250.

They said it would take care of all the windows.

We asked them if they would be able to accept partial funding.

They said yes.

So as far as we know, they're supposed to be able to do all the windows.

And to and when it comes to all the windows, Councilor, to be to be clear, it's the very tall ones that arch like that that are on the Williams side and pleasant side.

So specifically those windows that they'll be addressing from first floor to second floor on the front and the side facide.

The thing is is that time does pass in this building and in this community.

I can remember when the art museum opens and it's sealed tight.

Yeah.

On the Rosemary Tanny, you you're shaking your head saying yes, you know.

Yeah, those are that 30 years has gone by or so and it's has started deteriorate.

We can't see it, you know.

So they tried looking at it and can't really see it, but something's happening there.

Absolutely.

And um the city has done a good job of helping to slow that deterioration.

That's why.

Um, but they uh it's now to the point where it needs to be professionally restored.

What it'll do is also allow the art museum to expand into the space on the second floor, which will allow more gallery, more meeting space to bring maybe some of the library collection over, and it'll um provide more climate control for the the museum.

Right now it doesn't.

Those windows just don't.

So they had a window assessment completed um January.

It was during yeah, it was during the presentations, and they provide it to us.

So it was a historic window um consultant who came in and did the the work and provided them with the numbers.

So this number is not exactly what they need, but it's pretty close.

They will have to do a little fundraising.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Believe me, we asked them a lot of questions too.

No, just wanted to make sure it covered all the windows.

That's what we asked.

That's to start with first just because they're the larger surface area.

And then and they also are um both on the first floor and the second floor.

So and then the smaller windows, I think will be the next space.

It's one of those projects that you don't want to do half now, half later.

We accomplish nothing.

It has to be done all.

Yes, correct.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Council Gomes.

Seeing no additional questions, moving on to project number 10.

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center Archives phase four.

Funding amount is $35,000.

Category is historic resources, and it benefits the entire city of New Bedford.

Questions?

Seeing none.

We'll move on to project 11.

Library Hall Play Bill Conservation Phase 2.

Funding amount is 45,000.

Category is historic resources, and it benefits the city as a whole.

Questions?

Seeing none.

Project 12.

Dais Field.

The funding amount is $62,556.

Category is recreation, and it's ward three.

Council Gomes on your first?

Will this complete everything over at that field with this amount of money that we're helping to put these lights in security?

According to their cost estimate, yes.

Okay, so they won't be coming back for any more.

And I I think uh the investment that the city has put into this field and the reconstruction and everything, um, deserves to be looked over and for us to keep it in the best condition that we possibly can.

So I'm going to support this project and I support them cameras being put up there.

Thank you.

Thank you for the uh committee's choice to support this project.

Thank you, Councillor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Gomes.

Anyone else on their first?

Seeing none.

Moving on to project number 13, which is the Riverside Park Playground Replacement Park Grant match for 245,000.

Categories recreation.

Ward two is the location.

Questions?

Council Pemberton on your first?

Thanks for being here.

I just want to just uh say I I support this as well.

It's in my area.

Uh and you know it's a long time coming for that part.

I know they had that splash pack the splash pack is it's been down a few times.

So they can definitely use a new one.

Uh as far as I know we're putting all this this money to it.

Is there any like maintenance contracts or anything that they maintain once the plague a lot is put in?

That's up to the parked parks and beaches to maintain it.

We just provide the funding to help bring it up to the point where it's maintainable.

So that's part of the city budget.

Okay.

Thanks.

Thank you.

I I yell, thank you.

Thank you, Council Pemberton.

Anyone else on there first?

Chair, if I could.

Uh to follow up on the councillor's question.

Uh in their application, it will be maintained by Parks and Rack as well as DPI.

Um, and it'll be part of their maintenance timeline schedule.

Um the uh splash pad and the um the playground will move upland because right now it floods.

And it'll be a brand new uh everything will be brand new.

So which it's it's been that was the original uh equipment put in when the uh like the park opened back in uh Fred Calis' time, maybe so yeah.

All right.

Good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you, Council Pemberton.

Anyone else on the first?

Seeing none.

Moving on to project number 14, which is the Roach Jones Duff House Access for All.

The funding amount is 42,000.

Category is historic, and it's located in Ward 4.

Anyone on the question?

Seeing none, we will move on to project 15.

The Ron Polo film collection.

The funding amount is 40,000.

The category is historic resources, and it benefits the city as a whole.

Questions.

Councillor Pemberton and then um Pereira.

I'll try that again.

Councillor Roy, sorry.

Um who's Ron Polo?

Sorry.

I I'm I don't know really.

That's okay.

He's very young.

He's he's he's Mark, he's Marco's brother.

Now I feel old.

Because I um so he was a Standard Times photographer from 1985 to 1999, which is how I know his name, because I read the Standard Times every day since fifth grade.

Um so he left a collection to Spinner.

It's approximately 100,005 millimeter negatives and slides as well as some photos.

Um so what they're doing is they're cleaning, they're scanning, they're archiving, they're cataloging to make these public accessible.

So it's a and unfortunately, this is a long time ago now.

Um, 1985.

So what this is is on historic, so that we have access to this, which is part of our history.

That's fine.

Thanks.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Councillor Roy.

I will add one thing which they mentioned during their presentation, which is Mr.

Polo is still alive.

And so they are going to take advantage of this opportunity to have him work with the collection so they can get even further information and knowledge and things like that from the actual maker of the collection.

I guess so.

Council Pereira on your first.

Thank you.

Just from my um knowledge, because I'm uh just not conc concerned, but um I have a question.

Soft cost, that's just everything.

Yes, because there's no construction or like that.

So soft cost in this case is for them to complete this preservation.

Right.

It's it's our cival materials, it's um staff time, it's um digitization.

Cool.

So it's yeah, there's no construction involved and this is half of their anticipated cost for doing that.

So it's a 50 percent um asked.

But this completes like the digitization.

It should complete everything unless um he comes up with more stuff in his attic, which you know just like to support.

But just in general, my point is like this isn't like a phase.

What they've received, yes, this should cover everything.

Very good.

From what we understand from Spinner.

Awesome.

Very good.

Thank you.

Um, Council Priority, Councilor Abel on your first.

Thank you, Chairman.

Uh, just one quick question.

Um, so the restoration of these prints of these negatives would be made to be made publicly available by publicly available.

What does that mean exactly?

Does it mean on the web?

It's free, or by publicly, as it means it's in his books and he sells them for profit.

Like what does that mean?

Well, usually Spinner takes all of their portfolio and puts it on digital commonwealth, and that's a free database.

Good, okay.

That's what I wanted to know.

Okay.

Yeah.

Because when I when I see available for the public, I'm thinking free for the public domain for the public good.

So I just wanted to clarify that for the record.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome, Councillor Abreu.

Anyone else on the question?

Seeing none.

Counselor.

Oh, Councilor.

Go.

I just want to go back to Ron for a minute.

We say that Ron is still alive.

Is this Ron Roloff?

Had the nickname from the Standard Times.

I don't know.

They say he's ninety-something years old.

He's he's still alive.

He's still alive.

No one can answer that.

Council Lawrence and I thought he was he passed away.

We were talking about it.

We thought he passed away.

J Jay from Spinner said that he is in his nineties and he is still alive.

And uh God bless you.

If it is who I'm thinking it is, uh Ron w worked for the Standard Times for a long time.

Yeah, it is then.

Yeah, it is Tim.

With the mustache, the black hair.

Yeah.

It's Ron.

Okay.

Um this huh?

Hey man, there's a wealthy history up here.

Don't mess with me, Counselor.

He has all the institutional knowledge.

The institutional knowledge that that man has and the amount of film and pictures that he has taken of this entire city and everybody.

Yep.

That's that is amazing.

And I'm just amazed that he's still alive in his collection is something that um I think everyone should get a look at back.

And I this was at the top of my list for us to try and fund because once you lose those human resources, you cannot get them back.

No, you can't.

No, you can't.

I think that when he had heard about the Milton Sylvia collection that you all have funded being digitized, he was like, oh, that's what I can do with my stuff.

So I think that's how they made the connection with Spinner.

So it's it's pretty um amazing that we're not gonna lose this information.

Um there's various organizations across the city who are doing this kind of work, you know, like the Fishing Heritage Center, the Whaling Museum, the Vet Verde and Vets, you know.

This there's a lot of that are doing this work that are capturing our history, which is so important because otherwise it's gonna end up in a dumpster.

I think it's fantastic.

And for c through you, Counselor Chairman to Councillor Roy, I am from the nineties and uh loving it.

We were debating if Council Ray was born before nineteen ninety-nine, you know.

Yeah.

Uh yeah.

You get your butt home, young man.

Seeing no additional questions or insults to Councilor Roy.

Sorry, ladies.

No, no, don't be sorry.

No, no.

No, I uh it you know Project number sixteen is the strand theater exterior.

The funding amount is one hundred thousand dollars.

It's historic resources of the category, and it's located in ward two.

Anyone on the question?

Council Pepperton on your first.

Yeah.

I just I just wanted to this should be the the last one, right?

And after this, they should be like ready to go and open.

Shouldn't they?

Um we always think it's gonna be people's last one, and then something happens.

So they should finish the exterior.

Yeah, this should finish the exterior.

Okay.

And they have to be gone the in they have begun the interior work with other funding sources.

Right.

Um the work that is being got done on the interior, some of it is CPA eligible, but I think a lot of it they're covering through other funding sources.

So I don't know that they will come back, but funding has been drying up that people have received and they've had to come to us, unfortunately.

So um yeah, that's why the whaling museums before you tonight, their federal grant was would just disappear last summer, or else this project would have already been done in the fall and they would not have come to us.

So um can I say that for sure?

I think the strand is their um planning on not potentially coming back in the fall.

But you open a wall, you find asbestos, you find rot.

You know, you never know.

So I I never say never, but I think their plan is to use these other funding sources because the CPC has done a lot for their exterior preservation.

All right.

Okay, no.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, Council Pempton.

Anyone else on the first?

Seeing none.

Project number 17 is the Taylor School Playground.

The funding amount is 200,000.

Category is recreation, and it's located in ward six.

Anyone on the question?

Seeing none, moving on to project number 18, which is the Verde and Vet Hall Restoration funding amount of 160,000.

Category is historic resources, and it is located in ward four.

Questions?

Seeing none?

Oh, this is an ongoing project.

Um we provided them money for a roof.

We provided them money for the exterior assessment, and this work is coming directly out of the exterior assessment where we gave them the twelve thousand dollars to do that.

So this is the next phase, which is why we like to do assessments, because then they can actually figure out what the phasing of the work is going to be.

Yes, and here comes that kid from the 90s and the 80s, Mr.

Roy.

The Vets Hall was a beacon within the community and provided so much to the community.

There wouldn't be nothing better than seeing that building restore it to its fullest, not only to help the organization itself, as you know, we've lost a lot of some of them veteran halls, but this being the Cape Verde and one I I I want to say one of the oldest halls in the country or whatever.

Um you're preserving history and preserving a good uh beacon within the community.

Well, I'll say that I'm very excited because you will all be amazed because they are actually going to open up the windows and the gothic windows will be shown again.

So it's gonna look totally different than it looks now.

That's a long time.

This is an example of the CPC.

When they first came to us um for the roof, that was an emergency.

We the roof was done city council.

You all approved it, thankfully, and they were able to do that.

And then they built capacity, they found they came back for the envelope assessment, and um they have a great group of people over there that are working towards moving forward with the the identified needs.

And this um particular phase is going to address HVAC insulation structural windows, and they're also leveraging 103,000 dollars from EverSource.

So they're asking for that 150, but there's 103 behind it.

So it's one of the examples of the CPC providing that seed money to help these organizations gain their capacity so that they can move forward and get be more comfortable with some of these because it can be very daunting for volunteers to be like, let's do this building.

Um, but they are moving forward with the help of studio sustain, and it's it's gonna be really it's beautiful, and it's gonna reduce their energy costs, it's gonna allow them to use that second floor.

Um it so it's not too hot, not too cold, and it's also going to make the exterior of the building look that much better in regular.

Excuse me, with some of the um stuff that we've done privately.

We don't tutor Hans, we don't um put it on Facebook, but my cousin and and my cousin David Gomes, who is the regional manager of Lowe's.

Um I originally gone to him asking him for a portion of money to help the vets or whatever.

And it was very interesting, and I hope he wouldn't be mad at me, and I don't think he would be is to publicly say that he went back to his organization where every regional store said take the money and give it to the vets hall in that because of that, knowing the significance that they not only bring the new flooring that we put in downstairs, it brought in that kitchen stuff, the stoves and all that, because we wanted to see the vets prosper.

So again, we don't tutor Hans and tell everybody what we do, but this all fits in with what has been going on there that will is going to make that building vital again to not only be uh some good to for the community, but them themselves to profit in in in a little way to make money, not only on food, anything else they can, and as you you said, using that hall upstairs which is a beautiful building, a beautiful room, and that's gonna be fantastic.

And I thank you very much for the board's um uh uh continuing help on this one because this one will all be very proud of when I think it's completed, and to hear that those windows that I haven't seen those windows since the kid.

I think Mr.

Chairman.

Look, you know, uh I was giving him little.

I just gotta I'm I just got to tease the council, I'm sorry.

Council Baptist, on your first.

Thank you.

Um this is this is good to see because this came a long way.

I remember the first time they came, you know, they got the roof and then they had to go back for the envelope, and there was a big discussion around finding out what what the issues were, and I think that that was the proper way to do it because I think that they found more problems going forward and they got to actually um use this grant money and and leverage different things so that they can get actually what they need done done and they keep on moving forward doing that.

Um I just wanted to make it clear that people should know that the veterans, the Verdian Vets Hall and the committee that is doing the restoration for the for the veterans is two separate committees as well.

You know, because when people see the the Verde and Vets, they think that everything is all connected and don't understand the different entities up in there.

So I don't want people to think that they're getting double the money in just putting their name on two things because they're two completely separate entities.

But um thank you for everything that you've done, and like the counselor from Clara Street said, you know, everybody putting into our community, and I think that that's how we continue to build community in the city.

So thank you so much.

I yield.

Thank you.

You're welcome, Councilor Baptiste.

Anyone else in there first?

Seeing none, moving on to project number 19, which is the William H.

Kearney Lodge.

Funding amount is 155,000.

Category is historic resources, and it's located in ward four.

Anyone on the question?

Council Baptist on your first.

Thank you.

Um from the money that they got last year, are they building from what they got last year on to this year's funding?

What are they looking for for this year's funding that they this is exterior work?

This is exterior work.

The last time they got money for a roof.

The roof and they got some other money for interiors.

Interior stuff, right?

Um and this is exterior, the handicapped ramp.

Andicapped bathrooms.

So that's what that's going to cover.

And will that and they're actually moving the entrance from cottage street to Mill Street.

Mill Street, right?

Yeah.

So is that going to complete what they need to for that project?

Bless you.

That's eligible.

That's eligible for us.

That's eligible for us.

So but they've also been doing fundraising.

And they uh this is another example of an organization that came and has built capacity.

Sorry.

So this is another example of an organization that came before you all that has built capacity over the last few years and has re-energized not only their members but also brought in new members.

So I know this particular hall has a lot of uh memories for people in this chamber as well as in our community, and that I think is energized people to see the work.

You can't really see on the outside yet.

Majority of it's been other than the roof, um, and some other buttoning up that they've done, but the inside I get the progress photos because part of their funding is ARPA, part of it's CPA, and it's moving along, and it's it's going to be beautiful.

So this is all exterior work for the most part, though.

Some of it they did um uh ask if it could go towards ADA, the ADA bathrooms.

I think it was more just uh just in case they didn't get the other funding, so it was all ADA access was what they were asking for.

So but we'll see.

I they're still fundraising.

All right, thank you.

And I I will say this is another project where they received some matching from EverSource, you know, where they got some HVAC stuff mechanicals, so they're getting insulation from Eversource, so they're they're getting a match.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Council Baptiste.

Anyone else in the first?

Seeing none.

Item number 20 is the YWCA historical stone wall, 125,000 category is historic resources, and it's located in ward four.

Any questions on the item?

Council Roy on your first.

Uh what what's what's the what's the historic nature of the stonewall?

Can you talk a little bit about the stone wall was constructed at the time the house was constructed, so it's from dates back to the early 1800s.

It is a contributing feature of the house.

The house it has a preservation restriction with the Massachusetts Historical Commission, and it is identified in that in that restriction.

Plus it's also identified in the County Street National Register District District.

And it's it's a safety issue right now.

It's it could be right now, it's a safety issue with nativity prep because they're afraid it's gonna fall into the uh what the parking for nativity project.

Yeah, it's parking and part of their outdoor recreation space for the students, but it also is adjacent to the YW's outdoor space as well.

So they've had to fence off the areas um in all three of those areas.

Um because it's that defining feature, it it has to be restored according to MHC.

So they they are also doing additional fundraising and and reaching out to other grantors to see if they can get other funding as well.

And this is actually just partial funding because the budget is 188,000 or 180,000.

So 183?

I'm looking for it.

Seeing none.

Thank you, Council Roy.

We will take each one.

Can I get a motion to approve project number one, which is for 100,000?

We'll do voiceful.

Point of order.

We're going to take them individually.

Individually, yes, Councilor Gomes.

So it was made by Council Gomes, seconded by Councilor Roy.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Motion to adopt project two.

Project number two made by Councilor Pereira, seconded by Council Burgo.

All those in favor, opposed, the ayes have it.

Motion adopt project three.

Made by Council Pereira, seconded by Council Choquett.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Project number four made by Councilor Abrew.

Second.

Second by Council Pereira.

All those in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

The ayes have it.

Motion to adopt project five.

Made by Council Pereira.

Second by Council Burgo.

All those in favor?

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Project number six, made by Council Abreu.

Second by Council Burgo.

All those in favor, opposed.

Aye.

The ayes have it.

Project number nine.

Same cross.

Project seven.

We're on seven.

Seven.

Seven.

This is like an auction.

We were we were going.

Come on, yes.

I cannot write the process.

Aye.

Number seven was Councilor Burgo.

Second by Council Roy.

All those in favor?

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Same course of action.

Project number eight is Council Carney.

Second by Council Burgo.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

I'm going to make my check mark a little slower.

Project number nine.

Made by Councilor Abrew.

Second by Council Pepperton.

All those in favor.

The ayes have it.

Project number ten.

Is made by Councillor Carney.

Second by Councilor Burgo.

All those in favor.

Aye.

The ayes have it.

Project number eleven.

Same course of action.

Made by Council Roy.

Second by Council Carney.

All those in favor?

Aye.

The ayes have it.

Project number twelve.

Made by Council Pereira.

Second by Council Burgo.

All those in favor.

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Project number thirteen.

Same course of action.

Who is that?

Council Pepperton on the first.

Council Leo Choquette on the second.

All those in favor?

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Project number four.

We got a slow.

Hold on.

Yeah, I want my turn.

14.

Council Pereira.

Council Gomes on made by Council Gomes.

Second by Councilor Abreu.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Project number 50.

Same course of action.

Made by Councilor Gomes.

Second.

Second by Councilor Carney.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Same course.

Same coach of action.

Was made by Council Baptiste.

Second by you want to roll call?

Okay.

Roll call vote is requested.

It was made by Council Baptiste.

Second by Council Burgo.

Roll call vote.

Roll call on the project.

Council Abreu?

Yes, Council Abel.

Council Baptiste?

Yes.

Yes, I'm sorry?

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Baptiste, Council Burgo?

Yes.

Yes, Council Burgo, Councilor Carney.

Yes.

Yes, Council Carney, Council Chilquette.

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Turquette, Councillor Gomes?

Yes.

Yes, Council Gomes, Councillor Loebs.

Yes.

Yes, Council Lopes, Council Pemberton.

Yes.

Yes, Council Pemberton, Councillor Pereira.

Yes.

Yes, Council Pereira, Council Roy.

Yes.

Yes.

That passes 10 to 0.

Passes 10 to 0.

Project number 17 is the Taylor School Playground.

Made by Councilor Abraham.

Second.

Second by Council Pereira.

All those in favor?

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Project number 18 is the verding vet hall.

Second.

Made by Councilor Choquette.

Seconded by Council Burgo.

Roll call vote was requested.

Verding vets, Councilor Abrew.

Yes, Council Abreu, Council Baptist.

Yes.

Yes, Council Baptist, Council Burgo.

Yes, Council Burgo, Council Carney.

Yes.

Yes, Council Carney, Council Chilquette.

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Choquette, Councillor Gomes.

Yes, Council Gomes, Council Hopes.

Yes, Council Lopes, Councillor Pemberton.

Yes.

Yes, Council Pemberton, Council Pereira?

Yes.

Yes, Council Pereira, Council Roy.

Yes.

Yes.

That passes 10 to 0.

Item passes 10 to 0.

Number 19 is the William Kearney Lodge.

Made by Council Gomes.

Second by Council Choquette.

All those in favor?

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Last project is the YWCA.

Same course of action.

Made by Council Kearney.

Second by Councilor Baptiste.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The ayes have it.

Jesus Christ.

Jasso Jan, do you have the the total amount?

Or do I need to take a reset?

2 million million.

227, 341.

Okay.

So hold on, hold on.

2 million.

227, 341 dollars.

Yeah.

2273.

2 million 227.

2227, 341.

Yep.

222 7.

341.

2 million.

Two million.

227.

227, 341 dollars.

341.

Correct.

Motion to make a motion.

Hold on.

Council Burgo was making the motion.

Council Burgo.

Motion to refer out the full uh project funding recommendation of the amount of two million two hundred twenty-seven thousand three hundred forty-one dollars.

Second.

Made by Councilor Burgo.

Second by Council Baptiste.

Roll call vote.

Referral for approval of two million two hundred and twenty-seven thousand three hundred and forty-one dollars.

Councilor Abreu.

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Avery, Council Baptiste.

Yes.

Yes, Council Baptiste, Councilor Burgo.

Yes.

Yes, Council Burgo, Council Carney.

Yes.

Yes, Council Carney, Council Choquette.

Yes.

Yes, Councillor Choquette, Councillor Gomes.

Yes.

Yes, Council Gomes, Council Lopes.

Yes.

Yes, Council Lopes, Councillor Pemberton.

Yes.

Yes, Council Permitton, Council Pereira.

Yes.

Yes, Council Pereira, Council Roy.

Yes.

Yes.

That passes 10 to 0.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn was made by Council Royce.

Second by Council Abreu.

We are adjourned at the same time.

Can I just say thank you?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

On the question, 846.