All right, good evening, everyone.

I'm Jake Wilson, he him pronouns, Councilor at large, and your finance committee chair.

It's 6.01 p.m.

And I'd like to call to order the Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 meeting of the Finance Committee of the Centerville City Council.

First, it's my pleasure to read you all this language.

It lets us do this all here on Zoom.

Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025.

This meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation.

We will post an audio video recording and a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Centerville website and local cable access government channels.

Clerk, could you please call the role to establish quorum?

Yep, this is roll call.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Present.

Councillor Burnley.

Present.

Council Klingon.

Councilor Scott.

All right, I do see Councillor Klingon.

Counselor Klingon, are you there?

Oh, I said present.

I know I had my my speaker, the other thing muted.

No worries, we got you recorded.

All right, Counselor Scott.

Chair Wilson.

Present.

All right, with four here, we do have quorum.

All right.

And Councilor Scott did let me know.

Uh that uh well, Councilor Scott might be joining us at some point tonight.

We will see.

Um we are going to take up our 16 item agenda uh in the order posted.

So, Clerk, can we go ahead?

Uh, we're gonna take up our first agenda item, ID number 25-1711 approval of the minutes of the finance committee meeting of November 10th, 2025 on the minutes.

Not seeing any discussion, the items laid on the table to recommend approval with a single vote at the end of tonight's meeting.

Uh, that's gonna bring us to our second agenda item, ID number 25-141.

The director of infrastructure and asset management conveying the draft combined sewer overflow plan.

I see we have director Rich Raish from Infrastructure and Asset Management with us.

Uh, Director Ray should presented about this previously to the council.

Uh, director, I'm I'm guessing you don't have anything to add.

Uh subsequent to that discussion, we're here for a discussion if people have questions about it.

That is correct, Chair.

Unless you want me to present the 65 auxiliary slides.

Um, I'm just here to answer questions.

Don't threaten me with a good time.

Um thank you for that.

All right, colleagues.

Any questions, any discussion on this item before us?

Councilor Mabaugh.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

President.

No, Mr.

Chair.

Um, yeah, no, this is on this item, and then also on my own good friend Director Rach's memo.

And uh, I'm glad that you're here, Director Rage.

I just want to say, you know, um I appreciate you and I value you as a friend as a neighbour and just your expertise.

I wanted to say um my comment during the meet the last meeting on this item was an oversight on my part.

I had met with the bunch of advocates that were all in my head, you know, at the time.

And uh, so that's it wasn't like very it wasn't intentional.

So I want to you know clear that out.

Uh, and I appreciate you know, uh you know, I just wanted to have this opportunity to clear that up, and I wanted to reiterate my respect for the work that you're doing, you know, for our residents and our red payers.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Councilman.

All right, yeah, and we need we need to keep it focused on the item here in front of us, but I appreciate that, Councilor Mabaugh.

Uh, any questions about the that uh about that presentation or uh big picture here about the um the CSO plan.

Uh Director I'll ask one any movement, anything changed since we last heard from you in that in that council meeting.

Uh from your point of view.

Uh uh, Chair, good question.

Um, after I presented about a week after I presented, the MWRA staff presented to their board of directors.

Um, you know, it as you might recall.

This is more of an informal presentation to get feedback from the council.

There isn't a formal action that the council had to take on this uh item.

The MWRE board of directors do actually have to vote to allow staff to submit their recommendation.

Uh there has been some discussion at the board of directors, uh, some questions on the plan.

Uh the uh Charles Watershed Association and Mystic River Watershed Association have been very vocal in their uh desire for a higher level of control, a more costly level of control.

Uh and so the the board is considering that uh it is uh they've delayed their vote until December, um, which will give the tech team very little time to turn around and finalize this.

So it it may be the case that we need to uh file an extension for maybe maybe a month.

Uh if DEP will allow us to do that.

Um, but otherwise the the tech team is still working away uh on their uh report writing right now.

Thanks, Director.

And and just for the public, if we were to ultimately have to go pursue that that higher threshold, uh, what was the delta in terms of the the overall cost for for going to that level?

So the the delta can be significant.

Um it's one of the things that I want to highlight is that we managed to negotiate a cost share for what that recommended plan was.

And and um we have not negotiated a cost share for that at higher level.

Um, so you know, for for what what we've you know, what's on the on the table right now is is as I I said about a you know threefold increase to our sewer rates.

Uh if we go to the higher level of control, it could be anywhere from four to seven times uh the the um increase for our rates, subject to negotiation of that price, um, or or price share.

Uh so actually, I think the the um council resolution that uh councillor Ewan Campen put forward that the council passed a couple weeks ago.

Uh make it clear Somerville's negotiating stance on that.

So I I thank the council for that direction.

Uh and we'll we'll see where it goes.

But uh it certainly at a minimum would uh increase our rates substantially.

All right, I appreciate that.

Colleagues, any other discussion on this council mobile.

Oh, yeah, no, thank you, Chair.

I just also just want to reiterate that yeah, there's no way that you know most of this is gonna like really, you know, pass with this current council as the as it stands.

So I'm glad that the director like this conversation.

I just even, you know, I wish you could let the director rest this even in this.

I mean, we can be having this conversation right now because they're already going back to look back into this, you know, like this dov night in a very holistic way.

So we are looking forward to having you know the conversation, you know, in the months ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councillor.

Counselor Klingon.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Through you, you know, I just continue to be uh distressed, disappointed, dismayed at how we got to this point as a state.

Um, and you know, I supported Council Ewan Campins uh resolution.

And I hope that something can be worked out at the state level.

Um, you know, I haven't gone back in the sort of the looking glass of the past to see you know what was going on in the 80s or the 70s where we got all these winter hill building and all these cut all these corners and all this austerity.

Um now here we are having to pick up the tab for something that we don't we can't afford as a municipality.

Uh and so this is a plan.

It is, you know, it is a plan, and I appreciate you for bringing this forward.

Uh, but something's gonna give here.

So hopefully we can we can come to some change can be made at some point, but but thank you for that.

All right.

Last call for any discussion on this one.

And again, we don't have to vote on anything.

This is sent here for discussion.

Um, so there's no vote that needs to be taken in this committee.

All right, not see anything else.

So um, we're gonna mark this one as work completed because we had that discussion.

Uh director, don't go anywhere there.

I think you're are you around for the next one as well?

Uh, I do believe director bean is here to speak to that, but I can also assist director bean.

All right.

Um yes, I'm not sure why you know you will mark this as well completely when you know that we're gonna be revisiting this stuff, you know, in a month or next year, you know.

So I I you don't want the director to come and submit do another 90-minute presentation.

Is it's uh I think it is it is uh best cause is to keep it in committee until we kind of like reassess everything that the director is mentioning before we kind of let Maque as well complete because we'll still need to get another presentation.

This is anything anything sent for discussion though expires automatically at the end of the year, so that uh there's no real point in keeping it in.

It would just time out and and disappear.

So uh it was sent to discuss this.

We did that discussion.

I appreciate what you're saying about uh you know, subsequent discussion, but I mean, we did you know, it was sent here for a purpose.

We did that work, and uh it's appropriate to market work completed.

Cool.

Um moving on to our fourth.

Let's see, that was the third thing.

Yeah, uh, no, wait, that was our second thing.

Third agenda item, ID number 25-1680.

Uh, that is uh Mayor requesting the appropriation of 47,090 from the water enterprise fund retained earnings account to the water enterprise fund debt service account to fund debt service for a Massachusetts water resource authority loan.

Uh I believe we said we heard Director Bean was on hand for this.

Good evening.

Uh Director Bean.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

We can't see what we'll settle for that.

You can't see me.

Well, okay, let me see if uh well it's not working.

Well, there we go.

There we go.

All right.

All right.

So I actually wasn't expecting to speak on this, but this particular loan was executed in mid-June after the budget was submitted.

So this is an appropriation from retained earnings, which is the equivalent of free cash for an enterprise fund to pay uh the first year debt service on this loan.

All right, thanks for that explanation.

Uh colleagues, discussion.

Councilor MA.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, good to see you, Dr.

Bean.

Our most MVP person in the city.

I guess the things I'm curious is um like so.

This when you talked about it, because when I saw this first, I'm I'm glad you mentioned I was very curious about where it's coming from.

But is this like just for clarification?

Is this a loan from the city to MWRA?

You know, to cover a certain, you know, some aspect of ongoing CY separation project or maybe normal operation of water supply and sea waste processing.

Yeah, to the chair, I can I can answer that.

Um, this is uh one of our uh normal annual projects that we do to replace pipelines.

Uh and the the mechanism that we use to do that is actually uh a loan, a zero interest loan uh program that the MWRA offers its member communities because they've got um a very good bond rating uh and and stores of money, they're able to offer this to the member communities rather than have the member communities have to go out commercially uh at their own, usually at a at a higher um interest rate.

Um so we we leverage that money um pretty much to the maximum extent that we can um because each community gets an allocated amount.

So you know, depending upon where we are in that program, we'll either use this or commercially um borrow uh for our annual pipeline.

So this and as director bean says, you know, this is something we we typically budget um the to the repayment of but the uh the paperwork from MWRA came late this year, and we weren't able to capture it during uh budget uh season.

So we're just making a correction there.

Gotcha, that makes sense.

Thank you for the explanation.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh any other discussion on this makes sense to me.

So uh not seeing any further discussion.

We're gonna lay this on the table to recommend approval.

And that's gonna bring us to our fourth agenda item, ID number 25-1679.

Mayor requesting the appropriation of 403,980 from the unreserved fund balance, free cash to the debt service interest on notes bands account for payment of interest for the 90 Washington Street property acquisition.

Uh, is this you again, Director Bean?

I'm guessing.

Yes, Mr.

Chair.

Um, this is the interest on the first year um bond anticipation note, which was floated to secure the 90 Washington Street property.

Uh the pay this will go to the debt service fund on the general fund payment is due in February.

And we were warned this would happen.

Any discussion from the from the committee?

I don't see any probably because we were warned this would happen.

Council Mabaugh.

Thank you, Chair.

I guess one of the just curious about like you know, what is like, you know, uh maybe the outstanding, you know, like principle, like or what the interest rate is.

Like, do we know that?

Yeah, yes, yes.

First of all, there's no principle because we're borrowing short term.

So the way it works, so we can borrow short term for two years, and then we're forced to borrow long term.

So if the property is not sold, um to a developer or what have you through the RFP process after two years, then we will have to pay more principal and interest.

So the interest on this bond anticipation, though, is 2.8%.

So it's the first year.

This next year, at this time, um next in February of 2027, we'll borrow again on a short-term basis.

And hopefully it'll be about the same amount of money, depending upon the interest rates.

We get to the third year, then it's gonna be probably over a million dollars in in debt service because you'll have to pay down a principal and interest.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Bin.

Thanks, counselor.

Counselor Klingon.

So on that, just to confirm, Director Bean just said um, so we won't make another payment until February of 2027.

Uh that will be the second year payment.

So this is first payment is due in February 2026.

Gotcha 2027.

Yep.

Got it.

All right, thank you.

All right.

Any initial discussion.

All right, the items laid on the table.

Recommend approval.

ID number 25-1698.

The mayor requesting the appropriation of 100,000 from the community benefits stabilization fund to the armory revolving fund to prepare the armory for onboarding and support of tenants.

I see we have Director Rachel Ned Carney from Economic Development with us.

Director Ned Carney.

Uh good evening, counselors.

I'm here tonight with uh Greg Jenkins, the director of the arts council as well.

And we are here um uh to present this item.

We are looking to move 100,000 uh from community benefits to the armory stabilization fund.

And what that will allow us to do is really align the um all of our stewardship support for the building with the onboarding of new tenants.

We are anticipating right now that we are getting this RFP for new tenants out at the beginning of December.

Um we've already announced that it'll be out for three months, and so we'll be starting our selection process in March with the hope that you know, mid-next year we're filling that building with new tenants.

We want to be able to bring on a staff person who will focus on the armory uh tenant management and property management.

That has been a big part of the master plan that you all have seen.

Um the anticipation is that that position will be paid for out of the armory stabilization, uh the armory revolving fund.

Um, basically paid for out of the rents collected from tenants.

There is a little bit of a lag though, because we want that person on board in time to help onboard those tenants.

So this is really about the startup costs.

So the main part of this this 100,000 is $50,000 to bring that person on in time for them to be in position to support those tenants in their onboarding.

The second part of this is to address uh issues with the front door.

Uh, this has been a long-standing challenge for the tenants if you've had a chance to speak with any of them around how does a member of the public enter the building um and find them.

And so this $30,000 is what we understand from DPW's research is what it will take to be able to really modernize that call box system and set up the tenants for success.

So then when they get there again on day one, they're really in position to um start off right away with a great experience.

Part three of this appropriation is $20,000 to support all the general custodial and maintenance support that we think is going to be necessary to again that go through that startup phase.

We're anticipating that our utility costs are probably going to go up when we aren't just keeping the pipes from freezing and our vacant spaces.

Um we want to be able to really make sure that we're in a good position again for this to be as seamless as possible for that those new tenants that are going to come in next year.

So that's the ask that we have before you tonight, and happy to answer any questions.

All right, thanks for that, Director.

Uh Council Mabaugh, your first up.

Uh thank you, uh, Mr.

Chair, and thank you, Dr.

Nakani, for explaining that stuff.

I guess where I'm coming, you know, from with this, I'm just trying to learn a lot because this is like a new thing that we just created.

And this is like the first time that we are not drawing funds from the new community stabilization funds.

I just want to understand make sure that I understand what is going on so that it doesn't become like a precedent now where you know, I don't know if money, you know, in the fund will, you know, like will be available for city agencies to just plug in to like the operation, take money, you know, to kind of like do like some maybe routine program or ongoing programs.

And so conven like the traditional way by which, you know, it's most of those programs are funded by rev that by the general like the regular sources of revenue.

So um so would the appropriation of money be limited for projects and programs that are designed to mitigate or offset impacts of like development.

Like I'm just this we just created this thing.

I just want to be clear.

Like, if this is like how money now will be spent without really going through like the normal appropriation that it's like, okay, this like we have money in the budget, they come, you know, and take it, but this is not like a new setup.

Like, how is that gonna really work?

Is it like is it how things are not gonna be unfolding, or this is just like a one-off?

Like, how does it that does that make sense?

If I if I may, I can repeat it if it doesn't make sense, but I'm sure directors understand exactly what I'm trying to add.

This is this is a whole new setup.

I want to understand what's going on.

Absolutely.

Uh, three, Mr.

Chair, if I can.

Um this is really anticipated to be a one-time thing.

The armory is expected to be financially self-sustaining.

That is our ultimate goal.

Um, we are really looking at a gap financing challenge with the armory.

The armory revolving fund is expected to um cover these expenses.

Uh, we have built out a five-year performer.

Um, we're anticipating that we are going to be able to fill this building with some fantastic community tenants um and support them through this.

Why we looked to the community, this um this particular fund is that this is really uh this is not an ongoing program.

This is not something that is going to be funded off the general fund going forward.

This is going to be the armory revolving fund funded um activities in the future.

And so this really is just this one-time startup uh time when we're looking for that support.

And so we look to the community benefits as perhaps this could be that bridge um to this success that we are hoping for for the armory.

Hope that answered the question.

Yeah.

Like you still got the floor.

Yeah, no, thank you, Chair.

I'm still kind of like processing my thought.

Yeah, no, but I uh I appreciate that.

Um, yeah, because we got the MRA, like you mentioned, like for about five million dollars.

I think that was like, you know, and we really work hard to ensure that it it will be yeah, so self-sustaining, like you mentioned.

Uh okay.

This is not gonna be like this away.

Okay, yeah.

I I think you answer the first part, you know.

Let me just mow that over and then why I listen in to my colleagues.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councillor.

Councilor Brennley, you're next up.

Thank you.

And through the chair, excuse me for not having my camera on.

Uh my typical uh computer issues.

Uh, if I turned it on right now, I will be upside down.

And I do not wish to be upside down.

Um through you, uh, just want to dissect a bit what we heard and get as much clarity as possible uh before uh making decision on my vote.

Um through you to Director Nat Carney.

Uh when we use we're just speaking about tenants, are you talking about commercial tenants or residential tenants or both?

The armory master plan lays up very specifically.

We are looking for artist commercial tenants.

The uh experience that we've had is that the city is not in a good position to be a landlord to residential tenants as a direct landlord.

There's there's a lot in landlord tenant relationship that we are just not well equipped for.

Um, and so what we are looking for is commercial tenants.

They do need to meet the ACE definition of artists.

There's a limited range of categories in that.

Again, that is all been announced, and it's on the um armory webpage.

Thank you for the clarification.

Um pretty sure I got that, uh, but I do I might have to ask one more question about artists, commercial tenants as opposed to like simply just artist residential.

Um so just to be clear, uh, under this plan, no one would be uh living in the armory.

Correct.

And that was established at least six months ago.

Yes.

Um through you, uh, I certainly agree through you, the chair.

Uh I certainly agree with the assessment that the city is not uh prepared the appropriate uh capacity or infrastructure to serve as a good landlord to this point.

Uh I think the there's proof of that when you actually speak to the tenants of the armory, uh, who have been a number of whom reach out to me about this particular item um and wondering what it was for, um wondering what it could potentially go toward.

Uh this is a building that the city owns that uh for the last few years has had uh a number of facility needs, uh custodial needs, part of which this item uh seeks to um amend in a sense.

Uh but I'm curious also how much communication has the count the arts council had with uh the current tenants of the armory in terms of uh how these funds would be deployed.

If I can answer that, I I did have this conversation.

Go ahead.

Or through the chair.

No, go ahead, Jen.

Go ahead.

I had the counsel conversation with counselor see yesterday as well.

We have not communicated with this appropriation to the tenants because we frankly aren't sure yet that we are we have it in hand, so we don't want to get hopes up that we are uh making changes that we are not confident that we are able to make at this point.

And I I would also like to add and make sure everyone understands is that you know, for the past several years, um, you know, the armory we've we have lost tenants uh in the armory that weren't necessarily architects, uh, you know, gem owners.

Um so we approximately have four tenants in the building, and some of them you know are paying rent, and some of them aren't paying full rent, point blank.

And so the revenue coming in into the revolving account, we have enough to cover some basic expenses.

But what we're asking for in the request in a way is to kind of up and revamp what our you know, what our needs are in terms of expenses for this building.

So related to the door, related to extra, hopefully extra custodial support, and then also uh to bring somebody on in the next you know four or five months as a staff person, which is all of what those services, you know, everyone's claiming that they, you know, what we all want to provide.

We just have a cash flow situation.

So once we start getting tenants in there, um, then hopefully, you know, the the rents will stabilize and we won't necessarily be coming, you know, coming back to you or coming to anyone, and that the the rents coming in will help provide core services and core support for this building.

So this in a way is a stop gap measure to get us through this threshold of the next six months.

Uh thank you for that.

And that does uh I think help give some context to um, particularly in relation to hiring new staff, uh, what work would be happening from coming from this item.

Um again through the chair.

Uh I'm curious if you have a sense of uh how this uh person would be uh setting up the tiers for rent, like are these gonna be flat rates across the the board, or they differ for different tenants.

Um I know that they're certainly through uh RFQ uh process, there are like certain criteria that needs to be set uh for the city.

Um but I'm curious about what the process is envisioned to be, and also if there is room for public input about uh I guess I suppose that how best the public would um you know engage with this process moving forward.

I should I'll leave it at that.

to be set uh for the city um but i'm curious about uh what the process is envisioned to be and also if there is room for public uh input about uh against i suppose uh how best the public would um you know engage with this process moving forward i should i'll leave it at that do you want you want me to chat um i mean through the the through the chair um so we have the master plan which has been you know um posted and discussed and promulgated throughout the community and one of the things that we've learned that the community said that they wanted is that they wanted to have a multi-tenant building um we're also looking at in terms of developing the RFP the idea of to develop the RFP is to look at the spaces and to look at what some of the current rents are and to try to understand are some of these rents too high or some of these rents too low based on again um from our own experience of knowing that you know rents at at Vernon Street are at $15 a square foot and joy street are at 22 looking at varying rents around the city and understanding what the community you know has been paying or can absorb and then looking at what our expenses are and how much can the city subsidize subsidizes in the right word if we look at a programmatic thing whether it's a pool or whether it's a you know a field or something the city provides resources to these activities.

So we've looked at all of these expenses and then looked at essentially at the the rents or at the spaces and thought that you know rents in the basement it's not very high end space that they should be set at this rate rents on the first floor this rates rents there and then trying to find a mix of ultimately providing a rate structure a rent structure that makes sense uh both to support the arts community but at the same time brings in enough money to create stabilization for that building and that's what you'll what everyone will see when we start to issue this RFP um is that we have a a rate structure uh we have a pro forma as as uh director Narcari mentioned looking at a five year plan as to like how much money we need to come in to cover custodial services uh common area cleaning um you know uh trash removal go down the list of all the services and I think the whole discussion that's happened throughout this process is at what level we can't place an entire burden um operating this building onto the tenants of this building because we would probably be back in the same situation we were five years ago four years ago when we took when we took the building by imminent domain is because the arts need that type of support and services.

So what you're gonna find when we issue this RFP I hope if you dive into it and you can come back to us is that you'll hopefully see a balanced approach to where how do we support the arts community and or the larger cultural community at the same time create stabilization for the building but yet have you know a very active um five year plan where we're we're developing stability and and fulfilling the mission of you know through the master plan and that's what it's about.

So specifically to your question the rates for those spaces will be different based on the floors and based on the the the you know in a way the amenities that those spaces provide at the same time point blank will say it we're not charging the large performance hall space there's no way anybody could afford if we jacked up that space so we're trying to create levels of balance between what's an appropriate rate space or rate rent for larger spaces as opposed to the smaller spaces and then there's differentiation between the basement the first floor and the second floor and the third floor hopefully that answers a lot of questions.

Yeah I think that's it's really helpful um and I I'll I'll ask just one more question before yielding to my colleagues um do the chair and I appreciate also the again the the emphasis on the need for this to be uh cash neutral for lack of a better term um you know I I appreciate that you corrected yourself uh for legal reasons or around subsidize uh but I'll just say for the record I'm not against government subsidizing the arts I think it is really really actually incumbent upon us to do so um at the Summerville has done so for many years and I think should continue to do so uh and uh on this council I've advocated for uh half of the the three percent community impact fee uh that should be bringing in about 400 000 a year to be going to the arts uh in the form of grants uh and uh funds that support put cash in the hands of local artists in particular um and frankly to that point uh we are subsidizing this space currently and we for the I don't want to say foreseeable future but for a bit we will be uh so just uh as a last point you you mentioned a five year the five year plan um is that the timeline that we're hoping to get this uh cash neutral uh by or is is there an established longer term timeline because uh and I asked just for clarity because that is some that is a space in which we as municipality I I believe have maybe a bit more flexibility than you

Uh so just uh as a last point, you you mentioned a five-year, the five-year plan.

Um, is that the timeline that we're hoping to get this uh cash neutral uh by or is there an established longer term timeline?

Because uh, and I asked just for clarity because that is some that is a space in which we as municipality, I I believe have maybe a bit more flexibility than you know, other operators in this space, uh, where we can talk about what it would mean to rent out spaces at this price along this longer term period uh versus another uh and that's gonna have uh pretty uh in my opinion, pretty significant impacts on who's able to rent out spaces uh in which spaces.

So yeah, thank you.

Um through the chair, I mean I can address it very quickly at the first year.

I think that we're um we project that we're bringing in approximately 200,000 in rents that will essentially go, I think around 180 of that is would be going towards expenses, and then the following year, um we are we are going to increase some of the rates, but I think they're between three and four percent that hopefully will match what we anticipate could be a three to four percent increase in expenses.

So it it creates a parallel structure.

Uh Director Bean, we've all discussed this too.

We want to try to create maybe a small um what you would call free cash flow of around 20 to 30,000.

But but I back to your point that it should be fairly cash neutral after the first full year, full year of teneting.

So it would not necessarily happen this spring, this summer, but probably this you know, June of 2027.

Yeah, if I may um bring it back to this appropriation.

This appropriation is really about those startup costs.

Um we um we've been trying to balance three things with the rents.

One, having it be affordable to the artists and the arts organizations that we want to have tenancy in this building, having it um cover costs, uh all the operating costs, and then as available, um build a little bit of a reserve.

And that's what Greg was talking about.

We're trying to build a just a little bit of a reserve.

What happens if the elevator breaks?

What happens if we have a leak somewhere?

We need to fix a pothole.

Um that's above and beyond our typical spend for our municipal buildings.

There are some things about the building that need investment.

Um we've we know that.

And so the idea is to build a little bit of a reserve that we can use to leverage for grants um and other things.

So that's been the balancing act that we've been trying to play with this pro forma.

Um, and again, what we do know is that the first year there's this bit of a gap, and we want to be able to again offer the tenants the experience that we know that they would like to see the city offer as as a landlord.

All right.

Uh counselor, that's everything you had, Councilor Brindley.

Roll set.

All right.

Thank you for that.

Counselor Clinton, you're up next.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Through you, yeah, just speaking on the specific item.

Um, happy support this.

I do share some concerns about I'm sure that it falls within the bounds of uh community benefits um agreement monies uh to the community.

Um I do you know, worry about rating it too much for lots of different purposes.

Um for something that we like a thing that we got ourselves into, such as the armory.

Um so, you know, this is only 100,000, unlike you're asking for a million dollars.

I am can you know I do I am concerned about operating costs going forward.

I did look at the the business plan on the armory uh master plan and um you know I have I have faith that we can rate this ship and uh but as far as you know bringing this position on board and and and um moving us forward towards tenancy and and towards cash neutral uh situation, happy to support this.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'll just say I appreciate the discussion we've had here.

I mean, obviously the armory we all know is one of those things that has been uh kind of a black box to a lot of people and definitely a source of uh source of a lot of discussion, a lot of anxiety, uh a lot of uncertainty.

So I it's helpful here in a clear plan sketched out like that.

Uh it definitely helps me um you know wrap my mind around what we're doing here.

Uh to Councillor Klingon's point, you know, I this we just just authorized right the creation of this community benefits stabilization fund.

You know, and obviously here we are.

Uh we we tapped into it that basically no sooner had we created than we tapped into it uh with those appropriations the back on Thursday, Thursday.

Uh and here we are coming back again.

I guess yeah, it'll be an interesting question of like how often do we go into that?

Um, you know, we'll have to, I guess we'll be we'll be keeping an eye on that.

Uh but yeah, I appreciate this discussion.

Um yeah, I feel much better about this uh having having gotten all those details.

So any additional discussion on this one.

Councilor Mabaugh.

No, Mr.

Chair.

I just wanted to say I appreciate your comment.

You know, it's uh you make made me feel like really, you know.

I thought I was my editoria was just a little too much.

Nobody was getting me.

I'm screaming on the rooftop and trying to boom.

But so I appreciate that.

We're all on the same page trying to figure out this thing out together.

So you know, thank you.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

All right, any additional discussion?

Uh clerk, could you please call the role on a motion to recommend approval?

I'll make the motion so you can call the roll now, please.

Perfect.

Um recommending approval for item number five, ID 25-1698.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Hi.

Counselor Clangan.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Chair Wilson.

Yes.

All right.

With that, that is four votes in favor.

All right.

Thank you all for for being here for the question.

That discussion.

Yep.

Thank you for the question.

All right.

That is going to bring us to our sixth agenda item, item number 25-1620.

The mayor request your approval of a transfer of $15,500 from various Somerset ordinary maintenance accounts to the SummerStats salaries and wages temporary account to fund additional temporary employee time.

See, we have Director Anna Gartzman with us from Somerstadt.

Director, please tell us about this request.

Of course.

Good evening, everyone.

Um, so we had funded some OM line items in the budget process.

Um, we were hoping to take advantage of some professional development opportunities this year, but with the combination of working to release the happiness survey in a timely manner while one of our staff was happily out having a baby.

We aren't getting to them.

And so instead, we would like to use that money to clear some of our workload backlog.

So we're hoping that the temporary staffing will help us with capacity towards that goal this year, and we can revisit the OM funding next time.

All right.

Thank you for that explanation.

Uh colleagues, any discussion on this.

All right.

I don't see anything.

So we're gonna lay this on the table to recommend approval.

Director, thank you so much.

Bring us to our seventh agenda item.

ID number 25-1624.

The mayor requesting approval transfer of 729 from the communications department community outreach account to the Centerville High School SHS salaries account for SHS staff participation in the new pre-K8 school building planning focus group session.

Um does uh IGA want to speak to this.

We have legislative liaison Kimberly Hutter with us from IGA.

Did you want to speak to this one?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh wanted to make a quick note that there is uh a small error in this uh item.

So we will be resubmitting it.

This should be coming from and the the account numbers in this item in the body are correct, but it's been mislabeled.

It is not the Summerville High School salaries account, it's just a summerville public schools um high school account.

This uh the participants in this focus group were from all of the different school uh several different schools throughout the um school district.

So uh staff will submit that corrected item.

So I wanted to note that for the committee, but all of the substance of the item will remain the same.

Um I am happy to answer any questions about this on behalf of the comms team.

Um, and uh yeah, happy to answer those.

So, colleagues and the public in general.

Uh, what this means is right, we're gonna have this discussion about this item.

It's ultimately gonna be marked as withdrawn.

There will be a replacement item submitted at the next regular meeting on Tuesday, Tuesday.

Um, and at which point we'll have had that discussion.

We should feel comfortable moving ahead with uh immediate consideration of that item since the only difference will be a corrected account name.

So uh any discussion on this request given the explanation we just heard.

means is right we're gonna have this discussion about this item it's ultimately gonna be marked as withdrawn there will be a replacement item submitted at the next regular meeting on Tuesday Tuesday um and at which point we'll have had that discussion we should feel comfortable moving ahead with uh immediate consideration of that item since the only difference will be a corrected account name so uh any discussion on this request given the explanation we just heard all right not seeing anything so we're gonna lay this one that actually no we're marking this one is withdrawn right thank you yes chair yes caught myself in time uh and then again there will be a replacement item submitted uh for next Tuesday's regular meeting so uh clerk we're gonna mark that item is withdrawn got it moving on to contracts and agreements uh item number eight ID number 25-1649 the mayor requesting approval of a pedestrian access easement and grant of maintenance license for 495 Columbia Street I see we have attorney Kathy Lester Salkert with us uh from the law department attorney Salkert take it away good evening Mr.

Chair thank you yes this is a um public access easement for pedestrian access along uh Columbia Street and Webster Ave and also a corresponding maintenance license for the portion of the um bike lane is what it really is that's in the actually in the public way but it's on it's a protected curb protected bike lane which you wouldn't know is in the public way because it looks like it is on the the private property because of the way it's built um and that's one characteristic of this that's a little bit different because of the building being right up to the property line and then the sidewalk um being partly on the property line and partly in the public way so there's an access easement over the portion of the sidewalk that's on private property and a maintenance license for everything that is in the public way.

Property owner is responsible for maintaining the entire thing as always with our easements and licenses I have a I have a photo of it if you want to see what it looks like I can share a screen but it's it's it's a little bit unique because right now in this in this particular photo too it's not striped as a bike lane so you wouldn't really know but um I don't think I submitted the photo with the item but um I didn't understand it until I looked at it it just looks like a sidewalk with some pavement next to it which is it's five it's um not our typical bike lane where it would be in the road and it'll be striped and it have bollards and all of that it's the the re the project approvals required curb protected so as because it's protected by that curb and it's removed somewhat removed from where the sidewalk is they created the best bike path that they could with the building that was being put on that location yeah clerk did you want to give uh attorney Salkert uh the the power to do a shared screen for all the visual learners out there curious what this looks like all right you should be all set to screen share okay oops wrong share long share button hang on just gonna practice this ahead of time oh wait I'm in the wrong that's why okay here we go one second share so can everybody see that yeah so here's the here's the bike lane here's the curb there's a street so I I'm told by Justin Schreiber that this is marked better now there's actually some markings on here so that people know that it's a bike lane and it's supposed to connect with bike lanes you know before this property and after this property according to the project approvals and then the sidewalks over here can see my cursor we can okay very helpful thanks for sharing that sure I thought it would help since this one's a little bit unique.

All right everyone get a look at that before we uh for attorney salkert seeds screen sharing back to the clerk all right uh attorney salk anything else to add to this before we throw it over to the committee for discussion um not that I can think of Mr.

Chair very helpful thank you for that uh colleagues discussion counselor Mr.

It is, although he, although Councilor Mamba did remind me of something I wanted to mention is that unlike most bike lanes, we have we have asked the developer and the developer has agreed to maintain that one because it's more on their property in appearance and somewhat easier for them to maintain with their equipment.

And does that include uh snow removal?

Yes.

All right.

Excellent.

Councilor Ba, anything else?

No, I've said my kiss, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

You wanted to make sure you knew you still had the still had the mic if you wanted.

Anyone else?

I don't see anything else.

So uh attorney Saukert, thank you for that.

We're gonna lay this one on the table to recommend approval.

Okay, thanks very much.

That's gonna bring us to prior invoices.

Uh ninth agenda item, ID number 25-1638.

The mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totally in 125.43 cents using available funds, the Department of Racial and Social Justice Computer Equipment Account for freight charges.

Uh this is a pretty low dollar figure.

Uh any discussion on this that wasn't uh anything that wasn't answered by the request itself.

Those free charges will get you.

Counselor Mabaugh.

Mr.

Chair, you know my philosophy around invoices, you know, they need to be paid.

So you can you can you can run through those invoices?

We're gonna we're gonna do that.

Uh not seeing any discussion on this one.

So we're gonna mark this one or lay this one on the table to recommend approval.

It's gonna bring our 10th agenda item up, uh, ID number 25-1640, the mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling five thousand two hundred eighty-five dollars and seventy-seven cents using available funds in the police department computer supplies account for computer supplies.

I see we have Director Emily Wisdom with the police department uh here tonight.

Uh Director Wisdom, do you want to take these up separately?

You want me to take these all up together?

I think that we can take them up together.

Always here for taking up items together.

Clerk, then we're gonna take up agenda items 11, 12, 13, and 14 all together here.

I'll read those.

Uh that is uh ID number 25-1622, the mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling 1,765.28 cents using available funds in the police department professional and technical services account for case management services.

ID number 25-1646, the mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling 1,547.55 cents using available funds in the police department animal control, professional and technical services account for veterinary services.

ID number 25-1648, the mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling 271 dollars using available funds in the police department badges, emblems, trophies account for educational achievement award bars and ID number 25-1651, the mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling $54.

Using available funds in the police department badges, emblems, trophies account for a hat badge.

All right.

So with those five items before us.

Uh Director Wisdom, you want to you have anything general on those five, or you want to do that?

Um yeah.

So we are working um diligently to kind of clean up um the majority of these are from FY23, FY24.

Um, some of these these were missed due to employee turnover.

Um, I've been we've been reaching out to vendors to get them on our new shared um police invoice email.

Um, as we talk to them, they realize that they've still been sending um invoices to people who haven't worked there in two or three years.

Um, so we we've been kind of collecting these.

Um, we're hoping by the end of this year to have talk to every possible vendor we could because we've been working through them, um, reaching out to them and and and to clear that up so that um we don't continue forward in this way.

We definitely want to to uh meet our our obligations and and get those done within the correct um fiscal year.

So that's something that we're really being diligent about and really trying to um you know reach out to vendors and just make sure that you know, every time we talk to a vendor that it's not a surprise from last time.

So um we appreciate your patience with us as as we get some of those cleaned up from people who haven't worked in the past.

Um, and and we we get it cleaned up to move forward.

Thank you for that.

Uh committee, any discussion on these five items.

See none.

Uh the five items are laid on the table to recommend approval.

Thank you.

Thank you.

But don't go anywhere, please, Director.

I know, I think I got one more.

Yeah, one more.

We're gonna jump to our grant and and gift acceptances.

Um ID number 25 1621.

The mayor request an approval to accept and expend an 87,450 dollar grant with no new match required from the Massachusetts Office of Grants and Research to the police department for public safety staffing.

Uh, once again, Director Wisdom.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, so the purpose of the this grant is um to uh help municipalities maintain public safety um and helping to address any police staffing shortfalls.

This is through the Massachusetts municipal public safety staffing program.

Um to be eligible, a municipality must have a population of at least um 60,000 and demonstrate that their police department has an operating budget per capita of less than 200.

Um a total of 10 communities meet this criteria, including Somerville is one of those 10.

Um so this is not a competitive grant.

This is uh a grant that's pre-designated, and we just we apply um describe to them what we are planning to use with it for in our case um OT to fill any vacancies that we have from promotions or from turnover things like that.

Um and you know, we're going into the holiday season, so this is an excellent time um in elections when we see a little bit of spike in public safety needs.

Uh this this helps us to kind of cover some of those gaps and um not need to ask for additional overtime in the future.

All right, thank you for that.

Finance committee.

Any discussion?

Councilor Brentley.

Thank you.

Do the chair just to clarify, Director Wisdom.

Um this is for temporary staff.

This is to cover what would otherwise be overtime hours.

Yeah, so this is this does not add any staff or allow us to add staff.

It is for existing staff members, um, and it covers um oh overtime.

Great.

Thank you.

And this um how would this be applied?

This is uh you mentioned election time.

Uh obviously our elections have passed.

Um is this going to be somewhat retroactive to cover what's already been done or moving forward?

So I was kind of speaking globally.

I apologize through the chair.

Um, so we get this grant every year.

And so one of the things that we we sit down and we kind of look at community events and things and try to cover, um, try to, you know, discuss amongst us um in the leadership team what we expect to see a spike in overtime hours for.

Um, so you know, in this in this case for the 2025, we used it for um, you know, some elections, uh, some some of the OT that they needed for elections.

Um, we used it for some increase in patrols in um areas for cultural events, things like that.

So um it's more of uh of it allows us a little bit to strategize um to kind of bridge some gaps or to um to cover some areas where we see an ex increase in our usual overtime.

So it does this 2026 um probably would not be used for an election as there won't be an election next year that I know of, um, and at least not a larger primary election.

I guess is my in my mind, I'm not entirely sure.

But if there was an election coming up, we would we would absolutely use that for um, you know, to bridge that gap.

And I'm getting smiles, so there's definitely election next year, right?

I mean I know that there's always municipal elections going on.

I guess I was thinking about the the the kind of the mayor oral race that we just had.

So um I know that there likely will not be a mm-oral race next year, right?

Okay.

That's sorry, that's what I was speaking to.

I wasn't speaking to all elections.

I know that we still have business to do throughout the year.

I appreciate your grace with that.

Yes, hopefully we do still have elections.

Yes, I I meant kind of some larger ones that really um draw crowds, and we we want to make sure that we have enough staff to cover uh all elections.

Thank you for that.

Council Burley, did you have more on this one?

Uh one question related to the application.

Um there's a question on the application, yes or no question, uh, related to diversity uh diversity supplier.

Um are you oh are you able to clarify like what that would mean in this context?

Uh the city marked no.

Um, I don't know what it would mean to have mark yes.

Um yes.

So uh through the chair.

In my experience, when it comes to diversity, the diversity requirement with um some of the state grants when we use vendors outside of our staff.

So in this case, I do not think that this would be uh a grant that's applicable to the diversity requirement.

But when so when we get funds from other uh state um grants, there are sometimes uh diversity factors like um vendors that are on the supplier list.

Um they designate so much of the grant has to be used with diverse suppliers.

In this case, we applied for OT, so it would it would cover our staff rather than having the the diversity requirement, but I will um obviously double check and make sure that that's the case.

But that's my understanding is and that's why we marked no because we're not using outside vendors.

Um we're just employed, we're just paying current staff that we already have, and that that diversity um expenditure uh threshold does not apply.

Thank you through the chair.

That's what I would expect uh the the rationale to be behind that.

Um looking at this, the form again, it it seems I mean with a standard contract form.

Um so it seems like this form is uh more broadly applicable beyond just this type of grant.

Yes.

Um yeah, I was just curious about that because by the nature of the fact that I thought you know, this we wouldn't be able to have a diversity supplier, you know, program for such a thing.

It was strange to see uh the question.

Yes on there.

But the um the state does use that standard contract form for just about every grant I've seen.

Efficient, I I suppose.

Um that's all from me for now.

Thank you.

Counselor Clingen.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair Three.

You happy to support this grant.

Um, you know, a lot of times people see please hold on details.

Those aren't paid by us, those usually pay by a developer or a utility.

But what we do need uh details for and over time is the many, many events that we have in the city.

Um Porch Fest, uh Fluff Fest, all of you know our great fests.

So it's good to have this uh little pot of cash that helps supplement um some of our amazing events.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any additional discussion on this, Councilor Mabaugh.

Thank you, Chair.

Just wanted to also echo Councilor Klingon that I always appreciate the wisdom, you know, from director wisdom, you know, and all the insights.

So I'm happy to support it.

I see what you did there, counselor.

Uh all right.

Uh Clerk, I will move to recommend approval of this.

Could you please call the role on that?

Yep.

On recommending approval for item number 15.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

No.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Uh, Chair Wilson.

Yes.

Sorry, I was calling Council Scott.

All right, got you.

Um, three votes in favor.

All right.

Uh that's gonna bring us to our final agenda item tonight.

Uh item 16, item number 25-1636.

The mayor request an approval to accept and expend a 109,296 dollar grant with no new mass required from executive office of public safety to the fire department for staffing costs.

Uh, and I see we have Director James Muchi with us uh from the fire department.

Director, please tell us about this.

Yeah, through you here.

Uh this is basically a sister grant to the police.

It's uh the exact same uh agency and grant uh application that we uh we applied to.

Uh this money will be used to uh provide uh overtime to cover um any sick leave, injury leave, uh vacation, so that we're fully staffed on all shifts.

All right, thank you for that.

Colleagues, any discussion on this?

Okay.

Uh we're gonna lay them on lay the item on the table to recommend approval then.

Director, thank you for joining us.

All right, uh, that brings us to the end of tonight's agenda.

And counselor mabaugh uh moves to recommend approval of the items on the table and to adjourn.

Could the clerk please read the agenda item numbers uh of the items up for that recommendation to approve and then call the role on recommending approval of those items and adjournment?

Yep.

On adjournment and recognition recommending approval for items number one, three, four, six, eight, nine, ten through fourteen, and sixteen.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Chair Wilson.

Yes, please.

All right.

That is all for counselors in favor.

And it is uh 7.06 p.m.

All right.

Thanks everyone.

Have a great night.