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CC MTG MINUTES SEPTEMBER 29 2014 WORKSHOP MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL The following are the minutes from the: Agawam City Council Workshop Meeting Monday, September 29,2014 at 7:OOpm Agawam Public Library—Community Room 750 Cooper Street Agawam, MA. 01001 The meeting was initially attended by nine of the city councilors with Councilor Perry and Councilor Bitzas absent. Councilor Bitzas arrived late to the meeting. Also in attendance . were Anthony Roberto and Daniel Shay both represented by Mike Wallace, attorney for the Administrative Union. The meeting was called to order at 7:02pm. This meeting is a workshop of the City Council to discuss TR 2014-30 and the • Agawam Municipal Golf Course, Council President Johnson opened the meeting and suggested that we simply go item by item as listed on the Memo sent by the Council to Mr. Roberto and have back and forth dialogue regarding the questions. He was interrupted by Attorney Wallace who stated that • he represented Mr. Roberto and Mr. Shay and he would not allow them to be interrogated. He told the Council that Mr. Roberto would be reading an opening statement before anything took place. Mr. Roberto read his statement(copy attached—received in Council Office the next afternoon). Mr. Roberto then provided the Council with a sizable document (141 pages) and indicated that it contained all the answers to the questions contained in the Memo. Councilor Letellier stated we were having this workshop simply searching for answers to questions that had been raised during budget deliberations over the past several years. Council President again suggested going item by item and having Mr. Roberto point out • to the Council to where in the 141 pages just delivered after the opening of the meeting, the appropriate answers could be located. Attorney Wallace became combative and said he was not going to allow his clients to be interrogated and that this was a workshop not an interrogation. He told his clients to get i up and they all left the meeting. After a brief discussion, a Motion to adjourn was made by Councilor Letellier and seconded by Councilor Calabrese. After the motion was made, Councilor Cavallo expressed his disappointment of what had just transpired and expected a positive back and forth between all the parties. He had every intention if things got combative that he would leave the meeting however he couldn't quite understand why the lawyer got so defensive and wouldn't allow Mr. Roberto the opportunity to answer any questions or discuss anything. 0 Councilor Letellier mentioned that past practice has always been that the Council provides questions and then the person(s) come to the workshop to respond to those questions and provide that information to the Council. She wondered how the Council could be expected to know what was in the huge stack of papers that were just handed to them seconds before? Dan Michael, a member of the Golf Commission, was quite surprised, shocked and disappointed at what had just happened, however he noted that there is a perception out there that, for lack of better words, this was a "witch hunt". He was very sorry that this ! happened and would like some sort of a second chance to try to get everyone together again to resolve the issues. Councilor Calabrese noted that the Council's job was to watch the town's money. We voted for the carts and were given assurances that the town would be paid back by golf f course revenue. It is our job to find out where the money is and how it will be paid back. Council President Johnson stated that, like Councilor Letellier, he had been asking these same questions for years and never got straight answers. He said the FY 11 --FYI report indicates that the course has lost money in three of the last four years. Four years ago ! there was a cushion of approximately $280,000 and now there's a deficit that the taxpayers are going to have to pay. Three of the last four years were left in a significant deficit and the cushion is gone. The golf carts were paid for by the taxpayers as well as the parking lot (which was earmarked for street paving throughout the town) and this is the first time taxpayers money was used to pay for things at the golf course. He proposed ! the town's purchase of the course 20 years ago and he still wants to go to bat for it however the Council never gets answers for any of our straight-forward simple questions. We, as the appropriating body have a right to ask these questions. This has never been a "witch hunt". We simply wanted to have a discussion this evening. Dan Michael said it was not his role to debate Council President and he wished the Council good luck. He stated that Council President Johnson had been there the longest and knows monies have been given to the golf course. Council President stated that we just want answers and our#1 job is to be stewards of the taxpayer's money. Now we have to sift through 141 pages by ourselves when they could have stayed to direct us through all these pages. Councilor Rossi supports the golf course and thinks it's in great condition — the best it's been in years. Citizens are going to start complaining if they have to foot the bill for the golf course. It is crazy to expect us to review all of this stuff they dumped on us last minute. Councilor Letellier as a sponsor of the Resolution stated that during budget time, she had questioned Mr. Roberto regarding the $40,000 worth of inventory. She stated there was a loss and was no accounting for this. He sold the inventory to a liquidator and there didn't appear to be any accounting for those monies. The Council has legitimate questions to i account for these things. May to September is plenty enough time to answer our questions and this most certainly is not a"witch hunt". • Councilor Cavallo asked if the Golf Commission could speak to Mr. Roberto and maybe appeal to him to meet with the Council provided he come alone. It wasn't necessary to lawyer up. The Council was blindsided by the Administrative Union's attorney. Dan Michael agreed that was a reasonable alternative. Citizen, Gene Mutti stated that all of this is actually putting the course in jeopardy. The course is in great shape and he is very concerned about all of this negativity publicity. Dan Michael was very hopeful that all of this could be amicably resolved and he will • certainly speak to the rest of the Golf Commission. Councilor Rossi asked if the Golf Commission had a lot of input with the course regarding things like Groupon, etc. Dan Michael stated that he has only been on the commission for six months but to his knowledge, the Golf Commission is only has an advisory role. They M had advised Mr. Roberto to stop Groupons and the like. As a commission, they listen to Mr. Roberto and only provide advice. Councilor Bitzas stated that each councilor has every right to go the Mayor and/or Mr. Roberto directly, ask your questions and they'd answer them. He is afraid we will ruin what we have. The course is ours as a town and if you continue giving negative publicity, nobody will want to come to the course. Councilor Letellier stated that this was an open meeting and they walked out. Councilor Cavallo agreed that the lawyer came on way too strong and then up and left. Councilor Letellier mentioned that after briefly going through the pile of papers they supplied, that # 80 of them pertain to the golf carts —he mentioned all the questions were answered —all of our questions are NOT answered within these documents. Councilor Rossi said the bottom line is we have a problem and we need to fix it. The workshop was adjourned at 7:35pm. • • • • •