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CC MTG MINUTES APRIL 6 2009 REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING OF THE A GA WAM CITY COUNCIL Apra 6, 2009 President Letellier—Good evening and welcome to the Regular Agawam City Council Meeting for Monday, April 6, 2009, Item L Citizen's Speak Time President Letellier—Our only speaker this evening is Laura Jackson. Laura, could you come to the podium? You'll have five minutes to speak. Please state your name, your address and the subject of your discussion. Thank you. • Laura Jackson—Thank you. My name is Laura Jackson and I am an Agawam resident. I live at l I l High Street. Thank you very much for letting me take the time to address the formation of an Agricultural Commission, I see that on your agenda and I am really excited. I just found out about this recently but I did want to talk to you about what I see ! is the importance of this because this came up very suddenly, I'm not sure how many of you have given it much thought but I have been giving it considerable thought because there has been some devastating legislation coming down from the federal government concerning our food supply and small farms. So I actually it upon myself about a month ago when I heard about this legislation and I drove around and visited some of the small farms in the area to talk to them about whether or not they knew about this legislation and whether or not they had a coalition, a group of collective voices because farmers by nature don't have time for meetings and organizations and to get information of the nature that they work from sun up to sun down and they were all very candid with me about that. That I had come across some very serious legislation—it's not good. But ! what I do think some of the other benefits of having an agricultural commission would be that in spite of these bills, there are three of them that are going to be combined and they basically spell the deathnell for small fauns in this area. So I'm very, very concerned about that. There's no public outcry for this legislation. It was taken upon by huge corporations like Monsanto to take over our food supply so I think it's vital to the livelihood of small farms that we have the opportunity for them to have a voice and a commission in a town like Agawam because they can have,they can act as mediators, they can act as advocates, educators or negotiators on farming issues. Agawam isn't the only farming community in the area so if there is another one in local towns, they can also participate in forming other commissions. We could provide other benefits such as preserving agricultural land, promoting agricultural based economic opportunities and having an advisory role with the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Conservation Preservation Committee, the Health and others. And I hope that it would also reinforce the special place that agriculture has in Agawam and its history. When this is formed and I believe it will be, I want to be among the first to submit a letter of interest to participate in that commission. And to just to address with you this legislation, very briefly, I made three copies of the three bills. I have them on CD's here. You can share them among you because this is very, very important, it's devastating legislation. HR- 875 creates a new government agency, I don't know if you're even aware of this, called ! 1 • the Food Safety Administration. It will adopt and implement a national system for registration of food establishments that includes farms. Anyone who handles food, • agriculture or livestock, although Agawam doesn't fall under the regulations of livestock, I don't believe there are farms handling livestock here but in general, any food establishment that handles, stores or moves produce, food, they will make mandatory the national animal identification system which is an RFID tagging system for all livestock. The second bill, the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act tacked on to that further extends the above by including meat and poultry and all of their byproducts. Barbara- One minute please. Laura Jackson—Thank you and then finally, the trace, the traceability which will send • compliance people out to farms giving them permission to surveil with surveillance cameras, private farms if they think they're not in compliance. It's devastating. It's horrible. So when I heard about this commission being formed this is the tip of the iceberg and to protect ourselves on a local level. Can I give these to you please? Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. • President Letellier—Thank you, Ms. Jackson. Item 2. Roll Call President Letellier—Barbara, could you please call the roll? • ROLL CALL—11 Present, 0 Absent President Letellier—With eleven present we have a quorum. • Item 3. Moment of Silence and the Pledge of Allegiance President Letellier—Please rise for a Moment of Silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. Item 4. Minutes • (a) Regular Council Meeting--March 16,2009 President Letellier— Moved by Councilor ferry, seconded by Councilor Simpson. Any discussion, additions or corrections? No? Seeing none, a voice vote is sufficient. All those in favor, please signify by saying Ay? Opposed? Abstentions? Thank you. • Passed unanimously. Item 5. Declaration from Council President None. • 2 • Item 6. Presentation of Petitions, Memorials & Remonstrances • a) Resolutions 1. TR-2009-4 -A Resolution Amending the Rules and Regulations of the Agawam City Council(Councilors Calabrese,Perry and Letellier and Rheault)(Tabled 3/16/09)(Referred to the Rules Sub- Committee) (Majority of those present and voting,) President Letellier—What's the council's pleasure? Moved to take off the table by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by Councilor Rheault. Barbara, could you call the roll on removing the item from the table? • ROLL CALL— 11 YES, 0 NO President Letellier—With eleven yes, we've moved the item from the table. Do we have a report, Councilor Calabrese? • Councilor Calabrese--Yes, the item actually is gonna require an additional meeting with the City Solicitor. I spoke with Barbara today and he had reviewed the most recent draft and he had some further recommendations with regard to language of the Resolution and therefore I am going to be scheduling another meeting of the Rules Committee and at this point if there is no further discussion or input, I'd like to make a motion to place the item back on the table. President Letellier— I'd like to make one comment and that is I would hope that you all have been reading these drafts because we have, especially Councilor Calabrese,has done a lot of hard work and one of the big issues is the change in the votes for Ordinances 2/3 of those present and eligible to vote. So you know I want you to think about that and we're certainly open for discussion but that's probably one of the bigger changes. I want everybody to see that and the two readings on bonding which has been my pet peeve for a couple years. That's all I would add at this point and do I have a second on that motion to place back on the table? Seconded by Councilor Rheault. Barbara, could you please call the roll to put the item back on the table? • ROLL CALL— 11 YES, 0 NO. President Letellier—With eleven yes, you've placed the item back on the table. 2. TR-2009-7 -A Resolution for Refunding Bonds in the Event Interest Rates Change to a Level that Would Reduce the City's Interest Cost on Existing Debt. (Mayor) (Referred to the Finance . Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Young, seconded by • Councilor Simpson and Councilor Cavallo. Do we have a report from the Finance Committee? • 3 • Councilor Young—Yes, we do. • President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Young—The Finance Committee met on April I5", last Wednesday, on this and another matter. In attendance were myself, Councilors Rossi, Perry and Mineo, members of the committee as well as our Treasurer Laurel Placzek.and our City Auditor, ` Cheryl St. John. The short of it,the short answer is that the committee recommended 4-0 to recommend passage by the Full Council. Again, basically this is a preemptive measure and proactive idea on behalf of the Treasurer and which I believe she informed us that we did something similar last year or last term that allows her in the event that interest rates would be, with the way things are going now in the economy, that we have taken these bonds out in the mid-90's and the current rates dip well below what we took them out at, then we would have to take advantage of that and cash them in basically for lack of a better term and make up some money on that and actually that would be to the benefit of the town. Again, this is really something that would have to be signed off by our Auditor would review and then the Mayor would approve and the only time she would act on this, again this could be mid-day where the interest rates dropped to a position where she might want to take advantage of it. This would prevent her from having to come to the Council and take four weeks or whatever it would take to get the paperwork processed. So I think, or I know the sub-committee thought that this was a good idea and recommended full approval. Thank you. • President Letellier—Thank you, Councilor Young. Any other comments from any committee members or from the Council? None? Barbara, could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL—11 YES, 0 NO �l President Letellier—With eleven yes, you have approved the resolution that would hopefully help reduce our debt service. Item 7. Report of Council Committees • 1. Council Sub-Committees President Letellier—We'll go in order. First we have Rules &Regulations with Councilor Calabrese. • (a) Rules & Regulations—Councilor Calabrese Councilor Calabrese—Thank you. The Rules & Regulations Committee met three times in the last quarter and I want to thank Councilor Rheault and Councilor Dennis Perry, my fellow Rules Committee members. We've been spending amply amount of time, perhaps even more, on the itern, TR-2009-4 which we've moved to table again this • evening and actually I want to thank all those councilors who have been coming to the meetings and who have been giving us some substantial input on this. It's really a lot of work. These are our rules by which we function and pass legislation and I really do • 4 appreciate the interest and the input from everyone on the Council on this matter. Thanks. • (b) Utilities & Street Acceptance— Councilor Mineo President Letellier— Okay, thank you. Next we have Utilities & Street Acceptance with Councilor Minea. Councilor Mineo—Yeah, the Street Acceptance &Utilities Committee met twice. I was only able to attend one meeting. Councilor Young ran the other meeting for me because I was absent from the Council meeting and it was for a placement pole on North Westfield Street that did pass 2-0 and we did meet one other time with the folks that live over on Sheri Lane are looking to get that street accepted and they have been working with Jack Stone and the condo owners over there to get this street accepted but there's a lot of work to be done that the folks on that street have to do so it's kind of pending and I don't know where it will go. Thanks. * President Letellier—Thank you Councilor Mineo. Next we have Licenses with Councilor Rossi. (c) Licenses —Councilor Rossi Councilor Rossi—Yes, thank you. The Licensing Committee has been meeting ! periodically since January with an ongoing renewal of the licenses, Class I, Class II automobile license and amusements and other licenses in town. And at this point here, all the licenses have been reissued and we've been pretty busy with that. The next thing I intend to do, I will be calling a meeting shortly with the committee and I'm going to be getting together to try to institute a program where the Building Inspector will be going out and checking some of these used car dealers and other places where our licenses are held, to make sure that the licenses are being operated in accordance with the standards in which they were applied for so I will be calling a meeting to get that off the ground, probably within the next few weeks. So that's it for the Licensing Committee. President Letellier--Thank you. Next we have Public Safety with Councilor Perry. (d) Public Safety—Councilor Perry Councilor Perry—Yes, thank you, Madam President, no issues have been forwarded to ` our committee in this first quarter of this year but just to give the Full Council an update on a meeting that we held in the last quarter of'08 in November in regards to if you all recall we had a number of people came and speak to us in regards to the traffic and the speeding on Shoemaker Lane in the curve there,just to give an update that our committee did meet with the Police Department and the DPW. Measures have been taken to help alleviate that problem, new speed limits signs have been put up by the DPW garage, DPW crew, chevron signs for the curve have been put up in both directions, the Police Department has and did really right after the meeting,put up a radar sign where it shows 5 r the speed limit and how fast you're actually going as you come to the curve. They've had a number of times,because I travel that everyday going back and forth to work, to • where they've had radar out there on a regular basis. And I have spoken to a few of the residents that had come before us and they're very happy with the reaction and I just want to give my thanks out to my committee members and the DPW and the Police Department for their actions that they've taken there. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you Councilor Perry. Next, we have Ordinances with Councilor Rheault. (e) Ordinances —Councilor Rheault Councilor Rheault—The Ordinance Committee met jointly with the Zoning Committee on March 2nd I believe it was and we addressed a few issues, one being the Special Permits for Animal Hospitals which was withdrawn from the public hearing so there was no need to take any action on that. Also a discussion of the snow removal ordinance and that was left that the attorney was going to speak with the DPW to add that to their route • so that would be taken care of and final discussion was on the parking and the committee unanimously agreed that an ordinance is not necessary for parking that it's a zoning issue and to be enforced by the Zoning Officer. President Letellier—Thank you. Zoning Review with Councilor Messick. (f) Zoning Review--- Councilor Messick Councilor Messick—I'm going to concur with Councilor Rheault on every point except that the meeting on March 2nd was cancelled due to the snow so we rescheduled it for March 161". But that's how it went on March 16". Thank you. • Councilor Rheault—Oh, I did say I think! President Letellier—Thank you. To either of you, was any discussion take place about having the parking license set—to deal with Six Flags parking? • Councilor Messick—There was some discussion.with Counselor Johnson and I believe that if we need to have more discussion, we'd have to speak with him. He had several different ideas about how it all can be handled. President Letellier--But the committee didn't want to go forward on that? Councilor Messick—The Committee did not engage. Councilor Rheault—The committees rejected any proposed parking ordinances. • 6 • President Letellier—That's fine. That's fine. Just wanted to make sure the discussion was made. All right. Fair enough. Thank you. Next we have Finance with Councilor Young. (g) Finance— Councilor Young Councilor Young—Thank you. The Finance Committee met twice during the first quarter. The first time was on February 171" and reviewed and approved actually • recommended approval of TO-2009-6 which was a transfer of$2341.00 to the Auditor's salary department and I believe that was fully approved by the Council and then again we met again last week, April I", and reviewed TO-2009-7 the matter I think we just discussed for refunding bonds in the event interest changed to a level that would reduce the city's interest costs on the existing debt. The next matter which we'll vote on in a few minutes is TO-2009-14 a transfer of$74, 625.00 from the reserve fund line items for long term debt interest also unanimously approved by the Finance Committee and that was it. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have the Industrial Relations with Councilor Perry. • (h) Industrial Relations—Councilor Perry Councilor Perry--Yes, thank you Madam President. Our committee met once on January 12th in regards to TR-2009-3 which was a resolution designating a certain strip of • land on Main Street as surplus and authorizing the Mayor to sell that land on Main Street back to Easthampton Savings Bank. Our committee gave a recommendation to the Full Council 3-0 to approve that resolution. The Full Council approved that resolution on our January 20`11 Council meeting. That's the one issue that we did meet on. We do have, our committee is meeting this Wednesday on April 81" at the library in regards to a discussion • of business owners concerns relative to parking with some problems on Walnut Street Extension. So we will be meeting this Wednesday in regards to that. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you Councilor Perry. Next we have the Ad Hoc Sewer Committee with Councilor Rossi. • (i) Ad Hoc Sewers—Councilor Rossi Councilor Rossi—Thank you. Although the Sewer Committee hasn't formally met since the last time it was before this Council and a vote was taken for that, I have been in touch . with my members and members of this Council periodically throughout the winter. I had sent out a couple of letters to the Sewer Committee people and I addressed the Council I believe it was two meetings ago, to give them an update. Everything still is on track. I do intent to call for a meeting after the Conservation Commission meeting which is going to be held this coming Thursday at the Public Library. I did send out a notice to all the members of the Sewer Committee and members of the Council to be copied on that if • they'd like to attend that meeting. All the information came through with Tighe& Bond. I expect things to go through smoothly but who knows with the Conservation what we'll have to see but I don't expect any problems. And hopefully everything will stay on track and I intend to call for another meeting shortly after that meeting with the entire committee and we can all get back on the same playing field but as it stands right now, everything is as it is, as it was and still on track and heading in a good direction and I'm happy to report that. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. We now have Ad Hoc Recreation with Councilor Bitzas. 0) Ad Hoc Recreation--Councilor Bitzas Councilor Bitzas—Thank you, Madam President. My committee did not have any meetings after we opened officially the park and School Park Street(School Street Park) which is one of the biggest parks in the area. I spoke with Chris Sparks and Councilor Rossi briefly and we will set up the meeting for my committee to discuss the future plans of School Park Street(School Street Park) and also the property of the Sportsman Club property. It's a disgrace there for the town and see what can we do about that problem. So in the near future I will call the other members and of course administration, the + Mayor, to combine a meeting to have those two problems solved—the property which is a disgrace and looks terrible as you're passing 57 and also to see the future plans to finish the other part of School Street Park. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you Councilor Bitzas. Next we have the Condo Committee • with Councilor Rossi. (k) Ad Hoc Condominiums—Councilor Rossi Councilor Rossi—Thank you. I just recently as you are aware Madam President, took r over this Condo Committee and have been in contact with one of the representatives from Castle Hill who says that he is in contact with other members of the condo association and he gave me a scroll actually backed up by paperwork from here to Washington, D.C. I did have a change to review it and I did go over some things and did some research for him and he was supposed to get to me so I could get together with the committee and we i could sit down to discuss some of the issues and concerns. I haven't heard from him to date. As soon as I do, I will set up a meeting with our committee and see what kind of issues that we're talking about over here and we might be able to resolve some of their concerns. But that's all I have to report at this time. • President Letellier—That's fine, thank you. (1) Ad Hoc Personnel—Councilor Rossi NIA President Letellier—CounciIor Simpson with the Community Preservation Act Committee? (m) Ad Hoc CPA— Councilor Simpson Councilor Simpson—Thank you. Nothing was referred to our committee this quarter. Thank you. President Letellier—And Councilor Cavallo with the Master Plan Committee. • (n) Ad Hoc Master Plan—Councilor Cavallo Councilor Cavallo--As you know I was recently appointed as chairperson of this committee. There was no meeting during the quarter but I recall and correct me if I'm ! wrong Jill,we had a meeting in December and at that time I believe you were the chairperson and all I can report is on that meeting and where discussion, I believe the chairperson of the Planning Board was there as well along with Debbie Dachos. We discussed the needs and concerns in terms of a plan for the town which needs some updating and we'll pursue this matter in the future. 0 President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have our report from the City Auditor, Cheryl St. John. 2. Report from City Auditor ! Cheryl St. John- Good Evening Councilors. During the past quarter the auditing department has been busy working on accounts payable, payroll, financials and other miscellaneous things. In the Accounts Payable area, the accounting principal clerk processed 3783 payments during the past quarter. Since October, she has monitored the payables to make sure they comply with the mayors spending freeze, which requires ! written approval for all expenditures in excess of$2,000.00 dollars. During the past quarter in the payroll area everything has been routine except for some tax changes. On March 20h the town implemented revisions to the Federal income tax withholding tables due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Most employees received a reduction in the amount of federal income taxes withheld from their pay. As you know from my last quarter presentation our independent auditors, Powers and Sullivan, had completed their fieldwork for our annual audit. During this quarter they completed our draft financial statements which Laurel and I thoroughly reviewed. The town received the final audited financial statements on March 25'h. These reports were forwarded to each councilor and placed on file in the clerk's office. If you have any questions regarding the audit please feel free to email or call me. In March, I attended the 0 Massachusetts Municipal Auditor's and Accountants Association Annual Education Program in order to keep my certification as a Certified Municipal Accountant. Highlights of the program included legislative updates, classes on community preservation, enterprise accounting, indirect cost, tax possessions, state contracts, employee assistance, social security and update from the department of revenue. One ! thing that I would Iike to pass along that I learned at school is that the community preservation state trust fund distribution will be reduced to approximately 29% of the surcharge levied by the town for fiscal year 2010. Other miscellaneous things that our ! 9 • department has been busy working on during this quarter are journal and budget entries, monthly reports, recording fixed assets,balancing accounts receivables, prepare the • fiscal year 2010 accounting budget, attend staff&council meetings,handling basic life insurance claims and answering the switchboard. I would like to thank my staff for their hard work and look forward to preparing for next fiscal year end which will be next quarter. Have a good evening. Item 8. Elections None. Item 9. Public Hearings None. Item 10. Old Business 1. TO-2009-14 -Transfer- $75,625.00 from Reserve Fend(16605-57300) to Line Items—Long Term Debt Interest(16601-57610) (Mayor) (Referred to the Finance Committee) (Majority of Full Council or six votes) President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilors Rheault, Cavallo and Simpson, seconded by Councilor Bitzas and assorted others. Do we have report from the Finance Committee? Councilor Young—Yes we do. At last Wednesday's meeting, April I", again one of the two matters reviewed by the Finance Committee was this TO-2009-14 again $75,625.00 which is the first interest payment on our twenty year bond issued for the parts of the Senior Center, Perry Lane pool restoration a couple summers ago and one of the new fire pumper trucks. After a little discussion, again it's pretty cut and dry, we don't have a choice, the payment is due, this is the amount and the committee present there it was a unanimous vote 4-0 to recommend full approval by the Council. Thank you. • President Letellier—Thank you Councilor Young. Any other discussion? Seeing none, Barbara, could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 11 YES, 0 NO President Letellier—With eleven yes, you've approved the transfer. • Item 11. New Business 1. TE-2009-5 -Election of a Park&Recreation representative of the • CPA Committee with a Term Expiring April 30,2012 (Council) (Majority of those entitled to vote) 10 • President Letellier---Items TE-2009-5, -6, and -7, these are all for electing members of the Community Preservation Act Committee, all next Agenda. • 2. TE-2009-6 -Election of a member of the CPA Committee with a Term Expiring April 30,2012 (Council) (Majority of'those entitled to vote) See Item 1 above. 3. TE-2009-7 -Election of a member of the CPA Committee with a Term Expiring April 30,2012(Council) (Majority of those entitled to vote) See Item 1 above. • 4. TOR-2009-2 - An Ordinance Adding Section 3-8.4 to the Code of the Town of Agawam Establishing the Agricultural Commission. (Majority of those present and voting) (Mayor) President Letellier—We'll have the Ordinance Committee review that if you don't mind. Item 12. Any other matter that may legally come before the City CounciL President Letellier—We'll start with Councilor Perry. • Councilor Perry—Nothing this evening Madam President. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Messick? Councilor Messick—I was looking out the window at the rain and the cold and the yuck • and I was looking at my memos and I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice to be out golfing on a sunny, sunny day, so tonight I'm gonna highlight to two, there are two golf tournaments coming up and there is plenty of time to register your foursome or become a tee sponsor or a sponsor of the event. They're both for charity. One is the Agawam Small Business Assistance Center, a nine hole golf tournament that will be on • Wednesday, June 17th. I'm sure it will be a wonderful sunny, warm day. It's at St. Anne's Country Club on Shoemaker Lane. If you need more information about that, you can contact Millie at 374-8124 and funds from that go to the Small Business Assistance Center which is a very good cause. And the other one is the Friends of the Agawam Rotary and the Senior Center are joining forces for the 14`h Annual Golf Tournament to • benefit the Senior Center and the Rotary Scholarship Fund. That'll be on May 10, That starts at 7:30am with breakfast and that'll be at the Crestview Country Club. Both of them have a buffet before, after a raffle and an auction and both are a shotgun start. So, I am looking forward to those and I'll be volunteering and planning to be outside. And the only other thing I have is School Street Park. There's an event on April 18`h it's the First Annual Earth Day Event and I hope that a lot of people will turn out. There should be a lot of interesting things as far as green products, green energy, things that you can find out about the town and the things that we do here in town that are so-called green. • 11 • There'll be activities for the kids and I think it's gonna be a very good event. It will at the park from 11 to 3. Thank you. President Letellier— Thank you. Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas—Yes, talking about the park, my daughter just went there for the first time and she was very, very impressed so I'd like all of you to go there and try it. It's a fantastic park for every age. So the town and we did a good job. Also, I'd like to wish you all Happy Easter. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Young? • Councilor Young—I have nothing this evening. Thanks. President Letellier--Thank you. Councilor Simpson? Councilor Simpson—Yes, thank you, I'd just like remind my School Budget Committee of a workshop tomorrow at 5:30 and it will be held at the Agawam Jr. High library. • Thank you. President Letellier— Thank you. Councilor Mineo? Councilor Mineo—Yeah, I would like to bring something up. I received a phone call • two weeks ago from Councilor Calabrese. Councilor Calabrese had put a letter to the editor and Councilor Rossi called her up and Councilor Calabrese called me and Councilor Rossi accused me of putting CeCe up to this letter to the editor. I just wanted to set the record straight. I had nothing to do with that letter, absolutely nothing. Your accusations are fact less and baseless. I did nothing wrong. I did not speak with her and I am quite offended that you would accuse me of something like that. President Letellier—Councilor Cavallo? Councilor Cavallo —Yes, I have two items. I noticed on the memo from Debbie Dachos • regarding the commission that may be formed with the farmers, is there any possibility that she would be invited? She did say that she would come to a Council meeting. Would you extend that invitation to her regarding that? President Letellier—Absolutely. Councilor Cavallo— I don't know if you've already done that. President Letellier—Barbara can't hear you. Formally invite Deb Dachos to the next meeting about the Agricultural Commission. • Councilor Cavallo—And the second point I wanted to make, in addition to what Councilor Simpson said, you know there are five people on this committee, School • 12 Budget Sub-Committee, but we certainly, or I would, as a councilor, encourage other people to come to this meeting because it is a$35 million budget and there are some big changes being made because of the stimulus package but I have concerns and I'm sure some of you might have concerns. I think even though you may not be on the committee, coming to the meeting I think, it would give you a better understanding of what this budget's going to be when it comes before you, when you have to vote on the entire budget for the Town of Agawam. So and again, I know it's tough for a lot of people to get out at night but I think it would be worth your while because this must be the prelude to the final School Budget Sub-Committee. This is not the final meeting. This is like a workshop. There should be and I'm hoping that we're gonna get a copy of the budget soon after so we can review that and then that final meeting will take place. So again, if you've got the time I think it would be worth your while. Thank you. That's all I have. President Letellier—And correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that the public hearing on the School Committee is April 14t' and will be televised on TV so the people in the public can watch. Councilor Cavallo—The thing is the public hearing occurs of course before we have our meeting with them, okay? I'm talking about the School Budget Sub-Committee where we vote it up or down. President Letellier—Right. I just wanted the public to know that if they can't make this or whoever of us can't make it there's at least a public hearing. Although sometimes in the past, the public hearing is completely silent and they just vote the budget up or down. So, if you want to actually hear some discussion you're better off to come to the sub- committee meeting. Okay. Thank you. Councilor Rossi? Councilor Rossi—Yes, thank you. I just, let me clear the air for one second if I may and I don't want to drag this thing out. If I had accused you of anything, Joe, I certainly would have talked to you face to face. You and I have had conversations before and if I had anything directly to say to you, I would have called you as I did in the past. I don't make it a habit of shooting from behind rocks and trees and I think perhaps that maybe you took the conversations that I had with Councilor Calabrese a little out of context. Councilor Mineo-- I don't think so. I don't think so. That was uncalled for. Councilor Rossi- Until I directly accuse of anything, Joe, maybe you should come to me with it. President Letellier—That's enough gentlemen. You've each had your peace. Councilor Rheault? Councilor Rheault—Have a Happy Easter everybody! President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Calabrese? 13 Councilor Calabrese—Yeah, and if you're not inclined the public hearing on the School Budget Sub-Committee, I have another event which people might be interested in attending. The Parent Advisory Council also on April 14t` at 6:OOpm is hosting a ...forum with the legislators and this is to address fiscal year 2010 state budget with regard to DMR family support and autism division funding on the state level and I received confirmation today that I'm gonna have a representative from Senator Buoniconti's office there as well as Representative Sandlin, she had told me if she is not in Boston, she's gonna be available to come to that event and if she is going to be in Boston, she will be sending a representative and we've also invited a representative from the Governor's office. So there are oodles of things that you can do on April 14`' and have a nice Easter. President Letellier—And you can get your taxes done! Thank you all and Happy Easter, Happy Passover and see you in a few weeks. Do I have a motion to adjourn? All in favor? Ay? Opposed? Thank you. Adiournment • • • S 14