CC MTG MINUTES AUGUST 17 2009 REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL
August 17, 2009
President Letellier—Welcome to the Agawam City Council meeting for Monday,
August 17, 2009.
Item 1. Citizen's weak Time
President Letellier--I believe you've all spoken before but a reminder that you must
state your name, your address, the subject matter you'll be addressing and you'll have
five minutes to speak. The first speaker is David Cecchi.
David Cecchi—Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.
President Letellier—Excuse me, you need to state your name and address for the record,
sorry.
David Cecchi —David Cecchi,29 Albert Street. The Thomas Smith House has sat in the
shadow of Provin Mountain for over two hundred and fifty years. The fact that it
managed to survive into the 2 1" century in original condition is truly amazing. At the
turn of the 20th century when most homes were acquiring the latest technology such as
indoor plumbing, central heat and electricity, the Thomas Smith House was being used to
house the hired hands who worked on Oscar Park's farm. Those modern luxuries were
not a priority for the house which then was almost 150 years old. That was our luck
because Agawam now has a time capsule back to the mid-181h century. Many towns with
Historical Societies have restored houses but very few, if any, in this area have a gem like
the Smith House. The Agawam Historical Association and Judy Anderson in particular
have put a tremendous amount of effort into the preservation of the Thomas Smith
House. They could not have accomplished this without the support of the members and
friends who are paying the mortgage each month or funds from the Community
Preservation Act. This project is probably the most important historic preservation work
done in this town in a generation and a wonderful example of how the Community
Preservation Fund benefits the entire community. I hope that you will support the
resolution authorizing Community Preservation Funds to be used for the Thomas Smith
House. I also hope that you will support the resolution establishing the Revolving Fund
for the School Street Barn. This rare example of a double ramp high...barn is a powerful
symbol of Agawam's agricultural past and anything that will aid in its preservation and
maintenance should be supported. While I'm on the subject of agriculture, I want to
thank this Council for supporting the creation of the Agricultural Commission. As
Agawam continues to lose farmland and farming becomes more difficult, your creation of
this commission should prove to be an important asset to both the town and the
agricultural community. Recently comments have been made in the press regarding the
lack luster response to the creation of the commission. I speak only for myself but I want
to remind the Council and the public that the Agricultural Commission was approved as
we were headed into the growing season. The farmers I know are working fifteen hours
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or more a day, seven days a week right now. Submitting their names for appointment to
the Agriculture Commission is not a high priority at the moment. As society moves away
! from agricultural base, we often forget how demanding and unforgiving farming truly is.
I am sure that most of our farmers who are interested in the Agricultural Commission
know about it and they will submit their names when the season's work is done. Thank
you.
President Leteliier—Thank you. Our next speaker is Ann Marie Bellico.
Ann Marie Bellico —Good evening. My name is Ann Marie Bellico. 51 Park Edge
Drive. I'm speaking this evening as a member of the Agawam Historical Association. I
would like to start by saying a few words about the Community Preservation Act and the
people who serve on the CPA. The CPA whether it's used for open space, low income
housing or historic preservation benefits us all. It is well worth the 1% of our taxes for
the many benefits we reap in return. It improves everyone's quality of life. The people
who serve on the CPA are a very dedicated group who take their jobs seriously. They
have challenged us every step of the way and well they should to see that the CPA funds
are spent wisely. We feel that we have met that challenge and respect them for their
dedication. And now a few words about historic preservation. A town that recognizes,
respects and takes pride in its roots becomes a richer community because of it. The
educational value of Agawam's past is as integral to the total picture of our community as
our sports programs,the programs presented by the Arts& Cultural and the efforts of the
many other people in organizations that enrich life in our community. After many years
of hard work and personal financial sacrifices by some of our members, we are very close
to our goal of opening the Thomas Smith to the public. It is an authentic town treasure.
No, George Washington never slept here and it was never owned by someone who was
wealthy but if we know only the history of the rich and the famous, we don't know our
history. That is the mission of the Agawam Historical Association—to preserve and
share what little we have left of Agawam's past. We hope you vote tonight for the
Community Preservation of the Thomas Smith/Matthew Noble House on North West
Street in Feeding Hills and fulfill one of the goals of the CPA, namely historic
preservation. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Our next speaker is Louie Russo.
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Louie Russo--Thank you. Louie Russo, Highland Street, Feeding Hills. I'm the Vice
Chair of the CPA and I am here of course to speak about the Thomas Smith House. As
most of you up there have come to learn, our committee really scrutinizes the applicants
that come to us for assistance and we really scrutinized the Thomas Smith people. We
! made them jump through hoops like you wouldn't believe. We probably did a tougher
job checking out what they wanted than any other group or organization that came before
us looking for funding. As you know this money is mandated by the state to be spent or
at least part of the money to be spent on historic preservation. What better place to spend
this money than on the oldest house in Agawam? Common sense tells you you have to
spend it, what better place is it to spend it than the oldest house in Agawam? And these
people aren't here for a free ride. In case you don't know, the members of the Historical
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Association have been taking money out of their own pockets to pay for the mortgage on
this building. They've paid for a lot of the work that's been done on that building. They
do fundraising, so they're not getting a free ride from this money. They've actually
earned it and more importantly, we've already given money to them to get the house to
where it is now. Doesn't it make sense that we should be protecting our investment? So
I urge you all to please support our request for the money. Thank you.
President Letcllier—Thank you. Our next speaker is Corinne Wingard.
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Corinne Wingard—Good evening. My name is Corinne Wingard. I live at 194 Elm
Street in Agawam. I won't be able to be here at your next meeting. I'll be in Venice,
Italy so I'd like to speak to you tonight and ask you to defeat Councilor Calabrese's
ordinance to repeal the CPA when the time comes to vote on it at your next meeting. In
M my opinion, the ordinance is written as worded, as nothing more than election year
extortion. By including a"Whereas"that a Council vote to repeal the CPA will empower
the voters of Agawam to vote on the question of having the CPA, Councilor Calabrese
has put her fellow council members in a position where they will be seen as rejecting the
people's right to vote if they do not support her ordinance. Many if not most of the
Councilors I think do strongly support and see the value of the CPA. However, to vote
for what they support and believe in, they must make themselves politically vulnerable.
Personally, I am disappointed that Councilor Calabrese pulled such a tactic. I really am.
I feel if there were a reason to vote on the CPA, the correct way to do it would be to put
the question on the ballot first. Then after the people have voted, let the Council decide
what they want to do. I urge you again when the time comes to vote, to do what is right,
what you believe in for the CPA and continue to support the CPA which has been such a
tremendous to this town. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Our final speaker is Rick Bellico,
Rick Bellico—Rick Bellico, 51 Park Edge Drive, Feeding Hills. I'd like to thank the
CPA. As Lou Russo had indicated they made us go through a complete study of the
property for this application and as previous speakers had indicated, that is correct. We
also worked very closely with the town departments making sure that the funding, the
restoration/renovation of the house is gonna meet the standards to be, the house will be
open as a museum. So I think that the CPA has helped us, guide us, I should say, through
this process for this application and I'm very thankful for their help and thankful for the
town departments that worked with us as well making sure that we dot the is and cross
the is so that we will be able to open this to the public for educational purposes. Thank
you.
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President Letellier—Thank you.
Item 2. Roll Call
President Letellier—Barbara, could you please call the roll?
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ROLL CALL—9 PRESENT, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—With nine present, we have a quorum. Councilors Bitzas and
• Mineo are both on vacation.
Item 3. Moment of Silence and the Pledge ofAllegiance
President Letellier—Could you please rise?
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Item 4. Minutes
1. Regular Council Meeting=July 27,2009
* President Letellier—Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Perry. Any
discussion? Seeing none,Barbara, could you call the roll?
ROLL CALL--8 YES, 0 NO, 1 ABSTAIN (Councilor Rheault), 2 ABSENT
(Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—With eight yes,two absent,one abstention,you have approved the
minutes.
Item 5. Declaration from Council President
• President Letellier—I'm going to ask the Council to join me on the floor. We do have a
presentation this evening. Thank you. We have a presentation for"Jack"John P. Stone
on his retirement as DPW Superintendent. You've been here a long time Jack and we
had a hard time trying to get everything on one plaque so here we go. Citation granted
this 14`h day of July,2009 which was Jack's actual retirement date to John P. Stone by
• the Agawam City Council in honor and recognition of your retirement as Superintendent
of the Department of Public Works. Whereas you served the town and its citizens
faithfully for 31 years as DPW Superintendent and for 11 as Town Engineer, the
Agawam City Council hereby congratulates you and thanks you for your dedicated
service and wishes you a happy and healthy retirement. Signed by myself. Jack?
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Jack Stone—I'd like to thank the Council for this recognition but most of all I'd like to
thank you and the citizens of the town for affording me the opportunity to have a
meaningful career, a career in which I've been able to contribute to the infrastructure of
the community and to the betterment of the lives of the citizens therein. Agawam, even
• though I don't live here now,will always be my community and again,I really thank you
from the bottom of my heart for that opportunity. It was very meaningful for me. Thank
you. (APPLAUSE)
•
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Item 6. Presentation XLPetitions, Memorials& Remonstrances
1. TR-2009-23 -A Resolution Appropriating Four Hundred Eighty Nine
Thousand Eight Hundred Fifteen ($489,815.00)Dollars from the
Stabilization Fund to Various Accounts (Mayor) (Tabled on 7/27/09)
(Referred to the Finance Committee) (213 Majority of those Present and
Doting)
w President Letellier—Tonight because we have nine members present, six votes will be
needed to pass the item. Do we have a motion to remove it from the table? Mowed by
Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Perry. Could we have a report from the
Finance Committee? I'm sorry, Barbara, could you call the roll on removing the item
from the table?
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 0 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mimeo)
President Letellier—With nine yes, two absent, you've removed the item from the table
and Councilor Young, can we have the Finance Committee report?
Councilor Young— Sure. The Finance Committee met on this matter on last
Wednesday, August 12'', at 6.30 at the library. In attendance were four of the five
Finance Committee members—myself, Councilors Rossi, Calabrese and Perry.
Councilor Mimeo was on vacation. Also in attendance were the Mayor, Treasurer Laurel
Placzek, our City Auditor, Cheryl St. John, and most of the Department Heads—from
Building Maintenance, Emergency Management, DPW, IT,Planning, the Police
Department and the Recreation Department, all who had line items in the,that were either
impacted or not by this transfer. So, the matter at hand was TR-2009-23,transfer of
$489,815.00 out of the Stabilization Fund which at a previous Finance meeting we had
voted 4-0 to recommend not approving. Again, we were asked to reconsider it. We had
a good meeting last Wednesday night and went through item by item and I think we had
almost unanimous approval by the committee as well as if anyone read the paper today,
the Mayor and her administration to remove several items and those items were in no
particular order here there was a sidewalk, adding more money to the sidewalk fund
which was $30,000.00; DPW equipment which was $150,000.00; and a school floor for
one of the elementary schools for$48,765,00. Our reason being for those items that they
weren't survival critical and that if come through the course of the year they actually
absolutely positively needed those items or had to have them, needed a new piece of
equipment so on and so forth, they can certainly come back to the Council as a one off
item and make their case for those items and then we assured for instance our new DPW
. Director that if he needed the money we could certainly work with him on that. So the
recommendation by a 3-1 vote of those present at the Finance Committee was to reduce
the amount of the transfer from the stated, originally requested amount of$489,815.00 to
the new amount of$261,050.00. And that was the end of that.
President Letellier—Are you making a motion to amend the amount and to delete the
items?
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Councilor Young— Sure I would on behalf of the Finance Committee make the motion
to amend the amount to 5261,050.00 and replace the original amount on the resolution.
• President Letellier--Second by Councilor Cavallo. I want to make sure that we are
doing this very clearly. So do you just want to change the amount or do you want to
actually delete the items that are in Exhibit A as well? What is the -?
Councilor Young—Well I think we'd like to do both if that can be done.
President Letellier—I think that's what I'm trying to suggest that we do. So, why don't
you, do you want to take your second back on the motion to amend and he can further
amend? Okay, so we're taking back the second and why don't you give us as detailed an
amendment as you'd like to. So is it Exhibit A—Department of Public Works
• Equipment, Code 16610 is coming off(16610-52450) at$150,000.00. That's coming
off. And then the next item—sidewalk rehab and extension Code 16610-58914?
Councilor Young—Correct. '
President Letellier—And School Account—Phelp's School gym replacement(16610-
58933).
Councilor Young—That's it. You got it.
• President Letellier—So the motion on the floor is to amend TR-2009-23 by deleting
three sub accounts —Department of Public Works Equipment for $150,000.00; Sidewalk
Rehab and Extension for$30,000.00; and Phelp's School gym floor replacement for
$48,765.00, thus amending the total to $261,050.00. Is that your motion?
Councilor Young- Yes, ma'am.
•
President Letellier—Okay, do we have a second? Second by Councilor Cavallo. Any
discussion? Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson —Thank you very much. Through the Chair to Councilor Young, if
• you are able to answer this question for me. I have one concern with the elimination on
the sidewalk rehabilitation and extension. I just wondered if you could give me a brief on
your discussion on this one because I know it seems like we're constantly upset and
complaining about the conditions of sidewalks and I also see here that it's providing
extensions to schools which means obviously children are probably in a walking district
that need that to get to the schools and I remember in the winter everyone was upset
because one of the sidewalks wasn't plowed where the children had to walk, so what was
the rationale behind that one,cuz this is the one that bothers me that I would not be in
favor of cutting which I would not vote for this amendment basically due to that because
I know for years we're always yelling and screaming about sidewalks? So, can you
update me a little?
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Councilor Young—I will ask Councilor Rossi to give you an update.
S Councilor Rossi—Thank you, Councilor Young. The motion to eliminate some of these
things really came in large part from my recommendation and that$30,000.00 was to be
scratched only to be replaced under the street improvement program so thereby we're not
really eliminating the$30,000.00 we're actually increasing that amount by $45,000.00,
because I too am very concerned about the sidewalks in the community and we were
supposed to couple that street improvement program with the sidewalk rehab extension to
$75,000.00 each and with the understanding that if the Superintendent now
Superintendent, Mr. Sylvia, has any other expenditures that he may come back to the
Committee and we'll take it on a case by case basis. So I don't know how you want to
handle it as the Council in slicing this up, but the original intent was not to eliminate the
$30,000.00 but to include it in the $150,000.00 at $75,000.00 each.
President Letellier—Does that help you Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson —No, not really. Through the Chair to I guess I'll go back to
Councilor Rossi or Councilor Young if you have anything else to add, so I guess if you're
saying we're gonna add it to the other account, then why do we need to cut it from here?
Why don't we just let it be here and go right into the sidewalk that's here? I guess I'm
missing the, it seems like you're just juggling numbers. I'm not sure why then we have
to, if we're really not eliminating per se, the work to be done, what's wrong with leaving
it here? I guess that's the point I'm missing. So if you could clarify that for me.
Councilor Rossi—Well, I guess there really isn't any point of doing it either way. I
guess it's six of one and half dozen of the other. As long as the money was earmarked
for sidewalk extensions, I don't think anybody thought beyond that point. But if it serves
the Council's pleasure to add $45,000.00 and deduct it from the $150,000.00 from street
improvements, I guess we could do it that way too. But the original intent was to
increase the amount of$30,000.00 by taking it from the Street Improvements, eliminating
the equipment and we felt as though the gym floor could be absorbed through the school
systems. We felt as though they had plenty of money in their budget in areas that they
could tap into for that. So that was really the rational behind the sub-committee. I don't
know if that helps make your—
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Councilor Simpson—Thank you for your answers. I'll just go on, we're in discussion
mode, right? I'd just like to go on record that I just don't personally agree with the
changing around this money and I think it's fine to leave it where it is, so I would be
opposed to voting yes to this as it has been amended. Thank you.
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President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Calabrese?
Councilor Calabrese—Um, yea, I just wanted to add on to what Councilor Rossi was
saying. That night what we had also discussed is as street improvements are made, the
town ends up being on the hook to also roll those sidewalk improvements in,to abide by
the ADA under the Chapter 90 funding so that was part of the rationale of rolling that
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sidewalk rehab and extension into the street improvement program because those
sidewalks rehabilitation programs and extension would necessarily have to occur in order
for us to comply with the ADA requirements.
•
President Letellier—Thank you. Yes, Councilor Cavallo?
Councilor Cavallo —Yea, if you recall,Councilor Young, at the public hearing I
questioned Jeff Hulbert regarding an account in which money was being spent on
• computers and software and I asked him if it would be possible for that to be funded by
the Cable Account and he more or less acquiesced and said that that could be possible.
The cable money naturally is designated or earmarked for the schools but also could be
used and he mentioned this on the town side as well. Did that come up in your discussion
at all because I don't know if you recall when I asked him about that?
•
Councilor Young—Yes, I remember that but that did not come up. Did not.
Councilor Cavallo--Because the reason why I'm asking, Councilor Young, is that that,
we could have used some of that money in the Cable Account to fund that. He even said
• that it was possible to use that money but no one discussed it?
Councilor Young—And we still can use it.
Councilor Cavallo —Right, exactly. I was thinking it would solve the problem,
whatever amount it was. I think the Fire Department was looking for some software and
a couple of other departments were and computers or whatever. I'm not criticizing what
you did, don't get me wrong, I'm just wondering if that ever came to light and it didn't.
Councilor Young--It did not. And again, it's not that it can't now.
Councilor Cavallo —Well, I would like to see, I don't mean to interrupt you, I would
like to see if we can take some of the money out of the Cable Account and subsidize and
finance that part. That is included in the amount.
President Letellier—What part?
•
Councilor Cavallo—Well the part I believe was, are you covering that amount,the part
that was going to fund the Fire Department I believe and also, I believe Councilor Young,
was the Fire Department which was in need of some equipment, okay, data processing
equipment and in the Data Processing Department, let's see and that was basically it, I
think there were two or three in that. That was presented in her budget remember the
supplemental budget that we got that night and that's why I tabled it because I was
concerned about that. Is there any way?
Councilor Young—Well, I'm sure there is, it's just a matter of wherever they're gonna
• fund those items from, right? Now I personally don't have a problem again, I up til now
even including the other night, the Mayor had dealt in good faith with us on our
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recommendations. She was I thought highly receptive to the motions we made and
agreeable and again I don't mind, I have no problem personally voting for the reduced
amount transferred and then going back again to her and saying instead of taking that,
whatever it was for the IT, saying could you take it out of here instead. If mean if they
don't take it, it stays there, right?
Councilor Cavallo—Yes.
• Councilor Young— So I certainly will commit to you in going back and suggesting that
to her as you could yourself. I don't mind doing it. It's not a bad idea. It just didn't
come up that night and we certainly didn't discuss that with them. I hate to hold it up any
further.
• Councilor Cavallo—I do too but maybe down the line we could revisit the Cable
Account and you were just saying you're gonna revisit maybe DPW if there's a need.
Right and I think we should revisit that because we certainly take care of the school side.
There's no question about it but I think we also should be fair to the town side. °
Councilor Young—Sure, absolutely.
Councilor Cavallo--Thank you Councilor.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any other discussion on the amendment? I'm sorry,
Councilor Young did you want to add something?
Councilor Young--Well,just now I remember the words but my notes don't recall that
agreement about switching the money. Do you have that?
Councilor Calabrese—If I may,what I just recall is combining the sidewalk rehab
extension with the street improvement program. I had combine the $150,000.00 with the
$30,000.00 and then cut $30,000.00. That's what my notes reflect which the dollars
shake out to the same way that Councilor Rossi was discussing.
Councilor Young—So what do we have for the new total?
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President Letellier—Same total.
Councilor Young— So,you, I don't know, Council President, do you want to ?
President Letellier--Well, I'm gonna ask if there's any more discussion and if not, I
will ask for a vote on the motion, but I see Councilor Rossi's light on.
Councilor Rossi—I just wanted to clarify that, that you might have missed it but I know
that I mentioned it at the sub-committee meeting about combining those things. I was
• very adamant about not striking the $30,000.00 for the sidewalk repair because I felt it
really wasn't adequate anyway. It seems to be the magic number that we appropriate
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every year and it's never enough so I didn't want to short change that. To be perfectly
honest with you, I wasn't particularly happy about taking any of this out of the
Stabilization Account. I think I made my position perfectly clear a long time ago and a
lot of these items in here I feel that we kind of got backdoored a little bit because they're
ongoing programs that really needed to be funded. I thought that the lesser of the evils
was to vote for the appropriation and therefore I was willing to make the compromise on
my stance in using this Stabilization Fund. But I did not, and I'll make it perfectly clear
here, I did not want to eliminate $30,000.00 from this sidewalk and my intent at the sub-
committee meeting was to combine the$150,000.00 street improvement with the
sidewalk thing and as Councilor Calabrese had mentioned earlier the reason for that was
the Chapter 90 money would come into play and in order for us to get that Chapter 90
money, it would give us more of a kick if you will when we went to go and make those
improvements and when we later on down the road, when Mr. Sylvia came back to us,
i we probably wouldn't get hit as hard. That was really what the thought process was.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any fin ther discussion?
Councilor Cavallo—Yes,just one last comment.
• President Letellier—Let's give Councilor Young a chance to respond.
Councilor Young—Again, I agree with Councilor Rossi and as he describes the,I
remember the conversation I just didn't notate it that way but and the number is the same.
. That's fine. The other choice again for the Council's benefit and the public's, the other
choice we had was either instead of transferring from the Stabilization was appropriate it
as part of the 2010 budget in which case we all would have been paying through the tax
rate. So again, I thought we did our best to split the difference here and provide those
most immediately required funds and then if they delay some of the other expenditures
and save that. So—
•
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Cavallo, did you wish to comment?
Councilor Cavallo—Yea, I just want to say we all read in the paper about the Cable
Commission. They're really being proactive in trying to get a studio going and so forth.
I think we all read the article in the paper. But I think by the same token, I think we as
Councilors should kind of get an update on that account. I'm not saying there's anything
wrong with the account but if there's money there, let's start using it and maybe we can
help subsidize our expenses. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any other discussion on the amendment? Barbara,
could you call the roll? The amendment will need five votes.
ROLL CALL—7 YES,2 NO (Councilors Calabrese and Simpson), 2 ABSENT
(Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
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President Letellier--With seven yes, two no, two absent, you have amended TR-2009-
23 from the original amount of$489,815.00 to $261,050.00. Now is there any discussion
on now the item as it's been amended? Any further discussion? No? Barbara, could you
—I'm sorry, Councilor Perry? I didn't see your light.
Councilor Perry—No,thank you Madam President. I just wanted to point out as
Councilor Young stated that and as I had stated when we tabled this in our last meeting,
the Stabilization Fund is there. It's an account that was there to put money aside for
times like this. Financially communities are hurting—the whole economy is bad. We
had much discussion in our sub-committee meeting in regards to should we use this
money. My question at that point in time was that's what it's there for. When should we
use it? Because as Councilor Young stated that these items that we're going to be paying
out of this fund, if we did not, would come back to us in a Supplemental budget and be
added to the tax levy. So what we're approving tonight is not adding to the tax burden of
the town. It's being taken out of this Stabilization Fund which is money that we've asked
them to put in over the years to get it up to the I believe $3.8million is in there at this
point in time? So we're gonna bring it down by about $250,000.00 - $260,000.00 so
there's still plenty of money in there but I just wanted to clarify to the full Council and to
* the public in regards to the thought process that I had and what we debated in the sub-
committee meeting and going back and forth in coming up with the cuts that we did and
to move forward with it and I just want to say that I will support this this evening. Thank
you.
! President Letellicr—Thank you Councilor Perry. Any further discussion? No?
Barbara, could you call the roll? Six votes are needed on the Stabilization Fund transfer.
ROLL CALL -7 YES, 2 NO (Councilors Calabrese and Simpson),2 ABSENT
(Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
• President Letellier—With seven yes, two no, two absent, you have approved the item.
2. TR-2009-30 -A Resolution Appropriating from the Community
Preservation Fund and Authorizing the Expenditure of Community
Preservation Funds for the Preservation,Rehabilitation and Restoration of
the Thomas Smith House(Mayor)(Referred to the Ad Hoc CPA
Committee) (Ma)ority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Perry. Do
we have a report from the Committee, Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson—Yes, thank you. The committee met this evening when we
actually at 7:00 tonight here in the Middle School. At the time that the meeting was to
begin only two members of the committee were present—myself and Councilor Cavallo
so we were no able at that point to hold an official meeting because we did not have a
quorum. Councilor Bitzas is on vacation and Councilor Mineo is on vacation and at the
• time, Councilor Messick was not here yet. So we made the decision that we may not be
able to give a formal report but fortunately Councilor Messick showed up a little bit later
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and was able to give us a quorum and by a vote of 3-0, three positive with the other two
absent, we wanted to give a positive recommendation to the Council to vote in favor for
this. I think basically the speakers that spoke tonight I really can't add anything more to
! what they said. This is a chance to finish up a project that has been worked on for a
while. As they said people from the community have put their own money into that. We
have, the CPA has given them money and this will pretty much get everything to the
finish point. To be able to preserve something like this in our community is a great asset.
On the side I was saying how I had been down south this summer and looked at how
! much in the south they preserve buildings 250 -300 years old and they really go out of
their way to preserve their history so I think it's great that we have that opportunity here
to do that with money that this is what it's here for—for part of it to go to historical
restoration. So hopefully the Council will see fit to approve this. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any other discussion? Councilor Cavallo?
Councilor Cavallo—Yea, I would also vote in favor of the appropriation. I think the
Historical Commission has done yeoman's work here in doing their homework, in going
through the application process. I've attended a few CPA meetings and I find them very
interesting and I think the CPA Board works very, very hard and they are to be
commended as well. There's a lot of time and effort that goes into this position and
hopefully this position will certainly be with us for many years to come. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any other discussion? No? Barbara, could you call
the roll? Five votes are needed.
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 0 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—With nine yes,two absent, we've approved the item.
Congratulations to the Historical Association.
•
3. TR-2009-31 -A Resolution Dedicating the Softball Diamond at School
Street Park in Honor of Jack Kunasek. (Mayor) (Majority of those present
and voting)
President Letellier—Our former Park& Rec Director. Do we have a motion? Moved
by Councilor Perry, seconded by Councilor Cavallo? Any discussion? No? Barbara,
could you call the roll? Five votes are needed.
ROLL CALL —9 YES, 0 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—Thank you. Unanimous.
4. TR-2009-32 -A Resolution Confirming the Reappointment of Meanette
Vermes, 108 Hastings Street,Feeding Hills,MA 01030 to the Board of
Registrars to the Term Expiring April 1,2012. (Mayor) (Majority of those
! present and voting)
12
President Letellier—I see Ms. Vermes and I think I see Mr. McGrew as well. Yup. So
if they wish to speak let us know and we'll go into Committee as a Whole. Do we have a
motion? Moved by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by Councilor Cavallo. Ms. Vermes,
did you wish to speak? No. Okay. Do we have any discussion? No. Barbara, could you
call the roll?
ROLL CALL--9 VERMES, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
• President Letellier—Thank you. Congratulations, Meanette and thank you for
continuing to serve.
S. TR-2009-33 -A Resolution Confirming the Reappointment of Timothy
McGrew, 99 Red Fox Drive,Feeding Hills,MA.01030 to the Board of
Registrars to a Term Expiring April 1,2012,(Mayor) (Majority of those
present and voting)
President Letellier—Mr. McGrew did you wish to come up? No, you're good, okay.
Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Cavallo.
Any discussion? Seeing none, Barbara, could you call the roll?
ROLL CALL—9 McGREW, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—Congratulations, Mr. McGrew and thank you again for continuing
to serve.
6. TR-2009-34 -A Resolution Adopting the Fiscal Year 2010 Supplemental
Budget for the Town of Agawam. (Mayor)(Referred to the Finance
Committee) (Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Calabrese, seconded
by Councilor Cavallo. Councilor Young, your report?
Councilor Young—Yes, ma'am. Again as part of the same meeting of the Finance
Committee last Wednesday, August 12t", we addressed this matter, Still in attendance
. were Councilors Rossi, Calabrese, Perry and myself as well as the Mayor, Cheryl St.
John, our Auditor and most of her Department Heads I believe. So the matter in front of
us—Supplemental Budget TR-2009-34 —the short of it is that we received $129,666.00
more than we had planned on in the original budget that we reviewed and approved at the
last Council meeting in July, last week of July. So the Mayor is proposing that we
appropriate this Supplemental Budget to take advantage of the extra money from the state
• and incorporate it in there and hopefully many of you have it in front of you, were much
needed money for the library, Fire Department positions,returning the three fire--
communicated from the Mayor solid waste pickups that she was gonna take away due to
the shortfall as well as some Council legal budget items that we were gonna put back.
The Finance Committee voted 4-0 to recommend that the Full Council approve this
Supplemental Budget and appropriate it. Thank you.
13
i
President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Calabrese, seconded
by Councilor Cavallo. Is there any discussion? I know that Judy Clini is here from the
Library. Did you want to add anything Judy? No? Okay, all right. Seeing as there's no
discussion, Barbara, could you call the roll? Five votes are needed.
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 0 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—With nine yes, two absent, we've approved the Supplemental
• Budget.
7. TR-2009-35 -A Resolution Establishing the School Street Barn Revolving
Fund in Accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44§53E%
for Maintenance and Improvement of the School Street Barn (Mayor)
(Referred to the Finance Committee) (Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—However our Auditor has indicated to us that this is not the
appropriate way to do it. So I would ask for a motion and then I would ask for a no vote
and we will be getting another ordinance. Moved by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by
Councilors Cavallo and Rheault. Any discussion as to why we need to do this?
Councilor Young?
Councilor Young--Thank you. Again we did since Debbie Dachos was kind enough to
attend our August 131h meeting last week, even though as well as the Mayor and the
administration, the Finance Committee did agree to discuss the matter. And while we
• agree wholeheartedly with the Auditor's recommendation and advised them as you
probably saw or know to go back and re-do this the appropriate way,the Finance
Committee I believe with a 4-0 vote is in favor of this measure when it comes back the
with the correct rhyme and verse so I would ask that we put that in the record as the
official or unofficial Finance Committee stance on this so that we don't,there'll be no
need to reconvene the Finance Committee on this matter in the future unless something
materially changes on the item between now and then. Thank you.
President Letellier—That sounds fair to me. You're welcome. Any other discussion?
All right, so a no vote is needed to take the item off the item. It will be resubmitted as a
gift account. Barbara, could you call the roll?
ROLL CALL—9 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—With nine no, two absent, you've defeated the item.
Item 7. Report o Council Committees
President Letellier—It's been suggested that they be tabled due to the temperature in
here. Do we have such a motion? Moved by Councilors Cavallo, Rossi and Rheault,
seconded by Councilors Calabrese and Perry and so on. Barbara, could we have a roll on
tabling the sub-committee reports?
14
•
•
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 0 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—Thanks.
•
1. Council Sub-Committees:
(a) Rules& Regulations—Councilor Calabrese
(b) Utilities & Street Acceptance—Councilor Mineo
• (c) Licenses —Councilor Rossi
(d) Public Safety—Councilor Perry
(e) Ordinances —Councilor Rheault
(f) Zoning Review—Councilor Messick
(g) Finance—Councilor Young
(h) Industrial Relations—Councilor Perry
(i) Ad Hoc Sewers—Councilor Rossi
0) Ad Hoc Recreation —Councilor Bitzas
(k) Ad Hoc Condominiums —Councilor Rossi
(1) Ad Hoc Personnel—Councilor Rossi
(m) Ad Hoc CPA—Councilor Simpson
(n) Ad Hoc Master Plan —Councilor Cavallo
2. Report from City Auditor
President Letellier—I think because she made the trip, we should give her the courtesy
letting her do her report. So, Cheryl, if you'd like to join us? Do I have a motion to go
into Committee as a Whole? Second? All in favor of going into Committee as a Whole,
please signify by saying Ay. Opposed? Thank you. We're in Committee as a Whole.
Cheryl, go ahead.
• 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 Principle Clerk has
processed 5,000 payments during the past quarter. Our Fiscal Year end was June 30"' and
she processed fiscal year 2009 through July 151". In the payroll area,the Town switched
from a weekly to a bi-weekly pay in July. The Payroll Administrative Assistant inputted
all the step increases in July for the new fiscal year. In the financials area, we currently
have two fiscal years open in the computer. I am working on the 2009 fiscal year end
adjustments and preparing the year end financial reports for the Town, Department of
Revenue and our independent auditors. These reports include the Department of
Revenue year end checklist, which includes the balance sheet, cash reconciliations,
outstanding receivables, debt statement and a detailed analysis of the General Fund
balance,the Schedule A which summarizes all the town activities to the DOR,the
Schedule 1 and 19 which summarizes school activities to the Department of Education,
and the CP 1, 2 and 3 which summarizes Community Preservation activities. I anticipate
• that the Fiscal Year End report will be completed and forwarded to you in September.
When everything is completed our independent auditors, Powers & Sullivan,will
perform our annual audit and the DOR will certify our free cash. Other miscellaneous
15
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things that our department has been busy working on during this quarter are journal and
budget entries, monthly reports, recording fixed assets, balancing accounts receivables,
attending staff and 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
completing the Fiscal 2009 year end. Have a good evening.
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 0 NO,2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—Thank you very much, Cheryl. Any questions or discussion from
the Councilors? Okay, motion to come out of Committee as a Whole? All in favor of
coming out of Committee as a Whole please signify by saying Ay? Opposed? Thank
you very much.
Item 8. Elections
None.
Item 9. Public Hearings
None.
Item 10. Old Business
1. TOR-2009-4 -An Ordinance Adding Section 3.8.5 to the Code of the
• Town of Agawam Establishing the Agawam Energy Commission.
(Councilors Ca(abrese,Letellier and Messick) (2/3)(Referred to Ordinance
Committee)
President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Rheault, seconded by
Councilor Perry. Do we have an Ordinance Committee report?
Councilor Rheault— Seeing that I, Councilor Cavallo graciously agreed to take the
minutes of the meeting and I'll turn it over to him because I can't read his writing.
President Letellier—Fair enough. Councilor Cavallo?
Councilor Cavallo—I'd like to admit my computer crashed so that's why they weren't
typed but they will come in a typed form but the Ordinance Sub-Committee met on
Friday, August 14"' at 2.00pm in the Peirce Room of the Agawam Public Library.
Members present Chairperson, Donald Rheault and Councilor Paul Cavallo. Absent was
Councilor Calabrese. Other people in attendance —Anthony Sylvia, the Superintendent
of DPW, Councilor Messick, Corinne Wingard and Jay Berger and on the agenda, the
first item that you just described, we were concerned, oh? I have you right here, I'm sorry
Louis Russo, I'm sorry, Louis Russo was there, I apologize. There were two items that
we were concerned with and this was brought up at our last meeting. The first one and
• the councilors were concerned about it being an advisory group and making sure that it's
advisory and Jill a member of the Council and a sponsor of this Resolution spoke and
16
•
provided us with ample information when she referred to under Section C, items 2 and 4
where if you look at that and she passed you out the new one,which is revised,but this
wasn't revised, 2 and 4, 92 indicates `advise, assist and cooperate' and you can read the
rest of that so the words are there. And item 4 `recommend city wide' so we were
satisfied with that explanation and then we went on to the second point and again, I wrote
the revision and Jill provided you with a new one tonight in the resolution. Our concern
was that the Council does not appoint department heads,the Mayor appoints department
heads, they work for her. They don't work for us. Therefore, if you look at the new
version that Jill passed out, it's under Membership B, it states specifically `the Council
consists of eleven members, commission membership shall include the Superintendent of
Public Works, Director of Planning, I'm just going quickly, of Community Development,
Inspector of Buildings, and the Building Maintenance Director and their designee, and
four citizen members who shall be appointed by the Mayor.' That was not specific. Not
• it's specific and as a result, there was some other discussion after the meeting that may
come up but as a result are bringing forth a positive recommendation based on these two
changes. And I believe, I think I included everything Councilor Rheault, unless there's
something I may have left out? That's the report.
r Councilor Rheault—The reason for the concern for being an advisory as well as the
dialogue on the department heads is that I have a strong feeling, even though the City
Solicitor said it does not interfere with Collective Bargaining, I believe that the
Constitution dictates that we are a legislative branch of government and have no authority
to put any department head on this. But now as I'm reading this again, I'm gonna be a
devil's advocate here but if you read it, the way it reads we're still identifying the
department heads"and four citizen members" so I'm not sure the language yet is clear
enough and I know that that's the language that we, but as I see it in print, it can be
interpreted two ways and I throw that out to the Council and that's in Section B if you
want to read that for a moment and see if you read it the way I'm reading it. To me it
reads that the four citizen members shall be appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by
the City Council.
President Letellier—That's what it says. Yea.
• Councilor Rheault—But we're still mentioning the four department heads up front.
President Letellier--No, it says `and four citizen members shall be appointed by the
Mayor and confirmed by the City Council'.
Councilor Cavallo—Through the Chair, 1 think at the meeting, we said that we would
• include them both together, wasn't that true Councilor Messick?
Councilor Messick--Yes,this is exactly what we said we were gonna right in the
meeting.
•
17
•
Councilor Cavallo —Yea, and so it would include that all of them were gonna be
confirmed by us but appointed—you really don't need a comma in front of and. You can
get rid of it, grammatically you don't need it but it is included.
Councilor Rheault—That's probably what threw me off.
Councilor Cavallo - Yea, I think that's what threw him off was the comma.
S President Letellier--No, I think you do need the comma because the Council can't
confirm a department head. That's already a hiring from the Mayor. The Council can
only confirm the citizen appointments.
Councilor Rheault—But we're dictating in the language here that the department heads
be on that commission.
President Letellier--And we have a ruling from the Solicitor—
Councilor Rhcault—But that's for collective bargaining.
Councilor Cavallo —I don't want to argue grammatically but there's no comma needed
before and because it just joins together the two groups into an independent clause. So I
think if you got rid of the comma,there's no pause. So you could do this now, get rid of
the comma and then it combines all the four, and the four to eight people, all of whom
should be appointed by the Mayor. Why don't we do that? `All of whom' -
Councilor Calabrese— Yea. Right.
President Letellier--Because the Council can't appoint department heads.
Councilor Young—Right. We're only—
President Letellier—Wait. We can't—
Councilor Cavallo—Confirm. Yes, that's what it says here. That's what I said.
President Letellier—We can't confirm or appoint department heads. We can only
confirm the appointment of the four citizens.
Councilor Cavallo—Okay, then just put a period then after—that's the way I had written
• it. I had written it with simply the department heads and then do the four citizen
members separate. Make two sentences out of it. That's the only way out.
President Letellier— So, a period after the designee, `additionally, four citizen members
shall be appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council.'
l8
Councilor Cavallo—Right. Exactly. It's not really redundant but at least it solves the
problem.
President Letellier—So we get rid of the comma and the who. So we have `designee.
(cross out and) Additionally, four citizen members shall be appointed by the Mayor and
confirmed by the Council.' Barbara, I am writing it down on the original.
Councilor Cavallo --That will take care of it.
President Letellier—So, do we have, so that would have to go under amendments.
Motion to amend by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by Councilor Messick. Any further
discussion on the amendment of the grammar, until we get to the body of the item?
Barbara, could you call the roll on amending this grammatical amendment we've made?
r Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see your light on. Your light was still on and I thought you were
done, so I'm sorry. Councilor Rossi?
Councilor Rossi—Yes, I think originally I made the point that I was not in favor of
including department heads in this creation of this commission. I'm not opposed to the
« commission itself, you know if you want to put eleven members on a commission to be
appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by this Council, that's fine with me. I don't care
how you word this, this thing here in my mind says the commission members shall
include, it doesn't say may include, it says shall include the Superintendent of Public
Works, designee, Planning Director and so on and so on which means that if we make
this ordinance, this ordinance is going to read that part of this eleven member shall
include those department heads. And as it was pointed out before, I know it was pointed
out by me, it is NOT the job of this Council to direct the department heads. It is the
Mayor's job under management rights to control their hours of work, duties and
responsibilities and all this other stuff and other conditions of employment. Not ours and
as I think the President just alluded to,we cannot confirm department heads. Why should
they even be included in here? If department heads are wanted on this commission and if
the Mayor wants to appoint those people as part of it and it doesn't conflict with their
bargaining agreement, that's okay with me but I don't think this Council should be
adding it in any ordinance form that requires these people as conditions of their
employment to be a part of this commission. I think we're asking for trouble here in that.
The other thing that I'm not too particularly crazy about is the fact that this thing here is
gonna accumulate members as we go along. If somebody comes to these meetings and
they come more than three times,we're gonna start accumulating members over here.
We could snowball these numbers into a couple hundred,thousand, or whatever,there
seems to be no limit as to what we can have on these things and the only criteria is that
they attend three meetings and they're automatically considered to be an energy
commission member whether they have voting rights or not, they're still a member and I
think it's just, in my view, I think it's a little bit over the top. I'm not in favor of that.
I'm in favor of giving you the commission. I think eleven is a little bit too strong but if
you want to get eleven I'll be willing to compromise on eleven but I will not compromise
i on this Council my vote anyway to direct department heads to be a part of this. I don't
19
•
think it's our responsibility to do that and I'm not in favor of snowballing other members
on this committee.
M President Letellier—Thank you. I had asked for discussion on the amendment. That's
why I didn't call on you. No, the amendment was the grammatical amendment. That's
why I didn't call on your light.
Councilor Rossi - Well, it's part of the amendment, the grammatical—
i
President Letellier—Oh, you're right. You're saying you need the first line, you don't
need the second line. All right. Any other discussion on the amendment? So the
amendment that has been moved and seconded is just as a reminder is to end the first
sentence of the membership B, after the word `designee'. Get rid of the word `and' and
« add"additionally" get rid of the comma and the 'who'. So the second sentence will be
"Additionally four citizen members shall be appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by
the City Council." That's the motion on the floor. We need five votes to pass it.
Barbara, could you call the roll?
ROLL CALL—6 YES (Councilors Calabrese, Cavallo, Letellier,Messick, Perry,
and Young),3 NO (Councilors Rheault, Rossi and Simpson),2 ABSENT
(Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—You have approved the amendment six yes, three no, any other
discussion on the underlying item? No? Seeing none, Barbara, could, I'm sorry,
Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson —Thank you. Can we, on the second page where it says "in
addition,the commission may designate at large members who will be non voting
members after attending three regular meetings." I don't see the need for that. I'd like to
« propose an amendment to strike that.
President Letellier—Motion to amend by Councilor Simpson, do we have a second?
Second by Councilor Rossi. Any discussion? Yes, Councilor Messick?
Councilor Messick—The reason for that is if you think about the Cultural Council,there
are voting members on the Cultural Council. There are an awful lot of people who just
come to certain events that they're enthusiastic about and help out and those people are
considered members but they are non voting members so this is the same sort of thing.
Part of what will be going on with the Energy Commission is that there will be events
such as Earth Day where we need twenty five people to help and if we have members we
can call on who maybe don't come to every meeting, maybe are only helping with Earth
Day and that's a good thing, they can be involved, they can be so-called members but
they're not voting members. And it's just a way to have people be included in the
process and to actually have a bigger pool of volunteers. That's the thought process
behind that.
20
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor.Simpson?
Councilor Simpson—The thing of it is is that if you still have these people come, I know
that they would be non-voting members, you could get certain meetings that you've got
so many people throwing in ideas, yes, at the end they cannot vote. Why can't that be
handled by okay,we're having,the Commission says you know this is gonna be our
Earth Day Celebration put a thing in looking for volunteers, why can't you just have
people volunteer like you do in the schools—PTO—there are some people that weren't
considered members of the PTO but came out to volunteer. I just don't see why there's a
need to have that I mean eleven is a large commission as it is and even though they've
not vote, you're gonna have, you could end up having so many people throwing ...I just
think it's too large. I just don't see the need. I can see the need for volunteers. I
understand that part of it but I would think that would be a call from the commission
putting something in the paper or in writing saying looking for volunteers and people if
they want to do it would I'm sure gladly volunteer without having to be called the
commission. So that's just my thought process.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Cavallo?
i
Councilor Cavallo - Oh, I'm sorry.
President Letellier—No,we're on Councilor Simpson's amendment which was
seconded. Any discussion on Councilor Simpson's amendment? No? Barbara, could
you call the roll? Councilor Simpson's amendment would be to delete the sentence `In
addition, the commission may designate at-large members who will be non-voting
members after attending three regular meetings.' Five votes are needed on the
amendment.
ROLL CALL —5 YES (Councilors Cavallo,.Perry, Rheault, Rossi, Simpson), 4 NO
* (Councilors Calabrese, Letellier, Messick and Young), and 2 ABSENT (Councilors
Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—With five yes, four no, and two absent, you have approved a
second amendment. I'm just writing all this down. Any further discussion as amended
for a second time? Councilor Rossi?
Councilor Rossi—Yes, I would like to make an amendment if I could to have `Item B—
Membership' —the commission shall consist of eleven members PERIOD and then pick
up again—three members of the City Council and so on and eliminate that portion with
the department heads will be included so that the commission shall consist of eleven
members period and then pick up with three members of the City Council shall be
designated by President of the Council, citizens members shall be selected to represent a
diverse range so on, so on, and so on and all be appointed by the Mayor subject to
confirmation by Council.
21
President Letellier—So you want it to say it consists of eleven members but you're only
delineating seven of them?
Councilor Rossi—Yes, they can put anybody they want it those eleven members but I
don't want to designate them. My issue is to strike `including department heads'. If they
want to put them in, if the Mayor wants to appoint them,that's okay with me.
President Letellier—Do we have a second? Seconded by Councilor Rhea-alt.
Councilor Rheault—Yea, I am totally in favor of the Commission but there's something
that's hanging on me that's not comfortable. I think Councilor Rossi's language—the
commission shall consist of eleven members—that stays then to offset that you would
have to say that if the department heads come out of there, eight citizen member shall be
�1 appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council, and three members of the
City Council shall be designated. That would mean the eleven stays as the same number.
I'd just like to comment again. If you think of the rationale of the way I'm thinking—we
have a clear definition and separation of powers. We are legislators. We are not
administrators and we SHALL not interfere with the administration. That'd be just like
us saying okay Anthony, we're gonna give you a raise next week. We don't have the
authority to do that. That's an administrative function even though he certainly would
love it, I'm sure. I don't think we've got the jurisdiction to appoint any department head
and that question was not asked of the attorney,the only question that was asked was
regarding collective bargaining but as legislators, we have no right to interfere with the
administration and that would be absolutely interfering with the administration, in my
judgment.
President Letellier—Any other discussion? Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson —I didn't know if it would be easier because with the other way it's
stated it kind of leaves it way open so if instead we did the commission shall consist of
eleven members. Commission members where it says shall include —MAY INCLUDE
so it's kind of left up to the—
President Letellier—Well, that's a totally separate amendment. That's not what
A Councilor Rossi proposed.
Councilor Rossi—I would be opposed to —
Councilor Simpson—No, I'm sorry, I was saying wouldn't that help, I was kind of
doing a dialogue, I'm sorry, maybe I should have gone through you to Councilor Rossi
saying if that would make it easier to take out the shall and do the may, I'm still kind of
talking about what he has proposed.
Councilor Rossi—Through the chair?
President Letellier—Certainly.
22
Councilor Rossi—I would agree to go back and take the words shall and may included,
that way there it's not mandatory by this ordinance if the Mayor wanted to put them on
there. But shall means that they shall be included.
President Letellier--All right so are we rescinding the original third amendment?
Councilor Rossi —I would go back and rescind that third amendment and go back and put
• that the commission members `may' include.
President Letellier—So Councilor Rheault needs to go back and rescind his second on
the third amendment. Okay, so Councilor Rheault is withdrawing his second to the third
amendment and we have a new third amendment which says that"commission members
�l MAY include the Superintendent of Public Works, etc." That's amendment number
three. Do we have a second on amendment number three? Second by Councilor
Simpson? Any discussion on amendment number three? Councilor Young?
Councilor Young—It's more of a point of information, could Councilor Cavallo tell me
again what the Ordinance Committee's vote on this was? 2-0? Who were the two?
Councilor Cavallo - Councilor Rheault and I.
Councilor Young—Okay. So you guys have recommended that it be approved as
written? Is that what that committee's recommendation was?
Councilor Cavallo—Yes, I did. That's what came you before you tonight.
Councilor Young—Okay, well, based on, I could say it was my age or maybe it's the
heat, but I've lost total track of all the amendments and I highly doubt that at the end of
all the amendments even if I could keep track the Ordinance is still gonna accomplish
what the sponsors intended. So I would ask or just a suggestion would be to just send it
back I guess and I'm a little frustrated that it comes, you know the Ordinance Committee
has met several times, one last time it came back with approval and now we've ripped it
up one more time. I still am unclear. Here's a bunch of people willing to volunteer their
time for some good. Right now we've got nobody doing this and now we're worried
about more than eleven people doing this? I just don't believe it so you know I've had
about enough of this for tonight. I would highly recommend we send this back to
whoever and maybe we can redraft it in simpler form so that we can either vote it up or
down. I don't know what we're accomplishing at this point.
i
Councilor Cavallo—Through the chair?
President Letellier--Well. No, we're going to let the other people who had their lights
on who haven't spoken yet, speak. Councilor Perry hasn't spoken yet. Councilor Perry?
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Councilor Perry—Yes, thank you Madam President. I think what we're doing, and I
agree with Bob, I mean I am getting a little confused myself in regards to the amendment
that's being forth to us. Could it be as simple as `the Mayor shall appoint four
department heads"—that clears us from it. .lust as the Mayor will appoint citizens. You
don't have to have that the Council is going to approve those department heads like it
states for the citizens but I think you need to leave that up to us. Are you following what
I'm saying? In other words it puts the oneness on the Mayor. It's as simple as just
changing, instead of specifying the department heads, the Mayor shall appoint four
• department heads to the commission and recommend to the Council four citizen
members, shall be appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council. So it
could be as simple as stating that the Mayor shall appoint four department heads--period.
There's no oneness on us whatsoever.
i President Letellier—You're still telling the Mayor what to do. You're still telling
another body what to do. What Councilor Perry is saying is the same thing Councilor
Rheault is objecting to by saying one branch is telling another branch what to do. That's
what we do when we pass the budget. That's what we do when we write a letter saying
Inspector of Health you need to inspect this. Inspector of Buildings, you need to inspect
this. We do that all the time. We do it routinely. So why it's suddenly an objection now
after we've been doing it for year after year after year, is a little beyond me. We're
famous for Barbara, send a letter to Department ABC telling him or her to do XYZ PDQ
and then suddenly now we're opposed to it. It just seems a little hypocritical if I could
say that. Councilor Messick your light was on?
Councilor Messick—Frankly I'm flummoxed. I too thought we had the legislation
ironed out as of the Ordinance Meeting and I've been very cooperative as far as making
amendments other people would like to see. I would not be opposed to changing the
membership to say `the commission members may include the Superintendent of Public
Works'. The Mayor will be appointing them anyway so I don't see how that makes a
* substantial difference however I think it is very important that the department heads who
will be involved in this,who will be asked to provide information and who will be
working with the buildings directly and with the actual physical work of the commission,
I think it's really important that when we create the commission we designate that these
are the department heads that need to be involved or else there's no point in doing this.
r As far as having eleven members, Councilor Young, there are approximately ten people
doing this right now but usually there's only two or three people doing any specific task
so part of the reason we want to do this is because people like to be appointed to
commissions. You're creating a position that has the power to say such as the letters we
send out to the Board of Health or you know, or the various commissions. This
commission can advise, can gather the information, can make recommendations. I don't
think eleven is too large a number. As far as the non-voting members, I don't see how
we could possibly have too many members of an organization that is trying to do this
amount of good for the town but that's my opinion. So going back to every amendment
that we've talked about so far I think what it comes down to is our two Councilors, Rossi
and Rheault, objecting to wanting to tell Department Heads what to do. So if we would
like to make an amendment that would clear the whole thing up as Councilor Perry said, I
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would be happy to say commission members MAY include the Superintendent of Public
Works, and then we can just have the Mayor department heads but I think it is very
i important to list them in here. I would be opposed to having them taken out.
President Letellier—Well, I believe the, I believe the amendment on the floor is to
change the word shall to may.
Councilor Messick-That's fine.
•
President Letellier—All right. Any discussion on that amendment? Councilor
Messick?
Councilor Messick—Sorry.
r
Councilor Cavallo—I don't know if this is a discussion on the amendment but I'd Iike to
comment seeing we've had three or four meetings, may I make a comment? The only
reason why I didn't object to the four members being named okay in the resolution is
when we had the meeting and I don't know who was there, they were present okay and if
there was a problem with that, they're in a quasi-union, they do have a union do they not?
Wouldn't they have gone to the Mayor and say look it these people are gonna propose
that we're gonna be on this commission and therefore we're gonna file a grievance. I'm
having difficulty with this, okay, because if the Solicitor's is saying it's okay to do this,
to name them. Then I'm saying to myself if they were objecting to it, then they would
file a grievance. I don't know. I'm confused. You know what I'm saying, Councilor, all
due respect, through the Chair to Councilor Rheault—
President Letellier—I know exactly what you're saying. There is an actual, it's not a
quasi-union, there is an actual union and they have not hesitated in the past to file
grievances. There's been meetings. No department heads have said it's not in my
purview. I'm not doing it. As much as we understand they are in favor of it. But the
item on the floor is to change shall to may so.
Councilor Cavallo—If I could present an analogous situation when I was on the
Committee, we would appoint committees and a School Committee member might be on
i it and a principal and let's say a guidance counselor but they didn't go to a union and say
that they didn't want to be on it because it was in their purview. You know what I'm
saying? I don't know. I don't know what to tell you but I'm just trying to tell you, I
agree with Councilor Young, we've batted this around four or five times now and I really
would like to see it come to some final conclusion tonight.
•
President Lctellier—All right. Do you have a comment on amendment#3?
Councilor Rheault—No, I think it's fine.
• President Letellier—No, so amendment 3 is that on the second sentence of B
Membership, commission members MAY include. We're striking shall and inserting
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may. Any discussion on the amendment? Five votes are needed. Barbara, could you call
the roll?
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 0 NO,2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier--With nine yes, two absent, you have unanimously approved the
third amendment. Any further discussion on the item as amended three times? Barbara,
could you call the roll on the second reading? So remember folks we'll have a third
version with all these amendments typed in, so this is the second reading. Barbara, could
you call the roll on the second reading? Five votes are needed to approve the second
reading.
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 0 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—So the second reading as amended three times has been approved.
Thank you.
2. TOR-2009-5 -An Ordinance Amending Section 3-9 of the Code of the
Town of Agawam Changing the Starting Time for Regular Town Council
Meetings from 7:30pm to 7:00pm (Councilor Cavallo) (1/3)(Referred to
Ordinance Committee)
President Letellier—Do we have a motion?
Councilor Cavallo—Well, do you want a report?
President Letellier—Well, first we need to move the item. Moved by Councilor
Rheault, seconded by Councilor Simpson. Councilor Cavallo, do you have your report?
Councilor Cavallo—I took notes also here and by a vote of 2-0 the sub-committee voted
to recommend TOR-2009-5 and this is not in the resolution but Councilor Rheault said if
it does pass it should take affect of October of 2009 and I have no other comments to
make. Maybe I'm tired.
President Letellier—Any discussion on the ordinance? I'm going to step out of the
chair because I do have a few things to say. So Councilor Calabrese? Oh, you want to
go first?
Councilor Calabrese—Yea, I'll just make a quick comment. Yea, I actually am not in
favor of this particular item. I know thirty minutes probably doesn't sound Iike a whole
Iot of time to a lot of people but for those of us who do have a day job before we come
here, it's very, sometimes very difficult to get out of work at 5:00 or 5:30, you know
come home get changed, settle the family, we frequently hold sub-committee meetings
just prior to the 7:30 start so therefore I will be voting no.
r President Letellier—Do we need to actually switch? All right. I know the time is late
but and many of my objections are similar to what Councilor Calabrese is saying. There
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are many members that have day jobs, sometimes have a hard time getting here. We
want to go home, see our families, have dinner with our families but more importantly,
. we have sub-committee meetings and we also have meetings with attorneys in executive
sessions and you need that time for those executive sessions. You don't want to feel so
rushed. The other point I want to make is we have an election in November. Why should
we be changing the starting time in October? If the new Council that comes in wishes to
do so, that's certainly fine and they have every right to do that but we're changing a rule
that's been in place for years that the citizens are used to, the newspapers are used to. We
have our own Council Administrative Assistant who has her own family that I'm sure
she'd like to go home and see before she has to come to the meeting and the half an hour
quite frankly gives you a little bit more time to prepare for the meeting. We come in and
we also, don't forget you come in and you have four, five, sometimes six things on your
table that you have to look at. So if the meeting starts at 7:00, you have a sub-committee
! at 6:30, you've got to get here early to look at all the extra stuff on your table, that half an
hour on many nights makes a difference. Are there nights when.it makes no difference?
Yes,there are but on many nights it makes a difference so I'll be voting no to this and I
would hope you would join me. Any other discussion? Councilor Rheault? No?
Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson--Thank you. I'lI be brief as the time is getting late and the
temperature is warm in here. I'm in favor of this. I know the School Committee,
Councilor Cavallo could probably say I don't know if he was on the committee at the
time they changed their meeting.
Councilor Cavallo —I made the motion.
Councilor Simpson —Oh, okay,they changed their meeting from 7.30 to 7:00 and I
know they have pre meetings and executive sessions and what not. Many meetings do
start at 7:00 and I think, I have a day job also. I have a job that I have to getup very early
! for in the morning so sometimes on the other end, it's nice to be able to be home a little
bit earlier in the evening to also have some family time and not be late. Fortunately,
lately we haven't had late meetings but I remember the days of not getting out of here
until 11:00, 12:00 midnight at night. So I think that half an hour makes a difference and
it does bring it into sync with our School Committee who is also at 7:00 and if you look
! around and kind of look through some different towns, a lot of them do start their
meetings at 7:00. So that seems to be a popular meeting time so I'm in favor of this.
Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any further discussion? No? Barbara, could you call
! the roll? Five votes are needed for the first reading.
ROLL CALL—5 YES (Councilors Cavallo, Perry, Rheault, Rossi, and Simpson), 4
NO (Councilors Calabrese, Letellier,Messick, and Young),2 ABSENT (Councilors
Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—With five yes, four no, you've passed the first reading.
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3. TO-2009-27 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Junk
Dealer—John Rosati d/b/a John's Trucking of Agawam,Inc.,415 Silver
Street,Agawam, MA. (Clerk)(Referred to the License Committee) (Majority
of those present and voting)
President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by
Councilor Rheault. Do we have a License.Committee report, Councilor Rossi?
Councilor Rossi—Yes, we do. The License Committee met and we voted to give
unanimous approval to the City Council to pass this renewal.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any discussion? Councilor Cavallo? Seeing norie,
Barbara, could you call the roll? Five votes are needed to approve the license.
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 0 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
President Letellier—Thank you.
4. TO-2009-2$ -Voucher List for Massachusetts Municipal Association
Dues ($4,$27.00) (Majority of thosepresent and voting)
President Letellier—I'm going to start passing around a voucher list now. I know
* we've gone over this many, many times. Do we have a motion? Any discussion on the
MMA dues? No. Barbara,could you call the roll?
D-
ROLL CALL--S YES, 1. NO (Councilor Perry), 2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and
Mineo)
President Letellier—With eight yes, one no, two absent, you've approved the MMA
dues and the voucher is being passed around.
5. TO-2009-29 -Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Weekly
Amusement License--Panana's Grill &Bar,Inc.,916 Suffield Street,
Agawam,MA.(Clerk) (Referred to the License Committee) (Majority of
those present and voting)
President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by
Councilor Rheault. Any discussion? Do we have a report from the License Committee?
Councilor Rossi— Yes, we do and again the License Committee met and voted
unanimously to send a positive recommendation to the City Council.
President Letellier--Thank you. Barbara, could you please call the roll?
ROLL CALL —9 YES, 0 NO,2 ABSENT (Councilors Bitzas and Mineo)
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President Letellier—With nine yes,two absent, you've approved the Panana's Grill &
Bar License.
Item IL New Business
1. TR-2009-36 -A Resolution Repealing the Community Preservation Fund
under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44B,.Sections 3-7(Councilor
Calabrese) (Majority of those present and voting)
•
President Letellier—I'm not sure if this should be a resolution or an ordinance. Did you
look into this, under the state statute?
Councilor Calabrese—Yes, and I actually got back a memo and a revised resolution
• from Chris Johnson. He did have a chance to look at it. He adjusted some of the
wording and he did say a resolution was appropriate.
President Letellier—Okay, thank you. Okay, that'll be next agenda.
Item 1Z Any other matter that may legally come before the City Council.
President Letellier—We'll start with Councilor Simpson.
Councilor Simpson—Thank you. Just want to say enjoy what's left of the summer cuz
it's going fast. Have a good night.
•
President Letellier—Thank you. I know it finally got here. Councilor Cavallo?
Councilor Cavallo—Yes, I have a question maybe you can have Barbara send a letter to
the appropriate person. Up in Feeding Hills,the sidewalk in front of the new Westfield
Bank,there is none and it's funny because I've gotten a couple phone calls saying"Why
does the sidewalk end at Shoemaker Lane and South Westfield Street and yet when you
cross the street there's no sidewalk in front of the bank or that building?" I'm curious.
My question is didn't the plans provide for a sidewalk? There seems to be a lot of
construction that goes on where sidewalks are provided for in the plans. Would that go to
• the Engineering Department, Superintendent or does it go to Debbie Dachos? I'm not
sure.
President Letellier—Have you tried to go to Town Hall and look at the plans?
• Councilor Cavallo—Pardon?
President Letellier—No. I'm asking you to inquire for me. You can get a hold a
Debbie Dachos or someone?
President Letellier—Sure. We can do that.
Councilor Cavallo—And ask her- ? "
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President Letellier—Okay. Councilor Rossi?
Councilor Rossi—Yes,just briefly. I don't know if you all have a copy of this letter
from the Mayor in your packet? I guess it was directed towards Larry Litton and in it she
discusses transient parking and I just wanted to read in part, it says that `the City Council
is the legislative body for Agawam and I strongly suggest you raise your concerns
directly with them.' I don't, I couldn't believe I read it. I'm just stumped. I'm
• dumbfounded. This is not a City Council issue. This is an issue that lies with the
Mayor's office. An enforcement issue and I resent the fact that she's passing the buck
over to this City Council and saying that it's our responsibility to create legislation to
relieve those safety issues that he's raising with her office.
• President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Rheault?
Councilor Rheault—Ditto.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Perry?
• Councilor Perry—Nothing this evening.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Messick?
Councilor Messick—I'd like to thank my fellow councilors for their votes tonight for the
Energy Commission and I appreciate all the hard work that has actually gone into this
piece of legislation and if you have a pool, you should probably in it right now. Thank
you.
President Letellier—We should be in it. Thank you. Councilor Young?
•
Councilor Young—Nothing this evening.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Calabrese
r Councilor Calabrese--No. It's too hot.
President Letellier—Thank you everyone. Have a safe rest of the summer and we'll see
you in September. Bye-bye. Oh, motion to adjourn? All in favor please signify by
saying Ay? Opposed? Thank you.
•
Adiournment.
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