CC MTG MINUTES JULY 27 2009 REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING OF THE AGAW"CITY COUNCIL
July 27 2009
President Letellier—Good evening. Thank you, Thank you all for coming. Welcome
to the Agawam City Council meeting for Monday, July 27, 2009.
Item 1. Can's Speak Time
President Letellier—If you could all be quiet so you can hear your fellow speakers, I'd
appreciate that. Each speaker will have five minutes at the podium. The Administrative
Assistant to the Council will keep the time. She will let you know when you have one
minute to go. Please state your name, your address and the subject upon which you'll be
speaking. We have approximately a three page list. The first speaker is Allison Bissette.
Allison? Thank you.
Allison Bissette—HelIo. My name is AIIison Bissette of 149 Roosevelt Avenue. I'm
. speaking upon the budget, Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the City Council and
the community. I've been a member of this community for all my life. Several months
ago I came to the School Committee in support of Project S.E.E., a program for advanced
students from fourth through sixth grade. The School Committee listened to my concerns
of my fellow students and I and they invited me to attend their budget workshops and
other public meetings. I thought each member worked very hard to take into
consideration all of the public's concerns and then create a budget that is fair to save
teachers and support programs with all the state's budget cuts around them. The
proposed education budget that they came up with in my opinion is reasonable and fair. I
am here today to ask the Council to invest in our future by supporting the education of
our future leaders—us, the children of this community. Thank you.
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President Letellier--Thank you, Miss Bessette. Nice job, young lady, nice job. Next
we have Rick Bellico.
Rick Bellico —Rick Bellico, 51 Park Edge Drive, Feeding Hills. That's a hard act to
follow. Very nice job. I wish I was as prepared as you are. I'm here tonight to talk
about the CPA and I want to thank the citizens, the residents of this town, for the support
of the CPA—the Community Preservation Act. The purpose of the CPA is historic
preservation, open space preservation and housing and for the minimum cost that it costs
each individual resident and the projects have occurred because of the CPA in regards to
historic preservation on open space—these are projects that would never have happened
and we're here tonight for the budget under the constraints of our economy. These are
projects that would never have happened in this town if it wasn't for the CPA and I
firmly believe that this town is far better off with the projects that have been approved by
the CPA because of the CPA and because of the residents of this town. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Mary Young.
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Mary Young—Thank you. Good evening. My name is Mary Young and I live at 184
Coyote Circle in Feeding Hills. I too am here to ask you this evening to not make any
further cuts to the School Department budget. I know this is a tight budget. Money is
tight for all of us, personally and professionally and I do think that you are doing the best
you can to accommodate all the town departments and services so that we don't have to
raise taxes or lay off any town employees. I also know that most of us here have been
impacted in some way by the economic recession we've been in this past year or so. So
yes, money is tight. It certainly is not so bad that I can't put food on the table but you can
• bet that if my family was down to its last dollar, there wouldn't be a second hesitation of
ours to spend that dollar on the needs of our child not on ourselves. For the most part
except for this brave young lady, our children are generally not able to stand before a
group like this and talk about budgetary or fiscal matters so I'm here on behalf of my son
and every other pupil in our school system. School is not a choice for them. It is not a
f luxury privilege like going to the state swimming pool. It's a fundamental right that they
all have and yes, it requires funding. We all know that. I have not seen the actual budget
but even without seeing it, I feel very strongly that except for emergency services such as
police and fire fighters, there is not a single line item in that budget that is more important
than the budget allocated to our public schools. I also believe that children should never
bear the burdens of adults. So for you to further reduce the funds for our schools, you
will be indirectly asking each and every child in the school system to pay the price for
problems created by local, municipal and federal government officials. These kids had
nothing to do with the state of our economy and I would hate to see them pay the price
for it. Are you really willing to roll the dice and hope that even with further cuts, that our
schools and our students will be as successful as they are today? I'm not. Anyone who
has seen the School Department website or visited one of our schools has no doubt seen
the motto "Put children first". These are not simply empty buzz words or a sound bite for
the evening news. These words represent a philosophy very strongly held by Dr.
Czajkowski and shared with almost every parent and educator that I know. If we take
more money away from our schools, we stand a very great chance of failing to put
• children first. Instead let's truly put our money where our mouths are and unequivocally
tonight "Put Our Children First". There's an important law that also addresses your
responsibility to our children and that is the No Child Left Behind Law. The focus of this
law is to help our students, help our schools and our children, get the best education
possible. It sets forth standardized testing and other methods of evaluating the work of
our educators and administrators. I believe I'm correct when I say that from inception to
present we have consistently received high scores on what is called our NCLB report
card. I doubt strongly we can continue at that level of success if you continue to cut the
school budget. Please do not fail to live up to your obligations fiscally and morally to put
children first and to leave no child behind. I'm sure I speak for virtually all parents with
• school age children when I ask you to please think long and hard before you make any
further budget cuts. One last thing,I'm sure many of you have seen this quote and as I
thought about what I was going to say here tonight, it caught my eye and helped me to
remember both as a parent and an educator what it is we're really here and what we're
doing tonight and the quote is this—"A hundred years from now it will not matter what
my bank account was, what sort of house I lived in or the kind of car I drove but the
world may be a different place because I was important in the life of a child." You have
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an opportunity to be just that important tonight and not if for the life of one child but for
the education of every child. I know it's easy to get bogged down and lose sight of the
light at the end of the tunnel, but you have a chance tonight- I'd go so far as to say you
• have an obligation tonight—to be that light at the end of the tunnel for each and every
student in our public schools. You have the ability to provide the necessary funding that
will allow every child to shine brightly as our teachers and administrators guide them
toward the light at the end of their educational journey. But if you don't provide what
they need, some may quit long before their journey is complete and those that do stay
will have a much harder time getting to the end because they won't have the resources to
get there quickly and comfortably. Whether or not you have children in our school
system is irrelevant. The town, the parents and the children are looking to you. You're
the folks that hold the power with the money,to give them what they need to be
successful in school and I'm here tonight that you please not let them down. Thank you
again for allowing me to address you here tonight and for considering our children's,
consider the fact that our children's educations and futures are in your hands. Please do
the right thing for our kids and do not further cut the school budget. Thank you very
much.
• President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Jay Berger.
Jay Berger—Hello councilors. I'm Jay Berger. I live at lOG Castle Hills, Agawam and
I'm here on behalf of Agawam Energy Commission. I won't be redundant; I spoke to
you a couple weeks ago so everything that I said then still goes. In the meantime, I've
• had the privilege of talking to several of you about the benefits of the Agawam Energy
Commission Act and my fellow people on the Go Green Committee have talked to those
that I have not talked to so all I would say is I urge all of you when you vote tonight to
vote positive. Thanks so much.
• President Letellier—Thank you. Thank you our next speaker is Marilyn Curry.
Marilyn Curry—Good evening. My name is Marilyn Curry. I live at 123 Beekman
Drive in Agawam. I'm here to speak to things the CPA funds for one and how it affects
our group and the town. CPA funding has had ...here in Agawam; we've had it for eight
years. A great deal of good has been done with it, money that did not have to come out
• of the budget of the town. We have coming from each one of us that pays taxes, one
percent of our taxes goes for CPA funding. There is a rumor and there are people
walking about town telling people that they are paying three, four and five hundred
dollars a year for CPA.funds. This is wrong. Use your decimal point, one percent of
$2,000.00 of your taxes is $20.00, If your taxes of$3,000.00, one percent is $30.00—not
• $300.00. That is a very small amount for the amount of work that is done by your CPA,
both for historical, for open land, for senior housing. In the morning paper, you'll see an
article on Storrowton, Sturbridge Village and areas that cater to the education of our
young people for historic interest. If the Noble House, the Noble Smith House, in
Feeding Hills continues with their funding that we've been able enjoy from CPA funds,
• we'lI be able to offer this very same opportunity to our young people and to our seniors
and to our citizens I should say of what they are doing in some of these more well known
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places. The Noble House has much to offer and while there'll be no vote on it tonight, I
certainly hope you will consider it but the biggest thing is for people to find out CPA
only takes one percent. Thank you very much.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have William Miller.
William Miller—My name is William Miller and I live at 60 Parker Street. I'm here this
evening to express my support for the Community Preservation Act as it now exists in the
Town of Agawam. I believe that every CPA project funded by the CPA and the Town
Council has been well worth the annual cost to each home owner of approximately
$20.00. I must admit tonight that I am very disappointed to see the large crowd here this
evening. I'm surprised at why they are here. We've been through this before and I'm
wondering why the Town Council has the lack of confidence in our School Committee
• and the ability to come up with a budget to meet the needs of our children. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Ann Marie Bellico?
Ann Marie Bellico—My name is Ann-Marie Bellico from 51 Park Edge Drive and I'm
here today representing the Agawam Historical Association and asking for your grateful
support of the Thomas Smith/Matthew Noble House in Feeding Hills. Please support the
CPA funding for that home. Thank you.
President Letellier--Thank you. Next we have Peggy MacLeod.
Peggy MacLeod—Hi. Peggy MacLeod, 20 Mountain Laurel Path in Florence. I'm for
the Center for Ecological Technology. We're a non-profit, almost thirty three years old
and we're a community based organization that serves Western Mass communities in the
four counties and I'm also the past chairperson of Northampton's Energy Resources
Commission. I believe it was formed in 1985 and they reorganized it about nine months
ago.. At CET, I work for a program called Climate Change Circuit Riders and for about
the last two years we have been helping about thirty-five towns and cities in Western
Mass either start energy committees or strengthen commissions or committees that the
already have and it's really a very exciting time because I'd say three years ago there was
only a handful of towns that were even considering energy committees but now the
• movement is really growing as people see the opportunities available. We're working
with both energy committees and energy commission and I know you're, the Ordinance
before you is about commissions, so I'm gonna mostly speak about that. CET also holds
an annual workshop for community leaders on greening your community and I believe
there were some people, I know there were some people from Agawam there last year.
• Also at the Energy Summit in May some members of your community came so I know
you've been thinking about this and doing quite a bit to go forward. And I do want to
commend the city for thinking about an Ordinance because an ordinance is more serious.
It's less casual. It's formal. You have other city commissions and it just raises up a
higher level and there's just so many opportunities in the twenty-first century and I read
about new ones every day. It's not something that an informal group with an undefined
mission can take as seriously as a commission that would be reporting to a city body to
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do specific projects. I mean you can say help we need to know about leasing solar panels
or what about converting our trucks to bio-diesel. I mean some of the committees that we
. work with have engineers and you know professors and everything like that. They
struggle though when it comes to doing research about specific things, when there isn't
someone who specifically has been called and appointed to a commission, so that's one
of the advantages of a commission is you can put the call out and really think about
which are the best minds in your community to write grants,to figure out all the
programs the state's offering,to apply for stimulus funding, to come up a plan to put
solar panels on every roof I mean these are some of things that commission could be
considering if you asked them to. One of the points I wanted to make is people do like to
get asked to serve. You all ran for office but there's other people out there that have a lot
of creative talents and would like to serve and if asked,would be serving. I've been
attending Northampton's commission since last November and I was just blown away by
the types of people that they asked to serve who are on that board—
Clerk—One minute please.
Peggy MacLeod - and they get an enormous amount done. So some of the things that a
commission could be working on today are to qualify the community for state funding
through the Green Communities Act,to apply for Green Schools' grants,to help the city
advance the Green Building Code which the state has just released as an option for a
town, to help the city make decisions about future buildings and how to make them
greener. So there's just so many different options and no matter which kind of
commission or committee you end up with, CET would be able to help them to be an
extension of them if you would. If they're looking for other communities that have done
something, we can connect them with those committees or a program comes up, we can
help them navigate those programs. So, good luck to you all.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Judith Anderson.
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Judith Anderson—Good evening. My name is Judy Anderson. I live at 198 Cambridge
Street. I am here as a member of the Agawam Historical Association and also the Project
Manager for the Thomas Smith House restoration/preservation project which you
currently have before you tonight asking for a CPA grant—all fifty pages of it. This
grant finally will enable us to en-open the house to the public, to give the residents of
Agawam some educational programs, some hands-on programs especially. We will also
be providing handicap access to our building. It will give the residents of Agawam some
information and some history on what it was like to live in the Town of Agawam during
the 1700's. With the completion of this project, the Association will also have the ability
to be financially self-sufficient in supporting its remaining $80,000.00 mortgage and
other numerous expenses which have been paid for in the past by dedicated members of
the Association and various community supported groups for the past seven years. With
this being said, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the various town
departments—the Building Inspections, electrical, health, maintenance and the ADA
committee—who have provided us with technical support and answered many of our
questions and repeated calls and we have tried to work in compliance with regulations
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and requirements. We would also like to thank the Community Preservation Committee
and the people of Agawam for providing the source that has enabled us to save and
restore this historic landmark, Without the Preservation Act, this would not have been
possible. This has been a long and painstaking project. We have worked very closely
with the CPA committee over the last seven years and at times, very painstakingly.
However, we have both tried to strive to allocate these grant monies to the best of our
mutual abilities and in the best interest of our town. We believe we have accomplished
this goal as shown in our fifty page application. To date, we have stabilized the post and
beam construction of the house, re-built the foundation, we have replaced all the
windows with period windows, re-sided the house with period siding, replaced the roof
with a period shake roof and painted the exterior of the house in addition to stabilization
of the 1 Sa0's barn that is also onsite. Hopefully, you will all take the time and
opportunity to ride by the Smith House at 251 North West Street in Feeding Hills to see
• the beautiful transformation of this historic house. The Association is excited about
being able to give back to our town. A town who's residents have had the foresight to
participate in the Community Preservation Act that has provided the funds for
recreational, community housing—
! Clerk—One minute please.
Judith Anderson—land preservation and historical projects that would not have been
possible in this economic time of uncertainty. While it may be true that approximately
one percent per year that is collected from each resident may provide individuals with a
short-term personal benefit,the long term benefit is far more reaching and beneficial,
especially when combined with the additional state funding. Now I realize yes, that this
year the state funding will probably be 3 5% less but if we do not participate in the CPA,
we will receive nothing. Currently West Springfield and other towns who have not
previously participated in this program are seeking the benefits that our town and towns
like Agawam have received by participating through the CPA and are currently seeking
voter approval. I do however that it should be on the ballot for you to decide. Thank
you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Jay Cameron.
• Jay Cameron--Jay Cameron. 173 Pineview Circle. I'm here before you as an
individual member of the School Committee, as a tax paying citizen and a proud father of
two graduates of Agawam High School who are quite successful in college right now. I
would like to offer my support for the School Department portion of the budget. First
and foremost, I would like to say thank you to the Town Council for your participation in
the creation of this budget. I believe a majority of councilors attended at least one school
committee meeting to discuss the budget. I believe that this type of cooperative
discussion between the School Committee and Town Council is what is needed to move
our school district's academic success forward. Thank you for your participation in
creating this School Committee budget. Secondly, I would like to acknowledge the
significant efforts of my fellow School Committee members, Superintendent Czajkowski,
the school administrative and staff and all the faculty who were part of the process.
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There were a total of eight budget meetings since November, 2008 that were held with
nearly real time adjustments based on the state's periodic Chapter 70 adjustments. The
target the School Committee was given this year was to level fund the budget. The end
result that is before you tonight is a level funded budget. That's a 0% increase over
Fiscal Year 09. We have met our goal. I recommend that the Town Council
enthusiastically support this level funded budget. Once we can get Fiscal Year '10 taken
care of, the School Committee will be working diligently on the Fiscal Year '11 budget
and also significant contract negotiations. The School Committee is well aware that the
Federal Stimulus funds for FYI 1 will not be set at a level similar to FYI and that further
creative budget crafting will be accomplished for FYI 1. Thank you very much.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Nora Ronnau.
• Nora Ronnau—Good evening. My name is Nora Ronnau. I Iive at I l l Florida Drive,
right here in Agawam and I'm here in regard to the school budget. Professionally I am an
adjunct professor at the Elms and I'm an educator in a neighboring community but today
I am here to you as a mother of two Agawam Public School students. I'd like to voice
my support for a program in particular that the Agawam Junior High is about to embark
upon--the initiative of teaming is about to begin and I think this is a very exciting
opportunity for the'young students in our community. There's a plethora of literature that
supports this type of environment for this age group where each of the individual students
will be part of their own miniature community and this type of community provides
excellent support for achievement. But what I really want to applaud is the modification
that our school administration has put forth to make this initiative particularly appealing—
they're planning on naming each of the teams after Ivy League schools and this is a very
exciting way to bring up achievement for our students for our future. Some people might
question why is this so wonderful? Why the Ivy's? And I just want to supply you with a
quote from a conversation I had with my younger daughter who's in the Junior High the
other day. I said to her, I said "Molly, the sky is the limit." And she looked at me and
she said "Stop limiting met" These are the conversations that are so important. There's a
lot of research out there right now that tells us that the achievements that students will
reach is based on their environment. It's not all genetic as some people believe. It's not
pre-determined and it's imperative that we provide students with this type of high
achieving environment. We need to start the educational conversations early—the earlier
the better. This teaming initiative that Dr. Czajkowski and her team have put forth will
result in a lot of wonderful conversations about education that will result in a lot of
wonderful conversations about colleges that will bring forth curiosity and it'll start some
really amazing conversations and our students in Agawam will be able to meet the
demands of the twenty-first century which I must add are much higher than the demands
we faced when we were in school because of the technology component has just
increased the demands on our youth exponentially. And I really beg that you don't cut
anything from this budget because I would like to be able to say that I'm an extremely
proud member of a community where our schools took such an amazing initiative.
Thank you.
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President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Douglas Ronnau.
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Douglas Ronnau—Good evening. My name is Douglas Ronnau and I live at 111
Florida Drive right here in Agawam. I'm here to speak tonight in favor of creating an
Energy Commission. I spoke here just a few weeks ago in support of creating an energy
commission for Agawam and I'm here to reaffirm that commitment tonight. We are
familiar with the phrase `carpe dium' which is a Latin phrase that translates into `seize
the day'. Creating an energy commission for Agawam will allow our community to seize
' the opportunity and embrace our future. Going Green and energy conservation has been
embraced by Wall Street and Main Street alike. Agawam has the opportunity to land
federal and state grants for energy conservational programs. It is not another layer of
bureaucracy but is a chance for Agawam to join the future. Please help our community
move forward and into the future. Please support the creation of an Energy Commission
tonight. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Susan Meunier.
Susan Meunier—Good evening. My name is Susan Meunier, 179 Franklin Street,
Feeding Hills. I'm presently at Granger School but have worked from Early Childhood
up to Middle School. Educators know that a small class size enhances student learning.
You can spend time and energy helping each child succeed. That is our goal as
educators, I urge you to please support the budget Dr. Czajkowski is presenting—it is all
about the kids. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Rich Cohen.
Richard Cohen—Good evening. Richard Cohen, 47 Alexander Drive. I'm here tonight
to talk about the budget and I know I only have a couple of minutes. I went through the
budget and I have some concerns. One, I agree with everyone here, our schools need to
. be funded fully. What brings people to a community one—our schools, our police and
our libraries and of course'a low tax rate. We cannot desecrate any one of those things.
Going through the budget it concerns me that we have three and a half less firefighters. I
know when I called them for my father who's 86 or for an emergency, they're there. I
want to make sure that they're able to get there and to get there well rested and that
there's no lag in time and they've always done that. We cannot desecrate that. I know
that two and a half million dollars in free cash is being used. Free cash is a wonderful
thing--it lowers our bond ratings and lessens the burden on our tax payers when we don't
have to borrow cash. But what concerns me the most is the use of a half a million dollars
in Stabilization Fund which is a rainy day fund to be used for emergencies not for budget
items. One, using it to repair the floors, it can look at the Reserve Fund. Using it to buy
i a car for the Police Department, should be in the budget or come out of the Reserve Fund.
Using Stabilization Funds to buy a truck or a van for the Building Maintenance, it's
imperative that they have good equipment but we have $400,000.00 in a Reserve Fund.
What is that money for? I can't see taking money from a Stabilization Fund in an effort
would decrease our bond ratings, increase the cost to the tax payers and increase what it
costs us to borrow money. We work very hard to have great schools. We work very hard
to have excellent police,DPW,fire. Please! Do not take money from the Stabilization
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Fund because what do we do next year if we keep borrowing from all of the accounts and
next year doesn't look like it's gonna get any less rain as the rainy day account would be
replenished. Please, seriously consider your vote and what effect it could have on the
taxpayers in this community.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Diane Arventos.
Diane Arventos—Hi. My name is Diane Arventos and I live at 84 Corey Colonial and
• I'm here to support creating the Energy Commission. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Michael Grandfield.
Michael Grandfield—Michael Grandfield, 27 Dorwin Drive, West Springfield,
• Massachusetts. I'm honored to recently been named the new chairperson of the West of
the River Chamber of Commerce. For those of you who are not aware of it, last year we
combined both the West Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the Agawam Chamber
of Commerce and we've gotten to know each other over the past year and it's been a
great experience. We put together a lot of smart and experienced professional people
• who are dedicated to serving their two communities. I'm here to provide you with a
quick update. Obviously you have a lot on your plate tonight so I'll keep it brief The
Agawam Town Relations Committee headed by Frank Palange along with Larry Litton is
working hard and among other tasks will be involved in organizing the upcoming
political debates this fall. That committee will soon also be announcing $7000.00 in
• stimulus grants to local businesses from West Springfield and Agawam. We're very
excited about that and hope that becomes an annual event. A new economic development
committee headed by Mark Hanes of Environmental Compliance Services of Agawam is
also in full swing and will be looking forward to working along with the Council and the
Mayor's office to identify new, sensible development opportunities for the town in an
• effort to increase both services and tax revenues which obviously we all know tonight are
desperately needed. Our education committee headed by Allen Rogers has always done a
fantastic job with the Middle and High School students. This year we look forward to
expanding our relationship with the Agawam Small Business Assistance Center and look
to help them expand their programs for area business owners. It's a great program and
now our members from West Springfield have been very excited about getting involved
• in that. I'd like to state that it is our goal to work with the Council in order to improve
the quality of life for all including both residents and businesses alike in town as well as
in West Springfield. I know most of you personally. If I can be of any assistance or you
have any questions please contact me. On a side note, I would like to thank Larry Litton
of Six Flags. Larry's very active in our group and brings with him a lot.of experience
• including his time on the Denver Chamber of Commerce. I do believe that he sincerely
and personally vested for the best interest of this town. That's a personal comment. I
really believe that Agawam has a good reputation for attracting business but the Chamber
does ask that Rules and Ordinance be applied consistently. It is our understanding that
this is part of an issue currently with the current parking ordinance. In addition, as new
business-related ordinances are designed or existing ones are modified, please consider
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allowing us to be part of the process. We have a lot of experience and we would like to
be able to represent the business owners of this community. Thank you,
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President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Corinne Wingard,.
Corinne Wingard—Good evening. My name is Corinne Wingard. I live at 194 Elm
Street in Agawam and I'm the co-chair of the Go Green Energy Committee. I'm
speaking tonight in support of the ordinance to foram the Agawam Energy Commission.
The purpose in establishing this commission is to derive focus for energy issues in the
town and most importantly, to position Agawam to be awarded the large amounts of
money becoming available in the state and federal governments for energy conservation
and creation. For example, there's $10 million in grants and loans currently available
from the state for 2009 and ongoing into the future from the Reggie Carbon (sp?) offset
• auctions. There are 351 municipalities in Massachusetts that will be competing for this
money. A formal energy commission will give us more credibility and greatly increase
the likelihood that Agawam will be selected to get money for major energy conservation
projects which will save money for the town. We are on a waiting list for an energy audit
from the state of all our town buildings so that will help us to identify what we need to
• do. The Agawam Energy Commission will serve in an advisory capacity to the Mayor
and City Council and will in no way take away from any responsibility or decision-
making power of the City Council or Mayor nor will the Commission cost the town any
money rather it will bring money in to the town. The Ordinance to establish the Agawam
Energy Commission was written in accordance with state guidelines from the State
Department of Energy Resources for city and town energy commissions. I cannot stress
enough how important it is to recognize that it is the State Department of Energy
Resources which will be awarding the grants and loans in which all 351 cities and towns
in Massachusetts will be heavily competing. Clearly if we as a town can show that we
have followed the State Department of Energy Resources' guidelines and have
established a formal,permanent Agawam Energy Commission, it will give us the best
possible chance to be chosen to get this state and federal money. I urge you to support
the Ordinance to create the Agawam Energy Commission which will be of tremendous to
our town now and for years to come. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Next we have Paul Wakem.
Paul Wakem—Paul Wakem, 660 North Street. Councilors, I'm here to show my
support for the commission—the Energy Commission. The reason for this is that in
today's economic parel, we need to take and conserve as much energy as possible. For
the new technologies for the twenty-first century we can retrofit the buildings throughout
• the town and conserve an enormous amount of energy. Not only should this be looked
for the town buildings, but it should be looked at for the constituency's homes.
Everybody knows if you have a large contract and you can increase the number of units
that are going to be sold, you can get a better price. So along with the commission for the
municipal buildings, I think there should be some sort of umbrella guidance for the
constituents of the municipality for their savings of energy. Thank you very much.
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President Letellier—Thank you and last but not least we have Larry Litton.
Larry Litton—Good evening everyone. My name's Larry Litton. I'm the park
president at Six Flags, 1623 Main Street here in Agawam. First let me say that it's with
great disappointment that I appear before you this evening to ask, yet again,to address
the situation that everyone has in the past publicly agreed is unsafe and puts Six Flags,
the town and many other visitors and residents at risk. Today I sent certified letters to
4D Mayor Dawson,Building Inspector Urbinati and tonight I will give copies to Barbara,
those letters plus letters that I have addressed to each of you. As I sat here this evening
listening to all these concerns over Agawam's budget, i seriously reconsidered and
thought perhaps 1 had come at the wrong time or at the wrong meeting, that it was
inappropriate but the more I thought about it the more I thought about the amount of
money that Six Flags does contribute to the Town of Agawam and I realize nothing is
more appropriate than my being here tonight because a tragedy on Main Street is gonna
have a great impact not just on the people involved in the incident but on my business
and ultimately on the Town of Agawam. The transient parking across from the park has
exploded to the point of absurd and something truly needs to be done about this. We all
know that the poorly conceived and executed parking ordinance that was put in place two
years ago which,and rightfully so, has since been repealed has made this a political hot
button that no one cares to address but that doesn't change the fact that Main Street
across from Six Flags is a dangerous place to be walking when the park is in operation.
This is not about the money! If it was about the money, I would open up the three large
lots, incredibly large lots; I could park another 800 cars that Six Flags owns across from
the park. This is about safety. When I arrived in Agawam almost four years ago and
asked Mayor Cohen and some of the key members of the Council to look into what I felt
to be an unsafe situation with transient parking operations there were three individuals
parking cars. As of last Saturday morning,there are ten. I sent all of you today both
photos and video of this terribly dangerous situation. Madam President, your's kicked
back I apparently don't have a current email address but I sent it to the rest of you. I
hope that if you haven't already that you will take the time to look at the material I sent.
Six Flags has invested millions of dollars on the arrival and exit process at the park to
ensure the guests' safety. The transient parkers quite frankly have made a joke of the
investment. Speaking of jokes,this body itself passed a temporary sign ordinance that is
being completely ignored by all these people and I am told by our own town's Building
Inspector that there is nothing he can do about it. This is the same man who two years
ago was going to fine Six Flags $100 per day per sign for signage on the same state
highway which he now claims he has no authority with which to intervene. These signs
and distractions caused by the flaggers are a big part of confusion that I fear ultimately
will lead to someone being struck be a vehicle. I pride myself on my community
involvement and I'm very grateful for the things Six Flags allows me to do in Agawam,
in the surrounding community of Springfield and in Western Mass as a whole. From
donations to charities, free tickets, fences built around parks to keep the kids in, such as
we did at Ed Borgatti Field, entrance portals at the request of a council member at public
schools, Six Flags helps as much and as often as we possibly can. We don't do it for
r recognition or for public accolades. We do it because it's the right thing to do. I now ask
11
you, I implore you, to do the same thing. Set politics aside and do something about this
terrible and uncontrolled, unmonitored, unregulated situation.
Clerk—One minute please.
Larry Litton - Do it because it's the right thing to do. Thank you for your time.
President Letellier—Thank you.
Item 2. Roll Call
President Letellier—Barbara, could you please call the roll?
ROLL CALL — 10 PRESENT, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—With ten present, one absent, we have a quorum. Councilor
Rheault called, he's not feeling well and he will not be able to join us this evening and we
hope he feels better soon.
N
Item 3. Moment of Silence and the„Pledge ofAllegiance
President Letellier—If you could please rise.
Item 4. Minutes
(a) Regular Council Meeting—June 15,2009
President Letellier—Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilors Perry and
Cavallo. Any discussion? No? Barbara, could you please call the roll?
ROLL CALL — 10 YES, O NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—Ten yes, one absent, we've passed the minutes.
r Item 5. Declaration from Council President
President Letellier—We had a formal presentation for Jack Stone but we haven't
received it yet,but I'd Iike to take this opportunity to congratulation Jack Stone on his
retirement. This is his last public act. He flew in from his retirement to be with us this
r evening. So Jack, we wish you a happy and healthy retirement for that formal
presentation.
Item 6. Presentation of Petitions, Memorials& Remonstrances
Resolutions
1. TR-2009-21 -A Resolution Amending the Rules and Regulations of
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the Agawam City Council(Councilor Cavallo)(Referred to Rules&
Regulations Committee)(Majority of those present and voting) (Vote off—
wrong item—see New Business)
President Letellier—Do I have a motion to remove the item from the Agenda? Moved
by Councilors Cavallo and Rossi, seconded by Councilor Mineo. Barbara,could you call
the roll? A yes vote is to remove the item from the Agenda.
ROLL CALL —10 YES, O NO, 1 ABSENT 1 (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier--With ten yes, one absent, the item has been removed from the
Agenda.
• 2. TR-2009-22 -A Resolution Amending the Rules and Regulations of the
Agawam City Council(Councilor Rheault) (Referred to Rules and
Regulations Committee)(Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—Councilor Rheault is not here, I'm sure he'd like the matter moved
forward though. Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilors Cavallo and Rossi,
seconded by Councilor Perry. Do we have a report from the Rules Committee? Thank
you, Councilor Calabrese.
Councilor Calabrese- Councilor Perry and I met this evening to discuss this item. This
is an item that is going to clarify that only two votes rather than three will be required to
pass a measure and we sent a positive recommendation 2-0.
President Letellier—To pass an ordinance?
Councilor Calabrese—Yes, to pass an ordinance.
President Letellier--I just wanted to make that clear. Two readings. Any discussion?
Any question on the first reading? Barbara, could you call the roll for the first reading?
ROLL CALL— 10 YES, 0 NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—With ten yes, one absent, you've passed the first reading.
3. 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) (Referred to the Finance
S Committee) (213 Majority of those Present and Voting)
President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Perry, seconded by
Councilor Young. Do we have a report from the Finance Committee?
Councilor Young—Yes, we do. The Finance Committee met on this matter on July 8th
In attendance were Committee members Young, Calabrese,Rossi and Perry. Also in
attendance were Councilor Rheault, various members of the administration including the
13
•
Mayor, Chris Johnson, Laurel Placzek and Cheryl St. John. After much discussion, the
committee recommended to send a negative recommendation to the Full Council to pass
this measure as it saw that we didn't believe in funding those items on the list through the
Stabilization Account. The motion was made by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by
Councilor Rossi and it was 4-0 unanimous recommendation to not approve this
resolution. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any discussion from any committee members first?
No? I'll open it up to the whole Council. Councilor Rossi?
Councilor Rossi—Yes. My purpose for voting against this Stabilization transfer is plain
and simple. That I don't believe in using non-reoccurring funds to fund ongoing
programs. I think it's a dangerous practice. I think it's one that's gonna get us in trouble
and I think it fosters some very bad habits. So I am not in favor of this at all. I think
what we've done here is we're trying to offset our budget problems with Stabilization
money. And I think we're only gonna get into trouble next year and we're gonna have to
start rethinking our processes here. This is just something that we have not done before
at least since I've been on the City Council and I don't think it's a practice that we should
start doing now. I think we need to start grasping onto the concept that we're gonna have
to start making do with less and I don't see that here and I certainly don't see that in this
resolution.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any other discussion? Councilor Perry?
Councilor Perry—Yes, thank you Madam President. I too was at the meeting and really
had some mixed feelings in regards to this resolution that's before us because I too didn't
in my tenure on the Council; we've never used Stabilization money for any budget items.
During that meeting I was thinking along the lines that this money was gonna be used for
these budget items and at that point in time I was thinking and I'm not sure and I want to
make it clear to the Council that this money, if it is appropriated through this resolution,
is not tacked on to the budget total --the half million dollars—therefore would not be—if
this resolution is passed, that about a half a million dollars would not go onto to the
budget for the tax levy. Does everyone understand that? Okay, I just wanted to make
sure,to clarify that. I guess my question too is we've asked the tax payers over the years
to put money into this fund. I guess in thinking when are we supposed to use this
money? We're in hard economic times. We don't want to take away jobs from our
community, our town employees, our teachers, things of that nature, but we still have to
upgrade and give them the tools they need to perform their jobs and I'm really having
second thoughts from our meeting and saying that I really think--we have about$3.7
million in Stabilization Fund now. The Mayor's asked that we utilize about a half a
million dollars of that which would still leave a substantial amount—just about
$3.2million in there. We can only hope that things will get better in the future but we
need to be able to give to our town employees the tools they need to do their jobs and I
will be supporting this tonight. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any other discussion? Councilor Cavallo?
14
Councilor Cavallo —Yea. Is there an opportunity here tonight to vote on each one of
these items in that half a million dollars?
President Letellier—No.
Councilor Cavallo —Because most, it's written differently, correct?
! President Letellier—It's a resolution for the whole package.
Councilor Cavallo—It's a whole package. Thank you.
President Letellier—We could table it and make a recommendation to come back with
! cuts or what have you so that if people feel strongly about some things and less strongly
about other things, we could move to table it, send a letter to the Mayor,have another
Finance Committee meeting and say okay, Mayor, we support x, y, z but not a, b, c.
That's certainly something that the Council has the right to do.
Councilor Cavallo —Would a tabling be in order at this point?
President Letellier—If that's the Council's wish, yes.
Councilor Cavallo—I'd like to make a motion that we table this.
President Letellier—Okay. Councilor Simpson, you had your light on. Do you want to
speak before the tabling motion?
Councilor Simpson—Yes, I would thank you.
~ President Letellier—Okay, can you reserve your motion until Councilor Simpson
speaks?
Councilor Cavallo—Oh, certainly.
! President Letellier—Okay,thank you.
Councilor Simpson —I was debating on whether or not to say something or not but I
agree with Councilor Perry on his thought process on this. We've hit into hard times just
like everybody else in the state, in the country. We talk about we don't like to make
budget cuts and when cuts are made, everybody gets upset because this was cut or that
was cut and sometimes you have to think okay how are we gonna handle this. I agree
with his, he took a lot of the words right out of my mouth, the fact that we have rought
$3.7 million, this is a half a million to be used and if the public is familiar with what
we're looking at but as you go through the list of some of these things, I don't, my
! personal opinion, I don't really see anything that I would consider to be a frivolous
request. I think that there are things that we necessarily do need. I mean I'm looking—
15
!
the floor replacement for a gym at Phelp's School, looking for certain equipment, if the
equipment breaks and goes down, what's gonna happen when we need to repair
something or have it and the people in the DPW aren't able to fix it because things are
broken down and sometimes you can only fix stuff for so long. I am not even gonna vote
in favor to table this. I would be in favor to vote for this as called on and if I saw
something frivolous in there I'd certainly be one of the first to jump out and say we really
don't need this but when you really look at this but when you really look at this item by
i item, I think it's necessary. And we have to level fund and we do have some funds to use
and I think this might be one of the appropriate times to—we're nowhere near draining
the account—to go ahead and vote for this issue. Thank you,
President Letellier— Thank you. Councilor Cavallo, did you wish to make your
motion?
Councilor Cavallo —Yes. I'd like to make a motion that we table this resolution.
President Letellier—Do we have a second? Well, we don't have a second yet so I'll let
you speak.
Councilor Messick—Okay. I just wanted to make a quick point. I can see what
Councilors Perry and Simpson are talking about and one thing I wanted to point out to is
that I also agree with Councilor Rossi, there are some things in here that are ongoing
expenses and I don't agree with funding those items but there are two things in here—the
• street improvement program and the Department of Public Works boiler replacement—
that are actually leveraging other funds. Trying to leverage state funds and American
Recovering Reinvestment Act Funds and so if we don't fund those things,we don't get
the funds from the state and so we're losing that so-called free money. So while I wish
that there were some of these smaller items don't necessarily need to be in here, I would
• agree with stripping it down a little bit if that's what the rest of the Council wishes, these
two things I think are important because we're actually using them to purchase more
money, essentially. So that was my only point.
President Letellier—Thank you. We have a motion on the floor to table. Do we have a
second? Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas--No, I just wanted to speak.
President Letellier—No one seconded it, so go ahead.
Councilor Bitzas —Okay, it seems to me that the majority of the Council is not
supporting all of the amount to $489,000.00 to go into,to vote in favor. And I think it
makes sense what Paul said to table this and go ...because this is not going to affect the
budget, it's not going to affect the schools at all and let the Mayor come to us with an.
amount, extra amount of money, and let's think about it. Because this is difficult times.
If we start taking out this money, next year we have no stimulus funds, or the year after—
the $l.Smillion, we'll be in big trouble so we better start thinking now very seriously how
16
to solve the problem we have and the half million dollars and ...budget I think it is
something to think about—to spend it wisely—not just to blanketly give the $489,000.00
from the Stabilization Fund to the rainy day account. So I will second the motion and I
hope the Council we vote the next time or day after, because otherwise it will be voting
down tonight. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. We have a motion to table and we have a second.
• Barbara, could you call the roll? A yes vote is to table Resolution TR-2009-23.
ROLL CALL—6 YES,4 NO (Councilors Calabrese,Perry, Simpson and Young), 1
ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—With a vote of six yes, four no, one absent, you have tabled the
• resolution. I'm going to re-refer it to the Finance Committee and ask that they work on a
proposal or meet with the Mayor or her staff to discuss the numbers. Thank you.
4. TR-2009-24 -A Resolution Confirming the Reappointment of Kenneth J.
Largay,24 Day Street,Feeding Hills,MA. 01030 to the Agawam Liquor
Licensing Commission to a Term Expiring the first Monday in June,2014.
(Mayor) (Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—Mr. Largay, you may be here. I don't know that I can necessarily
see you in the crowd but if you are, if you'd like to say some words fine, but if not, do we
have a motion? Moved by Councilor Bitzas, seconded by Councilors Rossi and Cavallo.
Any discussion? No? Barbara, could you call the roll? If you want to re-appoint Mr.
Largay,please indicate Largay when your name is called.
ROLL CALL—9 LARGAY, 1 ABSTAIN (Councilor Young), 1 ABSENT
(Councilor Rheault)
•
President Letellier—Mr. Largay, you've been reappointed. Thank you for your time
and service.
5. TR-2009-25 -A Resolutions Confirming the Appointment of Frank C.
Pignatare,685 Suffield Street,Agawam,MA.01001 to the Agawam
Veterans Council to a Term Expiring April 1,2011. (Mayor) (Majority of
those present and voting
President Letellier—I did see Mr. Pignatare, I believe. Do we have a motion? Moved
all around. Do we have a second all around? Did you wish to speak, Frank? No, you
• don't wish to speak, okay, thank you. All right. Barbara, could you call the roll? If you
want to appoint Mr. Pignatare to the Veterans' Commission, please indicate Pignatare.
ROLL CALL—10 PIGNATARE, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—Thank you for your time, Mr. Pignatare and welcome to the
Veterans' Council.
17
•
6. TR-2009-26 -A Resolution Confirming the Appointment of Richard
Karam, 132 Robin Ridge Drive,Feeding Hills,Ma.01030, to the Agawam
Veterans Council to a Term Expiring April 1,2011.(Mayor) (Majority of
those present and voting)
President Letellier—I don't know if Mr. Karam is here. No, I don't see him. Do we
have a motion? Moved by Councilor Cavallo, seconded by Councilor Perry. Any
discussion? Barbara,could you call the roll? Again, if you want Mr. Karam appointed,
please indicate his name.
ROLL CALL —10 KARAM, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—Ten yes, one absent, you have appointed Mr. Karam and thank you
for your service.
7. TR-2009-27 -A Resolution Confirming the Appointment of Beverly
Sanford Follis,92 Anvil Street,Feeding Hills,MA.01030 to the Agawam
Veterans Council to a Term Expiring April 1,2011.(Mayor) (Majority of
those present and voting)
President Letellier— Is Ms, Follis here? Thank you. Did you wish to speak? Okay,
come on up. First of all, do we have a motion on the Resolution? Moved by Councilor
Calabrese, seconded by Councilor Bitzas. Do we have a motion to go into Committee as
i a Whole? So moved. Seconded? All in favor of going into Committee as a Whole please
signify by saying Ay? Welcome Ms. Follis,
Beverly Sanford Follis --Thank you. What I would like to do is for everyone present
and also for those listening on television; I just wanted to say a few words about what the
Veterans' Council is. The Veterans' Council is a group of volunteers whose mission is to
unite the town in memorializing those veterans who have died in service for their country
and also to unify the town in showing appreciation for those veterans, both living and
who have died in service for their country. And one of the main things that the Veterans'
Council does is they organize and implement the Memorial Day parade and ceremony
i that takes place at the Veterans' Green. The other thing they do is they're responsible for
the Avenue of Flags on Main Street and for the flags that are set up on the telephone polls
lining Main Street. They also are responsible for flagging the graves at the various grave
sites throughout the town of Agawam. So I just wanted to let the people know that what
this Council is and what it does. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Follis? We have a motion to
come out of Committee as a Whole? Second? All in favor of coming out of Committee
as a Whole please signify by saying Ay. Thank you. Ms. Follis' name has been placed.
Barbara, could you call the roll?
ROLL CALL —10 FOLLIS, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
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President Letellier— Thank you and welcome to the Council, Ms. Follis.
8. TR-2009-28 -A Resolution Confirming the Reappointment of Francis
Curnow, 115 Forest Hill Road,Feeding Hills,MA. 01030 to the Agawam
Veterans Council to a Term Expiring April 1,2011. (Mayor) (Majority of
those present and voting)
President Letellier—I'm not sure if Mr. Curnow is here. No? All right. Do we have a
motion? Moved by the Council and seconded by the Council. Barbara, could you call
the roll?
ROLL CALL—10 CURNOW, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—With ten yes,one absent, you have approved Mr. Curnow's
reappointment. Thank you.
�. TR-2009-29 -A Resolution Authorizing the Posting of the Warrant for
the Primary Election on October 6,2009 and the General Election on
November 3,2009 by the Board of Registrars.(Mayor)(Majority of those
present and voting
President Letellier—Moved by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by Councilor Perry. Is
there any discussion? No? Seeing none, Barbara, could you call the roll? A yes vote is
to approve the posting of the election warrant.
i
ROLL CALL—10 YES, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—With ten yes, one absent, you have approved the posting of the
warrants for the election.
0 Item 7 Report of Council Committees
None.
. Item S. Elections
None.
Item 9. Public Hearin s
1. TR-2009-16 -A Resolution Adopting the Fiscal Year 2010 Annual
Operating Budget for the Town of Agawam (Mayor) (Tabled 6/1/09)
(Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by
Councilors Bitzas and Perry. For those of you who have not spoken at public hearing
here in town before I will explain the process. First we will have the Mayor and the
Administration presenting the budget. After that if anyone wishes to speak in favor of the
19
budget, that person will have ten minutes to speak and then we will have those wishing to
speak in opposition to the budget. Those persons will also have ten minutes to speak.
Then we will go to anyone who wants to register their name only in opposition to the
budget and then finally those wishing to register their name only in opposition to the
budget. So welcome Mayor Dawson. Public hearing's now open.
Mayor Dawson—Good evening and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to
! present my 2010 Budget for the Town of Agawam. I am presenting to you this evening a
level funded budget with no layoffs...so that the public can see what we have gone
through during the course of this process of building this budget. At the end of January,
we were notified by the Governor that there would be nine C cuts which are mid-year
cuts to our budget for the 2009 budget. They are in the amount of$446,795.00. At that
same time, the Governor released his budget for 2010—his proposed budget, I'm sorry—
for 2010 known as House I. This reduced local aid by $762,809.00. A little while later,
it went over to the House of Representatives - it's like telling a story to a lot of children, I
really like this slide if you want to know the truth—where an additional $3 9,965.00 was
reduced. And then ultimately it went to the Senate. It sat in the Senate's hands for quite
a while and we find out close to the time when I should have been able to hand my
! budget over to the Council that there was another $1,173,5 83.00 in cuts. That was an
enormous cut compared to what we were anticipating which was closer to a million
dollars. The final numbers that we were returned with were a reduction of$1,829,905.00
and that is ultimately the number that we received after the budget was released to you.
So my numbers that I used to create my budget came from the reduction in the Senate
and then there was approximately $145,000.00 returned to us in local aid after it went
back in vetoes to the Governor and those monies you will see in your Supplemental
Budget which at the end of the day ended up being $129,666.00. In January when we
recognized that there were a lot of things that we were looking at, it was my decision to
bring together as many parties as I possibly could to make decisions about the budget. So
• in view of the drastic reductions I comprised a budget team. We've included the Council
President, Vice President, and Mr. Young as your Sub-Committee Chair for Finance.
The members of the School Committee have been various but Anthony Bonavita, Mrs.
Doering and Linda Galarneau have all been a part of that as well as the members of the
School Administration including Dr. Czajkowski, Bill Sapelli, Greg Bares and Renee
. Jury and all of my department heads who this evening have joined me and have spent
many hours and I think we'll find this evening to be a positive culmination from all of
their hard efforts. We developed ways to enhance our revenues. We looked at fee
increases; we looked at many different things that we thought would potentially help
revenue. Ultimately you never saw increases come your direction because we did not
feel that this was the time to be implementing fee increases to the public as we were
! already trying to help them by keeping their expenses as low as possible. So we
reviewed our personnel needs. I'm sorry this is going in and out—I guess there's a need
for new equipment—and in that review of personnel there are positions that we have
decided to leave open and unfilled as people have retired and we will be reviewing those
over time to make sure that we were adequately staffed and able to meet the needs of the
public. Next we have the utilization of the rainy day fund commonly known as
Stabilization which would keep the property taxes low. The tax levy is estimated to
20
0
increase by 2 %percent this year. The new growth is estimated at$350,000.00 and
Agawam continues to be one of only a few communities that have never sought an
override for Proposition 2 I/2. Agawam is self insured and I put this in mostly because I
believe the public needs to understand what that means. I do believe that my Council
does understand this but what this means is if I lay an individual off, I am responsible
because we are self insured to pay approximately 60%of that person's salary that we
would have had in house for the person to be unemployed and I'm also responsible for.
approximately 35% of their health benefits. So when you cause someone to be
unemployed the"trickle down" is not always as positive as it appears and it is not a one
for one payoff. The personnel positions were carefully reviewed. We looked at the
reduced revenues there and the vacancies that were left open so the people are aware—in
the Treasurer's Office, the Assistant Treasurer was transferred or opted to move to a
different location and her position was left open. In the Fire Department,there are three
and a half firefighters/paramedic positions that are open. Another position in the Fire
Department is the Drill Instructor. In the Library, there's a part time Library Assistant.
Highway,there is a Laborer position open. Engineering we have a Seasonal Laborer that ,
we did not fill this year and in Waste Water there is a Laborer. Negotiated Salary
increases have all been fully funded. The Budget increases for the personnel services
• reflect the final year of three year contracts in the Collective Bargaining Units. All
collective bargaining will be open again next year. The contracts for the town side this
year will be filled at 3% or increased by 3% and on the teachers' contract they will be
funded and raised by 3 '/2%. The School Committee Budget was level funded as has
been stated several times this evening. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act
funds at$1,382,649 will fund the budget items removed from the Operational Budget to
achieve the level funding. This is $182,788.00 less than the original allocation that we
anticipated. The extracurricular and athletic programs continue to be without user fees.
Most town departments have been level funded. We have retained all town and school
employees. We've retained all critical town and school services and the principal and
interest costs funded for the new Senior Center an additional $489,815.00 are to be
appropriated for capital projects from the Rainy Day Fund. This is a breakdown of
percentages (see pie chart upon screen of the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget). It's more just
for your edification and an opportunity to see where monies are allocated and I will allow
you just a moment to take that in and I know that the Council has this in front of them.
• Next, we have the beautiful front to our High School which certainly is exemplary for us.
We have a beautiful high school and I'm very proud of it. These are education monies
this year—in 2009 their budget was $33,989,637 and in FY 2010 is exactly the same.
Their Capital Improvements in 2009 were $544,000.00 and in 2010 the Stabilization
Funds for the gym floor itself would be $48, 765.00, a decrease of$344,000.00. The
American Reinvestment and Recover Act funds utilized to maintain the level funding
• were critical for us and the Capital Improvements are noted there as the gym floor. This
is our new ambulance which is down at our building on Main Street. This makes it
possible for Agawam to have three different ambulances so that if one is out we could
always have one at each end of town and I believe that in years gone by, we noticed how
important it is to have those ambulances close enough to respond to the people who need
them very quickly. Under Public Safety, the FY 2009 budget was at $7,731,598.00,
Fiscal Year 10 - $7,739,694.00 an increase of$8,096.00. The ambulance services will
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continue in Feeding Hills. We will have a continuation of one police officer as a school
resource officer with funding offset by the School Department. And the Stabilization
Funds include $41,500.00 of public safety equipment. This is replacement of one marked
police cruiser at $25,500.00, upgrades of the Fire Department computer- $3,000.00 and
Emergency Management to keep us in Connect City - $13,000.00. Next we have Public
Works—FY 2009 was funded at $2,794,480.00 and FY 10 will be funded at
$2,711,648.00. This is a decrease of$82,832.00. One laborer position was eliminated
from Highways & Grounds. And I realized earlier as I was reviewing, I apologize,the
Stabilization Funds included—it's not$543,600.00— it's $354,000.00. I apologize for
the mistake. In capital expenditures for Public Works—this is the Street Improvement
Programs - $150,000.00; Highway Equipment - $150,000.00; Sidewalk Rehabilitation -
$30,000.00; and the DPW Boiler Replacement - $24,800.00. The weekly trash pickup is
continued and depending on what happens with my Supplemental Budget, I have
reinstated the yard waste collection through the monies that we received that were
additional when the final numbers came in from the Governor. Frankly, I'd like to be
sitting on this bridge right now. I don't know about the rest of you. It's looking pretty
good out there in the snow. This is down at School Street Park. You guys must be asleep
behind me because no one laughed. Come on! The snow is looking very nice! This is
! for culture and recreation FY 2009; it was funded at $1,484,095.00; FY10 -
$1,459,963.00 a decrease of$24,132.00. This is Parks &Recreation services being
maintained. It is Stabilization Funds - $5,200.00 for recreation, equipment, repairs and
replacement. The Council on Aging needed an increase of$16,298.00 to support the
utility and related costs of the new Senior Center and the Supplemental Budget includes
additional funds of$21,575,00 to maintain our state certification for our library. We
could not have had a picture more beautiful than this this year—this is our new Senior
Center which we've been using now for approximately eight months and I certainly
believe that it gets its use. People seem to really enjoy it and we are looking at expanding
services down there for our seniors—things that don't cost money. Human Services—
last year FY09 it was $759,428.00; this year we're at $822,966.00. This was an increase
of$63,538.00. In part, our veterans' benefits increased by $49,231.00 to address the
additional need of Agawam's veterans. It also includes the full-time school nurses—this
is so that we are able to make sure that all of our schools have full-time nurses when they
are necessary. We also have a part time nurse who can cover for our other nurses when
. they are out. General government—FY2009 was funded at$3,285,190.00; FYI was
funded at$3,020,252.00 —a decrease of$264,938.00. We moved the cost so that you're
not confused when you look at your budget of the Administrative Building custodian
over to Building Maintenance in hopes of stream lining everyone under Building
Maintenance. The data processing equipment costs of$13,000.00 will be funded by the
Stabilization Funds. The staff reduction in the Treasurer/Collector's office added to the
• decrease. Stabilization Funds of$4,800.00 are for the computer equipment in the
Treasurer/Collector's office and the Assessor's office professional services were reduced.
Last, well not quite last, the debt principal and interest—in 2009 we funded
$2,837,164.00 and in FY10 it is $3,393,388.00 —an increase of$556,224.00 and just so
you are up to date on your numbers,the new Senior Center principal and interest costs
• were $590,815,00 and that has been fully funded. I am asked on a regular basis what do
we spend our money on in Agawam? So this evening I thought that it was important to
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put up here a slide that identifies the monies that we spend on things that we have done in
planning for our future. The things that make it possible for us to have and I'm just
gonna read a few of these off—a senior center, a pool at Perry Lane, new heating at the
Junior High, renovations to our four elementary school and our high school. Looking
down the list from here—the modular classrooms, Tuckahoe Turf, the new Fire
Headquarters on Main Street, the Community Septic Program,the Library expansion--all
of these things and more are what your tax dollars continually support in addition to the
regular services that we simply provide on a regular basis. Next under Benefits and
Insurance—last year our number was $10,401,677.00 in benefits and insurance. In 2010
it will be $11,176,465.00—an increase of$774,788.00. The medical claims and
insurance includes dental,health and life insurance for both school and town active
employees and retirees. Medical Insurance increased by$678,000.00 with coverage
• continued for retired and active employees. An additional $300,000.00 was avoided by
revising some plan deductions and co-payments. Pension costs decreased by $38,597.00.
On our Property and Liability, last year we paid $600,000.00. In 2010, we will be
paying $500,000.00—that's a decrease of$100,000.00. The Personnel Department has
taken over the Workman's Comp claims on the day to day dealings with them which has
saved us a great deal of money. Worker's Camp costs are down from $105,720.00 in
• 2008 to $21,210.00 in '09. Our Reserve Funds, you can read I'm sure just fine—2009
was at$500,000.00; 2010 is at $400,000.00—that's a decrease of$100,000.00. Reserve
Funds were funded at$400,000.00 a decrease of$450,000.00 since 2008. Negotiated
salary increases are included in all department budgets. Our self-sustaining departments
in FY2009 were budgeted for$7,129,119.00. In FY 2010 they are$7,267,432.00—that
is an increase of$138,313.00. Our Wastewater budget decreased,negotiated salaries
increased, waste water treatment and supplies decreased. Water spending was up 7.87%;
water purchase costs were up by $155,000.00. Water and waste water capital
improvements include their share of the boiler replacement for the DPW facility. The
Golf Course budget decreased,negotiated salaries increased and staff was reduced by one
Iaborer. Last is the Stabilization Fund appropriation. I would like to read through this. I
do realize that you have tabled this at this point and I'm not sure if the pleasure of the
Committee is for me to address this or not at this point so I will leave it to you Madam
President to allow me to be informed.
President Letellier—I would say go ahead and address it. It's part of your presentation.
Mayor Dawson—Thank you. In our Stabilization Fund, we have the Hampden County
land which is $9,500.00; our Street Improvement Program which is $150,000.00;
Sidewalk Rehabilitation at$30,000.00; Public Works Equipment - $150,000.00; DPW
boiler replacement at$24,800.00; Phelps School Gym Floor- $48,765.00; Departmental
• Equipment- $76,750.00. This is inclusive of a police cruiser, fire computer, the Connect
City data processing, computer equipment, Treasurer/Collector computer equipment,
recreational equipment, Building Maintenance janitorial equipment and motor vehicles.
These numbers totals $489,815.00. It is to be taken from the Stabilization Fund which
we refer to as our `Rainy Day Fund' and I would say that it's been said across the
• Commonwealth quite a few times —it's not just a rainy day, it's a monsoon and it was in
my best estimation that to use our Stabilization monies for the majority of one time
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expenditures was the right way to address these needs and that is my decision in how I
chose to proceed. I thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to address you on
! this budget. I have Department Heads here who would be more than willing to answer
any questions as would I. And I thank you again very much.
President Letellier- Thank you Mayor Dawson. Do we have any Department Heads
who wish to speak at this time? No? Then I will open it up to those persons who wish to
speak in favor of the budget. Please come to the podium, state your name and you'll
have ten minutes. I'm sorry. Mayor? Could return the microphone to the podium?
Sorry.
Anthony Bonavita--Anthony Bonavita. I reside at 683 Cooper Street in Agawam. I'm
a member of the Agawam School Committee and I also serve as its Vice Chair. You
know I can speak for more than ten minutes but I won't do that to you, not tonight. I'm
here to urge you to support the budget, in particular the School Budget and I'd like to
comment on it. Mr. Cameron explained some of the process to you. I'd like to explain
some of the philosophy that the School Committee went through in arriving at our
budget. Obviously we're in unprecedented times. We know the fiscal problems
! throughout the country, throughout the world. We were very cognicent of that fact when
we were putting together our budget. It kind of all hit at the same time,right after we had
started on of our eight budget meetings. We started developing options and all of a
sudden it's when the economy started falling apart and we knew that we had a serious
problem. So we all sat down,the entire School Committee, we had eight budget
! meetings,we had two different meetings with the City Council sub-committee and we
welcomed your input which you did give to us. We sat down, we had agreements, we
had disagreements. We set up numerous options of various types of budgets and
contingencies and we went through it. But overall, our overall philosophy which we have
is our job is to promote education, advocate for education and provide for education.
! Obviously, your role is a bit different than ours, statutorily in Massachusetts. Our
philosophy is protect our educational system; protect the integrity of our educational
system while at the same time doing it with fiscal responsibility. We believe we have
done that. We are proud of the fact that we don't have any user fees in Agawam, we
have no athletic fees. We are most proud of the fact that we had no teacher layoffs in
Agawam. That was something that we really worked hard at and you were there at some
of the meetings and you know there were a lot of things on the table. Administrator cuts,
teacher layoffs, a lot of different ideas were discussed and thought of and we came up
with the budget that's now before you and we believe that's our best work. Is it our final
work? No way. We are gonna have contingencies and challenges to meet throughout the
next,well in the future obviously, but at least for the next two years while we have these
Stimulus Funds. Now as far as the Stimulus Funds are concerned, we know they're not
here forever. They served a purpose, they were a godsend to us this particular year but
we also know that they may not be with us in the future in the form that they are. They
may decrease in the future and we are gonna be constantly looking at our budget and
trying to find ways to save money,to analyze the budget. This year we got by where we
could do what we wanted to do with a reduction of$1.5 million in our budget as was
previously explained to you. We did cut our budget,we did level fund. Due to the
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naturally increases in a budget of salaries, our budget would have gone up $1.5million. It
did not. It was level funded through the efforts of the entire School Committee in finding
ways to reduce the budget. Is it perfect? Nothing is perfect but it's our best work and we
know that we're gonna have to continuously work on it day after day. This is not
something that we're gonna sit back and say, we're gonna wait until next year and we'll
deal with the budget next year. Our first meeting in September, we're gonna start
working on the budget again. We're gonna start coming up with ideas and working with
' our Administrators, the Superintendent,the entire School Committee is gonna work
together with all the different officials including the City Council to try to find ideas on
how to save money. Save money but keep the integrity of the educational system
together—that's our goal. It's a difficult job. It's an extremely difficult job when you
have economic times like we have right now but we're able to do it for this year and I am
confident that all of us including you, including us, including all of the officials in
Agawam put their heads together and we can do it in the future and I ask for your support
of the budget. Thank you.
Dr. Mary Czajkowski—Good evening. My name is Dr. Czajkowski, Superintendent of
Schools and first I want to acknowledge the teachers that we have here along with the
• administrative staff. This is summer vacation and we certainly appreciate the work and
their efforts in preparing this budget as well as their support. I also want to thank the
City Council for the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on this budget. Also, the
City Council Sub-Committee who worked with us for the last several months and
attended many of our meetings chaired by Jill Simpson and members Paul Cavallo, Joe
Mineo,Bob Young, George Bitzas. It's not easy preparing a budget with layoffs. We
went through many scenarios during the last several months. The Mayor had asked us to
level fund the budget. A level funded budget for us meant a reduction of$1,565,437.00.
The School Committee supported that level funded budget. I think it's important to
acknowledge that on June 30th we had ten teachers that retired and those positions were
filled by transfers with existing staff or those positions were eliminated. We didn't have
the luxury of filling those positions with new hires. We also eliminated some positions.
The truancy officer position, the substance abuse counselor position, we eliminated grade
one teacher at Clark School where our enrollment went from 17 students to 22 students.
We eliminated a grade two at Clark School where our enrollment increased from 20 to
23. A grade one at Granger, from 16 to 23 children. Can you imagine teaching first
grade with 23 children? A grade four at Granger— 19 to 20 children, We had low
enrollment this year at Robinson Park School for kindergarten therefore; we eliminated
one section at Robinson Park School. We went from four to three. And also we
eliminated a grade two position at Robinson Park School from 21 to 22 students. We
also eliminated our curriculum specialist. In the last seven years that I've been the
Superintendent here, I think we've made significant progress with the assistance of our
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum. We've been cited in the educational quality
and accountability reports for strong school governess and leadership. We have a model
inclusionary program for special education which has been cited and acknowledge as a
best practice across the Commonwealth. We eliminated those curriculum stipend
positions and they are no longer funded in our regular budget. We hope to fund them
with Stimulus money. Certainly we are faced with a financial crisis that we're very
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aware of We continue to monitor our spending. We set priorities. We work in
collaboration with the School Committee and the City Council. There will always be
cycles we must weather but the bottom line is when school opens on September 3' ; we
need to have a teacher in every classroom. The number of students coming to school
doesn't change just because we're in a recession and there are no easy answers but I
believe at this time, difficult times present us with both challenges and opportunities. It
forces us to have those difficult conversations. It forces us hard to look at programs and
• to examine the extent to which our programs are aligned with the objective of moving all
students to a higher level of achievement. I too have concerns over the Stimulus funding
because when it's gone, what do we do then? I can tell you that the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act, we were initially supposed to receive $1,565.437.00. That's been
reduced by approximately $182,000.00 and there's four guiding principles under the
ARRA funds. One is to stimulate the economy and invest in education. We must
• advance our goals quickly and spend money quickly to save and create jobs. It was the
first guiding principle that was set forth. These funds should also be used to improve
student achievement. There's clear transparency in accounting and reporting of these
monies. It must be documented clearly. We're investing in this one time funding to
avoid and minimize the funding cliff but let me say this of that$1,382,000.00 that we're
getting--we're only funding six positions in that Stimulus money. That money,the
remainder of that money, will go to sustainable monies and programs for funds over the
course of the next year. I think it's important to acknowledge that a lot of work has gone
into this budget and these were not easy decisions but I believe that we will continue to
work hard and to look at the money. Over 50% has to be used in sustainable monies.
• We're also gonna be receiving an additional $182,000.00 in Title I money, above our
original allocation so that will cover the shortfall of the original allocation that we were
intended to receive with the Stimulus money. Literacy coaches, math coaches are one
time positions that will help to improve professional development,work closely with our
teachers, around best practices. Once that money is gone, we still have the knowledge
• and the skill of those teachers. And I want to just close with a quote around the ARRA
funds because I think this says it all —"In a global economy where the most valuable skill
you can sell is your knowledge. A good education is no longer just a pathway to
opportunity—it's a prerequisite. The countries that out teach us today will out compete
us tomorrow." And that was a quote on February 20 by President Barack Obama. So I
ask you for your support tonight for the School Budget, for your support to continue to
move our district forward and as so many have said tonight,to put children first. Thank
you.
President Letellier--Thank you, We have another speaker.
• Chet Nicora—Good evening. My name is Chet Nicora, 36 Olan Mill Road. I think
most of you have known me for a long time. I'm currently your Emergency Management
Director and have been since 2002. I'm very concerned about one issue.that we've
worked very hard to maintain and that's our Connect City which is our emergency
notification system for the town. That is being taken out of the Reserve Fund
• (Stabilization Fund). In your wisdom you have tabled it. I hope you will reconsider it. If
I understand the procedural thing with taxes, if we don't take this money out of the
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Reserve Fund it's gonna raise the tax rate. Any of those items that go back into the
budget is going to affect the tax rate—you're only adding to it. Connect City has been a
real positive thing for the Town of Agawam. Our Fire Department is currently set up
with emergency notifications; our DPW is currently working on trying to set up a system
to call back personnel. On many occasions most of you have gotten notices from me
regarding different situations that occur in town. Not too long ago we had a tanker, a
propane tank, leaking in Feeding Hills. I was notified by the Fire Department and we
were able to send out a notice within a half mile radius of that tanker advising everyone
to stay in their home. In other words shelter in place. Within a half hour when the Fire
Department realized that the situation was under control, we sent out another notice.
We've done notices on traffic particularly when they were doing Southwick Street and
Shoemaker Lane and it was excellent. I just want you to aware of this item we have and
the Connect City which is an emergency notification system for the town. We were one
• of the first in the area and I hope we can maintain it. During these past two weeks when
we've had nothing but thunderstorms and rain, I've had volunteers at the Emergency
Operations Center monitoring our radar and we do that because if for any reason we find
that we get a tornado warning or a tornado watch, we have to watch it carefully. If we
find that type of thing is going to be headed for Agawam, we're gonna put out a notice to
• everyone that that particular situation exists. I know you have a tough job to do. I
certainly wouldn't want to be in your shoes but I want you to understand that Connect
City is really something that I think is essential for the town and I hope you'll consider
that Reserve Fund one more time. Thank you.
Karen Hotaling—Council members, Mayor Dawson, Dr. Czajkowski, my name is
Karen Hotaling and I live at 220 Maynard Street. I am here to ask you to approve the
School Budget. I appear before you wearing four different hats. One as a homeowner
and a tax payer, another as a mother of a 12-year old and a 7-year old,three as a town
substitute teacher and four as the PTO President of Robinson Park School. I have
watched the schools and town struggle with budget cuts. When I first moved to town I
did not have kids and I did not watch the town politics. I felt that much of what went on
did not apply to me but little did I know. As time went on and my family grew, I started
paying attention. When I went to my very first PTO meeting, I arrived early. I assumed
the cafeteria would be packed. I arrived, the doors were open but the lights were off.
People arrived just at meeting time and we had possibly fifteen parents. Then the
• principal mentioned how nice it was to have such a high turn out. I was surprised. Little
did I know then that many parents have followed the same road that I had. Many feel
that our meager voice as a parent is simply not heard. It always seems to be politics as
usual or majority rules. Times are tough. I see friends losing their jobs, struggling. Our
incomes have decreased yet we still need to keep a roof over our heads, our families
• clothed and fed. We need to make due with less and make difficult choices. However, I
have watched our schools continually make due with less. Parents are asked to purchase
many school supplies as well as fund raise. At the elementary level, we are not just
buying pencils and notebooks, but tissues,disinfecting wipes, books. At the Junior High
level, I just received a very thorough two page list of items. I will need to buy seven ring
binders, multiples pocket folders, notebooks, index cards and the list goes on, Well, I
feel like my mother when I say `back in the day'. My parents only needed to buy me new
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sneakers, a few new clothes and I would beg for a new lunch box because my Partridge
Family one just wasn't cool anymore. My art teacher had her own room, color charts,
pottery wheels and I can still remember all of the details in that room but now music, art,
science teachers make due with a cart coming to the classrooms splitting their time
among our schools. A few years ago I was on the School Improvement Council meeting
when I asked the principal well why doesn't the school supply tissues? The answer was
well the school does provide them. Well the two teachers in attendance looked up and
. they said what? They do? How do we get them? Apparently it was not well known how
to get them. I have seen teachers reach into their pockets more than you can ever
imagine. They have been creative in finding their supplies. They stock up year round.
Those special items for birthdays, hundredth day of school, holiday—they're from a
teacher. Many books, bulletin board items and more importantly outside teaching
supplies come from the teacher. I encourage all of you to spend a week or even just a day
• in the life and shoes of a teacher. People constantly say wow, what an easy job,
vacations, summers off, a short work day. Anyone who says this has no clue how hard it
is to be a teacher. Imagine spending six plus hours a day,five days a week, 180 days a
year working with twenty or more kids trying to teach them educationally and socially.
A teacher needs to plan their curriculum, gather materials, figure out the best methods to
• teach these topics and they have to keep pace in order to meet the MCAS needs.
Everything is driven by MCAS. Try to teach twenty very different kids the same topic.
You will have five kids that get the material and probably don't need much help, you'Il
have ten that kind of get it and probably need a little bit of help but then you'll have five
that have no clue and you need to stand, swat, sit, whatever it is next to them while they
• do each problem but how does one person do all of this? And yet,that's what our patient
and brilliant teachers do. Budget cuts force our teachers to deal with larger classes, less
help and more pressure. My son who is going into second grade who has been in a class
of 16 and received reading help, you know what? Next year the teacher's been cut. He
will be in a class of 22 kids and he will not receive reading help. My son loses and so do
• all the other students. This past year Robinson Park PTO and this is only our PTO gave
over$5200.00 to our teachers to offset their costs per classroom needs. This amount
includes agendas for grades two through four,books, electronic 'supplies, recess items,
videos, folders for our kindergarteners and first graders and this just names a few. Last
year we purchased a new screen for the school projector that's in the cafeteria. We paid
• $1500.00. This was a permanent item, the teachers use it, Officer Langevin uses it, our
enrichment programs needed it. It should have been paid for by the town and I even went
and asked but if we tried it would have taken a long time. If we had it installed, paid for
it and then asked for reimbursement, we would not have been allowed that money
because we didn't ask for it the first time around and we would have to wait for a brand
new fiscal year. The PTO paid of$5000.00 for enrichment programs. These are
• programs that are brought to the schools since the kids are not allowed to go outside of
school on field trips. Instead of a day at the zoo, they get an hour in the gym watching
plays and entertainment all of which are wrapped around the curriculum. Robinson Park
PTO paid$114.00 for the bus so our fourth graders could come visit the Middle
School...Another school paid $140, I'm not sure why the town doesn't pay that, I've
never gotten a clear answer. But PTO's are increasingly asked to make up the difference.
I'm running fundraiser drives, asking families who are having a hard time putting food on
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the table to try to purchase and sell items so that the school can run efficiently. In late
November, Dr. Czajkowski and the principals approached the PTO's. It was deemed that
i each school needed to have extra EPI pens—two for children,two for adults. There was
no money in the budget to pay for them. They were asking the PTO's to do so. We
approved it. We felt it was a safety issue. We are hoping that the funds that our families
raise will be appropriated toward other needs for the children rather than the needs that
the town should be taking care of. All of our money is not guaranteed. It is dependent on
our families each year. I think many have lost the sight that our children are our future.
• They all deserve the very best. When the School Budget gets cut, their future gets cut.
We've all heard the term `it takes a village to raise a child'. Well, our village is Agawam
and Agawam needs to help raise our children the very best way possible. I am asking
you to approve the Budget as is and in the future be very cautious over cuts, remembering
that the greatest impact will be on our children's future. Thank you.
•
President Letellier—Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to speak in favor of the
budget? Come on up sir.
Robert Taylor—My name is Robert Taylor. I live at 222 North Westfield Street in
• Feeding Hills. Mayor, Councilmen„ I would approve this budget for a couple reasons.
For the School Department as Karen was saying,there's a lot that the PTO does to help
offset the loss in the budgets that they don't get to have and teachers, we help offset some
out of pocket expenses that they have. We approve about$2500.00 a year. The school
enrichment programs for the kids that come into the school—we spend about $6000.00.
We'll have to keep going back and asking these parents for a lot more for out of pocket
expense to help offset if this budget doesn't get approved. On another note, for public
safety hearing that three and half firefighters will be cut is not a good thing for this town.-
One incident that we had in my family was my niece who is four months old,the parents
woke up one night and found that their child was not breathing. They called 911 and
within four minutes they had two ambulances, fire truck and police cars there to help
make sure that child was alive. She was brought to the hospital breathing and everything.
If we cut 3 1/2 firefighters what's gonna happen? Is that Feeding Hills ambulance going to
be cut and now we're going to be short? And what's gonna happen when another
ambulance doesn't show up cuz our one ambulance is out rescuing somebody else. I
wouldn't want to be in your shoes getting that phone call at 4:00 in the morning to say a
• four month old died because of we only had one ambulance in town cuz we had to cut 31/z
firefighters. It's very important that our budget does get approved as is for the safety of
our children, the townspeople and the School Department is the one who educates our
kids to make the right decisions. So I would approve the Operating Budget for 2009-
2010.
•
President Letellier—Thank you sir. Any other speakers? Come on up.
Corinne Wingard —Good evening. Once again my name is Corinne Wingard. I live at
194 Elm Street in Agawam. I'm a retired senior citizen. I've been retired for eight years
and I live on a fix income. It was okay for seven years. It's not been so great lately.
However, I am here to speak in favor of the budget particularly the School Budget. As
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the other lady said, our children are our future, My mother always told me that. I believe
that. Please approve the School Budget and the budget. Thank you. .
• President Letellier—Thank you. Any other speakers? I should say speakers in favor,
I'm sorry. Final call for speakers in favor of the budget. Seeing no one else rising, do we
have any speakers who wish to speak in opposition to the budget? We have someone
coming up, okay.
0 Billy Chester—Good evening, councilors. My name is Billy Chester. I live at 320 Barry
Street. I'm opposed to the passage of the 2010 budget. These are hard financial times for
a lot of people in the Town of Agawam and if this Council passes this budget are taxes
will increase by 2 V2%putting an additional financial burden on the taxpayers of
Agawam. This toll is unacceptable and it is the responsibility of this Council to do the
• right thing and return the budget back to the Mayor for future cuts, for additional cuts so
there'll be no increase in our taxes for the year 2010. I received phone calls from some
citizens of Agawam and they tell me that their are having a very hard time even making
the payments for their tax bills. So this additional 2 1/2 % is going to hurt those people. I
don't believe the School Department is hurting that bad and I believe that they could do
• some additional cuts as well as the Town, So I ask you to send this budget back to the
Council, I mean back to the Mayor, and have her make some additional cuts. And I
would like to say one thing that I hope our next mayor whoever that may be will do a
better job in negotiating contracts with these labor departments and as one individual says
if we have to do with less, we have to with less. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Anyone else who wishes to speak in opposition to the
budget? Final call for speakers in opposition to the budget? Do we have anyone who
wishes to state their name only in favor of the budget? Name only in favor of the budget?
Come on up.
• President Letellier—Thank you. Could you state your name and address please?
Diane Juzba - 189 South Westfield Street, Feeding Hills.
Kathleen Jamroz- 44 Wright Street, Agawam.
Deborah Buzzee- Westfield, MA. and I teach at Robinson Park School.
• Maura Nagliari -a resident of East Longmeadow, MA and a teacher at Robinson Park.
Carolyn Boyce- resident of Springfield, MA, teacher at Robinson Park School.
Sarah Barnett -resident of East Longmeadow, MA, teacher at Robinson Park School.
Louise Escobar- 89 Coyote Circle, a paraprofessional at Robinson Park School.
• President Letellier—I just want to interrupt for a second. People are walking up and
they are speaking before you actually hit the microphone and you're finishing as you're
leaving so just so that we have a clear record, if you could wait until you get in front of
the microphone, speak and then leave. I'm sorry. I notice that we're having trouble
catching everybody.
•
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Jessica Powell- I live in Connecticut and I work at Robinson Park School and I'm in
favor of this budget,
Jennifer Castell-resident Springfield, I work at four of the schools in the system
w Kimberly O'Brien -resident, secretary Robinson Park School, I am in favor of this
budget
Kathleen Kida - 130 Forest Hill Road, I work at Robinson Park School and I am in favor
of this budget.
Laura Lucas - 107 Hamilton Circle, Feeding Hills, I am in favor of this budget and work
at Robinson Park School.
Maria Pietroniro - 19 Charter Oak Drive, I work at Robinson Park School; I also am in
favor of this budget.
Allison Mogavera -resident of West Springfield, teacher at Robinson Park School.
Heidi Juraz - 199 Maynard Street, Feeding Hills, MA, in favor of this budget.
Q Joyce Rheaume -resident at 147 Meadow Brook Road in Agawam and teacher at Clark
School, I support the budget.
Laura Fallon —51 Vadnais Street, Agawam, I'm a parent and I'm in favor of the budget.
Anna McGee- 55 Sherry Lane,help the children in public schools, I support the budget.
Shelly Russell -resident of Wilbraham, I work at Robinson Park and Granger School and
I support this budget.
Leslie Kida—I'm a resident of Enfield, Ct, I work at James Clark School and I'm in
favor of this budget.
Karen Connor—I'm a resident of Connecticut. I work at James Clark School and I'm in
favor of the budget.
Kerry Donohue—of West Springfield and I work at the Middle School and I'm in favor.
Cheryl Cecchi—282 Southwick Street, teacher at the Middle School and I'm in favor of
the budget.
Kristin Kutz—45 Rhodes Avenue, I'm a teacher at Granger and I'm in favor of this
budget.
Neils Pilot—44 Rhodes Ave, Feeding Hills, in favor of the budget.
Kathy St. Lauren —resident at 106 Columbia Drive and I'm in favor of this budget.
Wendy Rua— 173 North Westfield Street, in favor of the budget.
Theresa Taylor—222 North Westfield Street, FH and I am in favor of the budget.
Diane Donah —resident 226 Lancaster Drive, I'm a teacher at Clark School and I support
this budget.
Peter Donah —226 Lancaster Drive, School Councilor and I support this budget
Elaine Mokrzycki—292 Regency Park Drive and I'm the AHS librarian and I support
the budget.
Theresa Hall—I live in FH and I teach at the Middle School and I'm in support of the
budget.
Mary Ellen Berselli—resident of Westfield, Speech and Language Pathologist at Middle
School, I support putting our children first and the budget,
Francesca Pellegrino— 17 Hearthstone Drive, I support this budget.
Nora Bruno—43 Candlewood Drive, teacher and parent of three, I support this budget.
Nancy Liberti—resident 77 Meadowbrook Road also a teacher in the school system and
I support this budget.
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Linda Lavee— 144 Wagon Wheel Drive,I'm a teacher and parent and I definitely
support this budget.
Marnie Budreau— 56 Tobacco Farm Road, FH and I support the budget.
• Kathy Mouneimneh—Independence Road, FH, mother,tax payer, retired teacher and a
host of other things, I support the budget.
Marjorie Savoie—resident at 374 Meadow Street, I'm also a paraprofessional at
Robinson Park School in the autistic program and I support this budget.
Ellen Feeley— 50 Yale Avenue, FH, MA, I support the budget.
1 Tara Feeley— 50 Yale Avenue,FH, I'm also a teacher at Phelp's and I support the
budget.
Doreen Eagen —39 Stoney Hill Road, FH, special education teacher at AHS, I support
this budget.
Dianna LeBlanc —78 North Westfield Street, FH, I'm a teacher at the Jr. High School
and I support this budget.
Jackie Toussaint—2 Aspen Rise in East Granby, CT. I've been teaching in Agawam for
almost 35 years give or take and I do support the budget and I had a lot of your children
in my class so I'm watching!
Sue Brown—I live in Southwick and I probably made your children sound good, I'm a
• music teacher at the Jr. High. and I support this budget.
Donna Watson—resident of Westfield, I am a teacher at the Agawam Jr. High School
and I do support the budget.
Karen Albano—resident of Agawam and I also teach at the Jr. High School and I do
support the budget.
Lisa Bruno—Springfield resident and I also teach at the Agawam Jr. High School, I
support the budget.
Kelly Cichetti—Agawam resident, a teacher at Robinson Park, I support the budget.
Deborah Curtis—Chicopee resident, para at Robinson Park and I fully support this
budget.
Cathy Gomes —Agawam resident and teacher and I fully support this budget.
• Joan Couture—I'm a resident and I also work at Phelp's School and I support the
budget.
Karen Roberts—I'm a resident and a teacher at the Jr. High and I support the budget.
Susan Meunier—I'm a resident, I work at Granger School and I absolutely support this
budget.
Cheryl O'Connor—I'm a West Springfield resident, I teach at Granger School and I
fully support the budget.
Lisa Karney—I'm a resident of East Longmeadow but I'm a first grade teacher at
Granger and I wholehearted support this budget.
Lisa Beaulier—I live in Enfield, CT, I'm a kindergarten teacher at Granger Elementary
and I fully support this budget.
Cheryl Paul—Agawam resident,I fully support this budget.
Nancy O'Keefe—I live at 134 Walnut Street, I'm a first grade teacher at Granger and I
too support this budget. Thank you.
Marie Smythe—I Iive in Agawam, I work at the High School and I fully support the
« budget. Thank you.
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Paula Wilson—I'm a resident of West Springfield. I'm a proud teacher of Agawam Jr.
High School and I fully support this budget. Thank you.
Nancy Theroux—West Springfield resident. Agawam Jr. High teacher and I support the
budget. Thank you.
Debbie Donaldson—Good evening. I'm an Agawam resident and a teacher at Agawam
Jr. High School and I fully support the budget.
Bronwyn Monahan —I live in Longmeadow and teach at Agawam High School and I
support the budget. Thank you.
0, Jeannette Friedenson—I teach the Project S.E.E. program at the Middle School and I'm
delighted to support this budget. Thank you.
Bill Hueglin—I am a resident of Chicopee and Band Director at AHS and I fully support
this budget.
Cheryl Wylie—I'm a resident of Westfield. I work at Agawam Jr. High and I fully
+A support the budget. Thanks.
Tom Benton—I'm a Westfield resident and I'm also a math teacher for 7`h and S`h grade
over at Agawam Jr. High School and I fully support this budget.
Alan Cohen—I'm a resident of Agawam, 47 Alexander Drive. I work at the High
School as a School Counselor and I too strongly support this budget and hope that you
r pass it.
Rhonda Theroux—Agawam resident,parent and teacher at the Jr. High and I fully
support the budget. Thank you.
Karen Stanton —I am a CT resident and am also a teacher at James Clark School and I
fully support the budget.
Linda Galarneau—24 Sycamore Terrace, School Committee person. I fully support the
budget but if you happen to find anymore money, I'll support that too.
Lisa Regan— 12 Maynard Street, FH, I support the budget.
Norm Robbins—Resident of Southwick and proud and fortunate principal of Agawam
Jr. High School and I totally support the budget.
* Mary Avery—202 James Street and I work at the Jr. High and I support the budget.
President Letellier—Thank you. Last call for anyone wishing to speak in favor of the
budget. Name only in favor. Seeing no one, anyone who wishes to speak in name only
in opposition to the budget? Seeing none, I call the public hearing closed. This is how
we'll do it. We will first have the School Budget Sub-Committee report, then Budgets 1,
2, and 3 Sub-Committee reports and then we'll open it up to questions from the Council.
Okay? So School Budget, Jill do you want to give us your report? Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson —Thank you. Okay, I'm not going to, a lot of the discussion—the
numbers and the figures—have all been covered by the presentations tonight andflip
r through our budget books; the School Budget Committee was very busy this year,
probably one of our busiest years attending multiple meetings and workshops with this
tough budget time. Final meeting of the School Budget Committee was held on Monday,
July 20t', all committee members were present, that includes myself as Chair, Councilor
Cavallo, Councilor Bitzas, Councilor Young and Councilor Mineo. There was, I decided
to have this meeting at that point we had met many times as I had said and I decided to
have this meeting of just our committee, I mean of course it's open to the public but it
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happened to be just our committee that evening to see if there were any more questions,
concerns, any questions that I needed get answers to from our Superintendent,just a
chance for just the committee to kind of hash things out and get any discussion out. We
had a little bit of discussion of some questions which I did send a copy to all our
committee members on their question. The one thing that I would like to note was one of
the questions asked was when would we be receiving the stimulus money and first I
would preface by saying thank you to Barbara for getting this typed up for me. I ran in
one day with some scribbled notes because my computer was having issues and I don't
know if it was myself or my writing but there was one little part that was omitted to the
answer to that question. Once again it was when will we receive the stimulus money and
on the memo it said the application for funds will be done during the month of August
and the part that was omitted that somewhere between October and no later than
December 31"the monies would be received. So I'm sorry that was omitted from my
• memo. At the end of our meeting, I asked if the committee would like to make a
recommendation to do either a positive or negative recommendation to the Council to
propose a vote. It was a consensus of the committee not to send any recommendation to
the Council in order for everyone just to have their own opiniorls and thoughts on what is
set forth for us for the School Budget which is put into the Town. That's basically it
from our Committee. If any other committee members would like to add anything to
that,they're more than welcome and I, on a side, as a personal note, or should I wait?
President Letellier—I'd rather we do each of the committee reports before we talk.
• Councilor Simpson - Okay, even though it's linked in with that, okay, that's fine.
President Letellier—Okay? I appreciate that.
Councilor Simpson -Not a problem. All right,that's it. Thank you.
! President Letellier—Who will give the report for Budget Committee #l? Councilor
Young? Budget Committee#1? We're going to do, as I stated, we're going to do each of
the budget sub-committees and then we'll open it up for general discussion so each
chairperson will give his or her report. Councilor Young?
• Councilor Young—Thank you. Budget Sub-Committee#1 met on July 86. Members of
the committee are Councilors Bitzas, Calabrese and myself. Also in attendance were
Councilors Rheault, Rossi as well as all the department heads which I'll mention along
with the Mayor. The Operational Budgets that this committee reviewed were the City
Council's Operating budget, the Mayor's budget,the Town Hall budget for
• administrative building, Accounting Department, Clerk's Department, Treasurer
Department, Assessor's Department, the Law Department, Council on Aging, Data
Processing for the Town and also a series of line items which is a separate budget tab in
our budget. In all but two, the committee voted unanimously to recommend full
approval. On the Treasurer Department and the Data Processing, I believe both had items
related to the Stabilization Fund transfers. Those were a vote of 2-1 in favor to
recommend a full approval. Thank you.
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President Letellier—Thank you. Who will be giving the Budget 42 Committee report?
Budget#2? Councilor Rossi?
Councilor Rossi—Thank you. Budget#2 Committee, Councilors Mineo, Rheault and
myself,met with all the Department Heads and the Mayor along with Laurel and Cheryl.
We entertained the Police, Fire, Inspection Services, Health, and the likes. We did not
take a vote to make a recommendation either in favor or not and we chose to have each
! member speak directly to their concerns during this public hearing process. There were
some issues raised in regard to the amount of money that was used in the Fire Department
for overtime expenditures, salaries and direct benefits and the continued use for those
purposes. But again, I will reserve my members and the other committee members to
speak directly to those issues. So I will commence with that.
4
President Letellier--Thank you. And Budget #3 I believe is Councilor Perry?
Councilor Perry—Yes, thank you;Madam President. Budget Committee#3 met at the
Agawam Public Library on Wednesday, June 24 h at 7:OOpm. Present at our meeting
were my committee members, Jill Messick and Joe Mineo with myself as chairman and
Councilor Don Rheault was also present. We met with the Mayor, the City Auditor,
Cheryl St. John, the Treasurer, Laurel Placzek, and the Department Heads, Judy Clini
from the Library, Chris Sparks from Park&Rec, Tony Albro,Building Maintenance,
Jack Stone and Chris Golba from the DPW. There was also one resident present and that
! was Billy Chester. Our Committee reviewed the following departments—the library,
which put out a budget for 2010 of$940,549.00 which is basically 3.6%less than the
budget in 2009. Park & Rec budget of$161,179.00 which is 3.5% less than 2009. The
DPW Administration budget was $98,796.00 that was up 25% over 2009's budget. That
was due to the added salary of Jack Stone to cover the month of July and his sick pay and
things of that nature so that's why that line item was somewhat higher. Highway &
! Grounds were $1,785,757.00 for 3.6% less than 2009's budget. Motor Vehicle
Maintenance again $594, 094.00 for 6.1%less than 2009's budget. Engineering was
$233,000.00, it was even with the previous year's budget. The Water Department was up
7.3% and that was due mainly to the cost as we've seen in the Mayor's presentation of
the water purchases. Waste Water Department was basically 2% less and Building
! Maintenance came in at $3,673,000.00 which was basically even with the previous year's
budget. We had much discussion. I want to thank the Department Heads and the Mayor,
Cheryl and Laurel for all their time during that meeting. We as a committee did vote
individually on each department that we reviewed and basically we gave a 3-0 positive
recommendation on those departments that we reviewed. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. I'll now open it up to general questions. I think
Councilor Cavallo had his light on.
Councilor Cavallo —Madam Chairman, i had a couple of questions,is that okay,
regarding both departments—the School and the ?
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President Letellier—We would have to go into Committee as a Whole?
i Councilor Cavallo—Well I'd like to ask some questions. I make a motion to go into
Committee as a Whole.
President Letellier—Motion to go into Committee as a Whole by Councilor Cavallo,
seconded by Councilor Bitzas. All in favor of going into Committee as a Whole, please
signify by saying Ay? Opposed? The floor is your's.
i
Councilor Cavallo —Yea, I have a couple questions and maybe Laurel, it should be
addressed to you or maybe Dr. Czajkowski if she could come up to the dais or the table.
The question is and again I'm not against what I'm talking about, I just want to know
what the mechanism will be because I was the one that requested at the School Budget
Sub-Committee, I requested what's the story with the stimulus funds because at that
point, I did not know when they were coming or what the procedure was. So Dr.
Czajkowski was gracious enough to include in that response to Councilor Simpson a
detailed analysis and report of how all of this is going to be funneled. My question is this
—it's almost like the Arnold Schwarzennaeger thing that going on out in California, the
i IOU's. Obviously if you look at the worse scenario here, if let's say we don't get the
money until December, we're going to be paying for as of July 1, probably out of our
level funded budget, correct, to cover the expenses we incur over the period of four or
five months, would that be correct?
i Laurel Placzek—Yes, that is correct but we are collecting our taxes on a quarterly basis.
The first quarter is due on August 3`d, the second quarter will be due in November, so
half of our tax levy will be here, half of our state receipts will be here by the end of
September.
Councilor Cavallo—Yea, I was just interested in the mechanism.
i
Laurel Placzek-- So,we'll have the,as long as we have the appropriation in place as
voted by the Council, then we have the funds.
Councilor Cavallo-- So we will be made aware of the expenditures that are taking place
• over the next five or six months as you are paying back.
Laurel Placzek—Yes, you'll be getting the same report that you get on a monthly basis
from Cheryl in regard to the expenditures.
0 Councilor Cavallo—Okay,thank you. I had called Jeff Wilson and Dr. Czajkowski
probably spoke to him as well. 1 took advantage of time and I said let me call him and he
gave me a lot of information about this whole bill and so forth. And he told me,he said
they're going to get the money, you're going to get the money, the question is just when.
As long as you've assured me of what the mechanism is. The second thing is I asked him
i about the second year—of 2011. And he said, you know we really don't know how much
we are going to be getting and that's why I'm glad that Mr. Bonavita, Vice Chairman
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Bonavita mentioned that we have to begin looking at budgets this September. We cannot
wait six months because we have to start looking, whether consolidating, whatever we're
gonna do to begin making some cuts that hopefully are not gonna affect the children and
• will not affect our teacher situation. And I encourage you to definitely get on that right
away because he just didn't know what would be. He said you're probably not gonna get
$1.3 million, you may get less than a million dollars so it's imperative that we do that.
That's my first point. Go ahead, Dr. Czajkowski.
• Dr. Czajkowski—Mr. Cavallo, I want to follow up on that because I think those are two
really good points that you've made. An advisory that I received regarding these
expenditures and so on and when we're going to be getting them, they indicated here that
districts should be prepared to split expenditures between the General Fund and the Grant
Fund to accommodate the requirement with the General Fund covering the first and
* second quarters, and the Grant Fund covering the third and fourth quarters. So it's
obviously what Ms. Placzek said as well, so that's how that will operate. As far as the
stimulus money for fiscal '11, I was told that this money could be spent over a period of
27 months, okay? One of the things that I'm gonna look to do as I indicated; we're only
funding six positions which is roughly $300,000.00 out of the $13 million from the fund.
S I may look to hold back some of that money for the following year because I think just as
you pointed out, we're gonna be faced with a more difficult situation and we may not get
as much money. But I think one of the points is that we may be able to use it over a 27
month period, so we may not expend it all this year and I will be reporting that to the
School Committee.
Councilor Cavallo—Thank you. That's a good point. The other thing, and again, I want
to tell the audience out there, I'm not against the School Budget, please, I just want to get
clarification on some of these issues. The second question that I had and I know Mr.
Cohen spoke about it at Citizen's Speak Time, I took the opportunity this morning to call
the Fire Department and Chief Martin wasn't in but I spoke with his Deputy and my
concern was very similar to what one of the individuals spoke about tonight—the cut
with the Fire Department—the 3 %2 positions and as the Councilors know up here at the
dais that there is an account that is quite sizeable in which money goes into that account,
it's like a revolving account. It's an account where when someone goes to the hospital
and an insurance payment is made it goes to the Town and we put it in. It's a good—
• Chief? Okay, Chief. My question to the Depute was the following if we were to hire 3 %2
firefighters, EMT's/paramedics, okay? Wouldn't that in reality because we're paying a
lot of overtime to cover the reduction in the staff of the Fire Department, wouldn't that in
reality either break us even or possibly save money where we don't have to pay that
much overtime. That was my question and Chief, could you address that for the Council?
If that were to become a reality?
Chief Martin—That would be true, Councilor Cavallo, that if we were fully staffed, our
overtime would be at let's say normal operating costs, all right but let me just back up for
one issue of what several of the speakers said earlier that in that 3 '/2 firefighter positions
less in this budget. We're going to be doing all of our emergency services. Nothing is
going to be cut. We'll be doing everything under the Emergency Services. Feeding Hills
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ambulance and pumper, everything at headquarters, all right? But what we're doing in
FY 2010 is we're trying to meet the demands of fiscal problems here and we had several
positions that were vacant so that's what you saw. Then we had some anticipated
• retirements in this fiscal year and the 1/2 is someone is going to be retiring in January so
that's a half fiscal year. However, I'm going along with this and we'll be able to do it
because we did it in Fiscal '09. We had several positions unfunded for the entire fiscal
year. We had more people out than we have now that would contribute to the overtime
and long term illnesses, sicknesses, we just lost one of our firefighters has gone to Iraq
• for 400 days,but anyway,we're filling that position because it was one of the ones that
was funded. So anyway, what we're doing here now in fiscal 2010 is basically what we
did in '09 and it's that we did tap into the ambulance fund to augment any shortfalls in
our budget accounts but even the 3 1/2 looks a little on the high side anyway for shortages.
The Mayor's Supplemental Budget gives us one. We're trying to get another position so
that we're gonna be less short than we were last year. But anyway, we're gonna have all
the positions looked at in the future but all the emergency services will be there.
Councilor Cavailo —And I understand and I knew, we certainly are still gonna have
ambulance service in Feeding Hills, we're still gonna have it in Agawam, I certainly
i know that but isn't the optimum situation to have the three firefighters and isn't it also the
fact that if we did go into that account, we could fund three firefighters, could we not? It
would not have an adverse affect; it would not add anything to the tax rate. That's the
only answer I want. The Mayor can answer it, I don't care who answers but if we were to
high three firefighters at let's say$50,000.00 a year, that's $150,000.00, I know they
i have to be funded the following year, I understand that, okay, but wouldn't that be the
optimum and isn't that possible?
Chief Martin—I wouldn't want to do that. We're gonna look at one position on the
ambulance fund that would give us a total of five that would be coming out of that. We
gotta take a guarded look at the fund, what we're doing now is like, again, the fund's in
• excellent shape—in excess of over$800,000.00 in it. It took a little hit last year but
we're able to recover nicely from that. So we don't want to get too much into the
ambulance fund for hiring positions. So I think that if we get one out of Supplemental
Budget, one out of the ambulance account, get some of these injured, sick people back,
we should be in good shape.
•
Councilor CavaIlo - Thank you and I just have one more question, Madam Chairman,
that's it and it has to do with I believe there was $100,000.00 taken out of the cable
account, correct, and rightfully so that it's funding, Jeff may know, funding the
computers at the high school and also some hardware and software. My question is just
i very simple, I noticed in the Stabilization and Madam Mayor you might be able to answer
this question, if in the Stabilization Fund appropriation under departmental equipment, I
want to know if this is legal, you mentioned that we could use the fire computer,
something to do with Connect City, Data Processing computer equipment,
Treasurer/Collector computer equipment, is it legal for us cuz I know there's more
i money, I'm sure Cheryl, our Auditor, will confirm that there's much more money in
there, there must be at Ieast $100,000.00 left in that account, I'm not sure but I think last
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time I looked at it—would it be legal for us in other words to go into the Cable Fund and
take care of these requests that the Mayor is asking for under the Department Equipment
because it is computer related?
Jeff Hulbert—The, I've always felt that the pass through has been used for the benefit
for both the town and the school and what is spent for the town should also be spent for
the school. When I've spent money out of the pass through other than the reoccurring
costs for the fiber plant in the town and the schools, I've always tried to benefit both
sides. We had the disaster recovery project that I worked on for the town. The School, in
turn, had their disaster recovery project so while I suppose that we could, spending
money solely spending money out of the pass through just solely for town purposes
always seemed counter productive.
Councilor Cavallo—But we are giving the School $100,000.00, are we not? The school
side?
Jeff Hulbert—What we're doing with the pass through is we're offsetting the budgets of
the school by $66,000.00 for hardward for the schools and then on the town's side we're
offsetting contractual support costs by about $53,000.00. So really it's $106,000.00 in
total that we're taking out of the pass through.
Councilor Cavallo —But you would admit though,with the Mayor's request here, you
may only be talking about $15,000.00 or$20,000.00, but$15,000.00 - $20,000.00 is a
small amount but at least it would cut down the Stabilization Fund would it not, if we
were to buy some of the equipment that the Mayor's requesting?
Jeff Hulbert—I supposed it would, yes.
.Councilor Cavallo—Okay, I'm just saying again, I think it might be a good idea to look
at that. I don't want to tell you how to do your job but I mean this is something that I
think we should look at because there is some money available there and quite a -
substantial amount. Thank you. Those are the only questions I had, Madam Chairperson.
President Letellier—Thank you. Do wish to stay into Committee as a Whole? Are
there any questions for any Department Heads or the Mayor? Are there any other
questions for any Department Heads or the Mayor? No? Do we have a motion to come
out of Committee as a Whole? So all in favor, Ay? Opposed? Thank you. We are back
to Council discussion. Any Councilor wishing to address the budget. Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas—Yes, Madam President. I think we should support the budget as
presented to us. I believe in difficult times we'd be able to fund it with some stimulus
funds from the government state some money. The education first of all as a teacher
myself of West Springfield, my wife's a teacher at Clark School, my daughter is a teacher
in Westfield, we're a family of teachers. It's very important that this Council support the
School Budget forever anyway, not only support that but if we have any other funds as
one of the speakers said, we should also try to get some funds extra especially I'd like to
39
see the passage—money to reinstate the position of the drug counselor in high school but
this is not mine to do it, to increase, I cannot increase the budget but only we can cut a
budget and I hope we don't do that. From the town side of the budget, I hope this
Council votes in favor because every committee did not reject the budget. With the
School Committee, we didn't reject it. #1 Committee never rejected it. #2 Committee
didn't reject it and#3 Committee, logically we going to have the budget passed tonight
and I hope we don't compromise the police safety and the fire safety and education.
Those are the three pedestals, the three legs of the stool for a very successful city, town or
state. So I hope this Council fully supports as presented the budget and I hope we do it
tonight. Thank you.
President Letellier--Thank you. Can we have someone else, or anyone else for the first
time? Anyone else for the first time? Go ahead, Councilor Rossi?
•
Councilor Rossi—Thank you. I took a long hard look at this budget and I was asked my
opinion of it by someone a while back and I tried to sum it up as quickly and briefly as I
could and the two things that come to my`mind were disappoint and frustration. I am in
favor of everything that I have heard here today and I don't want to take anything away
from the School side or the Town side. I'm in favor of keeping all of the services and I
wish there was no mud in Joyville,believe me. For the longest time on the budget,I've
been talking about line item budgeting and more direct accountability in this budget. So
far I have not seen that. We are facing some very, very difficult times and we managed
to squeak through this year and I think we did it standing on our tiptoes. I think we're
facing some real challenges next year and the year after and I listened to Dr. Czajkowski
say that she welcomes the challenge of making those decisions and I know that you are
and I know that you're capable along with your staff and many others of this
administration are capable but remember we're talking about a $77 million budget. It's
been partially funded with free cash- $2 '/z million. That free cash is gonna be depleted
. again somewhere around next June for another figure of$ 2 % million to $2 million.
We're supplementing our Fire Department with funds from an Ambulance Fund,
overtime - $250,000,00+, not to mention what we budget. We're talking about
Stabilization money for the first time in offsetting some of the costs of this budget.
Facing the challenges to make those difficult decisions, I would welcome that also but
relying on this free cash and local aid that will not and probably will not be there in the
future, I think is only delaying those decisions. I'm a little disappointed that we did not
bring in our Collective Bargaining units to sit down and try to make some concessions. I
thought that that would be an option. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't pass out any
kind of notices to keep our options open in the School Department. I'm not looking to
lay anybody off in the department but I thought that we'd at least keep some options open
in the event that we needed to. I think we have to start making those decisions now. I
don't see that coming here and I think that next year we're gonna be faced with some
very, very real challenges. If we don't talk about the funding next year and making some
very serious decisions for next year, I think we're gonna be talkingabout some very
serious and drastic cuts. We might even be talking about some overrides down the road
here. Now I know we're talking about, I've heard things about the healthy Stabilization
Fund, it's not gonna be healthy if we continue to use it to fund these ongoing projects.
40
The Stabilization is only funded by money that this Council puts in it. So it's not a
reoccurring balance here—something that we'd have to appropriate and if we continue to
spend our free cash and we don't get anything back at the end of the year, that's gonna be
gone too. So I think we better start thinking about those things people. Now I don't want
to put a damper on here and I don't want to cause anymore conflicts or...to make some
adjustments in future, there's gonna be mud in JoyviIle.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Calabrese?
•
Councilor Calabrese—Thank you. I think what we have here is a budget that's
attempting to avoid a Prop 2 1/2 override by the use of the Stabilization Funds and the free
cash so I'd have to agree with you, Councilor Rossi. Again, I know that it's very difficult
to sit up here and kind of pass cold water on a budget that has so much vocal support and
• the last thing I want to do is see services cut from our school side, for sure but I do
believe that there are some very tough choices that need to be made here. There are
specific items within this budget that I had asked questions about and was given certain
assurances, specifically the $796,000.00 set aside for abatements and exemptions. I just
don't know that that looks like enough in this current real estate climate but I was assured
that that's enough. I'm concerned that we're funding substantial portions of our School
based upon you know a promise that the check is gonna be in the mail, so I don't know
that I can necessarily have my fingerprints on this budget approving it tonight. Thank
you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Anyone else for the first time? No? Councilor
Cavallo?
Councilor Cavallo —Yea, I would like to say again I am in support of this budget okay?
I'm very satisfied with some of the answers I received tonight. Unfortunately, I didn't
want to take up too much time cuz I, I wanted to get a hold of the Police Department as
well because they are also under-manned, okay, they don't have enough people, officers,
to cover shifts and we're talking about public safety and I think this is something that we
have to Iook at down the road where we get the Police Department up to the number of
officers that they should have. I think I'm right that you are down in number, I'm sure.
Okay, you're fully staffed now and but the other thing I want to talk about too then the
0 education part here. We can't afford to cut teachers. That teacher that sits in front of that
classroom, stands in front of that classroom, rather and teaches—that teacher is the nuts
and bolts of the operation. You can have as many computers as you want in classroom
and they're wonderful but you cannot get rid of that teacher. If anything we've got to
assist that teacher as much as possible. A couple of the people mentioned tonight, it's a
• hard job and it really is a hard job. I will as long as I'm a councilor and in my future
endeavors if I proceed further than that, I will make sure that we will not cut any
teachers. This is not the way to go. I feel that we have to support the budget. There's no
other way to go at this point. I ask Dr. Czajkowski in fact I hope, I implore her to maybe
come back to the School Budget Sub-Committee and invite them to some of those early
• meetings that you may have in September and October and I think that this would be
great,that articulation between the two groups so that we understand where you're
41
0
coming from and it's not like we find out about it a week later, two weeks later,but we're
abreast of what's going on in your budget deliberations which are gonna start very early.
i I think that would be a plus so again I do support the budget and I hope everything works
out well. Thank you very much.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Minco?
. Councilor Mineo—I just wanted to say for the tenth straight year, I am gonna support
this budget. I've supported every School Budget, things increase, things decrease. I
think next year is gonna be tough year but I think the year that's really gonna be tough is
FYI 2 because that's when these ARRA funds end so I think I agree with some of the
Councilors and Councilor Bonavita—you gotta start planning. I don't know about next
year, I mean it's going to be difficult but I think FYI is gonna be the most difficult year,
i Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson—Great, thank you. I'll be brief because of the hour here but I'm in
support of the Town budget including the School Department budget. I am a teacher so I
know what it like to be in that classroom and I have four and five year olds so at that end
which makes it a little more difficult but I think one thing that we have to remember and
it kind of came to light this year is that it's always hard to make these decisions,to make
cuts, to make changes, whatever, you know in a perfect world we'd have everything just
fine and dandy, but and it's easy for us right now up here to say you know it's gonna be
hard,we all know it's going to be hard the next two or three, four, who knows how long
it's gonna be but I think I had put it out to this Council and to next year's Council
whoever the eleven of us may be with this being an election year and all so with whoever
the Mayor may be in that seat is that we have a kind of a showing this year. It was a very
small thing, it was cut from the budget—the yard waste--everyone got upset, up in arms
over it and fortunately it was put back in, it's a nice thing to have. Everyone says we're
gonna make cuts, we gotta make tough decisions and when one little thing is cut
everybody gets upset about that so I think as Councilors, as Mayor, as School Committee
members we do have to take that oneness and show up to the people and say sometimes
cuts have to be made and it may not be able to go back in and it seems like as soon as we
make a cut nobody wants that cut. So I think we have to also as elected officials think
about that—saying sometimes we're gonna have stand behind a cut, it may not be
popular but sometimes it's necessary. We also have to remember too in the schools,
nobody wants anything cut and you look at all the different positions that are in the
schools—they all back that classroom teacher—they all support and help that classroom
teacher. There's a lot of things that that classroom teacher depends on that maybe from
the office staff, administrator or whatever, so once again it's hard once again, to say
where do you cut because you know what? Wherever you cut, it's gonna impact
somehow in the classroom. So I think that's where we're gonna have to come forth as
elected officials within the next two years as if a hard line and something has to be done
we have to still stand by it. So but this year I am in support and I think both on the Town
side and the School side, it was hard this year. I commend the School side. They did a
42
1♦
lot of different scenarios which was very interesting to listen to and they looked really
hard at what if, what if, what's this and that, and I do agree with some of the comments
' that we're getting this money this year and we may not have it again next year or less.
It's kind of like using the other credit card to pay off the other credit card. So we can't
bank on this money and hard decisions will be have to be made and they may not be the
most popular decisions but sometimes they will be made. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you, Councilor Simpson. Any other speakers? No? All
• right. I will read just the budget resolution figures instead of reading the whole
resolution. So we have TR-2009-16. Six votes are needed. A resolution adopting the
fiscal year 2010 annual operating budget for the Town of Agawam and the Operating
budget is as follows:
Council $163,685.00
Mayor $291,943.'00
Administrative Building $388, 567.00
.Law Department $121,600.00 °
Auditor $148,055.00
ClerkJElections $231,022.00
Assessor $245,709.00
Data Processing .$182,181.00
Treasurer/Collector $285,113.00.
Police Department $4,215,006.00
Fire Department $3,231,953.00
Inspection Services $273,365.00
Health Department $566,399.00
Community Development $144,016.00
Library $940,549.00
Parks &Rec $161,179.00
Council on Aging $358,235.00
i DPW/Administration $98,796.00
Highway& Grounds $1,785,757.00
Motor Vehicle Maintenance $594,094.00
Engineering $233,001.00
Building Maintenance $3,673,114.00
Agawam Public Schools $33,989,637.00
Emergency Managernent $19,370.00
Line Items $18,058,322.00
Self-Sustaining Departments.-
Waste Water Department $2,875,726.00
Waste Water Capital Improvement Budget $65,774.00
Water Department $3,435,972.00
Water Capital Improvement Budget $54,595.00
Golf Course $804,265.00
Golf Course Equipment $31,100.00
Total $77,668,100.00
43
i
President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Bitzas, seconded by
Councilor Simpson. Barbara, could you call the roll? A yes vote is to approve the
budget as proposed.
ROLL CALL—9 YES, 1 NO (Councilor Calabrese), 1 ABSENT (Councilor
Rheault)
President Letellier—With nine yes, one no, one absent, you've approved the budget.
Thank you all for coming and staying.
Mayor Dawson—Madam President and the Council if I could please thank you very
much. This means an awful lot to our town. Thank you.
President Letellier—Can we just hold on. We only have one more item. We have
only one item of old business left, so we'll let people funnel out.
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 Calabrese, Letellier and Messick) (Tabled 6/15/09) (113)
(Referred to Ordinance Committee)
President Letellier—All right. I think we've cleared out enough to get back on record.
• What's the Council's pleasure? We have a motion to remove it from the table from
Councilor Messick, and a second by Councilor Calabrese. Barbara, could you call the
roll on removing the item from the table?
ROLL CALL—10 YES, 0 NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
•
President Letellier—We have removed the item from the table. Do we have a motion
on the item itself? Moved by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by Councilors CavalIo and
Messick. We'll start first with a report from the Ordinance Committee. Councilor
Rheault is not here tonight but Councilor Calabrese as usual has typed up the minutes.
•
Councilor Calabrese—Thank you. You've all received a copy of the minutes that are
typed up and I'm not gonna be reading those verbatim because you can all of course read
but for the benefit of people at home, the meeting was called to order by Chair Donald
Rheault at 5:35. Present were committee members Paul Cavallo and Cecilia Calabrese.
Also present were Councilors Jill Messick, Bob Rossi, Joe Mineo. We also had present
at that meeting the following Department Heads —we had Tony Albro, Nick Urbinati,
Jack Stone, we had a few citizens that were present and also we did receive a letter from
Debbie Dachos from the Planning Department in support of passing TOR-2009-4.
Several items were discussed which you've actually touched upon briefly. Specifically
that Agawam is in the process of, I think we're about 40'h in line for an energy audit,and
there was some conversation with regard to the need for this particular commission of
course and one of the issues that was raised was well shouldn't Debbie Dachos who
44
i
typically does the grant writing for the Town be responsible for looking into possible
funds and writing grants of this nature and Jack Stone was kind enough to give us some
. input on that and it was of his opinion that this particular type of grant writing required
and interdepartmental discipline and authority that he doesn't believe Debbie Dachos at
this particular point in time and again, you can all read that particular section. There
were several recommendations that were made, specifically Councilor Cavallo had made
the recommendation that we increase council participation from i to 3. I know that
Councilor Rossi was concerned about the requirement of requiring members on this
• particular commission to go through training so we had that amended there was also a
change that was made to make that a requirement, now a recommendation. And it was
also specifically set forth and discussed during that meeting that the City Council retains
the power to assign the duties and responsibilities of that commission. We did not make
any recommendation with regard to approval or disapproval of the establishment of this
• Energy Commission. Members of the Ordinance Sub-Committee wanted to see an
amended ordinance which I believe you have before you tonight and the meeting was
adjourned at 7:05pm. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Anyone else on the committee wishing to add
• anything? Councilor Cavallo?
Councilor CavaIlo—Yea, I at the meeting, as I said, she mentioned Councilor Calabrese
mentioned that I wanted to increase the number from one to three and that has been done
and the point that I wanted to make too which was taken care of was this commission was
strictly an advisory role and that was it and I was satisfied with that at that particular
point. I also received some literature and some literature was handed out to us at the
meeting regarding the connotation of the word `commission' versus the connotation of
the word `committee' and it was communicated to me by some people who have called
me and also I'm at the Cape quite often and they're really into energy and energy
conservation out there. As you know, they're facing the wind turbines and all the things
and so forth and apparently it is true and I read that one that I received from Northampton
I believe, and I believe that that's referred to as a commission and I have no objection to
that. If that commission can get the funding,has the power because of the word
commission to proceed further, I don't have a big problem with that at all. So my stand
right now is to go with it. I will support it because we are, we've got to go into the 21St
• century knowing full well that this is where we're going, this is the way of the future.
Going green and being able to be conscious of energy use and so forth, I put my air
conditioner up to 78 today. My wife came home and she was all upset. I said look it, it's
78, it's still comfortable plus I was thinking about the electrical bill too cuz that thing
keeps on when we're not around, and I put it down and I said look it, it will work out.
And I'm trying to save a buck and at the same time, do I have to have that thing at 72 all
the time? So these are things that we have to be more cogniscent of and of course it's
more to it than that with the commission but I think it's the way to go and we should
certainly give it a chance to see if we can get some production out of it. That's all I have
to say.
•
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Simpson, and then Councilor Young.
45
•
r
Councilor Simpson—Thank you. Through the Chair,I just have two quick questions.
One I will address through the Chair to Councilor Cavallo,just because his name was
linked to it but if you're not the right person then refer me to who but what was the
reason from wanting to go from one councilor to three councilors, that's my first one.
Councilor Cavallo—I think that I just wanted more representation by the Councilor on
there, that's all —in having three.
•
Councilor Simpson—And the other, it just seems like it's a huge committee with eleven
members,through the Chair,to whoever can answer that question for me. Is that how it's
normally done? To me it just seems like a really big committee. Is there a reason for that
many? Is that the norm or who can answer that one?
•
President Letellier—Councilor Messick can answer that one actually.
Councilor Messick—Sure thank you. Through the Chair to Councilor Simpson, the
reason the committee is so large is that and the reason I originally went with one
councilor rather than three, is to kind of keep that a little bit smaller, is that you need to
have a cross section of the population. You need to have people who are individual
citizens of the town, who hopefully will be engineers or people who are involved with
solar energy or energy conservation,that type of thing and you need to have buy in from
the Department Heads and so four of the people are Department Heads that are on the
committee, four people would be from the town side and then we've got the three
councilors so that's what brings it up to eleven and it's very common to actually have
even more people because a lot of the activities that what we have right now is sort of an
Ad Hoc Committee. We've been doing the job of a commission as a committee. And
one of the things that we've done is the Earth Day celebration. It was very labor
intensive. We had a lot of volunteers and so we anticipate that we're gonna actually have
some meetings where there may be twenty people or thirty people there depending on
what the topic is but the central commission—the commission members—would be the
only voting members and they would be making the policy issues, advising the town on
proposed policy issues which would then come before the Council and doing the research
to find out whether those are a good fit for Agawam and also finding the funds that are a
good fit for Agawam and so those eleven members would be voting members and again
that gives you a lot of good leeway as far as people can't make a meeting. You've got
sub-committee, you're gonna have sub-committees within this committee, people
working on solar, people working on hot water, people working on just energy
efficiencies. So it's very common to have a fairly large commission, yes.
•
Councilor Simpson—Thank you.
President Letellier—As one of the co-sponsors, I can add that Councilor Messick and
Solicitor Johnson did quite a good job in making sure that our proposal follows the State
• Energy Resource proposal. I think you heard one of the speakers earlier say that if we
choose their model, will they be more apt to recognize us? That's part of the hope is by
46
choosing the model that they've laid out for us, we increase our opportunity to get these
grants. Is that safe to say? Thank you.
Councilor Messick—Absolutely and just the fact that having a commission vaults us
toward the top of any list because there are so many cities and towns that do not have
one,just by showing that are willing to commission this essentially puts us higher up as
far as the rankings goes. There are actual rankings for applications where they say okay,
do they have an energy commission? Have they committed to fuel efficient vehicles?
Do they have any other programs in place? And the more things you are already doing,
the more likely you are to get more finding so --
President Letellier—Any other questions, Councilor Simpson? Okay, thank you. All
right. Councilor Young?
•
Councilor Young—Just two questions to whoever to is most appropriate to answer—so
where—is there town funding required to support this commission? That would be the
first question.
Councilor Messick—Right now, I don't believe there is any town funding although we
do have support from one of the people in Personnel from the DPW,the Mayor has
authorized from her, from her budget and she has been working with us on a regular
basis. That's something that we would definitely have to look into and for the moment
we've kind of been fundraising on our own. People seem to be willing to do fundraisers
so right now no, there's no funding but as we obtain funding there will be some room in
there for what is generally allowed as administrative costs and so we're hoping, we're
assuming that some of that will be able to be used for any administrative costs that we
have.
Councilor Young—Okay, so there's none assumed in the proposal here, there's none
assumed, I know you don't have any currently but there's none required? I don't-see any
requirements for funding in the future.
Councilor Messick-No we don't have any requirements.
Councilor Young—Again, I guess it's been pointed out to me in my travels around town
and in my neighborhood that as you know, as many of the folks here know, that there's
many, if you look at the many commissions and groups that we have either authorized by
the town or just volunteers that have been working for decades as volunteers and with no
funding from the town. I guess we should watch that. The other question is, I can't tell
• from this document, who this commission would report to and who would make
decisions on matters that they recommend?
President Letellier—The Council votes and has the final say. It's like CPA—they make
a recommendation but the Council has to actually decide if they want to approve it or not.
Councilor Young—Does it say that in here?
47
i
President Letellier—It's in the state's statute, I believe.
Councilor Young—Well, a recommendation would be that, cuz it seems like it's not
clear to me and maybe some others that, I'm all for having the commission. I think as I
told others that anybody that we can have dedicated to a single thing and get something
done is I'm all for it but I hate to, it's not clear to me if it's a Council commission and we
appoint the members, that's great. If we're the deciding body, like CPA, I know that's
all stipulated in their bylaws and so on and so forth but if it's in here or some other
document I missed, let me know but I think we should make that firm before we go too
far.
President Letellier—Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas—I do agree with Councilor Young. It's not very clear and in writing
and before we're voting we should be a lot more clear and in black and white what the
mission of it is and what the Council would be—above them? We'd be advisors? It's
not very clear and the State statutes, I don't have any papers to tell me that to vote
tonight. But I am in favor of the idea of forming something and I believe that the Energy
Green Committee they're doing a fantastic job and I think they should also be advising
this so-called commission. But I do agree with Councilor Simpson and I said the same
thing to a couple of the councilors,this is a large committee. I mean usually
commissions consist of three members or maximum five members commission. They
have commission Fire Department, Police Commission, all different cities and towns. I
don't, and sometimes things work better without any commission, so we can be a
committee or something, what I'd like to see, when I see there, three members of the City
Council, four citizens,the Resolution says that the Town of Agawam does not have
...dedicated to research, funding ...energy policy with the town and then we appoint
them four different department heads, they're part of it. Why? Because sometimes we
can create a monster or political committee and if the Mayor appoints some people,the
next Mayor, two years, four years whatever, maybe they don't like those people they like
so,I don't want it to be a political committee. I want it to be a real committee or
commission to care about this town. The larger it is, the more problems we're going to
have. So I was talking to Councilor Perry and Councilor Young and Councilor Simpson
just mentioned before me, the membership. I think it's too large. I would like to see a
member of this Council to be responsible, that would be the President of the Council,
whoever the President is, he is accountable to the voters if he's doing a good job or not,
the Mayor who is elected by the town and of course we have three members of
administration,the Director of Planning and Community,the Building Maintenance
0 Director and the Superintendent of Public Works, and even one citizen or two citizens but
the shorter the better because that way, they are accountable to us and accountable to the
voters and we're not gonna spend any money. I'm afraid how this money, all this
schooling, who would pay for this? But if we have people that work for us, they get paid
very good salaries, they get very good money. They already get paid$100,000.00 or
$85,000.00, they can do the job to find the funding and I think if we're serious, we have
to look into the membership. I would prefer to see previous committee without the three
48
councilors. It's too political. If you're really serious about this committee and I spoke to
some of the people that call my house and they're good friends and I say I'm not against
this but I'd like to see it a lot more clear and be more serious, to be black and white and
of course a less membership. But I don't know what the pleasure of the Council but I
would prefer to see this committee downsized and be responsible to the taxpayers
because the Mayor should appoint members of her administration or his administration
whatever mayor it is, they're well paid,they should do the job for free. Well not for free,
they already get paid for it. We don't have to pay other people to do the job. So, that's
my opinion. Thank you.
President Letellier—Councilor Messick?
Councilor Messick—Through the Chair to Councilor Bitzas,I understand that eleven
people seems like a very big number and I understand that the department heads should
be doing this job already but the fact of the matter is they have not been. The fact of the
matter is you've got a bunch of, a large number of people in the town, who have joined
the Go Green Committee thinking that saving energy, energy planning, looking to the
future, looking into solar power is a fantastic idea for the town. A number of different
cities have worked with this very same model and have found that when you have a broad
base, when you have a lot of people buying in, these things work much better. They gain
momentum. You get the buy in that you need for it to continue and for it to work. If we
need to have regular meetings of the heads of the departments to get them to cooperate on
this one issue, I don't see how that is a problem because what we're seeing right now is
they're not taking the initiative to make this an issue in town that will be followed up on.
And that is my major reason for wanting to form this commission—(a)to get the funding
to make a clear statement to the state that we are interested in getting this funding. We're
interested in making these right decisions and to doing this and doing this planning and
that we have on board, we do have the Mayor on board. Unfortunately she left. She
made a proclamation that the Town is interested in doing this. We have the department
heads interested in doing this and willing to do this. They sat in the sub-committee and
said so and we have citizens who are interested on being on the commission and the
bigger the buy-in, the better this is going to work. So while I would love to see that the
Town is already way ahead of the game on this issue, what we're doing right now is
starting that ball rolling. Thank you.
President Letellier—Councilor Rossi for the first time.
Councilor Rossi—Thank you. I initially had some issues with this commission and I
think you recall, I said them at the sub-committee meetings about creating layers of
• bureaucracy and stuff, but I did a little research and delving into the project and I don't
find a reason to deny it to be a commission anymore. I think that maybe a commission is
the way to go and maybe this is the avenue to take through our ordinances however I do
have some other issues over here that I think needs to be considered. First and foremost I
admire Councilor Messick's passion in regard to this and I certainly understand and
appreciate it but I don't know how this Council can legislate by Ordinance the duties and
responsibilities of department heads. If we by Ordinance establish that these department
49
have to be a part of a commission which historically has always been on a volunteer basis
appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council,we are I guess in effect and
maybe we should get some kind of an interpretation but in my view, we're establishing
their hours and other conditions of employment. I think that could be an issue here. I
think she's absolutely right that some of these positions have probably been a little remiss
in their duties and responsibilities but it is a fact that every single one of those people that
you've named in this commission, the Department of Planning, the Maintenance
Director, the DPW Director, all of those people, their duties and responsibility has to deal
with conservation and they should be conservation-conscious. Now if they're not doing
their job I think that's the role of the Mayor to make sure that they do their job. But
again, that aside, I don't have a problem with the commission. Having a council member
on the commission I think is okay and having members of the community on the
commission I think is okay and calling in department heads on an intermittent basis
however they may be needed to make recommendations however they may, you may
want to make might be okay. I think that's fine. But I think that those are issues that
we're gonna have to address before we start assigning department heads to be on
commissions. Now establishment is one thing, assigning those responsibilities is another
thing. And then we have to talk as Councilor Young mentioned here, that somewhere
# down the road we may be faced with looking for salaries, other costs commensurate with
administration and other fees. I don't know what that's gonna bring but I guess we can
deal with that at a different basis but if we want to do it, we can form a commission. I'm
not opposed to a commission but I think we might go back and maybe re-tool it just a
little bit and find out where we stand before we start making decisions on appointed
department heads to be a part of a commission. How do we even know that they want to
be on this commission? And how do we know we can even force them to be on a
commission? I don't know that we have that kind of standing here and maybe we ought
to just take another look at it and I'Il leave it up to the other councilors to decide what
they want to do with it but I don't think the way it is presently, 1.think it can go through.
I just really think we need to look at it again.
President Letellier—Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas —Yes, I agree. I'm not against to form something, a commission. I am
in favor to form a commission and it's very hard to find volunteers. It was so hard to fill
the Farmer's Commission, we just appointed,we have to fill them. It's been two weeks,
two months now. It's difficult to find four citizens that are all engineers with very high
paid citizens to go to meetings without pay. Who will pay those people? But if, for as I
said and I will try to make an amendment to that, if we have only five members —one
councilor, one citizen, three department heads and of course officials would be the Mayor
r and President of the Council—that would be plenty. Five members not a lot more and I
kind of disagree with Councilor Messick that the bigger the better—no, less is more.
You don't want to create too much committees, less political. Thank you.
President Letellier—Anyone else wishing to speak? Councilor Calabrese? One of the
sponsors, anyone else? Councilor Cavallo?
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Councilor Cavallo—No, I'd just like to move the question. Is that possible?
President Letellier—Yes, as long as there's no more speakers.
Councilor Mineo—I'll second that.
Councilor Bitzas—Before we move the question, we have to make a motion.
President Letellier—Motion was made to move the question and it was seconded.
Councilor Rossi—Point of information.
President Letellier—Yes, point of information?
Councilor Rossi—I would like to get an interpretation, I would like to get a feeling as to
what the committee wants to do because I'm not comfortable voting for it. If you want a
commission, I'll give you`a commission vote but I don't want to establish appointing
department heads on that commission.
President Letellier--Well, it's the first reading of three. Even if the new rule of only
needing two gets passed, you still need three readings because this was proposed during
the current three reading rule. We had asked the Chair of the Ordinance Committee to
have another meeting. He decided that another meeting was not needed so that sort of set
us back at least a meeting because we don't meet again until August 17t'. So you can
pass the first reading, you can table the first reading, you can vote it down and you can
come back differently. It's up to the body. Question's been moved and seconded.
Barbara, could you call the roll? Six votes are needed to pass the first reading.
ROLL CALL— 10 YES, 0 NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Rheault)
President Letellier—With ten yes, one absent, we have passed the first reading. I will
ask Barbara to send a memo to the Solicitor to ask if department heads can be forced to
be members of commissions if it's not already in their pre-existing job description and
since we don't meet again until August 17`h we should have a ruling by then and then I
i will ask the Ordinance Committee upon receipt of that response,upon receipt of the
response from the Solicitor,to schedule another meeting.
Councilor Young—Madam President? Point of information?
President Letellier—Yes?
Councilor Young—Point of information. Is it,just to clarify, is it the Ordinance
Committee's duty to refine this ordinance?
President Letellier—The Ordinance Committee, the sponsors can make some
adjustments.
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Councilor Young- Okay.
President Letellier—As you know, if it's more than ten words it's got to be in writing.
Councilor Young-No, I understand so thank you.
Councilor Bitzas—Point of information?
President Letellier—Yes, Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas —Okay, I voted in favor of it, I prefer to have less members. I hope the
Ordinance Committee discuss and also the issues from Mr. Rossi and Mr. Cavallo and I
hope we have something more clear ordinance and I will support that, I have no problem
with it. So, but I have to be—
President Letellier—Councilor,this isn't a point of information,this is a discussion.
Thank you. Okay, moving on to New Business.
Item ll. New Business
1. 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)(Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—I'm gonna ask the Ad Hoc CPA Committee to look at that? Is it
Councilor Bitzas or Simpson? Councilor Simpson,thank you. Next agenda.
2. 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—Next agenda.
3. 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)
i President Letellier—Next agenda.
4. 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--Next agenda.
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5. TR-2009-34 -A Resolution Adopting the Fiscal Year 2010 Supplemental
Budget for the Town of Agawam. (Mayor)(Majority of those present and
voting)
President Letellier—That's going to the Finance Committee, next agenda.
6. TOR-2009-5 -An Ordinance Amending Section 3-9 of the Code of the
i Town of Agawam Changing the Starting Time for Regular Town Council
Meetings from 7:30pm to 7:00pm (Councilor Cavallo) (3 readings)
President Letellier—That's going to the Ordinance Committee, next agenda.
7. 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) (Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—License Committee, next agenda.
8. TO-2009-28 -Voucher List for Massachusetts Municipal Association
Dues ($4,827.00)(Majority of those present and voting
President Letellier—Next agenda.
9. 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) (Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—License Committee, next agenda.
10. 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)
(Majority of those present and voting)
President Letellier—Finance Committee and next agenda.
Item 12. Any other matter that may legally come before the City Council.
President Letellier—Councilor Simpson?
Councilor Simpson —No thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Mineo?
Councilor Mineo —Just wanted to let you know that I will not be at the next council
meeting on the 17''. I will be away on vacation.
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President Letellier—Have a good vacation. Councilor Cavallo?
Councilor Cavallo —Yea, I just have one thing to say. As you probably know one of our
very dear friends, Rudy Altobelli, had a stroke and he's in a nursing home over at
Heritage West. I visited him. He's having a tough time but he's a fighter and maybe a
card would cheer hire up if any of you know him, He's at Heritage West and also our
former Superintendent, Frank Amerouso, is also at Heritage West. He's in rehab and
he's having some tough times and I think a little cheering up especially Frank Amerouso
S because he has really no family around here but he did serve as our Superintendent for
five years and it'd be nice maybe to send a card or something and wish him well.
They're both, he's got some real health problems. He's on a feeding tube now, he can't
swallow and so again, I'm just saying that if any of you know them,just send a card or
something and the same with Rudy Altobelli. I think they would appreciate that.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Rossi?
Councilor Rossi—Can I read a couple chapters of War&Peace? `
President Letellier—How about"the end". Councilor Perry?
Councilor Perry—Nothing this evening.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Messick?
Councilor Messick—I'd just like to thank my fellow councilors for voting in favor of the
energy commission and we've made a huge step in the right direction. We can obviously
work on the nuts and bolts later. I also wanted to welcome Anthony Silvia of Cranston,
RI as our new Superintendent of Public Works and I'm planning on having a meeting
with him shortly as far as a welcome kind of thing and just telling him what I do around
here and pleased to see that he was appointed. I think that that's gonna be a good
decision. And I'll leave the rest. Thank you.
President Letellier—Councilor Bitzas, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Councilor Bitzas—Yes,just want to thank those three lady councilors for the writing of
the resolution for the commission and I hope you clarify that and I hope it goes through.
And the Green Committee also, they're doing a great job, work together to save our
town's money. Thanks.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Young?
Councilor Young—I have nothing. Thank you.
President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Calabrese?
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Councilor Calabrese—I have nothing tonight.
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President Letellier—I'll just make it quick. Councilor Messick, congratulations.
You've received something from the Association of Conservation Commissions from the
State, so congratulations and do we have a motion to adjourn? All in favor? Opposed?
Thank you all!
Adjournment.
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