Loading...
CC MTG MINUTES MARCH 16 2009 i REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL March 16, 2009 President Letellier—Welcome to the Regular City Council Meeting on Monday, March 16, 2009. Item L Citizen's Speak Time President Letellier—We have two citizens who wish to address us. A reminder that Citizen's Speak Time is five minutes per speaker. You will come to the microphone, you will turn on the light if you've not done so and you have five minutes. You must state your name, your address and what you're speaking about. Our first speaker is John Guntly. Jahn Guntly—Good evening. I am coming to you today to make a few comments. i President Letellier— I'm sorry, please state your name and address. John Guntly—Sorry. My name is John Guntly and my address is 75 Czepiel Street in Chicopee and I'm coming to make a few comments concerning the proposed change to Bylaw 180-12. From what I've understood this has been recalled and more than likely at some point in time will come about again before the Board so I just wanted to make a couple of comments or at least ask a question. Basically, it's been several years that this bylaw has been in existence. What was the particular purpose for it being put into place in the first place? I don't know if that would be known or wouldn't be known. I'm assuming it's because of public health concerns and as such the Board or the Council would definitely be needing to think about that in future reference that if this was a public health reason to try to isolate a veterinary hospital from other businesses then it should certainly be thought upon very highly. The second thing that I wanted the Council to be thinking about was in this particular instance where we're looking at changing a bylaw that concerned veterinary medicine and its regulation within the confines of the town. And the change was really being pushed by a retailer not a veterinarian. And it seems very odd that the person who was going to be working in this town, the one who's going to be earning their livelihood through veterinary medicine was never heard from at any point in time and so that does make me question just who this petition was really for and again I expect that it could very likely show up again before the Council at some point in time and would want you to be thinking about that as well. Thank you. i President Letellier—Thank you. Our next speaker is Ken Vincunas. Ken Vincunas—Hi. Ken Vincunas. I'm from 48 Ellington Street in Longmeadow. I have some other properties in town so you probably all know me by now. I've been in the real estate development business for over twenty years and have been going to town meetings on a regular basis in numerous communities. I've seen Planning Boards, Conservation Commission, Boards of Appeal,Boards of Aldermen and City Councils in • • action. I've developed projects in many towns in our area and I know a lot about zoning. Properly applied zoning serves well in cities as a long term, long use planning tool. ! People rely on it as a relatively constant set of facts guiding where they choose to live, start a business, make investments and make of living. They should expect that any changes to zoning regulations is a serious business to be made carefully by elected officials including such factors as what are the town wide implications to the community, what are the long term benefits and costs, what are the potential health and safety concerns, do it positively affect the tax base, does the petitioner give all the necessary facts to provide a clear sense of what the zoning change would mean. Only after consideration of such factors can an informed Council make this important decision. A vote to change town wide zoning ordinance without adequate information or consideration is a vote for haphazard, short term special ...zoning and it's not being pro business to treat zoning regulations different depending on the petitioner's status or the circumstances of the area where they application would come. And being in the real estate business, I may come to the City Council one day myself for a zone change or a zoning;regulation change and I'd expect to make a complete description of the proposal, the cost benefit, the changes required, and a lot of work would go into that and I'd expect the City Council to give a very serious consideration in light of all the factors described here and then apply, and how they apply to the Iong term best interests to the town and its residents. That's what the City Council is here for and I hope when issues of this major come us, the City Council takes the time to think it broadly and whole community wide interest. • President Letellier--Thank you. Item 2. Roll Call President Letellier—Next we have roll call. Barbara, could you please call the roll? • ROLL CALL— 11 Present, 0 Absent President Letellier—With eleven present, we have full attendance. Item 3. Moment of Silence and the Pledge ofAlle lance President Letellier—Would you please rise for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. I believe the flag is over there. Item 4. Minutes (a) Regular Council Meeting—February 17, 2009 President Letellier— Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Perry. Any questions or comments? Councilor Rheaolt— I have a couple. Madam President? 0 • President Letellier—Yes? Councilor Rheault—Just for the record, it doesn't change the vote, but I was not present at that meeting but I did notice some minutes as I read them that the transfer that you called eight votes for, for the record it only takes six votes—transfer for reserve fund. • President Letellier—Can you show me what you're referring to? I don't know? Councilor Rheault—It's in Council Rules if you want to see it. President Letellier—No, I don't know what item you are referring to. Councilor Rheault—Oh, I'm sorry. The item was TO-2009- 6 transfer$2341.00 and it was stated that eight votes are needed where it only requires six. It did pass so it doesn't make a difference but just for the record. • President Letellier—All right. Thank you. Councilor Mineo—And I abstained. President Letellier—Councilor Mineo abstains, and you abstain as well. All those in favor of the minutes from February 17, 2009,please signify by saying Ay. All those opposed? All those abstaining? Thank you. Councilor Rheault— So I would like that recorded to an amendment. President Letellier—You can give that to Council Clerk to make the amendment. So, • with the amendment as referred to by Councilor Rheault, we've passed the minutes. VOICE VOTE —S Yes, 0 No, 3 Abstain (Councilors Mineo, Rheault and Simpson) Item 5. Declaration from Council President • President Letellier—I'll be coming down to the microphone down there. We have a plaque for one of our deserving citizens. So bear with me for a minute. Can we have Henry and Teresa Kozloski come up? On behalf of the Agawam City Council, we are giving this award to Henry Kozloski and I'll read it for you. It says: "The Agawam City • Council hereby congratulates Henry A. Kozloski on the receipt of the Long Time Service Award from the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions. The Agawam City Council recognizes your hard work, dedication and commitment to the citizens of Agawam and its environment. Congratulations, Henry. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Do you want to say a few words? Henry Kozloski—Thank you. There are many members of the Conservation Commission who have been working many years and I'm only one person and I have to • • thank all those members for their help in getting things in the Town of Agawam. Thank you. • President Letellier— Thank you, Henry. And also just to clarify for the record, we will be having the public hearing on the animal hospital zone change request. The request was made by sixteen citizens so absent all sixteen citizens being here to withdraw the petition, we do need to go forward with the public hearing. So we'll save that for the • next item on the agenda. Item 6._ Presentation ofPtitions, Memorials& Remonstrances (a) Resolutions • 1. TR-2009-4 -A Resolution Amending the Rules and Regulations of the Agawam. City Council(Councilors Calabrese, Perry and Letellier)(Tabled 2/17/09) (Referred to the Rules Sub- Committee)(Majority of those present and voting) President Letellier—Councilor Calabrese, first do we have a motion? Councilor Calabrese— Motion to remove from the table for an update? President Letellier—We have a motion to remove from the table for a report, seconded • by Councilor Rheauit. Councilor Calabrese? Councilor Calabrese - ? President Letellier—I'm sorry. We need a vote on removing the item from the table. Forgive me. Barbara, could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 11 Yes, 0 No. President Letellier—With eleven yes, you've removed the item from the table. Councilor Calabrese? • Councilor Calabrese—Thank you. I'd like to thank everyone that has been working diligently on framing the language on this. We had another meeting on this item on last Wednesday at which among others the City Solicitor, Chris Johnson, was present and had to make sure that the language that we had comports with the Massachusetts General • Laws. What you have before you this evening and you may have also received an email, is the most recent version and our intended final version absent any further input from any members of the Council. This will be going up to Solicitor Johnson for his final approval as to form and legality. So this sort of your fair warning that this is your last opportunity to have input on these rules changes and I suspect that this will be ready to be voted on at our next meeting. And that concludes my report. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. Do you wish the item to be tabled again? • Councilor Calabrese— I would like to make a motion to table? President Letellier— Any further discussion? Councilor Rheault? Councilor Rheault—Yeah, is this our opportunity to make any changes? Councilor Calabrese—You can make them here this evening or opt to put them in writing which will give us just a little bit more time to make some additional revisions. Barbara is keeping the master copy and the most recent versions. I know we've been through several revisions of this. What you have in front of us is the most recent language. However you would like to contribute to the language of this document; you can either do it in writing at a later date or if you want to make a comment this evening, whatever you wish. President Letellier—Councilor Rheault, what's your pleasure? . Councilor Rheault-I can submit it. President Letellier— Submit it in writing`' Councilor Rheault- Yes. President Letellier—Okay. We will all have time for further discussion when the quote final draft is heard and you know it's not a final draft until it's actually voted on. Anyone else wishing to comment about the meeting we had last week? Okay, we have a motion to table by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by Councilor Bitzas. Barbara, could you call the roll? ROLL CALL— 11 Yes, 0 No. President Letellier--With eleven yes, the item has been tabled. Item 7. Report of Council Committees None. Item 8. Elections None. Item 9. Public Hearin s 1. PH-2009-2 - (ZC-2009-2) (TOR-09-1)Public Hearing to hear the Petition to Amend Section 180-12 of the Code of the Town of Agawam Governing the Issuance of Special Permits for Animal Hospitals (Mayor) (213 Majority o,f the Full Council or 8 votes) President Letellier— I will now call the public hearing to order. We received a petition with sixteen certified signatures. The petition is, it says "In conformance with Massachusetts General Law, the following registered voters of the Town of Agawam say that the attached proposed zoning amendment..." and the zoning amendment is attached regarding the animal hospitals. Does anyone wish to speak on behalf of the requested zone change? Mr. Ratner, come up to the microphone. Just state your name and your address and you have ten minutes to speak if you wish. Dave Ratner—My name is Dave Ratner from Dave's Soda and Pet City. If I could just use this time to explain why what happened happened. At 4:00 on Friday, this is embarrassing, I got a call from the veterinarian that he like many other people had lost his financing so he couldn't do what we wanted to do to put the vet clinic in the store. And I apologize and I'm embarrassed but it's beyond my control at 4:00 on Friday afternoon, so we're not gonna go through with it. And I didn't have time to and I couldn't read some of the writing, to notify the other people to withdraw the I don't know the technical term, the petition. Thank you. Thank you very much. I apologize. President Letellier--Thank you. That's fine. Any other persons wishing to speak on behalf of the zone change petition? Anyone wishing to register in name only as in favor of the zone change petition? Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the zone change petition? Come on up, one at a time. Please state your name and address for the record and you'll have ten minutes to speak. Helen Chester—Helen Chester, 320 Barry Street, I wasn't sure if it was necessary to still go ahead with this. I did attend the Planning Board meeting. I thought that Mr. Ratner was very vague in exactly what he plans to do with this change. He spoke mostly of having a clinic but this is for a change of an animal hospital which would allow an animal r hospital in any district that is non-residential and also to change the requirement that they be in a separate building. I believe those are safeguards that the town has placed and I don't think they should be changed especially when there's little notice of what he plans to do here. And I ask that you support the Planning Board's decision to deny it. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Please state your name and address for the record. Claire Weigland—My name is Claire Weigland. I live at 36 Sylvan Lane, feeding Hills. I will state for the record that I am a veterinarian. My practice however is about thirty two miles away. I don't have any financial interest in this one way or another but I do have some great concerns about the changing of our code for this -many of which people have already addressed. I also have some professional concerns that being what Dr. Bentley has said about the conflict of interest between a retailer and a veterinarian. I do believe that there is conflict of interest. I would worry about the direction of medical care whether it be under the direction of the store staff or the veterinary clientele. There's a lot that could go into this decision and I encourage this Board to really consider that if this comes up again. The other thing is that working at a fairly new practice that took about two years of marketing strategy before deciding to open, I would hope that same sort of work would go into this again. We already have two thriving practices. I appreciate what Mr. Ratner has done for this town and opening up the store in what was an abandoned area but I don't want that to happen to other businesses here as well. And so, I just encourage you to consider these points if this point comes before the City Council again. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Anyone wishing to register their name in opposition? Last call for speakers? Seeing none, I call the public hearing closed. Do I have a motion before the Council? Do I have a motion from the Council? Councilor Rossi— I make a motion to withdraw from the Agenda. President Letellier— It would have to be a motion to, first of all I need a motion to begin discussion. Okay, motion by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Perry. Any discussion from the Council? Councilor Rossi? Councilor Rossi—I'd entertain a motion to withdraw from the table. President Letellier— It's not on the table. Do you mean to just vote it down? * Councilor Perry—Move the question. President Letellier— Okay, move the question. A yes vote would be to approve the zone change; a no vote would be to deny the zone change. Barbara, can you call the roll? ROLL CALL—0 Yes, 11 No. President Letellier—With eleven no, you've defeated the item. Thank you to the speakers who came. Thank you Mr. Ratner. Item 10. Odd Business 1. TO-2009-10 -Voucher List ($91.54) President Letellier—That was some items from Staples for the Town office. Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Perry. Any discussion? No? Seeing none, Barbara, could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 11 Yes, 0 No. President Letellier—With eleven yes, you've approved the voucher. It's being handed around for signatures. s i 2. TO-2009-12 -Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for an Automatic Amusement Device(s)—Agawam Bowl,359 Walnut Street Ext.,Agawam, MA. (Clerk)(Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Perry. Councilor Rossi, do you have a report? Councilor Rossi—Yes. After conferring with the members of my committee, it was mutually agreed that we send a positive recommendation to the Committee and if I may, Madam President, may I join these two together? TO-2009-12 An order granting and renewing a license for an Automatic Amusement Device—Agawarn Bowl, 359 Walnut Street Extension and also TO-2009-13 ordering or granting and renewing a license for the same address Agawam Bowl 363 Walnut Street Extension, Agawam, MA. President Letellier—We have a motion to consolidate the two items, do we have a second? Seconded by Councilors Simpson, Rheault and Perry. All those in favor of consolidating the items, please signify by saying Ay? Opposed? Okay, the items have been consolidated. We have a recommendation from the Licensing Committee. Do we have any further discussion? Councilor Rheault? Oh, your light was on. Barbara, could you please call the roll? All those in favor of approving items TO-2009-12 and TO- 2009-13? ROLL CALL— 11 Yes, 0 No. President Letellier—With eleven yes, you've approved the two licenses. 3. TO-2009-13 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for an Automatic 4 Amusement Device(s)—Agawam Bowl,363 Walnut Street Ext.,Agawam, MA. (Clerk) (Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) (See item 2 above) Item Il. New Business 1. TO-2009-14 -Transfer-$74,625.00 from Reserve Fund(16605-57300)to Line Items—Long Term Debt Interest(16601-57610) (Mayor) (Majority of Full Council or six votes) President Letellier--We can refer that to the Finance Committee. Laurel Placzek already called me on this and she will be here at the next meeting if we'd like her to be. I'll leave that up to the Finance Committee to find out if they want to invite her after their meeting. So next agenda. 2. TR-2009-7 -A Resolution for Refunding Bonds in the Event Interest Rates Change to a Level that Would Reduce the City's Interest Cost on Existing Debt. (Mayor) (Majority of those present and voting) President Letellier--And we'll refer that to the Finance Committee as well. So those items are for next agenda. Item 12. An other matter that may lekally come before the Citl? Council. President Letellier—Councilor Simpson? Councilor Simpson—Thank you. Nothing tonight except wishing everyone a Happy St. Patty's Day tomorrow. President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Mineo? Councilor Mineo—Nothing this evening. President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Cavallo? Councilor Cavallo—Yeah, I have two things. First I wanted to commend our Superintendent of streets and Engineering, Jack Stone,because work has started on North Westfield Street as you all know, it's been ...I don't know the right words to describe it and apparently this was an area that they could go and get the...and they are doing it now and slowly but surely all the other streets will be repaired. So that's good news. The second thing I wanted to talk about is that Councilor Simpson and myself and Councilor Mineo were on a sub committee meeting with the School Committee, not a formal meeting with us, but we attended because you could have gone, anyone could have gone to the meeting, and we listened to the Superintendent outline some of the changes that I believe you received in your packet. And just to let you know that tomorrow night at 6:00 at the Agawam Jr. High School, there's going to be a meeting regarding the Project C.E.E. program. I've received numerous phone calls from parents saying they were concerned about the program being dropped, the funding being dropped, the Superintendent has some alternative plans, one of which I don't agree with. As a councilor and former educator and if you have an opportunity, I may try to get there myself tomorrow night to listen to this. I also found out that since our meeting, the sub- committee ...in preparation of the budget that will go before the Budget School Finance Committee and subcommittee rather and one of those is that one of the individuals, staff people, is resigning and leaving okay which will be a substantial amount of money for savings for the School Department. So just my advice to you as a Council is Pm gonna be looking very closely at this School Budget and I hope all of you look at the School budget as well, very closely. I know that after our sub-committee meeting, regardless of what the vote is it comes back to the council and at that time we all have a chance to look at that budget because I really believe that there are a couple things in that budget that we should look at carefully like if we're able to reduce it because we're in tough times right now and there are things that we could probably put off for another year. I hope that happens, okay? That's all I wanted to say. Thank you. i President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Rossi? 1♦ Councilor Rossi—Yes, thank you. Just in brief, I know it's been a long time since we've had a committee meeting on the sewer project but I just wanted to just touch briefly on that on where we are now. I know it's been a very long and cold winter and it seems like things have been dragging but actually things have been progressing quite well. As you know I've been in touch with Senator Kerry and other state and federal ,legislators putting a cup in my hand trying to look for some money from these stimulus packages that have been roiling around. We haven't actually had any confirmation as to what may be available or what may be coming to us but I'm still optimistically hopeful that we're gonna get something. And also I've been working with Jack Stone. We've filled out an application to attach to the coat tails of this stimulus package to try to get a little bit of money coming from this infrastructure program. I don't know how well we're gonna be received with that thing. It's whether or not they go along with our thought process or not but clearly it's something we thought worthwhile and again we really haven't heard anything but again, we're hopeful that something may come along. And the next thing I have is just to let you know that I will be calling a meeting of all the members of the committee that our next move I know is to go in front of the * Conservation Commission and I'm hopeful that we're gonna get that in for the first meeting that the Conservation Committee meets in April and so we can get that approved and moved on into Boston where we can get our number applied so we can get something out to bid and then come back for final bonding approval. But I will notify you, each member of the Council and our committee, of when that Conservation Commission meeting is and I'm hoping that everyone will attend and we will have a meeting shortly thereafter. There really is no sense now because I'm bringing you up to date as to where we are. So I plan to have a meeting called to the entire body and what I did is I just inked out a couple of lines and sent it to the civilian members of our committee just to bring them up to date as to what I'm telling you right here right now and so what I'm saying is after this meeting—the Conservation meeting—we will have a formal meeting and discuss our strategy so I just wanted to bring everybody up to date and up to speed on that right now. Okay, thank you. President Letellier—Thank you very much. Councilor Rheault? • Councilor Rheault—Nothing this evening. President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Perry? Councilor Perry—Yes, thank you Madam President. Just a couple things. One I 40 wanted to apologize to CeCe for not being able to make the Rules Committee meeting last Wednesday. Something came up at work and I wasn't able to get out. I also want to say Happy St. Patrick's Day to all our Irish people in Agawam and I also want to say Happy Anniversary to my wife. We'll be celebrating our thirtieth wedding anniversary tomorrow on St. Patrick's Day. I just want to say Happy Anniversary Anne! I love you! (APPLAUSE) Thank you. . President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Messick? 0 i Councilor Messick—How can I follow that up? I wanted to let the Council know and our viewers at home the Agawam Go Green Committee has been working with the DPW and I have to say it's mostly been the DPW who has done this, Tracy DeMaio who works over there specifically. There was a bill that was passed in Massachusetts called the Green Communities Act and speaking about stimulus money, there's money available for communities who are trying to become Green Certified communities. And it's for things such as putting solar panels on roofs, developing companies or making available places to develop companies within your community that produce green energy, manufacture components for green energy and that type of thing. But one of the things that was available was a $75,000,00 grant for building audits. So this would include all the municipal buildings and all the school buildings and what they would do is come through with a fine tooth comb and make some recommendations as far as what we can do in the short term,medium term and long term to reduce our energy use and therefore our energy costs and we can do some really easy things that can save us tens of thousand of dollars and we can do some other things that we need to invest a little money in and will save us over the long term. So the first step has been taken. We've actually submitted the ` application and what that entailed is she had compiled all the energy usage information for the past year for every building and for every source of energy that we use. It was quite a lot of work. It took I think eight weeks I think for her to get it all together. Tony Albro helped her immensely as well with that and I'd just like to thank her for her hard work in that and the application is in and we're just hoping that we're high enough up on the list that we get those funds. So thank you Tracy. i President Letellier —Thank you. Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas—Yes, I would like to wish all the Irish people including my wife she's an Irish, Happy St. Patrick's Day and the non-Irish also Happy St. Patrick's Day and talking about St. Patrick's Day, last Sunday I went to the Senior Center and they had, the Friends of the Seniors, they had a breakfast and there was over five hundred people attending from any age. First time in the history, we had some many people for breakfast. Unfortunately they did not have enough food because they run out 10:00, it was to be from 8:30 to 11:00 and there was so many tickets sold and then people came from the churches and it was unbelievable but nobody was unhappy. They saw the center and they had a tour and would like to invite all the people any age to go and take a tour and see our senior center, nobody else's but your's. So come down in the next event and make sure you get tickets and thank you all for attending. And I think Councilor Calabrese was there with her family and I think she had a good time too. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Young? Councilor Young--.lust quickly, I was fortunate and privileged enough to attend a meeting last Wednesday night in Worcester put on by the MMA on behalf of I guess the invited were presidents, vice presidents and finance chairs. So it was fairly well attended 49 and I will write up and I have some hand outs that I can, that Barbara can help me get out to the full Council but some of the comments made by some previous speakers...One of i the things that's on the MMA website is a large document. I downloaded it but didn't print it on exactly, it's a guide on how cities and towns could take advantage of the stimulus package and some processes and procedures for getting involved with that through the State of Massachusetts that you might want to take advantage of and look up. And again, there's quite a bit to talk about and they weren't sure exactly how the money was gonna get there and how much each state would get and all that kind of stuff but they did put a guide as to how you might apply for those things. So I heard a couple of items come up that you might want to take advantage of that. And I think one of the imputuses of this meeting and the timeliness again is similar to the thoughts that this council has had where I think two things. One if there was a time to take advantage of the membership dues we pay to the MMA, this would be the right time. So I would encourage you to go to the website and among other things than looking at their information is to make some calls and I can look up who the speaker was but those folks are there to help us in this • kind of situation and now would be the time to get our money's worth and two I think they're extra interested in helping us because I think other groups are starting to question whether you know if they are gonna make cuts, maybe those dues to the MMA might be a place to start with the cuts, right? So they are very keenly aware of that and actually said it out loud so I would offer that to the group that if I learned nothing else at this three hours in Worcester on Wednesday night is that now would be the time to make use of that group. So any way, thank you. President Letellier—Can you send Barbara the link? Not to the MMA but to that particular download for if anybody wants to do it, it would just be quicker, to send them • the link. Thank you. Councilor Young- I will do my best. President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Calabrese? Councilor Calabrese- ...Councilor Perry just to let you know, you never have to apologize to me. We know you are so reliable and I know that things come up ...so thank you but you never have to apologize to me and other than that, that's really all, thank everybody for their input on this resolution I know this is something that's been r long overdue and this is our set of rules and guidelines so it's good to function more efficiently as a legislative body so I do appreciate everybody's input on that and other than that have a nice Thanksgiv- Thanksgiving wow?!!! I'm either thankful or hungry. I don't know. Happy St. Patrick's Day. President Letellier—Thank you. I have two things and I'll be quick. The St. Patrick's Day parade is this Sunday. We are a recognized marching unit. I know Councilor Calabrese is marching. I am weather dependent. But Barbara I'm gonna have you double check with the St. Patrick's Day chair to tell us what time to meet and what we're gonna do, so can you get an email out to everybody? And if you don't check your email and you want to march,just give Barbara a call. And I wanted to thank Councilor Rossi • for his report and also remind people that even when there are not committee meetings, people are doing things behind the scenes so if you have a question, instead of sending a i memo to the Mayor or a department head, if there's an existing committee, start with that committee chair person. If you don't get an answer, then by all means,talk to somebody i else. But I think we should respect the fact that we have very busy sub-committee and excellent sub-committee chair people and so if you have a question, start with your committee chair. That's about it. Happy St. Patrick's Day and we'll see you in a few weeks. Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. i Adjournment • • • 0 • i