CC MTG MINUTES SEPTEMBER 6 2011 REGULAR MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL
Minutes dated September 6, 2011
President Rheault —Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the City Council
meeting.
• Item 1, Citizen's Speakme
President Rheault — We have a few speakers wishing to address the Council this
evening,the first being Marc Katsoulis.
Marc Katsoulis — Good evening. I noticed that there's an item on the Agenda tonight
that has to do with the tax rate so the reason I'm here has to do with the tax rate. I didn't
know that my timing was gonna be so good but I'm not gonna be part of this
presentation. You folks on the City Council have a lot of responsibilities and one of them
is protecting the taxpayers of Agawam. About, within the last month, there was an item
• in the Springfield Republican that Westfield's election included one race for School
Committee, one person, and that was it. So Westfield decided to petition the legislature
to waive the preliminary election and to have everything decided at the general election
on November 8`h. Well, it got me thinking, Agawam has one race, no races for City
Council, a lot of people are running but no races, no preliminary, no preliminary for
School Committee and we have one race for Mayor. So Pm here tonight to propose that,
are we okay, I feel like I'm teaching again where the students are paying attention,
anyway, to get back on track and that doesn't count in my five minutes, Don, okay?
Anyway, the bottom line is that I'm proposing that Agawam waive their preliminary
election and petition the legislature. Now Westfield's preliminary's in September. Our's
is in October, okay? Now, the bottom line on this is there's pro's and con's to it, I told it
to a friend of mine, he said, you're anti-democracy but my answer to that is this — we
have a preliminary election, three people run, we eliminate one of the three. Why can't
we have the same three run in the general election and eliminate two? The most
important part of what I'm trying to bring across tonight, I've heard George Bitzas a
• million times say "the taxpayers of Agawam" okay, well tonight I'm gonna steal his
thunder as another Greek by the way, the taxpayers of Agawam, you deal with millions
of dollars of budgets and tonight is a great example of what we're gonna hear tonight,
okay? And what I'm proposing is gonna save a little, little teeny bit and I have a reliable
source tonight who told me it's about $8,000.00, okay? I think we should waive the
preliminary election because the only people that are gonna benefit from it are the
candidates who are gonna find out where they're strong and where they're weak but
who's gonna pay for it? The taxpayers, okay? So here's my closing and I'm saying this
politely and humbly—somebody has to carry the ball, it can't be me, I'm just Joe Citizen,
it can't be anybody running for the office, okay? So we're down to the City Council and
Richard Theroux, the Town Clerk. Now I noticed on your Agenda, there's an Item
• number 12 that says "other things that may legally come before the Council". You don't
meet again for two weeks. I've already been told tonight that it might be too late. Richie
may have already gone to the printer and so forth but I'm telling you this is $8,000.00
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and I think the City Council should vote on this tonight, okay, and if I'm told that they
can't, then one of you out of eleven, are there eleven here, ten tonight, one of you should
• say Marc I agree with you. I'm an elected official. I'm gonna go talk to Mr. Theroux
and let's do it, okay? If we don't do it, I sound very threatening and I don't mean to
sound threatening, if we don't do it, I'm gonna come to Citizen's Speak Out after the
preliminary election and I'm gonna ask how much did it cost the taxpayers of Agawam,
okay? Thanks,thanks a lot.
•
President Rheault—Thank you. Kevin Baldini?
Kevin Baldini—Kevin Baldini, 32 Park Avenue, South Hadley, Town Assessor. I'm just
here to speak in favor of the Mass. General Law Chapter 59, Section 5, Clause 54 —the
• change in the minimum business personal property tax from $500.00 to $10,000.00. I
think it makes sense. I think it would be a good shot in the arm for small businesses. I
think it will create a business-friendly atmosphere in the Town of Agawam and also
create the conditions for more business growth which would help at some point, to
probably defray residential taxes. So that's pretty much all I have to say. I think it
0 makes sense. Thank you and I'll be here to answer any questions if you discuss the
matter.
President Rheault—Thank you. Laurel Placzek?
Laurel Placzek—My name is Laurel Placzek. I'm the Treasurer/Collector. I'm here this
• evening to speak to you on two issues. The first is resolution TR-2011-44 which changes
the minimum value for taxable personal property from $500 to $10,000. In addition to
providing tax relief for our small business owners, this resolution will also reduce cost of
printing and mailing small personal property bills. In the first quarter of this year, we
issued 72 bills for less than $5.00; 199 personal property bills were less than $10.00. The
• second item is under New Business, it's resolution TR-2011-48 which will authorize
refunding the bonds we issued in December of 2011 for the library, the high school
library addition, the CSO project and sewers on Campbell and Florida Drive. These
bonds were issued at a net interest rate of 4.14%. We have an opportunity to recall the
bonds and refund them at a rate of approximately 2 '/4% - this could result in a savings of
0 approximately $266,000.00 over the next nine years. If interest rates should increase
over the next several months, we would not go ahead with the refunding. However, we
have to have this authorization in place first to refund the bonds before we can go
forward. The Council has previously approved two of these refunding resolutions, one
the interest rates went up and we did not refund the bonds; on the other the school
S construction bonds were refunded in 2009 resulting in a savings of$857,000 in interest.
Thank you and I apologize for my phone!
President Rheault—Did it ring? Richard Cohen?
Mayor Cohen—Good evening. Richard Cohen, 47 Alexander Drive, Mayor of Agawam
and it is a pleasure—now that was my phone! It's a pleasure to be here tonight in support
of a resolution, some legislation, that I have presented to you, that you'll be voting on this
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evening and it would be a good time for all of us to work together to support small
business. Many years ago, I started the Agawam Small Business Assistance Center
• which has assisted many businesses, small businesses mostly, and through that we have
been able to bring a lot of small business. All of you are invited every time we have a
ribbon cutting and you know in the past, oh I'd say a year and a half or so, we've had
almost 21, about 21 small business ribbon cuttings. That's because of the economy and I
think by passing this resolution, any kind of relief that we can give small business
0 without affecting our tax rate, without hurting anyone, it's all positive and I hope that you
will join me in helping to promote small business which helps to create jobs, which helps
the economy and it also helps to bring people to this city to do business. So I hope you
will join me and support me in helping small business by passing TR-2011-44 this
evening. It is nothing but positive for small business.
0 President Rheault -- Thank you, Mayor. Dale Mazanec? I'm sorry, I missed that last
name.
Dale Mazanec — That's good, thank you, you're very close. My name is Dale Mazanec
and I'm here to represent the West of the River Chamber of Commerce. I work for
United Barak which has a couple of offices in Agawam. West of the River Chamber of
Commerce represents two hundred businesses and we're here speaking on, regarding the
TR-2011-44,the Chapter 59, Section 5, Clause 54. We are also in support and in favor of
changing the minimum value from $500 to $10,000. I have been lucky enough to attend
many of the ribbon cuttings and I'm impressed with the energy that is in Agawam for
0 businesses, small businesses, they've got a great facility and resource in the Agawam
Small Business Assistance Center and I think this increase from $500 to $10,000 will
help small businesses in Agawam, help to bring more small business in Agawam and
help those that are here to remain healthy. This is a difficult time, the recession has been
long and deep and we need to do things locally to help our local businesses survive and
• get through to better times. I think that this type of thing is the kind of thing that we need
to do to strengthen the economic base and create some energy and maintain that energy
actually that I see here and help us to make Agawam a place where small businesses are
eager to come to and look to for a place to relocate. Thank you for your time.
President Rheault—Thank you. Our final speaker is Jason Freeman.
Jason Freeman — Good evening folks. I'm Jason Freeman, President of Six Flags New
England, 1623 Main Street and I'm also here tonight representing West of the River
Chamber of Commerce as a member. We also support the business property tax
evaluation change. We think that going from $500 to $10000 minimum for taxable
personal property will definitely identify Agawam as a progressive town and we support
that and wish that you will do as well. Thank you.
President Rheault—Thank you Jason.
•
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Item 2. Rog CaU
• President Rheault—Please call the roll, Barbara.
ROLL CALL— 11 PRESENT,0 ABSENT
President Rheault—Eleven present,we have a full council.
•
Item 3. Moment of Silence and the Pledge ofAlle iance
President Rheault—Please rise for a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance.
• Item 4. Minutes
(a) Regular Council Meeting—August I,2011
President Rheault—Moved by Councilor Perry, seconded by Councilor Magovern. Any
discussion, corrections? Councilor Cichetti will abstain and so will Councilor Mineo.
All those in favor? Opposed? With two abstention as listed.
Item 5. Declaration from Council President
None.
•
Item 6. Presentation of Petitions,,Memorials& Remonstrances
(a) Resolutions
• 1. TR-2011-43 -A Resolution Accepting a Gift of Land by Fether,Inc.
pursuant to Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40,Section 14 for the
Town of Agawam,MA(Referred to Zoning Review Committee) (Councilor
Messick)
President Rheault — Council's pleasure? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by
• Councilor Perry. That was referred to the Zoning Committee, a report?
Councilor Messick—We actually have not met on this yet. I wanted to find out what the
Planning Board and the Conservation Commission, who both took a look at it, wanted to
say, so I still need to set up a meeting for this and I'm gonna make a motion to table it.
•
President Rheault — Move to table it, seconded by Councilor Walsh. Barbara, please
call the roll?
ROLL CALL—9 YES,2 NO (Councilors Magovern and Simpson)
•
President Rheault--Nine yes,two no, you've tabled the item.
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2. TR-2011-44 -A Resolution Adopting Massachusetts General Law
Chapter 59,Section 5,Clause 54(Referred to Ordinance Committee)
• (Mayor)
President Rheault — Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Perry. All
right. Item is on the floor for discussion. Any discussion? No? If not, Barbara, please
call the roll?
•
ROLL CALL—9 YES,0 NO,2 ABSTENTIONS (Councilors Letellier and Rossi)
President Rheault—Nine yes,two abstentions, you've approved the resolution.
Item 7. Re ort of Council Committees
None.
Item 8. Elections
r None.
Item 9. Public Hearings
1. PH-2011-5 - (TOR-2011-3)An Ordinance Adopting the Outdoor Dining
Amendment to the Code of the Town of Agawam (1/2)(Referred again to
Zoning Review and Ordinance Committees for a workshop)(Tabled 8/1/11)
(Councilor Bitzas)
President Rheault — The item is on the table. I'll entertain a motion to remove it from
the table. Moved by Councilor Magovern, seconded by Councilor Messick and the
maker of the motion, Councilor Bitzas, asked that it be removed from the Agenda. All
those in favor? Opposed? The item is off the Agenda.
Item 10. Old Business
0 1. TO-2011-19 -Voucher for Massachusetts Municipal Association Dues
($4,827.00)(Council)
President Rheault—Councilor Perry's favorite motion, second?
Councilor Letellier—Second, he's the mover!
President Rheault —Any discussion? It's been approved and signed by all the Council.
Barbara,please call the roll.
ROLL CALL— 10 YES, 1 NO (Councilor Mineo)
President Rheault—Ten yes and one no, you've approved the transfer.
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•
Item IL New Business
•
1. TR-2011-45 -A Resolution Confirming the Appointment of Gary
Janulewicz,41 Elm Street,Agawam,MA to the Historical Commission for a
Term Expiring January 1,2015(Mayor)
• President Rheault—Next Agenda.
2. TR-201146 -A Resolution to Waive the Right of First Refusal for Land
Classified under M.G.L.Chapter 61B located at 358 Corey Street,Agawam,
MA. (Councilor Magovern)
President Rheault—Next Agenda.
3. TR-2011-47 -A Resolution Adopting a Fiscal Year 2012 Supplemental
Budget of$97,000.00 for the Town of Agawam to Eliminate new and
increased fees at the Agawam High School(Mayor)
President Rheault—Next Agenda.
4. TR-2011-48 -A Resolution for Refunding Bonds in the event that interest
rates change to a level that would reduce the City's interest cost on existing
debt(Mayor)
•
President Rheault--Refer that and the previous one to the Finance Committee and that's
the next Agenda.
5. TO-2011-13 -An Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for an
Automatic Amusement Device(s)—Sinavarg,LLC d/b/a Bruburger's,241
South Westfield Street,Feeding Hills,MA. (Clerk)
President Rheault—Next Agenda. That goes over to the License Committee as well.
Item 12. Any other matter that may legally come be ore the,CkE Council
President Rheault—We'll start at my furthest left. Councilor Perry?
Councilor Perry—Nothing this evening. Thank you.
President Rheault—Nothing? Councilor Letellier?
Councilor Letellier — Yes, thank you. I have three things tonight. I want the public to
know that I had to abstain from the taxing issue because my office is in town and subject
to those tax bills and therefore I felt I needed to leave the dais and abstain. I was pleased
• to get the memo from Deb Dachos with the notes from the Pioneer Valley Planning
Commission and I was even more pleased to see that they are suggesting some of the
changes from the committee that I was on in 1999. My voluminous notes as secretary of
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that committee i.e. the only female have been with Deb Dachos and Nick Urbinati for
years and no one has taken any action to get some of those in place so I'm very much
• looking forward to seeing those come before us but the memo confuses me as to how
they want to bring it before us. They say that want to appear with us. Do they want a
workshop, a public hearing, are we gonna get an actual proposed ordinance?
President Rheault — Yes, I discussed this with Councilor Messick and at the next
meeting, it will be an item of Agenda and we'll allow her to give us a short presentation
on the matter.
Councilor Letellier — Okay, I noticed the December deadline so if we want to actually
have ordinances and public hearings, we really need to get moving on that.
President Rheault—So we'll have a full presentation at the next meeting.
Councilor Letellier — Okay, great, and then I want to talk about the Supplemental
budget. I am completely in favor of the Supplemental budget. I remember quite clearly
saying at the budget public hearing that we already know we're gonna get another
$200,000.00 from the state. What bothers me is this whole back and forth about the fees.
We knew this money was coming so why we had to have all this drama about the fees,
when we knew this money was coming and I had said in June, all we have to do is a
Supplemental budget when we get that extra money, so I'm concerned about the
gamesmanship but I'm not concerned about it to the point where I'm not gonna vote for
• the Supplemental budget but the gamesmanship was really not necessary because we
knew this money was coming, we've known for months and that's all I have to say.
Thank you.
President Rheault—Councilor Messick?
•
Councilor Letellier — Oh, Councilor Perry said he forgot something and he'd like to
have his time back.
Councilor Perry — If I may, I know we had, at Citizen's Speak Time, if we can maybe
possibly look into waiving the primary or talking with Richie on it? I'm not sure if it's
too late or anything of that nature or it was brought up, and I agree, it's---
President Rheault — Well, we also have to follow the Town Charter of putting
something on and not adopting it the first time it's presented.
Councilor Perry—Right.
President Rheault— So then we've got a couple of issues.
Councilor Perry—Okay, I'm just looking into it.
•
President Rheault—But we'd be more than happy to pursue Marc's discussion.
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Councilor Perry—Okay, thank you.
•
Councilor Messick — Just in reference to the Zoning Review, I've been talking with
Debbie Dachos about the type of procedure that's going to be occurring and 'night now
they've done a very thorough review. They got a grant from Pioneer Valley Planning to
do the review — it was a $7,500.00 grant. In some cases, what we're concerned about
• here is that some of our definitions are either out of date or do not conform with the state
law so those things all have to be corrected. I just wanted to assure Gina that a lot of the
work that was done by the previous committee, they cued off of that, that report that was
given and just kind of started there as far as the review goes. It's a very complex thing to
update. It's gonna end up probably looking a Iot different but essentially it's gonna
contain everything that we have now but revised to meet state law and so what she's
gonna present is, the procedure that she's gonna follow is she's gonna alert us as to
what's gonna be coming before us and we can certainly have workshops to ask more
specific questions once they get a draft to us which they will do. Thank you.
President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Cichetti?
Councilor Cichetti — Yes, I just wanted to bring everyone up to date on TR-2011-28 a
Resolution establishing a Resident Only No Parking Zone. I found out on Friday the
signs are finally in on that and hopefully we will see them up within the next week.
• President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Walsh?
Councilor Walsh — Yes, the, Mr. Katsoulis brought up hoping we could eliminate the
primary election and of course the question I would have in my mind is if you have a
winner with less than 50%, is that a problem, and I'm just bringing it up as a question to
be looked at and addressed because I think the situation in Westfield might have been a
little different. I think it could be problematic if the winner of the final election if we
eliminate the primary, let's say got 48% of the vote therefore he's not the choice of the
people, he or she, so just bringing that up as an item to consider.
• President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Rossi?
Councilor Rossi—Yes, thank you. I would agree also with the preliminaries. I think we
should take a look at it. I was never in favor of it when you only have three people
running for an office, to spend that kind of money just to whittle it down by one but I
• don't understand the pitfalls of it but I do think we should pursue and find out if it could
be a right fit for Agawam and also I just wanted to explain that my reason for leaving the
dais is that I'm connected to a small business in town and it would have been a conflict
for me to be here.
President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Mineo?
•
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Councilor Mineo —Yea, I also agree with Dennis, I think we should maybe look into it
and if there's something, if it's not too late, fine, the other thing is just I'd like to wish all
the kids out there a good year in school.
President Rheault—Councilor Magovem?
Councilor Magovern—I'm in consensus with Dennis and everybody else on trying to do
away with the primary. I don't know if it can be done by statute and by state law and the
individual I just noticed is out in the audience so if he could talk to us maybe after the
meeting and let us know, it would be very interesting to find out but to spend $8,000 to
$10,000 for one election with three candidates, I would feel very, very strongly about
trying to see if there was some way to do away with it and on a more pleasant note, I am
here this evening in my capacity as President of the Agawam Rotary Club to promote our
Agawam Harvest Festival and family fun day which we're scheduling for October 22�d
and we're gonna have music, food, games, art & crafts, antique cars, farmer's market,
vendors and much, much more. We're gonna have the Agawam High School band
playing, we're,having several other events, several other of the bands, we're happy to
announce that we've got two corporate sponsors that are making this possible — the
Easthampton Savings Bank has made a major contribution and our old standby Six Flags
has also volunteered to step forward and thank you Jason, I'm glad you're here tonight,to
get my thank you. We're gonna have the characters from Six Flags, I understand they're
gonna be there during the day, plenty of games, face painting, food court, the whole,
everything, so please mark October 22"d on your calendar. George Bitzas is chairing the
event and I think it's gonna be a great, great day. For those who'd like vendor
information you can contact me at neighborl2(a7saol.rom, against nei borl2C aol.com
and I can forward it on to the proper individuals. Thank you very much.
President Rheault—You're welcome. Councilor Simpson?
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Councilor Simpson — Thank you. Two brief things tonight. One is I kind of go along
with the consensus with the primary and if it is too late or too rushy to try to get it in for
this time, we shouldn't maybe let it die and kind of look for it for the future so we're not
under the gun if we can make up some kind of rules or regulations for that and secondly
it's a little ways off and I'll probably do another reminder at our next meeting but on
Sunday, October 2°d, myself, my husband David and my son Jeff will be walking once
again in the Out of the Darkness Walk for Suicide Prevention. Last year we had, it was
unbelievable support for our first time doing it—we had 35 walkers for Brian's team and
we raised I believe it was just a little over $1900.00 for the cause. So this year we'd like
to do the same if not better. If anyone would like information on it, if someone else out
there in Agawam and I know there are people who have been touched by this terrible
tragedy of suicide, would like to join our team or form a team of their own or make a
donation, you can go on to www.outofthedarkness.org and create your own information
or if you want to do something in Brian's memory, you look under team name in Brian's
memory and you can join us as walkers or make a small donation. It's a great cause. It's
something that I know there's tons and tons of walks, everything has it but suicide
prevention walks have been much smaller and have not gotten the publicity until recent
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years. It's one of those things that people haven't wanted to talk about and it's a very
difficult situation to talk about but over 36,000 people die of suicide a year and there's
over a million attempts so it's something that is prevalent and you don't realize until
something like this has happened to you, how many people have been touched by it and
how severe it touches the lives of people who know someone. So if anyone would like to
do that, it would be great and also like I said if someone else didn't know about it and has
known someone that has died from this and would like to do their own walk, you can,
also that website will allow you to create your own team so thanks a lot.
President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas —Thank you Mr. President. Couple things. First of all, I will give the
credit to Marc because he had the courage to come here and ask for something that if we
say it, it would look like anti-democratic and I know Marc from Greece and I'm from
Greece and of course democracy was born there and we know what democracy means,
would not disallow the third person to be on the run but it would be three persons one
time majority wins. It's very fair, very democratic so and we have the Clerk here sitting
down and Mr. President if you'd like to go after as a Committee as a Whole and invite
him to give us some advice, if we can't do this year to save this year the money, but we
can do later after its finished. The other things it's about the fees, it will be on the next
Agenda I know we will discuss it on next Agenda but I was very happy that the state gave
us this money, it was a nice surprise for me when I spoke to Representative Boldyga, he
assured that we would get the money —the $230,000.00 — and I'll be very happy to vote
in favor to eliminate the fees in these difficult times, all the families they have to pay up
to $400. That's great savings for every, every, every parent right down there and also
I'm glad to see the parking go back to as it used to be $40 and talk about the schools—I'd
like to wish parents, teachers, students wonderful productive year and read lots of books.
That last thing is we planning the town; the town's planning a September 1 I b ten years
anniversary. I have brochure you can find this in the library, in the banks and will be a
nice event. We're going to have Lauren Booth sing the Star Spangled Banner and also
God Bless America. We have three children they're going to walk with candles and
flowers to put on the memorial. Each child and each candle represents those three sites
the terrorists attack us —New York, Washington D.C. and up in the sky of Pennsylvania,
the heroic people that brought the plane down perhaps that plane was going to White
House or into the Congress. We're going to have the Agawam Veterans will perform, we
are going to have a nice event. So we're invited and I'd like to invite all the people, and
students and parents and teachers to come there. It'd be nice event. Thank you Mr.
President.
President Rheault — Thank you. That concludes the Agenda for the evening and I'll
entertain a motion to adjourn. Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Walsh,
all those in favor? Opposed? We are now adjourned. Thank you and good evening.
Adiournment.
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