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CC MTG MINUTES OCTOBER 15 2012 REGULAR MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL ' Minutes dated October 15, 2012 ' President Johnson— I'd call the meeting to order. Item 1. Roll Call President Johnson—I'd ask Barbara to call the roll please. ROLL CALL— 11 PRESENT, 0 ABSENT President Johnson —With eleven present, we have a quorum. ' Item 2. Moment of Silence and the.Pledge (Allegiance. President Johnson — I'd ask everyone to rise for the moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance please. Item 3. Citizen's Speak Time President Johnson — We have no one wishing to address the Council under Citizens Speak Time. Item 4. Minutes ' 1. Regular Council Meeting—October 1, 2012 President Johnson —The October I minutes came out late this afternoon. We had some technical difficulties with the audio tape so I would suggest we put their approval on the next Agenda to allow everyone.the opportunity to review. Item 5. Declaration from Council President None. Item G. Presentation ofPetitions. Memorials & Remonstrances None. ' Item 7. Report of Council Committees 1. Sub-Committee Reports (a) Finance ' 1 President Johnson —We'll start with the Finance Sub-Committee. Councilor Mineo? Councilor Mineo — We met once this quarter. At the meeting were myself the Auditor, Cheryl St. John, Councilor Johnson and Councilor Magovern. We went over a number of things. We talked about putting vouchers; we need to be putting vouchers back on the Agenda. I can't remember the last time that we saw that. I know over the last three or four years, I haven't seen any. We talked about inter-department transfers, we talked about reports. We're looking from Cheryl, we're looking for local aid and actual, what 1 actually comes in. We're looking for income reports. We're looking for an analysis of the budget, year-to-date, a list of large expenditures over $10,000. 1 think that's another thing that has stopped where anything that's over $10,000 1 think needs to be put, needs ' to be referred to the Finance Committee. We asked for a list of rejections from the Auditor, anything that she rejects, she needs to let us know immediately. We asked for charts and graphs. We asked for contracts. We need to put some evaluations together for ' the Council Clerk and the Auditor, receipts from the Golf Course were down this year according to the Auditor. Another questions that came up from Councilor Johnson that would be, Tony Marino from the Health Insurance, we were wondering if he gets paid a ' stipend or anything like that, we'd like to know that, I mean I think that's something to put in a memo to the Mayor to see if we can get an answer on that. Also, we are going to have meetings every second I think Tuesday or Wednesday of every month so there will be a meeting, a Finance Committee meeting, every month and I hope you all come. Thanks. President Johnson—Any questions? ' (b) Legislative President Johnson —Next we have the Legislative Committee with Councilor Cichetti? Councilor Cichetti — Thank you Council President. Committee members met, myself, Gina Letellier, Councilor Cavallo, Councilor Rossi and Councilor Bitzas. The Legislative Committee held meetings on the following dates February 15ffi, February 27, ' February 29h, April 0, May 16'h, June 13t', June 21", July 9" and July 10`", August 6", and tonight, October 15t". We've been working on some of our changes to our Rules and Regulations, Zoning Review and Zoning definitions and word usages, acceptance of Mass General Law Chapter 3213, Section 20 as well as other pertinent information. We are scheduled to meet the second Wednesday of every month at 7:00 at the Library in an 1 effort to become more proactive as a City Council Legislative Sub-Committee. Thank you. President Johnson —Any questions? (c) Community Relations tPresident Johnson — Next the Community Relations sub-committee, Councilor Calabrese? 1 ' 2 ' Councilor Calabrese — Thank you. I'd like to thank my fellow Community Relations Committee members — my Vice Chair George Bitzas, also James Cichetti, Paul Cavallo I and Dennis Perry. The Committee met on February 15t', May 30t', September 12'' and September 24t'. Items of discussion included the proposal for some tax relief for our condo unit owners. Paul Cavallo has recused himself from those discussions and also discussion of the placement of No Parking signs on Moore Street. Coming up I do plan on putting forth a definitive proposal with regard to some tax relief for our condos, condo unit owners, with regard to solid waste removal and also I'm gonna be having a ' conversation with you, Council President, with regard to any role that you deem appropriate that the Community Relations Committee should have with regard to the casinos coming into Springfield and how that might affect the citizens of Agawam. ' Thank you. President Johnson—Any questions? (d) Administrative ' President Johnson — Now to the Administrative sub-committee who meets every other day. Councilor Rossi? Councilor Rossi -- It seems as though yeah. We've met sixteen times, an average of twice a month over these last few months so that's quite a bit but we had quite a bit on our plate and I want to thank my committee members — Vice Chair Don Rheault, Bob Magovern, Joe Mineo and Dennis Perry who worked very, very hard over these last few months. In reviewing all the applications for renewals of Class I and Class I1 Dealers have all been taken care of, our entertainment and amusement licenses are all up to date, and everything concerning those licenses are current and up to date. In addition to the licensing, the committee has been extremely busy with finalizing the completion of the Phase I as you all know and with that completion came the arduous task of dealing with those abatements and that took, the abatement requests took several months, many, many meetings, long hours and we're happy to report that we've been successful in dealing with all of the applications and we got out of it without any conflicts, repercussions or law suits which is a good thing so, and, the billing assessments for our Phase I have been sent out and those willing to hook up have been notified that they can hook up if they 1 wish to. As the first phase is being finalized, the committee also had been meeting simultaneously being engage with the engineers from Tighe & Bond and the city for the Phase II portion of the project. Realizing the importance of this Phase II project, our ' intent was to hit the ground running with the designing, engineering and acquisitions for pumping stations and we're happy to announce that all of those things have been put behind us and we're ready to go out to bidding for its construction. We're looking for bids under separate contracts for the construction of the piping which is some 25,000 of piping and a separate contract for the pumping stations. Also included in this phase is gonna be road improvement for Pine Street which is a Capital Improvement expenditure which is included in the loan order that we're asking for but that road, those road improvements sliould be reimbursable through Chapter 90 funding and other Capital Improvement fundings and that is over a million dollars so that's gonna defray quite a bit ' of the cost. And also as I said, everything is done now and the allocations that we're 3 ' putting forward in fact it's with the Law Department right now and I haven't heard where it stands but this allocation that we're asking for is, remember it's just a projected figure ' and we're hoping as with the first figure on Phase 1, the allocation that was requested was $3,371,000 and the actual bid came in at $1,657,000 and the actual construction cost was $1,600,000} so it was about $110,000 under the actual bid so you can see that what we projected was about fifty percent of what we actually needed so we're hoping if everything, if history's taught us anything that (a) we're looking for it to repeat itself. My committee is always available and willing to sit down and meet with anybody, either in whole or in part, to discuss any portions of what we've accomplished over the past few months and if there are no questions, thank you very much. ' President Johnson — On behalf of the Vice President and myself, I want to thank the four committee Chairs for the hard work. We're slowing transitioning to the new sub- committee environment with only four instead of seventeen and you guys have done a ' great job. Item 8. Elections None. ' Item 9. Public Hearinms 1. PH-2012-3 (TOR-2012-3) - An Ordinance to Amend the Code of the ' Town of Agawam Zoning Ordinances §180-2 "Definitions and Word Usage" (112 readings) (Referred to Planning Board and Legislative Committee) (Mayor)} ' President Johnson —It is before us tonight. I will open the Public Hearin at this point. g P g Anyone wishing to come and address the Council relative in favor of TOR-2012-3? Deborah Dachos — Good evening. It seems like a long time since I was last here and I ' do want to thank you for approving the application for MassDevelopment, it's totally off the subject but I wanted to inform you that on Friday we received $50,000 from MassDevelopment and I missed that meeting but thank you very much for taking that up. ' This evening, I'm representing the Planning Board — President Johnson —Just please state your name for the record-- Deborah Dachos — Oh, my name. Deborah Dachos. I'm the Planning Director for the Town of Agawam. The Planning Board members were unable to attend this meeting. ' They have attended multiple meetings to discuss the definitions and have met with the Legislative Committee to talk about efforts to update Agawam's Zoning Ordinance. As you know, it dates back to the 1950's with virtually no major re-writes and in 2011, the ' Town sought a grant from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to hire them to do a comprehensive review of Agawam's Zoning Ordinance. Jessica Allen from Pioneer Valley Planning Commission did the review and did come before the Council with a 4 various listing of priority items that needed to be addressed. One of the number one priorities was looking at the definitions in the Zoning Ordinance. The definitions are out ' of date. They are frequently illegal and reference the State Building Code which is a no- no. They are lacking a lot of critical definitions that make it virtually impossible for the Zoning Office to enforce the Zoning Ordinance particularly in lawsuits when judges say where's the definition of this particular item and there's no such definition. This effort started in 1999, when we hired the services of Mark Brobowski who is the State's most renowned expert in Zoning Law in the State of Massachusetts. He came up with a ' number of recommendations and the one that was followed through on were the Zoning Definitions which then took, he had prepared a drafted Zoning Definitions based on the 1999 law and then that went to committee, the Zoning Review Committee, there are a number of people sitting on the Council currently that served on the Zoning Review Committee, we spent approximately a year fine tuning those definitions and unfortunately it did not get acted upon by the Council so in the last six months, the Planning Board with ' my assistance has looked at the definitions that were prepared by Mark Brobowski, looked at the definitions that were compiled by the Zoning Review Committee in 2003 and looked at Jessica's definitions and have come up with a draft that you have before ' you this evening. What it does as I indicated is it gets rid of illegalities that were contained in the Zoning Definitions. It includes a lot of definitions that were lacking in the Zoning Ordinance. It also addresses some various issues that the Planning Board has ' had difficulty with in terms of enforcement of the sub-division regulations and problems that the Zoning Officer has encountered. It was a labor of love. I think it's had a lot a reviews and it's very comprehensive so I would ask for your support of the definitions this evening and I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. ' President Johnson—This is a Public Hearing and we're not in Committee as a Whole so thank you. ' Deborah Dachos—Okay, thank you. President Johnson —Anybody else wishing to address the Council at the Public Hearing ' in favor of TOR-2012-3? Seeing none, anyone wanting to be recorded in name only in favor of TOR-2012-3? Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to TOR-2012-3? Seeing none, anyone wishing to be recorded in name only in opposition? Seeing none, I declare ' the Public Hearing closed. At this point for housekeeping purposes, the Planning Board is the Petitioner for TOR-2012-3. On September 6, 2012, they held their Public Hearing and voted to send a positive recommendation to the Council for TOR-2012-3. It is an ' Ordinance amendment requiring 2/3 vote of the Council and it will require three readings so with that the Chair will entertain a Motion to approve TOR-2012-3. Moved by Councilor Letellier, seconded by Councilors Cichetti and Bitzas. At this point, I would ' refer to Councilor Cichetti for a report of the Legislative Sub-Committee. Councilor Cichetti — Thank you Mr. President. We did meet two times on this issue. All the Council, we are sending a positive recommendation. There were some changes that we are going to be making to the Ordinance as it sits currently with Motions so you'll be hearing that or seeing that from the Solicitor and that's about it. I'd just like to 5 ' thank the Planning Board and Ms. Dachos for coming up with these definitions and re- working them and working with my committee. Thank you. President Johnson—Councilor Letellier, then Councilor Bitzas? ' Councilor Letellier — Thank you. I want to, I do want to also echo the thanks to Deb Dachos. My first year on the Council, Chris Johnson was Mayor and we hired Mark Brobowski and me, freshman councilor first year, they put me in charge of the Committee and we really did work. We had a lot of meetings. We got a lot of work done and I'm sorry it's taken us this long to make these improvements but I'm glad that this time it's being met with a much more positive reception than prior attempts to update the Zoning Definitions. I think this is gonna help the town tremendously as we face the future and also help the Solicitor and the Building Inspector do their jobs now. So I'm pleased that the Planning Board voted unanimously and hopefully the Council will as well. There are a couple of things we discussed at our meeting tonight that Councilor Cichetti asked me to sort of outline a little bit. The Ordinance itself I think is more confusing than it needs to be. I think it would read a lot easier and I don't think this ' should prevent us from passing the first reading but I think it would read a lot easier, if you look at the `Now Therefore' section, it says `Now Therefore the Agawam City Council hereby resolves, ordains and amends and enacts the following amendments to the ' Code of the Town of Agawam' and I think it would be a lot easier where it says `delete Section 180-2 in its entirety', I think then it should say `and replace it with the following' and then where it says `delete Section 180-92 in its entirety and replace it with the following'. I think that it just makes for easier reading and easier to follow and it's very simple cut and pasting that we can do that I think just makes it a lot easier for people to ' read it and to understand it and so I will be sending a memo through Council President or Barbara as to how it would read easier but as I said I hope it doesn't delay us in passing the first reading tonight. Thank you. ' President Johnson —Councilor Bitzas then Councilor Rossi? ' Councilor Bitzas — Yes, Mr. President. I would like to give my strong support. As a member of the Zoning Review for many, many years, I did work with the other councilors to have those definitions. Unfortunately, we didn't agree to pass those times but better late than never. It's very, very archaic definitions. This is the time we should pass them. It's long overdue. We, if we pass those definitions that they are for today's time because everything changes. We live in the twenty-first century, not fifty or a ' hundred years ago. We go to eliminate many, many problems and make it very clear from the people, the developers and the Building Inspector to be more clear and avoid any problems. So I put my very strong support and I hope the Full Council support it. ' Thank you. President Johnson —Councilor Rossi? ' Councilor Rossi — Yes. I have no real problems with the passage of this thing and I don't want to delay any readings on it but I'm just kind of confused on I guess this is an addendum with the apartment house and dwelling and I find it confusing because to me they look the same. It says a building or structure arranged, intended and designed to be occupied by two or more families is labeled an apartment house and you have a dwelling, it's the same thing -- designed and occupied living quarter one or more families in a two- family swelling and it seems a little confusing to me. It looks like maybe if that could be ' addressed to your committee, Jimmy? Or maybe we can, so I can get a clearer understanding of what that means, I just don't know what that means and that's the only question I really have so, thank you. ' President Johnson -- I don't know that we need to go into Committee as a Whole. Ms. Dachos at the sub-committee meeting earlier explained the rationale for the difference ' and that is that our current zoning A-3 which allows for apartment houses and condominiums the definition limits it to five or more units so you're getting a situation where if the developer wants to come in in an A-3 zoned property and build a duplex or a ' triplex condominium unit, the Building Inspector can't allow it because it says `five or more'. This just brings the definition down from `five or more' to `two or more' so that if a developer wants to come in with a condominium project that's comprised of smaller ' buildings, less dense development, it's allowed. Under our current A-3 if you were to look at the definition, it says `five to eight' so you're stuck, Nick's interpretation is if you're gonna build a condominium there has to be a minimum of five but no more than eight units in the building, you can't have a condominium where there's a two or a three or a four unit building. So this change allows for, because the developers are saying we want to build more condex type with the garages and such as they're doing in other communities. Councilor Rossi—Okay. President Johnson —At this point, the changes that Councilor Letellier, us two attorneys ' get together we get in trouble, are just changing the format of the TOR so that it's clearer and easier to understand. But at this point, the Chair would entertain a Motion if someone wants to revise the definitions as recommended to us from the Director of Planning and Community Development relative to apartment house and dwelling since those are on the October 10"i Memo, those are different than what's on Exhibit A so I think before we attack the first reading of TOR-2012-3, there needs to be a Motion if ' someone wants to amend. Moved by Councilor Cichetti, seconded by Councilors Cavallo and Calabrese to incorporate the definitions of apartment house and dwelling from the October 10`h memorandum to the Council from the Director of Planning and ' Community Development on Exhibit A and what we will do prior to the next meeting is we will have those changes actually made to Exhibit A and distributed to the Council. So we have the Motion on the amendment made and seconded. Questions or discussion on ' the amendment itself? Hearing none, I'd ask the Clerk to call the roll on the amendment to TOR-2012-3. If you're in favor, vote yes. If you opposed, vote no. ROLL CALL-- l 1 YES, 0 NO 1 President Johnson -- With a vote of eleven yes and zero no, we've approved the amendment to TOR-2012-3. Any further discussion on the first reading of TOR-2012-3 as amended? Seeing none, if you're in favor, vote yes. If you're opposed, vote no. I'd ask the Clerk to call the roll please. ROLL CALL— 11 YES, O NO President Johnson — With eleven yes, you've approved the first reading. The second ' and third readings will go on to our next Agenda per the Town Charter and the Code. Item 10. Old Business 1. TO-2012-26 - An Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for Class I or II Dealer(s)—Falcor Auto Sales, Inc., 373 Springfield Street, Agawam, MA. (Referred to Administrative Committee) (Clerk) ' President Johnson — Is there a Motion? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Cichetti. This item was referred to our Administrative Sub-Committee, so I ' would refer to Councilor Rossi? Councilor Rossi — Thank you. The sub-committee sends a unanimous recommendation ' for passage for Falcor Auto Sales, 373 Springfield Street, Agawam, MA, TO-2012-26. President Johnson — Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say Ay? Any ' opposed? It's unanimous. We've approved the renewal of the Class II Dealer's License for Falcor Auto Sales. 2. TO-2012-27 - An Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for Class I or II Dealer(s) —Agawam Auto Mall, Inc., 825 Springfield Street, Agawam, MA. (Referred to Administrative Committee) (Clerk) President Johnson — Is there a Motion? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by ' Councilor Magovern and Councilor Rheault. Again, I would refer to Councilor Rossi as Chair of the Admin Sub-Committee. Councilor Rossi—Thank you. TO-2012-27, an Order granting or renewing a License for Agawam Auto Mall, Inc., 825 Springfield Street. The Committee voted unanimously to approve sending this positive recommendation. President Johnson — Any other discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of TO- 2012-27 say Ay? Any opposed? It's unanimous. 8 ' Item 11. New Business ' President Johnson—There is none. Item 12. Any other matter that may legally come before the City Council, 1 President Johnson —Councilor Cavallo? ` ' Councilor Cavallo — I just have a question for Councilor Mineo with your report and I should have asked it after you completed. I noticed that you're asking for a copy of all the contracts. Are you referring to the School Department as well as the regular town side? Councilor Mineo —All of them. Councilor Cavallo — All of them. So you're writing a letter through the Solicitor or to the Mayor requesting all of this material, correct? tCouncilor Mineo—Correct. ' Councilor Cavallo — Would you keep us abreast of when you might hear about these requests? I'd be interested in seeing how soon, how long it's gonna take. ' Councilor Mineo -- It will be in your packet and we'll be meeting every month. Councilor Cavallo -- And you'll keep us apprised of, if you're getting any of this material back because it's kind of important in terms of when we're voting on the budget. ' Councilor Mineo—The material will be in your packet. Councilor Cavallo —Okay, thank you. ' President Johnson—Councilor Bitzas? ' Councilor Bitzas — Yes, I'm going to remind you again and the people that are watching us about Saturday, we have Rotary Club Harvest Festival. Starts 10:00. I hope the weather is good. If in case rain, let's pray not to rain, it would be Sunday. We have over fifty vendors. We have many cars. The School Street, part of School Street will be closed so we have the antique and classic car show there, many entertainment for the kids so I think everybody will have a great time so I just wanted to invite you all to come down. Thank you. President Johnson —Councilor Calabrese? Councilor Calabrese — Yes, I'd like you all to mark your calendars for Friday, November 2nd. The world famous ziti supper to benefit Rosie Robotics from the High 1 ' 9 1 ' School will be that evening at the Agawam Congregational Church and you're all invited. It's a wonderful meal. Please come down and support the kids. Thank you. President Johnson—Councilor Cichetti? ' Councilor Cichetti—Nothing this evening, thank you. President Johnson —Councilor Perry? Councilor Perry—Nothing this evening, Mr. President. Thank you. ' President Johnson—Councilor Rheault? Councilor Rheault--Nothing this evening. ' President Johnson —Councilor Magovem? Councilor Magovern — Just like to second what Councilor Bitzas was talking about as far as this weekend. The Rotary Harvest Festival for those of you who aren't aware, Rotary is a charity that raises money, we have scholarships, we have all types of programs that we donate money to — Rosie Robotics gets money, the Smith House we give money to the Smith House and again, it's a way that the Agawam public can get involved, get behind it, have a great time, enjoy the day and come and help Rotary. Thank you very much. President Johnson —Councilor Mineo? Councilor Mineo— See you Saturday. Y Y President Johnson —Councilor Rossi? ' Councilor Rossi—Nothing this evening, thank you. President Johnson—And Councilor Letellier? ' Councilor Letellier— I'm going to be the third wheel about the Rotary Club. Not only is it the Harvest Festival but it's also the Open House at the Fire Department too so that's an excellent opportunity to see the apparatuses and let your kids see things so they're not afraid of the firemen or the fire trucks when they come by. And Rotary also has a very important international component. Rotary International has inoculated 25 billion--with ' a B —billion children against polio and other childhood diseases. So the money that you, that we raise, helps not only our own kids but kids internationally and the UN has recognized Rotary International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given us ' $250 million to help with the fight against polio. So if you want to know more about a Rotarian, ask Councilor Bitzas, Councilor Magovern or myself. We'd be happy to have you come to a meeting. Thank you. ' 10 President Johnson —Thank you. Just with the Council's knowledge, I'm going to try to put together just a cover sheet on the license renewals because right now we just write the Agenda item on top of their application and years ago when I was Mayor I developed it for the Automatic Amusement Device Licenses so I want to try to do the same things for ' the Class 1I's just so we have some written record because when we pass them there's no where for the President to sign saying it's passed and then submit it to the Mayor for his approval pursuant to the Charter. So I'm just gonna come up with a cover sheet and try ' to get them on in the future. I didn't anticipate that they would be coming as early as October. With that, the Chair will entertain a Motion to adjourn. All in favor? Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you. Ag'aurnment. i i i