City Council
City Council
lun, 20 de octubre de 2025
Puntos de agenda
Registros de votación
Resumen del debate
Transcripción
RESUMEN DE REUNIÓNGenerado por IA
Quincy City Council — 20 de octubre de 2025
Esta fue una reunión ordinaria del Concejo Municipal enfocada casi en su totalidad en una sola presentación sustantiva: un panorama financiero integral sobre el servicio de la deuda, expuesto por el Alcalde Thomas Koch a invitación del Concejo. La reunión fue relativamente breve, salvo por la presentación, y fue seguida por un asunto de comité y trámites de rutina.
*Nota: La transcripción de voz a texto contiene errores en los nombres. Los concejales que aparecen en esta transcripción están identificados como Campbell, McCarthy, Harris, Leang, Ash, DiBona, Divine y Minton, bajo la presidencia del Presidente King. Estos nombres no coinciden con el padrón conocido del Quincy City Council proporcionado. El resumen refleja los nombres tal como aparecen en la transcripción, sin sustitución, ya que la discrepancia no puede resolverse con certeza.*
Actualización sobre el servicio de la deuda — Presentación del Alcalde Koch
El Alcalde Koch realizó una presentación detallada con diapositivas sobre la situación financiera de la ciudad en tres grandes categorías de deuda: el Pension Obligation Bond (POB), el programa District Improvement Financing (DIF) y la deuda de obligación general. Estuvieron presentes varios jefes de departamento y personal de finanzas.
Pension Obligation Bond (POB)
El Alcalde explicó que la ciudad emitió un Pension Obligation Bond de $475 millones a finales de 2021 a una tasa de interés fija del 2.62%, con los recursos invertidos directamente a través de la junta del Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM). Al momento de la emisión, el sistema de jubilación de la ciudad contaba con un financiamiento de solo el 43%. El bono llevó el sistema a un nivel de financiamiento del 100%, complementando un saldo preexistente de aproximadamente $400 millones que ya se encontraban en el fondo.
El ahorro proyectado a lo largo de la vida del bono es de $168.5 millones. A partir de 2026, el servicio de la deuda del POB quedará fijo en $37 millones anuales hasta 2040. Sin el POB, la contribución de pensión requerida a la ciudad habría sido de $50 millones solo en 2026 y habría crecido a un ritmo del 5.4% anual, alcanzando aproximadamente $73 millones para 2033. El alcalde estimó que, sin esta medida, la brecha acumulada entre lo que la ciudad habría necesitado pagar y lo que puede costear habría requerido una combinación total de aumentos al límite de gravamen y recortes de servicios por aproximadamente $697 millones.
El Concejal McCarthy señaló que el valor combinado del fondo de pensiones — incluyendo el saldo preexistente más la inversión del bono de $475 millones — ha crecido sustancialmente junto con los mercados; a la semana de la reunión, el fondo se situaba en aproximadamente $930 millones. Enfatizó que el pago fijo de $37 millones equivale en la práctica a una hipoteca a 15 años al 2.62%, una tasa que ya no está disponible para los municipios que no actuaron cuando lo hizo Quincy.
Una pregunta recurrente durante las preguntas y respuestas giró en torno a una contribución adicional de $16 millones que el actuario de jubilaciones estaría solicitando a la ciudad. El Alcalde cuestionó los supuestos utilizados por el actuario (Stone Advisory), confirmó que se contrató a Milliman Consulting para realizar un análisis independiente que se espera en unos pocos meses, y expresó su posición de que la ciudad ha cumplido con su obligación legal al financiar completamente el sistema a través del POB. Señaló que el fondo actualmente se encuentra cerca del 97–98% de financiamiento y que es probable que supere ampliamente el 100% para 2040.
La Concejal Leang indicó que no había apoyado el POB al momento de la votación, pero reconoció los ahorros que expuso el alcalde, subrayando la importancia del diálogo continuo incluso cuando el concejo y el alcalde están en desacuerdo.
District Improvement Financing (DIF)
El Alcalde explicó que el DIF capta el crecimiento del nuevo valor catastral dentro de un distrito del centro urbano designado y utiliza esos ingresos para reembolsar los bonos de infraestructura, lo que significa que el desarrollo del centro de la ciudad financia efectivamente su propia infraestructura. Desde 2007, los ingresos del fondo general han crecido un 4.1%, mientras que los ingresos del DIF han crecido más de un 1,375%. Los valores catastrales del centro de la ciudad han aumentado un 140.2% en el mismo período.
Los estudios de caso presentados incluyeron "West of Chestnut" (desarrollado por Quincy Mutual) y One Chestnut Place (desarrollado por la familia O'Connell), ambos mostrando aumentos drásticos en los ingresos fiscales en comparación con los usos anteriores de esas parcelas. El Alcalde también destacó un proyecto próximo en el antiguo bloque Coleman's/Commons, donde se espera que los ingresos fiscales salten de aproximadamente $50,000 anuales a entre $500,000 y $600,000 una vez desarrollado.
La infraestructura principal financiada a través del DIF incluye la reubicación de un arroyo, el nuevo Hannon Parkway, el General's Bridge, mejoras a los servicios públicos y estacionamientos. El Alcalde señaló que los ingresos del DIF que exceden el servicio de la deuda ya se transfieren al fondo general.
De cara al futuro, el Alcalde habló de dos proyectos importantes próximos: un edificio médico de Beth Israel de 110,000 pies cuadrados (con atención de urgencias, cirugía ambulatoria y atención primaria) al norte del General's Bridge, acompañado de un estacionamiento parcialmente financiado con una contribución estatal de $2 millones; y un desarrollo en Atlantic/Handover al sur del puente, que incluirá una tienda de comestibles especializada, comercio minorista, aproximadamente 300 unidades de vivienda y otro estacionamiento.
La Concejal Leang preguntó sobre un cronograma a largo plazo para determinar cuándo concluirá el distrito DIF y los ingresos del centro fluirán completamente al fondo general. El Alcalde indicó que el perímetro del DIF sigue expandiéndose a medida que nuevos proyectos entran en operación, y que los ingresos excedentes ya benefician parcialmente al fondo general. No ofreció una fecha de término específica.
El Alcalde también confirmó que se ha establecido un nuevo Urban Redevelopment District en Wollaston, a la espera de la aprobación estatal definitiva, y que se espera aplicar el modelo DIF allí también. Indicó que la aprobación estatal es inminente y que esperaba actividad en Wollaston para la primavera.
Deuda de obligación general
La deuda general cubre la construcción de escuelas, carreteras, infraestructura de seguridad pública, muros marítimos y otras necesidades de capital. Los aspectos más destacados incluyeron:
Cuatro grandes proyectos de construcción escolar completados y un quinto (Squantum Elementary) en curso, todos aprovechando los reembolsos de la Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), que reducen sustancialmente el costo neto para la ciudad.
El Christopher Center para educación de necesidades especiales, financiado con fondos federales ESSER y ARPA más contribuciones del condado (aproximadamente $20 millones en total), se espera que ahorre entre $3 y $4 millones anuales en costos de matrícula fuera del plantel y transporte en pocos años.
Aproximadamente el 44% de las 247 millas de vialidad de la ciudad ha sido completamente reconstruido en la última década, con alrededor de $24 millones gastados en carreteras en este año fiscal. La ayuda estatal del Chapter 90 aporta $1.9 millones anuales; el resto proviene de bonos.
La reconstrucción del muro marítimo a lo largo de Adams Shore, elevándolo dos pies, ha reducido significativamente el riesgo de inundaciones. El Concejal McCarthy señaló que el trabajo continúa hacia la siguiente fase.
La Public Safety Headquarters en Sea Street fue descrita como un edificio para 100 años, construido con materiales de primera calidad para evitar costos de reemplazo a corto plazo.
El Alcalde destacó una contribución de $41 millones de National Grid y MassDOT para el proyecto de Sea Street, señalada por el Concejal DiBona como un ejemplo de inversión pública que apalanca financiamiento externo.
Capacidad de gravamen e indicadores financieros
El Alcalde presentó datos que muestran que Quincy tiene $31 millones en capacidad de gravamen en exceso no utilizada en este año fiscal, lo que significa que la ciudad podría legalmente aumentar los impuestos en $31 millones adicionales sin necesidad de una votación de anulación de la Proposition 2½. Desde que asumió el cargo, el Alcalde indicó que la ciudad ha dejado sin utilizar $442 millones de capacidad de gravamen. Lo contrastó con los más de 200 municipios en todo el estado que actualmente se encuentran en o cerca de sus límites de gravamen, muchos de los cuales han necesitado anulaciones solo para gastos operativos.
La tasa impositiva residencial de la ciudad se mantiene en el 40% más bajo a nivel estatal; las tasaciones han aumentado un 32% desde 2021. S&P Global reafirmó la calificación a largo plazo de doble A de Quincy, aunque el Alcalde reconoció que la revisión más reciente de S&P expresó el deseo de contar con reservas más elevadas. Indicó que la ciudad podría destinar parte del efectivo libre a reservas para atender esa señal, mientras destacó que la ciudad sigue siendo altamente competitiva en el mercado de bonos.
El Concejal Ash preguntó cuándo se fijaría la tasa del impuesto predial para el próximo año fiscal. El Alcalde dijo que la ciudad está esperando la certificación del efectivo libre y las cifras de nuevo crecimiento de la oficina del tasador, y que era "un poco pronto" para proyectar, probablemente con un par de meses de anticipación.
Informe del Comité de Ordenanzas — Señales de alto en Kimball Street
La Presidenta del Comité Leang presentó la Orden 2025-118, que añade dos señales de alto en Kimball Street en Campbell Street en el Distrito 4 (distrito del Concejal Divine), creando un alto de cuatro vías. El comité recomendó su aprobación.
Votación: Moción presentada por un concejal no identificado, secundada por el Concejal McCarthy. Votación nominal: Ash – sí, Campbell – sí, Divine – sí, DiBona – sí, Harris – no registrado, Leang – sí, McCarthy – no registrado, Minton – presente/sí. La orden fue aprobada.
Obituarios y reconocimientos
El Concejal DiBona reconoció a dos miembros de la comunidad: Thomas Arnett, de 86 años, residente de Quincy de toda la vida, veterano de 40 años de la Guardia Nacional que se retiró con el rango de Coronel, y profesional de seguros durante muchos años. El velorio se realizó la noche de la reunión; la misa fúnebre se celebró a la mañana siguiente en St. Ann's Church. También reconoció a Dr. Carmen Mariano, de 78 años, educadora y figura comunitaria de larga trayectoria, con una misa fúnebre programada para el sábado 25 de octubre en St. Paul's Church en Hingham.
La Concejal Campbell reconoció a Brady O'Connor, de 82 años, residente de Adams Shore durante muchos años, enfermera en el antiguo Quincy Hospital, madre de ocho hijos y abuela de doce, casada durante 58 años. Es la madre del Subjefe de Bomberos Kevin O'Connor. Los servicios fúnebres fueron programados en Holy Family Church en Rockland el jueves por la mañana.
Puntos clave
El Pension Obligation Bond continúa generando ahorros proyectados sustanciales: El pago anual fijo de $37 millones de la ciudad reemplaza lo que habría sido un pago de $50 millones en 2026 con un crecimiento del 5.4% anual — una diferencia de hasta $40 millones anuales para 2034. Una disputa sobre una posible contribución adicional de $16 millones está pendiente de resolución mediante una revisión actuarial independiente esperada en unos pocos meses.
El desarrollo del centro de la ciudad financiado por el DIF de Quincy es descrito como un modelo estatal, con valores catastrales del centro que han aumentado más del 140% desde 2007 y proyectos individuales que transforman parcelas de decenas de miles a cientos de miles de dólares en ingresos fiscales anuales; importantes proyectos nuevos cerca del General's Bridge están en marcha.
Wollaston es el próximo: Se ha establecido un Urban Redevelopment District y la aprobación estatal para el modelo DIF en Wollaston se describe como inminente, con actividad de desarrollo esperada para la primavera de 2026.
La ciudad tiene $31 millones en capacidad de gravamen no utilizada este año y ha evitado anulaciones de la Proposition 2½ mientras financia cinco nuevas escuelas, la reconstrucción mayor de carreteras e infraestructura significativa — una posición financiera que contrasta con cientos de otras comunidades de Massachusetts que actualmente se encuentran en o cerca de sus límites de gravamen.
Un alto de cuatro vías en Kimball y Campbell Streets en el Distrito 4 fue aprobado por unanimidad, siendo la única acción legislativa vinculante tomada en la reunión.
Resumen generado por IA a partir de una transcripción de voz a texto. No es el registro oficial. Verifique los detalles importantes con los documentos fuente vinculados arriba.
Puntos de agenda (1)
Procedural (1)
1ProceduralPresentación – Actualización del Servicio de la Deuda – Mayor Thomas P. Koch
Votos adicionales registrados en actas
Add two stop signs on Kimell Street at Campbell Street creating a four-way stop (2025-118)
aye 6 · absent 2
Council Campbellaye
Council Divineaye
Council Harrisabsent
Council Leangaye
Council McCarthyabsent
Council Mittenaye
Noel DiBonaaye
Richard Ashaye
Approve previous meeting minutes
aye 1
voice voteaye
Adjourn meeting
aye 1
voice voteaye
Transcripción literal disponible
302 segmentos de transcripción indexados
[Music] Good evening. We call the Monday, October 20th, 2025 city council meeting to order. Madam clerk, please call the role. Councelor Ash. Councelor Campbell, preser. Council Harris, Council Le, Council McCarthy, Councelor Minton, President King, present.
Eight members, you have a call. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh, please stand if you're able. We'll observe a moment of silence. Please use this moment as you will. Please turn to the flag for the pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madame clerk, would you please read the open meeting law?
Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.
Thank you, Madam Clerk. First item on the agenda, please. Presentation debt service update. Mayor Thomas Poke. Welcome, mayor. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, members of the city council for the invitation to be here uh to discuss uh the city's debt and uh financial position.
Have a presentation. Uh hopefully everyone can see it. So we go to the table of contents tonight. We're going to talk a little bit about the debt service by category. The pension obligation bond is known as the POB.
District improvement financing known as the diff and then the general debt line and then some additional uh financial information on the back end. So we have two types of debt, short-term debt and long-term debt.
and short-term debt service by category. Uh bond anticipation notes, we call them bands. They're used early on in projects and certainly in the downtown with the diff district, they use extensively as they are allowed under the law generally to get the projects going and then uh down the road we then do the long-term debt on those.
We basically only pay the interest on those uh which is a great savings to us going forward. The long-term debt service by category. Uh so there's the general debt which includes uh 155 million in MSBA mass school building authority uh sponsored school construction projects.
100 million in self-supporting water sore debt meaning it's the rateayers uh that pay that debt. It comes out of the sore and water enterprise fund. 50 million in Community Preservation Act spending uh and the projected savings uh over the life of the bond for the POB is $168 million.
The total debt service by fiscal year 630. You can see the graph probably a little difficult to read but um as you can see as we add debt there's also debt that comes off uh the shorter term debt when we buy for capital needs whether it's equipment machines uh that's limited uh 5 10 years 5 years mostly on capital for vehicles 10 years other stuff like it technology uh and then of course the the uh buildings and so forth we can go out 30 years with special permission with the state we could actually do a 40-year bond, but generally speaking, all the major building projects are $30 million bonds.
So, this shows you over the time, uh, the diff is in the blue, which is the small on the bottom. The general is is in the orangey rust color, and the POB is in the yellow. So, you can see over time, uh, everything falling down, falling off as things get paid off.
Want to talk specifically about the pension obligation bond. Uh as some folks probably are well aware, the retirement system uh is set up under Mass General Laws chapter 32 provides a retirement disability and survivor benefits through a system overseen by a five member board retirement board which the mayor appoints one of the city auditor sits as exeicio two that are elected and then one the fifth one is chosen by the other four.
Uh the plan is uh funded through mandatory employee contributions. So people pay 9% plus 2% on earnings above 30,000 in their salary. That's credit to each member's annuity savings account. The city contributes annually based on the actuarial funding schedule with a goal of achieing achieving fulling funding by 2040 in accordance with state law.
Well, as you know, we we did better than that. Um the pension obligation board actually when we were started to go through the process we were made aware that then city councelor John K had actually submitted a council order which was approved talking about um doing this kind of thing with a portion of our debt or all of the debt.
Now it made no sense in ' 85 because the numbers didn't work the interest rate and so forth but he felt at some time in the future it could be helpful. June of 2015, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, Gazsby as we know it as, they introduced new reporting standards that required public pension liabilities to reported directly on the governmental balance sheets rather than the footnotes shifting unfunded pension liabilities into visible long-term liabilities.
In January of 20, I pulled in my municipal finance dean to begin discussing and analyzing the work needed to do a pension obligation bond to fully fund our unfunded liability. In March of the same year, uh actually the March the following year, we contracted with Milleman Consulting, uh they were one of the best in the business to do some deep dive analysis on the potential savings of a POB for Quinsey.
In August, we selected Ramirez and Company, senior manager for the underwriting of of uh our POBS. Uh and uh they're an excellent company, top in the business. September 21, the initial administration and finance of the state had discussions with us about plans.
Um ANF has to approve such a move by any city or town. October additional plan of finance materials sent to ANF with all the requests and all the questions we answered and then October we received the final ANF sign off to move forward on the issuance of the POB.
In November same year S&P rating agency presentation was made and then November 5th our rating was received. S&P uh S&P Global affirmed. Quinsey's doubleA long-term rating and stable outlook on the new bonds.
November 29th was the sale date and December 15th was the closing date was fascinating because during that time period, other cities and towns were looking at the same thing, including the city of Springfield.
This was all about timing. By August of 2022, the rates had doubled. we were able to get a rate of 2.62% in the pension obligation bond. Now, I want to just uh point out, it's not on the sheet. If you go to the next slide, uh thank you.
We were pointed out on a number of occasions. Um you know, when when bond agencies look at our city's finances, they also look at our assets, our capital assets, are we maintaining them? It's not just about money in the bank.
They also note what are those financial liabilities that we have. And it was pointed out for several years that the unfunded liability of our pension system was a major liability. Now just for the public's understanding u you know that that whole it the whole issue of the liability is a question because they based it on if everybody retired tomorrow everybody went that's where you get the number and that's where the liability is.
Um, so recognizing at the time our system was only 43% funded, uh, this was a move we could not afford not to make and I know that we came before this body and had some robust discussions on this issue.
So the 475 million was approved. We invested it directly with Mass Prim. I know council president at the time you were concerned about how that would be invested. Uh, we were in agreement. We went directly to PRIM uh, with the state.
They're one of the largest and most wellrespected pension fund managers in the US with overundred billion dollars in assets. So the projected overall savings as I mentioned that was a projection was 168.5 million throughout the life of the bond.
So starting in 2026 the PO bar's debt service remains constant at 37 million. We've had incremental increases the last few years but now through 2040 it remains at 37 million. Without the POB, the pension obligation bond, the contribution from the city to the pension in 2026 would have been 50 million and it would grown 5.4% each year until 2040.
By the way, that 2040 date is set by the state. Uh, and that's something that every city and town, every retirement system, not every city and town has their own. They belong to uh perhaps county ones, but they all have to meet that obligation of being fully funded in 2040.
Now, the speculation that that could move again, that the legislature could make that change and make a make a move should that be a problem for some communities. So, the projected POB debt service savings analysis, you can see there uh the contribution valuation with no POB, which is the blue line in the graph, and then the debt service line.
Again the graph we were looking at at the time when we were analyzing uh our liability was that each and every year as I mentioned was going up some 5.4%. Uh a number that was very difficult for us. So if you look at the the chart there on the left hand side uh you can see what would be paying if we did not do the POB.
Uh this year is a $13 million difference. If you go out to 2034, it's a $40 million difference. Now, I think I'm just going to state the obvious that that would have created some really difficult times for the city.
There was no way even if we went to the levy limit, we could absorb such a hit each and every year uh during those years. Uh so the the savings analysis shows you how important this was to the city. This speaks to it again in a different graph, another form.
The aggregated service cuts of the city and I I say that it's a combination of going to the full levy limit and the cuts we would have need to have a balanced budget in the aggregate would have been about 697 million.
That's uh that's not chum change. That's serious business. And as we know around the state, there's communities all around the state that are up against the levy limit. I'll get back to that shortly. The next bucket I want to talk about is the district improvement financing with diff and I do want to say that uh our downtown um program is is flourishing.
It's doing extremely well when uh and I give credit to former mayor Failen for the reasonzoning part of the downtown work and then we went in creating the urban red development district and then we created the diff district again district improvement financing.
The city uh council obviously played a major role in this. We had a lot of discussions, a lot of meetings on this and the city council authorized the DI program which allowed us essentially to take the new growth, not just a new building, but the new growth, the new growth in value uh in the district uh from all the commercial real estate to be counted in that and that's how the law works.
That next slide it shows you um general fund revenues have increased 4.1% since 07 while the diff revenues have grown by over,375%. The same period the downtown's assessed value has risen by 140.2%. And that's what we were banking on when we created the diff with this body was that because of all the work going on the downtown all the zoning changes and all of the investment that was happening both public and private uh we knew that the tax revenue would grow dramatically uh in the diff district to make it work.
Now, as you also know, under the borrowing program, the borrowing for the diff district is paid for by the diff. I don't know whose mics these are, but sorry. So, the idea was, and we said it, I said it publicly a number of times during my the campaign cycles, that the downtown was going to pay for itself through the diff program.
In other words, we're going to capture the new value and all of the bonding we did for infrastructure for the downtown would pay for itself. Whether we talk about moving the brook, uh the new Hannon Parkway, uh all the infrastructure program along with it, uh upgrades and utilities, all of those things, all those items, the new bridge, the general's bridge, uh etc., etc., all were paid for with some state funding, but mostly by our diff.
And that debt gets paid for by the new downtown. And from all accounts, the public, from what I hear, is thoroughly enjoying the new downtown. It was a downtown that was dead dead and deplorable when we took over.
Uh it was continued to be in the decline. Nobody wanted to be in the downtown. Uh and look what we've created in the new downtown. We needed the public investment to attract the private investment. And the Hancock Adams common was the first real public investment that people saw in the downtown.
So when I went on to meet with investors, they were blown away by what they saw with the investment and the quality of both Hanok Adams Common and subsequently Kilroy Square with the garage. Couple of uh case studies here under the diff.
So you can see west of Chestnut which was built by Quinsey Mutual uh behind the bank building there. It touches both Hanok Street and Chestnut Street. uh it shows you the left without west of Chestnut.
Those are the taxes we were gaining. You take the column on the right uh and those are the new taxes by the new development and the new values in the downtown. You can carry that right down through 2023.
Pretty significant difference. Another case study would be one Chestnut Place constructed by uh the Okonnell family uh the largest residential building in our city as far as height goes. And you can see again in the chart used to be a little corner block of stores, the corner chestnut and cottage uh and the old big old parking lot that was there.
You can see the numbers here. They speak for themselves on on that graph. Now there's a number of other projects we could point to and there's a number of them coming online. Uh you can be rest assured in every one of these there's going to be a dramatic difference for what we're collecting before the project in subsequently when the project is finished.
I'll give you example in the global investors and that would be for the oldtime Quinsey people the old commons area um Coleman sporting goods but people newer to the city it was the health store but that section that block along with the uh land disposition agreement that we set up through this body and also plan improvement the planning department.
So we were collecting about $43,000 in taxes on that block with this new project. it'll be somewhere between five and 600,000. And and that speaks to really every project. So even under the uh studies I showed you uh where we had special tax programs in some cases, we're still way ahead of where we were and where we would have been.
So not only does it pay for itself, but that extra goes into the general fund, goes into the till. So we're way ahead of the game with what's happened in our downtown. Um, I did have a uh a visitor a couple weeks ago, the mayor of Lemonster, Dean Maserella, uh, who is the dean of mayors.
He's been mayor for 32 years. Uh, he brought seven staff members out and took a tour of the historic places, but we walked the downtown and showed him what was going on. We gave him all the information and back up.
And you know what he said to me? He said, "Boy, I would love to have one of these projects in Lemonster." I mean this this is a extremely positive productive program that we've been overseeing and has been noticed around the state and a lot of communities are in trouble because they didn't embrace growth.
Uh we don't we're not experiencing that right now. The third category, the third bucket is the general debt. So we talked about the pension obligation bond as one bucket, the diff uh as the second budget and then this is the general obligation.
This would be all those other categories uh including schools investing in education and I will say that um you know we're looking at here a number of projects that are very visible when you go around the city.
We've done four major school construction projects and uh another new one on the way with the Squanum. In addition, we didn't really get into too much detail, but most of the other school buildings, we've also been uh recipients of a number of grants from the SBA on modernizing buildings, windows, boilers, roofs, etc.
So, this this this is the highlight of the new buildings. Uh these projects uh were financed through combination of local funding with bonding, but also we receive state uh reimbursement at a pretty significant rate.
So, we have to deal with those capital assets. I mentioned that early on. If you don't deal with the capital assets, again, regardless of what you get in your savings account, just like at your house, you know, if you let the leaky roof continue to leak, it's going to damage a lot of other things in the building and your house.
And uh it, you know, a mortgage and your house is similar to what we're talking about with debt for the city. I would suggest in a respectful way that a lot of things were kicked down the road. The can was kicked for decades and we had to deal with it and we are dealing with it.
By the way, there's a direct correlation with values of property in the education system you have in a community. Absolute direct correlation. All studies show that. So, not only do we have a clean city, a safe city, beautiful parks, we have an education system that is second to none in any urban district.
uh I'd put it against any urban district in our state. So further breakdown on those you can see the savings totals working with the SBA. Uh the only one that isn't SBA in this project was at the Christopher Center.
We use ESSER and ARPA monies for that which is federal money uh designed to help communities. And I want to thank the county commissioners for sharing a county share of their part uh to help us support roughly $20 million in federal money to help build us to the Crystal Fire Center.
Now, I think that's a that's an important one to mention in a little bit more detail. It's the first special needs municipal built and owned and operated in Massachusetts. And I think everybody in this well should be proud of that.
before when you're shipping families off, kids go off transportation could be an hour or two hours away from where they're learning. That's troubling for a family when they're that far away. You get the call, the the kid is sick, the child is sick.
That's that's that's that's something that people think about. So, we're bringing people closer to home in their own community. And the other item I mentioned as part of that was how much money we're going to save over time by doing this.
As you all know, it's very costly for outside special uh tuitions and transportation. So, we're seeing over time now, it takes a couple of years because some of those kids that were outsourced, um they don't want to disrupt that learning environment.
So, it's it's more of the kids coming in the system now that will stay within our system. and we're going to be saving somewhere between three and four million dollars over the next couple of years. The school budget uh will be uh in much better shape and that's even after counting uh debt service.
So, we talked about that making this happen. It's the right thing to do for families with challenges. We should do everything we can to help them with those challenges, but at the end of the day, it's a great business decision.
We're saving some serious dollars uh in the long run which then allows us to do other things in education under uh if I can go to the next infrastructure improvements. We've seen that around um I know that the average person would like to do it between midnight and 5 in the morning and not make any noise.
Uh but the reality is uh again this body is a partner and we're up to about 44% of our streets have completely been redone over the last decade or so. That's a pretty remarkable number. We have hundreds and hundreds of streets um and 247 miles of roadway and they all need work.
We've had an engineering company assess them. We tackle it each year. Al Grazio so and his team do a phenomenal job doing that. We get about a million nine a year under chapter 90. The last contract we just opened was 8 million in itself.
Um phase three of the work we're doing this year. So I know it's a little disruptive, but when we're done, we're done. Water's done. The sewer is done. The drains have been improved. The gas is done. The roads rebuilt.
Curbs and sidewalks are then done. shouldn't have to be touched for decades to come. Uh for too long the streets were painted black. Uh digging them back up and in no time. There's great coordination now between National Grid and the city going forward about making investments on the upgrades in the system.
So we're we're working hand inand so we're not constantly digging roads up again. Uh so the you've seen the work on the roads, the visible uh obviously the public safety headquarters on Sea Street. Uh magnificent building.
It's a 100red-year building. We opted for top shelf, top quality materials uh so that we're not revisiting it uh 20 years out. If we had an asphalt roof on there, for example, you'd be replacing it every 20 years.
As you know, we have ongoing improvements to our city seaw walls. That was a very important issue for those people that got uh bombed out a number of times historically, but 2018 was a difficult year.
Um 15 was no bargain. Uh there's a history of of some of those neighborhoods really being banged up pretty badly. Now, at the time, as you all know, we took money out of our affordable housing trust, which is funded by developers, and we assisted most of those families with interim and temporary housing and help clean up that whole area quickly.
But the long-term solution was replacing the seaw wall uh in that Adam Shore area going down to the house neck. I'm at 8,000 linear feet. um total between that and Mayard Avenue be at 12,000 linear feet going forward be replacing I know council McCarthy has been working closely with public works for that next phase of seaw walls uh the Adam shore seaw wall we lifted it by 2 feet uh which has been tremendous all these these these issues and I know each of you know it because you deal with constituents all the time whether it's schools whether it's roads uh whether it's firehouses or libraries uh public safety headquarters whatever the issue may seaw walls.
Um they're all important infrastructure challenges that we face and we made a commitment to challenge these issues, take it head on and make them a priority going forward because if you don't deal with the infrastructure, you might as well forget everything else.
If you don't upgrade the the physical infrastructure, you can enjoy the new development. Uh for example, the new schools, you you have to update the infrastructure, not only the new building, but everything that leads to that building.
So, we've, as you know, been very aggressive on our infrastructure, and I'm certainly proud of that. And it's not done. We have more work to do. I mentioned the chapter 90. That's the share of the tax uh gas tax that we get as a municipality.
A number of communities obviously get it. That's the formula. A million9. This year, we're spending about 24 million. And that's been money approved by this body appropriated to make improvements in every neighborhood of our city.
Next slide I'd like to go to is the excess levy capacity. I know this is where people start yawning um but it's important to really lay this out. Quinsey's excess levy capacity has uh is pretty extensive.
This year uh alone we're leaving $31 million on the table. Let me talk a little bit about that. Since ' 08, you can see this on the on the sheet. 198 different cities and towns have requested overrides.
Total of 923 requests, 56 which were passed. And on the next line, 221 requests in the past five years, of which 141 have passed. Quinsey, since I've been in office, we have left 442 million of unused excess levy capacity.
were only exceeded by a few a few municipalities in Massachusetts that number. I would bet Cambridge, Waltham, maybe Framingham. I bet there aren't too many beyond that that have that number. What does that mean?
Let me uh try to walk through that a little bit. So, under Prop 2 and a half, which was instituted back in the early 80s, we can only go up each year by 2 and a half% on the total level. That's that's the whole kitten kaboodleoodle commercial, residential, the total levy capacity and there were major cuts at that time when that happened.
Uh and eventually over time things things settled off again and we have uh a partner in the state where they give us local aid each year. Many communities around us we go to the next slide compare comparing some of these for population and some of them just by uh by being a neighbor such as Branchry.
But if you look at what each of these cities and towns have been going through in trying to do what we are doing in replacing schools and major upgrades to their infrastructure, many have had to gone to the voter to approve a top Prop 2 and a half override, which approves more money being spent, paying more money in your taxes to meet that obligation.
And I'm not picking on anybody here, but when you when you look around, um, some of the, for examples, is is a major city in Massachusetts. They needed a debt exclusion to fund one high school. Folks, we're on our fifth new school.
It's a hell of a story. We've worked very, very well with the Mass School Building Authority, as I talked about. We have communities around us that just need a two and a half override for operating expenses.
This is where I try to make the connection between the average citizen and what's going on in development. Investment matters. It makes a difference and what you get to work with with funding here. If we're at our capacity with no room to grow, you'll be making cuts, not going to be making additions.
That's a reality. And I do think that there was a there was an MMA report that come out and I know it was covered by the Boston papers that u there's like 200 cities and towns that are up against the levy limit now and the question is going forward how is Massachusetts going to deal with taxing so the cities and towns won't fall behind whether that's additional local aid or uh some other type of formula.
I'm pleased to report we're not in that position. We're not in that position because we made good, solid decisions. We're financially sound. This is a great story and you've been a part of it. I thank the councils here for that.
Some other indicators, performance indicators, residential rate, the tax rate remains among the lowest 40% across the state. Now, that could argue, well, you it's because your values are higher. Well, there's some truth in that.
Why are our values higher? Because people want to live here. Why do they want to live here? Because we have good schools, we have great services, beautiful parks, great trash collection, every service you can imagine.
We're about half, 50% right in the middle on tax burden. And I'd argue with anybody, we're in the top of the heap for services. Absolute top of the heap. And that's a credit to many of the people sitting in this audience.
This the city managers, department heads and employees that work so hard uh each and every day. You can see since 2021 assess valuations increased by 32%. So the investment comes back 10fold. City continues to mainstream levy capacity again this year's 31 million in excess levy capacity.
In other words, we could go to the levy limit without a prop 2 and a half override. Now, we recognize we don't want to do that. Of course, we're trying to make it manageable and affordable for people as well.
The old adage says everybody wants everything for services and nobody wants to pay anything in taxes. So, we try to find the balance. But I tell you, there's no other community like Quinsey when it comes to services.
Couple other interesting notes. uh since the pandemic, cities outperformed both the state and country in unemployment rates. I mentioned some of the development that we've had. It's not just about creating new housing units, which is needed.
It's not just about creating additional tax revenue, which we depend on, but also creates and sustains jobs. How many trades people in Quinsey have been working on projects in Quinsey? So, it puts food on the table.
our strategic partners. I know you've you know them because you they've been here at different times uh to discuss the issues. We truly have the best in the state with our partners. With that, I'd like to stop and open it up for questions.
Thank you, mayor. Happy to uh president recognizes council McCarthy. Thank you, uh Mr. President. Uh thanks, Mr. Mayor. That was a it's a great story. It's a good it's a great presentation. I I have a couple of questions.
I want to back up a little bit. I know you talk about the three buckets uh the pension obligation which has been thrown around a lot and not explained uh in that detail to us for a while. Uh a lot of us understand it, a lot of folks don't understand it.
I sat with um Mr. Delibber and Mr. Kosher for a few times and and we we chatted about it and and correct me if I'm wrong or if Mr. Delabber and Mr. Kosha want to hop in. Um the 475 was an addition to an already existing 400 million or so that that is that was there in in the in the pension obligation account.
Yes. So we essentially got the analysis done the 475 would bring us up to 100%. Right. So a lot of times we're saying 475 and we kind of forget the picture that it's a much bigger number now uh you know that um uh has grown in the in the positive.
I I know that um Paul Delabber and and and Rick Kosha both discussed it with me and I and I wanted to know because there was always talk you lost some money uh in the pension obligation move. It went down.
It's market driven. Um it's um it's invested very well. As of last week, the number and and again correct me if I'm wrong. Um it was somewhere in 8 880 million. Um this week it was 930 million. Now that's a a pretty good jump in regards to being positive.
And I know it's the market. Uh but I want to make sure people understand it's just not that $475. uh because we're trying to get to that $168 million projected savings down the road, which could be bigger than 168.
And it might be a hundred million, but I'll take a hundred million in savings also if the market fluctuated that way. So, I just wanted to make sure that I had that straight that this is just the other half that was added on to get us uh to what I was referred to as a 15-year mortgage at 2.6%.
And I don't know, I think if I had to ask a hand for people to raise their hands, they'd love a 15-year mortgage at 2.6. Now, I know our number is a lot bigger than people want, but it's only 15 years uh to 2040.
Sometimes when you say 2040, it sounds like it's out there. Uh but 15 years is not a long time and 2.6 is a great percentage. And I know we've had discussions back and forth that if you didn't pull the trigger at 2.6, six, we wouldn't have been able to pull the trigger.
And um I know that you also stated, which is is when you look at the, you know, I'll pick a year, you know, um 2033 I'll pick that's a $73 million nut compared to 37 million that'll stay fixed right through the 15 years at 2.6.
Correct. So I a couple things I just want to get clear. I know a lot of people have asked me questions about it and I said if we didn't make that move and you add up the years without that pension obligation, without that 2.6, without that fixed 37 million, the number is staggering on on where we'd go and what we'd have to cut to get to that number to fulfill that obligation.
Um, I know that eventually with principal and interest, I think it adds up, you know, this 475 to a little over 550 million, but that's that's um that's like any other loan when you have uh the principle and interest added on and it grows.
Uh, but the savings is is huge and I think folks have to look I had my own my own sheet here. Excuse me. I have my own sheet, but that that's slide number 10. Uh to really take a look at what we would have had to dish out if we didn't go that route.
That's that's number one. Um switching over to the diff. I know that I think the number you stated in the package here for short-term was 326. that right on the diff number for the um short-term bands or am I off?
If we can find the right slide. Here you go. 326. Yeah, you're right in front of you now, councelor. Yeah. So, you know, just a quick on that also, we have those and I guess if I could ask for another explanation, I know that we go and we get our short-term the mic, please.
Oh, I'm sorry. we go uh and get our short-term bans on on some of the projects and then uh a lot of them uh are um already um financed at the permanent permanent number that rolls into I think like a 187 diff number.
Um just a little more talk on that over the course of the years and I and I think there's a a slide in there um as things get done and get completed. I think that's another item that folks have to have a little patience on as the diff program is put into place.
if everything was done tomorrow and you showed that Wester Chestnut example and I think of the also the the latest up at the Coleman's site that we just did a land dispositioning agreement and and that that deal that taxes jump through the roof in our favor when something's on that piece of land of course and that that land up at Coleman's will jump from something 50 million a year when they're done to 50,000 50,000 I'm sorry to to 5 I I think I don't know what the number is between five and 600,000 advel property taxes right so I know a lot of people got into the conversation the land was sold at a lesser value like $300,000 less but in the long run when that building's done and those numbers come in that 300,000 and you know will be part of that will be made up very quickly uh to get that deal done to get that person in there that developed that that piece that's been empty for 24 years.
Absolutely agreed council I want to make sure I'm correct. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Um you look at every one of these projects and it's not easy. There aren't many cranes in Boston right now. It's not easy to develop.
uh they have the pencil and uh we have tools in the tool tool chest that we've used like 121A with the uh Chestnut Place project, but we're way ahead in taxes if we just left it the way it was. way ahead.
And this is and and and again in all due respect, I hope nobody from Brockton out there or lives in Brockton, but we were went the Brockton way and had a lot of difficulty if we didn't do what was needed to be done to turn it back into the Quinsey way here.
You know, a lot of people will bring up cities and towns. We could have went the bad way or the good way. And the good way with the diff is really well, it's really turned the corner. It's really turned the corner and that's and that goes back to Mayor Failen uh and yourself uh were both wrestling with what was the proper way to execute everything once you got that going in the right direction.
So that that that is uh huge state has said that we are the model community on diff. Yeah. Look at the way we're doing it. Much rather be Quinsey than Brockton in all due respect to anybody out there.
I wouldn't I wouldn't mind getting their state aid. They get about 300 million. We get 70 million. Yeah. Uh the other the other item uh on here are the schools. I didn't see a lot of those are coming off the rolls, right?
Quincy High. Yeah. Over time they when you see that graph dropping that means those projects are coming off. I I couldn't tell like you know like the oldest one on there is probably Quincy High. I know the track is coming probably track is two years out.
That'll be awesome. Quizzy High's coming off and I know that that's all included in there. Central of course and you made a great point about doing five schools compared to the one that's being done out at Somerville.
So, um I'm glad you laid that out a little bit in regards to things that are coming off the rolls over the next 15 years. Uh the last thing was a $16 million comment the ledger had. I know why. I I'd like to speak to that just a little bit because I know you're advocating for the for the taxpayers to try to get that 16 million down.
I know it has. I mean, I'll say it the novice way. We're going to pay off our bills and they still want us to pay after we've obligated our 475 or our our pension obligation. Can you speak to that just a little bit because I I want to make sure a couple of ways to attack that.
I'd like to see the ledger get it right for once. One is that I'd like to uh I'd like to remind us that uh we fully funded at 475. You spoke to it. The market conditions go up and down. We have till 2040 to be fully funded.
Um and we're up to 940 million as as you alluded to. Uh by the first of the year, we're probably going to be 97 98% funded. So we had the dip, we'll go back up. Um, so we'll there'll be ups and downs, but my guess is by 2040 we'll be well over 100% funded.
So far as the taxpayers of the city go, we made the investment in the 475. I don't think we need to do the 16. Let them take it off the 475 or we're taking another look with Miller company coming in and do the analysis on the actual study to see how uh is a stone um forget the name of the other company but uh to compare their numbers because I I don't agree with some of their assumptions.
So that that'll get worked out. I know that um Pier has said to us, "We're not worried about Quinzy. We're worried about those communities that are funded under 50%." Right. No, I'm good. There's two things there with the There's two things there with the retirement system.
One is we're obligated under the law as a city to provide for our employees, but I also have the fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers. And I tried to balance that. I remember some of the younger employees saying to me, "Hey, mayor, is there going to be in money left for me to retire someday?" This solidifies the retirement system, but it does it at a savings to the taxpayer.
It's a twofer. And uh before I sign off, I also want to I know the third bucket, you know, matters, which is the money that's supplied for infrastructure. And I know a lot of the jobs are starting to get to the paving stage in the spring.
Uh but Al Grazioso and his team um have done a great job and you're so right about services in Quinsey. Um you make a call to these guys and they respond no matter what it is. Uh in you know they're right down there.
So uh thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. Thank you councelor. Thank you councelor McCarthy. President recognizes councelor Campbell. Thank you Mr. President and thank you mayor for your time here today.
I think this is very educational and very helpful I think for everybody involved even uh the work that we've done here to follow follow the um the way of of how Quinsey has evolved over the years and I think it's important that um you know we have a a refreshed uh and and um important outlook uh as we move forward.
Uh I just had a couple of questions. Council McCarthy touched on the the 16 million. Um, you know, I I think probably maybe a a slight variation off of that is it was presented that, you know, the city would have to come up with $16 million to pay that.
So, uh, I'm I'm comfortable with with your answer just based on the way that the fully funding doesn't happen till 2040. Uh, and I think that's something that um it gets lost in the whole scheme of things and also whether that number is even accurate because I think it's a moving number as as things roll.
Um, it did it did make me uh look at things and and wonder that if if that uh were to happen that would need to have some, you know, if you do relate it back to your homes, you know, and you say you have to a leaky roof, you know, to replace that roof, you know, are you going to have the funds to do that?
And I think my the capacity issue um and whether our borrowing can happen is where are we on that as far as in the big picture as far as the I don't know if that's something that um uh we have a really good handle on as as far as well all the borrowing that we did over the last few months.
Um we've done very well with rates. There's still great confidence in Quinsey. Uh we have a great team and they're in the marketplace frequently um adjusting things and and saving um literally hundreds of thousands into the millions on cost by by those adjustments.
So we're on top of it all the time. Uh we're in a good place. We did better in rates uh this summer than when some of the b the bands than we did last year. So um we're known in the marketplace and Quinsey is is in a good place.
Um I I mentioned it earlier talking about Mayor Masarella. Uh as you know I'm on the MBTA board, the Masto board and I render to people all over the state and Quinsey is the talk of the state. And I say that with all humility, but uh people come up to me all the time, how do you guys do it?
How you're on a fifth school, how do you do it? All the roads, how do you do it? um do it because we've been responsible and made good decisions on our finances and and it pays off and it then allows us to continue to make good decisions.
We're not under the gun in any way. We're thoughtful. We debate and we make good decisions and this body is a is a partner in that. I can't spend $10 without your approval. So, uh I appreciate the uh cooperation that we've had on on a number of these projects.
You know, a few years ago, a little little side note, uh when I was talking to us, a gentleman stopped me and said, you know, I I don't know if I can vote for you. Spend too much money. I says, "Okay, let's have a chat." And I pointed to the seaw wall in Edgewater Drive because he was a hous guy.
He said, "Shouldn't we do that?" "Oh, you got to do that." At the time, Central Middle School is being done. I said, "We're getting 80% reimbursement." Central Middle should we do that? Oh, you got to do that.
Tell me what we shouldn't be doing. not do Squanum School, not do the seaw walls that protect the hous invest in our parks. I mean, come on. These are great projects. Council Campbell, also. Yeah. Just just another quick I because I I really do.
It's it really is one of those um you know, I I think that the work that's been being done is uh it's not the sexy stuff, right? You you're out. We're doing the infrastructure work. we're doing the entire U city and I'm I'm proud of of the work that we've done here, but I also want to make sure that we're doing it in a responsible way.
Um, is there any fear or I know that diff has some federal funds in it. Is there any fear of some of the funding that's in reimbursements that are going on? Uh, do we have anything that that might affect any any of the products?
We're monitoring that closely, counselor. Um, to date, nothing. Um, you know, community development block grant, as you know, we're getting annual aotment there that has been not been affected. because that's that's bipartisan because that's a program that helps both sides um of the aisle there.
Uh we have some federal grants that we've been awarded uh like Southern the $10 million program. We haven't heard anything different. It's in the pipeline. Uh we expect to see that through completion.
Uh but we'll keep you posted if we hear anything different. Right. And the um uh the only other one I had uh let's see. No, I think we're good. I think that Thank you. Thank you, Council Campbell. President recognizes Councelor Debona.
Thank you, Mr. President. Um, thank you, mayor, for coming in tonight at the request of the city council. Um, appreciate you having your presentation tonight. I just want to first start off by saying, uh, long one of the longer standing counselors up here for 10 years.
I was on the school committee prior to this, so 12 years of being out there. um your department heads and your commissioners to date, you know, with the new inception of the natural resources department, your TPAL, traffic, park, and alarm and lighting and all the other departments working relationship with the city council.
It's been great. Um a lot of work has been done over the last few years. Um which were were difficult at times in the past. I'm going to say that, you know, the department heads and the commissioners have done a really good job working relationship with myself and the other counselors.
It's been a great help. You know, I had office hours prior to this at 5:30. People coming in for trees, people coming in for sidewalk repairs, and we were able to take care of them. So, thank you. Um, that's part of the budget, too, you know.
Um, talking a little bit about budgetary items. Um, every year for the last 10 years of the budget time, I always talk about the big five. And the big five is school budget, police, fire, health insurance, and pensions, which is our retirement fund.
Those five were always the main topics that would come up for the biggest items. Obviously, you want to fund schools. You obviously wish we could put more funding in that. Police and fire to protect us here in the city, make it safe.
Our health insurance, which is all rising throughout throughout this, you know, the world to basically and then our pensions. So, hearing the 2.62% 62%. Um, I think we hit the sweet spot and you had to barter for some votes up here to get that sweet spot because I know a lot of municipalities out there are trying to do that now and it's just too late.
Um, the interest rates have changed and they changed the whole dynamics of it. Um, I know it's about a third of the 1.6 billion that people are talking about out there. I want to a lot of it talking about council McCarthy.
So, I want to move on from the pension uh obligation that has been fulfilled. And I kind of want to talk a little bit about general obligation, which is our roads and sidewalks, which I was supportive of the $100 million, which has done a great job, but I think we've had um DPW in here.
We've had different departments in here. We didn't talk about the $41 million that we're getting from National Grid and um you know, Mass DOT for some of the projects in the city. when you put some funding and you put some skin into the game, you also get funding back.
So the $41 million is not in here. It's on the behalf of National Grid and Mass DOT, which is on the Sea Street project, which we're which they're funding to help us out here in the city. But the investment that we make here in the city also relates to other agencies coming in to help us out as well.
So that you didn't talk about that, but we've had I can throw a line in there. It's really um it's about having the people in the places here that do the homework and then it's about relationships at every level of government.
Um you know Jimmy Scribby and the grant writing program all they're doing is working the grants and we got a $10 million award on Southern Arty. Was Congressman Lynch helpful? Absolutely. But if the work wasn't done he can't make the phone call to help us.
So, we're we're uh we're aggressive in every area, whether it's the school building authority, which I've articulated pretty well, whether it's Mass DOT, uh whether it's the federal government and the various programs.
We're at the table getting millions of dollars back to the city. Hancock's Adam Cotman out here. Obviously, you paid for, you know, the hotel motel tax, correct? Back in 2017, um part of that as well as the general's park, uh with the general's bridge for the infrastructure improvements.
I want to segment into that particular project that's going on right now. Can you talk a little bit about what's to the right of the general's bridge? What's to the left of the general bridge? I see garages going up.
Obviously, I I know what's going on, but the public Which side of the bridge are you on? Left and right. To the right. Why don't the one We'll start with the hospitals hospital. You want McConville way.
So to the right of the north of the bridge, as I say, is the Beth Israel Medical. As we talked about for a number of years, um you know, we lost the healthcare facility many years ago. was happening across the country.
Community hospitals uh being close to Boston is our strength and our weakness. And um in place of that when Rob Hail purchased the old hospital site, he made a commitment to deliver some health care in Quinsey Center.
Beth Israel has had an urgent care in our city for some time that's gone very very well. Uh they now will have 110,000 foot building uh in the coming years. Urgent care will be moved there. There'll be day surgeries.
of your primary care. There'd be a lot of services in that building that you have to leave Quinsey for today. Uh and I think that's it's not a hospital, but uh it's a hell of a lot more services than people uh are experiencing today in Quinsey.
So, it's a good thing. Uh and obviously, there's a garage that's going with that. Um and I'm grateful to our legislative delegation. Speaker Mariano for uh state is contributing$2 million towards a $50 million garage.
again relationships and uh they had the the being the hospital use went a long way in the state approving that on the south of the bridge is Atlantic development and hand handover development uh and uh it's a specialty grosser wink wink um it's got other retail uses in there have 300 units of housing uh and another garage uh and again if if we I don't have those numbers in front of me but you can be damn sure that whatever we were collecting before uh is going to be uh several million dollars more than what we collected before in taxes.
And again, back to the argument of providing housing units for people. This whole region is short on housing. And there's a great concern that Massus is going to lose its edge if we don't have the housing for people to stay here.
U so we're meeting that obligation. And by the way, some of our uh our own kids, we want them to stay in Quinsey, give them opportunities. So uh that's a big project. That's a lot of housing. Uh and of course um as I talked about it also equates to jobs, jobs being sustained, jobs being created.
And it's not just the trades person at the site. It's the PL supply shop, the plumbing materials being delivered to the site, truck driver, back to the uh place where they build these things, the manufacturing plant.
It has a ripple effect across the economy. And we're doing I I think we've done great strides in helping the Massachusetts economy by what we're doing here in Quinsey. through the COVID 19 pandemic, we were one of the few communities that kept on working.
We tried to do it as safest we possibly we could, but Boston shut down and they're a little behind. So, we're in a good position right now with all the development that we're doing, especially in the downtown.
If you you go right outside here, you go right into the downtown, you know, the one Chestnut and Kilroy and the and the garage and all the different parcel by parcel development that's happened has put us in a position in a good position now.
and the garages are coming up and that's why I talk about it right now because you can you don't really know what's going on till you can kind of see it and in the downtown you can feel it, you can touch it, you can see it, you can enjoy it.
We've had a lot of nice concerts and a nice nice great things from Quincy 400 that have tailored into this. I want to talk a little bit about MSBA. Um I know how it works, but can you talk a little bit about how it works?
How do we what do we bond it to start with and then we get reimbured and how does that follow with other projects like building on public buildings is here tonight. um on a lot of the boilers and a lot of the different things that we get reimbursed.
Could you talk kind of essentially for for example the Squanum Elementary School, we come to this body asking asking for authorization for the whole project. We don't execute that whole bond because we get school building authority reimbursement along the way.
Um so under the law we have to have the whole amount there on paper but we never go to that number because of the school building authority reimbursements. And we have a great working relationship with them.
uh Commissioner Hines, his team, as well as Superintendent Malby and his team on top of the paperwork. Um you know, again, we use the best in architects and consultants, so they know us pretty well up at the SBA and it's been a great relationship.
Two more things. Um talked a lot about Prop 2 and a half. A lot of the communities around us have had to to fund a lot of their schools. They've had to come Weimoth and Brainree have had to come in front of, you know, do a vote and do a prop two and a half override to to fund a school or fund a couple schools or teachers and stuff.
We haven't had that problem here in Quinsey. U which is good. Um the my last question, let me find it here. Inflation, I don't know if anybody can talk about I can't control it. Can't control it. Um where does that factor into all this?
Because the numbers are obviously a little bit higher. um how does that inflationary pricing or index do you have a a representative that may be able to it actually um has really uh flattened out. Um a few years ago we had to come back to the council as you may recall on the public safety headquarters because the inflation was just crazy.
The shortage of materials it it was a crazy time post pandemic in construction. Now it's far more predictable. Uh the the sources are there for the materials. So, it's not so much a moving target. Now, I appreciate you coming in tonight.
I know a lot of the other councilors can talk about other other timelines and different things that are going on in the city, but I want to I want to appreciate you coming in tonight. And I want to thank the city departments for all they do for the city.
It's been a huge help to know that I can make a quick phone call and you guys go right out there, whether it be at 10 o'clock at night or 7:30 a.m., um, you have some great department heads and commissioners that are right on it right away.
So, thank you for everybody in here. Um, thank you. Thank you, Councilman. President recognizes Councelor Leang. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd also like to um just start by thanking all the the department heads and their staff, frankly, for being here today because the day-to-day stuff that happens in the city um happens in your offices.
So, you know, I I think it's important that we thank the folks who answer the calls and get things done for us. So, thank you all for being here. Uh Mr. Mayor, thank you for being here as well and for giving us this presentation.
I have a question about the diff. So we can go to slide um number 14 to start. Great. Thank you. Um so I'm I'm thrilled to see the amount of growth that's happened here in the downtown. When I first started um I remember you know still having Chi and Kama down here.
I don't know if folks remember there was one slide that actually had like a tiny picture of Chianama on there and I was like oh I remember that right and it was fantastic. But um as much as I miss that place, I think we've come, you know, obviously a very very long way.
And we again see the benefits at that every single day as far as like physically being in the space. Um so it's nice to see the numbers and um financially how much better we're doing given the properties that have been developed down here now because the diff is still in place for the funds that come out of here to then pay down the work that we need to do to build up the infrastructure in the downtown.
I understand that and you know I had the opportunity to learn about that while I was here. What I'm curious about long term though is you know if there is any consideration or um thought as to when that would end and so that way all of the properties down here and this huge growth in value which you know ideally will continue to just grow significantly over time will go back into general fund revenues.
Is there a timeline in mind for that right now? Again, I think the next slide had or a couple of slides after that had some projects that are still coming online on slide 17. So, you know, obviously not in the near future, but just thinking long term, right?
Do we have a sense of, you know, a completion date, let's say, for this, you know, targeted work in the downtown so that the growth financially again can be added to the sort of general fund revenues.
What happens uh in these situations, counselor, is it continues to push out. For example, the Grossman project is alive today because of what was going on the downtown. The Star Market site now becomes far more valuable.
Uh so you'll see growth at some point in that area. You'll probably see additional growth on McGrath highway budding. Uh we saw that the nursing home, the old nursing home come down with residential units are going to go up on that property.
So it continues to grow. um had we not done what we did investing in the downtown we wouldn't have this new growth that we wouldn't be debating what we do with this money uh down the road um so it's important that we continue to stay focused on developing in the right areas and we said from day one I know when I ran for office many years ago we talked about the downtown around the tea stations the shipyard and crown colony and that's been the focus on the major projects and we'll continue to do that and with that comes these dividends of the return.
Um, so it's uh up through today and and it foreseeable future it pays for itself. Yeah, I think the question I'm asking is essentially, you know, it's ultimately Robbing Peter to pay Paul, right? I mean, the benefits coming out of the downtown.
I don't agree with that as I don't agree with that comment. Respectfully, council, this would we weren't doing what we weren't doing. There'd be no new value. No, but my point is is that the values are still coming to us as Quinsey residents.
I'm just looking more so as to instead of it have it being focused to the downtown if long-term there's a plan where those monies don't have to be focused to the downtown anymore because things are developed, you know, to the point that we're, you know, satisfied with the improvements here and then at that point the revenues in the downtown will then become part of the general fund revenues.
Well, the excess goes into the general fund. It's already helping the general fund today. Okay. Absolutely. Great. Okay. And then also the um I know we're looking forward to Wallist going through the same redevelopment, right?
And so I'm really excited about that because I think that area obviously is is primed for a lot of improvement. And so we'll follow the same model in the Wallist redevelopment area as well. Correct. Yes.
So we've established an urban redevelopment district in Wallace and we're waiting for the final approval from the state. The state talks about want more housing, but they have layers and layers of bureaucracy to get there.
Uh we should be getting word on that fairly soon. And then from there, we make a decision on the district improvement financing, the diff district, uh, along with the with the zoning requirements down there.
So, yes, we're we're bullish on Wallist and I think by next spring we'll be seeing some activity. Yeah, I'm excited. I think we had looked at that up here. Um, I'm I'm not remembering exactly when, maybe a year or two ago.
Uh, do we have a sense or has the state given you any sense of when they might approve it so that we can start getting moving on the wall? I think it's imminent. I I'm going to be uh speaking with uh Secretary Augustus in the next week to see where that application is.
It was a little hold up with D. As you know, we've got some drainage issues in Wallist. It's a bowl area. We're working through that. We've done a lot of our own engineering and the things we're going to need to do infrastructure-wise down there to mitigate that.
That's kind of in the mix with it. So, we're getting those questions answered and resolved. Yeah. I mean, again, I think the financial benefit is very obvious here with what we've done downtown. And, you know, physically, again, the space in Wall needs improvement.
So, if we can see the same financial benefit, I'm I'm ready to get moving on that as well. And I think, um, that leads into sort of a closing point I just want to, you know, talk with you about is that, you know, ultimately it's always about collaborating on projects that are moving forward, right?
I mean, we have an opportunity to hear from you tonight, which I appreciate because I'm not in your office doing this dayto-day with you, right? And so having these opportunities to really sort of have a check-in to understand, you know, what you look at every single moment of every day, right?
Like you're thinking about what's on this presentation every day. And so giving an opportunity to us to actually be a part of that process and part of the conversation is important. And I think too that I appreciate that while we don't always agree on everything, the opportunity to have the conversation about it is the most important thing.
Right. I mean, I just was reflecting back with President Kaine that I remember years ago when we first started, we couldn't have the pedestrian safety program. we wanted to put together happened fast enough, right?
We were doing work on um this was before TPAL was started and we had conversations about again um road work improvements and the cost of it and you know particularly pedestrian safety and access and ADA compliance and we were like it can't happen fast enough you know and so there's like always something you were doing the work and we were still like it's not enough and so it always feels like no matter where we are with work there's always going to be something that doesn't feel like quite enough or things that we disagree on.
I mean, looking at the pension obligation bond, every time you report the amount of savings that we've had, I mean, I didn't I didn't support that when we had a conversation about it. We disagreed about it, right?
But again, I think overall, doing a recap of these projects, these these significant long-term impactful projects, again, just allows me to reflect that sometimes it's not always enough. Sometimes we want more.
Sometimes we disagree. But the most important thing, um, I think it's pertinent to say, especially here tonight, is that we can have a dialogue about it and we can have conversations about it. and being part of that process with you to share with you what I think to share with you you know I don't agree with the pension obligation bond because of XYZ and we can talk through that and ultimately we didn't land on the same page right but we had a conversation about it and that was the most important thing and so I just want to say that whether it's these projects here in front of us or any other you know financial spending items that come up that having that kind of dialogue is the most important thing you look at this stuff every single day and I just appreciate that even when I'm picking up the phone and talking to you about something where I'm on the opposite side of the issue we're always able to at least have the dialogue and again I think that's the most important thing.
So thank you for coming here tonight and giving us an opportunity to do so. I appreciate it. Thank you Mr. President. Thank you councelor. Thank you councelor Lang. President recognizes councelor Ash.
Thank you Mr. President. Thank you mayor for the presentation. Um I know um certainly given it being my first term some of these projects although I've become well verssed in them over the last two years it's good to go back to the basics of them in the aerial view.
Um I did have some questions. Um I'll start with a couple of questions related to the actual presentation itself. Um with respect to slides 15 and 16 um the the diff case studies um I see that these are uh you know with with respect to slide 15 without west of chestnut and then with west of chestnut is the is it the the without west of chestnut that is the projection or is it the the width?
Yeah. essentially what were we collecting before and then once Wester chestnut was built what were we collecting out of the same okay um is it are those estim is I guess my question is are the estimated numbers the prior numbers is that just because we couldn't tell what we were collecting before or the we discuss ahead of time and do analysis to get estimates but estimates are estimates these are these are the real numbers that that have come in each year okay um and then because it's my first time um dealing with kind of the pension employee retirement administration commission.
Um do is it is it standard that every year we get an order from the commission as to what to put into the budget for retirement for that fiscal year? Essentially you get a bill. You get a bill. Correct.
And do so do we we put that number in at this at this time period every year or is it how does that how do how do the logistics work? It's it's usually inserted when we're doing our budget. Okay. And I understand that we're looking for a second opinion from Milleman.
Do we know when we're going to get receive that? Yes. So, a second opinion on Miller on drilling down on the actuary studies uh and looking at our numbers uh and comparisons and analysis. Uh we believe that uh the current actuary is is off.
Um and uh aside from that, you know, my position has been we fully funded the system. 2040, if it's not fully funded, we have a responsibility here. In the meantime, uh I believe we met the obligation as the taxpayers of the city uh to do that.
So, um another point along those lines. So, if they get if the retirement system, this isn't a criticism, hopefully they're going to exceed the 100%, right? uh if they get 110 125% we don't get any money back.
So I find the process a little peculiar and that's that's a state law issue and I may be talking about our legislators about that. Uh hey if they're doing that well we put all the money in how returning that some of them to the municipality.
That was that's really my my question is the procedure of this. So, Milleman comes back with a number that's maybe lower than than what I believe it's Stone um came out with than is it, you know, is it battle of the experts or how does that how do we figure out what number to actually place into the budget?
It is a battle of the experts right now. So, we're waiting to get that uh analysis done finished. Okay. And do we do we know when that will come back or um probably a few months? I don't know. Before the end of the calendar.
Yeah. Right. Um and then the SNP um report from earlier this spring with respect to the revisions um from our economic outlook and the long-term ratings. U I'm sure it's a conversation in the department certainly it's it's what you know as a body the council hears from the constituents often.
Um, I guess you know while we have the whole team here is is there some kind of is I'm sure it's what's thought about all the time and really the the the the purpose of the municipal finance department.
I found the report online easily um and it was a it was a good read uh for me. But to turn that around, I think that the the the real um point of your presentation is that the investment is going to pay off.
And with respect to the bond rating and with respect to the economic outlook revisions, do we know when we'll be when is a a kind of time frame for those to bounce back to where they were last year or the last time that report was written and what the plan is to is to do that.
Yeah. Essentially, if you went through the report, the one essential issue is they want us to see uh more money in our reserves. They want us to to see a bigger bank account essentially. Uh you know, and and along the way, and I have discussions with our bond advisers and and and all them, and because we have the excess levy capacity, we have a need of that.
We can go to that. We're not at the limit with no money in the bank. We're at the limit. Now, there we have good liquidity. uh the reserves, they want it to be higher. That's something we'll look at. I didn't get elected mayor to build the reserves, to build a bank account.
We get elected to deliver services and to protect our investments and our infrastructure. So, there's that ying and the yang on that issue. Uh but we're going to be uh monitoring it and see where we are with free cash and maybe dump some of that into the reserve to send a signal.
But in the market, we're still very competitive getting great rates in the market. That's what matters. Um, thank you for that. And then the final question is um I know we're your the departments um the finance departments as well as um your office probably looking at property tax uh rates for next year.
I didn't know if if you had any inkling as to what think I'm going there tonight, counselor. I I would be remiss if I didn't ask. You would be. We're waiting on a couple of things. one uh one is the free cash certification, the new growth number that John Roland and his team works on and then municipal finance department with John and I think Susan sits on some of those meetings as well.
Then we look at all the factors and then we come up with the number. Okay. And it's a little early yet. Okay. Um couple months or so. Is that right? We usually Okay. I was actually surprised I was the first one to ask it.
So, um, thank you, mayor, for for the presentation. Um, and I appreciate, um, the answers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Ash. President recognizes councelor Divine. Uh, thank you, mayor, for coming and speaking to us.
And, uh, I'd like to reiterate almost everything that u my councils before have said that all great questions. And, uh, for me, uh, a lot of people are, this is for the general public mostly, uh, door knocking.
A lot of people have been asking why we have such high debt and you know 16 mill you know $1.6 million. They're confu they're confused with um apples to apples and I'm trying to get that out there and I think today is one of those things.
But uh I have people reach out to me from Brockton uh a friend that is a property manager. We have an elite police department that does an excellent job and uh they're not police, they're actually community servers and they they do a great job being community, but this person has a problem with uh every weekend and sometimes at night they have 100 cars doing donuts and causing problems in their in their property and they're told, "Well, we can't do anything about it.
Put a gate up." Uh that won't happen in Quinsey because we have a great police department that will take care of it. And that's because of all everything that you've spoken about tonight because we've done our homework.
We've we've done we've created this police department with our fire department. Same thing. We sometimes we have to go and help other communities. I don't want to name them because I don't want to put shame on them, but we had the ability to uh buy two extra fire engines because we needed some.
and uh Cambridge I think was one that went and scooped up the rest that were available because there's such a timeline behind all these things. Uh once again, we were able to do that because we've done our homework.
We're doing well. Um there's a uh Crown Colony in Ward 4. You know, I'm concerned about um losing commercial tax base there. Uh we changed the uh ordinance and zoning there so that we can do retail and um residential.
And there's investment companies that um if you look into them, they're they're interested in Quinsey. And these are national ones that spend, you know, $500 million investing in countries in the country.
and uh they they cut down by 50% of what they were going to do during the um presidential election because of volatile situations. Yet, uh not in Quinsey. They they find Quinsey as this little golden nugget.
Uh they're not talking these are national investors that they recognize us. They see us because we're a little glimmering light. We're different than everyone else. Um people move from Boston and other other areas.
They've been moving from the city into here because of all the the the shows that we're doing, the infrastructure that you've done. Uh I met a guy from Oregon. He bought us right around the corner in Monroe.
So these people are moving here because of what's been done. Uh and you can't you can't do it without spending money. Uh so my my thing here is apples to apples is that um and this might be the only question I really have.
I just wanted to get that out there is um do you know how how's Milton doing like in their pension option obligation bond. Uh I hear about these other communities. they're not there and we're being compared to them and we're saying, "Well, they have lower debt." But in reality, they haven't paid their their bills yet.
So, do you do you know anything about Milton or or other communities that are falling behind? I I can I can just suggest that um statewide there's only a handful of communities that are in better shape than Quinzy when it comes to the pension systems.
Uh there's a lot of challenges out there. The county uh has some towns that belong to the county system. Um some cities have their own. We has their own. We have our own. Uh but it's a challenge to get to the number where the state wants them to be at.
And uh we fixed it. Yeah. Okay. Uh yeah. So I just want I wanted to get that out there because uh we can't do these things without uh growing the way we are. And you talked about Lemonster and uh I think Lemonster you said right the miss you say uh another manager came out.
Was it Lemonster or the mayor of Lemonster? Correct. Yeah. Um I hear some people say too like we should find out what other cities and towns are doing, but I hear other cities and towns saying, "How are we going to get up to Quinsey?
How are we going to follow them? What are we doing?" Uh I think that if you asked 12 years ago if anybody would get on the red line and go from Boston down to see Quinzy, they might not be as interested.
But right now, people are staying from all over the country. in Boston, they say to themselves, "Let's jump on the red line and go check out Quinsey." Uh, I don't think so. Well, I do. Uh, anyways, I think we're doing an exceptional job and, uh, I hope that, uh, we compare apples to apples.
Thank you. Thank you, Council Vine. Is that it? Okay. Well, we don't get to see it too often here, mayor, so thanks for being here. I appreciate councelor McCarthy inviting you to give this overview. Um, diff state model for the city.
The city is the state is a model that that uh different cities should look at. Uh, POB, I wasn't with you on that, but I appreciate your optimism about the future for that. And I guess we'll be waiting for a resolution on this pension contribution in months to come.
We've we've come a very long way. uh as councelor Lang outlined, you know, before the founding of TPAL and before we even had organized capital improvement plans, uh which we were severely striving for, uh you know, we had the most impressive of such a thing come before us just most recently, the $100 million bond that, um I know will make continued improvement for our city.
So, uh you know, I'm optimistic about the city overall. I wouldn't live here. I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't start a business here if I didn't think so. And I know that people come here because there are good things happening.
So, and everyone's entitled to their opinion, of course. Of course. And movement as well. So, thanks again for being here. Thanks, Council McCarthy, for setting that up. And, uh, we'll let you go. Thank you, uh, Mr.
President. Thank you, members of the council. And as you know, myself, my team, we're available anytime. Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. President. [Applause] Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our regularly scheduled meeting for the night.
Uh, approval of previous meeting minutes. Motion to approve made by council, seconded by councelor McCarthy. All those in favor? Those opposed? Eyes have it. Communications and reports from the mayor, other city officers and city boards.
Seeing none. Unfinished business and proceeding meeting. Seeing none. Reports of committees. President recognizes Chair Leang from ordinance. So I have um just one item out of ordinance committee for ward 4 uh from councelor Divine's ward 2025-118 add two stop signs on Kimell Street at Campbell Street creating a four-way stop.
Positive recommendation out of committee. Positive recommendation and a motion to approve made by councel seconded by councelor McCarthy. Madam clerk please call the role. Councelor Ash, yes. Council Campbell, yes.
Council Divine, yes. Council Deona, yes. Council Harris. Council Leang, yes. Council McCarthy. Councelor Mitten, present. Yes. Thank you. Is that it, Chair? Thank you, councelor Leang. Uh, presentation of petitions, memorials, and remmonstrants.
President recognizes councelor Debona. Hold on. Wait for them. Hold on. Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm on the obituaries. I got a I got a few folks I want to recognize that that have passed away. So, if you could, please, this is an important time.
Hold on. Hold on. Okay. We're in the obituaries right now. I'd like to recognize two people that have passed away. So, please, please. Okay. I want to um have a heavy heart with uh Thomas Arnett. Um he was a lifelong resident of Quinsey.
Just passed away. just went to his wake here a couple hours ago. He was 86 years old. He was born in Boston to Mary Darity and Thomas Arnett raised in he was raised in Dorchester after graduating Boston English High School.
He enlisted in the National Guard and became a cert uh certified medic at the age of 18. Tom served his country for more than 40 years, receiving a one great promotion to colonel from his final active duty rank of lieutenant colonel.
Uh in his civilian life, he became a husband, father, and grandfather who supported his family as an insurance claim manager and worked for the combined earn insurance company of America for 26 years.
Um I just want to say, you know, to his family, um my deepest condolences. Um it was a great friend was in Ward 3 on Hillside and um we want to give the condolences to entire family of the Arnard family.
Um the wake was tonight and they also have a funeral tomorrow morning uh 10:30 at St. An's Church and uh beginning at 9:45 9:4 uh 8 9:45 and also 10:30. So, keep the Arnette family in your thoughts and prayers.
I have another one. Hold on. Got a little distracted here tonight. Um, this one, um, heavy heart to the Mariano family. Dr. Carmen Mariano, um, just passed away October 15th. 78 years of beautiful memories that you share.
Um, he leaves behind his wife Dee Fagerlin. um Mariano who together for 52 years shared a rich joyful and loving family and life. He survived by her sister Natalie Mariano who is now always and proud the real doctor.
Natalie and her wife Shelley Feny uh are residents of Felmouth. Just want to um you know say to the Fagelin family as well um he leaves behind his brother and sister-in-law John and Bonnie Fagelin, their three beautiful children.
Eric Faggelin and his wife Amy, Justine Fagelin, Cordy and husband David and son Benjamin and Amy Faggelin. Um Carmen actually obviously touched many lives during his long career in education and would be remembered by countless students, student athletes, co-workers and friends for his passion and his devotion and his kindness.
Karma was a humble man whose strength was in with his smile and his words. He never stopped writing. Karma notes. Um the funeral mass is celebrated at St. Paul's Church in Hangingham on Saturday, October 25th at 10 a.m.
Um they will be followed by Mount Wallis Cemetery. Please keep, you know, the entire um family in your thoughts and prayers. Mr. Mariano, doctor, thank you. Thank you, councelor Dono. President recognizes Council Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I wanted to acknowledge uh really a wonderful woman uh who was a mom to so many and um uh someone who who we lost just recently. Um her name is um Brady uh Okconor. She was born uh in County Kerry.
She uh lived in in Adam Shore for most of life 1959. She came here. She immigrated to the United States from County Kerry. and uh she lived to be 82 years old, but she was an amazingly wonderful woman who raised eight beautiful children and had 12 grandchildren.
She was married for uh 58 years to her husband. Um and we have this uh a great family to to remember her by. Um she was a nurse up at the old Quinsey hospital and she was someone who when you went there you knew you had a friendly face to to um engage with and she would always look after you and give you that extra little bit of of sense of humor and love that you you hope for.
Um as I said her uh family is an amazing example of or legacy that she leaves behind. um Lieutenant and um Deputy uh Fire Chief Kevin Okconor. It's uh it's her mom, his mom that uh passed away. The services are coming in uh on Wednesday at the uh Mcon Begins Funeral Home in Rockland.
And uh the um mass will be on Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. at uh the uh the services I believe at Holy Family Church in Rockland. uh an incredible family and a huge loss to this community and someone I know who will be missed greatly by her beautiful family.
Thank you, councelor Camel. President recognized councelor Vine. Uh actually that was the same one. So and if we can keep the prayers and thoughts for the Okconor family. Thank you. Thank you councelor Vine.
Okay. Uh motions, orders, and resolutions. Seeing none, scheduling of committee meetings and public hearings. We have our next regularly scheduled council meeting on Monday, October 20th at 6:30 p.m. Pardon?
Well, you gave me that. Monday, November 10th at 6:30 p.m. Be there or be square. Hope everyone enjoys their Halloween. Motion to made by Council Yang, seconded by Councelor McCarthy. All those in favor?