City Council

good evening everybody i'd like to call the Monday May 5th 6:30 p.m public hearing to order this public hearing is for council order 2025-045 utility grant of location national grid uh conduit uh sea street at southern artery and overlook road so at this point I'd like to ask anyone wishing to speak in favor or opposition to come to the podium state your name and address if you do not wish to speak but would like your support or opposition recorded please sign in on the sheet on the table at the back of the chamber so is there anybody would like to speak in favor against um public order 2025-045 okay seeing none um I'm going to adjourn uh this public hearing at 6:31 we'll be back at 6:35 i'm sorry i'm here on national yes there is a supervisor here yes so sure but seeing that there's none uh nobody here uh I I think you're good i think you're good i think you're good yeah okay thank you thank you for that you have no opposition okay so with that uh uh we'll be back at 6:35 for uh the next uh grant of location thank you good evening we're back and I'd like to call to order the May 5th 6:35 public hearing to order uh this public hearing is for order council order 2025 046 utility grant of location national grid poll on Sea Street in Southern Arty so at this point I'd like to ask again anyone wishing to speak in favor or opposition to come to the podium state your name and address if you don't wish to speak but would like your support or opposition recorded please sign in on the sheet on the table at the back of the chamber so is there anybody who'd like to speak in favor or against okay seeing none we'll close this at 6:36 this this um uh 2025-046 we'll be back in in 4 minutes for the next uh uh council order granted location thank you okay we're back again i'd like to call to order the May 5th 640 public hearing to uh to order and it's council order 2025-047 grant a location Mass electric Verizon 59 Spear Street so at this point I'd like anybody who's wishing wishing to speak in favor of opposition please come up to the podium state your name and address if you do not wish to speak and like to show your support or opposition recorded please sign the sheet on the back of the table so seeing that there's nobody in favor or against stepping up we'll be back at 6:45 for the last uh grant of locations thank you utility grants so this is for 2025-052 utility grant of location national grid gas pen street and Thomasburg and Parkway MBTA bus maintenance facility at this point anybody who'd like to speak in favor or opposition please come ahead um if you do not wish if you do not wish to speak but you'd like your support or opposition recorded please sign the sheet again on the back of the chamber in the back of the chamber please so anybody again u again seeing that there's nobody stepping up in favor or against uh I'm going to end this public hearing at uh 6:46 and uh we'll be back again at 6:55 oh it's 650 650 I'm sorry thank you okay i'd like to call the 650 public hearing to order for the flood plane overlay district as a reminder this was a presentation that was presented to the council back on March 3rd as a revision and update to the flood plane overlay district and so we're taking any comments either in favor or against the new map that was presented so anybody wishing to speak in favor please feel free to come up to the podium no problem you don't need to interrupt to tell me that every single meeting okay so anybody wishing to speak in favor please come up to the podium there's also a form in the back there's also a form in the back that you can sign if you wish to support but don't wish to speak okay anybody wishing to speak against again if you want to sign the paper in the back and you don't want to speak you can certainly do that as well okay with that we'll close this public hearing and then open up the ordinance committee at 6:55 p.m okay good evening and welcome to the Monday May 5th meeting of the ordinance committee madam cler could you call the role please councelor Ash present councelor Kane present council Campbell present council Divine present council Debon present council Harris Council McCarthy present council Mitten present chilling present we have members of the quorum thank you so as a reminder this is an amendment to the zoning code which is why it's an ordinance committee and we're having a follow-up meeting on this to vote before it goes to the full council uh as a reminder to my colleagues we had the presentation on March 3rd as an update to the floodplane overlay district but I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the mayor chief of staff for any further updates before I open it to my colleagues for questions mr mr rock through you Madam Chairwoman thank you very much as you noted uh this matter was presented and deliberated uh pretty substantively at the March 3rd meeting uh Joe Sha from Gren City Partners and our engineering team uh talked about the new flood plane overlay district uh that one thing that is remaining is the actual vote on the actual ordinance as was mentioned during the presentation this new map will get uh upwards of 300 properties out of the flood plane uh which we believe is a pretty great achievement uh for our engineering team and Grand City Partners and all the folks that have put a lot of work into making sure we get the engineering and the federal government gets the engineering correct on what the flood plane overly wants to be uh before you you have the actual zoning code there are some red small amount of red lines in there um that were presented at the last meeting um and of course Mr sheay is here uh should anyone have any follow-up questions questions or comments i'm sorry go ahead Council Divine and then we'll go to you council um like I said on the last meeting when we talked about this uh Ward 4 actually has seven of the 11 wersheds a wershed is where water sheds down and groups down so that's what causes the flooding so we have uh majority of them it's not just the ocean that rolls in it's just rainwater so um this is excellent uh we we've been doing from what I'm hearing uh the city's been doing such a good job of tracking and marking all these uh lines that we're able to get these people out of the flood zone it's very important because it's extremely expensive for a lot of people and many of the people in Ward 4 have it uh there is my street is one but All Rick Road is one that's notorious for this and um I'm sorry that most of those houses will still be in it because they're in ground zero but u those people know how hard it is to be paying uh a substantial amount of money for insurance that you can't get away from so I'm very happy for the diligent work that's been done to help these other 300 properties so thank you very much Council McCarthy uh thank you uh madam chair i'd like to make a motion uh to approve as amended thank you we approve we don't need a second but I'll note the second from councelor Javine any other questions or comments from my colleagues no okay all in favor i any opposed okay the motion passes and again we'll have to vote again um at the full council meeting but since there's no other items on the ordinance committee agenda I'll go ahead and adjourn this meeting at 6:58 p.m good evening welcome to the Cinco de Mayo edition of the city council meeting madame clerk please call the role councelor Ash Councelor Campbell present council Divine council Deona present council Harris Council Leang present council McCathy present councelor Mitten President Kane present nine members you have a quorum uh whatever and please stand with me to 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 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 20253 an appropriation fiscal 2026 general fund budget thank you Madam Clerk uh tonight we have with us in the House Mayor Tom Ko who is going to give us a preview of the fisc year 2026 general fund budget are you also going to introduce the sewer and enter the enterprise funds we'll be submitting those but we won't get into any details okay all right great thank you Mr president members of the council it's good to be with you this is a annual visit that we come down and lay out the budget and then in subsequent weeks you uh deliberate and all our departments come in and defend these budgets so appreciate all the work that you do on behalf of the citizens as well i want to thank uh my chief of staff Chris Walker our director of operations Helen Murphy municipal finance staff particularly Eric Mason our director and Michael Roland who really worked hard putting the book together for all their work on this the budget goals um has really not really had not has changed i mean we try to maintain the services we do provide across the city i think we're the best in the Commonwealth providing services and I say that with all sincerity i'm frequently asked the question about taxes is we fall right in the middle statewide average and property taxes but right on the top of the heap when it comes to providing services and that's certainly a uh credit to all the city employees and department managers who put it together every day we continue invest further into our schools and our public safety units and um we can go on the next slide some of the highlights um shows you the the increase uh it is a bit hefty this year and that really is largely in due to the pension obligation bond which I know this body is familiar with we voted on this a few years back um and that is the bulk of it but in addition to that um the other increases are mainly public safety uh and schools you can see the graph there uh the other items that are up this year fixed costs are healthcare uh trash and recycling and energy up is a spec uh as you know but uh certainly for the reminder to the public the education budget uh we submit uh the bottom line to you you vote on the bottom line and then the school committee makes decisions on how to spend that bottom line budget i become one of member seven members of the school committee uh to work with the superintendent's leadership team on how to spend that i do want to uh give a shout out to Speaker Mariano Senator Keenan Representative Representative Chan for their hard work on chapter 70 which is education money also their work on uh other items like school building authority funding that they provide each year uh we've we've leveraged that pretty heavily over the years getting a lot of our schools upgraded uh and replaced um also this year uh was a big year because the the Christopher Farara Center was open fully as of September the learning center in Old Colony Air was an investment this body made uh along with the federal government we used almost $20 million in opera and esser monies to help do that including 8 million of that from the county when the county was distributing their opera funding we applied and we received that i want to thank Joe Sha Peter Collins and Dick Stady who are the county commissioners who approve that we we appreciate their support as well also want to thank the work of the school committee i know this will be the last budget for two members of the school committee uh Doug Dutro and Emily Lebo we thank them for their work and we'll certainly look forward to the deliberation on the school side uh on working out that budget public safety uh it's a familiar site we're seeing that building go up uh in beautiful form and uh the public safety building uh will as you all know house the police and fire administration as well as our emergency management uh this year in the fire department we have 70 20 27 new recruits right now in the academy i think there's two or three weeks left we received a grant to the federal government a safer grant for 16 new positions and the rule with that is is you can't go below uh the number um beyond the grant that the staffing levels during that time of that grant which is three years so we're anticipating additional retirements over the next three years uh that's why we have the 27 uh men and women in the academy police department in the budget you'll see positions for four new police officers we're adding a senior investigative layers and an evidence control specialist and I will leave that up to Chief Kennedy to get into those details with you at the time he appears before you the debt service um outside of the pension obligation bond it represents a 0.64% increase in the budget that's pretty remarkable with all we're doing uh major uses of the debt as you know are school projects so we've been very successful in acquiring reimbursement on a number of school projects uh our roads and sidewalks and water and sewer upgrades are ongoing as we know uh natural resources parks environmental projects like Butler's Pond and Sailor's Pond about to be done uh seaw walls pump stations across the city so I I know there's times when um folks are critical of the administration with spending i would suggest that these are all investments i suggest anybody to tell me why we wouldn't be doing any of these projects these are all significant major investments in our city and our city's future the old saying leave it a little better than you found it and uh we're doing that pension obligation bond um it's a little technical but it's I thought it important really to go over this once again because this is the peak year on the payment on the public pension obligation bond which was planned out when we put this together a few years back um our retirement board a few years ago was 43% funded and each time we had outside uh whether was funding for looking for funding for bonding our outside rating agencies this was a little bit of a sore point raised with that much in unfunded liability to the city um and as you all know but purposes for the public really there's a retirement board it's a separate entity from the city of Quinsey there's two elected members uh the city auditor serves on the board my municipal finance director is my appointment to the board and then those four members appoint a fifth member uh to that board and the retirement system answers to state perk uh their rules and regulations and uh essentially the retirement board through their actuaries give us the the bill each year uh and that bill was going to go was was skyrocketing when we looked at this a few years ago this would have been a budget buster had we not proceeded with the pension obligation bond so you can see on the chart here the savings is approximately 168 million over those years uh that's pretty incredible those are pretty big numbers those are real numbers we were fortunate with the team we put together and certainly our municipal finance department headed up that team but when we put all the experts together out there the timing was absolutely perfect because we got a rate of 2.62% that was pretty much at the lowest they were uh historically in in certainly recent memory for the public also uh they should know that employees contribute to their retirement uh 9% comes right out of their check and over 35,000 another 2% comes out of their check so employees are paying a share of their retirement this was a major decision at the time and I appreciate the work done uh by the municipal finance team our outside experts but also this the city council who bought into it and understood uh the difference uh this makes again if we had not done this I'd be for you before you tonight in the next several fiscal years uh looking at some real tough tough decisions next item that's up is healthcare costs uh nationally healthcare costs are up dramatically uh Massachusetts Center for Health Information has predict an 8.6% rise our own ex outside expert uh suggested to us eight or 10% uh we have included an 8% increase in the healthcare insurance line um it is the second highest increase on record from from the state the previous trend was about 32 3.2% next slide recycling trash collection um is up um as we know most things don't go down uh I'm proud though in Quinsey we have an outstanding uh service to the people of the city in good company overseen by Commissioner Graasioso and his team constantly focused on how can we improve on recycling to get that um the recycling out of the regular waste stream thereby saving money and certainly helping the environment uh many communities around us um are anywhere from uh 64 and this this is a state number 64 to $544 in addition money additional fees in those towns beyond their taxes to pay for rubbish pickup uh immediately around us I believe the communities around us are about $200 per year we also have to deal with changes that are made at the state level for example a couple years ago mattresses were no longer allowed to be in the waist stream uh we still have to pick up the mattresses that's an additional half a million dollar cost uh to the DBW budget next up our public works and um I suppose I don't have to spend a lot of time on what's very obvious out there and that is a lot of road work as we know we have 211 miles of city maintained roads that does not include DCR that's that's uh city of Quinsey and about 308 mi of sidewalks since 2017 we've replaced about 70 mi of roadway and about 130 mi of sidewalk repair and replacement 40 mi of water lines been replaced so lines mostly reline 58 miles of that i mean I don't have the number on the national grid but we're also been working with them in concert for a number of years now and replacing the gas mains in my early years in government uh the old days they essentially would paint the streets black with a half-inch overlay uh didn't deal with the subservice conditions and kept kicking the can down the road in infrastructures we've been aggressive in replacing water manes we've been aggressive fixing the sewer lines drain lines and uh trying to keep up with us as National Grid with gas uh gas lines and of course the major uh electric uh 115,000 volt I believe replacement from Field Street Southern Arty Furnusbrook Newport ADA State Street um it's been a busy couple of years in fact one of the contractors that bids with the city each year told me last year that the city of Quinsey did more road work than the city of Boston that's pretty remarkable so we're making great progress and I appreciate the patience of people out there i know this is disruptive uh it's difficult uh if we had you know the best of worlds would do it between midnight and 6:00 a.m and wouldn't make any noise uh but that's not reality so appreciate people's uh patience on this and um we're making good progress thank you to Al and his team for overseeing that water and sewer services um as we all know we're part of the MWR district uh some of the best water in the country and one of the other areas I mentioned how proud I am of the services we provide one of the other areas most communities don't do is when you have a sore backup we have we have people on shifts on 247 and the city of Quinsey Sore Division responds to that backup helps the folks deal with it uh and then move on um most communities you got to call Mr drain or Boston drain or you got to find your own vendor to do that again it's another example of how we provide services in the city these are values I think you share with me that we we deserve our residents deserve nothing but the best and I think they have that next slide our recreation programs i I this is another area where I think few communities can compare to what we offer each day to the families of the city and this is just a couple of notes from uh last year uh 75 summer clinics 42 days of playground programs at 14 parks around the city 49 nights of playground programs across three parks 28 days of volleyball 500 kids learned how to swim at Lincoln Hancock the adult pickle ball basketball and volleyball programs are all up dramatically in fact we're in the process of building new pickle ball courts uh I think the ones in Marman Park are opened and Faxon Park i know councelor Rash is familiar with those eight new pickle ball courts will be opening up uh this summer so we're trying to keep up with the demand and of course uh the Lincoln Hanok pool continues to be vibrant not only providing uh students and the programs for swimming but almost a thousand members uh swim at the Lincoln Hawk Pool Lincoln Hancock Pool on a regular basis and then of course what's been very popular the last couple of years we've had the ice rink uh in the downtown and uh I don't know of a community around us that does what Quincsey Recreation does for our families so I appreciate all of their work the Kennedy Center um I know we're all familiar with that location um that has been a huge addition uh to the city we're open I think 11 years now since we opened it up the old mile standard school which served as a community center for a number of years uh in between um and there's roughly uh 10,000 residents who avail themselves of the programming at the Kennedy Center that could include the Olympics could include daily games and activities they have all kinds of programs going on there um I'm heard they I heard they even have some card games going on down there music lessons um um computer lessons grief counseling you know I've run into a number of people over the years and and someone that has lost a spouse this has been a godsend to those people this is truly a second home they meet new friends it gives them purpose each and every day so I'm I'm grateful to the team really at the Kennedy Center uh there's a new position in this year's budget in that budget uh we're calling it the senior fraud and scam layers on we've seen too often where seniors are taken advantage of uh and lose a lot of money in these scams so we are going to be creating this position put a person in place that will work full-time visiting the senior centers communicating with seniors responding to inquiries and really get the word out so that these seniors um are less apt to be scammed so as we know uh the various departments we have in this city um and there are folks out there I hear from not daily but when I'm out and about that area in the government where they connect with uh somebody maybe the libraries they never have had kids in the schools maybe nobody can has called 911 so they haven't had the need for that perhaps it's the the schools because you are a parent or it could be uh pox and wreck um there are a number of ways this government serves and uh we try to pull it all together u and try to meet the demand of each of the missions of each of these departments and we come together as one big city one community uh and I would suggest there are those visible departments that you see but then there are those other departments that aren't quite as visible but are kind of the backbone whether it's assessors assessing the properties whether it's the treasur's office collecting uh fees or the IT department which is a back up for all of our systems each of those departments you see in the screen play vital role in delivering services i'd further say that uh we've got the best in department heads department managers city employees they bring a great skill set great talent but more importantly they bring a great passion uh serving this great city and I'm grateful for the work that they do many are sitting behind me um and I'm grateful for the not only the work but the dedication and the caring that goes into the job each of them do none of them are 9 to5 they work it people don't see the nights and weekends the other meetings and all that's involved in continuing to provide the services uh each and every day and our employees are truly the best um you know whether it's a policeman or fireman respond to an incident whether it's a teacher at the head of the classroom um whether it's a clerk whether it's a laborer whatever the role the various employees may fill um each of them play a vital role in providing those services to people professionally and with great compassion so I'm proud to serve alongside these great employees with that Mr president that's the summary i know that we'll be getting into the detail in the coming weeks uh as we will on the school side uh with meetings on the school side and the school committee so with that I'd be happy to take any questions um any questions for my colleagues president recognizes Council McCarthy uh thank you Mr president good evening Mr mayor uh just a couple of comments i um I know that's why people are coming to Quinsey because of this presentation um you touched base on all the subjects and all the proactivity the aggressive proactivity that's gone on in the city over the last 10 years and u uh things come with a cost we all know that but Quinsey is vibrant and I talk to so many people that are outside the city that joke around that say we can't get near Quinsey because it's so popular with people wanting to move into the area not just apartments and condos but all all you know a residential home in in Ward One will go in a day or two and it'll probably go for more than they're asking um the school system's in great shape the city's in great shape and I commend you on um on the way you've handled it uh over the last several years on not just kicking a can down the road in regards to those street repairs that we hear about all the time it's not just about paving roads it's about fixing what's underneath which hasn't been fixed in some cases they're there some of the water pipes are 1847 or some crazy number like that and if we don't get in there and do it the right way then it takes time uh and I know it because I hear about Sea Street um which is starting to turn the corner uh but it's just been a positive all the way down i know that uh as chair of finance I'll be having a public hearing on the uh on Monday the 12th and then we'll have our our department hearings up here but um uh it's just a uh and tonight is kind of an overview it's just a a real positive feeling uh that we're in a good place here so thank you very much thank you and thank all the department heads everyone's here tonight uh that get involved as you mentioned uh we do have a great a great team out there that that that helps out the residents all the time and a lot of times it's it's it's outside the the box on on helping them out they don't have to down and do certain things and they go down and do it thank you very much thanks Council McCarthy president recognized councelor Divine u Thank you very much for the presentation mayor I'd like to um touch base on what you just mentioned about the um the supervisors and commissioners and directors uh when I moved here 20 years ago I uh I didn't want to come to Quinsey i bought it as a investment um I was here six months and I fell in love with Quinsey i found it to have a nice community uh you could get involved with uh smaller areas and really feel like a small town but at the same time it's a giant city but now being uh on city council and working with all these directors superintendent uh anybody all the way down to janitors every single time I walk into somebody's office I might walk in unannounced and they just stop what they're doing and they ask me what I need and how they can help a constit I'm coming in for a constituent mostly and they just stop and do it uh they have real passion it's not just checking the box and checking out at four o'clock uh today alone uh the Eric Mason the financial officer on a day like today you would think that his door would be closed yet it was wide open and he let me into his office uh to have a quick chat and uh Larry Prenville uh I called him at 5:30 answered the phone within seconds to take care of another issue uh that's after hours you know and uh that's not uncommon for him to answer the phone all the time so from everybody from the lowest uh position uh and I don't mean low in anything just everybody is unbelievably bred for Quinsey they just love it so I I I can't get over it uh the last three years have been great and I I think these people are amazing so thank you very much thank you councelor Divine president recognizes councelor Campbell thank you Mr president uh thank you mayor obviously this is um um a lot of great uh opportunity going on here uh the the the city itself right now I think is at an all-time best and I'm I'm excited for it um for what we're doing now I I know that the debt service is taking a hit this time and but it's doing it for the right reasons and that to me that's that's um something that's I think I I mentioned it the other day that it's like putting the shingles on the roof you know it's not it's not the sexy thing that everybody wants to do with their money but it's the right thing to do because in the long term you know it's for the betterment of of the community um I had really a tech technical or technical question but you know with the uncertainty in in Washington what type of of federal issues do we see and we're prepared to handle and and move forward and if uh is that something that that we're we're good position to manage through those things and you know any any feedback on that that we have ready to roll on it we have a number of federal dollars that come to the city and and I should uh I don't think I thanked him with the ARA monies but Senator Marky was in town a couple weeks ago and he he went through the Christopher Harrison he was blown away by what the federal dollars did there uh so I thank them for uh Senator Warren of course and and of course Steve Lynch he's a champion for us uh in DC but yes through uh through different avenues we receive money probably the one most common everybody who hears about is CDBG community development block grant which started under President Nixon as revenue sharing that has enjoyed bipartisan support uh for decades so um I can't predict what'll happen um we have title one monies we have monies that come through the federal money that comes through the state and then hits us uh at the local level there were formula grants there were then those grants as you know we have a grant department that applies for and fights for grants and uh we we have that $10 million award on the southern artery uh which is huge and uh the team did a phenomenal job doing that we have it there was uh the only way we were notified there was a problem with was a health grant and then they reinstated it uh so at this point we're we're holding strong and nothing has changed stay tuned right we'll keep you informed yeah so I think that's the most important with with the uncertainty just no one knows right now so um you did uh reach on one other thing that I wanted to talk about was at the Christophara Center um have you seen an you know we're not working with Landmark probably as much as or you know the outside schools were able to keep a lot of the families here uh and and have have we seen an impact on on the the school budget at all with that and any positive uh feedback on that because you know being able to keep them local has got to help i uh I have heard from my appointees how hard it is to hear when you're standing here and now I get what they mean uh could you repeat the question of that council i'm sorry so with the Christopher Center I'm you know I'm assuming that there's a savings that goes with that you know keeping families local right you know whether it's you know through busing or or any types of things you know have we seen an impact on that yeah definitely um you know that's that's serving a special population and uh one of the worst things for that population is transitions so we weren't expecting everybody to that is currently outsourced to come back in because of that transition would be disruptive having said that now that the kids are coming right from kindergarten in we expect they'll stay with us uh through up so we are already up in numbers and over time because of that notwithstanding it's the right thing to do right keeping our kids here in the city uh but we're going to save money over time because the cost of uh outside tuition and outside transportation is big big numbers now we can't serve every kid there's a lot of special cases where some kids are severely disabled and need 24-hour care and so we we can't get capture everybody but this is a huge step i think it's the only municipal school in the state uh geared toward autism and and special needs so uh it's another vote this body took and I think it's one of the best yeah no it's exciting thank you very much appreciate it awesome thank you Council Campbell okay uh thank you very much for the presentation we look forward to getting into the details thank you Mr president members of council thanks so much okay take care Madam Clerk next item please sorry we're on We're still on the first one um motion to move to finance this is the FY26 general fund budget motion to move to finance by Council McCarth do I have a second uh councelor Harris uh all those in favor i those opposed eyes have it madam clerk next item please number two 2025 054 an appropriation fiscal 2026 sewer enterprise budget motion motion to move to finance uh by councelor McCarthy seconded by councelor Campbell all those in favor those opposed eyes have it madam clerk next item please number three 2025 055 appropriation fiscal 2026 water enterprise budget motion move to finance motion to move the FY26 water enterprise budget into finance seconded by councelor Campbell uh all those in favor i those opposed eyes have it madame clerk next item please number four 2025 056 order nomination and election of city clerk for whom huh tough tough i will now accept nominations for city clerk president recognizes councelor Leang i'm so excited uh to be able to nominate um not only our city clerk but someone who I consider a dear friend uh Nicole Kristo i um when I started on the council now almost 10 years ago that was one of the first votes I was asked to take when I knew nothing about what was going on or even how to make a motion um but honestly I just I said yes right away i had known Nikki for probably how probably I know we're dating ourselves right i just But the reason why I know you is because my family um got their start because you gave us a chance many many many many years ago when my cousins came in to apply for a license to open a tiny little restaurant in a corner over in Wallist um and you and Joe just you guys took a chance on us and that's that's who you are right you're just you're here to do the work you're here to do the job you're here to make sure that people who want a chance and want an opportunity get it um and since then it's been such a pleasure working with you because it's so much more than that that you do right you really care for the people of the city you're very passionate about your job and you're making sure that you're not just doing the work here in the city but also across the state you know to make sure that the best practices are spread in other cities and towns and um very specifically I'm trying to get at you know the work of a city clerk particularly in the last 5 years I think everyone knows has been very challenging um and dangerous at some times with elections and you know the sort of heated I think you know sentiments that people have towards elections um and I think being here in Quinsey I never had that concern because I knew we were in good hands with you i mean you were always proactive about engaging everyone um to ensure everyone's safety not just residents who are going to vote but all the incredible volunteers who step up to work insane hours that day right to make sure that something that is so just basic to our rights is not going to ever be challenged by something like you know our safety right and so I think again it just everything that you've done for this city i don't know that folks really know um all the hard work you put into it behind the scenes but really there's a lot of stuff that runs in this city because of that person who's sitting there so it really is um an honor and I'm just excited and we'll always always always support you so yeah thank you i know you said to keep it short it's hard with you there's so many good things to say about you so thank you Mr president thank you Katang we have a nomination for uh Nikki Chriso as city clerk i'd now like to recognize councelor McCarthy uh first of all like to close nominations uh and and on that I'd like to second the nomination of Nikki Krispbow as Council Yang indicated uh as all these ladies do up here along with Mr walker um supply us uh some great uh support all the time uh and and Nikki as city clerk you can go in there and get the answer right away uh and she gets great support from Joe Newton it's a great team so with that I second Nicole Kriso as city clerk okay we have a second on the floor you don't get to close nominations but I appreciate the effort um but before I close the nominations I'm going to recognize I'm going to recognize councelor Dabona thank you Mr president um Nicole I I just want to thank you for everything you've done over the years um being in the role of council president prior to Ian Kaine in um 2022 and 2023 coming out of the the COVID phase of 2020 for the years that you served as u city clerk it was very difficult we had a lot of different things going on at that time and uh we're 5 years later and here we are and I want to thank you for all that time and and energy that you spent with me going through all the different um we pretty much got sideswiped quite a bit about some things in co we we had to cancel a lot of the things that we don't traditionally do um but I know you got a lot of um good resources from Joe Shay prior to you and John Gillis prior to him so um you were in the farm team of the two of them and you learned a lot and I want to thank you for everything you've done up until now of 10 years later here we are and um you know you bring in a nice smile when things can be tough up here sometimes and uh I want to thank you for everything moving forward so I'm happy to um support you for this city clerk position okay uh Nikki you are an institutional pillar to this city and I'm happy to support you once again as we did from the get-go and Nina said she gave a good historical record of the first round that we went through back in 2016 which was fun it was fun um are there any other nominations for city clerk seeing none I close the nominations for city clerk uh motion made by councelor Yang seconded by councelor McCarthy nominating Nicole Chriso for city clerk all those in favor those opposed eyes have it congratulations Nikki thank you okay you're welcome uh I get back to work and what's the next item on the agenda number five 2025 0577 order designation of early polling places for the September preliminary election Saturday August 23rd 2025 through Thursday August 28th 2025 and November election Saturday October 25th 2025 through Friday October 31st here at city hall motion to approve made by councelor N do I have a second uh councelor uh Campbell on the motion president recognized councelor Devon thank you thank you Mr president just wanted to um just ask um through you to the city clerk is uh how you know in the past we've done you obviously our early election and how how is it been now here at the city hall city city city council chambers is it going to be downstairs or is it going to be right in here it'll be right in here okay counselor and um we looked at the um calendar and tried to work so that we wouldn't be um so close to the holiday however because I know this is one of your concerns um but the kids are going back to school on September 3rd so um it was good to get it in um and the schools will be up and running and and um and then of course the first November and first Tuesday in November for the and definitely over the years we've we've tried North Quincy High School we've come back here and I I think this is a central location that makes it easier for people to come in in person and vote is that correct it is yes is that what feedback we've been getting over the years we get great feedback um we designate some parking spots out front there's certainly some designated spots in the municipal lot um over at the Quinsey T and um we're happy to accommodate everybody you've you've done a great job over the years i know we've we've moved things around but we want to make it as easy as possible for people to vote some people are old school and they still want to come in person some people still like to do the new voting vote by mail which has been popular but um I I want to want to thank you for all the recommendations that you've had from the folks from the public and then what you think is the best solution so thank you thank you thanks Councelor Bon um Council Leang made a motion to approve seconded by Councelor Campbell madam Clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes councelor Divine yes council Deona yes council Harris yes council Leang yes council Mccazy yes council Mitten yes president Kane yes nine members thank you Madam Clerk next item please 20250 ordinance amending zoning section 8.5 transit oriented districts uh president recognizes council name thank you i'd like to make a motion to move this to ordinance okay motion to move to ordinance made by councelor Leang all those in favor on the motion no uh those opposed and mad cler please make a note of my abstension from uh this thank you we'll do and uh next item please number seven 2025 059 ordinance amending chapter 12 establishing a public art and place mark making program president recognizes council ash i'm just going to make a motion to ordinance okay motion to move to ordinance uh seconded by councelor N all those in favor those opposed eyes have it next item please number eight 2025 060 gift for $100 from Richard and Mary Cox for Quinsey Animal Shelter motion to approve motion to approve made by councelor McCarthy seconded by councelor Dabona madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash councelor Campbell councelor Divine yes council Dona yes councelor Harris council Leang yes council McCarthy yes councelor Mitten yes president Kaine yes nine members madam clerk next item please number nine 2025 061 a gift for $500 from the Fala House Cafe to Deier motion approved made by council McCarthy seconded by councelor Deona madam Cler please call the role councelor Ash Councelor Campbell council Divine council Dona yes council Harris council Leang yes council Macazy councelor Mitten president Kaine yes nine members thank you Madam Clerk that concludes our regularly scheduled agenda approval of previous meeting minutes motion approved made by councelor Leang all those in favor those opposed eyes have it communications and reports from the mayor other city officers and city boards madam clerk uh we do have a couple of utility requests to refer to public works committee for schedule and advertising grant a location Mass electric horizon southern artery at Pawn Street Bracket Street grant a location for National Grid Thomas Bergen Parkway Quinsey Street and Federal A and two traffic requests to refer refer to the ordinance committee for advertising ward five Council Mitten add a stop sign at Clay Street and Hancock Street ward Six Councelor Harris at handicap parking at 60 North Bayfield Road thank you Madam Clerk unfinished business and proceeding meeting seeing none uh reports of committees president recognizes Chair Harris thank you uh earlier this evening we held um four of your grant of locations uh first one was 2025 045 cr of location national grid conduit sea street at southern artery and oelik road positive recommendation from the public works motion for approval positive recommendation made by chair Harris seconded by council McCarthy uh madam cler please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell councelor Divine yes council Deona yes councelor Harris yes council Leang yes council McCarthy yes councelor Mitten President Kaine yes nine members very good we had 2025-046 utility grant location grid pole sea street and southern at southerner a positive recommendation from the public works commission committee motion for approval motion approved made by chair seconded by councelor McCarthy madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes councelor Divine yes councelor Deorna yes councelor Harris yes council Lee Yang yes council McCarthy yes councelor Mitten President Kane yes nine members 2025-047 utility grant application Mass Electric Verizon 59 Spear Street positive recommendation from the public works committee motion to approve motion to approve made by councelor Chair Harris seconded by councelor McCarthy madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes councelor Dine Council Deborna yes councelor Harris yes councelor Leang yes council McCarthy yes councelor Minton yes president King yes nine members and the last one 2025-052 utility grant location grid gas at Penn Street and Thomas Berg and Parkway uh MBTA bus maintenance facility positive recommendation from the public works committee motion to approve motion to approve made by Chair Harris seconded by Council McCarthy madam Clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes council Divine Council Deborna yes council Harris yes council Leang yes council Mazy Council Mint President Kane yes nine members thank you thank you Chair that's it thank you uh ordinance committee president recognizes Chair Leang thank you Mr president so the first is on order number 2025-027 order amendment to zoning code section 8.1 flood plane overlay district we had a presentation back in March and a public hearing this evening with a follow-up presentation and a positive recommendation out of committee a positive recommendation and a motion improvement by council Dang seconded by councelor Divine um Madame Clerk please call the role councelor Ash councelor Campbell yes council Divine yes council Deona yes council Harris yes council Lee Yang yes council Mazy yes council Mitten yes president King yes nine members thank you and the rest of these three are traffic the first is at award 2 2025-048 at stop sign on Lancaster Street at Grafton Street pause the recommendation at committee pause the recommendation motion to approve made by councelor N second by councelor Campbell madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes councelor Divine yes councelor Deona yes council Harris yes council Leang yes council McCarthy yes councelor Mitten yes president Kaine yes nine members thank you the second at award 5 2025-050 at handicap parking at 53 Spear Street pause recommendation at a committee positive recommendation motion to improvement by Chair Leang seconded by councelor Campbell madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes council Divine yes council Deborna yes council Harris yes council Leang yes council McCarthy yes councelor Mitten yes president Kaine yes nine members last one at award 6 2025-051 at handicap parking at two uh 232 Billings Road positive recommendation of committee positive recommendation and a motion to approve made by councelor Dang seconded by councelor Campbell madame clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes council Divine yes council Dona yes councelor Harris yes councelor Leang yes council McCathy yes councelor Mittton President Kaine yes nine members thank you chair um presentation of petitions memorials and remmonstrants president recognizes councelor Dona thank you Mr president i didn't know if anybody was going to chime in but I just wanted to say um Saturday May 3rd that we just had cleaner greener was an awesome fun day and um kudos to Mayor Ko and Commissioner Murphy uh for setting up the mulch at the different stations throughout the city with the civic and ne neighborhood associations PTO groups nonprofits um we picked a gem of a day it's been a cold winter it's been a lot of rain out there and we picked the perfect day to get out there and um nice cookout up at Pageant Field uh people got to see the new pavilion up there which is a beautiful spot with the track and all these different amenities that we have in the city so uh thank you for everybody that participated in it and we'll continue to move the city forward thank you thank you councelor Deon president recognizes councelor Dvine uh thank you Councelor Deona actually uh now that you mentioned it um had conversation with somebody else earlier today is when Cleaner Greener started it was actually removing trash and cleaning up the city but our city is so clean right now that it's turned to the part where we're planting flowers and adding mulch i know it's cleaner greener but there's not much cleaning going it's more just making it greener and better because our city is doing so well at keeping it clean so uh thank you for bringing that up because uh I think it's very important and there was a lot of parents and kids working really hard at Lincoln Hancock and uh they take it's called Hancock Pride but Lion's Pride but they really do take a lot of pride there and there a lot of young little kids working away scrubbing chalk off walls and pulling weeds so uh it's great to see thank you thanks Councelor Dine president recognizes Councelor Leang thank you Mr president um this is really really really bittersweet news for me to share um but I have decided that I will not be seeking re-election um this coming year and uh with papers nomination papers coming out tomorrow um I want to just take tonight and this opportunity to encourage anybody who's listening either here or at home uh who is interested in stepping up to run at any level of government right there's a lot of different seats that are um up for election this year to to step up and run i mean I pulled papers when I didn't even know what a city councelor was right um and here I am 10 years later and and the thing is is that none of us do this work alone right i'm so happy that department heads are here so that I can actually say thank you to you because regardless of how long we've worked together and I don't know if anybody at home can actually see but like all the department heads and everybody sitting in this room like we're just the liaison right like we're just lucky enough to be like the conduit to connect to these amazing people and all of the folks in your departments and so you know for anything that we've gotten any kudos for in this city really it goes to each of you and just thank you for making my job easy because I don't know everything in the city by any means um what I do know is that I can pick up the phone and call each and every single one of you so just really am grateful that the timing worked out that you all are here so I can um thank you in person and then to all of my colleagues who are currently on the council with me but then everyone else who served with me the last 10 years i mean what a what a team right like whether we agreed or disagreed on things I think just knowing that I I had um a family right and a network of people who were going through these motions with me right felt really good i I never regretted any single relationship I had with any of my colleagues like every single one regardless if we agreed or disagreed on things I think made me better um and you know lastly to the three folks who are sitting up here Jen Nikki Susan I none of us could do this work without the three of you um I say it time and again whenever we have the opportunity to sing your praises but really like you guys take us all under your wing i think you guys keep us out of trouble you make sure that you know our communications are clear with folks who we need to work for and with um yeah but I'm going to finish out this term i'm going to go through the rest of this year this is not my swan song but I do want to just make sure that I give a shout out to everyone who made this work possible because again to anybody who's um considering stepping up and serving this city just know you're not doing it alone right it's every every single person in this room makes that work possible so really just thank you all for the amazing work the last 10 years because wow right it's it's been incredible and just it's all thanks to every single one of you so thank you and yeah papers are out tomorrow so have fun with that oh thank you Counselor Leang that is very uh bittersweet news to hear that is not your swan song you still have uh I don't know what six seven months left so Oh yeah you're all stuck with me yeah you still got work to do but I um I mean we came in together and we're going out together and I have appreciated working with you every moment yeah I've appreciated working with you every moment and you've always led with your heart which I appreciate and um have always looked to when you know we have to make tough decisions and um you've been honest you have maintained your integrity and you're going out on top so thank you for your service to the city it's a great place because of you and um you know I don't know what the city council is going to do without their token color people up here i think uh null you're still the Asian right i think yeah right but uh uh anyone else have any announcements i'm staying okay no we everyone in here knows that null uh motions orders and resolutions seeing none uh scheduling of committee meetings and public hearings uh we have our next regularly scheduled city council meeting on Monday May 19th at 6:30 p.m be here or be square have a good night motion to adjourn all those in favor those opposed okay