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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
 Posted - 10/05/2007 : 11:07:40 PM
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REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2007, 7:00 PM, PETER J. MCCARREN MEMORIAL CHAMBERS, EVERETT, MA
COMMUNICATIONS FROM HIS HONOR THE MAYOR
1. A0304-07 Order/s/Councilor Sal DiDomenico, as President
To accept donation of $100.00 from Vietnam Veterans Association & Iron Workers Local #7 to the Veterans Services Gift Account.
PAPERS FROM THE COMMON COUNCIL
2. C0278-07 Order/s/Councilor Sal DiDomenico, as President
To transfer $2,000.00 from Mayor's Reserve Account to the Registrars of Voters Recount Account., due to the recount that was performed September 29, 2007. (Passed sent up for concurrence)
3. C0279-07 Order/s/Councilor Sal DiDomenico, as President
To Accept $600.00 donation from Dunkin Donuts to the Parks Department Tree and Seed Account to be used to purchase the 2007 Everett Christmas Tree. (Passed sent up for concurrence)
4. C0280-07 Order/s/Councilor Sal DiDomenico, as President
To accept the $500.00 donation from Ciro's Foreign Car Repair Inc. to the Everett Police K-9 Account. (Passed sent up for concurrence)
5. C0232-07 Ordinance/s/Councilor Millie J. Cardello
To amend the service zone at 72 Ferry Street, from 24 hours to Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with favorable recommendation from Traffic Commission. (Enrolled sent up for enrollment)
6. C0276-07 Resolution/s/Councilor James A. Keane
That the City of Everett calls for the abolishment of Homeland Security Funds distributed to the Cities of Chelsea and Cambridge with those funds to be evenly distributed to the cities and towns directly abutting the Cities of Chelsea and Cambridge. (Passed sent up for concurrence to send to our State Representatives.)
7. C0287-07 Resolution/s/Councilor Wayne A. Matewsky
Board of Aldermen consider notifying the car mechanic business between Cabot and Revere Street to keep their vehicles within boundaries of their building instead of jockeying their vehicles all over that neighborhood, at the request of area residents. (Referred to the Board of Aldermen).
PETITIONS AND LICENSES
8. A0303-07 Petition
Petition from Paul Mattuchio to transfer his existing junk dealers license at 282 Second Street to 366 Second Street, Everett, a distance of about 150 yards.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
9. A0037-07 Committee Report
Rules & Ordinances Committee Report on Ordinance offered by Aldermen Joseph McGonagle and L. Charles DiPerri to increase lot size and frontage for residential properties; with a recommendation that residential lots and frontage requirements in existence prior to the passage of this ordinance shall be exempt for a period of five (5) years from the date of passage of this ordinance, but shall conform to the requirements in effect prior to passage of this ordinance.
10. A0127-07 Committee Report
Rules & Ordinances Committee Report on Resolution offered by Alderman Jason Marcus relative to the disrepair or improper display of the American Flag; with a recommendation to grant further time and invite the Director of Veterans Services to appear with copies of ordinances from other communities addressing this matter.
11. A0255-07 Committee Report
Committee on License Report on Petition for Junk Dealer License from American Scrap Metal Inc. at 357 Third Street.
12. A0290-07 Committee Report
Committee on Licenses Report on the Petition from NextG Networks East to install, locate and attach conduit, fiber optic cables and telecommunications network equipment to and on existing utility poles and/or streetlights in, across, and over certain public streets, lanes, highways, and places of the City of Everett as described in exhibits and plans (MPC1016MAEVEGEN) attached to petition and to kept on file in the City Clerk's Office.
13. A0292-07 Committee Report
Committee on Licenses Report on the Petition from National Grid for the installation of +/-35' of 1-2" conduit encased in concrete from bus shelter to manhole 454 at Broadway and Cameron Street, 888 Broadway, Everett, MA.
14. A0293-07 Committee Report
Committee on Licenses Report on the Petition from Paris Autobody, Inc. for Auto Body Shop and General Spray Painting at 101 Paris Street, Unit #5.
15. A0295-07 Committee Report
Committee on Licenses Report on the Petition for Awning License from Ideal Gift at 645 Broadway.
16. A0280-07 Committee Report
Committee on Licenses Report on the Petition for security grates at Ultimate Pizza at 176 Chelsea Street. Owner states that since Labor Day of 2006, it has been broken into twice and insurance company will not renew policy.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
17. A0248-07 Resolution/s/Alderman Frank Nuzzo
That the Manager of the Super Stop & Shop, 1690 Revere Beach Parkway, Everett, appear this meeting to discuss issues with the shopping carts.
18. A0299-07 Resolution/s/Alderman Robert J. Van Campen
That the Department of City Services immediately inspect and repair/replace the lights at Swan Street Park, and trim all trees located in the Park which are blocking the lights in the interest of public safety. (Referred to City Services and Park Dept with request for response for this meeting)
19. A0301-07 Resolution/s/Alderman Jason Marcus
That the Mayor's Office of Community Development inform the Board of Aldermen of how much city property that the city owns is for sale.(Referred to Mayor's Office of Community Development with a request for response this meeting)
NEW BUSINESS
20. A0302-07 Resolution/s/Alderman Frank Nuzzo
DCR representative appear this meeting relative to explaining why they are dumping street sweeping on Revere Beach Parkway, Everett.
Adjournment
Respectfully submitted,
Caroline McCorry
Administrative Assistant
Office of the Everett City Council
council@ci.everett.ma.us
SCHEDULED CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS:
10/10 6PM COMMITTEE ON LICENSES
10/15 7PM REGULAR COMMON COUNCIL MEETING
10/17 6PM BILLS & ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE MEETING
10/22 7PM NEXT REGULAR BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2007 : 10:29:03 PM
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Well, that was kind of a mess; but, what else would you expect?
At first, I was kind of pissed that DiPerri wanted to put all of the administration's transfers of funds from free cash orders to the finance committee by invoking the alderman's rules. I can understand him being pissed about having to find out about the free cash bonanza in the paper like the rest of us but since the invocation of these rules would have precluded any discussion of the matter, I was afraid that we would never find out any more about the issue than we have already read in the paper.
Well, maybe I was wrong to be pissed. Although, I think I got something out of the discussion that ensued, I'm sure that it mostly served to confuse people, including most, if not all, of the alderman. Mr. DeCoste showed that although he may be a good auditor, he's probably not the right person to try to explain municipal finance on the spur of the moment to people that are, admittedly so, fairly clueless on the subject. That's not a slam of Mr DeCoste; I think that it's just something that's not really a big part of his job description. Of course, it might have helped if he had more support from the administration; the assessor's office didn't provide much help nor should they have had to. Where were the mayor, the treasurer and the budget director? Why couldn't have someone put together a brief handout and presentation that showed where the different pieces of the free cash pie came from? Of course, we haven't seen anything like this over the last two years, so why should we expect them to start now? And before anybody asks, I don't believe that it's because they had something to hide. Mr. DeCoste didn't come right out and say it but, you got the sense that he felt that the city got to this point legimately.
Well, at least the $4 million dollar transfer to the tax levy passed. Mr Keverian said this will probably mean a reduction of about $1 per $1,000 off the expected increase to the tax rate. I thought for a couple of minutes that it wasn't going to happen. The alderman seemed very concerned that because this a one-time reduction to the tax rate that will not necessarily be sustainable in the future, it might cause "sticker shock" in the next tax year and, therefore, might not be a good idea. It's our money, why not gives us a break, even it is only once? The other requested free cash transfers to the pension fund and the stabilization fund were sent to the finance committee. I guess that works, especially since the transfer to stablization fund as read was $1.5 million, not the $500,000 that was reported in the Globe on Sunday.
It was also kind of funny that they had to rescind their previous vote that transferred $100,000 from free cash to the after school program. From what I could tell, the DOR wasn't too happy that they had begun transferring money from free cash before it was certified; only in Everett. What must the DOR think of us? The transfer was then reauthorized so the funding for the after school program was restored.
So where did all this free cash come from? First off, you have whatever was left in FY07 free cash as of June 30th; don't know what that was. After that, Mr. DeCoste said that revenues exceeded expenses for FY07 by $2.2 million. I would assume that this would be a combination of revenues that exceeded estimates and money that was budgeted for expenses but ended up not being spent. Another $3 million came from a reduction in what Mr. DeCoste "legimate" deficit spending accounting from year to year. I know it sounds fishy but it made sense to me; unfortunately, I don't think I can explain it any better than Mr. DeCoste did. I believe, Mr. DeCoste also said that there was another $1 million from someting that I didn't catch. This was all the detail that we got and I doubt that it would add up to $11.6 million. Without all the details, we'll never really understand it. Let's hope that whoever is the next mayor spends the time to figure it out so that they understand what impact it has on the city going forward.
Whew!
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Edited by - tetris on 10/10/2007 10:36:36 PM |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2007 : 10:42:44 PM
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| One other thing I did get from the meeting was, we were all over taxed for FY07 by $2.2 Million. |
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2007 : 11:00:46 PM
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Massdee,
If your definition of over taxed is that the amount of revenue collected exceeded the money expended, then, we were overtaxed. If your definition of over taxed is that the tax rate was set to collect much more money than was needed to run the city, then, I don't believe we were. Of course, since we still don't have all of the details, we can't be sure. |
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Court4Fred
Advanced Member
1201 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 05:51:43 AM
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| Tetris is right; without the revenue details it would be hard to determine. After all, it's not as though the budget hasn't increased tremendously under this administration. I do think that 11 million dollars is significant though - and unheard of, actually, which leads me to think that's there's more to this story than Ms. Vetrano would have us know. It's quite likely the citizens were overtaxed. |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 09:15:02 AM
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| tetris, when I first heard Mr DiPerri speak about the alderman's rules last night, I thought, here we go again. Then I began to wonder if Mr DiPerri was just watching the back of the BOA, since the budget fiasco and the Mayor also saying they didn't follow the rules to have department heads before them and placing items on the agenda. My opinion is Mr DiPerri was trying to fill in any loophole that might pop up later. Just a thought. |
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 10:48:03 AM
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massdee, I had some similar thoughts too, at the time, but I'd sort of forgotten about them until your post reminded me of them.
Bottom line though, I think that DiPerri was just pissed that the mayor, who I have been trying not to bash (well not much, anyways), just totally disrepected the other elected officials in the city once again. The mayor should know the rules; how long was he the clerk of the Board of Alderman? The mayor has no qualms about bashing the City Council when he feels that they aren't following the rules. It appears that no effort was made to inform any of them about any of the details of the proposed transfers even though it is required that they receive this information by Saturday night so that they have the opputunity to do their homework before taking a vote. In this case, you could make an arguement that if they received the info by Monday night, it would have been within the spirit, if to the letter, of the rules. I don't want to hear anything about Monday being a holiday; running a city is a 24 by 7 job. If you didn't want the job, why did you run for it? You haven't done the job since you've had it, so I guess I really shouldn't expect you to do it on your way out. If you were really vindicated by this news, where were you last night? (Boy - I guess I had some pent up frustration as well; I feel better now.)
I don't think DiPerri's dissenting votes really meant that he was against giving the taxpayers a break. He knew that everyone else was going to vote yes. This meant that his vote was really a symbolic vote against the mayor. At this point, I'm not sure that was necessary. It could have been done a different way but I'm sure that the mayor's supporters would have been all over him again; they probably will be anyways. But as can be seen from above, I understand where he was coming from. |
Edited by - tetris on 10/11/2007 10:50:32 AM |
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justme
Advanced Member
1428 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 12:24:03 PM
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| Court, I think tetris was referring to the mayor regarding the 24/7. |
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Court4Fred
Advanced Member
1201 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 1:28:34 PM
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| Thanks, Justme. I deleted that response. What was I thinking? |
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 2:03:47 PM
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I'll admit that I went somewhat overboard in my prior post about the 24/7 thing, so please let me clarify. It is something that is somewhat ingrained in me since I've done it in the past.
What got me going was that the mayor found the time to make sure that the news got in the Sunday paper but could not make sure that the aldermen had the information that they are entitled to in somewhat of a timely manner (or at all). Yes, it has probably happened in past administations as well, but that doesn't make it right. The other adminstations probably weren't lecturing the city council about how badly they were break the rules, either. How much time would it have taken to do what needed to be done? Would anyone have lost their weekend? Probably not. Maybe someone couldn't have gone home at 11:30 on Friday but there are ways to make that up to somebody. I'll be glad when he's gone. |
Edited by - tetris on 10/11/2007 2:20:45 PM |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 2:50:04 PM
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| Actually tetris, I enjoyed reading your over the board post. It is very easy to get aggravated at the present administration. |
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Court4Fred
Advanced Member
1201 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 3:18:05 PM
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| Actualy, Tetris - I find many of your posts educated and illuminating, and always fair and impartial. Thank you for being a part of this group. |
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 4:08:59 PM
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Folks, thanks for the support. I really try to be "fair and balanced" but I readily admit that the one topic that I have a clear bias on is the mayor. But as a former Hanlon supporter, who voted for the man in at least two of his campaigns against Ragucci (and I just can't remember if I did the other time), I feel that I have earned that right. Since he lost the primary, he have tried on lay off as much as I can, but today's posts have proved that I had a little pent up frustration left over.
****** NEWS FLASH ******
As I was putting this post together, I caught a message on ECTV 16 that there is a special meeting of the Common Council scheduled for 6:00 PM this evening. It didn't say what the subject matter is but one could only assume that it would be the reduction of the taxy levy. Maybe we'll get a better explanation of where all the free cash came from at this meeting. |
Edited by - tetris on 10/11/2007 4:10:23 PM |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 4:15:54 PM
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| Tetris, I will be out at the time of the meeting, could you update those of us who will miss it? |
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 4:24:13 PM
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| I'll do my best, Massdee, but it is not a good time for me either. I will video tape it so I won't miss any of it but I may wait to watch the tape until after the entire meeting is over so that I don't come it in the middle of it and not understand what is going on. |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 4:25:59 PM
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| Thanks, Tetris. |
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BOA Meeting - Wednesday Oct 10
