Finance Committee Meeting April 3, 2024

Posted March 29, 2024, 12:40 PM

City Council
Holyoke Massachusetts
Pursuant to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, G.L. c. 30A, §§ 18-25,
and Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023,
notice is hereby given of a meeting of the committee on
Finance

Wednesday, April 3, 2024
6:30 PM

Meeting to take place at
Holyoke City Hall, 536 Dwight St
and can be accessed remotely on Zoom Meetings
Per order of the Chair: Patti Devine
Remote access via www.zoom.us
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81705810622?pwd=TG9KNlBVS284MWNTczlmVlhiT2R0UT09
Meeting ID: 817 0581 0622 Meeting Passcode: 327530 or by call in at 1 (646) 558-8656 with
the same Meeting ID and Passcode.
Live Spanish interpretation will be available on local access channel 15 using the television’s SAP option, through the live stream on the city website, as well as on the Zoom feed by clicking the interpretation option and choosing Spanish.

Agenda

Item 1: 3-19-24 Settlement Agreement by and Between the City of Holyoke and N.A.G.E. R1-180 Clerical Union

Item 2: 3-19-24 Devine – Ordered, that there be and is hereby appropriated by transfer in the fiscal year 2024, SIXTY THOUSAND AND 00/100 Dollars ($60,000) as follows:
FROM:
11211-51276  MAYOR-CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS:  $60,000
TO:
11411-51102  ASSISTANT ASSESSOR:  $3,000
11411-51125  ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT-ASSESSOR:   $3000
14221 -51105  DPW PROPERTY BUILDING CUSTODIAN:  $6,000
16931-51101  WAR MEMORIAL SR BUILDING CUSTODIAN:  $3,000
16931-51102  WAR MEMORIAL BUILDING CUSTODIAN:  $3,000
11611-51105  2ND ASSISTANT CITY CLERK:  $5,000
11611-51126  SR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT-CITY CLERK:  $3,000
11611-51125  ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT-CITY CLERK:  $3,000
11631-51103  ASSISTANT REGISTRAR OF VOTERS:  $3,000
12401-51126  SR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT-BUILDING & CODES:  $3,000
15101-51126  SR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT-BOARD OF HEALTH:  $3,000
15101-51109 SANITARIAN I:  $10,000
15101-51104  PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE:  $2,0001
11461-51106  SR DEPUTY TAX COLLECTOR:  $5,000
11451-51131  SR PAYROLL SPECIALIST:  $5,000

Item 3: 3-19-24 Magrath-Smith- Ordered, that the City Council review for approval the FY24 projects recommended for funding by the Holyoke Community Preservation Act Committee (CPAC)

Item 4: 3-19-24 Murphy-Romboletti- Ordered that the City Council invite the Mayor, Police Department and relevant financial department heads to a future meeting of the Finance Committee to provide an update on the status of the off-duty police account and former vendor Off- Duty Blue.

Item 5: 5-2-23 MCGEE — Ordered, that the city engineer provide a list/layout of non-accepted roads and come in to discuss options to fixing the roads.
*Tabled 5-10-23

Item 6: 1-18-22 (copy) BARTLEY — Ordered, The DPW and Mayor consider repairing the sidewalk and tree belt proximate to 548 South St. Send copy to Finance. Request appropriation from Mayor if this Order makes sense.
*Tabled 2-28-22, 6-11-22

LAID ON THE TABLE
Discussion is not expected to take place

Item 7: 10-3-23 (referred back 10-17-23, referred back 3-6-24) VACON, JOURDAIN, PUELLO — Order:  that the ballot question approved by the City Council be placed on the ballot on November 4, 2024 as referenced in the 9/26/23 decision by Judge Mulqueen.
Ballot Question
Shall the City of Holyoke amend the current Community Preservation Act real estate surcharge, as established in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of Chapter 44B of the Massachusetts General Laws, and which amendment of such surcharge is permissible pursuant to Section 16 of Chapter 44B of the Massachusetts General Laws, and approved by its legislative body, from 1.5% to 1.0%, a summary of which appears below?
(with revised dates)
8
Community Preservation Act Ballot Question and Draft Summary
Ballot Question
Shall the City of Holyoke amend the current Community Preservation Act real estate surcharge, as established in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of Chapter 44B of
the Massachusetts General Laws, and which amendment of such surcharge is permissible pursuant to Section 16 of Chapter 44B of the Massachusetts General Laws, and approved by its legislative body, from 1.5% to 1.0%, a summary of which appears below?
Summary of Question
On October 3, 2023, the City Council voted, without taking a position, to place a question on the ballot which will allow voters to reduce the current Community Preservation Act real estate surcharge from 1.5% to 1.0%.. The question will be approved, and the real estate surcharge shall be so reduced, if a majority of the voters voting on the ballot question
vote “yes”. The question will not be approved, and the real estate surcharge shall remain the same, if a majority of the voters voting on the ballot question vote “no”
On November 8, 2016, the voters of the City of Holyoke voted to accept Sections 3 to 7 of Chapter 44B, known as the Community Preservation Act (hereinafter referred to as the “Act’*). By accepting the Act, a funding source was established to enable the City of Holyoke to: (1) acquire, create and preserve open space, which includes land for parks, playgrounds and athletic fields; (2) acquire, preserve and rehabilitate historic resources such as historic community buildings and artifacts; and (3) acquire, create, and preserve
and support community housing to help local families meet their housing needs. By accepting the Act, a surcharge of 1.5% was assessed on real estate on an annual basis beginning in Fiscal Year 2018. Exempted from the surcharge are: (1) property owned and occupied as a domicile by any person who would qualify for low income housing or low or moderate income senior housing in the City of Holyoke, as defined in Section 2 of the Act; (2) $100,000 of the value of each taxable parcel of residential real property; and (3) $100,000 of the value of each taxable parcel of class three, commercial property, and class four, industrial property as defined in section 2A of said chapter 59. A taxpayer receiving a regular property tax abatement or exemption will also receive a pro rata reduction in the surcharge. Any taxpayer seeking a low income or senior exemption shall apply for said exemption annually to the City of Holyoke.

Item 8: 6-21-22 JOURDAIN — Acting DPW Superintendent please provide the City Council & Parking committee the following report:  for the prior 5 years (need to consider pre/post pandemic usage changes), amount of meter revenue and amount of parking garage revenue.  Please provide total usage % (used spaces divided total spaces) at both parking garages annually.  Please also provide any analysis of cost to get all meters fully operational.  Please provide the expected life cycle of the new meters if purchased.  Please also provide us the current amortization schedule for the Mayor Taupier Suffolk Street Parking Garage
*Tabled 6-7-23, 1-31-24

Item 9: 8-1-23 (copy) JOURDAIN — Ordered, That Cook and Company be invited to a future finance subcommittee meeting to review their recent health insurance analysis for the city.
*Tabled 1-17-24

Item 10: 8-2-22 JOURDAIN, ANDERSON-BURGOS, RIVERA_I — That the City Council conduct a comprehensive study of employee safety for the benefit of our Holyoke municipal employees and our taxpayers.  The City Council should invite in the Personnel Director, our Workers’ Comp representatives, Mayor, law department, department heads, union leadership, and others as needed to gather all of the information we need to study the root causes of employee injuries, how they are handled, how are they mitigated, how are we handling risk management to avoid future losses.  Our goal should be to keep employees safe, reduce lost hours, productivity and overall cost to the city.  We need to collect all relevant data including a prior 3 year report tracking injury claims, workers’ comp claims, injured on duty claims, and related.  Ideally, the City Council will produce a report within 6 months on its findings in conjunction with all key stakeholders.
*Tabled 9-12-22

Item 11: 3-1-22 (copy) JOURDAIN, PUELLO — The Mayor’s office please provide the City Council with a list of all current host community agreements from marijuana companies in our city.  Please also provide us a list of how much revenue we are generating annually from each of these agreements.
*Tabled 1-17-24

Item 12: 2-6-24 Rivera. I.- Order that the honorable city council ask the police department to provide us with an itemized budget breakdown of dollars received and expended over the last 5 years from the criminal seizure and forfeiture account.
*Tabled 3-4-24

Administrative Assistant: Jeffery Anderson-Burgos
The listing of matters are those reasonably anticipated by the chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. Also one or two items may require the committee to enter into executive session at this meeting. Agenda subject to change up to two business days (48 hours) prior to posted meeting time.