Finance Committee Meeting April 30, 2024

Posted April 26, 2024, 1:43 PM

vídeo en español

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

Tuesday, April 30, 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/84623161138?pwd=Y1V3ZERyTjcycmxZVGQ4MHNqYjMydz09
Meeting ID: 846 2316 1138 Meeting Passcode: 941987 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: Minutes of April 17, 2024 meeting

Item 2: 2-6-24 Devine – Ordered, Ordered, that there be and is hereby appropriated by transfer in the fiscal year 2024, EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND AND 00/100 Dollars ($850,000.00) as follows:
FROM:
3000-10400 SCHOOL ROOF PROJECTS $9,718.40
3010-10400 DPW HIGHWAY RECONSTRUCTION $2,269.50
3040-10400 DESIGN OF CONNECTOR ROAD $10,113.55
3100-10400 POLICE STATION $29,859.85
3130-10400 PROPERTY DEMOLITION PROJECT $2,080.25
3150-10400 FIRE STATION $3,453.54
3170-10400 MOSHER STREET CSO $96,784.01
3250-10400 COMMUNITY FIELD $44,721.97
3270-10400 APPLETON STREE SEWER SEPARATION $1,568.25
3290-10400 FLOOD CONTROL LEVEE CERTIFICATION $614.63
3320-10400 PARKING GARAGES RECONSTRUCTION $16,602.59
3330-10400 DEAN voe SCIENCE LAB $156,211.90
3340-10400 FIRE TRUCKS $20,692.14
6040-10400 SEWER PLANT IMPROVEMENTS $7,309.42
0430-10400 SALE OF REAL ESTATE $303,000.00
8811-10400 CAPITAL STABILIZATION $145,000.00
TO:
13003-58200 CAPITAL OUTLAY-SCHOOL BUILDINGS $850,000.00
*Tabled 3-4-24, 3-26-24

Item 3: 2-20-24 Devine – Ordered that the City Council consider approving the purchase by the City of 225 High Street, Holyoke by a consensual order of taking.  This order is a companion order to a previous order requesting a transfer in FY 2024 of $850,000.00 from several accounts to Capital outlay-school buildings.
*Tabled 3-4-24, 3-26-24

Item 4: 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 5: 3-6-24 Devine-ORDERED that 2 separate votes be taken by the City Council on the Community Preservation Act (CPA) as follows:
#1 whether to reduce the percentage from 1.5 % to 1%
#2 vote to put the CPA results from this question on the ballot

Item 6: 4-16-24 Devine- ORDERED, that the recent vote by the City Council to keep the CPA at 1.5% be rescinded and a new vote be taken to reduce the CPA tax to 1.0% and be placed on the November ballot.

LAID ON THE TABLE
Discussion is not expected to take place

Item 7: 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 8: 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 9: 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 10: 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 11: 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.