All right.
» Well, good evening everyone. Um, thank
you all. Everyone just really got very
quiet all on Q. Thank you for that. That
made it very easy. Didn't even need
this. Um, thank you for joining us this
evening in council chambers or if you're
joining us on Bevcam, our thanks as
always to Kim and the Bevcam booth for
keeping our meetings accessible. Thank
you so much. Um, it's a pleasure to have
folks here with us in the council
chamber. I imagine there may be other
folks who are planning on coming. We
have some uh public hearings that are
posted starting at 7:30 today, but I'll
mention now and you'll hear me mention
again as we get closer. If you are here
and interested in speaking in any one of
those public hearings, there are signup
sheets on the table under the window uh
over to my right. You can get up and add
your name to the one for the hearing or
hearings that you're interested in
speaking in. And we will take public
speakers in the order that they're
signed up when we come to that portion
of the meeting. Um as is our usual
practice, I'll just run through briefly
what's on our agenda before officially
calling the meeting to order so that we
can all know what's in front of us this
evening. We do have a very full agenda
this evening. We have a lot going on. Um
at the top of the agenda, we have two
presentations. Um one that I'll be
making and one that Mayor Cahill will be
making with an update on city projects.
We do have those public hearings as I as
I mentioned. Those are posted beginning
at 7:30 and we do need to take those at
the times they're posted. Depending on
how they're running into each other, we
may need to open and recess one of them,
but you'll you'll see us open those at
their posted times. We do have two folks
who have signed up as um comments from
residents and so we will take those as
we can in the order um with those public
hearings making allowance for the public
hearings and thank you to those two
folks who have signed up and thank you
also for your flexibility with the
schedule. Um and then we've got some
routine business that we need to take
care of. We'll take a break for some
subcommittee work and we'll come back to
finish it all up. So with that, I'll
officially call to order this regular
meeting of the Beverly City Council,
Tuesday, January 20th, 2026, 7 o'clock
p.m. Miss Kent, will you please call the
role? Crowley
>> here.
>> Feldman
>> here.
>> Houseman
>> here.
>> Mady
>> here.
>> Matundo
>> here.
>> Sonia
>> here.
>> Spang
>> here.
>> St. Helier
>> here.
>> And Flowers
>> here. Thank you, Miss Kent. Councelor
Ratundo, will you lead us in the pledge
of allegiance, please?
I aliance 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.
» Thank you very much, Councelor Retundo.
I just wanted to mention that uh his
honor the mayor is here with us this
evening as well. Thank you very much,
Mr. Mayor. I know we'll be hearing a
presentation from you shortly. Um we
have me many members of our city staff
are here. Thank you all as well for
joining us this evening. Uh so the very
first presentation this evening is one
that I intended to give at the
inauguration and was not there due to
illness. Um my thanks to councilors
Carly and Vice President St. Helair for
your work in leading that meeting in my
absence. Thank you very much to both of
you. Um particularly finding out that
morning that you were going to be doing
it. So thank you. And thank you also to
our city clerk of course, Miss Kent, for leading in that as well. Um, so I'm
going to go to the podium and share some
of the remarks that I would have shared
that evening that morning.
So, it is of course somewhat unusual to
be offering these remarks at a city
council meeting, a regular meeting like
this one rather than at the
inauguration.
And thank you council colleagues and to
all those here in attendance, as well as
to Bev Cam for affording me this time to
share these remarks that I had prepared
for that occasion but was unable to
share and offer due to illness. I share
them now, however, with the hope that
they might still help us to open this
our new term of office together and this
new year as we enter into this first
regular meeting of this city council
term. And so, fellow city councilors,
Mr. Mr. Mayor, school committee members
who may be watching this at another
time, city staff, and members of the
Beverly community. As we enter into this
new year and this new term, I begin by
sharing words of poetry, written by
Amanda Gorman from her book, Call Us
What We Carry. I invite you to hear
these words, slightly excerpted for
time, from the poem with nearly the same
name as the book, her poem entitled What
We Carry.
As kids, we sat in grass, fished our
hands into the dirt. We felt that damp
brown universe writhe, alert and alive.
Earth cuped in the boat of our palms.
Our eyes waxed wide with wonder.
Children understand. Even grime is a
gift. Even what is mired is miraculous.
What is marred is still marvelous.
We continue speaking, writing, hoping,
living, loving, fighting. That is to
say, we believe beyond disaster.
Even endings end at the lip of land.
Time arcs into itself. It is not a
repeat, but a reckoning. Days can't help
but walk two by two. The past and
present, paired and paralleled. It is
the future we save from ourselves, for
ourselves.
Words matter for language is an ark.
Yes, language is an art, an articulate
artifact. Language is a life craft. Yes,
language is a life raft. We have
recalled how to touch each other and how
to trust all that is good and all right.
We have learned our true names, not what
we are called, but what we are called to
carry forth from here.
What do we carry? If not, what and who
we care most for? The truth is one globe
wonder flawed here to the preservation
of a light so terrific
in discarding. The truth is there is joy
in discarding almost everything. Our
rage, our wreckage, our hubris, our
hate, our ghosts, our greed, our wrath,
our wars on the beating shore. We
haven't any haven for them here.
Rejoice for what we have left behind
will not free us, but what we have left
is all we need. We are enough. Armed
only with our hands, open but unied,
just like a blooming thing. We walk into
tomorrow, carrying nothing but the
world.
Now, it might seem at first glance like
poetry and municipal governance have
very little to do with one another. like
these words of Gorman's the first young
poet ever to be named America's national
youth poet laurate back in 2017 paving
the way for those who followed her
including our current national youth
poet laurate Evan Wang the first East
Asian male poet to hold the title feel
out of place in these council chambers a
place where we come to engage in the
serious business of the city
but I would suggest however that poetry
and municipal governance have everything
to do with one another that these words
of Gorman's call us with a seriousness
of purpose that belongs in this space
and in this place.
Poets understand that the space between
the words is as important as the words
on the page. That deep meaning comes not
just from what is said, but what is left
unsaid.
That building connections and bridges in
creative, unusual, or unlikely ways
matters deeply.
And we who are called to local
leadership here in this city, the city
that we love and care for, and we who
live in and care about this city, we are
called to understand the same. The
business of local government is the
space between. Working to seek out and
strengthen relationships with our
residents and with one another. Working
to solve problems that have gone without
solutions.
working to meet needs and fill gaps in
funding, in service provision, in food
access, in housing access. Working to
bridge the space between where our
community is now and where together we
believe it can be. Taking this charge
seriously means that we understand the
power of what we say or the deafening
silence that can be left by what we lack
the courage to say. It means we
understand the importance of recognizing
what we carry and what others carry, of
honoring the stories that our residents
bring to us, and of working creatively
to create connections and to find
solutions.
People sometimes like to say of politics
that it's the campaigning that's done in
poetry and then the governing has to be
done in pros. A way of suggesting
perhaps that campaigns are about
creativity and aspiration. But then the
real everyday work requires
steadfastness, seriousness of purpose,
justified margins, and serious
structure.
And the work of local leadership and
governance does indeed require our
steadfastness, our seriousness of
purpose, and a thoughtful attention to
detail. But as we set out on the work of
this new term together, I offer us this
reminder to let this work also be filled
with creativity and aspiration,
flexibility and playfulness, unexpected
connections, and enough joy, dedication,
passion, and compassion for the people
and for this city to help fill the
spaces between us.
We will need all those tools in our
toolbox to tackle the very real
challenges we know are ahead of us this
term. A more difficult financial
environment than we have seen in recent
years. A known projected shortfall for
fiscal year 27 that demands our hard
work, creative problem solving, and
diligent attention.
Infrastructure needs on both the
municipal and school sides of our
budget. our desire to continue to invest
in our public schools, in our
outstanding educators, and our
incredible young people. Rising
sanitation costs and a new sanitation
contract to be negotiated.
Continuing our steadfast dedication to
addressing the affordability crisis in
our region and the need for more
workforce housing, senior housing,
family housing, and deeply affordable
housing with dignity for all people of
all ages.
meeting the needs of our most vulnerable
neighbors. From those who are currently
unhoused to those who are food and
housing insecure to our immigrant
neighbors living in fear in the current
national climate. To our LGBTQIA plus
neighbors and especially our trans
community whose very right to safety and
existence is under attack on the
national level.
All of these things carried by our
neighbors in this community must matter
deeply to us because they matter deeply
to those who have entrusted us with
these leadership roles in this
community. In the words of the opening
poem, what do we carry if not what and
who we care most for?
We are called to carry them with
seriousness and care and then to dig in
and to do the work of continued
community building together.
And there is another reason for my
choice of Amanda Gorman's poem, What We
Carry, to share with you at the outset
of this new term.
Because we know that as a community, we
come to this new term and this new year
having come through challenging moments
together over the last one. And we carry
each one of us the experiences, the
hurts and the joys, the challenges and
the worries, the upset and the
disappointment, the achievements and the
connections, the wonder and the learning
of that year and those moments and those
experiences become part of our stories.
Recognizing what it is that we are
carrying and what it is that we are
ready to heal or put down. And then
recognizing and honoring the same in
others is an important part of how we
now work to move forward as a community
together.
This is how I believe together we create
the future we dream.
In closing, I invite you to hear once
more those closing words from Amanda
Gorman's poem.
Here's to the preservation of a light so
terrific. The truth is there is joy in
discarding almost everything. Our rage,
our wreckage, our hubris, our hate, our
ghosts, our greed, our wrath, our wars
on the beating shore. We haven't any
haven for them here. Rejoice for what we
have left behind will not free us. But
what we have left is all we need. We are
enough. Armed only with our hands open
but unimpied just like a blooming thing,
we walk into tomorrow carrying nothing
but the world.
Fellow counselors,
Mr. Mayor, fellow elected officials,
city staff, and residents of Beverly,
what a privilege, honor, and gift it is
to carry one another's stories, hopes,
aspirations, and dreams for this city
that we love. What a privilege, honor,
and gift it is to be able to work to
create connections in the space between
and to work for creative solutions
together. So may we take seriously now
the work that lies before us. Thank you.
[applause]
Thank you very much everyone for the
opportunity to share those remarks that
would have been inauguration remarks
that are now regular meeting remarks. So
thank you.
The second presentation on our agenda
this evening comes from Mayor Cahill and
that will be an update on city projects.
And so Mr. Mayor, we'll turn the podium
over to you and thank you for being here
with us.
>> Thanks, Madam President. Good to see
everybody. Um, so I'm going to walk us
through a number of slides that are just
um updates on where different projects
are at. I want to share with you that
[clears throat]
um some months when I when we come to do
this I'll make sure to bring uh given
department heads who are running point
on specific projects tonight in part
because it's January and in part because
the agenda is so full and in part
because after talking with some of you
recently um it seems that you all as a
body would like more frequent updates.
Uh now that's really up to you uh in the
sense that your agendas get full and I
don't want to try to put these in front
of you too often but if you want to
rather than quarterly do these every
other month for the time being uh you
know we can we can try that. Um I know
that one of our biggest
just having kicked off projects is the
water meter replacements. There's a
slide in here on that probably worth a
deeper dive at an upcoming meeting for
example. Um, but at any rate, let me uh
let me just jump right in with you here.
Uh, the youth center project, as you
know, it's well under construction. It
should be open. It's not quite open yet,
but the good news is, um,
there's a there's a typo in the
construction timeline. Um the plan right
now is that we hope to have the youth
center, the you know the young folks and
the staff moving in there by mid-Marchch
with an early April dedication ceremony
that we're we're going to try to time up
right so that people can um participate
and enjoy. Uh but again the goal right
now is that they'll be in by mid-March.
And I think yeah the rest of the words
there yep that's all just supportive of
that. Next,
Central Fire Station. The construction
completed this past summer of the
building envelope work including new
roof, new windows, new doors,
insulation, and repointing. Uh on the
HVAC side of the project, heat pumps
have been installed. There's a long lead
time on electrical equipment that we
ordered last year um due in March. And
so the plan is hopefully that's all
installed late winter suggests late
March. So that's really the key month
right now for finishing the HVAC work at
Central Fire Station.
The public library main branch work uh
conigly construction. Those of you who
were on last term you remember meeting
them during the conversations about the
project. Uh they mobilized on site
beginning today. completion of work by
early June. The scope of the work we
have about well we have $2.2 million of
budget on that project and the scope of
work includes insulating the building,
refurbishment of the rooftop air
handling units. There are two air
handling units or numerous components to
make up each one. Uh they're all being
replaced. Um the insulation involved is
the the focus there is the fact that the
where the addition from the early to the
mid 90s meets the original building
there is a leakage there is air that
gets in and there the air that gets out
every day. Um so that's been one of the
key priorities on top of replacing the
air handling unit components so that
they'll work better going forward for a
number of years. The other big piece of
this is doing as much insulation as we
can afford to do. We have a couple of um
uh alternate pieces of scope that both
have to do with additional insulation.
And as we work through the project over
the next few months, we will uh include
additional insulation in a couple key
points if the uh if the budget allows
between now and and completion.
Water meter replacement. You've heard a
lot about this. 250 meters have been
installed to date. Uh the full ramp up
should begin in February. Right now,
there's one installer working with the
city. Starting in February, there'll be
four installers working daily. Customers
receiving estimated bills should
continue to provide readings and the
city will prioritize these replacements
when possible. I'll say more about that
in a minute. Um customers will receive
instructions to make an official
replacement appointment. Some of you may
have already had that happen. The early
install work has gone on around Prospect
Hill and Monserat. Um target substantial
completion date is a year from this
summer.
So everything's on track. Uh, one of the
things that I asked our team was I
thought more meters would have been
installed by now. But what I got back
was the mindset of really um
starting right so as not to trip over
our own feet. Um, the concept of
measuring twice to cut once. The whole
idea of getting it getting everything
teed up and kicked off the right way.
And that's why they've had one installer
to date and are getting ready to ramp it
up. Um there are, as I think we all
know, we all get our water sewer bills
quarterly in the city. A third of our uh
third of our residents get those bills
on the 1 of say January, the other third
February, the other third March. So it
rolls and the work similar similarly is
going to roll in sections of the city.
We're going to be meeting uh the week
after next with the team to see how much
more we can uh prioritize those whose
meters are currently not working. Um it
would it would not work to just
chase those broken meters around the
community. There's efficiencies lost on
how many that a given installer can get
done in a day. But what we're going to
try to do is by by different
parts of the city try to prioritize
those whose meters aren't working now
within a given part. Um we'll we'll
learn more about that because that's a
question we've posed to the install
team. Uh it's one we've been carrying as
a as a talking point with them all along
and we'll we'll try to um
really kind of parse through that with
them and see how much more uh specific
they can be in sharing with you at an
upcoming update. For any of you whose
constituents reach out who are
frustrated with bills, make sure you
continue to, you know, um pass them over
to to my office and to um where's Glenn?
Glennice is in engineering. engineering
that we're so you know between our two
offices we try to run them down and and
help people with those. Uh, next, Bridge
Street. The Bridge Street project
mileide, which is, you know, it's what
you call a tip project, right? It's one
of those road construction projects
that's too expensive for city or town to
handle on its own. We did the design
work on it years ago, got in line on the
state list for uh federal and state
funding several years ago, about eight
years um ago, eight, nine years ago. the
project was started counselor started
two years ago and and it's it's pretty
much it's complete but for the fact that
the temporary bridge construction over
the Bass River has meant that you know
the limits of that project couldn't be
finished but from the Damvers line down
to Fulier A so close down to the to the
Bass River it was all completed this
past year um
lots of hard work by councelor Ratundo
um folks in my office to to try to stay
up with um neighbors concerns during the
construction. Uh and I think I think all
in all it's been a fantastic I mean that road is now solid for
what should we say 50 60 years and it
and it's it's a great great improvement.
these the rapid flashing beacons. Some
of you have one in your ward uh or more
than one. We were made aware a little
over a year ago of a grant program that
Massd was offering and it was a quick
turnaround. We had to meet um warrants
or requirements for the uh for the sites
that we would look to and we were able
to get a grant to install and and this
was the full cost was covered by the
state. um these rapid flashing beacons,
we already had a few of them in town, so
we've added five at some high um high
pedestrian traffic uh places in town.
You can see Sawyer Road right at the
bottom of the hill, right by the high
school entrance. Brimble at Palmer Road
where a lot of people walk um to and
from Hannah School and and the train as
well as other for other reasons. Dodge
Street at Putnham is particularly a
place where a lot of students, a lot of
children go back and forth to uh North
Beverly School. Essex Street at Gro
Street is right by Centerville Market.
Uh if you lived in Centerville long
enough ago, Paul Mills store, but uh
it's it's the Richdale right there. And
so that's a very heavily pedestrian
trafficked area. And then McKay near
Sturdivan is by Shoe Pond. Uh it's it's
a way for neighbors in the Shingleville
neighborhood to cross the street safely.
So, I think it I think it's fantastic
that we got them. Uh, let's keep track
on where else in the community these
might make sense. Um, and uh, you know,
always looking for opportunity. They're
not prohibitively expensive.
Of course, if we can get the state to
fund them, all the better.
Brimble Avenue project um, projects,
both the Dunham roundabout and phase
two. So, the Dunham Road at Brimble A
roundabout, as you know, we got state
grant money a few years ago to design a
roundabout there. Then we got state
grant money two years in a row to build
it. Um, so it's it's a total of $7.4
million in construction money, all
provided by the state. And we were able
to make a very strong case with the
state because most of the property is
owned by the Mass Department of
Transportation. Uh it's not most of it's
not city property. [snorts] Um and then
we have pending a quarter of a million
dollar earmark that Senator Lovely and
Representative Bowen were able to help
us or secure for us and that should come
forward to help and that bumps up the
cushion on the project budget which is
you know that's helpful. So that project
is just about ready for final approval
by the state and the ex expectation is
we'll be kicking off construction early
summer this year about a year and a half
construction process. We will spend a
lot of time with the uh with PHP, the
architectural design firm, and whoever
we bring on board to build it. We'll
spend a lot of time with just how
they're going to construct and keep
traffic moving and, you know, meet
people's daily needs during the
construction. Um phase two is the other
big piece of the long-term effort around
the Brimble A neighborhood. Um, Dunham
Roundabout is separate. When you think
of phase two, phase one for the Brimble
Avenue project was the double roundabout
project where you get off at Sawyer Road
northbound and you come up to Brimlab by
the old Victoria Rocky. Um, so that pro
that project was built
2015 16. Um and and phase two is
it's long been challenging to figure out
whether phase two could be a full
highway interchange across the highway
to the music theater or uh an overpass.
And we've landed back on an overpass
because it was ultimately made clear uh
by the federal highway folks that they
weren't going to approve a full
interchange so proximate so close to the
Centerville and the Brimble
interchanges. So, we are and and some of
you remember any of you who were on the
council when you approved this, you
approved uh money to take us to 10%
design on a an overpass
from Brimble A. So, what what you can
what you think of is that you know that
um Otis Road Otis Road right by Cycles
128 that is a private road that the
state is going to have to purchase uh as
a part of this project. So, Otis Road
over to an overpass connecting to the um
music theater and the uh Cummings Park
over there, Dunham Ridge.
Um so the next step with that and the
goal and the goal of getting the um
[music] design to 10% is to get on the
state's transportation improvement plan
and we are teeing up with with the uh
engineering firm we're working with to
try to get that approved at the at the m
um metropolitan planning organization
level in the next couple of months. The
goal is they they annually update the
tip and our goal and that's been our
goal going back a couple years is to get
on the tip this this round. So fingers
crossed we're working on it and we'll be making our best case to the MO
in the next couple months.
By the way that getting on the tip means
that you can start um pushing to get
funded and it's as I said with the with
the Bridge Street project um Bridge
Street was about a $16 million
construction project. this would be um
maybe double or more that uh it takes
several years once you're on the list to
move through the line. You got to take
care of all of your own design work. And
they evaluate readiness for funding on
an annual basis and, you know, try to
move up that that list without too many
years getting in the way of of um and getting to where when we're ready
when we've done the full design and
we're ready for the state to fund that
they're ready to to program us in and identify the funds and make them
available. Uh the three bridges project
Also in Riyle side, as we all well know,
uh the state closed forever the Hall
Whitaker Bridge in June of 2022.
Um we now are in the process of I say we
but you know working with the state and
they they finally got through the
permitting and the temporary bridge is
now under construction. You can see that
pier zero, I don't know why it's called
zero has been completed and piles for
peers one and two are being installed.
That work is all in that circle. It's
the top left within the circle. It's the
platform area from which they're going
to be able to stage the rest of the work
because the bridge is coming in prefab
pre-fabricated 10-in segments. And so
they're going to be they're staging to
be able to then kind of install and move the bridge right across
from the rile side or west side of the
river over towards where the old bowl
was. The expectation is that that bridge
will be open to traffic by summer of a
year from now, summer of 2027. However,
in working with the construction team,
we've made a priority with them to find
ways to accelerate the process and
they're working with us and with Masdot
to figure out whether they can start to
drive piles on both sides of the river.
Um, and if they're able to do that, that
will be a way to accelerate the job by
some period of months. So that's an
inprocess effort to get the uh to
identify with the state um more staging
area than they currently have. So some
off-site staging area and a couple of
other uh issues they're working through
and hopefully that's successful and and
then we can we can see a much more
accelerated um effort on construction
there.
Ober Park.
I'd say the big difference from the last
time I spoke with you about this in
October is that we we thought we were
ready to move through the rest of
permitting towards construction until
the Mass Historic Commission decided
that there was historical significance
and there is some record of of uh
historical artifacts having been found
there. So they came out and did some
review and they actually found some
extremely old ceramics. Um and at the
same time u at the same time the
consultant who did the review under Mass
Historic guidelines um was able to come
to recommendations that there was not
any further uh not any further delay
needed or any further involvement from
Mass Historic. Um, so we're waiting for
Mass Historic to make their final uh
statement on that and in the meantime
and and and the goal is to get our MEPA
packet submitted. Um,
environmental review has to happen with any project that is going to impact
the the coastal wetlands. Um, so we're
we were really kind of stopped in our
tracks by the mass historic work and we
think we're just about ready to move
forward again.
>> Mr. Mayor, I'm so sorry to interrupt
you. I just need to
>> Oh, no. 7:30. Sorry.
>> Just pause so we can open it and then
we'll recess it so we can hear the rest
of your presentation. Um, so I'm sorry
about that. So, as I mentioned, if you
were with us at the beginning, we do
have public hearings posted at certain
times. They need to legally we need to
open them at those times. So, I'm going
to open the posted public hearing for
7:30. This is on order 9ine. Um, this is
the community preservation committee out
of cycle CPA funding request. Uh, Miss
Kent. Order number nine, city of Beverly
ordered that the city council of the
city of Beverly hold a public hearing on
Tuesday, January 20th at 2025 at 7:30
p.m. 191 Cab Street, third floor.
Council chambers relative to the
community preservation committee out of
cycle CPA funding recommendations.
requests for CPA funding for
Independence Park renovations and this
was in the newspaper on January 9th.
>> Thank you, Miss Kent. Councilors, I
would entertain a motion to recess this
hearing to 7:40.
>> All those in favor?
>> That carries 90. So, we'll pick that
back up at 7:40. And if there are folks
here who wish to speak in this public
hearing or the two to follow, those
signup sheets are on the table uh by the
window over to my right, and you can get
up at any point and add your name to
those for public comment. Um, thank you,
Mr. Mayor. I apologize. Thank you, Madam
President. So, like Ober Park, Lynch
Park is is kind of in the same space on
permitting. Uh, as as those of you who
have been kind of working this with us
know, um, these are two two of our
coastal parks, two of our gems that have
erosion in the case of Ober and flooding
in the case of Lynch Park concerns. Um
we in each case we got initial grants
from the state to assess the
vulnerability and the feasibility of
certain treatments or certain solutions.
We have gone after additional grant
funding for each a couple of times and
we have not secured funding on either of
those rounds. And what has hurt us in
each instance is that while these well
while they're valuable to us and they're
valuable to a lot of people, neither of
these parks has an adjacent residential
neighborhood that has been recently
flooded in an awful storm like a lot of
other places both coastal and inland in
the state. So that you know the the
money that's been available has gone to
other applicants who need it as well.
Um, but we've been working with state
officials and we're hoping this next
goround on grant funds uh we'll have
some some better luck. You folks have
supported and CPA has supported some
combination of of CPA funds and um um
free cash at various points to keep
these projects going. Uh and as you can
see we're we're also with Lynch Park
right at the point of uh of MEPA filing.
We had our pre-filing meeting with uh
with the MEEPA team last about a week
and a half ago. Uh and moving forward
with that and I that's that was the last
one anyway. So sorry that it's taken
this long.
>> Happy to try to answer a question or
two.
>> Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Uh so
counselors, we do have about five
minutes for some questions. Obviously,
these updates from the mayor do not
constitute the end of the conversations
on these projects. And so, uh, if we
don't get to all of our questions today,
there can be further conversation. Um,
so before our hearing at 7:40, are there
comments or questions in the time that
we have?
» All right. Well, I guess not. Thank you
very much, Mr. Mayor, for that update.
And as you mentioned, we'll look forward
to having you and your team back
regularly for those updates. Uh, they
are both helpful and appreciated. So, we
do have five minutes before we pick up
that hearing. So, uh, Miss Kent, let's
go into our agenda and, um,
actually
have at least one of our two speakers.
Um, I know that there are two speakers
waiting. Uh, each speaker, this is the,
um, comments from residents. You can
sign up at a regular meeting to be able
to speak. There are up to five spots
available for three minutes each. And so
we could I think get at least our first
speaker in um Mitchell Serovvic. And if
I'm saying your name wrong, I do. I
really apologize. Um I'll invite you to
come to the podium if you would begin
with your name and address for the
record. And
council vice vice president St. Hillary,
do you have the timer now?
>> All right. Um so if you hear the timer
go off, that will be the signal that the
three minutes is is coming to an end. So
if you could just draw your remarks to a
close at that point. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you. My name is Mitchell Serovvic.
I live at 42 Pratt Avenue.
U Madame President, counselors, um I
guess the mayor has left. Uh good
evening. Uh before I start, I do want to
apologize if this subject has already
been addressed in a previous meeting. I
wasn't able to find uh in the past
meeting minutes that this was or when it
had been uh addressed. So, just let me
start by saying that
uh recently I noticed a flock
surveillance camera on Brimble Avenue
that apparently has been there for
several months. Uh subsequently I
learned per uh an online surveillance
application dlock.me
that there are now at least two more at
least two more of these cameras. one on
Elliot Street at the intersection of
McKay Street and the other on Ran Tulle
just before the Cabbat Street
intersection um before the Salem Bridge.
Uh for those in attendance who are not
familiar uh with uh the company that
controls these cameras, Flock [snorts]
Safety is its name. It's one of the
largest so-called automated license
plate reader or LPR vendors uh in the
United States. LPRs are AI powered
cameras that capture and analyze images
of all passing vehicles, uh, people, or
whatever the camera is programmed to
recognize. For cars, the camera creates
a digital fingerprint of the vehicle,
including license plate, make, model,
color, identifi identifying features
such as dents, bumper stickers, roof
racks, uh, and of course, photos of the
passengers.
Uh vehicle features are then sent to
Flock and stored in a searchable
database.
Um essentially creating a digital uh
dossier of the car and its owner
which is updated constantly as the the
system receives updates. All these data
are collected on millions of people
every day across the country regardless
of whether the driver is suspected of a
crime.
There are many reported examples of
these cameras being hacked, people being
accused of crimes they didn't commit
because of flock data, and of police
extensively
misusing the data to just spy on people
that they don't like or to track the
goings of their ex-spouses, for example.
Um, these examples of abuse are beside
the point.
which is that these surveillance cameras
are manifest violations of our
constitutional fourth amendment
protection against unreasonable search.
Every single photo taken by a flock
camera amounts to an illegal
warrantless search by the police. Got
it. Thank you. Uh, these cameras have no
place in our community and should be
removed immediately. Thank you very
much.
[applause]
>> Thank you very much, Mr. Servic. And I
should have mentioned at the beginning,
too, that for those who are not as
familiar with this portion of our
meeting, um, it is not a part of the
meeting where we're having conversation
or asking questions back and forth with
our speakers. But as I always like to
say, um it's it's always extremely
important still to hear from folks
during this time and even if we're not
able to have back and forth or ask
questions, what we hear is something
that we we consider, we take in and
often informs future conversation of the
council. So, um I appreciate our
speakers today and other speakers who
have come before and will come after.
Um, if you are interested in speaking at
a regular meeting in one of these spots,
you can sign up for these spots by
contacting the city clerk no later than
9:30 the morning of the meeting and they
are first come, first serve. Um, we do
have another speaker and I know uh she's
waiting very patiently. We need to open
our public hearing now and so we'll come
around to our second speaker as soon as
we have another moment in our agenda.
Um, it is 7:40 so I will reopen our
public hearing on order number nine.
Miss Kenda's already read the order and
we do have uh Gene Delios and Derek
Beckwith here from the CPC. And Mr.
Beckwith, I see you're at the podium
ready to go. So, I'll turn that uh floor
over to you. Thank you.
>> Thank Thank you very much, Madame
President and counselors, including our
newest counselors. Um the uh hopefully
over time um you'll uh get to know a lot
of what the CPC is all about and what
we're doing. And tonight um I'm very
proud to represent the committee um with
an outofcycle um application um that we
received. We reviewed it very carefully
over two different meetings um explored
the budget um the uh all the different
particulars and logistics and
unanimously approved it at our December
meeting um for your review. In a
nutshell, the [clears throat] uh the
project is for the independent park
renovations. Um the applicant being the
city of Beverly itself.
um provides overall the project costs
$346,000
and we voted for 200 to recommend
$200,000
in CPC um budget for the purpose of
recre under the category of recreation
for rehabilitation and restoration of
Independence Park. Um the project
includes
uh I'm going to just quickly go through
uh the uh um the pieces here. Um we'll
add adjacent to the sidewalk walk on
Lother Street an overlook terrace
approximately 48 ft long and 8 1/2 ft
wide. um leading to a new stairway with
wider stairs and railings and added uh
landscaping um that will lead to um the
place uh right now where the cannons,
the existing stone and monument um
remain. Um the uh an ADA accessible path
um which is new for this u this park
will be added uh to connect the regraded
half of the walkway um from
uh Wilson Avenue um to uh to provide uh
ADA access to uh the monument itself.
Additionally, um 14 new benches uh with
new pads and um that will include that
are ADA accessible will allow um every
um person who would like to visit and
spend time at the park the opportunity
to be there and overlook this historic
site. Um so um the uh the vote was
unanimous. Um the other uh sources of
funding for the project include a
Massachusetts Office of Travel and
Tourism grant of $60,000 which has a
deadline um for use of the money um in
uh I think it's by June 30th which is
the reason for this being an outofcycle
grant so that the project could be built
using these funds the the M funds um we
need to accelerate the regular timing of
our funding ing cycle um to enable this
to happen. Additionally, the Rotary um
Club of Beverly um is uh donating
$20,000 to the cause and the Beverly 400
um uh organization has put in another
$5,000. So, funding comes from multiple
sources. CPA funds um only make up
57.72%
um which is a really good ratio um for
use. Uh, so we strongly recommend the
project. We hope you approve it and if
you have any questions here to try to
answer.
>> Thank you very much, Mr. Beckwith. Uh,
councilors, are there any questions for
Mr. Beckwith at this time?
Council Husman, you looked thoughtful,
so I didn't know if you were conjuring
up a question. You're you are not. Okay.
Uh there are no members of the public
signed up on the on the sheet to speak
in this public hearing, but are there
members of the public here who wish to
speak in the public hearing on the um
community preservation committee's out
of cycle CPA funding recommendation
which you just heard Mr. Beckwith speak
about.
Okay. Thank you. Uh thank you Mr.
Beckwith. Seeing no other comments, I'm
going to close that public hearing and
we'll refer that back to the committee
on finance and property for further
action this evening. Um, we do have time
before our next hearing posted at 7:50.
So, let's have our next resident
speaker. Um, and for both of our
resident speakers, of course, you're
welcome to remain with us for the
entirety of the meeting, but this way
also you have flexibility to leave and
not be with us all evening if you don't
wish to. Um if you also begin name and
address for the record and then if you
hear Vice President St. Hillary's timer
go off if you would drag your remarks to
a close at that time. Thank you. Good
evening counselors and happy new term.
Um my name is Aisha Sadiki. I live in
Ward 3. My address is on file. Tonight I
have two requests in my three minutes.
Request number one. This is a continuing
petition from 2025. I asked the council
to adopt reading a land acknowledgement
at the start of council meetings and
until that happens I and other members
of the Beverly Social Justice Book Club
will be happy to do so.
This meeting takes place on unseated
ancestral lands of the of the nomagg and
potucket bands of the Massachusetts
tribe from whom the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts took its name. With deep
respect and gratitude, we acknowledge
the indigenous caretakers of these lands
and waters who have lived here for
thousands of years and who live here in diverse indigenous communities today.
Fun fact, that statement is what the
city's human rights committee reads at
their meetings, and it's also what our
book club read at the city's Martin
Luther King Jr. breakfast yesterday
morning.
Request number two,
I ask the city council to take local
initiative while our state legislators
consider the safe safe communities act,
which is House Bill H.2580
and Senate Bill S.1681.
The council could formally state its
opposition to any potential agreements
between the Beverly Police Department
and ICE.
Beverly could follow in the footsteps of
the Worcester City Council, who on
September 30th of 2025 voted on
resolution 13B, which reads
that the city council of the city of
Worcester does hereby oppose the
pursuit, exploration, or or entering
into a 287G task force model agreement
with US Immigration and Customs
Enforcement or any other agreement or
arrangement that gives federal
immigration powers to Worcester
officials.
Tonight, I ask the council to stand with
immigrants,
with people of color,
with everyone being targeted and
profiled, and make it known that Beverly
is a welcoming and inclusive city where
all me
[panting and gasps]
[snorts]
where all members of our community feel
safe.
You should all have an email from me
that hit your inboxes just moments ago.
It includes resource links for you to
learn more about the ICE 287G program,
the states the state's legisl state
legislators safe communities act and the
Worcester city council's resolution.
Thank you for your service, your
commitment and good evening.
Thank you very much and thank you also
for your patience and your flexibility.
I know for speakers when you sign up it can always be a variable when you'll
get to speak and um thank you to both of
you for being here with us and for your
words as well.
Um we are at 7:50 so we will open our
next public hearing. Uh this is a public
hearing posted for order number 10 a
loan authorization that we'll be
considering. U Miss Kent if you would
read the order.
>> Order number 10. City of Beverly ordered
that the city council of the city of
Beverly hold a public hearing on
Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 at 7:50 p.m.
at 191 Cabin Street, 3rd floor, council
chambers relative to the city
appropriates the sum of $25,895,000
to pay costs of renovating the city hall
and former police station annex,
including the cost of tempor temporary
relocation of city hall during
construction and all the costs
incidental and related there too. and
that to meet this appropriation, the
treasurer with the approval of the mayor
is authorized to borrow set amount and
pursuant to general law chapter 44
section 71 or any other enabling
authority and to issue bonds or notes of
the city. Therefore, the mayor is
authorized to take any other action
necessary to carry out this project,
including but not limited to applying
for, accepting, and expending any and
all grants that may be available for the
project. And this is published in the
newspaper on January 9th.
Thank you very much, Miss Kent. Um,
Mr. Mayor, I know that you're at the
podium ready to go. I will just mention
that for those who may have uh been
joining us or are perhaps watching on
Bevcam but are interested in this public
hearing and are um heading down here,
there is a signup sheet for those
members of the public who wish to speak
in this public hearing. It can be found
on the table um over to my right by the
window by the the other door of the
council chamber. you are welcome to get
up at any point and go over and add your
name to that. You don't have to wait for
a certain time if you are member of the
public here waiting to speak. And we
will take public comment um in [snorts]
the order that folks are signed up when
we come to that part of this public
hearing. I did want to mention at the
beginning of the meeting, I was uh
remissed in not mentioning that our
state representative Hannah Bowen is
also here with us this evening. Thank
you very much, Representative Bowen.
It's nice to see you. Um and Mr. Mayor,
we'll turn things over to you. Thank
you. Thanks, Madam President. Thank you,
members of the council. Tonight's public
hearing is on my administration's
request for project budget approval for
the Beverly City Hall renovation and
addition project. This is a project on
which we have presented to the city
council several times over the past
nearly four years. This is a project for
which the city council appropriated $1.5
million in March of 2022
so that we could hire a an owner's
project management firm and
architectural design firm and work
through a feasibility study, needs
assessment, and schematic design phases
of this project.
We have successfully stretched this
initial appropriation greatly and
achieved significantly more work hiring
on the construction management firm and
working through both the earlier project
phase phases as well as through the
design development phase. This project
will represent city hall's first major
renovations since 1935
almost 100 years. The existing city hall
building will undergo si significant
renovations. The former police station
annex will be demolished and a new
two-story building constructed on the
existing foundation. A second Americans
with Disabilities Act compliant building
entrance will be added from the parking
lot. A second elevator will be installed
and the whole building will be made ADA
compliant. Three city departments will
be brought back to city hall. Two of
these public health and inspectional
services will be brought back for the
first time in many years. Bringing these
departments back to city hall will help
in many ways, including giving back
greatly needed space at the senior
center to our council on aging for the
benefit of Beverly's fast growing senior
population.
This city hall project will bring vast
improvements to the working conditions
for our city staff. Today in city hall,
we have two meeting rooms. When the
project is complete, we will have seven.
Today, we have seven toilets in four
bathrooms. When the project is complete,
we will have 14 bathrooms. All handicap
accessible, all single use, meaning one
toilet, one sink, and a lockable door.
Today, we have no mother's room
available at city hall. When this
project is complete, we will have a
dedicated mother's room. Today, we have
no small individual private rooms for
staff needs. When this project is
complete, we will have four small phone
or Zoom meeting rooms available to our
staff when their office suite workspaces
cannot provide the quiet and
confidentiality a phone conversation or
remote meeting requires. This project
will replace very substandard HVAC
systems throughout the existing city
hall building with highquality air
source electric heating and cooling
systems in both the existing city hall
and the new annex.
This project will create climate
controlled storage space in the basement
of the former police station annex. We
have spoken many times about the
importance of dedicating a percentage of
our annual operating budget to debt
service. A healthy, well-managed
community needs to maintain, improve,
and replace its assets on a schedule. It
needs to issue debt, make regular
payments to service and eventually
retire that debt, and then issue new
debt for the next capital project. The
city of Beverly owns eight schools, 16
municipal buildings, two water tanks, a
whole inventory of storm water, drinking
water, and sewage pump stations and
pipes, over 150 miles of roads, many
signalized intersections, and over two
dozen parks and beaches. We maintain and
update a draft capital plan annually. We
plan carefully and we need to make the
investments our city's assets require.
Tonight's city hall project budget
proposal asks the city council to
approve a project budget that will
require 5% of our city's operating
budget be spent to service debt
prospectively.
And while best practices would likely
have us spend a higher percentage on
debt service, and in the past we have
spent a higher percentage, as many of
you well know, we are very mindful
tonight of budget challenges that both
the city and our taxpayers are facing.
To those who are concerned with our
reported operating budget challenges,
let me share with you an excerpt from my
inaugural address this past January 5th.
These are challenging times. We the
elected officials in this great city
have been chosen to lead during these
challenging times. Our job is
straightforward and that is to deliver
highquality city services and
outstanding publication, public
education for our residents to maintain,
protect and improve our infrastructure,
our buildings, vehicles, water, storm
water, sewer, roads and sidewalks. And
while our job is straightforward, it is
not easy. Yet, this is the job and we
will succeed at it. The city's recent
annual financial forecasting process
highlighted some financial challenges as
we move forward. When we look ahead to
next fiscal year's city operating
budget, which will start six months from
now on July 1st, our projected revenues
fall well short of our projected
expenditures. I will note that this is
what happens every year, every year that
I've been around when the financial
forecasting process is undertaken and
it's undertaken early so that we all
have the the time and the wherewithal to
really dig into our budget efforts and
make sure that we balance our budget
which is our obligation under under the
charter and the state constitution and
one that we meet every year.
So, it is our responsibility to build
and pass a balanced budget, and we will.
Every year together, we balance the many
needs and challenges our city faces, and
we pass a budget that delivers
outstanding, highquality services, that
invests in our infrastructure needs, and
that sets aside money for our future
needs. Together, again this year, we
will pass a balanced budget, and we will
move our community forward by delivering
outstanding highquality education and
city services.
Since nothing we do is likely to cost
less next year, this will require us to
find and implement additional
efficiencies and how we deliver
services, something that we work at
every day. This will also require more
money. Money we will secure through
grants, through more state aid, through
economic investment and growth, and
through local taxes. We will continue to
deliver on our responsibilities to our
residents and taxpayers through strong
and thoughtful management. And we will
continue to be measured in the burden we
ask all of us as homeowners and business
owners to carry to ensure delivery of
these critical local services and
protection of our city's assets. In the
next half hour, you will hear from the
incredibly strong project team for this
city hall project. Collier's project
leaders, fineold Alexander Architects,
and WTri Company construction manager at
risk. [snorts] This talented team has
worked incredibly hard together with our
own internal city team to keep costs
down and to ensure a project that we can
afford. This is what is being presented
this evening. Eight years ago, the city
council approved a new police station
project budget for about $29 million.
Now, eight years after our new police
station, we are asking for the same
amount of money for this project. The
police station in city hall would be
comparablesiz buildings. The police
station was all new construction built
at precoid costs. And while it required
no budget for temporary office space, it
invested more money up front for
geothermal infrastructure.
City Hall proposes a combination of
renovation and new construction. It will
be built at postcoid 2026 and 27 costs
and it does require temporary office
space. And while there are differences,
I think this is a relevant data point to
consider. We can preserve and vastly
improve Beverly City Hall as our home of
local government for both our community
and our city staff for the next century
for the same price that we built our new
police station eight years and a
pandemic ago. We know this proposed city
hall renovation addition is greatly
needed and we know it is both responsive
and responsible
and responsive to our community's needs.
Thank you for listening. Now I'll turn
over to Joe Riley with our owners
project manager collers.
Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Thank you for the introduction as well
as the opportunity to be here with all
of you here this evening. My name is Joe
Riley. I am with Kier's project leaders.
We are an owners project management
firm. I'm a senior director for the
organization. I have here with me today
my colleague Maria Anna Hateliatus, our
project manager sitting in the front
row. We are also going to introduce you
to uh Fineold Alexander Architects as
well as uh our construction manager at
risk WT Rich. This team as the mayor had
indicated is a great team. We have been
working diligently for the last several
years with the introduction of the
construction manager over the last six
to eight months.
We have a relationship with all of our
team members have worked on other
projects together. We are currently
supporting the city, the mayor and the
mayor's team on the McFersonen Youth
Center project. So with that, I'm going
to ask the architect to move forward
with the design presentation.
» Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
And thank you, members of the city
council. My name is David Lightiteman.
I'm an
architect with Fineold Alexander. Um
we've had the privilege of uh presenting
to you numerous times um in the past
several years. And so I'm happy to um
give you an update of where the project
currently stands. Um and but first I
want to talk about really why this
project is happening. Um the mayor made
a couple of points about this, but but
I'll I'll I'll um reiterate some some of
these. First of all, the building hasn't
u been renovated in over 90 years. Um
with that, there are failing systems and
infrastructure. Um first, there is um
inefficient heating and there is no
cooling through the building. Um there
is some structural beams that are
rotting from previous insect infestation
throughout the building. We see life
safety and code comp um compliance
issues such as no proper fire
suppression system and the building is
not fully accessible for those who need
it. Um, furthermore, there's numerous
inefficiencies of of use of the space um
that doesn't meet the needs of of a 21st
century city hall. And one um benefit of
being being that we have the abandoned
police station next door is that we can
utilize that space to um accommodate the
needs of city hall.
And when we think about the annex, one
major um issue currently is that where
the two buildings meet, the floor levels
do not align. Um and with that, we think
that by reconstructing the building, we
can ensure that there's equal levels at
each floor. Uh furthermore, we want to
retain the existing foundation and that
does three things for us. One is it
minimizes parking loss, which we know is
really important to the city. Second is
it limits disturbances to the historic
cemetery just north of of the property.
And third, it saves on value of the work
of the new foundation.
[clears throat] Now, I'm going to um go
over some of the project benefits. Some
of these again um the mayor has
highlighted. Um there are numerous
departments that are not within city
hall. Three of which are the retirement
inspectional services and the health uh
health department. Um, by expanding city
hall and renovating, we can accommodate
them within this roof. Um, and that
would bring about a 25% more staff
seats. Furthermore, the building is not
fully accessible. The historic entrance
along Cabbat Street is, but the rear
entrance is not. So, in this um
proposal, the rear entrance would be
fully accessible. Currently, none of the
um service counters where the public can
engage with departments are fully
accessible. In this case, every
department that has a service counter
would be. Furthermore, uh there's only
seven um toilets throughout the the
building of which there are none no
public restrooms on the third floor. Um
our proposal provides 14. So there's
restrooms on every single floor of which
50% of those would be fully accessible.
Furthermore, there's only two meeting
spaces. We're in one of them. Um and
this proposal, there'll be seven. Again,
there'll be one on every floor. There's
numerous other u benefits but one thing
I do want to highlight is that the
mechanical systems as stated the
mechanical systems currently are are
ineffective inefficient um and there'll
be new systems for heating and cooling
throughout the project um and all of
those systems would be electric and
working with our engineers uh we
anticipate a energy use intensity
reduction of about 40% per square foot
of energy use.
Uh taking a step back looking at the um
proposed site plan. Um one element is
that we are preserving the park space on
the corner of Thorn Dyke and Cabat. Um
and then as I mentioned, we're doing our
best to minimize um parking um
reductions. Um we will be reducing by
three spaces to 30 parking spaces. Um,
and I do want to highlight that in the
reconstructed annex, we are um directly
matching the existing footprint except
for a small sliver, if I may,
along the south side facing the parking
lot. And that um is spec specifically
intentional in terms of that that we'll
be able to create a strong connection
between the historic city hall and the
annex. And without that um the building
wouldn't be able to operate as a unified
um cohesive space.
Here on um as I go through the floor
plans I want to identify that um the
walls shown in gray are existing to
remain while those shown in black are
new so you have a sense of where the
interventions are. Um one things a
couple things I want to highlight is the
new elevator and stair in the annex that
will traverse all four levels including
the basement. Um furthermore on this
floor we'll have three meeting spaces um
of which currently there are none on
that level. Um additionally all the
restrooms are individual lockable
genderneutral restrooms on levels one
and two. They'll be there'll be four
respectively.
And then um finally I want to call out
the staff um call rooms. Again, these
are individual rooms for staff to have
private phone calls or virtual meetings
when um the noise levels of their open
office environment doesn't um allow them
to do so.
Moving up to the second floor, many
elements of this floor are very similar
to below. Um one thing I want to
highlight is the staff break room.
Currently, the staff have to go down to
the basement to utilize the amenities of the break room. um by incorporating
the staff break room on a floor where
the staff are mostly present um will
enable them to utilize these spaces more
efficiently. And just off this break
room, we will have the mother's room.
And moving up to level three, I want to
note that the annex here um is really
just where the stair and elevator tower
come up to meet this level. Um the space
that we're in, the council chambers will
very much remain in its footprint with
um minor um finish improvements. Um also
the same would apply to the mayor suite.
On this level, we'll be providing six
individual gender neutral neutral
restrooms to accommodate the assembly
needs of this space.
Jumping down to the basement, I want to
highlight the department storage space.
This is a purpose-built department
departmental storage for all the
departments to house their documents,
artifacts, important documents that need
to be retained by state law etc. Um and
this space will be properly conditioned
as their current um storage space is not
that means temperature and humidity
control to ensure that the documents are
properly preserved. Um, in the middle of
the space there will be a um archival
vault and that is specifically for
sensitive public record storage as well
as um some archival documents that the
city has.
Uh, taking another step back, the next
few slides will be various images of the
exterior of the building. Um, I want to
highlight that in the annex there will
be a three-story portion of where the
elevator and stairs are to connect to
the historic city hall. um the height of
that um three-story portion will align
with the historic city hall. So it will
not be any taller than the existing
building and then the remainder of the
annex will be uh two floors. Um in this
view I also want to um call attention to
the ramp um adjacent to the parking lot.
Again we will enable that the rear
entrance is fully accessible for those
who need it. And here's a view from the
north from the cemetery side. Again,
that footprint that footprint of the
annex will not change to be respectful
to the conditions of of the cemetery.
Uh, and here's a view from the parking
lot from Thorndikeke Street. Um, this is
really an um a view of the materiality
of the building. We'll be cladding the
south facade in brick to harmonize it
with the existing city hall. Um, this
building will function and um operate as
one building and so utilizing a similar
material will enable that.
However, on the south facade, uh I'm
sorry, on the north facade facing the
cemetery, um this will be clad in a
fiber cement sighting, um this does two
things. One is it connects its
architectural materials with the
neighboring uh residential community
beyond. And then second, it's really for
cost savings. Um by utilizing uh if we
had gone with by utilizing fiberment
sighting, we saved the project over
$280,000.
And then I want to leave you here with
some views of the elevations showing the
massing scale and proportions and how
we're trying to harmonize the window
pattern with the existing building.
And here on the um the rear of the
building where we fiberment sighting.
Thank you. I'm now going to pass it over
to uh the um the construction managers
at the WTri team.
>> Thank you. And this is a good
opportunity as you're passing the baton.
We just need to pause to open the 810
hearing and then we'll recess that so we
can continue here. Uh so we do have an
810 public hearing posted on order. Uh
this is order 10A. It's connected to
this public hearing. Um Miss Kent, if
you read the order.
>> Order 10A. City of Beverly ordered that
the city council of the city of Beverly
hold a public hearing on Tuesday,
January 20th at 2026 at 8:10 p.m. 191
Cabin Street, third floor council
chambers relative to the city transfer
the sum of $2 million from the city's
depth stabilization fund to pay cost of
renovating the city hall and former
police station annex, including the cost
of temporary relocation of city hall
during construction and all other costs
incidental and related there too. And
this is in the newspaper on January 9th.
Thank you very much, Miss Kent. Of
course, order 10A is a another piece of
the proposed funding mechanism for this
project that we're hearing about. Uh,
counselors, I would entertain a motion
to recess the public hearing on order
number 10A to 8:30.
>> All those in favor? That carries 90. So,
we'll pick that one back up at 8:30.
Thank you very much. And we will resume
the hearing that we were in the midst of
on order number 10. This is the loan
authorization. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
Good evening everyone. Uh, thank you for
the opportunity to be here. Thank you,
Mr. Mayor. And, uh, thank you the
council. Uh, my name is John Rich. I'm
the CEO of WT Rich Company. We're a
construction manager. We've been in
business since 1968.
Uh, as you can Oh, I should click and go
to the next slide. Um,
I just wanted to tell you a little bit
about WTri Company. Um, we're one of the
leading construction managers in
Massachusetts. We're 100% dedicated to
public building construction in
Massachusetts. Um, we have extensive
experience with public safety buildings,
town halls, municipal buildings. Uh,
very deep experience uh with historic
restorations and historic renovations
similar to this project. Uh, and we
really have great working relationships
with uh with the project team here um
with Fine Gold Alexander. We've done
several projects and we're working with
Collers on this and another project as
well. Um, want to say just quickly about
the team. We we uh most of our work is
in eastern Massachusetts, east of
Worcester. We have a very strong
Northshore presence. Uh, we have a very
strong team here including uh Dvita
Flynn who's the project executive that
you're going to hear from in a moment.
Uh we also have as our lead project
manager uh John McGonagal who's with us
here tonight. Uh he's a Danvers
resident. We won't hold that against him
because his wife uh works in the uh
Beverly Middle School as a counselor. Uh
and we also our lead super who's not
here
uh lives a short walking distance from
city hall here. So we really have a good
strong uh nearby presence. I did want to
also mention that um WT Rich was
fortunate enough to be the construction
manager on the Beverly police station
project which the mayor spoke about. uh
we really had a great developed a great
working relationship with all aspects of
the city, not only the city but also the police personnel as well. Um broke
ground in in in February 2020 right at
the beginning of COVID. Uh we navigated
that project. We didn't have any bo
budget overruns. We finished on
schedule. Uh it was really a project
that was uh deemed very successful. Very
proud of that. And you know, we have the
confidence in working with this team
that we're going to deliver a great
project for you. And I'm going to let
Devita talk about project logistics,
site logistics, and she was the um
senior project manager, project
executive on the Beverly Police Station
project.
>> Thank you, J.
Keep that. I won't take too long with
this because it's not really very fun,
but I wanted to kind of walk everyone
through it. So, as we really thought
through the site logistics for this
project, we wanted to prioritize safety
and consistency. Uh so the site
configuration that you see here today we
will actually have from start to finish
for the project really allowing
residents, the local neighbors, the
visitors to have consistency in how they
operate around the site. Uh the sidewalk
on Cabbat Street will remain open
throughout construction. Again, to keep
that open and usable space to them. Uh
the public park will also remain open to
the public throughout the entire
duration of construction. Uh again,
making sure you guys have the spaces
that you're used to utilizing. Um, we
will be protecting the historical
cemetery. The what you see there right
now will be the larger protection area
in place during demolition of the annex
building and construction at least of
the exterior facade of the new building.
Uh, but then we'll probably reduce that
so that we don't impact too much the
growth of the lawn and plantings around
the the cemetery. Um, we will of course
keep access to the IT server rooms um
for the city so they can still access
their equipment and their their needs.
Um, and that is that is pretty much it.
is very straightforward. Parking will
be offsite. Uh, we do have specific
trucking routes to minimize traffic
through the neighborhoods. All things
that we're happy to present in more
detail if you guys have any questions,
but just really trying to minimize the
impact to the neighborhood and the
surrounding community.
>> Thank you.
>> Mayor asked me to point out one thing, a
point of confusion. Construction
managers, we think in terms of
construction cost. So that's why that
says 21 million for the police station.
Uh total project cost uh was 29 million
on that includes architect OPM soft
cost. There's a lot of other costs
associated with it. Uh coincidentally
our construction budget for the city
hall project is also uh I believe right
at uh 21 million as well.
» Next up is back to Joe with Collier.
>> Thank you. Thank you, John.
» Thank you again, city council. Mr.
Mayor, uh with respect to uh project
timeline, as owners project managers,
we're one of the early consultants uh
that are engaged on city projects. We've
been on the city hall project team for
the last several years, working very
closely with the mayor, with the mayor's
team and staff. We have also been
working very closely with our design
professionals fineold Alexander through
uh 2024
wrapping up approximately in September
of 2024. We concluded with the concept
design package. That concept design
package allowed us to establish uh a
target budget. We have been working
diligently since that point in time
working towards a an acceptable project
budget to the city uh of Beverly. To the
left of the red line represents all the
other design milestones as well as the
milestone of engaging the construction
manager WT Rich on the project in
September of 2025.
We have completed design development. We
have completed uh value management. We
have completed a number of of cost
savings measure measures and
introduction into the project budget
since that point in time. To the right
of the project line, you'll see that we
are moving forward in time with what's
called construction documents. From this
point going forward,
hopefully with the approval of of city
council this evening, we'll be looking
towards wrapping up construction
documents in July of 2026. At that point
in time, the construction manager will
be accepting the construction documents
and putting them out to bid. That will
result in the development of a GMP,
guaranteed maximum price.
The anticipated construction schedule is
September of 2026, leading us through
construction into February of 2028 with
an occupancy in March of 2028.
Substantial completion will follow as
well as the project close out for the
overall project.
Establishing the construction budget as
the mayor has indicated uh John Rich has
indicated the design team has indicated
we've all been working closely
towards establishing an acceptable total
project budget. The costconscious
mentality for the project team started
with day one that is watching out for
the taxpayers's uh interests as well as
driving towards an acceptable design and
an acceptable total project budget for
the city hall renovation project. As we
indicate uh as I indicated we've worked
through several of the design phases
where we are currently looking towards
um completing construction documents.
That costconscious mentality doesn't
stop now because of an approval. It
leads all the way through design and
construction. We will always be looking
at how to improve one the design, the
facility as well as meeting the program
and driving costs down as well as
maintaining project schedule.
The CM at risk WT Rich uh has been party
to uh the project team since last
September. They've developed a very
detailed design development estimate.
They have worked with the project team
in developing a series of value
management ideas, suggestions. We've
brainstormed with the city hall staff,
with the mayor, with the design
professionals. We've had over 50 cost
savings uh ideas that have been
developed and evaluated and introduced
into the project budget. Over a million
dollars in cost savings. again that
costconscious
uh driving total project budget driving
cost driving schedule will always be
with the project team as uh Mr. Rich uh
indicated the construction cost for uh
the police station the total project
budget right now the cost per square
foot is at a very very aggressive $553
per square foot complimentary of a
renovation project as well as a new
building program.
The essential uh indications that uh the
design team has indicated with regard to
preserving a program for city hall is u
presented in the documents that we've
had uh in front of us this evening and
um we uh if uh all goes well be looking
for city hall approval, city council
approval this evening. Thank you.
Now, with respect to the overall total
project budget,
um the total project budget of $28.4
million, that $28.4 million includes a
number of different aspects that
includes soft costs. Those are all the
design professional services, the OPM
services along with a series of uh other
uh costs such as furniture, fixtures,
and equipment technology. Uh there are
hard costs that are incorporated into
the total project budget. That's the WTR
rich team, the construction
professionals to put the bricks and
sticks and the mortar in place, if you
will, with an overall total project
budget of $29.4 million. The budget
allocation is uh with us uh on the
screen. That budget allocation is
roughly 72% is towards construction.
There's roughly 16% uh is towards what
we call soft costs and then 12% is
towards owners project and construction
contingencies.
Thank you, Brian.
Uh thank you, Joe. Um
for those of you that don't know me at
home, I'm Brian Als. I'm the finance
director here with the city. Um, so it
begs the question, uh, what is before
you in terms of authorization that we're
seeking tonight and how are we going to
pay for it? Um, so as Joe mentioned, the
overall project cost as illustrated on
this slide. Um, in terms of
construction, which is we call them hard
costs and then soft costs associated
with that, you've got your 28.395
million. We are also carrying a budget
allocation of $1 million for temporary
space um, costs. So, when we vacate this
building to do the rehabilitation,
um, which the timeline shows about an
18-month period, uh, we know we're going
to have to go somewhere. We're going to
have to continue to operate as an
organization, do all the things we do
here. We're just going to have to do it
at a different place. So, we've set
aside a million dollars in this request
to cover the costs associated with that,
primarily the lease costs. Um, this
number was uh, developed using a rough
estimate of two-year um, time frame.
However, the construction, as pointed
out earlier, uh is closer to an 18-month
period right now. Um, of that total
amount needed, uh, 1.5 million has
previously been appropriated in March of
2022, as the mayor noted earlier. Uh,
and so the resulting appropriation that
we're seeking this evening is
27,895,000.
And that's broken down into two separate
authorizations that are before you this
evening. Order number 10 and order
number 10 A. Is it, Mrs. Kent? Yeah, 10
and 10 A. Um, so order number 10A is a
transfer of $2 million from the debt
stabilization fund. Uh, as you may
recall for those of you that have been
here, uh, or for those of you at home
that watched, uh, earlier, uh, last
year, um, we transferred some money into
the debt stabilization fund. And we do
that in anticipation of these types of
large, uh, large capital, um, needs so
that we can avoid, um, any spikes in in
borrowing, um, schedules and things of
that nature. So, we would look to
transfer $2 million from that debt
stabilization fund uh into the project
and that results in the remaining bond
authorization of 25,895
uh,000 which is the other order before
you this evening. I do want to note at
the bottom of this um that even though
the loan authorization is for 25,895
um if approved um we would then seek to
transfer an existing $525,000
which is sitting in the FY26 budget
right now and we would transfer that
into the project and buy down the bond
authorization. So the net maximum bond
amount if approved would be 25,370,000.
So, that's the amount that is the
ceiling of what we could potentially
borrow for if approved, and that's what
we're building our debt schedules
around. Um, the other thing I want to
point out in terms of the potential
lease costs um that I mentioned earlier
is that we currently have an RFP that is
uh open uh and soliciting responses uh
from landlords throughout the city. Uh,
and we just recently uh extended that uh
through I believe it's the next uh it's
due in two and a half weeks. uh and
that'll close at three weeks. Um anyway,
uh so that's it for this slide. The
next slide I want to show you is uh more
of an illustration. So in order to
understand how we afford this, you've
got to get an understanding of how we
manage our debt service here in the
city. And what we typically do for these
larger projects is we borrow for them
just like you would when you buy a house
and you get a mortgage. We pay back the
costs of these projects over time.
Unlike a mortgage, we structure the debt
differently. We structure it in a way
where we we pay equal principal payments
throughout the life of the borrowing.
And what that does is it creates higher
payments at the beginning of the
borrowing and lower payments towards the
end of the borrowing. This does a few
things. First, it minimizes the interest
you pay because you're paying equal
principal payments. So, you're paying
more of the principal upfront. The
second thing it does in terms of a
management ability is as the costs of
the projects and the debt payments
decline over time, you're able to layer
in additional debt and new projects
without spiking in terms of the the debt
costs. So, we're able to maintain a
consistent budget within our operating
budget to service debt while still
continuing to take on new projects and
retire old projects like the mayor
mentioned earlier. So this process
allows us to um be predictable in how
we're planning. So we don't take these
projects lightly. We plan for them well
in advance. We've been if you look back
on historical capital expenditure plans,
you'll see this project there with a
with an earmark in our debt um schedules
um back well four years ago was when we
got the first initial appropriation, but
it was on there even before that because
we were beginning to plan. that's how
long it takes to to plan these projects
and make sure you're timing the debt
authorizations at the appropriate time
to not create unnecessary pressure in
the budget. So, it provides
predictability. Um, the other thing it
does that's very important is because
you maintain a certain level of debt
capacity and the mayor mentioned this
early earlier. It allows you the
capacity in the future to deal with
large capital projects if you time them
up properly while the debt is expiring
without having a major impact in your
operating budget. So you layer it in as time goes by. Uh and it obviously I
mentioned it avoids spikes in the annual
budget. So that's kind of the
illustration of kind of how we manage
the debt here. And that method of
managing our debt service has allowed us
to do a number of things over the years.
Um, and so we've been able to uh the
mayor mentioned all our buildings in in
the uh in the city. Uh we've provided
renovations and additions to all of our
elementary schools, capped landfills.
We've done a number of drainage pro uh
projects over the years to avoid
flooding in neighborhoods uh and
maintain proper runoff. Um we've done
work, extensive work at the Beverly
Farms Library. We built the high school.
Uh we've acquired numerous parcels of
land to preserve open space for
recreation. We've purchased fire trucks.
We've purchased large uh pieces of
equipment, renovated the interior of the
carriage house. Um three uh public
parking lots in the downtown area had
full renovations. Repairs to this
building, the facade and the roof, as
well as the main library was completed
with this debt service um budget. We we
built a uh a middle school. We built a
new police station. Uh and we um
acquired the uh the downtown parking
behind the dollar dollar dollar store uh
lot with this uh with this budget line.
Uh in addition to that, as the mayor
said in his earlier presentation, we've
got ongoing work at the central fire
station that was funded through this uh
as well. So this method is allowing us
to continue to improve uh and and repair
and replenish our infrastructure and
protect our assets.
Uh I wanted to show uh everybody what
our debt service looks like historically
as a percentage of our operating budget.
We historically have hovered around 7%
of our operating budget. And you can see
going back 15 years to 2010, that's
right about where we are. So this is the
amount of money we're paying in our debt
payments every year compared to the
overall operating budget for the city.
And you can see uh in about 2019 there
was a bit of a spike that has to do with
the middle school and bringing on some
debt aggressively initially to smooth
out the payments in the later years. And
then a couple years later you see
another little jump and that has to do
with the same strategy that we employed
for the police station to smooth out the
future year debt payments. But since uh
2022, you can see that the the debt
payments in terms of a percentage of our
budget has begun to decline to a level
of in this uh in this budget year 2026,
we're at 5% of our operating budget goes
to debt and debt service. Um
we want to make sure we maintain that
level. um just as a matter of be best
practice because as I said earlier it's
important to maintain this so that you
can layer in future projects without
having to spike the budget and push the
budget way out of control and have to
cut cut other types of critical services
and things of that nature. So um how
does it look with the city hall project?
So many of you have seen this schedule
before. This is uh an excerpt uh revised
from our capital expenditure plan. The
top portion, the top half of this uh
slide shows our existing debt service
for all of our projects that we've
already done and we're just basically
paying the bonds uh on those projects.
And you can see that in 2026 that number
is about 6.9, but it begins to decline
every year. It drops and drops and drops. And that's our opportunity to
begin layering in these other projects
which are represented in the second half
of the of the sheet here down below.
About 1 2 3 four lines down on the lower
half you see the city hall um the city
hall project and you see it in two
tanches. You see a 15.37 million trunch
and a $10 million trunch. those are
treated differently because the timing
of those bonds will be different because
we we try to manage our cash flow uh at
different points in time so that we're
not sitting on money unnecessarily and
paying interest. So we layer that out
through the course of the project. But
you can see and the critical part to
this slide and this is my ending point
is down below in the very bottom that's
highlighted in yellow. The debt service
is a percent of our estimated general
fund budget right now this year is at
5.06. We can layer in this city hall
refurbishment assuming and these are
conservative assumptions a 25-year note.
We can push that out further if we need
to. And at 4.5% for the first offering,
four and a quarter% for the second
offering. Those are a bit higher than
the current market right now. So these
are probably a worst case scenario I
would say in terms of our estimates
here. but you still maintain um debt
service at a percentage of 5% of the
annual operating budget without spiking
it and eating into other areas of the
budget. And that's how we manage debt
responsibly. Uh and I I believe you all
got a chance to read uh Mr. Perry's
memo. I won't steal his thunder, but um
you know, it is considered responsible
practice to do it this way. Um so I'll end there and uh I'll be here for
any questions if you if you have any.
>> Thank you, Mr. Als. I'm just going to
pause again. I just need to reopen the
order the public hearing on order 10A.
Of course, as I mentioned and you heard
Mr. Als allude to these are these are
related to each other. Um councilors, I
would entertain a motion to recess this
one to 9:00.
>> All those in favor?
>> We'll pick up 10A at 9:00 and that will
give us time then to come back around on
our public hearing on order number 10.
Um did you have further presentation or
were you just
>> so just wanted to say again thank you on
behalf of the project team colleagues
project leaders fine gold Alexander WT
Rich and the support of the the mayor
and the mayor's team at this point in
time if there's any questions with uh
here to uh answer whatever we can at
this point. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Thank you to
everybody who uh presented. Thank you to
the team for being here. I think um
before we move into questions u Mr.
Perry I'll invite you to come to the
podium as well um if there's anything
that you'd like to offer as we'll have
sort of everything on the table as we
begin to consider.
>> Thank you Madam President. Good evening
everybody. Uh for those who don't know
me on TV, I'm Jerry Perry. I'm the
budget analyst for the Beverly City
Council. I wrote to [clears throat] you
last week uh my memo um regarding this
project and a lot of the comments I'm
just going to reiterate that you heard
from Mr. Als and a few others but I just
want to go over briefly then give you my
recommendation. Uh as as indicated
earlier uh it's important for
municipalities. It's it's not even best
practice. It's really just standard
practice to ensure that you have enough
uh of your budget set aside for capital
infrastructure needs as well as for
operating costs. uh if you start to
shrink the capital infrastructure side
of the budget, you're starting to
jeopardize the infrastructure of the
community. I go back to uh even prior to
me coming here, as you know, many of you
uh it took a long time, 30 plus years or
so, to figure out how to build a police
station financially and we were able to
fix that properly with good debt
management. I commend the finance
director, Mr. Als, uh who did a great
job way back then. As many of you know,
we did financial policies that helped uh
us incorporate this stuff. To do these
types of projects takes a long time.
I've spent four years working on this
personally with the administration. And
it's important as city councilors and as
policy makers that having a certain
amount of the the budget set aside for
capital cost is vital uh to the
well-being of the community. It's been
my professional opinion. I've been doing
this an awful long time. As you know,
I'm an advocate for 7%. You saw Mr.
Als's uh uh data up there. We're down
around 5%. I would argue we're not
spending enough on capital costs. But
then that's a policy decision between
the mayor and the city council. You've
chosen to go down to 5%. And if that's
the direction you want to go, that's
your policy decision. But I would
caution you going even below that,
you're going to jeopardize uh future
projects. as an example, and you all
have seen over the years the capital
expenditure report presented by the
administration, and I don't want to
speak for the mayor, but I know we've
had several conversations about future
projects, specifically the school roofs,
the HVAC systems at the schools, heating
systems, etc. If you look carefully at
your capital expenditure report, it's
actually on the debt schedule that uh
has been provided to you. We're looking
over like I think four phases for those
uh pieces of work to the tune of in the
vicinity of $40 million to fix the
schools. We've got to do that. But if
you start shrinking
your capital project uh your debt
position here, you are going to
jeopardize future projects and I
specifically bring attention the school
roofs, the HVCA systems and things of
that nature. So it is of concern to me
as your budget analyst. It's important
to me at least and as I advise you to
try to maintain a certain level of the
debt as Mr. Als indicated so you don't
spike things.
It's been in the works as I said for
four four plus years. We've been working
on this hardly as you know and has been
indicated already on March 7th 2022 the
then city council voted to transfer 1.5
million to begin the process to have all
these folks here to do the work here and
to bring things to our attention. I
wrote to you at that time. I said the
following. I recommend approval of this
1.5 million request with one caveat.
Should the city council approve this
transfer, it is with the understanding
that future appropriations or transfers
will be necessary over the next three to
four years to successfully finance the
overall project.
If is the wish of uh the city council
not to go forward with this, we will
have wasted $ 1.5 million of hardearned
taxpayer money. It's something I ask you
to please consider.
I think three of the counselors were not
here at that time. So, I guess they get
a pass on that. And certainly councilors
have a right to change their opinion
from what they voted for in 2022. But we
put a down payment on this thing and it
would be in my view as budget analyst.
I'd be hardressed to justify losing that
$ 1.5 million here if we don't go
forward with this project. Um, it's been
asked of me and I do want to talk
briefly about uh, let's wait a year. We
have budget problems going forward. It's
not a secret. We all know that. And what
would happen if we waited a year? Well,
a couple of things as I wrote to you
would be of concern to me. And I'm not
the the folks here in the front seats
could answer it better than I, but it's
my understanding that we're looking at
approximately an inflationary factor of
6% if we waited one more year. That
would mean another $1.7 million we'd
have to add to this project if we waited
one year and try to uh try to save, you
know, see if we can get through FY27.
That would jeopardize the finances of
this project yet. We'd have to come up
with another 1.7 million if that uh
figure is accurate. I don't know where
that money would come from. Um and I
just urge you to consider that in your
final deliberations.
Finally, uh Mr. is correct when he
showed a lot of the debt stuff. This is
an important thing that's not really
been mentioned yet here. The
administration working in concert with
the nine of you have put together a
financial package that does not require
a debt exclusion override. That's very
unusual for a project of this size in a
city like this. Most of the other
communities that I've worked with over
the years almost invariably have to go
for that debt exclusion. It
[clears throat] shows that the
administration working with the city
council has done a great job in my
opinion as your budget analyst planning
for the future and planning for the
present to make sure that the finances
all work here and it's really uh I think
uh commending to all of you people the
fact that we did not need a debt
exclusion to get this done. It's it's
suggested to do it inside the levy limit
and that's really important I think to suggest or at least to uh comment
about. So finally, given the conditions
of this building,
our debt capacity, the city's long-range
financial planning process, prior
financial commitments to this city hall
project made by this city coun or prior
city council, and other factors. It is
my recommendation to you as your budget
analyst to approve the loan
authorization for the city hall project.
And further, it's also my recommendation
when we get to it in the second one
there uh to transfer the $2 million of
the debt stabilization to do the
project. Madame President, uh members of
the council, I stand ready to answer
questions now or anytime you wish. Thank
you.
>> Thank you very much, Mr. Perry. Uh I
know that we do have uh many folks who
are here ready to answer questions. I'm
sure counselors do have questions. We do
have two members of the public who
signed up to [clears throat and snorts]
speak in this hearing. And I am mindful
that members of the public have been
listening, sitting and listening
attentively for quite a stretch now. So,
I'd like to actually go to members of
the public before I open it up for
counselors. Um, so we can make sure we
can hear from folks and then of course
members of the public are welcome to
stay, but I do recognize it's it's
getting later and if you need to go, you
also would be able to make your comment
before doing so. So, um, the first, uh,
member of the public who signed up to
speak in this public hearing is UPLO
Rick Marciano. Um, Mr. Marciano, if you
would go to the podium, uh, begin with
your name and address for the record,
although I just gave away your name. Um,
and again, Vice President St. Helier, if
you would not mind keeping time for us.
Um, similarly, u, Mr. Marciano, you have
up to three minutes if you hear the
timer go off, if you would just draw
your remarks to a close. We do that just
to make sure that all all public comment
is equitable and we get to hear from
everyone with the same amount of time.
>> Yes. Thank you Rick Marciano 141 Mccay
Street. Uh thank you. The finance
forecast committee did a great job. A
lot of detail. Uh the project group that
was just here the presentation that was
great. Um Mr. Perry smartest individual
you can you can probably have. Um but in
reference to this I I would not approve
it this year. Maybe not next year. Um,
we were just looking at laying off 82.5
employees for the city of Beverly and
they were talking about the finance
committee trash fee could go up to $320.
So things and there's other areas
they're trying to raise taxes. If
they're trying to do that, we're not
going in the right direction. Uh what
took place was they took the line item
roads and sidewalks off of the general
fund budget that went over to the free
cash which may be up to 10 $5 million
which can come up this it's going to be
probably approved maybe around July 1st
or after and pulled $2.7 million out of
that. So that brought us down to after
the overall amount is to lay off 50
employees. I don't want to see no
employees laid off. And Mr. Perry talked
about not pulling out of those funds,
which he's he's the expert. He's he's
saved a lot of cities in the state with
this job that he did. And the one thing
I'm suggesting is that we do not do this
project at all right now. We're going to
have to wait till till we can prove
we're not going to take any more taxes
from the citizens because they're coming
from everywhere. But I would just
suggest that the two mil the
$2 million you want to pull out of the
stabilization fund or the rainy day
fund, pull three
approximately 3,000 out of that to make
up for the $4,000 debt that you're
looking to make up right now because
something's going to happen with that.
If we're 4 million in debt to be talking
about this, it's very, very tough to me
and a lot of other citizens. And then if
that was three there, then we could pull
an additional
1 million out of the the free cash fund,
which is the extra money as we learned
about and you can you can look at I'm
not going to read the whole thing off,
but that's the that's again $10.5
million. So we'll go down to 7.5. we
pull the um or a little bit more than
that, but if we pull the 2.7 out of
there, then 1 million more to go to
cover the deficit, that should cover
everything for this year. And let's just
get this year over and done with and
then next year you're going to have to
figure out that hopefully we're not
behind again, but it's looked like we're
going to be behind. So that's one of the
main reasons not to approve this
project. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you very much, Mr. Marciano.
The other member of the public signed up
here to speak is Paul Herrick.
And Mr. Herrick, if you as well would
begin with your name and address for the
record. And if you do hear uh Vice
President St. Heler's timer, if you
would just draw your remarks to a close
at that time.
>> Hello, council. Um, thank you. I don't
come to a lot of these public meetings.
And as some of the councilors know, I
have pretty strong opinions. In general,
I came here actually thinking this was
not a great idea. The presentation was
excellent. understanding the financing
was excellent. Knowing the size of the
building kind of shocked me. It's about
50,000 feet roughly. Uh so I didn't
realize how big the building was when I
heard all the numbers of what it would
cost. So actually I completely changed
my mind on the thought. I think it's a
great idea. The city needs a good place
for meetings. Needs employees to have a
good place to be. Obviously needs
bathrooms because you guys have to
travel through the whole building to use
them. So obviously it needs to be done.
I would offer as an aside the family
dollar building across the street that's
going to be sold at some point. There's
going to be some kind of discussion.
I have two general thoughts on that.
Before you put an RFP out, get a zoning
board of appeal to raise the height
limit for someone to build there.
Secondly, get a waiver to demol demolish
the building. This will do two things.
It'll get you more money. You could put
in the RFP that they have to give a nod
to that design so it looks historically
significant and by allowing the building
to go up, you'll get more money for it
and you'll have more parking for the
city.
>> On that, I thought it was a great
presentation by everybody. Thank you,
>> Mr. Heric. Would you mind just stating
your u your address for the record?
>> Uh 18 Bayiew Beverly.
>> Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Heric. Uh those were the only two
members of the public signed up to speak
in this public hearing. Were there other
members of the public who hoped to speak
in this public hearing?
Okay. Uh counselors, I'd like to open it
up. Oh, I'm sorry.
>> Oh, yes. Sorry. Thank you, Miss Ken. Uh
counselors, I'd like to open it up now
for questions from the council.
Questions um could be for any of the
folks that we heard from. We of course
heard presentation from the the team. We
also heard from Mr. Als and from Mr.
Perry. Um councelor Houseman, I saw your
hand.
Thank you, [clears throat] Madam
President. Um, yeah, I have uh when the
time comes to for the vote and consider
and debate amongst the council, I have I
have something to say, but I will uh
limit myself at the moment to just two
questions uh related to the
architectural uh design matters. Uh, one
is we've seen concept drawings and um
there's been a nod to historic
architecture, the value of historic
architecture. Um, I believe this new
design or this renovated design will uh
use uh airsource heat pumps. And if I'm
correct, the concept uh drawings don't
really um uh depict where and how those
would provide uh their uh their
ventilation uh heating and cooling. And
I know at least speaking as a lay
person, you know, you see a lot of
houses that have things going up the
side of the building. I assume that this
design, this renovation design would uh
not would not include those kinds of
exterior uh features but would provide
uh you know their function uh in a
different design. So if you could uh
speak to that and then I have one other
question about it.
>> Thank you David.
>> Yeah, I could take that. Just one
second.
» [clears throat]
» So the um airsource heat pump that we'll
be utilizing is not a typical as to like
a residential unit. It's much larger to
accommodate a uh a commercial building
of this size. And there are two um you
see two boxes on the top of the roof of
the reconstructed annex. One of those is
the airsource heat pump and the other is
the dedicated outside air source. And so
um there'll be mechanical systems um
duct work that will go down from the
roof and permeate through the building
>> including the the the existing building
here not the police station for both
buildings.
>> Yes. Yes. They they will operate for for
the entire it it is going to be
functioning mechanically as one building
not not as two separate buildings.
>> Okay. I rather assume that but again I
wasn't going to assume. So thank you.
Yep.
>> Uh my second question has to do with a
comment that was made about uh the IT
department servers remaining in the
basement and um I I I know I'll have a
question uh later about uh the RFP and
relocation, but just specific to uh this
team um
and I'm not sure exactly who's the best
person to answer this question, but it
was my understanding that the IT
department itself would move off site
and um but if the IT server is going to
be down here to sort of uh harmonize how
those two things would happen together.
» I could take a stab at that one second.
Let me change.
So yes, the the IT um server room which
is in it's the the in the purple space.
It's the room farthest to the left. Um
that has to remain operational through
construction. Um our understanding is
about 50% of the fiber optics of the
city and the 911 call service kind of go
through that. Staff won't be um there um
permanently during the construction.
they will be be able to access the space
from time to time when they need to um
accommodate the the IT server space. Um
and we're working with WTri to ensure
that during construction there would be
um uh temporary power at times when
electricity would need to be shut off
from the building. So to ensure that
there's no disruptions to that service.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um those are my only
two questions about the sort of the
architectural construction
features and components. Thank you.
very much, Councelor Hostman.
Councelor St. Heler.
>> Thank you, Madam President. Um, so I
guess I I have some questions about fun
uh the budget, the FY27 budget. Uh, Mr.
Mayor, you seem to suggest tonight that
the challenges that we face are just
like we face every year that we'll get
through this. Um, that seems to be
different than the message that we heard
from the financial forecasting
committee, which is made up of our
finance director. It's made up of Mr.
Perry. Um he was on those conversations
of several of our colleagues and they
were talking about the need for up to 54
layoffs. They were talking about
increases to the trash fee. Um they were
talking about the need to go to the
voters for a property tax override. And
they suggested that this year was
different than than years past. That we've already uh tapped the excess
levy capacity that we had to zero out
the budget on on roads and sidewalks
that we don't have those same levers
that we've had in the past. So, I guess,
you know, before, you know, we all are
asked to vote on on this, this will be
$2 million of operating dollars from our
operating budget for FY27.
You know, could you speak to the
strategies that that we have for the
FY27 budget? Are we looking at layoffs?
Are we looking to take a property tax
override to the voters? You know, how do
you square that the messaging there?
So, like past years, [clears throat]
and this is what I was getting at, like
past years, the financial forecasting
process has shown that our revenues
would not meet our expenditures when you look at, you know, projected
need. Um, and like past years, we will
pass a balanced budget. We have to,
right? Um, you just ticked off several
things that were discussed in and found
a place in the report. I think probably
most to all of them of the process.
We would not do all of the above, right?
The the the several things you mentioned
are all possible ways to meet our
budgetary obligations. So, and when you
asked me this question when we when we
sat and talked a few weeks ago, I told
you that on January 20th, I almost
certainly would not have a budget
proposal for you, and I don't. Uh but I
you know everything that is being
everything that was suggested
is on the table. Things that probably
didn't come up during during um
financial forecasting may end up on the
table as well.
>> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mhm. Do
>> you mind if I
>> Sure. Of course. Of course.
>> One one point of reference um councelor
and and for those that are familiar with
the financial forecast work we did. Um
this proposal as we laid it out here for
the bond
uh costs, let me get to that. [sighs]
It's like the end here. Yeah. So you
will note that the FY27
total current plus proposed debt even
with all of this authorization is about
a quarter million less than what was
contained in the financial forecast. And
these assumptions of a 25-y year and a 4
and a half four and a half% offering are
somewhat conservative. So, it's likely
that we'll come in even under what's
presented here, which is a quarter
million under what was presented in the
financial forecast. So, case in point,
as we get closer to the budget timeline,
which the mayor was alluding to, some of
these assumptions that are contained in
the forecast will start materializing uh
more. So, I just wanted to point that
out.
>> Council Ser, did you have a followup?
Well, I you know, I would just say that
some of those strategies would have a
significant impact on a whole lot of
people in this city. So, I you know, for
me, I would want to know that at least
some of those things were off the table
uh before I was willing to commit $30
million of taxpayer money. Um so, I you
know, I don't know what the sense of
urgency, you know, we approved the 1.5
that Mr. Perry referenced four years
ago. So, you know, a lot's changed since
then and um you know, I don't know what
waiting uh through this budget season
might look like or even a little bit
longer.
So, that's all just that thought.
>> Thank you, councelor uh councelor
Feldman and then councelor Hosman.
>> Yes. Um thank you and I I was I served
as the chair of the financial
forecasting committee. So I I can say
that I I was a part of that report and
that process and it did you know to some
extent feel um looking at the future a
lot more challenging long term without
coming up with some of those solutions
that we talked about in the meeting to
try and make this work. But that being
said and we can't say this enough
operating costs are not the same as
capital costs. We can't use things from
the debt stabilization fund to bridge
the gap this year or free cash to bridge
the gap this year because it has a
compounding effect. The price of
everything goes up and so we have to
stay consistent with money in money out
on an annual basis every single year. So
it's really I understand the optics of
this is incredibly hard and it's taken
me many years to even understand the
concept fully myself. But
there is a big difference between us
saying there is a deficit on the
operating side of the city budget and us
also saying there are capital
expenditures that we need to make that
have been planned for that play a part
to an extent in that budget but really
are its own separate entity in itself.
And I 100% understand how this is a very
challenging unless you've been paying
attention to all of the discussions.
It's it's hard to like pick up on all of
this and it's a lot of spreadsheets. Um
and I think both things can be true that
it doesn't sound great to say there's a
deficit projected right now, which we
will fix. But um this project is also
really needed. Both things can be true
at the same time. Um and if we didn't
looking at this debt schedule in terms
of best practices and we did discuss
this at the financial forecasting
committee of keeping at least a 5% debt
service as part of a responsible best
practices operating budget. If we did
not borrow that 2 million in this first
year that would drop us to 3.8
1% of the borrowing and and that would
have a compounding effect just like
that. the percentage would not be able
to grow to what we're looking at to keep
our projects on schedule. Those schools
need roofs and this is part of that
plan. I know it's hard to believe, but
like that plan is up there to make sure
we can responsibly fund with those
capital projects that we know are coming
down the pike. So, to that end, I do
have a question. I promise. I swear
[laughter]
once you get me talking about the
financial forecast, I just can't stop.
Um, but one of the things I was hoping
that maybe we had some numbers on, and I
think I've asked about this before, but
I'm not sure if we've ever gotten like
some examples or tangible like numbers.
Um, I was wondering what are some of the
efficiencies that we think we'll be able
to create by bringing like the staff all
back together because I know we're all
over the city. And I'm wondering too if
anyone's looked at some of the current
operating costs that it's taking to
patch and mend and work with this
building because those costs are already
part of the operating budget in terms of
inefficiencies that exist due to our
spacing constraints. And and I know it's
more expensive to like heat a building
that is inefficient and it's more
expensive to keep an old building vacant
safe for the public. And so I'm
wondering if we have any numbers of the
cost savings long term that this will
create in the operating budget to kind
of help people understand how this plays
a part.
If you don't have one, I can we can
follow up on that later.
Um well, let's follow up. But but you
know, just to give you some kind of an
answer, um
if if you folks approve this project and
it gets built, we will have a
far more energyefficient building when
we're done. So that, you know, the cost
of our um the cost of our heating and
our cooling will be, you know, will be
less than they would be if the project
didn't happen, right?
So that's one. Um I I I do want to
you asked about efficiencies with
departments. So as I mentioned in my
remarks, one key thing is that the
health department really needs to be out
of the senior center, right? Baby
boomers keep getting older, which is
better than the alternative, right? So we're going to have our largest
senior generation
um that any of us have experienced. and so the the need for space for
program for you know for people to be
and to and to enjoy what the senior
center offers is already there. Um the
health department is occupying more
space than they used to even in in the
senior center. So there's a real need
for them to be here not there.
uh inspectional services is in the GI
building which the GR building was
available to the community for meetings
and and you know and use for
neighborhood needs etc. not been
possible since inspectional services is
there that would be we'd be able to
resume holding that building out there
as available. Um, having having these
departments that have permitting,
inspectional obligations all in one
space
makes it easier for members of the
community
who who, you know, currently now they
may do what they're doing online, but if
they do what they're doing in person,
and you know, some of it needs to be um
the ability to for the public to have
access to multiple departments in one
visit. it as opposed to driving to three
different places in that instance. U and
certainly we do a lot of cross
department work and while we do you know
while we do hybrid and remote meetings
we also do a lot of inerson work and and
oftentimes you need that to really get
decisions um made quickly and well so
just a number of you know I'm just you
know kind of trying to speak to the way
you asked the question. The one thing I
do want to also do is echo what you said
before. You know, we we we the city was
before we were in our seats, but the
city did renovation additions on five
elementary schools and built a new
elementary school between 1997 and 2003.
All of those
systems and and all of those roofs are
coming up on end of life. So yes, we
will need to be replacing roofs and HVAC
systems for six school buildings in the
coming years, which is planned for uh
and and you know, I I understand
and and and appreciate
the challenging thinking we're all
undergoing and will continue to, right?
Um, but if anybody has got a thought
that some of that debt service capacity
that's in our operating budget might
instead of going to this project go to
meet operating needs, those recurring
operating needs elsewhere, they're either going to continue on and
then this debt service capability
disappears or they're going to head over
there and have to be pulled right back.
And and so, you know, and and I think
we, you know, we've heard the
expression, and I think in in public
budgeting, it's long been deemed
it's it's incredibly hard to pull back
something that is supporting a recurring
cost on the service side of an operating
budget when when it's a capital need.
And so, you know, we've had the ability
in Beverly to do incredibly needed and really high quality and wonderful
projects. Um, and you know, Mr. Als went
through a kind of a laundry list of the
last 30 years of some of those projects.
And that's really a big part of the, you
know, the importance of not thinking of
this
5% of our overall operating budget as
being really flexible to move out of
this area. Thanks.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Councilman. Before you jump
in with your question, you are next, but
um it is nine o'clock just after. So, I
realize these two hearings really do go
together, but to be proper and not lose
track, um let's reopen that public
hearing on order 10A, which we had
recessed to 9:00. I'd entertain a motion
to recess this to 9:20.
>> Second. All those in favor?
>> Thank you. So, we'll pick that one back
up at 9:20, which means that we'll
circle back. Councelor Husseman, we were
at your question.
>> Thank you. Um, I guess my question is
probably for the mayor, might be for Mr.
Als, and then I have given that we
jumped into the budget side, which I
thought might wait a little bit on, I I
want to address that a little bit. Um,
my question has to do with um
communication between the administration
and the and the council. um uh
[clears throat] we don't want to go back
to previous experiences where that
communication really wasn't optimal. Um
and so it's important to me that the
mayor this evening made a commitment to meet with us uh at least some of us
if those those of us who are interested
uh every other month rather than
quarterly. Uh and for me that that means
not just this project uh in particular
um but also the budget as we as that
budget is developed by the
administration. Um
my question relates to the RFPs.
uh uh I believe you said that the
they've been kicked off that the RFP
reply deadline has been kicked off a
couple of weeks and I wonder what you
can share with us regarding um I don't
want to get in the RFP you know mixed up
going where we shouldn't go at this
point but what you can share with us in
terms of responses and at least whether
the budget that you've uh presented for
that um looks consistent with what kind
of replies you're getting if you've
gotten some.
» So, um,
so when when councelor Hman refers to
the RFP and and wanting to stay on the
right side of things, he's talking about
state procurement law, right? So, the
RFP is open. It didn't close. So, we
haven't haven't received anything. Or
should I say until it closes, we don't
open anything that might have been
received.
>> Okay.
>> Right. So I know that the purchasing
agent is fielding questions and under
the law if somebody asks him a question
he can answer for that potential
respondent and then he posts the answer
on the on the website so that it's
available to anybody. Um we know there
has been been interest both downtown and
away from the downtown and one of our
values is to try to stay downtown. We
also uh you know months ago we might
have been thinking we could find all the
space we needed in one respondent and I
think it's it's become clear in really
looking around to see what might be
available and um that we need to be
willing to go into multiple buildings to
meet our space needs. Um and so that you
know we we we may have somebody blow us
away with an offer on all the all the
space we need or we may find that it's a
you know it's two or three even
different respondents that we might be
able to um
sign leases with and go in and spend
time. Um
certainly our hope is we under the law
we could not um sign a lease with
anybody until we have project budget
approval but we put the RFP out in the
meantime to try to you know prepare in
case um and in hopes. So that's where we
are. Um I don't know the exact date. Um
Mr. Gelano extended it out recently and
I think you said about two and a half
weeks. Mr. Als
>> three weeks. Okay.
>> February.
>> Oh there you are.
February 6th is the new date and and and
so we hope we hope that we you know we
have those kind of answers and that kind
of information in the next few weeks.
>> Okay. Thank you. I mean that kind of
communication and updates uh at least
for this counselor are are important for
the council and having sort of an
oversight role of what's going on with these capital projects. Uh so with
that I just uh uh I want to follow up on
my the comments of my colleagues to my
right. Um uh like councelor Feldman um I
was also on the financial forecasting
committee and a past chair of the
financial forecasting committee. And for
those of you who are fascinated by uh
municipal finance um uh I would
encourage you I don't know why you
wouldn't be but uh I'd encourage you to
uh uh go under the city's website. The
financial forecast uh is this document.
you can find it online and you can learn
an awful lot about the background of the
kind of conversation we are having right
now. Um so um with that I I think you
know uh citizens who hear that we have a
structural deficit
and then hear that we want to spend $25
million on uh a city hall renovation
project uh might fairly say what is
going on uh like Mr. Marciano mentioned
uh earlier. Um you know I I think that's
a very fair question. How do you
reconcile those two things? So the
question before the council and on these
votes uh is whether the cost of regular
maintenance should be considered a
fundamental uh part of a sustainable
budget. Uh like not changing the oil in
your car. You can get away with not
doing regular maintenance for a while,
but in the long run it'll have bad
consequences. It'll catch up with you.
Uh if the cost of regular maintenance is
not included in your household budget,
eventually you'll be faced with large
bills uh like buying a new car if you
didn't change the oil. Uh that you might
find uh difficult to to manage. Uh the
same is essentially true for the city.
It's important to keep the cost of
regular maintenance of our
infrastructure uh in our budget
annually.
Um the question is has been posed by
some letters to the council uh and this
evening uh by some of our speakers about
why not take the money that we would
spend on capital expenditure project
like the city hall uh renovation and use
it to close well the suggestion is use
it to close the structural deficit in
other words help close the gap that we
are talking about. So why not why would
we not do that? Um
uh so in other words, the idea we would
spend that those saved funds, funds we
don't use for a capital expenditure, uh
debt payment, uh and instead use them
for ongoing operating expenses comprised
for the city's budget mostly of labor
costs for teachers, DPW workers, police,
firefighters, etc. Um, and as councelor
Feldman said, there's there's sort of an
apples and an oranges aspect to this uh
that is really specific to perhaps
municipal finance that the lay person or
someone who hasn't served on the council
for a while uh might not really truly um
understand. Um so um
first the amount of debt. So the
question the question is um what is the
cause of our structural uh deficit? Uh
is it the amount of debt that the city
pays for its capital projects? Uh do we
have too much debt? And the answer is
no, we don't. In fact, we've seen in
tonight's presentation uh and on the you
know the charts that were in the
PowerPoint uh that the percent of the
city's debt burden carried in our
operating budget in fact has gone down,
not gone up in recent years. And Mr.
Perry has suggested that that even is
problematic for us and perhaps it would
be healthier for the city to have a
larger amount. But be that as it may.
The second question we should ask is
what is the cause of our structural
deficit? Is it the debt that the city
pays? And the answer is essentially it's
inflation. It's the long tale uh in part
the long tale of a fiscal response to to
co 19. We all know, we have all the
experienced that costs have been rising
pretty much on everything since 2020,
since the since co and they've been
rising at a rate greater than 2 and a
half% which is the annual limit on the
amount of tax revenue that the city can
raise to pay its expenses. So
specifically, and this is taken uh these
next three items are taken from the
financial forecast which I encourage you
to take a look at. Um so uh what is the
cause of our structural deficit? Well,
the city's budget can increase by 2 and
a half% per year. Uh simplistically put
uh but the municipal budget um
anticipates this is what's coming up in this uh in this nest fiscal year. The
municipal budget uh anticipates a 4.3%
increase from the prior year.
Um some of these re some of these
reasons for this increase are
attributable to legally binding fixed
costs like pensions, collective
bargaining unit agreements, health care.
80% in our case for the city, 80% of
municipal employees uh health costs are
paid by the city. That's a generous
amount compared to the private sector.
Another item is Beverly Public School uh
district anticipates a 5.27 27 increase
from the prior year. The main reason for
this increase is attributable to um our
recently um approved collective
bargaining agreements. And the third is
our vocational school assessment
anticipates a [clears throat] 13.6
uh% increase from the prior fiscal year
due to enrollment increases, meaning we
are sending more uh students to the
voke, which is a terrific thing. But if
you compare the 2 and a.5% revenue
increase the city is limited to to the
4.3% on the municipal budget, the 5.27
on the school budget, uh the 13.66
increase for v vocational school
enrollment, you can see that there's a
problem and that is where our structural
deficit is coming from. And without
addressing those costs, the structural
deficit will remain.
um it will be a hard, challenging and
probably painful exercise for us to do
in this year's budget. But to avoid that
task, those those components um uh uh
but to avoid that task by objecting to a
capital expenditure cost for the city
renovation project is to miscast both
the problem and its solution. The
problem does not lie with a a debt pro,
you know, taking on debt like uh the
city hall renovation project is
proposed. Um and um objecting to the
using um uh using the capital
expenditure problem uh excuse me, I
misspoke. Uh objecting to that task um
by objecting to the capital cost of the
renovation project is to miscast both
the problem and its solution. The
solution is tackling those items that I
just mentioned. Uh and not only that, if
you remove the cost of the debt
expenditure capital cost of the capital
expenditure debt from our budget, it
will create an additional problem. Our
debt capacity is a measure of our
municipal financial health. And if we do
not include a sufficient level of debt
payments in our annual budgets, our
capacity to undertake ongoing
infrastructure projects like we're
listed that long list of things that
we've been able to accomplish over the
years um that ability including for
example school roofs coming up uh that
uh capacity will be will be deeply
compromised. So for for the reason I say
here, I encourage my colleagues to vote
in favor of both of these projects um
with the understanding that we'll have
good communication from the
administration on how they uh how they
proceed.
>> Thank you.
councelor. Um I think what
I'd like to do, I know councelor
Sinclair, you're waiting. Um, it seems
like if if we'll have time you as a
council when this comes back for the
final vote, if councilors have
reflections or or reasons that you're
voting the way you are that you want to
offer, I think we'll go to those. I
think if there's any further questions
for the team in the context of the
public hearing, let's do those now. Um,
because it seems like we may be ready to
move from the public hearing portion
forward. So, um, councelor St. Hillary,
you were waiting, so we'll go to you.
>> So, I just want to follow up on a couple
points. One is the capital versus
operating budget discussion. Um, in the
point from councelor Feldman, I
[clears throat] just wanted to be clear,
uh, Mr. Als, this is general fund money,
$2 million in our general fund operating
budget that we dedicate for for debt
service. That's a policy choice. Those
dollars could be used for something
else. Correct.
>> Is general fun.
>> Okay. So, we could use this for anything
then.
» Correct.
the debt service, correct? Comes out of
the operating budget.
>> Thank you. Uh to answer your question,
councelor, legally, if you decide not to
approve this project, you can use that
$2 million in whatever manner that the
mayor would present to you and then
obviously you would have to vote upon.
>> Of course,
>> you have restrictions
on the debt stabilization transfer
though. That's a little bit different.
But but if you were to decide not to do
this, yes, you are correct. You have
that legal authority to do uh what you
want subject to the mayor giving you uh
his budget.
>> Okay. So, you know, I I guess what I'm
struggling with is, you know, I all
agree with best practice. You know, I'd
love to be at 7%, too. Um but, you know,
last year we zeroed out road and
sidewalks in the budget. No money for
road and sidewalks. So, next year we're
going to have $2 million dedicated to
the new city hall and no money for road
and sidewalks. It seems like, you know,
we're not in the in the right place
there. And, you know, for me, again,
some of these some of these financial
challenges we're facing. I'm not sure,
mayor, if they're if they're as easily
uh, you know, handled as as you're
suggesting or if the financial
forecasting committee was on to to
bigger challenges, but I'm going to have
a hard time voting to approve this
without understanding that further. That
that's just where I'm at.
>> Thank you, councelor.
Are there any other questions from
counselors at this point on this public
hearing?
Okay. Thank you. Thank you counselors
for the questions and discussion. We'll
close the public hearing on order number
10 and refer that back to the committee
on finance and property. And that does
bring us just right on time to where we
had suggested we would pick up the
public hearing on order 10A. And as
we've said several times, of course,
these are these are tied together.
They're two different uh pieces of the
funding proposed funding for the city
hall project which we heard the team
present about. Um Mr. Als or Mr. May I
don't know if either of you had anything
you want to say just by way of opening
up 10A itself.
>> Mr. Als, you should come up. I I just if
I could, Madame President, I just want
to be fair to Council St. Heler and fair
to myself. Um I didn't mean to give you
the impression that I thought it would
be easy to pass our budget this coming
June and balance it. I was just trying
to say that's our job and so we will and
it's going to be much of the work of the
next several months. So I I didn't mean
to give you the impression that I'm not
mindful of the challenge that challenges
that are coming with it this goound.
Thanks.
Uh so just to clarify this portion uh or
this public hearing has to do with the
$2 million uh debt stabilization
transfer. Uh so right now we have not we
have two stabilization funds. So don't
confuse the two. We've got a general
stabilization fund which receives money
every uh year through the free cash
certification process and requests from
the mayor. We also have a debt
stabilization transfer. It has $2
million in it and it's designed to
service future debt in lie of borrowing.
And so that's why the request is to
transfer that money into this project
and reduce the amount we ultimately will
borrow.
>> Thank you. Mr. Als
>> Mr. Perry, anything that you'd like to
add as we're getting into um specific
conversation on
>> I'll try to be extremely brief. Uh as I
wrote into my uh memo, uh I do recommend
that you do this to refresh your memory.
We made these transfers several years
ago. I'm glad to see the state
representative with us here. We had some
debate with her on this issue. This is
part of the long range planning. We set
this money aside for this purpose.
That's what we did two or three years
ago, I think it was. Uh so there is $2
million. you can do it. [clears throat]
Uh under new uh new legislation in two
2023, the council uh on special uh
stabilization funds, you're only
required to do a majority vote, not a
two-thirds vote. Uh the loan order does
require two/3s, but this one is only a
majority vote uh on special uh
stabilization funds. And madam
president, I know we spoke about this um in terms of the timing of which ones
you bring up first. I'd recommend to the
council that uh when you come back after
your committee work or what have you, I
would suggest that we do the loan order
first. See if the council decides they
want to uh approve that. That's
certainly up to the nine of you. If you
decide to do it, then it makes sense to
as part of the package to look at the
debt stabilization as your second vote.
However, if the loan order does not meet
the twothirds vote, it would be to me a
moot. I would recommend not to transfer
the funds at that time because it'd be
kind of crazy to do that first and then
not get the loan order. So, uh bottom
line, madame uh president, members of
council, there's sufficient funds there.
I recommend that you transfer the funds.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Perry. Uh again, I am
aware that members of the public, you've
been with us, you've been listening for
a while. Uh no one had signed up to
speak in this public hearing
specifically. Were there any members of
the public who hoped to speak in the
public hearing on the debt stabilization
transfer request?
Okay, thank you. Thank you, Miss Kent.
Councilors, are there any questions uh
pertaining to 10A, which is, as we just
heard, the request for a transfer from
the debt stabilization fund?
Okay. Um, thank you. I will close this
public hearing as well. refer that back
to the committee on finance and property
for further action this evening. Thank
you again to uh the team that came here
and presented this evening. Thank you
members of the public uh both those who
spoke and also those who have been with
us listening and engaging and thank you
members of the council for the questions
and conversation. I know we do have um
our our regular business to get to um
but I also am aware that everyone's been
sitting for quite a while. So, I don't
just need a motion just for a two-minute
recess if people need to get up and move
for a second.
>> Second.
>> All those in favor?
>> Thank you. Take a quick recess and be
back if you need a stretch or a bathroom
break.
Heat. Heat.
So, we'll call the full council back to
order.
Thank you everyone
and thank you for uh counselors for
approving that little recess. It seemed
like perhaps we all needed a chance to
stretch our legs or um get some water.
So, Miss Kent, we'll jump into the rest
of our regular business on our agenda
and move through that. Let's begin with
acceptance of minutes of previous
meetings. We have three sets of meeting
minutes that we can approve this
evening. The first is from our regular
city council meeting December 1st, 2025.
Then a set of minutes from our regular
city council meeting December 15, 2025.
And the third our regular city council
meeting January 5th, 2026.
Is there a motion to approve these three
sets of minutes?
>> All those in favor?
>> Thank you. That carries 90 and those are
approved.
Let's go to communications from his
honor the mayor. Please, Miss Kent.
>> Order number 18, a donation of $3,000
from the Beverly Female Charitable
Society to support the Council on Aging.
>> Please refer that to the Committee on
Finance and Property.
>> Order number 19, a donation of $10,000
anonymous for anonymously for the
Council on Aging.
>> Please refer that to the Committee on
Finance and Property.
>> Order number 20, a 100 1,6und,00
63,964
911 EOPSS OGR support and incentive
grant.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
finance and property.
>> Order number 21 of 69,632
and28 911 EOPSS OGR 911 training grant.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
finance and property.
>> Order number 22, a mass D technical
assistant grant.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
finance and property as well. Board
number 23, a $2,500 Mass Executive
Office, Office of Labor and Workforce
Development, Workplace Safety and
Education Grant.
>> Please refer that to the Committee on
Finance and Property.
>> Order number 24, a Mass Tech
collaborative mass broadband institute
connected and online grant. Please refer
that to the Committee on Finance and
Property.
>> Order number 25, a $15,000 Mass Cultural
Council Cultural District Investment
Grant. Please refer that as well to the
committee on finance and property.
>> Order number 26, a donation of $100 from
David Mandanka to be used to purchase
Shaw's gift cards for veterans.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
finance and property.
>> Order number 27, a $550,000 grant, SEO
economic council grant for commercial
hoist pier reconstruction.
>> Just to change things up, we'll send
that to finance and property. [laughter]
Order number 28, a reappointment for
Corey Finanella, 30 Bow Street to serve
on the zoning board of appeals.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
legal affairs.
>> Order number 29, a reappointment for
Chad Pendell, 59 Lup Street to serve on
the Beverly Golf and Tennis Commission.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
public services.
>> Order number 30, a reappointment for Kev
Kevin as Lilo for Sherwood Lane to serve
on the Beverly Golf and Tennis
Commission.
>> Please refer that to the Committee on
Public Services. Order number 31, a
reappointment for Arthur Athenius, 77
Hail Street to serve on the Beverly Golf
and Tennis Commission.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
public services as well.
>> Order number 32, a $50 donation from
John Lindal in memory of Daniel Beecher,
the owner of Northshore Carpet to ser
support the Beverly Police Department.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
finance and property. Let's go to
communications from other city officers
and boards. Please, Miss Kent.
>> Order number 33 from the city clerk. A
renewal application for taxi delivery
license for Tri City Services 55 Rare
Walnut Street PVD.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
legal affairs.
>> Order number 34 from the city clerk. A
renewal application for a class 2 motor
vehicle license for AJ's mobile
detailing at 453 rearr.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
legal affairs as well.
>> Order number 35 from the city clerk. A
renewal application for class 2 motor
vehicle deal license for American
petroleum at 586 Cat Street.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
legal affairs. Order number 36 from the
city clerk. A renewal renewal
application for class 2 motor vehicle
deal license for bridto corp dva auto
dine at 810 rare rav. Please refer that
to the committee on legal
[clears throat] affairs.
>> Order number 37 from councelor retundo
and spang the 2025 Beverly Harbor
Management Authority annual report.
>> Councilors Rattendo and Spang, thank you
for filing this for us and updating us.
Anything that you wanted to say about
this report at this time? Uh counselors,
I would entertain a motion to receive
that report and place it on file.
>> All those in favor?
>> That carries 90. And so we'll place that
on file. And thank you again counselors
Ratundo and Spang for your order number
38 from the city clerk. A request for
police officers at the polling locations
for the 2026 elections. Councilors, I
would entertain a motion to approve this
on the floor.
>> Is there any further discussion or
questions? All those in favor
carries 90 and that one is approved.
Thank you.
>> Order number 39 from the city clerk. A
renewal application for a Hawkins and
Pedals license for George Samson 22
Fendle Street.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
legal affairs.
>> Order number 40 from councelor Spang,
public services committee priorities.
>> Councelor Spang, anything you want to
say about order number 40?
>> Thank you. Please refer that to the
committee on public services.
>> Order 41 from the city clerk. a new
application for a taxi delivery license
for Bass River Day Activity Program,
Inc. DBA, Bass River, Inc. 437 Essex
Street.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
legal affairs. Order number 42 from
President Flowers and Council St. Helier
and Mady, a proposal to create a COVID
memorial subcommittee.
>> Councelor Mady or Councelor St. Helier,
anything that you wanted to say about
this one at this point?
» Okay. Uh, thank you. Thank you both. So
we'll refer that to the committee on
legal affairs and thank you for your
work on that one.
>> Order number 43 from council Feldman and
Mady, a proposal to create a temporary
special committee to explore options for
addressing the looming 2027 forecasted
budget deficit.
>> Councelor Feldman. Councelor Mady, same
question for you. Anything you'd like to
say at this point about this one?
>> Um,
but excited we got
>> agenda. Uh, thank you councelor Felman.
I'm only sorry that your microphone was
on mute [laughter]
so that people couldn't hear you
celebrate the use of the word looming.
Yes. Uh so we'll refer that to the
committee on finance and property,
please. Board number 44, the director of
planning, Darlene Winn, approve a
conservation restriction to the Essex
County Green Belt Association on land
owned by the city of Beverly, 14 and 34
Simon Street.
>> Thank you. And counselors, I just want
to draw your attention to our uh
planning director submitted a slightly
changed version of order 44. Uh the
change really was just to replace the
signature lines to ensure that they were
written as the registry of deeds would
need them. Um and we'll refer that to
the committee on legal affairs. Order
number 45, the assistant city solicitor
Jesse Dole proposed amendments to
chapter 117-6 for dog kennel licensing.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
legal affairs. Order number 46 for
president Flowers temporary appointment
of clerk of committees. Councilors, I
would entertain a motion also to approve
this on the floor.
>> Second. Uh, is there any further
discussion or conversation?
>> I would just like to say uh a word of
congratulations to our current assistant
city clerk, Miss Dupont. Um, the reason
for this temporary appointment of Miss
Kent to be the acting clerk of
committees is because Miss Dupont is
moving on to become a town clerk
herself. And so, um, thank you, Miss
Dupont, for the work that you've done
here. And you'll be missed. And also,
um, we are very confident that you are
going to go on to continue doing great
work. So, thank you.
Uh so we have a motion and a second. All
those in favor of approving order 46.
>> Uh that carries 90.
Thank you very much. Let's go to
communications applications and
petitions please.
>> Order number 47 from National Grid
petition 3123447
to install underground facilities on Bow
Street, Wall Street, Cabinet Street, and
Abbott Street.
>> Please refer that to the committee on
public services to set a public hearing.
Order number 48 from National Grid, a
petition 31247668
to install underground facilities on Cab
Street.
>> Please refer that to the Committee on
Public Services to set that public
hearing as well.
>> Order number 49 from Gonet Speed, a
petition to install and maintain
underground facilities on Ashton Street.
>> Please refer that to the Committee on
Public Services to set a public hearing.
>> Order number 50 from Go Net Speed, a
petition to install maintain underground
facilities on Friend Street. Please
refer that to the committee on public
services for setting a public hearing as
well.
>> Order number 51 from go net speed, a
petition to install and maintain
underground facilities on East Street.
Please refer that to the committee on
public services to set a public hearing.
>> Order number 52, a notice of
availability of from 150 Sawyer Road.
>> I would entertain a motion to receive
this and place it on file.
>> All those in favor?
>> That carries 90. And so we'll place
[clears throat] that report on file.
Thank you.
Uh I would entertain a motion to take a
break for some subcommittee work at this
point.
>> All those in favor? That carries 90. So
uh we will have our subcommittees meet.
Most of the subcommittees do have quite
uh lengthy agendas and so subcommittee
chairs just a reminder if there are more
substantive matters before you that
can't easily be taken care of in this
briefer break. Um, you could schedule a
meeting of your subcommittee for
[snorts]
next week or for the fourth week. Second
and fourth weeks are subcommittee weeks
if you need them. Um, we will have
finance and property stay here in
council chambers, legal affairs in the
committee room, public services in the
hall. Thank you very much.
You can go whatever you want.
>> Okay. I'm just going to go in order on
here. Yeah. All right. Um I'd like to
call to order the Committee on Finance
and Property and
um and it is What time is it? 9:39. All
right. So, we've got a number of things
we can vote on tonight. So, I'm going to
kind of go through these
as
expediently as we can. Did you put me in
charge of this committee because I can
speak like the micro machines, ma'am?
>> Yeah. So, [laughter]
okay. So, we're going to start with um
order number 11. Um and this is an
appointment for Donna Metazaro, 47
Elmrest Road, North Andover to serve as
the city accountant. She will be
replacing um Carol Department, Carol.
So, um do we have any discussion on
this? Do we have any questions from
either of the committee members?
Oh yes. Thanks.
>> Thank you, Madam Chair. Very quickly,
I've had the privilege of meeting Ms.
Maz Materazzo. She comes from Saras. Uh
we've had several meetings actually
already. She's in the back here. Just if
you don't know who she is. Uh I can
share with you uh she is very well
verssed in municipal finance. I think
it's a great appointment and I would
recommend you uh appoint her as your
budget analyst.
>> Thank you, Mr. P. Has anyone else had
any questions?
All right.
>> I would make a motion to approve order
number 11.
>> All right. Second. Okay. All those in
favor?
>> I.
>> All right. Motion passes. Three to zero.
All right. Moving on. Order number 16.
And welcome. Welcome to Thank you. Um,
order number 16. This is a reappoint for
Brian Als to serve as the director of
municipal finance here. So again, do we
have any questions? Subcommittee members
have any questions?
>> Is Mr. else here this evening.
>> I don't know. I haven't heard from him
yet.
>> He's not around much. [laughter]
» Does he want to?
>> Madam Chair, I I've had a lot of
experience uh with Mr. Als kind of a
questionable appointment in my opinion.
[laughter]
Uh but no, it's my full fullthroated
endorsement as an excellent choice.
>> Great. All right.
>> So, I'd make a motion to approve order
16.
>> All right. All right. Do I have a
second?
>> Second.
>> Okay. All those in favor?
>> I.
>> All right. Motion passes three to zero.
>> All right. In order number 17, um this
is to accept an $850,000
grant from the Massachusetts Executive
Office of Housing and Livable
Communities to be used to support
housing rehabilitation projects in the
city of Beverly for low to moderate
income residents that qualify.
Do we have any questions or do we have
anyone from the city that wants to speak
on this? Miss uh Miss Win.
» Uh yes, Darlene W, planning director. Um
we actually well we've talked about this
in a couple different things, but this
is um the CDBG grant is um a program
that the city participated in and
received for about um 20 years, but the
last time in 2006. Um we had tried a
couple of times to apply into the
program in the last decade. um
unsuccessfully. Um but we were um able
to secure a grant in the last round for
a number of reasons, both thanks to all
of our teamwork. Um uh and um because
our our socioeconomic conditions have
changed just enough to allow us to
qualify. Um and so we will um be using
this money to establish or reestablish a
housing rehabilitation program um in the
next 18 months. and we will be
contracting with Habitat for Humanity to
uh run that program for us with us.
>> Great.
Any questions?
>> My only comment is this is terrific.
>> Yeah, I agree.
>> Thank you for your work on this and this
is good for the city.
>> I make a motion to approve order number
17.
>> All right. Second. All right. All those
in favor?
>> I.
>> Motion passes three to zero.
Okay. Now we have um order number nine
which is the public hearing one of the
public hearings that we had tonight. Um
the community community preservation
committee out of cycle CPA funding
recommendations request for CPA CPA
funding for independence park
renovations.
Um, I know we didn't have any public
speakers or any questions on that on the
floor, but are there any further
discussions or questions that
>> I I I would just comment that I think
that uh out of cycle um applications are
uh uh appropriate in both this case and in general to provide flexibility
for the CPC to to you know conduct its
mission. So
>> I would agree.
This is just a brief comment just to say
that I think one of the reasons that
there were a few questions I I always
appreciate I think our our CPC
group comes very prepared. Mr. Beckwith
I know is still with us um I feel like
addresses a lot of the questions up
front and so Mr. Beckwith I just want to
say thank you to you and the committee
um for the thorough the thorough vetting
that you do of the grant applications
that come to you and then the way that
you help to um bring the information to
the council. I I find it very helpful. I
think that comes through too in in a an
opportunity like this where there were
not a lot of questions. I think in part
because the materials that we received
were were very thoroughly prepared. So
thank you.
>> Agreed. Very much appreciated.
>> I would make a motion to approve over
number nine.
>> All right. Second.
>> All right. All those in favor?
>> I. All right. Motion passes 300. All
right. Number 10.
I will take 10 and 10. So, the next two
are going to be about the the other two
public hearings that we had today. And
because this is these are both going to
be going back out to the full committee.
And I think it's appropriate to have any
more discussion that we have there with
the full council. Um I'm going to um
entertain a motion to refer the orders
unless there's additional questions that
you wanted to ask in subcommittee.
>> Both you and I have already commented on
it. Um, so unless council president
wants to weigh.
>> Yes, we actually if you'd like an
opportunity to
>> Thank you.
>> this committee to make any comments.
>> Thank you. Um, thank you. I appreciate
that. I I will be very brief. Um,
because I think we did have really good
conversation about it and we will, as
you pointed out, have the chance for
more. But I do appreciate the
opportunity to just share a little tiny
perspective because of course in the
full council it's not as easy for the
president to do so. Um I I too really
appreciated both the presentation. I
also appreciated the points that the two
of you helped to draw out. I think it is
I I think it is hard um to look from the
outside in and sometimes to make sense
of for folks how it can be that we can
be talking about a challenge to our
operating budget and the need for a
project that looks like we're going to
be we we are deciding to take on debt.
Um and I thought the comments that you
both offered along with other counselors
in the presentation helped to to make
clearer the point that as you said
counselor um two things can be true at
once. We can understand that we have a
challenge in our operating budget. We
can also understand this is a needed
project and the importance of
maintaining our our debt service as
well. So um I'm I am in favor of the
project. I appreciate the team's
presentation tonight. I do feel that was
really helpful not only for the council
but for anybody following along as well
just to be able to understand
better what the scope of the project is
and and how we intend to get there. So
thank you.
>> Great. I agree. So do I have a motion?
>> Um I would make a Yeah. So I'd make a
motion. I think we
>> we could just take 10 and then 10. Yeah.
>> Yeah. make a motion to um approve for
discussion by the full council's orders
uh 10 and 10.
>> All right. Do I have a second?
>> Second and second.
Okay. All those in
favor in favor. One [laughter] I
>> All right. Good teamwork.
>> Um okay. Now we're moving on to
Okay. Got a bunch of donations and
grants which is great. So, I'm going to
take these in order. 18 is order number
18 is a donation for $3,000 from the
Beverly Female Charitable Society to
support the Council on Aging.
>> Do I have any discussion? I
>> I didn't know there was a Beverly Female
Charitable Society, but I'm glad there
is. And um my mother-in-law I think it's
a terrific donation. I've uh unless
there's discussion,
>> make a motion to approve order 18.
>> I will second that motion. uh with
appreciation for the society. I did
happen to know about it and they they do
a lot of really amazing generous work.
So we are fortunate to have them at work
in our community and fortunate to have
this donation and my mother-in-law is on
it. [laughter]
>> Okay. [snorts] Order number 19, a
donation for $10,000 from an anonymous
donation for the Council on Aging.
>> I would make a motion to approve order
19.
>> Second. All those in favor?
>> I motion pass 30. Order number 20, a
grant for $163,000
or $163,964
for 911 EO PSS OGR support and incentive
grant.
>> Do I have any questions?
>> Um, no. I think it's great. I don't know
if if the mayor or anyone wants to
comment on this, but um
you know, we've been moving towards
dispatch services for a while and
>> if or Miss Barrett, that would be
>> Thank you. Katherine Barrett, director
of grants. These are the two annual 911
grants.
>> I'd just like to call to order the
committee on the whole at uh 9:49. Thank
you. Sorry about that.
>> Yeah, these are the two annual 911
grants that the Beverly Police
Department receives. One of them is the
support and incentive grant uh which is
for um our enhanced 911 services and the
other one is the training grant which
provides funds to train uh officers.
» What?
>> EOPS executive office for public safety
and service.
>> She knows her stuff. [laughter]
>> All right. Um that's great. Um and I do
remember these coming up. I'd make a a
motion to approve order number 20.
>> All right. Do I have a second?
>> Second. All right. All those in favor?
>> I.
>> Motion passes. Three to zero. All right.
And 21 is similar. It's grant for
$69,6328
for the 911 EOP EOPS OGR 911 training
grant.
>> Likewise, I would make a motion to
approve order number 21.
>> Second. All those in favor?
>> I.
>> All right. Motion passes 30. That's on
order number 21. Order number 22 grant
for a mass D technical assistant grant
the amount.
» All right. Hello again. Um, so this
grant actually is a requirement for the
city to be eligible for the SMRP PAWYT
grant, which will um hopefully allow
funds for us when we switch to automated
refu and recycling and potentially
composting pickup to receive between 10
or $30 towards the purchase of those
receptacles up to $300,000. So that will
be uh an important grant uh that we'll
be eligible to apply for after doing the
technical assistance.
>> Okay. So is there a financial amount
associated with this or this is just
>> not with this grant? No.
>> The next one? Yes.
>> Got it. Okay.
>> Do anyone have any questions?
>> Um no. Although I think it's it's it's
terrific that we're moving in this
direction. So I would make an motion to
approve order number 22.
>> I second. All right. All those in favor?
I
>> All right. Order number 23, a $2,500
Mass Executive Office of Labor and
Workforce Development Workplace Safety
and Education Grant.
Any questions? Is there you have
anything to say? If it's if it's
standard, it's okay.
>> Straight forward. Y um thanks to our
health department director, Laura
Reichi, her new um married name, uh for
applying for this grant. And there's no
match funding required either.
>> Great. All right.
>> I would make a motion to approve order
number 23.
>> Second.
>> All right. All those in favor?
>> I.
>> We're getting there, guys. Almost there.
All right. Order number 24, a grass tech
collaborative mass broadband institute
connected and online grant.
Thanks. I just wanted to say a few words
about this grant. Um this grant is
through again Massastec collaborative
Mass Broadbian Institute and devices are
being provided to towns and cities
across the Commonwealth at no cost. And
so you can see there's 220 devices that
the city will be receiving and we're
distributing to the partners that are
highlighted in the letter. Um and the
software is preloaded. So it really is
no cost to the city um for those
devices.
>> That's great.
>> Yeah. So I have a question about this.
Um, first of all, I think it's terrific.
Um, and and very interesting. My
question has to do with uh, so the
letter says it'll be uh, deployed to
depart city departments. Um, are these
basically a lending library of of these
devices that get distributed to the
departments? So each department, if I'm
if that's correct, would be responsible
sort of keeping track of these and
having their own
lending system to help uh you know help keep track of them, I guess.
>> Yes. Um, so some of the departments,
there's two departments that will be
receiving them, the Council on Aging and
the Beverly Public Library. Some devices
will be lent out and there is a tracking
process for that and we actually have to
uh report quarterly for a period of five
years on this grant because it's federal
trickle down funds. So we have to keep
track of those devices for a five-year
period. Um, some of them will be loaners
and then some will be uh like used in
house at the library.
Okay. Uh, Monzerat through you, Madam
Chair. Um, uh, Monzerat College, Beverly
Children's Learning Center webcam.
>> Um, they I guess the letter indicates
that they will also get some of these
for and then they will use them
themselves or they will lend them out.
>> They will lend them out. Um some of them
will be used on location, some will be
lent out and again they are responsible
for keeping track of those devices for
the quarterly reporting
>> and and that basically they kind of
report back to you then as the
>> they do. Yes. Quarterly we're
responsible for doing reporting back to
the funer uh each quarter.
>> Okay. Thank you. I have more questions.
>> I would make a motion to approve order
number 24.
>> All right. Second. All right. All those
in favor? I
>> I motion passes 30.
All right. Order number 25, a grant for
$15,000
Mass Cultural Coun Mass Cultural Council
Cultural District Investment Grant.
>> See,
>> I know this is a lot of credit. It's a
lot of words in a row. Um
>> yeah.
Um this is has become an annual grant
that we've received from the Mass
Cultural Council to support uh
initiatives in the cultural district um
which is on Cabbat Street. Um and
this year we're planning on using it for
support to kind of get off the ground
the Bower that Monzerat um and Beverly
Main Streets and the Cabat have recently
established at 248 Cabbat Street. Um and
Monstrat and Beverly Main Streets and
the city of Beverly are the three key
main partners of the cultural district.
Um and so um we're going to help kind of
get some events and programming and kind
of upkeep and locks and security in
place there so that can be used now as
the hub of our cultural district.
>> Great.
>> Uh I think this is terrific. I'd make a
motion to approve order number 25.
>> Second. Great. All those in favor? I.
>> All right. Motion passes 30. Order
number 26, a donation, a $100 donation
from David Men Mandanka
to be used to purchase Shaw's gift cards
for veterans. That's nice.
>> I would make a motion approve order
number 26.
>> Second. All right. All those in favor?
>> I.
>> Motion passes 30. Order number 27, a
grant for 550,000
Seport Economic Council grant for
commercial hoist pure reconstruction.
Thank you. So, this is the second grant
we've received in the last um three
years for the commercial hoist pier. The
first one was for $656,000
and um the cost of that project has gone
up over the last three years. So, we
have a second grant to supplement. This
grant actually has two matches. The
first half 68,750
is coming from the harbor management
authority fund and the other 68,750 is
from the waterways improvement fund. So
this um does necessitate a public
hearing.
>> So you won't be able to vote on that
tonight?
>> Got it. So
we
do we have a public hearing that we were
considering timing wise.
>> Could I ask Miss Barrett a question? Um,
Miss Barrett, could I just ask you? I'm
just looking at the other public
hearings that I anticipate public
services was setting for the 2nd of
February, and there's quite a few. Is
there a a an urgency attached to this?
>> There is. Yeah, the project's supposed
to start February 2nd. So, there
definitely is. It's time sensitive.
>> So, may I ask a followup?
>> Yes.
>> The next regular meeting of the council
is February 2nd. What? That sounds like
that would be
>> dubtales perfectly.
>> That would work. Okay. Um, Madam Chair,
could I make a suggestion then that we
set that public hearing for February 2nd
at 8
>> 45? 8:45. Okay. I
would entertain a motion to set this
public hearing for 8:45 on February 2nd.
>> So moved.
>> Second. All those in favor?
>> I.
Great. All right.
We have one more and then a note. Order
number 32, a donation of $50, a donation
from John Lindel in memory of Daniel
Beecher, the owner of Northshore Carpet
to support the Beverly Police
Department.
>> Um, I I would like to thank Mr. Lindol
for this donation and make a motion to
approve order 32.
>> Second.
>> All right. All those in favor?
>> I motion passes three to zero. And there
was one other item that
on the record was sent to this
committee, but
>> order 43.
>> Yes. I would entertain a motion to send
this order number 43 to create this
temporary special committee to explore
options for addressing the looming 2027
forecasted budget deficit. I got to say
it again. Um to legal affairs.
>> Uh I would make a motion. I I make a
motion to uh send order number 43 uh
through
uh to legal affairs and if necessary by
way of full counsel or if not then
directly.
>> I think it can go directly if we vote it that way. So I would second I
would second that.
>> All right.
>> So to legal affairs.
>> Okay.
>> My motion. All those in favor to legal.
[laughter] Yes.
Motion passes three.
All right. That is all we had on our
agenda for tonight. So I would entertain
a motion to conclude um to committee of
the whole first um to
recess the committee of the whole.
>> So moved.
» Do I have a second?
I second.
>> All right. All those in favor?
>> I.
>> And then I would entertain a motion to
recess the uh committee on finance and
property.
>> So moved.
>> Oh, you can adjourn.
>> Ajourn. Sorry. Ajourn. Yes.
>> Second.
>> All [snorts] those in favor?
>> Motion passes 300.
>> Couldn't think of the
>> All right. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
very much everyone. We'll call
the full council back to order. Uh thank
you to our subcommittees and thank you
to our subcommittee chairs. Of course,
we are in our new term and so our
subcommittees are uh all new newly
reappointed and our subcommittee chairs
are also newly reappointed. So thank you
to everyone for your work. And Miss
Kent, let's go to reports from
committees. Order number nine, the
committee on finance and property to
whom refer the matter regarding a
community preservation committee out of
cycle CPA funding recommendation have
considered said matter and beg the to
follow. Recommend the council approve
this request.
Yes, thank you. Uh, councelor Retundo is
going to recuse himself from this one
because of his work with the Beverly 400
plus committee. Um, so are there
questions or comments on this one?
Question comes on the acceptance of the
proposal and adoption of the order. All
those in favor I.
>> That carries 80 and that is approved.
Thank you very much, counselor.
Order number 10, the committee on
finance and property to whom referred,
excuse [clears throat] me, would refer
the matter regarding a loan
authorization for 25,895,000
for the project funding request for
rehabilitation of city hall of
considenc.
Recommend the council approve this
request. Are there questions or comments
on this one?
Councelor Sincler.
» Thank you, Madam President. I just
wanted to point out we just referred a
um a a order to finance and property
regarding the looming financial forecast
and I think that was sort of the crux of
what we just talked about. So we're
going to approve a project without
knowing how we're going to deal with the
budget that is before us. We're going to
be talking about that soon, but here we
are voting on it now. So just thought
I'd point that out. I'm I'm voting no on
this.
Thank you, councelor St. Heler.
Is there other discussion from
councilors on this order?
Councelor Sp. Thank you, Madam
President. Um, as the W 2 city councelor
and where city hall services and helps
out all members of the community, but it
does sit in W 2, I'd be remiss not to
point out I think everybody agrees that
the building needs work. So, I don't
think there's any disagreement on that
or the merits of the project. I'm voting
in favor of it. Uh, mostly because I
understand the concerns that if of how
much more it would cost if we delayed
the vote for a year or two years. Um,
and that the fact that the city has
already put 1.5 million towards this
project and worked on it for years. Um,
and so that's where my thinking is
coming from for this.
>> Thank you, councelor Spang. Is there any
other discussion or comments from
counselors on this order?
Okay. The question comes on the
acceptance of the proposal and adoption
of the order. And before I ask you for
your vote, I will remind us this is a
loan authorization vote. This requires a
twothirds majority rather than a simple
majority. Uh so acceptance the proposal
and adoption of the order. All those in
favor I
all those opposed
that carries 7 to two which does
constitute a twothirds majority. Uh so
that order does pass. Thank you.
Um this
>> order number 10A the committee on
finance and property to whom referred
the matter for a depth stabilization
transfer request for two million dollars
for the project funding request for
rehabilitation at city hall have
considen matter and beg leave default
recommend the council approve this
request. Are there questions or comments
on this one?
The question comes on the acceptance of
the proposal and adoption of the order.
All those in favor I.
and all those opposed.
The order carries 72. Thank you.
>> Order number 11. The committee on
finance and property to whom referred
the matter regarding an appointment for
Donna Matarazzo to serve as city
accountant have considered a matter and
beg leave to follow. Recommend the
council approve this appointment. Other
questions or comments on this one?
Question comes on the acceptance of the
proposal and adoption of the order. All
those in favor? I.
That carries 90.
Order number 16. The committee on
finance and property to whom further the
matter regarding a reappointment for
Brian Als to serve as director of
municipal finance have considered a
matter and begley to follow. Recommend
the council approve this reappoint.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I.
That car. Oh. Uh, any opposed?
>> Oh, sorry. Okay. So,
>> wait. You oppose, Bryant? No, [laughter]
I don't think so. I was gonna say I I
was just gonna say yeah.
>> No, luckily he left.
>> I'm sorry. I figured it out. We were all
raising our hand for the beginning. Um
just for my own clarity and for for
everybody watching, all those in favor
I.
>> That carries 9 Z. Thank you. Order
number 17, the committee on finance and
property to whom referred the matter
regarding an $850,000 grant from the
Mass Executive Office of Housing and
Livable Communities have considered said
matter and beg leave to follow.
Recommend the council approve this
request. Questions or comments on this
one? Question comes on the acceptance of
the proposal and adoption of the order.
All those in favor? I. That carries 90.
Order number 18, the committee on
finance and property to whom referred
the matter regarding a $3,000 donation
from the Beverly Female Charitable
Society to support the council on aging
have considered the matter and beg me to
follow. Recommend the council approve
this request. Questions or comments?
The question comes on the acceptance of
the proposal and the adoption of the
order. All those in favor I. That
carries 90. And our thanks to the
Beverly Female Charitable Society for
that donation for our council on aging.
Order number 19, the committee on
finance and property to whom referred
the matter regarding a $10,000 anonymous
donation for the council on aging have
considered the matter and beg me to
follow. Recommend the council approve
this request. Questions or comments?
Question comes on the acceptance of the
proposal and adoption of the order. All
those in favor I. That carries 90 and
thanks to that donor if they are
following along for that generous gift.
Order number 20, the committee on
finance and property to whom for the
matter regarding a $163,964
911 EOPSS
OGR support and incentive grant have
cons considered said matter and beg
leave to follow. Recommend the council
approve this request.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I. That carries 90. Order number
21 of the committee on finance and
property to whom referred the matter
regarding a $69,6328
911 EOPSS ogr 911 training grant have
considered said matter and beg to
follow. Recommend the council approve
this request.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I that carries 90. Order number
22. The committee on finance and
property to whom refer the matter
regarding a mass D technical assistant
grant have considered the matter and beg
leave to follow. Recommend the council
approved this request. Questions or
comments? Question comes on the
acceptance of the proposal and adoption
of the order. All those in favor I. That
carries 90. Order number 23. The
committee on finance and property to
whom referred the matter regarding a
2500 mass executive office of labor and
workforce development and education
[clears throat] grant have considered
the matter. recommend the council
approve the request.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor? I. That carries 90. Order number
24. The committee on finance and
property to whom refer the matter
regarding a mass tech collaborative mass
broadband institute connected and online
grant have considered matter and beg
thee to follow. Recommend the council
approve this request. Questions or
comments? Question comes on the
acceptance of the proposal and adoption
of the order. All those in favor? I.
That carries 90.
>> Order number 25. The committee on
finance and property to whom refer the
matter regarding a $15,000 mass cultural
council district investment grant have
considered a matter and beg leave to
follow. Recommend the council approve
this request. Questions or comments?
Question comes on the acceptance of the
proposal and adoption of the order. All
those in favor? I. That carries 90.
>> Order number 26. The committee on
finance and property to whom referred
the matter regarding a $100 donation
from David Madona to be used to purchase
Shaw's gift cards for veterans have
considered the matter and beg leave to
follow. Recommend the council approve
this request. Questions or comments?
Question comes on the acceptance of the
proposal and adoption of the order. All
those in favor I. That carries 90 and
thank you to Mr. Mandanka for that
donation for our veterans. Order number
27, the committee on finance and
property to whom referred the matter
regarding a $550,000 SE port economic
council grant for commercial hoist pier
reconstruction have considered matter
and beg to follow. Set a public hearing
for February 2nd at 8:45 p.m. I would
entertain a motion to set that public
hearing as recommended by the
subcommittee for February 2nd 8:45 p.m.
>> All those in favor?
>> Thank you. So, we'll set that public
hearing that carries 9:0. We'll set that
for our February 2nd meeting and it'll
be at 8:45 p.m. Order number 32, the
committee on finance property to whom
refer the matter regarding a $50
donation from John Lindal in memory of
Daniel Beecher, the owner of Northshore
carpet to support the Beverly Police
Department have considered said matter
and begley to follow. Recommend the
council approve this request. Questions
or comments? Question comes on the
acceptance of the proposal and adoption
of the order. All those in favor? I.
That carries 90 and thank you to Mr.
Landalf for that donation as well.
>> Order number 43, the committee on
finance and property to whom refer the
matter regarding a proposed proposal to
create a temporary special committee to
explore options for addressing the
looming 2027 forecasted budget deficit.
Have considered matter and beg leave to
follow. Send it to legal affairs.
Thank you very much. Uh so we this is
basically just moving from one
subcommittee to the next. So legal
affairs um you will have over 43
[clears throat] to be able to take up at
the next meeting.
No,
>> I think I can just refer it there. Yeah.
Um order 33. The committee on legal fees
to refer the matter regarding a renewal
application for taxi delivery license
for Tri CD services have considered
matter and beg to follow recommend the
license be granted. Uh there questions
or comments on this one? Question comes
on the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I. That carries 90. Order number
34. The committee on legal affairs to
whom referred the matter regarding a
renewal application for a class 2 motor
vehicle dealer license for AJ's mobile
detailing at 453 rele street have
considered said matter and beg leave to
follow. Recommend that license be
granted. Questions or comments? Question
comes on the acceptance of the proposal
and adoption of the order. All those in
favor? I. That carries 90. Order number
35. The committee on legal fees to whom
referred the matter regarding a renewal
application for a class 2 motor vehicle
deal license for American Petroleum at
586 Cabat Street have considered matter
and begley to follow. We recommend the
council approve this license.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I. That carries 90. Order number
36. The committee on legal affairs to
whom referred the matter regarding a
renewal application for a class 2 motor
vehicle deal license for a bridto corp
dba autodine at 810 ran to uh rare road
ab have considered matter and begley to
follow recommend the license be granted.
Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I that carries 90. Order number
39, the committee on legal affairs to
whom referred the matter regarding a
renewal application for Hawkins and
pedals license for George Samson at 22
Federal Street have considers matter and
begley to follow. Recommend the license
be granted.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
[snorts] favor I. That carries 90. Order
41. The committee of legal affairs to
whom referred the matter regarding a new
application for a taxi delivery license
for Bass River day activity program 437
Essex Street have considency to follow.
Recommend the license be granted.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I. That carries 90. Order number
42. The committee on legal fees to whom
referred the matter regarding a proposed
proposal to create a coin memorial
subcommittee citizen matter and beg
leave to follow. I recommend the council
approve this request.
Are there questions or comments on this
one?
This is a proposed ordinance change. So,
this is available for a first vote this
evening
» or solicitor has something to say about
it.
>> Um, I believe this is intended to be a
proposed order, not an ordinance change.
um based on discussion in the
subcommittee of Mr. Mady
>> if I'm wrong I'm happy to
>> go through the procedure for that but
>> no you're right
>> okay [laughter] I say if that was the
discussion in the subcommittee and and
that then that is works for me thank you
very much in that case other questions
or comments
>> then the question comes on the
acceptance of the proposal and adoption
of the order all those in favor I
>> that carries 90 order number 44 the
committee on legal affairs to whom
for the matter regarding approve a
conservation restriction to the Essex
County Green Belt Association on land
owned by the city of Beverly 14 and 34
Simon have considered said matter and
beg leave to follow. Recommend the
council approve this request. Questions
or comments? Question comes on the
acceptance of the proposal and adoption
of the order. All those in favor I. That
carries 90.
Order number 12. The committee on public
services to whom referred the matter
regarding an appointment for John
Reynolds to serve on the veterans
advisory committee have considered the
matter and begley to follow. The council
approves this appointment. Questions or
comments? Question comes on the
acceptance of the proposal and adoption
of the order. All those in favor I that
carries 90.
>> Number 13, the committee on public
services to whom referred the matter
regarding a reappointment for Joanne Pen
Penazu to serve on the trustees of the
board of public library have considered
such a matter and beg leave to follow.
Recommend the council approve this
reappoint.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor? I. That carries 90. Order number
14, the committee on public services to
whom refer the matter regarding a
reappointment for Colleen Michaels to
serve on the trustees of the public
library have considered said matter and
beg leave to follow. Recommend the
council approve this reappoint.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I that carries 90. Order number
15. The committee on public services to
whom refer the matter regarding a
reappointment from Mary Burl to serve on
the trustees of public library have
considered to send matter and beg to
follow recommend the council approve
this appointment.
>> Questions or comments? Question comes on
the acceptance of the proposal and
adoption of the order. All those in
favor I that carries 90. Order number
47. The committee on public services to
whom referred the matter regarding a
petition 31234447
to install underground facilities on Bo
Wallace Cabin and Abbott Street have
considered matter and begley to follow.
Set a public hearing on February 2nd at
7:30 p.m. I would entertain a motion to
set that public hearing as recommended
by the subcommittee February 2nd 7:30
p.m.
All those in favor?
>> Thank you. So that's 90 and we'll set
that public hearing for our February 2nd
meeting 7:30 p.m.
>> Order number 48, Committee on Public
Services to whom refer the matter
regarding a petition 31247668
to install underground facilities on
Cabbat Street. Have considered matter
and beg to follow. Set a public hearing
on February 2nd at 7:40 p.m. I would
entertain a motion to set that public
hearing as recommended by the
subcommittee February 2nd 7:40 p.m.
>> All those in favor? That carries 90.
Order number 49, the committee on public
services to whom referred the matter
regarding a petition to install and
maintain underground facilities on
Ashton Street have considered said
matter and begley to fall set a public
hearing on February 2nd at 7:50 p.m. I
would entertain a motion to set that
public hearing as recommended by the
subcommittee February 2nd 7:50 p.m.
>> All those in favor?
>> Carries 90. Order number 50, the
committee on public services to whom
further matter regarding a petition to
install and maintain underground
facilities on Friend Street have
considered said matter and beg leave to
follow. Set a public hearing on February
2nd at 8:10 p.m. I would entertain a
motion to set that public hearing as
recommended by the subcommittee February
2nd 8:10 p.m.
>> All those in favor that carries 90.
Order number 51, the committee on public
services to whom refer the matter
regarding a pet petition to install and
maintain underground facilities on East
Street have considers matter matter beg
to follow. Set public hearing February
2nd at 8:30 p.m. I would entertain a
motion to set that public hearing as
recommended by the subcommittee February
2nd 8:30 p.m.
>> All those in favor? That carries 90. Uh
thank you very much, Miss Kent. And so
that brings us to the end of our agenda
for this evening. Um that was a very
full agenda to start off the term. Thank
you to everybody who joined us here in
council chambers. Thank you to uh city
staff. Thank you to members of the
public who came and spoke, listened and
engaged. Thank you to Mr. Beckwith and
uh members of the CPC. Although Mr.
Beckwith, I see that you are the last CPC member standing. You've
made it till the very end. Um, thank you
for the discussion and conversation
among counselors. Um, councelor Sonia,
welcome. We had a chance to welcome
councelor Mady at the end of the last
term. Um, we did not have a chance to
welcome you officially. Of course, you
at the inauguration you were, but it's a
pleasure to have you joining us up here.
Um, not every meeting is this long.
[laughter]
>> This is fun.
» Uh, thank you. of course to Kim in the
Bev Cam booth for keeping our meeting
accessible and available to everyone
whether they were able to be here with
us or not. Counselors, are there any
announcements or reminders from the
council? Councelor Retundo and then
councelor Malady.
>> I just want to make one statement from
last weekend with the uh start of the
Beverly 400 plus. I wanted to thank
everyone involved. Great to see so many
families down at Lynch Park as well as
the community conversation. Get a full
year of a lot of events. So, I just want
to just kind of put my shout out to the
committee who put that together last
week. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And thank you to you as well,
councelor Ratundo for your work.
>> Councelor Mady.
>> Thank you very much. Uh on November
28th, the uh Beverly youth lacrosse
program and Beverly youth football um
lost a supporter and a parent named Russ
Gordon. And this um upcoming Saturday uh
the 24th at 4 o'clock at Inner Cycle um
they're doing a fundraiser for uh Russ's
son uh Bradley and his mom Christina. Uh
if anybody is interested or available in
um giving a financial donation uh to
them, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
>> Thank you very much, counselor. Are
there other announcements or reminders
from the council?
All right. Well, as we heard, our next
regular meeting is February 2nd. We did
just set a number of public hearings. We
also do have a presentation scheduled
from the Beverly Human Rights Committee.
So, we'll get to hear from them about
their work and have a chance to ask some
questions if you have them. And with
that, I would entertain a motion to
adjurnn.
>> All those in favor? Thank you very much.
We're journed. Good night, everyone.
Thank you.
Hello.