City Council 05/05/2026

Recording in progress

Thank you.

recording in progress okay

Welcome to the Worcester City Council meeting. If you can, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance on the Star-Spangled Banner. Aye. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

and many more.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed At the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars Through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched We're so gallantly streaming And the rocket's red glare The bombs bursting in air They proved through the night that our flag was still there.

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave and the home of the brave.

Roll call. Councilor Bergman.

Here.

Councilor Bilotta. Here. Councilor Economou. Here. Councilor Fresolo.

Here.

Councilor King.

Here.

Councilor Mitra.

Here.

Councilor Ojeda. Here. Councilor Rivera. Here. Councilor Rosen. Here. Councilor Toomey. Here. Mayor Petty.

Here, we have several proclamations to give out tonight. First one is honoring the Oasis at Dodge Park. says, whereas Dodge Park and the oasis at Dodge Park has been recognized as a pillar of exceptional senior care with all our community, within our community providing compassionate, innovative, and person-centered services to residents and their families. and whereas the team at Dodge Park and the Oasis at Dodge Park consistently demonstrate an unwavering commitment to dignity, respect and excellence in every aspect of their work. whereas caring.com, a nationally respected resource for senior living and care has awarded Dodge Park and the Oasis of Dodge Park to prestigious caring.com. Com, Superstar Award, and the award reserved for facilities that have received the Caring Star Award with us three times since 2017.

and whereas the award reflects not only the exceptional quality of care provided but also the dedication, professionalism and heartfelt support shown dearly by the staff and leadership at the Dodge Park and the Oasis Dodge Park. Now therefore, I, Mayor Joseph M. Petty, Mayor of the City of Worcester, hereby commend Dodge Park and the oasis of Dodge Park for earning the Caring.com Superstar Award. And, Ben, you want to grab a picture and say a few words?

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Folks, if we can have you on this end just squeeze in a little bit. Okay. Councilor Rosen, can you come in a little bit more? All right, ready, one, two, three. Great, thanks, everybody.

One more, one more.

That's right.

Okay, ready? Right over here. One, two, three. Great. Thank you.

Proclamation will make our agenda.

Is that the Pac one? Okay. Okay, we have a second proclamation. OK, a second proclamation is to honor the mission of Nihon Hinkin Aydinko. And we'll read that proclamation. Whereas, since the height of the Cold War, the United States and Russia have dismantled more than 50,000 nuclear warheads, but some 12,000 nuclear weapons still exist and pose an intolerable risk to human survival. Whereas the United States has a special responsibility to meet the country's obligations under Article 6 of the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures

were in the succession of the nuclear arms race at the early date into nuclear disarmament. And on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, Whereas on July 7, 2017, 122 nations voted to adopt the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which prohibits the possession, use, and testing, stationing, or transfer of nuclear weapons and creates an important legal framework for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Whereas the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winning organization, Nihon Hidonkyo is visiting Worcester to promote the mission of nuclear disarmament initiating efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again. and whereas the City of Worcester stands with those affected by nuclear warfare and commits to promotion of mission to warn the future generations about the consequences of using nuclear weapons.

Now therefore I, Joseph M. Petty, Mayor of the City of Worcester, proclaim May 5th, 2026 as Nuclear Non-Proliferation Day in the City of Worcester and encourage all its residents to observe this day which honors the promotion of the mission of Nihon Hangingou issued on May 5th, 2026.

Yeah.

All right, folks, we got a few cameras. Right over in this general direction. Great.

Okay, I know we have a couple of gentlemen here who want to say a few words. And one is a survivor of the nuclear bomb, and one is a second generation survivor.

My name is Hiroshi Kanawamoto. I have been infected for 9 months and I am still alive. As long as I live, I want to do my best to spread the tragedy of the victims to the world. I received a key from the mayor today. I will do my best to support them. Thank you.

My name is Hiroshi Kanemoto. I'm an atomic bomb survivor from Hiroshima. and I was just nine months old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and I was at 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter and it was a miracle that I could survive. And today I am so honored to be invited to your city council and thank you very much for your kind acknowledgement. about our long-term struggle for the elimination of nuclear weapons and we got great encouragement from your city so you know with such encouragement we will continue our activity to

Let the people of the world know about the real damage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to increase the support for the elimination of nuclear weapons. So today I Thank you very much for your kind arrangement for us to be invited here and to give us an opportunity to speak. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, we have one more proclamation to give. And this is our annual proclamation from the National Association of Leticarious Food Drive Day. So whereas citizen participation in voluntary human service programs is a hallmark of the American democratic society, and whereas the City of Whistler has committed to voluntary community service for the benefit of the whole community, since its foundation. Whereas support of the city is extremely important in addressing the needs of the community, and whereas thousands of residents of this community have supported and donated to the National Association of Weather Carriers, Food Drives in the past, whereas Worcester has collected more than 125,000 pounds of food last year. And whereas Worcester has collected more than 125,000 pounds of food last year, and whereas over its 30 year history, the drive has collected more than 1.94 billion pounds of food.

and whereas the need for this food drive is greater than in the past and the 32nd annual letter carriers food drive is this Saturday May 9th. So everybody should have got their package in the mail I hope with the bag. Now, therefore, I, Mayor Joseph M. Petty, do hereby proclaim May 9, 2026 as National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive Day in the City of Worcester. and encourage all residents to recognize and participate in observance. Mr. Cipro, and I want to get a picture with the group or, and Norm could not be here today, but he's been there, he's been doing this like over 20, almost 30 years, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

All right folks, can you squeeze in a little bit? Alrighty, one, two, three. Thank you very much.

Okay, Mr. Cipro.

Yeah, I'd just like to thank the City of Worcester, City Council for having me here tonight. I'd like to thank all the citizens, because what we do, we couldn't do it without the citizens giving. Those numbers may be a little inflated, but... For the most part, this is what we do. May 9th, it's Mother's Day weekend every year. We've been doing it, like we said, 32nd year annual. It's across the country. about the city of Worcester is unbelievable with how much they give and the need is greater than ever. I tell all my members, I tell all my constituents that When I bring food to all the food pantries, and we hit every food pantry in the city of Worcester. It's not just going out to the major food pantries like Shrewsbury, Worcester County Food Bank.

We set it up to design that we get food out to every food pantry in this city So everybody who's in need gets the food but to see the looks on The people who run this, when we drop off truckloads of food to them, it makes it all worthwhile. It's a hard endeavor. We couldn't do it without the city. We couldn't do it without the citizens of this city. And I'd just like to thank you all. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Good luck.

Public participation. The person may speak for no more than two minutes on any items appearing on the agenda. Mr. Clerk.

Also approve the minutes.

I'm sorry, we missed an item here. We'll go back to 4A, motions to approve the match. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Yes. Next item is public participation.

Clerk. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Rule 39, items of public interest at every meeting of the City Council under public participation portion of the agenda. the Chair shall recognize any person seeking such recognition for the purpose of addressing the City Council and any eligible item on the agenda for the meeting both in person and remotely. Any person who wishes to speak more than one agenda item shall combine their testimony on all items to one appearance at the microphone. The time for speaking shall not exceed two minutes for one speaker or 30 minutes for all speakers. will 40 petitions. On the first occasion, any petition appears before the City Council agenda, the primary petition may address the City Council for no more than three minutes on the subject of their petition.

Okay, is your name, state of residence, and item number?

Fred, Nathan, Worcester 9-39A. So as everyone here knows that reads the paper or checks out Facebook or anything, MassLive or any of them, Worcester, and the City Manager is asking for a budget of $1 billion. And I just want to make people aware of something. Obviously, you're going to put money where it's needed. but I wonder how many people truly realize that there is an item that goes on here in this city and it's called automobile excise tax. I don't know how much they raised last year or the year before, but in 2023, $18 million was pulled in and that money does not go to Boston. That money stays here in Worcester.

just curious how much of that $18 million, which presumably we probably get somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 to $20 million every year, Like I said, I don't know how much they got last year or the year before, but in 2023, $18 million. I honestly do not think, I would like to think they have, but in all seriousness, We don't spend $18 million on the roads in Worcester. If we did, there wouldn't be so many potholes. And just remember, Worcester is unlike any other city or town maybe in the country. I wonder how many other cities or towns have seven hills. Let that sink in. Seven hills times all those potholes everywhere.

Thank you. Anybody else? This your name, see your residence and item number?

Wilson Lamb, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Okay, what item number are you speaking on?

Oh, sorry, 7N to 7Z.

Okay, go ahead.

7Z, okay.

I see a lot of requests for speed humps, but what about the potholes? In 2020, there were 1,700 reported potholes, and in 2025, there were 4,000 reported potholes. And mind you, 4,000 reported potholes, that doesn't mean one. It could mean two, three, or four. So if we double that, that's at least 8,000 potholes in the city of Worcester. What's being done? I've had to change my tire two times and I've had damage to my motorcycle.

It's a safety hazard.

Thank you. I'm not done. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry.

Potholes, please. Please fix the potholes. Hey guys, it's Eastwood Wilson. I'm done. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. Is your name, city of residence, and item number?

Good evening, Alex Corrales, Worcester. So good evening, Mr. Mayor, Councilors, and Mr. Manager. I'm here in support of Item 7C. The renaming of the GBV Playground Park to the Roberto Clemente Park. Great Brook Valley Gardens and Curtis Apartments are home to a strong Latino community, many of whom who are Puerto Rican. Roberto Clemente is a symbol of pride, resilience, and excellence in that community. This renaming is about recognizing the people who live there today in a meaningful and visible way. For years, residents and visitors have already been calling it Clemente Park. They feel a connection to that name. Tonight is an opportunity to make that official and align the park with the identity of the community it serves. Clemente represents more than baseball.

He was not only the first Puerto Rican Hall of Famer, but a humanitarian who lost his life delivering aid to others. That kind of character, that kind of selflessness is exactly the example we want to lift up for young people in Worcester. It's also worth noting that the current name does not reflect reality. The park is not in Great Brook Valley. It's behind Curtis Apartments. And there is no playground at the site. What exists is a well-used field and a gathering space. When people see the name Roberto Clemente Park, it sends a message about who we value and what is possible. It tells them that someone who shares their heritage, who faces challenges, and who achieved greatness through hard work and integrity is worth honoring. This is a small change that carries real meaning. It honors the community, reflects the present, and sets a positive example for the future.

I respectfully ask for your support.

Thank you. Hang on, who has petitions, anybody? That's all we have left? Yeah. Okay, go ahead. Thank you. What's your petition, what number?

My petition is AA. My name's Callie Hess. Thanks guys. I know everyone wants to go home. Good evening, I'm here about just the intersections on Thorndike Road, Beverly Road, Monterey, and Bay State. and they're not safe and this is nothing new. It's a school area, kids, family, every single day, yet drivers are still ignoring those stop signs. Even that stop sign, I'm hanging six feet above my head, waving around. It's one way no matter which direction. I came in this color because I am literally in this color every day, and I'm still being ignored. I know it, and you guys know it, and I'm sure some of you live in that area have probably seen some of you drive by me in the morning. Even with all the doing I can to make it more aware of my presence, like I wore a bright traffic cone for Halloween with my vest on, I wore a six foot tall inflatable unicorn to get attention, and all through the holiday I wore the reflective green Grinch.

still being ignored, blowing right by me. I just want to make it aware just because there's no clear signage at all. When you come down Beverly, You don't know you're turning left on Thorndike. You don't know it's a one-way until it's too late, until you're already halfway up the road. And then I can't jump back. I'm out there every single day like a postal worker. Rain, snow, sleet. Let's just see what else I wrote. It just gets confusing for the kids, too, because we don't offer those classes really much anymore, how to walk on those streets, how to cross the street. They expect all these crossing guards to be there. What if we're not there? What if we don't have the funding for us to be there anymore? I'm asking for another crosswalk just to get the kids across the road safely. That's all that I need. I can complain about speed bumps like everybody else, but I don't think that's gonna slow anybody down. So all I was asking for was on my petition, I just had some clear things.

The stop sign at the end of Thorndike and Beverly, because that's all a one-way road down the end, you don't know. So then you got people coming from Beverly, you got people coming from Monterey. I had someone come from DTAM to even look, oh my gosh, this is a mess, we gotta do something. Nothing gets done. I know if something can't get done because it's not in the budget, We can still reinforce having someone there. They're not going to learn consequences. I can sit there and say, stop, slow down. They're not going to listen. They'll blow right by me. They're not getting tickets. They're not getting cited. I've had a cop come once and be like, oh, yeah, all the schools are like that. Well, instead of telling me what we can't do, why don't you tell me what we can? Sorry, so I just, I'm here, standing here because something hasn't happened already. I just have this big fear that something is going to happen and I don't want it to. Every day there everything becomes predictable and if it's predictable then it's preventable. So all I'm asking is for it to be aware because no parent, no child, none of us

should have to hear the news of another child getting hit. They've already been hit on Wauwekus, then been hit on Burncoat. It's going to start rolling downhill, and I'm just trying to prevent it. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. I see more person, okay. Is your name C. Residence and item number?

939, Gil Goodell, talking about the budget. The budget, okay. Pardon me?

Would you say the budget?

The budget. Okay, go on. The 18 million that you have in funds, how about spending at least I have a million. Start there. These roads need to be fixed. Any comments?

No, this is your time.

Go ahead.

Okay, so closing. Comments? Yeah, go ahead. Exactly what do you do about domestic violence?

That's not on the agenda tonight.

I know, but I have three minutes to talk on that.

On the agenda you can, yes.

I just talked about the budget.

You can keep on talking about the budget if you want.

The roads. Sir, you know what I'm talking about. It's not your first rodeo. What is being done about domestic violence? I'm a victim of 18 years here. I fail to see any change. I had to go to the FBI for this last go around for five people. They're on it. The city should be on it. Police officers take a badge and an oath that says to serve, protect, and do no harm. When people are dying every day, when they don't respond, are they serving, protecting or doing no harm? I don't think so. So what can be done, if anything at all? It's a huge problem. You do realize that. You have a very violent city.

I know you like to sweep it over like it's nice. Very violent. People pop in from New York to here every weekend. Bring drugs into your city.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Time is up. Thank you.

You have a good day. I hope you'll do something about it, because the FBI are.

Yeah, we have a couple people on the line.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The first speaker is David Webb. Let me try to meet the resident now.

Yes, hello. David Webb, Olympia. If it's predictable, it's preventable. I really like that. That third proclamation was interesting. Are we sure that this body or city stands against nuclear weapons? It's very well known that most of the counselors supported child rapist in chief who's trying to support a nuclear war to distract from the Epstein files. Anyways, back to local matters, which you guys claim to care about. 9.26a, the billion dollar budget being proposed while entire mental health programs are closed, special ed schools are shuttered, the city continues to hunt its unhoused population. A billion dollar budget after one of the most poorly handled winters in a decade, a new series of lawsuits against the police department, and very little has been done about the equity audit or DOJ report. Unfortunately, assuming your city continues as it has, this budget will be used to ensure that races stay in power and accountability remains impossible, especially when the second most notable increase percentage-wise is to cops.

This budget will not result in any improvement to accessibility, transparency or any of the various departments finally beginning to uphold their responsibilities. This budget won't make our city administration honest. It won't make your streets safe because it doesn't do anything about the priorities that have kept them unsafe. If you want smart spending, you need to have qualified people making smart decisions. And Worcester doesn't have any of those. because the Worcester way is simply appointing the person trained by the last guy to keep doing things the same way. That's why while the names and faces keep changing, none of the problems in the city ever get resolved. For your city to improve, it needs to start doing national searches and hiring people starting based on their resume, not their relationship to Tim Murray and Joe Petty. So for your city to improve, it would need a law department and city manager's office that ensures all the other departments are following the law, instead of covering up for them when they don't, again and again and again and again. The way the city is operating is inefficient and harmful, and a larger budget will make it more of what it is, not any better. Lastly, welcome back, Nico.

Last time, the time was shown while people spoke. That was great. It was an accessibility thing.

If you could have AJ run the mic. Thank you. Next speaker.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. The next speaker is Natalie Gibson.

Hi, good afternoon. Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. I'm speaking on a couple of items. One of them, and I might have the numbers wrong, so I apologize. One of them is the 9.7D, regarding the trench work and potholes. I'm glad that there is a very thorough and laid out plan on what needs to be done. Now there needs to be accountability. it's too often that we're driving through this city and we are literally going through sunken trenches and I understand that it takes time to fix all these matters but People's cars are being ruined by these trenches and potholes, especially when they're in areas where you're going about 35, 40 miles an hour and they just sneak up on you. That's great that we're going to go from two years to five years. So again, I hope we hold these utility people accountable.

Going on to the budget, you can pick what number you want it to be, 926 or 939. I'd like to know where the $1.8 million is going from the cannabis excise tax. I haven't heard yet in all my meetings where any of that money has gone to the community. For fines and forfeits of three million dollars, you probably can get more money than that for all the tickets and parking fees and boots and court fees and blah blah blah. when it comes to the other departmental revenues for almost $400,000. That I'm just wondering, where is some of this money going that you're getting from the community? The snow removal, it's going from 5 million to 5.5 million.

Judging by the winter that we had last year, we will probably continue to have more winters like that and the money that we had last year was barely scratching the surface and you should know because you've got numerous, numerous complaints from your citizens.

Thank you. Okay. So we are back to the agenda. First item is 6A to 6C, motions to open a hearing regarding the current location on Penn Ave, a current location on Lakeside Ave. and a common location, Lakeside, second one on Lakeside Ave. I'm sorry, on Thorndike Road too. Okay, anybody oppose any of these items? Seeing nobody opposed, the motion is to close the hearing. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. The motion is to adopt. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. We have petitions. 7A and 7B, we're gonna refer it to the playing board. All those in favor, post so ordered. 7C, Councilor Fusso, who wants to recuse himself. Tony O'Connor requests Great Brook Valley Playground be renamed Roberto Clemente Field during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Councilor Economou.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There's not much more for me to add at this... either I think Mr. Corrales did a great job explaining it. Everybody knows it as Roberto Clemente Field. There's not, in my entire life, Nobody's referred to it as Great Brook Valley Park. So I want to amend my item. I believe I have some errors in it. So I want the park to be named Roberto Clemente Park. Please. And when it gets referred to committee, I'd be more than happy to be there to advocate for that change as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilor. Councilor King?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I stand in support of this. I just wanted to say that once This moves forward. You've heard testimony today from Worcester Housing Authority about the community I have always called it Clemente or Clemente Field. There's a deep, deep history here that goes beyond baseball and softball. but it extends and it brings folks from all over together and the legacy of Roberto Clemente runs deep Mr. Chairman. What I would like to do by way of a motion Mr. Chairman is to request the city manager to reach out to Roberto Clemente's group that comes to the ballpark.

and it's represented by his son and you know I think it's a great opportunity to wrap them into this ceremony once this gets approved you know and I also hope that we figure out a way to include our middle schools in this and the reason I bring that up is middle school sports I was out at a field today that I've been in communication with the city manager about where they're starting to play baseball for the first year for our students. And on the high school level, it's been significantly challenging for our high schools to field teams in some instances So this is a great opportunity to include community and to include youth and of course the Puerto Rican community and the Latino community and all the communities here in the city.

I stand in support of this along with that request.

Thank you. Councilor Rivera.

King. Councilor King kind of just stole my thunder, but I think it's a great idea. I'm looking forward for this to come to committee that I happen to be a part of, so we know it's going to be approved. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I really want to thank Councilor Economou for this. Not many people know, but my father was the founder, one of the founders of the Roberto Clemente Softball League. so going down there every Sunday really mattered to you know what people just mentioned about the culture and just being there and I just I was talking the other day about getting up Sunday mornings you had to be ready get on the back of the truck and we drive down to the valley with six, seven of us in the back of the truck going to the valley. And it was great to see what he was able to create with the Puerto Rican community and the Latino community to come together for hours from pretty much April to October every Sunday with people selling their foods, kids playing off to the side, getting to meet people, people that I've known until this day because of the league and what Roberto Clemente meant to

you know the Puerto Ricans that moved here to the city and it was just an extension of what he's done and what he's meant to so many Puerto Ricans growing up here at that time and to have his name it's a huge honor I know my father would be excited about it. I know he'll be there the day it will be mentioned. So it'd be great to have the Roberto Clemente family there. but it is special to me there as well too because I played there, I grew up watching all the guys and they're still around so we gotta, Mr. City Manager, we gotta reach out to those guys and make sure they're there as well because The league meant a lot. It meant a lot to a lot of families and people coming not just from Worcester they came from all over as far as Springfield and Connecticut and they would come and play so this is special and I really look forward to it and if there's a way where we can and invite more people to this. I think it would be a great honor for our city to show that we could still continue the culture and the heritage of the Puerto Rican community. So thank you.

Okay, so send that as amended to the Parks and Recreation Commission and also the orders to the City Manager. All those in favor, opposed, so moved. 7D to 7I, refer the Public Works. All those in favor, post so ordered. 7J to 7Z, refer the Traffic and Parking Committee. All those in favor, post so ordered. 8A by Kylie Hess. We're gonna refer that to traffic and parking. And Kylie, you'll get a letter in the mail when that hearing's being scheduled, okay? You're welcome. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. That's the traffic and parking committee. Rosen, 8B and 8C, refer the Veterans Memorial Parks and Recreation Committee. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Councilor Rosen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to take a moment to introduce two guests we have tonight. They're both senior students at Bancroft School. and here at City Hall with me as their supervisor and hopefully many of you helping out, they'll be doing their senior year co-op. here at City Hall, learning about Worcester, its government, its politics, and all the things that we talk about and the things we do. We have Emma Jaupai, and we have Rob Lariano. Again, both seniors will be graduating I believe June 5th and I was just very glad to see two students in the city of Worcester who wanted to learn about their government and what goes on with the City Council and their interest is strong and I'm sure they're going to get a good experience here at City Hall. Any of you who want to help out

work with us please feel free to let me know and we can certainly arrange that thank you Mr. Chairman thank you okay we have appointments uh nine and graduations welcome and Appointments 9.1, Transmitting Information and Communication of the Appointment of Joseph Kahara to the Board of Health. I just want to thank Joseph for his service. The motion is to file. all those in favor, opposed, so ordered. If anybody's here, just raise your hand on these, so, okay. Is he here? Oh, he's back there, I didn't see you, okay. Thank you for your service, Joseph, I appreciate it. Okay, Treasury Information and Communications, we'll go over to the appointment of Susan LaDue to the Elections Commission. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes. We have Transmitting Information and Communication of the recognition of National Public Works Week, May 17th to the 23rd. So we'll put that on file. Thank you. Others in favor? Opposed? So ordered. Transmitting Information and Communication, we have the invitation to the sixth annual Paul J. Moussey Employee Award Ceremony. So that's on, turn that, was it May 17th? I forget. It's that week, yeah. The week before, okay. So that will be held outside, I think, no? TPW, yep, okay. We used to, yeah. placed on file. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Transmitting information communication relative to payment restoration standards. Motion is put to public works. All those in favor? Opposed?

So

I'm sorry, Councilor Bilotta.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to say thank you for this communication to DPW and to the administration. I had a few questions regarding the You know, levels of staffing. It was interesting to learn just how many utility patches are handled throughout the year. I just wanted to comment and say I think this really speaks to the need to increase staffing down the line for this program. I'm just appreciative of the work that's being done. One question. I had through the chair. Is there any ability to switch? I know there's, according to the report, one full-time large patch large pavement restorations and patching someone that there's one uh coordinator that works on that um the in the three inspectors that go around it was mentioned that they go around kind of in batches to different areas.

What are some of the main, I guess, issues that we're having with patches and what utility companies, I guess, are not really doing their best due diligence on it? Any comments on that?

Through the chair, you will see an upcoming item that speaks to our recommendation to extend the warranty period from two years to five years. and that will cover thousands of patches across the city. And we believe that that will help take the burden off of the city and the DPW and place it back on the utilities and ensure that they do a better job during the restorations so that they will last longer. Thank you.

Was that Councilor?

Yes, thank you.

Okay. Councilor Economou?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Commissioner. Just a quick question. There's an observation. Last week, I was down on Pullman Street, and there was a crew there I'm going to say that they were heating up the current asphalt that was there. It was a patch. I don't know whose patch it was. But they were heating up the asphalt that was there. They re-graded it. and then they rolled it out. And I gotta tell you, it's better than the original street. Is that a utility patch that was corrected? Is that a city patch that was corrected? and how do we get access to that type of patch correction, whether it's through the utilities or even the patches that we make ourselves?

Commissioner. Through the Chair. That's an infrared patching?

Infrared patching, yes.

So what they do, as you aptly described, they superheat the pavement so that it melts They can then add any liquid bitumen if it's necessary, but then they can rake it out and compact it. So as you said, it comes out better than the original road sometimes. It's an extremely expensive process that we would only use in unique circumstances. It's labor intensive. It takes a long time. it's a bid that we'd have to put out and it's very expensive per patch so that's not something that we do for normal potholes and I'm not sure if that was a utility trench it must have been because the city doesn't have that equipment

so I've seen that thank you for your answer I've seen that done on Shrewsbury Street Salisbury Street and now on Pullman Street and like I said that is the type of repair patch that I would prefer to see from any of the utility companies because you would never know there was a patch when they were done. It seems to be better compacted. and it just sits flat too. There's no interruption. You would never know you drove over a patch. So if there's something, I don't know how we influence that with utilities, but that would certainly be something I'd be interested in being on top of. Thank you, Commissioner.

Through the Chair, we do have that ability. I mean, we do have DPW permit requirements that we could look at implementing that. either on all utility trenches or perhaps we just do it on the primary roads, but certainly something we can look at.

Yeah, I would think for sure on the primary roads it should be something that should be considered. because like I said, it was a perfect patch. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We've been through several walks, I want to say, Commissioner Wesseling. And just reading this on the inspection process for restorations, I know we've had conversations regarding Say, National Grid, whatever company is doing the work, and they cut into the sidewalk into the concrete. And they don't fill it back in with concrete. They fill it back in with the blacktop stuff. Under the inspections, what is supposed to be that process based on what I'm reading here? First of all, are they allowed to come back to the chair, to the commissioner? Are they supposed to come back or are they supposed to just and so forth. So we're going to have to fix it and just put concrete to begin with versus coming back.

Through the chair, they are allowed to come back and they are required to come back if they don't meet the standards of restoration. Are we talking about those two trenches from Eversource Gas on Main Street?

Correct.

Please tell me that those have been completed.

I'm not sure, but when I'm driving home tonight I'll let you know. We will double check. but it is seen throughout the city. I think there was some work done just recently and I was driving by and I'm like, there we go again. The whole sidewalk is all, Concrete, but right down the middle, it's all blacktop. And that's really concerning because I think what ends up happening, and I could be wrong, what ends up happening is they don't come back, they don't fill it, The city is now four, five, six years in. It's time to do the sidewalks. Now the sidewalks get done over as concrete. So they never come back to fix it over the years. Perry Ave, you've seen it on Perry Ave. You've had that issue over there. and then the type of work that's just being done. It's more of a quick patch, fill it in. It's not smooth, so it's dangerous for anyone that has a walking issue or for little kids as well. So I feel as though when it comes down to those inspections,

I think we really need to be a little harder, maybe hit harder back on understanding that this is not acceptable. From what I'm seeing, I see it throughout the district, so I'm pretty sure if it's in the district, it's throughout the city. So I'm really concerned about that. And my question to the chair, to you again, Commissioner, when you said timeframe, what's considered the timeframe?

Through the chair from the inspection report they have 90 days for complete restoration unless it's a winter project but they have typically 90 days and restoration standards are to bring it back to what was pre-existing or better

Okay, so then have we seen times where it hasn't? Because I guess from what it said is that if they don't, they're not allowed to their license is not renewed. Is that something that's common throughout the city? Have we experienced that?

through the chair. I wouldn't say that it's common necessarily, but for example, we had a licensed drain layer last year that we did not reissue their license because they had five restorations that they didn't get to in spite of our repeated requests. We actually did not issue their license back and we also pulled their bond to make sure that those restorations were done. as you see there were over 4,500 inspections done by one person for those final restorations so that's something that we're looking at is to make sure that we put the proper resources for all of those inspections where they're needed

Okay, thank you. Through the Chair, to the Commissioner. Did those bonds cover the amount of work that had to be done?

Through the Chair, yes, they did.

Okay. All right, yeah, that's another thing too. I just want to make sure that when they don't come back and we have to take care of it, that we're not, that's the city, again, paying extra into these jobs.

Through the chair, no sir. We go after every resource that we can, specifically the bond, so that it does not become a city obligation.

Okay, so I encourage My colleagues, you know, throughout the district to please take a look at those sidewalks that are being, you know, cut up and making sure that they are coming back with concrete because it is unfair to our residents where us as city, you know, they're paying taxes. you know we're on the city manager about these sidewalks and the sidewalks are getting done and these companies are coming in cutting up the sidewalks and not bringing them back to what they look like and then again we take the hit as a city saying that we're not being responsible so I want to make sure that you know we We're keeping an eye on that and making sure that the word is out, or whatever it may be, that this is not acceptable. And it's unfortunate that we continue to see this. So thank you.

through the chair, it is not acceptable and we don't accept those substandard restorations. We have a, I'd say a good relationship with the utility companies Rivera, and it's up to us to ensure that we follow through with them to make sure that they are doing what's expected and required.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

To the Chair, to Commissioner Wesselin. Mine's more of a clarification, because I think you covered this last time, and I just understood it one way, but based on what I'm hearing from the residents, I was a little confused, so I said I'll ask the Commissioner, and here you are. I was understanding that the 311 potholes were not going to be taken care of until after street sweeping. or are we still doing taking care of some of the potholes from the old 311 tickets that were

Through the chair, I think that we're down to 20% of the total number of work orders that were put through so we're making very good progress in spite of the fact that the majority of our crews are doing street sweeping and trash collection. What we've been doing is looking at innovative ways to take our resources off, for example, the night crew, put them on the patching crew, to a suggestion that was made I think last week or perhaps the last meeting when we were talking about potholes. There are occasions where we have taken street sweeping crews when we're when we're ahead of schedule in those areas, taking those street sweeping crews and put them on to the pothole repairs.

All right, so you guys are still doing both? Pretty much, no.

Through the Chair, yes we are. We're focusing on the primary roads and we're following plow routes to ensure that for putting all of our resources on those routes and making sure that those primary roads potholes are filled.

All right, thank you. There was one. President, who said that they filled up two holes but still had left one. I said, well, they're definitely coming back. They probably ran out or something. I remember that was an issue before with you know stuff like that so just wanted to appreciate you guys doing both and but you know making sure that they're gonna do to cover the third one as well thank you sir

Thank you. Council Bergman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the Commissioner, as I read this report, I just want to make sure I am on the right track on The Restoration. So this also through the chair refers to street restoration when trenches are done. Is that correct?

Through the Chair, that is correct.

And is there a policy on the type of material that's supposed to be used when trenches are filled on a street? Through the Chair.

Commissioner?

Through the chair, yes, there are two documents that cover that, the Department of Public Works permit manual and the DPW permit requirements. Those lay out everything from backfill to temporary patches to final restoration. So they're very detailed requirements.

I appreciate that so through the chair of the commission this may have I'm assuming this predated you by a lot of years, Mr. Commissioner, maybe even decades. But I'm going to refer to it as the final restoration when the street, in my opinion, just my opinion, others may disagree, The street before the work done by the utility company had a uniform look, whether it was asphalt or more likely cement. After utility work is done and after the restoration is finalized, I would Describe this as the skunk look. There's a black stripe right down the middle and everything else, totally different color. And I just think that's a very unattractive way to restore things. And again, I'm not faulting you or your department in any way, but why isn't the utility company required to use the same material to blend in? I know it may just be aesthetics. Maybe what they're putting on there is every bit as good or even better. But it just doesn't look good.

And the way I look at it is somebody living on that street shouldn't be impacted by the look because the utility company needed to work there. that look should be the same when they're done as it was before they started and it isn't in a lot of cases. So I guess through the chair, my question commissioner is, are they required to restore it so that it has a uniform look or am I correct that they can follow up and restore it in a way that it has what I call that skunk patch down the middle.

Through the Chair, you're absolutely correct. Before 2024, I'll use your vernacular. The skunk patch was the way that roads were patched. But after 2024, the DPW changed the requirements to require that if you're going down a lane of the road, that you are now required from the center line to the gutter to restore that road.

But the other side, if I may, through the chair, may still have a different look to it. Is that correct, when they're done?

Through the Chair, that is correct. The utilities are not required to resurface the entire road, but from the curb to the center line of the lane that they were working in.

So if I may, through the chair, who decides on what the utility company does or doesn't have to do as far as the uniform look? Now, it sounds like DPW has some say since it was changed in 2024. Is that correct?

Commissioner the chair that is correct it's it's again only the lane that is that has been disturbed by the utility work

I can take this up another day and I agree with you the lane that was disturbed has been corrected and after 2024 it was corrected in a better way but when you still have one half the street a different look than the other half of the street I would say that in the future, I'd like to see it completely uniform. I'm sure the utility companies won't agree, but I would also argue that they're the ones that have disturbed the surface for their own financial benefit. They should be the ones putting it back, whether it costs them a little bit more or not. But again, that's a conversation for another day. So thank you, Mr. Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Council Rosen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll throw the chair to the commissioner. I think there is a little confusion out there about the pothole reporting. Now, we've talked about 311, and I think we, African people, they don't know any longer who to call, where to call. Can you just clarify? there are still plenty of potholes around. We're making progress, we all know that and we're thankful for that. It is May now and hopefully in future years we can Phil more of them sooner. But what is the process if people in a neighborhood or anywhere, especially on our main drags, Who should they call? Where should they go? Should they call city councilors? I get calls. I mean, is that an efficient way to get a pothole filled, calling Gary Rosen? I don't think I would do it that way. Some do it. So I've got to clarify tonight through the chair to the commissioner. What should they do? Who should they call?

Commissioner. Through the chair, the best bet for residents to report a pothole is to call 311 because that creates then a work order. and we're able to track the work orders to see what workload we have ahead of us, what work orders we have closed out so it's better accountability and to your your point of we hope that in the future that we'll have better success with potholes I assure you we will because this year where we are investing in our roadway network the the the recommended level of investments per the pavement management plan. Also this winter, we hope to have the batch plant that I've mentioned here before so that when we're patching potholes in the winter, They're not going to reappear at the first thaw in the spring. They will be maintained in a good condition beyond just the spring.

any idea through the chair how many potholes once we fill them as we're doing now we've done this spring might reappear next year is that a common thing that a pothole that's been filled and we're all happy with that it's kind of vulnerable to the elements. And next winter, that's one that's probably going to open up again.

Is that common through the chair? Commissioner? Through the chair. that's possible certainly but it's more likely that a pothole will open up next to the repair because the pothole is formed on a roadway that has a PCI pavement condition index. The road has deteriorated. There may be alligator cracking. So a pothole today will be patched and will likely be maintained in good condition. However, what's more likely, if the road has a poor PCI, that there'll be a pothole that opens up next to it. There are plenty of streets in the city where you look Sagamore Road is one that we've discussed multiple times where it's patch next to patch next to patch next to patch and that's that's a roadway that has gone far too long without a full depth restoration But again, it's more likely that a pothole will appear next to previous potholes.

Through the chair. Now, some of these potholes, I assume, get dozens and dozens of calls. And it seems like sometimes it takes us weeks to get to them because we have a long list. So does that mean anything? to the DPW, that pothole might have 30 calls or more. I mean, if they're on Park Ave, and we've seen them there, and there was one at Park in Salisbury for a long time. I don't know if you're familiar That one, it kind of made the Reddit group, and they were always talking about it. And they kind of gave life to that, kind of like what personification in literature or something gave life to that pothole. are there emergency potholes? Because I've seen some on, I mean, my own street, okay, if we have a pothole, okay, yeah, we want it filled, but this is, I don't live on Park Ave, Chandler Street, Hamilton Street, Grafton Street, Pleasant Street. These to me would be, I mean, some of them are very deep.

So if it's on one of those main drags and it's that deep, to me, it would be categorized as an emergency bottle. Do we have such a category? Because I think they should be filled first. And I know everyone wants their own street filled first. 30,000 cars or 40,000 cars on Park Ave every day, and you got 35 cars on my street, do Park Ave first. So through the chair, is there an emergency pothole designation?

Through the Chair, as best we can tell, if there is an emergency pothole or it's reported as a deep pothole or a wide pothole, we certainly prioritize those. and as I mentioned, we are prioritizing the primary roads first. So we're following our plow routes and the primary roads. Those are the ones that we're doing first because as you mentioned, they are seeing more vehicles every day and there's the potential for more impact on a primary road.

Okay, and now I'm gonna ask a question that's not about potholes or paving, but since the commissioner is there, the last meeting we had a few weeks ago, I guess, one of the councilors, and that was fine, one of the councilors brought in a long list of Crosswalks that had to be restriped. And that was great. But I said to myself, is this how we're going to do crosswalks in Worcester? That the 11 of us should come in with lists? I mean, there's got to be a process, I hope, where the crosswalks that are used in the city may be more used than some of the others and they need restriping will get done without depending on one of the councilors to petition that. I mean, I don't have anything against, you know, councils doing that. They're only doing it because evidently the crosswalks aren't getting painted. Are we keeping up with crosswalks? I know we have potholes. And I know we have streets and sidewalks. And I know we have streets sweeping and so on. I know we have a lot to do.

And I think the budget's going to reflect that we can spend a little more money on DPW next year and get some of these things done. So crosswalks, where are we? Especially when school opens around the corner in August, not that far off.

Through the chair, crosswalk striping and roadway striping and stop line striping and school striping, that's all done through the Department of Transportation and Mobility. Okay, so not your department.

Okay, and just going back to on the agenda, we passed over quickly 9.7A, National Public Works Week. What are we doing? We didn't say, so can you give us a quick rundown? What are we doing here in the city of Worcester to celebrate that important week?

through the Chair. We're doing a couple of things. Certainly, we recognize our crews for that week, and I appreciate the proclamation that was put forward. These folks they work tirelessly in the worst of conditions these men and women are providing essential services to the city so our assistant commissioners they all recognize their teams in different ways but the the recognition the proclamation is certainly appreciated that goes a long way and also Friday May 15th when we will be issuing the Paul J. Moussey Employee of the Year Award. That's a big deal for us. It's recognition of former Commissioner Moussey, and it's also recognition of one of our employees who was nominated by a peer and selected by the assistant commissioners and the commissioner. So that's a big deal for us.

Okay, and that's great, that's all good news. I was just thinking of many years ago, we used to do a lot down at the DPW yard, and the public came down, and the kids came down, and I don't know, they saw a snowplow, they learned a lot down there with different displays. So we're not doing that this year, I guess. But that might be something that DPW wants to bring back in the future because the public learned a heck of a lot. And it's always good to start teaching the kids about DPW Work, and challenges that we face here in the city. So, in the future, if we could, I think it's a good idea. Through the chair, I agree. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilor Mitra.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, through you to the Commissioner.

Thank you for your report, Mr. Commissioner. As you can see that most of the councillors are anxious to see I'm happy to hear that you said about 20% of the potholes have been taken care of. Is that something I heard?

Commissioner? Through the Chair, just a correction. We're down to about 20%. Not that we've completed 20%. We've completed 80%. We're down to about 20%.

Okay, so pretty much almost done. So could you then tell us based on your progress that when you think timeline that this is when all the potholes will be taken care of so we can let our constituents know, hey, It's only two more months and we're all going to be having no more potholes. And the second question I have is, Are you sure there are no more potholes left? Because in the past, many of us have said that using some higher technological devices to gauge how many potholes the city has. I don't know whether we have that in the plan to use that LiDAR technology or any kind of camera imagery systems that we had kind of proposed to use but What's the guarantee that all these potholes that you have given through the report of 311 or residents being calling you There are no more potholes left. How do you guarantee that?

And I just wanted to know, based on what you are saying, the 80% are already done. So when you think the remaining list of the 20% that is remaining there, when would that be? So just an idea. I don't have to have a date, but two months or about a month. So we feel good. We can let our residents when they call, we can tell them that, hey, it's almost done. I must say that there must be still a lot more particles out there that we don't know. Are we doing anything to detect that? I have always said that Let's be proactive, not be reactive. Let's go out there and find out what is the inventory of pothole in this city. There are so many potholes that are probably still out there that we are not aware of. Are we doing anything about that?

Through the Chair. I cannot make any guarantees, but I think that after we complete our street sweeping, we'll be able to rededicate those crews. So that's 16 to 20 people that we'd be able to put back on the potholes. So I think that two months after we complete our street sweeping is a safe approximation. Again, we've got about 20% of the work orders, but we don't know. Each work order could be 10 potholes. and I think that we are being proactive as a city in the investments that we're making in the pavement management plan. So that will go a long way to taking care of roads that are riddled with potholes. And then back to the question of do we know how many potholes there are? Do we use that type of technology?

So through the Department of Transportation and Management, I want to say a year, perhaps two years ago, they had an engineering firm come out and they drove every mile of roadway and they use that video technology. That's how they develop the PCI of every road. It doesn't necessarily equal potholes. but that is a way of determining what the overall network of the city looks like. Certainly those roads that come out with a PCI below 60, I would say, we can estimate that those roads have more potholes than a PCI of 70 or 80. Those are the much better condition roads.

Thank you so much. I just want to make sure that we realize that every one of us are very anxious to see this is a city with no potholes, and that's what we'd like to claim. And the ball is on your court. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Boyle.

Yes.

Sorry. Apologies. I don't have my notes in front of me. So during this conversation, we talked about the inspection roles and that there's seven individuals that are doing the inspections. it says in the report that the majority of inspections are excuse me are inspected by batches rather than by completion date. And my question is, I think what frustrates me and what frustrates so many residents is the length of time that patches are in bad shape that they stay in that condition. Is this typically the it says also that the report says that this the inspections are typically done during downtime while they're working on other projects in the area and my question is is this the most efficient way of doing it? Is this considered best practice? And is there any ways, given the kind of short staff that we have that is doing such, that's taking on this massive amount of patchwork,

Again, are there more efficient ways that this can be done?

Commissioner?

Through the Chair, every day we're looking at ways to be more efficient, but I will point out that last and so forth. In calendar year 25, we had 5,210 permits that were issued. From April 1st of 2025 through May 31st of 2026, we had nearly 4,900 and other permits that were issued. And each one of those equates to a hole or a cut in the roadway. So those seven inspectors, they're inspecting the work as it's going on. And once the temporary patch goes in, then that restoration inspector of which there is one for over 4,000 excavations that's that's a tall task for that one so we are every day looking at ways to be more efficient but one of the things that I will call to your attention

We have a recommendation coming up of increasing the guarantee period from two years to five years so that a utility company won't be as apt to think, well, I just need to watch out for this for two years, and then I'm free and clear. If we make it a five-year period, then they'll be more apt to be more careful with their compaction, with their methodologies used for full restoration.

Thank you. And again, I know there is a massive amount of work orders and inspections, and it is a tall task to ask this of such a small team, which I want to really go on record and say I think it would be important to staff this up. and to increase the amount of inspectors that we have working out there on these issues to really turn things around quicker so thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. So we'll send that to Public Works. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. Next item is recommended adoption of ordinance to modify the requirements to replace the distributed portions of streets to extend the warranty period from 24 months to 60 months. So we can send out the committee or, okay, you want a committee? Councilor?

Mr. Chairman, we spoke about this already in committee, if I'm not mistaken, Commissioner, a couple months back, and I don't know if we can move the item forward.

We can do a motion to advertise.

Yep, let's get it going.

Okay, motion to advertise, roll call.

Councilor Bergman?

Yes. Councilor Bilotta?

Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King?

Yes.

Councilor Mitra. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. Thank you. Next item is to transmit information and communication about the water and sewer rates to send out to Public Works. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. We are at 9.19a, Transformation and Communication for the Veterans Services Division, efforts to recognize Worcester's residents who served in World War II but are not currently commemorated. Councilor Bergman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank Alex Hiriaga and also our city manager. This is something that myself and I'm sure other colleagues have been asking to see a tangible document about. And just to recap very briefly, the reason why we are where we are on this issue is that in order to have you had your name on the World War II Memorial Monument on the Common, And I was fortunate enough with some of my colleagues here to be there as a council and it was dedicated. It's a beautiful monument. But in order to have had your name on there, you had either killed in battle, missing in action, or lost at sea. And killed in battle, at the time was defined with the 90 days of death. We were able to extend that to what is at the Vietnam War Memorial, which is 120 days.

of injury to death, which means that there are some people that were injured during World War II and other wars that passed away months after, more than four months after their injuries, and they're not recognized. There were also people that die in accidental deaths while serving their country in active duty that, but for the fact they were in active duty, wouldn't have died. So what this order seeks to do is to recognize, particularly those in World War II that have served that didn't fall neatly, and I hate to use that word, under the categories of being in active duty, and being injured or killed within 120 days of their injury, lost at sea or missing in action. And surprisingly to me, maybe not to others, there are 265 names of original Worcester residents that would qualify, were we to open this up to simply saying, if you were in active duty

Death resulted during World War II, during September 16, 1940, through July 25, 1947. We will recognize you. So the question really boils down to, I think there's a will amongst all of us to do that, is how do we best recognize these individuals? Do we add to the existing World War II Memorial? Do we create a separate one? Or do we do something between the two of them? And I certainly think there's a lot of great conversation that needs to happen. amongst various stakeholders and administrative offices. I look forward to those conversations and most importantly, As we still have World War II veterans living amongst us, they're getting less and less over time, I would look forward to getting this done sooner than later so that those that are with us can see tangible proof that we continue to recognize all those who have served and died, not only those that fit under the previous categories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Send that to our PACs. Those in favor, opposed, so awarded. We are on 9.268, Transmitting Information and Communication, relative to the fiscal year 27 budget. And we also have, can you go through the finance items? That's on here twice, okay. Okay, let's finish off the calendar, then we'll come back to that. It's at the end of the calendar. So we have 9.36A and 9.37A. These are finance items. We're gonna adopt on the roll call. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, so we'll take 9.26A along with 9.38A and 9.39A and 9.39B. So we'll start with the presentation, Mr. Manager.

What items, Mr. Chairman, again? What were the three items? I know 9.39 A and B, but what else did you say?

9.38A, which is really part of the 9.39B, I would think. And 9.39A, so anything to do with the budget. We'll put that in the committee, all these items. Mr. Manager, welcome to your $1 million budget.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Through the Chair, through the Council, you know, it gives me great pride and pleasure to present today the FY27 budget. There's a lot that went in to take to develop in this budget, a lot of considerations, a lot of discussions with department heads, a lot of discussions with the city council as well, and hearing and listening from community and the needs from neighborhood meetings So this year, what we've decided as the theme for our budget is funding the future through smart spending and stronger outcomes. The mission that we've created collectively as a city for the city of Worcester is to deliver exceptional public services, and municipal operations that are rooted in equity, innovation and integrity and centered on people.

This budget here is giving us a chance to kind of rethink a little bit of our funding, improve some of the allocations, of Resources, but at the same time achieving what we want to achieve, which is addressing community needs. As you all know, this is a $1 billion budget. We've achieved that as a city. This is a historical moment because we're achieving that mark, a $1 billion budget for FY27. But to develop this budget was a little bit challenging. It took some work from the team to be able to look through the areas that needed to be addressed. And one of the things that we did was that we focused on reallocating resources to improve what we've talked about here in this console floor as core services. Two, encourage business growth. And then three, enhance the management and maintenance of our infrastructure. And we spend significant amount of time discussing our infrastructure here in our city.

This budget also presents a capital budget that identifies funding for public works, for public safety, and also our school projects. One of the key highlights of this budget is also addressing our people and providing a cost of living increase of 2% to our staff. A strategic decision of this budget, understanding and knowing the need to add certain strategic positions, but we also didn't want to increase the compliment of staffing FTEs to the municipality because of the budget constraints. So this budget presents no new net positions, which means that we were able to effectively offset positions from different departments that are either positions that were open, underutilized, or under-resourced, and we were then able to reallocate to other departments.

One of the biggest things, and I'll talk about that a little later in the presentation, is the City of Worcester has continued, and we, as part of our recommendation, is maintaining the unused tax levy capacity. We have the seventh highest unused tax heavy capacity in the state of Massachusetts, which is at $25.8 million, just shy of $26 million. So how do we, what are we gonna do, and what are we gonna do to address the needs of our community through this budget? There's three particular areas, and I'll start with the first one, infrastructure. We spent a number of hours, time, listening, hearing from neighborhoods, from the council as well. into the importance of providing good road network, good infrastructure, not only in our streets and sidewalks, but also our parks as well. So this budget here presents an increased funding to parks cleanups,

and increased funding for citywide disposal, waste disposal and clean cleanliness initiatives. Something that we've been working towards for a number of years now. This budget also presents an extension of Millbury Drop-Off Center, extending the hours and the days for that drop-off center for our community, something that's been heavily discussed in this council floor, not only from this council, but also the previous councilors, and probably even more before that. One of the things that we're continuing here is line painting and temporary permanent speed humps. We were just talking about line painting. It's continued funding there, and this is a proactive approach that DTM addresses our line painting in the city. We're exceeding our capital funding for our pavement management program. We're exceeding that of $19.4 million. We're exceeding that to address our infrastructure.

were increasing the DPW's capital equipment to address not only the fleet, but also significant snow upgrades. And then we're going to be reconstructing a number of parks. Lakeview Park is important. Great Valley. We talked about that one here. Holmes Field, multiple playgrounds and also much more. The second area that we're going to put some investment dollars is going to be public safety. And so we're going to talk a little bit about what that means here. When we talk about public safety, there's a number of departments. There's four departments associated in public safety. It's the Worcester Police Department, the Fire Department, Emergency Communications, and the Department of Inspectional Services. One of the biggest things that plays a role in preparing for the budget is also managing the collective bargaining agreements.

And so we have put some funding forward for police and fire collective bargaining agreements. We're actually going into agreements, I mean, negotiations with all of our collective bargaining unions happening in FY27. All of them end at FY26. This budget also provides an allowance for recruit classes for police and fire to add to the complement, to maintain the complement, but add to the attrition that happens in those departments. One of the two strategic positions that we've added to this budget to support our small businesses and support the efficiency of delivery of services into the inspectional services is adding a wiring electrical inspector and a gas and plumbing inspector. Those are the two areas that we've seen a significant increase in the city in permits and inspections, and so we need some support there.

We have started the groundwork at the new Southwestern Division Fire Station. And so this upcoming budget will start to materialize the funding that will go to build and you can see a little bit of the rendering there in your PowerPoint, the rendering of that fire station. We are also going to be transitioning the monies from Police Department and the Fire Department relative to the maintenance of the buildings to the Department of Facilities. Department of Facilities as part of this transition they've been phasing multiple municipal buildings as part of their overall work and so this year we're transitioning that work and and we're gonna provide more efficiencies in the way we do clean and also maintain our facilities. And then we're committing to invest in our police headquarters. We started that last fiscal year.

The council body supported a loan authorization and borrowing to fix the HVAC, electrical, and some additional needs, I believe plumbing as well in that building. This year is a continuation of that, but also we're adding an authorization for $5 million to address the roof of the police department. The third component here as part of the needs of reallocating our resources, it's operations. And that's really the day-to-day of our municipal government. And that all starts with people. and so we're trying to address that with providing some cost of living adjustment at a 2%. We're continuing a compensation and pay study that we started in the past couple of years to address some of the kind of inequities that we've seen in some departments and some positions. We're preparing the implementation of employee

Performance Evaluations for Senior Management position in FY27, something that we've talked about in this council body. We're adding additional security investments in the Worcester Public Library. We're finally going live with our HCM product, basically Workday for the purposes of city payroll and human resources. For the history of the city, we've been doing this work manually. We're finally going into a digital environment for our employees, which is literally getting us into the 21st century and changing the way we do our business. This is a major, is a big deal for the employees in the way they do their benefits, their payroll, manage their time, etc. that now be able to do it in their fingertips, on their phones, and online. Something that we've never been able to do as a city.

And then lastly, to reinforce and support our renewed focus on small business support, we're adding a targeted position in economic development to support our small businesses and provide additional support in special projects. This has been an important position that's been discussed in this council body, not only this council, but the previous council. and in conversations with business community as well. So when we look at the budget, the budget is broken down in three components. There's three areas in which the budget provides revenues or brings in revenues. It is important for everyone to know that every municipality across the entire state of Massachusetts is required to provide and present a balanced budget, which means your revenues and expenses, they have to even out every single year.

This year our revenues are composed of, every year there's three areas that our revenues are composed of. This year we have a 4.5% increase of those revenues. The biggest majority increase is a state aid governor's budget. So when we base this budget, we base it on the governor's recommendations, then it goes to the House, then it goes to the Senate, then it goes back to the governor, and then it's finalized. We then come back later on sometime in November or so with a recap to make those adjustments. Thank you. In the governor's budget, the governor's proposing a 6% increase. Chapter 78 has a 6.3% increase of $26 million, and then local aid is a $1.3 million, which is only a 2.5% increase. The second component is property tax. That's one of the biggest components of where the city receives taxes to do the day-to-day operations of municipal government. That will see a 4.8 increase. And where do we see that increase?

That increase is this growth that we adjust in the municipal budget. We adjusted by Prop two and a half and also a new growth. included overlay, but this year we have level funded overlay at 3.7. You know, there was mentioned here earlier about motor vehicles excise tax. That all is lumped in into local receipts. And so local receipts, we're seeing a 4% increase. And the increase is really particular to net metering credits, our solar's. Licensing Permits, and then our fines. There is a slight decrease that we've seen in local receipts, and that was either lease revenues that we've had across the city, but also in interest income. The income that we've received has actually come down as well. And so what does that look like on the expense side in balancing this budget? When we look at the expense side, we look at the education.

Education has a $612 million allocation, which is $38.8 million increase. It's a 6% increase. Fixed costs, we see a $3.8 million increase, which is about 2.3%. The next component of increase is public safety. And I know that was mentioned about public safety and some of the impacts of that increase. That increase really is due to the fact that We have had over the past three years, we applied for safer grants for the fire departments. Those safer grants were tailing off those safer grants and so we've had to make now, we're taking that on in the tax levy, the general tax levy where we have to fund those positions through the tax levy, not through the grants that we historically had. And so that is the biggest increase to public safety you see here. There's investments in infrastructure and then the rest of which is municipal services as well.

So when we think about stretching the dollar and what that impact is to the city, This slide here shows the three ways in which the dollar is broken up for a municipal government, especially here in the city of Worcester. So this slide here shows the three ways. One is education, the second is fixed costs, and the third is city operations. and the city operations is everything else. 17 departments that are here every other week or so communicating all the things that they're working through. 2,000 plus employees. That is that component. And so this is the way it's broken up. And it's our job to find a way to stretch that luller just a little bit more every single time. And so I want to talk about the education because I know that's an important conversation and also important for people to understand.

The education budget is seeing an increase of, we talked about an increase of 6%. which means it consumes now the budget of 61.3% of the budget at $612 million. What we're seeing here is three areas in which that increase impacts. It impacts the Worcester public schools, it impacts charter school tuition, and it also impacts special education. The biggest impact and the biggest increase is the general fund for the Worcester Public Schools, which is $31.7 million, that's 6%. However, it is important to note, and I have a note here, that this is the last year of the Student Opportunity Act. And so over the past five years, there's been a significant growth to try to create the base of what it is the education funding should be or the schools funding should be across the entire state.

and so this is the last year of the Student Opportunity Act which is a five-year initiative and so this increase here is that per se last increase of the Worcester Public Schools, which will now create the base of that budget moving forward for the municipality. The next graph here just shows you kind of what that increase has been over the past 10 years, not only to the local required contribution by the city for chapter 70, but also the foundation budget and what that increase has been. You know, during my tenure here working with the council body, the city has actual, the actual contribution has increased almost $28 million, our actual contribution to the public schools. Additionally, in FY27, we are actually included the FY26 mid-year contribution. So if you all remember back in December, if not November, we submitted

the mid-year recap. And what we did there, we fulfilled the NESCU spending by adding free cash dollars and new growth dollars but we went beyond also the net school spending. What we've done in this budget, we have now created that as the base in terms of what that would look like for the following year and that was roughly $3.9 million. I do want to state that what this council and this administration done in the last three years, in the last decade, this three years and compared to the last decade has been unprecedented in the amount of money that we as a council, as a body, as a city manager, have worked collectively to contribute to the Worcester Public Schools The next slide here, it depicts the next school spending. And when you look at the blue bar, the blue bar is the actual excess city contribution that we've provided the Worcester Public Schools.

The green that you see here, it's what actually gets credited as a city contribution. and so we give, but not all gets credited because of NESQL spending, right? And so, you know, it just depicts a little bit of what I said earlier of our, and if you see the last three years FY20, 4, 25, 26, and now coming up to FY27, you've seen that significant growth and contribution that we've provided the Worcester Public Schools. And so amidst of all of that, we have fixed costs. And those fixed costs play a big role in what we can and cannot do. And it goes back to that dollar. There's three components. One is the education budget and the next one is fixed costs. I don't have control over those. Our job as an administration and the council is in some ways receive the dollars and contribute those to the schools. And then the fixed cost, it's an obligation that we have to manage every single year.

The fixed cost, if you see the pie chart here, the pie chart indicates the areas in which it's broken down. The biggest component is debt service. Over the past couple of years, we've been able to try to manage the debt service as a city. We want to make sure that we prepare for the future. We have a new high school that we need to prepare for. We have infrastructure needs. We have capital needs. The second highest expense here is pensions, which is at 23.1%. And then the next one is health insurance. Health Insurance this year, we saw an 8% increase in health insurance. Health insurance is going up significantly, not only for the city of Worcester, but across the board, and that has been a significant impact to the development of this budget. And so that leaves us with a capital budget of where we're going to put our dollars. And so where we're going to put our dollars is I've communicated before is public works, facility investments, parks, investments and equipment.

The biggest impact that you'll see in the capital budget is going to be Public Works. We're proposing and recommending a 66% increase to Public Works, a 66% increase from FY26. to address streets, sidewalks, additional equipment, maintain roadways, improve snow removal operations. We've talked about all of that. And so that's what we're going to address as part of this capital budget. In addition to We're funding a lot of our Complete Streets initiatives through to transportation and mobility, making sure that we increase our roughly $2.3 million for roadway design and engineering. We had a roof collapse in DPW on East Worcester Street. We need to address that. It's a $3 million investment.

Our facilities, like I mentioned, the Southwestern Division Fire, we're providing funding for Worcester Public Schools in terms of supporting and sustaining their schools. the desk service in their schools, municipal garages. We need to make some investments in those garages. I mentioned the police department investments. and then when we look at parks, we look at Lincoln Square, Lakeview, citywide parks, playgrounds, South Worcester playground, Salisbury Pond improvements, Green Hill Golf Course, and then in our equipment investments it's not only police fleet, our DPW fleet, our sewer and water fleet, our parks fleet and then also our fire fleet and their radios. This last slide here, and I'll end the presentation with this slide. This slide here, I was debating whether to show it or not, and I thought it was a good...

I wanted not just to knock other communities as they're struggling and having the challenges, but I also wanted to depict the constraints that we're experiencing as a state. as a federal government, but also as a city in regards to our ability to fund the day-to-day operations with a limited amount of revenue that we're able to receive. As you can see here, these are all headlines across the entire state of different municipalities. We know that many municipalities across the state have filed for overrides. It's a real need in our state. However, the bright side of Worcester is that we're not in that position. Worcester is not in that position because of the city council and the city administration for a number of years. holding true to the financial integrity plan, working hand in hand to make sure that one, we stayed true to that financial integrity plan, and we conservatively, and we budget conservatively,

to make sure that, yes, we provide the services that we need to, but also at the same time we look into the future to sustain our budget through these ups and downs and weathering the storm. The other important thing to know that I mentioned earlier is we have a $26 million unused tax levy capacity. It's the seventh highest in the state, which means we have the ability as a city, as a council, to tax the residents another $26 million. but that's a decision that we are intentionally choosing not to and working as best as we can to manage a budget, present a balanced budget, do the day-to-day services but at the same time taking into consideration the taxpayers of this community. and that's important to know. That's not just happening by the administration, it's happening by the council body as well. And then I'll just end it here. I can't go on without thanking the team that really put this together.

under leadership of CFO Tim McGurthy, his budget director, Emron Taylor, and our assistant city manager, Hung Nguyen. All three spent significant amount of hours and time with every department and going through all the requests, going through all the revenue assumptions, all of the estimates, looking at trends, looking at ways that we could be Be creative to provide the services that we need to do, but at the same time be mindful of not overspending and managing our budget in a way that also doesn't impact our residents. Yes, it's a billion dollar budget. Majority of that is due to the Student Opportunity Act and the increase in the school department to up to $600 million. But again, it's a good budget. It's a budget that we feel very strong in terms of what we've been able to present because it achieves the mission of what we want to do is provide exceptional services to our community. which I think there's something in a value that we all share.

So I thank the council for the opportunity to present this budget. I thank the council for the discussions and the insight and the input to develop this budget. but I also then look forward to the conversations and the budget hearings with the department so you can hear from them specifically their needs and what they're planning to do with the specific allocation of dollars that we've been able to fund as they go out throughout the days supporting the residents, but also supporting the overall good of the community. So thank you.

Thank you Mr. Manager for the presentation. So next Tuesday will be the first budget session. We're going to be going over what's the public schools, emergency communications, O'Connor, Executive Office of Economic Development, Police, Fire, and Special Services, and Public Facilities. Councilor O'Connor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Hopefully Nico can send us an email with those. departments that will be hearing next week. That'd be appreciated. Mr. Manager, thank you to you, your staff, and finance there too. All your department heads for coming forward with the budget that you came forward with. I for one, it's a healthy budget, right? For sure. But I for one, I thank you for coming forward with things that we've discussed here on this council floor. whether it be the public works, the public work improvements. That's a tremendous amount of money that's going to public works. You've heard what we've discussed and I'm happy to hear that the money's going to that area. I'm happy to hear the improvements that we're going to be making to our parks. These are things that

If I don't hear about this every day, I'm lying to you, right? Every day, all day, as a district council, parks, our streets, the top two items that I hear about daily, and I'm honored to hear that that's going, that the budget is heavy in those areas. I still feel that police station, I'd love to see an RFP put or a request for proposal for that building. not the right spot for a police station. It's the main intersection in the city. And work to find a way to massage something with a developer in exchange for The Parcel. I think the improvements that we are making to that building, that building is just a concrete jungle. We all know it. but we need to make the improvements. South Station, sorely needed. I appreciate the funds going to fires there as well.

And the last thing I'm just going to comment on, I'll save more as we go through the budget session, but adding that position in economic development for small businesses. I think this is the perfect opportunity for our city to become a leader in shepherding small businesses back into the city. And I think a position of that type would benefit us in the long run, whether it adds jobs, improves our vacant storefronts, creates vitality back in our neighborhoods, and just stabilizes the overall economy. So I applaud you for those items that I just reeled off. and I look forward to getting deeper into this as we get into budget session. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Fussell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Through you, I just have a couple items I'd just like to bring up and get some edification from the manager before we start next week. Through you to the manager, I see on one page here, no net new positions. But we have to fill openings that now exist to provide the highest quality of city services. How are we addressing our need to, I know the city, the civil service list is and so on. That's something the city has to follow. But can you tell us it still wasn't passed, the home rule petition wasn't passed in the legislature? How are we going about to fill positions in this next budget? I've heard that that's the reason why a lot of things aren't being completed and I'd like to see that addressed in this upcoming budget.

Mr. Manager?

Yeah, through the chair to the council, the majority of the positions in the city of Worcester go through a civil service process. and which means that they need to put their name on a list and they then to wait to hear from the municipality on when those positions have become available or when we have the opportunity to go through the list. because again, we have to request the list, civil service, we have to verify that list, we have to verify the individuals, it's a kind of tedious process, and then we have to make those outreach to the individuals who go through that. Those lists can have hundreds of people in them. And so then the HR, once they do that process, then they have to make outreach to all of them, invite them for interviews, go through the process. And sometimes we have... another list that has established itself.

And it's 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 people on that list, and we still haven't gone through the other. So one of the things that we did, because it did not only impact the municipality, it also impacted Worcester Public Schools. So we're talking about 26 unions all together that are impacted by it. And so collectively as members of the city and working with the schools, and working with all the unions, we felt as though this would be an opportunity for us to leave the civil service process. So that gives us the abilities that if we have a position open today, and we need to hire somebody. We can post that today. target post the position, do targeted outreach, and be able to interview a person and get somebody into work right away, rather than going through that tedious process. Because sometimes the civil service list, the person puts a name on the list, six months later they're getting a call. We want to avoid that. We presented a home rule petition.

The council voted for that. The council fully supported it. And then I went to the state delegation. The delegation worked through that process. and the state delegation was able to then move it to study. I think there's a bigger discussion happening around civil service around the state that might have prevented this from moving forward. regarding civil service, the Civil Service Commission, et cetera. So we, in our support and advocacy with the delegation, the delegation working to advocate as well unfortunately right now it sits in study our hope is to continue to work with the delegation and eventually get it out of study and get it voted get it supported so that we have that flexibility to be able to hire and recruit people here in the city of Worcester not just for the city but also the public schools because again there's 26 unions so it's thousands of employees.

I hear you loud and clear through you Mr. Chairman and any way we can expedite that with a game plan to hire those positions that are open I encourage that because I hear it from people that apply for jobs and never hear anything so you you just explained why So the general public needed to hear that, and I appreciate that. Moving on. I also would like to ask you, Mr. Manager, the House budget was passed last week. What was the increases in local aid in Chapter 70 in school aid? Do we know that? Because serving in the legislature for eight terms I believe your increases that you should plan on are closer to the legislature's budgets than the governor. So have you any idea what came out of their budget last week? If not, I would encourage you to do so.

And those are numbers that I think are more firm to go by.

Yeah, through the Chair of the Council. Yeah, we spent quite a bit of time evaluating what the House and the Senate do. And we always know kind of what historical kind of trends of the Senate and the House what roles they play and what areas they focus more. And that's an area that we try to pay attention and come back to the council with some recommendations, especially during the recap. So we're definitely always monitoring that. Tim and his team are always looking to understand what's coming from there. So we'd definitely be able to evaluate that and then be able to make the adjustments necessary. Okay, thank you.

One question, why are we increasing charter school tuition? There are no new charter schools opening up, but why, I thought, educate me, why is that the case?

To the Chair, to the Council, there was one charter school that opened up, I believe, a couple of years ago, but that increase is just due to what the Governor's budget proposal recommendations are. I can't look deeply into there to understand but I do know the city of Worcester there's another charter school that had opened up in the city about a year or two ago that there was a lot of discussions about and fears that dollars will go to them rather than those dollars going to the school department.

Okay, so what you're saying then through you, Mr. Chairman, is that any increases in charter school tuition is something that'll be coming from the state and you have to? forward that to them or is it costing the city?

Yeah, to the council, all the charter school allocation, that's a state formula that just comes to us and then it goes right back out. I can have Tim McGirthy if he can give you more details on that.

Yeah, I'd like to hear what the CFO has to say on that, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Through the Chair, as the Manager indicated, this is a number that we're given by the Commonwealth. We're required to use the Governor's budget proposal to produce our preliminary budget. as the manager indicated as we go along in the house and the senate come out and then they do their reconciliation to get to the final budget that's when we come back to city council in the fall to right size all of the numbers But the charter school formula, the charter school number is generated by DESE, who gives it to DOR, who includes it on the cherry sheet. the city's given that number. It does change because it's not only new charter schools but it's students moving back and forth from public schools to charter schools or from the Worcester public schools to charter schools. So you will see that number fluctuate throughout year over year over year. The associated number is the city does get funding to compensate when students move out of the Worcester public schools to the charter schools.

there's a period of transition for each student so there is some money coming in related to charter schools but then there's a significant piece going out that comes off the top. It's why you'll see the city municipal budget has a $612 million education budget. but the city, the Worcester public schools budget is about 573 million of that bigger number. Our number includes both public schools and the charter school component.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for explaining that to me. I appreciate it. I'll end, Mr. Chairman, by saying the increase in public works, I agree with wholeheartedly, and Mr. Manager, I... I would ask you to definitely look at increasing the bodies the employees there to you know again give the taxpayers of this city the best quality services we can. Everybody knows the complaints we've heard about our streets and sidewalks and Snowstorms and so on and so forth. I see the equipment that's being bought and increased on but I'm hoping next year we'll have the bodies to man the trash pickup, do the street sweeping so we're not moving people from the street department over the trash when we need it. We need to get those positions filled and I hope you'll concentrate on that in this budget.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Rosen?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sometimes it's hard to picture $1 billion. We can picture $1 million, and this budget is 1,000 times One million dollars. And as we all know, the city Councilor King't add to the budget. but we can subtract from the budget, at least make recommendations to the manager. We can't do line items but we can say maybe we should Cut it. And I think through the chair, the manager, you realize year after year, all the years that I've been on the council, I don't even remember City Council cutting the budget. I mean, you could almost, my prediction would be you could almost

say as it reads to tonight's budget and there it is without the hearings and of course I want the hearings I'm just saying that we intend not to cut the budget so Mr. Chairman this is not an order this is just a question okay and I know some people get all excited in the community if you ask a question because they interpret it a certain way. I'm just going to say this is 1,000 times a million dollars. That's a billion dollars. 1,000 times. So what would happen through the chair to the manager if we the city council just said we're going to cut the budget by a million dollars. That would still give us 999 more of those million dollars. So what would happen? How would you respond to that? What would you do if the City Council traditionally made some cuts, which we don't do? We traditionally don't. Through the Chair to the Manager.

Mr. Manager.

Through the Chair to the Council, I appreciate that question. It is a big budget. take 612 out of it. I don't have control. Council will have 612. That's a good point. And then take 173, 172, that's fixed cost. We gotta pay that no matter what, take that out of it. So the 220 is 17 departments, 2,000 plus employees. Those departments submitted to me $11 million of requests of needs that they have in the department, whether it's increases to staff, adding more staff, equipment, et cetera, et cetera, you name it, about $11 million of requests. I had just a little over $2 million to be able to allocate to those departments on the operating of new requests. The rest of it was just status quo.

paying people salaries, step increases, funding programs that we just do. It's just status quo municipal government. So I had $2 million. If you cut $1 million out of that, then that's $1 million less of what I have to provide for new things, things that the council have requested that I will not be funding in this budget.

So through the chair to the manager. So a million dollars, even though I was saying that it's a thousand times a million, that would really be painful if we ever did that, am I correct?

Mr. Manager.

Oh, absolutely, because we worked extremely difficult to find those $2 million just to have something that I can be able to give back to departments.

OK, because I think people, and sometimes in the public, think it's easy. They see the billion as the 1,000 million. And they say, gee, that will leave, as I said, 999 more million. It doesn't quite work that way. Through the chair to the manager, I think people wonder how much input went into this budget. Some people might say this is Eric Batista's budget. Is it just your budget? And I know you touched on it when you made your presentation. I don't want you to feel free. You have to talk for 10 minutes here. whose budget is it? You meet regularly with the city council. You've done that for a few years. have been the city manager. You've met with all of us the last few months. So we all provide input. And I assume that shows up in the budget. And where does our input come from, each one of us? It comes from the public. So we're representing them.

So the budget is more than you and your staff. It is the public's budget, and it reflects the needs. Could you touch on that just a little bit? you know from when I hear from people and I don't do social media I can't read very much but the little I read sometimes I don't think they understand that it really is the public's budget yeah

This budget and every municipal budget should and needs to be informed by the public of the city. and that encompasses everybody from employees who work in the municipal government to residents who live in the city to business owners to city councilors to every non-profit organization Every petition that comes on the council floor that gets moved forward as an item for the traffic and parking committee or any other committee to be adopted and supported that goes into a list of things that we have to do Everything involves community input. from neighborhood meetings to crime watch meetings to business meetings that have in the districts.

to conversations with development and trying to develop and provide new housing to the needs, not only the needs of what's happening in the city of Worcester, but perhaps what's happening around the region that we also need to play a role in. So when you think about the creation of a budget, it's not Eric Batista sitting, I'm the one presenting, I'm the one that's spending. At the end of the day, I'm the one making the final decisions. but it's every single department head spending significant amount of time with their teams reviewing their expenditures, reviewing what their needs are, and then presenting that to the budget team and then the budget team spends significant amount of time scrubbing through it, finding areas that we need to make reductions, areas that we can move, reallocate, move, you haven't spent X amount of dollars in the past five years, we're gonna take that away and we're gonna put it over here. And so when we think about the $2 million that I had to work with,

Yes, in some ways you can say it's new money that we found through either revenues, increased revenues, but it's also finding ways in which we needed to cut some areas in some departments that were funded that we needed to also reduce and the allocation there and move it to another department. And so there's a lot of that that happens across the entire, there's positions here that perhaps we may have made a decision to unfund because right now that position hasn't been utilized. So let's unfund that position. So there's a whole bunch of things that happened through this. At the end of the day, I'm the decision maker. But there's hours and hours and numbers and numbers of people who are providing input, providing conversations. I meet one-on-one with all the counselors. You provide your inputs, your thoughts, your ideas.

Your kind of priorities, your orders, your petitions, the conversations that happen on the council floor, committees and task force that I'm involved in, all of that comes in and helps to develop the budget that we have today.

Thank you for making it clear that this is the public's budget. It's not just the city council's or the manager's, the mayor's. you know there's been as you listed there there's just so much input from so many segments of our community that goes into this budget and it's a year-long process and it's probably even more than a year long process because some of the things in the budget you probably heard a year or two ago and you said I'll keep that in mind and maybe it's appearing in this budget. to wrap up, what about the, through the chair to the manager, what about the cost of fuel? Now that's just changed drastically in the last few months. budget, take that into consideration? Or if the war in Iran goes on for many, many more months or another year, I mean, are we going to be in trouble because of the cost of fuel here in the city, Worcester?

Mr. Manager?

Through the Chair to the Councilor, yes. Not only fuel, but also electricity. Just to give you in perspective, there's an increase here of close to $300,000 because we've seen this increase in utility of electricity for our water pump stations. We got to keep our water pump stations going. We got to make sure. And that's almost $300,000 of utility increase that we have to be able to fund. So there's things like that in this budget that significantly not only impact the residents on their day-to-day quality of life but also impacts the day-to-day operations of the municipal government.

OK, so what we can expect through the chair to the manager that there is a deficit, though forgetting the electricity, which, as you said, is important, but in the use of regular gasoline and diesel fuel, especially.

That is correct. There's an increase in that and you'll see some areas here in those line items increases for that.

Right, but you probably didn't, when you did this budget and that part of it, you probably weren't thinking of war in Iran at the time and what it's costing for gasoline. And the last thing is, and I've brought it up before, and I guess it'll never happen, but you still mention it. The Worcester Public Schools is a department in the city of Worcester, like the police department, the fire department, the public health department, public works department, and so on. It's a huge department, but it's one of our departments. Is there any way we could share staff with them? I'll just throw out the human resources. I mean, they have their own human resources. as the city of Worcester has its own human resources. The fire department doesn't have, I don't think, its own human resource department. Is there more we could do through the chair to the manager by combining, uniting some of the services that we might overlap?

I don't you know I'm not trying to do what the school committee does I'm just trying to save the taxpayers some money is it something that we've looked at in the past or we might look at at least in the future

Yeah, through the chair to the council, there's a number of positions that support the public schools in our municipal land. One is the law department. The law department spends a significant amount of time on contracts. One position that you will see here is an added attorney specifically designated for the Worcester Public Schools. and it's gonna be, and it's in the budget. In addition to that, our HR team, the Human Resources Department manages all the benefits for the Wilson Public Schools.

Even though they have their own, the school has their own human resources. You don't think we could ever absorb the human resources of the Worcester public schools?

No, because they do a lot more so of the recruitment of the teachers and the professionals and paraprofessionals, et cetera. They focus more on that recruitment. but all the benefits and any other areas that they need support related to human resources, our team here supports that. Our budget office and our finance office spends a significant amount of time going and supporting the Worcester Public Schools and the dollars that come in and out. Facilities plays a big role in supporting them. Our facilities department is the one who manages the design and construction of all brand new schools, including some of the larger repairs that happen. in the Worcester Public Schools. Our Department of Sustainability and Resiliency manages all the sustainable infrastructure that happens in the schools. They work through, so there's a lot of kind of Interdepartmental cross collaboration that happens with the schools.

We're always finding ways that we can be more efficient together, but there's a number of staff across the municipality that provides support on a day-to-day basis of core services.

So when we look at the funding that the city provides to the Worcester public schools, mainly from what we'll say are taxpayers, We certainly, as you've mentioned, we have several staff and departments on the city side who also loan their expertise and help and advice and assistance and all that to the public schools that might not be counted by the public schools. They're talking more often when we get lobbied as city councilors by the public school and the parents and teachers and so on, staff members. That's fine that they lobby us, but they sometimes do forget many of the positions that you mentioned that provide services to them that they don't have to pay for. so that I think that's something important but I look forward to really delving Mr. Mayor into this budget it's interesting first time of a thousand times a million and hopefully you know we'll take a look at each department and I think you've done a good job on it from what I've read so far.

I've got a lot more reading to do, of course, but I think you and your department heads and your finance department especially have done a terrific job. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilor Mitra.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, through you to City Manager. I do not have any questions. I just have some comments. I think I want to congratulate you. Congratulations to your team, the CFO and his team for bringing together a discussion worth budget for us. I know we have many questions as we move forward with the hearing. I just wanted to say that budget is a matter of compromise in my mind. We like to see that the money is used for what is best for our city, for the residents. And that's what our job will be to see that it's allocated that way. that's coming in next few weeks. But I think what you have focused here, including us in your discussion, and also focusing on what is really needed for this city. The economic growth, the infrastructure, public safety and education. I think these are the most primary things and you have focused it very well

We will go into the details to see what should be done. But I really want to congratulate you for bringing in this budget which is now one billion dollars. I personally feel We are very privileged that first time being a councillor starting with a one million dollar budget is going to be a history for me to remember this for all the time. But I think now it is time for us to see that this city Even though we are second largest, but we have the ability, this council has the ability to work together to make it the best city in the Commonwealth. We may be second largest, but we could be the best by creating a culture, by making this city safer, making this city affordable, making this city more comfortable, and making this city so attractive that we can fetch in Many business owners, making it more friendly to the business community and making this city to be having more jobs. And that's the ultimate goal, to see that we have more jobs with the budget we have in our hand, the money we have in our hand,

We all have to put our minds together to see how we can now use this money so that more and more people can find this city. is the best city to come here, do their business, raise their family and call, I'm so proud to be in Worcester. That's all I want. So thank you everyone for doing such a great job.

Thank you. Anybody else? Councilor Rivera?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, also don't have any questions. Wanted to share a few things. Agree with the councilors before me. Thank you, everybody. Yeah, billion dollar, very historic, you know, and I thank you for this, for making this so visible because I think it's important that, like they mentioned a lot on social media out there, it's a lot of negativity going on because they don't have the they have a different perspective or they're coming from a different understanding. So you know, and obviously as a city councilor I gotta represent my and constituents. But I want them to understand that that's what we're going to do in these next few weeks with the budget. but I want to thank the city manager for making this visible because we know that this budget is

What we're looking for is visible progress, real housing solutions, safer streets and sidewalks, stronger infrastructure, and a measurable quality of life improvements. The residents are, you know, we know they're dealing with high rising costs, homelessness, mental health issues, substance abuse crisis, and deteriorating infrastructure and roads, which this budget is covering. and obviously it's a big budget so they're feeling increasingly insecure, unsupported and unable to afford living here. and other taxpayers have every right to question their elected officials on what measures are being taken to improve and enhance their overall quality of life. but many residents are not aware, you know, and thank you city manager for mentioning today, you know, that 60%, over 60%, over 600,

and the decision, obviously I had to say the decision Having that kind of budget to have to close some schools that caters to Irish children raises some concerns with some of the residents. but I think what the city manager has provided so far and I will be going through deviling in this next four weeks I know is that the Worcester what they want is transparency and and expect some competent fiscal leadership and people who will prioritize the community needs. I think that's what we'll be doing. and I think it's important as city councilors that we explain to our residents how important this historic budget is and how much it's going to help them. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Councilor Toomey?

Just thank you. Just a point of information. I did see the article regarding the program closures. I do want to state that from what I understand those programs are going to be assumed by the Worcester Education Collaborative so those services will still be given to the students they won't be at the at the facilities. I know the new, the new, the new, it's this, oh my God, I can't think of the name of it, but it was after Jim Caradonio, new Citizen Center. I know that they're not going to be using that building they are assuming some of the programs into that junior highs and high schools so those I just wanted to be clear these these youth are not losing their services while they're moving the program, restructuring, they're not gonna be, the services will still be provided. So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so I'm gonna send this to Council King.

Mr. Chairman before I begin my time just point of order on these particular matters one indicates an adoption on a roll call another one is written recommend approval just for Clarification here. Will the motion be to send to committee?

Yeah, I already said that. I said 9.38A, we're gonna send to committee, I've said that at the beginning of the meeting, along with the two finance items, we're gonna file We're going to file the presentation. So these three items all go to committee.

OK. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Again, I have stated this numerous times, I approach governing with a coaching mentality, a sports mentality. And kudos when things are going well and when things need to be coached up. we can go that route also. I want to begin by stressing that these particular reallocation of resources that have been built up by the team are appropriate. Public works, parks, transportation and mobility, capital funding for many things, more inspectors, Police Headquarters and Fire Stations, those things being addressed for good workplaces.

I've been pushing. for many years now for implementation of employee performance evaluations for cabinet folks. and I'm looking forward to that implementation as well. The small business, I agree. That's an important piece. Mr. Chairman, core services. encouraging growth. We've heard today a number of mentions of education, the significant funding that goes towards Worcester Public Schools. I am the chairman of the Education Committee. And I serve on that committee with Vice Chairman Gary Rosen and Councilor Economou. And we have been attempting to meet with the sister committee over on the school side in order to discuss this as is traditionally done. The majority of the time, the 11 years I've been on this council, maybe one or two years it didn't happen,

that gives us an opportunity to ask some of these questions and as I was sitting here I too popped up on my phone and that the headline that the Worcester Public Schools are closing three alternative schools to save money. I took a quick look at our budget here, and it looks like special ed programs in Worcester Public Schools are increasing. the budget increased by only $30,000. At the same time, I heard representation from the administration that there's around 30 or so million dollars increases for Worcester public schools through the last phasing of the state legislation. And, you know, when you add that to, I've received a number of emails from educators, from folks in the school pipeline in terms of employment

and parents, et cetera, asking for more funding from the city of Worcester. And I was hoping to have a transparent hearing with the three representatives of that subcommittee in Worcester Public Schools. And me and my folks here, our team, we offered six to eight different, maybe even 10 different Dates and times that work for us. My colleagues agreed to every single date that we have. We had it set for Monday, but apparently now the school folks are pulling out of that, Mr. Chairman. and so we're going to move forward with our meeting regardless but I will say It will have an impact on these young folks. I've worked in the special ed programs as a DCF employee, as a social worker, for almost 30 years. And there will be a loss. When we lost St. Casimir's, and they moved.

We lost woodworking and some other vocational opportunities that use these folks who will never get into Worcester trade or Worcester Vogue. are losing. And when we don't have adequate special ed services, Mr. Chairman, there's a public health and a community impact. And you know, it's almost a domino effect. And when those folks aren't receiving the resources at the same level, there is absolutely an impact, Mr. Chairman. So I look forward to dive into this stuff in committee. which we will do on Monday, Mr. Chairman. And so again, snow removal, all these things, fixed costs. But it brings me back to the special ed piece. I stood here on this floor and advocated for Seaver Street, for opportunities for our Worcester Public Schools.

And this body and the split vote, not this term, last term, I think, they voted to move away from that because of what it would cost to get that going. We continue to not have that site rented. We're not having any revenue coming in like we were previously when Clark was using it. WPI and other schools, we were renting it out just sitting there. So we have to take a look at those types of facilities as well in terms of how we're generating revenue, Mr. Chairman. And it brings me to what I see as a gap. For me, as a social worker, it's a glaring omission of this particular budget, Mr. Chairman. and that is as it relates to reallocating resources.

Our Health and Human Service Division is the lowest funded division in the city of Worcester, 3% of the budget. I stood here on this floor last term. I'm going to reiterate it today. When we get into it, when we come to that department's budget, I will talk about it again. and I'm going to reissue the challenge to the city manager. I understand that money is finite, that it's, only so much money that we have. But what I challenge and I will challenge again the city manager is that we take a look at HHS and we figure out where we can reorganize I want us to look at vacancy factors and that department needs to be built up because the glaring omission as it relates to reallocating resources as it relates to our unhoused population that we can see by the eye test is increasing and

the elderly folks, and the young people who are finding themselves in financial straits and strains. and who are on the streets. We've had a lack of shelter availability in the city. We certainly did a ribbon cutting for the day resource center this past week, Mr. Chairman, but The challenge is that we need to beef up HHS. We need more folks. We need more people. And if there's a way to do that with a reorg, at some point in this particular calendar year, I'm gonna challenge the city manager to do exactly that because we can't have an increase in that population without an increase in the folks that are responding to it, Mr. Chairman. In addition, HHS, they have our division of youth services.

We have many challenges as it relates to vaping, substance use, et cetera. We have CHL closing down. their youth recovery program closing down. We have resources that help parents and young parents who are needing shelter and treatment where they can go in with their babies. All that stuff is going away, Mr. Chairman. but yet we don't have a reallocation of resource as it relates to that particular challenge. I think just about every other particular challenge is outlined here in the reallocation of resources but that. So, you know, I challenge the city manager as it relates to that. I'll continue to advocate that way. Mr. Chairman, and I look forward to looking through this. And this is the people's budget.

that's what it is that's the answer to the question this is the people's budget this is the people's hall and we are nothing but public servants Mr. Chairman so I look forward to this and I'll have some questions ready at that time. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Bilotta. Thank you. Yeah, big budget, billion dollars. You know, a lot of large numbers being thrown around. But what really struck me, and Councilor King just kind of stole my thunder a little bit about this, but talking about the $30,000 increase for special education. I find this to be a very small number. It's very concerning. Through the chair to the city manager can we is there any more just because at first look again very small number can we provide any context for this or what is the reasoning for this increase? Mr. Manager?

Yeah, I'll have the CFO explain, This is basically part of the funding formula, part of the governor's budget recommendation. But I'll have the CFO explain a little bit further about that particular allocation.

Mr. McCarthy.

Through the chair, the manager is correct. These are numbers that come from the state. They're calculated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. it's not reflective of special ed costs here within the city of Worcester but is an assessment against the city of Worcester for its share of special ed transportation costs I'm not sure how that's calculated or how it's applied, but it's the state assessing the city for an obligation related to state costs. the overall budget statewide is only about three million dollars for this special ed cost so it's just a portion of Transportation related costs being picked up by the state. So for us, as mentioned, it's the governor's budget number that we use. We don't set the number. it'll get reconciled by the end of the year but this number has always been you know in this area and it's just based on the formula that the state utilizes.

and through the Chair, $30,000, this is an increase for specifically for special education transportation.

Through the chair, that's my understanding. Again, this isn't, it's a kind of an assessed cost by the state that they apply to the city. My understanding is it's called special education, but it's related to special education transportation.

Okay, thank you. And another follow up. How much money is being allocated to special education in the budget this year? Is it going up? What is the status?

So through the chair, we wouldn't know that. That comes from the Worcester Public Schools. So when the Worcester Public Schools comes in for its budget hearing, we could ask that question. But their budget has not yet been posted. So we don't have the breakdown. We know the $612 million. I misspoke. The actual tax levy contribution to the schools is around $550 million. but we have that allocation or appropriation over to the schools but then it's the school committee and the school administration that distributes that to the priorities that they have. So they'll be the ones who determine how much of that is used for special education costs.

OK. Thank you. Again, I am very interested to see and looking forward to having that conversation about what type of monies are going to special education through Worcester Public Schools because, again, it's on paper just seeing a $30,000 increase just seems to me alarming at first glance. So I'm looking forward to getting more information. I think it'll be great for the public to have more information on that as well. And again, seeing that kind of juxtaposition, having it kind of go against the $1 million for the Greenhill golf course improvements. Can we have any information on what exactly that $1 million is going towards?

Mr. Manager, Mr. McGurthy.

Through the Chair, we'll have the Department of Public Works in the next meeting to talk through their various elements. Greenhill Golf is an enterprise account, meaning the costs of the golf course are picked up by those who play, utilize the golf course. but my understanding is the million dollars relates to maintenance they're approaching the 100th anniversary of the golf course and they're looking to kind of upgrade the facility to make sure it's ready for that anniversary. So it's costs that they identified as kind of needing an investment after all these years.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, I really, again, look forward to having these conversations because special education, Worcester Public Schools, we have some of our most vulnerable students King. Councilor King. Councilor King. Councilor King. Councilor King. Councilor King. Councilor King. Councilor King. Councilor King. Councilor King. Councilor King. I look forward to having these conversations but again we really need to make sure that our most vulnerable students have the resources they need to have a great education. And again, this is a quality of life issue too. It's great to see all of the improvements in capital investments going into services and facilities that improve quality of life for Worcester residents. I want to make sure that we're making efforts to really improve quality of life for all of our residents in Worcester, especially students that are part of the special education program. So thank you.

Thank you. Okay, so there has been a change to the schedule, so Public Works will be the first one up for Public Works, and Transportation Mobility will take place of Education. and of course, Emerging Communications, Police, Fire, and Spectrum Services. So the clerk will mail that out to everybody. Don't have that. So the motion now is to file 9.26A. All those in favor, opposed, so ordered. and take number 9.38A, 9.39A and B and we are going to refer that to finance. All those in favor of a postal audit. 10A and 10B, we're gonna refer to Economic Development Committee. Those in favor, opposed, so ordered. So that brings us to the end of the meeting. Councilor Frizzolo.

Mr. Speaker, through you, under suspension, I'd like to bring up just a quick- Okay, we'll just take a quick vote.

Excuse me? We'll take a quick vote, go under suspension, roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Petty.

Through you, Mr. Chairman, I just want to let the general public know that this morning a good Congressman, Congressman Jim McGovern, made an announcement of a earmark that he received of $1.2 million to go through to the former St. Vincent School of Nursing and remediate the asbestos that exists there and will allow us to go forth and hopefully allow the developer of that property who intends to turn the nursing school into close to 100 apartments for the senior housing. I want to congratulate and thank the Congressman for his hard work. That building has stayed vacant for 38 years. 38 years ago, the nursing school closed. 1988.

and as our good city manager mentioned this morning that when he had the open mic in each district, I asked him then to concentrate on turning that building into senior housing and hopefully it's due to happen. So I want to thank the congressman again and the city manager for having us this morning. Mitra was there. Councilor Rosen also made it and it was a great announcement. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing me to explain to the general public what's going on there at the nursing school in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. So we have a motion to adjourn. All those in favor? Opposed? So ordered.