I.    CONSENT CALENDAR

A.  APPROVAL OF COUNCIL JOURNALS

      March 31, 2005 – Special Meeting     

      April 5, 2005 – Regular Meeting

B.     Alcoholic Beverage License – Class F – May 13, 14, & 15

Holy Ghost Beneficial Brotherhood of RI, 51 North Phillips Street  

Alcoholic Beverage License – Class F – May 20, 21, & 22

Trinity Brotherhood, 146 Sutton Avenue

Alcoholic Beverage License – Class F – June 17, 18, & 19

St. Francis Xavier, 81 North Carpenter Street

Alcoholic Beverage License – Class F – June 24, 25, & 26

St. Martha’s Church, 2595 Pawtucket Avenue

Alcoholic Beverage License – Class F – July 1, 2, & 3

Holy Ghost Brotherhood Mariense, 846 North Broadway

Alcoholic Beverage License – Class F – July 15, 16, & 17

Holy Ghost Brotherhood of Charity, 58 Brightridge Avenue

RESOLUTION – Town of Jamestown:  in support of an increase in the amount of Real Estate Conveyance Tax received by the RI Municipalities.

On motion of Councilman Midgley, seconded by Councilman Caine, and on a roll call vote, it is unanimously voted to approve the Consent Calendar.

II.   APPOINTMENTS

                 Minimum Property Standards Board  (Mayor’s Appt.)

                 Brian Ferreira, 188 Summit Street (02914)

On motion of Councilman Miranda, seconded by Councilwoman Perry, and on a roll call vote, it is unanimously voted to approve.

III.  CITY COUNCIL SITTING AS LICENSING COMMISSIONERS

LICENSES REQUIRING PUBLIC HEARING

Show Cause Hearing

Simon Karam, S. Karam, Inc. d/b/a Broadway Mart, 1049 South Broadway

Simon Karam is present and sworn in by City Solicitor.  Attorney Orlando Andreoni is present and represents the licensee.

Mr. Conley states the matter is brought to us this evening for show/cause hearing.  The way this proceeds is the City shows to the Council why the show/cause notice was issued, to give the Council the opportunity to cross-examine or present evidence, and give license holder opportunity to address Council, and allow any witnesses to testify.

Mr. Conley asks the City Sergeant to present copy of notice of show/cause to Council and enter it as Exhibit #1. 

With no objection from Attorney Andreoni, and unanimous consent of the Council, it voted to enter copy of show/cause notice as Exhibit #1.

Mr. Conley asks City Sergeant to present copy of the City of East Providence March 1, 2005 Council Journal, which has been accepted and approved by City Council, and direct Council to Page 6, which contains the minutes of the Public Hearing at which license holder’s licenses were approved, and enter it as Exhibit #2

Attorney Andreoni states this is the first time he’s seeing this information, the license hearing and the limitation of delivery hours.  He’s not objecting to it, just the first time he’s seeing it.

Mr. Conley states City Council issued 3 licenses for the premises of this license holder, Sunday/Holiday Sales, Victualing/Not Over 25, and an Additional Hours License.  All three licenses were approved subject to specific restrictions that no deliveries are allowed between the hours of 10pm-7am.

With no objection from Attorney Andreoni, and unanimous consent of the Council, it voted to enter copy of minutes as Exhibit #2.

Mr. Conley states that three licenses that were issued and asks City Sergeant to present copy of the licenses, the Sunday/Holiday Sales, the Victualing/Not Over 25, and the Additional Hours License and ask that these be marked as Exhibits 3, 4, & 5.

With no objection from Attorney Andreoni, and unanimous consent of the Council, it voted to enter copy of licenses as Exhibits # 3, 4, & 5.

Robert Henderson, 394 Mauran Avenue is sworn in and testifies to his complaint.

Simon Karam is present and sworn in.  Attorney Andreoni speaks for his client.  Mr. Andreoni states he’s prepared a letter to be sent to all vendors and will give them a copy of the stipulation to make sure no deliveries to be made between the hours of 10pm-7am.  The bakery company is on the road first and they have routes.  There was one that had a new driver and he made the delivery with no noise.  I know he’s down the corner from the store, but everything is delivered in the front of building.  A sign has been put up in the front of the store that no deliveries are allowed between the hours of 10pm-7am.  Advised the employees at the store not to take a delivery if someone comes in error.  I haven’t sent the letters out yet, but the only delivery coming now isn’t the bread truck, it’s the newspaper, and they come at 5am.  We can’t change that at all, they come up from Fall River and they just throw the newspaper onto the sidewalk and the employee brings them in.  Will give a copy to the Council of the letter I’ll be sending to the vendors, which will advise them of the stipulation.  If Mr. Henderson has any complaints, all he needs to do is see my client or see me and we’ll resolve it.  Mr. Karam has been there six years as a manager and just bought the store.  He’s trying to work with the neighborhood and needs to operate the store with a little freedom; he’s trying to be a good neighbor.  The store has been there for about forty years now.  When my client first started managing the store, big trucks used to come in when he dealt with another supplier and that is not the case anymore. He’s got small deliveries, the Nissan trucks are really quiet and technically, he did violate the stipulation, but they are bread trucks and the bread has to get there fresh.  We’ve notified them and we’ll send a letter to them again and I’ll give Mr. Conley a copy of all my correspondence so he has it in his file and make sure there are no deliveries before 7am.  If I represented him back in March, I really wouldn’t have agreed to that because it’s a sixty-year history of this store being in operation.  We understand there is an objection and are trying to work with him.  All the other neighbors, nine of them in the neighborhood, have no objection and no complaints.  This is the only complaint.  All the other suppliers haven’t delivered between 10pm-7am, there’s only two or three, the bakeries.  We got rid of the milk truck, he comes during the day now.  We will advise them if they don’t, they don’t have a business to buy the bread anymore.  All I can do is send the notice and tell the employees not to accept a delivery.

Mayor Larisa suggests instead of shutting this off and having resolution, I would suggest we try to get an agreement to continue this for sixty days, keep it open, and have a status update on the show/cause hearing and see if this has been resolved.

On motion of Councilman Miranda, seconded by Councilman Caine, and on a roll call vote, it is unanimously voted to continue until the July 12, 2005 Meeting.

LICENSES NOT REQUIRING PUBLIC HEARING

Carnival – 5/13/05 - Subject to approvals from the Chief of Police, Building Inspector, Health Inspector, and Fire Marshall.

Lisa Scorpio Jenkins, Gordon School, 45 Maxfield Avenue

Lisa Scorpio Jenkins is present and sworn in by the City Solicitor.  Ms. Jenkins states the actual date of the Carnival is May 14, 2005.

On motion of Councilman Miranda, seconded by Councilman Caine, it is unanimously voted to approve, subject to approvals from the Chief of Police, Building Inspector, Health Inspector and Fire Marshall.

Dance/Entertainment - Subject to approvals from the Chief of Police, Building Inspector, Health Inspector, and Fire Marshall.

Glenn Chelo, Beef Hearth, Inc. d/b/a Chelo’s of Newport Avenue, 45 Newport Avenue

Glenn Chelo is not present.

On motion of Councilman Midgley, seconded by Councilman Miranda, it is unanimously voted to continue until the May 17, 2005 Council Meeting.

Vict/Not Over 50 - Subject to approvals from the Chief of Police, Building Inspector, Health Inspector, and Fire Marshall.

Michael Kanis, Jim’s East Bay Deli Corp., 1175 Warren Avenue

Michael Kanis is present and sworn in by the City Solicitor.

On motion of Councilman Miranda, seconded by Councilman Caine, it is unanimously voted to approve, subject to approvals from the Chief of Police, Building Inspector, Health Inspector and Fire Marshall.

LICENSING COMMISSIONERS RESUME SITTING AS CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING

IV.  PUBLIC HEARINGS

ORDINANCES - FINAL PASSAGE  (Given first passage April 5 & April 19, 2005.  Advertised – Providence Journal - April 22, 2005)

V.   NEW BUSINESS

A.   CITY MANAGER'S REPORT

Water Advisory Update

Mr. Fazioli states it’s been an arduous and disruptive two weeks.  The City has flushed 13 zones so far and will continue until the rest of the City is done.  Waiting for the results from Tuesday’s test to come back tomorrow after 3pm, at which time Dept. of Health with issue a press release and the City will have a press conference in expectation that the sample comes back clean that hopefully, the boil water order will be lifted.  Like to thank the residents and businesses for being patient during this time.  We will be making enhancements to operations of our water system.  We’ve also put together a very generous economic assistance package, which was approved this evening by our local Economic Development Commission for $150,000.  In addition, the State of Rhode Island has more than matched our program. They’ve sent up a loan fund with up to $300,000 to help local businesses so there will be $450,000 for East Providence businesses to cope with this situation.  Overall, we gave away over 10,000 gallons of water at the Senior Center over the past two weeks.  A good portion of the water was bought by the City.  Another substantial portion was donated by Shaw’s Corporation and we want to thank them for their generous donation to the City.

Councilman Caine states we’ve been vigilant in everything we’ve done.  We can’t find what the cause of this incident was.  We now know that based on changes that have been made like increasing chlorine, the cross-connection survey being done, hydraulic testing being done, flushing program being done that hopefully, the boil water order will be lifted tomorrow.  Testing has been reviewed and more aware of potential improvements out there and those are things that are positive.  As vigilant as we’ve been, I believe we’ve been super vigilant at this point.  Just started me thinking about my own quarterly water bill, thinking about the value of water to us.  The average water bill is approximately $48 per quarter, which means paying about 50 cents per day for the amount of water being used.  When I think about that, for showers, laundry, water the lawn, flush the toilet, to do all those things, and from my perspective, it’s a relatively inexpensive resource we have, but hopefully not one we take for granted.  From a businessman’s perspective, I stopped into one of the Dunkin Donuts and spoke to the manager and over the past two weeks, they’ve spent about $2,000 in the amount of water they need to brew coffee.  From a businesses perspective, his quarterly water bill was about $400 and that’s a huge difference in the cost and I think we should all appreciate to some degree, I believe it’s about 200 miles worth of pipe that we have, and the cost is still about 50 cents to about $2 dollars a day.  The other thing is that we actually buy the water wholesale, we don’t have our own reservoir.  So when we sell it to our residents, we’re selling it to you at retail value and I know there have been several increases in the cost to us from a wholesale perspective, which has not been passed on to the City residents.  I just wanted everyone to pause for a moment, take a look at it, and remind folks of that crucial water resource we have, that our system is very secure and very safe.  It’s been a lesson to me to take a look at what we’re doing and reanalyze what our procedures are, and know that our procedures have been good, but they are going to be even better know. When you take a look at your water bill, you’re only paying for the water you’ve used, so this time if you’re not using it, your water bill will be less.  Also to take a look at the value from your quarterly water bill perspective, and from my perspective, I’m paying about $1.50 per day and that is allowing you to wash your clothes, shower, laundry, use the dish washer, water your lawn, and that’s a relatively minor price to pay, in my opinion, to have clean drinkable water.

Mayor Larisa states a lot of things being said the cause of this problem, the infrastructure, and it really boils down to fault vs. no fault.  If we have a flood, it’s no ones fault.  There is nothing the City could have done to protect you from it.  If we have a blizzard, it not now we should provide free snow removal because we caused the blizzard.  We’ve been unable to come up with a cause that anyone in the City is negligent for or that we should have done something different. One of the things I heard is we’re flushing now and my understanding is that we were going to be flushing this summer anyway, the last time we did it was 2001, but had we flushed more frequently, we might not have this problem.  And my understanding is that is completely false, the alleged lack of flushing didn’t cause the problem.  The Dept of Health has been working with us every step of the way, and I never heard them say to check backflow valves, flush whole system, that we should have flushed system more in the past and that it is any relation to the problem today, but I’d like to hear from Ken Booth on what is our flushing program and have we complied with a standard flushing procedure.

Mr. Booth states flushing program developed in 2001 by SEA Engineering, it’s a very comprehensive system; no other water system in the State of RI has one as complex and intensive as we do.  We flushed in 2001 and flush on a regular basis as needed in different sections of the City where pipes are older or resident will call and we’ll go and flush those areas clean.  There is a balance and risk assessment on flushing and a cost/benefit analysis because it is labor intensive, during flushing you do waste the water resource and dump a lot on the ground, so you try to balance what the need is and how often you do it.  I don’t know of any other water system in the State that flushes on an annual basis or even every two or three years.  Again, opening a hydrant and letting the water flow isn’t necessarily flushing.  What we do by manipulating valves is increase the velocity in the line and scour the line clean.  Typically, you want to flush in the fall and in the spring, you don’t want to flush in the heat of the summer because what you do stir up, the water temperature is warm enough to keep the bacteria going.  Were in a very intensive program right now in order to address the issue we have.  One of the things that’s come out of this is we have increased sampling during course of flushing.  One of our concerns when they requested that we do this and sample during the flushing program, we expected to get higher bacteria counts because you’re stirring up growth in the line.  We’ve increased sampling and also doing another set of samples called HPC, heterotropic plate counts, and that will identify other bacteria other than coliform bacteria.  What we’ve found since we started flushing, to our pleasant surprise, is that those heterotropic plate counts are very, very low.  Lower than we expected.  What that indicates to me is that there is not the buildup in the lines that some people may think we have.  The benefit we draw from is that the Providence Water Supply Board has very high quality water, much higher than most other systems in the State and even in New England.  High quality water leads us to have a better water quality over a longer period of time than some other communities do.  Even with our added chlorine levels, which are still below our adjoining neighbors, we’re getting that extra protection, but the bacteria count we’re seeing in the cleaning process hasn’t had a coliform hit while we were flushing and our consultants had told us to expect that and we haven’t had one, which leads me to believe that we did not had this heavy buildup in the system that other systems may have.

Mayor Larisa asks the about the other allegation being made about the infrastructure, that the pipes are too old and that the City leadership has let the infrastructure and the water mains deteriorate to such an extent that this problem could be caused by that.  Have to start at the water tank itself and that claim cannot be made because we have one of the newest water tanks in the entire state, we spent over one million dollars on a few years ago, but what is the status of our water infrastructure with respect to it causing this problem?

Mr. Booth states we’re in overall good shape.  There are modifications and improvements to be made; every water system does on an ongoing basis.  We’ve manipulated about 450 valves and counted 5 broken valves that have broken during the process.  Some of them are over 60 years old so that’s a pretty good ratio.  Some water systems when they start manipulating valves, they break and it gets very expensive.  The work that was done prior to connecting the Providence Water Supply System back in the 60’s, work was done in the 50’s & 60 preparing the pipes that were cleaned and lined, cement lining the older pipes, a lot of new pipes went in and a lot of contracts tool place at that time for the bigger transmission lines.  Again we do have areas in the City and that’s where we focus.  We have an infrastructure plan that was developed by one of our consultants identifying the age of every pipe in every street and setting up a priority replacement schedule on them.  We have this year in the current budget $200,000 to study the forty-two inch line from Cranston where we pick up our water from Providence into the City, have money budgeted to maintain the tanks, to clean and touch up paint on the tanks.  We are moving forward on the system we almost spend every dollar given, but it’s done on a priority basis.

Mayor Larisa asks do either you or Steve Coutu have any explanation of the positive test result by one lab on April 16?  Mr. Booth states no, unfortunately we don’t.  We would like to have an answer and say we’ve fixed it.  We’ve had two consulting engineering firms in, looked at a lot of data, tried to correlate different data to come up with an answer, and we can’t do that.  There is no smoking gun.

The Mayor asks to be clear, the water positive fecal test was one day, two tests in different areas and never since?  Mr. Booth states yes, that is correct.  When we were looking at it, the consultant addressed the hydraulics issue, and they were in two independent sections of the City, hydraulically separated from each other with no common denominator, and to hit those two in the same sequence, there is no explanation for it.

Councilman Midgley states we had them come in and they looked at the plans and said this is almost an impossibility.  I asked could we say to make it clear, that it would be like the lottery on the same day with two different sets of numbers and winning the exact same amount of money and if you think about it, it did happen to us.  It’s been a hardship and inconvenience for everybody.  But they said it’s almost an impossibility for this to happen.  They can’t understand it.  And these are the people we pay to come up with ideas on how to find it and how to deal with it, and they said everything we’re doing is what they recommend and to keep on doing what we’re doing.

Mayor Larisa asks Mr. Booth that you’ve been here since 1990 and you’ve seen all the tests we’ve ever done, and the first positive fecal test was in January 2005 this year?  Mr. Booth states there was one in 1991, in which there was an explanation for and the Health Dept. discounted that sample which they have the right to do.  Other than that, last year we had during the whole entire year two total coliform samples positive, no fecal.  And you’re entitled to 5% a month, and depending on the number of samples you take, you could have a few that are positive and still be in compliance.  It’s very unusual to have the number of fecal samples we’ve had in this short window of time from any water system. 

Mayor Larisa states that in January, the other rumor out there as we know was surprising when we got that positive result, that it wasn’t reported to the Dept. of Health for a couple of weeks afterward, but the fact is we did not have contaminated water for any period of time, it was for that one day because samples continued day after day to be negative?  Mr. Booth states yes, my philosophy on dealing with the regulatory people is, you don’t avoid anything with them.  As soon as I have a positive total coliform sample, which is what occurred on that occasion, I contact them to inquire if any of wholesalers out of Providence loop, because we all get same water from Providence, and to try and see if there’s an explanation for it.  I contact them everyday I get a bad sample.  We were in contact that weekend, we were in contact on the Monday. 

Mayor Larisa also states that we had one sample from two different locations, a house in Rumford and a fire station on Wampanoag Trail, on April 16 positive for fecal, one lab was positive, one lab was negative, same sample on the same day then both labs after were negative.  The water has been drinkable between April 17 through today.  It has not been contaminated.  The Health Dept., because of their procedures, wanted to make sure that in the flushing and the increase that we play it on the safe side and don’t drink it.  Mr. Booth states that is correct.  We are flushing and there is a possibility of getting total coliform positive samples in the next few weeks. The consultants say that is to be expected and the fact that we haven’t, is an attribute that the system is in much better shape than some people think it is.  We’re taking three samples in the flushing zone, we are flushing on that day, and taking three samples from the zone we did yesterday, and three samples on the zone we’re moving into tomorrow in addition to our regular sampling. 

Mayor Larisa asks are we doing everything that the Health Dept. and the State of RI has asked us to do?  Mr. Booth states we’ve done everything and more, and they are satisfied.   We’re going to continue chlorination until we complete flushing and then we’ll do some studies to look at the chlorination issue as a whole in looking into the future.

Councilwoman Perry wants to thank the citizens of the City of East Providence for their understanding.  I know it was an inconvenience for everyone, but for the most part, people did what they had to do, they boiled their water.  I was at the Senior Center handing out water and for the most part, people were thanking us and said they would do what they had to do until the ban was lifted.  The main question I received was when are we going to find out what happened and I told them we probably never would know, but I just want to thank them for their understanding and hopefully we won’t have to go through this again.

Mayor Larisa talks about a letter he received on April 27 from Orlando Brisbano and I completely concur with Councilwoman Perry that the public has been understanding.  I too was handing out water at the Senior Center, and this has been a very difficult time for East Providence, but there are still some who make allegations that are just not founded and this individual wanted a full response to his letter.  Mr. Brisbano writes as a major taxpayer in the City of East Providence, I want to express my outrage at the incompetence of our City Departments that allowed this water problem to occur and continue for so many days.  The Mayor states where is the evidence of the incompetence?  What did the City do wrong? When the few people who write and call me and ask this question, I ask them why don’t I step down and you become councilman or councilwoman at large, what would you do?  Who would you fire, what type of incompetence has been done?  Did somebody do something wrong when we had snowstorm after snowstorm that caused the snow or when we had flooding down on State Street when we had all that rain and basements flooded, what did we do wrong?  Should somebody get fired for that?  I’m not saying there isn’t any problem, but we haven’t been able to find one and it just may be that there is no fault or no cause for this problem.  Mr. Brisbano then states as taxpayer, we expect at least basic services to be provided in a safe way and certainly a safe water supply is elementary.  Mayor Larisa states he doesn’t think anyone on the Council or any City professional or anyone here tonight would disagree with that, it is elementary.  And the City has gone to great lengths to provide a safe and drinkable and useable water supply, that is not the issue.  The question is was there some fault on the City or the City professionals that has resulted in this problem?  Mr. Brisbano then states you and the City Council are expected to provide appropriate leadership and oversight to ensure that these types of problems do not occur and if they do, there be a response plan to correct it quickly.  It is obvious you have failed in this resolve.  Mayor Larisa states how, what different thing should this City Council and our City professionals have done?  We’re listening, if there is something different that should have been done, or there is something different we can do, tell us.  We need to know because we’re relying on the City professionals, the Dept. of Health, the EPA, we going through every single step possible to try to fix this problem and identify the cause and this is where we are.  Mr. Brisbano states I would expect the taxpayers in the City are due a complete investigation by an external source to determine what occurred here and what needs to be done to correct the problem from reoccurring.  I would demand this be done immediately.  Mayor Larisa states so has the City Council, Ken Booth, the City Manager, Steve Coutu, the City Solicitor, we want to know why it happened in the first place and how to fix it.  And right now, this is where we are from what you’ve heard tonight.  Mr. Brisbano’s last sentence reads someone needs to resign because of this problem and our inability to correct it promptly.  A full response to this letter would be appreciated.  Mayor Larisa states if you’re going to fire or have someone resign, I think they need to do something wrong first.  We don’t know if somebody’s backflow valve on a sprinkler system didn’t work and the backflow from pigeon poop in the front yard somehow got into the system at the exact time the spigot opened and went into the tube and we got the strange positive test result for the first time.  We don’t know, I wouldn’t think someone would have to resign on that.  The fact is on the same day at the same time within a minute of each other, a sample was opened in Rumford and a gallon or gallon and a half of water flows out, and we send that to one lab and send it to another lab, one test comes out positive, the other test negative.  So what do most rational people do when they find out we have a positive result and a negative result from the same gallon or gallon and a half of water?  We get back out there and do it again.  What came back this time from two different labs were both negative.  Did it again and again, everyday, we’ve done about 340 samples, all around the City and all have been negative.  So when you look at a cause for this problem, you have to assume there is a cause and there is a problem in the first place.  I’m not saying that is the answer, but there are a lot of potential answers for why we got this positive sample that don’t involve anyone here in the City, any past or present Council, or any professionals doing anything wrong.  Anything more wrong than we have a natural disaster in the City and it causes a big problem.  Bottom line is I completely concur with Councilwoman Perry that most people have been understanding and believe me, we’ve been looking and we say we want to find a cause of the problem, if there is a cause, we want to find out as much as you do because none of us want this to happen again anymore than anyone else does.  To make allegations that people need to resign and there is fault on behalf on anyone in the City, there has just been no evidence of that and plenty of explanation where this could have happened, where there was no problem and there was no fault.  Does it mean it’s not going to happen again?  No, but it means we’re trying to do everything conceivably possible to fix the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again and that’s what we’ve been doing and I know the City Manager is going to make sure we continue to leave no stone unturned in trying to find out if there is a problem and to try to prevent it from happening again. 

Councilman Miranda also wants to thank the people.  You’re right, we didn’t cause the problem, didn’t cause the snow, we certainly didn’t cause the problem down on State Street either with flooding.  Sixty-eight years I’ve been in that neighborhood and sixty-eight years, we’ve been pumping water out of there.  And some people may remember, studies were done, and previous Councils never stepped forward or did anything because there is nothing we can do there.  Evidently, some people chose to put a little show on, they went down and they were going to solve the problem, well should have been solved sixty-eight years ago because it’s never been solved and it never will be.  As long as the Runnins River runs through there, you get water through there and previous Councils from Ward Two know that.  So again when you start laying the blame, your right Mr. Mayor, you shouldn’t be laying the blame on anyone, the Dept. Heads, or yourself, or any Council member.  Again, I believe it was maybe fifteen years ago, a study was done and nothing ever happened, I asked Steve Coutu to check it out and nothing.  So you can’t blame anyone.  Asked Director Coutu to find this study, CDM did the study, we were working on it, would like City Manager to have Steve call Julie, she was the Public Works Director then.  But my grandfather lived in that area, my father and mother, and everybody pumped water out of their basements.  Just seems that everyone has an answer, but no one can come up with them.  I hope someday they do solve the problem there. 

            CITY MANAGER REPORT (continued)

2.      Award – Tectonic Engineering Consultants “Physical Security Assessment”

On motion of Councilman Caine, seconded by Councilman Miranda, it is unanimously voted to award bid to Tectonic Engineering Consultants.

3.  Award – Banner Welder, Inc., “Mobile Compost Shredder

On motion of Councilman Miranda, seconded by Councilman Caine, it is unanimously voted to award bid to Banner Welder, Inc.

4.  Surplus Property Account for Master Lease Capital Items

Mr. Fazioli states back in February to acquire some important capital items in the FY2005 budget, which have no tax impact.  List at the time totaling $1,620,000.  Subsequent to that, the Council voted to add some poles to replace the fallen poles at Pierce Field for $150,000.  The plan was to acquire these items through the Master Lease on an interim basis, but ultimately have the lease paid off by proceeds from sale of surplus property account.  On April 5^th, the Council approved the award of the Master Lease to Suntrust Leasing, who had the lowest terms at the time. At the same time, voted that the intent was to follow the financing scheme that the included be required to draw lease on interim basis and paid off by proceeds of surplus property account.  Knowing that only the City Council can release those funds, I wanted to make you aware that some items have been authorized by Council, they have been ordered, and expect they will be here in the next several weeks or so, and will be asking for the Council’s approval for release of funds.  There are already funds in the surplus property account that accumulated from the prior land sales happening in 2004, so there is money already there.  Some of items that Council approved already include police cruisers, salt shed, and front end loader.  Wanted to make you aware of this coming and I’ll be looking for a vote at that time and when lease payments are scheduled to arrive sometime within the next two or three months depending on when we close on the lease. 

Mayor Larisa asks on the $150,000, is my understanding that we’d be using some of the funds internal to the Pierce Field operation to help subsidize that?  Mr. Fazioli states yes, we need to get a balance on that account & we’ll allocate as much as we can, not to deplete the fund, but to take some sizable portion out of that account.

Mayor Larisa asks if all capital items, like salt shed and police cruisers always come to the Council for approval each and every one individually?  Mr. Fazioli states yes.  Mr. Fazioli asks to clarify, there are some items under $100,000, are these all suppose to be brought to the Council?  Mayor Larisa states unless there is some type of hardship, since we’re going to be using all the surplus property money to pay them off, that we have separate approval for every capital lease item by the Council of which we are going to be using the surplus property account to pay for. 

Councilman Caine states he was looking to go back to capital items we’re looking to expense on.  What are the most recent things that will be coming up?  I believe there are a couple of smaller items?  Mr. Fazioli states a bobcat, the light poles, those are the most immediate ones.  Some that already have been approved are in the works, the police cruisers, the salt shed, and the front-end loader.  The bobcat was listed at less than $30,000. 

Mayor Larisa asks is there anything else less than $100,000 coming up?  Mr. Fazioli states there is, but nothing in the immediate future, nothing that can’t wait until the next Council Meeting.  Bobcat was listed at $30,000 and is coming in well less than $30,000, maybe about $25,000.

Mayor Larisa states his point is in reality, what we are really doing is utilizing the surplus property account, which the Council has to approve every expenditure out of, for instance the bobcat, usually its $25,000 if it was from the general fund and it’s under $100,000 that’s fine.  But really if the bobcat is paid for from surplus property account, and once we buy it, our intent is to pay for it from surplus property account, that’s why I’m suggesting because of that.  Then basically, what the motion would be is to buy the bobcat using surplus property money, that it is inextricably linked, so we should have every item that will take surplus property money approved by the Council as if the request really is I’d like to take $25,000 from surplus property and it’s for the bobcat.  Mr. Fazioli would like to get a motion for the bobcat tonight.

On motion of Councilman Caine, seconded by Councilman Miranda, it is unanimously voted to finance bobcat through the surplus property account.

B.   REPORTS OF OTHER CITY OFFICIALS

Claims Committee (By William J. Conley, Jr. City Solicitor)

Elizabeth Briggs, Claim No. 05-32                    Approve

Elizabeth Clupny, Claim No. 05-33                   Refer to Cox Communication

Natalina DeAndrade, Claim No. 05-36 Deny

Charlotte Garedo, Claim No. 05-35                 Refer to RIDOT

Kelly Goucher, Claim No. 05-49                      Refer to RIDOT

Daniel Landry, Claim No. 05-37                       Approve

Joseph & Natalia Lima, Claim No. 05-47         Refer to insurance carrier

Brian Mullervy, Claim No. 05-28                      Approve

Jean V. Otis, Claim No. 05-43             Refer to School Dept.

Michael Perez, Claim No. 05-41                      Approve

John Pignataro, Claim No. 05-39                      Deny

On motion of Councilman Midgley, seconded by Councilman Caine, and on a roll-call vote, it is unanimously voted to accept as presented.

Planning Board Request re: Request To Purchase City-Owned Property, Harding Avenue, Map 313, Block 9, Parcel 5  (By Jeanne Boyle, Planning Dept.)

On motion of Councilman Midgley, seconded by Councilman Miranda, and on a roll-call vote, it is unanimously voted to accept the recommendation of the Planning Board and not sell at this time.

C.   COUNCIL MEMBERS

1.   Job Performance – Council Appointees  (By Mayor Larisa)

Mayor Larisa asks that this be deferred for closed session at the end of the meeting.  Without objection.

2.   Business not as usual  (By Councilman Midgley)

Councilman Midgley will start with business not as usual, then third world in a real world and places in between, then should cathouses be allowed within city limits.  We all know that starting when we got the bad news about the water, things changed radically in the City.  It changed radically for the businesses, which it affected enormously, the coffee shops and restaurants.  It affected the people, the elderly, the infirmed, and nothing was as usual.  All of a sudden, you realize how important good water and good services are.  We’ve done everything possible to ensure that the quality of water in the City will remain good.  All the tests we’ve done since the initial hit have been good reports.  We’ve done a lot of things we haven’t done before.  We’ve incurred some hardships and inconveniences and I’d like to get the City Manager along with the Building Inspector and Plumbing Inspector, we have to come up with some ordinances or plans.  We’ve had mention of backflow valves, we’ve had a lot of claims for sewer backups and it’s because people think they can do home improvements, they put a room in their cellar, they put a family room or bathroom or shower in the cellar, all of a sudden we have a problem and it’s because we haven’t mandated that they put backflow valves in.  We have to do it.  We’re not picking on people or being mean or trying to up the price of doing home improvements, but for the community, even for the water systems, if people put in a sprinkler system, we say you have to put in a backflow valve. They say it’s going to cost me $300 or $400, look at what it has cost this community now because we don’t have it.  We just can’t continue to say it doesn’t matter.  Never would of thought we’d have to do this, but again, we can’t go on as business as usual, it has to be business not as usual.  This is the only format that I can talk to the people of this community and tell them what I think is going on and where we have to pay attention.  Also, a battle over school funding, talk about business not as usual, in the paper but a judge rule in North Providence that the Town has to come up with an additional 2-3 million dollars to fund the public schools in that community.  They said I don’t care how or where you get it, school committee says they need it, so give it to them.  I can’t understand how any judge in his right mind put this on a community.  That’s like them telling us to give $5 million dollars to school committee, they don’t have to worry about it, just give it to them.  Who do you thinks going to give it to them, the tooth fairy?  We’re going to come back to the taxpayers in the community and that’s what North Providence will have to do unless this is overturned.  They need a reality check.  Another thing you tell someone they can’t have the money, they run to the judge and the judge says give it to them.  So that means school committees have no obligation to worry about where the money is coming from, it’s all for the children.  If it’s all for the kids and people have to move out of the City, what are the kids going to get for their money?  And what are the property owners going to get?  Mayor Larisa wanted to have a fiscal impact statement, and again, business not as usual.  If you get a tax bill and it says you’re paying “X” amount of dollars to run the City and “X” amount of dollars to run the schools.  It will be a wake up call for some people, I’m not picking on the schools, but the judge really upset me.  Business not as usual, we just have to change our ways for public health and public wealth.  The health and wealth of the community depends on whether we change our ways.  Not saying we’ve done anything wrong, we’ve got to do a lot of things differently.

3.   Third world in a real world and places in between  (By Councilman Midgley)

Councilman Midgley states at last meeting when we had the bad news on the water, one of the residents of the City said the way things get maintained, it’s done like a tower falling over.  It also said you expect this stuff in third world nations, not in your own town and that business building on the waterfront, people aren’t going to come if they think they’re drifting off into the third world.  I was in another country and it was a third world country and I said to myself, I’m not staying here; you couldn’t keep me here at the point of a gun.  I left as quickly as I could.  I felt like a rabbit walking through a fox den.  I wanted no part of being there and I left.  I started to think about that remark and to compare East Providence to a third world country, if you didn’t have water in a third world, you’d be drinking out of a puddle because no would be bringing you 10,000 gallons of water at a Senior Center.  A third world country doesn’t have the response time that our fire and police department does, when you call us, we’re there, just like that.  Third world communities don’t have all state hockey teams like we do in East Providence, we’ve got waterfront development, we’ve got a new library going up, we’ve got a new park down next the Carousel, we’ve got street repavement, ongoing sewers, we’ve got Glenlyon and Rose Garden Parks, so for someone to get up and make a crack about East Providence being like a third world country, or eluding to the fact that we’re turning into one, I’m not going to tolerate it, I take it personally.  And add there was someone else that said that in the community, someone of stature and I heard about it the other day.  Someone who is making serious money and they better take a long hard look at their paycheck and they need to try and figure out what they’re making because if they are in a third world country, you wouldn’t get up and say that, you’d probably get whacked on the head and never be seen again.  So East Providence is not a third world area or third world country.  And if you think it is, take a trip, and see how far you want to walk in that country before you start complaining.

Mayor Larisa adds in the last week, I’ve been with the City Manager and other members of the City Council, at Coastway Credit Union opening, I was there with Asst. Mayor Perry and the rave reviews that our City Planning Department got.  They have branches in several other cities and they said we never could have got this open this fast and got this building built without the professionalism in the City of East Providence.  Today, we met with Senator Jack Reed and just a few hours ago, we asked for money for the City and for City infrastructure needs for the waterfront and other places, and he said down in Congress, we know that when East Providence comes to us for money, and we give you grants, we know we’re going to get a return on our investment.  In other words, it’s money well spent, it’s not squandered.  And he said it is not the case everywhere else.  And again, praising the City and the businesses that talk to him, when we go to East Providence, the job gets done, it gets done quickly and efficiently, there’s no political influence or ramifications on getting the job done, and these are just two examples in the last forty-eight hours of how well our City is run, has been run, and continues to be run and I think that amplifies what Councilman Midgley said. 

Councilman Midgley states regarding the letter Mayor Larisa received.  I don’t care that people call me up, write me letters, and tell me whatever they want.  That is their right and I respect that right.  But it is also my right to reply and again, I have no fault with what they said, in the sense that you have the right to say it, but that remark was put in the Journal and every community in the State looked at it.  That hurt me and that hurts all of us, everyone that lives in this community.  Again, why do you think our property values are so high, because people think we’re a third world country?  We’re not. 

4.   Should cathouses be allowed within city limits  (By Councilman Midgley)

Councilman Midgley states he received a call from a woman who said she has a terrible problem in her neighborhood.  She said I have a cathouse next door to me.  I asked her where is it. She said it’s really out of control, when they get out in the backyard and start screaming, it’s very disturbing.  She said it upsets her when they come into her yard and do their business.  She said the lady next door has ten cats and just took three more in.  She said they do their business in my yard and use my garden as a cat litter box.  She said it’s a health hazard.  I started thinking about it and Pawtucket had a problem, other communities have had problems.  Cats are getting to be a problem in neighborhoods and a lot of people have one or two and then it keeps going where they have ten or eleven cats.  I’d like to refer this to the animal control officer to come up with a plan on how many cats he thinks someone should have or shouldn’t have.  I know people love cats, I love dogs and kids, but there’s only so many I want to have and it’s a reasonable amount.  Henry Ford was once asked if he made enough money and he said no.  The interviewer said how much is enough and he said just a little bit more.  Maybe that’s what it’s like with cat people and dog people who like to have a lot of them, maybe just one more.  Again, I would like this to go to the animal control officer and the Health Dept. to see if there’s a reasonable number they should have.  We have it for dogs, maybe we should have it for cats too.  But if someone has eleven cats and they are in your backyard instead of the person who owns them, I think we have a problem with cats in neighborhoods.  Again, would like to refer this to the animal control officer to see what he can suggest for cats.

Mayor Larisa states we are blessed here with having some of the best animal caretakers and protectors in the State.  Nexus, located here in East Providence, they agree there can be a problem and at the next Council Meeting, there will be a proposal to address Councilman Midgley’s concerns.  Note that Pawtucket is the biggest one in the paper where you have ten, fifteen or twenty cats all going crazy in someone’s home, yet Pawtucket has a limit of three cats, so the limit doesn’t mean you’ll solve the cat problem.  I also learned that there is a thing called hoarding.  They tell me it’s actually a mental illness, that you could have ten cats, well behaved in someone’s house and well taken care of in an immaculate house and frankly, I’ve seen those houses, or you could have six cats in a house where they are out of control, there’s poop all over the place, it stinks and its because of this mental illness where they have all these cats in the house and it’s called hoarding.  A lot of communities prohibit hoarding.  I’m sure this is something Charlie Savoy, our animal control officer, could address.  More good news is we have our animal protector people who have a pot of money in excess of $10,000 that can be really used towards helping solve this problem through a subsidized spaying and neutering program so our cats don’t multiply like crazy.  In fact, it’s the law that any cat that leaves our pound has got to be spayed or neutered within so many days. And Rita Falaguerra will be here next time, who I believe will be offering a big chunk of this fund to the City to do a heavily subsidized, low cost program so that what happens now is when the cats leave the pound, there isn’t any follow-up to see if they’ve been spayed or neutered and then in a year, they are responsible for six or twelve more cats. If we can get this done at the pound before the animal is taken out, this will go a long way in solving an overpopulation of cats in the City.  So there will be something presented at the next Council Meeting on this issue.

5.      Safe Summer Driving Program  (By Councilman Miranda and Councilman Caine

Councilman Miranda states every year at this time, we introduce the safe summer driving program.  I think we need to take a hard look, summer is upon us, kids will be getting out of school and I think we have to do something to control the speeding that’s going on all over the City, including on Waterman Avenue and Warren Avenue, we see it every day, the speed is unbelievable there.  We need to do something before a child gets killed.  Something needs to be done if these people are speeding.  If they are breaking the law, they should get a ticket.  Mayor Larisa asks are you proposing from the past that what we got was that the Police Chief would give us a report 30, 50, 60 thousand dollars in detail that he would propose would run from Memorial Day through Labor Day, the Council would approve that based on their recommendation knowing that basically it would be revenue neutral, we’d be using more officers at more time, but the tickets would come in and offset the additional costs for the officers and the bigger thing, help solve the speeding problem.  Councilman Miranda states yes that is correct.

Councilman Caine states he understands Councilman Rogers was a proponent for that for many years in the Rumford area.  One thing realize over the last couple of days two teenagers died in Barrington.  Speeding at 1:45 in the morning in excess of seventy-five miles an hour.  Was a tragedy, two of the kids in the car were fifteen, one was sixteen with a permit and obviously no adult in the car over the age of twenty-one.  This is the time of year the that the suns out, the pavement is ripe to spin the wheels and gets folks driving a little too quickly.  Right outside of my house on the corner of Pawtucket Avenue there was an accident less than a month ago.  Corner to corner, but a head on collision because two folks were driving relatively quickly and it looked like there was no fault but it’s a very tight roadway and it’s a very fast and slick roadway and I’ve talked with the community police officer a number of times about setting up some programs to try to slow folks down on Pawtucket Avenue and Newport Avenue, and I’d like to see some sort of program if possible.  I know it’s very dangerous for police officers to monitor that roadway because there are very few locations on Pawtucket and Newport Avenue to really set up speed traps or something to slow them down.  Certainly support and would ask the City Manager to see if there is a possibility of getting some sort of program set up for the summer to try to slow people down a little bit and hopefully save lives in the process.

Mayor Larisa states we’ll get a recommended report as in prior years and approve it at the next meeting.  People asked why a safe summer program, there’s a problem now.  The difference between summer and other months is that the kids are out of school so they’re all on the streets so it’s doubly important to crack down on speeders over the summer months.

Councilman Miranda states I was coming up corner of Orchard Street and North Carpenter Street the other day.  I stopped to talk to my friend who was cutting some branches and this guy came down North Carpenter Street, and it’s a very short street, and he had to be doing forty-five miles an hour.  If some kid ever walked out in the street, they would be killed.  It seems that they don’t care.  Other thing, these boom boxes, this is terrible.  Are they checking these cars with loud radios.  The City Manager states they are.

Mayor Larisa states if you see one, get the license plate and call it in.  Even if it’s not happening at the time the police are there, still pull them over and say we have a complaint on this then if someone else calls them in, now they’re in trouble.

Councilman Midgley states it’s a problem all over the City.  I notice it here when I’m at City Hall, on this street forty-five to fifty miles an hour, right in front of the library.  What it is is that they make these cars so comfortable and soundproof.  Years ago cars weren’t made this way.  You go on the freeway and you don’t even realize how fast you’re going, you’ve got the windows closed and don’t hear any noises and you’re flying.  It’s your responsibility to know how fast you’re going, but it’s almost that they make the cars too good and people go to fast.  It’s still not an excuse. 

Mayor Larisa receives unanimous consent and states that the City Manger went away on vacation for the first time since he’s become City Manager, and Bill Conley will take over as Acting City Manager, City runs itself, no big deal.  Then he’s thrown into a state of emergency, meetings with the Dept. of Health, twenty-four seven trying to solve the water crisis, while our City Manger is on vacation, press conferences, and he comes through with flying colors, unexpected, told him next time we got to give you some work to do when you take over as Acting City Manager.  Any other week, the City would have nearly run itself.  But this week, there was the state of emergency and all sorts of things going on and would like to on behalf of the entire Council thank our City Solicitor for an outstanding job that he did the entire week.

D.   RESOLUTIONS

E.   INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES

 (If given first passage, can be referred to the next    regular Council meeting to be held on May 17, 2005 for a public hearing and consideration of final passage).