Watertown

Watertown City Council

Monday November 27, 2023

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The order of items in transcripts is the chronological order in which they were taken up. Some Agenda items may have been skipped.

Section 1

The speaker is calling a meeting to order and announcing that it is being recorded. The roll is called and members are present. There is a proclamation honoring a local scout troop for their food drive. The speaker also addresses an issue with short term rentals and announces that it will not be discussed at this meeting. A member of the public speaks about an ongoing issue with the city's handling of a road project and expresses frustration with the appeals process. Another member of the public speaks about the difficulty of reading the meeting minutes and expresses concern about a proposed transfer tax. Another member of the public speaks about the winter parking ban and how it disproportionately affects certain demographics.

Section 2

The City Council held a meeting to review input from council members and make recommendations for the fiscal year 2025 budget. They voted to adopt the draft of the budget policy guidelines, with some items being referred to other committees for further discussion and policy guidance. The council emphasized the importance of identifying cost savings and revenues before considering additional expenditures, and prioritized implementing the strategies and action items in the climate and energy plan in all department budgets. They also recommended continuing to pursue mitigation monies, grants, and payments in lieu of taxes agreements with nonprofit organizations.

Section 3

47. |: 47. Councilor Magoon? SPEAKER3 - No. SPEAKER2 - Councilor Palomba? No. Councilor Pitcherelli? SPEAKER6 - Yes. SPEAKER2 - Councilor Sideris? No. Councilor Sirignano? Yes. Councilor Woodland? No. Speaker Martin? No. SPEAKER1 - The next motion then is that, the city council approve the, appointments as listed in the agenda. So moved. Is there a second? 2nd. Discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The next motion is that, the city council adopt a, calendar of regular meetings for 2024 as listed on the agenda. SPEAKER3 - So moved. SPEAKER1 - Is there a second? SPEAKER7 - 2nd. SPEAKER1 - All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The next motion is that, the city council, move to approve, the calendar of public meetings for 2024 as listed on the agenda. So moved. Is there a second? 2nd. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. And the last item is that, the city council move to approve the 2024 non-union wage and salary schedules as listed in the agenda. So moved. Is there a second? 2nd. Discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. So, I'd like to, adjourn the 1st meeting of the council. Motion to adjourn. So moved. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you very much, and have a wonderful holiday. Thank you. The city council discussed a variety of topics, ranging from the budget for the public schools to the need for additional staff to implement the climate and energy plan. They also voted on several action items, including adopting budget policy guidelines for fiscal year 2025, referring a discussion of real estate transfer taxes to the committee on budget and fiscal oversight, approving appointments and schedules for 2024, and approving non-union wage and salary schedules for 2024. The meeting ended with a motion to adjourn and wishes for a happy holiday.

Section 4

Councilors present at the meetings were John Airasian, Lisa Feltner, and Councilor Gannon, who served as chair. The main topics discussed were the adoption of a short term rental ordinance and an ordinance requiring closed captioning on public facing televisions. The committee will hold a first reading on the closed captioning ordinance and advertise for a public hearing on the short term rental ordinances. The full minutes for the meetings on January 30th, February 13th, April 3rd, and April 20th can be found in the meeting records.

Section 5

7:01 we're going to look to move the Assessor's Office. That'll put us on the middle floor of the building, which will leave, the first floor and the basement of that building still, to be assigned to city staff. The plans that we have, which I'm going to go through tonight, are going to, show how that might work and what the options are for the future. One of the key things that we're trying to do with this whole process is to come up with a way to make the building accessible. As you know, the front entrance of the building only has stairs. And that's because, when the building was constructed, it wasn't a public building. And it wasn't required to be handicapped accessible. So we had to come up with a way to make the building accessible. And, we're changing the plans and the designs that we've had for this building for a number of years. So, as we do that, we're looking at, what we can do to make the building accessible, and how to make it easier for folks to move in and out of the building. We have a couple of options in order to do that. And, we've tried to come up with a way to make the building accessible and to improve those options. So, working with AI three, we've come up with this plan, which I'm, showing on the screen, I hope it's visible to all of you. The, what's important about this particular plan is that the, that the, access to the building, which we've made kind of a blue color, will be accessible, either by the ramp that's around the back of the building or by an elevator that will be added to the building. So the elevator is accessible directly from the ground floor. And, if you head up to the first floor, you can still get right up to the second floor. We're going to be doing some work to the, to the exterior of the building. As you can see in this plan. The blue areas that I'm pointing to now are the new stair and elevator tower that we're going to be adding to the building. We're going to be partially adding it to the building, which allows us to have appropriate egress for the buildings. We've done some testing of that, and we have results from that that we're going to be able to share with you in the future.

Section 6

The city is going through a plan to reorganize and redistribute office spaces in City Hall and a nearby Parker building. The plan involves moving different departments around to maximize space and efficiency. The first step will be to move the IT department to a new location, freeing up space in City Hall for flexible office space. The next step will be to move the health department to a permanent location on the third floor of the Parker building. This will also include some flexible office space and potentially a new location for the food pantry. Other steps involve moving the finance department to the first floor of City Hall, and then moving the community development and planning departments to a consolidated space on the second floor of City Hall. The final step will be to potentially build a new senior center on the site of the Phillips School Senior Center.

Section 7

The city manager presented a plan to move recreation off the third floor of city hall and into a new facility. The plan included two drawings showing potential ways to phase a senior center project at the Phillips site and do upgrade work at the Phillips building. The manager emphasized that this is not a next year step, but something to consider for fiscal year 27, 2029. He also mentioned that there will be ongoing discussions about the future of city offices and buildings, and that the presentation will be shared with the council and staff. Following the presentation, the council discussed various topics, including the upcoming Watertown Square plating events, the hiring of a new chief financial officer and constituent services director, and the certification of free cash for the city. In public forum, a resident expressed concerns about the all-winter parking ban and suggested alternative solutions. Another resident asked where the public could access the city manager's presentation on the reorganization of the Parker building and town hall. Lastly, a resident brought up the issue of meeting room space in the new Parker School and suggested improvements to the sound system in the council chambers. The meeting was then adjourned.