20240210 Special City Council Meeting Minutes CITY OF BEVERLY
City of Beverly RECEIVED AW RECORDED
Public Meeting Minutes CITY CLERK'S OFFICE
Special City Council Meeting 2024 FE0 14 A & 39
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Julie Flowers, City Council President, call the meeting to order at 9:31 a.m. and took attendance
by roll call.
Members Present: Hannah Bowen, Steve Crowley, Kathleen Feldman, Scott Houseman, Todd
Rotondo, Danielle Spang, Brendan Sweeney, Matthew St. Hilaire, Julie Flowers.
Members Absent: None
President Flowers welcomed everyone and offered a special word of welcome to incoming Ward
2 Councilor Danielle Spang. Flowers also offered a word of thanks to out-going Council Vice
President Todd Rontondo for all his hard work,juggling of details, and planning to bring this
retreat day together. Flowers then introduced the Facilitator for the day, Chris Lovasco,
Executive Director of the YMCA of the North Shore.
9:37 a.m. - Christopher Lovasco opened the meeting with words of introduction (of himself and
of his role for the day) and then offered a word of thanks to the Councilors for the work they do
on behalf of the community.
Lovasco led the Council along with Budget Analyst Gerry Perry through an opening ice-breaker
activity of Two Truths and a Lie.
10 a.m. - Gerry Perry, City Council Budget Analyst presented an overview of the past,present,
and future of Beverly's finances and financial history.
Perry noted Beverly's practice of Finance Forecasting/the work of the Financial Forecast
committee. Noted that if Undesignated Fund Balance goes down AS A TREND over a series of
years, it is a warning sign of a municipality heading toward financial trouble. The other warning
sign is/can be the Free Cash Balance.
City of Beverly's Financial Policies are one of the most important tools the City has created/has
to maintain the financial health of the City.
Because of financial disciple and adherence to the policies, the City can weather difficult
financial periods in ways that the Beverly of the past could not.
At present in current fiscal year(budget to actual) the City is in good position.
Strategically we need to be disciplined/free cash to pay down or avoid additional borrowing/loan
orders in order to accomplish larger projects and to maintain strong financial health.
Perry did a brief look ahead at the FY25 budget; Financial Forecast report projects a budget
deficit for the coming fiscal year.
Perry noted it can be difficult to expand services in a challenging financial environment.
Perry observed that State revenues being down could also impact the municipalities in the State;
the State has had 7 straight months of lower than expected revenues, which is a troubling trend
with regard to local aid to cities and towns from the State.
10:34 a.m. -Richard Vincent, Greater Beverly Chamber of Commerce President,presented on
behalf of the Chamber and on behalf of Chamber Executive Director Leslie Gould.
Vincent shared that he had reached out to the Chamber membership for thoughts and input on
what members might want shared with the Council. Vincent shared the breadth and depth of
types of businesses that make up the Chamber membership.
Vincent shared some of the challenges felt by businesses—especially small and local businesses
—that are brick and mortar right now. He noted the tight margins and challenges of food and
beverage businesses, as well as the challenges of small retail stores, especially in our world of
internet commerce.
Beverly's downtown will largely be anchored by food/beverage and entertainment; these are the
things that people cannot purchase on the internet. Vincent noted that as a City we need to note
that, embrace that, support that, and make it bigger and better.
Vincent noted that the need to support our anchor entertainment and food/beverage businesses
necessitates the need for better parking in the downtown area to allow for more people to come
in—especially on weekend nights.
Chamber businesses express a challenge with finding sufficient staff to maintain business hours;
this challenge is often tied to the ability of those doing work in our community to find accessible
workforce housing in our City.
Vincent noted the importance of building the tax base through growth and development,noting
that improvements to properties through new development results in a larger and broader tax
base.
Chamber members request the City revisit the Bass River zoning topic, given the amount of time
it takes to move from community discussion/conversation/zoning work to shovel-ready projects.
Chamber members note that the timeline to a temporary Hall-Whitaker Bridge (2027) is similar
to the amount of time it takes to move through zoning change processes to be ready for new
projects or development.
Chamber members are largely in favor of mixed-used redevelopment in the Bass River area.
Some ideas that were shared from members:
• MBTA train stop near Elliott St. Cummings Center(esp. with Cummings plan for
a 55+development on their property). Members are aware that MBTA is unlikely
to add such a stop, but raised it as an idea that would make sense in a multitude of
ways.
0 2030 vision—possible movie studio, expanded airport use, need for Phase 2
project on 128/Dunham Road area
• Road construction has profound impact on businesses; ensuring strong
communication from City to businesses in areas likely to be impacted by road
construction with face to face advance notice and strong communication
Vincent noted that the Chamber has a Government Affairs Committee (often meets on
Wednesday mornings 8:30 a.m. —9:30 a.m.); among other upcoming presenters at the GAC will
be Cummings Properties, invited to share project information and plans for the 55+ development
for the Balch St side of their Elliott/Balch St property.
Opportunities could include additional parking on the East Side/behind the East Side of Cabot
St., elevated or parking garage style parking built into the downtown at some location(s), Last
Mile shuttle in which businesses and City could partner to help move people more easily from
MBTA stops, downtown garage, to Cummings, other businesses, etc.
11:17 a.m. -Wangari Fahari, City of Beverly DEIB Director presented an overview of her work
in the Diversity, Equity,Inclusion, and Belonging Department, along with her observations from
her time in the position to date.
Fahari noted that one of her initial steps has been doing internal work—ie doing work with
Department Heads to deepen the work of the Race Equity Audit and resulting needed follow-up
in the City and among City Departments and staff.
External work also happens in the DEIB office—ie work with local students at colleges or with
college staff or work to help support, listen to, advocate for residents encountering incidents of
bias, discrimination, feeling unsafe.
Right now there is a Core Team working with Fahari on Race Equity Audit follow-up and on
DEIB work, generally. Council's representative on this body is Kathleen Feldman.
Across the State, Fahari works with other DEIB Directors; currently they are working on an
updated DEIB toolkit for local municipalities.
Fahari noted that her first year was a year in which she did"diagnostics"—a lot of listening and
learning.
At this juncture, she is ready to apply some of what she has learned to help the City, its
Department Heads, and its residents take next steps.
Her work takes her out of her office and out into the City and into the community regularly.
Fahari talked about opportunities that she sees to weave the work of DEIB into other
Departments; the work should be happening in all departments, not just the work of one
department or person.
Fahari also talked about working in partnership with the Beverly Public Schools,particularly
with the ELL community and ELL Director, to help more fully engage and build connections
with families and individuals in the ELL community. (Language Access Plan)
Fahari talked about ways in which we can evaluate success in areas of DEIB work.
The City Council then participated in a team building exercise facilitated by Chris Lovasco,
followed by a break for lunch.
12:47 p.m. -Mayor Cahill presented to the City Council with an eye toward City finances and
capital projects on the horizon for the City.
The Mayor noted that providing City services relies on people (staff) and so the largest expense
for a municipality is the (very needed) investment in its people (salaries,health care, pension
fund, etc).
The Mayor noted that layering in debt as part of capital projects while staying within our
financial policies and as old debt falls off is part of our strategy/tool to be able to invest in
infrastructure and provide needed services.
Mayor added that the slated upcoming/proposed projects (City Hall renovation and Library
HVAC) can be done without raising the % of our debt service as compared to our budget.
Mayor noted that when looking at capital needs on the horizon,we need to consider, among
other projects, the fact that our elementary school buildings are now reaching ages where they
will need new roofs and new HVAC systems.
The Mayor addressed some of the needs in our road/sidewalk infrastructure, as well as noting
challenges related to funding.
The Mayor addressed the importance of work in municipal government that helps to address,
help, and uplift the needs of people. He added that the climate crisis is, itself, work that addresses
and uplifts the needs of people, and further stated that he feels it is one of the single greatest
problems we are called to address, collectively,because it will impact the lives of all people, in
extreme weather events and weather-related food scarcity/water scarcity.
Councilors (St. Hilaire, Rotondo, Sweeney,Flowers) asked questions of the Mayor regarding
infrastructure work and funding in areas of roads and sidewalks,particularly pointing toward the
desire to achieve the sharing publicly by the City a 3-year projected paving project plan.
Councilor Spang noted the parallel expression of that need gleaned from Richard Vincent's
presentation on behalf of the Greater Beverly Chamber of Commerce,where he expressed that
businesses were also asking for/expressing the benefit they would find in being able to plan
ahead based on such a longer-term plan for paving and roadwork being publicly available.
Councilor Bowen asked that the City's Capital Plan include a more detailed timeline projection
or expected timeline for projects.
[Councilor Feldman had to leave due to a prior commitment; the Council was aware from the
beginning of the session that Councilor Feldman needed to leave at this time.]
Councilor Houseman asked for additional communication from the Administration about the
scope/bigger picture of how all Capital projects and visions fit together that would be not only
for the Council but for the public, as well.
Councilors asked for a more standardized or regular update or communication from the
Administration to the Council with routine/weekly information.
Councilor Sweeney asked if the Mayor had ever considered designating one member of his staff
as the official liaison to the Council/person who would attend Council meetings and facilitate the
regular or weekly updates to the Council.
Councilors asked about the possibility of having roles/descriptions for City Boards and
Commissions available on the City website or in the public sphere for members of the public to
better understand what work a given Board or Commission undertakes/what it might be like to
volunteer to serve on a given Board or Commission.
A motion to adjourn was made (St. Hilaire) and seconded(Crowley). A vote was taken, and
motion carried(8-0 (Councilor Feldman having left earlier in the session))
The meeting adjourned at 2:36 p.m.