Charter Commission One Government Center Fall River, MA 02722 Call To Order: 6:01PM Adjournment: 7:00PM Minutes of Charter Commission Meeting Monday, December 21, 2015 DATE AND TIME: Monday, December 21, 2015; 6:01pm LOCATION: One Government Center, 1st Floor Atrium PRESENT: Atty. Assad, Vice-­‐Chair Bartley, Cusick, Norton, Quinn, Robillard, Silvia, Clerk Venice, and Chairman Miozza. ABSENT: None IN ATTENDANCE: Mr. Stephen McGoldrick, Interim Director, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management Ms. Cathy Ann Viveiros, City Administrator (City of Fall River) Correspondence a. 12/03/2015 letter to Mr. Stephen McGoldrick, Interim Director, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston (hereinafter Collins Center) from Chairman Miozza asking for a scope of services to be performed, a fee schedule, a model contract, and references. (attached) b. Undated reply from the Collins Center concerning a letter entitled Charter Drafting Assistance Scope of Services and an additional document entitled Professional Service Agreement. (attached) c. 12/20/2015 letter of recommendation from Paul Schlosberg, former Chairman of the Everett Charter Commission. (attached) d. Undated letter of recommendation from Mr. Stephen P. Cole, Former Chair Newburyport Charter Commission. (attached) e. A copy of the Newburyport Charter Commission Community Survey 2010 and the Processes Followed to Enter and Analyze Survey Data. (Given, via email, to Commissioners at the request of Chairman Miozza after the last meeting. DISCUSSION: Call to Order Chairman Miozza calls the meeting to order at 6:01pm, reads “open meeting law” statement, and asks the Clerk to call the roll. Roll Call Clerk Venice calls the roll and all Commissioners are present. New Business a. Minutes of the Previous Meeting Copies of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting were distributed to all Commissioners prior to the meeting. Commissioner Robillard makes a motion to accept the minutes of the December 14, 2015 Public Hearing as written, seconded by Cusick. Motion carries, 9-­‐0. b. Chairman Miozza asks for permission to take Item (c) on the Agenda ahead of Item (b). Motion made by Atty. Assad, seconded by Robillard. All in favor, 9-­‐0. Chairman Miozza explains that originally the Commissioners had voted to have a monthly meeting the 3rd Monday of each month. However, the 3rd Monday in January falls on Martin Luther King Day which is a holiday. Chairman Miozza defers to Commissioner Robillard who suggests having two meetings in January—one on Monday, January 11 and one on Monday, January 25, 2016. The purpose of the January 11 meeting would be to conduct a Special Meeting for the purpose of discussing a past proposal from Commissioner Norton to put together survey questions to be distributed to the public with the mailing of the City Census in early February (subject to the approval of the Elections Board). Motion made by Robillard, seconded by Vice-­‐Chair Bartley to hold that Special Meeting on January 11, 2016 and to schedule a second meeting on Monday January 25, 2016. Motion carries, 9-­‐0. c. Chairman Miozza now takes up Item (b) on the agenda and delivers the following statement to be made part of the record: I would like to thank the Collins Center and their representative Mr. McGoldrick for being here this evening. For the record I have had a 4-­‐year working relationship with Mr. McGoldrick as a founding member of the Fall River Charter Review Group. Through the process he was always gracious and took ALL on my telephone calls and returned my calls in a timely fashion as well as the Vice Chair Mr. Bartley’s phone calls. He also responded to OUR emails and did so in a timely manner. Mr. Bartley and I have spent countless hours soliciting advice from Mr. McGoldrick and I always appreciated his wise counsel. Mr. McGoldrick has come to Fall River not once BUT twice free of charge to participate in informational forums put on by the Review Group and Bristol Community College. And I once again want to personally thank him for participating in both of those forums. Most of my Commission colleagues attended one or both of the forums and the feedback I received from them was always positive and they generally felt Mr. McGoldrick was very knowledgeable about charter reform. I also received positive feedback from residents who either attended the sessions or watched them on one of our local media outlets. Based on an 8-­‐1 vote by this Commission at our November 30th meeting I was charged with the responsibility to contact the Collins Center and request both a scope of services proposal and a contract from them. Mr. McGoldrick provided both documents. On December 11th there was a conference call with Cathy Ann Viveiros, the City Administrator), (who, by the way, is very germane to this process because she is the Commission’s “funding source” and my contact for the administration) and Corporation Counsel Judge Macy to review the scope of services document and contract before presenting these documents to the Commission for your input. I had to ensure I was comfortable with both documents as was the legal counsel for the City and the City Administrator since the City and the taxpayers were footing the bill. There were several modifications that were requested by both myself and the city representatives—and Mr. McGoldrick was amenable to those changes. Allow me to briefly outline what those requested changes were: • While it may have been implied—I requested specific language be inserted into the scope of service agreement that addressed ensuring the Fall River Charter aligned with Massachusetts General Law. •
I requested specific language be included that addressed a methodology for future charter reviews. •
I requested specific language be included that “assisted” the Commission with drafting a public survey. •
The City Administrator requested deliverables be called out in the agreement to include preparation of the preliminary and final report and the preparation of the “summary” that will appear on the 2017 ballot. •
Corporation Counsel Macy had some concerns with the contract language and Mr. McGoldrick and Judge Macy were able to satisfactorily work out the legal language in the contract. So what you have here tonight are documents that the city administration, the city’s legal counsel, and I am pleased with and these documents reflect the requested changes. It is the hope that after Mr. McGoldrick does his presentation—and fields questions from the Commission that EACH of you have the same level of comfort that I have— and we will be able to take a vote this evening on whether we can retain the services of the Collins Center. My personal goals with the charter review is to make Fall River’s Charter a relevant document. It has languished for over 80 years. I want to make it a “living and breathing” document and it obviously needs to be modernized. I also think the City may be open to potential litigation because our constitution is so out of whack. Mr. McGoldrick is called to the table to give his presentation. He gives a brief history of the Collins Center and its establishment by the legislature in 2008. Since inception the Collins Center had close to 240 municipal and state engagements for over 130 cities and towns and 15 state agencies. He also highlighted some of the work he has performed working for the Collins Center. His work experience also included being involved in government for nearly 30 years, working for the Mayors of Everett and Sommerville, then working for the receivership in Chelsea conducting a major reform of Chelsea’s city government, then to the Massachusetts Area Planning Council out of Boston, and finally to the Collins Center. Mr. McGoldrick then talked about the scope of services and the meetings and topics he proposes be discussed and decided at each meeting and timelines for each topic. He makes it clear that the Preliminary Report of the Commission is due by March 6, 2016 and the Final Report due by May 4, 2016. He lets everyone know that those dates are inflexible and if not met they won’t take the reports and the whole process would be for naught. He likes to get the reports in a few weeks earlier than required and his timelines, if followed, will ensure that happens. He also mentions that Marilyn Contreas is now an associate with the Collins Center and will be working with the Commission. Mr. McGoldrick then fielded a number of questions from all of the Commissioners before concluding his presentation. The questions dealt with the scope of services, the cost, the process to be followed during future meetings, possible roadblocks, and the rewriting of the Charter from scratch. Chairman Miozza then announced he had asked for and received three references in regards to the Collins Center’s work from Mr. Stephen P. Cole, former Chair of the Newburyport Charter Commission, Mr. Paul Schlosberg, former Chair of the Everett, MA Charter Commission, and Mr. David Stevens former Chair of the Northampton Charter Commission and current Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council on Aging. All three of these references were listed in the proposal from the Collins Center. Both Mr. Cole and Mr. Schlosberg sent written references to Chairman Miozza (see attached). Chairman Miozza spoke to a conversation he had with Mr. Stevens as follows: “When I told Mr. Stevens what Mr. Schlosberg said about endorsing the Collins Center 110% he said he would up it to 111%. He also told me “it was worth every penny hiring the Collins Center.” The City of Northampton tried to pass a charter both in 1973 and 1987 and failed both times but was successful in 2011. Mr. Stephens stated, “I would severely doubt the Charter passes WITHOUT McGoldrick because of his history and expertise.” I asked Mr. Stevens: “If he were sitting in front of the Commission this evening—
what would he say to the Commissioners about hiring the Collins Center and this is his statement verbatim: “There is a reason Fall River’s Charter is 80 years old. Changing the Charter is an enormous project. Nine volunteers are going to spend a great deal of time modernizing the charter and having a person staffing your Commission, with the technical expertise, will accelerate the process and make it less convoluted. It is far more complex than one realizes because you have to go line-­‐by-­‐
line making sure changes made on page 28 don’t impact what you did on page 4. You want the document to be coherent and not contradict itself.” Chairman Miozza states the only criticism he has received was that Mr. McGoldrick can get ahead of himself at times. And the reason attributed to that—is he knows the process on how to get from Point A to Point B so well—but the rest don’t. Chairman Miozza then spoke about his personal expectations for the new City Charter and requested his list be submitted into the minutes as follows: • I want the writing style of the Charter to be friendly and easily understood by an average citizen. • I want it to be straightforward and consistent with other city legal documents. •
I want our new City Charter to be thorough—but not exhaustive. •
The new Charter needs to be flexible and focused on the fundamentals. Chairman Miozza then presented his version of the advantages of entering into an agreement with the Collins Center as follows: • I feel the City is getting “two highly qualified experts” for the price of one—BOTH Mr. McGoldrick and Marilyn Contreas. • Based on the Collins Center assisting 15 communities with charter reform it is my firm belief—that Mr. McGoldrick knows “what will work” and “what won’t work”. Working with that many municipalities certainly gives him a “unique perspective”. • The Collins Center has a staff of 20 employees—they have resources beyond Mr. McGoldrick. •
The Collins Center will be “holding our hands” throughout the process and it gives me lots of comfort to know that. •
There are many ordinances and laws that the City may need to repeal and the Collins Center has the expertise to help us accomplish that judiciously. •
I think there is a unique relationship with UMASS Dartmouth & UMASS Boston-­‐-­‐ a synergy that needs to be explored further. I have provided Mr. McGoldrick with the contact information of a professor at UMASS Dartmouth that State Representative Alan Silvia and I have met with and the professor wants to assist the Commission in this process. Mr. McGoldrick has assured me that if he does work with the City of Fall River he will reach out to him and foster that relationship. •
Based on my research the fee is reasonable and NOT out of the ballpark. I think there is going to be real value and a return on investment beyond just the consulting services we will receive from the Collins Center. I truly believe a relevant City Charter will provide returns in the form of a more efficient running government thereby saving both time and money. •
I want the very best for Fall River as I am sure my Commission colleagues do as well. All of my research tells me that the Collins Center and Mr. McGoldrick is the very best consultant and agency to undertake Charter Review and Reform. And it is for that reason I ask my colleagues to join me in support for entering into an agreement with the Collins Center to undertake Charter Review for the City of Fall River. On the issue of approval of the contract Commissioner Robillard requests two votes be taken—one for the approval of the scope of services and one for the approval of the contract. During discussion City Administrator Viveiros questions the necessity for two votes saying the scope of services and the contract are one and the same and that two votes could lead to two different results. Commissioner Assad concurs with Viveiros. Commissioner Robillard then reconsiders his request for two votes and says one vote is fine with him but informs the Commission he is not in favor of hiring a consultant and not comfortable with the $40,000.00. Robillard feels the consultant takes away some of the duties and responsibilities of the elected Charter Commission. Assad mentions that a consultant would be valuable in assisting us in meeting our deadlines and agrees that the Commission shouldn’t give up any of its power but feels the consultant would be a good thing for the Commission. Robillard asks for a roll call vote. Vice Chair Bartley makes a motion to accept the scope of services and the contract, seconded by Commissioner Quinn. Motion carries 8-­‐1 with Commissioner Robillard dissenting. Commissioner Assad then pursues Commissioner Norton’s question as to who should be contacting the Collins Center with any questions or should we all contact the Center individually? Assad cautions against violating the State’s Open Meeting Law if the Commission discussed things amongst itself without an open meeting. The matter was eventually tabled until Chairman Miozza could get a ruling if having about one person speaking for the Commission and contacting the Collins Center with questions was legal. Adjournment Commissioner Robillard makes a motion to adjourn. Seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor. Meeting Adjourns at 7:00pm. LIST OF DOCUMENTS OR EXHIBITS USED DURING THE MEETING: 1. 12/03/2015 letter to Mr. Stephen McGoldrick, Interim Director, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston (hereinafter Collins Center) from Chairman Miozza asking for a scope of services to be performed, a fee schedule, a model contract, and references. (attached) 2. Undated reply from the Collins Center concerning a letter entitled Charter Drafting Assistance Scope of Services and an additional document entitled Professional Service Agreement. (attached) 3. 12/20/2015 letter of recommendation from Paul Schlosberg, former Chairman of the Everett Charter Commission. (attached) 4. Undated letter of recommendation from Mr. Stephen P. Cole, Former Chair Newburyport Charter Commission. (attached)