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MINUTES - Executive - 9/10/2015 SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 CITY COUNCIL - EXECUTIVE SESSION A Regular Meeting of the City Council was held in the Council Chamber on Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 7:00 P.M. for the purpose of transacting any and all business, at which time the City Council, by roll call vote, went into Executive Session with Mayor Kimberley Driscoll and Solicitor Elizabeth Rennard to discuss litigation by Northside Carting against the City regarding the Salem Transfer Station. Notice of this meeting was posted on September 3, 2015 at 4:43 P.M. Absent was Councillor Joseph A. O’Keefe Also present was Jason Silva and Dominick Pangallo of the Mayor’s office. Council President Arthur C. Sargent, III presided. President Sargent turned the Executive Session over to Mayor Driscoll and Attorney Rennard to address the Council regarding the matter. Mayor Driscoll stated this is in regards to a complaint relative to Northside Carting which ended up in litigation. When the lawsuit was dropped Northside Carting was not capable to perform to standard. We still are obligated to clean the site. When we started this roughly around 2008 the site has not been cleaned or capped properly since1975. DEP has been patience with us but their patience is running out. We need to demonstrate a plan. We are in a better financial state and we need to get the property capped and cleaned. We need bonding on this. She stated she didn’t think the litigation had credence. Many allegations were made we entered into an agreement in good faith and now we need to move forward. Solicitor Rennard stated since the complaint we have gathered up all the documents for counterpointes to counter these complaints. They have decent council who she spoke to on the phone, he seems open to hearing our side of the story. Attorney Leonard Femino is in process of examining we will be coming up with a strategy, and we don’t know if the process will be to dismiss. Councillor Sargent asked do we have a countersuit? Solicitor stated yes. SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 CITY COUNCIL - EXECUTIVE SESSION Councillor Eppley for Councillors that have never been sued before what does this actually mean for us as individuals? Solicitor stated there is no personal liability you are sued as a Council Councillor Furey asked shouldn’t we go with it? Aren’t we showing our hand? Solicitor Rennard stated no that we met with DEP, their patients is done, we need to clean up the Transfer Station. Councillor Furey stated we can’t afford a Council on Aging but we can afford this? Mayor Driscoll stated we wanted Northside to do it but they can’t perform. They won’t comply. They are not the same company we started with. They left everything a mess. They can’t physically clean the site. The ability to spend a 2.5 million dollars we need to bond over twenty years. We will bring in more revenue than this and recoup dollars. Councillor Furey asked if Northside did it they would be mandated. Mayor stated that they won’t do it. We will have to run it ourselves. I wish someone else could come in and clean it up. They just did not deliver for us. Councillor Sargent stated this is a similar price to clean up McGrath park and we took in no revenue. This is better. Mayor – We’ll keep you posted. We need Bond Orders to be passed tonight for first passage. DEP is pushing us. DEP recognizes we are in a process. They could fine us. We are still sifting through the trash contract. DEP has been willing to work with us. I don’t know what happened we all have had bad experiences. Councillor Eppley asked about the damages how did they file, are they trying to strong arm us? This makes no sense. This is not my area of expertise. Solicitor Rennard - we were in the process of settling. They are relying on one thing that says once the RFP is issued a proposal is expected they are using a letter that I wrote. They are getting advice that `the City Council doesn’t have authority to convey land only the Mayor. This isn’t so. Mayor – They have no Purchase and Sale Agreement. They have a lease agreement with the prior administration for $500,000. We never brought it to the Council because it would have been a struggle to get 8 votes. I feel terrible about the outcome. The reason we are in this position isn’t anything that we didn’t or did do. They didn’t do. We have to clean it up and it will create a revenue stream. Councillor Sargent asked do we have a contract for clean up? SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 CITY COUNCIL - EXECUTIVE SESSION Mayor we have an engineering firm that’s why we need the Bond to be adopted we need first passage tonight. Solicitor – there are revenue options. Mayor – there are a lot of different options, some leased out, some are run by city we need to look at other options. Councillor Milo – 400 tons per day permit do we need to keep in mind going forward Solicitor we will work up to that. I wouldn’t want the engineer to show up and say they will make a certain revenue Mayor – there is needed traffic updates, not a good investment for them. We need to sort though and see what our options are. They didn’t have a good business model. Councillor Eppley First Street and Swampscott Road where are we on planning upgrades? Mayor - we don’t have that yet Councillor Eppley intersection needs to be addressed by the City. Mayor – There may be a need for an easement the way Walter Power did with all the pine trees. Councillor Siegel moved that the Executive Session be adjourned and regular meeting continue by a roll call vote of 10 yeas, 0 nays, 1 absent. Councillors Turiel, Siegel, Milo, McCarthy, Legault, Gerard, Furey, Famico, Eppley and Sargent were recorded as voting in the affirmative. Councillor O’Keefe was recorded as absent. ATTEST: CHERYL A. LAPOINTE CITY CLERK