Finance Committee — April 13, 2026

Now I think you have to tweetle dumb.

It is 7:01 PM on Monday, April 13th, 2026, in the City Council Chambers.

For the Committee on Finance.

In attendance, we have Councilor of Ward 2 Scott Bempton, Councilor of Ward 1 Leah Burkett, Councilor of Ward 6 and City Council President Brian Parker, Councilor at Large James Roy, and Councilor at Large Naomi Carney.

You also— myself, um, Ward 5 City Councilor Joseph Lopes.

And we do have 2 letters to be read into the record.

We do.

This one is, uh, from Councilor Gomes.

I am writing to inform you that I will be unable to attend tonight's meeting due to a prior commitment and a conflicting schedule.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my tardiness.

But I'm assuming it's absence, right?

Okay.

Um, and this one is from Councilor Abram.

I am writing to inform you that I will be late in attending tonight's committee meeting due to an out-of-work commitment.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleague and the public aware of the reason for my absence.

Made by Councilor Pereira, second by Councilor Pemberton.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Can we also— this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.

Recorded.

The city council and committee meetings can be viewed on the city of New Bedford's homepage under Quick Links, then Meetings.

Before we start, number 1, can I get a motion to receive and place on file the communication from Zacharian Theater?

Made by Councilor Roy, seconded by Councilor Choquette.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Item number 1 is written motion, Councilor Forever, Carney, and Council President Virgo.

Requesting that representatives from— of the Z appear before the Committee on Finance to report the financial and operating expenses of the Zaitarian Theater.

The matter was referred here on July 22nd, 2025.

Motion to receive and place on file made by Councilor Pereira, seconded by Councilor Carney.

All those in favor?

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Rosemary, would you like to go to the podium, please?

Oh, of course.

Good evening.

You want to give an overview before any questions, or if you want to go right to the questions?

Councilor Pereira?

I don't need to.

That would be good.

Thank you.

So, uh, as a maker of the motion, um, Rosemary, thank you first for providing this information and being here.

So one of the concerns that when— that we discussed back when we were discussing the support agreement with the Zaitarian was, well, the increase in the support agreement, what were my concerns were, you know, making sure that the money that the city is providing to the Zaitarian is going towards insurance of the building, maintenance for the building, utilities of the building and such.

That as stewards of a city-owned building that you are, that the money we're giving you is going to maintaining that building.

So one, that for my sake and my constituents' sake, I know that the funds, taxpayer funds, are being spent properly.

And 2, that investments in a city-owned building is being maintained, right, by maintenance of the building and such.

Can you, can you go base your little bit off that and speak to a little bit of that?

Sure.

I guess I actually should have given you a little bit of an overview.

What I passed out to you all today is something that we sent both President Virgo and Christina Connolly as an action, a requirement of our support agreement.

We're meant to report on an annual basis.

So we sent this last summer when our financials were complete.

Our fiscal year ends on December 31st, so it is different on yours.

So it takes us a little bit of time to do that, but you would have received this narrative as well as a full accounting of our financials at that time.

I didn't bring that this time, but it would have been sent to you at that point.

What I've brought to you tonight is not only the narrative but also the financials to December 31st of 2025.

And so that's about— that represents 6 months of our fiscal year.

And it does a nice job of kind of capturing what our expenses are, where our income is coming from, etc., although you'll notice that we don't have much income because other than the, the support agreement funds and some contributed income because we were still closed.

Until January.

When we came before you initially for the support agreement, we thought we would have been open by August, August the earliest, if not October.

So the $495 million for the first 2 years was going to, if you recall, was going to enable us to keep all of our staff while we were raising the $37 million and while we were planning to bring this building back online.

And so the addition for there, but the, the, the spirit of this money is to support the Z in its efforts to steward the city-owned building, to pay for some of the expenses that the city was paying for the building prior to us obtaining the 99-year lease.

And so things like insurance, because the city was self-insured prior to us leasing, but we, we are required to have liability insurance.

And utilities— prior to the lease, the city was paying all of the utilities.

Additionally, the city was maintaining the building.

We were maintaining it like from a custodial point of view.

But any large or even, you know, small like plumbing or electrical things, the city DPI was coming in to maintain the building.

Now that we have the lease and, you know, we're in the building, we have those expenses.

So we've had to— we've never had like building operations staff before.

And if you If you're not aware, they're kind of expensive.

Actually, all staff is expensive these days.

But so we've had to hire for those kinds of positions, more custodial, building operations, building management, things like that.

And that's where the vast majority of this money is going to.

Fantastic.

Now, by the— so within the support agreement that we entered into with the Zaitarian, with the Z, Excuse me, uh, you guys send a financial report every year to the mayor's office?

Last year was the first year when we sent— what we sent— that narrative and a set of pretty full financials.

Okay, and that'll continue?

Yes.

I'm not sure.

So the, so the stipulation is that it's received on the first day of your fiscal year.

Yeah, that's tricky for us.

Okay.

But we'll do our best to hit that as soon after as possible.

So, so, but, but every year we should see some report, whether it's, you know, they're saying the first day of the fiscal year, but if it's close to that, we should see that.

Yes, yes.

And of course, if, if, um, you would be able to, uh, even if there's a way of producing a, a highlighted version or something like a, like just a top sheet like this.

Yeah.

And making that available to the council moving forward, I think that would be very helpful.

Believe me, you don't want to see the full financials.

I sent them to you, but like our board doesn't even want to see those.

We— this is like the high-level stuff that we give the board.

Our finance committee, of course, sees the full financials.

Okay.

By the way, as a nonprofit organization, we have to file annually with the state our financials.

We file a 990 and a tax return.

So all of this is very transparent, very public.

Okay.

All there.

Very good.

Uh, Mr. Chairman, I don't have any questions, any more questions at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rosemary.

Councilor Carney, you're first.

Yes.

Hi, Rosemary.

Thanks for coming.

Hello.

Sorry.

Thanks for coming.

Um, okay, so this is the, the, um, what do you call it, last year's through December 31st, 2025.

So this would have started— oh yeah, this actually is a 12-month Sorry, right, because I noticed— yeah, because you had said something, I, I was like, well, look, it says 12 months.

Yeah, my apologies.

This is not a half year, this is a full year.

Okay, so this is from January 1st, 2025 till December 31st.

So this is your full year financials.

So, um, unfortunately you gave this today.

If in the future when we bring you in there, if you get to us a little sooner so we can look at it and ask questions able to read it?

Yes, that would be— that would be— I only heard about the meeting last week, and my— anyway, yep, of course.

Well, that's fine, long as if we get it a little beforehand so we can read through what you present us so we can prepare some questions.

So, um, all right, so I see that the support agreement's there.

So your total, um, expenses totaled $2,377,000.

Correct.

Is that with all the new employees that you said that you're getting?

So remember, this was last year.

We didn't hire everyone.

We hired a decent amount of them in the last quarter of 2025, but we're still hiring, actually.

Right.

So you have your compensation benefits packages, $1.622 million for you.

But you said you're going to be adding— that's going to be— it'll be higher.

This year.

Okay.

Um, all right.

And you have support?

You just— they've asked you to submit it at the end of our fiscal year?

Yes.

So you're giving a half a report?

So it's— and yours ends at the, the calendar year?

It'll be our half, but it'll be your full.

So just because our fiscal years are, are off.

Okay.

I was just wondering, are you going to be able to— are you going to give us the 12 months?

We'll be able to capture 12 months.

On the, on the June 31st, whatever, when you— when it's due, or July 1st.

So we'll be able to get the 12 months.

Yes, and that's what you did get actually last summer, right?

The other question I have— and they did receive it last summer, we just didn't get a copy to the— to us.

We'll, we'll check with them about that.

Um, I would just— the other question I want to know, even if you send it there, would it be easier for you to just do the— I mean, you're going to send that to the, to the mayor's office, but is it easier for the Zaitarian to support, per our support agreement, to do something at the end of the year for the council versus halfway through?

You know what I mean?

Because you're going to do the halfway through for the mayor's office, and then according to support agreement, you have to give us another one at the end of the Whatever your pleasure is, actually.

It's, you know, like obviously capturing 12 months halfway through our year is tricky for our financial team, but it's not impossible.

Okay.

All right.

So we can do that.

But if you— if your preference would be that— No, it's— I was just saying what is easier for the Z and your financial team to put together to give us the information that we need on a yearly basis.

Well, if you want audited statements, then, then you really want to see something after we're audited, which wouldn't— because our fiscal year is December 31st, we wouldn't have the full audited financials probably till the second quarter, right?

So it's actually not terrible that we're reporting to you out in July or something like that, because then we're able to give you the audited, but it would be for the previous year for us.

Okay.

And back to the compensation, what do you expect to increase your salaries and benefits going forward?

You know, our budget is going to— our expenses are going to rise this year close to $6 million.

So we're— $6 million expenses, not benefits.

Okay.

Overall expenses now that we're up and running, because you got— you're at $2.3 million.

We were at $2.3 million, but we weren't operating, right?

We were closed.

Okay.

We didn't have the expenses of productions, or we weren't even really in the building, right?

The construction company was still in the building.

Okay.

So it's— so you do expect the— your income balance of the $1.4 to substantially increase also?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Yep, I've just— that's all the questions I have for now, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Rosemary.

Thank you.

You're welcome, Councilor Carney.

Also in attendance is Councilor-at-Large Shane Burgo.

We're on item number 1.

Does anyone else have any questions?

Seeing none from the chair, Rosemary, I got 3 quick questions for you.

Can you provide and I don't need it now, a breakdown of your IT and your communication expense, your other operating expense.

And then can you provide just the notes section of your audit?

I don't need the whole 50 pages before of it.

I'm going to need the last 6 to 8 pages of the notes you would have received for this year or for last year.

You've received that.

I've sent that.

Actually, I sent it to President Virgo last year and Christina Connolly.

Wait, do you have— okay, so I can get it from the office.

Perfect.

We can get through the office.

Yeah, then I only need one.

So do you still want that breakdown?

Yes.

Okay, because it would be broken down if it's going to be in the— if it'll be in the audit, then I don't need it.

I believe it is, but I will double-check, and if it's not, I'll send it to you.

Perfect.

Those are the only questions that I have.

Seeing anything else from the floor?

Motion I take no further action, refer out to the full city council, is in order.

So moved.

Made by Councilor Burgos.

Second by Councilor Roy.

All those in favor?

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Aye.

Rosemary, thank you.

It's my pleasure.

Item number 2 is written motion.

Councilor Dungy, Esther, Abreu, Lopes, Council President Moorad, Councilor Gomes, Lima, and Carney requesting that the city council vote to accept the provisions of Chapter 33, Section 59 of the Massachusetts General Laws that provide the benefits to city employees who are temporarily absent from work due to service in the armed forces of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Or on a reserve component of the Armed Forces of the United States.

The matter was charter ruled by Council President Moreau on March 14th, 2019, and referred on March 28th, 2019, April 17th, 2019, and tabled until May 15th, 2019.

Motion to take off the table.

Motion to remove from the table and receive and place on file, made by Councilor Roy, seconded by Councilor Choquette.

Anyone on the question?

All those in favor?

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Jose, would you like to— Good evening.

So go ahead, I'm sorry.

On this item here, it was one of the items that, um, when I saw the agenda, I looked at it and of course, looked at some of the activity to better understand it.

But this has been there since 2019.

It's been a while, for sure.

Help me understand the distance in terms of where we are today versus why it stopped somewhere, somehow in 2019.

I can only tell you previously it was referred out.

There was a discussion on it with your predecessor.

At that time, it was going to be for additional clarification and questions, and then the item was, uh, charter ruled, and it's been in the committee since.

Okay, do you need a little more time to do some research on it?

We can table the item if you prefer.

No, I, I would advise to do that because I would like to understand it in full.

So by the time I got the agenda, I started looking into this, but there's still some history that I would like to understand, and that's one of the items I actually when I saw Councilor Pereira that I would like to circle back to him or somebody that remembers a little bit more.

Because there's one thing about looking at the laws, there's one thing about looking at the activity, but the content that happened here prior to that is super helpful for me.

And that's the part that I'm missing.

I can always do research and see what's happening out there, but what was missed for 7 years and getting that back, to me, that part is ghosted.

So I need it to resurface somehow.

Questions or concerns, we can table the item for 60 days.

Councilor Forever, did you have a— if, if— thank you.

If Attorney Garatowski, um, would be available.

Hi, David.

Hello.

So, uh, this was before my time even on the council, uh, So my question would be, this is clearly a provision, and I imagine the councilors at that time spoke with you about this?

I don't recall them inquiring of me.

I think it was just that whether by a policy they wanted to have people who have— who go into military service to be able to receive their pay and benefits and not lose lose any time.

Um, now it went back to the council at some point, and it could have been that one councilor just had some concerns about it.

Seems as though they tabled it and then sent it back here for some reason, and then it wasn't taken up any further.

I don't know whether at the time the personnel department or the mayor's office expressed some concern about what the cost of this would be, um, to be able to do this, or what the impacts were, but it seems as though And the other issue is I'm not sure if we've accepted an earlier provision of the same law.

It doesn't appear that we have.

Nobody has raised that we had.

Because I know in the law it does say over and over to accept the provisions of this section or an earlier version of the law.

So I don't know what that earlier version was that we may have accepted.

But it doesn't seem that that's the case because I don't know who inquired inquired of Councillor Dunn and Councillor Lima, who are the sponsors, and others.

Someone may have inquired and said, look, I had military service and I, I wasn't paid and I'd lost benefits, or whatever the case may be, and they, and they wanted to raise that.

So I don't recall what all the conversations were, but it does seem that upon acceptance of this section, that someone who takes a leave for military reasons would be entitled to the benefits as detailed in this law.

I don't know what the financial impact that may be.

I don't know how many people we have in the service.

Maybe there are some employees in the National Guard.

I don't know what the— so figuring out what the impacts of that would be would probably be the question that would determine whether you want to adopt this section or not.

Okay.

It's been— reading through the provisions of the law as such were attached.

Yep.

Um, and, and going back and looking into that, I do think it's a good piece of policy as a matter of principle.

Uh, those folks who are serving their armed forces shouldn't lose their tenure in the city, shouldn't lose their benefits in the city.

So my request to the chair— thank you, Attorney Garatowski.

I think it does also say— I'm not sure if it says receive pay or something, something to that effect.

Some— it's a compensation that's going to be given out.

Exactly.

Um, when they're, you know, off on military service.

So I don't know what the impacts are, what the previous people that were in these positions were telling.

Um, I don't know if it was Judy, Judy Keating at the time, or someone saying here's what the impacts would be, and the council maybe changed their mind.

I don't know.

Fair enough.

Okay, thank you, Attorney Garetowski.

Uh, Chair, at appropriate time before we table, I'd like to just set a few requests of some officials from the city, please.

Councilor Carney, on your first.

Yeah, David, you want to— you want to go back?

Okay, so working for the state, so this, this is within the state, we're just looking to adopt the state's policy for this for the city employees, correct?

Right.

So working for the state, I just know that When I worked for the Sheriff's Department, there were several people that were in the military and came out of the military.

Their times, if they spent 4 or 5 years in the military, it would be added on to their service as a public employee.

So if they worked, if they were in the service for 2 years, those 2 years were added on to their service, their years of employment.

So if they were there for 10 years and they served for 2 years, they got 12 years.

12 years of what?

Like, in other words, service towards retirement?

Yeah, service of retirement, service of your vacations.

So if you were supposed to get your vacation in 14 years, your full vacations, they would be able to I will say this, that when you're talking about retirement, Chapter 32 may already govern what happens here, because this one seems to deal with pay, vacation time, seniority.

It looks like sick leave, personal leave, you accrue those types of things.

It doesn't seem to address the retirement years of credible service, so that may already be addressed in Chapter 32.

I don't— I'm not sure because I wasn't asked to look at that, but you're talking about a different, different thing.

So retirement may be addressed separately, right?

But I'm saying it's— but they didn't lose a beat for their military service.

I mean, their service time was added on to their time, so it would, it would stay with the seniority, stay with all these things that a stated here, they would have those years of service then added.

It appears if you adopted this.

If we adopted it, correct.

It's already adopted within the state.

But what I'm just separating out is that they may already get their retirement service, because another section of the law may govern that.

This doesn't seem to speak directly to retirement years of creditable service.

So that may be in Chapter 32, so I don't know.

Right.

This doesn't seem to speak to that.

But if you adopted this, it would, it would deal with, you know, accruing vacation time, sick time, those types of things for, for your military service.

Yes.

Right.

Which has already been doing in Massachusetts, but not with the cities.

Well, I don't know what the state does.

I don't know what the state does for their employees.

I don't know.

Well, this is, this is, this is, Jeff, this is the state, right?

This is— we're looking to adopt this, but I don't know whether the state is paying their employees.

I can't speak to that.

No, no, no, I'm not asking, right, or gives them any time.

This just basically says if you, if you accept it, then the city will do that.

We'll do this.

Yeah, I don't know what the state does, but the law says if you accept the provisions of this, that it appears that these things will take place when people take their military service, right?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Carney.

Anyone else on that first?

David?

Seeing none, Councilor Pereira.

Thank you.

Anyone who served in the forces while an employee of the city came back, uh, if we could have that number.

If we could then forecast a little bit what that would look like, because there's— we've talked about this with paid time off and such— there's no technical increase in the budget because they're already accounted for salary-wise.

What the approximation would be of any other benefits that we might not be aware of and such, just an approximation of what that would look like.

And, um, uh, from attorney— from City Solicitor Eric Jakes, if we could see if this— any— if he has any record of what Attorney Garatowski was saying, a previous version was accepted, and if he could give an opinion on behalf of the administration if they would support the accepting of these provisions.

Thank you.

Those are your 2 questions, Councilor Pereira?

Okay, so Attorney Jakes and Mr. Gouveia, do you— are you well aware of what you'll be asked to provide in 60 days.

Is that enough time?

Yes.

Perfect.

Make a motion to table the item for 60 days.

Made by Councilor Pereira.

Second by Councilor Carney.

All those in favor?

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Item number 3 is a communication of Mid-Michigan City Council submitting an order for the transfer of $1,070,555 from State Aid and an order for the transfer of $314,530 from State Aid 950 to School Department General Expense.

The matter was referred here on March 5th, 2026.

3A is the order and 3B is also the order.

Both were referred on March 5th, 2026.

Made by Councilor Pereira, seconded by Councilor Choquette.

All those in favor?

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Bob, would you like to go to the podium?

Good evening.

Bob, would you like to give an overview of the 2 orders?

Sure.

They're actually basically the same issue.

After the— well, as you remember, last spring we tried to set the correct net school spending amount that equated to the latest and greatest information we had available, which was the Senate that committee version of the mass Cherry Sheet aid and assessments.

That's— we knew that was going to change.

It's going to go through reconciliation, which it did.

And then the governor made other adjustments and then ended up vetoing— well, actually made a 10% cut, rather, I should say, in the amount of Cherry Sheet aid.

So we took care of 2 supplemental budget requests in July last year.

One was to restore a $1.7 million cut that was made on cut night, and on top of that, we, uh, restored $1.1 million, I think it was, of additional, uh, aid to the school system based on the revised numbers we had from the Cherry Sheet assessments.

So, uh, the long and short of this story is that in January or February, sometime around then, It might have even been in the late fall, the governor's cut was overridden.

So the 10% Cherry Sheet aid was restored.

So what's happened here is that there's been about $1 million, almost $1.4 million of net pickup for the city in terms of increased aid for charter schools and a reduction of the assessment.

We don't own that money, the school does really, because what happens is the foundation budget is set— last year was set at $295 million.

One way or another, we have to contribute $295 million to public education.

What happens is part of that money is we— the amount of assessments net of reimbursements from Cherry Sheet aid go into that formula.

So it's always a delicate balancing act as the state gives, we take from the school.

As the state— as the state takes, we give to the school.

So it's what we're trying to do now is give that to— that extra $1.3 million back to the schools because we were the recipient of a windfall when the governor's veto was, uh, uh, I mean, I'm sorry, when the governor's cut was vetoed.

So it's a zero-sum game for the city.

We're going to— we're going to receive a $1,385,000 in benefits.

It's split into 2 orders because what's happening is we're getting $1,070,000 in, in revenue and we're having a cut of $314,000 in expenditures.

So we're moving each one of those into this, into the public school education line on separate matters so it doesn't get too confusing.

Thank you, Bob.

Before we ask any questions, um, can Councilor of Ward 4, Derek Baptiste, has also joined us.

Does anyone have any questions for CFO Lester?

Councilor Roy.

Hey, so the other night, um, may have been at the full city council meeting, we accepted a, a statute, and that has to do with, uh, setting up a revolving fund.

Yes, for the school department.

So we accepted that statute.

I believe an ordinance has to be drafted, um, for it to be all set up, but that'll fix this.

So if the state ever has to, ever has to, you know, provide the city or the school department funding, it would go to the revolving fund and wouldn't need to be appropriated.

That was for a specific purpose, though.

I think that was for out-of-district tuitions that they wanted to set aside.

Generally, the way Massachusetts law works is that all receipts have to go into the city's general fund unless they're specifically carved out.

And some examples would be Mass.

Chapter 44, Sections 53E and 53F, which set up revolving funds and enterprise funds.

This is another vehicle that they're looking to take out-of-district tuitions and set them aside so that they can use those fees to pay for extra costs related to that program.

So it sort of is a bypass of the general fund, and these are actually in the general fund.

So they are sort of mutually exclusive.

What we're doing here is, uh, we're basically restoring the amount of money we're going to give— we the city, out of taxpayer dollars, are going to give to the, uh, the city school department.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Roy.

Anyone else?

Seeing none, Bob, thank you.

Recommendation from the committee?

Motion.

Second.

Made by Councilor Pereira, second by Councilor Carney.

All those in favor?

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

Can I get a motion to— at this time, if the body would be okay with leaving this item tabled for the time being, Mr.

Chair.

Item number 4?

Yes, please.

Okay.

No further action on that one.

Well, you got to make a motion, Councilor.

You can't just look at me.

No, no, smarty pants.

I'd like to make a motion for no further action on item number 4.

Motion to follow the recommendation of the chair.

Follow the recommendation of the chair made by Councilor Carney.

Second.

Second by Councilor Roy.

But there was a motion to table, but there wasn't a second on the motion.

Motion to table.

Well, there would be— nothing's been read into the records to read to have a motion to table.

Has to be removed from the table.

It has to be removed, and there hasn't been a motion to remove from the table with a second.

But I would, I would support, uh, Council President Pereira's motion to table, to leave on the table, right?

So don't do anything since we can't speak on, uh, no further.

Just leave it alone.

It'll— okay, thank you.

Yeah, we just, just vote on it.

Just vote.

So was— I guess the first question is, was this matter tabled at a previous meeting?

Yes.

Okay, so there's a tabled matter that was February 19th.

A motion to remove from the table, um, unless there's no objection, then someone could take no further action if there's no objection.

However, there seems to be objections, so a motion to take from the table would have to come first.

You would need 6 votes to do that and then do whatever you will with it.

If you don't get 6 votes to remove it from the table, it remains on the table until another— until the chair decides to put it back on the agenda.

Is that speak?

Can we speak on that item or no?

You cannot speak on removal.

No.

We will leave the item as is in the can for further discussion.

We will leave the item tabled.

We will not take it off.

No further action.

We'll leave it tabled and it'll it'll be discussed at a later time.

Thank you, Mr. Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn was made by Council Bargo.

Is there a second on adjourning?

Councilor Baptiste.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

We are adjourned at 7:34 PM.

Thank you.

Okay.