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Special Committee on Special Permits and Licensing — May 11, 2026
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0:46
All right, gentlemen, we're ready to go.
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Are you all ready?
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You may proceed.
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Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
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It is 6:30 PM.
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AM on Monday, May 11th, 2026, here in the New Bedford City Council chamber.
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I'd like to call to order this meeting on the Special Committee on Special Permits and Licensing.
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Note, this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.
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City Council and committee meetings can be viewed on the City of New Bedford's homepage under Quick Links, then Meetings.
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I am joined in the council chamber this evening by my colleagues in government and members of this committee We have Ward 2 Councilor Scott Pemberton, Ward 1 Councilor Leah Choquette, and Ward 5 Councilor Joseph Lopes.
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I am Councilor at Large Ian Abreu and the chairman of this committee.
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1:39
I'll ask the clerk at this time— Mr.
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1:41
Clerk, are there any letters to be read into the record?
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I do.
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I have one letter to read into the record.
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It's from Councilor, um, Carney.
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I am writing to inform you that I expect to be late for tonight's committee meeting due to a prior commitment.
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Please read this letter into the record.
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Motion received and place this item on file, made by Councilor Lopes, seconded by Councilor Choquette.
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Anyone on the question?
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All those in favor say aye.
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Opposed?
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The ayes have it.
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2:03
I'll ask the clerk to read item 1.
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Item number 1 is a communication.
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City clerk— clerk of the city council submitting an application for a new private livery license on behalf of Anna Liz Valentin Burgos, uh, 627 Allen Street, New Bedford, Mass., doing business as Gerana's Transportation Incorporated.
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211 Wells Street, New Bedford, Mass.
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The term of the license is July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.
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The, uh, was referred here on March 26, 2026, and item number 1 is now before you.
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Made by Councilor Lopes, seconded by Councilor Choquette on the motion to receive and place on file.
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Anyone on the question?
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All those in favor say aye.
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Opposed?
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The ayes have it.
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I believe, Miss Burgos, you are here.
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Yes, good evening.
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So before we open it up to the floor for our colleagues from— questions from our colleagues, can you tell us a little bit about what you're looking to do?
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I'm sorry, what?
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Tell us a little bit about what you're looking to do here in your application.
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We do transportation for school-age— pick up the microphone, please.
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We do transportation for school-age children and daycare services.
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Okay, I'll open the floor for the colleagues at this time.
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Councilor Lopes.
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Miss Burgos, how many vans do you have?
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We have 3 vans.
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3 vans.
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And where do you park those vans?
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Um, we have 2 of the vans parked on 456 Mill Street, and we have 1 van parked on 627 Allen Street.
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That's the van that I drive in the morning time.
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So that's the one that you drive?
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So basically your own van?
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Because I live there.
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Yeah.
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Okay, so you have 3 drivers.
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Now, do you do anything other than school School runs?
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Do you do airport runs?
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Do you do dialysis runs through GATRA or anything like that?
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I'm sorry, what?
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Do you do airport runs?
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No.
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Do you do any runs for GATRA?
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No.
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No, just school and daycare.
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Okay.
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Thank you, ma'am.
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Yep.
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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Thank you, Councilor Lopes.
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Anyone else on the afferents for this petitioner?
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If you'll allow from the chair, colleagues.
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Ms. Burgos, how many jobs will you be creating with this company of yours?
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Is it just yourself, or will you be employing a few people?
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I'm just curious about that.
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Yeah, I'm hiring right now 2 people.
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You're hiring 2 people?
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Yeah.
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So we have an interview supposed to be this past week because we was trying to hire a person, but they need to come here and do all the, you know, driver things.
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Well, if you're struggling, of course, to look for qualified employees, perhaps you should also leverage the partnership with that great New Bedford Career Center through MassHire.
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That might be something for you to consider as well, right here on Elm Street.
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Okay.
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All right, thank you, thank you so much.
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Councilors, anyone else for this petitioner?
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Okay, what is your pleasure on this item?
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Motion made by Councilor Lopes, seconded by Councilor Pemberton, for a positive recommendation to be referred out to the full City Council.
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Anyone on the question?
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All those in favor say aye.
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Opposed?
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The ayes have it.
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Okay, so Um, Miss Burgos, you have been given a positive recommendation, which is a thumbs up from this committee.
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It'll now go before the full New Bedford City Council, the meeting on May 28th, okay, at 7 PM, right here in the chambers for the final vote of passage.
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Okay, so if you want to come in to see the final vote, you can come in here May 28th at 7 PM.
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Okay, all right, sounds good.
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Thank you.
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Other than that, you're all set.
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Thank you, ma'am.
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5:34
All right, I'll ask the clerk to read item 2.
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Number 2 is communication.
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City clerk, clerk of the city council submitting an application for a new private livery license on behalf of Maria DePina, 28 Windsor Circle, Brockton, Mass., and Maria L. Pires, 60 Foster Street, Brockton, Mass., DBA Sisters Express Transport, 109 Robeson Street in New Bedford, Mass.
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The term of the license is July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.
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It was referred here on April 9, 2026.
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Number 2 is now before you.
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Does, uh, Miss Pires in the chamber?
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I don't know.
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We'll table the communication made by Councilor Lopes, seconded by Councilor Choquette.
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Any— well, can't speak on the question of tabling.
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All those in favor say aye.
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Opposed?
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The ayes have it.
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Colleagues, if you'll indulge, I'll ask the clerk, were there any communications from this petitioner?
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There were none.
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Okay, so we'll send her a letter and we'll figure out what happened here.
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Colleagues, without objection, uh, are there any objections to taking items 3 and 4 together?
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All right, thank you.
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Seeing none, communication.
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City Clerk, Clerk of the City Council, submitting the petition of Paul N. Bryant, Round Rock, Texas, DBA Fall River Pawn Brokers, 1351 Accushnet Avenue, New Bedford, Mass., requesting a waiver of residency in accordance with Section 15-38 of the city code to obtain a license to deal in junk, old metals, or any other secondhand articles.
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Was referred here on April 23rd, 2026.
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Number 4 is a communication.
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City Clerk, Clerk of the City Council, submitting a petition to Paul N. Bryant, Round Rock, Texas, doing business as Fall River Pawn Brokers, 268 Union Street, New Bedford, Mass., requesting a waiver of residency in accordance with Section 15-38 of the city code to obtain a license to deal in junk, old metals, or any other secondhand articles.
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This was also referred on April 23rd, 2026.
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Number 3 and 4 are now before you.
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I need a motion to receive these items on file.
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Made by Councilor Lopes, seconded by Councilor Pemberton.
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Anyone on the question of receiving items 3 and 4 and placing them on file?
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All those in favor say aye.
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Opposed?
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The ayes have it.
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All right, so we now have the petitioner here, Mr. Bryant.
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Mr. Bryant, good evening.
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7:51
Good evening.
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Would you mind telling this committee a little bit about kind of what you're all about and what you're looking to do.
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And then I'll open the floor for questions.
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I, I bought Fall River Pawnbrokers October 28th, 2022.
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11 locations, 6 in Mass., 5 in Rhode Island.
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And we were doing the renewal this year.
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And I did live in Texas.
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I've been a resident of Revere, just north of Boston, for 2 years, and I was downtown Boston for 2 years before that.
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So while I did go back and forth between Texas and Boston a lot and kept a rental there after my divorce a few years ago, um, I am a Boston area resident.
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And, um, and yeah, we're now 51 stores in 9 states.
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So, but I'm committed to being up here in this area because that's where I launched the company.
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Thank you, Mr. Bryant.
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Colleagues, questions for this petitioner for items 3 and 4?
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Yep.
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Thank you, Councilor Lopes.
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Motion made by Councilor Lopes, seconded by Councilor Choquette.
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Anyone on the question?
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All those in favor say aye.
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Opposed?
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The ayes have it.
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Mr. Bryant, you got off easy tonight.
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Congratulations.
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So I don't know if you heard, um, before before with the prior, uh, previous petitioner, but this item will now be reported out and heard on the May 28th full New Bedford City Council agenda for a final vote of passage.
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If you'd like to come, you're welcome to.
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If not, the clerk's office will notify you.
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Okay?
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Okay.
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Thank you.
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Have a good evening.
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Y'all too.
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Thanks.
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9:33
Good night.
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Good night.
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9:34
So, colleagues, seeing that there's no other business before us at this time, motion to adjourn made by Councilor Lopes.
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Seconded by Councilor Pemberton.
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Anyone on the question of adjournment?
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All those in favor say aye.
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Opposed?
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The ayes have it.
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We are adjourned at 6:39 PM.
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Have a great evening, everyone.
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