ORDER-2021-41 : Authorization for the Mayor of Melrose to execute a Power Purchase Agreement for Rooftop Solar Installation at Memorial Hall

Transcript (~55 min @ 46:15)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 46:12 Christopher Cinella: president you got that thank you okay onto our next uh order this evening thank you for coming time 2021-41 an authorization for the mayor of melrose to execute a power purchase agreement for rooftop solar installation at memorial hall i believe we have this rover coming on i'll bring her in yes i'm going to pull her into the panelists right now okay martha can you hear

▶ 46:52 Christopher Cinella: Yep. Martha, the screen is all yours.

▶ 46:55 Speaker 1: Okay, great.

▶ 47:00 Speaker 1: Kristen, are you going to make me a, what is the word, presenter?

▶ 47:08 Speaker 1: I'll share some, I'll share a few things, but first I just wanted to say thank you to uh for having me here and um we're kind of under the gun as usual um at the end of the year every solar developer in the state of massachusetts is racing to get projects done and contracts signed so here we are we just learned that this is your last meeting of the year so we had to uh really rush to get this get this in so the the question before you tonight is we're seeking your approval authorization for mayor broder to sign an agreement uh to install solar a solar array on the roof of memorial hall so i what i thought i would do is just give you a little background um on where we are where the solar industry is and um why the rush um so in just in terms of um i know you guys are new and this is this is this is the first rooftop solar project that you've approved most of you or you've seen but um as you know the city has the city has a goal of you know reducing fossil fuel use and switching to renewable energy where possible and because we're very um landlocked the only opportunities that we have for solar on municipal buildings or is it on municipal buildings um because we don't have a lot of open space so we have put solar so far on every available rooftop including the entire high school roof middle school um the dpw a few years ago we'd love to put it on a few more schools but they all need new roofs before we can do that most of them do even the new ones need new roofs now before we can put solar on them. So when I saw that you had approved funding for a roof replacement memorial hall, I reached out to the developer select to, it's a rooftop that developers have been very interested in because it gets a lot of solar access. It's good size. There isn't a lot of equipment up there. All of the mechanical equipment is behind the building, not on the roof um so it's a great opportunity um select is the is the chosen solar developer by a consortium that we belong to an energy buying consortium called power options they represent they have about four to five hundred members cities towns at universities and healthcare, large healthcare organizations. And so they go out and procure our electricity supply, our gas, and also they competitively procure this developer. So we can we can go to this developer without issuing an RFPA because they've already done that on our behalf. And so I reached out to them in July. They sent in their engineers. We sent them bunch of data they look at the electric panel they look at the roof um they collect a lot of data and information actually um before i forget is kathy pager brought around i think she also wanted to be she's still on the she's in the meeting yes yeah i think she also wanted to

▶ 50:44 Speaker 1: be available to answer questions okay when we get there i'll bring her in great um so we got a proposal from them in August. There was some more back and forth and what we have now is the power purchase agreement and a lease. So the way that solar works for cities and towns is because we are a non-profit and we don't pay taxes and a large component of how developers finance solar development is through the federal tax credit it was 30 up to last year this year it's 26 and on january 1st it goes down to 22 so that's why there's a mad rush to sign contracts in 2020 um and so what we what they do is or what a city or town does and what we've done in the past is we um pair up with a developer enter into an agreement with them these are 20-year agreements for them to to own develop um install they they buy all the equipment so there's no upfront cost to us and there's no ongoing maintenance costs the only thing that we agree to do is by the power that the system produces over the term of the contract at a rate that is less than what we currently pay for electricity um the other piece of how they make their money is through state incentives in 2000 it was it was called the s-rec program up until the end of 2018 when the state issued a newest new incentive program um and with all incentive programs what happens is over time the incentives decrease because as as adoption um increases as the as the um equipment costs and installation costs and panel costs etc go down then the incentives go down so what we're looking at now are much smaller incentives than what we had say in 2014 for the high school project um that definitely impacts the the rate of the ppa rate that we're that we end up paying um the other the other problem for us is that being in national grid territory national grid covers the entire state um the these incentives were issued in blocks and these are declining blocks national grid territory is already in block 10 um meaning that the first nine blocks have already been filled with capacity so we're we're in so um not only how do the incentives start out smaller but they've gone down in the last um two years i'm in being in block 10 as a comparison eversource is only in block five so the national grid's capacity got eaten up and a lot of that is because national grids territories out west and there are all these huge five megawatt systems that are being built out there that ate up all of their capacity so it's really hard for us in eastern massachusetts to make projects work but we're squeezing this one in um and what we're trying to do is take advantage of um the capacity that's still available in what they call block 10 and this year's itc investment tax credit so the developer using all of that information and i'm going to try

▶ 54:30 Speaker 1: to share uh here it is try to share my switch documents or do i have to you see the solar ppa

▶ 54:40 Speaker 2: summary we have a select energy yeah solar ppa summary yeah yeah i'm sorry corey did you have

▶ 54:52 Christopher Cinella: a question i'm can't hear you they'll raise their hand rather just to let me know oh i thought i

▶ 54:56 Speaker 1: saw his hand so anyway this is this is how the money works um so the system size so this is just a one pager um that kind of sums it all up uh and then there's the 75 pages of the lease and the um the ppa that that you had a chance to look at but the system size is going to be 63.8 kw with annual output it'll it'll produce about 63 percent of memorial halls usage in a normal non-COVID year. And our current electric rate, less non-KWH charges, is 19.5 cents per kilowatt hour. And what they've come up with is a PPA rate of 19 cents per kilowatt hour. And it's a fixed rate over time. So what they do then is, over in the chart, estimated annual cumulative savings, They take what we pay without solar for electricity, and then this other line is electric costs with solar at this 19-cent rate, and then the difference is the savings. What they're calculating here is, I think, a 2.5% increase over time in electricity prices, which is what the Federal Energy Agency has historically found that electricity rates go up by that percentage every year. And so the year one savings are pretty small. We saw the same thing with the DPW project, but over time, savings of upwards of $76,000. And these are all savings that Memorial Hall would realize right in their electric line item, utility line item. What's unique this year is that didn't exist three years ago is Chris Wilcock, who you just heard from, brought to our attention and solar developers are having to adjust to this, is that the department of revenue revenues decided that um it ruled or whatever you call it that they do that um when a solar developer leases roof space for the purposes of making money um for revenue they they are subject to property taxes um so what solar developers do is is pay something

▶ 57:40 Speaker 1: called a pilot and um these are the pilot amounts that they've calculated chris has reviewed it i've asked him for a second review um just to make sure before we sign the contract i don't think he had time to do it before his presentation tonight i'm sure i'll hear from him tomorrow but these are the pilot amounts that the city would get over the 20 years so this is in addition to the savings um that the memorial hall would get on their electric bill um so the last thing i wanted to show you i pulled this out from the from the um agreement is just a diagram a site plan of the solar this is a you know the area where they're putting solar is you know a raised roof and it has um it has these uh copper ledges so it it won't be it won't be visible from the street so that's one of the concerns of the historic district commission um and the layout there um is also i think they'll have the inverter up on the roof and and the um and the uh the revenue grade meter but what they'll have to do is um with every solar project you need to have a disconnect at ground level um so that in the case of public safety responding to a fire or something going on at the building they can go right up and and um pull and disconnect the power to to the solar so that disconnect is going to be located in a hidden kind of a in a little kind of a nook on the right side of the building as you're looking at it from main street we found a good location for that and the other good news is that we found a a chase inside the building where the conduit can run down to the down to the ground level because the weird thing that we've learned which i didn't realize is that the electric meter from from Memorial Hall is way over by that transformer, several feet away from the building, just sitting there and they can't even put a bush in front of it. National Guard won't let them do that. But in any case, that's the design. I met last night with Memorial Hall trustees, and Kathy can speak to any questions you might have about their concerns, but they were all generally in support of this. There's still a lot that needs to happen, including roofing replaced, engineering and designs and final plans. What we're trying to do now, and this is typical process where we just enter into an agreement, but then the developer then starts really spending money to flesh out this project. I think that's it. I will take questions if anybody has any.

▶ 1:00:49 Speaker 2: Could we? Madam Clerk, yeah, thank you. Do we have questions? Councilor Garipay?

▶ 1:01:01 Speaker 2: Would you like me to bring in?

▶ 1:01:03 Speaker 1: Yeah.

▶ 1:01:07 Mark Garipay: Mr. Chair, thank you, Ms. Grover. I appreciate your time this week. answering my questions on on this um i do have a couple questions i'm in you know we talked yesterday and i was um i'm in support of this um but on one of the screens the previous one you showed us a savings over 20 years of 76 000 between it was that just for the power or was that including the okay so i didn't i don't think i saw the screen up there what is the savings or what's the payment in lieu of taxes? Do you have the total dollar amount of what that was?

▶ 1:01:45 Speaker 1: I, I'm going to say it's probably somewhere around 11, $12,000 over the years. It decreases over time because of depreciation. So it starts out at 700 and then it, excuse me, it goes down. So I think that, yeah.

▶ 1:02:06 Mark Garipay: The taxable, the taxable, I'd like to have Mr Wilcox can just take another look at it. He's still here. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He said he was going to look at it. That was that was 1 of my questions after we talked yesterday.

▶ 1:02:22 Speaker 3: I'm here if you need that question.

▶ 1:02:26 Speaker 3: Did you have a chance to look at it? I sent you an email right when I got off. So I approved as the range on the taxation. The 1st year starts at 765 dollars going all the way down to a final year and year. 20 of 4. $128.87. And based on the calculation, that meets state law.

▶ 1:02:48 Speaker 1: Thank you, Chris.

▶ 1:02:50 Mark Garipay: Thanks. And what is the total life of these panels? It's a 20-year contract.

▶ 1:02:59 Speaker 1: It's a 20-year contract. They generally, they say today's panels could produce electricity. You it's not at 100% production efficiency as what they are the first day that they're installed, but 25 years or some still out there at 30 years old producing electricity.

▶ 1:03:21 Mark Garipay: And we are voting tonight to authorize the mayor to sign into a lease agreement.

▶ 1:03:31 Speaker 1: Two agreements, the lease and the power purchase.

▶ 1:03:34 Mark Garipay: Leasing the power purchase. Okay. And we're under time constraints for that. Now, with this contract we're getting involved in on the lease, is there a deadline? And this is not going to happen until we do the Rupert Memorial Hall. Right. And, you know, we're, I think we approved that seven months ago. The RFP has not even been issued. Is there a deadline where this has to be up and running and installed because i would assume that the memorial hall roof we're looking at another six months right um is there any way that i'm expecting that this probably

▶ 1:04:07 Speaker 1: would not get installed until september of next year at the earliest given the you know the piece which things are happening especially under covid especially now i'm finding that everything keeps getting delayed because everyone keeps having to quarantine for two weeks but um yeah they're they're they're flexible as to when they can actually do the construction it's just that we need to what happens is in order to in order for select to get the the itc credits under the 2020 rates we need to sign the contract which then they go and buys pre-buy some of the equipment which technically starts the construction and they can claim the tax credit in this tax year um but there's no rush and one of the nice things is that um the state in a re revision of the smart incentives they gave cities an extra six months because they know that we are slower to do things commercial, where there are a lot of decision-making points.

▶ 1:05:25 Mark Garipay: There's no deadline in order to provide them with a new flat surface roof in order to install? No. All right. Thank you. One question is, I know you presented last night to the trustees of Memorial Hall. We're not, they don't vote. It's like some of the other commissions, they don't vote on the actual leases that gets approved by the city council and the mayor and the administration. But they are the custodians of the building, and I know that it sounded like they're in support of it. But did they take an actual vote to allow them to move forward with putting a product or solar panels on their building they're not getting into a lease but um i mean i'd like to did they actually take a vote on it and if not i would personally like to see before this project gets done that they do ratify and make a vote to give them approval

▶ 1:06:32 Speaker 1: as custodians of the building well i'll let kathy speak to that if you'd like to the one thing that i heard long clear is that they are all very much in support of it and continuing down the path There are certainly, even after we sign this contract, opportunities for things to go south if the structural engineer doesn't, if the engineering doesn't work out or any number of reasons. and they brought up some good concerns and questions that they'd like to know more about like drainage for the new roof well how will it will it accommodate um uh you know snow drainage and other things that um so so they i think that the plan is to keep them informed and perhaps have them weigh in when we know more when we get closer to the design phase in the in the permitting phase kathy is that what you want mark they did not take a vote last night

▶ 1:07:24 Speaker 2: because they don't have the authority to vote on the contract or lease agreement that the city enters into they do support putting solar panels on the roof as they said you know anything to lower the carbon footprint however they were very concerned about structural design of it and they They want to be, they requested to be kept in the loop before anything went ahead with construction, which will happen to these will keep them in the loop and then they will vote on it because the other half of this is, it has to go before the historical commission. We say, we can't see it because of those panels, but until they see the design, the historical commission could say, no, that's not going to happen. So very involved as soon as. The construction and design phase happens and that was their request. And I am, as I mentioned, I support this, but. I would like to see them. Vote to approve to allow them to use the room for the building, not to negotiate or vote on the contract or vote on the list that's on the city council. But I think to dot the eyes cross the T's, it would be good to, especially when we have this coming forward. 1st, to have them vote to approve it just so it's on record and also have the, you know, the historical commission also. So, yeah, that's what I'd like to see is as a motion. I'll make that motion at the end. Thank you and that was the request also, Mark. So, thank you for that.

▶ 1:09:07 Robb Stewart: Councilor Stewart? Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you Ms. Pagoda-Rodera and Ms. Grover for helping us understand this a little bit better. I do want to echo the concerns that I think you have expressed through the Memorial Hall Committee in that we're dealing with a historical building of significance in town that has from what we heard seven months ago a lot of issues from a maintenance perspective and we had voted to put a new roof on it but my concerns are that you know we're putting this new roof but we're also putting a significant new structure on top of something that is I think of great value to the town beyond the the goals that i know we have for the net zero which i do support so it's a balancing act here that i think we need to weigh carefully uh at this point i'm a little hesitant uh to support this without understanding further information about what the impact is going to be so i would ask ms grover um what contingencies we have built in to this leasing if we come if we come to the point where structurally it does not look feasible or it looks like it's at risk uh and uh how we could potentially back out of uh a 20-year lease that we've we've signed up for um help me understand what what um what safeguards we have in place currently safeguards built in for um oh is that me

▶ 1:10:59 Speaker 1: okay um in in the contract in the ppa and one of the one of the crucial things that require that is required by our inspector um building commissioner are stamped structural stamped plans by a structural engineer and if those cannot be provided and that's something that's that the developer is on the hook to get um then it's done and they'll they walk away and um they can't go further so that's that's um they haven't done that work yet because there's a cost to it and they you know it's kind of the chicken and egg thing i think um but that that will definitely be part of the process and i think that i would expect that the building commissioner would look very closely at that question well that's comforting it sounds like

▶ 1:11:56 Robb Stewart: we do have uh gate post milestones in place to assure on an ongoing basis that as this project develops that we will not compromise um both the integrity of the structure of the building as well

▶ 1:12:23 Robb Stewart: involves the, the, the beauty and, you know, quite honestly, the, the, I think the, the treasure that we have in in this in the city. So that that is my main concern. It sounds like it's been addressed. So thank you, Mr. chair.

▶ 1:12:29 Speaker 5: Thank you to both on this particular and in this global for coming tonight.

▶ 1:12:37 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Chair Sonnella, and thank you, Ms. Grover and Ms. Pigott-Broder for being here tonight. I am wholly in support of this, and I want to thank you, Ms. Grover, for moving this forward. It's so critical that we seize these opportunities when we can. And I also want to thank the Memorial Hall Trustees for their support of this, because I think particularly on such a building of historic and kind of emotional significance in this community, I'm so glad that they see the value in this. Um, I just wanted to ask a quick question about the, is it the historic district commission? Is that the who we're talking about would also need to weigh in on approval of the plan. And do you know what the time timeline would be for that? I'm assuming it would be pending approval tonight, but when that would that would come before them.

▶ 1:13:25 Speaker 3: Do either of, you know, no, I can well, I can.

▶ 1:13:27 Speaker 2: We 1st have to get approval from them for the roof project. So that will go before them. And then this, once the roof profit is decided on, then this will go before them. But I don't know the timing of that. It depends. We're pushing trustees, we're pushing hard to get the roof project started and that's off. Main focus with and Denise presented to trustees last month that she's starting that. So, I don't have a timeline for when. roof is going to get down i'm hoping denise's goal is to hopefully start the roof project june july of next year and that's why i believe mom said maybe in september after this it could

▶ 1:14:13 Speaker 1: happen but the reason as i understand it in my conversations with the city planner denise that um ideally she would take both the renovation project and this design to the hdc to the historic district commission at the same time and have them consider all of it um probably in the spring if if if things came together at the same time um the only caveat to that what my trustees requested

▶ 1:14:38 Speaker 2: very clearly as long as having the solar panel before them if that at all slows down the roof project from being approved then they want it put aside right i want the roof project approved first that was their caveat yep thank you for that clarification

▶ 1:15:07 Cory Thomas: dr thomas thank you mr chairman um miss piggo uh berta thank you for being here and miss grover thank you so much for being here uh and thank you for your continued important role uh and sustainability for the city of melrose um i'm happy to hear that the um aesthetics won't be changing of memorial hall uh with the placement of these panels uh on the roof um like many people have echoed i think it's a great idea to put uh solar panels on as many buildings in the community that we can uh it's great to hear that they're you know on the middle school in the high school uh some of the other schools in the um dpw building um well the terms of the rfq for i mean the rfp for the roof will that have to change in order to accommodate the panels on the roof i mean kathy that might be a question for you i actually don't know that that would

▶ 1:15:58 Speaker 2: have to be the planner but my impression is we're going forward with the roof project as is and the

▶ 1:16:09 Cory Thomas: solar panels will work around the roof project all right so so the panels will you know be adaptable to the the new roof when the new roof is built and installed that's the priority is that two million

▶ 1:16:22 Cory Thomas: dollar project is the main priority okay great um martha um for current buildings that have solar panels um who is responsible for the upkeep and repair uh you know say in the middle school or

▶ 1:16:38 Speaker 1: the high school or the dpw building the the developers the the um organizations that own them the only exception to that is um so that's true for the system on the dpw and most of the panels on the high school middle school and they come to they come and check and you know all of these systems are monitored so they know when there's no production and um although um the guy who owns the system on the high school lives in california so a couple years ago when we got 100 feet of snow and there was no production for two couple months because the snow took so long to melt he kept emailing me what's going on what's going on he didn't understand how much snow we had gotten that year but um in any case uh they we do have three arrays on the middle school that we actually own they were grant funded um when this is when the school was built and so we we maintain those

▶ 1:17:45 Cory Thomas: okay uh it sounds like that was 2015 um with the california panels um 11 feet of snow um So, if there's roof work that needs to be done, you know, the roof is constructed, the panels are put on hopefully by September 2021. then there's a roof leak. Knock on wood. There won't be say there's a roof leak in December of 2021. do the panels need to be removed? And is the contracted panel provider that would take those off? So the roof it could get at the.

▶ 1:18:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, and if, you know, and the, we have had no problems with the roof at the middle school or at. dpw at all um caused by the um the solar any leaks at the high school it's totally unrelated to the solar um there are other sources of those leaks but um yeah they would come and just move the panels or move the section of the panels and put them back it's pretty it's a pretty simple process solar's been around now for long enough um sure and and so the the the roofing vendor and

▶ 1:18:49 Cory Thomas: and the panel vendor would work in conjunction with each other. They have mutual agreements with each other too.

▶ 1:18:59 Speaker 1: One help the other. And the same goes for the warranty. I mean, it's right in the contract that the roof warranty would continue and not be at risk at all by the solar.

▶ 1:19:11 Cory Thomas: That's great. And then just lastly, is there a service contract built in to the roof and or the solar panels when they're installed?

▶ 1:19:21 Speaker 1: They are on the hook for maintaining or taking care of anything that goes wrong with the solar. I'm assuming that the roof installer would be subject to their warranty and their labour and warranty service.

▶ 1:19:38 Cory Thomas: All right, that's great. Thank you both for being here and happy holidays to you and yours. Have a good night. Thank you.

▶ 1:19:44 Shawn M. MacMaster: Councillor McMaster. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you both for being here. I certainly support the sustainability efforts here and thank you miss Grover for identifying the opportunity. I did have some public safety considerations and some concerns. I just wanted to raise and ask questions about and to the extent you can answer these miss Grover feel free to, if you can't, I understand if it's not within your purview. The 1st is, do you know what percent of the roof would actually be covered with the panels?

▶ 1:20:23 Speaker 1: All I have is the preliminary design. It's not a, it's not a final design. It's just a slight plan. I can't answer that from based on what they. I've provided us so far.

▶ 1:20:40 Shawn M. MacMaster: So, presumably the plans wouldn't include an anticipated weight assessment for adding panels and brackets, which, of course, would have dead weight. It's basically a design plan, but it doesn't get into the specifics of.

▶ 1:21:00 Speaker 1: Um, square footage weight and other considerations like that is that comes later when they calculate the snow and wind loads. On that all part of the structural engineers analysis. In addition to the weight of the panels and the racking equipment and. Um, and the, the inverter, et cetera.

▶ 1:21:20 Shawn M. MacMaster: And Councillor Stewart mentioned contingencies in the lease, and I'm wondering whether or not that would also apply to public safety contingencies, because I think it might behoove us to also, if it hasn't already occurred, and forgive me if it has, but a public safety assessment from the fire department. I don't know a lot about solar panels, but I do know that adding any type of a structure to a roof could cause ventilation challenges in the event that there was a fire. I do appreciate you mentioned the power cord, which is certainly comforting. I think, though, it wouldn't completely get rid of it's always generating power. So working around it, it would still pose some hazards. and so i guess my question is as it relates to contingencies um could the lease also um apply to you know being content approval being contingent upon uh a public safety assessment assessment conducted by the fire department and if not i think what i would be inclined to do and i know consulate Garipay mentioned a motion with a contingency of um you know approval uh limited approval and scope from the board of trustees but also contingent upon a public safety assessment

▶ 1:22:41 Speaker 2: doesn't it needs to always do that with all of the plans like the roof assessment

▶ 1:22:52 Speaker 1: will go through by department martha yeah and i think that's part of that's part of the inspection and the um the other the other thing i can let you know is that um we've conducted trainings for the fire department on responding to um fires on buildings that have solar on them and i know that they've uh done those periodically over the years and we definitely hosted a whole series of them for we for the entire department it was all it was over several days to make sure that they could all participate after we installed the system on the school um so um i i would think that um the chief would be open to um you know a conversation or you know a big subject just you know inspecting it in some way or having or updating their training etc in order to accommodate

▶ 1:23:45 Shawn M. MacMaster: those concerns yeah and i think that you said something earlier which i think is right on point is that we do live in an age now where you know panels are not unusual so it is certainly something that uh our firefighters are getting more and more used to and i appreciate our training efforts which i wasn't aware so thank you for doing that um it would just be uh nice and i think beneficial if there was some sort of assessment prior to the the plan being implemented should the fire department say based on the size of this roof and any other considerations of ladder placement you know offer their expertise you know in question maybe the plan and be able to have some dialogue that might be uh somewhat collaborative as opposed to the panels just going where you know the the contractor wants to put them so i i wouldn't i would encourage that and if that is part of the process i think that's that's great if it's not um i would like to see that see that happen thank you counselor thank you chairman um thank you

▶ 1:24:52 Maya Jamaleddine: mrs grover and mrs spoiler for being with us tonight i'm very excited to hear that this is um about this project um with the insurance um uh would we have any changes in the insurance in terms of uh if we if we add these uh panels on the building insurance

▶ 1:25:17 Speaker 1: no the standard the insurance requirements are the identical to what we already carry for liability and um umbrella insurance or yeah it wouldn't it wouldn't increase

▶ 1:25:33 Speaker 1: it would just be it would just be added to the number of assets

▶ 1:25:39 Maya Jamaleddine: okay perfect and um you've mentioned that they would be responsible of the maintenance um and if in case um you know for any um unknown reason um it has to be removed they will be

▶ 1:25:59 Christopher Cinella: responsible of removal yeah okay thank you anybody else for the first time council Garipay second time

▶ 1:26:08 Mark Garipay: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to make a motion to recommend for approval with a vote of approval by the Memorial Hall Board of Trustees before the solar panel work starts.

▶ 1:26:25 Speaker 2: Second.

▶ 1:26:29 Christopher Cinella: The motion is to approve this if it gets approved by the trustees of Memorial Hall, a by Councilor Garipay, seconded by Councilor McMaster. Any discussion on that?

▶ 1:26:47 Mark Garipay: mr chair mr chair my motion was to approve a motion for approval but before any work starts on the solar panels have the memorial hall board of directors approve the project

▶ 1:27:06 Christopher Cinella: so it's on record okay um vice chair did you have a question on discussion um but i was just trying

▶ 1:27:10 Leila Migliorelli: to understand i mean we're wait so we need to have the i'm just trying to understand what councilor Garipay motion is and why i mean is is that normal like a do are we supposed to wait it sounds like there's i guess my point is that it sounds like there's a lot of steps in this whole process um and checkpoints for things to be addressed and i don't know if holding approval until the memorial hall board votes on it is what's standard honestly of course for approval

▶ 1:27:43 Mark Garipay: i want to move forward with giving the mayor the uh of the approval to move forward and enter into agreement but before work starts on the project we have the board of directors vote on it and approve it so they have questions that they have also on the project if they decide that they do not want this on the building then they're the custodians of the building so my assumption is that it would never happen so i just want to button that up and and and have it on record that they approve

▶ 1:28:18 Christopher Cinella: the project by a vote so we've got a few other questions here um counselor gemalini

▶ 1:28:25 Maya Jamaleddine: um i also would like thank you sherman i would like to uh clarify so our vote will be uh based on the uh their votes so if they vote no that mean our votes would would be held is that what you

▶ 1:28:45 Mark Garipay: mean if they don't know as the custodians of the of the building it is my understanding that that the project couldn't move forward because they're not voting on the actual actual contract or the lease they're voting on they'd be voting on allowing um allowing the

▶ 1:29:06 Maya Jamaleddine: solar panels to be used on their space which is the rule right so we are voting on the contract only uh and then after that it's up to them if they're gonna move forward or no correct i'm

▶ 1:29:17 Mark Garipay: recommending for approval to allow the mayor to vote to to enter in an agreement in a lease to purchase solar uh power and in the lease agreement on the panels but before the project of the installation starts i would like to have the board of memorial hall board of trustees approve the project so it's on record that they're they're with it they're for it kathy is the board going

▶ 1:29:43 Christopher Cinella: to meet on that at some point to approve this as as it stands last night they have no authority

▶ 1:29:51 Speaker 2: to approve a contract between the city what the building the city owns and what the mayor decides what they will vote on as custodians building is the actual design like when the hvac project it went before them for input and approval that's the normal course that's their authority so it will happen but i think it will take place but this is two separate issues it's the voting of the lease and the uh ppa by you to allow the mayor to get into con into agreement and when the design and the implementation happens the board of trustees will meet again to review that and decide whether the installation can happen correct papa yeah which is kind of the same

▶ 1:30:43 Mark Garipay: thing i'm asking for yeah yeah so i just i'm agreeing with you max i agree i agree and i

▶ 1:30:51 Speaker 1: heard that loud and clear from them last night yes i can imagine that we would want to go forward without their approval and vetting all of their concerns once we have a more solid design and we you know we know more about what it's what it's going to look like how all those concerns and contingencies are going to be addressed mitigated um yeah they were all your concerns that you guys

▶ 1:31:21 Speaker 2: addressed tonight they loud and clear stated last night they have all it's all the issues you get brought up got brought up last night and it was the question last night was what are we approving here tonight and they weren't approving the contract they just wanted to make it very clear that they will be the ones that approve the design before it even goes to the historical commission and then it'll go from then if they approve the design because if they decide they don't want it it it doesn't happen okay um president Grigoraitis thank you chairman snella i i certainly agree

▶ 1:31:56 Jen Grigoraitis: with i think we're all in agreement that the trustees should be making this decision i guess for me i feel like we're kind of overstepping a little bit it's like a checks and balances thing like our role as the council is around the appropriating and the contract and that's what's before us and i certainly i'm not sure we have the ability to direct the trustees to do one thing or another i think we can certainly i mean i think we've clearly stated tonight that we want that to be the process and that will be the process but i think that's what i'm struggling with on this this motion i think we're kind of going a little bit outside of

▶ 1:32:35 Christopher Cinella: the four corners of what's before us it sounds like too that the motion that's made is that that is going to actually happen what i'm gathering that they are going to vote councilor thomas

▶ 1:32:50 Cory Thomas: thank you mr chairman uh miss grover uh you talked earlier about a need to uh move forward with this project prior to the end of the calendar year uh we might lose um some of the deals we have oh the deal might change in 2021 is that correct yeah so we probably don't want to hold this up um and risk losing you know the current deal we have in place with the solar panels Ms. Piggott-Brodore, are the trustees scheduled to meet in December beyond last night?

▶ 1:33:23 Speaker 2: No, they met last night. The next meeting is in January.

▶ 1:33:27 Cory Thomas: Is there a historical commission meeting in December on this?

▶ 1:33:31 Speaker 2: No, but nothing would go before them because they will vote on the design, and the design hasn't been done, And the design doesn't happen until we go enter into a PPA and lease agreement.

▶ 1:33:46 Speaker 4: All right. Thank you all very much.

▶ 1:33:48 Speaker 2: Councilor Stewart.

▶ 1:33:52 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do want to echo President Grigoraitis concern. That's what initially struck me as a little bit outside the bounds of what we're talking about.

▶ 1:34:07 Robb Stewart: I feel as though there's really no basis for us to make recommendations or not.

▶ 1:34:15 Robb Stewart: so um i i don't think i could support as is that motion um i think our role is uh specifically to vote on the lease and tpa which we have decided um and which we have discussed i think we start

▶ 1:34:30 Robb Stewart: trying to uh manage any activities beyond that uh we don't have in my perspective i don't know how we even control that uh from from a legal perspective for example uh you know do that that

▶ 1:34:45 Speaker 3: would that it would we have to write that in i think they already have certain boundaries that

▶ 1:34:51 Speaker 3: they have spoken of um that they've already put into uh the contract but to uh try to assume that

▶ 1:34:59 Robb Stewart: uh another step is going to happen i don't see that as valid so i i just wanted to uh echo that

▶ 1:35:09 John N. Tramontozzi: sentiment thank you mr chair council chairman yes uh thank you uh mr chairman um similar to councillor Stewart’s um argument i'm looking at from the the legal perspective this is a contract here what we have before us this is uh florida 2021-41 which is an authorization for the mayor of meadows to execute a power purchase agreement so we're if we agree to that order we're authorizing the mayor to execute a the the agreement we don't have any authority uh to uh to change anything or amend that agreement it is as it is however uh miss grover maybe you can answer this for me this the the agreement that is attached to this order is is not signed correct right it's just

▶ 1:36:03 John N. Tramontozzi: it's a draft of an agreement but there's nothing prohibiting the mayor and the uh the contractors from approving or adding to that agreement without coming before the board we're just authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement are we authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement as as part of this contract as part of this giving him the authority to negotiate an agreement and the amendments to that agreement taking into consideration what we're discussing tonight

▶ 1:36:41 Speaker 1: i'm not that's way out of my lane

▶ 1:36:48 Speaker 1: that would be a van campen but i mean my understanding is that um Um, typically, I mean, we, we actually, we actually have made a couple edits to the agreement that you received. They're not substantial edits. Like, I made Kathy. The recipient of the invoices instead of. City hall, for instance, a few minor edits, we haven't sent it to the developer yet for their. um you know final sign off so i suppose they're technically there is still an opportunity to make some amendments or changes to it but um my understanding is that we really can't make changes substantial changes to a contract once it's once the city council has approved it that's what campaign has advised me that we generally need what we give what we give you

▶ 1:37:52 John N. Tramontozzi: is what the mayor signs correct so so essentially what we're authorizing is the mayor to execute the contract as provided for us for review as part of this order yeah you know minor changes you know um certainly are considerable it can be considered but i'm not sure that any of the concerns that that a counselor Garipay has um asked about and has been discussed here tonight are are within that contract and are we in a position now to amend the contract ourselves and put some sort of language in the contract before we authorize the execution of it that you know i'm looking for guidance here um miss pickett broder you you certainly have your hand up if i may um and

▶ 1:38:43 Speaker 2: correct me if i'm wrong my understanding is this can happen the construction can happen without the approval of the soldiers and sales memorial building board of trustees because they are custodians and that is their role as trustees of the building i would assume that that is correct

▶ 1:39:10 John N. Tramontozzi: so it sounds like this is your language in the contract that says nothing is to be done in terms of construction until the trustees are consulted I didn't I

▶ 1:39:22 Speaker 1: didn't see that language this contract it refers to we discussed that I discussed that with Rob but it refers to approvals permits and there's language in there that would cover anything that the city requires it doesn't get that

▶ 1:39:39 John N. Tramontozzi: specifically yeah it's in there all right if you're comfortable saying that that's in there um then then fine i just didn't see the actual language specifically addressing um the issue

▶ 1:39:52 John N. Tramontozzi: of the trustees but um thank you thank you that helps a lot and uh thank you mr chairman

▶ 1:39:57 Mark Garipay: uh mr chair i'll uh withdraw my motion what is the will of the committee

▶ 1:40:14 Christopher Cinella: Second, so we have a motion to recommend passage made by. The constantly seconded by advice chairman.

▶ 1:40:25 Speaker 2: Any discussion on this seeing none, not a clerk, please call the roll. Chair smeller yes. Vice Jim, yes. Consulate Tram and Josie. Yes. Council McMaster yes, not. Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes.