Thank you all for being here. Today is Tuesday, 04/14/2026. The time is 05:32PM. It's the committee on city property. Thank you all for being here.
Chairman Gonsolves? Present. Vice chair Inderpal? Present. Councilman Esperan?
Present. Councilman Reid? Yes. Present. Councilman Peterson?
Present. Alright. Present, we have a forum.
Great. So, and I just wanna acknowledge this. You. Thank you. City clerk's.
Thank you for all these things. And, but
you're. Item number one, an ordinance amending chapter two of the audit ordinances of the city of Providence by adding section two dash one one ten entitled sale or transfer of city owned property.
And so, just on this particular item, have someone who'd like to speak on this. Council. Council. We'll start with you and then deputy director. K.
Awesome. So council Chairman,
can we just have a a motion to substitute item number?
Oh, yes. We need to do that as well. Thank you. So motion to substitute. I didn't know.
Second. Miss, all those in favor. Aye. All those opposed. The ayes have it.
And, Davidson, please turn So
I brought forward this ordinance so that we could be clear with communities when the city is selling property. We learned, and I think it was just sort of a fluke of the process, when the Humboldt Street Fire Station was sold by the city that was done when there was no sitting councilor in that seat. And had had there been, we might have been able to have a smoother communication process than ultimately happened. So that's basically what why I wanted to move this idea forward. So, you know, what what this is suggesting is that when the city sells real property within the city councilor of that word is notified.
I think that the current language is at least thirty days in advance. If there is if there's an unusual circumstance such as what happened before two that there is no city council present, then the city council president would be notified. And the department selling the property would host a community meeting so that folks in the community could hear a little bit more about it and weigh in about their desires for a purpose. So that's really what this covers.
Great. Well, thank you so much for that, counselor Davidson. And I know that we had, amendments here. Would you like to maybe speak
to If may, I would like to defer, to Aaron Gardner to elaborate on
the event. Sure. Deputy director, stick on. Okay. Stay safe.
Oh, look at that. Cool right there.
You must be very stupid. Very straight. Again, Erin Eastegardner, deputy chief of staff council. So councilor Davidson, she spoke, eloquently on the purpose of the ordinance and what it does. The amendment, just touches on literally just two things.
First off, you know, when it comes to restating, you know, language that is in the charter, we often within the code, like, we restate that language and it's sprinkled around. However, we have run into problems where the charter is changed, then we have to go in the code and fix everything. So rather than restate the charter, we refer to section four sixteen. That's one piece. And then secondly, I think the purpose of this ordinance is just to kinda codify a process to make sure everyone is aware and communities are possible.
They are waivable, by the council if a resolution does move forward, and this is the part of the second piece of it. We don't really want to add title defects. And if anything were to happen and a resolution was passed without a meeting or without notification, there could be a title defect. So we just wanted to make it clear that if a resolution is passed, we wanna keep the power of a resolution, and that clears everything and makes it clear. That was a recommendation from the solicitor's office that we agreed with.
Thank you. Questions from the committee? Yes. Yeah.
Not a question, but a comment. So thank you, councilor for bringing this up. I cosponsored this sell property so infrequently in the city, but it does come up. And when it comes up, it's a little bit of a surprise. So the Humboldt was a good example, but we're about to sell the fire station.
And so we to that happening. And really appreciate the great work that the, team the city already does to make sure there's engagement, but it seemed like there is the potential for things falling through the cracks. And there were community had a lot of feedback on this process, and we just wanna make sure that we get ahead of it. So thank you for bringing this up, and I'm glad we can put
on it together. And I hope the rest of
the committee supports it. Thank you. Yeah. I I can chime in here too and say that I really appreciate you bringing this forward. You know, throughout my time on the body, it's been about transparency on things like demolitions.
There's developments that are being proposed about others. I'm not sure that they had, access to knowledge and how these projects are coming about. So I think this is a step in that direction where, I think Butters will be notified and people would know who these have served for coming to know. So explaining that transparency sometimes makes you kinda scratch your head when you say, like, how is this?
I think it was really bad if you realize that maybe the circumstance never had a risk. Once it did, it felt important to
Additional questions from the committee?
Yes. Well, thank you. Aaron already touched upon that, but just to expand a little bit, you have a full vetting of this with the law department, understanding how complex the real estate Yes. And and traffics can be to make sure that it's all covered legally.
Yes. Absolutely. So this was vetted by the solicitor's office. They had no issues with the, you know, the intent and whatnot, but the main thing was really just the title defect.
Exactly. Banks they do there, you
know, investigations. They could look at the code of ordinances, and if they don't find communication or something like that, there could be issues there. And that's not the intent here. We just wanna make sure that it's if a resolution passes, that is transferred in, you know, the department or the PRA or what have you, they have all rates to that title. That was the purpose for that, and that's what the law department recommended.
it doesn't impact any property being sold by PRA. Right? The the one thing I do wanna bring up that I think is relevant here, is the fact that when there is a bidding process, counselors are actually precluded from getting involved in that bidding process. Exactly. Can maybe have the city solicitor find out a bit, but it it's actually illegal for us to be involved in that bidding process.
So the process does need to play itself out. I think that there should be transparency that that's good. Like, neighbors should know, what's going on. I think, counselor two, you were put in a very precarious situation in the sense that there were for the last, the the humble fire station where you have the Montessori school, another bidder, and, again, the Oregon deceased. And so had there had been more transparency in that process, It have gone a little differently, but, again, as council people, we have to be removed from from that process.
But the community should certainly know what's what's going on, so I appreciate you bringing this forward. I don't know if the wants to opine on this or maybe Nick Chigatalli, if you wanted opine on this, but just the overall bidding process, the payroll process.
I'd be happy to, Nick Chickatawi, the least direct to the bureau switch. Thank you. Yeah. So it's somewhat rare, as Vincent mentioned earlier, that a any city property, especially a historical architectural gem such as the Humboldt Fire Station, gets sold by the city. Most city property gets sold through the PRA.
Most of that has to do with the mission of the PRA. In this case, we were waiting this is outside the redevelopment area. Most of Ward 2 is, and we were waiting on the fire fire station fire department's air supply unit to be moved to North Main Street, fire station, which was building on the capital project. And And so that's the timing of it. I realized it's it was unfortunate based on, you know, the vacancy of the former councilwoman and to be onboarding a new one, but that's what that had to do.
I've reviewed what you're looking to do. I understand where it comes from, what's in what's in store next, and so I I don't see a hazard there. I'll just say that this, in many ways, this does go through a public bidding process, as controlled by the Charter section four sixteen, sealed bids, highest qualified bidder. All that was followed to a t. It was advertised in the Journal.
It's actually a feature on the front page of the Providence Journal, and, also, there's other other other manners we use to to get the word out. We have two open houses on-site. Those could be, if if I suppose, if I read this correctly, the council's agree that constitutes a public meeting. I'm more than happy to recommend piggybacking existing public meetings so as to, you know, matching transparency. I don't see an issue with that.
But it is rare that something like this happens. Most city property, might go unnoticed. Architectural gems, maybe a different story. I'm happy to answer questions.
So I I think, I don't know if anyone else wants to jump in here, but I I'd be curious to hear what's the timeline on the next fire station sale? It should this be implemented or passed before before that? How do you see this process?
Don't have any conflict with what is intended in this, including it in the process anyway. We are now that the, well, the season's ripe. The real estate industry is back in action, so to speak, but typically happens early April. We are looking to get that out. That is also clear of their own fire station communications unit.
So that is appeared to be advertised at the next meeting. I intend on having it for seven days. Gone. I think so. For you.
It'd be a similar process to Humboldt Section 4167. Counselor Peterson. I just thank
you, Nick. Right? I just wanted to I have a question with regards to something that you had said. You had mentioned something about, in the in the most recent sale, you had had open houses, available or for potential buyers, and I wanna make sure that that is not what or it is if that's something that you're considering. Would that be considered a community meeting to inform the the community about this these particular property sales?
