Special Committee on Ways and Means

Hi, good evening everyone. I'm Anthony Gretz Sanchez. I'm calling to order the special committee on Mays and Meetings. It is Tuesday, September 29, 05:35PM. Madam Clerk, please call our roll call, please.

Chair Sanchez. Present. Vice Chairman Taylor is absent. Counselor Davidson. Sorry.

It was on me. Yeah. Present.

I'm one hearing aid down tonight. It's not a tragedy, but if I asked you to her beat yourself, her David. No problem. Councilwoman Graves? Yeah.

Councilwoman Peterson is absentee. Have three present and two absentee on the forum.

Thank you. Councilor Peterson texted me saying she was running a few nights late, so she will come in at some point. Wanna recognize compliment Buergus, who's here with us, our city clerk, Kenny, who won the bargain, counselor elect, Kelly's, also our policy staff, thank you so much.

At

this time, we will swear everyone again who plans on testifying before the committee will do it all at once.

Awesome.

Thank you. Usually item going into the record, please.

An ordinance of the city

of Providence, including improvements to the province water supply board distribution system, including but not limited to the replacement of public and private site led services and all attendant expenses in approving the financing thereof by the issuance of water revenue bonds and notes therefore in an amount not to exceed $26,200,000

Thank you. So in order to present on this, you can see.

So good evening. Thank you, chair and committee, for having us here. We are presenting an ordinance for the fourth tranche of BIM funding in the amount of $26,200,000 through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to continue our accelerated lead replacement program. So this is the fourth tranche from the bipartisan infrastructure law funding supporting this effort. Since January 2024, we have completed 5,500 lead service replacements utilizing the funding from the prior three that you've approved in addition to when a grant funding through CDS.

We have approximately 1,500 that we can replace through the funding we currently still have, and then this funding will allow us to replace 2,000 service lines. The funding opportunity is particularly favorable. It is a twenty year term, 0% interest rate, 49% principal forgiveness, as with the other ones, which is about 12,800,000. So it enables us to maximize the federal resources while minimizing the effect on our customers. So the Province Water Board has approved these resolutions, and we respectfully ask that we get your support to move these forward, and happy to answer any questions.

Kathleen Marlowe, who's the Deputy General Manager of Bottomswater, is here as well.

Thank you. Is there any questions from the committee members? Aldo de Vargas, do you have any questions?

Yes, thank you. Thank you, Which is the total meeting that we have for use after this 26,000,000? So we're talking about four times now? This is the four. Yes.

Four times, so it's 112, $124,000,000 so far. How much is the total that we can route?

So, currently we have With the three tranches that we've been awarded, we have $78,800,000 so this would be 26.2 over that, so you're going make me do some math in my head I guess so 20 so that would be 90 was that 98 plus eight is 106 yep around £106

And the total that we can loan, what is it, 106, or we can loan more if we need more?

So that goes towards both, no that's it, that's all that we have.

That's a though, yes.

This time, there is a, so when it was, when the bipartisan infrastructure law was set up, there were, it was $15,000,000,000 across the country to be released in five tranches. So this is the fourth of five. So we would if we are hoping to get we will apply for the fifth tranche as well to get more there.

And how much money they dedicate to this region out of the $15,000,000,000 Do we have at least $1,000,000,000

No, it's usually 1%. So Rhode Island gets 1%. I think it's based on population. So it's roughly $144,000,000 if with all the five tranches, 144, yeah. If they all come through at that amount.

And there is some discussion or there has been some discussion about certain states may not need all of that because they're younger, you know, they have a, they're, they just don't have the old infrastructure that we have, so they wouldn't have as many lead service lines, and there's discussion about putting that back into the pool and bringing it back to those states who need it. So there may be opportunities for us to go above and beyond the five tranches.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Fort McIntyre, I wanna recognize Constable William Henderson has joined us. So I have a quick question. So this is the fourth tranche, they've all have been 26,200,000 up to this point?

The first two were 26.3 and the third tranche was 26.2. Directly, yes.

I actually have a quick question with regards to the financing of it in the original in the prior tranches. I've actually had a couple of recent joints reach out because I believe the earlier tranches were different type of payback program and needs have changed, times have changed, you think that this particular tranche allows for either some sort of more forgiveness or this funding is not necessarily something that we were sort of having to pay back as much. Long story short, a couple of neighbors have reached out to see if they could change the terms of their financing as a result of the alleged repentance that they did. They've reached out to Providence Water and they mentioned that I can't do those changes. And what I'm finding is that in my particular board, there has been a need to do these, but because we have a lot of laborers that they just don't have the funding, they are financially illed into being able to continue to support with the next repayment.

We're looking to see if there's some sort of a forgiveness option or a option on any of these. Do you by any chance know

if

there's

a possibility for anything like that? So this is what I can tell you. So you Councilwoman Peterson, you're actually on my list, I apologize. I need to get back to you with an email. So what you're speaking about is our loan program.

So the three tranches that we have in this fourth one that we're applying for, they are through the bipartisan infrastructure law, and they provide opportunities for free private side led services. The loan program is a ten year loan so it's up 120 payments and it's usually it's around between its capped at $5,500 right now. So there are a couple things The first is that under the Led Foiz and Maple Prevention Act, it allows public water suppliers to request reimbursement from the Rhode Island Department of Health for any loans that were taken out after 01/01/2018. So we have submitted our first request to the Department of Health, and they are processing that request. So that's the first thing in terms of forgiveness.

In terms of the terms of the loan, that's something that I need to get back to you on. Okay. But I understand the question. We are striving to get it forgiven. The funds would ultimately come from the general assembly.

Okay.

Thank you for that. You're welcome. I'm gonna cheer if I will be going.

Is there any other questions by the committee or council in parties?

Thank you

so much.

So item two, I'm gonna ask for a motion to continue. Folks are not here to present

on that item. Move. Motion

made by Councilor Griggs, second by Councilor Peterson. All in favor? Aye. Any nayings? Any discussions and abstentions?

Aye is aye. You. Madam Clerk, can you read item three into the record, please?

Resolution abating real and tangible property taxes for 8,021. Thank

you. So I believe

Thanks all, chairman, members of committee, everybody in attendance. So I'm just here to give some some pointers and some top level pointers regarding this resolution, given the fact that, as everyone understands, it's a resolution that did, you know, leave this committee, get difficult to pull forward and with certain questions, you know, it did come back, you know, for certain, you know, clarification, you know, that is the reason why, you know, the administration finances is here to, you know, help pull up some clarity there. But just to set the stage, I will say that as everyone knows, we have been dealing with, in recent times, a lot of, you know, mid year requests from organizations for taxes and status in conjunction with legislation that was passed at the State House. So recently, in this year, a handful of bills, you know, were passed. AS220's legislation, which is Senate Bill 2,039 passed the General Assembly, and it granted them prospective, you know, tax exemption, which means, like, you know, the next tax year, they would not receive a bill.

However, with some misunderstanding with some of the organizations, they weren't expecting to receive a bill in that tax year. So this was something that, you know, the city, the administration, and the council have worked with organizations with to try to move these forward. So again, that bill was passed on June 24, and as of right now, when you see the resolution, when it speaks to, you know, the actual properties that are covered, the codes, etcetera, Those are the same that's the same language that is in, you know, state law that was passed in the Assurance Assembly and moving forward, you know, the city would, you know, have to get to that in exactly in Texas for these properties. So the intent was for the legislation to be retroactive. I think we, the council and administration decided to support these bills in that way to give these you know, bad leeway, so they're not worried about a tax bill after they saw that bill passed up to generalization.