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STATE OF MAINE

COUNTY OF YORK CITY OF SACO

I. CALL TO ORDER – On Monday, July 9, 2018 at 6:30 p.m. a Council Meeting was held in the City Hall

Auditorium.

II. RECOGNITION OF MEMBERS PRESENT – Mayor Marston Lovell recognized the members of the

Council and determined that the Councilors present constituted a quorum. Councilors present: Marshall Archer,

Roger Gay, William Doyle, Lynn Copeland, Alan Minthorn, Micah Smart and Nathan Johnston. City Administrator

Kevin Sutherland and City Clerk Michele Hughes were also present this evening.

III. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

IV. GENERAL

➢ Agenda Updates – Mayor Lovell noted that Agenda item #H – Disposition of Foreclosed Property – 509

Buxton Road was pulled from the agenda and would not be discussed this evening. Also, there is no

workshop at the end of this meeting do to time constraints. The workshop will be held next Monday, July

16, 2018 and will start off with a joint meeting of the School Board and City Council.

A. THORNTON ACADEMY BOY’S LACROSSE TEAM – STATE CHAMPIONS

Mayor Lovell stated that the Thornton Academy Boys Lacrosse Team went undefeated with a record of 15 to 0.

They beat 15 teams consecutively. With the addition of the state’s 2 top teams Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth, this

season in Class A, the road to the state championship game was not an easy one. However, with a highly dangerous

offense and a very aggressive defense they were able to out-score their opponents 234 points to 91. You guys just

didn’t let up did you. Good for you.

During a state champion game, the boys found themselves down 11 to 9 with only 9 minutes left in the game. With

excellent leadership and poise, they were able to score the next 5 goals in 7 minutes and finish the game defeating

Falmouth 14 to 12. The boys were the only undefeated program in the state for both boys and girls programs. This

marks the first time in school history that Thornton Academy has won a Lacrosse State Championship. Beyond

winning this game these boys contributed over 700 hours of community service and I thank you very much for that

as does the council. During the lacrosse season which shows what kind of leaders these boys are on the field and of

the field as well.

Mayor Lovell called each of the boys up to the front and presented each of them with an emblem pin of the seal of

the City of Saco which can we worn on clothing or a hat.

City Administrator Kevin Sutherland congratulated them for being a great team and stated he was glad they are a part

of the community.

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V. PUBLIC COMMENT

➢ Barbara Colman, 45B Stockman Avenue – Unit 91 – I did receive an update today. If I understand correctly

the sale should be forthcoming very shortly? Mayor Lovell replied “yes”. Is this being sold back to the

original person who we obtained it from back in 2016? She was told “no”. Also, the transfer station fee

schedule I’m sorry but the way it looked allot of people were misreading this. I myself and I’m a pretty

educated woman was looking at this and it wasn’t coming across clearly. One of the things that I found as

allot of the councilors were saying that it was not $15.00 per cubic yard, but $3.00. It is $15.00 x $3.00 =

$45.00. It should be pro-rated cubic yards. Pro-rated means more to an individual than 1/3 of an increment.

You have to remember who the average reader is. For an average reader that is too high a level of reading.

You need to always remember 6th grade level when reading this. The other issue and I brought it up to the

Mayor as well is when I’m looking at this because there are no lines to separate things it is very hard to

understand. So here I’m looking at this and saying “Gee, I could get rid of a full-size copier for $7.00” till,

speaking with the Public Works Director he said the full size was over here on the left-hand size. Remember,

we read left to right. So, the more important items for those individuals in a household are here on the right-

hand side and really should be on the left side. So, I thought I could get rid of a copier for a whole $7.00.

So, it there is a way if this passes if this flyer could be designed in a manner that is a little clearer with some

lines and rearranged. I think it could be a much more useful tool for the average user.

VI. CONSENT AGENDA

Councilor Minthorn moved, Councilor Smart seconded to approve consent agenda items #A, B, C, and D as follows:

A. Approval of Minutes for May 7, 2018, May 14, 2018 and June 4, 2018.

B. Application for a Solid Waste Permit – Maine Waste Solutions d/b/a We Compost It! - Be it Ordered

that the City Council grant the application for a Solid Waste Permit as submitted by Maine Waste Solutions d/b/a We

Compost It! Further move to approve the Order.

C. Confirm Appointment to the Registration Appeals Board - Be it Ordered that the City Council confirm

the appointment of Jeffrey A. Scott as the Republican Alternate to fill the unexpired term ending on October 5, 2018.

Further move to approve the Order.

D. Certification of Election Results – Budget Validation Referendum Election - Be it Ordered that the

City Council hereby approve the results of the June 12, 2018 Budget Validation Referendum Election as presented.

Further move to approve the Order.

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The motion passed with seven (7) yeas.

VII. AGENDA

A. PRESENTATION FROM PAQUIN AND CARROLL ON DENTAL, LONG-AND SHORT-

TERM DISABILITY OPTIONS

Finance Director Glenys Salas did a presentation on insurance options for city employees.

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President of Paquin & Carroll Dan Cote did a presentation on Group Dental, Life, AD & D, STD and LTD

Insurance.

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Finance Director Glenys Salas noted that they spent

several hours sitting in the final round with UMUM,

Ameritas, and Hartford. We were really impressed

with the professionalism and the effort they put in

to the final round presentation. We did decide for

the sake of efficiencies to go with UNUM because

UNUM offers us the opportunity to begin to

consolidate the vast number of vendors that the city

works with. Also, because of the great discounts,

because they are a local player and important and

critical player in the State of Maine. So, we felt that

was the best choice for the city. We’re very excited

about this and will be moving forward with the

transition in the next couple of weeks.

B. MUNICIPAL SEPARATED STORM SEWER SYSTEM (MS4) COMPLIANCE TRAINING –

CITY ENGINEER

City Engineer Joe Laverriere did the yearly Municipal Separated Storm Sewer System Permit compliance training.

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C. UPDATE FROM PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR ON THE RECYCLING MARKET AND ITS

IMPACT ON SACO

Mayor Lovell asked the Public Works Director Patrick Fox for un update on recycling because the city could see as

much as a $2,000 invoice from Eco Maine because of the amount of trash that is placed in recycling containers.

Public Works Director Pat Fox noted that there has been allot of stuff in the local and national news related to what

is going on here in Saco right now. What really stemmed the problem with the world-wide recycling market is that

China has been the largest importer of recyclables. For the last 20 years they have been taking all the recyclable

material they can. Mostly plastics are the issue here. They take plastics and they were taking 10-20% contamination.

Contamination is all the stuff inside plastic that gets throw away, stuff that can’t be washed off and stuck to it and

stuff mixed in the loads that go there. They as a government and as a business passed legislation that required

contamination levels of less than ½ %. So, half of 1 percent contamination. The US companies that clean, process

and send recyclables over can’t clean up the recycling waste stream. So, how does that relate to us locally? We are

stuck with all these recyclables that are getting refused at the door. You have all those transportation costs to the

door in China and they are just rejected. This happened very abruptly. I think people saw it coming within that

market but not to the level and effects that it has had. So, you have all these recyclables trying to find a home. You

have other countries that had followed suit and you have new markets trying to get established. But right now, we

are in this limbo phase of where is all this recyclable material going? Plastics have gone from the 1950’s and 1960’s

when they were being massed produced 2 million tons per year to 322 million tons per year in 2015. So, what do we

all do when we go camping now, we get a thing of 24 plastic bottles versus filling an old metal jug like we use to

when we were kids. We rely on plastic and we love plastic. They whole society does. Now, we are stuck with how

to get rid of it. So, what does that mean for Saco? All of our solid waste (trash) and our recyclables go to Ecomaine

in Portland. Everybody knows that BBI use to collect our waste and they are operating as Pine Tree Waste which is

owned by Casella. That is just driving around emptying our green and brown bins. Then it all gets dumped on the

floor at Ecomaine and they sort out the recyclables and they burn the trash to create electricity and they sort and sell

the recycling commodities. We do single sort recycling of your stuff that goes in the brown bin. A number of our

residents still don’t know that. They put their blue bins and separate their metal, plastic, and glass and it all goes in

one bin. That did allot of great things for the recycling market when places were excepting the contaminated waste

stream. Now that places want a clean waste stream of recyclable materials the whole industry is stuck because that

single sort recycling means the paper is stuck to the plastic and people are doing allot of what is known as wish

recycling. They are not sure where it goes so they throw it into the brown bin and hope that somebody can do

something with it later. Plastic bags are probably the biggest contaminate because it clogs all of the sorting equipment

for all the other recyclables. They are not getting them in Saco obviously. Ecomaine is battling how to deal with this

and they are working with the communities. What they started doing in May is actually having someone on the

tipping floor where all the loads of recyclables are dumped, and they are going through and designating loads as

contaminated at 5, 10, 15, or 20% and there was a load that was 40% contaminated. On average we are at 10%

contamination. The reason you haven’t heard this before was because they knew they had contamination but

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ultimately it was being passed on through the whole market place. So now it is being shut down right from the use

group and from the community it is being generated in. We are not alone. Every member community, 75 + contracts

is facing the same problems. We now get report regularly. Plastic shopping bags followed by yard waste are the 2

that I keep seeing. It will take public outreach to change behaviors. Other notables include: allot of metal, garden

hoses, bags of trash, rope, cloths, Styrofoam, bubble wrap, heater, and an umbrella. We have a long way to go to

educate people. So, what does this mean to us from a dollar and cent standpoint? As soon as you have 10%

contamination it doesn’t mean you have 10% of that cost turns into trash. It means the entire load was contaminated

beyond what can be sorted and accepted. So, the whole load is now trash. If that happened with all of our recyclables

and we were actually charged the tipping fee for trash, that is $150,000 per year. Could we be up to $150,000? We

could be depending on how strict and stringent these requirements get. They are not selling these things as

commodities, they are in some cases paying to get rid of recyclable materials right now. There will be market

corrections in places that figure out how to use recyclable materials because they still have a value. But right now,

the equipment is spending so much time trying to clean them that it created a perfect storm. Fossil fuels and raw

products to make brand new plastics are all cheap right now. So it becomes less cost effective to clean and transport

and use the old product again. The short-term goal is awareness and public outreach. Some communities have

resorted to having people go before the collection truck to check recyclable loads and they are rejecting them and not

picking them up even on curbsides with citations and warnings to residents that contaminated waste streams will not

be picked up. We don’t have the personnel to do that. It may come to the point that we may need to pull people off

other critical services that we are providing and do that if we can’t do it purely through public outreach and trying to

get people to do the right thing. Recycling will not be going away and still a valuable tool, but its value is low right

now.

D. RENEWAL APPLICATION FOR A SPECIAL ENTERTAINMENT PERMIT – BIDDEFORD-

SACO ELKS LODGE NO. 1597

Biddeford-Saco Elks Lodge No. 1597 has applied for a renewal of their Special Entertainment Permit. The permit

will be concurrent with the establishment’s liquor license.

The applicant has paid all applicable permit fees and the clerk has properly advertised the public hearing in accordance

with the Saco City Code, Chapter 93 - Entertainment §93-2.

Councilor Doyle moved, Councilor Gay seconded to open the Public Hearing. The motion passed with seven (7)

yeas.

There were no public comments.

Councilor Doyle moved, Councilor Copeland seconded to close the Public Hearing and be it ordered that the City

Council grant the renewal application submitted by Biddeford-Saco Elks Lodge No. 1597 for a Special Entertainment

permit to be concurrent with the establishment’s current liquor license”. Further move to approve the Order. The

motion passed with seven (7) yeas.

E. NEW – TAXICAB BUSINESS LICENSE – SOUTHERN MAINE RIDE SERVICE – (PUBLIC

HEARING)

Southern Maine Ride Service, has applied for a Taxicab Business License for a term of one calendar year.

The applicant has paid all applicable license fees and the clerk has properly advertised the public hearing in

accordance with Chapter 195 – Taxicabs, §195-4 Application for Taxicab Business License.

Councilor Gay moved, Councilor Doyle seconded to open the Public Hearing. The motion passed with seven (7)

yeas.

There were no public comments.

Councilor Gay moved, Councilor Johnston seconded to close the Public Hearing and “Be it Ordered that the City

Council grant Southern Maine Ride Service a Business License for a term of one calendar year.’” Further move to

approve the order. The motion passed with seven (7) yeas.

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F. NEW – TAXICAB BUSINESS LICENSE – TWIN CITY TAXI INC. – (PUBLIC HEARING)

Twin City Taxi Inc. has applied for a Taxicab Business License for a term of one calendar year.

The applicant has paid all applicable license fees and the clerk has properly advertised the public hearing in

accordance with Chapter 195 – Taxicabs, §195-4 Application for Taxicab Business License.

Councilor Johnston moved, Councilor Smart seconded to open the Public Hearing. The motion passed with seven (7)

yeas.

There were no public comments.

Councilor Johnston moved, Councilor Copeland seconded to close the Public Hearing and “Be it Ordered that the

City Council grant Twin City Taxi Inc. a Business License for a term of one calendar year.” Further move to approve

the order. The motion passed with seven (7) yeas.

G. AMENDMENTS TO CITY CODE, CHAPTER 181 – SOLID WASTE; ARTICLE III:

TRANSFER STATION – (SECOND AND FINAL READING)

As part of the 2019 City of Saco Municipal Budget process, adjustments to the revenue structure at the City’s transfer

station were discussed and approved on May 14, 2018. These revenue adjustments require changes to the solid waste

ordinance, due to the presence of language that references “permit holders may dispose of three cubic yards without

paying a disposal fee.” Once this language is addressed in the ordinance, fees will be adjusted annually during the

approval of the citywide fee schedule.

Councilor Smart moved, Councilor Minthorn seconded “The City Council hereby ordains and approves the Second

and Final reading for the document titled ‘Amendments to Chapter 181 – Solid Waste Article III: Transfer Station’”.

The motion passed with four (4) yeas and three (3) nays – Councilors Gay, Doyle and Minthorn.

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VIII. ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE

City Administrator Kevin Sutherland provided the following updates:

➢ Union Contracts – All 7 are still outstanding. We finished our 3-year cycle on July 1st. My predecessor

worked hard to get all of them lined up to end at the same time. I believe it is important for me to be sitting

down with the staff, stewards and management team when we are meeting in union negotiations. So, allot

of the last 2 months have been in these negotiations and they will continue for another month or so. We have

one tonight that I will bring into Executive Session to discuss. Coming out of it we should be able to have a

1-year agreement. HR the management that works with the specific unions I would like to thank them for

all of their work and the time and commitment that it takes to review these. The past contracts have really

been focused on the benefits and money and not necessarily about the substance within them. So, we have

been taking allot of time to do that as well.

➢ Personnel Committee – The personnel committee has not met since mid-May. We are in the process of

drafting a policy for a performance review process for the City Administrator and hope to have that wrapped

up next week. In another 2 weeks we will meet to review and bring to the council for input and ratification.

➢ Assessor - He will be submitting the tax rate tomorrow for FY19 at $19.38. This is the same mill rate as last

year. While expenditures have increased for the city and the schools, so has the tax base. The market is the

biggest driver for that. Just because the tax rate is going to be the same doesn’t mean the tax bill will be the

same. If your home value has increased, you might see a small increase. But, it is not as substantial as what

we had anticipated when we went through the budget process. Council’s role is to approve the expenditures

and it is the Assessor’s responsibility to match the value of the property against those expenditures to

determine the mill rate. We do have an overlay and have had it for years. But, what we do is apply that

against the properties that have not paid their taxes. So that is why when you look year to year our recovered

taxes are closer to 100%. That looks really good when you are talking to bond rating agencies, so we continue

to utilize that money. How much is that? Is should be somewhere around $800,000 this year. We are better

if it is higher, but I wasn’t going to push to increase the rate anymore. I advocated for the Assessor to submit

a $19.38 rate the same as last year.

➢ Unit 91 – There was an article in the Portland Press Herald. The sale was delayed a month because of a title

attorney wanted to cross their t’s and dot their I’s mostly about the former owner signing off. There was also

a tax foreclosure and by law all liens and ownership is wiped away and the title attorney really wanted to see

guarantees from the former bank and the former owner that they were okay with it. So, that took a little

longer. Our intent was to have the closing for the beginning of July but now it is pushed out to the beginning

of August. A question for the council is what we read into the read after the executive session about selling

this property to Bernie Saulnier was that I was to negotiate. Does this council feel it has to go back to approve

the sale or am I okay giving that to move forward?

➢ FOAA request – We recently received a FOAA request that includes the use of personal e-mails to and from

city e-mails. So, please be cognizant of which he-mail address you are using to communicate with my office

and each other. Mayor Lovell also pointed out that some of us at least have gotten the MMA Elected Officials

instruction and during that instruction we learned that there is a FOAA Officer in the city. So, that if a FOAA

request accidently goes to one of our elected officials please forward it to the City Administrator. Then the

FOAA request can be processed. If it goes from one councilor to another, we are in receipt of it, yet we are

not acting on it until it gets to the city administrator. That is when the clock ticks. As we all remember from

that course it is a 5-day clock.

IX. COUNCIL DISCUSSION AND COMMENT

➢ Councilor Copeland – Inquired whether the City Administrator wanted the Council to discuss Unit 91 now.

Ms. Sutherland replied that the council needed to vote by July 23rd. Councilor Copeland asked what was

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different from what was already negotiated? Mayor Lovell noted that there is an executive session on real

estate, not this particular item, but when we go into the executive session we can add Unit 91 as part of the

real estate discussion and come out of there after hearing from the Mr. Sutherland what the details are with

how comfortable we are to just having him sign off on it. We can make that as part of the regular voting

after coming out of the executive session. Councilor Copeland noted that if you see an elderly neighbor’s

yard looking in disrepair and not mowed, realize that it is very difficult for them and that if we are in the heat

of the summer please reach out to your neighbors and be kind and help one another and one day when you

are old you will appreciate the help as well.

➢ Councilor Johnston – Discussing the sale of Unit 91 wouldn’t work because the agenda is posted that we are

going to discuss the Portland Road property. I think that Kevin is just looking for a consensus and not a vote.

Mayor Lovell asked if anyone was opposed to following along with the council’s earlier motion to permitting

the City Administrator to complete negotiations with Mr. Saulnier and thereby signing an agreement?

Councilor Johnston stated that he was opposed. Councilor Minthorn recommended to the Mayor that it could

be included in the Executive Session on July 23rd. The Mayor and Council were in agreement with this.

➢ Councilor Doyle – Invited the public to the Music in the Parking Lot that will be starting this Thursday and

running until August. Also, there will be a car show taking place on July 28th in downtown Saco.

➢ Councilor Minthorn – We had a rather interesting first meeting of the Senior Tax Abatement Committee. We

are finding that the practices that we have been undertaking for some time are going to be subject to much

scrutiny. I put out an e-mail to the abatement committee today of 9-10 different federal state reference items

regarding the tax treatment of the proceeds received by the recipients. I think there is also going to be some

issues coming up with respect to the fact that we were designating hourly wages de facto $7.50 an hour when

the minimum wage was $9.00 per hour, so we may have some liability that way based on the state and federal

requirements. I would like to ask with council’s permission that we ask Barbara Colman up here because

she has been doing allot of the research and she can provide an update as to what she has found on her side.

The council agreed. Barbara Colman - As many of you may know, former councilors who are back here

and new councilors, this has been an issue I have been addressing since January 2016. I have worked through

the City Administrator, Mayors, Council members, Finance Directors and HR Directors. So finally, here is

the answer. The Federal Department of Labor agent Gilmore clearly states this is hourly. We now owe for

the past 2017 differential of $1.50 to the people and anyone from January 1st $2.50. They are not volunteers

under Code 29 CFR part 553 (100 & 101). According to the IRS, Mr. Tripply, who I spent much time with

and his concern was equally that this is wages, should be counted as wages, and reported as wages. The fact

that we are hurting our citizens, again our seniors because of the way these payments are being done and

hitting lump sum instead of being put in weekly and you are affecting their other federal programs. I have

an address that I will be giving to Councilor Minthorn to work with his committee. It is to the Assistant

Director of the Department of Labor at the federal level. He has the ability to meet with the one agent in

Portland when it comes time. The IRS person has an office here in the State of Maine that he will be

connecting with. Further, an e-mail that was intended to come to council on the night of the vote was sent to

Councilor Archer but was not forwarded to the full council. It is made very clear by the Workers

Compensation, and I spoke to them today, that the city needs to reach out to the Workers Comp. Bureau as

soon as possible with our attorneys to solve this. For every thousand dollars money that has been spent over

the last 10 years could be a potential fine of up to $5,000 in penalties by all these various agencies and I add

to this that the recipients can sue the city for not properly administering this program. I have worked really

hard to protect our citizens and our tax payers and here it is 2 ½ - 3 years later and we are in a position where

we really need to stop the program and fix it immediately for our tax payers and our senior citizens.

X. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Councilor Minthorn moved, Councilor Doyle seconded “Be it Ordered that the City Council enter into executive

session, Pursuant to [M.R.S.A. Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1, §405(6): c. Discussion/Purchase of Real Property

at 841-853 Portland Road; d. Discussion/Approval of the contract for City Administrator, Kevin Sutherland and labor

negotiations: Saco Professional Firefighters Association IAFF Local 2300. The motion passed with seven (7) yeas.

Time: 8:31 p.m.

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XI. REPORT FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION

Councilor Minthorn moved, Councilor Doyle seconded to come out of Executive Session at 9:50 p.m. The motion

passed with seven (7) yeas.

Mayor Lovell, all the Councilors and the City Administrator were present.

There was no report this evening.

XII. ADJOURNMENT

Councilor Minthorn moved, Councilor Doyle seconded to adjourn the meeting at 9:50 p.m. The motion passed with

five (5) yeas and two (2) nays – Councilors Archer and Gay.

Attest:___________________________________

Michele L. Hughes, City Clerk