North Adams Council Passes Years-Long Ordinance Project
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — It took years but the City Council on Tuesday night was successful in removing fees and fines from the city code and packaging them in a single appended document.
The ordinance changes also included updating fees, some of which have not changed in years, were varied within the city code or out of line with state laws.
Finance Committee Chair Keith Bona had described it previously as one of the biggest ordinance projects undertaken in years and one that pulled in officials across departments and required new language to comply with long-changed state laws.
"The papers that are in front of you tonight have been through committees, department heads, administrations three, administrative officers three, the city solicitor, General Code, the entire council, a few years of the Finance Committee multiple times, which I think that probably a total of seven members on that Finance Committee since this process started," he said on Tuesday.
Bona said he couldn't guarantee everything was caught but any missed language could be amended later.
Now all the fees and fines will be located in one place, Appendix D, which will be the reference in all ordinances. This will make them easier to locate and change in the future, he said.
"I thank all that have worked on this over the past few years. It may be nothing to the public as they're not really going to notice it but it's probably one of the I believe it's one of the largest changes to our ordinances since I've seen, involving more entities than I can recall," Bona said.
The project had stopped and started over the years because of changes in committee and council makeup, the pandemic and other city priorities.
Councilor Peter Oleskiewicz thanked the Finance Committee for completing the project, saying this was his "third trip around it." President Bryan Sapienza said it was "a long time coming and a great accomplishment."
Bona also said he would step down from the Finance Committee at the end of the year as he had specifically stayed on to see the fees and fines project through.
In other business, the council passed to a second reading and publication a zoning ordinance change that would extend the Business 2 zone on State Road westward to include a house on the corner of Rickard Street. The vote had awaited an opinion from the solicitor to clarify it was not spot zoning.
The Tourists resort is planning to use the single-family home for offices. Councilor Peter Breen abstained from discussion and voting.
• Proposed amendments to littering and the feeding wildlife were postponed to July 11; the compensation and classification plan passed a final vote, and the council confirmed the appointment of Leigh Harrington Uqdah to the North Adams Housing Authority for a term to end on July 1, 2029.
• Mayor Jennifer Macksey said the reconvened Youth Commission will hold its first meeting on July 1.
Tags: fees, fines, ordinances,
