INFO-2022-4 : Request for Information regarding ARPA funding (Item #9582)

Transcript (~1 h 22 min @ 1:40)

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▶ 1:36 Jen Grigoraitis: comment. Seeing no objection, public comment is now closed. We have two items on our agenda tonight. The first is Info 2022-4, Request for Information Regarding ARPA Funding, item number 9582 and at this time i would entertain a motion to suspend rule 37b so that members of

▶ 1:59 Robb Stewart: the administration can come before us i'm sure i'll make a motion to suspend rules 37b

▶ 2:04 Jen Grigoraitis: so we have a motion made by councillor stewart seconded by president sonella to suspend rule 37b is there any discussion seeing none mr clerk can you please call the role

▶ 2:26 Speaker 1: certainly vice chair b literally yes councillor mcmaster councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Jamaleddine yes councillor stewart yes councillor Karamcheti yes councillor bremski

▶ 2:52 Speaker 1: yes councillor williams yes president zanella yes and chair Grigoraitis yes unanimous vote 11 yes

▶ 2:58 Jen Grigoraitis: the motion carries so we are under suspension of rule 37b and i believe my understanding was we have mayor broder and chief of staff margot fleischman joining us good evening everyone

▶ 3:19 Speaker 2: Thank you, Chair Geraitis. Councillors, I'm very happy to be here this evening on behalf of the administration. I don't see if, oh, I do see the Mayor's on now.

▶ 3:32 Speaker 3: Oh, he's a little bit dicey, but I'm here.

▶ 3:34 Jen Grigoraitis: Good evening to both of you. Just before we get started, I just wanted to defer to the makers of the order, Councillors Garipay and Stewart, if they had anything they wanted to say before we had you both speak.

▶ 3:46 Speaker 4: Councillor Stewart.

▶ 3:48 Robb Stewart: Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Council Garpay and I bring this ordinance to the Council for consideration based on some of the changing dynamics and added flexibility that has been provided with the ARPA funding. We request the Mayor and his administration provide an update of plans for apportioning these ARPA funding. So for members of the public, the America Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, is a federally provided money to help communities address various hardships, which includes health economic and infrastructure as examples associated with covid and last september the city council approved the arpa grant in the amount of eight million three hundred and seventy four thousand one hundred seventy four dollars and mr de la rusa was kind enough to provide an overview of the four categories that these monies could be spent and there were strict guidelines subsequently there has been a modification to these guidelines in which as i understand the cities may take a 10 million dollar exemption to these guidelines and in this case the monies for this exemption can be used much more broadly so we are asking the mayor and Ms. Fleishman to give a little bit more of an understanding and I do want to thank both the mayor and Ms. Fleishman for writing the memorandum previously outlining the current status of the the ARPA funds for tonight's discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair.

▶ 5:18 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Councillor Stewart. Councillor Garipay, did you have anything you wish to add?

▶ 5:22 Speaker 5: I'm fine. I'm looking forward to hearing the discussion.

▶ 5:25 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you. Ms. Fleischman, Mayor Broder, the floor is yours.

▶ 5:29 Paul Brodeur: Terrific. I will start and then Margot can fill in some of the details. I'll try to be brief because I suspect the most productive way to do this is to respond to your questions so if you had a chance to watch my state of the city address I tried to flesh out at least in large scale what we're hoping to do with with the ARPA funds which are in fact a little shy of a point four million dollars give you a sense of scale about what that means that is the interest on amount of money that Boston earns on in a day probably on what they got in terms of ARPA funding and some of the small communities out west got less than a million dollars or right around right around a million dollars there's a very much a wide range of amounts and various levels of flexibility that apply to the funds so I do urge a little bit of caution when you see Another community doing something, the context matters, you see like Arlington, the thing is getting somewhere in the $40 to $60 million range, might be a little bit of a different animal than Melrose. And the same thing, Melrose, different than some smaller communities that got less, quite frankly. Communities have taken a wide variety of approaches. I've seen folks go all in on one project. I've seen folks focus on several capital-intensive projects and essentially commit all the money right away out of the gate to those projects. That is not the approach we are taking. We are trying to do a couple of things. trying to really be thoughtful about what is um really a a either a need that um arose because of covid or is exacerbated by covert or you know the again the course of the pandemic has shown a real need to provide either new or additional resources to a problem uh we are also very mindful of somewhat countervailing that is the recognition that we have to be very careful in terms of adding bodies adding personnel because this money does in fact go away or runs out and then we are responsible for either discontinuing programming or finding other ways to fund it And we're mindful of that as we do a few positions that we-one that we've committed to and others that we are close to committing on. So that having been said, we are also, unlike some of the folks that have gone hard in on spending all the money, we are endeavoring to reserve some reasonable amount of that money for the unforeseen. The possibility that the pandemic might throw us another curve ball, and we might have to adjust to that. We want resources available to do that. As well, and as we stated earlier, but it's become in some respects more important because the nature of the restrictions have changed. They've gotten much looser. um it makes um the opportunity for public input through the survey that we're doing even more important while it is broader folks should understand there are still some things that uh that can't be done we cannot uh pay down debt we cannot deposit arpa funds into uh rainy day reserve funds we cannot cut taxes with uh with arpa funding you know it is really designed to be stimulus so the the two pillars i would say to focus on and what we are focusing on is essentially a health and wellness piece and an infrastructure piece with an eye towards sustainability, meaning fiscal sustainability. In terms of some of the funds that we've already committed or anticipate committing, some of the things you already know about, like library HVAC, but I will leave it to Margot for some of the program-by-program or bucket-by-bucket um ideas that we have or where some of the money we think will be best spent margot that worked for

▶ 10:26 Speaker 2: you thank you mr mayor uh yeah i'm i'm um happy also to take your questions but i'll just start in just reviewing the memo that i sent you last week i think i mentioned to uh councillor stewart that if we'd come in to see you about the arpa funds a couple months ago everything we were going to tell you would have been wrong we were very surprised at the changes that were announced with the final rule i think every community under the 10 million dollar limit was was anticipating that the final rule would be similar to the interim rule and it turned out to be quite different so we spent the fall putting together a program of potential uses for the arpa funds that fell into those initial buckets as we came and told you about back last august and we were looking through our capital improvement plan and looking for things that could be slotted into some pretty significantly tight parameters and subsequent to the issuance of the final rule obviously that means that we don't necessarily have to be as stringent although the mayor is still taking position that the use of the funds should be to the greatest extent possible related to COVID, related to the recovery, related to community well-being, and responding to the after effects of COVID. Certainly it does offer an opportunity for us to do some other things that might not necessarily have been allowable just a few months before. So as you'll see, to date our actual expenditures are just over a million dollars. Those are actual numbers that we have spent or have been encumbered. We do expect about another $105,000. Those are approximate numbers for the remainder of the items that you'll see bulleted under approved ARPA expenditures in the memo. And so some of those may be slightly less. We may not, for example, use all the consulting services we had intended to back when we thought this was going to be a much more onerous process

▶ 12:41 Speaker 2: and then going forward there are some of the items repeating items for fiscal year 23 through 25 include things that we are starting now for example the hiring of an economic development recovery position will continue through the lifespan of arpa so you'll see that every year going forward there are larger projects such as the library renovation project when we came before you for the the bond we at that time anticipated being able to use the money from arpa for an hvac component and and we continue to anticipate utilizing five hundred thousand dollars of arpa funds towards that element of the project you'll see a number of other different Items on that bulleted list that represent projects that have been presented by different departments. I will say that they total over 7Million dollars. And are broken out into fiscal years 22, 23, 24 and 25 with the majority of the projects being programmed for this year and next fiscal year. Which is very consistent with what our consultant had advised that we do that. We spend no more than 40% in the 1st, fiscal year and then set aside some in case of. Uncertainty or resurgence of the pandemic. So, with that, I'm, I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the memo or any questions that you have about the plan moving forward.

▶ 14:18 Robb Stewart: Counselor Stewart. Thank you Madam Chair and thank you Ms. Fleishman and Mr. Mayor for that overview. That was quite helpful. A couple of questions. Could you give a little bit more specifics about the nature of the survey that you spoke of?

▶ 14:35 Speaker 2: Sure, so as of Friday afternoon, the mayor's office has issued a press release and put on the City of Melrose website a link To a community needs survey, where members of the community yourself included are very welcome to respond to both specific requests to prioritize different types of needs. As well, as some open ended opportunities to describe needs that may not be captured by the survey. and to essentially suggest projects or suggest areas of need that we might utilize ARPA funds to meet. So far since Friday afternoon, I believe we have reached over 300 responses to that survey. So in just a couple of days, we are already seeing some interest in folks expressing themselves on this issue and would be very happy to share that link with all of you as well, or it's on the City of Melrose webpage on the homepage.

▶ 15:40 Robb Stewart: Great, thank you, Ms. Fletcher. Second question that I have is on your bullet points for future fiscal years, there are three items that are additional staff members. And while I understand, and I think the Mayor has pointed out that the economic development recovery it's anticipated over time that that should be a little bit self-fulfilling because if you have economic growth you have stimulus you have monies and it'll actually grow to be able to help support the position the other two though the full-time social worker and the youth public health specialist aren't revenue generating if so would we have to then absorb these in the budget in years following fiscal year 25 yes okay let

▶ 16:35 Paul Brodeur: me flesh that out about that was that was probably a little bit Kurt there are some things that that can pay for themselves over time and the value is there and it's kind of an easy return on investment analysis um we do not have enough social work capacity in the city um we went from zero we went from five hours to zero we are hours and then uh in partnership with the friends of the council on aging as you all know we did a kind of a hybrid funding model where we got up where we have a 17 hour i might be wrong on the exact hours but a part-time position that has been overwhelmed quite frankly since we turned it on um the need is absolutely there and is not being met elsewhere um so we want to bring those resources on board recognizing that there will be be, there will be a need to figure that out. There are a lot of possibilities in terms of significant ARPA funds being made available through the state for mental health and wellness. There is a legislative piece around this bill called Safer 2 that would provide a suite of resources and reforms in the area. I cannot guarantee that any of those things can come through but I can guarantee you that the need is absolutely there and the

▶ 18:17 Robb Stewart: resources will be well spent thank you thank you my last question for now is regarding the the list of funds that you have broken out by the different areas and I think that was great thank you for providing that do you have any initial estimate of uh percentage wise or how this is going to be apportioned uh does this require additional input um and i i asked for a couple of reasons one is it would be helpful to understand where the focus is the second is um you know as we've heard and a little bit more anecdotally that if there's 350 communities that are also going through this and there's and potential anticipated shortage of people that can actually perform the work if we're gonna go and do infrastructure work or whatever it is. So how can we move this forward and understand the amount that we're gonna, of course, get to the numbers and then get going?

▶ 19:25 Paul Brodeur: A couple of responses. We do not have a hard ratio right now. In terms of the marketplace, You are spot on, and the answer is we don't know in certain respects. If you layer on top of the possibility of the availability of ARPA funding and the projects that that could turn on, layered on top of that is the federal infrastructure law that will be a little bit more bureaucratic, but that presumably would have an input on the marketplace as well with a pretty significant focus on roads, bridges, Um, probably a little bit of public transit mixed in there. Um, certainly, um. I team broadband infrastructure, so it's a little bit hard to forecast that we are doing our best to make as as deep a dive up front into what we, you know. Getting finer and finer estimates of what cost will be. Going forward, but we do not have no, no, I don't think anyone has a great handle on. Um, what the marketplace is going to look like, particularly for, you know, basic building construction. Um, the labor shortages that go along with that and the materials.

▶ 20:45 Speaker 2: Pressure I would just add to what the mayor said that the types of projects that are under consideration range. And so not all of them are sort of the traditional water, sewer infrastructure, or something, you know, so you've got some capital items, you have some programmatic things as you mentioned counselor. There are some acute mental health needs that might be addressed through staffing, but then also programming to support those staff. So, not everything is going to be falling on the, the engineers and the builders and the construction workers. There's a whole variety of different types of projects and actually counselor. It would be helpful for me to know when you said sort of breaking things out. My initial thought had been to break out the departments that were requesting the funds. And so you could see X number of dollars from each department, but I would love feedback on the sorts of breakouts that you're looking for, in terms of different types of projects. That will be helpful to me as I continue to refine the materials that we present to the Council.

▶ 21:56 Robb Stewart: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ruchin. Madam Chair, I'd like to respect the rest of the Council's file. I'll defer to you now. Thank you.

▶ 22:06 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you Councilor Stewart. Just to review, I have Councilor Williams up next, followed by Councilors Eccles, Jamala Dean, and Vice Chair Migliorelli. Is there anyone? And then I'll put Councilor Garipay in queue. Is there anyone else's hand? And Councilor Garmachedi. Okay.

▶ 22:23 Ryan Williams: Thank you, Councilor Williams. Thank you. So I wanted to talk to you or ask a few questions about the survey. Saw the survey go out on Friday. Love it. Notice there's no deadline associated with the survey. What that's, which is okay, but what's the kind of what's the timeframe you're thinking of in terms of when you're going to consider that survey to be closed.

▶ 22:46 Speaker 2: Well, I would say that having had a little bit of experience with putting surveys out in Melrose, I think it does take a little while for them to get the interaction. I would certainly like to keep it open long enough to get a response rate that seems representative for the city and on par with some of the other surveys that we've put out in the past. There is no hard deadline on making the decisions other than, obviously, we need to spend or cover this money by the 31st of December 2024, which isn't to say that we won't be making a lot of these decisions sooner than that. But we didn't feel as though it was necessary to put a hard deadline on that in order to get as much feedback as possible.

▶ 23:27 Speaker 6: Yeah.

▶ 23:30 Ryan Williams: Yeah, um, flipping through it over the weekend, I noticed that there were a lot of great categories in here, but, you know, as, you know, with any survey, there can be a level of kind of subjectivity about the way that people. Read into the responses, so, for instance, you might look at, uh, an item like transportation and read that very differently from, um, you know, 1 person to the next. So, rather than kind of go down the line and ask you about each of these categories, I'm wondering if you're envisioning ever having any kind of a meeting process where you would discuss the results of the survey or give people an opportunity to kind of weigh in outside the context of the survey categories to see if there's some flexibility in what they're considering to be economic insecurity or mental health needs or climate change versus what you might be considering to be things in those categories and kind of to follow up to that to to think about how the process goes from the survey so you might see that 99 of people respond that they think climate change is a huge problem but climate change to me means something very different from climate change to another person so how do we get from the kind of the response that we have in the survey which is kind of limited in its text to a better understanding of how we think the community wants to translate some of these broad themes into specific actions

▶ 24:57 Speaker 2: well i think the idea of a community forum is an excellent one counselor and i would also just say that when it comes to an issue like climate change where the city has already put in a fair bit of of an effort into doing a municipal vulnerability preparedness and put into place some some ways of already having gathered some information and data on what sorts of projects might be of beneficial and of interest to the community will certainly, to the greatest extent possible, link the results of the survey to other existing well-fleshed out areas that work we have already done. So certainly if there is any ambiguity or doubt on the part of the administration as to what the survey results mean, we can certainly create other venues for making sure that we're refining it. Obviously, not every project that is suggested, not every issue that is raised will necessarily be able to be addressed or certainly not solved with $8.4 million. dollars but we wanted to take this opportunity to the greatest extent possible but very least get a sense of where people's priorities lay relative to to other priorities

▶ 26:15 Ryan Williams: thank you i would i would love to see when you're ready to share i mean i'm sure everybody else would do i'd love to see the results from this i think it's very interesting and it's a great job that you've done with the survey here it's got a lot of depth and variety to it so it'll

▶ 26:31 Paul Brodeur: be really interesting to see what comes out of it that's it i mean there is some ability to memory serves to um there's a a bit of a piece of open-endedness to the survey and folks can certainly um the the survey isn't the only way to weigh in it is the best way because then everyone's on the same page it makes it a little bit easier to quantify but there's certainly no reason anyone can't, you know, send an email, weigh in, weigh in by other means, as quite frankly many folks already have in different ways. Thank you, Councillor Williams. Councillor Eccles.

▶ 27:12 Jack Eccles: Thank you. Could, could we gather what the actual, what the, what was the revenue loss number we were working off of back before the final rule? Do we have that?

▶ 27:28 Speaker 7: I do. So at the time that we thought we had to live under the interim final rule,

▶ 27:32 Speaker 2: there was a calculation of revenue loss according to the formula that we were given through our consultants at Clifton Larson Allen. And it came out to be just about $1 million. And so I think that uh was the genesis of the um the the use of the the revenue replacement for the revenue that was lost so you'll see that the um the major component of our arpa funds expenditure to date was the revenue loss from the early early uh childhood center um eight hundred thousand dollars

▶ 28:12 Paul Brodeur: if i could add margot i want you to correct me if i'm wrong uh on this that the consultant um as we were talking about revenue loss which we are very interested in part because it was the most it provided the most flexible use of funds that that bucket if you will uh but in the the way the measurements work in terms of revenue loss um created a problem for us in that the override created a significant and very unusual infusion of money into the city and then that basically messed up our year-over-year calculation of revenue loss yeah i mean i think that other

▶ 28:59 Speaker 2: communities had more flexibility from the outset because they had had a larger calculated revenue loss due to covet and it was against the 2019 baseline um so that was kind of what put melrose in a slightly disadvantageous position but that being said that's all kind of water under the bridge now because we're subject now to that 10 million dollar revenue loss allowance essentially

▶ 29:30 Paul Brodeur: and folks should understand probably I don't know if there's still questions about why 8.4 million dollars when I feel bad because I gave the wrong number by Arlington they only got 35 million so I was not quite there with the 40 million but it was not based on it was based on you know census data and other things like that it was not based on actual impact so they didn't look at Melrose and go oh we see that this revenue impact has happened to whatever the case may and therefore you get 8.4 it was you get 8.4 and here are the possible uses and again medicine's been modified with the with the 10 million dollar kind of safe harbor awesome um in in one question i

▶ 30:16 Jack Eccles: have i'm not familiar just yet with what the infrastructure bill is going to mean for municipalities but presumably that funding would be more restricted so are we kind of looking with an eye of not spending arpa funds on things that maybe some municipality allocated infrastructure

▶ 30:39 Speaker 2: money could indeed so we we are kind of keeping our ears attuned to how how an infrastructure bill might impact our ability to do different things and so we are we putting things into our uh into the idea hopper um but that where we might hold off on making a decision about something until those parameters become clearer and to make it marginally more complicated

▶ 31:04 Paul Brodeur: the state is still sitting on roughly half of its state allocation of arpa funds you recall that they did they did a budget um fairly recently related to arpa plus surplus funds that related to some funding that will mostly it's mostly state programming but will in some respects like hopefully public health we'll see dollars come to us uh the the other the other kind of tranche of money still has to be allocated and so we you know we we keep our eye on that recognizing that you you know at some point you can't wait forever and you set out your priorities and you You go, but we'll try to be as flexible as we can, or keep kind of keep our options open, recognizing that some of those other things will arise.

▶ 32:02 Speaker 2: I would just add that we're, we're focusing on things that we, we know are very likely not in the infrastructure bill. So that that's 1 good way to to start the conversation. The other things. Um, we're leaving floating, but the stuff that we're almost positive won't be in there. And it's and it's a shame because there would be great if some of the infrastructure needs that Melrose had were in the infrastructure bill. But I have a feeling that, um. Then the needs are going to be quite specific. Right.

▶ 32:30 Jack Eccles: Um, and then just 1 last question is, we kind of look towards the budget in the not so distant future. These 2 and a half positions are going to show up as increases in their respective departments. And then, and then we'll be called out that there are funded. So, right.

▶ 32:47 Speaker 2: So, generally grant funded positions don't won't show up on the budget because you don't have to. Appropriate funds for them, but we certainly do make note of the fact that we do have these extra people. Um, in our, so you won't see the mayor's budget, for example, grow by the amount of the new economic development person, even though she is in the mayor's office. Uh, because that money is coming through a grant.

▶ 33:18 Speaker 4: Awesome, thank you very much. Thank you. Counselor. Counselor.

▶ 33:24 Maya Jamaleddine: thank you chairwoman um thank you both for being with us tonight um i appreciate all the effort that has been uh done um to include um you know constituents and take their ideas and input um i did uh complete the survey and i heard about it um from the community page um i you know i love all the ideas included um that was included and it's very hard to prioritize i was um i was a little bit concerned when i heard that you know some people wanted to focus to to just focus on one project rather than you know choosing multiple projects because um that would make us feel that we are prioritizing one population uh on the other or our focus you know would shift a little bit um i i wanted to i would be interested to hear how the decision is going to be made um is it so we um based on the survey results um how how the end decision is gonna be made

▶ 34:46 Paul Brodeur: A terrific decision. A terrific question and somewhat hard to answer because, I mean, it sounds a little bit probably obnoxious to say it's only $8.4 million, but it goes quick. And I think that to be fair to some of the communities that are focused on one big project, there is some utility to that because it tends to be a big infrastructure thing. That they can then take off the table and it frees up maybe debt money or whatever the case may be to do to do some other things. And it's easy. You pick it. You'll forget it. You don't have to do it. You really don't have to do anything else. And I think part of the theory probably is it serves the entire community. If it is something like. I don't know a big water project, a central. Park kind of thing, then that's a resource for the whole. for the whole community. So we'll do kind of a weighing process. All these things will go into the mix, but if there is kind of a lens to focus on, it would be basically solving problems that are, again, related to or exacerbated by COVID. Now, some of that infrastructure doesn't sound like it directly applies. I disagree. I mean, there are a lot of things that we have learned, um, and the reason why the bill, the original legislation was built the way it was was to take care of some of these. Hard to do, I don't want to say once in a lifetime things, but to create opportunities for public investment that might not otherwise be there. Uh. The, the, the, I would love to to add bodies, but that's just not. That that is not realistic and that that'll be a big, that'll be a big part of the calculus is that. What are we doing here for with some things? It will be easy, right? Well, we'll be done paving. The pipes will be fixed and we're done or in the, the broadband. Redundancy is taken care of whatever the case may be. Um, we'll be good to go, but it will, um, I think it will also change a little bit over time, depending on circumstances. I was going to give you a, we're going to take. Yeah, a half a 1Million dollars for mental health. We're going to take 2Million dollars for sidewalks. We're just not quite there yet.

▶ 37:19 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay, with that, I'm sorry my God. Go ahead.

▶ 37:24 Speaker 2: I was just going to add to what the mayor said, which was that we are coming at this process through the community wellness lens that the mayor explained a little bit about at the inaugural remarks and also at the state of the city. And so, when we're looking at the, for example, the projects that have been proposed by city departments, trying to find the ones that really are targeted at addressing needs in the community, talking about wellness, youth mental health, substance use prevention, recreation as a means of social opportunities for people of all ages, investments in our Council on Aging, programs that really touch a broad swath of the community rather than, as the Mayor said, investing heavily in one type of project. Even the infrastructure projects that we're looking at, we're looking at through that lens of how can we have the biggest impact for people's lives lead water service line replacement you know things that are buried under the ground but

▶ 38:28 Maya Jamaleddine: can still have a big impact for people's lives got it and i i truly appreciate your focus mayor brother on you know health and wellness um this is um i believe very critical especially after the you know going through the pandemic we're not even done yet with a pandemic a lot of um you know our community members are suffering um and many i know in silence um how are we going to um you know outreach uh to those that are uh you know suffering in silence so to make sure that this is a critical need and um put a solid plan for that

▶ 39:14 Paul Brodeur: another great question because that is always the challenge with um you know fully supporting social services are you getting how are you getting to the folks that need it the most um and and quite frankly in this in this climate it's also reducing the stigma for everyone of seeking out those kind of services be it you know be it a poverty need a mental health need um substance abuse supports whatever the case may be uh it's a real challenge and it's an ongoing challenge we'll essentially will keep at it and take the best advice of experts quite frankly about about how to target it and in part that is um talking to the community and just letting folks know it's out there because we will rely on you know almost friends of friends so do things like we will make sure that the faith community is on board because they very often get approached when the government won't to say how can I be helped? There are some, you know, parent support entities out there, same thing, making sure those resources or the opportunity to seek help are out there. And this is a small example of how to kind of expand the, expand the universe a little bit is, with Healthy Melrose this year, you know, we're back, we're back in person. And in addition to the usual things that we've had at the fair in terms of um you know exercise um yoga maybe chiropractic nutrition we will also be opening it up to um in particular dmh will be there um and a couple other more traditionally social service focused entities to recognize that is part of health and wellness in Melrose, making sure that we just kind of build it into a lot more of what we do.

▶ 41:25 Speaker 2: I would add to that also that that is really the urgency about adding the social worker position because our Health and Human Services Director is envisioning that as a navigator, somebody who can help bridge the programs that are available to the needs that are in the community. and i think having somebody who's a point person within city hall who can take those referrals from if someone is applying for aid from the emergency fund but has social services needs or if there are families who are identified in the schools who have social services needs this will make more robust our ability to meet those needs when they are identified and then also to tell the community that if there is a need in the community in their family in their network that there is somebody at city hall who can help them awesome thank you so much i would love to

▶ 42:18 Maya Jamaleddine: um hear more about how this plan is going to be you know developing and and um more when it comes to a more solid um stages um would love to be involved as well

▶ 42:38 Speaker 3: Thank you. Appreciate it. Very much appreciate it.

▶ 42:40 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Councillor Tamala Dean. Vice Chair Migliorelli.

▶ 42:44 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and thank you, Mr. Mayor and Ms. Fleshman for being here tonight to answer our questions. I'm just going to dive right into the questions that I have and just wanted to make a clarifying point for the public that the spending of the ARPA funds is fully within the Mayor's control and not something that the City Council approves like we do with many other budget items just so people are aware of that um so for that reason thank you for coming tonight and kind of walking us through the plans and detailing out some of your short-term goals as well as um listing out some of the longer term ideas that you have um just on some of the things that have already been spent to date um you mentioned the i see on their public safety training equipment for 77 000 can you kind of explain what that's for that's been used for

▶ 43:30 Speaker 2: Sure. Early on in the process, the fire department identified both a need and a grant that they had available to purchase a simulator, essentially, to allow their firefighters and paramedics to train in a safe environment on all sorts of medical emergencies, including COVID-related ones. And there was a $20,000 grant available for that. So, it was felt that it was a it was a there was a time sensitivity to it and there was a need and so the mayor did go ahead and approve the use of the arpa funds for that to allow the fire department to purchase

▶ 44:08 Paul Brodeur: the that training equipment and while it while it will live in the fire department it is also available for the police that do some similar some similar trainings and this wasn't a huge part of the decision making but there is there is some hope that that will actually save some dollars in terms of not having to outsource some of that training got it okay um and then the

▶ 44:29 Leila Migliorelli: school's revenue lost replacements at 800 000 you had mentioned that is if just want to make sure i understand this correctly that the overall city lost revenue is 1 million and is this 800 of that

▶ 44:47 Speaker 2: one million or did I misunderstand? So the calculation, according to the ARPA calculus, the total amount came to be a million dollars. The amount that was chosen to replenish the school's early childhood center revolving fund was based on COVID-related losses

▶ 45:10 Leila Migliorelli: to that program. Okay, so there's no like, so it would be inaccurate to say that 200,000 remains in lost revenue for the City? That's like comparing apples and oranges?

▶ 45:22 Speaker 2: It's sort of irrelevant now, but at the very beginning when we were stuck in this box of what you could and couldn't do with ARPA, the amount that you could calculate as lost revenue was the amount that was available for general government services now the entire amount is available so that you know remaining 200 000 just gets put back into the pot with all the rest of the other money because we can use it in the same way uh in the past the revenue replacement was more flexible

▶ 45:57 Leila Migliorelli: everything else was more strict okay um and then moving on to the economic development recovery positions just a few questions about that right the line the figure that we have in front of us is 37 000 but i'm assuming that's not the full cost of the salary of that position that's one

▶ 46:11 Speaker 2: that's that's one quarter uh one quarter's worth because she's starting tomorrow march 1st so march april may june um so that's uh you know uh i'm sorry one third rather not one quarter um so that is a partial amount for the remainder of this fiscal year and then we'll carry the full amount in our model for the remainder of the the fiscal years that arpa is allowable to use

▶ 46:37 Leila Migliorelli: and do you see that i know that um the mayor talked about you know if you're funding positions through arpa funds that eventually when that runs out then you have to make a decision about whether to continue to fund it out of the city's budget have you given thought to that position or the other two positions that you have listed there if it's something that you're thinking of more in the short term and you're reevaluating or is it something that you are coming up with

▶ 47:02 Speaker 2: plans for how to fund long term i think both i think both in the case of economic development as well as public health there are actually quite a few grants available that have generally been used for example for many years our substance use prevention person was paid off of a grant and i think the more capacity that exists within the public health department to go out and seek those grants the more likely it is that we could continue to have those positions going forward after ARPA. Similarly with economic development, we are always going to be looking for ways to make that position self-sustaining if possible. But I think ultimately when fiscal year 25 comes around and we're doing the budgeting, we'll have to look at the resources that are available to us and make decisions about whether or not we can keep those positions. And in all of these cases, the positions are being advertised as grant funded so that the individuals who are joining us understand that there's a there's a possibility that those positions may not extend

▶ 48:02 Leila Migliorelli: so would you say that any extension of those positions are is related to ongoing need or funding you know for example if you were to decide that there were other positions you needed within the city how would you rank them or put them up or how would you prioritize and make decisions about

▶ 48:23 Speaker 2: which positions to continue and which not well i i do think that these are reflective of needs and certainly current needs and as we move ahead into future fiscal years both our understanding of whether or not we were correct and accurate in diagnosing those needs or if the needs have abated will become clearer and then certainly also the financial component is you know undeniable that decisions will have to be made about resources as we as we do every year with our ability to add

▶ 48:56 Paul Brodeur: staff just put a put a gloss on that I guess is really to in certain respects we do that every year the needs tend to always exceed the ability to meet the needs to be sure I would be hard-pressed to imagine the need for social the social services support in the form of a social worker or another position to to go away that would in some respects that would be terrific I don't see it happening because I think the need was there quite frankly before coded we've taken a look at what other cities and towns do there is to by no extent uniformity across across municipalities but my sense is we are kind of on the low side in terms of the direct supports available to our residents around social services so my expectation is that we will be endeavoring to find a way uh to cover that we may have you know there's always hard choices and we may have to make some hard choices in the future if um you know if something has to go away so that we can maintain what has become a new priority we'll have to we will certainly cross that bridge when we come to it but we've had folks do some uh some pretty impressive work over the last little while finding ways once the position is once positions are established to turn over every every rock and every uh seek out every opportunity to find outside funding for those sources so given the given the increase i don't focusing in directly on the public health piece um but my hope and expectation is that there really has been kind of a a um all three levels of government-wide recognition of the value of these kind of positions going forward and that they'll be maintained thank you i think it's you know as

▶ 50:59 Leila Migliorelli: i think it was councillor eccles that pointed out as we're heading into this budget the new budget planning cycle and thinking about longevity of positions and funding them i know that we are You know, we're going to have the opportunity to look at a new budget. We're going to have an opportunity to approve requests for free cash and just trying to understand the, how these. All these pieces will work together, you know, for example, if we're looking at free cash, that's in excess of 5Million, is that some, that's something that we could be using to spend more money to increase our operating budget to support some of these positions long term versus getting the, the free cash every year and trying to find different uses. for that. It's just something I hope that we consider moving forward as I'm looking at all of these other, the list of all the other things, you know, that we don't have approximate costs for. So, just how to balance that out with other requests that might be coming our way. And one more short question. So, the at-home COVID test for $30,000, is that something that's definitely still on your list? And just trying to understand that That's the only sort of direct COVID piece to this, and it's just a large number. So I'm just curious as to the plan.

▶ 52:15 Speaker 2: It's an approximate number. So the health director, I don't know if you recall, but right around Christmas time, I think it was actually the day before New Year's, the state government announced that there had been some opportunities for municipalities to go in on some state bid contracts essentially to purchase at-home COVID tests. So at that time, along with every other community in the Commonwealth, we all kind of started making these phone calls to scrounge up these tests. And ultimately, the costs were not significantly lower than it wasn't like bargain basement costs. So that's why we've sort of earmarked that money. We may not need all of it in the end. Melrose did not purchase tests directly, but Wakefield has purchased tests and through our collaboration and having one health director, we would have the opportunity essentially to purchase tests through Wakefield if on an ad needed basis. So we're setting aside $30,000 as kind of a worst case scenario if we need a lot of tests. But for example, as people are coming back from school vacation week, or if there's an elder in a housing authority unit or a city employee who needs a test, we have availability of a small amount of tests so that folks would be able to get one if needed. But it's, right at this point, that is just sort of like a, it's more of an encumbrance than an expense. It's probably not gonna be that much money.

▶ 53:54 Speaker 8: Okay, thank you.

▶ 53:56 Paul Brodeur: To give you a sense of Um, kind of how timing is everything. Um, the, the, the town of Plymouth. In January committed over 300,000 dollars worth of. Covert dollars to buying. Uh, to my cobit test, I suspect that they probably.

▶ 54:22 Speaker 3: Given the way, given the way the pandemic numbers have gone, I suspect they're probably bum that they bit.

▶ 54:29 Paul Brodeur: That hard on on the tests, but but, you know, it, it made sense in context at the time. I'm sure so that's the, you know, it can be a little bit tricky.

▶ 54:47 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 54:51 Mark Garipay: Displacement and Mr mayor for being here a quick question just going back to the school revenue loss replacement. Is that just for the ECC or was that the ECC and the after school program?

▶ 55:08 Speaker 2: I might have to defer that question to, uh, to our, our school finance director. Who's not with us this evening. I'm happy to get you an answer to that question. As I understood it, and but I again, I. Don't want to speak out of turn it was for the ECC. Um, but I can get you the answer to that question. Uh, uh, subsequent to this meeting council.

▶ 55:34 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Um, and then you had mentioned a couple of dates. Um. If you could just go over those again, the end of 2024 is when we have to allocate the money and it has, does it have to be spent by the end of 2026 or the projects have to be completed by the end

▶ 55:54 Speaker 2: end of 2026? If you could just go over those dates again. Sure. So December 31st, 2024 is the date by which we either have to have spent it or essentially encumbered it for a specific expense where you can then pay for it in the subsequent two calendar years. So you've got until 2026 to spend it, but as of December 31st, 2024, you have to know what exactly what you're spending it

▶ 56:18 Mark Garipay: So the project would not have to be completed by the end of 2026?

▶ 56:23 Speaker 2: Until, right, so you have until 2026 to complete a project that you encumbered the money for by the end of 2024.

▶ 56:34 Mark Garipay: Okay. Do we feel that's an achievable goal? And I look at some of these, you know, there's a couple infrastructure projects on the list that's of the future. do you think that's an achievable goal the longer we wait with the paper shortage raw materials

▶ 56:54 Speaker 2: i do think it's an achievable goal and the reason i say that is because the project proposals that we've been receiving from our department heads are extremely specific and they're based on projects that they are already looking at doing so for example if you look at new sidewalk projects for example these are projects that would just be sort of harder to fit into our regular roadway reconstruction schedule and the addition of the ARPA funds will allow us to do more than we potentially might otherwise be doing in a certain fiscal year but it will it'll kind of meld in seamlessly with our contracts that we have already existing and that the normal course of events we're not going to be going it's not like a special thing it's just sort of augmenting what we already do um obviously the library renovation project um that money will be used to uh to help offset the cost of doing the library project uh which we know is going to happen within the time frame required uh i i think you know the upgrades to parks and recreational facilities this might be purchasing new equipment or painting lines or preparing ground these are things that we would be doing uh under the course of our normal contracts that our parks and recreation uh department would do and you know as the mayor said the the money will go quickly when we start spending it because some of these projects i mean it's 500 000 going to the library project obviously um that they i don't think that there's going to be any problem spending the money by the end of the time time frame at all so quick there's another

▶ 58:36 Paul Brodeur: um kind of it it's good news if it comes to pass but we'll complicate the calculus mildly and that is that there is some talk of uh chapter 90 which you all know is the state's uh financial support program for municipal road investment essentially it's been at 200 million bucks statewide for just about as long as i can remember with some some unusual one-offs coming there's talk about that getting bumped up significantly which might increase our capacity to do stuff to do some projects outside of ARPA but stay tuned on that front because that's obviously a political decision between the House and Senate and the Governor as to whether or not that will that will happen but that would be another piece of of good news for us in terms of

▶ 59:40 Mark Garipay: road and sidewalk work thank you on the on the library you mentioned the library I think it I think it was a half a 1Million dollars. Is that strictly going to be for HVAC? Or is there a number of other things? Because I know when we went through the whole discussion for the library, which, um. You know, there was a lot of talk about being able to use opera money and for the HVAC, but. There are other aspects of opera money we will be using for the library that other than HVAC.

▶ 1:00:11 Paul Brodeur: The HVAC, I'll let Margot finish because she knows a little bit more about this than me, but the HVAC is more than a half a million dollar expense, so, and that was the number we talked about in the run up to the debate about whether or not to go forward with the library project. So we're very comfortable with that commitment. I don't see us uh using more than that to offset offset costs to the library margot i don't know if you want to

▶ 1:00:45 Speaker 2: add to that sure so the the hvac uh project was identified early on because as the unit essentially of the library project that we knew that we could support through arpa back when we had to tie it to covid and hvac was an allowable category and subsequently um looks like we're going to have a very nice energy efficient HVAC system in the library and the $500,000 will substantially assist our ability to, as the Mayor said, put in a system that will work well for the whole building, be very energy efficient, and will be significantly less expensive because of

▶ 1:01:28 Mark Garipay: the infusion of ARPA funds. And I think I just have two more quick questions. When we started this two years ago two years ago now right um we talked a lot about uh fema and fema reimbursement um are we still looking heavily in getting reimbursement are they still re fema still reimburse bursing us uh for stuff and are we applying and is there stuff that i want to make sure that we're applying to fema if we can i know it's going to be delayed but we have an opportunity i think the mayor would agree that this community's never seen this much one-time money that we can do some amazing things so um yeah if you just elaborate a little bit on if we're still applying for fema and are we having any luck sure we we are we're being very aggressive with fema

▶ 1:02:11 Speaker 2: both um jim troop and the facilities department as well as alan alpert our emergency management director have been working very hard to identify fema eligible expenses i don't believe that there's any future opportunity to get any more but I think what they're working hard now is to make sure that we get everything that or to the greatest extent as much of the items that we applied for from FEMA because the process is that you you put together this this collection of information you send it to FEMA but FEMA sends it back with either questions or rejections you appeal those questions and rejections and you work through the process and ultimately the goal is to get as much as you possibly can. So they're being very aggressive with that. Alan certainly is very knowledgeable and experienced with that process, and we will get every penny that we possibly can out of FEMA.

▶ 1:03:07 Mark Garipay: Okay, thank you. And then just one other thing, I don't know if there's anything we can look at for seniors, and it's just a small thing. I know for seniors that we have the bus rides that take them them to the grocery stores and take them out of town and you know they it's a cost to them and you know inflation food costs have gone up and we've done a lot for the local businesses and i'm wondering if there's anything we can look at for the seniors or believe in that or take them to take a look at what more we can do this uh the scene is the most vulnerable um in in in our city and see i'd like to i'd like to see if we can try to address just that too but that could be a that could be another conversation offline no i appreciate you appreciate the idea you know

▶ 1:03:47 Paul Brodeur: that you know having worked in that world for for some time it is a very high priority for me and recognizing you know the just the isolation in and of itself um that seniors have had to endure uh is a real challenge in figuring out how to best uh how to support them and you know their their resilience across a range of things, be it REC, be it transportation, be it nutrition. And any, you know, love to hear more ideas about that because there is a million different ways we could go with that and happy to explore it, that's for sure.

▶ 1:04:31 Mark Garipay: Yeah, it's exciting to hear that the Milano Center looks like it's gonna be open sometime in April. So that'll be good, good for the seniors finally

▶ 1:04:41 Speaker 3: to get back together. Good to be back, that's for sure.

▶ 1:04:42 Mark Garipay: Thank you all for being here. Thank you for providing the information.

▶ 1:04:45 Speaker 3: Thank you, Councillor.

▶ 1:04:48 Jen Grigoraitis: Next up, I have Councillor Carm Chady. Is there anyone else wishing to be in queue after Councillor Carm Chady?

▶ 1:04:56 Speaker 4: Okay. Take it away, Councillor.

▶ 1:04:59 Manjula Karamcheti: Hi, Mary Broder. Hi, Ms. Bleschmann. Thank you so much for being here and answering all these questions. It's so helpful to go through everything. So I first have more of a, I think a big picture question just to understand a little better how the funds are being allocated. And just, it's really around like what kind of information and data has been used to decide how these funds were going to be spent and how did they relate to, Mayor, your strategic plan for growth and development in Melrose? Like how did they fit into the bigger picture

▶ 1:05:44 Speaker 3: the bigger plan for the city um so specific to the economic development position um it's a need

▶ 1:05:57 Paul Brodeur: that we've seen in terms of hard data it's very much hard to quantify we have a baseline and there's a lot of in some respects a lot of good news we do not have um a lot of vacant storefronts but we do know that if you don't invest and continue to think about your business dynamic um and kind of what's coming next uh you get left behind we saw that in all rows back in the 70s when 128 was growing malls were a big thing and the downtown really got followed out we certainly don't want to see that uh see that happen again and resources are getting put in that way But you need, quite frankly, you need a quarterback. I have seen just in my couple years here that there are times when I feel like we have potentially missed out on opportunities to pursue particular grants either because we don't have the internal capacity to support them or there is no one person responsible for focusing on that particular piece. And when you start to think about, you know, the economy or the economic health of Melrose writ large, there are more pieces than just the traditional, oh my God, is that storefront vacant? It is more, you know, is it going to continue to be vacant? Are we meeting, do we have a diverse set of businesses? Are we fully using our arts and culture sector to develop the economy? And that was something that I think you all know from knowing me and hearing me talk over the last few years, I think, is a real opportunity for growth, both in terms of community culture, which has value in and of itself, and as an economic development driver. uh we also have what we've learned is through through this this process to a certain degree there are uh haves and have-nots meaning if you are a fairly sophisticated business been operating for a long time you know how to get like the the you were ready when uh uh government assistance turned on you kind of knew the system you knew the players and you could activate that. That is not the case for some of our smaller businesses. I'm not exactly sure how we will, how we will manifest that. I think it's more seeking folks that are knowledgeable with those supports. And it's also bringing in businesses. You know, we've talked a little bit about opportunities for a more diverse business community from a DEI perspective and we part of that in terms of this is being that ambassador recognizing that we can't control our own destiny a little bit more than we have in the past uh i don't want to oversell this because you know you will you have all heard the frustration oh my god another pizza place right and the answer is like why do you let that happen well we don't let it happens that's what the marketplace dictates a landlord has a willing a willing tenant that wants to pay to open a pizza place that's what's going to happen now that having been said i think you see the more proactive cities and towns the folks with positions like this uh go out and get the businesses they want and and seek out uh more sustainable and more interesting opportunities so that we're not you know necessarily behind the eight ball when a particular sector might be up or down i'm not sure if that i'm not sure if that makes up i'm not sure if that answered the question but it certainly took a lot of time to say so maybe that's good maybe i can i can add a

▶ 1:09:47 Speaker 2: little bit to the mayor's response also just beyond that one particular issue i will say counselor that um it's as we anticipate making these issues and moving forward i think if you're You're going to see it's a mix of things that have been longstanding needs and things that are perhaps more acute needs, having to do with more recent things that have come about because of cobit. So, as counselor is aware, as we look through our capital improvement plan, capital items that are coming before us, we've talked about different ones that might wind up coming on to the. Funding stream, and we are using that because. that is an existing way of articulating needs that we already know exist, and then finding ways to make them fit into our ARPA budgeting. So some of the items that will ultimately be considered for funding on the capital improvement plan may ultimately be funded through ARPA. So those are infrastructure needs that we probably had for a while, but then you have other things that are more tactical, right, that we are experiencing some issues more significantly or a need has just become clearer because of the pandemic that may not have been on our radar a few years ago.

▶ 1:11:15 Manjula Karamcheti: Right. Well, so I understand, you know, originally ARPA was very strict in terms of what the funds could be used for and really around COVID relief and recovery. And I understand And the excitement of all of those parameters being more lifted, so we have more flexibility in terms of how to allocate these funds and how to spend the money. But because part of it is COVID relief and recovery, I guess I'm interested in how we're representing the populations that were most impacted by COVID, particularly thinking about our youth. And I know there are also funds for schools, but kids spend eight hours a day in school and 16 hours a day outside of school, and then on weekends. We have data through the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, I'm not, you know, we've had a lot of learning loss, we've had a lot of social emotional issues with our youth. I'm wondering about that piece, given the funds are really supposed to be used for that kind of relief, where that fits in.

▶ 1:12:31 Speaker 2: So we've actually had some really great meetings with our health director, our health and human services director and our recreation director to talk about both sort of the direct clinical needs and the substance use prevention and the part-time youth social worker and things that would be more specific to targeting kids who are experiencing more acute effects of mental health effects of the pandemic, as well as a sort of a softer, more inclusive approach to perhaps providing some opportunities to serve kids who maybe aren't in need of clinical services, but more emotional support of peer group activities, recreational opportunities um additional mindfulness uh programs so our our health i mean our recreation director is extremely um versatile in in the in the in his sort of conception of what recreation is and using that collaboration between recreation and public health to try to design some programming to support uh youth of all ages as well as adults so that is actually a really new a nice new exciting collaboration internally within within city hall that these two departments have started to think really creatively about ways that go beyond obviously needing to address acute mental health issues but then generally responding to the needs of kids and and young adults and and

▶ 1:14:09 Manjula Karamcheti: adults of all ages so if i understand that correctly so perhaps there aren't any funds that have been spent in that way so far related to ARPA. There is thinking and potential ways that ARPA funds will be used for that in the future. Yep.

▶ 1:14:24 Speaker 2: Correct. And again, because the change in the final rule happened quite recently, you'll read in my memo, it was announced on the 6th of January. Prior to that, we would not have been able to use the ARPA funds potentially in that way, or it would have been a little bit more difficult um so i think that some of the some of the creative juices got flowing when people realized as you said counselor that some of these restrictive limitations had been lifted and so you're correct we have not yet spent spent any of that money but we have projects proposed through our recreation and health and human services department that address those things okay and

▶ 1:15:15 Manjula Karamcheti: And then, you know, I have 1 more question. I had more, but my colleagues, the city council asked a lot of them already, but, you know, I think 1 of the things that, as I was looking through the memo and thinking about funds and. And the pandemic, I also noticed where there were no funds delegated to that weren't mentioned. That were used in the past, or cited for the future, and I think we all know that there were not just 1 pandemic of cobit, but a 2nd pandemic that has been discussed, which was the pandemic of systemic racism. And I don't see any funds that have been allocated to that through our. And I think we know COVID disproportionately affected people of color. There's an over-representation of minorities in the essential fields and essential jobs. And while I think some people consider that a national issue, locally, during this time of COVID, community members established a racial justice community coalition. We have community members established fighting for black lives in our neighborhood. The HRC has focused on these issues. A lot of our religious institutions have focused on these issues, yet I don't see any funds allocated for that through ARPA, which those funds could be used as well. We also have our DEI task force with members who are making recommendations and things, And I don't see any of those ideas represented in ARPA funds either. So I guess I just want to ask about that a little bit through the pandemic. We have been a community divided when it comes to mask mandates, when it comes to mascots and all those kinds of things. So, I'm wondering about that and how ARPA funds and future funds might be considered to address those issues.

▶ 1:17:20 Paul Brodeur: Sure. Terrific question. And we do have a couple of things in the pipeline around community conversations and some of the pieces to try to soften some of those things. We're still fleshing them out. I do want to make it pretty clear that, you know, there's a lot of things that this memo does not mention, right? It does not mention Rack at all, but. Mental health and wellness and community. Well, being is kind of the. The, the thematic premise for everything, so nothing. And that's a nothing has been ruled out. No 1 should take the absence. Of a particular program or infrastructure concern. As meaning that is that it has been has been considered or tossed aside. literally well margot can tell you how many projects or how many proposals are before us but certainly not nothing like that has been ruled out and it is part it is a part of the mix if for for the reasons you stated that it is a need quite frankly that existed in many respects way before the pandemic and the pandemic has not just exacerbated but it certainly

▶ 1:18:50 Speaker 3: exposed some of those long-standing risks to our society or long-standing injustices. I don't think it's too strong a word to use in dealing with, you know, a systemic and persistent problem.

▶ 1:19:10 Speaker 2: I would also add that we're anticipating that our DEI survey and recommendations will have a draft memo, hopefully a draft report from our consultants at Visions Incorporated early next month. So, actually next week, I guess, because next month is tomorrow, and that would provide more of a roadmap in terms of some specifics that may come out of that process. I know that there are other funds available in addition to ARPA and at this point, we do not have a specific project to propose. But that is why we are looking for feedback from the community and other projects are being accepted. It's not as if, as I said, we have not spent all of the money, even in our minds, we haven't spent all of the money because we recognize the fact, as I mentioned in the memo, that these are not exhaustive and that we're looking for the most meaningful ways to utilize the funds.

▶ 1:20:13 Manjula Karamcheti: Thanks. I appreciate your comments. I will just end with where we spend our money shows our values, and to not see it mentioned anywhere brings up a lot of questions. Thank you.

▶ 1:20:29 Paul Brodeur: Not necessarily, but to stress, seniors are an incredibly high priority for me. There's not a word about them in the memo. I don't want folks to be left with the impression that certain decisions have already been made or that this represents an exclusive list of what we're going to be pursuing with these funds.

▶ 1:21:01 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you. Any other questions, Councillor Cassidy? Any other questions from the Council? Oh, Councillor Stewart, followed by Councillor Garipay, is that a, no?

▶ 1:21:15 Robb Stewart: Madam Chair, I would just like to make a motion to attach Ms. Fleischman's memorandum to the order.

▶ 1:21:28 Jen Grigoraitis: I didn't see it attached. Correct. It was not attached. So we have a motion to attach the memo that's been referenced to the order. Is there a second? Second. So we have a motion by Councillor Stewart, seconded by Councillor Eccles to attach the memorandum. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, can you please call the roll?

▶ 1:21:48 Speaker 1: Yes, Councillor McMaster. Yeah, Councillor Eccles. Yes, Councillor Garipay. Yes.

▶ 1:22:01 Speaker 1: Councillor Jamaleddine? Yes.

▶ 1:22:06 Speaker 1: Councillor Stewart? Yes.

▶ 1:22:10 Speaker 1: Councillor Karamcheti? Yes.

▶ 1:22:14 Speaker 1: Councillor Obremski? Yes. council williams yes president zanella yes and chair Grigoraitis

▶ 1:22:28 Jen Grigoraitis: yes 11 yes 11 yes so that will now be attached thank you uh councillor Garipay did you have your

▶ 1:22:35 Mark Garipay: hand up i was just going to make a motion if council stewart was uh to place this on file but i saw his hand up i don't know if he had another question counselor steward do you have

▶ 1:22:46 Robb Stewart: a question uh that was going to be my motion i'll defer to council guys

▶ 1:22:51 Mark Garipay: A motion to place this order on file. Sorry.

▶ 1:22:53 Jen Grigoraitis: All right, so we have a motion to place this order on file made by Councillor Garipay, seconded by Councillor Stewart. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, can you please call the roll?

▶ 1:23:06 Speaker 1: Vice-Chair Migliorelli? Yes.

▶ 1:23:12 Speaker 1: Councillor McMaster? Councillor Eccles?

▶ 1:23:17 Speaker 1: Yes. Councillor Garipay?

▶ 1:23:21 Speaker 1: Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine?

▶ 1:23:25 Speaker 1: Yeah, counselor Stuart.

▶ 1:23:29 Speaker 1: Yes, counselor.

▶ 1:23:33 Speaker 1: Yes, counselor. Yes. Counselor Williams. Yes. Yes, and check your greatest. Yes, that's 11. Yes.

▶ 1:23:48 Jen Grigoraitis: 11 yes, so the motion carries. Thank you. Mr. Mayor and Ms. Fleischman for joining us tonight.

▶ 1:23:54 Speaker 3: thank you ladies and gentlemen appreciate your service as always have a good evening

▶ 1:23:57 Jen Grigoraitis: counselor oh is everyone just waving sorry what's with all hands um all right we have one more item before us tonight which is order 2022-69 permanent consolidation of polling locations to the melrose veterans memorial middle school gymnasium complex for all city of melrose elections item number 9605 president sanella