ORDER-2021-122 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 in the amount of $91,000,522.33 (Ninety-One Million, Five Hundred Twenty-Two Dollars and Thirty-Three Cents).

Transcript (~48 min @ 2:38)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 2:20 Jeff McNaught: Public comment is now closed. And at this time, I will move by unanimous consent to suspend the rules. If there's no objections, seeing no objections, the rules are suspended. And we will move on to our 1st order this evening. Which is the order we've been working on a few nights in a row already and we'll continue to it's order 2021 dash 122. the city of operating budget for fiscal year 2022. in the amount of $91,522.33. First up this evening, we have the Council on Aging. I believe we have Ms. Minchiello coming into the room. That is Department 541 with the revolving account for 2021-2811. We could bring Ms. Minchiello into the room.

▶ 3:24 Jeff McNaught: Direct him and oh, there we go. I believe you're on mute. Sorry, that's that's the coined phrase for 2020 and 2021. And we all do it, but I think you're on mute.

▶ 3:34 Speaker 1: I know. Thank you. Thank you. I apologize about my tropical background. I have to. Work on changing that, but welcome everyone. Um, I can't believe this is already my 2nd, uh. Budget hearing, um, for those of you watching at home that don't know. my name is stacy mincello i'm the executive director of the melrose council on aging i'm also serve as a board member on mystic valley elder services and as an at large board of director for the massachusetts council on aging that's a dual role as i um regionally advocate for 15 council on agings but also serve across the commonwealth for all coas at the state and national level um a little background my team consists of myself an administrative assistant slash program coordinator and the milano center coordinator equaling two full-time employees and as of now one part-time employee additionally we have seven part-time drivers for our transportation program and we have two part-time assistants um that help out in the milano center The mission of the Council on Aging is to advocate for older adults and connect them with available programs and services while hosting many healthy aging offerings. While our focus is on older adults, we operate within a No Wrong Door policy as a resource hub for anyone in need. We manage the Melrose Emergency Fund and have been instrumental in the last year in distributing funds and other resources to our to our neighbors in need. We're a social hub for seniors. We provide cultural events, health and wellness offerings, art classes, and many medias and a host of congregate, and we host a congregate meal site. We provide educational workshops for our seniors and the community, realizing the importance of educating our younger residents so that they may have the tools to prepare for embracing their own future. This year was truly unique. I joined the team just months before the pandemic hit, and while I've been working in elder affairs for over, let's say, a decade, this year posed tremendous challenges. The pandemic has impacted all of us, but the effects on our seniors has been especially significant. Not only were they more susceptible to covert they were already more prone to loneliness and cognitive decline isolation and the negative effects of inactivity we had to reimagine um the ways we supported our seniors and i'm happy to say we helped distribute masks groceries batteries even coins when there was a coin shortage and much much more um one of the biggest challenges came when it was time to get our seniors vaccinated. I'm sure you all remember the state's glitchy website that was hard for anyone to navigate, let alone a senior who was not so tech savvy. But we repurposed the Milano Center when it was time to get them vaccinated and we transformed it within a 24-hour period of the governor's announcement. So I just want to mention that because it's pretty impressive. The phones did not stop ringing for a total of six weeks. We had a handful of great volunteers of which I'm ever grateful for because they supported my already stretched team of two. I'm so proud of what we have accomplished. In terms of funding changes, we have brought in a part-time new social worker for 18 hours and the Milano Center coordinator is retiring this summer and we are actually actively seeking a full-time position for that one. These increases allow us to better serve our seniors, help close the gap that's been created by the pandemic specifically in terms of the need for socializing and social services it allows us to improve our outreach efforts and lastly ultimately becomes the progressive center that our community desires before i finish i'd like to publicly thank my staff all my volunteers the council on aging board the friends of the milano center and all the amazing amazing residents that help support us

▶ 8:27 Jeff McNaught: Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mancello. I just want to note Councillor Jamaleddine is here for attendance record and I have Councillor Thomas so far with his hand raised. Councillor Jamaleddine, were you raising your hand to speak as well? Okay, that's all I have in queue. Am I missing anyone else? Vice Chair Eccles. So Councillor Thomas, we'll start with you. Thank you,

▶ 8:52 Cory Thomas: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Director Minchiello, welcome and thank you very much for your presentation. Thanks for so much for everything that you and your staff do, especially during the pandemic. My question is on your 2021 budget. It was roughly $200,000 budgeted and you spent roughly under $150,000 to date in 2021. Was there any reasoning because of that spending being so low

▶ 9:21 Speaker 1: Based on your budget, the, um, the transportation. Part of our department was pulled off the road and with the closing of the Milano center. So we. We were less in our expenses through the formula grant in.

▶ 9:36 Cory Thomas: Because of the pandemic sure. Um. And is the budget down because of the, um, the, the community meal was that stopped during the pandemic as well?

▶ 9:45 Speaker 1: The community dinner program was funded through a different line item. So, it doesn't affect the council on aging budget, but to answer your. To your good point, because we were closed our donations, we were not receiving donations in the, in the, in the sense that we received a lot of donations, but we didn't receive donations comparable to previous years because we were not hosting events. So, you'll see next week we have an event at Memorial Hall. You know, we will take in 5 dollars a senior at the door. So, if you predict that there were possibly 30 or 40 events in the last year, that didn't happen. It does become negative. Thank you.

▶ 10:36 Cory Thomas: I'm looking forward to seeing programming coming back. Do you have plans in place? And is there a place that seniors in Melrose can go to see what the programming will be when things start opening back up?

▶ 10:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, several things 1, we just released a summer edition of the newsletter. Typically, it's a monthly 1, but we really raced and got a summer edition, which is June, July and August. And the reason for that is, we are moving our senior center operations over to the Horace Mann school for the summer for 10 weeks. And that's June 21st to August 26. And that will help us have the Milano center HVAC repaired. And then hope for a great brand reopening in the fall. So, as far as accessing the newsletter, I will tell you that we sent this newsletter out to 800 homes. We've just started emailing folks directly the newsletter. It's on the city website that it's posted available. You have to sign up to click to activate the link. And just this week alone, we had 47 new seniors call us because the. The arrangement with programming is you must have a key card. So we have 47 brand new seniors just this week.

▶ 12:00 Cory Thomas: Because they want to join our summer programming. That's so great to hear. Thank you so much for that. I do know we have a lively and robust senior community here in Melrose and it's great to hear that. Things are opening back up for them. And program is going to be resuming. So, thank you for all you do and thanks for being here.

▶ 12:16 Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Thomas. Councilor.

▶ 12:20 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you chair. Thank you for all the help and the great work that you're doing for our seniors. Um, um, I cannot thank you enough for, um, the great communication, the great programming, planning, um, um, organizing. It's just overall amazing effort and teamwork and I appreciate your, your leadership. Um, I wanted to ask, I know I also wanted to congratulate you on your new head on with the social worker and, um, uh, I heard that the days and the 18 hours have been extremely busy, uh, you know, with. Trying to answer the calls and try to get back to our seniors and, you know, um, our residents. Um, what is the main, um. Or common requests that we've been hearing from our seniors.

▶ 13:16 Speaker 1: I think the I would say the most popular request at this time is transportation. When can I go on the bus and get where I need to go? And the bosses have been on the road for the past month. Under what was at the time the state guidelines so we had 1 passenger per bus. This week by far was the most busiest with the bus coming and going. And then strategically figuring out the roots, because we're adding in the tour of the YMCA. So that we received a grant with the YMCA so that we can bus seniors to the. Their age appropriate exercise classes over there. And then I just finished with the state this afternoon. So when we come back after the holiday, we'll release when. they can go shopping as a group and that's a big deal we have been busing folks to shaw's back and forth because it's local in town um but they want to go as a group to market basket so that's one of the popular things the other popular request is when are we just going to do things and i'll share with you we did a drive through uh last month was may was older americans month and we did a drive-through where we were just giving away I'll say gadget type gifts although one of them was our magnet with our logo and information so I think that one's impressive but one of the seniors she's probably about 90 years old her daughter drove her in and she said to me when is bridge coming back and I gave her the information I gave her the summer calendar that Toa explained that we would be at the Horace Mann, she was in tears, in tears. And I think that is just the, I mean she was clapping like so excited and just grabbing my cheeks and I was like oh my god. That just tells you how rough this past year has been for them. And as a numbers person, you know, we have seven, eight thousand residents in Melrose and we've, you know, reached out the five thousand there's still three thousand out there that need us that we just haven't met yet so we're going to welcome them back with kindness and great activities and that newsletter is is filled to the brim but there's more to come i'm looking at nighttime movies um different food

▶ 15:42 Maya Jamaleddine: events there's more more to come absolutely um i we i think my fellow counselors also agree with with me, we can't wait to see what else we can do for our seniors, what else is coming to make sure that our seniors feel supported and, you know, bring some smiles to them and make them feel that they are really appreciated and welcomed in our community. What do you think, circling back to the social worker, do you think the 18 hours are just good enough for now? Or do you feel that this is something that, you know, we're just Getting by it until hopefully we'll be able to get that full time.

▶ 16:24 Speaker 1: I think it's reasonable. I. Because we're starting over, we're updating all our resources where we're. A social workers is very good. She's. She's able to piece things together and, you know, we're looking at. The new beginning of what our policies and procedures and processes should look like. but once so like it was really ironic because we were overwhelmed during the entire pandemic her first day in the job the phone didn't ring i had to like check the cords because what's going on but i think it's the good weather and people are in a better position um but not so much this week this week we we had a heavy call volume but to answer your question i think it's it's it's okay for now. And if the demand increases, then I will have to revisit it.

▶ 17:18 Maya Jamaleddine: Awesome. Awesome. Well, I will definitely trust your judgment for now. And you mentioned that you're going to bring some intern social workers. Is this still in place?

▶ 17:32 Speaker 1: Yes. Well, it's interesting because our social worker started last week. And this week, we already had an inquiry from salem state and have already made a connection so once we get the forms and the agency agreements filled out and i notify city hall um we should have an intern in place starting in september um and the intern is from melrose um she has a great background a couple of masters um and she wants to volunteer during the summer just to get to know the seniors, and then start in September, and her main project will be the foundation and the baseline for how can Melrose become an age-friendly designated community, which obviously includes dementia-friendly. So, everything's moving so fast. We've got a lot going on at the same time, but as tight as we were through the pandemic, we're rejuvenated and

▶ 18:31 Maya Jamaleddine: excited awesome thank you such a great news thank you so much for everything thank you thank you

▶ 18:37 Speaker 2: council chamaladeen council Garipay thank you mr chair thank you miss mitchella for being here um

▶ 18:41 Mark Garipay: i echo uh prior to council is also on the job that you and your department has done over the past year i just want to touch on something that councillor thomas had mentioned um regarding the community meals i know it's not on in your budget but uh and i know we've we've had to stop it but is there is there a time frame on when we may start those up again i know they were very

▶ 19:07 Speaker 1: popular the problem with community dinner is we have to um really look at it and redesign it and see how um it should be going because the way the grant or the don't the the funding is is uh shows on the books is that it's a community dinner because it happens to be hosted at the the senior center, it transformed into a senior community dinner. We're looking at, one, how we can not spend so much money so fast for sustainability as far as how much money is left in the fund, and two, make sure that it's inclusive and equal access And maybe change the frequency or something. So, and that is like, the biggest 1 of the biggest requests that the seniors ask, but when is the community dinner. Coming back, and I've been pretty open and genuine about my response is that. We have a certain amount of money and we have our guests or estimate 65 seniors coming to the community dinner. I loved it. They loved it. but if you look at it from like a unit cost, it's the same 65 people, so it's not inclusive. So we just have to get our heads together and figure out how we can do it, and then by following the parameters of the funding.

▶ 20:33 Mark Garipay: Okay, thank you. One other question regarding transportation. As we start opening up on Saturday, there's a lot of people that still don't necessarily feel comfortable being in large groups. And with that being said, with the transportation, do you think we're gonna have an increase in cost or is there enough money in transportation? Do you think you're gonna have to do more bus runs or work more hours if people aren't as comfortable with the capacity on the buses?

▶ 21:06 Speaker 1: We probably, I mean, first of all, I am due to update the staff next week that we will be mask friendly. And what that means is how we deal with folks that, you know, don't want to wear a mask or do want to wear a mask. But just as of my state meeting this afternoon, they told us that there was no restriction. On our capacity of our buses anymore. So, it depend on the internal size, not specifically the seating because of the 6 feet restriction. So, we were doing 1 passenger at a time and through my documents and records. We didn't even have a request for a 2nd passenger during the pandemic, which is. Sort of to me odd, because some, most of the time is companions or caregivers. So, with that said, um, we certainly can put multiple passengers on the bus, but if someone is not comfortable, we need to get them or they have a compromised immune system. We will put the 2nd bus on the road with the driver. We do want us to to to combine it.

▶ 22:12 Mark Garipay: Okay, um, but I'm just curious on it if you think there'll be an increase across or if there's enough funding in that line, I'd employ it. But, uh.

▶ 22:24 Speaker 2: Okay, thank you. Thank you. Council Gary pay counselor Stewart.

▶ 22:29 Robb Stewart: Thank you Mr. chair and thank you. Ms. Michelle for being here tonight. Appreciate it. Um, as, uh, the council for 3, uh. Representing both the fuller and I know that they quite a bit about out of all of your services in addition to the rest of the community. So. For that, I'm very much appreciate it. I just had 1 question regarding. The, the budgeting, I, I did look at the, the trend of the numbers year over year and I know that there's a roughly a 3% increase year over year, except 13%. That 13%. Is because of this new. A social worker that's working the extra 18 hours. Is that true?

▶ 23:16 Speaker 1: Well, the new social worker for the 1st year will be funded out of the budget. It's the increase from increasing the Milano center. Sorry. I don't know if you can hear the train going by.

▶ 23:33 Speaker 1: No, no. Okay. So the increase is the increase in salaries of transforming the part time position into the full time position.

▶ 23:44 Robb Stewart: Okay, it was a. A significant jump, but the reason that's the only question I had. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 23:54 Speaker 2: Thank you can't just do it and the other cultures for the 1st time. Can't let me go.

▶ 24:02 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you Ms. Minchella for being here tonight. I'll just second, third, or fourth everyone else's comments about how wonderful it is, all the work you've been doing and what a challenge it must have been this past year. And you really rose to the challenge and it's wonderful to hear the excitement of the senior community moving forward and all the creative ways you're thinking of supporting them. So I'd like to make a motion now to move the bottom line.

▶ 24:31 Speaker 3: Second.

▶ 24:33 Jeff McNaught: Motion to move the bottom line made by Councilor Migliorelli, seconded by Councilor Thomas. On discussion, I just want to echo what everyone else has said, Ms. Minchella. I think it's impossible to capture what you and the few people that you have working with you do day in and day out. I don't even know if you mentioned the snow shoveling program, but I know that you manage that as well and we talked a lot over the winter. It's incredible what you and your group do, and our community is deeply indebted to you and your team. Thank you. If no one else has their hand raised, then we'll have Madam Clerk put this to them up.

▶ 25:15 Speaker 4: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis?

▶ 25:27 Speaker 5: Yes.

▶ 25:28 Speaker 4: Councilor Migliorelli? Yes, yes, counselor Stewart. Yes. Yes. Counselor Thomas. Yes, yes. Yeah.

▶ 25:41 Jeff McNaught: Yes, the motion passes. We just need to vote on the revolving account, which is.

▶ 25:48 Speaker 2: Line or account 2, 8, 1, 1, I'll entertain a motion to move the bottom line on 2, 8, 1, 1.

▶ 26:00 Speaker 4: 2nd, take a motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 26:01 Jeff McNaught: Motion with the bottom line on the revolving account 2, 8101 but cancer gear second, and I clutter promoting.

▶ 26:12 Speaker 4: Madam clerk, please, please call the role. Chair. Yes. Vice chair. Yes, yeah. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Yes. Councillor. Yeah, yes. fragor. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Nine yes.

▶ 26:39 Speaker 2: Motion passes. Ms. Pinchella, thank you for being with us this evening.

▶ 26:44 Speaker 1: Thank you, Councils. Have a great evening.

▶ 26:46 Speaker 2: You as well. Thank you.

▶ 26:49 Jeff McNaught: Next, we have the Commission on Women. Department 542.

▶ 27:03 Speaker 4: Miss Kissel, can you hear us? Can you hear me now?

▶ 27:10 Speaker 6: Yes, hi, everyone. Thank you for having me. I'm just blurring my background since I'm in my basement.

▶ 27:27 Speaker 6: Hiding from my children, thank you for having me. My name is Rolda Kissel. I am the current chair of the Melrose Commission on Women. Um, the commission on women seeks to improve the lives of women throughout education and advocacy. I'm just going to tell you a little bit about the things that we've done this year in the covert environment. Um, I'm new to the chair position, and I'm really proud of the work that we did given the circumstances this year. This included, and of course, this is all on zoom a conversation about the dramatic impact that covert had on women in the workforce primarily driven by the loss of childcare at open schools. number of women involved in the hospitality industry we hosted a toast to kamala harris as the first woman vice president which included partnership with two local women-owned businesses buckaloos and sweet spot encouraging melroseans to purchase their items and join us for a virtual toast we sponsored the melrose run for women we host we're the lead sponsor for the aapi vigil acknowledging the violence against asian americans which we partnered with the human rights Commission, MAVE, and I think that's it. And we just sponsored a conversation with Representative Lieber-Garabedian to discuss current legislation that impacts women in Massachusetts. And we are currently sponsoring a community storytelling event in partnership with Follow Your Art, which will happen on June 13th in Cedar Park. So I'm really proud of what we've done given the circumstances and given that most of the commissioners are, all of the commissioners are women with children that were home remote learning working from home and i'm really pleased

▶ 29:09 Speaker 2: with what we were able to schedule this year any counselors counselor Grigoraitis

▶ 29:14 Jen Grigoraitis: thank you chair McNaught thank you ms kissel for being here tonight and just know we're all managing children and pets and everything else in our own uh virtual backgrounds here um i just want to thank you for the work that the commission's done it's really been wonderful to see the group revitalized and i know that this year posed a lot of really unique challenges and it was a particular highlight to get to be with the commission to celebrate the first female vice president in the history of this country um and i just more as a kind of rhetorical question um for my colleagues and also for the administration is i've noticed that there's some inconsistency in how we fund commissions your budgets at 2000 the disability commission's at 2500 human rights commission i I think it's a little higher and I just flag that as something I would love for us to assess in the future years. Because I think everyone's really ramping up. Programming, which is a huge value to the community, but I also know particularly as things reopen on Saturday that that comes with a cost. So I just flag that, but I'm thrilled to continue to support your work and thank you for all you do.

▶ 30:18 Jeff McNaught: Thank you. Thank you. Any, I didn't see anyone else's hands up.

▶ 30:27 Leila Migliorelli: What is really? Um, I just want to say, thank you again for this couple for being here and for the wonderful programming you did this past year. I know that it was it was wonderful to attend. I think, especially the. Um, event you've had for, um, talking about the impact of cobit on working moms was really valuable and something I shared with others who, and some of the great comments that were made there. I shared with other moms and it was just a fantastic event. So, I'd like to motion to move the bottom line back in.

▶ 31:00 Jeff McNaught: We have a motion to move the bottom line made by counselor really? Seconded by cancer. On discussion, and that is on department 542.

▶ 31:11 Speaker 2: Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

▶ 31:14 Speaker 4: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis?

▶ 31:28 Speaker 5: Yes.

▶ 31:28 Speaker 4: Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas?

▶ 31:36 Speaker 3: Yes.

▶ 31:37 Speaker 4: Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes.

▶ 31:42 Speaker 2: 9, yes, just well, thank you for the work that you and the commission does and for being with us.

▶ 31:52 Jeff McNaught: Thank you for having me. Okay. Next we have the public library department. 611. I believe.

▶ 32:00 Speaker 2: This gardeners director gardener.

▶ 32:13 Speaker 5: Good evening director.

▶ 32:18 Speaker 7: Let me start my video. I am Linda Gardiner. I'm the director of the Melrose Public Library.

▶ 32:30 Speaker 8: Thank you for having me here this evening. We have the mission of our library is that our staff building and collections provide a portal for all to explore, imagine, and engage. The library is where literacy, local history, and community connect. And we did a lot of thinking in the past year about. The ways that we were, and we're not able to actually use our building and the ways. That we were able to rethink things to really think about our role as a community connector and what we could do. In these circumstances, it has been a challenging and rewarding year at the library. We held our 1st, virtual staff meeting 1 week after the shut down and our 1st virtual children's program was 3 days after that. Since then, we have offered virtual programming for all ages throughout the year. Our adult book groups have continued throughout the pandemic and our children's programming has been incredibly popular. Our new team librarian jumped right into the virtual programming world as well. Between March 2020 and March 2021, the library hosted 276 virtual programs with 2,551 live attendees and over 69,000 views of children's programs on Facebook and YouTube. In order to continue serving our patrons, we took our most important priorities, literacy and community, and we adapted. The demand for books and services has never slowed. everyone was at home and everyone needed an escape. Being able to visit other worlds and times through fiction can be just as important as learning new facts without non-fiction, especially in times of stress. Not only is the library an important educational and cultural hub, we're also a community center. And although we couldn't have patrons in the building in

▶ 34:53 Speaker 8: person for a long time i think we did a really great job in meeting that need as best as we could given the circumstances it's really you've heard from the council on aging tonight as well it is my hope that this pandemic has caused folks to recognize that our community services really are essential and strong libraries with dedicated staff are vital to moving us all forward we are are very proud of how busy our front door pickup service has been since last July. As of this afternoon, I took a quick count before I left, we have packaged 21,176 bags of library items for patrons to pick up at our front door. Our local history librarian has been fulfilling research requests throughout as well as moving forward with a large time intensive project to inventory and scan contents of the local history room in the midst of pandemic changes we have also had several staff changes with one brand new staff member and other staff members who have moved into new positions so the team spirit which has always been a strength of this staff has been in abundant supply as everybody helped each other learn while continuing to provide our services from programs to answering the phones checking out items packing bags um updating the website and phone messages to purchasing new material for people to actually have once we were back in the building and then sorting out who would do which of all the tasks at any given moment every aspect of what the staff have done have been essential to getting us smoothly through each week and while not technically part of the library staff i have to say our dpw custodian has been an integral part of our success in the past year working to find solutions with us each step of the way he has been dedicated and committed and he is appreciated by all of us and i am just immensely proud of our entire team for their efforts in this past year I also want to send a thank you really to the entire community because those over 21,000 bags that I mentioned for a pickup service have been 100% donated by the Melrose community. From the first day when we had many bags donated by Shaw's, moving forward we never ever had to purchase a bag or look around because the community just kept dropping them off for us. So that was just sort of a really amazing and practical show of support. Our fiscal 22 budget is very stable. There's a few items that I would like to note.

▶ 38:01 Speaker 8: I have slightly reduced the mileage line item. Obviously we did not do a lot of traveling to meetings in this past year and the virtual meetings in some cases

▶ 38:16 Speaker 8: really showed that in the library circle where our scheduling can be so busy it It was easier for some staff to be able to hop on a virtual meeting. And not have that travel time of getting back to a service desk. So, while we will be doing some traveling to meetings again, I think I think that's going to shift a bit to continuing some virtual meetings. The line 5 to 5104, the noble line item has a slight decrease. noble is the consortium that we are a part of and i'm a member of the executive board our membership pays for a vast array of services and resources including on-site and remote training and consulting software development and support and shared library resources the annual membership assessment represents a fraction of what we would pay to provide equivalent services on our own and noble voted this past year to maintain their fee at the fiscal 2020 level in order to assist libraries during the pandemic i have a line that has an increase that's

▶ 39:25 Speaker 8: electronic databases which has a 1600 increase that represents a subscription to science flicks which is an online resource by scholastic that is geared towards students from grades four through grades nine clearly from the title it it gives science resources in an engaging way and we initially subscribed to this through a sciences everywhere grant a few years ago and we're looking forward to being able to continue to introduce new students to that resource i think those are the key elements of the library budget i do want to thank you for your time in In this process, and say that I appreciate the work that you do right along with the rest of us, you had to change the way that you function in order to keep the city. Running effectively throughout the year and I know. With all of my colleagues, we just really appreciate that. We probably don't say often enough that we appreciate the work that you do, but it is it is noted. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

▶ 40:41 Jeff McNaught: To the best of my ability, thank you miss Gardiner for that overview. Um, I have in queue counselors, Thomas and Stuart. Have I missed anyone? I don't think so.

▶ 40:53 Cory Thomas: Thank you Mr. chairman director Gardiner. Welcome. You touch base on the electronic databases that I was going to. Ask you about, so I appreciate that. Thank you for being so informed and so open and candid. Thank you for all you do thank you for the public for all the employees at the library do all the hard work that they've done over the past year. The library is such a huge source of civic pride. Many people. I have many friends in the noble network. In the Melrose public libraries, you know, an envy of many other communities in the mobile area. So, um, thanks again and.

▶ 41:36 Jeff McNaught: Have a good summer. Thank you. Counselor Thomas counselor Stewart. I do think it appears Ms. Gardiner is having some technical difficulty.

▶ 41:48 Speaker 2: Are you back? I think you might be on mute, Ms. Gardiner.

▶ 41:51 Speaker 5: Can you hear me?

▶ 41:55 Speaker 4: There we go.

▶ 41:56 Speaker 5: Just need to actually speak.

▶ 41:58 Jeff McNaught: Okay. Thank you, Councillor Thomas. Now, we're on to Councillor Stewart and I have Councillor Garipay next.

▶ 42:04 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Director Gardiner, for being here tonight. I want to thank you and appreciate you providing hard factual numbers of what you did in in during the pandemic. I think there might have been a little bit of a misnomer that the library wasn't doing anything. Which exactly which I'm glad you are able to expose to the public. The fact that you ran 276 programs that touched. Ultimately 69 over 70,000 people. So I think that's fantastic. And regarding the, the bags, I should thank you because we had about 150 of the. The whole foods bag piles up in our basement and we didn't know what to do with them until my wife found out that we could drop them off. So we were appreciative as well that we can get rid of those bags and put them to use. So, with that, I was going to move this to the bottom line, but I do want to defer for Council Garipay. So, with that, thank you, Director Gardiner and thank you, Mr. Chair.

▶ 43:13 Speaker 2: Thank you, Councilor Garipay.

▶ 43:16 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gardiner, for being here. I have one question. During the past year, you had to change your total operation once the library started. Were there any New processes or programs or services that you, uh, that you created over the last year that were a success that you will implement.

▶ 43:39 Speaker 8: When the library opens full time, absolutely. It's something that we have been talking about almost from day 1, how, um. It was a lot of work to figure out how to do what we did, but we are going to be taking this knowledge forward. Uh, 1 of the things we noticed immediately with the virtual programming, for example, is that it really.

▶ 44:02 Speaker 8: Helped us solve a lot of equity and accessibility issues in terms of having programs that are recorded. So people can watch them at their convenience. um not having some of the space limitations that we have in a physical space i think the physical programming is incredibly important and we know that people want that back and we will be having that as well but i think we need to um to also figure out how to incorporate some of that virtual advantage as we move forward as well um i know we have at least one adult book group who has actually requested that we continue the zoom format because they just found that a little bit easier for them and i think some of the um some of the front door pickup that's a whole different business model essentially so we really can't we don't have the bandwidth to completely do both at once um but we've been thinking about ways that for people who really need that that we can be including that um to some degree as part of our service thank you thank you for all you've done

▶ 45:24 Speaker 2: in the last year to you and your staff thank you thank you councillor Garipay um i'll throw it back to councillor stewart to make the motion that he was making before thank you counselor uh chair and

▶ 45:33 Robb Stewart: i'd like to uh make a motion to move uh line number 611 to the bottom line second

▶ 45:45 Jeff McNaught: The motion made by counter steward to move 6, 11, public library. To move the bottom line, seconded by councilor greatest. On discussion none, Madam clerk, we please call the role.

▶ 46:00 Speaker 4: Chairman not yes. Yes. Vice chair Eccles. Yes, yes, counselor. McMaster. Yes, counselor. Yeah. yeah councilor Grigoraitis yes yeah council of Migliorelli yeah yeah councillor stewart yes yes councillor thomas yes councillor maladin yes nine yes the motion passes

▶ 46:27 Jeff McNaught: miss garner thank you for what you and your team do every day and thank you for being here this

▶ 46:39 Jeff McNaught: evening thank you very much okay and next we have the the bb estate which is department 540 and i believe um mr butler cannot be with us this evening what i what i would say is i've noticed uh to pres to present on behalf of the bb estate what i would say is the from what i can tell the The budget is being flat funded, it's at $7,900, and I would be comfortable voting on this.

▶ 47:17 Jeff McNaught: But certainly, you know, would like to kind of put that to the group to see, I'm comfortable putting it to a vote, what we're going to do with that budget of $7,900. We voted it last year, it's flat funded this year. Unless anyone which I don't see is objecting to that right now, I'm comfortable just putting that to a vote. Councilor Stewart, did you have something?

▶ 47:43 Speaker 3: I was just going to offer to move 9 out of 540 to the bottom on the motion.

▶ 47:51 Speaker 5: Second.

▶ 47:53 Jeff McNaught: Okay. We have a motion made by Councilor Stewart to move Department 540, the BBSD, move the bottom line, seconded by Councilor Migliorelli on discussion. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

▶ 48:07 Speaker 4: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councillor Migliorelli? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine? Yes.

▶ 48:35 Jeff McNaught: That motion passes. We also have the revolving account with the BV, which is number 2750. I'll entertain a motion to move the bottom line on that. Councillor Stewart?

▶ 48:51 Robb Stewart: Thank you Mr. Chair. Yes, I will make a motion to move Department 2021 to Council Department.

▶ 49:00 Speaker 2: Thank you Councilor Stewart, that's a motion made by Councilor Stewart to move the revolving fund of the BBS data. Do we have a second? Second.

▶ 49:19 Jeff McNaught: Seconded by Councilor Migliorelli on discussions.

▶ 49:27 Speaker 4: Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councillor McMaster? Yes. Councillor Garipay? Yes. Councillor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councillor Migliorelli? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. Yes, yeah, 9. yes.

▶ 49:54 Jeff McNaught: Okay, the motion passes, so. That almost concludes our business, but we have to hold. 2 orders in committee tonight as we've done in nights past. 1st is order 2021. Dash 122, the, the operating budget.

▶ 50:16 Mark Garipay: Do we have a motion to hold that in committee make a motion to hold for 2021? 122 operating budget.