Orders

Transcript (~43 min @ 24:49)

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

▶ 24:44 Speaker 1: Councilor Stewart? I'm sorry, Councilor Thomas? Might be faded. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Counselor, President Sinella? Yes.

▶ 24:52 Speaker 3: Yes.

▶ 24:53 Speaker 1: That's 10 yes.

▶ 24:55 Jeff McNaught: The motion passes and we can hold that order after we get through all of our budgets. Okay, good. Director Clay, thanks so much for being with us. We wish you the best in all of your future endeavors.

▶ 25:15 Jeff McNaught: Next, we have the Human Rights Commission, Department 544, and I believe we're bringing Mr. Stankovich into the room here now.

▶ 25:35 Jeff McNaught: Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Mr. Stankovich. Thank you for being with us.

▶ 25:48 Speaker 3: Yes, please call me Mike. I'll do. The floor is yours, Mike. Great. Thank you. So, yeah, we're here to request our annual budget remain the same with $3,000. In the past year with the pandemic, we modified our usual programming. We had a Martin Luther King event held online, and we had well over 100 attendees. We've had someone come in and give a part of our speaker series speech on traumatic events geared around COVID and the holidays. We have a big pride event coming up in June. And so, you know, we're hoping to get back to more in-person events or Pride event this year will be a hybrid, we'll do some in-person events at the Beebe Estate, and I believe at the middle school parking lot. And then we will also do some online programming as well. And so, you know, I don't need to tell everyone here, but I mean, I think that the mission of the Human Rights Commission is more important than ever. I feel like, you know, the issues that we're dealing with on a continual basis continue to come up nationally. And I think it's important that we don't remain silent and we speak out. So that way people know that Melrose is a place that is welcoming to everyone and wants to increase this diversity. So with that, I'll keep this brief and just ask for our annual budget to remain the same of $3,000.

▶ 27:14 Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. Stankovich. Mike, sorry. Councilor Gervaladine.

▶ 27:26 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, Chair. I just want to tell Mike how much we miss the Human Rights Commission. I'm sure my fellow councillors who were former commissioners share the same sentiment. Human Rights Commission has been a dear and close and dear commission and a very um good start for us to get more involved in this community and give that uh we definitely know how much is important these moments um to get approved for this budget and we know that we went through that before um and um you guys give way more than what the budget is so i definitely feel um the the budget that is allocated for you is um way less than what you guys do and way less than what we needed and um rose but we appreciate your work um and i would like to move uh and make a motion to move it to bottom line second

▶ 28:40 Speaker 2: we have a motion to move the bottom line on

▶ 28:44 Jeff McNaught: on Department 544, the Human Rights Commission, made by Councilor Jamaleddine, seconded by Councilor Migliorelli on discussion.

▶ 28:57 Speaker 2: Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

▶ 29:00 Speaker 1: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster?

▶ 29:10 Speaker 3: Yes.

▶ 29:11 Speaker 1: Councilor Garipay?

▶ 29:13 Speaker 3: Yes.

▶ 29:14 Speaker 1: Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Yes. Councilor Domenico. Yes. President Cinella. Yes. 10 yes.

▶ 29:33 Jeff McNaught: Motion passes. Mike, thank you for being with us. Thank you for what you and the Human Rights Commission do all year. I'll say that on behalf of all the alumni here in the city council we're we're stocked we're chuckled thank you um next we have the city

▶ 29:59 Speaker 2: solicitor i believe mr van campen can you hear us mr van campen i can hear you can you hear me

▶ 30:26 Speaker 6: yes i can hear and see you perfect thank you mr shaman for um having me can you hear me Yes. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for having me. Members of the committee, I'm here before you this evening to present the FY22 budget for the legal department and can report that other than the salaries line, there are relatively no changes to any line items in the department. I'm here this evening, Mr. Chairman, simply to answer your questions

▶ 31:01 Jeff McNaught: and that's why you're having entertainment this time thank you mr city solicitor do any countries have any questions for mr van campen council mcmaster thank you mr chair i actually

▶ 31:14 Shawn M. MacMaster: don't have a question for mr van campen but uh as um all of you know this is his last time uh appearing before us i think today is his last day with the city so i just wanted to thank you mr van campen and um acknowledge your years of service with melrose you're really a true asset a real public servant. It's been an honor and a privilege working with you. I will miss working with you personally. You've always been highly responsive and a real class act and I wish you the best and

▶ 31:51 Jeff McNaught: your family the best in the future. Thank you, Councillor. Mr. Van Kampen, I'd like to echo what Councillor McMaster said and also say that you and I met in the legal community before I became a city councillor and I can say there are a few attorneys out there, like yourself, that are an absolute pleasure to work with. And, you know, let's not say all attorneys are bad. This isn't a lawyer joke, but it's pretty rare when you have opposing counsel that you would rather not refer to as an opponent because you're excellent to deal with and you're an honorable opponent. As Council McMaster said, a huge asset to the city of Melrose and you will be missed. Thank you.

▶ 32:36 Speaker 6: Thank you. I should say, for the record, I would have invited my wife to watch this meeting tonight so she could hear all these accolades. Appreciate that. Thank you.

▶ 32:49 Jeff McNaught: Seeing no other hands raised, what is the will of the committee on Department 151, the city solicitor?

▶ 32:59 Speaker 3: motion to move the bottom line motion to move the bottom line made by council

▶ 33:02 Jeff McNaught: Migliorelli seconded by councillor Garipay madam clerk we please call the

▶ 33:12 Speaker 1: roll chair McNaught yes vice chair Eccles yes councillor Trey Montozzi yes councillor McMaster yes councillor Garipay yes councillor

▶ 33:24 Speaker 1: Vigoritis. Yes. Councilor Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Councilor

▶ 33:45 Speaker 1: Jamaleddine. Yes. President Cinella. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Ken Yess. I apologize

▶ 33:53 Speaker 2: I'm having some technical difficulties. That's okay Councilor Thomas. It's a

▶ 34:01 Jeff McNaught: pleasure as always counselor Thomas Thank You mr. van Kampen and so long for

▶ 34:05 Speaker 6: now thank you mr. chairman just so the committee knows I'm also here for the

▶ 34:11 Jeff McNaught: Liquor Commission order as well okay all right so next up we have department 165

▶ 34:19 Speaker 6: the Liquor Commission Thank You mr. chairman the Liquor Commission is basically being level funded from the prior fiscal year just by way of explanation. The two line items that comprise this budget, one dealing with professional services, those are things like mailings, any required notifications, any documentation that has to be generated. COVID-19 resulted in a relatively quiet year in that regard. Compliance checks are funded through the Liquor Commission. They're conducted by the Melrose Health Department and as you can see from the history here there have been no expenses from this line item but it is held simply for the purpose of ensuring that we do those compliance checks on a on an ongoing basis so I request favorable action on this budget

▶ 35:12 Jeff McNaught: mr. chairman thank you mr. van Campen it do any councils have any questions on department 165 the liquor Commission Seeing no hands raised, what's the will of the committee? Motion to move the

▶ 35:30 Jeff McNaught: bottom line. Second. We have a motion to move the bottom line, made by Vice Chair Eccles, seconded by Councilor Garipay. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Chair

▶ 35:41 Speaker 1: McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor

▶ 35:51 Speaker 1: McMaster? Yes. Councillor Garipay? Yes. Councillor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. Councillor Migliorelli? Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine? Yes. President

▶ 36:09 Speaker 6: Sinella? Yes. Mr. Chairman could I just offer just from from myself to the members of the city council my own heartfelt thanks for working so collaboratively during your time in office i'm basically the old man in the crowd these days but you know over the last two years this city council has really done a tremendous job and and doing it during you know a 100-year pandemic i stand in awe of the city council and i do want to thank all of you for the service i know how difficult your job is on a day-to-day basis and you're called on to make some decisions some are popular and some are unpopular so i commend you all for the work you do i wish you all nothing but the best in the years ahead and uh i suspect our paths will cross

▶ 37:02 Jeff McNaught: at some point thank you mr chairman thank you so much next we we have the human resources department 152. i believe we have miss lata coming into the room can you hear us miss lata i can i am joining

▶ 37:41 Speaker 5: right now good evening good evening can you hear me we can hear you and see you on the floor is

▶ 37:52 Speaker 7: yours great thank you uh my name is paulina lata i'm the hr director for the city of melrose and i'm here to present uh four budgets the human resources department workers compensation unemployment compensation, and benefits or health contractual budget. You have the HR responsibilities outlined in the document that I shared with you earlier. We have two staff members, I and the HR coordinator, Diane Barrett. Over the past four months, Marian Long has been assisting on very part-time basis and i wanted to acknowledge her huge help because without her it would have been very challenging to recruit and hire the speed that we have been doing it

▶ 38:42 Speaker 7: and in addition i just wanted to acknowledge uh some of my co-workers who support me on daily basis the legal department being one of them kelly cogovan the executive legal assistant and she she She assists with processing injured claims, unemployment, processing cars for new hires. Rob Van Kampen, who guides and advises us in so many areas, and his departure will be greatly, greatly missed. It's been an honor to work with him. And the finance office that consists of so many talented employees, Jill Irving, Katie Canwell, Kerry Golden, the assistant auditor who has been instrumental with the budget presentation, Donna Cardillo, and of course, Patrick De La Russo. And finally, I just wanted to recognize you and working with you has been really great. I want to thank you for approving the funding for the much needed company class study as well as the funding for the needs assessment audit. And I'd like to extend to tonight again, your support to pass my budget and to pass the funding for the audit implementation. This is just the beginning of the road. And we need your support in the funding in order to. accomplish much needed change in the areas of anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion for the City of Melrose. So this is just my little intro, and I can start going over my budgets.

▶ 40:25 Speaker 7: We don't have too many changes, too many increases in the HR budget, the human resources salary the advertising line item has increased and the reason for the increase is in order to diversify recruiting efforts so therefore again we need funding to recruit widely use different avenues also the salaries line item has increased I have requested for an HR funding for an HR assistant for fiscal year 22 the hr assistant's role will help free much of my time to focus on the important di initiatives and other priorities as this person would take on some of them

▶ 41:24 Speaker 7: recruiting assisting with recruiting clerical responsibilities managing leaves accruals as well as workers' compensation management. I'm doing all of this currently. As I transitioned into the role, I still have these responsibilities. So having an HR assistant will really free my time to focus on and drive all these other important priorities.

▶ 41:53 Speaker 7: And under the HR budget, the other line item is the flexible spending account. We have increased it by a thousand dollars and that's due to um enrollment higher enrollment in flexible spending

▶ 42:12 Speaker 7: account um i think that's with my human resources department budget i guess i'll continue on and if

▶ 42:25 Speaker 7: anybody has questions um my next budget is the workers compensation budget it has been in level funded, except for the expenses line item, which has increased by $10,000. We have hired an outside counsel to assist on as needed basis with some litigation cases and some more complex workers comp cases. And that's just part of the, I guess, doing business, the cost of doing business. Otherwise with workers compensation, with level funding, We currently have 3 long term recipients of workers compensation.

▶ 43:11 Speaker 7: Benefits, I will continue to my unemployment budget. The unemployment budget has been level funded as well.

▶ 43:23 Speaker 5: We have had quite a year with unemployment, um, 6. We have had quite a year with unemployment, um,

▶ 43:31 Speaker 7: Lots of fraudulent cases were coming along, but we have been able to respond swiftly and research and resolve them as they come. So I have to actually recognize Kelly Corgovan for these efforts. She has been great with emailing employees, contacting the Department of Unemployment, fraudulent unit our third party administrator and then the next step on my end as i see any any type of cases on our bill fraudulent cases i dispute them right away um as well as well as

▶ 44:17 Speaker 7: donna cohen who is the school a benefits administrator who disputes the school

▶ 44:27 Speaker 7: unemployment cases so um i think that's for the unemployment budget we're level funding for now Now, we are, we're getting a lot of credit for unemployment cases that have been fraudulent cases that have been resolved by the, uh, so that's, that's a good sign.

▶ 44:47 Speaker 7: And I think that's, that's all I have to say for the unemployment, but if you have any questions, you can ask me after.

▶ 44:54 Speaker 2: Thank you. Oh, sorry, I have 1 more. Sorry, I didn't write it through at that bottom 1 yet. Go ahead. I apologize. Yeah.

▶ 45:05 Speaker 7: And lastly, the health insurance budget, so the health insurance budget. There's an increase of approximately 715,000. The average increase on the plans for health insurance plans for fiscal year 22. Was anywhere between 3% to 12% ranging. So the average increase was 5%. And actually, that's what. How it's translated for the city of Melrose as well of 5% based on the current enrollment and the type of planes are employees enrolling in. The criteria that we used projecting fiscal year 22 budget was using the actual April enrollment. And using fiscal year 22 rates.

▶ 46:02 Speaker 7: We also took into consideration some of the, the vacancies that we have retirements and some added positions. And we took, we assume the average cost of a family plan for all of these. Open positions and vacancies is kind of like the worst case scenario. If we have new employee, we're assuming they're the average cost for family plan.

▶ 46:33 Speaker 7: In order to predict the fiscal year 22 budget.

▶ 46:43 Speaker 7: I think, I think that's, that's all and I'll just open the floor for any questions that you may have for me.

▶ 46:49 Speaker 2: Thank you director. We do have Council McMaster has his hand raised. Do you have anyone else?

▶ 46:58 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this time, I'd make a motion to conjoin departments 152, human resources, 912, workers compensation, 913, unemployment, and 914, health contractual.

▶ 47:15 Speaker 2: Second.

▶ 47:18 Jeff McNaught: Okay, so we have a motion by Council McMaster to conjoin Departments 152, 912, 913, and 914 all falling under Human Resources, seconded by Councilor Garipay.

▶ 47:39 Speaker 2: On discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

▶ 47:44 Speaker 1: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes, yeah. Yes. Counselor McMaster yes. Consulate yes. Council of Grigoraitis yes. Council, Emily really? Yes. Counselor Thomas yes.

▶ 48:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Yes.

▶ 48:16 Jeff McNaught: And yes, the motion to conjoin all line items. under human resources passes. Councilor Migliorelli, you had your hand raised as well.

▶ 48:24 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Ms. Latza, for being here tonight. Just have a couple of clarifying questions about your budget. You mentioned that it's a new position, the HR assistant is a new position, but the salary doesn't look like it's increasing of like an entire position. Can you just clarify that for the public?

▶ 48:44 Speaker 7: Yes, I can clarify. So it's a new position, and it will be paid 50% through the health insurance budget and 50% for salaries, which is the way that the HR coordinator's salary is broken down. There isn't too much of an increase because Marianne Long retired, so her salary was much higher.

▶ 49:11 Speaker 7: And then I changed positions. My salary in my previous role was higher. So, um, that was kind of the reason for the absorption.

▶ 49:22 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you. Um, I will probably motion to add this email to the record at some point, but just wanted to reference the email that you sent earlier to the council. Um, and it just touching upon this free cash item. So. The, you know, the plan that I think the council had been aware of was that this 100,000 dollars was going to help implement the work of the consultant that has been has been hired and work is underway. I'm wondering if you could just fill in the council a little bit about the progress on that.

▶ 49:54 Speaker 7: Yes, absolutely. So, the work with Visions, which is the firm that we have hired to conduct this audit, started a little bit late due to the Chief of Staff's departure, and he was leading the efforts. Well, since then, Brianna Garcia in the Mayor's Office, she's the Administrative and Communications Coordinator in the Mayor's Office, has taken the lead on the coordination's efforts. So the work started technically sometime in April, and since then, a working group of six people was compiled, and these people have expertise in different areas.

▶ 50:38 Speaker 7: Brianna Garcia is the Communications Administrative Coordinator, Emma Schnoor, she represents the Office of Planning and Community Development, Dr. Margaret Adams, who is the Assistant Superintendent, Manjula Karamchetti, who is a TI Professional, Emmanuel Andrade, Architect and Urban Planner, who has expertise in promoting equity in the architectural field, and Caitlin Beattie, an attorney with much civil works, civil rights work and social justice reform expertise. So they all have been working very closely with Visions. They've had three or four meetings, I believe three meetings so far. They're completing the planning and the assessment portion of the study. They are finalizing, or they have actually almost finalized the focus groups, which will collect qualitative data. They have, during the process, again, almost finalized the survey questions to obtain the quantitative data. And within the next week or so, they will test the functionality of the survey. and this survey will be sent out widely to City of Melrose residents, City of Melrose employees, parents of Melrose students. Following the survey, Visions will hold individual interviews with Melrose leadership and with the focus groups and that will happen, that's set to happen sometime towards the end of June. Of course, with the data obtained after the study, the data will be Analyzed and presented to the larger community. Uh, with a report in a report with recommendations, and that's scheduled to happen something before the end of the summer. Um, HR has not been involved in the initial stages. Uh, but we'll certainly be involved in the implementation stages. Um, and the interview, of course, stages of the. Of that process, and that that is why I'm here to ask that. The city council approves the funding of 100,000 from free cash because although yes, we do have the audit under the underway. That's only the very beginning. We need to implement if you want to make a difference if you want to commit to anti racism and then inequity in a stronger community, building a stronger community, we have to commit to the funding. And that's why I'm here to ask for that funding tonight.

▶ 53:27 Speaker 5: That's thank you. Yeah.

▶ 53:30 Leila Migliorelli: Yeah, thank you. And I realized I kind of jumped ahead in the agenda on skipping to a question regarding the free cash order. So my apologies for going out of order, but just to tie it back to the budget. And this may also link to the free cash request potentially. So, if. will there be um are you is the hr department responsible for um professional development regarding like di training is that something that would come out of your department or just each department is that um you know more uh just siloed within each department how or is that something you how is it now and how do you see it going in the future so um right now what i have

▶ 54:10 Speaker 7: done over the past few months. We don't have funding for professional development or training but I have been able to find resources that were free and we have started a training calendar for managers and I have created this calendar for the months to come and diversity and equity training is part of this training calendar so i am the one who's coordinating it again we just started on a department head level um but this would fall i can imagine on the in the hr department um the results of the dei um recommend audit recommendations um i'm sure will point to

▶ 55:01 Speaker 7: to some train that has to be done because it is important. So that will fall on the HR department, the funding, yeah.

▶ 55:13 Leila Migliorelli: All right, thank you, Ms. Latta. That's all for my questions right now.

▶ 55:18 Speaker 2: Thank you, Councilor McGillivray. Councilor Karamcheti.

▶ 55:24 Mark Garipay: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Latta for being here. I have one more probably informational question regarding the health benefits. The health benefits that includes the school department, correct? Yes, okay, so on the school department benefits, the city absorbs all the health benefits of the school side of the salaries in their budget. Correct, so any additional. Employees that are hiding each year. The city continues to absorb those benefits. So. Okay, I think I think that's good to get out there for the, for the public to see when you see the number of 13Million, it doesn't just include the city side. It is also the school, the school department side that the, that the city budget is paying for the health benefits. So, I think that's just more of an informational. I think when you look at the 13Million, I think that's a, that's a number that, um. Jumps out at you, so you, uh, I think I think it should be out there just so everyone sees that.

▶ 56:27 Speaker 7: Thank you. No, that's a very good clarification because the, this number includes any current vacancies for the school school and city retirements for the school and city and additional positions for school and city.

▶ 56:47 Jeff McNaught: Thank you next. I have council greatest and culture and following. Am I missing anyone else?

▶ 56:56 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you Chairman McNaught. Thank you Ms. Lata for being here tonight. I just have a couple quick questions and Councillor Garrapace that gave me a very nice setup. Mine is related to schools. I know that one of the asks on the school side that went unfunded in their budget process this year was some HR support. They obviously have also had really significant HR needs this year due to COVID. I know all of that falls on your department. Do you anticipate that this additional FTE will enable you to help meet some of those unmet needs on the school side of HR?

▶ 57:32 Speaker 7: The additional FTE that's simply on the on the city side, there's, yeah. That is on the city side. I mean, we we are available for uh this for the school uh benefits administration to whenever they need us but no this position is strictly for the city uh city employees in hr assistance for the for the city not the school okay so it will not be helping to

▶ 58:10 Jen Grigoraitis: fill that need on the school side no okay um and then another question i see that you um increase the budget for advertising as you mentioned to increase where we're putting out job applications i know you've had a very busy year of hiring i would assume probably a typically high um i know we said goodbye to two of your colleagues earlier tonight um are you seeing a benefit in increasing the diversity of applicants thus far for all of the positions that we've been posting given some of the new methods you put in place i uh yes i actually i

▶ 58:40 Speaker 7: am seeing applicants of different backgrounds, diverse backgrounds applying, which is, I think, thanks to the various sources that we are using, more targeted sources. So yes, I'm definitely

▶ 59:02 Jen Grigoraitis: seeing a difference. So you're starting to collect data so we have an understanding of how many candidates of color, how many veterans, how many persons with disabilities are, you know to sort of measure the effectiveness of our change and how

▶ 59:18 Speaker 7: we're seeking candidates well I have to say it's a little bit hard to collect data because often we would just have a name and so I don't always know but when we go for the interview then we know okay well this person is a person of color otherwise it's sometimes difficult to tell who is applying and we I don't have in my department right now the capacity to collect data with the number of openings we have

▶ 59:53 Speaker 7: and the number of you know people that are coming through the door applying for position i'll give you a simple example that we posted a labor's position we had over a hundred resumes and that's just one position that i had to review so uh we don't have currently the capacity to collect data

▶ 1:00:22 Speaker 2: okay thank you i have no other question thank you councillor Grigoraitis councillor chabality

▶ 1:00:26 Maya Jamaleddine: thank you thank you uh for being uh with us today um miss clara and i do um actually i did have two questions but i wanted to continue um the question that um my fellow counselor um started um so you said that you started seeing some changes in the applicants so based on what

▶ 1:00:59 Speaker 7: you felt that there is changes and progress uh based on where they're um you know where they're applying from so depending on the channels that we are using Um, sometimes we have been using a lot of LinkedIn and, um. There are diverse applicants because they, you know, you can see pictures and they can, uh, they can often add it in their resumes. Um, but I don't know, I can't tell you the number of diverse applicants we have had.

▶ 1:01:30 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay, so so so your answer is based on. Um, on the number of applicants, or on the pictures.

▶ 1:01:44 Speaker 7: That we've seen what I'm trying to say is that, let's say, with LinkedIn, you know, have been on LinkedIn, you would often see. Applicants come through and they will have their pictures. They can tell. Okay. So diverse applicant. Then we would interview applicants and we'll find out that they're diverse applicants that we may not necessarily. We, I have been trying to. It's very difficult right now, blind resumes and where blind resume review where we are covering the name. And the, um, the name address contact information. So that when we interview via Zoom or Webex, we're not always, we don't always know who's going to be on the other side. We don't know they're diverse until we see them. So I can tell that we have more diverse applicants. We may have even more, but it's hard to capture.

▶ 1:02:45 Maya Jamaleddine: I understand. My next question was, so during when Mrs. Long was, you know, um you know still um the director how many positions did we have in hr two so it was you

▶ 1:03:05 Maya Jamaleddine: and mrs long yes and um and it was was it the same amount of work you want workload or was it

▶ 1:03:17 Speaker 7: different well uh workload changes with the times and especially over the past several years our workload has increased due to federal and state requirements, reporting requirements, due to the number of employees we are hiring, the number of retirees we have. Retirees leave longer. Our workload has been really not sustainable prior to the pandemic. We have requested for traditional staff several times but um at the time it wasn't a priority since the pandemic the workload has increased even further so if you think of the you know trying to prepare the city for all the operational challenges that the pandemic brought to trying to interpret state federal laws employees on them and then focusing on the diversity recruitment focusing on performance management that was a focus for the mayor and me as an hr director so our and now with a tremendous change in departments retirements and resignations and overall changes in departments our workload has significantly increased. So it wasn't really sustainable prior to the pandemic, but since the pandemic, it has gotten worse. And in order to be able to provide the best services to the city, we need another person.

▶ 1:05:03 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay, thank you for clarifying. So my, from my understanding, the reason why we created your, you know, you're proposing to create this new Um, position is actually because the load work has increased. And, um, that would explain. The new position that you would like to add.

▶ 1:05:26 Speaker 8: Yes, okay. Okay. Thank you.

▶ 1:05:34 Shawn M. MacMaster: Yes, a motion to move the bottom line is conjoined Mr. Chairman.

▶ 1:05:41 Jeff McNaught: The motion to move the bottom line. Of. Human Resources lines 152, 912, 913, and 914 that were already previously conjoined, made by Councilor McMaster, seconded by Councilor Garipay. On discussion, I see Councilor Grigoraitis has her hand raised.

▶ 1:06:05 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Chairman McNaught, and I'm happy to move the bottom line. I just, given the way this conversation has gone, just want to say that I really hope, Ms. Lata, I know you're managing a very heavy load and are understaffed, but I really think we've got to move toward a situation where we're collecting data and asking people to self identify. I think there's so many forms of diversity that are not readily apparent from a photograph and I really want, you know, I know we're all in this shared mission of wanting to see our city be inclusive. And I think that there's definitely room for growth for all of us and how we do that. So, I look forward to hearing how this increase in funding on the advertising line, hopefully helps us develop more robust data to see how it's actually impacting who we hire.

▶ 1:06:54 Speaker 2: So, thank you. Claire, can you please call the roll?

▶ 1:06:57 Speaker 1: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes.

▶ 1:07:12 Speaker 1: Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine?

▶ 1:07:25 Speaker 8: Yes.

▶ 1:07:27 Speaker 1: President Sinella? Yes. Yes.

▶ 1:07:31 Jeff McNaught: The motion passed. Ms. Lanta, if you would like to hang with us for a couple of quick minutes here, we're just going to hold a couple of other orders that we have to do procedurally, and then we'll be moving on to the two orders that fall into your department. Welcome to stay or hop out and come back, but it should be really quick. At this time, I will entertain a motion to hold 2021-122 in committee. That's the city's budget.