ORDER-2021-74 : A transfer in the amount of $37,600 from Medicare Part B (019142-549217) to various Human Resource Accounts.

Transcript (~10 min @ 36:10)

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

▶ 36:01 Jeff McNaught: Thank you all for being with us this evening. Just a point of order, Mr. Chair. Did we read the order and which orders into the record? I'm going to do that right now, Councilor Josie thank you very much first before us is a and I and I do realize thank you council chairman Josie that we have maybe have someone in the room a moment too early but that's okay we love having our friends from the administration with us order 2021-74 transfer in the amount of thirty seven thousand six hundred from Medicare Part B 019142-549217 to various human resource accounts and we may need everyone from the administration on this so but thank you for the reminder Council Chairman Tosi and that being said we will listen to whomever from the administration is going to speak first and everyone is on

▶ 37:15 Speaker 2: you good evening everybody i'll be the one speaking to this order the human resources department is looking to transfer 47 600 from the medicaid part b light item to various human resources account accounts um the reason for this is um the salaries and wages and health contractual salaries and wages account. Our human resources director Marian Long retired, so there was a certain payout associated with her retirement. We hired a new human resources coordinator to replace my role, and Marian Long is also going to assist temporarily in an 18-hour

▶ 38:16 Speaker 2: position uh for the next uh few months uh additionally we are requesting funds uh part of this 37 thousand thousand six hundred we're requesting three thousand dollars to be transferred to our advertising budget and the reason for that is we have been um recruiting and we've hired 10 new staff since the beginning of the fiscal year in an effort to advertise broadly and for diverse staff we have used several recruiting sources for each position and therefore we have exhausted our advertising budget much earlier than we anticipated we also have some pending positions that we'll be hiring for and recruiting for more than one, using more than one recruiting sources. So therefore we're looking for this transfer of $3,000 to get us to the end of the fiscal year.

▶ 39:22 Jeff McNaught: Councilor Grigoraitis.

▶ 39:26 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Chairman McNaught. Thank you, Ms. Lata and everyone else for being here tonight. I'm not sure my question might be more appropriate for Mr. DellaRusso, but just if someone could talk through why this account we're looking to do the transfers from. There's not a lot of information in the memo.

▶ 39:45 Speaker 2: I can talk to that. So the reason we're transferring the money from the Medicare Part D account and the reason we have extra in this account is the City of Melrose reimburses our retirees and their spouses 70% of their standard Medicare Part D costs at the end of the calendar year. Every retiree has a different Medicare Part B standard premium and we don't know what this amount is until we receive the proof at the end of the year. So when we budget in the beginning of the fiscal year, we are using the current standard Medicare Part B premium amount. retirees turn out of paying less than that but we don't know that until they provide a proof at the end of the calendar year and that's why there's a little bit of a difference

▶ 40:57 Jen Grigoraitis: yeah so basically we budgeted all of this to cover medicare costs for retirees and now that we don't think we'll be spending it on that we want you're looking to transfer

▶ 41:08 Speaker 2: back into development yes and we have already reimbursed our retirees so there's no more reimbursement for the rest of the um for last calendar year thank you for the clarification

▶ 41:28 Jack Eccles: vice chair eccles thank you piggyback piggyback off that i think this is the question for mr delarusso is there more medicare for fee money available that is kind of the difference between you know we're taking this out or maybe maybe is this another source of funding that is kind of a surplus from fiscal 21 we're done with thank you for your music and we used to reimburse for

▶ 42:03 Speaker 2: 2020 medicare premium so at the end of next calendar year we're going to be reimbursing for 2021 mid-year premium so as it relates to last calendar year um there's no more reimbursement and and this is all that's that's left

▶ 42:30 Jeff McNaught: i did not see anyone else in the queue was i missing anyone counselors uh president sonella thank you

▶ 42:39 Christopher Cinella: um could you just add a little more clarity around um i believe you said miss long is going to be coming back part-time i think i caught that there's a little feedback um part-time deadline is she going to be i thought she was retiring in

▶ 43:01 Speaker 2: february she's yes um she retired and she's coming back uh 18 hours a week to assist with the tremendous work that we're currently experiencing with the recruiting with filing for affordable care act and uh this type of responsibilities in just in the meantime as i'm training the current

▶ 43:39 Maya Jamaleddine: hr coordinator thank you counselor gemaladin chair um miss lara um do you know uh for how long will be working for how long yes this position is for the rest of the

▶ 43:51 Speaker 2: fiscal year anyone else for the first time thank you chairman McNaught question

▶ 44:15 Jen Grigoraitis: to come for Jamala Dean it was that is this a part-time position that we're looking to create in the HR department or I know we've talked about kind of the need for more staff is this something that was posted publicly or is this I

▶ 44:37 Speaker 2: just try to understand how this came to be yes miss long will be assisting us in meantime, the HR department had requested a full-time position, but it wouldn't be somebody of Mrs. Long's expertise and work experience. We had requested a position last year for fiscal year 21, and with the pandemic, initially the position was approved, but afterwards we had to put it on hold. We have put another request for a third person to assist with the new priorities that we have, the initiatives, etc. But Ms. Long's role is in the meantime to assist with the workload created by the tremendous amount of recruiting we're currently faced with with the Affordable Care Act. So this type of level of expertise. The role that I would be eventually looking to add would not be, would be much lower level. Thank you. Do I have anyone

▶ 46:01 Jeff McNaught: else in queue? Seeing none, what is the will of the committee? Motion to recommend for passage.

▶ 46:13 Jeff McNaught: second we have a motion to recommend for passage from councillor Garipay seconded by councillor mcmaster on discussion any further discussion seeing none madam clerk can you please call the role chair McNaught yes vice chair eccles