ORDER-2020-89 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2021 in the amount of $88,397,961.08 (Eighty-Eight Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred Sixty-One Dollars and Eight Cents).

Transcript (~45 min @ 30:58)

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

▶ 30:52 Christopher Cinella: Okay, so this is a continuation of our budget hearings in order 2020 dash 89, which is the city of those operating budget for fiscal year 2021 and the amount of 88,397,961 dollars, 8 cents. 1st up 541 Council on aging and their revolving account count number 2811 and I'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules.

▶ 31:31 Speaker 2: motion to suspend the rules yes I'd like to take a point of personal privilege

▶ 31:40 Robb Stewart: before we continue so through the chair and I'm speaking a little bit extemporaneously here so forgive me but what I wanted to do is express my concern about the proceedings from last week I was opposed to hearing that we move to the bottom line before considering motions to amend a particular uh portion of the budget i would encourage the uh the council to to act respectfully and while it is difficult to be in this kind of an arena uh the the the webex can be a little bit challenging I would suggest that it is important to hear a minority vote if there is one and let those amendments be heard. So I would suggest that if we could be collegial, I think the words were used last week. I think that would be respecting again that minority position and I would feel much more comfortable than just moving directly to the bottom line.

▶ 32:48 Christopher Cinella: Mr. Chair. Thank you. Point well taken and just as a as a point of order when a motion is made and on the floor it has to be disposed of but there is discussion um that can continue on. We've had votes on the treasurer um with a first to speak and a motion made. We've had votes on audit um on the budget component where there was a first to speak and a motion made IT and as well as the Assessor so just as a point of information we have a motion on the floor now to suspend the rules and clerk can you call the roll

▶ 33:24 Speaker 2: please I should make me really yes counselor Tramon Tozie yes counselor McMaster yes not solar McNutt yes counselor Eccles so Gara pay yes counselor Stewart yes Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chair Sinella? Yes. 11 yes.

▶ 33:54 Christopher Cinella: Thank you. And just for our speakers in queue, you'll see councillors raise their hand throughout this proceeding. That's just an indication to me to put them on my queue to speak, ask questions.

▶ 34:09 Speaker 3: I'm bringing Stacey Minchello, Council on Aging Director forward.

▶ 34:21 Speaker 2: Stacey, can you hear us?

▶ 34:22 Speaker 4: I can hear you.

▶ 34:24 Speaker 3: Do you have a little video or are you on the phone?

▶ 34:28 Speaker 4: Let's see. How's that? Not yet.

▶ 34:34 Speaker 2: No?

▶ 34:35 Speaker 8: Nope.

▶ 34:36 Speaker 4: Oh, you have to push the button that says start my video. Right.

▶ 34:45 Speaker 4: Good evening, counselors. You're welcome, Stacey.

▶ 34:47 Christopher Cinella: welcome Stacey screen is all yours if you have so sorry it looks like it's

▶ 34:58 Speaker 4: buffering so on the Melrose consultation is the community hub for our seniors families and caregivers and support services Melrose is proudly represented in the aging Network currently holding an at-large seat with the Massachusetts Council on Aging, which is a direct network with the Executive Office of Elder Affairs and as well the Governor's Council to address aging in Massachusetts. We also hold several seats on the Mystic Valley Elder Services Board, and we are the lead agency in the COA regional districts. Information, referral, and resources top our list of professionally administered services. Additionally, we manage the free local transportation services that we offer our senior population here in the city, and we administer the property tax workoff program and the coordination of the Melrose Emergency Fund. The Melrose Senior Center is a home away from home for socializing, learning, and healthy aging. We offer more than 60 programs a week, And we are a congregate meal site daily. We offer a variety of wellness and fitness, art courses, computer instruction, educational programs, as well as entertaining events. During the COVID period recently, I would like to tell you that the Council on Aging has remained 100% open. Without disruption, our delivery of services were modified and still continue. Simultaneously, we are a major collaborative partner with Melrose Health. For the Milano Center, any program that can be offered remotely now for our seniors is happening currently or in the planning stage of a rollout. One of our most successful has been the weekly phone-in bingo games where we average about 50 participants. We also partnered with the local YMCA for exercise and meditation classes, as most of our instructors are also employed there. All support groups have been operating remotely. We realize that not all seniors have access to the Internet, so we have sent prerecorded shows to the Melrose Cable TV. And I'll tell you, Zoom karaoke was most popular during the peak of the virus. As for the budget, the Council on Aging is level-funded outside of scheduled contractual step increases in salaries and wages. Important information that you should find valuable is that the Council on Aging is state-funded according to the census. So this year, 2020, this is the first time historically that there are more senior citizens over the age of 60 than those under the age of 5. is the baby boomer wave. I bring this to your attention so you may be aware that the major increase in elders in our community, as well as the economic issues, the COA will be expecting a large influx of social service requests. Our most pressing goal is to reframe the programs for a soft opening of the Milano Center and simultaneously our Board of Directors has been working on a strategic plan to forge the future of the COA and the Milano Center the important initiatives that are in the planning progress now are to earn the city of Melrose a designation as an age friendly and dementia friendly community and obviously additional priorities are intergenerational cultural programs thank

▶ 38:47 John N. Tramontozzi: you for this evening I appreciate all you do thank you mr. chairman thank you miss manchello for being here this evening I want you to know that the Council on Aging does a wonderful job and it should be commended because you support the the elders in the community very well and I'm looking at your budget and that there is I believe that there was an outreach worker that is not being fun yeah so so the work of the outreach workers that reassigned to others or is

▶ 39:30 Speaker 4: eliminated completely it's it's most of it has fallen on my plate and then if it's appropriate I spread it amongst qualified staff social workers a

▶ 39:47 John N. Tramontozzi: definite need at this point okay and can you explain again when you say it's the is it the budget that is state-funded you mentioned something about state funding do we get money from the state so the city provides a portion of the

▶ 40:00 Speaker 4: budget and then the state provides the formula grant and the formula grant is allocated to us based on the census so right now we're running off the 2010 census so we're expecting that the 2020 census should help us the problem though that lies there is there's a possibility of a pending state cut so even though the elder account goes up if the money per elder goes down we may possibly find ourselves in the same position as with the same amount of money but servicing more elders so can you where in your

▶ 40:40 John N. Tramontozzi: budget does it reflect where the state income comes in it probably would be on after the city

▶ 40:54 Speaker 4: the city page so like if you're looking at page one the city's um total budget

▶ 41:04 Speaker 4: i should wear my glasses the city's total budget is the 190 and then we're supported by it's only the formula i don't want to say only because even when you look at the council on aging budget where we're three percent of the entire budget um i don't want to say we're pennies in the bucket because we're a large service but the formula grant right now is currently running at 49 000. all right does that go into the general

▶ 41:34 John N. Tramontozzi: fund and then eventually gets distributed to the council on aging when it's necessary correct it's

▶ 41:41 Speaker 4: totally purposed right now for support other part-timers that are not benefited and it supports

▶ 41:51 John N. Tramontozzi: the transportation services so this budget here is just what the city is contributing it's not reflective contribution is correct okay so all right um all right so i um i see what you have

▶ 42:03 John N. Tramontozzi: here and um when you say that it's level funded it's level funding except for obviously contractual and except salary and wage line as well house is level funded and i appreciate that and as i've been telling all the department heads and as you probably know uh my fear is that in these this unprecedented time that we're gonna have we have in a revenue shortage uh to the city because the state is is in the red by six to eight billion dollars and i don't think we're gonna get any funding from the federal uh to support the state and the states and it's hitting all the municipalities it's not just melrose it's all others as well and as the as the mayor has said that there's that risk that people are going to be laid off so what i'm trying to do is to prevent that from happening by attempting to level fund all these um budgets if possible to 2020 so that's that's what that's what my goal is uh and that is the level fund to 2020 and with that in mind i um i wouldn't make a motion uh to do that and i calculated and used as the administration's um schedule of salaries and wages that administration provided to us in the spreadsheet so my proposal would be to um on line zero one five four one five one one zero zero zero salary and wages uh to reflect a new figure of um that would be one hundred and eighty eight thousand eight hundred and fifty two cents making the bottom line on this budget one hundred and eighty nine thousand seven hundred and fifty seven dollars and ninety two cents so I would make a motion to amend the bottom line to one hundred eighty nine thousand seven hundred and fifty seven dollars

▶ 44:19 Shawn M. MacMaster: and ninety two cents a point of information mr. chairman through you is I wasn't clear if that reduction includes the contractual employees that this reference. I didn't, I didn't hear her say. The 7 increase, what percent of that is lawfully required on the collective bargaining agreements? I would agree to. I would I would 2nd, council tremendous motion. If that number is representative of just non contractual employees, but I just didn't hear anything about. The contractual employees, so through you, Mr. chairman, I was just seeking to get some clarity on it. Thanks. I could clarify that Mr. through the chair.

▶ 44:58 John N. Tramontozzi: My calculation was only on a non union employees. It was not the contractual employees, which, according to my, my look at this schedule was just program assistant is a contractual. and the outreach worker that we spoke about previously was also intractual, but that's eliminated. So the only one that is not affected would be the program assistant, which would be intractual, and I did not calculate a reduction there.

▶ 45:43 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. At this time, I would second the motion on the floor.

▶ 45:51 Christopher Cinella: So there's a second motion made by Councilor Tramontozzi to reduce the bottom line to $189,757.92. What is the reduction amount?

▶ 46:00 John N. Tramontozzi: $10,459.23.

▶ 46:05 Christopher Cinella: It's seconded by Councilor McMaster. On discussion, Councilor Jamaleddine.

▶ 46:15 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Mintello, for being with us today. I actually have question and also to discussion can you explain to us about what was the social workers work I understand that we previously had two days social worker and then we lost the social worker unfortunately we and and now we are without social worker right I've been assuming the I am NOT a

▶ 46:52 Speaker 4: licensed social worker first off the bat but I've been assuming the role of the social worker and if it is requires something beyond the role of a referral then I have to proceed outside the city to hopefully seek help there there is a dire need for a social worker we just don't have it was only a five-hour position at that point I was go ahead no no I'm sorry go ahead that's right if I was to I mean I could actually utilize a full-time social worker and have it be ageless and benefit the entire community it just wasn't in this budget for this

▶ 47:46 Maya Jamaleddine: round I understand and for how long we've been waiting for this I as I may recall it's been for a long time put on hold because of the budget and I think our senior population is and as you mentioned I need for a social worker to be able to provide the services that they need as much as you know every single generation they need services from us but the senior generation this is the most service that they would require at this time which is social

▶ 48:31 Maya Jamaleddine: worker I at this time I think it would be unfair to make any kind of cut since we are already putting this service on hold for many years I find it very unfair to request more cut and to play on this population to suffer from our cuts and our budget thank you so much thank you mr. chairman mr. Minichiello

▶ 49:05 Mark Garipay: can you just confirm mr. trim a toesies math on on the on the positions is there just one can you just confirm there's only one that is non or I'm sorry one that is contractual or all the other ones non contractual correct I

▶ 49:25 Speaker 4: have 130 our program assistant that's contractual so for the council in aging I'm I'm full-time I have the contractual assistant and then the rest of the hours are part-time two of them one is part-time benefited and the rest of them

▶ 49:49 Mark Garipay: are part-time okay thank you I just wanted some clarification on that thank

▶ 49:59 Robb Stewart: anybody else on discussion councilor stewart thank you mr chair good evening ms munchell um thanks for being here tonight can you share can you share with the council um the risk of flight of your staff if uh there is no increase um i'm not quite sure i mean we have

▶ 50:20 Speaker 4: a very dedicated staff i'm sure that it would be a first of all um 99.9 of my staff are elders so not only are we employing elders and taking care of elders that's a very difficult um thing to digest but i do believe that we have a great staff that would swallow it but i can't truly tell you i'm trying to think of i haven't heard from anyone that says that they're going to bail because they're not getting an increase um i do know that when you piecemeal part-timers together and then they may have the chance to go elsewhere where there's an increase or make more money that might play into it um but i believe that we have a very dedicated staff that would would hang in but with COVID right now and all the changes and we don't know how we're going to be able to offer you know how to offer the services the pieces might not fit exactly the way they used to and that's a concern because my staff are on the lower range so that's that's a difficult

▶ 51:46 Speaker 4: one they truly don't make a lot of money and they work minimal hours but it's a

▶ 51:53 Robb Stewart: puzzle I just understood miss me Joe and how difficult or easy is it to replace

▶ 52:05 Speaker 4: your staff that's it I mean I would say as difficult as any position it's certainly it costs money to replace people it costs money to train people it cost money to hire people at higher you know wouldn't be higher wages they're set wages i

▶ 52:27 Speaker 4: apologize but um i don't know that sounds like a a question that would basically i guess i don't know quite sure what i'm saying but i think it would just there's certainly a lot of people out there looking for jobs so i don't want to say of course it would be easy my folks are are embedded in the community they live in the community they live and breed they know they know our constituents our consumers they they they are pretty uh dedicated so it would be difficult in the sense of starting over

▶ 52:59 Robb Stewart: would you would you um say that the the cost of replacement exceeds the cost of the increase or would you say that the cost of replacement is less in the cost of the

▶ 53:15 Speaker 4: increase I would think the cost of the replacement we would lose our what we've

▶ 53:27 Robb Stewart: built for so many years and what's the typical tenure of your

▶ 53:34 Speaker 4: staff I have I just printed that out I have folks that have been here 20 years I think the most recent hire was 10 years ago they've been here for a pretty

▶ 54:04 Speaker 4: long time if I find the right sheet yeah I have nine years ten years going up to

▶ 54:12 Speaker 4: 16 20 years i mean besides i'm i'm the most recent new hire and then behind me is about seven years

▶ 54:21 Robb Stewart: so thank you miss manchella no more questions mr chair president Grigoraitis thank you chairman

▶ 54:27 Jen Grigoraitis: sanella and thank you ms manchello for being here i just um so just to i just want to make sure i understood your answers to mr stewart's question counselor stewart's questions so your

▶ 54:39 Speaker 1: staff are part-time elderly residents of the City of Melrose for providing services to their peers through the Council on Aging.

▶ 54:48 Speaker 4: Correct. For the most part, I have one that grew up in Melrose, lived in Melrose, worked in Melrose, but now currently lives in Saugus. So, for the most part.

▶ 54:59 Jen Grigoraitis: We'll count them. I think for many of us, there has been heightened concern around the the wellbeing of our older residents during the pandemic and the impact on mental health with this extended isolation and inability to engage in activities and see loved ones. Can you talk about, have you seen a rise in the complexity of calls that you're getting? Are you, is it requiring more time for you to connect people with services? Sort of what is that, what is the work of the council looking like during the pandemic?

▶ 55:31 Speaker 4: During the pandemic, it's been what we've noticed the most is the heightened anxiety. I will tell you that the seniors are very grateful and very thankful to the city and the administration for the communications, for Melrose Helps. But our day is filled up with a lot of questions about most of it we can't answer at this point. but even in the beginning and through the peak we were I was thinking about possibly getting some compassion training compassion fatigue training in for the staff even if I'm in the office now but you know the staff are working remotely and it was besides Melrose help a lot of connections and phone calls on I'm all alone in my apartment what if I die here and it was very overwhelming very very overwhelming the seniors were worried about the staff at the council and aging level worried about the volunteers um we don't judge if someone has a grandson living in the house that is not shopping for their their grandmother we took care of it we we don't judge simultaneous to that as we're preparing for the opening it's very difficult help to digest that the seniors have lost a lot of their friends so we as

▶ 57:02 Speaker 4: workers don't know who may not come back and how we're going to handle counseling our staff and counseling the seniors so the virus has totally taken a toll on us we're up for the task but it's a heavy one did I answer your question you did

▶ 57:22 Jen Grigoraitis: thank you very much and thank you for the work you're doing. That sounds incredibly complicated and emotionally draining. So thank you for what you do.

▶ 57:29 Speaker 4: Thank you.

▶ 57:32 Speaker 2: Consulate McNaught.

▶ 57:34 Jeff McNaught: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Minchello for your, um, patience and your, uh, brutal honesty to some of these questions. Um, it's very much appreciated, um, on a personal level. I just also want to say thank you. I know during my work, With Melrose helps alone and. Through people who have contacted me for help with tomorrow's emergency fund. What a relief it's been to be able to lean on you and your staff. Who I never realized were working the small amount of hours they are, or making the small salaries that they were. You're a vital branch in this community. I will not vote for any motion to lower salaries in your department. And again, thank you for all that you do.

▶ 58:31 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you. Councillor McMaster. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, Ms. Minchello. Thank you for all your hard work and your efforts. President Grigoraitis asked you some good questions about the impacts that the pandemic has had on our older adults. Can you talk a little bit about the issue of food security and challenges paying bills from the perspective of seniors? What is it that you're hearing from them?

▶ 58:59 Speaker 4: Sure, well, there's a couple of things. There's benefit eligible folks. So they would have the financial means, I'm talking about the SNAP, the food stamp program. So for the past two months, anyone on food stamps has been the max is the minimum excuse me has gone to like 194 dollars the problem with during the virus was it doesn't matter how much food stamps you have if you can't access them because a lot of the vendors don't have point of service for to use an EBT card so that was one challenge that we faced the other challenge that we faced was we have we have homeowners in in in Melrose private residences that are you know paying their taxes and we have elders with mortgages and that just scares the dickens out of me because they're they're struggling to stay house rich pocket poor and if you aren't eating then I mean they have I would hate for them to choose between pet food prescriptions and food and that's a very very tough occult situation but for the Melrose helps has been a blessing because again it's not if you need groceries we send them that's it we don't we don't check your income verify if you have juice in the fridge nothing like that secondary to that we have partnered with the food pantries and the federal USDA programs so the farm to families vegetables and produce have been going out of the high school to all I say the high school not specifically because it's ages age related to their demographics but it's they have the loading dock and the equipment I just received a truckload of 800 pounds of cooked chicken and actually has cheese in there so we're participating in that and the chicken will go out on Friday and then we have several other shipments coming and this is where the consulate agent comes into place with we got we have the drivers that aren't driving seniors around right now but we're driving produce or masks or rubbing alcohol so we've been we've been utilizing them in that role but as far as food and securities go the virus has has really hit them hard I talked to a senior earlier tonight and she never really realized how much she relied on the senior center for her meal so it's very very very very difficult mystic valley has increased the meals on wheels um and i i can't think of anything else that's food related but there there there's a perception that mellows folks are all are well off and can take care of themselves but when you put it into reality the number of elders we have in their relative incomes. I just, I'd like to go home at night and hope that they're all eating.

▶ 1:02:04 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you for that. I'm sorry, was there anything else, Ms. Minchella? No, no, I think we do a great

▶ 1:02:08 Speaker 4: job with it too. I don't, I don't, if someone asks for something, they get it. Thank you.

▶ 1:02:14 Shawn M. MacMaster: And my last question is, just since you're here, you had talked about the strategic plan, which I think is a terrific idea. I would encourage you, if you haven't done any work yet, to maybe look to the gerontology institute at the mccormick graduate school at umass a tremendous resource they break down demographics for all communities in the state there's some good data there relative to melrose and on that i was just curious has there been any talk or consideration as you move forward on the strategic plan of maybe changing the name of the senior center to a term that has a different connotation understanding that you know we're starting to use the term older adult 55 plus you know seniors who may be anywhere between 55 and 65 may not be able to utilize the services my mother's in her early 70s and she still thinks that she's too young to go to the Senior Center so I'm just wondering if there might be more than age-friendly name that might be able to better engage you know some I mean, also do that seniors are aging at home more now than ever and if if there might be ways that they may see the console and aging as a resource rather than a place to necessarily go to correct.

▶ 1:03:29 Speaker 4: And I think so, let me 1st, apologize to you because I say senior center in the, I guess, in the, in the sense of a noun that the console and agent is a department and the senior center is the building behind me, but we've already changed our name. our name uh we're the milano center it doesn't even say senior but the outside of the building says senior and the only reason why um i didn't want to take it down is because one right now it's a it's it's recognizable but two it's also gold leaf paint and it would cost a lot of money to to uh reinvent that but i will tell you too that the first stage of this first process of THE STRATEGIC PLANNING OF THE BOARD WAS TO REVITALIZE IT AS A COMMUNITY CENTER AND THEY ROLLED OUT A LOGO I'M TRYING TO SEE IF I HAVE IT HERE AND THE LOGO IS THE MILANO BARN AND IT SAYS I DON'T KNOW IF YOU CAN SEE THAT MELOS CONSULTING AGING MILANO CENTER SO IT'S THE BARN and it says live well, age well. So I'm echoing your point. I think that the days of a senior center, no disrespect to my seniors that love to come and play bingo and eat pudding, but the days of a senior center being just a place for the older folks to hang out and watch soap operas is really gone by the wayside. And the virus itself right now has given us an opportunity to reframe and repurpose what healthy aging looks like excellent thank you so

▶ 1:05:03 Shawn M. MacMaster: much you're welcome I'm very impressed thank you thank you anybody else for the

▶ 1:05:09 Christopher Cinella: first time counselor Thomas thank you mr. chairman I believe there's another

▶ 1:05:19 Cory Thomas: motion on the table right now I'd like to make a motion to move the bottom line

▶ 1:05:22 Christopher Cinella: I can't make a motion for that just yet until we dispose of the other motion Anybody else for the first time? Councilor Eccles? Thanks, Ms. Minchella, for being here

▶ 1:05:32 Jack Eccles: tonight. I just have one quick question on the revolving account since we're discussing. It says that most of that is funded through donations. Is that generally one annual fundraiser? Is there somewhere right now, because there's a high demand for your services, is that somewhere that you're soliciting donations? Can people make a donation online? Sure. Well, I have to be

▶ 1:05:54 Speaker 4: perfectly clear we have a couple of venues of donations so I have the Friends of the Milano Center and their support right now is they basically pay for programs or items or things that the city budget can't afford and they have the Giving Tree and they do their annual fundraising secondary to that I have folks citizens anyone that'll send a check to the council on aging and that goes right into the city revolving fund and then also additional to that we have the fish donations and you're gonna ask me what fish means and I just blew right out of my mind but that's basically we have a collaboration with Cataldo ambulance so that if we're closed if it's a weekend and a night and they need to do um it's a volunteer program for transportation services to fill in the gaps then seniors sometimes make donations to the fish you'll see that i think it's like a twenty eight hundred dollars right now but um and then lastly um malwa's emergency fund even though it's coordinated by the Council on Aging, the generous donations that have been rolling in for that go directly to the Melrose Council on Aging. It's not used for support of the programs and services of the Council on Aging office. We administer it. Does that make sense? Yeah, perfect. That makes sense.

▶ 1:07:31 Jack Eccles: Thank you so much for all your detailed responses. I will not be supporting the salary decrease at this time and look forward to supporting Councilor Thomas motion. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 1:07:42 Christopher Cinella: Anybody else for the first time? Seeing none. Councilor Jamaleddine for the second time.

▶ 1:07:48 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just last question. What is the service that any of our seniors, you know, came to reach out to you to provide and you weren't able to provide?

▶ 1:08:07 Speaker 4: it's not available um well what's struggling now is that um we were not able to offer tax tax services that is because we were a victim of there weren't any volunteers and melrose to provide those services which is administered through the aarp program so that was a definite loss for the seniors to go to other towns um as far as the services it depends on what it costs everything that we sit down and say that we're going to do it would depend upon the cost of what we would need to do so we're very creative on i can partner with the high school and get computer lessons for them but if they want to advance that's probably a bad example because we have sdm right down the street but if they were at more advanced programs that cost more money we would not be able we would not be able to do them those are um teaching life skills i mean seniors there are some seniors out there that can use their cell phones and there's others that i could i wish i could stop my daily duties just to sit down and show a senior how how to navigate the internet or to do something um and even the social worker issue where we jump through hoops to get them what they need and the the barriers that we bump into are people seniors are responsible for their own services if i had an empty bucket which is not possible and could say i could pay for someone's mental health counseling or if we become a victim of whatever the circumstances are at that time but we we focus on a no no wrong door policy we try to get everybody what they need. Are we partnering with anyone in terms of the

▶ 1:09:51 Maya Jamaleddine: social workers in terms of or any organization just in a crisis or you know like urgent need of social worker? Urgent need is tough I mean if I have to

▶ 1:10:10 Speaker 4: I will call Melrose-Wakefield Hospital the problem is it's I I feel like it's control issue too because once you refer them it then becomes you're not privileged to the confidential information but you want to hope that they were taken care of um secondary i use um if it's a grandparent raising a grandchild like uh and they're in the school i try to use the school counselor to um help with the family situation um i refer them to interface um and believe it or not i've relied heavily on the faith communities heavily because then um they're able to be sensitive to their needs and and maybe i if someone is i you know confident confidential reasons i'll make something up if someone was refusing chemo treatment because they were afraid they couldn't pay the bills and they were just willing themselves to end it then i would just call um the the church and the church would would take them in and we would work together so it's not it's it's a great outcome it's we're very prideful of how we take care of people we we jump through hoops and go extra miles but it's not a professional um situation we try to get them to the professional situation

▶ 1:11:30 Maya Jamaleddine: and thank you so much for this answer and i think it's a great example and that would did need to ask more question about one last question i'm sorry about taking more time but it's very dear uh topic um do you mind to provide us with a example uh to see how much we are in need uh of a social worker how much our um senior population is in need of this social worker and

▶ 1:12:04 Speaker 4: how much it would serve us at this at this time i think the the the addictions crisis is hitting us hard so we have an elder that can uh maintain their own budget and and and live their life according to the way they decided to live at this point in their life and then when they've lost a child to addiction or they're raising a grandchild or you know that those cases are the difficult ones where we scramble we don't look at it as child services we really look at everything as ageless and you know um how do we get you know we had a case where we had to get someone enrolled in school and i would only been on the job a month i didn't even know where the schools were so you know we we take care of those type cases um the most difficult case in massachusetts um an elder has the right to self-neglect and what i mean by that is we do not we don't we don't pink slip elders we don't tell them what to do so we have to establish solid relationships of trust with these elders to help them help themselves because when they're in a state where they can't help themselves or the families you know working are not available sometimes it's not even a matter of money it's a matter of establishing that working social relationship so that we can help them make the right decisions or guide them for them to make their own decisions it's all about

▶ 1:13:33 Christopher Cinella: respect and dignity thank you so much thank you anybody else for the second time first time none so we have a motion on the floor uh made by council chan matosi uh to reduce the bottom lines here you by ten thousand four fifty nine twenty three which is one eight nine seven ninety two seconded by council mcmaster uh madam clerk please call the roll vice chair Migliorelli no council of Tramontozzi yes council mcmaster vice chair mcnaught i'm sorry council is not

▶ 1:14:11 Jeff McNaught: i think mcmaster just answered

▶ 1:14:15 Shawn M. MacMaster: my apologies council mcnaught i didn't i wasn't sure if my speaker was on that's okay

▶ 1:14:26 Speaker 2: council mcnaught no councillor eccles no councillor Garipay no councillor stewart

▶ 1:14:38 Speaker 2: no councillor thomas no councillor maladine no president Grigoraitis no chairman sonala no 2 yes 9 no motion defeated and what is the will of the committee on council on

▶ 1:14:59 Christopher Cinella: agent motion sorry second made the first motion Thomas in a motion to move the

▶ 1:15:10 Speaker 2: bottom line seconded by councillor if not on discussion yes thank you mr.

▶ 1:15:15 Robb Stewart: Chair. Ms. Minchella, I just wanted to let you know that as the Ward 3 City Councilor who has the Fuller House, the Levi Gold, Cephalo, and a large number of senior citizens in my ward, I think what you've done, also at the Milano Center, the program that you've done is heard and it's well received, which is why I'm going to fully support it. support this I appreciate all you do I just wanted to mention them to you thank you very much thank you mr. chair thank you sir

▶ 1:15:58 Speaker 2: Jimmy really yes Tramontozzi yes McMaster yes it's one McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes. Chairman