ORDER-2020-90 : Reauthorization of City of Melrose Revolving Funds table as adopted by City Ordinance June 18, 2018 and further authorized by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, §53E ½.

Transcript (~25 min @ 11:17)

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

▶ 11:03 Speaker 1: Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Sinella? Yes. 11 yes.

▶ 11:21 Speaker 4: Thank you, Alana. Thank you. My pleasure. Thanks for hanging out, Martha. Thank you, Alana.

▶ 11:24 Speaker 1: Move them out. Take me a second.

▶ 11:27 Christopher Cinella: next up we have 631 recreation and the revolving account 2652 as that pertains to order 2020-90 the reauthorization of the city model revolving funds table as adopted by the city ordinance of june further authorized massachusetts general laws we have um you should be uh frank and bill

▶ 11:51 Speaker 1: should be there we go I'm here we get here you yep okay bill I can't see you I

▶ 12:06 Speaker 6: don't know if you have video capability I should hold on hey Kristen probably

▶ 12:13 Speaker 6: gonna click one of these buttons I would imagine right the second little video

▶ 12:26 Speaker 4: camera on it next to audio oh i'm sorry yep over there there we go frank or bill has prepared

▶ 12:33 Speaker 6: remarks i would think i'm bill gardner i'm the chairman of the park commission that oversees the recreation department as well as the mount hood enterprise fund um the melrose recreation department has a relatively modest budget request here tonight 64 a little over 64 000. uh frank Frank Oliveri has been the director for about 12 years now, and has done an outstanding job with the Recreation Department for the citizens of Melrose. He is as forward-thinking as anyone in this particular area. During this COVID-19, which obviously has affected a lot of people in a lot of different ways, Frank has handled this tremendously and has developed programs, and amended existing programs uh to incorporate the social distancing um criteria that the state has put forth as well as as well as various uh new programs through the virtual portals uh if there's ever a second uh wave here frank is well positioned the recreation department to handle the needs and of the citizens both the adults and the youth in the city city of Melrose. He, unlike, by contrast, unlike many surrounding cities and towns, they have shut down their recreation program for the summer of 2020. We, on the other hand, through Frank's stewardship, have pushed forward new and amended programs which will work well, which I'm sure most of you who have had contact with Frank, you know this. I'm just telling you what you already know the budget request is relatively simple there's five line items it comprises about 15 of the actual operating needs of the recreation department recreation apartment is funded through its revolving account 85 percent of it including the salaries of the two full-time employees frank olivarian is uh his assistant joe blotner uh uh funded with 44 000 from the budget request from the city's general fund and that represents about one-third of the actual salary needs the remaining two-thirds are paid uh through the revolving fund uh which due to frank's efforts has uh been significantly in the black for many many years the budget request that we put forward tonight is pretty much the same one that we've had for the last 10 years it hasn't changed even though there will be step increases for the permanent uh employees those will be absorbed by the revolving fund and by the uh fees generated thereby and so we're confident that things will continue despite the hurdles that this covet 19 has put in front of us we appreciate and frank can talk to the actual specifics of the program that he's done

▶ 15:20 Speaker 7: yeah and i'm happy to answer any questions anybody might have yeah i think uh consular tramitosi

▶ 15:30 John N. Tramontozzi: uh thank you mr chairman and um thank you frank and uh i appreciate frank what you've done over these years uh and um in the recreation department and the um the the number of

▶ 15:48 John N. Tramontozzi: the young kids who have gone through the program and that you helped with um this um i appreciate the budget um it's fun um and the city administration were like yours uh in terms of being uh level funded and uh and i appreciate that and i just want to thank you for your service both you Frank and Bill thank you thank you so Thomas thank you

▶ 16:17 Cory Thomas: mr. chairman bill thank you very much for that information and Frank thank you for being here Frank as you know I've been all involved with the rec department for years as a volunteer coach it's been a great source of safe extracurricular activities for for boys and girls throughout Melrose so Thank you for the years of incredible service and bringing these programs to the kids. The winter season is, you know, a very busy season for the rec department. You have hockey, you have basketball, you have, you know, in-town basketball as well. The springtime, not as many programs, but still, you know, a lot of programs. Are you guys down any registrations from the springtime? And if so, how will that affect your bottom line budget?

▶ 17:04 Speaker 7: Yeah, it's, it's, we're lucky in that the nature of our job is we provide what the residents need, right? So we, this past spring, we were extremely lucky that COVID hit and the closure started to hit as soon as we, as you know, as soon as we finished our major sports this past winter. the spring has always been our lightest season not not that it's empty but it's it's lighter the nice part is that of some of the programs that we do run in the spring they're not the ones that necessarily are the big impacting programs that keep our our department above water we did take some hits but through some of the creative stuff we've done it's a mild hit and we still should end up right around break even this after um you know there were smaller programs medium-sized programs but we had about 18 programs and events canceled this spring and we're still able to um manage our our expenses and and still have the revenue we needed thank you very much for that

▶ 18:06 Cory Thomas: frank and i'm happy to hear that um are you guys you know i know you're getting into a time where you'd be ordering um you know equipment uh for the fall uh programs you know football is a very popular uh thing in the world as well and you guys do a great job with that um are you are you starting to do purchasing for the fall or is that on hold it's it's getting it's getting pushed off

▶ 18:25 Speaker 7: the nice part is that usually when we start a program we make a significant investment knowing that we're going to run it for several years so like our flag football supplies well i'll use flag football as an example because that's one of our bigger ones we've got over 300 kids that participate we've got over 50 50 volunteer parents that are usually involved we have all those supplies so it's really just a jersey a moderate jersey purchase for for the kids who are participating so even though we have a lot of those programs starting we are for the most part if we've run it before we are in a position in a way that we have the equipment and supplies you know there's some purchasing required but it's um it's it's maybe 15 20 percent of the overall stuff needed to run that program

▶ 19:18 Cory Thomas: okay all right Frank thanks again for all you do tell Joey said hello and I might give you guys a call talk to you guys with something offline all right

▶ 19:31 Mark Garipay: please do all right thanks Frank thank you mr. chairman thank you Frank and Thank you, Mr. Gardner for being here. Frank, thank you very much for the detailed questionnaire. Looking at it over, I just can't, I mean, I'm so impressed with the amount of residents that we service every year through this department and the amount of programs that we do. As a lifelong resident of Melrose, growing up, I wrecked the pub and never had the programs that the kids nowadays have and the condition of the parks too, and the fields. I mean, that that goes a long way in the commission deserves a lot of credit. All you do. I do have a couple of questions with regards to as we start moving into different phases of normalcy. As we get back into normalcy, and it's not interacting more. You mentioned that we, we're gonna have more programs. Do we do we have enough money? you feel in this budget to be able to um handle those programs you know i'm sure we're going to have a lot more santa um sanitizing cleaning supplies um i just want to get your little opinion on that if you can help me out with that yeah so so as many of you may know we put out a

▶ 20:45 Speaker 7: brochure book usually in march um that was before all of this took place and that was our anticipated programming that we're going to do for the spring and summer all that has changed dramatically and And the programming that we are trying to get started up now follow specific guidelines and our new programs to try to get kids out right now, at least kids and teens out and engaged. The programming that we have, and this is why it's the program, the line items in front of you are important because most of these line items are the line items that give us the support to run those programs. our team programming it's our community outreach it's recreation scholarships it's inclusive programming that is a lot of the programming funds that we need in order to do exactly what you're talking about um we're also still trying to figure out where recreation falls in line with the cares act because a lot of those a lot of those supplies that we are going to be required to do like sanitation stations and masks and all the other other supplies that we're going to need we're trying to see if we can we can use some of those funds to also support what we're trying to do for

▶ 22:03 Mark Garipay: the community thank you i know um you know our community always needs direct department and i truly believe that now more than ever with our children being really inside not getting a lot of physical activity we're really going to need the rec department over the next three or four months so i fully support your budget and i look forward to to the program starting up again thank

▶ 22:32 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you chairman. Thank you. Mr of the area and Mr Gardner for being with us tonight. And thank you for all the work that you've been doing for our community. It's greatly appreciate it as a mom that always and a family that always benefit from your service and your activities. I, you know, going through this pandemic and going back to benefit from these activities that you guys provide, that the department provides, I'm sure I'm talking about myself, but I'm sure a lot of other parents share this concern.

▶ 23:28 Maya Jamaleddine: What is it that you can provide to us or if you can tell us about the plan that gives us some kind of safety plan that you are taking just to help us return back to these activities?

▶ 23:38 Speaker 7: Absolutely. So this has been a big project of mine over the last couple of weeks is as state guidelines come out, as new phases begin to open, there's a lot of new regulations that we need to adhere to on top of just common sense practices to lower anxiety of parents. Because, you know, as we keep saying, there's some parents that can't wait to get their kid out of the house to do some kind of program because they need they can't take it anymore. And then there's another group that's very anxious still and very concerned with what's happening. And we're trying to find that balance of how do you give programming, but also kind of lower those anxieties. And how do you communicate that to those families that it is a safe environment that we're establishing? So the virtual programs that we're trying to shift over are pretty self-explanatory. It's, you know, taking programs that are existing that are going to be canceled otherwise. and we're trying to put those on a virtual platform the other programs that we're trying to set up um are programs at least right now in in the upcoming phases um that are going to require social distancing you know as we see like just in the community there's plenty of things that people are doing to still be together and still engage without being in physical contact with each other and so whether it's fitness programming or boot camps or some kind of running club or some type of creative intramural program down the road there's we're going to be putting twists and working around regulations being in the rec department we we thrive on creativity so so this is it's kind of almost like a in a way it's a fun challenge for us that we take very very very seriously but it's um there's going to be extra staff and people in place with hygiene stations with entrances one way and exits another with limited spectators with specific policies and plans in place to protect all of our residents and participants it's you know it's still in development but that's that's kind of what we're we're looking to do would that uh impact the

▶ 25:46 Maya Jamaleddine: number of participants that you will be or capacity that you will be taking absolutely

▶ 25:54 Speaker 7: the state comes out with specific ratios to follow but on top of that we're we're going to make sure that we are very careful about the ratios that work for us as well you know just because the state comes out with guidelines doesn't mean that we necessarily have to jump right to whatever level they're asking us to go to so so we need to figure out what the state is is permitting us to do and then figure out what works for our residents and works within our city structure and so that's that's kind of where we're at right now but we are expecting to have programming rolling out as soon as we can and as soon as we feel it's it's feasible which I don't see

▶ 26:43 Leila Migliorelli: too much further down the road. Vice-Chairman Oliveira. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Gardner and Mr. Oliveira. This is really helpful information it feels like you guys have kind of have thought out a well plan a good plan to handle the challenges that you have before you. I admittedly you know going into this wasn't sure um how this was all going to turn out but i i really appreciate the thought as a as a mom of two and a husband who also participates in recreation program it's great um moving forward so we've got you know it sounds like you've got plans for the summer programming and and thinking about fall um is there is there anything that we should be aware of as a council in terms of you mentioned like you're you're able to stay above water right now you know, can you kind of give us a thought of, okay, well, fall programming, certain things that you might have to think of or cut or readjust, you know, if we were to go back into a more restrictive atmospheres or anything, any kind of plans you'd like to share with us?

▶ 27:41 Speaker 7: As at this point, the only thing I guess I can say is we are flexible enough to adjust to whatever environment we have to adjust to on whatever platform that may be whether it's physical or lowered ratios or spreading out or bringing more staff on so um obviously if this if this becomes a major major pandemic that's a long term and it goes into this upcoming school year which none of us know what's going to happen then just like any department that has to deal with this like there's going to be complications um but kind of to what i was saying that we feel very very comfortable especially being here as long as i have very comfortable with knowing the resources we have at hand and knowing how to adjust our programming to make it work and to fit and to not make us completely stop it might make us take a step or two back but we're still going to have the ability to continue to run what we're looking to run okay thank you um one other

▶ 28:46 Leila Migliorelli: quick question um i know that parents as we're you know sort of considering what option recreation options there are for our kids in the summer what might be safer and not safer and as you mentioned there's definitely a spectrum out there um is there anything you'd like to say about the enforcement of sort of the your your policies um and and how you plan to do that i know that some programs are are um led by younger younger staff and younger help and i know there's some concerns out there um regarding that so i was just wondering if maybe you can speak to how you

▶ 29:21 Speaker 7: plan to plan to kind of oversee that yeah well you're you're you hit it right on and that is oversee like we we are going to make sure that we have not whether it's myself or my recreation coordinator joe blotner or very specific people maybe even teachers that are specifically trained on how to manage these situations that that we that we make sure that everything and i mean everything is run with super safe precautions and and that's kind of that's kind of how i see us moving forward um this is not going to be one of those things where oh hey and i'm just using this as a hypothetical phase three is open okay let's take those three high school students and that one college student yeah you guys are just gonna manage social distancing with the kids and do your own thing and we're not gonna worry about you that is not gonna be this summer's plan this summer's plan is going to be heavy supervision heavy direction heavy training just to make sure that we have every single area covered and and that that includes from our making sure our supplies and equipment are sanitized and properly stored and um everything that's coming along with with the adventures of of this summer thank you so much i appreciate it thank you president Grigoraitis

▶ 30:49 Jen Grigoraitis: thank you chairman snell and thank you both mr gardner mr oliveri for being here um and i'll reiterate as a parent of two young children who take a lot of advantage of the rec department it's really helpful to hear the thought you're putting into what is an incredibly complex situation that we find ourselves in i spent most of the winter sitting next to counselor Garipay on a bench in the middle school during rec basketball and i wanted to go back to those days um i appreciate that your budget is flat i know that certainly makes it easy from a fiscal perspective however as we think about the impact of covet on our families from a financial perspective i'm wondering if you guys have given thought to a need to possibly increase scholarships as more and more families face job loss and we may want to make sure that children have access to recreational programs could you talk a little bit about how this is handled

▶ 31:38 Speaker 7: yeah so so scholarships are a huge part scholarships and financial aid are a huge part of our department and um it was years ago that we we established that any kid who qualifies for the free or reduced lunch program in the public schools qualifies for either a full or reduced scholarship um we've never turned somebody away we've always had the money that one of the perks of our brochure book and i have to thank so many of the businesses and Melrose itself to support this is that those ads that we put in that brochure book go specifically towards supporting scholarships so this four thousand dollar line item along with the scholarships that we've been providing have have usually been close to covering what is needed usually we always go over every year but it's it's keeps us in the ballpark of what because we can never predict how many scholarships we're we're going to have but but it keeps us in the ballpark of what we need um It's interesting. We've never had the issue of covering scholarships or financial aid. I'm going to stay very optimistic and say that that's going to continue. I don't ever plan to keep a kid off a field, even if we need to figure out, again, another creative way to make that happen. Especially for our in-house programming, which is our big programs like our summer programs, our tennis, our flag football, our rec basketball, a lot of our middle school athletics that we run in middle school programs. Those programs, first off, have very little impact on scholarship money. And then on top of that, even the ones that are outside of that is a long-winded answer for I know we'll find a way to cover it.

▶ 33:30 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you. I appreciate that and it's really heartening to hear that we're making sure that no matter the ability to pay that our kids have access to these great activities. So, thank you both for your thought.

▶ 33:39 Speaker 6: If I can just add to that too, I think Frank glossed over the fact that even though the line item that we're requesting in this budget is 4,000 dollars. If anybody comes in, in particular in these times, it's not, it's not a strict black and white bright line test. We'll listen to any reasonable request and we'll find a way to make it work. It's always been that way. Frank has always exceeded the scholarship line item there. Fortunately, we haven't had a great need in the city of Melrose to this point, but we have anticipated that and if need be, we'll take care of it.

▶ 34:16 Speaker 4: Thank you both very much. Thank you.

▶ 34:19 Speaker 8: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Am I the last in the queue?

▶ 34:22 Christopher Cinella: Yes, as far as I know, I don't know if anybody has something.

▶ 34:29 Jeff McNaught: First, I just wanted to say, again, I echo all the sentiments of all my councillors. The amazing job that you all do, again, with the budget that's not very mighty. Thank you for all that you do, as Councilor Garipay said when we grew up. I'll still say we had a great deal of things to do as kids at all the parks, and a lot of activities that we could partake in, but nothing even close to the program there are today. Thank you very much for that. If there's no one else in view, Mr. Chairman, and I would make a motion to move the bottom line. Second.

▶ 35:16 Christopher Cinella: We have a motion to move the bottom line for 631 recreation and revolving account 2652. Paid by Councilor McNaught, seconded by Councilor Stewart. Any discussion, anything else? Madam Clerk, call the roll please.

▶ 35:32 Speaker 5: Vice Chair Migliorelli.

▶ 35:35 Speaker 1: Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes.

▶ 35:52 Speaker 1: Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garofali? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Cinella? Yes. 11 yes. Councilor McNaught, did you have something?