ORDER-2020-17 : An Appropriation from Contract Stabilization (84042-590000) in the amount of $5,000 to City Solicitor, Salary and Wages.

Transcript (~6 min @ 5:52)

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▶ 5:45 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: operating agreement i'll renew my second all in favor aye any opposed okay so we'll do those out of order out of courtesy to those folks who are here to speak on these orders so the first order on our agenda tonight then is order number 2020-17 an appropriation from contract stabilization 84042-59000 in the amount of $5,000 to city solicitor salary and wages.

▶ 6:08 Scott M. Forbes: Motion to suspend the rules so we can hear from the city solicitor.

▶ 6:11 Speaker 2: Second.

▶ 6:11 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Motion to suspend the rules made by Alderman Forbes and second by Alderman Mortimer. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you so much for being here tonight, Mr. Van Kampen and Mr. Nevin.

▶ 6:21 Speaker 3: Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Committee on Appropriations. The order before you is a request that will result in an increase in the stipend currently received by the Administrative Clerk to the Melrose Liquor Commission from $1,500 to $6,500. This order is before you tonight, Madam Chair, members of the committee. For the last probably year or so, we've been considering various options for performing the administrative functions of the Liquor Commission. Currently, they are performed by my assistant, Kelly Cargovan, in the legal department. And Chairman Nevitt, I'm going to defer to him for a statement he's going to make as well. But what we've determined is essentially that the work of the commission over the last 10 or 15 years is increasingly becoming more complicated, more regulated, both at the state level and locally. and therefore the work of Ms. Cargovan is becoming more complicated, more regulated at her level. So what this does is it's intended to adjust that compensation through that stipend to reflect the amount of time she's actually now spending on this work in addition to provide what we'd consider to be a very reasonable market adjustment for the type of stipend she's receiving. and with that said i'll defer to chairman joe nevin for his comments thank you very much um so as our city solicitor presented we're formally requesting an increase to the stipend for the position of clerk to melrose liquor licensing commission of five thousand dollars uh therefore raising it from fifteen hundred to sixty five hundred as stated uh over the past uh four years especially the requirements of this position time required to perform those duties uh of the position has increased significantly the commission just alone in our month in our meetings the commission is now meeting monthly as opposed to an uh and as needed basis uh to meet the needs of um applicants uh that are uh submitting a significant number of um one day licenses if you will um the original stipend of fifteen hundred dollars provided compensation for approximately 47 dollars 47 hours annually or 3.9 hours per month in our evaluation we concluded that the increase that's being requested is the most cost efficient option that we reviewed in reviewing the weekly demands of the time of the position we were uh if we were just separately staffed the position with the new person we estimated that 25 of the year required 15 to 20 hours per week 50 percent required seven to eight hours per week and 25 percent requires about four hours a week so it's 436 to 520 hours approximately 14 000 to 16 6 in that range while there's some variation in these numbers we think that the professionalism the exemplary work ethic and the deep subject knowledge of the current clerk that the current clerk exhibits offers the city and the commission significant efficiencies our initial recommendation was for a total stipend of seven thousand to ten thousand dollars which would be a fifty five hundred to eighty five hundred dollar increase after further discussion with the mayor the city solicitor and the chief financial officer we recommend a five thousand dollar increase and a total stipend of sixty five hundred dollars uh further on behalf of myself and fellow commissioners uh we'd like like to thank our current uh clerk kelly cogavan for many contributions to our work and publicly recognize her for exemplary efforts as a public face of our commission and the outstanding work that she does on behalf of the commission thank you any questions from alderman's work though

▶ 10:21 Michael P. Zwirko: thank you madam chair so if um first of all i would like to say thank you for being here this evening taking your time to speak on behalf of miss cogman she does do exemplary work not only for the legal department but also for the liquor commission so happy to support this order my only question is though if we're appropriating the funds from a contract stabilization for this year next year will we just boost the line item of the liquor commission spend to cover it for the

▶ 10:47 Speaker 3: fiscal years going forward is that how this will i believe that i believe the uh amount is reflected in the liquor commission's annual budget so it'll show up in the liquor commission's fy21 budget

▶ 10:57 Michael P. Zwirko: gotcha okay and i did see um patrick teller russo's head nodding in the back in agreement so we don't need to call them forward so that but i thought that was the only question i had thank

▶ 11:05 Peter D. Mortimer: you madam chair motion to recommend for passage second the most recommend for passage made by

▶ 11:07 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: alderman morburn seconded by vice chair Boisselle alderman forbes thank you i just have a quick

▶ 11:12 Scott M. Forbes: question uh the stipend itself is that subject to massachusetts state income taxes or federal income taxes it's income it's income so it's going to be in gross wages and be taxable it's not just

▶ 11:25 Speaker 3: a non-taxable line item correct that's all i need to thank you taxable appreciate it thank you

▶ 11:30 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: you any further discussion we have a motion duly second it all in favor all right any opposed okay so we'll recommend that to the full board for