ORDER-2019-85 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2020 in the amount of $86,662,987.61. (Eighty-Six Million, Six Hundred Sixty-Two Thousand, Nine Hundred Eighty-Seven Dollars and Sixty-One Cents).

Transcript (~32 min @ 2:24:18)

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

▶ 2:24:17 Speaker 6: All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. We'll make that recommendation.

▶ 2:24:22 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: That takes us to order, the sixth order on our agenda. This is order number 2019-85, City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2020 in the amount of $86,662,987.61. and we have tonight a couple departments starting with our council on aging

▶ 2:24:50 Speaker 6: department number 541 thank you for staying with us on this absolutely good

▶ 2:24:57 Speaker 9: evening I believe you should have the department head budget questionnaire filled out we do that was a nicely done and for the purposes this evening just if i could briefly just talk a couple of highlights for those at home um that are worth noting first and foremost is that most people aware that the minerals council on aging is a community focal point for social and support services to older adults families and caregivers some of the services that they administer include information referral transportation services outreach services the property tax workout program and more The Milano Center it indicates is a place for socializing learning wellness and volunteering more than 60 programs are available each week including weekday lunches a variety of wellness and fitness classes our courses computer instruction educational programs and more They've served over the last nine months, over 2,273 lunches. They've handled over 5,539 phone calls, again, over nine months. They've had visitors of over 750 over the nine months, and they also do social services, 21 new cases in nine months. In addition to that, as indicated, they provide transportation programs um for total riders they had 5 352 out of town medical rides 343 and in town medical rides 769 and i guess i would just highlight the last two there's so much here that's uh really wonderful that that does happen where they do um participate with the property tax workup program according to the documentation they've had 37 placements which amounted to over 3584 hours of assistance to the city in 2018 and 36 584 of property tax abatements to participants on top of that there's 37 placements for fiscal 19 that are as of this reporting that are actually working and the last thing i'd like to mention on the on the handout was that the uh they also coordinate and run the melrose emergency fund and fiscal 19 today to the date of this just uh material um they had distributed nine thousand three hundred thirty nine dollars and fifty cents to forty nine households and um during the first nine months of fiscal 18 they had done sixteen thousand one hundred eleven dollars for 42 households which is you know wonderful overall and on a budgetary basis um if you look at their budget um it's strictly level funded outside of uh salary and wages that are increased by two percent The budget represents a $3,736.93 increase over the prior year, and it's all resident within salaries. Every other item is level funded.

▶ 2:28:22 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Thank you for that overview. The memorandum from the department is also available online. Very thorough. Alderman Medeiros.

▶ 2:28:29 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you. Thank you very much. I just want to take a moment to thank Ms. Velopoulos and her staff. Absolutely. And I know she's unable to be here. this evening just let them know and and i just wanted to take a moment because i know it's something that came up recently in some conversations and just let people know that there is transportation available for senior citizens uh through the senior center that people can call that is free of charge there's two vans but we do accept gratefully accept some donations if you're if you're able to do it but that's an option that's uh available and I was going to ask Ms. Philopoulos, and I'm not sure if you know the answer to this question, but is the FISH program still active?

▶ 2:29:16 Speaker 9: That I don't know, I'm sorry.

▶ 2:29:19 Monica C. Medeiros: So I'm not sure if it's still going, but that was a volunteer ridership program where some people would volunteer to take people to appointments in their personal vehicles, and that was being run out of the Council on Aging as well.

▶ 2:29:38 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: so there's some options available for people if i might i did go to the annual volunteer recognition ceremony and sat at a table with some people who are still driving as volunteers so i do believe the program that you're referencing exists maybe not exactly as you um as you last discussed it but there certainly are volunteers in the city who are supplementing the vans that the council on aging has so that's good to know thank you thank you do i have the bottom line second motion to

▶ 2:30:06 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: move the bottom line provided by president Lemmerman seconded by alderman Tramontozzi all in favor aye any opposed excellent so we will do that thank you thank you very much thank you and then the next um and very patiently waiting department on our agenda is um our parks

▶ 2:30:31 Speaker 6: department uh for pine banks pine banks pine banks i'm sorry pine banks i apologize yes the keys if you come forward

▶ 2:30:57 Speaker 9: i'm here i can help

▶ 2:31:04 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: that's right thank you so much for joining us tonight for your patience we really appreciate you being here and you've heard a lot about what's going on in melrose today we're excited to hear

▶ 2:31:15 Speaker 1: what's going on at pine banks well i'm henry kieser president of the pine banks park i live at 633 lindfels parkway and i'm one of the mel melrose representatives here with me tonight is andrew walsh morris high class of 2002 that's our superintendent

▶ 2:31:35 Speaker 1: we circulated a report which i think you probably uh have all gotten to see the cover page inside

▶ 2:31:42 Speaker 1: is the fairy house festival which has become an annual event in august which is kind of hard for

▶ 2:31:54 Speaker 1: me to explain but it draws a lot of kids the format of the report is as it has been in prior years we are founded by a statute of the legislature in 1906 and they provide minimum amounts for funding of the park based on the total assessed valuations run through a formula the department of revenue sheets on that computation are at page four and five The city of Melrose is the lesser assessed at five billion 217,000 It has gone up considerably in the last year. That's based on property valuations and that's the properties going up But the total threshold on that is six hundred ninety five thousand Which is our benchmark for financing our budget

▶ 2:32:53 Speaker 1: On page 7 is the summary and page 8 is salaries and wages which are carried over onto the first part of our budget summary on page 7. All our employees, our leased employees from the city of Melrose run through the Melrose HR Department. subject to the policies and provisions of Melrose as they've adopted them over the years and the city of Malden pays in its responsible share quarterly that system has been going on since 2012-13 and it seems to be working pretty well The area between line 6 on page 7 and line 42 are the operational funds broken down by the line items that we've had traditionally.

▶ 2:33:43 Speaker 1: That's all flat lines and zero based carried over for the second year with no increase.

▶ 2:33:55 Speaker 1: I should say also with compensation and benefit summary that there is a small increase there, as you can see, on line three. That's because one of our staff members went on the family plan for medical, which was a significant increase. It sort of gives you a good example of what that impact is. line 43 through 55 are capital purchases or non-recurring purchases that's where our ball field amortization is included at line 45 that's a bond that we got through mass development it allowed us to finance at a fixed rate three and a quarter i believe for 10 or so years uh Long-term borrowing at municipal rates didn't affect the city's budgets, which was a good thing

▶ 2:34:48 Speaker 1: The summary is there in lines 55 through 69 There's a little red box over on the right-hand side and that's the amount each city is being asked to put in for operations over and above compensation and

▶ 2:35:07 Speaker 1: Separate from the ball field amortization And so the total amount is $841,000, $842,059, and that's $420,000 for each city, marked in yellow there on line 69. And the amount over the mandate under the statute is really for the amortization of the ball field and the bond and the equipment.

▶ 2:35:41 Speaker 9: that's the financial side of it and i just yeah if i may just through the chair i think if you the board would have an opportunity to reference um budget 931 for capital outlay there's a line in there that's um entitled pv projects that's your pine banks capital obligation that he's talking about here which is on line 47 you'll see the 101 294 18 that's in our capital outlay budget so that's part of the budget for pine bank so that's where that resides thank you thank you thank you so that's the rest of the program we

▶ 2:36:28 Speaker 1: open the dog park data claim and would you like to add something I don't have

▶ 2:36:35 Speaker 4: much that I can answer any questions you guys have about the park in general we did open the dog park which has been a pretty big success I think a lot of it's gotten a lot more use this year than it did when it first opened no one really knew where it was but I think it's a nice value for both cities or for the whole community you know the surrounding community really so at the dedication

▶ 2:36:56 Speaker 1: ceremony which was last fall a citizen from arrows was watching us off to the side and she asked what we were doing we're dedicating the dog park he said oh I love this dog park she went to her car and she pulled out ten $100 bills and handed us a thousand dollars for we have named a bench in the dog park after her deceased dog which was it's not often that you have a ribbon coming someone

▶ 2:37:33 Speaker 6: comes up and wants to give you a contribution. Thank you. Any questions?

▶ 2:37:40 Monica C. Medeiros: Alderman Medeiros. Thank you, thank you and field usage is up and busy and Ms. Bell

▶ 2:37:45 Speaker 2: helps to organize that as well. Just give me the thumbs up down here. Yeah.

▶ 2:37:51 Speaker 4: Yeah, Joan's very, very helpful with all the goings on at the park. Both Melrose and Malden, the liaisons, have been extremely helpful in organizing their youth programs, the high school sports, et cetera. So it makes my job a lot easier, yeah.

▶ 2:38:08 Monica C. Medeiros: It's a great place to be, and you do a great job.

▶ 2:38:14 Speaker 1: We don't charge scholastic or city users, youth users or adults, but we are approaching $40,000 a year.

▶ 2:38:21 Speaker 4: yeah revenues come up a lot a lot since I've started more bill more

▶ 2:38:29 Speaker 4: availability opening up again Joan and everyone sort of tightening up what the city's need and actually use as opposed to just kind of allotting slots that go unused a lot of time it allows me to rent out the fields to people who want to come in and I think I get requests almost you'll use that to turn a lot of people away so it's a good thing and a bad thing but we're able to supplement what we do with with with those contributions so and it goes right back

▶ 2:39:00 Monica C. Medeiros: into the park which is nice and lots of community functions like the fairy house

▶ 2:39:04 Speaker 4: festival and several walks runs yeah a lot of stuff goes through the park I

▶ 2:39:10 Speaker 1: would say that Elijah Converse who is the mayor of Malden who dedicated this property made rubber shoes on Washington Street it's coming up to his 200th birthday next year and the Converse family is going to have a confab at the park actually is between the park and Malden Library which was also one of his projects it's going to be in June sure they're going to be an awful lot of Converse folks running around Malden and Melrose a year from now so it's going to

▶ 2:39:43 Monica C. Medeiros: We'll mark our calendars and I'm just going to give a shout out to Councilor Mary over in Malden for putting the Cary House Festival together. You go. I play a small role in assisting.

▶ 2:39:58 Speaker 9: It's surprising.

▶ 2:40:01 Speaker 6: Thank you. Motion to recommend.

▶ 2:40:06 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Second. We have a motion to recommend the bottom line I think for both are we talking pine banks and then also the the line portion of the capital outlay number line number five five one zero nine nine yes made by Alderman Tremont ozzie seconded by vice chair Boisselle all in favor any opposed great so we will make that recommendation to the full board and thank you again for

▶ 2:40:39 Speaker 6: with us tonight thank you very much next up is our parks department nice to see

▶ 2:40:56 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: you both thank you for sticking with us and we're happy to have any introductory my remarks and then we'll go to questions so we're here to present the

▶ 2:41:05 Speaker 10: Mount Hood budget okay my name is Joan balance superintendent Mount Hood and public open space so I have a split job between the parks department in Mount to a golf course chairman yep and our budget is pretty straightforward I think

▶ 2:41:22 Speaker 1: there's not a lot of line items on there it doesn't change much year to year its revenue based in the sense that it's dependent on the golf revenues at least the Mount Hood part of it is in the in the weather dictates whether or not we make money on a year-to-year basis or not. So far it's been a little dicey, but it looks better at this point in time. Our budget is based in a lot of senses on certain contractual commitments we have, and one of them is we have to spend money on capital improvements at Mount Hood at the facility as well as at the golf course at a minimum of $50,000. We We usually exceed that on a regular basis. We work hand in hand with Golf Management Company, which has been the bidder for the last, I think, 15 years. Third contract. The third contract with these guys. And they've been a pleasure to work with. They've been good for the most part, so that our budget um doesn't change much on a year-to-year basis and i don't think there's much we can add to that

▶ 2:42:39 Speaker 6: for the most part thank you honorments work oh thank you madam chair i really just had two

▶ 2:42:42 Michael P. Zwirko: questions um that i wanted to bring up that i saw in some of the materials that were provided thank you for being here as we approach the witching hour it's getting a little late but thank you for staying through um it's actually one of the i guess i would say more fun line items of the budget because you know we get to talk about mount hood and all the parks and all the work that goes on so it's uh you know they're beautiful and we benefit from having them so um can you talk a little bit about the change in management uh personnel at mount hood and um what that actually means for just kind of like uh day-to-day month-to-month operations continuity and things

▶ 2:43:22 Speaker 1: like that i think it's been good in the sense that uh they've they've tightened up the professionalism on the golf side. For sure, if you walk into the pro shop, you'll see that it's stocked more than it's ever been. They've increased the focus, the golf management folks. They had a change internally. There was two brothers who owned the company, and one bought the other one out. They've changed the focus a little bit on what they do. There's still some you know rough patches we're trying to you know work some you know some bugs out with these guys but for the most part the professionalism on the golf side is it has been great and I think if anybody's been up there for a function recently it's it's been definitely an upgrade the food side food is that food and beverage side has been tremendous we see on a monthly basis they come to us and tell us you know what what they have for functions and stuff and it's been it's been really really an increase yeah sure so it's been great we have Brian

▶ 2:44:29 Speaker 10: Doyle is the new manager slash golf pro he came out of one of their near ham New Hampshire courses he was at an 18 hole golf course and then he managed one of their 36 hole courses the great thing about Brian is that he manages the golf much much better tighter he knows how to you know keep the flow moment flowing so that you don't get the pace of play down he manages the leagues you know a lot tighter so that he's able to fit in more time but not not lengthening somebody's game so those types of things for us are really important because that's what people talk about you know they don't want to be out there for those are the

▶ 2:45:16 Speaker 10: complaints we get yeah I think Marge is their food and beverage manager they brought down also from one of their New Hampshire courses she's changed up the menus a little bit she's hired all new staff and she seems she's really on the ball so yeah I think that you know they're kind of playing with their menus it'll be interesting to see where they kind of fall out I think that they look at our proximity to Boston so I think you know we're gonna see some changes

▶ 2:45:47 Speaker 4: the Mount Hood test kitchen so speak yeah I think I've said in the past when

▶ 2:45:55 Speaker 1: I've been up here that Tom Friel who's who's the principal now in golf management is the one who says listen I'm 12 miles from Boston I'm still sitting up on a hill and I'm looking out here why can't this be a great you know wedding venue or you know that type of venue so I think that they have the right idea and obviously we as a city will benefit from whatever success that

▶ 2:46:15 Michael P. Zwirko: they can do well and to that point with the the spring that we've had the wet

▶ 2:46:21 Speaker 10: spring how has the well honestly we've had and I know from doing permitting in the parks we have had a horrible spring I think this is one of the worst springs I've ever been through and we have spring and the worst part about it is it's the weekends right it's like I've never canceled more on the weekends but a golf that's a killer because that's their main um their main day and as of today we're up 63 000 over the last year so it's just it's i think being managed well and the benefit too is i

▶ 2:46:51 Michael P. Zwirko: remember a couple years back we had to drill for more wells right and yeah we won't have i'm sure

▶ 2:46:59 Speaker 10: i'm sure it's lush up there yeah yeah we haven't really played with the irrigation one of the capital improvements is we're putting new uh pumps in the pump house and that's been one of the benefits of doing all the work and it's taken a couple weeks is we really hadn't had that used worry about it too much you know about the greens dying on the fairway so great yeah my last question

▶ 2:47:14 Michael P. Zwirko: um and this has come up a little bit really with the parks commission at their meeting and i'm just i'm hopeful that you could provide an update maybe maybe you you can't but with respect to the um the feasibility study around the knoll could you just kind of give us an update with that where not only that stands but what maybe the long-term plan would be yeah i think that um

▶ 2:47:33 Speaker 10: from my perspective anyway i need more green space i want to pack the paint the parking lot's green so that we have more space for the kids we're always short and there's such a great um demand for it you know from our city and from people you know uh au type of programs that aren't necessarily from one city but a bunch of cities that have melrose kids and they all kind of want to play in their home fields so i think one of the things that the park commission has been very interested in is is doing a feasibility study on the west no field to see if it could possibly be turfed and i think that for a few years we brought it up but really didn't discuss it because there were issues um surrounding um conservation in the pond and um drainage yeah and a few communities around us have made big moves and put in um you know four or five fields with kind of the same circumstances So I think it's kind of opened the door for conversation again, but it's on the front burner. I mean

▶ 2:48:32 Speaker 1: John Mercer who sits on the Commission with us is

▶ 2:48:38 Speaker 10: Joan he's on the subcommittee John's on the subcommittee

▶ 2:48:40 Speaker 1: Definitely Spearheading that for sure what we're hoping as well is the MBTA the the bridge over by the On the fells way the MBTA has indicated that you know they want to you know rent some of the space on the knoll if the timing works out right we might be able to get some funding for any type of field that we're talking about in the West knoll if if in fact they can utilize that space they want to pay some money yeah is a staging staging thing they're required to do it but unfortunately it seems like they move slower than I do I don't know we'll see what happens but but but those are the types of things that are under discussion have been come up in them in the Park Commission meetings for sure and there is a subcommittee that's already been appointed with various city officials to explore that for sure okay

▶ 2:49:44 Michael P. Zwirko: great those are all the questions I had just did want to say I believe I saw that you'll be a grandmother soon is that correct very happy for you thank

▶ 2:49:56 Speaker 4: you so thank you those are all the questions I had Thank You madam chair

▶ 2:49:59 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you I'm gonna be really brief it's been a wet spring but this budget season is generally dry and I just want to I believe this is you fill out the questionnaire miss Bell right I just want to read the last sentence of you if will and it's quote if I could forecast anything from my 2020 budget it would be sunshine 79 degrees and a light northeast wind I also want to just add

▶ 2:50:37 Speaker 10: on the pack side when we were talking earlier about Mary Livermore Park where I get sidetracked was the nice part about when you were saying that elementary schools you know have fundraising groups and PTO groups and it's the little pocket parks that don't have that so when you get free cash it really is a blessing to be able to get something to be able to go out and work with the residents and not necessarily put the burden on them to fundraise but to be able to go in and work with them and and put something in there in their

▶ 2:51:10 Monica C. Medeiros: neighborhood back that they all want to say yeah and it's in Mary Livermore is a very important figure in the city of Melrose history the first Melrose woman

▶ 2:51:21 Monica C. Medeiros: alderman and you know for my for my friends on the Republican side I have to say that she was a Republican too but we are definitely you know happy to be able

▶ 2:51:33 Speaker 10: to keep her honor. It helps that I had Mr. Kiesa sitting beside me because we get to squeeze on for the Piccolo Foundation. The fact that you that we

▶ 2:51:40 Speaker 1: last was a good thing because we squeezed them for a couple that's great

▶ 2:51:48 Monica C. Medeiros: no and it's it's nice to be able to you know we we honor our parks and things in

▶ 2:51:59 Monica C. Medeiros: you know in people who passed in name and we want to be able to honor them by leaving you know something in good shape that's used and enjoyed just like Mount you know we think mr. Slayton for you know another thing I should mention is

▶ 2:52:10 Speaker 10: it's also nice when you talk about people making donations we've had numerous people who have made donations the last couple of years for benches in the park and I think that's a wonderful opportunity for people to be able to to do something we had up at the common Abe's market Abe's daughter called and she just purchased a beautiful granite bench to put out there with a nice saying on it for him and and it's funny everybody in the neighborhood has made comment on it that grew up and knew you know Abe's market and the candy counter and so it's you know it's another opportunity for people to do things

▶ 2:52:53 Scott M. Forbes: thank you no I gotta I gotta say my one thing right here as somebody that grew up in Melrose and learned how to golf at Mount Hood I knew what Mount Hood used to look like and to see how it has changed now and I think anybody that's grown up in Melrose can certainly appreciate that and also the fact that we do keep it local and you still offer a residential rate as opposed to the non-residential rate I think that has a great hometown feel as well also this weekend I spent time at my family at Foss Park right behind the Washington School which is where I went to school as a kid and just to see the transformation with the fields and the families is a very very inclusive environment that is definitely a tribute to you when you have the right people in the right places great things happen so I just want to say thank you that old

▶ 2:53:39 Scott M. Forbes: chess that old check I was gonna ask you about that after the meeting because I know we're at the end but if you want to hang around yeah the bench the way that the woods like if you're gonna fix all that like that would be awesome I have

▶ 2:53:50 Speaker 10: tree stumps that have already been cut and varnish that are in my office you're

▶ 2:53:53 Speaker 1: speaking my language thank you thank you and I'd be remiss if I didn't say it as I do every time we come before you folks every year is Melrose is lucky to have Joan Bell run in the running the show as I you know what Frank with the Recreation Department I mean the volunteer job that I do is easy because of these folks there's no question about it

▶ 2:54:21 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you I I would actually just like to move to add the the questionnaire the department the Mount Hood questionnaire it's in the city of Melrose operating budget order but to to request that a copy be added to order 2019-86 the

▶ 2:54:41 Speaker 6: Mount Hood enterprise operating budget which is the next order before us right

▶ 2:54:46 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: yep okay so we have a motion to add the questionnaire that we have before us for the operating budget to the next item on our agenda Second. Mr. Dooley, seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We'll be on that one in just a minute. I'll also just echo my colleagues in saying that we really appreciate, first of all, you being here as late as you are. And as a sometime golfer, there's a baby that got in the way, and then board meetings sometimes also delay me from getting out. It's really great to hear that you're happy with the new management. I know when I was on hoodwinks that it could take a really long time and toward the end of the summer I didn't actually get in nine before it was too dark to play. So it's nice to know that, you know, there's

▶ 2:55:31 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Really managing all those little things so much better. Yeah, and then also as Alderman Forbes neighbor I'm pleased to hear that there's some exciting things in the works for Foss Park as well. That's great And Alderman Chairman Tuzzi, were you about to make a motion to recommend? second all right we have a motion to recommend for passage maybe alderman Tramontozzi second by alderman Forbes all in favor aye any opposed so that concludes our work through this particular order number and getting through all of the different departments so is it in order to have a motion to recommend the full order now to the board we have a motion to and you might want to stick with us just are you also on the revolving yeah so we have a we have a motion to move a full order number two zero one nine dash eighty five to the board made by alderman's work oh and seconded by alderman Forbes all in

▶ 2:56:31 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: favor all right and then we do have a seventh on our agenda order number two zero one nine dash 86 the Mount Hood Enterprise Fund operating budget for fiscal 2020 and the amount of one million five hundred thirty thousand three hundred fifty three dollars and six cents did you want to just speak