ORDER-2019-90 : An Appropriation from account number 6100-319000 (Water Retained Earnings) in the amount of $591,100.00 to various accounts as set forth here in.

Transcript (~12 min @ 2:56:23)

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▶ 2:56:10 Speaker 7: we are making a recommendation it's supported by our water and sewer committee that eighty percent of those funds be reappropriated through this order and the next order order 2019

▶ 2:56:27 Michael P. Zwirko: 90. motion to join orders uh numbers two zero one nine dash eight nine and order two zero one nine

▶ 2:56:35 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: dash nine zero by alderman's record to join the two orders now on our agenda both related to retained earnings second second and by alderman Tramontozzi discussion all in favor aye aye opposed okay so those orders are now joined i'll just read in the order that we've just joined is order number

▶ 2:56:52 Speaker 6: two zero one nine dash nine zero and appropriation from account number six one zero zero dash three one nine zero zero zero water retained earnings in the amount of five hundred ninety one thousand one hundred dollars to various accounts is set forth here in yes alderman medeiros thank you

▶ 2:57:10 Monica C. Medeiros: i'd like to move to add uh the memorandum from mr john shenna director of public works and mr. de la Rousseau the city auditor and CFO dated June 10th 2019 recommend appropriation of existing water and sewer fund enterprise free fund free

▶ 2:57:29 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: cash memo that we received tonight second motion to add to the orders the memorandum dated June 10th 2019 made by alderman Medeiros seconded by vice-chair boys all in favor aye opposed okay so that motion is now added to the public

▶ 2:57:46 Monica C. Medeiros: record and it was said in the previous order but if we can reiterate this again

▶ 2:57:55 Monica C. Medeiros: you said the free cash balances that are listed here are not all from just last

▶ 2:58:02 Monica C. Medeiros: year and how many how many years is this carry through typically it would be

▶ 2:58:09 Speaker 4: reflection of anything that was not turned over so for last year I think it a good portion that was simply wasn't appropriated that would roll over into the next year so it'll

▶ 2:58:22 Monica C. Medeiros: go year by year by year like that and uh mr shenna could you talk a little bit about the specifics of what you intend to use yes so um we've um both water and sewer there's five main

▶ 2:58:34 Speaker 7: areas that we're looking to appropriate funds for on the water side the first the first grouping is for water system improvements these are targeted for lower main street lower main street is going to be repaved in 2020. what we want to do is use this summer and we're prepared to start work immediately upon passage of this order to upgrade water gate valves in that area to get better control on the system in the event of emergencies and also upgrade substandard water services that are prone to leaking we also want to do upgrades to our water booster stations the wet western and samson assists us in maintaining our water stations and our sewer stations two years ago they did a cip on the five major stations in the city and our request and they listed both some short term and longer term capital improvements the station repairs identified and these two or um and these two orders came from that report um in water we're also looking to use fifteen thousand six hundred dollars of it to start designing our next water program i made reference earlier that we'll be back this summer to propose new borrowings this would give us a significant head start and designing the areas that we want to work in next on the sewer side there is a 70 000 request it says pay off lease on vector in the sewer budget for the last three fiscal years there's a line item for a lease that's for a vac the truck this would allow us to make a double payment next fiscal year there's already funding in the proposed 20 budget for year four of the lease this would cover four and five and eliminate that line for from the budget operating budgets and fiscal 21 and on so it's a 70 000 reduction in future fiscal years because it takes equipment off the table in the operating budget um 339 500 and 250 000 from sewer are being requested to address aging aging equipment that the department uses on a daily basis i've attached some photos of that equipment over the winter the cfo and i along with some other members of the administration met with several department heads and in public works as in the public works world we met with various supervisors that came forward and outlined various equipment needs and um and we ranked them we requested that they rank their priorities and what this reflects uh is the top four needs in the water and sewer group it replaces a backhoe a six-wheel dump truck and two working what we refer to as crew trucks it's the trucks that the crew takes out to the job site both for water and sewer the sewer crew truck is going to be equipped with a what the industry calls as a push camera that is a camera that can actually we can video start to video the inside of sewers right on the spot as the emergencies are taking place as opposed to calling in a vendor that sometimes can't make it or make it later it gives us more up-to-date information on subsurface conditions right there as we're trying to solve emergencies we're very fortunate and i'm happy that we're able to make these purchases without bonding a few years back i think it was four years back we had a dire need to replace our vector truck and the only way that we could go about it was to lease the vehicle do a lease to purchase and put the put the lease payment right in the operating budget at least now we can through this order we'll be able to pay off that lease and purchase four new pieces of equipment with zero lease zero interest zero borrowing um so that's the that's the main purpose of these orders there's also a recommendation to put forty thousand dollars of the water retained earning towards reserves and fifty five thousand one hundred dollars of the sewer retained earning towards that reserved account um we're very close to ten percent on both this appropriation we feel will not only address maintaining that level this fiscal year but we uh we anticipate that if we do this even we'll be okay even next fiscal year in the event that the retained earnings don't don't get to what we have today

▶ 3:03:47 Speaker 3: and there's any more questions uh no thank you okay thank you thank you madam chair oh it was

▶ 3:03:57 Michael P. Zwirko: was on Zwirko oh sorry go ahead sorry thank you so we're paying cash for these pieces of equipment essentially outright purchases and the you actually the tail end of your comments you addressed the question that I had was on the reserves that that's gonna bring us up to where we feel comfortable hitting our 10% yeah I know two years ago I think it was in 2017 we were able to appropriate a small amount to hit the 10% but then the did the leftover amount I think we put back into the retained earnings and turn back right and and we're here instead of doing that we're just making purchases for the equipment and my question on the equipment is it going to be there's you've listed in your memo four items the first two just say backhoe and dump truck the next two say for water crew and for sewer crew are the first two items going to be shared between water

▶ 3:05:01 Michael P. Zwirko: and sewer but not the other no so no these are these are equipment this is

▶ 3:05:03 Speaker 7: equipment that go strictly stays within water and sewer I must say in the winter we do plow with everything yep um it's all hands on deck but for the the balance of the air this is equipment that stays with that water and sewer group okay and the um the the the vector truck

▶ 3:05:26 Speaker 7: that's going to be zeroed out as well with this and successful passage of the fy20 sewer budget

▶ 3:05:31 Speaker 3: okay all right thank you those are the only questions i had vice chair Boisselle in the

▶ 3:05:38 Robert A. Boisselle: documentation here you miss you indicate 6 pieces of equipment, but you list 5 for vehicles in the back to truck, what was the 6, 1.

▶ 3:05:51 Speaker 7: Is that the memo.

▶ 3:05:54 Robert A. Boisselle: Well in the water number 3 equipment purchases 3 pieces of equipment and sewer equipment purchases 3 pieces of equipment to to the end when you come into the second page you have 4 new pieces of equipment which i'm assuming it's a four by four backhoe dump truck and two crew trucks

▶ 3:06:16 Speaker 7: yeah that's correct the the there's pieces that are shared so some of the dump truck half of the dump trucks being paid out of water half of the dump trucks being paid out of sewer so that same piece of equipment shows up in both cows so ditto physically there's just five vehicles ditto ditto the backhoe half of the backhoe is being paid out of water retained earnings half is being paid out of sewer retained earnings that piece of equipment shows up in both counts okay if you're they're

▶ 3:06:47 Robert A. Boisselle: digging the same hole for water and sewer that's how it that's how it's because the retained

▶ 3:06:51 Speaker 7: earnings are in different enterprises they're separate enterprises all right good enough thank

▶ 3:06:57 Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you.

▶ 3:07:02 Speaker 6: Can you also speak just briefly on the sewer, the proposed uses of the sewer. It mentions sewer system improvements of $130,000.

▶ 3:07:12 Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a good question. So those have, I didn't, we did not identify the exact location of those. But what we can tell you is that wherever the current study tells us to go next is where those funds will be appropriated to those projects. Our city engineer, I think, made reference that we're currently out doing investigations. Soon we'll have those results, and the top projects from those results is where we'll spend this money. So this is additional money above and beyond what we borrow from the MWRA that we want to put towards I&I, and soon we'll have those results that we can spend this money on.

▶ 3:07:57 Monica C. Medeiros: Motion to recommend the conjoined orders for passage.

▶ 3:08:01 Speaker 6: Second. Motion to recommend the conjoined orders for passage made by Alderman Medeiros, seconded by President Lemmerman. All in favor? Aye. And opposed? We will recommend those to the full board.

▶ 3:08:17 Speaker 6: It's attached also to the memorandum, I believe, so that will be included.