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 (~1 h 38 min @ 9:52)

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

▶ 9:46 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: A motion to suspend the rules made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Vice Chair Boisselle. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, well he's coming up. We'll just read the order for the record. order number 2019-85 city of melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2020 in the amount of eighty six million six hundred sixty two thousand nine hundred eighty seven dollars and sixty one cents and as we've noted tonight's agenda um includes eight different um portions comprising

▶ 10:19 Speaker 5: the dpw budget thank you for being with us tonight my pleasure good evening everybody good evening um if i may just give some opening remarks great uh the department this past year has worked extremely hard at sustaining and maintaining the high levels of service that we've

▶ 10:37 Speaker 6: we've established in the prior years we've done it in a particular challenging year but the budgets

▶ 10:43 Speaker 4: before you tonight include eight of our ten operating budgets with the exception of water

▶ 10:50 Speaker 5: and sewer the budgets before you tonight for our administration and engineering division our highway division our sanitation division our facilities division our park and forestry

▶ 11:04 Speaker 6: division our cemetery division and our fleet division the budgets for water and sewer before

▶ 11:11 Speaker 5: you i believe next monday evening inclusive of water and sewer the dpw has 66 full-time employees

▶ 11:18 Speaker 6: that is a change from fy19 there is a proposed additional employee it's a custodian

▶ 11:24 Speaker 6: for municipal buildings that is being proposed with the fy20 budget the budgets before you also

▶ 11:38 Speaker 6: include the snow budget and they total just over 9.25 million it's roughly a 2.9 increase in

▶ 11:44 Speaker 5: aggregate i've provided everyone with a copy of a memo that i've written that summarizes a little bit of how we operate i'm not going to go through the details of all of that because i realized tonight we're here to talk about the budget but i've provided it for your information

▶ 12:03 Speaker 5: outside of our daily and seasonal maintenance programs this current fiscal year to date which

▶ 12:07 Speaker 4: is july through today we've pressed we've received over 4 800 work requests from residents we've

▶ 12:12 Speaker 5: completed about 3 700 of them people can reach us through the website they can reach us through a

▶ 12:24 Speaker 5: traditional phone call we have an office at tremont street we have an office here in city hall we have an office at the cemetery and we run through social media as much as possible as well

▶ 12:37 Speaker 5: just to highlight some of the accomplishments of this past fiscal year road work was a major

▶ 12:43 Speaker 5: was a major area where we've spent a lot of time in 2018 we completed work on Warwick and Perkins we completed work road work on Altamont Francis Bartlett Cherry Street through grant that the planning office was able to acquire for the city we did work in with National Grid on Sheffield we worked with the Complete Street program

▶ 13:09 Speaker 5: on a portion of Melrose Street as well by the high school we completed first

▶ 13:18 Speaker 5: and sixth Street which was a project we started two years back and we started work on Florence Street which carried over into the spring and is nearing

▶ 13:26 Speaker 6: substantial completion that's Florence Sanford and Hurd Street with our

▶ 13:33 Speaker 5: partnership with National Grid we also did a portion of Vinton Street we paved

▶ 13:42 Speaker 7: a portion of Porter Street and we paid a portion of Stratford Road a few years

▶ 13:49 Speaker 5: back we started a drainage study we were urged by various members of various residents in Ward 4 that felt the drainage improvements we've accomplished

▶ 13:55 Speaker 6: over the past decade in and around our pond reduced flooding in their backyards

▶ 14:07 Speaker 4: so we had CDM come back study it we petitioned FEMA this past fiscal year we

▶ 14:12 Speaker 4: were successful in changing that FEMA accepted that study they accepted our

▶ 14:17 Speaker 6: assumptions and it resulted in reduced insurance premiums for several residents

▶ 14:23 Speaker 6: in and around el pon in ward 4 and i believe a few in ward 2 as well

▶ 14:28 Speaker 5: in collaboration with other departments and again led by cdm smith in our engineering office we updated the melrose hazardous mitigation plan it hadn't been updated in nearly a decade

▶ 14:47 Speaker 5: this plan is now completed we uh it has been reviewed by mima massachusetts emergency management agency we received their comments we addressed their comments they've passed it on to FEMA we've received their comments and soon it

▶ 15:00 Speaker 5: will be before this body for final acceptance and we have what we've done

▶ 15:11 Speaker 5: is in parallel with this review process we've actually been allowed to apply for grants so the hazardous mitigation plan when a community has one in place and

▶ 15:25 Speaker 4: follows it FEMA has funds that they make available for to avoid emergency type

▶ 15:33 Speaker 5: situations so we applied for a grant for this building which would cover the purchase and installation of generator to protect techno technology that's housed in this building the technology in this building doesn't just do this building it does it's the brain for a lot of the systems throughout the city

▶ 15:50 Speaker 4: including public safety including public works and including our schools not to

▶ 15:56 Speaker 5: prioritize schools versus public safety and public works but the public safety and public works groups work a lot during emergencies and we rely heavily

▶ 16:07 Speaker 6: now on technology so the debt generator could be a huge this could be a huge

▶ 16:11 Speaker 5: opportunity we've applied for a second grant with FEMA for upgrades to the drainage system in the at Wyoming Cemetery this is the drainage system that runs parallel with the property line of pine banks why that's important is because that's the bottleneck that could further help residents on Sylvan

▶ 16:34 Speaker 5: Street at Lebanon Street so we'll keep everyone apprised but that hazardous mitigation grant and completion and updating of it allowed us to move

▶ 16:43 Speaker 5: forward with these grant applications and you'll hear a lot more about the

▶ 16:46 Speaker 6: hazardous mitigation grant if you haven't already because it does have to

▶ 16:50 Speaker 6: come before the board for final acceptance we've worked on our Complete

▶ 16:56 Speaker 5: Street program since the fall we've was substantially complete with the north to

▶ 17:04 Speaker 5: site south bike route that many of you received information on we made since last summer we've been working with residents in Ward two we completed the clifford elm howard street reconfiguration we're still working on the howard green

▶ 17:18 Speaker 6: configuration and as we do this we you know our eyes are on a another submission in september

▶ 17:33 Speaker 4: for the october funding round with complete streets the money that we would receive in the fall we would apply towards projects next year in the spring and we're targeting sidewalk improvements

▶ 17:40 Speaker 5: in the hoover school area and anyone in the hoover school area we're actually run using um a survey

▶ 17:53 Speaker 4: through mass dot massive motion carriage hours i think they did a backpack survey it's about we've

▶ 17:57 Speaker 5: had about 48 response rate and basically it's asking families how do you walk to school if you

▶ 18:03 Speaker 5: walk to school so we're not just arbitrarily choosing the sidewalks we want to do in that neighborhood through this program we're actually vetting it out and i think that would make the

▶ 18:17 Speaker 5: grant some application in the fall that much stronger we've I know it's not water and sewer but it's all tied into Public Works we spent tremendous effort in upgrading water systems on Warwick on Perkins on Florence Ashmoor on Ashmoor

▶ 18:31 Speaker 5: Court Garfield in East Emerson these improvements focused on flow quality and

▶ 18:40 Speaker 6: quantity and have made tremendous improvements in all three of those areas

▶ 18:46 Speaker 5: INI is part of our daily weekly routine we've worked extensively in the four areas with the highest levels of INI we've now bridged over and started work in the second four areas of INI we'll go into more detail on that Monday evening with the water and sewer and actually provide you with some statistics to

▶ 19:05 Speaker 5: support that we continue to work with the Wyoming cemetery commissioners

▶ 19:09 Speaker 4: They're a great group of men that work diligently, volunteer their time.

▶ 19:19 Speaker 6: To make sure that files are correct and meticulously kept and inventories kept.

▶ 19:21 Speaker 5: Chairman Garipay and Mr. McDonald and

▶ 19:28 Speaker 5: Mr. O'Neil meet monthly and if needed even more.

▶ 19:33 Speaker 6: They work very closely with our administration and we continue to partner with them.

▶ 19:35 Speaker 5: improvements both administratively in the office and then in the grounds of

▶ 19:47 Speaker 5: themselves there were our facilities group works very closely with the school department and every year the beginning of the fiscal year is really focused on

▶ 19:57 Speaker 6: rearranging the classrooms now for the growing student population so a lot of

▶ 20:01 Speaker 5: July and August is spent in the elementary schools figuring out the

▶ 20:08 Speaker 4: fourth third grades are going to become four fourth grades the four fourth

▶ 20:13 Speaker 5: grades will become three fifth grades it's an extensive effort takes a lot of

▶ 20:17 Speaker 4: time and requires a lot of our effort but that's a lot of what facilities do

▶ 20:21 Speaker 6: and it's worth mentioning because that is now also a standard routine for us on

▶ 20:25 Speaker 5: a yearly basis we continue to work to try to enforce and try to communicate

▶ 20:36 Speaker 5: the 25 mile an hour traffic speed restrict codes that was implemented a few years back we put more 25 mile an hour signals on grove emerson warwick and perkins and there is another order that i

▶ 20:50 Speaker 4: believe we're going to take up next thursday which requests the purchase of additional items

▶ 20:59 Speaker 4: they've proven to be very effective um chief lyle and sergeant gawk have spoken have statistics that

▶ 21:03 Speaker 5: actually prove their effective and it's something we want to continue to do along with signage

▶ 21:14 Speaker 5: and other curb traffic calming issues if you drive by tremont street we have solar panels on our dpw facility those those panels are now functional and our energy manager is tracking the

▶ 21:24 Speaker 6: daily savings and consumption there

▶ 21:32 Speaker 5: we also used green community grants to upgrade infrastructure at

▶ 21:40 Speaker 6: energy management infrastructure at the lincoln school so that we can turn our computer on

▶ 21:47 Speaker 5: see what's happening there lower raise all remotely that's something we couldn't do that

▶ 21:56 Speaker 6: school wasn't as that wasn't part of the esco because at the time it was a newer school but technology changed and it was required an upgrade and we were fortunate to match some of our funds

▶ 22:08 Speaker 5: with green community funds to make those upgrades so looking forward to fy20 obviously we want to continue our ini program and our water main replacement program we'll be back before this

▶ 22:21 Speaker 5: board in the summer to talk about those two we'll also be back before this board in the summer to talk about something that the industry refers to as ms4 it's a continuation of storm water quality

▶ 22:35 Speaker 5: It's an EPA-mandated permit that requires Melrose to do several things.

▶ 22:46 Speaker 5: So YMS-4, it's four S's, and the S is a separate storm sewer system.

▶ 22:51 Speaker 5: It's a municipal permit, very similar to our NPDES permit.

▶ 22:52 Speaker 6: But again, it's mandated.

▶ 22:55 Speaker 5: EPA is requiring it. we're in the process of putting an RFQ requesting qualifications and proposals for consultants that can come in work with our engineering group to move this

▶ 23:10 Speaker 5: program forward we're also looking as always to work with National Grid we

▶ 23:17 Speaker 5: found that we are a very we found them to be a very good partner in gas main replacements Melrose's gas infrastructure is aging it's cast iron

▶ 23:27 Speaker 4: and it's always best to replace those leaks before they become emergencies

▶ 23:32 Speaker 5: they've worked in conjunction with us we tell them where we're heading sometimes they follow us sometimes they tell us where they're headed and we follow them

▶ 23:41 Speaker 5: and in all cases they make monetary they either make a monetary contribution to

▶ 23:50 Speaker 5: the final paving or they pave it themselves at the end of the day we get that benefit as well we'll look together with the recycling committee we're looking to finalize a partnership with waste zero to begin a textile curbside collection program so waste zero would come in and again

▶ 24:10 Speaker 5: we're targeting october 1st for the begin for starting this program the recycling committee has looked very closely at this and feel that it's a it's a beneficial program to the residents of melrose and it would basically allow residents to put their textiles in a bag everyone would receive

▶ 24:32 Speaker 5: a package like this it's a pink bag and you could put your textile out with your trash and recycling

▶ 24:38 Speaker 5: and the company would come out and pick it up at no cost to the resident the company would then

▶ 24:44 Speaker 6: give a penny a pound back to melrose in exchange for allowing them to come in and provide the

▶ 24:49 Speaker 5: service we have a lot to vet out over the summer but i thought it was it was good to get that out

▶ 24:54 Speaker 5: there right now i will form a committee with the recycling committee my staff in public works

▶ 25:06 Speaker 5: to to try and dot the I's cross our T's and have something that we can go on to

▶ 25:11 Speaker 5: the public with in September again with with the hopes of starting this program October 1st through the mayor's office we've worked with our state

▶ 25:20 Speaker 4: representative in our state senators office trying to acquire additional

▶ 25:22 Speaker 5: earmarks for the community in the past we've painted the BB estate with that kind of with that with those funds we've done some wall repairs to the cemetery and now we're looking to continue to do a second phase of wall repair at the cemetery with the air mark to make improvements the friends lot that's the lock behind Papa Gino's and to make some additional school security door upgrades

▶ 25:55 Speaker 5: we're also looking to acquire some additional funding so that we can do more work in that lower part of Main Street that's scheduled to be repaired

▶ 26:04 Speaker 5: next year we're also working with the DCR and in our state representatives

▶ 26:12 Speaker 4: office to make additional upgrades to the fells way this would be the second

▶ 26:13 Speaker 5: or third year where the DCR has come to Melrose to make upgrades we're looking at the intersection of Lincoln Nelson and the Flynn fells Parkway this time

▶ 26:22 Speaker 5: for a complete street project that would narrow that intersection bring in the

▶ 26:31 Speaker 6: curb shorten the distance to cross and bring the flashing beacons to an area

▶ 26:39 Speaker 5: where they're more visible the DCR is also committed to doing a traffic study at the intersection of Melrose Street and the Linfels Parkway

▶ 26:50 Speaker 6: in fact if you go by there this week you'll see tubes running across the

▶ 26:52 Speaker 4: Lindfels Parkway that's part of their study they'll do the study today and at

▶ 26:58 Speaker 6: the encouragement of myself and the superintendent that told the DCI student

▶ 27:02 Speaker 5: population today is very different that it'll be on September 1 they'll be back

▶ 27:09 Speaker 5: in September to make their adjustments so we're looking forward to seeing if we can do something with that we're working closely with planning on upgrades to the auditorium at the middle school we're working with planning on upgrades to actually studying upgrades to the West all we look forward to finalizing that over the summer and we're working with the Memorial Hall trustees to complete a

▶ 27:36 Speaker 5: feasibility study at Memorial Hall we have the funding we've had it for quite

▶ 27:43 Speaker 6: some time but the the facility received an airmark and what we've decided to do

▶ 27:45 Speaker 4: is complete that project with the air mark and then see where it stands and we

▶ 27:49 Speaker 6: can go in and study it at that point after those improvements were completed

▶ 27:55 Speaker 5: I think our planning directors before you soon to talk about that as well so

▶ 28:03 Speaker 5: that those are some of the the things we're looking forward to do we once again

▶ 28:08 Speaker 5: we're happy to report that the snow budget before you has been increased by

▶ 28:16 Speaker 5: 50 000 this is something the auditor has continuously done year after year as part of

▶ 28:21 Speaker 5: your package you'll you you will find what i created last year and then maintain this year

▶ 28:32 Speaker 5: it's an excel spreadsheet of the budget with a narrative there isn't one for snow because we tend to look at the bottom line i did them for all the other budgets because it helps line by line

▶ 28:40 Speaker 5: figure out exactly what we use the line for why it's going up why it's going down or why we've

▶ 28:49 Speaker 5: been able to maintain it also what i did is there are two two files that we circulated this evening these files will go on the website early part of next week and on a mayor's blog it's the

▶ 29:03 Speaker 5: construction schedule our current construction schedule which shows what we're working on what

▶ 29:12 Speaker 5: we intend to work on and what we intend to work on next year and then also included is a roadway ranking um this this is what we do every three years we're scheduled to update this in 2020

▶ 29:25 Speaker 5: but it shows the school the roads and their condition and it groups them in categories by color so you can see how we go about doing that type of thing i've also circulated with

▶ 29:37 Speaker 5: With the orders, a breakdown of salaries, mainly our administrators. Their salaries are split in various divisions between administration, water, and sewer, sometimes other.

▶ 29:58 Speaker 6: And I've circulated that to try to make that a little more clear as well.

▶ 30:01 Speaker 5: Our annual report is online.

▶ 30:05 Speaker 4: It covers a lot of what we've accomplished over the past fiscal year.

▶ 30:12 Speaker 5: you to to review that as well and I'm here to talk about any questions we can go budget by budget or if there are any questions in general about our opening remarks however the chair wants to go about it I guess I'm here for the night

▶ 30:24 Speaker 1: so okay well we appreciate you being here and for all this information and

▶ 30:28 Manisha Bewtra: alderman Bewtra thank you do we need a motion to join the different line items

▶ 30:34 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: or it depends right now we have in front of us I think it's four zero one which

▶ 30:40 Manisha Bewtra: administration and engineering okay I'll make a motion to join them join 401 402 422 423 433 475 485 and 491 which are all the different public works departments as well as or divisions as well as cemetery second so we have a

▶ 31:04 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: I have a motion to join the listed divisions in the public works department that are before us tonight, made by Alderman Butcher and seconded by Alderman Medeiros. Any discussion?

▶ 31:16 Speaker 1: Yes, Alderman Mortimer.

▶ 31:18 Peter D. Mortimer: I think that's a great motion. And if it would please the chair, I would like to read the amounts of those various budgets. Since we're going to address them all simultaneously, I think it would be good for the public to know the amounts of each. And the budgets named were 401, 402, 422, 423, 433, 475, 485, and 491. And the amounts of those budgets respectively are $774,726.54. 4 million, if someone would like to run, maybe put a calculator on this and we can have the grand total as I say them. there but there's right there okay the next budget is 4 million 202 thousand three hundred and sixty two dollars the next one is 622 thousand two hundred seventy four dollars and 34 cents the next one is six hundred and seventy-five dollars the next one thousand dollars the next one is one million four hundred fifty-five dollars six hundred and fifty five dollars and fifty six cents the The next one is $752,666. 485 is $508,267 and 491 is $267.98, thank you.

▶ 32:46 Speaker 8: Any additional discussion?

▶ 32:51 Peter D. Mortimer: And all that is for a grant total of $9,258,049.79.

▶ 33:01 Speaker 1: thank you very much thank you all in favor aye opposed okay so we've joined

▶ 33:08 Manisha Bewtra: those divisions together and Alderman Beatrix thank you thank you mr. Shana for being here tonight I wanted I guess my first questions were around the this table the salary distribution and this is really helpful to see how the salaries are broken out but I it looks primarily like these are mostly from administration and engineering there were a couple I looked on the city website earlier and just was trying to map who's who and which positions and there were a couple positions I was not entirely clear about or that maybe the public wouldn't be clear about because I think one of them I know but in terms of the engineer and water billing clerk is that is that the same title that would be online and I just kind of couldn't find that particular it might be it's

▶ 34:02 Speaker 6: our it's our administrative clerk in the engineering office downstairs she does engineering and water and sewer billing she's just that offices does both and

▶ 34:14 Manisha Bewtra: she's the administrative clerk in that office okay great and her probably her contact information is it's whereas the administrators informations on the website though so that might be why I didn't see that okay and then I assume the GIS operator is the shared GIS position that's with planning several other yeah okay and then there was executive assistant is that a similar situation where it's just somebody who's not so executive assistant is actually

▶ 34:41 Speaker 6: the executive assistant to the superintendent of Mount Hood and parks

▶ 34:44 Speaker 5: got it we pay 20% of that salary we put we meaning Public Works Public Works

▶ 34:52 Speaker 6: also pays 50% of the superintendent of open space and Mount Hood's salary and that's for the work that both of them do in parks for permitting and playground

▶ 35:04 Manisha Bewtra: maintenance and those other aspects great and as the fund analysts related to water and sewer is that the fund that is it's strictly water and sewer it's Donna Cardillo and so that's that the consultant who kind of does the whole model or is that a different position no no this is Donna this is a portion of

▶ 35:24 Speaker 6: Donna Cardillo salary she Donna assists in analyzing the fund revenues fund expenditures she does a lot of work with munis and setting up billing and programming and that's that's her piece of her salary okay great so whereas that

▶ 35:36 Manisha Bewtra: would be professional services for the other right got it and then finally

▶ 35:45 Speaker 5: rental coordinator yep rental coordinator is paid 100% by the school

▶ 35:51 Speaker 5: department through their building rental fund it's a part-time position and that

▶ 35:54 Speaker 6: position manages rentals and coordinates staffing for those events in the schools

▶ 36:05 Manisha Bewtra: great that was mostly just wanting to make sure I understood where all those positions were so thank you for that um and you said that these will be going going out in the mayor's blog the the map and the schedule I think that's really helpful for the public I was curious in terms of the roadway ranking how that ranking works like what kinds of criteria as you met it can imagine roads come up a lot in conversations of constituents in terms of my road is in whatever condition and then I look and then I'm like well this one's ranked as fair so I'm curious how that works it's not subjective it's a quantitative

▶ 36:52 Speaker 5: observations there are 10 or 12 categories and the categories that come

▶ 36:58 Speaker 5: from mass DOT standards look at cracking shrinkage potholes trenches shoving all

▶ 37:08 Speaker 5: these other technical highway terms there are 10 or 12 of those categories that are ranked

▶ 37:15 Speaker 4: and then we put a factor of traffic obviously the more traffic a road sees we adjust it for that

▶ 37:25 Speaker 6: and and and then they're categorized and then we take those numbers and rather than do one to 850 or however many streets are in the city we group them into those three or four categories you see in the mouth and and that's what we focus on great and actually sorry I

▶ 37:36 Manisha Bewtra: realized I skipped one of my questions to from the salary distribution the other question I had was related to the project engineer position that was not funded that was the position that was cut in the previous fiscal year's budget

▶ 37:56 Manisha Bewtra: correct that position was cut in the FY 19 budget was there discussion on restoring that position or what the trade-offs were there's a high

▶ 38:07 Speaker 6: likelihood that position will be brought back with this new round of projects

▶ 38:11 Speaker 6: that I mentioned before be presented to the board okay okay this summer that's

▶ 38:19 Manisha Bewtra: helpful to know and then yeah and thank you for the updates on the ranking process and then my final question although I'm sure this is going to come back before us is or I guess a question that can be answered later potentially but one of the concerns I have with I love this idea of the waste zero textile bags as you also know the schools raise money for the PTO's with Bay State textiles and just curious to what extent that that's been part of the conversation or is it still like early in the conversation I addressed it right

▶ 38:53 Speaker 5: first and right away with them they put literature out and they said they they

▶ 38:56 Speaker 4: committed debt without whatever literature we put out would it would state that drop-off boxes at the school elementary schools would still be accessible to the resident so if a resident wants to make the effort to

▶ 39:12 Speaker 5: fill a bag put it in the car and bring it to the Winthrop school of the Hoover

▶ 39:14 Speaker 4: school the roosevelt school to help support those ptos um we still want that to happen

▶ 39:22 Speaker 5: but if a resident doesn't want to make that effort or can't at least they'll have the opportunity to clean their closet out put it in the bag put the bag out curbside the benefit for melrose isn't

▶ 39:37 Speaker 5: the penny a pound that we that we could receive that that that that's minuscule um the benefit for melrose is that we take all these items out of the waste stream where we're paying 65 66

▶ 39:47 Speaker 4: dollars a ton it's not just textile they offer other items that you could put in the bag as well

▶ 39:54 Speaker 5: i think it's a good it's a good it's another benefit and it's a new way to take what has

▶ 40:02 Speaker 4: become a stagnant tonnage we got really really we improved and our tonnage got much better but now

▶ 40:05 Speaker 5: now we're kind of stagnant and this could be a way to just re-energize

▶ 40:13 Speaker 6: people and thinking about sustainable and sustainability and recycling and how

▶ 40:20 Manisha Bewtra: they can make a difference with ease yeah that's it sounds like a really good opportunity for us well I have a lot more questions but I think they're not super they don't pertain specifically to budget so I'll yield my time now and thank you chairman vice chair boys oh good evening John thank you for coming

▶ 40:35 Robert A. Boisselle: going over the different budgets here I just have a few questions in the public works facility budget as the schools and public buildings been electric audited by the power companies they offer audits to come in and review the lighting and so forth has that been done throughout the school systems and public buildings

▶ 41:02 Speaker 5: no well I could tell you that audited monthly by our energy manager Martha

▶ 41:09 Speaker 6: Grover she looks very carefully at consumption she she goes through the

▶ 41:18 Speaker 4: bills she and and I do as well from a macro perspective bird's-eye view down

▶ 41:22 Speaker 5: the success in the ESCO programs and our energy management efforts are really in the fact that these budgets have been level funded for several years right and

▶ 41:36 Speaker 5: although our rates increase through a combination of aggressive negotiations

▶ 41:39 Speaker 6: with on rate staples on our rates and the energy management improvements that

▶ 41:55 Speaker 4: we've we've done we've been able to to zero fund and last year um was a relatively mild year this

▶ 41:58 Speaker 5: spring has been a relatively cool spring and there could be a cert there could be surpluses in these

▶ 42:05 Speaker 6: lines that will eventually turn back to the auditor at the end of the year so not only did

▶ 42:11 Speaker 4: we were we able to maintain our budgets but we there could be a possibility that this year would

▶ 42:17 Speaker 4: be turning back some money as well so from my perspective those those um those programs have

▶ 42:20 Speaker 6: worked extremely well i'm sure we can provide you deep more detail if you'd like but that a lot of

▶ 42:28 Speaker 6: what we've done we do is we do it in-house and amoresco has come in they haven't been in recently

▶ 42:32 Speaker 5: but last year they do come in and they actually rate us on how well we were performing and i think

▶ 42:45 Speaker 4: you know it was a a minus b pluses right across the board so um that was that was a good test

▶ 42:50 Robert A. Boisselle: rate as well very good uh another area you have a municipal building repair and maintenance about eighty eight thousand dollars uh is that for city hall memorial hall or what buildings are

▶ 43:05 Speaker 5: we talking about here that is not for memorial hall uh we public works isn't responsible for

▶ 43:11 Speaker 4: the maintenance of that building or the bb estates but that covers all four of your public safety

▶ 43:19 Speaker 5: buildings any maintenance we do at the library the milano center the public works building

▶ 43:26 Robert A. Boisselle: cemetery building and this building okay next one is the school cleaning contract of 225 000 is that for all the schools and what type of cleaning are we looking at is this painting or

▶ 43:38 Speaker 5: the middle school is clean contractually on a daily basis and and in the summer

▶ 43:44 Speaker 6: and during vacation weeks the high school is cleaned during vacation weeks

▶ 43:52 Speaker 5: contractually and over the summer we start at the top and go right through

▶ 43:57 Speaker 5: contractually as well at the high school so all of the elementary schools are cleaned both during the school year and in the summer by our in-house

▶ 44:05 Robert A. Boisselle: custodians okay the school grounds maintenance and school equipment maintenance is this basically the mowing of the lawn no all the groundwork is

▶ 44:18 Speaker 5: covered in our park and forestry budget the the school school ground line really

▶ 44:23 Speaker 6: covers fences fence lines areas of sometimes as a walkway but for the much

▶ 44:27 Speaker 5: for the most part right now it's been fence work a lot of our fence work along

▶ 44:32 Speaker 6: our property line requires upgrades we last summer we did a fence line at the Lincoln School people still see the Lincoln School as being new but it's 20

▶ 44:47 Speaker 6: years old that fence had to be repaired so we do things like that gates and flag

▶ 44:53 Robert A. Boisselle: poles and other could bike racks other equipment like that okay the next line item is a supplies and materials section the school maintenance supply what what is the difference between the maintenance in the upper area and this

▶ 45:08 Speaker 5: particular line item so school maintenance supplies of that's what those that's the line item we use to purchase material to make repairs to the

▶ 45:18 Speaker 6: actually to the building toilet broken toilet a new light fixture would to fix

▶ 45:25 Speaker 6: a door hardware it's supplies that our employees need to go out and make a repair okay school custodial supply line them is your cleaning supplies your toilet paper your paper towels items that we need to clean the school or that people in the building need to on a day-to-day basis so we keep them

▶ 45:43 Speaker 5: separate because it's good to see one is a true indicator of how much the

▶ 45:46 Speaker 6: employees are making repairs to the building or as the other one it's good to see what you know what are we using and what are we tracking in terms of

▶ 45:55 Robert A. Boisselle: supplies so that last line and in that section of school contractual that includes all the schools school contractual is one we bring in vendors to

▶ 46:06 Speaker 5: work throughout the school district okay we track all these lines separately when

▶ 46:10 Speaker 4: it comes to schools because at the end of the fiscal year our auditing staff

▶ 46:12 Speaker 6: forwards it to the school department now that's that's what the special coding I

▶ 46:15 Robert A. Boisselle: think the auditor mentioned there's a special code for the school sections

▶ 46:22 Speaker 5: yeah there's a special code you'll see in the in the munis munis system right the school lines are

▶ 46:29 Robert A. Boisselle: longer right school codes are longer it's a nine digit i think yeah wherever you see a longer code

▶ 46:32 Speaker 6: that those lines get reported back to the school for nets for their net school spending calculations

▶ 46:38 Robert A. Boisselle: moving on to the public works sanitation the trash disposal it only is this the tipping fee for the trash that's picked up by the community trash disposal is our tipping fee it only went up one

▶ 46:59 Speaker 7: dollar no we level funded it our contract went up one dollar per ton but

▶ 47:03 Speaker 5: oh the contract did yeah the contract went up one dollar per ton but I've

▶ 47:07 Speaker 6: elected to level fund it again in hopes that the community will respond and and not throw away as much as last year and try to recycle a little more we've done

▶ 47:17 Speaker 4: this now this is the third year where I we level either level fund or reduce

▶ 47:22 Speaker 5: this line and it's a little bit of a risk but it seems to it seems to work

▶ 47:30 Speaker 6: but the note from 64 to 65 that price increases the per tonnage increase okay

▶ 47:34 Robert A. Boisselle: also landscaping supplies seem to show up in a couple of the budget areas like we have in the cemetery landscaping supplies you mentioned the school is landscaping supplies also uh is that all coming under the forest and park uh park and forestry

▶ 47:55 Speaker 6: has landscape supplies for everywhere in the city with the exception of the cemetery

▶ 47:58 Robert A. Boisselle: okay so if you have the cemetery uh with a landscaping supplies is that the same thing that

▶ 48:06 Speaker 6: no that that's for supplies that we use to landscape the grounds at the cemetery again we tracked out that separately so that we can report to the commissioners what we do how we

▶ 48:16 Robert A. Boisselle: do it and what we spent okay the final question here I have in the salary distribution section you have a project engineer and a rental coordinator their percentages in that is in that other column is that sort of from the grants that we're receiving for a particular project the project engineers the other

▶ 48:39 Speaker 6: is grants right MWRA loans the rental coordinator the other is actually the

▶ 48:45 Speaker 6: school department the school department pays the salary for that position

▶ 48:51 Speaker 6: through the rental income that they bring oh okay very good all right thank

▶ 48:53 Robert A. Boisselle: you John thank you very much thank you madam chair thank you thank you mr.

▶ 49:03 Monica C. Medeiros: Jenna I have a number of questions over some various departments so bear with me as I jump around a little bit first I had noticed that I was really appreciative of getting the updated FY 19 current budget expenditure reports dated all the way up till June 4th I know your department or many of these departments in particular you know really have heavy usage in the spring and so you know when we received the original budgets on the other munis reports on May 2nd I there's certainly been a lot of activity since then I noticed that the postage line in I think it's administration and engineering

▶ 49:54 Monica C. Medeiros: what's actually been spent was kind of quite a bit above the budgeted amount and i was wondering if there was a particular project that that was in relation to and um i know we're budgeting next year is that the same amount as last year so i wasn't sure if there was

▶ 50:09 Speaker 5: something on no no that that that's a one-time additional cost that was a mailing that we did

▶ 50:13 Speaker 6: for our postcards and we also we didn't time it we typically we have postage meters in our offices

▶ 50:26 Speaker 6: and last year we we ended up filling that meter I think in the fiscal 19 instead of the end of fiscal 18 so I'm fine we'll be okay there and we've made up that deficit in the group within that same group so and on the postage

▶ 50:42 Monica C. Medeiros: discussion the the waste zero project with the bags that you had that package that you had shown us there for textile recycling will that the postage for those will they be paid by the city of Melrose are paid by the vendor any

▶ 50:59 Speaker 9: advertising is on it's on them so they'll they'll pay to distribute those

▶ 51:05 Monica C. Medeiros: okay that's great in overall in salary distributions and I'm not sure if I read this correctly in the memo is there a change or shift in one of the

▶ 51:21 Speaker 5: administrative positions yes so our in fiscal 18 we had a recycling coordinator

▶ 51:23 Speaker 6: and a an executive assistant to the DPW director who used to be Kristen and when

▶ 51:33 Speaker 6: Kristen moved on to become clerk of committees that was an area where unfortunately last year we had to make some cuts to try to balance the budget

▶ 51:48 Speaker 6: that was an area that we elected to not fund our recycling coordinator over the course of the fiscal year resigned and we went the balance of it without either

▶ 51:55 Speaker 5: and what we did throughout that time is actually we found new ways of doing new

▶ 52:01 Speaker 6: job responsibilities because we had to keep recycling we had still had a responsibility that a committee recycling committee so we shifted some responsibilities and what we're proposing in FY 20 is to combine those two into one position one full-time position verse two it would and the position is executive assistant Public Works it's a position that would report directly to me that position would be responsible for recycling events would be the liaison to the recycling committee would but at the same time would also take on other responsibilities there are a lot of committees volunteer committees in the city right now that are connected to the department and we're hoping to use this position to not only bring forward our recycling initiatives but also some of our other initiatives as well and is there somebody existing

▶ 52:55 Monica C. Medeiros: staff person that's going to basically know positions vacant upon successful

▶ 53:04 Speaker 6: passage of the budget the job description is in human resources ready

▶ 53:09 Speaker 4: to go and now we'll start our advertising how much administrative

▶ 53:12 Monica C. Medeiros: support do you have I mean we have just in these budgets that we're seeing here tonight over nine million dollars and that doesn't include water and sewer how much administrative help do you have do we have one person that does accounts

▶ 53:30 Speaker 6: payable billing essentially the majority of her time we have another person that does payroll and utility billing and then we have an admin an administrative assistant in engineering and water and sewer does final water bills senior discounts and helps engineering as much as they can as well and at tremont street we have an administrator that pretty much is there to serve

▶ 53:59 Speaker 6: residents so we have four four positions that search basically keep the administration running We have a part-time position at the cemetery and obviously Joan Bell has Cindy Berkley who's an administrator that helps with parks and permits

▶ 54:13 Speaker 4: That's about it

▶ 54:16 Monica C. Medeiros: And would this person be located at City Hall or at Tremont Street

▶ 54:21 Speaker 6: Tremont Street more than likely

▶ 54:25 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you, I I think that's a position that that makes sense given you know the bulk of responsibilities that we need and we really see the difference having somebody strong and they're especially in recycling coordinator in that position to the programs and their success in terms of

▶ 54:45 Monica C. Medeiros: snow there's a line item that is that is well I mean it's it's basically youth

▶ 55:11 Monica C. Medeiros: youth snow and it's $1,000 and I see that we didn't really use that last year

▶ 55:20 Speaker 5: and um can you just explain a little bit about what's yeah that line that that line we don't

▶ 55:22 Speaker 6: use that line anymore we should actually remove from the budget um there was a time where we ran a a program where high school students could come and work for public works and then we dispatched them to residence we find that we found that very cumbersome because in the peak of a snowstorm with let alone all the activity that comes in and out of that office but we're focused on roadways and getting schools and buildings open so what we do now is we just provide a list to residents directly and they can coordinate so we don't use that we haven't used that line in a long time and I'm gonna have to make a note to take that out for next year I was actually hoping perhaps we might

▶ 56:00 Monica C. Medeiros: use it I know we've heard a lot of people and you know and we've had a lot of issues where sometimes times we're looking for help with that last bit of snow getting clear three

▶ 56:12 Speaker 4: corners we we have the list we just don't pay the kids directly what we do

▶ 56:18 Speaker 6: is we if someone calls looking for assistance we create the list every

▶ 56:24 Speaker 6: everywhere to go before every winter we call the high school and we used to work with Mary and Farrell now we work with Jason Merrill and his staff they do announcements who who's interested we end up with a list phone numbers where they live and then we try to match kids with whatever phone call we get typically that happens the first or second storm a lot and then as we get through winter either that connection happens or people find other resources

▶ 56:52 Monica C. Medeiros: to get their snow cleaned and I just might suggest that for next year maybe also reaching out to the vocational school for the melt students who live in

▶ 57:07 Monica C. Medeiros: good okay so we talked a little bit about the ESCO and again I see that we actually spent a little bit more than we had budgeted on the ESCO and so I was wondering what that that was if that was a one-time fee I thought you know we were in a contract so I was surprised to see it's probably you were that we spent

▶ 57:33 Speaker 5: little bit more than um that's in facilities yeah that um i'd have to look into that line a little

▶ 57:41 Speaker 6: bit because we we we set it up um that could be just something that got mischarged we will go in and clean all those up middle end of june that could be a miss misappropriation of a line it could be something that the outside audit would catch and put it in the right line item in that group i'm not sure why that went over but the payment was 189 916 for this fiscal year okay

▶ 58:03 Speaker 9: that didn't change and then there is a line that looks like it says school security yes could you

▶ 58:15 Speaker 5: talk about what's included in that so we have fob we have fob systems is that um five two seven five

▶ 58:24 Speaker 5: five five yes so we have bob we have fob systems on all the exteriors of our doors and um

▶ 58:32 Speaker 6: occasionally they break so we use that line to make repairs

▶ 58:37 Speaker 6: to any fob we work with i.t to make repairs to any fob systems sometimes it could be um

▶ 58:42 Speaker 6: video equipment i mean it's a small amount of money but there could be a time where there is

▶ 58:48 Speaker 6: something i.t can't get to or they don't have the resources to fix and then we assist them in that

▶ 58:56 Monica C. Medeiros: way uh on a different topic um we had a question from a resident about the dpw being open on saturdays and um so right now those shifts that that you know a lot of people can't make it to dpw during the week and so saturday is a great benefit to our residents but those shifts are

▶ 59:20 Monica C. Medeiros: overtime shifts yeah for three employees for three employees um the resident had asked you know if we could instead of having those be overtime is there an option to change the shift to do more of a swing shift and give somebody um you know give somebody monday off and and work saturday and have monday off is that an option or is that um involve contractual obligations yeah the negotiations

▶ 59:47 Speaker 6: the issue is that that saturday overtime shift is a rotation they share there's three different people every week that are entitled to that overtime um that would be an administrative burden in shifting those schedules that way the line has been in the sanitation budget for several years now it's just it's overtime and sanitation i prefer to leave it like that because it gives us our full complement of employees during the week because if we're losing three employees during the week that could impact the crews and what we do during the week as well my preference is to leave it as it is i think shifting schedules could be extremely problematic to our weekly

▶ 1:00:29 Monica C. Medeiros: operations and i imagine we take in a lot of waste in recycling drop off and on the weekends that otherwise might end up in the waste stream if we weren't open oh we're extremely busy on saturday

▶ 1:00:40 Speaker 6: it's almost for some families it's a ritual okay okay very good okay and last but not least thank

▶ 1:00:47 Monica C. Medeiros: you for putting this together and on roads and highway um i saw that there's a it looks like we have about a ten thousand dollar increase in um painting um the traffic markings is going up from

▶ 1:01:06 Monica C. Medeiros: forty thousand two fifty to fifty thousand two fifty and this is uh maintaining new bike lanes insignia traffic calming lanes so that's a ten thousand dollar increase in that line so um can

▶ 1:01:22 Monica C. Medeiros: you kind of explain a little bit more in detail about why we we over the years we have um we have

▶ 1:01:33 Speaker 6: added a lot of paint to the streets whether it's fog lines additional crosswalks the what i call

▶ 1:01:38 Speaker 6: the shark teeth the arrows that coming in and out of a crosswalk across hatches which the infill on a crosswalk this is a line that we've struggled with for several years to try to paint as much

▶ 1:01:52 Speaker 6: as we could paint without the budget being what it should be the bike lanes have tipped that to the point where we needed to increase it it was great that we got complete street funding to install the initial bike lanes but now we have to keep up with them and we're going to need that funding to paint on a yearly basis and keep up with not just bike lanes but all the other traffic calming and crosswalks we've been adding it adds up all the time and then meanwhile I see

▶ 1:02:22 Monica C. Medeiros: our bituminous patch line item is looks like it's level funded yes so I know so

▶ 1:02:40 Monica C. Medeiros: we have a lot of you know we talked a little bit about in the road prioritization that a lot of different things go into this the different criteria and I think sometimes it can be a little bit confusing to see that we have for residents in particular we have some of the streets ranked as in the poorest condition but yet they're not on the roadway ranking is some of this have to do with other utilities in their work at the same time or so we have our

▶ 1:03:16 Speaker 6: engineering group has four four main areas they look at when they're looking at a roadway improvement a possible commitment to a roadway improvement they look at the ranking

▶ 1:03:30 Speaker 6: is it within the lowest group then they overlay the water and does it need a water improvement

▶ 1:03:35 Speaker 4: and then they look at sewer to see if there are areas that require open cut sewer work

▶ 1:03:36 Speaker 6: the last thing they look at is gas sometimes the gas company will come to us and say i need to get on the street and then they pull out those we pull out those other three to see

▶ 1:03:51 Speaker 6: so that's how we pick what roads we work on and we're in the second year of a three-year reconstruction project program next year we'll be completing that program and setting the next two to three years that's why we want to reevaluate as we come out of the spring the roads are never in worse condition

▶ 1:04:09 Speaker 6: than they are in the spring I think this year I mean based on the calls that I've

▶ 1:04:16 Speaker 6: been seeing and the work orders that i've been seeing this has been a very difficult spring to

▶ 1:04:21 Speaker 6: to go out and get those potholes repaired because it seems like it's rained every other day

▶ 1:04:26 Speaker 4: during pothole season you can't go out and do the potholes during the air during during that type

▶ 1:04:33 Speaker 5: of weather so i think i think some of what residents are seeing is that it's a challenge

▶ 1:04:36 Speaker 6: it's taking us longer to get where we should be and um and some of it is just a deteriorate

▶ 1:04:47 Speaker 4: deteriorating next group of roads that have to be addressed so you know

▶ 1:04:49 Monica C. Medeiros: obviously we're not going to take care of all the roads in one year if we were going to take care of all the roads that need to be taken care of how long would

▶ 1:05:03 Speaker 6: that take oh I think it's I think they quantified it once as 20 million dollars

▶ 1:05:06 Speaker 4: over 10 or 12 years I I can give you that information I just want to make

▶ 1:05:12 Monica C. Medeiros: sure that that it's really clear to the public that we're not going to get to probably all the roads this year I know there was some talk during the override debate where you know the mayor had said that if we didn't pass the override we were going to be three years behind in road repairs and obviously so now some residents are expecting that we're not going to be three years behind anymore since the override passed but I just want to make it clear that it's like you're saying if we took care of fixing all the roads it might take 10 to 12

▶ 1:05:44 Speaker 5: years i mean it's no doubt it's not more i mean that's why i like to pass these out hand in hand

▶ 1:05:48 Speaker 4: because you know these are the this is the roadway ranking and this is what we're working on

▶ 1:05:57 Speaker 5: and this is all we're working on given the funding that we have in place if we can get additional

▶ 1:06:00 Speaker 4: funding we can do more of the roadway work that this map isolate that this map identifies but

▶ 1:06:08 Speaker 6: right now based on the funding we have within the budgets and within our bonds um that's all we can do and that's why I like to release them side by side yeah are there options to

▶ 1:06:15 Monica C. Medeiros: do things like partial you know grinding and in paving or for some of these roads

▶ 1:06:25 Speaker 5: it could it depends on the existing condition of the roads so I tend to

▶ 1:06:34 Monica C. Medeiros: leave that decision up to our engineers and you know so this are we going to see any detriment because this the two minutes patch line is level funded again

▶ 1:06:44 Speaker 6: the two minutes patch line is strictly so that we can buy the two minutes material to go out and do potholes we don't use this line item to do anything but that it's a material line item in our highway budget and we that's just so

▶ 1:06:59 Speaker 6: that we can supply our highway crew with the materials they need to go out and make the repairs we don't repave roads with it we don't do any of that all that

▶ 1:07:06 Speaker 6: comes from chapter 90 our roadway bond and any other grant we can we can acquire

▶ 1:07:12 Monica C. Medeiros: thanks very much I think that is helpful and we appreciate thank you thank you

▶ 1:07:18 Shawn M. MacMaster: madam chair good evening mr. Shana hey appreciate you being here and I'm particularly appreciative of how prepared you always are when you come before us not only does I think that say a lot about you as a professional but it It helps prepare us for the hearing, and the four-page memo that you submitted along with the map and the other visuals makes it much easier for us to get through such a comprehensive budget. So thank you again for always being prepared and making our job easier. I also just wanted to acknowledge you and thank you for some of the work that you've been doing in Ward 5. In your memo, you mentioned Francis and Perkins. the neighborhood is very pleased and thankful for the road and sidewalk improvements you know certainly there's work underway now that you've referenced both to install a crosswalk it's on lower Washington Street where little sprouts daycare is also work underway which I believe you said will be complete hopefully next week dependent on the weather to have a new crosswalk on Sylvan Street coming down from Mount Vernon Ave which will make it easier to access Pine Banks you referenced the Lincoln School fence the crosswalk excuse me the the solar speed limit on Silver Street so I think in you know in a year's time and the opportunity that we've had to work together you've done a considerable amount of work for the residents of Ward 5 so thank you and team for that and I think all of the aldermen sitting around the horseshoe I think would agree that you and your team really are the best in the business and how fortunate and lucky we are I think what's unique about your department is that you interface with the public in so many different ways and you interface with all of our departments in different ways as well so whether or not it's on the athletic fields in the schools in Memorial Hall and the Senior Center so I I think that's important to recognize the state publicly. So thank you for that with respect to the the budget Alderman Medeiros and Alderman Boycelle asked two of the questions that I had but I did have one question under sanitation and that Under the contractual section Mr. Shen of the line item five two two seven one. Oh trash recycling is an increase of seven point one percent can you just talk a

▶ 1:10:04 Shawn M. MacMaster: little bit about that so it's just an increase based on the contract that's a

▶ 1:10:07 Speaker 6: negotiated increase based on our contract goes up fifty thousand dollars

▶ 1:10:15 Shawn M. MacMaster: a year okay it's done that for the last two years I'm very very briefly on as a follow-up to alderman Medeiros um i think he answered the questions i had but just so i'm clear relative to the roadway ranking map um is it fair to say that the the map is used in part to to determine the roads uh the street work that is going to be done it's not the driving factor but it's one of multiple variables that you look at yes okay um so there are circumstances under which road work would be prioritized on a street um that is ranked on this map that might be in better shape than than another street yes that happens it's not the viable it's a guide it's a

▶ 1:11:04 Speaker 5: reference but you know if we say we were to get a fema grant to do drainage work on a particular

▶ 1:11:10 Speaker 6: street you know it's not that we leave we're not going to go we're not going to go do that drainage work because it's not you know one of the worst streets in that ward now we'll go do the drainage

▶ 1:11:22 Speaker 4: work we'll do the road with it because it's a good opportunity to improve infrastructure so that's

▶ 1:11:27 Shawn M. MacMaster: how we utilize these ranking systems and you talked about multiple variables that that you look at that there's quantitative data that informs how you go about doing this you mentioned one of those uh data points um is traffic other than the the very well-traveled roads that we all know washington street pleasant street west wyoming you know tremont trenton um main street of course how do you how do you account for streets that may be heavily traveled that are less known but that are more recognized as being highly traveled by residents so I'm referring specifically to cut through streets how if at all is that accounted for in here and if it if it's not is there some opportunity to look more in a qualitative way at you know whether that's through residents reaching out to you or to you through us to consider though you know those streets that are cut throughs that one might not assume is heavily traveled but is heavily traveled because they they live on that street yeah i mean we always welcome feedback what we do is

▶ 1:12:47 Speaker 4: that traffic factor is based on the experience in the department we'll we'll sit around and say okay

▶ 1:12:55 Speaker 6: this is you know you have your main collective roads those are very easy for anybody to identify your main streets your washington streets your franklin streets then let's go to the next group and that next group is always um something that we have a discussion on and typically we

▶ 1:13:12 Speaker 6: usually break it down into three groups you'll have your collectors your main your main neighborhood

▶ 1:13:16 Speaker 4: collectors and then your neighborhood streets that's how we usually go about it because i do

▶ 1:13:18 Shawn M. MacMaster: think that input from you know from us and from residents is important rather than focusing so much on quantitative data that qualitative data that you know is based on the experiences of people who who live on streets and i think if there's a way to formalize that to be something that goes into the assessment process and the rating because i do you know last year when you came before us and i was relatively new at that point i was looking at the map and you know i was confused and didn't quite understand and i hadn't benefited from the previous time before i was on this board where you came before and spoke to the board about what specifically went into the rankings but even now looking at it and i think you know the streets and i don't need to say that because we've had conversations and you've been very responsive in doing some temporary road work that you know i still question some of the rankings so what might be helpful to me if it's something that you can share is if if they were and i have four streets in mind um is that data in the um the ranking um available so that i can better understand it so that when i'm interacting with constituents i can say this is what resulted in your road being ranked this way and then be able to offer any additional feedback that i have and that the residents have that may then result in a different classification you know based on your you know know your expertise and if it is significant enough to change maybe your ranking no we have

▶ 1:14:51 Speaker 6: information on every street that we can share just send me a list of the streets and we'll

▶ 1:14:59 Speaker 6: put it together and send it along anything that we can do to help um you do your job in

▶ 1:15:04 Speaker 4: informing residents at the end of the day is going to help us so just if there are situations like

▶ 1:15:09 Speaker 6: that um send us a list and we'll provide you the information we'll either give you a brief

▶ 1:15:14 Shawn M. MacMaster: narrative or even send you the files from the field that's helpful thank you uh and just uh two other quick questions since you're here could you just a brief update on ashmont street national park in terms of the timing of that is it close to completion water work on ashmont street national

▶ 1:15:29 Speaker 6: park is 100 complete last week we made the final connection out onto pleasant street

▶ 1:15:33 Speaker 5: the gas company has one or two more gas services left and at that point we'll regroup and start

▶ 1:15:42 Speaker 5: um to prepare for a road program that will start at some point this summer my final question

▶ 1:15:46 Shawn M. MacMaster: superintendent shana relates to you talked about your work with dcr and you talked about the areas of the fells way where there's conversations underway have conversations included assess well do those conversations include assessing traffic calming measures is that at at the intersection

▶ 1:16:10 Speaker 4: of the lindfels parkway and melrose street those are the only ones that my department is is um is

▶ 1:16:18 Speaker 6: associate is engaged with the dcr with there and at lincoln and nelson and lincoln nelson fellsway

▶ 1:16:24 Shawn M. MacMaster: intersection okay would there be uh an opportunity for dialogue on other areas of the fellsway sure um particularly fellsway east where some residents have had to come up with some extreme measures uh to try to address traffic we've been meeting um every other month with

▶ 1:16:44 Speaker 4: representative broder's office and the dcr engineers and dcr staff and we've updated on

▶ 1:16:55 Speaker 6: we've been updating those two intersections and what we could do and i'm sure if we work together

▶ 1:16:58 Speaker 4: we could we could add fellsway east to that discussion as well that that would be great um

▶ 1:17:02 Shawn M. MacMaster: I will follow up with you on that, and I know the residents of Fellsway East will be pleased to have some additional advocacy from City Hall in addition to what's already underway. So thank you, Superintendent Shana. Thank you, Madam Chair.

▶ 1:17:17 Speaker 1: Thank you, Alderman Search.

▶ 1:17:19 Speaker 10: Thank you, Madam Chair.

▶ 1:17:21 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank you for being here this evening, and thanks for all of your work throughout the year, especially for you and your entire department. The DPW facility and department is open 24-7, correct?

▶ 1:17:32 Speaker 5: um we are open they're staffed 24 7. well we have emergency staffing that takes over

▶ 1:17:39 Speaker 4: a certain parts of the day but yes we're 24 7. we respond 24 7 if needed thank you

▶ 1:17:49 Speaker 10: so you had mentioned um earlier about the um partnership with national grid that you have

▶ 1:17:53 Michael P. Zwirko: with a lot of the the work that's going on i was reminded when you were giving your comments earlier about the um the underground explosion in the essex area has there been an investigation into that and has that investigation been complete my understanding is there was my

▶ 1:18:17 Speaker 6: understanding it is complete i have requested the memorandum now a couple of times i don't have it as soon as i get it though i will send it because i know there are a few residents that are they're awaiting it but they basically um they've um they've stated to the city that all of the

▶ 1:18:30 Speaker 5: upgrades that were that needed to be and needed to take place out there that they've completed them

▶ 1:18:35 Speaker 4: but we are looking for that piece of paper just so we could close that okay thank you for that

▶ 1:18:40 Michael P. Zwirko: um so i wanted to talk now a little bit about the um recycling coordinator position slash administrative position i'm curious as to pending approval of this budget of course the posting and what that will entail do you have a specific split as to how you envision that role will it be like a 70 30 split recycling coordinator administrative is it going to be you know primarily recycling coordinator with some administrative role you know this is a position that we the city funded separately for many years and now we're combining it i understand the reasons for doing so but my concern is is and as you raised earlier my worry about the tonnage reduction that you made in the hopes that you know the citizens will provide less tonnage focusing on recycling efforts would certainly help with the tonnage reduction and you know I'm it's it's an area that I don't feel that we should be stepping back from as a community and I'm curious if if this new combined role is going to do that so I I don't have a

▶ 1:19:48 Speaker 6: day-to-day breakdown of percentage i would never do that i don't do that to anybody in my staff

▶ 1:19:54 Speaker 5: because i think it would vary from day to day it would vary from week to week there could be days

▶ 1:19:58 Speaker 4: where it's 100 recycling there could be weeks where it's 100 recycling um but this past year

▶ 1:20:08 Speaker 6: what we've been able to do is make res recycling is part of our every day now it's not um it's

▶ 1:20:15 Speaker 6: we're not a department that oh we have to recite like it's part of what we do it's we're ingrained

▶ 1:20:18 Speaker 5: in it and the the this position not having this position for the last six seven months we've been

▶ 1:20:28 Speaker 6: able to take this responsibility a lot of those responsibility and add it to different people

▶ 1:20:32 Speaker 6: within the department people who are now running events people who are now monitoring tonnage

▶ 1:20:42 Speaker 6: coming out of the facility so i feel confident that this can work and if it doesn't i'll be the

▶ 1:20:47 Speaker 4: first one to come back next year and say this isn't working we need to split the role again

▶ 1:20:56 Speaker 6: i mean two years ago we eliminated the executive assistant position and um you know i said we'll

▶ 1:20:58 Speaker 4: give it our best shot which we did and we need that we need we need that position back so this

▶ 1:21:06 Speaker 5: was a way how to get something back into the department without without really capsizing

▶ 1:21:10 Speaker 4: the budget process and um and we'll see how it goes see how it goes over the course of the year

▶ 1:21:18 Speaker 5: i think it's going to work because we have several people in the department now that have stepped up

▶ 1:21:26 Speaker 6: and assumed responsibilities that are going to stay with them even when this position is full

▶ 1:21:33 Speaker 4: but it's not going to be posted with any type of split we have three days this two days that

▶ 1:21:37 Speaker 6: it's going to be posted with a general job description that um you know these are your

▶ 1:21:46 Michael P. Zwirko: responsibilities and i think it varies week to week when you decided to combine this position

▶ 1:21:51 Speaker 6: did you discuss it with the recycling committee uh the recycling committee knows that we're moving

▶ 1:21:55 Speaker 4: forward with filling the recycling role as part of an administrative role and um the

▶ 1:22:05 Michael P. Zwirko: the last question i had on this is there's a item brought up about the contractual increase in the sanitation budget when is that contract up exactly um that's a good question i have a i have the

▶ 1:22:35 Speaker 5: details with me let me just review them so the contract runs through june of 2021 so we have two

▶ 1:22:40 Speaker 5: more one more one more year one more fiscal year with this um with the base contract and then we

▶ 1:22:52 Speaker 6: have three optional years after that so the contract could run as um as long as june 30th 2024 i i guess this is a extremely beneficial contract the way it's written for melrose because it

▶ 1:23:05 Speaker 6: establishes a floor in the sense that i mean if the market is good and they want to sell our recycling material they get to keep all the profit but then the market is poor which it's been for

▶ 1:23:15 Speaker 6: the last three years now and it costs them money to to process our recycling

▶ 1:23:20 Speaker 5: material and in those instances we don't pay so although they can profit when

▶ 1:23:24 Speaker 6: times are good we don't get penalized when times are bad in the last three

▶ 1:23:30 Speaker 4: years times have been bad so this is a this is a this is a significant the

▶ 1:23:34 Speaker 6: beneficial contract to Melrose financially and we'll see where the

▶ 1:23:39 Speaker 5: market goes we start to watch it very carefully next year when we look at

▶ 1:23:43 Speaker 4: those options yes but if it was right now I would I would I would recommend we

▶ 1:23:49 Speaker 6: continue with it into the option years but we'll see what the next year brings

▶ 1:23:55 Michael P. Zwirko: well that's all the more reason to focus more on reduction rather than recycling for sure so I just had a few more questions and comments has there been any the the ad hoc fees that the DPW provides for citizens on removal for items at the curbside whether it's a mattress or or otherwise has the schedule of fees for all those kind of ad hoc items any thought about increasing any of those or looking at that schedule yeah we look at it on a

▶ 1:24:29 Speaker 6: yearly basis we could we can make some recommendations I think it's been the

▶ 1:24:35 Speaker 4: administration's focus over the last three years that the trash fee there was trash tree in place and that that trash tree should cover as many curbside services as possible

▶ 1:24:48 Speaker 5: including the services on the weekend at the facility are we we're low we're low in comparison

▶ 1:24:53 Speaker 6: to other communities we also don't charge for bulky items we don't charge for a mattress we don't charge for a couch unless there's metal in it we don't charge for a bed frame you could put

▶ 1:25:06 Speaker 5: a bulky item out a week and that goes towards our tonnage and there is some there is some that

▶ 1:25:15 Speaker 6: believe that by implementing um a cost to those type of items we can we can reduce our tonnage

▶ 1:25:19 Speaker 4: because people will try to figure out what else to do with that piece of um that piece of furniture or that piece of trash they're looking to just throw away because it's easy they just put it

▶ 1:25:32 Speaker 6: out we'll take it that's a constant debate I'm looking forward to filling

▶ 1:25:37 Speaker 4: the position I'm looking forward to hearing a little more from the recycling committee on what their feel is on that I've had discussions with a

▶ 1:25:44 Speaker 6: few of them and what I told them is let's get the textile program up and running let's fill the job let's get the textile program up and running and then

▶ 1:25:54 Speaker 4: let's look at that next but I do think that it's a very good point and it's something that we should look at will low was significantly lower than other

▶ 1:26:02 Michael P. Zwirko: the communities and what we judge well and the other thing too is if you go too high you have a legal dumping right in certain cases I always say there's a balance yeah right just wanted to make two last comments I guess there is one question in one of them spoke to the painting of the lines and as we increased the the paint on the street obviously we have to maintain that over time I just want to remind that you know we have had a couple of pedestrian fatalities so I think that's money well spent to have better safety lines marked especially at some of the intersections and streets where there is solar glare we have had some incidents there so you know it is an increase over time but it's given what we've dealt with it's money well spent and then the last point I had this it's regarding the man I had spoken with you about this a couple days ago the grants that we do get some mass DEP grants could you speak to the ones that we've received and the other ones that we're applying for and and well I'll let you speak to that we we have applied once again for the RDP grant

▶ 1:27:09 Speaker 6: with mass DEP it's a recycling dividends program what it does is look at the type of programs that we offer and gives us a score and based on our score that's how

▶ 1:27:17 Speaker 6: much money we get in the past we've we've received up to eleven thousand dollars and weight has run

▶ 1:27:28 Speaker 6: with this grant in the absence of a recycling coordinator and again once again the recycling coordinate recycling committee is great and they've been and has been the liaison while we

▶ 1:27:38 Speaker 6: have we've had a vacancy they've always provided good information and about whether it's a new program and a lot of this dividends grant is uh their ideas that we implement the type of events

▶ 1:27:50 Speaker 6: we have the type of curbside collection um you know we offer i believe 12 or 15 weeks of curbside

▶ 1:27:53 Speaker 4: collection for yard waste and um and and that that actually they like that and the more the more you

▶ 1:28:06 Speaker 4: collect curbside the more you collect yard waste curbside the pro this program um rewards you

▶ 1:28:13 Speaker 4: reward you for it so this year we're actually we're i believe we could be awarded thirteen

▶ 1:28:21 Speaker 6: thousand dollars and we use that for events we use those funds for events and weekend events and we added materials we added another hazard yeah we partner with stoneham now where we do two a year

▶ 1:28:33 Speaker 5: and if if in fact we go with this textile program that's another program that we're offering

▶ 1:28:37 Speaker 6: residents and another option if we go that route next year we could see even more that said i do

▶ 1:28:47 Speaker 6: know that now they're looking at sustainable um rdp grants different facet of grants so

▶ 1:28:52 Speaker 6: i'm hoping once we get staff we could start to look at that next year maybe even apply for

▶ 1:28:55 Speaker 5: for more of them but they're good because you could take that money it's off the tax base and

▶ 1:29:02 Speaker 4: you can you can do that extra styrofoam collection which is which is has been a new thing in the last

▶ 1:29:07 Speaker 5: eight year and a half or you could do a second paper shredding you can do a paper shredding

▶ 1:29:11 Speaker 6: right around tax season and then maybe do another paper shredding you know going into winter we do the recycling community does a really good job with swap day you know maybe there's something

▶ 1:29:22 Speaker 4: else we can do with them and actually help them help support them financially with it so these

▶ 1:29:27 Speaker 6: i really look forward to these grants and and um and what we can do with them and thank you

▶ 1:29:31 Michael P. Zwirko: you for that in the last comment the hazardous waste day this summer is in stonem is that correct if I remember I think last year's was at our yard so

▶ 1:29:41 Speaker 5: hazardous waste in June is in stonem and November is okay great thank you those

▶ 1:29:50 Scott M. Forbes: are all the questions I had Thank You madam chair Thank You madam chair I'm gonna take more of a numbers based approach with my line of questions I was hoping that uh Patrick De La Russa would have been here tonight to maybe answer some of these but well i think we'll probably be able to get through it just fine can you talk about the salary allocations in regards to what your salary comes out of the dpw admin budget and what you make as far as allocations from water and sewer just for example your salary is 70 based out of the dpw budget engineering budget and then 15 comes out of water 15 percent comes out of sewer can you just talk about how that's determined whether you go through a conversation and take a deep dive with with patrick in determining those figures when he

▶ 1:30:42 Speaker 5: kind of resets for the next fiscal year yeah we do and you know in in regards to this salary

▶ 1:30:48 Speaker 6: chart it's really erect it's the recommendation that i made to patrick in regards to what we do and how we do it and it's it's really an estimate of how i feel i spend my time and how our staff

▶ 1:31:02 Speaker 6: spends their time in fact this year i changed my allocation i put it more on the administrative budget i believe last year we might have been 60 20 20. i'm not sure of that but i know i changed it to 70 15 15. um water and sewer is um is improving it's really running well and in the past i used to spend a lot more time whether it's with uh billing or month implementing monthly

▶ 1:31:27 Speaker 5: billing or changing meters or the meter program or weekly meetings on that so i i felt that this

▶ 1:31:35 Speaker 6: year i've been doing less of that and i made that change that's what we tend to do these are not

▶ 1:31:40 Speaker 5: indirect costs these are direct expenditures right on the budgets when you open water and sewer

▶ 1:31:48 Speaker 6: you'll see 30 percent of my salary char charged to those budgets it's not an indirect thing that happens behind the scenes anyone listed here within public works every week gets charged

▶ 1:31:58 Speaker 4: directly to those three budgets or other budgets if as appropriate okay that's what we do so then

▶ 1:32:07 Scott M. Forbes: just taking a look at the uh the actual number all together it looks like that dpw admin budget is about 618 966 which if you look at page 19 of our packet for salaries and wages out of that department that hits to the dollar when you look over between water and sewer it accounts to be almost five hundred and thirty one thousand dollars which is about forty five percent of your salaries budget so is forty five percent an actual it is an accurate figure in your opinion of the time that you're spending in water in and sewer as opposed to everything else in your in your department budget as a

▶ 1:32:48 Speaker 5: whole yeah the department as a whole yes yeah because water also has people that

▶ 1:32:57 Speaker 6: work water full-time we have a staff of we have the water budget has our crew in it the water budget has our billing water and sewer building who does water full-time so i do

▶ 1:33:07 Scott M. Forbes: feel that those are appropriate okay and my last question would be during the fiscal year are these percentages ever reviewed or revisited when compared to the actual work that's being done

▶ 1:33:20 Speaker 6: we do with the yeah we do at the end of the fiscal year we'll do a review internally and again we

▶ 1:33:23 Speaker 5: look at did we have did we have a did we have a water program if we don't have a water replacement program that's always going to take a load off the department that we don't and we're not managing

▶ 1:33:37 Speaker 5: right so those type of those type of um reviews do happen but we we stay very busy we stay very aggressive in water and sewer and and it's a big part of what our department does very good thank

▶ 1:33:45 Scott M. Forbes: you very much thank you thank you uh president Lemmerman which is a motion to attach the

▶ 1:33:51 Speaker 8: construction schedule the roadway ranking map and the fy20 summary memo to the order in iqm2

▶ 1:34:01 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: second the motion we have a motion to attach the three documents that have been referenced some tonight the roadway ranking map the um schedule of capital projects and then the memorandum to the um to our public record made by president Lemmerman seconded by alderman

▶ 1:34:20 Speaker 1: warner all in favor aye aye any opposed okay so we will add those to the record any hold

▶ 1:34:25 Monica C. Medeiros: management to speak for the first time alderman medeiros thanks i just wanted to um touch back to the recycling coordinator position historically that's been a part-time position is that correct 28 hours a week 28 hours a week and so this new position would be a full-time position yeah i think that's actually more of a commitment to the position and i think it will help us to keep you know we've had some really strong people who've done this as a part-time job but I think it's you know in real life it's hard sometimes to not make a full wage and I hope that this will help us to get somebody who's committed to the job into the mission and who hopefully will stay with us

▶ 1:35:10 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: and I want to thank you for being here and providing such a helpful a comprehensive overview of the work that you've done to this year um i think also as i echo my colleagues in saying that all of the attachments are incredibly helpful and um really a best standard that i've seen in the city of the apartments in terms of what you're providing us so thank you for that and you mentioned at the outset that this has been a challenging year for you and i do want to you know send my condolences again to your entire team and family for the loss that you all had this year so um i'm looking specifically at the handout that's in our that the excel summaries sheet which was really useful because it as to your point it's the excel spreadsheet you're working in um and it was easy for me then to sort of track it against the fiscal 20 proposed budget that you have and then the current budgets and just maybe at a top line one thing that i was that struck me was there a good number of lines where as of june 4th we We haven't drawn down even half of what we had budgeted for this fiscal year. And maybe you can speak at a broad level. Is a lot of that because, as you mentioned earlier, it's been a mild winter and a pretty mild spring. So some of the things that we would expect to have had to invest in are not being tapped right now?

▶ 1:36:34 Speaker 5: Yes, there are a couple of things.

▶ 1:36:37 Speaker 6: If you're looking at utility lines that are not fully expended, we've only paid bills through April.

▶ 1:36:45 Speaker 6: i believe we haven't paid our may or june bills yet a lot of the work we do if you go to other

▶ 1:36:51 Speaker 6: line items that we use for spring type of maintenance work that's work that we do in may

▶ 1:36:58 Speaker 6: april may the weather has slowed us down a little bit but those are bills that we pay in june and at some point in time the auditor's office will say okay we need to stop and then you have to

▶ 1:37:06 Speaker 6: carry money over into july to finish paying june the department never stops um we we just keep

▶ 1:37:16 Speaker 5: working right through it so this is a tricky type time of the year that's why i made the

▶ 1:37:24 Speaker 4: recommendation to reprint the budgets in on june 4th because they look so different week to week

▶ 1:37:30 Speaker 5: and you know there are you could eat two to three hundred thousand dollars of warrants a week could

▶ 1:37:32 Speaker 4: process during this time frame so it's a valid point my comment about the mild winter is more

▶ 1:37:42 Speaker 4: related to utilities than to the other lines in the budget okay so in light of that some of my

▶ 1:37:46 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: questions of specific line items are probably are likely addressed by your your really helpful point which is that what we're looking at in actuals isn't even including a quarter's worth of bills correct right i'm even even despite that sometimes we've we've according to your um your tables we've not even drawn down a dollar yet but but but there may be small line item right small amounts it could be so for example um let me see under administration and engineering the first budget um so you're proposing not to increase part-time salary or overtime over fiscal 19. i noticed that both of those lines have only uh have used you know you really haven't drawn them

▶ 1:38:40 Speaker 5: down a lot is that fair to say our part-time line we've used about 46 percent of it our

▶ 1:38:50 Speaker 5: overtime line we've used about 55% of it our part-time line is we now have our

▶ 1:38:54 Speaker 6: intern back and so that will start to get depleted aggressively through the

▶ 1:38:59 Speaker 6: balance of the fiscal year oh that line depends on when the interns come when they go so that that that is and that you did could be a surplus and though in that part-time line again I guess just gets turned back if there is the

▶ 1:39:17 Speaker 6: The overtime is driven by the administration.

▶ 1:39:20 Speaker 4: We do have overtime in June just to close the fiscal year, try to carry the fiscal year out.

▶ 1:39:25 Speaker 6: I don't anticipate that much left over in the admin overtime line.

▶ 1:39:28 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Okay, under your facilities budget, the electricity for school is a fairly hefty investment of almost three quarters of a million dollars. And we'd only, we haven't used, we've only used 445,000 of it as of June 4th. Is this an example of where the mild winter has made a real difference?

▶ 1:39:55 Speaker 4: Yes, I think this whole group, this next section of the budget is exactly where that mild winter will be.

▶ 1:39:57 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Yes, and so it's probably prudent to not look just at the most recent fiscal year, but sort of look at the trends over time. and maybe eventually we might find that we need to adjust somewhat differently because of changes in climate or upgrades to our facilities that are enabling us to be more energy efficient but for now you think it's appropriate to keep just to sort of level funding here and we don't transfer

▶ 1:40:25 Speaker 6: out of these lines if we had to transfer out of these lines we'd have to come back before this board to make that transfer so um i think it's prudent to do to at least go one more year and

▶ 1:40:36 Speaker 6: see where things stand i mean some of these lines are also reflective on the cold spring

▶ 1:40:45 Speaker 6: because the air conditioning air conditioning systems are just coming on in june whereas in prior i mean there were some times where we had to turn them on in april sure yeah so it all makes a

▶ 1:40:54 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: difference okay um under highway we talked a little bit about um the patch line item which is really it was helpful to hear there's also a storm drain maintenance and repairs line item that we're you're proposing a level fund i noticed that you'd only used about 15 percent of that budget to date is that also because of how rainy it's been can you talk a little bit about storm

▶ 1:41:21 Speaker 6: drain repairs so storm drain repairs goes in parallel with 527105 the ms4 so that is that's

▶ 1:41:31 Speaker 6: the the new stormwater quality so what we do is the stormwater quality studies will identify projects and areas where we can improve and then we use the storm drain maintenance money

▶ 1:41:41 Speaker 4: to make the improvement if it's a quick fast improvement that we can do quickly

▶ 1:41:47 Speaker 6: we intend to encumber those those two line items under a contract that we're going out to bid on

▶ 1:41:53 Speaker 6: um and carry that to carry that funding over into next fiscal year we'll put it with next fiscal

▶ 1:42:02 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: year's contract expend it all at once okay do you have any sense of how many um tickets you

▶ 1:42:09 Speaker 5: have open right now related to storm drains oh i i may actually we have um we have 20 catch basin

▶ 1:42:51 Speaker 5: cleaning work orders that we uh we've completed 16 of those we have an additional 43 drain drain

▶ 1:43:02 Speaker 6: manhole structure issues that's either a catch basin that's collapsed or we've completed 32 of

▶ 1:43:09 Speaker 5: those those are work orders that come in typically those these work order requests will get will get

▶ 1:43:15 Speaker 6: addressed in-house whereas that money you're referring to is to bring a contractor in to do

▶ 1:43:20 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: other type of work okay that's really helpful i think my last question is just in you mentioned at the outset and it's also in your memo um that you have a total you processed about 77 of the work orders you've received this year um how many work orders do you have that may

▶ 1:43:38 Speaker 5: be outstanding more than a year um so tree work orders tend to back up okay if you're

▶ 1:43:43 Speaker 6: perfectly honest with everyone um we we can't remove anything unless we assess it we can only

▶ 1:43:49 Speaker 4: assess during certain periods of of the year it's difficult in the middle of the winter to see if a

▶ 1:43:57 Speaker 5: tree is dead or alive sometimes sometimes it's easy but oftentimes you do have to wait until may

▶ 1:44:02 Speaker 6: to create that assessment work order and then it's a matter of posting and then getting the crew to

▶ 1:44:07 Speaker 5: the point where so tree i trees is an area where we do get repeat phone calls and i just urge the

▶ 1:44:14 Speaker 4: general public to be patient because there is a process um i wish we could just say to someone

▶ 1:44:21 Speaker 5: oh you want your tree down yeah we'll be out tomorrow but the truth is it does need to be

▶ 1:44:26 Speaker 5: assessed and if that's healthy we can't post it and even if we deem there could be a health issue

▶ 1:44:30 Speaker 4: with the tree we still have to post it if there is a is a call or a complaint against that posting

▶ 1:44:39 Speaker 5: we have to deal with that before we can even move forward sometimes dealing with it means we trim

▶ 1:44:42 Speaker 6: the tree and then we monitor it moving forward so trees is an area where things do linger potholes

▶ 1:44:53 Speaker 5: tend to get addressed you know within a 30-day period sidewalk repairs if it's an initial

▶ 1:45:03 Speaker 5: we may go out and make an initial safety repair out of bituminous but if they're concrete blocks

▶ 1:45:10 Speaker 5: oftentimes those work orders will sit so i'd say our tree removal requests our sidewalk safety

▶ 1:45:17 Speaker 6: requests and our tree planting requests are the three where we see the longest backlog

▶ 1:45:28 Speaker 6: and i can't tell you how far but my gut is that those three areas are the ones that we can't seem

▶ 1:45:33 Speaker 5: to make go away right away and it's not out of sometimes it's not out of effort

▶ 1:45:36 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: but it's more out of process thank you last question your online ticketing system is really great in terms of people being able to find it and then select from a bunch of different options and put in a request for your attention which of your lines if any go to maintaining that software or is that through the IT department no we maintain it through our professional service

▶ 1:45:57 Speaker 6: lines we have one in administration we have one in water and sewer you'll see it coming up next week

▶ 1:46:05 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: and is there any any um plans for enhancement of that or you know if you wanted to up any upgrades to enhance the public's ability to sort of track the progress of a ticket that's filed could that

▶ 1:46:19 Speaker 5: be contemplated yeah no i'll admit we could do a better job with that and putting more information into that work order and again that's that that's one of the reasons we're looking to combine that

▶ 1:46:32 Speaker 6: other position is there are things that we can do administratively better we just don't have enough

▶ 1:46:37 Speaker 6: people to do it so this is the i'm looking forward to making those type of tweaks just so that we can

▶ 1:46:44 Speaker 6: become a little more we can improve on our communication back and forth with people who

▶ 1:46:49 Speaker 4: who now communicate to us through work orders, through social media, where it's not just a phone call anymore.

▶ 1:46:54 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Sure, well that's great. I'm glad you're attuned to that and look forward to seeing those and continue to attention to that over the next year. Thank you.

▶ 1:47:04 Peter D. Mortimer: Madam Chair, I make a motion to move the bottom line for these eight combined budgets, all under the heading of DPW, in the amount of $9,258,049.79. Incorporating by reference, the totals for each of the eight budgets aforementioned on discussion on a previous motion at this time. Second.

▶ 1:47:27 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: We have a motion to recommend moving the bottom line for the combined divisions at the DPW that we've been discussing tonight. Made by Alderman Mortimer and seconded by Vice Chair Roizal.

▶ 1:47:39 Speaker 1: All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

▶ 1:47:43 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Okay, we'll make that recommendation to the full board. next item on our agenda is order number 2 0 1 9 dash 87 reauthorization of city of Melrose revolving funds table as adopted by city ordinance June 18th 2018 and further authorized by Massachusetts general laws chapter 44 section 53 e and