ORDER-2019-46 : An Order Creating an Education, Public Safety & Substance Abuse Prevention Stabilization Fund

Transcript (~5 min @ 3:43:20)

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▶ 3:43:10 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: sorry okay um that motion also passes so this motion will be uh this ordinance will be recommended to the full board and we can continue the conversation then thank you you all right the next order on our agenda is order two zero one nine dash forty six and in order creating an education public safety and substance abuse prevention stabilization fund this was put forward to us by Alderman's

▶ 3:43:42 Michael P. Zwirko: work oh would you like to thank thank you madam chair for the floor to talk

▶ 3:43:49 Michael P. Zwirko: about this order I can't believe not everyone's staying for this it's it's 1105 this evening I know it's very late I will try to be quick but I you know this is a serious order I did put a lot of time into this and I would hope that even in the midnight hour folks can rustle up just a modicum of attention so basically we heard a lot of comments tonight about we don't really know what this markets going to do we don't know what this markets going to mean we don't know how much revenue will actually be able to capture from this we know that there's been some or will be some imposition that was raised by a resident on not only our police force but training issues as well as certifications when you're dealing with a driving under the influence of someone that's moved marijuana so what this order seeks to do is to take the three percent retail excise tax cap from the sale of retail marijuana and dedicate it to three specific areas those those areas are education public safety and substance abuse prevention efforts now the benefit of putting it into a lock box so to speak is that it will actually tell us the aldermen how much did we raised from this this year and I think as this market continues the revenues from marijuana are going to slowly tail off because there will be a proliferation of facilities all throughout the Commonwealth and it's going to be good for us to actually know where we stand year in year out what we can what we can actually learn it's a good budgeting process because it illuminates where the revenues are coming from directly as well as any of the impacts on these areas so for example in the first maybe one two three years of this product being legal for sale in Melrose we may have a higher than normal training demand on our police force let's say that the kitty of

▶ 3:45:56 Michael P. Zwirko: retail marijuana is a hundred thousand dollars chief Lyle comes before us and says we had sixty five thousand dollars in training for our patrolmen this year to understand how to adequately train and adjudicate an individual who may have been transporting an automobile under the influence. We can then say that these funds should be directed to that because that is a direct impact from the legalization and sale of this product within the borders of Melrose. So that's ultimately the goal. I will also add that if established, this can be terminated after three years. So if we feel that after three years it's either a negligible amount or we're sending it every year to education or substance abuse prevention coordination we have the we have the ability to terminate the stabilization account after three years I think that's a good time period for us to gauge the market to gauge the economy as to what the revenues specifically are I will also add that school resource officers those are paid through not just by the police department and that could be an education expense that this could be dedicated to we've seen that on the the chopping block list that was provided by the mayor's administration in terms of the impact of

▶ 3:47:09 Speaker 4: the override there are also uh i'm sorry to interrupt we're gonna have to if we get into this it's groundhog day we're gonna have to pause in a minute or two to change the tapes i'm almost

▶ 3:47:17 Michael P. Zwirko: done so uh the other the other item is uh the substance abuse prevention coordinator uh that position may be on the chopping block as well that was a big initiative that we did three years ago under the Dolan administration to make that a full-time position that was previously based on grants so I think the dedicating these funds at least in the interim is something that's prudent it's transparent and allows us to budget accordingly as we assess the impacts that this has on our community with that before break I would like to move to suspend the rules as chief Lyle is here this evening to answer any questions regarding this order thank you we're

▶ 3:47:54 Michael P. Zwirko: still under suspension I apologize this is the appropriations we can we can take

▶ 3:48:00 Speaker 1: but we actually do need to motion to recess so we can reset the tapes and reconvene okay so moved

▶ 3:48:04 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: all in favor all right great we're on recess we'll be back soon