ORDER-2019-26 : Order to Place General Override Question on the April 2, 2019 Special Election Ballot

Transcript (~33 min @ 2:46:40)

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

▶ 2:46:38 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: make a motion to attach the written communications that we've received for public comment on this order during the time I believe we've received seven if I'm correct emails and I'd like to move to attach to IQ I'm to second the motion

▶ 2:46:55 Michael P. Zwirko: Thorp been a motion made by Alderman Lemmerman attached to attach to order 2019-26 the communications electronically that we received with respect to this order that has been seconded by alderman mortimer all those in favor to attach said documents to this order

▶ 2:47:16 Michael P. Zwirko: hi hi any opposed the order is now before you as amendment uh with the informational attachments

▶ 2:47:25 Michael P. Zwirko: there too alderman lemmerman motion for passage second this uh motion for passage made by alderman Alderman Lemmerman, as amended in both the attached communications, has also been seconded by Alderman Bewtra. On discussion of the motion, Alderman Medeiros.

▶ 2:47:38 Speaker 5: Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 2:47:43 Monica C. Medeiros: I have to say, I think this order is anything but simple. Proposition two and a half, first of all, anything that comes before us as aldermen is here before us for a reason and for us to weigh in on. And Proposition 2 1⁄2, I've heard a lot of discussion about why do we even have this. Proposition 2 1⁄2 was put in place to protect the taxpayers from unreasonable increases in property taxes, which at times could possibly force people from their homes. It's a very serious, very serious matter. This is before us today. It's something that the public can't simply, we're the appropriating body of the city, this board of aldermen. This is our job to deliberate this. The public simply can't put forward an initiative petition to raise taxes or to set the tax rate to appropriate funds. That's left up to this body. The mayor has put before us a proposal. It's up to us as aldermen, as the appropriating body, to review it carefully and to make sure that it is responsible and that's what we're putting out there this proposal and the specific specifics of it have only been in the public view for really less than two weeks the mayor announced her intention to put it before us two weeks ago Monday unfortunately with an

▶ 2:49:25 Monica C. Medeiros: attachment that didn't work and it was before us officially in our agenda packet less actually that next Tuesday morning so it's actually less than two weeks that this has been before us this is a serious serious appropriation of five point one eight million dollars and not just is it a serious appropriation of five point one eight million dollars it's an appropriation that can affect each and every residential and commercial property owner in the city as well as the people who rent and the estimates that we have are that this would cost the average taxpayer with a single-family home five hundred and fifty dollars more that's on top of forever that's on top of the additional year-to-year tax increase which we haven't even gotten together to set the tax rate yet we don't do that until next week on the 27th we have a public hearing on setting the tax rate you know for the average homeowner this is gonna cost within the next two years they'll be paying $1,000 more it's a very serious proposal that's before us and it's our job to make sure that what's here is responsible and at minimum to make sure that it's clear that the that we know what the question is and that the public knows what the question is. You know, tonight, so we had one committee meeting in which this was discussed, and tonight

▶ 2:50:59 Monica C. Medeiros: we don't have any members of the mayor's administration here to discuss this should we have any follow-up questions. We haven't heard from the tax assessor.

▶ 2:51:14 Monica C. Medeiros: I've asked for forecasting, and unfortunately, I've learned that we don't do any forecasting in Melrose. The city auditor said pretty clearly, we don't make predictions. This is not a magic show, I think that was his quote, but we're looking at something that's going to have a major impact. This new proposal includes more than $4 million of new spending. It includes the hiring of 28.5 additional positions. These have long-term ramifications. All I have to go on to say whether or not are we making a responsible decision to put this out here is we can look at visual budget as a tool which projects out until 2021 but the actual numbers that have been input into that system are

▶ 2:52:20 Monica C. Medeiros: only it's only FY 16 was the last year that actual numbers were put into that system so I can't guarantee that those numbers are right yeah they're out there in the public but our city isn't doing anything to make sure that we're not going to end up in a deficit moving forward as far as i can tell i've tried to find it and i've been told that this is visual budget's the sole tool that they use we don't make predictions so all i can see from

▶ 2:52:55 Monica C. Medeiros: visual budget is in 2021 it looks like we're at a 2.3 million with fy16 numbers as the last actuals looks like we're showing we're heading into a 2.3 million dollar deficit maybe that's something that we can overcome with free cash i'm not sure but i'm not really sure that adding you know this is this is not a responsible way to to do things as far as i can tell we're adding you know four million dollars worth of new spending through this question more than that and

▶ 2:53:31 Monica C. Medeiros: we when I see fiscal 2021 which is only two years from now and all these things like new positions in new spending are going to face we're gonna face increases that go along with those you know we get a new contract with salary increases we have new positions Thorp going to be increases for those positions in health insurance in in salary increases frankly from year to year I wish that these two questions were in reverse in terms of the order of whether or not to set a

▶ 2:54:11 Monica C. Medeiros: special election I I voted to set the special election date because I anticipate I made an educated guess the prediction that this is going to pass and go on to the ballot I think there are some things here that are important

▶ 2:54:25 Monica C. Medeiros: and I think it would be if this is going to go forward I think there are benefits to having this be voted on before we go into the next fiscal year's budget I think there are some things like that seven hundred and even that seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars you know Thorp just a lot of inconsistencies that we hear and have heard over the years you know at the last meeting I asked would that seven hundred fifty thousand dollars would that mean we won't will we still be having the transfer in for the Medicaid school reimbursement and mr. de la Russo said yes seventy five thousand dollars but we have actually the same order on this agenda that was previous order number 2019 27 includes what we did use to balance the budget this year which is not a good way to do things five hundred and twenty five thousand dollars and the school Medicaid fund transfer in three hundred thousand dollars not seventy five thousand dollars three hundred thousand dollars and that's what it's been for years and years and years past as long as I can remember way back to when I was on the school committee so you know where we where do the numbers

▶ 2:55:46 Monica C. Medeiros: come from. Superintendent Taymor talked about the class size for kindergarten in August being 336 children. I believe Alderman Lipper-Garabedian at her last school committee update told us the actual number was 324 for kindergartners which is you know more recent than August. We have before us a proposal to

▶ 2:56:13 Monica C. Medeiros: reclaim the Beebe school all that's here is the lost revenue of the rent but we're not looking at the auxilary cost the operating costs that will come with putting this back on the budget even that's going to mean a principal I can't imagine that it's not going to mean a principal it's going to mean a custodian it's going to mean a nurse it's going to mean we're going to have to now transfer the 30 kids that go to the same collaborative out and pay for for the transportation cost take them out of their home school and pay for transportation costs to bring them to another school it's going to include

▶ 2:56:50 Monica C. Medeiros: electricity fuel heating cost things that are operating costs a responsible

▶ 2:56:59 Monica C. Medeiros: question would include that if we're going to bring this school back online it doesn't matter what the purpose for the school is if it's for kindergarten or if it's for additional I don't know what it might be might be high school some specific classes these costs will still exist and I you know this is proposition two and a half I said this is a serious thing it's a mechanism to

▶ 2:57:31 Monica C. Medeiros: protect the taxpayer in the the mechanism allows for the people to decide that they want to override that protection and and spend more money and if the voters want to do that they can but in the city we haven't passed one of these in 25 years so if this passes i you

▶ 2:57:54 Monica C. Medeiros: know my predictions are it's going to be hard to get people this is a hefty this is a hefty ass for a lot of people it's going to be hard to get them to pass another one after it so i think we better i think it would be wise to this isn't obstruction this is making sure that the public has a chance to understand this question that we do our job as the appropriating body of the city to ask the tough questions and and make sure that we're looking ahead and that we have

▶ 2:58:27 Monica C. Medeiros: a number and we have a plan of what is going to happen with this money and what's going to happen in you know one year two years three years nobody has a crystal ball you can't predict everything but we can make some good educated guesses and you know right now i haven't seen enough from the administration to say that this is a responsible question the way it's outlined here

▶ 2:58:57 Monica C. Medeiros: and I don't think so if it goes forward tonight I I can't support this right now I saw in 2015 when I did vote to put the question on the ballot for an override I saw repeatedly the people who were in favor of the override as part of their campaign say over and over again the alderman voted unanimously to place this on the ballot they unanimously support putting this on the ballot they and with the assumption that it was something that everyone unanimously supports so again we are the appropriating committee of the city this is before us it's absolutely our job to vet this i don't feel what i've seen in front of me as is responsible right now and i can't put myself approval on it

▶ 2:59:46 Shawn M. MacMaster: thank you thank you alderman Medeiros any other alderman wishing to speak at this time alderman mcmaster thank you mr president the orders before us tonight are about two things one on which we already voted that's to call a special election in april the other is to place the override question of course on the ballot i attended both listening sessions i met with the mayor i met with the auditor i've been contacted by numerous residents and since the majority of residents who have been in touch with me since the last meeting opposed both orders tonight i thought that it was important for me to explain my position in re reaching my decision to support both orders i've been guided by the facts from my perspective there are four overarching facts the first is that we have a revenue problem in the city of melrose we all know that commercial and residential tax revenue are not enough we know that local option tax revenue provides minuscule revenue we know that intergovernmental revenue has been cut to the bone over the last decade second fact is that our schools have unmet needs our growing enrollment rates require adequate funding and the key word here is adequate funding i believe that the mayor and the superintendent have made their case with clear and convincing evidence i don't believe that the number before us is unreasonable it may not be perfect but it's not unreasonable third fact is

▶ 3:01:19 Shawn M. MacMaster: that our operating budget as a city is in a precarious state let's rewind back to the budget

▶ 3:01:27 Shawn M. MacMaster: hearings this past spring what did we hear we heard chief lyle come before us and talk about having a part-time administrative assistant as someone who works with all of the police chiefs in Middlesex County outside of this chamber in a professional capacity he is the only police chief in Middlesex County who has a part-time administrative assistant we heard from chief Kalina come before us and talk about the antiquated dispatch system that the fire department has a system that has barely changed since 1895 not 1985 so let's put that into perspective 1895 when Grover Cleveland was president on top of that our fire department has aging apparatus with engine for being almost over 20 years old and we have a ladder truck that is almost 23 years old so we shouldn't be surprised to see which we did this past spring the vehicle maintenance line item in the fire department's budget being increased by 36.4 percent our veteran services budget was cut by 12 percent in the midst of service men and women returning home from Afghanistan and before that Iraq our council on aging budget was level funded level funded and think about that for a minute over a

▶ 3:02:56 Shawn M. MacMaster: quarter close to a quarter of our population in Melrose is over the age of 60 five years from now that's a projection that comes out of the gerontology Institute at UMass Boston the McCormick Graduate School of which I'm an alum that talks about the 60 plus population being over 30 percent yet we've level funded that budget I could go on and on and talk about each

▶ 3:03:27 Shawn M. MacMaster: department but I won't but what I will say is that as a new alderman this experience has been eye-opening for me and it's been disconcerting the fourth

▶ 3:03:40 Shawn M. MacMaster: fact is that we are up against the clock two weeks ago the mayor came before us us and she said quote if we do not offer our residents this opportunity we will have to make drastic cuts to the budget without their input having sat through last spring's budget hearings I don't want to be put in that position I especially don't want to be put in that position as a ward alderman when 95% of the calls that I get each week have to deal with DPW issues and I think all the ward alderman here can agree that we're likely to see cuts to dpw and to the green team if the voters don't have an opportunity to vote on this and if the override doesn't pass for all the

▶ 3:04:29 Shawn M. MacMaster: reasons that i've outlined all of which to me are facts the residents in melrose deserve to vote on this issue come april and the order before us tonight that we have yet to vote on has my support Thank you, Mr. President.

▶ 3:04:42 Speaker 6: Thank you, Alderman McMaster. Next in queue, we have Alderman Bornemer.

▶ 3:04:45 Speaker 1: Thank you very much, President Search.

▶ 3:04:49 Peter D. Mortimer: I am going to vote to put this question on the ballot. Well, we just did vote to put on the ballot, and I'm going to vote to put this question as delineated with the amounts contained, the $5.2 million. It seems like a big number, but we need a big number. When I started 18 years ago as an alderman, we closed two fire stations, we closed schools. About a quarter of the storefronts in downtown Melrose were closed. Mayor Dolan, with the help of some aldermen who were here, he and I started at the same time. I'm the alderman who represents downtown. In one of the fire stations that we closed, we went through some hard times. Very, very hard times. It was a miracle. The mayor took on some tough, tough battles. He streamlined the cemetery, he streamlined a lot of departments. We did get a debt exclusion for a new middle school. That turned out to be a great thing for property values. We started the ambulance service and

▶ 3:06:02 Peter D. Mortimer: We made it part of the fire department and that provided us great revenue.

▶ 3:06:10 Peter D. Mortimer: You can trust the government of the city of Melrose. We do good things. Unfortunately, people here override a lot of times. And their immediate reaction, their emotional reaction, is to say no, no, no, I don't want to pay any more money.

▶ 3:06:30 Peter D. Mortimer: and then they'll fill in the intellectual arguments, some of them true, some of them false, to support that initial emotional feeling, I don't want to pay.

▶ 3:06:45 Peter D. Mortimer: But it's worth it. If you really think it through and try to put intellect over emotion, you realize if, as Alderman McMaster aptly pointed out, most of our population is over 60. I'm over 60. I'm collecting Social Security. My income has to carry me for a long time. I have two kids in college, well, one kid in college and one who's gonna be in college in another two years. Yeah, money's tight, but it's worth it. You know, we came out of this. You can trust the government and the city of Melrose. We came out of those times in 2001 when Mayor Dolan and I first started. and I'm the senior alderman now, and now our downtown looks beautiful. We opened those fire stations again. But we're at a crossroads.

▶ 3:07:40 Peter D. Mortimer: You know, if we hadn't done some of the things we did, Melrose wouldn't have moved forward. And now we're at a place where it's gonna slip. But people say, well, maybe it's not gonna slip, maybe it's not gonna slip. But if something slips, it costs a lot more to fix it, if it's even possible to fix it, than it does to stop it from slipping in the first place. A stitch in time saves nine. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And these cliches didn't get to be cliches because they're not true. A lot of cliches got to be cliches because they are true. And we need this. And I say to some people who are over 60, as I am, you know, if you have to pay $500 more a year

▶ 3:08:31 Peter D. Mortimer: for 10 years until you sell your home that's five thousand dollars you will have paid in ten years time five thousand dollars but because of that you will probably sell your house in ten years for forty or fifty thousand more some people understand that some people say well i never intend to leave my house i'm i'm gonna die in my house um and that's interesting so they don't care about the price but another thing that happens is when you have good schools it cuts down on crime I've been a police officer of an attorney and 80% of crime 80% of arrests occurred kids under the age of 22 and good schools prevent that good

▶ 3:09:16 Peter D. Mortimer: schools prevent addiction and crime which go hand in hand so besides the good investment, the good return on investment of $5,000 to get $40,000 or $50,000 more if you sell it in 10 years, which is probably the direction in which I'm going, 10 or 15 maybe. You also get to live in a better community where you don't have criminals and addicts breaking into your car in your driveway overnight. You don't have people doing daytime burglaries, which are a big crime for addicts. They get in, they try to steal jewelry and money and just walk down the street. And it's worth it because in the meantime, even before you sell your house, you get to live in a good community.

▶ 3:10:07 Peter D. Mortimer: Melrose is worth it. And yeah, I don't mean to exclude anybody, but Thorp a place for different kind of communities. If you don't wanna live in a high quality community like Melrose, maybe you wanna live in a lesser quality community. Maybe you wanna live in New Bedford, but have a cottage in New Hampshire. I don't have a cottage in New Hampshire. That I choose to use my limited money to live in a nice community like Melrose.

▶ 3:10:37 Peter D. Mortimer: And you don't get what you don't pay for. If you want something good, you have to pay for it. And yeah, I wouldn't hold it against the schools that they ask for money and they persevere and produce good results anyway, because someday the dam is gonna break. And Mr. Della Russo has seen it, and I've worked hand in hand with Mr. Della Russo and Rob Dolan through the years, and he said the phrase, he actually got it from me, Thorp no more rabbits to pull out of the hat. Thorp no more rabbits to pull out of the hat. we don't have anything left, you know,

▶ 3:11:12 Speaker 1: we're using up everything we have,

▶ 3:11:17 Peter D. Mortimer: Thorp nothing more, and some people create the argument, whether it's false or not, that well, I don't want the override because we need a new police station, we need a new fire station, we need to fix the library. Well, ultimately, it all comes out of the same cash bucket. It all comes out of the same cash bucket. Ultimately, it all comes out of the same cash bucket as Alderman McMaster pointed out a moment ago, very, very correctly. Our departments are failing, we need this. And I'm not somebody who just believes in throwing money at a problem. And that's the reason I took the position I did on the snow shoveling ordinance earlier. I think we have more important priorities and it's something we can figure out to a better, I think about my votes. I do my research. I've looked things up. I've met with the superintendent privately. I've met with Mr. De La Russo privately. These are professionals. I know it's a big sum of money, but it's worth it. It's worth it to keep our community, and you know, I resent the federal government. I really do. They tell us things, I talk to my friends who work behind the counter at Dunkin Donuts every morning, and their health insurance has gone up from $100 to $400 a month. And meanwhile our federal government keeps giving themselves more and more of the best health insurance in the world. Our state government's a little more accessible, but they spend too. But you know what, your local tax dollar is your best tax dollar, because this money will never leave Melrose. I wish there were a law in this country that said 50% of all monies that I pay and everyone else pays to the federal government would never leave Melrose, but that's not going to happen because they like their money. But this way the money stays here. You know, if you want to meet your state senator, I mean your federal senator from Massachusetts, it's going to be hard to do. You're lucky if you get a phone call back from a third-level intern. But if you want to meet with an alderman in Melrose, we'll meet with you. If you want to meet with the mayor, she will meet with you, as long as you're respectful. Your local tax dollar is your best tax dollar, because you get to see it in action. Look around our city. You don't see graffiti everywhere. We have a good quality city here, and it's worth investing in. And a conservative principle, when I speak to And a conservative principle, when I speak to my conservative friends, also about the investment, a conservative principle is, yeah, the federal government, over the 18 years I've been in, has given us less and less money every year. The state government has been giving us less and less money every year. We don't, everybody knows, we don't have the industry, we don't have the commercial property to support this. The conservative principle is, we take care of our own.

▶ 3:14:29 Peter D. Mortimer: The federal government isn't going to take care of us. The state government is taking care of us, less and less. We take care of our own. Your local tax dollar is your best tax dollar. We take care of ourselves, and if that means we have to dig into our pockets a little, then we do it. And that's why I'm in favor of placing this on the ballot, as mentioned in the previous vote. I'm going to support this override as it's laid out here. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

▶ 3:14:57 Speaker 6: Thank you, Alderman Mortimer. Alderman Forbes.

▶ 3:15:01 Scott M. Forbes: Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to be real quick. I do support the ballot initiative. And a lot of it has to do with public participation. You have people that come in here that just moved into Melrose. But you have two people in this room, Attorney Bell and Jerry Melrose, that have been here for a while. They're very passionate, they're well-respected in their circles in the community, and they couldn't be more farther from each other on this issue. And who's right? You're passionate about being yes, you're passionate about being no. That's why this has to go and be voted on on a ballot. The residents can be heard. The last two ballot initiatives for an override failed. So the key to winning any election is being able to present your message more effectively than your opponent. and those last two times were not successful so I feel like that the city has the challenge of presenting a narrative of where over the next 10 years you're going to be spending in excess of 70 to 80 million dollars when it comes to 5 million for the override the 2.2 for the Hoover School the 40 to 50 million dollars on the public safety buildings the 20 plus million dollars on the library the city has the challenge of trying to present a narrative that ties all of those things together. And the override is the first step in making all of those things come together. If you think about going from point A to point B, the question is, is that step the right step? And that's why we're going to have an election in April to determine whether or not the residents think that that first step is the right step. But for now, I do support the question being presented to the residents. Thank you very much. Thank you, Alderman Forbes. Any Any other Alderman wishing to speak at this time?

▶ 3:16:47 Shawn M. MacMaster: Alderman McRaster for the Senate. Just very briefly, Mr. President, and if my colleagues could just indulge me, Thorp one issue I did want to address that I heard in this chamber tonight on a couple of occasions and that I heard last week and that I've heard in the community, and that's about this override waiting until we have a new mayor. Say what you will about the mayor. You can call her a lame duck. you can call her a seat filler or seat warmer or whatever it is but she is the mayor and the fiscal health of the city is her chief priority this is somebody who served the city as an alderman for over 20 years i i don't think it's fair to call her illegitimate you know you can you can disagree with the override but as alderman forbes said you can vote against it but just think about it for a minute it would be very easy for mayor inferno to punt on this issue be very easy she doesn't have any children in the school system she doesn't have any grandchildren in the school system she's going to retire she's not seeking re-election as mayor she has no other political ambitions she's doing what she thinks is the right thing to do so i think to suggest that she's somehow illegitimate is just not fair and i think it's wrong and i just wanted to publicly state that this evening in the chamber thank you mr president thank you for that statement alderman mcmaster any other folks

▶ 3:18:21 Michael P. Zwirko: this evening seeing no more further discussion allow me just to indulge for a minute or two on this i will be voting in favor of putting this question on the ballot before the voters and i think it's important to allow the voters that decision i'll also add that i was here three years ago when we tried the general override and at times issues like this can get very to use the term that was used earlier as divisive well that's on each of us that's the folks that are watching at home the folks that are in this chamber this evening how you comport yourself when having these discussions is what's going to make this either divisive or not this is a serious issue that's dealing with a large ticket and it may be attacked at the margins but i have yet to see somebody attack it at its core this is going to stabilize the fiscal issues that we have at the school department level it's going to replace positions that we've cut over the years it's going to deal with some of the salary inequities that we're that we're seeing with us and other members of our neighboring towns and communities that's the plan that's a good plan that's a plan that deserves input and feedback from the residents to vote on that's what we're here to do this evening with that Thorp no further

▶ 3:19:34 Speaker 5: discussion i ask that the clerk call the roll alderman Bewtra yes ottoman voyzel yes alderman forbes yes alderman lemmerman yes alderman Letter garabedian yes alderman mcmaster yes alderman medeiros no alderman mortimer yes alderman Tramontozzi yes alderman wright yes