ORDER-2018-183 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 in the amount of $79,399,945.73 (Seventy-Nine Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred Forty-Five Dollars and Seventy-Three Cents).

Transcript (~14 min @ 19:58)

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▶ 19:53 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: thank you thank you motions recommend second motion to recommend for passage made by alderman Boisselle seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor aye aye any opposed this will be recommended for passes to the full board thank you very much thank you thank you madam thank you mr friends thank you

▶ 20:08 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: madam the fifth order on our agenda is order 2018-183 city of melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2019 in the amount of 79 million three hundred ninety nine thousand nine hundred forty five dollars and seventy three cents um and we have on our schedule this evening department 543 which is uh the veterans services department in the amount of 453 133.55 we are joined here this evening by our veteran services officer karen burke as well as the chair of the veterans advisory board robert driscoll um good evening good evening would you like to open by telling

▶ 20:48 Speaker 6: us a bit about this line sure it's nice to be here in melrose and i've just started this year and it's a tremendous support from among the community i've discovered since i've arrived here starting with the advisory board who are tremendous partners with me and taking care of the veterans in the community right to the different departments within city hall and dpw throughout the city really it's an amazing community to work with veterans our job in the veterans office is to help the veterans within the community access different services and whether it be a unique service that the state of massachusetts offers which i can go into shortly or whether it be one of the services that the department of veterans affairs or department of defense offers to the veterans the paperwork can be overwhelming from the majority of these benefits that they are entitled to so we are there to assist them with the paperwork knowing who to call where to go different things that may be available that they don't even know about and then a large portion of the job is the program which is unique to Massachusetts it's the only state in the country that does this it's called the chapter 115 benefit and it is a financial benefit for veterans who are living on a fixed income or low income and it's a financial assistance provided to them whether it be for fuel for living expenses or for medical expenses and it's something it's a program that we look at very closely for veterans who qualify to help get them that benefit

▶ 22:13 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: thank you very much other questions from the committee

▶ 22:17 Scott M. Forbes: alderman forbes thank you and thank you very much for being here this evening can you just describe um the reimbursement process that happens because i know we apply for benefits you can see the line item here is decreased from where we were last year so it doesn't mean that we're not giving less benefits out to veterans it just means that there may be less veterans

▶ 22:38 Speaker 6: actually applying am i correct in saying that exactly yes so the chapter 115 program is 75 reimbursed from the state of massachusetts we use a program that we refer to as vismus to execute the program what we do is we will look at all the financial documents of our veterans and we enter everything into the system and it will kick back out a number of what the veterans are eligible for and then that is paid from the city of melrose with 75 being reimbursed to us from the state the amount of veterans that we have on the program can fluctuate monthly and for example this past year since this month last year we've had unfortunately four of our veterans pass away that were on the program we've had three more move on to assisted living when they move on to assisted living they're no longer eligible for the chapter 115 program we assist them in applying for federal benefits it does we do have new veterans come in frequently as well and we are always doing community outreach to see if there are veterans who don't know about the program that can learn about it and come in and talk to us so that we can start them on benefits so although we have are down this year with our overall number part of that is because of the passing away of some of our veterans the majority of our veterans who received chapter 115 are senior citizens who are living on their Social Security and it's not enough to get by so that plays part of the fluctuation as well but Thorp always the money available if if we have veterans come in we would never turn somebody away because we've reached our maximum budget we would work within the city to make that happen to get them that benefit that they're entitled to and we actively are always looking for other benefits that are available to our veterans outside of chapter 115 so whether it be va disability va pension ssi ssp so all of the different social services that are available federally to our veterans we see if they're eligible and assist them to apply for those benefits that they can get on federal benefits instead of the state benefit not because we want to kick them off but because there are things that are eligible for them and it helps to keep the state the state chapter 115 program healthy if we if we broaden it out and make sure everybody's getting everything

▶ 24:44 Scott M. Forbes: they can federally thank you um i know for one uh being a veteran myself and going through the office to you know see what resources were available to me i know firsthand that the veterans office here in melrose and veterans services including the advisory board uh truly is second to none when we compare to other municipalities around the state so i just wanted to just you know say that and let you know you're doing an outstanding job in the the short time that you've been here you've made a you've had a big impact so I thank you for that last thing is there anything events coming forward in the summer months or something that you have planned you kind of have an open agenda for the public here if you want to let anybody know if Thorp anything going on that may be of interest the summer is the summer tends

▶ 25:24 Speaker 6: to be a little bit slower as far as events go we are working on a Korean ambassador for peace medal that we submitted 36 veteran Korean War veterans for in the fall that we are waiting for the medals to arrive they're being presented from the Korean ambassador and once those are wherever you're going to set up a ceremony to have here so that we're hoping will come through in time for a summer ceremony in the fall we have of course we'll have Veterans Day prior to that we'll have a golf tournament we're working on that with the advisory board is really taking the lead on that and we also have let's see those are the biggest ones that we have coming up we are working on another vietnam pinning ceremony that that date is also to be determined great well i thank you and i thank

▶ 26:12 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: you for your service thank you thank you thank you alderman Letter garbanian yes um thank you so much

▶ 26:14 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: for being here just a couple questions um on the salad for your salaries um you know i was wondering

▶ 26:25 Speaker 6: how many employees are in the department okay so within at melrose it's myself and i'm full-time and then Jennifer Wade and she is a part-time admin so she's 18 hours a week and then we also work as part of our district we have a part-time VSO in Saugus as Jay Pranet and a part-time VSO in Wakefield which is Hector Arena and they also have admins that are full-time admin so they have somebody space in their seats full-time but they are only part-time dedicated to veterans and I'm

▶ 26:53 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: assuming that those municipalities also contribute to the salaries for those folks or are they all covered in this line they do they pay not in the line or

▶ 27:02 Speaker 6: for their admins in the line or for their VSO so each of the communities pay the full VSO salary and they pay a portion of my salary and then our HR department handles the hiring and paperwork for the communities so it's a nice way that we can have full-time resources available for all three communities without having to have three full-time via source right it's a good use of regionalization

▶ 27:27 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: and then i wondered if all the state and federal monies that come to your office for veterans benefits are simply passed through or do any of those programs include some amount of money that can be used for administrative purposes or other purposes now the small amount we can do for

▶ 27:41 Speaker 6: example our flags that we put at the graves on memorial day we do get reimbursed 75 for those from the state so that is one way that we can use them the majority are just bringing the money back to the veterans that they can spend within the community believe I put in the letter Melrose annually is receiving three hundred and thirty thousand dollars or monthly money for veterans who are on disability benefits so that's all money that comes back into our community that veterans have on top of their salaries or their social security okay and then I think

▶ 28:11 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: the last question you mentioned the outreach that you do and that the advisory board does I'm wondering if you have any sense of the degree to which there are veterans in Melrose or in our regional district who are likely eligible for benefits but may not be applying for them do you have a sense of if Thorp that's a small number a large number or what percentage of the

▶ 28:34 Speaker 6: population we're hoping it's a small number we are in the process of working with housing the senior center getting out to some of the other agencies within the city so that we can capture veterans who may not know about it we also take advantage of people coming in to ask us just questions about how do i get the va or is there a ride for this to always ask them oh how are you doing do you need assistance here are some other things that we offer so it's just a constant presentation to veterans and then word of mouth within the veterans also helps to get out there for oh hey have you gone to the veterans office

▶ 29:03 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: great if Thorp anything you think that we can do on the board please let us know

▶ 29:10 Monica C. Medeiros: great thank you uh alderman Medeiros thank you uh in terms of the reimbursements and that we get from the state that we get from the state and the amount that's paid for benefits are those

▶ 29:24 Speaker 6: those are things that are set by the state they do it's all determined from the program based on salary based on income and what the expenses are so we factor in the person's rents or if they are not renters and they own their home what their property taxes are those are all weighed in and Thorp a set allowance that they can have towards their living expenses fuel is another thing that's if they have to pay for fuel they would be eligible for a fuel benefit and it's all based on the federal poverty level so they take 200% of the federal poverty level and that's used as the determining line for whether you'll get financial assistance or won't get financial assistance and then the computer honestly generates how much they should get and is that something

▶ 30:04 Speaker 6: that is that adjusted regularly it is we just got our new July rates and then went up by about seven dollars for what people can make monthly in order to qualify for benefits and we work closely with our authorizers who work for the State Department of Veterans Services and they approve anything that we put in so we'll put in all the benefits that we want and they'll look at it and say okay yes this is good or oh have you tried this or you're missing this or we need to have this so it's a good partnership that if we didn't realize somebody could get SSP or maybe is eligible for a different program or authorizers will work with us to say hey they should try and get this and work with us to make sure we get people applying for things so it's a good partnership with DBS

▶ 30:39 Monica C. Medeiros: Okay, great. Thank you very much. I would be remiss if I didn't compliment you in the Veterans Advisory Board on the excellent job at Memorial Day, and in particular also Augment Forbes. Thank you. And just pass this along, as I was outside yesterday afternoon, my neighbor just happened to stop by and wanted to tell me what a great job you do in particular, so it is appreciated out there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Just a note here. We will have to recess in order to start the full board meeting in time for the 8 p.m. public hearing. We do have this order before us. If there are, Alderman Mortimer.

▶ 31:19 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much, Madam Chair. You've been praised previously just now, appropriately, because you have done a wonderful job coming into this position. Our previous two veterans administrators, Ryan McClain and Alicia Redding, set a very high bar, and you have risen to that high bar.

▶ 31:47 Peter D. Mortimer: And you can tell how well prepared you are tonight, quoting the programs and the facts and figures and having all the information at your fingertips, what a well-qualified candidate you are to be our veteran service officer, and how fortunate we are to have you,

▶ 32:03 Peter D. Mortimer: including the wonderful job you did on the Memorial Day events along with Alderman Forbes.

▶ 32:15 Peter D. Mortimer: But on a more personal note, I would like to reveal to the public in this venue

▶ 32:22 Peter D. Mortimer: something you did recently that may not be known and is not the everyday nature of your work. There was a man from Melrose who was raised here, graduated from Melrose High, and was a Marine.

▶ 32:40 Peter D. Mortimer: And he was suffering on a spiritual level. His life was in disarray, and he ended up expiring.

▶ 32:50 Peter D. Mortimer: and due to the disarray of his life and troubled family circumstances which I will not describe here out of respect for the privacy of the family he was at the medical examiner's office in Boston and was about to be forgotten and he was a really really good guy when we were younger full of life, full of the joy of life and it was about to pass into eternal rest with no notice of his passing. And you went above and beyond and reached out to people in cooperation with a few other members of the community whose privacy I will also respect presently. And you made sure that he was given the respect that a veteran deserves and that every human deserves upon their passing, working with John Gately, and I'm going to say his name here to give him a little plug because he was wonderful through this whole event. And we thank you, of course, for all the regular business you do, but I want to give an extra thanks to you for what you did for that gentleman. It was wonderful that he didn't pass into the next life in a condition of obscurity, and as it says, whatever you do for the least of them, and you did for the least of them when you helped him out and his family, and I want to thank you for that.