ORDER-2017-147 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228, Article IV, Section 228-30 (Sewer Rates Established) as set forth herein.

Transcript (~6 min @ 1:27:34)

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▶ 1:27:17 Speaker 1: Alderman Mortimer moves to concurrent action on Order 2017-146 and 2017-147. Second. Motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes on the motion for concurrent action. All those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. The orders are before you. Ms. Camosa, could you please read Order 2017-147.

▶ 1:27:38 Speaker 2: Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances Chapter 228 Article 4 Section 228-30 Sewer Rates Established as set forth herein.

▶ 1:27:48 Speaker 1: These orders both come from the Appropriations Committee with recommendations for Passed. So moved, Mr. President. second mortimer moves for Passed motion is seconded by alderman boyce l it's the discussion

▶ 1:28:02 Monica C. Medeiros: on the motion alderman medeiros thank you um thank you i just want to take a minute and uh say that you know i think we've come a long way here today we're able to vote on this and actually see that we have water and sewer rates that are proposed that and i think this is fair to say pretty much historic that are not going to go up uh proposed with no increase for this coming year that being said i do think you know we do have we do have more work to do i think we've made some strides last year in moving from a three-tiered system to a two-tiered system and to try to mitigate some of the increases that we've seen the condo and apartment users really feel this burden since we shift from a flat rate to a tiered rate. We've heard one of the speakers tonight at public participation

▶ 1:28:57 Monica C. Medeiros: talk about the legality, I guess we could say, of going in our current rate structure. We've had several, our city solicitor and others, confirm that these are legal. I think there's possible interpretation. I think there's room for interpretation in how we can look at and review our rates.

▶ 1:29:28 Monica C. Medeiros: In the past, I don't think that my conversations with people at the MWRA have indicated that if we did have, for instance, in return to an idea when we had a flat residential and a flat commercial rate structure, that that could be considered an ascending block rate and would possibly be legal. I hope that we do continue to look at this as we move forward. I know Alderman Forbes had mentioned that the Water and Sewer Rate Committee had really, at their meetings, and hopefully I'll paraphrase this correctly, it's my interpretation of what he said, that they wanted to get one year of this kind of under their belts to see how the system worked. I hope as we get into next year that we, you know, we had some circumstances that allowed us to have the rates be flat, like the big drought that happened last year and the fact that many other communities came on as a one-time only on to the MWR rate and it had defrayed some of the MWRA fixed costs so that we are not sharing as high that burden but I do think we have much work to do I brought up last year the indirect costs and you know I'm happy to see that our share of the indirect cost is actually decreasing six percent this this year but we did see that in the previous five years the costs that are indirect costs that are shifted from the general operating budget into the water and sewer rate not in the water and sewer budgets but onto the water and sewer rates had increased in some cases as much as you know almost fifty five percent so that over that course of that five years so it's I'm glad that we're leveling off but I think we have you you know, more work to do in terms of transparency and in terms of, you know, making sure that that's the appropriate thing that we want to do. I think we have more work to do with the condos and apartments. And we just received today in our email on an unrelated order, a list of the top 20 consumers of water in the city. And it just takes one look at this to see that it's almost all apartments and condominiums in particular buildings so we know that they are getting the highest bills in the city and you know looking at how we can possibly break that down in a more what I would like to see a more equitable basis like per individual or some way to look at finding some way to mitigate these are our residents too so I hope we can move forward with that I I know we were waiting for some litigation to settle down, so we kind of have a past year, if you will, here, and at least things are able to stay the same, but I do hope that we continue the work, and when we get to next year and we have one more year under our belt of seeing this two-tiered rate and structure in place, that we're able to make some changes. Thank you.

▶ 1:32:29 Speaker 1: Anyone else? Alderman Zavarco.

▶ 1:32:31 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to Monica had referred to a document I was gonna ask that that the contents of the email that we received from Department of Public Works director John Shenna about 430 today be added to these concurrent orders second well I don't think I need to make a motion for that but but thank you that's all I had

▶ 1:32:52 Speaker 1: yeah that that can be added to this order and it can also be added to the order that it was meant to address I suppose so we'll have it twice and any

▶ 1:33:05 Speaker 1: further discussion relative to this you have the floor elements work no no okay could you call the roll please all them Brazil yes yes all the women

▶ 1:33:14 Speaker 2: Forbes yes yes all the women inferno yes yes all the women Lemmerman yes yes all the women McAtee Margolis yes yes all the Madeiras yes yes all the women

▶ 1:33:22 Speaker 1: Mortimer yes yes all the women Tramontozzi yes yes all the women Zwirko yes yes president Kahn yes yes 10 years those orders passed order number 2017

▶ 1:33:34 Speaker 2: dash 148 amending Melrose revised ordinances chapter 228 dash 14 water meters by adding a new subsection see a set forth here in this order comes