ORDER-2017-140 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2018 in the amount of $77,397,009.19 (Seventy-Seven Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Seven Thousand, Nine Dollars and Nineteen Cents)

Transcript (~1 h 6 min @ 23:16)

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▶ 22:49 Peter D. Mortimer: very much any other aldermen wishing to be heard seeing none now we will call for the vote all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none this order will will be recommended to the full board for passage. We will now proceed to our continuing endeavor to hammer out the budget for this year. It is order 2017-140. It is the city of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2018 in the amount of $77,397,919. The first budget we have before us is Pine Banks, budget number 652, in the amount of $343,043. This is Mr. Henry Kieser and Mr. Walsh from Pine Banks to come here and explain the Pine Banks budget to us. Please proceed, Mr. Kieser.

▶ 23:46 Speaker 3: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for having us here. I'm Mr. Kieser, this is Mr. Walsh.

▶ 23:52 Speaker 1: Good evening. Gentlemen.

▶ 23:54 Speaker 3: We have circulated our annual report in the same format used for the last number of years. The meat and potatoes are on page 7 and 8.

▶ 24:08 Speaker 3: In operating expenses, we've held a zero-based budget over the prior year. We have had an increase in compensation and benefits. Part of that is from health care benefits. Part of it is through the final alignment of our staffing at the Pine Banks, including our superintendent, who was not hired last year at the time that the prior budget was accepted. Page 8 has got the salaries and compensation. We have moved three seasonal positions to one full time, as that would allow us greater coverage for the field usage, which is an eight-month schedule rather than just the summertime.

▶ 25:01 Speaker 3: Mr. Walsh is keeping them very busy up there in the winter. We do have some acquisition of capital equipment. It's shown as on line 54, it's a total of $97,000.

▶ 25:20 Speaker 3: We have acquired additional pieces of equipment through grants received by third parties and by donations from third parties secured by Mr. Walsh, and the total of those are around $35,000.

▶ 25:41 Speaker 3: I would say that the acquisition of this equipment is a one-time expenditure, acquiring pieces of property that will have a 12- to 15-year life and allow our staff to reduce the amount of third-party vendor services that we have been accruing over the last couple of years. Essentially, we want to fire everybody who comes in and provides services because Andrew wants to do it himself. so that's about the dollars and cents of the matter we do have a recapping of the dump the old dump used to be over by Wyoming Cemetery that's going to be converted to a about a 40,000 square foot dog park we intend to have lights dog park yes with with bags and hydrants

▶ 26:32 Speaker 3: fully accoutered. We know how popular they are. That's a very big undertaking. And part of it is an environmental remediation, which is blessed by the state. So with that, I'm much less interested

▶ 26:50 Speaker 3: in Mr. Walsh because he has done the conversion of the park in the last year. He just celebrated his first anniversary at pine banks um and he's done an excellent conversion an increase in the quality of the operations there and i'd certainly like you to all come by

▶ 27:17 Speaker 3: is there anything you'd like to add not really no we're trying to ease him into these matters

▶ 27:22 Peter D. Mortimer: excellent thank you very much gentlemen alderman in front of please thank you very much mr chairman

▶ 27:25 Gail Infurna: uh first thank you very much for all that you do pine banks is always looking good the addition of the track on that corner i have to tell you what the use that it gets i love it on my knees when i do get down there periodically to walk it so um it's great um and i was going to ask you about a dog park because i get many requests about why isn't there a dog park down at pine banks so um i do thank you for taking that initiative and i'm sure many people and melrose and malden will look forward to having um you know a dog park down there so once again thank you it is one of the jewels uh especially sitting in board five so thank you thank you

▶ 28:05 Peter D. Mortimer: alderman inferno alderman McNaught margolis uh well i don't live in ward five but i do sometimes

▶ 28:09 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: take a walk around that park around that track with a friend who does so and it is great it's great the whole park is wonderful um i just wonder about the dog park are you i'm going to do the

▶ 28:29 Speaker 2: work in-house mr walsh do you expect to the construction of it yeah no it'll be done the

▶ 28:31 Speaker 3: budget the budget on that is about seven hundred thousand dollars wow okay um and the the companies that are 700 000 did you say the companies that are able to do that have equipment that you know they grab the tree by the throat pick it up cut off the bottom and flip it into the back of a truck. It's really something to see. And then they have to recap it with quality materials. The cash coming in for this was a bond issue that we closed last November through mass development. It's tax exempt, 3% fixed for 10 years, which is a better rate, better terms than we would have found elsewhere. And the good thing about it is it doesn't affect the balance sheet of either city nor require a direct guarantee. It's all done within the statutory structure. So it's a big number. We'll be paying it off over 10 years, but it is part of the remediation and further improvement in the park. Did you use some of those funds from the bond to restructure any of your other debt? Yes. You did, okay. Because I thought I saw it was going to save you maybe $20,000 a year or something like that. Yes. The amount of the debt service has been reduced by about $25,000 over what it had been in previous years because of more favorable rates and the extended term. And that includes the payment on the new amount for the dog park? Yes. Great. And when do you anticipate breaking ground for that? We have proposals being solicited at this point. The environmental engineer has a select group of vendors that have provided similar services and we're trying to fit their schedule we have finding that the construction service industry is very busy this year particularly this area yeah yeah a little bit of a headwind but

▶ 30:26 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: and about how long do you anticipate it will take maybe after you break around maybe several months or a year or six weeks to finish the thing And do you have a plan in place for managing it, Mr. Walsh, in terms of signage for, you know? Ask Joan Bell. Ask Joan Bell. Okay.

▶ 30:50 Speaker 2: We've been in communication with the Melrose Dog Society, as well as Joan Bell, who sort of oversees the dog park in Melrose.

▶ 31:05 Speaker 2: As far as management goes, I think we're going to try to, during construction, create a surface that is as little maintenance requiring as possible just because it's another big task to add on to our already pretty busy staff.

▶ 31:21 Speaker 2: so i think that with help of with with the help of the community as well uh joining a society of our own to have at the park would greatly help that in in terms of policing cleaning stuff like

▶ 31:33 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: that and you have a much larger square footage than we have right already so i'm sure you'll draw people from a lot of surrounding areas and have different areas for little dogs big dogs correct dollars I don't know you're gonna probably have to have a special

▶ 31:53 Peter D. Mortimer: pedigree or something to get in there but Thorp remediation required I know Alderman back to Alderman Medeiros please thank you yes actually that's uh

▶ 31:59 Speaker 4: one of my points is that the the real big cost of creating the dog park there is the environmental remediation that's required could you explain on I know we have the trail map in the in the presentation did you explain the area that we're talking about in in terms of that map can you identify the rugby

▶ 32:31 Speaker 3: field I guess I can yeah space off Sylvan Street it's it's a portion of the park between Wyoming Cemetery the foot of the rugby field which is the square field and the Sylvan Street lot very good so this should be a decent amount

▶ 32:49 Speaker 3: of lighting and yes we're we're going to be putting on must-go lighting which is a company that allows us through our telephones or superintendents telephones to turn lights on and off as required we'll have a sir a light there that will illuminate the dog park for dog use during highlight hours well it's

▶ 33:13 Speaker 4: definitely something that is is exciting and obviously you would be working on remediating that area no matter it's another amenity to offer to the community I have been quite involved with the Melrose dog society and working to to put together the the current Melrose dog park that we have over at pond so I know that you know the dog society is a great group of people who've been really involved and have helped a lot and one of the successful lessons that we learned along the way of putting that together is that a successful dog park has a successful partner community that really kind of takes ownership of the group and and helps run things because I know that's ongoing maintenance and just sort of self-policing is a big part of keeping it successful. So I'm excited. This is an area that we'd love to see this in. Excited to see the progress that you're making, Mr. Walsh, and all the good work that you continue to do, Mr. Kieser.

▶ 34:27 Speaker 4: And then the other question I had was about trash removal for human trash. Will that be worked along with the regular DPW schedule? The dog park does seem to, you know, obviously trash receptacles, people bring their coffee, they bring their people waste as well.

▶ 34:50 Speaker 2: So how do we get rid of our trash? yeah currently we have a 10 yard dumpster on site that we take and have it emptied once a week and it's worked out really well prior to that we had to take trash down to the malden city yard which was time consuming to say the least pretty inefficient so this has helped us out in a lot of ways and it seems to work out just great the addition of the dog trash uh we'll have to see

▶ 35:21 Speaker 4: what that becomes you're used to dealing with a lot of people trash yeah all the events and everything that go on at night and during the weekends and obviously Thorp spectators and great a lot of people trash them thank you Thank

▶ 35:33 Peter D. Mortimer: You Alderman Medeiros is there a motion please okay go ahead we'll take your motion to recommend the bottom line by Alderman Margolis duly seconded by Alderman Zwirko on discussion president Kahn please yeah so the way we have the

▶ 35:47 Speaker 3: budget set up now Mr. Keizer is all the salaries are in the Melrose budget and we're reimbursed by Malden is that that how we're still working it Thorp a ward a quarterly reimbursement and it's been in place now since I three or four years and I think that the the amount of the reimbursement has been satisfactory to HR and to the controller right so if anybody's looking at this budget we share the cost of the park with Malden but it was determined a few years ago that it really didn't make any sense to have employees who were split between Melrose and Malden so Melrose pays the salaries and then gets reimbursed from Malden so if you're looking for that you won't see it in the budget but that's how it works we on our presentation on page 8 line 55 is the estimated figure of fifty thousand four sixty two fifty is the quarterly amount being reimbursed from

▶ 36:57 Speaker 3: Malden now the advantage that we've that we've had or implemented in the last couple of years is that this includes not only our our health but our retirees it is the full amount so the city of Melrose isn't being taken disadvantage of and frankly after some study we think the programs up here have some

▶ 37:21 Peter D. Mortimer: advantages for our staffing all right thank you mr chairman thank you president khan a motion to recommend this budget for passage has been made by alderman McNaught margolis and duly seconded by alderman Zwirko seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage thank you very much mr kisa thank you mr walsh have a great evening thank you um see you next year just mr delarusso

▶ 37:42 Peter D. Mortimer: So, in that budget was $101,000 of capital outlay. Just one second, please, Mr. Kieser, just in case. Would you like to just handle that at the capital outlay order? It's two budgets up. All right, thank you very much, Mr. Kieser. The next budget we have before us is budget 296. It is the parking department in the amount of $82,660.

▶ 38:12 Speaker 1: Good evening, Mr. Higgins.

▶ 38:16 Peter D. Mortimer: Good evening, Chief Lyle.

▶ 38:23 Speaker 6: me off okay my budget has increased this year over the last few years um everybody discussed saint mary's i've been here 15 years as the parking clerk we used to pay 30 000 a year and then about 10 years ago they lowered it down 18. and the other question is in st mary's they park all their cars from the school in the convent area and that's what loosened up that area for that now we can get to my budget the girls in the collector's office are

▶ 38:56 Speaker 6: doing a lot of work now as far as the new pass system and they're giving them each a stipend of thirteen hundred dollars per year per person the four girls in the collector's office and that's why you see the stipend thirteen hundred dollars per each girl in the collector's office and also you know about st. Mary's that one up that's in the budget printing has gone up because of our new pass system for the parking lots for all the decals and things we have to make we've given out almost 550 of the passes that the merchants are allowed to park free in the lot in designated spots where the signage is and we've sold about 20 of the $600 passes so that's more revenue those are passes that allow you to park anywhere in the city not on a hydrant or a crosswalk but any spot available if you pay the $600 you're allowed to park there through the chief hiring two people to do the ticketing we're up about 50 60 percent over last year in revenue that's about all the changes we have we're ticketing very heavily as some of the aldermen have mentioned to me that people are complaining about it we are now ticketing on Sadie's which we never did before and it's helping us we're keeping autumn in the parking lots and it's also giving us a little bit more revenue into the parking receipts my budget all our money comes out of pocket ticket receipts any money that isn't used goes back into the parking ticket receipts so if we something happens we don't need some of this money it reverts back into pocket thank you

▶ 40:44 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much, Mr. Higgins. Chief, would you like to add anything at this time?

▶ 40:48 Speaker 6: Just as far as parking, last year we issued 5,200 parking tickets. This year we're at 2,600 year-to-date. This is calendar year-to-date, approximately $73,000 in fines this year.

▶ 41:04 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, sir. First in queue, we have Alderman Inferno, please.

▶ 41:09 Gail Infurna: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. have a statement to make or maybe just wasted my opinion regarding in the parking and the parking tickets I guess I'd like to look at it and I hope the public can look at it this way it's really not about the revenue it's about keeping the spaces moving so that our merchants downtown can get the business I just want to stress that we're not out there ticketing because of we want increased revenue we want it so that we're constantly moving the cars and spaces open up for our merchants that's what makes the livelihood of our downtown Melrose other than that thank you for all that you do and Jack to

▶ 41:50 Peter D. Mortimer: handle those calls thank you Thank You alderman Inferno seeing no other alderman wishing to be heard is there a motion please motion to recommend alderman Inferno has made a motion to recommend this budget duly seconded by second alderman Forbes seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye Aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, the parking budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. Thank you, Mr. Higgins. The next order we have before us is budget 931. It is capital outlay in the amount of $535,900.42. Mr. Delarusso, please. We will.

▶ 42:30 Speaker 3: Thank you.

▶ 42:36 Speaker 2: Thank you. You're welcome, sir.

▶ 42:43 Speaker 2: Again, I'd like to begin with Pine Banks, they were the gentlemen that were just here previously if you look at your red booklet that they passed out on page seven just about midway down it talks

▶ 42:58 Speaker 2: about ball field project amortization and when you get down there you'll see to the far right it says city 101 294 18 and that's the number of the capital outlay that we're required to expand for the purposes of the bond that they did take out that's where you find that in an hour budget book here it resides in budget number 931 but it pertains obviously secondly we have the we're in third year of a five-year computer lease for three hundred thousand dollars you look in um the last line in this and then the third line up it's um says city i.t tech school i.t tech 150 000 150 000 that's how the distribution was laid out that the time we set up this computer lease and it continues again into the third year of five years neil is here if anyone

▶ 44:12 Speaker 2: has any specific questions on that and the last item here police vehicles the third one down Thorp two things happening in that hundred and thirty four thousand six oh six twenty four one is that we're in the fifth year of it the first lease that we get taken out so this will be the last year the very first lease that was taken out and we've commenced and 18 will be the second year of the second lease for the newer vehicles that we've acquired and that's a four year lease and i think that i in speaking with the chief um we felt it was uh behoove us to use a four-year term instead of a five for a number of reasons um and he could speak to that much better than i but uh it just seemed more practical so again respectfully that's what's here and the The gentlemen are here to support and answer any questions you may have on any item.

▶ 45:04 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Mr. De La Russo. Any aldermen wishing to be heard? Seeing none, is there a motion, please?

▶ 45:12 Speaker 3: Motion to recommend the bottom line.

▶ 45:13 Peter D. Mortimer: We have a motion from Alderman McAteer-Margolis to recommend the bottom line, duly seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. The next budget we have before us is budget 930, debt equipment in the amount of $152,800. Please continue, Mr. De La Russo.

▶ 45:37 Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, if I may. And again, to take a look at budget 930, the first item I want to start from the bottom up because I believe that Chris Wilcock has sent a memorandum to the board, and for those here and for those at home, if I could, The $75,000 is related to permitting software. He indicated that it supports the building inspector's software and the GIS software for the city. Each year, the account also supports the purchase of GIS hardware, specialized software, and mapping products such as citywide aerial photography. this account supports development of online transactions for residents and document management projects for departments so he's requested that the same amount as last year no increase um 75 000 to continue that ongoing effort which is a lot of work and speaking with Mr. Wilcox. The following items up top relate to IT supplies, printer costs, IT computer purchases, lease for the copiers, and I would ask that Neal Ellis speak to those particular items if he would kindly.

▶ 47:05 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Mr. De La Russo. Thank you. Seeing no Alderman wishing to be heard, is

▶ 47:09 Speaker 1: there a motion please mr. Ellis mr. Ellis little tough to hear in here with

▶ 47:12 Peter D. Mortimer: the fans please proceed mr. Ellis oh sure so this is the yeah so we have we

▶ 47:23 Speaker 6: have a lot of there are a lot of things that pop up during the year that we need to oh sorry that's not gonna make any difference no all right so we have we have we have quite a few costs that pop up during the year like mr. Della Russo said printer costs maintenance costs a lot of costs that come first right the copier lease which is huge and that gets more expensive every year unfortunately the the state contract is switched now so so you'll see the cost for the for copier is going up quite a bit in the next few years especially next year so that accounts for a lot of those Thank You mr. Ellis seeing any alderman no

▶ 48:15 Peter D. Mortimer: alderman wishing to be heard is there a motion please alderman trim toes he has made a motion to recommend the bottom line for passage duly seconded by alderman inferno all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage please stay right there mr ellis because our next budget is number 155 information technology in the amount of five hundred and sixty four thousand four hundred ninety dollars and thirty nine cents please

▶ 48:53 Speaker 6: proceed sir so uh the the the base of that is uh you know the daily the daily uh working of the the the budget of replacing fixing that can go through well actually because

▶ 49:08 Speaker 6: mister so I've not been working for the city now for about ten months coming up almost coming up on a year so I've identified a lot of a lot of things throughout the city that we could improve and make more efficient we started work on a lot of those things we finished a rollout of the PCs through the through the city the City Hall Council on Aging fire department city yard we've installed and repaired cameras all out throughout the city we built a school an app for the schools we installed wireless at the BB estate we're up right now we're upgrading the water meter server we upgraded a whole bunch of 30-yard stuff and we've we just finished successfully the MCAS the electronic MCAS the middle school which went well which brings me to the next thing which is the summer projects going into FY 18 which we have quite a few so

▶ 50:17 Speaker 6: one thing that we're doing in response to needing an electronic MCAS ability at all of the schools is to we're going to install a wireless access point in every classroom be 143 new wireless access points in in in that goes well beyond you know any state requirement for MCAS that's for instruction in in in teaching and learning primarily but we do have to meet the MCAS guidelines we are we're installing new phone systems at four of the buildings this summer because they have basically technology from 1910 literally I mean their phones that they're they're using are ones you'd buy it like see yeah you crank them up yeah so they'll be able to transfer calls and get voicemail just will be new for them we're we're replacing a bunch of projectors and classrooms that we need that are you know needed instructionally the horseman as you know is going through a whole a whole project this summer to kind of rip apart about a quarter of the school and in upgrade so we'll be in there doing all the security things in the PA systems where you've replacing all the school servers this

▶ 51:43 Speaker 6: summer to the Winthrop in the Hoover we're doing all the equipment and security stuff this summer with them too with the upgrades to the modulars we're fixing some external speakers on the outsides of the buildings and we're actually building out some AV at the Council on Aging for to utilize two of the rooms make two of the rooms more like conference spaces and we're installing in kind of cleaning up the whole network and putting putting labels on everything and kind of making everything uniform so we can better service the the city and in in schools so that's kind of what's going on for the next summer and a little bit beyond to anyone has any questions sure thank

▶ 52:32 Speaker 3: you president calm please so mr. Ellis your hundred and forty six thousand one hundred and thirty dollars is for phone service for the entire city yes and you're paying the bill for the school in city we're paying the bill for the for

▶ 52:42 Speaker 6: city and the wireless on the city side the wireless on the schools in the school phones come out of the school budget I don't think so I think that's

▶ 53:01 Speaker 3: just the city side phones as I look at your budget you have if you're for

▶ 53:08 Speaker 3: full-time people listed and all of your salaries contained in your budget all

▶ 53:13 Speaker 6: the salaries are contained in the budget okay nobody's being paid from any other

▶ 53:18 Speaker 6: source in the budget nobody's being paid from any other source in the budget I mean I have staff on the school side that are paid from the school budget and I have the I have one one of one of the the financial systems analyst in my department is being paid from its other bond I think that's a it's a part of the water project for DPW okay so that's the individual who's the financial system

▶ 53:41 Speaker 3: yes yes didn't you know do you know what percentage of that salary comes from water that I don't I don't but well it

▶ 53:49 Speaker 6: it's I know she's gonna be working she's be a point for in on the city and then a point six for IT I mean the city are DPW that's all I have right now mr. chairman

▶ 54:07 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, President Kahn. Seeing no other aldermen wishing to be heard, is there a motion, please? Motion to recommend. Alderman Forbes has made a motion to recommend this budget for passage, duly seconded by Alderman Zwirko. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. Thank you very much, Mr. Ellis. Next budget we have before us is budget 151. It is the city solicitor in the amount of $818,277.48. Please proceed, Mr. Van Camper. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 54:43 Speaker 2: I'm going to try to go line by line to fill the members in on some of the change that has occurred in my office between FY17 and will occur in FY18. On the salaries line, Mr. Chairman, members will note a rather substantial increase in salaries in my office. and that is due to a number of staffing reconfigurations in the legal department, which also includes the hiring of an in-house lawyer for the Melrose Public Schools. As members know, for many years the Melrose Public Schools enjoyed the benefit of outside counsel Mary Jo Hollander, who handled a lot of the labor and general work for the school department. She announced her retirement, which was effective at the end of 2016, And at that point, in conversations with school officials, Mayor Dolan, myself, it was determined that the most cost effective way to fill that void in the school department was not to retain an outside law firm because Ms. Hollander's hourly rate was so low in relation to today's market that if we retained an outside firm, the cost would have been exorbitant and frankly unaffordable for the school department. So the decision was made to create a position, which in FY17 has been funded through the school department. That position is of assistant city solicitor for labor and school matters. And with me this evening is Amy Lindquist, who has been hired in the position, has been working with us for several months now, taking a lot of the load off the school department. She's here this evening, Mr. Chairman, really to answer any questions members may have about her background and qualifications, as you have your questions. so she's happy to do that as well but i did want to give her a brief introduction and ask her to come up and join me if she could in addition to the hiring of an assistant city solicitor for school and labor matters mr chairman Thorp also been some change in the position of executive assistant to the city solicitor many of you know kelly cogavan she's in the audience as well tonight she's been with us i believe for eight years seven or eight years performing a variety of roles through my office and she's taking on additional roles she did as of april 1st she'll be handling a lot of some hr work in the area of employee injuries workers compensation 111f which are public safety work related injuries and as a result of that the decision was made to enhance her salary to accommodate those additional responsibilities that she's assuming I will also point out mr. chairman that during FY 17 miss coggan also worked out of grade at the cemetery superintendent rate to assist with some record-keeping and file work down there as we try to complete some of the cemetery records that have been left incomplete for many years so she's doing that work or had done that work as well in addition you will see in her salary there is a built-in stipend I believe it's $1,500 annually for her work as clerk of the Liquor Commission so that explains I hope most of the substantial increases that you're seeing on my salaries line going down to contractual expenses and professional services we're requesting an additional amount of money under professional services and you will note that in 2017 the department spent over sixteen thousand dollars on professional services having originally budgeted 2475 that was due to the city's retention of an expert in connection with the fire jlmc proceeding that was completed in fy 17. i anticipate the same expense may be necessary in fy18 with respect to certain other public safety unions which is why i've made the request to increase that appropriation under supplies and materials mr chairman the only increase you'll see there is under electronic mass that is the city's west law subscription which is the online legal research database that's a contractual increase over which we currently have no control under other charges dues and memberships the increase you see there is corresponding with with the hiring of an additional council, bar license, memberships in bar associations, attendance at seminars, things of that nature. You'll see under that other line item. Property insurance, we're estimating a 5% increase, and I will tell you that I've had conversations with Alderman Wright, who asked this question on an annual basis, and I know he couldn't be here tonight. we routinely instruct our insurance agent to competitively competitively procure excuse me every liability premium that we have so we anticipate that a 5% increase should be right where we're going to land at the end of the day I believe that is it as far as the budget is concerned happy to answer any

▶ 59:55 Peter D. Mortimer: questions you may have thank you very much city solicitor van campen president kahn please so

▶ 1:00:00 Speaker 3: of your 818 000 budget 502 odd dollars goes to just pay for the city insurance correct i always

▶ 1:00:07 Speaker 2: i always have a bit of a complexion when my budget comes before you and it looks like i have a million dollar budget and a million dollars in salary and staff but in fact i don't it's 550 000 in insurance

▶ 1:00:21 Speaker 3: yeah and and you've you've indicated in your uh presentation the the salary for council for the school has migrated from the school side of the budget to the city side correct where i assume

▶ 1:00:35 Speaker 2: it's going to stay correct so if you on the school side there should be a car roughly a corresponding reduction um of between forty and fifty thousand dollars in that line item on the school side

▶ 1:00:49 Peter D. Mortimer: that's all I have for now Thank You president Khan seeing all the

▶ 1:00:55 Speaker 4: Medeiros please just ultimate inferno and I were just commenting on a very thorough budget presentation and we appreciate that thank you thank you

▶ 1:01:07 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: all this little side conversation here I did want to welcome you Amy Lundquist I link with Lindquist sorry I publicly because I don't think you've been before us before so thank you are you situated upstairs in the legal department no I

▶ 1:01:25 Speaker 5: actually sit in the school department you do and how many hours are you

▶ 1:01:32 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: working 24 hours a week 24 so you have it's a benefited position right okay and so you're at the disposal of the superintendent and and are you assisting our city solicitor with it some of the other labor matters as well at all are you just pretty much gonna be on the school side I think as demand comes

▶ 1:01:54 Speaker 5: along but right now I'm primarily doing school labor and other matters and do we

▶ 1:02:04 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: have contracts coming up in the near future with the school department we do

▶ 1:02:08 Speaker 5: i think we have three coming up next year next year okay and then the rest come the next year i

▶ 1:02:16 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: believe great well well good luck and um welcome publicly and thank you for your service thank you

▶ 1:02:22 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you alderman mcintyre margolis is there a motion please motion recommend mr chairman motion to recommend this budget by alderman forbes duly seconded by alderman inferno all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be right thank you the board for passage the next order we have before us is the liquor commission budget 165 in the amount of two thousand dollars miss cargavan will you be addressing that oh mr city solicitor please

▶ 1:02:59 Speaker 2: proceed although i should make her do it mr chairman um mr chairman uh liquor commission chairman joe nevin was unavailable this evening so he did ask me to present his rather straightforward budget so the thousand dollars under professional services my understanding is that is for mailings and things of that nature associated with the liquor commission a thousand dollars for compliance is connected to compliance checks that are conducted on a random basis by the board of health I believe I believe it occurs more than once a year as well that's

▶ 1:03:36 Peter D. Mortimer: what those monies would go toward thank you very much sir is there a motion please we have a motion to recommend the bottom line from Alderman MacMaster Margolis duly seconded by Alderman Inferno on discussion seeing none all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to full board for passage next budget we have before us is budget 152 it is human resources in the amount of 135 000 421 dollars and 84 cents marianne long our director of human resources is

▶ 1:04:15 Speaker 4: here with us this evening is long please proceed last but not least um i'm prepared to answer any questions you may have about the human resources budget it's really straightforward

▶ 1:04:25 Speaker 3: yeah so uh just jumping ahead your your salaries and wages are not fully contained within this

▶ 1:04:33 Speaker 4: budget um salary and wages for uh the two human resource department staff are um my salary is 75 percent within the hr budget 25 in the health insurance budget the assistant is 50 50. and holly is the benefits administrator she's 50 50. okay so so the other the other percentages are in

▶ 1:04:53 Speaker 3: the health insurance that's the budget that we're going to be considering later on yes

▶ 1:05:04 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you president khan seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard is there a motion please set up a motion to recommend by alderman inferna seconded by alderman forbes all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage the next budget we have before us is the workers comp budget number 912 in the amount of three hundred and ten thousand dollars please

▶ 1:05:29 Speaker 4: continue miss long as as you can see historically and we did discuss this at the last budget hearing we're very fortunate that our workers compensation budget continues to decrease we only have two long-term recipients now who are receiving bent lifetime benefits we had 17 when we started out many years ago and the primary reason for that again is that we privatize trash and recycle and also our public safety and DPW staff are they continue to work

▶ 1:06:16 Peter D. Mortimer: smart we've been very fortunate thank you very much miss long any president

▶ 1:06:20 Speaker 3: con please yeah I wanted to but I didn't have a chance to check the account detail on this budget because now we've had the budget for a long time so the actual that we had was less than a hundred and eighty thousand dollars do know what what the status of this budget is now in the current fiscal year I'm

▶ 1:06:37 Speaker 4: sorry I don't understand the question I apologize yeah I wanted to find out how

▶ 1:06:40 Speaker 3: much has been expended of this budget as FY 17 yes as of today because when we

▶ 1:06:49 Speaker 4: got the budget it's now yes I can email that figure I don't have the exact amount I do know that we have paid expenses since this 2017 actual and do

▶ 1:07:03 Speaker 3: you have any kind of a ballpark as to how much you think you're gonna spend

▶ 1:07:08 Speaker 4: from this budget before the year ends well I would answer that by saying we have two employees that had serious surgeries within the last several months and we are continuing to pay medical expenses related to those surgeries. I apologize that I can't give you a financial. I can follow up tomorrow or this week.

▶ 1:07:32 Speaker 3: If you could, that would be great. So we have two long-term benefits cases, and we have two cases where we have employees who had surgery and are receiving medical and weekly compensation benefits.

▶ 1:07:46 Speaker 4: That is correct, yes. That's all.

▶ 1:07:47 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, President Kahn. Seeing no further aldermen wishing to be heard.

▶ 1:07:52 Speaker 3: Motion to recommend.

▶ 1:07:53 Peter D. Mortimer: Second. I have a motion to recommend from Alderman Inferna, duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. This budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. The next budget we have before us is budget 913. It is unemployment in the amount of $130,000. Please continue, Ms. Long.

▶ 1:08:14 Speaker 4: Again, as you can see, historically, we've been fortunate, 2016, as you can see, 88,000, 2017 actual, and I have to point out, it says 90,000 here, 919, we are always one month in arrears with paying the state. the state bills us a month after the expenses incurred so we felt very comfortable reducing this line item by $10,000 for FY 2018 thank you very much

▶ 1:08:58 Peter D. Mortimer: miss long seeing no motion recommend you have a motion to recommend the bottom line from alderman MacMaster my goal is duly seconded by alderman in front of excuse me the fans that's I know seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage the next budget we have before us is budget 9 1 for health contractual in the amount of eleven million nine hundred and sixty five thousand thirteen dollars and sixteen cents yes continue so you'll see

▶ 1:09:32 Speaker 4: if we very quickly go through some of our line items as Alderman Khan pointed out the salaries there reflect 25% of my salary 50% of the benefits administrator the Affordable Care Act the first two line items for the Affordable Care Act obviously the law has been in place now for several years the software is in place we've been trained on it um and we're uh two years into managing the reporting requirements um for the feds so it's we no longer need those funds essentially to train and have a consultant some of the other line items i'm going to skip ahead for just a moment you'll notice

▶ 1:10:29 Speaker 4: This, bear with me one moment, the Medicare Part D line, it reflects a negative amount. It's, in fact, a credit from the federal government, and that credit comes to us via the Group Insurance Commission bill. it's credited once the feds reimburse the city of Melrose for Medicare Part D

▶ 1:10:58 Speaker 4: and and prescription coverage are there any particular questions on the health

▶ 1:11:02 Peter D. Mortimer: insurance budget that Alderman Medeiros please thank you very much

▶ 1:11:05 Speaker 4: well my favorite part I think about this whole budget is this health insurance expenses expenses by department for FY 18 yes breakdown which you provided for us and I have hard copies to if people didn't see it on I've been sort of asking for this year here and I am really thrilled to see it it and it gets kind of enlightening to you know to all of us about how much that you know the budget line item is you know over 13 million it's it's a huge chunk without kind of seeing where that goes and i just want to point out a couple of things here that are pretty significant yes you know one is that we're paying out of the the 1335 people who are or families that are receiving health insurance from the city including those who are opting out 82 um 749 of them are for retirees which is more than half of all the people so that this is a huge huge huge expenditure that yes it is we you know are going to be faced with finding a way to to pay for and on many many cities and towns and it's something that, you know, we're the Mass Municipal Association, we're working hard on trying to find some solutions and some reform to OPEB and so on, but it's fairly important that we, the city, are putting some money into the OPEB trust fund that we've begun, but it's not nearly a drop in the bucket compared to what we certainly have as an ongoing liability and what we're going to have the future do you have any ideas of how we can get that down you know i i think first and foremost we have to recognize everything that the city of melrose has done over the last 10 years we've spoken about this before most significantly when we transferred and enrolled to the group insurance commission and i again i have to acknowledge our union presidents were our partners in that process and they worked alongside us they helped us to lower our health insurance exposure so first and foremost that was very significant and i think it's worked for us and and i recommend that the city continue to remain enrolled in in group insurance we're a chapter 32b section 19 community which requires the city of melrose to negotiate with our public employee committee which are the union presidents and there are 12 of them so any decisions or any proposals we may have about how to manage this going forward in the future we have to by law negotiate and and come to an agreement with our um union body and as i've said they've been very proactive yeah until now and i and truthfully um i think the city has done everything it legally can up to this point and the opt-out program has been very successful and i have to give a lot of credit to paulina lotta the benefits administrator she did a lot of marketing over the last two years, as well as Donna Cohane in the school department. I really think we're doing the best we can, given the amount of money. Certainly, and certainly we have an obligation to the people who worked for us in the past and so on as well, which I don't want to make clear that we want to honor. So the opt-out program, are these people able to take advantage of the opt-out program, Or do they have the opportunity to opt out and then opt back in later on if their life situation changes? Exactly, yes. What we're finding now is because the program has been in place for three years, this is our third year. We're entering into our third year. It is widely known and understood by current employees. So if they have the option of opting out, they've already done it. What we're finding now is our new hires coming in are the ones who are enrolling because we give them the option to either enroll in health insurance or to opt out. But so the retirees, do they have the option to opt out? No. The opt out benefit is not for retirees. It is only for our active employees. Is that something that we could look at doing in the future if, say, maybe right now, maybe it's a couple that has a spouse that's working and someone can, you know, go on their plan versus, you know, later on they might need our health insurance again. yes and um but they can opt back in something and i'd have to research this and look into it but something is telling me um that we can't have retirees opt out legally with our group insurance agreement but i'd have to look at that but certainly i mean that is a a large number of people and as our employees retire they tend to stay on our insurance and then we have new employees coming in who may enroll on insurance and is there anything that we can do from like a health and wellness i mean we i imagine we get benefits the more well our employees are but do we does it i would assume it would also behoove us to have healthy retirees also yes um every insurance plan has significant savings and programs that they offer to the employees the city of Melrose doesn't have the wellness benefit or program but the health insurance companies very actively market their wellness programs and they offer incentives and discounts and so forth good and I think the other thing that's also very significant is that you know we talked a lot about about a lot of the things that are on sometimes we think see the school budget and the school budget is a certain number there are a lot of things that are on the city side of the budget that cover the schools and this is an area where the largest amount of employees that who are active are actually included the health insurance for the school employees are in this budget by far and away exceed any other department that's on the regular city budget so so it's it's a good way for us to be able to manage that cost better and in a like budget but it is certainly a cost that's associated with the school yes I think this helps provide this breakdown you provided helped a lot of transparency for the public and for us great thank you you're welcome you

▶ 1:18:17 Peter D. Mortimer: alderman Medeiros president Kahn please I'll pass at this point mr. chairman Thank You president Kahn alderman Inferno please thank you very much mr.

▶ 1:18:25 Gail Infurna: chairman just a quick question Mary and thank you for coming to this evening Regarding the retirees, does this number include retirees who may be on Medicare but use GIC as their supplementary?

▶ 1:18:40 Speaker 4: It does.

▶ 1:18:41 Gail Infurna: So that's included in there. So we're not actually paying full benefit of the GIC being the primary and the retirement and that being the supplementary. I only know this because this is what I do in my day time. I just wanted to point out so that dollar sign is smaller for the retirees. That is for the most part, for the most part, for the most part, because we're just paying the supplementary, which is 20 percent of, you know, of that of the budget.

▶ 1:19:07 Speaker 4: So the majority of our retirees are enrolled in Medicare. Medicare is their primary insurance. The GIC program that they're enrolled in, or I should say health insurance plan that they're enrolled in, is a supplemental plan. and the city contributes 70% as opposed to the 84% we contribute to active

▶ 1:19:31 Gail Infurna: employees so the city does 70% of that for the supplementary supplemental yes

▶ 1:19:38 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you Thank You alderman inferno alderman's work oh please Thank You mr.

▶ 1:19:45 Michael P. Zwirko: chairman thank you for being here tonight I know that your office is a small office but it certainly does yeoman's work so appreciate all the work

▶ 1:19:52 Speaker 7: you do thank you I do have a couple of questions about the the opt-out and the

▶ 1:19:57 Michael P. Zwirko: line item specific to group health it's the largest line yes so has your

▶ 1:20:10 Speaker 4: enrollment period already commenced yes so do you it started and ended April 3rd

▶ 1:20:15 Michael P. Zwirko: to May 5th so do so it was May 5th so this budget that we have before us was printed out and I believe May 4th do we know we have about or at least at the time of the memo that I'm looking at from April 5th of 2017 we have about 80 employees that opt out did that number change at all we you know it's

▶ 1:20:32 Speaker 4: interesting when I was thinking about coming before you the health insurance budget opt out as well as the health insurance expense whenever we study it it's like taking a photograph as soon as you stop taking the photograph the scene changes and that's the way it is with health insurance so to answer your question during the open enrollment period we had seven additional employees opt out during open enrollment so it brought the number to 92 or whatever it was and then at that same time we had employees retire who were enrolled in opt out and they chose health insurance upon retirement and we people resign I'm sorry so the numbers are constantly fluctuating and I get that I just you

▶ 1:21:26 Michael P. Zwirko: know in the memo that I referred to from April 5th of 2017 is you know we essentially were able to make inter-account transfers upwards of four hundred and ninety thousand seventy thousand dollars you know to cover snow and ice correct and then when I look at the line item here for the original budget that was budgeted in 2017, it's 10.7, and now we've got 10.6. So I'm just wondering, you know, will we be dealing with another transfer? It seems to me that, you know, when you're only have a difference of about $89,000 or $90,000 from year to year, but yet, you know, we had the ability to transfer nearly $500,000, it leads me to believe that Thorp a

▶ 1:22:05 Speaker 4: little bit of wiggle room left in that line item. Well, I'll tell you, the amount of money that's submitted every year for health insurance in particular and and it really is It's all managed via our software benefit tracker It's actual enrollment and actual rates So the number we submit is a true figure in that step snapshot of time Now we have open enrollment for opt-out in April as well as in January so there are two opportunities for people to opt out and then there are qualifying events throughout the year course new new employee I'm sorry new employment for spouses as an example so your question is will we be able to transfer out additional monies in FY 18 wouldn't that be nice if we could do that I don't know the answer to that because the the landscape changes yeah

▶ 1:23:10 Michael P. Zwirko: a fairly regular basis. I'm just, I mean, again, and I appreciate this clarity and it seems that you seem to allude to the fact that we're, we might be plateauing also at our opt-out rate. I mean, sure, you know, there may be some new hires that come on, but you know, we're not, we're not going to see 82 employees all of a sudden just opt out. Yeah. I wouldn't think we would. Right.

▶ 1:23:26 Michael P. Zwirko: So, I mean, and it's been around, this plan has been around for three years now, so it got popular, but it's starting to, you know, things all kind of level out at some point. Yes. It just, it just seems to me that you know we probably will be seeing a transfer for some amount of money sometime in the spring of 2018 you know based on these based on historical projections and and the popularity of the opt-out you know I

▶ 1:23:49 Speaker 4: just can I can I also say one of the major reasons last year that there were additional funds I should actually this year FY 17 last year during open enrollment. We being the HR department, Donna Cohane, Polly and I made a huge push to have people understand that they didn't have to remain enrolled in the more expensive plans. For example, Harvard Pilgrim costs the city $20,000 per family a year. That's a lot of money. There were other options that were less expensive. And it's not because the benefits were any less. It's all about the network. So just as an example, $20,000 per family versus enrolling in Unicare, which is $13,000 that we contribute on an annual basis. Actually, it just went up to about $14,000, $5,000. that's a huge chunk of change and the majority of our employees have been enrolled in Harvard Pilgrim as well as Tufts those are two major enrollments and they are the two most expensive plans and one of the things that the group insurance commission did was close those those two plans no one can enroll in them and we don't know if anyone will in the next two years they're closed to any new enrollees so that's another way that last year I think we had close to 90 people change out of the more expensive plans into the lesser expensive plans so that's another reason that we had that significant amount of money it was also the opt-out but that was another reason no and

▶ 1:25:41 Michael P. Zwirko: that's good to know and I mean all those aggressive efforts you know again that's why not to beat a dead horse but I keep coming back to the fact that I do do believe that the aggressive efforts that you've made the popularity of the opt-out plan and then the line item only differing between ninety thousand dollars from FY 17 FY 18 is there'll be some money there you know you know and it wouldn't be surprised me at all if we actually do see some transfers I mean it does seem to me that the accounts been padded in that way so those are all the questions I had I do appreciate the work on this thank you and Thank You mr.

▶ 1:26:10 Peter D. Mortimer: chairman Thank You alderman's work Oh alderman MacMaster my goal is please

▶ 1:26:13 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: thank you mr. chairman I just wanted to ask on the retirees yes the teachers are included in that or do they have their own yeah no they are teachers aren't

▶ 1:26:22 Speaker 4: teachers are part of it their pension is different right health insurance their

▶ 1:26:26 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: health insurance is we still carry them on that and as far as the opt-out is that an annual it is it it's only it's not just for a year or two it's every year as long as the employee yes as long as they opt out they receive

▶ 1:26:47 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: compensation yes instead of the benefit yes that is correct okay and just looking at your budget can you can you just tell us you have a line life insurance yes and had a little bit of an increase enrollment increases okay and

▶ 1:27:06 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: what rates did increase as well okay and what is Sentinel Sentinel is our third

▶ 1:27:08 Speaker 4: party administrator for flexible spending plan okay and that's right

▶ 1:27:17 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: yes and that also the company had an increase we have an increased enrollment in their enrollment okay great great work as always we hear wonderful things and personal experience tells me that you guys have thank you have it all

▶ 1:27:36 Peter D. Mortimer: covered thank you very much Thank You alderman MacMaster Margolis seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard mostly recommend mr. chairman alderman Forbes has made a motion to recommend this budget to the full board for passage duly seconded by second alderman MacMaster Margolis all in favor please say aye opposed hearing none thank you very much this budget will be recommended to

▶ 1:28:03 Peter D. Mortimer: the full board for passage we have a motion to turn up before we accept that motion to adjourn is there a point of personal privilege president khan well i have a point of

▶ 1:28:13 Speaker 3: order uh i don't believe we have any more budgets to consider do we mr chairman recommend the bottom

▶ 1:28:21 Speaker 4: line didn't uh may 25th get canceled or something i believe that's correct so with the chair being

▶ 1:28:30 Speaker 3: entertaining a motion for passage of the budget at this time in order to move it along to the

▶ 1:28:37 Peter D. Mortimer: full board if if that is the will of the board i would the motion certainly is in order or we can take the uh order from committee at the next full board meeting just to be sure but uh it is your option certainly i withdraw my motion to adjourn at this time alderman's work always withdrawn his motion to adjourn it was not seconded um so i i i move that we accept the bottom line of the budget

▶ 1:29:00 Speaker 3: in the amount of seventy seven million three hundred ninety seven nine dollars and nineteen

▶ 1:29:09 Peter D. Mortimer: cents second second president khan has made a motion that we accept the budget in the amount stated it was duly seconded by alderman MacMaster margolis is there any discussion on the motion to recommend the entire budget to the full board for passage uh seeing no discussion on that matter all in favor of president khan's motion please say aye any opposed hearing none uh this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage alderman Zwirko is renewing his motion to adjourn sure at this time second duly seconded by alderman forbes all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none the committee on appropriations is This is hereby adjourned. Thank you, one and all.