ORDER-2017-148 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228-14 Water meters by adding a new subsection C as set forth herein.

Transcript (~46 min @ 50:50)

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▶ 50:35 Peter D. Mortimer: that point of order interrupted before the vote thank you a vote on the motion to close the public portion of the public hearing all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none the public portion of the public hearing is how hereby closed the first order contained within the public hearing is order 2 0 1 7 dash 1 4 8 amending Melrose revised ordinances chapter 228 Water meters by adding a new subsection C as set forth herein. Alderman Zwirko has made a motion to suspend the rules. Motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor of suspending the rules, we may hear from the appropriate city officials. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please come forward?

▶ 51:45 Speaker 7: Good evening everyone. Good evening. opening statement is relative to the public hearing but also spills over on to some of the orders that are before you this evening first of all once again I'd like to thank the the members of the water and sewer rate committee alderman Forbes a CFO Patrick de la Russo city treasurer art Flavin a city engineer Atlanta Pro a casales that have worked on this package of orders for several months and also work diligently throughout the year at operating the infrastructure and also administering the water so enterprise budgets I'd be remiss if I also didn't take a quick second to thank Donna Cardillo and the entire water and sewer billing staff that's now downstairs in City Hall and all of our operations crews that work behind the scenes on a daily basis at administrating collecting bills issuing bills taking phone calls fixing water breaks responding to sewer blocks so I just want to take an opportunity to do that discussions have been gone ongoing for several months concerning the orders that are before you this evening the discussions are conducted openly and in a combined group effort the package before you this evening is historic in the sense that there are no there is no change proposed in volumetric water and sewer rates and a change in only the sewer base fee and not the water base fee for FY 18 I just want to remind everyone that these this package starts in October 1st similar to last year when we shifted the start of the new rate season to October 1st so everything that we propose although minor and change will take it will go into effect October 1st the package also continues to invest

▶ 53:42 Speaker 7: in infrastructure it completes the reserve plan set forth by this board of aldermen one year early implements an opt-in monthly billing option for the residents of Melrose that desire it provides the Department of Public Works with adequate staffing and funding for contractual support and the materials it needs to maintain the systems efficiently and to provide high levels

▶ 54:15 Speaker 7: of service lastly the package addresses the three main areas of concerned echoed by several members of this board for several years those of affordability stability of funds and stability of increases recall that rate increases in

▶ 54:38 Speaker 7: FY 13 that this board in the administration wrestled with were nearly double digits it was followed by two years of 7% increases and two more of five to six percent increases so we've come a long way in our ability to

▶ 54:58 Speaker 7: essentially maintain status quo even if it's just for this year also this past year I'm happy to report the seniors and individually owned and occupied condo units were afforded the ability to receive a senior discount through the work of the administration together with this board 71 seniors in our community are now receiving 146 dollar credit due to the expanded senior discount program that we implemented last year at this time one of the main reasons that this package before is before you in the manner that it is this evening is our MWRA assessment our combined MWRA assessment was an increase of only 1.5 percent this year in fact our water assessment actually reduced it's one of

▶ 55:53 Speaker 7: the lowest this community has been assessed in several several years although naturally grateful and appreciative of this assessment we speak to you this evening however caution cautioning you of the reasons why in 2016 Massachusetts experienced record drought conditions throughout the Commonwealth in fact drought levels continued well into the winter months and in some areas even in the spring there was still four forecasts out there that showed areas of red in the Commonwealth that were labeled drought conditions areas of the The state that depend on the MWRA as a backup water source turned to them in 2016 for their primary source of water. This resulted in additional water being distributed, essentially sold, by the MWRA to customers that typically don't require these levels or this demand. With more customers to distribute the cost to, our rates were lower than accustomed.

▶ 57:02 Speaker 7: to date in 2017 that trend is no longer existent our system this past year is also experienced

▶ 57:10 Speaker 7: less leaks obviously reducing our overall consumption that's worth noting as well but that that is something that as you look at the budget you look at the MW area assessments keep in the back of your mind the conditions that resulted in maybe not all of it but a good

▶ 57:33 Speaker 7: portion of it also within this budget is the order that with the that is in public hearing right now the request to change ordinance two to eight dash one four by instituting a manual meter read fee over the past two years over seventy eight hundred residential meters and 1,000 deduct irrigation meters have been changed throughout our city in residential homes that represents nearly ninety-four percent of the community residents were sent four letters and most recently received an orange door knocker at their front door requesting that they call the city and allow us to come in and change the meter yet there still remains a small portion of this community that is reluctant reluctant in

▶ 58:18 Speaker 7: coming forward this creates a hardship on our operations and our billing group and their ability to read we can't drive by and extract a reading inside a van from a house who doesn't have his meter upgraded so requires the van to go down the street and turn around and then park and get out and get the read and come back the institution of a manual read fee could help us finally reach this these three to four hundred accounts that still exist today that have yet to upgrade and yet to reach back to the to the department within tonight's agenda is also know in order to reauthorize the use of funds already approved and borrowed the meter replacement project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget large and large part due to aggressive bidding but equally in large part due to the work of our in-house billing managers who manually reviewed and adjusted all of the accounts I just mentioned below as they as the meters were being changed when we originally budgeted that we were we were we were forecasting the need of outside consultants however we were so diligent in house and doing it it saved us some money the request before you is to reappropriate those surplus funds to ongoing sewer I&I and water pipeline improvements by splitting to two hundred and twenty thousand dollars equally between those two ongoing programs for use this summer the small increases

▶ 59:52 Speaker 7: within the water and sewer operating budgets before you are industry driven with costs of materials rising there is an increase in the meter line and you may question why since we just changed it but that is that's the support the meter reading equipment the warranty and the on-call service plan that we had to put in place now that we're moving forward with monthly billing there are also three other note noteworthy items for reasons of increase in those budgets in both the water and sewer budgets there is a reduction of one employee in the operations group a laborer position in the water crew and a truck driver position in the sewer crew have not been funded in the FY 18 budget both positions will be vacant on July 1st due to a resignation and a retirement so this proposal does not lay off an existing employee but rather not doesn't fit doesn't fund filling a vacancy that will exist in two weeks both the water and sewer division staffing was increased several years back some of you were here when we had several several projects ongoing at the same time that nest necessitated not only our ability to go out and do day-to-day things but our ability to go out and have to work with contractors sometimes in two or projects in two or different two or three different parts of the city with those days in a rare the administration felt it was time to reduce the staff and streamline costs and I attempt to control spending the budgets also support a new backflow program you'll see that increased in the water budget line we've recently signed a new contract with our vendor that will require a citywide survey the costs are reflected in that line item recall the backflow devices and the annual inspection the installation of backflows and the annual inspection of those backflows is required by the DEP we have to report annually that we have a program and that our program is thorough and that encapsulates all the potential areas that where a backflow could exist lastly I want to I want to state that there is an increase to the pump station maintenance line item mainly together with studying roads and water and I and I we also looked at our pump stations we have five sewer pump stations and two water booster stations seems like yesterday we built the water stations but they're 12 years old we had our consultants come in we did a thorough invest investigatory study of all of the pump stations the mechanics behind it the pumps the motors and we came up with a listing and in a sense of small capital improvement for each station so we're going to attempt through this budget to start to address those issues as they come forward so that we can avoid catastrophic collapse in the future tonight our CFO Patrick de la Russo is with me and he'd just like to follow up with some details regarding reserve accounts retained earnings indirect costs and some other financial manners as they pertain to water and sewer at the conclusion we're open for any questions that you may have thank you very much mr. Sena please

▶ 1:03:19 Speaker 8: proceed mr. de la Russo thank you good evening for us I want to thank John Shannon the chairman of the water and sewer committee and also all them Scott forbes i think the committee this year worked exceptionally well we made some very hard decisions and i'm very proud of what the committee did and the amount of time that we spent to formulate this year's program i think is noteworthy and i'm very pleased to be part of it having said that i would ask respectfully that you reference the material that was provided particularly my memorandum to the board of alderman dated may 1st of 2017. and i want to go to a couple of specific

▶ 1:04:03 Speaker 8: items and i don't have the desire to read the entire package i think that's it's pretty self-explanatory i had also one provided to this board last year but in particular um the second page about talks about what we did and number one and i indicated there's an update that we have submitted funding requests which would accomplish this goal to bring both funds at 10% a year earlier for the reserves and that does two things first of all it demonstrates a commitment to reach your goal which you did a year early and I commend the Board of Aldermen secondly it provides us the opportunity not to to have to have a rate increase to raise reserves so it's it's a twofold win in that sense and I'm pleased that we were able to have the reserves to do that secondly if you turn a few more pages in pod D it indicates combined indirect

▶ 1:05:08 Speaker 8: cost for water and sewer and there's additional news here is that for fiscal 2018 11% was the indirect cost and on average eleven point three percent over the last five fiscal years in fact we see the combined indirect costs less by over one hundred and fourteen thousand four twenty one from the prior fiscal year that's a six point five percent reduction in water and a six point five percent reduction in sore so in both cases it assists us into meeting to keep the rate as low as possible but also we did we had to do to meet our obligation so I'm pleased on both fronts what asks them the indulgence of the chairman to pass out a couple of documents if I may please do it I think will help clarify some of the information that you may have heard this evening thank you so

▶ 1:06:31 Speaker 8: everyone should have one that has numbers and one that has words let me

▶ 1:07:00 Speaker 8: know on its way around okay thank you I'd like to go first to the one that has letters it indicates city of Melrose indirect costs allocation to service and and i'd like to read those first three bullet points if i may for those here and for those at home because i think it's very important that we have an understanding of what indirect costs are and why we have them the first bullet point that says although indirect costs are not easily attributable to individual services they are an essential part of the cost of the municipal

▶ 1:07:35 Speaker 8: government and it is important to include them in the full cost of providing municipal services for this reason indirect costs are allocated to departments and services according to the amount of indirect costs for which they are responsible number two indirect costs are distinguished from

▶ 1:07:59 Speaker 8: direct costs by the fact that they cannot be assigned precisely to various municipal activities as a result the indirect costs allocated to a particular department or service are approximate rather than exact costs sometimes this fact bothers officials who like to have precise cost figures it is important to remember that even though indirect costs are approximations including them in the full cost of municipal services results in more accurate cost information than if they are not included at all. The Director of Accounts may reject any community's methodology, written or otherwise, as unreasonable for tax rate setting purposes. It is very important, therefore, that we follow the protocol requested by the department of revenue division of local services and maintain an allocation methodology that is reasonable and calculated in a fair and consistent basis let's emphasize those last two words fair and consistent so let's take a look now at the numbers if you look at fiscal year 14

▶ 1:09:23 Speaker 8: In total, indirect costs represented 10.7% of the cost of both enterprise funds.

▶ 1:09:37 Speaker 8: In 2015, it was 11.8%. In 2016, 11.4%. In 2017, 11.8%. In 2018, 11%. On average, 11.3%. This is consistent and reasonable. Do you know why? because if you take a look at the package I hand it out the second page in

▶ 1:10:07 Speaker 8: all those years the Department of Revenue certified our tax rate with no water and saw outstanding items none so we know what's consistent and reliable I I also want to go one step further, have one more hand up, if I may, to the board.

▶ 1:10:36 Speaker 8: Through the indulgence of the chairman. Please.

▶ 1:11:01 Speaker 8: Thank you.

▶ 1:11:23 Speaker 5: Mr. De La Russo.

▶ 1:11:25 Peter D. Mortimer: Yes. I have a request by pantomime gestures from the gallery that they might be privy to some of the documents you've handed out. It's your choice, they're your documents. But if you'd like to, in the interest of transparency, let some people in the audience have some of that document, it's up to you.

▶ 1:11:43 Speaker 8: Sure, that's fine.

▶ 1:11:45 Speaker 3: Move for a two minute recess for Alderman second.

▶ 1:11:49 Peter D. Mortimer: So, move for a two minute recess by President Kahn, duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, hearing none, we're in recess.

▶ 1:12:02 Peter D. Mortimer: We will now call the Board of Aldermen's Appropriations Committee meeting back to order.

▶ 1:12:10 Speaker 8: Thank you.

▶ 1:12:17 Speaker 8: proceed oh thank you very much um what i passed out as you can see it's on a massachusetts department of revenue division of local services okay if you go on the website that is the indirect cost template provided by the department of revenue division of local services to each city in town Now, if you take a look at what is in your packet that I have provided for water and soil, it's identical, identical.

▶ 1:12:52 Speaker 8: So the point is that in these categories, these costs did not come out of the sky. We are following to the letter of the law what the Department of Revenue requires of We actually use their template to make that determination. On top of that, here's the tax recap for fiscal 17. This information goes on here.

▶ 1:13:28 Speaker 8: The bottom of this recap, the water and source says, approved by Thomas Guilfoyle. Also, Director of Accounts, Mary Jane Handy. The Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. I think we know what we're doing. I've been doing this for almost 25 years. I stand behind every single number I present to this board, very strongly. And I resent any indication or allusions that anything is inconsistent or improper. Thank you.

▶ 1:14:02 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Mr. DelaRusso. We do have an order before us. It has been read and on discussion. President Klein, did I see your hand, sir?

▶ 1:14:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, which order are we starting off discussing, Mr. Chairman?

▶ 1:14:19 Speaker 5: The first one, 2017-172, I'm sorry, I'm going to be not in the public hearing session. Yeah, up here.

▶ 1:14:26 Peter D. Mortimer: 2017-148, amending Melrose Revised Ordinance of Chapter 228-14, by adding a new subsection C, as set forth therein.

▶ 1:14:39 Speaker 3: Are we going to return to the whole course of business after the public hearing is concluded, Mr. Chairman?

▶ 1:14:43 Peter D. Mortimer: These are the next orders in queue.

▶ 1:14:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just looking at my agenda and trying to determine how we're proceeding.

▶ 1:14:56 Peter D. Mortimer: Unless there are suggestions or points of order from other members of the committee, to which I'm certainly open, We thought that we would take these three orders that are under the public hearing, and then we would proceed to section four. Orders beginning with, we already heard the one on Memorial Hall, so we've done the budget section, so we would proceed to order 2017-171 after we do these three orders.

▶ 1:15:30 Peter D. Mortimer: Unless there are suggestions otherwise.

▶ 1:15:32 Speaker 3: I just want to make sure I'm on the right page here.

▶ 1:15:34 Speaker 5: All right.

▶ 1:15:36 Speaker 3: Well, Mr. Chairman, if I could speak to the orders amending the rates for this year, if that's what we're talking about now.

▶ 1:15:46 Speaker 3: No, I think we're doing order 148.

▶ 1:15:50 Peter D. Mortimer: Those are part of the public hearing. That's numbers two and three. Would you like to dispose of section-

▶ 1:15:58 Speaker 3: I'll wait till you deal with the first order.

▶ 1:16:00 John N. Tramontozzi: Yeah, we'll deal with the first order first. Alderman Chairman Tosi, please. a question regarding order 2017 that's one four eight um mr shenner what is you say there's what 300 or so homeowners that have not authorized their replacement of the water meters here's

▶ 1:16:21 John N. Tramontozzi: i mean rough from this is about 348 i think why what what is the rationale or what is the reason that the homeowners are given for doing that because you hate to see the hat this is not

▶ 1:16:28 Speaker 7: just not reaching out they're not reaching back they're not responding to the letters if you're a homeowner in melrose you received not one not two but four letters from from the department i think the last one even went out in different color paper and a different color envelope to try to get some attention we followed up with a door knocker leaving something on someone's front door sometimes that could get their attention these people are just not coming forward so we're not in the business of creating fines or we're not you know we're not police department we don't like to be that this order was brought forward more in the spirit of equity and equality and the fact that you don't know i mean are these are the other are these meters working we don't know um is it other is there a real reason why they won't let us in um are they saving more money by not letting us in i'm not certain of that we can most certainly um see what the summer brings if that's the will of this board but i think bringing the discussion forward in a public manner was the right thing to do my staff is frustrated with all the attempts that we've made and you know 7600 plus meters there's a lot of meters that's a lot of appointments there's a lot of people that have come forward um so we're just trying to capture this last audience of 300 280 300 320 whatever it is it changes with every day i mean there's no cost to the homeowners for

▶ 1:18:01 Speaker 7: the replacement of these meetings there's absolutely no cost it's a phone call um well

▶ 1:18:03 John N. Tramontozzi: maybe with maybe with the penalty um they'll get their message then i guess i mean that that that's

▶ 1:18:08 Speaker 7: the spirit of the the ordinance change but again if it's the will of this ward if it's the will of the board to table this and revisit it in september that's that's fine the intent was to start assessing in october we are going to spend the summer with a sixth attempt to reach these homes we're going to send a certified letter what return receipt requested we're going to do that over the summer no matter what because this change was was supposed to go into effect in october um um but the but the discussion should be alive it should be forefront because i think it's the fair thing to do everybody should have the same meter um and and we've made more than enough attempts

▶ 1:18:54 Peter D. Mortimer: to try to get people to call okay thank you nothing further thank you very much alderman Tramontozzi. On this order we have in queue Alderman McAteer-Margolis, then Alderman Forbes, then Alderman Medeiros, then Alderman Inferno, then Alderman Lemmerman. Please proceed Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

▶ 1:19:14 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: So these approximately 300 households have received multiple letters. When you require a manual read does it mean that the meter reader has to go into the

▶ 1:19:34 Speaker 7: house no we read it from the outside you can read it from the outside majority of

▶ 1:19:40 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: these yes could be read from the outside so has there been any well first of all have you been able to track those households to know that they have received bills and they are paying their bills we know where they all yeah we

▶ 1:19:53 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: know all the accounts and they're active and they're current as far as or some of them most of them are current yes and um have you had any consideration as to sending them like in the certified letter saying we're sending someone out to read your meter and if you want to make an

▶ 1:20:11 Speaker 7: appointment at that time we can all of the letters all of the letters we've sent have been very um detailed in the sense of why why do we need to access why we're doing what we're doing um i think the last few that went out even said this is your last chance um understand that you know you could be assessed charges that type of language was added with each letter that went out like I said it's it's the will of the board whether we want to pass this and allow us to do this in October or keep it keep it in queue for now until the fall they are all active accounts they're all active accounts

▶ 1:20:47 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: people are they're being used the waters being used it's not like somebody's not living there or something like that no right and the um do you try to do you try to call people

▶ 1:20:59 Speaker 7: on the phone or not not yet we don't we don't have all of the numbers on the accounts and that's

▶ 1:21:06 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: something we could try in the future okay um so this would be a 50 manual read fee in addition to the other base charges that would be increasing as well that's how it's proposed yes right okay

▶ 1:21:20 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Okay, do you have any idea of the percentage of those accounts that might be overdue in any way, or?

▶ 1:21:25 Speaker 7: No, I don't have that level. I could try to find out, but I don't have that.

▶ 1:21:31 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: That's all, Mr. Chairman, thank you.

▶ 1:21:32 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Alderman Forbes, please.

▶ 1:21:35 Scott M. Forbes: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I just have one quick question. You said there were six attempts made for each resident to try to get them to comply and have the meter installed in their residence, am I correct?

▶ 1:21:46 Speaker 7: The certified letter will be the sixth attempt.

▶ 1:21:48 Scott M. Forbes: be the six so there's been five attempts can you just tell me over the course of time how long were those five attempts how long did that start was it a year ago six months ago a year ago dawn when the

▶ 1:21:57 Speaker 7: first letter about march yeah february march of 2016 is when we started the program so over the course of march to june because we cycled through the city so last spring was when they would have

▶ 1:22:14 Scott M. Forbes: first receive their letter okay so one year five attempts this will be number six i kind of answer

▶ 1:22:22 Peter D. Mortimer: my question thank you thank you mr chairman thank you alderman forbes alderman Medeiros please

▶ 1:22:25 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you um actually so but but we did this in sections of the city so some sections got their letters first and some of them might not have not everybody on this right which is why i said over

▶ 1:22:37 Speaker 7: the course of the spring of 2016 is when we um not everybody on this list may have gotten six

▶ 1:22:46 Speaker 7: or five attempts yeah right now everybody has received five yes in and i was sort of surprised

▶ 1:22:49 Monica C. Medeiros: when you said you haven't called any of them because i thought we had allocated some extra staff to water and sewer to make calls specifically about the meter changes and no like I think even the mayor's secretary at one point was having one day a week to help with the meter replacement oh she they filled it they

▶ 1:23:10 Speaker 7: filled it a lot of yeah we're not making calls out yeah not me we have not made

▶ 1:23:19 Monica C. Medeiros: calls out okay I would like to see us make some calls out you know there's no

▶ 1:23:24 John N. Tramontozzi: you know if I could just point of order I mean try to get cell phone numbers I a lot of people wait a second that's not a point of order sir all right but i will return to you

▶ 1:23:39 Peter D. Mortimer: if you wish to speak again i've spoken thank you that's all right uh alderman Brodeur you still

▶ 1:23:42 Monica C. Medeiros: have the floor yeah i mean i'd like to see us try to make some calls because you know this is something that there has been no you know there's been no thought that there's going to be any consequences because there wasn't anything on the books for not doing this i know some people don't want these meters in their house because they emit a radio frequency and they have some fear of that you know and I know some people are afraid you know maybe right or wrong that they think their water bill is going to go up if they get a new meter you know and you know right or wrong those

▶ 1:24:16 Monica C. Medeiros: kinds of fears are out there and you know this is proposed as a manual read fee and you know so of course we're allowed to charge fees for different things and certainly if it costs more money for us to go out and manually read somebody's meter that would be an allowable thing that we could charge for but i think you know fifty dollars a quarter is kind of excessive for a manual read fee and they should really be for you know the cost that it is to go out and manually read it so you know i i'd like to see us you know try and and make some calls and get this number down a little bit before october you know i'm not opposed to charging a manual read fee but it would have to be you know justified in a lot more how we're getting fifty dollars and making sure that we're not overcharging because i'm sure it doesn't cost fifty dollars to send somebody to the door to outside to get out of the van and and read it and enter a couple things in the computer you know so that's that's where i stand for this right now thank you thank you alderman Medeiros alderman

▶ 1:25:28 Gail Infurna: inferno please thank you very much uh mr chairman first of all i do want to thank you for all the work that you gentlemen um and ladies do and to thank alderman forbes for all that he has given to the water and sewer i know he has taken his role very seriously and been very diligent about attending the meetings and things I am also concerned about a $50 per quarter charge what I would like to see of another letter put out with maybe the fact that we're looking into making a quarter you know charging a fee if they don't do it you know not just you know if the will of the board is not to pass this tonight you know maybe another letter could go out to say that you know we're looking into charging a fee per quarter if you know so please you know call us and get this done so I am concerned as much as I don't know whatever reason why people aren't doing it for whatever but I'm concerned about the $50 per quarter and I think we should give them another letter with the thought that if this is not done that you know there's an order before the board that may that you know could get them a $50 per quarter charge just my

▶ 1:26:45 Peter D. Mortimer: thought Thank You alderman inferno alderman

▶ 1:26:48 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Levenman please Thank You mr. chairman thank you very much I just wanted to ask you about the scheduling options for this I know in my personal experience we I think made it to the second letter before we had ours done and that was because you know it's two people working full-time plus which was difficult for options that were available to us to schedule we we actually couldn't make it match with our own schedules to be available until it had been a little bit of time so I just want to make sure if we're talking about this that we're not capturing anybody who's actually making a good faith effort to do this and they just have not been able to find a time in their schedule that they could be home have there been multiple or their weekend options evening options things

▶ 1:27:29 Speaker 7: like that that have been available it's a very very good point it's it's it was feedback that was brought back and our discussions with the project team we now offer some Saturday mornings we actually offered I believe some late afternoon opportunities as well for those that come back late late afternoon and we know a lot the weekend to themselves so basic we're basically trying to accommodate people now to to initially know but now yes okay is the long and short answer okay well thank you very good point and it was feedback we were receiving which is why we we switched as the letters progress right to offering

▶ 1:28:05 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: other options thank you for putting in that flexibility so I think I would agree that I would like to see more of a warning of some kind maybe give people some lead time because people are very very busy when you're making your priorities in your schedule you know this might be not something that rises to people's top priority when they're triaging what they need to make time for but if they were facing a potential penalty and they were aware of that with some lead time perhaps they would be able to prioritize it higher thank you

▶ 1:28:40 Peter D. Mortimer: mr. thank you alderman lemon alderman's work go for the first time thank you mr.

▶ 1:28:44 Michael P. Zwirko: chairman mr. Shannon are these letters going to the property owners or the residents of the homes property owners yeah and do we know if there's a percentage of this 300 of probably property owners that live outside the

▶ 1:28:57 Speaker 7: city of Melrose I don't have that detail I'm just curious I'm just wondering if

▶ 1:28:59 Michael P. Zwirko: this is creating an issue with you know scheduling the changing of the meter so but I appreciate that they are going to the property owners I figured that they

▶ 1:29:11 Speaker 7: were yeah they are they are and again the spirit of the order what is this isn't to raise money this has nothing to do with the rates it was a water and sewer appropriation meeting this is something that's in the forefront of our department we're trying to create equity it was great to get this input it was great to throw the discussion out in the general public and if you're if you're home and you don't have your meter call us we'll get it we'll come out there we'll change it and and the feedback has been very positive so I appreciate it

▶ 1:29:39 John N. Tramontozzi: some questions I had mr. chairman Thank You alderman's work Oh alderman tramit Ozzie are you in queue yeah just something we I mean I don't think we we I don't think we should require any further telephone calls I mean there's a lot of people don't even have landlines uh cell phone numbers are very difficult to uh to to get to uh to get um i mean i think the department has used best efforts to try to get everybody on board i mean i remember when we this board authorized the replacement i think i was one of the few the only one who who didn't authorize the funds to replace the meters but when since we authorized it and went ahead and did it the idea was to be equal to everybody and get a a new system in place and get those meters reading properly so i mean i think the based on what i hear i think the department has done an adequate job in notifying the homeowners i remember getting my letters and eventually had mine replaced as well so i think everybody should be on board and there's no reason why not if if they get get a bill with a 50 charge first time around that'll send the message that uh they better cooperate um and i don't see why we can't do it i may understand um the the board's thoughts about uh further uh you know warnings but frankly i think we

▶ 1:31:05 Peter D. Mortimer: gave enough warning so i i would uh i would move to uh recommend order 2017-148 recommend for passage second alderman Tramontozzi has made a motion to recommend this order for passage said motion was duly seconded by alderman forbes on further discussion alderman McNaught margolis

▶ 1:31:24 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: please um i i just have a question um this fee would be effective october 1st for that that billing cycle that would then be billed like actually in january no october 1st october first okay so um and would it be your intent to notify people with a certified letter before that like within the next month about this and would you be able to check to be sure that um the bills if they as alderman Zwirko asked if the bills were going to the property owner and that was not an that was a non on non owner occupied property that there were some

▶ 1:32:12 Speaker 7: communication with the tenant or somehow we'll absolutely do our due diligence and bringing that feedback back we'll look at where the bill is going if it's going out of Melrose or a different address we'll do that and if anybody had

▶ 1:32:22 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: any kind of particular sensitivity to radio transmission or what did you say it was frequency frequency trip you know and had like a medical issue with that they would be able to we would take those okay thank you I think you're covering as much of the bases as you can in as compassionate away as possible

▶ 1:32:51 Peter D. Mortimer: trying to thank you Alderman McAteer-Margolis Alderman Medeiros please

▶ 1:32:55 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you yeah and I believe that the current meters actually already emit some most of them probably already emit some radio frequency so I I just because if we're reading in from outside the house already if that is a concern the ones we probably already funds we already have in their home probably

▶ 1:33:14 Speaker 7: already have that the old ones are wired but you know that's speculation that's

▶ 1:33:20 Monica C. Medeiros: the kind of thing like we might find out if we call some people and so concerned

▶ 1:33:28 Speaker 7: we're there to listen they can bring it forward right and I know this isn't

▶ 1:33:31 Monica C. Medeiros: about the money or anything but if there's 300 yeah if there's 300 meters out there that aren't changed over and you know we're billing them at $50 a quarter and that's you know $60,000 of revenue that the city is going to bring in in the next year so that's is the sort of significant amount of money but I was hoping that we could should this pass and go forward to the full board if we could please mr. chairman get a recommendation from the city solicitor of whether or not charging $50 as a fee to manually read the meter would be

▶ 1:34:12 Speaker 6: legally allowable as it is probably more than the service an advisory letter from

▶ 1:34:19 Peter D. Mortimer: the city solicitor would be a good idea I'm sure our clerk of committees heard your request and we'll communicate with our city solicitor and I usually don't say much I usually just chair but whichever way this order goes and when it comes to like perhaps something on the mayor's blog and something in the local newspapers in a prominent place if we request them to really alert people

▶ 1:34:46 Speaker 7: we worked with the city solicitor and preparing this order so I'm sure you'd be more than willing to cooperate with a letter of some sort if you requested it

▶ 1:34:56 Peter D. Mortimer: before the final vote right yeah we are in committee tonight so the final vote would go before a full board meeting alderman Forbes please thank you and

▶ 1:35:04 Scott M. Forbes: I'll be brief I know I'm coming around for the second time and we have a lot of orders here um in every one of your letters you have your contact information to reach out and schedule an appointment to have the meter replaced i assume that is correct in me saying that it's correct all right so we have five letters with contact information encouraging people to reach out so we can install a water meter that is of what cost to the taxpayer zero zero we're sending one more letter out that'll be six and this does not take place until october first correct that gives them plenty of lead time to get their stuff together if someone was ordering comcast and they had a four-hour window i'm sure someone would take a half a day off of work god forbid someone doesn't have television in their home this is a free installation of the water meter it is of no cost to the to the resident there are only 400 accounts that are left and we've given them ample notice and plenty of opportunities to come out and coordinate this with the city so i don't see any reason why this order shouldn't pass this evening i understand people may think 200 a year is a little bit on the high side but if you install the meter it costs you zero so install the meter thank you very much mr chairman thank you alderman forbes

▶ 1:36:21 Peter D. Mortimer: we do have a motion before us from alderman shermatozy to recommend this order for passage duly seconded by alderman forbes seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed uh could i see a show of hands on the opposed please uh the motion to recommend for passage does pass uh in this order will be recommended to the full board for passage