ORDER-2017-146 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228, Article II, Section 228-15 (Water Rates Established), as set forth herein.

Transcript (~30 min @ 1:36:52)

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

▶ 1:36:54 Peter D. Mortimer: no not in committee in committee it's just a majority on your point of order that's a point that is a point thank you very much but it's a denied point of order I'm for

▶ 1:37:07 Peter D. Mortimer: paper so the next order we have before us is order two zero one seven dash one four six it is amending Melrose revised ordinances chapter 228 article 2 section 228 dash 15 water rates established as set forth herein and first in few we We have President Kahn, but before I call on him, I will put it out there for your consideration if anybody would like to think about joining these orders. President Kahn, you have the floor.

▶ 1:37:39 Speaker 4: Yeah, I was thinking back to when we considered this last year.

▶ 1:37:45 Speaker 4: And last year, some of you might remember that it was my idea and my position that we should continue to add to the reserve funds we did not continue to accumulate reserve funding that we would be able to keep the water rates from increasing nope I don't think anybody agreed with me last year but actually I'm sorry but one person did but I'm glad that the water and sewer committee held the rates It's steady this year, I'm glad that we're not continuing, with all due respect to Mr. Delruso, that we're not continuing to add to the reserves because I well know that nobody's ever going to let us spend any money out of any reserve account without downgrading our bond rating or something of that nature. So I get concerned about large reserves that can never be used.

▶ 1:38:45 Speaker 4: So I'm going to support this order, which is an order not to raise the water and sewer rates. And I just want to make a couple of comments today. I've been sitting here for 18 years, I've been to hundreds of meetings.

▶ 1:39:05 Speaker 4: Anybody can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I ever called anybody a name in any meeting that I ever was at. I don't think I came in and started insulting people or calling them names if they didn't agree with me. And you indicated that you think that kind of behavior was, how did you characterize that, vociferous? It's not vociferous, it's offensive. It's an offensive way to present. We see this at all levels of our country now. If you disagree with me, I'm going to call you names and I'm going to vilify you. I take my oath very seriously. I've come down here year after year. I've come to hundreds and hundreds of meetings, and that is not the way I do business. And that's not the way we do business. And I hope we're not morphing now into a situation where if somebody comes before us and disagrees with us, they resort to name calling. It's not appropriate, it's offensive.

▶ 1:40:11 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, President Kahn.

▶ 1:40:22 Monica C. Medeiros: Medeiros please thank you I are we going to see any more orders coming forth about the monthly billing or is this when this is this is it this is the time

▶ 1:40:31 Speaker 7: to talk about it monthly billing is covered in the water and sewer budgets in the water and sewer budget want to talk about it now we're here okay that

▶ 1:40:41 Speaker 7: sounds things water and sewer the costs are in the water and sewer budget which

▶ 1:40:45 Monica C. Medeiros: the rate support so do bring up you know additional cost so is there any I know this is gonna be an opt-in option I mean it seems to me that going and having the extra billing which is a you know this is a change from what we're offering it seems like it is a convenience to those who are choosing it it seems to me that that that's where we should be probably charging some kind of opt-in fee it has

▶ 1:41:19 Monica C. Medeiros: that been considered by water and sewer committee or is that in the works or in the plan or you know conversely give the people who are staying at quarterly

▶ 1:41:38 Speaker 7: billing a discount for so costing as much monthly billing has been discussed for several years now since we started talking about changing meters because the technology is in place now to do it what we did is a committee this year is we ran a pilot program we sent about 250 250 or so letters arbitrarily out to the community mix of residential some quasi commercial some mixed to see who would interested in it we got about a 2018 to 22 percent response rate of people that wanted to switch of those 250 plus accounts we piloted that program and now that we knew who was interested we had to figure out how are we going to switch them and the mechanics of it and how are we going to read them when are we going to read them when do we have to get the read by so forth or so on we spent the majority of the last six months creating this opt-in program the budget reflects that program being extended to about 30 percent of Melrose figuring maybe the 20 percent response rate was a little low so we increased it we haven't looked at additional fees to switch to monthly billing we haven't looked at credits to stay on quarterly billing we haven't looked at at that component of it because we just don't know enough about it and we don't know what the community is going to desire based on the pilot looks like about 20 you know 2 and every 10 said yes I don't know when we when we when we offer it to other parts and other neighborhoods of Melrose maybe the response rate will be higher I think once we do this for a year we can figure it out and we may as part of next year's rate structure we could look at fees like that but we haven't because we just don't know we can't quantify how much more is it going to cost or how much less is it going to cost to keep them quarterly well we're just offering the program because it's been discussed for several years here so how much more are

▶ 1:43:41 Monica C. Medeiros: we increasing the budget I know you know we have postage line we have postage line but we have we must have some indirect cost because I know we have a staff person in the treasurer's office that's correct that's come on great so so we've got postage in both accounts and I mean I'm sure you've worked this out so rather than you know me trying to guess what's here in this line item in

▶ 1:44:14 Gail Infurna: that I know line item you know what is the I don't have that open so it's hot I think we should stick with the orders I that we have and then when we get to that budget line we can go to the line by line and look at that because I don't

▶ 1:44:29 Peter D. Mortimer: have that open i'm trying to concentrate on i i understand your point of order um but i think the ruling of the chair will be that i'm going to deny your point of order i think there is a slight nexus between this billing program and what the rates actually are as it's contained within the rates i i will ask you alderman medeiros however to consider alderman inferna's point of order and try to uh narrow your scope of inquisition at this time please right so it's it's

▶ 1:44:59 Monica C. Medeiros: uh it's a little bit tough because obviously we're trying to make sure that we're not you know setting you always have to balance setting the rates and you know voting for the budget at the same time and obviously the cost of what we're going to set the rates you know the rates are going to pay for the cost and they shouldn't be paying for more than the cost and so that's the challenge that we have all the time especially we have this challenge when we have the I'll just take a minute to talk right especially we have this challenge when we have the tiered rate structure that we have and it does create always a little bit more the more moving parts the harder it is to predict different things so obviously as we're starting something new we have some

▶ 1:45:50 Monica C. Medeiros: different parts so we can talk more about that when we get to the budget I i think it is something that people want is the monthly billing as an option but you know i think maybe now is the time to be looking at this rather than going into it so any change like that wouldn't happen until october as well or monthly billing

▶ 1:46:12 Speaker 7: letters would start to go out over the summer so that we could implement in october okay so i see

▶ 1:46:20 Monica C. Medeiros: mr. Dolores has come back to the table yeah mr. Flavin's working on that as

▶ 1:46:37 Speaker 7: we're speaking mom okay so there's 20 there's $23,000 in the treasurer's budget twenty three thousand one hundred fifty six dollars to be exact and the treasurer's budget that that new position is going to support the increased volume of monthly bills we have a seventeen thousand dollar position in engineering it's an engineering clerk who does engineering and all things water and sewer I think that 25% of her time which is about seventeen thousand dollars is going to be due to the additional volume and then there's thirty one thousand five hundred and postage increases and how much in

▶ 1:47:18 Speaker 7: increases I'm sorry 1,500 that's between water and sewer roughly you're all

▶ 1:47:47 Monica C. Medeiros: Alderman MacMaster my goal is 71,000 I'm sorry 81 5 about seventy one thousand five hundred dollars to implement the new system and well I hope we do

▶ 1:48:01 Monica C. Medeiros: consider that because that's and and we have about eighty two hundred accounts

▶ 1:48:10 Speaker 7: is that correct it's about eighty four hundred account

▶ 1:48:19 Monica C. Medeiros: eighty four hundred accounts so we expect somewhere along the lines of I heard mr. Flavin say thirty percent of them earlier that would be about twenty

▶ 1:48:31 Monica C. Medeiros: five hundred accounts so perhaps we can you know do some breakdown based on you know twenty five hundred accounts and seventy one thousand five hundred dollar additional costs that we're adding into the budget to make sure that we're not

▶ 1:48:48 Monica C. Medeiros: overcharging on on the rates for that but otherwise I want to say thank you I'm glad to see that the indirect costs were able to actually come down on those because I know when we had done when I had done my review last year and looked at the difference between FY although it's only you know gone up as a percentage of the water budget about the same percentage when you look at this

▶ 1:49:15 Monica C. Medeiros: over time the actual dollar amount that we you had been spending from FY 13 through FY 17 that were in there was an increase in water of indirect cost of 41 percent and an increase in sewer of 55 percent so you know it certainly is good to see that there's a decrease there and this year and then to see that we're able to keep these rates steady I too hate seeing the money you know go into the reserve account and not being able to be used to either you know keep in the in the ratepayers pockets or to be used to be able to bring down the cost

▶ 1:49:56 Speaker 5: operating system thank you Thank You Alderman Medeiros Alderman Zwerchel

▶ 1:50:00 Speaker 4: please Thank You mr. chairman I do appreciate the fact that we were

▶ 1:50:02 Michael P. Zwirko: offering the option of monthly billing you know I use it with the heating in my own house it's very helpful that's great and I'm glad that you raised the issue of the mailing cost that's one of the questions I was gonna bring up so thanks for addressing that so I'll try to be very quickly is there has there been any movement or you know I'm thinking about this in a suite of services that the city could offer especially with the improvements we've made in the assessors level and other GIS technology but is there any way to that a homeowner or a resident could actually pay these bills online without having any mail I mean it'd be nice to be able to go into like a portal and say you know geez here's your property tax bill here's your water bill and you could pay it online that would reduce costs from a mailing perspective I just asked that it's something that at least be looked into maybe it's a future state I'm gonna ask

▶ 1:50:45 Speaker 7: the treasurer to join us i think he's he's working on that thank you

▶ 1:51:05 Speaker 4: you opt out to not mail the bill the problem is to get to the online system you need the bill otherwise people will be in everybody else's bills so in order to get in you got to put in the bill number and the address and the name sure so that we make sure so that you can target and get to the bill that's yours and not go looking around at your neighbors or this one and everything else and or do damage you know you get into an account you can open up an account with the new suite of systems that we have you can open it up what it will allow is an auto pay i don't think we can get out of mailing a bill that's illegal i didn't get the email what if they change their

▶ 1:51:39 Michael P. Zwirko: email you're going to keep track of their emails i mean it's just it's the paper bill is right now for the most part necessary well and that's why i was saying if you could go into the system and see what your bills are versus having a bill mailed to i mean i know that i have a code that i have to put on my memo line when i get my water bill you know i understand that but i'm not i'm not saying this is easy and i appreciate the work that's being done to move towards that i just know that there's a cost of postage and in the paper for security reasons no i mean i just can't and um do you know how many times people come in when we do mail the bills i never got the bill

▶ 1:52:21 Speaker 4: bill I mean that's we got to hear that 30 times a week and they got the bill it just got stuffed in a magazine or they put it on the table and whatever but it's I if we they opt out now and

▶ 1:52:34 Michael P. Zwirko: the property changes hands how are we going to know so I mean it's just it's it sounds like a good idea and maybe down the line there'll be some kind of opportunity to do that but right now it's not it's not for this year yeah I mean I understand and um I mean at least you're looking it so i greatly appreciate that work um you know and obviously the most important thing is how you can get the biggest net of your bill paid so regardless of if someone says they didn't get their bill i mean i under i understand the challenges there it'll take a lot of administration on our end too i mean it'd be another cost to be another per i mean who's going to do all that work

▶ 1:53:08 Michael P. Zwirko: um okay well thank you mr the other question i had do you happen to know uh mr shenna are getting back getting off billing um and i know that the past two years there were significant droughts in the northeast specifically in the greater boston area but do you happen to know what our current usage is so far we know where we stand you know i would imagine with the amount of rain that we've gotten at least in the past six weeks that we might be below usage where we were

▶ 1:53:36 Speaker 7: we're significantly below i have the exact figure i don't have it with me it's on my computer i can forward it yesterday but we're significantly below we're the lowest we've been in the last three years right year to date calendar year to date i'll forward that information to everybody um we we share it amongst the quadrant sewer committee now but um i'll absolutely forward it we are we are significantly lower than where we were and i know that no matt if everybody in the city of

▶ 1:54:01 Michael P. Zwirko: meadows never turned on a spigot there would still be an assessment charge that we would have to pay so being significantly lower does that benefit us if we stay let's let's say that this trajectory continues uh you know i'll just throw out an arbitrary number where six percent of usage where we were last year is there a benefit to that or is there a detriment to that i mean is there

▶ 1:54:23 Speaker 7: there are fixed costs that always have to be passed on and a large component of the assessment is that and then then it considers the volumetric piece okay on top of it the um i had i had another

▶ 1:54:39 Michael P. Zwirko: another question but I can reserve it for another time those are all the

▶ 1:54:48 Peter D. Mortimer: questions I have mr. chairman Thank You Wilderman's work Oh Alderman

▶ 1:54:52 Scott M. Forbes: Forbes please Thank You mr. chairman I know last year we had multiple proposals that were brought forward to the table we had a consultant that was hired to make some recommendations to the water and soup which we in turn recommended to the board and we did decide on a rate program that we're not changing this year could you just explain to the board and also for the people watching at home why we decided not to hire that consultant this year

▶ 1:55:20 Speaker 7: well we we implemented a program and the program is not done yet we have any we're in our fourth round of billing right now we don't have a full year's worth of information we don't know how the how you know how it did financially at which we're collecting bills and two sections of the city this month we haven't even closed it let alone when we were started our discussions which is in January of February of this year we had just one quarters worth of information with the new with the new rate system so the right thing to do was to stay the course complete the year and then that now next year we will have a full year of information to look back on and and see if tweaks can be made to the system to the two tiers or if we want to change that but I mean I think was kind of that discussion was mute because we didn't have any real data to depend on and that was that was a theme that was consistently apparent in every department that rep does represented on that bullet saying hey you know we have to figure out if this works before we can change it so you know we decided that pretty much very early in the process I appreciate that and I it was

▶ 1:56:32 Scott M. Forbes: almost like I was trying to I wanted you to respond in that fashion just for the sake of when we decide on a plan and we don't want to tweak it immediately because we got to let it play out a little bit and collect the data we're going forward in fiscal year 18 where we don't actually see an increase in the rate so I think that it's it's beneficial for the city in this direction so we can have more quarters worth of data that we can go and analyze and then when we do sit down maybe for FY 19 now we have a little bit of a template in which to make good conscious decisions that will hopefully move the city in the right direction between that and also the I&I that we're doing I think we're gonna see some some short-term fixes that we're doing right now that we've scheduled are going to really yield long-term benefits and then finally I know that we have we had a letter from Phil Taymor in our packet it was a five-page letter that was addressed to the board that issued he had a number of of concerns and I know he was addressing cost of a cost of service analysis for water and sewer he addressed the rates I was wondering if I know you guys have that letter mr. de la Rosa do you do you have any any

▶ 1:57:50 Speaker 8: response to that letter I do and I believe that I did submit my response to copies of what that individual to each member of this board and not to belabor

▶ 1:58:03 Speaker 8: the hour but I the only statement I'd like to make that I think summarizes my thoughts on the analysis that was put forward in my opinion the author of

▶ 1:58:21 Speaker 8: these letters demonstrates a severe lack of basic knowledge of municipal finance and accounting and is grossly unfamiliar with municipal budgeting practices therefore the conclusions arrived at by the author would then naturally be both incorrect in erroneous which in fact they are and I also told that individual that in multiple emails we did respond. I went over point by point explaining why this was incorrect and erroneous and still that information was not put forward at all. That the city did respond and did explain in English why things are what they are by law. So I was disappointed that we spent significant amount of time putting together information time and time again and it was ignored in my opinion it was not the right thing to do thank you and

▶ 1:59:25 Scott M. Forbes: finally I just want to just touch base now our all of these all of these figures all these budgetary figures water and sewer enterprise funds these are audited by an outside firm am I correct in saying that yes and even more

▶ 1:59:46 Speaker 8: than that. They're audited by an outside firm. They're audited by the Department of Revenue. They are audited and provided detail to the certifying bank that we're responsible for, as well as multiple DEP and subsidiary organizations that seek data on our water and sewer operations. It's a wide open gamut. And everyone has access to all information at all times. It's audited once a year by independent auditors. And again, we do everything according to law, period. Always have and always will as long as I'm sitting here.

▶ 2:00:31 Scott M. Forbes: Right, and it's not just cherry sheets you're providing auditors. You're providing layers and layers of documentation to justify the number whenever challenged.

▶ 2:00:38 Speaker 8: Absolutely, in fact, as God is my judge, and you can check with Kerry Gold and in the past, Bridget Guillen, when they come in, they actually take a stack like this high of what they require of us for data to go through. It's unbelievable, year after year after year. It hasn't changed. It's only getting a little bit bigger because now they want a little bit more and more every year. But it's quite a thing to watch over these years. and uh actually i'm pleased they do it because it helps me do my job better and i feel more secure that i have different people looking at it from different perspectives to make sure that we're

▶ 2:01:20 Scott M. Forbes: doing the right thing at the right time thank you and then finally um our audited financials available for the general public to view absolutely is that something that we have posted on the website or is it something that you need to make a request i'll check with that all right i appreciate

▶ 2:01:34 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you mr. chairman Thank You alderman Forbes alderman MacMaster

▶ 2:01:38 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Margolis please thank you mr. chairman I want to thank you all and especially alderman Forbes also for his service on this committee and for attempting to assuage the public and their questions I have no personal doubt that you are

▶ 2:02:05 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: ethical and doing things the way we want them done for the benefit of the community of Melrose it's unfortunate that we've crossed a boundary here tonight and I find it very very discouraging in terms of being an elected official that we have members of the public that really feel so angry about these issues that they assault our employees and our elected officials in such a verbal fashion so that being said I did want you to know that you have my support and I think with all of the checks and balances that you have in

▶ 2:02:55 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: place with outside auditors I can't see that there's anything egregious really going on here I was happy to hear Alderman Forbes say that you did look at the plan from as it was last year and decide to keep the tiers as the same but that doesn't mean in another maybe by next year if you see what you see you may revisit that the other thing I was inquiring wanted to inquire about other reserves and I'm also happy to see that we reached that even though it might have been a struggle for us with the rates last year for many people and and just to remind people we all live in Melrose we're all paying the same water bills that you're paying so and believe me last year Joe when I got my $800 water bill because I wanted my lawn and it still wasn't green I wasn't very happy about that either but those reserves are available to us if we need

▶ 2:03:54 Speaker 8: them is that not correct that's correct if I make a point of information to the board because I just to clarify a position the reserves sort of multiple purposes and I don't want to lose sight of that the Department of Revenue came out here in FY 13 14 they told us that they were concerned because we had a a deficit in the saw we had no reserves whatsoever and their concern was that the taxpayer not be burdened by the non-performance of the enterprise funds so the purpose of the reserve let's not lose sight is to keep sacred each fund so that they don't spill over into the general fund and all all of a sudden we have to cut police fire or school because we had a deficit in water and sewer that's number one next to the rating agencies that want to see us have reserves because they say if you don't have reserves what do you do when you don't hit your target what will suffer and that can't be something we embrace so we have to take into consideration that and i agree with um the board's position of 10 and i'm so happy that we're out actually already there a year early but they serve many purposes and as well as all due respect to mr shenna that should something happen in mid-year and he needs water and sewer money for a broken pipe or sewer which what's he going to do where's he going to get the revenue he needs to be able to have a recourse to some funds to fix broken pipes and that also helps there so it's um it's a multi-faceted purpose but you all we always have to think at the high level we have to keep them sacred in their own way no different than mount hood or the ambulance operation they have to truly sustain themselves the best they can because we ultimately the general fund would absorb any deficit in any enterprise fund and that would not be something i'd want to look at because there's no good options there thank you i apologize for taking no no thank you for

▶ 2:06:03 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: the explanation and um you know thank you hopefully to the rate payers who understand that we had to do that it's just kind of like your own having some money put aside in your house in case you have a leaky roof so um i uh i'm glad that we are able to that we don't have to do it now because we've attained that goal um but that if um necessary those funds can be used absolutely

▶ 2:06:29 Speaker 8: absolutely only on water and soil they can't be used for any other purpose for any other department

▶ 2:06:36 Peter D. Mortimer: right thank you mr chairman thank you alderman MacMaster margolis seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard um is there a motion or is there any interest in joining the uh sewer order