ORDER-2017-142 : Water Enterprise Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2018 in the amount of Five Million, Two Hundred and Four Thousand, One Hundred and Sixty Three Dollars and Thirty Four Cents ($5,204,163.34).

Transcript (~10 min @ 2:54:19)

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▶ 2:53:54 Peter D. Mortimer: as amended mr chairman president khan has moved for passage of the orders as amended duly seconded by alderman forbes on discussion seeing none all in favor of passage of the orders as amended please say aye aye any opposed hearing none the amended orders okay two opposed um so we have the order does pass two opposed and the orders as amended will be recommended to the full board for passage the next order we have before us is ordering 2017-142 it is the water enterprise operating budget for fiscal year 2018 in the amount of $5,204,163.34.

▶ 2:54:44 Speaker 5: The order is before you.

▶ 2:54:49 Peter D. Mortimer: President Contreras.

▶ 2:54:56 Speaker 4: Mr. Belruso, could you just indicate, actually for this and for the sewer, the figures for the mwra assessments for each one just so people at home know what we're paying to the mwra and

▶ 2:55:17 Speaker 8: what the city portion of the budget is please thank you um for the city of melrose for a water assessment two million eight sixty five eight sixty five and for the sore assessment all right oh I apologize no no no that's good that's right that's right let me repeat that again I apologize it's the the print is a little bit small two million eight sixty five eight sixty five and for the sore it is six million four thirty eight six seventy seven six million four thirty

▶ 2:55:57 Speaker 4: eight six seventy seven and what's the city figure for each budget that's

▶ 2:56:05 Speaker 4: beyond the MWRA assessment if you back the MWRA assessment oh can you just give us the number for what we're budgeting beyond that please so our total our

▶ 2:56:20 Speaker 7: total water budget including debt and interest is 5.5 million 204 thousand 163 dollars and 34 cents so if you subtract the 2 million 865 865 dollars from it that's roughly um breakdown

▶ 2:57:00 Speaker 7: on the water side on the suicide total budget seven million eight hundred ninety four dollars and sorry seven million eight hundred ninety four thousand dollars six hundred two dollars and eighty two cents six eight nine four six oh two point eight two is total budget including debt and interest the mwra portion of that is six million four hundred thirty eight thousand six hundred seventy seven dollars six four three eight six seven seven okay and for the total sewer

▶ 2:57:30 Speaker 4: budget we have an increase for this year of 2.4 is that correct correct and the water budget is

▶ 2:57:48 Speaker 4: actually down 0.8 percent is that correct and can you describe what inflow and infiltration work

▶ 2:57:55 Speaker 7: is set forth in this budget so it's um the borrowing the borrowing payments are in this budget however all of our ini work is done um through bond the the board passed the bond last fall payment of that bond is is here a portion of that is also grant which we don't pay back and that program's ongoing we've been throughout the city since the early spring right now they're regrouping and they're studying that information and want to be back out in the fall and then we plan to come back at some point during fiscal year 18 to implement the second year of that program with an additional grant slash zero interest loan borrowing in order 2017 162 you're seeking

▶ 2:58:38 Speaker 4: an authorization to bond an additional 1.6 million is that correct yes that's correct

▶ 2:58:49 Speaker 7: that's for water improvements and the first payment of that bond is included in the budgets and and was included in the rate set this evening that's all i have right now mr chairman thank you

▶ 2:59:05 Monica C. Medeiros: president Khan alderman Medeiros please thank you thank you very much I I just wanted to read cap some stuff we talked about earlier earlier in our discussion

▶ 2:59:17 Monica C. Medeiros: we arrived at a figure of the increased of this of the new opt-in monthly billing there would be an increased cost to the water and sewer budget through direct and indirect cost of seventy one thousand five hundred dollars I know the

▶ 2:59:39 Monica C. Medeiros: ought the treasurer had mentioned that they're using an estimate maybe thirty percent of it is possibly opting in and so I figure that to be twenty two sorry twenty two thousand five hundred and twenty and just for informational purposes that's broken down by account that's a little over $28 per account which would be you know a fee of $2 and 37 cents or about $2 and 50 cents a month of 12 months would probably be an accurate way to possibly you know break that down otherwise we as a city are subsidizing that program that's an opt-in and so I just you know just let's keep that in mind or if we want to give people to encourage them to stay on quarterly billing some kind of incentive it would probably make sense with that said you mentioned also that there's one employee position here that is not coming back and so there's a reduction

▶ 3:00:51 Speaker 6: and staff in the water budget left voluntarily oh yeah there was a

▶ 3:00:54 Speaker 7: resignation and we've elected to not fund that position up so now there was a read on the sewer budget there was a retirement and we've elected to not fund

▶ 3:01:09 Monica C. Medeiros: that okay and now you know in this budget there are different different places so if we have a water main break we do budget for some pipes and

▶ 3:01:24 Speaker 7: equipment in our regular budget right there are several lines in the water budget and the sewer budget there's a line for construction there's a line for repairs there's a line for water service replacement which is what how we address our lead service and some other substandard services that are out there we have lines in our budget for material patch pipes and fittings hydrants we have a line in our budget that we fund our flushing program for again that's a maintenance not a project type of activity and we have lines in both water and sewer for that we that we fund repairs to our water and sewer fleet repairs to our water and sewer pump stations there are various lines we captured fuel costs in the water sewer budget for the fleet we capture electricity costs for our pump stations and heat costs for our pump stations as well in these budgets i just want to make clear

▶ 3:02:17 Monica C. Medeiros: that you know we we do budget for some of these things so if there's a water main break in the street you know we've got we've got some equipment on hand and we do have a budget that is that takes into account that these things happen throughout the year and we're not going into the reserves to To go fix the water main break that happens in the street in the middle of the night Without an appropriation. We're already sort of funding most of those things in the budget It's only if we had a lot of unexpected ones that we might possibly go to the reserves to to look to fund

▶ 3:02:53 Speaker 6: So and we haven't since we've had reserves

▶ 3:02:56 Speaker 7: No, no, we haven't I mean we try we try to fund the budget that we feel is realistic But you know that we also isn't over the edge in terms of being too conservative

▶ 3:03:09 Speaker 7: sewer expenses are very expensive very costly well you could have an easily have a thirty thirty five forty thousand dollar repair one shot that could liquidate a line if it's early in the fiscal year now that line is in at risk that's the point I think the auditor was trying to make what we try to stay as aggressive as possible and being proactive to try to find out problems

▶ 3:03:35 Monica C. Medeiros: but there's always a risk it's always a risk but thankfully since since I've been here and that I can recall you know we haven't and since you know since

▶ 3:03:45 Speaker 7: you've been here I haven't seen we went to reserves once when our back truck was done I think that's the only time and before was it all it was only until recently that we had reserves to turn to it was a period where we had nothing to fall back on that's when he and I were very nervous pretty well because most of

▶ 3:04:07 Speaker 4: the time we did thank you motion for concurrent action on order 2017 142 and 2017 143 mr. chairman second president con has moved for concurrent action on