ORDER-2017-42 : An Appropriation of $2,745,646.46 from available free cash to various accounts as set forth within.

Transcript (~47 min @ 24:47)

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

▶ 24:53 Peter D. Mortimer: The next order we have before us is order 2017-42. It is an appropriation of $2,745,646.46 from available free cash to various accounts as set forth in. We have a large panoply of department heads and city employees with us here tonight. To answer questions and receive comments from the alderman concerning this rather large outlay. It's just kind of a little tune up. We start the budget in June. We make our best estimation of where the monies need to go for which department. But of course, it's a work in progress. It's not an exact science, it's fluid. sometimes we have to bring things a little more into line with the reality as it changes before us mr. de la Rousseau please proceed yes if I may

▶ 25:53 Speaker 1: through the chair good evening we before you there is a request to expand the amount of two million seven forty five six forty six forty six from the certified free cash from the Department of Revenue that we received this year

▶ 26:14 Speaker 1: and I thought I would just take a moment to for those at home and for those that I'm familiar with it and just reflect as to what free cash actually is because

▶ 26:36 Speaker 1: oftentimes it's a distorted because it is not a common term that people are accustomed to hearing if I make with the cheer just read just this first paragraph from the division of local services and I think it probably it's a

▶ 26:52 Speaker 1: very simple way to explain it it says free cash is a revenue source that results from the calculation as of July 1st of a community's remaining unrestricted funds from its operations of the previous fiscal year based on the balance sheet as of June 30th it typically includes actual receipts and excess of revenue estimates and unspent amounts and department budget line items for the year just ending plus unexpended free cash from the previous year free cash is offset by property tax receivables and certain deficits and as result can be a negative number and we have seen negative numbers in the past I think it was early on 92 or prior close to 3 million dollars of negative free

▶ 28:02 Speaker 1: cash this year our number is 4.3 million plus which is probably the highest in

▶ 28:15 Speaker 1: the community's history and a lot of that is has to do with what I consider truly one-time revenues that would explain the increase even over last year and this significant and this for that I'm going to highlight and it comes just under 1.9 million dollars first was a band premium of five hundred thousand dollars that we had this in fiscal 16 that is closed at the end of the year that will not come again the one I'm anticipating for the next fiscal year is just under a hundred thousand as of today second building permits were actually just under five hundred thousand dollars from what we did last year 494 494 actually over what we had done a year ago that just to show you you the activity that's actually occurring in this community for building

▶ 29:12 Speaker 1: permits it's really significant we had prior year closeouts purchase orders we went to do this citywide sweep and it closed out close to half a million dollars again to the coffers of the city general fund and the last item I want to speak to is motor vehicle excise tax that's just over four hundred thousand dollars over last year again the total is 1.9 million i want to stress that we do not

▶ 29:45 Speaker 1: build budgets on building permits we do not build budgets on motor vehicle excise we do not build budgets on band of bond premiums that may never occur and we oftentimes don't have anywhere near the amount of closeouts that we saw this past year and turn back so um before the good thing

▶ 30:13 Speaker 1: is that we expended a tremendous amount of time um tackling the items that are considered offsets items that would reduce your free cash principally chapter 90 reimbursements we've got all but i believe it was eight thousand dollars and out of half a million dollars that we were able to account for is that's phenomenal or this number would be 400 000 plus less than it is before you we're able to attack a number of state grants federal grants that have committed but we hadn't received the money so like everything else uh we're subject to the timing of when the commonwealth or the federal government actually leases the funds to the city we have perhaps had expended the funds in anticipation of kind of and if it doesn't come in that's another hit against us and free cash because it's money that went up but did not get reimbursed yet that takes a tremendous amount of effort this does not happen by itself and it didn't happen overnight um again we in this community year after year and through the cooperation and support of the board of aldermen we try to budget conservative um we need a financial cushion against uh what we all know are the unknowns that's cuts in state aid mid-year that's a snow and ice deficit that we saw just several years ago that could have crippled the city financially and drained our reserves

▶ 31:50 Speaker 1: had we not been conservative in our budgeting and unlike the state where it seems to me that each fall they have a crisis and they become uh you know concerned that they can't meet the budget

▶ 32:02 Speaker 1: allocations that they had provided cities and towns and there's a cry to reduce the state aid that was given to communities year after year after year it seems in the fall we don't want to do that here we want to know that if we pass a budget that it's going to be funded that when i'm not going to be sitting here in the fall saying by the way we don't have enough revenue to cover it and we cut i i sincerely hope that never happens but i but one can never rule that out because uh but we have significant funds from the commonwealth that we count on and if that should go down because of the economy whatever the case may be obviously we're going to feel the

▶ 32:47 Speaker 1: impact and finally i just want to be i think the community and needs to be aware that at the end

▶ 32:59 Speaker 1: of the day the general fund is ultimately responsible for all four enterprise funds It is a massive responsibility. If you have any shortfalls or deficit positions in water, sewer, Mount Hood, or the ambulance, the obligation of the general fund to absorb that and to make it whole, that's a significant responsibility because those funds are now of the significant nature in dollars. So it behooves everyone here and to maintain the practices that we've embraced, that have worked for this community, and quite frankly that we're able to realize some of the capital

▶ 33:55 Speaker 1: equipment and reserve allocations that we can, that we're going to talk about this evening

▶ 34:04 Speaker 1: many many communities don't have that luxury and i'm very pleased that we can do that and as uh the board knows anytime we're able to fund items through cash not have to lease not have to bond it's a win for everyone so again i just want to thank the board for their continuous support and our practices and um we're very very pleased that we can have conversations tonight that enhance the community in a lot of ways and enhances public safety so I appreciate the time thank you thank you very much mr. de la russa are there any

▶ 34:42 Peter D. Mortimer: aldermen who have any questions or comments

▶ 34:48 Monica C. Medeiros: Alderman Medeiros please thank you I know we have several members of the administration here I just wanted to first take a minute and say we got a lovely memo from Mike Lindstrom the mayor's chief of staff which really helped explain many of the items and that are before us tonight and I really just want to take a minute personally to say how much I personally appreciate that and I think that helps make things a lot more transparent to the public I know I do see chief Lyle with us and he's got one of the smallest items here

▶ 35:26 Peter D. Mortimer: and should we have that seems like a great suggestion I think what we'll do is since there are many departments involved in this we will try to take each department one at a time and then we can all ask questions that department head and then hopefully dismiss that department head for the evening before we proceed to the next unfortunately mr. de la Rousseau yeah you're probably going to be here for the duration so that's an excellent suggestion chief Chief Lyle, would you please come forward?

▶ 35:58 Peter D. Mortimer: Will everyone please get out your questions for Chief Lyle at this part of our meeting.

▶ 36:04 Speaker 5: Good evening.

▶ 36:06 Peter D. Mortimer: Good evening, sir.

▶ 36:10 Speaker 2: It kind of sculls it out itself that the $2,000 is for knock-in for the reversal of opioids when police officers respond to calls for service with someone with a substance abuse addiction.

▶ 36:27 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, sir.

▶ 36:30 Monica C. Medeiros: madaris you have the floor thank you i just want to say thank you i appreciate i'm very happy to see this here because i know this allocation had not been in our budget when we put it together back in june uh and chief does this we do have a fund for narcan and i believe we've received some donations and um you know where where do we stand with with uh what we've used and do you think this

▶ 36:57 Speaker 2: will take us through the inverse go right through it all for you um right now in our in our account we have a thousand dollars worth of for a purchase order through the department of public health we're currently paying 20 for a dose and five dollars for the atomizer right now we have 20 21 doses in spare 14 deployed in our police cars we did have 25 dose doses donated over the summer from private uh private individuals Year-to-date for deployments, 19 deployments, year-to-date, 11 on 14 males, 5 females,

▶ 37:41 Speaker 2: and unfortunately we've had three fatals this year, where when the police arrived on scene, it was, I guess, an unsuccessful attempt to revive that individual.

▶ 38:01 Monica C. Medeiros: i i do it is sombering and i do appreciate that we are putting forth this effort and i understand that it's sometimes taking more doses right now because uh with the influx of fentanyl

▶ 38:12 Speaker 2: it's not just one dose they're doing utilizing two and three and obviously there's members of the fire department they can test it as well it's a challenge for public safety right now

▶ 38:27 Monica C. Medeiros: dealing with this epidemic we thank you again for all you do and we hope that uh

▶ 38:31 Speaker 2: we won't need to use thank you for the the continued support from the board

▶ 38:34 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you thank you alderman Medeiros alderman boy cell please chief is this going to be a line item

▶ 38:38 Robert A. Boisselle: in an upcoming budget uh for next year yes it is it will be yes and you're going to be any idea how much you're going to be requesting at this point about 4 000 or uh right now it's 2 000 that we're

▶ 38:51 Speaker 2: What we're requesting now, we do not want to buy it all at once because it has a short life. And obviously when it degrades in different temperature swings, the heat and cold, right now we're deploying it from the station at the beginning of the shift and they return it. So there is certainly improvement in the longevity of it, but it generally with a one year expiration, so we do not want to buy it. And also, as far as deployments, there there's rashes of these overdose outbreaks in the area and we generally know when I want a neighboring community gets it we're not far behind so to answer your question I don't have an answer we may have enough for for the next three years I don't I can't answer that it's an it's an addiction that doesn't seem to have an end in sight right now okay now is this particular

▶ 39:43 Robert A. Boisselle: drug going to be used also on the ambulance service is that going to be a line item at this point do you do you think they're going to be requesting

▶ 39:58 Robert A. Boisselle: that okay very good thank you thank you thank you all the one for itself question oh do you want us to recommend each item or just go down through each

▶ 40:07 Peter D. Mortimer: individual no just go to each item and if you're satisfied and you feel like you would be comfortable when the final motion is made yep then we can dismiss Okay, thank you. If anybody is not satisfied, it would probably be most efficient to say, I'm not happy at this point, and this is going to make me not vote for the order. A happenstance I firmly hope will not occur, because I think these people have done a lot of hard work on this, and I think we're good to go. So I think through the question and answer period, we should be able to satisfy ourselves as we dismiss each department head.

▶ 40:40 Robert A. Boisselle: Thank you, I just want to get the general guidelines and rules for this session.

▶ 40:45 Peter D. Mortimer: Yes, suggested. Thank you. It's not our rules, just suggested for the utmost efficiency. Next in queue we have Alderman McAteer-Margolis.

▶ 40:54 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Thank you Mr. Chairman, thank you Chief. I just wondered if you received, other than the donations that you've received from private individuals, did you receive any other funds from grants or places like the hospital or anything like that?

▶ 41:10 Speaker 2: Well, we have in the past got them from the Middlesex District Attorney's Office. We did receive some doses this year from Pharma, a private company that did make a donation to a number of law enforcement agencies.

▶ 41:21 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: But the DA's office is no longer doing that, or you don't know if they'll do it next year?

▶ 41:27 Speaker 2: No, we have not received anything this year from them. But I'll tell you that when we first started purchasing the drug, or the reversal, we were paying around $50, and the prices come down considerably.

▶ 41:42 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Right, right, so, and you said there were 19 uses this year in Melrose?

▶ 41:45 Speaker 2: 19 events. Events. Not all of them was a deployment, but there were 19 events where the police department responded and we believe the presence of an opioid was there.

▶ 41:56 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: And that included the three fatal. Yes. And so, okay, thank you very much, and thank you and your officers for efforts in reversing any of those can I also put a plug in if I may with the

▶ 42:10 Speaker 2: board please do on the last Wednesday of the month which will be the 30th we will be doing a presentation at the Milano Center our monthly meeting it'll be the it'll be on drugs again unfortunately dynamics of addiction so that's open to anybody in the board anybody in the room and anybody in our community thank you

▶ 42:32 Speaker 1: sir president Kahn yeah just just a little historical perspective at budget time board indicated they were concerned about this item being deleted from the budget mr del russo indicated that he would find the funding for this he has and we asked and suggested that this become an item in the budget going forward and it will so i think at least as to the funding piece of this i think it's a story that we've reached the end point of well said president khan

▶ 42:58 Peter D. Mortimer: seeing no further alderman wishing to have questions or comments with the chief Chief, thank you very much for your attendance tonight. Thank you for your excellent presentation.

▶ 43:13 Peter D. Mortimer: Any preference? We'd like to take Chief Larry next, from the fire department.

▶ 43:20 Speaker 4: Sure. Okay.

▶ 43:28 Peter D. Mortimer: If anybody has questions, we may not have questions for Chief Larry.

▶ 43:33 Speaker 1: Vehicles? Yeah.

▶ 43:37 Speaker 4: Alderman Zwirko, please proceed.

▶ 43:39 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could you just, my question's relating to the vehicle, the C2 car. Could you just explain that a little bit, how the current one is used and the new one will be? And just generally, you know, when answering a call, what the purpose of the vehicle is?

▶ 43:53 Speaker 2: So it's our car to our C2 car. The shift captain that runs the shift rides in that. He responds to any calls for emergencies with that vehicle. It's a 2001 Ford Excursion. It has over 220,000 miles on it.

▶ 44:12 Michael P. Zwirko: it's tired and needs to be replaced yeah and during a call it's the like the command center

▶ 44:16 Speaker 2: yeah it also acts as a command command post if it's a significant incident yeah we would utilize that as the command post as well thank you that's all the questions i had thank you very much seeing

▶ 44:26 Peter D. Mortimer: no further questions chief larry thank you for your attendance and thank you for your presentation superintendent taymor would you step forward please good evening we also have from the

▶ 44:38 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: the school committee Margaret Driscoll Oh superintendent a more we actually may you match the indulgence of the board absolutely so proceed thank you so much first I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight I want to mention that when the school committee voted to approve the FY 17 school budget on May 17th its oversight transferred from the superintendent to the school committee and the superintendent was thereby authorized to manage that budget the committee receives monthly budget reports and authorizes the payment of bills in the form of warrants and expects to adhere to the budget as approved by the committee and subsequently by the board as you know each October mayor Dillon send you an order recommending a transfer of free cash to the schools to fulfill your approval of the school's budget and we are very grateful for your support of our schools and our students

▶ 45:33 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you thank you very much thank you very much committee member Driscoll any alderman having questions or comments for this department seeing none thank you very much for your attendance thank you thank you very much appreciate that

▶ 45:56 Peter D. Mortimer: nothing for the all right Mr. Shenna would you like to come forward good

▶ 46:10 Speaker 2: evening sir good evening I'm here for the balance of the the fleet upgrade order together with the fire chief the order will fund the replacement of five

▶ 46:26 Speaker 2: five vehicles and Public Works one on the fire and an attachment for Public Works I provided a detailed package I believe on Tuesday to all of you I can't bring the equipment here so I decided to take photos and you have it when the The equipment is old, it varies in age from 15, 16 years to the load of that's 30 years old. And we have very hard time finding replacement parts for. This equipment, for the public works end, this equipment works year round. It's a snow fleet, but then when snow ends, we quickly convert it. The two dump trucks that the funding order will replace, the first will be used in our highway group. second will be used in our water and sewer group for the balance of the year come middle middle November and the November we quickly transfer them back to snow pieces of equipment the loader is used throughout the department now and in the winter this will become our main vehicle in in the facility for loading and loading salt and so forth the chipper is a 1997 it's 19 years old it's used consistently it's used to trim trees remove trees Christmas tree pickup Christmas tree chipping it's it's reached the point where the mechanisms inside the chipper are no longer safe and with the velocity that that spins and employees behind it it's time it's it's an obvious choice for replacement right in the cab crew park vehicle gives us a tremendous amount of flexibility to open up some pickup trucks um right now the pickup trucks hold two people the cab crew holds the entire crew which frees up a truck and gives us a lot of flexibility in the rest of the department

▶ 48:28 Peter D. Mortimer: if you have any questions um gladly answer first first in line we have Medeiros thank you

▶ 48:31 Monica C. Medeiros: uh thank you i appreciated the uh the photos that were taken um i my thoughts were when i had seen the the vehicle from the fire department that had 220,000 miles I thought geez it looked pretty good on the outside so I was glad that the 220,000 was in there but of course when we saw the vehicles from Public Works you can really see the the wear on them and of course you guys do a lot more heavy-duty kind of work in

▶ 49:02 Speaker 2: those kinds of vehicles yeah and these salts these this equipment's out in salt

▶ 49:06 Monica C. Medeiros: all the time which really corrodes yeah so are are these vehicles garaged or are

▶ 49:15 Speaker 2: they just out on the garage in the winter they're garaged in the winter so that we can quickly access them in snow emergency snow and ice events in the

▶ 49:26 Monica C. Medeiros: summertime we leave them outside and as we get new equipment will we expect to see an increase in our insurance costs and like how how much do we anticipate

▶ 49:43 Speaker 1: that to be yeah for me what will happen it's a great question is um typically the pieces of equipment that come offline will then be replaced by those that go online and then given the nature of the timing I think we're hoping for a January for this equipment we'll have to make a determination as to if there's going to be an increase in the cost of insurance at that point but that's a

▶ 50:08 Monica C. Medeiros: great question absolutely right and and then that was one of my questions was about timing so we think around January and maybe in time for those we've spoken

▶ 50:16 Speaker 2: first we've spoken with the all of the vendors there are various vendors there are saying eight to ten week lead time we're hoping for less than eight at least for some of the equipment so that we can quickly roll it in one of the reasons for the timing of this is the equipment it's going to be replacing has a lot of necessity of repair we don't really want to put money into it if we know we're going to phase it out so there's a there's a savings from a motor vehicle repair perspective as well thank you thank you thank you alderman

▶ 50:48 Peter D. Mortimer: Medeiros next in queue we have alderman's work out followed by president Kahn alderman Forbes and alderman Boyce L thank you mr. chairman

▶ 51:01 Michael P. Zwirko: thank you sir really just a comment um really happy that uh we're using free cash for this expenditure especially with the fleet you know it's a perfect use of free cash one-time expenditure not bonding you know not financing boom done and it needs it so hope you can get those online soon especially for dpw day and that's all the questions i had just really wanted to make the comment i gratefully uh appreciate we're using free cash for this expenditure

▶ 51:26 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Alderman Zwirko. President Kahn, please.

▶ 51:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an important point. There was a time when we were borrowing money to fund vehicle purchases. And I would moan and whine about it. Justifiably so. And I feel much better that we're in a position where we're purchasing these vehicles with current funds. We're not including vehicle purchases in bonding or anything of that nature. This is how we should be able to purchase stock moving on. And these are all purchases, that's correct, Mr. Turner?

▶ 52:09 Speaker 2: These will be purchases, straight up purchases.

▶ 52:10 Speaker 1: These are all purchases. Is there any salvage value at all to any of the vehicles that we're rolling out?

▶ 52:18 Speaker 2: be traded in with with this request and the trade-in value is built into the prices that are in the in the documents I forwarded we'll come back before the board probably in December requesting in per the surplus orders requesting that we we can move on with the equipment but we need to hold on to it until we get

▶ 52:43 Peter D. Mortimer: the new stuff so one step at a time Thank You president Khan Alderman Forbes

▶ 52:46 Scott M. Forbes: please Thank You mr. chairman actually withdraw my question since president Khan beat me to it with the the salvage value question so thank you very good

▶ 52:52 Peter D. Mortimer: sir Thank You alderman Forbes alderman boy

▶ 52:57 Robert A. Boisselle: sell please I'm looking at your front loader number 76 on the screen does this

▶ 53:05 Robert A. Boisselle: unit actually pass OSHA safety rules and the rest of the equipment is there any safety hazards incorporate I mean some of this equipment looks really bad I mean just look at the stairs got getting into the cab and the bumpers and the amount of rush that I see on the doorways and 76 has not been used in

▶ 53:29 Speaker 2: over a year and last year we had to we had to rent a replacement piece to get

▶ 53:38 Robert A. Boisselle: us through the winter all right so staff isn't using this particular unit the

▶ 53:41 Speaker 2: dump trucks are safe they do have stickers and they'll continue to be used

▶ 53:48 Robert A. Boisselle: until the new one comes in good now we're purchasing five pieces of equipment in one shot at the same question with the police cars we buy four or five in one shot is it cheaper to purchase all in one group or can we space them out over years and so forth saying ten years down the road we take this particular vehicle out year 11 we take another vehicle 12 13 14 it's a

▶ 54:20 Speaker 2: good question but it's a it's the the fleet is very diverse so we actually are spacing them out we have six Sanders we purchased two in 2014 this is the second two and we'll be in line probably two or three years to replace the next two so

▶ 54:36 Robert A. Boisselle: we're spacing the Sanders out so we're not looking from 2020 we're getting rid have six pieces of equipment at that point trying to space them out two at a

▶ 54:40 Speaker 2: time good on that the front end loaders we have three in the fleet so we replaced including this one yeah that's the third so we replaced the last one replaced was 2006 2007 I think now we're going for this one and we're hoping four or five years to replace our 97 so we are spacing those out as well very good

▶ 55:02 Robert A. Boisselle: thank you very much she's doing a great job John Thank You mr. chairman Thank

▶ 55:06 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Boycelle. Alderman McAteer-Margolis please. Thank you. It's always so

▶ 55:13 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: exciting to get new trucks and see those new shiny trucks running around the city. Everybody loves to see their tax dollars at work like that and I'm happy as Alderman Zwirko and Alderman Kahn mentioned that we can actually pay for this out of pocket. It's great. How are we doing on the energy efficiency of these? I know one of our plans is as we replace municipal vehicles to try to reach a certain goal of energy efficiency these are kind of monster trucks so and they

▶ 55:46 Speaker 2: all we we pay we pay a surplus now we pay a little extra to make sure that the emissions is meets all the new standards so these meet all the new standards in

▶ 56:00 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: terms of emissions and these are these will satisfy the goals that we're working towards maybe mr. de la Rosa knows or you know in terms of increasing our fleet to be more green and efficient they're much more efficient than what

▶ 56:16 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: it's being replaced oh I'm sure yeah and they have actually a floorboards and all that too so how about are there any things that you're not getting that you kind of like had to go back and forth would it be like oh I want that front end loader but I mean I need to sidewalk plow but I really want that was there anything else that you felt we real we appreciate the department appreciates

▶ 56:39 Speaker 2: the support of the mayor and this board and and to all of was else point we you have to spread these purchases out we've been able to do that in the last six years we're appreciative of that and we have our list ready for two years from now but I think we'll sit at bay for a couple years and see what happens to the

▶ 57:06 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: existing fleet and how it reacts thank you well I'm very happy to hear that even though we're paying a little extra we are meeting the the goals that we set

▶ 57:14 Speaker 2: as a city now the next big priority is going to be the midsize fleet those are you smaller dump trucks and park equipment which is which is getting five six years old so that'll be the next the next area of focus for the department

▶ 57:26 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: great thank you very much Thank You mr. chairman Thank You alderman

▶ 57:29 Peter D. Mortimer: McIntyre-Margolis seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard I have a conversation with that Department of Public Works director thank you very much for your attendance and the information thank you mr. Shana perhaps does anyone have questions for the last two department heads either or both

▶ 57:50 Speaker 3: could we have miss clay come forward very good then this is our health

▶ 58:22 Peter D. Mortimer: director this clay mrs. clay just just before we proceed just does anyone have questions for mr. van Kampen because we don't we can let him go now are you gonna have a question for sorry all right it's my moral support yeah all

▶ 58:37 Peter D. Mortimer: right yeah but he okay I just very good sir please proceed hi I'm here to talk

▶ 58:46 Speaker 6: about the interface program which I'm here on behalf of the mayor I am really excited about being here to talk to you about this program don't think we've

▶ 59:08 Speaker 6: talked about this in the past so the I gave you a handout but for the people viewing at home what we'd like to do is offer a referral service for mental health referrals for any Melrose resident it the referral service is for any age so it can be for children including very small children parents elderly those of us in between for any kind of mental health service it could be substance abuse it could be depression or anxiety hoarding stressful family situations or divorce a very broad range of issues it is a helpline

▶ 1:00:00 Speaker 6: not a hotline not for crisis a helpline that's available Monday through Friday Friday 9 to 5 the phones are serviced by licensed mental health professionals or doctoral students the service is offered through William James College which is a college that specializes in psych and social work so these the doctoral students as part of their degree have to do basically some internal intern work essentially so some so part of their coursework is is manning these lines so

▶ 1:00:48 Speaker 6: this service is already being offered in 52 communities throughout the state Wakefield joined this service a year ago so we have a year's worth of data for their first year. Redding just started on November 1st and on their

▶ 1:01:15 Speaker 6: very first day had six calls. A lot of pent-up need especially right now where actually they have seen a 50% increase in their calls since the election I actually asked that question I wasn't really surprised at the answer so one of the one of the main issues that we have seen and the school department has seen and one of the barriers for getting services is access you have an issue and and you're having a hard time to begin with, there's so many parameters that you need to figure out to find the right provider. They have to take your insurance. Maybe it's for one of your children who wants to see only a male person or a female person. Maybe you don't have a car. It needs to be on public transportation. There's a lot of different things that go into this. and especially with the behavioral health people at the high school when they know that there's a student who needs some help they don't have hours to be researching to find just the right person for that particular student or parent or family so part of the strongest feedback that we've received in wakefield so far is from the school department people because they have felt it's really provided such a service to their to their clients basically what happens is you call the phone number you tell them what the issue is you tell them what your parameters are the goal of the service is to find you a provider or a list of providers within two weeks it's the norm the constituent makes the phone call they do not set up an appointment they feel very strongly that the person needs to be the person who does the work to make the phone call they do follow up after a few weeks see if they've been successful see if it didn't work out they'll give you different names where there's a barrier maybe they need a little encouragement to make the phone call it's been just unbelievably successful and I'm just so excited that that we have the opportunity. I think this would be a really fabulous service to be able to offer to our community. And I've already been in discussions with Hallmark Health about how to get the information to their providers.

▶ 1:03:54 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much. First in queue we have Gail, excuse me, Alderman Inferna, then President Kahn, and then Alderman Medeiros. This is what I'm about to say is not to quell or staunch the thorough performance of our job. But in six minutes, we are going to have to go into recess because the finance committee will have to convene. And we will have to go into recess and reconvene the appropriations committee at a later time tonight. So of course, be thorough, do everything you need to do. But if it's possible that we can wrap this up on time before the Finance Committee meeting, it may be beneficial.

▶ 1:04:36 Speaker 1: What would Bill Belichick say? Yes.

▶ 1:04:39 Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of-

▶ 1:04:41 Peter D. Mortimer: Please proceed.

▶ 1:04:42 Gail Infurna: All of them in front of you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions, Ms. Clay. First of all, I was glad to see that you were including Hallmark Health into this because that was one of my questions. Here we have this hospital and medical center here in Melrose that we should be utilizing so that's great with with these these people who answer the helpline how do

▶ 1:05:11 Gail Infurna: they get you know their references how do they get like you know you know this doctor this one or go to this practice or that but how do they know how that

▶ 1:05:24 Speaker 6: all works so how do they get those right well the good news is they've been doing this for several years so they have created a live database that's continually updated so if one client anywhere calls and says oh they're not taking new patients anymore that immediately goes into the databank so that everybody knows that over the past year because Wakefield has been involved for a year they've been building and adding to their data base of providers in this area a lot of people don't want to see somebody who's in their community so maybe somebody in Melrose would rather see somebody who's in Reading or in Woburn so having this critical mass here of the three communities is also going to be very very helpful so does this interface

▶ 1:06:09 Gail Infurna: group do they have to go out and build the relationships with these vendors if

▶ 1:06:17 Speaker 6: you want to call them vendors or they create relationships over time because they've been doing the referrals all right and just one more question yeah I

▶ 1:06:22 Gail Infurna: see the hours are 9 to 5 working people work 9 to 5 may not be able to make the phone call especially if they're looking for their kid or you know some help for their students I was just wondering is it a possibility somewhere along the line to make it to 7 o'clock or is this there I was this is their hours 9 to 5 yeah I was just trying to think the working parent or the working person who's trying to you know help up I'm you know I hope this works well mental illness as we know it's a terrible disease and we certainly see more and more cuts throughout the state with it so if we can help reach people and and help them you know get their services that they need or referrals this is

▶ 1:07:10 Speaker 6: great so thank you I want to emphasize one thing that this is this is part of a prevention process so that and I don't want people to get unduly focused on the term mental illness because anybody can call if they're very stressed feeling anxious going through a difficult divorce whatever it doesn't have to be a what you may think of traditional mental illness the whole concept behind here is to get help before even better it escalates into a crisis even better

▶ 1:07:56 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you okay thank you alderman inferno next we have president Kahn and then alderman Medeiros says I recall be less than two minutes so that we can

▶ 1:08:03 Speaker 1: recess when we need to the twelve thousand five hundred is this a startup

▶ 1:08:13 Speaker 6: cost what are we what are we paying the twelve thousand question yeah sorry I should have mentioned that at the beginning it's an annual cost of twelve

▶ 1:08:24 Speaker 6: five we pay it to William James College is who the volunteer service of William

▶ 1:08:34 Speaker 1: James College oh no no no no absolutely are you anticipating that this is going

▶ 1:08:38 Speaker 6: to be a recurring expense absolutely absolutely actually normally they request a two-year commitment obviously we can't make two-year commitments financially since this is a budget you know our fiscal budget absolutely absolutely I don't think I also mentioned that as you know we're waiting to hear about earmarked funds from the Statehouse and we know we're not going to hear about that till later in December if the earmarked funds come through the service will be paid from the earmark funds and we won't use these

▶ 1:09:22 Speaker 1: funds this seems to me like something that would be right for a grant is there grant out there that would fund something like this are we going to be

▶ 1:09:30 Speaker 6: searching for that out in the future we're always looking for grants I don't know of any other grants that pay for this right now but we would always be

▶ 1:09:40 Peter D. Mortimer: looking for that thank you president Codd Alderman Medeiros thank you is there

▶ 1:09:46 Monica C. Medeiros: any way to do are there any assessments right now that are done on this service that Wakefield's done or you know in in what kind of data would we get back to

▶ 1:10:02 Speaker 6: know how many calls or whether it's sure so on the handout that I gave you at the very at the very end of it it mentions an assessment that was done on the program in 2012 in the time wise I'll just let you look at that we will get data every six months it will tell us the age range of the people the diagnosis or type of issue there's another thing they tell us so yes we do get that data every six months I have the data for Wakefield the first 12 months of service they serviced approximately 60 clients most of them were children and adolescents and most of the referrals came through the school

▶ 1:10:58 Speaker 6: department we are learning our lessons so that we can tailor our marketing to

▶ 1:11:05 Peter D. Mortimer: expand beyond that so we can I'm going to have to ask you to continue your questions after the recess it's 8 45 and i'm required by operation of rule to uh recess the committee on appropriations at this time we are in recess from appropriations appropriations will return later in the night right now we are going to proceed to the finance committee as required by the rules of our board of alderman thank you thank you good evening it is 8 46 this