ORDER-2016-163 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228, Article II, Section 228-15 (Water Rates Established), as set forth herein.

Transcript (~5 min @ 32:02)

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▶ 32:01 Speaker 1: Order 2016-163, Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228, Article 2, Section 228-15, Water Rates Established, as set forth herein. This order comes to us from Committee Recommended as amended to adopt one of the proposals that had been put forward. Motion for passage as amended, Mr. President.

▶ 32:22 Speaker 4: Second.

▶ 32:23 Speaker 1: Alderman Mortimer moves for passage of this order as amended. Is there discussion? Alderman Medeiros.

▶ 32:30 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you. Thank you again. I just want to say, and this is, you know, this is certainly not and hasn't been an easy discussion. It hasn't been an easy discussion to have over the course of several years, frankly. And, you know, I am going to support the rates tonight, this structure, but by no means does that mean that I think this is the be all, end all. I think we still have a lot of problems and issues that really we need to continue to work on and look at moving forward. I am not fully satisfied that we've really addressed the issues of retroactive billing, even though this new two-tiered structure is much simpler and a little bit flatter,

▶ 33:18 Monica C. Medeiros: albeit, that the high deferential that's been built in over the last three to four years since we first, you know, went, made the first change for FY14 into the tiered, three-tiered

▶ 33:34 Monica C. Medeiros: rate structure, you know, really hasn't been addressed. And I think there are still people who, you know, especially the multi-unit condominium owners and and really i'm not sure that we can fully justify even for those that that are not the big difference that we're seeing that they've seen you know over the course of four years at the highest tier increase of 50 of the water rates and we've seen our average water bill users seeing an increase of 18 and i mean that says a lot of things and that over time I've really you know we're asked a lot you know why are the rates so high why is this going up I think our discussion in the chamber over the past few years has really talked a lot about the rate structure itself as it even did this year you know I've been trying to look more into it and to try to explain it a little bit more certainly we see that you know there are the funds that are in in the costs that are in our water and sewer operating budgets but outside of that there's something you know over two million dollars that is not included in that budget that goes into our water and sewer rates and that's made up of these indirect costs of you know

▶ 34:56 Monica C. Medeiros: reserves and funding a reserve and abatements and you know that that all factors in and it's not necessarily obvious to the naked eye that it's there we've seen these indirect costs have gone up substantially and you know perhaps because of some of the conversation that we've had towards you know rate structures you know maybe we haven't been looking at some of that as closely and i hope that we do do that as we move forward because we need to look at you know certainly our our own spending the mwra increases and and certainly these these indirect costs every year and i hope that we can find a way to get all of this down i hope that we can you know geez sorry some fly i hope that you know we can look as a city and and i look forward to trying to send something forward in the next few months about looking at conservation from a city perspective where the administration has estimated that we are using as a city in our municipal buildings and parks and so on two hundred and seventy thousand dollars worth of water I don't see that you know shifting back to the general operating budget anytime soon so so long as we're expending that then I think we have an obligation to try to to reduce our usage there just as you know as we are a user as well so those are the kinds of things that you know I think we need to still pay attention to moving forward and I'm gonna support this rate tonight but it doesn't mean that I think all the problems have gone away and we should you know stop trying so thank you thank you anyone else

▶ 36:41 Speaker 1: there's no shake could you call the roll please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes. Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Yes. Yes. Alderman Dearest. Yes. Yes. Alderman Mortimer. Yes. Yes. Alderman Tramontozzi. Yes. Yes. Alderman Zwirko. Yes. Yes. President Conn.

▶ 37:07 Speaker 1: No. No. That order passes. Nine. Yes. Order 2016-164, amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228, Article 4, Section 228-30, Sewer rates established as set forth herein this order also comes recommended as