ORDER-2016-158 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2017 in the amount of 75,328,574.79 (Seventy-Five Million, Three Hundred Twenty-Eight Thousand, Five Hundred Seventy-Four Dollars and Seventy-Nine Cents)

Transcript (~16 min @ 42:45)

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

▶ 42:40 Scott M. Forbes: thank you Thank You alderman Medeiros motion to recommend orders to zero one six dash one six five and two zero one six dash one six one second Alderman

▶ 42:46 Peter D. Mortimer: Forbes has made a motion to recommend these two orders for passage to the full board they were joined so the motion applies to both orders it was duly seconded applicable to both orders by Alderman Boycelle all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none these two orders will be recommended to the full board or passage the next order we have before us is a return to our city of

▶ 43:15 Peter D. Mortimer: Melrose operating budget for the fiscal year 2017 in the amount of $75,328,574.79.

▶ 43:29 Peter D. Mortimer: The first department that we will take up is department number 221. That is the fire department in the amount of $4,098,523.22. We are still under suspension, still joined by Chief Leary for the fire budget number 221. Chief, would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions and answers?

▶ 43:58 Speaker 3: Yes. I'd like to thank Mr. De La Russa and his staff for their assistance in developing this year's budget. A couple of changes to the budget. The salary and wages line increased due to contractual step raises and longevity. We've increased the overtime line by $100,000. We've increased the vehicle repair line by $10,000. and we increased the structural gear line by 14,000.

▶ 44:22 Speaker 2: Thank you.

▶ 44:23 Peter D. Mortimer: President Kahn, please.

▶ 44:25 Speaker 1: So, Chief, can you tell us what your complement of your workforce is at this point in time with superior officers and firefighters, please?

▶ 44:44 Speaker 3: So there's seven captains, nine lieutenants, and 41 firefighters minus the eight firefighters that are in the ambulance budget.

▶ 44:52 Speaker 1: But I mean, in the real world, the real department has 41 firefighters. Correct. Regardless of whence they're paid. And you have two vacancies at the present time? Three. Three. Three. Well, yeah. Well, actually, our budget said two vacancies and then EMS training vacancy. Correct. What's the plan in terms of dealing with those vacancies as we go forward?

▶ 45:14 Speaker 3: The EMS training position, I am currently in discussions with the union about, and the other two firefighters looking to next fiscal year in July to move forward with the hiring.

▶ 45:28 Speaker 1: Do you intend to have these people on for the full fiscal year?

▶ 45:35 Speaker 3: Yes, we're just finalizing. We've revamped our hiring packet and hope to be calling for the names within the next couple of weeks. So hopefully we'll get it sometime in July. Okay.

▶ 45:48 Speaker 1: And so your overtime budget going forward is going to be $435,000. Is that correct?

▶ 45:56 Speaker 3: Combining ambulance and fire, yes.

▶ 45:58 Speaker 1: Right. And what have you spent so far this year on overtime?

▶ 46:06 Speaker 3: on on the fire budget is 443 219 and ambulance budget 81 320 do you anticipate that you're

▶ 46:25 Speaker 1: going to need any more transfers or appropriations of funds for uh over time before we get to the

▶ 46:37 Speaker 1: end of the fiscal no we should be also so you're just about 525 000 as we sit here correct and um

▶ 46:49 Speaker 1: What do you think is contributing to our overtime expenses right now, Chief?

▶ 46:55 Speaker 3: We had one member that's been deployed for over a year in the military and continues to be deployed, and we've had an exceptionally bad year for long-term sickness and illness. We had a member that has since returned from a year about with cancer, and there's multiple other injuries and illnesses.

▶ 47:15 Speaker 1: Do you have any kind of a plan to try to address overtime or drive overtime down?

▶ 47:25 Speaker 3: Hopefully, I mean, all the members are back except for the member that's out on military, so our overtime numbers have decreased. So if we can sustain a healthy force, we should be in good shape.

▶ 47:38 Speaker 1: And do you think that these two vacancies, if you fill them, going to have any kind of a significant impact on your overtime expenditure it will definitely help

▶ 47:47 Speaker 1: yes do you think you can get the overtime down into the budgeted 435 000 going forward in this

▶ 47:57 Speaker 3: year i'm hoping to but the numbers a lot real more realistic than it has been um but i'm hoping that um you know if the members can stay healthy i mean unfortunately i don't have a crystal ball that shows what's going to be down the road but it and then if the military that that member has

▶ 48:17 Speaker 1: orders until at least october yeah and i agree i mean i've often said that i'd like to see these budgets built with numbers that are realistic numbers but also um you know i don't like to see over a half a million dollars of overtime so hopefully we can make some strides to reduce that

▶ 48:32 Peter D. Mortimer: in the coming year it's all there for now thank you president khan alderman wright please

▶ 48:39 Francis X. Wright Jr.: good evening chief um no raise on the show i was raised when the um chief flyer was here

▶ 48:58 Speaker 3: um how long have you had the vacancies roughly one left in january and one just went to

▶ 49:11 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Cambridge in last month have you considered a reserve list because if we

▶ 49:14 Speaker 3: last time we used it was in the 80s and I don't know that much about it but I'd

▶ 49:22 Speaker 3: be reluctant to use it because we have a very stringent hiring process and background checks and looking into people and if we were to hire someone to place them on the list it could be five years before we tapped into them I mean depending on the vacancies it could be sooner than that but the list is good for five years and the members that were on it in the 80s didn't get hired for

▶ 49:47 Francis X. Wright Jr.: almost five years so but if you put you just had one or two people on the reserve list and they and and every six months you could go back and read you know recheck click you know their credit that Corey and all that that was that

▶ 49:57 Speaker 3: would be my other point that it's it's we're duplicating our efforts rather than just have to do it one time when the time comes and get it done right and

▶ 50:06 Francis X. Wright Jr.: be done with it yeah but I think well I guess my experience is that when you communities do this they have people ready to go so when you have a vacancy you have the ability to get them into the next Academy and when you get them into the next Academy they come out they fill that vacancy now you've cut your overtime so I understand that in the 80s not unique to Melrose there were issues with reserve lists but I think with municipalities being run I think in a more professional manner than they were three decades ago that it can work and I would appreciate if the administration would would look at it it doesn't have to be a long list like I said one or two people on it like I said if you've got that ability to just having gone through that process made a selection have that person ready to go because you can't control your retirements obviously somebody can walk in and just leave you high and dry and if there's an Academy coming up and you've got somebody ready to go because otherwise you had a call for a list HRD has to produce a list you have to send out your postcards you have to do your interviews your pats you have to go through that whole process and I can take months and there's your overtime well at least a portion of it so I kind of beat this drum for a couple years to no avail but I think that I think this is it's worthy of looking so if that's one way we can look at potentially cutting over time I'd appreciate if they could be could be looked at thank you thank you mr. chairman thank you alderman right

▶ 51:44 Scott M. Forbes: alderman force please $35,000 that's been budgeted for the vehicle repairs is just kind of give us a kind of brief overview of the the vehicles that we do have in the fleet and what the annual maintenance requirements are of those

▶ 52:00 Speaker 3: vehicles we have three engines a lot of truck the pickup truck that's a brush truck the ambulance is they're covered under the ambulance budget and those those repairs are under that sure so we do preventive maintenance twice a year there's annual pump testing there's ladder testing and then the whatever breakdowns occurred during during the year more or less just routine

▶ 52:27 Scott M. Forbes: maintenance to keep the upkeep of the vehicles we have in the fleet okay the other thing I just wanted to touch base and I didn't see anything for line item and in this budget for repairs and maintenance of the actual buildings can you talk about the houses and just talk about their current state and if there is going to be any kind of you know if there is any short-term needs right now as far as there's a desperate need to repair and the mayor and his

▶ 52:58 Speaker 3: staff are looking at it and he's convened or is working on a committee to address the public safety buildings police and fire and hopefully we'll get plan together to see what just our needs are in in go from there currently the bathrooms at headquarters are in the process of being renovated one downstairs

▶ 53:27 Speaker 3: and the two upstairs and as far as general daily maintenance or repairs it all comes under facilities under mr. Shannon okay so that that's why it

▶ 53:35 Scott M. Forbes: doesn't reflect in this budget and that committee wouldn't be all the firehouses not just one right here correct in the police station as well Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 53:45 Speaker 2: Thank you, Alderman Forbes.

▶ 53:48 Peter D. Mortimer: President Kahn, please.

▶ 53:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to weigh in, too. I couldn't agree with Alderman Wright more that the city would save money if we had police and fire reserve lists. We would save money and time, and I think it is something that should be looked at.

▶ 54:05 Speaker 2: Thank you, President Kahn. Seeing no further, Alderman, wishing to be heard.

▶ 54:09 Speaker 1: Motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 54:11 Peter D. Mortimer: Second. We have a motion to move the bottom line. $4,098,523.22 for budget department number 221, the Melrose Fire Department. That motion was made by Alderman Boisselle and duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board to be passed along with the order for the complete operating budget. The next budget we have before us is budget 291, the emergency management department in the amount of $4,900. What have you to say about that, Chief?

▶ 54:54 Speaker 3: So no changes to this year's budget. Some of the activities in the past year included the FEMA storm reimbursement. We're waiting on final payment for the storms from 2015. Just want to note that Ann Waite from the DPW was instrumental in working with the rep from FEMA and getting our submission in. We developed the safety and emergency guidelines for all the city buildings. And this was given to all the department heads who in turn have delivered it to their staff. And we obtained a $6,400 EMPG grant from federal government. And we used that to upgrade the fire radios to fiber and adjust the frequencies for both fire and police radios.

▶ 55:32 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you. Thank you, sir. President Kahn, please.

▶ 55:35 Speaker 1: where if anywhere does the compensation for the director appear now in the city budget that's in my salary so that's been folded into your salary yet last

▶ 55:52 Peter D. Mortimer: year that was then yes thank you President Kahn Alderman Medeiros please

▶ 56:01 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you so this was kind of a budget in flux last year is there any emerge are you doing any kind of emergency management work like is there a list of auxilary or anything that's we're looking at the needs of the community

▶ 56:22 Speaker 3: what with what type of a volunteer organization we want to have whether it be a cert team or something else Melrose does currently belong to the Medical Reserve Corps through the Health Department and they have a group of volunteers that are associated with them so it's still something that we're

▶ 56:43 Monica C. Medeiros: looking at nothing's been finalized yet I would have to say I'd like to see we had a strong group for a while back that had you know done a lot to help out the city especially during some of the flooding that we experienced and and I got to sit in in some of their training meetings and you know I'd like to I

▶ 57:03 Monica C. Medeiros: think that's a valuable asset especially in this time when we you know don't know when we could end up in an emergency of some sort where we may need more than just you know our very capable police and fire staff but sometimes there are times when we need more so I'd like to see this line utilized and the group

▶ 57:23 Speaker 2: return thank you thank you all the moment arrows motion move the bottom

▶ 57:26 Peter D. Mortimer: line Alderman boy cell has made a motion to move the bottom line of four thousand nine hundred dollars for the emergency management department said both of the duly seconded by alderman forbes all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget emergency management will be recommended to the full board for passage the next budget we have for this evening is budget thank you chief thank you for coming this evening the next budget we have before us is budget one one two it is the aldermanic budget in the amount amount of $145,301.30, President Kahn, please.

▶ 58:06 Speaker 1: Yeah, this budget is increased by 2.9% this year. Other than some small administrative items in the IQ M2 charge, it's virtually all salary lines. The Aldermanic total annual compensation is $5,000, Which it has been since I returned to the board in 2004 and even prior to that. So that's what we have in the Aldermanic budget.

▶ 58:36 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much, President Kahn.

▶ 58:39 Speaker 2: Motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 58:41 Speaker 1: Second.

▶ 58:41 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Forbes has made a motion to move the bottom line for the Aldermanic budget number 112 in the amount of $145,301.30. That motion duly seconded by Alderman Boisselle. favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none the aldermanic budget will be recommended to the full board for passage alderman Suarco has made a motion to adjourn second duly seconded by sorry personal privilege I just want