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 (~22 min @ 20:28)

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

▶ 20:18 Peter D. Mortimer: motion to close public participation duly seconded by Alderman Inferno all in favor of closing public participation please say aye aye any opposed hearing none public participation is now closed we continue on with order 2 0 1 6 dash 1 5 8 it's the city of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2017 the first

▶ 20:45 Peter D. Mortimer: apartment we have before us this evening is department 9 1 1 it is the pension department in the amount of $5,685,984.95. Motion to suspend the rules so we can hear from the appropriate officials. Second. We have a motion to suspend the rules from Alderman Forbes, duly seconded by Alderman Zwirko. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, we are under suspension. Please proceed, sir.

▶ 21:12 Speaker 2: Good evening. Good evening. Do you have any other questions in regard to the appropriation?

▶ 21:18 Peter D. Mortimer: You would, no opening statement, proceed directly to from the horseshoe. Alderman Medeiros by a hair, veto President Kahn. Go ahead, please.

▶ 21:30 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you. I'll defer to President Kahn and go second if that's-

▶ 21:34 Speaker 1: If he wishes.

▶ 21:36 Speaker 2: Wishes. Thank you. How did you come, is your appropriation a budgeted item this year based on the numbers that you gave? received from the state how did you how'd you build your number our actuarial consultant larry stone we have we're required to do a new uh schedule every two years on a funding schedule and where are we right now on our state funding schedule when when will we uh when will we fully funded 2038 and is that the is that the maximum that we're able to go 2040 by law is the maximum

▶ 22:18 Speaker 2: 2040 so we're two years early two years early okay and um we have we have one non-contributory pension left yes and how from what year does that pension come that i don't know he's in his 90s though i know that okay so so that that's got to come from the 70s or 60s yes and that's still being paid correct for life that's all i have right now mr chairman thank you president khan

▶ 22:48 Monica C. Medeiros: alderman Medeiros please thank you um i'm wondering if uh you know this may be a better question for mr delarusso i think he's in the hallway um in regard to we've seen that some of the indirect

▶ 23:03 Peter D. Mortimer: costs that are alderman Medeiros excuse me please would you like him to come into the room we can

▶ 23:10 Speaker 1: arrange that for you well let's see if uh all right sorry to interrupt we've seen that some

▶ 23:12 Monica C. Medeiros: of the indirect costs that are coming uh being paid through the water and sewer rate are going to pay pensions are they in this line item the 5.6 million yes yes this is for the city's

▶ 23:25 Speaker 2: appropriation to fund future salaries in the long haul so do you know how much of this is being paid

▶ 23:32 Monica C. Medeiros: from the water and sewer fund no I wouldn't know that perhaps I I do see

▶ 23:40 Monica C. Medeiros: mr. de la Rousseau sorry I know you just just walked into the room literally if perhaps he may be able to answer my question certainly mr. de la Rousseau

▶ 24:03 Speaker 4: would you join us at the table please and this is something that I'm sure I

▶ 24:05 Monica C. Medeiros: might ask later on in our discussions but i know we've seen that some of the indirect costs that are coming and paid through the water and sewer rates are paying a portion of that is for pension costs um we're in the pension budget do we see that in this line item and if so how much is that do it okay um and you know we could revisit that if we need to but yeah right um oh both in water

▶ 24:35 Speaker 3: and saw on the a2 form through the chair it indicates the pension allocation for both the both funds by year you're absolutely right for fiscal 16 you'll see if you look at the a2 form um the allocation for uh pensions for uh food water so enterprise applicable to each fund correct

▶ 25:02 Monica C. Medeiros: and and is that from uh that's the the fy16 a2s is that the number that we're using for the fy17 budget or are we using a different number for fy17 um each year will be different each year year it will be different so um perhaps we could get a breakdown of what that is for the anticipated

▶ 25:25 Peter D. Mortimer: fy17 certainly thank you thank you alderman Medeiros are there any other alderman wishing to be heard on this budget seeing none oh alderman's work oh please thank you mr chairman

▶ 25:38 Michael P. Zwirko: i'm just curious how many um we pay pensions every month they're correct is it a monthly payment excuse me the pensioners are the payments monthly this payment is a one-time payment at the understood when we pay out pay out yes monthly it's monthly yes and how many folks exactly pensioners do we have currently approximately 400 right now 400. and just for my own i know that

▶ 25:59 Speaker 2: there have been some changes in the laws i'm not too familiar with them the amount of excuse me for full vesting and um for one to reach you know age what are those statistics is it 20 years and so in a specific age is it broken down differently for public safety versus other areas how does one reach and attain not only full vesting but in order to enact their benefit so employees hired prior to april 2nd of 2012 you needed 10 years of service at age 55 or 20 flat years at any age new employees hired after april 2nd 2012 have 10 years of service at age 60. that's the minimum 20 years goes away so that's the new legislation that came into play okay and on i don't know if

▶ 26:48 Michael P. Zwirko: you know this figure but how much if we have approximately 400 pensioners per month what is that across the bottom line what does that cost comes out to about 700 000 gross per month yep

▶ 27:06 Speaker 2: appreciate it those are all the questions that i had thank you alderman's worker

▶ 27:10 Peter D. Mortimer: seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard is there a motion please

▶ 27:17 Peter D. Mortimer: motion to move the bottom line alderman inferno has made a motion to move the bottom line for budget number 9 11 for pension budget second duly seconded by alderman's workout seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage the next budget we have before us thank you very much for

▶ 27:44 Speaker 1: Coming.

▶ 27:46 Peter D. Mortimer: The next budget we have before us is budget 544. It's the human rights budget in the amount of $3,000. Good evening. Good evening. Would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions and answers?

▶ 28:00 Speaker 2: Just briefly, thank you for this evening. We tend to operate within our budget and maximize and fully utilize our budget and respectfully request level funding.

▶ 28:18 Peter D. Mortimer: and if you have any questions please feel free thank you very much sir are there questions or motions alderman's worker please thank you mr chairman i do have a couple of questions

▶ 28:23 Michael P. Zwirko: first i would like to say i attend many of the events that the meros human rights commission puts forth and i always look forward to the work that they do so um i'm greatly appreciative of the fact that they not only exist but also kind of help buttress a lot of the um community events and issues that we deal with day to day across the state but also here in the city of Melrose so I appreciate all the outreach that you and the members do so thank you for that I I know that the Commission's been around for a long time and you you are it's a small line item it's only $3,000 but I'm wondering if at least in your tenure have there been years we haven't actually spent all three thousand of those dollars if you ever left a little bit in the kitty so to speak to my knowledge in the short time that I've been involved no we spent up to and tapped into a separate donation fund in the last year only in the amount of approximately $50 beyond

▶ 29:26 Speaker 2: the thirty to three thousand so my understanding is we tend to utilize the entire budget each year would you mind just kind of explaining a couple of

▶ 29:39 Michael P. Zwirko: those those functions that actually have a cost I know there are some that don't but you know I'm sure that having a booth at the Victorian Fair isn't free you know I'm sure that there's a cost to the community Martin Luther King Day dinner things of that nature but if you don't mind just kind of rifling off a couple of the the events that do at least have a cost sure and you've listed two right there that that do the Martin Luther King events tend to consume a fair amount of the budget I'd say approximately 30 percent at least in the prior year between the dinner the facility that we the food the

▶ 30:16 Speaker 2: publication and the materials for the for the events both between the day of service the dinner and there was a film series in that last round that incurred a cost including a facility fee other events include the Victorian Fair the international welcome reception often involves in this past year approximately 14% of our budget the Victorian fair plus materials associated with the fair at that in that year were about 17% there's miscellaneous items between

▶ 30:58 Speaker 2: materials for the reading conversation program supported and assisted and facilitated by the Human Rights Commission other community building and in partnership activities in which we participate have various entry fees things of that nature and thank you for that and essentially where I'm going

▶ 31:22 Michael P. Zwirko: here is you're a well-established well-known Commission and again I I'm in unison with its charge but we do have other Commission's here that haven't received as much funding and also in the newspaper today and was brought up at our meeting on Monday we don't have funding for police departments budget with respect to Narcan and you know my fear is is that you know there might be a little wiggle room to equitably fund the Commission's that money could then may be directed towards the purchase of additional doses of Narcan which were at about halfway through we were told it's just a lot of the events do get good free media. They're very well attended. You've been well established for a long time. I'm just wondering if there might be, you know, if a thousand dollar haircut wouldn't be too much to ask and that could be redirected to maybe bolster some of the Narcan doses should we need them. I know that the police department expressed favorability towards maybe being able to have those donated like they were through other organizations like Hallmark Health. You know, just I was taken aback by by not only the comments that were made at our last meeting but just knowing that there is a thousand dollars more than another Commission and I feel that that would be equitable and maybe a better use of the funds for the city considering the longevity that the Human Rights Commission has been around for in the job that they do so those are all the questions that I have I certainly will make a motion at this moment I don't know if other members would like to speak and have any questions for the gentlemen but um that's all that I had mr. chairman Thank You alderman's work

▶ 33:03 Peter D. Mortimer: up any other alderman wishing to be heard seeing not president Connolly

▶ 33:09 Speaker 2: yeah this I harken back to a discussion we had when I was popping off earlier

▶ 33:19 Speaker 2: this week and you know we have many Commission's in the city that are made of hard-working volunteers who do a lot of good work this is an important commission it's made up of hard working volunteers who do a lot of good work people should understand that that's the model that we've been using for a long time and it's been work it works well we don't need to designate large amounts of funding to volunteer boards or commissions for them to work effectively city has priorities that they have to serve we have to provide public safety we have to provide schooling we have to provide sanitation we have to plow our streets we have other things that we can do for less cost but this is a good example of a commission that is funded at a very low level so that it can function and it has worked for a long time and this is the kind of model that i support relative to volunteer boards and commissions in the city thank you president khan are there any

▶ 34:30 Peter D. Mortimer: other aldermen who wish to in in be involved in discussion i'll make a motion at this time

▶ 34:37 Peter D. Mortimer: motion to move the bottom line second alderman inferno has made a motion to move the bottom line

▶ 34:44 Speaker 2: duly seconded by alderman lemmerman i just have a parliamentary inquiry if you don't mind to the

▶ 34:47 Peter D. Mortimer: the chair point of order from Alderman's work oh please continue so apologies for

▶ 34:50 Michael P. Zwirko: not knowing proper protocol here so I'm just curious if I were I understand that there's a motion on the floor correct if I were to make a motion to strike thousand dollars from the bottom line that's before us would we have to allow

▶ 35:09 Peter D. Mortimer: the motion that's on the floor to proceed first yes that that is a main motion a substantive motion in its own as it works out alderman inferno beat you to the punch so to speak there was a little lull but i think the discussion has been fair and forthright and if people want to vote alderman inferno's motion down to allow you to make that motion that could occur but they're both they're both main motions and so there was a main there were other motions which would be intervening but a motion to cut the bottom line is not one of them understood

▶ 35:50 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you for that mr chairman you're welcome of course so alderman inferno's motion is on the floor duly seconded by alderman lemmerman is there any further discussion at this time alderman

▶ 36:02 Gail Infurna: inferno please thank you very much mr chairman and just i just want to explain um and all due respect to alderman uh zorko's uh motion that he wanted to do while i really understand that i i get the drug problem i get the narkin and whatnot i think um to what um alderman uh president khan was saying i i truly believe in that and i think somewhere along the line we can be very creative and try to get some sort of funding for the knock in as we proceed forward but um i i will stick with the bottom line on that but i absolutely understand where you're coming from um with that

▶ 36:38 Peter D. Mortimer: but thank you very much alderman inferno president khan please yeah i'm sorry

▶ 36:47 Speaker 2: this is kind of a sticking point with me people who are watching at home and people who are in the chamber need to understand that we cannot take money from one department and direct it to another person we cannot do that we can cut any budget that we want to but we can't we are we have no authority to make a cut in one budget and transfer money to another budget we can not do that it is an executive function we can cut the budget but we cannot reallocate monies from one budget to another so i understand we heard everybody the other night indicating they were concerned about narcan they're still concerned about narcan it's a 70 plus million

▶ 37:28 Speaker 2: dollar budget here but we cannot move money around it's it's it's not within our purview

▶ 37:33 Peter D. Mortimer: that that is uh quite and i get concerned president connor concerns when we have these

▶ 37:36 Speaker 2: discussions because it causes people who are watching at home to misunderstand the process

▶ 37:44 Peter D. Mortimer: uh well said president khan uh that's absolutely correct we could make cuts in various but then that money would revert back uh to the mayor and the administration and they would have to make a decision where they would like to apply it is there any further discussion seeing none the motion from alderman inferno seconded by alderman lemmerman is on the floor to move the bottom line for the human rights budget number four five fifty five forty four all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none uh this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage thank you for your attendance and your presentation this evening thank you thank you The next budget we have before us is budget number 540. It is the budget for the Beebe Estate. The Beebe Estate will be represented by Mrs. Gorman on the Board of Trustees of the Beebe Estate this evening. Good evening, Mrs. Gorman.

▶ 38:43 Speaker 5: Good evening, everybody.

▶ 38:44 Speaker 6: Hello.

▶ 38:46 Speaker 5: I guess for an opening statement, what I'd really like to do is tell you what we're doing at the Beebe right now. where we received a grant from the state and it enabled us to paint the building. So some people are noticing that the color is a little creamy there. And what that is, they also think it's the primer for the building. That is not the primer. That is going to be the color of the building. We are not going back to the white that it was in the past. And the reason for that is we had a paint consultant come in and they went up in the rafters they went all over the building got samples of the paint even the nails and what we're going back to is the paint for the year 1848 and in 1848 the cupola was added to the top and the balustrade around the top of the roof so and at that time paint was made in a different way it had to be hand-mixed and and was a different kind of thing so these were the colors that they used at that time and what it what they went for was light and bright so what we're going back to even every part of the cupola we know what color was there before and it's going to be put back again but it's all shades of the cream and the white and so I hope you've all had time to go by and check it out and the contractors were working with doing a really quick and good job and we really think the major part of the painting is going to be done by this weekend or early next week and we have a few details for instance the windows the storm windows all of those are going to be trimmed in black so we have the creamish color of the white color the black and then the shutters are going to be something called chrome green and it's not the deeper green we're used to on shutters because they didn't have that particular color in those days so people are asking and so I thought this was a good opportunity to let everybody know what we're doing

▶ 41:03 Scott M. Forbes: there thank you very much mrs. Gorman I neglected to mention the amount of this budget which is seven thousand nine hundred dollars at the outset are there any questions or comments or motions from the floor alderman Forbes please thank you mr chairman i know this is a level funded budget from uh from last year i do thank you for your dedication and your hard work thank you um just uh just a quick line item just the the two thousand dollars for the building repair i'm assuming that's just maintenance throughout the

▶ 41:30 Speaker 5: course of time and if you look at our budget it basically is gas and electric yeah so that's the two big chunks of it and then the two thousand dollars allows us to have a cleaner that can come in and maintain the building also some of the smaller things that we have to do there um which there are always many of those um so that's a basic and the only other one is 200 for supplies which is base supplies for restrooms and things like that again thank you very much for

▶ 42:02 Peter D. Mortimer: all the work you do a budget i think i appreciate it if there's no more further discussion on the item i'd make a motion to move the bottom line second alderman forbes has made a motion to move the bottom line duly seconded by Alderman Medeiros is there any further discussion at this time I've seen none all in favor of recommending this budget to the full board please say aye any opposed hearing none this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage thank you very much for your volunteer service to our community mrs. Gorman I think I think Alderman Medeiros has aptly and intelligently noticed that there is a revolving fund yes like to