ORDER-2015-154 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2016 in the amount of $72,885,826.66 (Seventy Two Million, Eight Hundred Eighty Five Thousand, Eight Hundred Twenty Six Dollars and Sixty Six Cents)

Transcript (~1 h 24 min @ 6:35)

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

▶ 6:33 Peter D. Mortimer: Is there a motion to suspend the rules, please? So moved. a motion to suspend the rules by alderman mcateer margolis duly seconded by alderman forbes all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none we are under suspension miss gaffey would you please come forward miss cronin would you come forward too please good evening and welcome good

▶ 7:15 Peter D. Mortimer: evening would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions

▶ 7:19 Denise Gaffey: um well i'll actually defer to um miss cronin since she's here this evening to see if she wants

▶ 7:27 Peter D. Mortimer: to speak on behalf of the messina grants very good and just in way of explanation for people watching at home the messina grant is part of this department and ms cronin will be uh speaking on that matter before ms gaffey covers the entire part ms gaffey is the director of planning please

▶ 7:47 Speaker 3: proceed ms cronin i'm here first of all i want to offer a nancy kakura's apology she was suddenly called out of town so I'm standing in for her and I would just like to run through the grants that we made this year we made 13 grants to various individuals and organizations but some of those were multiplier effects for example we provided money for music at the farmers markets which actually provided stipends to ten individuals and organizations so one grant spread out to musicians. We also helped fund the music and entertainers for the Summer Stroll, which was wildly popular yet again this year. We funded the New England Light Opera. This is bringing in somebody from outside. They did a program of poetry and music from World War I, in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary. We funded Trinity Church, they just restored their organ and had a very interesting evening, they played a silent movie with the organist accompanying it back in the good old days. We funded Follow Your Arts, which its project was a community-wide one where any individual in Melrose could come in and make a four-inch by four-inch a picture of some sort representing something new or interesting or different in their lives or in their community. And those pieces were then put together, curated, put together and framed and went on public display at Coffee, Tea and Me and hopefully it will be seen at some other venues around town. One of the most interesting grants we gave was to Austin Smith who is a high school student who composed a marvelous string quartet and we funded him so that he could actually hire the musicians to hear what he had composed because up till then it had just been notes on a piece of paper and that was performed at the Beethoven Society and one movement from the from the string quartet was performed at one of Palemnia's concerts. We funded the youth exchange for the Irish music festival bringing over some young people from Ireland to sing and make music with people from here. We funded the help to fund some of the intergenerational spring fling the music for that where the high school students put on a prom with our senior citizens. They funded Polymnia Choral Societies part of the cost of the opera Dido and Aeneas. Opera is in kind of short supply in the entire greater Boston area and it certainly doesn't come to Melrose very often but we did a semi-staged performance of Dido and Aeneas. We funded the Beethoven Society which has been a long-standing Melrose cultural organization and help to pay for the rentals for venues that they perform at. We funded a young photographer, a college student, to frame some of her art to go on sale. There are problems enough taking out student loans, but the added expense of framing her pictures in order to sell them, in order to make some of the money to pay for her college, was a little more than she could swing. We're funding children's music and art at the Common, which is going to happen on June the 6th, the entertainers for that. And finally, we've funded the Jubilate Bell Ringers who are bringing in the Back Bay Bell Ringers to perform here in Melrose. Our two guiding principles are, first of all, the biggest bang for the buck, And second, there has to be a public component to this so that everybody in Melrose who's interested has an opportunity to see or hear or participate in the activities that we've funded. So are there any questions?

▶ 12:19 Speaker 4: Alderman Medeiros, please. Thank you.

▶ 12:22 Speaker 5: Thank you for sharing the details of what this has actually done.

▶ 12:29 Monica C. Medeiros: I found that very helpful. I'm just curious so when people come they make grants and they come directly to the Messina committee yeah they come to our committee they fill out a for an

▶ 12:40 Speaker 3: application we we have a rolling application process so it's not just once a year but they can come anytime during the course of the year so that gives people a little more flexibility because sometimes they don't they don't have a venue locked down or they don't have you know the dates locked down or whatever till later in the year and rather than postpone it for a whole other year they're able to so they present us with a proposal we as a committee meet and sometimes we vote to give them exactly what they asked for sometimes we vote to give them less than they asked for if it's too big we try to to give out about a quarter of our money during every quarter of the year so that we at by the end of the year we still have some money to make some grants and

▶ 13:34 Monica C. Medeiros: in the meetings where you're delivering the deliberating over the grants and

▶ 13:42 Speaker 3: these are these posted at all yes all of our meetings are posted here in City

▶ 13:47 Monica C. Medeiros: Hall and so they're open to the public and somebody in the group is keeping minutes of the meetings and so that they would be available we haven't been

▶ 14:03 Speaker 5: overwhelmed with it but no I'm sure not thank you very much thank you thank you

▶ 14:06 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Medeiros president Kahn please yeah mr. chairman we for a couple of

▶ 14:10 Speaker 1: years we've had this going on where we were appropriating city money calling it

▶ 14:19 Speaker 1: grants and giving it to various organizations to to expend appropriate it

▶ 14:28 Speaker 1: makes me uncomfortable I've said this before the last several years not that you folks aren't doing great work and not that the ed foundation people are doing great work do we have a legal opinion that says that this is legal for us to allow private citizens to be essentially allocating city funds I

▶ 14:50 Peter D. Mortimer: believe that question has come up in past years and it was a fair answered affirmatively but if you'd like a legal opinion we have our city solicitor in the room and you are free to query him if you so desire well I didn't ask him

▶ 15:03 Speaker 1: in advance and I don't expect them to instantaneously produce a legal opinion But I wondered whether any kind of written opinion has ever been an issue to justify this type of expenditure of city funds.

▶ 15:19 Peter D. Mortimer: My recollection is that the opinion was not written in the past. I'm not sure if the city solicitor would care to refresh our recollection, or if he'd prefer not to say anything at this time without looking into the matter a little more deeply.

▶ 15:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm not trying to put him on the spot if he's not prepared to answer.

▶ 15:36 Peter D. Mortimer: understand at your option mr. solicitor so I am aware that the Messina grants

▶ 15:49 Speaker 6: themselves have been administered for several years of the community I would have to check my my own records to see if I've ever written an opinion on this what I would say though is similar to state and federal grants which are publicly funded by taxpayers I don't see the distinction in this case yeah I

▶ 16:11 Speaker 1: I would feel more comfortable if we could get an opinion indicating that I'm not familiar with how cultural funds are distributed by the state and federal government. My experience is limited to Melrose. Not that I can request, but I would like the committee to consider asking whether we could get an opinion verifying that this is in fact an appropriate way to expand city

▶ 16:44 Speaker 6: sure I'm happy to provide that I think what I would suggest to you is I can give you that during your budget process and if that's satisfactory to you I can

▶ 16:56 Speaker 1: make that happen yeah that would be fine with me if that's the will of the

▶ 17:01 Peter D. Mortimer: committee thank you mr. president and thank you thank you mr. solicitor we'll look forward to our receiving that opinion thank you sir any other alderman wishing to be heard at this time before we proceed to the remainder of the

▶ 17:19 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: planning Alderman McAteer-Margolis thank you I do want to thank you and your board for all your work I've certainly benefited personally from many of your performances and and have noted that the community as a whole has really benefited and enjoyed them you are all duly appointed by the mayor and confirmed by this board is that not correct probably you've done it for so long that you don't even remember that anymore but we're certainly grateful for for that and in my mind that I mean I'm not sure the legality but I do think where we We have so many volunteers in the community that do a similar type of thing, whether we call it a grant or whether it's appropriation. If it's a board member that's a volunteer for the planning board, or Memorial Hall, or what have you. We're just so fortunate to have such dedicated people who improve our community. Thank you.

▶ 18:18 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Alderman Medeiros, for the second time, please.

▶ 18:22 Speaker 5: I did see Alderman Bird for the first time.

▶ 18:24 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Bird, did you have your hand up? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 18:29 Jaclyn L. Bird: for not noticing alderman bird please that's okay mr chairman thank you um i had uh one question and one comment um and i understand you're filling in for ms kakora tonight miss cronin i asked ms kakora this last year as well and um i was interested to find out if the messina committee members are fundraising at all on their own to supplement this um expenditure we

▶ 18:49 Speaker 3: But we intend to. We have some plans in the works, which have just been generated, but we haven't had any event, fundraising event, but that's definitely on the radar screen. And I'm hoping that we'll have something within the next few months.

▶ 19:12 Jaclyn L. Bird: Okay. Thank you. And do you intend to become, or are you already a 501 ?

▶ 19:19 Speaker 3: you know and we're not a separate organization okay there isn't like it

▶ 19:21 Jaclyn L. Bird: with the Melrose at foundation I know they have their separate organization they privately fundraise and then they're also receiving city dollars for that but this is different this is simply spending the 10,000 from the city right okay I agree with with two sentiments that have been said before I think the activities that are put on are wonderful I think Melrose is a community that's always been very supportive of the arts I think the the events are great I think that the people that are involved in this are great I do question whether or not we should be so charitable with residents money and so I know we've talked about this for a while and I think before when this was originally brought up to us it was the idea that it is seed money and that it was going to start to kind of grow on its own and become its own entity and I think that the process is just not moving along as quickly as I would like so i i would support the idea to get a legal opinion on it as well but um again i thank you

▶ 20:22 Peter D. Mortimer: for all that you do thank you very good thank you alderman bird alderman medeiros please thank you

▶ 20:26 Monica C. Medeiros: and i apologize i had meant to ask this earlier um i think this question is probably more for mr delarusso um i i know this has been in our budget for a couple of cycles now and i was hoping that you might be able to refresh my memory as to where these funds originally came from i mean

▶ 21:00 Peter D. Mortimer: welcome mr delarusso this is our chief financial officer for the city of melrose

▶ 21:04 Speaker 7: if i recall that to raise inappropriate like every other departmental expenditure so we didn't take

▶ 21:15 Speaker 7: them from a particular line item not not to my knowledge and obviously um okay uh thank you

▶ 21:21 Speaker 5: Thank you.

▶ 21:24 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. President Kahn, please.

▶ 21:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, just one thing I want to make sure that is corrected and is clear. The Board of Aldermen doesn't vote to approve any appointment of anybody who's administering Messina grants or any committee. And we don't approve the appointment of anybody who's who's distributing other grants like this, like grants that are distributed, the innovation grants. We're not approving the composition of any body that is doling out those money. So that's simply absolutely incorrect.

▶ 22:04 Speaker 4: And you are correct, sir.

▶ 22:06 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you. That's right. Any further aldermen wishing to be heard on this part of the planning budget?

▶ 22:17 Peter D. Mortimer: Seeing none, we will now proceed to the rest of the planning budget which is very important and integral to our city. I think at this time we can say goodnight to Ms. Cronin and let her enjoy the rest of her evening. Thank you. Would all the aldermen be satisfied with that? Yes. Ms. Cronin, we thank you very much for your appearance this evening and thank you for your volunteer services to the city of Melrose.

▶ 22:38 Speaker 3: And thank you for all of your help. You're welcome.

▶ 22:41 Peter D. Mortimer: Gaffey please proceed would you like to make a statement or directly just a

▶ 22:45 Denise Gaffey: quick statement very good aside from the the funds that are allocated in the planning department for the Messina arts grant program most of the funds are are for salaries and and they support the five individuals who work in the planning office and are involved in long-range planning zoning development review grant writing energy management affordable housing economic development and project management those are sort of our tasks and admissions in the planning office so the biggest change the biggest impact in this year's budget is results from the from the fact that we are now carrying the zoning administrative position in the Planning Department budget and that I know does not come as news to this board because I was here back in January to speak about that how we reclassified the clerk position for the Zoning Board of Appeals to make that a planning coordinator position and and then we we actually folded the responsibilities into the Planning Department so now that we now we we directly and I directly support the point the zoning Board of Appeals and that position is funded through the Planning Department budget so that is something new and I think that that accounts for most of the increase in the salary line item for the budget this year other than that it's just the standard increases associated with the annual step increases and that kind of thing cost of living adjustments for salary and and you'll notice that the because of this change there is no longer a budget for the zoning Board of Appeals that has been folded into the Planning Department budget so you will not be reviewing a CBA budget or as part of this process so I just want to

▶ 24:44 Peter D. Mortimer: clarify that yep that was not in the overall budget right correct well I

▶ 24:47 Denise Gaffey: think it may have presented itself in the budget but it was zero right so and

▶ 24:54 Peter D. Mortimer: that's that's all you have for now okay first in line we have president khan please yeah uh just

▶ 24:58 Speaker 1: a preview of tedious coming attractions i know you always enjoy my my budget commentary mr uh chairman what i would like to ask ms gaffey and what i'll be asking you know most every department is um i like to determine what the full salary for each position is because for example this department is partially funded by grant grants and just in the issuance of fairness and transparency and openness and all these things that people like like to see in their government you have five positions is that correct correct and they're all full-time positions no that's not okay which tell me what your full-time and

▶ 25:41 Denise Gaffey: which are part-time sure the full-time position is in my position the planning director the assistant planning director position is also full-time and the GIA technician slash account manager slash office manager is full-time position at 30 hours and that's grant funded and that one's grant funded correct and then we have two part-time positions the energy manager position is 24 hours per week and the planning coordinator position that I just spoke of is 24

▶ 26:12 Speaker 1: hours per week and in terms of your budget what proportion of the director position is funded in the budget and what position what proportion is funded

▶ 26:22 Denise Gaffey: off budget the director position is about 90% in budget okay and just so

▶ 26:26 Speaker 1: people at home know where is the rest of the funding housed in our budget it's

▶ 26:31 Denise Gaffey: it's coming from a combination of grant of that housing the funding that we get from housing support through the North Suburban Consortium and from project

▶ 26:46 Speaker 1: support and if somebody were seeking to look to determine where this was in the budget where would that other funding be able to be found in the budget yes or is it off budget the grant fund it's off budget and what about the assistant director position how much is in budget I'm giving you a rough yeah I just don't

▶ 27:06 Denise Gaffey: mind because I'll certainly give you the full accounting after this meeting but I don't have that information handy her position is probably about 90% supported through the general funds through the city budget and maybe about 10% and

▶ 27:22 Speaker 1: housing the two part-time positions how much funding is in your budget the

▶ 27:28 Denise Gaffey: energy efficiency manager is about 1 3rd and the planning coordinator position is

▶ 27:37 Speaker 1: 100% and where is the rest of the energy efficiency managers salary from from a

▶ 27:44 Denise Gaffey: combination of grant funding and incentive funds which are essentially

▶ 27:53 Speaker 1: the same grant funds okay yeah if you could I just like to know what the full salary for each position is absolutely provide that that's that's all I have

▶ 28:04 Peter D. Mortimer: for this budget at this time thank you very much president khan seeing no further uh alderman wishing to comment on this budget motion to recommend second we have a motion to recommend line item 172 excuse me 175 uh the planning board duly seconded all in favor please say aye Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none.

▶ 28:26 Speaker 1: No, opposed. You hear one.

▶ 28:29 Speaker 8: I'm sorry, I'm actually opposed to this.

▶ 28:32 Peter D. Mortimer: Opposed at this time? Yes. So we have eight in favor and two opposed at this time. I would guess pending the requested information.

▶ 28:43 Speaker 1: One never knows.

▶ 28:47 Peter D. Mortimer: Very good. Complete budget. The next department that we have before us is department number 121. It is the mayor's office with a budget of $298,362.16. We are still under suspension, so we will hear from Mayor Dolan and members of his staff. We have the Chief Executive Officer, the Assistant Executive Officer,

▶ 29:21 Speaker 9: lindstrom with mayor robert dolan as well thank you uh the uh proposed fy16 mayor's office budget represents level funding in all areas outside of salary and wages salary and wages line item is an increase of less than one percent this year we continue to see success in managing the mayor's office as well as departments in the city as well as the many requests from this board of aldermen regarding coordination of goals and concerns with the community we also had great success with social media to engage the dialogue continued dialogue with residents without added adding any additional staff or cost to the budget instant interactions throughout our city were consistent through blogs and Twitter as well as several department new Facebook pages allowed us to assist residents in a far more timely manner with the historic winter as well as several construction projects going on throughout the year in FY 15 we were able to provide a long list of community events as well as the use of several volunteer senior citizens that really make our department work we will continue to work very closely with our Chamber of Commerce that has been an incredible partner to promote local business to promote culture and to ensure that Melrose is thriving in terms of its arts community its recreational community and its local businesses we will have on february july 17th another summer stroll as well as a additional summer stroll to celebrate the reconstruction of the morris highlands when the work will be complete in the middle of june and this certainly will be a highlight of the summer in to celebrate this new incredible business district so i thank you for your

▶ 31:03 Speaker 1: consideration president khan please yeah um mayor all of your employees in your office i i believe

▶ 31:09 Speaker 9: are fully funded in your budget is that correct well yes well that is not necessarily true mike is fully funded bridget works four days a week three days a week she has always been on her by on our budget one day a week this year she is charged to water and sewer and let me give you

▶ 31:28 Speaker 1: the rationale for that okay so so would it be fair to say one one fourth of one of that positions compensation station comes from water so that has been rotating over the last

▶ 31:35 Speaker 9: several years we have been unable to hire staff in various departments and I would argue that I'm one of the probably the only mayor in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts without a full-time administrative assistant Bridget's strength is communications as we all witnessed during this winter and two years ago this we needed assistance in recycling because before Jess was full-time and Bridget was used one day a week to promote that massive transition with recycling going from in-house and one day and changing routes the next year Frank Oliveri asked for assistance in terms of coordination of communication with his expansion of projects so we have Bridget working one day on recreation programs charged to recreation this year really almost more than half of this year the challenge has been to continuously communicate the changes that were approved regarding water and sewer be it second meters be it be it rates be it tears and John Chenner asked for an additional part-time person we were which would include probably included benefits and a higher pay Bridget is able in one day working with Donna Cardillo to talk to dozens of residents and explain to them through writing and communication their particular water concerns and I will tell you this her work has limited the number of complaints and concerns to a trickling and that has been I think our greatest success the reason why people say that you know we did so well collectively in this winter I think is because of sound strategic communication I think the same is with the water we made some major changes I think we're It was all good, but it needed a lot of communication, so that's going to have to continue this year. And I'm willing to sacrifice our office with her going over there this year. So that's the honest assessment of the office.

▶ 33:37 Speaker 1: That was the only question I had relative to this budget, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 33:41 Speaker 9: Thank you very much.

▶ 33:41 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Mr. President. A trickling?

▶ 33:44 Speaker 4: You said a trickling. Should we reduce the questions to a trickling? Very good.

▶ 33:49 Speaker 9: Thanks, thanks, .

▶ 33:53 Speaker 4: Sullivan Medeiros, you're next, please.

▶ 33:55 Speaker 5: Thank you.

▶ 33:57 Monica C. Medeiros: I hope you understand that since the budget is before us, and since we have the mayor before us, I was hoping to ask some questions about this process in general, a little bit more so than just the mayor's office. So we have before us-

▶ 34:12 Speaker 9: Is that in line, Mr. Chairman? Excuse me? Is that in line? I'm here to answer for my budget.

▶ 34:18 Speaker 4: Would you repeat the question, please?

▶ 34:20 Monica C. Medeiros: Well, I didn't get to the question. The question is, we have a budget that's here before us that the mayor had presented to us on Monday. I know obviously we have a number of departments that we need to go through. And also we have before us a question about an override. The question about the override-

▶ 34:45 Peter D. Mortimer: The override isn't before us this evening.

▶ 34:46 Monica C. Medeiros: Is not before us this evening. Correct. But it is for FY15. and not not yet well this is some of my questions about clarifications about how this process will work because our scheduling for this process shows us as was updated Tuesday evening shows us debating that question on June 18th and yet the school budget and in this question before us has 15 new positions are those positions in this budget that we're those positions are not in that

▶ 35:25 Peter D. Mortimer: budget and I would say that until the ballot question comes before us if it even comes before us this is totem pole speculative first this board would have have to take a vote to place this order on the ballot, to put it before the voters. Then the totem pole would be, then the voters would have to approve it for those funds to be available. At that time, the funds would become available and the mayor's office would have to propose and we would have to dispose of the funds that would come down in the future to be used at a future time. It would be similar to a transfer later. But it would not be part of the budget because it is totem pole speculative at this point. It's double speculative. So I would respectfully ask you to deal with the concrete budget that we have before us this evening. Because that's in the future and it's far, far from definite. It has two hoops that it needs to jump through first. Okay, and then- Mayor, would you like to respond as well?

▶ 36:46 Speaker 9: I just want to say, I'm always available to answer questions, but the fact is, I'm available all day. This board often asks for additional information from us while I'm sitting here. I think it's a two way street. I think at the same time, my department heads and myself are owed if there are obvious questions being asked, a instead of um you know surprising us on on the gutcha seat um to at least provide us with some questions so we can prepare uh and and and give you the proper answers before um before the meeting and i would argue that no one on earth is more accessible than myself okay and certainly you

▶ 37:24 Monica C. Medeiros: still have the flow but let's yes and certainly that was actually my next question was for you mr chairman is about what is the process because many of these budgets we have you know it it's a few weeks but all this has to be done by the end of June for the fiscal year right now the schedule before us shows us talking about the school budget on June 22nd and taking the final vote on the budget on June 25th there's not a lot of wiggle room so my question for you is if we have questions because I would like to know what the proper format is that we should you know I don't want to be in the situation of asking the school department on June 22nd my questions in a gutter situation but I want to stay within the proper channels and and know you know obviously we can't expect them to come back with all kinds of information and for us to make a decision and vote on the budget for June 25th when that's not even happening until June 22nd so what is the

▶ 38:22 Peter D. Mortimer: process for us to ask questions certain that as the mayor had just stated his office is always available to answer questions in advance the superintendent I think most of the alderman will agree has been more than cooperative anytime

▶ 38:38 Monica C. Medeiros: her office is contacted are we going directly to the to the mayor and to the superintendent are we going through the chairman of this committee I can answer

▶ 38:43 Speaker 9: that right and what Alderman Medeiros either way very simply fair question I just you know I'm not gonna get into a public debate with anyone individually and I know you're very you're always been fair I appreciate it the balance the budget voted by the Melrose School Committee is a balanced budget not relying on a single dollar from this override that was nor would any other budget in this city including the police budget which is also part of it based on an override this is a absolutely balanced budget based upon the available revenues that we have today if an override were to fail we would have a balanced budget continuously the override were to pass that we would have to reconvene in January with additional appropriations through this board as we saw fit so so the answer to your question is not a single dollar of a potential override is used to balance any portion of this budget you know obviously the CFO no we ever allow that to happen and and whichever way you'd

▶ 39:39 Peter D. Mortimer: like to do it is fine you're certainly free as an alderman to reach out to any any department head and ask directly for information, or if you would like to do it through me or through President Kahn to contact any city personnel department heads or otherwise, I'd be happy to do it for you, I'm sure President Kahn would be happy to do it for you. Or if you would like to do it for yourself, I've always found the city personnel to be extremely responsive, get back to me right away in the same day with any questions I've ever had. And I think I can share that sentiment with the great majority of the aldermen as well.

▶ 40:17 Speaker 9: Mr. Chairman, I have to say that President Kahn and myself as well, we have literally been talking every day. This is our sixth budget, maybe seventh budget together. A lot more difficult than this one, and we are coordinating those times and those dates with you.

▶ 40:32 Peter D. Mortimer: Yeah, I've had copious communication with you and other department members, and I know the President has as well. One thing we can never tell you, this government is very cooperative.

▶ 40:42 Speaker 1: Mr. Chairman, can I have a point of personal privilege please?

▶ 40:45 Speaker 4: Certainly sir, please proceed.

▶ 40:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, as it relates to the process, the process is the same process that it's always been. We have 45 days to pass a budget. We have to debate the budget here in public session. The budget is the only order that's before us that's under a time clock. There are other orders that have been submitted by the administration that do not have to be passed in 45 days. The budget must be passed in 45 days, so that's why we take up the budget the way we do. In terms of information, any alderman can do whatever they want to seek information, but this is supposed to be a public process. And you can go and talk to the mayor or whoever you want to to satisfy your questions, but the debate needs to be here in the chamber.

▶ 41:34 Peter D. Mortimer: Correct, correct. So within that state mandated, that state law that says it's a 45 day budget, a 45 day window. Unfortunately, that's the way it is. But on the other hand, that's the way it's always been, since any of us have ever been alderman, anybody sitting here. So we've dealt with this before, as you're well aware. But you still have the floor.

▶ 41:56 Monica C. Medeiros: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman, but in most years, we've received the budget earlier in the-

▶ 42:04 Robert A. Boisselle: i'm not sure i don't think that's correct to recommend the bottom line of this department

▶ 42:08 Peter D. Mortimer: we still have lots of discussion but i'll take the motion and then we'll continue with discussion we have a motion to recommend the bottom line for the mayor's budget second second second by alderman inferna um on discussion you you still have the floor thank you mr chairman i yield the floor okay the floor is yielded next in queue we have alderman bird please thank you mr chairman um

▶ 42:28 Jaclyn L. Bird: thank you mr. mayor mr. Lindstrom a couple of questions I know last year you kindly printed out a description of the community outreach line item which looks like it's gone down slightly to thirteen thousand five hundred could you do that again please to just submit to so that we can add it to this as well also would like to do the same for the dues and membership line item I'm sure that is probably readily available just to get an idea and then I had one question on the administrative staff mr. Merritt you mentioned earlier that you don't have a full-time administrative assistant five days a week what what is your office lacking currently that you feel would it would be helpful to have a full-time and the only reason I asked I'm you know just curious because there does seem to be the only unfair tremendous amount of communication coming out of the office so I'm curious as to what what the deficit is or not that's the wrong word

▶ 43:28 Speaker 9: sorry what's the what's the gap the gap is unfairly Mike and Bridget work a lot of hours if you come here on Friday Bridget is not paid on Friday you'll find her upstairs a lot when I and because she gets the job done the office

▶ 43:50 Speaker 9: doesn't stop would I like five days a week of I would but I don't I don't I think we're doing fine most mayor's offices have a lot more staff but I think I have excellent people which is exceptional and Mike is exceptional just Mike being able to take the Senate budget that received two days ago and put it together not only what he saw but also what is gonna happen because he has so many institutional knowledge of how the things work is valuable to me I wouldn't ask for anything more I would just hope that the people I have working for me top to bottom stay and we've had a pretty good solid team I think the experience that we've had I think it reflects in salaries in terms of people being here so long I haven't had anyone leave my office since John O'Brien who retired we have had collectively the same group of people in back of me for almost ten years now and it's the value that this community gets from these individuals is tremendous is tremendous if I had additional money I'd give it to another department that I think would need it what Denise puts out out of her office is far exceeds what we produce out of our office in terms of value accountability etc like John said if she loses grants those positions probably go way same with health but they've been around for a while and and you know i hope they stay you know

▶ 45:18 Jaclyn L. Bird: now i appreciate the clarification when you when you mentioned it i appreciate the question surprised by it so um that's all that's it mr chairman thank you and i appreciate you getting

▶ 45:30 Peter D. Mortimer: those documents thank you thank you alderman byrd any further alderman wishing to comment or question on this particular department i've seen none we're ready for the boat made by alderman Boisselle and seconded by alderman inferno all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none this department 121 mayor's office is approved for the record i want to thank alderman wright

▶ 45:49 Speaker 9: who's been calling me every day from his from his room with his knee it's getting better and it's always good to see bob boizel's highlighter thank you very much thank you mr mayor thank you

▶ 46:00 Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. Lindstrom, if you're going to remain, okay.

▶ 46:05 Peter D. Mortimer: The next department we have before us is department 692, community events in the amount of $8,000. And we have, should I say community events?

▶ 46:20 Speaker 4: I'm sorry, yes. Okay, all right. And we have Mr. Lindstrom who administers that fund for community events. Would you like to make a little statement? Yeah, sure. this is the same as each year this is what funds the memorial day or part part of the memorial day parade um this six thousand actual cost of the parade is closer to ten thousand but what we do is uh we take the six thousand from this line item and the two thousand from the celebrations and the veterans line item and we take that with private donations that come in and we kind of mish mash it together each year so each year when i come here for this uh line item it's also a shameless plug for donations if those out there we have about twelve hundred dollars in the account right now but I like I said with the average cost of each band is $2,000 all the printing we do the trolleys that take the veterans it's I think Ryan Kathy picket-broder and Bridget and Joan Bell have done a tremendous job making it better and better each year and if there's any ever any leftover money in that celebrations veterans line item Ryan puts it to good use with Veterans Day Veterans Day and other veteran related events but the Memorial Day

▶ 47:29 Peter D. Mortimer: parade usually eats up all those funds very good thank you mr lindstrom uh any questions or comments from the alderman please motion to recommend we have a motion to recommend by alderman forbes duly seconded by alderman voycelle and on discussion alderman Medeiros police and

▶ 47:47 Speaker 4: the memorial day parade is oh that's probably a good point right it's uh sunday may 24th at 1 p.m

▶ 47:51 Monica C. Medeiros: and we invite 130 yes and but everybody lines up at one right thank you and we encourage everybody

▶ 47:59 Peter D. Mortimer: to attend yeah absolutely it's a great it's always a great day certainly yes thank you alderman medeiros i'm seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none department 692 is recommended for passage the next department we have is department 196 196 the energy commission in the amount of two thousand five hundred dollars good

▶ 48:27 Peter D. Mortimer: evening miss Timmerman good evening sir recent addition to the Energy Commission

▶ 48:32 Speaker 8: Lori Zimmerman the Energy Commission co-chair and Tyler Ballou also co-chair

▶ 48:39 Speaker 8: and thank you for having us yes we wanted to just give you a brief update on the activities of the past year and thank you in advance for the community support and your support of our efforts as you all know we kicked off the Melrose energy challenge in September 2011 with a goal of getting 1,000 home energy assessments completed those are through the mass a program we were hoping to do that in three years we met our goal early and we continue to support this program so far there's been over 1,600 energy assessments completed in homes in Melrose which is a really great accomplishment and we have a 450 homes that have also gone through weatherization activities of that 1600 so we're up a hundred since last year which is a great great activity considering the cost of energy these days we also last year launched a green business program and revitalized our solar program which we call go solar Melrose both of those activities were supported through a grant from Metropolitan Area Planning Council to help us with technical support and the green business program helps Melrose businesses learn about energy efficiency and incentive programs available through the National Grid small business program last year we negotiated increased incentives for a limited time and through that program we promoted to over 215 businesses in Melrose and and visited 160 of those to explain the program and hopefully help people understand better that it is a valid program that the city is supporting. And with that, we saw 47 businesses completing energy efficiency projects through National Grid. So we were very pleased with our results there. We were also able to expand that program to include some nonprofits in Melrose. So last year we targeted 17 Melrose non-profits, which included Houses of Worship. And of those 17, six organizations have completed energy efficiency work. So really good stats for the launch of that program. On the solar side, Go Solar Melrose was a way for us to build on the success of Solarize. Last year we had hoped to add 25 solar installations in Melrose. And to help that process, we partnered with EnergySage, which is an online solar marketplace. And we're happy to announce that Melrose currently has over 150 installations in Melrose. So we definitely met that goal and well surpassed it. 2014 highlights in the area of solar include the launch of the largest non-municipal solar installation at First Congregational Church, as well as a community solar project at the Unitarian Church. So we've made great strides, and just wanted to let folks know that we're getting a lot of visibility in other parts of the country. I have people contacting me several times a month to ask me questions. They learn about what we're doing here and want to know how to do it in their community, so something to feel good about.

▶ 51:55 Speaker 10: Yeah, I really think we should reiterate the fact that there are 150 solar installations in Melrose now, whereas at this time last year there was 100. So every single week, you know, another house or business comes online with solar. And I think it's fantastic that the community supports that. People are really recognizing where their resources come from. They're harnessing their own resources and they're investing in their property in the community. And the fact that people are so into that in Melrose makes what we do so easy. And so in the past year, we've sort of changed the format of our own meetings to make them more inclusive to the public where they've always been you know open public meetings we we've tried to devote the majority of our meetings to actually inviting in a guest speaker and discussing with the public various topics and so we've discussed divestment from fossil fuels which is actually something that the state pension board is considering right now we had a guest speaker talk about carbon capture through preservation and rehabilitation of eelgrass habitat we've talked about community solar financing where people who can just invest in solar if they're otherwise don't have a property that is suitable for having solar on the roof and so we've had a really a great response and had a you know seen a lot of new people coming from the community that are happy to talk about these topics another reason why we've been so successful is we partnering with with Martha Grover she has been able to do a a lot of fantastic things for the city recently including the energy performance savings contract through the city working on the led streetlight conversion which started with the streetlight audit and then also the the current project of municipal aggregation of electricity and so it's it's been fantastic to work with her and we're also very lucky to have the support of of the alderman in the mayor's office as well for the rest of the year we are working on a relaunch of the MEC website hoping to update it and have it it be a place where there's more resources for for people to come to because people really are interested in the information in the work that we can do and in the things that we can provide for them and continue to conduct outreach throughout the community continuing to work on the green business program work with homeowners to go solar which as we discussed is really popular at the healthy Melrose fair I spent about an hour at the the MEC table and talked to probably a dozen people and every single person I talked to you wanted to know about solar I mean people people are are into it they want to know about it and there are becoming more and more great ways for people to to get solar and to invest in solar as well as continuing outreach to new new residents of Melrose people are moving to Melrose all the time and so we're we're always reaching out to new residents to make them aware of what we can offer so we thank you for

▶ 55:04 Speaker 4: your consideration thank you very much sir

▶ 55:06 Speaker 1: motion to recommend the bottom line second we have a motion to recommend the

▶ 55:08 Peter D. Mortimer: bottom line from alderman Boycelle was that alderman McAteer-Margolis or alderman Medeiros seconded the motion on discussion if there's no discussion if If the board would allow me a little attitude, I spoke with Ms. Grover and the audience about this too. Perhaps, I know the focus now is solar, but I've heard of places where they have hydroelectric just on small dams. And there were three dams at Mount Hood, which might be suitable just enough to power the clubhouse, to power the service garage, and maybe power some street lights up at the Mount Hood area. So maybe hydroelectric would be something you could look into for that area. That's all I have. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this department will be recommended. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you. Thank you. The next department we have before us is Department 152, Human Resources in the amount of $137,000, $76.05. Good evening, Ms. Long, how are you? Hello. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 56:19 Speaker 11: By way of introduction, I'd like to just briefly review the Human Resources Department's responsibilities for all of you. We manage approximately $12 million. We oversee and participate in the recruitment, screening, hiring, and orientation for positions in the police, fire, public works, library, and city hall departments, ensuring compliance with ordinances, collective bargaining agreements, mass general laws, civil service, and federal laws. We consult with the mayor and department heads on all employment matters and interpret and enforce personnel policies and procedures, again, set forth in the charter, employment manual, ordinances, collective bargaining agreements, et cetera. We administrate approximately 11 benefit programs and the budgets associated with them. We manage the HR information system, which is the software that manages all of the information related to our employees, their accruals, their benefit deductions, compensation levels, and employment history. And throughout the year, we interact in person, by phone, or electronically with approximately 400 retirees and approximately 350 employees. and I'm not including the school department in that number. And we manage all information related to their employment and retirement. And lastly, we manage and advise on policies, performance management, terminations, and accruals. So we're here to speak about the human resources budget. I might anticipate a question from Alderman Kahn about the positions in the budget. So, in the salary and wages line item, the human resources director is funded 75 percent in the human resources budget, 25 percent in the health insurance budget, which we will be discussing shortly, so 75-25. Polly Lada, who is the HR manager and is actually here this evening for her first budget presentation, 50% in human resources and 50% in the health insurance budget. And then we also have Donna Cardillo, who is our financial systems analyst, and her salary is one-third in the health insurance budget. And that's because her skill set, she works with us in managing all of the information related to um the finances behind insurances etc um data that sort of thing and i'm i'm ready for

▶ 59:22 Peter D. Mortimer: questions alderman Medeiros and president khan please yes i'll be quick i just i don't uh

▶ 59:29 Monica C. Medeiros: see donna cardillo in the salaries list um she's not in the human resources budget at all at all

▶ 59:33 Speaker 11: she's in the um health insurance budget one uh one third i think is what it works

▶ 59:47 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you yeah sure president complex thank you alderman Medeiros president yeah just so if there's

▶ 59:50 Speaker 1: anybody in the viewing audience who always doesn't who doesn't already believe that i'm obtuse um the reason that i like to go through the placement of the salaries is not because there's anything anything sinister about paying somebody from two different sources it's just i think it's important for people to understand what the salaries of our positions are and for people who are not uh foolish enough to spend their time going through stuff like this all the time i like to make sure they understand how the salaries are paid and once the funding comes from and i have only one question yes and i have to be careful how i phrase it so that the chairman doesn't rule me out of order and tell me that i'm trying to solicit information about something that's not before the board this evening um in your budget you have a line where you pay for pre-employment physicals is that correct yes and how much do you have in there and

▶ 1:00:53 Speaker 11: how many positions would that cover the pre-employment physicals includes both medical exams and psychological exams for our public safety personnel police officers firefighters and DPW psychological exams are only for public safety and they're required under Mass General Law and I'm sorry your your

▶ 1:01:19 Speaker 1: other question my question is it so if we theoretically hired two public safety officials and we hired let's say ten non public safety officials how much would

▶ 1:01:32 Speaker 11: that cost the the pre-employment physicals for public safety are are quite costly I would say they're approximately and I can give you definitive numbers tomorrow via email but they are approximately $1,000 for both psychological and medical exams and what about non-public safety non-public

▶ 1:01:55 Speaker 11: safety is primarily the Department of Public Works we don't have pre-employment physicals for other staff it tends to be those positions that are very physically intensive and those are again I'm giving you approximate

▶ 1:02:20 Speaker 1: approximately four hundred dollars per and if you had let's say just to pick something at random a school teacher that you would not have a you would not have a pre-employment physical in

▶ 1:02:30 Speaker 11: your budget for that i would not no okay that's all thank you president khan any other alderman

▶ 1:02:35 Peter D. Mortimer: wishing to be heard alderman byrd please thank you mr chairman and thank you ms long i have a

▶ 1:02:39 Jaclyn L. Bird: question at the ten thousand dollars for teachers i take it that's the innovation

▶ 1:02:46 Speaker 11: grants is that correct yes and that is what um elizabeth christopher spoke about yes um

▶ 1:02:53 Jaclyn L. Bird: so uh in an attempt to um upset all my dear friends that are on the melrose ed foundation uh board um i'm gonna i'm gonna oppose this budget to just continue a conversation about whether or not um that's an appropriate use so this is something that shouldn't surprise them at all they i'm a volunteer on their pr committee on um for the ed foundation um and incredibly incredibly supportive of the work they do and them as individuals my concern is um whether or not it's appropriate for us to be spending it in this way and that's something that i've been talking about for the last couple years um with the mayor and with the members of the board there so um i would like to ask that we ask for the same legal opinion that was expressed earlier on how we go go about that just to understand that so but um again underscore the work they do is great i think that they're showing great results and i'll continue to support them privately thank you

▶ 1:03:48 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you mr chairman thank you alderman byrd and just for the record madam clerk of committees uh the city solicitor heard that question and he nodded his head in the affirmative that he would be able to provide us a legal opinion on that matter thank you motion to hold this budget

▶ 1:04:04 Peter D. Mortimer: pending legal opinion mr chairman we have a motion to hold this budget pending legal opinion second duly seconded by alderman byrd any further discussion before we take the vote alderman

▶ 1:04:16 Monica C. Medeiros: medeiros please thank you i'm sorry and i did mean to ask the same questions i'd like to know um and i don't know if you know off the top of your head but if you could find out uh whether or not the meeting where the the funds the city funds are determined deliberated on are those posted and open to the public uh the minutes taken and available for us to see and and you're

▶ 1:04:40 Speaker 11: referring to the um the um the board that administers the innovation brand education oh certainly yes i can get that information thank you so much no no problem thank you alderman

▶ 1:04:50 Peter D. Mortimer: medeiros i've seen no further alderman wishing to be heard the motion before us is to hold this pending the legal opinion from our city solicitor duly seconded all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none order number 152 will be held pending that information the next budget we have before us is department 912 it is the workers compensation budget in the amount of three hundred and forty thousand dollars we still have before us under suspension our director of human resources marianne long marianne would you like to uh excuse me miss long would you like to

▶ 1:05:31 Speaker 11: make a statement yes yes when i was preparing for this budget hearing i was looking at the history of workers comp budgets and um since i've been managing these budgets since um 2000 actually and we've kept track over the last 15 years or so and i'm very proud to say that we have reduced this budget significantly over the last 15 years and that's for a number of reasons today's budget reflects only two long-term recipients and these are former employees who they may be former employees or retirees who were injured on the job and were awarded long-term benefits essentially a paycheck on a bi-weekly basis for the rest of their lives and when i came we had 13 people receiving these types of benefits and actually in 2004 this budget was 1.1 million dollars and and quite frankly there was a lot of work that needed to be done and alderman khan remembers because he was the city solicitor at the time and worked very closely with us in in reducing these liabilities and now we're down to two long-term recipients and that that happened for a number of reasons some people passed away they may have been injured on the job in the 70s 80s 90s so significant amount of time also department heads really pay attention to safety they're very proactive as do our employees i have to say the injuries overall have been reduced and we really have a consistent and focused approach to management of the program and um and i really want to give a lot of that credit to polly as the benefits administrator um she really um has taken this on and um you know we we know every day what's going on in the workers comp field in our office um so the budget that's before you is actually there is an overall reduction of thirty thousand dollars and the reason for that is when we transferred the solid waste function from our employees to JRM that significantly obviously lowered our liabilities because that's where the primary injuries were was from hauling trash in recyclables so the overall reduction is 30,000 I decrease the benefits line item by 50 but i increased the medical by 20 000 and that's purely based on our past year experience with medical liability so that's why i transferred 20 to that line item so the overall reduction is it is actually 30 000 if i if i that makes sense thank you very much ms long president khan please

▶ 1:09:02 Speaker 1: yeah um and everybody perk up their ears i want to i want to compliment the uh the hr department uh and the administration uh for the handling of this budget um and this issue um when i was city solicitor back so long ago that i actually had gray have black hair instead of gray hair

▶ 1:09:24 Speaker 4: there's the picture right there yeah there it is um i can attest there's the picture

▶ 1:09:30 Speaker 1: uh this was a budget that just had many many cases that were long-term cases that were languishing uh little attention was paid to it when ms long came on board she attacked this problem although she's graciously tried to indicate that i had something to do with it i had very little to do with it this is a function of her office mr van campen and dave lucas working on this over time to get rid of a large backlog of cases that were costing us a large amount of money, and we now have it down probably to a tenth of what it was. This is a success story, and I thank the HR department and the city solicitor for doing this. And I wish I had more to do with it, but I had very little to do with it.

▶ 1:10:14 Speaker 4: Thank you. Yeah.

▶ 1:10:16 Peter D. Mortimer: Good fiscal management. That's right. Any other aldermen wishing to be heard?

▶ 1:10:21 Speaker 1: Motion to recommend the bottom line.

▶ 1:10:22 Peter D. Mortimer: We have a motion to recommend the bottom line. Of the workers' comp budget. second from alderman mcintyre margolis all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget this department will be recommended to the full board the next department we have before us is department 913 it is unemployment in the amount of 140 000 Ms. Lodge, please proceed.

▶ 1:10:53 Speaker 11: Just very briefly, the maximum benefit that someone may collect on a weekly basis is $698. And these are set by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And the total that they may receive is $20,940. And that's not to say that every recipient receives this. It's just those are the totals. And there are a maximum number of weeks, a maximum number of 30 weeks that they may collect. And in the event, you all remember the days in 2008 and 9 when we had federally extended benefit programs and they went on for 99 weeks at times. Fortunately we're beyond that. if there are any extended benefit programs in place then massachusetts caps the benefit at 26

▶ 1:11:58 Peter D. Mortimer: and the feds kick in beyond that that's it in a nutshell um any questions on this budget to recommend the bottom line alderman Boisselle made a motion to recommend the bottom line of department 912 excuse me 913 unemployment 140 000 do the second by alderman mcintyre Chair Margolis, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, hearing none, this department's budget is recommended. Thank you. The next budget we have before us is department 914. It is health contractual, also under the human resources department. In the amount of $11,551,893.15.

▶ 1:12:36 Speaker 11: That's a lot of money. um the health insurance budget just going back to the salaries you'll see the um percentages of this of our salaries in this budget um just to clarify and i want to speak um for just a moment about the group health account which is 10.8 million dollars and um i i think you know we can all breathe a sigh of relief that um in fact it's only 10.8 million dollars everyone is aware across the country how unwieldy health insurance is in terms of cost and i really have to acknowledge and thank our union representatives and our employees for assisting us in keeping this line item what's the word it is 10.8 million dollars but not not more than 10.8 million and we worked with them the mayor under the mayor's direction we worked with them in coming to a new public employee committee agreement with the group insurance commission and we're going into our third agreement now and this is the first time we've had a six-year agreement it's effective July 1 2015 and runs through June 30th 2021 and they made some very difficult decisions as you know it's not easy to give something up that you've had as a condition of your employment but they did agree to increase employees contributions by three percent and decrease the city's contribution by three percent so I would like to acknowledge them in this process the the other good news about this is the opt-out program that we began you may remember last year was the first year that we floated the program or introduced the program in that first year we had five employees um enroll and the actual savings were thirty six thousand seven hundred and um sixty nine dollars um this second year we just completed our open enrollment and we have 21 employees they it quadrupled who have enrolled And the anticipated savings for fiscal year 2016 is $202,362. So I have been instructed by the mayor to propose that this budget can actually be reduced by an additional $100,000 than what is before you. now we just completed our open enrollment which is why it wasn't reduced prior to the printing of

▶ 1:15:47 Speaker 4: the budget thank you very much um did you say so moved okay no no sorry president khan you want to

▶ 1:15:54 Speaker 1: make that motion yeah i'm very happy that this program worked as well as it did you know sitting here for as long as i have i've seen many programs like this some work out the way you hope some don't this did it saved the city a good deal of money i support the cut and i applaud the administration for implementing this program and i'm happy to support reducing the bottom line on

▶ 1:16:23 Peter D. Mortimer: this budget by one hundred thousand dollars thank you for that motion president khan duly seconded by alderman byrd all in favor please say aye aye very good um do you have any further presentation on this budget any questions from any of the aldermen i'm seeing none i would welcome a motion

▶ 1:16:40 Speaker 1: move the line at eleven million four hundred and fifty one thousand eight hundred and ninety three

▶ 1:16:47 Peter D. Mortimer: dollars and fifteen cents uh president khan has made a motion to move the bottom line in that amount uh duly seconded by alderman byrd uh on discussion first we have alderman byrd followed

▶ 1:17:02 Jaclyn L. Bird: by alderman Medeiros please thank you mr chairman thank you ms long um i want to echo the same sentiment that um i think it's great what you've done with coming up with this opt-out program and i remember how much thought went into that as far as um trying to make sure that employees were really looking at it and being very careful before they did that so i appreciate that and it's exciting to see the anticipated anticipated savings there um i wanted to ask you mentioned the the difference in this third agreement those were the two main differences increasing the employee compensation by three percent and decreasing the employer compensation by three percent were there any other major changes as far as um extension of benefits or anything like that

▶ 1:17:46 Speaker 11: in this particular package that we should be aware of there will be changes in benefits effective july one and those benefits are not determined the changes in those benefits are not determined by the city of melrose as you may remember they're determined by the group insurance commission and the out-of-pocket expenses for all of us as employees will increase there are additional dollars related to out-of-pocket expenses and those being deductibles co-pays whether they're for providers or medications, prescriptions, et cetera. And the thinking behind the changes that the Group Insurance Commission made, and really I have to say they were very wise in their decision making because what they did was to encourage all of us to be educated health consumers so that if we're not happy with the fact that our co-pay, our tier three as an example, co-pay is $1,500 to go to Mass General, well you have many other options. So it's really, and the focus that Polly and I had during this open enrollment is to really get our employees to pay attention to their plans and to determine whether or not they were in fact paying a lot more than they needed to pay because the benefits are identical across all plans what's different is the network and the network involves the geography or the number of hospitals and doctors and if you're okay with using community hospitals um primarily then you're you can have a lower cost plan and truthfully save quite a bit of money great i appreciate that

▶ 1:19:41 Jaclyn L. Bird: Well, thank you very much for your response. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 1:19:44 Speaker 4: Thank you, Alderman Byrd.

▶ 1:19:46 Peter D. Mortimer: Any further Alderman wishing to be heard? Alderman Medeiros, please.

▶ 1:19:49 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Long. I am glad to see that the increase is only 5.5%. Are you able to speak to what percentage of the entire city budget this health insurance budget is?

▶ 1:20:09 Speaker 11: I know it's printed on our tax bill, and I got it at home, but I would have to-

▶ 1:20:15 Monica C. Medeiros: From my recollection, sure. From my recollection from the previous year, I believe it was about 17% of our budget, so I know it's quite a big chunk. And some of the reason that we are part of the GIC, the Group Insurance Commission,

▶ 1:20:37 Monica C. Medeiros: And certainly that's affected us because there was big deficits with the GIC this year. I know they were going into FY16 anticipating a $350 million deficit. And I had heard of possible increases, especially in the Metro Boston area of up to 8% to 12%. Yes. I'm I'm glad that I'm exceptionally glad that I know that they that yourself included the public employees involved in that commission have you know severe plan design changes and we really appreciate that they including you know higher co-pays and different types of plans so um you know we're very happy that we have Melrose Wakefield which probably keeps in Melrose it probably keeps a lot of employees in the local network and you know very appreciative of your hard work on it and Polly's and and our city and employees

▶ 1:21:35 Peter D. Mortimer: and staff thank you thank you thank you Alderman Medeiros Alderman Boycelle

▶ 1:21:40 Robert A. Boisselle: please in the Medicare D line yes you have negative numbers would you explain

▶ 1:21:48 Speaker 11: Yes, the Medicare Part D line item, we actually created that line item because that is actually a credit to the city of Melrose for reimbursements from the federal government for prescription drugs. So we are being reimbursed for medications that our, I think, primarily retirees receive, benefits that they received under Medicare. So we needed to track that credit because our group insurance commission bill, which by the way is approximately a million dollars a month, when we, that credit is shown on our monthly bill. So we actually can pay 157,000 less one particular month. And that's why we reflect it in UNIS, so that we can keep track of those reimbursements.

▶ 1:22:47 Robert A. Boisselle: Good, thank you. One other question, the 21 employees who opt out of the GIC program, are they're getting insurance on the outside, or?

▶ 1:22:58 Speaker 11: Yeah, they have to prove that they have insurance, yes. Okay, so they have- And primarily everyone, it's either the military's insurance, Because as you know, we have many veterans or they're transitioning to their spouses insurance and taking the incentive.

▶ 1:23:15 Robert A. Boisselle: Thank you, Ms. Long. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 1:23:17 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Alderman Boycelle. Seeing no further, Alderman wishing to be heard, we have a motion to move the reduced bottom line on Department 914. It has been duly seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. This budget will be recommended in its reduced form, and thank you for your good work. Thank you. Thanks very much.

▶ 1:23:42 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you. The next department we have before us is Department 155, Info Tech, in the amount of $502,806.76.

▶ 1:23:58 Speaker 4: Good evening, Mr. Pezos.

▶ 1:24:01 Peter D. Mortimer: Would you like to make a statement before we proceed with questions and comments? Thank you. Please do.

▶ 1:24:06 Speaker 12: The budget that you see before you represents the IT's budget for the city side for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget is pretty much the same budget that you've seen in past years. The line items have stayed fairly consistent with two exceptions that I will cover quickly. The first exception that you will see here is line item ending 525301, which is MUNIS support, MUNIS is our financial management system. There has been an increase in the support costs related to that. Additionally, we underwent a software version upgrade of MUNIS. There's an additional $2,000 a year in here in underlying software costs, support costs. And also requisitions which we purchased earlier this year for the schools. additional two thousand dollars reflected in here for support for that module as well the other line item that you will see that's different and it's an increase from previous years is line item ending in five four zero seven zero zero which is seminars uh that went from two thousand dollars to ninety five hundred dollars uh the reason for that is as you may know the auditor's office uh they're going to be going through some transition over the coming year quite a few retirements are will be occurring in that department and the new folks that are coming on are going to need a significant amount of training to make sure that that transition is smooth so that is a one-time increase this year that you will see for training to address that upcoming need and just to quickly go over I don't have the exact figures but likewise in having anticipated the question about salaries there are three full-time positions funded from this salary portion that would be my position the assistant directors position and we have a public safety systems analyst position, which are fully funded in here. We have the business analyst, which is Donna Cardillo, which you heard during the HR presentation. She's funded a portion out of, I forget exactly which budget it was. Her budget, I believe, her portion of the salary in this budget, I believe, is 50% or approximately 50%. I can verify that and get that information back to you. We also have a thirty five hundred dollar stipend in here for an AP clerk to do AP checks warrants pay bills invoices general clerical type work for the department and then we have a thirteen thousand dollar portion in here which is attributed to the network manager position at the schools that that position shares some responsibilities naturally both in managing the network and in supporting munis so we that is the portion attributed to that to that position and again that number is approximately thirteen thousand dollars it's thirteen and change and those are the positions funded out of the salary portion of this budget and with that if you have any questions

▶ 1:27:41 Peter D. Mortimer: President Kahn, please.

▶ 1:27:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, just so I'm clear, Mr. Pazos, you're the chief information officer position. How much of that position salary is in this budget and how much of it resides elsewhere?

▶ 1:27:56 Speaker 12: I believe that what we do is it's in here fully as when we submit the budget and then at one point do we request a transfer from the schools for that 60-40 split?

▶ 1:28:14 Speaker 1: Yeah, so the figure that's stated in our budget is not the full salary for that position.

▶ 1:28:22 Speaker 12: I don't believe, yeah, we'll have to get back to you exactly how that break is.

▶ 1:28:27 Speaker 1: And what about the assistant director position? That's the full salary for that position?

▶ 1:28:34 Speaker 12: That and the public safety systems analyst are fully in this budget.

▶ 1:28:37 Speaker 1: Okay, so the only position that's funded in part elsewhere other than Ms. Cardillo that we've already talked about earlier today, so I'm not going to waste everybody's time listening to that again, is the director position, which has some funding through the school budget, is that correct? And Mr. Del Russo is volunteering to get us that information. Thank you.

▶ 1:28:59 Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. President.

▶ 1:29:01 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Boisselle, please.

▶ 1:29:03 Robert A. Boisselle: In the fiscal 2016 budget, that will be coming to us later on during the month and next month, there's a portion that's going to be an enhancement of a lot of equipment coming through the schools and the building and so forth. And also with the servers, I mean, you have a drop in your, almost 50% drop in professional services. Will your staff be able to handle this or will you be able, need to call anyone in to support that sort of project so to clarify that and um if you look at the line

▶ 1:29:37 Speaker 12: if you look at that that's a 53 drop but really what that's saying is it's from the revised 2015 budget the original budget as submitted and approved last year was 10 000 it's the same amount what happens is during the year if there are something comes up or is anticipated and there's a transfer either in or out of any of these accounts it's reflected in that revised budget column and then unfortunately when we present this budget this way it it shows a decrease there's actually no decrease in there okay so uh off the top of my head what that additional uh eleven thousand dollars which i believe was uh related i i don't remember so i would have to check and get that get that back to you but there was a change in there during this past or this current fiscal year that we had some transfer going in there but otherwise that budget is actually staying static

▶ 1:30:31 Robert A. Boisselle: okay so you won't need more outside support for the upcoming uh no upgrades and so forth all right

▶ 1:30:39 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you very much thank you mr jaron thank you very much alderman boy cell seeing no further

▶ 1:30:42 Speaker 4: alderman wishing to recommend the bottom line second we have a motion to recommend the bottom

▶ 1:30:51 Peter D. Mortimer: Bottom line from Alderman Boycelle, duly seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board. We also have an order for Mr. Pezos tonight. 2015-176, requesting a $50,000 appropriation for technology replacement repair.