ORDER-2014-128 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2015 in the amount of $70,418,700.98 (Seventy Million, Four Hundred Eighteen Thousand, Seven Hundred Dollars and Ninety Eight Cents)

Transcript (~23 min @ 16:25)

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▶ 15:47 John N. Tramontozzi: Second. Again, unfortunately, I see no members of the public who wish to come forward to address us. So we have a motion to close public participation by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. On the motion, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, we are closed for public participation. This is the continuation of the City of Melrose Operating Budget, Order 2014-128, which is the City of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2015 in the amount of $70,418,700.98. And we will begin and call each individual department heads before us in the order in which we have posted. Just so I can, just for members of the public and the, as chairman of the committee and On behalf of this full committee and the full board of the City of Marlowe's Board of Aldermen, I want to thank all the members of each individual department who comes forward today. I think I speak for all of us that we appreciate your service to the City of Marlowe's. We thank you for coming in and speaking on behalf of your budgets. And you're doing a great job and we want to commend you for keeping the city running smoothly as it has been this past fiscal year, and we'll continue to do so, I'm sure, in the future. So with that said, we will begin the Department 176 is the Board of Appeals fiscal year 2015 budget in the amount of $15,000. Motion to suspend the rules for the evening for this committee. Right, so we have a motion by Alderman Mortimer to suspend the rules, seconded by Alderman Forbes. We are under suspension of rules, so that way any member, as we call the departments, will come forward to talk about their budget. So, with that motion to suspend the rules, all in favor? Aye. Opposing, none. So, we are under suspension of rules, and good evening.

▶ 17:43 Speaker 2: Good evening. Thank you for having me tonight. As we were discussing, this is about our FY General Fund Operating Budget for the Board of Appeals tonight. We're looking for an amount of $15,000 approximately. dollars the majority of our budget goes primarily for the salary and wages of our clerk Jessica Mitchell which is 14,000 the remaining of our budget items are small items related to more of the incidentals related to office supplies also advertising and printing and we're looking at a small budget as well related to complying with our public notice requirements as well so that is basically our budget for the 2015 fiscal year if there are any questions on more I've been happy to answer them.

▶ 18:28 Peter D. Mortimer: Motion to recommend this order for passage.

▶ 18:30 Speaker 2: Second.

▶ 18:30 Speaker 1: We have a motion to recommend your budget for passage by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. Any discussion? President Conn. Yeah, just one point for people watching at home. This budget is absolutely level funded from last year. It's $15,010 this year and it was $15,010 last year.

▶ 18:50 John N. Tramontozzi: Very good, we appreciate it. with that we have a motion to recommend uh to move the bottom line of fifteen thousand ten dollars uh on the motion all in favor aye aye any opposed seeing none thank you good evening thank you very much thank you thank you ms mikado so that has uh we're moving on to the next department which is uh 151 city solicitor in the amount of 652 thousand three hundred and thirty seven dollars and 19 cents motion to recommend that bottom line for pass second all right we do have a motion to recommend by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Boisselle good evening good evening mr

▶ 19:26 Speaker 3: chairman how are you fine thank you um david lucas i'm appearing on behalf of robert van campen whom i'm sure most of you if not all you know you know suffered unfortunately um a personal situation in his household recently and we'll obviously keep the board of alderman apprised of that as well

▶ 19:39 John N. Tramontozzi: thank you thank you for coming forward this evening sure so any any highlights the the

▶ 19:44 Speaker 3: The budget, Mr. Chairman, is increased by approximately 3.57%. That is almost entirely due to the city's property insurance premiums rising by almost exactly the same rate that we've negotiated with our insurance agent, Laura here.

▶ 20:02 John N. Tramontozzi: Mr. DelRusso, do you have any further comments at this time, or do you want to take questions?

▶ 20:06 Speaker 3: No, just through the chair, as we just mentioned, it's primarily the increase in the insurance. And again, it was just over 3.5% or $14,723 more is what we anticipated over FY14.

▶ 20:25 John N. Tramontozzi: Any further discussion from the committee? There is a motion duly seconded on the floor for recommendation. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, this is recommended to the full board for final passage. Thank you.

▶ 20:39 Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

▶ 20:46 John N. Tramontozzi: The next department up for scrutiny is the department number 135, the auditors, the budget in the amount of $356,148.39. Motion to recommend that bottom line for passage, Mr. Chairman. Second. Motion to recommend by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. On discussion, Mr. De La Rosa.

▶ 21:07 Speaker 3: Good evening. Again, I think the auditor's office strives to provide the best service for the best possible cost that we can, as you'll see in my budget this year. Outside of salary increases, two of the four people are in the union. It's up just slightly over last year. And I do want to let the board know that I take great pride in my department, I believe they truly, truly work consistently to try to provide the highest level of service to all departments. It's not just the outside auditors that we work with, the Department of Revenue, but I have to tell the board that my department truly works with all department heads on a consistent basis to help them to do a good job, and I take pride in that. So, personal notes, my second year as the president of the Eastern Massachusetts Municipal Accountants and Auditors, there's 53 communities, and I believe I've been the first one that was ever asked to go for a second trim, which I did do, and third trim, who knows? But I'm proud of that, and it means a lot to me.

▶ 22:29 Speaker 1: Welch, congratulations on that. Thank you.

▶ 22:32 John N. Tramontozzi: Very good. Any discussion on the board? Alderman Medeiros.

▶ 22:37 Monica C. Medeiros: Thanks. I see the professional services line is decreased quite a bit this year.

▶ 22:49 Speaker 2: Or actually, well, it looks like it was at 1,200,

▶ 22:53 Monica C. Medeiros: then it's been increased throughout the year up to 10,950 and actual 11. Perhaps this is, these numbers aren't correct?

▶ 23:05 Speaker 3: Not that the numbers are correct. What that represents is we were required to have studied on OPEB other than pension employee benefits to make a determination as to what the liability is of the community for auditing purposes. We did that and that's why you'll see that increase and it's something I see I believe every two years now we're going to be required to do that. And if we have to do it for reporting purposes, period, then that's why you see that change. And also, I believe we did try to reduce the actual budget by 1% when the mayor had asked, so that also represents why there's a slight reduction there, too.

▶ 23:47 Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 23:49 John N. Tramontozzi: Very good. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we do have a motion to recommend on the floor. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, thank you. Thank you very much. We recommend the bottom line of $312,284.46.

▶ 24:04 Speaker 4: I'm sorry.

▶ 24:06 John N. Tramontozzi: I'm jumping ahead, $356,148.39. The next order, department number is 911 Pension Weekly in the amount of $5,398,331.12. Motion to move that bottom line, Mr. Chairman? Second. It is a motion to move that bottom line by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. We have, we have comment by a question from President Kahn.

▶ 24:36 Speaker 1: Gentlemen, when are we going to be fully funded pursuant to the funding schedule? What, what year will that be? As of now, the current funding schedule is 2035. Always a good question. And what is the maximum end date that is permissible right now? 2040, per Perak regs.

▶ 25:02 Speaker 1: That's all I wanted to know, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 25:06 John N. Tramontozzi: Any further discussion on this particular item, that department pension? It's pretty straightforward.

▶ 25:14 Speaker 1: Any other further comments?

▶ 25:17 John N. Tramontozzi: All right. We do have a motion on the floor. We do. All right. And on that motion, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, thank you so much for coming in and answering those questions. Thank you. So that will be recommended to the full board. We have the next department is 141, the Assembly. the assessor's office in the amount of $312,284.46.

▶ 25:44 Speaker 1: Good evening. Good evening. Want to give us a little background on this budget? Sure. This budget is increased this year. This is the start of our nine year cycle to measure and list the whole city. We actually do it in a three year period. The last time this was started was fiscal 2006. main increase in this budget is for the measure and list of the city which is a requirement by the Department of Revenue for their guidelines of assessing another item that we did address was education I just came into the office in January and a lot of my staff has not never been trained in assessing or the software that they used I thought that I should put it in the budget and kind of make the board aware of that so those are the two items that I have that are really increased over the previous year

▶ 26:39 Speaker 1: on the reveal contract is that contract subject to a bid process or an RFP it is and how many vendors actually bid on these contracts as far as in Massachusetts I want to say there's at least 15 out there that are qualified to bid on it there's a list that i can email you if you'd like but at least 15 over 10. and how many and you may not know this mr de la rusa might help how many do we generally get in response

▶ 27:11 Speaker 3: mr del ruso um on on this case here that i don't know i don't know how many could you check on

▶ 27:14 Speaker 1: that show me please what what i'd be interested to find out is whether whether we responded we have a vendor that we always use and we become captive to that vendor or whether there's really a a legitimate bidding process going on, and not illegitimate from the city's perspective,

▶ 27:30 Speaker 1: but are there enough willing people who are bidding on these types of contracts?

▶ 27:40 John N. Tramontozzi: Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Chairman. Welcome. Any further discussion? Motion to move the bottom. We need a motion, yes. Motion to move the bottom line of $312,294.46, Mr. Chairman. Second. Thank you, we have a motion by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. Any further discussion? Seeing none, on the motion, all in favor? Aye. Aye. The opposed? Great, seeing none, that will be recommended. Thank you. Thank you. So moving on to the next department is 541, Council on Aging. In the amount of $169,972.56, good evening. Motion to recommend that bottom line. Second. Second. All right, we have a motion to recommend by Alderman Mortimer. I think I heard a second by Alderman Forbes. That's correct. On discussion, on discussion. Good evening.

▶ 28:29 Speaker 2: Good evening.

▶ 28:30 Speaker 4: Do you want to tell us a little bit about?

▶ 28:31 John N. Tramontozzi: I'm sorry? Do you want to just give us a little introduction on your budget?

▶ 28:35 Speaker 2: I do. I'm pleased to be here. Outside of the salary, everything is level funded for the FY15 budget. But with the board's permission, I would like to take a moment just to describe some of the exciting things that I have going on at the Council on Aging so the first

▶ 28:58 Speaker 2: thing that I wanted to talk about is that yesterday we had an intergenerational dance at the Memorial Hall that was fantastic and my feet still hurt from dancing it was really a wonderful event and so it will definitely become an annual it was a spring fling but the other things that we have going on is that we're aiming towards a lot more cultural programs than we have in the past. So we offered a presentation about Shen Yang, which was a performance that was given at the Wang Center, Wang Theater in Boston. We actually had a presentation before that and the presenter made many traditional Chinese dishes, so it was great. We also hosted a holiday tea to learn about and taste the different cultures that are represented within Melrose that was very successful. We have, our art classes are really popular and there are waiting lists for both of them. One is a mixed media class and one is a watercolor class and we also have a cable, well we are part of, I don't really produce it or anything, a cable TV program that's called Have You been here, and it highlights interesting and inexpensive local spots that folks might want to visit. So this year's new intergenerational events include the dance from yesterday, and also a new group of people that have come forward, they're called the Joshua Tree Families, and they did a holiday dinner for us in December that was really well received, and that will will be annual as well. And this year we tackled some difficult topics. We did a workshop on bullying for the seniors to help them recognize actually what bullying is because it's, it is a big problem within senior housing. And and a little bit at the senior center as well. So that was very successful. And depending on, it was just very recent, We might do some follow-up work in-house on addressing some of the problems. We also did a workshop for professionals about elder suicide. And not everybody, I was kind of surprised to realize actually that elders, the group of elders is the highest rate of suicide of any other age group. But the reality is that not a lot of preventative resources are put towards seniors, more towards young people at risk.

▶ 31:44 Speaker 2: So, okay, so our outreach efforts continue to reach as many older adults as possible. Our newsletter, there are 1,900 copies distributed throughout the city each month. also online on the Council on Aging's website, web page on the city site. We have a friendly visitor program that matches seniors with volunteers for one hour a week, or whatever interests they have in common. It's to help with isolation.

▶ 32:21 Speaker 2: And our, this is different kinds of outreach. And our transportation, we're providing about 240 trips each month. And about 20 of those are out of town. And out of town could mean to medical appointments, or it could mean we're going to museums once a month now, different kind of cultural trips. Mark your basket, hoo-hoo. And we have a lunch club too that goes to different area restaurants. In, in FY15, we're going to focus on a new software that we've acquired, My Senior Center it's called. And we plan to roll it out middle of June, but have it fully functional by July 1st. And that's going to help a lot with streamlining data collection.

▶ 33:12 Speaker 2: In FY15, we're also going to conduct a needs assessment of the senior population. And there'll be a presentation to the city by June of 2015, by the end of that year.

▶ 33:26 Speaker 2: The friends of the aging board are working on the city wide yard sale, which we did not have last year and I received lots of phone calls about why not. So I'm happy to say that they're working on the city wide yard sale and the raffle. We will have it this year.

▶ 33:44 Speaker 2: We're always looking for opportunities to make the Senior Center more inviting. One of the things that we have coming up in FY15 is that in addition to we show classical movies and we show new release movies, we're going to begin a series of films that aim at cultural competency in the effort of fostering a more welcoming environment at the Senior Center. Specifically, we're going to focus on the different ethnic populations that are right around us, but don't actually come to the senior center.

▶ 34:21 Speaker 2: So, that's all I've got. Thank you for the opportunity. Very good, thank you.

▶ 34:25 Speaker 1: Are there questions? I'll move right.

▶ 34:27 Jaclyn L. Bird: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Belopolis, for the overview. I just had a quick question. Everything sounds great that you're doing.

▶ 34:35 Speaker 2: My Senior Center, the software program, or the, is it software, technically? Not really, I don't know what to, Is it like a key tag, almost like when you? It is, like CVS. Okay, yeah, exactly. But it's not a software, it's actually in a server out there, virtually somewhere. So you don't, you're not, you're, they're, they're all gonna provide you with the data. You don't have to manage a particular program. That's right. Just scan it in, and people can come in and choose sort of what activities. It has a touch screen. And that sort of thing, okay. Yeah. And how much did that cost, and did the city fund that, or was that funded through the Friends group? Welch, it was funded through the Friends group, but with a donation specifically meant for it. Okay. There was a program at home in Melrose that tried to start a few years ago. And in dissolving that program, there was a grant. And the grant was split between the Council on Aging and Mystic Valley Elder Services. And so the portion that was given to the Council on Aging was put towards this software. So it was about, it was $3,700 and then it will cost $1,800 a year for ongoing support and maintenance, upgrades. Great.

▶ 35:46 Jaclyn L. Bird: And that will help if you're grant writing, you'll be able to say how many people came in to the senior center and what they were there for and that sort of thing? Exactly. Okay. Yeah. now collect with paper and pencil, and it's very, very time consuming. Great, so this will be a huge improvement. Okay, that's all, Mr. Chairman, thank you.

▶ 36:05 John N. Tramontozzi: Thank you. Alderman Boisselle and then President Conn.

▶ 36:07 Speaker 2: Thank you for coming this evening. You mentioned a yard sale, senior yard sale, have you targeted a date on that yet? Not senior, city wide. City wide, sorry, city wide. We have not, because we just want to make sure that there are no other conflicting events in the city on the day that we pick. Very good, thank you. It will be probably about two or three weeks after Victorian Fair. So end of September, beginning of October. Very good, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 36:35 Speaker 1: Very good, President Conn. Yeah, you have two full time people and two part time people at the present time, is that correct?

▶ 36:43 Speaker 2: Of the whole staff? Yes. There are, all together there are 16 staff people. And, but they are six FTEs, six full time equivalents. So, some folks work eight hours a week, others are 12 hours a week. The community dinner folks, they are three hours a week. So, as far as full time employees, there are only two, myself and the program coordinator.

▶ 37:12 Speaker 1: And are all of your salaries reflected in the budget, or is some paid off budget?

▶ 37:17 Speaker 2: Many are paid off budget from the state formula grant.

▶ 37:22 Speaker 1: And how many of your employees are paid in part or in whole off budget?

▶ 37:29 Speaker 2: Off the city? Yes.

▶ 37:37 Speaker 2: Let's see, one, two, three, well, even in part, I would say six.

▶ 37:40 Speaker 1: Six. Mr. DelaRusso, could you provide me with information as to what level of salary expenditure is made off budget for this department? Yes. And I'd like to track this for all departments to try to find out what the actual expense of all salaries and wages are, not just those that are reflected in the city budget. Okay. Thank you. Very good. Alderman Wright.

▶ 38:08 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. i'm going to ask for a little bit of leeway here we're at that time of year when the seniors who are incapable are perhaps walking more than they otherwise would ride particularly those who live across the street um in our two senior housing units across the street as well as a cephalo home are they aware that the sidewalks on west foster street are about to go into construction and if If not, can you make sure you make them aware, and I know Mike Lindstrom could award you a notice on that, maybe you could post.

▶ 38:44 Speaker 2: I would say they're probably not aware, because I haven't heard about it from them. Okay. So I will make them aware.

▶ 38:49 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Okay, and that project should be starting up fairly soon. And we continue to try to make that area pedestrian friendly, but despite making it a traffic safety zone and all that, I still see the cars flying through there. there are any issues with parking i see there's a lot of cars parking in front of the bb estate which can cause problems with that crosswalk um please make me make sure that i'm aware of it the mayor's office is aware of it we can do that all right great thank you thank you mr jim yeah you're

▶ 39:24 John N. Tramontozzi: welcome all right seeing no further discussion there is a motion on the floor uh to move that bottom line. On the motion, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Seeing none, thank you.