Department Presenter Information Technology (IT) Tom Smulligan, CIO/IT Director 155 Information Technology (IT) 930 Dept Equipment Planning & Community Development Lori Massa, Planning Director 175 Planning & Community Development Health Anthony Chui, Health & Human Services Director 511 Health 2659 Health Revolving Account Inspection Services Al Talarico, Building Commissioner 241 Inspection Services 2658 Inspectional Services Revolving Account
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
Transcript
▶ 4:12:36 Kimberly Vandiver: All right. Motion for a five-minute recess, Councillor Karamcheti, seconded by Councillor Park. Can we please vote? Councillor Chen.
▶ 4:12:46 Speaker 10: Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine. Yes. Councillor Karamcheti. Yes. Councillor Kowal. Yes. Councillor Obremski. Yes. Councillor Park. Yes. Councillor Williams. Yes. President Freeman. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Chair Vanderburg. Yes. One minute. Motion passes. Five-minute recess.
▶ 4:13:09 Speaker 14: And so Dan- Well, like- We're supposed to follow up on that conversation. Yeah, right. It was just like-
▶ 4:13:15 Kimberly Vandiver: All right. We're coming back into session. It is 10:30. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks everyone for the- ... quick breaks. Helps us power through the rest of this. Okay. All right. So, at this time we will proceed with the budget hearing. We are on Department 155 and 930, Information Technology. And we have with us our CIO, IT director, Mr. Smellegan. Madam Chair, councilors, thank you for keeping the party going for
▶ 4:13:49 Speaker 10: us all. I will try to be super brief for everyone back there and all of you, since my first meeting with some of you now. Just super quick, in the past two, three years, we've had a real priority focus on improving our security, both internally with software and externally through some new hardware improvements. We've also had a big push in, I will say, upgrading and stabilizing the entire infrastructure, so our hardware switching and wireless, our actual server infrastructure. Part of that is to keep everything fresh and working well, but also to help reduce our
▶ 4:14:34 Speaker 10: reliance and dependence on all the reoccurring cloud fees, because they were just getting out of control. So we've brought a lot of more stuff in-house, and we have a really talented staff, so we can do a lot of other stuff where we don't need to be paying vendors and reoccurring subscriptions- ... to no endWith that, over the schools, we've done a lot with, and we're continuing to do a lot with, refreshing a lot of the equipment the elementaries use for their technology needs. High school, middle school, getting them all the Chromebooks and the stuff that they need for all their standardized testing. And from other free cash things we've done, PA improvements and that sort of just core infrastructure stuff that's been really lacking for many, many years. So with that, you all have the memo and the budget, and I'm happy to take your questions. All right. Councilor Williams? I want a motion to move the bottom line on 155. Second.
▶ 4:15:35 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay. We have a motion to move department 155 to the bottom line by Councilor Williams, second by Councilor Pinocchiaro. Is there anyone on discussion?
▶ 4:15:45 Speaker 10: Councilor Park.
▶ 4:15:47 Speaker 11: All right. Thank you for sticking with us. So I just had a quick question about the capital outlay for 525 in 2026. Year to date, we've spent 614,000? Mm-hmm. Can you just walk me through some of those charges, along with the fact that I know that there's a capital outlay for 350, I believe it was, for school IT, for cameras and things like that. How is that different from what this capital outlay is?
▶ 4:16:19 Speaker 10: It's really a continuation. For many years, a lot of that stuff was just, I'll say, neglected or not really moved up with the times. So you have your normal life cycles of five, seven, 10 years, depending on what the equipment is. So that was kind of, I'll say, ignored or not really stayed with. And then by the time we started fixing that stuff, the other previous equipment has now gone into that same life cycle timeline. So really, for the two or three years I've been doing this now, we've been playing catch up with a lot of that. And now with the free cash requests that we've had and some of these capitals that we got, we're able to finally get to parity and start to move ahead and stabilize all that stuff.
▶ 4:17:07 Speaker 11: Okay. So knowing that in 2025 it was 555- Mm-hmm ... 2026, 614, and then 525 in 2027, is this a recurring capital outlay cost that you foresee moving forward in the operating budget?
▶ 4:17:23 Speaker 10: The 525? Yeah. So that, it'd be great if it stayed there. I don't foresee it staying there forever, so we're trying to take advantage of it and get what we can do now to move everything forward and get everything in a nice timeline for a replacement cycle instead of trying to have to do this massive bunch all at once. So we can streamline it and have a good, solid plan so that we don't need a full 525 or something to that magnitude. We can do it in smaller chunks and stay with it.
▶ 4:17:56 Speaker 11: Okay. Very good. Thank you.
▶ 4:17:59 Ryan Williams: Next up I have Councilor Williams. Yeah. I don't want to speak for Councilor Park, but when he brought this up, I, through the chair, thought that I don't really fully understand what goes into the school IT capital outlay in this budget versus the school IT capital outlay in the capital outlay budget. So you said there's a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed, but how do you choose which switch, which router? That's, I think, the question that I have. Sure. Yep. It's fair. So as far as the switching and routing part, that's all been upgraded across the district. That's all good. That was kind of the priority. We took care of that. So now a lot of the school stuff, Chromebooks, everybody loves Chromebooks. They get used and abused, and they need to be replaced on a very short timeline. Mm. And plus, the needs and requests for them are growing more and more. Like for instance, this past year for the high school and middle school, let me see. I have those numbers there.
▶ 4:19:02 Speaker 10: I wish you'd have put it on.
▶ 4:19:05 Speaker 10: So we did, at the high school and middle school, nine carts with about 250 Chromebooks that they needed for MCAS testing, Bluebook stuff. That's 72,000, roughly. So that had to get done. The Chromebooks at Lincoln and The Horace Mann for the elementary kids, they're carts that go room to room. Those were old and were not functioning to the level that they were so the class could have the plan for the class and actually execute the entire plan for the day. So we did that shift, and that was about 450 at the Lincoln and another 290 devices at The Horace Mann. About 740 devices total. So that sort of thing we're trying to plan out. Again, so we have six elementaries or so, five elementaries that we have to do that in.
▶ 4:19:56 Ryan Williams: So why do we have a school IT line for 325,000 that's in the general fund- Mm-hmm ... in the capital outlay budget, and also a $525,000 line item in the IT department? Why not just have one $850,000 line item in IT or in capital outlay? Why not just put school IT all in one place? Sure. That would be fantastic. It makes no difference to me. Okay. Sort of above your- Yeah ... just, yeah, okay. All right.
▶ 4:20:24 Speaker 10: Okay, thanks. Mm-hmm. Anyone else on discussion?
▶ 4:20:28 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay, I believe we have a motion on the floor.
▶ 4:20:30 Speaker 10: Let's vote. Councilor Chen? We do? Yes? Yes, we do. Okay, great. Thank you. Yes. Councilor Pinocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor? Motion passes. Thank you. Next up we have department 930. Department equipment.Any
▶ 4:21:02 Kimberly Vandiver: separate questions relative to that budget or motions? Councilor Chen.
▶ 4:21:09 Jason Chen: I asked a question about what the drain line is for $76,000, and it doesn't look like an IT thing, whereas everything else here is IT and software. Does anyone know what a drain is for this budget?
▶ 4:21:21 Speaker 10: I said that's... Well, like I told you in-
▶ 4:21:23 Speaker 15: Yeah, I'm not expecting you to know. I was just-
▶ 4:21:25 Ryan Williams: That's right. Councilor Williams? Through the chair, to be fair, it does appear as a 2026 item and doesn't reappear in 2027. So whatever it is, it went away.
▶ 4:21:37 Speaker 10: That's all I can give you. Must have been fixed. All right. Would anyone like to make a motion?
▶ 4:21:48 Speaker 11: Motion to move the bottom line.
▶ 4:21:51 Speaker 10: Any seconds for that motion?
▶ 4:21:54 Kimberly Vandiver: Second. Thank you. Motion moves to the bottom line, President Freeman. Second, Councilor Williams.
▶ 4:22:00 Speaker 10: On discussion, let's vote. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor, motion passes. All right. Thank you. That completes IT.
▶ 4:22:23 Bradley Freeman: Madam Chair? Yes. Motion to move budget item 175 to the bottom of the agenda to allow Director Chu and Talarico to come up, while Ms. Massa will need to stay for the free cash request at the end.
▶ 4:22:36 Kimberly Vandiver: Second that. Okay. I suppose we can have a motion to hear that one last. Okay, yeah. Usually when we motion out of order, we bring something forward, but I think we can push something back. Sure. So motioning, we have a motion, President Freeman, second Councilor Williams, to move department 175 to the end of our agenda. Any further discussion? All right, let's vote on that. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yep. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor, motion passes. Okay, so next we will hear from the Health Department. We'll address department 511 and department 2659, or sorry, health revolving account 2659, and we have Director Anthony Chui.
▶ 4:23:40 Speaker 15: Hi. Thank you. What a night it's been. I don't know what you're paying us for. I'll try to keep this brief. Thank you to the council for sticking through this. I won't rehash all of the summary that we gave, but I just want to say the Health and Human Service Department has been very successful. We've continued our regional partnership with the other two communities, Stoneham and Wakefield. We are able to share a lot of our central functions, including environmental health, housing inspections, nuisance, food safety, and we're also able to support our residents facing complex housing and social services challenges. We also are able to meet all of our minimum statutory requirements, which allows us to then tackle a lot of our other issues, including tobacco compliance and education. I want to highlight our school nurses in for everything they do for our student health, our staff health, and our community. They make it possible for us to provide education and services as well. We were able to meet all of our required food inspections per the FDA risk-based standards this year, and I want to give the Board of Health recognition for their continued work as well. We were able to prohibit kratom sales this year based on a lot of research and work with our regional partners as well. That's supported by our staff. Two of the areas that we are looking to strengthen this year in our budget, we do have an increase. We're looking to strengthen our animal control. As much as I've loved serving as your animal control officer for the last few years, I am happy to pass that off to the next person. And then also, we are looking to expand our ability to provide safe schools. We are looking to add a floating school nurse, a full-time position. Currently, each school has a full-time nurse. The middle and high schools each have two full-time nurses. However, when there are leaves, when there are unanticipated absences, or when there are other circumstances requiring their attention, a floating school nurse actually allows us to meet the minimum staffing ratios and able to support timely response to incidents when they happen. Happy to answer any questions, but the last thing I wanted to do was recognize our school nurse, Robin Adams, at the ECC. She started with us way before my time, in 2009. It's been 17 years. She is retiring at the end of this school year, but I wanted to give her recognition for all the hard work she's done. She's been a leader in our community. Generations of students have gone through that school and have benefited from her dedication and commitment. There have been many outbreaks and other circumstances for her to work through, and all of our school nurses have, but obviously COVID, the most recent one. She was tireless. I received phone calls at 5:30 every morning on the dot from her, just making sure that all the students were safe and we were meeting all the requirements. So I want to say thank you again to Robin Adams.
▶ 4:26:36 Speaker 10: Thank you.
▶ 4:26:39 Kimberly Vandiver: On discussion, I have Councilor Jamaleddine.
▶ 4:26:41 Speaker 13: Thank you. Hi, Anthony. Hi.
▶ 4:26:47 Maya Jamaleddine: Everything is amazing, and I appreciate the work that you do. I am a little bit surprised that there is no proposal for social worker or at least the minimum case manager.I've been having this conversation with the mayor, with the different departments, and everyone that trying to advocate for it, and I'm a little bit disappointed that I do not see it on the budget.
▶ 4:27:18 Speaker 15: Yeah. No, I'm glad you brought that up. Something that we've been trying to do better with, I think social services is an area that we can improve in. We work very closely with our part-time social services coordinator at the senior center. I will say a lot of our needs this year have been geared towards seniors, and we've been kind of working with Mystic Valley and trying to do that. It is not our area of expertise. Myself, our inspectors, our staff, we do our best to stay educated, but we are not social service coordinators. We're not social workers. So, I think what we're going to do is we're going to be in conversations with our police. We also have a jail diversion clinician at the police station as well. So, we're going to look at different funding models, potentially bring some version of this back to the city and report back.
▶ 4:28:03 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you for bringing this up. I would actually advocate to separate it from the police department, with all due respect, just because there is a lot of layering reasons- Sure. Of course ... of people that need social work support and mental health. Sometimes it may add another layer if it's coming through the police department, with all due respect, and I respect and appreciate the work that they do- Sure ... and the service that they do for the community. I
▶ 4:28:45 Maya Jamaleddine: see the advocacy and the work that you're requesting for nurse, for all the other things, which is very important, but I still feel that a social worker or case manager are important, knowing that through the senior center, not everyone can get the service. It has to be, is it 65?
▶ 4:29:11 Speaker 15: I believe it's 6... Maybe it's 60 and over, I think. Or 65.
▶ 4:29:15 Maya Jamaleddine: Yeah, I think. Yes. I think either 63 or 65. I'm not sure. And, working with a lot of people from different population, and they cannot get that support and service from the social workers through the senior center. So, my recommendation, please if we can work towards including this position or this service to bring it back, I would really appreciate it.
▶ 4:29:50 Speaker 15: Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks.
▶ 4:29:52 Speaker 10: Anybody else in discussion? Councilor Cal?
▶ 4:29:55 Elizabeth Kowal: Just a quick question. Is the 25,000 for the overtime, is that for the compliance?
▶ 4:30:01 Speaker 15: Correct, yes. Okay. Yep.
▶ 4:30:04 Speaker 10: Okay, what's the will of the committee?
▶ 4:30:07 Speaker 12: Motion to move to the bottom line.
▶ 4:30:08 Kimberly Vandiver: Second. Okay, we have a motion to move to the bottom line, Councilor Finocchiaro, seconded Councilor Williams. Let's have a vote. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Cal? Yes. Councilor Abramski? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor? Motion passed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for staying with us so late. Get the health revolving account. Next, we have department fi- Next, we w- Oh, we're not done. We're not done. Sorry. We have the health revolving account to discuss. There is a revolving account associated with the health department. Does anyone have questions, commentary, or motions relative to the health department revolving account? I do because I can't find it in Munis. Can you just tell us what's in the account and what the amount is that's in it, what it's used for, that kind of thing?
▶ 4:31:02 Speaker 15: I have it here. It's
▶ 4:31:07 Speaker 15: in a chart. It is the balance as of, actually I pulled it as of March, but it's $124,337.68.
▶ 4:31:16 Speaker 10: Are you sure? It says it's supposed to have a $60,000 annual cap.
▶ 4:31:20 Speaker 15: That's the spending cap.
▶ 4:31:22 Ryan Williams: Oh, I see. Okay. All right. And what does it get spent on?
▶ 4:31:25 Speaker 15: It is primarily, actually, it's only for vaccine purchase, and we also get reimbursements from insurance that goes back into that account.
▶ 4:31:32 Speaker 10: Okay, got it. Thank you. Appreciate it.
▶ 4:31:32 Speaker 15: It says bike helmets, but that was a very old program, so we don't do that anymore.
▶ 4:31:38 Kimberly Vandiver: Great. Anybody else with questions or comments?
▶ 4:31:43 Speaker 10: In that case, what is the will of the committee?
▶ 4:31:47 Ryan Williams: Motion to move to the bottom line, or do we approve this? I think it's an approve.
▶ 4:31:51 Speaker 12: Motion to recommend. Motion to approve, yeah, or recommend.
▶ 4:31:53 Speaker 10: Okay. Motion to recommend to second. Okay, motion to recommend, Councilor Williams, seconded Councilor Finocchiaro. On discussion. Let's vote. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Cal? Yes. Councilor Abramski? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor? Motion passes.
▶ 4:32:22 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay, now you're done. Thank you. Next up, we have Department 241 and the revolving account 2658 for inspection services, headed by Director Al Talarico.
▶ 4:32:45 Speaker 10: Good evening. Thank you for joining us tonight.
▶ 4:32:49 Speaker 11: I would like to provide a brief overview of the Inspectional Services Department, the work that we do on behalf of Melrose residents, businesses, and property ownersThe building department consists of me as building commissioner and director inspectional services, one full-time senior office administrator, one part-time administrative assistant, and three part-time inspectors. Building inspector, an electrical inspector, a plumbing and gas inspector. Despite our small staff, we are responsible for administering and enforcing Massachusetts State building code, related regulations that safeguard our community. Every permit reviewed, every inspection performed helps protect residents, support local businesses, preserve property, and facilitate in the safe growth and development that keeps Melrose a desirable place to live, work, and invest. Our department reviews applications, issues building, electrical, plumbing, gas, mechanical, fire alarm, and related permits conducting. We also conduct inspections and work closely with homeowners, contractors, developers, businesses to ensure projects are completed safely and in compliance with state and local requirements. Over the past year, our office has issued more than 2,500 permits, conducted hundreds of inspections throughout the city, and collected more than $1.4 million in permits and inspection fees. These numbers reflect a significant level of construction activity, renovations, investment taking place across Melrose, as well as the important role our department plays in ensuring that the projects are completed safely and in compliance with state and local regulations. For FY FY27, I'm requesting several modest adjustments to our operating budget. These are not new expenditures or expanded programs, but rather the restoration of line items that were reduced during prior budget cycles due to fiscal constraints. Mm-hmm. Specifically, we're requesting restorations of the following accounts to their previous funding levels. Printing services, restored funding from 325 to 400. Books and subscriptions, restored funding from 750 to 1,000. This account supports access to code books, regulatory updates, and technical resources necessary to perform our duties and remain current with changing requirements. Weights and measures supplies, restoring from 1,000 to 1,500. These funds support equipment and supplies necessary for inspections and testing. Education and seminars, restoring funding from 1,300 to 2,600. This is the most critical of the request restorations. Our inspectors are required to complete continuing education and maintain professional certifications to perform their duties. While the reduction of this funding level was manageable for one year, it's not sustainable for long term. The total amount of the request for restoration is 2,125. These funds will help ensure that the department remains properly equipped, maintains required certification and training, and continues to provide efficient customer service, timely inspections, and high level of public safety oversight expected by Melrose residents and businesses. I am proud of what this small team accomplishes every year. Through our work, we maintain the safety, quality, and vitality of our neighborhoods while supporting and continuing to grow the success of the city of Melrose. With that, I can take any questions you guys- Cool ... any questions you may have.
▶ 4:37:03 Kimberly Vandiver: First, I have Councilor Pinocchio, followed by Councilor Williams.
▶ 4:37:07 Cal Finocchiaro: Thank you for that explanation. Thank you for your memo. I liked all the little reductions in line items that you noted. And the inspections office does a great job. I know other people have questions, but I was just going to say, I make a motion to move the bottom line.
▶ 4:37:22 Ryan Williams: Second. A motion to move the bottom line, Councilor Pinocchio, seconded by Councilor Carm Chetty. On discussion, I have Councilor Williams. Thank you. We heard from the mayor that she wanted code enforcement to be sort of a priority, but it wasn't clear to me what kind of code enforcement she was talking about. Is this in your office that you're going to see some increased capacity around enforcement, or are we thinking more about health department codes, like noise- So- ... ordinances, things like this?
▶ 4:37:46 Speaker 11: Health department and building department kind of cross paths all the time. Sure. But there's more teeth to their legislation than there is in mine. Mm. They have a lot more enforcement powers under their purview than I do. So when we did have discussions on who would kind of take that role, most of the enforcement side of it would fall more on them than it would on me. We did talk about maybe sharing a person at the time. But I think they're better suited for that than my role. Not to say that they don't have a lot on their plates, but so do I, and staffing level wise, I think that they would be able to fit that than I would.
▶ 4:38:37 Ryan Williams: Do you feel good about your capacity with regard to what you get coming in, complaints, and have rapid response?
▶ 4:38:43 Speaker 11: We do have a lot of complaints that don't fall under there. Fences- Sure ... one of them being, or driveways, or there's some noise complaints that fall under our purview because of the construction going on. So we do have a lot of complaints that we have to follow up. So when I speak about code enforcement, it's more zoning issues than it is anything else. Okay, thank you.
▶ 4:39:12 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay. I don't see anyone else looking to speak. Oh, Councilor Jamaleddine? I'll make a motion. Oh, I think we had one. We had one.
▶ 4:39:20 Speaker 13: We have one. I'm sorry.
▶ 4:39:21 Kimberly Vandiver: Yep. So let's vote on that motion.
▶ 4:39:26 Speaker 10: Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor, motion passes. Thank you. And next we have the Inspectional Services revolving account, number 2658.
▶ 4:39:53 Ryan Williams: Does anyone have any questions or comments about that one? Motion to approve revolving account 2658, which is for inspection of multifamily homes, $15,000 expense cap.
▶ 4:40:04 Speaker 11: Second.
▶ 4:40:05 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay, so we have a motion to approve by Councilor Williams, second by Councilor Finocchiaro.
▶ 4:40:12 Speaker 10: Anyone on discussion? Okay, let's vote about that. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor, motion passes. Thank you. All right.
▶ 4:40:35 Speaker 11: Thanks, you guys.
▶ 4:40:35 Speaker 10: Thank you. Inspectional Services.
▶ 4:40:41 Kimberly Vandiver: So now we would like to come back to Department 175. I believe we moved it to the bottom of this section, not the bottom of the full... All right. So next we have Department 175, Planning and Community Development, presented by Planning Director Lori Massa.
▶ 4:40:56 Speaker 14: Thank you. So I will just give a brief overview. I'm not going to go into detail, as you have our memo. Submission of the Office of Planning and Community Development to protect and enhance the quality of life in Melrose. To accomplish this mission, OPCD provides long-range planning, manages select capital improvement projects, recommends and implements zoning amendments, creates GIS maps and spatial analysis, applies for and administers grants in community development programs, and implements special projects. I am the director, and I've been in this role since October of 2024. I want to acknowledge the hardworking staff in my office. Jane Pitts, the accounts manager and GIS analyst. Maya Novitsky is the senior planner. Adam Forester is the assistant planner. Ingrid Winkler is the part-time conservation agent. James Horn is our energy advocate, which is a part-time grant-funded position. And Denise Gaffe sits in the planning office as well. Our staff are on a lot of local committees and other regional committees that connect us with the surrounding region, and we share a lot of information through those boards and commissions. We also handle the administrative and technical work for many volunteer boards and commissions with the city, so the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Conservation Commission, the Affordable Housing Trust, the Historic District Commission, newly the Historical Commission for the Demolition Review Ordinance implementation and cases. And then we just officially dissolved the Redevelopment Authority. So, I'm not going to go into detail on the specific projects and tasks in the office. So just skipping to the budget, we have an increase in 2.9% for step increases and COLA adjustments for salaries. We had an energy line item that we moved to professional services to better reflect the use of this money now that we have the grant-funded energy advocate and related outreach through that program. The advertising, printing, maintenance cost for construction land and ponds, dues, membership, educational seminars haven't changed from the last fiscal year. And the capital outlay items are for the study of the police and Ripley Station, the study of the police station and the Ripley School properties, and the school facilities master plan, which are two of our long-range plans that are currently underway. Thank you. Happy to answer questions.
▶ 4:43:58 Kimberly Vandiver: Questions from my colleagues? Councilor Finocchiaro, followed by Councilor Williams.
▶ 4:44:03 Cal Finocchiaro: Thank you. Thank you for making that brief. We've heard... I just wanted to make a motion to move the bottom line.
▶ 4:44:09 Kimberly Vandiver: Second. Okay, motion to move the bottom line, Councilor Finocchiaro. Second, Councilor Kowal. And on discussion, I have Councilor Williams. Yeah, I wanted to ask
▶ 4:44:22 Ryan Williams: how much of the workload do you feel of the planners on the team is taken up by permitting, mostly for buildings, for ZBA requests, things like that? Because I know in years past, it's sort of been the lion's share. The majority of work has been related to this. Is it still that way? Is it changing at all?
▶ 4:44:43 Speaker 14: We did have less zoning board cases because of the zoning recodification work that we did. So that helped to reduce that workload a bit. It does seem to be increasing at the moment with just more additions and things like that that we've seen come through. There's been an adjustment in the planning department with Denise moving to the public safety building project, and so the otherWork related to capital projects kind of comes and goes. But we have been trying to be more focused on the long-range planning.
▶ 4:45:23 Ryan Williams: Yeah, I think that's great. I noticed down the list we have a number of studies here, and I just have to wonder if an additional planner could offset some of these study costs. A general purpose planner who had a little bit of experience in transportation or housing that could do some of the public engagement, the fact-finding, where we could reduce some of these one-off consultant costs and have a lesser amount dedicated to a junior planner that could engage in more of that work. I've always said that I think that your office should be more involved in public works projects, in the design and planning of street projects, and I still feel that that's the case. I think that you guys are an undervalued resource and that you should be involved in more things.
▶ 4:46:10 Speaker 14: I agree. I think it would be great to have another planner. We are, at this point, not, as you've seen, increasing staff, and so that comes with other costs related to benefits. So we have been, as much as we can, seeking grants for long-range plannings to be able to outsource some of this, because we can't, with our regulatory work, with cases that we receive and the timelines that we have to process applications, we can't always designate a certain amount of time to be working on long-range plans. So, that hasn't been the case that we're looking to increase staff at this time. But, I think it makes a lot of sense. We do work really closely with inspectional services on permits of all kinds and engineering as well. But we can't be involved as much as would be ideal for transportation projects in particular, or even some of the parks and open space projects. It would be great to have, yeah, more capacity to have more collaboration for those kinds of projects.
▶ 4:47:29 Kimberly Vandiver: Up next, I have Counselor Park.
▶ 4:47:33 Speaker 11: Thank you. This is a recurring theme here, but could you describe to me what the 160,000 line item is for capital outlay for 2026?
▶ 4:47:47 Speaker 14: So, those are the two I mentioned. So, the current plan that we're wrapping up for the police station site and the Ripley School site to figure out what we would like to use those properties for, is the 60,000 that was given in free cash in order to hire. We are working with Mass Development, who then sub-consulted with Studio Luz and RKG Associates to take that project on. So, we'll be coming to you in July with the results of that study. Very good. And the 100,000 is the remaining of the school facilities master plan, which we're still in the works with.
▶ 4:48:32 Christopher Park: Great. Thank you. And one other question. So you and I have had some discussion about the role you have in terms of applying and running for grants. I know that consumes a lot of your time. Or at least that's what I got the impression of. So, do you feel we are adequate in terms of resources for applying the grants that you would like to have? Do you think, and this is sort of related to Counselor Williams' question about do you have the staff that you would like in an ideal world to cover that particular component of your job? Because it's so critical for us to receive funds from state and federal sources.
▶ 4:49:12 Speaker 14: Yeah, I think it would be great to have an additional staff person. With that capacity we're then able to do more work. But, at this point, being cautious to not, with the override having passed and kind of stabilizing at this point, we didn't propose an increase in staff, but it would be helpful.
▶ 4:49:40 Speaker 11: Okay. Very good. Thank you.
▶ 4:49:44 Speaker 10: Okay. I don't have anyone else in queue. We do have a motion on the floor. Let's vote. Counselor Chen? Yes. Counselor Finocchiaro? Yes. Counselor Jamaledine? Yes. Counselor Karamchetty? Yes. Counselor Cole? Yes. Counselor Abramsky? Yes. Counselor Park? Yes. Counselor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Counselor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor of motion passes.
▶ 4:50:08 Cal Finocchiaro: Would like to make a motion to move ID 2026-1202 to the top of the
▶ 4:50:15 Speaker 10: list. Before us, yeah. Second. Okay.
▶ 4:50:21 Kimberly Vandiver: Great. So anyone on discussion relative to that movement? Okay, let's vote on that. Counselor Chen? Yes. Counselor Finocchiaro? Yes. Counselor Jamaledine? Yes. Counselor Karamchetty? Yes. Counselor Cole? Yes. Counselor Abramsky? Yes. Counselor Park? Yes. Counselor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Counselor Romanul? Yes. Chair Vandiver? Yes. All in favor of motion passes. Okay, so we will now discuss ID number 2026-1202, an appropriation from free cash account 01-324001 in the amount of $37,000 to the planning department, number 175, for treating the towners, swings, and L ponds.