ORDER-2019-84 : Joint Meeting of the Board of Aldermen and the School Committee to be held at 7:15 p.m. on Monday, May 6, 2019, in the Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, Melrose, MA, on the Financial Condition of the City, revenue and expenditure forecasts, and other relevant information in preparation of the FY2020 Operating Budget

Transcript (~9 min @ 1:15)

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▶ 1:07 Speaker 2: committee I would also note the presence of the superintendent school Cindy Tamar as per our city charter and as is our custom let us stand for the pledge

▶ 1:26 Peter D. Mortimer: allegiance one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for

▶ 1:38 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: all there is one item on our agenda this evening it's order 2019-84 joint meeting of the Board of Aldermen and the school committee to be held at 7 15 p.m. on Monday May 6 2019 in the aldermanic chamber City Hall Melrose Massachusetts on the financial condition of the city revenue and expenditure forecasts and other relevant information in preparation of the FY 2020 operating budget we are joined here this evening as I said by her honor mayor Inferna which we would like to invite up to the podium at this time honorable board of

▶ 2:22 Gail Infurna: aldermen and members of the school committee one year ago when I gave my fiscal 2019 budget address I came before you with serious concerns about the city's finances today I am happy to present a budget that is both both balanced and sustainable instead of a budget that cuts millions of dollars from city services this budget is balanced and maintains the current level of services in our library our Council on Aging Memorial Hall our Police Department and other services that our residents depend on this is possible because just four weeks ago the citizens of Melrose voted to pass the override giving us the opportunity to stabilize the school budget and meet the needs of our growing student population which in turn has saved our community from drastic cuts of city services let me say first of all that I am grateful to the community for their engagement in the override discussion they learned about our budget process they participated in the questionnaire the listening forums the question-and-answer sessions we held and they even stopped me on Main Street to tell me they had read my blog and our newspaper articles and finally they made the choice to invest in our future of Melrose I am also grateful to the department heads and all our city employees for their dedication and professionalism during this period of extreme uncertainty while we were asking them to look at a worst-case scenario and figure out what services would have to be limited with limited with severe budget cuts they also continued to manage the daily operations of the city they put in countless hours making sure that our residents did not see any interruption and service while taking on the extra burden of determining what could and could not be cut thank you tonight the picture is much brighter than it was a year ago this budget will include the funds we need to move our schools forward we will be able to return the district to full staffing levels at the middle school and the high school and hire additional staff to accommodate our growing enrollment we will be able to pay for the equipment and infrastructure we need to accommodate our new students and we will be able to improve teacher pay and teacher retention on the city side of the budget you will see the services have been for the most part level funded we have been able to add critically needed school nurse position at the middle school high school campus and a custodian for the library. In addition, this budget includes full funding for the police and fire contracts. I will make a recommendation to this board that you make no increase to water volumetric rates as well as sewer volumetric rates and water-based fees this year, and that you make slight adjustment to the sewer base fee which translates into approximately $5 per quarter on the average water bill we are able to stabilize these rates because of the many years of work on the on the hard work on the part of the water and sewer rate committee and this board in the upcoming months we will continue to invest in our water and sewer infrastructure using MWR rate the MWRA interest free loan programs to reduce leaks into and out of the system we will continue to review the city budget looking for areas where we can manage our resources more effectively this year we did a survey of all the city's vehicles from police cruises to DPW trucks so we can set up a replacement schedule that will save us money on both purchases and repairs. I'm also excited to announce that the capital improvement planning committee will reconvene this month with John Tramatozzi as the aldermanic representative and chairman Ed O'Connell representing the school committee. This committee will look at all our capital needs throughout the city including school buildings roofing projects windows and such as so we can prioritize our capital projects as you know the override closed the funding gap in our schools that had existed for years which forced us to use one-time money to fund the school budget we will now be able to tackle critical city vehicle needs and and pay for them with one-time money, which is the right way to do it. We will also continue to explore ways to bring in new revenue. But here is what we're not going to do. We are not going to support a 40B project dropped into green space far from public transit. And please allow me a little leeway here. In the past, I have supported smart growth developments that have brought in additional revenue without impacting the environment. However, I want to make it very clear that I do not support the proposed 40B development off Swains Pond Avenue. This is not beneficial to our city or to our current residents. The potential new residents would be isolated from public transit and unable to enjoy living in a walkable city. We will continue to seek out responsible development and by that I mean development that makes sense for this city and does not encroach on green space or destroy wetlands here are a few other ways in which we will continue to seek out new resource new sources of revenue we will continue to seek outside funding for projects such as the complete street program we will continue to encourage our department heads to apply for grants throughout the fiscal year. We will continue to look at green

▶ 8:51 Gail Infurna: energy initiatives. We will continue to explore opportunities for regionalization, and we will also work with Melrose-Wakefield Health Care, which has made a number of investments in this community over the years. While we anticipate additional revenue from recreational marijuana, we have not included it in the budget because we don't have any data to make projections in my state of the city address in January I spoke of the ways in which our budget was no longer matching our values we were funding the schools at the bare minimum required by the state experienced teachers were leaving the school system and the art supply budget had been cut to six dollars per student our library was in danger of losing accreditation if we reduced its funding any further we were unable to meet the infrastructure needs of our city I used the analogy of a house that shows more and more signs of neglect over the years the grass becomes overgrown the paint starts to peel a window is broken and soon it is in disrepair today I am proud to say that our house is in order today our budget does match our values today we are able to provide the school department with the funds they need and with our budget stabilized we are able to look positively to the future thank you thank you ma'am

▶ 10:40 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Fair enough.