Department Budget Presentations

Transcript (~34 min @ 1:36)

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▶ 1:20 Mark Garipay: All righty. Now we're moving on. Um, just a little update for everyone. We have a public hearing, joint public hearing with the planning board at eight o'clock. So we are gonna have to, if we do not finish the budget hearings, recess and then, and then come back, um, after the public hearing, hearing to the budget. Um, so with that being said, first up is Department nine 11 pension and retirement. And we have the chairman of the retirement board, um, Mike Lyle, and city CFO Ms. Golden Floor's.

▶ 1:58 Speaker 2: Yours. Good evening. Michael Lyle. I was retired board and we have changed the name to chair officially, so it's chair. Sorry About that. No chair. No, please. No. For everybody in the audience at all. Chief Chair. Chief Chair. Yeah, It's all good. It's all good. Um, certainly available for questions from anybody. Um, uh, and I also asked the, the auditor attend. Uh, we do not have a director at this time. I want everybody to be aware that, that, um, Adam had stepped down at the end of last month and we're in search of a new director at this time. Otherwise, that person would be present today as well.

▶ 2:32 Mark Garipay: Okay. And do you have anything or is there any Ms. Colton or,

▶ 2:37 Speaker 3: Nope. So this is just a statutory appropriation under chapter, uh, 32 of Mass General Law and, um, with pension reform in 2010. This assessment, um, part of that is that the pension appropriation, um, can't be reduced from any year over the previous year. And

▶ 2:59 Mark Garipay: That's, thank you. Uh, any counselors have any questions for department nine 30? I'm sorry? Nine 11. Council Stewart.

▶ 3:10 Robb Stewart: Thank you Mr. Chair. And thank you both for being here this evening. Could you just state how the percentage increase is, uh, presented? Is that a standard, the 3.5 or is there a way that you calculate that

▶ 3:23 Speaker 3: For the, um, so every two years the system has to have an actuarial evaluation. So we're actually an evaluation year. Um, but what happens is they set the funding schedule for two years per that, um, funding, uh, the valuation, we send that to prac. Um, and then the funding schedule gets approved by the retirement board in, um, two year increments,

▶ 3:47 Robb Stewart: Which is why you have to re-explain it to me every two years. 'cause I, that's just enough time for me to forget. Um, and so that means next year the rate will be the same since,

▶ 3:57 Speaker 3: Um, no. So we're gonna go through that actuarial valuation and they determine based on, um, we have to be funded by year 2040 in full. Um, so they look at, uh, where we are as part of the system and then calculate, um, the obligation to get us where we need to be by 2040. Okay.

▶ 4:17 Robb Stewart: Okay. Great. I got it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

▶ 4:21 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Um, council Williams? I wasn't sure. Did you have

▶ 4:24 Ryan Williams: Yeah, I did. I think it might have been answered by what you told Councilor Stewart, but I just wanted to, um, circle back in here one more time for my own benefit. The, so the un the unfunded pension, the liability mm-hmm. That we have has to be by law paid up by 2040. Yes. And I'm looking at the schedule here and it shows that the, um, I think it shows that the contributions go up pretty substantially between 7.5 million where we are right now and what you're, what's in the appropriation roughly. And then 13.5 million when we get to 20.

▶ 5:05 Speaker 4: Yes. 38. Right.

▶ 5:07 Ryan Williams: Um, so what happens if the city can't make that payment?

▶ 5:14 Speaker 3: So the city is obligated to under, um, state law? Yeah. And, uh, so I mean, we can always look at those schedules and see if there's an opportunity to do a reval or smooth it out, um, through 2040. Um, but if you look, it's, it's pretty much increasing in half a million dollar increments. Right. Um, so at some point it's probably proportionate to like, as the budget increases as well. Okay.

▶ 5:43 Speaker 1: Alright. Thank you. Yep.

▶ 5:45 Mark Garipay: Any other council? Aldi? Thank you.

▶ 5:48 Maya Jamaleddine: Are these increases? Um, um, hi chair. Are these increases are, uh, the same across all other municipalities?

▶ 5:58 Speaker 3: Um, so it depends on where you're funded. So Melrose Falls pretty much in the middle of the state. We're 65.5% funded. Mm-hmm. Um, there's some systems that are completely funded, um, but we're right in the middle. And so it depends where you are on that funding schedule and how aggressively and the rate of return that you're funding the schedule at.

▶ 6:20 Maya Jamaleddine: So is it based on some kind of service that we provide to change our, uh, placement or is it just because of where Merose and the demographic itself?

▶ 6:33 Speaker 3: So they look at the active retirees, um, that are being brought into the system as well as the retirees that are part of the system, and they calculate, calculate the pension obligation, um, and try to get that fully funded by 2040.

▶ 6:50 Maya Jamaleddine: I see. So from what I'm hearing, if we have an increase in, um, uh, registered retirees, uh, that would change our status? Is that what it is?

▶ 7:01 Speaker 3: Yes. And, uh, I mean, so it's affected by people who pass away. Um, obviously we're reducing the FTE count by 17, um, employees who were benefit eligible or pension eligible. So that would be factored into this next round of valuation. So, um, the current valuation that was done the last time was $181 million. And as of the end of March, I believe we had about $126 million in, uh, the pension.

▶ 7:35 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. And I'm sorry, my last question is it, uh, it's, um, is it automatic, um, re registration for retirees? Or is it how, you know, based on, you know, like individuals need to make those applications and stuff?

▶ 7:51 Speaker 3: So as far as eligibility for the system, um, on a local level, the retirement board can determine who's eligible for that. We vote as a board. Um, so it's set at anyone who works 20 hours or more is eligible for the Melrose, um, pension system. And, uh, its city employees as well as non-educators at the school. So that's your paraprofessionals and administrative assistance.

▶ 8:17 Maya Jamaleddine: Right. But I guess my question, do they have to apply to review their application and decide and make that decision? Or is it once they hit that retirement age, then they would review it automatically?

▶ 8:29 Speaker 3: No, it's at the employee's. Um, It's the employee, Yeah. Okay. It's only group four, which is, uh, public safety that has a mandatory retirement age of, um, 65. Thank you.

▶ 8:41 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes. Okay. Thank you.

▶ 8:45 Mark Garipay: Anyone else? Uh, what's the well of the committee? Council Stewart?

▶ 8:49 Robb Stewart: Thank you Mr. Chair. Uh, I'll make a motion to, um, move this to the bottom line. Second, Second motion.

▶ 8:55 Mark Garipay: Move to the bottom line. Move to the bottom line by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Councilor Ache on discussion. Uh, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? This bottom line will be moved. Uh, for the record, councilor Vandiver Ver is with us. Sorry. Um, alright. Uh, thank you. Thank you.

▶ 9:19 Mark Garipay: Next up we have Department 1 55 Information Technology, and we have Tom s Mulligan with us. Uh, Mr. S Mulligan, the floor is yours, members of

▶ 9:31 Speaker 4: The council. Uh, thank you for having me here tonight. I know we're very pressed for time, um, but if you give me one minute here, I'd like to just, uh, give you a really quick update on what we've done in the department. Um, obviously we know the budget realities. Um, so we've kind of focused a lot in the last year of doing the best we can with upgrades, um, with the money that we had to hopefully mitigate larger expenditures in the upcoming years. Um, so with that, we've fully replaced all the networking equipment in all of the schools, uh, to include a whole new wireless system. Uh, we upgraded all the cameras at the high school, both internally and added external cameras. Um, and we actually added all cameras around the Winthrop, which previously had nothing. Um, here on the city side, we've replaced, uh, most of the switching, uh, in all this public, uh, city buildings and as well as all the wireless in the city buildings. Um, the ones we haven't finished yet, it's just been scheduling with all the departments, um, but we already have all that equipment on hand, so there's no further outlay besides my time for doing that. Um, we've also, uh, added cameras, um, in Memorial Hall, both internally and externally, which Kathy is very excited about. Um, also on the lines of trying to deal with costs, um, those of you in the tech world are very aware of some large companies that do virtualization stuff, um, that have raised prices upwards of 70% for some clients. Um, so we're currently working on, um, building out and testing a whole new virtual environment so we can kind of help mitigate some of those costs, um, between various vendors. Um, and also I think it will make many of you happy. Uh, Devin, not you, Devin. Um, we redid his position and made him more into a cybersecurity role. So he will now be focusing a lot more of his time on, you know, merging threats, how to combat them, designing countermeasures internally for us to help safeguard all the stuff that we do have here. So that's pretty much where we're at now. Uh, happy to field anything that you might all have

▶ 11:38 Speaker 2: Any questions from the council. Council. Aldi,

▶ 11:42 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Thank you for all the update. Um, can you tell us, um, about what are the shortage right now that you see in your department?

▶ 11:54 Speaker 4: Um, personnel and just funds. Um, there's a lot of things. The cybersecurity world, you know, with AI and all that stuff later on top of it, it's kind of growing exponentially. Um, so we're doing what we can to kind of mitigate those things. Um, but obviously there's only so much we can do without, you know, some of the newer fancier software packages out there and hardware detection systems.

▶ 12:20 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. And I know you support the school in terms of, uh, provide providing, um, support for, you know, all the Chromebooks for the students. And now we are in a very, you know, a lot of shortages, uh, to cover the needs for all the students. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

▶ 12:38 Speaker 4: That has been, uh, a tricky, um, kind of thing to deal with. So at the schools, every, the elementary school is, everything is staying status quo. We have carts in all the rooms, or mostly all the rooms so that all the kids can have access to devices when they want to do it. Um, from all the arpa, covid funds, federal stuff, we were able to purchase all the Chromebooks, as you know, years ago to do one-to-one continually for everybody. It's just not sustainable for us. We don't have the 300,000 ish plus a year to keep doing that. Um, and they break at a very high rate because they're not necessarily always handled really well. Um, so halfway through this year, we gave the option for the middle school to do A-B-Y-O-D and bring your own stuff in. Um, and we're kind of leaning on that. Um, and so we will provide devices for those who need it, but we're really kind of banking on going forward, the middle school high school will be more of A-B-Y-O-D function.

▶ 13:40 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. And how has that, is there any system for monitoring that, um, in terms of, you know, having those, you know, I, I understand that on the Chrome Chromebook mm-hmm. Um, it was monitored Yes. Was everything. Uh,

▶ 13:58 Speaker 4: Yeah. So the downside to the BYOD aspect of it is those devices that are brought in, they're not going to be enrolled in our management console per se. Um, but they still, the devices all connect to a different segmented network than to regulate what the teachers use or the city or anything. And on that, we have all types of protections, filters, blocks, and that sort of stuff. Um, so it's not a perfect world. Um, in a perfect world, you asked what we were short on, there'd be funds that we'd be able to have a license for every student that would basically extend those protections both on the network and off the network. Um, but at this point, it's just not really realistic.

▶ 14:39 Maya Jamaleddine: So if you are going to assess, um, um, per dollar, uh, amount, how much are the needs to be average covering for all the, uh, city it needs

▶ 14:54 Speaker 4: For all the city and schools? For the whole kit

▶ 14:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Caboodle? Yeah. I, I don't expect that you have that number.

▶ 14:59 Speaker 4: It'd be a lot. I mean, it, honestly, it'd probably be three quarters to a male just to not sweat. Mm-hmm.

▶ 15:07 Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you. Councilor Stewart. Thank you, Mr.

▶ 15:10 Robb Stewart: Chair. And thank you, um, Mr. Mulligan for, for this information. Um, I'll be a bit candid. In your, in your document, you talk about the, the whole critical IT software and the massive increase in cost, you know, VMware and Broadcom is a great example of that. Um, and you talk about building and testing a new virtual set, and if testing goes well, we might be able to lower some licensing costs. It's a little vague.

▶ 15:40 Speaker 4: Yes. Uh, so we are building and testing a new virtual environment. Um, and so actually we're currently building it out now, assuming that'll go as well, which we did some preliminary tests probably about six to eight months ago, and it worked really well. Um, so we're building it at scale now. The hope is that, uh, at least some of our current workloads, we can migrate over to this new platform, which will massively reduce our, those VMware license costs. Right. Um, the better that works, the more we can expand it out. Some of the servers we have are kind of locked in right now, so as long as they're within their lifespan, we're gonna keep using them. Um, but that's the general hope here.

▶ 16:24 Robb Stewart: Okay. Um, yeah, my, my suggestion would be to tighten it up a little in terms of what those cost savings are. Um, when it's vague and uncertain, then, uh, you know, there's, there's effort that's being put that we don't know if there's gonna be value there. So yeah,

▶ 16:42 Speaker 4: It would be about 50% license cost in that area. Perfect.

▶ 16:46 Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I'd be looking. Perfect. Thank you.

▶ 16:49 Mark Garipay: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Council Ka shady.

▶ 16:54 Manjula Karamcheti: Um, two, I guess there, it's one, maybe two quick questions just in looking at the line items in your budget. Um, one communications, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Yep. Mm-hmm. And the O-S-D-B-A, I am just noticing that in terms of the current fiscal year, um, those line items haven't been spent mm-hmm. Um, one not at all, and the other small percentage. So I guess I'm just curious, is that something that you will be spending over the next part of the year? Because what it is making me wonder is, is the same amount needed for next year?

▶ 17:31 Speaker 4: So yes. And it's, it's honestly a good thing that we haven't spent it. Yeah. Um, both of those items, O-S-D-B-A first, that is O-S-D-B-A is a support contract with Muni, so the financial software stuff. So we don't actually have an O-S-D-B-A contract, um, meaning we don't have a, a set pool of hours that we just call in and get work. So if we, if something happens, if we need upgrades, emergency fixes, whatever, that's what we would pull from. So I'm happy we haven't spent that, but we need that. Got it. Okay. Just to make sure that everything state's up and running. Uh, the WAN communications, that's for the fiber optics that connect all the city and school buildings together. Mm-hmm. Again, if something happens, we bad storm pole goes down, fiber breaks, we'd be in a lot of trouble. Um, I don't think anybody wants to buy me an $80,000 freezer. That's a cheap one. Um, so that is money to have, um, the, uh, fiber guys come out and find, fix, repair and everything on the fly.

▶ 18:28 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you. I really appreciate it. And then what, so what I am wonder thinking about is if that money isn't spent because we don't have any issues, rolls into free cash or something like that. Thank you. That's super helpful. Appreciate the clarification. Definitely.

▶ 18:42 Speaker 2: Council fanucchi.

▶ 18:44 Cal Finocchiaro: Yeah. Uh, thank you for being here. I don't know if this is a question for you, but I'll ask it anyways and see, um, do you know at this point in time how many Chromebooks need to be replaced and like, at which schools? Or is it like they all need to be replaced or?

▶ 19:00 Speaker 4: So it depends how you're looking at, if you're looking, um, elementary. Mm-hmm. Uh, we're kind of planning for doing a slow rolling refresh. So every year we're gonna try, like refresh a cart or to condense and then replace what we need to, um, elementary forward. If we're talking BYOD, not a whole lot, um, we can keep things going with what we have on as far as just handing out to, you know, the kids who need it. Um, but if we're talking about going back and doing a full BYOD, it'd be whatever the student population is. Um, but you know, then we try to start it from, uh, you know, sixth grade forward, like, do that, you know, so every new grade comes in, so you're only doing whatever that grade's worth of students is. Mm-hmm. Um, so it's kind of a, depending which conversation you're trying to have.

▶ 19:52 Cal Finocchiaro: I guess I'm just trying to get an idea of if you were to get, do a clean sweep and refresh all the Chromebooks and, you know, we don't bring the, we don't bring our own Chromebooks in the school supplies. It, it's a safe way. Like what number were you, are you looking at? And if you don't have that number, that's fine.

▶ 20:06 Speaker 4: We can, I don't, but I can tell you roughly, you'd probably factor in with licensing and everything about 500 a student. Okay. So, okay.

▶ 20:12 Speaker 3: It's like, I think 3,800 students. Yeah. So, all right. Thank you. Sure.

▶ 20:20 Mark Garipay: Is that, um, council, uh, al

▶ 20:22 Devin Romanul: Uh, thank you so much. Well, I know we're doing a deep dive on Chromebook procurement, but I'll, I'll just push it a little further. Has there ever been any analysis, um, as to the comparative costs of like, uh, a rental program and having like renting devices, purchasing them and, and how that might impact our longitudinal costs? Um, I know that probably has some licensing implications too. I, I welcome your thoughts there. Sure.

▶ 20:44 Speaker 4: We started having that conversation, um, but then actually about last year we started having that conversation, but then with how the budgeting started going, it kind of quickly became even that's not gonna be super sustainable. Yeah. And my question was always then, you know, right now are people are doing all the break fix. So Chromebook screens, keyboards, batteries, we do all of that versus shipping it out and getting the super, you know, five or 70 or extended warranties. Um, so we try to do what we can to keep all that down, but it just became then, well, if we're still breaking at the same rate, what is that gonna do with the warranty for the rented leased devices? And I couldn't get a clear answer on that before we went further. So it just kind of, you almost became a non-starter.

▶ 21:33 Devin Romanul: Yeah. So the downside to using free cash one time funds is that if you don't have that longitudinal predictability in terms of your

▶ 21:41 Speaker 4: Expenses. Right. Yeah. I wouldn't try to do, at least with, with free cash, I just, yeah.

▶ 21:44 Devin Romanul: Alright. Well thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Sure. And, and, um, really interested to learn more about the developing, this may not be the form, but about the cybersecurity efforts is I it is a rapidly evolving space and so, um, I work with a lot of other cities that are facing this right now. So anyway, we can have that conversation offline. Sure, Definitely. Yep. Thank

▶ 22:04 Mark Garipay: you very much. Council Vandiver.

▶ 22:05 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you Chair Repe. Thank you for being here, Mr. Mr. Milligan. Um, uh, prior to 2020, I assume that we didn't have a Chromebook per student. And then my understanding is that became quickly a necessity. Kids were home from school. Is there a reason that we need to maintain kind of the new normal and could we go back to 2019? What, why do we, why are we continuing to try to use one Chromebook for students?

▶ 22:33 Speaker 4: It's a great question. Um, I'm not sure I'm best equipped to answer that. That'd be more of an educational type thing. Personally, I would agree with you in that I don't know that we need to stay that way. Um, 'cause you can still do, instead of doing the old traditional labs, you can have carts or you can have labs that are all the Chrome os. 'cause all everyone's using all the Google stuff, so it makes it work. And that's much cheaper than doing whole lab builds outs. So there is definitely an area to explore there. And, and we kind of have been a little bit, um, but again, I, that's not for me to make that full on decision.

▶ 23:08 Kimberly Vandiver: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Yeah.

▶ 23:11 Mark Garipay: Anyone else for the first time? Cons, Aldi,

▶ 23:15 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, uh, through the chair. I just wanna say from my personal experience, those Chromebooks are provided because, um, students need to do their homeworks and assignments at home. So in terms of equity, um, they would provide those, um, uh, devices so that they are able to submit it. I don't know if there is any other way to replace or like alternative way, but that, that's how it started. Everything is done on electronics these days. Unfortunately. We forgot about the pencils in pen.

▶ 23:53 Maya Jamaleddine: Any other questions? I would, um, make a motion to move to bottom line. Second.

▶ 23:58 Mark Garipay: Motion to move the bottom line by council Jamal, vice chair Jamal, seconded by Councilor Cheney on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That bottom line will be moved. Um, next up we have nine 30 debt equipment. And that is Mr. S Mulligan. Hello

▶ 24:19 Speaker 4: Again.

▶ 24:24 Speaker 4: Should we just jump into it?

▶ 24:26 Mark Garipay: It's all you. Let's do it. You got five minutes, so jump right in. I could just

▶ 24:30 Speaker 4: Repeat everything else I thought. Jump right in.

▶ 24:36 Speaker 2: If thought, you're gonna be in here for a while, so

▶ 24:39 Speaker 4: I'll lead up to you guys. It, it's the same department.

▶ 24:43 Mark Garipay: Any, um, any questions? Um,

▶ 24:44 Ryan Williams: Motion to move the bottom line. Second.

▶ 24:46 Mark Garipay: Motion to move the bottom line by Council Williams. Seconded by on

▶ 24:49 Ryan Williams: Nine 30.

▶ 24:50 Mark Garipay: Yes. Motion to move the bottom line on nine 30. That equipment by Council Williams. Seconded by Council Ro on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Bottom line from nine 30 has been moved. Okay. Moving along. 9 31. That, um, capital outlaw outlay, um, that has been zeroed out, so we do not, we do not have to. Alright. Move the bottom line on zero. Next up we have department 1 45. Do we need,

▶ 25:26 Speaker 6: Do we need to make a motion to move to bottom line?

▶ 25:28 Mark Garipay: No, it's zero, so we don't even need to bring it up. Um, I hate to do this. We got five minutes. I'll, if you wanna start I'll Sure. Okay. We have miss, miss, uh, Marta with us for, uh, 1 45 Treasurer. Collector. Okay.

▶ 25:41 Speaker 1: Uh, good evening counselors. Uh, tonight I'll be presenting the budgets of the treasure collector department, which includes the treasurer collection, operations budget, the debt budgets, the city portion of Medicare, and the parking budget. Um, so I just thought maybe I'll take a couple of minutes and explain what my department does, so that makes sense. Um, we house multiple functions. Uh, the team I'm so fortunate to work with is focused on the collection of accounting for and the cash and investment management of the funds that flow into the city. Four of the members are union and two are non-union. The collection side of the operation is responsible for the billing and collecting of real estate, personal property and excise tax bills, and all the, also the collection of water and sewer bills. The team also just use municipal Liam certificates, researchers payments, and provides problem resolution on the treasury side. The assistant treasurer is responsible for cash management activities, booking receipts, vendor warrants, obtaining best rates, managing the tailings process. Uh, she's also responsible for pro uh, processing, problem resolution and funding of the school and city payrolls. Uh, the parking treasury clerk is, um, also surprised, provides support to payroll and the collections team. She's responsible for the sale of parking permits and the collection of parking ticket fees. She also manages payroll deduction changes and basically she's our utility player. Um, over the course of fiscal 25, we had some accomplishments, which included initiating a paperless, uh, billing option through city hall Systems. Um, I wish it were more widely accepted, but we're offering the option. Um, we transitioned to a new lockbox provider with minimal impact on operations. So we decreased float and have, um, a more efficient online exception process. We successfully at tested a CH vendor payments and are currently working with members of the auditor's office to initiate a pilot program on that. Uh, we also researched the electronic ticket program offered by Kelly and Ryan in conjunction with the police department. And we transitioned the SMART plan, uh, deposit and reporting information to electronic from a paper form. And I guess I didn't go long enough, so I, I will start my four budgets. Uh, the first one is the treasure collector budget, um, 1 45. There are no new line items. Um, and basically the line items that are there are to pay for the processing, printing, mailing, um, and maintenance of our equipment in the apart department.

▶ 28:24 Speaker 1: Um, there are a couple of line items that look like they have big fluxes, but it's really small dollars and not an impact to the budget. Um, and the payroll is for the six of, of our members of union. So it's contractual. And Stephanie, I also had an increase baked in there.

▶ 28:44 Mark Garipay: Okay. Um, can I just have a show of hands of, uh, counsels that, uh, have questions on, on this budget? Um, just decide whether to recess, sir.

▶ 28:55 Maya Jamaleddine: If there is no question, I will make motion to move to bottom line. Second. Okay.

▶ 28:59 Mark Garipay: We have a motion to move the bottom line by Council Aldine seconded by Councilor Ro on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay. We will move the bottom line on 1 45. Mr. Chair.

▶ 29:13 Speaker 5: I'll make a motion to recess.

▶ 29:16 Mark Garipay: Um, I was just gonna say if we could, if, if these are just, um, moving the bottom lines of debt and interest. Oh, okay. Sure. Do you wanna get 'em done? Kind of like, yeah. Just thinking in time. Yeah. Yeah.

▶ 29:25 Speaker 7: We have 30 minutes, right? I would throw my motion. 10 10.

▶ 29:30 Mark Garipay: We should start again. We can do it. So, um, alright. So, sorry, we're moving on. Uh, department seven 11 municipal debt.

▶ 29:37 Speaker 1: Yes. Municipal debt. Um, is it okay if I put 7 11, 7 51 and 7 52 together? Yes, That'd be fine. Um, this is the municipal debt principal interest and the temporary debt and interest payments that we will pay in fiscal 26. Uh, the total amount is 6,000,155. 7 55. That's broken down by, um, budget seven 11 4 million 143 0 1 0 7 51. Interest is 1 million 632 4 4 5. And the projected debt and temporary interest is se uh, 7 52 is 380,300

▶ 30:19 Ryan Williams: I Council Williams, I just have one question. The rise of the municipal debt interest, does that reflect the beginning of the public safety debt? Why is that? Uh, why has the interest gone up a hundred percent?

▶ 30:33 Speaker 1: Um, it would depend on, I'd have to look on the schedule and get you the exact numbers. Okay. Um, but there is movement throughout because it, it's not even principal payments.

▶ 30:43 Ryan Williams: Right. Right. Yeah, I I would be interested to know if you could just share with us at some point. Sure. Um, what the cost for that rise is

▶ 30:50 Speaker 1: For Okay. For the

▶ 30:51 Ryan Williams: 7 51, um, 2025, it's $730,000 for debt. Interest in the 2026 is 101.4 million. Mm-hmm. So it's gone up by a hundred percent. Assume that this is like we're entering a, a loan and the interest is higher because we're in the beginning of the loan or something like that.

▶ 31:09 Speaker 7: I can get you the Details, but let me know, please. Yeah. Okay. Sure.

▶ 31:15 Speaker 2: Um, Any other questions?

▶ 31:19 Speaker 5: Yeah, Mr. Um, move, uh, just to the bottom line.

▶ 31:22 Mark Garipay: Second. Um, okay. So, seven, Seven, oh, Which department do you wanna move? We're gonna do, we'll do vote on each one

▶ 31:28 Speaker 5: For seven 11.

▶ 31:31 Mark Garipay: Second. Second. We have a motion to move the bottom line of Department seven 11 by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Councilor Williams on discussion. All in favor? A opposed? Okay. That bottom line's moved. Uh, next up is 7 51 municipal debt, which I believe you already spoke to. Does anyone have any questions on municipal debt?

▶ 31:50 Maya Jamaleddine: I was just gonna make a motion to move to bottom, uh, line 7 51 and 7 52,

▶ 31:57 Mark Garipay: Um, 7 51 and 7 52. Um, I'd prefer to just do 'em all individually, if you don't mind. Sorry.

▶ 32:04 Maya Jamaleddine: 7 51. Uh, I would draw my motion and make motion Another motion to move to bottom line. Seven 50. One second.

▶ 32:13 Mark Garipay: I'm sorry. Second, uh, we have a motion to move the bottom line of 7 51 Municipal dead interest by Council Aldine Second Amendment Council ro on discussion. Uh, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? That bottom line will be moved. Next up, we have 7 52 projected debt.

▶ 32:33 Robb Stewart: Mr. Chair, make a motion to move 7 52 to the bottom line. Second.

▶ 32:36 Mark Garipay: Okay, we have a motion to move 7 52 projected debt by Council Stewart, seconded by Councilor Williams on discussion. I'm sorry. Briefly,

▶ 32:45 Kimberly Vandiver: Can you tell us how to think about this bucket as opposed to the others? This

▶ 32:49 Speaker 1: Is the, uh, basically think of it as the, the payments due on the bans that we issued last August, the, the short term debt. Okay.

▶ 32:56 Speaker 3: Thank you. You're welcome.

▶ 32:58 Mark Garipay: Um, anyone else on discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? 7 52 projected debt. Uh, that bottom line is moved. Next up is nine 16 Medicare City portion.

▶ 33:10 Speaker 1: Yes. The city portion of Medicare expenses for fiscal 26 is budgeted at 1 million 0 0 5 5 8 1. This is an increase of 9.3% over the projected figure of 920,000. This is formulaic based on our, um, projected total wages, less certain deductions that are outlined in the memo.

▶ 33:34 Speaker 2: Um, any questions? What's the will of the committee,

▶ 33:40 Robb Stewart: Mr. Chair? I'll make a motion to move nine 16 to the bottom line.

▶ 33:43 Mark Garipay: Second, we have a motion to move nine 16 Medicare City portion to the bottom line by Councilor Stewart, seconded by comm comma, councilor comm Shady. I'm getting there. Uh, on, on discuss, what was he about to call me

▶ 33:57 Speaker 2: On Discussion. All in favor.

▶ 33:59 Kimberly Vandiver: Sorry. I have one. Um, is can you briefly, um, it, there's an increase in this line, but we have expected layoffs. Is there, is that because the rate per person is going up? Well,

▶ 34:11 Speaker 1: The, um, the wages actually only increased about 3%, but the deductions increased about 12% and it all netted out.

▶ 34:20 Speaker 8: Thanks. Thank you. Um, anyone else on discussion?

▶ 34:22 Mark Garipay: All in favor? Aye. Opposed that bottom line. Nine 16 Medicare City portion. The bottom line has been moved. Next up, we just have 2 96 parking,

▶ 34:34 Speaker 1: Uh, 2 96 Parking is pretty self-explanatory. It's all for printing costs and, um, processing costs of the parking program. Uh, we kept it flat at approximately 70,000 the same as fiscal 25.

▶ 34:49 Speaker 2: I answer. Any questions? Any questions by the council? This is the parking department.

▶ 34:57 Robb Stewart: Mr. Chair. I'll make a motion to move, uh, 2 96 to the bottom line. Second,

▶ 35:00 Mark Garipay: We have a motion to move 2 96 parking to on the bottom line by Council of Stewart. Seconded by Council Williams on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That bottom line will be moved. Um, next up we have appropriations id. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 fiscal year 2026, operating budget in the amount of $107,575,802. Counsel Stewart, Mr.