Public Comment

Transcript (~13 min @ 1:36)

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

▶ 1:39 Speaker 4: To The flag of the United States of America

▶ 1:42 Speaker 5: and to the republic for which it stands,

▶ 1:45 Speaker 4: one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty

▶ 1:57 Leila Migliorelli: I will now motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objections, we are now open for public comments. This is the portion of meeting where the public may speak on any item on tonight's agenda. Comments expressing any viewpoint on other madams are also matters are also welcome. Just a reminder that public comment period is an opportunity for the public to share comments. Counselors and school committee members will not respond. Just wanna also note for the record that we are now being joined by Councilor Aldine. Um, if anyone would like to speak in public comment, please approach, um, the table and state your name for the record and sign in.

▶ 2:38 Speaker 6: Hello, my name is James Horn. I'm also with the Melrose Tree Project. Thank you everybody for being here today. Thank you for focusing on our budget and the difficult issues that are facing the community. I understand that there's, uh, decisions to be made in regards to free cash and what should we do with our free cash? So I urge you all to think about investing in the tree canopy using free ca free cash to replant trees. Really for two key reasons. One is we're all here, whether it's from school or for the overall community, is to preserve the value of our community. Our community is shaped by the look and feel of that tree canopy and we've seen radical changes over time. We've seen all the cherries, trees, right opposite whole foods gone. We've seen major changes in the tree canopy line over at L Pond. The amount of shade on the park right behind the Coolidge dramatically changed in difference. We've seen the last beach tree on Beach Street be cut down and these changes affect not only the look and feel and the warmth of our community, it also affects our tax base. That's super important when we think about budget crisis. So for example, it's known that three to 15% of the, of a property value is tied to trees, especially if there are major trees on the property. And Melrose is prolific with properties with major trees both on Lynn Fells way and then also on properties. So I urge you both to preserve the nature of our community as well as our tax base to consider spending a small amount of that free cash towards the planting of new trees. Thank you very much everybody.

▶ 4:26 Speaker 1: Thank you. Is anyone else interested in speaking public comment?

▶ 4:37 Speaker 7: Uh, thank you madam President and counselors and members of the school committee. Uh, thank you for for, for letting me address you tonight. My name's Alex Rodriguez a little bit at 45 Appleton Street in Ward seven and have real concerns about the budget that's gonna be discussed for the first time today. I've lived here for almost nine years and throughout that time have heard the well heard cliche at this point several times, the budgets are a reflection of our values and priorities from our elected officials. More time than I can count, although a cliche. It is true. It is very, very true. But if that is the case, it is abundantly clear that our schools are not a priority to this administration. It is a budget that does not ask other parts of our city to make the kind of sacrifices our schools are going to have to make with consequences similar to the ones our schools are about to experience, to the degree to which they will experience them. The approach this budget does the, the, the approach this budget takes does not require one iota's worth of of proportionate shared sacrifice. Frankly, it's shameful and I vehemently oppose it. And if you're looking at it with any lens of objectivity, you should too. Now every elected official across this table from me has articulated at some point that this year's budget is terrible, especially on the school side, even with the passage of an override in the dollar amounts that are being discussed. However, when brought in front of the school committee, only one member, Ms. Razzie Thomas was willing to vote against the school budget citing that it was not worthy of our kids. She could not have been any more correct and I will forever be grateful for her principled leadership and this community owes her a debt of gratitude counselors. You do not have to support this budget. You can defeat it and it will be and it will lead to one of two results. Either a, the mayor will have to spend every bit of political capital that she has to enact it unilaterally if she's unwilling to make changes

▶ 6:49 Speaker 7: to it or she will negotiate with the council to modify the budget to ensure a mandate of support counselors, let me be really, really, really clear. This is your time for choosing. You can either choose to go along the go along to get along approach that will erode the confidence in your ability to actually look out for our schools or you can actually dig in and fight for our kids.

▶ 7:19 Speaker 7: The choice will be yours. In conclusion, I also want to ask those watching at home tonight to pay as close attention as possible to how many times you're gonna hear our elected officials tell you how much they care about our kids is if they're good intentions should be enough to earn our trust. That simply cannot be the case anymore and we must demand more from our elected officials other than performative nonsense to some on the council. Perhaps such, such a demand makes me, um, how you put it ignorant. But we have allowed the council to get by on their good intentions as it relates to school funding for too long and it's time to stop listening to them tell us how hard they work for our city and our schools counselors.

▶ 8:07 Speaker 7: I say this respectfully, no one cares how hard you work. We only care about the results you produce. That is how you will earn our trust. Thank you.

▶ 8:20 Speaker 1: Thank you. Anyone else like to speak in public comment?

▶ 8:38 Speaker 8: Uh, good evening. Jamal Locklin, 39 Lincoln Street. I'm eager to hear the administration present in this council discuss the fiscal year 2026 budget including planned service cuts and their impact. I have heard for example, that we can no, no longer afford a principal or the team model at the middle school. I find that very disturbing as we all know, the kids who are 12, 13 and 14 need a lot of guidance and a lot of attention make or break years as kids transition into adulthood and we can't afford to fund it properly. I'm just as interested in learning what fiscal year 2027 looks like if an override is not successful this fall. As I understand that even deeper cuts will be necessary to balance the budget. Finally, I'm interested in learning the administration's basis for the override question, which I understand will be coming out on or about May 19th. I want a city government that provides a decent level of services and that is financially stable. Of the three levels of government I most clearly see and benefit from services provided by local governments, whether that's putting out a chimney fire, three houses down from me, responding to a traffic accident at 4:00 AM two houses down from me, snow removal side mark repair and tree planting, providing services to seniors and veterans or educating my neighbor's children and keeping them safe. And to be clear, I mean all of my neighbor's children, local government takes the lead on these types of services. It needs adequate resources to provide them at a decent level. The money I spend on taxes in Melrose stays in Melrose. I'm not asking for platinum services, but I don't want lead or clay either. It's not a surprise to me that an override is needed. As I've said at other public events, Melrose's is already providing services at a relatively low cost statewide. Melrose is at the 27th percentile for municipal services as a whole, meaning that 73% of communities are spending more than Melrose on municipal services. Melrose is at the 29th percentile for public safety, meaning that 71% of communities are spending more than Melrose on public safety with respect to schools, our per pupil spending is the ninth lowest of the 291 traditional commu traditional districts in the state. So we don't have a spending problem. We're a small residential community that is challenged to find alternative sources of revenue. Our commercial tax base is less than 9% of the tax levy, which compares to 16%, 19% and 29% for Stoneham Wakefield and Saga. So their tax base commercial tax base is two or three times larger than ours. Conversely, Redding and Arlington, which have a relatively low commercial tax rate just like Melrose, have average annual single family tax bills that are two to $3,000 larger than those in Melrose.

▶ 12:20 Speaker 8: In the past five years, despite all of the new apartments and condos, new growth has averaged only about 0.7% of the tax levy, which certainly helps, but it's not a game changer. New growth is less than 1%. We did get about $8 million in a money which filled in some gaps and helped push out the need for the override. But as I understand it, most of the ARPA money has already been put to use. Melrose has only passed two overrides in two debt exclusions since 1980 when Proposition two and a half first got on the books 45 years ago. This is important because this failure to pass overrides has led to significant deferrals on infrastructure maintenance and approval improvements. More importantly, it has contributed to our employees being paid at a low at the lower end of the spectrum, which has resulted in recruitment and retention problems and turnover Inefficiencies. Free cash is not new, is not new revenue, but it is also relevant to this discussion as it is another indication of how tightly budgeted Melrose is. In 2025, melrose's free cash was only about 5% of the operating budget. This compares to 10% for Wakefield, 14% for saga and Stoneham and 15% for Winchester and Redding. So basically those communities have two to three times the amount of free cash built into their budget and free cash is a safety net, right? You under budgeted the beginning of the year to provide a little bit of buffer to handle uncertainties and revenue and uncertainties and cost. We're working right on the on the of the razor's edge there at 5%. In summary, the need for an override override is not a surprise to me. While I look forward to learning more details over the next month, I plan on supporting the override. I ask the community to listen, to learn and to ultimately support the override too. Thank you.

▶ 14:33 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Anyone

▶ 14:36 Speaker 1: else in person? Anyone online? Madam Clerk? There was and they're gone.

▶ 14:41 Speaker 2: They're so okay.

▶ 14:46 Leila Migliorelli: Seeing no other further public comment, I will motion by unanimous consent to close public comment.