That the City Council authorize the Mayor to enter into an Intermunicipal Agreement (IMA) with Malden, Medford, Wakefield, Winchester, and Stoneham as part of the Commonwealth’s Public Health Excellence (PHE) for Shared Services Grant initiative.

Transcript (~8 min @ 33:18)

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

▶ 33:06 Mark Garipay: Have a nice night. Thank You. Next up we have order id. 1, 2, 6, 1 0. The City council authorized the mayor to enter into an, excuse me, inter municipal agreement with Malden, Medford, Wakefield, Winchester, and Stoneham as part of the Commonwealth's Public Health Excellence for Shared Services grant initiative. We have, um, Anthony Chu in front of us tonight.

▶ 33:34 Speaker 7: Hi. Um, thank you for the council for considering this. Um, I wrote a memo, but I'll, I'll, I won't repeat all of it, but I'll go through some of the basics. So, um, the Public Health Excellence grant, um, the City of Melrose has led this initiative since fiscal year 2023. It is a grant from the Department of Public Health at the state level. Um, we have been the fiscal agent since 2023, but we had this grant in the region since 2021. Um, it has helped us, uh, meet our, um, minimum standards that includes inspections in public health nursing. Um, we have, we have several areas that we like to focus in, including professional development, um, maintaining our certifications, as well as increasing capacity for public health infrastructure. Um, so this, this grant has helped us establish a regional governance structure that includes the six towns in our region. That's Malden, Medford, Winchester, um, Melrose Wakefield, and Stoneham. Uh, as you know, Melrose Wakefield and Stoneham already have an existing inter municipal agreement, uh, where we share staff. Um, but by expanding our region, um, in this grant, um, we are able to provide additional services to our area. Um, this, uh, inter municipal agreement has become a requirement from the Department of Public Health after, uh, five years to formalize the structure of our, of our, uh, six towns and make sure that there is accountability and expenditures. Um, so we are able to continue, uh, to be able to continue to administer these funds. Uh, we need to enter into an IMA where the city of Melrose will continue to be the fiscal agent. Um, in the, in terms of the execution of the grant, nothing will change after this unreasonable agreement. Um, all the Health Directors act as a representative to this, um, to this grant. Uh, and it continues to allow us to share resources such as public, uh, public health nurses, epidemiologists, health inspectors, communication specialists, and a shared services coordinator. Um, this will continue to, uh, increase our capacity and, um, improve our service delivery to the communities.

▶ 35:35 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Council Ra

▶ 35:36 Speaker 2: Uh, thank you for coming here tonight. I don't have any questions. I just wanted to make a motion to Recommend. I'll second.

▶ 35:43 Mark Garipay: We have a mo motion to recommend by council ro seconded by Council Katy, on discussion. I have Council Stewart. And then

▶ 35:51 Robb Stewart: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, thank you Mr. Chuy, uh, for this information. Um, just, so of the 561,000 that's allocated, how much are we gonna benefit from that?

▶ 36:03 Speaker 7: So we currently, we currently hire a, we're, we're in the process of hiring a public health nurse. We have an epidemiologist on staff, uh, shared health inspector and a shared services coordinator. So those services are distributed, um, somewhat evenly across the six communities as needed. So, uh, in the event when there's a vacancy, uh, we're able to make sure that there is no break in service. Uh, the example would be that there was a time when the city of Medford had a change in change in staffing. Um, so we were able to lend some of our regional staff, um, to go and help out. In that case, we actually have a current vacancy at the, uh, senior inspector position. Um, so we're able to leverage, um, the regional health inspector to come and, um, cover some of our inspections while we are, uh, looking to fill that position. So, um, in terms of value, we've been able to share, um, the, you know, the staffing across all six communities evenly. Um, what doesn't go into staffing and salary is put into, uh, resources as translation services, uh, supplies for inspection services and public health nursing, uh, and training resources such as training in the region, travel and, and such.

▶ 37:11 Robb Stewart: And I also see that you, uh, indicate that we are the lead municipality and fiscal agent. Correct. So that means we're the bookkeeper, right? Correct. Yes. Right. And so is there any additional, um, cost or do we, how does that responsibility, um, take on, uh, within Melrose?

▶ 37:31 Speaker 7: Yep. So we, we have additional help from, you know, our human resources department, our accounting department. Uh, we have additional help. We also receive, uh, 15 as the, as the lead fiscal agent. We receive a 15%, uh, agency admin fee, um, as the fiscal agent to cover some of those costs.

▶ 37:47 Robb Stewart: That's a good amount. Good. It's, I like that. Um, okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

▶ 37:52 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Uh, council Jamal, and then Council Williams.

▶ 37:55 Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 37:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Uh, director Cho for, um, for all the work that you've been joined to get this, um, department running smoothly. I do, uh, uh, I'm aware of the override that did not pass in stoneham and it did impact different departments. Um, knowing that, you know, the Melrose is suffering also from, uh, the budget challenges and, um, there is, you know, big, um, possibility about the override, what are the impact that, um, knowing about this grant that could, that is impacting Stoneham and, uh, perhaps we would learn from it as well?

▶ 38:40 Speaker 7: Absolutely. That's a good question. So, um, the situation in Stoneham without the override, um, several departments in, in the city or, uh, in the town are seeing, uh, cutbacks, uh, in this immediate next fiscal year. We're not expecting to see, um, a large impact on our department. But that's not to say that, um, if the override does, another override does not pass, or the financial situation remains the same, that we won't also see some, um, decreases across the board. Um, right now we are at capacity with our inspection services team, um, Stoneham and Melrose and Wakefield. I think we're not unique. We're seeing an increased development, uh, which means we're gonna have an increased volume of complaints, increased number of inspections we're gonna need conduct. Um, so we will see a need, uh, increase. And so, um, this grant, I believe is, um, is going to help us alleviate some of that, uh, pressure. The Department of Public Health has made it very clear that, um, their goal is as health equity across the state. So they want to be able to fund all communities, um, so that, um, you not, you're not only gonna receive services from communities that can afford it, all communities should be afforded, um, public health services. So, um, I see this grant being crucial, um, to our service delivery moving forward. Got

▶ 39:48 Maya Jamaleddine: It. Thank you.

▶ 39:53 Ryan Williams: Council Williams? Uh, if my math is right, 15% is $84,000. That Sounds correct. Is that money going into your budget?

▶ 40:00 Speaker 7: That I believe is going into the, uh, the city of general funds.

▶ 40:03 Ryan Williams: So it's general funds. Do you include it in your budget when you're putting your budget together that there's $84,000 in the general fund that's to use, to be used to administrate the public health work?

▶ 40:13 Speaker 7: Uh, I, I do not believe so. You

▶ 40:15 Speaker 6: Should. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Alright. Thank you.

▶ 40:20 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Uh, anyone else on discussion?

▶ 40:25 Robb Stewart: Mr. Chair? I'll make a motion to recommend this to the full council that we already had

▶ 40:28 Maya Jamaleddine: One. We already have

▶ 40:30 Speaker 4: one On. Oh, that's right.

▶ 40:33 Speaker 6: Sorry. It was very early. We're doing great though.

▶ 40:34 Mark Garipay: You're confusing me. Mr. Tonsil. Stewart, can we take a call? Right. It's gonna be a long night the way we're going. Calling you.

▶ 40:41 Speaker 4: Rolling off right. Vice chair.

▶ 40:43 Speaker 1: Jamal Ledine? Yes. Councillor Occhio? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Cameron Chetty? Yes. Councillor Brosky. Yes. Dr. Romanul? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Williams? Yes. President Moore. Yep. Chair Gar Pay. Motion passes.

▶ 41:01 Mark Garipay: Yes. Thank you Mr. Chu. That will be recommended. Thank everybody. Council, uh, next up we're under appropriations. We have ID 1, 2, 6, 4 7 and appropriation from free cash account 0 1 3 2 4 0 0 1 in the amount of 48,000 to DPW Parks. Number 4, 7 5 for improvements to the dog park. We have, uh, park Superintendent Rob Carillo with us Floor.