APPRO-2024-25 : Fiscal 2025 Operating Budget in the amount of $104,140,412 (One Hundred four million, one hundred forty thousand, four hundred and twelve dollars).

Transcript (~13 min @ 11:46)

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▶ 11:17 Maya Jamaleddine: during our annual budget hearings, um, each city department comes before the city council to present their annual operating budget for FY 25. These hearings will continue for five weeks. Uh, we've been meeting for a few weeks now, and the schedule of departments is available online for the benefit of the public. This means that you'll see the same agenda item on our, uh, budget during our budget hearing season. Until this, uh, council passes the full FY 25 budget.

▶ 11:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, first item on our agenda, it's, um, appropriation, um, 2024 dash 25 fiscal called 2025 operating budget in the amount of $104,140,412.

▶ 12:18 Maya Jamaleddine: First department is, um, 1 71 Conservation.

▶ 12:30 Jen Grigoraitis: Good evening, Madam Chair. Members of the council. Um, this budget has, line item has been zeroed out and was combined with the budget for the Department of Planning and Community Development, which you have previously reviewed.

▶ 12:41 Maya Jamaleddine: Perfect. Thank you. Welcome. Next, we have five number five 11 Health. Madam Chair. Yes. I, uh, point of order. I think we need to just motion to move the bottom line on that anyways, even Though it's zero. I'm sorry. That's okay. Um, so Motion to move the bottom line on 1 71. We, we have a motion to move the bottom line, uh, made by President Melli, seconded by, uh, councilor Ro.

▶ 13:12 Speaker 7: Um, clerk

▶ 13:13 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Bruski. Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Aldine? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

▶ 13:30 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Now, next is, uh, number five 11. Um, health

▶ 13:40 Speaker 7: Chu.

▶ 13:43 Speaker 1: Uh, good evening, Madam Chair and the City Council. Um, thank you for this opportunity to speak on our, uh, proposed budget for FY 25. Um, this year, the Melrose Health and Human Services, um, has been able to provide, uh, the residents of the city of Melrose, uh, services through evidence-based food and health inspection program, our sub, uh, substance use prevention initiatives, community wellness offerings, public health, nursing and social service resource connections. Uh, we have under, we have undergone several staffing changes during this last fiscal year. Um, and we have successfully completed, uh, the first year, year and a half, um, partnership with the town of Stoneham in our, uh, three town Regional Health Department. Uh, I'm very proud of the work of our staff, and, uh, we cont we hope to continue to provide the necessary services moving forward. Um, we're also very proud of the work, uh, in the policy realm where we've passed through the Board of Health, the nicotine free generation, uh, progressive policy, looking to curb the use of tobacco and to eventually establish a tobacco free generation in our, in our communities.

▶ 14:49 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Do we have any question from my colleagues?

▶ 14:57 Maya Jamaleddine: I seeing none. Sorry.

▶ 15:01 Cal Finocchiaro: One question about the animal sheltering. Where, where, um, I know we don't have an animal officer. Where are the animal sheltered?

▶ 15:07 Speaker 1: Yes. So animal sheltering encompasses several different, um, areas. Uh, we actually have contract animal control services, so we serve as the triage center, uh, for animal call calls. Our contract was with the town of Stoneham. Um, so we utilize their animal control officer when necessary. Uh, in cases where an animal control officer is not necessary, uh, myself or a staff member, uh, usually assist in that situation in animal sheltering. Uh, we have a great partner in the Melrose Animal Clinic across the street, and we've also worked with our area, um, uh, VCAs as well. Okay.

▶ 15:39 Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 15:43 Maya Jamaleddine: Do we have any question, uh,

▶ 15:47 Maya Jamaleddine: counselor, uh, Vandiver,

▶ 15:49 Kimberly Vandiver: Uh, could you share a little bit more about nicotine free generation and when we'll see any, um, specific changes within the city based on that policy?

▶ 15:59 Speaker 1: Absolutely. So, nicotine free generation was passed in April of this year through the Board of Health. Um, the language specifically states that as of January 1st, 2025, um, tobacco, tobacco and nicotine products cannot be sold to anybody that was born on or after January 1st, 2004. And so we have, um, six or seven month runup time between now and then. We're using this time to provide education to our retailers, um, to help them understand the new regulation. Um, this nicotine free generation policy started in Brookline, um, as a, as a town, uh, town ordinance. But we have since, uh, took taken this approach as a region to start spreading this policy. Our goal is to, um, have a very slow phase out of tobacco products, uh, in our region. And that starts here. And so each year, one smaller one group, um, one small group becomes ineligible to purchase tobacco products. And, uh, in the next couple decades, we'll see that, um, tobacco sales, um, reduce in our area.

▶ 16:59 Speaker 5: Thank you. Great news.

▶ 17:03 Maya Jamaleddine: Any, um, other question? Vice Chair Williams. Thank

▶ 17:08 Ryan Williams: You. Um, can you give us a sense of how you feel enforcement of health code violations is going in the city, both with commercial residential, just an overview of how that works and where you see areas of improvement, anything like that?

▶ 17:22 Speaker 1: Sure. Yeah. So our, um, our enforcement of codes, uh, we generally operate on a complaint basis, so we'll receive a complaint. Um, one of our, one of our health inspectors. So we have a health inspector and we also have a senior health inspector and myself. So the three of us work together. We receive a complaint to go out to document, uh, the complaint. We take note of the issue. And then based on the, based on the issue that we find we will, is we'll sometimes reach out to the, um, homeowner or the property owner first. And we will try to, um, have a discussion to see, you know, if there are any extenuating circumstances, what, what the reasons may be behind the violation of the code. Um, and if we are unable to reach them or we're unable to reach a con, um, reach a, uh, agreement at the time, then we'll usually, um, issue an order to correct, um, that will detail what parts of the code that they're in violation, whether that's a city ordinance or that's the state housing code or what it, what it might be. And so we will issue a timeline under which they need to have these, uh, issues corrected. Um, uh, again, our first goal is always to do, to do education and provide, uh, the resources to come into compliance. But when that does not work, then we, uh, will sometimes move towards, uh, finding. And so, um, we've, we've had that several times this year, but we've been able to resolve many of the, um, complaints and issues, uh, through communication education with the, um, with the town, uh, with the residents. Um, in terms of areas of improvement, I think one of the areas that we're looking to improve in the next fiscal year will be working on abandoned properties. Um, that's something that has come to our attention. Um, there's been a couple of properties that been brought to our attention and we've been working with the ags office, um, and their Neighborhood Restore restoration program. Mm-Hmm. Um, so, uh, there's different options when the approach, uh, in that approach. Um, again, we wanna work with the property owners that are already there, but a lot of the time, um, they will, sometimes they, they will, they'll, um, recommend receivership. Um, and so that's, that's a long, that's a long process that we work with our legal department as well.

▶ 19:21 Ryan Williams: About how many fines do you think you issue in a year? How many tickets, I suppose?

▶ 19:25 Speaker 1: Um, I don't have, I don't have those, I don't have those figures in front of me, but, um, I would say less than 20 fines a year, um, for housing, generally speaking, when we're able to, um, educate and work with them, um, issues are brought into compliance before the timeline is off.

▶ 19:40 Ryan Williams: You said, you said housing, you mean residential, like residences? That's correct, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, and I wonder if you could characterize for us the amount of this budget that goes towards the schools. I see there's the school nurse line, but then are there other mixed lines in here?

▶ 19:58 Ryan Williams: Sure. You don't have to be exact. I'm just curious. Is it, you know, 30%, 20%? Is it specific lines? What do you think?

▶ 20:04 Speaker 1: Okay. So specifically the lines, the school nurse line would be, um, dedicated to the schools. Um, we also, um, the only major line that we had going towards the schools prior was the, uh, interface line, which has been, uh, reduced to zero. Uh, formerly it was 2020 1000. Uh, interface, if tho for those who are not familiar, was a, uh, referral service that we were working with the William James College. Um, essentially they served as a resource that people could call, uh, for a variety of which substance use prevention, uh, substance use, uh, counseling, mental health, behavioral health. Um, the Massachusetts Behavioral Health helpline has, uh, has, um, greatly expanded in the last two years. And so, uh, we keep, we keep very close contact with, uh, state DPH to make sure that, uh, their residents are able to access the resources they need. Uh, and so the, those services overlap with interface, and now we have a free resource, uh, through the state that does a very similar job.

▶ 21:01 Speaker 4: That's good. Alright. Thank you.

▶ 21:06 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, counselor Vandiver. Thank

▶ 21:08 Kimberly Vandiver: You. Um, I just wanted to follow up again on the earlier question that was asked about animal services. Sure. Um, uh, because it's something that I do see come up sometimes on the community Facebook groups. And, uh, so I was just wondering about that if, um, I guess whether the services are there and people aren't aware of how to get in touch with them sometimes, or whether there are certain types of issues that are not able to be resourced with our current, um, set of, of contracts and, and resources. So I was just wondering if you could, um, share, you know, what type, you know, just looking at some of the common things like a loose dog or somebody sees an injured raccoon, like what are, what types of, um, cases can you handle? And, you know, how would people go about accessing services for those? Sure.

▶ 21:58 Speaker 1: So generally speaking, animal control officers, uh, through mass general law and through laws that govern that position, um, deal very almost specifically with domestic animals. So there is, uh, less crossover with wildlife than I think the general consensus, uh, believes. Uh, wildlife is a very tricky topic. There's a lot of laws that protect wildlife in Massachusetts. Um, there's I think, some confusion, and we've tried to put out some messaging around this before, but we'll continue to do that as well. Uh, relocation of wildlife is not something that we can do, um, legally. Uh, there are rehab, uh, rehabilitators in the, in our area, but they have very narrow scopes of focus depending on what group of animals they serve. Um, so the animal control officer currently that we contract with stoneham can help with dogs, loose dogs, uh, abandoned dogs. Um, we've had some, several situations like that. And when we, when we receive a call that is appropriate for animal control officer, we call that person and they have the expertise, uh, to deal with that. Um, currently our, our resources for animal control are adequate. Um, we're able to, um, process those, process those, uh, claims. I think part of it is we've asked residents to, as best they can, leave us a message when they call the line. And so myself and another staff member screen those calls. Um, so if when someone leaves a message, we're able to take that information and appropriately triage the right person.

▶ 23:21 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay. That's really helpful to know how to, um, inform people especially about the difference between wildlife and domestic and, um, how they, what they should expect.

▶ 23:30 Speaker 1: Yeah. And then when also when they call and they leave us information, if it's regarding wildlife, if they, they have concerns about like coyotes in their yard or aggressive wildlife, um, we also then go back and provide them the information for people who can, so there's Mass Wildlife, there's Massachusetts Environmental Police, um, there's also pest control companies that we don't recommend, but we've heard that other folks have used. And so we provide them, you know, the resources that they need to deal with those situations.

▶ 23:54 Speaker 5: Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 23:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Awesome. Councilor Ro? Yes.

▶ 23:59 Speaker 2: I'd like to make a motion to move the bottom line. Second.

▶ 24:04 Maya Jamaleddine: Second. We have a motion, uh, made by Council Ro to move to bottom line, seconded by President LER Lee.

▶ 24:14 Maya Jamaleddine: Uh, on discussion, seeing none. Third clerk,

▶ 24:15 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Abramsky. Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Elli. Yes. And Chair Jamaleddine? Yes. That motion passes.

▶ 24:32 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, next we have Ordinance 2024 dash two, health revolving count number 26 59.