Departments

Transcript (~1 h 18 min @ 2:58)

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▶ 2:47 Maya Jamaleddine: We will be discussing ordinance, uh, 2024 dash two reauthorization of the City of Merose Republic Fund, uh, table for fiscal 2025.

▶ 3:08 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, first item on, on our agenda is, um, uh, number 1 45, uh, treasure and Collector with, um, Ms. Armada.

▶ 3:31 Speaker 3: Good evening. Good evening. Um, I have four budgets to present. Is it okay to do all four substitute? Yes. Okay. Thank you. So, good evening. I'm here tonight to present the budgets of the treasure collector, which includes the operating budget number 1 45, the debt budget, 7 11 7 52, and 7 51 Medicare City portion nine 16, and the parking budget, which is 2 96. I did put together brief, um, slides. I won't touch all of them, but I thought a couple of them might be useful for you to see.

▶ 4:13 Speaker 3: Um, first, I've a few highlights of the past year's activity. Before I get to the budgets, I'm happy to report we are fully staffed with 16 members. We have the assistant treasurer, Stephanie Champion, the treasurer and parking clerk, Andrea Nichols and three collection clerks, pat Dean Real Estate, Renee Alexi Water and Sewer, and Janine Shares who is on excise. Janine is our newest hire coming to us about 10 months ago, and she's become a very valuable member of the team in a very short time. This consistency of staff and continuing to streamline our processes and all of the cross training that I've been just hammering down on them really proved successful this year when a team member was out suddenly for seven weeks. Um, other than a couple of little bumps that you might expect, uh, the collections operations ran smoothly and it was transparent to any of our customers. Um, in my view, that was the most important thing we could have achieved in this last year. We also achieved some of our, our goals that we put down. Um, but, uh, we, we completed the review of Excise on Collectibles. It was about 202 2,287 bills that we put to the assessor in a list. They approved it. These were bills from 1999 to 2013. So this is gonna help clean up our books and, uh, have our financials a little bit more transparent. One of our goals in fiscal 25 is to do same thing with property tax. We'll do 2000 to 20 13, 20 14 and clean those up. One of the goal I thought I'd mention for fiscal 25 is to offer the option of paperless billing. Other cities and towns around us have done so recently. Brookline, who did I talk to? Somerville, a couple of others, and there's a few reasons we wanna offer this. One is the changing demographics. Young people don't wanna open mail. It's just a fact. Um, two go green effort, um, work along with that. And three, we're always looking for savings. And this is a, would be if people adapt to it, a huge savings in postage, which only continues to go up. So now onto the budgets.

▶ 6:38 Speaker 3: Um, you can't say this very well, but I added a column on the right because I thought it was important to show that on the collections, on the treasury collectors operating budget, it's purely dictated by union contracts on salaries, other mine and Stephanie's. Uh, so all of the increases are due to the union contracts and all of the other things are volume driven. It's bills, it's paper, it's, um, advertisements that I have to do legally. So it's a flat budget. Uh, we made some cuts where we could on, um, memberships, some, some small things that, um, maybe have been a little bit bloated. But overall, it's, it is a flat budget and only takes into consideration higher postage costs and, and salaries. For the most part, municipal debt we are obligated to pay once we issue the debt. Um, we need to pay the principal and interest on a timely basis. So this is the schedule for la. Next year we will be paying 3 million 9, 9 3 for 10 in principal payments on already issued debt, 9 57 5 5 1 in interest and 1,000,004 thousand 263 on temporary p and i, uh, for a total outlay of 5 million 909 5 2 2 4. This is slightly higher than fiscal 24, and it's due to the fact that we're going to issue new debt this year, a significant amount, and we will have to pay the p and i in the following year. Um, Medicare City portion is level funded at nine 20. This is a formulaic number based on the payroll that I'm provided, and it's, it's flat. And last but not least is parking. Uh, the parking budget is flat a little bit down from last year. I'm sorry, It's flat.

▶ 8:42 Speaker 3: Just, um, it's flat to last year. Um, salary and wages went up because of, um, the union contract printing has gone up. So, um, that's just a little bit grove And Myrtle is a lease that we are required to pay. That went up to 35,000 last year, and we offset it a little bit with professional services. That number may have been a little bit high. Ticket volume is down, so we were able to get the budget in, um, flat to fiscal 24. And that is all I have for you, unless you have any questions for me.

▶ 9:23 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, I have Counselor Stewart, and next, uh, counselor Osky. Okay. And then counselor.

▶ 9:33 Robb Stewart: Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you Ms. Arata, for being here this evening. Uh, first what I wanted to do is just mention and compliment you on the, um, the completeness of the package that you sent out. Uh, I found it easy to read. It was comprehensive and it provided all the information that in need, and I think it's exemplary of what all the other departments could achieve. So, uh, thank you for, um, showing a good example. Um, a few questions that I have. Um,

▶ 10:10 Robb Stewart: so you talked a little bit about that online payment exception process. Mm-Hmm. And there was some impact in decreasing time and paper flow.

▶ 10:20 Speaker 3: Yeah. We still use a messenger because there are certain items that have to come back. Yep. But all the exceptions were coming back in physical form Now when it's just something that is, is minor, um, they just load it online and my clerks sit there and look things up and clear them right there. It saves, we have a messenger that comes three days a week,

▶ 10:45 Speaker 3: so that speeds it up by a couple of days.

▶ 10:48 Robb Stewart: That's great. Yeah. That's great. Um, and

▶ 10:55 Robb Stewart: so you talked about the parking budget being down. Um, and did I,

▶ 11:02 Robb Stewart: it seems like there's a lot of overnight parking just is down by 1.3%.

▶ 11:09 Speaker 3: It's, um, let me see where, what I said here. Right, right.

▶ 11:18 Robb Stewart: So, Sally, step up and colon contract printing expenses, but it was offset by reduction in professional services due to a lower volume of parking ti tickets being processed. Uh, yes. There was a So that, that surprises me because people still park, right?

▶ 11:32 Speaker 3: Yes, they do. Um, but parking tickets, um, actually parking revenue in general has been down since Covid. ID this particular year was lower than normal. Um, there was a, a, a gentleman who was out on leave who was responsible for much of the parking ticket revenue.

▶ 11:56 Speaker 3: Um, he is back, but it's, uh, we are this fiscal year, we were lower than we were in fiscal 21.

▶ 12:04 Robb Stewart: Okay. Is this significant or is it, uh, I mean It's Because those $25 tickets tied up right.

▶ 12:12 Speaker 3: Pre covid parking would bring in between two 50

▶ 12:16 Speaker 4: and 300,000, right? Or about half that. Okay. A little over half.

▶ 12:21 Speaker 3: So it, over the years it, we, we recouped a little bit and then it kind of stayed flat. So, um,

▶ 12:28 Robb Stewart: Kind of pays for the person that's doing the parking tickets and then some, Pardon Me, it pays for the parking, the person that's doing the parking tickets and then some, it sounds like if it's 150. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Nice to see that get reinstated, hopefully Yes. With the person that re returns. Okay. Yes,

▶ 12:47 Speaker 3: He did.

▶ 12:51 Speaker 4: Um, and

▶ 12:58 Speaker 4: Lemme see, I have one other question here.

▶ 13:02 Speaker 4: We talked about that. Alright.

▶ 13:06 Robb Stewart: Uh, so you mentioned about, um,

▶ 13:15 Robb Stewart: uh, payment options and the whole electronic delivery of tax and water and sewer bills. Uh, and I think it's great because of the changing direct demographics, as you had mentioned, and, uh,

▶ 13:26 Speaker 4: people don't want to open their mail.

▶ 13:30 Robb Stewart: Uh, so how would that serve in kind of a diverse community for folks that don't have access?

▶ 13:35 Speaker 3: It doesn't, but it is an option that is offered. It, it can only be an option. It can never replace mail per I checked with Shannon. Um, so

▶ 13:46 Robb Stewart: Would there be any kind of discount, um, to impel people that would offset the savings that we would have?

▶ 13:53 Speaker 3: Not really, because we still have to pay for the processing. Okay. Okay. What, where we're going to have savings if this is adopted widely, is on postage. Postage. Right. And postage, when I get the $7,600 bill after doing a real estate mailing, two thirds of it's postage.

▶ 14:08 Speaker 4: Right. Right. So it's five grand. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

▶ 14:14 Speaker 4: Alright. Thank you Mr. Marty. Thank you, mayor.

▶ 14:16 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Next, um, councilor Mki, I

▶ 14:18 Speaker 2: Was just gonna motion to move the bottom line, but If they want They have questions, Feel free.

▶ 14:24 Maya Jamaleddine: So we have a motion to move to bottom line made by Councillor Reky, seconded. Second by Councillor Stewart. On discussion. I have Councillor ver

▶ 14:34 Kimberly Vandiver: Uh, yeah, I, I thank you. Um, I think my question was largely covered by Councillor Stewart. Um, I guess just to, to confirm now that the person is back, who, who's responsible for the park ticket ticket volume, would we, you mentioned the volume's not quite back to where it was. Um, are there any other factors at play besides,

▶ 14:53 Speaker 3: Yeah, there's been, um, there's more focus on, uh, traveling through the station lots at night. So we've seen that pick up again. Mm-Hmm. So it'll take time, but we'll see that come back.

▶ 15:08 Kimberly Vandiver: Can you clarify as far as traveling through the station lots? Do you mean the,

▶ 15:12 Speaker 3: Somebody is Oh, the train stations where the overnight parking is allowed. Okay. So people buy a permit to park there overnight, Uhhuh, and, um, if they're not patrolled, then people just park there overnight. I

▶ 15:25 Speaker 4: See. Okay. Thank you. So it

▶ 15:26 Speaker 3: We're enforcing them more. One,

▶ 15:32 Speaker 1: Um, vice Chair Williams.

▶ 15:33 Ryan Williams: Thank you. Uh, okay. So lemme just check my notes real quick, make sure I don't forget anything. Before I dive into parking. I really wanna talk a little bit about parking. This is really kind of, it's interesting to me. So your office is presenting the parking budget? The parking budget is an enforcement budget. It's a public safety enforcement. Right.

▶ 15:56 Ryan Williams: Um, do you, in this, in 2 96, is this self-contained the person who does the ticketing? He's, he's in the salary and wage line? He Is not. He is not, no.

▶ 16:08 Speaker 3: Okay. The only salary and wage line is Andrea? No.

▶ 16:11 Ryan Williams: Uh, who is in the salary? What, what position is in the salary and wage line for

▶ 16:15 Speaker 3: Park the parking, treasury and parking clerk?

▶ 16:17 Speaker 5: The clerk is in here. Okay. Yeah. So

▶ 16:18 Speaker 3: All of the expenses related to the parking program fall under budget.

▶ 16:23 Speaker 5: Yes. Except for chief

▶ 16:25 Speaker 3: Failure's team goes out and enforces the parking rules.

▶ 16:28 Ryan Williams: Right. Um, processing the parking tickets process in your budget. Correct. Um, I'm sorry. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Yeah, I get it. Um, okay. And you're also incurring in here the Grove and Myrtle Street parking cost, which is the, the licensing cost for three years of that lot.

▶ 16:47 Speaker 3: It, I, I believe it's a rental agreement.

▶ 16:49 Speaker 5: It's a rental, yeah. Right. For

▶ 16:51 Speaker 3: Use a rental of the lot. Yes.

▶ 16:53 Ryan Williams: Um, and I wasn't here the day that we discussed this, so I wanted to ask, is that lot signed as public parking available for people to park in? Are there directional signs that let people know when they're looking around a spot for the city that there's a satellite lot nearby that they can go to?

▶ 17:11 Speaker 3: I am gonna have to get back to you on that one. That's okay. I'll ask my,

▶ 17:14 Speaker 5: I'm sorry. Um,

▶ 17:16 Ryan Williams: and you don't happen to know, is there like a particular use case that we have for that lot?

▶ 17:21 Speaker 3: Like it's, I don't, I Yeah,

▶ 17:22 Ryan Williams: That's fair. I mean, say, I don't know. Yeah. You're the treasurer, not the parking enforcer. I get it. I get it. And, um, um, I, you know, I find it interesting that you're taking on the cost of printing these booklets because, for instance, inspection services has the cost of printing their own booklets, and they only pay five, 400 bucks a year. Which I think is maybe a comment on the need to ramp up enforcement among other departments, because certainly the parking enforcement in Melrose is, um, a bright spot when it comes to enforcement. Um, I do wish that this was in the police budget. I just wish it was in the police budget. Um, and that the clerk in your office with different duties was paid out of your office. Um, and I don't know what to do about the parking lot because it's $35,000 in, in city money. That, to my knowledge, goes completely unused. I never see anybody park there. I don't know what it's used for. And I don't think anybody would know. And I'm not blaming you for this at all. I don't think anybody would know that that lot is available for public parking, you know? Um, so, you know, I would, you moved the it you didn't, but the IT line for licenses was moved to it. Yes, it was. So I speak to the powers that be. It would be great to see some of these other costs moved into their respective costs centers, um, in a future budget.

▶ 18:46 Speaker 2: Thank you.

▶ 18:48 Speaker 1: Thank you. Next, um, I have president.

▶ 18:52 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Amara. Um, not to belabor the parking point further, but so I'm seeing in the, in your memo it says, FY 24 parking budget is down 1.3% from FY 24. So it's parking 2, 9 6. But in the, um, muni report, it says 6.2% increase

▶ 19:13 Speaker 3: It. Well, it wasn't an increase because it was 70,000 last year. Um, if I remember correctly, I don't have that with me. Yes. Um, but I, I did the memo well before we finalized, so that could have been the reason. So I apologize for that if I didn't amend it.

▶ 19:31 Speaker 4: Yeah. Um, now that you say that though, right here it says revised budget 70,000, so maybe that's 6.2 based on the original FY 24 budget Anyways, the first time. I've noticed that before. Thank you.

▶ 19:48 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, for the second time, uh, vice Chair

▶ 19:51 Ryan Williams: Williams, the thing that I was trying to remember was the question of whether or not the parking ticket revenue is cost neutral or incurs costs for the city. Because we have a $70,000 budget for parking services. We've said that the city brings in about $150,000 in parking ticket revenue, but that doesn't account for the time that officers spend administering the tickets. Whether it's a, you know, an officer making an hour of overtime doing a detail or a dedicated person that's walking up and down Main Street. So we don't really know whether or not a $25 parking ticket Melrose covers our costs. I mean, based on the accounting or whether we're actually kind of paying people to illegally park in Melrose because the ticket doesn't cover the full cost of the services we need to provide in order to process it.

▶ 20:37 Speaker 3: I think the chief and I would have to sit down and pull all those numbers together in order to answer

▶ 20:41 Ryan Williams: That. It might be interesting to review, you know, I don't know when the last time the, um, parking fines were looked at or considered. And certainly I wouldn't wanna go crazy on parking fines and, you know, raise a, a ruckus. But I think $25 for some of the kinds of illegal parking that we see in this city is pretty mild.

▶ 21:00 Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you.

▶ 21:02 Maya Jamaleddine: Anyone still on discussion?

▶ 21:07 Speaker 1: Okay, Mr. Clerk,

▶ 21:09 Speaker 2: What is the motion on the table?

▶ 21:11 Maya Jamaleddine: Motion to move to bottom line?

▶ 21:13 Speaker 2: Oh, Just 1 45.

▶ 21:15 Maya Jamaleddine: Uh, we have a motion to move to bottom line move, uh,

▶ 21:19 Speaker 2: councilor Brownstein. Can we, can we do 'em collectively? 1 45 7 1 1 7 5 1 7. 5 2 9 1 6 and 2 9 6.

▶ 21:31 Maya Jamaleddine: So, motion to conjoin? Yeah. Motion to conjoin.

▶ 21:35 Speaker 1: Um, second seven. Okay.

▶ 21:37 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, so we have motion to conjoin, um, 7 11, 7 51, 7 52, 9 16, and 2 96 made by counselor Ky, seconded by counselor, um,

▶ 21:51 Speaker 3: N 1 45 And

▶ 21:53 Maya Jamaleddine: 1 45 and 1 45. And seconded by counselor, uh, Stewart.

▶ 22:02 Speaker 1: All in favor? Okay. We don't have to do roll call. No.

▶ 22:04 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. So all in favor?

▶ 22:07 Speaker 1: Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

▶ 22:09 Maya Jamaleddine: So this, uh, motion carries to, uh, to conjoin, and we already have a motion to move to bottom line.

▶ 22:20 Ryan Williams: I'll motion to move the conjoint order to the bottom line. Second.

▶ 22:22 Speaker 4: Second.

▶ 22:30 Speaker 2: Okay. Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Brosky? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver? Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal? Yes. Uh, the motion passes.

▶ 22:47 Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. Thanks Very much.

▶ 22:50 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you for being with us tonight.

▶ 22:55 Speaker 1: Um, and, um,

▶ 22:58 Maya Jamaleddine: next, uh, we have, uh, two 11,

▶ 23:05 Maya Jamaleddine: uh, uh, with the police department.

▶ 23:10 Maya Jamaleddine: So we have, uh, chief Pollier.

▶ 23:17 Speaker 2: Good evening, everyone. Hi. That, that was sooner of than we thought. Yeah, I'm glad we showed up on time.

▶ 23:25 Maya Jamaleddine: Me too. I think we broke a record tonight. Okay.

▶ 23:27 Speaker 2: Uh, well, thank you for having us. Um, most of you know me, obviously. I'm Chief f This is, um, my office manager, Kim Upton, um, who will be assisting tonight with some of the questions that I may not be able to answer. So I, I will do the same as Catherine did. I, I wanna highlight just a few things from FY 24, and then we can move into the FI 25 budget that I, I think you all have my memo. So, uh, in FY um, 24, we had three swung, uh, officers retire or separate from service. So we actually, uh, have filled those three positions. They're still in the, uh, police academy. They'll graduate in August, and then they'll do three months of failed training, hopefully actually in a sector car affecting, um, staffing in November of this year. Um, I may talk about that a little bit later, but I, I want to kind of walk you through the process because it is, it is budget related. Um, filling a police officer position is not, um, like the private sector or some of the other departments in the city where an open position happens and someone gets hired and they start the next day. It's well over 12 months, um, from when someone retires or resigns or lateral transfers before that position is actually making an impact in staffing. They'll be on the budget and being paid for about nine months. But they don't do, um, I don't wanna say they don't do us any service, but they're not filling holes at that time. When someone retires, we call for a list civil service list that takes maybe two to three weeks before candidates come in and sign the list, fill out their application, give it to my people. Then we're looking at another two months of an intensive background investigation. Then if they pass that through the oral boards and all that, that, that, um, background process, we offer them conditional letters of employment. And then in only then can they be sent for medicals and physicals and psychological evaluations, which can take another two months. Then if they pass those, then we can try to find a police academy. And that's where that now even extends it further, because they're six month long academies and there's not that many run. So if we find an academy quickly, once they get into the academy, it's six months of training and they graduate, then it's three months of field training with a field training officer on the street, then, and only then do they actually start making an impact on overtime staffing and so forth. So we're continually chasing the tail and policing not only in Merris, um, we're struggling to find candidates, but by the time we do, we would've usually lost another four or five. So we're looking at a five, retiring, I get two retiring, um, in the next week or two, two more in the next five months, and then another one that's leaving. So just when I think I'm getting there, we're gonna be behind another five. And the cost of the overtime, the cost of four. Well, there's two things going on. And as the city council, I think obviously you have, your fiscal responsibility is number one to the city. So the, the overtime goes through the roof when we're down. But more importantly for me, when overtime is up and manpower is down, it results in forced overtimes for the personnel. So we have a lot of, uh, officers work in doubles, sometimes triples, which we, we don't wanna do, but we have to because of those vacancies. So to me, it's actually more of a wellness issue. It's a, it's a morale issue. It's a physical and mental issue, but it's also a fiscal issue. Um, and we're fortunate enough that we are budgeted for the same amount of positions that we had last year, but we're never getting to the actual number. We're 50 sworn, but we never have 50 actually working. There's either 50 total, some are in the academy, some are in field training, some are just aren't filled yet. In an ideal world, we should have 54 or 55 budgeted so we could get the 50 and, and then chase 55. So we'll constantly, and not only without provide more personnel on the street for public safety, community engagement, but there's a lot of things I wanna do. And there's a lot of things that police officers want to do more in the station, staffing wise, specialty positions, more traffic positions, more pub public records, administrative type positions that we don't have. I I only say that because this is not only a fiscal 25 issue. This is, this isn't gonna go away. So, you know, next year, you know, maybe I'm looking for 55 instead of 50. I just throw that out there only because we're never at the number that we should be. So we're trying, and, and it's just, it's not a fault. It's, it's just the way the system's set up. It takes a while. Uh, in addition to that, we lost it, but we, I shouldn't say we lost, but we had one patrol supervisor, um, called up for military duty back in September, only two months until last fiscal year, or this current fiscal year. And he's still out. He's not even gonna be back. And he told me, uh, told my staff not until at least fiscal 25, and he doesn't know when he's coming back. And that's part of the, the migrant crisis that's going on. So he's, he's a patrol supervisor that every single shift of his, I'm coming on on overtime. So again, fiscal, fiscal problems, but not due to our own doing. Um, uh, in 24, we also got, um, we're fortunate enough to get that $66,000 grant for mental health. So we got a lot of, uh, personnel trained. I just reapplied for fiscal year 25 to continue that going. That was great. We also got a traffic grant that you all are aware we're almost closing. Well, we're still in the middle of that. That was $18,893. Sergeant G is handling that great. And the personnel is signing up to do increased traffic enforcement, as you all know. We also finally this year started that big major, uh, public safety radio upgrade. That was, um, money from FY 23 free cash was authorized. That's almost done, um, with probably in the early FY 25. We should be, that should be all wrapped up, we hope. Um, all our department salaries and wages all come from the same budget. Um, this year's budget reflects at 2.6% increase from FY 24. Uh, but I do want to emphasize that n none of us, 95.5% almost to a t is salaries and wages in my budget. There's only about 4.6% other than that. So this is, this is all personnel over time. Uh, court time, salaries and wages is 95% of the budget. This current budget that I'm presenting for you today for FY 25 does not account for salaries increases due to contractual contracts. That's still unsettled. So I just want to get that on the record. We are in negotiations with superiors. When they're done, then we'll start the patrolman. But that's not something we could obviously budget for because we don't know where that's gonna come. So right now that that line item of just salaries, like base salary is based upon what it is now and what some of them will we do for like, uh, uh, step raises and, and education incentive, but it won't account for if they settle the contract, which we hope to do.

▶ 30:50 Speaker 2: Um, I talked about the next part of my memo that there's gonna be at least five retiring soon within the next six months or so. Uh, the other thing that, um, I want to emphasize to the council too that's gonna be challenging is the overtime cut of 5%. Um, which I get right. We all have to kind of do it, but that's gonna be a challenge for us because it's very difficult to meet that anyway. Mostly because of what I just talked about. We're always chasing the tail. We don't have enough personnel currently working and due to CBA regulation, uh, C-B-C-B-A agreements with minimum manning. And in fact, we probably should even have more personnel on the street every time there's a vacation. Every time I send someone to training, every time they take contractual rights off sick time, it 98% results in an overtime to backfill that position. So that's gonna be tough to do with that 5%. The other, um, thing that I would like to draw your attention to is the, the training line overtime, which was new and FY 24, because I wanted to be able to have myself personally. But for you all to kind of see where the overtime's broken down. There's regular staff overtime due to vacancies, and then there's like training overtime, which to me is very important. We're budgeted for 75,000. But unfortunately that's gonna be a challenge as well because the, our offices are mandated upwards of 60 hours of overtime, excuse 60 hours of training mandated by NPTC and post commission to get our certification. So this is almost like an unfunded mandate. Quite honestly. We have to do this, this training in order to be certified every year. And what that happens, what the result is, that's 60 hours per guy because each time I send them to the training, I'm either taking them off their shift and back filling their overtime because of the manpower issues, or they're going on an off shift and they'll get overtime. Either way. The calculations that Kim and I come up with for every sworn officer to do all the required overtime is about $195,000. That's what we requested for training overtime. Certainly there's more training I want to do above and beyond that. That's very important to me too to do as well. But with the fiscal situation, you know, unfortunately, some of that may have to be curtailed. Um, excuse me. And then lastly, we also have, uh, several revolving accounts, um, that include in my memo, uh, several of which are the police false alarm fund that has a balance of $3,700, roughly as of May. First we have a federal forfeiture drug account that as of 5 1 24 had a balance of 19,000 505 9. It's now up to, I believe, around 34,000. And third one of, well, I highlighted three. We have several more, but is the Hackney license fund that has a balance of $1,698. Now, I would anticipate, well, what do we do with that money? We generally use those for unforeseen, uh, purchases that we need that aren't budgeted for, um, for police cars, equipment that goes into cars, police station needs that just pop up. And just other unplanned kind of things where, you know, instead of trying to come back to the council to look for more money, it's almost like a rainy day fund. Uh, and we try not to use it, but if we have to, we use it. Um, that's kind of the, the, the nutshell. Um, like I said, 95% of our, our budget is salaries. And I think it's, I don't have a presentation, but I think in the budget, you, you can see that. And if you have any questions on that or any part of the other budget that the other four to 5%, um, most of, some of the stuff that had gone up, it's just they just go up. Um, membership dues, accreditation dues, stuff that we, myself and other members of the department have to belong to and have contractually belong to. They just go up and, uh, there's no fluff, for lack of a better word, is it just, if we don't pay it, we're not gonna be able to get the services.

▶ 34:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, I have Councilor Reky, Councillor Stewart, and next Councillor Williams.

▶ 35:01 Speaker 2: I was gonna motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 35:05 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion to move to bottom line made by Councilor Abramsky, seconded by, uh, vice Chair Williams. Uh, on discussion I have Councillor Stewart Chen, uh, vice Chair Williams. And then, um, counselor Vandiver.

▶ 35:23 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you Chief Elliot for being here this evening. Uh, and again, similar to, uh, Ms. Amada, I, I appreciate the, the detail that you provided in your memo. It's, it's very helpful. Thank you. Um, so the, the first question I had was, uh, I'm, I'm thrilled that we got this grant for traffic. Um, and you talk about increase enforcement of tra traffic regulations. I know you, you mentioned that Sergeant go is overseeing that. Can, can you just give a, a kind of highlight of where you're gonna focus? 'cause you know, that is like, as you know, what we all hear about.

▶ 36:02 Speaker 2: Yes, yes. Similar to every city traffic is, is always at the top of my, uh, top of the, you know, the, the constituents, um Yep. Priorities. And that, that was one of the reasons why we brought that back this year. I think that wasn't the last few years. I'm not sure if we had the grant, they had it at one point. Uh, but I'm like, well, we get all these complaints about traffic and, and if we can get a grant to, to pay for the overtime to go out there and also increase safety and also revenue to some extent, then that's a win-win for everybody. So I, um, I rely on Sergeant gk. He, he, he tries to pick the hotspots based upon the compliance, based upon some of the data. And then he will pick the assignment. It's four hour, uh, four hour overtime. The officers go out, they, um, go where he tells 'em to go, and then they have to do productivity reports because that's part of the grant. Mm-Hmm. So, and then at the end of the month or so, I believe it's the end of the month, Kim, Kim will do the financial part of it and the submissions back to, um, the powers that be to make sure that we are doing right by the grant for

▶ 37:03 Speaker 4: The reimbursement. It also

▶ 37:03 Speaker 3: Includes equip some equipment.

▶ 37:06 Speaker 2: True. Yeah. So, so that, yeah, that's right. That's, that's a reimbursement grant. So we pay it out and then we have to get it back. But we, uh, we just got, um, two or three, uh, new radars, uh, lidar and radar, uh, guns for traffic enforcement on that grant, which was great.

▶ 37:21 Robb Stewart: Great. Fantastic. Thank you for that. Um,

▶ 37:29 Robb Stewart: So, and this, this is gonna be more a question to the administration 'cause I think this is concerning, uh, about the overtime. Um, some of the training is, uh,

▶ 37:41 Robb Stewart: where's the money gonna come from if they've run out? So if, if there's um, you know, if they're gonna be under, uh, by over a hundred thousand dollars for these somewhat mandatory training programs, um, what do we need to plan for from a city perspective? That's an open question that I would ask the administration for the help and understanding. Um, the, uh, the second part of that question is, uh, if we don't do this training, what does uncertified mean? So what is the, what are the implications of not being certified?

▶ 38:23 Speaker 2: So you, you can't work, uh, you can't work unless you get some sort of exemption. Sometimes, uh, certain personnel, like I'll use that sergeant in particular, he who's been away since September, he's not gonna be able to complete that training. But you can petition, uh, the MPTC and post and so forth, and they give you cont conditional certification because he's away on military leave. He can't, he can't do it. If you don't have a good reason that you can't do it, they'll strip your certification and you can't work.

▶ 38:49 Robb Stewart: And so you have to have that certification to be able to work. So Correct. It's that important. Okay. Yes. Yes sir. That's, that's good to highlight. Thank you. And

▶ 39:08 Robb Stewart: similar OT training. So just, you had mentioned, uh, on the ammunition side, uh, pricing does not include ammunition for new academy recruits. Is that a significant amount or

▶ 39:20 Speaker 2: For just the ammunition line? It's not significant, but, um, that's what I did forget to, I don't know if that's in summary, but there is, oh, here it is. So per recruit, it's $22,680 and 90 cents at the most recent time that we had to purchase what's required when you're in the academy, they'll send us a shopping list. Basically this is what you need. So currently the three recruits that we have in the academy, that's what it costs per per person.

▶ 39:48 Robb Stewart: Okay, great. So that's, okay. Um, 75 8 $8,000. Okay. Um, and then just, you had mentioned this, uh, just a few minutes ago that the, the forfeit of drug account that went from 20 to 34 KI

▶ 40:05 Speaker 2: Believe. Yeah, we're roughly around 34,000 right now, as opposed to when I wrote the memo. Where,

▶ 40:10 Robb Stewart: Where's the money coming from? Just so curious. It's,

▶ 40:12 Speaker 2: It's a great question. So we have, uh, we have a, um, a detective assigned to the DEA task force. Um, and he's been there for a while. You know, obviously prior to when Ivy came here, came here. So when they, when the DEA and the task force makes arrests and seizures, they forfeit money, they forfeit property. There's a whole court proceeding that goes on through the federal government. And if the federal government wins it Mm-Hmm. The members of the task force, the municipalities get a percentage of whatever that is. Uh, the federal government takes like off the top, they take a number, I forget what it is. And then the rest of that is divided amongst the other agencies that helped to make the arrest and seizure. We get A cut. They, They take a long time though. I, I did this in my previous employment Sure. For 12 years run in, uh, you know, method, PDs, drug forfeiture, um, accounts, and, you know, you could be looking at four, four years maybe for one case to go through the whole process. So it's, it's good. We're getting more. And I think one of the reasons we're starting to see some product, product some more coming in is, uh, our task force officer I had, he was reassigned to a different work group that actually start that makes money, right? The one he was, uh, in prior, and I don't wanna speak outta school, I don't know particularly what he was doing, but it was one of those task forces that was geared more to a different sort of objective versus they weren't making seizures as opposed to the one that we now got him into this one. So moving forward, we, that should be helping.

▶ 41:50 Robb Stewart: That's nice. And, and what do you allocate that it, it is that part of the rainy fund? Do you in total, 'cause originally it was 20 5K and so now it's um, 30 4K between these three revolving accounts. Do you use all of those as kind of the rainy day or are each, uh, for particularly like this forfeiture drug account? Is that what is, what is, what do you use the money for once you

▶ 42:14 Speaker 2: Have it? So the, the forfeiture drug account, I, i, I wanna be very careful by calling it a rainy day. 'cause I, that's what I think I called it. But there, there's very, very strict guidelines. Protocol, yeah. That, that you what you can and cannot spend money on. So I haven't under my command yet used that account that was about $138 when I took over. It's now up to 34,000. So I haven't used it yet. Okay. I know what you can use it for, but sometimes you have to reach out, you have to read the manual, you call people. Um, but just for an example, what we may use it for, you know, like, again, I just referencing my previous, you know, we would use it for a lot sometimes, um, we bought cruises with it when the city couldn't provide money for that and we absolutely needed them. Mm-Hmm. We've used it for, um, equipment that we couldn't get, uh, for cruises. We used it for, um, some community events where we wouldn't have money to do. So there's, there's a lot of good things, but it's very, very, in that particular forfeiture account, very particular what you can and can't use it for. And one I just wanna stress too, it's, it's very, it's very clear in there that you can't use it to supplant the budget, if that's the correct word. You can't, like, you, the city for, for example, couldn't say, oh, well you have a hundred thousand dollars in that we're gonna cut your budget by a hundred grand. Right? Like, you can't do that. It's actually for what I said. Sure. Um, when you need things that you, the city may just can't afford. And if the, and if the police department has another a hundred thousand dollars and they need to buy a new cruiser, what I want to dip into that, probably not. But if we had a cruiser that was, we didn't have one and the city had no way to pay for it, you could do something like

▶ 43:51 Robb Stewart: That. Got it. Got it. And could we consider like drug safety prevention?

▶ 43:57 Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yes. Right.

▶ 44:01 Robb Stewart: Yes. And we Used to, it seems like a great opportunity to be able to take advantage of money that was initially, uh, within that sphere to help educate people. Um, that's something I would encourage.

▶ 44:11 Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And we used to use it a lot for a lot of the, um, the, the task force conferences, the task force things that they had to go to. It was perfect because the money that we would spend to send our drug agents task force members to these things was just money that they were bringing in from their job as a task force member. So it was, it would pay itself and then some, we wouldn't have to use the city budget funds for it.

▶ 44:35 Robb Stewart: Sure. Sure. Well, thank you for that explanation, Madam Chair. I, I certainly will support this, but I do want to reemphasize my concern about the fact that there is a potential, um, upcoming shortfall in the budget that's significant. It's not insignificant based on what chief value has communicated. Thank you.

▶ 44:54 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, councilor Stewart next, um, vice Chair Williams. Thank You.

▶ 45:00 Ryan Williams: You said forced overtime. Is that like a legal requirement if they have so many officers out? And so if you need the overtime and it's not in the budget, it has to come from somewhere

▶ 45:11 Speaker 2: No forced overtime. Uh, what I mean by that is if there's an opening on an upcoming shift Yeah. And there's no one available to work it and you have to have the staffing. Yeah, okay. You, you, you're ordering is what I, what I should call, you're ordering a personnel to, to be held over and that's not, that's never a good thing.

▶ 45:28 Ryan Williams: And, and is there, is there, do we have a requirement to have the shift covered?

▶ 45:33 Speaker 2: Yes. There's by union contracts. Union contracts, there's minimum manning requirements in the patrols. And the patrol unions contract union,

▶ 45:40 Ryan Williams: The union contracts require us to have certain number of people in the street. Got it. Um, okay. Um, I was looking through, we got a memo about the potential override vote and I was noticing that it has quite a few restorations to the police, um, police operations. Of course, it doesn't come near the overtime budget, which you, you're aware of. It gives 5% back to the overtime budget, one and a half million to market adjustment salary increases for public safety and others. Um, and administrative support for police departments. So, you know, God willing, um, there will hopefully be some help coming to the pd, um, in that regard sooner or later. Um, one thing I, I don't think I saw in there, and I believe I heard that our social worker's no longer with us.

▶ 46:34 Speaker 2: Um, no, she's, she's with us or she's same hours as she's always has been. Oh,

▶ 46:39 Ryan Williams: Okay. Okay. I, somebody told somebody in the city told me that the social worker had left and I had not heard that. So I'm glad you, thank you for dispelling that rumor. Because I was gonna ask, what are you gonna do without social worker? But I don't have to ask 'cause 'cause they're still there. That's great. Um, you, I wanted to, I talked a little bit about the recruitment challenges. Do you think that the recruitment challenges, just in terms of getting the actual candidates to, to apply, is this something that we're seeing in, did you see it in Medford? I mean, I know it's been a couple years now since you've been on the Medford for

▶ 47:12 Speaker 2: It. Yes, I did it, it and I, you know, obviously I go to these chiefs meetings all the time and I'm friends with them as opposed to colleagues. I'm closer to some, it it's across the board. Yeah. It really is. And it's becoming, it's becoming a dog eat dog world out there. Because there's some, there's some talk about civil service reform and, and it's, what it's gonna happen is it's gonna be the haves and the have nots. And my biggest fear is the chief of police and the mes in mes is if we don't, I wanna be careful how I say this. If we don't compensate them correctly and treat them correctly, which are two different things, you know, I can treat the, uh, my personalities is great, but you know, if they, if they're not in their minds

▶ 47:54 Speaker 2: and actual factually getting paid, um, fairly equitably compared to their brother and sister offices and the town over, or they're gonna leave and then there, this, this five that are leaving could be 10. You know? And then what do we do? What do we do? So it's, it's, you know, and I don't wanna sit here and say it's just a money issue. There's a lot of things that go into, um, why you wanna become a police officer. Why you wanna become a police officer in Merose. I just went through that. Why am I here? Why did I leave a, a great department with and come here for less money? Uh, there's more to it. There's more to it, but that can only go so far. So it's a challenge. It's a definite challenge. But it's not just Melrose. It's, it's policing across the country. And we all know in the last four years there was some very significant national incidents and local incidents that kind of turned maybe the public image on us. Some rightfully so, some not. So that pool of applicants just went dramatically down because that age group at that time, that would've been eligible to take the test. Maybe they're 16 in high school and now they're 20. But when they were 16 in high school, they're watching the news of the police are bad, everybody's bad. I'm not. I hate the police. I'm not gonna be. So we, I have a huge job. We all have a huge job to start that recruitment again, to be role models. So that in four years from now, now we have a list that's, you know, I had nine people on our Merrill's list to try to get those three that are in the academy right now. There was only nine Merrill's residents who took that last exam. And we got three, we got three great ones, but we also had some people we had to bypass. We had to like the, it's just like any other job, right? You're not gonna take just because they're there, you have to make the right decision. So our community is, is the best, you know, police department around, um, the new list comes out June 1st, so there's a new exam. I'm, I'm praying and hoping that I have not nine, that I get 30 people on there at least. And, and give me 22 good ones. I don't know, I'll throw out the other eight. But as soon as June 1st comes, I already talked to the, the mayor and Polly and we're, we're calling for the list to, to try to get four or five. Um, but it, I'm not gonna just hire someone just for a body and if they, they're not good, then we go to plan B. And I don't know what plan B is yet.

▶ 50:02 Ryan Williams: Yeah. Awesome. Um, you, when you said you talked to the mayor and Polly Paulina, the HR director, um, it made me think of a follow a follow up question to we, you're, the way you're talking about it sounds like professional development or pipeline development, kind of like a corporate approach almost to HR and staffing. And, and what kind of, um, what kind of approach do you think the department, you know, is there something you could do better? Is there something that you are already doing in that, in that aspect, you know, collaborating with hr? 'cause it's different. I mean, you can hire a, you know, a contractor, a laborer, an office worker. It's very different from trying to recruit a police officer. What's your approach to recruitment and then re retainment, I suppose is the real question once people get in from an HR perspective, have you had thoughts on this?

▶ 50:53 Speaker 2: I mean, all I can speak to in my year and a half here, not even, it's been a great relationship with HR and me. You know, we've pretty much been on the same page with every type of major decision that we have to do as far as personnel hiring or disciplining or, you know, there's a whole bunch of stuff that goes on there. But, you know, I just had a talk with the union vice president today or yesterday, I think it was a, talking about, you know, where we're going and where are we moving forward here. Mm-Hmm. And it starts with recruitment. It starts with hiring the right people. Mm-Hmm. In, in, you know, 'cause all these retirements are coming and we, we were discussing how are we filling these, what are we gonna do forced overtime, we're gonna have to make some changes, like all that stuff. And I said, well, yeah, we just have to hire the right people. And we got three great kids in the academy now. And then it's just that sort of cultural change. But, you know, the, the mayor, mayor Brono, may Mayor, Jen Ollie, they've all been great. They've all, they've all put it this way. They've all, they've listened to me, I've listened to them and they've trusted me with the decisions that me, not only me, but my command staff has made as far as personnel recruitment, but it's all about recruitment, retention and hiring and making the right promotions is another thing that's right in the middle. You know, you gotta get the right people, you gotta promote the right people and then you make a, a good culture. We're not gonna lose these people to other jobs that may pay 10, 15,000 more because it's quality of life versus money. You know, there is, you know, you pay $70,000 more, you probably lose the whole department. But when there's that in between, we had, we had an office of leave and come back within six months and,

▶ 52:24 Speaker 2: and he left on good standing and he came back in good standing. And it is not a, it's not a detri it's not saying anything bad about the other department. It's just he didn't realize I shouldn't, the grass isn't always green on the other side. Sure. So that, that, that's kind of all I'm saying and that's what our goals are and back to the budget, but you know, it's more than money. But we, we, our guys and women, they, they need, they need to be paid. Right. And they need to be treated. Right.

▶ 52:49 Speaker 4: Um, he Also did a recruit, uh, recruitment event over at, um, that coffee shop.

▶ 52:57 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

▶ 52:57 Speaker 4: So we're we, he is doing programs like that too, to try to create awareness. Yeah.

▶ 53:04 Ryan Williams: That's awesome. Um, um, I want to ask you about the traffic safety grant. Think Councilor Stewart brought up some, some great points and it got me thinking, um, do you, when you're, we have, we have gotten the traffic safety grant before, but it's always been very, um, kind of vague. You know, we got a traffic safety grant paid for overtime. Thanks very much for proving it. I'm curious to know, do you have in mind a, a goal for this? Is it, is it a a point in time and what's a strategy? Is it point in time, you know, we know that people are gonna be speeding during these Memorial Day weekend or something and we're gonna try and create some awareness that it won't be tolerated? Or is it more like responsiveness, like additional responsiveness on neighborhood streets? Is it, you know, what are, what are the goals for the program?

▶ 53:54 Speaker 2: That's a great question. I, I, I, um, some of, some of, well obviously the goals is, is safety, increased safety and just be responsive to the community when they complain about certain areas. You know, I'd have to talk to John more about, you know, what he does he rely on actually for data and so forth. Um, I don't wanna be a dead horse, but we've, we've sometimes we try to fill these, but we can't because we have to fill the, the shift. So we can't have a four hour traffic person on overtime. Sure. And, and then not, and then force a guy to what? So, you know, I mean the goals, they, you know, they sound very, uh, cookie cutter safety and all that stuff. But, uh, one of the goals I said earlier was to, well, if we're gonna pay all this overtime, we could, this is just a win-win. Um, because someone else is paying for our overtime to go out and be visible for traffic safety. But don't forget, you know, when they're out there for the four hours doing traffic stuff, you know, we've had some pretty serious stuff for a small town recently, and if I have them out there and they can respond to a, a shooting or this, they gone. So it's, it's, I always look at it like anytime you have an extra officer out there, even details, I won't open that can of Worm. But even when they're out there, we had a very pretty serious case two weeks ago and I had three or four officers on detail fly up there. Now I had four extra guys to block streets and call out the SWAT team and all that stuff. So the, the goal is it just like anything else when the police are out there, but I, I wish I had a better answer for you, but, you know, that's, that's pretty much what, what the goal is.

▶ 55:26 Ryan Williams: Um, uh, have you heard anything about the new traffic calming measures that have been put into place on Lime Street?

▶ 55:34 Speaker 2: Not, not really. Nothing really. She, she has, Yeah.

▶ 55:38 Ryan Williams: I I You Have what? Have, what, what have you heard what have, what have what's come in? You gotten phone calls about it?

▶ 55:43 Speaker 4: Not really, no. Okay. The, the, the, the temporary bumps that they're putting in. Yeah. They seem to be okay. And, you know, we're not getting complaints. At least I'm not, I don't know if they're going directly to Sergeant G, but yeah,

▶ 55:58 Speaker 2: I, I haven't got any particularly to many other complaints. That's

▶ 56:02 Ryan Williams: Good. That's good to hear. Um, and you bought radar, guns, lidar, and radar guns with that equipment? Yes. They're really tiny too, right? They're kind of inconspicuous. Yeah.

▶ 56:09 Speaker 2: Yeah. I think we did a social media post recently on it that showed the item and so forth.

▶ 56:13 Ryan Williams: Um, and this is just a food for thought, but I, I've always thought it would be good for us to do a little more data collection around traffic volumes and speeds. And those guns are small enough and user friendly enough to be loaned out to, you know, other departments, planning DPW, whatever, with a little bit of training. They could probably get an educated guess at some of these things without necessarily committing officer overtime like you would on an enforcement detail. So, you know, if down the road we start doing more Vision zero planning and we're trying to collect more data on city streets, I, I think it would be great to make some of that equipment available to the rest of the city under supervision.

▶ 56:52 Speaker 5: Alright. Thank you. That's

▶ 56:53 Maya Jamaleddine: It. Thank you. Thank you. Um, and just, uh, for clarification that the health department, social services coordinator, Colin was the person who left in December. Ah, and the position is vacant and hopefully if the override passes, yes, we would be able to request that to be filled and funded, uh, through, uh, the money that we're getting from the override. Thank you. The Melano Center has a part-time, social service, and, uh, support, um, seniors, 60 years old and over. And I know for the police department, chief f you have a clinician, uh, Danielle, if I'm saying the last name correctly, and from my understanding and what I'm heard there has been a great skills and, and like assets, um, um, and support for the community and for the police department. So thank you so much for the services that you are Provid,

▶ 57:46 Speaker 2: She's provid been, she's been fantastic. Thank you. Yeah. For, for bringing that up. Thank

▶ 57:49 Maya Jamaleddine: You. Yeah. Thank you. Um, next I have, uh, president Guily.

▶ 57:53 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for being here tonight. Um, just to kind of touch upon, you know, your, the unfortunate cuts in the budget that are made as, as have been made to many departments, um, but perhaps police is the one of the top, uh, departments. It's going to feel the hit, um, the most, uh, if, if the override doesn't pass in June. Um, could you talk a little bit about, I know we've talked about, you know, morale and building the department and things like that. Could you talk about the impacts a little bit to public safety, um, that residents might feel if with, with having this, you know, shortage and overtime and staff, as you said, your, the bulk of your budget is for staff, and so not having the resources you need to be fully staffed, um, what that might look like or might be experienced by residents. Um, what the impact might be. Yeah,

▶ 58:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. I mean, obviously there's, like I mentioned earlier, there's, there's CBA mandatory minimum manning, so there's always gonna be the minimum manning out there anyway. But if you, if you, if you cut other stuff,

▶ 59:06 Speaker 2: It's, if you, it's, it's basically gonna result in, I gotta think this through here because you, you're always gonna have the same amount of offices out there, but we need more. So if I don't have the, the, the ability to pay some overtime to put other people on there, or God forbid, if staff, if like staffing itself was cut, we, we, you'd have less productive officers out there. You'd have less ready officer, you'd have less well offices out there because of all the forces and all that. And again, like I would, I said earlier, it's not just, to me, it's not about the money. It I'm, it's about the health of my people. And if I have to pay 800,000 in overtime, uh, well that's, that's not great, but it's better than paying 16, you know, 1.6 million in overtime and it's all forces because we can't hire the requisite amount of people to now come in and be able to work those, those open spots. I don't know if that, I don't know if that makes sense. And I know I had a conversation with, uh, you know, the, the former CFO the first week I came on and he says, what's more important to you, more money in overtime or more personnel? I said that that, is that a real question like that? That's a no brainer. I want more personnel. Nobody wants the, like, yeah, you want the overtime for some times for extra money, but the majority of the overtime is usually overtime that they don't want or they don't, they're forced to because there's way too many openings because of the just five weeks vacation. Right. For someone that is 20 years on, God forbid someone gets six FMLA military leave, I didn't address that. Not only that one sergeant, we have many offices on our department that are still actively military. So they get called out all the time for training. So there's automatic openings all the time. If we get cut of, we don't have the proper funding that could be forthcoming, that's just gonna make that whole even deeper. Um, I hope that was a little bit more clear. I mean, we're still gonna always have to have that number of officers out there, right? But if that, that officer's out there because he is already on 24 hours or 16 hours, you think that person's gonna be a as and and that's good. That's not safe for him. It's not safe for her. Right. And it's certainly not safe for the public because you have an officer that's not mentally his, he's not clear, he's physically not there. And you know that that's your worst case scenario with that stuff. Now, I don't wanna, like, I don't wanna be fear mongering about the two and a half, and I don't want to, certainly, I I don't even think I can be able to talk about it politically. Um, but that is the reality. We don't have funding to, to, to give our troops the best equipment, the best options, and the best like work environment due to funding. It's a really bad trickle down effect that's gonna happen. And then back to Brian's point, well, they're gonna talk, well, who's gonna wanna take the test? Who's gonna want to come here? If, if your own people are saying, Hmm, I'm getting forced on 24 hour shifts, I can, I can never go to my kids' games, I can never do this. I just, I I have to work 80 hours a week just to, because they're making me.

▶ 1:02:21 Leila Migliorelli: So it's like that, it's not the quality of service that you would want to deliver to the city, and it's not the quality that the residents, um, would need. And it's not the, it's not the quality of life. Then you're saying, you know, even for your, I

▶ 1:02:36 Speaker 2: Mean, we offices obviously our job, we have like so many regular stresses just because of what we are. We signed up for it. But I hear people complaining, I get it. Hey, listen, you took the test. Like stop. But we don't need to create more stress on ourselves and we don't need to have extra stresses from other people outside of just dealing with the, the bad stuff that we deal with every day and the good stuff. But some things that could be in our control that I'd like for us, I mean, when I say we, I mean you, us, the mayor, everybody, that stuff that can be in our control, that's the stuff we need to control because there's no one to blame if, if it fails. 'cause I, I'm responsible for those guys and as a taxpayer, as a chief, as a citizen here, we gotta do what's best for our people. And part of that is funding. It's bottom line. Yeah,

▶ 1:03:27 Leila Migliorelli: No, I appreciate that. I think you've done a really good job of articulating the, you know, human mental health aspect, um, of the police force and what this, you know, the impacts and, and your good work and trying to make sure that you're, you're not only, um, you know, equipping your police officers. I think that, you know, like you mentioned like some of the mythology out there about maybe people feeling like, oh, they're, you know, people are just doing overtime to, to make extra money. Like there's a cost, there's a mental health cost, there's risk associated with that. And, um, and, you know, the cuts that we're seeing to your budget is definitely, you know, it's taking a risk on, on everyone. So, um, you know, appreciate you articulating that and sharing that tonight. Um, thank you for your work.

▶ 1:04:15 Speaker 2: Thank you. Um, uh,

▶ 1:04:19 Speaker 1: for the first time. Uh, councilor ver

▶ 1:04:22 Kimberly Vandiver: Uh, thank you Madam Chair and thank you Chief for being here. Um, so I have a few questions. Um, the first one, uh, if, well first of all, I wanted to, um, emphasize as well what, um, councilor Stewart said about the detail in the memo. I think it's really good. I appreciated that you also included what you would Id, what you asked for and as well as what was presented and, and spelling out what were the reasons that things went up and down. And that was very, very helpful and clear, as he said. Um, I, I also wanted to dig in a little bit on the forced overtime piece. Um, you know, it, it sounds like, you know, it's not good for morale. It's not potentially good for service and safety for the public if someone's on a 16 or 24 hour shift. Um, so it doesn't, you know, and it's, and it's more expensive for the city because, because it's overtime. So it sounds like it doesn't work well, you know, like, I guess I'm not sure why that's, um, included in the union contract if it's not preferred by the police force and if it's not preferred by the city, you know, to be in that situation where people have to work additional overtime. Um, I don't know if that's something you could comment on, um, why it's structured that way.

▶ 1:05:41 Speaker 2: So, um, I'm not a hundred percent sure I understand the question, but so minimum manning, obviously it's a CBA agreement and, um, like I, I think I alluded to earlier, you know, the, the way we're changing and growing in the city and crime just in the world, in the country, that minimum manning is actually not even my, they should, that should be higher. They, they should, you know what? I don't want to get into, you know, any negotiating. Yeah. But you know, I think you'd be shocked that we only have three officers out in the street on patrol. Like, did you know that? I don't know if you know that that's the minimum ending. It's three. I mean, that to me, it's a little, it's a little low. I mean, I came from a department that we'd have 10 to 12 guys out there on every shift, um, different city, but three is small and we've seen some big stuff happen in here. And that, that's a, that's a whole union thing to go, but if, if that's what you're sort of asking. So there, there has to be at least three guys on the street, two people inside working dispatch. So technically it's a, it's like five, five a shift, three on the street, two in there. And that doesn't include the superior officers. They get one superior officer supervising on the street, one inside. They don't have minimum manning yet in their contract, but the, the, the patrolmen do. So if you look at that every time, like I said, every time someone takes a vacation day, whatever, like there's an opening, like we don't, so our staffing right now, minimum's three, and that's where we're at on a couple of my night shifts. I'll have four assigned. So there's that little cushion, but now we are losing all these people. That cushion just went away. So pretty much every shift across the board has three. That's it. And every time there's an opening, so the, yeah, granted, yeah, there's ones that wanna work the only time it's extra money, but everybody has obligations and so forth and so on. So we're hitting that summertime with increased vacations. And the two guys, uh, that are retiring next week, they're all looking around and our SROs going, uh, my, my sergeant in charge of firearms is going, my, uh, firearms instructors going. So I have a huge challenge. It's not, again, not back to training. That's even very difficult to find the training to get someone qualified to train us in firearms. So every, they're all looking around saying, oh, what is the chief gonna do? What are we gonna do? How are we gonna cover these openings? Well, we're gonna have to put our heads together because we have to do our job and we have to staff and we're never going below three. And I wouldn't allow it to go below three. Quite honestly, that's three is a little bit ridiculous right now to begin with. Mm-hmm. You know, I do have the power. I'm the chief of police. I could say, let's put five out there, you know, but then, you know, then what happens? Now we can have more forced overtime, more money. We need more bodies is what we need. Mm-Hmm. Now the cost to hire a, an officer, and I don't know what it costs to pay health insurance. I really don't. It's probably less than is to just go below and keep hiring overtime. Think about it. 'cause that officer's salary, he goes away, let's put in overtime. And that's his salary time and a half every shift, you know? And you get a guy most of the time sitting there going, why am I forced here? I want to go home, spend time with my family. Mm-Hmm. So again, not for this fiscal year budgets. I get it. We're in, we're in tough shape. My long term goal is we have to build up the personnel. We have to including supervisors. You know, I could use a deputy chief or not, or a captain, you know, same thing with the fire department. Like I don't wanna go off topic, but those are the long term goals. I can't came to this job knowing this isn't gonna get done in a year and a half.

▶ 1:09:20 Speaker 2: We as a community, we need more police and we need more supervision. Mm-Hmm.

▶ 1:09:25 Kimberly Vandiver: So, so you're, so I guess part of what I'm taking from that is that the minimum manning it being three on a shift is much lower than it might seem looking at the 50 50 officers. But those are spread across different shifts and other responsibilities besides patrol?

▶ 1:09:40 Speaker 2: A hundred percent. I mean, you think about, there's 40, there's 50 sworn, including me, there's 47 active right now with three in the academy. And if you have to, we are 24 7. Right? So you have at least the five people. So that's 5, 5, 5, that's 15. And then I got, you know, your, your day shift people, your professional standards, your lieutenant in charge of patrol, your traffic sergeant, you, so now you start counting all these bodies and you need the two bosses on every shift. So that's six guys. So at the end of the day, geez, if you, if I do the math quickly, I don't know, we're only 47. So in one day you have, you know, a significant amount of your whole force is already working that one day. So there's not that bullpen to pull from to, to hire those overtimes to hire the extra openings. There were already, there's not many people left to, to come in. So, like I said, if we had more to allow me to do other different things and allow us to do everything things, you'd have people more willingly wanting to fill those openings, guess is what I'm saying.

▶ 1:10:41 Kimberly Vandiver: And, and then you had also commented, so when you, um, were doing your initial presentation about wanting to go from 50 to 55, I guess the one, the one thing it sounds like what that would do is it would raise our level that are here right now, 47 on a target of 50. Maybe we'd have 50 something on a target of 55, but we would still likely be in that position where we were never at our target. Yes. And we were still compensating for being below our target to sun.

▶ 1:11:09 Speaker 2: Yeah. So I i, if you look at the, if you look at what that word target is, it's really a, it's because it takes so long to fill and you're always losing, say three to five a year, if you're just chasing those three to five, well, it just give me four more, five more budgeted positions. And we're not, we're now no longer chasing 50 with only 46 actually working. If I was budgeted for 55, we'd have, say for example, 50 working or 51 while the other four are still being processed. And then by the time they come out, I lost my other four that generally retire in that timeframe. So it's just, it's strategic planning that needs to take place, is what it is. In the budgeted positions we're at right now, it's very difficult. Even though we've made a lot of progress by trying to hire or get the authorization to hire prior to the retirements to get the ball rolling, you're still never, you're still never getting the, yeah. So they may be on the books being paid for nine months, but they're not making any impact on the street.

▶ 1:12:11 Kimberly Vandiver: Yeah. It sounds like there are kind of two definitions of what the target is. One for the target number on available to work and a higher number because of that pipeline, kind of a, a pipeline target. Yes.

▶ 1:12:24 Speaker 6: Mm-Hmm. I mean, if I had 50, if I had a, if I had 51

▶ 1:12:26 Speaker 2: or 52 actual, like working police officers right now, I'd have the shifts more staffed. So it's a twofold advantage. I'd have more personnel on the street in addition to minimum manning. Maybe I'd have five on the street, which is great. Then those personnel, when they take vacation time, when they take sick time, when they have family issues injured, they can get a shift off. And it doesn't even cost overtime. 'cause the con contract still says three. And quite frankly, there's other specialty positions that I we're lacking in the city. There's no sworn officer in charge of, of Kim in the records division. And, um, you know, that should be a sworn officer in there overseeing details, overseeing public records, overseeing Kim, you know, uh, and Sophie, uh, we should have, we could, we should have a night traffic guy out there. So there's, there's, there's just personnel vacancies, but there's, even if I, if, do you know what I'm saying? There, there, there's, there's, there's more that we can do with those people other than just fill holes. We can create positions that should, we should have that most agencies all have, is, is kind of what I'm saying. And we don't have the resources to do that yet. Mm-Hmm

▶ 1:13:43 Speaker 4: Mm-Hmm.

▶ 1:13:44 Kimberly Vandiver: And, uh, I don't know what would, you know, I guess my only concern if, if one of my concerns if we went in that direction would be that then the target would move and, you know, minimum manning would get redefined to four or something like that. And, you know, you'd

▶ 1:13:56 Speaker 2: Have to negotiate that though. Yeah. You know, and, uh, you know that, that's part of the, part of the, part of the game. But my, my goal is outside of that, that whole, you know, union stuff, which I respect them, and I, we, we have a great relationship. It's just, I, I want more people on the street. I, I live here. I, I want more offices on the street, uh, uh, and it's not, like I said, I can beat the steward or all day. It's not just having extra people out there. It's having people out there that are healthy and ready to go to battle one need to. 'cause it's the end of the day, it's, it's, you know, we do a lot of good things here, but things can get ugly. And if I get an officer out there that's on a 24 hour shift and he's not able to back up another officer and someone gets hurt, that's on me. That's on, that's on me. If I, if I, I have my job is to advocate for my people and Absolutely. That's, that's what I'm trying.

▶ 1:14:49 Kimberly Vandiver: Uh, and I wanna touch on the traffic safety grant as well. Um, you mentioned we're not always able to take advantage of it if we have other priorities and already aren't filling shifts in the previous year, how much of the grant, were we able to use all of it by the end of the year? Or was it, or were we not able to take advantage of all of it? Y the, it wasn't last year or the year before, but prior to that, yes. And we used the entire grant funding that we had. And, um, but we, we didn't, we didn't get equipment that time. So this time it was good because they added the, you know, we were able to get some new equipment in as well, which we definitely needed. So yes, we, we used all of it. Great. And, um, my last question around, around the new recruits, um, and the, the new startup costs, the 15,000 per new recruit. Um, some of those items on the list, you know, certainly seem personal to that individual if it's a clothing item, but some of them are more, um, equipment items. Um, is that something where those items could be reused from the former officer that they're replacing rather than purchasing new equipment?

▶ 1:16:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, so some of them, like, like sometimes the radio, if we have like, we, we just, we're just making progress on the police radio, like something like that. Yeah. You, you just reprogram it and use it. But not really any of the other stuff. Like, we don't, we don't repurpose uniforms or anything like that. And then, you know, gun belts, all that stuff. By the time they're gone, they're, they're worn out and you got a brand new officer coming on, you know, he's gonna be taking photos. Like, it's just respect, it's the right thing to do. You gotta get them new stuff. You don't want to give them new stuff. Um,

▶ 1:16:32 Speaker 4: Can't repurpose Vest.

▶ 1:16:33 Speaker 2: Yeah. Best, we can't repurpose all those Actually have a life. They Have to get fitted. So we do, obviously we do as best as we can. Like, I'm not gonna go buy, you know, 10 radios if I have 15 of 'em that are still good. So we, yeah, we, we try as best as we can, but that's just the black and white item, what it would cause for a brand new person to be outfitted. Mm-Hmm.

▶ 1:16:52 Speaker 4: So maybe the the firearm and the radio.

▶ 1:16:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly the gun. Yeah. They don't, they don't take that firearm with them. We'll, we'll repurpose that. And we need extra ones too, obviously. Like if someone's someone malfunctions or, you know.

▶ 1:17:07 Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay.

▶ 1:17:10 Kimberly Vandiver: Um, I, I, one final question. I know I said, I, I was on my final question about the radio system upgrade. You mentioned it started in fiscal 23. Um, can you, that seems like a, a long time window. It must be an extensive kind of series of steps. Can you, um, elaborate a little bit on what that entails?

▶ 1:17:27 Speaker 2: Uh, that, that this, this was all started before me and it, it was something that was needed and I'm glad it was started before me, but I kind of walked into it and actually did present. So my name's on it, me in the form at Fire Chief, um, did ask for the money, but it's, it's a lot of, it's technical and above my pay grade. Uh, but it's, it's a huge project that is almost done that will increase public safety because our radios had a bunch of dead spots. There were areas in the town where you couldn't hear people. The radios were down because we only had certain repeaters and certain antennas. So they upgraded all of that. Now we have like five, I, I don't wanna speak outta school. I think we have like five, at least five new antennas. We got all fiber optic connections. We get, um, just I guess everything state of the art, digital, all this technical stuff that prior to that was, it just wasn't there. And it, it was putting bandaids on certain things. If you didn't do it, you know, it, it could be catastrophic, you know, for us and the fire. So this was a joint thing. Um, you know, you get firefighters going to certain parts of the city, or if they're a house and the, the repeat is not working, ten's not working, and you can't hit and you can't get help. So that's it, kind of the layman's version of it. But that's, that's, I am a layman when it comes to that technical stuff.

▶ 1:18:48 Kimberly Vandiver: It sounds like a major upgrade that, uh, that will hopefully last a while.

▶ 1:18:51 Speaker 2: It, it, it better it. Yeah, it should. And it will and it will. I, I'm comfortable with the team that's working on it. I feel very good about it. So

▶ 1:19:00 Speaker 4: Thanks very much for answering these questions. Thank you.

▶ 1:19:05 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, thank you for the second time. Um, uh, vice chair, William.

▶ 1:19:11 Ryan Williams: Yeah, thank you. Just as a point of order, since Constable Reky made the initial motion and had to leave, I'd like to motion to move the bottom line on fund Someone help me out.

▶ 1:19:20 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes. So, um, uh, councilor Brosky is no longer with us. He left right after he made the, um, uh, motion. So Vice Chair Williams is making another motion since that motion, no longer. So

▶ 1:19:34 Robb Stewart: Point of order, I think the motion's on the floor so we can vote on it, right?

▶ 1:19:38 Maya Jamaleddine: No, we can't because he's not here with us anymore. Um, so Vice Chair William made a motion, uh, to move to bottom line. Do I, I have a second. Second. Uh, seconded by Councilor Armo. Um, on, um, I just wanted to, uh, acknowledge, uh, officer Mann. Um, I always, uh, hear a great, uh, stories about him at the high school, and students have been sharing how a, a great impact and influence he has been doing for, uh, students and for the school overall. So please thank him for, uh, from my family and all of us in the community. I appreciate his work. Um, Mr. Clerk,

▶ 1:20:29 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes.

▶ 1:20:39 Maya Jamaleddine: President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamine? Yes. Motion passes. Motion passes. Thank you, uh, for you both and for the whole, uh, police department as well. Thank you.