Public Comment

Transcript (~31 min @ 57:14)

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

▶ 57:12 Leila Migliorelli: I will now entertain a moment to, um, motion to open the floor for public comment. Second,

▶ 57:17 Robb Stewart: Metro Make Madam President will make a motion to open floor for public comment.

▶ 57:21 Leila Migliorelli: Second. Motion to open the floor made by Councillor Stewart. Seconded by Councillor Ro. Madam ch uh, Madam Clerk

▶ 57:27 Speaker 3: Councilor Firo? Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Aldine. Yes. Council Karen Chay. Yes. Councilor Reky. Yes. Councilor Romanul. Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Council Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Elli? Yes. That's 11. Right?

▶ 57:45 Leila Migliorelli: The floor is open for public comment on, um, the three orders that are agenda tonight that are all related to the override order. Um, Ms. Sparks,

▶ 57:54 Speaker 2: since you already have the table, you get first Dibs. Welcome. Thank You. I appreciate that. Uh, sorry for the confusion. So, um, again, my name is Mary Sparks and I'm here tonight to talk about the proposed override as it pertains specifically to the school system. I served as co-chair of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council from 2018 to 23. So I had a very, uh, upfront seat to the goings on in the school during that time, and that included the last override as well as covid. Um, most importantly, I'm here tonight to assure you that the need in the schools is real. And not only that, that if we don't address it now, it's going to cost us much more in the future. Um, however, I also feel obligated to tell you that I beg to differ with anyone who says we would not have these problems if we simply had more money. This is not just an inflation problem. And in fact, there are many reasons for the problems with our schools. Some are within our local control, but many extend far beyond the walls of this room. In my opinion, public education is no longer sustainable, doing business as usual. This isn't just a Melrose problem. You need look no further than the giant list of neighboring communities that are facing the same problems. And it will take years for state and federal officials to admit this, let alone fix it. But it is critical that voters have some assurances as they head to the polls that you all fully understand what these problems are and they're a hundred percent committed to doing everything in your power to fix these things that are within our local control. Public schools aren't equitable. They have become far too dependent on affluent, neurotic parents to pick up the slack and push in. My seventh grader has not had a good year of school since kindergarten. I also believe that this is why the gap between the haves and the have nots keeps growing. In fact, I think much of the successes in schools that are in affluent communities is because kids have parent driven access to things like tutors, executive function coaches, college coaches, and even mental health supports to name a few in any district. The most difficult expenses to control are related to special education and particularly out of district placements. Out of district placements normally don't happen until a Stewart has suffered for years and there is extensive documentation that the school has repeatedly failed them. It is the last resort for everyone, including the Stewart. But rising outta district placements are a symptom of an unhealthy school system. They're not the cause. There is no question that out of district numbers, both the number of students as well as the costs associated with them are rising. This hasn't happened simply because we don't have enough money. It happened because we have had, and in some instances, continue to have ineffective leadership. Schools are an ecosystem and when you make a change in one area, it has ripple effects. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And frankly, education leaders both here and at levels far beyond Melrose have made some decisions that I could speak to for hours and I will save that for school committee. But we also have an opportunity with a new superintendent to fix things and show other communities how we can do this better. It's going to mean outside the box thinking and accepting that we might have to make some hard changes to the MPS leadership team. We cannot continue to let them make bad decisions that go unchecked. My daughter said to me, mom, I don't want them to cancel. i-Ready 'cause they're broke. I want them to cancel it because it's terrible. We need more money, but we also need a mindset shift. So thank you very much and I hope you'll support the override, but I hope you will hold those that are spending new funds accountable.

▶ 1:01:47 Speaker 1: Thank you.

▶ 1:01:50 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you Ms. Sparks. Is there anyone else, um, interested in speaking in public comment?

▶ 1:02:09 Speaker 3: Sign my name.

▶ 1:02:19 Speaker 2: Uh, hello. I'm Sandy Dixon at, uh, 22 Martin Street. Um, mayor Greg Reis shared the sobering news that's 39 Townsend. Cities are either making significant cuts or are putting an override question to their voters. And Melrose is not unique in having budget shortfalls at this time. She said that this is a math issue, not a management issue. And we've got lots of people talking about the increased cost of everything. I wanted to discuss some other numbers, specifically Two things. The first are a few raw numbers and the second is frankly our tax rate. Uh, according to the Department of Education and ffy, 23 to 24, Melrose had an enrollment number that was 500 students more than than in Wakefield 500 students. More. The FY 24 Wakefield school budget was $49.6 million. The Melrose FY 24 school budget was $2 million less at $46.8 million. Wakefield has proposed an FY 25 school budget amount of $52.3 million, which is higher by $5 million than the budget that has been approved in past $5 million. 500 more students. That is right now, even if we pass the override, our pie in the sky budget is $51 million. That is still $900,000 less than the proposed Wakefield budget. $900,000 less. 500 more students. How do they get this money? Wakefield is similar to our size and receives approximately the same amount of state aid. They have a very, very similar medium house, median household income, median house value and income. Both towns get most of their tax revenue from residential properties, although Wakefield gets twice as much from their commercial income, 82% of the tax levy coming from residential properties, we have 91.3 of the tax revenue revenue coming from residential properties. The Melrose FY 24 tax rate is 11.25. What that means is that for every a thousand dollars of your assessed value, you are charged $11 and 25 cents. Melrose is tax rate is 9.93. This is for every thousand dollars. We pay on average, $7,884. With the override you'd be paying on average $8,655. That is on average $65 more per month. What would that new tax rate be? 10.9. So even with an override, we still have, uh, a lower tax rate than Wakefield 500 more students, $5 million less in the school budget and a lower tax rate. So a good question to ask is, well, what about that debt exclusion, $130 million debt exclusion that we passed in 2023? Well, what's that gonna do? Okay, so let's look at this and tell me if my time has over, uh, the additional tax debt is calculated to add approximately $875 to the average tax bill. But it's much more complicated to determine how the tax rate would be immediately increased. That's because there are three things to consider when doing this. First Melrose is currently paying $42 million for the middle school. That is $200 per year on average for the tax bill that we're already paying. So that's $16 and 67 cents on your current tax bill that you're already paying for the $42 million. This existing debt exclusion from 2003 will end in 2029. The current 2023 debt exclusion begins in 2025. So that means 2003 goes down like this, and 2020 2003 goes like this. 2023 goes up like that. So what that means is that I'll skip to the end. In 2024, our tax rate is not gonna increase 'cause we're not paying the new debt exclusion at all this year. So it's not gonna increase it at all. In 2025, it is estimated that the debt exclusion will increase our tax rate by a whopping 0.28. So that's not nothing, but it's not much. In 2026, the debt exclusion will increase the new tax rate by 0.189. Still not nothing, but not great. I mean, not great, but not nothing. In 2028, we're gonna see an increase of 0.8 0.88. By 2030, the increase will be 1.19. But as assessments of our houses goes up, tax rate goes down. So even with the new debt exclusion and the tax, uh, the override and the debt exclusion, that would be an increase of approximately $125, um, per month per on the average tax bill. That's not nothing, but we are now in the ballpark of taxing like Wakefield does. So after all this, my ask of you is two things. The first is that you put this override, you vote for this override, and it seems like all of you're gonna do that. The second is that you publicly support it because you guys hear every single department that comes here and tells you what's gonna have to be cut from their budget. I mean, you just listen to the Veterans Department talk about what needs to be cut the library, what needs to be cut, all that's gonna be cut if this override doesn't pass. So you guys are gonna be the ones that are gonna have to vote on budgets that you don't wanna vote on. So tell us not to vote on them, like tell us passes override. So

▶ 1:07:43 Speaker 5: Thank you.

▶ 1:07:46 Speaker 2: Thank you Ms. Dixon.

▶ 1:07:49 Leila Migliorelli: Is anyone else in, um, wishing to speak in public comment tonight?

▶ 1:08:00 Speaker 2: I just sign in here. Yes.

▶ 1:08:05 Speaker 2: Sorry, I should have done this before. That's okay.

▶ 1:08:14 Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Um, I am, uh, Carl Kahan Nige. I live here in Melrose. Uh, I'm here to voice support for the override. I have, uh, three kids in the Melrose Public Schools who have benefited immensely from the dedication of teachers and staff. My, uh, oldest daughter who is in eighth grade, uh, but is a ninth grade algebra one, and she really credits the experience and dedication of her seventh grade math teacher in pushing and mo motivating her to excel in math and gain entry into the so-called compacted math program, culminating into entry into Algebra one, which is typically a ninth grade class. These are the kinds of teachers that can only be successful with a backdrop of sustained funding. We have also experienced some of the outcomes, uh, and what I would say is a shortfall on funding, uh, despite the huge influx of kids into the, uh, into the school system like the previous, uh, citizen, uh, uh, detailed, which is culminated in a lack of substitute teachers, uh, lack of adequate lockers for the kids, which is causing chaos and impeding learning. I wanna acknowledge that this is not just about the schools reading the mayor's budget remarks. This is also about public safety and public works. I live near the hospital and occasionally individuals experiencing severe mental health, uh, episodes or out on the street. And I've called our, uh, public service officers and they have responded in less than a minute, showing up with emergency health personnel from our fire department to deal with the individuals professionally less than one minute. And this is the kind of response that I think will suffer if we do not do this override. And, uh, finally, our, our public services like the DPW and City Hall, when I call about an issue, in most instances, someone picks up the phone and, uh, with helpful answers. And without an override, I don't think we can expect these kinds of services to continue at such a high level. So I urge you all to support the override. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

▶ 1:10:20 Leila Migliorelli: Anyone else wishing to speak this evening?

▶ 1:10:31 Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Martha Grover, 31 Goot Street in Melrose. Very excited to be here tonight in a new capacity, able to speak on things that I, that are important to me. Um, in particular on the order before you to put an override question on the ballot in June, I'm all in on this override that would raise needed revenue for both the schools and the city, city operating budget to prevent a backward slide that would be hard to recover from. I come at this as a parent of 3M PS students in the city sustainability manager for 13 years. So I have knowledge of both the school and city operations. I left in December for a new position with the state. The bottom line is that the terrific education my kids have benefited from, and the city services we all enjoy, cannot be sustained if local revenues go up by just two and a half percent each year. And operating costs increase by much more than that. It's, it's that simple. It just can't be done. The city has passed just one override in 30 years. Living within our means during that time has meant a lot of trade-offs in tough decisions to balance the b the budget each spring through what I call scrappy and nimble management decisions, the city has managed to grow and innovate, delivering the basic services we all expect of our government, as well as coming up with some new ideas and programs to meet changing needs. But today, the gap between our revenue capped at a two and a half percent increase each year and the real cr cost to operate our city and schools cannot be solved with our usual scrappiness and a handful of grants. This moment calls for an override. It's easiest for me to describe the impact of not having the benefit of additional revenue through the arc of my role in managing the city's energy programs over the last decade in leveraging over $4 million in grants and incentives, the city invested in energy efficiency, renewable energy and infrastructure projects for city and school buildings, fleets and streetlights that resulted in significant energy savings. We methodically picked all of the low hanging fruit invested in projects and skilled staff who could squeeze every efficiency out of our buildings. These savings that we accomplished allowed the city to level fund utilities and live within our means over several years, even as utility costs in building ocu occupancy hours were off the charts. But over the last year, we saw our energy costs increased by a whopping 20% and experience the expensive challenge of managing aging buildings, roofs, windows, and mechanical systems. Our new middle school is now 17 years old. We still call it the new middle school. Making our buildings more energy efficient is still a priority, but we also need to transit transition our entire building stock and vehicle fleet off of fossil fuels through an approach we call zero emissions. Over time, as equipment needs to be replaced new, all electric heat pump systems can also provide cooling in schools that don't have air conditioning. Now addressing a problem that's getting worse as the shoulder seasons in the spring and fall get hotter. We could put solar on more roofs, but most are too old and need to be re need to be replaced first. Unfortunately, the sustainability manager position is one of several op open positions that won't be filled if the override doesn't pass without someone dedicated to this work here at City Hall, Melrose will miss out on a wave of new state and federal funding opportunities that could be leveraged for so many needed infrastructure upgrades. And this is just one example of the many ways that Melrose will fall behind if we don't invest in ourselves, in our city, and in our future. And I I truly hope that you all support this override coming up and of obviously putting it on the ballot. Thank you. Thank you. Is there

▶ 1:14:38 Leila Migliorelli: anyone else in the chamber tonight willing to speak or wishing to speak in public comment?

▶ 1:15:02 Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna speak tonight. Uh, it, it was obvious from, from last week that, um, you guys have already decided to be on the, to put this on the ballot. Um, I'm awful putting it on the ballot, but I, I think looking at having it, looking at the meeting last week, I think you spent a total of 45 minutes, 45 minutes to decide $7 million into and perpetuity. And, um, I just wanna talk a little bit about, uh, what I saw that went on at the meeting last week. But before that, I just want to talk about, uh, what Mrs. Grover said. And, um, you know, what, what Mr. William Council Williams said yesterday, I mean, last, I believe it was last Thursday, the ninth, you had mentioned that, um, since the last override that, um, inflation rose by 24% and you said there's no way the schools can function on 2.5%. But I think what you're forgetting, uh, Mr. Williams is that, um, chapter 78, last August, um, our state legislators had a big article in the newspaper went up by 27%. That was $2.6 billion. And in that article, they specifically said it went up for out of state, out of district tuition as well as transportation. I guess I look at this stuff a little bit differently since I'm a CPA. And I also wanted to touch upon something that, uh, my counselor, mark Oppe, who's my ward counselor since I'm on Porter Street, you had asked, uh, the mayor, you had said, we both worked on the override together. And you had mentioned to her, we really, we, we saw a lot of detail in that, you know, in the 5.18 million, we had four buckets, you know, the 1.905 million for those 28 teachers that I talked about last week, uh, 1.8 to fund those contracts, another 675,000 for I believe it was t uh, for supplies. And in that was the, the two 50 for the bb. But everything was spelled out. Not only is that spelled out by the, by the Mayor Inferno was actually on the ballot question here we don't have that. And you had asked her, you said, you know, uh, by constituency we'd really like to see what positions that 3.5 million is going for. I need to see something. And she didn't have anything. And you all, you said, I need to see that in a couple of days. And then you turned around and blindly voted for it anyways. So, I mean, I think that tells you everything you need to know about how fast this thing is being rushed. And, um, finally say, Mrs. Uh, van, I don't know how to pronounce your name, I think it's Van I ever, um, you had mentioned something about the clean audit that has as a CPA that has absolutely nothing to do with this. That's a compliance audit, determine whether financial statements are based upon GAP and Government Accounting Standards Board. But since you brought it up, I just wanted to say something. Why has Melrose been using the same CPA firm for over 25 years? Maybe that's something we ought to think about. One other thing I wanted to point out tonight, and I, and I am wondering if anyone's ever even read this letter. Um, and this is a letter that the CFO wrote to the mayor on January 29th, and I was able to obtain this. It says, the City of Melrose continues to financial to be financially stable. And the management has demonstrated its commitment to strengthen the fiscal policies, enhance its reserves, and make responsible financial decisions. The office of auditor is very optimistic of the city's financial future, and this was done as part of, um, the CFO discussing, um, the annual comprehensive financial report. So this is the CFO saying we're financially stable and he's very optimistic about our budget. But I'll say this, um, you know, a mere 71 days later on April 9th during a school committee meeting, then the mayor, all of a sudden she's talking about an override. It doesn't, it doesn't add up, is what I'm trying to tell you on one hand. Um, the CFO who's been here 25 years, you know, was supposed to have trust in him, and now all of a sudden the, I mean, how do you reconcile those two between what the mayor said and what the CFO is? And I wonder if anyone on this table has actually even looked at that report. You know, I, I don't expect everyone, everyone's not an upper crunch. I don't expect that, nor should you have to be a CPA, but you should be able to at least read that headline, that letter that the C ffo sent to the mayor back on January 29th. And finally, I just wanted to say something that Ward Hamilton said, you had mentioned, um, you said a lot of people are gonna get upset with you. You said, uh, you're talking about, um, mayor Es being a Democrat, and she even mentioned that she's a Democrat, but I'm not gonna raise your taxes. You know what? I don't care if you're a Democrat, you're a Republican, you're a tea party, you're a green party, a libertarian. I don't care. This is all, we're all a community here. We're all, we need ideas from everybody, you know, so let's not close out somebody because they're not with your affiliation. So, um, I just wanna say thank you again for your time and, um, that's all.

▶ 1:19:53 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to speak in public comment?

▶ 1:20:06 Speaker 2: Hi, I am Cheryl Ringin. Um, I grew up here. Um, I know a lot of you from that time, um, and back in the very early nineties, we had our first overrider, the first one I remember, let's put it that way. And at the time, we were gonna lose a ton of teachers. The kids got very upset and we, you know, walked out because we were gonna lose our teachers and we really loved our teachers. Um, that override passed, yay. And then it took us a very long time to get another 1, 27 years or so. Um, the way that I understand overrides work is they're supposed to happen, not often, but they know. We know that the, the work that we know, that the money won't always last and that you have to keep doing it and doing it and doing it. We're not sist, we don't have money coming in all the time. Um, we're obviously not Wakefield. Um, I don't know numbers, I apologize, but I just feel passionately that we do need this override. We need it not only for our schools, but we need it for our city. You know, listening to Mayor Jen last week kind of, you know, was like, Hey, not a wake up call, but just a, okay, like, she's done her homework, she knows what she's talking about. I trust her. So I think that hopefully this override will pass. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 1:21:34 Leila Migliorelli: Is there anyone else wishing to speak in public comment? Yes,

▶ 1:21:45 Speaker 2: Good evening. Um, Terry Kwa Lee Avenue, right here in Melrose. So I guess one of my frustrations is, um, and I'm not a CPA, but I'm A CFA is trying to put together all of the numbers. Some numbers I'm given in percentages, some numbers I'm given on dollars on the tax rate. And so I did my own back of the envelope math, and forgive me because it is just that I don't have complete information, but I believe the mayor said that this override will add a dollar to the residential tax rate, and then if I add prop two and a half, because that'll go into effect as well. That's another 0.25 cents on the tax rate. If I add in the loan, uh, to improve the buildings, um, it's a $130 million loan over 30 years. I don't know the interest rate, but I took the 30 year US Treasury and I added 40 basis points to try to come up with what I thought Melrose would have to pay. So it's close to 5%. That's another, um, excuse me, I'm going blind 0.59 cents on the tax rate. If the Community Preservation Act passes, that's another two point or 0.30 cents on the tax rate. So looking at these just in isolation, I think the big picture's missing. If I add all this up, I get a tax rate that's $12 and 7 cents, which is a 21.6% increase. Um, which obviously is quite significant. I don't know too many people in here who got a 21.6% raise this year. I know I certainly didn't, but I ask you to keep in mind that all these numbers add up and they're real numbers. And for a community that's trying to improve home affordability, this works against that because one of the things that goes into determining a mortgage rate is what is called a pity payment. That's principal interest insurance and taxes. And so when you raise taxes, by my estimate, and again, I don't have complete information, but when you raise taxes more than 20%, you're not making Melrose more affordable for people. You're making it less affordable for people. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

▶ 1:23:58 Leila Migliorelli: Uh, anyone else willing to speak please?

▶ 1:24:18 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Molly Babb. I'm the parent of a seventh grader in the middle school. I won't throw any numbers at you 'cause I don't have that at hand. But I just wanna say thank you all for taking this issue very seriously and for looking at, with a realistic picture of what our kids are facing in the schools. I know it's a lot bigger than that. There's a lot more going on with the community, but I've been here and a parent since the larger school size has started to happen. When I went to kindergarten registration, they said, oh my goodness, there's so many more kids. We aren't quite ready yet. We're figuring it out. And we have heard that every single year since then, they don't have enough lockers, they don't have enough teachers in the middle school. We're desperately underfunded. The teachers are working so hard, they care so much. I generally believe that they're stewarding the money quite well. There just simply isn't enough to go around. Now this bubble is going towards the high school precisely when we're about to take it apart 'cause of the layoffs that we'll have to do. I personally know some of the teachers that we've been told, they will be laid off. They're incredible educators. They have our kids' best interest at heart. They've consistently made do with less. Please don't make it worse. Please support our community in doing what's right. I appreciate that. You are also looking at options to lower the cost for it, uh, senior citizens and others who will truly struggle with this tax rate increase. But it's absolutely necessary. These kids deserve better, our community deserves better, and I really appreciate your support. Thank you.

▶ 1:26:07 Speaker 1: My name is Scott Den. I didn't plan to speak tonight, and quite frankly, when I spoke the last time, I was terrible. Um, I spoke way too quickly and I don't even know if anyone understood what I said, but I was sitting tonight and I just decided I can't not speak. Um, we talk about the cost of things. What we're forgetting about is like people pay their taxes and that's an expense, but what does the special needs parent do? They can't afford to provide their kid with speech therapy that they're not getting from our schools when they're charging out of pocket $300 finagling with their insurance company, that won't cover it. And that's where the equity thing comes in. The rich people are gonna be fine no matter what, but it's the people at the others end that are truly gonna suffer. And not everyone, like we're expecting a child right now, if they have special needs, like my wife and I do well enough, but like if we, if the child has special needs, we're not gonna be able to afford to pay out of pocket for, to help, help get the care they need. And that's what a public education system is supposed to do. So it's just horrifying when you hear talk about affordability and people talking about like an extra $18 in their taxes because of one piece of this, uh, increase. And I just think like, if we all pay the extra $18 that this one family that otherwise won't get the support they need, because we're literally letting go of teachers from a public school system that already doesn't have enough teachers. It just, it's very scary. Um, and I just like, I couldn't sit there and not speak about that because there's people, there's paying your taxes, but there's all the other costs that come along with it too. And if our government isn't funded properly, then we're gonna externalize the cost. The rich people will be fine and the poor will suffer. And that's our society in 2024. So please don't be a part of that. Thank you.

▶ 1:27:51 Speaker 2: Thank you. Is there anyone else

▶ 1:27:55 Speaker 2: wishing to speak in public comment? Is there anyone online?

▶ 1:28:01 Speaker 3: Uh, not at this time. Okay.

▶ 1:28:04 Speaker 6: I'm president. I'll make a motion to close public comment. Second,

▶ 1:28:07 Leila Migliorelli: Motion will close, public comment made by Councillor Stewart. Uh, seconded by Councillor Repe. Madam Clerk

▶ 1:28:12 Speaker 3: Council Firo? Yes. Councilor? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Aldine. Yes. Councilor Karen Shady? Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Councilor? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Council Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Mcg? Yes. 11.

▶ 1:28:31 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. Public comment is now closed onto new business

▶ 1:28:35 Speaker 3: Order 2024 dash 34. A recommendation from the Board of Registrars of Voters. And request that the Honorable City Council authorize early voting for the June municipal election.