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

Transcript (~55 min @ 1:40:32)

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▶ 1:40:32 Maya Jamaleddine: fiscal 2025 operating budget in the amount of 104,000,001, uh, hundred $40,412. And for tonight, we have the following departments in front of US Pine Banks 6 52 capital outlay, pine Banks, 9 31 Parks, Mount Hood 6 53. And then Ordinance 2024 dash two Park permits, um, revolving account 2 6 6 9 appropriation 2024 dash 30 Mount Hood Enterprise Fund, 6 2 0 0.

▶ 1:41:14 Maya Jamaleddine: First up is Mr. Henry, um, Keer.

▶ 1:41:39 Maya Jamaleddine: Mr. Henry, if you would like to, um, speak on this order.

▶ 1:41:45 Speaker 3: Um, sure. Your department.

▶ 1:41:47 Speaker 8: Uh, my name's Henry Keer. I'm a Melrose representative on the Pine Banks Park Board, uh, resident here for too many years,

▶ 1:41:58 Speaker 8: graduate of Melrose High School.

▶ 1:42:03 Speaker 8: Um, we have circulated copies of the Pine Banks Park 2024 annual report. Uh, I hope you all get a chance to look at it.

▶ 1:42:15 Speaker 8: Uh, the first page has a photograph of the Mayor of Malden trying to convince us that he's a fisherman

▶ 1:42:23 Speaker 8: dressed in a suit. He said he had some place important to go afterwards, and I said it's a likely story.

▶ 1:42:33 Speaker 8: Um, pine Banks Park is a gift from the Converse family, and it was formalized by a statute in 1905 by the, uh, Commonwealth. And it's set up a mechanism by which there's a mandatory payment from each city of Malden and Melrose based on a formula of total assessed valuations. So if you look at page two and three, you can see the tax rate cap capitulations for fiscal 2024 circled in the red boxes of the relevant numbers for Merose and Malden.

▶ 1:43:11 Speaker 8: Those numbers appear on page four, which is the calculation for fiscal 2025.

▶ 1:43:21 Speaker 8: What it does is take the valuation from the smaller city, which in this case is seven, uh, is Melrose at 7.2 billion, and then it multiplies it by a fraction, uh, which Computered out comes to a, uh, total funding of 9 71 2 92 9 split equally between the cities. Uh, we've had this same format here as a constant presentation to try to make it more familiar as we go forward. Um, that number is brought over, uh,

▶ 1:44:00 Speaker 8: on line 72 on page five, which is the summary of the total budget. So the statutory mandate number last year was 8 95. This year it's 9 71, and that indicates that the increase was $75,000 or 8.42% increase in valuation of the smaller city.

▶ 1:44:29 Speaker 8: Um, so that is just there for a, a method of, uh, reference. Uh, the total budget is on line 72, and that's a, uh, 1 million 164 575 17.

▶ 1:44:49 Speaker 8: Uh, that's a dollar increase of $19,000. Uh, and it's an increase of 1.74%.

▶ 1:45:00 Speaker 8: And that's, uh, an increase first city of 10,700 1172.

▶ 1:45:08 Speaker 8: Um, breaking this down, uh, our salaries and compensation and such are, uh, paid by the city of Melrose. We rent our employees from the city of Melrose. So HR takes care of that end of things. It's part of the pension and the benefits. And the city of Alden, uh, contributes quarterly, uh, for that amount. Um, and that's shown on lines one through six on page five. And we've got a 3.86% increase, which in a dollar amount is $16,000,

▶ 1:45:51 Speaker 8: um, from line six

▶ 1:45:54 Speaker 8: through 42. Those are operations. Um, that's to take care of the, uh, day to day-to-Day operation of the park. But it also includes insurance. We're showing a large increase on electric, and that's because we've got a new building down there, the, uh, maintenance facility. Uh, and we're looking into mitigating the cost of the electric bill there, which primarily it's it's heat, but it's only in office. So we've got propane as an alternate method of heating, um, from line 43 down to, uh, 57,

▶ 1:46:33 Speaker 8: our more or less capital expenditures. And line 45 is a, uh, mass development bond that we obtained in 2016. Uh, and that was used to resurface the all purpose or rugby field to build a dog park and a number of other things, including the, the maintenance facility. Uh, line 46 is a supplemental, um, loan that we got from the Adelaide Breed Baird Foundation from Malden. And that was, uh, $800,000 for the, uh, the final payments on the maintenance building. Those are amortizing down quite nicely. Uh, those are 10 year, um, undertakings. Uh, line 50 is a, uh, repayment of a credit facility that the Adelaide Re Baird Foundation has agreed to advance to. Pine Banks Park the amount of 1.25 million at a fixed rate of 4.25% over 10 years. And with this, we've got a list of things that we're trying to get done, one of which is to resurface the baseball field on Main Street. Um, we're looking at resurfacing the track. Um, we've got a new playground. The playground that's up by the pond went in in, uh, 1994. And some of those children may be on this board. Um, so these are addressing some of the complaints and comments that we've gotten over the, the last year. Um, and there's a large variation, uh, in the cost of, uh, resurfacing a field depending on what else is required. Um, so this will give us the flexibility of finding out what those prices are. Um, the baseball field went in place in 2007, as you can see, that's, that's been a long term investment and it's worked out pretty well. The advantage of that field is that it can be run right after a, uh, rainstorm. Um, and we've used it for soccer and baseball. I think lacrosse too. Uh, we've also got some a DA compliance that we'd like to look into.

▶ 1:49:00 Speaker 8: Um, so that's, uh, that's line 53. The number that's in there is the amount that would be required to amortize the loan at 4.25, over 10%, uh, 10 years. We have flexibility in the advances on that loan so that we can identify the specific projects that we want to pursue and the specific pricing, and do that within a fiscal year, uh, and not have to put it off till 2026.

▶ 1:49:33 Speaker 8: Um, so the bottom line is on line 72. Uh, it's 1,000,001.

▶ 1:49:42 Speaker 8: Uh, it's over the mandate by $193,000 for which we thank both cities for the confidence that they placed in pine banks. And, uh, it's a, uh, 1.74% increase over last year's budget.

▶ 1:50:04 Speaker 8: Um, we are in the midst of looking for a new superintendent. We have a search committee put together, which is the HR director of Walden and Melrose. And then we have a volunteer who's helping us, who's the la the past president of the New England Parks Association and the New England Sports Turf Managers Association. He's been particularly helpful, uh, in getting us, uh, through, over various projects during the year. And I want to thank the, uh, HR department in Melrose because they've been terrific. It says the, uh, city Solutions Office. Um, and then

▶ 1:50:42 Speaker 8: on page nine is a listing of some of the folks that use the park. You've got a number of summer camp operations, mystic Valley.

▶ 1:50:57 Speaker 8: Mystic River Rugby Club is one that has got a, uh, youth Rugby league going there during the month of June and July. And, uh, we'll have 300 kids running around after dinner trying to get exhausted, uh, which is a public service, I think. Um, then this year we made some pictures, put some pictures in of the events that have occurred.

▶ 1:51:23 Speaker 8: Um, starting on page 10, there's a fishing derby, uh, which got a, a very good response from, from both cities. Um, and if you take a look there, it's, we're doing that again next weekend and we expect to have a couple of hundred. They delivered the fish last week and it was a federal fishery that delivered the fish and they didn't charge us anything, and they were brook trout about this, and they put a thousand fish into our pond. So we're gonna need a bigger boat. I think. Uh, green Mall and Fair was something new that happened in April of last year. It's an environmental event. Then there was a, uh, Islamic holiday, which is on page 11. You can see the number of people that showed up for a sunrise service, which was kind of impressive.

▶ 1:52:18 Speaker 8: Um, and then on page 12, some of the local officials that appeared for that, uh, brought a life, had a, uh, walk last October in memory of their founder Tom Fagley, who's passed away. And then there's our annual ferry house, which is something I never really understood. Uh, but that's a ward counselor, Barbara Murphy, whose picture is on page 13. And the children show up and, uh, build little houses in the woods.

▶ 1:52:51 Speaker 8: Um, and then there's the, uh, Christmas Santa's Village Santa's workshop. Uh, and the idea there is that rather than go to the mall and path to pay 20 bucks for the Santa picture, uh, you can go online and retrieve these, uh, on your own for nothing. So that's a boost for some of the, the parents. And you can see on page 15, there was a, a line there. It was a very good warm day. Um, and that's pretty much where Pine banks, it's a small increase, but I think the important thing is we've got provision in there to take care of on our own, the capital improvements and renovations for the fields without involving the city having to look to their bonding facilities for that purpose. Thank you.

▶ 1:53:43 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, any question from my colleague? Uh, counselor Stewart? And then I have Counselor gpe.

▶ 1:53:49 Speaker 6: Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay.

▶ 1:53:52 Speaker 6: So thank you Mr.

▶ 1:53:56 Robb Stewart: Keer for coming forward to us and sharing some nice stories.

▶ 1:54:02 Robb Stewart: Um, I'm trying to figure out the numbers because they're not making sense to me because I see on one hand you have the maximum budget requisition that is equally split between Ma and Melrose at 4 85. And then we have the top line, or I should say bottom line of 1.164 for the full budget. And then we have four to 38

▶ 1:54:34 Robb Stewart: that's reflected, I think, for Melrose. But then in the budgetary statement that we get from the mayor's office, the number's six 17. So help me reconcile this because it's not making sense.

▶ 1:54:50 Speaker 8: I haven't seen the report that you're comparing it to. So

▶ 1:54:53 Robb Stewart: Yeah, pine Banks Line 6 52 Pine Banks budget total, uh, for 2025. The mayor's statement is six 17. Seven 17.

▶ 1:55:19 Robb Stewart: And, you know, if you divided the 1.164 by two, then it would kind of make sense, but that doesn't total either 4 38 or six 17. So is it done by eight percentage? I mean, I'm, I'm just trying to understand the numbers.

▶ 1:55:34 Speaker 8: Well, the six 17 number is something that's come out of the, the Mayor's office.

▶ 1:55:40 Speaker 6: Okay. And,

▶ 1:55:42 Robb Stewart: Um, so it's above and beyond what you're stating as kind of like the requirement that Pine Banks has, uh, from the agreement from a long time ago. Right.

▶ 1:55:56 Speaker 8: Uh, Well, let's, let's forget about the six 17.

▶ 1:55:58 Robb Stewart: Let, uh, let's start just by, how do you go from 4 85, 6 46 and 24 cents to the 1.1 6 4 5 75?

▶ 1:56:12 Speaker 8: Can you refer to the line items in the fine Banks park report?

▶ 1:56:15 Robb Stewart: Yeah, sure. Line number 72, which you said was the total, and you said, so the, the budget summary for fiscal year 2025 on line 72 is $1,164,575 and 17 cents. Yes. Right. And so how do you go from the, on the previous page where you have the maximum budget requisition to this number? Is this just what you need?

▶ 1:56:42 Speaker 8: Okay. The matches, the, the statutory mandate is the minimum amount, So minimum supplied. Okay. Right now. And so that's just there so that we define what the statute says. Okay. You know, and beyond that, uh, the cities have been funding Pine Banks Park in excess of the mandate for a good number of years now, but we still keep track of it. Uh,

▶ 1:57:06 Robb Stewart: Sure. And so that 1.164 million is that for a combined Malden and Melrose? That's

▶ 1:57:13 Speaker 8: Malden and Melrose. That's Malden

▶ 1:57:14 Robb Stewart: and Melrose. Okay. That's helpful. Thank

▶ 1:57:16 Speaker 8: You. The city of the city of Melrose is the 5 82. 2 87 59.

▶ 1:57:21 Robb Stewart: Okay. So, and that's what you presented to the mayor and said, this is what we need. And then the mayor came back to us at line 6 52 and said, we need 6 17, 7 17.

▶ 1:57:33 Speaker 8: Uh, well, we had a trustees meeting and the mayor is a member of the board of trustees and voted this budget. Okay. Last Tuesday, Uh, this budget was supplied to, um, uh, the financial office a couple of weeks ago. It hasn't changed, so I'm not really sure. I hadn't seen these numbers before this evening.

▶ 1:58:00 Robb Stewart: Okay. I'm in, I'm inclined to want to understand what's the correct number. I mean, if, if there's, if there was, if the mayor was part of this 5 85, or I'm sorry, 5 82, 2 87, and Carrie Ann got a copy of this here. Why, my question is, why is it not reflected in 6 52?

▶ 1:58:24 Robb Stewart: You Can't answer, sir. And I, I, okay. That may be a question more for the mayor. Uh, but this is something that, uh, I'm not comfortable voting on at, at least until I understand what that description and because it's, it's not insignificant. Alright. And if it's a good reason, if there's a very good reason for us to support that, then I'd like to hear it. But until we hear that good reason, um, less inclined to support the higher number,

▶ 1:58:54 Robb Stewart: I'd like to understand what that, what that difference is.

▶ 1:58:57 Speaker 8: Yes. I'd like to also.

▶ 1:59:03 Speaker 6: Great. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

▶ 1:59:04 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, councilor gpe.

▶ 1:59:07 Mark Garipay: Okay. Um, thank you Mr. Keyser for being Thank you Madam Chair.

▶ 1:59:13 Mark Garipay: Um, I'm not, I saw that too. My only, I'm kind of thinking of maybe it's the, um, bonds that the city pays on the capital alt lay for the fields, um, from, from years ago. But I'm not positive on that. But hopefully, uh, we can get that answer from the mayor. Um, I, I do have a couple just quick questions on, um, the city portion's 9 71 292, your budget is 1164. 575. That's line 73 and 74. I'm sorry. Yeah. 73 74. And then we have a difference of 193. 2 82. How is that gonna, how's that gonna be funded? Um, do, is that other revenue that you have coming in That's showing, that's showing the difference between the statutory mandate and the amount we're asking for?

▶ 2:00:04 Speaker 8: Okay. Yeah. So the 1 92, the, the amount over the mandate is included in that 1 1 6 4 5 7 5 17. Okay. So this just, just to show the, the relative position of the statutory mandate and what we're asking for when saying thank you for Okay. Okay. And I understand. I I thought I thought we were over, so, okay. I got it. Um, and then, um, line

▶ 2:00:37 Mark Garipay: 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 or 50 52, I understand. Um, line 53, the resurfacing of the ball field and the playground. Um, don't have a question on that. I do have a question on, um, the dog park, the pickle pickleball court and pickup truck. That was money we paid. That was part of the budget last year. Yes. The column to the left is last year. So you can see the variation of where it comes from. So that's just to show those capital acquisitions last year and they're shown as a zero amount this year. Correct. So where's the pickleball court?

▶ 2:01:18 Speaker 8: Is that in process? 'cause I guess we fund, we funded it, and I'm just trying to un understand. The Pickleball court is an area of the park to the, uh, to the east of the rugby field parking lot, which has got both conservation issues and remediation under DEP Mm-Hmm. 'cause the whole area was used as the Melrose dump until 1958. Um, so we're still looking at cleaning that and trying to close out that file. Um, we have, uh, Jeff Nle of Nle Associates as our environmental advisor. I think he's done work for both City of Malden and Melrose. Mm-Hmm. But he's trying to determine what it is that that has to be done to close out that area so that we can use it as a, uh, as a pickleball court. It's also got sensitivity because it's in the buffer zone for the wetlands. 'cause there's a stream that runs through Forestdale and Wyoming Yep. In the park. So I guess I can say that's in process. Uh, but when I asked Jeff, what are you doing? He comes back with a technical response. And,

▶ 2:02:29 Mark Garipay: And, and, uh, same with the, um,

▶ 2:02:34 Speaker 8: the dugouts and the pickup truck. Did we The Pickup truck? Yeah. Trucks now take six months to get delivered. Uh, and they tell us it's on the way from the factory. Okay.

▶ 2:02:44 Mark Garipay: And we'll see. And the do I, the only reason why I'm asking is, you know, we've, we've put it in the budget last year, just making sure that's going forward. And then, um, auditing and accounting went up about $6,700, um, on that line item. Is that something that goes out to bid? Uh, that's what we've been using with and Brown. Okay. Um, And we have a consolidated

▶ 2:03:14 Speaker 8: accounting, uh, statement, financial statement from them that, which covers not only the municipal funding, which is shown on this sheet, but also the, uh, funding from the Pine Banks Park Foundation Mm-Hmm. Which is a 5 0 1 C3, which, and using that private foundation has allowed us to get charitable contributions and to get the mass development loan that we got. Uh, and it's a consolidated statement that shows the uses of funds and the sources of funds from both, uh, and that was delivered to the cities last week.

▶ 2:03:53 Speaker 8: Um, uh, the, the price of accounting is,

▶ 2:03:58 Speaker 8: it's, it's a, uh, safeguard from our point of view, because there's a lot of money that we're dealing with. I,

▶ 2:04:05 Mark Garipay: I think I just have two other questions. One is when we we're looking at redoing, uh, resurfacing the track, right. Have, have we thought at all about long-term plan? Um, I know originally I think that the fields in the middle of the track were originally gonna be turfed when we did that, when that was proposed years ago, when we're resurfacing it, have we thought about maybe potentially turfing those as part of this plan?

▶ 2:04:31 Speaker 8: If we're gonna, I mean, you don't want to eventually put turf fields in if you're gonna resurface the, the track. I'm just trying to be proactive. Well, that's, you know, it's an interesting, it's an interesting concept. I think if we were gonna do that, we'd want to put lights on that field and we don't have them currently. Okay. Uh, we had a track meet and, um, Steve Foggerty our a d in Melrose, uh, got some mobile lights for use, but I think for the lights on Sullivan Street might, might be an issue for the folks who were living on that.

▶ 2:05:03 Speaker 8: Um, but I can remember, it seems like yesterday, it was 2013 we put the track in Yeah. Know, um, that was, Cape and Islands did that, and they're coming back to give us their advice on, they were also the people that would be looking at, uh, the, uh, pickleball court.

▶ 2:05:22 Mark Garipay: Okay. And then the only other question I had, I guess is, um, you know, there's a number of organizations that, um, use the, use the facility outside Melrose and Walden when there's free time. Does that, um, where does, does

▶ 2:05:38 Speaker 8: that revenue go towards the budget here? Yeah, it's, we have, uh, my Rec, which is a scheduling software that Mm-Hmm. The cities use. Uh, and we've got, um, website, which has got a, uh, connection so you can pay for things with credit cards. So now we've got, uh, folks who are looking to get permits. They get their permit online and they get to pay for it online. And it's X dollars depending on whether there's lights. So the money is coming in and we've got a, a checking account at Eastern Bank that, that gets directly deposited in. It's not like the old days where people would call up on the phone. Now it's, um, and it, it's sort of interesting because we get a very large number of folks who are looking for picnic sites for birthday parties, um, petting zoos. They wanted to hire a company to bring in pets. Uh, but the amount of money that's been deposited into that account is around 40 grand, which is a money that we found, and we're using it to pay down electric bills on the lights and so forth. Uh, the charges for those, uh, get assessed to folks that aren't part of the Malden Melrose, Scholastic or youth sports group. Um, and we've had some, some folks that are, uh, the Vikings baseball team, the Mystic, uh, Kendall Wanderers Soccer. Uh, we had one team that called last year and wanted to have an ultimate Frisbee, uh, project going. And it was like Thursday nights from 10 to 11, very odd under the lights. And I think they ended up, it was like $5,000 we picked up on that. But that goes to defray expenses. Um, How much total revenue, uh, do you bring in through permits? Is it just at 40,000 When you It's about 40,000, but the more scholastic, uh, youth activity there is, depending on the particular year, the particular season, um, that that can decrease. Oddly enough, I think we made more during the tail end of the pandemic than we, uh, we have currently.

▶ 2:08:01 Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 2:08:03 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Next I have, um, counselor Pam. She

▶ 2:08:09 Manjula Karamcheti: Hi there. Thank you for being with us tonight. Um, I just wanted to double click on Counselor Stewart's questions just in regards to the discrepancies with numbers and would also be interested in, in finding out about that. And I really only have one question, and it sort of stems from Counselor Gar pays. Just in terms of thinking about the scheduled field usage. I've had some questions from constituents. I think wondering about sort of the equitable use between Malden and Melrose, um, in regards to the fields and that related to outside organizations that are trying to use it as well. And the, I guess, worry that perhaps the youth time, um, for teams and community organizations is sometimes being limited based on the outside. And I wouldn't pretend to know the answer to that. So I just, I pose it to you so you can speak to how those decisions are made. And given how we're funding through Melrose and Malden, sort of, is it equivalent to how the fields and how Pine banks is being used?

▶ 2:09:27 Speaker 8: Okay. Um, let me try to pass the buck a little.

▶ 2:09:34 Speaker 8: We have a, a group called the liaisons. And the liaisons are made up of someone who's appointed by the mayor. In our case, it's Joan Bell, uh, and Laura Paris, uh, in Malden. And the purpose of that is that it's appointed by the mayor, so no one messes around with them. Uh, then we've got the athletic directors, uh, which is Steve Fogarty and Charlie EY down in, in Malden. Um, and we have a meeting twice, twice a year at least. And it's, the cycles are basically spring and early summer and then fall. Uh, the, uh, liaisons represent the uh, the scholastic teams and the youth teams, and they have the best information on who needs what and when they need it. Uh, so no one gets a crack at any time slot until those are totally reconciled with the information that's available, uh, to the liaisons. And, uh, essentially Steve Fog is answering to answering to Joan. Um, and then all the other youth sports also answer to Joan. So we've got Joan and Laura Paris sitting in the room and they're dividing it up based on what their needs are. Uh, the reason I say needs, occasionally a city will have a field down, so they try to make it up with using pine banks, so we try to accommodate that. Um, but I think that we're answering the requirements of the community because there's a, a mechanism to have the requests go up the chain, uh, to folks who are intelligent like Joan.

▶ 2:11:19 Speaker 8: Uh, and I'm gonna miss her in September. But, um, it's worked out pretty well because we don't want to have, uh, soccer coaches coming in and making demands on the crew on the fields or, or superintendent. Um, they're working within the system and, uh, I think it's equitable because the liaisons are looking out after their, each of their cities and are cooperating in the allocation of times available. Uh, um, Joan and Laura can, uh, both schedule our calendar and our calendars on the internet. Everyone can see it. Everyone knows what's going on. Generally, a field can produce three cycles in a day, uh, depending on weather, also, depending on whether the, the school buses get there in time through traffic after school gets out. Um, and, uh, the liaisons also have control of the lights so they can turn them on or turn them off. The biggest problem we have in haven't on scheduling, I think, is weather, because it's a snap decision on, on what has to stop. Uh, it's difficult to put youth soccer on a grass field in April because it turns into mud. Um, but we're working with, with those, they've identified what those factors are, and I think as a group, it's really, um, it's nice to see that there aren't any parochial discussions in the operation of the liaisons because they, they work well together.

▶ 2:12:59 Speaker 8: Wouldn't you say, I'm getting nods from my liaison here.

▶ 2:13:03 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to that. It's very helpful and clear.

▶ 2:13:09 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Next I have Councilor Van Devin.

▶ 2:13:17 Kimberly Vandiver: Hi. Thank you. Um, I have two questions. Um, first of all, uh, wanted to second, um, counselor Stewart's questions about the final number and how we arrived at those.

▶ 2:13:29 Kimberly Vandiver: Uh, and second, um, there, there is a, um, an outdoor preschool that has been used recently, um, been using the space, um, and, uh, which I'm very excited about as the parent of a toddler. Um, they, as I understand it right now, they're limited to half day programs because of a state requirement that they have an available indoor space for inclement weather, um, to offer naps in on days with inclement weather or in, in certain circumstances. Um, and I know they've proposed, um, before having some sort of space, perhaps a yurt, um, or something else within Pine Banks. Um, my question is how, you know, what would the process be for them to achieve their, their goal or use of some space or creation of some space within Pine banks?

▶ 2:14:23 Speaker 8: We really don't have much of a facility for indoor space. Basically, it's a, a maintenance shed that we just built. Um,

▶ 2:14:37 Speaker 8: you know, it's been, uh,

▶ 2:14:39 Kimberly Vandiver: So is there any process for, um, proposing capital improvements that they could go through? Or would they, you know, present to the board, or, or what would the avenue be that they could suggest something if they wanted to, to, um, propose another space?

▶ 2:14:54 Speaker 8: Well, I, I think we could certainly look at a space we had. We just finished building the, uh, field house. The Fieldhouse came in at 1,000,006, and I was surprised by the, the cost of putting up anything more limited. 'cause we, we tried to build something small in the beginning, and it doesn't seem to be much of a thing that's small. So, I mean, if you're talking about a, an indoor facility that would take 30 kids in, in Clement weather, I think you're looking at half million dollars anyway. Now, if it's the feeling of this board that, that's worth it, but

▶ 2:15:37 Speaker 8: it's a, I mean, it's a question. It's a question of funding.

▶ 2:15:42 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Next I have, uh, counselor, uh, William.

▶ 2:15:46 Ryan Williams: Thank you. Um, I just wanted to Oh, thank you. Um, so I wanted to piggyback off of the, the funding question to, to very quickly just go over a couple of the numbers in the city's budget and make sure I have the, the understanding correct. On page five of the, of the red document here we have the 582,287 and 59 cents, line 72. That's the total amount requested from the city of Melrose.

▶ 2:16:12 Speaker 8: That's Melrose share. Yeah.

▶ 2:16:13 Ryan Williams: Okay, great. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. Um, and then if you look over, which I don't think you have in front of us, but we have in front of us and is on our I QM two website. If you look over the budget spreadsheet that lists the mayor's request, I see two numbers. One of them is on page 54 of the budget spreadsheet, and it is $249,000. And it has been zeroed out for fiscal year 25. So that is $250,000 that was requested in fiscal year 24 for pine banks and is not being requested in fiscal year, uh, 25 for pine Banks. And that was, um, oh wait, I'm sorry. I apologize.

▶ 2:16:53 Ryan Williams: It's very late. And I looked at the wrong sheet. That's not Pine Banks at all. That's a city's capital outlay. Oh, thank you know why, because there's, but I will, wait, wait. There are two line items on that page for a hundred, 1040 8,000. Therefore, pine Bank's capital projects, they're just buried in a different part of the budget. My point is that some of these funds to Councilor Stewart's point, it's not just $617,000, um, in the mayor's budget, it's actually kind of a shuffling of funds. There's some money that we had previously housed in our own capital outlay budget, approximately $150,000 for capital projects in the facility shed. Um, and then so that's gone. That's minus basically one 50. And then, um, we have on line page, excuse me, page 41 and 42 of the budget spreadsheet, which is up. We have what counselor, um, Stewart was mentioning, which is that we now see a larger number, like almost, well, you know, 300,000 larger, um, for pine banks in total. But, so my, my point is just to say we do need additional clarity, but to my math, um, the actual net impact of this to the budget is, is not $617,000 because of the way things have been moved around. So I would like to see a number in the spreadsheet that matches the number in the annual report from, um, pine banks. Um, but I'm not really concerned about it. I think it's a housekeeping measure for us.

▶ 2:18:25 Speaker 8: I wish I had Patrick de la Ru's number.

▶ 2:18:30 Speaker 1: You don't. That's it for me. Thank you.

▶ 2:18:32 Maya Jamaleddine: I have counselor, uh, Romanul for the first time, then counselor, um, Sue for the second time,

▶ 2:18:39 Devin Romanul: I'll be extremely quick. 'cause I was rifling through numbers as you were talking. First of all, thank you for the Jaws reference. Truly appreciate it. Um, number two, uh, just there's some minor discrepancies. Uh, to Councillor Williams' point, there are the bigger ones that are in different parts of the budget. Um, but it'll be nice to see them on the same page that you have laid out here. But in some of the numbers that you have laid out for your, uh, FY 25 budget, their discrepancies small, but in the overtime pay from what the mayor has said versus what you've printed, um, and the total current compensation, it's only a few hundred bucks, but it just may be indicative. It may, they may have uploaded the wrong draft or, or who knows. So, um, you know, would love to check on that.

▶ 2:19:18 Speaker 8: I think that's a great possibility. Yeah.

▶ 2:19:21 Devin Romanul: Um, anyway, thank you very much. I appreciate

▶ 2:19:23 Speaker 8: It. I mean, we, I've tried to have a constant approach on this for the last 15 or 20 years so that it, everyone knows what it looks like, at least as far as Pine banks goes.

▶ 2:19:33 Devin Romanul: Yeah, I think they, they may have, uh, they're different categories, so I, it just may be, uh, reshuffled somewhere. Anyway, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it.

▶ 2:19:41 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Councilor Manjula. Um, councilor Stewart.

▶ 2:19:45 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just one observation, just playing around with the numbers a little bit. You had mentioned roughly 40,000, and when you take the difference between the six 17 and the 5 82, it comes out to just over $35,000. So, um, it may be, uh, accounting, the six 17 may be accounting for the additional revenue that you get from renting out the parks and so forth. But given that there's not clarity on this, I don't think, uh, I'd be comfortable. Uh, and I think it would be rash of any of us madam, uh, chair for us to make in consideration. So at this time, I'd like to make a motion to hold this in committee until, until we get these, uh, questions, uh, answered.

▶ 2:20:30 Speaker 2: Second,

▶ 2:20:32 Maya Jamaleddine: Uh, we have a motion to hold made by Councilor Sewer, seconded by, um, president GL on discussion. Councilor gpe. Yeah,

▶ 2:20:42 Mark Garipay: I'll, um, I'll, I'll, I'll also also put the motion. I, I don't necessarily, I understand what everyone's saying regarding the difference in the budget, but I think one thing we gotta, um, just realize that's in the summary is the City of Melrose pays for all the salaries and benefits upfront, and then we get reimbursed. So if you look at the, just for example, the salary line item of 2, 2 54, 8 0 7, and, and, and Mr. Keyser, I don't, I don't think you have a copy of our Muni budget. So unfortunately you we're throwing numbers at you and, and, and, you know, it's, you don't, you don't have that. But if you look at our roughly salary and overtime is, is right, right there. So, um, if we look at the, I think the way the statute reads or in, in Mr. Key's summary, it states that the city of Melrose through our HR department, um, we pay for the employees and we get reimbursed. So I think that's part of the difference that we are seeing between Muni and what Mr. Uh, Keyser's, um, numbers are.

▶ 2:21:42 Speaker 8: So the function, the function of the reimbursement is on page six, lines 48,

▶ 2:21:52 Speaker 8: showing the city of all an estimated quarterly reimbursement. I tried to put everything into this budget so that we know all in what, what it is we're being asked to just disband. And the computation of the, uh, overtime is on lines 41 through 44 on page six.

▶ 2:22:14 Speaker 8: Um, and a lot of the figures on page six, which are the components of compensation and, and benefits are coming from HR and coming from the retirement board here. And we're just plugging in what their estimation of, uh, the insurance for instance, is. Correct. I'm not sure that that's even computed at this point. It, in our, in our muni budget, it shows, it shows that total salary benefits are in there. That's kind of the difference. And we just need clarification. But I, I understand it. So

▶ 2:22:48 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you Mr. Keer, and thank you. Uh, councilor gpe. We have a motion.

▶ 2:22:56 Speaker 3: Uh, vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor gpe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Carcetti. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver.

▶ 2:23:10 Speaker 3: Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Na Carro? Yes.

▶ 2:23:14 Speaker 3: President GL Yes. And Chair Aldine? Yes. Motion passes.

▶ 2:23:22 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, next we have, um, line item, uh, number 9 31, the capital outlay for, uh, pine Banks, which you are also presenting, Mr. Razer. Um,

▶ 2:23:41 Maya Jamaleddine: and would you like to speak on this number item or,

▶ 2:23:46 Speaker 8: Uh, I'm not really sure. The capital out outline on our budget is lines 44 through 57 that we've discussed it, uh, in detail. It's a continuation of loan servicing and bond servicing, um, for field renovations, and then an, uh, undertaking for a 1.25 facility at, uh, 4.25% for 10.

▶ 2:24:16 Maya Jamaleddine: Uh, president Elli.

▶ 2:24:18 Leila Migliorelli: Um, Madam Chair, I think as Councillor Williams pointed out, 9 31 looks like it's been zeroed out this year, and I think it's been included in the other budget. It still doesn't explain for the discrepancies between unis in this report. So, I mean, I think we could move and pass this. Well, I would make a motion to re um, move the bottom line. Um, but I think that's, I, this is why Mr. Keer can't speak to it. 'cause I think it's been Okay. Moved somewhere. Is that a motion? Yeah. So motion, motion. Move the bottom line on 9 31. One second.

▶ 2:24:55 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion to move, uh, to bottom line on item, uh, 9 31. Seconded by, uh, counselor Stewart on discussion. Counselor William. Thank you.

▶ 2:25:09 Ryan Williams: Um, I just wanted to point out that we are, we are correct here. The figures in this case do match precisely in Munis with the Pine Bank's budget of $226,720. It's actually, it's actually $2 off. So up or down, no whole, it's $2 higher on the city end, maybe inflation. Um, rightfully accept. So this is one, yeah, this is one where the numbers match.

▶ 2:25:34 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

▶ 2:25:37 Speaker 3: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Garbe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Carcetti. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes.

▶ 2:25:50 Maya Jamaleddine: Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Naro. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal? Yes. Motion Passes. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Keer, and appreciate your patience and willingness to explain everything and walk us through it. Well,

▶ 2:26:06 Speaker 8: Thank you all. Thank

▶ 2:26:07 Maya Jamaleddine: you. Um,

▶ 2:26:11 Maya Jamaleddine: and, um, point of, um, order, I just would like to, um, make, um, note for the record, uh, counselor Reky hasn't been with us since after the recess, so if you can just take note on that.

▶ 2:26:30 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, next we have, um, parks and, uh, Mount Hood presented by, um, Mrs. Bell.

▶ 2:26:47 Speaker 5: Good luck. Tough crowd. Um,

▶ 2:26:51 Speaker 5: Thank you. Uh, I think I wanna address the permit, um, conversation that we had. So just so that there's about an explanation from the city side. So we have the two liaisons that go to the meetings, and we sit and we determine, um, what needs the high school has and what needs the youth groups have. And that usually balances 56, 50 50 between Melrose and Malden. Um, in the beginning, like when we first got out the season. And then, um, anything else that's available is up for grabs for the Pine Bank staff to rent out. The problem that we, um, consistently have been running into is, um, we have to have schedules in by asserting, um, timeframe. And what happens is things change. We have a lot of, we have a lot of rainouts. Um, once we give up time, it's very hard to get it back 'cause it's already been, um, you know, permitted out to somebody else. Um, so those are the type of things that we're constantly, you know, being challenged with. Um, I think, um, right now, you know, we've said it to Mr. Kea that we really do need somebody in that superintendent position down at Pine Banks. It's very difficult to work, um, the two cities with use groups, high school, everybody, and then having somebody with feet on the ground that's there, that we can make these changes hourly if we have to. Um, so I think, um, it depends on the season. I think, um, some seasons Malden might be a little heavily more permitted in other seasons. Mel Roseville depend who needs what fields at what time. Um, but for the most part, I think our youth programs and our high school programs are, are pretty balanced. Um, the outside user groups, like we said, once they come in, it's, it's very hard to get time back. So if things change during the course of seasons in different groups, you know, right now I have three new groups that are kind of new on the city side that are looking for time. Um, and it's, we're already trying to figure out because it's already, you know, been filled. So it's, it's kind of a, a, a puzzle in motion that we work with. Um, but for the most part, I think that between Melrose and Malden, we, we do what we do pretty well.

▶ 2:29:21 Speaker 3: In other words, that's what creates the complaint. You hear? That's what it comes down

▶ 2:29:25 Speaker 5: To. Yeah. Yeah. Alright.

▶ 2:29:30 Speaker 5: On to bigger and better. Yeah. Um, the mo Hood budget, um,

▶ 2:29:34 Speaker 3: Hood, uh, bill Garra, chairman of the Park Commission, um, the Mount, uh, the Mount Hood budget, the Enterprise Fund, most of you know, uh, is, is operated under a statutory enterprise fund as opposed to, uh, getting funded by the general funds of the city. Uh, all of the revenues, um, all of the outlays, uh, from the Enterprise Fund, uh, uh, based upon the, the revenues generated from the operation of the golf course in the park system, uh, last year was a good year. Um, um, thanks at a lot, large part to the assistance we received from the council about a year ago. And we had a hard time getting the, the contract through. Uh, you helped us, uh, acquire some equipment. Uh, we got a good contract. We got a good company. Uh, we had great revenues last year, um, I think it was, it combined almost $3 million between the golf revenues, the pro shop, the food, uh, beverage service. Um, uh, less than anybody gets too excited about us helping you, um, close the budget gap. Um, the Enterprise Fund, uh, by statute doesn't allow us to spend any money outside of what's generated in the enterprise fund, which I'm sure you all know. We have limited exceptions. Home rule petition, I can't remember, 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago, uh, that, uh, a lot of, uh, the folks in this city helped put through, allows us to spend money on bond payments for the, uh, the high school football field, uh, the Fred Greenfield, the, the baseball field, and that whole facility, uh, about $450,000 a year goes back to the city from the revenues we generate based upon, uh, the exception that we have, uh, the statutory exception of the, uh, via the home rule petition. Uh, the bottom line is what we're asking for is, um, uh, it looks like a 12.7% increase in our budget, uh, which again, is gonna be funded by the revenues. Uh, the only line item that, uh, that went up from last year would be the professional services, which is the payment to, uh, to the, uh, management company that runs the golf course. Um, it's somewhat backwards, but the fact that we're at that we have a line item that went up is a good thing because that means we made more money last year or more gross revenues came in, which means we have to pay more to the management company so that we're accounting for it in this budget. It's an increase. Um, it looks like 12.7. I can't read those munis budgets, but I, I can only read the notes that Joan pa, uh, passes to me. So if, if I have that number wrong, correct me on it. But that's where we're at and we'd look, uh, look for the passage of that. Thank you.

▶ 2:32:10 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you both. Any question from my colleagues?

▶ 2:32:18 Maya Jamaleddine: Councilor Stewart?

▶ 2:32:20 Speaker 6: Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to move to the bottom line.

▶ 2:32:22 Maya Jamaleddine: Second, We have a motion, uh, made by Councilor Stewart, uh, to move, uh, bottom line. Seconded by Councilor Gar on discussion.

▶ 2:32:36 Speaker 3: Seeing none. Clerk Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councilor Gpe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Carcetti. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes.

▶ 2:32:48 Maya Jamaleddine: Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Naro. Yes. President M gl. I'm sorry. Yes. Uh, and Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. That's unanimous. Motion Passes. Thank you. Uh, now we have Ordinance 2024 dash two Park permits involving accounts, and you both are still speaking on this. Anything that you would wish to

▶ 2:33:15 Speaker 5: Add? I think it speaks for itself. This is the permit fund. Um, I would say that 90% of our permits are Melrose Youth, so we don't charge them. Um, this is for when outside user groups come in. We have the majority of it's during the summer for more field, Fred Greenfield at night, some adult leagues at play, um, some youth programs during the summer that are run, um, for profit. So, you know, they're charged. Um, we roughly take in 15 to $20,000 a year. Like I said, most of the permits are City of Melrose. Um, and that money goes back into the fields that are, um, used by people from outside user groups on those fields. So the, the fields that take the heaviest wear and tear from outside user groups are the fields that when work comes up to be done, um, that we use that fund to do it. Um, some examples are, we just put, um, like I said, Morelli Field is one of the big fields that gets a lot of use. We just put an overhang net for foul balls. We did some infield work, um, last fall to have it ready for spring when it open for the high school season. We redid, redid padding on the, um, back fencing. So we try to put it back into the, the fields that actually take the, use the abuse from it.

▶ 2:34:33 Maya Jamaleddine: Perfect. Counselor Gpe, just

▶ 2:34:34 Mark Garipay: A suggestion, if we could put a net down the Fells Way. Yeah. I, I stop, I stop like 500 yards. Wait for a green light and then I, then I go,

▶ 2:34:44 Speaker 5: I know, I know it, it has been brought up.

▶ 2:34:47 Speaker 8: It probably is something we should look at.

▶ 2:34:52 Maya Jamaleddine: It looks great. Thank you. That's it. Councilor Gpe? Yes. Sorry. Any other question from my colleagues?

▶ 2:35:02 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. Councilor Stewart.

▶ 2:35:04 Robb Stewart: Madam Chair, I make a motion to move the revolving count number 2 6 6 9 to the bottom. Nine. Second,

▶ 2:35:11 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion made by Counselor Stewart, uh, to move to bottom line, uh, on, uh, number item, uh, 2 6 6 9. And seconded by counselor Karen Shetty on discussion, sir.

▶ 2:35:30 Speaker 3: Clerk Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Repe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Carcetti. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver.

▶ 2:35:43 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes. Councilor Ryan. Yes. Councillor DeCaro. Yes. President Meili? Yes. Uh, chair Jamal Dean? Yes. That's unanimous. Motion passes. Thank you. That motion carries. And last on the budget items is appropriation 2024 dash 30 Mount Hood Enterprise Fund number 6 2 0 0.