Communications from Her Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials

Transcript (~9 min @ 33:03)

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▶ 32:57 Leila Migliorelli: Next up is communications from Her Honor or the mayor and other city officials. Um, but before we hear, I believe the mayor's here to, um, provide some updates. I will motion by unanim of Consent to suspend Rule 37 B. Seeing no objections. Rule 37 B is now suspended. Welcome Madam Mayor again tonight. Good

▶ 33:16 Jen Grigoraitis: Evening, Madam President and Counselors. Um, I just wanted to provide some updates as we prepare to enter the budget process. And um, I do have this also as a hard copy and should it be the will of the council can provide it to, um, the clerk of committee so that it can be added to the packet. Um, I first wanted to make sure you were all aware that we are in the final stages of a review of the city's employment manual and policies. This was conducted by Outside Employment Council in partnership with the city solicitor, our HR director and our chief of staff. The focus of this review was on ensuring that our policies and practices are legally compliant with state and federal mandates, advance equity and help us attract and retain high quality staff to deliver services to Melrose. Once the manual is finalized, we will be sharing it with all city staff as and providing training and support, especially for supervisors. In addition to going through this process to ensure that our policies and practices are current. Um, going through this review and update will also make us more competitive in the insurance market when we next go to procure for coverage for the city. That was some feedback that we received in our last procurement prior to my tenure that we needed to really make sure that our policies were up to date. So I'm hoping that there will be both some financial gains for the city in that and also obviously make for a more robust work environment. Um, I also wanted to let you know that at my request, the division of local services, which is part of the Department of Revenue, will be conducting a financial management review for the city of Melrose. This process is slated to begin in September. That was the earliest we could get on their calendar and it will take approximately three to six months. DLS staff will be on site and will provide a comprehensive operational review of our local accounting, treasury collection, assessing and overall administrative functions. And then we'll make written recommendations and best practices and how to improve our day-to-day management and procedures, as well as provide specific hands-on tools, guidance and strategies. Um, I think that's a really important next step for our community to really be having someone come in from the outside and looking holistically at how we manage our finances and all of our practices. Um, the third prong of sort of city management is procurement. Um, in prior audits, our auditing firm has identified procurement as an area where we need to improve most noticeably because our procurement is fairly decentralized. Um, to that end, I have authorized Joe Montalto, who's our deputy director of it, to complete the Massachusetts certified Public Purchasing Officer or M-C-P-P-O. It rolls off the tongue designation course, which is offered through the office of the Inspector General. Um, for the past few years, this Inspector general has been offering municipalities the opportunity to send an employee for free to that training series. And so Melrose will be taking advantage of that this year. And, um, I'm very appreciative of Joe and his supervisor for making the time. It's a pretty significant, significant investment of time and it's a several thousand dollars, um, worth of training that the city will be receiving for free. Um, Joe will be the first member on the city side to have the designation. We have several staff at DPW who have that designation, but obviously not all of our procurements are through DPW. And as we do more and more complex it, we really wanna make sure that we're doing that in a way that is in compliance with chapter 30 B. Um, we are also gonna be working with outside legal counsel to develop a procurement handbook for all city departments so that we are being responsive to the, um, deficit identified by the auditor and having a more centralized uniform approach to procurement. So that's something we'll be working on in the

▶ 36:48 Speaker 11: coming, um, months.

▶ 36:51 Jen Grigoraitis: I also wanted to let you know that after an opening competitive process, I've offered Carrie Golden the role of CFO for the city of Melrose. I believe you all know Carrie, she's been serving as the assistant city auditor since 2016, had prior roles, um, doing financial management for our public safety, um, groups, and has over 20 years of financial experience on both the private and public side. I think she brings both a wealth of experience on Melrose, on our collective bargaining agreements on municipal finance and also a real desire and skillset to begin the important work of financial forecasting so that we are actually thinking ahead about our budgets and what we can afford and what those are gonna look like. Um, I, we're obviously gonna get through the budget season with our interim CFO in place and then I'll be making a formal request to you all in June for her appointment. Um, and then I wanted to let you know that we have received our annual financial report from Powers and Sullivan. I have some hard copies of those for those that would like a hard copy. They unfortunately didn't send us enough for every counselor, but we can request more. I'll be sending that to you electronically. And then we'll also be posting it on the city website for the public to read. Um, we again have the same three recommendations for improvement related to procurement, um, improving our IT infrastructure for cybersecurity attacks and, um, I'm blanking on the last one. I believe it's related to our po our employment policy. So we're trying to really make sure that we're addressing those identified concerns. Um, and then lastly, the FY 25 budget will be coming down to you at your next meeting on May 6th. Um, I believe folks are very well aware that we're anticipating that this will be a fairly challenging budget year. So what I plan to present to you on May 6th is the following a balanced budget for FY 25 for both the city and schools, which is based on our current anticipated revenue. So the school committee will be going through a budget reduction exercise next week, um, in order to provide that budget. I also wanna provide you all with details on the identified unfunded needs on the city side. I don't think that's a, a piece of the puzzle that we've typically done. Um, so I have asked departments not only to go through a budget reduction exercise where they reduce their level services budget by 5% and 10%, um, which in most cases would involve laying off staff to achieve that level of reduction. But also to identify the things that we consistently have been identified as needs by residents and are not funded. They never make it before the council. As an ask, um, we're also gonna be requesting that the council consider an increase to the senior property tax work off program. We currently have that program capped at a thousand dollars for residents age 60 plus the state legal limit is actually $2,000. So I would like to request that you all consider raising that limit so that we're able to provide more of our older residents with a bigger, um, reduction in the burden of their property taxes. I will also be making a request for your consideration of an operational override ballot question to go on in late June, which would seek to increase available funds for both city and school needs. And I'll, I'll highlight that. Most notably on the city side, our need is for funding, being able to be able to secure fair and competitive collective bargaining agreements for all of our unionized personnel. Um, and then lastly, should you seek to pursue an override, I will be requesting you call a special election in late June, so it's gonna be a busy may. Um, I know it's probably not what anyone had on their calendar for what we would be looking at given the financial picture for the cities and the schools. I think it's really impro important to provide their residents with an opportunity to tell us what they want next year to look like before we actually get to next year. So I appreciate all of your patience, um, as we move through this process. And really wanna thank city staff who've been working furiously to do everything in the background necessary to get to this point. And obviously I know I'll have a chance to speak with each of you individually in advance of the budget and then obviously to have budget hearings. So I just wanted to let you know that that's what's coming. Um, and just say thank you in advance for your attention to these very important matters. Thank

▶ 40:56 Speaker 10: You. Thank you Madam Mayor. Any questions

▶ 41:03 Speaker 10: or Councilor Hamilton? Um,

▶ 41:04 Ward Hamilton: Did you say Ms. Golden has been offered the position and you're waiting for her?

▶ 41:10 Jen Grigoraitis: She has accepted the position and it's a conditional, um, appointment pending your final approval as the city council.

▶ 41:16 Ward Hamilton: I think that's great news. Thank You. I'm very

▶ 41:17 Speaker 12: Excited for Her.

▶ 41:20 Speaker 10: Thank you Madam Mayor. Welcome. Great.

▶ 41:24 Leila Migliorelli: Moving on in our agenda. Um, new business filings by the Honorable Mayor.

▶ 41:31 Speaker 3: Appointment 2024 dash 26 appointment of Francis Sanzone. 180 4 Upham Street to the Board of Registrars of Voters.