APPRO-2023-28 : Fiscal 2024 Operating Budget in the amount of $101,173,341 (one hundred and one million, one hundred seventy-three thousand, three hundred forty-one dollars and 00/100 cents)

Transcript (~1 h 22 min @ 3:33)

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▶ 3:23 Leila Migliorelli: Not at the moment. Okay. There's an objection. I'd like to close. Public comment. Seeing none. We are now closed for public comment. Since we have members of the administration here tonight to speak on the items before us, I'd like to motion by unanimous consent to suspend the rules before we proceed. Seeing no objection, the rules are now suspended. First on our agenda tonight is appropriation 2023 dash 28, fiscal 2024 operating budget in the amount of $101,173,341. And, um, first up for a department, tonight we have the Health department with Director Anthony Choy.

▶ 4:14 Speaker 5: Hi everyone. Welcome. Thank you. Um, thank you again to the city council. Um, just wanted to give an update. Uh, it's been a, it's been a great year, um, for the Health department. I think, um, we've been very excited about the work we've been able to do, um, with all of our, with our community, with our schools. Um, it was definitely highlighted this year by our, uh, increased partnership with the town of Stoneham. Um, the council approved, um, the expansion to three town, uh, regional department. And it's yielded, uh, a lot of success for us. Uh, one of the biggest highlights of this year with our increased partnership has been the, uh, stop school violence grant. We've been to apply for many state and federal grants that we were not, um, previously eligible for. And I think, um, the work that has been, the work that has been, uh, done, has been, uh, has, has showed great results. Our adjustment counselors have been able to fund, uh, for the schools, um, have been able to dig into a lot of issues that have been affecting our students and our families. Um, it's been giving us a better insight into, um, you know, kinda the post covid environment and really understand, uh, what our communities need. Um, our budget this year, uh, reflects, uh, a small amount of change. Uh, we've been able to, you know, leverage our partnerships with our, uh, other communities to really maximize our resources. And, um, I hope that we can continue moving, moving forward in this direction. We've been able to apply for grants that will sup, uh, continue to support our work moving forward.

▶ 5:49 Speaker 4: Thank you. Questions from the council.

▶ 5:56 Speaker 4: Council, Gar.

▶ 5:57 Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you. Mr.

▶ 6:01 Mark Garipay: I got a quick question for you. We've talked about this a number of times, um, under the pest control, does that include money for L Pond and, um, geese controlling the geese? It

▶ 6:14 Speaker 5: Does. Yeah. So we've actually, um, we've been discussing kind of the direction we're moving with pest control as well as animal control moving forward. Um, it's been, there's been a history of kind of difficulty finding individuals that be qualified to do that work. Um, so we've started to look into alternatives. So our animal control, uh, position is gonna be moving into more of a per diem, um, type role moving forward. And so we're gonna be putting some more funds towards, uh, pest control that will include geese control in the new fiscal year. All right.

▶ 6:46 Mark Garipay: We've had many conversations. It's just, um, all the young kids out there playing soccer and in front of the school. It's just, we need to do something. It's been, it's been going on, I think, just far too long, but, um, appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank

▶ 6:59 Speaker 5: You.

▶ 7:02 Manjula Karamcheti: Councilor Carm Shady. Um, thank you so much for being here and for all the work that your department has done. I'm just curious about the interface, um, resource that we use in Melrose. Uh, given the cost and the 31.3% increase, I'm just curious, could, could you provide any data around its use and like how often Melrose ins are accessing that service and getting referrals based on it?

▶ 7:29 Speaker 5: Absolutely. Yeah. So we, uh, we've been partnering with Interface, which is a, like a social service referral, um, resource for I believe six, almost six years now. Um, they have been a great partner. William James College actually provides us with a great resource. Um, if anybody doesn't know, it's a resource that between the hours of eight and 6:00 PM um, throughout the week, uh, any family, any resident of Melrose can call this number. Uh, when they're experiencing issues with substance use, mental health, behavioral health, and this, uh, service will be able to refer them to, um, providers that have openings as well as take their insurance. They're able to do that kind of, uh, legwork behind the scenes, uh, an incredible resource we've always had, uh, for the last six years. But one of the things that they've also been able to do is provide us with data for utilization. Um, so, uh, as I expected, I think as we entered covid, we saw an increase in nu in calls for service. Um, they provide us with quarterly reports, and so we're able to, uh, pull those up and see what the direction's going. Uh, in the last quarterly report, we saw that the school age population actually made up 70% of our use, uh, usage here in Melrose, which just goes to show that all of the services that we are providing, um, are really important and continue to be. Uh, one of the things we're exploring right now is a state has seen, you know, the importance of, of social services and referral systems. Um, they're putting a lot of resources behind the Massachusetts Behavioral Health line. Um, that resource has been, uh, expanded greatly, uh, in the recent months. And so we're hoping to, you know, understand how that can help help augment some of our work here. Um, and their ability to be 24 7 is also extremely helpful. So between interface and behavioral health, uh, behavioral health line, we're hoping to, um, be able to provide comprehensive service.

▶ 9:12 Manjula Karamcheti: Great. Thank you so much. And then if this information is somewhere else, I apologize. Uh, but in terms of the increase in professional services, uh, could you just explain a little bit more about what that is?

▶ 9:26 Speaker 5: Sure, yeah. That, I assume that's the, uh, was it, was it under salary and wages, or is that

▶ 9:31 Manjula Karamcheti: It's under health contractual.

▶ 9:34 Speaker 5: Health contractual, okay. Um, I believe, I believe there was an increase in our line, um, for lease salary and wages due to the increase in, in our, in our salaries for the, uh, regionalization. Um, so that process in general is we budget, we budget fully for the three positions, and then, um, the two partner towns reimburse us and those go into the revenue. Um, in terms of professional services, um, we did, we did see an increase in contractual ne uh, contractual needs for nurses supplies. And so that was, um, we, we had bargained in, um, uh, supplies for their, uh, scrubs for this year.

▶ 10:21 Manjula Karamcheti: Okay. Just, and we can maybe follow up on this later, but on this line, it looks like the year to date spent was 2,825. And for the upcoming budget, it's budgeted for 12,142,000.

▶ 10:40 Speaker 5: So actually, I believe professional services, I'll have to look at that line again. Okay. Um, yeah,

▶ 10:47 Speaker 4: Would love to learn more. Thank you. Thank you. That's all I have.

▶ 10:51 Jen Grigoraitis: President Greg Reis. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for being here tonight. Um, I just wanted to ask a follow up question. And I know you highlighted in your memo that we have this new regional arrangement with Wakefield and Stoneham, and so it looks like we are fronting the full cost of all the salaries and then getting reimbursed. Do you have a, this might be a question more appropriate for the cfo, but do you know what the lag time is? Um, in between when we expend money for payroll and when they reimburse us?

▶ 11:17 Speaker 5: So the, uh, reimbursement is quarterly. It's

▶ 11:19 Jen Grigoraitis: Quarterly, yeah. Okay. And I'm assuming there's something in the MO u or the regional agreement about that they're on the hook for these, you know, so since we're basically fronting money and waiting for them to come and Correct, give it back to us. Okay. Yep. And is, do we, does the city take any administrative percentage for the fact that we're managing those three employees on our payroll?

▶ 11:37 Speaker 5: Not at this time.

▶ 11:38 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. And then my only, um, follow up question, just I think to echo some themes that have been a part of these conversations is thinking about FY 25 and even FY 26, the social worker position is fully funded through ARPA funds, correct?

▶ 11:53 Speaker 5: Yes.

▶ 11:53 Jen Grigoraitis: And when does those funds expire?

▶ 11:56 Speaker 5: Those funds expire December, 2024.

▶ 11:57 Jen Grigoraitis: December of 2024. So we shouldn't, so if that position's gonna continue in the FY 25 budget, we'll need to see it added to your salary line, correct? Yes. Okay. Thank you.

▶ 12:05 Speaker 2: No further questions.

▶ 12:08 Speaker 4: Anyone else? Councilor Stewart?

▶ 12:09 Robb Stewart: Thank you ma'am. Chair. Thank you Mr. Chair for being here. And just a follow up question from, uh, president Karia, if, if it runs out in December of 2024, that means we only get a half a year, right? Correct. Okay. And so we'll have to plan for that accordingly, or budget for it accordingly.

▶ 12:29 Speaker 5: Yes. So we've had discussions about kind of sustainability of this position. We wanted to make sure that we gave it, you know, the year and now it's gonna be two years, uh, of data. So this position came in through the ar, um, ARPA budget. Uh, I believe last year. Uh, we've been able to collect a lot of data on the services provided, uh, family scene. Uh, we're hoping to present an update to council, um, soon with the data that, um, the social service has been seeing. He's been working very closely with the Council on Aging, um, and with other organizations in, in the city, uh, to provide kind of, uh, light case management, but also just referral, um, services to other agencies. He's been able to help families with, uh, filling out paperwork, you know, applying for different things that there are barriers for. So, um, we're, we're looking to provide an update. And, uh, we're also looking into different funding sources as well. We have the, um, we have funds from the opioid settlement funds from different, um, different companies. Uh, we also have the, uh, education, public health and public safety fund as well, um, that we're looking into. So we have, we have some funding that we're looking into as well as writing for grants moving forward.

▶ 13:36 Robb Stewart: Great. And do you get to tap into any of the, the, the marijuana funding?

▶ 13:42 Speaker 5: So the education, yeah, the Education, public Health and Public Safety Fund. Um, I had brought a proposal to this, the council, um, probably two months ago now, I believe. Um, we've, we've changed that budget now, and I, and I, I plan to bring it back to the council, uh, with more of an education, uh, focus in mind. Um, but we will be able to tap into that. Great.

▶ 14:03 Robb Stewart: Great. And I just wanna echo cons, Che's, uh, questions. Um, the professional services jumped by over 700%, um, to that 12,000 number that, that, uh, she had pointed out. Um, and when you talked about the scrubs and all that, I think that might have fe more in the health supplies and material because the surgical supplies is definitely a line item. So, and I don't wanna put you on the spot, but it's a question that I think, uh, maybe several of us have and be, be helpful if we understood that a little bit more, uh, clearly. Thank you,

▶ 14:33 Speaker 6: Madam Chair.

▶ 14:35 Speaker 4: Thank you. Anyone else?

▶ 14:40 Jen Grigoraitis: President Greg Reyes. All I just a comment cuz I think it's so significance. I just wanted to highlight, you know, we were one of only 14 districts in the state to receive that DOJ grant, so that's a huge, um, accomplishment. They, I mean, a million dollars is no small amount of money. So I just wanna say thank you to you and your team for, you know, going after that funding and bringing it in. And with that, I'd make a motion to move the bottom line of five 11 second

▶ 15:04 Leila Migliorelli: President Greg Reis Motion to move the bottom line on five 11. Seconded by Council Carm Shady. Anyone on discussion?

▶ 15:11 Speaker 4: Scene none. Mr. Clerk,

▶ 15:15 Speaker 3: Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Counselor son? Yes. Counselor Eccles? Yes. Counselor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chedi? Yes. President Greggo? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous.

▶ 15:33 Leila Migliorelli: That motion carries. Um, at this time we'll also vote on the Health Department revolving account 26 59. I don't know if you have anything to share on that.

▶ 15:41 Speaker 5: Um, the health, uh, revolving account continues to serve our, uh, flu clinics. Uh, so we have no purchase flu and Covid clinic supplies. Uh, we will continue to serve, um, flu clinics throughout the season. Uh, and we'll be able to do that, uh, by purchasing supplies and, um, vaccines as well.

▶ 16:01 Speaker 4: Any questions? I I just,

▶ 16:04 Leila Migliorelli: I have a question. Looking at the balance of the health department, this revolving account as of, um, May 4th, it was 123,000. Do you anticipate, I mean, did a lot of your, the clinic fees and things relate to covid, is it the same, same level of need? Or was that just handled all separately through federal funding?

▶ 16:26 Speaker 5: There was federal funding support. Um, we were able, we're actually looking at, you know, usage last year was kind of the first true post covid, um, you know, look at vaccine demand. Uh, we definitely had a decrease in demand last year, uh, compared to the first, you know, first year with Covid. Um, so we're, see we're, we're anticipating probably a slight decrease in revolving count.

▶ 16:51 Speaker 4: Okay. Anyone else? What is the will of the committee? Chancellor Stewart?

▶ 16:56 Robb Stewart: Yeah, Madam Chair. I'll make a motion to, uh, move to the bottom line, uh, fund count number 2 6 5 9.

▶ 17:05 Speaker 7: Second.

▶ 17:07 Leila Migliorelli: Councilor Stewart Motion to move the bottom line on 2 65 9. Um, seconded by Vice Chair Jamine. Anyone on discussion? Dean? None.

▶ 17:16 Speaker 4: Mr. Clerk,

▶ 17:18 Speaker 3: Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Ella? Yes. Counselor Les? Yes. Council Gue? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Che? Yes. Uh, president Gues? Yes. And Chair Mcle? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. That

▶ 17:34 Speaker 4: Motion carries. Thank you for being here. Thank You.

▶ 17:40 Leila Migliorelli: Next we have the Council on Aging with directors DC Man.

▶ 17:50 Speaker 7: Good evening, Madam Chair. Counselors. Welcome. So, the Council in Aging has been open since post pandemic 14 months now. And our big, uh, statistic is that we have three times the amount of participation. So that is a beautiful thing. There's, uh, sometimes it's difficult to be in the lobby cuz you can't hear any of the conversations cuz there's so many going on at the same time. But the good news is the lobby's packed people are, people are coming. Um, the outdoor pavilion has been completed. We're heading to the next stage of installing electricity and furnishings. And, um, uh, slowly coming around the corner for you folks, is that we received the Foundation Trust grant to fully cover the outdoor patio, furniture, tv, all that other great stuff. It's gonna be, it's gonna be great. The, um, cons. Agings also entered into agreement with UMass Boston, so are doing a needs assessment. I know that they've called on some of you folks. I thank you. I appreciate it. We are, uh, timeline, we should get the results in January or December, but January 24 is the, uh, latest date that I'm hoping for, uh, back up. The, uh, focus groups will occur in the summer and the, um, stakeholder focus groups are in the process now. So it'll eventually come together sometime in July or August. We'll start the process for age-friendly, dementia friendly, depending on our programming and staffing levels, and we'll go from there. Um, I will tell you, I Shannon in my memo that we have a shortage of drivers. So we were proposing an increase in the, uh, driver's salary, which I'd be very appreciative of the, um, we're tracking how many drivers we, how many rides we can't accommodate, so that's not a good thing. Um, and then some days, uh, I know I've seen some of you, um, it's not a great use of my time to be driving the bus, but we do love being out with the elders. So sometimes the senior center manager and myself are out on the road. Um, but we're actively recruiting, um, for drivers. Um, budget wise, we haven't asked for much. Basically the driver's increase. And then, um, some supply lines because we're in, we want to be, or we are and will be in compliance with the poly styrene, um, order. We had so much styrofoam in house, it kept us going for a while. So now we're styrofoam free. We're really, really happy about that. Um, and that's all I, oh, the revolving front is next. I apologize. That's all I have for you. We are, we are hopping and as the seniors are even saying now, it's a great vibe.

▶ 20:36 Speaker 4: So, Um, thank you. First up, I have President Greg.

▶ 20:40 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for being here tonight. I'm thrilled to hear about the huge increase in attendance, um, and completely understand about the driver shortage. We know that that's an issue across industries. Um, yeah, my question is, do you think that the increase from 15 to 18 is gonna be sufficient? Like what made us pick 18 as a number?

▶ 20:59 Speaker 7: I picked 18 hoping that it was a guarantee. Okay. It's the minimum threshold. I did the study around the area and I creatively came up with this idea similar to like the health department, uh, with the area councils on agents. Why don't we regionalize? They're all part-time. You know, you can have your home base, so if you're a Melrose driver, you Mel, you do your Melrose schedule. But then on Wakefield days you would go there, but their salaries were 18 to 24, so we were, they, they were off getting ready to do it and we're out, you know. So, um, that's basically that, that's the minimum threshold.

▶ 21:37 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. So going from $15 an hour to $18 an hour basically brings us back up to the

▶ 21:42 Speaker 7: bottom. To the bottom. Okay.

▶ 21:43 Jen Grigoraitis: Right. And is there, are there discussions about, you know, future budget planning for like a, you know, kind of step increase to keep us, to get us more competitive? Cuz obviously this isn't a problem that's gonna,

▶ 21:54 Speaker 7: We, we didn't have that discussion, but it makes comments. It makes sense. It makes sense that if we can, if there's additional funding and we can afford increments, you know, maybe, I don't know, like be be a 20 within the next year, you know, something like that. But, and it's small money. It's, I think it was what, 6,007? 67, 57, something like that. Um, and eventually, I mean, we're a victim to the industries around us too. You can, you can go to Encore and drive the SUV for 2025. Not the tour bus, not the shuttle bus, the vehicle. So

▶ 22:34 Speaker 2: Thank you for that. That's really helpful.

▶ 22:38 Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Counselor Gepe.

▶ 22:43 Mark Garipay: Um, how many people you mentioned, uh, because of, uh, the, um, lack of drivers right now, how many people are we not servicing?

▶ 22:50 Speaker 7: Last week we declined four people. Four people. Um, we're pretty creative about things. We moved things around. I wouldn't, um, we leave the office. Like I know Fuller House is right across the street and it's walking distance, but if there's a, a woman that comes for lunch every day and we can send the bus somewhere else to get someone to a medical appointment, we'll fly across the street and, and, and grab the person and bring her over. But four's a pretty large number. There was a couple, I would say about six weeks ago that we were just, we were creatively calling other councils on agents and calling Mystic Valley and, uh, asking to even pick up the tab for some cab companies.

▶ 23:29 Mark Garipay: Is that, um, is that to transport them to the, um, the Milano Center, or is that to take 'em and get groceries or, or could it be just about anything? I mean, for second

▶ 23:38 Speaker 7: It's mostly the, the, my, the, the biggest concern that worries me is they're medicals. Yep. There's, there's a lot more. There's an increase in medicals. Our, uh, lunch crowd that comes over is a small number. It's about four, four people, but in and around town. Um, but it's the medicals, it's, it's the medicals. As far as the shopping, I don't, I think the pandemic, if there was one good thing to come out of it, they've maybe learned to shop online or they carpool. We don't get a large demand for the food shopping. We still go out, but we don't get a large demand for it. And I also think too, it's because, um, congregation retirement homes, uh, p d properties managed them and they contracted with the shuttle bus. So that's a large group of folks that, um, are actually going up, whether it's mall shopping or food shopping. So.

▶ 24:31 Mark Garipay: And how many drivers do you think we need additional or to, to be free?

▶ 24:35 Speaker 7: I think if we had two more drivers, we would, we, uh, we would be fine. I hired a part-time college student just to get us through the summer. Um, he's worked out great. He loves it. Um, but I think if we had two, we'd be all set. But I'm also preparing that there could be a potential announcement of someone else retiring.

▶ 24:54 Mark Garipay: Okay. Um, and then one, one other quick question on the pavilion, um, was that originally funded through free cash? That, that, that, that project started a while ago. Right?

▶ 25:03 Speaker 7: So the actual structure itself, the pavilion was, um, funded through, uh, state discretionary funds. The f um, opera funds are paying for the electrical and, um, yeah, the electrical, the new one coming down is the foundation trust will pay for the furnishings.

▶ 25:26 Mark Garipay: And so I guess who's, who's handling the electrical? Is that under the facilities department or is

▶ 25:32 Speaker 7: That Yeah, d p w. Okay.

▶ 25:34 Speaker 3: Okay. Reach out to them. Thank you.

▶ 25:37 Manjula Karamcheti: Counselor Crime Shady. Hi. Thank you so much for being here and all the wonderful work that you do. Thank you. Related to, I'm noticing your supplies and material budget is pretty modest and I'm just wondering about recreation passive active programs that are provided, um, partnerships that are created. Is that funding all from this budget or does it come from other sources?

▶ 26:05 Speaker 7: No, I have other sources. Okay. All right. But thank you for noticing that. Uh, no. So we have, um, I have Title three B funding through the Older Americans Act, and that pays for a lot of our activities. Okay. Um, some of our programs are funded, um, through service fees. So if the painting class is $60, we pay the instructor $60. Um, and some, some of the programs were upside down, but there are others that offset it. Okay. Um, but yeah, no, this is, um, if I was pulling it off, this would be, wow.

▶ 26:37 Speaker 4: I thought it was worth asking. So you could share that. You make a,

▶ 26:40 Speaker 7: And we have a lot of partnerships. We have, we have folks that come in and we strategically ask for, you know, donations of in-kind stuff and Yeah.

▶ 26:48 Manjula Karamcheti: Well, thank you cuz I know that there's a lot of wonderful stuff

▶ 26:51 Speaker 7: Happening. Thank you, vice Chair Jamal.

▶ 26:54 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Welcome back and thank you for, uh, another great year of your leadership. Um, I, you know, not to bring back the social work, um, issue that I'm, I'm seeing that we are gonna face and we are risking of, you know, whether to keep it or not because of the budget that we mm-hmm. Of 2024. Um, how much is it, how much the cons is relying on social work?

▶ 27:28 Speaker 7: That's a big question. Um, so our part-time social worker, um, is fully funded this year through salaries and wages. Um, we support her with a social work intern. So the social work intern finished her academic commitment in May. And I was like, oh, so what about July, August and September until we get the next intern. So I brought the intern on the payroll to get us through the summer. And I'll be honest with you, we are pretty overwhelmed. We're trying to keep up, like, like Anthony said, with the health department, we partner, but there's a large amount of cases that even though the pandemic support has ended, they're in financial crisis. Um, behavioral health is on the rise. Um, we're, we're, we're getting, um, I'm very appreciative of the police department's detective for mental health counseling because I'm torn. We really wanna help people, but we also don't wanna be a senior center where people aren't comfortable coming. So we're really balancing that with a lot of kindness and, uh, case managements. But as far as, um, again, that's at the minimum we have a part-time social worker. If we had a full-time, the hours would be, would be utilized. It, it sort of leans on when, when our social worker was on vacation for a week. I I felt it. Yeah. Because I became the, I became, I became the social worker and we sh we share with the, uh, board of Health, but the cases are overwhelming. So

▶ 28:59 Maya Jamaleddine: If I, if I'm gonna ask you to remember the first year or first few months when, um, social worker, um, um, Rachel started, um, you know, we've heard a lot of, um, seniors that they didn't, they weren't aware. And then you did the outreach Yes. To let them know about the service that became available for them. Um, how much, um, that resource been, you know, useful for our seniors? It's

▶ 29:29 Speaker 7: Been pretty useful. And I think once you help one person, then they obviously share their experience with another person and folks come and we're doing a lot of, like, we'll be at the farmer's market every week. Okay. Um, which is a great, that'll be up and coming. Um, Rachel, uh, held a table at the Pride event and, and she, she, um, yeah. Yeah, I've got a couple people, but,

▶ 29:49 Maya Jamaleddine: So if we're gonna say it was at the beginning was like 20 or 50%, uh, of seniors using this resource, if we're gonna compare it to now, is it a big percentage increase?

▶ 30:03 Speaker 7: I would say that the percentage was 20 is probably smaller. It was probably like five to 10%. And now we're up to like 35%. Wow. So it's, it's, it's pretty big. And that's not in including, we started doing grief counseling in the center because we found a big need for folks that even any kind of loss, not necessarily a death, but, you know, they lost their identity. They've aged more during the pandemic. Yeah. They've lost their freedom.

▶ 30:29 Maya Jamaleddine: Well, thank you for, um, your answer. So in, in summary, we are gonna, you would envision that it's gonna be a big impact if this, uh, position then, you know, compromise or we lose this position? Oh,

▶ 30:45 Speaker 7: Absolutely. We wouldn't, we wouldn't be able to keep up. And I don't think our, um, partner, our sister, um, partnerships, you know, mystic Valley, we, we, we toss it back and forth. Yeah. Can you take this case? If you can't take this case, we'll keep this case and we'll give it to Elliot. Or, um, there's a lot of balancing and then we have to keep track of where we're at with all the different cases just to make sure.

▶ 31:07 Maya Jamaleddine: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you it.

▶ 31:11 Speaker 4: Anyone Else for the first time? Counselor? Carm Shady.

▶ 31:14 Manjula Karamcheti: I just thought of one other thing. It's more of a curious question. Um, but in relation to like Melrose becoming more diverse, um, and, you know, striving to be one community open to all, I'm wondering if you're seeing, um, any more diversification of the population that's coming to you related to race LGBTQ plus and why I ask related to budget. I'm not seeing anything for professional development or any of that kind of thing. So I'm just curious like what you're seeing in terms of trends and then how, um, that's being supported at the Milano Center through the cons of aging.

▶ 31:55 Speaker 7: Yeah, so we have, um, we have, uh, some small portion of the Title three funding is to support L G B T and, um, uh, cultural diversity, racial injustice awareness. Um, the, I think that it's, it's pick, the L G B T group is picking up. We, we just do simple things like come have lunch together and then, uh, do excursions or, um, actually we're showing, uh, Jen silent the documentary film again Friday night. Uh, we showed it at one o'clock, so now we're doing it for the folks at that work. Um, we've tried a couple of, um, strategic initiatives with diversity. Uh, and it's slow, but it's coming. I think the good thing is that it's a welcoming place, um, and, and, and all are welcome. Um, but as far as professional development, I believe it's within the dues and membership line. Okay. It's a small amount. It's, it's small. But if I had like a, a great workshop that came up that someone was sponsoring and I was allowed to let the entire team zoom on it, I can, um, ask Mr. Valley or lock in or, but

▶ 33:02 Speaker 4: Great. Thank you. Anyone else?

▶ 33:07 Speaker 4: What's the will of the committee?

▶ 33:10 Speaker 8: Make a motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 33:13 Speaker 9: Second.

▶ 33:15 Leila Migliorelli: Motion to move the bottom line made by Counselor Eccles. Seconded by Counselor Carm Shady. Um, it's bottom line on, uh, 5 41. Um, anyone on discussion? Mr. Clerk,

▶ 33:26 Speaker 4: will you please call the roll

▶ 33:28 Speaker 3: Vice chair Jamine? Yes. Counselor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Sin? Yes. Counselor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Mr. Crime City? Yes. Bless Pres. Thank you. President Greggo? Yes. And Chair Maguire? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous.

▶ 33:46 Leila Migliorelli: That motion carries. Um, this time will also vote on the Council on Aging revolving account to eight 11. Um, I dunno if you have anything to add to that, to the discussion on that. Uh,

▶ 33:57 Speaker 7: Unknown bids. Basically the revolving account is, uh, utilized for donations and, and service fees. Um, and, and a lot of it is money and money out. We're heading up, we have, uh, 24 folks heading up to see Carol King at the Nostra Music Theater. Oh, wow. So, uh, we prepay the tickets through the revolving account and then the seniors buy their ticket and we go. So she'll be a good show.

▶ 34:24 Speaker 2: Motion to move the bottom line on 2,811. Second.

▶ 34:27 Leila Migliorelli: Motion to move the bottom line made by president. Seconded by Counselor Sin. Anyone on discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role

▶ 34:36 Speaker 3: Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Counselor McMaster? Yes. Counselor Sin? Yes. Counselor Eccles? Yes. Counselor Gepe? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Counselor Che. Yes. President Greg? Yes. Chair mc? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. That

▶ 34:53 Speaker 4: Motion carries. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right,

▶ 34:58 Leila Migliorelli: next up we have the IT department with director Neil Ellis.

▶ 35:11 Speaker 4: We need a second to set Up. Sure.

▶ 36:42 Speaker 10: Good evening everyone. Mark.

▶ 36:46 Speaker 10: So I'm gonna try to run through This as quickly as I can. Um, so I have actually printouts of this if anybody wants one to go along if you can't see the screen. Anybody want one? Yeah. Okay.

▶ 37:05 Speaker 10: Anyone else? I'll bring it.

▶ 37:19 Speaker 10: Okay. So, um, first I'm gonna just tackle the,

▶ 37:26 Speaker 10: the major things, um, the differences in my, uh, budget for FY 24. Um, We've got, um, the munis increased by 6%. Usually it's a 5% increase yearly. Uh, we, I built in a little bit another percentage just for inflation in case anything was a little bit more expensive. Um, and then the software increase, uh, the software line is increasing by 18.8%. Um, that's the result of, uh, Azure Active Directory. These premium accounts, they're we're now on oh 365 M 365. And these add the whole cybersecurity piece to what we have in there. So it protects us, it alerts us to things when things don't look right. Um, and it, it actually lets us do a lot more with multifactor authentication, if you know what that is. Um, uh, we also purchased this year, uh, a mobile device management system, which will allow us to, um, enroll all of our phones in tablets and everything into that, uh, that system, which is long overdue. I mean, we really should have had that 10 years ago. Um, so the, uh, let's see.

▶ 38:51 Speaker 10: That's pretty much is, that's pretty much that. Um, do you want me to go through the nine? Oh, uh, the nine oh, the nine 30 and the 90 31 as well. I mean, I think those are static for this next year. Those are all 0%. Yeah.

▶ 39:04 Speaker 4: Just in know the rest of the presentation, like, Okay. Yeah. So

▶ 39:13 Speaker 10: there are the budget differences. Um, next thing is, I mean, I'm not gonna go over all the stuff that you have right now in your, your packets and all the memo and the other thing that I submitted. Um, but basically I wanted to give you an update on what's going on with us. So we proposed an additional staff. We didn't get it this year. Um, the, the problem we have is, is we want to increase our cybersecurity protections. We have a good program right now, but it can always be better. Um, we don't want to end up like, like Lowell who's down for five weeks. You know, they're gonna spend millions of dollars trying to fix that situation. If they had just hired a person in house who, who kept an eye on all the cybersecurity, they could have had somebody, they could have paid him for 20 years, uh, for the, for less than what they're gonna pay to fix it. Um, we have, um, uh, public safety needs more staffing it for IT projects and in, in addressing their daily needs. Um, our daily workload is increasing. Um, our planned project workload for the next five years is, is insane. Um, just trying to have someone in-house to run those projects and, and assist with those projects. Um, you know, we've been going pedal of the metal, metal pedal of the metal for the six, seven years now that I've been here. Um, starting to burn out. Uh, we're, we've taken a lot of tasks and equipment from other departments and we need some redundancy. So here's our city tickets over time. You can see we're up around 1807. We started, when I started here. They were around a thousand. Um, and the thing to understand about the city, it, uh, is that we have four FTE full-time equivalent, but the more than 50% of the, of that is spent on school projects and tasks. So at the city, you only have maybe 1.75 FTE to dedicate it to the city. Um, so it, it throws off when you're looking at city numbers next to the number of city employees for it and other dis other cities. It's really small. Um, and part of the reason why our ticket load is smaller than the schools is, is partially due to that, um, school staffing. It's the same thing. Um, the tickets have gotten higher and higher and higher. Um, and it's hard because we're doing a lot of projects at the same time. You can see here from when we, when I started in, um, 2016, we are, we're at 7 88, we're now at 3,747 last year, number of tickets. Um, and you could say, oh, is that pandemic related? But this year we're on, on course to match that number. So, um, it's, uh, we're, and this is the same number of staff we've had for the last 10 years. I mean, my team over at the schools are absolutely amazing. Um,

▶ 42:22 Speaker 10: so hardware increases. This is, we've taken on a lot of systems from other departments. You can see there, uh, we've added on a lot of cameras. Um, we've, we've put, we're up with about 175 cameras throughout the city and the schools. Um, the, uh, we've taken on a lot of equipment that was the purview of other departments. And the Chromebook we're, we're now at 4,000 Chromebooks. Um, and this is the difference between when I started in now and the number of, of pieces of hardware. So we're, we're, and we have about 30 additional staff at the schools now. Um, c i p this is my last slide. Uh, those are the projects for the next five years. Um, the 28 in future are not, are not quite fully, um, in there, but you can see the sum of improvement projects for the next five years is $5.2 million.

▶ 43:21 Speaker 10: So that's like an override on its own. Just, uh, and we're not talking about frivolous items here. We're talking about kids being able to keep Chromebooks throughout the district. Uh, you can see that in the, in the line right there. Um, we're talking about replacing our network switches that run the whole district in the city. We're talking about teacher, uh, devices for them to get on the internet and do their job every day. Um, you know, if we don't get that amount,

▶ 43:54 Speaker 10: we're gonna have to, even if we, even even at half of that, we we're not gonna be able to do those things. Just replace stuff that we have, nevermind, add on additional things. So, um, we're, we're, uh, what the hell is that on Miracle? Um, so we're getting, we're getting, um, it's a lot of this has been because of deferred maintenance. We're, we're only, you know, we'll get a $200,000 free cash so we can replace some of it every year. Um, but it's not, it's not touching some of these projects that we're gonna need to address. Um, so that's all I have. Are there any questions?

▶ 44:37 Jen Grigoraitis: President Grigoraitis? Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for being here tonight. Just a, a couple of questions just to kind of pull us back a little bit. So I, I'm not in any way questioning the need for more staff. I think anyone who's interacted with city, it can certainly understand the need for more staff. But just, I mean, in the schools, we're talking about 3000 students, another couple hundred staff. And now, you know, starting in the pandemic, we've gone from, we had been a three to one or a two to one device to students ratio to a one-to-one. So I'm assuming that is some of what is accounting for the huge increase and this project based, but just like daily maintenance of all these devices.

▶ 45:12 Speaker 10: Yeah, a lot of, a lot of that is just, is just replacement of things we have right now. So during the pandemic, um, you know, I had, I probably got around 400,000 in grant money for Chromebooks and then we had around five or 600,000 for Chromebooks from, from, uh, arpa. So our CARES act cares act first. And um, you know, we purchased enough devices for every kid in the district. So like you said, like it was a two to one or three to one, usually it was about two, I wanna say it was around two and a half. Mm-hmm. Um, and now we have, you know, we have a fleet of 4,000 Chromebooks, whereas before we maybe had 2,500. Um, so that's, that's a, and it's also a big time sink for my guys cuz they have to replace, um, their kids are constantly picking off keys and that's another 50 bucks and another hour of work. Um, anytime they break a screen, um, we have to scab 'em from old Chromebooks and then put 'em on the new Chromebooks cuz we're outta money in the school budget. Um, so yeah. And then the teacher devices, you know, we could look for, uh, less expensive devices, but, um, you know, it's gonna, it's gonna cost us and we have to, we have to do it by then. I mean, the batteries will be dead in those things. Um, some will start to overheat. I mean, we're not gonna be able to keep a laptop going for more than seven years. Um, so we have to, we want to phase in the replacement. We still have to start in, uh, 2020 in FY 25.

▶ 46:49 Jen Grigoraitis: So do we now for either school or city devices have any type of phased, um, replacement where we're, you know, trying to turn over a third, a quarter, an eighth of the devices so that we're not everything fails all at the same

▶ 47:04 Speaker 10: time? Yeah, I mean, that's what we'd like to do. Um, but we're not, we're not even getting funding to do that. Okay.

▶ 47:10 Jen Grigoraitis: So right now it's just we buy based on what we need and hope it lasts for as long as like there's no plan. Well,

▶ 47:16 Speaker 10: I mean the, that's the plan. I mean like, like for say, um, uh, where's Chromebook? Chromebook replacement? 400,000, FY 25, 400, a thousand replacement. FY 26. Yeah. And then FY 27, Google has a timeout on all those Chromebooks. So by FY 27 those will be timed out. We can't use any of 'em anymore. So the idea would be to replace 'em over those three years. Okay. Um, uh, same with the teacher devices. You can see there, um, um, laptop replacement in the city goes over those three or four years. Um, so yeah.

▶ 47:54 Jen Grigoraitis: And then the switch replacement project is there, were definitely, you've had some IT issues in the schools this year. I mean, there was a, a pretty significant chunk of time this winter were where devices were offline. Um, is that something that's gonna help prevent that from happening again?

▶ 48:10 Speaker 10: Uh, no. I mean that, that we were down, we were down for about, about a day for the wireless. I know it, it, the kids made it seem like it was a lot, a lot more. We had a couple, we had probably had maybe another hour or so on another day, but that was from what looked like an orchestrated, uh, denial of service attack. So that was beyond the equipment even what was beyond our, our network even it was with Verizon. So we couldn't, um, yeah, it wouldn't have done anything with our, we couldn't have done anything with our, uh, current device or our switching hardware. Okay. Um, but the switching hardware, you know, they're only usually meant to go five, maybe seven years. And we're now, we're now on year eight going into year nine. So it's, I mean, that stuff should have been replaced three years ago. Um, it's a, it's, the problem is a lot of this is built up over time too. Yep. Yeah,

▶ 49:14 Jen Grigoraitis: It's definitely, that's definitely a theme. Um, and on the, um, the camera two questions on the cameras one, that's a lot of cameras. Who is monitoring those cameras? I mean, I'm not asking you to reveal anything that we shouldn't be talking about in public, but I mean, are they, is that connected to public safety?

▶ 49:31 Speaker 10: Um, yeah. I mean, no one at the high school, there's someone who, who does have a monitor who watches the cameras, um, during the day. Um, and in the school, in the high school only the police have access to all of the cameras. Um, otherwise nobody's really looking at them unless there's an incident and we have to go back and find some a feed.

▶ 49:57 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. So they're not so much proactive as they are reactive evidence gathering. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, and then the, I just wanted to, the PA system replacement. So I know in the Winthrop School, which is in Ward six right now, they have a PA system that doesn't actually reach every classroom. So it's a combination of PAs and, um, walkie talkies that teachers carry around. So is that one of the systems that's slated for replacement? Yeah,

▶ 50:21 Speaker 10: I, I haven't heard that. It's not getting to every classroom though. They haven't reported that to me. That's

▶ 50:26 Speaker 2: My understanding from

▶ 50:29 Speaker 10: Huh? The building. We had an issue with the lounge. I haven't heard that. It's not because we, as soon as we find that out free

▶ 50:34 Jen Grigoraitis: Space, I don't, I just know that it's a, it's not a fully operational system within the walls of the building that there's a supplement, there's supplemental walkie talkies to make sure

▶ 50:42 Speaker 10: Space, everybody getting talkies outside and Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if they let me know about a room that's not having it, I can get it fixed within the week, so. Okay. Um,

▶ 50:53 Jen Grigoraitis: But there's no, like, is there a plan for

▶ 50:56 Speaker 10: Well, so yeah, so, um, the systems are very old, uh, which doesn't mean they're not good systems. They're basic analog systems, but they're very reliable, the old analog systems. And I've talked to a lot of companies that, that deal with those systems and they're like, they're like, you know, they're newer systems. You replace like every five, seven years in those old analog systems, they're really reliable and they go for year upon year, upon year. So it's kind of a toss up. I mean, some of this is what that was is a, a, a project to replace them in all of the, all of the schools. And at the high school, in the middle school, the middle, the high school, we do have a system that's, that's way out of date, way out of production. Um, they don't really even have technicians who work on those anymore. So, um, we had an issue with, with it this year, so it would be to like have one com combined system where you could notify basically all the buildings all at once. And we kind of have that capability already because we've replaced all the phones in all of the schools. But at the schools where there aren't phones, you couldn't really call into every classroom. But, um, yeah, you could do that. You know, the superintendent really wanted to do a all call throughout the district. We'd not be on one combined system. Um, it's not like a necessary thing right now, but some of the systems are getting old and they're, I'm a little worried about.

▶ 52:29 Jen Grigoraitis: And then my last question just, I think it's something that actually Counselor Stewart asked this time last year is what's the timeline for the city going to multifactor identification for Office 365 just as we talk about cybersecurity? That that's kind of a big,

▶ 52:43 Speaker 10: So, um, so the thing about that is a lot of it is, it's one of those things that's a hard pill to swallow, uh, for us and for the staff. Um,

▶ 52:58 Speaker 10: we're moving toward it. We'll probably do it within the next, we'll probably have to do it, although they just renewed our insurance without it, which is a lot of insurance companies are now requiring it for at least the, at least the top staff, um, in an organization to have mfa. Um, and those are usually the people who can't do mfa. So, um, we will have to turn it on. And that's, that was part of the purchase of the Azure Premium active directory was so that we'd have more granular control over mfa, how it's distributed, how it's used, um, what we can use for mfa. So, uh, we're heading in that direction. I mean, if I, we were to guess I'd say probably within the next year and a half. I mean, the problem we have right now is just we're so overloaded with projects that trying to do MFA on top of that is, is insane. Um, we've got at least 15, 16 projects going this summer alone. So, um, we'll get there. Okay. I just hope we get, get there. No, no, it's a great question. And it's, and it's, it's pretty

▶ 54:08 Jen Grigoraitis: Standard at this point in the, in the game to have, I mean, you know, I think Uber Eats uses mfa. Um, yeah. So, okay. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. Councilor Gar.

▶ 54:19 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Uh, Madam Chair. Thank you Mr. Dallas for being here. Um, just a couple questions on some of the projects, um, that we've completed this year. Uh, one, um, to touch on what, uh, president Grigoraitis said, um, Melrose Middle School cameras. Hmm. Um, we've had a, a lot of damage. Are they, are they in the right place? Are they in the right places?

▶ 54:41 Speaker 10: Well, here's the thing about cameras, and you kind of have to think about this logistically. So if you have a camera on a bathroom, I know a lot of the problem has been in the bathroom. We've got kids smashing up toilets and sinks, set fire stuff. So if you have a camera on a bathroom and you only have like three bathrooms, all that's really gonna tell you is that 33% or more have gone into that bathroom during the day. Um, so if you look in the morning and there's nothing there and you look at the end of the day, then all you know at the end of the day is that three, some 300 kids have gone in that bathroom. And narrowing it down from the cameras is basically impossible. You kind of have to need you in order to do that. Um, which we've done in other, in, in my former district is usually we have to staff staff the hallway in front of the, the bathroom during, during the period and someone would go in, take note of each kid who goes in, write it down, that in itself prevents things. And then between periods goes in, checks the bathroom, and then it narrows it down to whoever it was in there during that class period. Which is usually, you know, fewer kids in during a class period than in a, in, during the, the inbetweens. So, I mean, that's the thing about cameras is like, it's kind of reactive and it prevents a little bit of, of, of damage just cuz they're out there and kids know not to screw around in front of the cameras. But, you know,

▶ 56:14 Mark Garipay: I think, um, knowing that they air and knowing who's going in and out, usually I think principals can, um, as a product of a principal, they can usually be pretty, uh, pretty keen on how to get their information. So as long as they're, uh,

▶ 56:29 Speaker 10: They're on the, as long as they're Working, Yeah, they're on all the bathrooms. We have 'em in the stairwells now. We, we've increased the camera number in that building quite significantly.

▶ 56:38 Mark Garipay: And I know the high school has a lot of, it's a tough school to manage. This is a lot of stairwells that access outside. Um, yeah, it's a lot of stuff Like that. And, um, so all those doors, that's how we had door, uh, security on these, all those doors are cameras on all those doors on the back? Stairwells,

▶ 56:55 Speaker 10: Cameras, doors, yeah. Marco, Jim side and the, um, the front doors and side doors and we have 'em, we have one now in that back hallway. Um, I'm trying to think if there's a door. We even have 'em on the loading dock doors. So,

▶ 57:11 Mark Garipay: Um, I see that you had did two projects for the library, ran cable at the bb and then there's one, uh, new library project. Is that coming outta your budget or, I, I would think that that should have been in the, in the bond for the library project or is that getting absorbed in your budget?

▶ 57:28 Speaker 10: Um, the bond for that was, is super tight, that library project. So the phone system at the library, which, you know, they were gonna budget for a phone system, we're tying that into the city system at a pretty low cost. Um, we're able to handle that on our, that we, we built the whole thing. So we're all on a VoIP, um, voiceover IP network based phones and they're only like $140 a pop. So, you know, we can throw 20 phones over there and wire 'em in through a switch over to city hall. That's, you know, it's, it's not a big, it's not a big lift. The, um, the access points and the computers for that project are all in the budget for them. Um,

▶ 58:16 Speaker 3: For the bond.

▶ 58:18 Speaker 10: For the bond, uh, the cameras are additionally part of the bond security cameras, but those cameras will come back to our server, so they'll have to buy licenses and stuff on our current server. But yeah, I mean,

▶ 58:33 Mark Garipay: So in essence, is your budget getting hurt as a result of doing work for this project that is being bonded out? Yes.

▶ 58:41 Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you. Um,

▶ 58:45 Mark Garipay: and then on the more, so this looks like the whole c i p that you came presented to the CIP P group on the projects going,

▶ 58:53 Speaker 10: Oh yeah, that's the Collins Center list.

▶ 58:56 Mark Garipay: So the, um, 1.24 and FY 24, has there been any commitment from the city? I know we got a free cash order coming tonight, but is that for projects that were in queue for 23 or is that for projects in 24?

▶ 59:12 Speaker 10: So that, that, I forgot to mention it, that highlighted line right there for the switch replacement, why is that keeping, um, that, that highlighting line is, um, for,

▶ 59:29 Speaker 10: is for the, um, the 200,000 for, for, uh,

▶ 59:35 Speaker 10: is for the switches. Uh, some of the schools we've got another switch, uh,

▶ 59:38 Speaker 10: replacement the city for another $208,000, what we're not gonna be able to do.

▶ 59:46 Speaker 10: Um, so that's for basic switching, keep the, keep the lights on. Um, the one thing we are, we are, um, gonna get, uh, in trouble with very soon and the number up there I don't even think is, is accurate if for wireless. Um, but our wireless is 10 years old and it's, it's starting to have issues so we're probably gonna have to move that up to as soon as we can do it.

▶ 1:00:09 Mark Garipay: So, so as we stand today, the only investment that the city's making into any of these projects is the 200,000 that's before us in free cash and any of these other projects that want to get done next year would have to be free cash, whatever's available at the end of

▶ 1:00:26 Speaker 10: Yeah. So, you know, yeah, like 2,700, uh, wait, no, 2.8 and a half million. Uh, basically now you're just pushing it another year where we don't have the devices and it's gonna cost more all at once. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, honestly, it would be nice if this were in the school budget year to year, a million dollars for replacements for school. I mean, I'm, I mean, there are city things in there, but, you know, split up so that, you know, cuz none of that, none of these c i p projects get really counted in the per pupil cost. Cause it's all free cash or, um, whatever grant, uh, grants. So none of that gets counted toward their cost.

▶ 1:01:15 Speaker 10: I wish we could, I mean, I think, you know, we could do it, you could do a debt exclusion, but it'll be a one time thing. And then you're still facing the music again.

▶ 1:01:25 Mark Garipay: A lot of projects, not enough money. Um, that's, uh, that's all my questions for right now.

▶ 1:01:31 Speaker 4: Thank you. Um, counselor Stewart. Thank you. A minute Chair. Thank you Mr.

▶ 1:01:33 Robb Stewart: Elli for being here this evening. Um,

▶ 1:01:39 Speaker 10: A couple of

▶ 1:01:41 Robb Stewart: Questions. Uh, I, I do thank for President Kruger Roache for bringing up the, uh, the multifactor authentication. I think that's extremely important. You brought, you don't, you brought up Lowell and I think, you know, the last thing we ever want to do is get, get into a ransom situation. And that's one of the, the primary, uh, con that, that's my biggest concern, uh, right now of the it Barton department and what we need to do here. So the, the question that I, I have regarding that is where are we on cybersecurity and what, what's gonna be accomplished to minimize that risk?

▶ 1:02:28 Speaker 10: Um, I'm trying to think of how I want to answer this without publicly, you know, telling folks what we have and what we don't have. But, um, yeah,

▶ 1:02:37 Robb Stewart: And if there's, if there's risk that, that you think, uh, and it's not appropriate, then I understand if you wanna defer. Um,

▶ 1:02:45 Speaker 10: Right. I mean, what I can say is that, um, I mean, I'll, I'll say we, we do have a, um, you know, on the subject of ransomware, uh, most of these ransomware attacks happen via email. Somebody's got a, got a link or a, or a document that explodes. So we are doing cybersecurity awareness training with the city. Right now. We're in the middle of one that's provided by the state. Um, it's basically like a grant, but, um, we're doing that and then we're gonna try to do it with the schools at the end of the year. The schools are a little bit more tricky, um, because of, you know, unions and trying to get them to do training without stipend or, um, but doesn't make it any less important. Um, so there's that. We have software, um, strong software on the endpoints. We, we try to attack it from several different angles. So our endpoint software that are on, are on our desktops. Those will, if something pops up even from the web, um, the local, the local endpoint laptop will grab it and stop it most likely. Um, you know, there's always gonna be something that might get through. Uh, that's, if it gets through our Barracuda protection outside the email, gets through the Barracuda protection, gets through oh 365 and exchange protections, and then gets through the endpoint protection, um, then we're in trouble. Um, and that could, but even at that, we're moving to, uh, you know, we're, we're pulling, putting all of our stuff up into SharePoint now. Um, all of our files. So they're protected up there with the Barracuda. That's protecting our, our files. Cause you can't just use oh 365 without protection. It doesn't, it doesn't have a lot. Um, so we're moving that in that, those in that direction. Um, and then on our local servers, we do have protection. Um, we also did a, uh, project this year for, um, uh, hyper-converged that has, uh, an air gap between our protected storage and the live storage. So that for ransomware does try to tear through the server or the files. Um, we have an offline backup we can bring back in. Um, so there are other protections we'd like to move to. Um, some, some further online cloud protections or backup capabilities, uh, that, uh, you know, we don't have the funding for right now, but they're, we've, we've thought about them in our design for sure. I don't know if that answers your question.

▶ 1:05:34 Robb Stewart: Yeah, does. Thanks. And, and, um, from the standpoint of redundancy, you, you feel it's fully redundant.

▶ 1:05:40 Speaker 10: It's, it's,

▶ 1:05:42 Robb Stewart: It's what you're on the, your redundancy strategy that you're talking about. You feel that you're fully redundant if there is a impact, if there's a situation,

▶ 1:05:50 Speaker 10: We're somewhat redundant. Uh, I think for Critical systems. For Critical systems, yeah, for critical systems. Um, we do have some online backup in Restore specifically. Great. Um, I would, I would, you know, I always want to go more and more and more. So there are some more things that I would like to do for protection. Mm-hmm. Um, but we're not, we don't have that yet.

▶ 1:06:14 Robb Stewart: Is the, is the school firewalled off from the administrative side? You see?

▶ 1:06:25 Speaker 10: Um, a little bit, a little bit there. There's not a lot of, there's not a lot of protection between the two.

▶ 1:06:31 Speaker 6: You understand the advantages of that?

▶ 1:06:33 Speaker 10: Yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, it w uh, we have it so that there are certain, yeah, there are certain devices that can come across, but not, not everything. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um,

▶ 1:06:53 Robb Stewart: I didn't hear much about, uh, grant funding. Um, I assume that you pursue grant funding?

▶ 1:06:57 Speaker 10: I do pursue grant funding. Um, grant funding for IT initiatives is kind of just, I mean, for health stuff, um, if you look through all the grants, I mean there's like, there's a ton. Um, uh, the only thing that sort of touches us is some of the police, the ones that go out for police for, um, cybersecurity or, or for, um, security cameras in, um, physical, like door access, uh, those kinds of things. Uh, I, I, I subscribe to one of the grant, uh, online grant, um, uh, sites to get updates on, on them. And they're very few and far between, unfortunately.

▶ 1:07:46 Speaker 6: Okay. And then, uh,

▶ 1:07:49 Robb Stewart: your tickets over time, and you said that a lot of the school, it's driven by the school. You get more than 50, you said more than 50 years, and the tickets are coming through the school?

▶ 1:08:01 Speaker 10: Well, I mean, they have, they get three, they like, I think it was 3,748 tickets for last year. Yeah. Um, you know, we help with those tickets on the school side. The city folks help help with the tickets on the school side for some of the things that are more involved. And, you know, I'd say, you know, 80% of our project related stuff is, is dedicated to the schools. So, um, you know, we have a project manager in my office. We have the network administrator, uh, assistant director, um, and you know, we're, it's, you know, like I said, we're, we're not, we're not even too FTE in, in, in the city for tech.

▶ 1:08:47 Robb Stewart: So on this kind of support is, is there a breakdown like the L one, L two, L three type support that you have? And, and the reason why I'm asking is, is there any opportunity to find some kind of a shared service to help manage some of the support that you need at a lower cost

▶ 1:09:07 Speaker 10: Shared as in staff from another Yeah. Ticket, Ticket Support town. Right.

▶ 1:09:10 Robb Stewart: I can't log in. Think things that would suck up your time that you can, you could potentially put out, uh, and have someone do at I think a, a lower cost.

▶ 1:09:21 Speaker 10: Um, a lot lower cost at a lower cost. Uh, I'm not sure we could do it at a lower cost. I mean, the guys I have over there aren't paid enough. Um, so I, I've looked into it with E-rate cuz you can get e-rate funding back on, um, professional services in schools and the amount that you'd have to pay for the outside services is basically twice what the salary would be. And then they're only in for a certain number of days a week. Um, you get reimbursed on 40% of that, but in the end you're paying more for less overall. Um, you know, if, I mean I can, I would prefer having a guy on staff that we train and train Well Yeah. Can really, you know, because a lot of those tickets are, we can do quickly. Um, but yeah, it's the run around. There are managed service contracts as well for some of the things, some of the stuff, um, having quite good pricing on those.

▶ 1:10:32 Robb Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. I'll take some of this offline with you cuz Yeah. There's some, some things I think you might able do. Uh, it just sounds like a lot of the support is high touch then, huh?

▶ 1:10:38 Speaker 10: Um,

▶ 1:10:41 Speaker 6: I mean how virtual

▶ 1:10:41 Speaker 10: 50% of it. Yeah, I'd say, um, a lot of it is ju is the expectation of the staff for hu human contact for a lot of these things. I mean, I think, I mean, I don't not, I don't want to stereotype anyone, but, um, you know, teachers generally are people, people, that's why they're teachers, right? Um, they want to be in front of 25, 30 people kids all day. So generally speaking, they're a lot more assured if somebody actually comes by and they see somebody and they have a rapport with someone, they feel like they're, they're being taken care of. Basically, it's what keeps us able to stay at the number of FT we have at the schools doing 3,700 tickets, um, is basically that, you know, the staff are really good, they're really sharp, they're very friendly. People will let things go for a week if they have to. Cuz they trust in the people who work at those positions. And if they don't, then you kind of have to make it up for quick turnaround with more staff. Um, so it's kind of a trade off. Yeah.

▶ 1:11:52 Robb Stewart: And last, last subject area, if you will. Um, you talk about, uh, services devices, what any plans to to just move to the cloud?

▶ 1:12:03 Speaker 10: Uh, I mean, how so

▶ 1:12:09 Robb Stewart: with Get get rid of, get rid of any kind of, um, device racks, all that. Get, get rid of all

▶ 1:12:15 Speaker 10: Oh yeah. I mean we've been doing that over time for sure. I mean, those devices, those hardware devices are very few of them are, are like servers or, you know, I mean, we've gotta have all the eps, you know, the Chromebooks and the laptops for teachers and projectors in every room and printers in the, you know, even we're still printing like crazy, um, printers and, um, you know, phones and PA systems and PA speakers and all that stuff. Um, you know, unfortunately we can't get away from those hardware. You, you know. No. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's, we're trying to put everything up as, as much as we can. Like we're trying to get our file server up there. We're trying to get, um, you know, even the cameras we're not cameras on are not at the point where we want them to relinquish that system, those systems up to the cloud. Um, we can do things with cloud backup for them, but in terms of running them and running them efficiently, we kind of have to do it in-house. Especially if we want to do it for the,

▶ 1:13:20 Speaker 10: the money that we have to do it with. Um, but, you know, Munis, we could move up to Munis online, it's a little bit slower and I did out, I did it out for 10 years and it's twice as the cost over over 10 years, which is the difference of about, you know,

▶ 1:13:37 Speaker 10: I think half a million dollars or, or more over 10 years, which is a big, a big chunk we could spend on something else. Um, but yeah,

▶ 1:13:52 Speaker 10: I would love to get as much up as we can. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I said, the, the, our endpoint protection, we moved that up to the cloud this year, so we're not keeping servers for that anymore. Um, and that, that we added an MDM portion onto that this year.

▶ 1:14:04 Robb Stewart: Just get rid of your whole data center management. Just

▶ 1:14:05 Speaker 10: Get rid of everything. Yeah. Burn it to the ground. Yeah. I mean there's, but um, you know, like our hyper converge, we moved everything to that for protections for stuff that we have to keep inside. Um, and outside of that, we're trying to move everything up. Like, uh, time clock this year, we're working on time clock this summer. Um, that's gonna be totally online. We're taking the server down, uh, in, in-house for that OnPrem. Um, so we're slowly getting everything out. Yeah.

▶ 1:14:37 Speaker 6: Have to because That'll help, that'll help with this. Yeah. Alright. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Mad chair

▶ 1:14:43 Speaker 4: Counselor Jamal and vice chair Jamal. Dean. Thank you Madam Chair. Um,

▶ 1:14:46 Maya Jamaleddine: thank you for being with us today. Um, you know, I appreciate your transparency in presenting, uh, your department's budget, but I also want to uplift and name that what you just presented is sounds of alarm, uh, for what is, uh, yet gonna face the school. Uh, we are still dealing with the crisis and I feel that you're telling us that we, we are going to another crisis very soon. Mm-hmm. Um, so with, you know, taking into consideration, we are having new superintendent that the question here, are we setting her role or his role to a failure? Um, what is it that they're going to inherit from, uh, this year and how are we going to support them, um, to avoid this prices? Um, so I, I wonder what kind of communication brainstorming, um, are you having with the mayor or with the CFO about how to resolve?

▶ 1:16:01 Speaker 10: Yeah. So,

▶ 1:16:01 Maya Jamaleddine: You know, some kind of solution.

▶ 1:16:04 Speaker 10: Yeah, so I've talked, uh, quite a bit with, with, uh, Patrick Del Russo about how we can go about this. I mean, I think his feeling on it is that we, we go out to bond for it, um, and kind of bond it for, um, the total amount over, over a period of time. Um, which I mean, I don't, I mean, however we can fund it is fine, you know, I'd rather do it as something that we get every year and then have that dedicated to replacement schedule for whatever's on for that year, um, and have it be part of the operating system for the schools. But I mean, in the shape that the school's finances are in right now, I don't know that's realistic proposition. Um, but I, I, you know, that's up to the folks who handle the money. I don't know. Um, but I mean, we can do these projects, um, again, we're having trouble trying to do all the, the projects just cuz we don't have enough staff to either run them or assist with them or, you know, even, I mean, even when we run projects and somebody else is doing the work, it takes a lot of oversight and management. So, um, you know, we're willing to do these projects and get them done as quickly as we can and throw as much resources at at it as we can. Um, I think, like you said, it's the, it's the financing that needs to come from somewhere.

▶ 1:17:36 Speaker 10: I mean, I I in terms of, um, sorry, I didn't need to answer your question about the, the future superintendent and even the interim superintendent. Um, I don't know that it would set them up for failure, um, so long as, um, they were aware of it and then maybe addressed it, you know, like you said, like transparently, here are our issues. Here's the money with the public. This is, this is what we need to, to have an increase for just the, just for technology alone.

▶ 1:18:08 Maya Jamaleddine: Well, knowing what, how we dealt with, um, previous, um, issues that we, our community faced, you know, like we see it, uh, from one angle, but there is a lot of other conversations that's going in, uh, the community that it's hard also to, it's, it's probably easier to put the blame on one person. Mm-hmm. Um, and that person gets all the blame. So, but that's, um, that's unfortunate. That's not something that you can, uh, you know, it's your role or something. Yeah. Uh, but also I wanted to name that I feel that every single, uh, project that we are funding right now, we put that into the free cash and we try to fund it with the free cash. And then now I'm hearing about another bond that to for, it's, it's another solution for funding projects. And I wonder where our city is heading. Um,

▶ 1:19:17 Speaker 10: I mean, I, I don't want to speak for, for, for Mr. Del Russo in, in terms of how he wants to fund it. Um, I mean, he, he's recently just been basically saying that we need to have an override, um, again, and I mean, this may be built into that. I don't know.

▶ 1:19:35 Speaker 9: I can't say. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Sure. Counselor Les.

▶ 1:19:41 Speaker 8: Thank you. Honor chair. Thank you Mr. Ellis. Um,

▶ 1:19:44 Jack Eccles: I'm just looking at specifically two items on this capital improvement project, the time clock upgrade, and then it seems like, and you correct, can correct me, the city permitting and management system, these are things that, these are like recurring things that would need to end up in the operating budget,

▶ 1:20:04 Speaker 10: Right? Like the time clock is, we're working with DPW to do that. Mm-hmm. And we finally get, we weren't sure if that was touch and go, it was part of the Collins Center things, um, and they had funding, so they, we just, we just started working on it like a month ago. Um, but like yeah, like you're saying, it's, it's a, it's a recurring cost every year. Um, so it'd need to fly into the, uh, software license line maybe.

▶ 1:20:29 Jack Eccles: Got it. And then, but the city permitting and management system would probably have a pretty decent increase in, or it would be pretty good for some of the admin personnel and Oh, yeah. Services automatically the

▶ 1:20:42 Speaker 10: Prices, sorry, go ahead. That's

▶ 1:20:43 Speaker 8: All

▶ 1:20:44 Speaker 10: I was gonna say. That price is sort of like a starter, like for what it's gonna cost for every department over year by year. I do, I I think it's worth it. I mean, right now we don't have systems tied together. Um, we have some sort of a sloppy movement of data, but, uh, if we could all operate outta one permitting system so that things are flagged, like you haven't paid your excise tax, you can't pull a permit, that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. Um, that would be really nice. We could keep a lot of department's inventory in there, um, and all of the payment schedules for all the fees and, you know, look at them as a whole. Um, that would be, that would be really beneficial, especially for, uh, for departments like health and, uh, inspection, inspect, inspection services. Uh, they need something to run on that's better than what they have right now. Um, yeah.

▶ 1:21:39 Jack Eccles: Got it. And then it, it seems like as you think about like moving from the cloud or moving from on-prem into the cloud, that comes with a lot more recurring expenses. Yeah. Outside of like those line items, are there others that you see us having to do in the near future? Cause I seem, I assume that would take up a lot of capacity and any potential increases in

▶ 1:22:00 Speaker 10: it. Yeah, I mean, we're, we're spending, we're spending, you know, a hundred thousand dollars a year just for, um, oh 365 and the protections around it. Mm-hmm. So, um, yeah. I mean, you, you bring it out, you bring it out there so it's more accessible for things to be shared, um, and work collaboratively, but at the same time, um, and you don't have to run the server anymore, but mm-hmm. Sometimes it's more expensive than just run outta the server.

▶ 1:22:30 Speaker 8: Great. Thanks.

▶ 1:22:32 Speaker 4: Anyone else?

▶ 1:22:39 Speaker 4: See none. What's the will on of the committee?

▶ 1:22:41 Speaker 8: Motion to move the bottom line. Second.

▶ 1:22:45 Leila Migliorelli: Motion to move the bottom line made by Counselor Eccles. Seconded by Counselor Sin. Anyone on discussion? This is bottom line on 1 55. Just to clarify, seeing none,

▶ 1:22:56 Speaker 4: Mr. Clerk, who please call Laurel

▶ 1:22:59 Speaker 3: Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Counselor son? Yes. Counselor Eccles? Yes. Counselor Gepe? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Counselor Che? Yes. President Gregs? Yes. And Chair Mcle? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanim.

▶ 1:23:17 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. Um, that motion carries. Um, next up is just the, um, department equipment line nine 30. Um, know if you wanna stick around for that. Um, we're just gonna, oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you have anything you wanna add or if we can just,

▶ 1:23:33 Speaker 4: or if anyone has questions for Director Alice.

▶ 1:23:40 Speaker 8: Motion to move the bottom line. Second.

▶ 1:23:42 Leila Migliorelli: Motion to move the bottom line made by Counselor Eccles. Um, seconded by Counselor Ella. This is on department Equipment nine 30. Anyone on discussion?

▶ 1:23:55 Speaker 4: Seeing none. Mr. Clerk,

▶ 1:23:56 Speaker 3: Vice Chair Modine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Sin? Yes. Counselor Les? Yes. Counselor Gepe? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Counselor Che? Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. Okay.

▶ 1:24:14 Leila Migliorelli: Next is, um, capital outlay line 9 31.

▶ 1:24:20 Speaker 4: Questions or motion? Councilor Stewart?

▶ 1:24:26 Robb Stewart: Uh, yes. Madam Chair. I'll make a motion to move, uh, number, uh, 9 31 to the bottom line.

▶ 1:24:34 Speaker 8: Second.

▶ 1:24:36 Leila Migliorelli: Councilor Stewart Motion to move the bottom line on 9 31. Seconded by Counselor Eccles, anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll

▶ 1:24:45 Speaker 3: Vice chair Aldine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor son? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous.

▶ 1:25:04 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. That motion carries. Um, just to wrap up the budget portion, I'll entertain a motion to hold appropriation 2023 dash 28 in committee. Motion To hold. Second. Motion to hold made by Council Eel Seconded by President Greg Reis. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. And then related to the revolving funds, I'll entertain a motion to hold Ordinance 2023 dash one in committee.