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 (~42 min @ 1:44)

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

▶ 1:43 Leila Migliorelli: So tonight, um, let's, well, starting with the first order appropriation 2023 dash 28, fiscal 2024 operating budget in the amount of $101,173,341 and 0 cents. Tonight, we have the following departments in front of us, the mayor's office, which includes community events, the city solicitor's Office, human resources, which includes workers' comp and unemployment. So first up is the Mayor's office, and tonight we have Marga Marga Fleischman here with us.

▶ 2:19 Speaker 1: Good evening Chair McLay Riley, members of the Appropriations and Oversight Committee. I am Margot Fleischman. I'm the Mayor's Chief of staff here to present, uh, the Mayor's o Office budget. Um, I do expect that the mayor may be joining us shortly, and he may have a few remarks to share at that time. What about this? Haha, sorry, folks. All right. In that case, I'll turn it over to the mayor for his opening remarks, and then I'll present the budget.

▶ 2:42 Paul Brodeur: They will be brief. You're not gonna hear anything, um, all that different than when we previously met in joint session. Madam Chair, pleasure. Uh, ladies and gentlemen of the committee. Uh, welcome to budget season. Your health is not the first time for any of you, but it's always, uh, an exciting and challenging time. Um, so I joined tonight. We are kicking things off, and I want to offer just a fewer marks to get things going that are mostly going to focus on, um, the revenue picture for the city. The budget does in fact include an increase to the school budget of apri, of not approximately exactly 3 million over last year's approved budget. We will meet our, all our requirements around net school spending and foundation budget. We will be bringing to you balanced budgets for water and sewer, mount hood and ambulance enterprise funds. Um, and here's essentially the revenue piece that I think you have heard, uh, in some detail. But to be clear about it, uh, in terms of revenue growth over last year, we can expect 1.8 million in new tax revenue, uh, as a result of the allowable increase of 2.5%, uh, in our tax levy. As you all know, that is, that is state law. That is the maximum that we can expect, we can expect to, uh, grow by. It is also, um, the best thing about that number is it's very predictable. It's very easy to do the math of what we took in in 23 and add two and a half percent to that. And know from that perspective exactly what we have. Uh, we are estimating $500,000 in new growth. We have outpaced that a bit, um, over the last couple of years. Um, particularly this, the current fiscal year. There's a little bit of unusual growth, as I think you all know, as a result of some utility work. That is not the kind of thing we can expect. Um, year over year, our net increase in state aid, which I think y'all know, is what the state actually gives us. They give it on page one of the cherry sheet, and they take it away on the, uh, on the, um, second page of the cherry sheet. I will admit that is, um, that number as we sit here, what the number we use is $2,390,249. Uh, that's principally driven by Student Opportunity Act. I do want to note that is not, uh, a final figure because the, um, obviously until the legislature passes and the governor signs a budget, then we can't count on that. But it is, it is, um, highly predictable. The Senate budget that they have, um, started deliberations on today, um, indicate as we sit here that Melrose will do a little bit better to the tune of maybe $80,000 in, in the context of a hundred million budget. Uh, that is not game changing revenue, but it does suggest that our number is, um, that we're working with right now is quite reasonable. Um, we have, in terms of how much we are devoting to, um, the budget from local receipts, as I think, you know, our historic P practice was to make our best estimate and devote 75% of that to operating budget, uh, to create, uh, a cushion that I know we all value when things get a little bit, uh, unpredictable. We have upped that, uh, both in amount and percentage, so that that is now at 82 and a 5%. Uh, I think the long term, uh, practice ideally would be to bring it back to, um, 75% over time. I know that is a very challenging, uh, proposition. We are also committing in the context of this budget to $250,000 in revenue from the education Public Safety Substance Abuse Fund, you will call was created, uh, in 2019 when some marijuana revenue came online. This particular bucket of marijuana money is the repeating recurring revenue. It is distinct from, um, the host community agreement funds that are very much, uh, in jeopardy and can't be relied on on the long term. That is money that I would expect and the CFO expects will be able to devote every year towards operating without worrying about, um, overlying on that money. And, um, finally, we will be requesting, um, as part of a free cash offer, uh, order an additional $242,000 into special ed stabilization. Um, that is the, that, that sounds like a weird number. That is to bring it up to $750,000 or quarter of a million dollars, which would be a historic high for that fund based on the volatility we have seen in special ed. We think that is a wise investment. And finally, I think, you know, from some of the discussions that the school committee had, uh, in settling the school department budget, uh, that will be asking for $500,000 in free cash to supplement, uh, school related expenditures, focusing, focusing specifically on, um, one time capital expenditures. So things like, uh, a curriculum investment as opposed to things that might be recurring. Um, that, as you all know, it is not great practice as much as we can avoid it to not use that technique, though, we will be leaning on it. I will admit somewhat, um, we will be requesting about $615,000, which is about a little more than eight and a half percent of certified free cash to be deposited into city stabilization funds. Um, that is lower than historic practice. But given the, um, the financial needs, the operating financial needs of the city, we feel that is wise. Um, that will bring our total in stabilization over all the funds to over 8.3 million, which, uh, the CFO F o will discuss with you when he appears is a critical foundation to long-term finance fiscal stability and stabilization of our, our bond rating. Um, it sounds a little bit, um, geeky or sometimes hard to dig into the intimate details of municipal finance, but the bond rating piece is tied directly to what we paid to borrow funds. Uh, which as you also know in, uh, in normal times is a very normal practice of how municipalities finance things particularly long-term capital investment. Uh, you also find in your budget packet, um, a bunch of information about, um, all our revolving funds. We have several revolving funds, as you all know, those are segregated and essentially, um, earmarked for use by department heads with, uh, or designated personnel with certain review structures, uh, in place. Those do have to be reauthorized every year until they're subject, um, to obviously auditor oversight and control. But as an overall practice, your oversight and control in terms of the amount that can be taken in and the amount that can be spent, uh, out of the revolving funds, you will be able, uh, I hope it's obvious to question the individual department heads that are in control of those funds as they appear both for their, the revolving fund piece and for their department, uh, budget. Uh, we've already talked about the challenges this year, so won't belabor it other than to say our over on overall number one priority is to safeguard the assets of the community and to provide a balanced budget, which you all know we have to do by law, while maintaining, at a minimum a stable level of service across city and school departments, the operating budget does accomplish those objectives. Uh, thank you in advance for the, uh, the long days and now the long nights that you're gonna put in and, uh, look forward, uh, on behalf of my department heads for the conversation going forward. And with that, I'll turn it over to my chief of staff, Margaret Fleishman.

▶ 11:28 Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a brief presentation on the Mayor's office, uh, budget fiscal year 24. Um, our mission is to serve the Melrose community through supporting the mayor and all of his duties, meeting the needs of department heads, conducting community engagement and outreach, and providing constituent services. This is our, uh, our team. These are the members of our team, and we do all work together on almost everything that we do. We really are our team, and I couldn't be more grateful to have such excellent colleagues. We come to work every day looking forward to doing things together that have a real impact on the community. As you can see from this timeline, um, the mayor's office helps to put on many events throughout the year. This keeps us very busy on our, our toes. Some things are one time, but many of these recur And we support the general administrative work of the city, including doing a lot of the back office work for the appointments and reappointments and other orders that come for you, come before you in the normal order of things. Um, we have management and reporting functions. We write grants, we manage earmark requests, we prepare presentation materials, analyze data, and much, much more. One of our most important jobs is to get timely information out to the Melrose community. And thanks to the exceptional skills of Lilly, Martin Communications on behalf of the city across all platforms are growing both in reach and in professionalism.

▶ 12:56 Speaker 1: We've worked very hard this year to make sure that anyone who, um, comes to our office or interacts us in any way has a good experience. Um, but especially this year, we focused on people visiting City Hall as we've returned to a normal, um, course of, uh, post pandemic or almost post pandemic, uh, visitors to the city hall. And we've included innovations like a volunteer greeter who helps orient people when they arrive, and orientation signage that we've installed on all the floors.

▶ 13:30 Speaker 1: Our office supports the Melrose Emergency Fund and other civic efforts to assist community members experiencing need. And we also, um, coordinate the annual participatory budget process with the Melrose High School students and staff. And again, many thanks to Lilly Martin for her hard work on that.

▶ 13:48 Speaker 1: Through the work of Lauren Grim, the city's first ever economic development director, our office has been active in providing economic recovery grants, actively recruiting businesses, and helping to attract new types of businesses through activities like proposing updates to our regulations to allow brewery licenses to be granted.

▶ 14:10 Speaker 1: We manage many concurrent projects working with consultants on initiatives including our ADA self-evaluation and transition plan, capital planning, the Utility Arrearages Pay Down program, and the Community Concert Conversations initiative. We've also been supporting the HR director in implementing the D e I equity assessment that you'll probably be hearing more about later.

▶ 14:33 Speaker 1: In summary, as you've uh, read in our budget memo, our proposed fiscal year 24 budget represents a 3.9699999999999998% increase over last year. The increase is due to the new salary plan that was recently approved by the city council, as well as a one-time professional development opportunity in fiscal year 24. There are no staffing changes proposed for the upcoming, uh, budget. So in conclusion, oopsy, uh, we're grateful for the financial resources that allow us to serve the city of Melrose. And on behalf of the entire team, I wanna thank Mayor Broer for his service and for giving us the opportunity to do this meaningful work. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

▶ 15:17 Speaker 2: Thank you. Questions from the council

▶ 15:22 Speaker 2: counselor? Gar,

▶ 15:23 Mark Garipay: I'll go first. Uh, yes, thank you for being here. Um, uh, on your, uh, on your budget, there's an increase, um, uh, eight community outreach 18 five, it looks like. We continue to budget that at 18 five, and we don't meet that, um, every year. Why are we, we're in tough times, so why, um, why are we continuing to, uh, what's the plan to use that money? If not, can we allocate that somewhere else, I guess would be my question.

▶ 15:53 Speaker 1: So, a few, a few years back, we, um, increased the appropriation from about 13,000 to about 18,000 to allow us to do the part participatory budget. There's a bit of a lag time with some of that, so in some instances, we don't actually get it all done in that fiscal year. But we do try our, our hardest to utilize the community outreach budget to the greatest extent possible for activities that allow us to, um, support community organizations having events, um, have, uh, uh, an opportunity to interact with citizens of the city. Um, so in, in addition to the 5K Your Way, we do the kindergarten welcome. Uh, we do advertisements for programs in newspapers, and we have our presence at different, um, civic events throughout the year. So, um, it's true that I think in, in, in some cases we don't wind up spending all of those funds, but we do want to have that $5,000 available additionally every year for the 5k your way. Um, participatory budget challenge,

▶ 16:52 Paul Brodeur: In particular, my fall on, on the 5k, uh, your Way, which is, um, a fairly modest but really important, uh, investment in student voice. So I'm not sure if y'all know how it works, where students develop proposals and they've really been integrated into the new civic education curriculum that goes on at the high schools part of, uh, part of state law passage. I'm happy to say editorially, that Melrose is very much ahead of other districts in terms of the implementation of a civics curriculum. And this is a thing that it is, it is organized around, and it has been a little bit of a learning curve. The first year we did it, um, you may recall we did the Amazing Grace Basketball Court and that $5,000 project cost about $40,000. So we learned a little bit about vetting the projects out of the gate to make sure that they will land within the confines of the budget we provide. And since then, uh, it has been a little bit easier because we have managed those expectations and have had, you know, hundreds of kids participate in it. So, I mean, I, I understand the concern, but in terms of the, um, the, the value of that, I think it is an outstanding value to continue to, uh, invest in our kids that way and to let them have a little bit of control over, you know, what goes on in their city. I think they learn a lot from it.

▶ 18:26 Mark Garipay: Yes, I don't disagree with that. We spent 92 19 in FY 22, um, just under 9,000 this year. Um, and the budget was 18.5, so there's still plenty of room in there for that $5,000.

▶ 18:40 Speaker 3: So, and we, we, I'd like to see

▶ 18:41 Mark Garipay: If we, if in the future, if we're gonna continue to, to put this in the line item, I'd like to make sure that it's, it's gonna be used and we'll just not, It'll definitely be Used. Okay. Thank you. For sure. Um, in your,

▶ 18:56 Mark Garipay: in your salary line item, we have, you have three, you have two full-time and a part-time employee. Um, what, what is the percent increase in the FY 23 budget that we approved last year in the FY 24? What percent increase per position in pay was that?

▶ 19:14 Speaker 1: So from 24 to 23, the difference from

▶ 19:17 Mark Garipay: 20, what we approved from 23 to what's proposed here in 24. Oh yeah.

▶ 19:21 Speaker 1: So it's a 3.7% increase in the salary line item across those three positions.

▶ 19:26 Mark Garipay: Yeah. Um, what, what, what is it per position?

▶ 19:28 Speaker 1: Um, I

▶ 19:29 Mark Garipay: Don't have some pos some positions, I think in the, in the compensation study got got more than others based on study. Yes. So is there any way, I had sent an email to the CFO last week to try to get this, um, so if you can, if you can get that, uh, to me, that'd be great. Sure.

▶ 19:44 Speaker 1: Absolutely. And just to be clear, the salary, um, classification did have different impacts depending upon, um, the difference between where it was classified previously and where it is classified now.

▶ 19:56 Mark Garipay: I understand. I'm just curious on the total, um, percentage increase

▶ 19:59 Speaker 4: Minus zero

▶ 20:00 Mark Garipay: As it has been for, uh, a number, number Yes. That's a topic for another. Understood. Okay. Um, on the director of economic recovery and business development, um, that is being funded through opera. Yep. Correct. That is, goes until when,

▶ 20:20 Speaker 1: December 31st, 2024.

▶ 20:22 Mark Garipay: And what is the plan to integrate that back into, into our budget full, full-time?

▶ 20:29 Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I think as with all of the, the, uh, that position and the, um, social services coordinator position that are the two primarily funded through arpa, um, there will have to be a decision make about whether or not they can be included at the conclusion of, um, I guess, you know, in the, in budgeting for fiscal year 25, you could budget for half a half a year's worth. Um, and then the following year, obviously similarly to this, uh, social worker over at the Milano Center, you would be on the hook for the en entire amount should the, uh, budget be able to accommodate it.

▶ 21:05 Mark Garipay: So I just wanna make sure as we see things get, in my opinion, tighter and tighter over the next few years, we do have a plan to integrate that into the budget. So it's not gonna do a, I

▶ 21:17 Paul Brodeur: Wouldn't wanna speak for, for the next mayor, but I will say, you know, historically, um, the city has not added a lot of new positions. Um, it's just, it's just the way y'all know it, y'all have been at this, most of y'all have been, you know, this is probably your, maybe your fourth budget or your third budget at a minimum. And, um, just going off the top of my head, and I don't mean this to be gospel because someone will say, you forgot this one, whatever the case may be, but over the last, I think since fiscal 20, since my first budget, we have added, uh, on budget, um, a an FT E in June resources, we added the facilities director at D P W. Um, honestly, nothing else comes to mind. Those are the two big ones. We might have done something around it, but I honestly, I honestly don't recall. And that is it. The, the, the other positions that we have added are AREPA funded. Um, they add tremendous value, in my opinion. That doesn't mean that there's an easy answer. Um, um, cuz I mean, I get to see it every day. What Ms. Grimm does and the really unbelievable unmet need that we've seen around, uh, social services, both in, in bodies and support and in terms of the financial resources folks need, um, that don't always find their, their way to other programs to be it with the emergency fund or veterans benefits, uh, or whatever the case may be. We are adding, um, uh, assuming you approve it a part-time veterans services agent, uh, here in the city, that will be paid for honestly in large measure with state reimbursement. That's a nice feature of, uh, vsso services. And, what am I forgetting cuz there's one other, oh, we are half a

▶ 23:29 Speaker 1: Half a, uh, building inspector after January 1st some

▶ 23:32 Paul Brodeur: Additional hours for in inspectional services that, um, we will, uh, under separate legislation speak to you about fee increases that will, uh, pay for that. Because I, I think you all, we have all taken calls from, uh, residents, particularly with smaller scale projects that are concerned about the volume and the ability to turn around some of these requests. And, um, we can do better delivering that service and we have identified the funds to pay for it. So that should be neutral to the operating budget. Um, but again, that is the, the challenge and the frustration of running the city. We see things that we need and you do have to make choices and that's very, very, very slow to no growth on the city side.

▶ 24:30 Speaker 5: Thank you. That's all I have. Councilor Stewart?

▶ 24:37 Speaker 4: Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you both for being here. Um,

▶ 24:40 Robb Stewart: let's just, uh, going through the numbers that you provided Mr. Mayor at the beginning, um, and I'm just trying to reconcile, uh, just I think, I think it'll help us all because, um, how does the 2.6 million shortfall factor into the numbers that you provided?

▶ 25:01 Paul Brodeur: Uh, the short answer is it doesn't, by that, I mean, what I described earlier is purely the revenue picture. What more can we ex, you know, what is our revenue growth, a reasonable projection of revenue growth for f y 24 as opposed to f y 23?

▶ 25:20 Robb Stewart: And, and here's why I'm asking is because if we're, if we're gonna be putting on an additional $3 million mm-hmm. Uh, essentially, right? So top line we're adding 3 million and you're identifying the ways that there's growth in here, but I don't think you have to look at the top line. You have to look at bottom line, right? Because there was an impact at the bottom line based on a shortfall from last year. And that shortfall, as I understand, was 2.6 million. And so when I do the math, when I total up everything that you had here, which was the new tax revenue, the new growth state money, the substance abuse, the free cash from stabilization, and the free cash to focus on one time capital expenditure that totals to 5.682 million, um, or 5.6. And so when you factor then in the shortfall, you come right at 3 million, right? So five point x six minus 3.2 0.6 is,

▶ 26:19 Paul Brodeur: So there are a couple things going on. Um, like the, the 500,000 is more or less not operating right? It is, it is exactly off offline in that sense. It's a little bit of an apples and oranges case. But the, um, what we made clear, uh, when speaking about this with the, with the school, um, particularly last meeting where, um, CFO del La Russo led a conversation, we are in a situation where we do have a significant structural deficit in the school budget. And again, we have, uh, some unpalatable options. What we have identified essentially is a way to, um, his get through or in the sense of we can kind of keep this thing going, the whole, the whole kind of civic financial enterprise, um, by trying to slowly narrow that structural deficit honestly over a period of years. Um, but there is not, in our fiscal future, there is not, uh, huge opportunity for growth or innovation the current way we're doing. Thanks for sure.

▶ 27:41 Robb Stewart: And so that structural deficit will be compensated by non-operating revenue. Correct. Okay. For a period of years.

▶ 27:51 Paul Brodeur: And that, honestly, that is, that went on at a, at a lower number, um, for a bunch of years before the, before the 2019 override. The number was. And there's a little bit of a myth that it was always $750,000. It was always around that it ebbed and flowed a little bit depending on, um, you know, revenue resources and the performance of the school department budget. Both in, you know, the management of funds but also unexpected expenses to a certain Degree. Right. So, you know,

▶ 28:26 Robb Stewart: and I don't wanna discount what you're trying to do with the schooling system cuz I think it's the right thing to do is to have a strong school system. We have a strong school system, we have a strong community mm-hmm. And that no one can argue that, uh, my only concern about this is that we're taking a pretty big bite here on that 3 million extra and it's gonna be, uh, and I know that, you know, with some of the new growth and tax revenue that'll compensate for some of it, but not all of it. And so my question is where do we look hard in terms of what could be

▶ 29:06 Robb Stewart: trimmed elsewhere to help compensate for that,

▶ 29:09 Paul Brodeur: Um, everywhere and nowhere to a, to a certain degree. I mean, part of it there are, there are always efficiencies we're kind of running outta room on that use, uh, as an example. That's, that's kind of near and dear to my heart for my entire time doing this, which is going on 20 plus years. The city has never had a dedicated procurement officer. Now when you're talking about all the whizbang things that we wanna have happen that are excellent things to do, um, you know, figure out net zero, figure out our transportation, have robust schools, you know, raise your hand if you're excited about spending, I don't know, 90 or a hundred thousand dollars plus benefits to do something that doesn't go out in a pre, you know, does not deliver an obvious tangible benefit That's, that is not, you know, that is not best practice. Sure. But, but that is what we do. So, I mean that's ne never say never, but they're in a heck of a lot of places to look of any, it's the, what our bigger challenge is, um, controlling some of the uncontrollable costs of growth, you know, that old saw. But it is true health insurance going up over a million dollars. And that is, that's just the way it's, and even with, uh, slow readjustment in what employees are paying, you know, we're never gonna, well I shouldn't say never, we're never gonna beat that down. But we are also, I do not believe we are in a labor environment where it is time to ask our employees for significant concessions around, around that particular piece. So it is, uh, I'm trying to be optimistic and but realistic all in the all same at some point. Um, you don't do more with less, I'm saying suddenly. Right. If you think of something, you know, we are with the exception of Mr. Del Russo who's been, this is budget 31, there's no monopoly on wisdom here. Um, you know, concrete ideas as opposed to like, think outside the box, which really doesn't say anything Right. But if someone has a terrific idea, don't be shy cuz we'd love to hear it.

▶ 31:43 Robb Stewart: Great. Um, has Mr. Lar Russo done any, uh, projections on what it looks like from a non-operating cost over the next several years and what the impact is gonna be based on trying to reduce that structural deficit?

▶ 31:55 Paul Brodeur: Uh, fairly unpredictable. I prefer that you ask him when he appears, cuz he does a lot of that kind of thing and it's very broad in scope. He considers, you know, the, um, borrowing capacity, but the impact on, you know, what's our bond rating gonna be, what a rate's gonna look like. So it can be a little bit fluid. But he certainly does his best in partnership with, you know, our outside auditors, our, our uh, our investment banks into our, you know, our borrowing counselors to say where does it all land? It can be a little bit dicey to project out too far. I use another example, um, and then I will stop cuz this is too much info probably, um, the Student Opportunity Act. You say we are on track to fully funding that in seven years. And I say this with all due respect to the legislature and as a former member, kinda understand the way sometimes this stuff works out. But if we had a recess, you know, there's no more significant federal money probably coming. If there is a recession, then the ability of the legislature to fund all the things they wanna fund is gonna become a little bit challenging. And, you know, some examples around fully funding special education as that was defined in statute took a bunch of years to hit that, uh, fully funding of charter reimbursements despite what is said in statute, very much a slow role and a lot of revisions along the way. So it is absolutely important to do those kind of projections, but we also have to be a little bit thoughtful about how solid they are.

▶ 33:47 Speaker 4: Got it. Well, thank you.

▶ 33:49 Robb Stewart: I I just do want to express my concern that there's risk. Um, I think there's fairly significant risk here and it, it worries me, Madam, madam Chair. Um, anyways, but thank you for, uh, your candor. I do appreciate it.

▶ 34:04 Paul Brodeur: And I'll say in terms of, um, the, the state aid and the 3 million and chapter 70 and what that has to go to, that becomes a little bit of a elaborate discussion that I think is probably most appropriate for, uh, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Del Russo to talk about. Um, but that in and of itself is a little bit of a, you know, of a challenging conversation in terms of chapter 70 has to be used on education. But that doesn't mean Chapter 70 has to be used on the school budget as the school defines the budget because as you all know, a lot of school related expenses fly out, the school depart, fly outside the school department, operating budgets like employee insurance, facilities maintenance, um, nurses salaries, those are choices we make that all get reconciled when we have conversations with the state about where we're spending our money in the appropriate levels. But that becomes, um, sometimes a little bit of a challenge in discussing it in public because people like, all right, well, chapter 70 all has to go to the school operating budget. It has to go towards school expenses, but it doesn't have to go to the school operating budget.

▶ 35:25 Robb Stewart: Okay. I'll withhold my further questions for Mr. Del. Thank you. Thank you. Mad chair. Thank

▶ 35:31 Leila Migliorelli: You. Um, president Grigoraitis Rees, and just for a reminder for everyone in 10 minutes, we'll have to recess to go into The full council meeting.

▶ 35:38 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Madam Chair. I, I promise I'll be brief. Um, I just wanna build on the questions asked by Counselor Gepe and Counselor Stewart. Um, in your comments, you mentioned two things that there'll be a request coming to us to put 250, approximately 250,000 in sped stabilization, and then a request coming to us to, um, appropriate money from the cannabis fund to the schools. And that's part of the budget, correct? Do you Correct. So at this point, the only agenda that those connects appear on for the council is June 5th. Do we have confidence that those will, those requests will be before us at our June 5th meeting. Okay. Just because, and those are each eight votes pending the sup that's before the legislature for sure. Okay. To get that money. Um, I think just so people have a total understanding that there's more steps involved, there's

▶ 36:23 Paul Brodeur: Some moving Yep. There's definitely some moving pieces here for

▶ 36:25 Jen Grigoraitis: Sure. Okay. And then just, um, going back to the questions about the economic, um, development director position in arpa, can you remind me what is the deadline for us to expend ARPA dollars?

▶ 36:36 Speaker 1: So the deadline to expend is actually 2026, but the, um, guidance that we're receiving from our consultants who are more knowledgeable about the treasury guidelines is that that might be for, uh, projects that were in progress, but not for continuing costs. So their guidance is that, um, something like somebody's salary, um, were has to be incurred by December 31st, 2024, that that really is a, a firm deadline for, for those sorts of things. But let's say if you had, um, a construction project or something and not all the bills came in, you could continue to pay them through 2026. So that is what we're going on in terms of how we're addressing that particular issue. Should we receive different guidance or should the treasury rule be changed in any way? We certainly will reassess. Okay.

▶ 37:25 Paul Brodeur: So we certainly are, uh, mindful of the fact that, um, in the theme for the last 10 years, Washington is, is a little bit dysfunctional and part of the play around a part of the conversations around the debt ceiling and what might be part of a deal to make all that work would involve significant budget cuts, but also the potential of some kind of a clawback of unspent ARPA funds, I think, I'm guessing, but I think it is unlikely that that will affect us, because essentially we already have the money, so we will still be able to en like encumber it in the ordinary course. Uh, but we are, we are watching that very, very shift. We certainly, we don't wanna be in a position where we don't wanna blow it, but we're not given anything back.

▶ 38:16 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. Yeah, I was gonna ask about, I've heard the same things about clawback. Um, I just was curious if there was a way to slowly build up the director's salary over time where you're, you're shouldering part of it on the city operating budget and part of it through arpa, but it sounds like we've chosen to do all or nothing and then there's kind of a cliff in terms of funding. Okay. Um, and then my only other question as it relates to the actual budget before us, um, is for the, um, community outreach line, um, I know in your memo you mentioned that we are at about $9,000 expended of the 18,000 because we haven't yet paid for the Memorial Day parade. Is that the remainder of that money is Memorial Day Parade expenses? Uh,

▶ 38:57 Speaker 1: So the Memorial Day Parade expense expenses are from the other budget under the mayor's control. Um, which is, I can't remember. It's, I don't remember.

▶ 39:06 Speaker 3: Basically

▶ 39:07 Speaker 1: 6 52, I think is the, The Memorial Day. The Memorial Day parade is. Okay. So that's not a part of community Outreach? It's not Correct. Okay.

▶ 39:12 Jen Grigoraitis: And then, sorry, I had one more question. What is the increase in cost? You had mentioned that there's a one-time professional development opportunity. Could you say, tell a little bit about that?

▶ 39:22 Speaker 1: Sure. So, um, one of members of our staff, um, Ms. Grim has the opportunity to take a certificate program, a 25 week program that costs about $2,500. Um, so just for this fiscal year, we are gonna ask for an additional amount beyond the normal course of education opportunities that, um, we usually avail ourselves of during the year.

▶ 39:41 Paul Brodeur: No, sir. This is, this is a, a program that is a joint offering of Mass Municipal Association and Suffolk University. Um, it is, there's actually a, a semi competi enrollment process. We've sent others through the city, certainly has, um, sent others through the process. It really is an outstanding, uh, opportunity. Again, I think it's a very good value for what it is and we certainly what we do, uh, in a perfect world training would be much higher up on the list across the board of the opportunities that we provide for our employees.

▶ 40:20 Speaker 6: Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

▶ 40:23 Speaker 2: Okay. Um, counselor Carm Shady,

▶ 40:26 Manjula Karamcheti: Um, President Kru asked my question regarding the education seminars and why the, uh, larger increase in what the content was. So I'm good. Thank you.

▶ 40:35 Speaker 2: Okay.

▶ 40:37 Maya Jamaleddine: Vice Chair Jam, Jamal Ladine. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, through the chair, I just wanted to clarify that, um, and emphasize that, that the city council role is in this hearing is to approve or decrease proposal that are coming from, um, the mayor's office. Uh, but I have no authority to make proposal or increase any budget fund. My wish is that we make priority for, um, the school and to invest in our, uh, students. Um, but that's sent as suggestion. Um, I do have a question. Um, I noticed that in every, uh, proposal there is, um, a question about if there is any event or changes anticipated in departments. Um, are these included in the, uh, budget or this, are we anticipating that there will be request for more

▶ 41:38 Speaker 1: For the mayor's office budget? I'm sorry, I'm just,

▶ 41:41 Maya Jamaleddine: Uh, I am checking in the hr, um,

▶ 41:46 Maya Jamaleddine: budget that there will be a consultant.

▶ 41:53 Speaker 1: So I, I'm happy more

▶ 41:54 Speaker 7: Racial equity group.

▶ 41:55 Speaker 1: Oh yes. So, um, I'm sure that, um, Ms. Lada will be speaking to you a about that, um, that project is funded through free cash. So I don't, I don't anticipate any changes, but she can certainly speak to that.

▶ 42:08 Speaker 7: Okay. Okay. Thank you.

▶ 42:11 Speaker 2: Okay. I'm good. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay.

▶ 42:17 Leila Migliorelli: Since we have three minutes left, I'll entertain a motion, um, to move the bottom line on 1 21 Mayor's Office.

▶ 42:27 Speaker 8: Motion to move the bottom line.

▶ 42:29 Leila Migliorelli: Second. Motion to move the bottom line made by Counselor Eccles. Um,

▶ 42:35 Speaker 2: and seconded by Counselor Stewart. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll

▶ 42:41 Speaker 1: Vice chair Aldine?

▶ 42:43 Speaker 7: Yes.

▶ 42:44 Speaker 1: Councilor McMaster? Yes. Counselor Eccles? Yes. Council Councilor Gepe? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Che. Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Greg Goss? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's 10? Yes. Okay.

▶ 43:02 Leila Migliorelli: That motion carries, um, what is the will of the committee on line 6 92 Community events.

▶ 43:12 Leila Migliorelli: That would also be a motion to move the bottom line if that is something the council would like to do.

▶ 43:18 Ryan Williams: Motion to move the bottom line on community events.

▶ 43:22 Leila Migliorelli: Second. Motion to move the bottom line made by Counselor Williams. Seconded by Counselor Eccles. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk,

▶ 43:31 Speaker 1: Vice chair Jamal? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Counselor Eccles? Yes. Council Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti. Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Councilor? Uh, Williams? Yes. President Greg Regards? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That 10? Yes.

▶ 43:51 Leila Migliorelli: That motion carries. And with that, we will, um, adjourn temporarily. Thank you very much. Mad chair.

▶ 43:55 Speaker 4: I'll make a motion to Ajo chair.

▶ 43:56 Speaker 8: Ladies and gentlemen. Recess. Recess.

▶ 43:58 Leila Migliorelli: You want Thank you. Motion recess made by Councilor McMaster. Second recess. Seconded by President Greg. All in fever. Aye. Aye. The opposed?