INFO-2023-10 : Request for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding update

Transcript (~1 h 18 min @ 41:20)

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

▶ 41:19 Speaker 6: Thank you.

▶ 41:21 Speaker 2: Thank you.

▶ 41:23 Jen Grigoraitis: The next item on our agenda is info 2023-10 requests for American Rescue plan act arpa funding update Madam chair.

▶ 41:31 Speaker 5: Can I make a motion for a two minute recess? Certainly? Thank

▶ 41:34 Jen Grigoraitis: you. We have a second second all in favor. I hey, we are recessed for two minutes.

▶ 45:04 Jen Grigoraitis: Here. Alright, we are back. So just to repeat this is info 2023-10 request for American Rescue plan act arpa funding update. And I believe the makers of the order are Vice chair Margolis rally and counselor Stewart and Gary pays or anything you want to say before I

▶ 45:21 Robb Stewart: turn it over to our guest. Thank you madam chair, so this Order is as we state. Is brought forward by my current fellow counselors garapay and Migliorelli to get a better understanding of the Opera funding that's been spent to date and some of the reasoning and justification for the allocation of these funds. I think it's important for the community and for us to understand how that's been thought out and Where the remaining monies are going to go and how this is going to impact the community. So that's that's our goal tonight.

▶ 46:05 Jen Grigoraitis: We have here with us tonight chief of Staffmark at Fleischman and

▶ 46:10 Speaker 2: you have a presentation for us. Yes. Thank you very much Madam chair and thank you to the committee for this opportunity to to provide this update since the last time we've presented our arpa expenditures. We have had a significant number of new projects approved as outlined in the memo that I presented on behalf of Mayor Broder. I will just note that one project which was approved prior after the last memo I wrote and at the beginning of the period covered by this memo was inadvertently omitted and that is a utility arranges program with national grid for low income electric and gas rate payers and the amount of 141,000. So I will update that memo and resend a fresh copy that includes that one. I just noticed when I looked at over tonight that it was missing. I also just to take one moment to answer the question that was raised in the prior order about Kara showers and the the way that her position has been funded because there was an opportunity to keep her on board here in Melrose and in anticipation of presenting the funding proposal from the Health and Human Services director, and because her position is critical to the mental health first aid activities that were envisioned by one of the arpa projects in consultation with the health and human services director and the CFO. It was determined that it would be an appropriate use of a portion of the 200,000 fifty thousand dollar a year Wellness initiative arpa funds to help support that position as a stopgap measure. So we put in six months of that funding into that our item in order just to tie this over until a final permanent funding source was identified but because it was supporting that initiative So just moving very quickly through my presentation just a reminder for anyone who's watching at home Melrose received about 8.4 million dollars in arpa American Rescue Planet. Grant funds all funds must be spent by December 31st, 2024. Apparently the rules are going to be quite strict that you you won't be able to encumber it against future expense. It will actually be expenses incurred by December 31st, 2024. It's being administered by the mayor and consultation with the CFO and the staff staff task force that met over the course of many months to review the internal projects that were proposed. We are receiving advice from Clifton Larson Allen who are our experts keeping us within the four corners of the law and guiding our program development to ensure compliance with future audit requirements and it will be audited as part of the city single audit and subject to any future Federal that might be coming down the pike. We just want to thank the members of the arpitas force who met over the course of many months to review the proposals. Some folks are no longer with us. You'll see Chief Lyle was a part of it but it did represent a broad swath of the city's departments to bring in a multitude of perspectives on the use of the funds. We just wanted to provide a little context because I know that different communities have received significantly different arpa funds. We're much more like Wakefield as you can see in this grant in terms of our arpa per Capitol and also Esser which is federal education relief funds received and I just presented that in graph form here with Melrose being over to the right and just to give you a sense of the scale of the comparison of different types of communities that you might not realize that it has so many more times greater an amount for some communities than for others. So the mayor's priorities in just making decisions about the use of the allocation was identifying the areas of greatest relevance and need for Melrose economic and public health recovery, including obviously focus on Mental Health and Wellness that was announced last year at the state of the city. Secondarily making much needed investments in City infrastructure and finally maintaining the financial stability of the city. To date there have been 34 projects approved by the mayor. These projects came from 12 different departments 7.3 million dollars has been allocated with just over a million dollars unallocated to any particular project. To give you a sense of how those expenditures of that 7.3 million dollars breakdown 47% support the schools and then you can see DPW is the next highest and then different programmatic areas parks recreation police fire Health Recreation Etc.

▶ 51:10 Speaker 2: By type, we broke down projects that had an impact on the city's infrastructure and that represents 53% of the 7.3 million dollars that have been allocated next is covid response that could be just in terms of cleaning and and other activities directly related to the pandemic economic recovery mental health Public Safety. And to give you a sense of how much of the money is actually gone out the door because we are under this very strict time frame 38% has been expended 5% has been encumbered and 57% has been unexpended. So those are funds that have been allocated but not yet spent and also the 1.05 that has been unallocated. Just a little bit of detail about the school related item about 63% of the funds allocated to the schools were to stabilize the finances of the schools and about a third were for infrastructure projects to benefit the schools. You'll see the biggest ticket item obviously being the HVAC study for adding air conditioning to the Middle School. So complete list of all of the projects that have been approved to date is available on the city of Melrose website as well as copies of all of the memos that we present these sorts of Graphics to help explain how the money has been allocated so far and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions.

▶ 52:42 Speaker 6: Thank you or their question counselor Stewart.

▶ 52:45 Robb Stewart: Thank you madam chair and thank you Ms. Schlageman for this detail that helps. I also appreciate that you gave the the raw data format that let me bring it into Excel myself so I can create all the pivot tables like you had to really get a good feel for the information. So thank you for providing all that information when I look at this and I look at the priorities that you listed out. I feel like it's almost inverted. and the reason why is When I look at the numbers.

▶ 53:17 Robb Stewart: The health and the rec Health compromise 5% of the spend so far. whereas when we go and we look at your different areas infrastructure Is the Lion's Share? of the spend

▶ 53:41 Robb Stewart: and I feel like we may have missed a little bit. On helping the community here. a lot of the the budgetary, you know, you had said that the priorities were first the health and wellness second getting the community stable and then third the financing.

▶ 54:02 Speaker 9: Yet.

▶ 54:05 Robb Stewart: We kind of we looked at the financing and we covered the school and the shortfall the school and obviously we needed to do that.

▶ 54:13 Speaker 9: But then a lot of the spend

▶ 54:19 Robb Stewart: seem to be a little bit more on.

▶ 54:25 Robb Stewart: more internal projects than the community so without going further and getting into more details. I just like to understand. The thinking behind that to just for us as well as for the community. Sure. Well, I think they'll be questions for that. I think

▶ 54:40 Speaker 2: that the infrastructure category has a significant overlap with public health issues. So for example At first when the arpa first came out there were regulations that really limited what you could use the funds for and did not provide as much flexibility. And so you were looking for infrastructure projects related to ventilation, for example, so you see that the HVAC system and the library was one of the early Projects that's an infrastructure project but related to air quality and air handling and air circulation which was a high priority at the beginning of the pandemic likewise, you'll see the lead Water Service inventory and replacement is a project that has significant public health impact because although our city pipes don't have lead the service lines that that connect the city pipes to many houses in the city. There are still a number of those lead service pipes that need to be removed. And so that it does qualify as an infrastructure project, but you could also characterize it as being consistent with public health and wellness guidelines, like likewise engineer, excuse me. Public safety training equipment and Public Safety vehicles are designed to address public safety and health and safety needs both for our employees obviously and for Citizens and then some of the outdoor infrastructure regarding parks and outdoor spaces was again through the lens of the experience of having gone through the pandemic and recognizing the value of outdoor recreation physical activity for both physical well-being, but then also the social benefits of community gathering places. So something like the Amazing Grace basketball court, which was it was considered an important. Opportunity for outdoor recreation on the school campus. So again, I think that strictly speaking. Yes. Absolutely. You're right and I think also infrastructure projects generally being significantly more expensive than other kinds of projects you are going to see the breakdown of those of that as we as we demonstrate as being significantly weighted to the infrastructure side, but that is not without the consideration of how those infrastructure Investments improve People's Health and well-being.

▶ 57:11 Speaker 9: Sure.

▶ 57:14 Robb Stewart: I was reading an article this morning about what Chelsea did you know, they they bought the $400 they found they found the money themselves. They found four million dollars to buy the $400 a month for people that could that needed food throughout covid and when that ran out, they tapped into their Arbor fun and they funded $800,000 to continue that program. That's something that I think. is well representative of what they're trying to do for community and that's something that I had expected. And I didn't see so I think it was a little bit of a miss. on how we didn't look further into the community where people that were really impacted and the small businesses that were really impacted. I don't see the numbers and if there is things that were not seeing

▶ 58:05 Speaker 2: You know, let us know please sure. Well, I will say we do have food insecurity and we did Outreach to the food pantries in advance of creating our food insecurity program or the allocation for food insecurity. And we do have a small business nonprofits culture sexual support and you may be aware that there is a grant opportunity making available to small businesses that has recently the deadline has recently passed and those grants will be awarded in the in the next probably several weeks. So there there was a responsiveness to The information that we were able to gather through the community survey, which is back in between February and may time frame in terms of the kinds of projects that the community at least those members of the community who chose to respond to the survey. Which was several hundred of them wanted to see explored and they were things like sidewalks so that we have sidewalks right now. I understand but and you know, I feel as though I'm happy to revisit the the priorities that were expressed and also the open responses that the members of the community who weighed in on what they wanted to see the money used for and we did take that seriously into consideration as these projects were developed. So these were not these were not internal priorities that were where we matched up the resources from arpa to accomplish things that our staff wanted to really looked closely at those relationship between these projects and the input that we received at the very beginning of the

▶ 59:45 Robb Stewart: process. Yeah, and I respect that I think that's that's very and Admiral that you you took that initiative. is my concern is the silent portion of our community that doesn't have that opportunity to speak up or cannot or for challenges feels uncomfortable so that that's where a stronger Outreach I think would be appropriate. And that's just feedback my last question because I do want to give up opportunity for my fellow counselors to also weigh in is can you talk a little bit about the remaining million dollars that you're going to be spending in where you see that home?

▶ 1:00:28 Speaker 2: So, I mean I think in in the context of all the conversations that are being had counsel of school committee and within our auditor's office and certainly the mayor's office just recognition the uncertainty on many different levels. I mean particularly inflationary pressures right now are Resulting in projects coming in over budget and providing a little bit of cushion for anything. That might be unforeseen or unforeseeable. So I think that stopping at this point and not taking on any new project proposals just seems like the very prudent thing to do. Obviously, there's opportunity to reallocate as necessary any unspent funds but I think the important thing to realize is that it's our our goal not to return any of the money and so we have opportunities to to save for a certain period of time but I think as we get closer to that that hard stop of December 31st 2024. We have to ready to get the the money out the door to serve whatever needs are most pressing.

▶ 1:01:36 Robb Stewart: Thank you. Anyway my last just beautiful because I would encourage you to look into opportunities to find Community spend because we have spent quite a bit on internal. Components let's find how the the community can directly benefit with this this extra spend.

▶ 1:01:53 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you madam chair. Thank you counselor Stewart Council carm-chady.

▶ 1:01:59 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you so much for being here and for putting together the presentation and just being very clear and transparent on the funds and what they are to be used for just for the public and also for myself just to clarify just when we're talking about arba the funding provided under arpa provides a unique opportunity for a state and local governments to make strategic investments in long-lived assets rebuild reserves to enhance Financial stability and cover temporary operating shortfalls under economic conditions and and operations normalize. So just in looking at the list, like one of the things that sticks out to me is actually something that the arpa funds makes sense to have used for was the shortfall in our schools based on the things. We didn't expect during covid. So I know there was some concern about those funds being used for arpa, but it actually in terms of what's what the funds are for makes sense how we got there, maybe some questions and concerns, but it Make sense. Like that's what arpa funds were intended to do short balls and we had a shortfall and it was for unexpected reasons. And again, there's debate on whether those should have been expected or not, but the funds were appropriately utilized. And I think just to stem off some of the things counselor Stewart was saying if the priorities of the city were to identify the greatest areas of need and relevance regarding economic and public health recovery mental health and wellness being excited. It is challenging to look at then the pie chart and see that only 3% 6% went towards that and just recogning with if it's a priority but we only paid we only use three to six percent of our funds for it. I just I just I do have a lot of questions about that and then in looking sort of at the list of who was making decisions about the funds noticing that it was all internal it was people who work at the city and there wasn't any representation for the community and I think just in terms of best practice voices particularly of the historically marginalized those voices weren't really represented and I feel like I can see that through line in terms of what a lot of the funds were spent on and just in thinking about the language regarding the shortfalls and economic conditions trying to and I think you started to do this and I would love a little more in the connection between how the community was impacted by covid what the funds were for and matching that up to the infrastructure and police vehicles and stuff. Because it I feel like some of those things I had seen on people's lists before covid and before the arpa funds were available. So I'm just trying to understand that a little better.

▶ 1:05:01 Speaker 2: Well, certainly from the point of view of the mental health and wellness initiatives. We were eager to support our department heads who wanted to provide additional services and additional opportunities in the community and I think one of the things that was important for the mayor to balance and it was his these were his decision makers his decision-making informed by the community input that we asked for and received and and the staff input that we ask for and received was particularly sensitive to the idea of creating fiscal instability building programs that couldn't be sustained because one of the the blessings and the curses of this program is that it's a relatively short lived program and that any position that we brought on that had that was going to add value to the community that we would want to see continue. We would have to be prepared to bring on to the operating budget at the conclusion of the art of period so it was a to reluctance to over balance on that on that side where then you would become we would be coming to the city council in fiscal year 25 and saying we have Social workers we have programs that we can no longer fund through this grant source, and we have no other way to continue them. And so I think that the there's been a conservatism on that level of not overextending ourselves and again getting back to the proportion that some communities who have been able to do really interesting and Innovative things have been working with 35 million dollars with 48 million dollars and not to say that eight million dollars is a trivial amount of money, but that is by comparison to other communities that have some of those programs where they are able to meet more broad-based needs. They're talking about five or six or seven times the amount of funds that the city of Melrose received. So we are we are happy to Resource our staff to do the programs that we have the capacity to do and it is a A balancing act not to to be able to have a realistic amount of work to be placed in the responsibility of a limited number of people.

▶ 1:07:28 Manjula Karamcheti: What you're saying totally makes sense to me. I think when I look at the list of arpa funds and how they were spent. I see that we bought a lot of things and I don't see a lot of programmatic Investments. So I think I'm trying to understand that so like in terms of the funds leaning towards recovery and like sustainability. What is on the list I'm if you can help me and make the connection to to that like. A lot of the things that we're purchased will need to be replaced at some point in time. So it

▶ 1:08:06 Speaker 2: well, I mean I think in some instances between buying things and laying the

▶ 1:08:07 Manjula Karamcheti: foundation for programs and growth. Absolutely. I

▶ 1:08:11 Speaker 2: would say something like The the asset management software that we were able to use arpa funds to fund. It's a very sort of un, you know, it's a pretty boring sounding thing right asset management software that's going to be critical to our long-term capital planning process because essentially what it's going to be able to do is for us to finally get a granular handle on all of the infrastructure that the city owns when it's going to need to be replaced and how much it's going to cost to replace it. That is that asset management software line item looks like no big deal but it actually is laying the foundation for future good planning and and ability to deliver services and and meet the needs of the community going forward by being able to guarantee that our buildings are not falling into disrepair. Our schools are doing well our city hall our services all Our resource appropriately. I mean, I think that in each one of these cases there's probably a lot more backstory that could flesh things out and add color and and interest to make those connections. I'm very happy to speak to any member of the public or any counselor who would like to know more about what lies kind of behind the title of each one of these projects because I do think that there was rationale and thought that was put into into them and I will say also Looking at the use of one-time funds just the same way that when we look at use of our free cash and other non-recurring Revenue. It is generally a prudent thing to invest in one-time expenses again to not create that fiscal instability, especially given how tight the municipal budgets are.

▶ 1:10:14 Speaker 2: Thank you. Sure.

▶ 1:10:20 Speaker 6: Thank you counselor garapay.

▶ 1:10:22 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Thank you for being here. Just a couple quick questions on the graph you sent out on fy22 has all has all of this money been. And the projects at least started or they contracts on on a lot

▶ 1:10:42 Speaker 2: of it is yes. So I would say the majority of these projects are underway to one extent or another some of the money is spent completely out the door and other things things just as any other project. There's going to be design and then you know execution right? So so in many of these cases some of the funds have been spent but like for example the HVAC study, you know, we haven't spent that million dollars not even close.

▶ 1:11:10 Mark Garipay: Is there any way because these emails you sent on the free cash items greatest or any way we can get a summary of where these projects stand. So yeah,

▶ 1:11:19 Speaker 2: absolutely. So my intention would be some time shortly after the first of the year to convene all of the Departments who are utilizing the arpa funds and going through just in the same way as we do with the free cash the status of each project because what's most critical is that every project has to be on a timeline to completion by that December 31st, 2024 deadline and if the department head can't demonstrate that we're making substantial progress and we have to you know, consider reallocation of the funds.

▶ 1:11:52 Mark Garipay: And how often have we been getting updates from the department heads regarding where they are and completion? Well, I

▶ 1:11:58 Speaker 2: would say that so the majority of the projects have been awarded so to speak or allocated in the time time period since let's say less less spring so I think in some cases some of these projects are well underway, and I'm aware of which ones are well underway and others have, you know, been ramping up over this over the summer months. And so I think by the time we get to January timeframe, I think that would be equal playing field for all of those allocations to be able to show some progress.

▶ 1:12:37 Mark Garipay: It'd be great if we can get a summary at the beginning of the year. You mentioned which is always concern of mine hiring. personnel with one-time money and we're getting closer to 2024 the budgets getting tighter. What's the plan to integrate that money into the budget permanently?

▶ 1:12:57 Speaker 2: Well, so we have with the exception of the position that I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, which is a relatively small allocation for a short period of time. We have one social worker and the economic development director who are being completely funded using the arpa funds. We are not envisioning hiring any other full-time Personnel using using arpa funds. So I think there's going to have to be a point at which we evaluate how how productive and valuable those positions are to to the community to to our ability to get our work done and work with the CFO to determine whether or not those budgets will be able to grow to meet that need in the fiscal year following arpa.

▶ 1:13:50 Mark Garipay: I see we have a specific project. Tremont Street fights fire station 151,000 I'm assuming it's for the Build-out that they don't correct? Yes, I struggle with that. I struggle with that understood two years to find. A space for or a solution for the fire truck and we just approved 68,000 for a public safety study that in all of the options that they presented to us was to remodel that whole whole building can someone just explain to me and for the community because I have had not 100 but I've got a lot of questions regarding what did they do to that fire station old needed a lot of work trying to look beautiful. Okay. Well, I will

▶ 1:14:37 Speaker 2: say that there was a lot of many options explored about what to do with the retiring ladder truck. I'm not going to be able to be the person who's going to be able to speak most knowledgeably about that. But ultimately this was the the decision that allowed us to keep that truck available as as on call vehicle for the city of Melrose as we took delivery of our new ladder truck. I think one of the things that we all struggle with is the fact that You think that there's an easy straightforward and expensive solution and then when you look at the engineering the grading the drainage Etc what seems straightforward becomes significantly much more expensive, but I'm happy to have the DPW director or the fire chief give you some more detail about where that project stands how it's how it's working for functionality for

▶ 1:15:37 Mark Garipay: the fire department. I definitely would like that. I mean, I think if we least space lease the garage somewhere even who was out of town. I think it would be a lot cheaper knowing especially if we end up doing something with that building where we ripped down. But remodel the whole thing, there's a hundred and fifty thousand that I'm just going to scratch my head on 151,000. Looking at this spreadsheet. I do not see. the additional 800,000 for the library included in this

▶ 1:16:09 Speaker 2: was a $500,000 appropriation for Library HVAC. That was the only arpa request that we received relative to the library when?

▶ 1:16:17 Mark Garipay: When we had an update on the library, it was stated that.

▶ 1:16:23 Speaker 3: we would

▶ 1:16:26 Mark Garipay: we will conservative on our money and we're going to hold 800,000 of leftover Opera money for any overruns, but the new strategies to fund the library. They didn't think they were going to use it. But the goal was to hold this 800,000 and I'm paraphrasing. So that we don't have to come back to the taxpayers for the city council for more money. So and I was said on October 17th at our meeting around 14 minutes in if you want to look but I don't understand that should be included in here if that if we are going to potentially use that for the library because if not, we're getting into tougher Financial Times. And that means you're going to be coming back either to the city if we're running

▶ 1:17:07 Speaker 2: over. I think the rationale of not touching the last million is to meet whatever need is. Is present right? So I think that I wasn't here when the 800,000 remark was made there certainly is 800,000 of our funds available. If it's needed for the library project that would something that could be considered if it's needed for something else. That is something could be considered but there is not an approved project in the case of the 500,000 for the HVAC that was specific. Dollar amount for a specific need that was approved in the money has been transferred to the project. So in the sense that we may need more money for the library project. There is more there is more money available. There is $800,000 available.

▶ 1:17:58 Mark Garipay: I would just say I don't want to get into where we are with the schools in an overrun. If it was stated that we are going to hold 800,000. I think it should be in this. In this calculation and really we only have 247,000.

▶ 1:18:16 Mark Garipay: I don't know I think by not including it in here. We potentially could be over.

▶ 1:18:21 Speaker 2: Well, obviously we're not going to we're not going to be over on anything and certainly as you see from the amount of money that has been expended to date if there were a fiscal emergency that required us to pull back on some of the final fiscal years worth of allocations that have not been spent. Although they have been committed to a certain project but perhaps there's not a contract there's still flexibility available because that money has not yet been spent.

▶ 1:18:55 Mark Garipay: That you plan on using any more Opera money for the schools. I'm sorry. Is there any plan to use any more Opera

▶ 1:19:02 Speaker 2: money for the schools at the moment? I am not aware of any specific requests from the schools from where our defense. Thank you.

▶ 1:19:09 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you Vice chairman.

▶ 1:19:11 Speaker 5: Thank you madam chair.

▶ 1:19:14 Leila Migliorelli: I just want to point of clarification maybe through the chair to council garapay 800,000 more than the 500,000 for the HVAC was in the meeting. Okay, and so then we have a million dollars left. That 800,000 is a huge chunk to

▶ 1:19:31 Speaker 2: maybe potentially yeah, see, okay.

▶ 1:19:32 Leila Migliorelli: Just going through the spreadsheet and I found it very helpful to have this spreadsheet. I would recommend that moving forward when if we do meet at the end of the Or after the first of the year to have the expenditures outlined in the spreadsheet and seeing where we are rather than a narrative form. I think it's much easier to follow along with finances when it is in a spreadsheet, but just going through I guess, you know echoing counselor garapay's remarks about The Tremont Firehouse that that's something that people have pointed out to me, you know where you know, you just I thought were in the middle of looking for public safety building what's going up there. I think that is a misstep a 151,000 is not insignificant amount of money. So that's just my feedback on that this line item, but the community conversations initiative. Can you talk a little bit about that and what 25,000 will

▶ 1:20:29 Speaker 2: be used for sure. So part of the feedback that we received through our community outreach at the beginning of the arpa process was just about sort of opportunities for community building and providing more opportunities for Dialogue both between the city and the community and community members being able to have an opportunity to work through challenges differences speak across maybe political or socioeconomic differences and a proposal came forward to us from a group of citizens looking at the potential for training training facilitators in the community in order to promote more harmonious Civic dialogue around issues of concern any any issue sort of agnostic of the topic. So there are a couple of practitioners of this Civic dialogue process and we did have a successful RFP process where a company called essential Partners who has worked in several other communities to facilitate dialogues around topics of concern or bridging differences was able to propose a project for us to train up to 20 community members to become community facilitators to assist in building and strengthening Civic dialogue around issues of

▶ 1:22:04 Leila Migliorelli: importance to the community. Do we have a is there an identified need or demand for 20 people to be trained through a program? Like do you I mean, how was that?

▶ 1:22:14 Speaker 5: number identified and it was

▶ 1:22:16 Speaker 2: that was sort of the Generic cohort that could realistically be trained in a in a realistic time frame at one time and that would be sort of commensurate with a community of our size that you would be able to build capacity and then potentially train trainers to in order to facilitate more if needed but that was considered looking at other communities that did similar things that was sort of what generally

▶ 1:22:50 Speaker 5: communities did was that the decision made by the city or was it by the group of residents that identified the need for desire to have the

▶ 1:22:58 Speaker 2: number of trainees know that was just in terms of looking around at what other communities had done. I was looking at others other communities and other projects and General Lee when when I was reaching out to companies that did this sort of work that was kind of The Sweet Spot 20 to 25 was kind of a cohort, okay.

▶ 1:23:22 Leila Migliorelli: I guess so this is supposed to be spent in fy23. Right maybe another question way to ask this question with all these different fiscal years and you alluded to this and answering another counselor's question is that this is money committed in those fiscal years not necessarily expended. So you are anticipating to And you know spend $25,000 on this. Let's just use this example for Community conversation initiative this fiscal year. Okay. And then but then the actual training of the the facilitators could take place, you know, the actual work could take place also in this fiscal year. It would the

▶ 1:24:00 Speaker 2: contract with the with the provider. Stipulates I think that it should be done by next fall essentially. So starting starting this this winter and extending, you know at a reasonable pace through the steps that were outlined for them to take to train folks within the year.

▶ 1:24:26 Speaker 5: and

▶ 1:24:29 Leila Migliorelli: what if you don't get 20 people to sign up for the part like so you spend $25,000 or spending $25,000 working with a consulting company to potentially do this work. What if there's no interest in it?

▶ 1:24:42 Speaker 2: I'm You know, I I suspect that there will be interest. I cannot guarantee that will be all 20 slots filled but that is our goal to fill them and well, so intending to fill both community members and members of boards and committees City staff to improve the facilitation skills of all people who interact with the public just as a basic skill set for being more effective in terms of communicating around challenging issues. I'm sure all of us have experiences public people in being in a room where there's something very tense and challenging going on and the difference between having a skilled facilitator in that room and being alone in a room with people who are struggling around an issue is quite significant. So that is the goal that this should be provided to boards and committees. City councilors members of the public clergy anybody who would like to benefit from

▶ 1:25:47 Leila Migliorelli: this training. Okay. Thank you. I guess it's just to clear on these questions and some of my questions following it's not so much that I am debating the value or worthiness of any of these initiatives. I think I just want to be looking critically at how we're spending this money and sort of how it lines up to other priorities that we have and given some of the situations we've seen, you know, particularly in the schools and some of the other projects that I that are to be discussed tonight. I just want to make sure that we are we're being Mindful and fiscally responsive and smart about how we're using the funds that we have in front of us. So next up, I guess the small business and nonprofit cultural sector support $50,000 a year for three years and you mentioned that a application process has gone out for that. Can you tell a little bit more about You so your plan anticipating on making $50,000 worth of Grants this year. Have you received applications in that amount that I see that amount would spin the response?

▶ 1:26:48 Speaker 2: So the way that we designed the program although on my draft budget. I had spread it out across three fiscal years. We felt that it was important for small businesses that needed relief to have access to it as soon as possible. And so we put out publicized the opportunity and then our director of Economic Development actually went door to door and canvased all the businesses to drop and drop off the applications. She has tracked all of the business that businesses that requested the application materials and how many return them we have received in excess of a hundred thousand dollars worth of requests. We are looking at making sure that they qualify based on the criteria that our economic development director developed in conjunction with a group of other communities who have engaged in a similar Grant making process with the arpa funds and also consistent with rules and regs that are sent down by our auditing firm about how to do this responsibly. And the the goal is to try to meet the needs as have been expressed to us for the business Community to the greatest extent possible within the budgeted amount available. So it's possible that we may Grant more than $50,000 this year and less next year in an effort to sustain the businesses that have expressed a financial need now rather than waiting and having them miss out on this round and apply next year.

▶ 1:28:32 Leila Migliorelli: For me while I understand obviously. Very like the small businesses are the backbone of a local economy. There are other sources of funding for that. So in terms of prioritization, I just I hope we're thinking about what projects that cannot be funded. Through other mechanisms when we're looking at available funds like arpa and free cash and things like that. So addressing food insecurity is that I think that was addressed a little bit earlier a nonprofit or the local food banks had kind of come up with was this 75,000. It's something that that they arrived at that amount that they saw that need or is it

▶ 1:29:19 Speaker 2: something that so I I did do Outreach to the to the local food banks to sort of find out what their their needs and their interests were and ultimately what we decided to do was fold the food insecurity into the small business nonprofit application program because ultimately if we're giving these funds to a nonprofit organization they have to go through the same kind of vetting process that we would for any business or nonprofit. So we made available Grant opportunity to any nonprofit that is serving food insecurity and we did receive one application through our grant making process. So we would anticipate that we would provide provide funding to that or any other organization that chose to apply.

▶ 1:30:10 Leila Migliorelli: And we in that organization supports solving food insecurity in Melrose specifically and only in Melrose. So it's the

▶ 1:30:18 Speaker 2: food drive which serves Melrose and a bunch of other communities.

▶ 1:30:25 Leila Migliorelli: Um, okay. Thank you. And then you you just identified the utility or rearrages. That's that's for people

▶ 1:30:32 Speaker 2: in need. Yeah. So National Grid has a low income discount rate program that anyone basically who qualifies for any relief of any sort including snap or any other LIHEAP grants or anything else. It automatically becomes eligible to pay lower rate for their gas or their electric despite. The lower rate many people of lower income have fallen behind especially during the covid period and one thing that was specifically envisioned with arpa was being able to help people pay off debt that was incurred for their utilities During the period of the pandemic When people's incomes were severely curtailed and so these would be people who could potentially be in danger of having the utility shut off. And so we've been working closely with National Grid, Develop a program where we can clear some of the debt for our low income ratepayers here in Melrose so that they have more financial stability and they don't have that debt hanging over them.

▶ 1:31:39 Leila Migliorelli: Last question Community Mental Health Initiative is that then that $50,000 a year we see for four years. Is that for the position? That's not for

▶ 1:31:47 Speaker 2: the position that is for an entire sort of Suite of activities that the rec department and the health department have proposed to including the mental health Wellness the sorry the the mental health first aid training and other initiatives that they developed in response to what they were seeing in terms of the mental health needs in the community. So the the funding for the position that was assisting with those programs from programmatic needs was just a small part of that just for six months.

▶ 1:32:30 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you counselor Eccles.

▶ 1:32:32 Jack Eccles: Thank you madam. Chair, you talked a little bit about like about the idea that someday we might have to assess absorbing some of the recurring expenses into the operating budget. Social worker economic development director. The only thing I see in here. Is the asset management software is that of recurring expense or is that a one-time?

▶ 1:32:52 Speaker 2: Um, it's a one-time upfront expense with some down down Road upgrades and just any place any software you're going to have operating expenses, but those can be absorbed by DPW. So that that is the plan that all The Upfront it's a lot of data collection up front. So it's front loaded in terms of the cost and then there's maintenance cost in out years that can be absorbed by the operating budget for the DPW. That

▶ 1:33:21 Jack Eccles: is the plan great. So it's not 106,000 a

▶ 1:33:24 Speaker 2: year. No, no, no Heavens. No.

▶ 1:33:27 Jack Eccles: awesome And then just like the need-based utility. Disbursements how are you going to assess that in? So

▶ 1:33:36 Speaker 2: it's this has been a really interesting project to work on because we have been in very strong partnership with National Grid who has been helping us sort of figure out what would be what would have the biggest impact for the greatest number of rate payers in a Rears? There was some difference of opinion about what the time frame that was allowable by the arpa statute would allow us to do but it seems as though we will be able to look back all the way to March 2020 and to clear a rurages that started between the beginning of the pandemic and essentially last year, which is the bulk of the arrearages that they have on record. There are some smaller amounts that have happened subsequent to that but the majority of the the account in Melrose of these low-income rate payers that are in a rears did happen kind of during the height of the pandemic so they they are doing all the number crunching and they are identifying the accounts for us. We are not taking responsibility for the personal identifiable information. We are relying on their ability to produce accounts and for us to be able to audit those accounts to ensure that these are in fact Melrose low income rate payers.

▶ 1:34:58 Jack Eccles: That definitely helps so they it's based on top ideally based on total errages and then the qualifier that they have to be the low income member, correct.

▶ 1:35:07 Speaker 2: So we are only we are only asking for a rear edge data for Melrose low-income rate payers.

▶ 1:35:15 Jack Eccles: What's that? What's low income by that?

▶ 1:35:17 Speaker 2: Again, I think it has to do with your qualification for any of the state or federal assistance programs.

▶ 1:35:25 Jack Eccles: Small business in nonprofit disbursements as well. Has that assessment?

▶ 1:35:33 Speaker 10: Going to work for who gets it. So it's

▶ 1:35:35 Speaker 2: based on an application process that shows eligibility the business had to have been in business in Melrose located physically in Melrose, as of a certain date be of a certain size have a certain number of employees are under a certain number of employees under a certain income threshold so that we are not seeking to provide economic relief for a large business owner. But rather looking at our small business sector and seeing what we can do to defray some of the economic impacts of the pandemic to sustain them and to sustain the Vitality of our downtown

▶ 1:36:16 Jack Eccles: in members of the mayor's office are going to make that assessment. So

▶ 1:36:20 Speaker 2: it's the cooperatively between the mayor's office and the planning department been just essentially assessing whether or not the applications are complete. All of the documentation is appropriate and really beyond that. We're just trying to if someone qualifies to go ahead and and think about offering them some support.

▶ 1:36:43 Speaker 10: Thank you.

▶ 1:36:45 Jack Eccles: And then so it says on this spreadsheet 150,000 for that. Is there and then on the websites is up to 225,000? It's the combination of

▶ 1:36:56 Speaker 2: the food insecurity grants and the economic development small business grants. Got

▶ 1:37:03 Jack Eccles: you. Thank you. And then just on some of the projects that might not be completed. Is there any risk? That exists in those that they might run over and eat into the remaining 1 million or some other funding source.

▶ 1:37:18 Speaker 2: You mean like if something goes out to bid and it's higher than expected exactly. Sure. Absolutely. I mean, I think there's risk there's always risk and we try to build these budgets conservatively and there's always contingency built into into the the projects, but obviously at the front end you don't know for sure what you're going to find at the back end.

▶ 1:37:40 Jack Eccles: So to like for example The Tremont Street fired upgrade

▶ 1:37:45 Speaker 2: that could I think that's unlikely that that's going to become any more expensive because it's nearing complet. It's not going to be it's not like one of those projects like in like we take for example, the Middle School air conditioning project. You potentially could design it this year or next year. And then try to bid it the following year and you know, the escalation could be could be greater than expected. But I think a smaller project that's likely to get done sooner is less vulnerable to that kind of cost overance.

▶ 1:38:17 Speaker 10: and then

▶ 1:38:18 Jack Eccles: the you know, 70 7.3 million in the remaining one million that accounts for paying the salaries of everyone out to the end of the arpa period who's accounted for there. Right? So the social worker economic development director that's accounted for in the 7.3 million. Yes.

▶ 1:38:37 Speaker 10: Great. Thank you. Thank you

▶ 1:38:40 Speaker 6: counselor. Jamaladin.

▶ 1:38:41 Speaker 5: Thank you.

▶ 1:38:44 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you for being with us tonight. You did mention about your program support small businesses, and I'm thrilled to hear about that because we know about a few businesses that have been struggling. in Melrose is that for business that they do have and actual like store in

▶ 1:39:10 Maya Jamaleddine: Melrose or is it like we know that, you know during the pandemic we have

▶ 1:39:17 Speaker 2: House located so the the qualification includes people who have at home businesses, but we would not pay for expenses having to do with rent or Utilities in that case. So we would not we would be looking for business-related expenses, but the person does not have to have a brick-and-mortar business so you could be I don't know a CPA or something or so practitioner of something and you would qualify you don't have to have it doesn't necessarily have to be retail. You don't have to have a stand alone place of business. You just have to be have your business in the City of Bones.

▶ 1:39:52 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay, and do we have a data about those businesses in marrows?

▶ 1:39:58 Speaker 2: Data about them. I don't have that at my fingertips, but I know our economic development director has been developing quite extensive profile of the businesses that are registered with the city.

▶ 1:40:11 Maya Jamaleddine: So we do have ways to reach out

▶ 1:40:14 Speaker 2: to them. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay awesome. And

▶ 1:40:17 Maya Jamaleddine: for those that they do have businesses whether at home businesses or actual store located in marrows and You know they do do we have programs that you know translation like that. They have different languages or they use they serve different clients with different languages services. Do we have this program for them to provide those services in different language?

▶ 1:40:45 Speaker 2: So we have not provided language translations with the materials that we have provided but our economic development director has gone door to door to ensure that she would have the opportunity to meet with anybody and if there was a language barrier, we certainly would provide translation services. So that has not to my knowledge come up specifically, but I'd be happy to ask her about her Outreach to any any business owner that may have had a language barrier and how she handled it awesome

▶ 1:41:17 Maya Jamaleddine: that would. Now I do want to ask you about the 57% on spent. Money, is that money? Do we know where? Is it specifically to which department has been allocated and it's not been or to

▶ 1:41:37 Speaker 2: which program the project? So that is just that is literally just data out of the auditor's office about how much of the money we have left and how much has been dispersed. I'd be happy to as I said to Counselor garapay come back to you in February the after the opportunity to speak to all the Departments about where they are with the projects. Some are just getting underway others are concluding and then I would be able to give you a more detailed breakdown of who has not yet spent their money because at this point this is just the amount that has been spent versus unspent.

▶ 1:42:13 Maya Jamaleddine: Well, my concern is we all know that we do have some kind of crisis in Melrose right now that we're trying to find ways to resolve we did we do have other issues in marrows that we need to, you know, do to the money shortage. We we cannot focus on we cannot like for instance the other day someone mentioned about

▶ 1:42:42 Maya Jamaleddine: departments that need some maintenance and departments that need, you know appliances need to be changed and replaced and and I wonder if You you mentioned and I appreciate that. You mentioned that that you know, since those money had are not spent yet. And if we have any kind of emergency or crisis we can reallocate it. Yes and use it to to be spent on those projects. So I mean, I urge the city and I urge them mayor. To look into this list and see if we can reallocate some of those money. To resolve the issue that we have. We're all facing I think. We will make the whole city happy about, you know, resolving a major issue in the city right now.

▶ 1:43:34 Speaker 5: so

▶ 1:43:37 Maya Jamaleddine: I mean, I'm I was thrilled to hear you saying that we can reallocate it. If we Face any I felt that this is right. There is the solution for everything that we're facing right now. So do we know why we're not looking into this list to see if this is something I mean if they did not spend it. Obviously, it's not urgent.

▶ 1:43:58 Speaker 2: Well, I would say that in some cases the approvals have just been received and the projects are just getting underway and in some cases as I said, for example, the the project at the middle school is going to take some time to expend the million dollars that was allocated cannot be spent all at once that is for design and implementation of an HVAC system at the middle school. And it's that's a substantial amount of the arpa funds right there. So of of the amount that's unexpended that million dollars will need to be committed. At some point to finishing that project once it's been begun. It will be encumbered right now. All this is saying is that we still have that million dollars along with the rest of the projects that have not yet been completed.

▶ 1:44:51 Maya Jamaleddine: Right, so I understand that but if we're gonna wait till February to decide and see which department did not spend it and we're gonna do it evaluation to decide if we're gonna reallocate it. I think that's a long time for us, especially now with what we're

▶ 1:45:08 Speaker 2: Well, I think I think that is the the rationale between not spend not not allocating it. All is that the projects I think the department heads and the members of the community who are going to benefit from the projects that have been approved are expecting some level of assurance that if they start the project in good faith. The project will be funded through to the completion. So if we're going to build a park and we say we're going to spend a hundred fifty thousand dollars on a park. We're going to start planning for that Park. We're going to start spending money on design for the park. And so we're going to hold that money aside so that we can complete the project. I think the the rationale of holding back the million is to offer some flexibility in the year ahead and then we can see where we are as we get closer to December 31st 2024, though. We will need to have spent this money.

▶ 1:46:01 Maya Jamaleddine: Do we know if we have any money from previous year that was not that was allocated.

▶ 1:46:09 Speaker 2: But was not spent this is all of the money that we have. There's no proof. There's there's only one bucket of money. It's 8.4 million dollars. We got it in two chunks. But we're not getting any more and we are only programming the 8.4 million, but

▶ 1:46:25 Maya Jamaleddine: this is from this year.

▶ 1:46:28 Speaker 2: It was received in two. halves at the end of 2021 and at the beginning of 2022, we now have all of it. And all of these projects and all of the pie charts are just dealing with it as one bucket of money. There's no last year in this year. It's just that 8.4 million dollars. That's all that we're getting. period

▶ 1:46:57 Speaker 5: okay. Thank you.

▶ 1:46:59 Speaker 6: Councilor Williams. Thanks.

▶ 1:47:04 Ryan Williams: Well, what can I say that hasn't already been said? I really appreciate the difficulty of absorbing over 8 million dollars into a city budget with a static number of staff. And people that have their work plan set for the year. It's not easy to take on, you know, 10 plus percent of a budget and try to get these projects out on a kind of arbitrary three or four year deadline. You know, I looking down the list at these projects. I I feel that many of these expenditures are. Exactly in the spirit of enabling legislation. As arpa was intended to be expended and they fit with the character of the city of Melrose. We are a low poverty Community. We're not a zero poverty Community. We're a four percent, maybe three and a half percent poverty community. We have Decades of infrastructure. projects that have been put off sidewalks and upgrades to public buildings and things like that and I and I see it all in here, and I'm I'm I like the way that the list. Prioritizes Big Ticket infrastructure Investments that the city wouldn't otherwise be able to afford or that would come into the debt picture that would restrict our ability to to plan for other things. And I guess I my feedback. Intended to be constructive is that this is a great amount of information and I wish we had it. Like I don't know six or seven months ago whenever we kind of started this conversation so that we could all. Think about each of these items discuss them because one thing that I've experienced in my work with the city, is that the city in the city staff are kind of a community in and of themselves, which is great. But when you bring in the city council or members of the public, sometimes you get these new ideas and these New Perspectives on things and it's it's a good thing for us to have that kind of open dialogue and collaborative discussion. And we are all being faced with you know, a lot of pressure and questions and discussions about money and you know where the money's going and how it's being spent and things like that. I think we're all responding and and reacting to that. So so I think the information that you've provided here is very thorough and very much appreciated and I hope that we can complete these projects without having to steal from this because it's a pretty rare opportunity to have 8 million dollars in federal money dumped on the city to get things like HVAC and new elevators and traffic calming programs and You know. and economic recovery director and upgrades to parks and things like that. So I hope that we can find a way to to move forward and and solve the budget problems that we have. Without knocking down any of these any of these projects, that's it. Let's say

▶ 1:50:20 Speaker 6: counselor Eckles And then counselor Vice chairmanly.

▶ 1:50:23 Jack Eccles: Thank you manager. I just had one one question come up and it might not be right for you soon. Feel free to pass at Esser since you included on the slide. Is that something? That's going away anytime soon. Is that something that we've been relying on that? We're going to need to be concerned about.

▶ 1:50:41 Speaker 2: So I'm I am not an expert in Esser it is that is school. It's a federal education relief funds.

▶ 1:50:51 Jen Grigoraitis: Vice chairman really really

▶ 1:50:53 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you madam chair. I'm just following up on counselor card counselor. Jamaladin's questions about the Waiting till February. So I think my thought too was that that's perhaps like if we're going to be following up a Department's to see who's spent. What waiting till February is a little bit too long given the economic pressures that we're feeling right now. So like if those conversations could be happening sooner and I frankly thought that maybe those are things that happened sort of regularly. So, you know when we're thinking about what was spent her second comment about You know what was spent last year. So fyfy22. There is a list of the projects that were spent that were allocated last year how much has been spent to date? So that sounds like that's the piece that you're going to be working on.

▶ 1:51:44 Speaker 2: February but I was suggesting with counselor that I would be happy to come back to the council in February with all of that information to present to you. So my thought is to allow the winter break to pass this by yeah and before but in that sweet spot before we get deep into budget conversations to take that opportunity of probably the middle of January to assess and as I said some of these although they are are they they're they're counted for in fiscal year 22 many of them are. You know getting started or in process or in progress of some sort of phase I feel as though it's fair to department heads to give them the opportunity to spend some of the money before we start suggesting that they're not spending the money fast, right? Yeah. I mean, I guess I

▶ 1:52:32 Leila Migliorelli: don't even think of as like That hopefully that's not the implication, but it's just more just regular checking in on where you're at

▶ 1:52:42 Speaker 2: versus. Yeah. No, absolutely. No like I'm not and I don't think that's what I don't wait. I don't mean to suggest that I'm not checking in with department heads about their projects, but rather coming back with a formal presentation where I can provide you detailed information on the status of these projects, that would be something that I would be happy to do at the end of January beginning of February. Okay. Thank you.

▶ 1:53:08 Jen Grigoraitis: Just quickly. I wanted to just circle back to the small business grant. So you it said that you had budgeted 225k. That's the combination of the company and security but and the other money identified but that the you we've gotten in excess of a hundred thousand dollars in applications. That's a fairly significant. That's 125,000. Gap between budgeted and what we've received in applications if we budgeted 225

▶ 1:53:36 Speaker 2: we budgeted 225. It's at our discretion on what timetable we disperse it. All of the Grant application said basically budget, you depending upon availability of funds and we can choose how to triage those requests to make the money go longer if we wanted to but I think that is going to be just a question that we have to Grapple with about do we want to just front load the grants and then have less in a second round. The the draft budget that we had presented handeditioned. Maybe if there wasn't as much demand that we would do it over the course of a couple of years. We also were a little bit behind in our anticipated schedule for this year. So it really only may be two rounds. We may not have time to execute a third round anyway, so in light of the fact that we want to get the relief to the businesses who need it and we're on a deadline to spend the money by the end of fiscal year 2024. It's possible that we will only do this over to fiscal years. So we won't exceed the amount that we have available to us for this grant program, but we may choose to disperse more of it up front or spread it out for longer depending upon whether or not we want to meet all of the need that was presented to us.

▶ 1:55:04 Jen Grigoraitis: I and I maybe I stated incorrectly my understanding from you said we got in excess of a hundred thousand in requests to be funded but that we have 225,000 if you pull it all together

▶ 1:55:15 Speaker 2: if you want, let's say theoretically you wanted to spend it all this

▶ 1:55:20 Jen Grigoraitis: year. Right? So the request didn't do not come close to the no this feeling that we've so in terms of where there could be as you know, the 800,000 which is in the meeting minutes from that. Yes, absolutely. So if

▶ 1:55:30 Speaker 2: we chose if we chose not to do a second round and we decided just to do one round of economic relief and call it a day. Then whatever was left over could potentially just be released back into the general arpa available fund.

▶ 1:55:47 Jen Grigoraitis: And with going back to the food insecurity. So the previous order had 13,000 budgeted for food in food insecurity we've taken which was separate them the 75,000 for arpa food and security which has been folded into small business grants. Can you talk about how That 13,000 differs from I have

▶ 1:56:06 Speaker 2: to admit I did not look closely at the proposal in the prior orders to know what that food insecurity line item was intended for I do know we've had some for example we had we're working with the Stoneham and Wakefield Boys and Girls Club over the summer for a feeding program that supported folks in a lower income census tract. I I am just riffing here to be perfectly honest. I don't know what the intention of that 13,000 is.

▶ 1:56:34 Jen Grigoraitis: I think it's just for you know, you got I see the mayor's office is kind of the Hub and all the other departments other spoke. It's

▶ 1:56:41 Speaker 2: really helpful. It's not just that I have picked up on that particular item in that proposal. Great. Thank you. Are there any

▶ 1:56:45 Jen Grigoraitis: other questions from counselors?

▶ 1:56:48 Mark Garipay: Counselor garrette just follow up with counselor gemology was saying when you come back with us on the report on the update. Can you add when the the date the task force approved the

▶ 1:57:00 Speaker 2: project? So just to be clear the task force isn't approving the projects the Mayors approving them the task force was just providing input and Technical information and just sort of having kind of like a kitchen cabinet kind of discussions about these projects. So can

▶ 1:57:17 Mark Garipay: you put the date and that the mayor sure? Yeah, and then maybe with an update from the department heads on what phase they're Iran. If it's a multi-phase project just so or not. Absolutely the same questions and then so where we stand now we are not specifically committing. $800,000 for the library as previously stated.

▶ 1:57:39 Speaker 2: I do not have an arpa request form in my files for 800,000 for the library beyond that. I wouldn't want to characterize anything else. Thank you.

▶ 1:57:52 Leila Migliorelli: Vice chair regliarelli, I'm at this time. I'd like to make a motion to hold in committees that we can have the administration come back with an update later in January.

▶ 1:58:01 Jen Grigoraitis: So we have a motion to hold made by Vice chairman Lee really seconded by counselor Eccles. I need discussion.

▶ 1:58:08 Maya Jamaleddine: Councilor gemaldine, um, just wanted to for the record when the administration is coming back with the ingenuary.

▶ 1:58:15 Speaker 5: But we could motion hold it for.

▶ 1:58:18 Jen Grigoraitis: You can post one until a date certain. Yeah, total date certain.

▶ 1:58:21 Speaker 6: Yeah. Okay. So is there a date? Oh, I

▶ 1:58:25 Jen Grigoraitis: don't have a date. Actually. Sorry. No, we could say like, February January. January okay. If I

▶ 1:58:32 Speaker 2: don't know what you're meeting dates are but it could be this whatever the second yeah in January. Is that be

▶ 1:58:39 Jen Grigoraitis: fine? Okay, so we have a motion to postpone until January.

▶ 1:58:44 Speaker 5: yeah, which we say January 31st, I mean sure until

▶ 1:58:48 Jen Grigoraitis: That's beyond the 45 days. You can't do that. So we're just get a motion to hold it. Okay? And we'll have to bring it back up. Okay, that works everybody. Okay, so sweet. So emotion to hold made by Vice Jeremy Glory seconded by counselor Eccles No other discussion all in favor any opposed. Okay, so that will be held. Thank you for your time inflation.