Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2015-05-14
Attendance
Jaclyn L. Bird ; Robert A. Boisselle ; Donald L. Conn Jr. ; Scott M. Forbes ; Gail Infurna ; Jennifer L. Lemmerman ; Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis ; Monica C. Medeiros ; Peter D. Mortimer ; John N. Tramontozzi ; Francis X. Wright Jr.
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Participation
- Orders
- ORDER-2015-154 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2016 in the amount of $72,885,826.66 (Seventy Two Million, Eight Hundred Eighty Five Thousand, Eight Hundred Twenty Six Dollars and Sixty Six Cents)
- ORDER-2015-176 : Requesting a $50,000 Appropriation for Technology Replacement/Repair
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 14, 2015 Aldermanic Chamber Budget Hearing 7:30 PM The public should take notice that the Melrose Board of Aldermen may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the Board of Aldermen consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Peter D. Mortimer Chairman Present Jaclyn L. Bird Vice Chairman Present Gail M. Infurna Ward 5 Alderman Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Absent Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Alderman at Large Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Donald L. Conn Jr. President/Ex-officio Member Present In Attendance: City Planner Denise Gaffey; Ms. Bonnie Cronin, Melrose Messina Fund for the Arts; Mayor Robert Dolan; Mike Lindstrom, Director of Community Services; Tyler Ballew and Lori Timmerman, Melrose Energy Commission; Human Resources Director Marianne Long; Information Technology Director Jorge Pazos; City Solicitor Robert Van Campen; Chief Assessor Christopher Wilcock; City Auditor/CFO Patrick Dello Russo; City Clerk Mary Rita O'Shea; Elections Administrator Linda Lee Angiolillo
ORDER-2015-154 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2016 in the amount of $72,885,826.66 (Seventy Two Million, Eight Hundred Eighty Five Thousand, Eight Hundred Twenty Six Dollars and Sixty Six Cents) Hold Appropriations Committee
ORDER-2015-176 Appropriation Requesting a $50,000 Appropriation for Technology Replacement/Repair Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 5/19/2015 3:22 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Peter D. Mortimer: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's May 15th at 7.33 in the evening. This is the Committee of Appropriations. It is a committee of the whole. I am the chairman, Peter Mortimer. The vice chairman is Alderman Jacqueline Byrd. With us also we have Alderman Inferna, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Boisselle. Alderman Wright has had severe surgery, so he's absent this evening with a very good excuse. Mary Beth, Alderman McAteer-Margolis, Alderman Lemmerman, Alderman Forbes, and President Kahn. The first order we have before us is order 2015-154. It is order- Motion to open for public participation. Yep. Second. Okay, and this is the general budget. This is the order that's before us tonight, along with various departments.
▶ 1:06 Peter D. Mortimer: So any comments would have to be limited to our agenda items this morning, this evening. We have a motion to open the floor for public participation by Alderman Inferna. It's already been duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Thank you, Alderman Boisselle. All in favor of opening the floor for public participation, please say aye. Aye. opposed hearing none we are open for public participation ladies would you please come forward state your name for the record and please write your name and address on that sheet before you good evening I'm Elizabeth Christopher I live at 81 Prospect Street in Melrose and I'm Lisa Lewis and I live at 18 Pine Street in Melrose and we're here thank you as board Member of the Melrose
▶ 1:58 Education Foundation and we're going to share a statement on order 2015 154 Department 152 specifically the portion dedicated to the city's innovation grants this statement has been signed by myself Lisa and five other board Member of the ed foundation as board Member we are pleased to offer our personal view on the importance of the innovation grants and the ongoing successful collaboration with the Melrose Education Foundation as you know the Melrose Education Foundation incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit organization in June 2013 our mission is to empower educators to pursue their best ideas for inspiring students and improving classroom learning the foundation raises private funds to provide grants to educators and sponsor forums on topics in education
▶ 2:51 including a lecture just last week by dr. Michael J Thompson with which was co-sponsored by the middle school and high school PTO s to carry out our mission we are grateful for the many donations from Melrose families organizations like the amazing grace golf tournament and local businesses and especially for the hundreds of hours of volunteer time from our board and committee Member this year was even more successful than last with over $23,000 in grants supported by privately raised dollars as in previous years this fall the foundation was proud to administer the city's innovation grants program at the same time as the foundation's own fall grant cycle by partnering with the city of Melrose we were able to offer one efficient and
▶ 3:38 centralized grant making process open to all Melrose public school staff one online application one review process during the fall grant round this year the mayor was represented on the grants committee by Mike Lindstrom and the superintendent was represented by Brent Conway the middle school principal John Maynard the Winthrop school principal and Kim Talbot the foreign language department chair the process works well and runs smoothly interest in the grants was stronger than ever in both the city's $10,000 innovation grant allocation and the $17,000 provided by the foundation during that round it is important to note that although one process was offered easing the way for teachers to apply the funds awarded as innovation grants were approved by the
▶ 4:23 mayor and dispersed directly from the city not the foundation in all the grants directly impact students at every school in the district from the early childhood center to the Melrose high school these grants support implementation of new ideas professional development expanded curriculum materials inquiry based learning and new technology pilot programs you can read summaries of the grants and see videos of the funds in action on our website which is Melrose ed foundation org why vote to continue this program first it will demonstrate the city's commitment to a vital cadre in the city's workforce our public school educators and to their ideas and ongoing developments and second and perhaps most important it recognizes the city's interest in
▶ 5:11 partnering with nonprofit organizations to effectively and efficiently leverage and extend public funds for the public good on that front we were pleased to report that just last month the foundation announced an additional fifty two hundred dollars in mini grants to Melrose educators all from privately raised funds as parents and residents devoted to high quality public education we believe that this vote sends a message that the best investment we can make together is directly to our classrooms for the benefit of all students in all our schools for that we thank you for your support and your leadership thank you is there anyone else in the gallery wishing to come forward for public participation seeing none motion to close public participation
▶ 5:58 Peter D. Mortimer: alderman Forbes has made a motion to close public participation thank you Thank you, ladies, and that motion was seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, public participation is now closed. The first department we will consider tonight is planning. It is Department 175 under the order 2015-154. Is there a motion to suspend the rules, please? So moved. a motion to suspend the rules by alderman mcateer margolis duly seconded by alderman forbes all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none we are under suspension miss gaffey would you please come forward miss cronin would you come forward too please good evening and welcome good evening would you like to make an opening statement or proceed directly to questions
▶ 7:19 Peter D. Mortimer: um well i'll actually defer to um miss cronin since she's here this evening to see if she wants to speak on behalf of the messina grants very good and just in way of explanation for people watching at home the messina grant is part of this department and ms cronin will be uh speaking on that matter before ms gaffey covers the entire part ms gaffey is the director of planning please proceed ms cronin i'm here first of all i want to offer a nancy kakura's apology she was suddenly called out of town so I'm standing in for her and I would just like to run through the grants that we made this year we made 13 grants to various individuals and organizations but some of those were multiplier effects for
▶ 8:09 example we provided money for music at the farmers markets which actually provided stipends to ten individuals and organizations so one grant spread out to musicians. We also helped fund the music and entertainers for the Summer Stroll, which was wildly popular yet again this year. We funded the New England Light Opera. This is bringing in somebody from outside. They did a program of poetry and music from World War I, in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary. We funded Trinity Church, they just restored their organ and had a very interesting evening, they played a silent movie with the organist accompanying it back in the good old days. We funded Follow Your Arts, which its project was a community-wide one where any individual in Melrose could come in and make a four-inch by four-inch
▶ 9:18 a picture of some sort representing something new or interesting or different in their lives or in their community. And those pieces were then put together, curated, put together and framed and went on public display at Coffee, Tea and Me and hopefully it will be seen at some other venues around town. One of the most interesting grants we gave was to Austin Smith who is a high school student who composed a marvelous string quartet and we funded him so that he could actually hire the musicians to hear what he had composed because up till then it had just been notes on a piece of paper and that was performed at the Beethoven Society and one movement from the from the string quartet was performed at one of Palemnia's concerts. We funded the youth exchange for the
▶ 10:16 Irish music festival bringing over some young people from Ireland to sing and make music with people from here. We funded the help to fund some of the intergenerational spring fling the music for that where the high school students put on a prom with our senior citizens. They funded Polymnia Choral Societies part of the cost of the opera Dido and Aeneas. Opera is in kind of short supply in the entire greater Boston area and it certainly doesn't come to Melrose very often but we did a semi-staged performance of Dido and Aeneas. We funded the Beethoven Society which has been a long-standing Melrose cultural organization and help to pay for the rentals for venues that they perform at. We funded a young photographer, a college student, to frame some of her art to go on
▶ 11:17 sale. There are problems enough taking out student loans, but the added expense of framing her pictures in order to sell them, in order to make some of the money to pay for her college, was a little more than she could swing. We're funding children's music and art at the Common, which is going to happen on June the 6th, the entertainers for that. And finally, we've funded the Jubilate Bell Ringers who are bringing in the Back Bay Bell Ringers to perform here in Melrose. Our two guiding principles are, first of all, the biggest bang for the buck, And second, there has to be a public component to this so that everybody in Melrose who's interested has an opportunity to see or hear or participate in the activities that we've funded.
▶ 12:15 So are there any questions? Alderman Medeiros, please. Thank you. Thank you for sharing the details of what this has actually done. I found that very helpful. I'm just curious so when people come they make grants and they come directly to the Messina committee yeah they come to our committee they fill out a for an application we we have a rolling application process so it's not just once a year but they can come anytime during the course of the year so that gives people a little more flexibility because sometimes they don't they don't have a venue locked down or they don't have you know the dates locked down or whatever till later in the year and rather than postpone it for a whole other year they're able to so they present us with a proposal we as a
▶ 13:09 Monica C. Medeiros: committee meet and sometimes we vote to give them exactly what they asked for sometimes we vote to give them less than they asked for if it's too big we try to to give out about a quarter of our money during every quarter of the year so that we at by the end of the year we still have some money to make some grants and in the meetings where you're delivering the deliberating over the grants and these are these posted at all yes all of our meetings are posted here in City Hall and so they're open to the public and somebody in the group is keeping minutes of the meetings and so that they would be available we haven't been overwhelmed with it but no I'm sure not thank you very much thank you thank you
▶ 14:07 Alderman Medeiros president Kahn please yeah mr. chairman we for a couple of years we've had this going on where we were appropriating city money calling it grants and giving it to various organizations to to expend appropriate it makes me uncomfortable I've said this before the last several years not that you folks aren't doing great work and not that the ed foundation people are doing great work do we have a legal opinion that says that this is legal for us to allow private citizens to be essentially allocating city funds I believe that question has come up in past years and it was a fair answered affirmatively but if you'd like a legal opinion we have our city solicitor in the room and you are free to query him if you so desire well I didn't ask him
▶ 15:04 Peter D. Mortimer: in advance and I don't expect them to instantaneously produce a legal opinion But I wondered whether any kind of written opinion has ever been an issue to justify this type of expenditure of city funds. My recollection is that the opinion was not written in the past. I'm not sure if the city solicitor would care to refresh our recollection, or if he'd prefer not to say anything at this time without looking into the matter a little more deeply. Yeah, and I'm not trying to put him on the spot if he's not prepared to answer. understand at your option mr. solicitor so I am aware that the Messina grants themselves have been administered for several years of the community I would have to check my my own records to see if I've ever written an opinion on this
▶ 16:00 what I would say though is similar to state and federal grants which are publicly funded by taxpayers I don't see the distinction in this case yeah I I would feel more comfortable if we could get an opinion indicating that I'm not familiar with how cultural funds are distributed by the state and federal government. My experience is limited to Melrose. Not that I can request, but I would like the committee to consider asking whether we could get an opinion verifying that this is in fact an appropriate way to expand city sure I'm happy to provide that I think what I would suggest to you is I can give you that during your budget process and if that's satisfactory to you I can make that happen yeah that would be fine with me if that's the will of the
▶ 16:58 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: committee thank you mr. president and thank you thank you mr. solicitor we'll look forward to our receiving that opinion thank you sir any other alderman wishing to be heard at this time before we proceed to the remainder of the planning Alderman McAteer-Margolis thank you I do want to thank you and your board for all your work I've certainly benefited personally from many of your performances and and have noted that the community as a whole has really benefited and enjoyed them you are all duly appointed by the mayor and confirmed by this board is that not correct probably you've done it for so long that you don't even remember that anymore but we're certainly grateful for for that and in my mind that I mean I'm not sure the legality but I do think where we
▶ 17:57 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: We have so many volunteers in the community that do a similar type of thing, whether we call it a grant or whether it's appropriation. If it's a board member that's a volunteer for the planning board, or Memorial Hall, or what have you. We're just so fortunate to have such dedicated people who improve our community. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Alderman Medeiros, for the second time, please. I did see Alderman Bird for the first time. Alderman Bird, did you have your hand up? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. for not noticing alderman bird please that's okay mr chairman thank you um i had uh one question and one comment um and i understand you're filling in for ms kakora tonight miss cronin i asked
▶ 18:36 Jaclyn L. Bird: ms kakora this last year as well and um i was interested to find out if the messina committee Member are fundraising at all on their own to supplement this um expenditure we But we intend to. We have some plans in the works, which have just been generated, but we haven't had any event, fundraising event, but that's definitely on the radar screen. And I'm hoping that we'll have something within the next few months. Okay. Thank you. And do you intend to become, or are you already a 501 ? you know and we're not a separate organization okay there isn't like it with the Melrose at foundation I know they have their separate organization they privately fundraise and then they're also receiving city dollars for
▶ 19:30 Jaclyn L. Bird: that but this is different this is simply spending the 10,000 from the city right okay I agree with with two sentiments that have been said before I think the activities that are put on are wonderful I think Melrose is a community that's always been very supportive of the arts I think the the events are great I think that the people that are involved in this are great I do question whether or not we should be so charitable with residents money and so I know we've talked about this for a while and I think before when this was originally brought up to us it was the idea that it is seed money and that it was going to start to kind of grow on its own and become its own entity and I think that the process is just not moving along as quickly as I would like
▶ 20:15 so i i would support the idea to get a legal opinion on it as well but um again i thank you for all that you do thank you very good thank you alderman bird alderman medeiros please thank you and i apologize i had meant to ask this earlier um i think this question is probably more for mr delarusso um i i know this has been in our budget for a couple of cycles now and i was hoping that you might be able to refresh my memory as to where these funds originally came from i mean welcome mr delarusso this is our chief financial officer for the city of melrose if i recall that to raise inappropriate like every other departmental expenditure so we didn't take them from a particular line item not not to my knowledge and obviously um okay uh thank you
▶ 21:22 Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. President Kahn, please. Yeah, just one thing I want to make sure that is corrected and is clear. The Board of Aldermen doesn't vote to approve any appointment of anybody who's administering Messina grants or any committee. And we don't approve the appointment of anybody who's who's distributing other grants like this, like grants that are distributed, the innovation grants. We're not approving the composition of any body that is doling out those money. So that's simply absolutely incorrect. And you are correct, sir. Thank you. That's right. Any further aldermen wishing to be heard on this part of the planning budget? Seeing none, we will now proceed to the rest of the planning budget which is very important and integral to our city.
▶ 22:23 Denise Gaffey: I think at this time we can say goodnight to Ms. Cronin and let her enjoy the rest of her evening. Thank you. Would all the aldermen be satisfied with that? Yes. Ms. Cronin, we thank you very much for your appearance this evening and thank you for your volunteer services to the city of Melrose. And thank you for all of your help. You're welcome. Gaffey please proceed would you like to make a statement or directly just a quick statement very good aside from the the funds that are allocated in the planning department for the Messina arts grant program most of the funds are are for salaries and and they support the five individuals who work in the planning office and are involved in long-range planning zoning development
▶ 23:09 Denise Gaffey: review grant writing energy management affordable housing economic development and project management those are sort of our tasks and admissions in the planning office so the biggest change the biggest impact in this year's budget is results from the from the fact that we are now carrying the zoning administrative position in the Planning Department budget and that I know does not come as news to this board because I was here back in January to speak about that how we reclassified the clerk position for the Zoning Board of Appeals to make that a planning coordinator position and and then we we actually folded the responsibilities into the Planning Department so now that we now we we directly and I directly support the point the zoning Board of Appeals and
▶ 24:03 Denise Gaffey: that position is funded through the Planning Department budget so that is something new and I think that that accounts for most of the increase in the salary line item for the budget this year other than that it's just the standard increases associated with the annual step increases and that kind of thing cost of living adjustments for salary and and you'll notice that the because of this change there is no longer a budget for the zoning Board of Appeals that has been folded into the Planning Department budget so you will not be reviewing a CBA budget or as part of this process so I just want to clarify that yep that was not in the overall budget right correct well I think it may have presented itself in the budget but it was zero right so and
▶ 24:53 that's that's all you have for now okay first in line we have president khan please yeah uh just a preview of tedious coming attractions i know you always enjoy my my budget commentary mr uh chairman what i would like to ask ms gaffey and what i'll be asking you know most every department is um i like to determine what the full salary for each position is because for example this department is partially funded by grant grants and just in the issuance of fairness and transparency and openness and all these things that people like like to see in their government you have five positions is that correct correct and they're all full-time positions no that's not okay which tell me what your full-time and
▶ 25:40 Denise Gaffey: which are part-time sure the full-time position is in my position the planning director the assistant planning director position is also full-time and the GIA technician slash account manager slash office manager is full-time position at 30 hours and that's grant funded and that one's grant funded correct and then we have two part-time positions the energy manager position is 24 hours per week and the planning coordinator position that I just spoke of is 24 hours per week and in terms of your budget what proportion of the director position is funded in the budget and what position what proportion is funded off budget the director position is about 90% in budget okay and just so people at home know where is the rest of the funding housed in our budget it's
▶ 26:32 Denise Gaffey: it's coming from a combination of grant of that housing the funding that we get from housing support through the North Suburban Consortium and from project support and if somebody were seeking to look to determine where this was in the budget where would that other funding be able to be found in the budget yes or is it off budget the grant fund it's off budget and what about the assistant director position how much is in budget I'm giving you a rough yeah I just don't mind because I'll certainly give you the full accounting after this meeting but I don't have that information handy her position is probably about 90% supported through the general funds through the city budget and maybe about 10% and
▶ 27:23 housing the two part-time positions how much funding is in your budget the energy efficiency manager is about 1 3rd and the planning coordinator position is 100% and where is the rest of the energy efficiency managers salary from from a combination of grant funding and incentive funds which are essentially the same grant funds okay yeah if you could I just like to know what the full salary for each position is absolutely provide that that's that's all I have for this budget at this time thank you very much president khan seeing no further uh alderman wishing to comment on this budget motion to recommend second we have a motion to recommend line item 172 excuse me 175 uh the planning board duly seconded all in favor please say aye
▶ 28:23 Peter D. Mortimer: Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. No, opposed. You hear one. I'm sorry, I'm actually opposed to this. Opposed at this time? Yes. So we have eight in favor and two opposed at this time. I would guess pending the requested information. One never knows. Very good. Complete budget. The next department that we have before us is department number 121. It is the mayor's office with a budget of $298,362.16. We are still under suspension, so we will hear from Mayor Dolan and Member of his staff. We have the Chief Executive Officer, the Assistant Executive Officer, lindstrom with mayor robert dolan as well thank you uh the uh proposed fy16 mayor's office budget represents level funding in all areas outside of salary and wages salary and wages line item
▶ 29:30 is an increase of less than one percent this year we continue to see success in managing the mayor's office as well as departments in the city as well as the many requests from this board of aldermen regarding coordination of goals and concerns with the community we also had great success with social media to engage the dialogue continued dialogue with residents without added adding any additional staff or cost to the budget instant interactions throughout our city were consistent through blogs and Twitter as well as several department new Facebook pages allowed us to assist residents in a far more timely manner with the historic winter as well as several construction projects going on throughout the year in FY 15 we were
▶ 30:13 able to provide a long list of community events as well as the use of several volunteer senior citizens that really make our department work we will continue to work very closely with our Chamber of Commerce that has been an incredible partner to promote local business to promote culture and to ensure that Melrose is thriving in terms of its arts community its recreational community and its local businesses we will have on february july 17th another summer stroll as well as a additional summer stroll to celebrate the reconstruction of the morris highlands when the work will be complete in the middle of june and this certainly will be a highlight of the summer in to celebrate this new incredible business district so i thank you for your
▶ 30:59 consideration president khan please yeah um mayor all of your employees in your office i i believe are fully funded in your budget is that correct well yes well that is not necessarily true mike is fully funded bridget works four days a week three days a week she has always been on her by on our budget one day a week this year she is charged to water and sewer and let me give you the rationale for that okay so so would it be fair to say one one fourth of one of that positions compensation station comes from water so that has been rotating over the last several years we have been unable to hire staff in various departments and I would argue that I'm one of the probably the only mayor in the Commonwealth of
▶ 31:45 Massachusetts without a full-time administrative assistant Bridget's strength is communications as we all witnessed during this winter and two years ago this we needed assistance in recycling because before Jess was full-time and Bridget was used one day a week to promote that massive transition with recycling going from in-house and one day and changing routes the next year Frank Oliveri asked for assistance in terms of coordination of communication with his expansion of projects so we have Bridget working one day on recreation programs charged to recreation this year really almost more than half of this year the challenge has been to continuously communicate the changes that were approved regarding water and sewer be it second meters be
▶ 32:40 it be it rates be it tears and John Chenner asked for an additional part-time person we were which would include probably included benefits and a higher pay Bridget is able in one day working with Donna Cardillo to talk to dozens of residents and explain to them through writing and communication their particular water concerns and I will tell you this her work has limited the number of complaints and concerns to a trickling and that has been I think our greatest success the reason why people say that you know we did so well collectively in this winter I think is because of sound strategic communication I think the same is with the water we made some major changes I think we're It was all good, but it needed a lot of communication, so that's going to have to continue this year.
▶ 33:30 Monica C. Medeiros: And I'm willing to sacrifice our office with her going over there this year. So that's the honest assessment of the office. That was the only question I had relative to this budget, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President. A trickling? You said a trickling. Should we reduce the questions to a trickling? Very good. Thanks, thanks, . Sullivan Medeiros, you're next, please. Thank you. I hope you understand that since the budget is before us, and since we have the mayor before us, I was hoping to ask some questions about this process in general, a little bit more so than just the mayor's office. So we have before us- Is that in line, Mr. Chairman? Excuse me? Is that in line?
▶ 34:16 Monica C. Medeiros: I'm here to answer for my budget. Would you repeat the question, please? Well, I didn't get to the question. The question is, we have a budget that's here before us that the mayor had presented to us on Monday. I know obviously we have a number of departments that we need to go through. And also we have before us a question about an override. The question about the override- The override isn't before us this evening. Is not before us this evening. Correct. But it is for FY15. and not not yet well this is some of my questions about clarifications about how this process will work because our scheduling for this process shows us as was updated Tuesday evening shows us debating that question on June 18th and
▶ 35:15 Peter D. Mortimer: yet the school budget and in this question before us has 15 new positions are those positions in this budget that we're those positions are not in that budget and I would say that until the ballot question comes before us if it even comes before us this is totem pole speculative first this board would have have to take a vote to place this order on the ballot, to put it before the voters. Then the totem pole would be, then the voters would have to approve it for those funds to be available. At that time, the funds would become available and the mayor's office would have to propose and we would have to dispose of the funds that would come down in the future to be used at a future time. It would be similar to a transfer later.
▶ 36:15 Peter D. Mortimer: But it would not be part of the budget because it is totem pole speculative at this point. It's double speculative. So I would respectfully ask you to deal with the concrete budget that we have before us this evening. Because that's in the future and it's far, far from definite. It has two hoops that it needs to jump through first. Okay, and then- Mayor, would you like to respond as well? I just want to say, I'm always available to answer questions, but the fact is, I'm available all day. This board often asks for additional information from us while I'm sitting here. I think it's a two way street. I think at the same time, my department heads and myself are owed if there are obvious questions being asked,
▶ 37:04 Monica C. Medeiros: a instead of um you know surprising us on on the gutcha seat um to at least provide us with some questions so we can prepare uh and and and give you the proper answers before um before the meeting and i would argue that no one on earth is more accessible than myself okay and certainly you still have the flow but let's yes and certainly that was actually my next question was for you mr chairman is about what is the process because many of these budgets we have you know it it's a few weeks but all this has to be done by the end of June for the fiscal year right now the schedule before us shows us talking about the school budget on June 22nd and taking the final vote on the budget on June 25th there's not a
▶ 37:47 Monica C. Medeiros: lot of wiggle room so my question for you is if we have questions because I would like to know what the proper format is that we should you know I don't want to be in the situation of asking the school department on June 22nd my questions in a gutter situation but I want to stay within the proper channels and and know you know obviously we can't expect them to come back with all kinds of information and for us to make a decision and vote on the budget for June 25th when that's not even happening until June 22nd so what is the process for us to ask questions certain that as the mayor had just stated his office is always available to answer questions in advance the superintendent I think most of the alderman will agree has been more than cooperative anytime
▶ 38:35 her office is contacted are we going directly to the to the mayor and to the superintendent are we going through the chairman of this committee I can answer that right and what Alderman Medeiros either way very simply fair question I just you know I'm not gonna get into a public debate with anyone individually and I know you're very you're always been fair I appreciate it the balance the budget voted by the Melrose School Committee is a balanced budget not relying on a single dollar from this override that was nor would any other budget in this city including the police budget which is also part of it based on an override this is a absolutely balanced budget based upon the available revenues that we have today if an override were to fail we would have a
▶ 39:15 Peter D. Mortimer: balanced budget continuously the override were to pass that we would have to reconvene in January with additional appropriations through this board as we saw fit so so the answer to your question is not a single dollar of a potential override is used to balance any portion of this budget you know obviously the CFO no we ever allow that to happen and and whichever way you'd like to do it is fine you're certainly free as an alderman to reach out to any any department head and ask directly for information, or if you would like to do it through me or through President Kahn to contact any city personnel department heads or otherwise, I'd be happy to do it for you, I'm sure President Kahn would be happy to do it for you.
▶ 40:01 Peter D. Mortimer: Or if you would like to do it for yourself, I've always found the city personnel to be extremely responsive, get back to me right away in the same day with any questions I've ever had. And I think I can share that sentiment with the great majority of the aldermen as well. Mr. Chairman, I have to say that President Kahn and myself as well, we have literally been talking every day. This is our sixth budget, maybe seventh budget together. A lot more difficult than this one, and we are coordinating those times and those dates with you. Yeah, I've had copious communication with you and other department Member, and I know the President has as well. One thing we can never tell you, this government is very cooperative.
▶ 40:43 Mr. Chairman, can I have a point of personal privilege please? Certainly sir, please proceed. Yeah, as it relates to the process, the process is the same process that it's always been. We have 45 days to pass a budget. We have to debate the budget here in public session. The budget is the only order that's before us that's under a time clock. There are other orders that have been submitted by the administration that do not have to be passed in 45 days. The budget must be passed in 45 days, so that's why we take up the budget the way we do. In terms of information, any alderman can do whatever they want to seek information, but this is supposed to be a public process. And you can go and talk to the mayor or whoever you want to to satisfy your questions, but the debate needs to be here in the chamber.
▶ 41:33 Peter D. Mortimer: Correct, correct. So within that state mandated, that state law that says it's a 45 day budget, a 45 day window. Unfortunately, that's the way it is. But on the other hand, that's the way it's always been, since any of us have ever been alderman, anybody sitting here. So we've dealt with this before, as you're well aware. But you still have the floor. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman, but in most years, we've received the budget earlier in the- i'm not sure i don't think that's correct to recommend the bottom line of this department we still have lots of discussion but i'll take the motion and then we'll continue with discussion we have a motion to recommend the bottom line for the mayor's budget second second second by alderman
▶ 42:18 Jaclyn L. Bird: inferna um on discussion you you still have the floor thank you mr chairman i yield the floor okay the floor is yielded next in queue we have alderman bird please thank you mr chairman um thank you mr. mayor mr. Lindstrom a couple of questions I know last year you kindly printed out a description of the community outreach line item which looks like it's gone down slightly to thirteen thousand five hundred could you do that again please to just submit to so that we can add it to this as well also would like to do the same for the dues and membership line item I'm sure that is probably readily available just to get an idea and then I had one question on the administrative staff mr. Merritt you mentioned earlier that you don't have a
▶ 43:06 Jaclyn L. Bird: full-time administrative assistant five days a week what what is your office lacking currently that you feel would it would be helpful to have a full-time and the only reason I asked I'm you know just curious because there does seem to be the only unfair tremendous amount of communication coming out of the office so I'm curious as to what what the deficit is or not that's the wrong word sorry what's the what's the gap the gap is unfairly Mike and Bridget work a lot of hours if you come here on Friday Bridget is not paid on Friday you'll find her upstairs a lot when I and because she gets the job done the office doesn't stop would I like five days a week of I would but I don't I don't I think we're doing fine most mayor's offices have a lot more staff but I
▶ 43:59 think I have excellent people which is exceptional and Mike is exceptional just Mike being able to take the Senate budget that received two days ago and put it together not only what he saw but also what is gonna happen because he has so many institutional knowledge of how the things work is valuable to me I wouldn't ask for anything more I would just hope that the people I have working for me top to bottom stay and we've had a pretty good solid team I think the experience that we've had I think it reflects in salaries in terms of people being here so long I haven't had anyone leave my office since John O'Brien who retired we have had collectively the same group of people in back of me for almost ten years now and it's the value that this community gets from these
▶ 44:47 individuals is tremendous is tremendous if I had additional money I'd give it to another department that I think would need it what Denise puts out out of her office is far exceeds what we produce out of our office in terms of value accountability etc like John said if she loses grants those positions probably go way same with health but they've been around for a while and and you know i hope they stay you know now i appreciate the clarification when you when you mentioned it i appreciate the question surprised by it so um that's all that's it mr chairman thank you and i appreciate you getting those documents thank you thank you alderman byrd any further alderman wishing to comment or question
▶ 45:34 Peter D. Mortimer: on this particular department i've seen none we're ready for the boat made by alderman Boisselle and seconded by alderman inferno all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none this department 121 mayor's office is approved for the record i want to thank alderman wright who's been calling me every day from his from his room with his knee it's getting better and it's always good to see bob boizel's highlighter thank you very much thank you mr mayor thank you Thank you, Mr. Lindstrom, if you're going to remain, okay. The next department we have before us is department 692, community events in the amount of $8,000. And we have, should I say community events? I'm sorry, yes. Okay, all right.
▶ 46:24 And we have Mr. Lindstrom who administers that fund for community events. Would you like to make a little statement? Yeah, sure. this is the same as each year this is what funds the memorial day or part part of the memorial day parade um this six thousand actual cost of the parade is closer to ten thousand but what we do is uh we take the six thousand from this line item and the two thousand from the celebrations and the veterans line item and we take that with private donations that come in and we kind of mish mash it together each year so each year when i come here for this uh line item it's also a shameless plug for donations if those out there we have about twelve hundred dollars in the account right
▶ 47:00 Peter D. Mortimer: now but I like I said with the average cost of each band is $2,000 all the printing we do the trolleys that take the veterans it's I think Ryan Kathy picket-broder and Bridget and Joan Bell have done a tremendous job making it better and better each year and if there's any ever any leftover money in that celebrations veterans line item Ryan puts it to good use with Veterans Day Veterans Day and other veteran related events but the Memorial Day parade usually eats up all those funds very good thank you mr lindstrom uh any questions or comments from the alderman please motion to recommend we have a motion to recommend by alderman forbes duly seconded by alderman voycelle and on discussion alderman Medeiros police and
▶ 47:44 Peter D. Mortimer: the memorial day parade is oh that's probably a good point right it's uh sunday may 24th at 1 p.m and we invite 130 yes and but everybody lines up at one right thank you and we encourage everybody to attend yeah absolutely it's a great it's always a great day certainly yes thank you alderman medeiros i'm seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none department 692 is recommended for passage the next department we have is department 196 196 the energy commission in the amount of two thousand five hundred dollars good evening miss Timmerman good evening sir recent addition to the Energy Commission Lori Zimmerman the Energy Commission co-chair and Tyler Ballou also co-chair
▶ 48:39 and thank you for having us yes we wanted to just give you a brief update on the activities of the past year and thank you in advance for the community support and your support of our efforts as you all know we kicked off the Melrose energy challenge in September 2011 with a goal of getting 1,000 home energy assessments completed those are through the mass a program we were hoping to do that in three years we met our goal early and we continue to support this program so far there's been over 1,600 energy assessments completed in homes in Melrose which is a really great accomplishment and we have a 450 homes that have also gone through weatherization activities of that 1600 so we're up a hundred since last year which is a great great activity
▶ 49:28 considering the cost of energy these days we also last year launched a green business program and revitalized our solar program which we call go solar Melrose both of those activities were supported through a grant from Metropolitan Area Planning Council to help us with technical support and the green business program helps Melrose businesses learn about energy efficiency and incentive programs available through the National Grid small business program last year we negotiated increased incentives for a limited time and through that program we promoted to over 215 businesses in Melrose and and visited 160 of those to explain the program and hopefully help people understand better that it is a valid program that the city is supporting.
▶ 50:25 And with that, we saw 47 businesses completing energy efficiency projects through National Grid. So we were very pleased with our results there. We were also able to expand that program to include some nonprofits in Melrose. So last year we targeted 17 Melrose non-profits, which included Houses of Worship. And of those 17, six organizations have completed energy efficiency work. So really good stats for the launch of that program. On the solar side, Go Solar Melrose was a way for us to build on the success of Solarize. Last year we had hoped to add 25 solar installations in Melrose. And to help that process, we partnered with EnergySage, which is an online solar marketplace. And we're happy to announce that Melrose currently has over 150 installations in Melrose.
▶ 51:19 So we definitely met that goal and well surpassed it. 2014 highlights in the area of solar include the launch of the largest non-municipal solar installation at First Congregational Church, as well as a community solar project at the Unitarian Church. So we've made great strides, and just wanted to let folks know that we're getting a lot of visibility in other parts of the country. I have people contacting me several times a month to ask me questions. They learn about what we're doing here and want to know how to do it in their community, so something to feel good about. Yeah, I really think we should reiterate the fact that there are 150 solar installations in Melrose now, whereas at this time last year there was 100.
▶ 52:04 So every single week, you know, another house or business comes online with solar. And I think it's fantastic that the community supports that. People are really recognizing where their resources come from. They're harnessing their own resources and they're investing in their property in the community. And the fact that people are so into that in Melrose makes what we do so easy. And so in the past year, we've sort of changed the format of our own meetings to make them more inclusive to the public where they've always been you know open public meetings we we've tried to devote the majority of our meetings to actually inviting in a guest speaker and discussing with the public various topics and so we've discussed divestment from fossil fuels which is actually
▶ 52:52 something that the state pension board is considering right now we had a guest speaker talk about carbon capture through preservation and rehabilitation of eelgrass habitat we've talked about community solar financing where people who can just invest in solar if they're otherwise don't have a property that is suitable for having solar on the roof and so we've had a really a great response and had a you know seen a lot of new people coming from the community that are happy to talk about these topics another reason why we've been so successful is we partnering with with Martha Grover she has been able to do a a lot of fantastic things for the city recently including the energy performance savings contract
▶ 53:37 through the city working on the led streetlight conversion which started with the streetlight audit and then also the the current project of municipal aggregation of electricity and so it's it's been fantastic to work with her and we're also very lucky to have the support of of the alderman in the mayor's office as well for the rest of the year we are working on a relaunch of the MEC website hoping to update it and have it it be a place where there's more resources for for people to come to because people really are interested in the information in the work that we can do and in the things that we can provide for them and continue to conduct outreach throughout the community continuing to work on the green business program work with
▶ 54:25 homeowners to go solar which as we discussed is really popular at the healthy Melrose fair I spent about an hour at the the MEC table and talked to probably a dozen people and every single person I talked to you wanted to know about solar I mean people people are are into it they want to know about it and there are becoming more and more great ways for people to to get solar and to invest in solar as well as continuing outreach to new new residents of Melrose people are moving to Melrose all the time and so we're we're always reaching out to new residents to make them aware of what we can offer so we thank you for your consideration thank you very much sir motion to recommend the bottom line second we have a motion to recommend the
▶ 55:10 Peter D. Mortimer: bottom line from alderman Boycelle was that alderman McAteer-Margolis or alderman Medeiros seconded the motion on discussion if there's no discussion if If the board would allow me a little attitude, I spoke with Ms. Grover and the audience about this too. Perhaps, I know the focus now is solar, but I've heard of places where they have hydroelectric just on small dams. And there were three dams at Mount Hood, which might be suitable just enough to power the clubhouse, to power the service garage, and maybe power some street lights up at the Mount Hood area. So maybe hydroelectric would be something you could look into for that area. That's all I have. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed?
▶ 55:55 Peter D. Mortimer: Hearing none, this department will be recommended. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you. Thank you. The next department we have before us is Department 152, Human Resources in the amount of $137,000, $76.05. Good evening, Ms. Long, how are you? Hello. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. By way of introduction, I'd like to just briefly review the Human Resources Department's responsibilities for all of you. We manage approximately $12 million. We oversee and participate in the recruitment, screening, hiring, and orientation for positions in the police, fire, public works, library, and city hall departments, ensuring compliance with ordinances, collective bargaining agreements, mass general laws, civil service, and federal laws.
▶ 56:51 We consult with the mayor and department heads on all employment matters and interpret and enforce personnel policies and procedures, again, set forth in the charter, employment manual, ordinances, collective bargaining agreements, et cetera. We administrate approximately 11 benefit programs and the budgets associated with them. We manage the HR information system, which is the software that manages all of the information related to our employees, their accruals, their benefit deductions, compensation levels, and employment history. And throughout the year, we interact in person, by phone, or electronically with approximately 400 retirees and approximately 350 employees. and I'm not including the school department in that number.
▶ 57:48 And we manage all information related to their employment and retirement. And lastly, we manage and advise on policies, performance management, terminations, and accruals. So we're here to speak about the human resources budget. I might anticipate a question from Alderman Kahn about the positions in the budget. So, in the salary and wages line item, the human resources director is funded 75 percent in the human resources budget, 25 percent in the health insurance budget, which we will be discussing shortly, so 75-25. Polly Lada, who is the HR manager and is actually here this evening for her first budget presentation, 50% in human resources and 50% in the health insurance budget. And then we also have Donna Cardillo, who is our financial systems analyst, and her
▶ 58:56 salary is one-third in the health insurance budget. And that's because her skill set, she works with us in managing all of the information related to um the finances behind insurances etc um data that sort of thing and i'm i'm ready for questions alderman Medeiros and president khan please yes i'll be quick i just i don't uh see donna cardillo in the salaries list um she's not in the human resources budget at all at all she's in the um health insurance budget one uh one third i think is what it works thank you yeah sure president complex thank you alderman Medeiros president yeah just so if there's anybody in the viewing audience who always doesn't who doesn't already believe that i'm obtuse um
▶ 59:58 the reason that i like to go through the placement of the salaries is not because there's anything anything sinister about paying somebody from two different sources it's just i think it's important for people to understand what the salaries of our positions are and for people who are not uh foolish enough to spend their time going through stuff like this all the time i like to make sure they understand how the salaries are paid and once the funding comes from and i have only one question yes and i have to be careful how i phrase it so that the chairman doesn't rule me out of order and tell me that i'm trying to solicit information about something that's not before the board this evening um in your budget you have a line where you pay for
▶ 1:00:44 pre-employment physicals is that correct yes and how much do you have in there and how many positions would that cover the pre-employment physicals includes both medical exams and psychological exams for our public safety personnel police officers firefighters and DPW psychological exams are only for public safety and they're required under Mass General Law and I'm sorry your your other question my question is it so if we theoretically hired two public safety officials and we hired let's say ten non public safety officials how much would that cost the the pre-employment physicals for public safety are are quite costly I would say they're approximately and I can give you definitive numbers tomorrow via email but they are approximately $1,000 for
▶ 1:01:47 both psychological and medical exams and what about non-public safety non-public safety is primarily the Department of Public Works we don't have pre-employment physicals for other staff it tends to be those positions that are very physically intensive and those are again I'm giving you approximate approximately four hundred dollars per and if you had let's say just to pick something at random a school teacher that you would not have a you would not have a pre-employment physical in your budget for that i would not no okay that's all thank you president khan any other alderman wishing to be heard alderman byrd please thank you mr chairman and thank you ms long i have a question at the ten thousand dollars for teachers i take it that's the innovation
▶ 1:02:45 Jaclyn L. Bird: grants is that correct yes and that is what um elizabeth christopher spoke about yes um so uh in an attempt to um upset all my dear friends that are on the melrose ed foundation uh board um i'm gonna i'm gonna oppose this budget to just continue a conversation about whether or not um that's an appropriate use so this is something that shouldn't surprise them at all they i'm a volunteer on their pr committee on um for the ed foundation um and incredibly incredibly supportive of the work they do and them as individuals my concern is um whether or not it's appropriate for us to be spending it in this way and that's something that i've been talking about for the last couple years um with the mayor and with the Member of the board there so um i
▶ 1:03:33 Peter D. Mortimer: would like to ask that we ask for the same legal opinion that was expressed earlier on how we go go about that just to understand that so but um again underscore the work they do is great i think that they're showing great results and i'll continue to support them privately thank you thank you mr chairman thank you alderman byrd and just for the record madam clerk of committees uh the city solicitor heard that question and he nodded his head in the affirmative that he would be able to provide us a legal opinion on that matter thank you motion to hold this budget pending legal opinion mr chairman we have a motion to hold this budget pending legal opinion second duly seconded by alderman byrd any further discussion before we take the vote alderman
▶ 1:04:15 Monica C. Medeiros: medeiros please thank you i'm sorry and i did mean to ask the same questions i'd like to know um and i don't know if you know off the top of your head but if you could find out uh whether or not the meeting where the the funds the city funds are determined deliberated on are those posted and open to the public uh the minutes taken and available for us to see and and you're referring to the um the um the board that administers the innovation brand education oh certainly yes i can get that information thank you so much no no problem thank you alderman medeiros i've seen no further alderman wishing to be heard the motion before us is to hold this pending the legal opinion from our city solicitor duly seconded all in favor please say aye aye
▶ 1:05:02 Peter D. Mortimer: any opposed hearing none order number 152 will be held pending that information the next budget we have before us is department 912 it is the workers compensation budget in the amount of three hundred and forty thousand dollars we still have before us under suspension our director of human resources marianne long marianne would you like to uh excuse me miss long would you like to make a statement yes yes when i was preparing for this budget hearing i was looking at the history of workers comp budgets and um since i've been managing these budgets since um 2000 actually and we've kept track over the last 15 years or so and i'm very proud to say that we have reduced this budget significantly over the last 15 years and that's for a number of reasons
▶ 1:06:06 today's budget reflects only two long-term recipients and these are former employees who they may be former employees or retirees who were injured on the job and were awarded long-term benefits essentially a paycheck on a bi-weekly basis for the rest of their lives and when i came we had 13 people receiving these types of benefits and actually in 2004 this budget was 1.1 million dollars and and quite frankly there was a lot of work that needed to be done and alderman khan remembers because he was the city solicitor at the time and worked very closely with us in in reducing these liabilities and now we're down to two long-term recipients and that that happened for a number of reasons some people passed away they may have
▶ 1:07:12 been injured on the job in the 70s 80s 90s so significant amount of time also department heads really pay attention to safety they're very proactive as do our employees i have to say the injuries overall have been reduced and we really have a consistent and focused approach to management of the program and um and i really want to give a lot of that credit to polly as the benefits administrator um she really um has taken this on and um you know we we know every day what's going on in the workers comp field in our office um so the budget that's before you is actually there is an overall reduction of thirty thousand dollars and the reason for that is when we transferred the solid waste function from our
▶ 1:08:12 employees to JRM that significantly obviously lowered our liabilities because that's where the primary injuries were was from hauling trash in recyclables so the overall reduction is 30,000 I decrease the benefits line item by 50 but i increased the medical by 20 000 and that's purely based on our past year experience with medical liability so that's why i transferred 20 to that line item so the overall reduction is it is actually 30 000 if i if i that makes sense thank you very much ms long president khan please yeah um and everybody perk up their ears i want to i want to compliment the uh the hr department uh and the administration uh for the handling of this budget um and this issue um when i was
▶ 1:09:19 city solicitor back so long ago that i actually had gray have black hair instead of gray hair there's the picture right there yeah there it is um i can attest there's the picture uh this was a budget that just had many many cases that were long-term cases that were languishing uh little attention was paid to it when ms long came on board she attacked this problem although she's graciously tried to indicate that i had something to do with it i had very little to do with it this is a function of her office mr van campen and dave lucas working on this over time to get rid of a large backlog of cases that were costing us a large amount of money, and we now have it down probably to a tenth of what it was.
▶ 1:10:04 Peter D. Mortimer: This is a success story, and I thank the HR department and the city solicitor for doing this. And I wish I had more to do with it, but I had very little to do with it. Thank you. Yeah. Good fiscal management. That's right. Any other aldermen wishing to be heard? Motion to recommend the bottom line. We have a motion to recommend the bottom line. Of the workers' comp budget. second from alderman mcintyre margolis all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none this budget this department will be recommended to the full board the next department we have before us is department 913 it is unemployment in the amount of 140 000 Ms. Lodge, please proceed. Just very briefly, the maximum benefit that someone may collect on a weekly basis is $698.
▶ 1:11:04 And these are set by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And the total that they may receive is $20,940. And that's not to say that every recipient receives this. It's just those are the totals. And there are a maximum number of weeks, a maximum number of 30 weeks that they may collect. And in the event, you all remember the days in 2008 and 9 when we had federally extended benefit programs and they went on for 99 weeks at times. Fortunately we're beyond that. if there are any extended benefit programs in place then massachusetts caps the benefit at 26 and the feds kick in beyond that that's it in a nutshell um any questions on this budget to recommend the bottom line alderman Boisselle made a motion to recommend the bottom line of
▶ 1:12:07 Peter D. Mortimer: department 912 excuse me 913 unemployment 140 000 do the second by alderman mcintyre Chair Margolis, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, hearing none, this department's budget is recommended. Thank you. The next budget we have before us is department 914. It is health contractual, also under the human resources department. In the amount of $11,551,893.15. That's a lot of money. um the health insurance budget just going back to the salaries you'll see the um percentages of this of our salaries in this budget um just to clarify and i want to speak um for just a moment about the group health account which is 10.8 million dollars and um i i think you know we can all breathe a sigh of relief that um in fact it's only 10.8 million dollars everyone is aware across the
▶ 1:13:12 country how unwieldy health insurance is in terms of cost and i really have to acknowledge and thank our union representatives and our employees for assisting us in keeping this line item what's the word it is 10.8 million dollars but not not more than 10.8 million and we worked with them the mayor under the mayor's direction we worked with them in coming to a new public employee committee agreement with the group insurance commission and we're going into our third agreement now and this is the first time we've had a six-year agreement it's effective July 1 2015 and runs through June 30th 2021 and they made some very difficult decisions as you know it's not easy to give something up that you've had as a condition of your employment but they did agree to
▶ 1:14:20 increase employees contributions by three percent and decrease the city's contribution by three percent so I would like to acknowledge them in this process the the other good news about this is the opt-out program that we began you may remember last year was the first year that we floated the program or introduced the program in that first year we had five employees um enroll and the actual savings were thirty six thousand seven hundred and um sixty nine dollars um this second year we just completed our open enrollment and we have 21 employees they it quadrupled who have enrolled And the anticipated savings for fiscal year 2016 is $202,362. So I have been instructed by the mayor to propose that this budget can actually be reduced by an additional $100,000 than what is before you.
▶ 1:15:38 now we just completed our open enrollment which is why it wasn't reduced prior to the printing of the budget thank you very much um did you say so moved okay no no sorry president khan you want to make that motion yeah i'm very happy that this program worked as well as it did you know sitting here for as long as i have i've seen many programs like this some work out the way you hope some don't this did it saved the city a good deal of money i support the cut and i applaud the administration for implementing this program and i'm happy to support reducing the bottom line on this budget by one hundred thousand dollars thank you for that motion president khan duly seconded by alderman byrd all in favor please say aye aye very good um do you have any further presentation
▶ 1:16:33 Peter D. Mortimer: on this budget any questions from any of the aldermen i'm seeing none i would welcome a motion move the line at eleven million four hundred and fifty one thousand eight hundred and ninety three dollars and fifteen cents uh president khan has made a motion to move the bottom line in that amount uh duly seconded by alderman byrd uh on discussion first we have alderman byrd followed by alderman Medeiros please thank you mr chairman thank you ms long um i want to echo the same sentiment that um i think it's great what you've done with coming up with this opt-out program and i remember how much thought went into that as far as um trying to make sure that employees were really looking at it and being very careful before they did that so i appreciate that and it's
▶ 1:17:22 Jaclyn L. Bird: exciting to see the anticipated anticipated savings there um i wanted to ask you mentioned the the difference in this third agreement those were the two main differences increasing the employee compensation by three percent and decreasing the employer compensation by three percent were there any other major changes as far as um extension of benefits or anything like that in this particular package that we should be aware of there will be changes in benefits effective july one and those benefits are not determined the changes in those benefits are not determined by the city of melrose as you may remember they're determined by the group insurance commission and the out-of-pocket expenses for all of us as employees will increase there are additional
▶ 1:18:11 dollars related to out-of-pocket expenses and those being deductibles co-pays whether they're for providers or medications, prescriptions, et cetera. And the thinking behind the changes that the Group Insurance Commission made, and really I have to say they were very wise in their decision making because what they did was to encourage all of us to be educated health consumers so that if we're not happy with the fact that our co-pay, our tier three as an example, co-pay is $1,500 to go to Mass General, well you have many other options. So it's really, and the focus that Polly and I had during this open enrollment is to really get our employees to pay attention to their plans and to determine whether or not they were in fact
▶ 1:19:13 Monica C. Medeiros: paying a lot more than they needed to pay because the benefits are identical across all plans what's different is the network and the network involves the geography or the number of hospitals and doctors and if you're okay with using community hospitals um primarily then you're you can have a lower cost plan and truthfully save quite a bit of money great i appreciate that Well, thank you very much for your response. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Alderman Byrd. Any further Alderman wishing to be heard? Alderman Medeiros, please. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Long. I am glad to see that the increase is only 5.5%. Are you able to speak to what percentage of the entire city budget this health insurance budget is?
▶ 1:20:08 Monica C. Medeiros: I know it's printed on our tax bill, and I got it at home, but I would have to- From my recollection, sure. From my recollection from the previous year, I believe it was about 17% of our budget, so I know it's quite a big chunk. And some of the reason that we are part of the GIC, the Group Insurance Commission, And certainly that's affected us because there was big deficits with the GIC this year. I know they were going into FY16 anticipating a $350 million deficit. And I had heard of possible increases, especially in the Metro Boston area of up to 8% to 12%. Yes. I'm I'm glad that I'm exceptionally glad that I know that they that yourself included the public employees involved in that commission have you know severe plan design changes and we really
▶ 1:21:12 Monica C. Medeiros: appreciate that they including you know higher co-pays and different types of plans so um you know we're very happy that we have Melrose Wakefield which probably keeps in Melrose it probably keeps a lot of employees in the local network and you know very appreciative of your hard work on it and Polly's and and our city and employees and staff thank you thank you thank you Alderman Medeiros Alderman Boycelle please in the Medicare D line yes you have negative numbers would you explain Yes, the Medicare Part D line item, we actually created that line item because that is actually a credit to the city of Melrose for reimbursements from the federal government for prescription drugs. So we are being reimbursed for medications that our, I think, primarily retirees receive,
▶ 1:22:19 benefits that they received under Medicare. So we needed to track that credit because our group insurance commission bill, which by the way is approximately a million dollars a month, when we, that credit is shown on our monthly bill. So we actually can pay 157,000 less one particular month. And that's why we reflect it in UNIS, so that we can keep track of those reimbursements. Good, thank you. One other question, the 21 employees who opt out of the GIC program, are they're getting insurance on the outside, or? Yeah, they have to prove that they have insurance, yes. Okay, so they have- And primarily everyone, it's either the military's insurance, Because as you know, we have many veterans or they're transitioning to their spouses insurance and taking the incentive.
▶ 1:23:15 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Ms. Long. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Alderman Boycelle. Seeing no further, Alderman wishing to be heard, we have a motion to move the reduced bottom line on Department 914. It has been duly seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. This budget will be recommended in its reduced form, and thank you for your good work. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you. The next department we have before us is Department 155, Info Tech, in the amount of $502,806.76. Good evening, Mr. Pezos. Would you like to make a statement before we proceed with questions and comments? Thank you. Please do. The budget that you see before you represents the IT's budget for the city side for the upcoming fiscal year.
▶ 1:24:15 The budget is pretty much the same budget that you've seen in past years. The line items have stayed fairly consistent with two exceptions that I will cover quickly. The first exception that you will see here is line item ending 525301, which is MUNIS support, MUNIS is our financial management system. There has been an increase in the support costs related to that. Additionally, we underwent a software version upgrade of MUNIS. There's an additional $2,000 a year in here in underlying software costs, support costs. And also requisitions which we purchased earlier this year for the schools. additional two thousand dollars reflected in here for support for that module as well the other line item that you will see that's different and it's an increase from previous
▶ 1:25:14 years is line item ending in five four zero seven zero zero which is seminars uh that went from two thousand dollars to ninety five hundred dollars uh the reason for that is as you may know the auditor's office uh they're going to be going through some transition over the coming year quite a few retirements are will be occurring in that department and the new folks that are coming on are going to need a significant amount of training to make sure that that transition is smooth so that is a one-time increase this year that you will see for training to address that upcoming need and just to quickly go over I don't have the exact figures but likewise in having anticipated the question about salaries there are three
▶ 1:26:08 full-time positions funded from this salary portion that would be my position the assistant directors position and we have a public safety systems analyst position, which are fully funded in here. We have the business analyst, which is Donna Cardillo, which you heard during the HR presentation. She's funded a portion out of, I forget exactly which budget it was. Her budget, I believe, her portion of the salary in this budget, I believe, is 50% or approximately 50%. I can verify that and get that information back to you. We also have a thirty five hundred dollar stipend in here for an AP clerk to do AP checks warrants pay bills invoices general clerical type work for the department and then we have a thirteen thousand dollar portion in here which is
▶ 1:27:09 attributed to the network manager position at the schools that that position shares some responsibilities naturally both in managing the network and in supporting munis so we that is the portion attributed to that to that position and again that number is approximately thirteen thousand dollars it's thirteen and change and those are the positions funded out of the salary portion of this budget and with that if you have any questions President Kahn, please. Yeah, just so I'm clear, Mr. Pazos, you're the chief information officer position. How much of that position salary is in this budget and how much of it resides elsewhere? I believe that what we do is it's in here fully as when we submit the budget and
▶ 1:28:03 then at one point do we request a transfer from the schools for that 60-40 split? Yeah, so the figure that's stated in our budget is not the full salary for that position. I don't believe, yeah, we'll have to get back to you exactly how that break is. And what about the assistant director position? That's the full salary for that position? That and the public safety systems analyst are fully in this budget. Okay, so the only position that's funded in part elsewhere other than Ms. Cardillo that we've already talked about earlier today, so I'm not going to waste everybody's time listening to that again, is the director position, which has some funding through the school budget, is that correct?
▶ 1:28:53 Robert A. Boisselle: And Mr. Del Russo is volunteering to get us that information. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Alderman Boisselle, please. In the fiscal 2016 budget, that will be coming to us later on during the month and next month, there's a portion that's going to be an enhancement of a lot of equipment coming through the schools and the building and so forth. And also with the servers, I mean, you have a drop in your, almost 50% drop in professional services. Will your staff be able to handle this or will you be able, need to call anyone in to support that sort of project so to clarify that and um if you look at the line if you look at that that's a 53 drop but really what that's saying is it's from the revised 2015
▶ 1:29:45 budget the original budget as submitted and approved last year was 10 000 it's the same amount what happens is during the year if there are something comes up or is anticipated and there's a transfer either in or out of any of these accounts it's reflected in that revised budget column and then unfortunately when we present this budget this way it it shows a decrease there's actually no decrease in there okay so uh off the top of my head what that additional uh eleven thousand dollars which i believe was uh related i i don't remember so i would have to check and get that get that back to you but there was a change in there during this past or this current fiscal year that we had some transfer going in there but otherwise that budget is actually staying static
▶ 1:30:31 Peter D. Mortimer: okay so you won't need more outside support for the upcoming uh no upgrades and so forth all right thank you very much thank you mr jaron thank you very much alderman boy cell seeing no further alderman wishing to recommend the bottom line second we have a motion to recommend the bottom Bottom line from Alderman Boycelle, duly seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board. We also have an order for Mr. Pezos tonight. 2015-176, requesting a $50,000 appropriation for technology replacement repair. Would you like to speak on that before we proceed to questions and perhaps a motion? Yes, thank you. So last April, we had quite a bit of damage to some electrical equipment,
▶ 1:31:28 both in the middle school and at the Lincoln School. There's electrical damage to a phone system, a voicemail system, a couple of servers, some other computer equipment, and some switching equipment. We quickly tried to replace a lot of this equipment under an emergency procurement. It was a $225,000 worth of equipment that needed to be replaced. We did put an insurance claim in for that at the time. I believe that the insurance covered $95,000 of that. We used $80,000 of other funds that were available. This $50,000 that we're requesting here tonight is to make that line item full to cover that emergency procurement that we needed to do last year. Thank you very much, Mr. Pezos. Alderman Boisselle, please.
▶ 1:32:28 Was this electrical problem, was it caused by failure of safeguards or it hasn't been repaired so it wouldn't happen again? It has been repaired. A lot of the safeguards, some of the safeguards needed to be replaced as well. We had batteries and UPS units that we replaced. Some we replaced because they needed to be after this, and some we replaced just to be cautious, given what we had just experienced, so does that answer your question? I'm sorry. Yes, sir. Thank you very much, Judge. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Alderman Boycelle. Alderman Medeiros, please. Thank you. So this was electrical damage? believe it was electrical damage the insurance company they they basically when we put this claim in and we were dealing with the I guess the adjusters
▶ 1:33:20 at the insurance company they're a little out of their element with this so they hire investigators that are a little bit more familiar with this type of equipment and as far as we can determine yes it was an electrical related damage it I find it very peculiar that it happened both at the Lincoln School and at the middle school but we we came into it I believe the date was April 14th and I we came into those buildings both out of commission from a telecom and from a computer perspective and what the exact source of that is we don't know whether it was lightning or something on the power grid we do not know and I'm not sure that there was any way that we'd be able to tell that for sure okay and did you say that the insurance had covered ninety
▶ 1:34:12 Peter D. Mortimer: percent ninety five thousand oh ninety five thousand okay that's that didn't add up okay ninety five thousand and I see that this is in the suits and claims line we have the city solicitor and the auditor here is this this money is available and ready they're not in the hedge yes okay thank you thank you very much alderman Medeiros recommend we have a motion to recommend this order for passage to the full board who was second that duly seconded by alderman motion made by alderman Boisselle duly seconded by alderman Inferno all in favor please say aye any opposed seeing none this order will be recommended to the full board for passage thank you mr. Pezos thank you welcome the next department we
▶ 1:35:03 have before us is department 165 it is the liquor Commission and our city solicitor mr. van Kampen will speak on that matter mr. chairman Member of the committee chairman never would have appeared this evening on this person he's traveling for work so he asked me to appear this is a new addition to the city budget and as the Member are well aware the Liquor Commission has taken on an enhanced role in the city and we recently upgraded our regulations and for many years Leo Colburn who everyone here knows served as the chair of the Liquor Commission essentially was a one-man band and he did it all but as he retired the Liquor Commission began to modernize and professionalize and so So what you have here is a line item dedicated solely to the Liquor Commission.
▶ 1:35:57 Prior years, the Liquor Commission would send notifications out to licensees, or communicate by certified mail with the Alcohol Beverages Control Commission. Or do outreach and mass mailings in the business community to licensees. All of those postage costs and copying costs and everything else were born within other city departments. So what we've decided this year, my office in conjunction with the auditor's office, was to create a line item for the Liquor Commission so that there is one dedicated source of funds for all of those things to occur. Those mailings, those notifications, as you folks know, my assistant Kelly has taken on the role of clerk to the Liquor Commission. And she wants to modernize some of the documents that the commission utilizes, the licenses that you see in establishments throughout the city.
▶ 1:36:46 She wants to modernize those, create a software program that allows us to generate a license that is printed rather than what you see as a handwritten license. So this is money that would be utilized for all of those purposes. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Mr. Van Campen. Any Alderman wishing to be heard on this? Alderman Medeiros, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Van Campen. I have to tell you off the top of my head, I can't remember exactly what our liquor license fee is. so I don't expect that maybe you remember it right off the top of your head, but if you do. Full license, full alcohol, all alcohol is $2,500. I've become quite an expert in the last couple of months.
▶ 1:37:24 Monica C. Medeiros: All alcohol, $2,500. Wine and malt, $2,000. $2,000. And just, you know, so people at home know, because sometimes I get these comments like, oh, well, you know, the city just wants money or that we're going to be rolling in the dough from, you know, a few restaurants obtaining liquor licenses. And basically, we can't charge more for the liquor license than what the exorbitant amounts. We have to charge for a liquor license what, give or take, it costs. And so part of, perhaps I would guess, part of putting some of this money into this line item is to show some of what it costs. Clearly, it costs more than $1,000, but it's the same. Correct. I mean, it's a fair point. This money is really intended, as I said earlier, just to give the Liquor Commission the background that it needs to do its job.
▶ 1:38:10 And in the old days, Leo Colburn probably did a mailing and paid out of his own pocket and never sought reimbursement from the city of Melrose. So, we don't have any Leo Colburns left in the world. No, we're very glad to have him around. That's why this is here. Thank you. Thank you. Just on that point, that $2,000 for beer and wine and $2,500 for a full liquor license, that goes to the state. That money comes to the city of Melrose. And stays in our general fund? Correct, and there's a separate, I believe that's the case, and there's a separate fee that licensees pay to the state. All right. The license application, I believe you also pay a $200 fee to the state. So the state of course has to get its share.
▶ 1:38:58 Jaclyn L. Bird: Of course. The city gets the fee that is set by regulation locally. Thank you very much. Alderman Bird, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question. So are we going to see, if these were, I understand that some were personally incurred costs by the former chairperson. I'm assuming that, I'm just saying. Right, I know, yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't want to assume either that we're going to see a reduction of $500 in printing from your office or $500 from someplace else. Is this? No, this is a brand new line item. There's no corresponding reduction in my office or any other office for that matter. I think it would just get buried in postage, city wide postage. And I think the auditor would prefer that there's one dedicated line item for those costs.
▶ 1:39:41 Peter D. Mortimer: Okay, thank you for clarifying that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And the Chief Financial Officer of the City Auditor is nodding in the affirmative. Thank you, thank you, Mr. DelaRusso. Thank you, Alderman Byrd. Any other aldermen wishing to be heard on this matter? Motion to move the bottom line. Second. We have a motion to move the bottom line from Alderman Boisselle, who was seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. This will be recommended to the full board. The next order we have before us is the actual city solicitor's department. Department 151 in the amount of $678,195.46. Mr. Solicitor, would you like to make a comment before we proceed? Yes, thank you Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:40:26 Just a brief introduction of my budget. As you can see, many of the line items are level funded from the prior fiscal year. Salary and wages is increasing by a modest 2.1% from the prior fiscal year. Expenses and professional services are level funded. Books and electronic, let me just explain to you what expenses and professional services are. Those are, for example, administrative fees with the American Obstruction Association. cities involved in a case those fees would be paid out of that line item deposition subpoenas the cost of serving those subpoenas would be paid out of those line items filing suit on behalf of the city of melrose and the superior court of the district court would be paid out of those line items so that's what those expenses go to
▶ 1:41:15 books and electronic mass general law is also level funded that is for publications that my office receives on a frequent basis electronic mass general law is for the online research tool that my office uses the lawyers on the board will know that that's an expensive service and it costs the city approximately thirty uh three thousand dollars per year give or take dues and memberships level funded from last year education and seminars are level funded from last year there are some costs that are now being incurred so the line the actual year to date is actually higher than i'm seeing on my sheet here and the big ticket item in my office is the city's property liability insurance which we have for the past several years at the direction of
▶ 1:42:06 alderman wright been instructing our agent to shop all of our lines to make sure we're getting the the most competitive rate for those policies that we can on the open market, and he's reporting that we can anticipate a 5% increase, which is reasonable under the current market as I'm informed. The last line item is suits and claims, Mr. Chairman, and that's sort of the kitchen sink of my office. Pothole claims, we've had quite a few after this past winter. Things like pothole claims get paid out of suits and claims. settlements that are uninsured you paid out of that line item and we pay deductible expenses incurred out of that line item on occasion so overall the budget is relatively level funded mr. chairman one last point to Alderman
▶ 1:42:53 Jaclyn L. Bird: Kahn's question from the president Kahn's question from earlier this evening all of the salaries represented in my budget are on budget our actual numbers and there are no other supplements if you will in other budgets to fund those salaries so i'm happy to answer any questions the Member might have thank you mr van campen anyone wishing to hurt be heard alderman bird please um this is just a very quick question thank you mr van campen for going through this if you could um just send us a very i know it's not a huge line item the dues and memberships if you can just send us a breakdown of that that would be great the dues and membership line item if you can just send us a summary of what that entails sure you want it in writing would you like to state what we're talking
▶ 1:43:35 about that's massachusetts bar association american bar associate i can give it to you in writing if you want either way it's fine yeah either way i'll send you guys an email i know it's not a lot of money but i appreciate the breakdown thank you that's all mr chairman thank you alderman bird alderman Medeiros please then alderman mccarty and my goals thank you i know we just had an order with funds coming from the suits and claims stabilization fund uh could you refresh my memory where that's not in this budget where we see that so the suits and claim stabilization fund is a fund that was established i want to say three or four years ago now and the purpose of that fund was to guard against larger uninsured claims
▶ 1:44:14 against the city and the funds i'm not sure the balance patrick the funds that are in the suits and claims stabilization fund are utilized to offset unexpected expenses and i would just say of the the board's edification that the expense that was incurred by i.t from that unknown electrical failure if you will that essentially as i understand it layperson terms fried the devices that those schools utilize for their communication systems um was something that we could utilize suits and claims stabilization fund monies for i don't know what that is yeah i made through the chair um it's fund number 8406 and the balance prior to this request was 56 000 399.12 so now we're left with about uh after we go through the full board we're gonna be left with
▶ 1:45:10 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: a little over six thousand that's correct and now is this a line that we fund through the budget process or only as we come across we typically through the chair fund this in the fall through available funds. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. Alderman McAteer-Margolis, please. Thank you. I was going to ask about that too. Well, I was also going to just ask you about the decrease in the suits and claims line item. You said even though we had a lot of, you thought we had a lot of claims, we were anticipating a significant number of claims, but you're looking to cut that line? That line is level funded from the original FY15 budget at $10,000. What you're seeing in FY15 for actual, I think, if I'm understanding
▶ 1:46:00 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: your question correctly, is there was a debt owed to a hotel associated with a displacement of tenants. That money was put up front by the city. I ultimately was able to resolve filed the claim against the property owner to recover 100 cents on the dollar. Okay. So we had to put money out and that's what's showing there in your suits and claims excess. And so do you have a certain amount. I'm confused anyway. No, no, I got it. I don't know. So when that money comes back, does it go into the stabilization fund or back just to the general fund? Goes to the general fund. To the general fund. And- The auditor in his generosity may give it back in the fall. Do you have a certain amount of a claim that you look to the Suits and Claims Stabilization
▶ 1:46:51 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Fund, or is it just a matter of, I mean, like if it's over $5,000, do you look to that fund as opposed to the budget line item? Typically. Ideally, I don't want to speak for the auditor, but ideally, we'd like to have at least $50,000 in that stabilization fund, so I assume we'll replenish it in the fall through free cash. But as far as to your question, that was an additional appropriation, I believe, that was made by this board at some point during the current fiscal year to pay that debt. Yes, right. But in other words, if there's a claim that comes in and it's $2,000, you know you're going to take it out of the line item for the budget. If it's $15,000, you look to the stabilization fund?
▶ 1:47:36 Correct. If it's a larger claim and if we're asking for monies out of that stabilization fund, we're coming back to the body for approval to do that. And, and it, do you have a set amount, do you have a limit, or you're not really, it just depends on what you've used for the year so far. Okay, and typically, if I may, to the chair, the, the objective is that we are able to stabilize his operating budget. With the suits and claims money that are resonant, typically it's much smaller items. Okay. These types of items, and the reason we have the fund is just for that, when you have something really this large. you don't budget or anticipate you have to have an ability to pay it this is exactly why this board and the wisdom set this up is so that we would have an
▶ 1:48:18 Peter D. Mortimer: avenue to go to when this is these types of events to occur unfortunately they do happen we're lucky and be pleased to have it so hopefully we'll have an opportunity to replenish that that's what you're saying when we have certified free cash that that would be one of my objectives Thank You mr. chairman Thank You alderman McAteer-Margolis I've seen no further Further, Alderman wishing to be heard, is there a motion please? Motion to recommend the bottom line. Second. We have a motion to recommend the bottom line for the city solicitor's department. Second. Motion is duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended, thank you sir, to the full board.
▶ 1:49:02 The next department we have before us is the assessor's office. Department 141 in the amount of $300,092.55. Good evening. Good evening. Budget in front of you pretty much represents a level funded budget from last year, except for two cases. The evaluation line item is reduced by 11.5% and Salaries and step increases did go up based on contractual obligations. Two main projects that we're actually working on this year is revaluing the whole city. It's a three-year project, and we're in our second year for fiscal 2016. And what that is is a measuring list of the whole city, commercial, residential, industrial, every single property. So this is our second year, and that's represented in the revaluation side of the budget.
▶ 1:50:07 The other major project is actually computerizing all the assessor's maps and actually importing as much city data as possible into a GIS web-based system. This is the second year of the project, and we hope to have a full product by the end of June for the public. We're testing in-house a GIS system, and it's been going great so far. So those are two main projects, and they're both represented in the fiscal 2016 budget. Thank you very much. Alderman Boycelle, please. On this second project, is this going to be open to the public, that they can go online to the assessor's office and bring up an address and see information? It's a web-based GIS program, so they'll be able to go access it anywhere you can access the internet.
▶ 1:51:00 We will have a kiosk in front of our office, but it is a web-based system, unlimited users, and it's based in the cloud. So anyone all over the world can access our information. Very good, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Alderman Boycelle. Alderman Medeiros, please. Thank you, thank you very much. Looks like it's a pretty straightforward budget. i just had one quick question for you what the average assessment is for the home and dollars yep uh 428 000 i think 146. i'm not sure on the 146 but it's definitely 428. thanks i appreciate that that's uh based on fiscal 2015 and we haven't established the 16 values yet thank you alderman medeiros president khan please and uh mr wilcock the three positions uh in your
▶ 1:51:45 Peter D. Mortimer: department the three full-time positions their salaries are fully detailed in your budget and they're not funded from any other source is that correct that's correct we have a one full-time clerk a three-quarter time clerk a full-time assessor and three board member stipends and those are all funded through the assessing uh salary uh budget thank you mr chairman motion to move bottom line second i have a motion to move the bottom line by alderman forbes duly seconded by alderman boyce all in favor please say aye aye this budget is approved thank Thank you, Mr. Wilcox, for your presentation this evening. Have a great night. The next order we have before us is Department 135. It is the auditor's department in the amount of $379,274.
▶ 1:52:32 Mr. Delarusso, would you join us, sir? Good evening. Good evening, sir. Before I get actually the actual line item of the budget, I would have liked just to present an overview of the department so that I think it's important that there's an understanding of what the Office of the Auditor actually does and why we do it. And principally, we are responsible to audit all the payables and all the payroll of the entire city, that includes the school department. A typical schedule is that we commence in January. preparation of the budget that is before you this evening it's provided to you typically in May from that point on the outside auditors come and see us in June and my office is responsible to coordinate their request and for the
▶ 1:53:47 next eight weeks and that's just their preliminary work from that point on we meet with the Department of Education their reporting requirements for schedules 1 and 19 that happens August and September and actually into October a bit depending on the nature of the timing as soon as we're just about done with Department of Ed we have the outside auditors return for another commencing at least probably another four weeks or so of additional follow-up work from the preliminary work it's that time also that we generally go to bond council and work with standard employees um once that effort is completed we commence our work with the department of revenue on the tax recap elation we have to set the tax rate for the city prior
▶ 1:54:39 to january 1st so once that work is completed we're back into january and we started all over So again, the budget preparation, the reporting, the analysis, and the extensive reports. And I think in the past, and I'll say it again, a lot of what you've seen with distribution of employees for payroll purposes to different departments is really predicated on what the outside agencies want to see from us. They want to see documentation that in fact these people actually work in those departments that you indicate. The Department of Education is very specific about that in particular. They don't want to see deviations year to year unless there's a rationale. So we, in addition to the Department of Revenue Guidelines and
▶ 1:55:31 the outside auditors, we have a number of agencies that look at that. And they want to confirm that what we say we do, we do. And it's very important because we have obligations to meet net school spending. foundation budget requirements. In order for us to identify that we've met those obligations, we have to show them where the expenses are located. And that we actually do spend that money. So it's not something that was originated by us, per se. It is something we have to do, because that's what we've been asked to do. Thank you. This year is going to be probably the most challenging 14 months of my entire career. I'm losing three people simultaneously, 75% of my office within 14 months.
▶ 1:56:20 My payroll, accounts payable, and my truly valued assistant city auditor are all going to be gone in 14 months. It has to be at least a half a century of institutional knowledge there. And they're going to be missed, not only for the efforts that they have put forward, and the tremendous assistance they give me, and all those above reporting requirements. But on a personal basis, because they have been so, so dedicated, and really people of integrity beyond reproach. And I've been pleased to work with them, and I hope they feel the same. The principle you're seeing in the budget, first and foremost, is that I have to work through this transition. I have been fortunate that the Human Resource Department, we've actually set up a working
▶ 1:57:20 group to help us get through this, given the nature of the changes, which are, again, so significant and the fact that I'm losing institutional knowledge that cannot be replaced so in the salary line there's recognition that there'll be those transitions the most important thing that I've tried to provide for here is the fact that I need and I will need assistance from existing staff to a transitional basis and i'm hoping to have at least three months of of uh cross training if i may for both my assistant city auditor as well as my payroll manager and hopefully on counts payable that's what the change the significant change that i've asked for is really all about is to provide that ability to get that cross training in because um my time is very limited the
▶ 1:58:23 The contractual services category, I think what you'll see here is the cost of the outside audit contract. It's gone up $2,000, and that cost will stay the same for the next three years, so that cost will not change, right through fiscal 18. I've also asked for approximately $1,200 in the professional services line, represent municipal accounting and training for my current payroll manager and it's my expectation that uh carrie carrie and golden will be the next assistant city auditor for the city of meadows i've already uh made that appointment um and i again i uh look forward to that she's a wonderful person and i know she'll do an excellent job finally the other charges category within my
▶ 1:59:22 budget funds at the same level as fy15 and principally they involve my involvement in my professional accounting organizations principally the eastern mass municipal accountants and auditors and also the massachusetts accountants and auditors other than that it's pretty straight i actually reduced my overtime by 50 percent because we didn't use any this year um and i ask your support and uh understanding through this uh incredibly uh challenging year for my office motion to move the bottom line second a motion to move the bottom line from alderman Medeiros duly seconded by alderman boycelle on discussion we have president khan please yeah thank you mr chairman mr stella russo um in terms of the positions the salaried positions in your budget uh are all these uh the full and total
▶ 2:00:15 salaries and are they all funded through your budget or is there anything that's from another source all funded through this budget full positions thank you is that all you have president khan that's it thank you president khan alderman Medeiros please thank you i absolutely can understand the need to work across departments are there any because you're the auditor you know is are there any prohibitions on employees crossing department lines like are they you know being able to clearly you're doing more than just checking out the other books so you know no through the chair the expectation is that as i replace uh because i've replaced my payroll manager my expectation is that we'll train that person on payroll that person is a full-time person within
▶ 2:01:07 Peter D. Mortimer: this department now and will have access etc to the records but it's not people from outside the department they're strictly people that within my department period thank you because of confidentiality that and uh that will not change seeing no one further wishing to speak is there a motion please motion has been made on this one thank you very much ladies and gentlemen uh we have a motion that's been made and duly seconded all in favor please say aye any opposed seeing none this will be recommended for the full board thank you thank you mr bella russo thank you the next budget we have before us is department 161 it's the city clerk department in the amount of 257 138 dollars and 92 cents good evening mrs o'shea
▶ 2:02:01 Okay, good to see you, as always. Would you make an opening statement, please? Well, as you can see, the budgets that were funded from the previous year. And I don't think we have any questions. Questions? Motion to move the bottom line. We have a motion to move the bottom line from Alderman Boycelle. Second. Second to that, please. That was Alderman Lemmerman, made the second. All in favor? discussion mr president yeah um we do have a line in there relative to recartification um what are we getting for the uh the money that we're spending for the four thousand dollars for the recartification yeah um well any uh new legislation they um upload it on our website you know all the different what long is the new zoning and any amendments to the ordinances and
▶ 2:03:04 are they continuing to provide an updating service to the ordinances the city solicitor and i are working on the project to finish the re-quantification since the new charter was passed and we have the administrative code and we have a manuscript that we're working with the general code provided us with and um you know i'd like to see it completed this year i just have to say that um i have an extremely busy office there's myself and there's susan and then i have a part-time person we have um two people in the office that have five weeks vacation two people that have four weeks vacation uh we work for our secretary in addition to working for the board of alderman and the mayor we work for the secretary of state for elections we work for the public health department for all
▶ 2:04:02 our vital records um and so we are working on it but i wish it was i wish we were making more progress the the thrust of my question is that uh there's no delay that's being um caused by the outside vendor they're not not doing something that they're contractually obligated to do and we expect during this year we're going to have this up up to to yeah yeah i'd like to complete it as i'd like to complete it this year okay that's all thank you mr president alderman mcintyre my goal is please thank you um thank you um associate can you um explain speak to us on the reduction of the professional services line Okay, so in December, the Board of Aldermen appropriated $8,400, and that was to increase hours for two people in the office
▶ 2:05:07 because someone in the office was out on medical leave. So it was an $8,400 appropriation, and it was split. so actually this there is an error will show under professional services it will say the projection is fifteen thousand four hundred there is an error there somewhere actually the addition was eighty four hundred dollars and it was split city clerk professional services four thousand nine hundred and forty five dollars and three thousand four hundred and fifty four dollars and eighty cents went into city clerk salaries and wages that was to pay for extended hours for ruth in my office so she went from 25 hours a week to 30 and linda was an extended five hours more a week and that and then
▶ 2:06:07 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: we had um then i had someone else um filling in a tax work off person so those additional hours that were approved last year will no longer be needed oh they're needed but well they will no longer be needed to cover a position that's out on exactly so they're not in the budget they're back to whatever they used to be so instead of um um the head clerk being at 30 hours she'll be at 25. right and the same with um the election office will be at five less than she was last year when we needed exactly an increase thank you thank you alderman mcateer margolis seeing no other alderman wishing to be heard most of the bottom line we have a motion to move the bottom line of the city clerk department
▶ 2:07:04 Peter D. Mortimer: Second. Duly seconded, made by Alderman Forbes, duly seconded by Alderman Byrd. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, the city clerk budget is recommended for passage. Thank you very much, Mrs. O'Shea. The next department we have before us is Department 162. the election registrar of voters in the amount of eighty four thousand three hundred sixteen dollars and twelve cents good evening miss angie linda lee angiolillo pretty good angiolillo angiolillo angiolillo no no okay angiolillo thank you miss angiolillo please proceed um i have nothing to say so if you want to ask questions you can proceed directly to Any other questions then? Anyone wishing to be heard? Motion to move the bottom line.
▶ 2:08:01 Peter D. Mortimer: Move the bottom line. Made by Alderman Boycelle. Is there a second please? Second. Duly seconded by Alderman Tramontozzi. First second of the night, I believe. Very good, Alderman Tramontozzi. Seeing no discussion, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the election registrar department number 162 will be I recommend to the full board for passage. Thank you very much for your attendance this evening. Any further comments or questions from any of the aldermen? Seeing none, I would welcome a motion to adjourn. We have our own budget. Excuse me. The most important budget of the evening. You're all set, ladies. Thank you very much. This is the aldermanic budget in the amount of $141,240.
▶ 2:08:55 Monica C. Medeiros: as an 89 cents is there a motion to recommend we have a motion to move the bottom line to department number one one two is there a second please second made by alderman boisselle duly second by alderman byrd i think oh we do have some discussion alderman medeiros please thank you thank you uh mr chairman i just wanted to uh touch base tonight perhaps our clerk committees can And can Refresher Member, in terms of IQ issue, thank you very much. How much, we're under contract with them, is that correct? It's month to month. Month to month. So this is 12 months. 12 months, thank you very much. For the public, that includes the software that runs on these tablets. And all the public can watch at home and read at home and
▶ 2:09:51 Monica C. Medeiros: search at home all our orders and minutes and agendas. that is available on the home page of our website and actually I was hoping that we could have a link to the IQ m2 system added to the aldermanic page of our website because I think in the transition to the new website that kind of got left off I just noticed that recently that was intentional though the web designer we don't want broken links all over the place I do I did I have had uh this can be a discussion for another night but uh just in commentary i have had constituents confused about where to find it they don't necessarily recognize they don't recognize that minutes and agendas are iqm2 or meeting portal all right thank you so we can talk to
▶ 2:10:44 Peter D. Mortimer: this i'm sure we can thank you uh so the motion has been made to move the bottom line of department one one two it has been duly seconded seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none will be recommended for passage to the full board we have a motion to adjourn by alderman boy cell duly seconded by alderman forbes all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none the committee on appropriations for May 14th is hereby adjourned. Thank you, one and all.