Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2017-05-22
Attendance
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. ; Michael P. Zwirko
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Participation
- Orders
- ORDER-2017-140 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2018 in the amount of $77,397,009.19 (Seventy-Seven Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Seven Thousand, Nine Dollars and Nineteen Cents)
- ORDER-2017-145 : An Appropriation from Ambulance-Retained Earnings in the amount of $141,984.32 to the Ambulance Reserve, Retained Earnings account and Ambulance Equipment.
- ORDER-2017-144 : FY18 Ambulance Enterprise Fund Budget in the amount $887,544.99 (Eight Hundred Eighty Seven Thousand, Five Hundred Forty Four Dollars and Ninety Nine Cents).
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 22, 2017 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Budget Hearing 7:30 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 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 Gail M. Infurna Vice Chairman Present Michael P. Zwirko Alderman at Large Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Absent Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Absent Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Present Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Alderman at Large Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Absent Donald L. Conn Jr. President/Ex-officio Member Present Chairman Mortimer reported back to the committee regarding the question of language for the aldermen to "take action" on the city charter review committee's submission of suggested changes to the charter. The opinion of the City Solicitor is that a sufficient "action" is to set a date for a public hearing, which will be sometime after budget season is completed-- most likely July, 2017.
ORDER-2017-140 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2018 in the amount of $77,397,009.19 (Seventy-Seven Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Seven Thousand, Nine Dollars and Nineteen Cents) Appropriations Committee
ORDER-2017-145 Enterprise Fund An Appropriation from Ambulance-Retained Earnings in the amount of $141,984.32 to the Ambulance Reserve, Retained Earnings account and Ambulance Equipment. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 5/25/2017 12:48 PM Minutes Appropriations Committee May 22, 2017
ORDER-2017-144 Enterprise Fund FY18 Ambulance Enterprise Fund Budget in the amount $887,544.99 (Eight Hundred Eighty Seven Thousand, Five Hundred Forty Four Dollars and Ninety Nine Cents). Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 5/25/2017 12:48 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:01 Peter D. Mortimer: It is 7.30 in the p.m. on May 22nd, 2017. This is the Committee on Appropriations for the Melrose Board of Aldermen. I am the chairman, Peter Mortimer. We are joined by the vice chairman, Gail Inferna, also Alderman Michael Zwirko, Alderman Francis Wright, Alderman Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis, Alderman Jennifer Lemmerman, and President Donald Kahn. This meeting is being recorded by MMTV and is available on their website for future viewing and it is also available on the Melrose, Massachusetts website for future viewing. Please let the record reflect that we are also joined this evening by Alderman John Tramontozzi motion to open for public participation Alderman Inferno has made a motion to open the floor for public participation second duly second
▶ 1:11 Peter D. Mortimer: by Alderman McAteer-Margolis all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none public participation is now open seeing no members of the public wishing to come forward Alderman Zwirko has made a motion to close public participation Second. Duly seconded by Alderman Inferna. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, public participation is now closed. Opposed. The first order we have before us is order 2017-140. It is the City of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2018 in the amount of $77,397,009.19. Alderman Zwirko, please. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion for the purposes of setting a public hearing on Thursday, June 8th at 8 PM to discuss the water and sewer rates for the fiscal year of 2018.
▶ 2:12 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Zwirko has made a motion to set the time of June 8th, 8 PM for the aforementioned public hearing. Is there a second on Alderman Zwirko motion? Second. Seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. All in favor? Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The meeting of June 8th, 2017, 2018, 2017. Well, it's fiscal year 2018, there's the confusion. On water and sewer, budget will be held on June 8th at 8 PM, Thursday, June 8th. The budget order has been read, and now we will proceed to the departmental hearings. The first budget we have before us this evening is budget 121. It is the mayor's office in the amount of $314,226.68. Your honor, would you please come forward?
▶ 3:10 Peter D. Mortimer: I suspend the rules. Second. Alderman McAteer-Margolis has made a motion to suspend the rules. Duly seconded by Alderman Inferna. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are under suspension for the committee and we will proceed now with the presentation by the mayor and his chief executive officer, Michael Lindstrom. Good evening, gentlemen. Thank you, Alderman. Mr. Chairman, the proposed FY18 mayor's office budget represents level funding and all line items outside of salary and wages. Salary and wages are slightly down due to 53 versus 52 week this fiscal year. For the second consecutive year, 100% of the mayor's office is fully funded through the operating budget. Dues and memberships are for the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.
▶ 4:03 This year we were able to provide a long list of community events, which is a separate line item, all ages ranging from a historic night honoring the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen the Four Corners music festival the Norris iftar dinner mayor's math meet that was held last week the downtown summer stroll our third year of running the second grade library program in which every second grader in the city visits the library and receives a library card the senior barbecue at Mount Hood the healthy Melrose fair the intergenerational spring front fling the the monthly Melrose Kids Club, the Birth to Five New Parent Expo, Birth to Five Realtors Breakfast, as well as the Memorial Day Parade and events.
▶ 4:48 Peter D. Mortimer: One more exciting new event this fiscal year coming up, we will see a summer kickoff concert on Friday, June 23rd at Memorial Hall. This will feature professional musicians, some of whom are Melroseans from the Boston Conservatory at Berkeley College of Music playing Disney songs to finish out the school year. So I ask for your consideration of this budget. Thank you, Mayor Dolan. Are there any questions or comments or motions from any of the Aldermen? Motion to recommend the bottom line. Alderman Lemmerman has made a motion to recommend this budget. Second. Duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. On discussion, seeing none, all in favor please say aye. Aye. All in favor please say aye. Aye.
▶ 5:36 Any opposed, hearing none, This budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you for coming. I think we have one more. The next one, community. Yeah, come on. The next budget we have before us is community events, budget number 692, in the amount of $8,000. Sure. Please proceed. This line item again is 200% of it goes to fund the Memorial Day Parade, which this year is this Sunday, May 28th. It covers about 75% of the cost, with the remainder made up by our office budget, Veterans Affairs, and any donations that come in through the year. I know this year Alicia's office and the parade committee and the Veterans Advisory Board are putting together a great parade,
▶ 6:19 Peter D. Mortimer: which will honor Gulf War veterans to be part of the Grand Marshal section this year. And the parade does kick off at 1.30 this Sunday, and those that are participating should be there at 1, and that's it. Thank you very much, Mr. Lindstrom. Any questions, comments, or motions from the board? We should have approved the bottom line. Alderman McAteer-Margolis has made a motion to approve this budget. It will be seconded by Alderman Zwirko. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, thank you very much gentlemen, thank you for the presentation. Thank you very much, have a good evening. Great evening. The next budget we have before us is budget 161. It is the office of the city clerk in the amount of $289,905.46.
▶ 7:02 and 46 cents good evening mrs o'shea please proceed so um outside of salaries and wages the budget is level funded and you will see an increase in salaries and wages uh we're experiencing a staff turnover in our office and a long-term employee will be retiring the end of january so we can budget in to take care of the transition for this for the person leaving and someone coming on board and the payout that goes with that thank you very much alderman inferno please thank you very much mr chairman um i see mary rita that um you have made a decrease to actually zero on the professional services yeah so um yeah it would be nice if that wasn't zeroed out but um so um when ruth left so we had an employee that left the end of april and so increase the hours for the person coming
▶ 8:19 Gail Infurna: on board to for the transition and because we really need the extra hours so they zeroed out my professional services will that stop you from being up to date on any sort of the latest in city clerk procedures or processes or you know technology you know we certainly it's a problem for vacations and sick time so if someone's out so i have no money in professional services if someone's out sick or on vacation so um yeah that is a problem i'll tell you yes you're still at the floor thank you i'll take up one more step then uh on the professional services i guess i'm thinking that that is more for any sort of in services to keep you up to date on the latest in city clerking if you know if i could call it that the years um you know um the difficulties
▶ 9:15 Gail Infurna: with uh hard times the city's been through they have through the years cut the staff in my office so um so at one time someone's hours were reduced from 30 hours to 18 and then and then in better times instead of restoring it to 30 they restored it to 25 so then they gave me some professional service money to cover um yeah for vacation and when that person was out i i guess when i think of professional services i think of it as taking courses or in services it would be very nice if i if they would so i i guess i'm just a little concerned about that but yeah i guess it is what it is i'm sure we could always find money for if you needed the overtime or to pay somebody for vacations but will you find money to you know take the latest courses or or you
▶ 10:12 know to get in latest information on processes well everything in our office is computerized so as far as that goes but as you know we service the public and we have the counter so if someone's working the counter you know they have work sitting on their desk that's not being processed so it's the city clerk is the assistant city clerk and now we do have the other okay thank you Thank You Walderman and Ferna President Kahn please so you have you have three positions in the city clerk's office and they're all funded in this budget fully yes and you also have the election office salary budget is that correct yeah this is separate oh oh in this budget linda comes under the city all salaries for elections
▶ 11:10 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: and city clerk are in this budget right and you you had one long-term employee who retired this year and you have another one who's retiring in the end of january yeah and um you've set aside enough money in the budget to cover any expenses associated with the retirement is that correct right so you won't need an appropriation to take care of that no that's all i have thank Thank you, President Kahn. Alderman MacMaster, my goal is, please. So I just, I think I'm clear, but I just wanted to be certain. The professional services line you have been using, really, to augment staff. When you have people out sick or vacation, you're using the professional services line for that, not the overtime line?
▶ 11:59 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Well, the overtime in my budget is to cover Linda. To cover election staff? To cover the election staff all the time. Okay. And so, has it been your practice for the past few years to just use that professional service line to cover like vacations and sick time? time I always put in money in the professional services and then sometimes they'll leave it in but most of the time it's cut before you people see it okay okay and the increase in the salary and wages as Alderman Kahn suggested is because you have like doubled the number of people for the next few months well before one person retires while a new person is coming on and then when the person leaves and they take the vacation they get a payout for vacation I see so
▶ 12:56 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: that's part of your salary that's kind of it yeah okay and you're just funding your your overtime budget are you are you funding that is the same as last year yes 4350 okay so you're hopeful that that will cover whatever you need and not you won't be missing anything because of having cut the professional services so the overtime um the only one that gets overtime is someone's in the Union people that are in management don't receive overtime so right so it's just it's just but it's just for someone that that is in the Union that would receive overtime right yeah okay all right thank you Thank You Alderman McAteer-Margolis is there a motion please oh and then I have some good news oh well we'll take the good news okay so I'm happy to report that our
▶ 14:01 Peter D. Mortimer: recodification project is now complete and it will be submitted to the alderman in July for adoption so it's been a major undertaking between the city solicitor myself in general code and so i'm very happy about that thank you mrs o'shea uh motion tramatose makes a motion to adopt the bottom line recommend the bottom line for passage on this budget duly seconded by second alderman's work though seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed having none this budget will be recommended to the full board or passage the next budget we have before us is budget 162 it is the elections office and the registrar of voters in the amount of 61 116 dollars and 12 cents ms angie olillo would you
▶ 14:51 proceed please well as you can see it's down 29 from last year and the election is one of those departments that cannot be level funded because of the different elections depending on the year so most we had three elections last year we're going to have only one this year so part-time salary and wages has dropped drastically the only thing that goes up actually is printing because of a city election we have seven wards and we have to print ballots during state elections the state does cover the cost for ballots and on a city election we have to pay it and we have to print seven different ballots so um it's very expensive for that other than that i think everything else is lower so thank you very much alderman inferno please just a quick one thank you mr chairman do
▶ 15:51 we get reimbursed for the printing of the balance of the ballots i'm sorry we don't we will still get um reimbursed for um part-time selling wages they'll give us so much money for you get reimbursed for the set to be open from 7 a.m. they give you a certain amount each election okay thank you Thank You Alderman Inferno President Kahn please yeah so so you have part-time salary and wages of $25,000 which would fund election related expenses and then the only other compensation is you have the statutorily mandated stipends for the Board of Registrars is that correct yes and that's the only salary items that are in this budget well my part-time salary and wages is under professional services for election time is when I
▶ 16:44 Michael P. Zwirko: hire so the professional services is used in addition to the 25 well the twenty-five thousand is strictly for police for DPW and poll workers it's not for professional services it's not so who's getting the 7700 if it's not police poll workers or dp that's office help that comes in and does helps out on the elections okay thank you mr chairman thank you president khan alderman Search followed by alderman wright please thank you mr chairman i just wanted to follow up on don's question so um i understand the 25 000 for police poll workers and dpw and you explained that you used the professional service to 7700 for um office help around election season the the salary and wage line of 4500 what
▶ 17:37 Michael P. Zwirko: what is that for if you if the salaries come out of the clerk's budget that we discussed that's for the board of registrars are you talking at the top the 45 yeah the board of registers it's a stipend and that's their stipend in the um another you had mentioned um I know this is a little bit it's related to the budget but I was curious that I know that there's been some work that's been going on in a subcommittee fashion could you could you provide any update if any meetings that have occurred and the possible of the consolidation and what if any impact that may have on you know future budgets well it might be tough to yeah we're not sure we're still in the process of trying to figure out a place that we can consolidate some if
▶ 18:30 not all of all the polling places we're having as you know issues with the elementary schools they have changed over the years they're open from 7 a.m until 6 p.m with children in the schools now they're not like they used to be the teachers and principals do not want us in there the parking is awful um so we are looking into trying we found the middle and high school to be the best choice right now we talked to the principals they're in agreement that the teachers could park in the knoll is that i'm not sure and we would keep the back parking lot open for voters we could fit all 14 precincts in there if we wanted to police i've talked to the chief we could there would be no parking issues you could park along both sides of the high school on
▶ 19:17 election day and the disruption would be a lot less than it is for the elementary schools i think you're talking once a year to maybe twice a year during a state election so we're still in the process of trying and the thought would be the the high school gymnasium is that right yes the high school middle school combination I guess I'm not sure with it that much I've gone and I've seen it and I know that we could do it other cities Stoneham I don't know if you've ever been they do everyone's lined up so you have wards lined up in a row and you block them off so you still have a check in and check out yeah and it's all divided still with early voting which we're thinking could possibly become a permanent thing people could do the early voting and that
▶ 20:02 would eliminate some of the election day traffic and people and elderly or seniors that can't get out can still still have the option of absentee voting and having a ballot mailed to them so it's we're hoping to work do you know how much longer this subcommittee will be meeting or where I think we're at the point where we want to present it to the mayor and see what he says and then present it to you guys and see where just see where we stand because once we get approval from you it then has to go through the state and it has to be right through the state no it's an interesting it's a good idea to at least take a look at it you know from feasibility and also economics economy a scale perceptive as well because you know you'll need less
▶ 20:54 Michael P. Zwirko: details definitely help our DPW budget it would help the police budget we still would need all the poll workers you still by law have to have so many people check in still the same precincts it's just one one area to vote right it would make life easier that's that's a good job to at least take down take over the endeavor of that because it's a it is impactful on the schools yeah you know it's time I think things times have changed and it's just not feasible to be in all these elementary schools anymore and you you um you mentioned the early voting does that I know that because correct me if I'm wrong but when you before us in the the fall you had mentioned that because we hit over 20 000 registered voters we
▶ 21:38 Michael P. Zwirko: got like a little bit of um extra money from the state to assist with uh early voting we did so um early voting will occur um in 2018 or will it that's up to the state okay so we don't that's too far off right now they're considering it and they're probably going to do it but they have not officiate but that won't occur um for the the municipal election i believe if it changes in the state then the cities will be allowed to do it for their municipal okay elections as well because my question on that was just going to be if this budget uh assumes early voting for the fall yeah no it won't happen okay it couldn't happen that fast okay well that was all the questions i had thank you mr chairman thank you thank you alderman Zwirko alderman wright please
▶ 22:24 Francis X. Wright Jr.: thank you mr chairman um following up on all the minister's work those questions would be guys to early voting do you know what that ultimately cost the city i think we figured it out at one point but it looks like there's about a fifteen thousand dollar difference between what you're asking for this year and which is twenty five thousand and uh for salary at least for the salary line and um in the almost forty thousand you spent last year so i'm guessing most of that difference was early voting it was yeah well we remember we opened on a saturday we stayed open oh yeah no i realized you're 11 days or whatever yeah we had to do it again we would need more stuff i mean it was just that crazy that we couldn't handle the amount
▶ 23:09 Francis X. Wright Jr.: of people to put them through and we did it in this room and it worked out well but it was you know you couldn't i just want the people look at the budget i want them to understand how you can have a 15 000 difference from year to year and your salary line that's early voting was a big part of that i assume right it was just because you touched on it i will say uh i'm interested and i keep an open mind with regards to one centralized voting location but um as someone who represents a ward with the levi gould and the fuller house and even the cephalo house and having stood out there on election day and seen the seniors walk over to the bb school and vote on Election Day I really have to be convinced I guess that it's in their
▶ 23:56 Francis X. Wright Jr.: best interest because we're going to we're going through all these new lengths with early voting etc to to make it easier for people to vote and when it comes to the elderly who live in and around the BB school particularly those in that the elderly housing I don't want to make it more difficult for them and I know me at my age and I'm a creature of habit and I'm gonna want to vote on Election Day and that may prove true with the elderly as well and I hate to see if it's a cold rainy day and I'm trying to get with the rest of the city over to the high school or the middle school so I mean we'll save this discussion for another day but voting we can choose to have more than one location if we have the staff we can open up at some of the elderly places
▶ 24:51 Francis X. Wright Jr.: and have the voting right in there sure BB is one of the schools that don't want us here you know that's one of the ones they have very handicapped people it's a new lease so I mean we work with them I mean we do and I've spoken with them there and you know the same collaborative no I understand but I mean that's the deal they made with the city and right I know we have other schools that we need to consider but and I don't want to pursue this too much because we're here for the budget but since the door was open I wanted to make sure I touched on you know I have an open mind but I that's an issue that there will be of concern to me so thank you thank you mr. chairman thank you alderman Rita alderman MacMaster my goal is please thank you I also was
▶ 25:33 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: wondering about the salary line but i don't i i thought you also said because we had three elections last year this year plus it's from year to year depends on what the state will reimburse us so it's different right you never know what's gonna what they're gonna give us and what obviously you're anticipating even if we had early voting that would be enough to cover it we will not have early voting i know it will not be an option it will not be an option um the only The only other question I had was you do frequently mention to us the condition of the voting machines. You have nothing in this budget that reflects any new machines. Well, that will not come out of my budget. We have put the bid actually together today, and it's going.
▶ 26:13 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: So I didn't realize that I had to put it out to bid because there was only one company that makes the machine. But according to state law, it still has to go out to bid. So I put that together today with the help of DPW. going to get it on to combine and put it up for June 30th is the deadline okay and we're going to order the machines but that is coming out of capping different than my budget capital money cap something okay so okay so we will have that to look forward to regardless of how many voting places we have and all places we have every precinct and Ward will have to continue to have the same number of machines. Great, great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Alderman McAteer-Margolis.
▶ 26:59 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Inferno, please. Just a quick one. Just so the public, if they're just tuning in and getting little bits and pieces of this conversation, that we are still voting in the same places that you have always voted in for the November 7th election. Thank you. A very salient point. Is there a motion on this budget, please? Motion to recommend the bottom line. Alderman McAteer-Margolis has made a motion to recommend this budget for passage to the full board, duly seconded by Alderman Search. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. The next budget, we thank you very much for your attendance ladies, and thank you for your presentation.
▶ 27:45 The next budget we have before us is budget 221. This is the Melrose Fire Department in the amount of $4,325,419.59. Good evening, Chief Larry. Good evening. First, I'd like to thank Mr. Del Russo and his staff for assistance in developing the FY18 budget. There's a couple of changes. The salary and wages line increased due to the firefighters having a new contract. We had an increase in the overtime line by $50,000, and we had an increase in the vehicle repair line by $20,000. Thank you very much, sir. President Kahn, please. Chief, can you go over your staffing levels for us, please? Sure, 57 firefighters total, seven captains, nine lieutenants, 40 firefighters, that included in the ambulance budget.
▶ 28:47 Either of those firefighters are from the ambulance budget, and myself. And how many positions are funded through the ambulance enterprise budget? Eight firefighters. And there are only firefighters, no superior officers? So essentially the ambulance enterprise budget is really part of the fire budget. So we've got 4,325,419 and And we have 887-544, so that's what's available for the fire department to spend, is that correct? Correct. And in terms of overtime, you've got 365 that you've budgeted in your fire budget. And then there's another 120 in the ambulance budget. So the total you have available for overtime is $485,000, is that correct? Yes. And do you foresee being able to pay all overtime in the next fiscal year with that $485,000?
▶ 29:55 It all depends on injuries, sickness, military leave. How many people do you have out long term right now? Rita now we have two on family leave and one on long term injury. And do we have anybody deployed in military service? No, we had a member that was out for two years who returned this past October. And are you aware of any planned retirements in the upcoming year? They don't tell me anything. And are there any promotions that you're going to need to make during the upcoming year? Nothing's scheduled. That's all I have right now. Thank you, President Kahn. Is there a motion, please? Motion to adopt the bottom line. Alderman Tramontozzi has made a motion to recommend the bottom line of the fire department budget to the full board for passage.
▶ 30:51 Peter D. Mortimer: Said motion duly seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. The next order we still have before us with the chief as well is budget 291. It is the emergency management department in the amount of $4,900. No changes to this budget this year, a couple of things over the past year. We received a grant for $6,400 through the Emergency Management Performance Fund, where we purchased 81 portable radio batteries for both police and fire. We received the Commonwealth Security Trust Fund grant for 19,000 for equipment related to active shooting. We added two portable gas generators to the sheltering equipment.
▶ 31:43 Peter D. Mortimer: And that's it. Thank you very much, Chief. Any questions, comments, or motions, please? Motion to recommend the bottom line. Alderman McAteer-Margolis has made a motion to recommend the bottom line for the emergency management budget. Second. Duly seconded by Alderman Zwirko. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this budget will be recommended to the full board for passage. The next order we have before us tonight is an appropriation. It's 2017-145, it is an appropriation from ambulance related earnings in the amount of $141,984.32 to the ambulance reserve, retained earnings account, and ambulance equipment. Please continue, Chief. So this appropriation is two-fold.
▶ 32:34 First, we want to purchase an additional Lucas device, which is the CPR machine. Our goal was to get four units. This will bring us up to the four. We'll have one on each engine company, one on the ladder, and one on the rescue. That's for $14,000. And the second part is to increase our free cash or reserve cash in the ambulance fund to $150,000. Thank you very much, sir. President Kahn, please. And what is our objective here with ambulance free cash? And maybe Mr. De La Rosa is better to address that. We have a budget of $887,000. We have free cash for $150,000 if we approve this order. Where are we going down the line with this, Mr. Delegate? I may be the Chair, thank you. Two-fold, the original objective was if we could provide approximately 10% of
▶ 33:33 the revenue that's taken in by the ambulance, which is a million dollar operation, for $100,000. What we've asked for this year is to increase that to $150,000 for a couple of reasons. We like to always be able to essentially retain $100,000 in the fund at all times, for all purposes, for the extraordinary nature of the things that may happen. The second thing is, we found, and the chief can speak to this obviously better than I, that during mid-year there were some capital items that come up defibrillators and things of that nature that come across his desk for equipment, life safety. That he wants an opportunity to be able to purchase those without corrupting, if you want to call it, the $100,000 that's set aside in reserve fund.
▶ 34:24 And so we felt collectively that if we had 150, there's room in there. So when those events do occur, which they do, he'll have an opportunity to ask this board for authorization to purchase that equipment and still retain the $100,000 in the fund overall for the rest of the year. Is this a fund where you anticipate continuing to raise the level of it year by year? No. Because to be honest, and I don't have a problem with $150,000 seems like not an unreasonable amount, But after hitting that mark, it would seem to me I'd be much more comfortable using excess monies to fund things like overtime rather than going into free cash to fund overtime. And if I may, through the Chair, to confirm my prior statement,
▶ 35:17 Peter D. Mortimer: there still remains just under 35,000 of free cash that we are not going to appropriate. That we're simply going to let it roll over into next fiscal year. that we could have had before you tonight to put into the reserve fund, but we chose just for that reason not to. And to cap it at 150, let the rest just flow over into the next fiscal year. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, President Kahn. Seeing no further Alderman wishing to be heard, is there a motion please, Alderman Zwirko? So moved. Alderman Zwirko makes a motion to recommend this budget for passage, duly seconded by Alderman Inferna. Seeing no further discussion, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
▶ 35:56 Peter D. Mortimer: Hearing none, this order will be recommended to the full board for passage. Thank you. The next order we have before us is order 201, you're welcome. The next order we have before us is order 2017-144. Fiscal year 18 ambulance enterprise fund budget in the amount of $887,544.99. So again, I'd like to thank Mr. Del Rosso and his staff for their assistance developing this budget. After consulting with Mr. Mergendahl from PRO in the auditor's office, we've decided to maintain the current rate structure for the following year and not look for an increase. The only change to this year's budget was a decrease by $17,000 in the salary and wages line. This was due to the removal of the EMS training coordinator's position for FY18.
▶ 36:45 Thank you. Thank you, sir. President Kahn, please. Yeah, for members of the public who are watching it at home, this is an enterprise fund. And what that means is that this budget is funded based on the revenue that the city takes in as a result of running the ambulance service. So this is not money that's coming out of the general fund. It's money that's being paid by probably primarily insurance companies for services rendered and it's being utilized to fund this budget. Thank you President Kahn. Alderman McAteer-Margolis please. Thank you. Chief, thank you for putting this together with, and Mr. DelaRusso as well. You indicated that the reduction was because of an elimination of the EMT training position?
▶ 37:33 PMS training coordinators, yes. And was that held by a staff member? Was that someone outside? This was a position that was never filled. It was, we weren't able to come to an agreement with the union in implementing the position. This was paid for half by the fire budget and half by the EMS budget. I see. So, we could not, we weren't able to fill it in, so the money was removed and used elsewhere. Uh-huh, and was it removed from the fire budget as well? Yes. It was, okay. So, but you do have a training program or a sufficient- Well, we could use, we do training, all the groups do things together, but it would be helpful to have someone coordinate it, and that was the goal of this position.
▶ 38:24 Peter D. Mortimer: I see. A couple years ago. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Seeing no further, Alderman, wishing to be heard. Is there a motion? Motion to approve the bottom line. Second. We have a motion by Alderman Zwirko to recommend the bottom line for passage on this order. Fully seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this order will be recommended to the full board for passage. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Mr. De La Russo. Before I entertain a motion to adjourn, I wanted to report back to the committee. As we discussed on last Thursday, the 18th, In the section of the charter, we had our charter committee represented by Alderman Zwirko and Alderman Tramontozzi
▶ 39:18 Peter D. Mortimer: with some recommendations that came out of that charter commission. And there was a question of language on Thursday night last, May 18th, as to whether when the old charter says the aldermen need to take action before June 15th, whether taking action means a full up or down vote, or whether that could mean setting a public hearing. And I asked our city solicitor, Robert Van Campen, for clarification. And it is his opinion that setting a public hearing would be sufficient to satisfy the language of taking action. So at some point in the near future, we will set a public hearing. that people may come forward, we'll probably wait until the budget is done or almost near done. So we can discuss the implementation and institution of a new charter.
▶ 40:18 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you for your indulgence in letting me report back to that. And I think now that's all business done unless anyone has anything else. Motion to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn from Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Second. Duly seconded by Alderman Zwirko. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. opposed, hearing none, we are adjourned. Thank you, one and all.