Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2017-06-08

Transcript

▶ 33:25 Peter D. Mortimer: It is 8.02 in the evening. Is there a motion to commence the public hearing, please? So moved. Second. Alderman McAteer-Margolis has made a motion to commence the public hearing scheduled for this evening. The public portion of the public hearing is now open and members of the public are welcome to come forward and address the board with questions or comments. Good evening, Mr. Pellrott. Good evening, everybody. you see you good evening would you uh brian 70 howard street melrose thank you sir for all the people that are at home where are you okay so i'm here to talk about the water bill and uh the water rates and i'll keep it short the first thing i want to talk about is why the city has eliminated

▶ 34:15 out of the each department's budgets the water line because now it seems like i'm paying twice i'm using my real estate taxes to pay for the budget and yet the water rates are paying for a good amount of that budget i'm not picking on the firefighters here but those guys work 24 hour shifts they're entitled to take as many showers as they need to they work a hard job I wouldn't do it but that should come out of the fire department budget all those showers I don't know that's just me thinking about the school and all the athletes that take showers that this is a lot of water guys these should be line items not just in the general everybody pay for it next I'm pretty sure you guys are gonna talk tonight about how you're not gonna raise

▶ 35:18 the water rates which is awesome but a couple years back a consultant was brought in and the city was encouraged to start a surplus fund in case something happened now i'm hearing we can't take the money out of that surplus fund because it'll hurt our bond rating well it would seem to me that with the water rates too high and now we've learned that the surplus fund fund is overfunded why we can't take some of that money back to drive the rate down on a one-year thing take the excess pay down some of the debt and not charge it to us and then the last thing i just want to talk about is that i don't think the two-tier system is working the way it's currently set up the 2000 cubic foot limit before going into tier two

▶ 36:26 is not enough for the average family as everybody knows here i have five children they all live at home everybody also knows as i've spoken before that i have a shutoff valve and i don't let my kids take long showers but i just want to show you my last two water bills the one i just got in the mail is 746 dollars and 60 cents the previous water bill i got in march was 823 dollars and 13 cents you got to be kidding me guys i have state-of-the-art appliances I'm conserving as much as I can but a family of seven is not the average a family of five is the average in Melrose and you can't do it on 2,000 cubic feet per quarter it's impossible so I'd like you to look at that tonight and maybe adjust the rate so maybe twenty three twenty four hundred cubic feet is the

▶ 37:38 threshold before you go into tier two because you know as I've just spoken my water bill is going to be over $3,000 this year I didn't water my lawn last year because of the water bill and now I'm paying the price because my lawn burnt up and I'm paying just as much money to reseed it so I don't know which way i would win but once again if you could look at changing some of the threshold limits and look at a one-time withdrawal from the surplus fund to pay down some of the debt would be cool thanks thank you very much mr pelrine any other members of the public wishing to come forward Mr. Pellerine just gave you an example of how these illegal water and sewer rates impact his family. And I use the word illegal deliberately because they are illegal.

▶ 38:50 Chapter 165, Section 2B says that you can have an increasing block that fairly reflects the resource demand of high-volume users. The Pellerin's family, whether you call them a high volume user or not, and frankly most residential use isn't really high volume in this sense, but he's not causing any more resource demand to the city of Melrose in any way, shape, or form, and a flat water rate is what the legal rate would be. For those of you that want to feel good about yourselves, that you're doing honorable work here, year after year after year, you have voted to have an illegal rate structure against the law, the Mass General Laws, how they're written. Is that what your oath of office is, to violate the law in your vote for the water and sewer rates?

▶ 39:41 I'm being vociferous, right? But you're sitting there passively taking actions, just accepting whatever is told from these people over here that seem to flagrantly want you to violate the law, but you're the ones they're asking to violate it. They're not. They're leading you on. You're violating the law. It's illegal what you're doing to Mr. Pellerine. It's illegal what you're doing to so many people. Some of the other elements you do are egregious, not necessarily illegal. I think certainly probably a citizen group could go to Middlesex Superior Court and file an action saying that the city is illegally assessing the water and sewer enterprise funds for costs that aren't caused by those rate payers.

▶ 40:24 you know you almost slipped something by me here when i got in here and i hadn't looked at the whole agenda i just found another 550 000 you're going to stick it to the water and sewer fund for roadway improvements the 1.610 million dollar um bond and and other appropriations 550 000 of that is water and sewer combined with the 220 i talked about earlier that in itself is 770 000 that you're sticking it to the water and sewer rate payers, you're making Mr. Pellrine pay for replacing roads that Mr. Pellrine shouldn't be paying with his water bill. He's glad to pay it. He's glad to pay it as his fair share through his taxes. But to punish him because he happens to have five great kids is ridiculous. When I did a

▶ 41:19 quick edition of the money grab of the water and sewer enterprise fund just for proposed for fy18 i came up with nearly three million dollars that the city is sucking out of the water and sewer enterprise fund out of both of them three million dollars you're charging to mr pelrine's family that ought to be born by some of the high value properties in the city through the tax base now i understand there's a prop two and a half limit Somebody in the city has to be an adult and say we have to spend within our means and within what the law allows us to spend under Prop 2 1⁄2. These are basic functions. You know, you're all running for election this year, right? Do you really want to go on record and say you're going to sock it to the Pellerine family,

▶ 42:11 that you're going to do things against the law, against 165 Section 2B, that you're going to basically have a money grab because nobody here wants to make the hard decisions about what we really should be funding whether in the schools or the city it's just a big money grab it can't go forever it's not sustainable the growth rate you have of spending is going to bankrupt both the city and the water and sewer enterprise fund as time goes on something's going to break when will some of you start asking the right questions of the mayor of the city auditor The city auditor puts out a number of narratives year after year after year that all seem to be, you know, have all this self-reinforcing language.

▶ 43:07 But, oh, by law, we're doing this and God damn it, we're doing it. Excuse the language. Right. And, oh, because of the law, we're required to do this. Well, Mr. The city auditor overstates the obligations of the city in some of those ways. And I believe misstates them in many times, in many ways, in many times. you know the indirect costs yes there's an argument you made but what the city has a benefit of the water and sewer enterprises of the water sewer infrastructure as i said before and remember we have the easy thing here we have get our water from mwra it's clean it's plentiful it's delivered to us in a great way with plenty of pressure we have a couple little areas where we boost the pressure those aren't significant cost factors on the sewer system mwra takes all

▶ 43:57 our sewage. They build the plants to take care of them. They treat the sewage. They get rid of the sludge. They have the outfall tunnel. They maintain everything. We're not doing that. Doesn't anybody in this room get the idea that you're charging expenses to the rate payers for things, that you're charging rate payers costs that you don't even have in the city? It's time to get this stuff under control. And every year you wait is a year wasted and a year we get further in the hole. Now, there are critical decisions to make I'm not saying it's easy but you all wanted to run for office you wanted to sit in these seats and have the power make the decision make the decision make the legal decision make the right decision

▶ 44:38 don't punish the water and sewer ratepayers because they have a few people in their family extra than the average for the decisions that you don't want to make in this room don't come here and make unanimous decisions all the time that's worthless have a debate have an argument let's see some some independent thinking let's see some creative approaches to things let's see some legal action by this board three million dollars I'm going to say when I calculate here very quickly is two million eight hundred and forty four thousand one hundred eighty nine dollars is what I came up with here that's the money grab that the city is taking out of the water and sewer enterprise fund that you're planning to for FY 18 those indirect costs most of them are specious

▶ 45:22 you know there's some things but still I just looked it up here on the air it's gonna be impossible because you never label the the things but you know by the way if you're gonna show an indirect cost thing you don't just say how many employees you show how many FTE you'll be in charge to the water and sewer enterprise fund not how many employees you're sharing at some level right the FTE the full-time equivalent is what's relevant here so if somebody wanted to actually support the numbers they have here they would give you the FTE they haven't done that here but the legal department you know out of the sewer sewer fund nearly $24,000, right, to the sewer department. Let's see what they say to the water department.

▶ 46:01 Another $24,000, so again, instead of $60,000 we had last year, now we have about $47,600 that you've taken from the rate payers to pay for the city solicitor's salary. I'm not picking on the city solicitor, that's one example. I could take any other thing here. The treasurer's office, really, 46,000 from the water and another 46,000 from the sewer? In the collector's office, the same thing? These numbers aren't real. They're made up. I'm being plain and outspoken about it because when I've tried to speak to you in a rational way and give you the data and provide the documentation, you just refuse to hear it and listen and act appropriately. That's why I'm here, being vociferous about it, and saying to you, obey the law.

▶ 46:55 Respect the people of Melrose. Please. Something's got to change here. Maybe this election season's got to change, but maybe you all could do it tonight. You could start to say, what's the responsible amount here? Again, we went through these, what do you call them, consultants the last few years that gave, with all the money we spent on them and all the time and conversation here, not one bit of justification was made for cost of service analysis that would indicate that you could steal three million dollars a year from the water and sewer rate payers and then the money that you've stolen you're holding it all aside and what's that sitting there aside for you're not using it to the benefit of the water system you're not using the benefit of the sewer system

▶ 47:39 you're holding it aside probably to have some you know behind the scene money grab later on to take that money for some other use instead of what the water and sewer people water sewer rate payers put it out for. Something needs to change here. You need to do your job. You need to I'm sure some of you have taken an oath so many times you can recite it by heart. I'd like you to respect the oath you take of office and obey the mass general laws. But still, simple decency would say you don't charge people for water and sewer more than what the costs of that system are. and that's what you've done year after year after year you've you've you've depended on the flowery language that comes out of the out of the staff of the city and the the the fallacy of the water

▶ 48:30 and sewer rate committee as if they do any real work there it doesn't happen i go to those meetings you can't pretend any longer you need to take responsibility you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you sir you need to take responsibility for this system you are charged with it if you don't want to do the right thing don't run for office this fall do something else let somebody step in here who will take care of the city in a responsible way not keep doing over and over and over of of sticking it to the water and sewer rate payers and sticking other things in other ways as well sorry for being so vociferous tonight i've tried other things in the past and it hasn't worked maybe this will work tonight thank you anybody have

▶ 49:14 any questions for me i'm glad to answer any questions to any degree that you have any uncertainty about the issues that i represent and and portray here as as you well know we don't do things up that way mr right but you don't have it you don't have boros thank you very much for your time i hope you take to heart what i said i hope you actually act in a responsible fashion as the alderman of our good city thank you are there any other members of the public wishing to come forward and be heard at this time seeing none is there a motion motion to close the public hearing mr. chairman alderman Forbes has made a motion to close the public hearing duly seconded by alderman inferno point of order

▶ 49:58 Peter D. Mortimer: Alderman Medeiros are we gonna have any presentation from city staff at this public hearing or yes yes we are that's yeah just give me a chance and we'll get to it as we close the public portion of the public hearing and what I'll do is I will read the order there are three orders that are attached to this public hearing and then the appropriate city officials will come forward and speak on those orders the first order we have is order yes Alderman's work oh please vote on the closing of the public participation what did we need it was that point of order interrupted before the vote thank you a vote on the motion to close the public portion of the public hearing all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none the public portion of the public hearing is

▶ 50:51 Peter D. Mortimer: how hereby closed the first order contained within the public hearing is order 2 0 1 7 dash 1 4 8 amending Melrose revised ordinances chapter 228 Water meters by adding a new subsection C as set forth herein. Alderman Zwirko has made a motion to suspend the rules. Motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor of suspending the rules, we may hear from the appropriate city officials. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please come forward? Good evening everyone. Good evening. opening statement is relative to the public hearing but also spills over on to some of the orders that are before you this evening first of all once again I'd like to thank the the members of the water and sewer rate committee alderman

▶ 52:04 Forbes a CFO Patrick de la Russo city treasurer art Flavin a city engineer Atlanta Pro a casales that have worked on this package of orders for several months and also work diligently throughout the year at operating the infrastructure and also administering the water so enterprise budgets I'd be remiss if I also didn't take a quick second to thank Donna Cardillo and the entire water and sewer billing staff that's now downstairs in City Hall and all of our operations crews that work behind the scenes on a daily basis at administrating collecting bills issuing bills taking phone calls fixing water breaks responding to sewer blocks so I just want to take an opportunity to do that discussions have been gone ongoing for several months concerning the orders

▶ 52:57 that are before you this evening the discussions are conducted openly and in a combined group effort the package before you this evening is historic in the sense that there are no there is no change proposed in volumetric water and sewer rates and a change in only the sewer base fee and not the water base fee for FY 18 I just want to remind everyone that these this package starts in October 1st similar to last year when we shifted the start of the new rate season to October 1st so everything that we propose although minor and change will take it will go into effect October 1st the package also continues to invest in infrastructure it completes the reserve plan set forth by this board of aldermen one year early implements an opt-in monthly billing option for the

▶ 53:56 residents of Melrose that desire it provides the Department of Public Works with adequate staffing and funding for contractual support and the materials it needs to maintain the systems efficiently and to provide high levels of service lastly the package addresses the three main areas of concerned echoed by several members of this board for several years those of affordability stability of funds and stability of increases recall that rate increases in FY 13 that this board in the administration wrestled with were nearly double digits it was followed by two years of 7% increases and two more of five to six percent increases so we've come a long way in our ability to essentially maintain status quo even if it's just for this year also this past

▶ 55:07 year I'm happy to report the seniors and individually owned and occupied condo units were afforded the ability to receive a senior discount through the work of the administration together with this board 71 seniors in our community are now receiving 146 dollar credit due to the expanded senior discount program that we implemented last year at this time one of the main reasons that this package before is before you in the manner that it is this evening is our MWRA assessment our combined MWRA assessment was an increase of only 1.5 percent this year in fact our water assessment actually reduced it's one of the lowest this community has been assessed in several several years although naturally grateful and appreciative of this assessment we speak

▶ 56:04 to you this evening however caution cautioning you of the reasons why in 2016 Massachusetts experienced record drought conditions throughout the Commonwealth in fact drought levels continued well into the winter months and in some areas even in the spring there was still four forecasts out there that showed areas of red in the Commonwealth that were labeled drought conditions areas of the The state that depend on the MWRA as a backup water source turned to them in 2016 for their primary source of water. This resulted in additional water being distributed, essentially sold, by the MWRA to customers that typically don't require these levels or this demand. With more customers to distribute the cost to, our rates were lower than accustomed.

▶ 57:01 to date in 2017 that trend is no longer existent our system this past year is also experienced less leaks obviously reducing our overall consumption that's worth noting as well but that that is something that as you look at the budget you look at the MW area assessments keep in the back of your mind the conditions that resulted in maybe not all of it but a good portion of it also within this budget is the order that with the that is in public hearing right now the request to change ordinance two to eight dash one four by instituting a manual meter read fee over the past two years over seventy eight hundred residential meters and 1,000 deduct irrigation meters have been changed throughout our city in residential homes that represents nearly

▶ 57:56 ninety-four percent of the community residents were sent four letters and most recently received an orange door knocker at their front door requesting that they call the city and allow us to come in and change the meter yet there still remains a small portion of this community that is reluctant reluctant in coming forward this creates a hardship on our operations and our billing group and their ability to read we can't drive by and extract a reading inside a van from a house who doesn't have his meter upgraded so requires the van to go down the street and turn around and then park and get out and get the read and come back the institution of a manual read fee could help us finally reach this

▶ 58:46 these three to four hundred accounts that still exist today that have yet to upgrade and yet to reach back to the to the department within tonight's agenda is also know in order to reauthorize the use of funds already approved and borrowed the meter replacement project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget large and large part due to aggressive bidding but equally in large part due to the work of our in-house billing managers who manually reviewed and adjusted all of the accounts I just mentioned below as they as the meters were being changed when we originally budgeted that we were we were we were forecasting the need of outside consultants however we were so diligent in house and doing it it saved us some money the request before you is to

▶ 59:35 reappropriate those surplus funds to ongoing sewer I&I and water pipeline improvements by splitting to two hundred and twenty thousand dollars equally between those two ongoing programs for use this summer the small increases within the water and sewer operating budgets before you are industry driven with costs of materials rising there is an increase in the meter line and you may question why since we just changed it but that is that's the support the meter reading equipment the warranty and the on-call service plan that we had to put in place now that we're moving forward with monthly billing there are also three other note noteworthy items for reasons of increase in those budgets in both the water and sewer budgets there is a reduction of one employee in

▶ 1:00:29 the operations group a laborer position in the water crew and a truck driver position in the sewer crew have not been funded in the FY 18 budget both positions will be vacant on July 1st due to a resignation and a retirement so this proposal does not lay off an existing employee but rather not doesn't fit doesn't fund filling a vacancy that will exist in two weeks both the water and sewer division staffing was increased several years back some of you were here when we had several several projects ongoing at the same time that nest necessitated not only our ability to go out and do day-to-day things but our ability to go out and have to work with contractors sometimes in two or projects in two or different two or three different parts of the city with

▶ 1:01:18 those days in a rare the administration felt it was time to reduce the staff and streamline costs and I attempt to control spending the budgets also support a new backflow program you'll see that increased in the water budget line we've recently signed a new contract with our vendor that will require a citywide survey the costs are reflected in that line item recall the backflow devices and the annual inspection the installation of backflows and the annual inspection of those backflows is required by the DEP we have to report annually that we have a program and that our program is thorough and that encapsulates all the potential areas that where a backflow could exist lastly I want to I want to state that there is an increase to the pump station

▶ 1:02:09 maintenance line item mainly together with studying roads and water and I and I we also looked at our pump stations we have five sewer pump stations and two water booster stations seems like yesterday we built the water stations but they're 12 years old we had our consultants come in we did a thorough invest investigatory study of all of the pump stations the mechanics behind it the pumps the motors and we came up with a listing and in a sense of small capital improvement for each station so we're going to attempt through this budget to start to address those issues as they come forward so that we can avoid catastrophic collapse in the future tonight our CFO Patrick de la Russo is with me and he'd just like to follow up with some details

▶ 1:03:03 regarding reserve accounts retained earnings indirect costs and some other financial manners as they pertain to water and sewer at the conclusion we're open for any questions that you may have thank you very much mr. Sena please proceed mr. de la Russo thank you good evening for us I want to thank John Shannon the chairman of the water and sewer committee and also all them Scott forbes i think the committee this year worked exceptionally well we made some very hard decisions and i'm very proud of what the committee did and the amount of time that we spent to formulate this year's program i think is noteworthy and i'm very pleased to be part of it having said that i would ask respectfully that you reference the material that was provided particularly my

▶ 1:03:49 memorandum to the board of alderman dated may 1st of 2017. and i want to go to a couple of specific items and i don't have the desire to read the entire package i think that's it's pretty self-explanatory i had also one provided to this board last year but in particular um the second page about talks about what we did and number one and i indicated there's an update that we have submitted funding requests which would accomplish this goal to bring both funds at 10% a year earlier for the reserves and that does two things first of all it demonstrates a commitment to reach your goal which you did a year early and I commend the Board of Aldermen secondly it provides us the opportunity not to to have to have a rate increase to raise reserves so it's it's a twofold win in

▶ 1:04:49 that sense and I'm pleased that we were able to have the reserves to do that secondly if you turn a few more pages in pod D it indicates combined indirect cost for water and sewer and there's additional news here is that for fiscal 2018 11% was the indirect cost and on average eleven point three percent over the last five fiscal years in fact we see the combined indirect costs less by over one hundred and fourteen thousand four twenty one from the prior fiscal year that's a six point five percent reduction in water and a six point five percent reduction in sore so in both cases it assists us into meeting to keep the rate as low as possible but also we did we had to do to meet our obligation

▶ 1:05:49 so I'm pleased on both fronts what asks them the indulgence of the chairman to pass out a couple of documents if I may please do it I think will help clarify some of the information that you may have heard this evening thank you so everyone should have one that has numbers and one that has words let me know on its way around okay thank you I'd like to go first to the one that has letters it indicates city of Melrose indirect costs allocation to service and and i'd like to read those first three bullet points if i may for those here and for those at home because i think it's very important that we have an understanding of what indirect costs are and why we have them the first bullet point that says although indirect costs are not easily

▶ 1:07:26 attributable to individual services they are an essential part of the cost of the municipal government and it is important to include them in the full cost of providing municipal services for this reason indirect costs are allocated to departments and services according to the amount of indirect costs for which they are responsible number two indirect costs are distinguished from direct costs by the fact that they cannot be assigned precisely to various municipal activities as a result the indirect costs allocated to a particular department or service are approximate rather than exact costs sometimes this fact bothers officials who like to have precise cost figures it is important to remember that even though indirect costs are approximations including

▶ 1:08:30 them in the full cost of municipal services results in more accurate cost information than if they are not included at all. The Director of Accounts may reject any community's methodology, written or otherwise, as unreasonable for tax rate setting purposes. It is very important, therefore, that we follow the protocol requested by the department of revenue division of local services and maintain an allocation methodology that is reasonable and calculated in a fair and consistent basis let's emphasize those last two words fair and consistent so let's take a look now at the numbers if you look at fiscal year 14 In total, indirect costs represented 10.7% of the cost of both enterprise funds. In 2015, it was 11.8%.

▶ 1:09:39 In 2016, 11.4%. In 2017, 11.8%. In 2018, 11%. On average, 11.3%. This is consistent and reasonable. Do you know why? because if you take a look at the package I hand it out the second page in all those years the Department of Revenue certified our tax rate with no water and saw outstanding items none so we know what's consistent and reliable I I also want to go one step further, have one more hand up, if I may, to the board. Through the indulgence of the chairman. Please. Thank you. Mr. De La Russo. Yes. I have a request by pantomime gestures from the gallery that they might be privy to some of the documents you've handed out. It's your choice, they're your documents. But if you'd like to, in the interest of transparency, let some people in the audience have some of that document, it's up to you.

▶ 1:11:44 Sure, that's fine. Move for a two minute recess for Alderman second. So, move for a two minute recess by President Kahn, duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, hearing none, we're in recess. We will now call the Board of Aldermen's Appropriations Committee meeting back to order. Thank you. proceed oh thank you very much um what i passed out as you can see it's on a massachusetts department of revenue division of local services okay if you go on the website that is the indirect cost template provided by the department of revenue division of local services to each city in town Now, if you take a look at what is in your packet that I have provided for water and

▶ 1:12:46 soil, it's identical, identical. So the point is that in these categories, these costs did not come out of the sky. We are following to the letter of the law what the Department of Revenue requires of We actually use their template to make that determination. On top of that, here's the tax recap for fiscal 17. This information goes on here. The bottom of this recap, the water and source says, approved by Thomas Guilfoyle. Also, Director of Accounts, Mary Jane Handy. The Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. I think we know what we're doing. I've been doing this for almost 25 years. I stand behind every single number I present to this board, very strongly. And I resent any indication or allusions that anything is inconsistent or improper.

▶ 1:14:00 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. DelaRusso. We do have an order before us. It has been read and on discussion. President Klein, did I see your hand, sir? Yeah, which order are we starting off discussing, Mr. Chairman? The first one, 2017-172, I'm sorry, I'm going to be not in the public hearing session. Yeah, up here. 2017-148, amending Melrose Revised Ordinance of Chapter 228-14, by adding a new subsection C, as set forth therein. Are we going to return to the whole course of business after the public hearing is concluded, Mr. Chairman? These are the next orders in queue. Yeah, I'm just looking at my agenda and trying to determine how we're proceeding. Unless there are suggestions or points of order from other members of the committee, to which I'm certainly open,

▶ 1:15:02 Peter D. Mortimer: We thought that we would take these three orders that are under the public hearing, and then we would proceed to section four. Orders beginning with, we already heard the one on Memorial Hall, so we've done the budget section, so we would proceed to order 2017-171 after we do these three orders. Unless there are suggestions otherwise. I just want to make sure I'm on the right page here. All right. Well, Mr. Chairman, if I could speak to the orders amending the rates for this year, if that's what we're talking about now. No, I think we're doing order 148. Those are part of the public hearing. That's numbers two and three. Would you like to dispose of section- I'll wait till you deal with the first order.

▶ 1:16:00 John N. Tramontozzi: Yeah, we'll deal with the first order first. Alderman Chairman Tosi, please. a question regarding order 2017 that's one four eight um mr shenner what is you say there's what 300 or so homeowners that have not authorized their replacement of the water meters here's i mean rough from this is about 348 i think why what what is the rationale or what is the reason that the homeowners are given for doing that because you hate to see the hat this is not just not reaching out they're not reaching back they're not responding to the letters if you're a homeowner in melrose you received not one not two but four letters from from the department i think the last one even went out in different color paper and a different color

▶ 1:16:44 envelope to try to get some attention we followed up with a door knocker leaving something on someone's front door sometimes that could get their attention these people are just not coming forward so we're not in the business of creating fines or we're not you know we're not police department we don't like to be that this order was brought forward more in the spirit of equity and equality and the fact that you don't know i mean are these are the other are these meters working we don't know um is it other is there a real reason why they won't let us in um are they saving more money by not letting us in i'm not certain of that we can most certainly um see what the summer brings if that's the will of this board but i think bringing the discussion forward in a public

▶ 1:17:32 manner was the right thing to do my staff is frustrated with all the attempts that we've made and you know 7600 plus meters there's a lot of meters that's a lot of appointments there's a lot of people that have come forward um so we're just trying to capture this last audience of 300 280 300 320 whatever it is it changes with every day i mean there's no cost to the homeowners for the replacement of these meetings there's absolutely no cost it's a phone call um well maybe with maybe with the penalty um they'll get their message then i guess i mean that that that's the spirit of the the ordinance change but again if it's the will of this ward if it's the will of the board to table this and revisit it in september that's that's fine the intent was to start

▶ 1:18:20 Peter D. Mortimer: assessing in october we are going to spend the summer with a sixth attempt to reach these homes we're going to send a certified letter what return receipt requested we're going to do that over the summer no matter what because this change was was supposed to go into effect in october um um but the but the discussion should be alive it should be forefront because i think it's the fair thing to do everybody should have the same meter um and and we've made more than enough attempts to try to get people to call okay thank you nothing further thank you very much alderman Tramontozzi. On this order we have in queue Alderman McAteer-Margolis, then Alderman Forbes, then Alderman Medeiros, then Alderman Inferno, then Alderman

▶ 1:19:11 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Lemelman. Please proceed Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Thank you Mr. Chairman. So these approximately 300 households have received multiple letters. When you require a manual read does it mean that the meter reader has to go into the house no we read it from the outside you can read it from the outside majority of these yes could be read from the outside so has there been any well first of all have you been able to track those households to know that they have received bills and they are paying their bills we know where they all yeah we know all the accounts and they're active and they're current as far as or some of them most of them are current yes and um have you had any consideration as to sending them like in

▶ 1:20:04 the certified letter saying we're sending someone out to read your meter and if you want to make an appointment at that time we can all of the letters all of the letters we've sent have been very um detailed in the sense of why why do we need to access why we're doing what we're doing um i think the last few that went out even said this is your last chance um understand that you know you could be assessed charges that type of language was added with each letter that went out like I said it's it's the will of the board whether we want to pass this and allow us to do this in October or keep it keep it in queue for now until the fall they are all active accounts they're all active accounts people are they're being used the waters being used it's not like somebody's not

▶ 1:20:51 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: living there or something like that no right and the um do you try to do you try to call people on the phone or not not yet we don't we don't have all of the numbers on the accounts and that's something we could try in the future okay um so this would be a 50 manual read fee in addition to the other base charges that would be increasing as well that's how it's proposed yes right okay Okay, do you have any idea of the percentage of those accounts that might be overdue in any way, or? No, I don't have that level. I could try to find out, but I don't have that. That's all, Mr. Chairman, thank you. Thank you, Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Alderman Forbes, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I just have one quick question.

▶ 1:21:37 Scott M. Forbes: You said there were six attempts made for each resident to try to get them to comply and have the meter installed in their residence, am I correct? The certified letter will be the sixth attempt. be the six so there's been five attempts can you just tell me over the course of time how long were those five attempts how long did that start was it a year ago six months ago a year ago dawn when the first letter about march yeah february march of 2016 is when we started the program so over the course of march to june because we cycled through the city so last spring was when they would have first receive their letter okay so one year five attempts this will be number six i kind of answer my question thank you thank you mr chairman thank you alderman forbes alderman Medeiros please

▶ 1:22:26 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you um actually so but but we did this in sections of the city so some sections got their letters first and some of them might not have not everybody on this right which is why i said over the course of the spring of 2016 is when we um not everybody on this list may have gotten six or five attempts yeah right now everybody has received five yes in and i was sort of surprised when you said you haven't called any of them because i thought we had allocated some extra staff to water and sewer to make calls specifically about the meter changes and no like I think even the mayor's secretary at one point was having one day a week to help with the meter replacement oh she they filled it they filled it a lot of yeah we're not making calls out yeah not me we have not made

▶ 1:23:17 Monica C. Medeiros: calls out okay I would like to see us make some calls out you know there's no you know if I could just point of order I mean try to get cell phone numbers I a lot of people wait a second that's not a point of order sir all right but i will return to you if you wish to speak again i've spoken thank you that's all right uh alderman Brodeur you still have the floor yeah i mean i'd like to see us try to make some calls because you know this is something that there has been no you know there's been no thought that there's going to be any consequences because there wasn't anything on the books for not doing this i know some people don't want these meters in their house because they emit a radio frequency and they have some fear of that

▶ 1:24:01 Monica C. Medeiros: you know and I know some people are afraid you know maybe right or wrong that they think their water bill is going to go up if they get a new meter you know and you know right or wrong those kinds of fears are out there and you know this is proposed as a manual read fee and you know so of course we're allowed to charge fees for different things and certainly if it costs more money for us to go out and manually read somebody's meter that would be an allowable thing that we could charge for but i think you know fifty dollars a quarter is kind of excessive for a manual read fee and they should really be for you know the cost that it is to go out and manually read it so you know i i'd like to see us you know try and and make some calls and get this number down a little bit

▶ 1:24:55 Monica C. Medeiros: before october you know i'm not opposed to charging a manual read fee but it would have to be you know justified in a lot more how we're getting fifty dollars and making sure that we're not overcharging because i'm sure it doesn't cost fifty dollars to send somebody to the door to outside to get out of the van and and read it and enter a couple things in the computer you know so that's that's where i stand for this right now thank you thank you alderman Medeiros alderman inferno please thank you very much uh mr chairman first of all i do want to thank you for all the work that you gentlemen um and ladies do and to thank alderman forbes for all that he has given to the water and sewer i know he has taken his role very seriously and been very diligent about

▶ 1:25:43 Gail Infurna: attending the meetings and things I am also concerned about a $50 per quarter charge what I would like to see of another letter put out with maybe the fact that we're looking into making a quarter you know charging a fee if they don't do it you know not just you know if the will of the board is not to pass this tonight you know maybe another letter could go out to say that you know we're looking into charging a fee per quarter if you know so please you know call us and get this done so I am concerned as much as I don't know whatever reason why people aren't doing it for whatever but I'm concerned about the $50 per quarter and I think we should give them another letter with the thought that if this is not done that you know there's an order before the

▶ 1:26:38 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: board that may that you know could get them a $50 per quarter charge just my thought Thank You alderman inferno alderman Levenman please Thank You mr. chairman thank you very much I just wanted to ask you about the scheduling options for this I know in my personal experience we I think made it to the second letter before we had ours done and that was because you know it's two people working full-time plus which was difficult for options that were available to us to schedule we we actually couldn't make it match with our own schedules to be available until it had been a little bit of time so I just want to make sure if we're talking about this that we're not capturing anybody who's actually making a good faith effort to do this and they

▶ 1:27:20 just have not been able to find a time in their schedule that they could be home have there been multiple or their weekend options evening options things like that that have been available it's a very very good point it's it's it was feedback that was brought back and our discussions with the project team we now offer some Saturday mornings we actually offered I believe some late afternoon opportunities as well for those that come back late late afternoon and we know a lot the weekend to themselves so basic we're basically trying to accommodate people now to to initially know but now yes okay is the long and short answer okay well thank you very good point and it was feedback we were receiving which is why we we switched as the letters progress right to offering

▶ 1:28:04 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: other options thank you for putting in that flexibility so I think I would agree that I would like to see more of a warning of some kind maybe give people some lead time because people are very very busy when you're making your priorities in your schedule you know this might be not something that rises to people's top priority when they're triaging what they need to make time for but if they were facing a potential penalty and they were aware of that with some lead time perhaps they would be able to prioritize it higher thank you mr. thank you alderman lemon alderman's work go for the first time thank you mr. chairman mr. Shannon are these letters going to the property owners or the residents of the homes property owners yeah and do we know if there's a

▶ 1:28:52 Michael P. Zwirko: percentage of this 300 of probably property owners that live outside the city of Melrose I don't have that detail I'm just curious I'm just wondering if this is creating an issue with you know scheduling the changing of the meter so but I appreciate that they are going to the property owners I figured that they were yeah they are they are and again the spirit of the order what is this isn't to raise money this has nothing to do with the rates it was a water and sewer appropriation meeting this is something that's in the forefront of our department we're trying to create equity it was great to get this input it was great to throw the discussion out in the general public and if you're if you're

▶ 1:29:29 John N. Tramontozzi: home and you don't have your meter call us we'll get it we'll come out there we'll change it and and the feedback has been very positive so I appreciate it some questions I had mr. chairman Thank You alderman's work Oh alderman tramit Ozzie are you in queue yeah just something we I mean I don't think we we I don't think we should require any further telephone calls I mean there's a lot of people don't even have landlines uh cell phone numbers are very difficult to uh to to get to uh to get um i mean i think the department has used best efforts to try to get everybody on board i mean i remember when we this board authorized the replacement i think i was one of the few the only one who who didn't authorize the funds to replace the meters but when

▶ 1:30:14 John N. Tramontozzi: since we authorized it and went ahead and did it the idea was to be equal to everybody and get a a new system in place and get those meters reading properly so i mean i think the based on what i hear i think the department has done an adequate job in notifying the homeowners i remember getting my letters and eventually had mine replaced as well so i think everybody should be on board and there's no reason why not if if they get get a bill with a 50 charge first time around that'll send the message that uh they better cooperate um and i don't see why we can't do it i may understand um the the board's thoughts about uh further uh you know warnings but frankly i think we gave enough warning so i i would uh i would move to uh recommend order 2017-148 recommend for

▶ 1:31:11 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: passage second alderman Tramontozzi has made a motion to recommend this order for passage said motion was duly seconded by alderman forbes on further discussion alderman McNaught margolis please um i i just have a question um this fee would be effective october 1st for that that billing cycle that would then be billed like actually in january no october 1st october first okay so um and would it be your intent to notify people with a certified letter before that like within the next month about this and would you be able to check to be sure that um the bills if they as alderman Zwirko asked if the bills were going to the property owner and that was not an that was a non on non owner occupied property that there were some

▶ 1:32:08 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: communication with the tenant or somehow we'll absolutely do our due diligence and bringing that feedback back we'll look at where the bill is going if it's going out of Melrose or a different address we'll do that and if anybody had any kind of particular sensitivity to radio transmission or what did you say it was frequency frequency trip you know and had like a medical issue with that they would be able to we would take those okay thank you I think you're covering as much of the bases as you can in as compassionate away as possible trying to thank you Alderman McAteer-Margolis Alderman Medeiros please thank you yeah and I believe that the current meters actually already emit some most of them probably already emit some radio frequency so I I just because

▶ 1:33:07 Monica C. Medeiros: if we're reading in from outside the house already if that is a concern the ones we probably already funds we already have in their home probably already have that the old ones are wired but you know that's speculation that's the kind of thing like we might find out if we call some people and so concerned we're there to listen they can bring it forward right and I know this isn't about the money or anything but if there's 300 yeah if there's 300 meters out there that aren't changed over and you know we're billing them at $50 a quarter and that's you know $60,000 of revenue that the city is going to bring in in the next year so that's is the sort of significant amount of money but I was hoping that we could should this pass and go forward to the full board if

▶ 1:34:01 Peter D. Mortimer: we could please mr. chairman get a recommendation from the city solicitor of whether or not charging $50 as a fee to manually read the meter would be legally allowable as it is probably more than the service an advisory letter from the city solicitor would be a good idea I'm sure our clerk of committees heard your request and we'll communicate with our city solicitor and I usually don't say much I usually just chair but whichever way this order goes and when it comes to like perhaps something on the mayor's blog and something in the local newspapers in a prominent place if we request them to really alert people we worked with the city solicitor and preparing this order so I'm sure you'd be more than willing to cooperate with a letter of some sort if you requested it

▶ 1:34:54 Scott M. Forbes: before the final vote right yeah we are in committee tonight so the final vote would go before a full board meeting alderman Forbes please thank you and I'll be brief I know I'm coming around for the second time and we have a lot of orders here um in every one of your letters you have your contact information to reach out and schedule an appointment to have the meter replaced i assume that is correct in me saying that it's correct all right so we have five letters with contact information encouraging people to reach out so we can install a water meter that is of what cost to the taxpayer zero zero we're sending one more letter out that'll be six and this does not take place until october first correct that gives them plenty of lead time to get their stuff together if someone was ordering

▶ 1:35:40 Scott M. Forbes: comcast and they had a four-hour window i'm sure someone would take a half a day off of work god forbid someone doesn't have television in their home this is a free installation of the water meter it is of no cost to the to the resident there are only 400 accounts that are left and we've given them ample notice and plenty of opportunities to come out and coordinate this with the city so i don't see any reason why this order shouldn't pass this evening i understand people may think 200 a year is a little bit on the high side but if you install the meter it costs you zero so install the meter thank you very much mr chairman thank you alderman forbes we do have a motion before us from alderman shermatozy to recommend this order for passage

▶ 1:36:29 Peter D. Mortimer: duly seconded by alderman forbes seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed uh could i see a show of hands on the opposed please uh the motion to recommend for passage does pass uh in this order will be recommended to the full board for passage no not in committee in committee it's just a majority on your point of order that's a point that is a point thank you very much but it's a denied point of order I'm for paper so the next order we have before us is order two zero one seven dash one four six it is amending Melrose revised ordinances chapter 228 article 2 section 228 dash 15 water rates established as set forth herein and first in few we We have President Kahn, but before I call on him, I will put it out there for your consideration if anybody would like to think about joining these orders.

▶ 1:37:35 President Kahn, you have the floor. Yeah, I was thinking back to when we considered this last year. And last year, some of you might remember that it was my idea and my position that we should continue to add to the reserve funds we did not continue to accumulate reserve funding that we would be able to keep the water rates from increasing nope I don't think anybody agreed with me last year but actually I'm sorry but one person did but I'm glad that the water and sewer committee held the rates It's steady this year, I'm glad that we're not continuing, with all due respect to Mr. Delruso, that we're not continuing to add to the reserves because I well know that nobody's ever going to let us spend any money out of any reserve account without downgrading our bond rating or something of that nature.

▶ 1:38:39 So I get concerned about large reserves that can never be used. So I'm going to support this order, which is an order not to raise the water and sewer rates. And I just want to make a couple of comments today. I've been sitting here for 18 years, I've been to hundreds of meetings. Anybody can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I ever called anybody a name in any meeting that I ever was at. I don't think I came in and started insulting people or calling them names if they didn't agree with me. And you indicated that you think that kind of behavior was, how did you characterize that, vociferous? It's not vociferous, it's offensive. It's an offensive way to present. We see this at all levels of our country now.

▶ 1:39:37 If you disagree with me, I'm going to call you names and I'm going to vilify you. I take my oath very seriously. I've come down here year after year. I've come to hundreds and hundreds of meetings, and that is not the way I do business. And that's not the way we do business. And I hope we're not morphing now into a situation where if somebody comes before us and disagrees with us, they resort to name calling. It's not appropriate, it's offensive. Thank you, President Kahn. Medeiros please thank you I are we going to see any more orders coming forth about the monthly billing or is this when this is this is it this is the time to talk about it monthly billing is covered in the water and sewer budgets

▶ 1:40:34 Monica C. Medeiros: in the water and sewer budget want to talk about it now we're here okay that sounds things water and sewer the costs are in the water and sewer budget which the rate support so do bring up you know additional cost so is there any I know this is gonna be an opt-in option I mean it seems to me that going and having the extra billing which is a you know this is a change from what we're offering it seems like it is a convenience to those who are choosing it it seems to me that that that's where we should be probably charging some kind of opt-in fee it has that been considered by water and sewer committee or is that in the works or in the plan or you know conversely give the people who are staying at quarterly

▶ 1:41:31 billing a discount for so costing as much monthly billing has been discussed for several years now since we started talking about changing meters because the technology is in place now to do it what we did is a committee this year is we ran a pilot program we sent about 250 250 or so letters arbitrarily out to the community mix of residential some quasi commercial some mixed to see who would interested in it we got about a 2018 to 22 percent response rate of people that wanted to switch of those 250 plus accounts we piloted that program and now that we knew who was interested we had to figure out how are we going to switch them and the mechanics of it and how are we going to read them when are we going

▶ 1:42:28 to read them when do we have to get the read by so forth or so on we spent the majority of the last six months creating this opt-in program the budget reflects that program being extended to about 30 percent of Melrose figuring maybe the 20 percent response rate was a little low so we increased it we haven't looked at additional fees to switch to monthly billing we haven't looked at credits to stay on quarterly billing we haven't looked at at that component of it because we just don't know enough about it and we don't know what the community is going to desire based on the pilot looks like about 20 you know 2 and every 10 said yes I don't know when we when we when we offer it to other parts and

▶ 1:43:17 Monica C. Medeiros: other neighborhoods of Melrose maybe the response rate will be higher I think once we do this for a year we can figure it out and we may as part of next year's rate structure we could look at fees like that but we haven't because we just don't know we can't quantify how much more is it going to cost or how much less is it going to cost to keep them quarterly well we're just offering the program because it's been discussed for several years here so how much more are we increasing the budget I know you know we have postage line we have postage line but we have we must have some indirect cost because I know we have a staff person in the treasurer's office that's correct that's come on great so

▶ 1:43:54 Peter D. Mortimer: so we've got postage in both accounts and I mean I'm sure you've worked this out so rather than you know me trying to guess what's here in this line item in that I know line item you know what is the I don't have that open so it's hot I think we should stick with the orders I that we have and then when we get to that budget line we can go to the line by line and look at that because I don't have that open i'm trying to concentrate on i i understand your point of order um but i think the ruling of the chair will be that i'm going to deny your point of order i think there is a slight nexus between this billing program and what the rates actually are as it's contained within the rates i i will ask you alderman medeiros however to consider alderman inferna's

▶ 1:44:54 Monica C. Medeiros: point of order and try to uh narrow your scope of inquisition at this time please right so it's it's uh it's a little bit tough because obviously we're trying to make sure that we're not you know setting you always have to balance setting the rates and you know voting for the budget at the same time and obviously the cost of what we're going to set the rates you know the rates are going to pay for the cost and they shouldn't be paying for more than the cost and so that's the challenge that we have all the time especially we have this challenge when we have the I'll just take a minute to talk right especially we have this challenge when we have the tiered rate structure that we have and it does

▶ 1:45:35 Monica C. Medeiros: create always a little bit more the more moving parts the harder it is to predict different things so obviously as we're starting something new we have some different parts so we can talk more about that when we get to the budget I i think it is something that people want is the monthly billing as an option but you know i think maybe now is the time to be looking at this rather than going into it so any change like that wouldn't happen until october as well or monthly billing letters would start to go out over the summer so that we could implement in october okay so i see mr. Dolores has come back to the table yeah mr. Flavin's working on that as we're speaking mom okay so there's 20 there's $23,000 in the treasurer's

▶ 1:46:41 budget twenty three thousand one hundred fifty six dollars to be exact and the treasurer's budget that that new position is going to support the increased volume of monthly bills we have a seventeen thousand dollar position in engineering it's an engineering clerk who does engineering and all things water and sewer I think that 25% of her time which is about seventeen thousand dollars is going to be due to the additional volume and then there's thirty one thousand five hundred and postage increases and how much in increases I'm sorry 1,500 that's between water and sewer roughly you're all Alderman MacMaster my goal is 71,000 I'm sorry 81 5 about seventy one thousand five hundred dollars to implement the new system and well I hope we do

▶ 1:48:03 Monica C. Medeiros: consider that because that's and and we have about eighty two hundred accounts is that correct it's about eighty four hundred account eighty four hundred accounts so we expect somewhere along the lines of I heard mr. Flavin say thirty percent of them earlier that would be about twenty five hundred accounts so perhaps we can you know do some breakdown based on you know twenty five hundred accounts and seventy one thousand five hundred dollar additional costs that we're adding into the budget to make sure that we're not overcharging on on the rates for that but otherwise I want to say thank you I'm glad to see that the indirect costs were able to actually come down on those because I know when we had done when I had done my review last year and looked

▶ 1:49:00 Monica C. Medeiros: at the difference between FY although it's only you know gone up as a percentage of the water budget about the same percentage when you look at this over time the actual dollar amount that we you had been spending from FY 13 through FY 17 that were in there was an increase in water of indirect cost of 41 percent and an increase in sewer of 55 percent so you know it certainly is good to see that there's a decrease there and this year and then to see that we're able to keep these rates steady I too hate seeing the money you know go into the reserve account and not being able to be used to either you know keep in the in the ratepayers pockets or to be used to be able to bring down the cost operating system thank you Thank You Alderman Medeiros Alderman Zwerchel

▶ 1:49:59 Michael P. Zwirko: please Thank You mr. chairman I do appreciate the fact that we were offering the option of monthly billing you know I use it with the heating in my own house it's very helpful that's great and I'm glad that you raised the issue of the mailing cost that's one of the questions I was gonna bring up so thanks for addressing that so I'll try to be very quickly is there has there been any movement or you know I'm thinking about this in a suite of services that the city could offer especially with the improvements we've made in the assessors level and other GIS technology but is there any way to that a homeowner or a resident could actually pay these bills online without having any mail I mean it'd be nice to be able to go into like a portal and say you know geez here's

▶ 1:50:36 your property tax bill here's your water bill and you could pay it online that would reduce costs from a mailing perspective I just asked that it's something that at least be looked into maybe it's a future state I'm gonna ask the treasurer to join us i think he's he's working on that thank you you opt out to not mail the bill the problem is to get to the online system you need the bill otherwise people will be in everybody else's bills so in order to get in you got to put in the bill number and the address and the name sure so that we make sure so that you can target and get to the bill that's yours and not go looking around at your neighbors or this one and everything else and or do damage you know you get into an account you can open up an account with the new

▶ 1:51:30 Michael P. Zwirko: suite of systems that we have you can open it up what it will allow is an auto pay i don't think we can get out of mailing a bill that's illegal i didn't get the email what if they change their email you're going to keep track of their emails i mean it's just it's the paper bill is right now for the most part necessary well and that's why i was saying if you could go into the system and see what your bills are versus having a bill mailed to i mean i know that i have a code that i have to put on my memo line when i get my water bill you know i understand that but i'm not i'm not saying this is easy and i appreciate the work that's being done to move towards that i just know that there's a cost of postage and in the paper for security reasons no i mean i just can't

▶ 1:52:14 Michael P. Zwirko: and um do you know how many times people come in when we do mail the bills i never got the bill bill I mean that's we got to hear that 30 times a week and they got the bill it just got stuffed in a magazine or they put it on the table and whatever but it's I if we they opt out now and the property changes hands how are we going to know so I mean it's just it's it sounds like a good idea and maybe down the line there'll be some kind of opportunity to do that but right now it's not it's not for this year yeah I mean I understand and um I mean at least you're looking it so i greatly appreciate that work um you know and obviously the most important thing is how you can get the biggest net of your bill paid so regardless of if someone says they didn't get

▶ 1:52:56 Michael P. Zwirko: their bill i mean i under i understand the challenges there it'll take a lot of administration on our end too i mean it'd be another cost to be another per i mean who's going to do all that work um okay well thank you mr the other question i had do you happen to know uh mr shenna are getting back getting off billing um and i know that the past two years there were significant droughts in the northeast specifically in the greater boston area but do you happen to know what our current usage is so far we know where we stand you know i would imagine with the amount of rain that we've gotten at least in the past six weeks that we might be below usage where we were we're significantly below i have the exact figure i don't have it with me it's on my computer i can

▶ 1:53:42 Michael P. Zwirko: forward it yesterday but we're significantly below we're the lowest we've been in the last three years right year to date calendar year to date i'll forward that information to everybody um we we share it amongst the quadrant sewer committee now but um i'll absolutely forward it we are we are significantly lower than where we were and i know that no matt if everybody in the city of meadows never turned on a spigot there would still be an assessment charge that we would have to pay so being significantly lower does that benefit us if we stay let's let's say that this trajectory continues uh you know i'll just throw out an arbitrary number where six percent of usage where we were last year is there a benefit to that or is there a detriment to that i mean is there

▶ 1:54:23 Scott M. Forbes: there are fixed costs that always have to be passed on and a large component of the assessment is that and then then it considers the volumetric piece okay on top of it the um i had i had another another question but I can reserve it for another time those are all the questions I have mr. chairman Thank You Wilderman's work Oh Alderman Forbes please Thank You mr. chairman I know last year we had multiple proposals that were brought forward to the table we had a consultant that was hired to make some recommendations to the water and soup which we in turn recommended to the board and we did decide on a rate program that we're not changing this year could you just explain to the board and also for the

▶ 1:55:14 people watching at home why we decided not to hire that consultant this year well we we implemented a program and the program is not done yet we have any we're in our fourth round of billing right now we don't have a full year's worth of information we don't know how the how you know how it did financially at which we're collecting bills and two sections of the city this month we haven't even closed it let alone when we were started our discussions which is in January of February of this year we had just one quarters worth of information with the new with the new rate system so the right thing to do was to stay the course complete the year and then that now next year we will have a full year

▶ 1:55:56 of information to look back on and and see if tweaks can be made to the system to the two tiers or if we want to change that but I mean I think was kind of that discussion was mute because we didn't have any real data to depend on and that was that was a theme that was consistently apparent in every department that rep does represented on that bullet saying hey you know we have to figure out if this works before we can change it so you know we decided that pretty much very early in the process I appreciate that and I it was almost like I was trying to I wanted you to respond in that fashion just for the sake of when we decide on a plan and we don't want to tweak it immediately because we got to let it play out a little bit and collect the

▶ 1:56:43 Scott M. Forbes: data we're going forward in fiscal year 18 where we don't actually see an increase in the rate so I think that it's it's beneficial for the city in this direction so we can have more quarters worth of data that we can go and analyze and then when we do sit down maybe for FY 19 now we have a little bit of a template in which to make good conscious decisions that will hopefully move the city in the right direction between that and also the I&I that we're doing I think we're gonna see some some short-term fixes that we're doing right now that we've scheduled are going to really yield long-term benefits and then finally I know that we have we had a letter from Phil Taymor in our packet it was a five-page letter that was addressed to the board that issued he

▶ 1:57:29 had a number of of concerns and I know he was addressing cost of a cost of service analysis for water and sewer he addressed the rates I was wondering if I know you guys have that letter mr. de la Rosa do you do you have any any response to that letter I do and I believe that I did submit my response to copies of what that individual to each member of this board and not to belabor the hour but I the only statement I'd like to make that I think summarizes my thoughts on the analysis that was put forward in my opinion the author of these letters demonstrates a severe lack of basic knowledge of municipal finance and accounting and is grossly unfamiliar with municipal budgeting practices therefore the conclusions arrived at by the author would then naturally be both

▶ 1:58:40 incorrect in erroneous which in fact they are and I also told that individual that in multiple emails we did respond. I went over point by point explaining why this was incorrect and erroneous and still that information was not put forward at all. That the city did respond and did explain in English why things are what they are by law. So I was disappointed that we spent significant amount of time putting together information time and time again and it was ignored in my opinion it was not the right thing to do thank you and finally I just want to just touch base now our all of these all of these figures all these budgetary figures water and sewer enterprise funds these are audited by an outside firm am I correct in saying that yes and even more

▶ 1:59:44 than that. They're audited by an outside firm. They're audited by the Department of Revenue. They are audited and provided detail to the certifying bank that we're responsible for, as well as multiple DEP and subsidiary organizations that seek data on our water and sewer operations. It's a wide open gamut. And everyone has access to all information at all times. It's audited once a year by independent auditors. And again, we do everything according to law, period. Always have and always will as long as I'm sitting here. Right, and it's not just cherry sheets you're providing auditors. You're providing layers and layers of documentation to justify the number whenever challenged. Absolutely, in fact, as God is my judge, and you can check with Kerry Gold and in the past, Bridget Guillen,

▶ 2:00:46 when they come in, they actually take a stack like this high of what they require of us for data to go through. It's unbelievable, year after year after year. It hasn't changed. It's only getting a little bit bigger because now they want a little bit more and more every year. But it's quite a thing to watch over these years. and uh actually i'm pleased they do it because it helps me do my job better and i feel more secure that i have different people looking at it from different perspectives to make sure that we're doing the right thing at the right time thank you and then finally um our audited financials available for the general public to view absolutely is that something that we have posted on the

▶ 2:01:29 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: website or is it something that you need to make a request i'll check with that all right i appreciate thank you mr. chairman Thank You alderman Forbes alderman MacMaster Margolis please thank you mr. chairman I want to thank you all and especially alderman Forbes also for his service on this committee and for attempting to assuage the public and their questions I have no personal doubt that you are ethical and doing things the way we want them done for the benefit of the community of Melrose it's unfortunate that we've crossed a boundary here tonight and I find it very very discouraging in terms of being an elected official that we have members of the public that really feel so angry about these issues that they assault our employees and our elected officials in

▶ 2:02:35 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: such a verbal fashion so that being said I did want you to know that you have my support and I think with all of the checks and balances that you have in place with outside auditors I can't see that there's anything egregious really going on here I was happy to hear Alderman Forbes say that you did look at the plan from as it was last year and decide to keep the tiers as the same but that doesn't mean in another maybe by next year if you see what you see you may revisit that the other thing I was inquiring wanted to inquire about other reserves and I'm also happy to see that we reached that even though it might have been a struggle for us with the rates last year for many people and and just to remind people we all live in Melrose we're all paying the same water

▶ 2:03:36 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: bills that you're paying so and believe me last year Joe when I got my $800 water bill because I wanted my lawn and it still wasn't green I wasn't very happy about that either but those reserves are available to us if we need them is that not correct that's correct if I make a point of information to the board because I just to clarify a position the reserves sort of multiple purposes and I don't want to lose sight of that the Department of Revenue came out here in FY 13 14 they told us that they were concerned because we had a a deficit in the saw we had no reserves whatsoever and their concern was that the taxpayer not be burdened by the non-performance of the enterprise funds so the purpose of the reserve let's not lose

▶ 2:04:31 sight is to keep sacred each fund so that they don't spill over into the general fund and all all of a sudden we have to cut police fire or school because we had a deficit in water and sewer that's number one next to the rating agencies that want to see us have reserves because they say if you don't have reserves what do you do when you don't hit your target what will suffer and that can't be something we embrace so we have to take into consideration that and i agree with um the board's position of 10 and i'm so happy that we're out actually already there a year early but they serve many purposes and as well as all due respect to mr shenna that should something happen in mid-year and he needs water and sewer money for a broken pipe or

▶ 2:05:22 sewer which what's he going to do where's he going to get the revenue he needs to be able to have a recourse to some funds to fix broken pipes and that also helps there so it's um it's a multi-faceted purpose but you all we always have to think at the high level we have to keep them sacred in their own way no different than mount hood or the ambulance operation they have to truly sustain themselves the best they can because we ultimately the general fund would absorb any deficit in any enterprise fund and that would not be something i'd want to look at because there's no good options there thank you i apologize for taking no no thank you for the explanation and um you know thank you hopefully to the rate payers who understand that

▶ 2:06:10 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: we had to do that it's just kind of like your own having some money put aside in your house in case you have a leaky roof so um i uh i'm glad that we are able to that we don't have to do it now because we've attained that goal um but that if um necessary those funds can be used absolutely absolutely only on water and soil they can't be used for any other purpose for any other department right thank you mr chairman thank you alderman MacMaster margolis seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard um is there a motion or is there any interest in joining the uh sewer order yes mr chairman i'd like to join uh order number two zero one seven dash one four six in order two zero one seven dash one four seven um thank you very much let me just read one four

▶ 2:07:01 Peter D. Mortimer: seven for the record amending melrose revised ordinances chapter 228 article 4 section 228 dash 30 sewer rates established as set forth here in alderman Forbes has made a motion to join orders 146 and 142nd duly seconded by alderman MacMaster Margolis on discussion seeing none all in favor please say aye any opposed no opposed the two waters are before you all the forms you have a floor if there is no discussion from my colleagues I'd like to make a motion to recommend orders number 2 0 1 7 1 4 6 and 2 0 1 7 dash 1 4 7 Alderman Forbes has made a motion to recommend orders 1 4 6 and 1 4 7 duly seconded by Alderman Medeiros but did she beat you by a hair I thought I oh you didn't okay seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis for the record madam clerk of committees

▶ 2:07:59 Peter D. Mortimer: and seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none these orders will be recommended to the full board for passage thank you very very much you're welcome the next order we have before us is order 2 0 1 7 1 7 excuse me yes 1 7 1 it is a transfer from various public works salary accounts to various public works salary accounts as set forth here in the order is before you we are under suspension the appropriate city officials are before us just had a switch hats see gentlemen this is this is the end of the year housekeeping water obviously everyone's well aware that our department's funded through several budgets people come people go work leaves and vacancies and our ability to quickly restaff when a

Original documents

• Agenda (IQM2 PDF)
• Bulletin (IQM2 PDF)
• Minutes packet (IQM2 PDF)
• Agenda packet (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda packet (IQM2 PDF)
• This meeting on the city portal