Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2018-01-29

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

Attendance

Manisha Bewtra present · Alderman at Large; Robert A. Boisselle present · Ward 4 Alderman; Scott M. Forbes present · Ward 7 Alderman; Gail Infurna present · President/Ex-officio Member; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Chairman; Kate Lipper-Garabedian present · Alderman at Large; Monica C. Medeiros present · Alderman at Large; Peter D. Mortimer present · Ward 6 Alderman; John N. Tramontozzi present · Ward 1 Alderman; Francis X. Wright Jr. present · Ward 3 Alderman; Michael P. Zwirko present · Vice Chairman

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JANUARY 29, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 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 Jennifer L. Lemmerman Chairman Present Michael P. Zwirko Vice Chairman Present Manisha Bewtra Alderman at Large Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian Alderman at Large Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Gail M. Infurna President/Ex-officio Member Present

ORDER-2018-123 Grant Authorization to Submit a Statement of Interest to Massachusetts School Building Authority for High School Roof Replacement Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2018-124 Appropriation An Appropriation in the amount of $750,000 from various accounts at set forth herein to funds #3383 High School Roof and #3384 School Improvements. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2018-125 Transfer A Transfer in the amount of $22,000 from Temporary Debt Interest, account number (017522-549100) to various accounts as set forth herein. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 2/13/2018 11:41 AM Minutes Appropriations Committee January 29, 2018

ORDER-2018-42 Accepting Act of Legislature/Local Option Acceptance of MGL Chapter 60, Section 3D, creating an elderly and disabled tax relief fund for the purpose of defraying the real estate taxes of elderly and disabled person of low income. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 2/13/2018 11:41 AM

Transcript

▶ 0:00 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Good evening. It is 7.30 on January 29th, 2018, and we will bring the appropriations committee to order. My name is Jennifer Lemmerman. I am the chair, and I'm joined this evening by Vice Chair Alderman Zwirko, as well as committee members Alderman Bucha, Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Boisselle, Alderman Wright, Alderman Mortimer, Alderman Forbes, and President Infurna. uh in accordance with mass general law we are recording tonight's meeting it can be viewed on mmtv as well as on the city of morrow's website motion to open the floor for public participation madam chair second we have a motion to open the floor for public participation by alderman

▶ 0:44 mortimer seconded by alderman boycelle all in favor aye aye any opposed we now will open the floor to any members of the public who wish to speak on our agenda this evening good evening hi thank you i'm jerry morose um i have um some comments on on a few different things tonight um first i want to highlight that um at least on the public um portal when i click on order print out it doesn't print out the order it just gives me a meeting portal sign in that i can't get through the i can't get through it on the order printouts and at least some of these um i am able to see some other things by clicking on um the actual um agenda item itself but i just don't know if anybody can pay attention to that because it's not clear what you're seeing that we're not

▶ 1:35 seeing um anyway um on 2018-123 um the high school roof um i'd certainly like to know more about the condition of that roof you know I managed property and you know I have the roof in the high school as I understand it is what's called EPDM ethylene propylene diene monomer and it's a rubber roof and if they're the sheets of rubber don't deteriorate they'll last indefinitely the concerns with those roofs are typically the flashing points in the scenes and typically if you update flashing and seams every ten years or so the roofs last indefinitely and you can do that a fairly small amount my understanding is what that we did that back five years ago six years ago when we were doing other parts of

▶ 2:34 the roof there I do know that back in 2015 there was some in my view undue concern about the amount of snow on the roof and there were people up there shoveling and I I heard somewhere that there was maybe some damage done to the roof at that time but but in general rubber roofs why you put them on there and why you maintain them is so that you don't have to go and replace them at the same time when I look at the cost of this they're saying eighteen thousand square feet and eighteen thousand square feet for looking for the total amount of money here was some seven hundred fifty thousand dollars is hugely over what the cost of replacing rubber roofs is I mean by magnitude over I don't understand

▶ 3:21 what's what's that all about so I'd love to hear what the cost per square or the cost per square foot as long as we have whatever good numbers are but um it just seems I mean 18,000 times that $4,000 it's just it anyway the numbers seem very strange to me so I'd love some clarity in that next thing is is that the order 2018 dash looking for the number in this paper 1-1 25 $22,000 two issues there I I don't believe like when the Messina arts grants were funded at $10,000 my expectation with funding line items like that is that you know they're given a budget amount of money they can get applications and prioritize the grants and fund them and I find it kind of strange that somebody's coming back

▶ 4:22 and saying oh well we give out all our money we now we're going to get more requests we want more money for this fiscal year I don't think that's good public policy by any means because we know in the budget last year there were things that didn't get funded and even at the at their expense that we funded the Messina in $10,000 if there was another $2,000 available in the budget last year we might have done other things with that i don't think this is good public policy to go and extend a line item that's already been funded at at the expense of something else in the first place and then it i there's no identification about the public works administrative expense professional building services twenty thousand dollars i don't you know it's not clear what

▶ 5:03 that is i'm maybe guessing that somebody's talking about using that for um some of the school and the school repairs that are that are in the next another order here which is 2018-124 and that includes some of the money for the high school roof as well as these unspecified school repairs and my understanding is is that there is some money that's allocated toward upgrading the elevate the two elevators in the high school that are having certification issues possibly but also upgrades to the middle school auditorium which I find number one that none of these things are itemized here but what's being done I find that is not really a good public process that just to throw a third of a million dollars

▶ 5:50 toward school repairs and maybe a quarter million dollars toward the middle school in that way it feels like there ought to be a larger public process about evaluating the need for them has a school building committee been involved with this about what they're going to do what is the issue with the stage of the middle school what's the issue with the sound of the lighting the fact that we have deficiencies in that auditorium from day one in my view was the fault of the architect in in specifying the the space in a bad way and to be relying on that same architect which we relied upon for a number of different projects over a number of years i find that as you know maybe we should get a different

▶ 6:34 different opinion about that space and from somebody else that's independent and hasn't um we haven't already paid once to design the place and now we're going to pay them again and the question is would the redesign be any better than the original design that brings me also to the issue of the what is listed here as a banned bond premium and And so, from reading something here, I'm certainly not an expert in municipal bonds. But a question that I have is that it seems apparent that the city somehow agreed to pay a higher interest rate on bonds that were issued in November 2017, just a few months ago. We agreed to be paying a higher interest rate on that, is my interpretation, in return for getting a return premium given back to the city.

▶ 7:23 I don't know, did that come through this board to make that decision or not, so that for the next, whether it's 10 years or 20 years on a bond, that we're paying a higher interest rate to then take money now, and also from reading some of the documentation here, it seems that there was some change in the law that now requires that we use a return premium for capital improvements, unless it's $50,000 or under, and we can maybe do something else with it, and this is clearly way more than $50,000. But this idea that somewhere outside of this body, somebody authorized a higher long-term interest rate in order to get some short-term funds to now use and then recapitalize and kind of do it in this way.

▶ 8:08 I mean, usually when you guys talk about a capital project and bonding it, it's around for quite a bit of time with a lot of conversation. And this seems like a really quick thing that we're just jumping into spending, you know, whether it's a quarter million in the middle school or $100,000 in the elevators. It just strikes me as something that needs more information, and I would love to see more documented in writing, not just what happens to be presented verbally tonight. So that's the end of my conversation. Thank you. Anyone else from the public wishing to speak? motion to close public participation that concludes public participation just quickly before we get to the four items on our agenda I will mention since it

▶ 9:15 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: won't be addressed directly by any of the four on here we are aware that IQ m2 was a bit glitchy this week and was asking for a login to see certain certain links my understanding is you could get to all of the information if not through the order printout and that it was available and the clerk of committees is aware of the issue and working to rectify that with them the first item on our agenda this evening is order 2018-123 authorization to submit a statement of interest to Massachusetts school building authority for high school roof replacement motion to suspend the rules second motion to suspend the rules by Alderman Medeiros seconded by Alderman Search all in favor aye any opposed we're now under suspension of rules thank you to hear

▶ 10:04 Denise Gaffey: from please our city planner and related officials good evening good evening my name is Denise Gaffey I'm the director of planning and community development and I have submitted this order it is a statement of interest asking for the Board of Aldermen to vote to allow the city to submit a grant application to the Mass School Building Authority for in this instance it is to to do selective replacement of the roof over the Melrose High School and this is a procedural vote that's required in order just to proceed further with the grant submission it does not bind the city in any way to subsequently accepting a grant if it is awarded it also doesn't bind to the MSBA to award us a grant but it is it is a it is required that we submit a vote affirmative an affirmative

▶ 11:05 Denise Gaffey: vote from both both the Board of Aldermen and the school committee understanding that we are submitting this grant application so I did present to the school committee last week and received a vote from them so I'm here tonight to ask for your support for this language this is boilerplate language many of you have seen this language before we've done similar grant applications with the MSBA for several different projects including a similar project on the high school roof about ten years ago at that time we were submitting an application through the green repair program in this instance it's the accelerated repair program they were very similar that one was a one-time program what which targeting energy efficiency and sustainability and

▶ 11:45 Denise Gaffey: this one is a program that they offer annually and it's for accelerated repairs it's specifically for boilers mechanical plants windows similar to the project at the Hoover that we have we implemented through this program the window replacement at the Hoover and then also a roof replacement those are sort of the the key projects that they fund through this accelerated pair program so about just and about ten years ago as I mentioned we did replace a significant portion of the roof over the high school at that time we worked with Gale engineering and their professional engineering company and they did a feasibility study on the entire roof for us and they determined that the roof that we're talking about in this application could get another

▶ 12:37 Denise Gaffey: 10 years effectively if we replaced the steam seams at the time so we decided we opted not to do the complete roof replacement on this segment of the roof and this happens to be the roof that's over the Learning Commons area that we just made a significant investment in and so ten years ago we we repaired that to extend the the life of the roof by about ten years which is where we are about now or we will be one this this if we're lucky enough to get funded for this project so so we think it would be it's it would be good proactively to apply at this time because we are having some water infiltration that's occurring into the space which is obviously very disappointing giving the investment into

▶ 13:24 Denise Gaffey: the Learning Commons and we would like to be able to replace the roof the way we did on the other areas ten years ago and that was with significant amounts of insulation and a white roof so it's a very sustainable roof design and at the same time we'd also do the fall of the flashing and masonry repairs so there are obviously other ways that water can infiltrate into your building not just through the rubber roofing materials but through the masonry and through the flashing and we were unable to we didn't make those kinds of repairs over this particular area of roof ten years ago so that's essentially what this what this project would be so we're applying for the grant application it's due on

▶ 14:07 Monica C. Medeiros: February 16th we would find out sometime later in the spring if we're asked to proceed forward and at that time of course we would have to come back in order to to get further votes and from the alderman for funding for feasibility and for authorization to proceed forward thank you and so I still have the floor so could you talk a little bit about the process that we got here I know we've been receiving periodically reports from different committees at our regular full board meetings but I don't think that we've had one from the school building committee for a little while has has this gone through the school building committee is this a little bit of an emergency kind of situation or yeah it

▶ 14:51 Denise Gaffey: isn't it isn't it hasn't gone through the school building committee we have just frankly we're just I'm aware and through you know my relationship with John Shenna who manages the facility there I'm aware of some of the water you know issues that have occurred through the roof and through the masonry and flashing and so we know you know and I'm also aware that this program exists so we thought it was a good opportunity to take advantage of it does the school does this require a vote of the school building it doesn't require this vote of the school building committee but if the project were to move forward and would absolutely require the support support of the committee and do we have any kind

▶ 15:30 Denise Gaffey: of cost estimate of what this would be in total and what's the grant would this be for the entire project cost is this for so right so the grant the grant program typically awards about 50% of a cost of a project and that's that's that's the percentage we've received for the last several projects that we've done with the MSBA and at this point I have not I really don't know what the cost is to be honest I'm extrapolating a little bit based on what we paid about nine years ago when we did the we did about 42,000 square feet of roof over the high school and it was about a little bit shy of $900,000 so I know that this we have we are currently as a placeholder which is an order that's coming up next I'm talking about setting aside some unspent bond proceeds and

▶ 16:27 Denise Gaffey: about $400,000 worth I think that is a pretty pretty generous amount for this project and I think if we got the grant we wouldn't need all of those funds because I would estimate the project to cost around that amount so and so you think we would the the deadline you said was February 16 and sometime in the spring would probably learn about this is this something where we'd be able to if we were to move forward would we be able to do the work right away or is this something that would no it's a process with the SBA we would do it's usually done in two stages the one nice thing about the accelerated repair program is I do one of the ways that they accelerate the schedule is that they they they pre select the engineering and our engineers and

▶ 17:16 Denise Gaffey: architects and OPM firms for you so we in fact the last time we did this for the Hoover School we didn't even work off a shortlist they just assigned us an OPM and they assigned us an architect and I mean that's that has its pros and its cons but it does accelerate the program when you do that but they would initially require us once they assign the the engineer to us then initially require like a feasibility study so we know exactly what the implications were going to be and do we have any I mean is this water infiltration that's happening is this is it putting anything in jeopardy any it's not it's really just a nuisance right now the the the Public Works Department is replacing ceiling tiles when they when they get damaged with water and they're very aggressive

▶ 18:05 Denise Gaffey: about chasing down leaks and trying to get them repaired so we are spending some money on maintenance to do that so obviously you know we're not we wouldn't let any damage we try very hard to prevent any damage to that space and so do we know the the we don't know necessarily the cost of repair versus replacement at this time i don't all i would say is i think um it would probably be prudent that we that we entertain replacing it especially if we have a grant opportunity because we did study it 10 years ago and that the expert opinion at that time is we probably get 10 years and do you think that we can you know the spring is of course the rainy season and right yeah can we put tarps or do something to

▶ 18:53 Denise Gaffey: temporarily yeah i don't want to make it sound is that i don't want to make it sound like it's a dire situation it's not that i mean they've just you know there'll be a wet ceiling tile they'll it'll get noticed and it'll need to be replaced so it's not like there's constant drips it's not not coming down the walls it's not ruining any of the equipment or furniture or anything like that so putting us worried to that extreme we just know we have a situation that requires some attention thank you and then probably arranged to do it just to answer the question you originally had about schedule I think would probably make sense to do it to plan it such that we did it over the summer the next the following year 2019 thank you and we

▶ 19:34 Monica C. Medeiros: would probably be able to do this with the kids in school well there's no reason we couldn't to be honest because it's just you know over the Learning Commons and it's not that noisy work so that's a good point we wouldn't even necessarily have to wait to do it during the summer months okay and just on a different note and I think to kind of address something that came up from a member of the public that it is typical for us to offer the Board of Aldermen to authorize a bond for to go out authorize the treasurer to go out and bond on our behalf and then for the treasurer to do a temporary bond and then later once the project is you know kind of underway go out and do the full bond for the full

▶ 20:27 Michael P. Zwirko: long period information thank you thank you madam chair so thank you for this information I'm just curious so we are you know it's said that the school building committee will get involved when this project moves forward but I would I'm thinking that this is actually really the first step in getting this project to move forward and I'm curious if in the past prior to us making an application to the Massachusetts know that the SBA if projects historically have gone through the school building committee before we've actually made this submission not necessarily and there's no requirement for that I mean I think in previous years we may have been more actively engaged with the school building committee because we've had other projects going on so there may

▶ 21:21 Michael P. Zwirko: have been an opportunity to have it on the agenda and talk about it we just haven't had that situation well and i note that it is uh it's under priority category as you had mentioned um so i can understand the need to maybe make this a statement of interest filing first and then coming back to the school building committee i just i didn't know if in the past what the path was and there the school building committee's involvement on projects i don't know if there's a standing meeting or if this kind of comes up on an ad hoc basis or what the information flow is on these things because i mean we are i mean we're the board of aldermen right now is being requested to uh you know submit this statement of interest form to the massachusetts

▶ 22:03 Michael P. Zwirko: school building authority you know i would believe that this would be the first step in actually moving forward on this project so i you know i would be interested as to what that committee's opinion was on this as well as other feedback from the public that may have been received but here we are tonight asked to approve this so i'm just have there been any other projects that have gone this route before and again i'm sensitive to the fact that this is under a priority category but I'm just wondering what the general president most of the ones we've submitted have really not been sanctioned by the building committee first I mean we just we're kind of aware of the need and we and the grant opportunity comes up and

▶ 22:36 Denise Gaffey: they also don't give us a lot of time for this grant to submit the statement of interest we probably got it about two weeks ago so you know it's it's it's not something we do typically get sanctioned by the building committee I just I guess i'm just questioning then what the power and the need of the school building committee is if they're not involved in these types of discussions or if it's if it only matters at certain times i guess i i guess that's some learning that i have to do but well they do are you know they're involved when we are doing a building a school building project in terms of um you know a typical school well one maybe not an accelerated repair project but if in situations where we have to hire

▶ 23:19 Denise Gaffey: consultants like architects and engineers and project managers then we the school building committee is involved in that they're involved in decisions about bidding and about awarding contracts and about scope of design and things like that but we're not even you know this is so preliminary like such an early stage so they will be afterwards they they will be involved in this project afterwards yeah i think it's likely that we would bring them in this this is also not a particularly complicated project a lot of design elements yep no I mean I and I get that and I know that maybe they I just again this is really for my own I'm just trying to understand where they play a role in certain of these funding

▶ 24:02 Denise Gaffey: of projects because it is it is an issue with the high schools roof and there is no requirement just for the record like MSBA is not requiring us to get any kind of approval from a building committee right they are seeking approval from us from the Board of Alderman and also from the school committee yeah correct that's all the questions I had at this time Thank You madam chairman thank you two quick questions one is just to get a sense of proportion of the overall roof how big is like proportionally the the section of roof versus the rest of the building it's a probably about maybe about a quarter and the remaining three quarters were replaced so right the the remaining half was replaced about nine

▶ 24:53 Denise Gaffey: years ago when we did the green repair project and then in 2005 when we built the middle school we first did a significant investment in the high school open space we built out the classrooms in the high school but we did the roof over that space first it was it was combined into one project well one big project the middle school with the high school repairs but that opened the roof over that old particular open space area to complete those two floors of classrooms that was swing space if you weren't around at the time we had to build swing space for all the middle school classrooms in order to construct middle school so we moved the eighth grade over into the open space the high school into this open space area that didn't have walls and we built out all

▶ 25:41 Denise Gaffey: classrooms it's actually a really great project because it's we now have you know 14 classrooms or double that I can't remember exactly how many that we didn't have before and but depth so just long story short the roof above that portion of the high school which was original at the time at the time we replace that it was original to the building and we would time to replace the other two sections ten years ago it was original to the building this particular roof over the open learning Commons space is was done in 1995 it's over 20 years old my second question is does the school building authority require any kind of match from the city 50% that I'm guessing 50% that's about the rate that we have typically we've received for the past few projects that

▶ 26:34 John N. Tramontozzi: we've done thank you very much madam chairman I just want to take a moment to thank you and your team for the work that you do in being proactive in seeking these out even though it may not be something that we can do just like that immediately and we have a process to go through it's it's nice to all the work that you do to be so proactive in this so thank you to your team for that and thanks for the questions that you've been asking on this so thank you so just just to be clear this statement of interest is for the specifically just for that roof project we also have an order that's coming up next and you made reference to it order 2018 124 and that's an appropriation for 400 of the amount four hundred sixteen thousand three hundred eighty nine dollars and

▶ 27:27 John N. Tramontozzi: thirty seven cents for high school roof is that the same project that we're looking the same what we intend to do with that money is what we're asking for through the grant it would be it would represent funding that could be used as matching funds to support this project so when you submit your statement of interest is the state we require us to have previously appropriated the money no no we're just in this situation because we have to we have to reallocate these funds so it's a timing thing the timing is fortuitous in a way right so if we would the state look favorably or unfavorably if we if they're aware that we have already appropriated money for the roof I would say that would be very favorable the fact that we if if we were to

▶ 28:18 John N. Tramontozzi: appropriate the money the state would say what we have an intent to actually do the project does that give us a better shot I think it does I think it does again this is an accelerated repair program they want to be up there they're gonna be looking at communities that are ready to to you know get right out of the ground quickly this is one less stumbling block if we actually have funding that's available do they waive what there are other cities and towns also applying for these funds first oh yeah they'll be they'll have other grant applications there's no guarantee at all i understand right but with the uh how is the state um look if if another city or town came in looking for a grant and they did not have an appropriation

▶ 29:04 Denise Gaffey: of funds to set aside for it would they the sits the authority look differently on them as opposed to a city that has already appropriated money i don't know the answer to that and i'm not and i don't think this i don't want anyone to think too that just because this and we're going to talk about this order next i know just because the funds are there that we wouldn't have to come back and get another vote from the alderman you know very specific about what the project is um i just think that when we're writing our our putting our statement of interest application to the sba that's something we could say that we that this there is funding that's that the city has access to that would you know represent the match to this program that's right you know if it were

▶ 29:47 Robert A. Boisselle: it to be approved if it were to be approved i mean i think it would be appropriate to tell them um we're serious about the project right it's something we can write into the narrative of the application all right thank you thank you thank you well we've been doing the mel murrow's high school and the middle school's roofs for a number of years and after the roofs are fixed we seem to blossom out with solar units on top of them is that a future scheduling of the 18 000 square feet uh in the future um this application doesn't have anything to do with that but i think there is an opportunity to do the opportunity is there to nest another 18 000 square feet of solar units right because that that that this that roof does

▶ 30:34 Francis X. Wright Jr.: not have any solar panels on it right now right correct so you're right okay that is true thank you thank you minister alderman wright thank you madam chair a lot of the questions that we answered but just to summarize for myself and people at home we have a 20 year old roof it leaks we have an opportunity to apply for a grant we have a short order of time to do that we have no commitment if the grant is is received but it could match up to 50 percent great thank you thank you madam chair thank you any other members of the committee wishing to speak for the first time thank you thank you I just wanted to catch back up again the Hoover School it was the accelerated okay I just I just wanted to ask because I know I had been

▶ 31:24 Denise Gaffey: on the school building committee at the time and we call us I'm sure you talked about we talked about it for sure yeah maybe that was just because we were we also had the Learning Commons project that we were working you know actively on and wrapping up the hvac project with several projects there that we're working on yeah yeah so we're just probably more engaged exactly i think the committee was more engaged that's that's precisely how i would put it very good well i think alderman wright uh summed that up pretty well and uh i think this i'd be supportive of moving forward with an application statement of interest i should say motion to recommend for passage madam chair second motion to recommend

▶ 32:04 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: for passage by alderman mortimer it was seconded on this side i'm sorry was it alderman Tramontozzi thank you all in favor any opposed this order will be recommended for passage at our next school board meeting which is next week thank you very much the second order on agenda tonight is order 2018-124 and appropriation in the amount of 750 000 from barry's accounts as set forth herein to funds number 3383 high school roof and number 3384 school improvements yes alderman mortimer a motion to recommend for passage we have a motion to recommend for passage by alderman mortimer is there a second oh there's a second i'm going to have discussion but if this second we have a second by alderman wright on discussion alderman mortimer

▶ 33:01 Peter D. Mortimer: the uh i think the point's been made in the first order money talks and uh this will show that we're serious we still don't have to spend it even though we might set it aside so i think this is a question of putting our money where our mouth is so i think we already had the conversation that's why i went right to the motion to recommend for passage and this just shows uh that we're putting our money where our mouth is but as was carefully explained by city planner gaffey if we don't like this later we can always pull it back so as alderman wright succinctly illustrated on the previous question um this is kind of uh where we are and we should just go go right ahead with it thank you thank you since we're still under suspension of the

▶ 33:56 Robert A. Boisselle: rules could we have the dpw director come forward please mr shen i could you join us at the table good evening good evening good evening john um we see a lot of these funds from the schools hoover school windows hvac from the high school learning common project these are all money that's been left over from the bonding operation to be paying for part of this project and one part is this is the school repairs uh what are we repairing in this in this line item here that we have of three hundred and thirty three thousand dollars it's a very good question it's um there are two main parts to that funding um roughly a hundred thousand of it is going to go towards the elevators in the high school the elevators at the high school we were notified

▶ 34:57 during our july inspection from the division of professional licensee the public safety inspection office that we had to replace the main cylinders of both the freight elevator and the passage elevator at the high school we made some temporary temporary repairs to get through the school year so that we can get our certificate and get our occupancy certificate and and um and get through the 17-18 school year however this was something that we had to seek funding for and we made a commitment that it would be addressed prior to school reopening in 18-19 so that we have quotes that's about 85 000 um we're going to put it out to bid and um you know with contingency and design fees and soft costs that that piece of it is um is is out is funded with the appropriation

▶ 35:51 and this isn't any this isn't new borrowing that's before you we're reallocating funds i think the auditor sent a a memo on the 25th of january to the board explaining that um it's not new borrowing it's leftover money from prior projects and authorizations of prior projects and it's also banned bond premium and in order to avoid arbitrage arbitrage and to satisfy the arbitrage spending test this had to be reallocated the second part of what this funds is improvements to the auditorium the middle school auditorium focused on lighting and sound and the stage that's an auditorium that sees over 1,800 hours of rented rental use six to eight weekends of dance recitals every spring some along recital some along drama program and productions from

▶ 36:58 the Wakefield Repertory Theatre aside from day-to-day educational use that it this is that the lights really never shut off in that auditorium if you buy a camera today or any piece of technology ten years from now you can only imagine how outdated it is a lot of a lot of the equipment in there we've been advised needs to be upgraded just like regular software and technology has to be upgraded so the balance of the funding will go towards that we'll be working with the office of planning and community development denise on that and superintendent has assembled her own team of educators from drama and music that will help us prioritize where they want to see the investment go to so the 233 000 remaining would be pushed into the middle school

▶ 37:53 Michael P. Zwirko: auditorium correct for improvements all right thank you very much thank you madam chair thank you uh next up we have alderman Zwirko thank you madam chair i appreciate you coming here tonight too uh mr senator for being here as well as uh earlier speaker denise gappy um and thank you for outlining that that 333 i just saw school repairs but i didn't see any itemization there so i appreciate the question by alderman Boisselle um i know i know you didn't write write this order but in the in the future you know that would be very helpful for us um we we can i could we could definitely supplement the order yeah i mean you spoke about it so that's that's good to know i'm just wondering if in um you know 233 000 or so about we're going to essentially uh free for

▶ 38:36 Michael P. Zwirko: appropriation for those school repairs but what what is the process after that and i guess where i'm going with this is as you stated there will be some music and performance professionals that are employed currently at the high school in the middle school that will assist in you know what the needs are um but i mean is it is it carte blanche that they now have this 233 000 to kind of see as uh spend as they see fit is or will that you know further appropriation you know be delineated before us or is or is this okay this evening or this you know failure just giving that discretion i'll ask denise to join me but that process will be led by her office okay um and you know similar to other school projects we always start with the end user but she has a very

▶ 39:22 Denise Gaffey: very specific process that we'll go through so that we can outline the needs the needs of the end users and also make sure we check all the boxes off in terms of procurement and and then we'll work very closely together in terms of scheduling and you know for the various windows of the year that it's actually available to to work on if there's anything else you want to add in that regard just that um so this this initiative is a really important one for mayor dolan and for superintendent taymor and it's been something they've been looking to do for a couple of years um you know the auditorium when it was built um over 10 years ago now was state of the art at the time but after 10 years both just through a lot of use and also just changes

▶ 40:08 Denise Gaffey: and technology in order to keep it current and you know keep it as a state-of-the-art facility and keep the rentals coming in and and just you know keep maintain excellent usability for the space these it's viewed that these investments are needed we actually um we had the architect come back and just informally give us some ideas about if we had you know a wish list what would what would be what we need to do and this was done in consultation with the um the the drama and music professionals in the school the faculty there and you know we looked at lighting um this was just very back of the envelope at the time but it was lighting pa system video projection um and rigging in stage floor so things like that and this we've had and

▶ 41:03 Denise Gaffey: we have recently had another meeting to kind of to bring the architect back and ask us if he could drill into it a little bit further and give us some costs on these items so we will have more specific um numbers through this process and through working with this i'll call it like a working group and um but our sense just from from his original um feedback was that we would be able to afford to do the floor replacement and the upgrades to the pa system into the video projection with this funding and if we're lucky and after we're bidding it and we get good numbers you know maybe we can do something with stage lighting as well the rigging is a very big project it's also not required it's just

▶ 41:48 Michael P. Zwirko: we just have a mechanical rigging system now which from from when it was built 10 years ago where there are more sophisticated and automated systems now know but they are very expensive no thank you that that's helpful and i'm wondering you know you had mentioned uh mr shenna mentioned that you know the lights rarely go off in that auditorium so with these repairs i would imagine that there would be some impact to its use obviously i mean i would i would imagine you know redoing a floor it's probably not just simple refinishing of a floor so i'm just curious as to when and again i know that this is back of the napkin type of of stuff that you've kind of spitballed about but any schedule as to when this

▶ 42:32 Denise Gaffey: might exactly take place and therefore that it's a contrary to my question on any any impact that could occur because of it yeah it's a great question and we haven't really drilled down on that yet because it's very tricky to schedule this work I mean there's a really small window with which to do that we know that we just when we stood on the stage a couple of weeks ago and talked with the drama teacher and the music teacher and the superintendent and others you know there's really it's used all the time right so we have to be very cognizant of that when we're moving forward with this project and I don't have an answer okay I would just ask as a courtesy if you could keep you know you don't have to certainly come before this board but if you even via email if

▶ 43:17 Michael P. Zwirko: you could keep us posted as this project moves for should this project move forward just it's used so much by the community for those that don't even have children in the school system it would be interesting to see not only what those repairs are going to go towards or enhancements rather but also the scheduling as well if you could do so I'd greatly appreciate that yeah thank you those are all the questions I had madam chair thank you madam chair so thank you both so much for being here and for also talking to me a little bit about this earlier in the week on the school repairs line I'm wondering one we talked about was we were trying to identify projects school repair projects that would be

▶ 43:57 able to fall within the term limit of the bond that we that we're now reallocating the money toward can you remind us um what the the timeline is there yeah what it was what the auditor and the treasurer requested was that the borrowing life and the lifespan of the project um was equal or greater than what it was originally borrowed for so these funds that you were reallocating were borrowed from the hoover school the hoover school window project the roof project at the high school the learning commons all high school school campus type of projects with 20 to 25 year lifespans i believe i could confirm with the auditor what the actual lifespan is and and follow up with some information to all of you on what the actual life strand of

▶ 44:52 and term and what borrowing terms okay and maybe this is just for my own edification maybe for others already because or understand this but what I had understood maybe was the projects that we've completed where there's been a surplus those projects had to be completed within a certain amount of time therefore we also needed to look for projects that we could complete now in some short order rather than have them lingering out there for a long period of time so is that what you're sort of suggesting that you'll be able to follow up a little bit more information about precisely when these funds have to be spent yeah we will give you that information I believe it's two years from from the reallocation okay two years okay that's how tonight and I

▶ 45:38 would like to agree with the public comment we had last week about this line item when it was um proposed and we referred it to committee and as alderman's work oh and alderman Boisselle have been able to discuss i do think the more information that can be in the public packet in terms of something that's a third of a million dollars would be helpful for all of us here and also for people looking at home i think also it would be helpful to think about if there's a way to talk about these priorities within the larger context of for example here the schools and the buildings around the city so i just finished visiting all five elementary schools last week for kindergarten tours and i'm certainly aware of some of the limitations at those schools with

▶ 46:20 their performance spaces where schools are using the room for a cafeteria and an auditorium and a gym and so just kind of having a sense of where this project which seems very worthy fits in with other projects so it's easier to sort of have a sense of the larger direction and the other priorities that may be out there would be helpful to me i think the only other question i had was about the line item for the high school roof and that's with respect to the last order when we you're going to pro you may submit a statement of interest for the msb grant and then we may submit an application perhaps get an award if we did get sort of a 50 match would this 416 000 perhaps not be entirely necessary at that point and if so

▶ 47:12 will we still have time if there is some left over in this line to repurpose it for something else i have asked the auditors that question and because it's true if we get the grant i don't think we would need all of that money so um and i was told that we could reallocate it i mean obviously we'd have to come back to this board but it could be reallocated okay thank you so much to you alderman medeiros thank you uh i was wondering if you could speak a little bit more about the funds left over from the fire station roof and about that project yeah so that we we allocated funding the roof next door at the central station was was failing and was leaking in several locations pretty badly so we borrowed funding

▶ 48:01 together with an additional borrowing to redo their bathrooms and we addressed most of the issues and that's funding that's been left over now I mean that what we did was temporary in nature given that the feasibility study was in the horizon and a more long-term repair would hopefully come from that but the roof isn't leaking the way it was these funds were available and we decided to reallocate them as part of um because they either had they had to be reallocated um and that window was closing in terms of of letting him stay in that account okay well and just some commentary you know i uh back in high school went through the drama program was very involved with that in the musical and you know it was always kind of disappointing when we'd go out for drama

▶ 48:54 Monica C. Medeiros: competitions that you'd go to other communities and their stages were you know phenomenal and Melrose at the time we didn't have any kind of facility that we could we could never host a drama competition we were never in the position that we had a good enough facility to be able to do that so it is you know it is it has been exciting to see that that you know facility in the middle school and to know that that's opened up you know lots of opportunities for our students to you know both in the middle school and in the high school to really pursue and you know so i do think like everything time goes by quickly too quickly and technology changes very quickly so i'm i'm glad to see this project underway and hope that this will last i you know

▶ 49:46 Monica C. Medeiros: it is sort of surprising seeing that the last you know the technology that we had was only 10 years old and that this might last 10 you know it seems sort of unlikely that it might go to uh alderman livergar obedience point you know 20 to 25 years out but technology isn't always on a different not on a 20-year but it is important to maintain that and you know and to be able and it is a money maker for us that we have lots of groups come in and rent the space and so that does you know allow us to offset and and allow us to have more programming that we wouldn't also i know it's it's been a little bit belabored here but just you know we do have the opportunity where we have our next mayor in the chamber with us and so i think you know the point has been made that

▶ 50:37 Monica C. Medeiros: it would be nice perhaps to have more detail in in really kind of expected to have more detail on some of these expenditures in particular the school repairs of you know 333 thousand dollars and and hopefully you know moving forward you know i think it's something where we should be able to any member of the public should be able to see and the board of all of them should be able to see the the order and understand what it is and and look at it five years from now and be able to understand what it is and and have it be clear so that you know if if some member of the public did want to comment on it they would or if one alderman wanted to you know we have better questions and things like that if we have more information up front so thank you thank you

▶ 51:26 Scott M. Forbes: uh next in queue we have alderman forbes well thank you madam chair um i agree with all my colleagues here i know there's a lot of discussion about the breakdowns and uh maybe some itemization and give us a little bit more clarification but my question really just lies in the in the uh the section regarding a priority in this project um 233 000 for the middle school uh auditorium is are these critical needs or are they just upgrades because the way i look at it is you have the hoover school windows at around eighty five thousand dollars that was a surplus from that project right would that money be better served reinvesting in the hoover school would there be more critical needs there rather than two hundred and thirty three thousand dollars

▶ 52:09 Scott M. Forbes: worth of upgrades in the middle school i just want to know how what was the dialogue in coming to the determination that the 233 000 was best served at the middle school project rather than maybe reallocating some of that money back to the hoover school which is an older building that we could probably find plenty of repairs that could be taken care of in there i just wanted to get the thought process of how this came about i believe part of it is just the nature of this space the performance center which is built i mean it's in our middle school but of course as you know it's really it's a high school grade auditorium so it's used by the entire campus the high school and the middle school so i think

▶ 52:46 Denise Gaffey: it touches all the students you know are touched by this facility and get access to this facility district-wide eventually so i think it's an important space to invest in and um so i think that you know i think that coupled with um just how much use that the performance center sees on daily and annual basis just spoke to the need to to make this investment and as I was kind of alluding to earlier there this is a lot of money there's no question about it I think the needs are probably three to four times this so you know if we really were to look at you know making this you know upgrading it to today's standards ten years later right and just making it a space that could you know really be exceptional I mean it's a great space right but if it

▶ 53:39 Denise Gaffey: was going to be state-of-the-art today to today's standards it'd be a significant investment and so I think the view was that this was a good use of the funding that's available and it could make a great impact right it's going to have a big impact improving the sound system replacing the floor maybe doing some lighting replacements will have a significant impact on the space and on so during that discussion though it was weighed you take a look and try to find the right balance of where these funds are best to be reallocated based upon all the other projects that came in say under budget right right right I mean I think again I think the superintendent and the mayor are very much aware of what all the the needs are citywide and they felt really strongly

▶ 54:28 about this investment and i could speak for the superintendent she views it it's not the middle school auditorium it's the melrose school systems auditorium i mean there are several people that walk in and out and she really feels it's one piece of her school facilities that every student will touch at some point in time and and walk through and you know she also sees school districts in this area are improving their facilities and we want to keep up um in that regard as well um and then my final question do you think that their frequency of its use has a lot to do with the fact that it's outgrown its or beyond its shelf life um the fact that there are so many events that take place there that's definitely true for the floor i mean the floor itself needs

▶ 55:13 Scott M. Forbes: you know it's just seen a lot of wear and tear i think the pa system is really just a matter of like catching up with today's you know advances in technology and equipment and the lighting to the lighting would just be you know replacing it with more efficient and current lighting sure I appreciate your I appreciate your comments here tonight obviously you know just taking a look at you know some of the things that are here I know the Hoover School has gone through a lot of upgrades in the past couple years which I'm very thankful for because in years passed there's been nothing for a long period of time so the fact that we do have the the new windows a storefront in the front for security and then the

▶ 55:54 Robert A. Boisselle: modular classroom so I just looking at the opportunity if there's ever a way to upgrade that I would you know I had to ask so thank you thank you madam chair thank you for the performing arts we have another stage in the school system in the new common area I believe sort of a minute that's where the mayor I think last year gave a present his budget presentation and it accommodated a good hundred maybe a hundred and fifty people and he could probably double that is that being used at all by the outside groups for activities in the system I know I just attended a session there a couple of months ago when they had a saturday what did they call it parents university thank you it was awesome and yeah you can fit a

▶ 56:42 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: couple hundred people in that space now is that being publicized out there that it's available for the community organizations to use it appears to be i think it is i know i see others i i've seen and i've been there for other um other events as well yeah very good thank you very much thank you manager thank you any other alderman wishing to address this order we have an order we have a motion to recommend for passage that's been made and seconded all in favor all right be opposed this this order will be recommended for passage at the full board meeting thank you very much the third item on our agenda this evening is order 2018-125 a transfer in the amount of $22,000 from temporary debt interest account number 017522-549100 to various accounts

▶ 57:37 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: as set forth herein. I would note that we have a letter in the order from Mr. Lindstrom regarding a portion of this order for the Messina grants. He had a family obligation and was unable to make it to this meeting this evening and so he laid out the reason for the request and the balance of the order uh we do have our city officials here tonight that can speak to those issues motion to recommend second we have a motion to recommend for passage by alderman Boisselle which has been seconded by alderman mortimer on discussion all those sorry if um we could call back uh mr shenna to the seat i just had a question on the first line mr shema thank you sorry so the the first line of this this order is allocating twenty thousand dollars could you

▶ 58:27 just explain that allocation a little bit please yeah absolutely so in fiscal year 17 we appropriated 10 000 on an order 2017-58 that was a 75 000 appropriation into the line that's before for you this evening 10 000 of that 75 000 was to begin um and to conduct a building envelope study of memorial hall focused on the exterior of the building and the windows and roof what what we did the balance of that was for the feasibility study of the public safety buildings what um the obviously the feasibility study of the public safety buildings is taking is taking place it's it's nearing completion the ten thousand dollars still remains but what we what we were quickly able to determine was that we're going to need more than the original 10 000 so

▶ 59:22 we're requesting an additional 20 000 be allocated for the memorial hall feasibility study this will allow us to do a full rfq process we'll hire an architect the architect will come in and look at all of the building and similar to the public safety study and we will form a committee with kathy brager broda's assistance we'll have two members of the board of trustees we'll be working with our new mayor and soliciting the help of a resident member of this board we'll form a committee we'll hire an architect we feel very comfortable that with a not to exceed thirty thousand dollar threshold will be able to solicit a very good firm that could help us look at this historical building which itself gets a tremendous amount of use and not only identify the

▶ 1:00:17 Michael P. Zwirko: needs but then follow up and prioritize the needs and what we should do first so this completes the funding towards that towards that that that vision of providing a playbook that we could go about improving the conditions of the facility and I appreciate that answer it explains a lot more than just that line so thank you and I do look forward to the improvements or at least the playbook that comes out of that study because we all love Memorial Hall that's for sure so thank you for that I do have a question on the next line and I don't know the chair stated that Michael instrument able to make it this evening so is there no is there no one in the audience that can speak to this so okay I'll just say I serve on the Melrose

▶ 1:01:06 Michael P. Zwirko: Cultural Commission trying to pull up the letter and the Melrose Cultural Council excuse me which is funded primarily 100% through the state and that cycle for those grants is a very hard line as to when applications for grants can be made and then when they can be funded so just for the cultural council quickly is the applications are due by october 15th in order to be expended in the following year of 20 so this year would be 2019. looking at the list of um grants that have come from the messina grant that have and what they've funded and melrose cultural council has funded if not upwards of 75 maybe more of these and i'm just curious as to i mean generally when you fund a line item that line item expires i understand that there's you know more to go around but that's how you're

▶ 1:02:00 Michael P. Zwirko: judicious in what you spend and allocate those fundings for i mean two thousand dollars isn't a huge sum of money but i'm just to be coming at us now for this one we've really never received a request at least in my tenure on the board we've never received a request for uh expanded funding once the item's been expended uh you know i just wish we had a little bit more information um i just wanted to make that comment that's all i have at this time madam chair thank you any other members of the committee honorable for garabedian um thank you madam chair and thank you um mr shena for being here um on the twenty thousand dollars from memorial hall um you said that that would create about thirty thousand dollars to go out to bid to do a really robust

▶ 1:02:42 um feasibility study and do you have a sense of um if this body were to approve it um when that could get started and what the if you have a sort of envision a vision for the timeline well we hope to form the committee um within the next few weeks and then we'll create we'll create a rfq process that's a six to eight week process and then we'll allow the architect um it's probably about a month after that to solicit the architect and over the course of the summer they'll be doing the study so we hope to have it complete by the fall. We have a motion to recommend this order for passage of the need and seconded all in favor, aye any opposed. Order will also be recommended for pass. Thank you for me.

▶ 1:03:31 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Thank you. The final item on our agenda this evening is order number 2018 dash 42 acceptance of mass general law chapter 60 section 3 D creating an elderly and disabled tax relief fund for the purpose of defraying the real estate taxes of elderly and disabled persons of low income this was offered by Alderman Wright thank you madam chair the state legislature has allowed us to accept this statute and I believe it's certainly it's not a panacea but what it will allow us to do is to create a fund that will be dedicated to allowing a committee established by statute which would include include the chairman of the Board of Assessors the treasurer and three residents to ultimately assist low-income elderly residents and

▶ 1:04:38 Francis X. Wright Jr.: disabled residents of the city to defray their real estate tax bills the funds that will be be collected will be voluntarily donated to this to this purpose and that ultimately the committee will create rules and that will establish exactly how people will qualify and how those funds will be distributed I don't anticipate that this is something that will be a fund that we can look to in the next year or two or maybe even in five years from now but it's a starting point we're planting a seed it's an opportunity to help those people in our community who may be of low income who may be facing some challenging life circumstances whether due to their situations they face due to their age or disability and as a result it would be an opportunity for those in

▶ 1:05:54 Francis X. Wright Jr.: our community who wish to to give something back to those around us to contribute and ultimately see their their contributions go to their neighbors in need so with that in mind I have asked this board to accept the statute and allow this fund to be created thank you and we do have a memo from the city solicitor which had been forwarded to myself along I believe with yourself madam chair and the clerk of committees which inadvertently was not included in the packet until later today is there if I may I guess I could read that for those who haven't haven't had an opportunity to see it it's addressed to me it says you have asked for an opinion relative to the proposed acceptance of general laws chapter 60 section 3d which authorizes the creation

▶ 1:06:56 Francis X. Wright Jr.: of an elderly and disabled taxation fund specifically you are requesting information as to how funds will be collected and what process will be utilized in determining the disbursement upon its acceptance the general laws chapter 60 section 3d allows the municipality to provide for a checkoff box on either its municipal tax or its excise tax bills for taxpayers wishing to donate to an aid to the elderly and disabled taxation fund the purpose of this fund is to defray the real estate taxes of elderly and disabled persons of low-income in addition the statute requires the creation of a taxation aid committee consisting of the chairman of the Board of Assessors city treasurer and three residents appointed by the mayor whose sole purpose is to establish

▶ 1:07:40 Francis X. Wright Jr.: the rules and regulations intended to carry out the provisions of that statute following internal discussions I can inform you that the funds will be collected via a an inclusion on of a checkoff box on the city's excise tax bills as you are likely aware the city's excise tax bills currently contain donation check off boxes for other causes the city treasurer will be responsible for investing such funds in accordance with the clear language of the statute although the system for collecting funds will occur immediately upon acceptance of this statute please note the city's financial team anticipates it may take several years for the fund to become a viable vehicle for which to make disbursements with respect to the process for dispersing

▶ 1:08:22 Francis X. Wright Jr.: said funds the statute requires the Taxation Aid Committee to establish rules and regulations in order to carry out its purpose upon acceptance of the statute I suspect the committee will quickly work to adopt the said rules and regulations in order to ensure a fair and transparent process for dispersing said funds in future years to qualifying taxpayers if you could if you if we can answer any further questions please do not hesitate to reach out and that's from the city solicitor so with that said I would move for passage of this second move for recommendation of this order just very quickly I just wanted to thank Alderman Wright for bringing this before us I think it's great it falls in the common-sense category of why not so thank you for this I appreciate that

▶ 1:09:15 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Alderman Wright all those in favor of recommending for passage this order will also be recommended for passage at our next full board meeting motion to adjourn madam second we have a motion to adjourn by Alderman Mortimer seconded by Alderman Forbes all in favor aye opposed we are now adjourned thank you

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2018-01-29

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