City Council — 2018-05-07
Attendance
Manisha Bewtra ; Robert A. Boisselle ; Scott M. Forbes ; Jennifer L. Lemmerman ; Kate Lipper-Garabedian ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Monica C. Medeiros ; Peter D. Mortimer ; John N. Tramontozzi ; Francis X. Wright Jr. ; Michael P. Zwirko
Agenda
- Call to Order
- ORDER-2018-166 : Joint Meeting of the Board of Aldermen and the School Committee to be held at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, May 7, 2018, in the Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, Melrose, MA, on the Financial Condition of the City, revenue and expenditure forecasts, and other relevant information in preparation of the FY2019 Operating Budget
- Public Comment
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BULLETIN● MAY 7, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City HallJoint Meeting with the School Committee 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Manisha Bewtra Alderman at Large Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Late 7:10 PM Kate Lipper-Garabedian Alderman at Large Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Alderman Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Late 7:03 PM Michael P. Zwirko President, Alderman at Large Present Roll Call for Melrose School Committee: DeSelm - here Driscoll, Chairperson - here Mayor Infurna - here McAndrew - here Obremski - here O'Connell - here Razi-Thomas - here Taymore, Superintendent here
ORDER-2018-166 Joint Meeting/School Committee Joint Meeting of the Board of Aldermen and the School Committee to be held at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, May 7, 2018, in the Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, Melrose, MA, on the Financial Condition of the City, revenue and expenditure forecasts, and other relevant information in preparation of the FY2019 Operating Budget No Action Taken Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 5/9/2018 12:38 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Michael P. Zwirko: Good evening everyone. Good evening. Thanks for being here this evening. I'm President of the Board of Aldermen, Mike Zwirko. I am joined here this evening with the Chair of the Melrose School Committee, Margaret Driscoll, as well as members of the Board of Aldermen and School Committee. We are here this evening pursuant to Article 6 of the City Charter. Mayor Infurna has joined us and she has called this joint meeting with the Board of Aldermen and the Melrose School Committee. At this time I would ask Madam Clerk to please call the roll for the Board of Aldermen. Alderman Bewtra? Here. Alderman Boisselle? here Alderman Forbes here Alderman Lemmerman Alderman Letter-Garbadian here Alderman McMaster here Alderman Medeiros here Alderman Mortimer here
▶ 0:43 Alderman Tramontozzi here Alderman Wright Alderman Zirko president here 9 constitutes a quorum and I would invite the clerk to please call the roll for school committee school committee member to sell them here Driscoll here mayor Inferno yeah school committee member McAndrew here school committee member Abrams key yeah school committee member O'Connell yeah school committee member Roz Thomas here and superintendent a more yeah and that constitutes a quorum for the school committee this evening we have a quorum for both bodies and pursuant to the Charter, we have the Superintendent present. If you would please join us and rise with a Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
▶ 1:46 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank you. I will just read the order that is before us this evening. In accordance with the city charter article 6 finance and fiscal procedures section 6-2 annual budget policy I hereby call a joint meeting of the Board of Aldermen school committee and superintendent of schools to be held on Monday May 7th at 7 p.m. in the aldermanic chamber City Hall Melrose Massachusetts on the financial condition of the city revenue and expenditure forecasts and other relevant information in preparation for the fiscal year 2019 operating budget seeing that that's the only order on the agenda this evening I would ask that mayor inferno come before us so we can hear from her this evening another one of those deep breath
▶ 2:42 Gail Infurna: times good evening and dear members of the board of aldermen school committee and citizens of melrose i am honored to be here this evening to present my first budget as mayor during the development of this budget i looked at a number of actions so that i could send you a balanced budget for fiscal 2019 the fiscal 2019 budget I submit this evening results in the lowest increase in at least five years on both a dollar and a percentage basis here are a few facts about the budget through restructuring we have eliminated one position and unfortunately this budget does not add a much-needed school nurse nor does it address critical custodial needs in our municipal buildings including the library I am also pleased to say that in
▶ 3:41 Gail Infurna: the past few months our negotiating team has settled the fire police superior officers DPW contracts and this budget includes the provisions for these contracts I am also pleased to report that we have been able to achieve minimal increases in our water and sewer rates for the second year in a row while maintaining fully funded reserves this budget also includes funding for several road projects and the implementation of the complete street program we have also increased police and fire overtime by $100,000 in order to bring them to the levels they need to run their department effectively this budget will also include $75,000 in fire turnout gear this equipment must be replaced every 10 years and it is now 10 years old previously we were able to use grant
▶ 4:39 Gail Infurna: funds for this purchase but that grant money is no longer available we have maintained our commitment to put $50,000 in the stabilization fund and $50,000 to the OPEB trust fund to help us meet our future obligations we will use free cash to balance the 2018 snow budget so we will not be carrying a snow deficit into fiscal 2019 and we will also increase the snow budget for fiscal 2019 by $50,000 to more accurately reflect the cost of snow operations we were able to to do several things this year to keep the budget balanced here are some of the measures we took outside of the turnout gear and our road program unfortunately there is no capital investment in this budget we decided to avoid any new
▶ 5:34 Gail Infurna: spending because of the circumstances that are before us overtime has been reduced at the Department of Public Works our payment to the vocational school is lower because fewer melrose students opted to go there and this year the gic health insurance rates were lower than expected which helped keep the budget in balance however we do expect a steeper increase in the next few years i have also eliminated health insurance benefits for the members of the board of alderman which is the change i have long advocated As in previous years, we have invested almost every available dollar in our schools. In addition to educational and academic support, this also includes health insurance and Medicare for school staff, utilities, the cost of maintaining school buildings, and other school costs.
▶ 6:28 Gail Infurna: Although we are not able to fully fund the budget that was initially approved by the school committee, we have worked out a plan. this includes an additional $175,000 for our schools over and above what was originally planned for its part the school committee agreed to use revolving funds to close the funding gap nevertheless I want to be clear the school budget is not okay it does not add much needed positions and it eliminates or reduces purchases of supplies and textbooks textbooks throughout the system this budget is a short-term solution to a long-term problem while we have balanced the fiscal 2019 budget I want to make it clear that the inevitable path that we are on is a dangerous one as I've stated
▶ 7:23 Gail Infurna: before we do not have a spending issue nor do we have a money management issue we have a revenue issue without additional tax revenues coming into the budget every year we will not be able to provide a level service budget for the city and the schools nor will we be able to provide to provide the needed level of services for a growing school population furthermore we cannot grow and improve the city including the schools with this budget I believe in keeping things simple so these are the facts our operations are very lean our city runs as efficiently as possible and enrollment in our schools is up dramatically and continues to grow especially in the elementary and high schools and therefore the cost of running the Melrose public schools is up
▶ 8:18 Gail Infurna: that is simple math and over the past number of years we have benefited from from new construction that has helped increase the tax base but development is slowing down as most of the available properties have been developed the level of state aid we have received today is over 1 million dollars lower than it was 10 years ago while property values have never been higher in Melrose taxes are growing more slowly because of the cap imposed by Proposition two and a half as a result tax revenues are not keeping pace with the city's growth and demand for services revenues are not keeping up with costs and this has been the case for over 10 years now the fact is we need more money we need more money so
▶ 9:09 Gail Infurna: that we can plan wisely for the future here are some of my concerns if we do not invest in our roads our water and sewer systems and our municipal buildings it costs us more in the long run right now our per pupil spending is the ninth lowest lowest in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that means we are failing to invest in our students and at the end the cost of that is much higher than the cost of neglecting our infrastructure doing nothing brings a cost of its own and that cost will fall on all of us once again let me put it simply if you ignore a warning light in your car the eventual costs of repairs will be higher than the trip to the mechanic to come check it out I'm here to tell you that that warning light is on it is my opinion that if the citizens
▶ 10:05 Gail Infurna: of Melrose do not approve an override in the near future we will have to start making very painful cuts that will change the quality of life as we know it here in melrose we must increase our tax base so that we can maintain the fiscal stability of our city including our bond rating continue to keep our infrastructure and buildings in good repair and better prepare the students in the melrose public schools for its future the fiscal 2020 budget will be very different from this one how it will look depends on you my own vision which i hope you will share is a sustainable budget that allows us to fully fund the schools so the superintendent can offer salaries that will retain quality teachers
▶ 10:55 Gail Infurna: hire additional teachers to reduce class sizes to meet the needs of the increasing population and to provide appropriate services for all students. It will provide our teachers with the resources they need, including continuing our excellent professional development program and the fully-fund, up-to-date learning materials, new books for our school libraries, and supplies for courses such as art and health. A sustainable school budget will allow the city to invest in itself to maintain the current level of services to improve services where possible and to continue planning for the city's future building needs this means that the city budget as a whole must be sustainable going forward so that we can fully
▶ 11:45 Gail Infurna: fund the schools without reducing city services and the budget will become sustainable with an override over the coming months we will need to take this challenge on as a community we will need to work together to decide what our future will look like as we used to say back at the Lincoln School PTO together we can make a difference in closing I ask for your favorable action on the budget as I submit it this evening thank you Thank You mayor Inferno this time is there a motion mr. president I make a motion to open the floor for public comment Thorp a motion made by alderman Mortimer for opening the floor for public comment second second second by alderman Forbes this is the portion of the meeting where anybody in the
▶ 12:55 Michael P. Zwirko: public here this evening would like to speak on the matters before us on the agenda agree to do so at this time before we begin that I just would like the clerk to note that there have been two folks from the member board of aldermen that have shown up this evening Frank Wright and Jennifer Lemmerman anyone from the public that wish to speak oh excuse me before you do sir I'm sorry all in favor aye any any opposed unopposed please proceed sir sorry about that no worries hi my name is Fred Hopkins I am a parent of a happy eighth grader here at the middle school and based on my observations and his own accounts he's he's receiving an outstanding education in the public schools I'm here to well first of all I want to thank the mayor because I am in
▶ 13:45 complete agreement with her statement about warning and i'm here to implore these bodies to use whatever means are available to them to fully fund our schools i think that as long as the state legislature is going to continue to underfund public schools by over a billion dollars a year that communities like melrose have some choices to make and i don't think we as a community can afford to just let the schools go underfunded because of the state's actions we have some long-term options politically we can put pressure on the legislature we can support ballot ballot initiatives and might bring in money but what I think this town needs to do is have an override and what I also think is that the timing of this override is pretty important I may not
▶ 14:35 be that politically astute but I do have a sense that locally and nationally Thorp a bit of a wave and I think November is probably the time to capture this wave I think there are a lot of people who are concerned about lack of progress nationally and I think that's going to bring a lot of people out to the polls and I think an override is a tough ask for a lot of communities I don't doubt that this town has the means to support an override but obviously it's a matter of political will so we will look to you folks to lead us in part on this and I think November is the time to capture the interest and the turnout that'll be at the polls and I think sooner rather than later is probably a good idea on this thank you for listening to me thank you sir any
▶ 15:32 other members of the public wishing to speak hi I'm Elizabeth Christopher I'm a a parent of three children in the Melrose Public Schools and I've been a Melrose resident for 16 years I'm here tonight because I would like you to vote in favor of placing an override question on the November 18 ballot most important I'd like you to speak candidly with our community about the revenue needs of our city I'm also here because there are many parents who feel the same way I do but they are not in this room tonight I've spoken to a bunch of them and the number one reason they tell me that they don't voice their opinions at meetings like this one is because they don't feel like experts about the school or the
▶ 16:17 city budget they say the budget process is complicated they say there are others who know so much more than they do others who can speak more intelligently on the subject than they can but what many of them do know is this that Melrose per pupil spending is far below any other city or town around us they do know that we are at risk of losing two of our best performing principals because we pay our educators less than other cities and towns do middle school parents like me know that the highly effective team structure is being pulled apart elementary school parents feel their schools busting at the seams we know that parents volunteers that parent volunteers have given free labor to the city to run our school libraries for years we know we have one digital
▶ 17:04 literacy teacher scurrying from school to school she's tasked with trying to teach kids and teachers how to make sense of the technology and digital content that is put into children's hands at ever younger ages we've heard about chapter 70 and that it is broken and that Melrose will never get enough state aid to keep up with rising costs we also know and love that Melrose is fiscally prudent the city has not used the override provision of property two and a half in almost 30 years but I'm not an expert on the city or school budget either you are you more than anyone understand that Melrose does not collect enough tax revenue to run its city and schools the way we need to you've regionalized you've thin rich services but still aging buildings can't
▶ 17:50 be fixed still community leaders must live with lower than average pay and now we're talking about eliminating positions you represent us please share your expertise with us advocate for our schools and our community please speak about the needs of our city and the ways that increasing our tax revenue will help vocalize your support for an override and talk honestly and openly and fervently about what is at stake for the city if we don't pass an override soon thank you any other members of the public wishing to speak at this time hello good evening my name is Nick Ducinardi I am a Melrose resident teacher at melrose high school and melrose high alumni on this last note i want to say that i'm incredibly
▶ 18:48 proud of the growth that i've seen at mhs since my graduation less than a decade ago also i've been an avid fan of both school committee and alderman meetings since i've become a teacher really exciting stuff um it's been a busy day i am an ap coordinator at the the high school serve run four different tests today taught five classes I coach middle school track I went for a run right before coming here so I apologize for my appearance it was on that run that I got the inspiration to come and speak so here I am I could talk about the teachers we may lose if we're not properly funded or our dismally low per pupil spending or how we've done so much as a district with so little but I'm here with a simple request for all of
▶ 19:42 you tonight and that is to absolutely and adequately fund our schools I've seen both my peers and administration pour over the budget trying to make cuts without hindering students and staff pursuit of educational excellence I've seen the school committee and mayor struggle to come to agreement on what an adequate budget is and how to properly fund it and tonight before you board of aldermen you have a choice to sit in silence and allow an insufficient budget to pass or to stand up for our community as school and most importantly our students so again on this night i implore you to stand up every one of you and fund our schools thank you any other members of the public wishing to speak at this time my name is jason grassleri i walked in a little late so apologies if i missed
▶ 21:05 anything and i have no prepared remarks the one thing that i want to just be sure that i mentioned which i have not heard yet is that i feel like a lot of the conversation is around the school budget in particular and the deficits there what i want to be sure that we think about is that this is actually a macro issue for the town and that when we think about finances for the town and revenue for the town we shouldn't zero in on just this is only a problem for the schools there are many charts and a lot of information that i think have outlined this and everybody knows but the schools in this area in this particular area of the budget are one of the growing parts of the town and i would advocate strongly as many here would that
▶ 21:49 we fund it fully and Thorp a lot of talk about an override because i think everyone in the room would agree that it's broadly necessary for melrose to kind of achieve what we want to achieve but i think to kind of communicate that fully number one the board of alderman as well as the school committee need to be out there doing it very publicly and make it a topic of conversation but potentially what also needs to happen is that we need to be more clear about where where the lack of funding is and how much of a lack of funding there is and make that happen beyond the schools so let's fund the school budget and let's pull revenue from other areas of the city let's think more broadly about how we creatively work this budget so that maybe
▶ 22:34 everyone realizes how much how important it is that an override happens for the city for the city of melrose thank you thank you sir any other member of the public wishing to speak at this time take a good time appreciate it almost missed it hi i'm jerry morose um i apologize um a couple of the large issues we'll get into more details as the budget process goes on but um As far as the city operating budget is concerned, you know, it's hard to get our fiscal house in order when we don't have accurate information. And when I went through the budget this year again, I saw that it's represented in the different columns of the budget. And when you're planning a budget, you need to be able to look at your past, project to your future, and then estimate for your farther future.
▶ 23:40 And when the column of actual expenses in any given line item happens to be greater than what your projected expense column is, you know your information is bad. And I've raised this issue year after year here. Everybody just shrugs it off as, oh, it's not important. but the point is that you as aldermen especially that you you can't make a good decision if you don't have the relevant information and to try to figure out whether we can apply more money to one element of the city over another is an arbitrary process if we don't really know or we don't have the the departments indicating exactly what things are going to be at the end of the fiscal year to the best of their knowledge, so we can know what the actual expenses are going to
▶ 24:37 be to be able to build next year's budget off of that. And I just went over a document in the last week. It was dated June 17th of 2017, so it was two weeks before the close of the fiscal year. That document there, when I compared it to the actual in the budget this year, that it shows what the actual fy 17 was it is so far off in so many areas um how can two weeks before the close of the fiscal year have things that are that are you know double digit percent off for what the projection is going to be for the last of the year now i want to be clear nobody actually did that on june 17th but that's my point is that nobody's making an effort to determine what are we actually spending money on how much money do we really need for a certain item i've been tracking for
▶ 25:23 a few years in a spreadsheet now you know what we say we're going to have for a certain year what we budget for the next year and that we actually spend the following year and Thorp so much discrepancy there and year after year somebody needs to do the work to tighten it up because whatever you do here as a board of aldermen if you do it and you're going to go through the whole motions of looking at every department and every person coming in and talking about it but if the fundamental numbers in front of you aren't real you can't make a good decision for the city you can't apply the resources the limited resources we have in the most efficient and effective manner to get the best outcomes if you don't have that good information so i urge you
▶ 26:00 as alderman to demand that the the departments the mayor submit the information the the city auditors submit the actual information in the best way they can be not just think that you're they don't respect you enough to give you real information um in terms of the school budget since the school committee i don't want to neglect you here tonight um you know in 1994 the department of revenue issued a ruling call uh it's 94-660 and it went to the heart of what a school committee's obligation is in terms of framing policy and it basically said that a school committee can't just vote x number of dollars to the schools we're going to let the superintendent make those policy choices the school committee has an obligation now over the years our school committee
▶ 26:53 has in my view never done an authentic policy expression through the school budget but this year it's about as bad as ever when you talk about labor versus non-labor as a policy expression that doesn't do it you need to figure out what you're going to apply your labor to have an impact on not just a general labor versus non-labor. And I would, I, you know, the school committee already voted. I don't know if it's unprecedented for the school committee at this point to go back and say, can we look at this a little bit more carefully and make some expressions of policy? Like make the expression of should the high school have funding that's more appropriate even than what's expressed in their current budget now? You know, there are certain things that are listed by the superintendent,
▶ 27:44 But the school committee didn't make it a policy and when you fail to make that policy when you fail to take the stand About this is what I believe is best for our in this case of the the schools our children You're not having the impact on moving The ball where it needs to move year by year by year and every year again I use the word arbitrary here because at some level your arbitrary classification of labor personnel versus non-personnel school supplies is the other thing, that doesn't make the policy expression that you, frankly, were elected to make. And why I bring these issues up, and you all know that I can get into the nitty-gritty and the weeds of every detail that's in the budget if we need to, but why I bring these
▶ 28:38 larger issues up right now today at this forum is because the city has to evolve right we can't stay the status quo Melrose that we've always been we have to evolve this year is unprecedented to use the word again that the school committee has actually said we want more money than somebody's told us we can have I applaud that at some level as I said at the school committee meeting a little while ago I'm still conflicted because the schools actually haven't made those policy decisions haven't made the hard choices about how can they figure out how to apply the resources differently than the status quo to make a better thing for our children but again in order for the city to evolve over the long term we need to have attitudinal changes policy changes
▶ 29:27 position changes and and I want to put out here loud and clear is that money is not the solution in and of itself money can always help something but adding more money and applying it in the same status quo way as we've done for a number of years hasn't made the grade in terms of getting our schools to where they need to be and so you know Thorp a lot of talk about an override at this point and frankly that's premature because we would the last thing we want to do is to apply more money to a system that's failing at some level we need to make the system fixed and then apply more money in the in the if you will the the more productive manner that a fixed system can bring so thank you for listening to me I appreciate that I look forward to the budget process thank you
▶ 30:20 Michael P. Zwirko: any other members of the public wishing to speak this evening seeing none motion to close public comment second president madam chair Thorp been a motion made by alderman mortimer to close public comment that has been seconded by alderman forbes all those in favor any opposed hearing none public participation is closed at this time also entertain a motion to adjourn so moved mr president madam chair then a motion to adjourn by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Boisselle all those in favor aye aye any opposed we are adjourned Good evening. This is the regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen. Today is Monday, May 7th, 2018. This meeting is being recorded pursuant to the open meeting law.