Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2018-05-10

Attendance

Manisha Bewtra present · Alderman at Large; Robert A. Boisselle absent · Ward 4 Alderman; Scott M. Forbes absent · Vice Chair; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Chair; Kate Lipper-Garabedian present · Alderman at Large; Shawn M. MacMaster present · Ward 5 Alderman; 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. absent · Ward 3 Alderman; Michael P. Zwirko present · President/ Ex-officio Member

Agenda

1. Call to Order (0:03)
2. Public Participation (0:30)
3. Orders
4. ORDER-2018-169 : AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING REVOLVING FUNDS IN THE CITY OF MELROSE (1:12)
5. ORDER-2018-183 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 in the amount of $79,399,945.73 (Seventy-Nine Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred Forty-Five Dollars and Seventy-Three Cents). (16:40)
6. ORDER-2018-181 : Mt. Hood Enterprise Fund Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 in the amount of $1,585,597.28 (One Million, Five Hundred Eighty Five Thousand, Five Hundred Ninety Seven and Twenty Eight Cents. (1:29:30)
7. Adjournment (1:36:05)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 10, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Budget Hearing 7:30 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose Board of Aldermen may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the Board of Aldermen consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jennifer L. Lemmerman Chair Present Scott M. Forbes Vice Chair Absent Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Absent John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Absent Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Manisha Bewtra Alderman at Large Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian Alderman at Large Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Alderman Present Michael P. Zwirko President/ Ex-officio Member Present

ORDER-2018-169 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING REVOLVING FUNDS IN THE CITY OF MELROSE Hold Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2018-183 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 in the amount of $79,399,945.73 (Seventy-Nine Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred Forty-Five Dollars and Seventy-Three Cents). Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2018-181 Enterprise Fund Mt. Hood Enterprise Fund Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 in the amount of $1,585,597.28 (One Million, Five Hundred Eighty Five Thousand, Five Hundred Ninety Seven and Twenty Eight Cents. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 5/16/2018 4:06 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:03 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Good evening, everyone. This is a meeting of the Appropriations Committee and the first in a series of budget hearings on the FY19 budget. I am the chair, Alderman Lemmerman. I am joined by committee members Alderman Mortimer, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Bewtra, Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, Alderman McMaster, and President Zwirko. I failed to say that it is May 10th, it is now 735, and this meeting is being recorded, it's airing on MMTV and is also available on the City of Melrose website. Is there a motion? Motion for public participation. Second. I have a motion to open the floor for public participation by Alderman Tramontozzi, seconded by Alderman Medeiros. All in favor?

▶ 0:51 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Aye. Any opposed? This is the portion of the meeting where anyone may come forward to speak on any item on a agenda do we have any members of the public wishing to speak this evening we have a motion to close public participation by alderman Letter garabedian second by alderman tram and tozy all in favor aye aye any opposed public participation is now real yes thank you um at this time i'd like to make a motion to take order number 2018-169 and ordinance authorizing funds in the city of meadows uh out of order uh for the purpose of uh calling forth uh auditor mr delarusso uh to uh to give us some explanation on that before we start our budget hearings thank you very much alderman Tramontozzi makes a motion to take order number

▶ 1:44 2018-169 out of order uh seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor aye aye any opposed to taking the order out of order motion to suspend the rules we have a motion to spend the rules by president's work second second uh seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor of suspending the rules any opposed mr de la rusa would you come forward please and speak to us on this order good evening good evening thank you um the order they request before you this evening is a result of a change due to the Municipal Modernization Act and the Departmental Revolving Statute General Law is Chapter 44, Section 53E and 1 half was amended again by the Municipal Modernization Act, Statute 2016-18-86. These amendments eliminated the caps

▶ 2:53 on the amount that could be spent from revolving funds authorized for a particular department and in total from all authorized revolving funds in addition the revolving funds are to be authorized by bylaw or ordinance rather than an annual legislative body vote the legislative body must still vote on or before july 1st on the amount that may be spent from each fund during the upcoming year and that's from sean cronin the senior deputy commissioner of local services the department of revenue and what that means for us the change that we're seeing is in the past we would actually have departments come before you individually and we would vote each fund generally at that evening or that time under before you like this evening well I believe

▶ 3:53 you'll have at least one to talk about what this does is requires us to adopt it an ordinance we chose the table format which i believe you might have in your packet for the public to see what it does is in one place in one place it lays out each fund that we're asking to be reauthorized it asks it identifies the body that or the commission etc that's authorized to spend from the fund the purposes for which the fund money can be expended and in short the limit that you may that body may spend during that year from that fund you cannot exceed the amount voted by the Board of Aldermen unless you come back mid-year or at some point during the year and ask for it to be increased oftentimes a question surfaces which is probably a good time to talk about it what happens

▶ 5:01 if i take in more money than i anticipate well that's okay that's perfectly fine you just cannot spend more than was approved by the board of aldermen on the fund unless you get their authorization to do that so if the fund takes in more money because they have more activity than they anticipated there's nothing wrong with that just that they can never spend more than they actually take in in each fiscal year so the other part that's changed is typically this was reported by me on the tax recap sheet the department of revenue no longer requires that and in place of that they're asking that we take this new approach set up in a table format for everyone to see and vote accordingly so I'll ask I do ask your support it is something that they

▶ 5:55 John N. Tramontozzi: look for communities to do between fiscal 18 and now 19 is required they considered fiscal year 18 a transition year for a lot of communities so they said this year coming up 19 will ask that all communities follow this protocol so respectfully I'm here tonight to ask that we do just that thank you thank you just a couple questions so if we enact or approve this order all we're doing is establishing an ordinance in pursuant to the Massachusetts general laws is required for us to do correct the spreadsheet the Excel sheet that you showed us shows existing revolving accounts yes not anything not no new accounts but um revolving accounts that have are in current existence now that's correct so um so all this order does is just uh authorizing us to um

▶ 7:03 to continue with these accounts and then if if some future time a new revolving count is requested we just go through the process of approving it as we normally do that's a great question because um all of them that's a great question because um oftentimes or in some communities what happens and i've had it happen to me in the past during the year that you're in you the community has decided to set up a new program and they want to use the revolving fund under this statute in order to do that they would have to come to the the body the legislative body get their approval to set that fund up and use it because even it could happen mid-year for example there's nothing wrong with that it's just they still have to go through the same process and get your authorization

▶ 7:51 to do that and the same protocol regarding spending limits caps applies to that as well so you're absolutely right any right now there are no new funds being requested but but quite frankly you know there's nothing wrong with that if someone did request a new fund and if and if the um uh the department whose revolving fund uh has been pre-approved is expected to expend some money from that account they have to come before us for approval correct once it's yeah once you want to approve the the spending cap it's done for the year right the money stays with that fund if at some point during that the lifetime of that fund that the the fund's no longer necessary, then typically what would happen is that fund would be closed

▶ 8:41 out to general fund and those proceeds is turned over to the general fund. It doesn't happen often, but that's typically what you'd see. But my question is, though, that the department has the authority to spend the money from that revolving account without coming before us to get prior approval. Yes, they do. Now, first they have to have approval for the spending cap. From that point on, correct, they can spend it without having to come back. You're right. they want to spend over the cap and then they have to come before they have to come before you you have to provide authorization for them to do that thank you thank you thank you thank you madam chair thank you mr. Del Rosario for bringing this to us so essentially this doesn't seed any

▶ 9:22 Michael P. Zwirko: authority that the Board of Aldermen previously had under this new municipal modernization what it's really done is kind of made the process more efficient And so it takes care of it in one swoop, as opposed to kind of a whack-a-mole approach with the existing— MR. Absolutely. And it's all, quite frankly, it's all in one place now. MR. Yes. MR. It's a table everyone can look at whenever they need to. MR. And the other thing is it removes the caps, as you aforementioned, right? And just for the folks that are watching, and it's in the materials that you provided, could you just give a brief summary of what exactly a revolving account is? MR. Certainly. um typically and we'll use recreation because that's the one i think people are most familiar

▶ 10:03 with um different programs and activities are set up for for uh you know for the youth and they participate in these programs they pay a fee for the people that support the program the coaches etc the money would be deposited in this fund for that purpose for that to to operate that program to hire that coach and any expenses related to that um and then what would happen is that during that the year uh you know quite frankly you would have an uh people sign up for the program on a regular basis um they'd come in they would uh you know i'm sure enjoy the program in their own way look forward to it the next year right but the the the key is that there's money is segregated just for that purpose it's not tax money it's strictly from receipts from the program period and the

▶ 10:56 Michael P. Zwirko: program quite frankly has to be able the revenue has to support the program or it's not going to be effective in it but uh typically that's what it is it's just i think a convenient way to want to say that to run programs that help and benefit people thank you for that and um you know this is one of the uh many pieces that we've seen across this body from the municipal modernization act which has been very helpful there's a slew of items I want to say somewhere around 300 actually when they passed it so this is and I know that and I read your bulletin thank you for the one that was written by Sean Cronin and I know that he essentially directed cities and towns to hold off a little bit after the

▶ 11:35 Monica C. Medeiros: Municipal Modernization Act came through so they could give a little bit of guidance here so appreciate the patience to bring this forward but I think it's appropriate and with that I would like to make a motion to recommend for passage of this ordinance second the motion to recommend for passage We have a motion to recommend for passage by Alderman Search, seconded by Alderman Mortimer on discussion. We have Alderman Medeiros. Thank you. Thank you. And actually, so this, how we would usually have dealt with this in the past is either we've had one large order that's had each one of the revolving accounts, and as we've gone through our budget deliberations we would put the order on hold and put a taste you know put it on the table and take it off the table and

▶ 12:17 Monica C. Medeiros: discuss it with that department head or we would just have individual orders that would reauthorize the cap correct correct and so this would eliminate that this is obviously an ordinance change would require eight votes if if a department had found that something new had changed throughout the year if they had a new program we would give authorization by changing the ordinance but what would happen if in fact and through the chair if it was a different activity from the scope that was originally approved by the board so say for example it's tennis instead of you know basketball or both now they add another one if they still fit that you know activity mode they would probably be fine provided

▶ 13:09 that they didn't exceed the limit because oftentimes you have to they may have to have different programs they didn't think about today maybe in six months or three months they say geez you know i should have put this program in place but they still have to stay within the scope of what the activity is here that you have voted if it falls out of activity then they would have i would suggest they would approach me and we would actually if it need be set up a brand new fund just for that particular activity okay which we have to go before you which would again be an ordinance change of some kind or if there was some reason that they wanted to raise the cap it would be an ordinance change if it was something that was temporary say a one-year program or something

▶ 13:50 Monica C. Medeiros: like a special event of some kind we might get you know ticket fees or something um we could could we do something that was a temporary change in the cap? Again, I think you want to try to keep it broad in the sense that you want to give that program director the flexibility to work with their program and not feel that they're restricted in some way. But if it became something that I thought was sensitive, then obviously the board should hear it. and so now you said these are currently reported out on the tax recap sheet is there any place that moving forward is there any public you know this is something we obviously we're giving the the department heads the freedom to to raise this revenue and to spend it on within these caps that are set correct

▶ 14:52 Monica C. Medeiros: which we've been doing right along is there any any public uh documentation of you know what the spending activity has been in these revolving accounts well we have to report them through the chair and our uh financial statements and but that's just the fact uh outside of that unless there's some independent reporting outside of the schedule a for example for your schedule a and expenses i mean it would typically be a number but it wouldn't have the description that you have here we just show activities uh but this is nice because it breaks it down by by function okay um you know these are not changes i don't believe are any of these changes from what we have yes i believe you'll see that recreation is when looking to increase

▶ 15:42 Monica C. Medeiros: the cap to 450,000 I think we'll speak to that and again that far as my know that's the only change so I you know I don't think this is a huge change and I know there's already a motion on the floor now to recommend the ordinance change and set up this new table in our ordinances I would recommend since we have we are going to go through the process and having the different department heads here you know that perhaps we may want to hold this and revisit it as we talk to those department heads about this initial set above the cap just for a public discussion and and to speak with them since we have the opportunity thank you thank you other comments or questions we do have a motion on the floor to recommend for passage it's been made and

▶ 16:35 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: seconded all in favor all right any opposed thank you very much that order be recommended for passage thank you mr del russo thank you we'll now go back to order 2018-183 city of morrow's operating budget for fiscal year 19 in the amount of 79 million 399 945 and 73 cents we have the departmental budget hearing on our agenda this evening with several departments in front of us i do want to just take one minute as this is the first budget hearing to just walk through our process uh just for one moment as we have members of the public watching um this is a series of budget hearings that we'll have between now and mid-june to consider this budget which was sent to the board of alderman by mayor inferna the public

▶ 17:26 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: can view the agendas on iqm2 which is accessible on city of morrow's website you can view each meeting which departments we will be discussing you can view the budget for the entire budget as well as the the department budget this year a new process that we have in place and available in iqm2 is that each department head did fill out a questionnaire with some common information that is helpful as we consider this budget and that's available as well for more information on our fiscal procedures members of the public can refer to article 6 of the city charter but i thought there were two important pieces to note as we begin this process one is that the board must adopt the city operating budget within 45 days of when it was sent to the city clerk from the mayor

▶ 18:11 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: the other is that the board can delete or decrease an amount that comes before us but we cannot increase it and were we to decrease an item we cannot then say where that amount the delta were to go that would go back to the mayor for consideration we will have public comment at every meeting and we welcome input throughout our process the rules of order do limit comment to 10 minutes per speaker and the comments must be relevant to the items on our agenda which is the the budget and there will also be a public hearing on this budget in its entirety which is scheduled for june 4th at 8 pm and we'll be that will be posted publicly thank you very much for allowing me that bit of explanation and we will move forward uh to the first department on our agenda

▶ 18:54 which is the memorial building budget number six nine three um in the amount of two hundred and five thousand two hundred and three dollars and sixty three cents we are already under suspension so i'd like to invite up kathy piggott broder hi i'd like to just uh say i'm mary sexton and i'm chairman of the board of trustees at memorial hall and i'll tell you from the time kathy first arrived here i believe it was an 09 our figures everything has gone straight up of course it helped with the central air conditioning for using it in the summer but when i tell you no one sees the work after 11 o'clock at night or for all these social events that happen i've happened to be at a couple of them and have witnessed she never goes home um and so i just on behalf of

▶ 19:55 the board want to thank Kathy for being there for all of us thank you hi thank you Mary that was sweet I didn't expect that I'm Kathy Pagabrota executive director of the greatest building in Melrose Memorial Hall I just wanted to I know you guys got my questionnaire but I just wanted to run through a couple of numbers to let you know that in fiscal year 18 we're on track to have 371 events with approximately 58,000 guests and 90 clients just to put that in perspective the first year I walked into the building there was 138 events are one of the things that has changed dramatically as I've become very creative and booking events so for example in 46% of the time we have one event today 40% we have two a day 10% we have three a day and then 3% of time we

▶ 20:52 four a day because I can it depends upon the event whether we can manipulate it or not we we our schedule varies for example in April I had 53 events but in January I had 22 so this but now I've gotten used to I know which months are higher and lower so we can adapt the schedule for our staffing and all that some of the new clients we've had this year have been very interesting we've We've had Peking University high school reunion came to us. We had a ballet group from Florida call me and they had a performance here. We had a high school from Reno, Nevada that wanted to do a conductor's seminar and they found out about us through Melrose Symphony. They came here and we're also having for the first time the Melrose HRC Iftar dinner is

▶ 21:37 also going to be at the hall for the first time. We still have our regular events, weekly events. We have the Melrose Symphony Orchestra. They rehearse every Monday, Zumba, our Rotary meetings, our Friday Veterans Group is still hanging on, Melrose Youth Ballet for the Nutcracker and rehearsals, and we had Melrose Boot Camp this year. At the hall, we have certain events that happen every year on an annual basis, and I actually have a sheet of paper on my desk that says which events are which weekend of which month, so they get first preference for it. For example, the Art Festival always gets the last weekend in April, and so that's already booked for next year. They get the first right of refusal.

▶ 22:21 There's Trivia Bee. Now the Melrose Highlands Congregation Bear and Bites always gets the first day in April. The Polymnia always gets the first Saturday in June for their concert, and of course Melrose Symphony has a very set schedule for their events. One of the bonuses that sort of has happened is I ran into Murphy's Boxing, I met them and I know everybody knows Murphy's Boxing has come, but through that we've also gotten, I now have No Boundary Fighting coming four times a year, I have Dunleavy, White Collar Boxing comes once a year, and I also have Evolve Wrestling coming three times, they just booked the other day for three times for next year, and they're the farm team for WWE who knew and I also am up to 12 dance companies in May and June we're

▶ 23:08 about to go into recital month and the last thing I'll let you know is we are still doing the schools in Melrose each public school gets one fee waiver the Board of Trustees at the request of mayor has allowed each school PTO to run a fundraiser and that started the year of when everyone was doing the playgrounds and they gave them a free rental five-hour rental and the mayor's asked every year to keep that up and every school takes advantage of it now for example the Morales high school wrestling team came this year and had a tournament the Morales high school pops they're they're gonna be using it for a concert this year and the Winthrop PTO has their talent show every year but that's on the approval the Board of Trustees and that's it if you have any

▶ 23:51 John N. Tramontozzi: questions thank you very much Alderman Tramontozzi thank you madam chair thank you for that summary that's very much appreciated you know the Memorial Hall such a historic building it's really the Emerald gem for the city and we want to make sure that it's well maintained and kept up how was the roof we often times receive damage in the CLI so I'm curious as to whether or not we have any issues with the We do have leaks. I had a roofer come out and do an estimate for us, and I'm in the process of getting two more, and that gentleman did some while he was up there. He repaired a few things out of the kindness of his heart. I didn't ask him to. He did it, which was very nice. So we have a lot less. A lot of the damage you see is from when it was really leaking two years ago, and now it just needs to be repaired.

▶ 24:49 John N. Tramontozzi: well that's good um because i'm not sure that there's any budget there's no budget for capital improvements at least not the immediate future um just so the public understands so the income generated by the the events at memorial hall is that's paid over to the city into the general fund is that how it's done yes it goes into the general fund okay um there's there's one item on that i have a question about and that's professional services uh for fifteen thousand dollars what is that that's the hvac um service contracts okay and that's the one item that went up because the service contracts go up every year but that everything else is um level funded right i see that thank you thank you thank you alderman Medeiros thank you thank you i know you i can

▶ 25:35 Monica C. Medeiros: attest as mrs sexton said you are always there at every event i'm going to whatever time of day or weekend it is and so we really thank you I know that's gonna be a tough my pleasure really it is an awesome building and I know it has to be tough on your personal life nonetheless and we do appreciate it and get to see lots a variety of events and and people which is great so busy there I know the goal has always been to make this building self-sustaining but it doesn't seem like like that's really actually possible to do that and to keep it as a community building but we're doing a great job yeah it's it's not gonna be safe if it's the building that if the PTO needs to raise money they can come there and put

▶ 26:26 on an event and then that's less money that has to come out of the city budget at the PTO's who's in my building trace money for example the year of the playgrounds some of those playgrounds were at my building raised between 15 and $20,000 for the boy grounds yeah it was really excellent and a lot of hard work from those volunteers exactly and I understand now that sometimes it's it's hard to kind of even work in maintenance because the building is so busy do you have a set kind of maintenance schedule or any kind of I'm sorry yeah I have a schedule that there's certain things I do certain times of the year I actually worked with them DBW when I first came in I sat down with John Chenner and took

▶ 27:11 his Excel spreadsheet and looked at what he did and then over the years I've adapted it like there's certain times that I have to have the kitchen suppression system inspected there's certain times I have to I like in January we clean all the woodwork in the building I'm coming up twice a year we do the windows on the outside and I do I have it set up in such a way that it's the down times for example April vacation in February vacation I am never booked no one ever books those weeks so that's a great week for my guys to be doing maintenance so I have a set schedule with certain things are done in certain times of the year great and then I know you have if there's a ticketed event that a portion or one dollar of each ticket sale I believe goes to the

▶ 27:50 Memorial Hall fund do you have how is that going and is that is that helping you with the maintenance and I believe you were looking at possibly setting up a friends group and wondering how that was coming the actually the Friends of Memorial Hall are in process but it's like anything else it takes a while to establish numbers and get people really on board with that in terms of the restoration fund right now there's forty eight thousand seven hundred and fifty nine dollars and forty eight cents which if you know if you're running your own home doesn't buy much um and so the things that need to be done i think when we first get started this was wonderful but we were behind the eight ball to begin with and now we're trying

▶ 28:42 to catch up so it's constant then when something happens like the roof i mean now we can't finish doing the gar ceiling because there's no sense doing it until the roof gets done or a certain portion of it gets fixed it's not leaking so it's a vicious circle but it's going right and so if anybody wanted from the public wanted to help in any way they could contact you at memorial yes i have a donation account set up and you'd be willing and happy to say i would love to go and meet them we'll go pick up the check very good thank you very much appreciate it thank you president's workout thank you i withdraw alderman jose asked my question Alderman Lipper-Garabedian. Thank you both so much for being here.

▶ 29:27 I recall earlier this year we appropriated a little bit of additional money for a study to look into the repairs that are necessary for Memorial Hall, and I just wondered if you could speak to the status of that work. Twice, I believe, you appropriated money for a building study, and it's basically to assess the long-term and short-term capital needs of the building. At this point, John Chenoweth is overseeing that, and the people have been finalized. I believe the Board of Aldermen representative is Mike Zwerchow, John Chenoweth, myself. We have two trustees, which would be Mary Sexton and Lou Izzy, and I believe they found a couple of members of the public that are willing to serve on it.

▶ 30:09 Peter D. Mortimer: So we finally have finalized the bodies, and now we can start with the meeting. And the first thing is to have a meeting, and then bring in an architecture to do the study. the study has been done to prioritize the needs thank you that's helpful to know other questions alderman mortimer thank you very much yes uh it's very hard for this building to be self-sustaining but it is a community service that you're able to lessen the other budgets and to your credit i'd like to say you've done a great job financially because you've been closer than It's been in a hundred years to be in self-sustaining than it's ever been possible. In spite of the fact that it keeps depreciating and getting more and more wear and tear from the use that creates the greater revenue.

▶ 31:01 Peter D. Mortimer: So you're a victim of your own success and just the fact that the building is so very old. So kudos to you 100%. I'm a member of the Melrose Rotary Club and we have our Thursday lunch there. Melrose Rotary a little plug for anybody out there it's a great group that does a lot for charity local charities and worldwide and national charities but a lot of local charities too here in Melrose and we have a lunch there every Thursday and you always do a great job I play happy birthday on the piano piano is always a great tune so it's it's a wonderful thing and you mentioned the symphony which is the oldest continuing all-volunteer symphony in the United States of America, and this year, just the other night,

▶ 31:52 Peter D. Mortimer: they had, last Saturday night, they had their final concert of their 100th anniversary season, and it was a great show, and I noticed something that happened. I was in a seat where I could see, and when the door opened, the parking lot with the fluorescent light that opens up to the parking lot that's behind the fire station, and I noticed how professionally you handled an event that happened, kind of an incident, a misadvent. There was a gentleman there who was having some medical distress, and the orchestra was in the middle of playing Bolero by Ravel, and it was almost eerie and supernatural that you came over and addressed the gentleman who was having trouble, And then the firefighter on detail, Jay Morneau, came over and he addressed him.

▶ 32:48 Peter D. Mortimer: And they opened the doors, and the fluorescent lights from the parking lot beyond were in full splendor. And you were moving back and forth, and in the meantime, Ravel's Bolero was getting more and more exciting as it went on. And then four firefighters came in, and they had a stretcher chair, and they took the gentleman out. And you were walking back and forth, and the music was getting more frenetic. and then they left and the music kind of hit its crescendo and you walked over you closed the door and it became dark again and the music came to its conclusion and it was it was just a beautiful piece of professional work with music musical accompaniment it was so fitting by you but but you handled it like a pro yeah but kudos to those firemen kudos i really they handled it they were

▶ 33:37 Peter D. Mortimer: very professional they were and the music never missed a beat the audience was there but you and you took the words right out of my mouth i was about to congratulate or praise uh firefighters too but you in conjunction with the firefighters did did a wonderful job i was lucky enough to be there because my daughter andrea won two tickets in a raffle at the trivia bee which was also held there uh a little bit earlier so there's the cultural thing of murrow's uh she won tickets to the concert at the trivia be at memorial hall and then she took her dad to the concert at memorial hall so it was very fortunate and it's in no small measure due to your excellent work there thank you very much thank you that's all i have madam chair thank you adam mortimer motion to

▶ 34:24 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: recommend the uh the bottom line two seconds five thousand two hundred three dollars and sixty three cents we have a motion by alderman Tramontozzi to move the bottom line seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor aye aye any opposed thank you very much thank you the next department on our agenda is number 541 the council on aging in the amount of 189 974.21 i would like to invite up deb rizzo she is hello everybody joined by mike lindstrom from the mayor's office and before i hand it over to deb i just wanted to publicly commend deb rizzo and georgie lewis here who's also here on the outstanding uh job they've done at the coa in the milano center in dawn's absence while she's on medical leave uh while we all anxiously await dawn's return

▶ 35:23 they haven't missed a beat over there everyone stepped up their game and um it's been a pleasure so i'll hand it over to deb now um we are we're all working collectively together to make sure that the day-to-day operations are really going as best as it can be we're anxious for her to come back though but i would like to take the opportunity to share a lot of the great things that do go on over at the coa and at the milano center a lot of this is in the notes that you have and then i've got a few things that i'd like to elaborate on if that's okay with you the milrose council on aging is a local focal point for social and support services to seniors families and their caregivers some of the services that we administer there are

▶ 36:07 including information and referral free local transportation outreach services we coordinate the property tax workoff program and we oversee the melrose emergency fund there at the coa the milano center is considered a home away from home for socializing learning wellness and giving back we have more than 60 programs that run every single week it includes weekday luncheons a a variety of wellness and fitness classes, art courses, computer instructions, educational programs, and a lot more. The COA budget is level funded outside of a few scheduled or contractual step increases in salaries and wages. So I'd like to touch base on a couple of key statistics and the stats that I'm gonna share with you

▶ 36:55 are for the first nine months of the fiscal year. Lunches served, there were close to 2,800 lunches served. The COA received 6,700 phone calls, the Milano 7,900 phone calls. Close to 800 different visitors came to the Milano Center. Our social service worker, she's our outreach coordinator, she took on 29 cases this year, 29 new cases, which is phenomenal for someone that works five hours a week And that's not even counting the other cases that she's still following on a regular basis. Community dinner, that's a dinner that's open to all residents of Melrose every Tuesday night for free of charge. We average about 65 guests a week there. One of our biggest programs is the transportation program.

▶ 37:52 A grand total of almost 6,000 rides in nine months given to seniors to get them, whether it's for medical rides or to lunch with friends or whatever. We oversee the property tax work program there. This year we have 36 placements that are in the process of working their hours now. Last year we also, the year end for 2017, we had 36 placements and they ended up putting in 3 276 hours of assistance by volunteering their time for a variety of city of melrose departments the emergency fund to date we have shared with them sixteen thousand one hundred and eleven dollars that benefited 42 households and that's in nine months time uh some of the recent building renovations improvements and program assistance first off i'd like to thanks to the amazing

▶ 38:53 support of the friends of the milano center we've been able to make significant interior improvements at milano they have funded the renovations to tierney hall and we're in the process of doing the classroom and the art room on the second level now they've also helped us out when when money's gotten tight with helping with some education programs or entertainment for different luncheons that we have a lot of our programs for instance like the gardens around milano center on our patio they are maintained through the generosity of volunteers we have 67 active volunteers and they've logged in close to 3 000 hours so far their commitment to the milano center is just really helps build community spirit they're a huge huge help to us

▶ 39:41 So regarding new programs and initiatives, we have, without question, learned over the few years that I've been there that the seniors just want to continue learning. They always want to learn more. So because of that, we brought on a course called the Great Courses. I don't know if any of you have heard of it, but it's considered an edutainment program. It's educational, and it's also entertaining for them. And we've offered five different topics so far, and they're made up of six-week classes each. And they have been sold, not sold out, because we give it for free of charge. Twenty-five attendees can come in the classroom at a time. And there's always a waiting list, there's always a waiting list.

▶ 40:25 And it's been very interesting topics to optimizing brain fitness, a Smithsonian tour through American history, practicing mindfulness, the inexplicable universe, and now they're just starting the everyday gourmet which kind of they're going to learn how to cook with vegetables and it kind of ties into the sally's market opening up although i think they're going to call it melrose melrose farmer's market now yeah one of the new programs this year that we started uh we launched it with the melrose public library we wanted to reach out to any homebound seniors that love to read but can't get to the library for whatever reason so the library works with the client selects books that they want and the COA we handle the volunteers to

▶ 41:12 go pick up the books and deliver it to the seniors and back and forth and so forth that's been going good let's see we have a newly revised day trip program this is coordinated by a volunteer and we've had great success by monthly trips to a variety of different locations have been to Rockport Peabody Essex Museum market streets you know a variety of different places sometimes it's just for lunch but they love that other educational programs we've offered instructional topics on opioids information on plastic bags information on scams nutritional topics dementia and other health related topics we've also come to learn that there is a really big audience for positive living so we've built in some new programs for that such as mindful living staying in the moment

▶ 42:08 that you know that kind of thing it's good it's got a pretty big audience the programs that we offer at Milano Center that show the best and most constant continual growth our chair Cronin yoga classes Tai Chi the great courses and watercolor painting other programs that we started we put together a random acts of kindness initiative to promote kindness amongst each other and strangers. We've created these kindness cards. It's like a business card. It's a kindness card. It says something really sweet on it, and we give those away for free for people to take a handful so that they can go do something nice to somebody and give them a card so that they pass it on. That's going over well. Once a year, we have a very professional performance from a company by the name of

▶ 43:00 Delvina theater group I think they're probably well known in Melrose it's always a sellout people love it because it's usually like a historical type of entertainment Melrose cultural council pays for most of that and then we pick up a nominal fee for it as well each winter we work with Melrose high school students because we always have seniors that call looking for people to help shovel their walkways or whatever so we work with the high school department and get some good responsible kids that would be willing to do that let's see this year was another very successful intergenerational event the spring fling with the Melrose high school students entertaining about 90 of the seniors we have a volunteer at the Milano Center who offers free smartphone instruction

▶ 43:51 classes anytime anybody wants them she'll she'll give them some help with smartphone uh that really is kind of about it in closing i'd just like to say that an awful lot goes on over at the coa and the milano center and um we certainly couldn't do it all successfully without the help of the friends our volunteers and an incredibly dedicated staff that we have there i think a lot of the new program you're seeing is a result of that the senior needs assessment that we completed out of the uh collectively between the coa and the mayor's office about the uh you know the homebound seniors uh to bring books and also revising a lot of the day trips to make them a little more exciting thank you very much motion to accept the bottom line of 189 974

▶ 44:41 John N. Tramontozzi: dollars and 21 cents madam chair we have a motion to move the bottom line by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman medeiros on discussion we have alderman Tramontozzi well there's not much more that can be said but but i do want to extend my thank you uh and appreciation um you do wonderful uh work for our senior citizens yes miss louis too i wanted to say uh thank you keep i wanted to show this because um i think this is great this little um a booklet that tells you what's what's uh ahead and inside it um so for the public you know there's a calendar and look at all the events that you have every day there's something going on thank you for bringing that didn't even think to yeah a little bit of promotion and i and i wanted to say thank

▶ 45:24 John N. Tramontozzi: you this afternoon you um you had a um a mother's day luncheon and uh was wonderfully wonderfully packed uh audience uh to uh see uh roger tinknell uh perform uh on his guitar and uh singing uh elvis to the evely brothers and that was well received yeah it was well received and very enjoyable and i had the honor and privilege of being there i'm glad you were george is a great host when we have those events yeah thank you thank you again it was wonderful afternoon thanks thank you that's all thank you president Zwirko thank you madam chair a few questions so first i would like to uh also let folks know that in addition to all the programs that the milano center runs um you know it's also civic space which gets used by a multitude of organizations

▶ 46:13 Michael P. Zwirko: which is great um so having uh you know obviously melrose is very um tight with its space issues so it's always nice to have some areas where civic organizations can um have a couple of evening meetings and things of that so it's it's a nice uh and you touched on the um recent renovations to the hall so it's very nice but uh i had one question about um you had mentioned it earlier i forget the name of it i'm sorry the property tax work program so this is um my understanding is an individual can donate about 100 hours a year volunteering their time for the city in some fashion they get a um essentially it's a work off program right it's a thousand dollar abatement on their property tax so this tax cut or this tax excuse me this tax break um you said there was

▶ 47:07 Michael P. Zwirko: 36 placements this past year and one feature that I like is that you hold face-to-face interviews and I also understand that recently the the income cap to participate in the program was removed so I would think that with that removal some of the skill sets potentially of the folks that participate in the program are increased so you may have for example a retired hired accountant or someone that could maybe help in one of the departments. So, I guess I'm leading you here, but if you could talk a little bit more about the program. And some of the participants and what some of those 36 placements went to and the services that they provided. Sure, the income was lifted, the strengths were lifted a few years ago.

▶ 47:57 2015. And prior to that, there wasn't a huge expectation as far as a large amount of experience you'd be bringing to a job. It was people that might have been answering phones, shredding documents, that kind of thing. And now the income limit has been lifted, a lot more people. I think when I first started here, there were about 17 people participating. And now there's 36, and that's like phenomenal when you think about those 36 volunteer jobs for people. They love doing the work, a lot of them come back year after year, and there is a lot of people that are putting in time and hours, like somebody has great HR background, they're helping out in the HR department, you know, with certain things, there's only certain

▶ 48:52 Michael P. Zwirko: things that they can touch but we've got some really good qualified people engineering department too yeah yeah and in terms of the value i mean would you say so obviously that those funds are we're not able to take those funds in in terms of levy from the property tax would you say that the value of the services that is provided greatly outweighs the cost that we lose in the reduction of the property tax i would say so i can only speak for the mayor's office because the the the stable of volunteers that we have that come in each day they're crucial to the operation of the office because it's just bridget and i in that office and uh the phones ringing constantly having some sort of front line volunteer rather than having to pay you know

▶ 49:30 Michael P. Zwirko: someone to sit at that desk i think i think there's a ton of value i i think you get more more value back to them plus these people feel like they're really contributing and doing something well it sounds it for sure yeah and those are all the questions i had i just did want to make one comment that um you know if you could please send your regard our our regards for to dawn um you know hopefully she'll be uh be able to get back i know she's probably chomping at the bit to return to her job which she left us to do a good job we hope we hope that she returns soon so thank you madam chair i will i'll tell her thank you thanks alderman Medeiros thank you uh keep it very brief i want to thank you i want to thank uh you for a very beautiful presentation

▶ 50:09 Monica C. Medeiros: in particular the uh the write-up of the questionnaire and thank chairman Lemmerman and mayor inferno for including that in the budget process i think that's very helpful and i did want to just mention that in the revolving accounts that we are going to set the cap in ordinance now there is a 25 000 annual cap for the council and aging milano senior center just mind would you mind speaking on that and if you think it's adequate and and well i can tell you that i know that we use whatever we are we are given um do you want me to share what we spend the yes so you guys have raised the cap twice i know in the time we've been here because they kept bumping up against it uh i think twice in almost three years so it's at a

▶ 50:56 it's at a level now that i think that it's going to be fine for you know a considerable amount of time but deb can speak to the use of the fund if you could that would be well basically it's actually used for you well you you saw the the budget itself there's been no change and or increase in expenses and so forth so that's where a lot of the general office supplies janitorial supplies some of our entertainment expenses will come out of that some of our programs for instance the new the new positive living program some of that comes out of their updates to we got a my senior center software program and those have some upgrades every year so that's where some of that money goes to as well they spent very wisely thank you

▶ 51:38 Shawn M. MacMaster: I'm sure and you're very busy and everybody has high high reviews that don't bring up the center so and and I echo president this work of his comments about Don Palopolis and we thank you thank you very much thank you thank you both for being here 22% of the population in the city of Melrose is over the age of 60 six years from now it's going to be about 30 of the population i'm wondering if you've noticed a change in services an increase in services that the council in aging has provided over the last year yes and i i'm more it all i can imagine is that it's going to continue to increase people are living a lot longer more active lives and we are we are seeing people staying with us whether it's through volunteer work programs that they enjoy going to but

▶ 52:32 absolutely i see that the expectation is going to only increase more one of the things i've noticed is basically from the needs assessment also is the the desire to see more money management courses as people enter into retirement and options with their houses or even just managing their retirement funds although we you know bringing trying to bring in uh neutral people to kind of give that kind of advice to folks because i think you know the the population is getting young you know you want to get in a younger population in the building and using services also so um you mentioned um for the period of time that you reported there were 2 800 lunches served 65 guests a week for dinner for the community yeah and 6 000 rides a month

▶ 53:14 if there's been an increase over the last year presumably there'll be an increase in services for next year with level funding how do you expect to maintain the services that you look to provide Well, a lot of it is through the generosity of volunteers, and a lot of us, like I said, we are a very hardworking staff there. As far as the rides go, they are able to offer a small donation if they'd like, and that just puts right back into the program as well. The lunches served, there probably hasn't been too, too much of change in that over the year. It's kind of like the same, unless there's a special luncheon going on, like you saw today where we had i don't know close to 70 people there um there's probably 15 or 20 people that come daily for lunch and that goes up and down a

▶ 54:03 little bit but um in the community dinner do we want to speak now that's that doesn't come out of our bottom line no no the community dinner it's uh funded out of the emerson fund yeah um and then the the part-time uh the six hours a week for the diane sutton and deb walls will do an amazing job running community dinner each week with different volunteer groups so that that is paid out of the the Emerson fund we just seem to always make do and get what we need as far as through the generosity of others or the Friends program the Friends of Milano have been fantastic to us so with the burgeoning elder population and the baby boomers aging out of the workforce are there ways to perhaps utilize additional volunteers to support that population and if so how

▶ 54:55 can people volunteer we certainly could I always accept volunteer applications and they just let us know what they might be interested in we are as Mike said trying to get the at the 55 and up in in the building as well and that's been changing that's been growing since we've brought in these new types of programs like like the the great courses and the yeah the trips and the other one was the the positive living type of programs because people are very into health conscious and and relieving stress and so forth so we're trying to get a younger population and for that reason in which case we would bring on more volunteers as well thank you very much sir thank you we have a motion to move the bottom line that's been made and seconded all in favor aye any

▶ 55:49 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: opposed thank you very much thanks if you would stay just for one moment we do have the next item it was brought up Alderman DeRose to address it somewhat in her comments but we have the revolving account on here and and the previous order that we discussed in committee 2018-169 would actually change the process by which we you know would approve this but I do want to give any alderman who might have questions on that specific account the opportunity to do so madam chair i make a motion to uh hold the revolving account in committee uh commensurate with the order we passed earlier and then we can uh procedurally pass them all at once make a motion to move them out to the full board at the end but i'll make a motion at this time to uh hold that

▶ 56:34 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: order in the appropriations committee thank you alderman mortimer we have a a motion to hold the uh line item of the revolving account in committee is there a second second it's seconded by president's worker all in favor well i'm sorry upon discussion are there questions about this or a discussion about the account i just wanted um we're at we are under suspension of rules i just want to yell over to mr delarusso that's it in light of the new changes that's the proper way of doing it right we should just approve them all at the same time yes and short of having everyone here all at once that's the problem all right so that sounds appropriate to me do we need to withdraw the previous order there's a point of order we've already recommended yeah right yeah

▶ 57:22 Peter D. Mortimer: we should do that either withdraw or reconsider yes i believe it would be a motion to reconsider if we were to do it i think there are two uh separate items we moved and passed the bottom line for the council and aging budget but this is a site separate item the revolving account so that's what we would hold in committee we already moved to recommend that previously this evening i believe alderman Medeiros is referring to the previous order 2018 169 not the previous line item so so the um motion would be to hold the revolving account uh with those other revolving accounts that are uh being recommended for passage but to hold it and then join them right with that at the end absolutely that would be the motion which we could do with the emotions that are

▶ 58:12 John N. Tramontozzi: before us so i would i withdraw uh madam chair i withdraw my second from alderman Mortimer motion president Zwirko withdraws his second i think i think according with mr uh del russo i think my motion is still appropriate but somebody if anybody else it is appropriate it may so so the motion to hold this um revolving accounting committee is appropriate so we'll pass that what we need to do then is reconsider our earlier uh motion to recommend uh 2018-169 so so that way we can hold that in committee because we did vote to recommend to avoid that so we'll just reconsider that and hope and then keep that one order in committee everybody understand that all right All right, so let's vote on Alderman Mortimer motion.

▶ 59:07 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: It's a second first. I'll second it. Okay, we have a motion to hold the Council on Aging Revolving Account in committee. Made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Tram and Tozzi. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? So that will be held in committee. Thank you all very much. You do not need to stay for the rest of our procedural piece. We appreciate the information. Maybe we can do this now so we don't get confused, but I'm going to make a motion. I guess can I make a motion to reconsider order 218-169 to return that to committee. Alderman Tramontozzi makes a motion to reconsider the previous vote that was a motion to recommend for passage order 2018-169. Second. Seconded by Alderman Mortimer.

▶ 59:58 Michael P. Zwirko: All in favor of the motion to reconsider? discussion and I apologize so I don't see that there's a reason to make a motion to reconsider since we've already approved the order the order two zero one eight one six nine to approve the revolving funds whether or not the revolving fund that was in question council on aging we all agreed to the cap so where we're author we're going to essentially go back unvote the motion to recommend and then and vote again in favor of it I mean it seems almost ex-post-facto so if I may my understanding is that we will continue to have revolving accounts throughout this process that if we were to pass 169 we are then passing those revolving accounts without having discussed them

▶ 1:00:51 Michael P. Zwirko: if we hold them all until the end of this process and pass 169 we will have had the chance to discuss each of the revolving accounts before we pass them correct and what was brought up by mr. de la Russo is that the only change to the order 2 0 1 8 1 6 9 was that the cap in the recreation has increased so I don't understand what discussion would be different if this goes forward or not I mean to me it seems like procedural gymnastics for the sake of it but I mean And if people want to reconsider it, that's fine, but I mean, you certainly can, you can discuss any revolving fund or, I think this is much ado about nothing. Thank you. The only thing is that the proper way of discussing the revolving funds is in the Appropriations

▶ 1:01:43 John N. Tramontozzi: Committee. before sending order 218-169 to the full board to act on we need to have discussion at the Appropriations Committee during the budget process on the revolving accounts then at the end of our budget hearings we then move we will move to send it to the full board recommend it to the full board and at that time just vote yes in which we then adopt the ordinance and the revolving funds that are part of that ordinance Alderman Medeiros yeah and just for a little further clarification they the budget the operating budget order 2018 dash 183 does not include any of the operating of the revolving fund spending or the the accounts or anything it is related but it doesn't truly include it in the same way that this revolving account order does and so it you know is it appropriate to

▶ 1:02:43 Monica C. Medeiros: discuss it during the budget process probably but it would be more proper to discuss it during you know the ordinance change discussion about setting the actual caps in into ordinance in order 2018-169 so i think it would be worthwhile to you know just take this opportunity to have this discussion with the department heads about those caps before we officially place them into ordinance thank you other discussion we have alderman mortimer we take that order about all the revolving accounts we discuss each revolving account as the department heads come before us we put them on hold then we lump them together with the previous order all the revolving accounts have been discussed we're holding the order that contains all the revolving accounts

▶ 1:03:40 Peter D. Mortimer: at our final meeting before it goes to the full board we'll recommend them all for passage that's probably the most efficient way to do it so the department heads don't have to keep coming in here on various nights two or three different nights to discuss things for their benefit they're all hard working we can discuss it then but under the as explained by by Mr. De La Russo under the new state law, under the new state procedure, we can then pass all the revolving accounts at the end. And I'm sure we can keep in our notes and our memories the details of the revolving accounts, having already vetted them thoroughly and parsed them fully. We can then go ahead and pass all the revolving accounts, or recommend for passage,

▶ 1:04:26 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: all the revolving accounts with confidence on that final meeting. Thank you. We have a motion before us to reconsider the vote taken earlier to recommend for passage order 2018 dash 1, 6, 9. All in favor of the motion to reconsider I any opposed opposed. Motion passes. They we have a motion to retain in committee or do we need to call should hold hold the border. 2018 dash 1, 6, 9 in committee we have a motion to hold order 2018-169 an ordinance authorizing revolving funds in the city of morrow's in committee made by alderman Tramontozzi seconded by alderman mortimer on discussion all in favor of the motion any opposed the motion passes we will hold this order in committee the next budget department before us is the energy commission number 169

▶ 1:05:31 for two thousand five hundred dollars we are under suspension we have members of the commission here this evening motion to recommend the bottom line for passage second motion to recommend the bottom line by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Tramontozzi on discussion welcome good evening my name is christy hyman i am a member of the melrose energy commission i'm also a member of the net zero and public abilities subcommittees first we will first we want to give you a brief update of our activities over the past year and thank you in advance for your continued support as you know the melrose energy commission continues to serve as the go-to source of information for residents and businesses on energy efficiency and renewable energy questions

▶ 1:06:15 we are a group of dedicated volunteers who put in many hours in effort to save the city energy and money and we use the annual appropriation in support of our outreach to the melrose community Here are a few highlights from fiscal year 2018. One, the ongoing Melrose Energy Challenge, which promotes mass-save home energy assessments and weatherization measures, has helped over 3,500 households save over $1.2 million annually on their utility bills through home energy assessments and follow-up weatherization measures. spent 2016 promoting home energy assessments and other energy efficiency measures through meeting our goals the city received 34 000 in award money in 2017 from national grid to spend on

▶ 1:07:05 conservation projects last year a portion of this award money was spent on hybrid conversion of the new water tech man to reduce fuel use and cost solar powered lightning at the dog park solar power phone charging benches for the common playground and high school an outdoor water filling station at the fred green athletic complex and healthy melrose fair registration fees for 10 sustainable melrose organizations with the go solar melrose program the commission partners with energy sage to bring an online solar marketplace to the community where residents businesses and non-profits can get apples to apples comparisons of solar bids in the time since launching the solar outreach programs in melrose in 2012 the community has gone from just

▶ 1:07:57 seven solar installations to over 300 at the beginning of 2018 with 2.3 megawatts of capacity the solar subcommittee is currently working with the third house of worship in melrose to go solar this array will will power not only the church but will be large enough to sell community generated clean local energy to power an additional 10 households it will utilize a state-sponsored program for implementing community solar which will provide a new revenue system to the church while stabilizing operational utility costs this effort is part of the effort within mech to reach the larger roofs of the city the energy commission continues to engage in community outreach last year the commission formed the solar net zero and transportation subcommittees in conjunction

▶ 1:08:48 with the release of our 2017 greenhouse gas inventory the subcommittees will address local issues by educating city officials and the public on the inventory of greenhouse gases net zero buildings low impact transportation and community solar to support the city net zero by 2050 goal with the success of the gulsel melrose program the com the commission explores other innovative energy saving technologies in the transportation and building sectors in 2017 the commission hosted a presentation by transit x a privately funded shared mobility network to propose carbon-free municipal transportation pods to mitigate to mitigate local carbon emissions and reduce traffic congestion we totally revamped and relaunched the new energy commission website at www.melroseenergy.org

▶ 1:09:43 to make it more user friendly and easier to update the main focus of the new and improved website is on how to get involved individuals can register to volunteer at community events connect with a representative of one of the energy subcommittees and obtain information on the city's progress on addressing sustainability and become involved with the energy commission the energy commission plans for the remainder of this fiscal year and through next year to continue engagement with the community to implement programs to help melrose reach the 2050 net zero goal continue outreach to owners who have solar eligible properties to educate them on the value of participating IN THE GROWTH SOLAR MELLORIS PROGRAM, PROMOTE ELECTRIC VEHICLES THROUGH THE NATIONAL DRIVE

▶ 1:10:28 ELECTRIC WEEK EVENT IN SEPTEMBER, CONTINUE TO ENGAGE THE COMMUNITY ON REDUCING OUR TRANSPORTATION GHG EMISSIONS THROUGH OUR NO IDLE CAMPAIGN AND INCREASED EV INFRASTRUCTURE, WORK WITH CITY AGENCIES AND THE PUBLIC TO SUPPORT THE CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATIONS OF PUBLIC FACILITIES THROUGH NET ZERO DESIGN TO REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND COSTS THROUGHOUT THE LIFETIME of the buildings and support the relaunch of the community electricity aggregation program and adding users to the 100 renewable premium local green product thank you very much thank you are there any questions or comments from the community well that's a lot for two thousand five hundred dollars other budgets that were like that thank you we have a motion that has

▶ 1:11:16 Denise Gaffey: been made and seconded to move the bottom line on this budget item all in favor aye aye any opposed thank you very much thank you for the information the next department on our agenda is department 175 planning in the amount of two hundred and nineteen thousand seven hundred forty seven dollars and twenty two cents we are joined this evening by denise gathy city planner thank you very much for being here thank you good evening um so the planning department budget is um essentially uh for staffing it hasn't really changed significantly from last year it represents a very small increase which is scheduled compensation increase for salaries um just for overview from anyone who may not be familiar there are um we're pretty small department where

▶ 1:12:18 Denise Gaffey: where there are five staff people in the office. There is a director, myself, and assistant planning director. We have the energy efficiency manager. And we have a planning coordinator who essentially supports the Zoning Board of Appeals. And we have a GIS manager who also doubles as an account manager doing the bookkeeping for the office and general office support. So three of those are full-time positions. two of the positions are are part-time working 24 hours per week so I did you know I prepared a questionnaire which kind of outlines our roles and responsibilities and I could also just mention very briefly some of the initiatives we've recently completed we had a very busy past year where we

▶ 1:13:06 Denise Gaffey: completed our Melrose Ford master plan which was a really big effort for the office we drafted zoning regulations for the medical marijuana zoning and I also personally participated in the mayor's advisory committee to which worked on selecting or prioritizing a really finding the the best what we think the best possible register registry marijuana dispensary for the community we managed the completion of the modular school the module classroom project and the Horace Mann renovations both done on time and on budget and we oversaw the process of several permitting for many different projects through the Planning Board and then the Zoning Board and the Historic District Commission including several very high-profile projects in our downtown the for example the the

▶ 1:14:09 Denise Gaffey: construction of a new building where the coffee team me building formerly was located which is currently getting prepped to go which is pretty exciting and also a new building for the location of the Monahan Plaza among many other projects and we also continue to support our affordable housing efforts working with North Suburban Consortium to obtain home funding for affordable housing developments and also supporting some affordable housing lotteries. Those are some of our successful initiatives this past year. Obviously we'll be working on similar initiatives this year going forward. I'm happy to answer any specific questions you might have. Thank you. President Zwirko. Thank you, Madam Chair.

▶ 1:14:56 Michael P. Zwirko: chair Thank You Denise for this presentation really appreciate it I just want to make a couple comments on the five positions because I think it's important for folks to know that while yes there are five positions in that department that you know there's those are shared roles with other departments and also grant funded some of the positions as well so it's a little misnomer that there might be five positions so it's just you know your department is kind of a catch basin for a lot of activity in the city you're very interdisciplinary working with other departments and I just wanted to you know make that notation because I don't think it it's it's really clear how how kind of your department kind of cross pollinates with almost everyone

▶ 1:15:38 Michael P. Zwirko: else I mean whenever there's a school building issue or when we talked about the library grant last year your department is just always right there to kind of you know not only volunteer the efforts but bring the expertise of the office so I just wanted to point that out the other thing I will say and I've said this before is I'm a huge advocate of the GIS systems I think it's something that nearly every department can use and does so that's a great technology beyond the software cost it has a tremendous amount of value but I just really wanted to point those those positions out and differentiate them from just like a line item of full-time or dedicated actually to the planning because I do you know there are other groups departments that do lean on them

▶ 1:16:25 Denise Gaffey: and and and fund them as well so thank you for all the work that you've done and those are all the questions I had at this time motion to move the bottom line on this budget madam chair motion to move the bottom line by autumn and Mortimer seconded by Alderman tram and Tozie thank you for coming in tonight just a quick question maybe for the good of the public as well I think you have one vacant position right now for your assistant director and I'm just wondering what the hiring process and timeline looks like for that yeah so we it I've just actually started the recruitment process for that and I'm actually restructuring the position slightly I'm calling it a senior planner position partly I think it better represents the actual functions of the

▶ 1:17:10 Denise Gaffey: position and also I'm trying to cast to be honest I'm trying to cast a wider net because the market right now is extremely competitive the unemployment rate is hovering around two or two and a half percent locally and there are a lot of surprisingly there are a lot of planning positions in the market right now which is actually a great thing because a lot of communities that didn't previously have planning departments at all are now starting to focus on that which I personally think is terrific but it also it means my job might be a little bit harder to find a great person for this position so it's just hit the Street I'm hoping to get some great qualified candidates over the next couple of weeks and and have somebody on board as soon as I can thank you

▶ 1:17:59 John N. Tramontozzi: Alderman Tramontozzi thank you Madam Chair and Ms. Gaffney thank you for coming in with for the presentation just for the purpose of the public I just want to make a comment about the Messina grants the Messina grants are handled by your the department and we funded a number of years ago with initial funding of $10,000. I noticed that the funding has been reduced back to the original $10,000. I think it's still a great funding program, funding for cultural and arts programs, you might want to talk a little bit about it. But I wanted to also just give thanks to Mr. Brendan Carroll and Ms. Lenore Smith, members of the committee that oversee the Messina funds for being here with us this evening as well, thank you.

▶ 1:18:48 I still think those funds are well spent in this community and wonderful programs that this community offers. I would agree, and I thank you for pointing that out. I neglected to mention that earlier, but I agree that it's a very successful program. participated in many of the events that it's funded and I'm always really impressed by the the quality and the support that this small program provides for local arts and cultural organizations thank you thank you the motion to move the bottom line all in favor all right opposed thank you thank you thank you final department on our agenda for this evening is the Recreation Department 631 in the amount of sixty four thousand thirty dollars and eighteen cents good evening everyone I'm so just like to say a little bit

▶ 1:19:59 about our Recreation Department here in Melrose we offer year-round programming for ages and abilities for all residents and that ranges from athletics to arts to music to community events to after-school programs to strength and conditioning programs and anything new or trendy that might pop up throughout the year or years to come over this past year we've had over 12,000 participants go through our programs and we've given out over 150 scholarships to families in need we have a wonderful staff within our department it's made up of a lot of there's one full-time person Joseph Blotner who is our recreation coordinator the rest of the positions are made up of residents in Melrose who fill part-time and seasonal roles for specific programs then and their

▶ 1:20:53 positions are completely covered by the programs that they supervise and manage through our recreation revolving funds most of our budget is completely covered by a recreation revolving fund we're going to be asking for an increase later on with that because of the increase in programming we've had but overall we've a really great year really excited we have our spring and summer brochure book up online right now um that highlights all the stuff that's going to be going on from now through august which is going to be a really fun and exciting summer for everybody in melrose so at this point i'm happy to answer any questions anybody might have questions from the committee just a comment mr oliver i think you do a great job the kids

▶ 1:21:42 John N. Tramontozzi: um really appreciate i i appreciate your services in the community um and um so um i know you're going to be talking about the revolving fund in a second so i'll hold on off my question because that's what i have a question about but that but thank you i i do make a motion to move the bottom line of the recreation account 631 at 64 thousand thirty dollars and eighteen cents second the A motion to move the bottom line by Alderman Tramontozzi, seconded by Alderman Mortimer. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That will be moved to the, the bottom line will be moved to the full budget, and we have you up next again on the revolving account. Would you like to make an opening remark about that request before we move to questions?

▶ 1:22:35 I'm sure Mr. Oliveri can address the revolving account, but the revolving account uh itself uh i think alderman Medeiros asked a question earlier about accountability and on expenditures on that uh every month he becomes uh he comes before the park commission and gives us a report on what the expenditures are so that anything that comes out of the revolving account is presented to the park commission on a monthly basis so that if you went back to our records or our documents you could see to address your concern where the money is spent the biggest one of the biggest expenditures i believe from the revolving account the recreation is uh they pay 48 of his salary as well as the salaries of the associates in the department

▶ 1:23:22 so that those are all accounted for those are all transparent as far as as far as accountability goes i think also the request for an increase in the revolving account limit is reflective of the efforts of mr oliveri to increase the programming in the city of melrose and increase the uh the participation um he can tell you better than i can and i think he did it in the questionnaire that he submitted to the to the board as to the number of people not just you know basketball and baseball when i was a kid but it's the arts it's the it's the adult programming it's it's it's stuff that across the board has made the community uh enrich the community tremendously so that i I think that the request on the increase on the revolving fund, at least from my perspective, is well warranted.

▶ 1:24:16 Alderman Tramontozzi. So what is the amount that you're requesting for an increase in the revolving fund? So right now we're at $400,000. We're requesting it go to $450,000. And that's to give us a little bit more of a cushion because we're honestly one or two good ideas away from pulling in enough revenue to have more expenditures to possibly go over our current cap. at a safe distance right now but this is just being proactive for the next couple years right is that so um so we're just clear how's the money going into the revolving account is that coming from the parks department no so so any anytime anybody registers for any of our programs or or does an activity with us it goes in through our rec revolving fund so as we get more participants

▶ 1:25:05 we have more revenue coming in and that's that's the heavy majority of all all the funding through the record ball and then what's the expenses coming out of the revolving right so every time we add a program we get more revenue but we our expenses go up as well but the expenses of what I was talking about every month he presents the expenses as to what what it is you know be it referees for basketball be it you know school department charges for custodians be it whatever it is, it's all outlined there. Right, so the supervisory authority, if you will, is coming from your department, coming from the PACS department. Oh, supervising the revolving fund. Yes. Is that fair to say? Yes. Right, yeah.

▶ 1:25:52 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you. I'd just like to say I'm gonna support the amount requested, it's well warranted as mentioned. And I think it would behoove us to express our opinions on that now since we're probably in accordance with the procedure that we delineated previously. We're probably going to make a motion to hold the recreation revolving account. But rather than save any anguish or turmoil at the end, I think if we informally express our opinions now, it'll make things go more smoothly in a month and a half or so. So, I would say that I'm going to be in favor of it, of course, and I would hope that the other Alderman will just weigh in quickly to say whether or not they're in favor of it. So, if they're not, then we can hash it out here tonight, not end up hashing it out on

▶ 1:26:50 Peter D. Mortimer: the last night, but I'll go on record as saying I'm in favor of it, and I hope everyone else will just do so quickly, more quickly than I just spoke, that's for sure. Thank you, Alderman. Thank you. Are you making a motion to hold this? Yeah, sure. That's a great idea. I'll make the motion to hold this revolving account with the other main order on the revolving accounts at this time. Thank you. Is there a second on the motion? Second. Seconded by Alderman Lipper-Garabedian on discussion. Alderman — President Zwirko. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will take a cue from my fellow Alderman Mortimer, and I will state that I do support the $450,000 annual cap for the revolving fund I will also state on the order that we previously all agreed to recommend for

▶ 1:27:39 Michael P. Zwirko: passage but then rescinded the chart that was given to us and provided does state the purpose of the funds how those funds are taken in and then in another column it explained explains how they can be paid so um as we go through all of these revolving accounts now i just wanted to make the direction that if you follow column c that will tell you how the funds are collected and if you follow column d that will tell you how they can be expended so thank you those are all the comments i had at this time thank you thank you thank you i wanted to thank you both i know you both do excellent work and thank you mr gardner for you know providing that extra level of detail of you know about how their

▶ 1:28:26 Monica C. Medeiros: revolving account is being spent and that mr oliveri is coming to you uh with that and providing detailed reports there so i appreciate that a lot and i'm glad that you're here for this and i'm glad we had a chance to have this discussion 450 000 is a lot of money um and you know it's um by far especially in comparison to most of the other revolving accounts this is one of the biggest ones it's you know obviously you're you're dealing with our most vulnerable population we appreciate it i'm glad you're here i appreciate having the opportunity to have this discussion and i think you provide valuable information to us thank you thank you and i appreciate it as well and thank you for coming in with the explanation and i

▶ 1:29:13 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: tend to support it as well thanks any further discussion on the motion to hold this order in committee or hold hold this revolving account in committee all in favor aye aye any opposed we will hold this and address it with the other revolving accounts thank you for coming down and giving us this information we appreciate it that item concludes our departmental hearings for the evening. We do have one additional item on our agenda. Order 2018-181, the Mount Hood Enterprise Fund Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 in the amount of $1,585,597.28. We are now also joined by Joan Bell. Thank you for being here. Yep. I think I gave a narrative of I'm kind of a split position between Mount Hood and Parks.

▶ 1:30:17 So my work on the side of Mount Hood is we oversee the Mount Hood contract, the management contract, which is a five-year contract the city has with the current manager, GMC. It's 26 acres of green space, 18-hole golf course, walking trails. we do a lot of community events as far as junior golf winter festivals senior events and all the revenue generated at mount hood pays for the upkeep and expense of mount hood so you have the budget before you if you have any questions i think the only other thing to add is if you look at that budget you'll see that the benefit to the city is as a whole in our budget being an enterprise fund well it's not autonomous but at the same time we'll run a little bit

▶ 1:31:11 differently uh over 25 of our budget goes back to the city in in various ways there's a pilot payment there of eighty thousand dollars there's the bond payments for the high school fields which was pursuant to the special legislation a few years ago which is coming up in this in this coming year is uh like yeah 180 000 in principle 175 000 and in interest those payments will fall off afterwards as well as um uh various community events we run up there and all different things that the the mountain hood enterprise fund supports the city for so that in some senses when we're asking for asking you to approve a budget of a million five you got to take into consideration a lot of it goes back to the city for sure and um some a lot of it uh the the health

▶ 1:32:01 Michael P. Zwirko: of the mount hood enterprise fund is based upon uh the revenues generated and a lot of it is tied into the weather and uh we haven't started off too good but uh we'll get there for sure uh ultimately at the end of the rainbow uh the mount hood enterprise fund i think is a benefit for the city and we would ask that you approve our budget thank you motion to recommend the bottom line on this budget madam chair we have a motion to recommend for passage from alderman mortimer seconded by alderman medeiros on discussion with president Zwirko thank you madam chair so we haven't received all of these questionnaires yet but i have to say this is my favorite so far I could picture miss Bell typing this as I read it and zipping from her golf on

▶ 1:32:49 Michael P. Zwirko: the golf cart as she's doing so which by the way I think you still owe me a ride so I just had a few questions because I remember I think it was I want to say it was two years ago maybe it was a year ago but and obviously and I will I will quote your final line where mother nature rules so this question is to that because i do see that uh there's a water and sewer line where it's been reduced 100 it's 20 000. and again help me here i think it was yeah i really think it was two years ago you started drilling for new wells is that right yeah what we did was we had a well down on the the second fairway that wasn't producing as well as it had in the past so we brought a company in and did fracting and right right yeah yeah and the reason it's removed is obviously because we don't we feel

▶ 1:33:36 that we're good in that area because we now have you know we've tapped what we need to or is that what the line's for say it's good alderman's work oh i i'd say that uh the that one well has been productive it's increased it a bit um under the management contract that we have all the water and sewer that services all the buildings and structures up there is paid for by the management company so that they pay for those uh the the dicey part comes in when if we have a drought and when we were back here two years ago I think the real problem was we had the snow the previous winter and there was a lot of stockpiling of snow up up at Mount Hood which when it melted went into the ponds which is the primary

▶ 1:34:18 Michael P. Zwirko: source of our irrigation system so the salt gets in there and we have waters at that point but hopefully we didn't have that issue this year so that I we're banking on the fact that things will go well yeah I mean those are really just the that's all the questions I had I like I said I appreciate a lot of the probably you'd characterize this correctly running around that you do with the various parks in your role but in terms of the Mount Hood you know it's a it's it's a it's a great resource to have to our benefit so thank you for all you do on that point alderman if i can please um i if i can uh toot miss bell's horn a little bit in the last couple of years um pine banks which we we have a you know collaborative relationship

▶ 1:35:08 Michael P. Zwirko: with uh had a new superintendent who's doing a wonderful job down there mr walsh but there was a long period of time where i've got to say uh that joan was running both places uh until he got his feet wet and got himself together uh with the issues that we've had in the last couple of years with the snow and the fields even this spring um you don't want her job let's put it that way okay we're lucky to have let's put it that way well and i'll also note that in the park section of your questionnaire uh you speak to andrew walsh daily so uh daily understood he's awesome he's such a job pine banks is i mean it's the best straight into my house it's all the improvements there as you know the debt that we're paying for the field improvements

▶ 1:35:51 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: and and the like so thank you for that those are all the comments i had thank you madam chair thank you alderman mortimer a quick question did i think i misheard what did you say you said the acreage is 235 acres is all about hood right i think i misheard thank you that's all i have i probably did any further discussion the motion that's been made and seconded to recommend for passage all in favor aye aye any opposed this motion will be recommended for passage thank you thank you thank you all here motion to adjourn madam chair we have a motion to adjourn by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Tramontozzi all in favor of adjourning any opposed we are now adjourned thank Thank you.

Original documents

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