Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2018-05-14

Attendance

Manisha Bewtra present · Alderman at Large; Robert A. Boisselle present · Ward 4 Alderman; Scott M. Forbes present · 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 (8:32)
2. Public Participation (9:20)
3. Orders
4. ORDER-2018-179 : An Appropriation from Free Cash (01-324001) in the amount of $284,210.00 to Police, Salary and Wages (012111-511000) to fund the settlement of a 3 Year Contract with the Police Superior Union. (10:02)
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). (24:15)
6. ORDER-2018-169 : AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING REVOLVING FUNDS IN THE CITY OF MELROSE (52:00)
7. Adjournment (2:13:02)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 14, 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 Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present 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-2018-179 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash (01-324001) in the amount of $284,210.00 to Police, Salary and Wages (012111-511000) to fund the settlement of a 3 Year Contract with the Police Superior Union. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

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). Hold Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2018-169 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING REVOLVING FUNDS IN THE CITY OF MELROSE Hold Appropriations Committee City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 5/21/2018 2:34 PM

Transcript

▶ 9:02 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: It can also be accessed at a later date on the MMTV website and the City of Melrose website. I am Jennifer Lemmerman, I'm the chair of the Appropriations Committee, and this evening I am joined by Vice Chair Alderman Forbes, as well as committee members Alderman Mortimer, Alderman Boisselle, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Bucha, Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, Alderman McMaster, and President Swirko. Do we have a motion? Motion to open the floor for public participation. Second. We have a motion to open the floor for public participation by Alderman Tramontozzi, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are now in the portion of our meeting where any member of the public can come forward to speak on any item on our agenda.

▶ 9:48 Michael P. Zwirko: Seeing none. Motion to close. Second. Motion to close public participation by Alderman Forbes, seconded by Alderman Mortimer. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Public participation is now closed. Motion to suspend the rules. We have a motion to suspend the rules by President Search. Second. seconded by alderman Mortimer all in favor of the motion thank you madam chair I seek to take the items out of order this evening I'd like to take the second item on the agenda out of order which is order two zero one eight dash one seven nine I'm requesting so I see that we have the police chief here this evening I was hoping that he might be able to speak to that order and also I'll note excuse me that in the department list for the agenda that

▶ 10:34 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: going over on the budget uh the police chief is also first we have a motion to take order 2018-179 the third item on our agenda out of order and address it first from president President work though second seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor any opposed to taking it out of order so we will first address order 2018-179 and appropriation from free cash zero one dash three two four zero zero one in the amount of two hundred and eighty four thousand two hundred and ten dollars to police salary and wages zero two zero one two one one one dash five one one zero zero zero to fund the settlement of a three-year contract with the police superior union and we do have chief lyle with us this evening as well as patrick delarusso thank you

▶ 11:34 both for being here to speak on this order would you like to begin with a statement I commend the City and also the Superior Officers Union for coming together and settling this contract. It was long overdue. The contract does expire on June 30th, 2018. So it was a long negotiation. And like I said, I commend both sides. We came to terms and we have an agreement. yeah if I may to the chair there should be a memorandum in the packet from today from Robert VanCampen the city solicitor and in the memorandum that he sent the board if I may just paraphrase it here he indicated that the superiors union that the parties have agreed to a 2.5 percent cost of living adjustment as well as some additional financial enhancements the city's objective during

▶ 12:37 this round of bargaining was to invest responsibly in the department's command staff and to implement an important bulletproof vest where policy the cost of the agreement I have outlined and a memorandum to the mayor that was dated May 7th and in it it indicates that an appropriation from free cash in the amount of two hundred eighty four thousand two hundred and ten dollars to police salary and wages to fund the settlement of a three-year contract with the police superior union that's fiscal 16 17 and the rest of 18 and in so doing that would bring the free cash balance down from 1 million 342 282 to 1 million 58 072 and again it's uh for a three-year settlement and i ask uh their support thank you yeah so um

▶ 13:57 John N. Tramontozzi: so we uh i i heard what you said and i understand it but just for the public's um information so this is retroactive back to fiscal year 2016. so it's a three-year and it's this uh was a bargain for it was a union contract right is that what it is okay so they're going to be without a contract coming into fiscal year 2000 july 1. yes uh is there any um anything in the works to uh i know that the uh the city solicitor has reached out to the union attorney to set up meetings to expedite negotiations okay that's that's good news the sooner the better i think yes uh let's try to get on top of this and not have to try to make these things retroactive but uh one of the other things i was looking at and

▶ 14:46 John N. Tramontozzi: i understand uh the negotiations and the cost of living adjustment but um they also agreed upon was these mid-career step increases maybe mr de la rusa you can comment on that what is the city's positions on these steps and and what i mean by that is not only i'm looking for because we are going to be having budget hearings i'd like the public to understand what the city uh how the city handles these these steps and whether they're part of union negotiations or these step increases the salaries are are applicable to non-union employees as well yes um on the latter half step increases are applicable to non-union employees I'm sorry, they are or they are not? Yes, they are. Okay. To non-union.

▶ 15:33 You'll find that in the budget says that we've already had some to see in the past. Relative to the CBA, the collective bargaining agreement here, in this case, it was bargain that based on the total years of service within that department, that they would be entitled to 10 years at 2 percent 15 years 2 percent and at 20 years 2 percent so it historically in terms of what the city has done do we still uh provide step increases to uh salaried employees for the city are we doing away with that program not through the chair yes the uh human resource department still takes that approach correct so what um and these step increases are applicable every year um through the chair historically what has happened in the uh in the past several years

▶ 16:30 and then some is that if an employee was entitled to a step increase again non-union not union we're talking about we typically would grant the step increase but not the cost of living okay not both you get one or the other so for those that find themselves at the end of that step and if they haven't been any adjustment to upgrade them to another level then they would receive just the cola period so when did that policy change to the city that they'd get one or the other but not both my guess has probably been at least uh three to three to five years i mean i can go back because it when it happened um shortly thereafter if not directly thereafter now you tested my memory we had done the wage freeze across the city for union

▶ 17:18 John N. Tramontozzi: non-union and it became evident that we had to peer back where we could on those types of increases not that they're not warranted but there is a cost to such a program to do both and it was decided that policy would be that if it was uh a step and you get the step but you're not going to get the cola with it one or the other all right that's a decision that the the administration will make when it comes to non-union employees salary employees that is correct but it's is it still considered part of the negotiations in in union contracts the union the union positions are not parallel to with cities two different complete different working groups working units and uh different policies all right so um yeah i mean i know we're as the mayor suggested we're in some

▶ 18:12 John N. Tramontozzi: fiscal uh concerns here in terms of uh you know we got to scrutinize these budgets as we go forward and um and i think it's important to um to look at these uh uh step uh increased salaries um and you know i can understand cost of living step but in fairness do you get both and and i'm not sure that that's something let me strike that i'm sure that's something we should be looking at anyway okay thank you i appreciate it thank you alderman medeiros thank you thank you uh this expenditure tonight that we're looking at the 284 210 does that includes all uh back wages and any overtime increases due to the everything and then um i see the bulletproof vest policy i didn't bring the bulletproof vest policy i have pulled a copy of the policy to the union

▶ 19:15 for review and then we would discuss it okay so it shall work to craft this policy but it it's Currently, we have one with patrol now, and I would like to mirror the patrol policy with the supervisors, so we don't have two separate policies for ballistic guns. Do we have the equipment that we need to purchase additional? It's a grant that we purchased. So 50 percent comes from the federal government, the Department of Justice, and 50 percent comes from the state EOPS, Executive Office of Public Safety. And I believe— So the net cost of the city is zero. think that's been one of the things that's been on on and off the chopping block at the federal level uh if i for as far as i know every year we have we have satisfied the grant requirements and

▶ 20:06 we receive best funding for best every year for as long as i've been here obviously important for safety very very important um hopefully you know wondering if we'll see another expenditure related to it so it should be as far as we as far as i know the grants are already out we've already applied for next year our next fiscal year so we're good to go okay and we don't buy 20 vests a year so they come in dribs and drabs so that some offices three to five a year they expire when we replace them it's an ongoing thing they have a five-year shelf life and i guess the question that probably all wondering is is the budget that we're going to look at later today does that include this salary increase the salary numbers in the police budget

▶ 20:59 Robert A. Boisselle: to incorporate the settlement yes thank you thank you thank you remember in the memorandum of understanding there's an item at the bottom of the letter the bulletproof vest policy I thought this was mandatory but it says show work to to merely craft and implement a mandatory. Has there been a problem in the past with the officers wearing their vests? No. There is two different types of — the policy impacts both administrative, like myself, as well as the officer on patrol. Currently now, the supervisors, a good portion, fall under the administrative, and the sergeants fall under the patrol. They all wear their best they all wear their vests okay now the vest says we talked about in the past and past budgets were upgraded on an yearly basis or every five years is

▶ 22:03 there a warranty on these better five-year shelf life and you replace them at five years is that a lot was to be issued a vest today five years from now you get a notice from from myself that your vest is due to expire six months please cannot get fitted for a new vest okay do we have a line item for that or is that paid for by a grant it's basically paid 50% by the federal government 50% by the state and the net cost of the city is zero so zero is out the lined in yes it does okay thank you very much thank you thank you just for my own edification we have this really helpful questionnaire there are 48 staff persons in your department and how many are covered in this contract for the police superior union 13 thank you that's all thank you thank you I just

▶ 22:55 Scott M. Forbes: have a quick question regarding the free cash you said that after this allocation if it gets approved which I'm assuming it will we're down to 1 million fifty eight thousand and seventy two dollars yeah that is through this fiscal year which should be I assume will be going down as the budget process continues if other allocations of free cash are going to other various areas absolutely right all the men you will see the remainder of this free cash the majority approximately hundred eight hundred and twenty five thousand just going to relieve the snow and ice deficit so you will see that before June 30 correct so this will be depleted as time goes yeah yeah it will absolutely be depleted before the end of the fiscal year okay thank you thank you

▶ 23:41 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: additional questions or comments second I'm sorry I didn't I'm sorry it's okay motion to recommend for passage we have a motion to recommend passage by President work oh it's been seconded by alderman boys L any further discussion all in favor aye any opposed this motion will be recommended for passage at the next full board meeting thank you thank you very much it's probably more efficient if you stayed there since I believe you're up next we will move back to the top of our agenda this evening to order 2018-183 the City of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2019 in the amount of $79,399,945.73 we have seven departments on our agenda to go through departmental hearings this evening and we're beginning with

▶ 24:37 department number 211 which is the police department in the amount of four million eight hundred fifty one thousand three hundred fourteen dollars and twenty nine cents would you like to make an opening statement on this item I have given everybody my questionnaire I hope everyone has a copy I only have one we do it's in the IQ m2 for all just a snapshot for the past ten months the police department we had three officers graduate the police academy in April They will be ready for patrol in early June. One officer retired, Bill O'Donnell retired because it was a mandatory retirement March 1st. Staffing level, patrolman 30, nine sergeants, full lieutenants and myself. We have two officers that are on extended injury leave right now.

▶ 25:29 One's been out for 14 months, the other one's approximately nine months. Our calls for service this past year was approximately 6,600, and that's through 430. Citations this year are approximately 1,150. There was 1,800 car stops. Our parking enforcement, it was 5,700 parking citations. Extra duty details, we brought in $138,000 in admin fees. that's all I have available for questions thank you alderman Forbes thank you I see that there was a increase in the overtime budget could we just talk as is this allocation more specific or it fall in line with the amount of overtime we're projecting for next fiscal year or is this still short as opposed to prior years if you could speak on that that'd be much appreciated

▶ 26:33 appreciate it done this year for both public safety groups police are fired that particular matter we've increased the overtime by $100,000 historically we have come back to the board in mid-year looking for additional funds to support overtime as the chief has indicated there are situations that come up that are totally unanticipated at the time that you pass your budget injuries extended leaves of absence etc and what we've done we're trying to mirror more closely is the actual expenditures that the department incurs on top of that as salary and wages go up we have to be very mindful that the per hour cost has also gone up so the same amount of overtime hours will cost you more just based on that fact but if you take if we took a look um in the actual budget of the police

▶ 27:33 Scott M. Forbes: department i'm not jumping ahead but since the question was asked we did spend in fiscal 17 over 468 thousand three hundred and ten dollars i think this year you see the request is for four hundred and thirty two thousand dollars so we're trying to get as uh to mirror as close as we can and and cut down on that wide discrepancy every year it's not healthy it's not good and it's something that we have to be aware of uh period so you're absolutely correct great i appreciate that because it's really more falling in line with the actual number instead of coming to the table and you know using a free cash allocation now we have it directed in the budget uh the one significant expense i just see here that kind of pops out on the line items is

▶ 28:18 Scott M. Forbes: the radio systems it's a 50 increase from from last year is that something that we planning on doing an equipment upgrade or purchase if i may that's for the three new offices that we hired we didn't have the funds this year it's going to be paid for in july for the new radios for the three officers it's approximately nine thousand dollars great okay and then just the one item i have left uh i know there's a line item for it looks like building repairs and spend zeros throughout the the route uh from 18 and now into 19. the chief could just give us an update on on the building itself well to answer your question as far as that line item many years ago DPW took over the maintenance of our buildings so that they took over our line item for that and it's their

▶ 29:01 responsibility as far as repairs and maintenance of the building okay so if we have a metal finally we have a problem up front they address it versus us having private contract great all right thank Thank you. President Zwirko. Thank you, Madam Chair. Happy Police Week. I had very few questions. You had mentioned something, Chief, at the very beginning, and I didn't catch it correctly. You said about administrative fees. Were those fees that came in? So every police detail, so if somebody's doing a road job for a gas company, Verizon, or a private contractor, there's an admin fee attached to each detail. It's 15%. so over the course of the past 10 months that 15% has gone up to thirty eight

▶ 29:45 thousand hundred thirty eight thousand dollars approximately in revenue understood okay thank you for that clarification the there's also the negative side of that too there's contractors to wear chaser we're taking people to court now it's it's at that point when you start chasing someone for six months I'm sorry yeah it's it's not a pleasant experience we're not in the collection business but now we are and I noticed that there's a position and administrative position that's open yes and that it's a part-time 18-hour position correct yes and public records requests come to you is that they come directly me I am the I am the access officer thank you I'm the access officer the police department we've done a considerable amount i have notes here if you bear with me

▶ 30:41 so once it initiated in 1 1 of 17 we did 688 the first six months and since that time since july 1 of last year we have 702 to today so this role i would presume assists you with those responses to those requests we have to document and we have to create a track record of every single records request that comes in but my biggest thing is we need to have an answer response or something within 10 days of everything that comes into the building i'm very mindful of that and my assistant was very mindful of that that was the priority in the police department that took precedent over everything else she did and that was a daunting task so i would say you you know it all it all falls on me now there's quite a few that i'm dealing with we get them

▶ 31:32 Michael P. Zwirko: in daily they come by voicemail they come in by mail they come in by email and would you say that it's a pain point for your time and also the administrative's time it is very much so and then you deal and then that person was dealing with the details so they were actually doing the invoices for the details collecting the details records citations everything i don't know if you've seen the job description but it is quite extensive thank you for that i mean and the reason i asked the questions are because I just want to point out the fact that you know the budget being what it is it's still unable to meet the needs for these requests that come in and it's it's painful and it takes you not only out of

▶ 32:10 Michael P. Zwirko: the field but you're doing administrative work in conjunction with working with that administrative assistant to get this stuff done it has to get done so it's on me so it's statutory I understand I go in early go home late it is what it is and my last question this evening could you speak to the fleet that we currently have condition of the fleet the age of the fleet the quality i mean i know that we're on leases um we did get some new vehicles last year we have some other vehicles that are certainly um here's the word they've reached their life their life expectancy some of them their miles is considerable you know i did speak to the auditor's office in the mayor's office and and the funding is not available this year so you know next year the auto will get he'll

▶ 32:56 Michael P. Zwirko: he'll get a letter from me requesting vehicles again yeah I just hate to you hate to put money into something that is worthless there has no value so it is what we have to repair them we repair them until next year and how many total vehicles do we have including the five dogs nine I call them line cars which are the patrol cars we have nine plus the sergeant myself and the and the patrol commander have an admin and then three detectives and then two motorcycles and the trailer thank you for that and I mean these are some some themes you're probably gonna hear much of the next couple of weeks but I think it's important to bring illumination to them it's unfortunate that the administrative work has burden has gone up with respect to the records requests

▶ 33:44 Monica C. Medeiros: as well as the aging fleet and I just want to let folks know that you know we're asking our employees and our public safety officials to do more with less so appreciate the efforts you do on that thank you those are all the questions I had at this time madam chair thank you Alderman Medeiros thank you thank you chief I keep it too long I'm here I'm here for you folks so whatever it takes I did want to say well I did want to ask you a little bit of well first of all I would like to say I'm very pleased to see that Narcan is actually in this budget and it looks like it's increased which I know that there were some problems with the funding the grant funding and I believe that the Attorney General did an infusion of 300,000 there was a

▶ 34:26 settlement and that's we're gonna be back to where we were approximately 40 holes of dose versus 70 that's that's certainly helpful and I know you're using a lot more unfortunately per I'll say this and I spoke to one of the Alderman earlier by no means that we out of have got a control in this epidemic it's nationwide it's not just a little Melrose or us or surrounding communities it's a national epidemic we're having last month there was five suspected overdose deaths in Melrose I can't confirm that because of we're waiting on the toxicology reports in the MES office takes you know three to six months to get us a record to actually know but I will say that all the records that I do get there's one underlining drug in there it's called fentanyl I haven't

▶ 35:15 Monica C. Medeiros: seen carfentanil but definitely fentanyl mixed in with heroin cocaine whatever the drug is and that usually is what the person expires from and I do see in the salaries section we do have a line that includes it's 75,000 for defibrillator hazardous duty Narcan and accreditation stipends can you talk just a little bit about that line item and as far as accreditation so we're like every other community in the state we're all trying to get to accreditation which is basically the same standard that the city of Boston has Saugus has Wakefield has every city and town in california we all want the same standards so when there's a challenge to that standard they're not just challenging melrose they're challenging everybody that has that same

▶ 36:10 Monica C. Medeiros: standard use of force whatever it may be that's one as far as our aeds every cruiser is outfitted in an aed when the officer starts a shift or a shift they grab their aed and their knox alone or nakian is attached to it so when they go to an emergency call and an unknown they go in with both so this is for a lot of the training that's associated with administering administering drugs or handling a defibrillator um to keep these as a first responder we go in you know and then you know we wait for the next level of care which is a paramedic for the fire department and is this training that the officers go through annually or is this something that it's So if you look at our training line item, it's part of their in-service.

▶ 36:58 So every year you do, so over three years you get recertified on CPR. So year one, year two, and year three. So it's a constant refresher course every year. And then they get recertified. And they get recertified, okay. And then the training line, it looks like it's actually down. Is that because we've had the new officers come in and go through the academy? Yes, that's why it reflects the swing up and down. there's nowhere to put new officer line i mean you would be here for a week with all the little things that we do so that's where he goes into the best place for it okay thank you thank you very much alderman Tramontozzi thank you madam chairman um i just want to go back to that administrative

▶ 37:40 John N. Tramontozzi: assistant position we were talking about earlier how long have you been without an administrative assistant uh about three weeks now oh it's just short term then has it i mean as uh in in the position previously had been a part-time position it's been a part-time since 2009. it's is the position posted i believe that the hr is looking into it now is there um is there any special um educational requirements for it uh this person i understand does some answers records requests and all is it just a matter of um training or is it uh some of it includes typing some of it is you know organizational skills uh it's an office setting it's within the building but it is an office setting answering the phone considerable amount of filing dealing with the public

▶ 38:26 John N. Tramontozzi: uh not always pleasant public but dealing with the public is um any any has the city looked at any possibilities of volunteerism for that type of position i do have volunteers and they're my lifeline so from the milano center we have two volunteers one does a lot of records for us the other one does a lot of filing for us because i mean i think this community is is a wealth of people who would be happy to assist um whether they're seniors at the milano center or something yeah some somebody who's looking to uh that be right off of a real estate tax program um i mean i think that's at least for the time being that's something that can do and maybe in the future as well but thank you i appreciate it that's all thank you

▶ 39:13 Robert A. Boisselle: talking about the fleet of the age of the fleet and so forth i believe in the past budgets we were in a process of every few years moving vehicles offline and so forth now in the capital outlay budget line item one is police vehicles you have a hundred and five thousand one hundred hundred seventy six dollars listed is that for your group I believe a lease payment is approximately eighty seven thousand and change all the two motorcycles as well one hundred and five thousand dollars for two motorcycles no no part of it eighty seven thousand and changes for that for the vehicles that we got a year and a half ago and the remainder is for the new motorcycles that we just okay so it's not for new vehicles it's for basically it's the

▶ 40:03 second year of uh police vehicles it's part of the second payment it's part of the lease project it's a four-year uh okay good thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you um i was noticing on the memo you sent that you mentioned um the doj grant for the middle school resource officer yes um when does that end i think the last year of the payment is is we got an extension so it'll be probably september it'll expire and then we own it for one year as part of the grant process so we own it my goal here is to never go without an sro in either the high school or the middle school i think it's a need i actually think there's a greater need in the middle school than in the high school to get these kids that are going down the wrong road to bring them back in line before

▶ 40:52 they get to high school could you expand on that a little bit in terms of the role that um the resource officers plans they both have multiple tasks one is they're a big brother they're a mediator for when there's a problem with another student they're also police officers so there's a police officer in the school event that something goes on so if there's any type of a i hate to use the word threat at the schools they're the first person in so they have multiple roles down there at the schools thank you so many questions alderman mcmaster thank you madam chair thank Thank you, Chief, for being here. From the staffing information that you provided in the budget questionnaire, I didn't see any mention of there being a public information officer.

▶ 41:34 Shawn M. MacMaster: Does the department not have a designated PIO? It generally falls on Lieutenant DeCordo when we're dealing with the local media. But as far as news media, the Boston media, it falls on myself. But I also hired a firm, John Guilfoyle and Associates. They handle our website and part of that package of the website is we have free PR for them Monday through Friday during the business hours. We've had incidents on the weekends where I brought them in. There's a small fee attached to assist me when I'm dealing with the media. So the PIO's responsibilities are not split between public relations, communications and public records. You, following up on what President Zwirko said, you have, for a public records request,

▶ 42:20 Shawn M. MacMaster: come through you you delegate them to a civilian administrative assistant yes and then i work with that person so say if it's a sensitive case and there's information that there's clearly an exemption because of the information they're requesting it goes through me and then if it's a legal question i deal with the city solicitor okay and so with respect to the public records request this is on top of the admin's other work that is set forth in the job description that currently exists this is a this is a new unfunded mandate then there's another one that just came out as well you may be well aware of it because your position in your your other life through governor baker signed in early early april i do have a question about that but just a couple

▶ 43:01 more questions chief um so based on the public records requests that do come in some may be fair to say some may be rather straightforward a request for a police report some may be more elaborate than that yes some are very complex can you discuss that a little bit i dealt with harvard University they were looking for biased information on police departments it was very extensive and the information they were they were requesting wasn't very simple to to provide them it was very very time-consuming and then they backed off after a number of police departments gave them the same response in this is a considerable amount of information that you want in its labor-intensive and they backed off and they said they would revisit and get back to us and that was

▶ 43:45 just one i spent a couple days on that any reference that you have 10 days to respond to a request that yes absolutely every every single request that we get whether it's a very simple one as a car accident or you know somebody's requesting a report for damage to property there's a response within that 10-day window okay so i know it may be difficult to quantify but how much time would you um would you say goes to facilitating those requests specifically as it relates to the the job that the admin is doing or was doing it would probably 10 to 12 hours a week that that that much time and then then it was oversight by me and then it's not just that part there's also the record keeping of each request the spreadsheets that they were

▶ 44:32 Shawn M. MacMaster: created so if there's ever an audit um we have the proper information okay as you referenced um chief as you know over the years i've had an opportunity to work with you and the 53 other police chiefs in middlesex county and one of the things that i've heard recently and over the last year is concerns about the constraints of responding to unfunded legislative mandates as you know recently the massachusetts criminal justice reform act was passed there's a data collection and reporting piece relative to that as well quarterly data has to be presented but before it's presented it has It has to be collected and maintained and analyzed. Who's going to be responsible for doing that? That's a work in progress right now.

▶ 45:15 It's probably going to wind up on me. The admin person, when we get the new person, is already going to be overwhelmed. It would be myself or if I have to bring in supervisors to review and handle that, they will do that during their off hours and they'll be compensated. So bringing in superior officers at a rate of what, probably $75 an hour to pay them overtime to administrative task if it's a requirement under the law we do we have to do to comply there's only so many different ways I can slice myself to get these tasks done do you believe you need a full-time administrative assistant to meet these unfunded you know I've asked for a number of years and the funding just hasn't been available for it and hoping that maybe we can work with the

▶ 46:01 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: auditor's office and City Hall to get it done do you know if any other area police departments of comparable size have a full-time administrative assistant i would say as far as you know bordering communities they all have at least one full-time some have two full-time and some have additional part-time i believe that's all i have thank you chief thank you madam chair thank you alderman lippert garabedian sure maybe just following up on alderman mcmaster's questions um which are sort of illuminating um i was you know i think it's striking that the overtime line item is as high as it is I understand that to alderman Forbes question it's to reflect sort of our historical practice and what we might expect in the coming year but I'm wondering if you can just speak

▶ 46:51 maybe to me in the public about the fiscal soundness of planning for a lot of overtime as opposed to having a full-time administrative assistant or an additional um lieutenant or patrol person on staff if you have any thoughts about that um i would certainly the city ordinances we're supposed to have 61 we have approximately 44. um sorry can you i'm sorry city ordinance it's been driven into my mind since 1986 when i came on i was supposed to have 61 i was badged 45 when i came on right now our badges are 32 for patrol uh we're gonna have a you know three more officers coming on that'll bolster that too somewhat but we're gonna lose another one in the fall who's retiring forced to retire um certainly i would love to have more bodies uh it's you can only do what you're within your

▶ 47:49 financial constraints obviously the city has a number of different things that they they deal with day in day out i will say that we track every overtime hour which can be flipped into dollars pretty pretty easily i mean i have notes here i can give you examples for the past three years vacation time it's always been a monster for us and in fy 16 we had 5 500 hours of vacation time in 17 it went up to 5 900 hours these are just round numbers this year was 6 000. so as as the department personnel go years of service they go from two weeks to three weeks and that all has a value to it there's additional 40 hours that we have to fill voids and cover but so if you look at the vacation hours is this year it's 6,000 hours but

▶ 48:39 actually our overtime hours was thirteen hundred and twenty eight hours so we do absorb quite a few cost hours through deployments shift personnel we don't just let everybody pick their vacation there's a there's a process to it you these are my red flags um injured backfill it was 1100 man hours this year prior years it was 500 hours i know every year that i'm going to have an injury there'll be an injury there'll be an illness we had some serious illnesses with some of our officers this past year our sick hours are up but if you look at the whole thing we had 1900 hours in sick time but actually only 1100 in overtime to cover those same shifts so we do our best to absorb the costs and still you look at

▶ 49:28 very large numbers for overtime thank you and i'm not and i haven't even got into the military yet our military guys right does that help it does well it sounds complex and challenging so it's very challenging but you know i love doing it and the lieutenant that runs it does an excellent job lieutenant maher yeah thank you i just want to go back to this administrative assistant situation with the records request that does not the um the statute um allow for us to bill to get some revenue for uh fulfilling some of these requests before uh before january of 2017 it was yes there was a fair amount of money you could charge but when you start charging the the first two hours are free and it's a nickel a page sometimes it's not even

▶ 50:24 John N. Tramontozzi: worth the time to send the invoice out well I mean if you're gonna be spending yourself at 30 cents I understand but if you can be spending I mean you mentioned one one particular case we were spending you know 11 hours and I mean that's one that eventually they backed off and probably one game an estimate what that was said to produce it and they obviously said whoa and then we're gonna times you know 52 police departments I don't think we're gonna do that right so Oh, no, but my point being is that if there is a significant request that's going to require a significant amount of time, there is a mechanism for requiring prepayment for that, right? Yes. And if the prepayment that we receive or the monies that we receive fulfilling these requests,

▶ 51:08 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: does that go to the general fund? Yes, it does. It does. Do we know how much we collected, say, last year, last fiscal year? We can find out. I mean, I'd be curious to see what, you know, what we're getting from that, those requests. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Additional questions? Is there a motion? Motion to recommend the bottom line. Second. We have a motion to move the bottom line by President Zwirko, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That Department Number 211 will be recommended to the bottom line when we vote on the full budget. thank you very much chief file revolving we do have we yes we do have uh the revolving account on the agenda um it is another order on our agenda this evening however because they the revolving

▶ 52:20 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: counts are all now part of one order so it's part of order 2018-169 is there a motion to take that out of order so moved second we have a a motion to take order 2018-169 an ordinance authorizing revolving funds in the city of morrow's out of order by alderman medeiros seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor any opposed we'll now discuss the second item on our agenda this evening which involves the revolving accounts which this year's process is slightly different than years passed in which we are taking them all in one order uh this evening there are two accounts that are on our agenda for revolving accounts we have the the false alarm revolving account which is number 2665 which is overseen by Chief Lyle who we have in front of us now so

▶ 53:09 I think we can address that first are there any questions Alderman Medeiros thank you Thank you. Chief, can you talk a little bit about this revolving account, how the funds are generated? It has, we're proposing to maintain the $10,000 annual cap and basically. So this is one of the administrative tasks that was also to maintain the false alarm account. So any business, any resident in the community that has an alarm in their house, they get two false alarm activations free, malfunctions, whatever it may be. I will say that every time we have a lightning storm or something, nobody gets billed for the folks at home, including myself. But we did this past year. We billed out $8,250. We still have $3,200 outstanding.

▶ 54:12 We have not exceeded the $10,000. and and what is that usually fund in terms of expenses that it's to offset the cost of a fleet so if there's a service charge if we bring one of the cars back to a dealership there's a surcharge or co-pay or whatever you really call it we use the money for that we used it for our car washes for the for the fleet and we also use it for the gasoline for the motorcycles because the octane down the city yard is not high enough from the motorcycles so we go to lucy's garage we purchased the gasoline for the motorcycles there and uh have you found that you've been you said that you have uh i think you said you collected eight thousand two hundred fifty approximately eight thousand two hundred fifty dollars yes and you have how much outstanding

▶ 55:05 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: three thousand two hundred dollars there's some fairly large numbers in the collections for in the collections and do you find that you're spending that down or is it uh pretty much right now i believe the account is at zero thank you very much additional questions on the false alarm revolving account okay while we are on this order we do have another revolving account on our list for this evening which is the inspection services revolving account and we do have mr johnson here uh as we're under suspension of rules perhaps we should bring him up to finish out this particular order thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you chief you leaving all right thanks thanks chief thank you mr johnson thank you uh just to clarify our process here we

▶ 56:07 are uh discussing the revolving account we do have your uh budget your departmental budget item on on the agenda for afterward as well thank you madam chair thank you mr. Johnson for being here this evening I just had a very very brief question so I see here that for this particular revolving account it in its funded through fees from inspections of multifamily homes just you can you tell me as to why the genesis it started with multifamily why not is it uh it it's actually it covers um state mandated code annual biannual inspections uh required by the code of not just multi-families daycare facilities places that serve alcohol places of public assembly so it's a program my predecessor had put in place that um to recover and fund that that uh as we like to say the unfunded mandate by

▶ 57:12 the state right and and it does cover it and and we're able to i i would say that we're probably one of a few that do have a program like this up and running uh not many towns or or cities actually get into it because they don't have the funds for it they don't have the process for it so so we inspect you know three family and above you know three families could be every two three just depending on their cycle of years and we go and inspect for safety issues just common hallways boil rooms that type of thing so we're not running into if there's a a fire or some type of thing we're not running into you know our guys in the fire department running into a place they can't move and then we again we have places of alcohol that serve alcohol restaurants

▶ 58:09 Michael P. Zwirko: that type of thing that we have to do required by the exit chapter to 304 thank you for that information of the I mean I would think given the the amount of residential parcels that we have that would take up a considerable amount of your time just covering that area so I see that it's because this is from inspections of multifamily homes and other places of business that you mentioned it's to pay for the contracted inspectors because I would imagine that your office probably is overwhelmingly dealing with residential issues yes yes we have a part-time as needed inspector that we use him okay to go out on an as needed basis you know as they pop up we send him out for that okay so it pays for itself

▶ 58:59 Monica C. Medeiros: essentially oh absolutely yeah yeah well thanks for being ahead of your time in that uh regard for that fund so those are all the questions i had madam chair thank you thank you i i would just suggest that and maybe we should bring this back another uh evening but the this chart that we have in this order in terms of the fees charged and other receipts credit to the fund it just mentions only fees from inspections of multifamily homes it does not mention the other two sources that you had mentioned the places that serve alcohol and the daycares I could certainly get you the original order from back one and forward it to the clerk of committees to to make it available for you and i would suggest that this since this is going to become sort of

▶ 59:49 Monica C. Medeiros: in ordinance and a formal you know part of the process is making this a formalized document that you know if we don't include that i i would venture to say that you may not have the authority to use that in this fund so um i think we should probably amend that if you um could send forward a suggestion to the clerk of committees and perhaps in another meeting we can update the chart thank you thank you additional questions adamant forts thank you i'll be real quick uh the fifteen thousand dollar cap is is that enough for you it is have you ever come close to hitting that number not since i've been here no okay and then for the i guess now i was going to ask you about multifamily homes like inspections but because they're so different they're probably the

▶ 1:00:42 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: everything is there whether it's a two family four family established for alcohol like everything has its own all right strike that I know better thank you thank you thank you is there a motion for this order motion hold in committee motion holding committee we have a motion a hold in in committee by Alderman Tramontozzi, seconded by President Zwirko. All in favor? All right. Opposed? We will hold order 2018-169 in committee. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Returning to order number one on our agenda, order 2018-183 and our list of departmental hearings. Next up, we have Department 931, Capital Outlay, in the amount of $506,470.18. We have Mr. Del Russo with us. Good evening again. In this budget, it's scheduled to be revisited on June 11th also,

▶ 1:02:03 relative to the departments that are represented here in this budget that are not here this evening to speak to the items. So we did hear, for example, on the police vehicles from the chief already relative to those items where there's a reduction from the original $134,606.24 to the $105,176 on the lease payment the other items the city IT tech school IT tech $150,000 each respectfully will be also addressed from the IT department when they come before you the last item is the pine banks project again when the pine banks park is here before you schedule for their own budget they will speak to that item as well thank you uh President workout my questions have been answered okay thank you alderman

▶ 1:03:23 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: forbes thank you um you mentioned the city i.t tech but you didn't mention the school i.t tech i'm assuming that's also yeah yeah yes correct the uh it will speak to both just want to make sure thank you thank you is there a motion on this line i think we have the holding committee We have a motion to hold 931, Department number 931, Capital L.A. in committee by Alderman Tramontozzi. Second. Seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We will revisit this line item on June 11th, as Mr. Del Russo outlined. Next up, we have Department 930, Department Equipment, in the amount of $152,800. Also, Mr. Del Russo, hear this. Thank you. again if we look at this budget again 930 departmental equipment you'll see the first

▶ 1:04:16 category contractual is i.t related both first two items identical underneath supplies and materials again i.t will speak to both office supplies is supervised by kerry gold and the assistant city auditor she prepares a purchase order for departments to draw down on supplies that number she that's requested is 24 000 no increase from 18. i think you'll see the actual this year we've spent almost that right now at 23 9 4302 and the last one is permitting software i believe that both chris wilcock and Paul Johnson here this evening they can speak to that item thank you just a question on the supplies and materials the IIT computer and the 28 projection 141 thousand seven hundred thirty seven dollars is that a typo or is that an accumulation of money that's neither that's

▶ 1:05:26 what it's neither what happens if you take a look and if I may the projection column itself I'm sure everyone has the updated version and actually it's a perfect timing to discuss that if I may I did dr. Alderman Forbes what that column does again is the fiscal 18 projection column it represents the total of the original budget amount for the prior fiscal year fiscal two or one 2007, and any prior year encumbrances only, that's fiscal year 2016. So it doesn't project in the sense that one would believe that it would look at what had been expended year-to-date and then do some type of an analysis saying the last nine months you spend X, the next three months you'll probably spend Y. It doesn't work that way.

▶ 1:06:24 These are very specific to both the MUNIS budget itself, to encumbrances, and any amounts that have been budgeted in prior years. So if you went back and looked at fiscal 2017, you'll actually see that part of that number is represented by the number that was voted by the Board for 2017. So what we're trying to do now this year, which is going to be actually very exciting, The 11.2 version of MUNIS, which just came out, we just installed it at the end of March, as a matter of fact, will give us flexibility for the first time on the projection column. So there's actually a drawdown table that we'll be able to use to modify this to hopefully make it more meaningful to read in the document. A lot of these items are specific.

▶ 1:07:19 they work to our office's favor because we can track encumbrances and prior activity internally by looking at those columns it may not be beneficial in a budget report to the board the way that we'd like it to be but since but until we have this version 11.2 from Eunice which has just been installed and just gone through a test here we couldn't really modify the use of that column we hoping to do that for next year's budget so we'll be in touch you'll call it a working process or uh to help it be more meaningful going forward so just a matter of software thank you thank you madam chair thank you alderman chairman i just have a quick question and sure you're the expert on budget so um why is not this in the i.t budget why why do we have to have a separate department

▶ 1:08:12 equipment line item I mean I mean couldn't this not not should this not be in the IT budget good question what we tried to do in the past is that to isolate what is departmental equipment citywide what is capital outlay citywide so that if someone wanted to look at our capital budget in a departmental equipment budget they'd get a sense just by looking at the budget what we expend as a whole for all the departments within the budget and so it's really a matter of trying to be more transparent so that items don't get buried in someone's budget each year and we don't look at the whole picture and how it impacts other capital or how the departmental equipment so we're simply trying to make it easier to review the budget quite frankly thank you for that

▶ 1:09:01 explanation I think it helps great question though thank you public I mean the public looks at this and they wondering I think they may be asking the same question so no it's a great question thank you second we have a motion to hold a department number 930 department equipment in committee until we hear from the other departments by Alderman Medeiros seconded by Alderman Boycelle all in favor aye this will also be held next up we have department 241 inspection services the amount of two hundred and sixty five thousand two hundred thirty eight dollars and fifty six cents we invite mr. Johnson back up to join us thank you thank you hi I'm Paul Johnson director of inspection services I've been with the city approximately 11 years now we've

▶ 1:10:10 issued over 3,000 permits as a whole last fiscal year approximately 6,000 inspections and we're very busy as you can see the boom out there if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them yes thank you mr. Johnson the salaries and wages is our line item is that all paid within your own budget yes right yes yep 100% yes thank you thank you the 3,000 permits that are done by your department, what does that equal in as far as revenue for the city? For FY 18 to date, it was just about $700,000, $694,000. FY 17, total revenue was approximately $620,000. So we had a bump this year? Was that as opposed to the number of permits that we issued? Is it volume-based for the increase? It's a value-based system, so it's a value of the project.

▶ 1:11:29 That's how we base our permits. The commercial is like $16 per thousand, so you may have one project that's valued at $3 million, and they pull a permit on it. That's probably the reason for the bump. I would say we had some larger projects. And then could you just describe how many people you have on staff in your department? Yes. i uh in the questionnaire there we have uh myself we have one part-time wire inspector one part-time plumbing inspector we have a part-time well the wire inspector is also the sealer weights and measures i have him cross-trained and we have a full-time assistant to the director uh that's miss kathy alfin who we'd all be lost with without yeah and um i have a part-time building inspector

▶ 1:12:18 Scott M. Forbes: as needed okay typically in an ad hoc fashion we're pretty much at we're three days a week right now with them last summer we were up to four days a week with them okay just the amount of volume at the number of inspections and permits that come in this office i just the question i just have do you do you feel are you adequately staffed uh i could be back to you at some point in the next couple years asking for more staff if the boom continues that we're having now uh but at this point right now we're holding our own yes okay thank you thank you thank you alderman medeiros thank you uh kind of on that note too you know building permits is not all that you do you are in many ways our kind of code enforcement officer yeah i issue building permits

▶ 1:13:07 review plans uh for codes and also i have to a big part of my job as a zoning officer to first establish whether the project someone's doing complies with the zoning chapter 235 of the the city ordinances the melville zoning ordinance so that's that's a big portion of it uh of the job and along with that wearing that hat comes the complaints of the fences too close to my property the driveways on my property etc and things like signage does that signage falls in under us yes yeah signage downtown everywhere signage yep so do you feel that you are adequately able to answer those kind of constituent kind of complaints and signs and you know or do you feel that your staff is able to to do that i know a lot of sometimes the calls come in at you know saturday afternoon

▶ 1:14:08 or uh yeah we actually um yeah we handle every complaint to answer your question we look into it it may not be that same week we get it you know we take them and we rate them on the seriousness and we address them and we we do our best to get back to the constituents with an answer of what happened what the results were of that which which i've been the recipient of many of those that's that's what we're here for we're here for public service appreciate that yeah and uh and i guess maybe we'll speak with um maybe mr wilcox on this too but part of what happens and i think i will save this for our the assessor's budget when it comes in but part of the funds that come in from building permits and uh new growth and this kind of thing this has been

▶ 1:15:07 maybe mr de la russa might want to come back to but this is this is some of the reason why we've had some of the free cash that we've seen over the past few years yes um through the chair that's correct um it's new growth um plays the significant role in our ability to provide services uh the level of new growth is uh very important as you were all aware we're 95 percent residential so the opportunities are far and few between to have a large development that can come in and provide that big those types of revenues the building permits and paul's is a phenomenal job also come in and they provide local receipts which we can fund our operating budget so that helps tremendously to keep us out of status that is stable it's very important to

▶ 1:16:04 be stable not to be um sporadic because you cannot build a budget on local receipts it's that's a false premise and it's subject to uh shortfall uh but just by the nature of the the uh the act so the uh the handout that you had provided us mr johnson on the total number of permits for for FY17 was 3,394 and so far this was dated May 10, 2018, total permits 2,798. Now I imagine we're just starting to hit peak permit season or are we a little late? It's ramped up certainly within the last month and a half. So we're going to be very close to that number fy 17 if not exceeded okay so the projection is it is we have the rest of this month and the rest of june so pretty pretty close to where we are yeah it's been pretty consistent a

▶ 1:17:11 Robert A. Boisselle: little uptick every year thank you welcome thank you thank you alderman boys out january 1st of this year a new state law came out concerning the ninth edition of the building code yes as that cause any problems with the contractors that are out there doing maintenance and rehab and everything else and were you the educator or teacher of these contractors I am the educator and teacher of some of them absolutely I don't know in 23 years myself included when I was on a job if I had my own own its code book on the job when I was working so a lot of it has to do with the this state there's not a lot of education out there for the general contractor that's trying to make a living out there so we kind of rather we

▶ 1:18:09 are the front line with education in that manner yes was there quite a few violations of the code or violations you know we're all it's again rather new so we're all working our way through it and myself included the state instead of issuing one book with all the mass amendments embedded into it spread out it's they've given us the 2015 catalogs or codes as I listed on the sheet there and then they've handed me just for the commercial base code I think was approximately 600 pages of amendments that I had to embed into the code so I have to do that with the residential code then I have to do that with the fire code so the state hasn't made it easy on us as inspectors we're used to it so it's been a rough start but it's smoothing out yeah yeah yeah don't you

▶ 1:19:09 Michael P. Zwirko: know thank you thank you thank you man thank you President worker thank you madam excuse me thank you madam chair just a brief question here so seems like there's a lot of renovation going on in Melrose yes yeah and I remember I think it was last year apologize it might have been the year before but I think you were implementing some sort of an online portal or some sort of a we're implementing in the process of implementing we're in the final stages implementing a new permit tracking so it was system could you could you talk about that just a little more and that's I anticipate that being on the first f1 FY 19 not that we hit a glitch I'm not going to put a product out there for my staff to use

▶ 1:19:54 unless it's it's a hundred percent and ready to go we had some issues where I sent it back and we do some things with plumbing and electrical portions of it with the anticipation to roll it out as an online service and that would be graduated that would be we would do that with electrical and plumbing first those seems to be the easiest ones and maybe somewhere around the first of the year so there's been a lot of back and forth with a developer they've been good responding to my needs and it's a slow arduous process given the complexity of of our fee schedule when they're writing the code for our so everything when they're writing the code for the permit tracking system so we end in we enter in

▶ 1:20:46 our values on product cost or construction cost it automatically calculates the fee and we want to ensure that that's the correct fee or Patrick you know won't talk to me anymore he said that yeah but yeah that's where around with that and what I mean apologize for the remedialness of this question but what what is the once it's online what is the benefit how is it going to alleviate just an in-person filing of a permit application I mean what is the the benefit is it's going to alleviate data entry on our side of the permitting process right now we take in a piece of paper we put all the information into the computer in the future here when this goes online a lot of that information will be already in there in working in conduct conjunction

▶ 1:21:42 with the assessor's office to make sure the owners stuff is in there and everything ties in so when we go to put that address in a lot of that will populate automatically we don't have to keep putting it in right now we have to keep putting it in so and then it'll it'll help that contract he'll be able to sit at home and eventually sit there and put his permit in and not have to come down and see us all right I envision that for electrical plumbing and maybe some easy building code but the more additions decks that people will still have to come and then it will also still accept the paper one we wouldn't turn someone away and say hey go stand over there and use that computer because you know you have your fair amount of guys that are that are not going to be

▶ 1:22:30 Michael P. Zwirko: able to do what we need them to do and we'll just have to do it and in terms of payment is the system designed for payment through the system is it something that they have this system the system can be leaked just as you know the assessors I mean the tax collector want to bill that type of thing okay it will be linked when we do that that they pay for the application as they said as they go well it makes sense that you're taking your time implementing this because like you said you want it to be right especially given the the statistics you've provided with us this evening so looking forward to that and thank you for you know going through that effort it'll be beneficial and if I may add one other thing a big also big part of that is to make sure the

▶ 1:23:12 Manisha Bewtra: historical data from our other system is carried over correctly to the new system so we don't lose anything yeah it's a good point thank you for that work okay those are all the questions I had madam chair thank you thank you for all the work you do on making sure properties are safe and all of that I think I two questions one regarding fees just curious if you have a sense of sort of how our fees structure compares with or the size of the fees compared with other cities and towns and also are there particular fees that you know you hear about more frequently or from sort of residents or no I think for the resident part a residential the one in two family I think we're maybe a little bit below

▶ 1:24:04 Manisha Bewtra: the average I think the last time I did a fee increase was probably don't quote maybe six years ago maybe seven years ago I think online it says effective May 2013 so that well this is the maybe inspection services permit free so maybe I'm I don't know if I'm yeah maybe one or two good but the main one I believe was a while ago where we we felt it in the mayor at the time felt that we didn't want to place a burden on the homeowner themselves the one or two family people that make up the the community and going back to the question about the new software would that information be able to be utilized by other departments and would any of that information be publicly available yes yes and both questions yes thank you I believe my questions been answered I was

▶ 1:25:09 Robert A. Boisselle: wondering how the new permit system was going to integrate with the new GIS manager in the centralized city database and he they explained it pretty well unless you have anything else to say about that if there's any problems in the integration of the databases together as Paul addressed the the permitting fees were the hardest part this this system is open source and it's built to what our specifications are it's not an off-the-shelf kind of software so there is a delay as far as development but from the start we geo reference so we basically put every permit on an address and my address is matched to his address is 100 and that's how we're going to go forward this is the largest project that we're doing right

▶ 1:25:56 now and then we'll add other databases to it down the line but it's been a hard project but it's coming to completion will you have a demonstration when it's ready to go of course yes very good thank you thank you manager thank you is there a motion second we have a motion to move the bottom line uh by President work oh seconded by alderman Boisselle on discussion i got one quick question please um professional services there's a twenty one thousand eight hundred and fifty nine dollars is that for the ad hoc inspector is that for yes some type of okay yes good all right thank you any further discussion we have a motion to move the bottom line made and seconded all in favor all right any opposed

▶ 1:26:47 this uh department number 241 will be moved forward thank you very much thank you next up we We have Department Number 135, the Auditor's Department, in the amount of $377,382.62. Thank you, Mr. De La Rosa. Hi, good evening. I believe everyone should have a copy of the overview that I did prepare. It's dated May 7th of 2018. In short, it indicates the mission of the department, which in the big picture is to safeguard the assets of the community. We keep a complete record of municipal finance activity, including a general journal and subsidiary ledgers. In these ledgers, we record the amount of each appropriation, the amount and purpose of each expenditure recorded against it, the amounts we see from each source of revenue, and the amounts of each assessment, levy, and abatement granted.

▶ 1:28:00 The office itself consists of myself as the CFO City Auditor, Carrie Ann Golden, the Assistant City Auditor, Katie Kennewell, the Finance Manager, and Jill Irvin, the Senior Account Clerk. In fiscal 18, we saw the completion in my office of personal staff changes to the department. And as mentioned earlier this evening, we did upgrade the municipal accounting system to version 11.2. And this system tracks all of our financial transactions. All the salaries are resident within this budget. And for fiscal 19, we see the continuation of the independent audit of the community by Powers and Sullivan CPA. We also see professional government accounting, auditing, and consulting services provided by Clifton, Larson, and Allen.

▶ 1:28:55 This year's budget includes an appropriation to fund an actuarial study by Stone Consulting on the city's other post-employment benefits obligation, known as OPEB, including GASB 74 and 75. In short, in looking at my budget for you, the salaries and wages of those that are agreed to by contract and the step increases for the non-union. Auditing services, again, we're in the 19 will be the second year of this $60,000 per a year for Powers and Sullivan for the audit services themselves and also we have revenue in there to address the balance sheet schedule a fixed assets which are reported to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts each year another interesting point is the audit itself it should be uploaded to the board now in

▶ 1:30:02 iqm2 in past years about two years ago they made a change that the audit the auditors are to send that directly to the department of revenue upon completion prior years it was dependent upon the city to forward it to the commonwealth it's now directly done by the outside auditorium and last but not least my dues and memberships staying constant no change from last year the interesting component one of the interesting components and the budget this year is the actuary work by stone consulting the what we're finding and I spend address I think I had distributed it and report on mass municipal on OPEB looms dark on the fiscal cloud and also we should also have the most recent standard employees report from the rating agencies when

▶ 1:31:02 they both reference the impact OPEB is having on each community not just ours and and the fact that we're now required in essence to never stops the reporting for OPEB and this why you see it this year in my budget the way you see it represented is going to be an ongoing process. So not only has GASB 74 made it a requirement that the OPEB findings be provided for fiscal 16, now for 17 we have to do GASB 75. So those changes in the Government Accounting Standard Board impacts the city so when now we're seeing it's almost like a continual audit of opev if you want to call it that whereas even though it's still not mandatory neither gatsby 74 or gatsby 75 requires the funding of the obligation however we have to complete the reporting we cannot issue

▶ 1:32:10 an audit statement just for the purposes of this board and the public we cannot issue an audit statement unless those subsidiary reports are completed by an actuary that's very significant because they will hold up the audit until they have that information from now on so it's now become a standard part of our financial statements and definitely a requirement that we're not going to see the end of so having said that I appreciate the extra time thank you you. Alderman Tramontozzi. Thank you, Madam Chair. The salaries and wages line on your budget, that encompasses how many employees in your department? Four. And it says here it's a 5.9% increase? Yes. Is that as a result of the step increases or cost of living?

▶ 1:33:07 John N. Tramontozzi: Actually, it's a combination of both because what's happened is that we've had a transition within the office. We upgraded the positions that were there. We added additional responsibilities, so those particular positions were upgraded. I can get you a breakdown of that if you'd like. I was going to ask for that. In terms of the non-union employees, wages are negotiated and it's at it's really a discretion on the part of the mayor correct okay so i just you know for purposes of the public well the one thing i find really deficient with the immune system is although they the budget provides us with line items it doesn't give us a breakdown on employees and specifically salaries is there a reason why we don't get that

▶ 1:33:57 John N. Tramontozzi: no right i mean we're entitled to that information individual employees i'm not if you're asking through the chair for more detail on each person yeah um i can find that out for you right do we know do you know department the city citywide how many employees does the city employ union and non-union i can hr would have that i wouldn't have that in front of me i understand i'm not expecting that in the copy i had but i would um i would appreciate um a itemized breakdown yeah of every single employee in the city salaries and wages is that something you can do I'm looking at IQ m2 right now and there is a file that is output by Munis I'm looking right now at the section 135 which is this department

▶ 1:34:55 Michael P. Zwirko: us and I am looking at the employees names and salaries it is logged in in order to see it it is a absconded from the public but it's just because of the privacy I'm sure but I'm looking at it right now so it is available should you log in and access it on IQ into all right well thank you for that information but it's not something that the public has access to apparently it's It's just if we have to log into the system. Thank you. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. All in force. Thank you. Just to make sure, I believe you already said it, but you said that 100% of your salaries are represented in this budget? Yes. And they don't cross over any other department? Yes. Just your time in water and sewer, does it go into that at all?

▶ 1:35:50 Michael P. Zwirko: Not in the direct fashion. It's an indirect cost. It's an allocation done indirectly. Thank you. Thank you. President Search. Thank you. Appreciate all the work that you do, Mr. Del Russo. Thank you. I know that this time of year is very busy for your office. And given the environment we're in right now, there's been a lot of heightened awareness to the fiscal year 19 as well as kind of the future. So I do understand that your office is receiving a lot of requests for information not only from this board but probably from members of the public correct and you know I would I would just state that not only in my experience in my two years two and a half years serving on this board but working with you that you have not only been made yourself available but also

▶ 1:36:43 Michael P. Zwirko: provided information to the extent you have it in a timely manner so I greatly appreciate that which you have extended to myself thank you I will also add that that I am a big subscriber in the trust but verify so you know we do have a role here and I do think you're not only honorable but you you do a great job in presenting and actually throughout the year providing us with information from time to time without a request that's made by this board I myself have received a lot of calls and inquiries from the public and I would just ask that given that the auditor's office is so very busy this time of year that you could seek us out as your elected representatives to help facilitate getting that information and alleviate some of the pressures that Mr.

▶ 1:37:28 Michael P. Zwirko: Delarusso and his office receives from a day-to-day basis there there are lots of requests there's a lot of information some of it is very crude some of it is very hard to understand but we are happy to help where we can and I just want to make sure that folks know that they can come to us to help facilitate the information being received if I may through the chair thank you very much I appreciate that the one other point because I'm glad you brought that up because two things one is the volume of work is really significant in responding to a request as a police chief indicate and that's all fine the other point is that we are working on setting up some directive to help the public as well as

▶ 1:38:11 the board with the Department of Revenue they have the Municipal Data Bank and have an opportunity now where you can see up to like a series of six different reports everything from the demographics to debts of each community you can do a comparison if you'd like to pull down different communities how you fear against wakefield or mall and something of that nature so the dur has come a long way with that municipal data bank and i'm hoping that we can all start to use it even more to help us understand where our city fits in and the plus and the minuses so thank you very much thank you for the response I just wanted to get that out there because I do know I mean I'm guilty of this I've given you many

▶ 1:38:48 Michael P. Zwirko: requests for the past couple months so I just I want to be mindful that the office does have a day-to-day job in addition to the budget season so you know not not trying to overburden you but maybe there's information that we've already requested that we could help facilitate to members of the public and it wouldn't have I'd appreciate you thank you very much and I appreciate the shout out to the Department of local services municipal data bank I've gone on there in the wonkish ways of my own thinking and pulled out some reports so it's very good to use I also want to point out you had highlighted it it's about an 85 page report it is attached to the orders this evening it is the independent audit of powers and Sullivan yes it is highly I don't want to say

▶ 1:39:33 Michael P. Zwirko: entertaining but it's informative it expresses the types of accounts that the city deals with it's a very it's um it is what it is it's a it's an in-depth audit provided by powers and Sullivan and and you may know the answer to this but is that audit is that to to comply with section 6 6 of the Charter is that the independent are that that is mandated by the Charter that you do on If the charter mandates it, then I would agree that is the audit. The other point is that the independent audit itself versus the city, we record our revenue and expenses under a modified accrual versus full accrual. So there's that transition going from financial statements of a fund-based system, which we are, we're fund-based, versus a private corporation.

▶ 1:40:27 So their finance is a transition that takes place. so it actually heightens the amount of work to make them comparable in their own way so that the reader of the financial statements can make good sense out of it and the comparisons will be apples to apples every year so even the accounting itself there's a twist to it but yes and the audit is there and obviously we try to include that now every single year we do the budget no it's a very good document it it's a good resource to have available I know it's been available in your office before but I was appreciated this afternoon I saw it was uploaded so the other question I wanted to ask you was in I think I asked this last year the outlook that we received in the fall of 2017 from

▶ 1:41:26 Michael P. Zwirko: standards and pours it did mention some areas in which they suggested we could make some improvements some formal policies and I didn't know in the the time that has passed since this report or rather this outlook came from them the rating agencies if your office has made any of those improvements and and and furthermore what cycle are we on will they be back in this fallers at the following fall is it a three-year cycle or a two-year due to the fact that we go to market on a frequent basis they'll be here this fall this report that you have before you or it should have is date October 23rd of 2017 and what it does do for for those that may not have the luxury of having it before them it talks

▶ 1:42:19 about the position of the city and overall within the Commonwealth where we stand that we have a very strong economy for example they talk about our strong management strong budgetary performance strong budgetary flexibility very strong liquidity we pay approximately almost 65% of our debt within a 10-year period period which is phenomenal and again credit to the Board of Aldermen for maintaining their policy I thank you adequate debt and contingent liability profile the issues that were brought up from standing opposed which we are working on really affect the two items the OPEB contribution which I talked about earlier and they also mentioned the pension obligation because they still feel as an entity standard employees that that's even though we

▶ 1:43:22 have a funding schedule they would be you know future liability of the pension system is not probably as fruitful as they'd like to see it overall but having said that we are working on that and one of the items I think you'll see this evening and budget 942 would be a request to continue the $50,000 contribution to the OPEB fund which they address here in fact if you look on page five of the standard of course report and if I make through the chair it says the city is projecting to add $50,000 to the trust by fiscal year and 2018 officials plan to include an OPEB contribution in the fiscal 19 budget in In our opinion, Melrose's large growing pension and OPEB liabilities could add budgetary pressure.

▶ 1:44:21 That's an understatement. But they do recognize the need for us to do that, and just for the purposes of my presence here this evening, to demonstrate just one item, if I may. the financial statements page 17 for example on total fund balances they you'll see a comment relative to the impact the OPEB obligation is having on the financial statements of the city if you take a look here on the actual reports from the actuary they also reference page 13 they reference and I I'll just read this one paragraph given the hour it says currently most Massachusetts governmental entities are paying for their post-employment medical benefits on a pay-as-you-go basis this means that no amount in excess of the

▶ 1:45:14 actual cost for the year is paid all such entities must report figures for Gatsby statement number 45 based on the unfunded discount rate Melrose however has elected to fund au pair benefits but at a rate less than the full arc which means the full annual required contribution which would be about seven to eight million dollars on top of what we do hence it is pop in a partially funded plan the good is that each when we go to stand in and pause and we go actually pull off our bonds which we are going to do in the fall they will ask us for this for the financial statements they already don't have them and um and obviously stand and pause their only analysts will review what we do with these funds all this is tied in it's all part of a bigger

▶ 1:46:19 structure is what i'm trying to to put out there it's all part of a bigger structure everything we do here relative to opeb to stabilization it's all part of this pyramid structure that has to be intact and it impacts us everywhere once we go to get a bond rating in the fall they're going to want to know did we make the contribution to opeb are we continuing that practice no difference in stabilization every year we put the 50 000 in there there's a reason we have a double a plus rating we're consistent consistent consistent that's what they value because the people that buy the bonds want people that are con a community that is consistent consistent consistent because they're putting their money out to buy those bonds of their community that's all to our favor we may

▶ 1:47:09 Michael P. Zwirko: not hit the high number that we're required we'd like to hit however we do make that effort and that is tremendously important tremendously important that we do that each each year and be consistent thank you i apologize for the extra time no thank you it's always good to hear some much of the explanation behind a lot of these i mean when i hear these uh alarm bell ringing of opeb i mean i kind of snicker because it's almost insurmountable right i mean it really it's fifty thousand dollars on an eight thousand eight million dollar liability uh i mean come on so um but i appreciate the fact and just like you had mentioned with gas b74 and gas b75 at least we're doing something whereas others um haven't even don't do anything haven't even gone yeah um you

▶ 1:47:56 had mentioned though on the at the very end there about the rating agencies and how they look at all the layers and how everything's tied together do they also look at the enterprise accounts yes most certainly in fact it's our advantage that we have water sewer mount hood and ambulance enterprise because in their in their world that takes the stress off of our operating budget those entities are required to cover their own cost if not then we would be even more at risk that if one of these operations failed we would own it on the general fund side and our margins are so very very thin i've always said that and i'm going to say it again our margins are so thin within one or two percent every year we don't have the luxury to support an enterprise that

▶ 1:48:40 Michael P. Zwirko: isn't functioning as in a healthy way now that can happen once in a while that's why you have to have your reserves for the times that it doesn't turn out as we all would like it to to turn out so that works in our favor but they love enterprise funds they love them and it helps us keep our rating where it is before i yield i'm just trying to think if i have any other questions for you the can't think of anything that jumps out right now again thanks for all the information gathering that you've done and for continuing us on the fiscal health that we're at even though this budget year is going to be very painful and some folks have already expressed their concerns with not only staffing but also resource issues but we still remain to be you know fiscally sound in

▶ 1:49:36 Manisha Bewtra: light of that and um testament really to a lot of the work and direction that you've uh bestowed upon the city so thank you for that madam chair those are all the questions that i had thank you thank you i was noticing that um the financial statements reference um operating grants and capital grants and non-restricted grants and i was just curious would it be possible for us to get a little more detail on those because i also am looking at you know some of the salaries i assume some of those positions are partially grant funded and they think it would just help to get up for their understanding whatever i can do to get you information i'd be happy to that would be great thank you alderman boys out motion to move the bottom line of 377 382 dollars and 62

▶ 1:50:28 cents second alderman Medeiros moves uh makes a motion to move the bottom line which is seconded by alderman Boisselle all in favor any opposed that department number 135 will be moved forward thank you very much except we have department number nine four two stabilization fund in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars mr bill russo yeah and if i may there again i believe i did prepare a memorandum from the board dated may 7th uh relative to stabilization funds and uh what i'm asking respectfully is that 50 000 be put in the opeb trust fund and 50 000 in the city stabilization fund which would um whose current balance is 1 million 881 011.49 and the current balance in the opeb trust fund is 368 249.50 and again it's the the objective here is to maintain

▶ 1:51:34 Monica C. Medeiros: our efforts at keeping our structure in place and also just want to thank the board for the fact that they continue the process of funding each year when it's challenging because it does make a huge difference thank you for your support because it wouldn't happen without it Alderman Medeiros thank you thank you Mr. Del Rosso I just want to say how important it is that we are funding opeb and for the public just kind of clarify that we talk about that a lot it's other post-employment benefits and primarily what that is is health insurance for our retirees is that correct that's correct it's um pensions we know we have a funding schedule for that but we did not have a funding schedule for the health insurance you're absolutely correct

▶ 1:52:30 Monica C. Medeiros: and and a pension cost we can pretty much predict what we're going to need to pay out because the contracts are pretty standard somebody makes so much money as a in their salary they collect so much in their retirement there might be some cost of living increases but pretty much we can project that moving forward but the health insurance piece we can't really project the increases so much yeah i mean that's a valid point the there is more predictability with the funding schedule because just what you had indicated we could put markers out there for salary and wage increases in a way you can't do that for health insurance the sporadicness of health insurance where some years you see 10 increase in a lot of places 12 i think is quite honestly meriting why the drive

▶ 1:53:30 for all these new proclamations from gatsby because they're saying now you know this thing is spiraling and it has to be some sense of control and order and therefore they're requiring each community to bring it to light that this is a significant liability unless something's done to curtail it the number can only get larger so absolutely right much harder in my opinion than the funding schedule for the pension and this is something that we just started doing only a few years ago that's correct yeah do you remember the first fiscal year um I think it was probably about five years ago perhaps and then what happened was there was an indication it was um coming and then bingo here comes 74 and 15 and 16 and 17. gasby 75 now all

▶ 1:54:29 of a sudden it's not optional it's mandatory and it's now as i said before it's becoming almost like an annual event rather than every two years because the date the data you have to collect spans fiscal years for them to do the reporting so it's a never-ending cycle like your Quite frankly, your regular audit now is a never-ending cycle. That's become part of our process. Obviously the question will become, what is the end game? At some point, they did mandate funding for the pension system. However, that has not happened, at least to date for the OPIP matter. I know that this is something at the time not all the aldermen were gung-ho on doing um because it is something that sometimes people feel like oh you know this might be something you

▶ 1:55:17 Monica C. Medeiros: can scoff at how will we ever meet it but i mean i'm i'm happy to see that already our balance is up to 368 249.50 it's not near where we need to to be but it is something to say that you know we went from having zero to having you know almost four hundred thousand dollars and through the chair to all the materials point and also recognize that we take it seriously as a city each one and he we all know we could spend that money in other areas um however that wouldn't be the prudent thing to do for the financial health of the city the financial house and for the responsibility that we do have to our absolutely that we can make sure that we are funding this and you know and i i know we all take that seriously um this additional funds it's it's

▶ 1:56:08 Monica C. Medeiros: something that you know i remember not so long ago our snow budget you know we we added you know 25 000 50 000 kind of year by year and eventually we got to a higher amount so i do hope that perhaps this is an area where we might be able to grow and see some improvement i agree with you you know we spend a lot of time on the board of the mass municipal association we spend a lot of time talking about uh opeb this is something that affects you know every city and town every municipality every uh you know the state it funds every it affects everyone and we're all struggling with how to to do it and there are some communities that have actually met this their goal to i mean there's very few but there are some out there so you know there is some hope at the end of the

▶ 1:56:57 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: tunnel and i believe that there is a push to have some kind of you know legislative action in the near future i agree it'll be nice thank you thank you motion to move the bottom line we have a motion to move the bottom line made by alderman boyce seconded by alderman forbes all in favor any opposed thank you department number 942 will be moved forward thank you very much mr Mr. De La Rosa. The final department on our agenda this evening is department number 141, the assessor's office, in the amount of $358,459.05. We have the very patient Mr. Wilcox here with us this evening. Thank you, Mr. Wilcox. Thank you. My name is Chris Wilcox, I'm the chief assessor for the city of Melrose. I've been here a little over four years, and we're responsible for local taxation.

▶ 1:57:55 I'd say our number one thing is customer service, though. It's educating the residents and taxpayers about the changing tax codes and how we actually send tax bills out and also how we administer personal exemptions, statutory exemptions through the state. But I find a lot of our time during the day is to educate people and show them the tax system and help them with whatever problems they have and make sure that we do it in an open and honest way. so with that I prepared a questionnaire that I submitted and I'm open to any questions thank you thank you so on that education front and something I alluded to with the building inspector can you for the public kind of explain how new growth occurs and how that sort of relates to building permits and in

▶ 1:58:50 proposition two and a half and the levy limit sure so as as far as growth um the the assessing department is responsible for actually going out to all 3 000 of those permits and determining which ones actually add value and which ones are counted as growth it's impossible with my budget to get to all 3 000. so what we have to do is we have to go permit by permit and weigh them out it's we're funded for about maybe 1,200 to 1,500 permits we don't get to 3,000 so we have to rely on aerial photography MLS all sorts of things people coming in word-of-mouth and then we go through all the permits also but we actually have to weigh through half of them because we it's not physically possible for our

▶ 1:59:37 staff to get out to all of them or for consultants to be funded with with our budget so thank you and can you can you explain how that how a change by a building permit might trigger a new assessed value and how that affects our levy limit yeah so as far as the levy limit proposition two and a half allows you to go up the amount of growth taken in for that year so for instance last year was roughly six hundred thousand so the the city can collect up to six hundred thousand dollars more because of that growth money coming in so it's very important that we get out there to those projects and see at that first year so proposition two and a half is very important you know to capture the growth and in that way we can take in more money to operate so proposition two and

▶ 2:00:33 Monica C. Medeiros: so we are able to collect so much money every year from not all of our budget is funded by real estate taxes only a portion of it is some other you know other funding sources like some receipts and some of its money we get from the state but the money that we get from real estate taxes can only the the total amount of assessed value of all the property in the city and what we can collect we can only go up two and a half percent each year but then we can also go up that two and a half percent plus new growth that's correct and there's another thing there's a debt exclusion for the middle school that's also on there which is roughly two million dollars so um you have uh proposition two and a half that says growth um the debt exclusion and any overrides

▶ 2:01:23 underrides also would would affect that so if somebody pulls a permit say adds another floor to their house that would increase the assessed value of their property but it would also increase yeah that's correct the additional assessed value on that is calculated with the tax rate from the year before that amount of money is converted into that $600,000 pot. So it could be personal property, it could be real estate, commercial, residential, pretty much everything. Anything that was there this year that was not there the year before is considered growth. That's why it's very important for us to go out in the field. Someone could take a permit for a roof and before you know it, the whole back

▶ 2:02:10 Monica C. Medeiros: of the house is done. So we have to go out in the field. We really have to police this and really see what the extent of the permit is and make sure that they've done the work as they stated in that permit. We talked a little bit about the online permitting. I think that probably covers it, but obviously you find a shortage in being able to examine these properties. Are there any other areas where you feel that you're having a shortage in your budget? This year, we were able to actually, with the retirement, we've replaced a clerk with an actual assessor, an assistant assessor, which I think is very important. What that provides to my office is a valuation person, someone that really understands it,

▶ 2:02:56 someone that can help go out in the field and weigh whether properties are changing, kind of just be out there in the field. With contractors, you really don't get the feedback. So I felt this was very important for quality work. person is brand new to assessing and it requires a lot of an education i think we're up to about 10 or 12 different pieces of software that they have to learn and like i said we look at mls we look at aerial photography we try to get very creative with technology to spread ourselves all over the city and and it's a challenge but we're up to it very good thank you very much thank you thank you president Search thank you madam chair thank you chris appreciate your time this evening um i just had i had two quick questions one is um do you know the the

▶ 2:03:47 Michael P. Zwirko: health of our overlay account at this time um as of right now um the atb caseload is very low but we do have some outstanding um collections basically so some personal property that goes over but i can provide an analysis yes i don't need it immediately but um i know we got that figure last year so i'd like to see it again no not a problem thank you and the other um this is really uh it's it's it's actually stated in your questionnaire so um and we had mentioned this when we were here on thursday talking to the planning department um the addition of the five hours a week for the gis analyst that is the individual that works in planning correct that is correct and you were talking earlier when we were speaking with

▶ 2:04:32 Michael P. Zwirko: inspectional services the linkage between the permitting and the address so when you're using this for gis because it's a geographic information system you're actually putting multi-layers on all of these parcels is that correct that's correct and it's like a backlog um well maybe that's the wrong way to put it but it's really a data history um of i mean it really could be tax information permit information obviously inspection information so and that's is this is something that you're working conjunction across the departments not just inspections so right now i have about six or seven different databases in-house and externally an external database could be the mls listings internal would be building permits voter

▶ 2:05:21 registration it could be code enforcement taxes utility billing believe it right believe it or not there's not one system that merges all that data together so we are in the process of finding addresses and inconsistencies and then linking everything together it's a very tedious problem because for years and years it's the free flow addresses so what we have to do is tighten up how we put addresses and databases we start with the assessing database and we built everything on top of that but right now we have databases all throughout the city that have been doing their own thing we have to go through and actually build a master address table and what we do is we start with all the good addresses and then we might have 20% that are bad addresses

▶ 2:06:07 attend Main Street could be in there ten different ways so we have to link all those ten main streets all the different spellings bad good and put it on that right parcel so it's starting with the building department but it's expanding pretty much throughout. As far as the financial system, Munis, it's a one-to-one match right now. Munis comes from my system. So those are two huge databases in the city that we've already pretty much linked together. But this additional person also is reviewing legal transactions. We have a problem right now with the registry of deeds where they're not verifying any of the bounds of the property. We're seeing things that were incorrect. So this person's going

▶ 2:06:48 Michael P. Zwirko: deed by deed to make sure the square footage and all the boundaries are correct um i see this as a problem in 10 years it can be a really big problem so this position is kind of twofold great no thank you for that detailed explanation because it's a great system and it's nice to be able to link all these things together as well have a clickable format of a map with you know parcels broken out and everything else so appreciate the work on that i just want to highlight it because it's something that is looks like a small amount of hours but there's a lot of work and future benefit to it so I just that's why I keep harping on the GIS stuff because I do know that it's something that we're really going to

▶ 2:07:23 rely on so I just want to say we this year we've taken over all of GIS mapping in the assessing office so every every city map actually goes through the assessing office one point of contact it just simplifies everything and I work with other departments very well it's not that I'm trying to take over the responsibilities but I do have a clear vision and I want to make sure that goes forward yeah well appreciate it thank you those are all the questions i have madam chair thank you alderman Tramontozzi thank you madam truman um massachusetts general laws requires the city to periodically reassess properties is that correct yes uh in refresh my memory how many uh how often with the mass municipal they actually uh bill they just went up to 10 years it used to be nine now

▶ 2:08:08 it's 10 years so when was the last time just like that the uh the reassessment it's the you have to to reassess properties at 100% all the properties are assessed every year at a hundred percent fair market value it's in the inspections or every ten years so we'll physically go out to the property and try and gain access to the property to verify the city records when was the last time we had one of those verification reassessments 2015 and 16 so we don't anticipate one in the near future I changed the budget we actually will will exceed that I believe we'll inspect the whole city every seven years every year I allow for about a thousand inspections through sales and building permits so that we're always on top of

▶ 2:08:55 John N. Tramontozzi: our we I never want to get to the point where I come in front of this body and ask for three hundred thousand dollars to inspect the city I've put it in the budget every year so that we we nip away at it and like I said within seven years as we should get to every property in the city well there's been a significant turnover of properties in the past say five years uh property values in the city as we all know has increased the um this budget here fiscal year 19. um is it is it based is it based what i guess i'm trying to get a sense of the valuation of properties what is this budget based on what year of valuation of properties this budget is for 2019 so it would be sales in actual calendar year 2017. okay so um

▶ 2:09:44 John N. Tramontozzi: and and you you monitor that that the sales through the municipal uh the mls uh books and uh the registry of deeds and and such as that um we send out sales questionnaires uh we we monitor mls we actually physically inspect we run reports and we also compare regional data for cost information because if you can just explain just for the public's uh edification is uh so if property goes up in value and how does that work with proposition uh sure um we'll use large numbers if the city's value doubled the tax rate would actually go in half we're only allowed to back into a certain amount of value so just by raising values we can still only come into that maximum levy by two and a half so if everything doubled the tax rate

▶ 2:10:38 would actually be cut in half back into that same amount so there is no benefit of the sales alone if there's growth work that's done to the property that's a whole different story but we do not benefit directly from the large sale prices in the city and our tax rate has consistently gone down the last five years because of it so sales sales of property are not considered a new growth in effect absolutely not okay thank you thank you honorable master thank you madam chair thank you mr wilcox for being here and thank you for all your good work um just two quick questions um i see there's a 300 increase in mileage and a 100 increase in educational seminars can you just speak to those two items sure um 250 dollars is actually annually what we would charge at 50 cents per mile

▶ 2:11:30 i've routinely not even put in amounts for mileage because of that now that we have someone in the field i think that they should be compensated as far as my position i i won't put in small amounts but if we have someone out in the field 10 15 miles a day it does add up and and my point is is to bring it to a more realistic area. We're gonna study that over the next couple of years. If my assistant goes out in the field more, I plan on having an increase, but I will show you based on mileage why that affects it. But we are putting more people out onto the street driving around in their own personal vehicles. And is it for education? Is that for the assistant that you brought on? Yes, so part of the requirements

▶ 2:12:14 for the assistant assessor position that they get their mass accredited assessor designation it's roughly a two-year process it's a very aggressive approach to having them get their designation but it has to be funded how does this benefit the city when i'm out of the office people can answer the questions i think having another valuation person there is very important they have to there's a about six different classes that are a week long over two years that they have to take so that would be for the additional amount It's very important to stay up with the laws. They do change quite a bit, and there's new practices to save time and money with assessing and take advantage of technology. Thank you, Mr. Wilcox.

▶ 2:12:59 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Motion to move the bottom line. We have a motion to move the bottom line made by Alderman Boisselle. Second. Seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? This will be moved forward. Thank you very much, Mr. Wilcox. Motion to adjourn, Madam Chair. A motion to adjourn by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor of adjourning? Aye. Any opposed? We are now adjourned. 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