City Council — 2018-11-08
Attendance
Manisha Bewtra ; Robert A. Boisselle ; Scott M. Forbes ; Jennifer L. Lemmerman ; Kate Lipper-Garabedian ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Monica C. Medeiros ; Peter D. Mortimer ; John N. Tramontozzi ; Francis X. Wright Jr. ; Michael P. Zwirko
Agenda
- Call to Order
- ORDER-2019-24 : Special Meeting of the Board of Aldermen to be Held on November 8, 2018 at 7:45 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, Melrose, MA
- Public Comment
- Communications from Her Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials
- ORDER-2019-25 : Calling a Special Election on Tuesday, April 2, 2019
- ORDER-2019-26 : Order to Place General Override Question on the April 2, 2019 Special Election Ballot
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BULLETIN● NOVEMBER 8, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Special Meeting 7:45 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176
ORDER-2019-24 Opening Statement Special Meeting of the Board of Aldermen to be Held on November 8, 2018 at 7:45 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, Melrose, MA File Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Manisha Bewtra Alderman at Large Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian Alderman at Large Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Alderman Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Present Michael P. Zwirko President, Alderman at Large Present
ORDER-2019-25 Calling Election Calling a Special Election on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee
ORDER-2019-26 Ballot/Overide Order Order to Place General Override Question on the April 2, 2019 Special Election Ballot Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee City of Melrose Page 1 11/15/2018 11:19 AM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Michael P. Zwirko: Good evening. Here tonight it is a special meeting of the Board of Aldermen. It is Thursday, November 8th, 2018. This meeting was called to order under Chapter, excuse me, Section 3-6 of the City Charter by Mayor Infurna. There have been two orders that have been introduced to us this evening, both of which are on our agenda. At this time, I would just like to state that this meeting is being recorded in accordance with the open meeting law. it is available from the city website as well as mmtv3.org madam clerk could you kindly call the role alderman Bewtra here alderman Boisselle here alderman forbes here alderman lemmerman here alderman Letter garabedian here alderman mcmaster here alderman medeiros here alderman mortimer
▶ 0:50 Michael P. Zwirko: yeah alderman alderman tramantosi here alderman wright here president Zwirko here at this time Can everybody please stand and join in pledging allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. President, I make a motion to open the floor for public comment. Second. There has been a motion that has been made by Alderman Mortimer to open the floor for public comment. It has been seconded by Alderman Boisselle. zell at this time this is a portion of the meeting where anybody who is in the gallery would like to come to the podium or excuse me the table and speak the only thing that we ask is you write
▶ 1:35 your name and your address you may come before us at this time anyone here that would like to speak on the two orders that are before us this evening good evening good evening my name is jerry morose um i recognize that this is going to be sent to a committee and you'll have meeting on tuesday but i won't be able to be here tuesday so i wanted to make some of my thoughts known tonight um i went to the two listening sessions i heard the mayor present um last night at the melrose high school pto meeting um i have more money can always do some good right you know the more resources you apply to something the more you can theoretically do the question is how do you you apply the resources we already have and if you get additional resources are
▶ 2:53 you going to apply them in the same way that they've already been done that's my concern about what's being proposed you know more than five million dollars I think about four point four three million is directly increased money to the schools of what the schools have been getting in prior times most of that's going to go toward teacher contract teachers salaries you know that's got an increase every year and it just lays in on the current contracts that we have additional money for additional teachers to talk about opening the BB school in my view should be a non-starter the BB school would be a waste what's not funded anywhere even in the proposal is the cost of the principal of the BB the office manager of the BB the custodian of the BB and
▶ 3:48 we're talking about assistant principals and probably maybe a third assistant principal right there amongst those things there you have a quarter million dollars a year of additional operating costs that aren't even even considered by the cost of that override we know that teacher salaries will go up year by year um by an amount equal to what our prop two and a half limits are or maybe just slightly under that um well actually the let's be clear the contract amount might be a two percent per year for teacher contracts but remember we've been lucky with the gic for a few years now there's no guarantee there we and we still have to get deal with all our pension issues and everything else which are liabilities that are additional liabilities by additional teachers um
▶ 4:39 the idea that this I could talk in detail about a lot of elements of this this proposal and issues that I see with them at a higher level though I'd like to get across to you as the board that there's got to be a better proposal that can be made that we can submit to the citizens of Melrose to vote for an override because if we submit this override here it's not competent to solve our problems and be fiscally responsible as we go forward and you know again I went to the listening sessions I listened there wasn't a whole lot of I mean I've been saying things for a lot of years that nobody's cared to listen to right let's go back the modular classrooms were a five million dollar waste it was clear that they were a band-aid to solve a problem for a
▶ 5:40 couple years that they weren't flexible they wouldn't be able to take an increase in capacity as went through the middle school to high school you know the the obvious scenario there would have been to increase the capacity at the secondary campus we could have flowed students up or flowed students back as we need them we don't know that what we have now is a wave that's gonna be a bump through or whether it's gonna sustain longer and longer we don't know but the problem is is that we wasted the five million dollars it got us by a year or two and now we're stuck again and to rely on giving our school committee another four million dollars a year for them to waste as they've wasted things before let me give you another example even if we add the amount of money
▶ 6:28 supposedly to bring our teacher salaries up to some competent level do you understand we're still below we're still well below the state average of teacher salaries it doesn't solve the problem we heard that argument five years ago with the 2013 teachers contract we gave that we threw another extra million dollars at the teachers contract that year we've now spent more than six million dollars with all the additions to that over the last six years but it didn't do anything to make the education better for our students it didn't yes there's some teachers that leave and some teachers but some teachers don't and historically a lot of teachers didn't leave I think there are other issues about working in
▶ 7:14 Melrose besides the amount of money that are important to people and if you don't factor those in, it doesn't make for a good plan. Again, I hope that when you talk about this in depth on Tuesday, it won't just be everybody jumping on the bandwagon. Oh, isn't this so wonderful? We're going to get rid of our political problem where it looks like we pay our teachers too little or we have too few dollars for our students. Well, you know, nobody's making an apples-to-apples comparison about anything in this context and nobody has ever done that we don't have busing in Melrose school buses for students except for the special ed population and you know yes our per pupil expenditure is lower than other towns right but we're not spending three million dollars on
▶ 8:03 school buses that adds up there's other issues about Melrose just because we might have what we might say is an efficient system doesn't mean we're doing harm to the students. Can we do better for our students? Absolutely. Does more money cause that? It can, but the way that this is framed, I don't believe it will. To double down on the quote middle school philosophy, as everybody thinks it's this wonderful thing, because we need to have, you know, 12 teams at the middle school, or I'm sorry, I apologize, nine teams at the middle school. You know, there's nothing wrong with the junior high school model if it's more efficient and students get better learning from it that would be a good thing so again it's a complicated set of data and variables I've done a lot of
▶ 8:57 the analytical work for a long time in this I know what Melrose could use for money and where we could use it and how we could restructure things but to give an extra four point four three million dollars of about their four point you something like that to the school committee a year for them when they haven't shown the capacity to make good solid responsible decisions with money over a long time it's not it's not it's not what you should do there ought to be a better proposal there's certainly plenty of things that they can be that can be done differently and proposed differently that will make a better impact on our students one huge issue that everybody resists is the issue of regionalization right now the schools will claim oh we do things to the same
▶ 9:43 collaborative not we wonderful and we share some professional development things not we wonderful but there are significant regionalization benefits we don't need 400 school districts in Massachusetts duplicating the same work town at the town at the town at the town you don't need that Melrose can join together with other people around us and do far better we waste a million dollars a year just on our central office functions because we refuse we want to be parochial right oh we can do it better than anybody else we don't want to share our greatness with anybody else well you know it's not that way it's a new century we can do things differently we don't have to do it the same this override as it's proposed is doubling down on a century ago model it's not
▶ 10:35 doing what we need for the next century so again you know I don't have any illusions I expect it's got to go on to the citizens and all that but I want to warn you is that if you put it forward as it is now you will end up as you ended up in 2015 possibly because it's not a competent proposal with new and different things that seems plausible that well this might make a difference all we've done here is say oh we're going to spend more money and that doesn't do it and we know year after year after year we've made the school committee has made at some level arbitrary decisions about what extra money will apply to what each year and they've never they've never gone back and done a zero-based budget about what's important here
▶ 11:27 how can we get the important things for students done and how do we start off what's the first dollar we want to spend what's the second dollar we want to spend what's the third dollar we want to spend so you know i know again i said before it's easy to jump on a bandwagon it's hard to look at the nitty-gritty details about what we do and how we do it and to second guess and challenge the premises that we base our our actions on but it's time to do that this is a lot of money and for less money i i argue for less money and a better confident plan we can actually have better outcomes for students and i don't want to leave the city side you know the city needs money to operate as well we all know that and we need a new fire station and police station
▶ 12:17 that all has to come from somewhere and to throw all this money on the schools we're going to every year be struggling to make the next year's budget because of what this override will do thank you thank you sir any other member in the chamber this evening that would like to speak thank you could also just please state your name this fall we listen to Member of the community share their concerns about the cuts to the school budget and the lack of growth and other city departments like many we find it appalling that in the state of Massachusetts we are 12 from the bottom of your per pupil spending we're ashamed that we pay our teachers the second lowest in all in all of eastern Massachusetts our students and teachers
▶ 13:17 deserve better they deserve more we have been talking to people about this issue for the past six months and we believe our community expects more cities and towns around us are passing overrides to combat the restrictions of proposition two and a half and Melrose has not passed one in over 25 years I am grateful that Mayor Inferno and her team along with input from our community have come up with a proposal that they and we think will meet our needs for the years to come I would implore you to please place this override on the ballot so that Melrose residents can determine what kind of city that we want to live in thank you any other member of the public willing to speak my name is Eugenia Walsh I live at 200 West Foster Street and I am a grandmother and I am a
▶ 14:22 resident elderly resident of Melrose I would really hope that you would pass or try to put this initiative on the ballot my granddaughter goes to Lincoln School which is a wonderful school there are 30 kids in her first grade class I am a retired case manager for people with disabilities and I worked with in for the state of Missouri and I worked with a wide range of people from the age of three to like people in nursing homes I attended a lot of IEPs individual education plans I noticed that just from a gut level even though Lincoln and the other schools are wonderful I don't I feel so badly for these teachers because if they have a kid that needs an IEP and they don't have the resources or the or
▶ 15:10 the spending power you know to get what they need so I just thought from an emotional point I really feel because I walked there every day during the week and meet my little granddaughter marker in the school and I and I love the schools and I come from a family of teachers so I'm just wanted to say that to you another thing I wanted to ask for though is if you could consider looking into putting a speed bump on Pleasant Street because those poor parents are rushing to get to their kids to the school and they can't get across the street and a lot of parents go on Pleasant Street side to the you know to the entrance by the playground so that's it thank you thank you any other member of the public this evening that would wish to speak at this time there will be
▶ 16:15 Michael P. Zwirko: another bite at the proverbial Apple at this so this is not your only shot to do so so thanks motion to close public comment mr. president second there has been a motion to close public comment has been made by alderman Mortimer seconded by Alderman Boisselle. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Public comment is now closed. Alderman Moore. We need to read the order. We have two orders before us this evening that were sent down by Mayor Inferna. I would ask now that the clerk please read the orders. Order 2019-25 calling a special election on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019. Mr. President, I make a motion to suspend the rules that we may hear from her honor, Mayor Gail Inferna. The motion to suspend the rules made by Alderman Mortimer
▶ 17:04 Gail Infurna: has been seconded by Alderman Lemmerman to suspend the rules. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. We are now in suspension of the rules. I call on Mayor Inferna who is here to come before us and speak on the orders that are on our agenda. Greetings, Mayor Inferna. Thank you very much. It's always an honor to be here back in the chamber with my brother and sister Alderman. Dear Alderman Member of the Board of Alderman, I am here tonight to ask you to do two things that will allow the people of Melrose to make an important decision. The first is to call a special election for April 2nd, 2019, and the second is to place an override question on that ballot. I am asking for a special election
▶ 17:51 Gail Infurna: because we need to know by the beginning of the spring budget cycle whether or not we will have these additional funds. We will present the voters with summaries of two possible budgets, one with the override and one without. The choice will be very clear. The override question is based on the most pressing needs of the city and the priorities stated by the public in the listening sessions, via the questionnaires, and in emails and letters to my office. We heard loud and clear that the people of Melrose wanted to know exactly how the money would be used they wanted to override they wanted the override to truly solve the problems that have been set forth and they wanted to see that there this is part of a long-term plan we have
▶ 18:38 Gail Infurna: taken their advice to heart when constructing this override this override addresses students staff and space and through the next few months you will hear me call them the three S's as you know our student population is increasing and that means quite simply that we need enough teachers for our growing number of students this override would pay for that as for space we are fortunate to have held on to the BB school and now we want to reclaim it rather than continue to rent it however this means we will no longer receive the rental fee for that building a portion of the override money will go to cover the lost revenue we are working with superintendent a more to plan how to accommodate our growing student body and the BB school will play an important
▶ 19:30 Gail Infurna: part in these plans if the override passes this part of the proposal also addresses the needs for more curriculum materials supplies textbooks and technology for our students as you know for several years we have some supplemented the school budget with an additional appropriation using one-time money to fund the operating budget is not an ideal situation but we have had no choice this override would allow us to do the responsible thing and provide enough money for the schools upfront that would make our budgeting process more accurate and more transparent we could then use those one-time monies for one-time expenses such as repairs and new equipment rather than putting them into the school operating budget and finally the staff
▶ 20:22 Gail Infurna: this override will give us the funds we need to keep our best teachers in the Melrose schools we have many good teachers who leave after a few years because they can earn more in another district this override will allow us to offer our teachers competitive salaries it will also encourage these teachers who have benefited from our training and professional development to stay in the district the total amount of this override is 5.18 million this is the amount we need to fix the problems I have outlined a lower amount would not do this this override is the responsible thing to do we have cut costs look for additional sources of revenue and run on a tight budget for years and we will continue along that path however that is not enough we must increase our property
▶ 21:17 Gail Infurna: tax revenues overrides were designed for communities like Melrose which are mostly residential with little commercial and no industrial property if you approve these two orders you will allow the voters to choose how much they want to invest in themselves every dollar of this override stays in Melrose and it will make our city better this money is designated for the schools the Commonwealth of Massachusetts establishes a set amount we must budget the schools and we barely meet that minimum each year because of this we have given the majority of new revenue to the schools for years at the expense of other departments a successful override would take the pressure off departments that have been underfunded for years and allow us to make
▶ 22:06 Gail Infurna: needed improvements i am not here today to ask you to endorse this proposal i am simply asking you to vote to put the override on the ballot this will affect every member of our community so i want all the voices to be heard if we do not offer our residents this opportunity we will have to make drastic cuts to the budget without their input therefore i am asking you to call the special election for april and place the override question on the ballot so we can allow the voters to choose for themselves i am asking you to trust the residents of melrose to make the best choice for our city and our future thank you for your consideration this evening thank you mayor inferna order 2019-25 calling a special election on tuesday april 2nd of 2019 will be sent to the
▶ 22:59 Michael P. Zwirko: committee on appropriations madam clerk the next order order 2019-26 order to place general override question on the April 2nd 2019 special election ballot that order will also be sent to the committee on appropriations before we adjourn tonight I just wanted to state that the election commissioner Linda Lee Angelo Lillo will be leaving the city of Melrose in her position she's going to start a new role in the city of Everett just wanted to state that we appreciate her service to the city the years that she's dedicated in her that capacity and we wish her well well in her new role. Alderman Lemmerman. Thank you, President Search. If I may ask for a moment of personal privilege. You may. Thank you. In accordance with the rules, I would like to state
▶ 23:45 Michael P. Zwirko: publicly that I intend to seek the position of President of the Board for 2019. Thank you, Alderman Lemmerman. Thank you. Motion to adjourn, Mr. President. Second. There has been a made a motion to adjourn by Alderman Mortimer. It has been seconded by Alderman Boisselle. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? This meeting is adjourned. Good evening.