Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2019-05-16
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
- Public Comment
- Motions
- Departmental Schedule
- Orders
- ORDER-2019-85 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2020 in the amount of $86,662,987.61. (Eighty-Six Million, Six Hundred Sixty-Two Thousand, Nine Hundred Eighty-Seven Dollars and Sixty-One Cents).
- ORDER-2019-87 : Reauthorization of City of Melrose Revolving Funds table as adopted by City Ordinance June 18, 2018 and further authorized by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, §53E ½.
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 16, 2019 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 Kate Lipper-Garabedian Chair Present Robert A. Boisselle Vice Chair Present Peter D. Mortimer Voting Absent John N. Tramontozzi Voting Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Voting Absent Monica C. Medeiros Voting Present Scott M. Forbes Voting Present Michael P. Zwirko Voting Present Manisha Bewtra Voting Present Shawn M. MacMaster Voting Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman President/Ex Officio Member Present
ORDER-2019-85 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2020 in the amount of $86,662,987.61. (Eighty-Six Million, Six Hundred Sixty-Two Thousand, Nine Hundred Eighty-Seven Dollars and Sixty-One Cents). Recommitted
ORDER-2019-87 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of City of Melrose Revolving Funds table as adopted by City Ordinance June 18, 2018 and further authorized by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, §53E ½. Recommitted City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 5/20/2019 10:59 AM
Transcript
▶ 10:10 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: medeiros alderman forbes alderman's worko alderman Bewtra alderman mcmaster and president Lemmerman alderman warner regrets not being able to attend but um he is on he is ill um this meeting is being recorded in accordance with the open meeting law it can be viewed on mmtv as well as the city of melrose website is there a motion to open the floor for public comment so moved motion to open the second comment made by alderman forbes and seconded by alderman Search all in favor this is the portion of the meeting where any member of the public can come forward to make a comment on any of the agenda items that we have before us tonight. Seeing nobody willing to come forward, motion to close. Second. We have a
▶ 10:56 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: motion to close. Public comment made by Alderman Forbes and seconded by Vice Chair Boisselle. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay we have closed our public comment and tonight we will get returned to our review of the fiscal 20 budget proposal so the first order on agenda is order number two zero one nine dash eight five city of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2020 in the amount of eighty six million six hundred and sixty two thousand nine hundred eighty seven dollars and sixty one cents and we see on our agenda we have a list of several departments to go through tonight and I see members of those departments in the audience motion to suspend the rules second we have a motion to spin the
▶ 11:41 Jaclyn L. Bird: rules made by aldermen's work go seconded by alderman Forbes all in favor by any opposed so it looks like first on our agenda is the mayor's office and also community events good evening thanks so much for being here I don't know if you'd like to just share a little bit of an overview and then we can do two questions sure so for those who don't know me I'm Jackie Lavender bird I'm representing the mayor's office this evening this is the mayor's office budget budget one two one that will do first which is mostly level funded with a slight reduction of 1% in the in one line item here so I'm fine with just opening it up to questions if that's okay with the committee absolutely Alderman's work oh thank you madam chair good evening good evening so welcome
▶ 12:35 Jaclyn L. Bird: thank you so I guess I'll move right to the line so you started in July for your role is that correct yes that's correct seems like four years ago that you've been working there given the amount of activity that your office has had so could you could you kind of talk about your experience and you know in your role you know relative new hire sure absolutely so I the pleasure of coming on board to work in Marin furnace administration July 30th I believe of last year it's an interesting year certainly to come on board in the mayor's office with you know as all of you know quite well some of the challenges that we were facing going into FY 20 and so on top of the normal day-to-day operations of the mayor's office we were also having a new or sort
▶ 13:30 Jaclyn L. Bird: of increased dialogue with the community leading that process on our financial reality as a city and some of the choices that we had to make as a community so part of that process was the community questionnaire that went out the listening sessions lots of newspaper articles and blogs on the reality that we were facing and some Q&A sessions but also meeting often with different members of different departments to talk about what their two different budgets were going to look like in preparation for here so but we've also then tried to maintain the same level of service as a central point of contact for city operations every day and so we're happy to now be in fy20 with an answer one way or the other that's great thank you and I know that
▶ 14:24 Michael P. Zwirko: the quality of the communications certainly around the override were much improved and the information that was flowing out of City Hall while rap you know difficult to keep up with the rapid incoming inquiries was greatly appreciated in the output that was there so I know that that was a large effort on your part so thank you I think it really benefited the whole discussion really and I've seen kind of the the tenor of the community reflect that as well so thank you for that I remember as sad it was to see Mike Lindstrom grows happy for me to see you come on because I remember speaking with you in 2015 when you decided to leave the Board of Aldermen and you said the thing that you were gonna miss the most was working with the department heads and then you
▶ 15:07 Jaclyn L. Bird: come back to this role and that's exactly what you're doing so it's kind of a nice re-approach to the role it's good to be back and I have to give a special shout out so my official title is somewhat long it's director of community services and city operations community services are the departments including the Melrose Public Library Council on Aging Memorial Hall Veterans Services and Recreation and so when I was first hired and knew that was part of it I have to admit I said those were my favorite you know some of my favorite municipal departments and but they have been such pros this year especially with managing all that they do and you heard from many of them last week and you'll hear for more tonight with the added pressure of trying to figure out what
▶ 15:57 Michael P. Zwirko: their departments were going to look like in two different scenarios we asked an awful lot of them and I just want to thank them publicly for their professionalism and cooperation throughout this whole process and that's appreciated too because it was it was difficult to see those scenarios I'm glad we don't have to see those scenarios right so thank you for all of your work I think it's a great hire you do a great role and it's been pleasure working with you those are all the questions I had at this time thank you thank you thanks for being here I just wanted to get a sense of kind of what what goes beyond the what we see on the page with the operating budget and the narrative particularly volunteers that work in the office and to what extent
▶ 16:41 Jaclyn L. Bird: you or the others in the office oversee them as well as any are there any grants that you oversee as well sure thank you so first part your question the volunteers so we have we have only eight hours of receptionist coverage in the office two mornings a week that's been long-standing that's in the professional services line item and that hasn't changed for many many years so we supplement that with the senior tax work off volunteers who are the volunteers that are primarily in our office and we rely on them heavily and then we also have some interns from Melrose High School right now and they'll be finishing up their internship soon I don't know what the summer internship program looks like Bridget Alverson handles that so if people have questions
▶ 17:36 Jaclyn L. Bird: on that they should definitely give her a call we don't currently have any grants that we're managing through our three-person office thank you and actually I'm glad you mentioned Bridget as well I think in addition to all of the many many hours that I know you put in over the last year I've always found that the mayor's blog is an amazing resource for a community so I want to thank her for that good work as well absolutely I pass that on to her I know she'll be happy to hear it thank you Alderman Medeiros thank you thank you I just wanted if you could talk a little bit about what's included in the community outreach line item sure so you'll see in this budget community outreach and then we'll talk separately and a separate budget about an item
▶ 18:25 Jaclyn L. Bird: called community events so community outreach from our office includes a support for a variety events that take place over the course of the year this past year they included the international spring fling event at Memorial Hall the Four Corners music festival the kindergarten kickoff night in August an ice cream social at the Milano Center and then the ongoing series for the Melrose kids club which started several years ago with support from this board that's a program that happens at Memorial Hall once a month except for in the summertime and is for parents and caregivers for children under the age of five to sort of reduce isolation and get people together get them into Memorial Hall maybe sometimes for the first time and connect them so
▶ 19:17 Jaclyn L. Bird: it's for the cost of the entertainment for that that happens once a month and the final event is healthy Melrose which was this past Saturday which many of you were there and saw that you know we were we lucked out with the weather had several thousand people coming through and it was a great event so this budget covers all of those and supports all of those events which are only exists because of so many volunteers that make up those different committees too as I recall I think kids club was kind of your baby it was it was and that's when I had babies now they're much older than that so off to high school and off middle school so yeah but it's great to see that it's still going strong and we
▶ 20:00 Monica C. Medeiros: still have a lot of participants coming down and the nice thing about the kids club for those who haven't checked it out yet and it'll be back in September is that it's a great way to connect with neighbors and friends but it's also a good way to get connected with other city resources so programming through the library or the family network things like that so thank you and I know we're still sort of even though we're still we're still struggling with finances to some degree and hoping as the state works out its budget that we see something better but I know it's a challenge all around so the only line item that's really changed here is is salaries and wages and that includes the mayor's position and your position and the secretary administrative assistant
▶ 20:52 Jaclyn L. Bird: those are both full-time yes yeah in addition to the mayor to full-time positions and the salary line item you'll see is actually just decreased from representing someone who had more years of you know seniority naturally to someone who was newer coming on and but that's the extent is the three full-time employees are any of these positions Union pages no no and and I do see and I know sometimes in the past the administrative position assistant position had worked in other departments I do see that that's positions it's not a tremendous amount of money but that it's increased by five percent was there any kind of like longevity or anything in the I don't have that in here I'm sure I'm directed I'm gonna guess it's a Cola I don't see the 5% increase here
▶ 21:53 Jaclyn L. Bird: I'm seeing just this year's unit cost I just see the total salary and wages my guess is that it's a cost of living increase for the admin position but I can certainly we can find that out for you okay thank you very much appreciate that and I'm sure we'll hear from you in a minute on community events sounds good stay tuned motion to recommend the bottom line second you have a motion to recommend the bottom line for department number 121 the mayor's office made by aldermen's worker and seconded by vice chair boys out all in favor aye any opposed will be recommended to the full board and thank you for also sticking around so this is budget 692 community events this is actually very straightforward this is a hundred percent focused on the Memorial Day
▶ 22:50 Jaclyn L. Bird: parade so this has its own category this funds transportation that day for the veterans for the parade route music costs associated with the music and sound system and uh i know we'll probably do a plug for this later in the evening as well but the the parade this year will be uh sunday may 26th and it'll begin at one uh 1 30. sorry motion to recommend the bottom line second the motion to recommend the bottom line by vice chair Boisselle and seconded by alderman forbes i just was looking back in my notes from last year and it looked like maybe this um 692 my note said something like it covered that 70 of the eight thousand dollars was for the Memorial Day Parade perhaps the rest of it was for accompanying supports for the parade or were there other things that were funded
▶ 23:42 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: last year through this budget my understanding is it's a hundred percent focus on Memorial Day Parade any other of the outreach events come from the mayor's community I'll reach budget okay that's helpful well thank you very much for being here it's been a pleasure working with you over the last year thank you thank you thanks so much okay so we have a motion to recommend all in favor I post recommended full board thank you thank you the next department on our agenda is 540 the BB estate one here for the media state back to that we also have 544 the Commission on Human Rights good evening thank you so much for being here if you want to have any prepared statement or comments you're welcome to share them or we can go into questions good evening
▶ 24:45 evening Adam LaFrance with the Melrose Human Rights Commission Thank You madam chair and members of the board this commission was created in 1992 upon recognizing a clear and demonstrable need for over 25 years we've worked to foster mutual respect and understanding and our ever more diverse community the Melrose Human Rights Commission is one of the oldest community HRC's in the Commonwealth and one of only about 39 some more or less active in some regard we're considered an example and we do our best to work with our fellow HRC's to to support and work with each other what we do is vital and we are stronger and more effective through our association this is a testament to the vision and investment of our community founders and the leaders who sustain
▶ 25:33 this organization over 25 years essentially our twofold mission combines the mutually complementary and reinforcing goals of first working to safeguard and advocate for legal and social rights and second helping our community to progress and transform individually and in our collective relations our work includes investigating claims of unlawful discrimination or harassment and either mediating where appropriate or referring claims to appropriate enforcement authorities building and sustaining community relationships and partnerships and working to promote goodwill understanding of diverse cultures and awareness of human rights issues as some of our examples of examples of our work in the last year respecting claims we
▶ 26:18 continue to operate our hotline 24 7 we've received five reports or complaints concerning unlawful discrimination or harassment in the past year which is considerably fewer than the 12th the per year these reports fell largely into two categories namely graffiti in public buildings and a complaint of discrimination in housing there was also a complaint about drive-by harassment harassing language as always where appropriate we remained in communication with the Melrose Police Department and addressed complaints as necessary and appropriate with respect to promoting understanding of many diverse cultures building on the interest in and support for the community iftar we held two new social and educational events Diwali a Hindu celebration of lights and pride a
▶ 27:03 celebration of our LGBTQ plus community and for those who are around and able to join us our second annual pride event is coming June 19th all are welcome in developing community relationships we implemented an initiative to create a liaison role between individual commissioners in each of our parent teacher organizations our members have actively reached out to cultural centers increased participation in local events and organizations, and expanded partnerships with our fellow HRCs in abutting communities. And we co-sponsored and co-organized, in collaboration with Senator Lewis and Representative Broder and area HRC partners, a statewide conference on HRCs and related nonprofits at the Massachusetts
▶ 27:45 State House, aiming to strengthen our network and our relationships, to raise awareness and to help centralize resources for HRCs and similar entities. As to education and awareness, in one example we endorsed a community program in partnership with the First United Methodist Church, hosting speakers from the Attorney General's Community Outreach Office and the ACLU, joined by Melrose Police Chief Lyle and Middlesex D.A. Marion Ryan, addressing the timely topic of the intersection of law enforcement and immigration. Finally, in modeling effective human rights-based approaches to municipal operations, the Commission adopted a ranked choice voting mechanism for candidate selection when confronted
▶ 28:27 with four open seats and 15 excellent candidates resulting in representation of a wider variety of experiences and backgrounds more reflective arc of our community than ever our work is made possible through the dedication of our 11 volunteer public servants and our many volunteers and partners in the community there is still more to be done among other things looking ahead the Commission will be reviewing its mission and identifying strategic structural adjustments to better execute its charge seeking to expand upon cultural events it presently facilitates developing our advisory function as a resource to the city and community organizing a regular speaker series on topics at the intersection of human rights and issues common to us all and increasing support
▶ 29:10 for initiatives we co-sponsor including the English conversation group and the gem program at Melrose High School in my nearly six years serving on the Commission we've been level funded with a $3,000 annual appropriation in the city budget in that time we've worked creatively and in partnership with others to expand our programming and our reach within that budget at times it meant we were limited in the types and scale of projects and programs we could offer or invite to the community and the kinds of partnerships we could enter into there is more that can be done interest in demand from the community and what this Commission can and should be doing is increasing our expanded programming has in part been in response to that demand consequently our
▶ 29:53 expenditures have increased exceeding our $3,000 appropriation those expenses were covered by in-kind and small dollar donations overall usually amounting to at least half again as much as our allocated budget we anticipate that trend continuing further responding to that demand as noted in our past department questionnaires the Commission has organized a committee to explore fundraising opportunities and build up our development capabilities in the past year we've added commissioners with relevant expertise we've started the process of self-evaluation identifying potential resources and just this past winter we received our first grant in support of our cultural programming in the amount of $500 we will continue to seek additional sources of funding to
▶ 30:37 help support our work and we look forward to being able to ensure consistent and increased programming with public and private funding and partnerships that said we're not requesting an increase in our appropriation at this time rather my remarks are meant to highlight the work and value our Commission has brought and will aim to continue bringing to the community in the future thank you for your continued support and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you motion to recommend the bottom line of account 544 human rights second I have a motion to recommend the bottom line made by Vice Chair Boisselle and seconded by Alderman Forbes did you have some question did you have anything nothing I just want to just make a statement I'm
▶ 31:20 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: always I'm always impressed when you come in and speak of the accomplishments here you're always well prepared it was such a small budget item you're able to accomplish so much in the community and I think we're all very grateful for the work you do and I just wanted to let you know that so I think we all appreciate everything you do for the community so thank you president Lemmerman thank you madam chair thank you very much for that information I just really wanted to take a second and highlight something that you just said in your comments that struck me which is the decrease in the number of reported cases which is contrary to what we're seeing in statistics across the country that is correct which I think really speaks not only the Melrose but it speaks to the
▶ 31:59 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: work that your commission is doing and the the proactive work to foster sort of the community that you have and so just want to really thank you for that and point that out thank you thank you go ahead I was gonna say we are mindful that it could be a number of different factors at play and you know it is somewhat different from other statistics statewide which is a matter maybe of reporting these are not lost on us and we have been exploring those and we'll continue to explore those and ways in which we can maybe further reach out and invite folks to report if that's a concern do you want to take a moment while you have the air and anybody watching to give the hotline number in case people unfortunately I don't have it on me it is at our website at the at
▶ 32:45 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: the city of Melrose org the phone number that's listed is our hotline number and it is monitored 24 7 great thank you thank you thank you I wanted to also just thank you for being here and I was really impressed by the idea of reaching out and creating liaisons each school committee so there's a the governor has a task force on hate crimes it's working on some recommendations including with respect to education and really focusing on our youth and ensuring that their school cultures and climates are really positive and supportive so I think it's really wonderful that your organization has identified the schools as an important partner and a way to collaborate and support their mission and efforts and probably reinforce your own so kudos for that
▶ 33:29 Michael P. Zwirko: waterman's work oh thank you I'll be brief um I believe this is your last year on the Commission is that correct that is correct so I wanted to thank you for your six years or what will be six years of service to the Commission always seen you around town and I know you take this role very seriously and I think you've been a great chair and your secretary right now isn't that you step back from chair that is correct clerk well thank you so much and it means a lot and I think you've really done a great job when you were chair and appreciate the six years of service it's quite a testament to your dedication to this community and anytime a commission has a waiting list for folks you know that it's a well appreciated and has it serves a vital role so it's it's a great
▶ 34:07 committee you do great work as Alderman Lemmerman noted the proactive work that that goes out so thank you so much thank you sir all right we have a motion that's been duly seconded all in favor any opposed okay we'll make that recommendation to the full board thank you for being here tonight thank you very much thank you our next department is department number 542 the Commission on women good evening good evening thank you for being here thank you should i begin absolutely great christina pachulis and the commission on women hello um we are still in infancy so i do not have those prepared words that adam just so nicely did but thank you chair for madam chair for having us um the commission on women we uh we work to understand promote um constructive
▶ 35:00 criticism or constructive conversation and action regarding people who identify as women in our community throughout this past year we have put on two networking events when was last night that was quite successful at these networking events women gather to meet each other to talk about work to talk about lives to just get out of and meet other people in the community we have done an elder law panel where we work to help caregivers and family members see signs of see signs of something prior to crises for elders and on June 1st we are doing a financial planning panel at the Learning Commons which I hope that you will invite your constituents to and that is in that's with the state Commission on the upper-middle sex Women's Commission in the future we hope
▶ 36:01 Manisha Bewtra: to do look at again at daycare availability access to feminine hygiene products and as well as stem programming for elementary aged girls so and hopefully like look at strategic planning a little bit more than we have in the past so that is on our current agenda and we are looking for a level funding thank you alderman Bewtra thank you thanks for being here tonight I just wanted to note that although the Commission on women is in its infancy it feels very already embedded in the community I appreciate I and I attended the networking event last night it was cool to see that not only did it attract folks from within Melrose but also from surrounding communities so that's pretty well that's great thank you um but again it just it feels like you've been around for longer than
▶ 36:55 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: that and i also wanted to um just appreciate the work that you've done in collaboration with the human rights commission i think the partnership has been nice to see yeah thank you very much i appreciate that uh president Lemmerman thank you very much thank you for being here and for giving us a rundown of some of the work you've been doing and the work you've been planning um i want to first of all acknowledge um you know you're new to this chair role so thank you for doing that and i know when the women's commission the really the idea for it before it was in existence when it was being seated you are one of the people that you were actually a human rights commissioner at the time so you've had many years of service to the community that you bring to this role as chair
▶ 37:37 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: and we did meet to talk about and i think actually alderman mcmaster was part of that meeting as a human rights commissioner as well so um so thank you for your continued support of this as you mentioned it's in its infancy but you've really been involved since the beginning and I just you know anecdotally will say seeing the growth of each of the different programs over time you know that meeting last night was seeing the room as full as it was of various faces that I hadn't even seen before was was very encouraging and made me feel very proud of the the work of the Commission and also just wanted to highlight the diversity of the programming from networking to professional development to to financial
▶ 38:21 Monica C. Medeiros: literacy and other fairly heavy topics for people which are important for people to have so thank you for bringing that to the community thank you autumn Amadeus thank you I just wanted to thank you too I did also get a chance to attend last night's event and I thought it was very it was it was great and it was nice to meet with some people have been in Melrose for a long time as well as some people who are just really brand new and have a chance to intersect together and with people that we might not otherwise cross paths with so it was terrific and I just also I know you're new in this role but I just appreciate the idea of the strategic plan and I think some very well-written comments here so I can and thank you very much what does the committee motion to
▶ 39:07 recommend the line of account number 542 Women's Commission second we have a motion to move the bottom line for the Women's Commission made by Vice Chair Boisselle seconded by Alderman Zwirko all in favor aye aye okay that will be recommended full board thank you for being here tonight our next department is department number 291 emergency management thank you for good evening go straight to questions or if you have some remarks I just have a little bit of an opening remark and great me even answer some questions madam chairman and honorable board thank you very much good evening this being my first budget presentation in Melrose I'm not fully familiar with the protocol but I will certainly give it my best having had a few weeks to review the prepared
▶ 40:10 FY 20 budget that I received upon hire I'm certainly okay with the funding for the fiscal year when I received the questionnaire I was not exactly sure of the format that you wanted followed in answering the questions I gave it my best and what you received is the product of three reports in one that best defines the department unfortunately I forgot to attach the memorandum which I passed out this evening the three sections of the report is the department at a glance which is also on our web page a mission statement and the goals and objectives the department at a glance very few people even many in public safety municipal government of general public have a knowledge or understanding of what federal state and local emergency
▶ 41:05 management is and does this gives a broad overview the mission statement well the department at a glance does give the overview of what we do the mission statement explains what tools we use such as people agencies means of accomplishments etc to achieve our goals and objectives and finally the actual goals and objectives her honor the mayor was very specific in the job posting with the essential job functions for emergency management I explained to the mayor that I would review emergency management in Melrose and based on my findings in my 34 years experience as the director in Chelsea I would recommend what should be addressed I did that at a meeting with the mayor and formalize them in the budget report next year for FY 21 I will list as
▶ 42:03 Shawn M. MacMaster: accomplished any goals or items that have been completed and removed them from the list new goals and objectives will be added to the FY 21 budget thank you thank you we wouldn't know this was your first time for sending us that was just fine thank you thank you madam chair thank you director Albert for being here wasn't too long ago that you were before the protection and license committee so it's nice to see you back thank you um I did have a question you indicated that the funding is adequate I noticed the training line item looks like a cut of almost 67% which was somewhat concerning to me just considering the era that we live in so I'm wondering if $500 is is adequate for you know advanced training that you may may want in your new role and then
▶ 43:06 Shawn M. MacMaster: perhaps for mr. de la Rousseau if there if there are other top opportunities should director Albert want to engage in any specialized training ICS training to for him to come before us I guess I just been concerned about the impression of $500 being adequate for training and don't want to send the message that might dissuade him from appearing before us should he come across a training opportunity or has an interest in advanced trust yes training well I made that decision based on the fact the late director Ed Kelly had that money in the budget for training and after he retired and unfortunately subsequently passed away when the position went to the fire department the entire budget stayed the
▶ 43:54 Shawn M. MacMaster: way director Kelly had it and he did a lot of training ran a lot of training classes that really I don't think we're going to need this year and as I said the money was only moved around in the budget nothing was eliminated so if we do need some other money I would be more than willing to come back before the board and request money be transferred from one line item to the other and I'm glad to hear that I hope you wouldn't be shy about doing that and communicating that to mr. absolutely not I think on behalf of everyone on the board we would obviously want to afford as many training opportunities to ensure that we are well prepared for any type of emergency that we could confront in this day absolutely thank you sir thank you alderman Medeiros thank you thank you so
▶ 44:45 Monica C. Medeiros: much and I think this question actually may be more for mr. de la Rousseau if if possible so this I'm glad to see that this is up and running as its own department again and that you're here when I think the last time that the salary line itself had been in this budget it was only twelve thousand five hundred dollars and so now the salary is up to twenty eight thousand so my understanding along the way is that although this had gone to other individuals for stipends it had stayed closer to the twelve thousand dollars so I I had expected that that you know that seemed low obviously but at the same time that this is you know more than double so I'm just wondering if this money came from another budget line item or we you know where we found the money
▶ 45:39 freed up for yeah good evening thank you great question and you're correct and it's an order before the board through the chair order number two or one nine dash 105 and in that order you will see that there's a transfer from health salary and wages from the budget of a health department and again I'll use a number of 12,000 12,500 at this point so yeah we are transferring the money that was resident in another department budget and on top of that obviously we are transferring other funds to address the salary issue for the remainder of fiscal year but you are correct and this will you will now see this as we go forward all resident within this one budget period and just to get back through the chair to miss Alderman McMaster in the event any additional
▶ 46:51 training obviously is requested we would absolutely embrace that and come before this board what to address that without hesitation do you guess to mr. Alpert do do you have a specific training any kind of continuing ed that you have to do on a regular basis to maintain any certifications and are they included in most most of the I would say 99% of the training that I do is done on on city time and their courses that are either offered by Mass Emergency Management Agency or FEMA or any of the other organizations that I belong to mystic region regional emergency planning committee which were actually planning a training exercise next year and it's all funded through the mystic region so there's no direct cost for the training although each one of the 14
▶ 47:50 communities that belong to it pay a stipend into it so that we can operate this organization are those stipends included in dues and membership or are they more maybe maybe we saw those in the mayor's budget under dues uh it would it's not included in the dues and membership it would just be another expense out of one of the other expense lines and one other thing that uh that i may be requesting is to broaden the line items a little bit not add any money but broaden the line items so that they're more representative of actually where the money is being spent that's good and can you talk I mean you haven't been here all that long but just sort of your day-to-day work and what's sure well since unfortunately there was no continuity once director Kelly left
▶ 48:47 as a matter of fact there wasn't even one digital record a file of anything that was accomplished in emergency management over the years but I did find about nine cardboard boxes full of papers that I have been going through and along with an intern the mayor's office was very gracious and gave me the support of an intern to go through all of this and also I've had a series of meetings my first two weeks here I had already met with the fire chief police chief and public works director and doing some of the community outreach I I have already met with the housing authority, and we are planning a tabletop exercise. The dates will be coming in a couple of weeks. One of the things that I work very heavily with is working with places that are called special locations.
▶ 49:35 Nursing homes, hospitals, day cares, and by law, both through OSHA, through the Department of Public Health, and through FEMA, through the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act, require facilities to have a plan in effect for the safe evacuation and relocation of their population. And what I do is I call upon these facilities and I go in, I review their plans with them, and I request to do a tabletop exercise, which is about the only way that you can see if the plans actually work. So I'm in the process of doing that. everybody has been extremely cooperative and it makes for a much smoother transition great and glad again to see you here I think it's so important in this day and age is I think Alderman McMaster mentioned that you know we just
▶ 50:28 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: be ready because we don't know what's gonna come and that means not just us but at the community so glad that we're able to partner and work with them thank you thank you for the first time just a motion to attach the memo from director Alpert dated May 15th to the order. Second. We have a motion to attach the order from Director Alpert dated May 15th to the order seconded by Alderman McMaster. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Any other questions? Alderman McMaster? I was actually going to make the same motion, Madam Chair, so thank you. Great minds think alike. Director Alpert, thank you so much for being here. I thought that this was a really helpful overview of sort of the primary ways in which you
▶ 51:14 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: manage and prepare for an emergency and then also your goals for the coming fiscal year I noted that one of the the activities that you currently engage in is to work collaboratively with city departments which you've discussed already in our regional government partners as well as the private sector to ensure effective communications at the time of an emergency and I'm wondering if you could speak to the private sector part who would be the natural partners there well it was as I said special locations nursing homes hospitals daycares places I toured with the fire chief he was very nice and has been giving me some time and taking me on a tour of the of the city to visit mostly the high-rise apartment buildings as we saw in just a couple of weeks ago
▶ 52:05 that they had a massive water break in a facility and they had to evacuate the the entire population most people think of having to plan for an evacuation in a relocation is that it's it's a basic emergency and everybody has to get out of the building but as I say to the facilities when I visit them picture a cold December or January Friday night at 11 o'clock and you lose your heat it's not an emergency people aren't in peril of losing their life in the next hour but within a relatively short time you have to relocate them and that's not the time to think gee where are these people going so these these are the different areas of evacuation and relocation I look at and I ask them to put an emphasis on in any of their plans where are the people going how are they
▶ 52:59 getting there and what's the means of accountability and as far as where are they going and how are they getting there to have a memorandum of agreement with both a transportation provider and also whatever the host facilities are keeping in mind that if this happens at 11 o'clock at night and one of the nursing homes in Melrose has to do an evacuation or relocation they may call up another facility and the person says well we don't have the authorization to do it or by having a written memorandum of agreement they can just present that to the host facility so when I say work with the private sector that's what I deal with eventually I've already been at a couple of rotary meetings so I have a chance to meet some of the private sector that way and
▶ 53:55 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: eventually I will get over to the Chamber of Commerce and it will give me a chance to find out not that we have a lot of industry but but we do have businesses in the city it's great that's really helpful informative and you mentioned that and you would maybe take a look at how we define some of these lines to make them more representative of the kinds of activities or services that might be covered and maybe this is an example of that but I noticed there's a line for radio that's been doubled so what is the what does the radio it was doubled line I'm sorry so it wouldn't we be budgeted I think a thousand dollars we appropriated a thousand dollars for fiscal 19 but the requests for this year
▶ 54:37 is two thousand dollars do you know what the radio line it covers yes the radio lines is all of the two-way radio equipment that we have which director Kelly purchased over the years and with the assistance of the fire department one of their members is very radio knowledgeable we're going through them to ascertain which ones are still feasible for use since many of them are portable radios batteries have to be replaced and plus we want to upgrade the radios so we have more of a commonality in the ability to speak with different departments on single radio systems and are those stored and how maintained simply in the event of an emergency or in what a single location that then would be distributed or are they sort of placed around the city well
▶ 55:28 well right right now the radios are upstairs in the office that I share with the IT department and looking for a way to better store them so that we do have the proper charges for them and you can't take a portable radio and just leave it in a rate and a charger all the time because you burn it out so what you have to do is you have to buy basically light timers and it comes on so many hours a day and then it goes back off again so that's the equipment that we're going to ramp up a little bit okay thank you very much for being here I do I also noticed recently that Massachusetts was ranked first in the nation for emergency preparedness me Massachusetts was recently ranked first in the nation
▶ 56:11 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: among states for emergency preparedness by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation they just put out a study so I'm glad to know that we're in a state that is well resourced for this it is and we have a very active state emergency management department that I'm I work very closely with and I have for the past 34 years so we get a lot of resources at a time of an emergency through Mima to recommend the bottom line of account number 291 emergency management second you have a motion to move the bottom line of department number 291 made by Vice Chair Boisselle and seconded by Alderman Forbes all in favor aye any opposed do that and make that recommendation to the full board thank you for being with us
▶ 56:57 tonight thank you thank you thank you I believe the last department on our agenda tonight is department number 543 our veterans department good evening hi good evening just thought I'd do a quick overview we also are asking for a level funding for our budget this year so I just thought I'd do a quick overview of the services the office provides and share that once again I've been here for a year now seeing the support within the community of Melrose for the veteran community is amazing I am always I'm always floored and it warms my heart to see the support that my office gets as well as veterans within this community we are part of a district with Wakefield and Saugus and we're the hub of the district so the only full-time person working in the
▶ 57:47 district on veteran services as is myself as the VSO and the district director so we share services throughout the community or the communities I'm sorry and our office provides executes the program called chapter 115 which is master under law chapter 115 which is a financial assistance program for veterans who are primarily veterans living on a fixed income or veterans who are having hard times and need some extra support in order to get by and make it so the program for the older veterans it's more of a fixed thing for our younger veterans it's a program that we help partner with different agencies throughout the communities to help them find suitable employment and get back on their feet so they can support their families and function another large part
▶ 58:33 of the job is to help veterans and I'm sorry chapter 115 it's not only for veterans but surviving spouses we also help veterans access the VA so that would be through disability claims pensions health care access education funds home loans certificate of eligibility many different things we feel a lot of questions just general questions about the VA many people think we are the VA so we have a lot of business with that and the other part of our job is to honor and support the veterans in the community through other ways such as our Memorial Day events Veterans Day events most recently our operation trip which is a partnering with the eighth grade students at the middle school to take veterans to Washington DC to take them to their
▶ 59:17 memorials and honor them part of that is multiple fundraising events so that there's no cost to the veterans and that gives us some great community events throughout the year the two biggest being our chili chowder challenge which is in March and our golf tournament which is in the fall so I thought at point i would open it up to questions thank you alderman forbes thank you um the salaries line that you have is the is the part-time positions in wakefield and saugus included in your salary line item for your budget they are all of the part-time for the part-time vso's are paid from melrose so saugus and wakefield both contribute to that line and they contribute to my salary as well okay and i know you've also had a recent hire in your office i have i recently hired sue caffey
▶ 1:00:03 Scott M. Forbes: who is my new assistant and she is wonderful stop by the office if you don't know her and meet her she's amazing and has been a wonderful addition to the team we are in the process of hiring a vso for wakefield at this time our vso hector arena was offered a promotion at the bedford va so he's now doing community outreach for them so we i'm covering both communities right now as we go through the hiring process and then I know the the line item that we always talk about is the is the benefits line and I know that's really a moving target depending upon how many veterans you service during the course of the year and veterans may drop off the rolls if you take new ones so as far as the reimbursement part could just kind of give us an elementary
▶ 1:00:44 Scott M. Forbes: explanation of one on how that works absolutely so we partner with DBS and in in Boston and they reimburse us at 75% for what we pay out as the community to the veterans and that is it's just a constant working to make sure we're meeting in the measure of the law and submitting everything in a timely manner so that the state gets that and they can reimburse this an interim reimburse the city they reimburse us a year in arrears so next year we'll be getting paid for what was paid out this year great I know as my job in veteran services continues expand I know you've been a relied upon resource for me so I just want to say thank you for that and as you know you outreach it's never the first event where
▶ 1:01:28 Scott M. Forbes: you actually achieve that connection where the local area veteran it's usually the fourth fifth and sixth time when they see that you're available and you're accessible that they'll continue to make that decision where they'll come out and they'll actually reach out for assistance and support so it's important to be engaged and accessible to the public and we all know that your door is always open and I know as part of being a member of that local veteran community I know we're all grateful that you've been able to continue the hard work that we've come to expect from that office so I do thank you for your service and I thank you so much for unconditionally supporting our local area veterans so I
▶ 1:02:04 appreciate it thank you thank you thank you madam chair I'm just gonna throw a quick softball here so we got Memorial Day coming up more Memorial Day weekend could you talk about some of the events that are planned for that weekend I can And so while starting the weekend, well, on Friday, there's an event over at the middle school that veterans were invited to attend. It's a breakfast hosted by the students, and then there's an assembly that they have afterwards, which is wonderful. On Saturday, we have our decoration of the graves at Wyoming Cemetery, which is at 10 a.m. at Wyoming. Everybody is welcome to come and join us, and we conclude that ceremony with the flag retirement ceremony. The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts are a big part of that ceremony.
▶ 1:02:45 on sunday is our big all-day event we start at 10 a.m at memorial hall with a breakfast which is being catered by miller station for us this year and ought to honor our veterans so we welcome all of our veterans families community members to come and join us at 10 at memorial hall at 11 we will have a small speaking presentation at memorial hall and start on a walking tour of our memorials we will go over to the honor roll proceed down to the the Vietnam Memorial and then make our way to the Noel where we'll visit the World War one Korean and World War two memorials following that is the parade which steps off at 1 30 and if anybody still wants to know come in March that's watching out there please let us know and we will conclude the parade will
▶ 1:03:30 Monica C. Medeiros: make its way down Main Street and we will conclude at Wyoming Cemetery we will also have a another ceremony at the cemetery thank you thank you thank you very much I just wanted to quickly because since we've gone through it on the other line items on the salary small increase here overall 1.9% and that's primarily some small increases about two and a half percent for a little bit less for some of the existing so I don't think the part-time salary actually decreased since there was a change yes we had a change with them yes hiring and new people across the board actually we've had gone through some changes in the past year with her with our part-time staff and so the the district VSOs this is 100% of their salary that we see here yes just so I mean so people
▶ 1:04:25 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: know at home and these we're talking twenty five and twenty six thousand dollars so it's not not a lot and they do so much for the community and as do you and we really appreciate it thank you thank you thank you motion to recommend oh go ahead you make the motion thank you sir the motion recommend the bottom line please that's a motion to move the bottom line seconded by Alderman Tramontozzi all in favor aye opposed that recommendation we made to the full board thank you for all you do for the city and for being here tonight thank you thank you and actually I think you want to stick around because our next order is also related to veterans the veterans department so we are now moving to because we don't have anyone from BB
▶ 1:05:13 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: estate right okay so we're on order number two zero one nine dash eighty seven reauthorization of city of Melrose revolving funds table as adopted by City Ordinance June 18 2018 and further authorized by Massachusetts general laws chapter 44 section 53 e and 1 half so this is a revolving fund that the veterans department maintains the veterans service officer and board are you familiar with this one miss burke i am for our revolving fund yes do you want to just tell us quickly if you know what it's used for and if the annual cap is sufficient for you the annual cap is sufficient generally we use it for items if we need something that will be outside of our normal office type of supplies for example this year we are purchasing or we've purchased a small
▶ 1:06:05 pa system that we can use for all of our events the one that we have been using wasn't quite quite cutting it when we were outside and trying to speak we were getting a lot of complaints that people couldn't hear our speakers so we've purchased a new small portable system that we can take around with us and there's a large cost savings because we are going to use that instead of hiring out somebody to come in and set that up for us but that's something that we will use a revolving fund for we don't use it a lot the veteran relief fund is our bigger as our bigger account that we use motion recommend the revolving count for Veteran Services Department motion to recommend the revolving fund account
▶ 1:06:45 fund number two six zero seven for the veterans I mean my Alderman Forbes and seconded by Alderman Medeiros all in favor yes I thought while we have Chief Auditor Pat Delarusso present and seeing that he knows all about our budgets that he might want to speak on the the BB budget and get that through today that's something that mr. de la Rosa might be willing to do this evening this is department number five four zero the BB estate and the amount of the request is in the amount of seven thousand and nine hundred dollars there's no change to this budget through that you can do that shift to my friend all of them in Tramatozzi it's been level funded seven thousand nine hundred dollars I think
▶ 1:08:11 typically year after year that's probably the number the board is most familiar with seeing they do have a revolving fund that they have access to and then once a year we have to reauthorize the revolving fund and I believe if I take a look right now there's a $30,000 cap on that revolving fund and just for the sake of discussion and right now the balance of that fund is ninety one thousand one ninety nine seventy six year-to-date revenues is seventeen thousand three seventy five and so far as of five nine two or one nine they have expended eight thousand one hundred eighty dollars and ninety eight cents so it's pretty standard I see no change in this budget again if at least for the last three or four years I'm in Madeira's thank you thank you
▶ 1:09:15 Monica C. Medeiros: very much and you know it may be beneficial for us just to in invite them again to because they may have some specific things I'd like to share with us that you know mr. de la Rousseau respectfully wouldn't necessarily see in the day-to-day operations understood understood are you from expecting any kind of major building repairs or anything like that to your knowledge I know I'm not known has brought that to my attention at all this year they have in the past if they were going to do something but this year I haven't been advised of anything tonight and I think you mentioned with the revolving account that the balance is 91,000 that's correct so which is obviously which is more than the cap so that's they can raise 30,000 annually or spend 30,000
▶ 1:10:03 annually that's a that's a great question because there is oftentimes confusion and the simplest way to look at is you can take in what you can take in because it is generally activity driven like a recreation revolving fund and you're going to take in money and oftentimes you given the scale of the programs you or just won't know what that number is so the statute allows you take the money in however however you can you cannot expend more than the board of all the men i.e approves as a cap now should they come middle of the year and find out 30 000 in this case isn't sufficient because maybe they want to do a capital improvement plan and they need another 20 000 they still have to come here before this board get the the authority to do that before
▶ 1:10:47 that can happen it is allowed they can come in middle of the year whenever three quarters of of the year ask that the limit be expanded explain to the board why and then you could provide that ability for them to spend that money within that fiscal year so that's that's so that is always available but absolutely they can't spend more than the 30,000 cap without this board's authority no matter how much money thank you thank you motion to recommend the bottom line account number five four zero BB Estates let's second it there's a motion by vice-chair Boisselle to move the bottom line for a department number five four zero seconded by Alderman Tramontozzi is there any further discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed we will make that recommendation to the full thank
▶ 1:11:34 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: you very much thank you thank you very much for hitting to accept the BB estate revolving yep yep so we have a we have a motion made by alderman medeiros to accept the bb estate revolving fund number two seven five zero seconded by aldermen's work oh on discussion all in favor aye any opposed excellent we'll move that to the full board as well I would entertain motion to adjourn so moved second second we have a motion to adjourn made by alderman circle seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We're adjourned for the evening. Thank you.