Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2019-05-20
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
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 20, 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 Absent Peter D. Mortimer Voting Present John N. Tramontozzi Voting Late 7:35 PM Francis X. Wright Jr. Voting Late 7:43 PM 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 City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 5/21/2019 9:57 AM
Transcript
▶ 0:01 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: The hour being 7.30 on Monday, May 20th, 2019. The Committee on Appropriations is called to order. This is a committee of the whole. I am the chairwoman, Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, and present tonight with me are Alderman Mortimer, Medeiros, Forbes, Zwirko, Butra, McMaster, and President Lemmerman. In accordance with the open meeting law, this meeting is being recorded and can be viewed on MMTV, both online and on the television, as well as on the City of Melrose website. Is there a motion to open the floor for public comment? So moved, Madam Chair. Second. We have a motion to open the floor for public comment, made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?
▶ 0:45 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: This is the portion of the meeting where any member of our public can come forward to speak to the one order on our agenda tonight, which is a continuation of our review of the fiscal year 2020 budget from the mayor. Motion to close public comment. Second. Motion to close public comment has been made by Alderman Forbes, duly seconded by Alderman Mortimer. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Public comment is now closed. The first and only order on our agenda tonight is order number 2019-85, City of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2020 in the amount of $86,662,987.61. Motion to suspend the rules. Second. We have a motion to suspend the rules made by Alderman Zwirko and seconded by Alderman
▶ 1:35 Denise Gaffey: Forbes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are under suspension of rules and the first department on our schedule is the Planning Department. Good evening. I know you have a busy evening good evening I do I do back-to-back meetings I'm pleased to be here tonight my name is Denise Caffey I'm the director of planning and community development for the office of planning and community development and I hope you've all had a chance to review the questionnaire that I completed great and as you all know primarily the salary in the planning office is I mean the budget line item for the planning department is mostly salary the planning department supports five staff positions three of those are full-time positions
▶ 2:27 Denise Gaffey: my position is full-time I have a full-time GIS technician who also is our account manager and our IT specialist she does she wears a lot of hats and also we have a full-time senior planner in in the department a year ago when I was here that that planner position was vacant I had just lost that person and subsequently I was able to fill it over the course of a few few weeks and I think many of you had a chance to meet Emma so she's a great addition to the department we also have two part-timers in the department we have the energy efficiency manager Martha Grover who you'll probably hear from later on tonight who works out of the planning office 24 hours a week and I have a planning coordinator who primarily supports the zoning Board of Appeals but
▶ 3:18 Denise Gaffey: she also provides considerable administrative and technical support in the planning office as well not too much to report that's different this year the I guess the most significant change in the department budget is that it's it's increasing the salary line item is increasing by 19% usually it's around a 2% increase which reflects the cost of living adjustments or the step adjustments and the reason why as I explained in the question here the reason why there's a higher percentages this this year is because we we are funding more of our GIS position out of the city budget as opposed to the community development budget which is what we've done in the past I should preface by saying we we try we've always tried in the planning office to be
▶ 4:11 Denise Gaffey: creative about funding sources and it's something we endeavor to do use using grants or rebates incentive funds you know whatever we can to try to minimize the impact on the general budget and community development funds have historically been another source for that but since those funds can't really I'm not we're not in a really in position to support the position have as we have in the past so we're shifting more of that position on to the general budget that's pretty much it I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone may have thank you thanks very much thank you for the memo and the outline could you talk a little bit about the Community Development Fund like where the funds come from yeah so it's actually it's a fund that was set up
▶ 5:01 Denise Gaffey: decades ago it's really goes back to period in time in Melrose when we were we were able to get urban renewal funds in the late 70s and 80s and community community where we were more competitive for community development funds in order to do some urban renewal type work or some housing rehab type work and you know my predecessors when they were when they were thinking about how to spend those funds they mostly allocated them out as grants or I should say sorry not as grants but as loans as either zero interest or very low interest loans so over the years we were we were capturing those funds back and so that's been sort of a revolving account for community development initiatives over the past
▶ 5:49 Denise Gaffey: several decades but most of those those rehab funds now have been paid back so we don't have a continuous like support of funding it's not a sustainable source in other words and we don't have a program in place really for loans we don't yeah and really there hasn't been that demand for the housing rehab loans in many many years really we haven't supported that since the early 2000s I will say one of the most successful program that we do support with the community development funds is is our sign and facade grant program I mean we we're able to help local businesses with their when they're just starting out in the community and it can be very expensive starting out and one of the one of the more expensive items believe it or not is signage so this is a really
▶ 6:35 Denise Gaffey: successful program it's one that we get inquiries about from other communities all the time like how do we do it and I think we're just fortunate that we have that the funding source in place that we can help out the local business community that's great and the other thing I wanted to just ask about is the Messina Arts Fund and could you just explain to the public about that and I know we had some big big event with the symphony in for FY 18 I believe and so right now it looks like the funds expended so far not quite there and do you anticipate that they will be fully expended I do expect that they will be totally expended I have a list in front of me that that shows how they've been been allocated to the tune of $9,500, which I know it's a $10,000 program, so I think
▶ 7:23 Denise Gaffey: it's pretty close to that point. And it has supported numerous really great arts events in the community, like the Historic Quilt Project, if anyone had an opportunity to check that out, or concert series, a couple of different concert series, the Summer Stroll Program, the Irish Celebration this past—I St. Patrick's Day and support for Polymnia and for the Porch Fest, that new program, community program. Primarily the planning office, I should say, we don't really, we are not involved at all in making decisions about how these funds are allocated. Our role is more of like the fiduciary oversight. We accept the request for payment and we make sure the backup is there and it all makes sense and then we create the warrants for the
▶ 8:13 Michael P. Zwirko: honor his office and the rest is done by the rest is done by committee a group yes a committee Arts Council maybe I'm not exactly sure I think they have their own Mel was I seen a fund committee fun for the arts so but it may have changed over the years right thank you very much thank you thank you madam chair thank you for being here this evening I just wanted to ask about in a recent letter we had responded to in the the 40b project there's a section that the community development planning department has nine i believe active projects in the works and i was just wondering if you could kind of speak to some of them the ones that you're able to just kind of give us kind of a preface of you know what what's coming what's what activity there is going within the
▶ 8:58 Denise Gaffey: city in terms of development sure i mean some of them you're aware of like our downtown projects we have a couple of different um mixed-use projects that will involve um residential housing production um we have a couple of projects on in the real quarter that are that come about as a result of the zoning that the board approved not long ago one of them involves the car wash site and then across the street of course there was a project there that was approved and permitted by the planning board um at some point last year so that's count that's in that account there's also potential we're looking at a potential for the sort of the final building in the converse complex down on Washington Street that
▶ 9:46 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: where it's currently Marty's furniture looking at we we've heard from a developer who's got an interest in that that's probably the parts probably the biggest one in the in the group thank you for the update those are all the I have I'll just for the public watching at home obviously you have another hearing tonight and you've had your you know your office is helping to staff a number of our boards and commissions that are doing really important work through the volunteer efforts of our neighbors and I just be interested in how does the public what's the best way for the public to hear about the work of those boards and commissions that you and your office support in terms of things that may be of public interest to them so we we have a link on the
▶ 10:30 Denise Gaffey: planning department web page to all of the different boards and commissions that we support including the historic district commission the planning board and the zoning Board of Appeals to name a couple so I think that's probably the best way to get a sense for you know you know who's on the boards what kind of work that they do and you can always contact me directly if anyone's interested in serving we're always looking for always looking for new members and then of course each of your boards or commissions would include their meeting notices on the same website where oh absolutely yes so that's really a good place to go to and can you think of anything that's in the pipeline for any of those boards or commissions in the coming season that
▶ 11:10 Denise Gaffey: people and Melrose might really be interested in well I think I mentioned a few projects that you know that we're kind of looking at in the in the near future for development and permitting review also of course the 40 B that everyone's aware about you know we expect to hear about that before the end of this or by the end of this month so depending on what the conclusion is there from Mass Housing you know we may be very busy you know busily working on that and I'm sure the community would have it will have a lot of interest in that if it goes forward and let's just recognize that Alderman Truman to the Alderman Rita who joined us any other questions for this department motion to move the bottom line on this budget madam chair second you have a motion to
▶ 11:56 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: move the bottom line for the Planning Department made by Alderman Mortimer and seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you again for being here tonight. Of course, thank you. The next department on our agenda is Department number 112 Aldermanic. Switching seats. Changing hats. That's right. Good evening. good evening you want to share any opening remarks or go straight to question um since we engage usually on a daily basis I guess I'll forego opening remarks and go right to questions thank you I thank you very much we first of all I'll start off by saying thank you we really appreciate all the help that you give us as the clerk of committees and you're the front person to the public for us most of the time
▶ 12:54 Monica C. Medeiros: who answers the phone or who addresses a lot of the emails and you know help us day-to-day and so we definitely appreciate that I wanted to ask you there's not too much change in our budget but there is an increase in IQ m2 and perhaps you just might want to dress sure that's an increase to the service contract they went up in their service fees for the year do you know how long we have on that contract it's a yearly it's an annual okay very good and I think that's about it okay well actually if you might want to talk about seminars so there is a mass Municipal Association seminar which if you look at the line I'm looking at taking a class seminar on local government and leadership management so I think it would be extremely helpful and I'm very excited
▶ 13:45 Monica C. Medeiros: to participate in that program very excited about that program as well and in full disclosure I'm on the board of directors and so I just said to put that out there but this is not something that we directly know MMA makes the choice on who watch candidates there is always or more than I went to an informational seminar there's always more candidates than are actually participating so they do have a pretty competitive selection process and throughout the state there's a sort of a drought in people who are in leadership in municipal government and so hopefully this will give you even more skills to go further so thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for everything you do for us I wanted to ask are there more you know within our service contract with IQ
▶ 14:36 Manisha Bewtra: m2 are there things that additional things that we can do with our existing contract I noticed like for example other communities sometimes include the links to the videos within their meeting agenda portal are we kind of maxed out with what we so we actually don't we have not opted to use IQM to video recording I guess the segment of their offerings because it's expensive so we use mm TV and that's the portal that we use makes sense just curious and thanks again and congrats on this seminar it sounds like a good opportunity thank you just one follow-up question on both of my colleagues question about IQ m2 do you know it sounds like a lot of other municipalities use that vendor and I'm wondering if there's ever been a consideration if they would consider you
▶ 15:26 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: know like a regional contract or like a joint procurement you know I do know that's a good question I know that so they were bought up by Granicus so I can look into that if they have a regionalization option and if that would give us a benefit in terms of cost reduction right that's just what I'm wondering so maybe worth checking especially since we get to negotiate or re-up every year mm-hmm and yes also congratulations on the seminar that's really excellent news thank you motion to move the bottom line on this budget madam chair we have a motion to move the bottom line for the aldermanic department number 112 made by alderman Mortimer and seconded by alderman for all in favor opposed great next on our agenda is department number 161 and
▶ 16:16 perhaps 162 are you presenting both tonight yeah we can do city clerk's first if that works oh yes absolutely I just noticed you had them you responded with the same question but great 161 city clerk thank you very much for being here tonight so I think there's one quick correction before we get started i can give these out now the elections office questionnaire is not i don't think part of the city clerk's questionnaire unless the clerk of committee's added it them together as a single file there are two separate files okay so i'm just going to pass these out so people have a chance to look at them before we go forward sorry thank you motion to add the elections budget questionnaire to the order we have a
▶ 17:28 motion to add the elections office budget questionnaire to the order second made by Alderman Medeiros and second by Alderman Mortimer all in favor so we'll add that to the order and before us right now is the city clerk so we've I've now been in the role of city clerk for a year and we've still had a few changes over the past year with staff turnover but I think we're in a really great position now both with the elections administrator Joanne and everyone in the city clerk's office in terms of what the city clerk's office has been doing we've been spending the last year kind of improving some processes streamlining some things but we also have seen a significant increase in the number of vital records that we need to process through the office I
▶ 18:18 looked back and in 2017 we had found that there was about we processed in terms of distributing birth certificates and marriage certificates etc about 350 per month and now we're up to well over 600 on average last month I did over 800 so that's actually a huge increase in the amount of work in our office but I think with the staff at hand and come some of the processes that we've implemented it's we've kind of been able to handle it but you may see I don't think you'll see it directly well we've had to move some things around internally to cover the increased cost associated with that because they all require a special paper which is like it's not inexpensive shall we say and that's about it thank you thank you yeah in that that's obviously it's a
▶ 19:09 Monica C. Medeiros: huge increase I didn't see postage exactly included here and I would think that that would be increasing or is it in a different line that I'm it's it yeah all that's covered separately it we don't pay and independently for postage but it kind of you know it the our our revenue goes back to the general fund which then my cost to cover the postage so it'll be covered through I think the I don't know where the line is in the treasurer's office but we don't pay the posted directly for that and then the other big change big but sort of big change was clear gov yep and should you talk a little bit about like is is your office submitting the information to clear gov or how the process was you know well it's that's part of so that's the role of webmaster that's why that I
▶ 19:59 took on that so it's really the auditors do the actual data I don't I'm just the between to make sure it's functioning properly and it is linked from the website it's just easier eventually we can embed more pieces of it directly into the website um but we wanted to kind of make sure all that we had several years of accurate data before we really drive everyone to that site and you're handling all the public records requests yes i imagine that we've heard that those public record requests have really increased from the police department for instance and are you seeing that kind of increase in the clerk's office jake um i think yeah the police is there has their own records access officer with the chief um so we have seen it comes and
▶ 20:46 goes in waves i won't say that i've seen a significant increase i've seen um you know now that i've been there a year i've seen repeat requests that come through every year i think the biggest challenge is some of them are very broad in their request so it can be kind of time-consuming both for me to kind of chase down who is the right person but also for department heads within the city to respond well thank you very much appreciate that I know you've had a lot of change and it's great to see the what you've done for automation has really helped so much with this increased demand so you're on the right track thanks thanks thank you madam chair I just really had one comment wanted to say thank you to you
▶ 21:33 Michael P. Zwirko: in your office for the work that you do specifically I think your office probably has had the most turnover in terms of positions not only yourself but our clerk of committees elections administrator and it just the role so it's been really juggling a lot but in the midst of all of that with the requests going up with the real IDs the enhancements that you've made to online purchasing of various I forget what the name of the online licenses that can be purchased it's been nice to see the improvements still occur even though there's been such turnover so I know just bringing onboarding a new employee can can take some time until you're really feeling comfortable into your comments when you opened up this evening you feel like you're in a really good
▶ 22:16 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: place so we're seeing that as well and I know that's just been there's been a lot of turmoil thank you and that it's a credit to my staff too because they're constantly looking to improve also so I think it's great to everyone have that mindset testament to your leadership too so thank you thank you one thing that I noticed in your helpful summary and it's probably in the elections office questionnaire answers as well is you mentioned that they're going to be three municipal elections or elections that you you know the elections office in your office will have to support fiscal 20 and so that's resulted in some increases in the in some of these lines um and so would you expect then for fiscal 2021 that the
▶ 23:00 lines would go back down i'm thinking we would have perhaps one election in fiscal 2021 is that right yeah so the difference too is um whether it's a local election or not so state and federal elections we at least get some reimbursement for the cost but um so this one two of those elections will be completely local and then we'll have the presidential primary so we'll get some reimbursement for that so yes i do anticipate it to go down but um like anything else it's you know hard to anticipate exactly how much at this point okay that's helpful any other questions motion to move the bottom line of two hundred eighty one thousand two hundred twenty five dollars and seventy one cents second we have a motion to move the bottom line for city clerk
▶ 23:42 department 161 made by alderman Medeiros and seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor any opposed great we'll make that recommendation to the whole board thank you well Joanne come up man I think you so much for being here tonight thank you since we haven't had a chance to review your questionnaire maybe if you wanted to just sort of walk us through some top-line summary that'd be very helpful okay thank you for having me here this evening I'm responsible for training all the poll workers there are about 84 to 90 of them most of them a full day some of them are part-time and share the shift we train them on the imagecast tabulators we train them on the whole process of registering taking in the voters we're responsible for sending out the annual census currently
▶ 24:33 Monica C. Medeiros: we're sending out the second notice for the those who haven't responded I think we have about a 76 percent return rate right now and I will say that I recently attended a City Clerk's Association meeting and our return rate for census is like by far the best around so thank you Melrose residents keep it up a lot of Amadeus thank you and the part-time salary and wages line we're seeing a pretty significant increase there is that due to the the additional election and in the postage line is or printing is up and I think and postage is up is that just is that an anticipation of absentee ballots or is that census to census yeah but the printing I think we realized that the we had to increase the printing cost for the ballot that is ballot related but
▶ 25:33 most of the postage is more for census even a little bit we have the voting machines themselves we have some new machines yes so the maintenance line do you anticipate that we will need the kind of maintenance that we had used in the past so the warranty covers they come annually to come and maintenance the machines I don't know if you're looking at the acumen it's 100 dollars there's a few maintenance and it looks like four thousand two hundred dollars yeah that's the rep that comes we have someone on call for elections so in case anything happens you know I our poll workers are great for the for the jobs that they have but no one's equipped to handle it so that's that's going it's more like a person service rather than then yeah it's not just a maintenance
▶ 26:38 Monica C. Medeiros: contract it's it costs here all day for the election yeah thank you for explaining that it's good to to know that we have that and then just are you in need of poll workers because sometimes I hear that you may be we're always in need of a good backup list that's for sure his last minute you have people that call in sick or like this past April a lot of them were snowbirds and we're away so we do have our list pretty much pulled together for September with maybe a few vacancies but I would love to have a backup list so if people are interested in being a poll worker can you tell them like what's involved and we have a job description so if they want to contact me that would be great I'd welcome all names thank you very much thank you thank you thank you
▶ 27:19 any additional questions we have a recommendation motion move the bottom line for second number 162 great we have a motion to move the bottom line of the the Elections Office, made by Alderman Forbes, seconded by Alderman Mortimer. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great, thank you both very much for being here this evening. Thank you. Wondering if we'd like to continue? Okay, so our next department, the right page, is department number 171, our Conservation Commission. Good evening, thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Susan Murphy I'm the chair of the most Conservation Commission would you like me to give a statement if you if you'd like to that's fine I'll just do a brief explanation I know most of you know what the Conservation Commission does but
▶ 28:15 members of public may be watching the Conservation Commission has two main responsibilities in the city first we are responsible for implementing the Massachusetts wetlands protection and rivers protection acts and the corresponding Melrose wetlands protection ordinance that's a permitting responsibility so if people come in and they're in just the jurisdiction under either of those acts they need to get a permit from us which is called an order of conditions we also are custodians of the conservation lands in the city there's passive open space that's available for hiking and and aesthetic purposes it's not actively used it's for passive recreation we have about 99 acres of conservation land within the city of Melrose our budget is sort of
▶ 29:01 reflects those responsibilities our major components are number one the salary line item for our part-time conservation agent he primarily works on permitting type issues but he also helped assist with the open space management the other is our conservation budget which is for maintenance of the conservation land that is primarily used for treatment of our ponds we do routine treatments for nuisance vegetation in towners pond which we which is belongs to us but also in swains pond and El Pond which are actually belong to the parks department but we manage those and and do that through a contract with solitude they're treated for various types of nuisance vegetation and in El pond particularly algae to keep those ponds aesthetically pleasing to avoid
▶ 29:51 dissolved oxygen depletions and fish kills so we've been doing that for a while this we've been trying to improve the particularly focusing on our open space the last couple of years and with respect to the ponds we've been trying to work towards not just sort of every year just spending the same amount of money treating the vegetation see if we could do something to get at this the source of the problem one aspect of that is we've been using an alum treatment which is intended to try to sequester the phosphorus in the pond and in L pond we've been trying that that the phosphorus is what what causes that vegetation overgrowth and we also did some additional monitoring to see how that was working I have to say the phosphorus is still pretty high in that
▶ 30:38 pond despite the alum treatments so we're still assessing that we're hopeful that the ms4 permit that the Department of Public Works will be implementing in the upcoming years will also help with source reduction that will improve the condition of these ponds we've also been trying to work a little more on our trails we've been doing more consistent trail cleanups and we've started a trail stewardess stewardship program we've got 12 active trail stewards who are routinely on the on the trails they they'll pick stuff up as they walk around they'll report to us if there are any problems it's a way for us to really try and keep eyes on everything a little more consistently than we have in the past and they were also one of them had proposed doing a new section of trail
▶ 31:21 Manisha Bewtra: which we're working on and we actually have one new Commissioner who started as a trail steward and we have an opening now and I think the next person will come from that trail steward group that's all I have and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you thank you thanks for being here I noticed in your narrative that you mentioned that some of the treatments for the ponds are addressing symptoms rather than underlying problems and I was wondering if you could speak a little more to that but also if you're aware of grant programs or anything else that we could be availing ourselves of to assist with those things all right yes um so basically what we're doing is we are treating the vegetation the vegetation is a symptom of an overt nutrient
▶ 32:11 overload to these ponds it's basically inherent with the urban nature of Melrose that we are going to have issues like this in these ponds El Pond in particular is I think gonna say it's about 40% impervious area in the watershed to El Pond which is just enormous it's really difficult to have a healthy pond when you have that much impervious surface going into it there are but lots of sources there are some we get leaks from from the sewer system into the pond there's animal waste there's just leaf litter that instead of getting you know incorporated into soils it's just deposit on the street and washes into the ponds so there's just a lot of organic matter going into the pond and breaking down and providing nutrients for vegetation there have been studies
▶ 33:01 done of the pond and you know ultimately the conclusion is it's it's very tough with to deal with ponds with that are in such urban areas towners pond and swains ponds are a little healthier swains is the the most pristine of the Melrose ponds it's actually not in too bad shape there's just some invasive vegetation in there towners was originally wetland that was dug out as an ice pond and so it's very shallow and it's sort of never was a natural pond and it's probably not going to be in in the condition of a really pristine pond l pond I think is you know if if we could control all the sources there we could improve the health of the pond and I think that's the best chance the ms4 permit and the
▶ 33:48 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: work that the city is going to have to do and just source reduction in all the watersheds I think it will be really important and this is the best approach for that because there there are programs out there but it's more for study of the pond and there have been studies of the pond and we kind of know what the issues are it's just tackling them is it's a long haul so great thank you very much your summary is really helpful as was your presentation tonight you mentioned that your commission is a seven member Commission for folks watching at home and there may be there's a vacancy that's likely going to be filled but can you talk a little bit about if folks are interested in either doing the trail work that you did this drill stewardship work or perhaps being
▶ 34:36 in queue as a concept to be considered for one of the Commission's seats how would they go about that's a great question and I usually put the plug in for that we do have also a associate commissioner slots two of those that are not filled and we would love to have if anyone is interested to have people be associate commissioners and they're usually the ones who are sort of next up if we have a commissioner position to fill which happens you know every year or two so that is a great way to get involved and if you if someone has a particular interest in trails or a particular open space we really would like to work with anyone in the public I know people have attachments to particular areas and stuff and that's why we thought the trail stewardship
▶ 35:17 Monica C. Medeiros: program would be a great way because if you're always walking a particular piece of conservation land those are the best people to keep an eye on them for us so people can contact um through our our conservation agent eric devlin at conservation cityofmelrose.org or give a call to the office we'd love to have any help anyone wants to give great thank you all right and just one uh other quick plug i got this great trail map that was my other item i was supposed to say that we did update the trail map this year so which is terrific and has lots of the different properties and trails and if people were interested in getting a copy of this they're available in at our desk which is in the planning office so our person only works Monday and Wednesday mornings
▶ 36:09 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: but that the trail the trail maps are there and available pickup we also always have a table at healthy Melrose and the Victorian Fair and handing them out all day so very good thank you thank you for all you do and appreciate it very much a motion to move the bottom line of twenty thousand eight hundred twenty five dollars second we have a motion to move the bottom line for the conservation department uh number 171 maybe alderman Medeiros seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor aye opposed okay we'll make that recommendation to the full thank you very much very much thank you uh the next department on our agenda is number 196 the energy commission good evening good evening my name is christy hyman i'm alana nelson
▶ 37:03 and we're the co-chairs of melrose energy commission this year and i will be reading uh the statement uh and for mech it's been an exciting year for the melrose energy commission more commonly known as mech the 18 members are jazzed to make the most of the opportunities and incentives so the city and its citizens can save money and reduce their energy consumption We appreciate the funding entrusted to MEC for fiscal year 2019 and would like to give you an idea of what we've accomplished this year. Organized into solar, climate action, and transportation subcommittees, we want to make sure the city makes the most of financing and other incentives that move us quickly towards a net zero goal.
▶ 37:50 MEC seeks to leverage the efforts of the city energy efficiency manager. as a participant in the metro mayor's climate preparedness task force melrose is one of 23 metro boston communities committed to being a net zero carbon free by 2050. during fiscal 2019 there were two state level accomplishments that have helped direct our activities first the 2018 clean energy legislation which increases the commonwealth's commitment to renewable energy especially in times of peak demand increasing option for energy storage and energy efficiency second was the adoption of the commonwealth energy plan in december the cep includes strategies to meet energy demand through conservation energy efficiency and demand
▶ 38:40 production sources and i will first discuss the accomplishments of the solar subcommittee in june 2018 mellers had 334 solar installations in town including residences business non-profits and city buildings continuing installations during fiscal year 20 and we have attached the map on this present on this statement looking at area aerial views met focused on larger rooftops owned by businesses residential complexes and non-profits lori timmerman and jeff duty worked at the highlands congregational as they explored solar planning options the church will install a 61.5 kilowatt array which will cover the entire electricity usage and allow them to sell access to 10 households this is the first project of its
▶ 39:30 kind under the new smart solar incentive in massachusetts the lessons learned set a precedent with national grid and local inspectors to facilitate future projects two other churches and melrose are currently exploring their solar options mech joined the cha the chain excuse me the chamber of commerce so so can it keep in touch with businesses business interests and share information about programs and opportunities to save on energy costs and take advantage of any state or federal incentives to adopt renewable energy into their business planning in december 2018 mech kick off the big solar roof roof solar project over 40 businesses and non-profits were contacted through canvassing meetings and letters mech encourages each building owner to install
▶ 40:17 the maximum amount of solar panels and if they were produced to sell excess power excess power to to local residents mech is also establishing the melrose green building award businesses and non-profits will receive a window decal and or a plaque that recognizes their commitment towards energy and fish efficiency and renewable energy our first award will go to the fellsway pediatric on lynn fells parkway we're kicking off this program with an official award ceremony on may 29th and you're all welcome to attend and now i will now i will go into the climate action subcommittee mech members took results from the preliminary 2017 greenhouse gas inventory and are developing a process for climate action planning during fiscal year 20 the grant funding announced
▶ 41:06 in 2018 will be awarded and the scope of the work will be defined within the eea mapc in january 2019 mech invited carol oldham of the massachusetts climate action network to outline the importance of building codes to reflect improved energy efficiency technologies the 2021 updates to the international energy efficiency codes are being evaluated and mech is encouraging local officials to participate in this process other building code changes happen with statewide legislation with the sustainability committee mech members met with jason lewis and paul bruder at the beginning of the legislative session to better understand ways to participate in and communicate legislative priorities in march 2019 mech invited the public to listen to climate
▶ 41:54 to the climate planning experiences of our neighbors in lexington who completed their climate action plan in 2018 mark sandin lexington selectmen gave a great summary of their process and the lessons learned in fiscal year 20 mek will help residents and melrose towers with energy efficiency projects in conjunction with mass save and finally i will discuss the transportation subcommittee this year mek sponsored ev showcases at both the victorian fair and healthy melrose the increased participation of ev owners is dramatic vehicle owners enthusiastically respond to citizen curiosity and questions about ev functionality and lifestyle the mech website continues to offer information to residents non-profits and businesses on energy efficiency
▶ 42:40 we've also written articles for local newspapers and energy efficient efficiency and developments there are so many technologies programs and possibilities to be energy efficient mech seeks to help spread the news we thank the board of aldermen for funding and support they've given mech during fiscal year 19. in fiscal year 20 mech will continue to educate strategize and act on individual and community level to build a city that is more resilient and efficient in the years to come your support of fiscal year 20 funding is spectrally requested thank you thank you thank you for the really comprehensive update and for all of the important work you're doing I'm super innovative and keeping hopefully getting
▶ 43:31 Monica C. Medeiros: us ahead of the curve thanks thank you we've got a great team and especially Laurie Timmerman and Tyler Ballou who have been chairs for a long time are still with us they haven't run away yet but once again we're always open we have a lot of open meetings for people and if you're interested in being on the Commission we're happy to have you help thank you great work very impressive and with this budget which I'll make a motion in a minute to move the bottom line of two two thousand five hundred dollars so you know it's it's little money being stretched a long way by the real work by many committed volunteers so we really appreciate it thank you and motions second the motion to move the bottom line made by Alderman Medeiros second by Alderman Mortimer I just had
▶ 44:17 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: one question with respect to the transportation subcommittee I believe that there are some work being going on at Oak Grove in terms of studying that roadway and making it you know thinking about the parking and where bikes should go and considering so where the stream is has the Energy Commission been involved at all in that or is it aware of several members who are actually on the bike ped committee as well great and so we're careful to make sure that they're taking care of that we're keeping in touch with each other but our activities this year were more about promoting an understanding for electric vehicles but yeah you were on it that's great all right thank you very much any further question any other questions or discussion all in favor any opposed
▶ 44:57 wonderful thank you both for being here thank you recommendation to the full board and that concludes our agenda for tonight made by Alderman Forbes seconded by Alderman Mortimer all in favor aye Hi. I'm opposed. You got a resolution with you today? What? No. It's not that easy. You guys are on the podium. Well, I've got to call you out. We've got to go through the motions. Thank you. You just want to get on camera. Very proactive, Chief. I haven't talked to her about it. Thank you. Good evening. the hour being 8 15 on may 20th 2019 i call to order this meeting of the melrose board of alderman this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on mmtv can also be accessed on the city of melrose website and the mmtv website madam clerk if you could call the roll please alderman