Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2020-06-04

Attendance

Christopher Cinella present · Chair; Jack Eccles present · Voting; Mark Garipay present · Voting; Jen Grigoraitis present · President, ex oficio; Maya Jamaleddine present · Voting; Shawn M. MacMaster present · Voting; Jeff McNaught present · Voting; Leila Migliorelli present · Vice Chair; Robb Stewart present · Voting; Cory Thomas present · Voting; John N. Tramontozzi present · Voting

Agenda

1. Call to Order (38:10)
2. Public Comment (39:33)
3. Orders (41:04)
4. ORDER-2020-105 : An Appropriation from the Peg Access Cable Fund (#2922) in the amount of $300,452.04 to MMTV and Melrose Public Schools. (41:10)
5. ORDER-2020-107 : A Transfer from Temporary Debt, account number 017522-549100, in the amount of $42,000.00 to various Workers' Compensation accounts as set forth herein. (52:55)
6. ORDER-2020-89 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2021 in the amount of $88,397,961.08 (Eighty-Eight Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred Sixty-One Dollars and Eight Cents). (59:23)
7. Adjournment (3:09:00)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 4, 2020 Web-based remote meeting Budget Hearing 7:00 PM , Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose City Council may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the City Council 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 Christopher Cinella Chair Present Leila Migliorelli Vice Chair Present John N. Tramontozzi Voting Present Shawn M. MacMaster Voting Present Jeff McNaught Voting Present Jack Eccles Voting Present Mark Garipay Voting Present Robb Stewart Voting Present Cory Thomas Voting Present Maya Jamaleddine Voting Present Jen Grigoraitis President, ex oficio Present The Appropriations Committee is called to order by Chair Cinella. This meeting is recorded and may be viewed on www.mmtv3.org

ORDER-2020-105 Appropriation An Appropriation from the Peg Access Cable Fund (#2922) in the amount of $300,452.04 to MMTV and Melrose Public Schools. Recommend Passage City Council

ORDER-2020-107 Transfer A Transfer from Temporary Debt, account number 017522-549100, in the amount of $42,000.00 to various Workers' Compensation accounts as set forth herein. Recommend Passage City Council

ORDER-2020-89 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2021 in the amount of $88,397,961.08 (Eighty-Eight Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred Sixty-One Dollars and Eight Cents). Hold Appropriations Committee City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 6/11/2020 3:14 PM

Transcript

▶ 38:43 Christopher Cinella: imposing strict limitation on the number of people that may gather in one place this meeting of the Appropriations Committee will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible we will post audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Nala's website and on MMTV3.org Madam Clerk please call the roll Vice-Chair Migliorelli. Here. Councilor Tramontozzi. Here. Councilor McMaster. Here. Councilor McNaught. Here. Councilor Eccles. Here. Councilor Garipay. Here. Councilor Stewart. Here. Councilor Thomas. Here. Councilor Jamaleddine. Here. President Grigoraitis. Here. Mr. Chair. Here.

▶ 39:33 I will entertain a motion at this time for public comment. Motion open public comment. Motion for public comment made by Councilor Stewart, seconded by, I believe, Councilor Eccles. Vice Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Kate. Yes. Councilor Kate. GARRETT PAYE. YES. COUNSELOR STEWART. YES. COUNSELOR THOMAS. YES. COUNSELOR MALADINE. YES. COUNSELOR GRIGORITAS. YES. CHAIRMAN SINALA. YES. 11 YES. IF THERE'S ANYONE IN THE ROOM THAT WISHES TO SPEAK TO PUBLIC COMMENT, IF YOU COULD RAISE YOUR DIGITAL VIRTUAL HAND, THAT WOULD BE FANTASTIC. NOPE. MOTION TO PUBLIC COMMENT. a motion to close public comment by councillor stewart seconded by councillor eccles madam

▶ 40:45 Christopher Cinella: clerk please call the roll vice chair Migliorelli yes councilor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor mcnaught yes councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor stewart yes counselor thomas yes councilor maladin yes president Grigoraitis chairman sanella yes 11 yes closed okay so first quarter of this evening order 2020-105 an appropriation from the peg access cable fund account number 2922 in the amount of three hundred thousand four hundred or $52.04 to MMTV and the Melrose Public Schools. I'd like to entertain a motion to suspend the rules because I believe we have a guest speaking tonight. Motion to suspend the rules. Motion to suspend the rules, made by President Grigoraitis,

▶ 41:50 seconded by Councilor McNaught. Vice Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes. Chairman Cinella. Yes. 11 yes. So I brought in Mary. Can you guys see her? her can you hear us yes I can there's a are you able to add your video yes I move so yep can you hear me hear you we can see you good how are you folks tonight thank you right the screen is all yours if you have some prepared remarks certainly I just am appearing before you this evening to request that you support the first order on the agenda 2020-105 which is an appropriation

▶ 43:18 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: and as it relates to MMTV it's $240,361.63. It represents the cable company revenue that we have negotiated with the city and the cable companies for our operational expenses. It's, there are two companies, as you know, Verizon and Comcast, and this figure represents two payments from each of the companies. And I'm happy to entertain any questions that you might have for us. And just so you know, you'll see folks raise their hands, which I put them in queue. I didn't see anybody raise their hands. Anyone have a question? Thank you. Mr. chairman. Good evening. Mary Beth. Welcome. Good to see you. Thank you. I just have a couple of questions. I understand that there is a contract in agreement with the cable companies that contribute.

▶ 44:31 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: To this fund, is there a limit if, you know, that is, is there a limitation on what the, the funds can be used for? And and I know it's being split between in the TV in the mirror of public schools. And is there a rationale behind that particular split in the terms of the percentages? Uh, yes, thank you. Um, when the cable contracts are renegotiated every 10 years between the city and, uh, the provider, we have facilitated those negotiations and paid for them, um, with, uh, outside attorneys and city attorney help as well. The total amount that is the maximum is 5%, and prior to the last round, we received, I believe, only 4%. We were able to negotiate up to 5%, and the schools received 1%, and the MMTV cable access receives 4%.

▶ 45:36 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: there are no restrictions as to how it can be used in terms of you know basically it's facility equipment salaries and that sort of thing I'm not familiar with the school departments how they are doing theirs but it is it has always been broken out and in the past MMTV received their funds directly and And the schools funds with the city, so last year, the governing body determined that it was more appropriate to have these funds come through the city. Although there is no management of the funds by the city. And if I, if I'm correct, there's no matching funds coming out of the city's funds to to match. Exactly, there's no matching funds. No. Okay, and these funds are generated every year. Through the cable companies. Yes. And generally, it's, we get 4 payments a year, I believe from Verizon and now I believe it's 2 payments a year from Comcast.

▶ 46:52 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: And it's based on the access fees that are charged by the cable providers to each individual subscriber. Your bill item that says peg, which is public education and government. So it covers our operational expenses for all 3 stations. We have, in addition to the school department receiving their 1% separately, we have provided the school department with all of the funding and the equipment to the technology for their video production classes. And also we fitted the middle school at 1 point with their production facilities as well. Excellent. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Together, thank you. Mr chairman. Thank you. Uh, my goal is to be in here just for my knowledge. Um.

▶ 47:55 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: On the revenue that comes in for this. This count, is it a balance or do we, as it gets transferred in the total dollar markets transfer it out. Is he used up every year balance left? I'm not I'm not certain with the school department as to when those funds are released to the school. to the school department but they are released completely to us I believe if there is any interest that accrues in the fund while the while the monies are being held by the city that the city I believe is able to retain the interest I don't think it's a potato a lot of money because we're trying to do this twice a year we did it last at the end of December early December and I know one of these payments had come in but it was too late to go on that particular order

▶ 48:47 Jen Grigoraitis: the payment from December 2nd we rolled that over into this year thank you very much anybody else in queue I didn't thank you chairman smell and thank you miss McAteer Margolis it's always lovely to see you I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone in MMTV for all that they've done to help us ensure that we're able to continue to connect with the citizens of Melrose during this pandemic. I think we all know how challenging that has been as we've had to move to a virtual platform and you guys have provided a critical link for residents and I can only imagine the challenges that has created for you all so thank you for that I'm really appreciative of it. You're entirely welcome Madam President. It's where we're happy to be able to do

▶ 49:39 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: it um in the format that we can um regretfully we can't run them live as you know because um the webex is in is not compatible with our system but we do um run it as soon as we get the file not only on the cable access television station but on our um goes through our vimeo online program so if people don't have cable access they are able to watch it through their internet so and we'll be back to business pretty soon i'm sure thank you anybody else did i miss anybody counselor eccles um i was going to make a motion to recommend for passage but if council mcnaught has a something i can wait do you want to get a second time that or yeah motion to recommend for passage second seconded by council mcnaught on discussion council mcnaught

▶ 50:35 Jeff McNaught: did you have something you wanted to say i just wanted to thank miss mcateer marcolis for uh being here tonight also a ward 2 resident and former city councilor uh thank you for presenting tonight it's a pleasure to have you here i did have one question i may have missed it somewhere and that was um how much of the percentage or dollar value that mmt receives goes to salaries and it's a two-part question how many people are on the payroll at mmtv uh we actually have four people on the playroom that's it which is kind of unusual a lot of cable access stations spend um much many much more money on their salary lines um we have chosen to spend more of ours on our facilities and our upgrades to our technology and our production equipment

▶ 51:31 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: And I'm sorry, I don't exactly have the breakout. I would say it's probably, I think we probably spend around 30% on salaries or less than that. And the balance would be on equipment and rental, you know, facility rental, upkeep, that sort of thing. Thank you so much. And thanks again for being here tonight. Thank you. It's nice to be back kind of in the room, so to speak. anybody else on discussion being none madam clerk if you could please call the roll vice chair Migliorelli yes councilor Tramontozzi yes councillor McMaster yes councillor McNaught yes councillor Eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Stewart yes councillor Thomas appreciate we appreciate your support and we look forward to

▶ 52:47 Christopher Cinella: continuing to cooperate and work with the city government going forward thank you good luck with your budget deliberations next order this evening order 2020-107 transfer from temporary debt count number zero one seven five two two dash five four nine one zero zero the amount of forty two thousand dollars to various workers compensation accounts as set forth herein I believe we have long with us this evening can you hear me I can hear you I'm here we just can't see you I don't know if you have video capability I should I have with other WebEx meetings I'm not sure why bottom the mutant audio it says start my video click on that I am okay thank you everyone my name is Marianne long I'm the director of human resources for the

▶ 54:01 City of Melrose and this order that is before you is a transfer in fiscal year 2020 the existing fiscal year into our workers compensation budget, which I'll give you a brief background. It is a self funded budget. It is for injuries on duty for policemen and firefighters as as well as workers' compensation for the rest of the employees. And this $42,000 will go into three different accounts within the workers' compensation budget. Benefits, which is the compensation that someone would receive in the event that they are injured and unable to work, and we're requesting a transfer of $10,000 into that account. workers comp medical expenses, just as it says, it's for medical expenses incurred by

▶ 55:03 Shawn M. MacMaster: the employee. We're asking for $27,000 into that account. And then workers comp expenses $5,000. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about this transfer. Council McMaster. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, Ms. Long. Thank you for being here. Hi there. Just for the public at home, it's not unusual at this time of year for a department head to come before us to request a transfer because there are certain costs that are unexpected, unanticipated, that are really impossible to forecast. and that we're able to have money transferred from other areas of the budget that is not used to allow us to cover costs across departments that are needed for various issues. Is that fair? Yes, that is correct. This is what I would refer to as a normal transfer of funds into the existing

▶ 56:10 budget yes great and my only question miss long is just with respect to the 5 000 expenses what what is covered for expenses what does that typically involve so the expense line item it includes any attorney's fees that we may have it also includes the cost of doing business so the city of melrose has a contract with future comp which is our third party administrator and thank goodness for them. They are the experts in the field of workers' compensation and injured on duty responsibilities. And some of these expenses are utilization review. We have nurse managers who work with our employees who are out injured. So it's a variety of expenses is related to the running of the workers comp program

▶ 57:08 for the third-party administrator. Thank you very much, Ms. Long. Thank you, Ms. Long. Welcome. Councilor Stewart and Hieu. I didn't see any of the hands go up. Just want to make sure. Is there anybody else so I can add you? Councilor Stewart. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Long, for being here tonight. Certainly. Just a real quick question for the public as well as my edification. you say it's self-funded could you uh elaborate on that a little bit i guess i didn't know sure yes so the city of melrose does not have um an insurance policy that covers the cost instead we self-fund we fund these accounts the city council will be approving hopefully my workers compensation budget later this evening for fiscal year 21 um and we base our budgets on previous

▶ 58:08 year utilization etc so we have money placed into these accounts as opposed to hiring an insurance company to cover the city of melrose which is often much more expensive great that's very helpful thank you ms long thank you mr chair anybody else seeing none what is the will of the committee on 2020-107 for passage second motion for passage made by councillor mcnaught seconded by councillor stewart madam clerk please call the roll yes councillor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor mcnaught yes Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Sinella? Yes. 11 yes. Great. Thank you.

▶ 59:23 Christopher Cinella: Thank you and I guess you'll be with us for a little while longer so continuing on to order 2020-89, which is the continuation of our budget hearing for fiscal 2021, the amount of $88,397,961.08. First up, 152, human resources. Okay, so I am before you this evening to present actually four budgets in total. first human resources then workers compensation unemployment compensation and then our benefits budget health contractual the hr department's responsibilities have been outlined and i believe attached to this order so it goes into detail i will i will not review those unless you have specific questions at this time there are two staff Member in our department myself and Pauline a lot of who is our HR manager and I would like to take a

▶ 1:00:33 moment to acknowledge Polly she is highly skilled and highly competent and performs the work of two people and the city is very fortunate to have her I'd I'd also like to acknowledge several colleagues that help Polly and I to manage our responsibilities, as well as the $13.7 million that we're responsible for. In the legal department, Kelly Coggan, she is the legal assistant and she processes injured on duty claims, unemployment claims, and also conducts all the queries that are required for our new hires. And needless to say, Robert Van Campen, who guides and advises us on a myriad of matters, including employee and labor relations, benefits, collective bargaining. And lastly, I just would like to acknowledge

▶ 1:01:33 and thank Member of the finance office, Jill Irvin, Katie Kennewell, Carrie Golden, Donna Cardillo, and Patrick De La Russo. And the reason I mentioned all of these people is because they work very closely with us as a human resources department. Many of you have made requests for information over the last several weeks that have required a lot of statistics and financial analysis. And it's really our finance group who is responsible for that. So I just want to acknowledge them before I begin. And now I'm ready to answer any questions you may have about the Human Resources Department budget? First up we have Councilor McNaught. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Long for being here this evening.

▶ 1:02:29 Jeff McNaught: Ms. Long, I wrote to you today with some requests for information and I appreciate your responding to them. Gotta go over them with you again here tonight to provide some clarity. on some situations that I've been going on. I think both in the discussion in the community and on social media and otherwise. I'm just going by what I wrote to you earlier, Ms. Long, but I feel that the questions that I asked are consistent with the lines of questioning of each department, each department head regarding their budgets, both past and present. Both Councilor Tramontozzi and I requested and received information that was historical and prospective regarding budgets that were provided by the City Auditor,

▶ 1:03:34 Jeff McNaught: which will be extremely helpful in our deliberations going forward. One of the items that's come up that's been, I think, a big topic of discussion has been healthcare benefits for the city council. As you're the Director of Human Resources, I would like to provide some clarity both amongst the council and for the public at home and for those who are watching later. One moment, Ms. Long. Does the City Council, the Melrose City Council receive health care benefits? I guess that's the easiest way to start out. No, they do not. Okay. And has the Melrose City Council, you know, formerly known as the Melrose Board of Aldermen ever received health care benefits from the City of Melrose? Yes, in the past.

▶ 1:04:35 Okay. And when did that stop or start or. It ended in 2018 when then mayor inferno through her power in her responsibilities as mayor ended the eligibility of board of Alderman being eligible for health insurance. So it ended in 2018. It was July 1, the new fiscal year. There were city councilors who took advantage of the health care benefit? Yes. Okay. Are there any current city councilors who received health care benefits in the past? I want to repeat the question so I'm sure I understand it. You're asking if any Member of the current city council took advantage of health insurance in the past? that's correct um yes there is one okay and who would that be um that would be um counselor john tramantosi and do you know what the years were that he received

▶ 1:05:50 Jeff McNaught: health care benefits from the city of florida um i had to look it up and it um is from 2012 until 2018. okay hold on i can't read my own uh type here it's a small um i guess what i'm looking for is uh and i don't know that the same counselor by counselor or by family but trying to get a summarization of what that would have cost for a counselor were they all relatively the same or did it differ because some were on family plans and some weren't or for other reasons um well the city of milrose offers six different health insurance plans to it what we refer to as the active employees which would have included the board of aldermen So it does depend upon the plan that was chosen and whether or not someone chose an individual plan or a family plan.

▶ 1:06:58 Jeff McNaught: Okay. Yes. So it would be more for a family plan, I assume? Yes. Okay. Do we have any idea what it costs to insure Mr. Tramontozzi's plan from 2012 to 2018? again i had to um look this up um as you requested and um during the time that he had health insurance the city contributed um eighty six thousand two hundred and twenty dollars towards a family plan okay uh miss long if this norris city council has already reached the years of service or what we understand to be the the 10 years to be able to be eligible for the pension and um uh health care um could they they could resign uh retire and collect health care benefits from the city of melrose tomorrow correct um yes but but i would like to clarify a couple

▶ 1:08:08 of things this is not a city of melrose policy this is required by law chapter 32b of the mass general laws so in other words city councilors as elected officials you are entitled to a pension and you have deductions on a monthly basis into that pension albeit a very small pension based on the five thousand dollars that you um receive on an annual basis so by virtue of being eligible for a pension if any city council member was an elected official in melrose for a minimum of 10 years 10 years is when you become vested in the pension system so after that um that earmark of 10 years that minimum number of credible years of service if someone chose to what i would say access their pension or retire they would have health insurance by virtue of collecting a

▶ 1:09:20 Jeff McNaught: pension and again that's not city of melrose policy that is mass general law thank you miss fine and um i i guess are there melrose city counties in a position to that would be eligible to take this action if they wish to say today um well again um i had to research and um the only city council member would be um counselor tramantosi because of his years of service okay um so and to be clear every city counselor pays into this pension plan every month is that correct that is correct so if you retire if you if you retire if you resign from the city council before those 10 years is up you don't get to take advantage of the pension or the health care um that is correct so you you would not be entitled to the health insurance benefit um and

▶ 1:10:33 Jeff McNaught: now we'll switch to the pension um you would have an option of transferring those funds um from the pension system in perhaps an ira roth or some other type of retirement account if you so choose Okay. And can you tell me, could it, if we were to do what was proposed last night and possibly decrease the amount of the city councilor's monthly or annual stipend, okay, whatever you want to call it, Could that have a potential effect on the clerk of committee's salary due to the fact that the people that she supports are making less money? I'm sorry. I'm confused by your question. Do you mind repeating it? I'm sorry. Sure. If we lower our salaries, could that affect the clerk of committee's salary because the people that they're supporting are making a lower salary?

▶ 1:11:40 Jeff McNaught: So if the city council chose to reduce the compensation of city council Member, I believe that you would no longer, I think that has a number of impacts. And I believe under the law, you would no longer be eligible for a pension. But that would have to be verified by Patrick Della Russo. I'm, I'm not certain of that. That's correct. I, I actually looked that up today and any city councilor would be ineligible. They not served the. Minimum, or if they weren't paid the minimum 5,000 dollars. for you would be ineligible for the health care or the pension benefits. I guess one of the impacts we don't know is how that would affect the clerk of committees. Well, our clerk of committees, she is a non-union employee that has an annual salary. If you were to reduce her salary,

▶ 1:13:02 Jeff McNaught: I assume you mean not allow her to receive her regular increase I'm not certain what you're referring to but that's not what I mean I mean if we lower the overall bottom line for the budget that affect her yes I'll close just by saying, I guess with a point of privilege, Mr. Chairman, if I may, when I ran or announced I was going to run for city council, I didn't even know that this was a paid position. My goal in last night's hearing was to protect the increase of the clerk of committees, and I have no shame in admitting that, or that of any increase for any other city employee that's deserving, and that the mayor and others have evaluated and decided to increase. For the public's knowledge,

▶ 1:14:08 the increase in the budget this year is 2 percent. It's mostly increases in salaries of collective bargaining agreements that we have no control over. it's the lion's share and again there's nothing it's what's bargained for um but i also wanted to what was potentially going to happen last night because i don't know what my fellow council Member i don't know how much they depend on the salary i don't know how much they're looking how long they're looking to serve how much it would affect their so-called benefits at the end of their tenure. I guess the easiest way to say it is, I do believe we're all in this together and we should all be treated equally. That's all I have to say. Thank you, Ms. Long, for your time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 1:15:28 Thank you. Councilor Tramontozzi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Moore, thank you for being here tonight and for this budget. The budget line 152, human resources. Yes. Is your total salary and the other member of your office totally funded from this? Salary from this, but no, so historically in the human resources department. 75% of my salary is in the human resources budget and 25% of my salary is within the health insurance budget and for Pauline. A lot of 50% is in the HR budget and 50% is in the health insurance budget. And as I understand it, and again, this may be a question for our chief financial officer of the, the either the Department of education, or the Department of revenue requires.

▶ 1:16:44 John N. Tramontozzi: Well, I'm not even going to explain it. I think we would need to call on Mr. to explain why. Our salaries are in 2 different budgets. Okay. So, so when we have, and we're looking at the salary item. For you, it's, it's not this, it's not fully reflected your full salary is not reflected in this particular budget. No, it is not and that that is also true for the human resources manager as well. that is correct okay um as you as you know that i have been uh consistent in my um belief that the resources uh the income resources of the city because of the unusual times that we're in are not going to be fully met um and i have asked um and in all due respect to everybody It's not personal, but I've asked all the departments to level fund their budget to 2020

▶ 1:17:53 John N. Tramontozzi: budget level. I appreciate and thank you for the spreadsheet that you provided to us. In viewing that um i find that the difference uh for your for this particular uh line item uh five one one zero zero zero would be two thousand six hundred and twenty four dollars and ninety two cents um so i i will make that in the form of a motion uh uh just level fund that line item to 20 budget uh Lined by 2620, so a motion to level fund and I didn't catch the dollar amount. You were kind of cutting in and out. I'm sorry. 2624 dollars and 92 cents. 624 and 92. Is there a 2nd 2nd by council McMaster is on discussion any discussion. Seeing none, please call the roll. Vice Chair Migliorelli? No. Councilor Tramontozzi?

▶ 1:19:06 Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught? No. Councilor Eccles? No. Councilor Garrapin? No. Councilor Stewart? No. Councilor Thomas? No. Councilor Jamaleddine? No. president Grigoraitis no no no no two yes motion fails what is the will of the committee thank you mr. chairman thank you miss Monica being here um just two quick questions your question here regarding the split of states the split the positions between budgets, the salary line items. What is the total salary for the two positions in HR when you, I was trying to find the other 25 percent located. I have the, it's in the health budget as well as in the HR budget. I will need a calculator. So I'll use myself as an example in the, the director of human resources. Ninety four thousand two hundred and seven dollars is in the human resources budget and twenty five percent, which is thirty one thousand four hundred and two dollars is in the health insurance budget.

▶ 1:20:46 Mark Garipay: it's approximately a hundred and twenty one thousand I did that without a calculator though I must say and with Polina hers is approximately 82,000 okay great thank you one one other question I had was regarding how raises are calculated, is it performance-based or I know separate contractual union contracts, collective bargaining agreements, but for say the non-union employees, is it 2 percent across the board? Is it do performance reviews and does each department get whatever the dollar amount is and they divide it up between employees? I guess my question is, are there performance reviews done? for each department and each employer? There are performance reviews done, yes, but let me speak about the non-union compensation program.

▶ 1:21:52 So within the 42 or so titles, every title, every job description is assigned to a compensation level. And that compensation level has eight steps and those steps are on an annual basis. so over a period of approximately eight years. And when a non-union employee reaches their anniversary date, so to speak, the supervisor or department head will sit down with them and conduct a performance review. And if a step increase is delayed until improvements are made, or if the non-union employee receives their increase on their anniversary date, it depends upon the employee. But my point is that non-union employees are assigned to a compensation level, they progress through steps, and then once they go through

▶ 1:23:01 those steps it's a cost of living increase and I'll use Polly and I as an example for us it's simply a cost of living adjustment we're long-term employees we've been here far beyond those eight years is it could you could it could an employee go two or three years between steps no no so if and I'll I'll give a very brief example. If someone is hired on July 1, they're hired at step 1, would progress to step 2 if their performance standards are met at their six-month anniversary. From that point on, they would progress through steps on an annual basis. So they would go to step three, one year later, step four, one year later, step five, another year later. So in essence, where they're getting their performance review annually then.

▶ 1:24:07 Jack Eccles: I just wasn't sure if they were multiple. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks for that, Claire. You're very welcome. Councillor Eccles. Thank you, Ms. Long. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councillor Garrett asked most of my questions, but I guess I just have one quick question would be, is that, is the step process the same for both hourly and salary, um, not in place? Yes. Okay. So, so their hourly rate would be adjusted according to whatever yes level in, you know, are there eight levels of hourly compensation as well, or is it, is it, um, steps? Yes, there are eight steps. That is correct. And then my, my other question is just, on the unemployment expenses account I was just kind of wondering what causes

▶ 1:24:57 the variation from year to year it looks like in fiscal 19 we spent about one hundred and twenty seven thousand and then here to date when this report was generated it's about 27 is that paying into unemployment insurance and does it vary by like who's terminated throughout the year so let me get the unemployment budget um so unemployment in let me start by saying that the city of melrose is a reimbursable employer so in other words we pay claims as required we don't have again self-funded we don't have any type of insurance we reimburse the commonwealth of massachusetts as claims are made Back in FY19, I don't remember all of the details, obviously, or the specifics. We would have paid out that amount of money based on the number of former employees who were awarded unemployment compensation.

▶ 1:26:02 And so let's fast forward to FY20. A few things now, we all know that due to the pandemic, there are millions of people that are work. And in Massachusetts, what that has done. Typically, the city of Melrose, we are able to go into our account through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We can see the claims that are being made. We can see the employees names, et cetera. and we pay our bills on a monthly basis. Due to the pandemic and the high volume of claims, the last bill we received was for February. We're still waiting for March, April, and May. So the figures you see are not accurate figures. Does that answer your question? Yeah, and just, I guess one follow-up is that in a year that we're not necessarily anticipating right now

▶ 1:27:06 having having to to do any layoffs in a year where there were a lot of layoffs that would be a very high line item in there right like going forward do you see us possibly passing a hundred thousand dollars if we had kind of a worst case scenario yeah i mean that that is so hypothetical however um yes if the city of melrose were to lay off or furlough employees at some point in the future it would be likely that i would be before you with a transfer order into the unemployment budget um at this time however those layoffs and furloughs are not planned and and i believe that mayor broder spoke to that Thanks, Ms. Long. You're welcome. Sure. Councilor Thomas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Long,

▶ 1:28:05 Cory Thomas: thank you so much for being here and thank you for being so readily available to provide information to myself and other councilors when we're looking for it. I know you just said it was a hypothetical regarding furloughs, but if we did have to come to a furlough, is that tenure-based? you know i i have to admit i am not fully versed um procedures and policies of furloughs i didn't to that um i can and get back to you i don't have specifics that would be great thank you so much um we've also had a lot of talk the last couple weeks of budget hearings uh about the sick leave buyback um are people accruing sick time as they normally do right now while working from home so um there has been um i think your question is

▶ 1:29:20 uh are employees still eligible for accruals is that what you're asking yes are they are they accruing sick time at the normal rate yes yes because people are working remotely and they they are working yes um yeah i i'm not i'm not trying to raise you know any um improprieties or anything like that but i am you know just you know questioning um are people still putting in their sick time while they're working from home Yes, actually. So we communicate with our city employees on a regular basis, the Human Resources Department, Polly and I, and people have been encouraged, in fact, to take their vacation time, take a day off, unplug from that computer and phone, and they are, and they're reporting those vacation days we have certain employees and without getting into

▶ 1:30:28 any details who are accessing family and medical leave benefits due to either an ill child or parent and they are using their accruals while working remotely outside of the building uh the last two years um pretty much on average 240 city employees have taken advantage of the sick leave buyback do do we project a similar number of employees taking advantage of that this year again that's difficult to determine so the incentive is based on the number of days used so if a particular employee is seriously ill with the flu has an example they could likely use all their sick time in one year one month and they would not be eligible for the incentive so it's it's difficult to project because you know it's

▶ 1:31:36 uncertain is there sick bank is there sickly Bank there are there are sickly banks in every collective bargaining agreement that as I understand it the I believe it was mayor Milano agreed and placed this benefit in the collective bargaining agreements over 20 years ago yes and then lastly wine item 0 1 1 5 2 2 physical exams is that for you know our municipal employees our public service officers police and fire It's actually pre-employment exams for patrol officer, firefighter, paramedic, and our Department of Public Works employees. It also involves pre-employment psychological exams, which are required by the Commonwealth of Mass for both public safety groups. Thank you so much, Ms. Long. Have a good night.

▶ 1:32:50 Jen Grigoraitis: Sure, you too. Have a good night, Crater IS. Thank you, Chairman Snellen, and thank you, Ms. Long, for being here. I just had a couple of questions and I manage HR in my own day job, but certainly not to the depth that you do, so sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But I think, I know we've had a lot of conversations about what the coming fiscal year may look like and if the city could ever get into a position where we would have to tighten our belts. And I think from an HR perspective, when you're talking about people, there's a lot of things that you can do first to trim small amounts of dollars before you get into the actual eliminating of positions. So I wanted to know to that end, is there any plan to consider caps on vacation rollovers if employees are allowed to roll unused vacation time over from one year to the next?

▶ 1:33:43 So, we do allow employees to carry over their vacation time. And as you know, vacation time is, it translates into dollars for the employee. We are obligated as an employer, in other words, if someone were to leave, we would have to pay out their vacation time. What Mayor Broder did do is he informed our city hall group and non-union as well as local 272 as well as the library group that carryover will be limited to what is defined either in the collective bargaining agreement or the employment manual. So again, he's encouraging people, take a day, take a week, take your time, even though you may not be flying out of state to go on vacation use your time because you won't be able to carry over a significant amount of time thank you

▶ 1:34:53 Jen Grigoraitis: and have you had any conversations about possibly instituting hiring freezes in the coming fiscal year either on a department department basis or case-by-case basis so I I am NOT authorized to recruit unless mayor Broder and Patrick De La Russo sign off on those vacancies. And the only two vacancies that we are recruiting for now, and I don't foresee others at this time, is the – there is a library assistant position vacant in FY20 due to a promotion. And we are filling the vacancy of treasurer collector. And then one last question, and I'm not familiar with the city's HR practices going back to the recession of 2008, but has the city in the past in times of fiscal constraint ever offered an early retirement incentive for employees?

▶ 1:35:55 Yes, yes. So the early retirement incentive, as you know, has to be instituted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because it's pension law. So, credible years of service were previously offered. There was an early retirement incentive, and I don't remember the year. I believe it was prior to 2008, and I believe it was in the early 2000s. In 2008, we did offer a financial incentive for uh early retirement um however truthfully credible years of service are much more valuable from the state than any dollar amount and we did not have anyone willingly take those incentives related to that you know there's always the um it can save you dollars in the short term but then you can have active employees transferring to retiree health benefits

▶ 1:36:59 And I'm not familiar with what the city rates are for those. Could you talk about what retiree health benefit costs, what portion the city covers versus what the employee or the retiree covers? Sure. So we have currently approximately 745 retirees on the city. I'm sorry, that includes city and school. And we offer for those non-Medicare retirees, meaning under age 65, they have the option of enrolling or continuing their health insurance in an active non-Medicare plan. The city currently contributes 84% towards those active plans. We have special legislation for retirees. The city contributes 85% to our non-Medicare retirees. That's a very small number, though, of retirees. The majority of our retirees are 65 and over, and they are required

▶ 1:38:06 Leila Migliorelli: to enroll in medicare and the city of melrose contributes 70 to medicare supplemental plans and the retiree pays 30 thank you you're welcome hi chairman thank you mr chairman thank you miss long for being here um the council has already asked a lot of fantastic questions i just have a one minor one for you um your advertising line item i noticed has gone up can you talk a little bit about i know you just mentioned that there were only two positions you anticipated recruiting for um is that directly related to that or something else no so um just prior to the pandemic uh when we were preparing to advertise um for a number of positions um i saw that we were going to once again run out of funds in the advertising

▶ 1:39:01 line item and we often run out of funds in that line item um every fiscal year so um when we were building the budget i requested a few more hundred dollars in that line item now um you will see it looks as if we didn't spend the entire amount in fiscal year 20 that's actually out of date the advertising line item is now at zero so when this budget was printed on may 12th it didn't reflect a payment that we made to uh in fact mass municipal association that um advertised one of our positions okay just because it looks like the request is for a four thousand dollar line item and last year you spent you know a little over 2500 so well that's um so that's what i'm let me actually i'll get i'll get the budget one moment okay so what what you're are

▶ 1:40:13 Leila Migliorelli: you um referring to 2019 year-to-date spent or yeah i guess sorry sorry yeah that i mean that being the last year so then 2020 year-to-date spent is almost it looks like 2500 and then but for this this upcoming fiscal year for fy21 it's a 33 percent increase to four thousand so i was just and that's that's what i was referring to so the 2020 year-to-date spent is is not an up-to-date figure that this line item is now at zero we have spent all the funds the payment of that bill is just not reflected in this year-to-date spend okay it would be the reverse though it would be that not zero but it would be the total amount spent so spent the entire budget got it thank you anybody else for the first time thank you mr chairman uh miss long uh you talked about employees advancement

▶ 1:41:21 John N. Tramontozzi: each year by these steps um and uh the steps can you break down the steps to a percentage would it be how much percentage per year would be would one step be equivalent to So I'm not certain that I could answer that question for every collective bargaining unit, because I think the percentages are different. For non-union employees, the step increase is approximately a 3% increase. So there'd be a 3% increase in salary every year that you go through the steps. And my understanding was that there was also a cost-of-living percentage added to it. No, at one time, not now. Yeah, and hasn't been for 10 years. Okay. So now once the person goes over and completes the eight steps, they're not eligible for a step increase, but now it's equivalent to it's a cost-of-living increase.

▶ 1:42:22 John N. Tramontozzi: Correct, yes. Who determines what the cost of living increase percentage of salary each year will be? The mayor and the chief financial officer. Okay. So there's no requirement. I mean, there's nothing in the books that requires a cost of living increase every year, correct? Well, for our represented employees, it is required because it is in their collective bargaining agreements. But for non-union employees, no, it is not required. Okay. The mayor could make a different decision if he so chooses. And that percentage could be any percentage for that matter, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 percent, or even more, whatever. So I have been the director of human resources now for 20 years. And in the last, since 2010, FY11, there was a wage freeze across all employees.

▶ 1:43:28 John N. Tramontozzi: And then there was a 1% cost of living adjustment for both bargaining units as well as non-union up until at least last year. I believe the cost of living adjustment increased from 1% to 2% just within the last year or two. Okay. Again, it's discretionary on the part of the administration and the mayor as to what that cost, if there were to be a cost of living increase from year to year, and what that percentage would be outside of the collective bargaining units agreements, right? Yes. So, a mayor, he doesn't have to follow generally what the private sector does. And if a private sector any given year doesn't go with cost of living it doesn't matter it's this municipal employee could still get the cost of living increase i suppose so right okay all right

▶ 1:44:30 Mark Garipay: thank you you're welcome yes thanks thank you mr chairman um uh just two more quick questions on me um when an employee retires do we um is there any uh unused sick time buyback um after 20 they must have 20 years of service so if someone resigns or retires uh there is a maximum dollar amount that they could receive yes and when we're doing the budget uh do they do they look at eligible employees to retire to base that dollar amount or um how do they usually figure that dollar amount in the budget um you mean for for employees with 20 years of service or more yeah or at retirement age you know i i look at that as a potential liability not knowing i'm just curious on how we budget for that dollar amount um again i believe that our chief financial officer

▶ 1:45:32 may be able to give more information about that um so if if an individual department head knows that there is going to be retirements in their department and we can plan for those retirements financially i believe that funds are transferred in the new fiscal year so in other words in fy21 if the fire department knows they're going to have three retirements they will plan for the expenses related to those retirements but truthfully we often don't know when people are going to retire they don't necessarily give us notice and you know or significant notice it isn't required um so we may learn about these retirements um in the mid-year so to speak so that's yeah and and it would be the auditor's office that would um plan for that i was just

▶ 1:46:31 Mark Garipay: curious on the thought process if we know that 50 50 employees are eligible for retirement are we budgeting that in case they do because that would be a big lump sum that would fall on our budget so i was just curious on that yeah i would assume they do that is a question for the chief financial officer thank you thank you and and one other question yeah and last night when we were talking with Mr. Flavin regarding the position in the open position you said that is that positions open is that is that closing are we accepting applications at this point and it's a two-part question and he did mention that he thought that based on the applications we may need to increase that salary that i believe we're probably advertising um do you have the same um yeah

▶ 1:47:21 you went in agreement on that also um so the the first part of your question was about um recruitment we actually posted that position um in early march and i advertised on the mass municipal association's employment page as well as the massachusetts treasure collectors professional organization page um and soon after we posted it the pandemic hit and we made the decision to to uh suspend that recruitment process given everything that was going on um before that though we had received five resumes um uh two of those candidates have been recently contacted. And Patrick De La Russo and I will be doing initial screening interviews in the coming weeks. So we are continuing with that. In terms of the salary,

▶ 1:48:29 I don't believe necessarily that we will have to pay significantly more. Patrick De La Russo reviewed salaries in other cities and towns we looked at the benchmark survey through mass municipal association and i think we're um i think we're at the right level that remains to be seen thank you thank you for your uh thorough answers on everything i really appreciate it or no problem anybody else have any uh questions I was going to make a motion to recommend the bottom line of the HR department. Move the bottom line 152 HR by Councillor Eccles, seconded by Councillor Thomas. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Vice Chair Migliorelli? Yes. Councillor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councillor McMaster? Yes. Councillor McNaught?

▶ 1:49:34 Yes. Councillor Eccles? Yes. Councillor Tramontozzi? Yes. yes council garapet yes councilor stewart yes so thomas yes social maladin yes president Grigoraitis yes chairman sanella yes 11 yes okay 12 workers comp i don't know johnson jimmy you want to add to that um so with the workers compensation budget um again we are self-funded as opposed to having an insurance policy um as of today uh we only have one short-term recipient meaning one um employee who is receiving workers compensation and unable to work and we have three long-term benefit recipients and those recipients are determined by the Department of Industrial accidents the budget essentially is level funded except for the expense line item which is increased by approximately 8.5% quite

▶ 1:50:52 honestly that's simply the cost of doing business I'm ready for questions there are any thank you mr. chairman miss long just for the public at home can you just say the amount that is being budgeted for oh yes sure I'm sorry the total Total budget for workers' compensation is $410,000. I'll go through it very briefly. Workers' comp medical expenses is $100,000 being level funded. The workers' comp expenses is $40,000. It's being increased by approximately $3,000 to $4,000. Workers' comp benefits, again, that's the compensation one would receive without injured. level funding at $200,000 and indemnification which is injured on duty for police and fire is $70,000 for a total of $410,000. Thank you. You're welcome.

▶ 1:52:10 Any other questions? We'll make a motion to move the bottom line. Motion to move the bottom line yes McMaster McNaught their Eccles the Garipay? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. Councillor Maladine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Sinella? Yes. 913 unemployment. So we spoke a little bit earlier about the unemployment budget. We are requesting $100,000 again. We are level funding this budget. As I did mention, the most recent invoice was for the month of February, which was only $48.48, believe it or not. We've been notified that the invoices are delayed by a minimum of eight weeks. We're actually on week 12, where we have not received invoices for unemployment costs. We don't expect anything dramatic. It's just the Commonwealth is unable to

▶ 1:53:44 process these invoices. I believe I mentioned that Melrose is a reimbursable employer. We pay claims on a monthly basis. The basic stats with unemployment benefits is the maximum benefit is $823 on a weekly basis. And at 26 weeks, the maximum benefit is $21,398. Any questions? Seeing none, make a motion to move to the bottom line. Motion to move the bottom line made by Councilor Garrafa, seconded by Councilor Thomas, Councilor Clark, please call the roll. Senator Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis?

▶ 1:54:57 Yes. Chairman Snela? Yes, and just to confirm Councilor McMaster's vote, Yes, yes, nine, fourteen health contractual last, but not the health contractual budget. I refer to actually as employee benefits. It includes a number of accounts of group health insurance, Medicare, life insurance, premiums, flexible spending account, Medicare, part B, premium, et cetera. the health insurance opt out program. The increase in the budget is the total increase in the budget is approximately 5%. The average rate increase in health insurance this year was 5% as well. I believe you all know and understand that the city of Melrose is enrolled with the group insurance commission and the group insurance commission provides insurance health insurance

▶ 1:56:10 uh for municipal entities as well as the commonwealth of massachusetts our projected enrollees as of july 1 2020 and again this is a projection is 515 actives and 745 retirees. This year, typically our open enrollment for benefits period is 30 days. However, with the pandemic, the Commonwealth extended that to 60 days. So open enrollment actually just ended on Monday, June 1st. I'm ready to take questions. President Grigoraitis? Thank you. Just as you were talking about the GIC, which I'm very familiar with, you said the increase for FY21 is projected to be 5% on average? On average, yes. Can you just, I'm thinking about the previous conversation around the typical percentage increase of steps, what is the typical percentage increase of health insurance? I'm trying to

▶ 1:57:19 find out if city employees are actually losing money year over year as their health insurance costs continue to rise and their salary may not be keeping pace. I would say I don't remember, quite frankly, ever receiving a 5% compensation increase or seeing others receive that increase in compensation in the 20 years that I've been here so health insurance the the increases in health insurance I think are greater than the compensation increases that some employees receive the GIC typically increases rates every year I mean is my perspective I'm assuming it's the same for municipality that's that's correct yes thank you You're welcome. Does anybody else have any questions? Council Chairman Tozie.

▶ 1:58:18 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would make a motion to online 511000 salary and wages, fund that to 2020 by reducing it by $1,408.44. Second. We have a motion made by Councillor Tramontozzi to reduce the salary wages by $1,408.44, seconded by Councillor McMaster. I've heard these calls have been in discussion. Any discussion on that? Seeing none, I'm third. I submit we are in favor. No. Councillor Tramontozzi? Yes. McMaster. Yes. Councilor McMott. No. Councilor Eccles. Councilor Garipay. No. Councilor Stewart. No. Councilor Thomas. No. Councilor Jamaleddine. No. Grigoraitis? No. Chairman Cinella? No. 9-0, 2-yes. Motion fails. Councilor Eccles? Motion to move the bottom line here for 9-14. Second. Motion made to move the bottom line of 9-14 by Councilor Eccles, seconded by Councilor Knott.

▶ 1:59:50 I'm glad I have discussion nice to me really yes Tramon Tosi yes McMaster counselor McNaught yes sir Eccles sir Gare pay yes sir Stewart yes sir Thomas yes councilor maladin yes president Grigoraitis yes chairman sanella yes 11 yes thank you miss long thank you very much i appreciate your time thank you miriam bye at this time i'll entertain a motion um take a five minute recess so counselor eccles can have a piece of cake with his dad motion for a five-minute recess security seaway uh which was made by president Grigoraitis seconded by someone council mcnaught please vice chair Migliorelli yes councilor Tramontozzi yes councilor mcmaster yes councilor mcnaught yes councilor eccles yes councilor Garipay yes

▶ 2:01:06 Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Sinella? Yes. 11 yes. See you in a few. Be back at 8 37. Thank you. Madam Clerk, are we recording? We are recording. All right, so we're now back in session. It has been brought to my attention that we had somebody in queue for public comment and there was some technical difficulties. So, at this time, I would like to entertain a motion to open the floor back up for public comment and open the floor back up for public comment. Second. Second. Motion made to open the floor back up for public comment. Councilor Stewart, seconded by President Grigoraitis. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

▶ 2:05:38 Vice Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes. Chairman Sinella. Yes. Eleven yes. So, we are now back open for public comment and that they're available. I have a Mr. Jerry, I'm going to unmute him. You are unmuted. Hi, thank you. How are you this evening? Just a couple of quick things as you've been going through the budget hearings, I appreciate all the diligence that the coast is paying attention to. What's obvious from here is that the document that you apparently working with is different

▶ 2:06:43 from the budget document that's posted on iqm to it apparently it's more detailed in some ways and i'd like to request that whatever you have in front of you working with you is available to the public to be able to see online and access because there's no other way of getting it um you know we can't go to city hall we can't go to the meeting and see anything in person additionally the munis software that the city uses um it can very easily export out the anything from munis into an excel format and for budgeting purposes and for analysis purposes much more beneficial to use an excel file to to do to to evaluate the budget than to try to use a pdf file and it does which doesn't even convert well into itself

▶ 2:07:31 so I appreciate if you could maybe even have the city administration put give you an excel file that you could use but also to post that on the documents on the on the IQ m2 as well another issue I'd like to discuss is generally the issue of indirect costs as they will eventually as you go through your budget you'll be dealing with water and sewer and the water and sewer rates but um but indirect costs are things that excuse me there they are in theory resources of the city that are used by the enterprise fund and that a bit that a bill to the enterprise fund accordingly over a number of years there's been a lot of play that's gone around with the indirect costs and you know for a couple years we were paying a huge amount of the city solicitor salary

▶ 2:08:25 for instance with it now this year we're not paying anything is what they're proposing but they're all different indirect cost even with the property and casualty amount that's in the city solicitors budget as well another issue of the indirect cost is that it would be nice if the if the council could have an evaluation and this is leading up to when we do the water and sewer but as people come before you try to determine what what part of the budget of a total budget of salary and wages for instance of the auditor's office is going to be applied to the water and sewer enterprise fund as a charge to that and then to see if it's actually commensurate with the amount of extra effort needed to manage water and sewer enterprise accounts you know that so

▶ 2:09:14 that the numbers actually make some sense I think I noticed that you know almost 50% of the property and casualty the entire property and casualty insurance item is being is likely being charged to the water and sewer account we don't have all the documents and on the record yet to see that but you know there's a lot of infrastructure in the city that were that were insuring as well as a lot of exposure and a lot of different things that we're ensuring in and it's hard to believe that the water and sewer even with something like Brazil Street notwithstanding that that that amounts to three hundred thousand dollars out of the five hundred and something thousand five hundred seventy five thousand dollar premium so anyway thank you for allowing me to speak here

▶ 2:10:05 I I don't know why it wasn't giving me a raise hand feature at the beginning but thank you for taking care of that thank you for your time I'm sorry Jerry if you could just tell me your address for the record in my own still just tell me your address for the record 6 to Mount Vernon Street thank you okay I don't believe we have anybody else in queue at this time I'll obtain a motion to close public comment motion closed public comment second closed public comment made by Council Stewart seconded by President Grigoraitis. Madam Clerk, all those in favor? Ms. Jim Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes.

▶ 2:11:12 Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Sinella? Yes. 11 yes. Next up, 175 Planning. Actually, Chris, we're going to do City Solicitor next. Sorry. 151 City Solicitor. Yep. Is Devan Campin with us this evening? Yes. I'm going to make him a panelist right now. Councilors Javapay and McMaster in queue. Do you have something to say? Rob, can you hear us? I can can you hear me screen is all yours mr. thank you mr. chairman Member of the Appropriations Committee it's a pleasure to be with you this evening to just speak up a little bit I'm sorry mr. chairman can you hear me now yes okay pleasure to be with you this evening to present the legal departments FY 21 budget submission as the Member know last Friday I had sent some presentation

▶ 2:12:24 materials. And I want to walk through those very briefly with you. But before I do, I would like to take this time, Mr. Chairman, just to recognize the staff Member in the legal department. Some of you have met them and know them. First is my executive assistant, Kelly Kargavan, who has been with us just short of 10 years. And as you folks may already have realized, her responsibilities extend beyond the reach of my office and she's an asset to both to the legal department into the city of Melrose so I did want to recognize her as well as our assistant city solicitor for school and labor matters Amy Lindquist who joined us a couple of years ago she has primarily been handling school matters

▶ 2:13:08 under my supervision and I just want to reach out to her and recognize the efforts that she's put in in very trying times here in the city of Melrose in the world quite frankly so mr. chairman the presentation materials that I had submitted to the committee last Friday basically are intended just to lay out some of the work of my office and also to respond to the questionnaire received so duties and responsibilities of my office were laid out in that in that document there were some noteworthy changes in FY 20 one of the noteworthy changes for all of us was the transition of mayoral authority which took up a substantial amount of my time transitioning mayor inferno to mayor Broder the city also in FY 20 has just completed a process whereby we solicited

▶ 2:14:05 quotes for our property and casualty insurance product and the budget that is before you tonight reflects the competitive quote that we received. I want to report, Mr. Chairman, that the salaries for FY21 that are on the budget document constitute an accurate and complete representation of the total compensation. Member of my staff, myself included, will be receiving in FY21. uh that line item represents a modest increase over the fy20 Approval budget um and this budget uh as represented funds three full-time positions and requires minimal outside uh assistance so at this point mr chairman having said that i am happy to entertain any questions the Member of the committee may have i'll say yeah thank you chairman sanella thank you mr van

▶ 2:15:09 Mark Garipay: camping for being here um i would also like to echo your sentiments with miss carter and my dealings with her over the years she's been very responsive and very very thorough so i do echo those sentiments um a couple questions are regarding um professional services um I see that we went down, last year we had $10,000, 2020, 35, we had a revised budget of 35, and as of the end of May, I believe these numbers are, it was 22, and we're going down to 15. It seems like it's fluctuated quite a bit. Can you give us a little history on that? Sure. So professional services and suits and claims, which is another line item in my budget, are utilized for a number of expenses. As examples, experts in connection with litigation

▶ 2:16:05 that my office is handling would be paid through those line items. Outside consultants would be paid through those line items. Outside counsel would be paid through those two line items. Uninsured claims settlements would be paid through those line items. Um, and in addition for, um, we had a relatively busy year, you note in these numbers, there was a bit of an uptick in the expense. And that was primarily due to. A couple of issues number 1, um, involved a property. On crystal street, which had been a blighted property for a number of years. uh the city had to bring in some uh specialized uh lawyers to handle uh the imposition of a receivership for that property and that cost us uh probably close to twenty thousand dollars

▶ 2:16:59 Mark Garipay: in addition my office had to pay expenses related to a 40b expert which is related to the swings pond out project these are areas of the law that although I have dabbled in I am no expert and I would much prefer to have expertise behind me and handling the city's representation so those are the types of things that have driven the the expenses that you see there okay thank you and then on shooting claims we it looks like a sizable increase in spend in 2020. I know it's tough to predict, but do you see anything or do we have anything in the pipeline that you think is $10,000 enough to cover that, anything that we have going forward? Well, this line item is variable depending on the year, depending on the activity, depending on the claims,

▶ 2:18:06 Um, what may be going on, so I would represent that the 10,000 is sufficient. And if unforeseen circumstances required me to seek additional. Funding to pay bills, I would come before the city council. To make that request, but for tonight's purposes, the 10,000. Is is appropriate and you'll note that the professional services line item. Has been increased from 10,000 to 15,000. my hope is that some is adequate for fy 21 but as with suits and claims i would simply come back before you if the need arose okay um thank you thank you very much thank you counselor mcmaster thank you mr chairman good evening mr van camp and thank you for joining us good evening counselor my i have several questions but but they only relate

▶ 2:19:00 Shawn M. MacMaster: to line items 544-310 property and casualty insurance and 544-500 suits and claims. For property and casualty insurance there's a 2.6 percent increase from last year where the administration has now budgeted $551,855 for FY21. This line item is the annual cost of carrying Our insurance policy, is that correct? Correct this line item. Uh, so the, the term property and casualty insurance is the. Coverage in effect for the city of Melrose for the given fiscal year. It includes can you guys hear me? Yeah. Okay. It includes. All buildings owned by the city of Melrose. All vehicles owned by the city of minerals, all equipment, all apparatus owned by the fire department. It includes coverage for our infrastructure.

▶ 2:20:05 It includes coverage for employment practices, law enforcement practices, school board. Coverage it includes the umbrella of. Those items and the 551. 855 before you this evening represents the city's portion. Of our insurance premium. Okay. And is the 2.6. Percent increase Mr and camping as a result of a higher premium or something else. The 2.6% increase is based on the quote we received. Which was deemed the most advantageous. uh for the city for fy21 so that was a competitive number um unfortunately um as part of that process we had solicited quotes from multiple insurance companies and due to the pandemic and some of the logistics associated with the pandemic during that process uh we were only able to receive formally

▶ 2:21:04 Shawn M. MacMaster: one quote and that came from our incumbent insurance company uh and they came in at 2.6 above last year okay and i i think you did a good job of answering this but just so that the public is uh clear um the the line item is called property um and casualty insurance so property insurance would protect for instance municipal buildings god forbid if there was a fire at city hall or a flood at a school it would it would cover uh those costs and casualty insurance i would protect the city um in terms of personal injury or any damage to personal property so if somebody fell on a sidewalk or if there was a city vehicle that maybe um caused damage to a fence at someone's property those are typically the the type of cost but as you said this is uh

▶ 2:21:54 Shawn M. MacMaster: really it's all encompassing it covers uh more than just those two categories this is uh The money that we have determined. Is needed through this policy to protect the city in various different areas. Correct correct correct interpret casualty to mean liability. So, anything you would think in the universe that the city of numbers would be liable for. That's the casualty portion of the premium. Okay. And Mr. van Kevin are there insurance line items anywhere else in this budget other than. Within the city solicitors budget for anything. Yes, so the premium, as I, as I had mentioned just a few minutes ago, this is the city portion. The remaining portion of this premium. Is paid directly. From the school department, and I have that number as 18,901 dollars.

▶ 2:22:52 Shawn M. MacMaster: That is in addition to the 551 that's in my budget. And in addition to that, because we have paramedics providing emergency medicine to our residents, the Ambulance Enterprise Fund pays $11,582 for that coverage. So those two separate entities pay for insurance that's specific to them. Thank you for that. Now, our insurance policy is through Trident Insurance Services, as I understand it. through them we essentially have what's known as an insurance program where we pay an annual amount for essentially a package of different types of insurance within the policy mr. van Kampen do different premium categories exist for the various types of coverage that we have yes if I understand your question

▶ 2:23:52 correctly counselor I would say as examples of coverage we have general liability coverage we have cyber coverage we have public officials liability we have educators legal liability which I just referenced we have employment practices liability we have employment practices liability for the school department specifically we have law enforcement liability we have automobile coverage uh property coverage and um some smaller items uh crime coverage uh inland marine which i am not uh prepared this evening to explain to you what that means but it's a relatively small piece of our premium uh the big drivers in our premium uh are threefold uh general liability is uh comprising a hundred and thirty two thousand four hundred and eleven

▶ 2:24:47 Shawn M. MacMaster: dollars of this number automobile coverage is a hundred and eighty thousand seven thirty eight and property is one hundred and ninety thousand seven hundred and seventy eight dollars thank you very much for coming prepared with those uh those figures um a sewer backup that causes property damage or loss if the insurance company finds fault with the city uh would that be covered under our liability insurance yes the insurance uh the property and casualty it covers both above and below ground property of the city okay and is it is it fair to say that more often than not generally our insurance company denies claims for sewer backups um i i would say it's a it's really a factual determination that the insurance company has to make in

▶ 2:25:42 conjunction with the involved city department to determine both what exactly happened and whether there is liability on the city's part primarily claims are in three buckets the first bucket which you point out is a denial if liability is or lack of liability I should say is clear the second bucket which is which is um what i've seen for example in um in the brazil street case a number of those claims were settled and i believe the city of melrose through trident uh pace has paid out to date uh slightly over two hundred thousand dollars for those claims that is not inclusive of the out of pocket quote unquote expenses that the city also paid out to offset some of the damage there And then, so those are the settled claims, and then the other component are the claims that go to suit at the end of the day, because we simply can't work something out. And there's a clear question of liability.

▶ 2:26:41 Shawn M. MacMaster: So, the city, the city's role in that is basically to gather and provide information for the insurance company who then makes a determination. So we, as a, as a municipality, we don't. Advocate 1 way or the other, we essentially provide the information and the insurance company makes the makes the determination. Correct correct correct so 1 issue that, you know, that I've. Been very interested in exploring and that I've stated publicly. Uh, at least 2 prior times in the chamber, you and I have spoken about this as recent as recent as today is the potential. for dropping our liability insurance for self insurance. And the reason for that is as a city, I think we would be more willing to hold ourselves accountable

▶ 2:27:28 Shawn M. MacMaster: and be compelled to make somebody whole when they've suffered a loss than our insurance company, who as you know, the chief concern is their bottom line and there is no accountability to taxpayers. And the other reason as we've discussed is that I'm interested because I can't help but wonder if it would be cheaper for us if we could save money by insuring ourselves rather than using the insurance company as it relates just to the liability insurance. And I think coincidentally, ironically, we had Ms. Longhair earlier tonight who I think validated that as it relates to workman's comp where she said that we self-insure for that and she said quote uh because it would be much more expensive than hiring an insurance

▶ 2:28:19 Shawn M. MacMaster: company she had said uh that uh and and actually we had voted on this four hundred thousand dollars for self-insuring ourselves for workman's comp uh and you had just uh testified at this hearing that our general liability insurance that premiums 132 000 so um i'm wondering have there been any discussions, Mr. Van Campen, within the administration, since I raised these issues in the past, or even before that, about the potential for pursuing self-insurance. And I know you know this, Mr. Van Campen, I'm not suggesting at this time that we do that, but I do think it's having not just gone through Brazil Street, but as you know, several sewer backups in ward five where there tends to be older infrastructure that it's worth having a

▶ 2:29:10 Shawn M. MacMaster: conversation for accountability reasons to the public but also because we may at the end of the day and I don't know the answer to this but we may as some communities do save money so I'm just wondering whether or not those conversations have started or if they happened before I raised this and whether it's something that we could continue the discussion on moving forward Yeah, and that is a very fair point, Councilor. What I would say this evening is that this is my 13th budget, I believe, as the City Solicitor, and we have endeavored each year to determine the most cost-effective way to ensure adequate coverage for the City of Melrose. and um self-insured uh that self-insured approach that you reference is something that i have

▶ 2:30:03 discussed with mr delarusso um and now three mayors um on occasion and the issue uh is sort of uh multi-fold but one of the issues is whether or not our budget frankly is big enough to self-insure um and as you know you and i had a conversation earlier today about the mass tort claims act which caps liability on municipalities at a hundred thousand dollars per claim for the negligence of our employees um in performing their duties um the problem is if if one to bring one were to bring claim against the city and one of its employees we're obligated uh to indemnify our employee and if the employees actions were outside the scope of their employment there's the it's a bit of a complicated um analysis but the the short answer is um

▶ 2:31:01 Shawn M. MacMaster: it hasn't been proven to be the most cost effective way for us to ensure our property our actions and um you know all of our other uh property and liability issues so um it's something we're always talking about and um we will in the future again as well and um because if it makes economic sense we'll probably do it it just hasn't been uh determined to this date to make that much economic sense for us i appreciate that and i appreciate you being open-minded to that um you had referenced torts um and i'm you may have answered this within the question but i just i wasn't clear because sovereign immunity caps the amount of money uh that we would have to pay out uh why is it that we would we would pay for you know this live liability insurance in the first

▶ 2:31:49 Shawn M. MacMaster: place for the premium that we currently pay. We're capped per case at $100,000. Is it financially beneficial to us to even pay that in the form of an insurance premium? So sovereign immunity is an absolute protection against the government from claims against the government. Also, Tramontozzi, as he will know, goes back to the days of the king, and the king didn't want to be sued by anyone, so they just created sovereign immunity, and they were effectively immune. The Mass Tort Claims Act is considered a partial waiver of sovereign immunity, which does give residents, claimants, the ability to file claims against the government, the Commonwealth, and its subdivisions, such as the city of Melrose. To your point, however,

▶ 2:32:45 The concern is that in any given year, the city could be exposed to multiple claims, all hitting the maximum cap of 100,000. And that could theoretically take us into a position where, you know, in a worst-case scenario, if you have 10 claims in one year, each hits the $100,000 cap, we just spent a million dollars on 10 claims. whereas in this case our liability is our exposure excuse me is basically capped at our premium and any deductibles associated with that respective coverage okay thank you and not for tonight Mr. Van Kampen but could you look into for the council what we have spent a year to date for suits and claims and notify us of the the corresponding categorical breakdown so you

▶ 2:33:34 Shawn M. MacMaster: have some sense of what that you know what the cost has been this year but but by you know however you would categorize it whether it's you know potholes trips or falls personal injury sewer backups I think that that would be helpful and again you don't have to you don't have to discuss that tonight unless unless you wanted to but I think in the interest of time you'd be satisfied with just those answers in writing yeah fair enough so just so I'm clear on that request counselor um here today we've spent twenty five thousand one ninety nine sixty three out of suits and claims and i think that's probably a pretty current figure you're asking for an itemized breakdown of the expenditures that were made there i think it would just help

▶ 2:34:16 Shawn M. MacMaster: to know by category so of that of that whole what what are the percents how much is personal injury how much is property damage how much is uh specifically uh sewer sewer related um i think that would be helpful and and then just just understanding that line item i'm sorry to interrupt you but just understanding that line item that um outside services may also have been charged against suits and claims okay because that's considered part of a suit or a claim i will break that down for you as well okay thank you my final question is um actually Actually, 1, 1 additional question for the insurance line item. How much of that figure if any is funded through a water sewer enterprise. I don't know the funding source for that line item.

▶ 2:35:12 But the figure that is on my budget is the actual city portion, the city share of it. I just don't know how it's. uh how it's absolutely funded that's something you could look into and then the final question that might be a good question for mr delarusso to answer i don't i don't that's above my pay grade and do you know uh what the cost of the uh our current deductible is offhand for trident um it depends on the on the on the particular um policy line so as an example uh the employment practices liability that I referenced earlier. The deductible is $25,000 per claim. And just so you know, that is a relatively substantial deductible, but the purpose for maintaining that level of deductible is to keep our premium costs down. For property damage claims, I believe

▶ 2:36:07 Shawn M. MacMaster: the deductible is $1,000, but don't quote me on that. I'm just, I can confirm that, but I believe it's one thousand dollars and as we as we look to potentially at some point perhaps have another insurance carrier i think that might be worthwhile as you reference overall is looking at maybe increasing our deductible to save to save on the premium uh so uh so we're able to maybe save some some money thank you as always for uh for being so prepared for the information you gave us beforehand and uh for your candor tonight thank you very much mr nick hendry thank you mr hubert Councilor Eccles. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. VanCampen, for being here. I just have one quick question. I'm sure it's an easy answer. The Electronic Mass General Laws just saw a 32% increase in, is that just like an access to a database or?

▶ 2:36:58 Yeah, so that is, I'm sorry, Councilor, so that is the legal department's subscription to Westlaw. And we, this year, ended a multi-year agreement with Westlock, so we had to renew the agreement. And that is both a result of renegotiating a new multi-year agreement, and the real driver in that percentage increase is that I actually enhanced the product, gave myself more ability to search in other jurisdictions, have other resources. And simultaneously, what we did at the same time is we eliminated some hard copy materials that my office has been receiving. So that's basically an enhanced legal research database that I didn't have in FY20. Thank you, Mr. McGavin. And as a new counselor, I just wanted to say

▶ 2:37:54 Jack Eccles: that your services were invaluable to the council. I can't speak for the other nine new ones, but I think they probably feel the same that the council provided in regards the open meeting law and everything was was very very helpful and and we value that thank you and i appreciate i am inclined to support this bottom line and would make a motion to move the bottom line forward at this time motion yeah i know yeah motion on the floor to move the bottom line made by councillor eccles seconded by vice chair migliorelli um point of order i was in the queue with questions yeah and i'm getting that thank you okay so next in the queue is council tramitosi all right thank you discussion chairman yeah also just to reiterate i have McNaught i have

▶ 2:38:44 John N. Tramontozzi: counselor thomas and then council Garipay for the second time all right thank you uh thank you mr van campen for uh for coming in today and uh my focus of questions is going to be on the salary and wages line so i just want to make make make it clear so that your salary the executive assistant and the assistant solicitor for schools and labor are all funded within um your budget budget 151 city solicitor correct the the numbers that are in this budget document council tremendous are the actual figures we will receive in fy21 if that's your question yeah i think yeah to expand on the question in other words there's no part of your salary that's paid from the water and sewer budget as uh someone some people have suggested no part of your salary or your your assistant

▶ 2:39:37 John N. Tramontozzi: salary paid from the school uh school department salary uh the school department budget correct no um as far as i know uh no part of my salary in fy 21 will be paid from the water and sewer enterprise fund but if you want confirmation of that i would ask mr delarusso because those would be his those would be his ultimate decisions in conjunction with the mayor as far as the school department is concerned um not only do not only does the school department not pay any portion of my salary but the city side of the ledger pays the full portion of the school department's lawyer's salary so the expense for legal is entirely on the city side okay thank you for that explanation um looking at the original 2020 budget um that line item was 278 thousand

▶ 2:40:32 John N. Tramontozzi: seven hundred and fifty five dollars and ninety six cents um that the the board of alderman Approval then uh the 2020 revised budget um is 283 thousand seven hundred fifty five ninety six it was increase of five thousand dollars uh can you provide an explanation for that Sure. That was an increase in the salary for the executive assistant to the city solicitor, who also serves as clerk to the liquor commission. And so that $5,000 increase was actually Approval by the city council in September of 2019. And I believe the request to increase her salary by that amount was unanimously Approval by the city council. I do recall that I do recall that that was came before us. So I just wanted a public explanation because there is that change in the revised budget. And I do recall that we did increase that for that amount because of the liquor license commission extra duties that she was referring to that.

▶ 2:41:40 John N. Tramontozzi: Yeah, and that's a fair and that's a, that's a fair point counselor and I think I just, well, I have the minute I want to raise the fact that my salary and wages line is effectively not going up 4.4%. It's actually going up less than that because the budget. The increase should be on the revised budget, not the original budget. So that increases closer to 2% in total than it is to 4.4%. With that in mind, I mean, with that in mind, I have to reexamine. We were the administration provided us with a, um, a budget that strike that a, an itemization spreadsheet of the, um, the budget items. Comparing fiscal year 2020 with fiscal year 2021. Listing all salaries and wages for all departments and whether the employees were union or non union.

▶ 2:42:38 John N. Tramontozzi: And because of that, as you know, and not to take anything personal, Mr. Van Campen, because your office has helped me in the council and the board of all of them in many occasions, so you do a great job. But being consistent, I am requesting all departments to level fund back to 2020, as you know, the 2020 level. But I'll have to examine that line item, because with that in mind, there may be an inconsistency there. So I have to recalculate. But for now, and I'm going to probably propose that once the full budget gets before the council. But for now, I'll let it go and kind of review those figures that the administration provided us once again. So, well, thank you. I appreciate that explanation.

▶ 2:43:31 Cory Thomas: Thank you, Councilor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Councilor McNaught. Mr. Chairman, my questions have been asked and answered, so I'll give up my time. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Thomas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Mr. Van Kampen. Thank you for being so well prepared as usual. I just have one question, and it is pursuant to the um amount of money put aside for the 40b challenge if there is no current 40b challenge on the books does that money stay or does it go back to the general fund council you just kind of blew up in my ear there can you repeat that question sorry about that i i tend to do that sometimes um it was relevant to the the 40b money um i think it was professional services

▶ 2:44:24 you had some money put aside for 40b challenge if there's no current 40b challenge does that money stay with your department or does it go back to the general fund um are you referring to my professional services line item or the suits and claims stabilization fund wherever the 40b money was was funded through okay so um So, the cost of defending or opposing, I should say, a 40B proceeding is a multi-year undertaking and could cost—can you hear me, Councillor?—could cost, okay, could cost in the several hundred thousand dollar range so that is what the suits and claim stabilization fund was intended there was a transfer in recently so we're trying to sort of hedge against the potential exposure there the professional services line

▶ 2:45:31 item in my budget which is for fifteen thousand would include any 40 B expense for a professional outside work but it also includes other things it includes Arbitration fees, I have an arbitration. Can you hear me? Yep. Okay. I have, I have an arbitration coming up on Tuesday of next week or Wednesday. Excuse me? The fee for the arbitrator could be paid out of that line item. So, it's not just exclusively for that meeting. It could be for a number of things. Anybody else for the 1st times. once they're guaranteed for the second time. Yes, thank you, Mr. Van Camp. But I just want to ask, you had mentioned something on the property and casualty insurance with regards to the schools. I think it was around $18,000 in their budget.

▶ 2:46:29 Correct. Sorry? Correct, that'll show in the school department's budget. So just for my own education, the city maintains all the school buildings. Just curious why that property casualty insurance wouldn't be on the city side. Because the schools actually own the buildings, excuse me, the school department owns all the school buildings. Okay, thank you seeing no other hands have gone up. We have a motion to move the bottom line. I'm sorry to move the bottom line. Sorry then. Sorry. For an hour ago, Madam clerk, please call the roll. by seemingly really yes yes Councilor McMaster yes Councilor McNaught yes Eccles yes the garipay yes let's do it yes Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes.

▶ 2:47:37 President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Cinella? Yes. Eleven yes. Thank you, Mr. VanGammer. Councilor Thomas, get that mic fixed, would you? Get your headset. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up. 165 liquor. Mr. Nevin with us? Bring him in. He's gone. He's gone? Yep. I'd entertain a motion to hold this in committee. Second. Motion to hold 165 liquor in committee made by Councillor Stewart and seconded by Vice chairman really yes Tramontozzi yes McMaster yes McNaught yes that's our Eccles the garape that's a garape sorry yes that's just do it yes Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Maladine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Cinella? Yes. 11 yes. Is the city planner with us or is she up with the letter today? She is in the chat.

▶ 2:49:15 Shawn M. MacMaster: You know that right? I'm sorry? I didn't see you in the chat. I don't know who that was. Ms. Gaffey's here. I'm gonna make her a panelists I also got word that mr. van Kampen can come back if that's the will of the committee 175 point of order yes I just think parliamentary procedure we do bring mr. van Kampen back he's going to speak on on liquor since we did send it to committee I just think we at the appropriate time after we hear from the the city planner we'd have to in order to get it back I think we'd have to do a motion to reconsider um so just i put that out there mr chairman um which i can do that with a simple majority vote thank you thank you okay did you mean he'd come back to speak on behalf

▶ 2:50:04 Denise Gaffey: of liquor or he is that what i'm sorry he's in the room okay well all right we'll get to that thank you for your patience miss kathy no problem the screen is yours great good evening happy to be here this evening to answer any questions that you have about the planning department budget as you can tell the budget for the planning department is primarily based on salaries we have five employees in the department three are full-time the planning director myself along with the senior planner and the accounts manager slash GIS analyst those are our three full-time positions we also have can you hear me okay yeah some kind of interference ever all right this is microphone again I'm not sure okay I was

▶ 2:51:07 Denise Gaffey: just speaking about the employees in addition the office supports the sustainability manager which is a 30 hour per week position and the planning coordinator position which is part-time 24 hours primarily supports the zoning board of appeals but also provides quite a bit of support in general to the department specifically around zoning and support for development review which we do quite a bit of in the department um i think the most noteworthy change this past year has relates to the sustainability manager position that was previously cast as an energy efficiency manager and that was recast as a sustainability manager this past year, right about the time that Mayor Broder started his term.

▶ 2:52:03 Denise Gaffey: And that was important to him to broaden the responsibilities of that position and it made sense at this point in time, given all the work that Martha has done with energy efficiency and now to shift more towards climate resiliency and net zero to try to attain the goals that we have as a community there. So in addition to changing the job description and expanding the role, her hours also increased by six hours per week. So she was previously working 24 hours per week and now she's working 30 hours per week. So that is reflected in her salary, obviously. The other thing I pointed out in the questionnaire and just as I pointed out last year, the planning department, we sort of have historically tried to secure grants and other types of funding

▶ 2:53:05 Denise Gaffey: wherever we can so we can help leverage additional funds to do our work and take some pressure off the city's general budget. So that is still the case this year. We do have some portions of some of the salaries that are off budget and are in grants, coming from some grants. I'm happy to go into those into more detail. In addition, for the last couple of years we have been slowly um moving positions off of um into into the general fund and out of our community development fund because that particular funding source has become depleted in recent years and can no longer support salaries so this will be actually the last year where we will be able to transfer funds our salary more fully into the general general fund

▶ 2:54:02 Mark Garipay: And I think, let's see, so that really is, that's the reason why the salary is reflecting the 16% increase, is because we're moving more salary into the general budget, which is just necessary at this point. and I think that's pretty much made a description of the changes to answer any questions that you have thank you mr. chairman thank you miss Kathy for being here a couple couple questions thank you very much to your questionnaire it's very detailed. But looking at it, just had a couple of questions regarding the sustainability manager, which is now the energy efficiency manager. You said that some of the salary comes from energy incentive rebates. Can you tell us what that dollar amount is and what

▶ 2:55:12 Denise Gaffey: the total dollar amount is for that salary? Because we have budgeted 10,000 here, 10,389.71 in your budget. So I'm wondering what the total salary is for that position. Absolutely. So the total salary for the sustainability manager in FY21 is $59,770. So the $10,389, which is reflected in the budget, is about one-fifth of the salary. We're fortunate to be able to carry four-fifths of the salary in an incentive account which is funded by grants that the sustainability manager is able to secure for the city and through national grid incentive payments again through the work that she's able to accomplish in the realm of energy efficiency we're able to take incentives from National Grid and that funding is essentially paying for her

▶ 2:56:12 Denise Gaffey: salary. Okay and same thing with with you with the direct the director of community development I believe it's your position and there's a percentage or there's a portion that's funded by the home housing and I was wondering what what that dollar amount is and what the total salary is for that position so actually my salary is fully reflected in the budget we do get $5,000 annually in home funds those are funds that come from the federal government through the agency and they're used to support affordable housing activities only and we obtain those funds through our relationship with the North Suburban Consortium which is a consortium of communities which we are active with and we participate in

▶ 2:57:03 Denise Gaffey: making decisions about how to allocate funds among the member communities to leverage additional affordable housing units we are sometimes successful in getting funding for Melrose as well to leverage additional affordable housing units and we get a small stipend through that program it's $5,000 it's not a lot of money but it does help us to offset a little bit of the work that we do in the consortium and that that amount of money is actually reflected in the senior planners position it's the senior planner is labeled as an assistant planner I think in your budget but it's actually the seat her title is senior planner and so her her full salary is sixty five thousand nine hundred and thirteen and sixty thousand nine hundred and thirteen of that is reflected in the

▶ 2:57:52 Denise Gaffey: budget and the other 5,000 is from home funds okay and you probably know where I'm going with this last question in your questionnaire you had mentioned the accounting and GIS analyst you have 15% funded through the DPW budget in 15% through the assessing department if you can just give us a breakdown of what those dollar amounts are and then what the total salary is so we for the record yeah so our GIS analyst does quite a bit of work for DPW and for assess it for the assessing department so for several years now we've actually been the city has been reflecting the budget this way by apportioning a certain percentage to those two different department budgets but in answer to your very specific

▶ 2:58:39 Jen Grigoraitis: Her salary is $81,000, and $57,480 is reflected in the planning department budget, and about $12,000 is in assessing, and $12,000 is in DPW. Okay. Thank you very much, and you explained the salary and wage increase, kind of the crossover on why that increase is there, and everything else is level funded, so, you know, I will So, I'll be voting in favor of this budget. Thank you, Chairman Snellen. Thank you, Ms. Gaffey for being here at this late hour. I just want to echo what other counselors have said to other presenters tonight. That is a new member of the council. I really appreciate the time you've taken with many of us to update us on the various projects happening in the city. Your team is always available to answer questions.

▶ 2:59:34 John N. Tramontozzi: And I've particularly enjoyed our conversations around how we can expand affordable housing our community so i just want to thank you for that um and to echo councillor Garipay i have no issues with your budget and i'd like to make a motion to move the bottom line motion to move the bottom line made by president Grigoraitis that's seconded by councillor eccles on discussion and i do have a cue so um council chairman tozy thank you mr chairman um uh thank you uh miss gaffey for coming in um and i thank you for that explanation on on On the split on the budget on the salary, because my questions do revolve around the salary and wages line for your budget as with every other department budget. And despite, and I appreciate the fact that it's split up the way it is some in assessing some in and some in other budgets and so forth.

▶ 3:00:36 John N. Tramontozzi: But, again, being consistent with my call for the departments to fund their salary and wage line to 2020, and relying on the itemization and spreadsheet provided to the Council, I did intend to make a motion to reflect the reduction to level fund that line item to the 2020 budget. And it appears that the council's already tried to make a motion to move the bottom line. I will make that once we get the full budget I will review again this this budget and make the appropriate reduction at that time and and I appreciate the opportunity to do do that and unless I mean I'll make that motion now if the maker of the motion to move the bottom line in the second cares to withdraw that motion I don't think it's timely since I was in the queue didn't

▶ 3:01:50 Shawn M. MacMaster: get the opportunity and you all know that I'm gonna make the motion anyways but if if you can because I do believe that you've made those motions in the past when there's been a queue so would you just a maker want to withdraw her motion at this time I believe you said there's other Member in the queue for discussion thank you I've said what I had to say thank you thank you mr. chairman just to the point of moving the budget the bottom line for this budget I do think legislative decorum yeah for municipality really at any level of government should allow because you know our fundamental job as it comes to the budget is to scrutinize the budget and the decorum should allow any member of this body to at least attempt to make cuts that a member sees fit before a

▶ 3:02:55 Shawn M. MacMaster: motion is made to move the move the bottom line I think it's not just a matter of decorum I think it's a matter of collegiality and I you know I'd also suggest that you know I think we have some some fundamental differences and I respect everyone's opinion, I think the path that we've set is pretty clear that cuts to salary increases are not going to pass. But that doesn't mean it should be a matter of who makes the motion first. Again, I think it should be first, any member should be able to make a motion regardless of if it's Consul de Tramontozzi or anyone else to reduce any line item. And what I would say is it just sets a dangerous precedent because we're assuming that going forward there isn't going to be anywhere else any other line item

▶ 3:03:46 Shawn M. MacMaster: that any other counselor um is going to cut so i would just caution us on that and i'm not suggesting anyone's playing the game of let's make the motion first i'm just saying it's legislative decorum it's collegiality and i would respectfully request when we get there that the maker of the motion um our president and um i'm not sure if we suck excuse me second and i think it was council echoes uh consider that thank you thank you um per robert's rules uh anybody can make a motion at any time we do continue on discussion there have been times where others have made that motion to cut prior to the rest of the queue being exhausted i don't know that robert's rules it says as far as cuts versus moving bottom lines.

▶ 3:04:34 Cory Thomas: So I do take that into consideration and we do have Councilor Thomas next in the queue. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Gaffney, Ms. Gaffney, thank you so much for being here. I just wanted to echo some of the other councilors statements earlier, you know, about what a great job you and your department do. Specifically in ward seven, it's a lot going on in ward seven right now and you know everyone really appreciates all the the documentation and the patients the information everything that's coming out of the planning board office so please uh thank you so much and please thank your staff for me thank you i appreciate it anybody else on discussion with the on the motion we have before us um please call the roll vice chair Migliorelli yes council

▶ 3:05:25 Tramontozzi no counselor mcmaster no counselor mcnaught yes counselor eccles yes yes counselor stewart no counselor thomas yes counselor maladin yes president Grigoraitis yes Yes. And Chairman Cinella? Yes. We have three no, eight yes. Motion passes. Do we want to pull back the liquor? Thank you, Ms. Gaffney. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Councilor McMaster. Yes, Mr. Chairman. If it's the will of the chair and the committee, I would make a motion to reconsider Sending department 165 liquor commission to, or holding it in that committee. I'd make a motion to reconsider at that at this time. Thank you. Motion to reconsider holding a committee 165 link commission made by Council McMaster, seconded by Councilor Eccles, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

▶ 3:06:44 Vice Chair Migliorelli? Yes. Council Tramontozzi? Yes. Council McMaster? yes councillor mcnaught yes mr eccles councillor Garipay yes councillor stewart yes councillor thomas yes councillor maladin yes president Grigoraitis yes chairman sanella yes eleven yes he's becoming a panelist now this is uh solicitor van campen thank you mr chairman can you hear me I learned a difficult lesson tonight, Mr. Chairman. Never leave a virtual meeting earlier than you're supposed to. Welcome back. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I am here on behalf of Joe Nevin, the chairman of the Melrose Liquor Commission, and the Member of the commission to present their FY21 budget request. And these figures before you in total of $2,000

▶ 3:07:55 are budgeted on an annual basis to provide funding for professional services which are mailings and mailings and the like in terms of a butter notification in terms of notification on licenses etc and compliance checks which are typically funded through this line item and i think that is in collaboration with the health department so that's what the budget for the liquor commission is primarily intended for and i'm happy to answer any questions your Member may have questions at this time any hands going up is the will of the committee motion to move the bottom line move the bottom line on one second seconded by councillor Stewart originated by vice chair mcgrally mcgrally please call the role vice chair migliorelli yes

▶ 3:08:53 Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Cinella? Yes. 11 yes. Thank you Member. I will change your rules now yeah. Motion to adjourn. Thank you. Motion to adjourn made by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Councilor Eccles, is that clear for the final time? Please call the roll. Vice-Chairman Lee. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. isn't Grigoraitis yes chairman sanella yes 11 yes thank you have a good night happy weekend

Original documents

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