Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2020-06-15
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Jack Eccles ; Mark Garipay ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Jeff McNaught ; Leila Migliorelli ; Robb Stewart ; Cory Thomas ; John N. Tramontozzi
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Orders
- ORDER-2020-111 : Appointment of Katherine Moore, 35 Laurel St., to the Board of Appeals to fill the unexpired term of James Bradley; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023.
- ORDER-2020-116 : Reappointment of Rita Mercado, 4 Birch Hill Road, to the Board of Appeals for a five-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2025.
- ORDER-2020-77 : An Order to Provide Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Relief
- ORDER-2020-83 : An Order to Provide Real Estate Tax Relief
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 15, 2020 Web-based remote meeting Committee Meeting 7:15 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
ORDER-2020-111 Appointment Appointment of Katherine Moore, 35 Laurel St., to the Board of Appeals to fill the unexpired term of James Bradley; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023. Recommend Passage City Council
ORDER-2020-116 Appointment Reappointment of Rita Mercado, 4 Birch Hill Road, to the Board of Appeals for a five-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2025. Recommend Passage City Council
ORDER-2020-77 A Resolution An Order to Provide Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Relief Recommend Passage City Council
ORDER-2020-83 Resolution An Order to Provide Real Estate Tax Relief Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 6/24/2020 3:18 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Christopher Cinella: Good evening. Welcome to the Appropriations Committee. It is June 15th at 716. I'm the chair, Councilor Cinella, and pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th order, suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law and the Governor's March 15th order, 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 an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Mellon's website, MMTV3.org. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Vice Chair Migliorelli? Here.
▶ 0:43 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. Chairman Cinella? Here. And present. Nobody sees Jeff, right? No. Councilor McNaught? No. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to open the floor for public comment. motion open floor for public comment by Councilor Stewart seconded by Vice-Chair Migliorelli Vice-Chair Migliorelli yes Councilor Tramontozzi yes Councilor McMaster yes Councilor McNaught Councilor Eccles yes Councilor Garipay yes Councilor Stewart yes Councilor Thomas yes Councilor Jamala Dean? Yes. President Grigoraitis?
▶ 1:51 Yes. Chairman Sinella? Yes. And yes. I was a yes as well. Madam clerk. I'm sorry. I was on mute. Thank you. Councilor McNaught. Anybody you see anybody in the queue for. members of the public this is the appropriations committee if you wish to speak to the four items on the agenda tonight if you want to raise your hand the 715 meeting the full council will be meeting at 7 45 after this meeting well if there's anyone in the room they're quite a few 15 people are in the room right now if anyone would like to speak to public comment please raise your virtual hand and i do not see anybody motion of closed public comment check it we should close public seconded by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Councilor Thomas,
▶ 2:35 Christopher Cinella: not in clerk, please call the roll. Councilor Ciamigliarelli. 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. Chair Mancinella. Yes. 11 yes. At this time, we have order 2020-111, the appointment of Catherine Moore, 35 Laurel Street, to the Board of Appeals, to fill an unexpired term of James Bradley's said term to expire on the last day of February, 2023. And we have a motion to suspend the rules. I see Paul Moore. I'm just going to, this might be their joint account. I'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules so we can hear from our guests. Motion to suspend the rules.
▶ 3:31 second i'm going to suspend the rules made by president Grigoraitis seconded by vice chair 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 maladin yes president greg writers yes chairman sanella yes 11 yes so i'm gonna catherine uh catherine should be dialed in um this is paul so you can mute me and re-enable catherine Okay. Thank you. There she is. We're going to make her a panelist now. And Mayor Broder, sponsor, make him a panelist as well. If I may, Mr. Chairman. Yes. So Catherine Moore is a candidate for the Zoning Board of Appeals. I believe you have her resume and her letter of interest before you.
▶ 4:54 Paul Brodeur: Even a brief perusal of her resume makes clear her considerable contributions in the areas of environmental planning and urban planning. She has extensive experience in development, science, and policy. While she started off with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of michigan in political science she wisely chose to move on and get her masters of arts in urban planning and environmental policy she has been i guess i would say an active spectator at zba meetings for the um i want to say the past year or so and i think she would be an excellent addition to the board to follow on um jay bradley's service um who is now as i think folks know uh a local architect in Melrose but we certainly appreciate his many years of service and
▶ 5:52 his contributions to the CBA and with that I offer offer Katie for your consideration thank you miss more do you have any prepared remarks or try that again it's more can you hear us can you hear me now okay excellent so yes I do have some prepared marks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the committee and the staff. I am Catherine Moore of 35 Laurel Street. I'm honored to be here virtually before you this evening as a nominee to be the member of the Board of Appeals. I'm also very grateful for Mayor Berger's confidence in nominating me for this position. As Mayor Berger indicated by way of background, I have a bachelor's degree in political science from the university of michigan and a master's degree in urban and
▶ 7:04 environmental policy and planning from tufts i am an environmental planner focusing on environmental analysis permitting planning for institutional and municipal and commercial project projects primarily within the the boston area and prior to this i was an urban planner for a a variety of municipal planning efforts throughout New England. Since moving to Melrose in 2016, I've been a part of the Pedestrian and Bike Advisory Committee, including helping at its booth at the Victorian Fair and serving as its representative during the city's municipal vulnerability preparedness workshops. It's these roles, both personal and professional, that have given me a great understanding of board's work and function within the community i'm very interested to continue to support the
▶ 7:58 Leila Migliorelli: community through serving on the board of appeals if confirmed i'm confident my balanced approach which has been developed through my experience and planning background would help in evaluating the cases before the board with that i i thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you um and i would be happy to answer any questions thank you um i didn't see any hands go up does Does anybody have any questions? Seeing, oh, Vice Chair McGarley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Catherine. I just wanted to say that your resume and letter are outstanding and just wanted to say it's also nice to have a fellow UEP graduate joining us in a capacity in the city. So thanks so much for your application.
▶ 8:46 I think you'll be a great fit. Great, thank you. Anybody else have any questions? motion to recommend second we're going to recommend passage made by Councilor Tramontozzi seconded by President Grigoraitis on discussion Vice Chair McLaughlin 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. Chair Mancinella? Yes. 11 yes. Thank you, Ms. Moore, and thank you for serving. Thank you both for being here. Next item, Board of 2020-116, the reappointment of Rita Mercado for Burchill Road to the Board of Appeals for affordable housing.
▶ 9:39 Christopher Cinella: Thank you, Ms. Moore, and thank you for serving. Thank you both for being here. Next item, Board of 2020-116, the reappointment of Rita Mercado for Burchill Road to the Board the Board of Appeals for a five-year term, set term to expire on the last day of February, 2025. I'm sorry. I'm here to bring in Rita Mercado. Re-appointments, the appointment will not appear. Any discussion? Yeah, this is a re-appointment and I'm perfectly confident of her abilities to continue in the role that she is currently serving. So I will make a motion to recommend. Second. Motion to recommend by Councilor Tramontozzi, seconded by Councilor Garipay. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Vice Chair Migliorelli. Yes.
▶ 10:32 Shawn M. MacMaster: Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. Greg Redis. Yes. Chairman Sinella. Yes. 11 yes. 3rd order we have order 2020-77A in order to provide motor vehicle excise to Council of Tramontozzi and McMaster. Do you want to speak to this Councilor McMaster? Thank you Mr. Chairman. This is an order that Council of Tramontozzi and I filed on March 26th. The order, as originally written, sought to provide motor vehicle excise tax relief in various forms to residents facing financial hardship during these trying economic times. As everyone knows, since filing this order, Governor Baker's municipal relief bill was enacted, addressing much of what Consulate Chairman Tosi and I were attempting to do.
▶ 11:42 Shawn M. MacMaster: The governor's emergency law, in part, waived penalties and interest for late payments and extended tax deadlines until June 1st, with all penalties and fees waived until June 30th. Some of the relief in the original order that Consulate Tramontozzi and I filed goes beyond what the enabling legislation allows, which is the reason that I have submitted the revised language that is before us this evening. As much as I appreciate the governor's order, we as a city can go even further. We have the statutory authority to do so. The reality is that people with families who are struggling financially in March are still struggling today. If anything, the length of the pandemic has caused even more strain and hardship over
▶ 12:31 Shawn M. MacMaster: time. So this order is an affirmative step to help our most vulnerable residents. Those who are low income, those living on fixed incomes, and those who are unemployed. This order does two things. First, it lowers the demand notice fee from $15 to $5 for a period of nine months. Now on the surface, $15 may not sound like an unreasonable amount, but $15 goes a long way when families are struggling. At $15 a family can get themselves a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, and a pound of butter at Shaw's. The second component of this order would prevent the city's tax collector from transmitting the names of delinquent taxpayers to the registry of motor vehicles for nine months. Residents are given no forum and have no right
▶ 13:24 Shawn M. MacMaster: to plead hardship once their names are furnished to the registry this particular collection measure is highly punitive and that it will further compound the financial strain experienced by residents now and in the foreseeable future why because notification to the rmv will automatically result in non-renewal of a resident's motor vehicle registration and driver's license in In addition to a mandatory $20 release fee, non-renewal of these essential documents could result in somebody not being able to travel to and from work, which will jeopardize that person's ability and income. If you look at those who are suffering the hardest right now, and if you look more generally to history as a guide, you'll see that those who are injured most by tax collection measures
▶ 14:15 Shawn M. MacMaster: are those who can't afford both literally and figuratively to be injured any more than they already are by structural inequities. Punitive tax collection measures have always throughout history disproportionately affected the elderly immigrants in communities of color. It's no different today. Food insecurity and the risk of homelessness is a stark reality even here in Melrose. The reality is if someone doesn't pay their excise tax bill by June 30th after already being given a three-month extension, it's not out of personal negligence. It's simply because they cannot afford to pay. I would argue that an excise tax falls at the bottom of a household's economic priority list. Paying your mortgage or rent, your heat
▶ 15:08 Shawn M. MacMaster: and electricity, child care, car payment, phone service, these are the essentials that take priority over an excise tax until it eventually catches up with someone. And that's what this order looks to avoid. Let's revisit some of what Ms. Minchello, our Council on Aging Director, told the Council last week. She discussed quote the heightened anxiety among our senior population these days. She talked about seniors expressing fear to the Council on Aging staff about dying hungry and alone in their apartments. There are a few direct quotes from Ms. Minchello that should resonate with all of us. Quote, as far as food insecurity goes, the virus has really hit them hard. I talked to a senior earlier today
▶ 15:56 Shawn M. MacMaster: and she never realized how much she relied on the senior center for her meals. Ms. Minchello also said we have homeowners in Melrose private residents that are paying their taxes we have elders with mortgages and that just scares the dickens out of me because they're struggling to say to stay house rich and pocket poor I hate for them to choose between pet food prescriptions and food she added quote there's a perception that Melrose folks are well off and take care of themselves but when you put it into reality the number of elders we have in their relative incomes i just like to go home at night and hope that they're all eating miss mancello also painted a vivid picture of the ways in which the city has responded to these concerns she
▶ 16:44 Shawn M. MacMaster: talked about how the loading dock at the high school is being used as a base from which to ship vegetables to residents she said that the city has gone so far as to even purchase cheese for those experiencing food insecurity Perhaps most eye opening was when she mentioned having recently bought 800 pounds of chicken to be distributed to people in need. Purchase of 800 pounds of chicken evokes memories of the slogan from the Great Depression, a chicken in every pot. Yes, it has gotten that bad. Sadly, these are the very real and personal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. People are struggling. Our residents are hurting. Despite all of the public assistance being coordinated by the broader administration,
▶ 17:33 Shawn M. MacMaster: the Mayor has signaled that he is not in support of this order, an order which at its core aligns with the very values of Melrose Cares. The Mayor has made references to the apparent discretion that the City already applies in situations where people have difficulty paying their tax bills. What's playing out on the national scene and locally right now raises some very serious questions about discretion in government. Discretion sounds like a good thing on the surface, but the problem with discretion is that it's inherently unfair because by virtue of the word itself, it's not something that is ever universally applied, meaning that some people benefit from it while others don't. And when you place authority and power in the hands of municipal employees, whether it's a police officer, a teacher, or a tax collector, marginalized populations lose out when there are no formal policies to govern the perimeters of that discretion.
▶ 18:35 Shawn M. MacMaster: Is the young single mother relatively new to Melrose who appears at City Hall before the tax collector with three fussy children in tow who is perhaps sleep deprived and understandably impatient receive the same discretion as the 80-year-old widow who's resided in Melrose her entire life and who's been active in the community? Is the immigrant from Morocco with limited English skills who may have difficulty advocating for herself received the same discretion as the elderly woman these are fair questions to ask questions that are only further necessitated in light of the irascible way that mr flavin the city's collector interacted with this very council two weeks ago because it begs the question
▶ 19:23 Shawn M. MacMaster: how does the tax collector interact with members of the public claiming hardship when he clearly demonstrated a lack of patience and understanding with all of us the city's elected leadership to me this is a common sense measure a tangible example of how we as citizen legislators can improve the quality of life for those who we are elected to serve simply put passing this order will give reprieve to residents most in need the alternative would sanction a regressive fine that does not distinguish between income levels. It would permit the issuance of a collection warrant and it would do nothing to prevent the collateral consequences attached to the excise tax like the draconian measure of reporting names to the registry of motor vehicles or the adverse impacts
▶ 20:13 Shawn M. MacMaster: on a credit on a resident's credit score. Allow me to conclude with this personal impression. I have now been a City Councilor for two and a half years. With the nine new members I can tell you being still relatively new myself that there is no greater failing than unanimously passing an order that affects people at the most intimate of levels as a council i believe that this can be one of those orders there has been are currently and will continue to be matters on which we can't reach consensus as a council but i don't think this has to be one of those issues passing this i would suggest is not only needed for our residents but it's needed now more than ever to show that we as a city council
▶ 21:00 can in fact be united on an important issue thank you mr chairman council janitor yes uh thank you mr chairman um what more can i say all i would uh suggest is that this um order is in order and as council mcmaster eloquently stated it is a one order that is for the people of this great city so um i would i would make the motion to uh to recommend the passage okay motion to recommend passage made by council chanatozy seconded by council mcmaster on discussion So, I'm a little, I'm a little concerned about not having any members of the administration here tonight. It was something that I requested back in April when this order first came and was held in committee. I'm concerned personally about the fact that there's no one here to elaborate on the implications of
▶ 22:08 Jack Eccles: not reporting information to the registry of motor vehicles. If another counselor through the chair is able to kind of elaborate that and alleviate. I do agree that While the late fee or the demand fee is technically regressive, I think that the excise tax at its core is a progressive tax, whereas some other local taxes and fees may not be progressive. So I do agree with the spirit of reducing the fee, but maybe not tying our hands in the only way to enforce collecting this. So if anyone else on discussion has some details, I would appreciate it. Anybody else for the first time? Councilor McMaster? President Rodriguez? Well, I'm happy to yield to Councilor McMaster if he was going to try to answer through the chair. Councilor Eccles on this question.
▶ 23:00 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for the questions, Councilor Eccles. Yes, so under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 60A, it provides complete discretion to municipalities as to whether a municipality chooses to do so. I think what's important here is we are not seeking a tax deferral. People are still expected to pay their excise tax, but we're giving people nine months free from the imposition of a fine. So we're still going to collect the excise tax within presumably that calendar year, so long as somebody pays within nine months. If somebody doesn't pay, then all of the lawful authority granted to municipalities under state law would apply to resume any and all collection efforts, including having names
▶ 23:52 Shawn M. MacMaster: furnished to the registry of motor vehicles. So this is not asking that the tax be deferred. It's simply saying that because the law that the governor passed supersedes this. we can extend the deadline past June 30th. The only discretion that we have is to lower the penalty. The other discretion, of course, relates to the registry of motor vehicles, again, which I think is punitive. I think it's in line with what we're seeing across the country, especially in terms of criminal justice reform and court fees, and trying to get rid of fees that place hardship on people rather than trying to work with people who are struggling. So, again, we're not, we're not hampering ourselves from pursuing those collection measures. The other thing that I would suggest is we have two years under the law, under Massachusetts general laws, chapter 60A, section 2A, to pursue the measure of utilizing the registry of motor vehicles from the time the demand notice is issued.
▶ 24:57 Shawn M. MacMaster: So if a demand notice is issued, and I believe it's 20, I think it's maybe 20 days under the statute from the time that the bill is not paid, you have two years from that date to pursue. So we're not prejudicing the city because the city is going to have two years from notifying somebody that they're late paying. So again, all of these measures that we're seeking to provide relief doesn't prejudice the city in any way. All that it does is give people additional time to figure out how to pay this. They're going to have to pay it, but that fee is going to be dropped to $5 pursuant to this order. And I would say there's precedent there. This fee used to be $5, and the law changed in 2008, giving municipalities the discretion to raise it up to $30.
▶ 25:48 Shawn M. MacMaster: We chose, for whatever reason at that time, to do $15. But in light of the circumstances, I don't think there's, there's any reason why we can't temporarily for 9 months, go back to 5 dollars. And the language in the order says that after 9 months, it goes back to the cost of 15 dollars. So, I hope that I hope that answers your question to chairman and I just with the excuse me, Mr. and the council echoes and with respect to your question about the administration, the administration had furnished the questions that I had asked. If there's any specific questions relative to those, I've broken down some of those numbers. But again, I'm satisfied that we're not prejudicing ourselves to collect the tax.
▶ 26:29 Shawn M. MacMaster: We're just giving people nine months of not having to deal with a fine and not having their information prematurely in my mind during this pandemic sent to the Registry of Motor Vehicles. President Villanueva. Thank you, Chairman Sinella and respectfully the chair i just if um counselor if any of the two makers of the order would know if other municipalities um are going in the same direction given the governor's order or if this is something that would be unique to melrose uh to the chair uh thank you main president for the question that's a good president a good question from the president i'm not aware of any other community doing it and this actually goes back to a question that uh council echoes had um uh presented uh to
▶ 27:14 Shawn M. MacMaster: the Council of the Chairman Tosi and I a few weeks ago is about wondering whether or not there's precedent. I think it's a fair question. I'm not aware of any other community doing it. What I can tell you is I've had multiple conversations, at least two, with the Department of Revenue, with legal counsel from the DLS, who have essentially said, yes, we're within our rights to do this. We can't do as much as Council of the Chairman Tosi and I were looking to do originally, and that's why we've revised the language of the order. So that is discretion that that we have the other thing about precedent I would say, is that precedent doesn't and I'm not suggesting you're suggesting this, but precedent doesn't need to exist in order for us to act.
▶ 27:53 Shawn M. MacMaster: And I would say, we have an opportunity here to be a trendsetter to set precedent and to have other communities follow that can have wider public policy implications beyond Melrose. So, I'm not aware of other communities doing it, but we certainly don't have to wait for another community to do it. We know the DLS says we can do it. We're well within our rights, and it's a matter of if we should do it. And I think that we should, I hope that answers your question, Madam President. It does. Thank you. I just had 1, honestly, sort of administrative point of order for the clerk of committees. Do we know if the updated order is available via public view? And I. In the portal, I'm scared to log out, so I'll never be able to log back in, but I just want to make sure that the public is seeing the most current version.
▶ 28:44 Leila Migliorelli: They are last night when the revisions came in, they both both this order and 2023 have the most current revised edition online. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Sure. Vice chair, thank you. Mr. Chairman similar to Councilor Eccles and perhaps this question can be answered by the makers of the order. Do we have a sense of. How much revenue this brings in for the city, like, how much we would lose by by bringing down this amount and then about how if there's any information on how many people have not paid their motor vehicle excise tax. Thank you for the chair. Thank you. Mr. chairman. Thank you. Council. These are, I know some of the same types of questions and concerns that you had posed another important to you. So I appreciate you asking them. So you may recall that there was some difficulty getting the information relative to this order.
▶ 29:39 Shawn M. MacMaster: It took 44 days for the information to be submitted. So I can tell you what what was submitted a couple of weeks ago. It's unclear if this was closer to the time of my request. Or, if it was at the time that the information was submitted by the chief of staff, but what I can, what I can tell you is that there remains as of today. So, again, the question is, as of today, is that when Mr. Flavin answered the question to the chief of staff, or is that when the chief of staff provided the answer this information to us? So that number is 4111 bills. That are that are unpaid and with respect to so. Let me just look at the number here, because I did do the math. Let's say we do a conservative estimate. Now, mind you, we don't know when when that number was was given to us.
▶ 30:38 Shawn M. MacMaster: We do know that it's been a couple of weeks since the information was provided to us. So, presumably more taxes have been paid, excise taxes. And residents still have until June 20th, excuse me, June 30th, pay their excise tax bill. But if we do a conservative estimate, and just say that 4111 bills remain outstanding. As of July 1st, that essentially, if demand notices were sent at 15 dollars a person. That would total 61,665 again, if we're being if we're being conservative here. If we reduce the collection fee to 5 dollars, we'd alternatively collect. 20,555. So, again, it's not even it's not even that we're giving up the fine. We have to impose a fine and I guess to council echoes. I didn't I didn't even say that earlier. We, we still, we can't just get rid of the fine.
▶ 31:40 Shawn M. MacMaster: We have to statutorily impose this demand notice fine. that is in alignment or that corresponds to when you put residents on notice that a tax is delinquent. So, at the end of the day, through the Chair to answer Councilor Migliorelli question, what that would amount to is we would end up essentially not gaining an additional $41,000. Forty one thousand dollars now, you know, on the surface that may seem like a lot, but to me again, these are people who can't pay it. So imposing a fine on the backs of residents who are unable to pay it or pay that amount that fifteen dollars. If we can save them the money to me, I just, I have concerns with, and then I think related to this council through the chair is that 1 of the questions I asked relative to the.
▶ 32:38 Shawn M. MacMaster: to the rmv is how many names did we submit last year uh and the response was 930 names i found that uh interesting in terms of the number because if you look at uh the poverty rate in massachusetts the poverty rate if you break it down to an actual number is a little over a thousand so you have 930 people who got to the point where the registry had had to be notified that they haven't paid i would say those 930 people are people who you know are are under the poverty threshold um so so again i think that makes the case that these are individuals um who can't pay so again we're not prejudicing ourselves anyway we're simply reducing the fine uh to save families uh you know ten dollars uh as well as uh all of the collateral consequences the additional twenty
▶ 33:29 Leila Migliorelli: dollars um the the uh challenges and stress of having to deal with the registry of motor vehicles Get your, your, your license renewed or your registration renewed. If it's, you know, if it's not able to be done, because you haven't paid your tax any other. All right, so I thank you Councilor McMaster helpful to know that information. I guess it's, it's sort of a guess a big guess to know whether the 930 names were people living under the poverty line. That's just an assumption. Did you get a sense, sorry, through the chair of whether the administration had any issues with this loss of revenue? Was there any, any kind of conversation? I feel like that's missing someone from the administration here.
▶ 34:16 Shawn M. MacMaster: It makes a little bit difficult to kind of figure out, you know, are we able to balance this out? You know, just looking ahead. Thank you. Through the chair, what I would reference is the letter that was provided or sent to consular chairman and I, which is part of the, the record. Dated April, 29th. In that the mayor talks about enacting the governor's. Municipal relief law. also talks about having discussions with Art Flavin the treasurer and tax collector about it and again says that he thinks it's important this is signed by the mayor to preserve its ability to utilize those specific statutory tools again we're not saying we're not going to be able to utilize them we're saying reduce the fine and for nine months and don't transmit names to the registry for
▶ 35:20 Shawn M. MacMaster: nine months and the mayor goes on to answer your question constantly earlier I believe it is unwise to see it in all circumstances the only leverage the city has to collect much-needed revenue again we're not seeding anything we're basically delaying sending names to the registry for nine months and again we're not getting rid of the fee we're reducing it the penalty and we're not deferring the tax. So we prejudice ourselves in no way other than giving up the $41,000. And to me, it's $41,000 and these are difficult times. You've heard me say, and I think the irony of this, Councilor Tramontozzi say over and over again, but $41,000 being collected off of people who can't afford to pay. That's the issue here. Essentially, the whole purpose
▶ 36:16 is to try to aim to provide that relief to those who were struggling most and I believe that those who haven't paid and will not be able to pay by June 30th are those who are most in need and I think those who align with prior years of not being able to pay anybody else on discussion please call the roll vice chairman liarelli yes councilor Tramontozzi yes Councilor mcmaster yes Councilor eccles yes Councilor Garipay yes Councilor stewart yes Councilor thomas yes Councilor maladin yes president Grigoraitis yes chairman sonola yes 11 yes madam clerk i just wanted to enunciate my yes i actually didn't get to vote on that it was an accident but yes i thought i heard you thank you counselor um
▶ 37:27 John N. Tramontozzi: next order 2020-83 in order to provide real estate tax relief um does either of the makers wish to speak council chairman yes uh thank you mr chairman um similar to what uh councilor mcmaster said also is applicable to this particular order order 2020-83 when originally filed it was a little broader than the current revised order that we all have and as the mayor stated in his april 29th 2020 letter it was right that he first advised us on april 6 2020 this is also part of the order it's in there that uh the mayor intended to uh enact pursuant to his authority uh and authorized the maximum relief allowed uh for these type of orders and then he followed up uh april 29th um indicating that um that he immediately invoked his authority
▶ 38:32 John N. Tramontozzi: under sections 10 and 11 of chapter 53 of the acts of 2020 to delay the due date of property tax bills and also to waive the payment of interest and other penalties so as a result of the and i thank the mayor and the administration as a result of their cooperation we we simply just revised the order to reflect a reduction in the demand notice again let me make it clear this is not an order permitting residents to not pay the real estate tax bill and it's the fourth quarter real estate tax bill that's really at issue here uh in terms of the due date uh of being june 30th so then there's still the requirement that they have to pay their real estate tax bill as it is a requirement to pay the excise tax bill uh it's just that we are uh
▶ 39:25 John N. Tramontozzi: suggesting through this order the the uh the demand notice that the city would send to to homeowners advising them that they're late in paying that property tax bill would be reduced from $15 to $5. Again, property taxes are a legitimate revenue source for the city and the taxpayers are still required to pay the real estate tax bill. But we're giving a little bit of a relief under the circumstances, as Councilman McMaster eloquently stated in his statements regarding the excise tax bill, that under these circumstances, the citizens of this great community are in need of some assistance and help. So that's what that order is reflecting and I would respectfully ask this council to grant a vote of
▶ 40:31 Jack Eccles: recommendation for it. Is that a motion? I'll make that motion and I'll certainly allow others to be heard on this order so I'll make a motion for passage of this order as well second one discussion counselor Eccles through the chair I was just hoping that maybe the same the same figures they were available for the last four I'm just again I'll go uncomfortable with the fact that there isn't a member of the administration here tonight and that the the property tax revenues is obviously one of the biggest bases of our collections do we have an idea of what that $10 difference is going to how it's going to impact our receivables for the year do we know how many outstanding you know late property
▶ 41:21 John N. Tramontozzi: tax payments we have annually you know for 41,000 in the last quarter I imagine it's much more for this one I'm more just just curious through the chair yeah I don't believe in maybe council McMaster can correct me I don't believe that the administration had just addressed that frankly I think it's that I don't think this is as much of a concern as council echoes you think. I think most people understand the need to pay their property taxes and do so with the threat of potential liens on their property if they don't do so, if they fail to pay. it's a recognition that uh the city through the mayor is is okay with that because uh he is gone as far as suggesting that the city uh uh waives any payments of interest and other penalties
▶ 42:15 Mark Garipay: uh on the late payment so that's even that would have added to uh that adds up to much substantially more than just um reducing the demand notice from fifteen dollars to five dollars penalties which the the the city has agreed to waive uh would i would respectfully suggest accounts for a higher amount than the simple demand notice i hope that helps together yeah i just want to echo counselor eccles concern about not having the administration here the one thing i would say that different than excise taxes i would think a lot of a lot of property taxes are escrowed through the uh through their bank and their lender so it's not something that would be those are already going to be paid so i think to uh uh council of tramitosi's uh point that
▶ 43:09 Robb Stewart: that number probably would be um would be a lot less um just because they're going to be escrowed through the uh through the current their current financing lender they wouldn't be paying it direct some people do of course but i think there's a pretty large percentage that does do that Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, what I would want the Council to consider is there are a significant number of people that have lived here for many years, that are retired, that have fully paid for their house, but they continue to pay their property taxes. A number of these people are on fixed incomes and given the COVID situation, they could be a little bit more at risk. So I think this is a fair consideration that's been provided for those kind of people.
▶ 44:04 Robb Stewart: I think they might be the ones, and honestly, I'm speculating, but just understanding that the demographics in my ward and knowing that there's a lot of people that have lived there for a very long time that could be in that kind of situation uh i'd be i'm you know honestly concerned for them and i i think this is a a a small but uh good gesture and outreach for uh for the community thank you mr chairman now it's on discussion council advice jimmy early thank you mr chairman um so just to confirm we don't have the same numbers available that we did last time and just the reason why i'm asking is it's it's not out of a desire to like or that i don't have compassion for people who can't pay the taxes but i just
▶ 44:49 want to make sure that everyone's weighing two things against each other so we we don't have the information of lost revenue um if we were to cut this yes that's not information that was submitted uh to to us uh in conjunction uh with the ones that we're fine anyone else on discussion and clerk please call the roll vice chair migliorelli council Tramontozzi yes Councilor mcmaster yes Councilor mcnaught yes Councilor eccles yes Councilor Garipay yes Councilor stewart yes Councilor thomas yes Councilor maladin yes Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chairman Sinella? Yes. Levin, yes. So at this time, I'll- Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. Seconded by Councilor Eccles,
▶ 45:53 seconded by Councilor Stewart, that in part please call the roll. Vice Chair Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. So, Gary pay. Yes. Yes. So, Thomas. Yes. Melody. Yes. Greg writers. Yes. Yes. Members of the public are going to be entering into the full council in 1 minute. Amy, I'm going to hand over the host role. Okay. Ready? We're still recording. Yes, we're all set. All right. Good evening. The time is 8 or 2 PM on Monday, June 15th. I am President Grigoraitis and this is a meeting of the Melrose City Council pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law and the governor's March 15th, 2020 order imposing strict limitation on the number of people that may gather in one place.