Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2021-06-02

Appropriations and Oversight Budget Hearing

This meeting starts at 0:02 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Christopher Cinella present · President, ex oficio; Jack Eccles present · Vice Chair; Mark Garipay present; Jen Grigoraitis present; Maya Jamaleddine present; Shawn M. MacMaster present; Jeff McNaught present · Chair; Leila Migliorelli present, 7:00 PM; Robb Stewart present; Cory Thomas absent; John N. Tramontozzi present

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 2, 2021 Web-based remote meeting Budget Hearing 6:30 PM , Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jeff McNaught Chair Present Jack Eccles Vice Chair Present John N. Tramontozzi Present Shawn M. MacMaster Present Mark Garipay Present Jen Grigoraitis Present Leila Migliorelli Present 7:00 PM Robb Stewart Present Cory Thomas Absent Maya Jamaleddine Present Christopher Cinella President, ex oficio Present

ORDER-2021-122 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 in the amount of $91,000,522.33 (Ninety-One Million, Five Hundred Twenty-Two Dollars and Thirty-Three Cents). Hold Appropriations & Oversight Committee

ORDER-2021-128 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of City of Melrose Revolving Fund table as first adopted by City Ordinance June 18th, 2018 and annually thereafter. Revolving Funds are further authorized under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 44 Section 53E 1/2. Hold Appropriations & Oversight Committee

ORDER-2021-110 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash, account number (01-324001), in the amount of $1,150,000 (One Million, One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars), to various stabilization accounts as set forth herein. Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 1 2/22/2022 4:08 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:02 Jeff McNaught: Good evening. The time is 6.32 p.m. and this is June 2nd, 2021, Wednesday evening. This is a meeting of the Appropriations Committee. I am Councilor McNaught, the chair of this committee, and in lieu of all attendance, joining me this evening are Vice Chair Eccles, Councilor Tramontozzi, Councilor McMaster, Councilor Grigoraitis, Councilor Jamaleddine, Councilor Stewart, and President Cinella. I want to note that Councilor Garipay was in the room, he's trying to get back in, having some technical difficulties. I also want to note, there's Councilor Garipay there, I also want to note that Councilor Migliorelli cannot be with us this evening for at least, I want to say the first half hour of the meeting.

▶ 0:58 Jeff McNaught: going to be somewhere else as well as Councillor Thomas has a prior engagement that he could not get out of so he will not be with us this evening but the attendance that I called provides notice of the quorum for the record. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law and the Governor's March 15, 2020 order imposing strict limitations on the number of people that may gather in one place this meeting of the Appropriations committee will be conducted by 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 noro's website and on mmtv3.org

▶ 1:49 Jeff McNaught: and at this time we will move toward the public comment section of our meeting where any member of the public can speak to any item on our agenda if there is no objection i will move by unanimous consent to open public comment seeing no objection public comment is open adam clerk i don't see anyone in the room except for folks from the administration so if there is no objection i will move by unanimous consent to close public comment public comment is now closed if there is no objection I will move by unanimous consent to suspend the rules so that we may speak with our friends from the assessor's office the building inspector and any other colleagues that we have here this evening seeing no objection the rules are now suspended and we have before us

▶ 2:46 Jeff McNaught: us this evening. First is the Order 2021-122, the City of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2022, in the amount of $91,522.33. First up this evening, we have the Assessor's Department, that is Department 141 and we have our City Assessor, Mr. Wilcox coming into the room he'll also speak on department equipment. Okay good evening everyone. Yeah it's been a heck of a year for I think every department but I'll just kind of review what the assessing department does. We're responsible for all tax valuation on the local level. So real estate wise we're looking a little over six billion dollars in real estate. I have an office staff of roughly three people with a part-time GIS tech. As far as what we do

▶ 3:58 from day to day, we review every sale that comes in. We review all building permits and we basically value the whole city up to market value every year. So it's a very busy department even in COVID. It's been very busy. I just want to thank my staff this year. They've been unbelievable. um sarah uh my assistant assessor janet my head clerk and then also um jane who's uh my gis um coordinator and uh she just helps with the city-wide mapping so uh for the most part what you're seeing tonight is a level-funded budget the only line item that's actually gone up this year is based off contractual step increases longevity or sick leave by buyout so for the most part uh everything's level funded other than the salary and wages but i'm here to answer any questions

▶ 4:49 Jen Grigoraitis: that anyone might have and um please feel free to ask questions thank you mr wilcox do the counselors have questions or comments for mr wilcox councilor Grigoraitis thank you chairman thank you mr wilcox for being here i just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your service to the city of melrose i know friday is your last day with us and you have done an incredible job i think often quietly and behind the scenes and moving us forward as a municipality and our reliance on technology and data i know you were the lead architect of the covid19 information hub and that we actually won an award for that website um and the just level of professionalism and um uh due diligence that your office shows i know that's under your

▶ 5:42 Jeff McNaught: leadership and it's a huge loss for this community i'm excited to see what you do next i know you're you're moving on to a statewide office, but I just wanted to say thank you for all that you've done for us and you will be missed. Thank you. Any other councillors? Mr. Wilcox, I just want to echo what Councillor Greger just said. I know you and I personally haven't even had a chance to get to know each other well, but just seeing your work since joining the council has been beyond impressive. You will be sorely missed in this community. You're a huge help to this council, you're a huge help to everyone in Melrose. If everyone knew just exactly how spectacular job you did, there'd be a lot of people grabbing at you as you tried to leave town on Friday.

▶ 6:31 Jeff McNaught: But we won't tell them anything. We'll let you go quietly and wish you the best. But really, we're very fortunate to have had you. Thank you. Motion to move to the bottom line. Second. Motion to move the bottom line made by Councilor McMaster, seconded by Vice Chair Eccles, and this is bottom line 141. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? I'll come back. Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Sinella? Yes. Councillor Garipay? He's actually in as an attendee now. Madam Clerk, can we bring him in? Yeah, let's try it this way. You might echo with two access points. Councillor Garipay,

▶ 7:50 Jeff McNaught: can you hear us? Yeah. We just took a, we're moving the bottom line of Departments 141. Can you hear me? Yes, almost. Thank you. Okay. Nine, yes. Okay. The motion passes. We also need to, I'll entertain a motion to move line 930, and that's the department equipment for the assessor's office. Does anyone want to make that motion? Motion to move the bottom line on 930, line 930. Second. Motion to move the bottom line on 9-3 made by Councilor Delegate, seconded by Councilor Jamala Dunne, but Councilor Stewart had his hand up, so on discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just going to make a motion. I defer to Councilor Delegate. Thank you, Councilor Stewart. If there's no further discussion and I see no hands,

▶ 8:56 Jeff McNaught: Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Counselor Treyman Tosi? Yes. Counselor McMaster? Yes. Counselor Garipay? Yes. Counselor Grigoraitis? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Counselor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Cinella? Yes. 9 yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Wilcock for being with us today. Thanks a lot. Okay. Next, we have the building inspector, Mr. Johnson, is coming in. That's Department 241, and again, line 930 for department equipment. I'm here, I think. Can you hear me? We can see you and hear you, Mr. Johnson. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. If you'd like to have the floor to give us a brief overview, please feel free, and then any counselors

▶ 10:14 can ask you questions if they feel so. Sure. For those at home that don't know me, my name is Paul Johnson. I'm the Director of Inspectional Services, the Building Commissioner in the Zoning Office of the City of Melrose. First, if I may, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my Inspectional Services team, Assistant to the Director of Inspectional Services, Kathy Elphin, Inspector of Plumbing and Gas, Kenneth Rogers, the inspector of wires and sealer of weights and measures, William Katowski, and local building inspector, Steven Doucette, for their dedication and hard work, especially during the pandemic. Within the first few weeks of the pandemic, my staff and I were able to develop a system in which we could receive,

▶ 11:04 process, accept payments, and issue all ISD permits. As an example, we issued over 3,000 permits and provided over 4,000 inspections during the pandemic and collected almost $1.4 million in fees. Most of those inspections were or a majority of the inspections were in-person inspections. I'd like to take a moment and focus on those inspections because I want to recognize and commend my inspectors for putting themselves in harm's way. They were going into people's homes during the pandemic and exposing themselves to potential risks. So I really I think you know people don't realize when they think public safety servants or essential employees that the level of service they and the dedication they have. So I really want to commend them for that.

▶ 12:03 that said the ISD department is responsible for issuing all permits providing all zoning determinations and we're responsible for the health and safety of the community by by performing effective code enforcement our goal is to provide the residents of Melrose with a timely and quality service and at the same time to protect them there's no way to quantify The amount of accidents and fires prevented because of effective code enforcement. And dedicated inspectors, my, my department consists of 2, full time employees, 2, part time employees in 1 per DM employee. Who you will see in the budget, uh, we are. Moving lateral to a part time position. In the previous 20. The initiative. 2,862 permits with an estimated construction cost of 78,301,000 dollars performed over 35 inspections.

▶ 13:21 And collected approximately 698,000. And fees and 21 as of. Today is issue 22,959 permits. With an estimated construction cost of 75Million. Little over 75Million and performed approximately 3436 inspections. We collected approximately 1.3Million dollars in fees. Within our budget tonight for the coming fiscal year, there are no major changes with the exception of. You will see a decrease in the professional line item and an increase in the salary line. This is the due to the fact that we're laterally moving our per diem inspector to a 24 hour part time position. To help keep up with the demands. And I will open the floor to any questions. Yes, Council. Councilor Dermalegui. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Mr. Johnson. I know through

▶ 14:36 Maya Jamaleddine: previous experience how much you helped us to get approval and get us facilitate our Um, um, license to be able to get the project going, um, comparing to, uh, prior to the pandemic, um, the numbers of projects that has been done in Maros. Is it is there a major increase? And what is. What would you say the number of increase if they were. Well, in 20. Which was the last fiscal year we issued 2862 permits. As of today, and we have 2959 comments. And that's not including what's in the queue to be put into our system. For the remainder of the month. Okay. I know we received some of the emails and, you know, um, some of our constituencies reach out to us residents, um, about. projects that they are uh they're looking to um accomplish during this year uh in their

▶ 15:52 Maya Jamaleddine: home whether addition because of the pandemic and working remotely or whether finishing their basement um how um what is the support that um your um department was able to provide to these residents i know they some of them tell that um they had to delay some of the work because of the pandemic and because of the approval yeah i would say that within the first few weeks of the pandemic back in march of 2020 i believe it was there was a a time period where we were trying to get up to speed um and and develop a way to accept permits and do all that and we accomplished that so uh you know any delays so let me back up and just say for the state building code they allow us 30 days to review and respond to a permit application our goal is never to have

▶ 17:03 anybody wait 30 days for a permit some of the projects that have come along in the past in the most recent past the complexity of the projects have grown the size of the projects have grown thus the review times grow. You know, if you look at a project such as the one on Essex Street that just was approved recently right outside City Hall, that project may have taken the architects and the development team close to a year to develop and they've done it every day for almost For me to take those plans and now look at them, it takes more than a week. It takes more than 2 weeks. It takes upwards of 3 weeks, you know, and they expect us to turn those around, which we do the best we can. Absolutely, so are we, you know, based on the number of employees that you guys have that your department have is it are you able to cover all this increase of permits that were submitted to your departments?

▶ 18:18 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes, as a result of the increase, we are now. Moving our per diem inspector to a 24 hour. Part time inspecting. Okay. And what is the difference between so, if we're going to keep this employee as compared to have them for her as a full time? What is the difference in terms of the budget? How much the, the. You'll see a slight decrease in the professionals. I think it was around 11,500, which we allocated over to the position. And then the, between. The fees, the permit fees and the revolving permit fees. That will cover the rest of the cost. Okay. How many hours? How many hours did the. Employee worked last this year. So, the per diem inspector was. Per inspection, we didn't keep we don't we paid them per inspection.

▶ 19:26 Okay, so they were the inspector was out in the field. All the time I had no availability to use him in office to process permits and do other things. For me, by bringing them in, it'll by bringing the inspector into the office. It gives him office time now I can take some of that. Workload as far as reviewing permit applications and and put it on him to. Quicken the times. Yeah. And how many hours are you looking to. Um, but as part time. 2424. Okay. Thank you so much for being here with us tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Jamaleddine. Were there any other councils in queue? I didn't see any. Councillor Garipay? Yeah, I just want to thank Mr. Johnson for his work and his staff's work.

▶ 20:27 Jeff McNaught: I actually had some work done over the past year, too, and they were very helpful and responsive, especially when we had to put the project on hold. At this moment, I'd like to make a motion to move the bottom line. Second. Motion to move the bottom line made by Councilor Garipay, seconded by Councilor Grigoraitis. And this is line 241. A discussion. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Cinella? Yes. 9 yes. Motion passes. We'll also need to, Mr. Johnson, we're just going to do another quick vote on 930, the department equipment

▶ 21:36 For inspection services, what is the well of the committee on that? Sure, I'll make a motion to move 9 item 9 to. 0, to the bottom line motion to move 9, 3, 0, and functional services made by Councilor Stewart. 2nd, if I counsel technology, Madam clerk, we please call the roll. Chairman not yes. Yes. Vice chair. Yes, yes, counselor Tramon tozy. Yes. Counselor McMaster yet. Counselor Gary pay yes. Counselor Greg, right? Yes, yes. Counselor Stuart yes. Yes. Conflict. Yeah, president, yes. Fine, yes. Thank you. Mr. Jonathan for being with us this evening. If, if I may, I, I did neglect to. And through the chair, I did some good news. Is we're moving rapidly towards a new online permitting system.

▶ 22:42 And hopefully we will have that. Available to the public sometime the end of August. So, keep an eye out for that if I don't want to further discussion tonight. I know you have a long night ahead of you if you have any questions or anything regarding that. Please feel free to shoot me an email and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have with respect to that. But again, hopefully it'll be available for the public hopefully by the end of August. Where if we can go right on to our website, submit the application, everything is going to be automated and get a quick review. So that should. Alleviate a lot of traffic coming into city hall and. Help us with our efforts to try to go paperless and that's all I have tonight. I thank you. Thank you for your time. Have a good night.

▶ 23:39 Jeff McNaught: Thank you. Mr Johnson appreciate that. The revolving account well, 1st, we're going to move to hold. The budget and committee, then they're evolving accounts. So. I'll entertain a motion to hold the order 1, 2021 dash 122 in committee. I'll make a motion to hold 2021-122 in committee. Second. Motion to hold 2021-122 in committee made by Councilor Garipay, seconded by President Cinella. That is the city's operating budget being held in committee. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes, yeah. Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Sinella? Yes.

▶ 24:45 9 yes. Motion passes. City's operating budget is held in committee. Mr. Johnson, we can let you go for the evening. Thank you for being here with us. Do I have one revolving account you need or am I all set with that one? Okay, my apologies. Um, I, I thought that that was covered in your prior remarks. So, sorry, go ahead. Oh, the evolving count. Um. I'll take any questions on that. Do we have any questions on the revolving account? I seen none what is the well of the committee does the committee have a well to move in any direction. On the revolving account, I'll make a motion to move the revolving count to the bottom line. 2nd, motion to move the revolving account made by culture Stewart, seconded by presidents and all.

▶ 25:54 Jeff McNaught: Madam clerk, will you please call the role? Yes. Vice chair, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Council, yes. Yes, counselor Stewart. Can you give us your unmute? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Councillor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Sinella? Yes. Nine yes. The motion passes. Sorry for the confusion on that, Mr. Johnson. No worries. Thank you very much for having me tonight. Thank you. Have a good night. Now I'll entertain a motion if someone so wishes to make one to hold 2021-128. In committee motion to hold 2021 dash 128. 2nd, the whole 2021 dash 128 in committee. Made by counter Grigoraitis, seconded by councilor. Adam clerk, will you please call the roll? Yeah, vice chair. Yes, yes. Yes. Council the McMaster yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes.

▶ 27:28 Jeff McNaught: Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Cinella? Yes. Nine yes. Motion passes. So we are down to our final order of the evening that is order 2021-110 An appropriation from free cash account number. 0, 1 dash 3, 2, 4, 0, 0, 1. And the amount of 1,150,000 dollars. To various stabilization accounts as set forth here in. And I believe we have Mr. here, the city auditor to answer questions. He had presented on this at an earlier meeting. And provided a memo, I believe it was dated May 27. Yes, perfect. Good evening. Hope you can hear me, um, hope all everyone as well and thank you for allowing me to be here this evening. Um, and to the chair, if I may, um, I believe I. I distributed a memorandum dated May 27, 2021.

▶ 28:42 Regarding reserves and stabilization funds and management. And what I was trying to do, um, quite clearly was to identify the nature and purpose of each fund, the expectation for the shot in the long term. And, um, give some more depth to, um. The request period, um, I believe it's pretty self explanatory, but again, I'm here to answer any questions if I can't answer the questions tonight. I promise. I'll get back to you as soon as possible. thank you thank you mr de la rusa do any counselors have questions for mr de la rusa council Grigoraitis i'm sorry i had a missing mouse for a minute there thank you chair mcnaught thank you mr de la rusa for being here i just had one question on the um suits and claims stabilization fund i believe the articulated reason for the

▶ 29:46 Jen Grigoraitis: request to move money into that account is related to our waste management contract And I just was curious if we're, which would be that if we were to. Exit that contract prematurely that there would be a fee that the city would have to pay. Is that something that you anticipate happening? I wasn't aware of any. Concerns with that existing contract, but I wanted to hear if the city had concerns about it. That's that's an excellent question counselor and. I recall that when we made this agreement with waste management, I think Mr Van Campen actually provided a memorandum on dated April 5th, 2021. Requesting this appropriation. Be made and specifically to your question, we received an advance payment of 1Million dollars into the city.

▶ 30:42 Which went to local receipts. And ultimately to free cash, the, um. At the beginning of the process, we made a determination that. We would set aside a certain amount of money at the appropriate time, which happens to be this year. From free cash from which it originated. And set it aside in the event that whatever reason the contract is not. lived out was full term we would have an obligation to pay one hundred thousand dollars per year for all the years that in fact it did not complete its term so we were asking two hundred thousand dollars at this time to be set aside strictly into the suits and claims stabilization fund in the event that should something um occur that would cause the agreement not to be fulfilled

▶ 31:39 to September 2029, we would have resources by which to apply to the obligation we would have to pay back waste management for the unexpired term basically of each year. So that was the purpose. We did exactly what we said we were going to do. We didn't request that the money be spent somewhere else strictly to be put in this fund. Thank you. And if it's so assuming it's moved into that fund and we. Fulfill the contract to 2029 and don't exit early at my. What then happens with that money that's been put in a stabilization account to for a need that no longer hopefully exists come 2029. Yeah, excellent question. A couple of things. 1 is that the nature of the fund itself allows it to be utilized for any suits and claims within the city. In the event this was to, we looked ahead and here we are, you know, 8 years from now, whatever the case may be.

▶ 32:46 And there's 200,000 while the money, the money can stay within the fund money can actually be voted, I believe, to a separate fund, another fund, another purpose. Who the city council, if that's the will of the council at that time, but also candidly, I think it does provide. For to the outside world, the institutions that look at us and and and that. Raid us that we didn't make a provision. We just didn't ignore the agreement and our obligation under the agreement. So we can always speak to those people, whether it's standard affords or movies and say. This is the action the city took recognizes an underlying liability. We did not ignore it. It's like, we don't ignore open. We did address it. We put funds, which we thought was sufficient at that time.

▶ 33:37 Shawn M. MacMaster: And that goes a long way no different than the contract stabilization from the others. It shows that there's an inherent desire to do the right thing. And to accept the liabilities, thank you for that clarification. Thank you Mr. chairman. Good evening. Mr. so good evening. Just so it's clear to the public, there are 2 matters before us tonight. Correct suits and claims and contract stabilization. I believe there's a number of funds before you this evening through the chair to counselor. I believe the foundation stabilization fund itself. If you look at my, if you have an opportunity to look at my memorandum. I think I think I may be missing something because I have the April 7th memo in front of me that lists.

▶ 34:35 those two stabilization funds. So just so it's clear to me and clear to the public, would you just review the particular funds before us tonight? Absolutely. And I believe the memo that you made referring to is one that was put out earlier that from Mr. Van Campen in essence, that we work with him to identify the, he was interested specifically in the Suits and Claims Stabilization Fund and also the Contract Stabilization Fund which you'll find on both of those so i believe that may be those two um counselor but i would be happy to go over um one by fund request before you this evening and gravity certainly the first one is the foundation stabilization fund number 8401 um we're asking that the sum of 400 000

▶ 35:26 go to this fund which would bring it to just over 3.5 million dollars the next one is the contract stabilization fund 8404 and again for the sake of brevity this would have been the balance to oh right now the balance is nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars this would be an additional two hundred thousand dollars to that fund if approved the next is capital stabilization fund number 8405 the balance is approximately 350 000 and again here we're seeking to add two hundred thousand dollars with the council approval and there is some identification also on item number three that potentially would be seeking the council uh authorization to use three hundred thousand dollars of this fund in the fall

▶ 36:18 to address the Horace Mann School Loop Project as a 50% match to an MSBA grant program should that materialize? I'll keep going unless there's additional questions, please feel free to stop me. The number fourth one is the suits and claims, which we just briefly talked about. The $200,000 again, relative specifically in this case to the Waste Management Agreement with the City of Melrose The 5th, 1 is the old pet fund number 84 and 7, the balance is over 779,000 dollars here requesting 100,000 dollars be added to the fund. And again, this, this, this 1 in particular. Is 1 highlighted. Each and every year now by standard employees that they want to see that we're making a. Proactive effort to address the liability.

▶ 37:17 Liability now is in excess of 150Million dollars. So, we're asking in this case for another 100,000 dollars to be added to the fund as we continue to to demonstrate not only with the budget, but also with these free cash. That we recognize our liability and that we're doing what we can. To fund that liability and the last 1 is the OSHA fund. The current balance is over just over 100,000. We're requesting the sum of 50,000 dollars be added to the fund. And again, ideally, as with the other funds that we've identified, we have, we'd like to see a standing balance at any point in time. Of 250,000 dollars in that fund. Um, overall. The if approved. in line with the additional increase in the budget that we saw previously with the stabilization fund

▶ 38:17 in opeb it would bring the balance to just over 6.9 million dollars for the city um if approved thank you thank you mr del russo thank you mr chairman thank you council mcmaster i had asked the clerk um to share that table did you make it so that i could share it madam clerk is that what you did was it just on screen it wasn't i'll try it again if unless raise your hand if you'd like to see it i thought it would be good to show to the public but i took a little too long in requesting that. Sorry, Mr. Teller. I probably didn't know. Please. I mean, in so many ways, candidly, through the chair, respectfully, this really helps. This is really a backbone of your finances in so many ways. It supports so many different aspects of the operation

▶ 39:24 each and every year. And it provides financial flexibility that so many cities just don't have. and um we're very fortunate to be able to even have the conversation this evening it's attachment b in the packet labeled fy 2021 stave fund balance revolving i believe it's the the last document down absolutely correct the last shot So, but while people look for that, I've got Vice Chair Eccles, Councilor Migliorelli, and then Councilor Stewart in queue. Am I missing anyone? Vice Chair Eccles. Vice Chair Eccles Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Orissa, for being here. I just kind of have a general looking at like the journey of the stabilization in aggregate over the past year. I have kind of a general question. Looking at a

▶ 40:23 Jack Eccles: memo i'm looking at specifically the order from here that was fairly similar to this one where we brought the stabilization accounts from a total of about 3.5 million up until about 6.1 it had just been mentioned that you should probably keep stabilization around five percent of your operating budget i think is what i read there um so i'm just kind of curious like how this moves and so if we ended last year or we ended this process last year with about the balance we have now and now we're going up to 7.2 which is about eight percent of our operating budget i'm just been wondering you know over the next five years can we expect the percent of our operating budget to increase let's stay around 80 um will we kind of just add to it because having

▶ 41:13 like that on the council for one year about we've we've rarely drawn from it and we've only added a significant amount so i'm just a little curious about that certainly it's an excellent question um first and foremost we the five percent figure that um is referenced pertains only to the foundation stabilization fund number 8401 not the funds in the aggregate um there's many reasons for that um but that's the principal reason right now if we took a look at the fund we have for stabilization just that fund alone um you'll you'll notice that where in fact i highlighted it here the balance is over 3.1 million um the goal again is five percent so in fiscal 21 that amount would be just over 4.4 million dollars and the objective here is as the

▶ 42:14 operating budget increases to to to follow that with increases in the stabilization once we hit that five percent um then that's where we'll level off it's it's so similar to what we've done with waterman saw once we hit that 10 threshold that's it we're there we just make with some maintenance effort versus a growth effort two different things and that's the objective with this fund is the exact same thing it's a maintenance effort each and every year as resources become available to bring it to that five percent level that's what they look for and that's what our goal is so there is a different end game here there's no it doesn't go on infinitum um and if we talk about for example the contract stabilization fund which is quite interesting

▶ 43:02 um to the outside you say gee boy you have almost you know 930 someone thousand there i'll just make a note of information for everyone here in the public some a public safety contract that is out because they grew up for three years which we've had in the past that one contract that one unit can exceed 600 to 650 000 one unit one contract um one unit so in perspective as we work through different collective bargaining agreements etc we really are very sensitive to not our effort is not to approve that type of duration because it's not helpful to the city it's not helpful in my opinion to anyone to do that so we try to settle in a reasonable way um so that we can reduce the amount of retroactive payments however if in fact we do

▶ 44:02 end up with the retroactive payment whether it's one year or two years whatever the case may be more hopefully not we have a resource by which to pay it and you are not corrupting any operations of the city to do that you're not laying off people you're not reducing staff for the rest of the year that doesn't happen because you have a provision to avoid that from happening you've seen it here you know year after year we don't do that here but it also takes action so you don't do it here again and that's what we try to accomplish with that fund which is that's why that again is the reason for for the request that we're making thanks that made a lot of sense and one other question i just have is so that base stabilization fund is fairly flexible ray whereas

▶ 44:51 the other can you kind of describe the flexibility there versus kind of and and possibly some of the limitations on the others just i'd be happy to yeah that's a great question absolutely yeah the foundation stabilization funding 401 can be used for any lawful purpose and that's a broad purpose city in school whatever the casement it's a very broad purpose it can't only can be used to fund capital can be used to fund other items um again in the event that the city does use that best practice says you need to establish a plan basically to pay it back over a certain amount of time so that you can demonstrate that the use of the fund was um for purposes that typically wouldn't surface year after year and that you recognize that the contract stabilization fund

▶ 45:43 that we just talked about it was designed and voted to address contracts union union obligations within the city different than the stabilization fund a whole different thing the capital stabilization fund again designed to um address capital purchases in excess of twenty five thousand dollars pays you go financing a lot of people reference um this fund is pay as you go and again it's there again for specific purpose these are all specific purpose funds that that was voted and established to cover these areas of of need at any particular time i think we all saw what happened recently with the special education fund almost 500 000 for the school thank goodness we had it there and again it took proactive proactive motion to make that that money in that fund to

▶ 46:39 create the fund that we did that as a community all of us together because we know at some point that need would be there and fortunately we had addressed you know we had sufficient funds to cover that suits and claims we've just talked about again a specific fund suits and claims opeb fund um that's really a stat detroit fund under chapter 32b section 20 that's designed to address the um outstanding liability for health insurance for for the city that again under a separate statute osha fund number 8409 again that was set up through the city council here um to address in fact uh order number 20 it was order number 2020-79 at the time It was established to address any needs related to training, support, professional assistance,

▶ 47:37 Leila Migliorelli: equipment purposes necessary to comply with any and all required workplace OSHA guidelines. That was set up by the City Council. So they all have this specific purpose, Councillor. It's a great question. I look at them as completely independent And I believe that the way we address them should be independent because the need is unique in each one. Thank you, Mr. Eccles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair Eccles, Councilor Migliorelli. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. De La Rosa, for being here tonight. Absolutely. I just wanted to ask a clarifying question from Councilor Eccles question. So, is it that 5% is not the standard of how much we should be having in stabilization accounts and it's now 8% or, or 10% where we can just a kind of a quick answer to that question. Be helpful for clarifying for.

▶ 48:40 Leila Migliorelli: Yeah, the chair to the great question. Yeah, the 5% pertains to these regular stabilization fund specifically. On number 8,401 area, not to the other funds, not in the aggregate. They're all set up for a different purpose and scope. Okay, thank you for clarifying that. Um, and then my, I just have a. Wanted to for the purposes of the public kind of refresh everyone on where we're at with free cash. Um, since this is the stabilization of funds, or it's about 1.15Million going out or free cash. And just want to review that with, um, with everyone that we've. Already approved 1.193Million in a combination of appropriations meetings and city council meetings for the year. And then. We still, we had this money held as well as another 50,000 and there are some more about 2.6Million that's.

▶ 49:44 Requested that we haven't yet come through, which still leaves. There's still like a variance of 230,000, which hasn't been. Um, okay, is that correct? I'm doing the chair the concept all funds for free cash have been allocated for specific purpose right now. If in fact, all the requests were approved by the city council to be 0 for cash left. Okay, but I'll just take a look. It takes some time to look at that myself. Thank you. You know, for the questions, thank you very much. Great question. Thank you. Counselor Stewart. Thank you Mr. chairs this time. I would like to. Motion to recommend 2021 dash 110 to the full concert. 2nd, so we have a motion to. Uh, move the bottom line made by counter Stewart motion to recommend seconded by the counselor. McMaster.

▶ 50:41 On discussion, seeing none, Madam clerk, will you please call the roll. Chairman not yes. Yes. Vice chair Eccles. Yes, consulate. Yes. Consulate McMaster. Yes. Council of yes. Council of Grigoraitis. Yes. Consulate. Yes. Counselor Stewart yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes, yes. President Cinella? Yes. 10 yes. The motion passes. Mr. Del Rosso, thank you for being here with us this evening. And thank you, and thank you to the Council again. I appreciate all your patience and time. I mean, it's a lot of work, a lot of effort, and I say thank you candidly. Thank you very much. Thank you. And that concludes our business for the evening. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn? Second. Motion to adjourn, made by Councillor Grigoraitis, seconded by Vice Chair Eccles.

▶ 51:55 Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councillor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councillor McMaster? Yes. Councillor Garipay? Yes. Councillor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councillor Migliorelli? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. council jamaladeen yeah president samela yes have a good evening see you tomorrow everybody at 6 30

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2021-06-02

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