Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2021-06-14

Appropriations and Oversight Budget Hearing

This meeting starts at 0:01 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, 6:33 PM; Jeff McNaught present · Chair; Leila Migliorelli present, 6:40 PM; Robb Stewart present; Cory Thomas present; John N. Tramontozzi present

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 14, 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 6:33 PM Mark Garipay Present Jen Grigoraitis Present Leila Migliorelli Present 6:40 PM Robb Stewart Present Cory Thomas Present 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). Recommend Passage City Council

ORDER-2021-145 Contract Acceptance of a Net Metering Credit Agreement between the City of Melrose and Hampshire Power for energy and cost savings. The agreement authorizes the production of alternative energy on behalf of the city through a State-endorsed program. Recommend Passage City Council

ORDER-2021-148 Appropriation An Appropriation in the amount of $43,423.46 from Water Retained Earnings, account 6100-319000, to Water Reserve Fund, account 8416-49000. Recommend Passage City Council

ORDER-2021-149 Appropriation An Appropriation in the amount of $400,000 from Water Retained Earnings, account number 6100-319000, to the Fiscal 2022 Water Budget. Recommend Passage City Council

ORDER-2021-152 Bond City of Melrose Page 1 1/24/2022 6:47 PM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee June 14, 2021 Authorizing a Bond for the replacement of the Salt Shed. Without Recommendation City Council

ORDER-2021-153 Appropriation An Appropriation from the Peg Access Cable Fund (#2922) in the amount of $276,505 to MMTV and Melrose Public Schools. Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 2 1/24/2022 6:47 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:01 Jeff McNaught: And we're rolling. Good evening. The time is 630 p.m. The date is June 14th, 2021. This is a Monday evening and this is a meeting of the Appropriations Committee. My name is Councilor McNaught. I am chair of this committee and in lieu of a roll call attendance, joining me this evening are Vice Chair Eccles, Councilor Tramontozzi, Councilor Garipay, Councilor Grigoraitis, Councilor Jamaleddine, Councilor Stewart, Councilor Thomas, and President Cinella. This provides a notice of 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 15th 2020 order imposing strict limitations on the number of people that may gather in one place this meeting of the Appropriations

▶ 0:59 Jeff McNaught: Committee will be conducted by a 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 meeting on the city of maryland's website and on mmtv3.org and before we get to any orders this is the portion of the meeting where any member of the public can speak to any item on our agenda on the appropriations meeting agenda this evening madam clerk do we have anyone in the attendee room with their digital hand raised and if you are in that room and you'd like to speak please raise your digital hand i think we have i believe sorry i believe let me step on you i believe everyone in the room at this time is a member of a person speaking or someone from the

▶ 1:55 Jeff McNaught: administration i agree with that so uh for formality's sake uh what i'll do first is if there's no objection i'll move by for by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment Seeing no objection, the floor is open for public comment. Seeing no digital hands raised and no request from anyone to speak prior to this meeting, if there's no objection, I will move to close public comment by unanimous consent. Seeing no objection, public comment is now closed and at this point I will move by unanimous consent to suspend the rules so that we can hear from our friends from the administration and elsewhere. I also, uh, if there is no objection, seeing no objection, the rules are suspended. I also want to note that Council McMaster is now with us. Um.

▶ 2:47 Jeff McNaught: And, um, 1st, up this evening, um, we have our 1st order, which is the city's operating budget or 2021 dash 122 city of Maro's operating budget for fiscal year 2022. In the amount of 91,522 dollars and 33 cents 1st, this evening, we're going to hear from the folks from pine banks. Um, I believe that's Mr keyser. I don't know if anyone else is coming into the room with him. Is the under wall share tonight? Yes. Gentlemen, can you hear us? Can you see me too? I can't see myself on the screen, so we cannot see. No. Give me a 2nd with that should be bottom middle of your screen. Oh, here we go. Yeah, there we go. Thank you Mr. Walsh. Thank you. Mr. appreciate you both being here this evening. The floor is yours.

▶ 4:05 Well, thank you very much. I am President of Pine Banks Park and I've been making this presentation to this body for a good number of years and we try to keep it uniform and simple to understand. Pine Banks Park is a private organization consisting of land that was dedicated by Elijah Converse, the first mayor of Malden. When he died it went into the private corporation and a special act of the legislature provided that first it would be real estate tax free second that it would be capable of receiving contributions from the city's Malden and Melrose and third that based on a formula derived from the combined assessed valuations in the city there was a minimum amount to be funded every year in the absence of which the

▶ 5:02 plan would revert to the converse family the report that we submit every year's recites all of this and the uh shows the basis for the calculation the amount to be contributed that's on page three four and five of our annual report this year the uh total formula for contributions is 794 000 this year That split equally between the towns of Malden and Melrose and it's based upon the combined assessed valuation of the town with the smaller assessment. Looking at page six, there are columns there in this report showing the prior fiscal year, the requested budget for this year, and then going across to the right, the dollar increase, percentage increase the amount per city and the increased dollar amount per city

▶ 6:05 general we have three categories of income that we use first categories is salaries and compensation the staff that pine banks are employees of the city of Melrose they are leased to pine banks to provide services there but they are subject to and get the benefit of the hr office in the city of mellows and quarterly the city of malden contributes the amount required to support their share of the employees that's summarized on page seven and what we do on page seven is try to make sure that everyone knows the total universe of compensation benefits retirement and insurance that goes to each of our staff members including overtime and so forth so that there is a fair approximation of what the employment costs to the cities and

▶ 7:14 that they are adequately compensated the each town contributes equally the Amounts from the compensation and benefits are shown on page 6 on lines 1 through 5. And the total compensation this year is $398,497 which is an increase of $54. So it's pretty much level funded. And we want to thank Melrose HR department for helping us with this, Keeping this level, the 2nd, type of income are is from operations. That's on lines 6. Through 43 on page 6. These are amounts that are funded equally. Are the cities of Malden and Melrose to the fine banks park. Foundation and we make disbursements on those. Amounts for the purposes that are shown there. This is, I think the 4th year of level funding on these.

▶ 8:30 There is no increase in operating expenses. Operating expenses, uh. Inclusive of the, uh, compensation to 190,000. Dollars the final part of the, uh. Report is for capital purchases and equipment purchases. We have a outstanding bond for the improvements of. Feels from the Massachusetts development corporation. Which was able to give us a fixed rate mortgage for. 3 and a half percent to 10 years that amortization is shown on line 45. On page 6, we are also proposing. an additional amount necessary to uh finance the replacement of our maintenance shed which is on the field that's our new capital improvement and that's ninety seven thousand dollars and that's on page from line fifty uh the field that the shed that we're replacing was one built in 1963

▶ 9:48 so it went in during the administration of jack kennedy and before the beetles arrived on that Sullivan. We are looking to replace it with a fabricated steel building of similar construction we brought up today with current codes and environmental requirements and the budget on that is about a million four. We need to have an additional eight hundred thousand over and above the amounts that we deserve from the bonding that we got recently plus uh capital contributions coming in from the baird foundation and the piccolo foundation to assist in these improvements funding source will be east boston savings bank they are the holder of the uh bond that we have with mass development and this would

▶ 10:42 be a supplemental funding to complete the project that we originally contemplated with the bond Uh, I should say that this is a borrowing that's being achieved by the pine banks park foundation. It doesn't require the guarantee of either city requires is the, uh, the appropriations as shown within the statute that created finance part. Our superintendent put into the, uh, the, uh, report this year is. his report for the calendar of 2020 showing the activities that occur there and he's certainly done an excellent job page 11 of our report shows a satellite picture of what the place looks like from way above and then pages 12 and 13 talk about some of the capital improvements and some of the grants that we have received over the year.

▶ 11:51 So I would also like to say that Andrew has been with us now for five years and he's done an excellent job, but he's decided that he's going to go on and try another task with his life. So this will be his last meeting and his term with us ends at the close of the fiscal year. And we will be going forward with Acting Superintendent Kevin Benner. Kevin's been with us for about 15 years now. He's learned a lot about how to run the park. We expect him to be able to fill the gap that's been created by Andrew's departure. I wanna say thank you to Andrew, and i want to thank the members of this board for assisting us i'd be glad to answer any questions and if i can't that andrew can thank you mr kieser for that wonderful summary again the report

▶ 12:54 Jeff McNaught: produced by you all this year again was wonderfully done very easy to digest and we appreciate it very much i appreciate your efforts also mr walsh we we're really going to miss you um i know i know those are big shoes to fill down there. So thank you for all that you've done for Pine Banks and beyond. At this time, does anyone have any questions or comments for Mr. Kieser or Mr. Walsh? Councilor Garipay? Councilor Garipay, I think you're on. There you go. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Kieser. Thank you, Mr. Walsh, for being here. I just want to start by saying Pine Banks looks amazing, especially over the last five years since you've been there, Mr. Walsh. It's someone who's driven around to numerous baseball fields and

▶ 13:53 Mark Garipay: spends about eight to ten hours a weekend there. It is the top-notch facility in the area. I can't compete with anyone else. I do have a couple questions regarding the budget. One would be what is the actual revenue amount we bring in through people from other organizations that rent the fields i didn't see that in the presentation what is the actual revenue that comes in from outside sources other than the city uh i would guess that that's about 45 000 and it's been a very good it's been an increase over what it has been in the past surprisingly this last year with the uh pandemic we had a lot of outside groups coming in and filling slots the scholastic teams weren't filling and we're we're paying for it um

▶ 14:47 i was thinking of that maybe we should put andrew on commission because he was doing such a good job there is we also have a credit card operation where people can rent picnic sites and they can rent the fields and it automatically ties in with their credit card for that that part of it and one of the things that we do have arranged is we're going to be repainting the stripes on the track which is a budget of i think about five thousand dollars correct me if i'm wrong and i did it we're going to be using rental fees to paint the track which means that we don't have to look to any other source for that sort of thing then we use those contributions for the payment of some white bills and so forth that helps thank you um and then when i um when i was looking at

▶ 15:45 the budget what goes into professional services line item i think it was about 20 20 000 yeah we've got a an accountant part of what we do because we have a charitable foundation and we separate the operations as much as we possibly can but we do have to have a an accountant come in to make sure we get our bills paid but because we're handling city money because we're handling charitable foundation money we have to have very tight controls on the financial end and we have to audit with the CPA firm we use with them which is located in Woover now the national firm but we have to be able to satisfy the Attorney General using the money correctly in the foundation as a charitable entity we want to make sure that Patrick is happy with us all

▶ 16:44 Also, and then on, I was looking at, you had mentioned on page 5. The municipal funding formula, I think the total was 794,823 for the split of 397 for 11. is that the, is that the dollar amount that is requested from the city of for your budget this year? That's that's the statutory amount. When they created the park in 1905, they said. you take the value of the two towns and take a fraction of it and that's the minimum that has to be funded for the property diverts back to the congress bank that number is brought forward on page six and it's on line 70 and uh our request this year is for 903 and the uh statutory mandate is 794. so we're about a hundred thousand dollars over the mandate and that is going

▶ 17:58 predominantly for doing the capital improvements and building up the fields and the field house okay because because if i look at the set 397 there and then i go over to our city budget that's proposed that um what we're voting on tonight is 320 000. so that's that's why i understand it uh the the amount that you're looking at tonight is a portion of the total and that what excludes is the capital appropriations which i understand from patrick is that something that gets reviewed later in the year but when we prepare this report we try to make sure that both cities looking at one place and see how much it costs to run the park which includes the capital improvements for the particular year okay i just um i just didn't

▶ 18:53 Mark Garipay: want to be voting on the wrong number and then and find out what i saw 397 the split and then the 320 so okay um and then what um i guess i have a couple other questions i probably could talk to andrew offline that uh probably enough budget uh but uh that's that's all my questions for right now thank you okay thank you for all you do appreciate it thank you council carapace council mcmaster thank you mr chairman good evening uh mr kieser and mr walsh and my apologies if you answer this uh mr kieser i'm having some difficulty uh with my audio tonight uh the overtime budget slight increase can you speak to that uh that is a fraction of the i think it's about a week and a half for the total compensation for the staff it's just a it's an arbitrary fraction

▶ 19:46 Shawn M. MacMaster: trying to cover potential weekend objects or programs that go forward uh i don't know that we use it actually every year that's okay mr kaiser just a sense of what that what that and was for is fine. While I have you Mr. Keezer and Mr. Walsh, a question unrelated to the budget, but I do have a Veterans Advisory Board meeting tomorrow. I'm the Consul Liaison to the Advisory Board, and I think as you both know there's been some interest among the Veterans Advisory Board and Mayor Broder, who has been advocating for this as well, to have the rugby field, the backside of Pine Banks, named after a veteran killed in action. And I'm just wondering what the what the status of that request is right now uh the request that we had from uh the mayor

▶ 20:47 dealt with an individual who graduated in 1964 was in the navy that i think died in 2014 and was a resident of newton at the time he passed away he did not think that was appropriate and i think we'd have some hard resistance with the City of Malden for naming the field for that individual. If there would, Mr. Keezer, if there was some interest among the veterans community in Malden, is that something that the Board of Trustees might reconsider, if there was a joint request from both communities? Sure. We don't have much name down there except for the the baseball field, which is named after my father. That was the idea of the Mayor of Malden at the time, and I think he did it just to embarrass me.

▶ 21:45 Cory Thomas: But we would be willing to consider anyone at all. Well, thanks to your father, there's at least some precedent there, so I think we'll hinge our hopes to that and we'll be back in touch. Thank you, Mr. Kieser. Thank you. Councilor McMaster. Councilor Thomas. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Walsh, Mr. Keezer, welcome. Mr. Walsh, I'm sorry to hear that you're leaving. I agree with Councilor Garipay. The Pine Banks complex has never looked better than it has in the last 5 years. And Mr. Keezer, thank you for all that you and your family have done for that complex throughout the years. I did have a question on the budget. Athletic field maintenance is 3300 dollars and then park and field maintenance.

▶ 22:35 Cory Thomas: Is 30,000 dollars. What's the difference between those 2? 5, 2, 8, 8, 0, 4 and 5, 3, 5. 1, 0, 0 on our budget. Athletic field maintenance goes into 3300 dollars. And parts of maintenance at 30,000. I can't really give you a good answer that I have to defer to Patrick. Okay, so is athletic field maintenance 3300 dollars. Is that for 1 field or all the fields down there? And it sounds like a relatively low number for maintenance for all those facilities and fields. The track, the softball field, the turf field. Yeah, well, I can tell you that all the, all the maintenance and operation numbers that we requested. In our report, we're. Had no increase. Oh, I think, yeah, there was one increase, I should say, we've got liability insurance increase, principally because of the issues surrounding the Blueberry Hill development.

▶ 23:49 This is off forestry. Yeah. Yeah. The, the property there has dug into the side of the clip. And we've got a precipice of about a 100 feet going off the cliff into the. Residents rooms, and it's within 50 feet of our walking trails. The issue is, you know, is there adequate fencing and protection for our guests up there? But, uh. The potential liability on that cost us to increase our liability insurance. Sure, I understand that wholeheartedly. Um, I was just wondering what the, what the annual maintenance is, you know, what what's entailed in that 3300 dollars. For maintenance, so it seems like a very low maintenance number for the fields. Yeah, I'd have to like, the only thing I can do is referring to our report on page 6.

▶ 24:42 Cory Thomas: Are we submitted to the 2 town? Mr. able to shed any light on that? I don't think I'm looking at the same report as you guys. I'm looking at our report or our. Yeah, our annual report, I'm not seeing that number anywhere. Um, I see for, uh. Maintenance, uh, field and park maintenance is about 60,000 dollars and then, uh, we have repair and. Building maintenance at 20,000 dollars, so it's much more than 3300. Yeah, we just have a line item 5, 2, 8, 8, 0, 4. I can talk to Patrick. So, um, offline. To keep the thing to keep this meeting moving. Um, there are, there are some day to day damages on the turf field that teaser field. Um, you know, 1st base, um, are there any plans to have that repaired? I know there's a carpet patch on there on the turf right now. 1st base.

▶ 25:44 It's been like that for, like, 3 or 4 years. And yeah, that was, um, so there was a. It was a huge hole there at first place for a year or so when I started and we, I did the best I could to kind of patch it so that it was actually safe as opposed to a 3 or 4 inch hole in the in the turf. So, I mean, the fields. 14 years old now, um. You know, I think the field, I think those areas are safe. I don't think they're a threat to injury, but yeah, I mean, to to sink. you know tens tens of thousands of dollars to do the bases over on a 14 year old field didn't really um you know make a whole lot of sense i figured it would be as long as we could preserve the safety of the athletes by doing what we did we could um you know wait for just to do the whole

▶ 26:38 field over again sure is there is there a shelf life on that turf field and is there a capital improvement plan to replace the turf um they i mean they say 10 years but we're we're obviously beyond that and um you know the field's in pretty good shape considering it is 14 years old other than the base areas getting worn um the outfield is in pretty good shape for a 14-year-old field i would say absolutely for sure and um to as far as a capital uh i don't i don't have an answer for that as in terms of like when when it would be resurfaced sure and then lastly um is the tarp at home plate missing um so we took it off because it did more damage than good water would still get underneath because the air about 10 feet around home plate is embedded with clay so the water

▶ 27:29 Jeff McNaught: when it does rain it just runs underneath the tarp um and then with the tarp on it doesn't dry out as fast so actually it's a better it's it's better for the actual to get the field uh in in playable condition to not have the tarp on okay thank you gentlemen i think i appreciate all you guys do down there it's a great facility it gets a lot of use um thank you very much for being here and answering our questions do any other counselors have questions or comments mr keyser mr walsh seeing none what is the will of the committee on pine banks department 652 motion to move the bottom line second we have a motion to move the bottom line of department 652 pine banks made by council Grigoraitis seconded by councillor Migliorelli on discussion seeing

▶ 28:22 Jeff McNaught: none madam clerk will you please call the roll chair mcnaught yes vice chair eccles yes council Tramontozzi I can see you nodding your head. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis. Yes. Councilor Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. President Cinella. Yes. 11 yes and I'll just note Councilor Tramontozzi was raising uh shaking his head yes yes thank you the motion passes um i'd also like to hold a vote on uh lying not line 931 the capital outlay line for pine banks what is the will of the committee on 931 i'll make a motion to move the bottom line for my 931 capital outlay for pine banks 2nd, motion to move 9, 3, 1, pine banks made by Council, seconded by Councilor Thomas. Madam clerk, will you please call the role?

▶ 29:35 Jeff McNaught: Chair Mcnaught? Yes. Yes. Vice chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Sinella? Yes. 11 yes. The motion passes. Thank you gentlemen again for being here. Mr. Kieser, we look forward to working with you going forward, and Mr. Walsh, we wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors. Next, we have the, uh, morrow's public schools, superintendent and, uh, chair of the school committee. Um. Jen, I believe they're both here. And Leah, my apologies. And I believe, uh, chair was going to kick us off this evening.

▶ 30:49 Jennifer McAndrew: Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Chair McNaught, President Cinella, and counselors. Thank you for having us before you tonight to proudly present the Melrose Public Schools budget for fiscal year 22. We know that this presentation is coming at the end of a very long budget process for you all, and we're grateful for your hard work on behalf of the city. I'd like to thank and acknowledge my colleagues on the school committee, many of whom are in the virtual audience tonight. Thank you for being here and thank you for all of your hard work this year. And I would especially acknowledge the leadership of Superintendent Dr. Julie Kuchenberger, Director of Finance Leah Secor, all of the principals and the entire leadership team throughout MPS for their thorough and thoughtful budget process this year.

▶ 31:38 Jennifer McAndrew: I'm pleased to tell you that on May 11th, the school committee unanimously approved the fiscal 22 school budget and the amount of 38,619,040 dollars. This budget is rooted in the needs of our students. It strategically invests funding sources with an eye to sustainably deploying various funding streams available to us in the best and most appropriate ways. It reflects month of work from the administration close collaboration with the mayor and his team deliberations across multiple school committee meetings as well as a lot of community input and advocacy for which we are very grateful. The fiscal twenty two budget includes important new investments, including new classroom teachers to accommodate growing student enrollment, academic intervention is to provide more support at the elementary schools.

▶ 32:29 Jennifer McAndrew: a visual and performing arts director position, a student learning coach at Melrose High School, and a shared diversity, equity, and inclusion director position jointly funded with the districts of the SEAM collaborative. The approved budget also includes important adjustments that we made during the budget process, like decisions to strategically deploy federal funds that are now available to school districts like Melrose to use over the next several years for COVID recovery and resiliency. Before I turn it over to Dr. Kuchenberger, who will walk you through the specifics and answer your questions, let me just close with one thought. It's fair to say that the COVID-19 pandemic completely upended public education, including here in Melrose.

▶ 33:14 Jennifer McAndrew: And yet our students, especially, and our educators and our families were resilient and adaptive. But the budget before you tonight doesn't just support the recovery of our district. It also moves us forward Building and shaping a stronger school system for Melrose for next year and also for years to come. The important work of the Melrose public schools continues, and we greatly appreciate your partnership and moving us forward. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Kuchenberger with my thanks. Thank you, Chair McAndrew. Okay, hopefully I clicked all the right buttons. Good evening. Everyone. Good evening. Chair McNaught and counselors. Thank you for having us here tonight to walk you through our budget.

▶ 34:09 for the FY22 fiscal year. So our objective tonight is really to share with you the FY22 school committee approved budget proposal. We also want to clearly articulate how we're strategically using all of our supplemental funds in order to make this budget not only responsive to the needs known needs of our students but also to provide some flexibility and agility as we move forward through our COVID recovering. And after a brief presentation we'll have time to answer any questions that you may have. So I always like to start with a high level overview. This chart here shows you our budget over time. So looking pre-COVID to today and you can see the percent change in the final column there. So I won't read all the numbers to you but up top here in the

▶ 34:59 first row we have our operating expenses that it takes to run the district. We have our chapter 70 which is the local state aid that we receive our offsets based on our projections and known revenue sources. And then at the bottom, we have our net operating budget, which is a four and a half percent increase over the FY21 approved budget. The biggest budget driver for us this year are our contractual obligations. So in public schools, the way that the salary schedule works for teachers is they have steps that they get each year with their years of service and then there's also lane changes for those who continue to seek further degrees so they can be their best selves for our students. This year that was a 5.8 percent increase over our FY21 budget. We also at the time

▶ 35:55 we were developing the budget had four open collective bargaining agreements. We're coming close to some tentative agreements on almost all of those. So, thank you to the school committee for their work in negotiating those contracts. We also have some increasing transportation costs as it's been harder to secure our own drivers in transporting our students. We're very fortunate in Melrose. We don't have buses in the same way that many other school districts do, but we do have some students who require transportation. Another driver, of course, is this transition from COVID response, which we've been in all year, to thinking forward to our COVID recovery plan and designing different aspects that are going to enable us to accelerate learning for all of our students.

▶ 36:42 And then we'll continue to provide those compensatory services for any student who receives special education services in the district and experience disruption, whether it be in the spring of 2020 or throughout the school year for any reason. So, those are our primary drivers and you'll see how this aligns right with our goals. So, first things first, we always want to develop a budget that's based on our known needs. We also think about what are those unknown needs, and sometimes we have known unknown needs. So based on the students that we already have relationships with, what do we see coming down the pike and how do we design a budget that allows us to respond? We talked about the COVID recovery plan. That really is our primary focus as we think about how we accelerate learning for all students.

▶ 37:30 And that really will come from us being able to both meet them where they are when they first walk through the doors in the fall, but then also thinking about strategic multi-tiered supports and systems that will meet their needs. One of the things that we did this year as a leadership team is we all came together over several months and really looked at the budget through a district lens. So each of the principals had the opportunity and the assistant superintendents had the opportunity to advocate for their individual department or school based on what they thought they would have the best and greatest impact on our students. And then we took a step back and we looked at it from a pre-K through 12 lens, really trying to be strategic and identifying those investments that were going to give us the biggest bang for our buck.

▶ 38:20 We know that one of the most cost-effective things we can do is provide that early intervention and support, so this budget allows us to expand those supports and services. We also have to make sure that we're providing all those required services, those mandated services and supports to our students. And then, of course, maintaining our existing programs that have a proven track record of helping our students grow and develop at a healthy pace and rate each year. And our most important resource, our human resources, making sure that we have the right structures and supports in place to support all of our employees. So, on this slide, I'm just outlining for you some of the different ways that we've already used some of the supplemental funding that we received from the federal government.

▶ 39:09 All of these grants listed up top have been essential in helping us with our COVID response plan that we are experiencing and wrapping up this week, last week of school. We also have a, another federal grant called the, we call it the ESSER II grant. It's the coronavirus relief funds. There's in the total amount of $439,000 in this budget. You will see that we're utilizing that to shift some things from our operating budget that meet the criteria. we're also utilizing this grant to provide some more mental health and social emotional supports for our students and shifting our what used to be daily student or i'm sorry daily subs to what we've discovered this year during covid having consistent reliable daily student supports that

▶ 40:00 are in the buildings every day allows our staff to have ample support but most importantly allows us to be able to respond to student needs we never have a day where we don't need an extra pair of hands. So that has worked really well for us and we'll continue that through ESSER II. We're also thinking forward and asking ourselves, how do we make sure that these investments that we're making in FY22 with supplemental funds will be sustainable? Because we know that our COVID recovery plan isn't a one-year endeavor. We're going to be making some of these investments for multiple years. We're also going to be learning more about what our students need throughout the school year. So we're really trying to reserve as much of ESSER III as we can so that we can have

▶ 40:43 that bridge from FY22 and beyond. And then our Coronavirus Prevention Fund, we were able to fully expend that this year. It covered all of our testing programs, our COVID-19 testing programs this year, so that the return to instruction back in January week of testing clinics that we did, and then also our pooled testing throughout the school year so i'll leave you with this last slide again this is just the overview so you have the numbers right before you as i go into answering any questions that you might have i don't want to repeat everything that chair mcandrew shared with you earlier but this budget really does a lot for the district not only are we able to maintain our proven programs our teaching and learning excellence that we have here in melrose

▶ 41:37 Maya Jamaleddine: it's also allowing us to really um add some supplemental supports that are going to be essential to us being able to respond to our students needs so with that i will answer any questions that you may have thank you superintendent kuchenberger um do we have anyone in the queue i'm sure we will um any hands fly up that i may not have seen yet counselor Jamaleddine thank you I just want to, um, thank you, um, and, uh, um, the school committee for all their leadership and hard work during this, um. Very challenging year to say the least, um, my family, and I'm sure a lot of other families in my rules are grateful for all the support that you provided for our kids. And, um, um, I'm just going to say, I support this budget.

▶ 42:36 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Councilor Jamaleddine. Any other Councilors with questions or comments? Councilor Stewart. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. McAndrew, Ms. Sikora, and Dr. Kuchenberger for being here tonight. Dr. Kuchenberger, great job this year. Thank you very much. Personally, as a father, it was the very best of trying situation, and I think as a community, a lot was done. Uh, I think in a very positive way to make it an experience that that worked out. Well, so thank you very much. Um, I did have a couple of specific questions on the budget. Um. When you talk about the contractual obligation, 5, 5. 8% increase is that 5.8 on the 34Million that's tied to wages and salaries. Okay, go ahead. So, um, on the 5.8%, that's on the contract on the payroll piece. It's not the whole 34Million dollars.

▶ 43:46 Robb Stewart: It's just on the salaries. Okay. And do you know what that true the, the true dollar value of that 5.8%. I can get you that I don't have that off the top of my head. And the reason why I ask is, I think it, I don't want it to be misleading that people would think that it's a 5.8% increase to the 38 million. I think it should be recognized that that is less than the full 38 million that's being asked for. The second question is, was there any impact to some of the attrition I think that occurred during the COVID? Um, and is there a dollar value tied to that? I'm just curious on on what what the impact of of that because I know there was some. Attrition due to people seeking other, um. Uh, options and evidence, so I'll start and then Leah, feel free to jump in. Um, so we were able to experience some attrition.

▶ 44:45 We also had a number of vacancies that we were not able to fill this year and helped us balance our FY21 budget. But as we think forward to FY22, the first thing that we start with is level services. And that's where we take all of our existing employees and move them on their salary scales in the steps and the lanes. And then we look at any retirement, any personnel reductions, and any turnover that we might have. And so that just on the known retirements at the time that the budget was approved was $368,500. What we don't know yet is, you know, when will all of the hiring occur? Will we be able to fill all of our vacant positions, for example, all of our vacant driver positions? That's an ongoing fluid thing.

▶ 45:37 Robb Stewart: We get resignations and retirements pretty much all throughout the year. Great. Thank you. The last question that I have is, if you could get into a little bit more detail about the accelerated learning, I think this would help the community understand what you're trying to achieve here and why it's so important. When I learned about this, I think it's a good point. Could you expand on that a little? Sure. So for us, when we're thinking about accelerating learning, it's really about meeting students right where they are. So asking two questions about every student every day. Where is Julie today? What does she know? What can she do? What is she ready to learn? So really making sure that our tiered support system, I'm sure you've seen presentations by the school department where we're showing you that triangle.

▶ 46:29 And so if you think about those layers of support, tier one is for all students. That means that everybody gets universal targeted interventions and supports. And that should be happening right in their classroom with just in time scaffolds. And the way that we're able to make those decisions, the way that our classroom teachers are able to make those decisions is by having really good formative and summative assessments. So getting our data teams back up and running is going to be a critical piece of this so that we're constantly monitoring where students are, but then ready to implement those just-in-time scaffolds when we notice that a student might need something more. So that's all students.

▶ 47:07 Everyone gets that. When you hear us talking about universal design for learning, those are some of those practices that we're putting in place to make sure that that's available and accessible. And then when we think about Tier 2, this is for, if you think all at the bottom, some in the middle, and then few is at the top with Tier 3. But that Tier 2 supplemental support, these interventionists that you see in this budget that we're adding, that's going to help us provide that supplemental targeted support. So again, you still get everything at tier one, and this is an addition. And then up at the very tippy top is for a few students. That's where we think about, you know, really intensive interventions that students may need based on.

▶ 47:50 Jeff McNaught: It could be a learning difference. It could be some sort of trauma or other type of emotional, academic, or mental health need. Great. Thank you, Dr. Kuchenberger. That's all I have for this evening. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councillor Stewart. Next, I have President Cinella, then Councillor Grigoraitis, and Councillor McMaster. Is there anyone else in queue? President Cinella. I was just going to motion to move the bottom line on Department 300, public school, but I know you want to throw that out there on discussion, let the other councils go. So, the motion by President Sinella to move the bottom line. For the purposes of discussion, is there a 2nd, or I would 2nd that for purposes of discussion.

▶ 48:45 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay, and and next, um, did you want to be heard on that? Yes, thank you. I just wanted to echo the comments of my colleagues thus far and thank. school committee and dr kuchenberger and missy core and just everyone in the melrose public schools for what has been a year none of us anticipated or i think ever want to live through again but you know many of us on this uh body are parents of public school children i think we know firsthand how deeply you've dug and how you know how much you produced enough my first grader brought home his writing journal this year and just to see the moments of joy that he clearly had this year when i think so many of us don't don't see that when we look back on 2020

▶ 49:30 Jen Grigoraitis: and 2021 i know that's the impact of educators so thank you you had a tireless and thankless job and had to make impossible decisions with imperfect and constantly changing information and i imagine that took a toll on all of you and all of your families as well so i just want to say thank you for that and i'm so pleased to see us have a budget that really reflects the needs of our students and hopefully brings us into recovery. Thank you, Councillor Grigoraitis. Councillor Garipay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Kuchenberg. Thank you, Chairman McAndrew for being here. I don't know if you can even answer this question. We're still in school, but over the past year a lot of people have either stayed at home and were educated at home or

▶ 50:23 private schools. Have we seen any of the enrollment come back over the last couple months and and how is that looking yeah great question um we're definitely seeing families coming back um we i don't have all the numbers right in front of me but i certainly could get them for you we look at the enrollment data all the time and what we're what we're planning on and what we're projecting for in fy 22 is every single one of our classes kindergarten through fifth grade with this exception of second grade they're a little bit under 300 they're at like 297 All other classes at the elementary level will be over 300 students in a grade. So if you think about graduation on June 4th, we had 232 students in our 2021 graduating class.

▶ 51:10 So significantly large classes moving their way up through the elementary into the middle school and our fifth grade class that's joining the middle school next year is just under 300 right now as well. But we're definitely seeing families come back and we're working with them to get them enrolled. We're also seeing some families move out. That's typical. We have a little bit of movement both ways. But it started really probably around March, February with families saying, okay, we're coming back. Some of them this school year already and others planning for the fall. Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. Thank you Councilor Garipay. Did I have anyone else in queue that I may have missed? Seeing none, any further discussion? Councilor Thomas.

▶ 51:58 Cory Thomas: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Superintendent Kuchenberger, welcome. Chairwoman McAndrew, welcome. Mr. Kor, welcome. Do you have a total number of what was sent to FEMA as far as reimbursement? I'm currently working with Patrick de la Russo on getting together the FEMA reimbursement and because we're still the extension of the school year, the summer is an extension of 2021 in FEMA. We still have supplies to be bought. So we don't have a number as of yet. Is there a ballpark figure? It is around a 1Million so far. I don't anticipate it to be too much more. Are there, um, are there other system, you know, districts throughout the Commonwealth that have filed the femur and heard back from them yet?

▶ 52:46 That, you know, not that I know of. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. All the hard work you guys have done throughout the calendar year. The school year. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Thomas. Seeing no other hands raised, um, we will vote. Madam clerk, can you please call the role chairman? Not. Yes, yes, vice chair Eccles. Yes. Counselor. Yes. Yeah. Counselor McMaster. Yes, yeah. Yes. Counselor Grigoraitis yes. Yeah. Counselor, yes. Yes. Counselor Stewart yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Cinella? Yes. Eleven yes. The motion passes. Thank you very much for being here with us this evening and all you do every day, Superintendent Kuchenberger and Chair McAndrew and everybody else rooting for you from the audience.

▶ 53:49 Appreciate it. Thank you. Next we have the Northeast technical vocational school i believe we have is it mr hamilton here this evening actually have several we have mr davari superintendent okay coming in we have mr hamilton coming in oh we have mr picone business manager coming in mr hamilton can you hear us yes i'm here so i cannot make you a panelist i'm not sure why i can make i'm unmuting you so that you may hear the discussion are you on a uh mobile phone by chance no no i'm on a laptop that was issued to me by the school committee okay so uh making you a panelist was not an option at this time but i'll leave your you can speak you're unmuted okay thank you uh i'm just here this evening to uh introduce the folks from the uh northeast metro

▶ 55:06 Ward Hamilton: tech. I think I know everyone on the city council, some folks very well. And what I wanted to do is just share with you briefly my experience, which started a little less than a year ago when I decided to pull papers and run for the seat that was being vacated by Henry Hooten. I think Henry was there for 36 years. I might have that number off a little bit, but it's probably not much. And when I spoke to Henry and asked him about the role and what was involved, he told me, you know, nothing but good things about what was going on up at Northeast Metro Tech, the people that were there, how terrific everything was. And it sort of sounded like an endorsement from somebody who had been somewhere for a long time and wanted to leave,

▶ 55:59 Ward Hamilton: you know, with nothing but positive, upbeat comments. So sometime later after the election, when I first got up to Northeast Metro Tech, I was very pleased to find that everything Henry described was accurate. It's a very important, impressive school run by, very well run by people who are doing an excellent job every year the school has a wait list kids want to get in there i was able to find out in the brief time that i've been serving on the committee that that our our kids from melrose are served very well i'm very pleased with what's going on and also there's a campaign underway to build a new and larger building that will create more opportunities um with an increased enrollment so without uh any further ado it is my honor to

▶ 56:58 Jeff McNaught: introduce to you the superintendent david barry and if i'm not sure if she's here i didn't hear her name mentioned but i think she's here the principal and deputy director director and our finance director, Jay Picone. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. Good evening, Mr. Dabari and Mr. Picone. I do see Ms. Scazzarella in the audience, but she's just on phone, Madam Clerk. I don't know, gentlemen, if Ms. Scazzarella is gonna be... Oh, there we go. She's coming in. Webex can surprise us every night. Oh, okay. We're all in the room. So, whoever would like to lead off the floor is yours. Sure, this is Dave. I've met God, I think, going back 10 years. I've been coming as previously as principal and now as superintendent.

▶ 58:14 So I do feel at home. Sometimes it's happy to say, it's, it's 1 of the meetings that I'm a little less anxious about, because you've always been such a gracious group to us and I really appreciate that. I'd also like to take a minute to publicly welcome Ward Hamilton. I can't tell you how exciting it is to have somebody with the experience in construction and such a knowledge of municipal issues. It's going to be invaluable on our new school project and hopefully this is a relationship for many years to come. It has been bittersweet though. I would like to also remark as Ward did on Henry Hooton's years of service and the things that he had done and the ways in which he had supported the students of Melrose. I could be here all night. So I did speak to Henry and his wife and I believe they may be watching. So he still supports us and we're very fortunate for the time we have with him

▶ 59:18 As a school committee representative, so now I'm going to turn it right over to Jay, our finance director, but I am available after the presentation, or during the presentation for any questions or further discussions on anything. The committee would like to talk about. Thank you. So, thank you for having me tonight. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about our budget process and what we go through on an annual basis. So, every budget that set out to produce. Always has 2 goals in mind 1st and foremost, we always want to minimize the impact to our member communities. So, we understand Melrose is a is a collaborative effort between us and Melrose. uh you know we understand that you're under the restriction of prop two and a half how much money

▶ 1:00:08 you can raise via taxation on the annual basis i very well know that because i used to be in melrose and patrick del russo and i used to talk about this very often but um also uh we understand there are other departments that we used to fund we need to fund fully and adequately in melrose and um you know we're very cognizant when we come when it comes to developing our budgets we understand that and we don't want to bring a very large assessment to Melrose because it could be problematic financially and secondly we want provide an adequate level of funding to support student learning and foster educational excellence because we want to be Melrose of the school I mean we want to be that excellent vocational pathway similar to the excellent education that they offer

▶ 1:00:56 at Melrose public schools we want to be the vocational option and we want to mirror that excellence and third this year we need to allocate funds provided by the Student Opportunity Act best meet student needs I believe last year the Student Opportunity Act was introduced prior to COVID it was pulled out mid year because it was unable to be funded and this year it's being reinserted back in as a requirement by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that we need to fund these positions in our budget for FY22. So regionalization exists by definition to offer services at a reduced cost to its member communities. So whenever we're developing our budget, we always want to keep our assessment very low at or below a 3% increase. I'm happy

▶ 1:01:51 to report that we were able to come in right at 3%, although that is light uptick in what we normally bring in bring the assessment in it um there's there are some there are definitely some financial um burdens that we we dealt with in fy 22 that weren't present in fy 21. and i apologize uh i sent kristen i sent this documentation this is the powerpoint presentation that i'm referencing um i i'm wondering if you should if you share that with all the members I'm on page where it says minimizing financial impact historical assessment. Analysis is a graph there. So, you also actually have presenter role if you want to share your screen, you can put it right up. Okay, well, I have my laptop, I'm sorry I have my laptop my phone, so.

▶ 1:02:44 I'm kind of using both, so that's all right. I'll keep going. But I think I said, I sent this information to the. To the council, so you should have all this information in front of you. But so, anyways, in our assessment went up 450,000, 186, as opposed to 21 that went up to 288,463 dollars. Now, there is a certain reason why the assessment went up if if you're looking at the PowerPoint presentation, where it says minimizing financial impact state funding. In FY21, our pre-COVID amount of Chapter 70, which is one of our main funding sources, it's Chapter 70 plus the assessment, plus our transportation reimbursement, always equals our operating budget. We were projected to give $11,527,909 in Chapter 70 funding, and that was in a significant

▶ 1:03:46 increase in Chapter 70 funding, which included the Student Opportunity Act funds that the department of elementary and secondary education introduced and then we um a billion dollars of our transportation reimbursement fund to uh come up to the other half of the operating um assessment but what happened obviously is covid hit and um the state revenues were way down and when july rolled around we didn't have an approved budget so we built our budget based on the 11 million 527 909 of chapter 70. when they finally passed the budget in september our chapter 7 funding had been cut to 10 million 745 350 which is around 780 000 difference so we were in the middle of december we had to cut 780 000 from our budget i'm happy

▶ 1:04:41 to report we were able to do so without any cuts to staffing we did they did remove the student opportunity act requirement from that budget so we could cut that but we still had to scramble to find the ways to cut budget down without reducing staffing we were able to do so in fy 22 however our although our chapter 70 funding did go up to 11 million 195 113 it still doesn't reach the pre-covered amount of money that we were supposed to receive and fy21 and it also reintroduces the student opportunity act which the student up the act is around 430 000 of positions that we had we we have to add in fy22 so it brings an interesting problem we received a little bump in chapter 70 which was we were

▶ 1:05:40 um equated to around 450 000 or 449 763 to be exact But we still have to fund those positions within the student opportunity act, which equates around 430,000. so, as, you know. We have regular contractual obligations, similar to Melrose. Melrose has regular steps and lanes, other contractual obligations and increase on an annual basis. So, it left us with an interesting problem. So, but we were able to figure it out. We intend to receive a projected 1.2Million dollars in transportation reimbursement. That we're going to use to offset the FY22 budget. We use 1Million this past year in FY21. we're going to use 1.2Million dollars in FY22 and then we're going to use Other funding sources, 200,000 to, I'm sorry, 2Million from our other funding sources are indeed in capital to further reduce the assessment costs.

▶ 1:06:38 So, in total, we plan to use 3Million, 200,000 of other funds to reduce the member assessment resulting revenue. $3 more than we're using 21 to significantly offset the increase in the operating budget. So, FY22 presents the following fiscal challenges. We need to add positions related to the Student Opportunity Act, like I mentioned, without the corresponding funding to adequately cover the regular contractual increases and required positions. We need funding for new employment contracts for all of our bargaining groups. We have six bargaining groups that we're in negotiations with. We were able to come up with a tentative agreement or a MOA for one year for fy21 uh we're negotiating for a new three-year contract for all bargaining groups in fy22

▶ 1:07:30 and funding for other post-employment benefits our total future liability is 71 million and we need to continue to start funding that because of the fact that it really affects our bond rating and when we're going for a building project we want our bond rating to be the highest so that way we reduce the burden to our member communities of the total interest that will be charged so our salary request pretty much makes up our entire budget our steps lanes and salary increases are seven hundred forty five thousand zero thirty five we have five positions related to the Student Opportunity Act that are included in this budget don't get me wrong I keep saying that there these positions are required to be added but they will add absolutely crucial services to student

▶ 1:08:21 increase student benefit. We have an addition of an auto body teacher in this budget based on the fact that we have increased enrollment in that shop and we need to add another teacher. And then we have to add a teacher to the budget based on the fact that it used to be funded by a grant. Our Perkins grant used to fund a teacher. Perkins grant is exclusive to vocational schools but so we had to move this teacher they only have a three-year period they're allowed to be in the grant the three years is up we have to move them into the into the budget and you talked about attrition before and salary savings and we calculated our attrition and salary savings based on retirements of one hundred and twenty two thousand one one eight and savings so our total increase

▶ 1:09:14 highlighted expenses is $1,221,891 in salary. And that's where all of our increases lie. Then we look to, as our largest line item, we look to decrease the budget in certain areas. So our contracted services requests, we determined that we were going to need $1.5 million in capital projects funding this year as opposed to the 1.6 that we had last year so we were able to reduce the capital projects line by by a hundred thousand dollars in addition we scoured the budget to determine that other contractual services line could be reduced based on historical analysis and we came up with an eighteen thousand dollar savings there so we were able to save a hundred and eighteen thousand nine forty two in the contractual services line and as i mentioned

▶ 1:10:05 we scour the budget so even the smallest line items we look to reduce so our supply lines are level serviced however we found one line that we didn't use anymore so we reduced the budget the supply request by three thousand dollars every dollar counts so and our equipment request is level funded and the reason being is that most of our equipment is covered by grant expenditures that are funded outside of this budget so in total our operating budget is going up $1,099,949 in FY22 which is a 3.2 percent increase however as I mentioned we're going to use $649,763 more in revenue than we did in FY21. So that $1,099,949 comes down to $450,186 and the resulting amount is the amount of the assessment that we have to assess the member communities.

▶ 1:11:12 So $450,186 is the total assessment, but that is divided by percentage of total enrollment. But so Melrose, based on the fact that you went down by two students, your assessment went from 767,490 to 754,661 and it's a decrease of 12,829 based on the decrease of two students from our enrollment. that's the that's the summary if anybody has any questions I'll be happy to answer them Thank You mr. Pocone and I know we also have principals because are Ella here and I didn't know if you were going to speak to anything but we're happy to have you here and and let you say a few words if you so please thank you I appreciate the opportunity I really don't have anything to add unless you have any questions specifically related to any curriculum or anything at

▶ 1:12:16 Jeff McNaught: school that i could possibly answer thank you very much so we'll go to the panel the hollywood squares here and see who has questions for anyone do any counselors have any questions for um anyone from northeast metro tech seeing no what is the will of the committee motion to move the bottom line on 399. seconds we have a motion to move the bottom line on uh department 399 northeast metro tech made by president sanella seconded by councillor Garipay on discussion seeing none madam clerk will you please call the roll chair mcnaught yes yes vice chair eccles yes councillor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Grigoraitis yes councillor Migliorelli? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine?

▶ 1:13:28 Jeff McNaught: Yes. President Sinella? Yes. Eleven yes. Thank you. The motion passes. Thank you. Thank you all for being here and what you do every day. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. And have a nice evening. So, 399 also includes Essex Agricultural. So, for formality's sake, we can vote on that again, but we won't unless people have questions. Mr. De La Russo and Superintendent Kuchenberger can come back in. They would be the ones to speak for essex agricultural on curriculum and budget so if anyone has any questions on essex aggie i know i'm abbreviating it that's what we know it s we can certainly bring them back into the room but if i don't see a show of hands we won't bring them back into the room and i'm also comfortable

▶ 1:14:28 Jeff McNaught: knowing uh the 399 included essex agricultural but if there's one hand that goes up that says nope we should vote on that as well we can do that as well but if but if if there's no objection i think we can all agree that 399 was passed and that essex agricultural was part of that line item as it is okay seeing uh no objection um that leaves us with what do we do with order 2021-122 the order that we've been working on now for several weeks um what is the will of the committee now that we've finished all departments counselor stewart uh yes mr chair i'd like to make a motion to recommend uh for passage back in we have a motion to recommend for passage order 2021-122 the city of morrow's operating budget for fiscal year 2022 and the amount of 91 million 522 dollars

▶ 1:15:32 Jeff McNaught: and 33 cents made by councillor stewart and seconded by councillor Grigoraitis on discussion seeing none madam clerk will you please call the role chair mcnaught yes vice chair Eccles yes councillor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster Yes, yes. Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Cinella? Yes. The motion passes. Next we have Order 2021-145, acceptance of a net metering credit agreement between the city of Melrose and Hampshire power for energy and cost savings. The agreement authorizes the production of alternative energy on behalf of the city through a state endorsed program. And I believe we have someone from.

▶ 1:16:48 Coming in now, Mr. true. Yep. Mr. true. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Do you want Elena in as well? You can bring her in. I don't suspect that there'll be questions for her, but she's more than welcome, obviously. Mr. Troop, if you want to begin. Oh, yeah, sure. I was just waiting for questions. Thank you very much Council. Appreciate you here. A few months ago, DPW put in front of you for consideration an agreement for net metering credits, which basically allows us to be an anchor for a solar farm. The utility, this is a state run program, the utility produces the power on our behalf, and then sells it back to the community. These anchor agreements are critical for their survival because they look for private entities, municipalities.

▶ 1:18:18 To really take the majority of the power that is being provided in these solar farms. And they also allocate some areas for private, small individuals to also take advantage of these net metering credits. The bottom line is the company sells this power to the utility. On our behalf, and then they, they bill us back at 90% of the cost. The net results as it was in the agreement a few years ago. Is about a 10% savings and the net result works out to be about a 30 to 35,000 dollars savings on on our energy line items. These monies can go towards other energy savings projects that we may have throughout the schools throughout the municipal buildings. And provide further savings and allows us really to continue to do more with with the line items that we have in our budget.

▶ 1:19:17 Thank you very much for your consideration. I'm more than happy to answer any questions on this agreement. Do any cultures have any questions for Mr. true? Seeing none what is counter Stewart? Yes, Mr. chair is just going to make a motion to recommend the passage. We have a motion to recommend 2021 dash 145 made by culture Stewart, seconded by President. discussion seeing none madam clerk will you please call the roll chair mcnaught yes vice chair eccles yes yes consulate Tramontozzi yes counselor mcmaster yes counselor Garipay yes counselor Grigoraitis yes council of Migliorelli yes counselor stewart yes yes counselor thomas yes Councilor Jamaleddine? President Cinella? Yes. Ken? Yes. The motion passes.

▶ 1:20:35 Jeff McNaught: Next we have order 2021-148 an appropriation in the amount of $43,423.46 from water retained earnings account 6100-319000 dash three one nine zero zero zero to the water reserve fund account eight four one six dash four nine zero zero zero and we have uh for delarusso i believe speaking of this or no do i have that wrong is it still mr you uh still you mr troop i believe it's me oh i'm sorry elaine i didn't see that that's okay i just turned on my video um i believe patrick is here um if there if questions come up but um so as many of you are probably aware each year our goal and as has been for the last five or so years is to have a reserve fund in the amount of 10 of our operating budget for water and for sewer and so this year the the

▶ 1:21:45 sewer fund is already at its reserve percentage so we're all set there but the water fund requires the transfer in the amount of roughly 45 000 and change that you mentioned counselor mcnaught um in order to bring the the total balance of the reserve fund to that ten percent goal do any counselors have any questions for director progress ellis vice chair just one quick question um how do we do we draw on the reserve fund or is it just kind of there for emergencies does that come through the council if we do um it i don't believe it comes through the council i think it goes through the water and sewer rate committee but um the the intention of the reserve fund is to be a rainy day fund as you saw this year with the mwra water main break

▶ 1:22:42 there there can be a substantial impact of um an unexpected event with one of our utility systems fortunately we don't have mains the size of the MWRA mains but that can cause quite that level of damage but the repairs that the MWRA is incurring on that project are in the millions of dollar range when everything is complete so for a system of our size we deemed 10% to be a good rainy day fund and the nice thing is in recent years we haven't had to put any operating funds any we haven't had to include it in the budget for the coming fiscal year because we've been able to fund up to that 10% using retained earnings from the prior year I think we noticed that once we get to the next order do any

▶ 1:23:37 Jeff McNaught: counselors have any other questions seeing none what is the will of the committee motion to recommend second we have a motion to recommend made by Councilor Tramontozzi seconded by Vice Chair Eccles Madam Clerk will you please call the roll Chair McNaught yes Vice Chair Eccles yes Councilor Tramontozzi yes Councilor McMaster yes Councilor Garipay yes Councillor Grigoraitis. Yes. Councillor Migliorelli. Yes. Councillor Stewart. Yes. Councillor Thomas. Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine. President Cinella. Yes. Tanyas. The motion passes. Next we have an order 2021-149 an appropriation in the amount of $400,000 from the water retained earnings account number 6100-319000 to the fiscal 2022 water budget.

▶ 1:24:55 Thank you. So we had discussed this item at the June 7th meeting when I presented the DPW budget and the water and sewer rates and associated budget. This is the $400,000 transfer that we're requesting from the retained earnings to the essentially to the fiscal 22 mwra budget um component of our water budget specifically the potable water side uh our mwra assessment is based on the previous year's usage and our percent share of the entire mwra system and during the pandemic this boston's percent share was down so substantially all the bedroom communities our percent shares came up substantially um and so rather than coming for that last year we pay for that next year that's that's the way the system works so the prior calendar year's

▶ 1:25:53 percent share of usage is what drives the coming fiscal year's assessment from the mwra so we see this is a one-time hit we wouldn't do this normally we wouldn't fund um operating funds in the future year with with retained earnings from the prior year because we don't want to set a precedent of underfunding the um the water and sewer enterprise funds we don't want to be borrowing from the previous year to pay the next year and then eventually that catches up to you and your rates are no longer reflective of of a balanced budget uh but we do believe that the $400,000 component is a very good estimate of the one-time hit that we're taking from the increased percent share of last year. And thus, we're requesting that one-time

▶ 1:26:46 Jeff McNaught: move from retained earnings into the MWRA assessment for fiscal 22. Thank you, Director Prayukas. Ellis, does anyone have any questions? Seeing none, what is the will of the committee? Motion to recommend, made by Councilor Tramontozzi, seconded by President Cinella. On discussion, seeing none, Madam Clerk, will 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 Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Cimoloddin? President Cinella? Yes. 10 yes. The motion passes. Next we have order 2021-152 authorizing a bond for the replacement of the salt shed.

▶ 1:28:04 Director probably yes, I'll give a quick intro and then I'll also turn it over to Jim in case he has anything he'd like to add. He's been managing this project. As, you know, we came before you many months ago to talk about the salt shed and at that time I shared everybody's view that. The 1.45Million that we were requesting at that time was an awful lot of money for a. Wooden structure and a foundation that's in essence. A, um, a giant garage with nothing in it. So, um. While I 100% shared the council's thought that we could hopefully do something for less money and initially our consultant had provided estimates that we could do something for less money, which. Um, they were initially estimating our construction bids would come in around 900,000 for.

▶ 1:28:59 the selected option which was the high arch gambrel style shed. The impact that the materials costs have had on the industry and nationwide as far as I'm told has driven the costs up as well as our unfortunate discoveries on our soil testing which were as bad as we thought they might be um which requires quite a bit of remediation as we install the foundation for the new salt shed so we now have bids in hand our low bidder is roughly 1.4 million and with the construction services that we need and um and contingency we are at a total including the hundred thousand you approved previously were a total of 1.75 million um and in speaking to patrick delarusso his feeling is that the um we can't count on the market coming back down

▶ 1:30:09 this is this is our best opportunity to perform this project it fits within the capital plan if it's within our five percent bonding goal um we have the money now and uh you know the materials cost might come back down but the interest rates could go back up and over the life of the of the loan we could end up spending more money if we push this off um so i'm going to turn it over to jim so he can tell you some of the highlights of the option that we selected and what some of the benefits are thank you very much and um especially thank you to the Council for this consideration. I think we've expressed over the last week the sense of urgency we have to get this replaced. We understand the costs that came in are a significant consideration

▶ 1:30:57 and are worthy of the scrutiny that you're all putting in on this topic. But I think we have definitely expressed a sense of urgency to try to get this done. I think the highlights of what we are trying to accomplish. I do have to commend Weston and Sampson for putting in front of us three different options for consideration and one was the canvas top structure, the second was the high arch gambrel, and the third was basically the similar structure to what we have now. When we looked at all the benefits of each of the three structures, we thought that the value of the high arch gambrel definitely outweighed any of the cost savings, replacement costs, maintenance costs, and things like that that came with the other structures. Not only would the structure fit in

▶ 1:31:53 basically a 30-year plan for us, it also afforded us a quite a few benefits included some increased storage due to the smaller footprint we'd be able to house more salt and as I pointed out we basically throw between 600 and 800 ton of salt per storm the current capacity is roughly a 1200 ton so you got maybe a storm a storm and a half worth of salt and that in that structure as it is the A new structure would give us approximately 1,400 ton in storage, so it'll allow us to respond to some of those long drawn out storms that we definitely experience in the city. But the bottom line is through various tours and pictures and things like that, that we've shown, we definitely have shown the need for the structure.

▶ 1:32:48 But what comes with this price are added ground improvements, stormwater improvements. The benefit to El Pond is definitely tangible. And then some of the things that we didn't foresee that unfortunately were a requirement of the testing and everything like that that came along with Weston and Sampson's process was some contaminated soils. And that's an important thing. No matter what they did, we would have discovered this through that vetting process. And now, unfortunately, we're forced to deal with this. This project right now allows us to take care of this right now, along with getting a new and updated structure, as well as some significant efficiencies to the operations that we deliver through some critical events that definitely affect public safety.

▶ 1:33:36 Mark Garipay: Again, I thank you very much for your consideration on this project and can't stress enough the sense of urgency that that is in front of the DPW with this with this replacement. So, thank you. Thank you Mr. Troop. Thank you, Director Proekes-Ellis. Councillor is in queue. I haven't seen any hands raised. Seeing none, Councillor Garipay? Thank you, Ms. Proekes-Ellis. Thank you, Mr. Troop for for reaching out. We had a great conversation last week regarding the salt shed. I totally agree with you that something needs to be done. It's something that needs to be replaced. It's just what value and what cost are we looking at? Do we look at something? I know we took the middle one, the high gambrel,

▶ 1:34:36 Mark Garipay: but the DCR, as we had a conversation, The MassDOT who build a lot more salt sheds seem to be going with the canvas ones for less money and that are that are portable. I totally agree with you that this needs to happen. I just, I struggle with 1.7Million dollars for a salt shed On a piece of property that is part of our master plan that was identified in the master plan, part of the real card for potentially development. And we're going to be investing into a 1.7Million 1.7Million dollars. Salt shed and amateurizing that over 30 years. Um, there's a lot that that can happen. Um, so I. I struggle, I struggle with this. I. I commend on all both of both of you had work on this. I just struggle with the dollar amount and I cannot support this at this moment.

▶ 1:35:34 Cory Thomas: Councilor Thomas. Thank you. Mr. Chairman director. The troop welcome. Um, this race, thank you very much too. Um. I appreciate all the time that everyone took, um. It's pretty solution and we've talked at great length about this before Mr troop. It was great to be on the city with you last Friday talking to you and Mr Antonio. I had a long conversation. With Patrick, you know, and he explained, you know, that. This can fit into our long term plan budget over 30 years. Um, but again, my counselor, they said, um. The need is there. Absolutely. Um, you know, I was uncomfortable being in the salt chair Late week. Um, just because of the decay and the breakdown of this of the structure, but the price tag is so much, um.

▶ 1:36:27 Cory Thomas: Director, thank you so much for, you know, saying, you know, you, you previously said in front of this board. That 1.4 was worst case scenario, you know, and here we are, you know, a year later and the worst case scenario has gone up as well. Um. I'd love to see other options. Councilor Stewart. I know asked her last year if there was other options. I believe he found another option for for, um. Assault shed under a 1Million dollars, whether that still get that. Here we are a year later during after a pandemic, I think most everyone knows that the cost of construction materials has gone up. Um, but again, you know, that that price tag is is so much for the taxpayers and mowers. Um. But thank you for coming here. I appreciate all you've done to this point right now. Thank you.

▶ 1:37:18 Jack Eccles: Any other counselors with any questions or comments. Vice chair, I lost my mute button. Um, I was just looking at the. Western Samson report. And I completely lost what I was looking at, but it was looking at the fabric structure versus the high gambrel structure. It looked like the initial what's classified as like the initial capital cost was only off by about $100,000-ish, maybe $200,000. So I guess my question would be, is the difference between the $911,000, $911,000 that's listed for the high gambrel and the $1.6 million on the order, that $700,000, is that part of the site-specific construction costs? And would those be kind of baked into some of the other models as well? Oh, we had Weston and Sampson rerun the cost estimates from their original analysis

▶ 1:38:27 during the bidding period because they started telling us right as we were getting the bid documents out they were telling us about the the how the costs have been driven up by the market for the materials and how the soils were really going to impact our overall cost and so i requested that they redo their cost estimates for all three options so that we knew we were comparing apples to apples because i didn't want to come before the board tonight with a 1.75 million dollar project and have it be compared to an 800 000 dollar fabric structure because that's no longer the reality so when they re-ran those numbers the the total cost estimate for the high arch gambrel was 1.71 million and i'll just note that that didn't include the 100 000 for design so in essence it was really

▶ 1:39:22 1.81 million this was before we opened bids so the bids came in a little bit lower than they projected um but for the purpose of this discussion they were comparing a 1.71 million dollar design to a 1.3 million dollar um cost for the uh the fabric shed when you take into account the um the cost as they stand now and the soil conditions so we're looking at about a 400 000 difference um but part of that difference is uh the as jim mentioned this the high arch gambrel design can fit in a smaller footprint so the high arch gambrel design also includes a canopy off the back to give us covered storage in that additional 20 or so feet off the back where we're very tight on storage space right now at the city yard um and so so there's that advantage that's not included in

▶ 1:40:26 the fabric structure there's also the the fact that we're designing this structure to be solar ready so we can put solar panels on this high arch gambrel roof it will afford us a nice large area to put some solar panels and get more um credits if we if we are feeding that back into the grid so there's a potential long-term savings or revenue generation there the fabric structure cannot accommodate the solar unless they did say that you you can find ways to retrofit to put the solar panels on the fabric but you have to take them off each time the fabric needs to be replaced which is not practical in any way. So those are just a couple of the advantages that go along with the with the hierarchic umbrella design. So it is a $400,000 difference,

▶ 1:41:21 but in my mind, to pay $1.7 million for a structure that's going to last 50 years, that's going to be sort of permanently in place, as compared to paying $1.3 million for something that can tear or have has to be replaced every 10 years um once you're into those dollar values i just i can't see paying 1.3 million for for a fabric arch on a foundation and into your to your point um if we were to pass on this that one hundred thousand dollars would also be sunk potentially yeah so the 100 000 that the request before you tonight is for 1.65 million for a total bond amount of 1.75 million so the hundred thousand that you've already approved is um is is counted there as already approved and then the 1.65 million is the remainder

▶ 1:42:24 Shawn M. MacMaster: awesome yeah thanks thanks for all that um i was i was able to take a tour of the salt should this morning and i heard this afternoon i definitely think it could use a replacement i am inclined to agree with you that you know the 400 000 when you when you really add it up and the operational benefits that that that's going to yield for you it seems to make sense to me i'm i'm in support of this thank you thank you councillor mcmaster thank you mr chairman uh good evening director paraka solace and mr troop i i agree with councillor garapan councillor Councillor Thomas, really anything over a million dollars for a building that houses salt is really a nonstarter for me. And frankly, I'd be reticent to support a bond for any new or improved building without there having been any movement,

▶ 1:43:17 Robb Stewart: any direction whatsoever on the state of our public safety building. So I won't be willing to support this tonight. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councillor Stewart. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Director Parokasalis and Mr. Troop for being here tonight. Ms. Parokasalis, the Weston and Sampson quote that you have, I'm just trying to understand the process. Did they go out and solicit bids from different subcontracting vendors and they are presenting the lowest cost based on subcontracting vendors or did they just provide the three alternative quotes based on the three construction on that that's where i'm a little confused i'm gonna pause everyone right here because i just noticed we need to gavel into the city council meeting so i apologize for that um

▶ 1:44:18 if i could get a motion to recess we'll come right back to counselor stewart after we do that um I'll entertain a motion. Thank you, Councilor Stewart. Second. We have a motion of recess made by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Councilor Grigoraitis. Madam Clerk, will 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 Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Cinella? Yes. 11 yes. We are in recess. President Cinella, the floor is yours for the City Council. Would you like the folks moved out and then back in, President Cinella? It doesn't matter.

▶ 1:47:19 Jeff McNaught: Seeing no objection, this meeting is now in recess. Back to you, Chair McNaught. That was a good move. I like that. We are back in appropriations. So, Councillor Stewart, we left off with you. I apologize for making you go through that long question and then asking you to pause. But Director Paracas-Ellis, if you recall the question, if you'd like to start answering, feel free. Yes, so to To refresh everyone from a minute ago on the question. So comes to its questions about the comparison of the. The bid, excuse me, the cost estimates provided by Western Samson as compared to the bid. Bids that we received from contractors, so I realized that we didn't give a great explanation of that. And so that's a really good question. So we had.

▶ 1:48:16 Things going on on 2 different parallel tracks 1 is the design engineer will typically perform. Cost estimates at various stages along the way. So, the initial cost estimates they did were with conceptual designs, and then the final cost estimates that they did during the bidding period were with their 100% design. So, the cost estimates that I sent out to the council yesterday were those that were developed. With their 100% design plans as they were going out to bid. The, the project has already gone up to bid so separate from that we have. The, um, the final bid. Bids from the contractors, so we got, we had to do filed sub bids for 2 different trades, electrical and roofing and then we had.

▶ 1:49:09 Um, the general, so you open those bids 1st from the filed sub bidders and then the general contractor bids opened a week later and they select their subs from the list and include carry those costs in their totals. So, the request on the table tonight. Is based on the low bidder's price we had 2 general contractors who bid the project. So, it's based on the low bidder's price. We added on an 8% construction contingency. Due to just trying to be extra careful with the soils that we have the conditions that we know exist. The bid prices do include the soil remediation, but it's on a unit cost basis and we just want to make sure we're covered and that it includes the construction administration costs for Western Samson to provide oversight.

▶ 1:49:59 During the project, and it includes Western Samson's costs. to close the, what's called closing the contaminated site, performing all the sampling and the paperwork that's required for DEP in order to get sign off that what we've done in the end is acceptable. So Jim, do you have the low bidder contractor price handy there? No, I don't. It was approximately 1.4 million was the low bid And the filed subs, they took the low filed sub bids. There were several electric file sub bids. They came right in with Weston and Samson's cost estimates. And the file sub for the roofing was a little bit higher than their cost estimates, but it was nothing unreasonable over over what they had proposed. And I think I have the costs here then.

▶ 1:51:09 Sorry, I'm trying to find our exact bid total. 1.436Million is the general contractors price. So, when you look at the cost estimate for the, um, the way Weston and Samson put it together in their estimates. That would be equivalent to, um. In the higher, um. Cost estimate that would be comparable to the. 1.556Million. Minus the 145,000 of construction services. So. um so that would be 1.4 2 million roughly 421 so that's so the the bid price actually came in pretty much spot on with their um with their total and actually what makes their total price higher than ours is they've carried a 15 contingency that's where they get up to the 1.738 million whereas we felt that that was an excessive contingency when you have a bid price in hand

▶ 1:52:17 Robb Stewart: they like i said they put those together while the project was still out to bid so we didn't have contract prices in hand so they were carrying a higher contingency once you have a bid um in hand then you can drop the contingency down thank you thank you mrs price a follow-on question to this um so so um weston and sampson uh weston and sampson are the ones that went out to do this bidding for you is that correct they put together the plans and specifications and then we in conjunction with them we submit um there are certain uh advertising requirements that the city has to do we put it on combines we put it in the central register we put it in the local newspapers um it followed all the standard uh state procurement laws so it went out to a full

▶ 1:53:13 Leila Migliorelli: um chapter 149 bid for a public building project um and then we opened the bids at city hall and then weston samson um helps us with checking references and the like okay that's helpful thank you uh thank you mr chair any other counselors for the first time councilor mclarelli thank you mr chairman and thank you uh miss praga salas and mr troop for being here tonight um i i think this is a it is definitely a big amount of money um to approve um but after touring the current salt shed today um it it something has to be done and i think um counselor garibay brought up a great point that this is it so happens that this um salt shed is on a piece of land that is is you know you know prime real estate for development but that's not

▶ 1:54:20 Leila Migliorelli: what's on the table right now um so you know with the i appreciate the report from weston samson showing the three options um i also appreciate the fact that by going with the cheapest option it may not be solved you know saving us money in the long term um but i just did want to point out that you know trying to weigh my decision here in approving this um it's just trying to weigh between options of of what we have in front of us um what needs to happen with the the shed that is clearly falling apart um and you know concerns that if we put something temporary even in that location given where it is um close to the you know to el pond and the water that that may have some other negative impacts that we haven't thought through so um it didn't really have

▶ 1:55:07 Leila Migliorelli: any other questions um other than actually no sorry i did have one question on is there a you know a maintenance uh plan and maybe this is for ms armada like a you know a fund that will go in to help maintain this over time they couldn't help but think as i was looking at that salt shed that um this isn't something that kind of fell apart overnight and that perhaps you know over time had proper maintenance been going on um it it wouldn't need we wouldn't need to do this huge investment all at once so i i don't i'm just curious about what funding or resources there are are to ensure proper maintenance of structures like this moving forward? I'll step in and answer that, Councillor. I think the important thing is through some of the tours and what people saw today,

▶ 1:56:02 I think anything that we throw in from our operating budget, whether it's a snow and ice cost or whether it's something from our operating budget is throwing good money after something bad. We saw Jersey barriers holding up some of the walls. saw the walls bowed out on that side. So, I think the key for us is with a new structure comes a very detailed maintenance plan and up front those maintenance costs aren't going to be extremely high on a year-to-year basis. Some of the components of the structure like the metal roof will have far less maintenance especially in the beginning part of the of the life cycle and it would be something that we could definitely handle within our operating budget without

▶ 1:56:47 exploring any additional line items or anything like that and the key would be with a new structure just making sure we adhere to a strict preventive maintenance program that would be uh very explicit for a new building and and the critical structure that uh that is for us to deliver services i do want to add in one one other consideration that we didn't talk about that we are throwing into this design or have included in this design um that's before you tonight which is that we've also proposed we're adding essentially a flood gate to the door of the new salt shed so one one real risk that we have is we are located in the flood plain and we've always had the risk that if there were a major flooding event and the salt then the level got up to where

▶ 1:57:39 the level where the salt is in the existing shed that brine filled water would just run right out into the into toward El Pond it would all be if we were that flooded we would basically be contiguous with El Pond at that point so the design includes a floodgate at the door where you would put in a series of logs basically that that close up the front of the structure and keep salt from flowing out of the building if we ever were to have a flood so that's a substantial improvement over what's there now which is just a big open space Um, in terms of maintenance. Also, I would say that I think the maintenance programs now. Are different than how they have been over the past several decades. I think.

▶ 1:58:28 You know, coming in as a new director last year, I saw deferred maintenance all over the place and Jay McNeil coming in as new facilities manager. I think he was somewhat appalled at some of the deferred maintenance that he saw around the city. There are definitely a lot of areas where I always joke that. We do, we do more with less in Melrose. We're always trying to have the most economical approach to everything, but at a certain point, that's just not the appropriate way to handle facilities. And so the band-aid approach only takes you so far. Um, and I don't think that is our current mantra with how we're handling the buildings. Now, as you saw with some of our other free cash requests, we're, we're trying to replace roofs instead of continuing to plug up leaks.

▶ 1:59:17 We're trying to protect the infrastructure that's below those roofs, like the learning commons. We want to fix these areas in a better fashion than we have in the past because we don't want to be repeating or repeatedly addressing the same damages over and over and over again. So with a brand new salt shed, our plan and our goal would be to keep up on maintenance so that this facility lasts for its full useful life and maybe even beyond. Thank you. I really appreciate that answer. No further questions. Thank you Councilor McGillivray. Councilor Thomas. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Troup, you and I and Mr. Piacentonio discussed this last Friday. What would it take to move this operation up to Route 99 and the DPW's facility up there?

▶ 2:00:06 You know, it's interesting you ask that question because FEMA actually posed that question to us about alternative sites. You know, we're still seeking reimbursement for some roof damage that occurred on a storm a handful of years ago. I had to inherit that. And so I talked with Peter about that. The challenge with moving that up to Route 99 is obviously the topography of that area and trying to construct a building up in that area. But also, as we pointed out and we talked about this in our conversation is the central location of that dpw yard and the fact that it is central to our operations allows us not only to mobilize but also to deliver our storm operations quickly so um you know we talked about public safety i i think this is

▶ 2:01:00 you know that location right there is ideal for delivering the public safety that comes along with our store storm operations and I really would hate to compromise it by trying to look and try to mobilize from from the route 99 site I don't think that we would be able to deliver the same level of snow services if we were up there we talked about it at length and I just don't I don't think that that's a viable option in order to just be able to mobilize and mobilize quickly was that option proposed to any of the vendors that we contacted for these bids No, it was not. No, the way the bid documents work, it's a full Western Samson did a full design and set of specifications. So the, the bidders were bidding on a project that was designed in the current.

▶ 2:01:49 Location again, the need is there, but I think we need to step outside the box a little bit, you know, and maybe consider alternate sites or alternate options. The price tag is such a huge number. Thank you for hearing me out. If you don't mind, I'd also like to address the question about the possibility of our operations moving elsewhere. While I do recognize that the DPW site is within the rail quarter district, and it is a valuable piece of property. I think the. The benefits of our centralized location far outweigh the. The benefits of more. Development along that quarter in that particular lot. I think, though, that anything that we do to improve our lot and the appearance of our lot and that salt shed is probably the biggest eyesore that we have at the moment.

▶ 2:02:46 It also drives up the value of the adjacent lots. So, there is, you know, the, the building at 53 street right next door. Is a very small building on a fairly large lot with a good amount of parking. someday if that gets taken down and someone wants to build a nice a nice condo building that brings in some good tax revenue um that's not going to happen with the current salt shed as its next door neighbor but maybe with a brand new structure that that looks better um it helps with the property values surrounding the city yard as well and and i would love to see our facility morph into a more modern public works facility that someone would be proud to build next to as opposed to being deterred councilor mcmaster thank you mr chairman at this

▶ 2:03:42 time i would make a motion to recommend that order 2021-152 authorizing a bond for the replacement of a salt shed not past the appropriations committee okay we have a motion to recommend um that order 2021-152, not pass, made by Councilor McMaster, seconded by Councilor Garipay. On discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? No. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. council of Grigoraitis no council Migliorelli no no councillor stewart yes yes councillor thomas yes yes councillor Jamaleddine no president sanella yes yes two three four five six seven yes The motion passes. So that concludes our DPW

▶ 2:05:15 Jeff McNaught: business for the evening and appropriations anyway. Next, we have Order 2021-153, an appropriation from the PEG Access Cable Fund, number 2922, I believe it is. I can't see it. In the amount of $276,505 to MMTV and Melrose Public Schools, and we'll be bringing in, I believe, Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis, who we have to thank for her incredible patience. I'm so sorry that you've had to wait so long to get into the room. I'd also like to acknowledge that Ms. McAteer-Margolis is the former Ward 2 counselor which is the seat that i'm in and served the city of morrow's uh very well for many years thank you um thank you chairman mcnaught um actually i i never had the honor of being award two counselor i was in fact a counselor at large at large okay at large right so i uh

▶ 2:06:23 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: you live around the corner i'll take all i know i do and i'm proud to be a ward two resident always and always enjoyed supporting the constituents as does yourself. I knew it was going to be a long night for you, so I did step away a few times. Thank you. I can't seem to get my video on. I don't know if that's just because… Is there a stop video button or a start video button? Yeah, there is, but it's not kind of, it's kind of not working. So, um. I haven't changed. I didn't change into my pajamas yet. So, you know, I'm waiting on that. Um, anyways, it's, uh. I'm, I'm on a different device, because in case you're hearing music in the background, my husband's, uh, blue of a kind group is rehearsing downstairs. I apologize, but they do sound nice. Oh, there we go. Great.

▶ 2:07:20 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: um yes so um thank you for uh having us um chairman mcnaught president sanella and all of the board um you've done yeoman's work this evening so i hope this is the easy quick part of your night i'm coming before you to ask for our biannual appropriation from verizon and comcast which are the funding sources for MMTV. The total amount for two quarters of each disbursement, the MMTV share is $221,204. Just as a reminder, back in December, you appropriated $275,657. that did in fact include one extra payment that was held over from the previous year so our annual revenue is generally estimated to be in the vicinity of around four hundred thousand dollars from both um cable providers and i'm happy to answer any questions you might have

▶ 2:08:31 Jen Grigoraitis: does anyone have any questions for the former alderman at large Ms. McAteer-Margolis. Councilor Grigoraitis. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. McAteer-Margolis, for being here. I just wanted to commend MMTV for their coverage this past year, especially once we figured out the kinks in getting so many of our city meetings live streamed. I think it was a huge asset to the community and I think we've seen massively increased engagement and viewership of all meetings. So I just, I know that was a heavy lift and I wanted to thank you and the the clerk's office and the IT department for making that happen and I really hope that it's something that we can continue to pursue regardless of what happens at

▶ 2:09:12 John N. Tramontozzi: the state level around remote or in-person meetings just because I think it's really made city government more accessible for residents so thank you for that and I will motion to move the bottom line unless there are other questions second we have a motion made by council Gregor itis to move the Seconded by Vice Chair Eccles on discussion. Council Chairman Tozzi. Yes, thank you Mr. Chair and welcome this evening. This is Mackintosh Margolis. Good to see you. I have a question because I was looking back at our chatter. I tried to call for a cable television commission. What's the status of the commission? Are you a member of that commission? Or do we even have any members appointed to a commission?

▶ 2:10:05 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Typically, what happens is that when we begin the process of contract renewal, we activate the commission at that point. In the past, it has been made up of The president of our of our board, um, our executive director, usually myself, um, Patrick, so the, um. City counselor, the city attorney, and, um, generally there's a few, um, like members that might weigh in on it as well. And we will be actually beginning that process. Um, the contracts, I believe for both, um. Both providers, I believe, are up the end of 2022. so we will, in fact, beginning that be starting that process, um, in the not too distant future. Great and we have a public here. We usually have a public hearing. That's part of that where people can come and speak as well.

▶ 2:11:05 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Okay, because I, yeah, I might be interested in, uh, in, uh, participating in that, uh, that, that committee commission. So, well, I understand you might have a little free time on your hand. So that would be a pleasure to have you jump into that and help us out. And I do want to just say, um, if I may, in, um, response to, uh, that, um, we were, uh, it was a little challenging at the beginning, But we were really happy that we were able to provide the kind of coverage for your meetings that that that we did, and we are hopeful that going forward, we will be able to continue to offer a hybrid version. So that people who are not able to come down to the chamber and want to watch at home or participate remotely will be able to continue to do that. They are kind of trying that out.

▶ 2:11:57 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: I have to give big kudos to Patrick Doyle and Mike Miner, our executive directors, and I think they have it so that when you finally go back in person, we'll still have some options available for the public to watch remotely and participate in that fashion. That's great. Look forward to it. And we have a good crew down there, and we hope to get back to in-person meetings shortly. But thank you, thank you, appreciate it. No other questions, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Council Chairman Tuzzi. Madam Clerk, where are we on, are we bringing someone back into the room? I believe that Ms. Secor is back to speak to the school piece of this. Okay. If it's the will of the committee. Just by a show of hands,

▶ 2:13:04 Jeff McNaught: does anyone have any questions for Ms. Secor this order seeing none i think we'll we'll go ahead and move on to the vote chair mcnaught yes yes vice chair eccles yes yes councillor traymond yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Grigoraitis yes yeah councillor Migliorelli yes yes councillor Stewart? Yes. Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Cinella? Yes. Eleven yes. Motion passes. Thank you for being here and again thank you for your patience. Really appreciate it. Thank you for your approval. My pleasure. Thank you for coming back again Ms. Secor. Sorry for the mix-up. That's okay thank you have a good night um okay so that concludes our appropriations sorry uh oh

▶ 2:14:13 that concludes our appropriations business for the evening i'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second motion to adjourn made by vice chair eccles seconded by councillor mclearelli madam clerk will you please call the role chair mcnaught yes yes vice chair Mayor Eccles? Yes. Councillor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councillor McMaster? Yes. Councillor Garipay? Yes. Councillor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councillor Migliorelli? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We are adjourned and President. Back to you all right welcome back. We are now back in session out of recess.

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2021-06-14

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