Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2022-06-16

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

This meeting starts at 9:10 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Christopher Cinella present · President, ex oficio; Jack Eccles present; Mark Garipay present; Jen Grigoraitis present · Chair; Maya Jamaleddine present; Manjula Karamcheti present; Shawn M. MacMaster absent; Leila Migliorelli excused · Vice Chair; John Obremski absent; Robb Stewart present; Ryan Williams absent

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 16, 2022 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:18 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jen Grigoraitis Chair Present Leila Migliorelli Vice Chair Excused Shawn M. MacMaster Absent Jack Eccles Present Mark Garipay Present Maya Jamaleddine Present Robb Stewart Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Absent Ryan Williams Absent Christopher Cinella President, ex oficio Present Chair Grigoraitis notes that Vice Chair Migliorelli will not be in attendance for this meeting.

ORDER-2022-129 Transfer A Transfer from Human Resource Salary and Wages (011521- 511000) in the amount of $2,000 (Two Thousand Dollars) to Human Resource Advertising (011522-520500). Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-132 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $1,225,000 (One Million, Two Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars), to various stabilization accounts as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-133 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $34,010.35 (Thirty-Four Thousand, Ten Dollars and 35 Cents) to Pine Banks, Capital Outlay, account 016523-551099. This appropriation will be used to pave the parking lot by the playground & lodge. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-134 Appropriation City of Melrose Page 1 6/23/2022 3:30 PM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee June 16, 2022 An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $270,000 (Two Hundred Seventy Thousand Dollars) to various IT accounts as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-136 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $75,967.40 (Seventy-Five Thousand, Nine Hundred Sixty-Seven Dollars and Forty Cents) to various Community Service line items as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-138 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001 in the amount of $76,400 (Seventy Six Thousand and four hundred dollars) to various general government accounts as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-141 Transfer A Transfer from Temporary Interest, account 017522-549100, in the amount of $74,000 (Seventy Four Thousand Dollars) and a transfer from Health Insurance, account 019142-549201, in the amount of $81,000 (Eighty One Thousand Dollars) to the City Solicitor budget as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-143 Appropriation An Appropriation from Mt. Hood Retained Earnings, account 620000-319000, in the amount of $92,000 (Ninety-Two Thousand Dollars) to Mt. Hood Professional Services, account 620000- 529000 to fulfill contract obligations. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-146 Appropriation An Appropriation from Ambulance Retained Earnings, account number 6500-31900, in the amount of $73,355.98 (Seventy Three Thousand, Three Hundred Fifty-five dollars and ninety-eight cents) to various ambulance accounts as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-147 Appropriation City of Melrose Page 2 6/23/2022 3:30 PM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee June 16, 2022 An Appropriation from the Peg Access Cable Fund (#2922) in the amount of $276,764.16 (Two Hundred Seventy - Six thousand, Seven Hundred Sixty-Four Thousand and sixteen cents) to MMTV and Melrose Public Schools. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2022-149 Grant An acceptance of the Municipal Fiber Grant awarded to Melrose MA in the amount of $237,500 (Two Hundred Thirty Seven Thousand Dollars) with a $12,500 (Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollar) match from IT Operating funds Ought to Pass Appropriations & Oversight Committee City of Melrose Page 3 6/23/2022 3:30 PM

Transcript

▶ 8:52 Jen Grigoraitis: motion to adjourns Second motion to adjourn was made by Vice chair Stewart. seconded by president sonella discussion all in favor I opposed we are adjourned. Good evening. Today is Thursday, June 16th. 2022. And the time is 7:18 PM. This is yet another meeting of the Appropriations and oversight committee. Joining me tonight are counselors Echols garapay. Jamala, Dean Stewart Karm Chaney and President sonella ex-officio and Vice chair Migliorelli asked me to note for the record that she is home recovering from covid and regrets that she cannot be here tonight. At this time, I will motion by unanimous consent to open public comment. Seeing no objection public comment is now open. This is the portion of

▶ 10:11 Jen Grigoraitis: our meeting where any member of the public can speak to any item on our agenda. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to speak tonight? Sir, you wishing to speak in public comment? No. Okay, do we have anyone online? Not the small one. Okay, so we do not have anyone in person or in line wishing to speak at this time. I will motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Public comment is now closed and I do just want to go back. I fail to note that we do have a quorum for the record and that pursuant with the open meeting law. This meeting is being televised on mmtv website and cable channels and will be available for viewing at a future date on the city of Melrose website. We have a 11 orders before

▶ 10:55 Jen Grigoraitis: us tonight, and we have many special guests in the audience to come and speak on those orders. So I'm going to ask my colleagues to bear with me. I think I've done some reordering if we take some stuff out of order we can try to get some folks. Before us in an orderly manner, so my first request would be to entertain a motion to take order 2022-136. And appropriation for free cash account zero one dash three two, four zero zero one in the amount of 75,967.40 to various community service line items is set forth herein to take that out of order. So the second so we have a motion made by counselor Stewart seconded by President Snell to take order 2022-136 out of order. Is there any discussion Seeing none all in favor any opposed.

▶ 11:42 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay, so we will take that order out of order and I believe we have some representatives from the recreation department the Council on Aging and Memorial Hall joining us tonight is my understanding. So if you all want to join us at the table and while that's happening if I can entertain a motion to suspend the rules so we can hear from our guests. I'm sure I'll make a motion to suspend the rules second. So we have emotions to suspend the rules made by counselor Stewart seconded by President. Sanela. Is there any discussion seeing none all in favor High any opposed the rules are suspended welcome. It's lovely to have you we do have just for the public watching at home. There are several items within this

▶ 12:21 free cash order. So if you can each maybe just briefly go and speak to the item that relates to your department who wants to go first. Don't all jump at once. Hi, I'm Kathy pegiproda executive director of Memorial Hall. I am specifically looking for one. Free cash order for my elevator is out of compliance with the software and this just came to light when I have my inspection 85% of the elevators in Massachusetts have to have this done. So I got a price quote. The first one to get it done and it'll be done in August if I if you approve the money tonight. It's a state regulation and it's mandated. I have no choice. Thank you, Lisbon. Cello? Hi Stacy. Mancello Council and aging thank you for having me. I

▶ 13:09 have a free cash request on the table for 13,000 and that's to upgrade the locks. To the Milano Center to a fob system similar to City Hall and we feel that one that's a great way to monitor activity, but also keep the building safer and open it up to Affiliates meaning other public. Community Partners and departments for evening access Thank you and last but not least Mr. Oliveri. Hello, Frank wilbury Recreation director speaking on two items tonight on free cash requests. The first is in upgrade to our current vehicle. We are currently driving in 2001. Pickup truck we've been waiting seven or eight years trying to hoping to get a request in for an upgraded vehicle. So one item in there is for an upgrade in that that's what we

▶ 14:06 use year-round for the delivery of all of our services. The other is an upgrade to our Recreation Software System. If anybody's ever used our Software System, they'll probably aware that it's kind of below standard of what other communities are using. So we're putting in a request to bring us up to par with the other. other Rec departments in the area Thank you. Do any counselors have questions for any of our guests? Council grape thank you for being here Mr. Speaker Broda. Does the elevator as a working now? Yes, and it's not keeping us from you know. And it's been Joe. I was participation since we reopened at the senior center more than expected. Well then expected which is very good. very very good

▶ 15:02 Robb Stewart: Thank you. That's all the questions. I am. I just curious on the elevator. Make sure it wasn't counselor Stewart followed by counselor Eccles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Regarding the recreation vehicle. Thank you for being your time. That 47,077 is that the price that we have quoted there's nothing additional that we would need that that is. That is the basic standard model that meets the city's requirements now for vehicle or Fleet purchase. Okay, and does that purchase include like certain amount of Maintenance and so forth on for time period or I believe I believe there's a warranty that goes with it, but the DPW would be technically this vehicle. I would go under dpw's Fleet. Okay, and then recreational use it so all maintenance would be

▶ 16:01 deferred to them. Okay, good good. Just looking for any hit costs that we might not know great. Thank you. Thank you counselor Eccles. Thank you manager. Just a quick question. Is that $10,000 for the software? Is that the implementation fee or are you going to have like a recurring cost as well? There will be a recurring cost the initial caught there. It is several thousand dollars additional and we're going through the quoting process right now, but there is there will be The M1 implementation process is is extensive to get it up and running and designed out but there will be an annual fee on top of that. But We're hoping we're hoping to be able to cover at least part of that through our revenues

▶ 16:49 Jen Grigoraitis: through registrations. Cool. Thanks. What is the will of this committee motion to recommend second, we have a motion to recommend made by counselor pay seconded by counselor Karm chady. Is there any discussion? Seeing none Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the roll? Council Echols, yes. Counselor garpy. Yes counselor. Jamaladin. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes counselor Carm Shady. Yes. President sonella. Yes and chair Grigoraitis. Yes. That's seven. Yes, seven. Yes, so that will be recommended to the full Council to fur passage. Thank you all for being here tonight. We appreciate seeing you very much happy to send you on your way. I will next entertain a motion to take order 2022-143 out of order. So moved second. We have

▶ 17:45 Jen Grigoraitis: a motion to take order 2022-143 out of order made by President. Sonella. Secondary Eckles any discussion All in favor any opposed. Okay. So before us is now ordered 2022-143 and appropriation for Mount Hood retained earnings account 620000-319000 in the amount of 92,000 to Mount Hood Professional Services account, 620,000-529000 to fulfill contract. I believe it should say contractual obligations and we are joined tonight by our Park superintendent Joan Bell welcome and we're still under suspension of the rules. So the floor is yours. Thank you. So as you all know mount it is an Enterprise fund. So the money has already been made we put in our budget every year the 600,000 that were obligated to pay the management company

▶ 18:42 Jen Grigoraitis: and then we have a 60/40 split on revenues. So we put in what we think we're going to be at. So we put in 900. Well, we yeah, we end up with 980,000 dollars. So we had a really good year this year. So we need an additional 92,000 to fulfill the management contract. It's money that's already been made. We're not asking for it to come out any City budgets. It's already in the Enterprise fund. Thank you. Are there any questions from my colleagues? Counselor Eckles like to make a motion to recommend for passage second. So we have a motion to recommend for passage made by counselor Eccles seconded by President. Cinella. Is there any discussion Seeing none Mr. Clerk. Can you please call? Counselor Eckles. Yes Council. Gerepe. Yes.

▶ 19:33 Jen Grigoraitis: Counselor jamaladin, yes. Counselor Stewart. Yes counselor car. I'm Shady. Yes Townsend president. Yes. And Cherry redis. Yes. That's seven. Yes seven. Yes, so that will be recommended to the full Council for passage. Thank you so much for being here tonight. I wish you a wonderful evening next I will entertain a motion to take order 2022-147 out of order. So moved it. Again. We have a motion to take order 2022-147 out of order made by President sinellas seconded by counselor Stewart any discussion Seeing none all in favor any opposed. Okay, so we now have order 2022-147 and appropriation from the peg access cable fund number 2922 in the amount of 276,000 764,016 to mmtv and Melrose Public Schools, and we are

▶ 20:26 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: joined tonight by former counselor Mary Beth McIntyre our goal is welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This is a request for the appropriation and the mmtv portion. I believe is 221,000 and change. The balance goes to the schools. Is that the right? I don't have the order in front of me. I apologize. So this is our biannual appropriation that comes through the public education government access fund that was established in 2019 by state mandate and the city holds the funds that come from Comcast and Verizon as a percentage of our subscribers in the community. And we we get 5% of whatever. Other discounts they provide and we split that with the school's 80/20. In addition to which we also fund a

▶ 21:28 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: tremendous amount pretty much everything else at the school's in addition to their small amount that they get. So I'm happy to entertain any questions. Do we have any questions? Motion Council Gary, it's just contract being negotiated right now. You know, one of them is in negotiations. We have had the public hearing last fall. I believe late last fall and Verizon I believe is up first and then the Chromecast one is in the fall in. How does it go is it through the city is it through the city attorney that doesn't negotiate the City attorney is say more or less leads that I believe and then there is an outside attorney who is specializes in cable contract renewal And I've said this before I would like to see I don't

▶ 22:20 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: know if the submit this is probably a conversation with the city solicitor. I'd like to see the public schools see a little more of an increase, but but if that's if that's through the city solicitor, I can reach out to that the 5% that this that we receive is the maximum amount and pretty much the reason that We were able to negotiate for five percent the last time around was because we basically said that whatever the schools needed we would provide and as you know, we did the Huddle system this past year. We did the install on that. We pay the monthly access for the Verizon line. So that was around that whole package is around $30,000 last year in addition to that our build-out of the TV studio and all the other ancillary things that

▶ 23:11 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: we've done in the past, maybe four five years has probably amounted to over 200,000. So we're happy to do that because we are getting and we were up from four and a half percent. I totally agree with you. It would be great if the schools could get more but we do have a lot of students that come down. We have five students that are going to be working with us this summer as interns. We had a senior intern we have two graduates from High who both work for Channel 5 who just both received Emmys and they still come down and help us out. So, you know mmtv station studio is available and frequently used by kids at the schools. The negotiated 5% between with the utility Verizon or comcast, right? They each have to provide five percent in the

▶ 24:04 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: contract as it say whether the schools are going to get one percent or is that just what that within? You know, I'm not completely familiar with how the language is, but the way that it's set up is this the peg the public access station gets 80% and the schools get 20% after that big 5% Okay. No more questions. Just I'll ask a quick question. Just as you know, we we are the council or second Council to be more online than in person and which certainly led to a lot of information about how technology does or doesn't work for all of us. I understand there's some plans for upgrades to this space to allow us. Could you talk a little bit about that? And when that might come online given that we're well we are we are hoping

▶ 24:55 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: we we do Kind of squirrel away some of our funds every year in anticipation of big major projects that wouldn't be covered under our annual budget and we hope to be able to do retrogrades to all of this this whole system at City Hall within the year probably to the tune of around 100,000. I think when your IT director speaks to the fiber optic grant that you're getting that will also help with linking all of the other Municipal all of the other municipal buildings together, but yes mmtv will bear the cost of the upgrade to this to this facility. Thank you. Any other questions? What is the will of this committee Council jamalading motion to recommend? Suggestion we have a motion to recommend made by counselor. Jamal

▶ 25:52 Jen Grigoraitis: Dean seconded by counselor Karm chady. Is there any discussion Seeing none Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the role? Councilor Eccles. Yes Council. Gerepe. Yes councilor Dean. Yes. Counselor Stewart, yes. Counselor Carm Shady. Yes. President zinella. Yes and chair Grigoraitis. Yes. Seven yes seven. Yes, so that will be recommended for passage to the full Council next week. Thank you so much for being here and enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you very much for taking this out of order and I appreciate your service. I know it's not an easy job. We love spending all this time together. Um, so I will return now to the top of our agenda and try to keep things in order. So next up we have order 2022-129 a

▶ 26:38 Jen Grigoraitis: transfer from Human Resource salary and wages zero one one five two one dash five one one zero zero zero in the amount of $2,000 human resource advertising 011522-520500. There was a memo provided in relation to this transfer. What is the will of this body motion to recommend we have a motion to recommend made by counselor garapay seconded by counselor Stewart. Is there any discussion? Seeing none Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the roll counselor Echols? Yes counselor garpy. Yes counselor. Jamaladin. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes. That's the crime Shady. Yes, president vanilla. Yes and chair greatest. Yes. We have seven. Yes seven. Yes, so that will be recommended for passage to the full Council next. We have order 2022-132.

▶ 27:35 Jen Grigoraitis: an appropriation from free cash account zero one dash three two, four zero zero one in the amount of 1,225,000 to various stabilization accounts as set forth here in and we are still under suspension of the rules and I believe are CFO Mr. Delaroso is here tonight to speak to this. Thank you and good evening. Good evening. I believe there is a memo in your packet dated May 10th of 2022. Which outlines each individual fund the nature and purpose of each with an understanding? Of what this order will try to accomplish as far as meeting our Target funding for all seven of these funds. And I would be happy to walk through it with you if that's the will of the council. You can just very briefly walk us through what which funds

▶ 28:44 are before us. That would be great. certainly first and foremost Steve we have what we call the foundation stabilization funding you may have the spreadsheet in your packet may make it easier to follow and that fun right now has a collective balance. So literally oval 7.1 million dollars in our Collective stabilization funds together. This particular fund has just sun to 3.7 million dollars. The requests before you is to answer some of 200,000 to this fund for a total of over 3.9 million dollars. The city's goal is to have the fund equate to 5% of the operating budget. in fiscal 2022 that amount would be just over 4.5 million dollars. If approved this would be a positive move in our efforts to reach that goal.

▶ 29:43 The Massachusetts Municipal associations best practices include adopting Reserve funding targets of 5% or more based on the specifics of the municipal budget and consideration of spending and revenue risk. There was also a standing city council order ordinance section 48-5 that speaks to the funding of the stabilization fund annually. We have also budgeted $50,000 to go into this fund as part of the standard annual operating budget request. The next fund is the contract stabilization fund 8404. And this particular fund has over 838,000 this request before you were to add the sum of 460,000 to the fund. In order to ensure that the city can find negotiated collective bargaining agreements. when needed in non-union compensation

▶ 30:44 obligations when settled this includes retroactive payments relative to the respective contracts and non-union salary adjustments today. Going into FY 2023 the police superiors and Patrol out of contract as of June 30th 2021. in addition the clerical and laborers unions are out of contract commencing, June 30th 2022 The target balance for this fund is 1.3 million dollars. Next we have the familiar Capital stabilization fund. Number 8405 balance right now is just over 547,000. And for the record we are not seeking any funding at this time as it mirrors our targeted amount of 550,000 at this within the fund. Here as you are aware Capital purchases and excess of $25,000 a funded from the source.

▶ 31:54 This enables a city added flexibility in addressing its capital needs pay as you go financing. For items that are not advantageous to issue debt on for example departmental equipment. And maybe needed at any time during a fiscal year. The next we have a suits and claims stabilization fund 8406. The balance is just over 502,000. Here we address costs associated with legal claims and suits that arise the wealth for fiscal year. We are not seeking any funding at this time as it meets our targeted amount of $500,000. Next we have the special education stabilization fund number 8408. Which is used to fund special education costs realized by the school department. That exceed its budgeted funds the request

▶ 32:52 is to add the sum of 465,000 to this fund. We commonly have just over 34,000 in the fund. Our Target allocation is a standing balance of 500,000. The next two the first one is the opeb. stabilization fund 8407 a balance is just one million 48,000. The request is adding fifty thousand dollars to the fund. To continue funding of this significant liability plays a key role in the determination of a bond rating by standard imposed rating agency. If you look at the most recent stand and pause report, data, September 15 2020 you'll see notations to that effect. We have also Incorporated requests with 50,000 is part of the standard in will operating budget. And finally, we have the OSHA fund number 8409.

▶ 34:00 stabilization phone with the cone balance of over 155,000 We are requesting the sum of fifty thousand dollars be added to this fund which would bring the balance it just over 205,000. And again, the city's Target for this fund is 250,000. So overall we try to do as strategically as we can. Is to apply 20 to 25% of the city's free cash each year. towards funding stabilization funds that require funding they not they don't necessarily all have to be funded every year. If you don't use the fund then that's great. If you do use it, then we will seek to replenish it at the as we have free cash certified. But we do have certificate targets set up for that. It's very strategic. And again, I clean emphasize enough what it means to the

▶ 35:00 community that we have the kind of Reserve balances. protection to the city because the end of the day everything else is secondary. If we can't Safeguard the financial status of the city then we don't have anything. Right now at these funds are approved will have over 8.5 million dollars, which is the highest. And City's history ever. And again, no fund. None of these funds can be addressed unless the city council approves it period you have to prove a going in you have to approve it going out. Thank you. Thank you. Are there counselors with questions counselor Eccles followed by counselor Gary pay followed by counselor story. Thank you madam. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Joe Russo for being here. Thank you

▶ 35:47 Jack Eccles: Phillip. Pleasure. I think I've asked this question before but I just need a little bit more clarity it just every year it seems like we have like a net increase. So in 2020, we were at 66.1 million was how we ended fiscal 2020. Now we're at 8.5. Is there ever a value of like the total bottom line of stabilization funds where it's like that's that's good. We don't need to put 20 to 25 or maybe this year. We only put 10% of free cash that's a great question again and candidly if in fact we're at some point where we have that decision to make it'll be because we've been so consistent each year doing what we're doing. I can recall honestly that the city at one point didn't not have did not have any

▶ 36:37 stabilization fund and first began with fifty thousand dollars. That was a big deal that was huge and we were actually a junk bond status. So we begin that practice back in 92 And what happens is you can see We Grew From One Fund literally now, we have eight include in the recreational marijuana stabilization fund, but now we have eight and they're all for a specific purposes, but we have found and it's an excellent question. Is that as we go forward costs go up. So my the contract cost today won't be with the contract cost is and two or three years. It's gonna go higher and I hire as Costco. What contract you have to keep peace Pace with that you'll have no way to find your retroactive contracts when they come time

▶ 37:24 to come before the council unless you want to Corrupt your operating budget funds which is what you never want to do that. I can actually recall that one. I first came here early on we when Maria is 900,000 in contract cost. $900,000 we had no way to pay the Retro contracts. So that was one of the hurdles that we had to overcome so by establishing this particular fund it gives us that assurance that as you settle these contracts we can come to the council with full faith and confidence that we can fund it. And again these the contract itself the fund is not dedicated to any one particular segment Public Safety or not Public Safety. But overall so as I look out and I realized that we're already at least a year behind in

▶ 38:17 to contracts the significant contracts that if behooves us to continue to move the target a little bit to the right so we can cover the cost. But that's an excellent question. But again, there's no ultimate number there is always always an emphasis that you can't let it go one of the things that they don't like to see is a sporadic. Can't you know deposit to a fund and a couple of years you don't do anything? So then like to see that what they love about us is we're always consistent they can come here. 10 years ago 15 years ago five years from now. This is how consistent we are. That's exactly what people that want to buy your bonds. Look for are they consistent? Can they be trusted financially? That's

▶ 39:08 what it's all about. When right now, we're well over 100 million dollar operation that's outside of the Enterprise funds. We're a big shoe. and we have to have the resources to cover that But that's an excellent question. Thanks. Thank you madam. President councilor. Thank you, Mr. Della Russo the best practices by the mm mask Municipal Association is 5% of the budget. We're not going to reach that this year. Yeah, what percentage are we going to be at? I didn't do the math four. Yeah, it'll be a little bit. It'll be less than that. Probably maybe four. 0.2 or something of that effect, but one consideration just for the record. Is that right? Now? We qualify meeting that goal by the balance of

▶ 39:56 our Free Cash Plus the stabilization fund. So for standard and Poor's purposes, we're using those two to make that happen and they respect that and they they look at that actually as a Positive move because you recognize that you're trying to reach this target. You're not ignoring it. It does exist for a reason and we really think about it. I mean when the kind of exposure you have with the budget our size. If you have a decrease in state aid of any significance like we had in 2009. Nine ten. We lost just under three million dollars in one year three million dollars of state aid just in one year. So when you think of it like that and we live through that I will say that. We weather the storm because we protected ourselves.

▶ 40:50 Mark Garipay: But those kind of things that which are out of our control candidly. And we have to anticipate the best we can and literally provide some. Light for us for the community and that's what you're doing here. So every year as the budget goes up to two and a half percent, we're gonna end up continuing to yeah put more money in there to try to get to that five percent. Exactly. That's all right on the contract stabilization fund is that the school department is their teachers contract that's not included in here and I understand negotiations. Now, is that is that expired? That contract that teaches contract. Do you know yeah, they're negotiations now, but we typically have not used this fund to fund that in the

▶ 41:37 Mark Garipay: past ever. It's all been the city side. It's all been City side. the special ed fund seems like when we first started on the love. I started on the board together. We it was like the first time I think we had actually used a special ed fund and now it seems like where drawing it down. Almost all of it the last couple of years and when I look at the budget. I'm wondering are we we under budgeting a budgeting it in the school side and using the stabilization fund to offset that should I mean the school school but looks like special ed. budget was 4.9 this year, we spent six point nine and does that in the 6.9? Does that include what we've drawn from the stabilization? On you would you happen to know that? No, I do the chair. I would have

▶ 42:31 to defer to the superintendent but my understanding point and and one of the things that we did find in the past Sunday superintendent and Tamor, we went to a couple years where I believe we didn't use any of the fund in any year. However, when it became apparent that they were realizing additional costs and special education particularly during the middle of the year. This was a billion strategy to have so that you had some place to go to actually fund it without corrupt in the school budget itself. I'm a big proponent of the stabilization funds. Thank you. I remember the tough years. I mean, we have a lot of uncertainty. I look at the last few years. I wonder where we would be we didn't have to use stabilization really that much but we

▶ 43:23 Mark Garipay: were also got a lot of Opera money a lot of federal money that no one no one anticipated during covid. Exactly. I wonder if we didn't receive that would we we would be you know, any stabilization funds so I fully support this especially the the uncertainty coming up right now in the economy and next year's fiscals. And that's an excellent point for the chair because I expect to be talking to SMP this fall because we are going to Market and one of the things I can promise you as it do every year they will ask for this. They will ask but steps you taking to minimize risk because Asic the environment gets more risky Things become actually more sensitive on their end to try to assure investors that this is

▶ 44:11 Robb Stewart: a quality acquisition and quality note that you're putting out. So always always something that works to our favor and the fact that we can do this kind of thing on a regular basis. It puts your Leaps and Bounds ahead of places that have just don't have it. Thank you. No more questions counselor Stewart. Thank you madam chair. Thank you, Mr. Delaware for being here tonight. I will say that I've got a lot of confidence in your ability to manage the numbers accordingly. I think you do a great job of thank you very much keeping a a tight ship and a conservative viewpoint on how we need to avoid risk. So thank you for that first just first observation on the opeb within your stabilization ballots. You had the estimated

▶ 45:02 Target Fund balance is obviously incorrect. You may want to fix that for your records. It's at 171 million. I think it's true to you. That's real. That's it. That's real is that it should be at 171 million. Yes. That's the that's the liability right now. So we're 170 million off. Well, that's a good excellent. I'm so glad to brought up counsel to a chair because this is one of those. I mean, this is one of those items that of you could talk for four or five hours on I promise you I won't do that. Please don't but it's just an essence. It is an I'm so glad about it mirrors the pension system. So we have the pension system here that has a finding schedule every year the city funds it about six plus million dollars

▶ 45:46 now. So it's over here. Now what they're saying is you also have a liability on your health insurance which sits over here separately, but the state has not mandated a finding schedule to get us this number down the way they did on the pension side. So what they're saying is until that happens, which I couldn't tell you if it's ever going to happen candidly as I'm sitting here because I know the number would be extremely large and I don't know how cities and towns could do it under two and a half. Anyway, that's my opinion. They do want to see you recognize the liability. So they want to see that you proactively addressing it and not ignoring it. Once again, we recognize the liability. We're putting money aside by Statute. We

▶ 46:32 Robb Stewart: don't have to. however, it does assist again the same thing it does assist us in the long run because believe it or not that number would be higher counselor. If we didn't put money aside. The number would actually be higher than we looking at significantly. But that's an excellent question. So it's just one of those things where some things you can directly control other things you can. Okay, thank you find that I saw that I yeah you were in trouble. The second question I have is somewhere related to what console Gary pay was referring to when you look at. current state of interest rate And and this current state of inflation. right, you know historically we've been somewhere around 2% between one and a half and two percent for the last six or

▶ 47:30 Robb Stewart: seven years. 2021 was 4.7% were projected to be a 5.8 3% Currently the main number is 8 five eight percent. I was just going to impact. the the stabilization funds What's your thought on that? Because I'm concerned about this. Well, I guess there's a little bit of good news and and maybe not so good news from my perspective historically. We have not been realizing. large interest gains with stabilization funds we just haven't interest income has not been. You know, I mean that we're all experience that we do a little bit better at what money market and things perhaps at that nature, but we have to limit our duration. But I think in response to your question, I think the jury's probably still out a little bit. I've actually heard some people

▶ 48:26 say probably going to start getting more interest income as the rates adjust. for these funds so I've heard that too but like you with the uncertainty that surrounds The economy right now and what we're saying? I'm not exactly sure where that ball is going to land. I wish I could be more concrete but I think that the fact that we recognize it's out there that this Is something we can't escape from? That make it has to play a role in everything. We do here financially and probably in a way that hasn't been like that in a long time. So again, I assure your concerns. I wish I could do more but we gotta stay on topic we can take eye off it. All right. Thank you Mr. Dolorosa. Thank you very much.

▶ 49:18 Jen Grigoraitis: Councilor Karamcheti, I'd like to make a motion to recommend for passage. So the full committee. So we have a motion to recommend for passage made by Council Carm chady seconded by counselor Eccles. Is there any discussion Seeing none Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the roll councilor Eccles? Yes Council. Gerepe. Yes counselor. Jamaladin counselor Stewart. Yes councilor crime Shady. Yes, president. Sonella. Yes and chair regardis. Yes, we have seven. Yes seven. Yes, so that will be recommended to the full Council for passage next week. Thank you very much, you know belaruso and stay right there because you're up next again order 2022-133 and appropriation from free cash account zero one dash 324001 in

▶ 50:06 the amount of 34,000 $10.35 to Pine Banks Capital outlay account. 016523-551-099. This appropriation will be used to pave the parking lot by the playground and Lodge. Thank you. Yes. Um, I'm sorry. The floor is yours. Yeah by Statue we have an obligation to pay 50% of this cost between us and the City of Malden there was I believe in your packet or they should have been a quote from a company called Siva Construction indicates the total cost of being just over 68,000 this amount here about 34,000 will be at 50% share. It's a one-time cost. It's not an annual event. And once this is should the council approve it they won't see it next year. It's a one time cost. But it is by Statute and we have an obligation to

▶ 51:10 Jen Grigoraitis: pay that. And show Michael motion to recommend second. So we have a motion to recommend made by counselor Stewart seconded by councilor Eccles. Is there any discussion Council guy. I just want to for the record note that Mr. Keyser was here on Monday night. We do a little Miss communication, but he was he had a present that must conflict tonight, but he came Monday. So just for the record I wanted to make make note of that food for. Yes. Thank you counselor pay and thank you to Mr. Del Russo for a green. Thank you very much. Thank you. So. with no further discussion I will ask our clerk to call the roll. Sir Eccles. Yes Council grapes. Yes Council. Jamaladin. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes. Dr. Crime Shady. Yes.

▶ 52:03 Jen Grigoraitis: President Sonoma. Yes and chair Grannis. Yes. That's seven. Yes seven. Yes, so that will be recommended to the full Council for passage up. Next we have order 2022-134 and appropriation from free cash account zero one dash 324001 in the amount of 200. I'm sorry. I'm a little son of Melrose and I'm looking for a meeting that was supposed to occur up at the Cassidy conference room. If you can I could you give could you assist Mr. Clerk sir? Thank you, because just because we're in the middle of a public meeting, but the clerk can assist you. Sorry to various it accounts set forth here in so we now have IT director Ellis also joining us at the table. And please feel free to share what you need. That's what

▶ 52:53 they have. That's right. Okay. yes, so good evening counselors. Thank you for hearing. This is a consideration for $200,000 for Zar annual. Upgrade amount that we use to replace computer servers whatnot throughout the school district and the city then there's an amount of 500,000 sorry $50,000 which companies a 50,000 that representative libertarian. Was able to obtain at the state level for the middle school camera upgrade which we estimated at around $100,000. Additionally is the $20,000 which is a social media archiving. We're trying to step up our game. With our with respect to foyer requests and our ability to Archive for legal purposes all of our social media accounts in the city and the schools so they are.

▶ 54:02 Searchable and retrievable and able to be put together in a in a case by the legal department. So and included in that also is we also took on Microsoft 365 which includes teams chat. So there's a chat portion to that which forces a communication between employees which we do need to Archive like we do the email so that's encompassed in that $20,000 as well. That's a three year for three year. Are there questions from? My colleagues or I have a few questions. Yeah, just thank you for being here. A couple of these look familiar with they part of the CIP. Yes, what can you just all three of them were part of the CIP the we're all three. I don't think the 20,000 social media archiving was part of that because it came a

▶ 54:59 Manjula Karamcheti: little bit after we did the CIP and we were really starting to talk and look at M365 and figure out what we needed in it looked at first like our Barracuda backup product was going to take care of that and then it turns out it did not so that was not part of this the security cameras and our general Hardware replacement which projected out over the next five years is between 900,000 and a million dollars a year. So And thank you Council carm-chatie. Thank you so much for being here. I just have a couple of questions about social media archiving and I guess I'm just wondering As you move into doing that better and better and better? Like how are you paying attention to students confidentiality and redacting? It's

▶ 55:52 sort of in that space when it comes to making sure that students identity is is not released. sure, so so the schools have their school committee policies that basically Point out in their in their handbook that point out what is allowed and isn't allowed in terms of a student students impersonal pii. What we which I something that I started here when I came almost six years ago now was to take on the To join what was the Massachusetts State student? Privacy Alliance, which is now become a National Organization and basically They write a standard template form for online software. And we issue those to vendors to you know, they have to when they sign off on the agreement they have to have to

▶ 56:53 do a lot of the things that like what you're the protecting student data if there's a breach they let us know right away. How often they Purge their backups. There's a lot of language in there technical things that That if they didn't do it would allow for breach of student information. So we do that as well. And we we've since signed on with a contract with a detect Co-op who has an on has their own lawyer attorney who issues those for us now, so we pay a small fee and they issue those to you know, we have we're up to probably 180 online software packages that we we're protected now through the through those those agreements. I know that answers to the part of those the social media archiving though.

▶ 57:47 Manjula Karamcheti: That's yeah, go ahead. Probably I should do some more research and to understand sort of what that is in more detail. I guess I'm just trying to understand like in terms of archiving any like Instagram like the MHS business department or like the athletic department. Are you archiving all of that stuff including like comments that students make from their accounts? And that kind of thing. Is that sort of what you're that is what that is anything that a student might post publicly's is already out there. So this is just be capturing things that could possibly be taken down. before our ability to investigate And it probably you know when it comes to a student those things are handled. You know as things are with students, but you

▶ 58:40 Jen Grigoraitis: know when it comes to our as directors of departments and in school administrative staff posting, we have a very high much higher standard for what you know. Yeah, thank you. Just I'm gonna just jump in with a few follow-up questions on that and these may be more for the city solicitor, but I think there's a it's a it's very unclear to me when we say accounts used by City staff and schools. What does that Encompass because for example, there is at city of Melrose, but there is also mayor Broder there is also Melrose police. There are also many high school teachers who have their own personal Twitter accounts. So I As we enter into this process, I would really hope that we have a clear understanding of

▶ 59:28 Jen Grigoraitis: what are the accounts that we're tracking that the folks who are managing those accounts are aware that that's being done. And I know this has come up in the context of other electronic communications with the city, but making sure that there's a clear disclaimer. Like if our I don't think it's while I understand that Instagram in some ways is public that's not totally true depending on how an account is set up. But I think there's a difference between I'm posting a common that can be seen by the folk by Instagram itself. And by those that follow that account versus I'm posting a comment that's going to be archived by a government entity. So I know that's Complex, but I think it's really something particularly when we're

▶ 1:00:06 Jen Grigoraitis: talking about minors who I think are probably some of our most Ardent users of ardent users of social media that were on top of that and also really explaining to the slightly more clueless parents like what that means because I do think it's a it's there's a lot of Engagement amongst our students occurring on social media. I know that's really more the purview of the school committee, but I just it does as a parent it does raise a little bit of a red flag for me. Yeah. I don't want me to answer. But yeah, it's it's these are primarily accounts that are City accounts, which don't engage in much much. like back and forth with the community with posts and whatnot, but they can so we're following the guidance of MMA in

▶ 1:00:57 the state and we've written our our technical portions of the of the city employee handbook to match what's expected and what's what's recommended by the state. So we're a little bit behind the game in terms of getting social media archiving going all of our surrounding communities have this already it's it's a standard practice and Um, everything that's post is is basically kept by those Folks by the by the by Instagram by Facebook by Twitter. This is This is it would not be used really. hard to explain but it's it's more of the ability to Archive those Communications that the city people who are employees of the city or schools communicate out Rather than the reverse unless there's some kind of a you know.

▶ 1:02:04 Online altercation that needs to be investigated for some reason. Got it. No, I understand that. It's I mean, obviously there's a legal obligation to make sure those are brothers and accessible records. I just think it's it's all a bit of a Brave New World for everyone over the age of 30 so sure. Thank you counselor Stewart. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ellis for for being. On your Microsoft 365 give Azure trust solution. I integrated. We it's available. We don't have a zero trust. Policy enacted yet in 365. Are you going to hey, it's something I thought about it's it's a very difficult culture. to enact something of that sort. We've certainly ramped up our policies for security purposes within the city

▶ 1:03:00 and the schools. It is something that I I want to do. And I think it'll be some time until we can but I think it's something that eventually we're going to have to do. I mean we have a zero trust. Sort of policy in general. I mean, we sort of follow the zero trust recommendations in general, but we don't have like a 2fa. And we aren't using like an authenticator which Microsoft has her own and it's pretty good for logins as of yet. Okay. All right. I strongly recommend it. Yeah, I know. Hey, I yes I I strongly recommend as well. Yes. It's I don't want people at my door with torches right now. Well, I'm trying to get them to use Microsoft 365 right now. So that's kind of you know, thank you counselves.

▶ 1:03:57 Jen Grigoraitis: I'd like to make a motion to recommend Passage. Second so we have a motion to recommend for passage made by counselor Eccles seconded by President. Cinella any discussion Seeing none Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the wolf? Counselor Eckles. Yes counselor garpy. Yes counselor. Jamaladin. Yes. Counselor Stewart, yes. Counselor crimshady. Yes president sonella. Yes, Andrew garitis. Yeah, we have seven. Yes seven. Yes, so that will be recommended for passage to the full Council. Thank you Mr. Ellis. I know you're just on pause and we'll be back in a few orders and we will move on to order 2022-138 and appropriation from free cash account zero one dash 324001 in the amount of 76,400 to various General government accounts as

▶ 1:04:49 Jen Grigoraitis: set forth here in And I know Mr. Delarosa was here to speak to some of this. There are memos in. The iqm2 and there are orders one is for retractable signage for elections to denote polling locations. One is for mattresses at the fire stations. One is for rodent control one is for Something related to the auditor, which I don't remember. Or Furniture. Yeah, and then one is to Professional Services for the legal department for outside counsel So if there are any questions for Mr. Delar Russo and you want to say yeah, I think they were pretty straightforward and the request. And I think respectfully we would be something that we would actually look to embrace it so approved by the council. Motion recommend second. So we have a motion to recommend

▶ 1:05:52 Jen Grigoraitis: made by President sinellas seconded by counselor Eckles any discussion See none, Mr. Clerk. Can you please call the world? Mr. Eccles Yes castlegarapay. Yes counselor. Jamaladin. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes Council crime Shady. Yes, president Sonoma. Yes and chair gradus. Yes, seven. Yes seven. Yes, so that will be recommended to the Phil Council next up. We have order 2022-141 a transfer from the temporary interest account 017522-549 100 in the amount.

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2022-06-16

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