Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2023-01-09

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

This meeting starts at 18:14 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

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

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JANUARY 9, 2023 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:01 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Leila Migliorelli Chair Present Maya Jamaleddine Vice Chair Present Shawn M. MacMaster Present Christopher Cinella Present Jack Eccles Present Mark Garipay Present Robb Stewart Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Present Ryan Williams Present Jen Grigoraitis President, Ex Oficio Present

ORDER-2023-42 Appointment Appointment of Albert Talarico as Director of Inspectional Services and Building Commissioner for the City of Melrose Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2023-45 Appropriation An Appropriation in the amount of two-hundred ninety-four thousand, four hundred fifty-two thousand ($294,452) from Contract Stabilization (account number 84042-590000) to Police Salary and Wage (account 012111-511000) and Police OT (account 012111-513000). The appropriation requested is to fund Fiscal 2022 and Fiscal 2023 of the Patrol Officer 3 year MOU. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2023-46 Grant Authorization to accept a grant in the amount of $6,500 from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2023-50 Grant City of Melrose Page 1 1/11/2023 3:23 PM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee January 9, 2023 Authorization to Accept a Housing Choice Grant in the amount of $75,000 from the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED) through the Community One Stop for Growth Program and Authorize the Mayor to Execute a Contract with EOHED; funds to be deposited into Fund 4521 Ought to Pass

ORDER-2023-51 Grant Field Demonstration SIG Project Grant FY23 To support the development and implementation of outreach and marketing of our Council on Aging to older adults and care givers. Ought to Pass City Council

GRANT-2023-2 Grant Acceptance of the FY23 Earmark Grant awarded to the Melrose Fire Department by The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Fire Services, in the amount of $60,000. Ought to Pass City Council

APP-2023-11 Bond MWRA LFAP I/I Loan/Grant - Authorize Borrowing of $1,330,000 of which 75% is a grant and 25% is a zero-interest loan Ought to Pass City Council

INFO-2023-10 Informational Request for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding update Hold

INFO-2023-11 Informational Update on the Status of the City of Melrose’s Finances Hold

INFO-2023-12 Informational An Update on the Status and Usage of Free Cash in the City of Melrose Hold City of Melrose Page 2 1/11/2023 3:23 PM

Transcript

▶ 18:28 Leila Migliorelli: I am chairwoman Leila migliarelli and joining me tonight our vice chair Jamaleddine and counselors. Sonella Eccles garapay Karim chadey McMaster o'briensky Stewart Williams and president Grigoraitis ex-officio. This serves as a notice of a quorum for the record and in cordance with open meeting law this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on mmtv. So now I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objection. We're now open for public comments. This is a portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any agenda item tonight. Seeing as no one here. Is speaking of public comment we have anyone online. There's no one online at this time. Thank you. If there's no objection, I'd like

▶ 19:14 Leila Migliorelli: to close public comments. Seeing none. We are now closed for public comment since we have members of the administration here tonight to speak on the items before us I'd like to motion by unanimous consent to suspend the rules before we proceed. Seeing no objection. The rules are now suspended. And first on our agenda tonight is order 2023-42 appointment of Albert talarico as the Director of inspectional services and Building Commissioner for the city of Melrose. This is offered by mayor Broder. And Mayors here to speak as well as Mr. Talerico. Thank you madam, chair Member of the committee for those of you who are here for the earlier. Presentations before Hew happy New Year. It's great to see you all it's time

▶ 20:05 Paul Brodeur: to certainly time to get back to work. I am delighted to bring before you. Al Talerico to be our director of inspectional services and Building Commissioner for the city Melrose as you know, Paul Johnson left our employ to move on to a different position in another community did a fine job for him. I've not had an opportunity to publicly thank him for his service to the community and we certainly wish him well in his Endeavors of Mr. Talarika. I'm very excited to bring aboard Mr. Talerico brings 23 years of construction and inspectional services experience to this community as a candidate for the position Al stood out for his focus on customer service and efficiency and has extensive experience working

▶ 20:57 Paul Brodeur: on zoning changes and importantly zoning compliance over the past seven years. He served as the Building Commissioner for the city of Peabody. We're in addition to the day-to-day tasks of that office. He's instrumental. In launching a new permitting system and procedures to go along with it processed over 5,200 permits annually which generated over two and a half million dollars in annual revenue and interestingly enacted a receivership receivership program, which provided the city with a mechanisms to manage abandoned properties. Alison continuously looking to essentially improve the customer its service experience by improving workflow and processes and again as another badge of honor in terms of innovation of

▶ 21:46 Paul Brodeur: kind of thinking outside the box or adding value. He secured a grant while in Peabody to archive all building department plans and files and make them readily available online here in Melrose. As you know, he's been serving on an interim basis and has hit the ground running. He's met with all relevant staff including our planning and Community Development director our police and fire and certainly healthy human services department is a lot of that work as you know overlaps. He's also very used to collaboratively working with boards, like our zoning board of appeals and the planning board the Conservation Commission and the historic district commission as well as the historical commission to respect

▶ 22:36 Paul Brodeur: and add value in those processes that are relevant here in Melrose. It is very Are the AL is already thinking about ways to align inspectional services to ensure that his Department serves in partnership with our other departments to meet the goals of the city and provide a consistently high level of customer service to everyone who comes through the door. I am very eager to see to see his work move forward. I'm happy that he's here to share with you some of his Visions goals and experience and I offer him for your consideration with my highest recommendation. Mr. Taylorito Well, thank you. Thank you everyone for taking the time to meet with me. And thank you may have brought it for the opportunity. I also

▶ 23:23 like to thank City Hall departments and my staff for helping out these last couple of weeks. Very wonderful and dedicated people kind that work here as I said during my interview with the mayor. I've always held Melrose and very high regard. I have a sister who's lived here for a number of years with her husband and boys. I've seen how close knit and how welcoming this community is through her experiences. I've also had been a little jealous of her Main Street compared to my main street. In fact while working in Peabody's downtown Design District ordinance. I've used Melrose as a model to help us with ours at the time. We like the way the downtown commercial and residential work to complement each other and how signage shouldn't take

▶ 24:14 away from the building's characters. Needless to say when I saw the opening for the building commissioner's position here. I decided to apply. I wanted to talk a little bit about my experience, but the mayor kind of went through it in detail, but I'm gonna go over a little bit. I know the mayor's communicated that I have 23 years and construction experience 18 years, which I have been a building inspector. I started my career in 2004 as a local building inspector with the city of Revere and quickly moved to Chief Building Inspector while there I decided to get my certification as a certified building official and received it in 2013. in 2015 I accepted the position as commissioner for the city of Peabody.

▶ 25:03 While there I managed a very busy office Department of eight full-time inspectors processed over 5,200 permits and did produce over 22.5 million in annual revenue. I've been involved in large-scale projects small-scale projects. I've worked with the zba. City Council planning board and Community Development historical commission Board of Health and the fire department. I know how critical it is to build relationships with them to have things run smoothly. While in Peabody, I transitioned the department from a paper-based application to a full online based system. No small tasks when having to ask to train staff to learn something new. With all with as with most City Hall Department storages one of the biggest issues.

▶ 25:55 My solution was to scan Department folders and plans. Over 400,000 documents. I requested and secured $150,000 from the community preservation committee. This work not only helped the storage issues, but also helped customer service. And help customers have instant access to our records. It also reduced clerical work and wasteful coffee. I know how to run an efficient customer friendly building department and I hope given the opportunity with your approval. I can do the same here in Melrose. Thank you for your time consideration. Thank you, Mr. Tyler. Going thank you madam. Chair. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, Mr. Talerico. Thank you for being here during your first 90 days in this position. What would you look to to do?

▶ 26:50 I've been here for a couple of weeks now or several weeks seems like 90 days. Um, what I wanted to do was Typically, I have to get up to speed with the software system that that we have here in Melrose. I also have been playing one-on-one with my inspect is just to see what works and what doesn't work for the Department. I also Outreach to other City departments as the mayor stated Community Development the zba. I feel like those are the Departments actually all those departments I mentioned Would need some sort of relationship or some sort of relationship building just so we can all be on the same foot. So right now my first nine days, I spent going through a lot of files and a lot of applications that were sitting that needed

▶ 27:41 Paul Brodeur: to go through the process of being vetted out. But and I'm hoping to get up to speed as soon as sooner rather than later with the help the plan in the department with as far as owning. Thank you. And you mind if I interrupt console guys, I want that. It's Talerico is also taking the initiative to work with Lauren grimmick, you know who's our business development person to make sure that things work seamlessly for for customers potential customers coming in developers are even folks for small residential projects to make sure that we aren't going to be an obstacle that we can be as helpful as possible so that the customer service goes a little bit beyond just the you know caring application through it's also

▶ 28:31 Shawn M. MacMaster: to make people comfortable the that we are again that we are open for business for folks that are interested in coming here. Thank you Stella regard. I just had one additional question based on what you've observed so far in the building and Department in based on your experience and both Peabody and Revere. What opportunities do you think exists to utilize technology to help facilitate the permit process? Well, I had a different software system that we have here. There's Avenue for improvement as far as work flows. Right. Now the way I've seen it and just this is this is just my first couple of weeks here. a system needs to be in place to Target and to identify specific properties and some of them are an example would be something with

▶ 29:26 Maya Jamaleddine: historical significance sometimes in the you know in the past applications have come through where the historical commission should have been alerted by it or the Conservation Commission. So I think maybe looking at different online system seeing if it's feasible and and getting something where a workflow can be created where there's a checks and balances throughout these permits. Thank you, Mr. Tyler Rica. Thank you manager. counselor Jamal Dean sir Williams and counselor car Ma Judy, thank you for being with us today and Welcome to our community. You have couple of questions. Can you name? One of the roadblocks that you face during your previous. I'm sorry, like any challenges that you that I had in Peabody. Oh boy.

▶ 30:28 Well, I think some of I've spoken to a few of you and one of the biggest challenges I had in Peabody is Peabody's special permit graining Authority is actually the city council. So it it's a little bit of a challenging. It's balancing act when when these projects come in and there's um, there's this, you know this community outreach to the counselors to kind of get involved. So that is something that I needed to kind of work with I you know, I've always been one of the opinion of you know, being open-minded and being able to kind of sit down and talk to people and see if we can come to Common Ground. But if I had to pick one thing is it's probably that one. And how were you able to resolve it in a way communication

▶ 31:24 just building relationships again sitting down with the counselors over the years. You just kind of tend to know what you can and can't do what what some of the obstacles are for them and and maybe come up with with some there's there's always different ways to get what you need to get to and it's just a you know, it's just basically starts with conversations. Can you name one of your personal goals and one of your department goals that you want to set? My my department goal is going to be in my focus is always been customer service and I feel like that's the key to success. You know, I was in Revere Peabody and it's a challenging a very humble experience when you don't know what you're doing and you

▶ 32:23 try to pull a permit in the city. And I know it's some people don't know what to expect. They're dreading it or they just come in and customer service is key having someone across or on that counter. That's friendly that's attentive that answers your question. That's my goal. I think a lot of problems get alleviated that way just you know, having that common courtesy treating people the way that you want to be treated as far as long-term goal. I think that's your second Department goal Department goal is right now is again just training and going through to see what works and what doesn't work I too. feel that the technology that we have could could use some upgrading as far as the permitting side and again working with

▶ 33:26 Ryan Williams: something that has a little more workflow to get other departments involved. I think that's probably my long-term goal and and maybe I might want to add one more thing which is storage one of the things scanning documents and and alleviating all that storage that I have in the department right now. Thank you. councilor Williams Hi, thanks for being here. So we are a community that is on the cusp of undergoing some zoning changes. We have we're going to hear from our team about a process they're going to undertake to review. Just what those owning changes might be and I strikes me that with any time of change. There's a need for You know a focus on teaching people about the new regs correcting people when they're wrong about how

▶ 34:21 Ryan Williams: the regs have changed and also enforcement. And I noted excuse me. I noted in your resume that you mentioned enforcement. I wonder what your approach and style is with regard to enforcement and and maybe you could talk a little bit about how you might approach a problem where the city council is involved. The person calls and says this person is doing something they shouldn't do or they are operating in a manner that is contrary to the permit that they pulled. Well, I had a situation and I can't remember the counselor that I helped. It was a situation probably about a week maybe two weeks ago where someone decided to dig in the backyard and they decided to build a garage without any permits. I'm not

▶ 35:05 sure which one it is. I apologize my way of dealing with that is I sending letters is fine and documenting I am I'm all for that but picking up the phone and maybe showing up at the residence and having a discussion with someone that's doing this and and you know letting them know that it's this is not the way of doing it alleviate the majority of those enforcement issues you're talking about, you know, sometimes you're gonna run in situations people don't like hearing no and then my approach to that is always never argue with someone on their property having them come in. We have a discussion in my office and where it's controlled and then you know, we can we can Go back and forth, but just be respectful communication is

▶ 35:54 key and you know, I think a gradual approach to enforcement would be a good way of doing it instead of just going out and start sending out tickets. But you know some days you're you you're dealing with situations where someone's been doing this violation or violation for years. So, you know, it's all these situations. They're all different, but I guess My first initial thought is always to try to pick up the phone. Or have a conversation with the homeowner or whoever's has that violation? Thanks. Appreciate that. Not for me. Thank you counselor Chrome chadie. Thank you so much for being with us. My first question is around the role of being a building inspector and looking at accessibility of our buildings across the

▶ 36:45 Manjula Karamcheti: city and just wondering if you could speak to that in your in your previous communities that you've worked in how you've helped identify issues of accessibility for buildings in the city. And then how have you partnered with the different entities to make sure that residents regardless of their ability or disability or able to enter building safely and navigate those buildings safely and exit buildings. Accessibility is one of those inspectors throughout the Commonwealth all have their little quirks. One likes doing framing inspections. The other one is good at energy. My my thing is the aab requirements or architectural access board. I feel that if you're opening up a public space you need

▶ 37:36 to accommodate. You know, now I a lot of Renovations a lot of people owning these businesses don't know about these these triggers. It's my job to let them know give them the right information. I had a situation it's kind of funny that I've had all these situations in the last couple of weeks where a local business. I'm not gonna name which one but decided that they wanted to do a major renovation at their offices and unbeknown to them. They thought it was a simple renovation. But what happens is when you have renovating public spaces that have to deal with bathrooms as deal with egresses or common areas, there's certain triggers in this that require the owner to Close accommodations and sometimes they don't want to hear that.

▶ 38:30 But it is that's what it is. This particular case. I had a conversation with the manager of the business and I let them know what what the issues were why they're arising and I also let them know. What what options they had? So if we have a lot of Old Stock in in Melrose, a lot of the buildings can't accommodate certain things. Well in in Boston, we have the architectural access board which grants waivers to certain businesses depending on the feasibility or whether they can do it structurally. So I let them have the the director information and I let them know more or less what they needed to do to get granted variance and what they needed to do if they wanted to move forward. They will find all they really wanted was to know

▶ 39:28 Manjula Karamcheti: what the steps were and why these triggers happen I hope I answered that question. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. That was very helpful. And then my next question is maybe more of a curious question just in terms of like your role and thinking about Melrose. We are a community that doesn't have a lot of space for building and a lot of new property in terms of like our square footage and whatnot. But we are a community that's looking to find ways to have more housing to have affordable housing and just I'm just curious how you see your role in that. Well, I have I could give my opinion as far as you know, the master plan or any zoning changes. I would love to be part of that discussion, you know,

▶ 40:21 there's a need for affordable housing. I know that they just has to be a smart approach to it and dealing with you know, Massachusetts and all the old surrounding communities around Boston. It's a challenge. Especially when you're dealing with buildings that just can't or land the can accommodate all these new structures. One thing you do have is a great director of Community Development. And I think you know speaking with her at the mayor that they're you know, they're they're focusing on something like that. And the only thing I can offer with that is just my opinion. Thank you. Thank you counselor Stewart. Thank you madam chair. Mr. Mayor thank you, sir for coming before us tonight, Mr. Teleco. I

▶ 41:11 Robb Stewart: More feedback than question when we I assume that my fellow city council is here this often as well and we get a call regarding. The permitting process typically it is about a delay, you know can it's I've been waiting two months. I'm kind of on hold. I'm living in a hotel. So I'm pleased to hear. That your focus is on that customer service side with some of your ideas of record access and trying to but I think as feedback what's going to be important is ultimately faster service and anything you can do to help with that and it sounds like you have that mindset would be great. And welcome to hear your comments on that. I again I I'm a homeowner. I know I challenge you and it is to get things done.

▶ 42:09 I'm one of those people I'm not a procrastinator. I love getting things done right away. And I feel I can feel the frustration when someone isn't getting what they need. I can tell you is from the time. I've been here. Everyone in City Hall. That's somehow connected to this permanent process. Does what they can as quickly as possible, I work with the planning board the staff there has been unbelievable every time I've asked them a question. I've gotten a response right away right now. There's a little bit of a learning curve on my end with with the zoning which I'm hoping to improve and I'm slowly improving every day, but I can I can I can see the frustrations I I The only thing I can I can tell you is that we're good

▶ 43:01 the staff and the people that I'm working with are going as fast as possible to accommodate them. There's some you know, Melrose has a lot of challenges. One of them is building everything on on you know on this ledge. So it's not an easy but besides having small Lots you've got ledge and you've got other issues that that could stop someone or it could take a long time for someone to get the permit that they require again. It goes back to communicating with them. Just letting them know what the challenges are and what the process is great. Great. Thank you. It's not led to this water from the ledge. Counselor grown chadie I'd like to make a recommendation motion to recommend for passage second.

▶ 43:48 Leila Migliorelli: Shouldn't recommend for passage made by counselor Karm chady seconded by counselor Eckles. All in favor. Aye any opposed. Okay, this direction One passes and you'll be we'll be heard at the next city council meeting. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, next up is order 2023-45 and appropriation the amount of 294,452,000 from the contract stabilization account number 84042-590000 to Police salary and wage account zero one two, one one dash 511000 and police OT account zero one two, one one dash five one three zero zero zero the appropriation requested is to fund fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023 of the patrol officer third three year mou and tonight we have city solicitor Shannon Phillips here to speak with us on the sorter.

▶ 44:59 Floor is yours good evening honorable Council through the chair this order comes before you after the recent settlement of the patrol officers Collective Barney agreement with the city of Melrose. We reached a tenant of agreement on November 22nd shortly before proceeding with jlmc binding arbitration the parties reached that agreement December 4th, the patrol Union ratified it and the city signed off on this Moa. This agreement is going to be effective. It starts June 2821 and ends June 30th 24 and as was mentioned in the order text the funding order before you would fund fiscal year 22 and 23 just a few highlights from the mou that was bargained a good faith by the parties over a series of

▶ 45:45 many months. Effect of 21 there's a 2% increase effective June 27 22 a 2 percent increase in Cola and July 3rd 23 a 2.25% increase in Cola aside from those coolant increases. We also agreed to increase various stipends combines three different stipends into a hazardous Duty stipend and in the third year the contract added to the Petro officer's base pay so it would be calculated for purposes of hourly and overtime rate aside from that. We added an additional shift differential to cover the overnight shift the midnight shift increase shift differentials and also increased specialty stipends. For the patrol officers as well. So I'm happy to answer any questions the council might have on the terms

▶ 46:35 of them away. any questions President Grigoraitis. Thank you guys from English chair Migliorelli. Just I just want to make sure I heard you correctly. So the cost of the colas were two two point five two, two point two, five two point two five. Thank you. Any other any other questions? Category I'll make a motion to recommend for passage. That's second. motion recommend for passage from councilor pay seconded by counselor McMaster It's a roll call vote. Vice chair Jamal Dean Yes. Counselor McMaster. Yes. Counselor sonella. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes Council. Gerepe. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes. Counselor karmchetti. Yes counselor bremski. Yes counselor Williams. Yes. President the greatest. Yes and chair Migliorelli. Yes.

▶ 47:44 That's unanimous 11. Yes. Passes, and we'll be heard at the next council meeting. Thank you. All right. Next up is order 2020-23-46 authorization to accept a grant in the amount of 6,500 from the Massachusetts Emergency Management agency, Mima. Tonight we have director Alan Alper to speak in this order. evening I applied for once again a grant from the Massachusetts Emergency Management agency called the Emergency Management preparedness Grant that's offered to all cities and towns within the Cromwell to Massachusetts to enhance any form of the operations of the office of emergency management, since I arrived one of my goals has been because it was in the job posting was to establish an Emergency Operating Center. And in

▶ 48:40 years past when the late direct at Kelly was here the room and the mezzanine floor was the emergency management office and training room in DLC when director Kelly retired the room was expanded as an Emergency Operating Center and was just basically used as a training room since I've been here. I've upgraded the room changed the furniture nucias all with grant money to support our training efforts and now working on the Emergency operation side which will do a dual function one, it would be used and now we're moving along a little quicker with it because the city hall is now getting a generator to have an Emergency Operating Center in a building that doesn't have a generator during a power failure really didn't

▶ 49:33 make too much sense. So but now that the generator is going in we're moving forward with the communication side. So during a major event or even a minor event our even just a planned event either fire and/or police handoff Public Works can all operate out of a single Center. So you have better Communications all around both face to face communication in the ability to exchange information so that you can pass that information on to the units out in the street, whether it's fireplace or public works and also as a training center for fire and our police right now, Training for new dispatches on at either department is done at the department at the at the console which is very very difficult to do to train somebody

▶ 50:27 during regular operation time. So they'll be able to use this room as a training center for the Dispatch operators and also in the event that they have to evacuate one of the buildings. We would be able to maintain Communications not only with the general public by having the incoming calls transfer it up there but also to be able to communicate with the apparatus and police vehicles on the road. So the equipment's expensive the radios are very expensive. So that's why I've been piecing this out over the over the three years that I've been here and we don't get a whole heck of a lot. So it seems like a slow process but it's only a slow process because of the of the money. But we are getting there.

▶ 51:23 So the state has approved of it in order to obtain the money you have to request it and you have to list out what you're doing with it and they are 100% in favor. And I know most people do not know what an Emergency Operating Center is. But those people in public safety and others that are familiar with it know the value in the importance of it. And as a matter of fact during covid eocs were fully funded for 24 operations during the time of covid. So even the federal government cites the importance of having an operating Emergency Operating Center. Thank you director Alpert. I saw Vice chair. Jamaladin. Thank you madam chair. Thank you for being with us tonight. Throughout the year. What have we used from the

▶ 52:18 Opera emergency operation? Department what when did we use it and how Well as as I stated before we put all new tables. Training. How did the community used? Your department. Well during covid. All purchases and all requests for any type PPE or any other equipment had to go through Emergency Management. So all of that would be sent into me and then I would request the information from Mima. Okay, in addition to that the I have worked in. Cooperation with the mayor's office of doing planned events. We've undertaken a new way of doing events in the city, whether it's one of the fears. It doesn't have to be an emergency event, which I'm about a plan event. and the mayor had ordered at the onset of of my appointment and at my

▶ 53:24 request all department heads to take incident command training and there were two courses that all departments had to take ICS 100 and 200 and we use those plans when we develop the planning for an event and one other thing that we're doing that we haven't done before is with documenting and maintaining all of these forms. So whatever events we've done in the past couple of years, they're all documented. So when we go to do with the next year says she has the Victorian fear. All we have to do is take the forms out from the previous year and just make any updates. And then the other thing that the Emergency Management Department has been involved in is hazardous materials incidents. I received the

▶ 54:15 call from Chief Collina a couple of months ago that there was a spill behind Shaw's Supermarket and I responded along with Chief Kalina and did the coordination with the responsible party which was a trucking company and also the dep and Public Works Police Department fight department. And then at the conclusion submitted requests for reimbursement to the responsible party for all the expenses of the city something that has not been done before and within within 30 days had full reimbursement. The grant what is it exactly that you are looking to? Get with the 60 direct some additional radio equipment radio equipment is very very expensive. The the units that we're putting in that are able to communicate each unit is

▶ 55:18 about 6,500 7,000. So that's why this has been spread out. So every year I use the 6500 as far as we can go with it and then it's put on hold and then and then the next round of money and hopefully with this round of money will be able to complete all the radio work. Time. Well, there will be two radios up there one for fire one for police a third one for Emergency Management. And all the necessary equipment so it's not just buying a radio. It's everything to set it up the wiring for the antennas and everything. So it's it's a rather expensive process that if we were we would do it all at once. I probably would have requested about 40,000 to do it. If that's how much we needed to do the project.

▶ 56:09 Leila Migliorelli: Are we replacing? And we're not we're just adding. Right, the equipment does not exist. Okay. Thank you. Chris. Chair Madam president. Thank you chair. Magliarelli. Thank you director Albert for being here and for so consistently pursuing these additional funding opportunities through Mima. It's really great to see the fruits of your labor. And at this time I would motion to recommend for Passage. motion for passage made by President Grigoraitis seconded by counselor garepe on discussion anyone I have one quick question director Albert. If there were an emergency at the the schools is this Emergency Center able to be used for an emergency anywhere or is it just all departments exclusive of the schools Citywide Citywide?

▶ 57:01 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. Thank you. All right, roll call. Vice chairman councilor McMaster. Yes counselor. Sonella. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes counselor garpy. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes Council crime Shady. Yes counselor bremski. Yes counselor Williams. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes and chairmanelli. Yes. That's 11. Yes unanimous. Motion passes and will be got in front of the council at the next full council meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Next up is ordered 2023-50 authorization to accept a housing Choice Grant in the amount of 75,000 from the executive office of housing economic development through the community one stop for growth program and authorize the mayor to execute a contract with EO HED funds to be deposited into

▶ 57:58 Denise Gaffey: fund four five two one. So tonight we have director Gaffey and Ms. Masa here to speak on the order. you good evening. Thank you. Well pleased to be here this evening and to ask for your consideration of a grant that we received in the amount of $75,000. This grant is through the housing Choice program at the executive office of Housing and economic development and it will allow us to hire a consultant to help us do some really important zoning work. There's no match required. Um, we essentially would like to use this funding to reorganize our zoning ordinance. Our zoning ordinance was originally codified in 1972. So we've made quite a few zoning changes since then but it tends to be a little bit disorganized. We're kind of layering things

▶ 58:55 Denise Gaffey: over and there's a lot of repetition and we find that it can be hard for users to understand. It's hard for the Building Commissioner to understand it's hard for all of us really to some of it just because of all the way that the zoning has been approached over the years. So this is an attempt this will be an attempt to better organize this sections and make it a lot cleaner and a lot clearer. We are also planning to take a look at the many housing many zoning related zoning amendments that we recommend in the housing production plan. So we see this is a great opportunity to try to implement some of was housing related zoning amendments in order to Increase opportunities for housing and in the community, which is a huge need we've

▶ 59:47 Denise Gaffey: seen prices, of course Skyrocket in recent years. So we have We spent 15 months and doing a as you all know a very extensive community-wide process to adopt the housing production plan and it's important for us that we actually then can take it to the next step and try to implement some of these important measures. So we see opportunities to try to propose deeper affordability for some of the affordable units that are created through zoning and also just consider whether there are some further tweaks that we can make to our zoning ordinance in order to create more opportunities for housing. So this is a this would be Consulting Services the way we have successfully done zoning in the past we have

▶ 1:00:43 Denise Gaffey: We have obviously a technical support in the planning office. But also we were closely with the zoning subcommittee of the planning board, which is a group of professionals and lawyers Architects engineers and other land use attorneys that will get together and work on zoning. So we we envision having a committee that would working with the zoning subcommittee in order to work with this consultant with the use of these funds in order to develop some zoning amendments zoning is As many of you know is regulated through Mass General law. This is just we would obviously have to then the mayor would have to propose Zoning for the council's consideration. So that would come at a very future date. But obviously we hope as a

▶ 1:01:37 Denise Gaffey: result of this process that we will be coming to the council in the future with some zoning amendments for your consideration. And then of course, there'll be further opportunities for the public to to weigh in through the public hearing process. So that's that's essentially what we're hoping to accomplish with this. Grant thank you, Ms. Kathy. I start counselor Eccles first. Thank you madam. Chair. Thank you both for being here. I second the difficulty of the reading readability of the Sony ordinance. You said a very future date. Do you have like a rough timeline of when you do back in front of the council for with the zoning Amendment? Well, I think something of this complexity would probably

▶ 1:02:25 Denise Gaffey: take may take about a year. I mean we have to put together our next our first step after we if we were to receive your approval our first step will be to put in RFP together and put that out on the street so that we can go through the process of selecting land use consultant who's going to fit our needs and then working with the consultant to come up with a time frame but It we think it'll probably take about a year. I would I would anticipate. the I just wanted because I think they like the 15 month housing production plan to then a year to then a year can be like four years from the kickoff of that to getting in front of the council. So it's worth noting for the next go around I suppose. Thank you.

▶ 1:03:15 Ryan Williams: Council Williams Hello. Counselor Eccles asked a really important question, which is when are we gonna get the zoning changes a year from now? Like are you thinking that you would be sending orders to the council January 2024 or are you thinking like January 2024 the consultant is wrapped up and you're now ready to proceed. We would hopefully have something in front of the council. So then I was looking through the order and I didn't see the the breakdown of the budget near one and year two. Do you have a concept for how much of the spending you're thinking of doing in year one versus year two again. I'm I think our I think that we're approaching it is we're going to try to do it in one year. So try to just yeah, so one year for

▶ 1:04:03 Ryan Williams: this grant ends in July. For fiscal year 23. Oh, yeah a year from when we start yeah work is what I mean. Yeah, the grand itself is allows for work to proceed through June of 2024. Yeah, it does. It does actually do that. Yes. I noticed there are progress reports due to. Who could the council be cc'd on these progress reports as you send them off so that we can just follow along with sure what's going on that that would be I think very helpful because it would you know eliminate a bunch of questions back and forth. Where are we on this that kind of sure, of course, we won't be coming before this Council in a year because we'll have had an election. So it's possible we'll be coming for an entirely different council

▶ 1:04:48 Denise Gaffey: with entirely different people with entirely different perspectives and points of view. And I hope that they are as friendly to housing and Zoning amendments as we are. That's it. Nothing further. Thank you. Okay and counselor McMaster. Thank you madam, chair good evening with respect to the housing Zone and Zoning amendments. What would be the functional role of the consultant? So what is the specific ask of the consultant? And what would that look like in terms of work tasks? So I think the consultant is going to help us do some of the leg work that's involved in in Developing the actual language. We do a lot of this work on our own. In fact, we in fact I should mention that we we do have another there's only

▶ 1:05:35 Denise Gaffey: subcommittee has been working over the past year and we have on some housekeeping measures relatively straightforward types of measures that are just again things that we notice require frequent. Our frequently granted the zba frequently Francis variance for certain things. So we wanted to try to clean those up and because we all so have our very busy jobs during the day it's hard for us to spend as much time on the zoning as we as we'd like to so we've actually been working on this amendment for almost a year. So we think with a with Consulting Services, they can help us expedite and do that that heavy lifting of doing a lot of the research and best practices and and then, you know bringing it to the committee and then we will

▶ 1:06:20 Shawn M. MacMaster: have robust discussions about how best works, you know will best fit. roses needs I think it makes sense because that's the only way I think we're gonna get there is to find the dedicated time which involves dedicated staff to do that leg work in terms of quantifying Consulting Services between the reorganizing and making recommendations with respect to the current zoning laws and How they're categorized now and recommendations for new zoning amendments. What would that look like to the best that you can yeah, I would term in on it. I would probably I would say about 50/50. I mean there's definitely complexities around our existing zoning the whole section around non-conforming uses is very very confusing and

▶ 1:07:10 Denise Gaffey: that's one that I think a consultant can really help us make a lot of progress on so that's one piece but and then the housing pieces housing amendments per se those are more than say that's about half and do you expect that? You may have to come back before the council asking for additional money. I'm just wondering how far 75,000 will get us. Well, we we did base that that number on some correspondence we had with another Community who just recently undergone a similar effort. So we felt pretty comfortable with this number. So right now I would say no, that's not our plan. Thank you for your time. Thank you. isn't it thank you madam. Chair. I counselor McMaster asked excellent questions, which I was hoping to ask as well just to comment that

▶ 1:08:00 the 75,000 that seems like a big number, but actually I know with Consultants that can go pretty quickly. But if you feel confident that that's going to get us through. It's great. And I don't have any other questions at this time. I would make a motion to recommend secretary. motion recommend made by President Grigoraitis seconded by counselor Williams on discussion seeing none. Vice chair gemology Yes counselor McMaster. Yes counselor. Sonella. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes counselor garpy. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes cancer crime Shady. Yes. Councilor bremski. Yes counselor Williams. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes and chair Migliorelli. Yes, that's you notice Levin. Yes. Thank you. This order will be brought to the full council at the next meeting

▶ 1:08:51 Leila Migliorelli: with recommendation for passage. Thank you very much. All right, moving along order 2023-51 field demonstration Sig project Grant fy23 to support the development and implementation of Outreach and marketing of our Council on Aging to older adults and caregivers tonight. We have executive director and the Council of Aging DC mancello here to speak on this order. Thank you madam, chair Councilor. So the executive office of eldorf fears put out in our P2, Massachusetts Council on Aging And I would say about a third of the 350 councils on Aging applied and there were 20 Awards. And Melrose received one of those 20 Awards. It actually aligns with our strategic plan. I have to plug my board one more time today. I've

▶ 1:09:44 had so many meetings. I have a very engaged. Board who is invested in the Council on Aging they've got they have their goals all set and number one goal. The Strategic plan was to do A needs assessment. And the reason for the needs assessment is As you know demographics are changing. We have a larger group of older adults from the 16 up that are coming. They're already here. They're in Melrose. What do we want to do to meet the needs of all older adults? We do foresee some program changes and different healthy. Groups, we also fit into the larger plans of the housing. Scarcity and what the needs are and what keeps our older Folks up at night worrying about a lot of house-rich pocket poor how to

▶ 1:10:38 connect them to Social Services, but the needs assessment will hopefully give us the answers that we need so that we can make great decisions moving forward. The proposed needs assessment would be done by UMass, Boston. They are the experts in gerontology and social demographic research. They have a whole department. That's basically geared on Aging. This $8,000 award would be the first step in the process. I have support from other funds and of course my dedicated friends of The Milano Center they're voting tomorrow. And we'll go from there. So it's it'll be about a six-month process and then we'll be able to make some concrete decisions. We'll keep in the loop and give you the end result in

▶ 1:11:32 Maya Jamaleddine: a report. any questions Vice chair Jamal Dean. Thank you. With us tonight. Thank you always pleasure to see you. Thank you. I'm I wanted to ask about you know, you you actually trying every time you come you show us and you model how you know thoughtful. Your department is and trying to serve every different populations, whether our lgbtq community, whether our you know mental health and and all the, you know, very inclusive in a way. I wanted to see if you have any if you thought of having those resources being translated in different languages for our population that they you know, that's actually under our one of the goals in the Strategic plan was accessibility and accessibility is not only just folks with disabilities but also different different conditions,

▶ 1:12:39 but also many many different languages and I think the needs Survey will also give us we know what the demographics are as far as the number of population. You know, how many different cultures but we don't know what the language needs are in that capacity. So I think that would be very very helpful. You know, we we handle our language crisis is now with the pocket translator are an app, but I think to reach the population so that they're able to answer. It's no different than Our senior Elders don't have computers. We have folks that don't speak English as a primary language. So it's definitely a consideration. So you we do have population that do reach out to your department and their English is not

▶ 1:13:30 there correct language and how do we support them? So we have a service through City Hall that we can call for translation services or like I said, we we try to tap in one of our examples was three of our kitchen folks actually speak Italian. And the family only spoke Italian. So on the spot to diagnose what was going on. We used the kitchen volunteers, but to get into a case management of a confidentiality or something that they need then we would get a professional service. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Councilor McMaster, thank you. Madam. Chair good evening. Thank you for being here. You talked about the 60 plus population being historically served by the Council on Aging Senior Center

▶ 1:14:17 Shawn M. MacMaster: when you talk about older adult, are you talking 55 50? I mean I've seen both numbers. What is the demographic that this is going to focus on well, we're funded for 16 over the focus would be 50 and up because we believe that you know, within five years gonna be 55 within 10 years. They'll be 60 so we can have some future something to gauge it on basically what the needs are. And I was glad to hear that your partnering with the gerontology Institute at the McCormick graduate school. It's a national leader in the field of gerontology research. Yes, and I think you know, they have some predictive models out there that you can look at Miller rooms now and see what our demographics will look like

▶ 1:15:00 Shawn M. MacMaster: up until I think 2035 which is great. I just wanted to be clear on what specifically the gerontology Institute will be doing. Are they doing today hair right and needs assessment or they doing something else? They're actually doing performing the needs assessment from start to finish and that's Gathering the day will we do the input with the the board will be doing the input on what questions to ask what we're looking for. We've already studied like you said before previous models. I mean we have the Elder index from UMass Boston so we can see what we just don't know what we want to be right on top of what we think the needs are specific to to Melrose and the most important part that I left out un

▶ 1:15:42 I apologize. Is that the final goal besides all this is to meet the needs and get the resources and make sure it would taken care of all different entities of our population. But is that we will become potentially become a age-friendly dementia friendly certified community. So it involves everything businesses. The original Grant was proposed as marketing or caregiver supports. I'm a fan for caregiver supports because if we say it's 15 over we all have we have younger folks 40 year olds caring for elders. 50 year olds that don't know what they're supposed to do. Further on you know all the way down the Spectrum, but I felt that we can't make a decision on caregiver supports. If we don't know what the general needs of the public are.

▶ 1:16:31 Shawn M. MacMaster: That's great. And I think I think the council would very much welcome you coming back with the findings to report to us into the extent that the gerontology Institute would be willing to that's I do think it's also an opportunity to look at what the needs are going to be perspectively from funding standpoint. One of the things that year after year I've raised is that your budget hasn't changed at all. Yeah with the Baby Boomers aging out of the workplace, you know, there's Your potentially interacting with more and you're proactively now looking to enter act with the population that is not 60 plus so I think we need to identify what those needs are going to be for both populations 60 plus and less than 60 and we can only make informed

▶ 1:17:16 Shawn M. MacMaster: decisions if we're if we're aware of the data which this data that exists now, but I think we need to take that into account when we look at your budget moving forward. And we have a gap two of the under 60 with disability coping with a disability. It's very very difficult. And technically there's more older adults in Melrose than school children. Although I know the school budget is expensive, but you can't compare the money to the money, but it's certainly if you talk about the folks. There's more older adults and Melrose than in school children great looking forward to Seeing what opportunities exist to provide services that also help people age at home, too. Yes. Thank you for all your good work. Thank you.

▶ 1:17:56 Manjula Karamcheti: Counts our crime Katie councilman McMaster kind of hit the nail in the head in terms of what I was going to say, so I won't go on and on about it, but I do agree and I saw a lot of nods within the council too that coming back and sharing that information with us would be very welcome and appreciated because I think it really does inform the decisions that we want to make as a council in the community for for our aging population, and I think doing that. Well, all so allows us to support other populations as well. So right thank you for applying for this. Thank you for seeing it out and definitely look forward to getting that data. So it'll help us do our jobs better, too. Thank you. counselor garepe

▶ 1:18:42 thank you madam chair. Thank you. Miss. Minciano for being here. I just want to thank you in your board for all you do for our seniors. I don't have any questions at this time. I'll make a motion for to recommend this for passage to the people born. second motion to recommend for passage made by counselor Carmen get her pay second if I counselor Carm Shady. Mr. Clark Please change your model Dean. Yes. Counselor McMaster. Yes counselor. Sonella. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes counselor garapay. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes. How's the Carm Shetty? Yes counselor bremski. Yes Council Williams. Yes, president Grigoraitis. Yes and cheer. Migliarelli. Yes. That's unanimous 11. Yes. This morning brought to the full council at our next meeting. Thank you.

▶ 1:19:32 It's Grant 2023-2 acceptance of the fy23 earmark Grant awarded to the Melrose fire department by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of fire services in the amount of 60,000 tonight. We have Chief Kalina here to speak on this order. Good evening. Happy new everybody. Yeah, so this fiscal year. 23 air Mark is a grant that issue through the department of fire service and services and where hope to use this funds to purchase 12 new SCBA air packs Which is a critical piece of equipment for our firefighters. A pack is about 6,500. For each pack the current packs that we have have aged out. They can't be service tested. and this is a portion of the money will be used for the 12 packs. We I'll be

▶ 1:20:43 here shortly. and their future for an additional Grant funding opportunity. Hope to piece that together with a few dollars left over from an SCBA. Capital Improvement project from a few years ago putting that together. We hope to secure 12 our new packs for our members. In additionally this would I help keep us in line with the NPA standards? Thank you Chief any questions? What is the will of the committee Vice chair Jamaleddine? I would like to make motion to commend second motion recommend made by Vice chairman Dean a second advice by not president by counselor. Sonella all in favor. Oops. Nope. My church Malden. Yes. Counselor McMaster. Yes counselor. Sonella. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes Council security. Yes counselor Stewart.

▶ 1:21:51 Leila Migliorelli: Yes cancer crime Shady. Yes counselor bremski. Yes counselor Williams. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes and chair. Magellarelli. Yes. That's unanimous lovenius right? Thank you. All right. Next we have appropriation 2023-11 mwra lfap. I slash I loan Grant authorized bowering bowering of 1.330 million of which 75% is a grant and 25% is zero interest loan tonight. We have city engineer Bonnie Reese here to speak on the order welcome. Hello. As you know, the water and sewer departments have been conducting a infiltration and flow removal program for many years and we have completed investigative work through face three. The reason that we are asking for the approval of these funds is to focus on fixing some

▶ 1:22:56 of the defects that we found in the pipes through our investigative work. So we've done Smoke testing manhole inspections pipe inspections CCTV and we've identified locations where pipe needs to be replaced either through a trenchless process of cured and place lining or through open cut methods. We've also identified manholes that are leaking that need to be repaired. So this funding would be used probably over several years to help fund those construction projects. and as the memo States, it's a 75% Grant and 25% zero interest loan Catherine Armada took a look at the numbers and determined that with the retirement of other debt that is coming that this will have negligible effect on the on the budget the

▶ 1:23:59 Annual payment for 10 years will be 33,250 to the Sewer Enterprise fund. So that's that's summary. I'd be happy to answer any questions though about the program. Council Williams sure Where we at? I mean we've been doing it for for a while, but just you know, like a high level overview. How do you feel about the you know the kind of low hanging fruit the worst case scenarios? So the original program split the city up into 15 sub areas. We've so we've gone. Through we're in phase three each phase had probably four or five. I do believe that there will be more investigative work. This does get some of the low-hanging fruit. We're going after what our Consultants categorized as four and five criteria repairs.

▶ 1:25:02 So pipe that is in imminent danger of failing pipe that's got holes in it manholes that are really really leaking because maybe they're old Brickman holes or something like that. So this will catch some of that low-hanging fruit and you know, as you know, probably already the further down the road you go the The less infiltration infiltration you're removing. So now now is the time to get this and see some results. I do not remember the estimate of what this should be removed. But I know we did we did some pipelining a few years ago. I think 2019 and the estimate of AI removal was about 85% of what they we went back this spring and did flow isolation in the pre-construction versus post-construction flow isolation numbers showed about

▶ 1:26:04 Ryan Williams: 85% removal. Is a significant portion of our infiltration problem do also to drainage problems. Not necessarily. I yeah, I'm not I wouldn't say that it would be so we're pipe tends to be fairly deep and the there were some manhole issues that were partially drainage related in a sense. We were getting a lot of inflow because the manhole covers themselves had cracks or holes in them. And those have actually been replaced. I only ask because I know that we've talked about how the city's drainage budget is very low right? Correct. Yeah, that's different animal for everything. It's different animal truth, but we have a lot of water problems and I know in my district especially with all the ledge and

▶ 1:26:58 Mark Garipay: The Valleys we get a lot of flow coming down and pooling and people's yards and yes things like that. So no opportunity to address drainage issues or anything like that with these funds just this. No this money can only be used for II removal projects and they're you know, the m Ura is fairly strict about that as well. Thank you very much for the questions. Counselor garepe thank you. Thank you madam chair. Thank you for being here. Just a couple quick questions. If we we've done some of the pre-work the smoke testing, I think wood for I believe in the last year or two. They were doing some smoke testing up there and we identified any streets that we're going to be if this passes what streets will be next.

▶ 1:27:45 So that's in part of the overall plan that Western and Sampson put together for this. I do know that part of this money is going to be used to do Building Inspections. So the next step after smoke testing is to go into buildings that you or neighborhoods that you suspect may have illegal connections. Usually that's a sump pump if it's a residence and go into the basement and verify whether or not there is that connection there and then work with the residents to remove that connection and find a different way to discharge. you talk about manhole covers and it just bringing up because recently it seems like the more and more I drive around and we get some fairly new newest streets that the manhole seemed to be sinking.

▶ 1:28:37 Mark Garipay: Like if you look around you'll see around them. They it's starting to crack a little bit in the streets are only four or five years old. I think there were a couple in Lebanon Street. I just noticed recently. Is that way we're talking about here when we say repairing the manholes or No, that that would be a different issue and you know, let me know those locations if you see something like that the so the manhole rehab typically is as an older structure where it's a brick manhole and the mortar between the bricks has become deteriorated. So water's getting in or it could even be a precast concrete structure where the seam wasn't properly sealed and water is getting in water gets into manholes also through the

▶ 1:29:23 junction where the pipe comes in and out of the manhole any place that there's any kind of connection that can happen. And then what we recently did was we did identify throughout the city a number of manhole covers that for whatever reason maybe it's because of melrose's drainage problems in the past. They had manhole covers that actually were cast with holes in them. So when it rained water got into the sewer system, so and then there were ones that were just damaged and broken. So we replaced those, but if you see settlement around a manhole that that's a that's a trenching issue and that definitely something that needs to be addressed. Okay. Thank you. As I see him. Thank you. Vice chair. Jamaladin. Thank you madam chair.

▶ 1:30:19 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you for being with us tonight. And you mentioned that there were some sewer holes leaks where they reported or it was fun discovered during a project. It was discovered during the CCTV inspection of the sewer pipes themselves, and we do have we keep a list of we call it our periodicals list of Sewer pipes that had seemed to have frequent backups and when that happens we go in with the TV camera and try to I identify what is causing those backups. are these like would that You know. give any kinds of alerts that we should probably do a CT wide a check on the rest of it or is it? Is it inclusive during this inspection? Like are we doing for every city-wide inspection for all the sewer Halls? So I believe that

▶ 1:31:23 the long-term plan is is to do that inspection on all the pipes in the city and we so When you're doing III work you have you kind of do it in incremental steps so that you can hone in on where the worst problems are the quickest and so flow isolation is one way to do that flow isolation is done in the middle of the night. When most people are asleep not running their dishwasher the washing machine and if you see a large amount of flow in the pipe, then there that's an indication that there might be a lot of infiltration and so then you would go in with the TV camera and see if there are cracks or leaking joints or holes or other sources for water to get into the pipe. cause When we have that week.

▶ 1:32:18 Maya Jamaleddine: Well in the in the short term we're paying for that water to be treated at Deer Island. So it increases our our sewer bills letting that great. It's groundwater. So it's clean water letting it get into the pipe in the long term depending on the severity of the defect. You could get a collapsed sewer pipe. and when we have increase in the bills, that would be The residents that are seeing that increase yes, the rate payers see that increase. So are we suggesting that whenever? residency and increase in their In their bills to request that check. Oh, no. Okay. So it does it has an overall impact on the sewer rates but individual residents they're sewer rate is based on their water usage. So if they see an increase in their

▶ 1:33:17 water and sewer bill, it's because they've been using more water. It may be that they have water leak and I know I know Lisa who works in our water billing department. She actually does an analysis every month and looks at accounts that have large water usage and she looks to see if they're patterns that might indicate that they have a leak in their water service or in their sprinkler system or something like that, but that that's a little bit different from this. counselor karmchatie Um, thank you so much for being here. And this information is very helpful to understand more about how we're looking at our aging infrastructure in regards to pipes and whatnot. It is such important work. And anything we

▶ 1:34:04 Manjula Karamcheti: can prevent is ideal something that I've learned that I didn't really know in relation to pipes and what's underground is sort of there are parts of the pipes that the city is responsible for in parts of the pipes that residents are responsible for in terms of like upkeep repair and it can be quite costly for for residents in the community. As a part of this inspection. Is it just the pipes that are sort of in these cities jurisdiction that are being looked at or are we also looking at those pieces of like sewer and piping that? Residents are responsible for in giving this giving that information to them ahead of time too in thinking about prevention and how to fix things before are we partnering are we

▶ 1:35:03 collaborating or you know, is that a part of this? At this point we're just investigating the sewer Mains which is what is owned by the city. Obviously if we saw something that was a concern like a blocked Service as we're going through the main with the TV camera, they turned they stop at every service. They turn the camera and they look up the service for you know, three or four feet. They can see up the service. So if they saw something that was concerning then we would probably reach out to the homeowner. But at the moment there we're not tving the individual Residential Services. And what would you recommend to Residents who are sort of concerned because they have older homes older pipes are

▶ 1:35:51 noticing things. What who should they contact? What should they do? So if if they are experiencing a problem because just because the home is old it still could be working fine. But if they're experiencing a problem then they need to find a company that does the CCTV of The Individual Services and and we can't really recommend one over another but there are plenty of them out there who can do that kind of work. They'll just come out with the TV camera and go in from the basement. And and do a TV analysis of that service. Thank but it's not it's not an expensive. So again, if they're not experiencing any problems, they probably don't want to do it. Thank you. Any other questions? The will of the committee I'll make a motion to prove to.

▶ 1:36:54 Recommend. Sorry to the full counsel second. Okay motion to recommend made by counselor Williams second in by counselor sonella. That Mr. Clerk Vice chair Geraldine. Yes. Counselor McMaster. Yes counselor. Sonella. Yes counselor Eccles. Yes, counsel. Gerepe. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes councilor Carm Shady. Yes counselor bremski. Yes councilor Williams. Yes president Grigoraitis. Yes. And chair Migliorelli. Yes, eleven. Yes a synonymous. Here in our next Council agenda. Thank you. Next up we have three informational orders that were held in Committee in December, but are set to expire before our next meeting. So now I will entertain a motion to hold. Miniature for information 2023-10 the request for American Rescue Plan app funding update.

▶ 1:37:51 Leila Migliorelli: I make a motion to hold in committee. Second motion to hold made by counselor Stewart seconded by counselor garapay all in favor. Hi any opposed? Okay info. 2023-10 will be held in committee. Next up is info 2023-11 update on the status of the city of Melrose finances. motion to hold Matt second. Okay, Madam president made the motion to hold second or by counselor. Karim chady all in favor any opposed? Okay, so that will be held in committee info 2023-12 and update on the status and usage of free cash in the city of Melrose. motion to hold second emotional hole may be made by counselor Karm chady seconded by councilor pay all in favor any opposed. Okay, just before we adjourn just a moment of personal privilege. I'm just a reminder

▶ 1:38:54 Leila Migliorelli: that this Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the city's Human Rights Commission will be holding events that have been put on pause since the pandemic. So from 10 AM to 12 pm. There's a day of service you can find out information of where to volunteer online. I think on the city website or at least you can find it on social media the Human Rights Commission web page on Monday night. There will be an event from seven to eight pm at the First Congregational Church on West Foster Street, and there will be remarks by the mayor and keynote presentation by Mr. Roland Gibson and musical performance. So I encourage all counselors to go if possible and the community as well. Okay. Mr. Councilor McMaster, yes, just a point of

▶ 1:39:43 Shawn M. MacMaster: personal privilege Madam chair today is law enforcement appreciation day. So I just wanted to recognize the Melrose Police Department for their work throughout the year. I think we're all aware and some members of the public are aware of the two relatively new officers who responded to a house alarm where they were Flames inside of the house and were able to work with the Melrose Police Department to to ensure that the house was evacuated and there were no injuries. So just a reminder of the work that our police officers do here in Melrose daily. Just wanted to make sure that that we acknowledge them as a body. Thank you counselor McMaster Concentra I'll make a motion to adjourn it's like motion adjourned made by counselor Stewart seconded by counselor Karm

▶ 1:40:31 chady all in favor any opposed returned

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2023-01-09

Attendance

Agenda

Minutes

Transcript

Original documents