Legal & Legislative Committee — 2023-05-22
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Jack Eccles ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; John Obremski ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE LEGAL & LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 22, 2023 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:20 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose City Council may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the City Council consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Ryan Williams Chair Late 7:20 PM John Obremski Vice Chair Absent Christopher Cinella Present Jack Eccles Present Maya Jamaleddine Absent Jen Grigoraitis President, Ex Oficio Absent Non voting members present include: Councilor Karamcheti
ORDER-2023-92 Accepting Act of Legislature/Local Option Requesting Approval to Increase the Melrose Retirement System’s Cost of Living Adjustment (“COLA”) for Fiscal Year 2023 from 3% to 5% as Allowed For By Chapter 269 of the Acts of 2022 Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 1 5/24/2023 4:05 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Ryan Williams: Here we go. Hello, everybody. Today is Monday, May 22nd, 2023. This is a meeting of the Legal and Legislative Committee of the City, council of Melrose. I'm the chair of the committee, Ryan Williams. I'm joined by voting members, counselor Jack Eckles, counselor Chris Sin and Non-Voting Member Counselor Manchetti. And this serves as a notice of quorum for the record, pursuant to current allowances under the opening meeting, law enacted under chapter two of the Acts of 2023, signed into law by Governor Healy on March 29th, 2023. There is remote participation in this meeting via the city's Zoom platform. This, uh, also in accordance with open law meeting. This meeting will be recorded and is being broadcast on TV by our partners attv,
▶ 0:45 Ryan Williams: as well as live streamed on their website, attv three.org. And we thank them for their service. So we have one item on the agenda tonight, and at this time, I'd like to motion by unanimous consent to open public comment, hearing no arguments. Uh, a public comment is now open. If there's any members of the public who'd like to speak on tonight's agenda item, please come forward. Is there anybody online? Not at the moment. Okay. Then I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment and public comment is closed. Um, we have, uh, one order before us tonight. It is order 2023 dash 92, which is requesting approval to increase the Melrose Retirement System's Cost of Living adjustment, otherwise known as COLA for fiscal year 23 from 3% to 5%
▶ 1:34 Ryan Williams: as allowed for by chapter 2 69 of the Acts of 2022. And this is brought to us by, uh, the Mayor of Melrose. And I believe we have someone from the administration tonight. So, uh, with no objections, I'd like to suspend the rules and seeing no objections. The rules are suspended. Please come before us. Mr. Vinky. The, and thank you. Good evening. My name's Adam. I'm the Director of the retirement Board. Um, and I'm here tonight to ask for a 2% increase on the cost of living, uh, for FY 23, retroactive to July one of 22. Okay. Uh, do you have any information other than that to present to us, or you just wanna entertain questions? That's It. It's just a one-time retro. Um, and the cost will be reflected next year's appropriation when the board votes on
▶ 2:22 Ryan Williams: the new funding schedule. Okay. Do any counselors have questions on this? I would make a motion to, uh, Recommend, uh, to the full board Second. Okay. On discussion. I had one, one question. Sure. Um, it's a very small increase, three to 5%. Is there, do, do you have some sense of how this affects the fund's performance long term? Um, what the impact would be over time? Um, short term, where the fund balances are at the moment. Just a little bit of the financial picture. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's short term. It's about $90,000, the cost of doing the cola retroactively. Okay. Um, and this will be factored into next year's appropriation with the funding schedule going forward. So you won't even see the reflective cost until FY 25.
▶ 3:06 Ryan Williams: Okay. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Appreciate that. Um, so we have an, uh, motion on the floor with a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. I believe it has to be voice roll call. Oh, so vo it's a, okay. Well, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll Councilor son. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Chair Williams? Yes. That's three. Yes. Unanimous. All right. Well, that, we'll move forward to the full counsel. Thanks very much for coming out tonight. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yep. Motion to adjourn. Check. Second. Okay. We have a motion to adjourn. All in favor? Aye. Aye. That's it. We're adjourned. Good evening. The time is 7 31 on Monday, May 22nd. 22nd, 2023. This is a meeting with the Appropriations and Oversight Committee.