Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2023-06-15

Appropriations and Oversight Budget Hearing

This meeting starts at 12:13 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Christopher Cinella absent; Jack Eccles present; Mark Garipay present; Jen Grigoraitis present · President, Ex Oficio; Maya Jamaleddine remote, 7:39 PM · Vice Chair; Manjula Karamcheti remote; Shawn M. MacMaster present; Leila Migliorelli present · Chair; John Obremski present; Robb Stewart present; Ryan Williams absent

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 15, 2023 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Budget Hearing 7:31 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Leila Migliorelli Chair Present Maya Jamaleddine Vice Chair Remote 7:39 PM Shawn M. MacMaster Present Christopher Cinella Absent Jack Eccles Present Mark Garipay Present Robb Stewart Present Manjula Karamcheti Remote John Obremski Present Ryan Williams Absent Jen Grigoraitis President, Ex Oficio Present

APPRO-2023-28 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) Fiscal 2024 Operating Budget in the amount of $101,173,341 (one hundred and one million, one hundred seventy-three thousand, three hundred forty-one dollars and 00/100 cents) Ought to Pass City Council

APPRO-2023-36 Appropriation An Appropriation from free cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $614,500 to various stabilization funds as set forth herein. Ought to Pass City Council

APPRO-2023-37 Appropriation An Appropriation of Free Cash (account number 01-324001)in the amount of $500,000 to the School Department, other funding sources (account number 19054-490000) Ought to Pass City Council

TRNSF-2023-1 Transfer City of Melrose Page 1 9/1/2023 1:17 PM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee June 15, 2023 Requesting authorization to transfer funds in the amount of $3,618 from city clerk 011611-511000 to 011622-525102 to purchase election equipment and to transfer funds from city clerk 011611-511000 to 011622-530506 for community election engagement tools Ought to pass City Council

TRNSF-2023-2 Transfer A transfer in the amount of $3,500 from City Clerk, salary and wages (account 011611-511000) to the Planning Department (011752-529026) for additional Messina Grant Funding. Hold City Council

TRNSF-2023-3 Transfer A transfer in the amount of $15,000 from City Clerk, salary and wages (account 011611-511000) to Fire Department (012211- 513000). Ought to pass City Council

TRNSF-2023-4 Transfer A transfer in the amount of $4,225 from Pine Banks Salary and Wages (016521-511000) to various Pine Banks Expense Accounts as set forth herein. Ought to pass City Council

TRNSF-2023-5 Transfer A Transfer in the amount of $11,857.37 to the Human Resources (#152) and Employee Benefits Departments (#914) from the Health Insurance Contractual line item. Ought to pass City Council

TRNSF-2023-6 Transfer A transfer in the amount of $48,000 to the Medicare Budget (019162-548000) from temporary debt (017522-549100) and Veterans Benefits (015432-544000). Ought to pass City Council

TRNSF-2023-7 Transfer City of Melrose Page 2 9/1/2023 1:17 PM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee June 15, 2023 A transfer in the amount of $39,502.20 to the Legal Department (#151) from Veterans Benefits (account 015432-544000). Ought to pass City Council

ORDNC-2023-1 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of City of Melrose Revolving Fund table as first adopted by City Ordinance June 18th, 2018 and annually thereafter. Revolving Funds are further authorized under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 44 Section 53E 1/2. Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 3 9/1/2023 1:17 PM

Transcript

▶ 12:30 Leila Migliorelli: law enacted under chapter two of the Acts of 2023, signed into law by Governor Healy on March 29th, 2023. Councilor Caram Shady is participating in this meeting tonight remotely via the city's Zoom platform. Also, joining me tonight are Councilors, ecs, repe, McMaster, Osky Stewart, and President Greg Exofficio. This serves as a notice for the of a quorum. For the record, please note that because we have a member participating remotely, all motions will require a roll call vote in accordance with open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMT v. I would also ask that my colleagues and guests make sure that they're speaking clearly into the microphone while speaking so that our remote colleague can hear

▶ 13:12 Leila Migliorelli: the discussion. Um, right now I'll entertain a motion to open the floor for public comment. So moved. Second Motion to open the floor for public comment made by President Greg Grigoraitis, seconded by Councilor Eccles. Um, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role, Uh, councilor McMaster? Yes. Councillor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Bruski. Yes. Present in Greg Grees? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's eight. Yes. Unanimous. Okay. Public comment is now open. This is the portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on an any agenda item tonight. Is there nobody in person? Is there anyone online? No attendees on the line at this time. Okay.

▶ 14:01 Leila Migliorelli: Um, I'll entertain a motion to close public comment Chair. I'll make a motion to close public Comment. Second. Motion to close public comment made by Councilor Stewart. Seconded by Councillor Eccles. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councillor Les? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Bruski. Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's eight. Yes. Unanimous as well. Okay. Public comment is now closed since we have members of the administration here tonight to speak on the items before us. I'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules before we proceed. I'm Sure I'll make a motion to suspend the Rules. Second.

▶ 14:42 Leila Migliorelli: Motion to suspend the rules made by Councilor Stewart. Seconded by Councilor Eccles. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Bruski. Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's eight. Yes. Unanimous as well. The rules now suspended. First on our agenda tonight is appropriation 2023 dash 28, fiscal 2024 operating budget in the amount of $101,173,341. First up tonight we have the treasurer, treasurer and collector's office with treasurer Catherine Armada. Welcome. Welcome. Uh, one question. Andrew, were you going to be putting up the PowerPoint? Yes, I'm working on that right now.

▶ 16:26 Sorry for the delay. Uh, good evening, chair Elli and members of the committee. I'm pleased to be here tonight to present the budgets of the treasurer collector, the parking department, the city sheriff of Medicare, and the three debt budgets. Uh, since there are multiple budgets, I'd be happy to respond to questions after each individual budget presentation. Mm-hmm. Okay. Rather than waiting till the end, um, just put a brief presentation together, um, for an overview of the departments, and, um, then I'll move on to the budgets. Uh, the mission of the treasurer collector department is to officially collect monies owed or contributed to the city, and provide the city with a system of prudent monetary controls.

▶ 17:10 These controls ensure the safeguarding of the collected and invested funds for the citizens of the city. To provide a brief overview of the team, there are six of us. We have three collectors, uh, one for each ducks excise real estate and water and sewer. We have a parking and treasury clerk, which is a split role. The assistant treasurer and me, the parking and treasury clerk's position is paid from two separate budgets. Six and a half hours of her salary come from the parking budget. The remaining 23 and a half hours are from the treasurer collector's budget at this time, we're fully staffed and we have no intention of expanding the team. The services we provide are start to finish of collecting funds,

▶ 17:59 managing the funds, and ensuring that cash is available to the city to fund city expenses. The collectors are the customer facing, uh, team and behind the scenes they problem solve with banking institutions. Our processing partners interact with law firms and they work with the city hall, various city hall departments, particularly the water department and the assessor's department on issues. The treasury side of the operation is responsible for accounting for what is collected throughout the city. She processes all the payrolls for city and schools. Uh, we do managing banking relationships, government reporting debt, debt issuance, and in investment of the various investment trusts. The treasurer and parking clerk

▶ 18:48 is a split rule. Uh, the clerk manages the parking program and she also acts as backup to the collector's area. And she also processes payroll deduction changes and is training up to be a payroll processing backup as well. What are you doing to me, Andrew? Okay. Um, the next slide was on, on the goals. So we set out all of our goals that we, um, established as fiscal 23. I had listed a number of them on the page, but the highlights that I wanted to point out are, um, we decreased the c monthly audit fees by over 50% of her time in the office, which is a significant decrease going forward. Uh, that was because of the implementation, implementation of the managed cash management module. We adjust 20 years of aged receivables for personal property taxes.

▶ 19:56 Um, and we'll be working with the assessor and the auditors, um, to finalize that. This year we worked with D P W to implement a water assistance program through Boston, A B C D. Uh, the program assists qualified community members with funding of overdue water bills and in providing payments for towards future bills. The program, I believe, ends in September, and we recently learned that it did not get funding for last for next year through the state. So it was positive to the people that it impacted in the community, but it was very short lived. And then finally, we conducted an analysis of the overnight parking rates that we charge and parking rates at the train stations relative to everybody else on the train

▶ 20:40 lines, north and southeast west. Uh, we made our rec, uh, we presented our recommendations to the traffic commission and all but one was accepted. So now we have a tiered overnight parking rate, which we feel is much more fair and an increase in the parking lots at the st train stations to $5 a day onto the budgets. Um, you do have the budgets in your machines, okay? Mm-hmm. Uh, treasurer collector budget 1 45 is 512,335 or 4%, 4.7% higher than fiscal 23. All the departmental costs are primarily driven by processing volume. Contractual salary increases postage and maintenance of machinery. The increases in the budget are primarily due to items. One is postage, postage factors in elections and increase in postal rates. And, um,

▶ 21:42 we anticipate a higher volume from the city clerk's office next year, which I believe Kristen mentioned in her presentation. Uh, salaries also increase. These are due to your usual colas and step ups. Uh, there is also funding for six months of the year for the collector's department to move from 30 hours to 35 hours. Reductions include, um, eliminating the bank line for the, um, line item for the bank fees. Uh, one interest rates are up, but prior to that, when interest rates were still down, um, we sat down with our banking partner and came to an agreement that lockbox fees would be absorbed, uh, under any interest rate environment. And I've also spoken with several departments internally so that things like,

▶ 22:32 um, health insurance coverage mailings at the end of the year can go through interoffice rather than spending 66 cents on postage. It all adds up. So we're trying to cut where we can. And as stated in my memo, the printing and professional services variances, which look very large on, on the screen, are they just offset each other. It was a miss booking of professional services, um, with one of our partners. And going forward, printing is just going to be for paper advertisements while our billing and collections partner will be defined under professional services. Um, I'd be happy to entertain any questions on the treasure collector's budget. Thank you. This was very helpful. Uh, questions from counselors? Councilor

▶ 23:23 Robb Stewart: Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chair, Megan, Ms. Automotive for being here this evening. Appreciate it. Um, the, the Boston A B C D, that's, I find that interesting. What, what was the amount of revenue that that contributed? It did, it didn't contribute revenue that that program helped, um, community members with their water bills. Right. But I guess maybe I'm not stating it correctly. How much did it offset? Like what, what was their contribution? Their, um, it wasn't as large as we wanted. We were hoping the next year would ramp up. We learned about it late, so it's, um, several thousand dollars in arrears, maybe $9,000, $6,000. And then they are still calculating on some of the payments for people

▶ 24:07 who are not in arrears, but they qualify for assistance for future bills. So we don't actually have the checks in yet. Okay. Um, but we are pro we've, we've gone through and done our part in auditing the information they sent us so these people can receive the assistance. And so what other options do these people that may not be able to make their payments have? We do have payment programs, um, for water bills, but they have to make sense. Um, you have to put down a certain percentage and then promise to pay, uh, if you want to catch up on your bills or else water bills do go as a lien onto the property at the end of the year. So I don't know of any you'd, that would be probably another department to talk to about assistance other than

▶ 25:00 the payment plans. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, do you know how many are infected by this? Um, the original list she provided us, I think was in the sixties. Um, the, and we, they didn't, we were late coming into the game and then we found out that they were losing their funding and they took the list of the pre-approved people who had already applied for assistance under another program, say electricity, I don't know which program it was. And they said they automatically apply. So they got it automatically and then other people, um, could apply for it as well. Okay. So 60. Okay. I I can get you a firm number tomorrow. Okay. Okay, great. Just, just a, it's a little concerning hearing that some people might not,

▶ 25:54 Mark Garipay: may make the payments, but, um, thank you ma'am. Um, I just wanna note for the record, I believe councilor or vice Chair Jamal has joined online. Okay. Thank you. Um, quite any other questions? Councilor Garipay? Yes. Thank you Madam Chair. Just, uh, one quick question. We've had some other, um, departments in front of us that also do some, uh, collections for, whether it's the police department or and D P W. Have we ever looked at merging those in under your department? Um, I know talking when they were in front of us, it takes up a lot of their time. Sounds like you're already set up your department. Have we ever looked at merging those in to free up some time for They actually have to bring their deposits to our department. Uh,

▶ 26:38 nobody has a pro, so Stephanie can do her assistant treasurer work on that. Um, cuz she does the final accounting. Nobody has ever approached me on that, so, and I'm not sure about the history behind that. I could talk to, I, I think it was Kim Upton who brought that up. Okay. Okay. I'm just throwing some, some ideas out there as we, um, you know, next year looks like, you know, might be a little tough on the budget, so just trying to throw some ideas out there right now. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? What is the will of the committee? Motion to move the bottom line. Second. Councilor Eccles motions to move the bottom line on 1 45. Seconded by Councilor Repe. Anyone on discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll

▶ 27:36 Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Present Gu? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That is nine. Yes. Unanimous. That motion carries. Um, next up we will discuss municipal debt, which is line seven 11. Okay. Uh, I'm going to do the three debt budgets together, if that's okay. Okay. Yep. So that is, um, a municipal debt, uh, seven 11. The principle 7 51 is interest on long-term debt and 7 52 is on, uh, payments on temporary, um, temporary debt. Mm-hmm. These city, these are city obligations that have been pre-approved after vigorous diligence and upon a vote by the council when,

▶ 28:37 when presented for fiscal 24, the debt obligations are, uh, budget seven 11, the principal payments 3 million 848 4 10, budget, 7 51. Interest payments on long-term debt, 1 million 2 12 9 49 and budget 7 52 payments on bond anticipation notes or the temporary debt 2 45 815. So that is a total of 5 million 3 0 7 1 7 4. Thank you. Any questions from counselors? Councilor Stewart? Thank you Madam Chair. So to understand these numbers, this is debt on existing capital expenditures, but not anything that's projected that we may be spending next year. Is that right? This is that accurate? These are payments on existing issued debt. So if we issued a million dollar bond five years ago and we're on payment six, it's the principle and interest on that bond. Yep.

▶ 29:43 And if we issued a ban and the ban is maturing within fiscal 24, it is the interest on that ban. Okay. And so if we, if we made a, uh, if we bonded out an additional, uh, issuance for a capitalized to capitalize something, um, would we have to then come to us and add to that? Right. Uh, only if we did it for a term that was shorter than 12 months, because then that would be a temporary, that would be a ban. And so say you did it on month, say you did a nine month ban on the second month of the fiscal year. Sure. You would have to pay that off within that same fiscal year. Okay. And so, but We take that into consideration as we're planning these bonds. I didn't mean to interrupt you, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. Okay. We,

▶ 30:45 Robb Stewart: we do take that into consideration when we're working with Hilltop and our other advisors and looking at our budget and try to make sure that we're not going to, uh, cause any stress. Good. I'd like to hear that. Um, so does that mean that when we bond something, it doesn't? So if, if we're in November or December and we, um, do a bond issuance, it really doesn't start until the next fiscal year. We don't start mid-year. Do we start at the beginning of the fiscal year? The, The majority of the time we, we work with our advisors to work within our budget. So for if, if you wish issue a bond, you, you could have a flexible first interest payment. So instead of six months, it might be seven months or to so that we can manage those cash

▶ 31:41 Robb Stewart: flows, um, you know, pending any emergencies. Okay. And, and where I'm going with this is that, you know, there's a lot of talk about some fairly significant Yes. Bond issuances and, uh, that is not taken into consideration within these statements, right? No. Those will come to us in the future. No, this is actual debt on the books, not the Model. Okay. Great. That's all I need now. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair Council. Uh, just one, uh, quick question. Um, is the library and the salt shed, are they in these numbers right now? That is that fully gone out? That, that the barn that we did for those two projects, The library is not, the salt shed is in the, hang on one second.

▶ 32:33 The bad number for this year has the roads and the firetruck in it, so the No it does not. So if I remember correctly, the library was 10. We have not issued that debt Yet though. So we'll see that next, next fiscal year or 2025. We'll see that in the 2025 Number. Yeah, I think we're still working on the timing of those issuances and Okay. When they'll need it. Thank you. Anyone else? Councillor Eccles? Just a quick clarifying point on that. So the, the Sal Shed is not in this, what we're seeing, Not in this interest payment. It's in, it's in the current ban. Yes. It's in the current bin that we'll pay in the next year. So we'll be paying the debt on that next year. Which pleasure am I on? Yes. Cool. It is in that, yeah, I'm sorry. No worries.

▶ 33:29 Maya Jamaleddine: It, it, it is in that, I was thinking of something else. Cool. Thank And it was the salt. She had the, yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Sorry about that. No Worries. Anyone else? Counselors if, uh, vice Chair, Jamal Dean or Caram Shady have questions? I don't, they'll just let you know, right? Cause I can't quite see them. Okay. They Have not let me know, but they Thank you, uh, chair. And just, um, um, I'm gonna take a moment point privilege just to mention through the chair that, um, not sure. I don't wanna speak for Councilor Rita. It is extremely difficult to hear any comments, uh, from speaker or from my fellow, um, counselors. So, uh, my, our participation is gonna be, uh, probably, uh,

▶ 34:21 limited. Thank you. Vice chair, Jamal Dean, try to speak into this microphone. Sounds better. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Seeing none, what is the, um, will of the committee on municipal debt line seven 11. Make a motion to recommend, oh, I'm sorry. Move the bottom line. Second. Sorry. Councilor Garrette motions to move the bottom line on seven 11. Seconded by Councilor Eccles. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councillor Les? Yes. Councilor Repe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Bruski? Yes. President Greg? Yes. And chair Meg? Yes. Nine. Yes. Unanimous. Thank you. Um, okay.

▶ 35:24 Leila Migliorelli: So in just another note of like the speaking into the microphone off, off to the side, cuz I noticed we always do that when we're talking, so as long as we're just talking right into the mics. Um, next up is municipal debt interest line 7 51. What is the will of the committee? Motion to move the bottom line on 7 51 Second. President Greg Motion to move the bottom line on 7 51. Seconded by Councilor Eccles. Anyone on discussion? See none. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Repe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Bruski? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. That

▶ 36:15 Motion carries. And next is projected debt line 7 52. I'm chair. Make a motion to move line 7 52 to the bottom line. Second, Councilor Stewart Motion to move the bottom line on 7 52. Seconded by Councilor repay. Anyone on discussion? Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gpe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councillor Bruski? Yes. President Gregs? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. Okay, That motion carries. Um, next up is Medicare City portion line nine 16. Medicare City portion is $920,000 or 4% higher than fiscal 23. This is due to increases in city payroll due to contract settlements stepped ups,

▶ 37:17 colas and embedded in that payroll number are an, is an increase in healthcare costs of 7.9%. Okay. Questions from the council? Seeing none, what is the will of the committee? Madam Chair? I'll, I'll make a motion to move line nine 16 to the bottom line. Second, councilor Stewart, um, motions to move the bottom line on nine 16. Seconded by President Greg. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, vice Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Repe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. President, your yes. And chair Guily? Yes. Nine. Yes. Unanimous. Okay, that motion carries. Um, next is parking, which is line 2 96.

▶ 38:20 The parking budget is 65,000 6 0 1 or down 8.7 from fiscal 23. These decreases are due to a reduction in overall costs with a new vendor that we put in late in fiscal 22, and also lower estimated parking volume at the train stations that we have to recognize as consistent in this post. Covid world expenses are created by volume when we're processing the tickets. So that's, that's a big driver in the decrease. Um, the budget does include, um, printing of parking tickets for the police force this year, which I hadn't before, which is an offset. Okay. Um, questions from the council. Councilor Repe. I'll make a motion to move the bottom line. Second. Motion to move the bottom LA line made by Councilor Gar.

▶ 39:17 Be seconded by President Greg Grigoraitis. Um, on line 2 96. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Abramsky. Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. Thank you. That motion carries. Um, and thank you Ms. Armar. I think we've come to the end. Thank. Thank you. Next we have the auditor's department with cfo, Patrick LaRusso. Welcome, Welcome in. Good evening. I truly appreciate being here this evening and, um, taking the time to go over my budget with you all, and if there's any questions as I move through it, feel free to ask.

▶ 40:41 I'll be happy to address it. Um, As an overview, the audited salary and wages category reflects the updates to staff compensation as a result of the HRS Comp and class study. But three of its four employees who are non-union, which include the assistant city auditor, the finance manager, and me as the CFO city auditor. We have one union member of staff responsible for accounts payable. This position is in the Association of City Hall Employee Union, and the fiscal 2024 budget reflects the C B A that was ratified during fiscal year 2 0 23. That's the, that the first category is 85% and a little bit more of the budget as a whole. The next category that we do have is the contractual category that includes

▶ 41:39 the outside auditing services provided by Powers and Sullivan, and the annual comprehensive financial report. The first of its kind that was done for the City of Melrose, and I wanna talk about that in a moment. The, um, professional services line of that same category, Plex, no change in cost from Metro Y 20 to 23, and it provides funding for the Clifton Lawson, L L L P or c l a to assist the city in year end reporting inclusive of the balance sheet in year end state reporting and related reconciliation processes. In addition, it covers the cost of the actuary. Stone Consulting needed to perform the evaluation work required each year to ascertain, uh, other post-employment benefits known as opep liability.

▶ 42:34 And finally, the last category in my budget. Other charges, you'll see an increased request of $800. That, again, is really directly impacted, um, due to the, um, membership on the Government Finance Office Association G F O A. That is required now that we have, uh, begun the process of getting certification. Each and every year, financial statements have burst in the city of Melrose. I, I, I just wanna take a, a moment personal, uh, privilege for a second. Just acknowledge all the hard work done by everyone in the city to make this report happen. I believe that the counselor should have received a hard copy. If you haven't, please let me know. I'll be pleased to get it to you. It is online, on the website. This is extremely,

▶ 43:24 extremely detailed. It covers the stats from going back 10 years ago to current. Um, this was done for year end, December, uh, 2022 fiscal year end. And I think that you'd find it really, really in an interesting report to read and helps to understand and in common terms, the, um, financial stability of the city, the, the, um, past history. And it gives you a concept of where we've come from, which is the historical context. I encourage everyone, um, here and obviously those at home to take a look at it. I think you'd be extremely pleased, and I think it was worth all the effort that we did. Um, and again, the objective here in my office is to continue this report each and every year thereafter. Um, I think it's extremely worthwhile and I'm, I'm,

▶ 44:17 Maya Jamaleddine: I'm hoping that anyone feels the same when, when they take a look at it. But overall, my office continues to, uh, be the steward of the city's finances and we do our due diligence each and every year. Um, that to ensure that everything is in order on behalf of the city and all its residents. If there's any questions that be happy of yen. No, Thank you. Um, so this is questions on the auditor's department line 1 35. Um, just checking with counselors. Caram, JD or Vice chair Jamal, uh, vice chair Jamal, Thank you. Um, I would like to take a moment, um, to thank you Mr. LaRusso, uh, for being with us tonight. Uh, when I truly wish that, uh, we were able to have you, uh, throughout this hearing, um, budget hearing.

▶ 45:17 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, I totally, I am aware that you are here now discussing, uh, your, uh, department budget. But I feel that moving forward and in future, uh, budget hearing, uh, it would be very critical and specifically for the sake of transparency that the C f O be present while we are discussing and making such a important and big decisions on, um, um, on the city budget. Um, I don't have a direct question about your department budget, but I really hope that you find a way, um, to express and explain to us and to, uh, Mary's community how is the city budget is doing specifically that we heard during, uh, previous, uh, uh, budget hearing meetings that, um, we, you know, we've been, they've been recommended for, um, bonds and,

▶ 46:23 Jen Grigoraitis: and that, um, our, um, pre-cash is, is, you know, is very short. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Chair, Jamal. Dean. Thank you. Um, president Re Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you Mr. LaRusso for being here tonight, and thank you to you and your team for all the work that you do. It's been quite a year. Um, thank you very much. I just wanted to ask on the, it seems like we've been using Clifton and I'm sorry, not Clifton and Larson, um, powers and Sullivan pretty consistently for the audit. Yes. How often does that contract go out to bid? Um, they, it is exempt from 30 B. We do, we do, uh, um, try to, um, contract with them each every three years. Okay. And, um, right now, I think for the last three years,

▶ 47:12 they were consistent in their, uh, costs for the audit. I think this year they're up 2000 overall, and they consistently try to maintain that for multiple years. Um, candidly, I, I probably, um, believe they're probably the best auditors in the Commonwealth. And I say that without hesitation and, and the fact that, um, having truly worked with them to make this a reality for us, and knowing the work they did to help the city do that, it real, they weren't overboard and really reached out to make sure this was gonna happen for us. So, I, I, um, hope it answers your question, but I'm more than satisfied. And if I wasn't, I would replace them. I've done that in the past and I'm not, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment.

▶ 47:56 Jen Grigoraitis: Okay. Thank you. Um, and then to, for Clifton Larson, Allen, um, they're in the professional services line for your budget. I also know the, um, schools have been working with them. Is that, are those separate contracts? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, and then my last question is just that I know back in the fall when we were really all kind of digging into the budget, in light of some of the recent, um, discrepancies with the school budget, we had begun a process of having monthly budget reports. And those stopped around January, I believe, as we were transitioning into preparing for this budget. Can we anticipate that those will start up again, um, once we start the new fiscal year, or I I haven't seen one since January.

▶ 48:34 They, it's my understanding that they do that. Um, my Carrie does produce those every month and doesn't send them up. I'll make sure, I'll check tomorrow, but I, that's a bit my understanding. If you're not getting them, then there's obviously this, this, that just should not be. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. Yep. Anytime. Any other questions? Seeing none. Um, oh, councilor McMaster. Uh, Madame Chair, at this time I was gonna make a motion to move the bottom line in Department 1 35 Second Councilor McMaster Motion to move the bottom line on 1 35. Seconded by Councilor Repe, anyone on dis discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes.

▶ 49:25 Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Aki? Yes. President Grees? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous, That motion carries. Thank you very much. Next is the, um, stabilization OPEP funds line 9 42. Yes. Thank you. Um, in this particular budget requesting, as we did last year and the year before that, that $50,000 go to the, um, foundation stabilization fund. That's fund number 84 0 1, which is the first line of the two line budget. And the second one to the Opep Trust fund number 84 0 7, also 50,000 for a total of 100,000. A little background. Um, the original stabilization fund, uh, contribution was set by ordinance in the city years ago, so that we would always take the time in each budget to make sure that we're,

▶ 50:22 um, putting money aside for a rainy day. And it's, uh, going on for a number, number of years, um, that I've been here. Um, the Opep Trust, again, that was a commitment we made. Um, I did to standard employers that we would show consistency and funding every year to help draw down the very large opep liability of the city. And by putting it actually in the budget, it gives them assurance that was committed to that, um, objective. And it proves that we're not considering it a secondary afterthought. Um, and again, just for tho those people here tonight and, and those at home, uh, I really believe in my heart that because we've been so consistent that has maintained AA plus rating with standard and PO for the last 10 years,

▶ 51:12 that's not easy to achieve, but it takes a committed effort. And I thank the city council before all their help and support because you've always been there. And without that, we could not have achieved that goal. And I thank you all. Um, I just, um, again, always look forward to, um, having this annual discussion because it, it really, really does matter. It matters when you're gonna borrow money. It matters on the interest rate you're gonna get. And it also is, um, something that assists in our financial statements to show continued growth and development. We have the highest fund balance this year than we've had in the history of the city, over 23 million. So in all areas, I'm, I'm extremely pleased right now. Thank you.

▶ 51:57 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you. Um, questions from the council? Um, okay. Seeing, actually, I just have a question. Thank you. For clarify. I had a question from a constituent about the Foundation stabilization, why it's in the budget, and then why we do other transfers from free cash into, um, stabilization funds. So thank you for explaining, um, reiterating that it one is, uh, due to an ordinance and the other one is due to recommendation by Standard and Poors. Um, can you just restate the, the balances on? Um, I'm sure we have it here, but I just don't have it right. And pull it up. I certainly can. The current balance of the stabilization fund, the foundation's stabilization fund I call it, is 3 million nine hundred forty two four fifty seven

▶ 52:48 Leila Migliorelli: 0.99. And the opep is, the second fund is 1,115,002 35.15. Thank you. This would add basically Mis cause I thought you said 23 million and I said that can't be possible. So thank you for saying that again. Any questions? Seeing none. What is the will of the committee motion? Move the bottom Line. Second. Councilor Eccles. Motion to move the bottom line on 9 42. Seconded by Councilor Repe. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor B Bruski? Yes. Present? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. That motion carries. Thank you

▶ 53:46 Leila Migliorelli: Very much. Thank you. Um, so, uh, just to move on, I'll entertain a motion to hold appropriation 2023 slash 28 committee. Actually we can Motion to recommend? Yeah. Motion To recommend ma'am. Second. Motion to recommend, um, passage for appropriation 2023 dash 28. That is the entire budget that we've just moved all the bottom lines on, um, to be heard in full counsel next week. I believe that is the correct motion. Um, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role? Oh, actually, sorry. Let me just restate it. Motion made by Councilor Eccles. Seconded by President Grigoraitis. Um, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Les? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes.

▶ 54:40 Leila Migliorelli: Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Bruski? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Un unanimous. Okay. That, um, that passes, that passes committee and will be heard at our full council meeting, um, on the 20th. Okay. So next up is appropriation. Appropriation 2023 dash 36 and appropriation from free cash account zero one dash 3 24 0 0 1 in the amount of 614,500 to various stabilization funds as set forth herein. Um, tonight we have, uh, C F o Patrick LaRusso again with us to speak and joined by Ken Kelly, um, director of finance for the schools. Um, because as you can see in your packet, just wanna reference that the ma the mayor, had emailed the council on Tuesday,

▶ 55:35 Leila Migliorelli: June 13th, requesting an amendment to this order. Attach that email as a memo also included in our packet from Mr. Kelly and Dr. Krockenberger dated June 12th stating, um, the following about one portion of this order, which is that the district is respectfully requesting that the original request for appropriation of two thousand two hundred thousand forty two dollars for the city special education stabilization fund 84 0 8, um, be amended and considered for appropriation to the district for FY 23. Um, and the memo contains a rationale for this request, but I think overall we will just discuss this order in its entirety in the school's portion, um, as part of it. Thank you. Um, I appreciate again, the opportunity to speak with you, you on,

▶ 56:23 particularly on this order before us. The, um, request is for free cash appropriation of $614,500 or 8.58% on the certified free cash. I think my memo dated June 5th, 2023. Hope folks have it. If not, I'd be sure to get you a copy of it later. Um, what I I've done in this, um, area here is I, I outlined the each fund one by one and the purpose and the, the, um, targeted balances that we try to achieve over time. Um, what I'd like to do, if I do the chip, it's, if it's appropriate just to hit on the ones that, as an overview, what we actually have and then spend more time with the ones that we're actually seeking for an appropriation. Cause not all of them are seeking funding. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Um, the first one that, uh,

▶ 57:16 we have is the foundation stabilization fund. I talked about that earlier. It's got just over 3.9 million. So way one understands the city's goal overall is to have that fund one day be 5% of the operating budget. Um, that's according to best practice of the, uh, mass Municipal Association. Um, this, we, what I'm asking previously was to fund it, the $50,000, which, um, was just recommended, um, from the budget. So I, I don't have any desire at this time to add more than that from pre-cash. So that, that one there is, is gonna be, um, not requested this evening for any additions. The second one is the contract stabilization fund number 84 0 4. Let's get a balance of over $723,000 right now.

▶ 58:08 And I'm requesting that the add the sum of $300,000 to the fund in order that we can continue to fund negotiated collective bargain agreements when settled and any non-union compensation obligations that may arise, um, to date going into by 24. The fire union and the library are out of contract as of June 30th, 2023. And I do have a target balance of 1.3 million overall over time for this fund. Um, so again, this one we're asking 300,000 be added to the fund. The next one is these Capital Stabilization fund number 84 0 5. Um, it's got a balance right now of approximately $477,000. And we're requesting this evening, the amount of 72,500 be added to the fund as it mirrors our targeted amount of $550,000.

▶ 59:08 I think everyone's aware this really helps us during the fiscal year when capital needs come up and we, um, have an opportunity to take advantage of some grants with a like, and we try to seek a funding source. This one is right there for that reason. Um, and again, the target of the fund would be $550,000. And that's why I'm asking if we could just, um, meet that by a contribution of 72,500 from free cash to achieve that. We also have the fourth one in suits and claims stabilization fund. Let's get a balance of over five. God bless you. Bless you. $502,000. Um, at this point we are not requesting any free cash appropriation as the target amount of $500,000 has been reached. The fifth one, which I think there'll be more conversation on, uh, there's, uh,

▶ 1:00:03 brought up by the chair. We've established a special education stabilization fund number 84 0 8, which is used to fund special education costs realized by the school department that exceeded its budgeted funds. And at the writing of my memorandum, we were requesting $242,000 be added to the fund. At this time, we currently have just over $508,000 in the fund, uh, new target allocation as a standing balance of $750,000. Given the increases in costs, we are realizing, and I, I referenced the school department memo dated 5 11 23, which is attached. Um, and here I believe there was a request to make an amendment. And, um, obviously I'll answer any questions or provide any information or guidance I can

▶ 1:00:58 in that area. And, uh, Ken Kelly's here, if you would like to speak to the, that particular amendment, um, through the board and the chair, he's here. Any questions? I, I just actually, I wonder if you wanna go through six, the 0.6 and seven first and then we'll circle back to questions on that. Thank you. Okay. And the six is the Opep Fund, 84 0 7. Um, just previously mentioned earlier on, um, other post-employment benefits. It has a balance of over $1,115,000. Again, we are not asking any free cash allocation. We have funded this $50,000 within the standard operating budget, so there's no re request for funding here. And the last one, the OSHA fund number 84 0 9, it's got a ca current balance of over $206,000.

▶ 1:01:51 We're not requesting, um, any free cash appropriation at this time. A targeted amount for the fund is $250,000, but at year to date, we have not had any request for the use of the funds. So we've decided that this year would, um, we just let us stand at 206,000 in the event that we need future funds, we can address that. But there's been no request for any funds to date, so I don't, I didn't feel there was necessity to, to add to that particular stabilization fund at this time. Thank you. Um, given that there's probably going to be a variety of questions, uh, Mr. Kelly, I dunno, if you want to, if you have a few words before we take questions, um, We can do that now. Excuse me. Thank you. Ken Kelly,

▶ 1:02:38 director of Finance for the schools. Thank you for having me. Um, so, uh, just a as, as a background, um, looking at the, um, close of school books for FY 23, started doing that end of May, beginning of June. Um, looking at, uh, unfortunately another deficit with the school, uh, school system. Um, not to the level it's been, but, um, the school year's not over yet, but we are projecting a deficit. Um, and a contributor to that is, um, special education, transportation, um, that continues to be an escalating cost. Um, and so in consultation with Ha York from c um, CFO, dela Russo, um, it was decided that, um, uh, to request access to the special education stabilization fund, which is what that that fund is, um, its purpose. And, um,

▶ 1:03:30 Shawn M. MacMaster: the request to move the 242,000 to the stabilization fund, we would then have to request, uh, access to that funding. And so the memo was just sort of to, um, expedite that, uh, um, that process. Okay. Um, counselors in Q for questions online and then in here. Point of information. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Madam Chair. Um, I believe you had referenced an email from, um, from the mayor. I didn't, I didn't see that email and I don't see it attached to the agenda packet. Um, should Be in there. So I'm wondering if, um, Mr. LaRusso or Mr. Kelly had that and if, um, Yep. Let me just, I don't have any email. I can read it aloud if you don't have it. Um, and we can add it to the record. I would appreciate that. Madam Chair. Okay.

▶ 1:04:23 Leila Migliorelli: Um, lemme just, So on Tuesday, um, June 13th, the mayor sent an email to the council, um, at 11:45 AM Um, and it says, I'm writing to request that before a vote is taken on appropriation 2023 dash 36, and in appropriation from free cash in the amount of 614,500 to stabilization funds, a counselor make a motion to amend the order to reflect the request from the school department as outlined in the attached memo, school finance director Ken Kelly will present on Thursday night to explain the reason for this requested change. This topic will also be discussed at tonight's meeting Tuesday's School Committee should any counselors wish to watch. Thank you, Madam Chair. At this time, I'd make a motion to attach that email to the, um, uh,

▶ 1:05:23 to the agenda packet. Second Motion to attach this email from Mayor Broder. Um, to the packet made by Counselor McMaster. Seconded by Counselor Eckles. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll Vice chair Jam. Malden? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Broski. Yes. President S Yes. And chair Elli? Yes. Nine. Yes. Unanimous. Okay. That passes. Thank you. Um, questions on this order. Councilor Jamine. Thank you Madam Chair. And, um, through the chair, uh, and for the public and with full transparency, we were made aware of this issue or shortfall. At the same time the public found out.

▶ 1:06:26 Maya Jamaleddine: Have we discovered or have, have I discovered or not been notified before our budget hearing and many of the orders that were submitted to be budgeted by pre from pre-cash? My personal decision and vote will be definitely different tonight. I would like to ask the mayor and c f o and Mr. Kelly the following questions, with the way that we are leading this community, how much are we supporting our constituents, our students, and most importantly, our special ed students who I already heard from many parents and guardians that they plan on moving their children out of the Merose district. I also would like to ask the mayor who I am fully aware that he was not able to be with us today. What are we leaving the new mayor and the new superintendent with?

▶ 1:07:28 Manjula Karamcheti: I'm not going to doubt anyone who succeed, those two positions, um, doubt their skills, but even the best mayor and the best superintendent with those issues that are, have been left with, I hope that we are not setting them into failure. Thank You. Thank you. Vice Chair Jamal, um, councilor Caram Shady. Hi everyone. Greetings from Kansas. I apologize that I can't be with you in person. Um, but I am traveling for, for work. Um, I think my questions, and Mr. Kelly, they're address to you, but Mr. LaRusso, I think you could shed some light on this as, as well. I think what I'm interested in is how we got to another shortfall based on the previous free cash, the previous, um, changes that we've tried to make.

▶ 1:08:35 If you could give us in more detail what the issues are this time, um, to start that would be really helpful. Sure. So, um, in our books aren't closed yet, so I I I wanna preface that we're still in FY 23, so June 30th closes our books, but, um, after what happened last year, and, and no one like surprises me included. That's why I started watching this, you know, end of May. And, and when I became concerned, and the, the city, the, um, the school system does have, um, our, our offset balances are healthy. Last year, that was not the case. We ran a deficit, whether our budgeted offsets, those are healthy, we have some surplus that we can contribute to the, uh, the deficit. So, um, while ending the year, uh, in the red is,

▶ 1:09:23 Manjula Karamcheti: is certainly not anything that is a goal of mine. Um, there has been some, uh, incremental progress towards healthy budgeting, but there are still overruns and the majority of them are in, in the special education realm. Um, I did have a little trouble hearing, uh, exactly what you said. Um, in the name of full transparency, the sound is challenging as counselor Jamal had pointed out. Um, but in terms of like the memos that I have been able to read before and the emails I find myself still grappling with and trying to understand, and Mr. Kelly, I, I, I do believe it's out of sort of the financial piece of which, you know, is your responsibility. But what I continue to wonder about and have growing,

▶ 1:10:19 Manjula Karamcheti: growing concern about is our historically marginalized students and the programs and services that are available to them, and who is paying attention to our special education students, their transportation needs, our homeless students needs. And these things shouldn't be a surprise. And while we are the city council, not the school committee or working in Melrose Public Schools, it concerns me that these things continue to be a surprise in that we should know how many homeless students we have. We should know what services and transportation our special education students need. And all of these things do impact the city budget. And so I, I truly am trying to understand how we find ourselves here. Again,

▶ 1:11:10 Manjula Karamcheti: it is a concern to me be for our kids and, and what we're doing to support them and provide for them. Um, it do is doesn't seem to be allowing for planned and purposeful services. And I would really like to get to the bottom of why this keeps happening. So again, it is a question for you and Mr. Dela Russo, but I I also recognize that it is beyond your purview, but all of this does impact our city budget, where we are forced to make really hard decisions about where to spend our money. And I'm just, I find myself very confused and very concerned. Sure, I can, and special education transportation is very expensive at this time, and we are trying to put measures in place to, um, uh, help reduce that cost. We have, um, we're working to sort of hire more drivers.

▶ 1:12:01 Manjula Karamcheti: Uh, hiring a Melrose District driver is a significant savings and having to outsource the route. Uh, we're working with vendors to try to consolidate and get efficiencies of scale where if we give them more route, they give us a better price. So we are doing all that. Um, and it's, it's a moving target. The special education transportation right now is, is, uh, is a very expensive business. Totally. And, and we've heard that before. I, I think I understand that the transportation is expensive, but we could have forecasted that by now. I thought, given what we've learned in the past, and then so does this mean there are more students who are needing more transportation? And I feel like we should be able to foresee that too,

▶ 1:12:45 in terms of special education and numbers. We should know who's in the pipeline and be able to plan for that kind of spending. Or, or do I have that wrong? Which please feel free to tell me if I do. I Don't think you're wrong. It sometimes is unpredictable though. I, we, we, the, um, the third quarter this year was, um, we ended up with I think six new route. Um, we ended up with three homeless students, um, that were obligated to transport. So, um, we can forecast that it will be expensive, but sometimes we, we know we can't anticipate when a student is gonna need to change route or, um, have a monitor placed on their route. Some students we're seeing significant behaviors that we have to send two vans

▶ 1:13:30 Manjula Karamcheti: to the same destination with, um, two students that potentially could ride together, but are, but cannot cause of, of, of challenges. And there need to be monitors on the bus and that gets ex or the van, and that gets expensive. So it is predictable, but it's also, there is an element that is unpredictable as well. And it, it makes us react to it. No, thank you. I appreciate that. It does still, for me, seem like this is bigger than transportation. And so I hope that collectively between City Council School Committee and Melrose Public Schools, we can really start working together to figure out how to not be responding to finances in more of this emergency way last minute. It, it doesn't seem like a good way to do business.

▶ 1:14:21 Sure. I would agree. And I think one final thought for me would be that that's, transportation is a category that's been historically under budgeted for Melrose. And the budget we put forth for FY 24 had an and a number that we feel like is a, a forecasted number of what it would cost for transportation for that year. I'm not sure I heard you correctly, so. Sure. I don't wanna, yeah. Sorry, counselor. Uh, Carm, like, I would just suggest everyone speak right into the microphone, as uncomfortable as that may feel, as close as you can get to your face. Um, that would be helpful. Thank you. Sure. One point to consider is that historically that transportation line in the budget has been under budgeted. There was one year where, um,

▶ 1:15:04 Manjula Karamcheti: cost escalated and the actual number was, was decreased the following year. And the number that we, um, projected for FY 24 is a number we feel like encompasses what it would cost to transport students for the year. And it was a significant increase for over the last year. Thank you. And that, so I think my general comment not directed to you is our pattern of under budgeting doesn't also seem to be serving as well when it comes to transportation or our schools in general. So I, I think that's a practice we need to change as well. Uh, easy for me to say in my seat in Kansas, but, uh, I appreciate you taking my questions and trying to answer them Anytime. Thank you. No Further Questions. Thank you. Um, next I have Councilor McMaster.

▶ 1:15:53 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening. Mr. Kelly. Have, as you've have worked over the last three months to close out the books on the school year, have you been having routine meetings with Mr. Dela Russo and or members of his staff? Yes. We're in close communication with the auditor's office. Um, and, um, collaboration with Hannah York from C who we had mentioned earlier. Um, yes. Consistent communication with with those offices. Have those been in person meetings and how often have they been? Um, generally the, um, cfo, Dela Russo has a Wednesday, um, uh, finance meeting, um, that has been interrupted with some of the budget, but typically it's a once a week meeting that I, I do my best to attend here in person. Um, and I'm in, uh,

▶ 1:16:42 Shawn M. MacMaster: pretty constant communication with, um, Carrie Golden at the, the auditor's office. Uh, CFO Del Ruso was fantastic about taking my phone calls and, um, I routinely consult with Hannah York In light of the structural deficit and the issues that have been brought to the council's attention in the past. Have there not been standing meetings with Mr. LaRusso or his department since many of these issues came to light and were brought to the, the council's attention last year? We have that Wednesday standing meeting. Yep. Wednesday mornings. But that's, uh, that, that's multi departments that doesn't just involve the school department. Is that fair to say? Correct, Yes. Correct. The memo that you submitted Mr. Kelly to,

▶ 1:17:31 Shawn M. MacMaster: uh, mayor Broder and the city council dated June 12th is just seven days after the memo that Mr. Della Russo submitted to us requesting the appropriation into the special education and stabilization fund. When was it known by the school department that this money was needed for special ed transportation costs or About June 8th? I, I spent the day with Hannah York on June 8th looking specifically at what it would look like to close out FY 23. So how did that, how did that come to light on June 8th? What, what information was made available to you on June 8th that wasn't available to the CFO on June 5th? Uh, we were looking at the, so the end of the year, in case you're not familiar, the end of the year, um,

▶ 1:18:24 the teachers in the school system get their final paychecks in June. That's six rounds of paychecks over the span of a week. And that's, um, that's a significant amount of money. So we were watching and looking at what that was gonna do to the end of the year, um, the bottom line and, uh, seeing that that was, um, you know, making sure we had the funds to cover that. And then looking at, uh, closing out the rest of, of the budget. But those are two different funding sources to fund salaries and transportation. Correct. So how did, how did they, just so I'm clear, how did they get, Just looking at all the different departments and categories, um, about, you know, uh, where they were gonna finish out based on what we had budgeted.

▶ 1:19:06 Shawn M. MacMaster: Okay. And Mr. Kelly, you had mentioned, I, I believe just two weeks ago, uh, or I, I had asked you just about two weeks ago when you and superintendent Cooken Berger came before the council, what the balance of the circuit breaker was. And at that point, two, two weeks ago, you said you believed it was 2.9 million for special education. Why would we not be tapping into that balance in the circuit breaker rather than trying to reappropriate money that the administration is asking us to put in the special education stabilization fund? There's, there's not 2.9 million in circuit breaker. We don't have that. Okay. You, you did say 2.9. Okay. Um, what is the balance of the circuit breaker right now? I

▶ 1:19:49 Shawn M. MacMaster: Believe it's 1.5, 1.5 million. So why would we not use 1.5 million out of the special education circuit breaker that you already have at the school department to fund $242,000? We will be using all of our circuit breaker money to help close out FY 23. But you'll be carrying some of that over into next fiscal year, correct? We probably will not be now to, to close out FY 23. So, I'm sorry, can you tell me the number one more time? 1.9 million? We about right now, our circuit breaker is about 1.5. 1.5. So are you saying that the, the 328,215, I know the request for reappropriation is 242,000 is above and beyond that our costs are going to exceed at this point, June 15th, 1.5 million plus 328,215,

▶ 1:20:46 Shawn M. MacMaster: those are gonna be our special education costs? No, we used our offsets to, to, as, um, budget offsets to bring into the budget at the end of the year. So that circuit breaker will be part of that. It, and this might be more of a question for Mr. Mr. LaRusso, um, or Ms. Phillips, uh, whoever thinks it's appropriate, is there any, we've set the tax rate for 2024. Is there anything, anything legally preventing us from carrying over what Mr. Um, Kelly is saying is needed here? This, what's being requested of $242,000 into the next fiscal year? Are we, do we have some legal obligation to close out the books at the school department or is that just a best practice? Is there anything saying that we can't pay this next fiscal year

▶ 1:21:44 from somewhere else? Any legal prohibition to doing that? Um, great point. Um, couple of points. First of all, the, um, free cash will disappear on June 30th if we don't utilize it. The 2 42, Not free cash, but I'll No, I meant right. And, and, and, um, as we move forward into, um, setting the tax rate, um, for the fiscal year, which will happen November, December, typically for 24, But that will be for the following Fiscal No, we have until November to make adjustments to the FFY 24 budget. Because any time prior to setting the tax rate, if you have to have an additional appropriation, if there's a funding source that you won't appropriate, you really have until, um, you set the tax rate to do that. Once you set the tax rate,

▶ 1:22:30 all bets are off. So we set the tax rate for 23. We can't change 20 threes budget. The rate's been set for 24 would be an, an opportunity in your scenario, um, to, to, uh, adjust the budget right up until the date you set the tax rate, Right. When Yeah. This should becomes, I'm sorry. Where would the funding would be to make that adjustment? In other words, is it additional state that came in, let's make, you know, at the end of the year, which can happen, it has happened. That should say, by the way, now we can appropriate another a hundred thousand dollars for this purpose. That's fine. So, but it's just, the key would be where will the funding sources be coming from to make that adjustment? But you can do it right until he set the tax rate.

▶ 1:23:10 Shawn M. MacMaster: Right. The the, the budget has to be balanced at the under state law Yep. Prior to the tax rate being set, right? Correct. Like, exactly. So is there, and I know you don't like the practice of, of taking money out of the foundation stabilization fund, but that's our large stabilization fund, that's our rainy day fund. Is there some reason after June 30th mm-hmm. The administration couldn't send down in order to the council to fund the $242,000 at that point out of the foundation stabilization fund? Well, the issue would become, again, through the chair, you can hear me. The issue becomes, if it's not a recurring revenue, all you've done is create the whole even deeper, then you win when you start it because, but

▶ 1:23:59 Shawn M. MacMaster: You're paying the bill. Yeah, But exactly. But there is no provision for the following year to, to close that gap. What I'm concerned about is that, um, we're still in 23 and this request is for 23. Um, obviously if the exposure is this high already, the year has just is ending. How do we accommodate this additional cost in 24? Agreed. I think That's, I would assume go right over 10 fiscal year. Unless someone tells me that's not gonna happen. That's the, that's I think the question, we're all struggling with this. Exactly. Correct. We we're already in a structural deficit. So the question is why pay it now out of, out of what the mayor just asked us seven days ago to fund? I, I, that's what I'm struggling with.

▶ 1:24:43 The, the difference is after the fact doesn't help me close the books, I need to close the books for the city for the end of this fiscal year, the end of June. So I need to have that balanced on the school side. I can't have it as a deficit. And that's would cause, um, a not good situation financially. We don't, that's something we, we don't do. We always cover our costs in I know we don't. Yeah. I'm just wondering if it's, and I would never start that trend because I, I think it's, um, it would be really fiscally irresponsible because we do have the resources to prevent that from happening. Sometimes given the timeframe in this wild municipal world, you don't have that luxury and, and you have to go with what you have here.

▶ 1:25:25 Shawn M. MacMaster: We have an opportunity to close that deficit. And respectfully, I, I would ask that that be done, but I take all your points to heart. What are we doing in 24? Because this isn't going away. This new obligation is not gonna go away. My opinion, And to, uh, consulate Jamal's point, I think the, the issue is, had we known about this earlier, we would've voted differently perhaps on some of the free cash allocations that came before us. Again, it's we're, yeah. These issues are being brought to us at a time where it, it again, and I I hate to sound like a broken record, but they, they, they're these impossible decisions right. To correct for the council to make. And I understand we were elected to make the tough decisions,

▶ 1:26:11 but the school department is not making it easy on us at all. And I candid, I, I do appreciate your points as well. And I guess I would, just Knowing that we found out about last year's issue, mid to end July, trying to bring this to everyone's attention and make people aware, and the maybe beginning of June is trying to be proactive and not, you know, I don't like surprises either. And I, I, I agree with you on that. And I think we, you know, we are making strides. It's, it's not gonna happen overnight, but we are trying to make strides to, um, improve our practices so that there is a day in the, you know, in the near future when we do not have to, um, talk about deficits at the school system.

▶ 1:26:50 Mark Garipay: Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, councilor Repe. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I had a lot of questions. I'm, I'm like, I'm, I'm struggling. Um, more around what counselor, um, shady was, uh, mentioning when you found out June 8th on this, you were in front of us, I believe it was mid-March, third week in March for a 2.7 million free cash allocation in order to, um, balance the budget at that time. You did say that I, I believe you said that everything was trending good, and you reserved the right to use the, um, sped stabilization account. Um, you mentioned we had six individuals or students that we had to provide transportation. What month did they start? They were they, April were they May, It was in that range of like, early spring,

▶ 1:27:57 Mark Garipay: And you did not know any of that at that time. Tho those are things that, you know, we, we are, um, we get noticed that, um, and these are, these are team decisions. It's not my decision. It's, it's, it's, uh, a team's decision that this would, uh, a student would benefit accessing their school system, accessing their, their academics through transportation. That's not a decision. That's not my purview. I'm not part of those teams. So I don't have, um, you know, I don't have any kind of influence on that decision. They let us know when that's been decided. And, and by no means am I saying we should not be providing that. I understand. I just, I struggle with, so if you knew in April, wouldn't you have carried that expense forward for the next three months?

▶ 1:28:39 Mark Garipay: And why all of a sudden, three weeks before the close of the, the year we're just finding out about a 342,000 debt dollar deficit? Um, Mr. LaRusso, when with your weekly meetings, did you have any indication prior to June 8th that we were running, running a deficit in the school department? No. Um, I actually, I, I sent a request, uh, to the school department on May 30th, Tuesday. Um, we had a meeting. I wanted to be assured that, um, the books were in order, that there would not be a deficit. And, um, and then we, we had the next meeting. So we had the first meeting on May 30th, then the second meeting with C on, uh, June 12th. And that's when it was, the number was actually ascertained as to what the deficit was from the school

▶ 1:29:33 department. But I had, um, first, my first reach out on it, first notification. I was just as surprised, probably more than probably, uh, others, that that was the case. Who knew within the, um, school department on June 8th, That was myself and Hannah working in the ninth, Notified Did the superintendent or the school committee? No, I called superintendent on Friday morning called, um, Mr. Del Russo Friday morning, and I talked to the, um, school committee chair as well. Okay. Just wanna make sure that we're communicating with the city, especially where it's coming out of our, um, it's all 1, 1, 1 part, but it's, it's gotta be approved by us. Now you mentioned on Tuesday when I was watching the meeting,

▶ 1:30:22 Mark Garipay: and I could totally be wrong, um, I think it was the mayor that asked the question, um, about grants. It seemed like the, did I hear a $900,000 deficit? Correct. And you're using grants and offsets in order to get that down to 342? That's the 3 42 is, is like, is the cost overrun for transportation? That's what is in the memo. Yeah. So we do have about between five and 600,000 in offset reserves that we have, which is that, that, that's helpful, but it won't get to the, the 900. Okay. Because we had that extra money. Say again, I'm sorry. We had That extra reserve offsets. The reason why we're not, so my question is 942,000, that's, if we didn't have that money, that's the real deficit, correct? That's correct.

▶ 1:31:12 Mark Garipay: So we gave you 2.7 million in March to balance the budget, and now we're $942,000 off. Yes. So next year, if that, all those offsets are not there, and I'm sorry, I'm got a little excited, but if those offsets are not there, our deficit is not 2.7 million. It's gonna be 3.6 million. Am I understanding that correctly? Yeah, that's correct. Okay. I I, I don't know where we're gonna come up with this money. It's all, it's all one time money. Um, I was all prepared to, to support both orders as they are. I will not support an amendment. I will support it to go to stabilization for next year, but I would recommend the other free cash order that is in front of us to pre-buy, which is just a general order from the mayor that says 500,000 to free

▶ 1:32:11 Mark Garipay: cash. I would recommend using that to offset this year's budget, because I, I cannot cont I'll be honest with you, I'm losing, I understand there's a lot going on, but here we are with, you had mentioned earlier, we're not as bad as we were last year. Last year we were How much of a deficit? 2.8 million I believe. Yes. Now we're on pace next year to be three six. So I don't understand how we're better than we were last year. We had, we we're lucky we had the money, or you could be in front of us for 942,000. So I, I, I don't understand your end of it, but it's just, Yeah. And I think that there have been lots of categories historically under budgeted that we're trying to say, this is what it costs to run. So I,

▶ 1:33:00 Mark Garipay: I understand exactly what you're saying, but I think part of that is, is historic under budgeting. That's what's leading to that, that deficit. And we are trying to correct that. Mr. Dela Russo, where do you have major concerns for next year's free cash orders that are gonna be coming in? Right now, we're, we're working on a school budget that is gonna be in a deficit quite a bit. And we're, it's a, it's a budget based on hope that we hope we have all the money, all the free cash comes in. Are you nervous at all that we, we got a thin margin here, Um, through the chair to the counselor? It's always a great question. Um, of course, I'm always nervous and I'm always concerned. Um, I, I look to structural changes as being the only way to,

▶ 1:33:50 for the remedy here. And that's beyond the scope of this, um, of my capacity, um, on school matters. But I really believe it no different than on the city side where we've had to face such challenges. We had to change destruction, how we did things. Whether that meant bring in an enterprise funding for the fire department, for the eight, for the ambulance, for it to save the salaries of eight people was the shifting of D P W to take responsibility for school buildings and maintenance. Those types of structural changes, the way you conduct your business, you have to really start, in my opinion, in my opinion, from the ground up and say something's not in order here. An action is necess is gonna be necessitated, um,

▶ 1:34:37 Mark Garipay: outside of new revenue to, to accomplish that. But I think either, either case with revenue, without revenue, I don't know how you don't do some internal restructuring or reconsideration of how, um, obligations are being handled. That's my opinion. If we don't have the offsets in grants and, uh, deficit for the schools next year is 3.6, 3.7 million, do you think we're gonna have enough one-time money without tapping stabilization funds in order to balance that? I mean, we respectfully, it's a loaded question because I have no concept of what I'm gonna receive from the Commonwealth for chapter 70 or other funds. I, I will say that, um, it should be on everyone's radar that, and I said this before,

▶ 1:35:30 that outside of a stable recurring revenue, we can't, um, produce more than we can produce, and therefore we have to live within our margins. We're required by a lot to have a balanced budget. Um, we've been very fortunate that things are managed in such a way that we haven't seen, um, uh, layoffs in that sense on the city and or the school. Um, that can't not be a guarantee for the future, obviously, as nothing is. However, I, I mean, those types of requirements or considerations are not off the table when you're dealing with this kind of, um, volume. Again, addressing issues with one time revenue, as been talked about in the past, is not outta the question, they're uncommon, but you cannot rely on one time for long term, no different than your own house.

▶ 1:36:24 You have to say, okay, this, for whatever reason, you know, in my own home, I'm thousand dollars a month short every year. So what, what can I do as a ram? What can I do to change that? What am I doing that I can alter that? And you have to take those kind of positions. It's healthy, it's a healthy thing to do. There's nothing wrong with that. And I continue to do it on my side of the city. We try to do things that we reduce cost of outside consultants, including my own office, try to take on certain things that we can produce that may be ultimate to pay something outside to do. But I think all, all the above are gonna be necessary. The numbers are significant, and I don't see at this point in time how those numbers are gonna be, um,

▶ 1:37:04 Mark Garipay: funded in a permanent way. And that is, should be a concern based on what I note today. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I'm prepared to, um, vote for the next appropriation for half a million, but for, to use it within, within your budget, um, and to if, if, and to fund the stabilization. Um, I think, um, that's showing, showing the commitment. Um, so I really don't, I just want to, I do get excited. I apologize Mr. Kelly, I appreciate being here. I appreciate you. You are here. The only one answering the questions and I really do appreciate it. But, um, the numbers are, are mind boggling, mind boggling to me. It's not 300,000, it's really 900,000. Um, and I just happened to catch that on the school committee meeting. So, um,

▶ 1:37:55 Jen Grigoraitis: thank you President Grigoraitis. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you both for being here. Oh, the mics are on, huh? I just, I wanna echo many of the concerns raised by my colleagues, um, but also just wanna ask some pragmatic questions because it feels like we are yet again, out of money and quite frankly, out of time. I mean, this body just motioned before you got up here to move the bottom line on a budget that is largely based next year on a promise for money, that the number has now just grown by $900,000 in order to close a deficit in the schools. Part of which we were told was gonna be putting money in sped stabilization, and now we're not gonna, now there's a request to not do that. So it feels like mm-hmm.

▶ 1:38:41 Jen Grigoraitis: There was the budget that came down to us that we've been working toward has now at the 11th hour shifted, which is very unsettling as we head toward, um, next week. And legally we have to pass a budget by Friday. Um, and the fiscal year closes on the 30th. So it, you know, it feels like we yet again have our backs to a wall in terms of timing. And, and so that's my first question is, Mr. Kelly, you mentioned that, um, you know, you're, we're not done with the fiscal year. I know school ended today, but technically correct, the year goes till June 30th. Um, when do you administratively close the books on this current fiscal year, and when is the latest that we can pay, um, cost incurred in this fiscal year? Like I know for example, at the state,

▶ 1:39:24 Jen Grigoraitis: it's August 30th is when we administratively close the books. Mm-hmm. What is it for the school department and for the city? Our goal is to try to close the books by July 15, July 15, so we can get all that information over to the, the city hall side for their audit. Um, so that, that's our goal. So that's a goal. But is there a hard, I mean, it's great to meet goals, but is there a hard deadline at which we lose, we lose the ability to do something? Just, you know, recognizing what Councilor Gupa just said, there was a request before us to put money in stabilization. Mm-hmm. There can be a request before us to take money out of stabilization. I know that comes with the risk of needing the votes to get that money out,

▶ 1:39:58 Jen Grigoraitis: but it also feels like we're, we're doing it this way because of June 30th, and I just wanna understand how important June 30th actually is or July 15th. Sure. So for, um, you know, our, we we're not, our, our bills are done June 30th. We're not allowed to use anything FY 24 to pay F FY 23 bills. So our, that, that June 30th is pretty, is a pretty hard date for us. But you said you, your goal is to close the books by July. I recognize you can't pay out of a different funding source. Sure. But if money is taken out of stabilization, it can be used to pay bills that are still outstanding from previous fiscal year. Mm-hmm. Or can it not mm-hmm. Stabilization. Yes. Okay. Um, and then just going back to the costs that were incurred,

▶ 1:40:42 Jen Grigoraitis: and I, I think this is what's a little baffling for me. I, I mean, being in the business of any, any human business is incredibly expensive and volatile. I think we all understand that that is particularly true in schools where you were dealing with complex children. Um, but we get a request or a decision is made to put a student on a bus or we get a call that we have a student who, you know, we need to provide transportation to cuz they're homeless. How does that translate to your department knowing that there's gonna be a bill that we have to pay for that? Um, and then how are we budgeting for that if we've known that these students are gonna be ours starting in April? I guess I'm a little,

▶ 1:41:21 I'm a little confused about how it is that we're sort of shocked that we owe this much money in June when we've obviously been incurring that service. Mm-hmm. Sure. So we, our, our transportation line has been over consistently probably for most of this year on our, our year to date budget. So, um, we do monitor that. And again, that's, that's past practice to under budget, transportation, the transportation line. And this year it, it even went further over. Um, and when we do get a new rider, we forecast out what it's gonna cost that route for the remainder of the year. Um, so, you know, we do know that, um, based on, and, you know, comparatively, uh, uh, an in-district route is much less expensive than,

▶ 1:41:58 Jen Grigoraitis: than having to contract that out. So were we forecasting these costs and we were just completely under in our forecasting for what it was gonna, the total bill was gonna be? Yeah, A little bit of both. Um, you know, we're, uh, always hopeful that, you know, that to get that many riders in that short of time is, is, is unprecedented. Um, and, um, you know, always hopeful that, uh, ridership will stay consistent. And Okay. And then going back to the fact that we haven't yet closed out the fiscal year, are, how confident are we that it's, it's just $942,000 that we're over? Uh, I'll know more probably that last week of June. Uh, once we really start to, uh, we still have purchase orders we need to go through and see if we need to close

▶ 1:42:38 Jack Eccles: them out, if there's any reserves there, anything that we can scrub. So that's the process we're going through right now. Okay. And, and what happens, this is a question I guess for both of you. If we need more, Um, I would, if it's special education related, I would have to come and request access to the stabilization fund. Okay. All right. Thank you both. Thank you Madam Chair. Councilor Eccles. Thank You, Madam Chair. Uh, thank you both for being here. I think councilor President Greg just asked this, but I, I'm still really just curious, um, on a kind of more clear answer, just going back to like getting these new riders in the third quarter and like how we're reconciling this. Cause I think it's really important that, you know,

▶ 1:43:19 Jack Eccles: we're staying on top of this with, with how many people are, you know, interested in this and how important it is. Um, so we had a bunch of students in the third quarter that was two and a half months ago. I, I just, how does it take that long to work its way through knowing that, you know, you're gonna have six pay periods paid out in June? Yeah. People start taking roots in April. Sure. I, I, I guess the, the answer would be, um, we always look for efficiencies. Like, we're always looking for, you know, are there ways to combine route, things like that. Our district, our, um, transportation coordinator, always, always looking for ways to, um, minimize reduce costs. Um, so I think that, um,

▶ 1:44:02 combination of, you know, not anticipating that many would, would arrive and constantly looking for ways to, um, uh, reduce costs there. And, you know, hoping there would be something that would, um, uh, drop that down a little bit. Got it. Um, Mr. LaRusso, do you know by any chance what our anticipated free cash would be next year? I know it's hard to predict, but like, more than this year, less than this year. Always a fine question. I, I enjoy that. Um, just as a point of reference, um, the five year average for us now is 5 million 2 27, 1 75. That's over the last five years. Um, again, uh, I I would expect that, I'd like, I'd like to see that, however, we have lost si a lot of money, sick of money with the, um,

▶ 1:45:00 cannabis. Um, and that has an impact. We lost revenue this year on cannabis. Yes. Yes. And that's was is typically unbudgeted revenue in that sense. Mm-hmm. But it also would allows you to have free cash at the end of the year because you hadn't budgeted that revenue coming in, which is what you, you typically, um, you makes up the majority of if free cash to begin with. So did we receive less than we had anticipated in the cannabis stabilization from, Um, no. My understanding is that the large change on the recognition of that revenue and what's owed and what cities and towns are allowed to receive, and I believe that we had $955,000 last fiscal year, which is in, um, this year we're, I mean,

▶ 1:45:55 probably, uh, 20% of that perhaps, um, is, so that's, that's a real large difference. And at this point, I, uh, don't anticipate any revenue coming in in the budget for 24 for that at all. So it's, we already discounted that from happening completely. And the 24 budget that was voted by the council, it will be voted by the council. Got it. And that's different than what's contributing to that stabilization account we're drawing on. Right. That's exactly, that's, those are one of those, um, factors that can assist you in having amount of for cash. We've had the last, uh, you know, last year in particular, um, the revenue source dries up or the conditions get poor on the economy, in particular for communities like our size. And, uh, people hesitate to,

▶ 1:46:52 you know, do the, um, building, you know, projects that they anticipated and that cuts down on permits and right down the line. And then, um, people hold onto their cars longer, cuts down on excise tax and just has a mushroom effect. But it just, um, something that we're aware and we, that's why we always stress that, um, actuals from the prior year and not to be considered actuals for the current year because of all the changes that happened. Yep. And so do we anticipate less revenue going into that stabilization account, the, the marijuana public safety education stabilization account going forward? That's a great question. No, that's different. And I'm glad you brought that up because there's two separate funds funded,

▶ 1:47:39 one's funded, um, by tip should have been a payment to the city basically every, every quarter. The one I just talked about earlier, the 955,000, the other fund that we talk about is based on a tax, an excise tax, 3%. Um, and then we split that. So let's make, I'll just say the number's, $300,000 that goes from excise tax from that, that's in the local receipts. And three hundreds would go into the special fund that was set up by the community, um, that we, the marijuana access fund that we set up specially for, uh, police school department, that kind of thing. So that's a separate one, separate funding source. That's the, that's the occurring revenue. And as of today, unless someone, um, can lead me elsewhere,

▶ 1:48:24 my understanding is they have, they're not going to, um, alter that. So that's gonna stay in place, which is fine. Which I hopefully that, that maintains that. So as we draw on that, we can count on that as recurring. Yeah. Correct. Correct. Consistent. And that's the difference. That's why it was introduced this year, because that's not gonna be changing from what we've been told. Got it. Um, how do we come up with the goals for the stabilization accounts for what's supposed to be in there? Great question. There's several ways. Um, typically, um, we have divisional local services put out, um, uh, recommendations. They look to have, uh, certain amounts, community separate cash. At least three to 5% of your budget should be your target.

▶ 1:49:10 If we're here a hundred million now, we wanna be three to 5 million in that range of free cash to be healthy. Same as stabilization. They look to have, uh, the, once you had a stabilization fund of 5% of your budget, again, 5 million, we're not there yet. We got about 3.9 and, um, right now. But we try to, to borrow best practice. And, um, and, and the other funds that we use are funds that are necessary contract stabilization fund, because of the necessity to pay retroactive payments for your collective bargaining units. Um, communities that don't have that fund or have access to that kind of fund, um, find themselves oftentimes in distress when a settlement occurs for a contract because they haven't set aside the money to pay the prior years,

▶ 1:49:57 or it might be two or three year contract that they're obligated to pay retro. That's really huge. And that's why we take, um, I look at literally, I look at cost, I look at cost of contract, and I, I make a determination as to what I think is reasonable for that fund based on activity, what I've seen in the past and projecting the future. Um, so it's a judgment call that I make. And, um, so far I, I feel I've been pretty good with that. History has shown. Got it. Thanks. Um, question for Mr. Kelly. How do we, um, accumulate offset reserves? That was the first I had heard of those. And how do we accumulate them and can we count on having some next year? Sure. So different sources. We, um, some of them are fee based,

▶ 1:50:45 like our athletics department, our music lessons, um, our facility rentals, our tuition programming are fee based. We get circuit breaker reimbursement from the state for, um, uh, it's a a year lag. There's a year, uh, delay in reimbursement for, um, special education tuitions. Um, so those are the, those are the majority of, uh, uh, funds that we bring in for our offsets. And so what you were talking about earlier, using that to close the deficit, do you anticipate having that kind of money available at this time next year as well? So it's, yes. They're, they're budgeted, uh, each fiscal year. Um, and so, and that's another thing that we did this year that hadn't been done in the past. A year ago, the ECC ran a deficit around,

▶ 1:51:30 I think it was around 180,000, i I think it was around that ballpark. Um, this year the ECC now is coming in to be able to make that, um, uh, they're budgeted offset goal. Uh, so that's, that's progress. Um, but yes, we anticipate based on, um, we forecasted those revenues based on what it costs to run the program, not based on comparables from the area because it, it's not, it's not daycare, it's, it's actual education going on even at the pre-K level. Um, so we, um, design the fees based on a budget so that the program pays for itself, the, the tuition program pays for itself, and then the, um, it also provides that, uh, targeted offset and our enrollment projects to, to fulfill that next year.

▶ 1:52:14 Jack Eccles: Got it. Um, I guess the question is, for whichever one of you feels like answering, um, if we pass this order without amending it tonight and passed it through the council on Monday, what would be your next step? I would have to request access to the special ed stabilization fund, which, if that's, that's the will of the committee. That's, yeah. Yeah. That was the, the, the, the, um, intent of the memo was to, you know, say that this is something we were going to need and that just as A consideration. Okay. Um, yeah, I appreciate that. I think that, you know, it's been said a lot, but between, you know, making transfers increasing anticipated local receipts, not meeting stabilization goals, dipping into offset reserves,

▶ 1:53:02 Jack Eccles: drawing on marijuana stabilization pre-purchasing for next year as Councilor Gar. I said, we're borrowing from a lot of places to try and keep the lights on. And I think, I guess right now we're just hoping that everything is gonna be there next year. Thanks. Thank you. Councilor Broski. Um, Mr. LaRusso? Yes. Oh, thanks for being here tonight. Good. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you. And, uh, Mr. Kelly, thanks for being here tonight. Thank you for having me. The lone representative of the school department. Um, you know, uh, I appreciate you being here because for the most part, you know, the kids can't speak for themselves. And I imagine that for many parents, you know, today was the last day of school,

▶ 1:53:48 there were a lot of celebrations and balloon notches and all that nonsense. And, uh, few water balloons set out my window. Yeah. Um, many of the parents probably don't even realize that this is happening. Um, but, you know, we're all here tonight and we're looking at the school department budget again. But, uh, you know, I feel as though, you know, for the most part, these conversations go a lot deeper than the budget. Um, you know, I look back at the community a couple of years ago and everyone was rallying around the school department in the override. And, um, it was a, it was great to be part of that and to be part of that momentum. And, but as, um, you know, over the past couple of years, I've,

▶ 1:54:31 I I I wanna say that we've, I lot better words. I, I think we've sort of squandered that momentum in a sense and, um, sort of lost trust, uh, within, uh, the community at how we, uh, function as a school department sort of. And I think, uh, when we look at it, you know, when you're really looking at the school department, the focus is the number one focus is student achievement. And I can look at, you can look at that in many different ways and, um, imagine it in many different ways, but the student achievement is, you know, driven by the budget. And, um, you know, I think a lot of the conversations have been, you know, outside of that realm. And I think that's really where the focus has to,

▶ 1:55:24 uh, begin again and really focus on, you know, what we're doing with the kids in terms of student achievement in the schools. And, you know, that's driven by the budget. And, um, you know, right now, I think, you know, people would be surprised if, if, uh, and I know this is a public meeting, but I, I'm from the understanding that a lot of people would be shocked to hear that we are up here again talking about the school department budget. So I think that's why, uh, my colleagues are having trouble with this tonight. And I'm not surprised by it because I think I, majority of the community would be having trouble with this. Um, so, you know, I am, you know, I am one who really does understand that, you know,

▶ 1:56:10 you are running at a deficit all the time and, you know, and there has to be a mechanism in place for that problem to be solved. And, you know, that's con that's a bigger conversation for the community. And, you know, I hope at some point that we do see, um, you know, that momentum again. And, um, you know, I, I don't have a question, but I do appreciate you being here. Sure. And, um, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Councilor Stewart? Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair. You know, this whole process that you've been overseeing the last like four or five weeks, that involves all of the budgeting process, not just the school and, and so forth, but everything, we have this impending storm that's coming.

▶ 1:57:02 Robb Stewart: It's clear and it's business as usual right now. And that to me is the most concerning part of this whole budget process, is I think Mr. Lar Russo was clear in saying, you know, we would need to do some restructuring to be able to deal with this. And if you look at each one of the, you know, you go through this, all the, the line items, right? Each one of the departments, nothing has changed. It's as if there's this false sense of security. And I think what's exacerbating some of the issues tonight is some of the promulgation that does not happen when there's certain information, like an increase in transportation budget, you know, which should be easier to manage than what we're seeing. It's not hard to do actual the plan and put it together.

▶ 1:58:03 Robb Stewart: When I hear that it's $342,000 off, that's a big number. That's a really big number. So it's very concerning, Madam Chair. And it, it concerns me on the overall budget, not necessarily what we're talking about here, and whether we're making the right decision to support this kind of a budget when nothing is being done. So that's, that's my concern. I wanted to express to you as the chair of this committee. Um, the question that I have, uh, for you, for you is, um, if, if the amend, so this amendment that we have attached to the order, is this just a way to circumvent you having to go back to us and, and speed the process? Ultimately? I guess I wouldn't wanna circumvent the, to answer your question respectfully,

▶ 1:58:53 I wouldn't wanna circumvent the process. It was more just like, uh, councilor Greg, uh, Gregor Rice was saying is that it's a timing issue now where if, um, the fund funds are, it's decided the will the committee to appropriate to the, the, um, stabilization fund, I would have to come back and ask for, um, access to that to help support the budget. And Well, what I mean, circumvent is, in other words, you don't have to do the two steps, you just have to do the one step. Sure. And it happens quicker. That's, that's what you About. Yes. And I don't mind doing the two steps. I just, I guess want everyone to know that that, right. We would need to do both steps. But it's basically the same outcomes the money has.

▶ 1:59:32 Robb Stewart: The money is if they're gonna get it attached or it's gonna go into stabilization, then you're gonna pull it right back. That's my Understanding is that that's, that's okay. I just wanna make sure I understand. Yes. That's my understanding. So I mean, our hands are kind of tied, uh, uh, right at this point. My hands are tied as well. And, and I do want to echo, uh, counsel Rems key's comment regarding the fact that you're here as the sole representative. And I thank you for that. Sure. Appreciate that. I would've expected more, but you're here, so thank you for that. Um, so no more questions, Madam Chair. Um, for the second time, since we're now all spoken, once, I have Councilor Repe, um, councilor Karin Shady, and Councilor Eccles and Q again,

▶ 2:00:20 Mark Garipay: so Councilor Repe. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so why can't we use the free cash appropriation, the next order, 500,000 to balance, balance this year's budget? I know it was for, for prepaying, um, a number of items, but we have a new superintendent starting in two weeks. Maybe he has new ideas, maybe he can find some efficiencies, right? And then we can purchase those. If we find some savings, we have this free cash we're giving you, or I shouldn't say if it passes, you're gonna have $500,000. We have to change some things. I know it's prepaying, but on the city side we use 2.7 million. That is not going to, to other departments. So I guess, why can't we hold off on that prepay? And we're already running,

▶ 2:01:21 Mark Garipay: we already know it's been public, a 2.7 million deficit next year. Why can't we hold off on those purchases and wait for a new superintendent and see if, have him take a look at things? Maybe he can find some efficiencies in from, in some savings. Mm-hmm. I understand The schools need it. We, to everyone's point, we have a, we have a major issue and we are almost to the cliff, which I believe will be next year. And there has to be, there's only two ways to do it. Right. And the pain is, is not, is not gonna be good if we don't have an influx of revenue. I think we all all understand that. Sure. But in the meantime, we all have to make changes where we can, and I'm just struggling with this next order that would give you enough

▶ 2:02:10 to balance your budget and then we reset. Mm-hmm. And take a look next year. And thank you for that. Yeah. I, I, you, you're right. The numbers Yes, that would do that. That the, the order before you, I believe was the, was the school committee driven. We were, we were directed to propose that, um, and use that for FY 24. So I, I can't modify that. That's not something that I can change. It would have to be a school committee vote to do that. So, you know, I I, I don't, you know, dispute what you're saying numbers wise, you know, and I think that that would have to be a decision the school committee makes. I can't make that decision to change the order In, in, in for the public where if they, if they goes through,

▶ 2:02:50 Mark Garipay: you're gonna get $500,000 in free cash, which you could change, they could vote to change what they want to use it for. Correct. I would've to consult with them on that. I, I, I'm not sure I would, I would think, because to us it's a general, I believe the order says free cash in the amount of 500,000 to the school department, other funding sources. So we're giving them appropriation. It's no different than 2.7 million when it came in front of us. And we asked the question back in March, I think I did. Or maybe Councilman McMasters. Why are we giving you all this money now? Right. If, if, if you come in with a surplus, that's just extra money that you can spend anywhere. I, why is that different than where we are today?

▶ 2:03:37 Mark Garipay: I think cuz it was requested specifically to use for FY 24. I think that's the, But the stable, the, the 2.7 million free cash was to balance the budget. Right. For FY in stabilization, in stable, uh, for a spec. Three, three categories. But if we had given it to you, you could have used it elsewhere. I would, yeah. I guess I would always intend to use what they're, what they were appropriated for and I wouldn't want to go against that. I understand what you're saying, but I think that I just can't change what was requested and, and what it was intended for. That would Be it. I think what's requested to us is to provide a half a million dollars in, in, in free cash to the, to the school general fund.

▶ 2:04:21 Mark Garipay: I see it as that's what the order that came down from the mayor. Mm-hmm. I would see that the school department can adjust, would be able to go back and, and, and re-vote how they wanted to allocate that money. Yes. And I'll, I'll let, um, Through the chair, may I, may I be Heard on that? Yes. Just on the legal aspect of this. This is a point of order. Yeah. Just right. Make sure you're talking right into the microphone. Apologize. Thank you. Um, every appropriation and transfer order that becomes before council by city ordinance, I think I identified in the memo before tonight's meeting. I think it's section four, seven and 48, has to also have a memo attached to it that identifies the purpose for which the

▶ 2:04:57 money's gonna be spent. Um, if it's the school department, it also requires a school committee vote, identifying the purpose and the dollar amount prior to the mayor submitting a request to city council that was done. The request of the mayor is what the council is being asked to vote on or act on tonight. Um, and the request of the mayor for appropriation 22, 20 23, 37, for example, um, it says 500,000 of the school department, other funding sources. It includes the memos that are attached plus the previous school committee, um, vote. And this is, this is the same for other transfer orders, other appropriation orders that have come before council, before the purpose. Um, you are also voting on the purpose that's being rec recommended or requested by

▶ 2:05:41 the mayor, not just the actual dollar amount. And that can't be changed at the will of council. Council is council's authority is to vote on what the recommendation is of the mayor that is before you. And my understanding for this order, and Ken correct, correct me if I'm wrong, is that it's 500,000 to 500,000 from free cash for use for fiscal 24. Yes, that's correct. So that is what council's being requested to vote on. It's not just simply $500,000 to the school department. So I just wanted to provide a point of clarity on that. Okay. I I questioned that, but that's fine. Thank you. Okay. Um, counselor Carm Shady. Hi again. Um, chair Elli, I think just wanted to note a couple of things. I think we're all feeling the weight of the city budget,

▶ 2:06:44 Manjula Karamcheti: the school budget, the shortfalls, and being really worried about next year. I just also wanted to name that regarding McKinney Bento. We have a responsibility and the right thing to, and it's the right thing to do to make sure our homeless students have transportation and get to the schools where they feel like, uh, families feel like those students can learn best in a community that's important to them, as well as with FAPE in special education, making sure our students have the appropriate programs and services to support their academic success. Um, and in these conversations that we're having, two things, I want to make sure that we recognize that the, some of the funds that are being put forth for us are to make sure that

▶ 2:07:40 Manjula Karamcheti: students, that we pay for those services that students need. And I think that's really important. And I also wanna make sure that we are not blaming our homeless students or our special education students for the situation that we're in. Um, but that the issues that I've heard are around communication, around proactive planning and having the right programs and services to support kids. Um, so I just felt like it was important to name that, um, because again, it is our responsibility to make sure that all of our students have the supports they need to be successful. So thank you for allowing me that point of privilege and to say that. Thank you Councilor Eccles. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just two, two questions.

▶ 2:08:35 Jack Eccles: One thing that kind of makes me think that later could be better, and that's what I just want some clarity here. Mr. Kelly, you mentioned, you know, you, you have till later in June to kind of fully know where we're at. Is it possible we end up talking about a smaller number from special ed stabilization anyway, even if we do this tonight? Yes, it's possible. It is possible. We could get a little bigger too. Like I said, I, we won't know the number until, uh, the, the very end of June, but yes, yes, you're correct. Got it. So we could do it tonight and it wouldn't even be, could, could not be the end of this particular discussion on closing at fiscal 23. That's correct. And there's no operational difference

▶ 2:09:24 Jack Eccles: to you between coming back with the final number and, you know, getting it right now? Uh, no. Uh, thank you. And then Just if I clarify, I guess my point in, in sending the memo was to let people know in advance of closing so that people were not surprised on June 30th when this would come. So again, like I said earlier, um, you know, trying to make people aware now as opposed to the end of July, which was happening last year, trying to make people, you know, be transparent and let people know this is the current state of affairs For sure. Yeah. I think that's definitely a preferable outcome. Um, Mr. Del, I think one thing we talked about is that we would've treated free cash differently had we known this. Um, I,

▶ 2:10:13 Jack Eccles: I still, you know, see that we're in a position where we could, um, I, if we were in full counsel to r not pass free cash orders, those just close to next year's free cash. Right. They become unavailable until we certify free cash next year. Yeah. If, If you don't appropriate, it's considered unappropriate if free cash to close out and go towards next year's free cash. Got it. But that's it. And just as a comment, if we did that, we likely wouldn't without a special meeting be able to appropriate that free cash this year. Yeah. Yeah. That's the other issue. Literally by June 30th, it's gone. Mm-hmm. And, um, they probably won't have free cash certified next fiscal year till January, February. They, they seem to be moving the compass on us further out, um,

▶ 2:11:04 Maya Jamaleddine: and for a lot of reasons on, on their part. But I mean, that's when I would expect the next certification to happen. But if, but, but that would then become available to deal with whatever issues we Correct at that time fiscal year end up next year. Yeah. Thank you. Um, consular, Jamal, Dean, vice Chair, Jamal today. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'm, I'm sharing, um, the same sentiment as many of my colleagues, uh, today shared. I, I feel that I am in a very bad situation where I have no options or no choices. Uh, and whatever the decision is gonna be made today, I don't think it's gonna be the best decision that we are gonna make. And I don't trust anything, uh, anymore. I honestly, I did lose a lot of trust, um, over and over.

▶ 2:12:07 But with that said, uh, Mr. LaRusso, if today order was not passed, what would you, how would you resolve this shortfall? Um, the chair would probably, my, um, initial feeling would be that this did not pass as amended. That I would seek my friend, um, next to me, Mr. Kelly, to see what we could do on his part to initiate closing purchase orders that have not been belief fulfilled yet. And if in fact there are any options of, um, additional, um, special ed, uh, money that may be available, um, the circuit breaker or not. And if there's anything else that could be looked upon as being realistic to close the year in a positive way for me, um, it's a little bit more black and white on the fact that I need to close without

▶ 2:13:09 a deficit. And if it means that expenditures that the school is anticipating making, that they just don't make them and we close the books in a balanced way, that's more important to me than, um, probably any other consideration. Right now. I need to have assurance that we're not gonna have a deficit in the school department. And I would defer to Mr. Um, my friend, uh, Mr. Kelly to see if he had any other comments. But I know he's looked at pos, we've talked about it. I don't know if there's an opportunity there in, in a particular situation if this does not pass. So we, we've looked at our purchase orders, um, and we are scrubbing some of them. It would not cover the entire deficit. Um, a lot of our remaining purchase orders are for tuitions, which are, um,

▶ 2:13:56 Leila Migliorelli: that's nothing we have a, a choice in, in, um, spending. Those are costs that have to, that must be paid. I'm sorry, I didn't, uh, hear clearly your comment, Mr. Kelly. So we would be able to close some purchase orders, but it would not cover the entire deficit. Okay. Um, Madam Chair, do you mind, um, and I don't wanna ask Mr. Kelly to repeat it, but just to be clear, um, do you mind to just repeat what Mr. Kelly? Sure. I think Mr. Kelly was saying that they have looked at open purchase orders and, um, canceled those that they can, but it still, those that they canceled is not gonna make up the difference. Um, did I get that right? Yes, correct. In, in the deficit. So they have looked internally to see what they could do to stop the,

▶ 2:14:55 Mark Garipay: the shortfall or to bridge the gap. And it, it's not close enough. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm. I have questions too, but just wanted to check and see if anyone else has questions. Councilor Gupa, do you have one more question? Just one more? Yep. So to, I think it was, we've gone around Counsel Eccles point. If, um, if we put this, if we vote, if we don't vote on the amendment and put this in stabilization, you go back, you close out po uh, purchase orders and there is a savings, the benefit of that is we're gonna have, still have extra money in stabilization available next year that we can access. Correct. You're talking about the special education stabilization, correct? Yes. Correct. If we were to vote that in tonight and you came back and there wasn't,

▶ 2:15:53 Mark Garipay: um, came back at the end of the year and we didn't need 242,000 today, we needed a hundred, we're still increasing the stabilization fund close closer to Mr. Lar Russo's recommendation of 750,000, which we know will need that extra money next year. So, um, Yes. Thinking about That correctly, You are, we just, we, there aren't, I can tell you there are not enough purchase order, um, you know, uh, open purchase orders that we can clean up that would, that would cover that deficit. Like I said, our largest purchase orders right now are, are tuition based. And those are, those are definitely getting spent. I'm not saying it's gonna cover all of it. Anything we can do to give us extra next year.

▶ 2:16:36 Mark Garipay: And that fund is what is what I'm looking, looking for. We're all, we're all struggling as, as Council Stewart said, um, need to make some, some adjustments and, and this may be one, even if it's two weeks, three weeks. Uh, counselor Ec Counselor Eccles. Yeah. Just one, just one clarifying question cuz I've heard cleaning up, I've heard canceled. What is, what is this actual process doing that you're describing right now? Sure. And the school system, when we're gonna make a purchase, we create a purchase order and sometimes, like, it can encompass a couple different things. And if say one of those items you were gonna buy came in at a lower price, that money is still encumbered. So what would be,

▶ 2:17:18 like if something you anticipated was gonna cost $10 and it came in at seven, that $3 can be freed up and put back into the budget. So we're in the process of doing that right now with our purchase orders. We've done it actually quite a bit. Um, a lot of our remaining purchase orders are, are tuition based. Got it. So you don't, you don't anticipate much of a delta there, a significant one, but you're not, that process doesn't include canceling or cutting anything, it's just reconciling. Correct. Got it. Thanks. Thank you. I guess I'm, I'm just gonna pick my question up from right there. When you were talking about there's the purchase orders and then you also made reference to, um, that by the end of the year after,

▶ 2:18:03 Leila Migliorelli: are there other things at play too that could either make this deficit larger or smaller? Like it's not just purchase orders, right? Correct. Okay. Yep. Okay. Correct. Um, I, so first off, uh, Mr. Dela Russo, uh, I just wanna clarify, unappropriated free cash goes right into free cash for next year, or does it hit the bottom line of the general funding could get eaten up along the way, if that makes any Sense? It's always a great question. I always, um, say it's really not a dollar for dollar resolution mm-hmm. Every year as a brand new lookout by the doi, every day you have a whole different set of, um, open liabilities encumbrances that you didn't have the year before that. But what happens literally is that it goes towards free cash.

▶ 2:18:50 Leila Migliorelli: They say phase 500,000 that would be turned over in a positive way in a general fund. So that would apply, that would enable us to have a bit that money, assuming dollar for dollar available next free cash certification. So it'll carry over into the next year, whatever you don't appropriate. So if you Were tocause, we haven't spent it. Okay. What if you were to, as it seems like may happen, like what if you were to go over budget next year or exceed in certain areas, does that leftover free cash come in at that point and then makes it smaller? Or is it literally hitting a different account? Just waiting there and then when you do the other free cash at the end of the year of the, um, certification process?

▶ 2:19:32 If, if I understand it right, in the event, it, it, it, um, you end up with a deficit on mm-hmm. You're asking me that that's gonna either away at the city's fund balance itself, the core. Okay. And then you'll see a negative against your fund balance. And that's what raises literally questions, um, from outside agencies. What's, what's going on here. And um, one of the things that I, again, I have to restate because it really matters, is that if you have the resources to address it, and you didn't take that action, why mm-hmm. And it's not always a good answer oftentimes, and it has happened very and frequently in the past, I'll say snow and ice for the sake of a conversation. Um, that is,

▶ 2:20:14 you can explain that in a different way. The, the invoices didn't come until after X certain date. That's explainable and, and snow and ice is what it is. So when they reflect that on the balance sheet and they look at it says that's, that's, you can explain that other things. They say, well, you had the resources, why didn't you apply it? How do you literally address that? How do you respond to that? And it becomes more challenging to do that. Um, for whatever reason, the community decided not to do that and they had the resources. It doesn't feel well for the commun is what I'm saying. Mm-hmm. And they'd rather you cover your, your costs and address it than not cover it and have it go into deficit and

▶ 2:20:52 have a negative deficit on your fund balance. They don't like to see that. Okay. So there's, there, there is consequences always consequences to having unappropriated free cash? No, it's not that or no, no. The consequence to not to, to ending a year in a, in a deficit position. Oh, deficit. Okay. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. It's a consequence because, you know, again, they'll turn around and say you have the resources to cover it, you chose not to. Okay. Is that reasonable management? Is that good management? And that answer, no, it's not. Okay. So if we weren't in a deficit and had unappropriated free cash, that would not be a problem. Correct. If we were not in deficit and we had unappropriated free cash,

▶ 2:21:27 that's fine. A lot of communities, candidly, I, I know, uh, I have heard in the past, sometimes they don't appropriate the entire amount because perhaps they don't have, um, a sense that, um, they're gonna have good for cash. Maybe some event's gonna happen, it's gonna cause them to have less free cash. And like what we've seen here ourselves with the, with the cannabis, we, we see that ourselves here. Mm-hmm. That loss of about a million dollars. That's huge. So sometimes they don't appropriate all of the free cash, so they have something to carry over to begin the process to, you know, to bill free cash at the end of the year so they have something instead of nothing. Mm-hmm. Because, um, as everyone knows,

▶ 2:22:07 that's really the only resource you have once you set the tax rate to address any cost, um, during the year that occurs unless you haven't set up other reserve funds. So it really plays a huge role in, um, in so many ways. We, it's, we really, um, don't wanna lose that. Um, again, I've said, I'll just say one last time is you can have negative free cash. We had 2.9 million negative free cash in this community before and digging out of that hole, it's just incredibly difficult and we never wanna put ourselves there again. And it's not, and it can happen, um, for those that take the eye off the ball and we can't let that happen. Okay. Um, Mr. Del Russo, you made a comment about not wanting to end the year in a deficit. Yeah. So if,

▶ 2:22:58 Leila Migliorelli: if we pass the orders, um, as they are today, and Mr. Kelly finds out that it's actually like a larger delta and there also seems like an option on the table, that that delta could be bridged by taking money out of stabilization in July. But is there a negative like financial accounting consequence to doing that way? Cuz you made a comment, you don't wanna end the year in deficit. I just wanna know if that's a preference or if there is some type of auditing reason for why not? Um, we never wanna end in deficit just period mm-hmm. Black and white. Um, the other aspect is given the time, the timing here, we're so close to the end of the year. I believe last time we had this similar issue last year,

▶ 2:23:46 we had missed the opportunity. I think it was July 15th was the date that was put out there by, um, cla that was would've been our last chance to address any deficit. Mm-hmm. And I think I remember I specifically said if we had known earlier we could have done something earlier because we knew so late we lost the opportunity to do that. I don't wanna do that here. So I would have to have some certainty that, um, the the amount that was necessary would not cause us to miss the clock again and be unable then to put that towards it because it's too late in the, in the, um, year it comes in too late. The knowledge of what the deficit is, it might come in too late and we can't appropriate it for it to cover f y 23

▶ 2:24:26 Leila Migliorelli: because it, the clock's gone back. But there's a possibility that we would, by not taking action tonight, there's still a period of time before it would be too late. Like, Yeah. And again, I, I would, um, have to defer to, um, council to confirm the date as to the actual last date that we can have action by the city council that would, uh, allow us to bring a new order before you, for you to review it and get through the process and then make it applicable to 23 just at the time is just, um, not on our side right now. Right. Okay. I understand that. And then for my colleagues to understand that we've making that, um, suggestion that we could do that, that also requires all of our own availability to be available to make those

▶ 2:25:13 Leila Migliorelli: decisions, to call special meetings. So it's, it's very, Yeah, there's a lot to it Complicated. Right? Sure. Is. Um, I think I just wanna, I guess, echo what everyone else has said, and I think it's notable when all of us are saying the same things as we all have different opinions a lot of the time that, um, you know, finding out, I think a little bit in drips and drabs about over the last whatever, 72 hours about this problem. Um, this issue is not ideal. Um, you know, when a memo is presented to the council to ch an amend an order last minute, which is not something we've, I think we've had done maybe once in the last three years. Um, and to then find out additional information after the course of that

▶ 2:26:10 Leila Migliorelli: memo, you know, in the school committee meeting, hearing that it is a $900,000 gap and that's not being written down in, in, in the memo. Um, and I think perhaps there's an assumption that I, I can see on one end it looks, you know, sort of like a simple decision. Oh, okay. Well we're just, instead of putting the money in stabilization, we're just gonna stop that and then just take it now. But I think as you can see from this meeting and hear from this meeting tonight, it's a little bit more complicated than that. Um, and also what I wanna just talk Mr. Kelly again, and, and I know you're the only representative from the school com school to talk about this, um, I've just listening to the conversation,

▶ 2:26:53 Leila Migliorelli: you said that this overage is mostly special education transportation. I'm just wondering if at some point, i i, I don't know if I'm alone in this, seeing an actual accounting of what it is that is going into that would be helpful. Sure. I think talking in generalities at this point, given all that we've gone through is, is not sufficient. Um, because I think that, as, I think it was Councilor Cheney that stated, there's obviously some programmatic issues that are impacting this. And like the vast majority of the time the city council tries not to get involved in the business of the, the schools and the school, um, committee. But in this situation where the impact has gotten so great on, on the rest of the budget, um, it's hard to ignore.

▶ 2:27:46 Leila Migliorelli: Mm-hmm. And if I may ask a question, the other thing I was hearing, Mr. Kelly, and please correct me if I'm wrong on the timing of this. You know, you said you, you mentioned something about decisions are made about spec, special education, transportation on individual student decisions, that information and decisions are made, you know, within a department, then that information makes its way to you. Could there be some improvements in that level of communication? Again, I know this is not the purview of the council, but it is seemingly relevant. Is is that at all a point that could be tightened up? Because I think you're sitting from what I'm hearing here is that you are finding out, you are hearing perhaps there is some over perhaps,

▶ 2:28:34 Leila Migliorelli: and you are then having to dig into numbers to, to think about, to find out what that delta is. Am I getting that correct? That there's some things, decisions being made, you are then told about it and then you are then waiting for either bills to come in, invoices or something to see the amount? Like what does that process look like when, When a new student is referred that they that, you know, we price out the root based on, it's a number of factors. It's a which vendor can help. You know, we always look to see if it's something we could do inhouse, we only have five drivers. That's a very limiting capacity. Um, and then we have to go to our vendors, which is, um, you know, sometimes tenfold more expensive, um, to do that. Um,

▶ 2:29:14 Leila Migliorelli: we also don't have choice in that matter. When a student is referred for transportation, that's our obligation to, to transport the student. Um, so I feel like there's decent communication other than that we, you know, we don't have input on that the business office doesn't have input on Right. On whether a student is gonna be offered transportation or not. So. Right. And I guess, yeah, as we've stated, I don't think, I mean, I like, I'm not saying that we, we don't offer the transportation. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is, is there, is there like a lag between when decisions are made about or when they, you know, is it you that's finding out, oh, we can't do this route, we have to do another route, that route or whatever is something is more costly?

▶ 2:29:54 Leila Migliorelli: Like are you a part of those conversations? Yes, Our, okay. We have a transportation coordinator and he's in constant contact with me about what's going on and, um, you know, he's, he's exasperated with the pricing and the, the, um, you know, uh, the, the cost escalations as, as we all are. Okay. I guess I'm, I'm still trying to figure out the, the other thing I'm, I'm learning about and hearing about is that at least in the situations of special education, that it's a long process to get some of, to get some of these, um, accommodations at. While you may not know the total cost of what that acco, like, how much that accommodation will be and we'll just, I, I don't know if I'm using using the right terminology, but the, you know,

▶ 2:30:40 Leila Migliorelli: whatever the transportation is, you know, they need transportation. You don't know how much it's going to cost. When you talk about under budgeting, are you saying that traditionally we are not, is it to that level of granularity where we are not budgeting for what it could possibly be to toran to transport? Is that part of the inconsistent? That's correct. For a series of years, the, the budgeted amount for transportation was less than what the prior year was. And that's what we always look at is the prior year, the prior few years for FY 24, our, our number that we put in the budget was based on, on FY 20 threes costs. And then we tried to increase that modestly because these costs increase,

▶ 2:31:24 Leila Migliorelli: uh, you know, faster than we can keep pace with. So the number we put in FY 24 was accurate as far as what was cost last year and then a little bit of an increase. Okay. So then I guess to back to councilor Repays point, which is what I was assuming too. Are you, if the 2.7, um, that was in the memo for FY 24, is that taking into account this $900,000 extra or is it taking account like a portion of that? Um, or No, not at all. So the 2.7 is part of FY 24? Yes. That's, that's more what the, the gap is between what the, the school committee voted and what is is appropriated after we taken our offsets, after we look at our, our, the grants that we use, the 900,000 is, is for f y 23. No, I understand that.

▶ 2:32:18 Leila Migliorelli: I guess what I'm saying is that was the 2.7 factored in knowing that you had this third quarter increase in costs. Like at the, at what point did you decide come to the 2.7 number? Was it taking account to this third quarter, which would then conceivably carry over to f y 24? Like carry over in that these students will need those services in f y 24? Not the number, like not the money itself, but the, the need carries Over. Sure. We based the f y 24 number off of what we were looking at at transportation at year to date at that point, which was, you know, marches. So yeah, it, it probably had some of those, those riders figured in Some of it. Okay. But we don't know. All right. Um, I mean maybe there's a point in time at which we need to have like a whole

▶ 2:33:04 Leila Migliorelli: conversation about how this is, but if this cost is, so, I mean we're talking like over plus 3 million and it maybe could go up. Um, it is, it's a huge impact. I think if, you know, for me, like hundreds of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars is a shift that we can deal with. But, um, perhaps we need to have a separate conversation about what this might look like. Um, that's it for me now. I know that there's somebody else in queue, so we're just gonna keep going until we answer these questions. Uh, president Greg, Thank you Madam Chair. I'll be brief. Um, Mr. Kelly, I understand why, um, this is the option that works best for the, OR is the option or only option for the schools, but Mr. Deus,

▶ 2:33:52 Mark Garipay: I just wanna hear directly from you that given your purview over the totality of the city's finances, you think the best option for this community right now would be this amendment? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. Um, any other questions? Sorry, I'm looking in two different spots, counsel. I just have a point of clarification On the transportation, um, to what, um, president, um, chairwoman, uh, Elli was saying the 2.7 million deficit next year that you have, um, that we believe is gonna be, that's not all transportation, correct? The 2.7 million, is that what you're saying? Point seven deficit next year, we're looking at for FY 24, that's not all transportation, correct? No. Okay. Um,

▶ 2:34:42 Mark Garipay: What, What is our spend year to date? Because you said you went off of FY 23 for the FY 24 budget. What is the spend year to date in FY 23 in transportation? I don't have that budget in front of me. I can get that number for you. Okay. Cuz as of the budget in May, we had spent over $2,080 with another 433 encumbered under transportation. And then under the, um, spreadsheet you had given, you had sent me out, we have a proposed budget of 1.8. Mm-hmm. So that seems like a huge gap. We're not even close to, to where we, where we need to be. Right. I think the prior year it was, they had budgeted 1.2 million, Um, Probably year was 1.227. Correct. So it has has gone up, but we're still not even close to where we, where we need to be. Okay,

▶ 2:35:42 thank you Mr. De Ruso. Just, just As your thought, um, um, if the question again is just a thought is that perhaps if it 2 42, perhaps if he goes back and chops the pencil and gets it down to 1 1 42, there's, you know, there's a hundred thousand dollars there. Um, given the, um, magnitude of the issue that we're talking about through, uh, it's been brought up here this evening, that additional money, if it's not expended in 23 will, can be applied to the 2.5 plus issue that we face in 24. So it's going to be go to the same effort in fiscal 24, which we already know we need. So, um, it's not that 24 is in balance with the stable, with the special ed and transportation cost. This would be it if they ended up being that way,

▶ 2:36:44 an additional Honda that thank, thank goodness we didn't have to use, but now we can apply it to 24 deficit, which we know we're gonna have. So it does go towards that effort. It doesn't go away and it can be used and we know it's gonna address special ed in, in the next year anyway. So it's not, you're not harm, you're not doing harm in my my opinion, to either, either, either side by doing that. Can you say that again? Not by doing what? By, Sorry. Pardon? Pardon? No, you wouldn't be doing harm. Um, in the event that we actually, they didn't use the full 2 42, they were able to use less. But this year, because they can use those resources for the next year for those same purposes, but for transportation and special ed,

▶ 2:37:29 Jack Eccles: cuz they would carry that money over is what I'm saying, into, into 24. Okay. Okay. I, council s has a question. I might have a follow-up Question on that. Yes, definitely. Thank you. Yeah, I think that, you know, that sometimes what you just described is like, I think like the, the tactical information that we sometimes don't have insight into. So I think whatever ends up happening with this $242,000 whenever you get it, it'd be very good for the council to understand how that worked out. You know, ask for 2 42, got it down to 1 42, used a hundred thousand for that. Like that's some, some, some sometimes missing when, you know, we send money places, we, we don't know exactly what happens. So if it seems like there's a lot of flexibility with what you can do, um,

▶ 2:38:18 Jack Eccles: so that'd be helpful for I think the council to understand, um, That be your intent. I think we're moving in a direction to do something tonight. I'm a little torn, I think maybe some other people wanna speak, so speak to it. Just where I'm at. Um, I have a concern about not doing the amendment tonight, which is that we're going into the summer, um, where we're gonna have to call special meetings and I'm, you know, concerned about attendance and having a quorum to actually do what's required to get this through ENC close the year. On the other side of that, um, I, I don't feel entirely confident in this $242,000 number. The this number came from, it was, it's what was being requested to put into the stabilization account,

▶ 2:39:09 Jack Eccles: not necessarily what the school needs. Like the origin of this 2 42 was we're putting that into the special ed stabilization, not the school needs this amount of money. Um, it seems like there's some reconciliation needs to go on to get to an actual number. Um, so that's a little bit of my hesitation of doing that tonight. But then I also, going into the summer, I'm concerned about having a quorum to actually get something done to close the books. So I'll wait to hear what other counselors have to say about that. Respectfully, if I could just echo what CFO de la Ruscio just said too, that if that, that, you know, the 242,000, um, if, you know, from stabilization is for special education purposes,

▶ 2:39:51 Shawn M. MacMaster: that's the only thing we would be, um, you know, uh right. Appropriate to spend that money on. So if there were a surplus, it would apply to the FY 24. Right. Which would if help us in the long run with the 2.7 anyway. Correct. Exactly. Thanks Councilor McMaster. Thank you. Mad chair. Based on the, the special Education costs of which you're aware tonight, what do you anticipate the special education circuit breaker balance of 1.9 million being come July 15th? It's 1.5 right now, and it would be zero. We will use, we use that as part of our offset revenue to help. So between now and ju and between now and then you're going to spend $1.5 million now and July 15th now and June 30th seems like a lot of money to spend between now and

▶ 2:40:55 Shawn M. MacMaster: the next few weeks. So Circuit breaker is, And cost of which we're aware Circuit breaker is part of our offsets. So some of that is already part of our budgeted amount. And then there's a little bit of surplus that we will also apply to help with the deficit. How much of the 1.5 is an offset as opposed to what was carried over from the prior fiscal year? Uh, I have to look at it. It's, um, it, it's in the ballpark I believe of around around a million. I believe. So. So a a million is the offset. I don't have the chart in front of me. I can get you the exact number. So about 500,000 would would've been carried over, Uh, Participating carrying over more, probably more than 242,000. Yeah. And like we,

▶ 2:41:38 we'd originally looked at that as a surplus to help us with FY 24, but we'll, we'll clearly now need it for FY 23, But we'll, we'll also be getting circuit breaker next year. Correct. Based on increased costs. That's correct. At the statewide, statewide average of 65 to 75% Correct. Of of the per pupil cost for special education. So presumably more money next year than, than prior? Yeah. We're, we're, um, about the same or a little more Correct. Thank you. I have a question, but sorry. Okay. Um, sorry, just a quick No, I'll getting late question and I know, and I just forgot it because I, uh, actually, council, go ahead. Sorry about that. That's okay. Um, 1 million in, in circuit break that you thought you were gonna carry over to f y 24.

▶ 2:42:35 Mark Garipay: Um, I just heard the answer to council McMaster's question, do you thought there was gonna be a surplus of roughly 1 million that would be carried over to 2024? I don't think it was a million. And again, I don't have my, I don't have that, that chart in front of me, so I, I don't have exact numbers, but it, it wasn't a million, but there was a surplus that would've been there. Yes. That was included in the budget that was voted on by the school committee. And I'm assuming that was revenue that was gonna be used. Yes, for the FY 23 budget, they budget a, a set 'em out for offsets, but whether it's from athletics or facility use, and yeah, circuit breaker is one of those, but I'm just, and it gets a little confusing. I'm sorry, with the school, I,

▶ 2:43:16 Mark Garipay: I'm still trying to learn it, but the circuit breaker's gonna get carried over to 24. That balance that you had left over that you are now using to offset the deficit this year, correct? That's Correct. So that half a million dollars that you were carrying over, I'm assuming was included in your FY 24 budget? Some of it modestly, yes. Some of it was not, not all of it. Yes. Which will now not be available for FY 24. So as I'm saying is this deficit is just continuing to grow, Right? We're trying to interrupt it. We are trying to interrupt it, but yeah, you're correct. Some of those, some of that surplus was, was, um, uh, part of FY 24. Mm-hmm. And just to, uh, councilor Eccles point earlier on, on, on voting on this

▶ 2:44:06 Mark Garipay: 100% support, putting it in stabilization, I know it's probably, um, helps everyone to get this in now, devoted in now, but I personally, it makes probably the, the crunch is gonna be, the pressure's gonna be on you to close the books, but we're also the stewards of the taxpayer's money. And if, if we can come back with less money and come and we have to have a special meeting, we work remote, I I, I'll make myself available. If we can get that 2 42 down and still keep money in stabilization, I understand you. We, you say we can, it'll still be in the budget, but at least if it's, I know where it is, it's in the stabilization font as to, as the Councilor Eccles point, you know, we don't know where the math is when it's,

▶ 2:44:57 Leila Migliorelli: when it's getting divided out right at the end of it. So that's just, that's just my 2 cents. I would support going into stabilization now and come back with, um, after everything's balanced and hopefully, and if it's up balanced, you may have to come back anyways, right? Mm-hmm. So, Yes, that's correct. Thank you. I remember my question, which, sorry, tails onto your question. I think I, Mr. Kelly, I appreciate how you wanted to let us know earlier than last year. Um, and just trying to pull this all together, it seems like, um, perhaps like letting us know that, hey, there's a trend going here and, and now that we know this, this year, maybe we'll recognize it next year, that there is a process by which, okay,

▶ 2:45:49 Leila Migliorelli: we're gonna find out first week of June where we are. And I think you did hint at that, but I don't think we understood the magnitude of that delta. Um, so part of me thinks that maybe like you, honestly, were trying to do the, the right thing, and maybe we're not expecting the reaction from all of us in terms of thinking that though this isn't making sense. Um, based on that, I know I think President Greg asked this of Mr. LaRusso, but asking this, do you, do you have, listening to this conversation, are you still steadfast in the, the best thing is to, to make this amendment? Is there in your mind another reasonable alternative? Like how detrimental is it if we were to just put the money in sta

▶ 2:46:37 stabilization, let it sit there, wait till the reconciliation happens. Uh, like, I just wanna understand that risk from you. The will of the committee is, is the will of the committee and we, I I would support that. I, you know, I just want it to be clear that, um, moving it to stabilization, um, it's, it's the reality that I will be back to ask for access to that. And I fully understand if the will of the committee is to move that to stabilization. I understand the rationale and, and I'd support that too. Um, my goal is to be transparent and that have people information that they can make decisions on, um, and that, um, you know, we are, uh, working at the school system to try to build in, uh,

▶ 2:47:17 Leila Migliorelli: supports and structures that we're, we're not having this conversation every year. Thank you. Counselor Ackles, uh, counselor, uh, caram. Chab, did you make a movement to be heard? No. Okay. Councilor Eccles, uh, I'll make a motion to recommend Mo. So this is motion to recommend, just so we can all go all the way back here. The, the entire order, um, of, um, order 20, the, sorry, appropriation from free cash in the amount of 614,500 to various stabilization funds as set forth herein. That's the motion that you're recommending? Yes. Okay. Or the, yeah. Second, Motion to recommend, um, for passage appropriation 2023 dash 36, made by Councilor Eccles, seconded by Councilor Repe on discussion Councilor McMaster,

▶ 2:48:13 Shawn M. MacMaster: Just for the public who may be watching, if anyone's still watching, or who may watch it at some point in the future. Thi this is as a, as a, this amount of money, $614,500, uh, does not include the amendment that we've discussed and debated tonight that the, that the school, um, department is requesting Correct? Un amended order. Un amended order. So this is the actual order that's before us, correct? Thank you. Which is inclusive of other things. Not, not only the 242. Correct. Thank you. As in Counselor Repe, then President Greg. Just, um, to counselor. Um, McMaster's point, this is still available to the schools prior to the end of the year. I don't want people to think that this has been voted down.

▶ 2:49:02 Jen Grigoraitis: It's this money's still available for them to come back in front of us after they've reconciled the books. Yes. Nothing is being voted down present. Greg greatest. Thank You. I just, if, um, to the point about obviously if money is put into stabilization tonight through this vote, um, and then obviously through a final vote on Tuesday, I recognize that we could be looking to have special meetings between now and June 30th. The mayor has the ability to call those. I have some ability to call those in my role as president. I just want to publicly state that I, I commit to working with both my colleagues and the school committee to make sure that we make ourselves available in person remotely,

▶ 2:49:35 Jen Grigoraitis: however we make it happen to, so that we're not, I don't want procedure to be what leaves the schools high and dry. So I just wanted to put that on the record. Thank you. I guess just also a clarification in President Greg, I just, if you wanna state how many people you would need to have a special, We need eight, uh, people to, to address any financial order we need. I mean, um, without a quorum of eight people, we cannot take a vote on anything related to money. Okay? Thank you for Those with summer plans. So this motion's on the table on discussion. Anyone else on discussion? Right? Seeing? No. None. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes.

▶ 2:50:23 Councilor gpe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Bruski? Yes. President Ggo? Yes. And chair Meg? Yes. Unanimous nine? Yes. Thank you. So this order will be brought to the full counsel at our next meeting on Tuesday. We have a lot more to go for tonight. Appropriation 2023 dash 30 Oh, sorry, Matt, can I just make a motion for like a five minute recess? Second Motion for Five minute recess made by President Greg gr We have to roll. Call it. We have to roll. Call it. Seconded by Councilor McMaster. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role Vice Chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Repe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Broski.

▶ 2:51:17 Leila Migliorelli: Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Re Yes. Nine. Yes. Unanimous. All Right. We are in recess for five minutes. 10, 15. I'm just waiting for our virtual friends, colleagues. I feel the opposite. They're not up on the screen. Oh, My better. Okay. Okay. Got it. We're here. Okay. Great. Appropriation 2023 dash 37 and appropriation of free cash. Account number 0 1 3 2 4 0 1 in the amount of 500,000 to the school department. Other funding sources? Account number 1 9 0 54 dash 4 9 0. Um, this is the order that had an accompanying memo, um, that the school committee voted on in their meeting in April, may. Um, so, uh, we're voting on that part of it. Welcome again. Sure. So as Part of the, um, FY 24 budget, uh, the school committee voted to, um,

▶ 2:53:00 uh, in collaboration with the city, um, potentially, uh, use some free cash, uh, a free cash request to, uh, prepay certain costs from FY 24 that we are, are known. Um, and, uh, knowing that the budget does have a deficit that this could help, uh, contribute towards reducing that deficit. Thank you. Um, questions from the council President, Greg. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll, I'll make a motion to recommend for passage. Second, Motion to recommend for passage made by President Gu, seconded by Councilor Eccles on discussion. Councilor gpe? Yeah, I just wanted to say, uh, that I did, um, I said I supported this originally. I still do, um, just, um, for the record, so thank you. Okay. Um, anyone else on discussion?

▶ 2:54:01 Leila Migliorelli: I just, a quick question. I have, um, clarification. So all of the items listed in the memo are prepaying things for F Y 24, is that correct? That'ss? Correct. So like when you see graduation costs, that's f y 24 graduation costs? That's Correct. Thank you. All right. Seeing no one else on discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the role Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor ecs? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Caram Shady? Yes. Councilor AB Bruski? Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. That order will be brought to the full counsel at our next meeting with a recommendation for passage. Thank you Mr. Kelly.

▶ 2:54:52 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Thank you for having me tonight. Good rest of your night. Um, okay. And I believe the remaining, uh, transfer orders, uh, Mr. LaRusso will be answering any questions for those. So we will go through those now. Transfer 2023 dash one, requesting authorization to transfer funds in the amount of 3,618 from city clerk. 0 1 1 6 1 1 dash 5 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 6 2 2 dash 5 2 5 1 0 2 to purchase election equipment into transfer funds from city clerk. 0 1 1 6 1 1 dash 5 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 6 2 2 5 3 5 0 6. For community election engagement tools, Mr. LaRusso, any, anything you wanna highlight for us before we I will. I, I, it actually, it applies to all of them. Okay, great. For

▶ 2:55:56 Us. Um, fantastic. Just a couple points. Um, this is different than an appropriation. It's a transfer of existing money from, typically from the same department to other lines within, within the budget. It's necessary so that we can close out each department in a positive way so that no department cares over a deficit in any way. And, um, at the end of the year. But again, it's not new money. It's money that's been appropriate already and it's simply being allocated at the end of the year. We call it housekeeping and it's, you see this every single year, you'll always see it because that's the nature of what, what happens. That's all. But it's not new money and it's, you can see the numbers are not,

▶ 2:56:34 Jen Grigoraitis: um, uh, at least a concern to me. Thank you, Mr. LaRusso. Um, president Greg. Greg, sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so just to expand on what you were saying, Mr. LaRusso, so these are transfers within lines of the existing f y 23 budgets? Yes. So the funding needs to be expended in this current fiscal year? Yes. So, for example, the number two, which is additional Messina grant funding, which Ms. Gaffey talked about when she was before us on her department budget, that is not money that's going into the f y 24 budget. It is just for f y 23. It Will happen. Is, that's a great question. If you, if we can do an encumbrance and generally if you do an encumbrance, then you can carry the money over into the next year without an encumbrance.

▶ 2:57:20 Jen Grigoraitis: We don't do that. We look for some type of a commitment or a contractor or an agreement in order to do that, some type of paperwork to substantiate that. That's correct. So how would you, so if you're encumbering money, that typically means you've identified a vendor or recipient. Yeah. Okay. So if we've done that, we've identified, if you're saying some of this money could be encumbered for next year's expenditures, we've identified the recipient. If It's approved, typically, um, we would look for that follow up from the, in this case it would be, um, for the plea department for Denise Gaffey or whoever else is responsible to give us some type of documentation. Okay. I just, cuz I, the conversation we had with Ms. Gaffey was that this,

▶ 2:58:07 Jen Grigoraitis: that there, the mayor had made a statement about wanting to increase funding Yeah. To the Messina grant for f y 24. Mm-hmm. That this was the mechanism for that to happen. But in order to do what you're saying, we would already have to have identified the recipients of next year's grants, grant funds. Um, I dunno if I could say the recipient, but I think there'd be some type of obligation that we would have to see. Okay. And again, in what format? I, I couldn't speak to that tonight. I just, I'm, I'm not that familiar with it. Okay. And so for the first item, community election engagement tools is the expectation that we've either already purchased those items or gonna be purchasing them by the end of the fiscal year,

▶ 2:58:45 have identified, I, I guess I'm just trying to understand how it is that we're not just pushing money into the, well, A couple things. Some of these, if, if wanna go through one by one in this particular case, if you want to go do that, it might be easier. Um, if in fact they're looking to transfer funds because they have a shortfall, right? And they want, they need to make that up. But typically that's where you find your transfers. Um, and obviously if that's the case and that'll be a resolved with an FY 23. Um, I'll put the Macino onto the right and I'll look at the next one then. I believe it's 2 0 23 dash three through the chair, if that's appropriate. Mm-hmm. And there's a request also for a transfer of $15,000 to fight department

▶ 2:59:31 overtime. Again, that's FY 23 overtime and he's looking to supplement his, um, his need for overtime costs through this me and that's fine. Again, um, it's a transfer. The next 1, 20 23 4 auditor's office. Um, again, this was put out my, my letterhead. This is for buying banks salary and wages. Um, they have three particular accounts, audit, heating, cost and insurance that they were looking to cover from existing funds they had in salary and wages. So we'll transfer that from one category to cover these costs. Again, f y 23 specific, um, 2023 dash five transfer funds HR department, similar, she had a situ, they had a situation there where they were doing cross training and they more costs were incurred than were anticipated at the time the budget was set.

▶ 3:00:31 And they're looking to cover those costs in particular and in using a transfer from Health contractual to cover such costs because there's available funds there. 2023 dash six again, uh, his, uh, uh, friend in its own way, um, looking for a transfer, Mr. Han for Medicare. 48,000 apportion from temporary debt and apportion from veteran services. And again, that's not to discount services, but the, we do have an allocation every year to pay for expenses for veterans. And when you don't, and we set up a threshold and when that available funds are available, they're available. No different than temporary debt where the make, uh, there's an estimate made on the cost for debt and if there's extra money,

▶ 3:01:19 we can use that to transfer. So that was again, for FY 23 for Medicare, that 48,000 is what we're looking for to close out 23. And last but not least, a good friend, um, again, um, looking for additional funds for legal department, uh, Shannon, a total of 39,000 5 0 2 20. She gave a nice outline, I think in her May 24th letter to the mayor for, for transfer of funds. Typically, um, we see the property and casualty, given the timing, um, when we set the budget, I believe she set it at a 5% increase. And as she explains here, that came in higher than that. And therefore, additional, um, funds of 31700.2 is needed to just for that particular item alone as well as $802 again for endorsements for city

▶ 3:02:14 vehicles that came in. This is, this happens can candidly, every year vehicles come in and out and you have to cover them appropriately with insurance. So you can't always time that. And obviously you would never know when the vehicle was gonna come in and out as you start a fiscal year unless there was some other planning done ahead of time. And the last, her request is $7,000 for expenses relative to, um, arbitration and potential legal fees that she anticipates. Um, she's gonna need the money for it prior to the end of the year to pay those obligations. So that's why we're, she's asking, um, for the 39,000 502 20 and again from veterans benefits, um, we, we have available funds that we did not have to expend. Um,

▶ 3:03:03 so for those other ones, a clear, and again, on 2 0 2 3 dash two with the um, MAC Senior grant, obviously I could reach out to Denise and get more information for the city council. If you, in that sense, whatever you choose to do, I'd be happy to do. Thank you. I mean, we have a memo. She, it says it's for FY 24. I just, if, if you're comfortable with that. Um, it just seems like an atypical way to fund next year. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you. Any questions? Um, again, um, it, it, it's necessary and, um, it, it allows us to keep everyone in line and everyone in check, including myself cuz my, my department and, uh, so that everything is order at the end of the year. And I can feel good that the reports you get at year end and we begin

▶ 3:03:50 Shawn M. MacMaster: 24, you're not gonna have any situations that ended in a deficit. You don't want that. You want everyone to be clean so you, you start fresh for the new year. That's what this is really all about. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions from counselors, councilor McMaster? Uh, yes. Uh, Madam Chair, uh, based on, uh, Mr. Dela Russo's, uh, summary in the fact that these are all interdepartmental transfers of money that's already budgeted for, uh, and, uh, the current fiscal year, I would make a motion at this time to conjoin transfer. 2023 dash 1 20 23 dash 2 20 23 dash 3 20 23 dash 4 20 23 dash 5, 20 23 dash six and 2023 dash seven second. Motion to conjoin, um, transfer orders 2022 dash 3 20 23

▶ 3:04:50 Leila Migliorelli: dash one, um, through 2023 dash seven made by Councilor McMaster. Seconded by Councilor Stewart. Um, anyone on discussion? No. I actually have one question. I just wanna ba I think you President GRE for calling that memo to the, my, uh, the council's attention. Um, I agree that it's pretty, pretty clearly stated here that this mm-hmm. Messina fund is, um, being brought up to 20,000 for FY 24. Um, and I, I guess if I, what if it's not, if, if we, if you do not have the list of grantees for FY 24 now, what kind of paperwork would you anticipate receiving to encumber this money for FY 24? Um, I honestly would've to check with, uh, Ms. Gaffey to see what she has. Okay. Because she's also indicates that funds will address this shortfall and allow

▶ 3:05:53 even more worthwhile projects to receive funds, which, uh, may indicate that there are projects in the queue that if this is approved, it can be supported. Yeah, it, yeah, it's a little unclear to me. Yeah. Um, I'd be happy to get clarification for the city council Councilor McMaster, would you be, I mean, do we, we have this motion on the table. I don't know if there's a way to remove that one and hold it For I, I, I'd be happy to withdraw the motion if, if, um, yes. Council, let's do it. Withdraw as a second. Okay. I'll withdraw my second. Thank you. Um, motion. Do you want a motion again to conjoin the other ones then? So, um, with the exception of, uh, number two, correct. 2023 dash two? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, so at this time, uh, Madam Chair,

▶ 3:06:39 I would make a motion to, uh, conjoin orders 2023 dash 1 20 23 dash 3 20 23 dash 4 20 23 dash 5, 20 23 dash six, and 2023 dash seven. Mme. Charles, second, the motion. Okay. Um, councilor McMaster is motioning to conjoin orders 2023 dash one dash three dash four dash five dash six and dash seven. And seconded by Councilor Stewart On discussion, seeing none. Um, Mr. Que, please call the role Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Repe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Broski? Yes. Present Es? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine? Yes. Okay. So these orders are now conjoined. What is the will of the committee on the conjoined orders.

▶ 3:07:41 Leila Migliorelli: Madam Chair, at this, uh, time, I would make, uh, a motion to recommend, uh, as conjoined Second motion to recommend as conjoined made by Councilor McMaster. Seconded by President Grigoraitis. Um, anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councillor Eccles? Yes. Councilor gpe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Crime Shady? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. President G? Yes. And chair mg? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanim. Thank you. That, um, motion order passes, um, and will be sent to the full counsel on Tuesday. Um, next up you have to dispose of the transfer or deal with the transfer. 2023 dash two. What is the will of the committee?

▶ 3:08:45 Anyone want to hold? Anyone want to not hold? There's lots of things we could do. Just make a decision. Sorry. Just Mad chair. I'll make a motion to hold this in. Committee. 23 3 dash Two. Uh, motion to hold. Transfer 2023 dash two Made by Councilor Stewart. Second. Second. Seconded by Vice Chair Jamine remotely. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll Vice chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor gpe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Briski? Yes. President Gregs? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. Okay. This order will be held in committee. Um, next and last on our agenda is Ordinance

▶ 3:09:44 Leila Migliorelli: 2023 dash one. Reauthorization of the City of Melrose revolving Fund table as first adopted by the city ordinance June 18th, 2018, and annually thereafter. Revolving funds are further authorized under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 44, section 53 E one, one and and a half. You're right. Um, these are the as. Just as you may recall, we have had, um, several departments who have these revolving funds in front of us over the course of the past five weeks. Um, what is the will of the committee? Motion Recommend. Second. Motion Recommend. Ordinance 2023 dash one, made by Councilor Eccles. Seconded by President Grigoraitis. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll

▶ 3:10:35 Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Briski. Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. Okay. This order will be brought to the full counsel on Tuesday night. Madam Chair? Yes. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second. Motion to adjourn made by Councilor Stewart. Seconded by President. President Grigoraitis. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll Vice chair Jamal Dean? Yeah. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gpe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's unanimous. Nez, you are

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2023-06-15

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