Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2024-03-18

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

This meeting starts at 8:54 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Cal Finocchiaro present; Mark Garipay absent; Ward Hamilton present; Maya Jamaleddine late, 7:22 PM · Chair; Manjula Karamcheti absent; Leila Migliorelli present · President, Ex Oficio; John Obremski present; Devin Romanul present; Robb Stewart present; Kimberly Vandiver present; Ryan Williams present · Vice Chair

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MARCH 18, 2024 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:16 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Maya Jamaleddine Chair Late 7:22 PM Ryan Williams Vice Chair Present Mark Garipay Absent Robb Stewart Present Manjula Karamcheti Absent John Obremski Present Ward Hamilton Present Kimberly Vandiver Present Devin Romanul Present Cal Finocchiaro Present Leila Migliorelli President, Ex Oficio Present

ORDER-2024-23 Bond Requesting authorization to borrow funds in the amount of $686,500 from MWRA as part of the Local Water System Assistance Program to fund costs for local water system improvement projects. Ought to Pass City Council

ORDER-2024-24 Bond Requesting the Appropriation of $971,400 for the purchase of Solid Waste and Recycling Carts Ought to Pass City Council

APPRO-2024-10 Appropriation An Appropriation from Capital Stabilization (#8405) in the amount of $30,000 (Thirty Thousand Dollars) to Inspectional Services (#241) for an emergency replacement of a vehicle. The balance as of 12/12/23 in the Capital Stabilization fund is $656,475.67. Hold

APPRO-2024-12 Appropriation City of Melrose Page 1 3/20/2024 8:44 AM Minutes Appropriations & Oversight Committee March 18, 2024 An Appropriation from Mt. Hood Retained Earnings, account 620000-319000, in the amount of $400,000 (Four Hundred Thousand Dollars) to Mt. Hood Professional Services, account 620000-529000 to fulfill contract obligations. Ought to Pass City Council

GRANT-2024-10 Grant Public Safety Earmark Ought to Pass City Council

GRANT-2024-11 Grant Acceptance of the Fiscal 2024 Local Cultural Council Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $16,200. Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 2 3/20/2024 8:44 AM

Transcript

▶ 8:42 Ryan Williams: Motion to adjourn. Second. Motion to to adjourn by Council Elli. Seconded by Council Williams. We are adjourned. Good evening everybody. Today is Monday, March 18th, 2024. And this is a meeting of the Appropriations and Oversight Committee of the City Council of Melrose. I'm the Vice Chair of the committee, Ryan Williams. And I am joined by voting members, counselors Rob Stewart, counselor Kim Vandiver, counselor Cal Rio Councilor John Osky, councilor Devin Romanul, counselor Ward Hamilton and President Lila Migli AEL Officio. This serves as a notice of a quorum for the record, and therefore the meeting will proceed in accordance with Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. Tonight's meeting will be recorded

▶ 9:36 Ryan Williams: and is being broadcast by our partners at MMTV as well as live streamed on their website@mtvthree.org. At this time, I will motion by unanimous consent to open public comment and seeing no objections. Public comment is now open if anyone would like to speak on any of the items on our agenda. Is there anybody online? Uh, there are two participants. Lemme seat they wish to speak. Let's do it. Uh, if you have, if you're here for public comment, please raise your digital hand. No at this time. Okay, Then I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Seeing no objections, public comment is now closed. Um, first before us in orders, we have order 2024 dash 23 requesting authorization to borrow funds in the amount

▶ 10:32 Ryan Williams: of $686,500 from MWRA as part of the local Water System Assistance Program to fund costs for local water system improvement projects. And we have some members of the administration here to talk to us about this order schedules. So, uh, by unanimous consent, I would like to seek to suspend rule 37 B so we can hear them speak. And seeing no objections to that rule 37 B is suspended so that we can have dialogue with members of the administration. Please introduce the, uh, the request and let us know what we're here for. Thank you. So, um, this is a request that, uh, for those of you who are new to the council, we usually come before you annually to request a, um, to request authorization to borrow from the MWRA Water Assistance Loan Program.

▶ 11:21 I always describe this as it's just our own money coming back to us. If we don't take advantage of this money, then another community would be taking advantage of it and all the MWA communities pay in through our rates so that they can offer these loans back to us. So it's the wise thing to do to accept this money. Um, and with me are Catherine Armada, treasurer Collector, and Jay Coy, our deputy city engineer. And Jay has a brief presentation. Um, can you, if you Have that. Perfect. Um, good evening counsel. Uh, as Elena said, my name is Jay Coy. I am the deputy city engineer. Um, our city engineer, Vonny Reese wasn't able to make it tonight. Um, so, uh, Andrew, you can skip one more slide. Yep.

▶ 12:59 Thanks. Um, so the Local Water System Assistance Program, um, as Elena said, is an annual loan, um, that we get from MWRA, um, that they do with all MWA communities. Um, over the past so many years, they've, they have $725 million that they allot to all of their MWA communities. Um, and they split it depend depending on the size of the community, um, and their needs. Um, we're currently in phase three of that program that goes from fiscal year 18 all the way to fiscal year 30. Um, average, uh, we get about 650,000 a year, um, depending on, uh, each year. Um, and you'll see this year it's about the same. Um, next slide, please. Um, so our previous five years of these loans, um, Melrose has received, uh, just over $4.7 million.

▶ 13:50 And with that money we have replaced, um, 18,200 linear feet of pipe, which is about 3.4 miles of our 80 miles of pipe, um, which consists about 30 streets, as you can see on that list. I won't go through the list, but, um, you're welcome to, uh, grab this, uh, presentation if you'd like. Next slide, please. So, as I stated this year, um, we're, we have $686,500 available to us, um, before we accept this money, and when we go through our project planning and everything, we go through our financial model and make sure that, um, and look at what the impacts will be. Um, with this upcoming loan, um, the impacts are negligible, um, showing a total debt service repayment of $660. And that's not per resident, that's total.

▶ 14:42 So you divide that by the number of counts, it's it's cents. Next slide please. Um, in 2017, we had a capital efficiency plan, um, completed by our consultant t and Howard. Um, in this plan, they identified critical areas of the water system. They based it off of the hydraulic model and any critical components, um, with considerations. And, um, they used an asset management rating system. So they rated everything from, um, condition of the pipes, brake history, um, low pressure, all things like that. So they, and they rated it depending on, um, those factors. And that gave us our overall plan of, uh, of attack, where we should start and, and, and what our order should be. Um, the next two slides are maps showing those phases.

▶ 15:28 The first map is phase one and two. So those are the kind of higher numbers in, in your asset management rating. Um, I know these maps are hard to see. Um, again, they're available if you would like, feel free to let me know and I can email them to you. Um, the next map is the phase three and three A and three B, so a little bit further down on the priority list, but still, um, the top priority, um, the top priorities in the city. Next slide please. So this upcoming year, um, we are looking to do, uh, roughly 1600 linear feet of pipe, um, with about half of that in Sewell Woods Road, the other half in Maple Road, um, with a little bit of an alternative, uh, in, of 375 feet at the opening of,

▶ 16:11 uh, Sewell Woods Road at Lin Fells Parkway. Um, the reason there, there's an add alternate to the project is, um, it's not, um, a super priority, but it's something that needs to be upgraded. And if we have the funding to cover that add alternate, we're going to, so we bid it strategically where we don't have to award it if we don't have the money. Um, but if we can find the money from free cash or whatever funds, then we can add that on and we get a little bit more of a, uh, economical, uh, to scale by having the project done at the same time. Um, so overall, our construction costs for the, the base bid, which is the, the main project is about 587,000. Um, and then that add alternate is another just under

▶ 16:55 200,000 with a total project cost of 780,000. Our, our schedule right now is, um, our bid opening would be in about a month, mid-April with construction starting about a month after that. Um, or sometime depending on the, the contractors, but, um, to be finished by mid-November at the latest with paving of these repaving of these roads to happen next year in the construction, um, schedule of 2025. Um, and that's really about it. Um, so we're welcome to answer any and all questions you may have. Oh, I'm sorry. Catherine had some, some things to add. The request is for a $686,500,000 10 year note from the MWRA. This is at 0% and it's repaid evenly over the years at 68 6 50. As, um, Jay said it's not an additional financial burden

▶ 17:48 and as Elena put in her memo, we do have about $280,000 rolling in bonds rolling off, um, in fiscal 25. So this really has negligible impact right now. Okay. Thanks. Uh, counselors questions. Councillor Vandiver, Thank you for the detailed presentation. I was wondering when you, um, look at pipe replacement and the rankings and the phases, um, if, if lead pipes are completely taken care of at this point, or if that figures into the prioritization? That's a good question. So we replace all of the, uh, water services from the water main to the property line within the scope of the project. So all of the houses that fall in line on those water mains will replace the private services, uh, I'm sorry,

▶ 18:39 the public side of the services. Um, if we do discover that they're lead on the private side, we notify the homeowners to let them know that um, they have a lead service and that they should go ahead and, and, um, change that if they, if they would like. Um, we do have a a, an incentive program right now where we're, um, reimbursing those residents by with a thousand dollars. So, um, so that's part that's, you know, part of the notification process as well. Um, but if it's, there's a public side led service, then it is removed, all of them get, um, upgraded to copper during the course of the project. And, and that's within the, the, the sort of overall prioritization scheme. So, so there may be lead pipes that aren't, you know,

▶ 19:21 that are in later phases still that haven't been moved Up. So I, I can answer that one. So our lead services, we've just finished doing an inventory and between lead and unknown, which could be lead, we're at roughly, I would say about 800 services. And if I had to guess, we probably have about 400 that are definitely led, um, four to 500. And those are scattered all over the city. Unfortunately, they're not, it's not like we can just target one neighborhood and say, okay, we're getting a huge percentage of the lead. And so our water main projects are looking at different criteria for selecting those. The whole, um, the, uh, report that Jay had, the maps from looks at hydraulics, it looks at, um,

▶ 20:06 condition of pipes and break history, and that's all in the water mains and there's no lead in the water mains. So, so it's a different set of criteria that drive the capital program versus the lead replacement, which is really, we replace our side whenever we're in a neighborhood, like on this project. But the private side lead services are probably the bigger issue. And we have a different loan that we actually got approved probably in the fall, um, for a lead service replacement program, which is a one point, I think $1.035 million project. And that's gonna target both removing our side of the lead and then giving that a thousand dollars incentive. And we're trying to work with residents.

▶ 20:51 In fact, if anyone out in the world is listening, um, who has a lead service, we're gonna be sending out letters trying to get people on board with this program because once our contractor's in town, the contractor will be able to replace the private side service as a private arrangement with the homeowner at the same time. Mm-Hmm. So they could get the whole service replaced all at once. They'll pay for the private, we'll pay for the public, and then we'll send them a thousand dollars incentive. So that's our, our hope is that we can get a lot of people on board. This 1.035 million is enough to do over a hundred services if we can get people on board. That's great. Okay. Yeah, that makes Sense. Yeah. And just to

▶ 21:29 further clarify, um, so this is the, the water main project. The water mains are the larger pipes in the street that's basically servicing all the homes in the area and in, in the entire city. So there's no lead in the water mains. The only lead that's in the city are for private services, which is just a one inch pipe or, or smaller that goes from the water main to a single family home or one single, one single building. Um, so that's, it's a, it's, it's a separate program. This is really just for the water mains, but we're also attacking the, the private services as well that are led. Got It. Yeah, that makes sense. And I saw in, in the chart, you know, these are the one foot, two foot, these are the big pipes.

▶ 22:07 Mm-Hmm. Yep. Okay. Okay, great. Anybody else? Councilor Romanul, Forgive me if this is an elementary question, but what accounts for the 0% rate? That's because it's part of this MWA program. So like I said, it is literally our money that they collect through rates. They put a certain, they put hundreds of millions over the years into this special account from the water system rates. And then they, they apportion it back to the communities through these different phases of their loan program. And then on the sewer side, they have the same program, except the great thing on the sewer side is that they actually offer it a 75% grant when we get those. So we only pay back 25% of the loan. Still zero interest, but, um,

▶ 22:52 but we get the rest as a grant. But it is, MWA doesn't have a lot of different income sources coming in, aside from member communities rates. So they have, you know, little fees and things that they collect for other things. But for the most part, the MWA is funded from all of us. So anything we get back is just our own money coming back. Thank you very Much. It also gains interest too, that we can pull from at and don't have to pay that back. Mm-Hmm. It's not part of the loan program, so it's that's great. Yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty nice. Alright. Yeah. Thank you for the info. Mm-Hmm. Councillor Stewart. Thank you Mr. Chair. And actually, Mr. Coy just answered my question. I was interested in understanding, uh,

▶ 23:33 Robb Stewart: when you get this revenue, uh, 'cause $686,000 when you put it in a bank account, that collects a lot of interest pretty quickly, doesn't it? Mm-Hmm. Um, I mean, we're talking hundreds if not thousands of dollars. That what, so that goes directly right back into the same program? Yes. Yeah. When we have leftover funds, they, um, so it goes into an account MMDT account, I don't know, Catherine, I'm sure knows what that stands for, Heidi. Um, and then as the interest is collected, it stays within that account and MWA tracks how much interest we've earned and then we can use it on these water main projects. So a lot of times, like what Jay has just presented, the total project cost, if we award the alternate is a little higher than the loan

▶ 24:18 that we're asking for, but if we have interest, then we might be able to afford that. Um, and then we tend to make up those small differences with free cash requests from the water enterprise fund. Sure. Mm-Hmm. Sure. It's a good time to have this money then. Yeah. And every year the, the next set of funds become available in July. It's not really great to coincide with construction season 'cause we are already in construction season, so we can't really add that onto like an existing project. So we just apply for it and around this time of the year, go to bid and just do it, do that every year. Got It. Got it. Thank you all. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you. So what does the will of the committee,

▶ 25:02 Ryan Williams: Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to recommend to the full council. Motion to recommend by Councillor Stewart. Second. Seconded by Councillor Rio. All in favor? Roll call. Vote Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Reky. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamine? Yes. That's unanimous with nine? Yes. Alright. That one moves forward to the full counsel. Thank you very much. Thank You. Thank you. Thanks. I think next up we have order number 2024 dash 24, which is requesting the appropriation of $971,400 for the purchase of solid waste and recycling carts. Uh, yes. I believe you've met with Jim Troop a few times

▶ 25:57 to learn about his negotiations. This order is for the request to issue the bond to cover the cost of those carts. Um, we are looking to issue a over a 10 year period. The first piece would be a, uh, bann, uh, bond anticipation note for a few months to be rolled into a nine year bond. Um, we are using, and the illustration here, we're using a 3.5%, which is very conservative. Um, and we are doing it for 10 years because, um, that is what is deemed the useful life of the carts. We can't issue for any longer than that. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions? Any motions? Mr. Chair, I make a motion to recommend to the Vote Council. Second. Motion to recommend made by Councilor Stewart.

▶ 26:55 Ryan Williams: Seconded by chair Jamal Ladine. Uh, Mr. Clerk, please call the role Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Reky? Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Na Carro? Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamine? Yes. That's unanimous. Nine? Yes. Alright. That order moves forward to the full counsel. Thank you. Thank you Very much. Okay. That concludes orders. Next we have appropriations. The first appropriation is appropriation 2024 dash 10 and appropriation from capital stabilization fund number 8 4 0 5 in the amount of $30,000 to inspection services fund number 2 41 for an emergency replacement of a vehicle. And the balance of that stabilization fund is $656,475.

▶ 27:46 Ryan Williams: Um, this order was, uh, requested on behalf of the city administration for us to hold in committee while they investigate the need for it further. And so at this time, I would entertain a motion to hold this ordering committee. Mr. Chair, I'd make a motion to order this. Uh, ordering committee, dis appropriation committee. Councilor Stewart Motion to hold the ordering committee. Second. Second by Councilor Romanul. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Alright, that carries, it'll be held in committee. Next up, we Have Appropriation 2024 dash 12 and appropriation for Mountain Hood retained earnings account number 6 2 0 3 1 9 0 in the amount of $400,000 to Mountain Hood Professional Services account 6 2 0 0 0 5 2 9 0 0 0

▶ 28:39 to fulfill contract obligations. Hi. Hi. Um, before you tonight to, um, ask for $400,000 to fulfill the management contract, um, the $400,000 is in our retain earnings. It's already being earned by Mount Hood. Um, right now our account has 630,000 in it. Um, the main reason for this is, um, when we, when we put out the new management contract, they got an increase in percentage in their revenue, what they would get. Um, and also they're doing a really good job. Um, so this is all money that's already come in. We're just looking to fulfill the contract and pay the management company. Okay. Great. Thank you. Any questions from counselors? Any motions from counselors? Motion to recommend. Motion to recommend by Councilor Rio. Second.

▶ 29:30 Second by Chair Jamine, please call the roll Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Reky? Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor naca? Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamine? Yes. That's unanimous with nine? Yes. Excellent. That will move forward to the full council. Thank you. Thank, have a great night. Next step, we have grants. First is Grant 2024 dash 10 Public safety earmark. And we have Police Chief Foer here. Good evening everyone. Uh, this is an earmark for $37,500, which will help purchase, uh, public safety radio equipment. Most specifically portable radios. Uh, I'd first of all just like to thank the previous administration

▶ 30:24 and the current one for assisting with this. And as well as representative, um, Lipper. Gared and Senator Lewis. They were instrumental in helping the city get this. It's a non-matching grant. Doesn't cost us anything. Originally was supposed to be $75,000, but unfortunately local aid, uh, from the state was cut. So we'd be looking for, um, a recommendation to approve for the police department to receive half of that, which would be $37,500. Thank you very much. Chief Fowler, any questions? Councillor Vandiver. Thank you. Chair Williams. Uh, I, I was just wondering about with the lower grant and I presume smaller number of radios, how that will affect, you know, will it still be an effective collection of radios

▶ 31:08 or will you be looking to add to the collection later? How will, Uh, so we will be looking to add to the collection, uh, and we already have plans in motion from that, speaking to the current administration to attempt to make up that second half. Okay. As well as in my budget that you'll probably hear in it in a little bit. But, um, we do have a strategic plan Yes. To correct that. Great. Yep. Councillor Stewart, Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to recommend this to full counsel. Second, A motion to recommend by Councilor Stewart. Seconded by Chair Jamine. Roll call. Vote please. Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Cremsky? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councillor naca. Yes. President Elli?

▶ 31:57 Ryan Williams: Yes. And Chair Aldine? Yes. Nine. Yes. Unanimous. Okay. Thank you. Chief Fowler. That motion pa or that grant request passes and we'll move forward to the full counsel. Thank you. Thank you honor. Uh, next and last grant. 2024 dash 11. Acceptance of the fiscal year 2024. Local cultural council grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $16,200. Would anyone like to make a motion on this? Mr. Chair? I'll make a motion to recommend this to full counsel. Thank you very much. Councilor Stewart. Councilor Stewart recommends and Councilor Rio Seconds. Mm-Hmm. Uh, roll call please. Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Reky. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes.

▶ 32:44 Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Councillor naca. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamaleddine? Yes. That's unanimous with nine? Yes. Okay. There it goes. That's gonna go up to the full council. And with that, we're done. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to, to adjourn. Oh, second. Okay. All right. It was a motion to adjourn by Councilor Ryan. Seconded by Councilor Reky. All in favor? Aye. Aye. And we are adjourned. Thank you, sir. Sorry. Didn't mean to jump the gun on you. Good evening. The time is 7 45. Today is Monday, March 18th, 2024. This is a meeting of the Melrose City Council. Called to order. I am President Lila Melissa in accordance with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law.

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2024-03-18

Attendance

Agenda

Minutes

Transcript

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