City Council — 2024-04-16

City Council Regular Meeting

This meeting starts at 30:55 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Cal Finocchiaro present · Ward 6; Mark Garipay present · Ward 4; Ward Hamilton present · At-Large; Maya Jamaleddine present · At-Large; Manjula Karamcheti present · Ward 1; Leila Migliorelli present · At-Large; John Obremski absent · Ward 2; Devin Romanul present · Ward 7; Robb Stewart present · Ward 3; Kimberly Vandiver present · Ward 5; Ryan Williams present · At-Large

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE CITY COUNCIL BULLETIN● APRIL 16, 2024 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:46 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Cal Finocchiaro Ward 6 Present Mark Garipay Ward 4 Present Ward Hamilton At-Large Present Maya Jamaleddine At-Large Present Manjula Karamcheti Ward 1 Present John Obremski Ward 2 Absent Devin Romanul Ward 7 Present Robb Stewart Ward 3 Present Kimberly Vandiver Ward 5 Present Ryan Williams At-Large Present Leila Migliorelli At-Large Present

APPT-2024-26 Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Francis Sanzone, 184 Upham Street, to the Board of Registrars of Voters Assign to Committee

APPRO-2024-19 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash (account # 01-324001) in the amount of $327,210 to the IT Department (#155) for Capital projects. Assigned to committee

APPRO-2024-20 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash (account # 01-324001) in the amount of $11,332.50 to Memorial Hall (#693) for HVAC repairs. Assigned to committee

APPRO-2024-21 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash (account #01-324001) in the amount of $24,000 to the Police Department (#211) for costs associated with new recruits. Assigned to committee

APPRO-2024-22 Appropriation City of Melrose Page 1 4/16/2024 9:18 PM Minutes City Council April 16, 2024 An Appropriation from Free Cash (account # 01-324001) in the amount of $400,000 (Four Hundred Thousand Dollars) to Public Works Accounts (#402) as set forth herein and for Replacement of Melrose High School Skylights and Partial Roof Replacement at Franklin School Assigned to committee

APPRO-2024-23 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash(account # 01-324001) in the amount of $250,000 (Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars) to Public Works Accounts (#402) as set forth herein and for Replacement of the Chiller at Lincoln Elementary School Assigned to committee

APPRO-2024-24 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash (account # 01-324001) in the amount of $100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Dollars) to Public Works Accounts ( #402) as set forth herein and for Roof Replacement and Localized Repairs to Milano Senior Center Assigned to committee

GRANT-2024-15 Grant Acceptance of State Earmark for Milano Center Improvements in the amount of $12,500 Assign to Committee

ORDER-2024-28 Bond Requesting the Appropriation of $5,500,000.00 to pay costs for design and engineering of a new Melrose Highlands Fire Station and new Melrose Police Station. Assigned to Committee

APPT-2024-27 Appointment/Reappointment Reappointment of City Clerk for a three-year term commencing May 1, 2024. Assign to Committee

LIC-2024-12 License - Gasoline Storage City of Melrose Page 2 4/16/2024 9:18 PM Minutes City Council April 16, 2024 Gasoline and Storage Licenses Renewals commencing for licensing period May 1, 2024 - April 30, 2025 Placed on File

LIC-2024-13 License - Gasoline Storage License: Gasoline and Storage Licenses - 2024 Non Renewals Placed on File

LIC-2024-14 License Private Livery Car Service Renewals commencing for licensing period May 1, 2024 - April 30, 2025 Placed on File

LIC-2024-15 License Private Livery Car Service - Non-Renewals 2024 Placed on File

LIC-2024-16 License - Second Hand Dealer 2nd Hand Dealer 2024 Renewals commencing for licensing period May 1, 2024 - April 30, 2025 Placed on File

LIC-2024-17 License - Hackney License Hackney Carriage (Taxi) license non-renewal for licensing period: May 1, 2024 - April 30, 2025 Placed on File City of Melrose Page 3 4/16/2024 9:18 PM

Transcript

▶ 30:51 Leila Migliorelli: Have they ever done the thing in the another story? Good evening. The time is 7 46. Today is Tuesday April 16th, 2024. This is a meeting of the Melrose City Council. Called to order and I am President Meley Rally in accordance with Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. This meeting is being broadcast and recorded by Matt Melrose Cable Access tv and will be available for viewing in its entirety on MMTV through the city website Link. Madame Clerk, will you please call the role Council Ro Here. Council Garey? Here. Councilor Hamilton? Here. Council Aldine. Here. Council Karen Treaty. Here. Councilor Reky. Councilor Romanul. Here. Councilor Stewart? Here. Council Van Dever. Here. Councilor Williams. Here.

▶ 31:42 Leila Migliorelli: President Me Elli. Here. 10 present. Okay. This Serves as a quorum For the record. And this time, please rise if you are able to join the Pledge of Allegiance. All Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and Jews Republic, which it stands. One Nation under God Invisible with Liberty, Liberty and justice for all At this time, um, it's reading of the minutes. At this time I'll motion to approve without reading by unanimous consent. The minutes from, um, city council meeting on April 1st, 2024. Seeing no objection, those minutes are now approved. Now we're moving on to public comment. I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing none, we are now open for public comment.

▶ 32:31 Leila Migliorelli: This is a portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any item on our agenda tonight. Just a reminder that public comment period is an opportunity for public to share comments. Counselors will not respond. Is there anyone here wishing to speak in public comment? Is there anyone online? Not at this time. Okay, I will. Um, if there's no objection, I will motion to close public comment. Seeing none, we are now closed for public comment. Next up is communications from Her Honor or the mayor and other city officials. Um, but before we hear, I believe the mayor's here to, um, provide some updates. I will motion by unanim of Consent to suspend Rule 37 B. Seeing no objections. Rule 37 B is now suspended.

▶ 33:14 Jen Grigoraitis: Welcome Madam Mayor again tonight. Good Evening, Madam President and Councilor. Um, I just wanted to provide some updates as we prepare to enter the budget process. And um, I do have this also as a hard copy and should it be the will of the council can provide it to, um, the clerk of committee so that it can be added to the packet. Um, I first wanted to make sure you were all aware that we are in the final stages of a review of the city's employment manual and policies. This was conducted by Outside Employment Council in partnership with the city solicitor, our HR director and our chief of staff. The focus of this review was on ensuring that our policies and practices are legally compliant with state

▶ 33:53 Jen Grigoraitis: and federal mandates, advance equity and help us attract and retain high quality staff to deliver services to Melrose. Once the manual is finalized, we will be sharing it with all city staff as and providing training and support, especially for supervisors. In addition to going through this process to ensure that our policies and practices are current. Um, going through this review and update will also make us more competitive in the insurance market when we next go to procure for coverage for the city. That was some feedback that we received in our last procurement prior to my tenure that we needed to really make sure that our policies were up to date. So I'm hoping that there will be both some financial gains

▶ 34:30 Jen Grigoraitis: for the city in that and also obviously make for a more robust work environment. Um, I also wanted to let you know that at my request, the division of local services, which is part of the Department of Revenue, will be conducting a financial management review for the city of Melrose. This process is slated to begin in September. That was the earliest we could get on their calendar and it will take approximately three to six months. DLS staff will be on site and will provide a comprehensive operational review of our local accounting, treasury collection, assessing and overall administrative functions. And then we'll make written recommendations and best practices and how to improve our day-to-day management

▶ 35:05 Jen Grigoraitis: and procedures, as well as provide specific hands-on tools, guidance and strategies. Um, I think that's a really important next step for our community to really be having someone come in from the outside and looking holistically at how we manage our finances and all of our practices. Um, the third prong of sort of city management is procurement. Um, in prior audits, our auditing firm has identified procurement as an area where we need to improve most noticeably because our procurement is fairly decentralized. Um, to that end, I have authorized Joe Montalto, who's our deputy director of it, to complete the Massachusetts certified Public Purchasing Officer or M-C-P-P-O. It rolls off the tongue designation course, which is offered

▶ 35:49 Jen Grigoraitis: through the office of the Inspector General. Um, for the past few years, this Inspector general has been offering municipalities the opportunity to send an employee for free to that training series. And so Melrose will be taking advantage of that this year. And, um, I'm very appreciative of Joe and his supervisor for making the time. It's a pretty significant, significant investment of time and it's a several thousand dollars, um, worth of training that the city will be receiving for free. Um, Joe will be the first member on the city side to have the designation. We have several staff at DPW who have that designation, but obviously not all of our procurements are through DPW. And as we do more and more complex it,

▶ 36:28 Jen Grigoraitis: we really wanna make sure that we're doing that in a way that is in compliance with chapter 30 B. Um, we are also gonna be working with outside legal counsel to develop a procurement handbook for all city departments so that we are being responsive to the, um, deficit identified by the auditor and having a more centralized uniform approach to procurement. So that's something we'll be working on in the coming, um, months. I also wanted to let you know that after an opening competitive process, I've offered Carrie Golden the role of CFO for the city of Melrose. I believe you all know Carrie, she's been serving as the assistant city auditor since 2016, had prior roles, um, doing financial management for our public safety, um,

▶ 37:09 Jen Grigoraitis: groups, and has over 20 years of financial experience on both the private and public side. I think she brings both a wealth of experience on Melrose, on our collective bargaining agreements on municipal finance and also a real desire and skillset to begin the important work of financial forecasting so that we are actually thinking ahead about our budgets and what we can afford and what those are gonna look like. Um, I, we're obviously gonna get through the budget season with our interim CFO in place and then I'll be making a formal request to you all in June for her appointment. Um, and then I wanted to let you know that we have received our annual financial report from Powers and Sullivan.

▶ 37:47 Jen Grigoraitis: I have some hard copies of those for those that would like a hard copy. They unfortunately didn't send us enough for every counselor, but we can request more. I'll be sending that to you electronically. And then we'll also be posting it on the city website for the public to read. Um, we again have the same three recommendations for improvement related to procurement, um, improving our IT infrastructure for cybersecurity attacks and, um, I'm blanking on the last one. I believe it's related to our po our employment policy. So we're trying to really make sure that we're addressing those identified concerns. Um, and then lastly, the FY 25 budget will be coming down to you at your next meeting on May 6th.

▶ 38:26 Jen Grigoraitis: Um, I believe folks are very well aware that we're anticipating that this will be a fairly challenging budget year. So what I plan to present to you on May 6th is the following a balanced budget for FY 25 for both the city and schools, which is based on our current anticipated revenue. So the school committee will be going through a budget reduction exercise next week, um, in order to provide that budget. I also wanna provide you all with details on the identified unfunded needs on the city side. I don't think that's a, a piece of the puzzle that we've typically done. Um, so I have asked departments not only to go through a budget reduction exercise where they reduce their level services budget by 5%

▶ 39:04 Jen Grigoraitis: and 10%, um, which in most cases would involve laying off staff to achieve that level of reduction. But also to identify the things that we consistently have been identified as needs by residents and are not funded. They never make it before the council. As an ask, um, we're also gonna be requesting that the council consider an increase to the senior property tax work off program. We currently have that program capped at a thousand dollars for residents age 60 plus the state legal limit is actually $2,000. So I would like to request that you all consider raising that limit so that we're able to provide more of our older residents with a bigger, um, reduction in the burden of their property taxes.

▶ 39:44 Jen Grigoraitis: I will also be making a request for your consideration of an operational override ballot question to go on in late June, which would seek to increase available funds for both city and school needs. And I'll, I'll highlight that. Most notably on the city side, our need is for funding, being able to be able to secure fair and competitive collective bargaining agreements for all of our unionized personnel. Um, and then lastly, should you seek to pursue an override, I will be requesting you call a special election in late June, so it's gonna be a busy may. Um, I know it's probably not what anyone had on their calendar for what we would be looking at given the financial picture for the cities and the schools.

▶ 40:22 Jen Grigoraitis: I think it's really impro important to provide their residents with an opportunity to tell us what they want next year to look like before we actually get to next year. So I appreciate all of your patience, um, as we move through this process. And really wanna thank city staff who've been working furiously to do everything in the background necessary to get to this point. And obviously I know I'll have a chance to speak with each of you individually in advance of the budget and then obviously to have budget hearings. So I just wanted to let you know that that's what's coming. Um, and just say thank you in advance for your attention to these very important matters. Thank You. Thank you Madam

▶ 40:57 Mayor. Any questions or Councilor Hamilton? Um, Did you say Ms. Golden has been offered the position and you're waiting for her? She has accepted the position and it's a conditional, um, appointment pending your final approval as the city council. I think that's great news. Thank You. I'm very Excited for Her. Thank you Madam Mayor. Welcome. Great. Moving on in our agenda. Um, new business filings by the Honorable Mayor. Appointment 2024 dash 26 appointment of Francis Sanzone. 180 4 Upham Street to the Board of Registrars of Voters. This will go to finance Preparation 2024 dash 19. Preparation from free cash account number zero one dash 3 2 4 0 1 in the amount of $327,210 to the IT department.

▶ 41:55 Number 1 55 for capital projects. This will go to appropriations and oversight Appropriation 2024 dash 20 an appropriation from free cash account number zero one dash 3 2 4 0 1 in the amount of 11,332 TH dollars and, uh, 50 cents to Memorial Hall. Number 6 93 for HVAC repairs. This will also go to appropriations and oversight Appropriation 2024 dash 21 appropriation from Free Cash account number zero one dash 3 2 4 0 1 in the amount of 24 20 $4,000 to the police department. Number two 11 for cost associated with new recruits. This will go to appropriations at Oversight Appropriation 2024 dash 22 appropriation from Free Cash account number zero one dash 3 2 4 0 0 1 in the amount of 400 uh, thousand dollars

▶ 42:53 to Public Works accounts number 4 0 2 as set forth herein and for replacement of Melrose High School skylights and partial roof replacement at the Franklin School. This Will go to Appropriations and Oversight. Prop Appropriation 2024 dash 23 appropriation from Free Cash account number zero one dash 3 2 4 0 0 1 and the amount of $250,000 to Public Works account. Uh, number 4 0 2 as set forth herein and for replacement of the chiller at Lincoln Elementary School. This will go to Appropriations and oversight Appropriation 2024 dash 24 an appropriation from Free Cash account number zero one dash 3 2 4 0 0 1 in the amount of $100,000 to Public Works. Accounts number 4 0 2 as set forth herein and for roof replacement

▶ 43:43 and localized repairs to the to the Milano Center. This will go to Appropriations and Oversight. Grant 2024 dash 15 Acceptance of a State Year mark for Milano Center improvements in the amount of $12,500. This Will go to Appropriations and oversight Order. 2024 dash 28 requesting the appropriation of 5,500,000 to pay costs for design and engineering of a new Melrose Highlands Fire Station, A new Melrose Police Station. This will go to appropriations and oversight. Next, we have filings by members of the Honorable City Council Appointment 2024 dash 27 Reappointment of city Clerk for a three year term commencing May 1st, 2024. This will go to appropriations and oversight. We have, um, unfinished

▶ 44:34 Mark Garipay: business licenses. Madam Madam Chair. Um, I'd like to, uh, make a motion to conjoin license 2024 dash 12 gasoline and storage license renewals commencing for licensing period May 1st, 24 through April 30th, 25 license 2024 dash 13 licensing gasoline storage licenses 2024 non-renewals license 2024 dash 14 Private delivery car service renewals commencing for license period May 1st, 2024 through April 30th, 2025 license 2024 dash 15 Private delivery cost service non-renewals 2024 license 2024 dash 16 secondhand dealer 2024 renewals commencing for licensing period May 1st, 2024 through April 30th, 2025 license 2024 dash 17 Hackney Carriage taxi license non-renewals for licensing, period May 1st, 2024 through April 30th, 2025. Second.

▶ 45:37 Leila Migliorelli: Okay, motion to conjoin license is 2024 dash 12 through dash 17 made by Councillor Repay, seconded by Councillor Stewart on discussion. Seeing none, what is will of the committee? No, sorry. All in favor, aye. Any opposed? Okay. These, um, orders are now conjoined. Um, Madam President, uh, these orders, conjoin conjoined orders come from license, uh, protection and licensing with the recommendation to place on file at this time. I will make that motion. Second. Okay. Motion to place on file made by Councillor Repe, seconded by Councillor Firo. Uh, all in favor a Aye. Any opposed? Alright, these motion, this, these orders have been placed on file and next we have any, no expires, any reports under Rule 53.

▶ 46:32 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. Seeing none, um, I will motion by unanimous consent to, um, adjourn. Second. Okay, I'll, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, you're now adjourned. You.

City Council — 2024-04-16

Attendance

Agenda

Minutes

Transcript

Original documents