Finance Committee — 2024-06-10
Attendance
Manjula Karamcheti ; Leila Migliorelli ; Devin Romanul ; Robb Stewart ; Kimberly Vandiver ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Appointment/Reappointment
- APPT-2024-30 : Appointment of Kerriann Golden to the position of CFO / City Auditor
- Transfers
- TRNSF-2024-5 : Requesting the transfer of funds in the Library Department Budget in the amount of $20,000 from Salary and Wages to Books and Periodicals
- TRNSF-2024-6 : Requesting Transfer of Funds from Department of Public Works' Various Snow and Ice Accounts (#423) and Sanitation Account (#433) to Various Facilities Accounts(#402) For Payment of FY24 Utility Bills
- TRNSF-2024-7 : A transfer from Health Insurance (#914) to Medicare (#916) in the amount of $50,000 to cover estimated additional costs in Medicare for Fiscal 2024.
- TRNSF-2024-8 : A transfer from Health Insurance (#914) to Police Overtime (#211) in the amount of $75,000 to cover estimated costs for Fiscal 2024.
- TRNSF-2024-9 : FY24 Memorial Hall transfer from salaries to utilities
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE FINANCE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 10, 2024 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:45 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose City Council may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the City Council consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Robb Stewart Chair Present Kimberly Vandiver Vice Chair Present Manjula Karamcheti Present Ryan Williams Present Devin Romanul Present Leila Migliorelli President, Ex Oficio Present
APPT-2024-30 Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Kerriann Golden to the position of CFO / City Auditor Ought to Pass City Council
TRNSF-2024-5 Transfer Requesting the transfer of funds in the Library Department Budget in the amount of $20,000 from Salary and Wages to Books and Periodicals Ought to pass City Council
TRNSF-2024-6 Transfer Requesting Transfer of Funds from Department of Public Works' Various Snow and Ice Accounts (#423) and Sanitation Account (#433) to Various Facilities Accounts(#402) For Payment of FY24 Utility Bills Ought to pass City Council
TRNSF-2024-7 Transfer City of Melrose Page 1 6/25/2024 10:01 AM Minutes Finance Committee June 10, 2024 A transfer from Health Insurance (#914) to Medicare (#916) in the amount of $50,000 to cover estimated additional costs in Medicare for Fiscal 2024. Ought to pass City Council
TRNSF-2024-8 Transfer A transfer from Health Insurance (#914) to Police Overtime (#211) in the amount of $75,000 to cover estimated costs for Fiscal 2024. Ought to pass City Council
TRNSF-2024-9 Transfer FY24 Memorial Hall transfer from salaries to utilities Ought to pass City Council City of Melrose Page 2 6/25/2024 10:01 AM
Transcript
▶ 36:36 So I would entertain, uh, a motion to recess, legal and legislative Motion to recess. Second. Second. Okay. Motion to recess by Councilor mp. He seconded by Councillor Ryan. All in favor? Aye. Okay. So we're recessed to allow finance to begin. Sure. Did you increase these, that section increase? Yeah. Good evening. Uh, this is the meeting of the finance committee. Tonight is, uh, uh, Monday, June 10th, 2024. Uh, I am, uh, councilor Stewart, the chair of the committee. Joining me this evening are, uh, vice chair, uh, councilors, vandiver and councilors, Karm Chetty Williams, uh, Ronal, and, uh, uh, president Elli Exo. Uh, we also have non-voting member, uh, councilor Garipay and Counselor. No, she left, nevermind. Um, so, uh,
▶ 38:18 Robb Stewart: this provides notice of the quorum, uh, for the record and in accordance with the open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast on our local cable access channel MMTV, as well as live streamed on the MMTV website and will be available for future viewing through the City of Melrose's portal. Uh, and without objection, I will open the floor for public comment. Uh, the floor is, uh, now open. This is the portion of the meeting where anybody can come forward and speak on any item on the agenda. Is there anybody in the floor? Is there anybody online? Um, just one second please. Sure. If you're here for public comment, Ms. Klein, uh, kindly raise your digital hand. I don't see any hands raised at this time, so
▶ 39:16 Robb Stewart: Thank you Mr. Clerk. I'll then, uh, by unanimous con, unanimous consent, uh, uh, close the floor for, uh, public comment. Uh, the public comment is now closed, and at this time I'll entertain a motion to recess. A motion to recess. Second. Okay. We have a, a motion to recess by Councilor Williams, seconded by Councilor Romanul under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? We are in recess. Okay. Uh, we're back in legal and legislative thank you to Councilors Stewart, and most of the, uh, counselors for allowing that quick switch. So, um, where we left off is that Councillor Van Devin is talking about changing the trash discount program to allow low income Melrose residents of all ages to participate in the 50%
▶ 51:56 Robb Stewart: Um, given that we have, uh, I think common, uh, conversations I will motion by unanimous con consent to suspend rule 37 B. Uh, 37 B is now, uh, suspended. Um, so we have five, uh, uh, items on our agenda this evening. The first one is appointment 2024 dash 30, which is the appointment of Carrie Ann Golden to the position of CFO slash city Auditor. Madam Mayor. And Ms. Golden, Thank you. Good evening everyone. I am deeply pleased to be here tonight presenting Carrie Ann Golden. As my appointee to the role of city CFO slash auditor, um, you all have a copy of Ms. Golden's resume, which highlights her over 20 years experience in finance, both in the private sector as well as the public. She's been working for the city of Melrose,
▶ 52:56 Jen Grigoraitis: um, for many years. She has managed payroll. She has worked on the finance side and police and fire, which are both, you know, complex departments from a payroll perspective. And she's been in the auditor's office since 2016. Um, what is not on her resume that I wanna talk a little bit about, and I'm gonna g I'm sorry, is, um, the incredible integrity that she brings to her work. I really did not have the opportunity to work very closely with Ms. Golden while I was on the council. She was largely behind the scenes and over the past six months have gotten to work with her on a daily basis and am constantly impressed with her skills. Um, she has a near encyclopedic knowledge of every collective bargaining agreement in both the city
▶ 53:36 Jen Grigoraitis: side and the school side. Um, she knows every enterprise fund, um, stabilization account, every budget line item. Um, it is a constant path to her desk because she is a problem solver and that is what we need in city government. And she's very solutions focused and always willing to collaborate with whatever department is needing assistance. Um, I believe she does what is right, what is not, not necessarily what is easy or convenient. And she has been very open to having some very challenging conversations in what has been a really tough budget cycle. So I am so thrilled that she's willing to take this next step and continue to serve our community, and I'm really happy to have her here tonight.
▶ 54:15 Thank you Madam Mayor. Welcome Ms. Golden. Great. Great. Uh, thank you Chair Stewart and City Councilors for this opportunity tonight. Um, thank you Mayor Jen for this opportunity. Um, I came to the city of Melrose, by chance in 2013. It, it filled a personal need. I was in a personal transition and I kind of thought that it would be, you know, a quick, quick little gig. Um, but I soon realized that there was a significant transition that was gonna happen in the auditor's office. So at the time, three out of four employees were going to retire within a year, and they had over 75 years of combined experience between the three of them. Um, and so they brought me in as part of their succession plan when they learned
▶ 55:01 that I was looking to go full time again. Um, and so that really been instrumental in my success. I came in, I learned payroll from the ground up. I learned accounts payable from the ground up. Um, and, you know, I had taken a step back because by the time I left my previous job in the private sector, I had a team reporting to me. Um, so, you know, here I was coming in and building from the ground up and, um, and I thought that that was important because it was my first exposure to municipal government. Um, so I was able to do that with payroll, um, accounts payable, and then eventually budgeting. Um, and so, um, I live in Melrose. I've lived here for the past 18 years. Um, I take a lot of pride in what we do in our office, um,
▶ 55:50 whether it be for constituents or, um, for our employees, and trying to always do right by them, have an answer, um, have a proactive conversation. Um, so I look forward to serving the city of Melrose, um, in this opportunity. And, um, I'd like to say thank you to Patrick LaRusso, who's been instrumental. Um, he was the, the one fourth that didn't retire in 2015. Um, but you know, he has this institutional knowledge as well. And he came to the city of Melrose when the city of Melrose was in the worst fiscal shape. And he's through the work of the city council, previous administrations, the current administrations. He has helped, um, make the city what it is today. So thank you for your consideration.
▶ 56:42 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you Ms. Golden. Questions from the committee. Council che, Uh, first thank you for putting this candidate forward. Um, I first wanna just say hearing the mayor's introduction, uh, was pretty inspiring to me. I know she's a tough cookie and doesn't speak like that lightly, so that gets me really excited about your candidacy. Um, and that historical knowledge, particularly where we are as the city of Melrose and what we're trying to do as we grow and expand, um, and how we might do that with your role is so important. So I'm just curious, given you've been around for quite a while, sort of as you take on this role, what are the things that you feel like are a critical priority for us? So, I mean, right now for our office, um,
▶ 57:33 we've had a significant transition. So first I wanna work on getting our office stable. Um, but I do think that, you know, financial transparency, all of those things to help educate residents as to what's going on fiscally in the city. Um, I think that that's, that's, um, the second priority to try to build our, our website and, um, our fiscal presence and get before, um, you all and provide more frequent updates as to what's kind of going on so you can make informed decisions. Yeah, that's great. I love that you said that because I do think that transparency and understanding how the city is working and how money is being spent is something that we, we get feedback on a lot in terms of like that accessibility.
▶ 58:20 Ryan Williams: So I really appreciate both those priorities. Thank you. Thank you. Council Williams. Um, I just wanted to say thank you both and I'm sorry that we made you wait 45 minutes to come up here and talk. It's great to see you here. It's great to have, have somebody with a long track record of experience in the city as Councilor Kim Chase said, we really need it. Um, the continuity is fantastic, so thank you very much and I'm happy to support. Thank you President Elli. Thank You. Thank you. Um, both for being here tonight. Um, I just wanna know if you wanted to talk maybe a little bit about a little bit of a version of counselor crime Judy's question, but more specific on how I think a lot of people have, um,
▶ 59:03 Leila Migliorelli: maybe a, you know, a conception of what the, the CFO's responsibility is in terms of, you know, financial planning and forecasting, which is also overlaps with the mayor's focus and drive. Right. Is there anything you would wanna comment on how you see your role here, um, maybe differently than Mr. LaRusso or, you know, and how you plan to work in the mayor? Maybe just drawing a little bit of a finer line about those types of like financial projections versus, you know, fiscal planning and how you fit into that. Sure. Um, Sue, yes, I would look to do more of fiscal planning, put that out there, um, and really try to develop a three to five year plan. So we're always looking ahead so we can, um,
▶ 59:47 be proactive about decision making versus reactive. Um, and you know, there's some communities that have done a really well, a really good job. Um, they have more resources, um, than we do, but I would hope to work to, you know, like town of Brookline, you go on their website and it's really robust. Um, and they have, uh, financial plans, capital plans, so to kind of work through that and, um, not only provide a one year snapshot, but really, um, a three to five year snapshot of what's going on and where we expect we're gonna be. That's great. Thank you. Looking forward to supporting your nomination. Thank You. Thank you. Anybody else? Vice Chair Vandiver, Just chime in very that I'm very excited, uh,
▶ 1:00:37 Robb Stewart: that you are, uh, interested in this position and, and despite only working through one budget season, I've, you know, been very impressed by, um, the way that, um, you've presented and, and shared information and answered questions for us so far. So I'm very excited to, uh, support your candidacy as well. Thank you For the second time, council Williams motion to recommend to the full counsel. Second, we have a, uh, we have a motion to recommend to the full counsel by Const Williams, seconded by Council Caram Chetty under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. So this will be brought to the full council. You do not need to be there. Um, we'll be voting again on this. Um, and thank you for being here this evening. Thank
▶ 1:01:24 You. Thank you. Okay, moving on. Uh, to transfers, we have transfer 2024 dash five, the requesting the transfer of funds in the library department budget in the amount of $20,000 from salary and wages to books and periodicals. Ms. Gardner, Good evening. Um, thank you for having me here. I I have my glasses on and I can see you or I have them off and I can see what's in front of Me. So this is a transfer request resulting from a vacancy basically that we had. Um, we had a full-time staff member leave and it was several months before we could bring a new person on. Um, which has resulted in having a surplus in our salary and wages account. Um, in the same year. The cost of books has actually risen more than typical.
▶ 1:02:29 Um, so making this transfer will allow us to, we've had to pause some of our book purchasing towards the end of the year service will allow us to just move forward with that. Great, thank you. Any questions from the committee, council, charity? Just A quick curious question 'cause I love libraries and books. Is there anything in particular that you're lurking looking to purchase, um, in regards to that $20,000 like special collections? Um, Um, we have cut back on, so some of it is duplicate copies. When we have a really long list of people waiting on hold, we'll get an extra copy to help satisfy that demand. And we've cut back on that so people are waiting longer for their titles. Um, we've also been doing a lot of work, um,
▶ 1:03:24 Robb Stewart: on DEI titles. Um, we did a, um, an assessment last year of all of our collections and our report back, noting where we have weak spots where we need more representation. So, um, we're trying to really work at that and be very thoughtful about our purchasing in that area. Oh, wonderful. Thank you so much. Uh, access and equity in a variety of ways through it. Great to hear. Council Williams, you have a motion to recommend to the full council. Second, a recommendation by Council Williams, uh, to, uh, for the motion to recommend to the full counsel by Council Williams seconded by President Elli under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. This will be coming to the full council. Thank you, Ms. Gardner. Thank
▶ 1:04:18 You. Transfer 2024 dash six requesting transfer of funds from Department of Public Works, various snow and ice accounts. Number 4 23 in sanitation, account number 4 33 to various facilities, accounts number 4 0 2 for payment of fiscal year 24 utility bills. Welcome back. Thank you. Um, in front of you is Memo that outlines our challenges with increased, uh, supply rates for our electric utility. Um, we have started preparing for this day more than a year and a half ago, knowing that it was coming, taking advantage of some energy savings measures and things like that. Uh, the current supply contract represents roughly a four and a half to 5 cent increase over the previous contract. And it was projected that it was approximately going
▶ 1:05:18 to give us about a 400 and some odd dollar shortfall in fiscal 24, yet we had a level funded budget taking advantage of all of those energy savings measures. We find ourselves at the end of this fiscal year requesting a housekeeping transfer from various surpluses that we have experienced in this year's past snow and ice, as well as in the sanitation, and a far more advantageous, uh, recycling market that is allowed for a surplus in the solid waste of recycling operating budget. Thus in front of you is a request to transfer this monies from those two rollups into our utilities so that we can maintain and pay the remaining fiscal 24 utility electric bills. Thank you. Council Williams. Hello. Um, so we're taking these, these savings
▶ 1:06:11 Ryan Williams: and we're using him to pay the electricity bill, but it's just for this year, right? Correct. Correct. Okay. Okay. Um, and, and do you foresee a problem with the revenue coming in to cover electricity costs where in future years we're gonna have to be making Transfers? Well, these are our own city bills, so, um, this is a matter of, uh, budgeting. Yeah. Uh, this year, as you well are aware that we projected conservatively about a 20% increase. We're gonna continue to explore energy savings measures and, uh, projects at all of our municipal buildings and our schools to minimize our exposure to this, uh, higher rate. Uh, we're locked in and, uh, I'm confident that we'll be able to meet the goal
▶ 1:06:53 Ryan Williams: for this year with our appropriated monies. Okay. Um, and are your, are your projections in terms of covering the cost, they're based on the, the budget that we have in front of us, let's say for fiscal 25, right? Correct. Not the potential amended budget that may occur. Correct. If a vote passes, correct. Alright. And, and I, I personally look at it as a year long monitoring process. Yeah. So if we are seeing some sort of a shortfall, even back in or as soon as say, October or November, we'll try to pivot to make sure that our bottom line for the DPW, uh, is able to satisfy all of our expenses through the course of a fiscal year. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you very much, both of you. What is Council Roman
▶ 1:07:37 Robb Stewart: Motion to recommend to the full council? Second, we have a recommendation to the full council. Five Council Romanow seconded by Council Williams under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? This will go to the full counsel. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, transfer 2024 dash seven a transfer from health insurance number nine 14 to Medicare number nine 16 in the amount of $50,000 to cover estimated additional costs in Medicare for fiscal year 2024. Ms. Golden. Hi. Um, so this transfer is just a housekeeping item, um, for the fiscal 2024 budget. So, um, for our employees, we pay 1.45% Medicare cost. Um, and this is just to make us whole, through the end of the end of the year, uh, we had increased the budget
▶ 1:08:28 Ryan Williams: by $35,000. Um, there's a number of factors that go into that. So we still need additional funding. Um, it's earnings, it's pre-tax deductions, all of those things. Um, so this will allow us to get through the end of the fiscal year. Okay. Thank you. Council Williams. Um, Same kind of similar question to before, just so that we're crystal clear on this. We are making these cash transfers to close fiscal year 24, correct? Right. So we're doing good financial practice here of tying up accounts and making sure that nothing's out of sorts. Exactly. And this, this is matching, uh, current year revenues with current year expenses. Right. So this is the ideal situation right here. Alright, fantastic. Thanks.
▶ 1:09:13 Robb Stewart: Uh, I'll make a motion to recommend this to the full counsel. Second, We have a motion to recommend the full counsel made by Council Williams, seconded by Council Chetty under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Let's go to the full counsel. Thank you. Next step, transfer 2024 dash eight to transfer from health insurance. Number nine 14 to police overtime. Number two 11 in the amount of $75,000 to cover estimated costs for fiscal year 2024. Ms. Gold. So I'm here again for this housekeeping item. Um, so at the end of May, we just kind of projected where we would be for the end of the fiscal year to address, um, any, uh, deficiencies. And so we have to, uh, make all salary lines whole by year end.
▶ 1:10:04 Robb Stewart: So this, uh, $50,000 transfer would allow, um, I am sorry, the $75,000 transfer would cover anticipated costs through the end of the year for the police department. Good. Thank you. Any comment from the committee? What is the world committee Motion to recommend? Second, We have a motion to recommend by Councilor Chetty, seconded by President Elli. Under discussion. All in favor a. Aye. Opposed? This will go to the full council. And last but not least, transfer 2024 dash nine. Fiscal year 24 Memorial Hall Transfer from salaries to utilities, Ms. Gold. So I'm here, uh, to speak for Kathy tonight on this. Um, so same thing. There's available funding, um, due to a vacancy in the department. So we're taking care of this, uh, cost run, cost overrun,
▶ 1:11:04 Kimberly Vandiver: uh, within the context of, uh, Memorial Health's operating budget. Great. Any questions? Whats, what's the amount? What are the amounts? Um, It's $15,600. Mm. Any other questions? Vice chair, Bever? Uh, just, uh, a comment on this one, I believe, and I verify over here, but I believe, um, in our 2025 budget, the electricity lines were raised 20% across the board. Mm-Hmm. For, um, most electricity lines, but I don't believe that included Memorial Hall. So I, I have a little bit of a concern that will, you know, next year if we don't have a vacancy, won't have that same money in that budget. But that's, that's for the budget side of things. That seems to make sense to do right now. Mm-Hmm. Okay. Any other Council Romano? Motion to recommend?
▶ 1:12:02 Robb Stewart: Second. We have a motion to recommend by Council Roman seconded by Council Williams under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? This will also go to the full committee and I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to Adjourn. Second. Second. We have a motion to adjourn by Council Williams seconded by Councilor Chetty under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? We are injured. Alright, we're going back into legal and legislative for the last item on the agenda. Uh, and I would like to acknowledge that we have now been joined by President ex officio Liah Melli, who's a voting member and a non-voting member, Councillor Ward Hamilton. And we have currently, but it's also non-voting member Kurt,