Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2024-06-13
Attendance
Cal Finocchiaro ; Mark Garipay ; Ward Hamilton ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Manjula Karamcheti ; Leila Migliorelli ; John Obremski ; Devin Romanul ; Robb Stewart ; Kimberly Vandiver ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Americans with Disabilities Act Notice
- Public Comment
- Appropriation
- APPRO-2024-25 : Fiscal 2025 Operating Budget in the amount of $104,140,412 (One Hundred four million, one hundred forty thousand, four hundred and twelve dollars).
- Ordinance
- ORDNC-2024-2 : Reauthorization of the City of Melrose Revolving Fund Table for Fiscal 2025.
- Departments
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 13, 2024 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Budget Hearing 7:30 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Maya Jamaleddine Chair Present Ryan Williams Vice Chair Late 7:33 PM Mark Garipay Absent Robb Stewart Absent Manjula Karamcheti Absent John Obremski Present Ward Hamilton Absent Kimberly Vandiver Present Devin Romanul Present Cal Finocchiaro Present Leila Migliorelli President, Ex Oficio Present
APPRO-2024-25 Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) Fiscal 2025 Operating Budget in the amount of $104,140,412 (One Hundred four million, one hundred forty thousand, four hundred and twelve dollars). Ought to Pass City Council
ORDNC-2024-2 Revolving Fund/Reauthorization Reauthorization of the City of Melrose Revolving Fund Table for Fiscal 2025. Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 1 6/26/2024 1:19 PM
Transcript
▶ 8:34 Maya Jamaleddine: Adjourned. Sorry about that. Good evening. The time is seven 30 on Thursday, June 13th, 2024. This is a meeting of the Appropriations and Oversight Committee. I am Maya Jamal, Dean pronouns. She and her the chair. And joining me are, um, counselor Vandiver Ro Romano, um, Osky and President. This serves as notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with the open Meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. And seeing no objection. We are now open for public comment. This is the portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any item, uh, on our agenda for tonight. Do we have anyone online?
▶ 9:40 Maya Jamaleddine: Uh, there are no participants online at this time. Okay. And if there is no, no objection, I would like to close public comment. Seeing none. We are now closed for public comment. And for the record, vice Chair Williams just joined us since we have members of the administration here tonight to speak on the items before us. I would like to motion by unanimous consent to suspend the rules before we proceed. Seeing no objection, the rules are now suspended. Adam, chair? Yes, go Ahead. May I make a a, I'd like to take a point of personal privilege. Sure. Thank you. Um, just wanted to address that this week. The Melrose Weekly News published an inaccurate story stating that the council passed the budget
▶ 10:26 Leila Migliorelli: for FY 25 on June 3rd, as well as several other inaccuracies in their reporting, including a dissenting vote and incorrect figures for the school budget. Both the, uh, mayor Gregor Eis and I are urging the paper to retract the article due to this misinformation. As we all know here, the city council is planning to vote on the full budget next Thursday, June 20th, um, and the full budget being $104 million, which includes 41 million for the school budget. So, while just another comment, while finding misinformation on social media is commonplace these days, residents should be able to trust in the reporting in their local news. Newspaper. Accurate reporting and fact checking are crucial to journalistic integrity,
▶ 11:06 Maya Jamaleddine: and I hope that the paper issues, uh, an apology and retraction and seeks to improve its reporting moving forward. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Now, um, during our annual budget hearings, um, each city department comes before the city council to present their annual operating budget for FY 25. These hearings will continue for five weeks. Uh, we've been meeting for a few weeks now, and the schedule of departments is available online for the benefit of the public. This means that you'll see the same agenda item on our, uh, budget during our budget hearing season. Until this, uh, council passes the full FY 25 budget. Um, first item on our agenda, it's, um, appropriation, um, 2024 dash 25 fiscal called 2025 operating budget in the
▶ 12:08 Maya Jamaleddine: amount of $104,140,412. First department is, um, 1 71 Conservation. Good evening, Madam Chair. Members of the council. Um, this budget has, line item has been zeroed out and was combined with the budget for the Department of Planning and Community Development, which you have previously reviewed. Perfect. Thank you. Welcome. Next, we have five number five 11 Health. Madam Chair. Yes. I, uh, point of order. I think we need to just motion to move the bottom line on that anyways, even Though it's zero. I'm sorry. That's okay. Um, so Motion to move the bottom line on 1 71. We, we have a motion to move the bottom line, uh, made by President Melli, seconded by, uh, councilor Ro. Um, clerk Vice Chair Williams? Yes.
▶ 13:15 Councillor Bruski. Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Aldine? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Now, next is, uh, number five 11. Um, health Dr. Chu. Uh, good evening, Madam Chair and the City Council. Um, thank you for this opportunity to speak on our, uh, proposed budget for FY 25. Um, this year, the Melrose Health and Human Services, um, has been able to provide, uh, the residents of the city of Melrose, uh, services through evidence-based food and health inspection program, our sub, uh, substance use prevention initiatives, community wellness offerings, public health, nursing and social service resource connections.
▶ 14:12 Uh, we have under, we have undergone several staffing changes during this last fiscal year. Um, and we have successfully completed, uh, the first year, year and a half, um, partnership with the town of Stoneham in our, uh, three town Regional Health Department. Uh, I'm very proud of the work of our staff, and, uh, we cont we hope to continue to provide the necessary services moving forward. Um, we're also very proud of the work, uh, in the policy realm where we've passed through the Board of Health, the nicotine free generation, uh, progressive policy, looking to curb the use of tobacco and to eventually establish a tobacco free generation in our, in our communities. Thank you. Do we have any question from my colleagues?
▶ 14:57 I seeing none. Sorry. One question about the animal sheltering. Where, where, um, I know we don't have an animal officer. Where are the animal sheltered? Yes. So animal sheltering encompasses several different, um, areas. Uh, we actually have contract animal control services, so we serve as the triage center, uh, for animal call calls. Our contract was with the town of Stoneham. Um, so we utilize their animal control officer when necessary. Uh, in cases where an animal control officer is not necessary, uh, myself or a staff member, uh, usually assist in that situation in animal sheltering. Uh, we have a great partner in the Melrose Animal Clinic across the street, and we've also worked with our area, um,
▶ 15:37 uh, VCAs as well. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any question, uh, counselor, uh, Vandiver, Uh, could you share a little bit more about nicotine free generation and when we'll see any, um, specific changes within the city based on that policy? Absolutely. So, nicotine free generation was passed in April of this year through the Board of Health. Um, the language specifically states that as of January 1st, 2025, um, tobacco, tobacco and nicotine products cannot be sold to anybody that was born on or after January 1st, 2004. And so we have, um, six or seven month runup time between now and then. We're using this time to provide education to our retailers, um, to help them understand the new regulation.
▶ 16:27 Um, this nicotine free generation policy started in Brookline, um, as a, as a town, uh, town ordinance. But we have since, uh, took taken this approach as a region to start spreading this policy. Our goal is to, um, have a very slow phase out of tobacco products, uh, in our region. And that starts here. And so each year, one smaller one group, um, one small group becomes ineligible to purchase tobacco products. And, uh, in the next couple decades, we'll see that, um, tobacco sales, um, reduce in our area. Thank you. Great news. Any, um, other question? Vice Chair Williams. Thank You. Um, can you give us a sense of how you feel enforcement of health code violations is going in the city, both
▶ 17:16 with commercial residential, just an overview of how that works and where you see areas of improvement, anything like that? Sure. Yeah. So our, um, our enforcement of codes, uh, we generally operate on a complaint basis, so we'll receive a complaint. Um, one of our, one of our health inspectors. So we have a health inspector and we also have a senior health inspector and myself. So the three of us work together. We receive a complaint to go out to document, uh, the complaint. We take note of the issue. And then based on the, based on the issue that we find we will, is we'll sometimes reach out to the, um, homeowner or the property owner first. And we will try to, um, have a discussion to see, you know,
▶ 17:54 if there are any extenuating circumstances, what, what the reasons may be behind the violation of the code. Um, and if we are unable to reach them or we're unable to reach a con, um, reach a, uh, agreement at the time, then we'll usually, um, issue an order to correct, um, that will detail what parts of the code that they're in violation, whether that's a city ordinance or that's the state housing code or what it, what it might be. And so we will issue a timeline under which they need to have these, uh, issues corrected. Um, uh, again, our first goal is always to do, to do education and provide, uh, the resources to come into compliance. But when that does not work, then we, uh, will sometimes move towards, uh, finding.
▶ 18:34 And so, um, we've, we've had that several times this year, but we've been able to resolve many of the, um, complaints and issues, uh, through communication education with the, um, with the town, uh, with the residents. Um, in terms of areas of improvement, I think one of the areas that we're looking to improve in the next fiscal year will be working on abandoned properties. Um, that's something that has come to our attention. Um, there's been a couple of properties that been brought to our attention and we've been working with the ags office, um, and their Neighborhood Restore restoration program. Mm-Hmm. Um, so, uh, there's different options when the approach, uh, in that approach. Um, again, we wanna work with the property owners
▶ 19:10 that are already there, but a lot of the time, um, they will, sometimes they, they will, they'll, um, recommend receivership. Um, and so that's, that's a long, that's a long process that we work with our legal department as well. About how many fines do you think you issue in a year? How many tickets, I suppose? Um, I don't have, I don't have those, I don't have those figures in front of me, but, um, I would say less than 20 fines a year, um, for housing, generally speaking, when we're able to, um, educate and work with them, um, issues are brought into compliance before the timeline is off. You said, you said housing, you mean residential, like residences? That's correct, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
▶ 19:45 Ryan Williams: Um, and I wonder if you could characterize for us the amount of this budget that goes towards the schools. I see there's the school nurse line, but then are there other mixed lines in here? Sure. You don't have to be exact. I'm just curious. Is it, you know, 30%, 20%? Is it specific lines? What do you think? Okay. So specifically the lines, the school nurse line would be, um, dedicated to the schools. Um, we also, um, the only major line that we had going towards the schools prior was the, uh, interface line, which has been, uh, reduced to zero. Uh, formerly it was 2020 1000. Uh, interface, if tho for those who are not familiar, was a, uh, referral service that we were working with the William James College.
▶ 20:28 Um, essentially they served as a resource that people could call, uh, for a variety of which substance use prevention, uh, substance use, uh, counseling, mental health, behavioral health. Um, the Massachusetts Behavioral Health helpline has, uh, has, um, greatly expanded in the last two years. And so, uh, we keep, we keep very close contact with, uh, state DPH to make sure that, uh, their residents are able to access the resources they need. Uh, and so the, those services overlap with interface, and now we have a free resource, uh, through the state that does a very similar job. That's good. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Um, counselor Vandiver. Thank You. Um, I just wanted to follow up again on the earlier question
▶ 21:11 Kimberly Vandiver: that was asked about animal services. Sure. Um, uh, because it's something that I do see come up sometimes on the community Facebook groups. And, uh, so I was just wondering about that if, um, I guess whether the services are there and people aren't aware of how to get in touch with them sometimes, or whether there are certain types of issues that are not able to be resourced with our current, um, set of, of contracts and, and resources. So I was just wondering if you could, um, share, you know, what type, you know, just looking at some of the common things like a loose dog or somebody sees an injured raccoon, like what are, what types of, um, cases can you handle? And, you know, how would people go about
▶ 21:56 accessing services for those? Sure. So generally speaking, animal control officers, uh, through mass general law and through laws that govern that position, um, deal very almost specifically with domestic animals. So there is, uh, less crossover with wildlife than I think the general consensus, uh, believes. Uh, wildlife is a very tricky topic. There's a lot of laws that protect wildlife in Massachusetts. Um, there's I think, some confusion, and we've tried to put out some messaging around this before, but we'll continue to do that as well. Uh, relocation of wildlife is not something that we can do, um, legally. Uh, there are rehab, uh, rehabilitators in the, in our area, but they have very narrow scopes of focus depending on
▶ 22:36 what group of animals they serve. Um, so the animal control officer currently that we contract with stoneham can help with dogs, loose dogs, uh, abandoned dogs. Um, we've had some, several situations like that. And when we, when we receive a call that is appropriate for animal control officer, we call that person and they have the expertise, uh, to deal with that. Um, currently our, our resources for animal control are adequate. Um, we're able to, um, process those, process those, uh, claims. I think part of it is we've asked residents to, as best they can, leave us a message when they call the line. And so myself and another staff member screen those calls. Um, so if when someone leaves a message, we're able to take
▶ 23:18 that information and appropriately triage the right person. Okay. That's really helpful to know how to, um, inform people especially about the difference between wildlife and domestic and, um, how they, what they should expect. Yeah. And then when also when they call and they leave us information, if it's regarding wildlife, if they, they have concerns about like coyotes in their yard or aggressive wildlife, um, we also then go back and provide them the information for people who can, so there's Mass Wildlife, there's Massachusetts Environmental Police, um, there's also pest control companies that we don't recommend, but we've heard that other folks have used. And so we provide them, you know, the resources
▶ 23:52 Maya Jamaleddine: that they need to deal with those situations. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. Councilor Ro? Yes. I'd like to make a motion to move the bottom line. Second. Second. We have a motion, uh, made by Council Ro to move to bottom line, seconded by President LER Lee. Uh, on discussion, seeing none. Third clerk, Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councillor Abramsky. Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Elli. Yes. And Chair Jamaleddine? Yes. That motion passes. Thank you. Um, next we have Ordinance 2024 dash two, health revolving count number 26 59. Still with us. Um, thank you. Um, our revolving account, uh, remains, uh, similar usage to previous years.
▶ 24:49 Um, we use our revolving account almost exclusively for vaccine, uh, purchase. So this year we were able to provide flu clinics, uh, as we have in the past. Um, we will be, so we get reimbursed for every administration, so we generally break even. We don't, uh, we don't usually, uh, make much off of these, uh, um, vaccinations through insurance, but we're able to maintain that account and provide for vaccine clinics each year. Uh, we partner with Melrose Wakefield and Stone and provide regional clinics so small as well as, um, city specific, uh, clinics as well. We also have employee, uh, vaccination clinics offerings as well. Yeah. Any question? Councillor Ro Just to make a motion to move the bottom line,
▶ 25:34 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion to move to bottom line. I made by Councilor Ro Seconded by Councilor Romanul On discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Brosky? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you for being with us tonight. Thank you. Next, uh, number 6 31 Recreation. We have, um, They're coming. Hold on. Good evening. Um, before Mr. Olivieri and Mr. Gardner join you, I just wanted to provide two additional pieces of information re related to the recreation budgets you're about to discuss. I think, as you all know, in the choices from the buffet
▶ 26:24 Jen Grigoraitis: of bad options, um, I elected to zero out the recreation budget from the city budget this year and asked that department to live off of its revolving account. Um, it's not a great option. It is not a long-term sustainable option, but was one of the things that enabled us to put forward a balanced budget. It is something that is not, not going to be a thing that we can continue forever. The revolving account is healthy thanks to the really diligent work of Mr. Olivieri and the Park Commission over the years in, um, managing their program. So I wanna thank them for their work and also acknowledge that this is not, um, a solution that we hope to have in place for the long term. I also wanted to take a moment to thank Mr. Gardner
▶ 27:04 Jen Grigoraitis: for his nearly two decades of service on the Park commission, which he will be concluding at the end of this month. Um, and this is his final budget presentation. So congratulations. Um, he has obviously seen a great deal of expansion of programs and services in Melrose and his tenure, and we're very grateful for all that he did. So thank you. And now you can ask some Questions. Thank you madam, um, mayor, and I'd love to have both of you with us. Thank you for all the work that you've done. Mr. Gardner. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. Um, I think the mayor set the table appropriately. Um, we are probably one of the few departments that's here giving back money, um, on a budget request.
▶ 27:49 Um, but it was, uh, with some frank and earnest discussions we had with the mayor, and, um, we're comfortable with it. Um, primarily due to the fact that, uh, Mr. Olivieri has been a professional, uh, at his job for 16 years, and he's been able to develop a program in a revolving account that is essentially self-sustaining. Um, it's not a long-term solution, it is not anything that, um, will be be addressing again next year, I would imagine. But at the same time, we're willing to help out and give back to the city at this point for this particular year and address whatever problems we can do. Thank you. Sarah Oliver, do, would you like to add anything? Um, I'd just like to kind of thank Bill for his time.
▶ 28:33 I've, when I first came in, bill was here and it's gonna be, um, it's gonna be different not having him at the, at the park commission meetings. And so, thank Bill, thank you for all your support For go to. Yeah, Mostly good. Um, and yeah, I'm, I'm, to kind of echo what Bill was saying, um, we as well, I support kind of the position we're in to feel good about being able to contribute back to the city in this way, um, even in the short term. Um, and, uh, it's, it, we feel good that or feel confident that this upcoming fiscal year, we surely shouldn't see. We're gonna have to be a little bit more conservative with our approach, but we shouldn't see much of a decline in services. We plan to still operate at, at our full level and,
▶ 29:17 and not pull anything back from the community. So, um, kind of asking it back for any Questions. Thank you. Um, uh, Councillor Ra, so Can you just explain, I'm just, how will you sustain yourselves with, with all of this funding non-existent? It's, it's a good question I anticipated as well. Um, so the, the $84,000 that we have typically received in our budget only covers about 15% of what we do because we're, um, we have a, a more of a revenue generating model. That's why the recreation revolving fund, um, pretty much carries the other 85%. So when we first came in, programs started swell and we started to build. But as you start to create more and start to generate more revenue, that's what the department was able to kind of grow from there.
▶ 30:09 So over the 16 years that I've been here, and I can't really speak before then, um, we've, we have been lucky enough to finish in, in the black, as I say, because I kinda have to look at it that way with the revolving fund, when that much is, is being contributed to it through user fees and, and donations, things of those that nature. Um, we have been able to create a little bit of a surplus in our budget. Um, if you look at it on, on uni, it's a, it's a little bit, it's very inflated because we operate on a seasonal approach. So, for example, we've collected all of our summer money for all of our summer programs in advance, but the bills come due, the staff and the payroll come due. And so we continue to move through that.
▶ 30:52 Cal Finocchiaro: So we have to be careful of how much we have in our revolving fund to make sure we're able to cover any upcoming expenses. But the little cushion that we have in there for now should be, we feel, should be enough to at least get us through. Um, FY 25. Great. I mean, I know personally the rec department is, you know, has been there for my kids, so many programs that you offer. And so it'd be, you know, sad to see you not able to, you know, provide the same services. So I appreciate what you're doing. Um, I wish we could give you all of this money. Um, but thank you for doing that. Thank you. And I think the services will be still at the same height level Mm-Hmm. That you're talking about. Uh,
▶ 31:36 scholarships won't be affected. People who need help and, and, and some assistance with participating in the recreational activities. We've discussed that. We think we can still cover that for sure. Um, but you're right. I think the, the pandemic was the perfect example of, of how Frank operated the recreation department, uh, because of the fact we were doing more, uh, than most other cities and towns in this area, uh, with who we were generating programs despite the restrictions put on, you know, getting together and all that other stuff. So that, um, I think the city's just fortunate to have Frank at the helm because of the fact that I, that gives out me anyway, some confidence that we can sustain this coming year, um, with the issues
▶ 32:17 Devin Romanul: that we're facing in the city. Well, you guys do a great job. So thank you for all the You too. Thanks. Thank you. Councilor Romanul. Thank you. Uh, Madam Chairman, um, I, uh, first of all, wanna commend you all for building such a robust, uh, revolving fund and, and want to echo my colleagues' comments that this department has been so important for me and my kids. So, uh, congratulations on all that. This is perhaps a question for the mayor. Um, if, uh, since I'm sitting in Councilor Hamilton chair, I'm, uh, obligated to ask, um, I was gonna ask perhaps, uh, right, something about this seat, um, makes you want ask about potential, uh, revenue changes in the next couple of weeks. Um, uh, depending upon how the override goes, is there, um,
▶ 33:00 is this an opportunity to, uh, you know, what's the counterfactual for, for this particular stream of work? So, should the override pass, we would restore the Rev program, um, to where previous in budget. Excellent. That's, that's my only question. Thank you. Um, president Ali, Madam Chair, that was my question too. So I'm all set. And I'll just take the opportunity to thank you Mr. Gardner, for your years of service. My pleasure. Um, really appreciate that dedication. Appreciate It. Vice Chair Williams. Thank You. Um, I'll also thank you for your years of service and the time that I interface with the Park Commission. I always found you very agreeable and friendly, and it's always nice to talk to you.
▶ 33:40 Ryan Williams: And Mr. Veri, my kids, of course, use, uh, recreational services as well, and they love the sports that they play. So thank you for the good work that you've done. I want to ask, um, kind of the same question I asked of the health department. Uh, where do you see areas of improvement as a, where, where, what do you see the possibilities for improvement within the rec department? Um, there's The, one of the biggest issues we run into is, um, resources, obviously, but staffing's probably the biggest right now. We're a department of two and a half. Um, we run, probably this past year, we had over 8,000 participants, um, over 300 programs. The community's reaching out to us all the time for new programming.
▶ 34:26 Um, there's only so much we can do. There's only so much time and funds. And even if they, we set a fee for a program and there's the money for it. If the par, if the participants are there, there still needs to be internal staff to make sure that it's a quality program and it's run the right way so that all the complaints and all the dissatisfaction doesn't come back in. 'cause that's not what we were attempting to do. Right. We wanna put qual something out there that people are gonna really enjoy and be happy, not get frustrated. So staffing is definitely our biggest, our biggest issue. Um, just because we, in a lot of ways, we are really at our max of how many, how much the, any new programming that we can really bring in.
▶ 35:10 Maya Jamaleddine: Right? So that's kind of our ceiling is, is not the potential to bring in new programs. It's the ability to manage them successfully. That's our biggest concern right now. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Um, what is the role of the committee? A motion to move the bottom line. We have a motion to move to bottom line made, made by Vice Chair Williams, seconded by Councilor Romanul. On discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Brem. Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jammal Dean? Yes. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. And still in recreation. Um, department ordinance 2024 dash two,
▶ 35:59 recreation revolving account 26 52. Anything that you would like to add? Only thing I'd like to add is the, the rec, as I mentioned, recreation revolving fund is where everything comes in and out of for us. So we are able to collect summer registration fees through, through a system, and then be able to pay all, you know, through different fiscal years. So, um, the reason that the recreational revolving fund is a little bit of a higher fund in the city is because over the years, it's continued to grow with some of the success of adding new programs and more revenue coming in from user fees. Perfect. Vice Chair Williams. Um, I wanted to ask a point of clarification for the revolving funds. Do we move the bottom line
▶ 36:43 Ryan Williams: or do we motion to approve to the full council? Uh, I recommend for full council. We motion. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, I just wanted to say out loud for folks who aren't reading IQM two, that this revolving fund has $600,000 in it, which is fantastic. It is probably, I think, the largest source of non-enterprise revenue that the city has. So it's, it's great to see, um, the work that you've done, you know, together with the Park commission, um, to, to build that the way it is. It's really impressive. And I want to, I'm sorry, goes Out too. I can do it on discussion. Go ahead. No, No, no, go ahead. Sorry. I, I had a question about the revolving fund, actually, I'm just looking at the table.
▶ 37:21 Kimberly Vandiver: Um, and it looks like in the last year, um, it brought in $493,000. Um, and on the the funds table, it says there's a cap of 475,000 on expenses payable per year from the fund. So I was just wondering, in light of the budget, um, not being there if, if that was going to pose a challenge where you could not be able to pay out as much as you take in, in a year from the fund. And if that's something we need to adjust. I, I, I looked at that earlier and I, I felt fairly c confident that we were gonna be okay this upcoming year. Um, I might be back if needed depending on how things go, but I, I feel like the 450,000 will, will probably be sufficient For this upcoming year. Okay, great. But it's a, it's a good, it's a good pickup on,
▶ 38:08 On and over the years, it has moved. We've had to come back a couple of times to raise it, um, depending on various things we ran into, but for the most part it's been a consistent cap. Yeah. Great. Go ahead. Cool. A motion to those, send up to the full counsel to approve To the full counsel. Um, counselor, um, Reky, I just wanted a comment. I just think it's a, a minor miracle that you're making all this work, uh, with two and a half people because I deal with the recreation department, uh, quite a bit with my kids. And, um, you know, I interact with a lot of people who are involved with the recreation, uh, in Melrose and have never heard one complaint about any of it. So, uh, it's a credit to you and the one
▶ 38:51 and a half people that you're working with. Uh, hopefully we can get you some more support. Thank you. Thank, thank you. And I'd like to Rob Carillo and Julie Pino are the, the ones not here tonight that I have to really thank, because it, in, in our field, not to go off tangent here, but in our field, it requires evenings, it requires weekends, it requires holidays. And they, they are consistently make themselves available for this community. And so it's, it's, it's, you can't always find that. And so I'm, I feel very blessed to, to have work very closely with them. Well, lucky to have the three of you. Mm-Hmm. Thank you. Well, with all the, um, acknowledgement, uh, of the great work that your department, uh, have done, uh,
▶ 39:35 Maya Jamaleddine: what is the role of the committee? We have a Motion on the floor to, uh, send to the full council. Second, We, um, to recommend for the full council, we have a, uh, we have a, um, motion to recommend to the full council, uh, made by Vice Chair Williams, seconded by Counselor Romano. On discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Reky. Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor for Naro? Yes. President Mii? Yes. And Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you both. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thanks, chair. Next we have number 20, uh, 24 1, um, uh, for the inspection services with, uh, director Teleco. Good evening, everybody.
▶ 40:33 Um, thank you for the taking the time to kind of go through my, uh, my budget and, um, uh, just wanna go through some of the small, little, uh, line items. I, I put in my memo. Uh, basically this is a very busy department. Um, our staff is, is, uh, top notch. Um, their customer service is like so great and it's, it's, um, one, one of the best departments I've worked for. Um, we, uh, process more than 26, uh, hundred permits just, uh, as of, uh, May 1st. And we collected, uh, probably over, uh, the 1,000,005 that I had on, um, my memo. Um, uh, and annual fees. All that is, uh, attributed to the staff. I mean, they, the inspections that they do the, um, um, the services, their, um, you know, uh, customer service
▶ 41:34 with, with, uh, people calling in. It's just, uh, I can't say enough about them. Um, we did try to reduce the budget this year through over, uh, a little bit, through overtime, through, um, 5% decrease. Um, hopefully that won't affect, um, uh, emergency calls. Um, we do work with the fire department a lot with, uh, downlines, mostly the electrical issues. Uh, so we'll get a lot of calls from the fire department where I will send out the, uh, electrical inspector to kind of do, uh, overtime with, um, making sure that everything's safe, uh, at those, um, those incidences. Um, I guess that's it. I mean, I really hasn't changed from last year. Um, take any questions that you guys may have. Thank you. Any question from my colleagues?
▶ 42:30 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. Seeing none, what is the will of the committee Motion to move to the bottom Line? We have a motion to move to bottom line made by Councillor Vandiver, seconded by Councillor Ro On discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councilor Abramsky? Yes. Councillor Vandiver? Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro? Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal? Yes. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next ordinance 2024 dash two Inspection Services revolving account number 26 58. And still with you, Mr. Kar? So, um, just the, i the account, uh, right now is, um, shows, um, shows around $6,000 left than that. We are allocated 15,000 per year. We use these funds for certificate of inspections, um,
▶ 43:33 Cal Finocchiaro: the, um, equipment that we need to, to do the work, um, uh, certificates from and training, printing. Um, kind of summarize it in my, in my memo. Um, it's, um, it's used basically for, uh, inspection of all, uh, churches, assembly areas, multifamily homes. Um, I can take any questions on that too. It hasn't changed from last year either. Thank you. Councilor Ra and next. Councillor Vandiver. I actually don't have a question. I just wanted to say, we kind of pushed through there, your our last, um, your budget. But I just wanted to say thank you as a resident, as as a counselor. Your department's been great. Anytime I call questions or handling an issue with either resident or just my own stuff, you guys have been great.
▶ 44:27 So I just wanna say thank you. Thank you. Councilor Vanderberg. Uh, I thank you. I was just wondering about the revolving fund, um, uh, where the, you said there's 15,000 a year allocated there, if that's coming from the state or from the city or, or where the money goes into the account from. So, um, so the, the, the, the way it was handled prior to, we, we have these city hall systems that now all the money just kind kind of goes through, uh, one, uh, one entity. Um, prior to that, we used to physically get checks, so we were able to kind of allocate those checks to where they needed to go. Um, since I took over, um, those one 10 inspections or those certificate of inspections have been all being pooled into one in,
▶ 45:19 into the general fund. Um, so every, so every year, whatever's been left over has kind of rolled over the year to the next year. We're getting to a point where it's getting low. Um, and, uh, working with the auditor's department, I think we've figured out a way to, uh, identify the, um, one 10 inspections and start putting that money into a separate account. Okay. Great. Just curious about, yeah. That Flowing. Yeah, it's, it's been a crazy number. It's been fluctuating and, um, I, you know, I, I didn't know how it was working either until we, we sat down with Kerry and kind of went through it and, um, and Patty actually picked it up because City Hall Systems is just lumping everything together.
▶ 46:05 Ryan Williams: Um, and, uh, we always assumed that everything was being, uh, allocated, but it wasn't. Okay. Yeah. That, that makes sense. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Vice Chair Williams. Okay. I'm, I'm gonna try hard not to ask the same question 'cause I'm not sure I totally understand. Uh, if it's the answer, if that was what I'm about to ask. Um, with the revolving funds, uh, we tend to see them be like mini enterprise funds, right? They get revenue from some source and then they have some kind of recurring, unpredictable expense. And so we pair 'em together. But I, it's not just inspection. There are other accounts here too that don't seem to have any natural source of revenue. Um, does the inspection services revolving fund have a
▶ 46:49 natural source, uh, of outside revenue other than the $15,000 that the city puts into it? We actually produce a lot more than that. Uh, our, our revenue for a certificate of inspections per year, that's every structure in the city that's not a one or two family home Yeah. Is, is, uh, inspected. So we are actually way above that. We, we only allocate, we only take in 15,000 just, just to, um, compensate for those, for those, uh, line items that I, I mentioned earlier. So you're putting that 15,000 just in that revolving account. You have like over a million and it's in the memo, I believe it's something to around $75,000 probably annually that, uh, um, that gets brought in. Okay. Into the revolving fund.
▶ 47:37 Ryan Williams: Into, no, not into that revolving fund. Certificate of inspections generate around $75,000. Okay. Got it. Out of that, we are allocated 15,000. Okay. I guess my, my question, it may not be for you, it might be for the mayor. I, I don't, sometimes I'm a little, um, unsure of why the revolving funds exist in some cases, in some cases, like the rec department, it's very clear to me in other cases where you have like a revolving fund with $3,000 in it. I'm kind of like, why don't we just have a budget line? And I don't, I don't know why that is. Well, I inherited it that way, so I, I wouldn't be able to answer that question. So I Yeah. That, that's, I'm not gonna pursue. I Mean, I guess it makes sense if you, if it, um, you know,
▶ 48:18 kind of, so every city and town needs to do their one 10 inspections and I mean, it, it makes sense sometimes to separate that, those funds to use them in other ways since you, you know, they're not building permits. Mm-Hmm. Um, so you kinda wanna separate and see how, how what, what you're getting out of those. Well, alright. Anyway, um, I appreciate it. So thanks for the information. I'm done. Thank You. Any other question? Seeing none, what is the will of the committee Motion To councilor VAN V? Oh, no. Nope. Go ahead. Uh, uh, motion to approve for the full council. Um, we have a motion made by Councilor Vandiver to recommend to the poll council. Second. Seconded by councilor uh, Romano. On discussion.
▶ 49:09 Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Mki? Yes. Uh, Councillor Vandiver? Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor naca? Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal? Yes. That motion passes. Thank you. Thank You. Next we have, uh, department nine 15 retirement, uh, by Chairman Lyle. Good evening Counsel. Good evening. Michael Lyle, chair. Mr. Winky, director, any questions about the appropriation? Um, would like to hear from you first. Um, Thank you about, thank you for the opportunity. Um, the retirement board handles approximately 1,150 active retirees, um, as well as inactives, um, a budget of approximately $300,000 for operational. And, um, I dunno if everybody had got a copy of
▶ 50:26 our, um, retirement board appropriation of 7 million, excuse me, 7 million 5 17, 679, uh, for, for this fiscal year. Um, there are, there are two employees in there. One full-time, one part-time. Adam is, is the full-time, as well as, uh, his assistant Kristen. Um, Awesome. Anything You'd like to add? No, that's it. That's the number seven. So it's the 7 million, uh, 517, 679 is made up by the city and the housing. So the city's actual portion is 7 million 366 574 and that will be billed in July. Perfect. Thank you. Um, any question from my colleagues? Councilor Van Devin? Uh, thank you. Uh, could you repeat what you just mentioned about the breakdown between the city and what was the other portion there?
▶ 51:24 Melrose Housing. So you have the appropriation by governmental unit, so it's the city and the housing. That's what makes up each line item of the unfunded liability for the appropriation every year. Okay. Yep. Any other question? Seeing none, what is the will of the committee Motion To move The bottom line? We have a motion to move to bottom line made by Councillor Reky. Seconded. Second By Councillor Mano. On discussion. Seeing none, Mr. ler, Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councilor Reky? Yes. Councilor Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Van Naro? Yes. President GL Yes. And Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. That motion passes unanimously. Thank You. You thank you for being with us tonight. Thank you.
▶ 52:16 Um, next is, uh, number 6 52 Pine Banks. We have Okay. Information. Hi, this was in and Hi. Hi Sue. Um, I'm here tonight. 'cause I guess, um, when the budget was before the city council in May, there were just some questions about how, what Pine Banks presents, um, to the city and what is presented in Munis. So I'm just here to kind of clarify, um, some of that. So the Pine Bank's budget is broken down into three components. Um, staff expenses and capital sue the staff, um, on the city of Melrose budget represents a hundred percent of the cost, but we share that cost with Malden. They reimburse us for that. So that money comes in as a local receipt, um, and as an offset to the budget, but it's not reflected, um, in that total cost.
▶ 53:28 Um, so along with the other costs for staff are benefits that they reimburse us for. Mm-Hmm. So when, um, pine Banks puts together this budget, they put together the cost for both cities. So, um, for Malden they have to reimburse us the 50% of the benefit cost. So that's part of the budget as well. Um, and so I think there was some confusion just trying to roadmap that the budget book that Pine Banks puts together, um, to them unis report. Um, so I think the confusion was probably around the staff. I had provided a memo that, um, did a crosswalk from the Pine Banks book to the Eunice report. Um, and so last year for fiscal 24, when Pine Banks put forth the budget, they put forth, um, a capital expense.
▶ 54:25 Um, and it was three items. And so that was part of the operating budget for Pine Banks. But um, the funding source is kind of up to us. So where it was a one-time, capital expense, we funded that through a free cash order in fiscal 23. Um, so the increase to the Pine Bank's budget isn't as great as the muni report shows 'cause this is a budgetary basis. Um, so the increase is showing like a 22% increase. It's really a 1.74% increase. Thank you. Sorry folks. Yeah, No, I apologize for not being you here to kind of do that crosswalk. 'cause it's really two different things. It's what Pine Banks presents and Yeah. Um, what we present in Munis. So, and It's all important and we appreciate you willing to come back to the chamber
▶ 55:19 Ryan Williams: for the sake of transparency and for the public so they will understand how the breakdown is. Um, vice Chair Williams. Thank you. I'm getting, I'm getting used to having you here. I'm, yes. Yeah. I'm hoping that you'll come back maybe on occasion. Just, just a visit. My family knows Where I Am. That's right. Um, Thank you for providing the crosswalk. Okay. It was really helpful. I appreciate it very much. Um, I want a motion to move the bottom line on this for nine 30. One second. Sorry. Is it 9 31? We have a motion made by Vice Chair Williams to move to bottom line. Seconded by Cremsky on discussion. President Elli. Thank you. Sorry for maybe beating a dead horse here. So just, just trying to understand that the,
▶ 56:15 in the memo Ms. Golden that you had the second page. Yes. It totals up like a 22% increase. Yes. That's including not, it's concluding two other budgets. So it's like well you're actually, it's not Sorry. You're taking money out of the 9 31, putting it into 6 52. Yes. Yes. So I consolidated the budgets. Um, so it's all represented in 6 52. Okay. Um, but what did happen in fiscal 24? There were, uh, three capital items that totaled $86,000 Okay. That were part of the Pine Banks, um, budget presentation to us last year. And we funded that through free cash. So, um, it's kind of skewing the increase a little bit. Got it. Okay. Thank you. I don't, it was just helpful to have you say it another way.
▶ 57:08 Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Clark, Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Councilor Bruski? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor for naca? Yes. President Elli. Yes. And Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Um, um, councilor Osky, Uh, Um, No motion to hold. Sorry. Thank you to Appropriation. We have, we need a motion to approve. Oh, we have a motion to approve it. No, mayor. Yes, go ahead, please. It's since tonight's the last night for budget hearings, we have to approve the whole budget in full and approve the revolving fund in full. This is the last night. I didn't know that. So since tonight is the last, um, hearings, we have to, um, make a motion to approve,
▶ 58:08 Maya Jamaleddine: um, so we can vote on it at the, yeah. Okay. Full city council. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve order. Uh, 2024 dash 25. Yes. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion made by Councilor Vandiver. Um, and seconded by Vice Chair Williams, uh, to, uh, uh, recommend appropriation 2024 dash 25 fiscal 2025 operating budget in the amount of $104,140,412. On discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Reky? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor naca? Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next, uh, we, um, I would like to entertain a motion to, um, also, uh, recommend Ordinance 2024 dash two reauthorization
▶ 59:13 Maya Jamaleddine: of the city of Merose, revolving upon table for fiscal 2025. So Moved. Seconded. We have a motion made by Vice Chair Williams, seconded by Councilor Romanul. On discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk? Vice Chair. Vice Chair Williams. Well, yes. Councillor Reky? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Nicaro. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal? Yes. That motion passes unanimously. Yay. Thank you. Um, councilor Reky, I Move to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn made by Councilor Reky. Seconded by Councilor Ro. And discussion. Seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We adjourn.