Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2025-05-12
Attendance
Cal Finocchiaro ; Mark Garipay ; Ward Hamilton ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Manjula Karamcheti ; Leila Migliorelli ; John Obremski ; Devin Romanul ; Robb Stewart ; Kimberly Vandiver ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 12, 2025 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Budget Hearing 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Maya Jamaleddine Vice Chair Late 7:32 PM Cal Finocchiaro Present Ward Hamilton Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Absent Devin Romanul Present Robb Stewart Present Kimberly Vandiver Present Ryan Williams Present Leila Migliorelli President, Ex Oficio Present Mark Garipay Chair Present
(ID # 12678) Operating Budgets (City, School, Regional School) Fiscal Year 2026 Operating Budget in the amount of $107,575,802. Hold Appropriations & Oversight Committee City of Melrose Page 1 5/13/2025 3:22 PM
Transcript
▶ 13:56 Mark Garipay: Motion made by Counselor Occhio. Second. Second by Councillor Vandiver. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Alright, we are adjourned. Thank you. This is gonna be fun. The time is 7:00 PM on Monday, May 12th, 2025. This is a meeting in the Appropriation in Oversight Committee. I'm Mark Oppe, the chair. Um, joining me tonight are Councilors Machete, councilor Williams, councilor Hamilton, councilor, uh, Al Councilor uc, chiro Council Councilor Ver Councilor Stewart and President, uh, Melli. This serves as a, uh, notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with Open Meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. Um, we will move on to public comment. I'll motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for,
▶ 14:56 Mark Garipay: uh, for public comment. Seeing no objections, we are open for public comment. This is the portion of the meeting where anyone in the, in the public or may speak on any item on tonight's agenda, expressing any viewpoint, uh, on other matters are also welcome. If there's anyone in the audience or gallery that would like to come up and speak, please do. Seeing no one in the gallery. Is there anyone online? There is not. There are no objections. I'll motion by unanimous consent to close the public comment portion of the meeting. Public comment is now closed. All righty. Moving on. Uh, we're on two, uh, department budget presentations. And first up we have, uh, department 1 51, uh, city solicitor, and we have City Solicitor Phillips with us.
▶ 15:45 Good evening. Welcome. Great. The second time tonight. Thank you. Good evening Council, um, the City Solicitor's Office, um, functions as a full-time law office, which all of you know, providing legal services to the mayor, city council, school, department, department heads, boards and committees, and other municipal employees in the city. Our staff of, as of this year, two employees, includes myself and the assistant city solicitor for schools and Labor, Amy Lindquist. Um, we deal with a variety of legal matters on behalf of the city on a daily basis. So between myself and Ms Lindquist, we handle labor matters and negotiations related to the 12 collective bargaining units in the city. This year, we were able to resolve eight agreements
▶ 16:23 and are now current on all collective bargaining agreements in the city through beginning of next fiscal year. We also regularly advise on a variety of different legal issues, such as zoning, employment, labor, title ix, civil service permitting and licensing ethics, open meeting law. We assist in drafting legislation for council school committee policies, review and draft contracts, releases, uh, deeds provide help and representation related to code enforcement and assist the city, um, HR department in implementing best practices and policies and city operations. Since February of last year, um, public records requests have been centralized through, uh, my office since last July. My office, uh, between myself
▶ 17:00 and attorney Linquist, have handled around 200 public records requests from the public, some quick responses, others requiring hours of redactions or review, all of which have required coordinating and cooperating with other city departments and gathering and responding with relevant, uh, documentation. My office has implemented the next request software platform this year, um, for the city, which has streamlined public records management, response time, and communications. It also gives us the ability, um, in the near future, we can publish every public records request received and every response for easy access of constituents. So they can go and possibly find a document or a record that and make them so they don't have
▶ 17:36 to submit their own request if they find what they're looking for. Um, in addition, this past year, our new insurance agency has been able to improve a variety of policies and practices within the city. Our insurance reviews and helps draft, uh, certificates for every type of contract has helped us institute better motor vehicle safety and training policies for employees and other departments to ensure the city's in the best position liability wise. Um, so as discussed in detail in my written memo to council prior to tonight's meeting, the budget for my office for fiscal 26 has decreased, um, for this coming year. The two major reasons for the decrease are the elimination of my executive assistant role in the office, um,
▶ 18:12 which was filled by JI Uni, um, prior to her becoming city clerk. Um, that has had an impact, um, in my office and will continue to. Obviously the absence of that individual, um, has resulted in myself and assistant city solicitor and Linquist having to do a variety of more administrative type tasks. Public records management, claims management, um, so anytime we get a claim coordinating with various departments, communicating with a claims adjuster, et cetera. Um, and obviously being the, the face of the office if any constituent needs assistance, my office also has to be closed whenever I'm in meetings, whereas before there would be a person at the front able to help residents. Um, also in the past few years,
▶ 18:49 our office has spent considerably less on office supplies and, and printing supplies, which I believe is why that expenses line item has also been decreased over the past two years. The only increases for this coming year, as you'll see in the budget line items, are for the third year of our contract with LexisNexis, which is the legal research database, um, and for property casualty insurance. So, as you may have noticed, my office holds the insurance policy for the entire city. So that includes schools. Um, and that accounts for the majority of, uh, the budget that's before you right now this year. There's an estimated increase of 4.4% over last year's projected costs. Um, I can say that's related to
▶ 19:25 and discussing with our insurance agent. The property reinsurance market, as I know I talked about a little bit about last year, um, is dealing with a little bit of everything that they pass along. The premium increases off to the cities and towns as well as with other insureds. Um, we've added, um, the new library building, um, onto our property policy, which has caused an increase, an estimated increase in the premium. Um, and there are also other coverages they've told me, um, such as auto replacement of parts, general liability, property damage that have been increased as a result of tariffs, um, in the marketplace. Um, I believe that's all I have for you. If counsel has any questions, I'm happy
▶ 20:04 Leila Migliorelli: to answer it related to the budget. Any questions from the council? President Melee Riley. Thank you. Um, Ms. Phillips for being here. Just have a question on public records requests. So, uh, you mentioned an increase. There's really nothing that, you know, that's an increase you have to take on no matter what. So people are submitting public records requests. It could be more, it could be less. It has, that's not something you have control over. The only, I just wanna confirm that the only, um, sort of stipulation or, or you know, like end point is, and if somebody, um, submits a request, it's gonna take in excess of a certain amount of time and hours. Is that correct? That is correct. So the first two hours would be free.
▶ 20:48 Leila Migliorelli: After that, we can charge and we would wait to receive payment before we respond to the request. Mm-hmm. But it could be a number of hours. I just had one last week that was a four hour request that probably it, it ended up we charging for four, but it was obviously a six hour, seven hour request. Um, so they, it just depends on what comes in the door that we have to respond to. So you Could, you know, one year get like 20 requests or, you know, two year, two requests in a different year. Um, but you just have you, your, you know, staff of, of you or have to take that on yourself no matter what. Um, but the, there is a cost to residents if or whomever who's requesting, um, Yes, after the first two hours.
▶ 21:27 Okay. Yeah. And you can charge up to $25 an hour without a waiver from the supervisor. So that's normally what the city does. Okay. Thank you. Any, uh, other counsels have any questions? Council Vanderberg. Thank You. Uh, you mentioned the impact of tariffs on the insurance rate. Um, given that that situation is going back and forth, is that something you expect could come out of the insurance rate or is that now locked for the year? We are not locked in on a cost. So what's before you tonight is like, it was last year is their best estimate. So it's a conservative estimate. She gives us higher numbers than hopefully we're, we're expecting. Um, we won't actually know the final number until the end
▶ 22:10 Mark Garipay: of June on our insurance policy, unfortunately, so that it's all subject to fluctuation. Understood. Thank you. All set. Counsel Stewart? Uh, thank you Mr. Chair. I'll make a motion to move to the bottom line. Second, We have a motion to move, uh, department 1 5 1 city solicitor motion to move the bottom line by Council Stewart. Second, I make Councilor McNaught on discussion. All in favor? A. Aye. Opposed? That bottom line will be moved. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Next up we have department six 11, the library, and we have, um, Ms. Gardner with us. Welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you for having me tonight. Um, I am the public library department representing, uh, which we provide public library services
▶ 23:15 to the entire community. That is, um, it's a gathering space, it's books, it's periodicals, um, variety of formats. We provide reference services and programs as we're able, uh, along with things like museum passes that people can use in cultural institutions. Uh, I would like to begin by acknowledging and thanking my library staff. Uh, they always work to provide services to the community to the best of their ability, and I feel they do an excellent job of welcoming people into the library and providing professional assistance to the patron's needs. The past few years have been both rewarding and challenging, uh, while we developed creative solutions to working in Abibi. Uh, and then they worked really hard to close the Bibi,
▶ 24:09 participate in the move back to West Emerson and welcome people into the new space they have done and are doing great work. And I'm always proud to call my colleagues. I had hoped that at this exciting time we would be talking about an aspirational budget that would fully fund the library in a way that allows us to maximize the advantages of a building that we now have. Instead, we are looking at a challenging year where a full-time position will be left vacant and the hours that we are open to the public will be reduced. The library department's fiscal year 26 budget submission reflects the reduced budget necessary due to the city's fiscal constraint constraints. The majority of our cut comes from that position
▶ 24:59 that is now vacant or will be vacant. Um, I would also like to note that while the line for our books shows a $5,000 increase from the original fiscal 25 budget, um, in fiscal 25, $15,000 was transferred into the budget during the year from the library's fees account, we will not be able to do that in fiscal 26. So that line will actually be $10,000 below the adjusted budget. The final budget, um, trustee state aid donation and friends funds will be used to help cover anticipated needs not covered by the budget, although they cannot fix the budget entirely and erase the challeng challenges that we're facing. And I'm happy to answer any questions, Any questions from, uh, any of the counselors?
▶ 26:04 Counselor, uh, Ramal, Thank you so much. Um, uh, thank you for joining us and for the, uh, memo. It's answered a lot of questions that I had going in, but you referred to an aspirational budget. I was wondering if you just might walk us through what that quickly, what that looks like. Not terribly specific because we knew well before we went into planning that we were not going to have that. Um, but we had hoped for additional staffing. I think last year I mentioned, um, additional teen librarian. Um, we do have a teen librarian, but she cannot cover all the hours that the teen room is open. So that would've been a part-time position that would have helped us have actual staff in the room, uh,
▶ 26:52 Manjula Karamcheti: after school evenings, Saturdays. Um, and we had also hoped to have some additional staff to help us be able to do more programming, meet the demands that we were seeing really since before covid. Great. Thank you very much. Any other questions? I'm sorry. Uh, councilor Chen, Um, I'm actually okay with my questions, but I did wanna say thank you for all of your efforts with the library, um, and the journey that you've been on over the past couple years. Uh, it is a beautiful space and sorry that you're looking at cuts right now. Um, I know that's heartbreaking for you, um, but I was just gonna make a motion to move the bottom line. Second, Second, second. Okay. We have a motion to move the bottom line
▶ 27:44 Mark Garipay: by Councilor Kevin, seconded by Councilor Ro. Yes. The right side. Yep. Um, on discussion, uh, I had, I just had one question regarding the teen librarian. Um, what are the hours currently of the teen librarian? Are they more in during the day or are they in the afternoon? So it's, uh, the full-time person that we have now, the position is split. It's a teen librarian, but they're focused at the circulation desk. So it's really where we, where we can with staffing. Um, preferably in the afternoons, you know, that prime after school hour as much as we can, we want that person in the room. Um, the position works every other Friday and Saturday. All of the full-time positions do. So depending on the day, honestly,
▶ 28:45 and whether we have the coverage, if we can get the person into that teen room, that's what we do. But if we don't have coverage at the circulation desk, the main desk, that's where they are. Ideally, we would really like to have staff coverage in a teen room every Saturday. Um, especially since, uh, just the physical set up my, uh, administrative offices or on the other side of the teen room. So we do have some oversight during, during the regular week, but that those offices are closed on a Saturday. So it would be nice to be able to, um, have more oversight. Okay. Thank you. Uh, anyone else on discussion? Council Stewart? Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you. Do you entertain, um, any volunteer help at the library?
▶ 29:37 We do have volunteer help, but not for the primary roles that the staff do behind the desk. There are all kinds of, um, confidentiality issues, work issues, but we do have volunteers. We have, in the past we didn't so much, um, when we were at the BB because just the space, it wasn't as necessary. Um, we have in the past, and I would certainly look into this again, had a really great, um, joint volunteer opportunity with, uh, summer reading programs, signups, where we had, um, some of the task work off people, um, working in tandem with some of our teen staff and volunteers. Um, and they all have a really great time with that collaboration. Just looking for some creative ideas for you. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you
▶ 30:37 Councilor Shady. Um, one thing that just popped up for me. Are you still, are you able to run the page program through the salaries and wages? Yes. You're okay. I know that's been a great opportunity for you. Yes. So Glad to hear that that is still able to happen. Council of Vandiver. Thank You. Uh, I just wanted to ask on behalf of a couple of other parents of toddlers, um, if there's any, um, expectation of specific items or programming. I know some of the area libraries have, you know, a train table or some like physical items in that area? Yes, we, um, we actually just ordered very excitingly building blocks. Um, we are going to have programs in the, uh, items and the friends are helping us with that.
▶ 31:24 Mark Garipay: Um, we kind of specifically waited until we were in the space so that we could watch traffic flow. We didn't wanna put something somewhere that wound up being exactly where everybody was trying to walk past and that kind of thing. So yes, it will be evolving as the year goes. That's great to hear. But we'll be pleased about that. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? We have a motion on the floor on discussion. Um, all all in favor? Aye. Opposed? This will get recommended. The bottom line will get recommended to the whole budget, I guess. Thank you very much. Thank You. Okay. Moving right along tonight, department 1 52 human resource. We have Ms, uh, Lato of us. Good evening and welcome. Good evening.
▶ 32:18 Good evening. It's my pleasure to be here today, tonight to present the Human Resources Department, uh, budget. The budget has been, uh, created with the collaboration from the, uh, CFO Mayor's office. And, um, I will, uh, briefly discuss just what we do day to day and then go through, uh, the different, uh, budgets that I have. So the Human Resources Department is the employer for the city. We are, um, we interact with the employees and retirees, uh, every step of the lifecycle of their employment. We support them with, we support with recruiting, hiring, administering benefits, um, assisting during changes, life events, um, workers' compensation claims. We ensure compliance with federal and state, um, regulations.
▶ 33:13 And we, um, uphold the terms of the collective bragging agreements as well as help, uh, employees and department heads interpret the implement menu and different policies that we have. And overall, our goal is to create, um, workplace and culture that fosters respect and inclusivity so that every employee can, um, succeed. I am not able to do that alone. Uh, so I want to, um, thank my staff. Um, Diane Barrett, she's the HR coordinator, Matt TRAs, who is the HR assistant. He's also the mayor's a DA appointment to the Commissioner on disability. And as I said earlier, I work very closely with the auditor's office, legal department, and the mayor's office. And I'm very, um, grateful for their partnership and support.
▶ 34:05 Over the past fiscal year. Uh, the HR department has focused on aligning our policies, procedures, our system to modernize them and align them to be more, um, equitable, uh, to create more equitable workplace that's legally sound and efficient. And we have been able to do that by, um, improving our a DA capacity building on it. So, um, we are have worked very closely with the Commission on Disability to update our policies to create a DA guide, uh, offer customer service training for employees. Uh, right now we are also working on applying for, um, a grant with them just to enhance accessibility and inclusion. And we are, um, I have already requested, uh, to hire a SL Interpreters Deaf Interpreters in card services
▶ 35:02 for the high school graduation. So, uh, hoping to hear from them, uh, very soon. Uh, another way that we have tried to modernize our system systems is through updating the employment manual. Uh, this has been, um, work that I have done together with, um, city solicitor. In the mayor's office. We have worked on aligning the current laws, the, um, to improve the clarity. We have revised, um, lots of our policies just to support proactive risk management, as well as reinforce the city's core values. So what that means is we have 16 new policies, uh, 16 updated policies, and we pretty much clarify the language in almost every section of the employment manual. Uh, in the policies, we try to embed the principles of the,
▶ 35:51 of DEI, um, any anywhere from the code of conduct to fair hiring practices, to floating holidays, uh, performance management procedures, inter harassment and so on, and really trying to promote workplace where, uh, we can promote equitable treatment, support diverse needs, and again, ensure that employees have access to opportunities in advancement. Another accomplishment over, uh, this past fiscal year has been to, again, build an organization, uh, based on ac accountability, professionalism, and leadership. And we've done this by offering professional development opportunities to our managers and employees. Uh, we have offered management in unionized environment training, um, that goes over effective supervision day-to-day, uh,
▶ 36:40 management, as well as, um, addressing misconduct, discrimination, harassment. And we are really trying to prepare our managers and department heads to know how to handle these, uh, difficult challenging situations when they occur. We have offered investigations training and also, uh, mandatory sexual harassment training separately for managers and for employees. Furthermore, um, another way that we have tried to, um, realize, um, efficiencies and, um, kind of, uh, transparency is through changing our benefit deduction schedule, which we're about to implement. And what that means is that instead of taking benefit deductions out of every single paycheck that employees have, we are shifting to taking four deductions per month out
▶ 37:37 of the weekly, uh, paychecks and two deductions per month out of the biweekly paychecks. So what that does is it allows to have exactly the same amount of benefit premiums taken out, uh, of employees every single month. Uh, it helps with, uh, reducing payroll complexities, it helps with reducing risks and helps also employees to be able to budget better, um, as well. In order to do that, it had not been easy. We had to impact bargain with all unions of the city and, uh, the school. And I'm happy to report that. Um, we are going to be implementing it coming up Additionally, the Human Resources Department, um, in an effort to realize some cost savings measures, uh, we piloted a retiree optout program,
▶ 38:31 and according to this program, any, any retiree that's non-Medicare eligible, um, could potentially, um, apply for the OPTOUT program, not take Citi C'S health insurance. And we were hoping to realize savings as a result up to 800,000. Um, unfortunately it didn't happen this year, and I think that has a lot. Um, that says a lot about the strong benefit value of our benefits that we offer. However, we're going to continue promoting and marketing this, uh, program for any new retirees because as we know, it's much easier to make this decision when you are at a crossroad of retirement versus when you've already been joining a great health plan. So, uh, this is on the, um, health insurance side.
▶ 39:21 Um, the health insurance budget has been, um, reduced due to the fact that, I'm sorry, not the health insurance. The human resources budget has been reduced, uh, due to the fact that we have moved as you, uh, are aware, two line items related to, um, employment to staffing. Uh, we have shifted them to free cash. Uh, and that's the advertising and, uh, physical exams line item. Uh, we've shifted them to free cash because we are not planning given the, um, challenging fiscal, uh, situation. We're not planning on doing, uh, recruitment and, um, pre-employment exams. And as a result, uh, it'll help alleviate some of the stress on the operations budget. Um, other than that, the human resources, um, as a result,
▶ 40:16 the human resources budget has been reduced. Um, I don't know if you'd like me to continue talking about the other budgets or We'll take one, we'll take one at A time, one at A time, and we'll move. Um, okay. Any questions? Uh, from the Council on Human Resource Council, Vanover, I'd like to motion To move the bottom line. Second, we Have a motion to move the bottom line by Council of Vandiver, seconded by Council Ram Al. I'll get it. I'm telling you I have trouble, um, on discussion. Council Stewart? Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Lauder. Uh, I'm just, I'm, I'm, um, looking, get a little information on the workers' compensation budget that you have level set for, uh, several years. And you say that most of it is going to, excuse
▶ 41:16 Mark Garipay: Me, counsel Stewart, are you go? It's going to workman's comp. Yeah. Are we, we we're just gonna vote each one individually, If you don't mind. Okay, no worries. Sorry. Okay. Um, so we have a motion on the floor on discussion. Uh, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Human resource 1 52. Um, bottom line has been moved. Next up, we are gonna go to nine 12 Workman's compensation. Um, Ms. Lana. Okay. So, um, the workers' compensation budget is largely unpredictable. Um, over the past, um, several years, we have been, um, level funding. Uh, however, um, the new administration, we, we had looked at what we have spent on workers' comp over the past several years, and pretty much every year without, um, missing
▶ 42:11 I come to you around this time asking for more money. So what, uh, the decision has been made that we, um, increase the workers' compensation benefits line item by, uh, 17% or 34,000. So the workers' compensation benefit line item, um, this year, fiscal 25, 80 7% of what was budgeted is already allocated for three long-term benefit recipients. Um, so 175,000 of the 200,000 that we have for fiscal year 25, that's already, um, basically fixed expense that's allocated to, um, permanent benefit recipients. And that leaves not too much about 25,000 for any new claims that come up. So, um, as a result, uh, looking at, um, the budget and analyzing the trends, um, we have increased the workers' comp benefits line item,
▶ 43:19 Robb Stewart: and everything else has stayed the same. Thank you. Um, just one question. Uh, can you just, uh, repeat that dollar amount that you said is fixed. It's 175,000 Thank you. Is already allocated through three permanent benefit recipients. Thank you. Uh, any counsels Counsel, Stewart? First and Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now I'll ask my Question. Um, so on this work, um, 87%, so it says the level funded, but in 24 it was 2 35, and then 25 it was 200. So now we're back up to 2 34. So more or less it, we're just going back to what we originally had back in 24. Well, um, we could have increased it more, but we are considering the fact that there are some layoffs on the school side. So taking that into consideration, the tool impact
▶ 44:22 the budget, uh, could impact, I should say, the budget for fiscal year 26, since we do have a lot of, um, school injuries. Sure. So just trying to understand this though, 1 75 is already committed. So basically you only had 25, but we had 40 the previous year. Um, just trying to get a feel for if you're gonna come back again or, uh, Are you, are you asking for fiscal year 25? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yes, I, um, I'm actually going to be coming back again for about 50,000. Okay. That's, that's, that's where I was going. Yes. Yes. I will be coming back again. Um, we do have, um, one long one recipient who has been out for the whole fiscal year, and the benefits for this one employee is 57,000. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, I will be coming in few weeks.
▶ 45:14 Devin Romanul: Okay. That's, that's where I was going. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Uh, councilor Romanul, Thanks so much for the information and, uh, for the consideration, um, and allowing some of the free cash requests. But I, I wanted to ask if you had a sense of the ballpark of what the average free cash request has been that over every single year? You mentioned, you alluded to coming back every year. I just wanna make sure that we're allotting enough For your purposes. Um, it, I can tell you not precisely, but it has been anywhere between 20 to 30, 40,000. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you, council Vandiver. Thank you. Um, is there anything I, I don't know what typical is, and I,
▶ 45:58 I know workers' compensation injuries happen. Mm-hmm. Are we, do you have a sense of, is this kind of typical for the number of employees we have? Or is there something we could do to prevent injuries or anything like that along those lines? Sure. Yeah, that, that's a good question. Um, so with workers' compensation, there's, um, paying of the claims, which is somewhat, it's reactive, and then there's things that we can do prior to that. Uh, so more of a proactive approaches. So some of the things we have done, um, during the year, uh, as a, I guess cost control tools, you could, you could call them, is, um, offering trainings to school DPW City employees. Um, and by offering trainings, I mean, um,
▶ 46:45 trainings related to, for example, heat exhaustion, um, sleeps, falls like sharing materials, sharing trainings with DPW webinars that become available, but also training, uh, the managers and the supervisors to know how to handle if an incident does happen. So, um, while we have had, for example, a lot of reports of incidents, um, and I can give you the, the number, uh, it's actually a good thing that we are trying to capture, uh, these claims before they turn into something that we cannot control. So, like in fiscal year, uh, 25, we've had, we have entered 105 new claims. Uh, so out of these 105, uh, claims right now, uh, for fiscally 25, we have only five that are currently open. So just because we are entering
▶ 47:38 claims is actually a good thing. It doesn't mean we are paying, um, you know, each claim because it may not result in time loss or in medicals. Uh, other things that we are doing, we have, um, as I said, established procedures. We investigate claims, uh, we follow up actions to prevent future incidents. So we work very closely with the city departments and with school departments. Uh, in addition, we have through our, um, workers' comp, um, third party administrator, they have provided utilization review. So every claim, uh, that has a request for, let's say, physical therapy, they will review to ensure that that's actually really needed. So we assign nurse case managers, um, we have medical bill reviews, we have regular meetings
▶ 48:26 with our adjusters, again, trying to control, um, kind of proactively manage the more complex claims. We also have done, um, I think I said assigning, um, nurse case managers. And for this upcoming year, I actually spoke with a third party administrator to see if they can provide, uh, access to their platform where we can be able to use some of the resources they have at no cost. So it would be nice to have funds in order to, for them to provide trainings for our departments. But that is not the case this year as it is a survival budget. So, um, they have, uh, agreed to allow us to use their platform for free and just share resources. So some things that we have done. Wonderful. Thank you for taking all those steps.
▶ 49:21 I'd like to motion to move the bottom line. Second Motion to move the bottom line made by Constable Vanderberg, seconded by Council Ro, uh, on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That bottom line will be moved. Next up, nine 13 unemployment. Alright. Um, Okay, so nine 13 unemployment. So I'm sure that you, you're seeing this percent and it's shocking, but it is the, uh, fiscal reality due to the layoffs proposed to the school. Um, although it is reducing the health insurance budget, but it is, we anticipate significant increase in our unemployment benefit, uh, expenses. So, uh, what we have done, um, what I have done is, um, look at the numbers that the school had provided, uh, to me back, um, in, um, earlier,
▶ 50:23 um, this month and, uh, budget for 13 weeks of unemployment for, um, the school, um, layoffs. And that's how we had arrived at this, um, higher increase. And I have to say, just, um, as a disclaimer, so the city of Melrose is a reimbursable employer, which means that we do pay unemployment cost for, um, former employees. Um, so now, and then we do, we do have, not often, but we do have some employees who may have left the city, um, have different employment were laid off or terminated. And so there's a partial responsibility that we, uh, assume because we are reimbursable employer. Uh, any questions? What's the will Motion to move the bottom line? Second. Second, Second. Motion. Move the bottom line by Council Vandiver.
▶ 51:34 Second by Council of Vro on discussion. All in favor? A Aye. Aye. Opposed? That, uh, bottom line is moved. Next up, nine 14. Health contractual. Okay. Um, so the health contractual budget, um, it's basically is, um, our contractual and legally mandated obligation and it's fairly, um, dynamic and really challenging to control. And with the health contractual budget, the majority of which is the group health insurance, um, we are required, um, per mass general law, chapter 32 b to provide health insurance to our employees. So this year the health insurance budget has gone up by 3.1%. And, um, that budget, we have had an increase to our health insurance rates, uh, much more significant than any other years.
▶ 52:41 Um, the average increase to our non-Medicare plans has been 12.9 was is 12.9% for this upcoming fiscal year. And the increase in the plans range anywhere from 10.5 to 17% increase. Um, the Overall increase is only 3.1% for a few different reasons. On one side, as a fiscal year 26, the city and employee contribution split is changing to from 83 17. So the city contributes 83% right now, starting fiscal year 26, the city will contribute 82% in the employees, um, 18%. So that's, um, helping, um, control the cost or not see as high of an increase. Um, in addition to that, we have the obviously upcoming employee layoffs, which have lowered the overall insurance costs and the type of the enrollments that we have.
▶ 53:50 Uh, all of these are factors that have played into, um, the increase that you see here in addition to the health insurance. What I did this year is really take a close look at all of these other line items, life insurance, flexible spending, Medicare, uh, the Medicare penalties, and look at the utilization and enrollment and look at, uh, the last several years and the trends. And as a result, I had proposed that we reduce, um, these line items. So, uh, you can see life insurance has been reduced by 10%, flexible spending by eight part B, Medicare penalties by 21%. So if you have any questions, happy to answer Any councilor for new camera. Yes. Um, thank you for being here. Mm-hmm. Can You just explain what, uh, the Part B medicare
▶ 54:53 Penalties? Yes. Yes, I know it, it sounds scary anytime there's a penalty. Um, so the, the Part B Medicare penalty, um, back in 2009 when we, uh, joined G-I-C-G-I-C required that our retirees, um, join Medicare and as their primary insurance. And then they take Medicare supplemental plan through GIC. Prior to that it was a requirement, so not, there were some retirees who did not have Medicare. So in order to, um, for them to get Medicare, the city negotiated and, um, agreed to pay the late penalties. So if you don't get Medicare when you turn 65, if you're eligible, when you do not enroll, there's late penalty and that late penalty stays with you for the rest of your life. So the city is paying this late penalty.
▶ 55:46 It's actually an agreement that was made with the Centers for Medicare Health and Human Services as well. And right now we have about, um, 23, 24 retirees, uh, that are, uh, that we are paying Medicare penalties for this number has not increased. It actually has decreased, uh, throughout the years. Sister Terry has passed away. Thank you. Anyone else? What would the committee like to do? Make a motion to move the bottom line. Second, We have a motion to move the bottom line by Council puc, seconded by Council Vandiver on discussion. All in favor? A Aye. Opposed? That bottom line will be moved. That concludes our department budget presentation for the record. Uh, sorry. Uh, council Aldine, I should have said this.
▶ 56:51 Mark Garipay: She was here a couple departments ago. Um, council Jamal's with us. Um, so next up we have appropriations id. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, fiscal year 2026, operating budget in the amount of $107,575,802. Councilor Stewart? Thank You Mr. Chair. Mr. Charles, I'll make a motion to move, uh, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 to the, um, holding committee. Thank you. Second, a little early on that. Yeah, right. Well hold this one committee. Yeah. Uh, second by, uh, we have a motion to move. I mean, hold ID 1 2, 6, 7 8 by Council of Stewart. Second by council of fro on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Alright. Uh, we'll get moved. Uh, quick. Uh, I guess housekeeping, uh, Thursday's appropriations will be at seven 30.
▶ 57:51 Mark Garipay: We also have a public hearing with the plan, uh, joint public hearing with the planning department on Thursday also. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Mr. Chair, I make a motion to adjourn. Second. Motion Adjourn by Council Stewart second by council. One discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Adjourned.