Finance Committee — 2025-09-02
Attendance
Maya Jamaleddine ; Leila Migliorelli ; John Obremski ; Devin Romanul ; Robb Stewart ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE FINANCE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● SEPTEMBER 2, 2025 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 6:47 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 Ryan Williams Vice Chair Absent Maya Jamaleddine Present John Obremski Absent Devin Romanul Present Leila Migliorelli Ex Officio Member Present Robb Stewart Chair Present
TRNSF-2026-1 Transfer Requesting Transfer of Funds from Department of Public Works' Parks and Forestry Salary Accounts to Parks and Forestry Expense Accounts For Contracted Tree Services Ought to pass City Council City of Melrose Page 1 9/9/2025 2:14 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:01 Robb Stewart: Recording is good evening. The time is 6 47 on, on Tuesday, uh, September 2nd, 2025. This is the Meeting of Finance Committee. I am Council Stewart, the chair also joining me this evening. Our council is Jamal Roman, and that, uh, is serves notice for a quorum for the record, and in accord with the open meeting All Law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on mm MTV. Um, and for the record, uh, we have, uh, president Melli Exofficio, and also non-voting members, uh, counselors, uh, Vandiver. And, uh, that's it. Sitting, Um, right here. Maybe Where? Right here, maybe. Oh, John's not gonna be here, so he's just sit Here. So at this point, I'll motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment.
▶ 1:05 Robb Stewart: Seeing no objections, we are now open for a public comment. Is there anybody, uh, interested in coming forward and speaking on the items on the agenda, or any other topic that they wish to talk about? Anybody online? There's No one online. Okay. If there's no objection, I will motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Seeing none, we are now closed for public comment. Uh, we have one item on the agenda this evening. Uh, this is ID number 1 2 8 5 1. The requesting transfer of funds from Department of Public Works, parks and Forestry salary accounts to parks and forestry expense accounts for contracted tree services. And I believe we have, uh, Ms. Pelas here to, uh, to address, uh, any questions.
▶ 1:52 So, uh, with that I will defer to you. Okay. Thank you. Um, so this request is because our forestry foreman, which is a position that's fully funded for fiscal 26, um, he left the city for greener pastures, uh, a couple months ago. And we are trying to decide what the best course of action was. And with the uncertainty surrounding the override, um, we were hesitant to bring somebody else on. This is also, traditionally this has been a difficult role to fill, given the requirements for, um, somebody who's very knowledgeable in forestry, either with a associate's or bachelor's degree, or a certified arborist. Um, that's our preference. And they also require a CDL license. So, um, it's been a hard role to fill.
▶ 2:38 And we thought rather than advertising going through a lengthy, uh, interview process, the best thing to do was to take half of the salary, so the portion for the July 1st through, uh, December 31st period, um, and convert that over to our contractual line item so that we can hire our on-call vendor who we already have under contract, um, to come out and help us get caught up on our trims and removals. Um, and then we can delay the decision on what to do about the actual position until after the override vote. Great. Any questions from voting members of the committee? Council, Roman. Oh, Thank you so much for the memo. It's, um, uh, very instructive. Um, I wanted to ask what the, uh, what the residents
▶ 3:24 Devin Romanul: of the city of Melrose could expect in so far as, um, you know, differential in services from the, you know, full-time hire versus the contracting hire. Um, given that it'll be, you know, roughly part-time, um, sort of, that was my first question. And then the other was, um, what would be the kind of long-term impact of not filling this role if they, we don't have an appreciable difference in our fiscal outlook, say in FY 27, 28, um, by not having this role funded or not being able to fill this role, what, what could residents expect experientially? So when this role is not filled, we get very far behind in our trims and removals. Um, so I would envision if we were to have, uh, if we were to have to cut further for our fiscal 27 budget,
▶ 4:08 we would likely try to fill this role and maybe leave something else unfilled. So I would think maybe we're not hiring into this role right away. Maybe we're, when somebody else leaves, maybe we're moving, um, that money into this role in the long term. I don't think it's a role that we can just live without. Um, we are already woefully behind on our trims and removals. And, uh, to answer the first question, the contractor will get a lot less done for $33,000 than a full-time employee would get done. Just because the contracted rates sure are, are much higher as they're with any outside services. Um, but, uh, expending this $33,000 on the contractor is much better than not expending it at all and getting further behind.
▶ 4:56 Gotcha. So we think that this will pay for them to come in for a few weeks. It's certainly not six months worth of labor, but obviously they bring in a whole crew. So it's, um, and our, uh, certified arborist tree warden who's our division foreman in parks and forestry, he would oversee the work to make sure they were doing it to our normal standards. Correct. Thank you very much. Okay. Any other questions from voting members? Any non-voting members? I do have two questions. Okay. If you're only asking for half the money, what are you doing with the other half of the money? Well, if the override were to pass, I would envision that we would advertise the position and fill the position. Okay. So you're, you're holding back for the override.
▶ 5:45 Robb Stewart: And, um, we will determine what happens with that money if other circumstances occur, I would assume, Right. If the override didn't pass, then we'd have to reopen the discussion with the mayor's office and you know, what, what to do about that money if we needed a second transfer or if there was a different strategy. Okay. And so the other question I had was the contractor, uh, you're bringing in to do the work, right? Mm-hmm. But I assume that this forestry person would oversee and make the decisions about the work, right? In other words, which trees need. So how's that being managed now? So we already have a list, um, in e gov we have the assessments that our tree warden would still be doing,
▶ 6:29 and then he creates the removal list. So the way it works right now, if a resident says, I have a dead tree in front of my house, I need it removed. It doesn't go in as a removal, it goes in as an assessment. And then it's not until the arborist says this is a dead tree, it has to be removed, or this is a live tree, but it needs to be trimmed. And then he creates the trim list and the, um, removalist, the foreman who was formally in this role would also have done a portion of that work. Um, so by the time the, uh, pathfinder tree gets the list, it's already been fully vetted by our staff. And then he would oversee the trims to make sure they're being done, you know, they're not over trimming
▶ 7:09 Robb Stewart: or doing something different than what we would envision. And then for the removals, it's pretty straightforward, they're taking down the tree safely. Okay. And you got my note about the, the one tree, right? Yes. I put in a work order for it. Thank You. Thank you. What is the will of the committee motion to recommend? Second, we have a motion to recommend by Counselor Romanoff seconded by Councilor Jamine under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. This will be recommended in the full council. Thank you very much. That was the last I item and without objection. Um, the minutes. What's that? The minutes. Oh, oh, right. Oh, details. Uh, so without objection. Um, I will motion by unanimous consent
▶ 7:56 Kimberly Vandiver: to approve without reading the minutes from the August 18th finance committee meeting, seeing no objection. Um, those minutes are now approved. Thank you for pointing that out. Yep, no problem. Okay. And without objection, I'll motion by unanimous consent to adjourn. Okay. So you have no objection, you adjourn. Thank you. Good evening. The time is 6 57 on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025. This is a meeting of the Boards and Commissions committee. I am Councilor Vandiver, the chair. Joining me tonight are Vice Chair Carm Shady, uh, voting members, councilors, Occhio Jamine Stewart, and President Elli Exofficio, also joined by non-voting member Counselor Hamilton. This serves as a notice of a quorum for the record