so I actually I didn't double check to see if this is already in our packet is this it no why don't I have it it's in there she put it all together yeah so this the one we're going off of yep okay is he ready up all right well let's get this going good evening and welcome to the budget and finance committee meeting today is Wednesday May 29th it is 6:18 here in the chambers I have to my right our um committee Vice chair councelor Vivan marmel and council president javanni Rodriguez and to my left counselor Wendy lzone pursuing to chapter 20 of the Act of 2022 this meeting of the budget and finance committee is being conducted both in person and Via veronee participation a reminder that persons who would like to listen or view listen or view this meeting while in progress May either attend here in person at the city council chamber or may use our YouTube um page to to view the meeting at this point can you join me at the uh in the pledge America the stands andice for councilors we do have minutes to approve from our meeting from May 15 2024 can I have a motion so Mo motion made by Council marmo seconded by council president Rodriguez any discussion on the minutes seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it straight into new business our first item is item 24424 the transfer in the amount of 33 m648 351 with 96 from free cash to various reserves funds brought To Us by our CLE Mr Mark aelo Mr anelo you have the floor good evening counselors this is uh as you just mentioned a transfer from free cash uh to various Reserves so I'd just like to quickly explain which reserves I'm talking about uh there's a transfer into the OPB trust fund um we started funding the opep trust fund a few years ago we presently have uh with because we've earned interest in that account we have a milion 619 in that account I'm proposing adding another million to that uh opep trust so we'll have 2.6 million in that fund uh the next transfer is a compensated absence Reserve fund uh this is just to help uh uh pay the people retire uh uh police and firefighters generally retire there's always a buyout of vacation Andor sick time that they may be eligible for and that helps with that uh uh that takes the pressure off the general fund operating budget um uh that Reserve has approximately um 29,000 and we're adding 100,000 to that uh the next one is the workers uh workers compensation claims Reserve funds so workers compensation claims uh we're trying to build that fund up as well right now we have 557 th000 in that fund uh and we're proposing adding another 100 uh the next one is related which is injured in the line of duty uh we're asking for 400,000 to go into that fund presently that fund has 382,000 and again those are all claims for uh uh police or fire who are injured in line of duty and uh if they have some large medical bills we' like to have a reserve so it doesn't impact the general operating budget the next suggestion uhon me spam uh the next suggestion is um uh funding the stabilization Reserve undesignated uh presently we have uh 3.15 million in that account I'm proposing adding 7 million to that account so we would then have uh roughly 10 million uh for future uh needs that the city may have it's basically the same as free cash except uh it's uh already certified so we put it together in a an account which is undesignated and we have to come back to the council anytime you want to use it the next one I think I mentioned briefly last night is a stabilization reserve for Debt Service we presently have 5 million in that account I'm proposing we add 15 million to that accounts and then we would have 20 million in out account which pretty much should take care of our future Debt Service for the Oliver the Ley and the police station uh so it won't impact the general fund budget uh without a uh because we didn't have a debt override so that's my next suggestion the next one is uh uh stabilization reserve for litigation and judgments we currently have $566,000 in that account um proposing adding 1.5 million so we get it up to 2 million and it's because we're self-insured for excuse me any litigation uh so if we have 2 million set aside again we wouldn't expect that to impact the general operating budget of the account uh the City attorney uses that account and and when he uses it he has to come back down to the council to take it out of the stabilization reserve and put it into his account so he can uh pay any claims or or judgments that has to uh or legal bills that have to be that are incurred uh the next uh uh item in here is the um oh is the covid-19 deficit uh and the snow and ice expenditures uh thankfully I'll do the snow and ice first that's a little quicker the snow and ice expenditures we uh uh thankfully we only had 970,000 deficit for snow and ice we had a a mild winter uh often times that number uh is generally at least a $2 million and it has been uh as many as well as much as 5 million when we had the blizzard of of 15 but you know two to three million is uh uh is is not unusual but uh this is great to have just 970,000 needed to wipe out that snow and ice deficit the other deficit that we've incurred uh is the covid-19 deficit the uh state has uh has allowed us to carry that over the last few years this year they're asking for everybody to uh wipe out their covid-19 deficit or or raise it on the tax recap uh I prefer to just take make a transfer from free cash Wipe Out the uh the covid-19 deficit which is uh roughly 7.5 78 million um and that that clears us out for the for this year so that's a brief explanation of of those transfers thank you council's any questions or comments council president yeah just uh through man chair just can you explain a little more about the deficit for the covid-19 expenditures uh actually I have a little hand out I guess can do it ahead of time just a brief exp while she's handing that out the covid-19 uh as you recall during the uh during the covid-19 emergency the uh uh State declared an emergency so we didn't have to come down for the council to declare an emergency to deficit spend uh the governor did that for us uh and uh uh 2019 uh when that uh deficit started uh in the Panic uh the governor allowed all municipalities to you know incur costs as as you see fit uh to deal with the emergency so we've had uh uh over the last several years uh particularly uh mostly for the pandemic the last year or two we've really just been trying to uh uh the efforts we've spent was just trying to get reimbursement from uh from FEMA to get as many cost quality ified so that's uh and the last thing that we've we've done is uh uh you can see it's a small amount well let me review the numbers quickly but the revenues we had uh uh there was a mass Massachusetts car's car's Grant through the state federal money through the state and we received 6.8 million through that that uh grant program FEMA reimbursed us $9.2 Million worth of our expenses and uh we had uh drug company uh uh insurance reimbursements for vaccinations accounted for 315,000 uh and that's what took a while the drug companies uh we used the UMass Medical Center and uh and you know they peac meal getting money from the drug companies took forever for them to get their all the reimbursements that we're entitled to it only accounted for 315,000 uh but unfortunately because we did have money coming in we weren't able to file the federal government was putting us on hold until we got all of the drug reimbursements and we were uh so it kind of held us up a little bit getting money from FEMA but we finally got the final monies from FEMA uh and just briefly I'll I'll cover the expenditures as you can see uh a lot of the salaries in overtime was uh uh for employees during covid uh you can see there's a a police and fire employee backfill for police and fire in particularly they had a backfill uh uh the fire department in particular if they had a uh someone in uh in a firehouse that had covid they couldn't uh they didn't want to contaminate other firehouses so they couldn't transfer any employees that might be available to cover another station but they weren't able to transfer them during this uh covid-19 emergency and coincidentally of course FEMA said that's not cost eligible uh it's not covid related uh so anyway we those are many of those costs were rejected but we did get a lot of uh stuff done temporary staffing services we spent uh 2 and a half million that was for all the um nurses and uh Pharmacists and everything else that you needed to give vaccinations um uh HVAC we were able to do some HVAC work to uh to help with the ventilation of some of the city buildings um vaccines we purchased vaccines the cost of vaccines we purchased test kits for so employees could could get uh uh tested um subsidized child care we that's a a major uh expense that did not get reimbursed by FEMA again claiming it's not uh directly related to covid but what we were trying to do was uh during covid people couldn't come back to work because the schools were open so the kids needed daycare so we got in a program with the with the uh a Child Care Circuit uh and they had a sponsored a program to make uh people that were not eligible because of their income levels uh we were able to um give some money to them uh and and to make to qualify some families for child care so they could get back to work uh and then test kits uh and for PPE is another 560,000 we spent uh about $4.2 million on technology most of that was for school children so they could uh uh buy them laptops and things like that so they could uh uh get U uh education at home uh most of that was reimbursable through the cares program I'm happy to report report uh there's a grab and go food delivery program uh we spent a million dollars on that uh and then we had rapid rehousing for homeless and other uh people to keep them covid uh safe there was 920,000 we incurred in that program and then other expenses a lot of it was uh was a couple million dollars and other but a lot of that is supplies and uh uh trips to the Home Depot a lot of amazon.com purchases for supplies that the that they either the nurses or or the vaccination program incurred so we just kind of lumped it in in one lump sum so that's pretty much we took in 16.4 million in revenue and we spent 23.9 million so for a deficit of 7.6 million uh and uh and thankfully we have the free cash to wipe that out um and that's what my suggestion is tonight thank you any other questions or comments seeing none counselors can I have a motion to send this up with a favorable recommendation so Mo motion has been made by councelor marmal is there a second second seconded by councilor lzone discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it next item in our on under new business is item 24524 Bond the bond authorization la loan order for appropriation in the amount of $1 13,415 th000 for various Water and Sewer infrastructure Rehabilitation brought To Us by our commissioner our water commissioner William hail commissioner you have the floor evening counselors good evening Madam chair um so tonight I'm here to ask for approval for a loan order in the amount of $ 13,415 th000 um this loan money would be used for various Water and Sewer projects throughout the city um we've identified um a lot of these projects to our source system evaluation study um where we identify areas that need Rehabilitation or replacement um so in the packet I had given a breakdown of some of the work um for all of the work just by category um as you see in the graph under section one um so we were approved by mass D to get low interest financing um through the srf funds it's a state revolving fund um in the amount of $9 million roughly um so we have to pay for the design of those projects through municipal bonds um so we budgeted 940,000 for the design of all those projects and then $9 million for the construction um which includes police detail and contingencies um in that $9 million is a lot of things there um but two of the main projects that we're working on um we have a slide to show you if you want to see that um it's the route 114 Pump Station um we need to repipe that station because we have pipes that are compromised that run through the sharen river there so we're going to repipe the whole station um and then we also have a job on Water Street there was numerous older complaints going on for years there um so we're going to repipe that whole area um and put carbon filters in there um we have I had previously given the council memos I believe on on those jobs um but we do have them here if you want to see the slide um if you move down to section three um sses 24 and then on section four for um year 25 those are the S The Source system evaluation study that's mandated by mass D so that's also are funding low interest interest loans that's an ongoing um scope of work for those and then um we added two years of our on call emergency work um so anytime that you know instance comes up where the city can't especially in the sore the sores some of the sores are very deep here so we need to have an on call emergency contractor they go Water Street we had a break there was 18 ft deep so some of it's just beyond our capabilities um and then we also have under Section 7 the raw water intake design um not sure if you had heard but last summer when they were working on the canals they had dropped the river um we had some cavitation which is air getting into our raw water pumps um which is very dangerous um it can cause a lot of damage um so we want to design a system where we can take water from the middle of the river where it's deeper so we don't run into the situation whether it's drought or if they're working on the dams and then last under Section 8 we have the Tower Hill tank um it's in need of masonary repairs like as soon as possible we found a crack recently on the outside of it um so we want to get that addressed but we were previously already working on a plan to regrout the inside of the Tower and then that comes at a total of the 13,400 th000 I'm sorry commissioner I'm laughing because I I I looked to to the vice chair I'm like who's the councel for Tower Hill and she's like me hello so great presentation sorry about that continue or you yeah so just so on Section 8 the Tower Hill masonary that's just going to all inside the the groud is falling down so we really need to get that regrowed inside so that's it's considerable amount of work but we just budgeted roughly 500,000 for that to is Gregory it counselors um any questions or comments for commissioner Hae council president just to add the corrected document to the to the records so oh yes yes just uh that will be important appreciate and I it's not in our in our packet so I I think I was told that you did send it to to our city clerk but it's not and I'll make sure can send it in the morning as well yeah but can you see see me on that thank you any other questions comments see and none counselors can I have a motion to send this up with a favorable recommendation motion has been made by council president seconded by Council lzone discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you commissioner thank you for your time huh the city the city attorney said [Laughter] so we have our next item is an item from our City attorney but he's been trying to connect to our Zoom for like the last 10 minutes oh can you can you perfect okay if he chimes in great but he explained this account to me uh basically this is okay hold on let me just let me just read the item the item is 24 24624 the transfering the amount of 40,000 from free cash to special projects account for the glts airplane hanger um C you have the floor yes so uh so what this is is we uh purchased a an airport hanger several months ago and there're uh we part of a as owners were part of a cond so there's certain fees that we have to pay and there's no account to pay it so uh this is a this this will be enough for a year maybe a year and a half until the glts takes it over and it'll be fully reimbursed by glts one they get their permission to to buy this hanger uh so the the recommended amount is about 40,000 I think he needs about about 25,000 is anticipated for next year uh but we uh bumped it up in case it goes a little bit into the following year uh and this will go into a special project account which uh which will allow us to track all the expenses that we pay so then when jts uh is uh ready to own the property we'll have an account and we'll say okay here's the here's the amount we need to be reimbursed so that's put the item before you m chair council president I would like to make a motion to send it to the F council with a recommendation motion has been made seconded by um councilor marmal discussion discussion council president uh Madame chair I just don't want uh this this this whole project to just go blind on uh the the champion that actually take this that took this project and actually out Advocate a lot and that's uh councelor manmo that is right next to me she was uh able to Advocate and make sure that initially this project took over and uh and I just don't want this to just to be uh uh put her on the side uh with her leadership uh we were able to uh accomplish a result and that result have been uh the purchase of hanger getting the program up and running well fighting hard to make sure that the program is up and running and now uh keep on investing the need the money that is needed to maintain uh the project alive and make sure that we do what we need to do so thank you Council Mama thank you Maria can you get bill because we're going to need him for the next item um any other questions or or comments see and none all those in favor say I I and the ice have it so our next I'm wait for Bill Collins um I don't see the airport manager I don't think he's Francisco yeah no I don't think he's available yeah but we have uh bill is is a commissioner for the airport and he usually knows I have two items of for the airport I mean it's pretty self-explanatory but just in case okay the next item it's a i I did not are pretty yeah the next item is item 26224 the authorization of Grants assurances with mass do dots for weather cameras FAA network connection and this was brought to us by our airport director Francisco Urena however we have Mr Collins here who's a commissioner of the airport I mean this is pretty self-explanatory yeah thank you madam chair to potential I to the next two item and disc okay um can we make sure that that's reflected on council president is recusing himself due a due to a potential conflict of interest um commissioner colins you have you have the flo these were were two grants we got from the State Department of Transportation uh for for the cameras took a while to get all the parts together so they're finally installed totally paid for by a state Grant and this is is just part of the process to make sure it goes through the council any questions or comments counselors CN none can I have a motion to send this up with a favor favorable recommendation motion has been made by Council lone I mean marmal is there a second seconded by councilor lone discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it our last item is item two 6324 the authorization of Grant assurances with mass do for installation of security gate operators also brought to us from the um airport director Francisco ureno commissioner you have the floor thank you madam chair members of the board the airport recently had some new uh electronics put in for our our gates we have five gates at different points of the airport security gates so we had trouble with the uh former uh electronic pads that were there so this covers all of our security gates so all our customers can access the inport councelor has any questions or comments see and none can I have a motion to send this up with a favorable recommendation motion has been made by councelor I want to say Lona again Marl seconded by second second by councelor lzone uh discussion seeing none all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you so much thank you madam chair members thank you at this point counselors are there any items under table business you like to untable okay seeing none can I have a motion to conclude motion has been made by councelor marmel seconded by councelor lzone all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you so much we'll see I'll see you in 20 minutes counselors y [Music] y speech e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e are I don't know why basket I know my there's someone on Zoom with the um iPhone iPhone can you hear us hello okaye [Music] all right are we we all why do I have an echo here why do I have an echo here can you hello can you I have an an echo here I an echo you're good on Zoom okay got all right all right counselors can I have a motion uh to resume from Recess so move motion has been made by council president seconded by Council marmel all those in favor say I I the eyes have it councilors we are resuming with our budget hearings today we have the city clerk's office the city clerk elections vital stats and annual listing City attorney lawen Fire Department fire Administration fire supression fire alarm fire mechanical division fire electrical inspection office of planning and Community Development Community Development Economic Development and boards and office of planning and boards and commissions good all right the first office on our list is the city clerk's office is anyone here from the city clerk our city clerk is here Madame clerk you have the floor um I'll make sure you you tell us a page number of sure um councilors my budget is on page 53 if you're looking at a paper copy if you're looking at the online pdf it's page 55 um and it does as you mentioned cover both the clerk's office the elections and then the um the census so there kind of three sections to it for the most part my budget is the same there are some contractual increases for personnel items um the majority of my staff belongs to the clerical Union also known as the lace Union and that Union had a change in their contract this year where we eliminated the senior clerk position and everyone became a principal clerk so you'll notice some positions being eliminated um and other positions being created there's really no new personnel there at all it's just a contractual change of title um part of the Union negotiations um the main change that we had there postage increases and as our population is growing we are sending out more mail um for both the census and ballot so we did ask for an increase in the postage um that's really the only change that's not directly related to um Personnel increases that are contractual I don't know if you have any questions on any of that but I'm happy to this just um let's keep going elections Department um same as in elections my staff again in the elections office is again primarily in the lace Union which is the clerical Union um aside from the assistant clerk everyone else belongs to that Union so again if you see changes to Personnel it's the um the contractual change there's no new positions no elimination of positions it's just the change of titles and then your last section which is Page 58 yeah page 58 is the um census really it's we send out the census we get it back we process it um people that do not return their census will be declared inactive so please return your census um on June 3rd we actually make that change with the state making people inactive and an inactive voter can still vote they just need to show ID um but that's the cost for sending out the census getting it processed and back and logged in with the state thank you councilors any questions or comments for the city clerk Council marmal okay through you madam chair um uh is it possible uh uh going forward whenever uh we're going to go through the budget um if a little bit of further detail is given to justify the increases of um uh of the budget so true uh with the exception of when there's new hires because that's obviously I I would understand that but um for example the assistant clerk where there is no change of new hires um could we get get more detail in regards to uh the the increase in the salary sure both assistant clerks in the elections office and the main office um they did have a new contract negotiated during the last fiscal year so you will see an increase in their pay which is still low for the services and the work that they do but um both assistant clerks do have again a contractual pay raise um because their Union negotiated um pay raises in their last contract yep M chair council president what is the typical uh average salary for a principal account clerk um I'm looking at the just just a little under 50,000 uh and but uh I just want to just add what Eileen indicated we eliminated the there were senior clerks and principal clerks so in are negotiations this year we eliminated the senior clerks and made everybody a principal clerk in exchange for uh now we're allowed to cross TR those clerks so all the clerks can now be cross trained where as before a senior clerk couldn't do work of a principal clerk uh so that was a major problem we had a few uh few grievances over uh somebody doing somebody else's job so uh we did increase their pay but in exchange we can uh we can now cross Trin our employees within the Departments any even outside a department so uh occasionally if a department uh only has one Clerk and they're out uh we can borrow a clerk from another department for that day while that person's out sick and place them in another department doesn't really happen but uh it happens once or twice a year but but at least that gives us the right to do that so I thought it was a pretty good exchange and this is for for what position again principal principal clerk principal Clerk's all the clks in the city hall are all principal clerks now principal clerks or principal account clerks they're paid the same and they're the ones under Union contracts and they're under uh Local 3 uh uh clerical Union can you repeat the salary please yeah it's roughly I don't have the amount but I um it's roughly a little under 50,000 because we have uh three principal account clerks at 140 combined equal 147,148 just a little under 50,000 uh per principal account clerk give me one second um and then the assistant the assistant clerk the assistant City Clerk and the the assistant clerk under the elections office those two are not Union they're in the union they're in a different Union but they're in the union and and again you saw the salary was uh um was was quite low so we proposed again we we increased the a principal clerk salary uh the clerks to a principal clerk so we also proposed to the union that we'd like to get the assistant clerks uh an increase in pay as well so quite a few uh positions in the clar in the supervisor administrator Union of which the assistant clerks are members we've raised some of the salaries uh it was a the assistant uh city treasur is now the assistant City Treasurer and and collector so we we asked for a bump and pay to reflect the two uh parts of the operations instead of just one half so there's a few other positions like that that we propos I mean I I know collective bargaining and and contract negotiation is is a very lengthy process but I'm I'm looking at these salaries and I don't even know how the union justifies the amount of work that these specifically because I I know I've seen it yeah that these two assistant clerks do and yet we're raising salaries for people who pretend that they're doing their job like it's just it's it's crazy to me council president no just to reiterate what you were saying um around anybody that is basically receiving people uh in front of their in their desk those are considered principal clerks right just to and simple word right that is accurate description yeah so anybody that walk through C through a city hall most likely going to be attended by somebody under that position that's correct and the pay for that is under 50,000 that is correct okay thank you I will say my staff to a person Works incredibly hard like we have the busiest office in the building um thank you okay um but um anyway I don't know if you have any question I'll stop any questions C just to to just to finish I mean U it is important that I think that we keep track of of services that you provide uh clients that come in and uh and take notes probably you can do it through I don't know how but I mean kind of like you know because I mean at the end of the day it is a great point for the police department when they when they say you know we serve this amount of people and this true yeah they do but I mean there is all the department as well we do give statistics to the M's office every month of the total number of birth certificates death certificates marriage licenses and business ceric cicat that we give out every month and it is really high I can get you those numbers every month because they are impressive numbers and I know that informally the greeter in the hallway keeps track of who goes into how many offices um and he has told us like that office offers about seven people a day your office averages about 50 people a day like we really are the busiest office in the building as far as genuine foot traffic coming through the door I would like numbers yeah we can get you those um for sure a little I mean I'm probably within the off within the office any uh principal clerk might keep count on the on the service of the day because at the end of the day it's going to be convenience to know convenience for them to know like how many people they have served during during this month and during the year we do keep track and I can get you those numbers in addition to foot traffic through the door we have online orders so people can order online but we have to fill those orders and then people that phone in orders and then people that mail in oldfashioned mail so we in addition to the foot traffic we have a substantial amount of additional requests that we fulfill every day too plus people don't they get lost so they just come in and like we do a lot of like what do I get my passport kind of stuff too um we help anybody that comes through the door I would like to see I would like to see that I can get you those that's important thank you mad CL mad mad cler and thank you mad chair council is on thank you Madame chair through you Madame chair so just I just wanted to add a comment so we have people in this building that are making 65 ,000 uh more money than uh the people that are really doing the job at the city cler's office and we also just for the community to know a maintenance uh person that works at maintenance at senior at the center makes 50 $51,000 so this is outrageous the way this salaries are calculated just for the record thank you Council Zone any other any further questions or comments pres just to reiterate what council said that person is very fighty the one that you referring to the person you what FY anyway Madam clerk is there any anything else that you want to highlight within within your budgets no um we did ask for like an increase of postage with the mail's office we did receive it um everything that we needed is in here so we we very comfortable with the budget um and if you have any questions we're happy to try to answer thank you I just asked to keep to keep it consistent um any additional documents or information that the the councilors have requested on this committee I'm asking it to be sent by the end of this week and I know it's Thursday so literally but if you if you can that that would be great so you want the numbers like we can pull numbers together by tomorrow is that other docents as soon as you pull them can you send it to us council president thank you um it is important for people to know that the city clerk office fall on on into the the supervision of the city council and uh and when it comes to one specific line item here we've been doing um things a little different um and that's the the advertisement um I know that we uh those numbers how you feel about that number mad clerk um page 54 page 54 under purchase purchase of services yeah um I do know that the $133,000 figure that's right there is low I do know we have a few outstanding bills with the Tribune that need to be paid um that being said with this new um Council we have been working very hard to do combined advertising um where instead of each ad costing us $400 we're doing one ad for $1,000 but it covers six or seven different items and it has been much more economical so that was a great um introduction by your um group and I I'm happy to do that it's doesn't make it any more difficult to post like the ads are just as easy to post um and they are much more economical um so it's only been a few months you know I mean I don't know the long term but I I do see we're going to have a savings there absolutely sure I just want to make sure like you know any any extra fund that goes on that account that could be used for any any other things that is more a little Innovative so we can keep on working on getting U any other particular portion of the department within the supervision of the city council uh to innovate around things a little more so any extra phone that you have there uh Mr CFO uh if we can uh roll it over that would be great specifically on that account because that will be uh essential to maintaining the uh the Innovation around that just to just to be clear we can't roll it over but she can put a purchase order and encumber it and then carry it over we're not allowed to carry everything over at the end of the year thank you thank you thank you question you're all set thank you but I I'll get you guys through those numbers by tomorrow absolutely awesome thank Youk you so we have the City attorney here huh no he he never he he never connected um Madam clerk before you leave can you tomorrow also can you connect with the city attorney and see um we we need him here Monday I'm going to move his his budget from Monday thank you all right next up we have Lawrence Fire Department chief are you ready morning welcome it's been a while oh good how are you good nice to see you this year it's going to be down and dirty easy we get a bunch of topics but in general our contract all we our contract our budget even though we have many different divisions that's all under falls under us we've had very few changes although the money looks different but it's all based on the CBA contractual what uh page are we on I'm just talking in general how but we we start on page 77 sorry I wasn't reading a page though no it's okay continue continue okay uh so um as Mark did with every other Union this last year they were uh last year and a half two years uh a lot of negotiations went on and that's a result of almost all of our budget changes uh with two small exceptions one was uh they gave us an extra $50,000 to uh overtime next year and the other thing is you'll if you notice the numbers if you counted there was a captain that in a previous administration was taken out of the fire department and was put somewhere else but he was still a captain but they put him in somebody else's budget well now he's back in our budget but he's always been there it's just that he was paid differently from a different account other than that it's the same um budget is last year there's nothing else that's uh changed all the increases of contractual we have the same amount of people although right now I'm trying to fill vacancies you know that's takes forever how many vacancies right now I have four four we have four people about to start I'll get tell you they're going to start June well the 10th or the 11th is whichever the first Monday that Monday in June they go into the academy so technically they start with us on the payroll L start Sunday um they go to the academy for one day then they come back with us then they start the academy in July for a 10-e program but we're already I already talked with the new Personnel director and uh we're already going to try to get the list and start um hire more because just today I had a guy walk in and tell me he retired yesterday no warning so Lieutenant so not only are we going to be able to make a promotion fairly soon we're we're going to uh have to fill another hole Yeah it's that's the hard part takes six to eight months to seem to hire anybody takes forever Chief uh last last budget cycle um this committee brought up obviously different counselors but this committee brought up um the need to to diversify uh our fire Personnel how is that going do you have a quick update on that we work on a civil service uh list and that's how it runs uh the majority of the people that we I have hired since I've been here have been Latino so I don't I don't oh no we were talking about men and men and women men and women oh that by divers wasn't sure no we're talking about men genders here men and women we hire off a civil service list and I haven't had a a a female appear on the list yet um and and we don't pick we say we have four vacancies we're going to start interviewing they send us the top numbers for their formula that match to fill four yeah however uh the applicant score on their test in their Pats I won't I I am misspeaking um Diana vquez is a fire not a fire she a fire alarm dispatcher right now and she's been on and trying to get through the physical pot so she's still trying and she's still one of the six we tried to hire she and one other person are being held up at the medical pot so I shouldn't say we she's appeared every time and we've given her a shot every time she keeps being held up at the uh at at at the medical panel so nothing I can do about that um she's the only one that I've had though on the list okay councelor any questions or comments for this for the Fire Department fire Administration um budget Council lone thank you Madame chair to you Madame chair Chief uh is the uh are you familiar with emergency manager position is that that part of your current responsibility as a chief of the fire department it was ma'am uh I was the emergency manager for the city from the time I started employment until um this year were you were getting paid no I so you were doing it for free as a well you you could look at it it was an additional duty I did for free but I it was part of my salary I guess do I think I was underpaid yes thank you Chief but uh I no longer am responsible for that so if I may Madame chair through you um did any towns were you very familiar with the fire departments in this area do they have that position out of the fire department or police department I know of uh two places where it's in the police department uh and over the police chief is the emergency manager police chief and in havil um the police chief is the emergency manager through you Madame chair if if if this position in any town that you're familiar runs by uh a a department like I don't if I'm making myself clear have are you aware of any city or town that has this position as a department uh the town of North andova has an emergency manager so and he's one single person one single person and I don't know if it's a full-time position or not but I know that there's a single person that the last time I talked to the chief over there that they had a single person that did it I don't know if it's still doing it times you know it's been a couple of months and other towns and cities that that responsibility of the of the emergency manager is for the chief of the fire department in the in the state of Massachusetts the vast majority of emergency managers are the fire chief for for go ahead there there are a few that have the police chief and then there are a few that have the money to have Emergency Management city of Boston has an emergency management dep Department City Cambridge has an emergency management department Division if you will um or Department U but most of them are in when I say most I probably say uh three4 of them are fire chiefs Okay so one of the qualifications to become a emergency manager is to have experience to you Madame chair to have experience as a chief of the fire in the fire department I I don't think that is is there going to be a financial question related to this I just yes have to keep it moving I'm I'm trying to keep it moving I just want to get information to make a rational decision when it's my turn to vote but I want my community to understand uh the responsibility of the emergency manager I also want my conent to know that the chief has been doing this job basically for free and that he has the expertise and experience to continue doing and that will save the city $130,000 so Chief if you may what are the qualifications uh from your perspective to become an emergency manager from my perspective it should be somebody with with a in a high ranking position that's had the ability over his career or her career to uh handle many different type of emergencies have attended emergency uh uh classes that involved incident command system and and Emergency Management throughout um the the state and the country I've been certified in all the levels of incident command I've taken through Rivier College is certified Emergency Management program a number of classes there um there is an Institute at Emmitsburg Maryland that runs a program for emergency management and people can go there and take classes and actually get uh a high level of certification in some big cities big places that have a lot of cash to to spend but it's it's well worth spending um Emergency Management is very important um if we all remember 9/11 and and that Emergency Management was very much involved with that City but their their emergency Operation Center was part of what was destroyed in one of the buildings next to um the 911 the Twin Towers so um you got to have a backup plan all the time and and what it is about is is having a plan to assist us like I I have connections with the state and and Mima so when we had like when we had the gas explosions I was able to just contact memer and the other Fire Chiefs and we had mobilization we had to uh work with the DPW and get our stocks we were able to get the porter parties here the light towers here um mobile kitchens were here we were able to do all that stuff and a lot of that is emergency man we had Emergency Management trailer came that was the fight Department command post although I'm sure as you remember there were a million command posts but we all met at one big one and then we'd go out to our little trailers ourselves to run our own divisions but um so there's a lot involved in it when it happens but that was the that was a fairly large um multi-jurisdictional multi-state even event because that involved New Hampshire and helped us so thank you so much thank you madam thank you counselor um Chief I'm seeing I'm seeing here um that the the the fire Administration budget includes still includes an assistant fire chief that has not that's still vacant that's correct um I'm seeing on page 8 1 we have four Deputy fire chiefs that total their salaries total over $400,000 and seven captains with salaries totaling over $600,000 is there even a need for the assistant Fire Chief and if not why why was it kept in the budget uh the council tried to cut it and it was shot down last year I I I do recall that okay so that's why it's still there um I I was not in support of the attempt to fill in the manner that it was being filled at that time M um but why is it we tried to cut it last year it didn't go through for for fiscal year 2024 now we're in FY 2025 and it's still we're not in there yet but well we're working on it and it's still included it is it's the same budget okay all right all right uh council president uh through you man share uh Chief as you recall as far as you recall is that those funds that were um allocated for the assistant um assistant Shi were those were that money transferred to another accounts well in our department we used it to help pay rooll we have what's called a lost time factor which is $300,000 it's taken out it's it's uh so we have a bunch of many different accounts that have their money in it and as the year goes on and as we find that you know this one's a little low this one's a little high we move them around so that we don't have to have a big red at the end um so we try to balance things that helped us to pay and help make up for the vacancies that we had on shift in an overtime because we have a loss time factor which is basic payroll but not only are the payroll taken out of that but then those I don't have those positions to fill overtime so it cost me more in overtime to keep the truck staffed so it didn't go to waste um you guys don't know it yet but I'm on the agenda for the next council meeting because I need to come back for some free cash because I told you I would always welcome I know I know you did council president you no let me let me just uh recap on that on that uh L time Factor uh for the last two years you have have 150,000 uh on that account and this year I see that you have 300,000 I believe it was 300,000 last year wasn't it it was 300,000 last year too pretty sure1 81 on page 81 it says lost sign fact if you you see budget year 24 and then this year 25 last year was 300,000 it's the one two three four 5 six seventh line down sir I'm I'm seeing the 300,000 I don't know if I'm seeing it in the wrong place from last year last year 300,000 if you was last year's budget and it says 300,000 then you you're reading it right anyway that was um the that was the the last year portion of it and this year will but you you say that you add portion of that assistant chief to that 300,000 on top right we use it towards the makeup cuz we spend more and overtime then I'm allotted so anything that's extra we move it over there and you last year you also received I believe one or two transaction from free cash to two I did last year I honestly don't remember how much I have for last year I after to top my head it have to look it up yeah I don't I don't do you happen to remember what I have of course he does that's why he's the careful 350 last year 350 last year and then 350 previous year that was it that's what it was something like that 300 the previous year last year I had to ask for 350,000 he said and and are you expecting to come over in front of the council to ask for the same the same amount no same amount no I'm asking now for 520 cuz somebody just retired today cost us another $40,000 okay all right no problem once we get those those documents to justify then we we have take a look at it thank you m m m thank you let's uh move on to fire suppression and before we do actually I also want to recognize we do have the fire um Union president here Dan Z welcome Dan nice support huh it's first time pleas so it's nice well he's he's he's a new president don't my constituent I don't me she's my constituent be careful it's not what I meant I meant it's not first time the Union's been here probably watching on television but this time he showed up so yeah yeah well thank you for being here um continue Chief please uh were you asking a question Oh no just just so so uh we you up to suppression yep and that's that's the same it's contractual increases no nothing else was given to us that we wanted I do have a quick question under stien that's been increased by $115,000 what are we using the stiens for to cover what uh we have a oh contractual yep yep EMT stiens I also have a well not it's not under this one no mind different guy as the electrician councelor any questions on for the fire suppression budget giving them a second and looking it over well seeing none for now we can go back um Chief fire alarm budget fire alarm now we're going fire alarm mhm fire alarm that is uh the same same it does you know doesn't change we didn't really have any changes other than collective bargaining agreement it was we the same numbers for staff didn't go up didn't go down I'm just trying to fill vacancies in a slow process and lastly the fire mechanical division which is Page 84 yep 84 yep that's my mechanics and I I got to give I got to give him Kudos mean he doesn't look look at the budget all but we have had an extremely difficult time trying to fill that second slot and and uh our mechanic has done wonders for for the fight upon it he keeps the rigs in the best operation we could possibly hope he's always working he's he was in this week this weekend for for the common here where I light towers that are lighten up the flags at uh all night long and one of the light towers broke and he came in and fixed that on the mechanic or the superintendent mechanic the mechanic yeah well he's our superintendent of of of apparat us he's he's a oneman show but does it all so I have a question then what is what is the salary that he would be cuz we have here a proposed budget for a superintendent and then that's him that's he's the superintendent okay all right got it so a mechanic of for help for him is currently vacant because that's also being budgeted that's yeah but we're trying to fill it and I've been trying I think today's society it's not enough money and hopefully if we ever go back to budget maybe we can raise it but guys it's hard work we're having hard time getting somebody who's a good skilled mechanic I mean and we're not alone in that I will say I've talked to some other Fire Chiefs they having trouble getting it too in fact it's so bad that down where the stadium is that Chief there he happens to have a really good mechanic and the other fire towns around there will work going to him to get it fixed it's that bad they can't get chance either counselors at this point any questions regarding fire ministration suppression fire alarm and mechanical oh we have one I'm going to go question counc is uh we're going to give me one second Chief council president that you asking sorry no I'm just wondering about a couple of questions be uh but before we leave the mechanic portion of it you mean literally a mechanic that actually deal with uh with the trucks and stuff like that heavy diesel mechanic diesel mechanic yeah heavy mechanic we're having a hard time getting one we haven't had anybody apply we've been pushing it every time well and what are the requirements that you look for that I'm sorry the requirement that you look for that well you got to be a helps if you're a diesel mechanic and you know how to fix stuff besides lawnmowers I mean these guys are putting their lives on the line on million dooll ladder trucks half a million dollar pumps you know brakes cans brakes are difficult fixing pumps the last is you know and uh and when do you guys fix it I mean do you need a shop yeah you you've been there well maybe you didn't realize do you need to put them up I'm sorry do you need to do you have the the the capability of putting one of those truck up well our trucks the the cabs lift so the ladder trucks he moves the ladder to the side and the cab goes up and you work on the motor that way okay um we do have a lift for the cars the vehicles and the and the pickup trucks and he does he does the lift he does it all he does the the little he fixes chainsaws he fixes everything we have I can't say enough about him I wish we could have two of them I have a few other questions for the other department M CL okay um let's finish last portion the electrical and then open up the floor for the he's the electrical inspector is a uh single person he's worth his weight and gold he's uh I talked to him today he's been out doing all these apartment buildings that's Kevin mizaki does a great job in uh this doesn't show it but he brings in more than double what he costs so uh he's well worth it and he also comes to our fires as the electrical inspector we have a fire to help us rule out electricity or rule it in whatever the case might be but again he's in the union it's contractual if anything's changed which it has and uh it's the same one onean shop thank you counselors any questions or comments for the fire chief yes council president uh M chair through you I have a few questions when it comes to the main one of the main um discussion the the page number again no just in general oh one of the main uh discussion that all the the concerns that the chief have is is about hiring so Chief I hear a few things about the hiring process is this in limit to become a fir fire department say that again is a limit on age to become a fire fire department I don't believe this city has has a limit anymore on the age it's not that we somebody call we do all right my mistake 32 is the state limit and evidently it's back in um2 news to me uh but uh it's not that we don't have people on the on the list I have a lot of people on the list it's the process the process takes forever they they take a a written test then they have to take a p so then we send them the list they send they have to do a mailing out for the numbers that want the with a card you have to come in and sign the list you get x amount a couple of weeks to do that once that comes in and they sign the list now we schedule interviews have to come in and we got to do our interviews then I forward that on and based on the interviews and the the administration he figures out we we're going to offer a job and then they go or get what's called a uh conditional letter of offer is that what it's called offer letter and then they do another p and have to go pass uh a physical again or not yeah again no first physical that's the physical but another P they have to pass and P is a Physical Agility Test it's when you drag the dummy climb the laders Pull the Rope up and down pulling a hook like you were pulling ceilings after that then I get have their names and then I can send them into the academy once and the academy won't give me a slot for Academy until I have a name so they have to pass all that first then I get it Academy dates now these group I just that are hiring starting next month they're not going to the academy until July and then they're there for 10 weeks so it's a long slow process from the beginning to end well can you kind of like guess six month and uh and when it comes to cost how much is how much it cost the city around to hire somebody well we pay for the Medicals so and I don't I don't know what that's cost me recently um and the P we don't pay for and and I don't pay for them to take a test that's on them the academy they're getting paid while they're there as an employee so they're getting paid like a regular firefighter for 10 weeks and they have uh there x amount of hours built into that um I I can't remember the number I want to say 27 but it's a number off off the top of my head because of the the time to travel out there and come back cont yeah and it's in the it's in the contract I just can't remember the number off the top of my head so there is any increasement of on salary that is a non union related is there an increase that's non-un related no thank okay any other questions or comments see you none thank you so much Chief thanks you Chief nice seeing you all nice seeing you it's been a while like I said earlier oh I'm going to see you again in two weeks oh I know neighborhood meeting thank you Chief um the next office Department we have office of planning and Community Development director Matos you have the floor good evening counselors I'm here to um request that you approve our budget and uh in this budget it's uh we're looking to staff um planning a little bit more so that we can carry out a a variety of different functions as well as really um create a situation where the workload is uh more m manageable and we're able to actually take on more uh work that is beneficial for the city because one of the unique things about this department is that we actually um bring in funding and manage projects that the city normally doesn't have to take out of its uh operating uh or capital budget um so it's a very important department and unique from that perspective in which that we bring in uh revenue from the city and in fact a lot of the positions are um subsidized uh from those other types of sources of funding which is not the operating fund so for example we have state grants we have federal grants um that we manage and also assist us to be able to um Carry Out the work that's important uh for the city okay let's start with um off the the first one office of Community Development uh page 60 and 61 and I'm assuming you're you're going to be the one going through all the sub I'm happy to answer the questions we can we have uh some of my staff here to answer I believe one of the other ones is online as well yep I actually see her she has her hand is the director of uh Community Development so any specific questions she'll probably be uh also able to uh add some uh information to it or insights okay um let's start off with office of community oh is she well are you still on I saw your hand your hand yes I am here and I can um present for Community Development or any questions you guys have and I also would like to add something but if the OPD director uh wants to start that's great you cut off so um I we didn't hear I think she wanted to add some comment to addition to what I said and also said she was able to answer any questions can you tell them to hold on a can you tell them to to are you able to hear me now counselors give us give give us a second hold on a second we're going to turn up the volume sure director you you're GNA have to speak a little a little louder okay no problem um yeah I can definitely speak after the OPD director um presents okay all right let's go into it first one sure so um like I said the um there's been a little bit of a change and I think uh Mark could explain in terms of the accounting uh from previous years which I think uh would explain some of the uh additional positions on the uh project officer side for example um but if you'll notice on the Community Development it's actually a reduction from last year uh from that so I don't know if Mark you want to explain the uh the difference in the accounting this year basically just basically just that we went from uh four positions to 11 positions uh they really uh these are positions that were not in the budget we placed them all in the budget and then we subtracted out as you can see uh Grant reimbursements of um 626,000 so as as Carlos just mentioned the budget is actually uh 990,000 less than what was requested last year for this uh this division Community Development so was I stated earlier is uh because we um bring in a lot of Grants and the positions are are often paid through for through grants last year this wasn't uh these positions weren't there listed uh as they were Grant paid positions and this year they are to you madam chair ccil president I think that you know me being in the council since 2015 I saw my first budget in 2016 and it was always a question around this department when it comes to positions uh it was never clear so I'm glad that I'm seeing the position listed as isue and also the ground reimbursement because I mean in that way we clear with with things that are on those budgets so I'm I'm glad to see this to be honest with you I I U are you Al are you my question is I'm looking at specifically page 61 the breakdown of of the salaries and I'm looking at specifically the community health specialist um and I just right now I I Googled um the average the medium median salary for a community health specialist which is 62,000 $74 and I mean we're below that so that's I I don't understand but I'm seeing very throughout the whole entire budget um important positions that do a lot in um and not getting they're being I'm glad you're saying that Council chairman like just remind is this is this a union position is that why I I don't know if this I I don't think this is a union position off the top of my head but I'm not exactly sure it's not but one of the you know it's hard to compare uh us to average salaries remember we have pensions we have we pay 7 5% of everybody's health insurance we have many other benefits that some of the uh uh commercial clients do not not get so we we are somewhat competitive and and and so do the other people individuals that get six figures they they get the same the same benefits so I don't understand and I'm and I'm speaking also from personal experience um coming from the the Comm the health sector I worked a lot with the community health specialist I know how how valuable this individual is to our community for our community and I I just don't understand it but uh councelors any questions or comments sure that is I since I'm going to go to council lone since he already spoke Council page 60 can you explain others expenses cuz you asking for $50,000 sure I'll have the uh director explain that are you on the W AA can you speak to that director pel yes yes I actually had asked for an additional $50,000 um to assist small businesses which is separate um from the business grants that have gone on from the thriving warrant and also for displacements or any emergencies that come into our department um because we get a lot of foot traffic just alone in the Community Development Department in two hours for example yesterday we got over 114 people that came to get applications that's a lot of people that are coming in for services that we are assisting and sometimes we don't have additional funding out of our budget um to even assist these people I also would like to add as I see today is um a a theme where a lot of people are bringing up the issue of uh underpay I do want to make sure that this city council is aware um that I would like to recommend a gender pay equality um I believe that a lot of the females in director Deputy directors managers and assistant manager positions are underpaid and I would like to recommend an analysis on that and hopefully an increase that can be allowable into our budget to maintain um for our city that we can stay competitive and retain the amazing talent that we have director P pel thank you so much for that suggestion um many of us were including people in the gallery were were nodding uh our heads when you were stating this so thank you that's a very important point and I'm I'm sure we will we will look into it uh councilor thank you director uh I I think my suggestion will be to suggest that to the Major's office because they they are very generous when it comes to salaries to people that don't deserve uh salaries that high uh I would like to if it's possible if you can send um in details uh what will be the other expensive expended uh um if you can create like a guy a list for just for clarification cuz when you mentioned to help businesses is that a technical assistant because knowing the need that we have in the community for um in our for our businesses $50,000 uh it's it's not it's not a lot of money director Pentel and I know that you you mean well that you want to help uh businesses in our community but $5,000 it's not going to go far that's correct coun lzone um and I'll definitely send you a copy of the memo that I sent the mayor's office and to the cafo um and and and I'm very grateful that at least they were able to honor this um and the reason for it and I can also send you guys copies um I do get a lot of requests um on an emergency basis from some of the small businesses not only just facades with some of the other uh grants are four but also in emergencies where there actually need need capital or um leasing Rental Commercial rent um or they're about to get shut down and they're currently in court I can send you all that documentation and we step in to try to keep these businesses open that have been open in our community for over 25 years um those are the small emergencies that kind of don't fit into other categories per se um like the thriving Lawrence or the new small business grants that you know it's being created under the economic development department these are for those kind of categories that don't fit in but I can definitely send you a breakdown and if we can increase that or work together um to even help more and again it's also for displacements there's a difference between displacements and homelessness displacements is all those fires that we've had um they're not considered homeless under the category of Hud so we cannot use the HUD funding that we have to assist those um families so we need some other type of funding whenever that happens to either place them in an emergency hotel or give them some sort of assistance because they're not homeless they're displaced whether it might be for a flood or a fire so I can kind of send that over to you um to the conso just to kind of help you understand a little more why that kind of um request was made thank you director Pimentel thank you m thank you thank you question regarding these two departments so can we uh can can we figure out the confusion once in for all the Community Development Office is it under office of planning and Community Development is it two separate what what's the deal here so yeah correct can you it is under so the issue is that the all the management titles are directors so under the office of planning and uh development there is the director of Community Development which Isel there is the um director of Economic Development which is Frank cillo um and hopefully uh as soon as it gets approved it'll be the director of planning um as well great any any other questions or comments for and just one more thing which is not this is part of the issue which is not part of this section of of my department was also uh the Department of inspectional Services as well which is under the office of Planning Development as well and I would like to also add something too that I know a lot of people get confused so also in the office of Community Development um we have several units so the cdbg Community Development block rant the lead Department that's this is all that I'm listing is under Community Development housing department homeless lessness unit the mayor's Health task force the homelessness unit the mayor's Health task force the opioid displacements the winter protocol and the first-time home buyer so those are all under Community Development which is under the office of Planning and Development that's correct and that's part of the reason why we're looking to make sure that we're properly staffed because of the the workload that these departments have been doing they've been really chronically underst staffed but some of the projects that we need to manage in the service that we need to provide to the residents of the city okay uh council president through you mad share so I mean uh are we expecting to have this position based on the grant that we receive every year or they're or they're going to be permanent position I mean I know that they've been permanent for quite some time but once the grant disappear and that mean that the city the city they going to take over those responsibilities yeah generally the uh most of the positions would disappear with the grant depending on on the the position U but just just as a comment pardon me a comment in general all the positions in the community development are generally charged to a grant uh as a Willa mentioned cdbg or the home program but when they work on something that's not Grant related they need a place to mark their time sheets because they are accountable to the federal state governments so they have to mark their time sheets and that's really what they uh they use the general fund for when they're working on some projects that don't really uh fit within one of the guidelines of the grants they have to be able to put something on the time sheet so that's what they generally use the general fund for as a catchall for things that we ask them to do they outside the Grant and and council president we also do list that these positions are Grant funded um and that is part of the stipulation uh when when positions are hard got are no no no not yet um I'm seeing the ground the the ground manager that was under Economic Development and now it's going to be under the planning U the office of planning correct so we were moving things around to because that function goes across the entire department in terms of the grants are are not just limited to Community Development for example there'll be planning grants GRS that would be Economic Development grants so we wanted that function to be more part of the administrative function rather than under just uh one of the uh departments but that position haven't been funded yet the the the the OPD director yeah uh haven't been changed yet under under under me I mean yes I mean I mean the plan planning so the position was moved from Community Development to under me directly but it's still going to it was going to be under you because you corre I mean ultimately yes I wonder why went to the planning the office of planning instead of staying the Community Development yeah so have so this is more of a technical issue than it is anything else yeah we we intended if we uh we just didn't have time to create the chart of accounts to get it all done uh but uh but we intended to have an Administration div next year in the budget will have an Administration division which is where Carlos and some of the uh positions that uh go cut across all the divisions will be and then there'll uh then there'll be a planning division uh because we couldn't create a chart of accounts for this Administration function uh uh we let we we placed it in the planning department so the planning department contains the the planning department and the administration of the office of uh Planning and Development so council president similar to the the grant positions that we're putting in there we're trying to make it more logical uh in terms of How It's structured so it's easier to understand and it's uh follows the uh kind of or or structure so on the office of planning Madame chair we we get to the office of plan question yeah y so under the office of planning oh no we haven't done no no no no sorry we've we're still on Community Development wait okay perfect um continuing council is on um um so just to for clarification you're are the you're the director for the office of Planning and Development Office of Planning and Development we're getting to that next so that's the next one okay yeah it's kind of confusing yeah so of the office of planning them as the umbrella to the other departments okay all right uh director counselor that the title director I mean at some point probably we should think about changing that to makes more sense so yes that probably will bring that we'll send that down to the council to clarify this because it does get confusing but that your position to you madam chair I mean and I I don't I think the ordinance change but they don't have nothing to do with inspectional Services yes Services reports to me okay oh okay director Matos um please continue page 62 uh Planning and Development uh similarly this is a this is a department I think that has uh not seen um the um the Staffing that it needs in order to do some of the things that the city needs um for example um I'm requesting a neighborhood planner uh because I think that there's a huge need for us to really start looking at what how can we improve uh the quality of life within neighborhoods uh routes um all sorts of uh adjacencies with regards to parking all sorts of other issues that the the neighborhoods that are particular to the neighborhoods we've been focusing a lot on the downtown in that position I think is CR critical for us to think about how we go and really improve the quality of life within the neighborhoods and plan and incorporate that into a larger plan the same thing with the uh comprehensive planner um looking to really uh augment the work of the land use planner create a more of a master planning process which is part of of the work that we should be doing and really start looking at it across all areas and work and coordinate for example with the Department of of Public Works and other departments uh to be able to improve um the types of things and questions that constantly come up uh at the council level I have a question for you director MOS yes can you explain the decrease in salary for the asset off officer why is why is there a Over $3,000 decrease um that I cannot where um page 63 asset officer so what believe I think that's in the union so maybe it's just a uh position Miss can you do you have you have some information on this thank you so um we adjusted that s to the actual s that the position the person in that position is being paid right now so the previous position person in that position was paid a little bit higher the current person is paid a little bit less than was budgeted last year so that's just an adjustment to make it the actual salary this person's making and I would actually make a plug here um for what uh director uh W Pentel stated uh in terms of gender equity and salaries thank you well I mean thank yeah I'm I'm glad because I I don't understand why it's 2024 and the fact that we're even talking about this is insane but I just did more research while you guys were discussing this and I found the average for the city of Boston which is a much I I understand it's a much bigger city but the land the land um sorry the asset officer pay range is six in the for the city of Boston $ 61,69 to 87,00 39 so I mean lowballing again but I understand there's some issues that we need to uh look further into I am happy to go and level fund that position um if it's uh pleases the council any any questions counselors yes through you m chair council president so I'm seeing here here that we have a uh 6 point um 6 and 3/4 position I mean 5 and 3/4 position and two I'm sorry 5.33 positions yes 5.67 position again we're again because we moved a few positions there's a few positions on here that are not new uh the manager financial and administrative Services is not a new position that was in Community Development uh it might not have even been in the budget last year uh because it was paid by a grant uh and then the finance officer the same thing and the grant writer the same thing they're all paid out of Grants and they were not in the uh uh in the budget last year and not in the planning office so again because of the trying to show the positions that were normally Grant funded this is going to look a little bit higher than what no I mean uh okay that's the the finance uh officer what all the grant writer was another manager financi administr administrator services and the grant reimbursements as well Grant the grant Rider the finance officer and who else the the manager manager Financial Administration finance officer and the grant writer was a the manager was on the a grand could before was the manage it's still on the grant but it wasn't shown before um previously on the budget as a matter of fact you know her we we know everybody uh all right so basically I'm seeing here that the the gr the ground reimbursement compared to the other department is a little less correct so and that's not even covering one position or two positions perhaps less than two positions but we asking for uh for five five points on positions I mean how you how you think that we're going to be able to afford those positions once we grants are gone briefly in in uh as Carlos mentioned a moment ago there a couple new positions he's asking for a neighborhood planner a comprehensive planner uh the uh the grant reimbursements are generally uh um uh chargeable to the Community Development block grant and the home Grant um for the manager and the finance officer uh they generally that's a good portion of their time is chargeable to Grants and then including including uh some of the time we'll be able to I believe charge more time to Grants um as we obtained them we have some grants for example that relate very much to the planning function that we could charge some of their time to this but like I said before we're unlike other departments that don't even have that option uh the positions that we are asking for usually are either anywhere between 50 or more per that are that are funded uh from other sources of income and by uh Staffing up we're able to attract more of those types of things and then also take into consideration the fact that the activities are supplement not supplementing but but allowing the city to be able to do things that its budget doesn't allow it to do so and director yes what me I mean I'm seeing that before for the last years that I'm been here the the three Department have and one recessionista planning is going to be going to have the own protectionist and then I'm seeing that the other two Department only have two3 of that resection is of that uh of that salary so you guys going to have two recession on the within the department just one cuz I'm seeing the old ones is 33 and then Mone is is going all the way to all the way to up to one the receptionist was the receptionist was oneir uh charge to Economic Development one third to Community Development and one third to the planning this year we're just putting it all in the planning because again that should be an administrative cost so it's not going to be distributed to the other again some of this is due to accounting change organization of things all right and uh and um is the rection since the Community Development have more grants available it wouldn't make sense to just skip it on the Community Development since that person is doing work for the Community Development it's because have more FS they receptes for all three departments they can't charge all the time to Community Development uh Economic Development time would not be chargeable so I'm not sure how they allocate that position's time on the grants but Sue could probably explain it if any of it is chargeable to Grants uh but uh they do have uh a number of Grants as a will to stipulated uh they probably have 10 grants that they're running at any point in time and whatever Char whatever time can be charged to Grants they do so and if they can't uh that's where the general fund comes in and it doesn't prevent uh the person from charging their time because they're put um basically organizationally under this department they still if they work on it and the grant allows that uh they can still charge their time uh obviously this is not targeting the recession position at all whatsoever cuz I don't even know who's there I don't care who's the person but just walk me through the positions duties what position you make a point sure sure you you walk through the door and there's a receptionist there that greets you um and that person takes down the information similar to in other departments where there are clerks that take down the name information and they triage where or what services that particular person may or may not need and at that point that's uh what that per if they can troubleshoot whatever immediate need or they provide some other services or they may be a even to be able to provide information to the constituents that come to the to the front desk um and if that's a quick question they can answer that similar to like for example the the help desk in DPW or other other uh departments that have that very similar I can see very similar yes um and that person walk you through another department uh perhaps because he's working for any of the three departments corre if department needs something related to the boards you walk you through that person so far so on right or direct you to who would have that information yes yes so that I'm trying to make a point understand something the way that the Community Development Office is set up is not quite like City Hall um if there was nobody there somebody could walk through the entire place so we definitely need somebody there um at that at that post pick up the phone call correct and uh and perhaps that ex that extension might get send you over to City Hall as well right and there's also mail functions and things like that correspondence so if you walk to any Department in the city within City Hall that have resection is those Duties are similar I believe so Perhaps Perhaps the mayor's office [Music] right I I I I want speak to the specific duties of other department I'm talking about your your in general in general I would say yes council president all right no more questions that's it any other questions on for this see none okay um next next up is I just lost my place I was going ahead a bit um boards and commissions commiss page 64 so I see that's level funded correct this is pretty straightforward there's really no change to these yep same thing um same thing with the salaries um page 66 is level funded but director can you um for the record can you tell us what's the difference so we have under uh board Zoning Board member salaries we have zoning board members which we have five and their stip in or salary totals altogether 11,250 but we also have two associate zoning board members can you explain what is an associate zoning board members sure so let's say that and I think this is happen sometimes with the council you have the it considered like an alternate if someone's not able to show up they can show up and and and fill in for the person that's not able to attend okay and do we have so we there's two so in total and hold on let me go back the two associate zoning board members and this is just for people watching at home um they're stiens or salaries totals $2,700 so all seven position $1,300 each yes yeah um all all seven members is they're all F filled I believe that there might be a vacancy on one of the uh associate members I have to double check I believe that the mayor the mayor fills those and not I don't fill those so the mayor's office fills those but I think that they were working on filling any vacancies that may have okay all right the next one is economic development page [Applause] 67 so this actually has uh almost a almost a $100,000 increase um again some of this is because of um the we're looking to add one position and if you look at 6 page 68 MH this this department is very low staffed um and in order to really support the economic development that we're thinking about in terms of assistance to small businesses and really focus on that we need at least another position to assist with that and I my expectations is that this positions will also be uh supplemented and assisted through uh grant funding councelors any questions or comments president can you I don't can you send those the can you send those a quick a quick script of usually we got the planed user which is democra to to bre breath us when it comes to that uh when it comes to that uh the zoning board and the planning board every uh budget season uh to talk about you know different things what's going on there can you send us some uh brief information about and overall how those apartments the differ between the two uh and how they are doing when it comes to vacancies mad Madame sh just just mentioned one and also when it comes to uh the the work that they've been doing uh for the last year so usually we don't have that many interaction with those to Department I don't want to miss this opportunity either okay I will provide that for you thank you and just to reiterate uh director Matos and director pimel um any additional resources or information that this body has requested this week I I am asking directors to have that to us uh before the end of this week so for you guys it is a short turnaround but mam Che yes councelor I would like to know how much money you're planning to spend or you and consultants if possible or from where you're getting uh how much you spent in the last fiscal in this fiscal year I don't have that information currently director Matos from where you guys get the money for Consultants um and like give me an example Professional Services okay there not a lot thank you dor Mar said when I check it's the amount of money is not enough to cover for Consultants correct I think that that's an area that's always a little difficult to estimate um and if uh at that point if we would fall short I think we would have to do some transfers um to be able to do those types of things but because of the fact that we are um not actively able to predict like how many consultants we will need or won't need necessarily uh we try to keep that number conservative and then it comes back to the council for example if we need transfers into those lines um for those type of services through you madam chair thank you director uh Matos I you mentioned several times you had mentioned uh the business in the community and and I think it in order to find out what they need you guys going to have to go into the field and get answers from uh our common businesses bodos uh beauty supplies and etc etc you know this community you're very familiar with this community and I think it's time uh and that's why I ask about the money from where you're going to get your money uh Consulting money but it's time to get a real data about what the business Community needs uh in in Lawrence not the big companies not the big companies the regular business owners that you are very familiar with yeah I couldn't agree with you more and and I think that that's an important emphas we do need to support the small business I'm a big proponent of it I understand that they are the ones that are actually doing uh the line share of the local hiring and they're vital as we saw through the covid uh vital to the city's well-being and to providing essential Services when when we need him and and they have uh been an unsung hero in the economy of the City of Lawrence so I I I couldn't agree with you more and I'm a very big fan of datadriven decisions or data informed decisions so I I definitely would uh support that type of uh survey and understanding of the business Community thank you director mat I appreciate thank you any further questions or comments thank you president do you mind just to U just to have a uh a continue the conversation uh about what ccon was saying do you mind on the budgets just to be to have it as clear as as possible do you mind sending us uh a list of professional Professional Services on each department for department so we can have that clear in one email separate from other information that you're going to send us so we can have that as part of that since you have many other departments probably going to have different line yes he looks up to so it's like she got she she got it all right any other questions or comments seeing none thank you director Matel thank you director pimel we are all set for tonight uh counselors can I have a motion to to um to re to recess until the next Mo motion has been made by coun by council president uh secondary by Council lone all those in favor say I I and the eyes have it thank you so much counselors for