good evening we're here tonight for the 2025 start of our budget season and would you please join us and salute the flag pled Ali to the flag the United States of America to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all rooll Club the members of the ways and means subcommittee councelor agenzio here here councelor Kelly here here councel noeli here council zambuto is absent and chairman sylvestri here Quorum is present hello and good evening uh this is Richard viske City CFO and I'm going to give a brief presentation before the department budget hearing so um passed out some slide deck presentations for you and um Ashley if you can put it on the screen that be great I apologize if some of you have heard this before but I know we have some new members so saw do you see it right now yeah yeah that's what I see when I start the supposed to start okay going that e e next slide please thanks Ash um thank you uh sorry for the delay um what you have before you is the 2025 budget submitt um we put the bud budget together um within the guidelines of the gfoa the government Finance Officers Association which is um um the the the only national award program in the uh in the country for government budgeting so um we've submitted our budget uh to them every year since 2014 we've got the distinguished budget award 11 years in a row and uh we continue to submit the budget uh under the gfoa guidelines um next slide please and uh basically the gfoa budget is uh designed to um assess the municipality's uh budget as a policy document a financial plan an operation guide and a communication device so um everything we put in that um budget packet is something that the gfo would like to see we submit it every year for uh uh Graden we we get the uh distinguished budget award every year we get some feedback on how we can make the budget better so we continually try to improve the budget and um happy to take any suggestions on things you may or may not want to see in the budget going forward some of them are required but um that's the that's the format we use for the budget next slide please so basically the budget's made up of revenues and expenses uh uh briefly revenues have broken down by property taxes local receipts state aid other finan and sources if any and then Enterprise fund Revenue those revenues um have to support the expenses that we uh have before you tonight for the services of the city those are broken down into General government public safety education Public Works Human Services culture Recreation Debt Service fixed costs and Enterprise funds so that's kind of the layout of the budget when you're reading through next slide please so fiscal year 2025 budget has an estimated tax levy of10 million 86,1 19 basically uh 46.5% of the city's revenues come in through property taxes 74 4% of those 76% of those are residential property taxes 24 make up commercial industrial and personal property taxes um the natural 2 and a half growth gives us 2 .8 million for fiscal year 2025 and our uh assessing department has estimated New Growth at 3.5 million and I just listed a couple years a new growth forecasting um for your benefit next slide please local receipts are estimated to come in at 22,25 th000 that's about 4.1% increase from 20124 and just to give you an example of what local receipts are those are General uh fund Vues that come in uh the ones that you probably recognize the most would beat motor vehicle excise which is estimated at 7.1 million rooms excise that's the hotel tax 3.5 million males excise tax 1.25 million license and permits 3.25 million investment income 2.5 million um we haven't contemplated any Revenue increases uh with regard to any fee structures or anything else for this budget uh we do plan to um deliver a fee survey to the council over the summer for consideration for future years out so this budget is balanced with no one-time revenues uh for general fund operating budget and um very uh reasonable Revenue um estimates on local receipts next slide thank you our state aid as of the last numbers from the state uh our rest remain to be7 M48 7,079 um you may hear that referred to as cherry sheet Revenue which is um how the state used to hand out the uh award letters on Cherry color paper but it is state aid that comes in most of the state aid we get is goes uh directly to the schools in the form of Chapter 70 Chapter 70 this year was 102.1 million and like I said that goes directly to the schools and that's part of the funding uh formula that gets us to our net minimum uh School spending requirement number second biggest number is unrestricted General government Aid UGA you might here to it referred as um that is unrestricted local Aid right now there's only a 1% increase being uh contemplated on uh UGA for 2025 but this budget goes to committee and we hope to see a little more money there but right now we're using the latest numbers as of the Senate budget next and uh next slide please all right so we have two Enterprise funds in the in the city one's for water and soore operations one's for solid waste operations the total revenue estimated to come in from uh water and saw and solid waste Enterprise funds at 35 mil 81,50 two for the water and sore $ 34.7 million is uh the revenue estimate that would include a $2 million um contribution from the stabilization fund for water and soore and um $500,000 from arpa funding this Council may recall we did a three-year rate structure in 2023 uh this is the third year of that rate structure part of that rate structure was uh keeping the the rates consistent at 4.25% increase and stabilizing those um rates with our uh Opa fun in our uh reserves so that's how the Enterprise funds built for uh water and soore from the revenue side uh so we're going to do a a multi-year rate study also during fiscal year 202 2025 and and going to research all types of options I know there some talk about t rate structures um I'd like to research quarter uh monthly billing versus quarterly I think would be helpful but um I think there's um a multi-year rate study is is necessary for us to uh ensure that we can keep our rates stable as we continue to uh improve our infrastructure and comply with the consent decree so be on look go for that Solway Enterprise fund only generates $340,000 so that's subsidized by the general fund to the two A4 point 5 million revenues generated from uh bulky item fees um enforcement of the ordinance and um investment income are the primary revenue sources for the solid waste Enterprise fund next slide please so I basically took us through the revenue side of the budget uh expense side again General government for fiscal year 2025 10.7 million um I'll try to spare you from me reading every bullet point here but um try to highlight the things that have uh changed significantly with regard to general fund um Appropriations for fiscal year 25 next slide Public Safety expense budget 32.8 million includes our police fire our 911 operations building uh commissioner Municipal inspection and Parking Department we do have two new uniformed officers budgeted for both police and fire and fiscal at 2025 we are hoping that that Grant dollars will allow us to hire an additional five um firefighters for fiscal year 2025 and that would help us staff the point of Pines fire station that's due to be completed in the fall um we did absorb crossing guards into the parking Department uh from the school department so you'll see a big increase in the parking Department budget and that has to do with the uh 40 Crossing guyss that have moved over there for fiscal year 2025 next slide please all right education uh 126 m284 616 for Riva School District that is the calculation that we come up with to meet net School spending minimum requirement and that is the minimum contribution that the city can make to comply with Desi regulations on uh the Regional Vocational School is 3.25 two I'm sorry 3.28 million with operating budget being 2 .2 million of that and the capital budget of 1, 169,000 um they're in the process of building a new high school I'm sure most people are aware of that this debt service is about um half of what the total debt service will be upon completion city of Rivier is the largest member unit of the vocational school with about 20.5% of total students next slide Department of Public Works total budget is $4.8 million for fiscal year 25 that does not include the water and soore and the solid waste but rather the um bulleted points above Administration snow and ice highway signs parks in open space facilities and public property there's been a lot of reorganization down at DPW due to some retirements and the new Administration um you'll see that we have a new superintendent two assistant superintendents and operations manager and uh General Foreman that has previously been a Union phys has now moved to the management side so Administration is um just that the administration and the other departments make up the the labors of of the department next slide please Health and Human Services budget in total $2.4 million that includes Public Health Elder Affairs veteran services Commission on disability uh consumer affairs department has been um combined with the 311 constituent servic so you'll no longer see a budget for Consumer Affairs uh in fiscal year 25 and um human rights is still a small budget but the chairman uh was uh part of the Dei director's uh appointment and uh Dei director Falls in human resource department um Community Lia on positions that are funded through Opa has been moved to the health department we've half funded those positions in fiscally year 2025 with the hope that we can assimilate them completely into the budget for 2026 and we also hired a new director at the Veterans Affairs next slide please culture and recreation $2.1 million includes libraries Parks and Recreation historical and cultural resources the department of travel and tourism has been combined into Parks and Recreation so you'll no longer see a budget for that you will see a budget for the house Health and Wellness Center um we are uh budgeting three full-time equivalents in out of opa funds and um appropriation as well as revenues collected will fund the balance of that operating budget for fiscal year 2025 there is a new Department of Workforce Development and labor relations in the budget for fiscal year 2025 most of which is funded through grants and uh that department makes up of uh two positions a director of Workforce Development and an assistant coordinator next slide please Debt Service for the general fund side is $9.2 million uh that includes some of the bigger projects that you're well aware of as uh DPW facility is funded at 25 million point of Pines fire station at 15.6 million purchase of Wonderland at 29.5 million new high school will be the primary focus of Debt Service uh in the future I think everybody knows that the council approve the $93 million bond for the high school which uh the state will pick up $239 million of that and the city will be responsible for up to 254 million um Debt Service for the high school will begin to uh happen in 2026 and and we've been over the schedule but we will uh get more intimate with those debt schedules as this project progresses next slide please State assessments are just that the state gives us money they also assess US money um $18.5 million for fiscal year 2025 some of the biggest numbers in that assessment is the MBTA of 4.4 million uh school choice and charter school which is money that is directed to those schools versus to the uh R public school for those students that go into school choice and Charter that's 11.5 million retired teachers health insurance is uh assessed that 2.3 million uh these charges aren't appropriated by the council but you'll see them in the appropriation order just so that you have the complete complete picture of revenues and expenses for fiscal year 2025 and these charges just netted against our uh revenues that come in so that's why there's no appropriation necessary per uh Department of renue regulations next slide please other fixed cost $ 46.1 million um primary um uh fixed costs are the health insurance at 26.3 million uh active plans for fiscal year 2025 have increased 6% retire retirees Health Plans uh went up 9% um we currently negotiating with the Public Employee Commission on um a new agreement to uh try to get um a long-term agreement for our health care going forward uh we have property Casualty Insurance at 1.3 million that is becoming uh more and more of a problem uh riseing valuations are affecting the uh the cost of that but but uh more importantly the uh Coast being a Coastal Community is really uh getting some challenges on wind damage and stuff like that so we uh actively trying to uh get the best coverage and make sure that we are covered for everything and and cyber security is a is a close uh second that's another Hot Topic that um we're really looking to make sure that we're covered because there's been some horror stories out there lately uh retirement assessment 16.7 million that's the unfunded liability the city's at 70% funded uh we are uh Bound by a funding schedule that comes from perak which is the overseeing agency of the Retirement Systems throughout the Commonwealth and um that is scheduled to be uh fully funded by 2034 which is important because our obligation for our pension um as far as from an appropriation standpoint would drop significantly because we would just only have to pay the normal costs of the pension not the old liabilities that uh have been on the books for a long time next slide please water sore Enterprise fund and solid waste Enterprise fund uh 31.7 million and 4.8 million respectively um some of the details are uh on the slide but uh I won't read them out loud next slide other finance and uses these are uh things that aren't budgeted but are required to be addressed per Mass General law uh one of which is overlay which is the allowance for abatements and exemptions we talked a little bit about that during the senior workof but um the city gets full 100% credit for all property taxes levied and um if someone gets an abatement or an exemption we don't reduce the uh receivable we charge against this overlay account that's at 1.5 million for fiscal year 2025 cherry sheet offsets are cherry sheet monies that go directly to a particular uh purpose and and and farz we get um money for the library 13 $7,000 so that goes right to the library for their um use without further appropriation snow ice deficit is zero thank you city council for voting to uh close that deficit last meeting um so there's no snow nice deficit to raise for the 2025 budget next slide almost done so there it is this a balanced budget $294.8 million of revenues against $294.8 million expenses um this represents to the council that you have a uh balanced responsible budget for fisal year 2025 again no one-time revenues used for general fund operations uh very reasonable resue Revenue estimates and um spending plan that that we have proposed on here on behalf of Mayor Keef uh we think is uh responsible with realistic Revenue estimates and um I encourage you to vote the budget as adop as as submitted appreciate that there's one more slide it's really not part of the presentation but it is part of the presentation because it's on here but I just want to kind of bullet point some of the challenges ahead because we're talking about a snapshot of 2025 but we all know that um we got a huge task with this high school and uh some of the things we'll be working on is trying to build that Financial capacity to find a new high school so we know there's no appetite for Deb exclusion in the city so um over the next months and fiscal years we'll be exploring a lot of options to increase revenues find new recurring revenues or or or be efficient with expenses and whether that's through you know health insurance pension Debt Service we're going to be looking for every way we can try to uh create this capacity um we do have our Collective bargain agreements mostly all set to expire at the end of this fiscal year so very important to have our responsible collective bargaining to to make sure that we can stay uh solvent and um Opa funds are set to expire at the year end of the calendar year 2024 they have to be committed 2026 they have to be expended we've done some great things with the OPA funds um I'm prepared to bring a presentation to the Council on that at some point in the future but um we have just about committed all of our funds we are uh trying to wean off some of the positions that we funded with those dollars when we were um hurting now we're in full recovery so uh you'll see part of that as part of the budget and um I'll be here for every budget answer any questions on each individual budget so uh thank you for putting up with that presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions or I'll just let you go right to the hearings thank you thank you thank you Mr viske um any councilors have any questions no and we'll proceed first Department tonight is going to be planning and Community Development good evening counselors good evening and I appreciate the latitude and moving me up a little bit we have a meeting of our bike and pedestrian master plan in just a few minutes so I'll give just a quick overview of some of the accomplishments in in the last fiscal year and what we're looking ahead to in the next year and then happy to take any questions that you might have um but just some of the highlights um this year we have re reestablished the role of a conservation agent um serving to support the Conservation Commission in the city which is something we're very proud of and I think is certainly an urgent need given the um Water Resources we have throughout the city on the zoning side we've brought the city into compliance with MBTA communities as well as just at the last council meeting um femous regulations to remain part of the flood plane um we've made some zoning changes relative to should I should we site the page number are we scrolling through we got it all okay um relative to child care and a series of other tweaks um you know on the site plan side we've reviewed over 100 projects development projects going through the pipeline we've received over $14 million in Grants through our grant writing work um including supporting work happening outside of the suff Downs offsite mitigation work climate resiliency planning um the Broadway master plan a broad way parking study and coming soon actually a microtransit plan where we're going to be partnering with mot and the MBTA to provide some Last Mile connections to Riders looking to connect to transit services um on the building project management side we are leading efforts to redesign and redevelop uh the Boatyard at at Gibson Point um certainly the museum right down the street as well as a new effort underway to renovate the McKinley School um into three different uses is an early Child Care site the food Hub and a 911 call center um on the planning side we've initiated a couple pretty aggressive planning efforts in the last year including our housing production plan the Broadway master plan a series of Municipal vulnerability preparedness or MVP planning efforts and as I mentioned tonight we'll be kicking off with our working group uh the first of many sessions for our bike and pedestrian Master planning um and then uh with our small business support we've provided small business support uh nearly 50 small businesses in the city um we've provided support for our sign and facade program actually if you look right across the street at 270 Broadway the facade improvements that we saw there are um the first and many improvements will see both on Broadway and Shirley Avenue in the next year through our sin of facade program and we are always looking to continually aggressively support our small business Community to make sure they have the resources that they need to thrive um so looking ahead in the next year you know certainly the work with all the building projects that I mentioned we are going to proceed rapidly uh our OPM service we just selected an OPM for the McKinley School redesign project hopefully we'll have some shovels in the ground with some key Park projects including Oak Island Fitz Henry Park 69 Shirley and hopefully Gibson Park um by the end of the fiscal year we are implementing the bike pedestrian master plan where we're seeking to create a network of bike and pedestrian friendly projects throughout the city that can be tied to some state and federal funding that's available and then we're continuing to aggressively look at ways to expand and diversify our economic competitiveness in the city I know a lot of the things that the CFO mentioned um this evening with regard to trying to reduce the burden on the residential tax Bas um we're acutely aware of that upstairs at dpcd and we're always looking at ways to expand our economic competitiveness whether it's continuing to support what ST Downs is doing looking at new emerging sectors like climate Tech or even I know um Mr chair we were working together on a project with cannabis zoning and looking at all those different opportunities we can to expand our economic competitiveness um and then you know a few other things in the next year to look out for we just brought on a sustainability manager and there's a lot of different resources federal and state available to help support uh sustainability work throughout the city and on the zoning side I think we've got a lot of exciting work ahead hopefully coming on the heels of the Broadway master plan and the housing production plan and then finally we're going to continue to look at ways to um apply for new grants to bring more money into the city so just in the last week alone we submitted seven different grants for $7 million in total funding from the state through their One-Stop program and just a month previous we added three other grants totaling about uh $4 million in various app so we're always looking to bring money into the city whether it's through grants whether it's through development um or a host of ways that we support our small business community so that's it in a nutshell happy to take any questions you might have thank you very much Tom um any questions from the council councilor Jen good afternoon Mr scosi uh thank you for your presentation I just have a couple of quick questions um the salaries in your uh budget here there's 391,000 from Total salary from other sources do you know what those other sources are yes some of the sources are arpa um and then a good chunk of it is a Community Development block grant program okay so we received a $740,000 um entitlement Grant this year of which we can use 20% of that for staff time okay um so about 20% of that figure goes towards supporting staff particularly the community um development manager and and my position and then the mass gaming commission released a new program this year called the community mitigation fund it might be a one-time program uh depending on how the state government um works out budgeting but we received about $600,000 through that program of which 7.5% can be used for administration to support staff time and then finally we just received word last week and I alluded to this in my comments we've received about $2.5 million do over the next three years to implement a microtransit pro uh program which will provide you know essentially a subsidized taxi service for residents in both Riv and Chelsea um and that will be connecting to Last Mile getting people to the te uh with a with an eye particularly towards the point of pines and a lot of the changes that have happened because of the bus Network redesign um but also with that program we have a small amount of staff time that we're looking to take on um into the budget okay thank you and just one more question I noticed that the city planner and Associate city planner are no longer in the budget are those positions I certainly hope the city planers in the budget um I need to go back and look at the numbers here but um the city planner is still funded and actually that's the other source I I neglected to mention is our infiltration and um inflow fee pays for that um but but the associate planner was taken out of the budget and that was that was my call ultimately um because I wanted to make sure that the folks we already had upstairs were able to avoid that fiscal cliff when we hit arpa um to make sure everybody's brought on to the general fund okay so last year the city planner did appear in a budget but that position is still staying um yeah if I if I may the um the city planner is is technically a part-time position so we wouldn't usually list that in the part-time salaries but his uh salary is fully funded through the inii account so um he he is certainly in the budget but not there's no appropriation needed for him okay thank you very much I'm all set Council cand thank you Mr chairman Tom uh thank you for the presentation this actually might be more of a question for Mr visque um so one of my concerns this year was the arpa funds and what I'd like to know is when it runs out what TimeWise when is it actually going to run out and what's our plan to fund after their arpa funds of run out so many many of the positions that are funded by arpa that were funded at 100% you'll see a lot of them uh if you see other financing sources and it's half the salary that's our way of um trying to uh assimilate them into the the operating budget so um for the planning department for example we use um um we using 50% of that for our um housing planner and uh project manager she was 100% in 2024 now at 50 and then uh the plan is to bring her on full-time the grant wrer position is funded 100% with Opa funds the hope is that that that position is going to I mean there's there's millions and millions of dollars out there right now to be had on grant writing so uh we're hoping that position will actually pay for itself after one year of funding but um to your point we are um we uh have until 2026 to use those funds most of the projects have been budgeted and uh committed those dollars the balance of the money we have is pretty much going to be the run out of these positions and and some positions are actually going to end and and others uh we're going to try to maintain on the budget to the best of our our ability thank thank you and just one more question so this probably going to apply to almost every department but just the other salary column could you just explain we seeing the base salary and then other salary could you just give us some examples of what that consists of yeah primarily other funding sources are grant grant dollars or otherwise I mean Opa funds are technically all Grant dollars so we have many um positions that are funded through grants and and that the other funding sources and I we have a breakdown of it I can give you a breakdown of all the no so there the you know there's the total salary other sources and then there's just the other sources which is right next to oh salary oh typically that's education that could be a travel allowance for a car allowance that could be a cell phone allowance that could be a a stien that that is uh paid uh via collective bargaining we um we roll it up because the the the more information we put the smaller the print becomes but we can get you that information if you need it thank you aome thank you thank you councelor Council zambo thank you Mr chairman um hi Tom how are you I'm well thank you so thanks for your presentation um I guess my question falls in the same category as the presidents and uh award for counselor um how much of your salaries is is in Opa funds and grant money and when the oper funds run out what kind of trouble are we in and you know I I I hope as the CFO said that the grant writers Position will pay for itself uh but uh I'm I'm worried because not only am I worried that we we pay this out of oper and and these other agencies but we're on a ridiculously tight uh schedule since the high school bond and you know we have we're talking we're talking uh debt exclusion we're talking possibilities that all scare the heck out of me and scare the heck out of the taxpayers so uh I guess my question simple question is how much of your core budget is going to is Opa and grant money and I can answer that for you right now okay great it's um so in round figures the OPA funds for um the planning department are at 125,000 I mean $225,000 225 yeah and then um the majority of the other dollars come from our cdbg Administration portion of our award so that's an annual award so those those are recurring uh Administration dollars and we do have $35,000 coming from Mass gaming commission Grant which um uh some of these grants it's hard to um estimate exactly how much we can use until we get the awards we do think we may have um additional dollars that may supplement some cost but um conservatively speaking $35,000 from the mass gaming commission and is is that include the cdb no the cdbg is is is the uh the annual award we get from HUD on uh plan apartment so th those um I'll sum those up for you it's uh 2240 that's about another $120,000 from cdbg and that doesn't look like it's going away hopefully well we took a little cut already and we've adjusted the course well we actually this year we received 100,000 more than we expected but we're always going to kind of plan that that's not going to happen because the two years previously received a 20% cut and a 20% cut I think it's always going to be somewhere in this range but I can only speak for my department saying I feel much better this year about where the trajectory of my Department's going with regard to grant funding than last year so I think we're on a steady course here and and you know we looked at other ways to supplement um just to do what we could Within the department but um I think we're on a good path well I hope you're right thank you little leeway from the chair Tom thank you um just a quick question is is where the permanent salaries on our our budget page is that a typo for 2025 request I which so it shows on our page permanent salaries Department request $ 874884 May's request 335 845 yeah because the we the think of it as the gross number that the department requests and then we apply all the grants and we bring that number down to the May's budget so okay the the the use of the OPA funds use of the cdbg funds um no we didn't we didn't cut 10 positions from Tom no no no I just I was just wondering a good question I understand yes for sure um and then so the grant writer position I actually am excited to see that I do think it will pay for itself my only question with that is will the grant writer be for the city or just the your department itself uh for both and you know I think there are different instances where some departments the the police being one of them have somebody that they've been working with for a long time for certain prescribed Grant programs and I think that will continue but you know particularly with all the state and federal programs coming down the pipeline now it's hard to keep track um and you know we want to take in as many as we can with you know within reason we're not going to have one person apply for every Grant in the city but hopefully as many as possible thank you Tom thank you very much thank you for your time next department is the city solicitor good evening ways and means good evening I won't Bore You by repeating that which is already printed in front of you in terms of goals and accomplishments but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about the budget overall any questions Council Areno thank you thank you Mr KY for coming tonight and it's been a pleasure working with you all these years um I I like you too Paul thank you I see you removed one position from uh your budget the assistance solicitor um and my question is settlements uh you budget $25,000 every year but in in subsequent year or in past years um that figure can become quite large uh is is that just a a wild guess I there's really no way of determining it's it's not a while guess it's been sort of the customer practice that we've been following as you can imagine it's very difficult to right I mean you could put $10 million in that budget and we probably wouldn't touch it but I'll leave Rich to answer the rest now if yeah if if it does go over where does that additional money come from yeah a lot of times we've uh you know we always look to the uh budget um of the solicitor uh like Legal Services if we have a good year with that we can move money around but it is tricky because some of these unknown snow and ice being one of them we budget the same 350 every year we don't we don't like to tie up money on stuff that could otherwise not be used at the um expense of another department or you know it could be a could be the a person's job on the line with the with the dollar so we we try to keep it um low as possible without being um too too worried that we're not going to have enough money because we'll always be able to okay you know those are unforeseen incidents so if we really had to come to the council for an supplemental appropriation we could but we always try to do the transfers within the the appropriated budgets when when we have an issue okay and do we have any kind of an like an insurance policy for for large settlements what if ever to happen or we I'll let we we're essentially self-insured except for right now for internal matters involving employees anything outside of that we are self-insured but we do have some insurance and we get it every year and I I know that I I believe we're inquiring now as to what's available there aren't a lot of insurance companies that will ensure municipality okay so we have a deductible a $225,000 deductible for each claim but it's Personnel matters not nothing outside the city so no civil rights claims no par claims things of that nature okay thank you very much I'm Alla questions from the council mudo um thank you Mr chairman um thanks Paul for coming up and thanks for not reading the accomplishments sorry I didn't want to boy you today I've I've been around here a long time and I know you have a lot of accomplishments and uh I've I've watched most of them thank you the one thing I'm worried about is uh the uh settlement fund especially this year and we won't get into details but my biggest fear is that we're going to have a problem we'll leave it at that um um I hope not um I think I know what you're talking about that's being treated somewhat differently than all our other claims for settlements yeah yeah okay well let's let's all hope for the best oh K's good here thank you thanks Paul thanks for what you do I appreciate you I appreciate you thank you councelor Council Kelly good evening thank you for being here um solicitor capy I just have a question considering all that's going on I see that we have um for outside Legal Services 250 ,000 do you see that as being sufficient right now I do yes again like Rich was saying in regards to the settlement account you never know when you're going to need it depending on what comes and always that's always beyond our control we never know what's coming down the pike so right now I see that as sufficient I do I don't think we've expended that yet this fiscal year so but sorry do you do you see that in um in in your experience do you feel that 2025 might be um an increase in litigation matters that we've seen compared to what we've seen in the past I I I I I I think I know what you're talking about the way the site was bonded we've been paying from that money to outside Council so I'll let Rich answer that then yeah Le there's some legal services that are embedded in the um the bonding for the um eminent domain cases is a different fund so they've been accounted for some there's money appropriate in a different account for uh for those costs so it won't it won't bear on his 250 and his operating budget I understand thank you thank you councelor thanks Paul for coming up tonight um just a quick question can you give us a quick explanation on on legal fees and and the exact explanation so I've I've had been asked a few times why don't we just hire another attorney sure and that's a that's an interesting question it depends on what the need is so feminite domain for example it was a specialty it's not something we do all the time and often it can be more expensive to have an in-house Council get caught up to speed and provide them with the benefits etc etc then to just pay outside Council to do something that they specialize on because we're municipality as you all know we can be subject to all kinds of legal uh I guess attacks is too strong a word but it's the word that comes to mind at the moment and some of these areas like employment law uh like eminent domain like environmental law those are very specialized areas where you want an expert because it provides the best protection to the interest of the city to have the best possible legal defense and though internally we can learn them they're so infrequent and they're so special ized I think it would be more cost effective I think and rich is better at understanding the numbers than I to bring in attorneys and pay them regularly with all that's attached there to might actually be more expensive than using the occasional outside Law Firm for the special area thank you very much any other questions from the counc council nooski thank you Mr chairman um Paul regarding releases and settlements what kind of things does that include would that include water damage from a city pipe breaking and damaging somebody's property yes if we were to determine that the city was particularly negligent or liable I know a lot of the citizens think that we're in a basically like an insurance company if it's the city's pipe and water came out of it we must be responsible I apply the law and it's it's it's it's a delicate act right because the individual is a taxpayer but I'm also protecting the taxpayers money from going to to people if it's not warranted that's that's my role I I represent the city Dani and I represent the city my office represents the city so sometimes people are never happy but I look at the facts and if I believe based on what's learned and I get reports from the DPW or the police depending on the situation that I find that there's some responsibility on the part of the city I will make an offer of payment to those individuals to help alleviate the damages they may have experienced yes thank you thank you I I have one more question just so happened you're here uh are you involved in the lease for the wellness center negotiating that lease I was at the time the lease has been set maybe uh Mr V is that was a three-year lease is that getting set to expire yes so we're being asked this year uh to fund the wellness center uh to give it a chance to get off its feet if we sign another three-year lease and next year at this time it hopefully this is doesn't happen but if if it's not uh financially solvent are we able to get out of that lease or are we locked into it for three years I me I think the particular lease we have right now was a three-year lease I think um your point is valid so um I'm not sure if we would negotiate another three elas or or one year options but um yeah Point points well taken right if I could make that suggestion maybe a oneye option okay yes thank you any other councils thank you Mr KY next up is the License Commission justly as well oh hi am I'm also here to to to speak on behalf of the licensed commission budget but I don't even know if that's there's enough there to Warrant the time for you guys to go through it so it's very little it's just a supply budget and then the salaries for the members that's all it is any councils have any questions just one quick one I noticed from this year from last the licensed clerk $6,000 that wasn't their last year did that money come from some other spot or I'll leave that to Rich to to to answer where the money came from but I I believe it was something overall and Rich will correct me if I'm wrong where there was a uh go ahead Rich you tell them I think that the $6,000 is um part of the ordinance that was just adopted for statements for the clerks of the boards okay great what it wise MH next up is the Conservation Commission does any of the councils have questions for the cons Conservation Commission sure I have one question councilor agenzio I noticed that clerk position there is no pay to it is that does that clerk not get anything yeah I think the in this uh case the agent serves as the clerk of that committee okay thank you next up is engineering my apologies I skipped over the election commission good evening good evening Mr chairman members of the committee Paul FY election commissioner thanks for the opportunity to present my budget um similar to Paul I won't go into too much detail about the accomplishments I'm certainly happy to answer questions we did what we did last year we just did more of it we obviously had a very challenging at times and and uh successful um municipal election including a recount um it I'd have to say I think it went very well all things considered um so we pleased with that uh this year obviously presents uh the once in a four-year cycle of a presidential election and uh the numbers have been adjusted to reflect that and and Rick and I can answer any questions that you have about that um so I'm happy to just go into basically answer any questions that you have about the differences between last year and this year and any other questions thank you Paul any questions from the council Council CL Leandro thank you Mr Chon uh Mr chairman oh my goodness Mr F thank you for being here um I just noticed the deduction in the pole worker salaries just out of curiosity are we going to begin moving towards more centralized voting and to to lower that cost so the reduction in that account for this year um is reflective of the fact that we will only have two elections in fiscal 25 the two elections in the fall unless there's some special we never know that that's going to happen um I had gone in with a higher number when I met with Rich because the presidential is unique we because of the volume of things particularly with the um vote by mail early voting you know we bring in a lot more poll workers to help outside of election day and I will tell you that we will have additional staff on election day in November I think the September primary will be a fairly quiet given the the configuration of the ballot but November will be very different we'll have the presidential we'll have all the other campaigns we have the regional school committee we'll have a number of ballot questions so it's going to be as you can imagine a very busy so I had gone in with the higher number um rich and I went over the numbers together and I I feel comfortable with the number that we've come up with um we always give early warning if it looks like we're gonna have a problem with something but I think we'll be fine um at this point we're not having any active discussions with the commission about consolidation I mean it's always something that you know maybe I know people have feelings about it it's something that we sort of look at from time to time right now I think what you have seen in last year's election configuration of polling places will be the same certainly for the upcoming elections uh whether we change anything going forward with that it's just too soon to say thank you coun zambo thank you Mr chairman thanks Paul thanks for coming up and uh thanks for not boring us with your accomplishments we all know you do a great job too many to mention counselor I know well I know that and we know you do a great job and I we appreciate you it doesn't look like you have any extra money that we can cut so uh I I just want to uh ask you to continue to keep doing a good job down there thank you counselor councilor Areno thank you Mr Fahy excellent job on the elections uh C you B here impressive I just have one questions it's not necessarily a budget question I see the city has decided to no longer offer notary services uh to the public is that what the rationale behind that came as a result of a very long process and conversation about a number of issues um including uh the fact that the election department has had that responsibility for many many years prior to the growth in our workload frankly with the votes act and you know in addition to early voting and vote by mail and the census we have automatic voter registration which I think some of you are familiar with if you deal with a state agency usually the registry but not exclusively you are registered to vote and the volume of trans I can get into more detail about it but the volume of transactions so the workload in our office has grown we had we had done a couple of things initially um we had uh reduced the hours first of all for notary services and we did um with in consultation with the mayor's office uh suspend those during election season so at a minimum we were going to be doing the same thing um the nature of notary services has changed a lot in certainly in the time that I've been here um there are a number of issues relative to the complexity of the documents that people are coming in with the fact that often people come in with no document they say I want to do X and they want us to you know I notice Council Kell looking as an attorney like you just wouldn't you wouldn't you would have an attorney you would have a at least an established document um the language issues the complexity of the documents uh lots of people coming a lot of communities have stopped doing it I think for the exact same reasons that that we ultimately decided to so they know R does it people come from quite a distance sometimes to get things done they come in with multiple um so for a number of reasons we had been looking at Alternatives and in conversations with the mayor's office made this decision so what we do currently is now we still do internal notary services we there you know Ashley's a notary we have other notaries in the city when we have those internal documents that need to be done internal City documents and there's two myself and one other staff person or notaries and we'll continue to do that but um we've provided a pretty extensive list to 311 for people with different language needs and even mobile notaries so that if somebody has mobility issues there are notaries that will come to them and and Nick and I will continue to communicate to keep that list up to date but that was the reason why thank you very much thanks councel thank you thank you Paul thank you great job chairman good luck next up is engineering good evening Nick good evening uh councilors thank you for having me tonight um you can read a lot of the um infrastructure related um you know improvements and accomplishments that uh we had um been able to do over the last year um there is one that I think is worth mentioning um to stand alone and that's the the crossing at Oak Island the replacement of the water line and an addition of a redundant water line and the replacement of the sewer line um is a tremendous accomplishment um and it's just something that I think um is worth noting and just a point on that one also um as of last I think it was Thursday um that job other than uh you know repave in the future somewhere uh is complete and our contractor has demobilized um and so for any residents that are watching thank you for your um cooperation uh that was a big task um and very significant Improvement um with that if there's um happy to answer any questions about the proposed uh fiscal 25 budget thank you Nick any questions from the council Council Cog landro thank you Mr chairman Nick thank you for being here tonight just a question I noticed $108,000 uh bump in permanent salaries I just I don't know if it's because a position was added or if you could just uh explain that for a us and the public uh yep so it's a uh and maybe um Mr viske could elaborate but it's just a movement of um an existing uh position from another yeah that was um a position we mov from DPW budget with um you know the new organization we um we we felt that the um infrastructure program manager was better fit for engineering department thank you very much Council noeli thank you Mr chairman um Nick I know we talked about the other day today what's you got two vacant positions for engineers status and filling them is that going to be imminent or is going to be something we're going to be hanging on with I hope it's imminent um we have had uh a good amount of um applicants we did interview uh three last week um one that is uh very promising I you know I'm hoping to fill those positions um you know as soon as I find a quality uh candidate so um you know I would have them filled yesterday if I could um but the plan is to uh fill them ASAP um I hope that they don't that I'm able to do that relatively quickly um that that salary that we have on here is at 98 or so um is that compensable with outside agencies you know that people would want to take that instead of moving on to something higher so it really depends on it depends on the position that you're comparing it to in the private sector um there are as you might imagine um positions that are out there that you know compensate much better um but it is within the range I think of um you know a quality candidate that has you know decent amount of experience I don't think that we're looking at it you know a 20year veteran uh but somebody that you know has somewhere between three and seven years experience I think um it's fitting okay thank you Mr chip thank Nick thank you very much oh sorry councelor jio yeah thank you Mr R it's it's been great working with you all these years it's really been a pleasure and and thank you for you seem like you're always working short staffed and now I working no staff now um I just have two questions about uh the paving contract where does that stand uh you think we'll be getting some Paving this year I know um so we're working under the um existing contract that we are um in the midst of putting um the next round out uh we had some issues with the previous uh public bid and so um we're will be putting out um a slightly revised version um probably within the next I don't know two to three weeks I would say and then hopefully we can pave in the fall correct or as soon as possible right and I know this wasn't your decision our last Paving contractor we had an option to renew that existing contract for two subsequent years but it was decided to go back out to bid that kind of increased the price uh two three times of what it was um it increased it um I don't know if it was two or three times it did and it was the same contract um so the same contractor in addition to um another one did bid on the contract so um previously the the lowest qualified um bidder was the existing contractor and um I don't know the specifics of how we got to that point I wasn't uh involved that intimately at the time right no I realized that but um yeah I mean I'm hopeful that you know will the contractor will come in with numbers that are um you know I don't expect them to be exact but hopefully comparable okay and one of other uh the bid for the stairs at the senior center where where does that stand so that one also is one that's um stands to be uh rebid um as far as I understand the the sub bids will remain those were in good standing it was the General uh portion that um uh that came in significantly above what our construction estimate was um and so we feel that um if we put it out again we can um solicit some more um interest and have um a little bit more uh response uh the previous bid was one contract I believe and so we're hoping for um more than that if I could make a suggestion in um August of August 24th of 2022 we hired Weston and Samson to do an an assessment of those stairs and their assessment when they came back that you could repair them do a do a uh a repair for 3 to 400,000 maybe that's revisit that I mean I know the bid came in close to a million dollars um it seems like maybe if you could repair them and you had some extra money you could spend it inside the building I certainly want to spend money at the senior citizen Center but if uh maybe that could be Revisited and you know maybe not sure we can certainly look at that um I I believe that there is um some concern with the uh uh compliance um to the current code and to uh Ada uh requirements so that may be um a sticking point but we certainly can um look at you know the possibility of a repair versus you know the complete replacement if if you don't have it I can send you the Weston and Samson sure I appreciate that okay thank you thank you um I don't know if it's possible but we um yeah we were certainly dismay at the the one bid we got for the price so um looking to definitely get more competitive bids on that but um I was also wondering if there wasn't any reason why we couldn't build something in the rear of the building as opposed to the front of the building because the the front is much higher off the ground and it may be a little more cost efficient to if you're going to build something new build it right on build new construction right on the rear so I don't know enough to know that that's even a viable option but we're definitely trying to look at all options to get that um repair but I think yeah I think the slope of the current one is is off so may may not be too conducive of repairing it because there still out of compliance but we'll um I have the thing from Western and Samson you can take cop uh they was able to be ad with and it just saves some money and maybe you can spend it better inside the building I know the seniors are always I'm all for all right thanks thank you oh thank you Mr chairman uh Jo McKenna W one counselor um there are a couple of streets that I haven't been done in Beachmont um either uh it was either done by National Grid or CDM Smith uh wav was one of them uh it's been years uh probably three years and the street is um really it needs work so I was just wondering when that's going to be done um and the other thing is um I know we you and I talked about trees but I know we have a tight budget but we need trees in the in in the city and we just cannot neglect uh that foliage in I mean there are we're going to be a concrete um community so we really do need trees and I know I know there's a budget we're we're tightening our belts but we have to look at the fall we got well I I know what one didn't get any trees in um in in the fa City for the spring so I'm looking for the fall for something all right could you answer that thank you so as far as the trees go I have been in contact with uh DCR they have a tree planting program um um looking to try to have them um do some trees in your area um the other part of that uh wave AV so that is a place where National Grid did work I recently was able to get them to send me uh information basically acknowledging that they do owe us either Paving or a distribution um I think in that case it will likely be um the actual Paving um and so once I have some scheduling with them then I can certainly share that with you but last conversation I had uh with National Grids what with National Grid was that that would be um sometime during this construction season okay thank you Mr chairman through you to Mr rrom could you keep the council updated on National Grid agreeing to peeve and when they're going to be doing that sure I know we've been having our own issues up here with them so we'd like to just if it's possible just notify ab's going thank you very much I would just um uh render that with there sort of difficult to tie down so um when I have information you'll have it appreciate you counc thank you Mr chairman uh Nick just a couple things uh doing National Grid first I know they they totally dug up Campbell a from Centennial down to the parkway after we just paved it and I know we have we have plans to do other but they have to come back and do some trench work it's it's horrible all the way down it's horrible I mean people are bouncing their heads off the top of their cars and it's very very bad down there so we have to get you know Matt Lai on this and you know get get them repaired like I said I know we're going to be digging it up for uh for drainage issues you know I talked to Donnie chello he talked about fixing some of the laterals and uh so and I know we're going to have to dig it up again but at least get it patched until we do our you know get that work done and I know they didn't give us I don't think they gave us any money for that street uh no so I would agree absolutely that we need to uh have a conversation with them about um repairing their trench Paving uh we as far as I understand we have not received a distribution for that one so I think it would be uh incumbent on them um to perform that work and I'm certainly on board with you I agree that that is something that um we need to you know move forward yeah the the other issue the second part of that is going back to trees uh I know we've had a lot of construction in shle have some of them trees were put in some of them were not okay and I know I have maybe about 15 or 20 tree pits that still have to be cut that I've been waiting for three years for okay just cut the pits for now then we can get DCR in to put plant the trees if we're not going to plant them I guess there's no grant money for that stuff uh but we got to do something is the businesses are looking for trees they want the trees in there and they know it beautifies neighborhoods I know sometimes they don't but in this case they want them you know and we just rid uh Fitz Henry square and Campell La part of that there were no tree pits put in for that which I think should have been done that that has to be a prior whether we put in a tree the pit there or not I mean a tree or not at this point but at least fill it in and the pit is there so when we do get the trees available it's easier to dig out a pit than have to cut it and redo it so I know I had seven on Campbell Avenue I got seven more on Shirley AV at least that and there's a couple more other places that for some reason we filled in over the last couple years that I really want trees there so so we got to get some action on those and get those pits cut yep so I did receive your email about that as well so message received on the tree pits yeah and you I haven't sent you the uh the new seven yet what is it the new seven pits okay if you have the list send it I do okay I will get it to you thank you thank you councelor Council Mna thank you for the leeway um Mr chairman I mean if we're having problems with national grid maybe we should call the uh we should get the city solicitor involved in it that's how I feel because uh they seem to be not responding to him they're not responding to us as a council they're not responding to the city so maybe we should get the a city solicitor involved in it thank you thank you Nick thank you very much no problem thank you next up is the City Clerk and Zoning Board of Appeals budget uh so far for the city clerk the office supplies budget is going to remain level funded this year at 25,000 and our contracted Services budget is remaining level uh this year as well at $2,950 um out of that contracted Services um it's software uh through granicus is our boards and commission software that the city has been using it's been helping out uh tracking our boards and commissions and um the other software that comes out of there is minute track um that uh granicus is getting rid of minute track uh what the city council currently uses and uh that's going to be phased out and I'm going to go with Peak agenda that's also by granicus so we're keeping with the same company and hopefully we'll get that launched by uh 2025 uh you'll notice the increase in the assistant city clerk's salary um so now her base is now comparable to that of other assistant positions in city government the city council had passed that salary ordinance back in the and the city clerk and the uh clerk twos listed under salaries uh received increases based on the unit B contract and the uh most recent parody salary ordinance uh that was passed by the city council um and just a couple of notable milestones in the city clerk's office I just want to say that uh the assistant city clerk has been appointed as a Justice of the pece for the Comal of Massachusetts and um I have recently obtained uh the status of certified municipal clerk Through The International Institute of Municipal clerks um so thank you um there's only so that's uh continuing education for the position of city clerk there's only 112 other clerks in Massachusetts who have this designation and there are 351 municipalities okay and then you'll see just that there's an increase that was also approved um by the city council back in the fall for the position of zba clerk um so if anyone has any any questions I can certainly answer them thank you Ashley any questions from the council no Okay coun C Andro I'd like to propose some cuts um no I'm just kidding congratulations Ashley and I just I just want to say for the entire city if anyone wants to know who really keeps this this Council together it is the clerk Ashley Melnick and we are so so lucky to have her I want everyone to know that thank you Mr chairman Council Z buo thank thank you Mr chairman I have to throw a few bouquets of course um I I say it and I say I meet a lot of people across the state in municipalities and I tell them all that we have the best city clerk in the state and I'm not lying about that because we do and uh I'm one of my greatest accomplishments along with my friend Jorge kala was to get Miss Melnick appointed to this position so I'll die with that designation that I appointed the best city clerk in the state thank you thank you counselor and um Ashley yes I agree with them wholeheartedly you do an amazing job for us as a counselor never not answer a call or text or email and um deserved uh all the bouquet you get thank you and that closes tonight's business for the 25 budget we'll see you tomorrow e