Okay. Good evening everyone. Welcome back recoup. We are ready for round two. Um, just want to reiterate what I said yesterday. Michael, um, city manager, thank you guys so much for your work on
this. um uh the changes this year, you know, that you have implemented and getting input from the community um and making sure that you know the budget is inclusive and um our families in Chelsea have an opportunity to not just view it on our website or be able to see it live
as we are um talking about it during the hearings, but have info sessions throughout the city. Very important and very grateful for that. So, thank you. Um all right, uh the floor is yours. Good evening,
counselors and attendees here and uh those uh that are watching live at home or wherever you're at. Um tonight we will start off the night with our the city treasurer collector. Um she's a
wonderful colleague to work with and uh she makes sure that our our bank accounts have enough money to for the checks to clear. So, uh, we definitely do appreciate that. Um, she'll start off with the the Treasury, um, budget this evening. Um, which will
be found on page 83 in the books. Um the treasur the the treasurer's office the treasur collector's office uh total fiscal 26 budget um is $786,000 that we're proposing um which
is an uh a small increase over fiscal 25 of about 84% of that most of the salary I mean most of the budgets based off the salaries which is uh uh around 571,000 um which is an increase of
2.43%. That uh the the set the personnel budget which is the salaries is there's no additional full-time equivalents that have been added. Um the the proposed budget includes any contractual adjustments and uh cost of living
increases. um newer staff uh that uh may have replaced higher paid staff previously is what accounts for not such a large growth in the salary for this budget. Hence the increase is is lower. Um the total operating budget is
actually seeing a decrease of 3.16% to of an amount of $214,642. um which um printing uh the printing line is being reduced to zero um due to the reduction of of those needs. Um
we're also seeing uh reduction in professional and technical uh expenditures of uh $2,500 um to more align with spending as well as legal services uh being reduced to $3,500.
uh as well as reduction in conference travel and serity bonds. Um if you have any questions uh we'll open up the floor uh for the treasur collector to answer any.
Thank you. Uh any questions? Councelor Taylor. Hi. Thanks for coming. Uh, just a just a note. Um, if I'm talking a little funny, it's because I just had a root canal two
hours ago. So, um, pardon me if I'm speaking a little weird. Um, so I don't I don't have any questions regarding the budget itself. Although I must say that
um I was impressed by one of your accomplishments which was the resulted in 5.5 million in investment income. Do you want to just tell the public a little bit about that? I mean, we we don't want to just talk about the the
the things about where the budget is necessarily, but also some of the good things that you guys are doing. So, can you just take a moment and basis? I'm sorry. On a monthly basis, we go out and um we research all the banks in the industry and get the best
interest rates possible between three months, six months, nine months. We try to stay within the fiscal year so we can get the money for that fiscal year and then as it as it progresses to move on to the next fiscal year. So last year we did do about 5 million. This year we're up to 3 million and it's it's not over
yet. So um we're working very hard to to keep up with that on a monthly basis. I I just I appreciate that. I think this is you know a lot of times I talk about the city being proactive in in things. I think this is a example of that kind of
uh proactive uh uh steps that we can take to kind of ease the ease the burden so to speak. So thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Nice job. Thank you, Councelor Taylor. Um Sanate. Yes. Thank you again. I had the same observation
about um shopping around for the best CD rate. So thank you. Seeing no other questions. Thank you so much. You're welcome. All right. So, our treasure collector does not only just manage that
department. She also uh um oversees our liability insurance. Um payroll. Is payroll next? Payroll's next, right? No. Nope. I believe liability insurance is on my schedule is next. Unfortunately, I mean, unless you allow me to take it out
of order. That's all right. Okay, we'll take it. Huh? You have You have it next. I have an older schedule then. All right. Well, then my schedule must be wrong.
So, 147 payroll will be next and that can be found on page 87. Sorry about that. So, um, our treasure collector, sorry, just to make sure we're going to payroll and then Yes. I was asking if I can different,
but doesn't matter how you go. Take it out of order. Yes. I'm saying I was asking Yes. Is that okay? Yeah, that's fine. Okay. All right. We're going to payroll 147. Yes. I'm sorry for confus confusing. And that will be on page 87. So is this in
similar area in the book where we were just at 87. Yes. All right. So our treasury collector overseas payroll is a department of uh uh two staff that report um directly to
the um assistant um treasurer collector who then reports to the treasure collector. Um they process all of the city's payroll and support. um at times the needs of the schools departments. Um they've been they've been performing
pretty well uh and accomplish uh digitizing our payubs this year. Um we're in process of uh even taking that a little further with hopefully sending them out through electronic mail and uh they've also sent out our our tax forms electronically this year and uh and uh
with with support of the human resource department and deputy city manager of operations uh um set up the employee self-service uh module which uh where everything is stored there. So, this total budget uh is
$160,785, which is a decrease uh um over last year's budget of 5.65%. Um the personnel budget, there's no changes in any positions in the budget, but it's increasing due to contractual obligations and uh uh cost
of living adjustments. The main adjustment um that you'll you would see is in a reduction of professional technical services budget which was cost that we had set aside and um in the past to cover consultant work for to support
process improvement. Um we've uh you know with the additional capacity um and looking at the the the team the talents of the team um we've been able to bring in some of that work and not having to use outside consultants and we will
continue to do so in the future. So uh we will be removing that from the budget going forward. Um anything else you'd like to add? Uh Patrice budget. This is an easy budget. Any questions? Anybody have questions?
Counselors, I'm sorry. I got to excuse myself. My machine ain't working, so I can't hear nothing. Okay. So, I can't even ask any questions unless they specifically speak real loud.
Can we get um Yeah. Okay. Councelor. Um Okay. While the city manager checks in with a mean, I'm gonna have um counselor Sanne if you have any questions. professional services. Excuse me. I did
have a question that was answered by Mr. Mason about the professional services and I just wanted to make a note about your goal which is to have all of your um all individuals to become certified in payroll. I thought that was a great
goal. So, congratulations. Okay. Um, so while um while the city manager supports with the audio, what was it? Yeah, we can continue. Um, can I tell I'm sorry to the public, but I I'm deaf,
so I need a machine so I can hear in my ear. If my machine does not work, I'm use useless to use because I can't understand what they're saying and I can't ask any question because I I'm not going to ask any question that I don't know what I'm hearing. Yes. That'd be
foolish of me. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, let's uh continue if there are any other questions. No. Okay. Um and then we'll fix the hear the the machine the hearing machine.
Since there's no questions uh other questions at the moment, we will move on to liability insurance uh department 945 which can be found on page 248. Hello. Testing testing testing. Yes, I
I'm test. So, liability insurance. I'm sorry, I'm having a technical difficulty. Hopefully, we didn't lose internet here. Um, are we good now? Yeah. Okay.
All you see, all it needed was a little TLC from our city manager. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Felen. All right, Michael. Okay. Oh, I just have to I have to resign it. I'm sorry. If you can just give me one second. Yep.
All right. So, on page 248, li liability insurance, our our treasurer collector also oversees this program. Um, the total operating budget is uh $1 million, $44,877
uh which is an increase of about 3%. Um and deductible payments uh remain level funded and typically sometimes those are covered by departments. Um this is uh an amount that is assigned uh that is uh
quoted for us um based on our our vehicle inventory and properties. Uh any any additional information you want to provide? Well, the the school department just purchased a a big piece of property, so they were able to give us an addition additional funds this year,
so we only had to go up 3% with their funding help this year. Awesome. Awesome. Any questions? Councelor uh recuperon and councelor Sashi. Good evening. I just want to ask a question. When you say the school
department just purchased a big Well, the city school. Yes. So, so if they purchase it, do we pay anything? The city uh So, in other words, the city purchased it. Well, the city itself has to pay the insurance on Okay. the school
building. The school building is city property. All right. So, in other words, because people misunderstand sometimes they say school school. The school is part of the city. Absolutely. So whenever you say the school itself, you got to include the city with it so the people outside can understand what
you're talking about. That Thank you. You're welcome. I just wanted to clarify that people can understand. Mhm. Councelor Teshi, um when you refer to liability insurance, are you referring to insurance to cover um the property of
the city or do does this also include um liability insurance for any damages through the actions of the city, let's say construction impacting? All of the above, the umbrella, the the vehicles. How how does a homeowner um go about
filing a claim against the city for let's say the city through construction damage their property city solicitor? Yeah, the um there's a form. It's a uh a claiming as a city form. It's on our website, but uh uh you can also do it in
writing in person. Uh and it does go to our our city solicitor's office. uh it it depending on the on the claim uh uh it will get transferred to our our insurance company right and they handle the the uh the entire process. Are you
aware of any dispersements made to people in let's say in the past year where the city actually owned up to its mistakes? We own up to every mistake counselor. Um I think in in you know it really it's really specific right on on
on the uh on on what the issue is. You know one claim that we get on a regular basis it's potholes right so so if there's a pothole that that is is is not fixed for instance uh uh uh we get claims from residents that uh uh they
suffer damage right from a a pothole. it's investigated, right, that by our insurance company. Another claim that we get on on a regular basis, uh, is is claims on on sidewalks, right? If it's slippery, if it's if it's on ice. So, it
really varies on on on that specific scenario. Um, what if any guidelines uh does the city provide in terms of uh following up with this process that, you know, I could share with constituents? Yeah, um
I would say that that that uh uh just like filing any kind of claim, right, it's really important to have proof, right? Uh it's really important to have before and after pictures, right? Uh uh it's really important to to like quantify what that damage is, right? Uh
uh and and and if possible have have quotes attached to it. Does does the city provide uh you know that guide or guideline in in in the website? Could we perhaps do that? Yeah, I mean we it depends on on what it is. I mean the the
uh um uh I'm I'm just wondering if people people would be able to have any any type of starting knowledge of what do I do if I'm in this situation? Yeah, I mean I would say that that that uh you referenced construction right in the
beginning. I mean the the uh uh it's really specific in in most cases in in construction. uh it's it's it the claim wouldn't go against the city per se because we we contract it out, right? So so so we we uh um the claim would would
ultim ultimately be on the contractor, right? That and we would work with the contractor uh to ensure that that everything is investigated appropriately. Um so so it really varies on on on the claim on on the scenario.
Um, last question. In general, when we contract out specific jobs um, in the contract made with with the, you know, the subcontractor or the contractor, um, does the city absolve itself from any liabilities and and throws it on the contractor for any damages they may
cause? Yeah. I mean, I I what I was saying is is indemnify is the language, right? Right. I mean the uh um where uh um you know again it's really specific on that scenario. I don't want to make it any blanket blanket uh uh statements
but when we do have a contract with a contractor and and the contracts as you can imagine uh vary right in in size and in scope uh uh but we require all contractors to to carry insurance. they
give us a copy of that insurance and they put the city of Chelsea as additionally insured, right? So they uh uh and obviously we we have uh uh checks and balances, right? So so we will not use uh uh contractors that have have
have outstanding claims in other communities for instance. Perfect. Thank you. Absolutely. Counselor Taylor. So I just have a a a general question. And I know that the Can you explain to
uh so we have actual liability insurance policies with companies for liability insurance and and what types of what types of insurance are we self-insured on? Self-insured on um on workman's
comp. Workman's comp and um and health insurance. And health insurance. Okay. Those two. Thank you. Any questions over here, ladies? Councelor uh
recuper this question is nothing. I'm just going by what councelor Tes says and this a simple question for potholes. It's very hard to get money. Two, and for three, when you do potholes, you got to make sure there's different kinds. The city's not liable for state roads.
So, you got to make sure when you go there, you have to prove where it happens. But the city is not responsible for any potholes that are in state roads. And second, if you don't clean your sidewalk and the city says that you don't clean it and you fall, you are
responsible, not the city. So that I want to clarify to the people outside that that's how it works. It doesn't just say because you got a pothole, that doesn't necessarily guarantee you anything. And you got to make sure that when you do that, it is not a state
road. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. And welcome, councelor Vega. Councelor Cooper, I just want to make sure and for the rest of the counselors as well that we stick to questions. We have a long agenda. I know that this is a great opportunity to also educate the community on certain topics, but let's
focus on questions and let's make sure those questions are related to budget and finances. Okay. Thank you, team. And thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Patrice. We will now move on to procurement
department 138 which can be found on page 74. Okay, we uh have invited up here our chief procurement officer Jajika Ivanis and uh she oversees the
procurement department. Um the responsibility of the department uh uh is that they handle procurement and contract execution for all of the city inclusive of the schools. Um annually they uh authorize over 4,000 purchase
orders. Um and of that they execute over 1,000 contracts um and contract amendsments annually. Um recently as we uh the the city council approved the budget to uh uh
give the department the ability to build capacity um uh and hire and onboard a new assistant procurement officer that um is being uh literally uh trained as we speak and will uh oversee the school
portfolio of purchasing um which will allow a structural change in the department for the assistant procurement officer to the other assistant procurement officer to oversee the city portfolio of purchasing. Um so uh this year um some of the goals
is uh is around modernization and digitization and so um one of the things uh one of the major things of me and Dragica have talked about is electronic bidding uh improvement of workflows um and by leveraging munis um and uh I I
believe we'll be able to do that this year uh while she's already accomplished using uh leveraging ready forms this year. um which is uh using Tyler content manager. So that's great. Um and she will also identify efficiencies uh this
year by building staff capacity. Um the total fiscal 26 budget talking about the expense table that's on the screen. Um the the purchasing budget has decreased by 4.25% year-over-year to 30 about
336,000. um of that personnel budget has decreased uh by 1.72% um to amount of 263,000. Um this is because we've been
able to acquire our new staff at a lower rate than what we originally budgeted. Um and as well uh that this figure does include the normal cost of living adjustments and contractual obligations. Um we're not asking for any additional
FTEES in this year's budget. Um the operating budget also has decreased by 12% mainly uh the procurement office also coordinates the supplies for the the entire city department all the city departments in which they do an amazing job make sure that we're we're stocked
up. Um and we've aligned the budget to more be aligned into what the current trends of in terms of spending in the um for the city over the last few years. Uh if you have any questions, we will now open it up. I I have no questions. It looks good.
Thank you. Um, Bubba, I just had uh some comments about the work you've done, particularly as the city of Chelsea is hoping to become an all-America city and the goal is environmental sustainability
and what I noticed in the procurement section is that your shift to docuine and to Munice has um envir positive environmental benefits. So, thank you. That's you have a a good model for other
departments. I haven't seen it that mentioned anywhere else in this budget so far. I'm sort of doing each section night by night, but it was notable to me. So, I appreciate that. Councelor Rick Cooper, I see um here you
have a do dues subscribing form 225 450 450. What is that? union dues or papers from the union. So no, so those dues are for our memberships. If we belong to certain organizations, we pay annual dues or
subscription or membership. So those are those are for people that work in your office. They subscribe magazines, not magazines. So, uh, one of the the the great things about being a procurement officer in the state of
Massachusetts is that you get designated by the inspector general's office. And with that, you are required to maintain your license or your designation by taking courses or classes. So, you will be a member part of professional
organizations. Um, one of them is NAPO, which is a a Massachusetts Association of Public Procurement Officials. And so uh they maintain all the records in terms of the professional development so that when it comes to renewal we will always have a designated uh mask
Massachusetts certified public procurement official and on on in our offices. Okay, that's good. Thank you. All right, seeing no other questions. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody. Have a good night. You too.
All right. Thank you. Uh the next uh one on the agenda is assessing uh department number 141 and could be found in the budget book on page 78. All right. So we up here we have
invited uh our our chief assessor, Mr. Sullivan. Uh he he uh ensures that we make sure that we are assessing uh all of the property um equitably and and efficiently across the city. Uh we
appreciate all the work he does. Um we have a budget in front of you. Uh this year actually I would say that was a big year for you. um you went through a reertification year which took a lot of work and uh once again with the
level of accuracy uh you didn't get any push back from the state which is amazing. Um so thank you for that. Um so going to the budget uh we have um a total fiscal 26 proposed budget that's been reduced by 2.7%
um to $543,839. Um and of that the personnel budget is 363,000 um which pays for this amazing chief assessor and uh three other um uh
qualified individuals in the office that uh uh handle a substantial amount of work. This department is has been seeing a reduction in FTEES. So uh you know after evaluating the structure in the
department um and ensuring that we had the right people hired um we were able to remove the uh we we feel confident that we there's no need for the the floating clerical position. Um and so that's been removed out of this budget.
Um and then the budget obviously accounts for contractual obligations and cost of living adjustments. Um the operating budget however has increased to 180,000. Um of that um we're seeing software licenses increase uh by
$12,000. Uh we we these are due to anticipated increases in the vision software. This is the software that the assessing department uses to ensure that all properties are taxed correctly and um is a database um that helps them
complete their work. That's very important. Um, they're also seeing a data processing increase. It's a onetime cost of $5,000 to cover an upgrade to the maps for the mapping purposes. And then also appraisal services, which is another component of vision uh
increasing by $1,500 to uh 60,000 about $60,800 $800. Um, any questions? Uh, we'll open up the floor uh for Mr. Sullivan to answer anything. Thank you. in regards to the budget. Any
questions? Councelor Robinson, I see in legal services we have the amount of 8,000. Yes. Is that sufficient for the for you in regards to the number of abatements that come into the your office?
Luckily, we have negotiated and worked out the abatements so we don't have to go to court. So, Typically that would not be sufficient because if we were to get an appraisal appraisal would be about 15 to $20,000 per report and we had 150 um appraisals.
We're able to negoti either deny them and back them up with detail but if someone wants to take us we will take a further look and negotiate it without incurring the legal costs and the outside appraisal fees that the pellet tax would would demand. All right. Thank you. That was my only
question. Seeing no other question. Uh councelor Tesy um I'm looking at uh software license. Um what uh you know what's the use of this new software and uh what is it
exactly? So we have a CAM system that does multiple regression analysis on our data. So, it's something there's really only two players in Massachusetts that do this and they've increased some costs and one of the um the licensing agreement is which
would include we're going to switch to a cloud system. So, that will free up money in it. So, it's an expense to us and it'll free up uh money overall for the city. But the um the camera software did increase this year. It does increase annually and it's something that we have
to have because if we were to do this out in spreadsheets it would be absolutely impossible. Yeah. So that uh uh 40,000 proposed uh it would continue to go up from 40,000 year after year it will go up. I
don't think it's significant because we are doing the one time with the cloud. So the percentage uh increase wouldn't be as large with the license. Okay. So, but I'm thinking right for next year it would be 40 plus whatever increase or would we go back down to 28 plus a
little increase? We would probably go up 40 plus okay an adjustment for inflation. Yeah. Um in terms of uh design uh I don't know if you mentioned uh anything about it. What is it exactly?
I'm sorry. Which one? design allocated $50,000 for it. Yes, it just says design. That's data processing. That's a typo in in the in the in the data that you're
looking at. Um it should be an amount for 13,500. No, 50,000. No, it's 50,000. Oh, 15,000. So, in in our in in the book, it's right under appraisal services. It's listed there as other professional services, but on on the book it says design, so I don't know
what that is. Okay. Yeah, that's a typo in the book. Um, good catch. Um, so I apologize. I'm just looking at this here. Um, so I'm sorry. What was your question on this? What is it?
Um I'd have to get into the details of it. Um it breaks it down the data processing, there's mapping services, there's other u other services that are included in that. Yeah, I mean um when it reads other professional services, it's a little more straightforward than
design. Yeah, I apologize. I didn't catch that the first time either. No worries. Thank you. That's it. Councelor Ricaro. Good evening, Mr. Sullivan. I wanted to ask you a question. As the city keeps growing and there's more and more buildings going in, uh, is your
office capable of handling the extra that is coming in? With regards to that, yes, we are. We we obviously we removed a position because it wasn't needed through hiring the right people. Um, just to let you know,
we have something unusual in our office. We have a new Spanish speaking office manager. Um, so we didn't need the POS. We didn't need the floater because she can handle both. And there's myself and uh data manager and assistant assessor.
We're all certified appraisers and two of us are designated assessors that and Craig who the data manager will have it. To become an a certified appraiser, it's four years beyond a bachelor's degree. So there's a lot of work involved. So we don't have to train bringing these
people in. I didn't have to train them as much or get them on off the street, get them up and running. They could hit the ground running and we could be more efficient with that regard. So there's still a lot of work and asuk does, but I think we can scale towards it. If um we're building models and spreadsheets and everything to export our data out
and so in conjunction with our canvas system, we do it um through Excel and hopefully uh PowerBI in the future. Thank you. Okay, seeing no other questions. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Sullivan. Um, we will now move on to uh human resources department and we'll invite uh director of human resources, Mr. Edward El's up here.
Um, glad I showed up early. I just want to confirm is my schedule. It says personnel. Yeah, personnel and human resources. I'm sorry. I see. Yeah. If I could, if I could, I was just going
to open up with a few remarks about my department and my team just to give you some context before before Michael starts. Um, the HR department, as you know, is committed to a broad range of HR services and benefits designed to employ, develop, and maintain a
highquality workforce. We work in partnership with managers and their teams, with individual employees, and with others to create a work environment that is conducive to and supports continuous learning and the operations of city government. The HR department's values
of customer service, continuous improvement, teamwork, and results are woven into every aspect of the HR life cycle from recruitment to hiring to training to developing and finally to offboarding. In addition, we administer to our
employees and their families health and welfare being health and welfare being benefit programs such as health and dental insurance leaves of absence, EAP services and support and seniors and veterans tax workoff programs. I have a
terrific team helping me do all this. Denia Romero who is newly appointed as assistant HR director. Millie Gonzalez who is serving as our benefits manager. So, she moved into the spot that Denny was covering. And the addition of Leslie
Santos as our HR generalist and Marcela Castillo as our HR assistant rounds out the team. So, I just wanted to give them credit for all the work they do day in and day out. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. So,
I'll uh uh before jumping into the next segment of questions, I will just round it up with data. Um so you'll see that the personnel budget has increased by 8.29%. So as uh Mr. L's have uh
acknowledge this team there has been some adjustments in the department uh this year. Um so last year uh we had a uh uh a position that was a part-time position um that was originally funded
and it was there was also um uh HR generalist that was at uh 0.85 uh full-time equivalent. So um due to uh the ability for uh individuals to actually do um more hours in the HR
general's role um and to better support the city, this is definitely a need for the department. Um that role was increased uh the HR general's role to a 1.0 and the part-time clerk position is now the new uh full-time HR assistant.
Um and as uh the Mr. stated earlier there was an HR manager position um but to build greater capacity um and to um to build succession um um and just leadership in the city we've also added
an assistant director role in the department um which is in replace of the HR manager role so there's that's not necessarily an additional headcount um but those adjustments lead up to that 8.29% 29% which is slightly over the 6 to 7% that we've seen in other
departments on on salary increases. Um the operating budget also is seeing uh a 19% uh 19 to 20% increase um mainly driven by employee training uh line that is increased by $25,000.
Um you know um there was uh uh trainings that was funded in other department budgets uh that was uh reduced um in this year's budget and is found a new home in HR um where it it it seems to be an appropriate place which would even
include uh um equity training. Um and then other increases in the budget are tied to anticipated cost increases due to inflation. Uh if you have any questions now we we can open it up. Thank you Michael. Uh councelor recupra
the question I had you answered more or less was one position when you came that was part-time then it switched to full-time. So let me ask you HR director a question. So when it comes from part-time to full-time, do you put that
position for somebody to get outside or because someone is part-time, they come in now and they get a priority over the people from outside and then they become full-time. So how does that work? We take the existing employee and raise the hours to the full-time men allowance. So
that doesn't give somebody else an outside chance to come in. Right. Correct. Okay. That's that's a question I asked. Thank you very much. No more questions. Any other questions? All right. Thank you so much. Oh, councelor San, my apologies. Um, I just
see that you doubled your training budget and as an educator, I'm all for that. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit. Is that because the office is larger or No, I think the opportunities to bring in some outside consultants and trainers and
utilize our internal people that are experts in a given field. I think Mr. Mason went through an Excel training class, a one-on-one lunch and learn. Excellent. So, I think it's going to be a combination of of both internal talent teaching and external experts coming in on site. That's great. And uh also your
employee handbook and online recruiting. I think those things are also very positive. Thank you. And to be clear, this is this is uh um citywide training that is is funded out of this budget. So uh uh things like our our our retreats
for department of heads that we have been doing uh twice a year are funded out of this uh uh we we started a series called lunch and learns and and while uh uh many of them are free uh a few of them are are are trained are uh are are
are paid. Uh we also have uh more technical uh uh consultants that come. We did a a series on on performance reviews, uh a series on on effective coaching and feedback. So,
we're we are trying to to uh uh as much as possible offer uh training opportunities to all staff. Councelor Taylor, sorry, I just wanted one bit of clarification on that. This is a whole
like myriad of different types of training, right? You you had mentioned equity training that this is more than than than that. This is all kinds of different training for all the different departments in the city. Correct.
Correct. How how many different types of training do you think there is? I'm just so that we do. Yeah. I mean I mean we we uh um we have been getting into into a pattern of doing a department head retreats twice a
year. Right. And with those what we do is is we bring a a a consultant right that facilitates on on a topic. Exactly. Exactly. Management training on on how to communicate, how to deal with stress, right? Uh uh how to how to how to stay
optimistic in in this climate. Uh so uh and now we're doing kind of a assistant department head training as well uh you know to to invest back in the employee so that they stay and they grow uh with the city of and how much of that is is
technical training to actually get that you mentioned you know something like excel right so some something like to to directly you know improve the workers qualification Yeah, I think it's a ideally it's 50%
technical, 50% soft skills. Great. That's that's Thank you. That Yeah, that answers my question. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Seeing no other questions. You definitely have an amazing team. So, thank you for highlighting that. We're Thank you. We're really grateful for um
always hearing, you know, the the positions and how folks are, you know, transitioning within the departments. Um thank you for your time. Thank you. We have the well we have one more with Mr. L's um and that's uh employee benefits which is like a subbranch of human
resources. Um so we can if you can turn turn to page 245 um for employee benefits. So employee benefits um this is uh you know what's covered under this is health insurance uh life insurance
Medicare unemployment workers compensation of the like. Um and of this um this year the budget is increasing uh by nine a little bit over 9% by
$842,000. Um and the major portion of this is due to health insurance claims. Um and so um we are self-insured. Uh we have our our our health insurance trust fund. Um and it's been carrying a a
healthy balance. So that it was a great decision for the city to move to that because, you know, when they when there are good years, the city gets to save those dollars and um and can use it for hopefully when we get to the rainy days,
right? Uh for when it comes to these types of expenditures. And so, um, across the Commonwealth, uh, municipalities, even the GIC, those that are in the GIC are seeing increases of over
16%. Um, and our consultant that we work with and and um has said that they anticipate our cost uh to go up to that level as well to 16%. Um, and we have some complicated claims as well, right?
Um so um but due to the balance um we're going to use some of the trust fund balance to to cushion the impact to this fiscal year's budget. So what you're seeing is a 10% budgeted increase in
health insurance. So if we were to go above the the claims that they're projecting to 16% that would be covered from our current trust fund balance. Um and we will continuously reassess the
balance to make sure that we don't get into a uncomfortable spot um in the sense of uh where uh where it should be. Um also due to salary increases across the board in uh Medicare is correlates
directly to uh the salaries of the cities. And so that is a uh a portion that we pay and that's going up about 7% or $44,000. Everything else is uh is level funded. If you have any questions. Thank
you Michael. Uh, councelor Brookke bro on that Medicaid, right? Is that for the retired workers or for the workers that are there now? Because Medicaid is taken directly out of their paycheck, right? Is this for the portion of the retired workers that you're paying
into that line payroll tax? So, yes, a tax that that's our contribution as a city. So the employee pays a contribution up to a certain amount of their salary and then the city play pays a matching contribution. And so that's what you're seeing is the matching
contribution to Medicare that the city has to pay for active employees for active. So and that's all we pay 44,000 for all the employees. No, it's 642,000. It's increasing by 44,000. I'm sorry if uh that was confusing. So it's
increasing 44,000 to the Medicaid charge us more money now. Yeah. So as salaries increase the is is a percentage um of everybody each employee salary up to a limit. So as um the trend has been
around 7% this year that we're seeing salaries increase. And so um it it correlates to the increases that we spend on our salaries. So if our salaries go up about 7%, Medicare will also go up about 7%. So that means each year this will go up as salaries go up.
Correct. Thank you, Councelor Himenez. I just I think what you explained is what it means to be self-insured. Um but I'm I'm just this is not an area that I am an expert on. So I'm just curious, could you just explain the difference between being self-insured and how we
would otherwise do it? I'm just curious like do we have insurance like like do people have like a an insurance card that's like Blue Cross Blue Shield or something like that or is it like a oh Chelsea insurance? I'm just I have no idea how this works so I just want to make sure that I understand it as as brief as I could. I'm sorry. You didn't
do it. Yeah. Um there's two ways to ensure health insurance. To be self-unded or to go premium based. Premiumbased means you contract with a healthcare provider. They establish a rate based upon your history and your experience. They charge you a premium
and they reap the benefits or the losses as a result of that estimation. Self-insured is the contributions the employee share contributions come from the city and the company. They are um they are we hire a third party
administrator to administer the plan. So to the average employer it looks like we pay Harvard Community Health Plan for premiums which we don't. We pay them to administer the plan per the guidelines and a plan that we select. Gotcha. That is so we run the risk of
the losses and we run the risk of having a good year. Perfect. Thank you. This that makes a lot of sense. Great question. Questions. Could you tell me a little bit about maternity leave? About what? Maternity
leave. 12 if you've been here over a year. 12 weeks. Okay. And for both eight weeks here under a year. I'm sorry. Repeat. Eight weeks if you were here under a year. Okay. Um paid um only a portion is paid if you have the
acred time available to pay for it. Okay. And this is for both mom or dad. We have we we added this year a paternal leave benefit which pays either the mother or the father but not both. If they both work for the city only one
gets it. It's 10 an additional 10 days paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child. Okay. Okay. All right. Um that is it. Thank you so much Ed. Thank you all. Thanks for the support through the year too. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ell. Um, we will now move on to inspectional services, uh, department 240 on page 166. And we'll invite Mr. Mike McAir who's the director of inspectional
services. Mr. Mason, can you remind me what page we're on? Yes, that will be fine. Page 166. Thank you. Page 166. All right. So, the inspectional services uh
department has a total budget uh proposed budget of 1,581,117. Um, which is a decrease uh very small decrease of uh 16% below fiscal 25's budget. Um and
of that uh a personnel budget um that uh is slightly increasing um but slightly under a percent at 93%. Um and that is is is mainly due to um a
level headcount but some adjustments within the the the actual department um that do not necessarily substantiate um significant salary increases or salary need. Um but however, everyone in the
department is getting the contractual obligations um uh and cost of living adjustments to to meet uh the un uh you know um unpredictable inflation that is ahead of us. Um the operating budget is uh a total of
49,350 that's proposed and is down uh 25 uh%. And many of the reductions we had a discussion in our budgets um was more of trying to align the budget this budget with uh actual spending that the
department has done in the past. So, after looking and past historic budgets, um it seemed that we will be able to still comfortably fund this this department and and be able to provide the services that it provides to the city um at the level that we're we're
we're proposing to this evening. Um and I'll open it up for any questions uh for Mr. Makier. Thank you, Michael. Uh questions, councelor Taylor. Okay. So, there's a couple things that I
wanted to ask here. Um, one involves the kind of general improvement in um, uh, kind of the customer relations field. And it looks like your goal, one
of your goals about streamlining the five-year certificate of uh, uh, habitability program by getting new software. Can you just speak about that and what that what you hope to achieve and what Right. Right. So, right now we
have the five-year certificate of having program. It's it's a slow process. It's it's mostly done on hands. We have these big spreadsheets we put out mailings. Uh nothing's automated. Uh we have to fill in fill in by hand boxes when we finish the street. Every inspection,
everything's done by hand. And and if we have a better software system, you know, we could, you know, mass mail. We can't do that now. We can uh we can populate fails in the system. We won't have to keep these these paper spreadsheets. Uh it'll be it will help us. It will help
it will help city of Chelsea, the residents. It really will help everybody all the way around. And it will uh it will allow my inspectors to do more inspections in a short amount of time. Is is that is that goal achievable in the next year? If if you listen to open
gov, they promised us the world. It looked very good. You know, that's what I've heard. That's why I'm it looked excellent. I'm I'm cautiously optimistic about it. I think it makes it will make a big difference. I I get I
get calls about this type of thing about, you know, hey, I I put in this for this permit, blah blah blah. h haven't heard back yet. Whatever it is, I got guys coming to work. So, so I just, you know, as as just a as just a, you know,
customer improving the customer service of city hall. Definitely. And it will it will eliminate some human error. Plus, right, you know, it'll be it'll all be right in front of you. It'll be easy to find things, easy to get reports, easy everything will be easier with it if it works the way they they promised. Will
that will that also free up uh uh to people to to be out in the in the field a lot more because this is one of the big challenges I think for your department and and what we've we've tried to add people we have added people
in the in the last couple years. Um yeah right now housing inspectors are writing the report on word and attaching it to to the database the permanent database. We don't this you can do it all in one. You won't have to It'll save a whole step. It'll definitely free them up for more time in the field. Okay. I think
that's a great step forward. We'll see how um how it goes. But I would I would I would just say this that you know I think our I think our job in municipal government is to is to is to try to provide the funds for the departments to
to actually get their job accomplished. And and I know some in some departments that's easier said than done. There's a lot of obstacles that go into this, but um I think that especially your department there's there's a I mean I
know you I know you know this because you know you you I I know you feel the the kind of responsibility of it but we especially in this community we have um a lot of uh kind of you know hazards that you need to of
all types you know that that uh that we need to make sure that we have uh safe dwellings for people uh for a whole lot of reasons. We we have a rodent problem that's that's out of control and
I know firsthand and it cost me a lot of money. I didn't I didn't have actually time to come to you to try to solve my problem and I know you couldn't solve it anyway. So, so I mean I know a lot of these are are kind of really hard problems. Um, so I I would
just say this that in the in the future after we have these um kind of uh software upgrades and and you know, we'll see how much that frees up. But but uh I I would I would encourage you
to and and the city manager as well to you know in order to get our arms around the the existing safety problems in this city um that that don't be afraid to ask for more funding for if
you need it for for more inspectors or whatever it is because I think that that's something that you know there's a lot of things that we spend money on. I think this is money well spent other than other things. So I I would just I I
would I would encourage you and I I I appreciate the hard job that you have and that you the the the great job that you do. So thank you. Thank you, Councelor Senate or Councelor. Okay. Councelor Sne. Yes. Thanks. Hi. Hi.
um to um connect with what councelor Taylor just said as far as the rodent crisis being one of your goals for fiscal year 26. I just wondered, having been involved as a counselor with um
some businesses in my district and with some um homes where I reported some things to 311 and had excellent service from the people in your department who are food and sanitation inspectors. So,
do you anticipate as councelor Taylor asked that you would need more people who because I think that's the area that solves that and you have two assistants. So, are those people are just going to
work more or what will you do to solve it? I mean, so we got a pretty good program now. It'd be nice if in the future we could step it up. Okay. Could get with technology. The system's good now. It doesn't really track sightings. doesn't really there there's all kinds
of new technology track and sightings. There's there's a million different things. There's u I it would be nice if we expanded on it. I'm not necessarily sure unless we brought it in house. I don't think we need another employ another inspector. Uh you know maybe in the
future maybe DPW could get more involved with the um you know maybe we'll get a license a licensed terminator on our side uh who can actually you know might save us money in the future. Uh, I could always use another inspector, but the what I have now is handling the rodent
issue. Okay. As far as we can do. They're not going to go out and set the traps. So, I think I have what I I need for now. Well, from my work on the beautifification committee prior to being a counselor and also now excellent service from the people that are doing
that work. Thank you. All right, I have a few questions and then we'll keep going this way. Um, so I'm really excited that you're moving to a bigger space. Thank you. I think we all are here. Um, so my
questions are around um, uh, fees and penalties collected for whatever reason in your department. How much have we generated? Where does that uh, go? Like where is that money allocated? So most of our our penalties are 40u violations
which that oh if they don't pay it it gets it gets put on your water bill and your tax bill. So we do get the money from that a small portions 21D violations. It's a little harder to collect on the money and that but it's it's you know typically we're around a
half million dollars a year on on on 40u violations which we do collect. And where does that go? Um is that our general fund? It goes to the general fund. I don't get it back. Yeah. Okay. I think it goes this way, right? Okay. Okay.
Um my other question is around uh last time you were here, we were talking about collaborations. I'm really excited about this database. Can you talk to me about how um how that's playing out on the ground now? We talked a little bit about ISD, board of health, um in some
cases when there's fires, ISD and the fire department. Um how's that working out? How are collaborations working? and how are we shifting some of these systems so that there's a streamline for our families when they come in for support. So, so we've always had a good relationship with the fire and police
and the border health pretty much with everybody. We do have a but this system will make it better. Uh especially maybe a lot with with assessing assessing um you know they're busy, we're busy. So you kind of get two two departments. They rely on us to um to get their
information. you know, what buildings have been torn down like beginning of the year, what buildings have uh got new occupancy permits. U percentage like a lot of times they come to us and and they're looking for the percentage of a building completed. It's it's you know, if we
haven't been out there in a while, it's hard to see this this U software system hopefully will be readable by them. They can figure out, you know, without too much leg work on on where we are with with these construction projects. so they can they can tax accordingly.
Okay. Um and then you kind of hinted at this but I was wondering with the number one goal on um the rodent situation um what role does DPW play or maybe even board of health like how are we seeing
this in sort of like a more holistic approach? So DIP is DPW basically handles the streets. We handle the private property. Um so DPW handles a lot. There's a lot of new technology other towns use. They have a um they have those electronic boxes that will
dispose of the rat and send a signal. These towns know they dispose of the rat in the box and it will send a signal and then and then the contractor will come and pick up the the the carcass and reset it. Uh but the good thing about that is you actually know right we we
basically judge how how the road problems zone is by sightings you know this will give you some some cont concrete data we'll know the locations we'll be able to battle against them much better there's also another contraption they put in the tributary u sores it's basically a spike that goes
down disposal of the animal again send a signal and it it gets used over and over so you don't have to rebait you don't have to um go into the source million times It's just I I don't know if it's feasible financially, but it's it would be a good tool if it if it have a you
know, from your perspective in ISD, do you think that based on where you're seeing an increase of this situation or like a major issue of the situation, it could be tied to potentially having um more trash removal in place to trash
that's huge. Trash removal is huge. They're not going to they're not going to go to the baiting stations if there's if there's trash readily available. Uh our contractor does help with that when he when he goes and sets the the uh the bait traps. He does talk uh send a message to us, you know, about the
activity and also about um the trash situation. That's a big part of it. Okay. Okay. It's a very big part of it. Those are all my questions. Thank you so much for your work. You're welcome. Councelor Teshi, I'm not sure if you mentioned this yet, but regarding the uh two uh vacant
housing code enforcement inspector uh positions, um just to make sure the these are the two new ones, right? Two new ones. Who knows? Um what certifications do you need to be able to secure that position? There is no certification. You need experience, but the currently there's no like a building
inspector, you need to be certified by the state. um you you need to keep up continuing education, you have to pass a battery test. There is no such laws for for house inspectors. Okay. So you could even not have a high school diploma and be able to get this position. Yeah. If
you have good experience. We we got four excellent excellent candidates more but four like above and beyond. Um one of them took it right away. The second one uh got another job. The third one initially accepted it but but their company realized how valuable they were
and uh counter offered and we got the fourth one who was also excellent. We got four good. I'm I'm very happy about the candidates. We usually don't get candidates like as qualified as we got. Uh when do they start? They already started last week and the other one
started like a month month ago. Nice. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Councelor Rupro. What's temporary? Turn on your mic. Councelor temporary. Yeah, you have
it here. Temporary 37,000. It's two things. Oh, so that's Mike Nadwani. He retired two years ago. Um, we had trouble replacing him. We do have a good replacement. The problem is it number one, it is a lot of work. The problem is our replacement is also a union
electrician. He works for me, but every six months to three years, he has to return to work by obligation to their contract. He gets his benefits to the union, so the city doesn't pay for his medical benefits. And so, so Mike Namry works part-time for me. And then we have a full-time electrical inspector.
There's also a small stipen, maybe $5,000 we always had for we have one plumbing inspector. We haven't had to use it in a while. He barely takes vacation or he takes a day here and there, but if he got sick or or if he went on a extended vacation, we'd have to pay. These are replacements. Yeah,
that would be for a replacement in the last 10 years. Um, we do have a replacement. He's maybe got done a couple inspections. He hasn't he didn't want them. He didn't want to. He just he just did a you know, the inspection, but he didn't really work for me. All right. The next question I got is
a how many people have applied to the bait program for get their house baited. How do you get the message across to the people outside that the city does provide a service to bait their outside houses? H how do the people know? How do
you send it to them? How? So, a lot of it comes with with with when we find activity or they come to our office and complain about something else. Mike Nad um Mike um Sandival brings a lot of people to us. I don't know where he meets him, but a lot of people come and and apply say they heard it through Mike
Sanderval. And people come to my office that um like on complaint, someone will come and complain. We go to the house of the of the person that has the problem. First, we deal with the issue. A lot of times it has to do with trash, but we also offer the service. But I'm saying with the question, it's a how do the
people outside know? How do you let them know? A lot of it's word of mouth. I know it's I know it's posted every now and then. I don't know if it's posted now. um on social media. That that's the question, you know, like people actually know what to do if somebody else doesn't
tell them. Does the city have something specific that it stays there all the time if people look and can say, "Hey, I can go here and get them to help me bait my house." It's not up all the time, I don't believe. We do get we get plenty like I don't know if we could handle it if if
we had it up like if if 50 people show we can't do we do it on Friday Friday mornings is is when so we so we might get five this week and then he'll go to those five but if there's any outstanding that maybe someone was there six months ago he'll go check that trap
or change the bait. Um it's one person on Fridays. It's not a huge program. So, I don't know if we could we have we'd have to expand on the on the program if maybe but if the city needed more money for it to expand, which would reduce the
the rat population, it will be worthwhile because everybody here talks about the rep the rat the rat. But if the people don't know the houses, they the rats will always be there. But so if we give them an opportunity to see it and they know, maybe they could contact
us and the rat population will decrease because more people are applying for it. True. Right now, our program couldn't handle, you know, the volume if if if every birth, you know, if we got a 100 people a week, we we just couldn't handle. So, would So, how would you how
would you fix it? You couldn't handle it. Me personally, I think we'd have to do it in-house if we got that kind of volume. You would have to hire one yourself. We'd have to have we'd have to DVDW would have to do the work. They'd have to get licensed. We don't we just This program helps that that homeowner.
It might help the the abutas. It might help even the neighborhood. It doesn't help the whole city. And not like, you know, you know, maybe one day we can figure something out to help everybody and we decrease the rat population. Yes. Hopefully. All righty. I think that's
it. Thank you so much, Mike. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McIT. Um, we we now will invite Miss Mrs. Tracy Noiki up,
director of health and human services. Um, Health and Human Services Department number 510 can be found on page 210. 210. So, the Health and Human Services budget um proposed budget for fiscal 26 um
reflects an increased budget to $540,975. Um which is 102 103% increase. Um, of that the personnel budget uh is increasing um to $287,555
um which is a 9% increase and uh that includes contractual obligations um which is uh step increases and cost of living adjustments um as well as um you know they fill the vacant role with uh someone who had a more tenure
uh uh tenure tenure uh uh time in Chelsea which costs at a higher than budgeted cost uh uh than we had in the previous budget year. Um the operating budget uh lines um is
increasing um by $250,000 or over $250,000 to cover contractor services. Um and the main reason for that is um moving the summer youth programs to health and human services administration from recreation
and cultural affairs. Um because uh health and human services is the one that really manages and oversees the contract. So it makes sense to move the expend expenditures under this department. Um so um there's no other major changes besides that. Uh at this
time I'd open up for any questions for Mrs. Noiki. Councelor Teshi, uh could you could you explain again uh why the uh the transfer of expense what what department did it come from? Did
you say it? It came from uh recreation and cultural affairs. Okay. So that so you'll see uh later on this evening we'll see a reduction in a different budget. Okay. Thank you.
Any questions? Nope. All right. Okay. Thank you so much for your work, Tracy. Thank you. Good job, Tracy. All right. So, we will uh move right
along um to Department of Public Health, our health officer. Um you can find that department on page 215. Um, so up here we have the director of public health, Flora Amaya. Uh, so the total budget uh for
department of public health is $784,000. um which is 73,000 or 74 about $74,000 over F5 fiscal 25's budget which is a little bit over 10% increase. Um
the personnel budget um has has jumped about over 35% to $279,985. Um the reason for this increase uh beyond just the contractual obligations and cost of living adjustments is that
we've also um transferred the community health worker position um off of a grant um the American Rescue Plan Act uh ARPA. Um this uh position was done this transfer was done this year um middle of
the year. Um, as we've as we mentioned earlier, the assessing department, we had a floating clerk position that we were no longer uh planning to fund once we made the right hiring uh decisions and restructuring of that office of
responsibilities. And so, uh, we then, uh, proceeded to start to remove positions off of, um, ARPA, ARPA funds. Um, and so this was one of them. and this was a a position that the department felt was a great service to
the community. Um, other than that, the operating budget is has been level funded. Um, so there's no other changes beyond that. We'll open up the to the council for any questions. Thank you, Michael. Uh, councelor Cooper,
councelor, please turn on your mic. Here you have a youth substance abuse prevention manager. It says that that was grant funded. So now when the grant ends, does that job go away? I think that is typically the understanding with a lot of some of
these grant positions. Uh this grant though, we still have an additional, if I'm correct, like four years to it. Um and at this point, we have not received any notice or indication that it's not going to continue for the remainder of
the grant period. Thank you. Councelor Taylor, what is included in the contract services? There are a couple of contract services. One is the SUS mobile services through
CAPIC. The other one is a navigator contract through North SuffK mental health services. I'm sorry, what what was the first thing that you said? I didn't quite understand. STS mobile services contract through Kabek. And then the other one is a North SuffK navigator contract. And then the last
one is one that is held by our uh colleagues in ISD where when they go into homes that require additional touch points or case management, they are able to refer those cases into um North
Suffach Public actually Kappic at this point too to help them support ongoing case management. I saw the first thing on your key accomplishments was the Chelsea Board of Health voted to
adopt the nicotine-free generation policy. And the impact, it says, aims to prevent a new generation from ever using nicotine products by restricting nicotine sales to those born
before a certain date. In theory, this uh says publicity prevents a new cohort from ever becoming addicted to nicotine products. consum consumption of nicotine products in
adolescence can harm yada yada yada. Okay. So my question is I I think that it's it's it's clear that I was against this being adopted, but my my now that it is
adopted, how do we go about as a public health officer, how do you go about gauging whether Chelsea's youth are actually using nicotine products? whether they are purchased in Chelsea or
not. Obviously, you can try to police uh stores seeing if they're selling nicotine products, but I suspect that people that choose, adults who choose to use nicotine products because they are not available
in Chelsea will of course go to Everett or River and buy those nicotine products. So how do you seeing as you've cited this as a accomplishment how do you how do you plan to kind of gauge that and and see
if this policy is a is indeed a success or if it's going to be a failure? I think that's a great question. Uh everyone recalls we did pass this policy back in December and there were definitely as you pointed out a lot of opposition and a lot of people in favor
of it. It is a fairly new policy. Brookline was the first uh municipality in Massachusetts to adopt it. So the impact as we know it in terms of metrics, what we can say is that it has or at least as evaluated by
Brookline. We have not been able to do an evaluation in Chelsea since it has only been four months. All we have been able to do is the inspections and that has also been a little bit um ad hoc since Chelsea is part of the six city
tobacco initiative which means we shared one tobacco inspector among six municipalities including Cambridge, Somerville, uh River, Winthrop, Chelsea and Everett. Uh this new policy it is I think at this point making its way to
the state floor for a statewide policy. So I think we all in the public health sector recognize the impact that tobacco has on our populations. Chelsea as we know already bears a higher burden of disease when it comes to cardiovascular
conditions, stroke, high blood pressure all again which are exacerbated by the consumption of nicotine products. I think I understand some of the line of questioning around how we are going to evaluate it. We have a regional
epidemiologist with who we will work with to evaluate to see do we have to implement surveys to understand where the purchasing is going. As far as the board of health goes though, we're only able to regulate what is being sold in the city of Chelsea. We are not able to
control where our residents are getting or consuming nicotine products as you pointed out. What we can do however is continue doing education around nicotine product. The mask call grant is one grant that typically focus on use
substance use prevention. Uh and um I think we are sorry it looked like you had No, go ahead. Please finish. Yes. And so, um, I think we are to add to this, currently we're completing a public health strategic plan where we
recognize that quality improvement and evaluation is going to be key to the success of the city of Chelsea's public health division and also our public health vision as a community as a whole. I think we have priorities independently in the public health division. However,
the health of the community seriously rests in the hands of every single member of council here and senior leadership as well. Thank you. I would just like to remind counselors to maintain questions related to finances.
This is a part of uh I I take issue with that. This is definitely part of just a reminder policy of the policy. Counselor, I just wanted to remind the council in case there are any other questions that arise. I don't want the entire conversation. I will I I will
continue my question then. So in that answer, I didn't hear any type of of answer about how you're actually
going to figure out if kids in Chelsea are smoking or not. We will be doing that through the collaboration with our youth substance use prevention coordinator and the mass call grant. We are already doing surveys within the schools. There are youth
surveys uh that are state required that ask these questions and so with our school department this is something that can and should be administered. Mhm. So, so just to just to be clear so that the public
understands th this isn't just for kids. These are for anybody born past or be uh past. Excuse me. I'm I'm I'm I haven't finished yet. So, yeah, if we're going to counselor, I I'm I would I would ask
the forbearance on this. That's fine. I would ask if you could if this is going to turn into a debate I would ask this is not a debate but I don't I I reserve any if I question I should be allowed to ask my questions and you have been asking your question counselor and we have been giving you time to ask your
question I would just please ask that you don't turn this into a debate we are talking about budgets excuse me I believe please continue with your question counselor so that we can move on to the next question on this side point of
order. It is our responsibility in this forum to understand because we are funding this department about the policy and the efficacy of their policies. Okay, which is exactly what I'm trying
to get at here. So before we spent money or cost our our our uh merchants money that maybe we should have done a little bit more research and and that is a legitimate line of inquiry
in in this budget hearing. Counselor, I understand that you are not in agreement with what it doesn't matter whether I'm in agreement or not. That is not the case. We would like to continue with other questions if you are done with your I would like to finish the question that I that I just asked. Please proceed
so that we can continue. Thank you. So, it seems to me that if a department is going to try to spearhead a a a policy that maybe we should figure
out the the plan first and to see how other communities have have, you know, whether this has been effective or not before we jumped in in in a in what I considered a a gross uh uh government
overreach. So So that's my opinion, but it doesn't seem to me like it it seems like we just rushed in and and did this. Nobody really knew what was going on.
And I still haven't heard any kind of uh answer about how how we are going to do this. Besides surveys, once they get out of the schools, those people still will not be able to buy cigarettes in Chelsea. So my question to you is, how
are you going to gauge whether the people who are adults and not smoke or or can't purchase cigarettes in Chelsea are still buying their cigarettes elsewhere. That is the whole key to this
thing because if you preventing like if you could wave a magic wand counselor is there a question? Yes. I I'm asking the question that I'm I'm trying to get the answer about how they are going to judge if people are smoking or not. Okay.
Thank you. So, so, so she had said previously that they were doing surveys in the schools, but for people that aren't in school that are already past that age and already, how are you going to gauge if those people are smoking or not? That
is Okay, counselor, I hear that you are in disagreement with her. I will wait for the answer. Thank you. All right, moving on. Counselor Himenez, excuse me. I am not I want an answer. I want an answer. She responded, as you mentioned, she responded to your question. No, I clarified what I was saying. I I and and
and for the record, I don't appreciate trying to be headed off here. I want an answer. It is my right as a counselor to get that answer. That is very true, counselor, and I have always been very open to allowing any counselor to ask questions. This is a subcommittee. And
may I remind you that I also have the opportunity to set time limits. I do not want to go in that direction because I am open to anyone's opinion whether I am in alignment with it or not. However, I also am obligated to ensure that we get through the rest of the agenda and that's why I would like for you to
reserve any debates for after this meeting. We got out early yesterday. Okay. So, so we are not in any time constraint. So, counselor, I I disagree that is your schedule, but there are also other counselors that I am
responsible for. if you could please clarify any question if there's anything else and I would ask I will wait for reserve it and then move on to the next questions. Thank you. I think when we adopted this policy we're really taken in a innovative step forward in again
guarding the health of Chelsea residents. The city of Chelsea is not the first one spearheading this. There are 10 other municipalities and again the state is considering this. I think you are absolutely right in trying to
understand where are people going right now if they're not getting them here in Chelsea. I have to say that the only thing we have power to do here in Chelsea and that the board of health has power to do is to actually impose
policies that Chelsea establishments are going to be able to follow. Those are the only places we're able to enforce. whether people are getting them elsewhere. I think all we can do is continue educating our residents on healthy choices. If you would like for
us to look at what Brooklyn has gathered at what the state is considering because again the state is considering this as a policy across all municipalities. Chelsea sport of health has been I think one that has been exemplified across the
state for one taking courage and making decisions that are often the most wellreceived. Thank you Flora. Moving on to councelor uh Jimenez and then councelor recubo. I have two quick questions. Um first one
we were not the first municipality to do this. So, I'm curious, you know, in your opinion, by not being the first and actually allowing another municipality to do this and go through a legal process, could you argue that we actually saved financial resources that would have had to go to defending the city in a lawsuit against us had we been
the first ones to do it for the nicotine free? Yes. If we had done it first, we would have had to pay the legal fees by not doing it first. So, so essentially we saved funding, you know. Yes, we did by not doing it. we were maybe the ninth or the 10th in the state to attend. Great. Second question to your point, we are overburdened by health risks in our
community. Um, you know, we provide funding to your department to, you know, make sure that we are doing work to mitigate those. Um, do you believe that passing this type of policy here could, as you said, have impacts in the state passing the policy and therefore both of
those actions, both the city's action and the state's future action uh would lead to maybe less of a need or less pressures to your department, therefore leading to less uh financial commitment from us for your department. 100%. Thank you. Yes. And I think this policy
resonates with when there was a minimum age to purchase cigarettes from 18 to 21. I'm a Chelsea resident. I grew up in Chelsea. At the age of six, I was able to go to Johnny's Market and purchase cigarettes for my uncle. That's not that
far ahead. That's not that far along or far away. But I think it is taking steps that often may not be again the most uh wellreceived. But how would you feel if your children at this moment were able
to buy cigarettes at the corner stores in Chelsea? I will say just just really quickly um this not only uh will lead to financial savings in this department in particular, it will also lead to future cost savings and many things such as health insurance and the such. So, I I
believe it does have a positive financial impact on our city. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Cooper. And then councelor Robinson, question. Councelor, use your mic, please. Thank you. On the youth program, you only
spent $3,000. What does that consist of? That is a typo. On the budget, it is supposed to be community events. And community events could be anything from uh essentially if there is food involved, if there are uh small
giveaways, as we know a lot of our residents whenever we have an activity there there goes uh we have to spend money to kind of like essentially create like a festive ambiance. So that's what that is. That is what that is. It's more
or less for events. It is. Yeah. Community events and In that sense, in the community events, you educate them on on what? How to smoke, how not to smoke, how to eat, how to not to eat. What do you do? So, right now, the services that are directly provided by
the Chelsea Public Health Division are the special needs registry. We are working with our police, fire, and emergency management to increase enrollment of the special needs registry. Uh so, that is one thing that
we definitely are focusing um heavy on that. also is combined with a safety net tracking device. So in order for people to enroll in this, you do provide education on those services. Um and then the other one that we have been very actively involved in is lead awareness.
Uh the next question is a simple question. Do you keep track of the city like when the planes drop that fuel on us? How many what what is the amount of people in our city that are suffering from asthma from do can any of us go
look and find out what what is actually people are suffering from in our city? What is the cause that creates the problems? I can share burden of disease in terms of how many percentages of Chelsea residents have asthma, have high
cholesterol or any other chronic condition. I don't know if I would be able to say with certainty what is happening with planes. And what what I'm asking is a simple one. What is the major cause in our city that the people are suffering from? I
know that at one time it was asthma. Is that still the major cause that people in our city have? There are many different unfortunately health conditions afflicting Chelsea residents ranging from diabetes from uh
hypertension from COPD. It it is I understand that but but the question I'm trying counselor I think a lot of the higher burden of disease in Chelsea residents are due to cardioabolic conditions hypertension diabetes in
other words blood pressure. Uh yes and no. And what so is is that anything that has to do with the way we live that people have caused by this? Is a city itself something inside that's polluting us
that's making this in a in a city question I'm trying to get at. Yeah. Chelsea has unfortunately been an environment an environmental justice community with a lot of underfunded programs and so we have community members who are exposed to a lot of
pollutants as we know this cars piles our Tobin bridge our entire environment impacts our health we are a product of our ecosystem I understand I understand you got a broad range everything pollutes but the main question I was just asking is What is
the biggest factor that contributes to us? It's it's it's all it's all. There is an ecological model. Then we got to move out. All right. Councelor, do you have another question? No, that's it. I got no more questions. Thank you. Councelor Robinson. Yes. My understanding is that we have partnered
with River and Win and Chelsea along with Mass General on a grant and I want to know what our role is as the city and what financial benefit is that for the city. We gain a lot of financial benefit from
being part of the North Suffach Public Health Collaborative. By being part of the North Suffuk Public Health Collaborative, we've been able to build capacity and hire a regional public health nurse. And we've also been able to hire a regional epidemiologist.
Is that this grant or an overall grant that we're not talking about? I'm talking about this previous grant that was just signed not too long ago. I'm not sure which grant you're referring to, Councelor Robinson. I don't know the name but we were involved
in a what went rea Chelsea we are Mass General Mass General right now we don't have an existing grant with Mass General we have a collaborative with Winthrop and Rivier the North Suffk Public Health
Collaborative and we are then able to apply for public health excellence grants to build capacity at the local level. All right. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Teshi and then councelor I have a few counselors on this side too. Um I'm looking at the glance of the
department. Uh how does the how does your office enforce regulations and and bylaws or ordinances? Do you do you issue tickets? We uh the one that we typically oversee is the tobacco sales vi violations and
we do issue tickets for those. Um it's more like essentially uh for first violations those are set by the state. So if there are sales to minors, typically those are the ones that we enforce the most through public hearings
at the board of health and those are $1,000 tickets for first violation with three-day suspensions and the um penalties go up depending on the number of violations. Um so you know this in reference does speak to the fact that
unfortunate we do have some stores in Chelsea that are still selling to minors. Got it. Um, now I'm looking at the uh positions we have. Uh, the public health nurse uh refer refresh my memory a little bit. When when was this
position added? I think the public health nurse predates Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, absolutely. Um, what's the dayto-day? Um, the public health nurse role is heavily
on communicable diseases. So we are tasked with surveillance primarily around tuberculosis any foodborne um illnesses. This is where we work with ISD. So if there's a report of a food
food born condition we're able to follow up on those. Um during COVID obviously there was a lot of case management and guidance around that as well. Uh we are responsible for um camp inspections,
immunizations to name a few. We we are responsible for immunizations well to verify the immunizations of camps before they open. Okay. Uh what about the community health worker? The community health worker started almost
two years ago and first as Michael mentioned it was ARPA funded. uh Julisa has spearheaded the special needs registry that is the role that has allowed this direct service to actually
flourish in the community. Similarly to the safety net tracking device, she plays a major role in communicable diseases of course as she supports both the childhood immunization clinic and um flu seasonal COVID clinics as well. and
she's the face she's the face essentially of our community events. The public health division consists of only three people. Myself, the public public health nurse and the community health worker. Perfect. Thank you. Yes. I just wanted to commend you for
the um safety net tracking. That was really wonderful to see that in real time working also get the let out. and I'm involved with the youth hub here and so I work with Crystal Melanakas Ger um
and I know that she's grantf funded and I was just wondered what the status was of her work as the subst youth substance prevention coordinator. So this is a mass call grant for which I believe we're in the fourth year of it and it is a seven I believe a seven-year grant.
Okay. Yes. Thank you. Hola. Um my question is on um substance abuse uh our regional manager. I can you explain to us what type of activities and
um what type of of services are offered to our youth? Um and because I don't I I see your goals and initiatives. I love them. But I don't see something focusing on substance abuse and just substance
abuse. I feel like it's it's its own, you know, bracket. And and we do have a regional manager. I just want to know what what is her. So yeah, the regional manager is, as councelor Sneaggate mentioned, Crystal and Crystal's role is focused in the schools. She's very much
coordinated with the school. She has um provided uh mental health first aid to 10th graders. Uh between her and Dan have also co-leading the youth hub as that has been highlighted through the schools as well as our police system as
something that requires additional additional more attention. Uh yearly they also offer the mental health first aid um sorry mental health fair at the high school. I'm not sure if you had a chance to attend, but it's definitely one that it is very well attended by the
youth. Um, and in addition to that, I think there are a lot of coalition. So, this regional manager, let me just clarify, the city of Chelsea receives the funds. We're the fiscal agent, but this is a collaboration between Chelsea
River and Sus. So her role is not solely um coordinating or leading activities in Chelsea but also across Rivier and in Sagas as well. Okay. And I'm sorry another quick question. So we are
starting um substance abuse education um from 10th grade on is that that is the mental health first aid. As far as the curriculum goes for the school I school but like the f the first aid. Yes, the mental health first aid is for 10th
graders and I believe that is very specifically designed by the curriculum itself. Okay. All right. Thank you, counselors. I was I was just going to add that Crystal's work with um Sus has taken her
to Northeast. So, there are Chelsea students there. So, there's been some education there. So, we're having, you know, um, substance use prevention here, but also some other Chelsea youth are
benefiting. Okay. See, no other questions. My only I guess um, not question no more because I already clarified, but I guess I I I like to hear from the subgrantees. Um, I know that the navigators have come in and presented
and like other nonprofits who receive funding. I guess it's it's great to hear the report from you, but to hear the stories from them and really understand the outcomes and impact from the funding that we're giving is is huge. So, yeah, I think that would be great if we can figure out a schedule on how to go about
having the grantees present to council. I think they would be I think it would be a great idea. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll circle back to just learn more. Thank you so much. Oh, Councelor Brown, just want to commence you on your work. I see you folks out there in the
neighborhood um with Tracy and the other crew here. Um I appreciate all the work that you do. I know we have some tough questions here. It's nothing personally from none of the councils, but it's just some interesting times where we're trying to define the funding that we
read about and see about and hear about and actually kind of get a picture of where it is in our community. So, thank you for the work you do. appreciate it. Thank you all. Thank you. We will now move to uh Department
of Elder Affairs uh on page 220. Um we have um also up here our new director of elder affairs, Gerald Dean Portillo. Um I'll just go over the finances. Uh so the total proposed
budget for fiscal 26 um increase uh just by 1% to $420,488. Uh the personnel budget um however is decreasing uh by a tenth of a percent to 290,868. Uh reasoning behind this um
many of the new staff uh um hired into the positions um through some of the you know the promotions and whatnot have been higher at lower rates of pay than what was previously budgeted. Um and also uh cost of living adjustments and step increases are included in this
these projections. There's no uh staffing changes however to this department. Operating budget uh is increasing by 3.7% to 129,620 to cover anticipated increases in inflation. So
uh uh rent lease equipment uh is increasing by 7% to cover the new uh lease costs um of um the copers in in the in the the space. Cleaning supplies um are increased uh increasing by 3,000
uh to cover um the increase in cost that we're anticipating as well as the quantity needed uh for uh based on needs of the the senior center. Um, also there's additional requests uh to increase community events by $1,000
um to support uh special elder related events including Memorial Day wreaths, craft supplies uh for group events and then uh um the conference travel line is increasing by $400 uh mainly to uh address uh personal vehicle allowance
for custodial custodian staff. Um I'll open up to any questions. questions. Councelor Teshi, I just want to say you do a really amazing job for the amount of funding that you receive. Um I always keep track
of uh the events that that go on and I have yet to go and play pool with the members. So I'll do that at some point. Uh I was challenged not not long ago by one of them. So um I'll do that. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. And please come anytime. They'll be waiting for you.
Question. Councelor Taylor. Uh again, um what's covered under the contract services? Um so under the contract, I not um are Mystic Valley Home Care actually
services are under the contract services and also transportation which is HBSS and Do do we have a breakdown on that? Um how much is how much is going 80,000 is for um our transportation services? Okay, that's what I thought. Mystic
Valley. Okay. All right. Um I have no problem with that, by the way. I think it's probably very useful, one of the one of the more um important things that we probably need to spend money on getting these
guys out. Yeah. and and about one more question. The uh elderly programs, what's covered under that? Uh that would be our our bingo supplies. Um also our bingo machine, also our Comcast gets out
of takes taken out of that and also also our pool maintenance as well since it's used so frequently. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Councelor Brown. Thank you, Caldane. Thank you for being here. First met you
before you became the director and you just been a shining star over at the senior center. Um a lot of great um promotions that you do over there, a lot of events. I'm very grateful how you treat our seniors with dignity and I just want to thank you for you know
again filling big shoes. Um you know faces you came in and you jumped right off. I met you there and um I know the seniors are very happy over there. a lot of nice programs. The Taiishi, I know, is not as much, but the piano lessons,
the guitar playing, the engagements, and not only that, you're at a lot of our um events when we have them at your place over the seniors. So, I want to thank you for opening up your doors and the work you do. Thank you. I really appreciate that, counselor. All right. Seeing no other questions. I got a quick
question. Oh, counselor uh Robinson, I see one of your goals is to organize more field trips. Do you have a number of that you're looking for? So, at there's a place to talk about it. Yeah, we actually just had uh one in April uh to the Fuller Museum in Brockton and
that's was a partnership with Green Roots. Um that was a really great field trip that they had and they're actually going to do an art project with Green Roots as as an outcome of that field trip. And then we also have a field trip actually next week to the Museum of Science. So, we're on we're on schedule with those goals.
All right, thank you so much. Thank you everyone. Have a great night. You too. Great. Great job. Thank you. Um we will now move on to uh Department of Veteran
Services uh number on page 225. So we up here we have our veterans agent uh Mr. Francisco Toro. Um and uh the he oversees the department uh along with the part-time assistance veteran
veterans agent. Um the total proposed budget is uh going to be decreased for fiscal 26 um by 15% to $482,376. Um the personnel budget is increasing by 3.78% to cover cost of
living adjustments. Um um tenure staff, there are no step increases uh for this department. Um and there's no changes in staffing. uh the operation uh expenditure lines um they're are all level funded. Um however, there is a
reduction in the veterans benefits uh by $90,000. Um after uh analyzing and reviewing spending trends in the department, um the spending uh never uh was not reaching uh the level of expenditures that we were budgeting. um
there'll still be uh some even some room in there in case there is uptick in spending. So uh um this is uh reflecting trends over the last several years um based on number of veterans who reside in Chelsea. Um any other questions? Uh
we can open it up at this point. Thank you, Michael. Uh questions. Councelor Rubbero. I have a bunch of questions. One question is uh all the veterans that you have, I know I asked
you this question before. Besides all the ones that are in the soldiers home, what is the total amount of veterans that we actually have in our city that come to you for your services? Don't exclude the ones in the soldiers
home. I don't want them. I want the actual ones in our city. What is the amount that you service? How many do you do you do? Currently, uh the current number for
our our case load is just under 500. And how do those 500 does the city give them a stipen? How many of them get assistance from us? So in my position, I'm sort of like the the person
who I I sit down and I evaluate. So some of the benefits are local, some of the benefits are state, and some are federal. Um and and that's where you see the change. But the the question is how many are local people that the city of
Chelsea itself you administer to that you help with? What is the total amount of the ventures that live in Chelsea that the city contributes? Because I know they get state and federal and city. So what is the amount the city actually contributes? Yeah. So, if we
don't have that information, we'll get it to you counselor in terms of uh u what is the actual actual number? Before on the other budget meeting, they were always saying, well, the city spent a half a million dollar, threequarters
of a million dollar to give to the veterans which they give to ask for help. And uh so when veterans come and ask for help from the city, how long do they stay on this program? what is the time that they can actually stay on this program? And and I guess that that comes to like
the breakdown in in in services. So if you're talking about the chapter 115 program, it's the amount is actually pretty low. Most of the Sorry, explain to the people what chapter 115 is because you tell them 115, they don't
know what you're talking about. What is it? put it in in layman's terms what the average individual can understand what you're saying. So what I was about to say is a state uh veterans benefits. So, what I administer is the uh state uh
veterans uh benefits program uh here at the city and it's for veterans uh widows, eligible dependents who fall within a certain income guideline.
But even if they don't qualify, you know, because of the income guidelines, there's a lot of there's many other programs, federal and state and even local, that they could be eligible with. Um, the goal of the department is to
make sure that each veteran or or military family member that comes into the office feels respected, feels listened to and supported and that's, you know, we we
always try to find something that that will benefit and help them. So, another what is the case load of veterans coming to see you during a normal week? What is the amount of veterans that actually come to see you in during a week?
I wouldn't say um probably anywhere from on the low side 30 um on the high side maybe 50 and and and points of contact it's probably about a 100 points of contact a week.
Yeah. the uh on the food program it we service a lot right and that's monthly that's a monthly program center outside of outside of the office we do um uh through that particular program we we support about
120 mil you know veterans or military military families that's with the food program through the food program and besides that we have about a 100red points of contact a week. Okay, let me I'm sorry, but so in the food program, what does that mean? Do you give them a
card to go to the store? Do they come and you give them a brown bag? Oh, we're talking about the veterans brown bag. So on a normal brown bag, what is that enough for one person? What do what do you give them? Uh it varies from month to month. Yeah. No, I mean, and it's
something that that we do in partnership with DBW, right? That and the senior center and uh um it's a lot. I mean, it's canned food. It's it's vegetables. Uh, and it was something that we kept going right all through CO. Uh, and and
it was a priority. I mean, it is a lot of food. That's a good program. If if you for veterans, that is great. Um, the next question I want to ask you is if veterans don't come to you, how do you get to them? So we we get veterans reported to us by
many sources. Um so the Department of Defense will issues a list every month. uh for veterans who um when they did when they discharge from the service if
they register in in Massachusetts uh that's gets sent to uh EOVS and then EOVS disseminates who are the Chelsea veterans and they send that to us. Besides that, um there's a EOVS website
uh that uh regularly uh advertises their services, you know, through uh ads and and bulletins and veterans go to that website and then those get referred to
us. Um then we get lists from tax abatement programs and those get uh sent to us. And then here's a here's a question. Councelor, we're also working on an initiative for um to have a little
bit more of a bigger impact in the community to reach the veterans that are here. In addition, councelor, I just real briefly want to ask if you could prioritize the questions regarding budget. Okay. Thank you.
Um here's a um does the veterans have enough money within their budget to sufficiently help all the veterans that are in this in this city? Currently, I I feel um we're very well funded and supported um and grateful for
that from leadership and the council alike. Um here's another question. Um, do you need additional help within your office? Because sometimes I get from veterans, they come, they can't get a hold of you or sometimes there's no one there for them to help them. The only
one that's there is Plette and she has to ask question to Plette. So, is Plette part of you or Pette is part of a different department? Do you need one of your own? Someone that's there all the time to make sure to attend to the veterans need. So, so Pette is there for
HHS. all of HHS. So, she's there for him too, right? Yes. And so, we are exploring um the department to see what the need is for additional
support. We're just in the beginning stages of that and we can get back to you with that. Okay. And the last question I have is uh within the budget itself, right? Is there anything that we can appropriate to help veterans get to
their appointments? They cannot reach it. They have no way to get to them regardless if they're young or old. Is there any way that we can give money to some type of program where the veterans that are are not able to go to medical appointments or have they can come to
you and there will be a way for you to help them get to where they're going to go cuz I know other cities and towns have it because I know friend of mine lives in Quinsey and they have a you know it's not an elderly bus it's a veteran service bus that actually takes any veteran they cannot get to where
it's going. It's not has nothing to do with the elderly. So, I was wondering if there's anything in the budget that we counselors can help you to help the veterans that need to go to appointments. They cannot get to it. I mean, I I don't think that's something that I could enumerate at the moment,
but um definitely uh I think that's a great initiative and that's something that we we can definitely table for discussion. Yeah, we can explore that if there's a need for that. I Now councelor right now what they do have a bit they
do have the option to utilize the senior shuttle if within the city of Chelsea but then what if they have to go like out most of the veterans that are here right either have three choices or they can go they can either go to Lynn or they can go to JP or they can go to West Roxberry and a lot of them cannot they
used to go to Cosway Street but Cosway Street is closed as Francisco knows you can no longer go there so a lot of them that the services are needed they can't get to these places. So, I was wondering since the city has a veteran service, we should be able to help these type of
people that cannot get to it. And if the city needs to fund somehow how to do this, I'm sure that the rest of my fellow counselors wouldn't be against trying to fund something to help the veterans. They cannot get to these places. And this seems to be an issue that I get it from a bunch of veterans.
They call me and they got nowhere to go. They can't go. A lot of them cannot go to their appointments or sometimes their kids can't take them or they have no way to get there. So that seems to be an issue. Maybe we can fix this issue by the rest of us counselors giving you
funding to do so because other cities have it. I don't understand why we cannot. You say we have at least 500 veterans in the city out of fire. You know what I mean? So there should be some that should be able to come to you and you should be able to help them. Okay, counselor. We're good. Yeah, that's good
enough. That's good. That's okay. Thank you. Councelor Robinson question. Uh, Francisco, what does it take for a veteran to be able to utilize the commissary? Yes. Hold on. You would need uh an ID. Um, we
actually have um flyers in the in the office that walk you through the whole process. you go online and you sign up for it. It it takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. We've done a few question, but uh the Fed has definitely
streamlined the whole process. Yeah, but I mean, do you have to fit into a certain category? It can just be a regular veteran. I hesitate to to respond to regular veteran. everyone who's who's worn the uniform um we we try to support as best
as possible, but there are some categories as you know might be ineligible. Yeah, that was in regards to anyone that didn't have a disability. Definitely. All right. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. Councelor Brown,
I was going to ask a question, but I'll change it real quickly. Um, can you just tell the council the operation, how many people work with you in your division? Uh, currently we have one uh part-time person who who puts in 19 hours a week,
but I would be remiss to say that this the department has always been part of the collaborative system ecosystem that is city hall. We couldn't do the programs without DPW. Julie is great.
Um, Pette came in and saved the day on a flyer recently without even being asked. Um, Treasury, if the vest didn't get paid, um, procurement, it it it's it's always
I've always felt supported by by everyone. Uh Tracy's come in now and uh has really uh you know uh taken the full all of HHS into uh a new direction. Um I
don't think this really I'd have a hard time thinking of a department that we haven't really worked with. Well, thank you for your gracious answer and I know really it's um one and a half persons including yourself, but thank
God for the others to come in and help out and I just think again we we just really need to do more for your department and hiring other folks with you. Thank Yep. um council, we're also um there's also initiatives um we're
looking into with even just um you know talks talking with the soldiers home and looking for the possibility of support outside the residents of the soldiers home but for the veterans in the community. um and
they are open to um exploring that along with um the executive office of veteran services on the state level. Um so that's we're we're we're exploring that as well.
Awesome. See, councelor Taylor. Okay, just a just a couple quick housekeeping things just so I know what's going on. I see I see two categories of
other. So I just I just like to see what what is what is encompassed upon other charges and other unclassified. Yeah. The the um in your book other charges it's
actually uh um community events. Um and the second one, the other on on classified is uh uh veterans support services. I think the uh transition this year of of of the new
uh technology uh caused some of the of the categories to be uh uh um mclassified. I think you're okay. So, so I do see veterans support for 25,000
along with other to is that is that a is that a dupe? Is that what you're saying? No, no. The the the um other unclassified, not other charges. Other charges you said was the community events, right? So, so but what is under the unclassified?
It is uh veterans support services. Okay. But there's there's there's another category under that that says in my book, I'm sorry, it's it's different than yours. So So So I'm just trying to sort out if
there's a discrepancy or or a dup line or something. There's not a It's emergency services for Yeah. The part of the the veterans relief fund is emergency services. Yeah. Okay. So, there's veteran support services and
emergency services, which are those two that you mentioned. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. And um and just just quickly on the $90,000 reduction under veterans
benefits, is that just due to the the number of veterans that we that we have? Not quite. If I could best uh summarize it, I would say that when I when I first uh came into the position,
uh the standard uh client that would come in uh was a veteran uh who might uh be low income and would qualify for the state veterans benefits, aka chapter 115. Yeah. And now we're getting uh more
younger uh veterans or or family uh or uh military families who are both working. They wouldn't obviously qualify for the low income, but that doesn't mean the case loads any lower. And and
that's one of, you know, um I if uh you look at how much uh we're spending in Chapter 115, it wouldn't be a good metric. So, so, so we have a lot more working veterans now. That's the difference. Not that we have less just
ones that don't need the full monty. Correct. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. And um and and is that is that relatively I mean it looks like there's a lot of fluctuation in the years that that
are listed here from from 2024. um on. So is it is that is that a normal kind of annual fluctuation or or is it just is it different every year or I mean obviously it's going to be a little bit different but it looks like you know from
155,000 one year to up 295,000 the next year and then back down to 205. Yeah. So the the what you're seeing for fiscal 25 is a budgeted amount is not actually reflecting. So do we have any of those numbers yet? I can get that to you. I
don't have I'm I'm just curious as to like if there is and if if not why are we budgeting? So that's so this is my that's so the whole point of this um um reduction was after looking we did these
meetings uh a few months ago. we had a projection at that point of where we were going to end for fiscal 25 um and as well as looking at the last couple of years and we were not necessarily hitting the budget amounts. So this was to rightsize the budget and bring it
down budgeting before um yes previously there was additional budget amounts that that answers my question. Thank you councelor Tashi. I'm just going to say uh Mr. tour. Thank you for uh your service and carrying out
the duties of this department. Um I'm also going to have to head out for a personal reason, but I would like to point out that uh uh Charlie is coming up on uh the recreation and cultural uh affairs and uh just the personal comment. He's been doing a tremendous
job. Um and I wanted to make sure that I was here for it, but because I can't, just wanted to say really great job and I really look forward to seeing what you continue to do in this city. And I've been saying it from the beginning and I've seen that you've made good fun good use of the funds. Whenever you need something or you think we can do
something, definitely let us know and uh you know, we'll do whatever we can to make it happen. Thank you. All right. Thanks, counselor. Counselor, I'm going to move on to the next uh guest on the agenda and if we can just reserve any
other questions um afterwards. Councelor, can we for clarification? We're definitely going to table that and then after the meeting you can check in with the staff departments. Thank you. Thank you so much for your service and all the work that you do for our
community and our veterans. All right. Thank you, Mr. Turo. And uh now at this time we will invite uh Miss Lisa Machroni uh the director of Chelsea Public Library. um and we will review the budget for the
the Chelsea Public Library which can be found on page 230. All right. So, the total proposed budget for fiscal 26 for the THz Public Library uh is increasing by
6.77% from fiscal 25 to 516,534. Um the personnel budget um that makes up a majority of the budget is increasing by 7 12% to 468,297. Um there have no staffing
changes. Um um of this 10 uh full-time equivalents are funded from the general fund and uh8 full-time equivalents are funded from grants. Um this would include any cost of living adjustments and step increases. Um we are level
funding um the operating budget and as well as the capital fund budgets that are here. Um I'll open up to any questions or if Lisa wants to add anything to do so. Thank you. Questions councelor Taylor.
So again, um I'm assuming that design is other professional services. That's correct. So So can you please just I mean I I hate to keep asking these questions, but it really doesn't give me any information as to where this
money is going. So, if you could just um I mean maybe maybe keep that in mind for next year as far as you know these kind of other categories or other you know unclassified categories just to just to try to nail that down so that we don't
have to spend time asking where that money is going. So where where where is that going uh in terms of the library under design? Yeah. Design design is actually what used to be called other
professional services. Okay. And it's our network network fee that we paid to Boston, the Metro Boston Library Network to be part of the network to use their resources. And that's it. That's the 12,000. Yes. Okay. Great. So that's all all in one.
Thank you. I appreciate that. You're welcome. That's that's all I have. Awesome. Thank you. Thank Thank you. At this time, we will move on to um
invite Charles, our new direct our new director of athletic in infrastructure and sports tourism and be creat um director of recreation. Um, you can find a recreation and
cultural affairs budget on page 236. All right. So the total fiscal 26 proposed budget for this department is um decreasing uh to $925,894 um which is equivalent to a 12.5% in
decrease over from uh fiscal 25. Um the while the personal budget uh personnel or the salaries budget has increased um by 21.3% to 668,000. Um this is uh similar to what we've
discussed in in previous uh department budgets is that you know we're removing um uh positions off of ARPA and funding ARPA with um with one-time like expenses except for um those that administering
the grant. Um and so one of those positions was the the director of athletic infrastructure sport tour sports tourism as it was a new role. Everything else is um cost of living adjustments and step increases for those that are on contracts uh called
collective bargaining units. Um another major change for this department um similarly what we talked about earlier where we moved uh um the summer youth programming from this department to
health and human services administration. So you'll see that uh and under the operating budget um there's a decrease of $250,000 and and we it was moved once again because Health and Human Services was uh the one overseeing and managing uh that that
contracts. Um everything else there's no uh adjustment under operating budgets where we're level funding all the other items. Um there's no other qu I mean I will open up for questions. There's no other items on my list to discuss. All right,
questions. Councelor Taylor. Welcome, Charlie and B. Um, I just first of all I want to I want to say uh Charlie I was your your original fan here I think and and I I
I'm so happy that you're here and that we are revamping um uh our our youth sports and you are in a way the product of of of my own work and and initiative trying to trying
to put something together for the that's badly badly needed now in that connection. And I and thank you by the way for for all the hard work and and and kind of kind of making what you said
in the interview process actually come true. So I appreciate that too. Um, if you can just briefly because I think this is an important thing for the for the public to know.
Um, in in in terms of in terms of our youth sports and and your collaboration with uh the police department and and the city. Can can you just elaborate on on
what the function of that is and how how we kind of intend to transform the youth of of of the city and and kind of solve some ongoing nagging problems in this community. Thank you. Thank you,
councelor. Um leading off with the police department. Um, tomorrow morning I'll be meeting with Chief H. Hot. Hotton to visit the PAL program and we are going to be revamping that. There's going to be a concentrated effort between the
SRO's um the community services division and the recreation department. Can you just explain what the PAL program is? Yes, absolutely. Um, so the police athletic league or the police activities league um this is a grant that is typically distributed throughout the Commonwealth and each town sort of has
their own approach to it. Um Chelsea self admittedly has not been on top of it for the last few years uh for a variety of reasons. Um but the chief and I uh from the moment I got started um him and Dan Cortez made it clear like this is a priority. Um and what we're
trying to do from a department standpoint is is synergize um what's happening with the police department, what's happening with our sports leagues, what's happening with our school department and our recck department and sort of get the symphony to be conducted on one beat. Right? It's like, "Oh, you're doing a great job on
Monday night. Keep it. We'll take Tuesday night." Right. Um B and I have really putting an emphasis on Friday night programs. Uh we're piloting stuff this spring. Uh next year out of the roughly 40 Friday nights on the school year, we're going to have programming 36
of those Friday nights. Um I personally will be there um for almost 95% of them. And um and then when you go sport by sport, um each ecosystem is a little different, but our our main priorities is um you know, what do you need? How
can we help? Right? Some some sports need money. Um some need wisdom and and just sort of boots on the ground. Um other sports need marketing and advertising and and and grassroots communications. Um and so that was really the focus for the for the previous uh nine months is um
establishing these relationships, finding out through an audit or whatever they whatever um conversations uh can identify their needs and uh just moving heaven and earth to make it happen. Thank you. Um so just a couple
housekeeping questions again. Um, as far as contract services, um, uh, what what goes into that? What where is that money going? So, that one is is a, uh, an interesting one that that is is is really a a pass through
fund um, from the casino mitigation line, which which we use to fund the the heritage grant, which which was just recently awarded. And Charlie just just uh uh reminded me of another type in our book. Uh uh the the other charges line
is is our celebrations account. You're anticipating my next question. Yes, sir. Sorry. What the other charges was celebrations? Yeah. Sorry. Pardon me. Oh, no problem. And the other supplies? Random. It's kind of a little
bit of catchall, right? Basketball $10,000. Other supplies equip I mean basically equipment. sports equipments, arts equipment and arts, right? Okay, great. Um and um and the the youth programs,
we've seen a a a significant cut back. So, what what's what's going on there? Uh basically, we're moving $200,000 out. Uh Michael and I have had many conversations about um it was a it was a huge umbrella account. Um, and so we're we're basically making it a little bit
easier to manage, putting that 200k under Tracy. Um, it allows Julie, B, and I to have a little bit of a cleaner picture, right? That's for the youth job. Yeah. Yes, sir. That's the that's the back end of that. Okay. Got it. Thank you. I appreciate that. And um and
uh that's all I have. But thank but thank you be also thank you very much. And um I think this is a again a important kind of customer service aspect to the city that that that constituents see and uh appreciate.
Thank you. Thank you, sir. Councelor uh Garcia. Hi, Charlie. Um I want to echo what our um fellow counselor has mentioned. even though he wants to take full credit. We um we truly take full
credit. Even though he wants to take full credit, we beg for someone like yourself in our city to make our children proud of being from Chelsea. So, um you're headed in the right direction. So, we thank you and we thank
you for being his support and and thank you for being a great team. I I definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel for our youth in terms of sports. So, thank you, counselor. Thank you. It's a It's an absolute privilege to serve this community and these kids, and I'm very blessed to be surrounded by
veteran leadership and an outstanding team. I can't say enough about them. Okay, questions. Councelor Robinson, just want to say u we've had many, many conversations, you and I, and what
you're doing, you're moving us in the right direction. And I think that you showed a lot of enthusiasm that is kind of catching on to the baseball managers and other people that you come in contact and I and that to me that's very positive and something
that's been lacking in this community for a long time. I just want to say thank you. Thank you sir. I appreciate that. Councelor Himenez, just real quick, I didn't uh see this in the uh in the budget book, but I know that we recently got access to a new facility in
Rivier. I was wondering if you could uh share about kind of any new facilities that we now have access to um as Chelsea residents, and if there's anything else uh coming down the pipeline and things like that. Yeah, we we we haven't formally announced that yet, council. No. Okay, never mind. Never mind. Uh um
apologies. Tracy's not here anymore, but uh uh um Tracy introduced us to the Robert Hass um center, I think it's called in uh in River. Uh it's it's a new health center. Uh and and there is a uh um there is a
res there is a River resident fee that that we are going to get access to. Uh um we will be announcing it probably next week. So we're lucky that not too many people watching this meeting. Thank you. Um, okay. So, I just have two
questions and I can go on and on about how much of a fan I am of you Charlie. I um you and I talk all the time and I'm very very excited for the direction that you're taking this department. I'm very excited for this collaboration and and what can be done. My questions are
regarding space and how you guys are working with schools to make that space available. What changes have you brought on? what ideas do you have cooking? Um, and then my other question is regarding, um, we've had, you know, concerns from
the public regarding how, uh, grants are monitored. Um, if you could just walk us through the process so that we can understand if there have been any changes and, you know, how are we looking at it for future grants that we provide for for our small sports leagues
in the community. Thank you, Madam President. Um so number one um all of you appropriated some free cash for us to pursue a feasibility study. Uh the contract is being circulated for signatures right now. So
there is a long-term solution in the pipeline um that we are very excited about. In the meantime uh as soon as um Cheryl s uh read reads it through the terms and conditions uh we will be signing a contract for facility management software. And this is a major
step forward for us. Um it allows uh city manager, DPW, school department to log in and see who's using our field in real time and our facilities in real time. Um and then from us it allows us to start making datadriven decisions to uh identify gaps in availability um
trends and rather than going through it on paper, uh we can pull one of the softwares we we're using is um heavy with analytics. And so we'll be able to really deep dive these numbers and identify um hours that are open. We are working on an internal option with the
school department as well. Uh we are in talks. Um so right now our gyms more or less closed down at 8:30 p.m. Uh we are um advancing talks with the school department to keep that open to 9:30, potentially even 10 p.m. Um and we're also looking at Chelsea High School as
well, not on the Sundays, but Saturdays with Saturday school. you know, we know that the building is occupied by uh security and custodians. How do we um get in there from say 12 to 4 and allow, you know, like a a Mass Warriors or a CBL to to utilize that gym space? So, it
it's a multi-pronged approach um and uh not even getting into the idea of um finding space um whether it's the Boys and Girls Club or Shore Collaborative partners who have approached us with ideas. Um but we are um identifying the
gaps the management software long-term solution and then we're working hand in hand with the school department to make sure um that we are utilizing uh as many hours as possible. Um and um anything you want to add on that?
Yeah. Hi everyone. I just want to um just to bring to your attention that probably this year is the first time we have been we have an incredible team uh that work with us that um have multiple years of experience and I think in order
to change anything create or expand you have to look to th the people that are daytoday operations to be able to make that happen. So I first want to applaud that the team that we have at um in recreation and cultural affairs. Another thing I think is important that we can't
not overlook the arts humanities and how many programs are in the arts and humanities and uh which many many of our our um our constituents are asking for. Uh, one thing that I think it was it's very important to bring up with this
whole group is that we started now to have ESOL uh, programming up at the soldiers home. And so we are very proud of that that the people in um, in the different departments there, whether it's in in in culinary or housekeeping,
they are taking ESOL classes under our CDBG grant. And so our our language program is one of the best in Chelsea. And so recreation in Chelsea is is also continuing education. We've got multiple programming and computers and the arts
and and I also want to underline the amount of um organizations and schools uh that of high quality that work for us that work with us. Excuse me. Mass Audabon um Harvard University uh
Berkeley's College of of Music um Mass College of Art. uh very very proud of that that I think it's hard to press of looking at other cities of how many um of these organizations work with us on a yearly basis. So and we are going to
keep striving for that and expand. Awesome. And then the the second part of your question about the the grants um so we have the um the sports fund and the um and the scholarship fund. Um we are
um in the previous years we we've actually had not enough applications. Um we are revamping it. Um you'll probably see your first draft example in about two weeks I want to say. Um but we're basically going to merge the accounts.
So rather than having teams submit two applications um we're going to sort of create a a super fund um and and streamline it. Um, and this will in in addition to the funding, um, the grant the application will also offer marketing and communication support. Um,
grant writing. I I'm providing grant writing assistance to our league presidents. Uh, one great example is the the Massport charitable giving program. Um, Chelsea wasn't applying to a lot of these grants. Um, and now we are. Chelsea Pride received their first grant um, la last month, two months ago. Uh,
Mass Warriors is submitting uh, in about a week. um see why uh Chelsea Pride baseball and so on. Um, and so that's our focus is is to um better advertise or we are advertising, but to um communicate even on a grassroots level
the this new sports fund that's being revamped and then to really drive home the the the regional resources to our leagues and just, you know, taking our institutional knowledge um and just really just getting it out there in front of them and and really doing
whatever we can to fill out the applications and and help them get them in. Awesome. Thank you, Charles. Uh, councelor Sandigate. Yes. I just wanted to um piggyback on what be had said as far as working with a good team and to
acknowledge that you have brought the most to that team with your length of service. And I think that working together and the the title of recreational and cultural affairs is the
um the mix that our city needs because there are people that are into recreation and people who are into cultural affairs. Some are into both, but I think it's really important to have a wide ranging menu of offerings. So, it's wonderful that you're
collaborating and that there's an amalgam of things that we can offer. One thing I want to um bring up is that we're starting this summer an environmental education program called Wild Wonders and it will be five days a week down at Voke Park along with
Tenacity. We're very proud of that because we'll be working with Harvard Museums of Natural History, hopefully the Museum of Science, and again we'll be working with Mass Audabon. And so again, to have a really good broad multiaceted program, it has to be more
than sports. It's got to be in multiple different places. And one thing too that we're very proud of, we're we work collaboratively with the schools on computer technology, AI, and we just are just excited about the future.
Thank you, councelor uh Garcia. I just wanted to echo um Lisa um and you know everything that combination is perfect for our community. It keeps our youth
entertained and it's something that we need. So thank you. Thank you Lee. Thank you Charlie. All right that's that's it. Oh councelor Brown. I just want to say welcome you. I'm councelor Brown. I get some of your emails. Um again, um you sound very
excited about the new opportunities before. You sound like you're enjoying that ride already. Want to congratulate you and being with B and the team that you have formulated and putting together as a former athlete. Um I I feel the passion that you have and so grateful
that you're going to bring it to Chelsea. And again, um, as most of us here, um, would let you know, we all have really been dedicated to get someone and we're glad that you came our way and and we're looking forward to great things that you would do with us in this community and we appreciate your
time tonight. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. All right. Thank you, Charles. Thank you, B. Thank you, Charles. It be have a great evening. We will now move on. Closing us out tonight. Yes. Save the closer. Save the
best for last. Is that what they say? Yes. Our city solicitor, Cheryl Fiser. Um, the next budget we it will be on page 90. Whatever. I missed it.
All right. Um, so show uh showerfish's department uh the city solicitor's uh uh office u manages both uh law uh legal issues for both the city
and and schools um and uh the proposed budget uh for the city general fund side. um um is being increased by 6.4% to about
$512,000. Um so the personnel budget has increased uh um to 7.67% 67% um to $369,000 um which includes contractual obligations
um well based on our our our our exempt schedules um which are include a cost living adjustment. There are no staffing adjustments. Um there are five full-time equivalents that are funded from the
general fund. Um, and and uh I'm sorry, there's five full-time equivalents in the in the law office and 1.6 uh five full-time equivalents are funded with the school's budget, which is another 203,000, which is not included
in these figures. Um, but you could see that in the personnel tables um with the listing of staff. The operating budget um is is increasing by 3.25% 25% to
$142,250. Uh, of that we're seeing that uh rent lease equipment is increasing by $500 um to cover uh the copier lease rates. And then as well as um other professional services um are increasing
by $3,000 which are primarily covering increasing uh court filing fees and any other services to uh like such as constable sheriff services. Um there's also you're seeing dues and
subscriptions uh increasing uh to cover additional anticipated cost increases. Um I believe that there is a design um which is uh shown in the book which is really other professional services um to cover that which I just discussed. Um
at this point uh we can open up to any other questions. Thank you Michael. Questions? Councelor Brown. Well, I don't get any stamps for $50. The $50 is the um inhand delivery fee.
if we have to serve something in hand. So that's it says postage, but it's really if we're going to serve something in hand, um we rarely use that line because our most of our postage is due is um through the treasur's office,
constable services are under other um services, but postage is nine times out of 10 overnight or stuff like that that needs to get there tomorrow or today. Okay, thank you. just it stuck out. All right. Yes. Seeing no other
questions, we can move on. Look at that. Nice work. All right. We're going to move on to judgments. Um, which is on page two 247. Yes. Should be. So, um, the fiscal 26
proposed budget is being level funded at $50,000 for judgments. Any questions? Questions? Seeing no questions, we can move on. All right, we're moving to licenses on page 112.
Here we go. Um all right, here we go. So the fiscal 26 proposed budget for the licensing department um is uh increased by 7.78% to $104,473. Uh the department is is uh is it falls under the city solicitor. It is
staffed by uh one full-time equivalent. Um so the personal budget is increasing. um by uh 4.36%. This individual is a tenure individual um and is not uh expecting any step increases this year. Um
um and there's no other staffing changes. Operating budget is increasing by 26.32% to 19,000 um $75. Um it's mainly due to increased dues and subscriptions by
$5,000 which is um online permitting licensing fee a platform fee that we're anticipating for uh an increased cost out of that account. Um yeah I think there's anything else that's substantial to report on besides
$1,000 decrease in advertising which is more uh is reduced to uh be more aligned to the spending. the spending is not actually actually meeting the $5,000 I mean the you know $5,000 level. Councelor Taylor.
So I apologize but I I did have one question on the law department just it's real quick. It's regarding litigation. Now we just we we have had to you know take money from free cash to pay for litigation. Are we not budgeting
a line item for litigation? I'll take that. So, uh um full transparency, uh the city solicitor requested additional funding in this budget, right? The the uh um to increase that line, right? I think what what what
happens with that line is is that it's really hard to assert what's coming, right? Right now, this year in particular, has been very busy, and I think you all know why, right? We got Forbes going on. We've got a few uh uh thorny issues that we got going on. So
So it's hard it's hard to know what legals legal issues we're going to have in the future, right? The the uh um in FY25 we budgeted $100,000. So we kept it flat knowing full full force that that that depending on on on how it goes, we
might have uh uh have to come to you and ask for funding in the future. Is that is that include for appeals? Appeals of of of in court. Is that is that part of is that part of the litigation? That's part of litigation. But I I have to tell you both my
assistants were in the appeals court this year. So it's not just outside legal fees. It's the work in-house, it's the work outside, etc. Okay. All right. Um, so, so that's why we're kind of doing a peace meal from
free cash on demand. We're we're level funding. Level funding. Uh, uh, no, no, I mean specifically for litigation, for not having a litigation line. And I I I appreciate what what you're saying. I
guess what I guess what what what I'm saying is to get a, you know, not to get we we we want to be able to plan. I understand that that that it's, you know, you you never know exactly what to plan on, especially with something like
this, but if we always have a certain amount of money in the pot, whether it's the average of the last five years or or whatever it is, we would have to have a free cash thing anyway. So I don't I I just want to be as open and transparent
about what we're spending y in in accordance to this. Absolutely. Because this is the public document. This is what the public gets. Yes, sir. and as the public does not necessarily pay attention very closely to city council
meetings and I don't blame them but you know I I think that maybe we ought to consider putting a line item in the budget under law so I I I might I might side with the city solicitor on that
thing and just give and there is a line so on page 92 in in the book if you go to that that Uh uh on the expense budget there is a a legal services legal services right which is is for outside council council right uh uh and if you
see what what what was the actual amount spent in in FY24 it it was $92,000 right in in 25 we are we have blown that out of the water right so so the but that's not just for outside counsel because our
own people are litigating some of this correct I I understand and and some of it And some of it is pro bono. So to be honest, yeah. So our inside people get a salary. So they're not part of legal services. So legal services pays for Yes. Outside services, outside legal
services. We do have pro bono and we also have um insurance, right? That covers a bunch of our slip and falls. Um and all and so it's a guessing game. Do we want to say we're going to win everything and we can handle more in-house? We are about to have a major
changeover in the law department. So that's why I was asking for more money. It wasn't necessarily do I really think we need another hundred grand. It's just that it's the capabilities of my new hire and what we can handle inhouse versus what we send outside. And we do
still have pending cases that I am so trying to get rid of right now. But um that's why No, I I totally get that and of course that makes perfect sense. I I my you know my questioning on this point
is is really to be more precise with the public about what we're spending on what and so I think a lot of times you know people just you know lied through this whole thing and we need to pay attention
to finances especially now and and in the near future where you know we've we've said time and time Again, the number one priority is the long-term financial stability of of of the city of Chelsea. And I think that kind of gets
to this more heightened approach to to transparency on on these subjects. That's my only point. Thank you very much, Councelor. Uh Garcia, my question is on licensing. Um, do you see
um this department growing because of all the development? Do you see um Naomi's workload growing? And do you think that we'll need to budget maybe for next year or um for another
employment opportunity? So, right now um as you know, we've done the property manager. We're about to issue that license today. Naomi and I have been harassing because we need to pay attention to these laundry mats um with the other departments. So, right now, and I believe the deputy city
manager for operations is working on trying to get us computer systems where it's going to make it a lot easier for the public to apply and to have that back and forth with the public. So, I don't believe we need that person. We have that added clerk in my office um
who is the law clerk who backs up licensing who backs up 40U appeals who backs up um my office manager/p parillegal. So right now I'm not asking for another person. I do foresee licensing taking over enforcement of
licensing so we don't have and I believe someone in DPW helps us out someone to walk into these establishments and saying where's your permit you're doing something wrong for example I have laundry mats who've got music and games going on why aren't I getting that money right so those are the things
that being proactive in the licensing department is we need to start getting back to and um Naomi's like that in the in building answering question kind of person. So, we may need a part-time enforcer or so forth because inspectional services is so busy doing
everything else in the city. So, I do see that in a couple of years. I don't know if I see that in next year. I don't know. Any other council Brown? I just want to say Cheryl, you did a good job. You've been here a long time. I remember when I was on the license
commission and you were there. So, um, thank you for your dedication and service you provide and your hard work and your team. Thank you. Thank you, Counces these licenses thing. Do you?
I have. Um, so Naomi, we will police department does our invest um license discipline and enforcement of liquor establishments. Inspectional services um tries to help out on people who are
selling things they're not licensed or permitted to do. Licensing does it. You know, we're all part of the community. If I see something, I try not to stop it right there. I'll report it and someone else will run out and do it for me. But enforcement is a team
effort and it just depends on what our priorities are at the time. But liquor is very much enforced by we have a team of um the police department that does the liquor establishment enforcement. So,
and how many licenses do you actually issue a year? Um, so you do know there's like 68 on premise liquor licenses, another almost 40 off- premise liquor licenses and those just liquor licenses. I believe in
your book we try to list the different types of license. There's so many others but these are the main licenses. Um what's exciting about the law department issues the special permits for the use of city space outdoors which is very
active from April till October as you can see. Um we work with um recreation who does probably the indoors and the parks and we do the other spaces in Chelsea. So we do issue probably about
40 to 50 of those each each season um because um this city council went wanted to use our outdoor spaces more. So we do do a lot of different things as a team in my office.
How much money does it revenue brings in from these licenses? That's a question of the finance department. I So what's funny is um licensing for example the the fees we just increased. So they dropped during COVID. We probably went
up some $25, some not at all. Each marijuana per license pays $5,000. Um, so it just depends which, um, we have rooming houses that pay per room, a group of rooms, which we're going to try to do for the property
management stuff. We have enter one day entertainment, one day liquor. So, there's so many different um, variations of licenses that I think we bring in a good amount, not as much as I think we should, but a good amount of money that comes in. total total uh about that
we bring up for licensing um is around 300 a little bit over 300,000 $328,000 and does that money go into the general fund or does it go for use whatever the city wants to use it in? So it's built into the budget what we project and then
would if we go above and beyond um what we've collected would go back to the general fund as in any of the funds that are not used or unspent return back to the general fund for free cash. Thank you. Special permits are free right now.
Never know. Get them while they're hot. I don't have any questions. I will just say that um uh if you could share with the council um a list of the new licensing fees,
that would be greatly appreciated. That's fine. We have we have it posted. Yeah. Um, and I'll just I just want to say thank you for for your work. Um, we are seeing a lot of uh the work that was brainstormed and initiated at the beginning of this term um come to life
this year. And um I will share that even some of the um unique ordinances that we have passed recently, I've had conversations at the state level and they're looking to use it as a sample for the state. And so once again, Chelsea leading the charts with examples
of how we can support families um not just here but across the state. So thank you for your work and your leadership in that area. Cheryl um and thanks everyone who is still in this chamber. It is um this concludes our meeting. Michael, same time again tomorrow. Ahead of
schedule. Meeting adjourned. Ahead of schedule.