Testing. Testing. Tustin. All right. Good evening. Calling this meeting to an order. And um clerk, please kick us off for the roll call. Council Tinari Garcia is absent. Councelor Jimenez, present. Councelor
Coopro is absent. Councelor Taylor, I'm here. Councelor Robinson present. Councelor Tesher present. Councelor Kelly Garcia absent. Councelor Santigette present. Council Vega absent. Councelor
Brown. Councelor Deus present. Members present. You have a quorum. Madam President. Thank you. Cler for the record. Councelor Vega. Welcome to the team. And councelor Garcia is running late from a conference. Um but she will be joining
as well. Uh good evening. Um it is that time of year. We have our annual budget FY2026. Um city manager, please um run us through what our schedule is looking like tonight. Thank you so much, Council President.
I'll hand it over to our deputy city manager finance, Michael Mason. Good evening. Thank you very much. Uh good evening counselors and those that are watching remotely and those that are
present here this evening in the chambers. So tonight uh we have a a packed schedule tonight. Uh this this is the first of three nights and we will be first starting off um with um Mr. Garcia
for information technology. Uh we will then move into permitting and land use. Uh then we'll move into the public safety departments, police, fire, emergency management. Then we will move
over to uh housing and community development and then we will finalize the night with uh several several uh subdivisions under department of public works. Uh I will start off with saying that is this was uh it's always an honor
to serve the city of Chelsea and that uh we we feel confident that we have a budget that's going to that we're proposing that will serve um all of the the the citizens here um in the best way possible uh as well as it it just
demonstrates our values. Uh you'll see that our budget is increasing over from year-over-year about 6.8% 8% uh which of that is a substantial investment into education uh of over 7%
and that is uh is uh a testament to the values of Chelsea and investing in the future of Chelsea. Uh we on the city side have come under and we are uh one of our goals was to try to get below the 6% threshold that we came with last year
and we successfully did that at 5.84% 84% budget increase year-over-year. Um, and if we could get it lower, we would have tried to. Most of most of our uh the substantial changes in the budget from fiscal 25 to fiscal 26 were beyond
our control. Uh those included uh substantial which you'll hear over the next couple days um in substantial increases in health insurance um investment in construction at Northeast Vocational School um increases in retirement appropriation increase
increases in solid uh waste and trash removals. Um and then we just have a substantial investment in our employees which are contractual obligations and cost of living increases in this world where inflation is unpredictable. Uh I I
look forward to uh along with the all the department heads and city manager to present each of the department budgets. We will move on over to the first one which is information technology which can be found on page 99 in the book. I
will also be running live concurrently our our new website our dashboard our fiscal 26 dashboard which is um by open gov um was a great partnership and you can do that on the table of contents if you're following along you can select
information technology as well and it will bring you to the main page so overall for information technology um this high level before I hand it over to Mr. Garcia, the department is um seeing a not a not a
much change as you'll see is a is a 0.87% change year-over-year. Uh of that is 7.47% year-over-year change in personnel uh uh uh cost which is mainly driven by
contractual obligations and uh cost of living adjustments. Uh the department is actually seeing uh a decrease in operating expenditures. Uh after reviewing uh some of the ex the line
items and working with Mr. Garcia, uh we've identified that there was some room in the contracted service areas to reduce. Um he he can elaborate on any impacts if any. And uh the other
adjustments is around capital where we do have um some increases over year-over-year in capital. Mr. Garcia, the show, the floor is yours. Good evening. Uh when um it's a pleasure to be with you again
this year. Um this year we accomplished many things in it. We started last year with few things uh to improve efficiency as well as the structure the infrastructure of the network and PCs and everything. This year we uh
basically finish uh our pilot in Prattville. This is maybe the first project that we work externally outside of the city with an entity. The idea is to basically refit all the CHA units with public Wi-Fi for them. Uh a few
weeks ago we received a good news that right now in our pilot in Praville we have over 700 devices connected to the Wi-Fi which is provided by the city. That is a huge accomplishment. Uh we have from students connecting with their Chromebooks, iPads to seniors that now
they are able to connect as well. um Comcast maybe um is chasing me because uh few of the customers are dropping their um data connections but that's the idea. Um we provided
basically the same service that we have here in the city. We are maybe the first city to provide full internet access with a high-speed network. um few other housing authorities are reaching out to us to see what's the model in the partnership because we are talking about private sector combined with MBI
combined with MAPC combined with the city combined with housing authority and altogether working on this. Um I have few meetings spending with few housing authorities to see how it was. Uh now today we received the news that we are going to engage now in the second phase
which is the other properties as well. uh we want to retrofit those units and continue with the project. Um and this is basically coming from MBI funds so that you're not going to see these funds coming from my general lines um funds that have been identified right now for
year two and year three. After that we will figure out what is going to be the continuous model but we want to continue with that. Top of that this year we operated an entire phone system for schools and city basically manages twothirds of the entire phone system.
This is a brand new system. Um it's cloud-based and the idea is in case of disaster right now people can take their phone connected to their home and the city phone is there. That's the idea. Um it's pretty expensive but we feel that
is the best way to go in the in the future. Um something that is not in the notes here also we I don't know if few of you noticed that we have been operating also our conference centers uh rooms here in the city housing and community is maybe the first one to have
a be full video conference room with two large displays. Uh the second one is the law um office. Now they have also a full video conference center. And the next one which was just finished is the city manager's office, executive room um
conference room. Um few weeks ago also we finished with the senior center. I don't know if you have been able to see but there is three large displays now on the walls for the large area. The idea is to retrofit that room eventually with
a large video conference center town hall meeting type place so we can have at least 100 150 people there. Um those type of funds have been identified also that's why you don't see the increments in my budget for this upcoming budget.
We sat with most of our vendors uh early after November basically to see how we can centralize certain contracts into maybe larger contracts and have a reduction in budget. That's why you're going to see that my expense lines are going down. We
identify a few things. We say okay this is the deal. Let's centralize. Let's collapse contracts and get a better deal. So um I mentioned that that that's what I was going to pursue last year. we were able to do it this year. Um the
last thing that we are going to do which is kind of maybe the first time also a city is doing this is that city computers are being refurbished to be used for public use. We started with the library. Right now if you go to the library there is uh down there there is
like 20 PCs now that are going to be for work for de workforce development and training for our residents. Those cities were those PCs were city business PCs. We are retrofitting them, reusing them. Prep bill will be the first one also to
receive probably a bunch of our computers as well. We are preparing those for them and transferring those to them for house use. People that cannot afford PCs, we are going to provide those. So um we may be one of the first and we are going to continue with that.
no reason to discard equipment that can be used for a few more years if people cannot afford those. So little things that we're doing different from what a traditional IT does. Um and we are very happy that to
do so. Any questions about budget? Councelor Taylor. So, mostly I was I was um interested in in the completions of the projects that we heard about last year. And it it sounds like it sounds like
uh uh a pretty good success. and um and I'm I'm I'm happy indeed to hear it. Um I'm even happier that your expenses went down by 7%. So that's that's that's
that's also very uh very good news. I think you going first, you're setting the example for all the all the departments hopefully. I mean budget varies from department to department. I understand. I understand.
Um yeah. So, um, so, so, basically, I don't think I have any questions. I've gone over, um, I've gone over the the budget and, um, how long do you think it how long do you
think, uh, it'll take on this next round, uh, to get the other other sites? What we are doing is because we're working with them, the IT part is the last portion. They are retrofitting units right now. So we are taking
advantage of that project to retrofit the units with what is needed for IT infrastructure. Then after that we are going to use procuring city mechanisms to get the best pricing. That's maybe why this is different from other
projects because we are using city procedures to acquired equipment. In terms of the internet access, we are maybe the first ones also to do this. is not city provided. We are using state contract ISP services for those units
which is more high speed that whatever you can get at home. Right. So they're getting business class internet access for coach. Yeah something like that. But that's the idea. It's going to be a multi-phase project because it depends on filling
the units. Once that is completed then it becomes the IT portion of it. But we already started the discussions about that how we are going to do this how it's going to be funded start to initialize the the forms that we have to get into with MBI to acquire funds. We
are trying to minimize city cost on that. So if it can be funded by MBI then the better and um then work with CHA in terms of how we can do this sustainable for the future. That's another And and
how and how um how confident are you in in the security assessment and and and our readiness in the event of some event. If you're talking about our residents, that was um let's say
one-third of the discussions that we had because um one is my view in terms of cyber security. The other one is the freedom of access to the internet. So we have multiple discussions. This is my view in terms of how I want this the
residents to be secure. Uh it took many cycles. Let me say that. Um to get into a no I don't want pornography. I don't want this because this is a city sponsored project. Has to be based on what I think it is best. So it's public
Wi-Fi but has some restrictions to protect our residents. Um, and that has to be the norm. Cannot be like that. In terms of the city side, if you notice, one of the lines is the biggest one is this. We have a security enterprise agreement which is a business class
agreement. It's not a government agreement that includes a set of tools for us. Um, to give you an idea, we receive around 3,000 events per day, security events. um out of those around 50 are critical
incidents that we have to investigate. That's daily on a 7 day week. We were 24 by7, right? Um so uh I will say that it's 70% of my time is about
security. That's it. Um and it's because it's we have resident data in our hands. We have to protect the residents. Um we are now working into AI policy as well and procedures how to prepare our
employees in terms of how to use AI because it's a big big concern about AI how much data we are providing and at the same time protecting our residents. So I will say that's the case that's an on that's an ongoing question as as as
the technology develops. It is correct. It is we are working with the states because the state wants to develop their own AI uh entity to provide the municipalities that infrastructure. I am very attracted to the idea to have
something like that rather than us pursuing some sort of AI component. So it's a large discussion but yeah we're kind of trying to keep track on that. All right. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Um, councelor Sanagate.
Yeah, first I wanted to commend you for some of the trend setting you're doing in your department and I think that's great and um maybe we'll move toward uh citywide free public Wi-Fi which I would love to see. Um, I had a question about
your good savings in terms of what contracts you were able to terminate to save 18%. Well, we didn't terminate. I mean, I take the I used to you say I take a machete in hand and basically say
you better chop or I will look into something else. So basically I encourage some vendors to let's keep it. So you negotiated not turn. Yes. Uh some people back in at home used to say that I used
to sell water to Eskimos. So so I don't know. I come from a bank and that's maybe why uh but um maybe the largest one which was the Cisco the security one uh because they typically those technology companies tend to raise the
the cost around five to 7% we adjust certain features and say I am not using this feature take that out they were a little reluctant because they sell this in packages and I'm like you will have to break the package for me because I need to be conscious on
that So that's maybe why you see these reductions. We decreased some packages and said no customize this for us. We are small city. I cannot afford this. So it worked out. Good. Thank you. Thank you counselor. Um welcome councelor.
Thank you. Sorry for the tardiness. No worries. So I don't have any questions. Thank you so much Ramon for all you do. We're um on our first guest and already five minutes behind. So, I'm just going to remind my colleague so that we can try to stay um close to, you know, the
time frame. Thank you. Uh councelor Tesy, um I would just say uh you're an honest man, Mr. Ramon, and um you know, the project you've put forth um looks good to me. I don't see any issue with it. And also, your work is is also amazing.
I've heard no complaints. And I also always get those reminders of don't click in any weird email which just goes to show how much you know hands-on you are and everything. So by the way our notifications now are being sent to CHA time being um and they are sharing those
with the residents. So the message is spreading that's the only way about cyber security is spreading the message. So yeah, councelor Vega, councelor Robinson. Oh, uh, just a quick question. Do we have
any licenses that are expiring? Are we looking at do we need to be purchasing any new licenses? That's a good question. Uh, Council Robinson, every everything now is changing to this subscription model that you have to pay every year for that. And we are
increasing the amount of employees. That's a fact. Uh the good thing about uh reaching out to vendors is that I am increasing the number of licenses but do a better package for me. One of them is the email. Email is something that
almost everybody uses and we carry around 25 employees from the school in our system as well. So we tend to negotiate with Google every year saying you need to give me better pricing in that sense.
um licenses do not expire anymore like used to be few years ago. So basically you are changing to subscription model which tends to be more expensive because vendors they want to make a profit but uh when you go into large pack packages
you tend to have the persuasion words for them saying this is the case if not I am going to switch to another one. I am not married with any vendor. For me, it's give me the best and then we can talk.
Thank you, councelor Jimenez. I have no questions. Just thank you for what you do. It is incredibly important how much data goes through our city and we need to make sure that it is protected. So, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you. Yes, I echo uh my counselor's words. Thank you so much, Ramon. Um
Thank you. Yes. Gracias. All right, moving right along. We're going to move over to permitting and land use. Um, you should be able to find that in your your books on page 116. I will bring it up on the open gov
website. And I just wanted to to to clarify that John the Priest uh uh is is out sick. uh and we uh instead of shifting the entire schedule, we asked John if we could present his budget and and he was
totally fine with it obviously. And was he fine with it or was he leaping in joy? He he said he he would rather have a root canal, but no, I'm kidding. I'm joking. Careful what you wish for.
We'll see how it is tomorrow. All right. All right. So, I'm going to keep this short so um we can catch up in schedule as well. Uh so, what you'll see is um permitting and land use.
Uh as I scroll down, I'm going to jump right into the finances and then I'll work into what they were looking to do. So all of the the changes in their budget is uh tied to on the personnel
side is contractually obligated or cost living increase. There's no changes in personnel in the department. There's uh two members of the team. Um there's a director and then there's a administrative uh land use administrator. Um so that's what
incorporates the 7.3 uh 7.33% increase. um on the operating expenditure side, excuse me, something on my eyes right now. Um 3% increase on operating expenditures and those are tied to inflation. This is
what they anticipate to cover the needs for the department budget. Um and then they have they did need land um funding for um the historical preservation plan um in the capital budget this year which
um brings their budget to a total of 20.72% increase. Uh and so you know that was an accomplishment of fiscal 25 that they noted and you'll notice in in the actual narrative. Um, and that's what their plan is to begin um to uh identify
the strengths and weaknesses of the cities um and continue to work um in in in support the master plan work that we're doing um at the city level. Uh any questions in regards to this budget? Uh we can open it up now. I will start with councelor
Robinson councelor Vega councelor Teshi councelor San none of my colleagues no okay we can move on awesome all right that's great nextiefie
next we'll we will invite up uh Chief Keith Hton um you will be able Find the police budget on page 130 in the book. We are back on track. There it is.
So, while we wait for the police chief or as he walks over, do we need another chair? Yeah, you can do something. Yeah. Thank you. Um, so we have here tonight uh Chief Hton and Miss Koko. Am I saying
your last name right? Yes. Um, and at the high level they will be able to dive deep. They have a a substantial department. This is one of the departments that we've had put some investments in for this fiscal uh in
this proposed fiscal budget. Um at the high level uh the budget is overall increasing by 11%. Year-over-year the personnel costs um are increasing about 10.3%.
Um and in those in the costs in the in the personnel level costs uh we are actually have added a position in in this fiscal year budget bringing their total uh I believe their total unit count to 124. Am I correct on that? Uh
uh 124 full-time equivalent positions. uh a sergeant was added uh to to to support the department and support the new scheduling um that was uh bargained. Uh it was a 4x4 schedule. Um and I will not steal a thunder from the chief to be
able to maybe go in into the more of the successes of that uh implementation. The the operating uh expenditure uh budget is been level funded. um they've made some adjustments in between lines to
account for any needs that the department have or reduce where there was no longer a need. And and then uh majorly would be is the $25,000 of capital projects that are going to be funded from the operating
budget. Uh, and some of those includes tasers, um, uh, purchases, camera replacement additions, and I believe a food truck vehicle that's being purchased off the operating budget. But at this point now,
I will turn it over to Chief and his administrator. Good evening. Um, right now, good evening, uh, honorable members of the council. Um I'm here with uh my administrative uh guru uh Lydia to help me uh process any
questions you may have. But basically uh this is in support of uh fiscal year 26 budget uh to continue continue our uh police department's mission uh you know being committed taking pride and dedicated uh to our community's needs in delivering uh quality police services
effectively, efficiently, responsively and prof professionally. Uh um I believe uh Mr. Mason did add that we had some additions. We changed to a new shift that was bargained that uh needed to have a new sergeant to be uh placed on
an extra squad to uh limit overtime and to uh increase our supervision. Um in general uh I'm very proud with the city manager. It's the department the increase with their uh contract was much needed. Uh we do have I believe the best
police department around and they are grateful. They uh they love this community. They serve with dignity, professionalism. For a major urban community, we probably have the least amount of uh citizen complaints uh based on population. Um we're very transparent
in everything we do and uh obviously each day we need to be more transparent. Uh, but I'm willing to I think it's easier if you just ask questions concerning the budget. The biggest one is contractual with the new um bargaining contract and increase of an
extra sergeant. Councelor Taylor. So, can can you on that note, can you can you just explain what that is for the for the people at home about the new adding the sergeant and the and the and
the and the increased um on the new uh contract? Yes. Uh for traditionally for years since I've been on the job, we had a four days on two day off schedule uh for everybody in uniform. Uh the national standard now is four days
similar to the fire department but slightly different four days on 10 hour shifts four days off. With that configuration it uh provides overlap coverage during peak hours. So as an example before the day shift patrol would be 7:30 to 3:30 p.m. No overlap
coverage. Now that shift is 7:30 a.m. 7:30 a.m. to 5:30m with the evening shift coming in at 3:30 p.m. So between 3:30 and 5:30 we double our deployment of officers. Then we do the same thing on the evening at 9:30 to 1:30 a.m. we
again double our deployment. uh but with that scheduling we had to ex add an extra squad to fulfill the uh calendar out and which needed a supervisor uh just to be consistent across the board. So that that's the biggest uh re the
only reason why we needed an extra supervisor but in layman's terms that's what the shifts uh look like now. And the one the one thing that kind of jumped out at me here as as
was I know that we've had a lot of people retire in this last year and I I can't remember the the amount of years that we've lost. I It was a few hundred years or something, wasn't it? It's well over 200 years of experience. Yes. So,
so, um, so how long do you think it's going to take to to kind of get up get up to speed with the experience factor and all and all of that? And and and the other thing was the long was the
longevity. I noticed that went up by 41%. Yes. On the latter first, that was part of the bargaining contract longevity. um being in that bargaining for years, the longevity was very low compared to other uh police and fire agencies uh and
surrounding municipalities. Uh as for the loss of a lot of great officers, we we just lost Detective Medina after 32 years, right? Um the the good thing is we all kind of grew together. I've been the chief of less than just about three years and I promoted five captains at
the same time. Uh so we have a whole new command staff. Uh I believe a lot of you work with uh some of the captains on various projects. Uh they've coming along great. We have a very young and vibrant command staff. Uh and on the other end since I became chief, we've
turned the department over about 20% I think 23 new officers. So that would be five new captains, probably seven new lieutenants, 10 sergeants, and 22 new officers. We have four new officers attending the academy beginning June
2nd, which is really good. Yeah. All right. I I know my colleagues have other questions, so I'll I'll go ahead and pass it on. Thank you. I could be here for a while. Councelor uh Garcia, councelor Sanate, I just had one brief
question for curiosity reasons. Hello, Chief. Hello. Um, I was looking at the rent lease line item which has increased and I wondered if what you rent is it the substation. Which one? Software, communications,
equipment. It comes under three subcategories. Is it equipment? Then there's um No, it's just rent. We do not rent. The substation is uh Do you own it? No, it's own it off hand. I forget who owns the building. It's is rent free. It's been rent free for us for
since for 20 years. We've just reused repurposed it. Okay. Okay. That's for copers. I'm sorry. We have several copers and equipment like that that we Yeah. And yeah, some of our virtual crime reporting uh software and things like that, but it's not for the uh
property across the street. I wasn't sure. Thank you. Uh thank you, councelor. Um Brown, one second, councelor Brown. Um, councelor Garcia, just want to remind you about um
the Chelsea PD and the relatives. No, I know, but I don't know if it's safer to just put it on at least just safer. So, full disclosure, my um brother is a Chelsea PD. Um, I just
wanted to stay and hear you out, but if it comes down to voting, I I will recuse myself. Thank you. Thank you. Just for the record. Uh, Councelor Brown. Thank you, Madam President. Um, thank you, Chief. Again, again, sorry to hunt you down all
weekend. Um, so, um, I've actually had a chance to talk to a lot of the department heads and, um, I understand, um, some of my questions was the figures, the blow, the blowing up of the figures and we went over it. Um, the chief explained it to me that, um, a lot
of it is contractual obligations. It's some of the stuff that we actually took up at the last meeting. They didn't get a chance to vote on, but it's going into the new fiscal year in 2026. Also, um, he pointed out because I couldn't figure out what student
officers were and uh, but he pointed it out is quite a few student officers when they come. You want me to explain so the rest of the board may know if you could for the board just so Yeah, student officers are when they're in the police academy, uh, they do not have full
police powers. They they uh, need to successfully complete the pre-training, the six-month academy, and a three-month training program. So they are student officers until they are officially sworn in at the city manager's office upon their graduation from the academy.
Thank you. So those are some of the questions I had. Um again u most of the budgets in my opinion they seem like they're coming in um with the growth of everything. We all have been to the supermarkets and we've all heard about the smallest things, bread, everything's
expensive. So I think you know looking at this budget and just looking here it shows that it also goes into the work and also keeping quality um residents here. It it shows a lot of quality res residents but it also shows the
investment in our community. So uh I just wanted to say that thank you. Thank you counselor. Uh chief I don't have any questions regarding the budget but I do want to um ask a question from your perspective. I know that this kind of touches on multiple departments um but
this is more of like um sort of the structural changes and how we may or may not be seeing any impacts from it. I just want to see if you can rule out any impacts from the Chelsea department um perspective on the field with the recent changes um in the votes that the council
made with the regionalization of 911. Do you think that any of those changes have impacted the the the way that we respond from the police department or the level of crime we're seeing? I mean, I guess it wondering in terms of
No. Um, again, I think we've gone down this path. The dispatch is the current um process. We receive the calls in a timely manner. uh I wouldn't be able to comment on something that's not here yet, but uh we've had no issues or crime has not increased decreased it uh
because of what's going on uh currently with uh whatever happens with the dispatch center. Thank you, Chief. And thank you for always being so responsive anytime I call or text you very very quick and getting back to me. I appreciate it. Thank you, Councelor Tesy. Thank you, Madam President. Um chief uh
this uh the budget looks very similar to uh um what it was uh for the year prior. Um I'm thinking which part of this budget is towards deterrence of crime. Um you know you might say it's uh all of
it together combined. Um, but I'm wondering what are we doing to deter crime? Seeing the, uh, you know, recent shootings and, uh, you know, sightseeings of, uh, of people looking at some individuals that seem a little
bit off. No. Uh, counselor, uh, the biggest thing is fulfilling our obligation to keep our levels of staffing up. Uh, and we've come a long way in that. uh why we did have a blurb of uh totally isolated incidents like
that didn't sadly with the tragic u uh results um our officers are in the neighborhoods our crime rate went down overall by seven like percent last year overall and there's so many factors that go into it with the grant processes with working with uh the collaborativa with
ROA uh with the Boys and Girls Club uh there's so many other things that you know combine uh to make us like I said our philosophy philosophy is engagement over enforcement um and we'll continue that role but it's tough to answer like
one line item it's it is really a collective uh of everything that goes into it um and I am wondering I mean um I'm really happy at the fact that you know I I go through the budget and I see so many police officers that uh do provide
the service to the city um would you be able to give a brief brief um overview of uh usually how many officers do you have going around the city? Um you know at a random you know Tuesday night versus a Thursday afternoon. Yes, we
have we have Manning uh uh minimum is usually eight officers on the street on weekends. Uh it can go down to six or seven on day shifts on Sundays. Uh the good thing um the overlap with that four on four off shift has uh limited those
shifts because a lot of people don't want to work overtime. they want to go home to their families. It's really limited the overtime shifts for coverage to four hours in in most cases. Uh which people like. It's 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. That's a window. Um but we we're we're fully staffed and that's just a uniform
division. We always we have a community service division that's very active. You know, they work days and up till uh 11:30 at night. Uh and we have detectives that are also available if uh they're all kind of doing their own thing uh with the end goal of like
community safety. So we always do have uh enough personnel uh to address uh any ongoing incidents uh to to further our community policing strategies. Um and uh just one more question. And I'm looking uh you know usually I see
one or two cars police police cruisers parked on Bellingham Square. Um I think that's uh you know that's a location that definitely merits merits attention and you've done a great job at that. I'm wondering what what about the you know the surrounding city. I'm wondering
what's going on on District 6 u you know where we've seen a little bit of of the crime going on um and other areas of the city. I'm just trying to get a picture. Um I I know right. I do see police going around, but I'm wondering how how often do they go? Because, you know, in my
experience, the you know, I think people would would agree to say that the more they see police officers less they are the less likely they are to commit crimes. No, I can tell you that we have officers assigned to sectors. They're different neighborhoods. They're permanently assigned. Doesn't mean they have to stay there the whole time. They
may have to assist. They you get called to where you get called. So, you could be in sector one is Pral. Uh the Pral everything across the Parkway. uh is that officer, we like to see him stay up or he or she stay up there, but a lot of times they're drawn to other areas. I think our big thing we do well is the
downtown task force, which is it's called the downtown task force, but it's really a citywide task force. It it's it spills out to everywhere and it it does start off with is it's it's the meeting for the city manager who attends uh bi-weekly. Uh when you see graffiti, is that a sign of something coming? We
attack it, address it, officers respond, try to find out in the neighborhood like to try to restabilize what's going on there. Uh the great thing about the city of Chelsea, we are absolutely small enough, we have we're a big city in two square miles, but we have the resources
to address things quickly. And uh the downtown task force is that community service division initiative and um that works with patrol. So we're able to address things pretty quickly. And we also have a crime analyst who evaluates what's going on. If she sees a spike up,
say up in Congress, the Congress a car break-ins, we're alerted to that. We have heat maps and uh we address it, try to uh address it before it gets out of control. Sounds good. Thank you, Councelor Vega.
Um thank you so much for this. I was looking um my question is I don't and I don't know how to properly say this if there's like a specific term that you guys use but um I
don't see anything here for bonuses in terms of like language or for bilingual speakers or you know officers that speak multiple languages. And if I'm not mistaken, unless if anything's changed, I know that the dispatchers do receive a
stipen. Why? If we have I I know that the sentiment of some officers that speak the multiple languages, they feel that they're constantly
um being called for support whereas so there's like a disbalance in equity there. If you're not a Spanish speaker, if you only speak one language, how are we filling that gap? And if we're doing that for our dispatchers, we should be doing that for police officers. So, why
aren't we doing that? Yeah. Sorry. That's great. That is a a wonderful question and I'll address it because because it uh u it came up in the last bargaining session that we had with with with the officers. Uh um and it's called a language stipen, right? And it is
something that that uh dispatchers get. uh it was on the table. We we uh obviously uh had a lot of things on the table and as you can see we we we did our best to take care of all all of our our officers. It it was a really good contract that was supported by the city
council. Uh uh it it was very uh it introduced a lot of additions if you will, right? A new schedule that I think is unbelievable, right? Uh uh uh longevity incentives, right? that we introduced the where we where we um hit
a roadblock was on the implementation of a line language typend. So uh uh um the schools are are are doing it more widely in dispatch is easier because it it's it's uh it's 14 employees, right? I mean
so so it's very small. I I I think that four get it in in dispatch right now. Uh but but uh um what schools are doing is is they require a test. So you got to go and and test for the whatever language it is, right? Uh uh so it's it's an
assessment center. uh a and and it's something that that uh has to be done annually, right? And and and a few of the members that were on on on the table uh were uh Latinos, but they didn't feel like their Spanish was good enough to to
to you know to uh to qualify. Uh um so where we we talked about it on on the table where we um we couldn't figure out how to implement it in a way that was equitable and it wasn't an administrative burden, right?
uh because because it it it was just too too hard uh uh to implement with a body of of over a 100 people. Okay. If I may add, we actually our body cameras we do we did not purchase the
part of the contract with artificial intelligence. We have the capability if we paid for it that every officer I think it's like 60 languages that the officer would press a button and the communication would go back and forth in the language plus be videotaped. Uh it's
significant the cost. We want to see how it worked out and it may be something next year we look into. Uh I can tell you that we are over the 50% part uh for Latino officers. uh the language. I've never had a complaint that a person came
in and said they didn't they weren't understood or like if someone's No, no, I'm not saying I don't think it's about Sorry, I don't mean to cut you off. I'm not saying that those type of complaints in terms of communication. I do think good communication is happening. What I
what my fear and what I have heard in the past is that the officers are feeling like they're being overburdened because there's more Latino officers or the Spanish speaking officers officers that speak multiple languages are taking
on more calls or supporting their um peers that are only English speakers. And I I think that's a disparity that isn't I understand like how how can you gauge that in all that I I just that's
that's something that I want to highlight because I think I think that is something that should be rewarded or merited. council. Councelor um Robinson,
first let me thank the chief of the department for what you do particularly in this time and age in our communities as to what goes on. I see our goal is to get to 115. I see we took on some
transfers and and that is a result of us not being able to recruit enough people and getting them into the academy at a specific time. So be that's true counselor. Um civil service the system we go under is
uh good and bad. It uh does protect people who live in the community plus gives them status if they're a a veteran uh disabled veteran. Uh the problem was we went through a period that not many people took the exam and when the pool
was 20 say people and they couldn't pass the physical fitness we wanted five. We lost that opportunity as I was explaining to uh councelor Brown. It takes a year for an officer to go through the process to actually be on the street to actually work. Uh so what
happened we had asked for five more and it was the same five people on the list that couldn't perform the test. The good news there's the new exam did come out. We did enter into a quasi um new direction with civil service that were able to pull people uh off of non civil
service police departments. But we have four going to the academy starting June 2nd which is excellent. Uh three of which are female. Uh which is that's our hugest increase of uh in the last like five or six years. Uh so I think we're going to be fine that less on the
laterals, more on giving residents um as this new list is established and more people took the exam this time which is good. Thank you. That's my only question. Councelor Jimenez, I wanted to follow up real quick on uh councelor Tesa's question uh about how
many folks are on at one given time. You said I believe you said that the lower number is eight. I'm just curious what is the high number, you know, besides like moments when like there's like a big emergency and then everybody comes in. I'm just kind of curious. Normally, council, we have manning on different nights because it's just based on
tradition of calls. Uh we could have up to 10 like on weekends. We have a minimum of eight, but we could hire up to 10. Then on a Sunday morning, it could go down to max like six is the minimum up to eight, but there's usually
eight that the overlap shifts. uh very good like we're just experiencing them now. Uh and this is a perfect example for the last few years before the overlap shift. School gets out at 2:00ish, you all walk around. It could get hectic, not just with fights. It's
just kids loitering. Uh we never were able to we'd have shift change and there'd be a lack. Now we have officers that stay on that street. They do not come to the station. They're more visible uh in the surrounding neighborhoods at school dismissal just with all the construction around for safety reasons. Yeah, we do have minimum
manning. Uh that is, you know, obviously we want the most officers on the street uh at the appropriate times when calls call load is at its most. Definitely. And then just to make sure, so the um the folks that are out on the streets, right, that is primarily the patrol
officer, patrol sergeants. Um and then maybe those community engagement folks. Yes, community service. Uh uh like today, I looked on the board. We have a board that, you know, is up. We probably had like 14 available officers, probably nine on the patrol division, four or five in community service. Again, we
always have like detectors. They're doing follow-up uh stuff. We have an admin division who we are going through accreditation again, which comes up this June. We we finished our preassessment and I'm uh hoping that we are reacredited. We'll be one of the few departments in the state like this will
be our fourth time and they love they made the standards much higher. It's so all our policies are very uh like adhered to uh professional and like addresses community needs. So everybody has like we're in five divisions. Each division serves a purpose, but there's
always enough offices out there if something happened. Control being our biggest. They're the face that you want to see when councelor Sanay calls me or you call me, you want to see somebody in the neighborhood. Uh that's the offices that we want you to see. Got it. Perfect. Thank you so much. Uh, and also just commend you for being so responsive
to, you know, definitely me and I know other counselors. So, thank you so much for And just to let you know, I did send uh I answered your questions. I but I sent them a new uh uh revised answer. I I I got that. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you, counselor. Um, Chief, I actually do I I
already know this answer, but I think it's good for the public and for anyone on the council who doesn't know, but with regards to the recent concerns from youth, could you share with us the number of officers that you have um assigned to schools and whether that has increased decreased and what is your
vision for that? Yeah, we've have we have four assigned to the uh schools. At one time we had two, we increased it by two uh in the last uh few years. Uh but our community service division and Our focus now is based on my knowledge is uh
for years it was age 17 to 23. That was the group you have to address those 17 to 18 19 year old kids. They're going uh like going away and they're going and getting in trouble. It's down to 13 14 year olds. So, we're readressing our
grants to address those younger kids uh and to be much more positive our influence with um and like engagement with um with Charles with the community outreach with sports program a huge need that we're going to be partners with. We're collaborative on Wednesdays with
uh just talking to kids like what's your concerns? Uh I think we do a great job at that and we need to address younger the better uh in my mind and we will do that. You will see that this coming year. Awesome. Thank you so much, Chief. Oh, councelor Brown, only because we have extra time. Councelor, thank you,
Madam President. Appreciate the consideration. Um, Chief, um, and we had this in the past. I don't know where we are with it now. Is the bicycle patrol done away with or we going to bring that back out? It is out. Some officers do
use it. We try to use it for the um I know Officer Chariss on it all the time. Uh, the community service unit will start using it. There's three that will be in this area. Uh especially Shirtlift Grove, easy for them to go around. They which is good about the community service, they don't
take calls per se, so they can really be visible and move around the square area with construction and hit the side streets. Uh yeah, but it is in use. We we the bikes are ready to go. It's up to the commander on the patrol and the commander and community service to to do the deployment. Yeah, I think that's a
great um initiative and I think it engages folks because when we see them at the myself when I see them at the events throughout when the bikes are there, the kids are all the younger kids that you were speaking, they're always around the bikes so and the motorcycles. So, it's really great and I'm glad to
hear um in light of all the traffic mass we have here that we'll have another way to get around when we really need to get around. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Thank you for your service. Believe we're back on track. Back on
track on time, Madam President. Yes, we are. Great job, everyone. Look at that. Look at that team. Come on. Come over. Yeah. All right. Okay. So, we're moving along. Um
the next department um that we will be uh presenting uh the fiscal 26 proposed budget on is the Chelsea Fire Department. You can find uh the information on page 146. Uh we uh have up here Chief John
Quiteri. Uh I will first start off as I've done in the other sessions with the finances um so from the highest level. So, if we scroll down to the expense table,
the the department year-over-year is uh the the cost to operate this department is about 13.6 million. Year-over-year increase is about 10.48 uh%. And of that, 11% is uh from
contract. Um well that I'm sorry is personal uh costs increase um and so as we as we did investments in police we also have done some investments in the fire department um where we this
year this budget would in include uh four full-time equivalent uh uh firefighters added to the budget. Uh this is to cover um to support an additional engine to help improve fire
response in the city. Uh uh chief the chief I would uh assume will go through that um and present on that. Um in terms of operating costs, there's minimal changes. Uh you know uh
we were trying to make sure that we were intentional on what was increased. Um and so the the budget except for um software licenses which we're seeing those are changing um it's going up by
about $5,000 but the minimal adjustment is 0.86. It's less than a percent. the operating budget increase and we will have um some capital funding um that's uh increased year-over-year
um prior um and I let me see if I do I don't think I have that. Yes. Yes, exactly. The $35,000 of the drone and then there's a vehicle uh purchase for admin vehicle uh the on a replacement
schedule. Um overall um the the the the total headcount for the department is 104. And uh I'll hand it over to our our wonderful police chief, John Couter.
Thank you, Mike. Uh good evening and uh thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak with you tonight. Um as you're aware uh uh the community continues to grow and evolve and with that so do the demands on our department. Um from structure fires to
the increased role of emergency uh medical calls. Uh the volume and more importantly our on sign uh onseene time uh continues to rise. Um so this year's budget reflects our commitment to maintaining the high standards of service that we believe the community
deserves. Uh we've recently deployed a fourth engine company. Uh it's on a trial basis in an effort to meet service demands. Um during the first five six weeks of this program, uh engine force uh significantly improved the
department's operational capacity and service delivery. Uh the engines absorbed a substantial portion of emergency calls in that five weeks. um which has resulted in enhanced response efficiency uh reduced response time
citywide. It's improved the distribution of resources which has increased safety for the public as well as uh the fire department personnel. It's improved our ability to handle multiple calls at once and more importantly, it's improved the
chance of having an engine company a available for immediate response in the southern uh section of of the city. Um, so our our proposed budget includes uh additional firefighters uh positions to help alleviate the uh reliance on
overtime to staff this new engine. Um, and I would respectfully uh ask the council to support this uh request and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you, Chief. Uh, I believe we're starting this direction
this time. Yeah, Councelor Himenez. I just have a quick question about about the overtime budget. Um, and I'm I'm just noticing that the number is generally higher, I believe, than police. And um, I'm just I'm curious if
the way it it's also budgeted for higher. So, I'm not saying that you're running over your overtime. I'm just I'm really curious if the higher number there is due to maybe we should be trying to find ways of of staffing it differently so that we can reduce the overtime, like adding additional
firefighters potentially even. I'm just I'm just curious if if it's for reasons to do with how you do your work versus reasons of not having enough capacity with the staffing that you have at the moment. I'm just if you have thoughts if not
that's totally fine. So I'm not sure I understand. So let me our shifts are a little different than the police. So the shift is uh a 24-hour shift. We split the overtime shifts uh into two 12-hour uh shifts
over. Actually, it's not that different. I just misremembered a number from the last one. So, anyway, okay, ignore my question. All right, I actually don't have any further questions. I I was misremembering a number and I went back to check it and it was about the same. So, never mind.
No, no worries. Thank you, Councelor Robinson. I just want to thank you for your services. I know that we have some new recruits that are going to be going to the academy. Yeah. So, um and they're all from Chelsea. Yep. Right now, we've completed
interviews and they're going through test uh medical exams uh three residents for anticipated um uh retirements. Um, and so if if all goes well, we'll be able to get the three
recruits in the academy hopefully sometime in September and we would see them um, you know, on the department sometime in January. All right. Thank you, Councelor Vega.
Councelor Teshi. No questions. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Um, I do not have any questions. I just want to thank you, Chief, for your work. Um, and um, you know, our from our conversations, you're always thinking outside the box, looking for how other communities may be running
things or being innovative in any ways and trying to bring that back to Chelsea. And I think that's really important to have in our departments. And so, thank you. Great. Thank you, Councelor Sanne. Um, yes. Also, thank you very much for all that you do. And I'm so glad that
the addition of engine 4 is proving to be such a positive thing. And I also wanted to um speak to one of your goals and initiatives and that is to upgrade our insurance rating. I think that's an excellent goal considering uh how much I
hear from constituents about the cost and I know it's connected to some of the emergencies that we have. So if we could go and change that rating from a two to a one that would be excellent. Sadly I don't think it includes auto insurance.
That would be great. But housing insurance, that's wonderful. So, thank you for that initiative. No, you're welcome. And we plan uh that we've already started that process. So, we're hoping to uh have the re-evaluation or the evaluation in the next few months.
And then, um it's a big jump from two to one, believe it or not. There's very few fire departments in the state that are class one. Yeah. So, you said. So, that would be wonderful for us to be in that group of such a low number. Yep. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Counselor Taylor.
So, basically, I mean, I um the only thing that really sticks out in the budget is is the is the increase in salaries. So, and and this I understand for the most part, but it for the public uh
seeing that we have a 13% uh rise in salaries, can you just explain to the public why that is? Yeah. And I'll go ahead. I think you're going to say what I want to say. Well, included in those the salary increase is the four
additional positions. So to get the true adjustment, you would have to back out those positions. And it's not a it's not a 13% adjustment. Also, looking at last year's budget, last year's budget um original budget did not include the
salary uh expected salary increases. Those were actually budgeted in the salary reserve. So that that number is a little bit overstated because some of the funds weren't there and reflected in that uh adopted fiscal 25 budget. Right. So, so if you recall, the the collective
bargain agreement for the firefighters was approved after the FY25 budget was adopted. So, uh the FY25 number doesn't actually have what what uh uh what was already approved, if you will, right? The because we when we don't have a a a
contract agreement signed, we we put it in in reserves, which is another department, and then we move it. Um we came before the city council uh in January I believe to approve that that transfer and that transfer has happened
and it's about um 320,000. Go ahead. No, I think it's 370. 370. Yeah. Y So yeah. So the the I understand I want the public I want the public to understand what's what's what's going on here. I know that you've
made the budget available online and so people may be following along and and wanting to know why that is. So, so that's the that's the cost of of four additional uh firefighters uh in in that
which accounts for some of that some of that increase. The other is the collective bar the new collective bargaining agreement where we're kind of making up for the for the COVID uh flat years. Correct. So when you look at that number, a large portion of that is is
towards the collective bargaining agreement and I think the is roughly 250,000 of it goes towards the new salaries. Right. Uh so the only the only other question I have is um if you have any of the specific updates on the
response times. I know that we're trying to work desperately at that and and and if we still have the um um I know that we were we were operating for a while on on uh having people at overtime so they
could respond to those. Is that is that still in effect or So we we stopped that um in August because it was um just too expensive. It was getting too expensive. Yeah, that's Mike. I can tell you um we we did run it last April and May and
um the numbers we're getting right now running engine 4 are lower than the numbers when we ran that twoman squad and that only ran during the daytime where engine 4 is running 247.
So um it was that twoman vehicle was run strictly on overtime. So, so, so, so in a sense, you're kind of getting to councelor Jimenez's point about staffing and having the equipment to do the job that you we're
using unassigned personnel to staff that engine where before we wouldn't be using them. Um, it was strictly on overtime. So, so are we anticipating using a little less overtime I think this year or are we gonna if you look at our our
minimum shift staffing is 17 and now with the additional engine it's 20. So when we were at 17 uh you know we staff four shifts of uh each group had uh 21 to 22 firefighters assigned. So now that
we're using three of those towards engine four, it leaves only one or two unassigned firefighters to cover the overtime, you know, vacation sick injury. So um you know, we're hitting we're heading towards the heavy vacation month. So the overtime's definitely
going to increase and then you know this additional staffing is going to help to to keep that in check. Okay. and and and you feel with these these additional these additional um spots being filled
u um do we I and and believe me I want to I want to also thank you and your staff for for for all that they do. We've seen you guys in action uh a lot recently and so um you know you guys do a great job as always and I and I and I
want to thank you for that. Uh do we have do do we have the manpower now to to feel confident in in uh in uh responding in in Yes. So having this this fourth engine
in for the last five weeks um it's it it it did everything we thought it would and more. And two weeks ago we had the fire on on Blossom Street. Yeah. Um, Engine 2, which is in Central Station, was on a call. Um, so they were not
available when the when we got the call for the fire. Um, engine four was the first engine there. Um, engine two did free up, but uh, the result of that fire was pretty heavy fire condition when they pulled up. They were able to control it pretty quickly, keep it from
spreading to two two houses. So, that to me says everything. I I think that's the whole thing. in Chelsea, we know that at some point there's going to be uh the the day the day will come when there's the the the ripe conditions for another
absolutely uh catastrophe at some point and and that's what we're we're all trying to trying to avoid. So I I I thank you once again. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you, councelor Councelor Brown. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. I'll just follow up on that because I want to
first and thank you for the time you spent significant amount of time going over the same here or deal here. Um just because we're listening um by viewers just want you to kind of you know speak a little more about the usage. Obviously
the 4 engine is new the four personnels will help run that get the spade time the service time and the response time. Um can you just tell us uh again how effective it's been for the last two or three months that you've been using it?
So we've um we've had it in service where I have data for five weeks but we're in week seven right now. Um but what it's done is you know engine two which covers is in central station which
covers this whole section from the railroad tracks south. Um it's the busiest engine. It's They do close to 4,000 calls a year. Wow. So, when you when you look at the time, the amount of time that they're not available,
it it's it's it's uh concerning. So, when we get a fire um and I and I and I, you know, my presentation last week, I I go to the fire we had on Maverick Street. It was 11:00 in the morning and we pull up and we have two houses fully involved and spreading to two more
houses. And thankfully all five pieces were in service and we were able to get everyone there quickly. Um but if that engine two was not if they were tied up in another call we're waiting for engine one or engine three and then after that it's mutual aid. So I think by having
this engine in this section of the city it at least cuts that that chance in half and that's exactly what it's doing. So right now, engine two, it's still the busiest engine, but engine four for the last the five weeks that I have numbers on is just as busy. It's catching up.
It's it's it's each week one one's busier than the other, but they're both the busiest. This is just this half of the city is a very very busy. So, and that's why it's important to have these other four additional bodies so you won't have because you did cut down on
the overtime it looks like in your presentation here. So, we we've been able to maintain everything within the overtime budget. My concern is we're moving forward. we're we're head we're hitting the summer months and vacations
are going to go um are going to rise and and the overtime is going to go up um because we just don't have last year we had three or four extra you know unassigned firefighters to absorb some of that where this year right now we only have one or two. Okay. If we're
able to get the four additional that gives one more firefighter on each group and and it helps to control that a little bit. Yeah. So, I just want to say to the public, we invested in a big um piece of equipment and one of the things we have to do now is make sure that it provide the service that we have that we
needed for and also the response time of getting it and the chief is um indicating that here today. So, thank you again for your work and your men and women that's behind you and all that you do to keep our residents safe. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Thank
you for your service. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Michael. Yeah, we're going to go right through. We'll continue on. Yes. And we'll announce slightly ahead of schedule, which is great. Yes. Um, our next department is the Office of Emergency
Management. Um, the Office of Emergency Management uh can be found on page 159 and I will bring it up on the open gov website. All right.
So we have the director here, Steve staff here and uh we'll start off with expenses at the high level which the entire budget um for office of emergency management is
actually decreasing by 18.25% 25% which is is lovely. Um while being able to provide this the same level of services that um we've always been providing to the city.
Um of that uh we are seeing in the budget for uh salaries increasing only by 2.67%. And in that is there was a uh dispatch
position that has been left vacant um for most of last year. Um and so um due to being able to meet the needs of the city with that position vacant, we've uh decided to remove that position in this
current year budget. Um and so that that is not budgeted. So that's why you're not seeing salaries increase as much as the other departments. Um otherwise you would see the same level of salary increases.
um the operating expenditures um have decreased and you'll see there's um and Steve will um we'll go into um to the direct impacts but um the other services line uh which represents um
emergency housing um and other expenditures which is being reduced by $50,000. Uh and we also there was um after doing some analysis and working with the director on there was a
computer maintenance line um that we have budgeted a little bit over $200,000. We've substantially decreased it to an amount that where we feel comfortable which is around $10,000 annually. Um and Mr. Staff here once
again will address that. Um overall uh besides the the personnel reduction in budget the department everything else remains the same and right now hand it over to the wonderful Mrs. Mr. Steve Stafia. Thanks Mike. Evening council I
have a little budget presentation u and we can go into some of those uh expense items. Uh the office of emergency management oversees three divisions the way I've structured it in the past five years. emergency management, emergency communications which is dispatch and
technical services. The emergency management division provides planning, training, exercise support, logistical support for planned and unplanned events during emergency situations. I assume the role of logistics lead and provide support in the field. Some successful programs range from the emergency
housing and shelter program as you're aware of to continuity planning for the city. The emergency communications division uh otherwise known as 911 dispatch provides uh radio dispatch and 911 call taking for police, fire, EMS and various other city agencies and
services. Um and as you're well aware uh the next 19 to 25 month window um that service will obviously be regionalized. And number three, technical services division provides maintenance and operational coordination for the city's municipal fire alarm
system. from the fireboxes that you see in the city, two-way radio for public safety and public service. Uh in addition, we coordinate the city's fiber optic task force for maintenance and growth. Um which is an important piece. We dovetail with the IT division on
that. As far as u the budget itself and those line items that Mike was speaking of, uh for the most part of obviously uh it's it's level funded. The two that are in question uh that you may have questions on, one is the computer maintenance. So the reason why last
fiscal year it was at 230 um there was funds placed there to pay for and support the new computer rated dispatch CAT that we purchased. Um since that has caught up those payments are caught up there's no need obviously to fund that line item that much. So it's been
reduced down to the original 10,000 in order to support the computers within the department. Um the other is other services uh line item which is the emergency housing and shelter program that's so successful. Um and again that was given the past couple
of fiscal cycles a boost because of how busy it was to 100,000. Um and that's been cut 50% to 50 which is a more realistic number. And taking a look at the report that we just ran today uh it's pretty much spot on uh with remaining funds that I have this
fiscal year. So we should be um good with 50 grand bar any disaster in which we would obviously go a different route for funding um at this time. Any questions? Okay. Can you
um can you just talk about the upgrading um the kind of the technology and and and just just discuss that first. This is kind of my first question um um about what's you know in with the new out with
the old. Yep. Excellent question. So a little unique here in Chelsea and it's obviously due to my background um when it comes to tech services. I have a two-way radio background. Uh so that helps the city. It actually saves the city costly. Um as far as working on the city's two-way radio system. So the
police department, fire department, emergency management, schools, public works all have radios and have radio system colllocated at the soldiers home and some various other sites. So um we've consolidated that. Prior to me
arriving here, each agency basically maintained their own equipment. They had a contractor. it got costly and it was uncoordinated. Um, so now that it's all coordinated under our tech services, um, again, that that does save the city some money. As far as upgrades, uh, we're
able to work with our contractor and those agencies, um, and upgrade one was a move from the old soldiers home complex to the new one. And with that, we upgraded all of the primary equipment, um, the the radio repeaters, if you will, and so on. Each each year I
work with both especially police and fire on a subscriber line uh budget and we make sure that we upgrade portable radios and mobile radios for fire trucks and police cars as well as what the firefighter and the officers use um personally. So that's on the radio side
of it. As far as the municipal fire alarm system, um the obvious, it's 150 year old system. Um and those funds go to maintaining the copper cable to each of the fireboxes as well as fixing the fireboxes if they have a defect on them
on that system. Uh fiber optics is a new piece of tech services working with IT and DPW and any upgrades we need uh for fiber connections to whether it be a school or another city building or maybe a special project that's coming up. Um so those those are kind of the three
pieces of technology as far as computer telephone uh it handles that pretty much for us and I work hand inand obviously with Ramon on that. Great. Um, and the only other thing is I
don't know if you can go into a little bit um more detail about the emergency housing um program and and and kind of h how it's how how much we've we've we've given to that and
we've had quite a few um you know instances where that needs to be used. um and what it looks like in the future and how if there's any easing or
or I just I just think that this is uh th this is one of the more important um parts of of what people in the city have been have been seen as far as your department goes. So yeah, there's no question it's um outward facing. Um I
consider it a successful program. I talk with my counterparts, other emergency management directors, police, fire chiefs, and our neighboring communities. Um, even the city of Boston, they've asked exactly how we run the program, how we fund it. Um, very very successful. The bottom line is in and
the policy that I have in draft right now, it it stabilizes the family. So, we go through the process at a fire scene or a flood scene of asking a series of questions. You know, are they able to go to family or friends? Are they able to fund their own hotel? Is the landlord or
proprietor able to take care of it? Well, we go down now to that bottom where the answers are no. At that point is when we'll house them and it's strictly to stabilize them. So, the minimum is overnight up to maybe a long weekend, four days. There are special
circumstances that may last a little longer, but the days of housing them for 30 days, 60 days are gone. So, again, I have that policy in draft that'll be out shortly. Um, and we'll make sure I think we agree that they'll probably that actually as we move forward. Um just
looking at the past this past fiscal year, we're halfway through it's at 58,000 is remaining in the account out of a 100. Um all but two incidents were fires in which those questions were asked and they had nowhere to go. Two of the incidents were kind of special uh in
which the police had called me um that individuals needed to be housed for um other reasons that we were able to take care of. So great. Thank you. And I and I actually if I could just add to that. So we still engage with Red
Cross and Salvation Army especially for long-term housing and long-term issues. These are one-offs for these type of fires and floods we're having. If it was a disaster or catastro catastrophic event in the city, totally different approach. We probably would open up a
shelter operation, work with the state and federal government and so on. Thank you. No, just thank you for everything. You already answered the question I had about computer maintenance. So, thanks. Um, I do not have any questions. Just
want to say thank you, Steve, because you go above and beyond in this role that you have and there's a lot of things that um are not on paper, but you still go out and and support and whether it's part of your job description or not part of your job description, your commitment to this community is so
valuable. Well, we're lucky to have you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Councelor Teshi, no questions. Thank you. Councelor Vega, also no I mean no questions, but thank you for everything you do. Um truly appreciate it and I want to echo what my
co my sister colleague mentioned. Um I do love to see you so committed in all of the events. to definitely go above and beyond. And you know, I want to commend folks and individuals that we are so lucky that have that commitment
to the city of Chelsea because it goes above and beyond and so it needs to be stated. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that, Councelor Robinson. Yeah. Do we know the number of families that we put up in the hotels
due to due to previous fires in the past? How many people have we had a shelter in a home? Oh, total numbers. Total numbers. Um, I don't have that on hand. I'll make sure that I provide that to you. Absolutely. Well, the reason I asked I had I had tried to offer up a
program where for $5,000 of insurance is only $100. And I had tried to have some conversation around if we could use some OPA funds where people would go out, pay $100 for
the insurance, come to the city showing that they actually got the insurance and we would re reimburse them back. $50 to try to get other people excited about wanting to get insurance. have a fire and 5,000 goes a long way compared to
not having any insurance and trying to regroup, right? Yeah, absolutely. It does. Great idea. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Himenez. No questions. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Steve. Thank you so much.
Does the council want like a five minute break or are we good to keep going? Keep going. Perfect. Perfect. Let's do this. Awesome. We will now move on to housing and community development. Uh and Mr.
Ben Kes as the director will join us. So, um, for the the housing community de uh housing and community development department, um, the total operate the total budget for to operate is, uh, a little bit over a million dollars of the
the general fund budget, uh, for fiscal 26 and it's a 5.8% 8% increase year-over-year and of that uh 6.3% is for salary um increases. The
department is not does not see any personnel adjustments in terms of any additional positions or changes. Um so that those um the salary increases that you're seeing is tied to contractual obligations and cost of living
increases. Um the total operating budget um there there are some noteworthy changes that I will let uh Mr. Duncar go through but um the operating budget is increasing um by about 5%. And just uh
looking at the structure of the department um and the total uh FTE count um is not 100% funded on the general fund. Um there's uh uh 12 full-time equivalents um that are funded over
various um different funding sources. U Mr. Kes, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mason. Good evening, everybody. Um just want to say that HCD has had a pretty good year in terms of getting
staffed up and getting the ship writed. I'm very proud of all of our staff. Um, as you all know, it's a very interdisciplinary uh department and that requires some really solid project managers and I'm really proud to say that that's what we've got going on down there. Um, certainly open to questions
of any of those subject matter areas, but I think importantly I'll address the increases to the budget itself. Um, so we are seeking a 5% increase to uh our our operating expenses uh this fiscal year. Uh the first one that you see that
strikes out the 3.42% to the rent and lease equipment. That's due to a new uh copier lease. Um so that's pretty straightforward. And then for contract services, that 3.63% increase. Our GIS uh contract services uh has increased um
substantially. So that's that's where that increase is coming from. And then the general office supplies. So, we actually moved some of the CDBG salary towards the finance director from our admin line for CDBG. Um, which required us to add additional to our our supplies
line here. Um, we need that to be maintained or probably increased uh at some point just given the number of staff that we've acred, the number of resources that we use. Uh, and then you will notice a new entry here called community events. uh our staff often
struggle with uh providing refreshments uh for community events. Th that's a really big hook for people to come out and we're trying to increase engagement among uh community members at these events. So that's really to help um
steward those. Uh there's quite a number of night meetings and engagement opportunities that the grants we apply for require um but that we also feel really strongly are a big part of the portfolio of our department. We are very public facing and we need a little bit
of extra money to uh be able to put on a put on a good event and bring people out to to be more inclusive. I believe that that addresses all of the changes for the operating budget. I'm happy to go into anything else that there may be questions about,
but I'll keep it brief and I'll stop there. Thank you, Ben. Uh Councelor Jimenez, thank you so much. Um I my quick question about this is really um I actually haven't been paying too much attention to what's going on in the federal department uh federal government
but um I know that there's a lot of talks about cuts everywhere and I'm really curious for CDBG what have we heard um you know and then I guess if any of that goes away like how do we make sure that we're maintaining the work that we need to do
with the funding that we have. Absolutely. So, uh, the question is towards the community development block grant program, which as you can see in the salary breakout funds, uh, a good portion of some of our salaries here, about $180,000 total, about $180,000 total. Um, we received this annual CDBG
grant. Um, it's actually a pass through from the federal government through the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. We're considered a mini entitlement community. Um, we have not heard anything from that office. We've also not heard anything from HUD directly about CDBG being cut. Um,
previously under the past Trump administration, for a moment in time, it was on the chopping block. That didn't materialize into anything. Um, I hear as much as as other folks do. It's it's a little bizarre in this environment. Um, I keep my tabs on it. I reach out and
try to make sure that I can apprehend that. Uh, but, you know, it does fund a portion of our salaries. Right now, I it's not on the chopping block. I haven't heard anything and when that time comes um I think that uh the positions that it funds are not just working on CDBG projects are working on
a whole host of things that benefit the city and benefit the taxpayers. So we will have that discussion when and if that time comes and for now I'm knocking on wood that it doesn't. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Councelor Robinson. No questions. Councelor Vega
seeing no questions. Thank you for everything. Councelor Teshi. Um, Mr. Cares, I'm wondering I'm looking at the uh one of the um areas that is under your department.
What is the community preservation and development? What is the community preservation and development category? Yes. Yes. So, um, as most are aware, we have a community preservation act that has been adopted with the city of Chelsea. Um so a big component of that
when I read through that bulleted list and look at what we're working under that category is the community preservation act and the community preservation committee um obviously it's also in our department name housing and community development. So uh it's it's a useful tool to look at that through the
lens of what the CPA funds do which those fund things like open space and recreation historical preservation and affordable housing development and support. Uh that's a broad encompassing area of our department. Um the community preservation committee coordinator who
also staffs the affordable housing trust fund board really works within that realm of work. Um and that's just about looking at the community and thinking about where can we develop further across multiple disciplines. So it does intersect lightly with all the other topic areas of the department. But in
general it's about stewarding those types of funds through the community preservation act to better the community in those three categories that I had mentioned. Does the CPA include any, you know, intended goals or purposes to establish a homeowners program for the city? A homeowners program? Yeah,
absolutely. So, it's a great timing that you asked that question. So, we um are working actually through the affordable housing trust fund board uh to stand up a first-time home buyers program. However, CPA funds can only be used to support affordable housing development
and then in some cases rental assistance. So, we are addressing those, but we're actually leaning on the affordable housing trust fund board um to give uh funding uh out to a prospective uh contractor uh for a first-time home buyers program, down
payment assistance. Um so, not strictly through CPA funds, but in this sort of complimentary displacing way, we're able to free up funding through the affordable housing trust fund board uh to fund those types of efforts. Yeah. Does that mean the currently that the city currently does not have any running
homeowners assistance program? Uh, not I don't believe so. Not currently. Yeah, there was one I think last year. We were coming to the end of using up those funds, but we needed to appropriate the money through the affordable housing trust fund board and then actually design the program to get it running.
Um, it needed some tweaks as well. We want to sort of uh combine it with a soft second mortgage or a oneplus mortgage program um just to make it a little bit more effective and we wanted to increase the amount of the down payment assistance just in light of economic uh climate and thinking about
what's actually affordable for people at 80% area median income. So we've successfully launched the RFP for it which I think is a good milestone. Okay. Um yeah, I mean uh just uh you know a little bit concerning to me that the city currently does not have any
homeowners assistance program. Um and it has been like that for over a year. Um and you mentioned it was because the the uh um did you say the body was the AF? The affordable housing trust fund board needed to decide to appropriate the
money for that use. We carved out a portion of it for a pilot program. Uh the city council had actually appropriated 1.5 million for that program through the affordable housing trust fund board. Um so I agree with you that we do need that program, but luckily there's an RFP out currently right now. Um and we're really uh
looking forward to launching one. Nice. Um what is the timeline to put it in place? So we're hoping to get responses I believe next week on the bids that have been advertised through the purchasing department. Um we have some prospective folks that uh we believe will be responding to it. Uh and once we
get them under contract, that can take anywhere between two weeks to a month to get fully under contract. Uh and then we'll be able to offer it sometime in the early summer. Uh and that'll be well publicized across all city channels. Thank you. Um in terms of uh one of your
goals for 2026, um it it states here that you're looking to create at least 100 new affordable housing units in addition to the current pipeline. Um, do do you mean that the city will fund a 100 units or are you talking through private developments? I
think that there are multiple ways that the department can support affordable housing development production. Obviously, the affordable housing trust fund board, we finally formal formalized some grant pro uh grant rounds through that board so that we actually can give out money for affordable housing production. Um, it's aspirational and
something that relates to the private market, right? we need to wait for those to come down the pipeline uh and be viable here in the city of Chelsea, but we do everything in our effort to support them. So whether that's through funding through the affordable housing trust fund board that we staff or the community preservation act that we staff or simply manage managing and monitoring
the inclusionary zoning program, uh that is our that's our hopeful target. Um and what we do is we try to make sure that the conditions are fertile here in Chelsea to be able to build either completely affordable housing or affordable housing units as a part of every development. So, it's not directly
within our power. It's aspirational. Um, but it is something that we're we're manifesting downstairs and trying to make make happen. That's good. Um, next, what if any initiatives do we have um currently to create home ownership opportunities in Chelsea? So, we
discussed the the first-time home buyers down payment assistance program. Uh, the city of Chelsea in in terms of how we can steward home ownership, it can be challenging, right? we can approach developers or try to work with developers to take advantage of the Commonwealth Builder Program. Um, which
is a way to subsidize ownership opportunities for affordable uh for those that would qualify for an affordable home ownership opportunity. Um, the 256th Street development has some affordable home uh ownership options. Uh, and then 440 Broadway,
which is the old Salvation Army site, uh, will be developing around 29 condos through the Commonwealth Builder Program itself. Um, what we can do is we can just continue to subsidize with those funding sources that I mentioned, developments that create home ownership
options. Um, it's difficult to be in control of that the local level, but we advocate at the state level and hope at the federal level that money trickles down that will go towards those types of opportunities. Um, but otherwise just strengthening partnerships with folks like the Chelsea Restoration Corp. um or
TND, making sure they have everything that they need to both provide that those counseling services for first-time home um owners as well as producing those home ownership units. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. Um I have one general question. I guess
I just want to understand where the workforce development piece comes in and how we can um really amplify or lift this idea that the has, you know, been in conversation about helping our our tenants be able to
get to that position of of purchasing a home and being financially stable. Economic mobility is one of the most important things I think for the city of Chelsea and for the demographics that we currently have. Um, we're really lucky to have some excellent community- based organizations working in that workforce
development space. Um, and that is really kind of the function of housing and community development is to support those CBOS in those pursuits. Whether that's through funding stewarded to Luckativa or to Chelsea Black Community for their skills uh and trades uh training program or how we support rapid
reemployment with the neighborhood developers. All of these programs are funded through a myriad of different funding sources like ARPA uh state grants um and other local opportunities. We also have the surrounding communities agreement with the mass gaming commission that we use those funds to
help support those types of programs. We help to try and to design those programs. Um and people look to us to be a policy expert at the landscape around what types of new jobs are coming down the pipeline in the future. Uh clean energy, green jobs. Um but also focusing on those ones that are good paying jobs
that are attainable for residents. Um and so the construction trades, uh the um some of the labor unions that we've had some partnerships with through Bunker Hill Community College and Mass Hire, those are all ways to strengthen workforce development in the city of Chelsea. Um we also try to be careful
about who we're sort of purporting to attract to the city as an employer. Um and I think that uh city council and the city manager and executive leadership have done an excellent job in that realm. Um and I would say the final thing is that we are working on a workforce development action plan. uh in
concert with Mass Hire um among other stakeholders um and through the good jobs coalition we will be providing a roadmap for workforce development for the next five years um and up to 10 years for longer term solutions. That's amazing, Ben. Thank you. Um last question followup to the one I just had.
Uh and full disclosure, I work at La Collabora and nothing within my department connects to Ben in any way or the city. Um is or but this is very important to me. Um, and in terms of like my constituents, the community. So, in your
opinion or like in the state that we're in, do we see the workforce development um opportunities um uh or grants expiring in in these programs? Like are should we be nervous about like ARP expiration for some of these programs or
are we seeing that long-term impact that we wish for for these programs? It's a great question. I think every time we talk about ARPA, that is a monumental injection of capital funding into excellent programs that were being funded through other methods before and
will be funded through methods afterwards. Um, will we see a contraction? It's probable, yes. But we can continue to leverage things like our surrounding community agreement with the Mass Gaming Commission, um, like the Mass Gaming Commission grant rounds, um,
and other sources that we can identify through the workforce development action plan. uh and think about creative ways to bring financing in rather than these sort of one-time injections that are connected to a pandemic. Um so I'm really hopeful and what we're going to do is posture and get ready for those
funding opportunities and go after them when we see them. Awesome. And then last but not least, this connects to um some previous conversations that we have had in um in subcommittees in conference. Um how are we measuring outcomes for any of
these? It could be la collaborativa, it could be green roots, it could be ROA, it could be whatever, but when it comes to this very sensitive topic of housing, right? Like not not to say none of the other topics are important, but um how
are we able to really measure like how far we have gone in terms of like audits and like really just being able to to see the progress? Yeah, it's a great question. And I think that when it comes to housing, there's multiple different
ways that housing intersects with our demographics, right? So production, we can look at the number of units that we're producing. Um we recently did an analysis from 2015 to 2025 of the number of affordable housing units that have been built in the city um by unit type, uh funding source, and so that'll
integrate into the master planning effort, um as well as our strategic housing plan that we're hoping to finalize um before June 30th of this year. uh that's when the grant expires, so we will be done by then. Uh that'll articulate some of those ways that we've come to showcase how far we've come so
far. Um other are softer policy decisions, right, that we just need to check off and say we've done them or we've reviewed them, we vetted them. Uh we've also have other ways to support residents, right, through rental assistance programs or other social services. Um and for all of those
programs, uh ARPA or not, we require beneficiary reporting. um and so we can figure out the number of people and by what area median income we've supported them um in any of these pursuits. So there are multiple ways to do it. I think that the strategic housing plan, the master plan will articulate those in
a way that will be very accessible to the public and to city council. So I look forward to that. Um but I'll also think about uh other ways that we can articulate benchmarks and metrics for all of the programs that we have in HCD. Um, and I'm hoping to bring that back next year to the budget cycle because I know some folks do have that up on the
screen typically. So, thank you so much, Ben. Councelor uh Brown, thank you. Thank you, Ben Caris for being here. Uh, great pres um presentation here. I have a question
regarding the grants because I see number of these positions are funded in some way or another. um some of them as funded as 39% 67% or so on. But my question is do we have a an idea of how
many grants that's actually contributing to the safeguard of these jobs and what's the life light the livelihood of them ending within the next two years. Um so the only one that well there's
three primary grants that fund our positions. One is a private contribution from the Bar Foundation which has a lifespan up to the end of 2027. Okay. Right now, um that's one of them. Uh the housing and community preservation position itself is actually funded
through the community preservation act which is a a tax a tax rate. Yep. And then the affordable housing trust fund board which re where can receive pass through funding from the CPA or can seek its own appropriations from um the city through things like the community impact
fee those types of sources. And then the one that we had discussed earlier which is the community development block grant which right now we've not heard any word is threatened um within the next couple of years. Um but luckily we get a CDBG grant every single year. Okay. Uh and so we actually have enough funding under
the CDBG umbrella to fund our positions well into probably towards the end of 2027 or the beginning of 2028. So if a cliff were to arise or these things were to be pulled, there is a plan for them. Um and we are thinking about ways to hopefully renew that bar foundation
contribution for the the North SuffK office. uh but that is uncertain and those staff know that and there may be a reality where we're looking to fund um an FT or another regional position through other methods or means but we are working on that. So that's the the
reason why I asked that question because I know about the bar fund and the gaming act. My my only concern is that you know all of your presentation seems like it depends on all these things running all these function these things running according to the funding and you know I
think it's more importantly that you know we have these positions and we keep these positions and I was just wondering again how safe and how um real they are if these things didn't come but I guess we'll know they're real and safe for at
least two years and either in the next or the following uh budget hearing, you know, we may come back to make some difficult decisions and that's all a part of, you know, budgeting at at the municipal level, especially when we're trying to bring in money to to complement positions, right, instead of just funding them out of the general
fund. So, it's a great question. I don't have a crystal ball right now, but um I'll certainly let everybody know if if something is going to be pulled out from underneath us unexpectedly. Last part. Um, have you had any requests for any funding from the um, Community Preservation Act for 2026?
For 2026. Yeah. So, we have a fall and spring round. And so, we did our fall round. We finally got those grant agreements done and now we're in our spring round right now. And then we'll come back around for the fall and the spring. So, there will be some projects
that are ongoing in 2026. Was that your question? Yes. Y. So when those come up, how do how are we advertising them? Where are we advertising? When the funding opportunity comes up, yes. So we work directly with the communications department in the city manager's office
to make sure that everybody knows about those funding rounds. Um last fall we had 11 applications which was a record high. Um, so we've been doing a great job of trying to um, put it out on the communications channels, but also hold events um, to get people excited and understanding about what CPA is and drum
up additional um, interest in submitting uh, grant applications. So, we're pretty well connected to the folks that tend to take advantage of those types of funds. Um, and we feel like we're going to continue that success into 2025 2026. Thank you. Thank you, Madam. Thank you,
councelor. Councelor Garcia. Councelor San. Hi. Thank you, Ben. I actually don't have any questions, but I just wanted to make sure the public knows exactly what is under housing and community development.
Um, when I first became a counselor, I guess I was quite surprised because you have housing and community preservation, open space and transportation, which is parks and safe streets. economic and workplace development and climate resilience and
sustainability. So from where I sit, your department having those four large areas and the fact that you are doing that with a budget of just a million dollars tells me that you are working super hard to obtain grants and that
you've been successful seeing all of the gains we've made in the city in these four areas. So, I just want to tell you I don't know I haven't looked at the organizational structure of other municipalities closely, but I would imagine that there aren't many cities
that have these four big areas under one department. Uh I may be wrong, but this just seems remarkable to me. So, I just wanted to say having been involved in something in all four areas that
um the work that you're doing is is amazing. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Councelor Garcia. I just um want to echo uh councelor Lisa
Stanagate um these four department four um areas especially um open space and transportation is huge in Chelsea just because we have very little of it but we want to make the best of it and I know
that you're going to do amazing and continue to do amazing so thank you. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Counselor Taylor, how you doing? Well, how are you? Uh, so I I just want
to follow up on on councelor Sanagate's kind of um comments. It does seem and you know I remember before we had two different um
uh department before it was split into housing and community development and land and permit. Um, and it it just I mean it really I gotta I got to agree with councelor
Sanigate that this seems like an awful lot for for one department and it it just seems like we kind of had an explosion uh a few years ago about what we decided this was going to do.
How I mean I guess my question is is that it's it's very um ambitious. And a lot of times when you have an ambitious uh project, you got to look also at
efficiency and how you know you know your budget's over a million dollars. Um, so I'm I'm I'm wondering if we could drill down. Maybe
we can do it offline u before before we vote on the budget. But but I I think that how are we gauging the success of all these programs um that are that are going into uh
things like economic mobility and social infrastructure. It seems like it seems like we have to have some sort of metric to actually
gauge if we actually should be spending money on these like how successful are these programs. So, can you can you tell me how we're kind of evaluating those things and and if like you know maybe
one thing we're doing is very successful and it's really helping things and maybe other things not so much or we're giving money to one uh organization that has the responsibility for X. uh is that organization
actually doing what it's supposed to do with the money and is it is it is it being successful in running those programs or should we look elsewhere to try to improve those those things and so this is kind of a a general question
because I think you know in these budget hearings we don't really get to drill down into the specifics because there's not enough time and So, we would have to have budget hearings that weren't three days long, but three weeks long. So, so can
you just speak to that a little bit? And I'll chime in first because uh um we agree with you, right? The the um I'm glad to hear that. Absolutely. We we um ARPA ARPA created a a very short uh
window to spend a lot of money, right? So, so it it it was a a good opportunity obviously to to grow things, right? Uh um one of the things that we we were very afraid of is having that conversation. What happens uh with employees when ARPA runs out, right? So,
so this this past year and a half, it's been a a a huge priority to get staff members off of ARPA and into into our funds. We have done that by not backfilling positions. We have done that by moving staff around, right? So, so,
so if if an employee was doing uh uh work that was funded by ARPA and another position was opened, we encourage them to move, right? And in in in most cases, it was actually a promotion, right? So, so it was it was a net equal. Uh um I
don't have the exact number of jobs that we shifted, but but it it was significant. uh um because we are we we know that the cliff is coming right and and the more that we can minimize those the the better it is. Uh Ben's
department I I I see it you know a as uh as as a multiplier of of revenue, right? So, so, and if you recall in your last council meeting, we submitted a a presentation that that showed the number of grants that that they pull in, right?
And and in my experience, and speaking to Ben, uh um uh the best metric that we have is is Ben being able to to bringing bring in $30 million in grants, right? And that is a uh from transportation
that is uh uh you know in resilience that is you know in a whole way local private and federal. So so so ju just so I can interject here so we don't go uh past my question here. Um I get all that
and kudos to you and your department for being the grant guru. I I I I uh I give you all the credit in the world for that. I think that that that that the department has been really on top of that and I think that's exactly
what needs to be done by the way. But that's all that's the one side of the equation, right? That's the production of funds. What I'm talking about is the efficiency on the other side of the equation about
how those funds are being distributed and the efficacy of of how those funds are being used. That's the that's the metric that I'm asking about.
Not the his grant uh receiving prowess, but the the the other side of the equation. That's that's where we can control things. And so and so that's that's my question about about how we are deciding
what we actually spend money on and are we wasting our money or are we investing our money in things that are really going to move the community forward. I would say that luckily many of the grants that we receive have a cap on the
amount of admin that can be used whether that's for funding social services those social infrastructure or those economic mobility type programs that you had brought up. I think that the language around our department has been very dynamic over the last 10 five years um
just given the injection of the types of funding that we've been asked to steward on behalf of the city. And so you might see next year that we are adjusting some of this language to meet the needs of the day. And that doesn't mean that just because we put social infrastructure or economic mobility that that now
represents an equal portion of what our entire department does. It's just an additional feather that we put in the cap. But those can be taken out. And so as we move on and as we close down ARPA, you will probably see some of that economic mobility and social service
contracting capacity decrease just because we don't have those funds in hand. But where we shift our focus to and with the existing staff that I have and need because they are all at capacity and this ratio of the grants that they bring in is high compared to the salaries that they're funded off the
general fund. we're going to continue to be effective but also more efficient as we start to prioritize those areas and get back to the business that we were doing before these injections of ARPA CARES Act funding and the like. So, um what I will ask for from the council is
for you to give us grace to be dynamic and to respond to the needs of the community and for that to get reflected in how we present ourselves as a department. Um, and I'm really looking forward to in September we'll come by with an actual update from HCD. Um, and we can drill down a little bit deeper
into some of the specific programs that we're working on and where our focus is. I'm I'm I I I'll just say this last part is that I'm actually glad to hear that answer. Um because it's it's it's one thing to to
take advantage of a situation, right? Which which I think we did quite effectively, right? Um but as far as as as this whole thing being being you
know you know a kind of model going forward. I think that that's really not in my mind not really sustainable for the future um based on on I think uh
um what we all think is coming and what we all you know the the the the ARPA time was was was definitely the seven years of plenty, right? And I think we're we're we're about to have the seven years of famine. So, um it's just
my it's just my observation and I think we do need to pay attention to how we are spending money and not just having thinking of it as a pot of money we need to distribute. Sure. That's that's my that's my thing and
that that the money we're spending is actually doing something productive. Thank you. Thank you. Um I'll echo my fellow counselor's words in saying that it is most definitely important that we can keep traction of
what the needs are in the community and the only way for us to do that is to be able to look at those outcomes. So I'm looking forward to seeing outcomes and reports and all the shebang. Thank you so much, Ben. Thank you for your work. Um, and we'll be talking soon again.
Thank you. Have a good night. We will jump into DPW. All right. So, as we move along, um, we will now, uh, move to, uh, DPW, uh, Department of Public Works Administration, which, uh, you can find
on page 177, I believe, in the booklet. And um also it's up on the screen if for those that can see it um on the open gov website. And so in terms of uh this particular
department uh this particular subdivision of the department um we are seeing a 2.4% increase year-over-year. the DPW administration um which oversees all of the functions of the department
of public works um has a total proposed budget of 566,000 of that is 533,000 as towards salaries uh with uh increase of two two and a half% year-over-year.
Um, and there's no increases to the operating operational expenditures and there's no change to the personnel. Um, all of the things you're seeing here is a cost of living adjustments and contractual obligations. Um, director Kate, you want
to add anything? No. Any questions about this one? One of my one of my questions relates to the fact that we're looking to bring in mechanics in house and I had this conversation with with Michael. Did we
do any analyzing as to whether or not it was appropriate for us at this point in time to be bringing those inhouse and whether or not if it's a benefit to the city, you know, we'll still have to buy all
various equipment to accommodate the kind of repairs that we need to do to our vehicles. So uh we can answer this question in the the next section that's upcoming. This this is not included in this aspect. Uh
and then we can get in more detail what you're saying. All right. Uh councelor Vega, councelor Teshi, uh councelor Garcia, councelor Sanate, councelor Garcia, and councelor uh
Taylor. Sorry, I was just uh out of the room. We are We are on DW I'm sorry, page 104. Page 178. 179. 179. Sorry.
Okay. Yeah. I don't think I have any questions on this on this uh particular uh section. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Michael. All right. Moving to the next
subdivision, uh DPW Streets and Sidewalks. That should be found on page um 181. That's right. And for DPW streets and sidewalks, the subdivision is uh total
expenditures is at $3.9 million. Um yearover-year we are actually seeing a decrease in um streets and sidewalks. is a reduction
of a little bit under 2% or around $75,000. Um that is accounted for with a eight nearly 8% increase in salaries. Uh what a portion of the adjustments in the
salaries. Make sure this is the department is the mechanics. Yes. So 70% um is allocated um for a mechanic supervisor and uh a mechanic um
uh to which is part of the regular salaries line. Um however this is being offset with a reduction in vehicle maintenance. Uh and I think the question uh that councelor Robinson had um earlier in regards to addressing an
analysis um due to the time frame of when um we had a discussion there has not been a complete analysis that I'd like to present at this time being but um there were some important points or to be taken from that in terms of um how
we will uh look at this implementation over time which is, you know, the cost of um that are beyond just the personnel costs, right? There's um there's costs in regards to equipment um that might be
necessary uh that, you know, we will look into over time and seeing how effective this program is. Um and and Kate may be able to elaborate uh some um further upon this and her thoughts on it. Um and I'll hand that over to Miss
Kate Foxland. We are excited to propose this change in our operations. We currently contract out all of our fleet maintenance operations. We have for several uh well several three-year terms, a couple of
decades now. And we offer them, we provide space at the city for this. So within our our bays, if anyone has come down to visit, we have four that are assigned for this third party. So we interact with them every day. We see
what they're doing. We're regularly talking to them about, you know, what vehicles need, what kind of work, what's a priority. So we're coming into this with pretty intimate knowledge of how their operations work and what we like and what we don't like about it. And one
of the uh things that I think is is great here is that Jimmy Karen, our previous field operations manager at the city, is now the deputy commissioner or one of the deputy commissioners in our office. And
so he has this direct experience and he will be responsible for overseeing this operation from day one in terms of you putting together the schedules for the mechanics, working on the rotation of vehicles that come through and it's something that he is already on top of
and now in a leadership position to oversee and manage. Um there are currently two mechanics that work full-time at the yard. Um they do two things mainly. Preventative maintenance on our uh it's just about 200 vehicles
if you include all the departments and the um equipment our loaders and other equipment at the yard. They uh so that's you know the oil changes, the fluid top offs, that kind of thing. And then the repairs, which um you know, we do a lot
heavy work, things break down. But there's also then uh work that's contracted out to an auto body shop if if someone got sideswiped or there was some other work that need to be done or if something needs to go back to the dealer because it's still under warranty or they're the primary person. Right
now, although our contractor is uh identifying some of the needs, we're already taking care of getting it to those places, scheduling the appointments, getting it back. Uh so we're we're working handinhand with them. We also take care of all the inspections and so taking them to get
their stickers. Um our within the DPW budget, we have already been paying for things like tires, the diesel exhaust fluid. So, we've already been carrying some of these costs and we think that in a place like Chelsea with so many
students who are going to the Northeast uh vocational school for automotive technology as well as the many other experienced residents here that this is a really great opportunity to bring in-house in operation that we can then
give jobs to Chelsea residents that they're they're skilled at and that there's room to uh you know grow and and learn more on the job. And so the job descriptions we've written are for a um lead mechanic, ideally someone who is
already experienced, someone who will take on the um uh forgotten the name of the software system where they track the the work that they do and um do a lot of the diagnostic work and then a junior mechanic who will do a lot of that
preventative maintenance and then learn on the job. shadowing and assisting with the bigger repairs over time. Uh based on our looking at the vehicles we have, looking at the the workload, the costs, and speaking to
most of our neighboring communities that do this work inhouse. River has just brought their mechanics in house. Everett's been doing it for a while. Cambridge, we talked to Reading. Um, and so we we think we're well positioned to do this in terms of how they run their
operations, the amount of work they have, and what we think we can do. Awesome. Thank Thank you. Sorry. And I just wanted to to to chime in on the question of of is it the right time now? I think that that
uh right now in in in the coming months and years, money is going to get tight, right? and and when when you sign a three-year contract with a vendor, right, is not really flexible in terms of negotiating what what the bottom line
is, right? So, so when when uh when we go out to bid for the service, we we do sign a three-year contract uh um and and that contract is is expensive, right? I assume that with with the cost of of uh uh of everything going up, right? if we
go out to bid, it's only going to be more expensive than what we're paying right now. What what you see in this budget is is a reflection of of what we believe is a reasonable offset. So what we are doing is on the expense side, we are uh reducing our expenses of that
line uh uh and and as Michael said is we are reducing it more than what we believe the costs are going to be. We So, so in a time when when our our finances are are going to be tight, I think it is the time to do it.
Thank you. Thank you, Fidel. Um this way, Councelor Taylor, thank you. Um Kate, thank you for the all all the great job that you do. I didn't get to
say that the last time, but I I really do mean it. I've said it to you before. Thank you. um on this. Um I think it I think it's a good um I agree with your decision to do to do
this and to bring that in. It it it makes it makes um total business sense when you don't when you I think you farm out the things that you can't do very good or very efficiently and it's just cheaper to to to get it done and get it
off the board. But in something like this, I think I think uh you guys have had uh good good reasoning to do this and I I I agree with it. Um can I um can I ask you on this? Did do we use our did you say that we used
our own people or that we use a a third party contractor for the for the for the trees and sidewalks? Trees you said planting trees in the in the Yeah. In the sidewalks we um have a
combination uh of activities related to trees. We have some funding directly through the city to address trees which we use for uh purchasing trees, some labor, trimming, other maintenance. We also
partner closely with both Myra and Green Roots who have two separate grants to support tree planting in the city of Chelsea. They are primarily on the um uh expense side, not the labor side.
So yes, our our city labor does support the actual planting of the trees, but those two organizations are responsible for putting together these purchasing of it. Yeah. And and bringing together big volunteer groups to I I was I was only I was only uh asking about the actual
workers. And the reason why I'm asking that is because two giant trees went went up across from my house uh uh in the last couple days. And uh I I noted that this that the work was starting at
6:30 in the morning. Is that is that remind me what street you're on. Nicholls. Nicholls. I we'll have to look into that. I don't know that we I just thought that might
have been I I I think there was a 7 o'clock start time as far as that stuff goes. Isn't that I mean they usually meet at the yard for their morning meeting at 7. I Yeah. So, which is why there which is why I was curious because uh I didn't know if the DPW guys were
the ones doing that or were there existing tree pits? Yeah, but they were they were cutting the sidewalk, too. So, or cutting the street, so I don't know. I'll have to maybe maybe just maybe just check. I It's It's not really relevant to this. I'll definitely follow up on
that. I'm now very curious. Um but uh but it looks I mean otherwise everything looks good and uh I I uh uh I appreciate uh I appreciate this budget and and your guys uh u kind of financial stewardship
of your department. So thank you. Thank you councelor counselor Garcia. No questions. Councelor Sanicate. No questions but um gratitude. Councelor Garcia,
I echo those that gratitude. Councelor Brown. Thank you, Madam President. Um Kate, thank you for all your work. Really appreciate your service. Um can you just tell us about the human aspect here? Um you know, I know we haven't had
a really bad two years of snow removal. What's some of the calls you get regarding response of moving snow? Councelor, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we're not on the snow removal yet. That's the next one. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm ahead. I'm sorry. I I was fired up. Really? Thank
No worries. Um Kate, thank you so much for the work that you do. Um and just for the record, I've always felt like your department has been a hub for employment. even with like the DPW, I always feel like it's like a stepping stone for um many of our local residents to get to some of the other departments.
And I think that's really important and I think I think that there's a lot that can be maybe um shared with other departments with the way that you have structured that and the way that that has worked over the years. I'm really excited about the um the shifts that you are doing. I
think that um it's important that we can um maybe uh I guess I'm wondering with some of our partner um agencies or um entities in in in the
city, whether it's uh work that's being done um for businesses or for um uh housing. if there are ways that we can loop in uh some of our um trained workforce or
connect some of our um uh connect that pipeline of trained employees to those um agencies as well to be the first ones that can provide the service. I don't know. I guess just brainstorming about the opportunities doesn't really relate to the funding, but um and and we can
talk, you know, after after the the the meeting, but um I just be feel like this is a great opportunity for us, as the city manager mentioned, to continue to push this initiative of workforce and going internal and being able to um
support our families financially. I'd be happy to follow up with you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, councelor Tesy, um, did I hear from your presentation you made a pledge to make sure that both mechanics are Chelsea residents?
Yes. Okay. Or am I going to see another residence waiver from, you know, the the I I I will say that we we we aim to to always hire the best person, right? uh um but but uh I feel
confident in particular that that we are going to be able to find this skill set in Chelsea, right? Uh in DPW in particular, uh I I don't have the number in front of me, but but uh um I don't think that I've submitted a residency waiver for DPW in the time that I was
here as city manager. Um, and in in the time that I was here, uh, in in public works, uh, I I I don't think we ever submitted a a a residency waiver for a DPW employee. A and I think the reason is is because it is a testament, right,
of of of how how accessible this this work is, right, that and and how uh it it it fits the right skills that we have in the community. That's good. Have you submitted a a residency waiver for for
our frontline employees in your time here? I think it was only after the fact when someone was able to become a homeowner by moving outside of Good news. Yeah. Um I would assume those positions would also be able to join a union. Correct.
Yes, they will be union positions. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Vega. Um I don't have any questions. Just thank you. But um I do want to take the moment to excuse myself. I have a little one at home who is taking the MCCAST. He
took one today and tomorrow. So I have to be home for bedtime routine. But thank you so much for everything. Thank you counselor. Counselor Robinson. Just a quick what kind of qualifications or what kind of certificates does this
mechanic need in order to be the head mechanic? uh having talked to our current contractor as well as uh looking at qualifications for for other areas, our expectation is that the lead mechanic
would have a minimum of one ASSE certification. Um I think there's a a group of seven. You know, some of those are very specialized in terms of like heavy diesel or um specifically in you know engine uh rebuilds.
So we we believe that our our head and mechanic uh should already have a certification or have the experience and the capability of obtaining the certification within the first six months which is uh the way some of the language is written for our other jobs
in the union. We do have um draft job descriptions that we can share with the city council. All right. We have similarly put together uh well I don't want to get into possibly union negotiation stuff. No
no I'd just like to take a look at it. I just want to say you know thank you. You do a great job as our commissioner with DPW. Thank you councelor councelor Himenez. I just want to reiterate all the positive things everyone has said about your department. I have no nothing but
positive interactions myself. So, thank you for everything and uh I will I no further questions on this one. Thank you, counselor. Thank you all for the comments. I will take a moment to acknowledge that our streets and sidewalk walks division is the most visible division. Uh we'll be going
through some of the others here in a minute and also put in a plug for next week which is National Public Works Week. So, we will be doing some celebrations with our team also highlighting on social media some of the work that we do with with photographs. And if you can share those and help
raise awareness uh that we don't just cause traffic jams, we'd appreciate it. Kate, we would love to amplify um the work that you do here. So, if there's any way that we can work together to celebrate here as well, please let me know. All right, we'll move on to uh
subdivision 430, I mean 423 for snow removal. Uh that can be found on page 187. And so this uh the snow this the snow removal uh subdivision is uh proposed
budget is 100 a little bit over $100,000 which is level funded is from last year. Any questions in regards to the snow removal? Councelor Himenez. All set. Thank you. Councelor Robinson. Councelor
Teshi. Councelor Brown. So getting back to the people part of this discussion, can you give us like some kind of update if you receive, you know, calls regarding, hey, you guys haven't been over here to shovel our streets, so we can't get our kids out to
the schools. Um, what kind of response you get when because we haven't had really many big storms, so we've had the manpower because the budget reflects that. um if you could just give us some feedback whether it's negative or positive.
You're right. We we haven't had a lot of big storms recently and the ones that we have over the past few years have actually primarily been overnight or on the weekends and so we haven't luckily had to deal with uh the peak of a storm coming right during uh you know school
time. Uh hopefully the school department could work with us to to figure something out there. We uh a few calls I've gotten have been on some of our steeper sections um asking for extra salt um or so the way our operations
work is we first are focused on plowing the streets, keeping those open operational especially for public safety and then uh once the snow is tapering off that same group of people is in getting out and shoveling sidewalks uh
and wheelchair ramps And then after that they move on to the parks. So sometimes the parks uh sidewalks on the parks aren't addressed until the next day or um later than the streets. And so that's the other thing we sometimes get calls about is um you know, can we get out
there and and shuffle the parks? And we're we're working through that list as as fast as possible. In the past, it's it's been two years now, but we have contracted out with a landscape company that can just provide labor to help with shoveling during the winter. And that's
something we continue to look into for those bigger storms. So, what is the appropriate time that a resident homeowner has to remove their snow off their sidewalk? believe the regulation
is they have 28 sorry 24 hours from the time the storm ends. Okay. So it has been the case where we've had some snow events and everything has melted the day after but during that first day uh you
know people are complaining about their neighbors but they're technically not yet in violation but but we are keeping an eye on that. We do issue tickets and that the last part So that call on, you know, we have the snow emergency, move your vehicles in certain side of the
streets. Um, after that's over, folks go out, start shoveling. Um, someone having shoveled, where can they call, let's say, uh, meaning a city vehicle has not come down to, you know, Chestnut Street,
where where can they call it on that day? If it's during business hours, our our 311 line and in the past for large storms, we have kept them after hours sometimes in order to be able to take those calls. Um, if they submit it
through the 311 app, all of us that are on that distribution list automatically get the written message immediately. And so that is helpful for our field staff to be able to go address that right away. Okay. I if if it's a life safety issue, obviously 911. So I can just say
my I'll be open. My my concerns is down lower Broadway, Medford, Tmont, they get these calls, but it's usually, you know, maybe four or five hours, probably the max after the storm, and they're wondering why you folks are not coming
down there shoveling the snow. Uh it's happened a few times, but it gets better. I mean, you know, eventually it gets removed, but they're just saying what's the time limit. So, I'm getting from you. It's a priority for us. Is that correct? Public safety. And then
they get to the little smaller streets. So, we don't generally shovel um public sidewalks that aren't adjacent to public buildings. The streets themselves, the streets, pe those areas. Yeah. So, our
big um arteries we do first um and keep the our keep those open as much as possible. The smaller streets it it may be a few hours in between the trips that we can make through there. Okay. Thank you. Y councelor San Garcia, Councelor Taylor.
Um, so you you we're planning on um a uh second truck for this for this next year for We did put that in the CIP. Yep. Yeah.
Okay. So, um, so my only question is, um, I know we've had light, very light snow years, and so that's great for us and and, you know, a happy boon to the budget. Um,
uh, how much So, we haven't really seen a big impact of having to plow Eastern A now. Is that correct? Uh we did have a few years there with some pretty good snow where we were taking care of Eastern A um with a
contractor. We got supplemental plowing help to make sure we were covering that. And are we and and and is that going to continue with the contractor on on that piece or we or or with the with the with the second truck? We we have uh recently
signed a new contract and with any new vendor you kind of have to feel out where their strengths are. Um so so this year we took care of that in-house and our supplemental plowing contractor took care of some other sections of the city.
Um the vehicles that we propose to purchase or vehicle also has day-to-day operational value um but would be a benefit to to also helping us here. Yeah. I I I gotta say that the the the
majority of the calls that I get on snow removal are just are from are from uh constituents who are adjacent to absentee landlords who just don't take care of their stuff and never do and they just want to be reassured that we
are issuing the relevant tickets and they are being um you know because a lot of them have small kids or whatever and it's just a you know I don't know if there's any way to improve the compliance on that. I mean, I know it's
a it's an uphill battle, but we're working to put out or our plan is to put out a mailing in the fall this year to remind everyone of their responsibilities around that for what it's worth. Um, and I will say it was just a few weeks ago I was in a appeals hearing regarding snow tickets. Um, so
they do happen. Yeah. All right. Thank you. That's all. Thank you, Kate. All right. Um, the next subdivision of the Department of Public Works will be solid waste trash removal, which is on can be found on
page 181. No, I'm sorry, 189. Correction. So on this on the screen we have the open gov website showing the expense table um for the subdivision. Um the total uh uh subdivision uh will be will
oper we're proposing a $3.4 4 million budget um which is an increase of 7% um over last year um which is about $224,000 more um of that uh we have an
individual uh that has fun uh one role that's funded from this this subdivision um which is uh budgeted for a 4% salary uh adjustment uh increase. It's not an adjustment. It's a contractual
obligation and is tied to cost of living um adjustment. Um the maintenance citywide line is uh increasing about 7.4% which is tied to a a contract that that we uh that we have
executed between the city and the vendor. Um any questions in regards to this subdivision? Councelor Taylor. Yeah, I I I think I'm all set on this section. Thank you. Councelor Garcia,
I have a quick question. Maybe this has nothing to do with budget and maybe it could be added to budget. What um are we doing with um individuals who dump their trash in
residents and and commercial property? You mean uh dump it on the street? So, I I've I know a couple folks who complain about people overnight dumping their trash and then they get ticketed. Do they
um the process is appealing, right? And then but they're constantly getting ticketed because of trash that doesn't even belong to them. So, is the city I don't know is what are we doing about
that? Very frustrating. It it is a frustrating situation. Um I I know that well you're familiar with Mike Sandaval who is our uh primary enforcer here has eyes and boots on the ground every day
addressing these. So he not only issues the tickets but then personally talks to a lot of the people involved. And so when he's hearing someone repeatedly say, "This was not mine. This was not mine." He's looking through that trash for evidence of where it might have come
from, something that would allow us to to take it someone else. Um, we for a while there were working with the state DP who offered us some cameras, temporary cameras for us to put in some high dump areas to try to to catch some
people. um they weren't they couldn't really catch like two neighbors having an issue. Uh but some of our you know uh Pine Street under the bridge uh kind of areas. Yeah. Yeah. And we've uh you know the
police have a camera system that we have relied on occasionally to be able to I try to find a license plate number. It is a really tricky problem when it's just not great neighborly behavior.
No further questions. Thank you, Councelor Sanate. Um, yes, thank you for everything. I just wanted to say having been involved in beautifification efforts for the city for as long as I've lived here, which is
my whole life, um I just wanted to tell you how much I endorse your goal for FY26, which is to um lend support to the neighborhood organizations in terms of beautifification and neighborhood
cleanup because we know that not only is it connected to Chelsea pride, but also to public health. So, um I think that's a great goal. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Brown.
Thank you. I'll be brief. Um so, in the past, getting back on the the illegal dumping. That's what it is. Um we had like certain streets we put up some cameras. In particular, it happened
at the corner of Herd Street where you have 150. This is years ago. So, I was just wondering because you said Pine Street and that's where they come down the bridge and you know they try to get off some stuff there. Do we have any locations where we can when we find out
that some of these are the notorious places where trash is being dropped off that maybe we can do some kind of surveillance cameras? This is something I have something I've been looking into uh whether we can purchase some mobile
cameras to be able to deploy in different locations especially when we have a repeat problem in one area and it's likely the same person. Uh I haven't yet taken the steps on that. We need to put together a plan. And even
just to add on, I know a lot of the residents over the years, they've actually put up their own little um cameras and maybe we can kind of like do a collaboration with them, especially where you use the example of two neighbors going at it um and find out who really the perpetrator is here. But
just Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Counselor Tesy. Um, on that same note, uh, would you give me a little bit of a brief, um, overview of, uh, the appeal process? Can
How modern is it? Can people do it from their phones for tickets? I believe appeals can be submitted through the city clerk's office in person or through the law office through their website. The clear gov um, system
allows you to to put in that appeal. Thank you, Council Robinson. A quick question. When the trucks come into Chelsea in the morning, they just go right on into the route or they have to report to the city so we can open up
the trucks and make sure we're not they they do come to the city. We do keep an eye on that. All right. Thank you. And you would notice that um we just received the shipment of new trucks. Um, uh, I'll share a picture of the city
council, but the, uh, the city council approved a new 5-year contract with with, uh, with the company and and, uh, one of the, the conditions was to get all new trucks. Uh, and the trucks are here. Thank you, Councelor Jimenez. All right.
Thank you. All right. Moving along, we'll move to subdivision structures and grounds which can be found on page 205. I will bring this up. Okay.
Um the structures and structures and grounds uh subdivision um is a total budget of $2.3 million um and is increasing uh 1.49% over fiscal 25's budget. Um this
includes um salary increases um that are contractual obligations and uh cost of living adjustments um that uh total up to 6.25% increase over fiscal year 25.
The operating budget has been level funded uh basically with a uh a modest $180 increase on a $ 1.7 million operating budget. Uh there is no uh additional positions added uh for uh
this subdivision um as you see in the personnel table. Uh any questions in regards to structures and grounds? Councelor Himenez. Councelor Robinson, Councelor Teshi, Councelor
Brown, Councelor Sanate, just thank you uh for the um close eye you keep on the Chelsea Public Library because that need is in need of a lot and I know it's your priority. So,
thank you, councelor. Councelor Garcia, looking forward to the ISD's um initiative. That's part of it, right? Right. What page are you on? 206. Oh,
did you say ISD? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um and that's going in the where the bank is right now, the credit union. So, we're going to expand their offices into that space. Okay, that's exciting. And I think they are looking forward to not
sitting quite right on top of each other. All right, that's it. Thank you, Councelor Taylor. Just curious as to the uh kind of steady increase in the lighting uh uh column
there for we just make it a better effort on uh replacing those old lights into the the super bright ones. I I'm not 100% certain. Um I this is a projection based on the trends from the
past and uh mostly with so it's called lighting but it is just all of our electrical bills. So it in includes just electricity use in city hall not just from lighting. So that's that's it extra
servers that are doing um you know I I don't know um he stuck some of that on your bill. Is that how he he he brought his budget down by 6%. I I have been looking into some grant opportunities for a um street light audit to do an
analysis both of the the brightness we have in different neighborhoods because I know there's been concern that some areas are some people some people love it and some people hate it. Exactly. So it's just a who you know who you get you know and then also to make sure that not
not all of our uh lights are being directly metered. Some of them are estimated based on the type of light they are and the you know average number of hours that a street light is on and we want to make sure Eversource has the most current information about the lights that are out there. So and and
what are the contracts? What what what services do you contract for this for lights in general or electricity? Well, under under this structures and grounds, you have a you have a column that says contract services and that also has been steadily increasing. Uh
yes. Um I forgot we were just talking about structures and grounds. I started talking about street lights. Um this is specifically park lighting and uh buildings uh electricity use in terms of the contract services that is so most of
our what you're going to think of as our main contract. So electrician, plumbing, fire alarm monitoring, uh cleaning services are through our bu building maintenance line. Okay. contract services is um a couple of
smaller things and I hate to call out one specific partner for the city but uh and and St. Rose Go ahead. We're we're St. Rose has been an amazing partner um especially the priests there. However, the arch dascese took a look at their
lease agreement with us and determined that the church had been charging us less than the uh appropriate parking fee. I see uh in the greater Boston area. So, uh beyond their control, they were told they had to increase the rates
for Did you tell them this was Chelsea? We tried. Did you mention the new pope is American? Maybe that'll help. I'm sorry. Did you mention the new pope is American? Maybe that'll help. You know, these negotiations were before that, but let me start again. Uh, so the the most
of the increase here is uh to be able to lease the St. Rose lot behind the school, which um helps keep spaces on the street open for residents. And and just and just um um just another kind of question here on
on how we're kind of delineating some of this. The difference between building maintenance and repair maintenance is is the repair maintenance for for machinery. Uh so that has always been
something that gets a little confusing. The equipment maintenance and then maintenance equipment and then repair maintenance. I I didn't I didn't quite well because it got zeroed out on 26. And so I I didn't I wasn't It looks like a reclassification.
I'm not sure if that's the case or not. The zeroing out was me um asking if we could combine some of these lines that we effectively use in the same way. So for example, we
um the elevators have to be inspected monthly and then they also get tested and then if there is an issue that comes up during the inspection or the testing that has to be repaired and the invoices we then get from our vendor combine the
repairs and the testing and the regular inspection charges. Historically, if it was inspection, it came out of one of these lines. and if it was repair, it came out of another. But that kind of takes a lot of time to parse that out. And I'm not certain it's it's worth it
to us or informative to you all to see that difference. Right. Um so that uh that was the reason for zeroing that out is to move that into a more appropriate line. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's
all I have. Thank you. All right. On to the next one. The next one we will be discussing is DPW central billing that can be found on page 104.
So, so the DPW central billing department um is a team of two um a supervisor and a head admin clerk. Um the salaries are only contractual
obligations and cost of living adjustments which is uh uh the total of 7.59% uh increase from fiscal 25 in the proposed budget and um the data processing um increase on
the operating budget is uh increasing by $3,465. um to amount for a total 5.3% increase for the the total budget between personnel and uh operating. Any any questions in regards to uh the
subdivision? Any questions? I have no questions. Okay. I just have one. Um so for the postage, is that for the whole city? I mean without including the school committee. It's just for sending out the water
sewer bills. Okay. So, is it a onetime expense? It's a monthly expense. Monthly. Okay. We we send out about 5,000 of them every month to every property. Thank you. All right.
Moving on. Oh. Oh, we're done. I'm I'm sorry. I'm got thrown off. That was quick. Um the next um subdivision will be the sewer enterprise on page 193. So this the sewer enterprise fund
um budget um is is uh a total of $14.8 million. Um overall increase year-over-year is uh $24,599 or uh well under a percent
percentage that 17% um personnel adjustments. Uh what you'll see is the salaries are uh increasing or 7.36% year-over-year. Uh including in that percent increase is an allocation
of a 15% for both the two mechanic positions that we've already discussed. Um and the rest is contractual oblig obligation and salary adjustments. uh the operating lines uh amount to about $12 million and those are
increasing about 1 uh 86% mainly uh uh there was some there's some adjustments that uh maybe that uh uh Miss uh our commissioner Kate Fox lent can discuss um but there were mainly just uh
adjustments to match the department spending and needs for this fund out of the $12 million budget, 10 of it is our our sewer assessment. Uh so that is the part that um we just carried through. And as you can see, that went
up uh by 330,000 this year, but we were able to make some adjustments in other parts of the budget in order to actually uh have our our overall change be less than that. We have been transitioning over the past
few years from our staff primarily doing just inspections and basic maintenance to doing more and more significant repairs. So that we're relying less and less on thirdparty contractors for that as our team gets better trained, more
experienced as we incrementally buy more of the equipment they need to do that kind of work. And so we did last year in the infrastructure line under sewer enterprise capital we carried a million dollars for the contract work which is
what we had done in the past because we just wanted to be confident we had backup in case you know our team wasn't able to handle it but I have been uh delighted to see that they have taken on almost every project that an issue that has come up emergency or
planned and the times we've called in the contractor uh or when we needed specialized equipment that we haven't purchased yet or it was um in a a busy traffic area and we need people that could just do it as fast as possible. Um so getting a
contractor with a couple dec decades experience can help you with that. Uh so that is why we were able to adjust the infrastructure line down by uh 250,000 from 1 million to 750,000 and then also made some adjustments in the citywide
maintenance line because we've reached some efficiencies. We're getting trained up and and I think we're well positioned to continue operating this system uh with this level of budget. Thank you, Kate. Uh, councelor,
no questions. Councelor Robinson, councelor Tes, councelor Brown, Sate, councelor Taylor, can can you just real quickly explain to the public who's who's watching?
Um, the big item is the MWR. Okay. Can you can you just explain how that gets assessed and and and that's That's the that's the uh uh you know the big ticket item for for the
cost of this. Yeah, absolutely. Um if we were a large community in another part of the country, we would not only be responsible for maintaining all of the sewer and drain lines. We would also operate our own treatment plant and be
responsible for managing the discharge after that treatment is complete. But here in the Boston area, we are a member of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. They have a centralized water uh sewer treatment plant and it is then
their responsibility to manage the discharge of the treated water which uh is a big hassle around here as well. So, we pay them to do that treatment for us. And that is uh you know, it saves us the labor, it saves us the massive amount of
space that you need for these treatment tanks, um the chemicals, the upkeep of all of that. And the uh the volume of sewer, as we've discussed in the past, includes both the
sewage that is coming out of homes and businesses and a lot of the storm water that is flowing on the streets into catch basins and then being combined with the sewer. And so that is why a lot of the construction you see these big projects we're undertaking are to separate the sewer and drain so that
eventually in the future we are just paying for treatment of sewage sanitary sewer and that the storm water which is clean and does not need to be treated can just go straight to the river without adverse environmental impacts.
Anything more? No, thank you. That's that's a good and and how is that just one more question. How how do they track how much is going through and and is that is it a is it a reliable system? Uh that's the the kind of the real question. They do have
meters on on the sewage system. Uh so they're they're measuring the volume and the flow. You have confidence that they're reliable? I feel pretty good about it. And it is the the amount that they're
treating connected to the cost. It is it's not directly like we treated this much last year and therefore you're charged this year is x amount. It's a uh they look at a three-year moving average of how much uh we've sent to their
treatment system and they also have to incorporate things like capital investments and upgrades at the treatment plant. So there may be periods of time where there's less need of that and then times where they need to ramp that up a bit more. I sit on the MWA
advisory board. We get presentations about the different chemicals and how much the market costs for those are changing and the various needs. It's um all of that is factored into it. Thank you. On to the last item.
All right, we will now move on to the DPW water enterprise which can be found on page 199. And uh similarly
uh this the overall increase for this this budget is uh at 0.36%. Um the total budget is 10,445,858. Of that personnel costs are close to 800,000. Um we are seeing a
7.36% increase. Another 15% of new the new um uh mechanic positions are also allocated into those salary lines. and then the rest is contracts obligations and cost of living adjustments. Uh
similarly uh there is very variety of changes um in the operating budget lines netting to a total increase of 3% once again uh the assessment being the largest item uh in the operating budget.
Do you have any questions in regards to the s the water enterprise? Any questions? No questions. All right. I think that concludes I I'll just briefly bring to your attention that one of these has a
900% change and and I think we talked about this at a subcommittee, but just to share with the public, we are working every day on the lead sewer, I'm sorry, lead water service identification and replacement where needed. And so we have
put in additional funds here for printing to be able to do the continued communication to the public and also for things like water filters that can filter lead when it's identified to help families uh until we can get that replaced.
Thank you, Kate. Thank you for your work and um for highlighting that because I think it's very important and a very big priority of the council to be able to engage with the community on all the changes. So, we're grateful that you are focusing on that as well. Um, I think
that's it. Thank Thank you so much, Kate. Um, Michael, any last words? Just wanted to May we request if we can do one today uh for the city manager's budget if you don't mind and change the schedule. Council, let's do this. I
agree. I agree with you. All right. I'm hearing yes. All right. Yeah. And if you don't mind, if we could do um two budgets that I think are are fairly easy. One is is the um city manager's office and and the other one is uh uh
our city council's budget. Just get those two out of the way. And what it'll do is it will make Wednesday shorter. We are still scheduled to be here for another 40 minutes according to the schedule we were given. Right. Hold on one second.
So technically we have to post those subjects as well and so the public has to be notified in order for us to give them an advanced shot for them to plan to be part of or be able to see the conversation. So unfortunately although we were really good with time we will
leave those two for Wednesday and hopefully Wednesday we will also be on time. Um, but before we close, um, just huge shout out to to the city manager and the team, Michael. Um, you know, I've, um,
only he knows why he said that. Okay. Just because we've had a lot of uh, transparent conversations with the community and have included them. And I think that those were new efforts that you guys launched this year. And I'm really grateful for that. again, you know, echoing what I mentioned to, uh,
Kate, um, engaging the community and making sure they are a part of this process is huge. And so, um, just want to shout out that you guys did add some new ways of doing that this year. And so, thank you so much for your work. And we'll be seeing you tomorrow, same time,
same place. All right, meeting adjourned.