##VIDEO ID:6QElxTl7UsU## January 15 2025 regarding city council finance committee to order the cler police call Ro Council General lawitz yes counc Council hegy Council Mac noi minutes announcement of reporting regards to anyone here recording that is not no one first time on the agenda it number4 from counil tyros I don't know any upates on the meetings of thank you very much Mr chairman uh the council president and I have spoken about this as well about uh you know the structure of the committee the makeup and things of that nature uh there are some requirements that are set for the steering committee for cdbg we're currently reviewing those but in the interim time um the assistant director of Community Development and I have spoken about making sure these meetings are monthly they're actually meeting on Thursday uh so they are continuing to meet uh monthly out of practice uh so I'll let you know how that go but I don't want to speak for the entire my question has monthly meetings are going to start then this on Thursday out of practice they were meeting monthly but then if some if uh the assistant director thought there was some redundant information the meetings have been canel um and I think this is one of those situations where uh council president was saying you know redundant information isn't bad information in some cases it shows that there's still something happening uh so those are the conversations we're just reiterating now I think it was more just the instance of uh certain staff members being newer to the positions that they were in and not realizing that's actually best practice uh so they'll be continuing monthly from here on monthly without the cancellations in between even if yes it's importance of this program good um my thoughts Le for now keep it on our time placeold Che make sure meetings are happening see is necessary next communication from the mayor regarding the appointment of the proposals for fighting and lob servic chairman this is just as I did the last uh the last RP that we did and actually got very good feedback from different members of the council and members of the public on just sharing cool was on the committee that reviewed the RP for the grant writing uh and lobbyist services for the city counc ccor hgin who's here with us miss an eagle who's the executive director of growing places and Dr Stephanie marquetti for the reasons that are listed there mainly because of their extensive background in grant writing uh was one of the reasons why I asked them to help review the proposals we received you'll see in a later correspondence because this was written before the later one was done um just because of the timing with the new year and the reorganization of the council I uh was submitted all together in the end uh the committee did unanimously vote to recommend on a five-year contract uh but I just wanted to show who was making that recommendation um that and Beyond so I think have process and something there missing an opportunity but um yeah to the counil discussion none say I recommendation of the committee so that Mo forward I believe they were in the process of getting all their okay so we're in the signature phase now um it's a threee with a twoyear renal yeah it's a three-year initial contract with the option to extend up to two years and that's where we get the five from there that was approved by the council yes so there part of their contract is once a year they're requireed to fly up to the city to meet with our department heads to talk about the work that each department is going through uh basically over going through a year-long plan for what projects to look out for when it comes to grant funding what projects uh may be in the pipeline uh and brainstorming ideas is really the point of those meetings with our department heads additionally on a bi-weekly basis uh the grant writing staff meets with uh Katie jablonsky and I from my office uh to talk about the applications that they're currently writing suggest any applications that we'd like them to look into see if there's any suggestions or anything new that's popped up since those department head meetings that we'd like them to look into as well uh so it's a you know we're in constant communication with each other in between it's mainly just emails with each other but we do have that standing uh virtual meeting uh every two weeks just to go through different things with that and that's all included in that contract as well so the the the uh grants that they write are a result of those conversations a result of reviewing our Capital Improvement plan seeing what we have on our docket uh and then taking that and really running with it uh we haven't always been successful in every Grant application that we have but we've applied for more Grant applications than we ever have before and I think that just the more applications we submit the more chance we have of getting any money whether we get it all or whether we get only a portion of it it's still more than we were getting before and it's really worked out very well in our favor well the well I'll present a final copy of it to the council but the council doesn't need to approve it corre yes yeah counil as a say thank you Mr chairman uh this is uh as I've done in the past when we've completed negotiations with the different unions I uh give the council a cesy copy for your information uh while the employees who are included in this contract following the purview of the Public Safety Committee where this is uh financially related because that's how these individuals get paid um it's that's why it got crossed over here in the finance committee uh the inspector's Union uh voted to unionize just over two years ago this includes the assistant director of Public Health the food inspector local building the two local building inspectors the electrical inspector and the pluming and gas inspector uh copy the fully executed contract that we've negotiated over the course of the past two and a half years is here included say I I say no1 May thank you Mr chairman uh this is just a formalizing communication that I copied the city council on the email I sent to the department heads uh with the budget process for the next budget cycle uh departments have their requests due to my office by the end of the month at the same time uh once all of that's completed and received the auditor and I will be sitting down to just go over and make the final budget proposal for the year to submit to the city council hopefully around the May time frame as we've done in the past but I'll provide updates along the way just to make sure you know what's going on uh while the governor is expected to submit her budget by uh I believe either Friday or Wednesday of next week are the two dates that we're hearing uh normally it's right after the state of the Commonwealth address that taking place uh tomorrow on Thursday or right before the mass Municipal association's annual convention meeting in Boston which is next Friday uh so normally it's around one of those two days that uh the governor just submits the budget she does have a statutory deadline in which to do so that'll give us a rough idea of where we're at in terms of things like local Aid uh Chapter 70 where the student opportunity act lies uh but really um we try to wait until the Senate numbers get released that tends to be where we have the clearer picture of where things are going um because right now you know the state doesn't have April tax collections in which is normally the highest month for Revenue uh for the Commonwealth just because tax day is April 15th uh there's some other items there that uh come into play with it uh we know right now that the fair share Amendment Revenue uh is one of the only things in the state right now that's coming over budget uh by the tune of almost $2.8 billion uh from what we're hearing from the Secretary of administration and finance so that's good on the Chapter 70 side of things because when that was passed at the ballot that funding can only be used for Education funding or transportation funding the governor did announce yesterday in Worcester that there's a large portion of this year's Surplus going to funding Transportation initiatives uh but she did mention yesterday that it's going to be about 50% of fair share Revenue going into transportation next year which is the rest going towards education uh so that's one of the reasons why we wait until the May time frame uh to submit the budget to the council while we start working on it now and get further along the way we really just want to make sure our Revenue numbers are as close to solidified as possible so that's uh the goal there too I've also been working with a group of uh internal employees on drafting a plan to implement the salary survey that was recently done uh and coming up with a plan to do a salary Matrix for our non-union employees and department heads which is something that was the goal of us doing it's just when we got the results of the survey it was more just ranges that were there rather than actual step scale so we do have an internal working group that's coming together with a salary proposal as well too so hopefully when the budget has all of that in we'll be able to put all that together to rec the whole motion say Mr chairman uh we receive funding from the Commonwealth when it's included in the state budget uh as a reimbursement for the money we pay uh for our utility work and any other ancillary services that are provided to The ncci Gardener facility uh located at 140 basically this is almost a pilot payment in recognition of us having a state prison facility here uh so we did receive $149,500 32 this year from the Treasures Office uh as part of that funding so since that came in it does fall to the general fund but it's something that has an additional Revenue source that we really don't know if it's coming each and every year I want to make sure the council knew that that came in at time I'd probably say when Governor Baker took office is when we start get it varies it's a uh there's normally a flat number put into the state's budget and then that's divided out by a population of inmates in the prison to the post communities for thank you very much Mr chairman uh this is one of the letters you're uh that is going to be coming to the council um on a somewhat regular basis just so you know the status of the account uh this is one we it kind of anticipate goes into deficit every year just because by the way the the general laws are written um whatever we budget the previous year we have to budget the next year um but we also don't know how much is going to fall out of the sky on a given year or what the temperatures are going to be like uh so this is one that we anticipate we're going to have to put free cash towards this year uh when I wrote the letter we had about $95,000 left of the $300,000 that we put into the account for snow and ice I believe that's already in deficit now with the recent snow that we just got um a lot of what we've been spending money on this year has been Ice uh and salting the roads to prevent icy conditions and uh for the safety conditions on the roads themselves we have the salt so it's not a capacity concern but every time we send crews out to Salt the roads it cost us the same as if we're plowing snow because it's the same amount of equipment the same amount of cruise the same amount of materials that's there uh so that's what's uh just as a quick update as to where we currently are in that budget cycle so that when the free cash appropriation does come it's not going to be a surprise to the council as well uh there was a letter that I believe was omitted from this agenda but it'll come on the you know I'm guessing on the next meeting uh talking about health insurance rates uh and where we are currently on our health insurance expenditures um it's going to be the same vein of that just making sure that we know we're going to need a free cash appropriation for this at the end of the year so just it's the communication of what we're building up to so that when the final number comes it's not a surprise all those in favor say I I post thank you Mr chairman uh director moris had intended to be here unfortunately she's under the weather today um so I'll be covering for this one here too um his Graves who works in the human resources department is also here if there's any questions by the council um uh what director Mor is looking at doing with this position is after being here for about eight months or so at this point Point uh and seeing how the Departments operate uh there was a vacancy in one of the two clerical positions in her office um and seeing the ways that those positions function she didn't she said uh that uh she'd rather have one person who was coming in at a higher rate who's able to handle larger responsibilities within the human resources department itself rather than have two uh clerical positions uh the way that this was funded in the past with previous budgets is there there was a full clerical position funded in the budget and then a part-time clerical position who was funded in the budget the position however had full-time hours because the other remaining 50% of that one position was paid for out of the golf Enterprise account and they were doing all of the building and clerical work for uh the golf course what director Morse is proposing is that we combine these two positions permanently into one single position uh could take that position and half lump the salary together in that and then the uh golf Department would have their own part-time staff member uh director morson said they can continue to use the space in their office but have that person just do golf work and have this new uh person just do human resources work uh the way that the charter is written it says any changes to the structures of a department have to go before the city council first before uh any structural changes are done where we are basically eliminating a position out of the department that's considered a structural change so that's why this has to come before the council if the council approves this move the next move would be a uh excuse me an ordinance change that would include this new position title in the compensation schedule ordinance um we normally don't try to do pay increases Midway through the fiscal year uh but where this is basically creating a new position by combining two into one for efficiencies uh purposes that's where that follow into that EX there's someone already in that role there now the uh current clerical staff member who was doing part-time HR part-time golf uh is a state retiree he can only work a certain number of hours a year so he was going to have to go down to parttime anywhere so he'll continue to remain as a part-time golf clerk just going with the schedule he would have to go do anyway correct yeah there was a a change in the way that we uh are working right now to submit things to the council agenda so it might have just been admitted with that but I'll make sure that that gets uploaded by the council agenda director Morse did say too if there's any questions that come up after since she wasn't here today she's happy to answer those at any time after okay [Music] thank you Mr chairman this is part of the state for school project that the the school department has been doing for quite some time um there are easements that the council has approved uh appropriated funding for us to be able to pay those easements uh to private citizens in the area uh the school committee at their meeting on Monday voted to uh approve uh donating an easement valued of $10,500 uh for three different temporary easements as well as four permanent easements uh located along Elm Street uh this is the project that's currently resurfacing the area of Al Street in between cross street and uh Temple Street uh and widening the road in some cases adding bus stops and cutout ways in front of Elm Street School and different other measures like that I do see that this is one that also had supplemental pages of it cut off so we'll make sure that that's added into the packet that counil like to see supplemental Pages there uh the reason why uh the school committee is donating the land is uh because the way that the general laws are written the school has custody of their land outside of the purview of the city as a whole and its Administration and the city council uh so school committee actually overseas and has custody over that land so since they've basically given it back to the city at this point the city council has to vote to accept that coming back to the city and so that's why it's a donation rather than a conveyance like a normal EAS would be then the goal is by the end of the year this is completed it's currently in its um solicitation period where people can receive payments for them um that's what the appropriation was oring for I believe okay so yeah shortly I don't think so the majority of them are temporary except for the ones in front of Elm Street School where we cutting into the sidewalk to put a new sidewalk and bus yes yeah discussion say I and Report done by Council tyros a lot time sube for Council in the city out other that departments commission be a part of that I think in general you know think majority of this on our calendar but I would like rec council discussion on this say I carries as the no just fine tried to address a lot of it in my state of the city address last evening uh as well as in you know other correspondents that I've had with the council at the time over the course of the coming weeks we'll be sending up our full response in a series of recommendations updates and stuff like that once our new director start the January 22 yeah uh the yes the uh director the new director will be coming to uh visit the uh Tuesday council meeting next week uh so he'll be introducing himself to the counselors before and after the meeting then even if it's not on the agenda itself just as a um way of introducing himself into the midr it sir